A world of its own.   A tool to justify everything that happens to you, and interpret it to be good or bad.   A constant warrior fighting the plights of competition, fear, sorrow and love; almost always in a battle with the heart.   A warehouse of information, thoughts, feelings, procedures and anything else important to you, all jumbled together.    A steaming juggernaut rolling along faster than a bullet, crushing all barriers along the way.    A viscous circle with no escape in sight.   The master of your universe, and perhaps everyones too.    More powerful than a super computer, more vulnerable than a new divorcee.    A lens that shapes your perception of the world, your life and others.   A bottomless well, a shallow ocean.    More complex than the most complex algorithm, though sometimes as simple as play-doh.    A thick, tall cage trapping your thoughts and desires.  An over-used filter, a rusted fence.   Sharper than a knife, softer than a pillow.   Never tiring, but everlasting.    Too rational, and too biased.     A leveler, adjusting for the highs and lows, for the good and bad.    An oracle as well as a haunted ghost.    A permanent storage device with limited space.   The 40,000 feet view, along with the ground zero view.    The details and the abstractions.    The difference between insane and stable.   The root of all good and evil.  A constant learner and improviser.    An incubation haven, an inhibiting shield.  More beautiful than Mona Lisa, more stunning than a sunset on a beach, more captivating than a thrilling book.   The nest of hope and belief, of shame and regret.    The keyhole to an amazing world.   The means to all ends, and beginnings.    The deity to which we always bow and surrender.    The key to success; and the sink to failure.   The reason to life.  And the answer to it too.

Part 1 (from Dec 2005) -
http://agaurav.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!84D47F2258BC1301!317.entry.

To the naive, it is the technology industry and the brilliant work by the thousands of engineers at companies like Infosys and Wipro that has positioned India to where it is today.  It is the age of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing and this is what will drive the Indian economy for the next fifty to hundred years.  To take absolutely no credit away from what companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Satyam have achieved in the first few years of this century - the wealth they have amassed, the name they have made for India in the services sector, the many international acquisitions they have completed, the millions of jobs they have created which have led to a growing middle class and the rare leadership they have shown.

But what India has achieved in the last decade is not what is going to drive it to a superpowerin the next fifty years.  The focus thus far has been on customer service, implementation, customized solutions and execution.   What has been lacking is innovation, leadership, drive and vision.  As I see it services and solutions are cost to an organisation.  Products and research and development are an investment for the future, a revenue source that will drive the business to greater levels.   The Indian "technoloogy" industry has focused on the former, completely ignoring the latter.   We have mastered services and solutions catering to customers from all around the world.  But here is where the problem lies.  The ideas, vision, innovation, business models and designs do not originate in the technology industry in India.   They are formulated in countries like the US where corporations are making bang for their buck with the ideas.  Unfornutaley, what has become of the Indian industry is knowledge-based manufacturing industry that churns out code with superior efficiency, once someone has drawn out the blueprints.  

This is not as bad as it sounds though.  Every industry must start somewhere with baby steps.  For the Indian technology industry, it is the services and solutions space.  But the time has come for the true leaders and entrepreneurs to step up and create new visions for a new industry that will drive India's growth in the future.   And it's starting to happen, although very slowly.   The key is to lay strong fundamentals and think of longer term gains not only for the individual business but for the industry and country as a whole.   I am dissapointed in saying that today India has no true Technology company like Google, Microsoft, Intel or Cisco.  And what is worse, is that in my recent trip back home I could not identify another upcoming company that will revolutionize the life of Indian people in the future.  Like the investors of the stock market, the leaders today are focusing on shorter term profits, opportunities to sell out and expectations of a exponentially increasing stock.   The large family businesses of India have indeed ventured into this space but they clearly lack the deep techincal insight of a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Here is what I propose stands in the near future for India that will help kickstart new true technology ventures that will eventually lay the foundation for making the lives of the masses better, like the internet or PC did.  Start small and focused, but think big.   Like the growth of the Technology industry in China with Baidu, Alibaba.com and QQ, new ventures in India must focus on creating products not to compete with the great technology companies of the west, but to cater to the very large 1.3 billion market of India itself.   Baidu did that with search outgunning Google in China, QQ did that with instant messaging killing MSN and Yahoo and everyone is aware of the recent rise of Alibaba.com competing head on with Amazon and others in China and Hong Kong.   No one knows the Indian people better than the Indians that live and interact with them everyday.  Taking advantage of this inherent knowledge to solve deeper problems in the country is not only good in driving the Technology industry forward and creating wealth and jobs, but solving some broader social and everyday problems.   With this focus, international big guns will be unable to compete in this space as has been proven in other parts of the world.   This would be a great launchpad for the Indian industry which would lead to greater accomplishments which will directly impact the remaining five billion people of this world.  And lastly not to forget that any techology innovation that helps the Indian masses, could very easily be deployed in other emerging countries which comprise a majority of the population.   Just one cautionary measure that must be taken is not to immitate all that is done in the developed world and customize it to India, since many if not most of the products do not apply to the Indian culture and will lead to another technology bubble. 

Globalization.  The world is flattening.  Its an even playing field.  Recently that seems to be the hottest topic for dinner conversations, New York Times articles or the latest Bestsellers.   It is true to some extent, but I think more often than not it is blown to magnitudes greatly exceeding the truth.  I think of the world as more Concave than flat today, still tilted towards the Western, developed world.   Over the last decade or so we have seen significant changes that have shifted the pendulum and momentum to the developing world or emerging markets, but the Western world is still driving. 

The transiiton continues though - a deeply western inclined world to a concave world to a flat or even convex world someday.  The Dragon and Elephant are rising in a hurry. And majestically.   The three stock exchanges with the best returns in 2007 were not NYSE, LSE and NASDAQ.   Nor were they the Hang Seng or Nikkei.  Infact they were three of the emerging market nations driving returns upwards of seventy percent - Peru, Brazil and India.   Even the thumping Chinese markets had to settle for fourth.  Agreed that the financial markets are only a fraction of the reflection of the nation, but its perhaps the most important fraction.   But money can only solve shorter term issues in their entirety.   Longer term, deeper and more threatening issues are driven by other factors besides money.   Some of these factors include education, domestic and international policies, research and development, technology, opportunities, healthcare, tradition and corruption.  A different combination of these factors are responsible for the major obstacles faced by the newer, developing nations in becoming superpowers and flattening the world.   Despite their phenomenal success in the markets over recent times, Peru, Brazil and India have struggled with almost all of these issue.   A look at the World Health Index which measures the health of a country by not only the GDP but also factors like corruption (example how difficult is it to start a business in the country?), health (what is the average life?) and education (literacy rate and working population), clearly demonstrated the concaveness.   In my humble opinion, the World Health Index and not the GDP growth is the indication of a nation's success and what politicians and economists should concentrate on improving.

Tha most disturbing issue is the opposition offered by the developed world.  Incentives always play the biggest motivation for action and that cannot be changed.  But short sightedness of the developed nations is perhaps what might crush the developing nations and the world as a whole.  Each one of the topics of trade, nuclear weapons, innovation and patents, globalizaiton policies, global warming and IMF funding are not only influenced but are dominated by the incentives of the developed nations.  Dumping restrictions for imports, globalization demonstrations based on false reports of suffering in developing countries, funding allies only and promoting war and destruciton in starved countries are some examples.   The US politicians trying to control enviromental standards in China and India, even though the US is responsible for forty percent of the worlds pollution and highest per capita pollution in the world, is just unacceptable.  Developing nations are already sensitive to the issue of global warming and should have complete independence on their approach of tackling this issue.   I think that each nation should be penalized for levels of pollution above a standard per capita.  Ironically, developed nations that would have the heaviest penalties have no incentive to create or support such standards.   With a majority of the votes driving the issues most impacting the emerging markets sitting with the already deveoped western nations, the future looks bleak.   This single issue is what is preventing the flattening of the world. 

• Moshin - Perhaps the best of the wineries, I bought a Pinot Noir from here as well as a Chardonnay.   Ask for Julia here. 
• Porter Creek - A small, not so impressive or friendly winery, with some great Zin and Caragnane.
• Davis Bynam - Arguably the best winery of the region with a fabulous flight of 5 reserve Pinot Noirs.  I wanted to buy all wines I tasted here, but settled for the Lindsey's Knoll Pinot Noir. 
• Arista -  The Pinots were good, but nothing I found worth buying.   This is 5 year old family winery, still buying most of their grapes.
• Hop Kiln - The most beautiful winery of the region, this is an old stone piece of architecutre, perhaps from the late 1800s.   Wines were at par.  A well made winery with some great cheese and free pork tortillas with some scintillating sauces.
• Rochioli - This winery is very well known for its Estate Pinot Noir, but they are always sold out of it (as they were on the day)
• Belvedere - Flood Gate is a brand of this winery which has some fabulous Pinot.  A nice little park adds to the exuberance.
• Everett Ridge - Atop a hill, this has a great view.   I wish I could say much about the wines though. 
• Lambert Bridge - Did not drink here.  $25 for reserve tasting, did not see the value.  Also very commercial with a lot of people.   Reminded me of Napa.  
• Passalaqua - In Dry Creek Valley, this had some great Zinfandel and Maple Zin.
• Pappapietro Perry - More of a wine tasting room, some good wine, but bad service and a terrible looking place.

NOTE: Roshambo - This was highly recommended but was closed for renovation.  They are supposed to have some fabulous Pinots. 

• 20 overs per side, 8 ball overs.
• A maximum of 6 wickets per side.
• 30 minute break between innings.
• 11 players - 6 batsman, 1 wicketkeeper, 4 bowlers.
• Specialized roles - Batsman only bat, Wicketkeeper only keeps and Bowlers only bowl.  
• All 6 batsman bat, last batsman with a runner
• Each Bowler can bowl a maximum of 5 overs each.
• One  optional Bowling Sub (must substitue a bowler only), who can be brought in by the captain at any time.   Sub can bowl a maximum of 5 overs.  But if the bowler he is replacing has bowled X overs, he can only bowl (5-X) overs.
• One optional Fielding Sub - can be brought in only for injuries.
• Two different and mandatory 3-over power plays.  Can be taken anytime during the innings, must end before the start of the 16th over.   
• Maximum of one Bouncer per over. 
• Each captain/coach has 1 "challenge" per inning to challenge the umpires decision (including LBW, catches, boundaries/sixes, run outs, bouncers, wides, no balls).  Challenge is determined by TV replays.

What this does is introduce the much needed adrenaline, keep the strategy in the game, make it a good lenght, even the playing field, make bowlers and batsman even, focus on specialized roles taking the sport to another level (imagine bowlers bowling 110 mile balls), remove the lax period of the game.   

This may remove the concept of All-rounder but enables the player to focus on one thing and become the best at it.   For example, if a player is good at batting and bowling he could then be played as a Bowler OR a Batsman.    With this, bowlers dont waste time trying to train to bat and vice versa.   Similar to the special teams concept in College Football.