Satyam:Maytas - Matter:Antimatter

Antimatter is an interesting concept in Particle Physics. For the interested, antimatter is related to matter in the same way antiparticle is related to particle. What is of greater interest to me right now is the fact that mixing matter and antimatter will lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

Sometimes these same complex rules are applicable not just in abstract physics, but in corporate governance and in day to day management of modern industries. Just consider the recent Satyam fiasco. Isn't it interesting to note that Satyam when spelt backwards becomes Maytas? India’s 4th largest IT major on one side and a budding infrastructure company on the other side. One deals with bits and bytes and the other deals with brick and mortar. One a well known international brand, the other an almost anonymous entity until the recent merger attempt by the Satyam promoters. Almost a matter antimatter kind of pair in all respects. Most of the comparison parameters you consider will put these two at the opposite ends of the hinge.

So what should you expect when you try to mix these two? Probably, annihilation of everything bad and creation of high energy which catapults the mixture into a grand success. That is what at least Mr. Ramalinga Raju expected. Here it is in his own words – “The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones. Maytas investors were convinced that this is a good divestment opportunity and a strategic fit. Once Satyam’s problem was solved, it was hoped that Maytas’ payments can be delayed”. Things did not work out as he had planned. He went on to admit “But that was not to be. What followed in the last several days is common knowledge.”

One of the biggest cases of corporate fraud exposed in the history of Indian industries. This happens to be too big a blow for the Indian IT industry which was already at its wits end due to economic recession. How many more days can the new Satyam management hold on to the reigns? Will the employees stick with the firm in the hope of a redemption? How many years will it take for Satyam the brand to regain investor confidence?

Here are some of the startling revelations from Mr. Raju’s letter

1. The balance sheet carries as of September 30, 2008
   
   • Inflated(non-existent) cash and bank balance of Rs 5,040 crore (as against Rs 5,361 crore reflected in the books.
   • An accrued interest of Rs 376 crore which is non-existent.
   • An understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by me.
   • An overstated debtors position of Rs 490 crore (as against Rs 2,651 reflected in the books)
2. For the September quarter(Q2) we reported a revenue of Rs 2,700 crore and an operating margin of Rs 649 crore(24% of revenues) as against the actual revenues of Rs 2,112 crore and an actual operating margin of Rs 61 crore(3% of revenues). This has resulted in artificial cash and bank balances going up by Rs 588 crore in Q2 alone.

The letter goes on with the details of the rest of the fraud. We can only hope that the guilty will be brought to justice. Satyam Computer's auditors, PriceWaterHouse Coopers are yet to comment on the issue. The apex chartered accountants' body ICAI will seek an immediate explanation from PwC.

Hope this will act as warning to other companies to make sure they are doing all the right things and also that they are doing nothing but the right things.

Footnote: Just imagine if the Ambanies take a cue from this incident and decide to listen to their (so far absent) conscience, and come up with a resignation letter listing all the frauds they have done, I am sure the end result will be something as big as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Resignation remedy for Mumbai Terror Attacks

Yesterday was a field day of resignations and resignation offers in Indian politics and bureaucracy. First of all, let me summarize this post before I start - I welcome Mr.Shivraj Patil’s resignation.

Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil hesitantly offered to resign and his offer was gleefully accepted by the Prime Minister and the President of India. Taking a cue from this, National Security Adviser Mr. M.K. Narayanan stood up, with a resignation letter in his hand but his resignation was dutifully rejected and he was asked to remain seated. During the CWC meeting which took place yesterday, Defense Minister Mr. A.K. Antony, Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee dramatically offered to resign when their respective departments were put under the hawk’s eye for their (lack of) efficiency and all three offers were conveniently ignored by the rest of the lot.

If resignation is the solution to all our problems, all of us Indians should try resigning from whatever posts we hold and see what happens. We all know that is not the case and this is not the answer we are looking for. Then why did I say I welcome Mr. Shivraj Patil’s resignation? Because I want to see it as a change in the way the Indian politicians function. I want to see this as an instance of a politician being held accountable for his actions (or the lack of them). Accountability is a very crucial and utmost important aspect painstakingly missing in our politicians and bureaucrats.

“With great power comes great responsibility” said Uncle Ben to one Peter we all know. Indian politicians are a breed which are blessed with immense power but are not responsible for anything. They abuse their powers to lead a posh lifestyle and enjoy all the comforts they can get, bend each and every rule in the book to their and their kin’s advantage, indulge in unchecked bribery and are still protected from the clutches of the law on account of their authority and power.

• The PWD Minister is not accountable for the sad state of our roads.
• The Home Minister is not accountable for the unchecked rise in crime in our cities. He and the Internal Affairs Minister are not responsible for the recurring terror attacks.
• The Defense Minister is not accountable for the miss on the military’s part in guarding our nation.
• The Education Minister is not accountable for the sad state of affairs in our government schools.
• The Prime Minister is not accountable for any of the above even though he is supposed to oversee, control and direct all of them.

The system is so bad that the general public does not even expect these politicians to be accountable.

• When these same set of incompetent, partisan and corrupt politicians come begging for our votes in the next election, we happily elect him/her without sparing a moment to think about his/her accomplishments or credentials.
• We are so used to being held up, waiting in hour long traffic jams just to see one of these ministers speeding by through a free way, often to attend some private function.
• We are content and raise no questions when we see these politicians enjoy state sponsored trips abroad accompanied by a battalion of his clan complete with his grandson and puppy.
• We do not raise any questions when we see a pauper becoming a billionaire after joining politics.
• We do not raise any questions when we see crores getting spent on the politician’s birthday and when even more crores are spent on erecting these beggar’s statues across the state.

“Every nation gets the kind of leaders it deserves” said some Wiseman. So are we to be blamed for the sad state of our nation? Is it our fault that we don’t demand anything better from these politicians? Is it our fault that we are ready to put up with their incompetency forever? These are questions which does not have easy answers.

This is the background from which I say I welcome Mr. Shivraj Patil’s resignation. Not as a symbolic gesture or as a face saving measure for the government. But as a strong message that we won’t tolerate incompetence anymore. We want people who are responsible and are accountable. A Home Minister should not be allowed to get away with excuses like “I didn’t know about the terror attacks”, “I will tackle it next time”, “Why am I the only one responsible” and so on. At the best, he can give the excuse “I was caught unaware this time, I will make sure it does not happen again” on the very first time. But not again and again, week after week. There have been more than 10 brutal terror attacks this very year and he cannot just go on parroting his rehearsed speech every time, without even rearranging sentences. Hopefully this is going to be a new beginning when we start expecting the politicians to start delivering.

Now that dust has settled on Mr. Shivraj Patil, here are the rest of the lot whom I would like to see quitting, for the same reasons of incompetence and lack of accountability.

Mr. R.R. Patil, deputy CM and Home Minster of Maharashtra.
For issuing the statement “…small things like this happen in big cities…”. He belittled the effort and struggle of the police officers and NSG commandos who lost their life, he doesn't value the lives of innocent men and women who were killed in the melee and he just could not comprehend the seriousness of the situation. On one hand he could do nothing to avert this incident, or do something to take control and expedite the counter attack, and when everything has settled down, he has the audacity to come up and make such an atrocious statement which hurts millions of us. I do not think we the general public agree with the sentiment he expressed. Since he is a complete misfit, show him the door.

Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh, CM of Maharashtra
Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh should be kicked out for denying that there was intelligence reports about a possible attack on Mumbai. Either he is not being informed about what is happening to his state by his colleagues in his government, in which case he does not deserve to continue. If that is not the case, either he is lying or the RAW spokesperson is lying. One of them must go. We want our politicians to be accountable for their actions or at the very least for their words. They should not be allowed to get away with blabbering about anything and everything without checking the authenticity of the information they pass on and often blatantly lying.

Mr Deshmukh also had the audacity to tour around the Taj, after all the action was over, accompanied by his actor son and the film director Mr. Ram Gopal Varma. How could these people from the film industry be included in the official team which visited Taj? Doesn’t the incident expose the seriousness the CM gave for the official visit of a spot which shocked the entire nation?

The authority who should take action on a security tip off by the RAW or the RAW spokesperson.
Either the RAW spokesperson lied to us when he said his agency had passed on security warnings or the authority which is supposed to take action ignored the warnings. One of them must go. First of all, these people could not protect our motherland from being attacked, and when it happened, they are trying to pass the blame on to someone else. Make them accountable for their words at least. As a next step, we can make them accountable for their actions.

The coast guard officers who intercepted the terrorist vessel.
They are plain incompetent in carrying out their duty. If terrorists can fool them and get past them, then what are they getting paid for? If they were as effective as a bunch of village lasses in stopping a terrorist ship even after intercepting it, then why were they given the training to do their jobs? I am not asking for their resignation. Let them understand what their duties are, get necessary training and be truthful to their job.

And last but not the least, all the media persons who made this entire incident into a sop serial.
I have kept this to the very last so that I can elaborate on this. These are the people who think they are the modern Messiahs of India, but they are the ones who should be reprimanded and berated the most. What happened in Mumbai from Nov 26th to 29th was a national tragedy. It is not the time for these bastards to increase their TRPs with some irrelevant, inaccurate and inappropriate coverage and reporting. It was not a cricket test match to be telecasted live across the globe. There has to be some guidelines and restraint in place when they are covering a national tragedy.

Why should they telecast live images from the site of the adversity? It is not an action movie. Lives of hundreds of innocent men and women were trapped inside. Who is it going to help, except for the terror groups which are spread around the globe planning their next attack? Will the relatives of the people trapped inside the hotel be any more comfortable hearing about the barbaric acts committed by the terrorists? Who was supposed to enjoy the sight of the building going up in flames in front of their eyes? What we are looking for is actual news and details about the people who are rescued and are still trapped inside. I don’t think a reporter doing some bloody drama of crawling on the floor while jabbering away to glory will be of any comfort to the viewers across the globe.

And these very media men are betraying our commandos and army men who risked their lives to rescue the hostages, when the exact details, strength and movements of the commandos were telecasted real time. Don’t tell me that the TV lines to the hotel were cut, because that does not deter the terrorists from getting information through satellite phones from their accomplices spread around the world. Don’t tell me that they were not divulging military secrets and were misleading the terrorists, as the situation did not look like it was under anybody’s control for him to marshal the information being passed on to the media. Media was sneaking into unnecessary details and trying to create panic among onlookers and sensationalize the issue.

Some specific set of people from the media for whom I have specific questions to ask.

The reporters who reported that there was firing in the CST station on the second day afternoon and the presenters who presented that news on “Your Channel”s. The reporters should resign their jobs and opt for manual labor as they lack competency for anything else. They substantiated a baseless rumor and sent shockwaves to thousands. What if people had reacted violently? What if there was a stampede in or around CST station? What if there was a communal riot because of that news? The presenters who screamed that news at the top of their voice should apologize on air and admit that “Your Channel”s screwed up big time.

The presenter and reporter who were hypothesizing on a theory about who it could be when they showed a man falling out of a window. Initially they reported that it was a terrorist being thrown out. Then they corrected themselves and said it was a commando getting out. After sometime the original story was repeated again. We are not seeing a horse race or a football match for the commentator to bet and hypothesize. Report it if you know what had happened, else keep your trap shut. Nobody expects you to take educated or calculated or whatever else guesses. Neither the channel is paying you nor the viewer is watching the channel to see you gamble and bet amongst yourself and fool general public.

Bakra Dutt - For hanging out there most of the time and coming up with utter nonsensical statements every once in a while. I just want to mention your winding up speech when everything was getting over. You managed to get a set of local chaps to surround you, wave at the camera and push and pull eachother to be on air. It looked as if they were a set of spectators at a T20 cricket ground. Unfortunately in this great country, you get dime a dozen to gather around you and smile at you if you have a TV camera pointed at you. That doesn’t mean you have to capitalize on it and show the world how immature Indians are. You were prompting them to jump around you, cheer, applaud and shake hands with the tired commandos who were waiting inside the buses. It was a shame to see the way a set of mumbaikers monkeying around, dancing to the tunes of a TV reporter.

I feel it is high time we have some guidelines on what the Media can cover and what they cannot. Media should verify each and every sentence before it is aired, especially in troubled times. There should not be any live coverage of national calamities. Army and commandos should be the ones who control a catastrophe hit area, not brain-dead camera-wielding journalists and reporters. Aim of the media should be to pass accurate information in the form of news bulletins every once in a while, and not in covering it live with all the gory details.

PS: As somebody rightly pointed out, the morons with the Thackeray sir-name don’t even deserve a mention when we talk about serious issues concerning Mumbai. They are absolute lunatics who should have been chained years ago. So skipping those jokers.

Past, Present and Future Tag ..

Another tag from Gasper. Tags are like forwards, when you get one, you get the same one some three times from three different sets of friends. If Gasper tags me, I am sure I will see Rat, Soo etc doing the same tag. The exception will be people like Sand who have dedicated their blogs to once in a year technology updates J.

The tag:

Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere.

I. Yesterday

A. Your oldest memories

Gasper has gone to great lengths in fishing out his oldest memories. Even engg days are listed under his oldest memories. I wonder how old he considers himself to be now ;) Not to be left behind, Rat has come up with a list of his curricular and extra-curricular activities till tenth. Soo can’t force herself to stop even after listing out 15 of her oldest and fondest memories, so she has announced the rest to a new post.

Oldest memory is a confusing term for a memory challenged person like me. Memorizing stuff has been one of my weakest points. I used to prefer maths over bio because the latter involved a lot of memorizing. I don’t remember my birthday, your birthday or even my better half’s birthday. The first two are comparatively harmless compared to the consequences of the third action J

I don’t have any vivid memories of my childhood. I have tried hard to remember things happened before my school days and all I remember are two cloudy events. One in which me tripping on something while running around my preschool, falling, my head banging on the side of school varandha, and me getting a permanent mark under my eyebrow. The second memory is of my friend and me bending down and looking under the passing vehicles to check for something, while we were taken back from our preschool. I forgot what we were checking, but we used to do that religiously whenever any vehicle passed by us.

B. What were you doing ten years ago?

Going gasper’s way, ten years back, in 1998 Nov, I had just joined CET and Bethany hostel. I think my classes started towards Nov end. Soon after I joined my hostel, it was time for our Xmas celebration. I remember we all doing night outs decorating the hostel, under Koshy’s decoration committee. One of those days, after a night’s toil, may be around 4 in the morning, the committee members were all assembled near Bethany college, a couple of them on top of coconut trees extracting ripe coconuts while the others waiting patiently for the fruits to come down. I guess that’s what I was doing ten years back, enjoying my wasteful years.

II. Today

A. Your first thought in the morning

Nothing specific. I wake up with a blank to-do-list and keep adding stuff to it as and when I am faced with something. So there are no recurring thoughts in the mornings.

B. If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

The obvious choice for me will be a memory device which stores all my fav pictures. But then, now that I have dropped and damaged my external hard disk which had all my pictures so far, I am thinking about having a number of memory devices J, if at all I decide to rebuild.

III. Tomorrow

A. This year…

A year which taught me to take my work seriously. So far ‘layoff’ was a term which used to mean somebody lost job somewhere. When I see lookups on names of some my teammates from across the glob returning blanks, I realize the meaning of that term. But unlike the majority who say this is not a stable carrier and they would want to look out for something else, I still want to hang on, I still like my job and I want to continue in this industry. I like the challenges associated with my job.

The tomorrows of this year look promising as usual. A trip home is planned and so is the annual release of our product. Exciting days ahead.

B. What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

Driving an imported SUV through the beaches of Goa. Add the ownership title of the beach bungalow where I am going to park that SUV to the wish list, will ya?

I am still way too materialistic J

Cocktail collage

Here is a tag passed on by Vimal. To what all lengths does people go to be innovative! I thought of finishing this in 10 minutes, but it took me around half an hour.

The rules are
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Google Image Search or Flicker Image Search. I'm using Google

2. Pick an image, form the first page of results.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.



Lo and behold... here is my mosaic ->

Q&A

1. What is your first name?
A: Geo

2. What is your favorite food?
A: Gyro

3. What high school did you go to?
A: St.Augustine’s

4. What is your favorite color?
A: Black

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
A: Salma Hayek

6. Favorite drink?
A: mojito

7. Dream vacation?
A: Bahamas beaches

8. Favorite dessert?
A: Caramel

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: An entrepreneur

10. What do you love most in life?
A: Missus

11. One Word to describe you.
A: Drifter

12. Your flickr name.
A: I don't have one...

The 2 mistakes of my life

From: ArunKGeorge@gmail.com
Sent: 06/3/2008 10:48 AM
To: info@chetanbhagat.com
Subject: The 2 mistakes of my life

Dear Chetan,

This email is just a confession letter. You have let me down and I have no reason to read your future books. You don't know me. I'm an ordinary techie from Bangalore who read your books. And somehow I felt I could write to you after that. I can actually tell others what I am feeling right now, and that I am anyway doing through my blog - which is to request you to stop writing for everybody's sake. (I know this was kind of a strange sentence, but had to match with your hero's)

I made two mistakes, I want to go into details, as I am not a fool like your hero who just gives sneak previews and no details in his e-mails.

My first mistake - I bought and read your second book "One night @ a call center"
My second mistake - I bought and read your third book "The 3 mistakes of my life"

Now if you ask me why I bought your second and third books, its simple - because I am a huge fan of your first book. It has all that ever needs to be told about the college spirit. College to my friends and me was a place where we did everything except studies. Your book was such a refreshing one at retelling our own stories to us so well that I could see myself in most of the situations narrated in your book. It evoked memories about our (mis)adventures, pricked nostalgic senses and often brought a lost-in-memory-kind-of-smile to my face each time I read or thought about a passage.

Now after that path breaking book, you came out with ON@CC. In my opinion, it was a poorly written sequel to your first book. I was still ready to give you the benefit of doubt as you were not an experienced writer and also because you had at least selected a modern plot. Even though the story was a complete bore, the setting and some of the incidents had something attractive about them, because it was all happening around a call center. Now since your readers somewhat accepted that book also, you somehow thought you could come out with any damn nonsensical story line and still manage to get away with that. That is evident from your third book. What kind of a story is that? Apart from that utterly stupid story-line, do you think the book has any other USP which will take it through to the shores? Stories of unemployed youth trying out their luck in a number of business ventures, at the same time engaging themselves in their other passions is told over and again by countless storytellers of our nation. Do we need an IIT+IIM->IBanker to offer us the old wine in an old bottle yet another time?

Your books tagline says its "Based on real events,..." Márquez sets some of his works on his Macondo in a magical way. Rushdie also showed us how to tell a story interspersed with real events through The Midnight Children. If your attempt was to do anything similar to that, I am afraid, it was a failure. In your story, the real incidents looked more like forced into the storyline because there is a need for a catalyst. I don't think they jelled well to the storyline. The real incidents were kind of standing out from the main flow. Something like the characters read newspaper and found out that there was a volcano eruption happening somewhere or that somebody landed in mars. The effect of these incidents on the storyline was minimal except for the last major incident mentioned. But then that is the bare minimum one expects from a book ‘based on real events’. Anyways, as somebody mentioned somewhere else, an attempt to describe the relevance of the real incidents to the storyline will be like opining on the saltiness of pickle in a hootch shop where a spurious hootch catastrophe just took place.

This e-mail is not a sentimental decision. As many around me tell me, I am a good techie because I have little emotion. This is no knee-jerk reaction. I waited over three days, watched my missus' silent face whenever I was reading your book. But after all that, when I finished the book, I felt like throwing the book out of the window, I had no choice left. I have no regrets either. May be I’d have wanted to talk to some random bimbette once more but that doesn’t seem like such a good idea right now, as my missus might read this.

Sorry to bother you with this. But I felt like I had to tell someone. You have ways to improve as an author but you have written a decent book (when you contained yourself to IITs, IIMs and may be I Banking). So, please please restrict your creative freedom to your familiar terrain and abstain from venturing into the love life of gujjus, marwaris, punjabis, mallus and the like. There are umpteen numbers of stupid idiots out there, who call themselves 'writers', to do that job. Please don't add yourself that long list. Have a good day.

Regards,
Techie

If you are completely clueless as to what this is all about, please read this.