Month: September 2010

Be very very afraid

Mom has been calling me up everyday just to remind me that I should not go to work on 30th. Karnataka has declared a school holiday or a good 2 days “to keep the children safe”. My bank tells me that while it officially is working tomorrow, “we will have to look at the conditions” for me to pick up my ATM card. My pinter is working an extra shift tonight to finish work he is supposed to do tomorrow “kal ka kuch bol nahi sakte sir”.

While the home minister has boldly declared that he does not “foresee any problems” the CM’s of many sates have declared their inability to protect their law abiding citizens by declaring holidays. Tomorrow some hope for justice, some for retribution, and some just want it all over.

Violence lovers on both sides of the religious divide are looking for an excuse. Some will try to justify it as setting right the historical wrongs, one dead body in 2010 at at time.

Irrespective of your religion and political leanings, today is a day that any nation loving Indian needs to be ashamed. Ashamed that for 60 years we have voted into power people who played us on our fears and cultivated sectist fears. Ashamed that we have cultivated media that specialize in glorifying violence and shamed that we refuse to see that justice cannot be achieved by unlawful means

Religious goondagardi (extremism) ; green, saffron, pink or blue is not a just a political problem for it to be solved by parties, it is problem that needs to faced and tackled at the family level. The solution must be come at at the tea shop in the corner and the temple, mosque and church in the community. I hope we are not given anymore proof of this tomorrow than we already have.

We are a nation held captive by fear fulled by opportunist politicians and inept administration of justice. Fear is so common, that we forget how shameful it is. Our fears are that green and saffron will clash with swords and guns. We forget what the real fear should be, that it is the law abiding citizen that is afraid, not the thug, the rioter or the hatemonger. On either side of the religious divide, the criminal is eagerly and fearlessly waiting. No holiday for them tomorrow.

Innovation, Artemis Fowl & Dawkins; What I have been reading

The Other side of innovation by V GovindarajanOne of the things that have been holding my attention for quiet a while now is innovation in healthcare, and what a pleasant surprise to discover Prof. Vijay Govindarajan on HBR, where he talks about his idea of reverse innovation. Prof. Govindarajan was kind enough to send me a copy of his book for review and I must say I was blown by it. I have read quiet extensively on innovation, but almost none of the authors I have read so far give a structured, rational, and scientific approach to implementing of innovation. In his book The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge he has given us a great field guide on how to go about ensuring that the innovative idea doesn’t die on the drawing board. I will be posting a detailed review later, but to get an idea of what the book is like you can read his latest post on HBR  10 Tips for Creating Distinct-but-Linked Innovation Groups.

Related to, but not inspired by his idea of reverse innovation is this initiative by Open Source House, a team that conducted a competition for an open source house based on eight design principles. Interestingly prof. VG and Christian sarkar recently wrote about a 300 dollar home. His design wont win any competitions in its present form, but its a stimulant and so are the comments.The Art Of innovation by Tom Kelley

Not a co incidence, but I also managed to lay my hands on the classic The Art of Innovation by tom kelley of IDEO. as reputed, its an amazing read and reads like a lovely travelogue of a creative journey fueled by innovation.

I dont think I have said this before, but I LOVE Artemis fowl, who cares that its supposed to be teenage fiction. And so I was as delighted to come across the latest book The Atlantis Complex. it is written in the usual pan-novel humor style that Eoin Colfer is loved for.  The story is that

Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, a psychosis common among guilt-ridden fairies – not humans – and most likely triggered by Artemis’s dabbling with fairy magic. Symptoms include obsessive-compulsive behavior, paranoia, multiple personality disorder and, in extreme cases, embarrassing professions of love to a certain feisty LEPrecon fairy.The atlantis complex by eoin colfer, an artemis fowl mystery

Unfortunately, (obviously) Atlantis Complex has struck at the worst possible time, a badass fairy is going to destroy the REAL Atlantis (don’t you love the coincidences and puns?).

While i loved the book, it is worrying that over the years Artemis is gradually becoming less and less devious, and I hope Mr. Colfer doesn’t forget that we love Artemis because of his dark side.The lone genius crusader with a borderline psychotic personality and the right tinge of pink is what made this teen criminal mastermind special. So Mr.Colfer don’t forget the criminal part of “criminal mastermind”, we cant have Fowl turn chicken can we?

Dawkins delusion a book by alister mcgrathI am yet to read Dawkin’s God Delusion, so I will not say too much about this one, but reading “The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine” by Alister McGrath was an enlightening experience. while the book was more of a brief review of Dawkin’s book, it made me realize that I want to read both Dawkin’s book and McGrath’s full length and better book on the topic.

Decoding Intolerance - hindu muslim riots in india a history and evaluationFinally, now I am reading Decoding Intolerance: Riots And The Emergence of Terrorism In India by PK Lahiri. I have only started reading the book, which documents the history, mechanism and possible solutions to the bloody wars that are called religious riots, but it seems like a good read.

Medical prosthetic arm from london of the 1800s

To finish of with, here is some steampunk-esq medical prosthesis goodness for you from the late 1800s. Medical Prostheis from 19th century London

I am elsewhere; Healthcare as social enterprise blog

Have started working for a company called 4B Healthcare. Am exploring the concepts of social enterprise and what role the market or a for profit model has in Healthcare for the poor or healthcare as a whole. my main outlet is the  Healthcare as Social Enterprise blog, courtesy, the company.
Some of the new posts there are

The question of whether a hospital can be self sustaining, high quality, affordable, and poor centric all at once is a knotty one.

Will using a For-profit model cause the company to drift into a money hungry monster most of the present day corporate hospital chains are?

Is the philosophy transferable on to a realistic business plan?

Can the business plan actually work?

will creating such a hospital system actually help the poor in a long term, meaningful way?

Obviously, I dont have all the answers, and while I believe in the idea fiercely and the people behind it are personal heroes, some things only time can tell. Oh, dont worry, the business plan exisits, a good one that too, and so far, it seems to be working quiet well.

for now, to make better sense of what i have been saying, perhaps you should head over to the site to get a picture of the philosophy and workings of 4B healthcare