Guest Post: Doing Business In Africa - Joe Andrasko

So here it goes, the first ever blog post about summer internships and recruiting from a guy who has yet to write his first cover letter…  

From a recruiting perspective, my first year at Darden was a bit atypical. I came to Charlottesville focused on entrepreneurship and, throughout the first year, I couldn’t seem to shake my interest in working for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I tried to be interested in “real jobs.” I polished up my résumé last fall, made sure I used action words in all my bullet points, tweaked margins and fonts, the whole nine yards. I even went to some company briefings and “networked” on the recommendation of the good folks at the CDC who kept urging me to “trust the process.” At the end of the day though, my buy-in for the “the process” wasn’t quite there. By October, I decided to curtail the briefings. By November, I had all but written off the traditional summer internship.

Here’s the way I saw it: I was 27 years old, single, no family to support, and had a meager savings sufficient enough to provide sustenance at least in the form of ramen noodles and Natty Light for a year or so. If the actuarial folks at big insurance companies have it right, I also have roughly 50 more years of life expectancy (knock on wood) during which I can work long and hard for whatever big corporate brand deems me worthy of employment. So, where was the value in spending 10-12 weeks slogging away for some big company over the summer? The full-time job offer? I thought they had second-year recruiting for that. The learning experience? I thought we had cases for that. Bragging rights? Touché… but I thought those had already come with admission to Darden.

So what should I do? Like the protagonist of any good HBS case, I gratuitously mentioned my elitist business school credentials and “consulted my notes from first-year finance” for the answer. After careful analysis, my cost of capital (in this case, 10-12 weeks of time in July and August) seemed too great for me to justify the investment in a formal internship. 

If you’re still reading (which I realize is highly unlikely after the above reference to DCF-ing my life – no pun intended), you’ll be happy to know that I didn’t simply trade off a summer in corporate America for a summer on the Jersey Shore. Instead, I did what any good entrepreneur would do and took advantage of one of the best kept secrets at Darden: The Batten Incubator. (For anyone interested in entrepreneurship, the Incubator is worth checking out)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I started two small businesses prior to Darden so abandoning the formal recruiting process was perhaps somewhat expected. I did also cave-in to interviewing for one job in the spring. Truth be told, I had a pretty difficult time deciding against taking it. But here’s why I did: As part of his sales pitch, the company’s founder told me what a great experience it would be to work for more experienced entrepreneurs like himself. After all, he reminded me, he had sold his first company – the one he started in his late twenties – for $180 million. I’m not sure he intended it, but that statement actually convinced me not to take the job. Why would I go work for him when I could go take a shot at building my own $180 million business? Game on. 

So I traded the traditional route for a shot at never having a boss and enjoyed an exciting summer. The business that I’m trying to start, a small private equity fund focused on agribusiness investments in southern Africa, allowed me split time between Incubator meetings in Charlottesville and farm visits in Swaziland. Needless to say, however, I still haven’t managed to sell anything for $180 million. 

So, what does that mean? Well, if first-year finance can continue to enlighten us, it’s time to employ a hedging strategy. I’m back on the recruiting train, secretly jealous of classmates with fancy offers, and trying my best to get back into the good graces of the CDC. I’m still hopeful about my business prospects and still wary of corporate America but at the end of the day, Darden does expose us to some pretty great opportunities and writing them all off on principal seems somewhat shortsighted. The good news is, I can sleep at night knowing that I put together a summer that was as educational and enjoyable as it was untraditional. And, if I need to spend a little extra time tweaking bullet points and actions words this fall, so be it.

For more info about the Africa endeavor and my summer in the Incubator feel free to check out this blurb by the significantly more eloquent folks in the Darden communications office.

Joe, apart from being one of the smartest kids at Darden also happens to belong to the most awesome Learning Team here. LT 32. When he's not flying off to Swaziland, or running his tutoring business at Nantucket, he gets kicks out of making excel models without moving his hands off the keyboard.

The Cab Driver

Almost all cab drivers that I have met, who are originally not from the US, have a love affair with India. Ali Dani, who took me to the DFW airport today, was no different. Only, he lead an immensely interesting life.

The conversation started with him talking about how he had rented his 6 bedroom house in Dallas to an Indian family who had frequent visitors. It had saved the family a lot of money and he had, in turn, found a reliable and  harmless tenant. He had "retired" a few years ago he said, and drove the cab for 5-6 hours a day. Only so that he had something to keep him occupied. He had taken a year off after retirement to do nothing and had gotten very bored sitting at home. He was so bored that he had taken to cutting the grass in his backyard twice a week! But then he kept a couple of lambs in the backyard which ate all the grass and he was jobless again. I don't know how much of it was true, but it made for an interesting conversation so I didn't interrupt him.

"I go fishing on the White Rock Lake", he says. "I have my spot. I take a tent and my radio and sit there all day long. Sometimes I go to another lake which is far from Dallas. It's an old radio. I also get an Indian channel here. They play Indian songs."

His 28 year old son lives in Boston. Working with an insurance firm. But he wants to become a criminal lawyer. He visits Dallas more often now since his girlfriend is here - Ali says with a smile. His other son is studying at SMU and wants to be a CPA. I ask him where he's from and how long has he been in the US. "Iraq.", he says. "15 years. But I've been in Dallas for only 6. I was in Seattle before that."

My curiosity heightened at this, I asked him what he was doing in Seattle. 

"I was a lawyer for the UN", he says nonchalantly. I'm in half a mind to believe him but for entertainment's sake, I urge him. "Very interesting.", I say. 

"Yes, it was a lot of travel. My body couldn't take it anymore so I retired."

"So, where were you before Seattle."

"I had to travel between New York and Seattle a lot. But I started with the UN in Geneva. Moved to Oslo for a few years. Brussels. Lot of travel, man. This was in the 80s. So they had different currencies. I was so exhausted that I wouldn't know where I was or what currency to use. Ha Ha."

"I've been to India too. Calcutta and Delhi."

"When", I ask.

"1989 and 2002. India is a very nice country. Nice people. Always ready to help. And I love the food. In England too, they love Indian food"

"Yes, I know. Chicken Tikka Masala is their national dish, I've heard"

"Ya, you're right. And the naan. It's so soft and tasty"

The customary Indian food chit chat behind us, he goes on to talk about his experience negotiating with Colombian officials on the Colombia, Venezuela border. And that Australia has fewer women than men so you're lucky to have a girlfriend there! He loves China too and thinks people are very polite there since the shopkeepers give back change with both hands and bow their heads. Also that he had been friends with a Chinese girl over the internet and she had come to receive him at the airport when he had gone there.

By this time, I'm just listening to him speak without asking any questions.

"So would you come back to Dallas", he asks after getting to know about my internship.

"Maybe." I say, realizing that we're at the airport.

"Alright man. Here is the US Airways Departure. Stay healthy and come to Dallas sometime again."

"Thanks. It's been great talking."

15th August

So it's India's independence day. 64th, as the status updates from Facebook have told me. What does it mean to me. Nothing. Till 2008, it meant a day off (I was already unemployed in Aug 2009). From work or college or school as the case may be. In school there was still something special about it. Going to school, singing the national anthem and getting sweets It felt a little different from other holidays. This year, but for Facebook, I wouldn't have noticed. The only date I care about right now is 21st August. That's when I get back to Charlottesville.

I find the 'India, I love you and miss you', 'Proud to be an Indian', 'It's India's time' themed messages and emails to be hilarious and confusing at the same time. I don't get it. I am as proud to be an Indian as I would have been to be a Chinese or a Kenyan. I don't have any control over that, right. My nationality and my country's past and present. More correctly - I haven't done anything to show my patriotism for my country. Lead a pretty comfortable, safe, normal life and pursued my self interests which will satisfy my materialistic and intellectual needs. Will I ever do something helpful for my country? Do I at all have any intentions to do so. Maybe and Yes. I don't know how or when but I do have this deep seated desire to contribute. No, not give a huge donation to charity when I am a millionaire. Something more lasting. Something which is not as easy as giving money. 

I do realize that I am saying this sitting in the US, pursuing an MBA and planning to get a job which keeps me in this country for a few years. Double standards, right? I agree. And that's the reason I feel a little uneasy on such occasions. It bothers me (not as much as I would want it to, though) that so much of my life is centered just around me and nothing bigger. My dad gave the best years of his life and more to a steel plant. Yes, it gave him back a lot, but he belonged to the generation which saw the birth of the great Indian middle class. He contributed to it. He was part of the 'Nation Building' which Nehru had started. True, circumstances were different and had at times more bearing on his life's choices than intent. At least, that's my hypothesis. So this is not a comparison of character. It's more a stating of the facts.

And this brings me to my original point. I don't like it when people fool themselves by sending out emails and forwards on 15th August. It's almost like a compensation for not doing anything at all for the rest of the year. Of course, there are people who are saving lives in villages, fighting corruption and at the same time indulging in the mass forwards. My apologies to them. But I think that the majority is more or less like me. Actually a little worse, because at least I don't spam! I wish someday we would be able to come out of this. I wish that we would realize that a lot of us would lead very selfish lives and not try to put on a facade for a day to portray otherwise. I hope, however, that most of us get tired of it and end up doing something which has far more impact than a million status updates. That as the fortunate, highly educated, forward thinking 'future' of the country, we are able to change a few things.

2 Weeks To Go

I'm not a very good finisher. I'm a restless one actually. As a school kid, that was my attitude with exams where after having realized that I had got most of the stuff, trying to perfect it would take a monumental effort. So more often than not, I would just submit my paper rather than waiting for the full duration trying to fine tune my answers or finding silly mistakes. As a software developer, the finishing touches to make the code 'cleaner', removing the small issues here and there, used to irritate me and I almost felt someone else should do it so that I could move on to the next task.

With a couple of weeks to go before my internship ends, I find myself in a similar predicament. Deleting a word here, adding a picture there to my final presentation; timing it and trying to make sure that I don't repeat stuff and sound like I've actually done something over the summer; and tying the loose ends of the last project I am working on - the finishing touch, I have realized once again, is not what I do best. The fact that most of my friends are done with their summer or would be, by this week, and are out traveling and unwinding, makes things a little more harder. 

I'm a little bored too (my evenings are mostly spent streaming sitcoms on Netflix). Also, anxious about a few things which will hit me soon. You know, the life, career kind of stuff. And excited at the thought of new opportunities. So, it's a mixed bag. I want to get back to Charlottesville now, To familiar places and people. Talk to my friends and exchange notes on the summer experience. 

Dallas has been a fruitful experience. It has answered quite a few questions and posed a few more. I can add the function and industry to the 'Can Do' list to go along with the 'Will Not Do' list currently populated with CPG Marketing and Banking. That's progress, right ?

Have I Met You?

How do you prefer meeting people for the first time? In person? At a common gathering or a one to one setting? Email? Phone? Facebook?

Apart from the last one, I'm pretty comfortable with any of them. Although email followed by an in person meeting is the best combination. But apparently for a lot of people these days, it's Facebook. And although I can see the ease and obvious benefits, I'm still not comfortable with the fact of befriending someone I will most probably get to know in the near future; on Facebook first. I end up accepting the requests as long as I see common friends and know the context. But I'm just curious at the motivation behind doing so. If I really wanted to talk to someone or ask something would I not rather send her an email? Or if discovering the email id is too difficult, a Facebook message? I just find the 'adding people' without any purpose a little perplexing. I mean, why? No, I don't have any privacy concerns. Nothing major anyway. It's ok if you did so to stalk me. (It would be interesting in fact!)

Well, one thing I can think of is that when we do meet, it would save us the formalities of narrating our basic 'About Me' info. Provided, of course, that both you and I took pains to fill that section and were curious enough to go through it when we became friends AND most importantly, remembered it.

As for me, I still prefer to Facebook friend people only when I have known them for sometime. Why ? Because I'm afraid, I would come out as some sort of a creep otherwise.

Perfect Lazy Sunday. Well, Almost

Of late (and by late I mean the last couple of years actually), my attention span has reduced significantly. I keep moving from one task to another without being able to concentrate for more than 30-40 minutes. To some extent it has been accentuated by the B School life, where you are constantly trying to cram in as much as you can within a given time. But that apart, the two main evidences that it's more than just a passing phase is the fact that I had all but stopped reading and watching movies. Don't get me wrong here. I still go out with my friends to watch Avatar and Iron Man II. But whereas earlier, in my spare time I wanted to update my 'movies seen from the IMDB Top 250' list; nowadays even 90 minutes seems too long a time to sit still and do one task. And I cannot watch a movie in bursts. And reading. I guess this was more because of an actual lack to time. I would manage to read for a couple of hours in a week and by the 4th week, would lose the thread and abandon the book.

I also have a tendency to get bored of the setting of the house/room I live in. So when I woke up today; instead of sitting at home and aimlessly trying to move between watching a movie, reading a novel, calling friends or killing time on the internet (yes, my Sundays are really that happening) - I took my novel and went out to have breakfast. I got my bagel with sausage and eggs and a coffee and found myself a corner. And for almost three hours, amidst murmurs of people coming-ordering-talking amongst themselves, the soothing sound of some jazzy music playing in the background, and a few coffee refills - I read. 

I came home at noon to do some work and went back at 2:00. Ordered a sandwich and iced tea, found the same place and spent another three hours.

The book resonated with a few of the things I have been thinking about (and talking to my friends) of late. What kind of life do I want. What makes me happy. What matters. Choices. It's a little unsettling to say the least, that in less than a year, school will be over and the 'real world' will come back again. Decisions would have to be made regarding everything. And this time around, most of them would be long term. You know, the really important ones. So far, all the phases in my life came with an expiry tag. Even with the job I had before, I knew I would eventually get an MBA (it's cool to say it now that I am actually doing it!). I have a feeling, the next phase doesn't necessarily have one. Not a clear defined one anyway. And no, I'm not saying I'll have the same life for the rest of my life or will do the same job or live in the same place. But I think you get the point.

Which also means that in the 10 months or so that I do have, I should make sure I visit the places and people I want to, soak in as much as I can so that there are very few (if not none) 'Ah, should have done that' experiences, and to use the cliche, make the most of it. With some effort and luck, hopefully the rest will fall in place.

"We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come."

Summer Months

A few days ago a friend from IIT had '9 years' as his Facebook status. Apparently it was 9 years to the day that we had attended our first class. It got me thinking about all subsequent summer months (May, June, July) and how I've spent them. And more often than not, they have been characterized by changes and transitions.

2001 was when it started. College. The weeks leading up to that day in July were amongst the most anxious and most joyous days of my life. It was sweeter because it had come after a year in the dumps. I wasn't quite sure if I was more happy for myself or my parents. The weeks after that very first day, however were memorable in a totally different way. But for the bunch of us who underwent the arguably necessary ritual of ragging; things would never be the same again. Inhibitions were shed once and for all, swear words hearted, physical and mental tolerance levels increased, and a sneak peek given of a world full of quirky, smart, different-from-me, nice, not so nice people that was to be our home for the next four or five years.

2002 was my first 2 1/2 month long summer vacation. A lot of my friends from school had come home. We would later realize that it was the last time we would have such a big gang. Get-togethers happened practically every day at each others' house. Dinners. lunches, movies and just chatting about stuff. I was in the stage where I missed school and my friends and had not yet totally become comfortable with college life. So it was a return to my comfort zone, so as to say. 

By 2003, I had assimilated the IIT culture and known myself a lot more. Although not by choice, I had also realized that I wasn't going to break any academic records. So I decided to pursue other activities and learning the guitar took more importance than anything else. Just before coming home for the summer vacation, I had my friend teach me how to hold the G, C Em and D chords. He told me that if I could play them and do the transitions, I could play practically 90% of all the songs that I had ever heard. I believed him, went home, convinced my parents to buy me a guitar (it wasn't hard in any way though. I had quite a bit of music sense in me and my parents knew that) and spent the better part of 2 months trying to string together Greenday's Time Of My Life and Poison's Every Rose Has It's Thorn. When I went back to college, I had added Take It Easy to my repertoire. It was a thrilling experience. 

2004 was my first real experience with the city of Bangalore. Hard to believe, but I didnt drink alcohol back then. Bad life choice. Watching the Euro with my friends in the common area of the place we stayed in, the trek on the railway track at Sakleshpur, working in a company (the most exciting part was getting the ID and being able to swipe in and out!) and working for a boss, the feeling of getting the first pay check, and for the first time being able to buy something for my parents - those two months were full of first experiences.

It was in 2005 that I finally got to feel the summer heat of Delhi in its full glory. We had to stay back in campus to start our final projects and I was also beginning my preparation for the CAT. The 45+ temperatures forced me to a very scheduled life. Swimming pool at 6:30 followed by breakfast at 7:30. I would then rush to the library or the lab to either give a mock test or meet my supervisor and get some project work done. Lunch was mostly taken at the nearby canteen and I would come back to the library to study or read a novel but mostly ended up taking a nap. It wasn't until after sundown that all of us would return to our hostel rooms which were like furnaces. It was impossible to sleep there. So we would have dinner, go out at times and come back to grab a place in the common room in front of the cooler. It was obvious therefore that finally when it rained in Delhi, all of us just went berserk. Windows were opened to let the rain come in the room as we went outside to get drenched.

2006. I remember feeling a void after my final presentation was over. 5 glorious, memorable years had ended. There was more than a tinge of sadness amongst us. It was relief rather than happiness which was the dominant feeling. I had to pack up everything and send it home to Bokaro. A new life in Bangalore was about to begin in June and I don't think I was looking forward to it. I hadn't achieved what I had been striving for the last year and was utterly disappointed. It was a tough couple of months. Suddenly I felt uprooted and very unsure of myself. There was however, a new job in a new city. And thankfully, a lot of my friends were coming too. And there was the World Cup. July was spent house hunting with my future room mates which was nothing like any of us had experienced before. I started my life as a coder in Java, cheered for Zidane and started discovering the pubs of Bangalore.

My parents left Bokaro in 2007. That was the biggest change for me that year, I think. Home took on a different meaning when I went there for the last time. A year into the job, I loved my life and had actually started to like my job a bit.  But apart from the usual weekend trips and hanging out with friends, the summer of 2007 did not have anything particularly different. The usual highs and lows.

By 2008, I had finally realized that I wanted to do an MBA in the US. So I began seriously preparing for the applications. That was the main theme of the entire year, let alone the summers. And yes, I watched Euro with my roommate. We made french toast and maggi and tea during the half time break. Good times.

And finally last year. Well, Darden happened. I quit my job in June, left Bangalore and really had mixed feelings towards where I was headed. It's always hard to leave behind something permanently. Knowing that there is no coming back. No matter how much you disliked it when you were there. I didnt hate being a software engineer. I just didnt like it as much as I should have if I wanted a longterm career in it. And there was house #40 and Bangalore and all my friends. 3 terrific years of a continuation of life after IIT. It was hard to let go of all that. 

So there it is. I have successfully been able to keep myself occupied for almost two hours now. Which takes care of most of my evening. If you are still reading, you're either really jobless or know me pretty well enough to read through the summary of my summers. This one? Well you already know about it, I guess. It's quite significant in the scheme of things. How much impact it will have on my future is hard to say. But like most of the summer months before, it has been different than the rest of the year.

A Month To Go

At lunch today, a fellow intern said -"I'm ready to go back to school". No, she's not done with her project and I don't think she hates her work. And if I remember correctly, over the last week or so, I've seen the stray Facebook update from a couple of my Darden friends saying the same thing.  It got me thinking. Am I ready to go back to school? Like most things, I don't know.

I miss C'ville. I miss the energy and the familiarity. And a host of other things. But that is for another post. Next year, same time, maybe. 

At the same time, the summer has been an interesting experience so far. A self discovery of sorts. A perfect transition, as far as I can think of - from the no business, all coding software engineer to this mixed bag of technology trends, competitive analysis, consumer habits and the art of converting bullet points to fancy looking shapes which provide second order insights.

Getting to talk to heads of various divisions has been great. Product Management, Business Planning, Content & Services, Product Marketing. They mean more than just titles now. Also, the 'real world' aspect is becoming very clear. With everybody from the OEMs and the Carriers to the Content Generators and the App Developers trying to take a share of the same pie, so often, it's the framing, the positioning, the negotiations and the compromises which see a business proposal through. There is absolutely no dearth of innovation or crazy new ideas in this space. But not every idea is making a million dollars. Not every app is getting a million downloads. 

But enough of trying to sound intelligent and MBA student like. Dallas is like an oven now. And somehow, more than the temperature, it's just the brightness of the sun which fries my brains. There are no evenings. I mean when the sun sets at 9:00 PM, where do you squeeze in the evening?
More alone time has meant longer and more frequent emails to some of my friends. Then, apart from the Despicable Me's and the Inceptions, I've managed to watch an eclectic range of movies. The Visitor, Religulous, The Big Lebowski, Apocalypse Now (I also read Heart of Darkness after it which I thought was too wordy to enjoy or understand in one read).

Exploring good places to drink beer has been fun. And it's given me the opportunity to hang out with my friend from IIT. It's funny how having lead very different lives since our college days and pursuing very different careers, we still have so much to talk about. Some of it revolves round the very differences and trying to understand the other's perspective. Then there's recounting hostel days and people. A good part of it is about our current state of being - internship, bosses, decisions and  the changes ahead. And lastly, there's music and a bit of physics thrown in. I guess the alcohol helps a lot too. Particularly memorable was last weekend's chance visit to 'Bavarian Grill' - a family owned German restaurant in Plano. I had some of the most amazing tasting beer ever. So smooth. There was an old man playing the accordion close to us. Our waitress was super helpful in deciphering the German menu for us and suggesting beers based on what we liked. Even my 'not too hoppy, wheat, kinda light - yes, I like Blue Moon' was enough for her to suggest me a couple. Both of them were fantastic.

And lastly, I read this book. Loved it.

Updates From Dallas

It's my first time living alone. I've always had roommates before this. At undergrad, there were a bunch of us in the hostel (or dorm, as it is called here). After the first two years, we had single occupancy rooms but that hardly meant anything. Most of us would keep our doors open throughout the day and people would be shouting out and walking into each other's room every now and then. Then Bangalore happened and I was lucky enough to find three friends from college to lodge with. It became a mini hostel and anyone that we knew, who came to Bangalore, would stay with us. In fact, throughout the first year there were only a couple of months when only the four of us were staying in the house! Charlottesville hasn't been very different. A roommate, the occasional birthday celebration and the impromptu get together for beer, meant that my habit of having quite a few people to talk to, to eat dinner with or just to go out for a drink on a day to day basis, stayed.

Not anymore. And 3 weeks into this, I have mixed feelings. I'm leading a pretty disciplined life. Office, home, go out for a jog at times, watch football highlights while having dinner, read a book or surf the net and go to sleep. And I can't say that I'm bored or particularly feeling the need of having people to shout out about a FaceBook status message, a news item or some stupid joke. It's a little weird. For the first week, I would go to sleep really early for lack of anything else to do. So then I started reading and have managed to finish my first book in a year. About A Boy by Nick Hornby. Quite liked it.

Weekends are fun. Coincidentally, one of my very close friends from undergrad is also interning at Dallas. We hang out on weekends. I talk about my MBA experience and he updates me on the trials and tribulations of a PhD student.

Work's picking up. It has been a good learning experience so far. Just getting up to date with what's happening in the wireless industry and getting a sense of current and future trends. My day typically begins with going through endgadget, gizmodo and similar websites to keep up to date with the iPhones, the Droids and the EVOs. Have been able to see and play around with a few. And I must say, there's a new found appreciation for non iPhone (read Android) devices. No, I'm not switching anytime soon but it's a really fascinating and continuously evolving space. There are an insane number of things that are being done by the startups and app developers - from location based services to media streaming to content aggregation to social networking. Reading about them in itself has been an eye opener for me because prior to coming here, I  thought that I had a fair idea of what was happening in the Smartphone world. Turns out, I knew very little!

Haven't really explored Dallas much apart from a few bars and pubs. Weekends are pretty much spent watching the World Cup. Praying for an Argentina - Ghana final which Argentina wins 3-2 in Extra Time. Is it asking for too much ? 

Of Ringtones, Crying Babies & Bar Code Scanners

The last 30 days have been a mad dash. After 16 flights and over 70 hours of flying, I'm finally taking a breather. If this even remotely resembles the consulting lifestyle - spending half of your day in airports through endless lines of security checks and waiting in the departure lounge for the connecting flight; making a complete mockery of your food habits and sleep cycle - then I'm glad that I didn't get a chance to try it out.

Interviews, traveling across the world for a $150/day India trip, visiting ex flat mates and  friends in Bangalore and finding the house to be just like it was when I had left and finally the super exciting exercise of packing up for eleven weeks, leaving C'ville and arriving at Dallas - life's been pretty hectic of late.

This first thing which hit me upon arriving at the New Delhi airport after a 15 hour non stop flight from New York were the ringtones. Loud, gaudy and ringing for ages while the owner of the phone basked in the glory of his awesome choice of music. We keep hearing about the telecom industry in India. About the potential and the scope. I think people's obsession with flashy ringtones and caller tunes is a major contributor towards it. Anyway, I clearly wasn't expecting this.  Not after the ordeal which I had just been through. The kid in the seat behind me on the flight had made it his favorite pastime to kick my seat every 15 minutes for the entire journey. My occasional glance and request to his mother would only increase the interval. To begin with he was doing it unknowingly. But I think later he found a sadistic pleasure in it - to see me twitching and turning in order to get some sleep. He knew that I knew he would strike sooner or later. The certainty of the event combined with the uncertainty of the exact moment of the assault was what made it lethal. After sometime, I just gave up and watched Young Frankenstein and a crappy Bollywood movie instead. 

That was not all. There were a hundred kids in the flight and it seemed all of them were seated close to me. What more, they seem to synchronize their crying so that one would pick up immediately after another stopped. And somehow their moms seemed least bothered! Clearly, saying 'Stop crying Beta' to a 2 year old isn't going to work because a) his linguistic abilities are not yet developed enough to process that sentence and b) he's crying because he's pissed off about something (like alcohol not being offered for a second time, say) and the only way to make him stop crying is to find out and solve the problem. Action, mothers. Not words.

It's good to see India beating the Govt. forecast of GDP growth and surging ahead at 7.4%. It's sad to see simple things not being implemented especially when the Infys and the Wipros have had that technology for ever. Take bar code scanners to scan boarding passes for example. Or simple displays to help transit passengers figure out the details of the connecting flight. Instead, at places we have a person ticking off names from a list while collecting boarding passes and another one crying out 'All Kolkata passengers to the left and Amritsar passengers to the right' on top of his voice as we come out of the plane. The result - longer queues, greater confusion, more noise about nothing in particular and pissed off passengers. Having the technology is of no use if we are not able to find ways to put it to use in our daily lives.

Internship begins tomorrow. Should be exciting. New city. New people.