Category: Uncategorized

Ban sports if you want to ban Jallikattu

~ Karthik S ~ Leave a comment

I’m not mincing any words in the title. That’s that and let me explain if it intrigues you.

Sports are for everyone but only the best play at the highest level

To be at the stumps with Shoaib Akthar bowling to you in an ODI or to stand as a goalkeeper when Roberto Carlos is sprinting towards you uninhibited with God like control over the ball or to block a punch thrown by Mohammed Ali headed for your temple… you need to be a pro. The regular person watching the game on TV can’t be at the receiving end. Participants who tame the bull in Jallikattu are no different. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea to tame a superstar bull that won the previous year’s title. If you wish to ban Jallikattu because it has a vector of threat to the receiver, you must ban Cricket, Football and Boxing. In Jallikattu, like every other competitive sport, both parties are at the receiving end.

Need of the hour: Regulation, not a ban

Like how you need a shin guard, an elbow guard, a helmet and proper shoes for playing professional Cricket, there should be a regulation for participants in Jallikattu. A few points that I could think of are listed below but I’m sure a professional Jallikattu sportsperson could do better.

For the Bull:

  • Chain mail for its head and body
  • Rubber covering for its horns
  • The Bull should not be fed any “performance enhancing” food
  • The Bull should not have consumed liquor
  • The Bull should not be pierced or bitten to make it aggressive

For the participating persons:

  • A shin guard
  • Chain mail or kevlar jackets for the chest area
  • Only people with life insurance and medical insurance can participate and Insurance companies should not refuse claims for loss or damages caused while playing Jallikattu
  • (If this is a concern…)Only persons without a spouse and/or children should participate
  • Person shouldn’t have consumed performance enhancing drugs or alcohol
  • Person should not belong to any political party… 😉

I’m for Jallikattu. Protect the local gene pool.

EDIT: Watch this: Sadhguru on Youth Support for Jallikattu

 

Will we see a small vacuum in Indian banking?

~ Karthik S ~ Leave a comment

Basic principle of banking: Borrow at low interest and lend at higher interest; run the show with the earnings.

Elaborating

I deposit Rs.100/- in a bank. The bank promises to give me Rs.104/- at the end of 1 year. So that’s 4% interest. In the mean time, the bank might lend that 100 to a someone else at an interest of 11% and get back Rs.111/- at the end of 1 year. So the bank is earning Rs.7/- from my Rs.100/-.

 

After Demonetization of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 notes

People are depositing money they’ve stored in those denominations. As of current estimates, a total of 7Lakh crore rupees have entered the banks due to this operations. Another side-effect is that some businessmen/industrialists are seeing decreased purchases and reduced business. Reduced business causes lower revenues/profits which means banks may not be able to recover the monthly EMIs from these borrowers. That also means that the bank should pay interest of SB account holders out of its own pocket.

 

Assuming that the people withdraw their money 1 year after depositing it into the bank, won’t the banks be hard pressed for cash due to a staggering business environment? Will the banks pay SB account interest based on future promised EMIs?

It’s a boy

~ Karthik S ~ Leave a comment

I’m now a dad. Been so for 4 months now and I’m enjoying most of it. “Being responsible” is now a whole new level that just can’t be explained without experiencing it. My son is going to be the center of my universe for a few years.

Guilt – unpardonable

~ Karthik S ~ 2 Comments

Last week, I had to attend a family gathering, a celebration. On the eve of travelling to Chennai from Bengaluru, I had a sore throat. It seemed manageable… I didn’t have to do much talking during the event. So I figured I might as well meet my family in the opportunity that affords itself every alternate week (medium distance relationships). On arrival, I recollect a bout of cough and phlegm… harmless on any normal day. Something changed in the last kilometer of this trip and I now had a well established flu and maybe even fever.

Of late, summer has been arriving early each year. Early March now seems like midsummer.

There are a couple of people in my extended family who are autistic. I know the events in their baby-hood which led to that state for they were born healthy and with good response till their 6th month after birth. Both had mild flu followed by fever at the onset of summer.

Today, after 45 years, it is unfortunately difficult for them to integrate into society. With an unacknowledged sense of protection enduring as long as their parents endure, their journey forward seems lank. Their siblings (plural); happy, safe and secure in their little world, don’t want to tend to them. I have known and understood this right from the time it was possible for me understand these things.

Thanks to some medicines and few hours of rest, the fever was ruled out in a day. One week in, I’m still recovering from flu.

Sunday.. Show day… The event went off well. Saturday’s austerity for socializing with my family seemed well compensated on Sunday. After the event, I packed my bags and got back home in Bengaluru.

It’s sort of a tradition for the first kid of the family to be delivered at the wife’s mother’s place. Every alternate week I travel to Chennai to meet my wife and son(3 months old).

On Tuesday, my wife texted that my son was cranky and probably had flu.

Guilt – unpardonable.

Know what you’re reviewing…

~ Karthik S ~ Leave a comment

I went on flipkart to buy a HDMI cable. The suppliers stacked up well against each other for competing rates but one of them seemed to have comparatively poor rating. So I wanted to check it out… and face a heap of irrelevant comments see this:

People don’t realize that they are reviewing the supplier and not the product.

For a supplier, you would expect to see details about packing, delivery matters, replacement or warranty issues, etc.

I initially just wanted to complain about what’s happening… but I guess I have a solution too.

Problem:

People don’t realize that they are reviewing the supplier because the review/rating interface is just the same as that of any other product purchased. So people end up reviewing the product and not supplier.

 

Build a relevant solution:

A product can be ranked mostly in the positive and less in negative.

A supplier can be ranked partly in the positive and mostly in the negative.

Option 1: Use stars to rank products and a colour coded slider to rank the supplier.

Option 2: Use a single set of starts for the products and multiple sets of stars for a supplier, each set of starts to indicate a dimension of the service provided (delivery/packing/after sales support, etc)

Roles and responsibilities of a team lead

~ Karthik S ~ Leave a comment

A friend recently pinged my school whatsapp group asking for general roles and responsibilities of a team lead. There was no info on what industry or job skill this position would target. This set my mind racing… Is a team lead as generic as a manager?

So I put down a few things I thought are generic enough. By the time I put down the last point, I realized that the team lead is just a mini manager.

What I’ve written is based purely on the different team leads I’ve worked with and the kind of team lead that I want to be.

I’d like to know your thoughts on what I’ve listed below.

NOTE: This list is only the “DO s” and not the “DON’T s” as the latter can be a veeeery long list.

 

Common:

Should have prior experience of delegating and managing work of at-least 3 people including self.

Roles:

  • Manage work distribution on basis of individual capacity
  • Manage availability of team members
  • Interact with senior management for escalation and team progress
  • Interact with other tams and client for daily work
  • Evaluate and rate team members on a peer level
  • Manage infrastructure and security requirements in absence of manager

Responsibilities:

  • Help team members complete work on time at the same time keeping in mind that they should work independently in future for similar tasks
  • Raise important and urgent matters with senior/upper management without delay
  • Set a good example for own team members and other team leads

*** THE END ***