Robbery by Consent

Along with millions of other users, I too got an SMS from the merry folks at Airtel (my cellphone service provider) dated 30th Dec 09 at 9:35AM. Here is the content:

"Kindly note your discounted SMS tariff will not be applicable on 31 Dec 09 & 1 Jan 10. All SMS sent on this day will be charged @ Rs.1 as per the normal tariff."

In any case, the situation in the state as it is with all the bandhs and mild disorderly behavior, I am betting there won't be a large number of "Happy New Year!" greetings flying around. Though I can't say the same for the rest of the country who'll have to pay the whole rupee for each message.

Update, Jan 2nd 2010:

2 Billion SMSes sent on New Year's eve in India. The service operators made a killing, put together they made around Rs. 1.5 billion with the varying tariffs across plans and geographies. Seems some Airtel packages offered messaging @1 paise (Rs. o.o1) per SMS. By that measure they must have my profile up their in the "sucker" category who would be happy to pay a premium of a 100 times for the exact same service.

In the spirit of consumer awareness, I therefore was eagerly awaiting the "Mobile Number Portability" scheme that the telecom regulatory authority was to introduce on January 1st across the various service providers at a nominal rate of Rs. 19 . The cartel though had the last laughs by successfully delayed its implementation yet again, this time by atleast 6 months.

Survival as Victory

Reading a bit of history this week, I came across an amazing story. Very apt for a big budget movie adaptation in the genre of Lawrence of Arabia. It is the story of the half-dead Dr. William Brydon of the British East India Company who in 1842 was the sole survivor out of a party of 16,000 during the 140 km retreat east from Kabul to Jalalabad in the first Anglo-Afghan war. There is war, intrigue, history, tragedy, endurance and in the end there is survival.

Here is Dr. William Brydon's first person account from the archives of The Times newspaper dated 7th April 1842 of the happenings of that week in January. The randomness of survival in such circumstances is a striking feature of his matter-of-fact report. A painting by Elizabeth Butler - "The Remnants of an Army" furthered the legend of the event and that of Afghanistan in those times (below).


For the nearest cinematic experience of similar times and occurrences, watch "The Man Who Would Be King" which is based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling who surely must have been aware of this tale.

More Info:

1. http://www.theestimate.com/public/100501_dossier.html
2. http://afpakwar.com/blog/2009/09/16/pictures-of-war-can-carry-more-moral-meaning-than-thousands-of-words/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brydon
4. http://www.britishbattles.com/first-afghan-war/kabul-gandamak.htm
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbreakable_%28film%29

Natural Ability ++

Tiger Woods has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. A carefully crafted sculpture has been turned into an effigy. One of the less intriguing dirt dug-up on the golfer is the revelation that he might have undergone a "blood spinning" procedure. The procedure itself is not banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) as it is claimed only to help athletes recover from injuries, but the question is if it constitute an unfair advantage.

In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics, the story of Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter came to light. Although he couldn't qualifying for the event, even if he did he might not have gone to China. That's because Oscar doesn't have feet of flesh and bone, he has carbon fibre prosthetic ones. IAAF, the governing body for athletics did not know what to do in the case and were only spared by the fact that he marginally missed qualifying for his national team.

IAAF's predicament is understandable. It was a situation where for once inferences are stumped by completely alien circumstances. It is interesting how we condemn authority figures (in this case, IAAF) for holding hypocritical views while our own views in private are no different. No one in all honesty expects a man with artificial legs to be a match for the real deal.

The real problem is with the notion of fairness. Boxing divides fighters into weight categories to adhere to the principle of a "fair fight" but some boxers have a greater natural reach than others. As technology improves while we hold on to our archaic egalitarian ideas, the future in sports could see procedures to lengthen limbs or reduce pain. Already there are stories of baseball batters getting eye surgeries done to enhance vision.

The Amateur Sports Movement with its "sports for the sake of sports" has long since reached its demise. Now as professional sports merges with entertainment the rewards for performance come from outside the sporting fraternity. Such rewards sometimes may not honor the same qualities that sporting peers approve of. Therefore for the sake of the viewing public (and their money) sportstars of tomorrow will have to botox their abilities even if it shames them.

More Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/16/tiger-woods-dr-anthony-galea
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/sports/othersports/15runner.html
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19971024/REVIEWS/710240303/1023
http://www.ossur.com/?PageID=13462
http://www.time.com/time/reports/heroes/foot.html

Decapitated State

Andhra Pradesh

Of the happenings in the state in the last few days, there are so many opinions that anything I say would be wrong. Instead here is a video that might act as a metaphor for these times.




Reality Check: This is just a reminder of what India is under its skin.

Related Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8406456.stm

HR Nightmare: Ninja Assassin

In the urge to get a fill of movie violence, I made my way to "Ninja Assassin" recently. Blood hit the ceiling and walls regularly and the body count was high. Any semblance of logical coherence was neither expected nor delivered. But surprisingly there is a story (all be it unintentional) hiding behind all the limb-dicing and blood letting. And this story finds resonance with the most far removed profession from martial arts i.e. - human resource.

Premise
Raizo the protagonist and the namesake of the title, is a member of one of the deadly and ancient clan of Ninjas. Ninjas are the traditional Japanese professional assassins-for-hire. The whole of the story of "Ninja Assassins" is encompassed by the two words in the title - Raizo turns on the clan and starts assassinating Ninjas. Very straight-forward and no nonsense.

The HR interpretation
First, Raizo was kidnapped and brainwashed as a young child by the Ninja clan. As a strategy the kidnap and indoctrination method of external recruitment is extremely effective, the armed forces come very close to this in their cadet system although they don't exactly kidnap children. The possibility of dissent is almost eliminated and hence there is no challenge to the organization and methods until Raizo's rejection of his surrogate community in the film shows up the importance of self-identity for an employee. Also the lack of internal recruitment (like say - heredity) means that the ninjas deal with an unknown commodity each time they recruit.

Second, the training through discipline and punishment keep the trainee ninjas on a tight leash. We see that Raizo's love interest, Kiriko is not convinced by the direction of the training and rebels leading to her execution. After that Raizo develops a grudge against the system which inevitably leads to his departure from their fold. The lesson here is to not alienate trainees through unreasonable practices.

Next, the incentives and perks should be designed to provide motivation to the employees. The ninjas demand of 100 pounds of gold per hit should normally be a great inducement for them. But the movie shows the ninjas leading an almost ascetic life in the mountains where wealth seems to be of little consequence to their personalities. Although Raizo is informed time and again that he would take over from his master, the prospect of promotion is not a resource retaining incentive for Raizo and the clan fails to recognize this.

Finally, the non existence of an exit strategy is the main personnel issue within their system. The conflict between Raizo and the ninjas can be put down to the lack of a proper means of amicable severance where everybody lives. The bad blood between Raizo and the ninjas leads to Raizo ganging up with the enemies of the ninjas i.e. law enforcement, resulting in the climatic battle thus dooming the clan. Interpretation - Poaching is a major issue in ninja land too.

Extra Reading:

1. India's Ninja Version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggie
2. India's pride? Behram, World's Top Assassin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_prolific_murderers_by_number_of_victims