Susan Boyle

I had heard about news on new singing sensation Susan Boyle spotted in "Britain Got Talent" show but had not got a chance to look at any performance of hers till today. And once I watched it on You Tube . I had no doubt why all world is going gaga over her. One has to see the video to believe it. It has recorded 150 million+ hits as of now. It is simply outstanding,stunning performance. One should look at the faces of the judges before and after she sang...captured in the video....along with the cheerfulness of the public in general. No wonder this 47 yrs old lady has sparked a sensation in media since the audition happened. Her appearance and mannerism is so simple and natural, one cant help appreciating her for her talent and nature. Another thing I appreciated was the abundance of confidence in her without sounding arrogant.

Six Frames for Thinking about Information

Very interesting read from the world renowned author on lateral thinking- Edward de Bono. It gives a framework approach of how to work on information in a structured way. The framework is set to "directing" our attention in a conscious manner. The Six frames provide a method of extracting more value from information. After reading it looked that most of it many people know as what is to be done but putting a structure to it and working according to it what is missed often. Rather than working in jumbled form...where the directions are random and astray the framework helps in putting proper structure and direction. The missing part of the book is a concrete example of how the framework is put to use in a particular scenario. Though snippets of examples are highlighted in each frame but it would have been more helpful to see the whole framework put to use in a situation.

Some notes from book:

1.Purpose - Triangle frame : to lay out very clearly the purpose of looking at the information. What? is the purpose of information search or scan. Why? the information is required? is this information of value? will this information affect us? Where? should we look for this information ? are we looking in the right place? Laying out the exact basis of need for information and interaction with it.

2. Accuracy - Circle frame: used to pin point importance of some piece of inroamtion and the need to check it. To indicate an area of existing doubt and let others know about it. To invite investigation of an area in order to collect accurate information. To judge accuracy of information sources.

3.Point of View- Square frame: To pay attention to the degree of bias or neutrality in the information. To look at inofrmation from different angles. Not to get into a biased information piece. A balanced representation is very rare and vey powerful. Look out for alternative views from same point.

4.Interest- Heart frame: There is more to information than the satisfaction of need of the moment . Heart frame directs attention to matters of interest.These may be matters of general or specific interests.

5.Value of information-Diamond frame: It is sort or summary or overview. What has been the value of this information? There are different types and levels of value.

Gold Medal:Human values which apply directly to people.There are both positive( appreciation etc.) and negative (humiliation etc.) values.

Silver Medal:Values that apply to organization, whether business, family ,group etc. These may include profits,market share etc.

Steel Medal: These are direct quality values. How does it impact quality?

Glass Medal: for inovation and creative values.what is new?

Wood Medal: ecology value in the broadest sense

Brass Medal: perceptual value

Diamond frame is all about clarification of these values through direct attention.

6.Outcome-Slab frame: represents a platform on which something is to be placed or exhibited. Using this frame conclusions are laid out.

Frames provide a simple shorthand for directing attention or suggesting that attention may be directed to one particular aspect of information. It can be used by individual or group.

Truth Paste: The way we treat things so that they appear true to ourselves and to others.

It has a problem when subjective opinion is put forward as a fact. eg newspaper article with lot of adjectives used by reporter indicating more of a personal stance than actual facts.

More reviews here.

Superb Gilchrist !!

Perhaps this would one of my first's live blog. IPL ( Indian Premier League) 1st semi final on its way and Deccan Chargers are on their way to the Finals for sure. Thanks to the blitzkerg of 4s and 6s by their star captain Adam Gilchrist who made 85 runs of 35 balls. Amazing batting display by a class batsman. Great to watch him bat!!

What a comeback from the team which was last in last year's standings now bouncing back straight into the finals.

Problem of Inverted funnel

LTTE put to sleep

I read one of the articles sometime back ard Jan09 on BBC listing out major events in the history of Sri Lanka. That time LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) was still very much alive and kicking.
The seeds of the war on which LTTE was formed seemed to have been put in soon after Sri Lanka got independent status in 1948: A wave of nationalism promoted by Solomon Bandaranaike followed by Srimavo Bandarnaike in 1970’s. LTTE was formed in 1976 as tension grew between ruling government policies and the Tamil dominated areas in north and east. The war between the government and LTTE had persisted since then till now when finally the father of LTTE (Prabhakaran) has been put to sleep. I haven’t read much about Prabhakaran but from what I could gather from readings, the cause against which he stood was right but the means he used to achieve the objective were wrong. Over a period of time it looked like war had become a way of life for LTTE and it took toll on both LTTE army and Sri Lankan army troops and the civilian population. Many times a peace deal was brokered by other countries and UN agencies but it never lasted long.
This time around the Sri Lankan government had made up the mind to finish it once and for all with a tacit backing by China as per some reports. China has vested interest in the region as it plans to set up its navy base and Sri Lanka seems to be a good ally. I don’t know what all is true but this seems to be one of reasoning why Sri Lankan government did not yield to external pressure. Several pleas by the UN and other countries proved futile.
I hope the Sri Lankan president should be very cautious of not repeating the same mistakes as done by earlier Prime ministers of letting a fraction of community feel so isolated that we will see the re-emergence of a new Prabhakaran. There is a fear among native Sri Lankan Tamils and around the world that the ethnic cleansing of eliminating Tamil’s from Sinhalese land might continue.
There is a strong feeling in Tamil Nadu on the support for LTTE. Ironically the staunch LTTE supporting politicians lost out in recent elections. The news of death of LTTE chief led to some precautionary measures taken by many companies here including mine by asking the workforce to go back home early on that day.

Elections 2009

The result of elections in India was "Aww" both for the public and the politicians. Some political parties did exceedingly well while some did exceedingly poor. I am not much into reading about politics but was happy to know that one party (happens to be Congress) has got a majority mandate from the people (58% of population voted). The News channels where covering reviews of all parties after the results started coming out and it looked like everyone was clueless so as to put reason for what they saw in results. One good thing which happened is the Left’s dissidence to oblivion. The first thing which comes to mind thinking about them is the party which always made “ Hoo Hallah” whenever government approached on doing something. The one which can sack anytime its long serving party members, One which seemed to be always arrogant. It felt the only objective they had was to make “Noise” and make it visible to as many. It is ok to disagree I feel when one is not in agreement with certain actions planned but for Left it felt like there only task in the last government was to disagree about anything government planned. They looked to be more of opposition part then the ruling government. Even opposition would be better than them I feel. These are just my views from the information I keep coming across in magazines, news channels and other media sources.
Looking forward I hope the new government formed will be much more stable and able to taker decisions in time rather than spending all energy in keeping all allies happy. Future looks to be promising for India under leadership of an impeccable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh- The most humble of politician I have ever seen.

Hyderabad visit

ICFAI Business School campus (IBS) @ Deepti's hostel room in IBS Golkonda Fort

Malaysian Township...Rain tree Park residence

Awesome food cooked by Abhinav and Shruti :).. @ Abhinav's residence in Malaysian Township

Hyderabad Airport view

Travelled down to Hyderabad on weekend for admission of sis to IBS. Fortunately,MBA friend Abhinav is already settled down in Hyderabad ( whom I had last met in 2007 only in Singapore) so it became very easy to coordinate and move around in the city. The IBS campus is impressive and seeing lot of construction work in progress looks like they are in ramp up mode. Abhinav & Shruti showed great hospitality for inviting me and sis to their residence for the weekend. Abhinav loves driving and so was willing to show me around the city apart from having 2 visits to IBS campus which is around 40 KM from the city. The residence of Abhinav is a great place. I had not seen such big (around 1800 apartments) planned residential accomodation before. It reminded me Prince George Park(PGP) in Singapore. On Sunday , Abhinav and Shruti both cooked awesome chicken... I knew Shruti was great at cooking but Abhi has also picked up quite a lot over past 2 years.... must be under guidance of chief chef(Shruti) :). Had a good time. Hyderabad infrastructure is really impressive......right from the Airport entrance.

Swine Flu

Recent news in highlight across the world has been the outbreak of swine flu which originated in pig farms in Mexico and is rapidly spreading across the globe. Usually considered to be restricted to pigs alone , the new strain H1N1 has spread to humans as well and medical experts are still to come out with a definite cure of same. Whether it is over hyped by the media remains to be seen but as of now it seems to be spreading fast .esp in Mexico and US. WHO has raised the alert level to 5 ( max6) and is tracking the progress on daily basis on its website to update all and has sent a team to Mexico as well to unearth more details. The Internet has come in handy to spread the awareness of the flu but it has its limits esp. in developing countries where majority still do not have access to net ...newspapers and other media channels are making up for that. I just browsed through BBC and came across this article showcasing the major pandemics in the past century.It is too early to say that swine flu will compare to these.....Hope it does not. On other thought seeing the numbers as big as 50 million I wonder does nature have its own way of eradicating access through such outbreaks. With so many wars being fought across the globe it does not seem nature has to put in much additional effort. Hope the flu is brought under control and goes off as quickly as it came.

Latest on Swine flu spread by Economist.