Safety in this country is a joke. The police patrol the streets with nothing more then a stick and a fat belly. Money that should go towards police issued revolvers, CBs and police cars has surely been pilfered by the higher ups. When a terrorist attacks, the police are clueless and powerless as they don’t have the tools to deal with this type of threat. In the end, people die.

About two years back my parents visited Bombay and they had an extra suitcase which we had no place for. Since real estate is a premium in Bombay, I had the brilliant idea of sticking the empty suitcase in the trunk of my car. For 5 months we visited pretty much every hotel and/or mall that had security and NOT ONE person questioned what was in the suitcase. They opened the trunk looked at the suitcase and then proceeded to shut the trunk. If the government was truly concerned about it’s citizens it would not let private companies conduct security checks and instead use the military as it does for the airports. This decision allows the government to save money but puts the public at risk and in the end, people die.

A politician first and foremost should be doing everything to take care of people in his/her district, but in reality they are more worried about taking care of themselves first. Another great example are the roads in Bombay. Building roads is a fairly simple thing and is done around the world and other parts of India without an issues. However, for some strange reason the roads in Bombay are always in a state of disrepair, of course corruption plays a part. If the cost of the road is Rs. 100, by the time the road is completed only Rs. 5o might have been spent on sub-standard materials, the rest is classified as “leakage”. When roads are so badly constructed it could be a death trap or lead to a serious injury for someone that is riding on a motorcycle and happens to hit a pothole. If you hit that pothole and are taken to a government hospital, let’s just say I wouldn’t even send my worst enemy to a government hospital for treatment. Yet again, the mixture of money and disregard for life creates an environment where government hospital facilities are on par with hospitals from when dinosaurs roamed the earth. In the end, people die.

You get the point, I could go on and on with examples. So what do we do? We create our own bubbles. Who cares if the building we live is filthy, as long as your home is clean. Who cares if people are begging on the street, you are sitting in an air conditioned car. Who cares if someone’s office got bombed, you and your staff are safe.

The problem with bubbles is that they can pop at any moment. When it pops who will help you? The government or will your strength, courage and resilience pull you through.

This year I completed the half marathon (13.1 miles, 21.1km) in 2:01:26, I was absolutely shooting for sub-2′s, but couldn’t pull it together during the last 4 kilometers to pickup some speed…next year.

My Mumbai half-marathon timings are:

2011 – 2:01:26
2009 – 2:07
2008 – 2:16
2006 – 2:16

What really helped me this year was using the RunKeeper app on my iPhone. RunKeeper was constantly giving me real-time stats on my run and I was able to speed it up or slow it down based on the information. I would highly recommend the program if you are planning to run a 5km or a full blown 42km marathon. You can see my RunKeeper stats for my 2011 run. The website tracks all your runs and aggregates the data and I can see this turning into a much bigger platform then it currently is.

My Name Is Khan, the newest film by Bollywood’s biggest star Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), ran into some turbulence this week in Bombay because of the dirty politics played by the Shiv Sena. Let’s rewind a bit.

SRK who is a part owner in the cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders said he would not mind having Pakistani’s players on this team. Agreed, with the terror attack on Nov. 26 in Bombay it’s a sore subject for many but the Shiv Sena, took an extreme view of his comments.  The Shiv Sena flew into action and did what they are good at – scare people and disrupt the flow of things.  The Shiv Sena threatened to block his new movie and damage the property of the theater owners.

This is not the first time this has happened, the Shiv Sena pulled the same sh#& with a film by Karan Johar (KJ) and sadly KJ had to say sorry to the Shiv Sena leadership team…weak. That’s the issue, the Shiv Sena knows that millions are on the line and can extort people and force their version of terrorism on the film industry. This time the industry and more importantly SRK, told the Shiv Sena to get lost and as usual the Shiv Sena’s threat of violence was all bark.  Of course, the PR machine of the Shiv Sena was telling anyone that listened that they were successful in their efforts. I’m still trying to figure out how the Shiv Sena keeps score.

The latest stunt by the Shiva Sena is just another in a long list of things that will make anyone shake their head in disgust. They are focused on all the wrong things because to tackle the real issues would be too much work.

Their stance on past issues:

• Valentine’s day should not be celebrated since it’s not our culture
• All taxi drivers should speak the local language – Marathi
• SJ’s movie “Wake Up Side” – should be banned because they call the city Bombay, not Mumbai
• All BMC/MCGM (governing body of Mumbai) correspondence should be conducted in Marathi

As you can see, the above are all VERY critical issues and much more important then some of the real issues affecting Bombay – poverty, water shortages, electricity blackouts, etc…

On a side note, I think part of SRK’s success in standing up to the Shiv Sena can goto Twitter (he tweets at @iamsrk). It gave SRK an unfiltered and real-time communication channel with his audience. I’d love to see the Shiv Sena use Twitter, oh wait it’s not part of their culture and Twitter currently does not have a localization for Marathi!

The latest building to go on sale is Sky Forest. The marketing info talks about 10,000 to 22,000 sq/ft for either a duplex or triplex.  I called and asked about pricing, it starts at Rs. 20,000 a sq/ft plus Rs. 50 per floor rise and Rs. 1000 sq/ft for a Worli view. So the math for a 30th floor 10,000 sq/ft pad is:

Base price = Rs. 20,000
Floor rise @ Rs. 50 x 30 = Rs. 1,500
Worli view = Rs. 1,000
Total 22,500 x 10,000 = Rs. 22.5 CR (approx USD 4.7 million)

The kicker is that the 10,000 sq/ft is really super built-up area, whereas the livable carpet area is more like 4,430 sq/ft. Why such a hugh difference? That’s because of the crazy Bombay real estate math that includes things like the lobby and other common areas of a building and quoted as “super built-up”, exceptionally stupid I must say.

So the price is really more like Rs. 45,000 sq/ft or around USD 1,000 which is quite spendy.

Sequoia Capital is one of the oldest and most well connected venture capital firms in the world, they have invested in companies like Atari, Cisco, Google, LinkedIn and PayPal to name a few. It was started by Don Valentine who had the balls to invest in Cisco Systems back in December 1987, which was just weeks AFTER the October 1987 stock market crash.

Back to the low income housing project. Sequoia Capital is investing in Tata Housing which has a project outside of Bombay in Boisar. The flats will most likely sell for between USD 8,000 to 10,000. So why would Sequoia get involved? I’m betting there are a couple reasons:

1. Sequoia Capital is first and foremost a technology VC firm and unfortunately the number of technology deals that are in play in India is a fraction of what they see on a global scale.  Which means instead of funding entrepreneurs they have to be entrepreneurial themselves.

2. There is a HUGH potential to streamline the construction industry in India.  I’m guessing Sequoia will try and see if they can inject some technology into the process and see how it scales with Tata Housing.  If it works, then they can target the entire industry and get a piece of the action.   I’ve seen people bring foreign building products to India which are priced 25-50% more then a local product and that just won’t work. You need to innovate within India so you can understand the cost constrains and get the locals comfortable with the product.

If this works out, I would expect them to go after the agricultural space and drop some knowledge there as well.

On a more local level, the latest wireless carrier to enter the fierce Bombay market is Tata DOCOMO. It’s a joint venture between the largest industrial group in India – The Tata Group and Japan’s NTT DOCOMO. This will be Tata’s second wireless network in Bombay, they have an existing CDMA network while the new venture is based on GSM.

The question arises does Bombay need yet another mobile carrier? Apparently, the Tata’s feel their is space for one more carrier. With the latest entrant we now have 9 carriers: Aircel, Airtel, BPL, Idea, MTNL, Reliance, Tata (CDMA), Tata (GSM) and Vodafone. The Virgin Mobile brand in Bombay is just reselling the Tata (CDMA) service, almost like an Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

So what’s the current selling point for Tata DOCOMO – per second billing and a 3G ready network.  That’s not enough of an offer to swing me over as a customer, but if number portability comes into play that’s another story.  You could see many people switch over just for the per second billing feature, remember the average bill in India is USD 4 per month…so seconds count. Of course, Airtel and Vodafone could just turn that feature on as well.

Anyways, the Tata Group decided to launch their new babies by housing the new dealership in arguably the most expensive piece of commercial real estate in India – CeeJay House in Worli. The new combined showroom for Jaguar and Land Rover looks awesome, they have been preparing for the Sunday launch all weekend long.

It occurred to me with these two new name plates added to South Bombay, all of the dealers are actually on the same stretch of road albeit with names changes along the way  - Hughes Road, Pedder Road, Annie Besant Road, etc… I’ll start the tour from the southern most dealer and imagine you are driving north towards Worli.

1. Mercedes Benz Sanghi – The original Mercedes dealer in South Bombay. On the right side of the road.

2. Porsche Centre Mumbai – Opened Nov 20, 2007. I remember the date because the opening was on my birthday. On the right side of the road.

3. BMW Navnit – This is located on the backside of Copper Chimney. On the right side of the road.

4. Jaguar – CeeJay House. On the left side of the road.

5. Land Rover – CeeJay House. On the left side of the road.

6. Rolls Royce Navnit – Ground floor of Atria Mall. The mall is pathetic but seeing a Phantom in the window is breath taking. On the right side of the road.

7. Audi Mumbai – At the base of the Worli flyover on the left side of the road.

The biggest glaring omission is the lack of a Ferrari dealer.  Other name plates such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati have yet to setup shop, not sure if they will.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual car ride.

But, at the local level several TV stations have invited the candidates for South Bombay to an open forum and talk about the issues.  They all spoke well and seem to understand the problems and issues that are faced by people living in Bombay.  But, I get the sense many residents of South Bombay live in a bubble and don’t have a clue what is happening in the rest of India – The Real India.  And the real India is where all the real money goes. My petty issues of better roads and high speed internet seem stupid when compared to villages in Madya Pradesh that still have issues with running water and getting more then 8 hours of electricity a day.

The 2 main issues I hear most often in regards to the elections:

1. Who should I vote for? One party will pick my left pocket and the other my right pocket.  And, there is no point in voting for an independent like Meera Sanyal since the system won’t work with her.

2. If the Congress party is elected the Sensex will zoom up. Seriously, WTF? Another attempt to play on people’s fear since many are invested. No party Congress or BJP has even talked about their economic policy so how the hell can one assume if Congress is elected the equity markets will race up.  If you haven’t noticed the Indian markets are being driven in tandem with international markets and will continue for quite some time.

Honestly, I’m glad I can’t vote in this election it’s almost like picking between dumb and dumber.

The general election will decide which candidates get elected to a 5 year term to the Lok Sabha which is the elected lower house of the Parliament of India. This is where all the action takes place, it would be similar to the US Senate.  There are a total of 543 seats up for election in the Lok Sahba.  Each one of those 543 seats are similar to a golden ticket from Willy Wonka, once elected you are set for life and decide what projects and how much of a “fee” you should receive for your district.

There are two main political parties in India, the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party aka the BJP.  There are also many other smaller groups that end up partnering with the bigger ones to create an alliance. The biggest of these smaller parties is the Samajwadi Party.  Once a political party has a majority in the Lok Sabha, that party can decide who will be the Prime Minister. Which means the general population does not vote for a Prime Minister.

Over the past several weeks each of the political parties have released their manifesto which details what they plan to do over the next 5 years. I like about the documents because it gives a true read of what the real issues are on a national level.  It’s also depressing because when you read them you soon realize the basics – food, water, electricity and security are top of mind issues. Both Congress and BJP have promised to provide 25-35kg of rice/wheat at Rs 2-3/kg to poor people – wow!  Now that’s pandering to the people and shows what the real issue is for most Indians – food.

Congress Party Manifesto
BJP Manifesto

Over the weekend the Samajwadi Party released their manifesto and a couple of their keys points: don’t use computers to replace jobs and ban english speaking schools.  They have back tracked on what they meant but the damage is done, it’s pretty clear they don’t want to see the country move forward, status quo is fine. They said they don’t want to ban english speaking schools but rather english speaking schools should not be mandatory since they are too expensive. Logically, they should figure out how to reduce the price of english speaking schools and make it affordable. As far as computers, how do you argue with an idiot.

On a more local front, I looked at the candidates that were running for the South Bombay district and who might actually impact my daily life.  There are a total of 14 people running, no one from the BJP Party but from the Congress Party is Milind Deora. Milind has held the position since the last election in 2004. The other notable candidate is an independent named Meera Sanyal, she is currently on sabbatical from ABN-Amro where she was the country head.

One thing I don’t hear anyone talk about is a debate between various candidates. I would think at least in the major metros the top candidates would use the debate to talk about their views and challenge the other candidates. However, I get the feeling no one truly wants to be put on the spot and rather trade sound bites via the media.

For up to the minute election news check out Google’s 2009 Lok Sabha election website.

The local media that I so highly talked about during the attacks is now missing, they have moved onto the latest news story – The Satyam Scam. The foreign media is more concerned, CNN is running a special on a little girl named Moshe that was saved by her maid while her parents got slaughtered at Nariman House. All the candles that were lit in protest helped boost sales for the candle makers but did little else. The cops in Bombay are as unprepared as ever still wielding their government issued bamboo stick and whistle. You would think the incoming Chief Minister of Maharashtra would make a speech and lay out his plans to avoid another attack – wrong.

Here we sit two months later and many unanswered questions remain about the attack:

• When is the trial of the only surviving terrorist Kasab?
• What is India planning to do about Pakistan?
• How is the state government going to provide better security?
• The updated death and injury count

I believe it’s an economic issue as well. Since the Indian government is fairly inept, people don’t have the luxury to sit around and cry while waiting for the government to help. They have to get back to reality and pickup the pieces on their own. 9/11 is and always will be a defining moment for the US, for India the November attack was just another event to showcase how clueless the Indian government is.