Dhwani 2008 - Hindustani Music Concerts

The Bangalore Kidney foundation had organized Dhwani - 2008, 5th Mallikarjun Mansur music festival last weekend (20th and 21st of Sep) at JSS auditorium near my home. There were 6 concerts from and it was a heavy dose of music even for someone like me that listens to classical music atleast 8hrs every day and attend all Hindustani concerts that come to my notice. Except for Sanjeev Abhyankar, I was listening to the remaining 5 artists for the first time. Here are the artists that performed over there:

• Pt. N. V. Gopinath - Sitar (Raags Bhoop Kalyan, Jaijaivanti)
• Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar (Raags Maru Bihag and Kaunsi Kanada, Bhairavi Thumri)
• Pt. Samaresh Chaudhary (Raags Bairagi, Todi and a Thumri)
• Pt. Sanjeev Abhyankar (Raags Madhuvanti, Din Ki Puriya, BhinnaShadja, Hori Geet and Bhajan)
• Pt. Jayateertha Mevudni (Raags Puriya, Shahana Kaanda, Thumri and a Kannada Bhajan)
• Pt. Ajay Pohankar (Raag Rageshree, a Raagaamala and a Bhajan)

I may be biased, but I found Sanjeev Abhyankar's concert to be the best. His beautiful voice (in contast with a rather unpolished voice of Pt. Samaresh Chaudhary whose sung before Abhyankar), ever smiling demeanour and the encouragement he gives to his tabla and harmonium saaths, makes it a great experience. His rendition of Bhinna Shadja and especially the taraana which is his own compostion was just out of the world. Due to popular request, he sung beyond the specified time. Shruti Sadolikar's Kaunsi Kanada in the complex Jaipur-Atrauli style and Jayateertha Mevundi's Puriya would remain in my memory for long. Found Ajay Pohankar rather casual and for a Bhajan he was urging everyone on the stage and the audience to sing with him and atmosphere resembled a typical bhajan session in some Swamiji's ashram. He had an young person as his vocal support and that guy was too good and seem to have a bright future. Overall it was a great experience, even though it became a bit hectic.

I have started uploading few clips from these concerts and these can be seen at my classical music blog.

Dream come true, again!!

I have been blessed to have many "dream come true" events happening in my life since my childhood. 24-Jun-08 was one such day when one of my skip level boss, whom I admire very much and with whom I have worked in two MNCs, called me. His message was simple - he has joined a new company and wanted to start its India center in Bengaluru and he asked me whether I'd be interested in starting and running this center (do you need a better definition of "dream come true"?). I was excited at starting something from scratch and running a center all by myself and readily agreed.

In the series to be labeled under "Intrapreneurship", I'll document my experience in setting up the India Development Center.

Thus started the long process. I was interviewed by several people including the CEO. Next step was to prepare a budget and I was told clearly that my bonus would be linked to my running the center under this budget and meeting the agreed deliverables. Suddenly, I was forced to think from the "other" side. Its funny, I've been in management for a while now, but the perspective suddenly changes if you are to run a center under a given budget.

Anyone in the IT industry would tell you that wage-bill is the biggest expense and I started looking at an optimal combination of the team that I need to hire. I eliminated several high-cost roles, took a few responsibilities upon myself and arrived at a "pyramid" with the right mix of experienced and fresh enggineers. Once the wage-bill was under control, I turned my attention to next big ticket item - infrastructure. I want to have a world class facility, it means there would not be any compromise on the IT infrastructure. All essential things got budgeted and the last item was the building. Office space availability in Bengaluru broadly falls in 3 zones:
1. The Whitefield, ORR, Electronic City - Typically housing large companies
2. The Central business district and
3. Predominantly residential areas like Jayanagar, J P Nagar, BTM, Koramangala etc.,

For the budget that I have, it makes sense to find some place in the 3rd zone (the fact that I live in J P Nagar is purely a coincidence).

After the budget got approved, we hired a consulting firm that would help us with incorporating India entity and all the reqd. paper work with several nodal agencies (RBI, SEZ/STPI, IT, Excise etc.,). The first decision to be made was whether we need to register under STPI or SEZ. In my next post, I'll talk about relative pros and cons of these two.

In the mean time, I've started reading The first 90 days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels to prepare myself for the new role in the new organization.

Google's browser Chrome debuts today

Google announced that it is launching its own browser Chrome, today.

Just wondering why Google has jumped into the browser market, which is already crowded with IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera amongst others. Chrome would definitely eat into IE's market share (Here is Janco's whitepaper on browser market). If this is the prime reason, why not buy Mozilla? Are there any other reasons? Would there be some link to Android?

Reading list for Sep'08

Last month, I got a chance to spend 3 days in my village and completing the books planned was a cake walk. This village is about 25kms from Mysore and my mother comes from here. We have a coconut grove next to the house and reading anything over here is great - both for the speed of reading and the amount at which you can absorb. Here's the list for this month.

Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything
User Generated Content (UGC) has been much talked about subject these days. I was trying to understand UGC and its implications little more and ran into this book. In this book, the authors show how the masses of people can participate in the economy like never before. The authors argue that smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success. You may want to check out wikinomics blog, which is a collaborative effort of several individuals, in the true spirit of the message of the book


The Definitive Drucker
Rajiv Mody, Chairman and CEO, Sasken Communication Technolgies, on whom Peter Drucker has had (and continue to have) tremondous influence, keep telling all the managers to read Drucker. He told me too and that is how I started reading Drucker's classics. Drucker just "tells" what you should do. Period. The Definitive Drucker, is a biography of his ideas, and not a traditional biography. The book has brief summaries of Drucker's thinking on various management topics (innovation, customers, leadership, decision making) with examples of how his ideas have been practiced at specific organizations and comments from contemporary business leaders.

Man's Eternal Quest: Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life
I read Sri Sri Paramhamsa Yogananda's celebrated book "Autobiography of a yogi" in the month of July'08. Its a fat book and reading the book was an experience in itself. I was in a trans while I was reading the book and you feel that Sri Sri Yogananda is talking to you directly. The biography talks a lot of miracles and super-natural experiences, they all seem real and one gets drawn to Sri Sri Yogananda. This book is a collection of this talks and promises an another spiritual experience.