The Infernal Diurnal Journal

I am not convinced that the BJP- who claims to be walking on water- will maintain its impressive performance in the current elections. Everyone has a prediction of how many seats the BJP will get- the supporters claim 300+ seats- which together with another 100 odd will make BJP and its allies cross the fabled 400 mark. I am less optimistic. I think it will be down 100 seats, give or take- from the last election performance. It has already milked its record for development-related achievements for two terms. People now expect that and it is unlikely that this is going to get them the same rate of return as in the past two terms. The previous two terms were about trying also to fan out the communal overtones that everyone associated them with. I think, believe it or not, that may have actually happened in this term to some extent. If you look at the actions of the party, they may not have accorded the red-carpet treatment to Muslims, but they have not done much to alleviate the historic...

  The ides of April it shall forever be known as. I am using the Shakespearean allusion to describe a deluge so harsh and utterly implacable that beset the city of Dubai, and the wider region of the UAE and Oman, that I ended up not posting a blog entry until today- a whole week after the proverbial flood. We had been forewarned on the Monday that there would be a thunderstorm so that we should stay prepared. But when this storm started on the evening of Monday and continued into Tuesday and Wednesday, we were left completely helpless. In our community, the lake was overflowing which made it much worse for our streets that were somewhat in the vicinity of the lake. There were only rivers flowing everywhere- but if only it were just that. On Tuesday morning, around 9 am, the water stopped running in our taps. We called maintenance, who showed up late in the evening after being hounded by us all day on the phone. Clearly they were being hounded by everyone else as well. The water -pu...

  I attended this morning the REV on the Road event by Jaggaer- and E-Procurement software company- with whom we have just contracted for implementation of this system at my work place. The event was a meeting of various existing clients of Jaggaer that were located either in the UAE or the wider MENA region.   I was also now a client but we had only begun the implementation so I was not really yet a user of the system. As such, I had not much to contribute but who can refuse a chance to get coffee and goodies, and perhaps even a lunch at the St. Regis on Palm Jumeirah? As it happens, I found this meet to be not very useful and I skipped lunch altogether and made a hasty exist around noon. I did not know what to expect, but I suspected there would be some panel discussions and some sessions. As is usually the case in these types of events. The panel discussion had an Operations Consulting Partner from KPMG as the moderator. There was a chap from Masdar and one from Dubai Airpo...

  I can tell that I have put on some weight. I had lost a few kgs owing to my first quarter recurring flu episode, during which I had no appetite and hence did not eat much. I feel better now and all that has changed. But I need to revert to the previous version- but now I am pretty well aware of what I need to do. Essentially, I cannot eat to my heart’s content. As long as I cut carbs completely and eat small meals, the magic will happen. To be honest, it matters not whether I exercise or not.  The latter, I guess, is only useful to keep blood sugar levels under control- which I also need to do. Now that Ramadan is behind us, it is a nice lull period before the onset of summer break where a restrained diet can deliver. Meanwhile, I booked my travel to the USA in July and I had to spend a ransom for four tickets in Premium Economy.  I thought long and hard about it- it simply does not make any sense to spoil the kids like this. And yet I have gone on and done it. Why? I t...

   There are a number of goals I have this year- both professional and personal. I think it may be instructive to write a thousand words about each one of them. Let me start with a professional goal. I need to implement in my shop a new software or platform which is broad known as e-procurement. It is not part of a standard ERP product like SAP but sits above it. Broadly speaking, it is designed to systematize all the process steps within the Procurement process that are not already systematized. Currently a Purchase Requisition is generated in SAP – and following this a flurry of activity ensues to convert that PR to a Purchase Order- which is also done in SAP. These intermediate steps currently are done via emails, phone calls and other ad-hoc engagements with internal stakeholders, suppliers and even auditors. As such it is almost impossible to track or measure how well these activities are being done and if the work load is properly balanced. In procurement, one of the cha...

  A personal goal this year for me is to do something with my music. I know this much. I don’t really know what specifically I want to do. My journey with the acoustic guitar has been well documented. I am now at it for 3 years and I am able to strum and sing at the same time for a large body of songs- although there are still many songs that I dare not even attempt. All I have been doing for the last few years is recording myself live on my phone and putting it on my youtube channel. And then sharing the effort on my social media- sometimes. A good reaction there gives me my dopamine for the day- or even for a dew days. A lacklustre reaction there does the opposite. But I am forcing myself to marshall on. Ultimately, these videos are for me. Ultimately anything one posts of social media is for themselves. I tend to choose songs that are rare, complicated and not popular except amongst other musicians. And here I have to come to a sad realization – which is that the music loved by ...

We don't realise how confusing it is to raise kids. In the previous generation, one can argue that the kids raised themselves, The kids were many and the guardians few. Even though the mother did not work, she was busy with other domestic duties. The kids just hung around and soaked in whatever they saw and heard. Now it seems to be a combination of using a playbook - which forces us to ensure that the kid does this or that by this or that time- and regarding carefully what peer parents are doing.  Even earlier there was a slight fear amongst parents that their kids might not amount to much. And yet, somewhere deep inside, they know that would be ok too. They would survive and it was still worth it. Bringing kids into this world, as I reflect, is an insanely illogical thing. The odds are not as good as we think that everything will go as planned. We dont want suffering for our kids, but we all know that they must suffer. We must all- and it is in this suffering ...