Michael Pollan, you truly are a rock star!

I attended a lecture by Michael Pollan this past Tuesday. What amused me the most was the general reaction of the typical, wholesome San Francisco crowd you would expect at these events. Imagine a teenager squeal “Oh my god, it's Michael Pollan!” - I heard different versions of that sentiment among the not-so-young audience. 

After the lecture, I stood in line to get both Michael Pollan’s books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) signed by him. As we were nearing the front of the line, the woman behind me exclaimed yet another “Oh my god, it's Michael Pollan!” and added, “What am I going to say to him?”. As I stepped forward, my friend, new to Michael Pollan’s work, asked her what was it about Pollan that impressed her. I handed my books to Pollan and said “You’ve changed the way I look and food and the way I eat”. I think I heard a very similar response from the woman behind me. 

 After living in the US for 11 years and constantly struggling to maintain an optimal weight with diet and exercise, I left for France to do my MBA in 2005. In the one year, I was outside the US, I lived a student’s life in France and Singapore, eating mostly in the campus cafeteria or local restaurants, drinking cheap but good wine, and barely finding time to work out. A year at INSEAD is often described as drinking out a fire hose – it's intense and there is no time to obsess about weight. I didn’t have to, it was maintaining itself. 

 I was convinced there was something wrong with the way we eat food in America when after returning to the US a year later, I gained 8lbs in less than 3 weeks. I banned all canned food from my kitchen, joined a gym, and picked up The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In this book, Pollan doesn’t really tell the readers what they should or should not eat. He basically traces every food group to its origin - the way it is grown or raised, processed, packaged, and brought to the consumer. It’s a heavy read, but eye-opening. You learn all about agriculture and farming and the distribution of food via supermarkets. You learn why a majority of the items in the supermarket contain high fructose corn syrup and how the popularity of the term “organic” has led to an industrialized organic food system. 

 The book was the last push I needed to change my food habits forever. And it wasn’t hard. Three simple rules – buy local, eat fresh, avoid heavily processed and packaged food as much as possible. I am lucky I live in California, which grows a lot of vegetables and fruits, and the closest grocery store to me is one that sells locally grown organic produce. Freshly baked goods from local bakeries taste so much better than any packaged cookies or bread; it is well worth the extra dollar. Turning cooking into a hobby rather than a chore keeps me interested and excited about new recipes and seasonal produce. I will admit I am not a fanatic about it. I still eat out a lot (it's still freshly prepared food), drink European beer and wine, and buy imported chocolates. And how do I feel about my health and weight issues? It’s never been better. All it took is for a journalist to break down barriers and bring transparency to the American food system so that we all actually understand what we eat.

Will Slumdog win?

In the last 2 months, it has been hard to read any entertainment news without reading “Slumdog Millionaire”. The Oscar buzz, the protests in India, the controversy over child actors, the music of A.R Rahman (and surprisingly not much about M.I.A).

I saw the movie the weekend it premiered in the U.S. without any expectations. My reaction to the movie was – a well made film with an interesting story. But I failed to LOVE it as I couldn’t emotionally connect with the main characters. Reason: the kids were great (really awesome), but as soon as they turned teenagers, they became British. As soon as I heard the 13-year-old Latika, training to be a prostitute in the slums of Mumbai, mouthing dialogues in English with a refined British accent, the characters didn’t seem genuine enough. Jamal seemed too suave for an uneducated guy who had to “slum” it out. The movie soon turned into a Disney version of a fairytale of Jamal and Latika. Not that it is a bad thing; I just couldn’t feel for the characters like I did for, lets say, the family in “Little Miss Sunshine”.

Very few people, including Indians, had the same reaction. Infact, that is usually a sign of a good movie - it’s engrossing enough that the audience doesnt notice things like it was shot in black and white, or it had subtitles, or characters were switching languages, etc. I am happy Slumdog is getting credit for being such a movie. I am sure if it were based in another country, I too wouldn’t notice or care for the authenticity of accents and appearances of the main characters.

So, what do I think of the protests in India? Notable people, like Amitabh Bachchan, who have said that the movie doesn’t portray India in a good light, are living in denial about India’s poverty. The slums do exist. The riots, the exploitation of orphans, it all happens and happens in their backyards. Then there were protests on the word “dog”. Danny Boyle didn’t expect to make a runaway hit and unfortunately the title it didn’t translate well in Hindi. I can understand the sentiment; no one wants to be insulted by foreigners. Can you imagine the outrage if a movie had “Jew” and “Dog” in the title?

Regardless of how I feel about the movie, I will be rooting for Slumdog at the Oscars tomorrow. Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan are one of the finest indian actors and deserve it. And for A.R Rahman, who is my favourite Indian music composer. If not for anything else, I will be rooting for Slumdog for the little kids in the movie- that was my favourite part of the movie. I sincerely hope the success of this movie does indeed transform those kids' lives. That will touch me in a way no other Oscar winning movie has.

Campaign 2.0 - How the Obama campaign raised the bar

I don’t intend to become a political blogger, but with "the most important election in decades" around the corner, I wanted to share my thoughts on Barack Obama’s campaign as a marketing strategist. Bill Clinton said this while stumping for Barack Obama in Florida last week. "The four things that really matter in a president are number one, the philosophy; number two, the policies; number three, the ability to make a decision; and number four, the ability to execute that decision and make changes in people's lives." Bill should know; he was a president. 

Let's explore the four attributes that matter - 

  #1. Philosophy You can't win an argument on philosophy. Philosophy is what you inherently believe in and it cannot be right or wrong. A reasonable person should be able to respect a different point of view without agreeing with it. All presidents believed in their philosophy. Whether it was right for the country at that moment in time is a debate for historians. 

  #2. Policies Policies are often made to support the philosophy. If you agree with the philosophy, you are likely to agree with the policies. 

  #3. Ability to make decision Bill Clinton told the supporters in Florida that every presidential candidate gets to make one major decision during the campaign – the VP pick. And in this campaign we witnessed the candidates make two decisions, the second one came when the financial system collapsed in September. 

With all due respect to Bill, I disagree slightly. A presidential candidate makes numerous decisions throughout their campaign - picking their campaign theme, choosing their advisers, their speechwriters, recruiting the right people to run the campaign. While there may be questions regarding Obama's past associations, none of his decisions in the last 20 months has derailed the campaign in any way. In fact, Obama's judgment and his steady demeanor, during this time, have been quite remarkable. 

  #4. Ability to execute Critics of Barack Obama say that he has paper-thin resume with no executive experience. True, and yet he has managed to execute a multi-million dollar campaign over 20 months almost flawlessly. He started with the theme of “Change” and “Hope” and 20 months later, he is still running his campaign on the same theme. Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain struggled with setting a single theme for their campaign.

 Every marketer knows that branding is not easy. I am amazed that in such a short period of time, a relatively unknown senator was able to establish his brand that has become a symbol of Hope and Change. But the game-changing aspect of his campaign has been the grassroot movement and use of social media. The same people who mocked Obama for being a “community organizer” are struggling to match his campaign’s ground game. 

Obama didn’t wait for people to come to him but reached out to people where they already were – on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, their mobile phones, etc. He didn’t ask them to attend the $1000 a plate fundraiser, he asked them to donate $25 online. His campaign has been very successful in microtargeting communities. I got involved b’coz I attended a networking mixer organized by the “South Asians for Obama” group in Nov ’07. He connected with the new generation the way they wanted. He kept his followers engaged with the campaign by becoming part of their (online) life.

  Conclusion People often ask, when this is the perfect storm in favor of a Democrat candidate, why is Obama only a few points ahead in the polls? The way I see it - a black man, with a middle name “Hussein” at a time the country is fighting two wars in the Islamic world, fairly young, unknown, and with no political family backing - it is a surprise that Obama is even ahead!! 

On Tuesday night we will know whether his ability to execute a flawless campaign was good enough to take him to the White House. Regardless, his campaign has been a turning point and has set the bar high for all future political campaigns.

The case for HOPE

I have never voted my entire life and as a permanent resident but non-US citizen I can’t vote this November 4th. Even so, for the first time ever, I have contributed money to a political campaign. Everyone has their reasons for choosing the candidate they support for President. 

Here is my story. I support Obama because I admire and am inspired by his leadership, determination, eloquence, and passion. But there is more to it. For the first time, I feel I am being included and spoken to by a presidential candidate of a country I still struggle to call “home” after 14 years. For the first time, the vision for this country resonates with me and people like me in and outside America – Obama’s desire to use all tools of diplomacy first before military power, his admittance on the importance of alliances to tackle world issues, his ambition to make oil guzzling America energy independent and his promise to restore America's reputation as a role model for rest of the world. 

After hearing Obama speak for the last one year, it is also the first time and after 14 years, I have used the word “we” when referring to America while traveling abroad. Obama has inspired millions like me, who for the first time are paying attention to the political process in this country. It is truly remarkable to see young volunteers work so hard and with so much passion for his campaign. 

If elected, an Obama presidency will be a historic moment of great proportion, not just for the US, but for the entire world. It will be the first time in history, a non-white person will be elected by a white majority to lead a country. His presidency will not just bring hope for change in the United States, it also gives hope to every child born to immigrant parents in North America and Western Europe.

Jet Airways - the epitome of Customer Service

"Vegetarian or Non-Vegetarian?" I answered vegetarian, expecting my tray of airline food. But there was a follow up question - "South or North Indian?". After a brief thought I asked for south indian. I was handed a tray with a white cloth napkin, tied with nice blue rope, that held steel cutlery! Oh, did I mention I was flying coach? I was on a domestic route on Jet Airways from Mumbai to Delhi, a 2 hour flight!

Its not just in-flight meal and use of real cloth napkins and steel cutlery, even in coach, that sets this airline apart. Jet Airways has impressed me over and over again in the last 2 years with their customer service all through their value chain - right from the call center operator that takes your booking, to the check-in agents at the airport to in-flight attendants. Two years ago, I was flew into Mumbai International from SFO and had to make a connection to Hyderabad from Mumbai's domestic. The incoming flight was a bit late and by the time I took the shuttle to the Domestic airport, I had less than 30 min before my connecting flight took-off. I ran in with my 2 big bags and found a Jet Airways agent to tell him I was an international passenger and on the Hyd flight. He immediately took my bags and asked his peer to get it screened by security ( a process required pre-check in at indian airports), got me my boarding pass and asked me to run to the gate and promised me my bags meet me in Hyd. Sure enough, my bags landed in Hyd with me. Had it been any other airline (yes, even Singapore), I would have missed my connection.

It is not a surprise that Jet Airways profit is growing in triple digits when other airlines are struggling to even make one (they reported a profit of $7M in Q2 08). Other indian airlines too are trying to follow suit, but I found that the agents are not as well informed and cant seem to take charge and make decisions when presented with a new query or situation. There is something to be said about the quality of people Jet hires.

As I say on my Facebook status today, I've become a fan of Jet Airways. They have raised the bar for the airline industry and no other airline even comes close.

Women in technology

I am here in Portland at yet another tech conference, OSCON which happens to be the biggest conference for Open Source. By far, this is the geekiest conference I've been to. And it also happens to be the conference where the ratio is more skewed than ever...1-2% women as compared to the normal 10-15% women at other tech conferences. 

 Looking at the sea of white males at the Expo Hall, I noticed that it was the population of the white female that was conspicuously small. My guess is that if we separated out the minority races, mainly the Asians and Indians, the ratio of women in that crowd would be substantially higher. I thought for a minute and realized that all white women I know that work in the technology sector, are either in Sales or Marketing. In fact, I could not think of a single white woman, famous or otherwise, that was/is a developer/programmer or a pure IT junkie. 

 Is there a cultural difference between east and west? Is there a stigma that prevents white women in the US to enter the field of technology? Are they deterred by certain stereotypes in high school that is deemed uncool? Growing up in India, I surely didn't feel it. Sure the ratio of women in my Engineering college was about 25%, but none of my non-techie friends from high school sneered at me. If anything, they respected and even admired me. 

 I think we need a geek version of Hillary in the US to crack the glass wall that prevents white women from crossing the technological divide. While I may complain about how women in technology don't get much respect, I am certainly not helping their cause. Here's an embarrassing story from today: I asked this guy hovering near our booth, what the "PHP" ribbon stood for? His expression told me that it must be the dumbest question he has ever heard. He replied, "It's a language" (duh implied in his tone). 

Not to be outdone, I replied, "well, I have an 'exhibitor' ribbon and I know that's not a language." It did make him smile. And no, I didn't ask people with Perl or Ruby ribbons if they really liked jewelry.

The Web 2.0 Expo - They forgot about YOU!

You were the Time's person of the year in 2006. 

You wanted to contribute content, tell corporations what you wanted, express yourself, and connect and share with your friends and others. You helped propel this frenzy of making the Internet the platform. Yet, at the Web 2.0 conference in 2008, they forgot about you. 

 I was at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco all week and I was surprised to see that none of the sessions over the 4 days had a user's perspective. For Example - they had a panel of "community managers" sharing how they built successful communities, but no one from the community to share why they choose to become part of a community and what they expect from the community. They had people talk about different ways to monetize - through widgets, apps, and advertising. 

But no one was asking the users what they think of the Ads taking real estate on their page, or about all the silly apps being built for social networking sites. Maybe "none" is an overstatement. Two sessions stood out. O'Reilly in his keynote talked about using the Internet as a platform to make BIG changes, like making our governments more transparent to the people. Jonah Piretti, in his breakout session - the best one I attended - talked about there is no formula in making something viral. 

People (not particular persons) decide what interests them and what they want to forward and people are unpredictable. The success of viral events can be analyzed but not repeated. Of course, his presentation was engaging b'coz he himself was very funny and had very funny anecdotes to share. Google him and you will find some of his stories.