Here’s a very comprehensive and well-written guide on writing an RFP. Article is from DARE magazine which, incidentally, I highly recommend. Great, relevant content.

Wish more of the RFPs we received were like this.

Err, actually maybe not. Responding to such RFPs can be even more work!!

PS. The author of the article, Krishna Kumar informs me that the article is also available online here.

My good friend Rashmi wrote this on her blog about Rahul Gandhi’s dubious claim to a Cambridge degree. Must read for anyone taking a serious interest in our country’s future.

http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2009/04/rahul-gandhi-and-his-dubious-cambridge.html

Please do spread this.

Thanks for this one Pankaj. Extremely interesting…

“Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism.” – Karl Marx – Das Kapital 1867

UPDATE: Hey, turns out this is not true. Visit http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5527135.ece. Thanks Vogonpoet.

18th Jan 2009. I completed my first half marathon (21.097km). Wow! And to think that about 15 months back, I was struggling to run 2km without stopping for breath. The max I had ever run before that was with my close friend Dr Mihir Munshi when we were in college – that was around 3km I think!

The Mumbai Marathon is a phenomenal event. In a country not known for its sporting and adventure culture, the Mumbai Marathon puts India on the international sporting map quite admirably.

Anyway, back to my run, it wasn’t easy to be sure. I was going quite well till around the 15-16km mark, and was hoping to clock between 2:20 to 2:25. However, my calves started cramping really bad and no amount of hydration, salts or stretching would help. So i pretty much had to walk-jog the remaining 5-odd km and limp across the finish line in what I believe was a timing of 2:28 (official timing TBA).

Note: Just to put things in perspective, the winners do the distance in around 1:08 or something, so even 2:20 is no where near a “good” time. But not trying to push my timing was important for me to be able to do the distance.

So I’m a bit disappointed with my timing, I know I can do better. But am glad I managed to finish and definitely need to work on those cramps. Perhaps my running technique needs work.

But anyone reading this thinking “wow, 21km sounds way more than I can run”, let me tell you, I used to be in awe of my friends who ran the half marathon. But it is MUCH easier than you think. You just have to go easy, not try and cover too much too fast. I started with the treadmill, doing 2, 3 then around 4km before I hit the road. From 4, I went to 6km over a month or so, and the I was doing 8-9. The real breakthrough happened when I jumped from 12 to 15km one day and I felt absolutely fine. That was the day I really started feeling confident I could do 21. My journey from 4km to 15km took a good 6 months or so. Because I was clear I was only racing against myself.

Running in a fantastic group helped too. It allows you to explore your limits and push your boundaries. One is unlikely to push oneself if running on one’s own.

So make sure you don’t miss the next one. Registrations start around June/July every year and fill up pretty fast, so keep checking http://scmm.indiatimes.com

Injoy!

Like most other Bombayites (don’t find the need to be politically correct and say Mumbaikars!) I feel sad, angry, confused, helpless, lucky, grateful….. But somewhere, I also feel happy to find that the “this is the last straw” sentiment seems to echo really loudly in the city. Not surprised, for its been a long time coming, but happy.

Of course, it is not enough to say enough – like Madame Shobha De spouting her worthless 2 cents and empty rhetoric on all TV channels, even going to the extent of  distancing herself from other “celebrities” who are expressing themselves. I mean all she could say was enough is enough, we must do something, heads must roll, blah blah, without one single, concrete suggestion. And yet she claimed to be different from other celebrities!! This “enough” sentiment must NOT be allowed to lose momentum – bringing about even an iota of change is the best respect we can pay to the lives lost.

Which brings me to my first point of confusion about this issue. Everyone’s talking about a failure of leadership, and that we need to use our power of the ballot to boot the inefficient out. The million dollar question is, who do you vote in? Sure enough at the next election, I’m going to be standing at the booth faced with the same Congress, NCP, BJP, Shiv Sena, SP, BSP….and some unheard of independents. There may be the odd constituency where a candidate, perhaps even from one of the above parties, may have an impeccable reputation. But for the most part, THERE IS NO CHOICE. So what power of the ballot are we really talking about?

The fact is not all of us have the gumption to take up the challenge of any of these leadership positions. And I think its childish to argue that if one feels so strongly about this, why does one not take up the challenge of running for office. IMHO, taking up political service, like being involved in an NGO, for instance, is NOT like a regular job. Having strong administration and leadership abilities is a necessary but NOT a sufficient condition. It MUST have an altruistic motive above all else, and hence requires spiritual courage at some level – if you really intend to do it right.

However, what we CAN do, is to make the ones who do accountable, and not get away with their ulterior motive of joining politics. And if that cannot be done by exercising choice of candidate, it must be done by forcing accountability – through civil rights methods, if need be – non-cooperation, dharnas, judicial channels…. Lets face it, the only power the citizens have is financial, and that of numbers. I feel it is high time some of our industry leaders, who are funding many of these political parties in any case, either directly – through donations, etc, or indirectly through the taxes they pay, now demand what is due to them and the citizens. Not only do they have the financial muscle, but they are doubtless extremely enterprising. I have always believed that whatever progress India makes is because of private enterprise and IN SPITE of the government!

And if sufficiently large mass movements can be gathered to demand such accountability, rather than to demand reservation for sons of the soil, we should be able to force accountability from the very people we feel we need to vote out. I mean why the hell should Shivraj Patil be sacked, and waste all the public money that has been spent in electing him and keeping him in office for the last 4 years to do a job he has not done? He should be rather FORCED to do his job – don’t let him get away scot free. Take away his security, his perks, give him targets to achieve. And should it be necessary to finally sack a leader, it should automatically disqualify him/her from EVER standing for office again. Failure in public office should be made unacceptable and (I don’t think this may be feasible, but if its), a criminal offence punishable by law. 

And here’s yet another sample – our State Home Minister RR Patil says “it could have been worse. 5000 could have died..”!! What the hell is his point? That we should be glad it was only 300? I’d like to see Mr Patil say that face to face to Mr Kang (GM of the Taj), to Major Unnikrishnan’s parents, or to any of the relatives of the victims. Shouldn’t he, as our leader, our “karta” feel that ONE is bad enough? Again IMHO, the damage is done – it is as bad at 300 as i would have been at 5000!

And that’s a fact. With all due respect to the courage of the and the job done by the security forces, the terrorists have managed to achieve their objective. They have come into the city with a large cache of arms undetected, managed to murder several people, cause mayhem, severely damage the icons Bombay holds so dear, and hold out against our best forces for THREE days – all with what – 6 months of training and first time at the job? We MUST believe that our security forces have done the best they could under the circumstances. Doubting their efficiency or efficacy in the operation would insult their effort and sacrifices of the cops and commandos who lost their lives. All I’m saying is that despite that, the terrorists have managed to do what they came to do.

Another sentiment I am glad is being echoed in Bombay is getting beyond this “spirit of Bombay” business – I mean, what choice do you have after an event has happened? Sit at home and never cross the road again? If I don’t go to work, who pays the exorbitant rent for that kholi, the EMI for my car, my son’s school fees, or the hafta for my pan-bidi shop??? Is it really spirit or necessity? Not only politicians, but I was dismayed to see even corporates trying to cash in on this “spirit of Mumbai” bullshit. Today (Sunday)’s DNA carries an ad on the masthead from KURL-ON saying “The Spirit of Mumbai cannot be shattered by bullets – Kurl-On”.

Hello???????? I’m surprised a paper like DNA carried an ad like this! 

And then this morning, when I went for my run at Marine Drive, the media OB vans were still out there trying to interview some of us to “capture this spirit of Mumbai”. The spirit is now beginning to turn evil and haunt us!!

Finally, there is only hope – that this tragic event will bring about the change that is long overdue. A change that will only happen if we ASK for it, AND are prepared to work towards it. I’m perhaps not capable of leading that change, but am happy to put my hand up as a follower to do what is in my capacity.

As for the ones who lost their innocent lives in this massacre, we need to believe what my friend recently said when he lost a family member – that they are in better hands!

At long last, I started taking lessons in Hindustani Classical (vocal) music today. Shri Shripati Hegde, who tutored under Pt. C R Vyas is my Guru. The first day was great, and almost felt too slow – wanted to learn so much, ask so many questions.

Actually, I’ve been in a dilemma as to whether I should take advanced lessons in Guitar to progress from my (low) current level, or take singing lessons. Finally decided I’d rather do the latter cos not only do I feel more comfortable singing, but also wanted to learn about Indian Classical music.

I only hope between work, family and all the other activities I have taken up, I can keep this going.

As always, Apple has succeeded in blinding its consumers sufficiently with its coolness to ensure that all its VERY SIGNIFICANT shortcomings are happily glossed over. I mean, I can’t get over how supposed “expert reviews” tend to very conveniently ignore all these issues and give it a thumbs-up.

Lets face it, the iPhone fails – both, as a Phone, as well as a PDA – when compared to some of its less sexy but far more efficient competitors.  Here are some of the features that Apple has happily ignored, when other phones have had them for years – and they’re useful features – not just good-to-have items on the advertising. (Disclaimer: I’m not sure how many of these have been licked in the 3G version, but I’d still fail the iPhone for missing them out in the first place).

• Can’t forward SMSs. Earlier, could not send SMS to multiple recipients (DUH!!!)
• Can’t set an MP3 file as a ringtone!
• Camera is only 2MP – for a gadget that’s sold as a connected multimedia console!!
• Camera cannot shoot videos – please only buy the videos on iTunes – don’t shoot any of your own!!
• When sending an SMS, you HAVE to select a recipient first, and only then compose the message, you cannot do vice-versa.
• Cannot connect to your PC via Bluetooth – what good is 3G if I cannot use my phone as a modem also?
• Apparently, the browser does not support Javascript well enough (Flash is a problem with all mobile browsers anyway).
• Bluetooth Stereo Headset Support – so much for the company that revolutionised the way we listen to music!
• Cannot record audio.
• No voice dialing.
• Another user writes about the sound & signal quality

“iPhone is barely passable as a phone, with an extremely weak speaker, comparatively poor signal clarity, and radio frequency interference so powerful that when I tried to attach an iPod voice recorder, iPhone would not support it but still suggested that I shut down the wireless features (activate Airplane mode) to reduce interference. I can’t overstate the interference issue. I’m wearing a pair of noise-reducing headphones, and whenever iPhone polls for e-mail or checks in with the cell tower, I pick up the buzzing and chirping familiar to BlackBerry users who set their devices down too close to the bedside radio. But iPhone’s interference can be heard through a tuned-in FM radio from a fair distance away. It is loud. Steve Jobs attributed iPhone’s delay to market to FCC testing. I can understand why.”

And I’m not even getting into issues like the virtual keyboard etc, which people might argue is a matter of getting used to. The iPhone is far from a complete package and does not deliver even features now considered standard for a high-end, smartphone.

This is pretty typical of Apple – to ride on the sex appeal at the cost of practicality and value. They did it with the iPod – preventing replaceable batteries, not allowing WMA files to play, not providing FM/sound recording etc. I’ve already written a fair bit about the Mac in an earlier post.

The Red Cloud Research blog puts it well – “Apple products are never designed for practical business use; Apple’s target market is the fans and status freaks that I mentioned before. Apple is always about products that look funky but cost more and provide less functionality that similar products by other companies.”

Here’s another interesting look at Apple’s approach, where David Zeiler writes about how people keep buying Apple products despite obvious shortcomings. 

I am as much a fan of Apple’s design as the next guy, and am even willing to compromise a bit on function over form, but not when it borders on downright and brazen cheating.

Read yesterday that Salma Hayek has called off her wedding to Francois-Henri Pinault.

This is my chance…..

Wrote a couple of more articles on Digital Media and Marketing which got published online recently. Feedback and suggestions are most valued.

Improving the Quality of Online Leads – Published in July 08 in Thinking Aloud, IAMAI’s online marketing newsletter.

Email Marketing: If you cannot see this opportunity clearly, click here! – Published in June 08 on Alootechie.

I’ve started doing some middle-distance running since the last 6-odd months and some of my co-runners used to keep talking about how wonderful it is to run in the rains. Well, today I got my chance to sample that experience, and have to agree completely with my friends. Sure, most of us have enjoyed getting drenched in the rain some time or the other, but somehow, running (and I would imagine any competitive activity) in the rain was different. We all know how much more fun it is to play football in rain. 

It was cooler for starters. You feel less de-hydrated. And at the end, I think its mostly because we enjoy getting wet anyway.

Maybe I enjoyed it more simply because its otherwise quite boring to run!