Good-Bye 2008 and Welcome 2009

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Wo..2008 has been eventful year. So much had happened. But Ofcourse, most of all this year will be remembered for credit crisis and market crush. Everyone knew 'What goes up must come down' but most people thought 'its not now'. 2008 has thought us many lessons and made us realize what we already knew: Our way of life will evolve, expand & shrink with things we do and with things around us.

Hope we would make good use of this experience in 2009 and beyond.

Personally, it’s been a good year for me. 

2008 started with new a job and yet another relocation,

Travelled few far corners of earth,

Stepped onto few uncharted experience,

My investment risk profile has been very high,

I lost few and I gained more,

Hosting Parents and took them around places in Euro-Zone(highlight of my year),

Crossed 3decade of 'joy-ride'/life with no(almost) regrets,

So I do believe, Iam better-off from the year before.

In 2009 I hope: to be patient, risk control, body(/health) control, newness out of new beginning.

Its time of peaceful prayer,

for love, law, labour, loss & gains.

these are the wishes of the coming reign.

to all those who I pissed off: Iam sorry but I had my reasons.

to all those who pissed me off: you are forgiven, but we won't be friends anymore.

to all those who gave a helping hand: thank you, I owe to pass-it-forward.

to all those disappointments I caused: never meant to hurt.

to all those who disappointed me: thank you for making me re-evaluate my expectations.

to all those who owe me money: now is always a good time to give it back. J

be kind and be fair

be patient and be prepared

be nice and be wise

Why not a Political Startup but how?

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Very interesting post on Venturewood -> Why Not A Political Startup.

My comments:

One more supporting hand for the idea. I was reading somewhere that--its time for silent majority act & react (middle-class and non-farmers,..) but how,why,what,who,where,.. is the question(s)!

Few suggestions/questions/cautions:

• Objectives/Goals & strategy:
• We need to create detailed case-study/white-paper why & how it works? I think, its too simple to say- politicians are corrupt and given a choice majority of people would elect non-corrupt individual ignoring other facts & reality. If somehow we can create franchises to built and grow informed citizen with a hope that will translate into best judgement then I think, we might be historically wrong in thinking that way.
• if motivation is power and/or money then we fall into same old crap(may be in different form). To me, its much better for stupid people with bad ideas to run the country then by smart people with bad ideas.
• Organisation has its own culture & objectives and people sign-up to be part of it with their own objectives (and might have different culture believes). how do we reconcile that?
• Politics is very wide spectrum and our idea can be killed very soon since historically market space has been smart enough to manage new-comers, monopoly. M&A will soon change objective & implementation strategy but better returns.
• We will need Gandhi like many individuals (or Steve jobs like popular figure with to-die fan-base)/market leaders/experts for every single issues (education, poverty, political reforms,…). how to create or attract them? align them to overall objective?
• Implementation:
• Once basic principals & ideals are defined (with do’s & don’t’s, what/how to support and not to, based on what!,..). then we will need to gather like-minded people(like TED conference) to brainstorm implementation strategy which would very different for each region/communities/demographic.
• We will then need to gather support/fan-base(brand loyalty) --(like obama's campaign organization) by creating awareness, media strategy, market campaign, website, mailing list, web2.0 communities..to create fan based and NGOs networks to participant to show the presence over time without losing site of initial objectives/goals and implementation strategy.
• Then how do we avoid been (liberal)biased and not to ignore national ground-reality & sentiments? because most people how sign-up would be from similar walk-off life(lack of diversity) thus branding would become problem.
• Returns/Business mobel/Funding:
• Any such venture needs investment and any investor wants to cash-out sometime. How we do that here?
• Bussiness model for ROI and raise captial? via internet among middle-class will be challenging as you can see eCommerce in india has be mostly advertising driven not subscription driven. (so obama like strategy might not work well)
  
• its very easy to keep discussing without much impact in market space (thus cause investors unrest and wanting to cash-out sooner with any other possibilities). how to avoid that? and stay invested. 

List will grow without any clear agreeable answers for most of it but certainly its worth discussing with more specific & details. 

Mumbai Tragedy on Jon Stewart's DailyShow

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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Bankrupt Ideology pursuing a Bankrupt strategy..and we sure cannot let these terrorist MoFos control our lives.

Reaction expected, but how to!

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With end of Mumbai terror crisis, now media/people/politicians all are debating about what action should India take? It’s clear the terrorist are Pakistani origin. As I think about it with my little knowledge on foreign policy- India can react:

• like USA- the black-and-white view and go to war with Pakistan. Is it a smart move? I don't think so. It’s almost clear & most experts would agree that the Pakistan government has (atleast no longer) no control-over all of its territory and these militant groups. Also history doesn't support Pakistan’s government when they say 'not-us' & 'we-stand-with-you-and-support-you' but I do believe & trust majority of Pakistani people even those who disagree with US's war-on-terror, has favourable opinion for good relationship with India. So I don't believe both in short-term and long-term this(war with Pakistan) would be any good and would solve nothing if not make it even worse. However I understand, this seems to be popular taking-point now. 

• like Israel- on back of Munich attack Mossad planned & acted out series of target killings of terrorist involved. Its a smart move. should india do something similar? may be (assuming such an act is possible by RAW in short-to-mid-term). But I would be ashamed of such actions from land of Gandhi. Our morals and character are tested not in good time but in bad. 

• like India, as in the past- Continue to do what we do but only just this time, be more smart and learn from mistakes to handle pre-and-post situations. Work for better relationship with Pakistan with increased economic/trade links, intelligent links, supports them to clean-up their politically/ISI/military structures. This is in best interest of both the countries. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s very easy to forget progress made in recent times between India & Pakistan as we live in 24news cycle which doesn't allow us to think. 

And as Gandhi said, 'Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding' and 'Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up'. I sincerly hope common-sense & cool minds in India government will prevail during these testing times.

And Word to Pakistani’s friends/government/media(if anyone listening)-- It doesn't help when all evidence points attacker are from Pakistan, rejecting it only shows age-old 'not-me' response. Instead work with us and be more critical about your decision making as well & accept your shot comings..Please.

Non-violence is the article of faith, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.  And its not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. -- Mohandas Gandhi