Provoke some...

Are you a Sindhi? Most of you would ask this question to someone whose name ends with an ‘ani’. And if you get a response in the affirmative what exactly comes to your mind? In all likelihood, the oft repeated saying, “If you see a Sindhi and a snake, kill the Sindhi first”, would come to your mind. OK, firstly the objective of this blog post is not to do any chest thumping but to present some hard facts and help dispel some myths, misconceptions and beliefs about Sindhis. Now that I have mentioned it, let’s start with the surname only. Each surname actually identifies the family from where one originated. In all likelihood, my ancestor was called ‘Kaku’ and ‘Kakwani’ is how his family gets identified which would translate into 'belong to the family of Kaku'. Incidentally, my grandfather’s surname was ‘Kaku’ which my father changed to ‘Kakwani’. The family of ‘Lalchand’ would be ‘Lalchandani’ and so on. This means, if I come across another ‘Kakwani’ there is a 100% chance that ...

A study completed recently in India on online education by KPMG & Google reveals heart-warming statistics; total revenue will grow from $0.25Bn in 2016 to $1.96Bn in 2021 @CAGR of 52%, Internet users to grow from 409 Mn to 735 Mn and that Smartphone penetration would increase at breakneck speed. The revenue growth is expected to be across all categories viz Primary & Secondary education (which is expected to get the largest share of the pie), Test preparation, Reskilling and online certification, Higher education and Language & Casual learning. Such a market makes online education a ripe fruit to be plucked by many. But this fruit laden tree lies beyond a thorn adorned path that in itself is arduous and serpentine. The challenges spread across all the blocks which need to come together to give shape to this entity called online education. Let’s look at them one by one. Statutory In India, education falls under the not-for-profit category and is totally regulated by t...

"It is shocking to see the government is classifying watching movies as luxury and subjecting us to the similar tax structure as of five-star hotels and casinos," said Nitin Sood, CFO of PVR yesterday when the government announced the GST rates on various products and services to be applicable from 1 st July this year. This made me wonder. My initial thought resonated that of Mr Sood as to how can anyone classify watching movies as a luxury? But then I took a step back and did a bit of number crunching. So, ladies and gentlemen, tighten your seat belts as what you are going to experience is shock albeit quite opposite to the shock experienced by Mr Sood. In India, any movie which grosses Rs 100 cr (USD 15 Mn) is considered a super hit. This makes sense considering the average revenue per film is an abysmal Rs 5-10 Cr (USD 1-1.5 Mn). Most of this is collected in the first week itself since unlike the days of yore when the success of the movies was defined by their ru...

Every day almost all of us who hit the roads to go from anywhere to everywhere irrespective of the city we are in, surprisingly reveal our Johari window’s deepest, darkest of the corners when we mouth cuss words unknown-to-us and unknown-to-others. Horns honked all the way to eternity, temperatures flared to compete with the sun and stress levels threaten the ozone layer to transmogrify all Dr Jekylls to Mr Hydes. Everyone blames everyone else for the chaos. It seems everyone is herself doing all the right things, it’s just the others who don’t know how to drive or don’t follow the rules. So if everyone is doing it right then what is the real cause of the entire melee?   Wait… I am not going to start the sermon… like, YOU are the real cause, YOU don’t realise but YOU are the one who is honking the horn, YOU are the one not stopping on the stop line, YOU are jumping signals etc. OK, while that is all true as well, this is not about it. The real reason for all the traffic wo...

Well, I was a away for sometime to give the finishing touches to my book, THE MIRAGE, which is based on multitude of characters found in Dubai and takes a dig into the stark realities of relationships... The book is available on Apple iBook (US) Store or you can buy by clicking on the link... http://www.lulu.com/shop/vikas-kakwani/the-mirage/ebook/product-21095000.html The Sharaf Developers owned by Sheikh Abdul Sharaf rags-to-riches story... …he was born out of abject poverty - living in a two room shack with his father, mother, three step mothers and fourteen siblings including ten step-brothers and sisters. Tens of miles in either direction from whatever they called a house, was golden brown, hot and serene desert with absolutely no vegetation and no hope whatsoever. For the family of twenty living in complete wilderness was a matter of daily survival. Hand-to-mouth, as a figure of speech, just didn’t apply to the Sharaf family. More often than not, the hand would no...

After 65 years, we still look forward or sincerely wish to gain independence from at least these 65 things, not in any specific order and some might seem repeated, but what the hell: Ageing politicians (thank God they didn't understand IT industry) Servile mindset (Still Ghulam) "Gora" is superior (Colonial hangover) Cows & dogs on the road / dirty congested dilapidated Roads Untrained drivers Encroachment "Chalta Hai" attitude Female foeticide Strikes Cricket as the only sport Corruption (that was easy) Fear of entering a police station (dichotomy) Crime against women & children Child labor Babu creating education system (Where are the enterpreneurs?) Khans in Bollywood (All touching 50s) Public urination / defecation (Never a good sight) Government run companies (esp Railways, Airlines) Total lack of mobile phone manners Inadequate places for orphans, invalids, elderly Insufficient po...