Little Tommy and Math.........Joke

Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything; tutors, flash cards, special learning centers, in short, everything they could think of. Finally in a last ditch effort, they took Tommy down & enrolled him in the local Catholic School.

After the first day, little Tommy comes home with a very serious look on his face. He doesn’t kiss his mother hello. Instead, he goes straight to his room & starts studying.

Books & papers are spread out all over the room and little Tommy is hard at work. His mother is amazed. She calls him down to dinner and to her shock, the minute he is done he marches back to his room without a word and in no time he is back hitting the books as hard as before. This goes on for sometime, day after day while the mother tries to understand what made all the difference.

Finally, little Tommy brings home his report card. He quietly lays it on the table and goes up to his room and hits the books. With great trepidation, his mom looks at it and to her surprise, little
Tommy got an A in math. She can no longer hold her curiosity. She goes to his room and says: “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?” Little Tommy looks at her and shakes his head. “Well, then,” she replies, “was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms, WHAT was it?” Little Tommy looks at her and says, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t fooling around.”

What do you call the Knowledge of Ignorance ?

In some rare encounters with specialists in a particular field like say Music, Painting, Literature, Science, Technology, we come to admire their vast repertoire of knowledge and hence as a consequence, we come to reflect on our ignorance. Awareness of our current level of ignorance is the first step to being more alert, knowledgeable in future. Another benefit that these more accomplished souls provide is a verifiable benchmark or milestone for us in the journey to make our mark in life.

But, there is a slight hitch. While, we would definitely like to interact and learn more from these gifted souls, the vice-versa if ok would be a dream come true. !!! That should be the ideal aim of every average individual like yours truly.

I am remembered of a joke when one beautiful woman goes over to George Bernard Shaw and says " Think of a child with my beauty and your brains, Wouldn't that be wonderful".. To which G.B Shaw replies, " I would love that would happen, but I only pray that the reverse does not turn out to be true "..

A leader's Predicament

One major characteristic which distinguishes a leader from others is his ability to dream a non-existent future. His ability to paint a future and articulate the direction in which his team should proceed in order to achieve the stated goal gives him the title of " Visionary ". Besides that, cajoing the team and coaxing them to carry on in spite of setbacks along with the way apart from providing certain milestones as indication of progress also are strong differentiators for great leaders.

Now, a word of caution. History is replete with cases where the Leaders have held on to their views rather dogmatically and unable to come to terms with the changing scenerio and trends. Its one thing to hold on to our views rather passionately but it should be tempered with the trends and external conditions which are more transient and prone to rapid changes. These could involve new legal restrictions, environmental laws, political landscape, or disruptive technologies which could disrupt the rules of the game.

Did the Landline Telecom companies forsee the impending threats of Internet Protocol based phones ?

So, it will be worthwhile to ponder how much should a leader hold an idea close/dear to his heart. How much passion should he pump into his team and when should one change directions citing changed market conditions. How will his team react to such mid-course corrections and what should a leader do to continue to inspire faith in his comrades.

The Education Business

When business runs in our blood, we get tempted to see and perceive everything from the money angle. Such has not been the case atleast in India, from where your's truly hails. There seems to be clear and distinct segmentation of sectors where profit seeking is considered ethical and Education is excluded from this list. Education has always been considered a noble task and hence the motive for profits has been shunned consciously. This has led to a situation wherein even sadly enough, premier educational institutions like Indian Institute of Science,Technology as well as Management have to depend on Government funds for their survival.

Contrast this with the United States, the premier provider of higher education in the world. Its interesting to see that here, private universities like Harvard & Stanford have been able to thrive and rank as of the best universitites in the world in spite of zero government funding. While its a known fact that these universities enjoy huge grants and endowments which make them to carry out such pioneering research, a less known fact is the ability to attract top talent is also due to the fact that they resort to Grade-Inflation. Reports indicate that Harvard awards A grades(highest grade possible in a course) to nearly 50 % of the class. Why do they do this ? One reason why they do this is due to the fact that those who study there come from affluent families and from the university's point of view, it makes lot of horse-sense to be in the good books of these influential who's who. The generous grades also accrue a lot of positive vibes and referral about the college's experience amongst other siblings in the family. Its ultimately a simple business truth that dawns upon us that its the wealthy family who fill the coffers of these colleges. And based on the succeses achieved by their children, some families go on to bequeath their fortunes for generous grants and research endowments. Thus, its a typical case of soft-power that these colleges extend on the aristocratic and it definitely takes a long period of time for building and maintaining this reputation. This partly explains the generous award of Grades as detailed in this article. In fact, this article humorously justifies the grade-inflation as "Business as Usual ".

Its time that India draws a leaf out of this American experience of having a "for-profit" motive in the Education sector. It should done with the objective of self-sustenance and minimising external funding dependancies and hence this motive is worth emulating.

McDonalds and Infosys

What connects McDonalds and Infosys...

Both are in the Real Estate Business...

"We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue from which our tenants can pay us rent." ... Ray Kroc, CEO and Founder of McDonalds.

Unfortunately, its very difficult to get a similar statement out of Nandan Nilekani, the astute, "wicked-smart" CEO of Infosys.I pray that one day, he ends up in a lonely highway with a flat tyre and then reminds himself of a FLAT-World...


While McDonald's does not generally outright advertise this -- although inferences to it can be found on the corporate website -- perhaps one of the most negelected points people seem to miss, when talking about McDonald's, is the fact that the corporation is a real estate powerhouse.

The largest commercial real estate landowner in the United States, McDonald's property portfolio was estimated to be valued around eight billion dollars, as of 2001. The origins of McDonald's real estate empire begin much earlier than this, however.

Although McDonald's first opened its doors in 1954, it wasn't until 1956, after courting many an investor, did Ray Kroc consider and implement an idea put forth by Sonneborn, to tap into the real estate market. Shortly after Sonnenborn made his pitch to the investors (the same audience to whom he purported made the statements above), the Franchise Realty Corporation, McDonald's real estate subsidiary, was born.

In simplified terms, McDonald's makes money on real estate via two methods. First, it buys and sells properties, as one might suspect. Often these are restaurant lots, but such is not necessarily always the case. McDonald's will buy properties that it feels are, or will be, hot locations, and it of course sells properties that are underperforming or otherwise not doing so well. Again, all of this seems pretty orthodox.

Secondly, on top of the franchise fees which McDonald's charges its franchisees to use the "McDonald's" name, it charges rent to the franchisees to use the corporately-owned properties. According to their August, 2003 reports, McDonald's had approximately $1.6 billion dollars in earnings available for fixed charges, for the six months prior to June 30, 2003. Of those earnings, $141.6 million -- nearly ten percent -- came from "rent charges...considered to be representative of interest factor"



Infosys has become the Indian land-gobbler grabbing lands, left right centre all over the country, some of which include controversial wet marsh-lands( crucial for sustaining and replenishing the watertable and also for birds who use these as migratory homes). There is also an active proposal to build a 4 star hotel with a golf-course to pamper global CEO's who land up in Bangalore so that they can continue to sing paeans in praise of the Indian IT industry..

The reason given by Narayana Murthy for this goes like " Most star hotels in Bangalore get booked in peak season and rates for rooms are as high as $ 250-300 per day. ". so, this move to build hotels is to insulate them from unavailability of hotel-rooms as well as to save them from sky-rocketing prices. In Business parlance, this strategy is termed as " Backward Integration" where, a product manufacturer starts producing the raw materials himself so that his dependance on the market for them is reduced and he also gets protected from the escalation in raw material costs which will impact his product cost. For example, many petrochemical, fertilizer and Garment manufacturing companies require lot of Petro-based raw-materials. When the raw-materials costs shoot up due to oil price fluctuations, these products also cost more. So, companies like Reliance have started focussing on building Refineries themselves so that they can use them in their Industries to produce Polyester Yarns and Poly-Propylene. Not surprisingly, Reliance's cost per unit of these products are one of the cheapest in the world. Hence, Reliance is not that vulnerable to market shocks as compared to Grasim or National Fertilisers Limited.

But, coming back to the topic of Infosys's land signing spree, make no mistakes, I see an imminent slow-down in the IT sector post 2009 when the tax holidays for this sector are being proposed to be removed by the Government. Currently, Infosys and other Indian IT companies hardly pay any tax to the Goverment while all other traditional industries pay taxes in the range of 30-32 % of their Net Income. So, pretty soon,Infosys hopes to rake in huge profits due to real estate appreciation and thereby will continue to create more millionaries for years to come... In short, Infosys is Powered by Intellect, Driven by Real Estate Values.. Hmmmmmmmmmm..

Mallu Laughter...

Laughter Via Kerala.

Name the wonly part of the werld, where Malayalis don't werk hard? Kerala

Why is industrial productivity so low in Kerala? Because 86% of the shift time is spent on lifting, folding and re-tying the lungi.

Why did the Malayali buy an air-ticket? To go to Thuubai, zimbly to meet his ungle in the Gelff.

Why do Malayali's go to the Gelff? To yearn meney.

What did the Malayali do when the plane caught fire? He zimbly jembd out of the vindow.

Why did the Malayali go to the concert in Rome? Because he wanted to hear pope music.

What is Malayali management graduate called? Yem Bee Yae.

Why did his wife divorce him? Because he was louwing another woman.

Who found out that? His aandy.

What does a Malayali do when he goes to America? He changes his name from Karunakaran to Kevin Curren.

What does a Malayali use to commute to office everyday? An Oto.

Who is Malayali's fyamousu eactor end aectress? Geedha, Revadhi, Zilgsmidha end Ambiga.

Why Kerala is the heghly literate state in India? Its easily giving Degree to get rid of the peapal from Kerala1

Why Arab countreis are looking for only Keralites? They are ready to do anything for meney.

Which car does he purchase when he gets license? Second hand Mercedes.

Please don't delete this file after reading, at least you should send this mail to:

10 Malayalis & you will receive cecenut oil 20 Malayalis and you will receive benena chips 40 Malayalis you will receive appams

Send this to 100 Malayalis and you will get free land near the rice field behind the lungi factory with additional incentive of a whole month's supply of cecenut oil and benena chips free

Joke of the day.

Paddy's at the bar and he's drunk so much that the bartender asks him to leave. Paddy insists that he is not drunk, and he will prove it.

"See that cat coming in the door?" he says. "Well that cat has only one eye and that proves I am not drunk."

"You are drunker than I thought!" says the bartender. "That cat is not coming in, it's going out."

Price of Children

The US government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.
It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to *history* to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first blush,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.
You get to be immortal.
You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits,

So . . one day they will like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!! Bang for the Buck.....

And, you get to do it all over again with your grandchildren and who knows maybe even with your Great Grand Children....