Welcome 2013!

Now that Dec 21, 2012 is well past us, apart from a few sullen faced doomsday fanatics, humanity is back to the daily grind.

In many ways 2012 was a year to cherish and remember. We welcomed the brightest light in our lives, our lovely daughter on March 8 (on Women's day),  I finally managed to complete the biggest project in my career (to date) successfully on Oct 27th and oh yes finally got that promotion at work that seemed to be due forever. So thank you almighty for the infinite love and blessings that you have bestowed upon me and the family.

Of course 2012 had its fair share of darkness as well. There was the death of a family member, the horrible raping of a young medical student in Delhi that has the country up in arms, the ever growing menace of corruption, red-tape and absolute lack of governance in this great nation.

Despite all the negativity that seems to surround our lives, I am still hoping and praying that 2013 holds maybe just a small hint, a spark of much bigger positive changes to come. 

Where is this country heading?

There was a time, a couple of years ago when I really felt that Indian economy's growth story was here to stay and that we were to be the golden generation in India reaping the benefits of this growth. Make no mistake, we have grown, our incomes have grown considerably as well and we are enjoying a life style that our parents could only dream about. On the other hand, prices are rising all the time and I jokingly mention to family and friends that I probably need an additional 0 added to my income every 2 or 3 years just to cope with the cost of living.

But is our growth story here to stay? I would have said yes if someone asked me this question two or three years ago but now, but not anymore. The government, bureaucracy, the civic bodies and just about any sort of government machinery in this country is in bad need of reforms and the worst part is that the babus ruling this nation just don't want to admit that we have a problem. We are growing at 7% when most countries are struggling to register 3 or 4 % growth says the government and this is an insane argument. Our growth rates are high because of the base effect. We are growing from a small base and this amplifies our growth.

There is a total paralysis of policy making and no single person in this government has the balls to put the country before himself or herself. The opposition is no better and I fear that maybe a decade down the line, India will be talked as just a huge country that wasted a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope I am wrong.

We as the people of this country are so much stuck with this concept of Jugaad, that we have lost the ability to straighten things out the right way. Our civic sense is perhaps the worst among the developing world. We just don't seem to care about the other mans plight as long as our needs are taken care of. Right from driving our cars or two wheelers to  getting admissions in schools, we all only seek the short cut path to achieving things. 

Well for anyone reading this, I am probably stating the obvious but where do we go from here? What kind of India are we going to leave our children? I have no answers right now, just a deepening sense of gloom on where our great nation is heading.

My Rant about Android and Samsung

I admit that I am a total gadget freak and a technology addict and this means every year when the wrappings of the latest smartphone come off or some other hi-tech gizmo hits the market, I of course begin to drool and also instantly check my bank balance to see if I can even think of affording a new gizmo and more often than not a paltry bank balance leaves me depressed. 

But this has not deterred me (thanks to my totally selfless wife that is ready to gift me anything I ask for...what more can a man ask for..) from making some purchases over the last year that are, lets face it both expensive and no where near being necessities for ones life. The first one was the Samsung Galaxy S2 which I brought last year (through Flipkart) and I followed it up by getting my wife to buy me a pair of Bose noise canceling head phones for my birthday.

Now aimless as this post is going to be, the biggest complaint I have with moving from an iPhone to an Android powered device, apart from the crappy battery life is the absolute agony that one has to go through to get an Android upgrade going. Of course folks can look at me and tell me that if I were a tech freak, I should have already 'rooted' by Galaxy S2 and got the upgrade to the latest version of Android (4.0.4 aka Ice-cream Sandwich), but I prefer to not to dig around too much with my phones and prefer the upgrade to come through the normal channels. Having said that, ICS was released months ago and Samsung promised that its flagship Galaxy S2 smartphone would get the upgrade by Q1, 2012 and we are well into Q2 and there is still no update from Samsung on when poor old Indian users like me would get the upgrade.

I tried to complain on Twitter to @Samsungmobile and also tried Facebook but no one seems to bother. At this stage I am seriously thinking of jumping back to the iOS bandwagon the next time I buy a new phone.

All this, again brings me to the question: Where is Android heading? Given that its a free license product, it has resulted in severe de-fragmentation of the Android market with hundreds of manufacturers rolling out Android phones at different price points, and with different versions of the Android OS. All this makes the process of upgrading users to newer versions on Android that much more painful and I guess that pain is not going to go away anytime soon. That may be one of the main reasons why it is rumoured that Google may be opting to build out its own walled garden through Google Play just to get out of this mess that Android seems to have created.

Samsung have built a kick ass phone in the Galaxy S2 but I feel they have screwed up big time with a bloated peice of junk called Samsung Kies (similar to iTunes) to allow users to sync data from their computers to the phone and to manage upgrades. I have had several hair tearing experiences with Kies and dread using it every time there is a new firmware upgrade available.

This is where Apple scores over everyone else. With iOS everything you do, be it using the phone, buying apps or upgrading is totally simple so much so that even a kid these days knows how to run an iOS upgrade. There is a lot to be learned for companies like Sammy from the master. With that I guess I will stop my rant on Samsung and Android until I have new stories to tell about how my ICS upgrade went (whenever that happens!)

Happy Times!

Little Aadrika is 6 weeks old already. How time flies! After 34 years of living a carefree life, I feel a sudden sense of profound responsibility whenever I see the little one. How will I bring her up? Should I be strict or lenient? How am I going to save for her education? What kind of a world is she getting into? So many questions, but I guess the answers to these will play over the next many years to come. 

Right now both of us are just enjoying being with the baby and relishing her tantrums, her smiles and everything she does. Of course all this happiness brings along with it sleepless nights changing nappies, trying to get her to sleep etc and although at times it gets very frustrating for us, a little smile from those tiny lips is all it takes to get all the frustration out of our systems.

Children are truly god's best gift to mankind!

The birth of Aadu, has coincided with yet another delay in the current project I am doing which is good in a way as it allows me to spend some real quality time with the missus and Aadu. The only downside to this is that I am facing the brunt of the summer at Hyderabad since both of them are at my in-laws for a few months.

Given the relative lull at work, I have decided to seriously (for the nth time) get down and prepare to give the PMP exam and this time I have roped in a colleague so that we keep pushing each other to get this done.

Circle of Life!

March 8th, 10:35 am, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore

It is one of those occasions when everything around you seems to stop. Your emotions are all over the place and there is a sense of all pervading joy. I finally laid my eyes on the most beautiful little baby in the world and said to myself..."This one is your's papa!"..and there she was 2.7 kilos of divinity and the very first thing that struck me was somehow a striking similarity to my dearest wife Avanthi. We've named her Aadrika which means heavenly/celestial or mountain in Sanskrit. 

Life has indeed come a full circle!

Sitting in the post operative care room with Aadrika and Avanthi, I felt a sense of happiness that I have never felt before. The only tinge of pain, was the absence of the man I loved the most...my dear father but I am sure looking at us from up above, he was indeed a very happy and proud soul!