Spring forth in 2011?

2010 ends this weekend.
Guess it's time to draw up lists of resolutions, pull out reviews of books read, movies seen, progress made, lessons learnt, draw up a mini statement of monies made, blown, left and due, remember places traveled and generally summarize the year for posterity.
2009 was a static year. Nothing happened, it just passed by.
2010 has the makings of a change year- an year with the weight of a decade on its back- seems like a turn around a block, resulting in a complete change in the view.
Another decade is over. From jumping aimlessly into my 30s in 2000 to cautiously planning for the 40s in 2010, it has been a transformational decade. TIME magazine calls it the Decade from Hell; Business Today calls it India's Best Decade. Maybe thats the worldview. When I began the 30s, we were half a trillion $ economy. Today, ten years down we are a trillion and half!
But personally, the decade has reduced my hair, increase my pulse rate, made me a conformist from a confrontist, converted me from a functionalist to a generalist and a tougher negotiator.
To summarize what has changed, transformed- needs more pause, more reflection and more thinking and more projecting into the future. Maybe till 2020.
Whats my view of myself in 2020?
Empty Nest. Entrepreneur. Dollar Multi-Millionaire. Author. Professor. Traveler.
These are six possibilities, not in any order.
But, before all of these possibilities looms a 12 month certainity- 2011.
Should I plan one step towards each of these goals in 2011? Maybe.
Back to 2010. All in all, an year that marks the beginning of a period of considerable progress with some initial milestones achieved. Read very few books this year, but bettered the average in December - having been laid low by flu, have managed to finish in fiction-Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (great 2/3rd- Rome and Indonesia); Sunetra Choudhury's Braking News ( a missed opportunity to produce a masterpiece); John Updike's Rabbit, Run (cant believe it is about life in the 50's) and begun to read the much discussed- 'the girl with the dragon tattoo'. It's also been an year of travel compared to last year- globe trotted to US, France, Hong Kong - mostly places I have been to earlier. Did see many many movies this year, culminating in the launch of a movie channel! Did a small and refreshing education flip course- spent a few days at the ISB-Kelloggs discussing strategy and lectured students visiting from Kelloggs on Indian media. Also gained a definitive couple of kilos as I tipped the 115kg mark. This is one milestone I am not happy about, since unlike my earlier weight gains, this one comes with stress, not cheery prosperity. Could 2010 also be the springboard to greater adventure?

2011, here I come.

No goals at the moment. Just plain anticipation of an interesting year.

European cliffhangers

First, it was the volcano. That just refused to let flights move.
Then came the financial meltdown, Britain which had felt tremors as early as 2008, followed by Belgium, a Greek Tragedy- a collapse of its currency, followed by Spain and a dramatic fall of the Euro from 70 rupees to 55 rupees in under 12 months!
Then the change in political landscape- as slowly conservative preservationsists come back to power in England, Poland and Germany.
Finally, its manifestation on the soccer field.
This FIFA world cup has seen Italy(reigning defending champions), France( winners in the previous cup), Greece, Denmark already falling off. Spain and England struggling to get to the round of 16. Germany and Portugal just about getting there.
Guess the State of country's mind is the State of the country's game.

Soccer & us

The TRP ratings report this wednesday flashed the incredible climb of the TV channel ESPN's viewership from 3 GRP's in the 15-34, AB, C&S, HSM 1mn+ markets to 50 GRP's and then to 117GRP's over the two weeks of FIFA world cup.
I wondered why.
We dont play soccer, we dont like physical sport, we dont like team games, so why is India watching this world cup?
We have been a spectator sport country. We like to watch ( explains our obsession with TV), we like to talk( explains our poor written history records and oral tradition), we dont like sharing credits (explains why we excel mostly at individual sport- tennis, badminton, chess, archery, wrestling or golf) and we like individual skill over collective force( explains why we like cricket which is reliant more on skill - batting, bowling, wicketkeeping).
I think sport to sport, cricket consumes the least amount of calories. Soccer is pulsating, physical extreme sport. Just like rugby or basketball. In soccer, you cant win without teamwork. You need to have people engaged in intensive co-ordinated ball-play to score.
We like the soap opera feel of cricket, you never know what the next player will bring to the game, we like the wristiness of a shot, the slowness of the game( 5 ridiculous days), we like the fact that it creates heroes who can be worshipped, we like the intense discussions around a sport very few countries play. We also like it because maybe it is still the only game where we manage to win.
Maybe what has changed is that as a nation turns capitalist, you learn the power of collective force. The unifying factor has been the pressing opportunity to create wealth for itself, the impending limited period demographic dividend. Which forces the US to build relationships with us. We also begin to get a first world view of the everything as we migrate from defunct and low-leverage groups like SAARC and NAM to BRIC and maybe, G20 and further to a seat in the UNSC with veto powers. For a country that abstained from voting on most issues due to its NAM policy, we have come a long way.
So, we begin to view first world sports. Then, maybe we will play. Health is a big discussion in any meeting. The increasing number of marathon runners will soon make it the worlds largest marathon.
Soccer is here.
Baseball, Basketball and Rugby will follow.
Individual skill will have yielded to collective force.

Insurance is subject matter.of this solicitation

'Hello?'
'Sir, Pramod calling from Reliance capital, wanted to discuss future planning'
'See, with the insurance policies I have already bought, I am already worth more dead than alive. Now, how much more should I insure?'
'Sir?'
'Do you guys want me dead or what? I am insured for more than my salary now! Do you want to kill me with these daily phone calls?'
Click!
'Hello,Hello...'

'Hello'
'Sir, Calling from ICICI prudential...'
'Yes,Yes,aah,aah,...more,..more...aah, aah, yes, yes....aah, yum, aah,aah,, oooh,...,yes,yes,more....more...'
click!
'Hello,hello....'

'Hello'
'Sir, main Max new york se bol raha hoon. Kya aap insurance mein interested hain?'
'Mein ek khoon karne wala hoon. Chalo, uska 1 cr ka policy nikalte hain. Uske marne ke baad, dono half-half share karenge!
click!
'Hello,hello...'

'Hello?'
'Sir, am calling from Religare finance. Wanted an appointment to discuss financial planning'
'Thoda paani dena?
'Sir?'
'Paani deona'
'Sir?'
'Paani deona, pyaas laga hai'
Click
'Hello,Hello..'


Hello?'
'Sir, calling from Tata AIG'
'Yes, what can I do for you?'
'We want to meet you for financial planning'
'Sure, when'
'Sir, what about friday?
'Ok, how much money will you give me?
'Sir?'
'Are you meeting me to give me money?'
'No, we want to do financial planning"
'you will give me money, right. Then we will plan what to do with it'
'No, sir. We don't give money'
'So, whats there to plan. I have no money'
'Sir, we can help you make money'
'You are giving me a job?
click
'Hello,hello...'

'Hello?'
'Sir, calling from Bajaj capital'
'Which branch?'
'Mumbai, sir?'
'Which branch in Mumbai?'
'Andheri'
'Oh, I work in the Bandra branch. How are you?'
'Nice to know'
'How many policies did you sell last month?
click!
Hello,hello..'

'Hello'
'Sir, calling from Aegon religare'
'I know, I am you President- M&A, based in Delhi. How did my number get into your database?
'Sorry, sir, We were just given these numbers'
'Who gave you these numbers?
'Our company?'
'What's your number?'
Click!
'Hello,hello..'

'Hello?'

'Sir, Nitin from Birla sun life insurance..'

'Great, just the guy I was looking for! See, my name is Ajmal K and I have been given the death penalty, what do you think will be my premium?'

Click!

'Hello,hello...'

'Hello?'
'Sir, this is Anjali calling from Canara Robeco..'
'You have a nice voice, why dont you call me later in the night, Anjali?'
'Sir?'
'Why dont you call me later in the night? We can talk at leisure?'
'Sir?'
'Are you calling from Mumbai?
Click!
'Hello, Hello..'

'Hello?
'Sir, Calling from reliance capital..would you be...
'
Hello, hello, sir, sir, are you there....?
'
'Hello?'

'Hello?'
Click!

Hello?'
Sir, Arjun from Tata capital, Can we speak to mr nc?
'Just killed him. Bloody fat fellow. lots of blood came out. Have his cell phone. Is there some way I can get his money?'
click!
'Hello,Hello..'

Tech lives.

It's amazing how technology makes every other experience transient and itself redundant in quick cycles.
A bigflix subscription for movies kept me enthralled for months on end last year, but with digital cable and its 8 english movie channels and 12 hindi movie channels, I have been forced to keep the bigflix order book dormant and avoid responding to all their reminders.
Take my iphone, for instance. It has made a whole host of devices quite redundant. The iphone apps are making everything else unnecessary- check this- it's already a video camera, has my stock portfolio, facebook, news videos, atlas, global weather finder, scientific calculator, fav gaming device- sudoku, chess,checkers and pacman, live tv, ipod, quick notepad, money manager, birthday reminder and has all my mailboxes and contact lists.
That's not all, what it has also done is turned business models upside down.
Microsoft doesn't care for the hardware, just makes the software and leaves many vendors fighting each other for customers., while it just sits around making proprietary software.
Apple turned the model around, it makes the basic hardware- focussing on designing an intuitive product - say an iphone or ipod or ipad and lets everyone make software for it. So over a 100,000 app companies have mushroomed around it. That's why it is iconic.
From CRT to LCD to Plasma to LED, we have transitioned in 3-4 remarkable years.
To design is to be on top of teh value chain.
Everything else can be sub-contracted and take shape by itself.
Now take blogging. With facebook, and then with twitter, blogging is been made old-fashioned before you can say b!
Thoughts have to fit 140 character word limits.
Technology has turned time transient.