Today, Jan 30th.....a very special day in my life

Kolkata Book Fair
Kolkata Book Fair '06 have started in its usual time and location.
First time I am missing on this extravaganza.
It is indeed an event which has become bengal's another official event for quite some time. It is the next big event just after Durga Puja, in respect of crowds and interest it creates among all the calcuttans.
Well I am trying to catch up atleast some action from its website www.kolkatabookfaironline.com.

Jet captures Air Sahara
The news that was in the air for some time really took the headlines.
Jet bought 100% of Air Sahara yesterday, for whooping $500mn, in a most hyped acquisition deal.
Kingfisher Airlines chairman, Vijay Mallya made loud statements earlier, and was thought to be the closest competitor in the bid.
However, when he was asked, he told that the deal according to him was highly expensive as he thought Air Sahara does not have solid assets on their name.

Air Sahara, had 27 leased flights, overnight parking slots in most airports (though those were in the names of Indian government), 200 trained pilots and a good number of engineers.

Although the deal clearly states that no employees will be sacked, they will either be on Jet's roll or on Sahara's, but employees are not happy with this deal, and 10 of the top pilots have already left Sahara yesterday only.
According to them Jet is not going to be a good employer and they will be hurt as per money and growth is concerned.

One of my dear friend, Mum,(arindam's wife) is with Air Sahara. And when contacted, she was not happy either. She was concerned, which is obvious. All acquisition brings in lot of cultural problems.
I am sure, she will have no issues as she have a good experience in this area.

Corporate Citizenship
Bangalore, a home to innumerable huge corporate companies, MNCs.
Home to india's brightest companies Infosys, Wipro, Biocon.
Anyone would think, that it will be very well maintained and looked after by these companies.
But, I made a mistake, not all companies can be Tata Steel, not all companies can take social responsibilities, not all companies feel to keep their neighbourhood clean and healthy.
With increasing competition, companies only feel to grow their bottomline.
Some people want to make some difference, but dont have the capacity to change the situation single handedly. Some only like to fight with their governments. Some only like to complain about the sorry state of affairs to the numerous news channels.
But for people who want to argue with me about how can a city be maintained by a single company, or why should companies take responsibility for a city.....I suggest visit Jamshedpur, aka JSR.

JSR, home to the Tatas, companies like Tata Steel, Tata Motors, TIMKEN, Tata Tubes etc. All have their head quarters here in this steel city.
Walk down the small city, you will believe what corporate citizenship is all about.
Everything from Water to Electricity is maintained by Tata Steel. Yes, not by local govt.
All the cleaners that you will find cleaning the streets to make it look that much cleaner is from Tata Steel. The zoo you visit is maintained effectively by all Tata companies.
The Jubilee park, a wonderful place to visit, and is a tourist spot is totally maintained by Tata Steel.
I loved walking through the roads on which Rusy Modi centre for excellence (Tata Steel Auditorium) and XLRI are on one side and Jubilee Park on the other. So fresh is the air there, you would fall in love. The Rusy Modi CoE is an architectural treat. I visited it for one seminar for Tata Steel.
Now if you visit the Tata Steel factory floors. You will be amazed at the cleanliness that has been maintained, even when it is a steel factory.
The first thing that you will notice is the notice board which says "WILL FOR WORK".
Indeed, the people there, have a passion for what they do.
They dont crib when they do night shifts, fully charged up they deliver according to their targets.
Yes that is another facet that I loved, each and every shop floor have a score card with the targets for the day, also mentioning the targets that have alrady been achieved. Tata Steel generally have a target of production at the beginning of every quarter, and every day that target score card is updated. So you would feel where it is standing on a particular day.
A great motivating tool.
Safety, is one thing that Tata Steel was lacking few years before. When I was working as a trainee there, it was their biggest concern, as lot of their employees got injured while on job. They took it very seriously and formed a committee, whose sole purpose was to look into the safety of the employees.
Security another aspect, which is taken into seriously. Even though they could have outsourced it to any third party security companies like "group-4", or "TOP" etc, they have their own security people, systems. Most of them are ex-army people.
What lesson that these big corporates of B'lore can learn from Tata Steel is that it does not matter whether its your core area or not, whether it will give you high returns or not, whether it will give you awards or not, work for the city where you belong, take up some social responsibility yourself. Not only donate dollars to NGOs and make news.
Try to contribute in your own way to make the people around you happier, not only to your employees. This is the only reason, Tatas have created such a brand in the minds of people.
It has taken 100 years to create Tata Steel (2007 Tata Steel is celebrating its 100th B'Day).
But the urge and passion to contribute to society, what has made TataSteel, such a corporate citizen.

Lot of things need to be learned from this wonderful company set in such a beutiful city, JSR.
I was just a jr-trainee there, but I am really proud of being associated with a company of such stature.
I salute the Tatas.

15 Park Avenue
This weekend I hope to see Aparna Sen's newest venture 15 Park Avenue.
Hope it would be enjoyable.
I need to visit the PVR this time.
Swagath is no more, where we could have a decent weekend without burning our pockets.
Bangalore, a rich man's city.

Mobile Phone Photography
For all those having camera phones, the site is treat to watch.
Robert Clark is a renouned Nat Geo photographer.
He is currently on an assignment commissioned by Sony Erricsson and American Photo Magazine to travel round US on a van and shoot pictures with the phone.
http://robertclark.americanphotomag.com/flash/

Camera phones becoming serious photographic tool.

A creation...
During this KT phase in my project, I am getting a lot of time to do some dot net coding for myself. I really love involving myself in coding and trying out new things.
Since yesterday, I was involved in developing a web based RSS reader which I have named as "OneWorld". This is because, you get to see the world news of various categories at one place, in an easy to access site.
I have hosted it on the net and its there for you to have a look.
I dont know whether you will like it or not.

But you are welcome to give me some feedback or suggestion so that I can customize it and try to make it more useful.

Please have a look in the following URL:
http://aspspider.net/biswajitkumar/OneWorld/

Waiting to see your comments.

Flashback 2005 - my likes and dislikes
Just like any other passing year, 2005 leaves behind some memories...some special and some not so.
After many thoughts, I have decided on the following.
According to me, 2005's -

Best event: Sensex crossing 8000 mark. Shania making into 3rd round of Australian Open. Australia beaten by England in the Ashes.

Worst Event: Cyclone Katrina, exposed US, that even the richest nation is not prepared for a natural calamity. The event created huge loss of lives and property, most of them were poor blackies of US staying in and around Indiana.

Best Movies: Black (chosen as one of the top films by TIME magazine), Sarkar, Paheli(nominated for indian entry to Oscars), Salaam Namaste, Bunty & Babli.

Worst Movies: Lots, its unfair to name one.

Best Actor (male): Undoubtably Amitabh for his role in Black and Sarkar.

Best Actor (female): Rani Mukherjee for her role in Black and Paheli.

Greatest Disappointment: The Rising.

Discovery of the year: Shania Mirza. She has a wonderful personality and gr8 looks. Now she needs to concentrate only on her games and she has a long career ahead.

Shooting Star: Abhisekh Bachchan. After almost 5 years in the industry, when every one seemed to have lost hope in him, he made a comeback. This year he was the most seen star, apart from his father. He delivered with films like B&B, Sarkar, BluffMaster etc. Personally I loved his role in B&B and he seemed superb in the cameo in Sarkar. The last scene where he is seen to have taken his father's position as Sarker was a fab.

Newsmakers: The Ambanis. They made themselves character of saas bahu serials. Although, they made up later.

Shania was in the news when some community people protested against her wearing small skirts on court. I am really ashamed of these people staying in India.

M.S. Dhoni: Long haired hunk has a long way to go. Had a wonderful year, India finally have some one to provide solidity and flamboyance in the middle order.

BCCI Selectors: Made news for their politics as usual. This time victim was former captain Sourav Gangully. Kiran More more specifically used his position and the platform to make news, something that he never made when he was in the playing 11.

These were a synopsis of 2005 according to me.
Hope 2006 will be a much better year for every one.