Brain Teaser

A milkman wants to give 4 litres of milk to his customer. He has forgotten to bring measuring pot. He is carrying three buckets of different sizes . Largest bucket can accommodate 8 litres of milk, Medium sized bucket can accommodate 5 litres of milk and smallest sized bucket can accommodate 3 litres of milk. His largest bucket is full of milk while other two buckets are empty. He is not allowed to do any marking in any of the buckets. He is however, allowed to pour milk from one bucket to the other. How can he ensure that only 4 litres of milk are given to the customer. I will give correct answer by saturday, 4th July,09.

Michael Jackson

The news of Michael Jackson’s death at a young age has come as a rude shock to me. He was undisputed king of pop music. I rate him as the greatest pop star of this century. With his death, a void is created in music world which will probably never be filled up. May his soul rest in peace.

An unpleasant memory

I don’t like to travel. I am very happy that I have curtailed it to a large extent now a days. Unfortunately, in my heydays, I had to travel extensively on consulting assignments. I had couple of my clients in UAE and so naturally, I had to make at least one visit in a month to UAE to monitor ongoing projects. My client used to bear the cost of my travel and boarding and lodging. Local office of my client used to book the ticket for me. I had the privilege of flying by Emirates flights almost on all occasions. The inflight service of this airline is without doubt excellent. I have no complaint whatsoever. I had the opportunity to go by Air India once on the occasion of my last visit to UAE. I was very happy that I was at last going by national airlines. There is a feeling of national pride in going by our own airlines. Although I do criticize the Indian system occasionally in my blog, but that does not mean I am less patriotic. I love my country as much as anybody else. I only share my views and it is for the betterment of the system. A child loves his mother very much irrespective of whether she is beautiful or not. My visit visa in UAE used to be deposited in the airport by my client half an hour before arrival of the flight. As usual, on the day of my departure, I informed my client of my flight details and proceeded to the airports 3 hours before the scheduled time of departure. I was holding a suitcase and a handbag carrying my laptop. There was a big queue in front of the booking counter. I stood in the queue and was waiting for my turn to get boarding pass. After about 30 minutes, an announcement was made that the flight has become full and Air India regrets inconvenience caused to the passengers who were unable to board the Aircraft. The counter was then closed. I was holding confirmed ticket in my hands and wondering how it is possible. They were willing to give me hotel accommodation which I refused. I came back home very disturbed. I was very angry with the Airlines Ground staff. Out of frustration, I wrote a letter to the editor of Times of India detailing the incident and demanding compensation from Air India for loss to my business on account of irresponsible behaviour on the part of Airlines management. I phoned up my client at Dubai and apologized to him for what happened and informed him of my next visit. I went to Dubai after about a weeks time.Thereafter, I literally forgot about this incidence. When I came back to India after 3 weeks, I was told by one of my colleagues that my letter had appeared in Times of India. As I had expected, I did not get any monetary compensation , but I got a letter of apology from the airlines.

Corruption

India ranks 83rd in the list of 100 most corrupt countries in the world. It is shameful for every Indian. Corruption is rampant all over. There is not a single institution which is free from corruption. Police, Judiciary, Ministry, Corporates, Schools, Media are all corrupt. Even criminal investigating agencies are corrupt. Money and muscle power rules over everything. Common public has meekly surrendered to the corrupt system prevailing in the country. If you have money power, you can get away with any crime be it financial fraud, murder, rape etc. Two thirds of ministers have criminal records in our country. Strong nexus exists between ministers, Corporates, Builders and Criminals. All have their representatives in the parliament. Do you expect them to pass any bill in Lok Sabha which is in the interest of common man. Recently, MHADA in Mumbai allotted plots to common public based on the lottery system. According to the report published in Times of India, around 6 lakh people applied for allotment of 3,500 Mhada flats. The deposit money along with application ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 1 Lakh depending on the size and location of flats.. Considering the number of applicants which is reported to be around 6 lakhs, MHADA must have collected more than 250 crores by way of deposit from public. Application forms were collected 3 months before the lottery draw. Assuming simple interest of 8% per annum, MHADA must have made at least Rs 6 crores by way of interest from deposit money of public in just 3 months. There was very slim chance of getting allotment considering number of applicants and available flats. On top of that, quotas were fixed for scheduled castes and Tribes. When the results were finally announced in May, while most of them did not get any allotment including those who submitted multiple applications, there were some people who got allotment of more than one flats. What was most disturbing is that, their application numbers were found to be consecutive. I understand, a third party computer software was used to generate random numbers which were matched with the application serial Nos of applicants. If the software were genuine, there is not even one in million chance that the same person with consecutive serial no will get more than one allotment. It seems, some manipulation has been done in the software to match the random numbers with the application nos of the applicants who seem to have bribed Mhada officials. This scam may never be exposed because very powerful people are involved in it. Even if it is exposed, who will investigate the matter. Even investigating agencies are corrupt. This whole Drama of lottery system is enacted time and again to fool around the public. This is not the first time that a housing development Authority has used unfair means to allot flats to public. Barely 3 months ago, Delhi Housing Board was also accused of manipulating allotment. An enquiry committee was instituted then to investigate the matter. What happened thereafter, who were the officials involved in the scam, what disciplinary action was taken against them, nobody knows. As long as the common public will remain mute spectator to all this, nothing is going to change. We will witness more and more scams like this in the coming days. Corruption is the root cause of all the evils in the Indian society. Corruption is breeding unchecked and by now has spread at each level of government machinery right from the level of Havaldar up to the highest level . If you have to deal with government officials, you will understand the gravity of situation. You wont be given any appointments with govt officials without you giving bribes, leave alone getting the job done. Big corporates, Builders, Dons have hand in glove with ministers. They have the tacit understanding that during election time, they will bear all the expenses of the minister and if the minister is voted to power, he will use his good offices to award them government contracts and other business deals in return . Goverments come and go, ministers change, government officials change but what remains is the corruption.

Are you listening

(Contents of this page look like quotes but they are not quotes. They are originally written for you)
Nature is trying to tell you something. Are you listening. Peaks of mountains tell you keep your self esteem high. Don’t downgrade yourself. Flowing river is telling you flow with the time. Don’t stand still. You will be left behind. Little birds flutter their wings with joy and tell you, live in the present. Celebrate every moment. Don’t worry about the future. God is there to take care of you. Clouds in the sky tell you, dance with joy and thank God that he has given you this beautiful life. Rays of the rising sun tell you, do not discriminate for all are equal in the eyes of God. Branches of trees laden with fruits tell you, be humble. Learn to give. You will receive only if you give. If you don’t give, you will lose whatever you have. Sweet fragrance of flower tells you, spread the message of peace and harmony around you. Harvest in the field tells you, sow the seed and wait for the harvest. Don’t hurry up for you don’t get anything before time. You reap what you sow. Little ants tell you, get organized and work in unison, you will not fail no matter how difficult the task is. Rising waves of the sea tell you, keep your ambition high and make efforts to achieve it. Treasure of knowledge is hidden in nature. Child learns much faster than a grown up man or woman because the child is listening to the nature all the time. What about you. Are you listening.

An experience

I have learnt few lessons while managing business of my client in the last 15 days which I would like to share with you. Businessmen in India are facing multitude of problems in managing business. Inventory control, production planning, MRP etc which you typically learn in any Business school does not work in a highly unpredictable environment. I am not supposed to disclose the real business problems of my client to you but I can take a hypothetical case to explain how difficult it is to manage business. Imagine a scenario wherein you have made commitment to your customers of delivering the products in a given time frame based on certain inputs like available machine capacity and labour and material. What happens if 25% labour suddenly fails to turn up in the shopfloor or the material you received from supplier is rejected due to quality problems and the supplier does not have enough stock to replace it immediately, your production plan goes haywire and you will fail to deliver the goods as promised. Mind you, in this particular case, you have enough machine capacity. In fact, machines are lying idle in the plant but you are unable to produce because of non availability of labour. What is the implication in business if you fail to deliver in time. Customer may cancel the order in which case you end up carrying dead stock because the product you manufactured is make to order and cannot be sold to any other customer. More than the material cost, labour cost etc that you have incurred, you lose goodwill in the market which is going to impact your business in future. Your cash flow gets effected, your sales turnover goes down. Uncertainties cannot be factored in planning. If there is a definite pattern of absenteism, it can be factored in capacity plan but if the pattern is erratic, it is very difficult to factor it in planning. Same is the case with material. If one particular lot is rejected at the last moment and there is no other source of supply, you have no option but to wait for replacement. It will impact your production plan and ultimately the delivery commitment. I have taken only two examples to prove a point how difficult it is to honour the commitment in a highly unpredictable business environment but in real life situation, there are plenty of uncertainties which throw the best plan out of gear resulting in chaos and confusion. Timely delivery and high quality of products is the essence of staying ahead in today’s highly competitive Business environment. The challenge is to brainstorm and find some solution to cope up with uncertainties and come out winners. Based upon my experience, I have prepared a report highlighting business issues and suggesting feasible solutions. This report has been submitted to the client upon his return from foreign tour. What course of action my client takes on my recommendation, only the time will tell.

Money

We put up lot of hard work during our prime time sometimes even at the cost of our personal and social commitments so that by the time we retire, we are able to save enough money so that we can live peacefully for the rest of our life . But unfortunately, by the time we retire, we are afflicted with all sorts of ailments, and we end up spending all our savings trying to restore our health. We are back to square one. We repent for not being able to devote enough time to our spouse, children and our close friends. We don’t realize that we have to pay the price for earning money. The price we pay could be far more than the value of money we earn in exchange. Many of us have this misconception that money gives happiness. Money cannot give happiness. It can give physical comforts only. A rich person may be afflicted with several diseases like diabetes, cancer, Hypertension etc. Can a sick person be happy with millions of rupees stacked in bank account. Money is important to satisfy our basic needs like food,shelter clothing etc only. We should put up efforts to be able to earn enough money so that we can live comfortably and we are able to satisfy our basic needs. Earning more and more money is a greed and can never be satisfied. Some people want to earn more money than is necessary because they want to lead a luxurious life. Leading a life of luxury is somewhat like taking drugs. The body gets addicted to physical comfort and then it is very difficult for the person to give up luxury and lead a normal life. Too much physical comfort makes the body sick and prone to desease. Some earn more money so they can attain high status and power in the society. Some people are crazy of power because through misuse of power and position, they can earn money. There are some people who are so much obsessed with money that they can do anything for the sake of it. They can cheat, steal, rob, indulge in fraudulent activities which are harmful to the society. Money is the root cause of all the problems today. Divisions are created in families over property disputes. Public Limited Companies go into liquidation over financial irregularities. Underworld dons use threats and other means to extort money from builders, Cine stars, film distributors and financiers etc. Happiness is the state of mind and has nothing to do with money. A poor man who is barely able to make both ends meet can be far more happy than a rich man who has amassed wealth of crores of rupees. A beggar is not scared of death because he has nothing to lose but a rich man is scared of death because he does not want to lose his possessions.