Sunday Posts

I had a good last few days, finishing work that I needed to do and bringing back a semblance of order in life. This is not to say everything is absolutely cool - I must travel to Dubai and Manila by next week and I still don't have my passports back - but at least, I am no longer in the sad state that I was a week back. This allows me to take a bit of a break, if only for a few minutes, and enjoy this rainy afternoon in London. Funny that I say that, but it is actually raining after quite a gap, and giving us a break from the hot spell that we had for last two weeks. So, tea, rains outside and a break! How Bengali does that sound? Though I don't smoke, I am as Bengali as one gets. And, indeed, proud to be one. I keep it no secret, and proclaim my love for Calcutta quite publicly. Yes, indeed, my dreams are to go back to Calcutta - whenever I can - and live there. When I say this, my well-wishers here, most of them from Calcutta themselves, suggest that I should never think a...

I read news items on a new study on Workplace ethics in India. A staffing solutions company, Teamlease, has conducted the research in eight major Indian cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. This is a small scale research, based on 400 respondents or so, but the picture is quite revealing. For example, Kolkata scored well in terms of Integrity Scores and frowned upon most of the practises other cities will take on their strides, like using office phones to make personal calls. Ahmedabad came up the most lenient, with an integrity score of 21 against Kolkata's 76. No ranking is apparent from the stories I read, but interestingly Delhi's scores are not that bad [despite many stories one will hear about Delhi]; Mumbai predictably does well, and rather shockingly, Chennai workers report more workplace thefts than anyone else. There is not much to read in this report, and it will be unfair to draw conclusions from it. The scope of resea...

It is that time, which inevitably must come in the lifetime of every entrepreneurial business, when one feels assured of the continuing survival of the business and faces decision time - whether to continue doing the same thing and stay within the zone 0f comfort, or to leap out to unknown, chasing a target that appears unattainable at the time. The business of Direct English in India has reached such a point: No one can deny the merit of sticking to the basics, protecting the margins and continue doing what we are doing, especially in the backdrop of the uncertainties in the global financial market and weakening business confidence. On the other hand, we are at a point where we have gained enough business knowledge and accumulated successes and failures, to be leveraged into a chain of learning centres across India - sitting still today will let this moment pass. This is what made me set aside this afternoon to think what I want Direct English to be. The unusually hot last few days in...

I really lost it last week. The Home Office is taking its time, and they won't tell how much more I have to wait. Does not matter that this is just a Leave to Remain, and under the current rules, they will almost inevitably have to extend my leave. There is a bit of an indication on the Waiting Times page, but the language is so arcane that it is hard to make out what they are really doing. I can't call it a delay, as I was told that the process can take up to 10 weeks, and I have just finished 6 weeks. However, this is frustrating, as my job primarily involves travelling and I have several urgent businesses to look after. The fact that Home Office expects a 10 week processing time reasonable for a Highly Skilled Migrant shows how little they understand what the Highly Skilled Migrants may be doing in the UK. Besides, the fact that the process is not transparent, you can't even have an expected date, adds to frustration. My big problem today is that not only I can't tr...

I am still reading India after Gandhi, despite the fact that I need to concentrate on the university coursework urgently. I have missed a deadline, but possibly I can excuse myself citing the extraordinary work that I had to do over last couple of weeks. I am intending to focus full time on that, but can't - as this book is telling me fascinating stories and providing me answers. For example, as I read about Indian Republic's formative years, I can figure out why democracy worked in India while it failed in many Asian and African countries. I remember a friend and a fellow blogger arguing, in the backdrop of the political troubles in Bangladesh, that democracy will not work in Bangladesh as the people are not yet ready for it, and the country needs a period of enlightened dictatorship for a period of time. It did not sound right, and I did say so - but given the recent history of Bangladesh, such rationale was hard to refute. I can draw two lessons from reading about the format...

I saw one movie twice in two days. This must be counted as an achievement, specially for me, as I most certainly suffer from Attention Deficiency Disorder, and being able to see a movie twice end-to-end is surely exceptional. I would sometimes do that as I managed to see it only partially - as I have done recently for Lives of Others [which is a brilliant movie based in the erstwhile East Germany], and also seen National Treasure: The Book of Secrets some five times in two months [Did not have much choices on the Emirates Entertainment, the alternative would have been to watch The Independence Day!] - but this one I saw end to end, twice. All of this started with Hillary Swank . She is surely one of my favourite actresses. She makes things come alive. I thought she looks a bit like Julia Roberts and that's why, but that's not at all true - she does not project JR's femininity or sexiness, and does not have any of her million-dollar smile. I found The Million Dollar Baby ...

The Indian media is having a field day. The government is up for a trust vote next Tuesday, and the numbers are still not adding up. By the last count, they are falling short by about 15 votes, with about 19 fence sitters including 6 independents. In the past, minority governments were saved by India's infamous tenth schedule, or anti-defection law, which disqualifies MPs and make them lose their seat if they have voted against party lines. This time, with a general election round the corner anyway, no one is much bothered about this. Except one party. CPIM . Yesterday, I was asked who I think would win. My almost instant answer was that whoever wins, I know CPIM would lose. They have got themselves in an unenviable position. If the government wins, they will be completely dumped and stand out as a party which does not know how to behave responsibly. If the government loses, they would force an early general election on the country, costing several million dollars, and almost inv...