R. Rajesh Jeba Anbiah

For last couple of days, I have tried to get overall idea about appraisal system in other companies and materials about appraisals. While checking, I came across an interesting checklist and warning indicators : Your organization is more than likely in trouble if any of the following holds true: chronic industrial relations problems no means of resolving employee grievances increasing / erratic employee turnover increasing number of customer complaints no pride in the organization inter-group conflicts no career paths for ambitious talented employees dissatisfaction with pay and conditions unclear job roles no clear performance measures quality is unimportant bad product service / delivery records poor recruitment standards / practices no management development programs no induction training for new employees critical skill shortages inter-departmental conflict you do not know if any of the above are applicable you ignore any of the above

Whenever I'd praise Madurai people's helping tendency, others would ask me if I like their idlis or noticed anything peculiar. Like I already mentioned, I don't like Madurai foods. I had a vague memory that someone said that Madurai people would brag for drinking plain water as they did drink alcohol. But, for me, I was always surprised at they way they spit--more often and unnecessarily.

Don't know why, like I already mentioned , I'm getting irritated with guys who smile like girls. These days, I'm getting mad as both Madhavan and Suriya are appearing often in TV ads.

Poor leaders

There's huge cry that Madurai idlis are best. Having stayed in Madurai for 7-years, I can give assurance that they're crap. Madurai foods (especially available in hotels) are of poor hygiene and poor in taste. But, I always like the people--they're friendly and helping. My favorite is always Azad Hotel's (Nagercoil, near Tower Junction) chicken kothu parotta . Nagercoil food like aviyal , samba (red) rice , etc are always good and healthy as they're cooked in coconut oil and with high hygiene--even in hotels.

Of late I'm noticing that there's a huge demand for dummies and scapegoats. I suppose, this is due to cynical world that is leaning towards sneaky approaches.

I have noticed some high traffic on my take on Anna Hazare (Published on Apr 11th). But, I'm quite surprised that Gnani's thought (Published on Apr 16th) is close to mine.

Chinese may be learning English but they are not switching their medium to English—all higher education takes place in Chinese. ... The obsession with English-medium education, particularly for technical and higher studies, is keeping millions of Indian children behind. The top business and professional schools in India remain English-based—their entrance exams are not only in English but specifically test English-language skills. A child in China, or for that matter, Japan or South Korea, does not have to deal with debilitating switch in medium to go to engineering, medical or business school. ... it is worth remembering that only four of the richest 20 economies in the world, by highest per-capita income, are English-based . Universal education, not English-medium, is what gives China the advantage over India. ... It is also a fallacy that our software success is built on knowledge of English. Israel’s population is half of Delhi’s, yet its software exports rival our own. It is...

Steve Jobs , CEO of Apple Inc sometimes walk in barefoot in their comapus (I don't know, how I missed this earlier!). They're able to use/market it to differentiate themselves. Whenever some newcomer or new manager--influenced by British colonial rule, visits our team, they complain about barefoot and casual dressed hackers. For years, I have been defending that they're not intentional but they're geekish. Had I known this earlier, I would have compared Apple Inc culture with our team! Not to mention that our Online Marketing Manager (who's from London but working in Chennai) never wears suit or tie. He once told me that he wears suit only on Christmas dinner and for funeral.

Like I mentioned before , I often used to say that "trust is the binding force and hope is the driving force". The things that destroy the team I have noted are: Cabals They are always opinionated, push themselves, bypass their reporting people/hierarchy, look for other cabals to understand the "shortcuts", etc. I find these people are quite damaging, they can never trust their reporting people--even though the reporting person is quite rational. Cynic bossism These people will never trust their immediate subordinates. They'll constantly spy their subordinates as they're panic and will try to see if they have better subordinate below their immediate subordinates. By doing so, they always damage morale of their subordinates, their spirit for the team, etc. Often these people will have their enemy within their own / peer level than from sub-levels. Though many times I have noted that these people are quite damaging, till now, I have no experience in ...

For years, we have celebrated Tamil New Year on April 14th. But, the "doctor" Karunanidhi has changed that and willfully declared April 14th Ambedkar Jayanthi--Holiday! The most affected people here are those who work in private sectors. Sad that government servants aka Karunanidhi's servants are still playing sycophancy

When I was studying in schools, I've noticed that Rajinikanth fans were insane and irrational. Of late, I'm noticing such attitude with cricket fans who take sportive things so serious and take serious things so sportive--moronic. Similarly I'm also noticing Facebook "herdy kids" and Mac fanatics (though I agree that iPhone is better, but can't agree that Mac is better for it's "usability").

For the sake of record, I'm noticing Cricket voyeurs [sic] on rise.

MBAs Vs Hackers war is always on and hackers win with creating Linux to Firefox internationally. But, in India, coding is always considered to be a lower end job . In the international hacker cult, they code, code and code even at their 60s. In India, MBAs always take a lead saying "anybody can code", so every programmer is forced to "switch" to leadership role. Another problem with India is that there is no "real hacker" comparable with International cult. I have been lamenting this for years and smelling the "gap" for years. I've consoled myself with "Learner, Hacker, Idiot" tag in LinkedIn profile. Recently I noticed some guys who branded themselves as hackers when they're bashing MBAs in Quora . Having impressed by their "attitude", I checked their product and found nothing better than StockFox . Some hacker chauvinistic links I'm fond of: The Hacker FAQ How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, ...

Disclaimer: This list contains some of our team's projects Sites that are useful and usable erail.in - created by a single person and serves useful to quickly find availability in Indian trains ClearTrip - seems to be inspired by many other sites like Vayama , but able to get better UI RediffMail - speed is the big boost Myntra - good idea, but poor UI redBus - good idea, but poor UI and execution Sites from The Times Group are also of good idea, but poorly executed/architected. They clearly try and target the web startup "gap" Sites that are innovative (world's first/never seen before kind) SocialAV - World's first and only antivirus building community (by our team) CSSilize - World's first and only project management tool for slicing works (by our team) jobreapr - World's first and only fixed price job search engine (by our team)

My post Bra & Condom eCommerce website for Indian market is getting more hits now. Looks like they're of high demand or some are trying to create such sites. Some even brought my attention about CondomShopee ; but that's not complete with "sizes" that I mentioned. Someone brought my me another shopping site that's also selling bras TheAgada ; though the site is looking cool, the bra shopping isn't perfect. Not to mention, I'll be greatly interested in architecting or ideating such bra and condom websites/business.

It was a great moment for our team as it was planned more than 5-years ago; but last week we get the Labs launched.

In recent times, barkhagate scam clearly shows that the Indian media is much corrupt than the politicians. They give unnecessary hype to certain things to get TRP . Ever since Anna has gone compared himself with Gandhi and Shivaji , it was clear that he's trying to draw politicians attention. It was a clean tactic than what Medha Patkar or any maoists couldn't get such hype. The TwitGens [sic] can't really understand how a Lokpal (ombudsman) system can even be corrupt; remember that the author of Savaukku did quit from DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption). Economic Times article on this issue shares my views; I don't understand why they couldn't get such views published in Times of India. I think, we can't expect anything good from the media that's vehemently pushing AIADMK. Will Lok Pal be a Super Bureaucrat? Anna Hazare: Was Lok Pal protest compatible with constitutional democracy?

Since, I blog on weekends, the number of posts are heavy on single date. I was looking for a solution to streamline and found draft.blogger.com ; hereafter the posts will be scheduled--including this post...

Recently I have followed OurVote.in , the site that tracks Tamil Nadu Assembly Election 2011 through Facebook voting. According to the site, AIADMK is winning on huge margin as per Facebook users and everybody is mentioning Jayalalitha as a "change". I think, it's mainly because of media mayhem. My personal opinion is to oust both DMK and AIADMK. BJP is Indian Taliban. PMK is chameleon. Vote only for Congress, CPM, DMDK, Dalit parties... and wherever DMK is facing AIADMK straight, vote for IJK or best independent candidate. When Congress gets majority, control goes to Rahul Gandhi and he appoints Nallakannu like person from CPM as Chief Minister... and CPM becomes half capitalists (pure communism is failure)... I have a dream...

In Tamil Nadu, it's common for politician like Vaiko and activists like Nedumaran , Seeman , Thamarai , etc to support LTTE and Tamil Nationalism. But, the critic I read long time ago, by a Sri Lankan Tamil is an eye opener at least for me பியசேன: கபடத் தமிழ்த்தேசியத்திற்கு கடிக்க நல்ல அவல்!

I often used to tell that "trust" is the binding force of team. Now, I have added "hope" as survival of life/business/team.

Just for the sake of record, I have noted that "idea crazy" people who think theirs is novel and should be kept secret are on rise. Though I agree to some extent that the ideas be kept secret to get pioneership [sic] credit, I wonder, why they can't compare Coca cola and Pepsi. People giving "free advices" on "ideas" are also on rise.

Recently I had an interesting conversation with someone who brought me a new theory that integrating sales team and development team "closely" will increase the productivity. Conversation went on like these: Someone: Sales team and development team should work closely for better productivity. Me: What are the IT companies having such setup? What are the IT companies that increased productivity through such setup? Someone: (No answer) Me: How have you arrived at that theory? Someone: 'coz the sales team will get more technical questions and only when they closely work with the development team, they can able to answer . Later I felt that the person is somewhat right, the problem lies with the customer base and the person's inability to bring better solution. Then, I come to an analogy of Waiter, Cook and customer base in a hotel. Waiter, Cook and customer base in Hotel Here, the Waiter can be compared with the IT salesman and Cook can be compared with the developer. F...

I read the article People Power -- the Engine of Any Business by Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group) in Entrepreneur magazine some long time ago, but the following piece is still echoing in my mind: One main reason people leave a job is that they are not listened to. Be aware that a bad leader can destroy a business very quickly. In small businesses this is easily apparent. On my island of Necker in the Caribbean, we had a general manager who tried to change the way things were done. He discouraged the staff from drinking with our guests. This soured the atmosphere fast. We had to step in to replace the manager and restore staff morale and the sense of management’s trust in them, which had been broken.

When I was doing UG, my super-senior friend Ronald introduced me to MLTR and I was totally taken away by the music then. About 15-years later, I'm feeling same ecstasy when listening to Zac Brown Band 's Whatever It Is and Highway 20 Ride . The voice and music are amazingly cool.

Just noted that Eric Meyer has released new version of reset.css by January. The important thing I have noted is that he addressed the concern I raised over :focus{} styling on his earlier version, by dropping that altogether.