Who’s the boss

Now that I am settled in India, I finally have time to update the blog. I was surprised by the penetration and popularity of broadband here in just a couple of years. Almost everyone who had dial-up has upgraded to broadband for the same price.  The speeds aren’t very fast but you can get upto 200KB/s consistently. 

The reason I came to India was to work in the family business and get some experience running a company before I go for my MBA. I was involved in the software field (undergrad & work) for 8 years and now I am working in the manufacturing sector. These fields technically are not even remotely related but from running a business view they aren’t very much different. A business is like a sailing ship for ex: the captain steers and the rest of the crew work as a team to get the sails in place. So you don’t need to be a technical wizard and know everything in that field to be able to successfully manage the business. However, you have to know enough so that people can’t fool you.

A person needs to act like a “sponge” when trying to understand the intricacies of business in a different field in a new workplace. I try to follow the “rules” below:
- self-learning
- talking to the employees about their work and learning from them
- listening to work related discussions, even though you can’t contribute much

Finally, do not feel self-entitled to be the “boss” right away. You need to show the employees that you are willing to work just as hard as they are and not just boss them around because your dad owns the business. I have been working for a week and I already feel excited about the work. Sure I don’t have the technical background but running your own business is very rewarding and gets me motivated.

Who killed the Electric car ?

I watched a great documentary on “Who killed the electric car ?” today. It really shows how much power corporate america has over the federal lawmakers. Its amazing how far oil companies and auto makers will go to maintain their control over people’s life and make them slaves to oil. And we as consumers believe what the corporations feed us using their media. Watch it here.

Fido to “modify” rewards program

Fido used to be David and Rogers Goliath in the fight over GSM supremacy in Ontario, but then Rogers bought Fido and the fight was over. Rogers still insisted that Fido would act as a competitor and operate as an independent organization. But the last couple of years Fido has dropped some of their nice features like unlimited text messaging and etc.

Now then they modified their rewards program so you can not redeem your points for accessories anymore. To top it off, it was not mentioned ANYWHERE except their rewards sub-site that I just stumbled on while looking to get rewarded with a bluetooth headset.

This is what a monopoly does.

Met comrie and campoli at the Brookstreet

I bumped into Mike Comrie and Chris Campoli at the Brookstreet Hotel on Sunday, I was there for brunch. It’s surprising how short Comrie is for a hockey player and is considered  one of the gritty guys.

Completed Gears of War

The first game I completed on my xbox360 and it is one of the best games i’ve played. The gameplay is unique but once you get practice its awesome !! The background music is kick ass, graphics are phenomenal (back when it was released). I usually leave games unfinished but I completed this one because it kept me involved and entertained. Gears of war 2 has been released and considering how good this game was I am definitely going to try it out.

Freakin Minto .. and legal issues

ok here’s the story …

My parking spot in the garage (indoors) has had a big piece of cardboard leaning against the wall for a while now (over a year) .. Minto does repair work in the garage often so I thought it was theirs, along with a bunch of concrete blocks lying around .. I never removed it because it didn’t affect my parking space ..

Last night due to strong winds the board fell on my car and the back half of the side skirt came off, the front half was still on the car .. the clips in the rear half broke .. The building manager does not know where the board came from and refused to take any action .. The rental contract does mention that Minto is not responsible for any damages in the garage .. But I am pissed because they should at least clean up the garage (concrete blocks and such) .. Had an argument with the building manager and was totally disgusted by their attitude ..

Anyways, I got the side skirt put back on, but the clips were broken at the rear, so right now its held in place with the front and middle clips .. It “should” stay on, and I hope it does or else a new one is gonna cost me $350 ..

Wish I could take legal action, but I guess that legal paper I signed will save their ass .. I realize that damage in the garage is not their responsibility, but this was a cause of their neglect and they can get away with it. Zero accountability .. In hindsight I should have thrown that piece of cardboard out a lot earlier ..

GMAT 720 :)

I finally wrote my GMAT on December 15 at the Pearson Vue test center in Montreal. The drive from Ottawa to Montreal was the longest drive ever !! I never realized 2 hours was so long .. Here are some tips for any GMAT takers reading this :

• Take a week off work before your GMAT and focus on your weaknesses the first 2-3 days.
• Do not write more than 3 sample tests during this week
• Do not cram the day before the exam
• Eat a lot the day before and day of the exam

I took the Kaplan classroom course but I think the online course should be good enough because I never really asked the instructor any questions. The real value is in the practice problems and a chance to write a GMAT at a test center. The sentence correction section was weak in Kaplan so I used Manhattan’s Sentence Correction guide (it’s great) ..

F1 Spa 2008

Spa-Francorchamps is THE best race on the F1 calendar and boy did it deliver, it has to be one of the best races I’ve seen in a long time .. This track never disappoints and is probably the only track along with Monza not to go under drastic changes unlike the old Nurburgring and Hockenheim due to safety concerns.

Because of its location in the forests and the length of the lap, the weather is very unpredictable. It can be raining at one part of the track and dry at others. This is exactly what happened on raceday. I would love to post some videos here but FIA believes that its detrimental to F1. Here’s a transcript of what happened on sunday.

If you want to see some action check out this GP2 race highlights video.

3 medals for India at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

India for the first time EVER in its history will win 3 medals at one Olympics. This will bring our total individual olympic medal tally to .. wait for it .. 9, thats right 9, Michael Phelps alone won 8 this year. We won 9 individual medals in 108 years of participation. Oh and the first two medals won for India was by Norman Gilbert Pritchard who was british.

Only if people in India would stop obsessing with cricket and play other sports we might win more medals .. Not to mention the lack of any money, government support or infrastructure for anything except cricket .

Save your money, buy from the US of A

I needed a set of winter tires and I was contemplating which ones to buy or where to buy etc etc .. I had a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks for last 2 seasons and they were very good for Ottawa winters .. Turns out they are expensive too ($120 a tire), last owner had bought them .

My friend alexei pointed out to me that Tirerack was having a clearance sale and my tire was going for $44 each ! I bought them at Tirerack, got them to ship it to an installer in Ogdensburg, which is an hour drive from Ottawa. Drove down to Ogdensburg, got the tires mounted and balanced on my winter rims, drove back and paid the GST/PST at the border.

My total was $225 for tires, $75 for install, $25 taxes, $30 gas = $355. This compared to $480 ($120 x 4) + taxes ($62) + install ($75) = $617 if I had bought them here in Canada.