Travel : Kingfisher Airlines Experience

Recently I travelled from Kolkatta to Hyderabad on Kingfisher A320 Airbus. Thought I should share this experience considering the hoopla that surrounds this airline and its service.

Believe me, service in any airline in India is much better what we get in US. But airlines in India like Jet Airways and Kingfisher claim to be full service. So, I thought I should share my experience so that the chairman can take a note of things that dont work the way he thinks they are working.

Read More at hyderabad.mylifemysite.com

RBI Raises CRR and Repo : Money to get more expensive in India

This is a short post to keep you updated on the monetary situation in India... Inflation at 6.5%, CPI at 8%

RBI feels that there is too much liquidity even at this stage and is concerned about the Inflation pressures.. so, they have reacted yesterday by raising CRR [ Fed Reserve Requirement ] and Repo Rate [ Fed Funds Rate ] .. ( Equivalent Us terms have been provided as links for reference.

CRR has been raised to 6.5% [ 2 phases to be in place by April end ] while REPO to 7.75%.

So, get ready for another hike in home loan, auto loan and other loan rates. Also bank deposits will fetch a much better return than investing in many other instruments in the short term. Bank profitability and small and medium size companies will be hurt most due to this squeeze..

This may also be a chance to buy that dream house or plot at a lower price.. will update the situation once the banks announce their decisions on interest rates.

Finance & Economy

Lending Rates raised again

In a surprise move yesterday, ICICI bank has raised its lending rates further, becoming the bank with the highest rate of 13% on Fixed and 11% on floating loans. Though HDFC is lagging behind, it is also expected to move higher by 100bps or a 1% soon. PLR ( Prime Lending Rate ) the reference rate has been left untouched , keeping the existing loans at the same rates as of Feb 6th 2007. Many feel that this move by ICICI is in line with its strategy to slowing down growth in home loan portfolio. Many state owned banks have also raised interest rates for new borrowers and the rates are expected to go further up.

On deposits banks are increasing it further with SBI, ICICI offering upto 9.5% interest as of today. Senior citizens get an additional 0.25% on their deposits generating an annualized yield of 11.75% at 9.75% savings rate.

In other finance developments, Forex reserves of India increased to $190b, creating some more issues for the financeministry. Rupee is being reigned in through various measures by the government but the fact remains that rupee has appreciated against the dollar from 46.9/$ [ when I landed at hyderabad in july] to 43.9/$ [ last week ] and this may continue creating margin pressures for exporters as well as the outsourcing industry.

Disclaimer : I dont claim to be an economist or even some one with formal finance education..

Fab City, Sem India, Semicon Policy.. What does it mean for Hyderabad ?

The hype and confusion still continue around the Fab City project of Hyderabad. Everyone was banking on the announcement of semiconductor policy in India which was finally revealed on thursday. Per the new policy, manufacturing plants in SEZS can avail 20% subsidy for semiconductor plants and those outside the SEZ's can avail 25% subsidy. This subsidy will be in the form of tax concessions, interest subsidy and interest free loans for subsidizing the capital expenditure incurred in setting up the manufacturing units for the first 10 years of its existence.

25% is exactly what SemIndia [ promoter of fabcity ] has been demanding saying that it needs atleast this much to sustain. New York state has recently granted a 28% subsidy to AMD to setup its fab in the state. So, what the Indian government is offering is no more than what a US state would offer. Korea is known to offer 80% of the costs incurred and malaysia is known to offer a double deduction for R&D etc.

In fab business companies operate at a 12% Margin irrespective of the location. About 88% of the cost of a chip fab are static and do not change regardless of the location the plants are in. So, India may serve as the testing, packing destination for a while instead of being a manufacturing site. A recent semiconductor vision summit also quashed some myths about the scale of initial operation. SemIndia's goals are to acquire fab's across the world , operate them as-is and then transfer them to India. One component that is guaranteed to come to Hyderabad is a chip design entity that will design chips for DSL Modems [ is that cutting edge anymore ?.. aren't there tons of these design shops in India already ? ], but the manufacturing will actually take place near Chennai in a 3rd party plant, followed by a semindia branding and sold to BSNL.

Recent and continuous announcements about an ATMP ( Assemble Test Mark Pack ) facility being the first in Fab City doesnt indicate that too much will happen in the near future in fabcity. No doubt, the growth will be slow, but dont be fooled by the hype around the 3 billion investments since it will be a long time before that really flows in.

While I really look forward to Hyderabad becoming a Fab center/Fab city, I do not see a clear roadmap to achieving the same from semindia. SemIndia from my research is not just focussing on Hyderabad, they have plans for other locations too..

1000 Employees Fired in Hyderabad ?

I some how missed to notice the news about 1000 employees fired in Hyderabad this week. Looks like companies are finally taking background checks seriously. Due to the serious security lapses leading to data theft, companies in India are actively supporting NSR, [ National Skills Registry ] Initiative. The following quote from Nasscom shows how serious IT/ITES industry is about data security to protect the honest people working in India.

"We will leave no stone unturned to make India the “Fort Knox” of security, positioning ourselves as the gold standard for security as we are today for quality. We hope that NSR will dramatically raise the level of security and protect all the honest people working in this industry".. Kiran Karnik - Nasscom

Today I received an email from my HR to complete the NSR registration. This has become mandatory for all levels within the organization. I logged into the site and completed the online part, but did not have the time to go to the kiosk setup in our cafeteria. I am supposed to go there with a photograph and also leave my fingerprint so that NSR can continue conducting a background check. The cost of this is borne by my employer and I will be receiving an ID card as well as an ITPIN that will allow any future employer to hire me based on the credentials validated by NSR.

Hyderabad Real Estate : Bargains around the corner ?

As the year draws to a close, the realtors and agents of Hyderabad have been a nervous wreck. Recent ruckus around assigned lands and land cieling has created some major headaches for the real estate bigwigs. I am not sure if this is going to affect the political and business circles, but a lot of the investors and realtors who hold onto land and sell it for a profit may be affected.

Government passed an amendment to some land act that allows the restoration of land to the original owners or public purpose. 40 Lac acres of land may be affected by this and other land cieling acts. Realtors are fearful that a release of the survey #'s etc., will bring the prices down to bare minimum and are desperately trying to find buyers for their land. Local media sources are reporting that outskirts prices like in ghatkesar, areas beyond shamshabad have fallen by 10-15% per acre in some areas.

IMHO, bargains are here to stay for the next 2 to 3 months and this may be the right time to get in if you are able to squeeze the cash starved developers/realtors. Remember the Buy Low, Sell High that we never seem to execute well.. may be this is the time to practice that.

Please remember that I am only writing what I hear and feel, you should do your homework before you make your move. Its your money.. so, Invest wisely !!!.

Wish you all a happy and prosperous 2007.

Hyderabad and the end of another year

As 2006 comes to an end, I wanted to share some of the happenings in the past few weeks with you all.

On the realestate front, the market seems a little soft and even the big wigs are communicating the same. Since the TRS win in karimnagar, Vijayawada and Guntur seem to have a major run up in values with values now running upto 3x.

Dont believe if a developer tells you that they have sold 80% of the project and that you only have a few chances left. This month a friend of mine approached a developer and was able to negotiate him down by 800/sqft in cost of an apartment just by leveraging the fact that he can bring a volume of upto 5 units. Even if you are approaching for 1 unit, developers with large projects are desperate, leverage it as much as you can. Some of the good projects are doing well, that doesnt mean that everything should be expensive.

The past 1.5 weeks have been fun, a close friend of mine is back in Hyderabad for vacation and we enjoyed many nights with dinners at Shikaar, Far-East, Our Place, Angeethi, Zaffran, Chutneys, a few late night coffee sessions at Ohri's and daily gatherings at the coffee day & Barista.

Today we decided to go watch the NTR movie Rakhi at Hitec Theater in Madhapur. It was my first black ticket movie after return to Hyderabad. Outside it looks like an apartment building but the interior is excellent with lots of room and stadium seating, extra leg room that I have never seen in any other theater and a real DTS surround system.

Rakhi [ telugu movie, starring NTR, Illeana and Charmi ] was heavy on sister senti as the name suggests.. fans of NTR may be a little down since its not a mass movie. I think women will really enjoy it and it has a valid message asking women to fight for themselves. It could have been a little short on some scenes that were too obvious/expected, but overall it was a good movie to watch. NTR's performance was the best I ever watched and he reminded me of Sr. NTR in some scenes. One drawback was a confused director [ krishna vamsi ].. Scenes were contradicting, a strong message about women being victimized intertwined with songs that expose Illeana to the max.

Will be leveraging the next 3 days to go watch some more movies I missed including Dhoom2.

More later.. Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year !!!

Hyderabadi Traffic : A Repost of Anonymous Comments

I realized that a good post was stuck in the comments section of the blog.. So, I decided to make it public so that everyone can enjoy it.. Thanks AnoNymous

Hyderabad traffic is the world's best. So unruly and so ultra-smooth that u can even drive blindfolded and reach your destination with your hand in pocket. So disciplined and so orderly, that it would put Singapore and Switzerland in the shade.

It would instead put them in a blade packet My goodness, the crowd is so well-behaved that when u drive, they would stop and wave their hands with their hands tied behind their arse.

The great traffic cops who appear once in a bluemoon are very alert and helpful that if u ask them for a direction, they would point at the same direction u came from. Their traffic guidance is impeccable, when they wave their hands, they look like beach volleyball players.

Buffoloes make a better cop, they atleast stop the traffic to allow their breed to move across the road majestically.

Once on our roads, everybody is a law unto themselves. they care a damn and make a sham over even a small hungama. The finest of gallias and tallis follows when they let loose a volley of words from their mouth.

Paan - wah! the guys and hefty mams who swish the reddish paan do so with grace and ease that sees the juice flow at an incredible 2,000,000 mph .

The road diggers dig every place they take a fancy to. They dig and leave a creater that looks as if some meteroite from space has come and plonked itself there. The dug up space are left unattended to for decades.

That is Hyderabad - a city of nawabs

R2I Financial Data Consolidation : A Tip

The # of login/passwords that we remember in current day is mind boggling. 2 to 3 years ago I ran into this service called yodlee and I have become a fan since and have used it extensively during my stint in the US. For those of you who do not know what its all about, Yodlee allows you to link all your bank account balances, assets, investments, reward programs into one single account where I can monitor all transactions and movements.

Recently I was almost giving up on this service since my accounts are now moving to Indian Banks and Brokerages. I tried a search for ICICI and was surprised to see the support for Indian banks too. So, if you are in US and have Indian accounts or vice-versa, you should be able to link all of them together into a dashboard.

You can sign up for this in 2 ways, you can sign up on yodlee directly [ I recommend this method ] by clicking Here. Select Log into US$ account and then select register. Alternate option is to pick from one of your banks that already uses the platform [ listed here ].

They employ a # of software engineers in bangalore, so another reason to support their services I guess ;-)

Elections and Other Hyderabadi Hungama

Hyderabad has been calm and free of news for a few days now due to critical By-Elections in Bobbili and Karimnagar. Karimnagar is critical to both Congress and TRS since TRS leader termed it as a referendum on Telangana.

Interesting concepts have emerged since I have experienced elections many years ago. Cricket Kits for Youth, Money and Liquor for the poor seem to be making their way from all parties to the constituencies. Think about it, if each candidate / party is spending atleast 25 crores to win an election, how will corruption come to an end in this Great Democracy. One interesting issue in karimnagar, where there is a large Bidi making workforce seem to be the removal of the Large Skull that now adorns every bidi pack. No one seems to pay much attention to other things, at least from the news I watched, its mostly about Bidi's.

Intelligence wings seem to be a new concept in elections now a days. Each party giving out camera cell phones or handycams to their party workers to capture their opponents buying othe votes through distribution of kits and money. The idea is to capture this info about the opponents and give the video to the election commission.. I dont get it, if the party is spending so much on buying votes, cant it spend a little extra to buy the EC ?

India's GDP grew at 9.2% in the 2nd Qtr [ Jul - Sep ]. Manufacturing grew 11.9%, Construction and financing at 9.8% etc. Agriculture again showed a dismal 1.7% in growth creating concerns across India on the long term issues around Food Security for India. With the explosion in Real Estate around Hyderabad, many small time and medium sized farms have given up the production of fruits/vegetables etc. This is a repeating occurrence across the landscape near every developing city and towns.

Reliance Fresh, a retail concept of Reliance that only sells vegetables, fruits and other related items opened its doors a month ago as a pilot in Hyderabad. These stores have been a great hit and have been attracting crowds. Prices are reasonable since they eliminated the middle men who were making the buck.

Metro [ A sams club like concept ] Opened its doors in Hyderabad. I didnt get to visit this place but from what I have seen in newschannels, it looks as big as SAMS and is by membership only for small, medium and large businesses. Its kinda like a combination of SAMS, OfficeDepot etc., serving all the needs of the small and medium businesses.

Reliance and Metro are already causing an imbalance in the economy that was owned by the mom and pop shops. On the employment front, its raining jobs and people are having no trouble finding low skilled jobs in Hyderabad.

15 mins are up.. more later

Vastu Fever in Hyderabad

Vastu, the fengshui like concept of India, which was intended to be an architectural science is driving all hyderabadi's including builders crazy.. Hyderabadi's are now so hooked into this concept that they cannot do anything without thinking about it. Let it be the direction / location of your home/bedroom/kitchen etc., or when it comes to picking a location for business or some folks are even applying it to their office spaces..

In the name of health and prosperity, folks are modifying many aspects of homes and some folks have even gone the extra mile to tear it all up and rebuild in the same space.

Recently while flipping through channels, found an interesting debate about this concept of vasthu. Participants were Builders, vasthu experts and the NGO jana vignana vedika [ peoples knowledge forum ] were fighting over whether this works or not. I did not hear anyone put forward any convincing arguments and the discussion went in many directions with no conclusive answer [ as expected ]

Builders : They were worried that vasthu was not standardized. They gave instances of where they had to make major modifications to projects just because some one announced that their project had a defect ( dosham ). One builder said.. "We dont care if vasthu works or not, we just want a standard". Another builder complained that he is unable to build enough east facing houses and it would just be impossible to make all houses face east.

Vasthu Experts claim that it works. For every question they had a story about how some one lost money or health or dear ones because of bad vasthu. Thats serious stuff, I think the host himself was so scared that he didnt ask them too many questions. They challenged the NGO folks to live in a house that was against vasthu for 3 years for a cash prize.

JVV : Jana vignan vedika claims that vasthu has nothing to do with science and its just an interior decoration philosophy like feng-shui. They have even thrown a challenge for some one to prove vasthu along with a cash prize.

Some fun facts I gathered from this program w.. India's vasthu is completely reverse of what it should be [ and silly me, I moved to India ;-) ] .. Building on hills is not allowed per vasthu, but still folks living on these hills [ banjara and jubilee ] are making money..

All said and done, I dont know if this works or not, but as a smart investor its important to get something that meets the basic principles, otherwise it may be a challenge to resell it.

Oh btw, my office is finally ready and I moved in last week... So far I did not even think about which way it was facing.. should I ?... what do you think ?...

Hyderabadi Khabar

End Of Year activities including contract renewals are keeping me busy at work. Apologies for a late post..

N'uf about me, let me blabber about a few of my observations.. Most of the observations are critical of something or the other.. believe me, it makes living in Hyderabad a lot more fun.. whats life without some <>

• Comedy show .. Was at a party recently where Ash Chandler was performing.. His performance was ok but.. the jokes seem to be a straight out of the Comedy Central shows that I was glued to during my days in the US. Not sure what he was trying to do, but first he tried to be Seinfeld, then he tried to be a mimicry artist [ trying to impersonate Clinton and Bush ;( ], and in between he tried a few Sinatra and James Brown tunes. Overall I thought he was a better Sinatra impersonator than a comedian.
• Event management... seems to be the in-thing now. Every birthday party, engagement and misc event is being organized by EM's. They are very professional, young and hip crowd, as we have seen in movies before. The bigger challenge is that they keep walking around the event with headsets and bluetooth devices as if they are some sort of secret service entourage for the president of the US. I attended a recent event at HyderMahal in Grand Kakatiya and the EM's were going beyond what would be considered acceptable behaviour in the party. On the same note.. tollywood actors are now entering this business with the recent one being Raja.
• Democrats and Republicans should outsource their strategy to Hyderabad. Politics here are at their best[ pun intended ]. TDP tries to find fault with everything that the cong govt does and then the cong govt some how finds a document or news clipping with naidu claiming credit for the same in the past... What do you do when your opponent tries to nail you .. just add their assets into the same investigation.. TDP recently got the high court to investigate land fraud around ORR [ Cong's project ], .. Next day Cong govt included the land around Airport [ TDP project ] to the same dispute. Do you think TDP or Cong will pursue this any further ?
• Real Estate is sizzling and the values continue to soar. I have recently seen residential areas in jubilee hills sell for 80k a yard and some for as low as 38k per yard [ Not sure why such a huge difference.. may be one of them is an NRI and the other a localite or it could be the vaastu factor ].
• Commercial properties are hot now a days.. recently saw an ad for a commercial space in madhapur, nothing great but a 1500 sqft floor in the 2nd floor of a building. It was sold in 2 hours for 90 Laks.. Buyers were rushing in to give an advance to a shocked owner and... Guess what, the same owner listed the 3rd floor of the same sqft for a whopping 1.1 Cr and that sold within a day. I still cannot understand why the 3rd floor would sell for a premium..
  
• Malaysian township, a joint venture of APHB and IJM of malaysia booked at around Rs 1000/sqft almost 2 years ago was being hyped a lot. So a friend and I decided to take a look inside and this turned out to be the "Height of Optimism" of Hyderabadi's. This is just a glorified KPHB built as high rises, the quality, finish and layouts of the apartments and duplexes were so bad that we didnt have to bother much about anything else. This one is now going for anywhere between 2500 to 3000 and I would recommend you buy somewhere else instead of this one. You can get a decent construction quality at Gacchibowli for the same amount.
  
• Kitty parties .. This was my first run-in with this concept... Some how I was always under this impression that its some sort of a ladies party with an "adult" angle. [ sorry ladies, I really thought that it was.. based on the word kitty ;-) ]. Now its clear, Have to thank my buddy who explained what it ... Kitty only refers to a pooling of contributions and nothing else. Now that I know its like any other do's you would attend in Hyderabad, I look forward to attending some more of these.
  
• Stock Market.. I have heard it all .. Buy Low Sell High ? .. Look at the long term ? . Well I got bit once during the dot com bust.. so let me end it there .. ;-)

BTW, I am itching to write about the VAASTU [ feng-shui like concept] fever/craze in this city.. people are going nuts about it, but its getting late.. and my 15 minutes are up.. see you next week

90 days and Loving it. Hyderabad Rocks

One more month has passed since my 60 day update.. . Things are still looking excellent and the recent festivals added to the +ve thoughts about our move so far. With diwali and dusshera occuring very close to each other, we had ample opportunities to visit family, relax and enjoy the good times in Hyderabad.

Finally my son is in ukg / school and he seems to like the environment a lot. Everyone from the director of the school to his class teachers were flexible and willing to work with us, to get him accustomed to the new environment. We showed up 1.5 months later than our scheduled date and paid the term fee ( Rs 7500 ) for the current term. The fee covers everything including his meals and supplies. Uniforms and Bus are separate... due to the proximity of the school to our house, we decided to drop/pick him by car for the first month.

Boy-o-Boy, kids from my experience so far do nothing but watch TV/Cartoons and Movies. I am trying to get my kid outdoors, couple of my team members gave me references to a cricket/tennis training facility, another one gave me a reference to a taekwondo teacher who comes home to teach kids, etc. I am going for Cricket primarily to get him used to a team sport and tennis for the physical activity. Will update more on these once I finalize on them.

Started driving on my own during night and evening hours. I was driving in hyderabad before I came to the US, but it feels very different now since the traffic in hyderabad is in the worst shape I have ever seen. You should have seen the traffic between Road #3 and Punjagutta on the day before diwali weekend. Took me almost 1 hour, to get from jubilee checkpost to punjagutta center.

I am still lagging in taking care of myself on the Physical Fitness front, but I decided to make the best out of the situation by taking the stairs at the office. Some of my team look at me like I am crazy, but I plan to continue doing this as much as I can.

My pet projects are finally on track and I am doing my best to spend atleast 1 to 2 hours a week on them. Currently looking for some junior programmers that can help me with the basic work... heard that I can hire some good parttime programming help for less than Rs 5000, which should solve some major bottlenecks for me.

AP/Hyderabad Barbers and Dhobi's contribute more to GDP than Software

Interesting article in DC today, not sure if the facts are being shown in the right light, but was an interesting read ;-).

Central Statistical Orgn of India has calculated the addition to AP State GDP due to its IT sector ( may be non-bpo?) as 1490 crores. At the same time, their survey indicates that dhobi's contributed 526 crores and barbers contributed 519 crores and tailors contributed 447 crores equating to a total of 1492 crores.

The positive aspect is that service sector is growing along with the rising income levels, but I am disheartened by the fact that we are only generating 300 Million USD in the state in IT services.

Utilities, Telephone and Other Bills in Hyderabad

Typically 10 - 15 th of the month is where I receive all my Bills. So far, I have not seen any shockers but here is a summary of my observations. Many companies including mine, have eseva centers within their campus where you can pay off the bills. My driver can also handle this for me, but I decided to visit and experience the eseva facilities this week. Will update on that later...

Electric Bill : The bill was for 242 units, for Rs 752 including all taxes. The pricing for power in hyderabad varies based on tier/slab. 3.05 per unit upto 200 units, 4.75 upto 300 units, 5.50 or above 300 units. This amount is still reasonable considering we have been using our Fridge, TV's, Laptops, Lights, Fans etc along with partial usage of A/C's for the last 20 days.

Gas : Cooking gas seems to be very scarce now a days with the govt subsidized domestic cylinder going for Rs 300 and equivalent commercial cylinder going for Rs 600. So, most restaurants, hotels are using domestic cylinders causing a shortage in the market, also a rush towards installing lpg kits in auto's and taxi's is inflating the demand for cooking gas. Most people seem to have more than 2 or 3 connections and rotate their cylinders without ever running out of gas. I have not applied for a connection of my own yet, we are just using the cylinders, regulators provided by friends and family. I will soon be joining one of the groups by adding a few empty cylinders of my own to the pool.

Milk : Plenty of supply around, many diaries that have sprung up in AP including Heritage, Vijaya, Mother Diary etc., supply a lot of options in Fat Content etc. A near by store delivers our milk by 7:30 every morning. Toned milk costs Rs 16 per litre while whole milk costs Rs 20 per litre. Expect to spend around Rs 700 with delivery charges etc. There are other options from local farmers etc., for now..we are sticking to the pasteurized options until our kids get used to the change.

Internet : Expect to spend around Rs 1000. Most companies reimburse this expense unless you work for someone that doesnt put you on a leash via a Laptop. I am yet to figure out the best mix of connections to have. I have SIFY broadband at home but its been very unreliable [ recently some one cut off and stole 1/2KM of cable in my neighborhood ]. I am testing a tata indicom wireless broadband card for backup and it is working fine for browsing/email/telnet etc.

Maid/Driver etc. : Looking for a reliable driver and maid ?, good luck!!!.. Driver rates vary from 3 to 4.5K depending on whether they are also acting as your errand runners or not. Some drivers refuse to do any household chores/errands etc., so ask this question ahead of time. Maid's and Maid Services are available between 1 to 2K, but finding a reliable one is the toughest task of all.

Non-Telugu speaking junta arriving in hyderabad will realize that hiring a hindi speaking driver/maid will be the biggest challenge. A colleague of mine is paying 5K to his driver just to keep a Hindi speaking driver/errand guy around during his 1st year in Hyderabad. He says everyone including the watchman cannot speak Hindi and its becoming a challenge for his family. The local hindi speaking labor has moved into professional jobs with Security, Construction, Transportation companies and the new arrivals are from coastal AP and have very limited/zero Hindi... may not be a bad idea to buy "Learn telugu in 30 days" before you arrive.

15 mins are up.. more next time..

Hyderabad Fab City In Trouble ?

Deccan Chronicle reports that state govt has decided to cut the SemIndia Fab city role to 75 acres from a proposed 5000 acre operation. Mr Agarwal of SemIndia was supposed to have his initial plant operational by June 2007 and all indications are that he has not started any work yet. Govt seems to have decided that it will give the remaining land on lease to any semiconductor company that wants to setup here.

Though all indications are that this will be revived through a renewed effort of bringing in small players into this project, the recent news for Hyderabad has not been very good in the manufacturing sector. Dell and other companies that were being invited by this great city have decided to move to Chennai. Chennai is slowly gaining momemtum to be the biggest manufacturing base in south india..

Dusshera, Diwali, Ramadan.. Party Time !!!

Dusshera and Diwali are now fully commercialized in Hyderabad .. Just 1 week before dusshera, special offers on everything from appliances to groceries to clothes have been relesed. I have seen advertisements for special offers on purchase of groceries too.. We are fully hooked into the western sale culture here..

With Dusshera, Ramadan and Diwali around the corner, companies are organizing many [ or should I say too many..] parties to let their employees have fun during this time. Many companies have planned major concerts, parties etc., for diwali and the element of surprise and the boasting rights go to the one with the coolest/hippest/biggest rock/other band performing at their party. For Dusshera dandia is in full swing along with dance competitions, informal and formal parties, along with a medley of sweet and savoury offerings on every floor.

I had the honor of judging a dance competition, and I was amazed at the energy and the enthu displayed by the young members of the teams. Most participation is from the new kids out of college under the direction of their senior members and these activities work as the best team building excercises. Competition was at a business-unit level and the cheering squads were in full force with their customized cheers etc. Did I mention that there was also a cheering award and it went to the loudest team [ not much has changed with the hyderabadi culture of enjoying things to the fullest along with the rowdiness of the crowd... poor MC was having a tough time controlling them ... I hope you all remember the cheers from college days in hyderabad...things like jeete ga bhai jeetega.. ; vittala vittala..; and so on and so on.... ].

I am a pain to deal with, when it comes to appreciating art or dance, but this one was really cool.. nothing traditional, nothing too exotic or western, it was a medley of everything with beats that I never expected could be integrated so well. Each team had 6 different song and dance mix with custom music mixes integrated as one show. Makeup, Music, Crowd everything made it worthwhile and I promised myself that I am never gonna miss these events in the future. The networking and socializing opportunities at these gatherings are endless. The competition was followed by dandia night, and after guzzling some extra calories through sweets, hyderabadi samosa's and sweet lassi etc., we headed down for a nicotine fix.

Other Updates :

Last week we had a party at Touch, to celebrate some wins/growth of the organization. Party started 1 hour late but quickly gained momemtum. I need to get better at this time sense thing in India.. if the invite is for 7:00 .. dont even think of going there until 7:45 - 8:00. Touch had great ambience, simple interiors that give you a feel of an wide open space but at the same time providing the space to relax and connect with the party goers. Excellent Drink offerings and Staff, but food was average [ may be it has something to do with the menu picked by our event organizer ] .. Dessert Bar as always was my favourite.. I am not sure what I ate, but I had multiple servings.. Drinks, DJ and Music made up for the zing missing on in the food buffet.


Another team of mine had their quarterly bash at Runway-9 or something like that, I couldnt make it due to a customer meeting, but will update you the next time I am there.


Haleem is the speciality of this season in Hyderabad. Yesterday I was reading that Hyderabadi Haleem is now being exported to the Mid East and is a crowd favourite in most restaurants there. To enjoy/expose this delicacy of Hyderabad to my team, I am organizing a haleem party at Pista House near Hitec City.. [ depending on # of confirmed attendees, we may either go there or have them deliver it to our break area] this restaurant is supposed to be one of the best ones for haleem in Hyderabad and also has an outlet closer to the Hitec city area. We are heading there in 2 weeks .. and will update you soon about that.

Next week I am headed to a southern state for an offsite workout/gathering of leadership teams and may not be updating the blog... Until then...
Happy Birthday T and Happy Dusshera to all of you

Broadband, Sundae, Real Estate, Telephones, Banking : An Update from Hyderabad

Beam Broadband : I ordered this service atmost 4 weeks ago and am yet to see any movement on this. The company called me a couple of times to schedule installation and never showed up. Hope they will show up some day and now that I have my primary broadband through sify, I am not too worried about them.

Sify Broadband : This is my primary provider now and the service has been excellent so far. Had 2 issues and 1 issue was fixed within 30 mins. The 2nd issue was related to bad weather and looks like a tree fell and severed the fiber connectivity to our neighborhood. This took them almost 18 hours to fix and my vonage service was down during this time. The best part is that SIFY people were courteous enough to call me and update me about the progress and when the service was up.

Network Services : Vonage works well on SIFY if the internet is up, VPN, remote desktoping to US from india are working very well. while there is some lag from home, its no different than remote desktop from the office facilities in Hyderabad.

Sundae/Desserts : Based on my previous story about Ohri's Hyderabad and its sundae's, my wife tried the awful awful sundae as a Lunch Replacement.. dont ask me that story ;-).. She says its "awesome".. so, go try it and email me your feedback. We also tried various others with names like lovers paradise, tall lady and lewinsky... this has now turned into a regular session to unwind after a busy day of work.

Telephones : Though the providers have matured over the last couple of years, they still keep adding subscribers without additional capacity. One other challenge you will face is that the roaming agreements are not that good so, you may loose connectivity when you are far away from the city.

Banking : ICICI bank account is fully operational after a long struggle to prove my address, and I am happy with the netbanking services they provide. Even bill pay, trading and other services are available along with SMS notifications for account activities like checks/withdrawals etc. I applied for a Demat+Trading account and waiting for that to be activated. These services require tons of paperwork and have extensive beauracracy tied to them. Banking institutions tried the mcdonald's "dumb it down " principle .. so, no one wants to think beyond the box.. an live example was a friend of mine who tried to cash 2 checks at ICICI. The teller asked him to get 2 separate tokens to cash these checks. The first token flashed on counter #X, and his second token flashed on counter #Y within 30 seconds of the first... He is yet to figure out a way to use 2 counters at once... This is normally how the indian companies deal with operations and customer service..

When i run into folks like Beam Cable Installer, ICICI bank and the many other service providers that never keep their word and ask for wierd documentation..., I remind myself that I have come here with very low expectations ... and that helps me stay cool.... I see the issues, laugh and move on.. Life has been entertaining and relaxed in Hyderabad so far.

Weekend Update : Gacchi Bowli, Hitec City, Kondapur, KPHB

Happy Birthday P!!! ... Hope all my blog readers had a good long weekend. Since the request has been for regular updates, I intend to use the next 30 mins to scribble about the past weekend.

2007 Business planning sessions kept me busy for days and it all ended with a gathering followed by a great dinner and drinks at the recently opened Novotel hotel in Hitex ( HICC ). Visits to such places reminds me of how much Naidu has done for Hyderabad, not sure if these are his ideas, but the architecture and the plans of Hitex and the supporting hotel which is now managed by accor group is breath taking.

Novotel, the hotel in HICC had the best service staff and the management I have seen in Hyderabad. The lobby was well designed with lots of open space and natural light, and leads into a pool area, that is tastefully landscaped using the natural rocks, lake and palm trees. This open area was used for our dinner, and it had a bar, buffet, lots of tables and seating space.. at the end of the evening every one was so impressed by this space that they were already planning for their team's next Off-Site meet here. As usual the menu included Bar+Starters, followed by a elaborate spread of veg and non-veg food and desserts.

Saturday, I took some time off to meet with old professional acquaintances followed by a lunch with my buddy's father-in-law at Chutneys. Talk about a simple andhra food concept that still attracts thousands of folks every day. This was my 4th visit to chutneys since I arrived in India and at 3 after noon, there was still a 20-30 min wait. Had my favourite item Babai Idly and also tried the Rava Onion Masala Dosa on the recommendation of my lunch partner. Umm. Umm.. [ Some one send me a clip of rachel ray saying that please.. I almost forgot how she does that ]

Saturday evening, I visited the chikkadpalli gang that I had last visited in 1992. As i drove into the area, it was pretty clear that the city of hyderabad around RTC X roads and Himayathnagar has not changed much except the road widening. Every gully had their own Colorful Ganesh Pandal with atleast 6 to 10 feet ganesha's. Spent a lot of time with some close friends followed by a dinner at Blue Fox and headed back home.

On the way back, I noticed some unusual activity in the ntr gardens area and instructed my driver to turn the car in that direction. Many ganesha's from the city were arriving for nimajjan.. which confirms that HC order is not being implemented. Teen-Maar, Nagin/Snake-Dances, People doused in gulaal, Convoys of kids bringing their own little ganesha's were a common sight. The area was was very well lit and was under intense watch by the police. One observation I made is that Desi blood mixed with alcohol leads to nothing but the nagin/snake dance.. half of the crowd was drunk and they were in the same mode I used to be in my favourite basement parties of DC... "T Dude", I have seen some cool steps that you would have enjoyed which were a fusion of Teen-Maar and Snake Dance.

Moving on to Sunday ..

Please get me some red and green shirts, Deccan Chronicle astrologer says "Red and Green is the winning combination for virgo's for the coming year.. Red will help with health.. and Green helps with avoiding any obstacles" That should give you an idea of how much time I spent in my car going from one development to the other to get a feel for the Hyderabad Hitec Area. This is the first time, i have completely read the DC hyderabad edition including Tarot Power, Jessica Simpson's cosmetic surgery, Beyonce's advice to women about owning atleast one sexy dress, and some Harry buying a wedding ring for his girl friend lindsay.. totally clueless on who lindsay is and why she made it to DC.

Woke up very late and decided to head to the Gacchibowli area to look at all the things that folks keep referring to in every discussion. We drove on KPHB on the Hitec-Kukatpalli road. Most of the land here is empty with the first half km having great roads and then ends up in normal Hyderabadi roads. They have even constructed a Metro Railway station here, but I thought that it was not too appealing due to its distance from the center of Hitec City. [ The parking lot of this railway station had tons of cars making rounds without any purpose, little did we realize that it was being used by car driving schools until we got closer ]. Then we hit KPHB Phase 4, which looked like it was gonna fall in the next thunderstorm followed by Rain Tree which is a huge complex of new apartments and a mega mall. All you JNTU'ers, remember the rocks behind your college?, thats what has transformed into this bustling township. Its good area, but nothing impressive for the prices its commanding, there was too much undeveloped land around that could be built up by other builders.

Headed to the popular whitefields area. Every one in town told me how cool this area was and I found it to be an impressive concrete jungle with very less open space. Apartments here are going between 3000 to 4000 per sqft. It reminds of Gandhi Nagar area with 40 feet main roads.. The advantage with this area is that you are surrounded by neighbors who are IT professionals and are like minded. Take a left after satyam and just in front of Jayabheri's silicon towers and this is considered to be the whitefields area. Dont get me wrong, the the layout is good, but it looks like every developer is building 100 flats in less than 0.5 acre lot. Couple of areas called vasant valley, alluri something[ it started with alluri ] were good but they were still stuck in between high rises. My favourite story of the day a sales pitch I had .. Salesman pitched on how good the balconies are, what they forget to mention is that the land that these balconies open up belongs to another company which may build another complex or what ever they want.. but it doesnt seem to affect sales, people are banking on the doubling of prices in another year... Good Luck !!!!

Had lunch at Wangs Kitchen, where I ordered Pad Thai and Pepsi, taste was in line with my expectations but it was not made with flat rice noodles, instead it was made with regular chinese noodles. The portion was huge for Rs 100, and I could only eat half of it. Spent the rest of the day visiting Gopanpally Area, Kondapur, Aparna Construction's Orchids [ Excellent layout next to Hitex, but they should have left a little more space between houses.. ]. Aparna constructions is considered to be a very good builder that doesnt cut corners in the construction quality, so they always command a premium in their layouts.

Overall, construction is in full swing in this area. While I drove past the CA and microsoft campus, I noticed that L&T crews all had their hard hats with access to First Aid facilities onsite etc.. May be the MNC's are requiring indian construction companies to get strict on safety with all the construction related deaths that happen in town.

Time to relax and get ready for my container which I heard is in Bombay and has not arrived in Hyderabad yet...

Updates :
Its been 2 weeks since I ordered beam cable internet, the guy is no where to be found.. my neighbor quipped.. "dont worry.. he will show up when he is ready..".. Next day an interesting discussion at lunch led into ways to identify a bad service provider.. "Make it a point to visit the office before you sign up... if you see broken glass or windows .. you know what to do "


Hey, it only took me 25 mins to write all this ?.. Not bad, will try to be more chatty next time.. Ciao

Persistence and Resilience : What makes an Indian Dreamer Stand Out

Persist : to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning
Resilience : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

As always, last week we were having a fuzool[wasteful] discussion about things to do, sitting in a friends balcony far away from hyderabad.. as usual, we were out smarting each other on which things would work and which wouldnt... u know how we normally used to do it in the US... his better half chimed in.. what you guys lack is the "Resilience and the Persistence" that Indian dreamers have. They are willing to take it on the chin and try it again and again and again.. we have always given up too easily.... She was right, the past few weeks have shown me the clear difference between a Non Resilient Indian ( NRI) and an Indian Dreamer / Doer.

Call it laziness or trepidation, I got too hooked into the prescribed Rat race that we learn to run in the US. Just as the credit card companies wanted, I learned to be happy with a fat paycheck, house, cars, bonus, 401K's, mutual funds, tax savings.. and all the BS that never get you where you want to be. As I look back.. I see how easily a bunch of us gave up on a few great opportunities we had in hand, including websites, consulting business as well as training business. The same opportunity if provided to an Indian dreamer would have been a multi million dollar enterprise now.

This week I had a chance to meet a partner of a Private Equity firm and he referred to the untapped potential of india and how PE funds are actively circling india with millions of dollars to fund and bring out the best from any corner of India. He was talking about how the future is all in the Indian SME's [ Small to mid size enterprises .. referred to as sme's in india ] which are similar to the proverbial garage in silicon valley.

His take was that Technology was already overvalued in India and that they are primarily focussing on Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail Supply Chain that would take India to the next level in the global economy. Some stories he mentioned about the work coming out of 1 and 2 bed room apt's in Hyderabad, Bangalore and some unknown remote towns were amazing, the heroes were high school drop outs and particularly PHD's that still kept tutoring in the evenings to make their ends meet. Angels and PE's are now coming along and providing these folks the labs and money to make a comfortable living. Of course, his firm has a financial interest in it, but atleast the Indian Dreams are getting a chance to see the light of the day...

Now when I think back about the Dog Grooming Service in Jim Carrey's Dumb and Dumber, may be it was not a bad idea after all ..