Is Airtel Management pointy-haired?

I was a *very* satisfied Airtel broadband customer till I moved house in May this year. To my dismay, I found that I was now in Airtel "no-network" area and would not be able to transfer my broadband connection. (I had moved to one of the fastest growing and most well laid out parts of the city, Airtel connections were available a kilometre from my apartment complex -- but hey -- if Airtel says no-network, then no-network it is).
My "only" choice was to surrender the Airtel connection that I had directly with Airtel, and -- this gets really weird now -- take an Airtel broadband connection through a third person who was also responsible for the intercom of the apartment complex. Hoping to continue my broadband with Airtel, I took on this roundabout connection.
Then began my problems. Aside from the fact that the connection was way way WAY more expensive than getting one directly from Airtel, it was also *extremely* shoddy with HUGE amounts of downtime, *very* poor customer service (from about 11 am to 5 pm, M-F, as opposed to 24*7 with a direct Airtel connection) and extremely s-l-o-w speeds. Work from home was effectively eliminated as an option since Internet was usually down on weekdays or crawled.
Unable to stand it for more than two months, I cancelled this "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection and, with HUGE apprehensions, applied for a BSNL connection. To my surprise, I submitted the form on a Friday evening, and the ball was set rolling for the connection on Monday. To date, I have been *very* satisified -- good speeds, fantastic uptime, and prompt customer service. Now, when I shift home, I am going to transfer my BSNL connection and not bother with getting back to Airtel any more.
Turns out that I am not the only one to shy away from an "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection. Others in the apartment either surrender their Airtel connection and go in for BSNL directly, or, after enduring the torture of  an "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection, cancel it and move to BSNL.

So, here's my question -- is BSNL doing some *very* smart marketing here, or is Airtel management pointy haired? In trying to make a quick buck through some dubious third person, Airtel is actively working to LOSE existing customers who would have otherwise been happy to stay on, but now have no plans of returning. Or don't retail customers matter anymore to a company that recently crowed about having a million of them?

Beauty, not Utility

I just got back from the Kala Madhyam arts and craft mela today. It was a treat for the eyes -- gorgeous handicrafts from all parts of the country.

While there was immense beauty all around, there was *very* little utility to most of the items on display. To illustrate, the Warli stall from Maharashtra had lots of paintings, and (almost as an afterthought), a few wooden keychains. A stall from Bihar -- full of Madhubani paintings of all sizes and little else. Curios of all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Tempted as I was to buy *lots* of stuff, I steered clear of most shopping. I wasn't looking to add more curios or paintings to my home. If, on the other hand, there had been items of utility, I would have probably picked up more stuff.

Which brings me to my point. Although India has a rich heritage of art and craft, art for its sake alone enjoys the patronage of a select few, which is not a sustainable model for artisans in this day and age. There needs to be some serious innovation to bring utility into beauty. IMO, this is the *only* way that the traditional arts and craft of India will not just survive, but also thrive.

Innovation is also required to bring some newness and change. I *always* try and pick up some traditional toy for my son. However, I see the *same* toys year after year. In 6.5 years, he has collected *all* the possible variants and now there is nothing more to buy! I promise him a buy and he usually ends up getting yet another "lattu".

Some might argue that there are items of "utility" -- bedspreads, cushion covers and the like. Pretty as those are -- they are *very* difficult to maintain (they usually run colour) and spoil quickly (3 washes is the upper limit for a bedcover to sustain its looks). Which means that the utility quotient runs low.

Innovation to bring utility, newness, and change will go a long way to making Indian handicrafts a thriving industry instead of a subsidized afterthought.

I hate garbage chutes

Given that the maid has been MIA for the better part of a week, I have had to step in as the (unwilling) substitute. This means doing stuff that I don't normally do such as sweeping, mopping and biggest of all -- taking out the garbage.

Now, I live in a fancy apartment complex that -- among other things, has elevators that talk in an American accent and -- garbage chutes.

When I was in the US, I used garbage chutes -- that were on the same floor that I lived, smooth enough to open easily, springy enough to close right back, and big enough to throw decent sized garbage bags.

It seems to me that the people who designed the chutes here have neither used a garbage chute in the context of family living, nor have they run a home in India. The chutes here are on every alternate floor (so you have to walk up or down a flight of stairs with your heavy garbage bag(s)). They are hard to open, and have to be physically closed (no springy auto-shuts). And worst of all, they are SMALL. In the context of  a very modestly sized Indian home, it's VERY hard to get the garbage bag down the chute! I broke a couple of glass bottles that I had junked today, in the process.

Not surprisingly, even the maids don't like using them and the complex has garbage bags showing up at odd spots. Not to mention the fact that chute remains open unless explicitly closed, causing the stairways to stink.

I understand that garbage chutes are probably a very "cool" idea, but can we study an Indian household and then design them accordingly?

Poor reporting

I just got done reading a news article about the Bandra-Worli sea link of Mumbai. It has the be the *worst* article I have read in a while.

The article talks of how there have been multiple crashes on this sea-link in quick succession, and then proceeds to furnish trivia about when and how the sea link was built. There is *no* mention of what caused the accidents, or what can be done to prevent them.

All in all, the write-up seems like something transcribed from a third rate 24*7 news channel by a brain dead journalist!

Weird!

Conversation I had today:

She: What school does your son go to?
Me: Sons_School
She: How is the school?
Me: I like it.
She: Oh, I've heard it's terrible.
Me (suppressing raised eyebrow): Well, people have differing opinions about schools. What school do you plan to send your child?
She: Oh, Run_of_the_Mill_School or Sons_School.

Duh?

My two bit on the Tiger Woods saga

Been watching all the brouhaha over Tiger Woods' personal life lately. Firstly, isn't it his *personal* life? Secondly, I can't understand why the *other* woman (women?) owe Wood's wife an apology. Other women are not in a "for-better-or-worse" relationship with Wood's wife. He is (was?)!

My point is, when people are in a marital relationship, then the onus of staying "honest" to that relationship is on them -- the people who took the marital vows. AND if they do choose to cheat, then it is THEIR decision -- why blame the footloose, fancy-free third person who went along with them?

I am not trying to justify extra-marital affairs here. All I am saying is that the person who is in a committed relationship owes apologies and NOT the un-attached "third" person.

Indianize Cutlery

How many times have you looked at a standard cutlery set and wished there were fewer forks, more spoons and NO knives?

I have a standard cutlery set on my dining table that has 6 small spoons, 6 (too) big spoons, 6 forks and 6 knives. I *love* the cutlery set, in that is a very convenient way to have spoons on the table. *Spoons*. Just *spoons*. The forks get used when we run out of spoons -- and the knives? Never used! The reason the knives are useless is that vegetarians have no meat to cut.

I would pay a premium to buy a cutlery set that has more small spoons, a few big spoons, maybe some forks and DEFINITELY no knives!

Here's a market opportunity waiting to be filled ;-)

One woman against sexual slavery

I saw Sunitha Krishnan's very disturbing and hard-hitting talk about sex slavery last night. It's shocking to see the extent to which people can demonize themselves and then de-humanize others. What completely shook me were the sad stories of girls as young as 3 being exploited. Why do we have monsters walking among us :-(?

http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia.html

Education for the "under-served"

What caught my eye about the Parikrma Foundation campaign all over the city is their tag-line. They talk about education for the "under-served". Usually, social workers deal with people who are "under-privileged", which makes the work done with them seem like philanthropy or charity, and there is a huge feel good factor for the people who "help out" in any way.

Parikrma, by calling it education for the "under-served", has turned the paradigm around. The image created by the campaign is that of a certain section of society being *denied* their rights.The ones who do have access to such "rights" are then obliged to ensure that we do not avail our rights at the cost of others, and to make sure that the "rights" are available to all.

This seems to me like the right approach -- all of us, irrespective of our background have a *right* to decent education. Just because some parents are poor, should children be denied quality education, or even education at all?

More about Parikrma.

Metrics drive behavior!

My 6.5 year old son was routinely losing stationery at school. I tried the usual mommy tricks to get him to be more careful -- coaxing, cajoling, encouraging, scolding, denying, making him manage with less, giving him a free hand with ALL stationery in the house, but nothing worked.

Finally, in desperation, I instituted a reward. I said that if he managed to get all his stationery back home *25* times (no, not necessarily in a row), I would take him to a toy shop and let HIM choose whatever he wanted. The first few days I would diligently check his stationery and give him smileys or sad faces on a tracker, depending on whether everything came back.

After a few days of adjusting the the new "structure", he became fairly enthusiastic and his stationery started coming back regularly (to the extent that he now even has eraser "crumbs").

So far, so good.

BUT... he was SO focused on making good on the stationery metric that he started losing other things -- things he had NEVER lost before like his water bottle and snack boxes!

This completely brought home for me the oft-repeated but seldom fully-understood point of "metrics drive behavior". Here was a smart, intelligent 6.5 year old focusing so keenly on the incentive structure I had set up, that other (more important?) things began to fall through the cracks.

As Paul Graham says, "Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. ... Corollary: be careful what you measure."

Metric driven behavior in action!

:-|

If given a chance...

The organization that I work for is on a hiring spree -- which means that I periodically conduct interviews. We look to hire fresh college graduates with a "spark" whom we can train and have work with us.

Interacting with young job seekers today shows me two (very disturbing) trends.

The first is the complete inability to "apply" any kind of knowledge. We routinely tell folks who come and interview with us that they should expect to be asked about the open source test automation tool we use. We are not looking for expertise (obviously no one can be an expert with 3 days' notice). We are not even looking for a "correct" solution to simple automation that we ask them to do. Instead what we look for is their ability to "use" the tool for simple tasks, and for *some* demonstration of  problem solving skills. Sadly, without exception, EACH candidate who has walked in the door has not even tried to *install* the tool and play around with it. (We are careful to determine if they have access to a PC/Internet on which they can install and play around with it.) Instead they memorize and repeat details like the one-line tool description, the name of the creator and other trivia. So naturally, when asked to write a small script (on a laptop -- we aren't paper meanies ;-)), they don't even know where or how to begin!

The other disturbing trend is complete amnesia towards what they have learned, irrespective of discipline. Some say things like -- "Oh, that was 6th semester -- one year back, I cannot be expected to remember it." Really? I have had a candidate tell me -- "Oh, I don't know the answer to what you are asking me, but I remember studying it and look at my grades -- I did really well in the subject!"

The situations above are usually followed by the plea "if given a chance, I will prove myself." But hey, you WERE given a chance. You were given a chance at demonstrating problem solving skills in a simple open source test automation tool. You were given a BIGGER chance when you went to college and got yourself a degree!

What is the "chance" that you expect *me* to give you now?

Repetition is not practice

I have been learning music (Hindustani classical vocal) for about 1.5 years now. I have *no* innate talent for it, just a very strong desire to learn. Ever since I started learning, I have become a much better "listener" of the genre (which otherwise fell into the category of "elevator" music -- playing in the background, but not really meant to be focused on).

I've been practicing ever since I started learning, diligently at times (everyday), sporadically at others. Of late, I have been trying what Peter Norvig calls deliberative practice: "not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again." I find that it makes a HUGE difference to improvement v/s just mechanically repeating it all, all the while hoping to get better at what I don't know well.

I've had two teachers in this two year long journey. My earlier teacher was keen to cover ground -- he taught a new "raag" every two classes. As a result my music book quickly filled with "swar" and "lakshan" geets of many raags. In order to achieve this, he was happy to play notes on the harmonium to support my untrained voice.

My current teacher focuses on technique. Three months down the line learning with him, I am still doing various notation sequences with the first "basic" raag, at different "speeds". We started with the basic simple sequence, and are slowly moving on to more complex ones, but no new raags yet (and not for a while as far as I can see).  My music book is not yet two pages filled. Also, he does not believe in providing support to the voice by way of playing notes on a harmonium (other than initially or when I falter). As a result, I have been acquiring what he calls "sur ka gyaan".

The former approach was much easier on me as a student and I enjoyed it while it lasted. The latter approach makes many more demands of me as a student; I find it challenging and see that I am gaining "depth" of knowledge v/s skimming over the breadth of it. It is in this latter approach that "deliberative practice" pays dividends!

Don't catch 'em young

As part of learning about weather, season and climate, my son was taken for a field trip to the Met Dept. (Of course, *he* had a blast walking around the place instead of sitting is school doing "work".)

When I spoke to the teacher, she had a different story to tell. She was disappointed by the level of interest showed by the folks at the Dept. Apparently they first asked which class the children belonged to, and then on learning that they were surrounded by first graders, zoned out and were not too interested in talking to them or showing them around.

This is a trend I see all around me. My son learns karate, music and yoga, and the impression I get at ALL these classes is that they are waiting for him to "grow up" before they can really teach him stuff.

Which is so sad. Children are supposed to be learning sponges when they are small -- that ability diminishes as they grow older. And yet, irrespective of discipline (atleast where I live), we are waiting for them to "grow up".

Is this why when people really do "grow up" and get into the job market they are mostly such blinkered, unable-to-think-for-themselves souls?

I wish I was 6!

How education has changed over the years.

My six and a half year old gets to answer "comprehension" questions based on "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss, a "composition" about himself (with questions that he needs to answer), and best of all, a book review where HE gets to choose the book.

The chosen book this time is "Great Snakes", whose "characters" are "snakes, lizards, and eggs". The "setting" is "deserts, seas, mountains, and trees".

The teacher is going to get some creepy submissions this week!

"Leaving Microsoft to Change the World"

Just got done reading "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World".

What struck me as major contributor to the success of Room to Read was the fact that their vision was VERY clear, well articulated and everyone pulled in the same direction to achieve it.
Of course, I am sure having the razor-sharp brain of an ex-Microsoft executive at the helm helped no small measure as well.

This is why their results are so different from other not-for-profits which begin with a huge pot of money and a desire to "do some good". Such not-for-profits, while being good "social badges" for their founders (thanks, Mudita :-)), fail to produce the kind of impact that they actually can given the amount of money that flows in and around them.

Next on my to-read list: Three Cups of Tea :-)

The Cat Report

Here's some interesting homework that came home last week.

A list of cats (siamese, lion, etc.), from which my son had to select one. The next step was to find a book about the chosen cat, read it and then come up with a "Cat Report".

He selected "Slinky Malinki" by Lynley Dodd, and so his report was about a "thieving Siamese cat", complete with a hand-drawn picture!

Update on the Art of Getting Help

A few months ago, I had written a blog entry on The Art of Getting Help , pointing out that some people do not know how to communicate well enough to get help on technical forums.

Well guess what? I am not the only person who thinks so.

The "issue" of poorly asked questions has gotten on peoples' nerves to such an extent in the Watir forum, that there is an entire thread discussing how to handle "newbies/clueless posters"!

The creator of Watir, Brett Pettichord tweeted "I couldn't stand all the clueless questions on watir general."

More here.

Shopper's paradise

I am in Bombay for a vacation and have been shopping till I drop ;-). People who know me will be VERY surprised to hear this because usually I avoid shopping like the plague (other than for provisions) .

But... Bombay is different. Aside from the fact that everything is available a stone's throw from where I live, there is a VERY strong professional ethic and a desire to win over customers, that sadly, I do not see elsewhere.

Here is an example. I was looking for a new data card for my camera. I surfed, found a number and called. I was told that the data card could be home-delivered where I was. The data card costs Rs 600. It was duly delivered to me along with a brochure for cameras that I could upgrade to. Sadly, the data card wouldn't work with my camera. Before I could say anything, my money was returned. (Of course, I chose to keep the card as a memory backup, but I was at no point pressurized to keep a card that I had already opened to try with my camera!).

This wasn't a store that I had been a regular customer with, or knew in any way.

I can only dream of getting this kind of service in other cities.

Mmmm... Food

I have been on a recipe-trying spree lately, pulling stuff to cook off of the net.

Increasingly, I find myself drawn to cooking blogs rather than websites of famous cookbook authors. This is because what I am looking for is a variation to home-cooked food (slightly different spices, small change in steps to cook everyday vegetables) in order to widen our taste choices and alleviate boredom of eating the same vegetables week after week, and NOT fancy or elaborate recipes.

Thanks to Google and blogging (and the fact that EVERYONE's mom cooks differently ;-)), I'm in luck. Also, thanks to the fact that I am experimenting with Indian cooking -- it gets even better -- I so far have 4 different ways to cook carrots (and haven't even begun to explore recipes from the East!)

I've learnt to make sweet potato paranthas, moong dal paranthas, chana dal laddoos, carrot n coconut palya, ragi dosas, minty tomato rice and kerala sambhaar from bloggers :-).

One blog that I follow a lot is Archana Doshi's. Aside from the fact that she has a wide range of homey recipes, her measurements are close to perfect and her steps easy to follow. She also has small variations to traditional recipes which make a world of difference to the taste.

Looking forward to trying beetroot rice, vegetable biryani, urad dal paranthas and lots more in the days to come :-).

The art of getting help

We use a lot of open source software at work, and I subscribe to user-group lists.

(Some) users of the sub-continent have an amazing ability to annoy user-group lists by posting stuff like:

• I am new. Where do I start? (There is a well setup website with LOTS of examples to get your feet wet AND start swimming)

• This is my situation. Please help. (Without having searched archives)
  

• This is my situation. Send me some code I can use. (Why should someone else do *your* work?)

• Repeated requests for help on the SAME topic. (Open source mailing lists comprise of other users who *volunteer* help and not paid tech-support)

• I am getting an error. Please help. (With no attempt to troubleshoot or debug)
  

• Incoherently asked questions with incomplete information.

Is it too much to expect "engineers" (yes, that is probably what most of them carry in their titles) to be able to post queries that:

• Are clear and concise
• Display what attempts the seeker of help has already made to try and solve the problem - - yes this implies that you DO try and look for a solution instead of running to others for help immediately
• Do not beg for help
• Do not expect a ready made solution that can be swallowed as-is in the next 20 minutes
• Are grammatically coherent?

My dream job

In order of priority:

1> 20 hours a week
2> Flexible working hours, with occasional work-from-home days
3> Pays ALL bills
4> Smart peers
5> Mentally challenging work

I should just ask for the moon and be done with it ;-)

What nice homework

My 6 year old gets a pile of homework each weekend, but once he starts, he actually enjoys doing it. Given that his Literature textbook is Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, it is no surprise.

Inspired by Cat in the Hat, this weekend, he had to write some of the rules of his house. This is what he came up with:

1> Do not go out alone.
2> When you come from any place wash your hands with soap.
3> In a shop dont get lost.
4> Do not eat much junk food.
5> Do not break toys.
6> Do not tear books.
7> Do not throw things.

Work Culture and H1N1

I've been part of the Indian corporate world for over a decade. In this decade, I have seen that, without exception, showing up at work when sick (particularly with fever) will get you rated as a star performer and great team player.

I always fail to understand how you are a team player if you can potentially make every other person fall ill or a star performer if your productivity is seriously compromised due to a fuzzy brain. Then again, such are the ways of the world...

Until ... H1N1 :-)

Somebody I know trooped in to work after having had a 102 F fever (no it wasn't H1N1) the previous evening and was asked to go back by the Project Manager for fear of passing it on to other people :-D

It took something like H1N1 to rock the foundation of Indian work culture. Does that say something?

Netflix' Corporate Culture

Just finished reading through all 128 slides of Netflix' corporate culture (I have to admit the first time I just skimmed ;-)).

When I skimmed through the presentation, the impression I got was that of a high-pressure workplace. A detailed read-through, however, makes it seem like an enabling environment as opposed to a pressurizing one.

A belief that I have encountered of late is that mediocre performers make better team players. However, I completely agree with Netflix: Mediocre colleagues or unchallenging work is what kills progress of a person's skills.

"Wonder" Tool

I received in my inbox an email about "a scriptless, easy to use, accelerated test environment to enhance quality, that brings power of test automation tools to every tester’s desk irrespective of the understanding of the test Automation tool" (emphasis mine).

The email went on to describe the benefits of the "Wonder" tool which included "productivity gain of 200%"! Wow! And here I thought the maximum possible percentage was 100! Silly me.

"Wonder" tool also "encapsulates the non –coherent complexities of test automation and eliminates the need of highly skilled resources".

Here's my question: Are there still people out there who fall for such drivel? Can I sell them some snake oil, while we are at it ;-)?

Age of Agile

Over the last few days, my mandate has been to read extensively about process in general and CMM(I) in particular (it seems I already read enough about Agile ;-)). I have also been interacting with proponents and practitioners of both processes.

One trend that I see among CMM(I) proponents is to forcefully point out that Agile is not new and has been around as Iterative Development for the past 75 years.

Why do process-heavy proponents seek to grandfather Agile? What am I missing here?

Karate, Tennis, Music, Dance or something else?

I have a bright 6 year old who, apart from being at school from 8 am to 3.30 pm, periodically expresses desires to learn other stuff.

Last (academic) year, he learnt tennis, vocal music and went for a weekly "Success" camp. This academic year, we already have on our plate karate, a weekly "Success" camp and (intermittently) vocal music. He wants to add tennis and dancing.

Karate takes away 3 afternoons a week. Camp is on Saturday morning. Tennis if added is another 3 afternoons and dancing will be 2 evenings. When I do the math I wonder how I am going to fit all this in.

Oh and did I mention skating, yoga and Western vocal music that gets learnt in school?

I sometimes wonder, is it useful to be sending him to so many different activities? How will he ever get in the practice needed to excel at ANY of them? Or is this exposure time -- let him dip his feet into many different things for a few years and then select a couple to pursue?

Process or Competence?

These days I spend a lot of my time reading about process. More specifically, about "Agile" AND Cmm(I).

The context: I am in an org, managing the "QA" team (I, me and myself), and senior management is pulling in the direction of "process" ISO, and CMM(I). We are a software organization, and have been building software for over 5 years, 4 of which were without "process" and the last 1 where we dabbled in "Agile" with extremely uneven results.

Yes, we have a problem. The symptom is that our quality is not where it should be (or even close).

Here is where the disconnect begins. Senior management feels that the "Agile" process is not working and we should go back to a "more stable waterfall". In short, it is a process issue. *I* believe that no matter what the process, if there isn't a certain basic minimum competence at ALL levels of the software hierarchy, the quality of the software is doomed to failure. A competence issue.

Senior management acknowledges the competence issue, but believes that it can be resolved with training. On the other hand, I believe that training is an input that you give a smart mind get started and cannot be a replacement for lack of aptitude.

Is process a substitute for competence?