Christmas Carols

This is my second Christmas in Hong Kong (first was in 2007 when I had just joined the job, and was in HK for a brief stint), and the place just feels awesome during the time. May be, its the same with all places with US and EU citizens, or may be its different here. Anyways, its an SAR of China, and to see people celebrating Christmas vacations is really pleasing. 

I have started liking the idea of year end holiday season, running all the way from 25th to the New Year. This is really an ideal way to unwind oneself after working hard for the whole year. Its like the weekend that comes at the end of every week - and seems like a perfect way to start the next year. I would be visiting Times Square today, and going by what I have heard, that place would be exploding with people. 

Just Married!

I'm back in Hong Kong for the final few days of this year. And the past month has been eventful, to put it mildly. I JUST GOT MARRIED.

This may be one of the biggest event in someone's life, or may be not. For me, it is THE BIGGEST event of life for sure. Where else would 500 odd guests turn up just for me. Where else you get to change you life completely from that moment on. I am ecstatic, and hopeful about the future. There are so many things to do in life, and needed to get over with the marriage thing to move ahead. 

I got myself a new MacBook Pro as well - putting me firmly as an Apple Fan. Now I own their latest iPod, iPhone 4, and a MacBook Pro. Initially wanted to purchase the MacBook Air, but then realized it was slower than Pro, and was a good 'second laptop', rather than first. So here I am, writing my first post with the new machine, and feeling quite good about it.

Weather in Hong Kong has been very chilly for the past days, and the temperature has hovered around 10 for most mornings and evenings. I need to get a good room heater, and also some warm clothes. My existing wardrobe is quite insufficient for this climate, more suited to Mumbai's one. 

These are the last two weeks in 2010, and it certainly has been an eventful year. More on it on the next post. 

Two Days To Go

So we are just two days away from my India trip. Its been almost 3 months since I moved to Hong Kong, but it seems like much longer. I am missing the Indian food a lot, rather am missing home cooked food. Here I have been eating outside everyday, and after a while you kind of get bored with it. For a vegetarian, HK doesn't offer you a million choice, so its just A, B or C everyday. 

I want to eat Aaloo Chat.
and Fried Rice and Manchurian
and Paani Puri
and Plain Dosa
and Matar Paratha

Will add more as and when new things come to mind. 

And yeah, need to remember one more thing - have to get married as well :)

One New Thing A Week

I stumbled upon an interesting blog today - named Done Thing. This blog is about something I promise myself almost every year, and then forget all about it. For the past couple of years, I have been making a 'Things To Do Before I Die' list, but its soon forgotten. Let me make a fresh start once again.

This blog talks about doing a new things every week. And the definition of the new things is just something which we do not do in our daily life. It could be as simple as trying a completely different cuisine, to a mild trek. So, let me try following this every week from now on, and lets see if I could come up with a list of new experiences. 

I started with it today itself, and read a book in McDonald's. I have always seen people at coffee houses and the McDonald's reading books, staying there for hours. I have always envied them, and thought of finding enough time to do so myself some times. Well, today I did it - I read a book there today. And there were two more firsts as well - (a) it was the first book I read on my iPhone (on its iBooks application, which is really cool) and, (b) it was my first Charles Dickens novel. Planning to read 'A Tale Of Two Cities' sometime soon. 

On the book, its a classic and there is nothing I could write about it which hasn't been written earlier. A part of this book was included in our Class 9 english text book - though at that point of time I had no clue about the book or its author. It a smooth read, one which can be finished in a few hours. 

Update: I forgot to mention the name of the book - 'The Christmas Carol'. 

Globalization: The Big Change

Globalization. It means different things to different people, but everyone certainly has a notion about it. For some, it means an open world, and easy access to foreign lands. For others, it means a whole new world altogether. 

I do believe that the world has underestimated the effects of it - even now. What started of as a ploy by the richer nations to search for new markets for their goods has back-fired upon them. They wanted free access for everyone in the world, hoping to sell their products and services. What they didn't realize was the fact that one day the companies in these emerging markets would also try to compete with them, and not just in the foreign land, but also back in their home turf. 

Globalization made world flatter - and the notion of sustainable competitive advantage is lost for ever. Knowledge and technology are easily available. No new products can remain untouchable for long - there is a whole army of people analyzing everything and the data can be accessed in seconds over internet. So, the new companies doesn't have to go through the same learning curves as the old companies did. The game has changed, and now its just about the speed and agility. And may be to some extent brands, which have an irrational appeal (and hence some form of competitive advantage). 

The world would evolve into a more efficient place - and this doesn't mean a better place. A lot of jobs exist today because we have inefficiencies - if they are eliminated, we would have a lot more unemployment. We are moving towards equality - we could easily get the work done by the people who charge the lowest wage. In effect, we are slowly moving towards a world where the per capita income would converge - it might take decades though. We are all connected by social networks, and share similar ideologies. Barring China, which doesn't allow most of these web sites, rest of the world may converge to a similar culture. We all like McDonalds, and are certainly losing our local differences gradually. People are moving all around, and any big city in the world would have people from all nationalities. So, in effect, slowly and slowly, we are becoming global citizens. 

I do not know how that world would look like, but am sure we are witnessing a great change. Never before had people interacted so much amongst themselves. Never before people had easy option to selecting the places where they wanted to settle. Never before people were connected to each other to such an extent. This would invariably lead to a uniform efficient world - where everyone has access to the best in the world. We needn't buy shabby clothes as we have access to GUCCI and ARMANI. In this transformation, west has most to lose, and east has most to gain.