Nagamangala Temple

Nagamangala Temple, Rahu-Ketu Dosa Nivaran, Nagamangala Direction, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Having just come back from my vacation in India, and with my memory still fresh of the beautiful experiences, I could not hold back but research about the places I visited this time. Specially about a temple in Nagamangala - an ancient one believed to be over 1000 years old. The temple dedicated is to Lord Soumyakeshava (Vishnu), and is about 150 km from Bangalore, off of NH4 on the way towards Hassan.

(Lord Soumyakeshava - presiding diety at Nagamangala)

Ancient temples are generally associated folklores or have some mysticism surrounding them. This helps in kindering desire in some to explore the place and in some to seek the blessings to solve their problem or bring good luck. It is believed that this temple solves the Rahu-Ketu dosha (astrological significance) and removes any blockade that is currently affecting someone. The temple was built by Hoysala around 12th century and carries their characteristics such as a star shaped base around a central pillared hall. Later, the Vijaynagara kings added "Garuda sthumb" to the temple. The central hall has an intricately carved dome - Mandala, which has intricately carved Adhi Shesha and 108 Shankus (Counches). It is amazing to see how no two Shankus look alike. The Adhi Shesha sitting on a big Shanku which appears as if it is placed on heap of 108 Shanku, is a unique feature and is believed that no where in the world you find this particular form.

(Mandala - In the center Adhi Shesha wraps around big Shanku. Surrounding it is 108 Shankus)

During the course of over 800 years, the temple seems to have suffered a lot of neglect. The dieties on the main gopuram leading towards the central hall are crumbling. The sculptures carved on the stones are getting worn out. Importantly, a piece of history is getting lost because of the neglect and lack of attention from the government.

(A diety on the main Gopuram)

But all doesn't seem to have been lost. Some form of restoration work has already been started on the Gopuram, and there is also a plan to restore the Garuda Sthamb. All of this would not been possible merely by the government's help. Some people have already come forward, and helping restore this beautiful historical monument. Hopefully the next time we see the temple, it would have been restored to its old glory - if not completely then at least to somewhat extent.

If you wish to find more about the temple, please do contact the temple priest Sri Thiru Narayana Bhattar at:

Sri Sowmiya Keshava Temple. Nagamangala Post, Nagamangala Taluk, Mandya District, Karnataka, India. Pin: 571432. Cellphone: 9448-750603, Landline: (082)-34286529. (Thanks to Seshadri for the phone numbers.)

Impressions from a H2H

Impressions from H2H, Head on Competition and its Demerits to the Evaluator, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

A H2H or the head-to-head is a jargon that we use to indicate that there is a direct competition with the competitor(s). Often this is a hectic activity which is preceded by a lot of prognosis and followed up by post-mortem. Simply because, the future sales depend on this one activity. Most of the times H2H goes on for months, before the customer who is evaluating the product officially declares the findings. So it is not hard imagine the nature of work during such times.

Aside of these, what my impression is about the H2H? To me this appears to be a necessary evil but not everything. Necessary because this shows direct comparison and differentiation with respect to your competitor, and not everything because the purchase decisions are never made just made on the final results. This is akin to saying Ferrari is the best car but we do not see thousands of Ferraris on the road on a daily basis - the general preference car in the US is a Corolla or a Civic or a Ford Focus, and in India this is a Maruti or Santro! This is more so true because every year the bar is raised to such a level that making the next step jump is getting very difficult and sustaining this jump year after year and months after months is getting even more difficult.

To illustrate this more, let us consider two arms manufacturing companies fighting for a market share - a common man. To the common man the company sells the idea that theirs is the best product with the best accuracy and light weight and any other unique or usual selling points. Now the common man being smart puts up a target with a bulls-eye and asks for a demonstration at the same time by the competitors. The two, more or less perform the same in their ability to hit the target, and the results are declared. The next year again, the two competitors meet with the their next version of the product. Since the customer already knows how good the accuracy and precision of the earlier version as he expects the this to be even better... So the next time he draws a smaller bulls-eye and makes the target even harder to achieve. With each year the target getting smaller and smaller to point that it is becoming a infinitesimal small dot, does it make any sense to showcase the product based on its accuracy alone? To a common man, a gun or a air-pistol could be a piece of decoration in his living room, a collector's passion, a theft deterrent protection system, and many more such reasons. Why should one fall trap to the accuracy and precision agenda? I chose arms manufacturing companies because they are far a distance from what I do, but are a close visualization to the realities of a H2H.

Let us consider another example, of an automotive industry in India and the US. Perhaps no other industry is under more pressure than this to sustain itself. Year after year if one needs to drive the sales of millions of car, how long can this be sustained, specially when the roads are not expanding at the same pace? Having more cars is creating more traffic congestion and giving less pleasure to ride. In the US terms, Ford, Toyota, Honda and GM are in a perpetual competition to gain the market share, and these days the hybrid model has become their USP. But Toyota and Honda have already these models, and Ford and GM have already / might come up with these soon, so again they are in the never ending H2H! In the Indian context, the USP is to sell low priced small car. Maruti first came up with a small car and later Fiat, Hyundai and Tata everyone launched theirs, and fighting for a market share. The fuel costs are also a driver here too... With Tata coming up with a Rs. 1 lakh car version, others might be a bitter spot in the future. But it is not going to be long for others to come up with their low cost versions... So the car manufacturing companies will again fight on the basis of fuel and selling price. A common man doesn't need a car if there are better transport systems. Probably he might even own one but minimize its use if there are better transport systems. His reason for a car many other than the low cost or fuel efficiency. At least in case of Tata the driver for the low cost car are status symbol that a car can bring in. So if any car manufacturing company decides to
remodel its car into a smaller versions of buses, and run many such buses providing efficient means of transportation, then they do not have to worry about H2H. Being an internal consumer of its own product, their profitability increases by better forecasting. What if they also decide to remodel themselves to provide pickup and drop-off facilities to office goers and the school goers? Now the pie is no longer selling a car but it is much bigger as they can provide solutions...

So probably there is a point where having a H2H is no longer sustainable or real differentiator, and that is perhaps the point when we should expect to see the industry remodel itself into a totally different way.

Some economics...

Pricing, Game Theory, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Yesterday night my friend bugged me with this question: "In an open market, there are some sellers who have in total 50 books and there some buyers, who have in total $50, that they can spend. What will be the optimal selling price for a book in this market?"

Initially I was taken a back, but later started negotiating my answers with him. According to me, the most optimal selling price is - the maximum price a buyer with the least amount on hand can spend for the book...Obviously, a bit irritated with my circumlocution, he offered me the answer as - "the optimal selling price is $1 for the book, as this would lead to maximum number of books being sold and maximum number of transactions happening...".

Today I offered him a counter question, "What is the actual value of $1? ie. What is the maximum money you will put in to get $1 from me?" His answer was 99 cents. My take on this problem is - the value of $1 is situation based. If it is an auction and it is a $1 that is still in circulation, its value is at the most $1.01, the extra 1 cent for prestige value during an auction. Similarly, the value of $1 could be $1.25, if you do not have sufficient change for a bus ride.

So, my counter argument to the yesterday night's problem is that - there is nothing like optimal selling price. The pricing is governed by the conditions prevailing at that time and price a buyer can offer is dependent on his needs. If this is what the case is, how do people put into practice theories like Game Theory?

Carbon credit system: a gimmick?

Carbon Credit Gimmick, Destruction of Nature Cover up, Sham, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Carbon credits have come into existance due to the Kyoto Protocol that requires signatory countries to bring their CO2 levels 5.2% below their 1990 levels and achieve a certain target by 2012 (source: economictimes.indiatimes.com). Each carbon credit is obtained by reduction of 1 ton of CO2, and countries having the surplus credits can choose to trade these credits for a premium. Interestingly India has surplus of these credits (since it is less industrialized in India, there is lower GHG level and most likely not because of better processes), which gives her an opportunity to make huge wealth . The reason is simple - cost benefit. Cost of bringing down the CO2 levels in developed countries could be $350 per ton whereas it would be $10 per ton in a developing nation.

Something that bothers me is, how is it possible to achieve lower levels of GHG (green house gases) by trading the carbon credits, if the beneficiaries currently are industries? An industry always tries to maximize its wealth, which means larger industrialization. With rate of research success for lowering the GHG lower than that of rate of industrilization, it won't be possible to cutdown on GHG. To worsen the case, developed countries are going to buy carbon credits from developing nations to offset for the difference, instead of cutting their existing levels. So what it means is - overall there is no real any effort to curb the GHG level and to make the environment greener.

Take the example of PUC (pollution under control) certifcate implementation in India (this is quite analogous). Though we have tried to implement Euro I norm for vehicular pollution control, we haven't seen any reduction in pollution levels. Every other city in India is highly polluted. Let us consider a case to understand why is it so.

"If every vehicle produces 10 gm/km (approx. Euro I norm) of GHG and there is a raise of 1 million vehicle on the road every year, assuming every vehicle drives at least 1000 km in a year, there is surplus of 10 million kg or 10,000 tons (which is approx. equivalent to hauling capacity of 160 goods wagons) of GHG in a year! Since there is no program in place for recycling GHG produced, we start with a surplus of 10,000 tons of GHG in the next year. With each year that goes by GHG levels get compounded, so each year is worse than the previous one ..."

So some things that need to be investigated at this point to verify the effectiveness of carbon credit system are, does the Kyoto Protocol address any of the following:
- provides guidelines on how should one use the revenue generated by selling the surplus credits?
- defines what role should government play in this whole gamut?
- verifies have we become more greener than we were before?

Goes without saying: your suggestions and comments are welcome.

Fun at Work

Humor at Work, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

I was sitting bored in the office after having a couple of hectic weeks, and almost dozed over Sun Tzu's Art of War, while trying to finish the book. Something snapped me...two guys just a cubicle away were discussing with each other something over the phone and look how ....

Wandering Mind

Reflections, Depth of Knowledge, Insights from Nature, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Once in a while my mind gets into a philosophical mode. This usually happens when I am on a nature trail or sitting totally bored in my office and looking for something to do with the spare time. So my idle mind starts to think of: similarities between nature and corporate world, or an abstract concept or creating a satire.


This purple flower caught my attention in Big Basin, which in SantaCruz, Ca, USA, during a trekking trip. I was deeply amazed by what I saw as nature's team management and mentoring program. The three flowers in the full-bloom were competiting against the other, yet were in a perfect synergy. At the same time, the buds were sharing the light space with these flowers. If I look at this in its entirity, it looks so beautiful in the first glance, and yet it never makes us realize there is so much beneath this...


This is a picture of what I call as "as much over, as much under?". This was taken at lake Bei Hai Park in Beijing. The tip of the tree is touching the wafer surface, creating a sort of illusion. I am not sure whether the tip under the surface or it is a relfection of itself. I can not realize the truth unless I get inside water and make my hand wet. On a philosophical note, nothing can be realized without due efforts.





Now moving away from the trails of the nature to the boredom of the office labour... This, what I am call as "Fun at Work", is a satire. It conveys two meanings. One perspective projects it as, a group trying collectively to achieve the objective and the dynamics it undergoes at each phase. The other is, life of cycle of an employee in an organization - what keeps him going to what makes him gone...




In this one, I am trying to compare the management/organizational structural difference between a small and a large company. The model consists of interactions of two pyramids. It starts with an assumption that small organizational structure is ideal, as there is a great deal of interaction between top management and employees. There is easy flow of ideas from both sides, hence both agree with each other at equally. So this is how I ended up with a structure on the right.

In the case of a large organization because of its size, it requires representation at strategy(S) and creativity (C) levels from both the sides - different pyramidical structure. As a result there are lot of S+C planes. S+C planes are the points where interactions occur and ideas are agreed upon. With numerous S+C planes the creativity content is more, but communicating this across multiple level becomes critical and challenging.

In the large organizational structure, there are two new pyramids which are formed, as result of the arrangement. It is interesting to note about their base and the tips. They provide a good insight into the working and problems of the corporate world.

Langkawi Island

Langkawi Malayasia, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

On a recent trip to Malaysia, I went to the Langkawi Islands. Though I didn't know anything about the place, still preferred going there on my off-day rather than sitting inside the room. Well, every place gets interesting when friends are around, hence there was nothing for me to regret.


(view from 652m point)

We took a 3 hours cruise ride from Penang through the Melaka strait to our destination. The day was perfect for our picnic - water was tranquil and sky was azure. As we started moving farther away from Penang, we noticed the changes in the colors of the ocean from blue to blue-black and changes in wave patterns from ripples to quite, probably a characteristic of changing depths or may be effect of mixing currents, and once in a while a few small boats. As we reached closer towards Langkawi, another spectacle awaited us. Many small and big islands situated on an emerald color ocean appeared perhaps nothing lesser than a paradise to the city dwellers like me. Whole journey was myriad and a wonderful experience.

At Langkawi, some people prefer island hopping, ie. go from one island to the other island (hopping) on boat rides, some prefer snorkling and diving, some prefer sun-bathing and some just spend time away from routine to bust-off the stress. We unfortunately belonged to the last lot.


(hanging bridge)

Since we didn't have much time to spend, we went around the beaches and took the cable-car ride. Beaches were very picturesque - emarld colored water dabbed with black color because of the reflections from the clouds. The cable-car ride was equally amazing. Unique thing about this is cable-car ride is that, it takes you from ground to one mountain top and from there to another and back to the ground, rather than to a mountain top and then back. At one of the mountain tops, about 625m above the sea level, there is one hanging bridge - an engineering marvel. It gives a feeling of being in space, provides nice views of horizon, and lot of thrill. Distant view from the mountain tops are equally amazing, humbling and empowering, when one feels the distance, height, and surroundings.


(sunset from cruise)

The late sunset is the most appropriate sunset for such an ideal day. On our way back, we enjoyed the cool breeze and colorful sky painted by the sun. For sure, it was one of the best trips I have made, but not sure, if I would be visiting it again or not. Because there are probably many more Langkawi that I haven't seen.