In GOD We Trust...

Prayers and Worship; Churches and Temples; Reverence and Devotion; Respect and Admiration; Awe and Appreciation; Fidelity and Affection;

These are nice words to talk about and absolutely pleasant to mention in a blog! Well, I have been pondering over these terms for quite sometime and planning to pen down a few lines – I’m sure some of the readers might or might not agree with my thoughts...appreciate your comments!!!

First and foremost, we all do believe that there is GOD or some superpower which is motivating our lives; giving us strength and making us strive for better things in life! We also know that these ‘super powers’ were human beings at some point of time and it is WE who have given them the stature of GOD…why? ‘Coz we believe in there thoughts, viewpoint, values and the same helps all of us in moving forward specially in times of stress and distress. Every culture has had its gods. The ancient agrarian cultures had their fertility gods; the Greeks and Romans had their pantheon; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have their one god of all. At all times and in all places people have thought that there is more to life than the material world around us.

As a preface to the arguments, it is worth noting an argument that the claim that God exists is made more plausible by the fact of wide-spread religious belief. This argument is called the “argument from desire”. It begins with the observation that our natural instincts generally serve us well; every creature is born with an instinct for food because food sustains us, and each of us longs for meaningful relationships because community and friendship allow us to flourish. Generally speaking, if we have an innate desire for a thing then that thing both exists and is good for us. The natural instinct to look to the transcendent, therefore, which is made evident by the fact remarked upon above that every culture of every time has had some form of religion, suggests that there might well be something transcendent out there to be found. This instinct, according to the argument from desire, hints at the existence of God.

Now the question is how and where and in what way should we worship? All of us have our own ways to worship to thank GOD or ask for something from HIM. We have also learned over the years that ‘GOD helps those who help others’. Then,

· Could we feed the populace who require food, rather than feeding the ones who consume food everyday?

· Could we have a quiet time (pondering over our past, planning the future & thanking our achievements) with HIM, rather than religiously saying prayers every day?

· Could we take care of our precious moments sometimes (which I believe are defined and derived by HIM) instead of saying prayers at the cost of such moments?

· Could we be polite, courteous, respectful and reverent after our prayers, since this is what we are looking for from the fraction of the time spent with HIM?

Forget BPO, It’s Time for KPO!!!

While sipping my second glass of wine with my buddy (Sourin), we got affianced into our discussions of opportunities in India, the Infosys’s, Wipro’s, IBM’s and got into the gamut of Business Process Outsourcing. While going thru these thoughts, Sourin mentioned about K.P.O and since then I have been reading and pondering over this new and upcoming business opportunity.

I have compiled some data and articles on it and would like to share with my blog-readers. Here you go…

The acronym BPO is passé. It's time to move up the value chain for the Indian BPO industry to KPO, a niche, high-value knowledge process outsourcing business. Globally, the KPO pie is estimated to touch $25 billion by 2010. By that time, India would command a 60% market share, with an employee requirement of over 3,00,000 said recent study conducted by Evalueserve.

The KPO landscape is getting increasingly visible in the country with players like WNS, Evalueserve, Thomson Financials, GE Analyticals, Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Reuters expected to play a dominant role. In addition to this, over a dozen existing BPO firms are gradually migrating into value niches.

Typical users of KPO services are market research agencies, consulting firms, investment banks, financial institutions, legal firms, telecom, engineering/design, automotive companies and corporate planning departments of large enterprises. Foreign small and medium enterprises are also looking at KPO services to cater to their high-value project-specific activities.

"Global companies are looking at ways and means to create intellectual properties for their clients across verticals like healthcare, pharma and life sciences, chemicals, engineering, business and commercial information, research and database services," said Narayanan Ramaswamy director of KPMG.

How is KPO different from BPO?

BPO is entirely rules-based while KPO is purely judgment-based where human discretion plays a dominant role. KPO includes an entire gamut of services like intellectual property, legal and medical researches, R&D, pharma, biotechnology-related researches and process outsourcing, data mining, analytical services like equity research, market research, content and journalistic outsourcing, data cleansing, data validation, data analysis, formation of libraries, indexing, cataloging, creation and updating of databases and directories, to list a few. Services under KPO are still emerging.

"Indians are good at brain works, analytical, logical and arithmetical skills. The growing Indian diaspora has been creating an impression among international community that Indians are good at intellect-driven skills," said Chandu Nair, president, Scope e-Knowledge Centre, a Chennai-based KPO firm.

However, winning KPO deals is not an easy proposition. "It demands intrinsic domain knowledge, a good amount of trust, impeccable track record, long-standing client relationships, deep research skills, strong management capabilities and sound technical know-how," said S. Ramakrishnan, CEO of Marketics, a Bangalore-based KPO firm.

F.R.I.E.N.D.

Fun, earnestness, assurance is all about friends,
Reap the benefits, payback and feel the fragrance.

Immense pleasure, bliss & contentment they render,
Except the relationship which is fairly fond & tender.

Nurture this with utmost heed, concern & care,
Do remember that this breed is extremely rare.

"Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief."
-Joseph Addison

Time Really Flies!

Time really flies! It was just sixteen years back when Shantanu (our son) was born, we could hear his first cry, started crawling and his first step towards his grand-parents.

Time really flies! I do remember the first day of his play-school when he was so reluctant and hesitant. He gradually adjusted himself and started pestering my Dad for all the candies & chocolates. He used to get away with all his demands of getting a specific breed of mango in the scorching heat of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Time really flies! Shantanu’s act of posing like a ‘Hanuman ji’ still gives ripples and his dance moves were real funny (maybe only to his parents!)

And now, he is a grown up boy, responsible, normally quiet except with his friends!!! He has taken a toll on himself while adjusting to his Dad’s movement from India – adjusted well to his new friends, excelled in his sports and academic fields and made all of us proud.

Time really flies! He has passed his driving test and all set to have his own driving license. It’s a pleasure to see him growing by leaps and bounds and I’m sure all of us will pass through this phase and enjoy the same.

Well, we all strappingly believe that “CHILD IS THE FATHER OF MAN”

Anshul 

Bill Gates

We all have been using and experiencing Microsoft products and here is what I came across…some extremely interesting facts on Bill Gates. Please read at leisure.
Bill Gates

The Art Of Being Positive!

Birds were twittering in the skies and the resonance of the leaves was comforting! While I peeped outside my windowpane, the emission of the sun gave me an intuition of the day being optimistic, encouraging and affirmative. I could enjoy the flora and fauna, the foliage and the blessedness of the atmosphere. I could listen to the wings flutter and saw a group of birds land on my bird feeder, skirmishing and struggling to peep and initiate eating their chow. WOW! What a sight and what a blend of beauty, exquisiteness and magnificence.

While sipping my coffee and looking for my television remote, I could sense the squirrels on my deck attempting to leap towards the birds, which petrified them and they flew away tweeting all the way.
I switch on the television and toggling between FOX, CNN, NBC – I get to ABC and listen in to the Iraq atrocities, updates on Jackson trial, the gigantic blaze in Highland MI, Pistons losing to Pacers and finally…the advertisements on Coors Light and Auto Glass Manufacturers. I switch off the television – get up from my love seat - finish off my coffee – remove the coffee stain from the table – take a momentary look on the tree just outside my deck which has been standing tall, firm and unyielding since the last 6 years irrespective of the four seasons in Michigan.

This is not my archetypal day (a couple of hours…may be) but this happens with each and every individual who experiences not only the passive, negative and downbeat sides of his/her life but the optimistic, affirmative and upbeat phases also.

I have learnt the art of being positive in the last 10 years as, Positive thinking won't let you do anything but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.