So I had a great vacation recently to India and celebrated Diwali after a long time with friends and family. Diwali as many may know is the Hindu “festival of lights”. So why do I think Diwali has gone global:

• A call to American Express ended with a “… and wish you a very Happy Diwali”. Alright the call center might have been in India (not sure), but still they must have been instructed to wish everyone, right?
• Matt Cutts (the famous Google blogger) wishes everyone on his blog! (OK, this one is lame)
• Today an episode of The Office aired commemorating Diwali. More discussion on that here.

Its been talked about for a long time, but its happening now more than ever before. More American and European nationals are taking up full-time positions in India, even if its for a few months. This article in the Voice of America gives a few examples.

Is having worked in India / China becoming a pre-requisitive to grow in your jobs in western countries?

A quote from the article:

“If you work in India for a couple of years, it helps your career, whether you are in Wall Street or technology companies,”

I saw more employees of US and Japanese based companies at this golf course (designed by Greg Norman) in Greater NOIDA (a suburb of New Delhi) than Indians!!

A friend of mine sent an email which was meant to be a joke. The images are from here. Walls covered with Nike and Coke, an old man in a grocery shop full of Colgate toothpaste and a homeless man with a mastercard logo can. It did seem funny to me at first, but then got me thinking how India (like all countries??) has many faces. Progress in a democracy like India will be slow (at times), but hopefully steady and sustainable.

Thanks to Google Sketchup

Why are addresses in India so complicated? This will surely prevent any useful mapping and/or GPS to take off …. despite the large number of users who could potentially use it. MapMyIndia and VirtualIndia are the two stabs taken I know of.

As a good example one of my friends email signature used to read:

4th Floor, No. 31 Grape Garden, 6th Block, 17th H. Main
Koramangala – 560095, Karnataka, India

till he moved to New Delhi and now it reads:

Sapient Tower D&E, DLF Cyber Greens,
DLF City Phase III, Sector 25A
Gurgaon 122002

Giving money away to charity is one thing. Giving LOTS of money is another. But taking so much personal interest in where the money goes and how well it gets utilized speaks highly of Bill Gates. Over the past 5 years or so the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has done some outstanding work in the area of healthcare and education. The work recently gained attention during Bill Gates hectic visit to South Asia. Read: Keeping Up With the Gateses

Many of us in the tech community don’t have much love for Microsoft (specially the ones like me who love their Mac!). But the man behind the company is not only a genius, but a very goodhearted person, who according to me happens to deserve the Nobel! Keep up the good work Bill and Melinda!

UPDATE: A day after I wrote this piece, I read this. I am so happy that Time magazine chose Bill, Melinda and Bono to be their “Persons of the year”.

Past few months have brought about many changes in the relations between India and the US. Most have been positive but there is obvious disagreement over certain issues, which in my opinion is healthy given the Non-Alignment stance of India. But there is no doubt that both Bush and Singh have made concerted efforts to substantially improve relations (not that they were ever bad).

(Taken from here)

• US agreed to provide India with civilian nuclear technology. This is despite the fact that India has not and will not in the near future sign the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty). This was announced during Dr. Singh’s visit to Washington this July.
• As part of the Global Democracy Initiative both India and the US have made financial and other commitments to promote the spread of freedom and democracy in the rest of the world. They both launched websites for the same here and here. What surprises me is that other countries like UK don’t seem to be playing an active role in it? From my perspective its more a matter of improving democracies rather than spreading democracies. That said no democracy is perfect.
• America’s image is strongest in India out of all the countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project:

The latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted among nearly 17,000 people in the United States and 15 other countries from April 20-May 31, finds that America’s image is strongest in India. Fully 71% in India express a positive opinion of the United States, compared with 54% three years ago.

• The US seems to have literally coerced India into voting in favor of the IAEA resolution against Iran. Am sure there will be all sorts of noises in India regarding this, and rightfully so I think.

This is as funny as it gets on any highway!

An interesting movie about the outsourcing industry in India:

Over the past decade, India has emerged as the leader in the global market for white-collar “outsourcing” jobs — a notable component of India’s rapid economic growth. A dramatic and personal film, “1-800-INDIA” explores the experience of young Indian men and women who have been recruited into these new jobs requiring long hours, night shifts, and westernized work habits. The film reveals the human and cultural impact of a sweeping global trend, exploring its effect on Indian family life, on the evolving landscape of Indian cities and towns, and on the aspirations and daily lives of young Indians, especially women, entering the work force.

A video that discusses this movie and outsourcing in general. Clyde Prestowitz happens to be the author of the new book Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East.

Although call centers get most of the attention in these kind of movies, I think more needs to be said about progress being made on other fronts (such as retail, manufacturing, software products, the growing and consumption oriented middle class etc.).

One of my lab-mates at school gave me the recipe for Navratan Korma. I tried it out over this weekend and it was pretty good (actually excellent given my cooking skills!). You can find the recipe that she posted online here. Am including it with my post:

“This is an Indian vegetable korma with nuts, paneer cheese, and an adjustable list of vegetables. It is in a tomato-cream sauce as opposed to the usual yogurt based sauce. ‘Navratan’ means ‘nine gems,’……

so choose nine of the vegetable, nuts, and paneer ingredients; you can leave out the elements you don’t want to use, or add them all so it is ‘ten gems’ if you wish.” Original recipe yield: 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1/3 cup mixed nuts (cashews, pistachios, almonds)
• 1 medium onion, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh green beans
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 1 cup chopped potatoes
• 4 ounces paneer, cubed
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place mixed nuts in the skillet, cook and stir until golden brown, and set aside. Stir onion into the skillet, and cook until tender. Mix in garlic paste and ginger paste, and cook 1 minute. Stir in tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, turmeric, coriander, and garam masala. Pour in water, and mix in raisins, carrots, green bell pepper, beans, peas, and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

2. Heat remaining oil in a separate skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the paneer on both sides, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Place in a bowl with enough hot water to cover for about 2 minutes to soften, then stir into the skillet with the vegetables.

3. Stir milk and cream into the skillet with the vegetables and paneer. Bring to a boil, and continue cooking 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt to taste.