''AL(L) TRUISTIC''

Aliens and “Astronaut” helmets!

2009-12-05T00:29:00.003+05:30

I have been watching a lot of TV here in the States! Recently there was a program about ancient cultures and aliens. The Mayans, Egyptians, Persians, Chinese and Indians took their usual high pedestals, interspersed with the mention of Stonehenge and ancient Europe. It was quite an interesting couple of hours.

The idea of the program was to pitch 2 sets of people against each other, those, who believed that ancient civilizations were made up of a mix of aliens and humans and those, who believed that ancient civilizations were just simply intelligent.

What amazed me in this section was, both the sides were represented by Americans and Americans only, whose knowledge of world cultures, archeology and other eastern histories is inversely proportional to their modern scientific knowledge! The moment I observed this key anomaly, I realized that I am in for a fantasy ride!

The participants in the program simply dismissed the idea that humans, from outside the U.S, thousands of years ago, could have been far superior in intellectual capacity. To drive the last nail into the coffin, they concluded the program with a skeptic remark that rest of the world, got their scientific or architectural advancements probably by a “divine” intervention of the aliens. Also, as if to rub salt into the wounds, they put the onus on the world, to prove them wrong instead!!

This is not just a rambling of a guy from east or the orient! Look at some of the statements / scenarios which were used to speculate that aliens were involved in building the giant structures or advancement of sciences like astronomy etc.,

They showed some of the ancient cave paintings by humans which depicted some figures with large heads and eyes (typically like your ET creature) and remarked “Look at these paintings, can’t you see that the figures are wearing helmets and their eyes are big and look like aliens??” [I will come back to this point later in this essay…]
“These Pyramids are just so huge that we humans could never have built it! They never had cranes or other equipment to climb so high!”
Looking at some pictures from Indian mythology they remarked – “Look at these guys, they are flying around in saucers, this definitely means they are aliens”
Marveling at the Mayan temples, “Look at these huge, heavy stones! Who could possibly have carried it all the way up, we humans don’t have the strength to do such things and also look at the symmetry, we never had aircraft or something like that to get a birds eye view and help position these building symmetrically”

Well, what can I say?

People from different corners of the world, during a comparable time period have made use of tools and technology in vastly different ways to achieve the same goal.

Have you seen a Soviet radio and a US radio? Well, if not let me explain how it looked. The Soviet radios were bulky and made of tubes; however, the US radios were made of the latest transistor technology and were sleek! I am talking about comparable technology from a comparable time period. They were immensely different but both the radios did the same function, which was to receive the signals that were broadcast.

Let me share another extreme example from my own country, India! Unfortunately I do not have material evidence to prove what I am about to claim. But if you believe that some one in an old cave painting, wearing a head gear or a helmet is an alien, then you might as well listen to the following!

In Indian mythology, we have two great epics. Ramayana & Mahabharatha – The epic Mahabharatha provides hundreds of intriguing stories which if we correlate with modern science would baffle us. Let me quote just three of them

Gandhari – the mother of the antagonist Kaurava camp gave birth to 100 children from a single mass of tissue which was implanted in her… thus goes the story. Now, correlate it to tissue culture, cloning or test tube babies, quite possible isn’t it?
There was a charioteer in the Kaurava camp who could see what was happening on the battle field (probably hundreds of miles away) and relay it to the king in the palace sitting beside him – Does it sound like telepathy, television? In fact telepathy is a well documented phenomenon!
A deadly weapon called Brahma-astra – which literally translates to “Atom weapon” was known to the warriors in the field and there are numerous stories of negotiations of non-usage of such a weapon in the war. Finally the epic claims, that this deadly weapon, capable of destroying the entire planet was never used by anybody and that the world was saved. Does this mean, ancient Indians were aware of the concept that if you can destroy an atom you could destroy the planet because the atom is a microcosm of the universal energy?

Yes, it sounds eerie! But hey, I did not just conjure it up. The epics were written thousands of years ago…

Imagine a thousand years from now. What if, someone digs up New York, London, Shanghai, Bombay, and wonders, if, we humans in 2010 were really capable of building such huge structures like the Empire State building? What if they say that New York was built by aliens?

My case in point is… why is it difficult for this handful of people in the U.S to believe that the world was at a much advanced stage thousands of years ago and that some one from outside of U.S could build such structures? Why should one attempt to try and speculate about something?

I think I found the answer! I have observed that U.S has every single thing which makes it a super power, but, amongst a few powerful people, there is a feeling that they lack something! They feel that they lack history which dates back to about thousands of years and a few structures like Stonehenge or Pyramids... There are some people who are absolutely not happy about this fact and hence, they want to put down other country’s history or fantasize an alien story and add a new dimension.

A bunch of people out here in the U.S believe that History is not made and that it is written or worst, that, it is produced in Hollywood! Yes, I just said it - Hollywood. Well, then how do you explain the comments regarding “aliens have helmets???!!!” Dudes, aliens need not have helmets just because we guys from earth wear a helmet when we go to outer space. Look at animals; they do not wear mittens, coats, gloves, sweaters and shoes while they are out in cold. They have their own mechanism to handle it! Where could this concept of helmets stem from other than Hollywood movies, where, aliens are depicted with big heads, spooky eyes and a big helmet with antennas??? By the way, if it helps! I still believe Neil Amstrong went to Universal studios and not to Moon!

I could not help but just feel bad for these guys!

By the way, let me make one thing pretty clear. This is not an essay aimed at berating the American people or this great country. This article is just fixated at a handful of people, who believe that they can carve out or create a translated history. When I say a handful – YES, I mean it.

Do you remember World War – II, when things got out of hands because people’s fantasies turned into beliefs and values?

It took just 3 people to cause the death of 50 million people during the World War II… No, I am not referring to Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito! I am talking about, Blavatsky with her “Secret Doctrine”, Dietrich Eckart and his occult practices and Lanz von Liebenfels an Austrian monk who created a perfect villain in Jews and dark skinned people of this planet! These three people manually wrote up a fictitious history about Aryans, Jews, Anti-Christ etc., (the Superman and Superwoman, Superior race, Atlantis stories) which inspired these puppets and the consequence almost wiped out the very existence of human race. Thankfully we stopped short of it!

So guys, relax! There is no URGENCY to create or conjure up a history from your figment of imagination. Please learn to travel a lot and learn other cultures, religions and histories. When I said travel, I strictly meant it! Plain, simple travel and not like your recent “travels” to Vietnam or Iraq! Spend more time in understanding the mega structures or cultures instead of wasting time on fantasizing a story to degrade the ethos of others.

When I came to US, I was flabbergasted at the man made marvels of the 20^th century, the natural splendor of Grand Canyon (I typed “grand canyon” and it suggested that I change it to Grand Canyon, well, OK– I will!) and other museums which are home to some pieces of this planet’s history which is not safe in its homeland (read Iraq)… It is much appreciated that the U.S has preserved some of the world’s treasures…

I sincerely wish that this handful of people will realize and wake up to the fact that greatness comes from tolerance to queerness and not from appreciation of similarities. That - history is made and not written or produced in Hollywood….and that their continued good will and benevolent nature, will endure the test of time. Probably, a hundred or thousand years hence, people will talk about this great nation (U.S) as one which helped mankind preserve the human race for centuries to come and hence carve out a place in history for itself!

Ciao

Protective gears - Part II

2009-11-21T10:42:00.002+05:30

When I look at our behavior or attitude I sometimes wonder, is the new India really NEW for us to shed some of the protective gear! Because, unlike other nations which were wrecked in decades, we survived centuries of foreign rule and emerged gracefully after independence. This would not have been possible without the strong fabric of culture of protectionism! So, if we have to shed some of the protective gears, we better be sure that we are ready to do so!

After pondering for a long time I did conclude, YES, it is a new India and it is time for us to shed some protectionism and bring about a change in our business attitude!

Being a liberalized country with tax sops and an environment conducive to do business on a greater scale, we are poised to unleash the human capital and create large multi-national industrial power houses. We are on equal footing with the rest of the world. In fact I would go a step further to say that we are at an advantage on all the three fronts, culturally, technologically and economically to make India the best place to live on this planet!

Companies in the west spend enormous amount on diversity training. India, on the contrary, is already a multi cultural society and tolerance is our second nature. Our core values and the very existence of the concept of India as one nation in spite of the hundreds of languages we speak, the clothes we wear, the geographies we live in, is a testimony to our belief in diversity. If you extrapolate this thought, European Union in many ways is an attempt to create a ‘European: India’!

Technology has been our forte for centuries. A temple around the corner of your street, a mausoleum in the north, the centuries old irrigation canals which work perfectly fine even today, the weather forecast systems passed down the generation via vocal medium, Indian mathematics, astronomy and medical science are all something which we should be proud of. The foreign rule did hamper our innovation cycle, and we missed out on the opportunities during the industrial revolution.

If you observe carefully, the nations which were in action during the industrial revolution are the developed nations today. The IT revolution is the next big thing to have happened to human society after industrial revolution! The world around every one of us has changed since the IT revolution! We as a country are in the thick of things as far as the IT revolution is concerned and we should capitalize! The moment is upon us!

Our economic policies are getting better. It was bound with all the protectionism and protective gears to insulate a just born nation. However, as we have progressed over the last half a century, we now feel that some of these policies impede our growth than expedite. Otherwise, why would you think the Oxford / Cambridge educated conservative policy makers of this nation who in the first place, were instrumental in padding us with these protective measures are working hard to remove some of these un-necessary protective policies?

There is no point in just the system shedding its beliefs; there can be no real progress unless the individuals who make up the system shed some of their age old belief mechanisms!

So, what are the possible items that you could do…

Ask the why instead of what
Muster the courage to challenge if you think otherwise on a given topic.
Treat people the way you expect to be treated and do expect the gesture to be reciprocated, if not, do express your concern.
Create an identity for yourself and make sincere attempts to move away from the crutches of growth by association
Feel free to have your own opinions and you can choose to disagree
Do what you feel is the right thing to do instead of doing things just to please others

The above steps are not some prescription for assured success or achieving greatness in life! These steps will help every Indian to make significant progress in achieving his/her business potential in the new world order!

I was inspired by a huge inscription on the wall of a community hall, it read “Do your duty and expect desired results!” These were the words of Rajinikanth a superstar of Indian cinema who happens to be the owner of that community hall. This is from a man who has been there, seen it and done it! This new paradigm which has been unearthed will create a tectonic shift in our belief system and hence will drastically improve our personal and societal productivity!

You would be surprised to know that when you shed some of your protective gear, you get not only faster but also would not get hurt even if you fall down.

But, the usual Indian “but” – the case I have lobbied for is purely in relation to doing business whilst in the western world and US especially. So keep in mind that this rhetoric is a case in context and not a panacea.

Ciao

Sundar

Protective gears!

2009-11-21T01:55:00.006+05:30

My generation in India has grown up smelling the air of new age entrepreneurship in a new invigorated, liberalized India. I have seen an individual grow his personal wealth from 0 to a billion $ in one generation and share it generously as well! This new country has given people like me the opportunity to compete on an equal footing in the new “flat world”.

However, my helmets, knee caps, arm guards, gloves and such numerous protective gears are slowing me down and in fact choking me!

What are these helmets, knee caps, arm guards, gloves? These are some elements of Indian societal set up! We have always been brought up with a sense of caution and boundaries. Some of boundaries were virtual and some physical.

Say, for example, we were always told, not to take risks, never to put all eggs in one basket, not to challenge beliefs, systems, elders, teachers, we were given a framework of family bondage where we have to put up with an annoying wife/husband even though the relationship is not mutually beneficial, to be obedient to our boss at the cost of us feeling unhappy about the situation, to be grounded to reality and never chase dreams, to save and not to spend, that identity comes from our association and not from self, to have a servile attitude to the king, boss, land lord or whoever it was whom we thought put the daily bread on our plate, to not to believe our colleagues but to believe the system, that getting endorsed especially by a foreigner is the paramount, to never fall out of ranks, to follow the crowd and not tread an unknown path, to please people rather than doing the right thing, to work within the system and its constraints, to leave the thinking / innovation / adventure to someone else, the list is endless! These gears were forced upon us over centuries through, stories, myths, ‘modified’ epics, poems and every possible means.

On a side note, when I think of adventures, I don’t know of any notable adventure sport or adventure club which existed in India (not in pockets and that too again performed by specialists) some 10 years ago! Think, think, think!

Also, I would want to take this opportunity to showcase a fundamental belief in majority India. “Do your duty and do not expect results!!” This belief is derived from Bhagavad Gita – one of the holy books of Indians.

Indians did a great deal of introspection throughout the ages. So if this particular interpretation/statement was made to help an individual to transcend from the materialistic world onto the world of universal truth, it makes sense!

However, in India people are advised to apply this belief on their day to day tasks. Why would someone want to do something in life without expecting desired results? This is the driver for creating a totally unproductive society.

Though, I do agree that these elements keep you safe and help you lead a long life! But, is that what life is about in rest of the world, especially the western world and specifically the US? No!! Absolutely not!

I get reminded of a commercial for a battery which depicts two old men in a wrestling arena, clasping on to each other and wrangling away softly at each other! Then the ad concludes with the caption, what’s life without power?

I am not able to run at the speed at which I can (personally and professionally), whilst in the US or western world because, either, some of these protective gears slow me down, or, even if I shed some of the gears, my colleague’s (fellow country men’s) protective gears hurt me whilst I run along with them. When I extrapolate this thought, I am sure; my country is also being slowed down by the sheer weight of such protective gears!

Imagine us leading a long life consistently protected by these gears!! Huh! Think of R.K. Lakshman’s iconic “Common man of India”. An old doddering, spectacled man with a mustache and a kitty of life savings. Ironically he has a smile all the time… which, especially, I just cannot fathom.

I feel totally dejected and weighed down by the protective gears, the very thought of such a depiction of the common man from India suffocates me!

It’s time to think of what we have and what we could do about it?

Jet lag!

2009-10-26T04:17:00.012+05:30

Never really had been alone physically and mentally - Now, I am!

Well, the story is, I had been dying to go to the US of A. 2 VISA rejections, 1 VISA approved but did not travel and again 1 more VISA and this time after 1 year of securing the VISA, it materialized last week – FINALLY! I said to myself! I called up my friends and family and had informed them about my trip.

I reached US of A yesterday.

This trip was planned with much fan fare both personally and professionally – after landing in the US, I realize, there is no fun anymore, the excitement is all gone, there is no adrenalin gush, well, apart from the intermittent gastro-intestinal acidic bursts! "What happened?" I wondered! This is what I wanted very badly - To travel to THE States. I thought to myself, when stars align and smile at you, what the hell is bothering you?

I realized the root cause.... it was the lack of urgency in life!

I quickly recollected one of Barrack Obama's speech when he was running for Presidency - He said "I am running in this race because of what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now." Because I believe that there's such a thing as being too late. And that
hour is almost upon us."

How true!!

There is such thing as being too late! I was not enthused anymore because, it was too late in the day! Nevertheless, there are miles to go and this too shall pass - I have got other reasons to be enthused about whilst I am in the US now - The most important thing is, I have realized what needs to be done.

The "fierce urgency of now" as Mr. Martin Luther King reveals is a very powerful motivator. I realized that I did not pursue my dream fiercely enough, I waited for things to fall in place. Incidentally, on the flight, I chanced upon a quote of Mark Twain – He says, "Time and tide wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide. "I have been nurturing a dream for a while now! I will not wait for the tide and time! I will make it happen...March on to MARCH (2) 2010- watch out for the date folks!

Phew!!! It was a long Jet lag indeed for 9 years!

I am awake! Finally!

Ciao

Sundar

Are We Content?

2009-08-14T14:15:00.004+05:30

Sindhu's first article on www.justcribbing.com!

Are We Content?

'We had a tough time getting a good maid', thundered one of my friends. It was a Saturday evening and customary to the week-end routine, we had gathered at a friend's place. One topic led to another and we found ourselves discussing the issue of employing maids in Bangalore. 'These maids do not seem to be satisfied what we give and they keep demanding more and more. And one fine day, you would find them absconding, not wanting to work for you anymore'- he said in disgust.

That set a line of thought pondering in my mind. Are we satisfied with what we have? Do we strive to reach for more and in the process stop enjoying what we have?

I need to draw a line here between 'aspiring for more' and 'wanting more'.

Aspiring to reach higher is a process of growth. We strive our best to use our skills and abilities to aim higher and grow higher-spiritually, materially, and socially. In the process, we learn more, acquire new skill sets, enhance our thought process, and make new social connections. And this contributes to growth in a positive direction. What is key here is that we are content with what we have and draw new goals to reach them. We do not complain but develop ourselves.

Wanting more on the other hand is a process whereby we have our goals stuck at a place for a period of time. When we attain them, we draw new goals and strive to reach them. The mind is not content with what we have. We remain in a constant state of dissatisfaction at not being able to appreciate what we have achieved. We start comparing ourselves with others. We start a thought process in which the mind is engaged in a constant battle between what it is and what it wants. Our happiness is soon guided by the mission of obtaining 'x'. And if 'x' is not reachable, we feel shattered. We feel useless.

I tried googling for some interesting quotes on 'Satisfaction' when I chanced upon the following said by Mahatma Gandhi.

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." Profound indeed!

One of the main lessons I learnt from the Art of Living course is to 'live in the present'. While it sounds simple, adopting it indeed requires monitoring the mind and bring it to the present each time it reels back to the past and forwards to what may happen in future. Engaging the mind to be in the present is actually 'living with awareness'. The more we live with awareness, the more we are able to appreciate what we have, explore more opportunities, lead a contented life, contribute to growth and most of all, live and not just exist.

It was placement time during my final year of my post graduation course. The placement committee had invited a deluge of companies enough for each of us to be placed. Many even landed with two or three offers. What should basically be a euphoric atmosphere turned into a battle of minds where each one was busy comparing what the other had landed with. So, who should have been responsible for happiness? The placement committee? The companies? or the students themselves? The answer is obvious.

Why blame the maids when we have to debate upon what we want and what we seek in our everyday lives?

- Sindhu

Welcome Sindhu!

2009-08-14T14:04:00.002+05:30

Dear Friends,

It's my pleasure to introduce Sindhu Kalyanasundaram! She is a friend of mine and married to Santhosh, who happens to be a close friend of mine :-)

Now, the idea is, we thought it would be better if we both started sharing the same platform to express our news and views on issues that affect us personally.

I know that I myself make you cry or think about misy mushy stuff! So, with a "gal" now joining the party, you can expect more of it and we will endeavor to get the hanky out of your closet every time you visit us.... just to help you with the happy / empathatic tears!

Sindhu will introduce herself in detail shortly -- In the meanwhile, here is an article from Sindhu which she was meticulously sent me last week and I could find only this muhurat* to release it!

So, request you to enjoy the double scoop!

Yeah, in the times of recession you need to "add value" to your customer you know! And what more - here you go! I offer you 2 for the price of 1.

Have fun!
- Sundar

*Muhurat - an auspicious occassion

Embarrassed!!!

2009-07-08T18:09:00.001+05:30

“Embarrassment is the proudest virtue of a loser!” – Sundararaman Viswanathan

Yes!!! I coined this quote!

“At least to my knowledge”, “in my humble opinion”, “If I am not wrong”, “hope you don’t mind”…. Every day, we are faced with a typical situation where in we hide behind these phrases.

Why is that so? Are we trying to be polite? No!!! We do so, simply because, we fear of “embarrassment”, if proven otherwise!

Why do people fear about getting embarrassed? Because, it could prove fatal! Yes, people do commit suicide because they got embarrassed!!!

Last week, it was just another meeting at our local Toastmasters club*.

Again a session of table topics, and the usual suspects walked up to the lectern, got their topic, and fumbled with words (mind you “words” not even “sentences”) for about 10 seconds and walked back for a round of applause! It is customary in Toastmasters to applaud no matter how the performance was, just to encourage people! As someone who believes, “there’s nothing called trying” and “you are either a winner or a mere spectator”, I never applaud for poor performance. There was never a sense of purpose in my applause at the club meetings… So, it was just the ritualistic thud thud thud...

I used to wonder, well, how embarrassing it would be for those losers who couldn’t even manage to speak for 10 seconds… This was happening for quite some time. That evening, after the meeting, during a casual talk, I stumbled on a startling revelation that one of the speakers was the wife of the President of our club. The very moment I came to know of this fact, my world view about “embarrassment” had changed for ever.

This man, the President of our club, a man of great stature, admired for his public speaking skills, did not have any qualms or embarrassment in bringing his wife who had pretty inadequate public speaking skills to the very same club. It occurred to me that he would have been a loser if he had felt embarrassed and had left his wife at home. By not feeling embarrassed and bringing his wife to the very same club, he showed extraordinary levels of maturity, sincerity and importantly lead by example as to how one could be successful if he/she were to shed the cloak of embarrassment. I am sure his wife and our fellow Toastmaster one day will become a competent speaker!

When I extrapolated the same to other speakers who fumble at the lectern week after week, I could only admire them. The new perspective which I acquired, helped me identify the enduring spirit in people, who, do not feel “embarrassed” but continue to have a go at it week after week just to ensure they improve their public speaking skills…

I have come to realize that one has got a lot to lose by feeling embarrassed.

I have been dying to have a line or quote from myself which people could use… So, when I framed the quote “Embarrassment is the proudest virtue of a loser”, I was delighted! But as always, there was a thought lingering at the back of my mind that I might make a big fool out of myself by claiming something like framing a quote. So, I wanted to dilute my stance by adding one of the escape lines mentioned above like “in my opinion…embarrassment is the….”

But then, I realized that I am going back to the same old bad habit of wearing the cloak of embarrassment! I have shed that cloak now. Instead, if someone can prove that the quote was already formed, I will apologize and get on to the job of forming another quote. Otherwise, I will never frame a quote in my life!!!

Also, had people who committed suicide because of embarrassment, just stepped back and thought for a second, they would have realized that it is always a better choice to live and be embarrassed for a moment rather than die and be remembered as a coward!

Next week when I go to my local Toastmasters club, my applause will have a sense of purpose and will probably louder than anybody else’s!

Remember! “Embarrassment is the proudest virtue of a loser”!!!

- Ciao

* Toastmasters International is a movement started in 1924 at Santa Anna USA by a visionary called Ralph C. Smedley with an objective to improve public speaking skills and build leadership qualities in an individual. A typical meeting consists of 3 parts (prepared speech session, evaluation of the prepared speeches and then a table topic session). The table topic session gives every member a chance to speak extempore for 2 minutes on a given topic. Today there are about 200,000 members and the movement is spread across 82 countries.

For more details visit: www.toastmasters.org

Playing to the gallery!

2009-07-01T12:51:00.002+05:30

I have heard this quite a few times. Some of the most popular artists have followed this idea and have

been highly successful!

My writing style has become something I call “Canned writing” in the last 6 months.

When I received a good response to my articles on a particular stage, I started enjoying it and was

basking in the glory of “The prestige” as I call it!

I have come to realize that, I have weaned away from my original style of writing, (by the way if you had

not noticed ;-)), which was that of critical, sarcastic, incisive commentary on issues in life that touch me

to the one that of “canned writing”.

It’s stifling! I don’t want to be the one who “plays to the gallery” anymore! I am ripping off the band-aid

and here it goes!

Now that I have shared with you how I feel, I am much more relieved!

Phew!

Will be back with a bang soon!

Ciao

-Sundar

Embarrassment!

2009-07-01T12:33:00.003+05:30

“Embarrassment is the proudest virtue of a loser!” – Sundararaman Viswanathan

I coined this quote recently and wanted to share it!

When I shared this with my brother, it took a little while for even a brilliant guy like him to get it! So, I

wouldn’t blame you if you don’t get it in the first go. Take your time!!! :-)

My next ~~blog~~ essay is is based on this statement… I look forward to publishing it soon.

I know, you are itching to say something about this quote, common' spit it out!

Comments box… well... you know what to do!

- Ciao

Sundar

Racism or Favouritism???

2009-06-03T14:02:00.002+05:30

Recently, when I saw and read about hate crimes and racist attacks, my heart went out to the college kids who bore the burnt of attacks. It is a pathetic sight for a parent to see their kid on TV with stab injuries! Punitive action should be taken against the attackers – no doubt!

But, if you observe carefully, what we witnessed was just another case of mugging which went terribly wrong, and the ramification was severe just because the attacker and victim were of a different skin color! Why do people with darker skin need to feel that they are being “racially” discriminated? So, do dark skinned people implicitly admit that the fairer skin is superior? Are dark skinned people not racist?

Think of the following situations…

A trader at a tourist location charging more for a bottle of water from a “foreigner” than he would for a fellow country man.

Our own Indian government which charges different rates for foreigners and citizens to visit Taj Mahal. I am quoting this as an example because, if our government had built the Taj and is collecting toll to recover the investment, it is absolutely OK to charge as the Govt., feels like. But, we invited the tourists and encourage them to travel to India and see the best of it, didn’t we?

In India, it’s a common sight to see “chinkis” (someone please sue me for using this word) from North eastern states waiting on us or cleaning up in restaurants. Why? Is it their core competence???

“Sardarji” jokes are the most popular e-mail forwards!!!

We all love making fun of “Madrasi” accents when south Indians speak Hindi!

Reservations for “SC / ST / OBC / MBC / BC” – Oh my God! A blatant admission of our racist behavior!

Why on earth is “Fair and Lovely” running its ads encouraging people to become fair??? Is it the most racist ad and product ever?

The so called representatives of the oppressed class – the Political parties, spreading messages like “Tilak, tarazoo aur talwar unko maaro juthe chaar” – which means hit the Brahmins, businessmen and warrior class with shoes!!

Imagine the innumerable situations when we have made fun of foreigners. Incredible India – a campaign run by our Indian Govt., persuades people to treat foreigners with respect. Why does the government have to do it if we already do not differentiate people based on color?

Just after conference calls in IT companies, when we get together to discuss how Americans or whites in general cannot do math and how they could not understand a simple concept or design, are we not being racist?

How many times have you seen a dark skinned guy in a marketing and sales team in our new age IT companies?

Let us go a little international.

Rwanda – An African country torn apart by civil war between two clans. Hutus and Tutsis. Only thing that separates them is one has a longer nose than the other, nothing more.
Sinhalese and Tamils in SriLanka. Both are dark skinned but there is bloodshed. Root cause of it in one word – “racism”.
I am sure an informed African would be able to make a laundry list (Senegal, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia…..) of such brutalities committed by his own people in his own continent!

Given this, I feel that dark skinned people are just being hypocrites by calling the fairer skinned ones “racists”.

Come to think of it, I feel the term racism is used only in cases where a fairer skinned person is the attacker and dark skinned person is the victim. We as humans, by nature, differentiate ourselves on the basis of color of skin, language we speak, religion we follow and an endless list…, but why do we make such a big fuss only when we are discriminated on color of our skin?? I feel racial discrimination is no bigger evil than any other form of discrimination!

Furthermore, all forms of discrimination we see, hear, do and experience in our day to day lives, eventually culminate in racial profiling and hence I tend to believe that, probably, there is a racist in all of us. Just that some of us don’t roam around wielding knives and screw drivers and hurting people around. However, we do certainly hurt people, especially the lesser privileged (socially, economically and in any other way lesser fortunate than us) in many subtle ways (knowingly or un-knowingly) in our day to day lives.

There is only so much one could contain using laws and legislation. Humanity has come a long way on the issues of slavery and human trafficking. Beyond these, there are certain human tendencies, which, cannot be overcome but have to be endured. The best we could do is to strive to avoid confrontations or to level the playing field!

In the recent case in Australia, What could we have done differently to avoid confrontation?

Simple: “Be a Roman in Rome”!

When we travel to a foreign land for any purpose, it is our responsibility to mingle with the society as much as it is the society’s to welcome, accommodate and make us feel comfortable. We should be sensitive the local custom, culture, values and belief systems. We should understand the fact that we are an alien in a foreign land and we should make efforts to learn the system and adapt to it.

To understand how we could overcome subtle form of discrimination at work place, let us take another example. The world has become a “flat” and a multi-cultural work place is a common scenario. There have been stories in the past where racial discrimination formed a glass ceiling for many talented individuals. Today, an Armani suit, a game of golf and standardized wine and dine etiquettes seem to level those imbalances and hence has allowed people from a different ethnic backgrounds to take charge of large multi-national companies. Again, the underlying theme is to be a Roman in Rome and get immersed into the company culture where ever the company might be say, America, Saudi Arabia, India, China or Africa!

Let me clarify one thing. When I say “Be a Roman in Rome”, I am certainly not suggesting you to compromise on your fundamental value system. All, I am suggesting is work towards integrating with the alien system instead of standing out. After all, a metal plate does this my friends. When we fix a fracture with a metal plate, the metal plate is designed to integrate with the human body or at the least it is designed not to be allergic!

We humans will continue to have our own perspectives, prejudices and in some way or the other discriminate the less(er) privileged. Think of this world as an ecosystem. There is a certain hierarchy; there is a certain high and low state of energy. There is an inherent flow from one state to another. This flow is the essence of life. Ups and downs, highs and lows, good and bad, right and wrong, superior and inferior are the prime movers of materialistic life on this planet. So discrimination or if I were to put it positively, “favoritism” will always exist! The only way to overcome “favoritism” in any facet of life is by being a “Roman in Rome”.

So, let us not make much ado about nothing! The latest incidents are typical examples of certain natural human tendency which got blown out of proportion by some arbitrary middlemen like media, politicians who made merry of the situation. We need to understand that no one is better than the other and that it is natural for humans to differentiate and react.

I am sure the examples I shared with you might have sparked off a debate in your minds or at least provoked some thoughts. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the same!

- Ciao

Oh my God!

2009-05-19T16:25:00.003+05:30

Right thing to do!

I happened to watch this movie “Gone baby Gone” recently. The story line is about a kidnap which is shrouded in mystery. A private detective, the protagonist, who is hired to help out the investigation, finds out that the kidnapper is none other than the just retired honorable sheriff who had lost his child in a conflict and very badly wanted to father a child. On the contrary, the kidnapped child’s natural mother is addicted to drugs, wasted and irresponsible person who cannot care for her daughter, though, since her daughter’s kidnapping she has shown signs of being a responsible person.

The core of the movie is the dilemma which the protagonist faces.

Once the detective unearths the truth, he is faced with a dilemma as to whether he should hand over the child back to its mother who might not care for her or to leave her with the sheriff who will love, care and provide for her like nobody else would.

What should the protagonist do?

A video shot by National Geographic during an African safari – A calf was attacked by 4 lion cubs. The cubs had the calf in their hold. There were around 50 African bison, which stood helpless and was about to witness the death of the little calf. The guards and crew of National Geographic also watched the incident but had guns in their hand! They could fire in the air and disperse the cubs and release the little calf or be mere spectators!

What should the guards and crew do?

Another example, which probably many of you could relate to!

A senior manager of a large MNC quit his job and started off on his own. The top executives in that MNC were his mentors, ex-bosses and good friends. A new assignment comes up in the MNC and they invite proposals from firms. This senior manager who has started off on his own also participates in the process. He is aware of the project, the company culture and all other nuts and bolts which are required for successful completion of the work. Also his rates are low and nowhere near to his rivals. He charges actual + a thin margin as he doesn’t have to incur other sales and marketing costs. The proposal is otherwise professional. The top executives understand that the reason behind a strong proposal from their ex-colleague is his thorough knowledge of the company’s internals.

Should the top executives award him the contract or should they set aside his proposal and evaluate other proposals?

During one of my meetings at the Toastmaster’s club, a very experienced toastmaster for 16 years delivered a fantastic speech. During the same meeting, there was a new member of the club presenting his first speech the ice breaker! He also did a good job but nothing in comparison to the experienced Toastmaster. At the end of the session people voted for the best speaker. No marks for guessing. It was the experienced Toastmaster. When he went on stage he offered to give the award to the new member who delivered the icebreaker speech.

The winner’s conscience did not permit him to accept the award. Was he right in going against the collective wisdom of the crowds?

When I reflect back on certain incidents, statements and behavior of, my friends, family and colleagues, I realize that most of their time and energy is spent on proving to the world their conscience. I am no different… I too have been there, seen it and done it!

We all have spent quite a bit of time and energy in justifying our acts and words one way or another. This compulsive need to prove the conscience of oneself takes a toll on human energy. We feel depressed when we are seen to be arrogant or inconsiderate, but feel elated when perceived otherwise.

We not only want to do the right things but also seen to be doing the right things. Is this necessary? Should we not keep it simple and say that it is all a perception issue. After all, the post-modern theory that’s evolving is that of “situational ethics” where the sense of right or wrong is relative to the situation. Tolerance is the key and any form of intolerance is considered sacrilegious. So, why bother about proving to the world about our conscience – let’s call others take on the situation as perceptional and opinionated and move on!!! But, something told me that this is not “right”!

I did some research to understand the root cause for all the decisions we make in situations like the ones mentioned above. As usual the research has taken me more than a month, raised quite a few questions, including the very existence of God! – The final destination or the root-cause, I settled for was - the universal truth! The book “The New Tolerance”, by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler was the clincher that adjudicated my internal debate between situational ethics and universal truth / God and delivered the judgment in favor of existence of universal truth and God!

The debate cannot be structured better than they way the authors of the article have. Hence, I would like to cite them throughout the argument.

They say that whenever people encounter situations as presented above, if they were to apply “situational ethics” vis-à-vis “comparison to universal truth”, the world would be led into a subjective mentality of “whatever feels good”, which could have a devastating effect on the society.

What is “good” or “right” to you may be “bad” or “wrong” to someone else!

So, on the question of existence of absolute truth they conclude, “…If there are no absolutes, no reality, chaos ensues. Take the law of gravity for instance. If it were not an absolute, we could not be certain we could stand or sit in one place until we decided to move. Or if 2 + 2 did not always equal 4…What a mess that would be, but thankfully 2 + 2 does equal 4. There is absolute truth and it can be found and understood…”

To further cement their argument on absolute truth, they present three evidences for existence of absolute truth and hence God!

“Yes. First, there is the human conscience, that within us that tells us the world should be a “certain way,” that some things are “right” and some are “wrong.”

Second evidence is Science…”Science is simply the pursuit of knowledge, the study of what we know and the quest to know more. Therefore, all scientific study must by necessity be founded upon the belief that there are objective realities that exist in the world and that these realities can be discovered and proven...”

The third evidence is religion.”... All the religions of the world attempt to give meaning and definition to life. They are born out of mankind’s desire for something more than simple existence...”

The authors also present interesting arguments against the atheist camps! They say that, if one were to absolutely claim that “God does not exist” then, the claim is itself fundamentally flawed. The claim of atheists is based on their “absolute knowledge or truth that God does not exist” which is contradictory to their belief that there is no “absolute truth”!

In conclusion, the authors’ state, “And if there is indeed a Creator, then He becomes the standard for absolute truth...”

Though the “universal truths” are generally accepted and recognized as the official formula of ethics and morals, they have come to be debatable in our post modern society. Not long ago, slavery, racism or discrimination in any form, family planning, abortion, euthanasia, gay and transsexual rights were taken for granted and treated as non-issues, prohibited topics and were consistently ignored. Today, the voices have grown stronger and effected some action.

Does this mean our society is weaning away from the universal truth and is following “situational ethics” or the principles of “cultural relativism” which we discussed above? The answer in my opinion is, No! The society is learning to be much more tolerant and become more inclusive! The society wants these issues listed above to be added to the realm of universal truths! That way we can develop a sustainable society which is tolerant and inclusive…

In essence, there is a certain right or wrong, good or bad and it is judged against the universal truth which has been given to the mankind by the creator himself. We need to accept the fact that we are accountable for what we say and do. This means that we cannot apply the logic of situational ethics and get away with our words and deeds. I am not suggesting that we should explain and defend every act and deed of ours, but just that we need to be conscious of our behavior and if we realize (internally) that there is a scope for improvement, we should endeavor to do so!

I would like to conclude with this true story. The conflict in Bosnia and Serbia left thousands dead. It was one of the worst ethnic cleansing in recent times. The international community, UN and a team of scientists are spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to put together a set of 208 bones from different mass graves just to identify those who are dead and prove to the culprits that there is evidence of who was murdered and hence prosecute them. The international community, could easily hand the culprits as the whole world knows who committed the crimes, and give the hundreds of millions of dollars to Africa and help alleviate poverty there. But is it the right thing to do? No, every person who is charged needs to be proven that he/she is guilty as charged and punished accordingly and also by spending the millions we could bring some respect back to the dead and their surviving families in a sense that, even after death, there is someone who will fight for justice and ensure that it is delivered rightfully to the survivors.

This ability to rationalize and internalize is only amongst the human beings and not other animal on this planet! The rationalization will work only when we believe in a superior universal truth.

This ability to rationalize and internalize is according to me is God!

Just Cribbing!

2009-04-06T15:24:00.004+05:30

Dear Friends,

I have purchased a domain www.justcribbing.com - This domain is currently pointing to my blog.

There are grand plans regarding building this website and I will keep you posted on the plans.

I am going through some exciting times in my life, so I have been spending very little time on blogs.

Hope you too are having a great time!

Talk to you soon...

- Sundar

Political Will...

2009-03-12T12:57:00.004+05:30

If at all you want to develop political will, go to the kids, learn from them!

I have come across two kinds of people. First kind are ones who want to get something done and they get it done no matter what (read as beg, borrow or steal). The second kind are the ones who eventually get things done by playing the game of “war of attrition”!

Then I came across the third kind. Smart, energetic, enthusiastic, brimming with ideas but who do not have either the ability to get it done or play the attrition game. In their lifetime, they come up with some brilliant idea, suggestion, or cause but never succeed in getting them off the ground. They get themselves entangled in a mesh of political quagmire and run out of steam before they get their idea see the light of the day.

I think many of us fall in this category. I am sure many of you will be able to re-collect instances from your days at school, college, work place, home and social life. If you had a chance to trace back, you would notice that someone else picked up the baton from where you dropped and achieved glory. You tend to say to yourself that “If only, I had not dropped the ball… I would have been” or even worse reminisce, “You know what, it was my idea!”

This recent photograph which I took, of kids near my house celebrating the festival of color “Holi” has an interesting story behind it and got me thinking on the concept of political will. They were the only group celebrating Holi yesterday! Un-faced by the lack of interest amongst the elders around, they went about having fun, which is what they wanted to! When I approached them for a photograph, they were more than willing to pose for me. I interviewed few of them and uncovered this following story of enduring spirit…

It seems, when the kids approached their parents for resources needed to celebrate Holi, the response was lukewarm. They were challenged with hurdle after hurdle like, home work, health issues, society / apartment association regulations on using colors within the premises, practical difficulties of cleaning up, special project at school (being a long holiday most of them had special projects which they need to complete and take back to school after their small vacation), impending examinations which are just round the corner, they were even told the lame stories on how their favorite film stars did not celebrate holi as a mark of paying homage to the Mumbai 26/11 incident and list goes on.

However, the children had made up their mind! All they wanted was to have a blast and celebrate Holi and that they would have to do it.

They got together, planned out their study schedule and homework for the coming week. For the special projects, the kids had an idea! They volunteered for the topic “Holi Celebrations” for the special project in their respective classes. This way they could use special projects as a use case when they lobby with their parents. Confused? So was I…

Well, they offered their parents that If they celebrate Holi, they could click few pictures and write about the celebrations and get the project completed all by themselves instead of passing it on to parents (which is usually the case). This way the parents would be glad to know that they get all the 4 days for themselves. Otherwise they would have to do a lot of research or Google and print out a project.

Once they were done with their internal housekeeping, they identified the area where they could play Holi, and the kind of ammunition they would use like water guns, powder sprays, foams. It was during this conversation, they decided not to use eggs, tomatoes or any such item which was costly and also compromised on some of the colors which were known to be made of harmful chemical dyes. They came up with some regulations like wearing a slipper, not so costly T-shirts or trousers, and even committed to use swimming goggles to protect their eyes. Thus they made their list of resources look pretty good, and approvable.

I also understand from some of the seniors in the group that they made a cute little speech at the monthly society / apartment owner’s association meeting on how they intended to go about their preparation. So, the proposal was completed and presented to individual parents and then the association as a whole!

Do you think these kids were making up this story? I don’t think so! The coherence in narration of incidents and the enthusiasm with which each kid pitched in to explain their hard earned fun moved me.

Is this an isolated incident where kids have shown an astounding example of political will? Let's look at the following cases as well...

A wailing kid in the wide aisle of a grocery store
A kid completing his homework early and doing some helping around at home only to ask for time out to play
A kid complaining to a visiting relative about how their parents would not buy them a toy which they very badly want and eventually making the relative feel that he/she should buy it for the kid!
Kids telling a story of how beautiful their friend’s wrist watch was and why that they too need one. They don’t stop there usually. They ask their parents the way to get it. I mean they try to understand from the “giver”, what it would take to get one for themselves.
Kids seeking and getting the permission of their parents to attend a school picnic

In the cases discussed above, one thing stands out. In the psychology of children it is ingrained that they have to pursue their ideas or wants to achieve the desired end state. They know they have to lobby hard; they tend to understand what tactic works well and when to use what tactic without hurting their future chances. This uncanny ability to persuade without hampering your future chances is called political will! We too have been there, done it or at least have seen it!

Why is that we lose this political will as we grow up?

At work place, I have seen some brilliant programmers come up with some intelligent tool that automates a very tedious process. They wish that it be used enterprise wide. However, when they encounter the very first challenge or a set of challenges they give up. The tool never sees the light of the day.

Do you know the story of now famous Arvind Adiga – the author of “White Tiger”? Before his work was published and won the Man Booker price – he was rejected by every major publishing house in India. That did not deter him. But unfortunately, for every Arvind Adiga there are many others who have put their work in their attics and have given up!

Many innovations, books, arts, ideas have died a silent death because of the lack of political will on the part of the innovator to push it into the system.

When I set out to understand the reason behind giving up, I chanced upon an article by Diane Kennedy Pike. She theorizes a reason why we lose the political will as we grow up. According to her, people develop a sense of distaste for arguments and conflicts as they grow up. They perceive that it is important for them to be “liked by others” than to hold on to their principles and convictions.

This obsessive compulsive disorder for "always being liked by others” is what strips you of one of the most important character, called, the political will, which, as a child, you carried in abundance and were getting things done the way you think was right!

During conflicts whilst you are pursuing an idea, you might be faced with hurting comments. There could be people lobbying against you and your principles. But if it is correct and if you believe it could change people’s lives, stay put! The key is to stay the course on your principles, ideas and convictions, not take the criticisms personally, be passionate about the cause and at the same time be dispassionate in engagement.

Further Diane Kennedy Pike notes… “I recognize now that to bring about any change at the group level takes tremendous commitment. First, there must be a vision of what is possible. Then, there must be a willingness to sustain that vision through all the stages: presentation of it, support for it, organizing practical programs to implement it, recruiting others to participate in the programs, spending hours talking with people, carrying on when you feel you are the only one who cares, not allowing criticism, rumors, and name-calling to discourage you, allowing others to get the credit when what you envisioned finally begins to manifest, and supporting those who are willing to carry on the vision now that it has become a reality. This is how I would define political will.”

I would like to like to end with a personal story which made me learn the importance of political will and hence re-build it as a part of my character and also helped develop my tolerance towards “dirty politics”.

I started the student placement office at my college. It was 2001 and tough time for technology companies in India. People started remarking about the lack of traction in placements and also were speculating about mismanagement of funds. They demanded a disclosure of accounts. I quit at that very instant. I could not take the fact that people did not trust me. There was no problem with the accounts, and I would have been cleared of all the charges. But I was afraid that such conflicts were going to make me only more unpopular and also that it was a Thank less job. Later, I learnt that someone else picked up from where I had left, disclosed the accounts, was cleared of all charges and as luck would have it, few weeks into his leadership, the placements started happening at my college. The homework which I had done was paying off…He took all the credit for turning around a system abandoned by me.

I learnt my lesson on political will and vowed to myself that I will never reminisce “You know what, I was the one who started all this placements….”

I refuse to be a loser, just because I do not have political will!

- Ciao

Robin Hood is Ba(ra)ck!

2009-02-26T19:24:00.003+05:30

Is Barack Obama the Robin Hood of our times? Look at this man, stuck in a world of capitalists, but doing his best to get the wealth distributed.

Sustainability is his mantra! Not because he is pitching for clean energy via wind turbines, solar panels only but for also asking the corporate to be ~~more~~ responsible towards the society and environment as well. Making them spend the moolah* they have raked in over the last 100 years!

His speech at the Jt. Session of Congress evoked a flurry of responses in all the news channels and business newspapers. All the capitalists of new India cloaked in the disguise of “entrepreneurs” crying foul! US capitalists dwarfed us Indian’s by getting their own Bobby in Washington DC to lead the clarion call within minutes of the president’s speech!

Capitalists fear him and I too am fearful. There is a difference though. I am afraid that the one sensible guy whom we have found after almost a century to champion the cause of common man might be “silenced”! I wish and pray for the well being of Obama and his family.

This article is an unconventional didactic exegesis! So, it’s going to be a long one. And also, let me warn you, if you are not an Obama fan, you might just want to drop off here or dig in and comment your rebuttal!

“The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank…we import more oil today than ever before…The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year,…And though all of these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt... we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”

How true? Didn’t we all know that Americans lived their life by the day? Is he wrong in coming out in public and admitting it? He just ripped off the band-aid buddy, nothing more!

“A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future… Regulations - were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”

Have you heard this from any of the banks who lent irresponsibly or the people who took them? No! Instead we were immersed in a usual US media blitz on “Subprime Mortgage crisis” – After all what can we expect from a country that calls its jails as “correction facilities” and killing innocent civilians as “collateral damage”. The common American was all along kept away from harsh realities by flooding him with such jargons which anyway the high school drop out wouldn’t understand. Their life was watched the world over as the biggest “True man show” ever! The Americans also were so gullible and at times I should say were high on grass!

“…they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend… I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud…” which means nobody and nothing was ever held responsible in US. Some one said, “Nothing is guaranteed in the US but everybody gets a chance, but, not all get a chance in the UK, but once they do, it is guaranteed!” – So typical of the American lifestyle, which by the way they take pride in calling it “Our way of life” – what the heck! Here is a man who has never used this phrase! A man who criticizes with an open heart, the same “way of life” which has brought them to where they are today!

Read on, do you now wonder if Robin Hood is back?

“…It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, this time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over…”

“…It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation and punishes shortcuts and abuse…”

“…In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans…”

And here comes the clincher!

“…I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders…”

I say, Robin Hood is Barack!

There are two things which I want to talk about, especially on the clincher. Obama is not against outsourcing. He suggests that any new technology / innovation done BY an American company, needs to happen in the US. This is fairly simple. He is willing to provide tax benefits for such firms and encourage them to utilize the resources of his country. In fact he is pitching to the big businesses to do work in the US and get rewarded as well for that.

Secondly, did you know that US business conglomerates are so big that their value is more than that of GDP of some of the nations put together and in certain cases equal to the GDP of some of the biggest developing nations? These businesses have moved from the US to cheaper cost of production locations and are charging a bomb from the other US businesses located in US. On top of that every year, these big companies, gross 300$ Billion from their “offshore” locations and take that money back into the US by paying a paltry 5% tax to the US Gov. In such scenarios, all he is suggesting is that he will not provide a tax heaven anymore and just pay the 35% corporate you are supposed to pay!

OK, incase you are the ‘Joe the plumber’, let me simplify it for you.

US companies (IBM, Accenture, Mc D, Pepsi, PWC, Mc Kinsey etc.,) had reached a saturation point in the US market.
The US Gov told the businesses, “You go out and start off your business in offshore locations, get more revenues and when you bring the money back into US, instead of paying 35% corporate tax, pay me just 5% tax. I will allow you to do this for a long, long time and you bring back wealth into America.”
These companies utilized the opportunities and ventured out.
When they realized the potential of countries like India (Services) and China (Manufacturing), they started shipping jobs to India and got a cost arbitrage and also utilize the tax haven in their country.
Double whammy** as they call it in US, Joe!

Now, for Indian “Ramu the IT guy”… I am sure you would have been immersed in the principle that offshore / onsite model, travels, free trade, global market, share market stories by now. Also, am pretty confident that you would have wanted to multiply your money and invested heavily in share markets! Suppose you had the shares of HLL (Hindustan Lever Ltd.,) which is a subsidiary of Unilever (UK). You would be glad that you invested in a multi-national company and since you are receiving dividends you would have become an advocate of free trade. If you carefully examine what the Unilever’s of the world are doing, you will realize that they are swindling money from your country (read India) mate!

Again, let me simplify it for you. It is day time robbery my friend! When HLL announces dividends, being the largest shareholder, Unilever (UK) gets money. It goes back to UK or if it were a US company it goes back to US. Poor Gov of the UK/US, in a move to encourage their so called entrepreneurs in a free trade practice, had announced that they can bring back the capital at 5% interest rate. Finally, the money lands in the company coffers and the CEO’s and top brass burp it away over champagne in a private jet somewhere in the south of Europe in a Mediterranean island with their girl friends! The point to note is that they are not investing enough money back into the country where they are consuming their resources from and also not paying appropriate taxes to their motherland as well! Double Whammy buddy!!

This guy Barack Obama, the US President, a sensible guy, finally, is not sticking up to his capitalist friends. He is talking about common sense and common people.

Look at the people whom he got inspiration from. Leonard Abess, a bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him, Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado and its story of reconstruction, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school he visited in Dillon, South Carolina who wrote a letter to his administration that she wants her school restored back!

He is trying hard to bring in the “Change” he promised. Unlike our Indian government he is not throwing “spare change” to the common man like farm loan waiver, fuel price cuts, some petty tax cuts, in the garb of stimulus plans. Our CEO’s and financial analysts need to wake up to the fact that he is the President of United States of America and not this planet!

I have confidence after listening to his speech that he will bring back the American economy to track! In his own words, in this very same speech says, he will restore faith in G 20 nations regarding American economy, “…for the world depends on us having a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world's…”!

Let’s say “We want Change!” – Hail Barack - Robin Hood of our times and the true sustainability champion!

- Ciao

* Moolah – In Hindi translates to pile of cash/capital
** a twofold blow or setback (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/double_whammy)

Underdogs!

2009-02-24T17:41:00.002+05:30

Underdogs never go under! Especially, every recession [economic, social and environmental] brings out an “underdog” and catapults them into the league of “top dog”!

Rajasthan Royals started off as the underdogs and went on to win the Indian Premier League (IPL 2008 season). 2008 culminated with two significant achievements from the underdog’s camp. India’s successful moon mission and Barack Obama!

Underdog theme continues to inspire every day. With AR Rehman being crowned as the Hollywood music king and lesser known crew from Slumdog Millionaire winning all the awards ever instituted in the international film circles, the underdogs have added another feather to their cap!

Well, who exactly is an underdog? There are few interesting theories on the phrase derivation of “underdogs” and “top dogs”, dating back to the 19^th century stories on wood-sawing and dog fights. The latest derivation claim in 20^th century relates to an article in the Sports Review on prize hunting or hunting dogs! Where ever it originated from, according to me, an underdog is the “Who’s so what?” and a top dog is the “Who is who”…

The audience loves underdogs in a competition. You know why? There are two reasons, and these reasons have evolved depending on the political, social and economic climate of the time and place.

Reason 1: The audience consider themselves the master and wants to see the underdog succumb to them to satiate their thirst for supremacy.

Remember the ancient Romans and their arena fights? Impoverished slaves used to fight the ultimate roman fighting machine (a knight) or a tiger. The slaves used to muster up even the last ounce of survival instinct to fight a losing battle and eventually succumb to the master!

Reason 2: The audience can actually empathize not just sympathize, with the underdog and roots for it to become the top dog!

The American Presidential election in 2008 is a classic example. People loved Barack Obama the underdog! The son of an African-American immigrant, father of 2 kids, who has struggled hard to be where he is, has no personal business affiliations, not just another candidate who claimed patriotism via war hysteria. The people of America could actually relate to him… because most of them had been there sometime or the other in their lives.

Apart from these reasons as to why any audience loves underdogs in a competition, there is an important element which an underdog brings on board. It is the “Power of possibility”! There is an ever lurking chance that the underdog might win and “upset” the party or as with changing times there is an immense possibility of crowning a new champion.

As it is rightly called the Champions league football tournament is a testimony to the fact that underdogs are interesting! The tournament has a complex structure and one can be rest assured that only a true champion can emerge out of it! The year was 2004, the year of underdogs; the 3 of the final 4 playing for the cup was lesser known clubs. FC Porto, Deportivo La Coruña, AS Monaco. The 4^th club was Chelsea. FC Porto won the cup! It was led by a then unknown man, José Mourinho! This underdog went on to become the top-dog in football circuit. He became a champion in his first season and a double premier league winner with the famous Chelsea football club, brand ambassador for Samsung mobile and the theme of many a best sellers capped by his authorized biography “Made in Portugal”. This champion is an inspiring example of the underdog to top dog story.

There are umpteen number of such stories that have been told so far and all have been massive hits at the box office and they will continue to be! Rocky, The mighty ducks, Waterboy, Dodgeball: A true underdog story, our very own Lagaan, Taare Zamin par, Slumdog Millionaire, just to list a few famous ones. Every movie went on to win Oscars or nominations at the least! In a website for film reviews, Anthony Chatfield a freelance writer notes, “Underdog themed stories will never die. They capture an aspect of everyday life that we all feel at one point or another - that desire to belong and be respected…” It is so true!

We can now understand why people love underdogs and the value addition they bring on board. But who creates these underdogs? I think it is just a state of mind. It is purely a perspective of the “who’s who” about “who’s so what”!

Rajasthan Royals, ISRO, Barack Obama, AR Rehman, the crew of Slumdog Millionaire, José Mourinho listed in this article were extraordinary bunch of people. They always had high quality content! Over a period of time, the “Who’s who” or pro’s become complacent and think that some entities in a competition both do not have the required talent or depth and hence don’t give a chance of winning! What they fail to understand is that it is actually the underdog who filters the ordinary from the extra-ordinary and brings out the true champion.

Given that this is a perspective issue and not an actual problem of being the underdog, is it cool to be an underdog? And importantly, how do you know if, you are an underdog?

In my opinion it is OK to be the underdog at times in a given system. During the process of working your way through the system, as an underdog, you have an advantage which no one has. Your innate talent mixed with the absence of “fear of failure” makes a charming cocktail, which, when served, rocks the system and catapults you to rock star status!

You realize that you are the underdog when people around you consistently say that you have the talent and you don’t have any fear of failure! So, how long do you remain an underdog? Not long… the moment you achieve certain goals within a system and get recognized you are no longer considered an underdog! A fear of failure sets in and inhibits one from experimenting. Then, how do you become a top dog?

Underdogs enhance a competition; they inspire and enable people to aspire, they present unlimited possibilities! The connotation of underdog might not be all that positive, but definitely it is not negative. To become a top dog, you need to shed your fear of failure. Continue to experiment and learn, never underestimate your competition as underdog, for, underdogs are not someone whom you ignore, but someone you watch out for. I love to quote great leaders and opinion makers. One such quote from Mahatma Gandhi is “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” To enhance yourself to be a top dog, draw inspiration from the underdogs!

So, next time you watch a movie or a game of football or if you are listening to sales pitch or evaluating a competition or interviewing prospective employees, look out for the underdog!

You might win yourself a champion!

- Ciao

Sea of Suspicion!

2009-02-13T18:41:00.005+05:30

When I got married, my uncle gave me only a phrase of advice… he said, “the sea of suspicion has no shores”! The gravity of the statement did not hit me until recently when, again, I was moved by the common thread that connected few disparate incidents! The common thread was “suspicion”.

I set out on a journey to understand suspicion! The objective was to find out why do we suspect? Should we suspect at all? If so what to suspect and importantly when to stop?

I think it’s in our nature as humans to doubt anything and everything. Biblical character “The doubting Thomas” who doubted the resurrection of Christ himself is a typical example of how far we humans could go with suspicion! Now, if you say that you are a believer and have never doubted anything or anybody, please drop me a note, because, it is rarely in human kind we have had believers and I would be blessed to meet one!

Coming back to the story…

The root of suspicion is the inability to understand a particular item / person. When someone does not understand something/someone they become insecure and consequently feel guilty. And as Shakespeare says,” Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind”! The level of insecurity manifests in the magnitude of the action that follows, results of which could turn out to be either positive or negative.

If you look at it, we created a list of words to contextualize suspicion. “Doubt, misgiving, distrust, mistrust, disbelief, wariness, skeptic…” Instead of eliminating this concept ,we have encouraged it! This means that our society actually encouraged suspicion as a thought process. Usually a thought process drives creativity. When that creativity is channelized in the right way, we witness miracles. In effect, how creative we get with our suspicion and how well it is channelized, decides whether we become an inventor or an intruder. So, in essence, my take is that it is OK to suspect!

As noted earlier, there are no shores for the sea of suspicion! But we have seen that doubting is a natural instinct and is encouraged. Isn’t this a predicament to think about? Well, look at this example…

A closely knit family, were celebrating a big event one day! There were quite a few people who participated. The following day a member of the house figured out that they had lost precious jewelry. The family had suspected on one close relative – after some discussions they added the house maids also to the suspects list. With each round of deliberation, It became a laundry list of suspects featuring kith and kin resulting in heated arguments and heartaches.

Finally, the family decided to let go of the issue and make good for the lost jewelry. They did so because they did not want to name and shame someone (if it were a close relative) and also because they would not be able to deliver the harsh actions like a police complaint (if it turned out to be someone who was socially and economically weak).

However, the discussion on “suspects” left a bitter taste amongst the family members. Suspicion took a toll on the person who lost the jewelry and others affected by the incident so much so that they were not able to treat/look at the “suspects” the same way as before.

On the other hand, let us look at some situations where suspicion has helped! Had the explorers not suspected that the earth is round, we would not have found the Americas. Had John Nash not suspected Adam Smith’s economic wisdom we wouldn’t have “Nash’s equilibrium” which has changed the face of competition, trade negotiations, game theory etc. To close the loop, but for suspicion, Saint Thomas would have remained “Doubting Thomas” and not become “Saint Thomas the believer”!

Prescription for the predicament on suspicion raised earlier, and answers to the questions raised when I started this journey, lies in the wisdom of yore. “To be suspicious is not a fault. To be suspicious all the time without coming to a conclusion is the defect.” – Terence (a Roman dramatist).

Most of us cannot be “the believer” who knows “the truth” during one lifetime, so it is OK to suspect/doubt anything and everything. But, if we cannot action on the outcomes of a suspicion, we should not continue to be suspicious. When we feel that we are lost in suspicion about someone/something first thing we need to do is to seek to understand than be understood!

As they say, “when in doubt ask”!

- Ciao

It's different!

2009-02-05T19:06:00.000+05:30

I am sure you would have heard this phrase “It’s different!” at least a gazillion times.

During the premier of a latest movie, a director was explaining how different the movie was from all other movies ever made. At least to my knowledge this is what every director has had to say for every movie that has ever been made. Also, if you notice, any product or service that is ever brought out to the market has claimed some differentiator or the other. Sometimes the public spat between competitors has gotten as ugly as the recent one between two health drinks (Complan and Horlicks).

This fixation to differentiate is not restricted to particular person, product/service or geography. This has got to do with everybody and everything! Is it really necessary that one should differentiate from other? Can’t we sell anything [be it ourselves or a product/service] without differentiating? Should we believe that “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently…”? Is it a taboo to be similar?

I did read up quite a bit on this. The journey took me to fascinating pieces of wisdom ranging from the dictionary meaning of difference, to differential calculus, Aristotle, genetics, search for identity, Unique Selling Proposition (USP), psychology and philosophy. Had I not decided to stop and just pen down my thoughts, it would probably never have come to a logical conclusion!

Let me walk you through some instances; provide insights into the material which I read during this research and share my thoughts on this topic.

Need to differentiate: A phenomenon that has gained significance since the start of Neolithic era. It is driven by the two most important objectives of survival and creating an identity for oneself.

It is ingrained in our human DNA to differentiate. In a recent article published in the Science Daily on Dec 22^nd 2008, some Israeli scientists have discovered the gene responsible for differentiation.

It seems that, at a very early stage of human development, all cells of the embryo are identical, but are very flexible and carry within them the potential to become any tissue type, whether it be muscle, skin, liver or brain. This cell differentiation process begins at about the time that the embryo settles into the uterus. By activating a certain set of genes, the embryo can make muscle cells. By turning on a different set, these same immature cells can become liver. Other gene sets are responsible for additional tissues.

Though this discovery is very important for organ replacement and related medical advancements, it is quite intriguing to know that the differentiation process is very much part of our DNA.

Given that we need differentiation to be created and survive in the first place, let us see why we need to use differentiation as a technique to create an identity? Let us use some analytical tool say “Shame”!!!

Surprised? Read on…

This example is close to my heart. As an engineering student whenever, I used to attend inter college cultural and symposiums, I observed that the Arts and Science graduates were always the best when it came to cultural events like fashion shows, orchestra, singing, dancing, painting etc., I used to wonder as to why the engineering students lagged behind in this effort.

Unlike other parts of the world where people choose Arts and Science as a subject of study, in our part of the world, it is only by chance that they end up in Arts and Science at least a majority of them. So, it is a shame to be an arts and science graduate in Indian society which values children / students based only on their academic credentials only and nothing else.

In his book “Psychology of Shame”, Gershen Kaufman notes both positive and negative impacts of shame. In my opinion this case is a classic example of positive impact of shame. The quest for differentness / separateness amongst the arts and science graduates is amplified by the shame which was inflicted upon them. In their striving for separateness / differentness, the students acquired mastery / competence in other fields which showed up in the results of the cultural events thus helping them create an identity for themselves.

It was in this analysis; I understood that, the two factors behind “individuation” [or self differentiation] are (1) The need for separation / differentness and (2) Competence/ Mastery required in achieving the differentness.

Probably the understanding of this concept is what prompted Rosser Reeves to innovate and come up with the concept of Unique Selling Proposition (USP). He believed that if an advertisement / commercial brought out the “unique proposition” in a product / service, it could position the brand at a convenient point in consumer’s minds, enhance the sales, and even make consumers switch from other brands. Today, every other advertisement positions a product/service as unique, different!

These instances were sufficient enough for me to understand the need, significance and evolution and implementation of differentiation. Now, my question is, does differentiation create only positive responses? Doesn’t look like it…

I have also come across some strong arguments against creating differences and identity. Look at the major conflicts around the world. They are primarily based on human, regional, inter / intra religious and political differences. There are other benign conflicts as well in education, business, sports which engulf our lives when they touch us.

In the quest to differentiate, we create end up creating a world of differences. So what do we do? We start diversity training!!

Since Obama’s election to Presidency, there is a renewed focus on diversity! Every business, school and institution is working on imparting diversity training to its associates. However, diversity tolerance doesn’t come in a day. Laurie B Lippin co-author of the recently published book “Understanding Whiteness/Unraveling Racism” says…It takes a life time of training to appreciate diversity and differences. Firstly one needs to understand who they are and what their preferences are before they appreciate someone else different preference. John Kremer and Ian Schermbrucker renowned psychologists in a brilliant article say, “Yes, you can be forced to walk in someone else’s shoes, but when your abiding memory is simply that they are uncomfortable then the purpose of the exercise may be lost.”

Conflicts due to human differences have consumed so much resources and probably much more to level them.

As, we can see differentiators have created both excitement and contempt. Now that we have seen both sides of the coin, what is it that I feel about differentiation? In my opinion, it is necessary for an entity to create an identity. However, differentiation need not be the only way to accomplish it. We should not look at differentiation as a strategy to make up for our current situation or inherent flaws. We need to critically analyze at each stage in an initiative/self evolution as to if it absolutely necessary to differentiate, to achieve The Goal… as someone said, “In a struggle to create an identity we develop differences... in more ways than not it inhibits growth and we end up fighting the differences rather than really appreciating them and learning from them...”

Rosser Reeves the man who coined the term USP, himself believed that “It was a waste of money to claim uniqueness that doesn't exist…Money would be better spent building some kind of meaningful advantage into a product before launching a costly advertising campaign to promote it.”

In essence, a quality product or service, good intent/nature of people, sincerity in search for excellence and similar genuine efforts in all walks of life will definitely stand out and carve an identity for itself. Rather than spend our time and effort on creating differences and differentiators, we should use differentiators as a supplement to the uniqueness that we are, and of which we create.

Before embarking on this journey of discovery of differences, I sincerely did not expect that a simple word “difference” would have been so much discussed, researched and deliberated upon. Now that I have shared some thoughts for you to ponder, let me continue with my exploration. For those who thought this article is going to be nothing different than my earlier posts, I hope to have made a difference!

- Ciao

God of small things!

2009-01-29T00:00:00.001+05:30

I started writing and my initial posts were much welcomed. Encouraged by the feedback I vowed to write more – and immediately my brother warned “Don’t start writing too frequently, quantity will dilute the quality”. I read an interesting quote the other day, which goes like “Great things in life come in small packages”. Boutique shop/restaurant/saloon is beautiful as compared to the Wal-Marts of the world. Look at the countries, UK, Singapore, Israel, Luxemburg, Brunei… they are all small, well managed and beautiful. Why do MIT / Stanford / IIMs / IITs not open up more branches and spread wisdom? Look at the top executives from big multi-nationals break ranks and join small startups! Why does creativity, when mass produced, lose its charm? why have the sequels bombed at the box office, why successful authors have authored only few books, why do we love a Porsche more than a Toyota?

What’s with this small, less, stuff? I just don’t get it! Why do people throng/yearn to be part of and take pride in being in a member of a small team, institute, event, company, community or even a country? Is there a problem in associating ourselves with BIG and abundant?

Curious George in me kicked in and I landed on this interesting concept… “Small is beautiful” a movement founded by Leopold Kohr a great economist. He is best known for his work The Breakdown of Nations which in today’s times makes sense more than ever! A section of the book…

“There seems to be only one cause behind all forms of social misery: bigness. Oversimplified as this may seem, we shall find the idea more easily acceptable if we consider that bigness, or oversize, is really much more than just a social problem. It appears to be the one and only problem permeating all creation. Whenever something is wrong, something is too big. And if the body of a people becomes diseased with the fever of aggression, brutality, collectivism, or massive idiocy, it is not because it has fallen victim to bad leadership or mental derangement. It is because human beings, so charming as individuals or in small aggregations have been welded onto over concentrated social units.”

The section of the book quoted above provided answers to all my questions in a platter.

Everything in this world started small and had a sense of responsibility and sincerity. This brought exclusivity and charm to it. Everybody respected, admired and celebrated all small things until they grew big. The individual responsibility and sincerity of people of the small entity emanated and shone more than the collective negativity of the entity. But, once the entity grew big, its demand to consume eventually consumed itself.

Look at the US, its demand to consume energy to keep up the growth has eventually consumed itself. Satyam was consumed by the power and money it was required to create it in the first place. The same applies to artisans; initially they consume less intellectual resources to create few masterpieces because it is only needed to supplement their genius. But when they start off big on a journey of mass production, they start consuming more intellectual resources that the line between inspiration and plagiarism becomes a distant blur.

Well, then, does it mean that we cannot produce quality output in large quantities! Is that true? What is the God in small things that makes it beautiful? How to grow big quantitatively as well and still be as admired as when we were small?

According to me the God which makes small things beautiful is responsibility and sincerity! In the pursuit of growth we should not let responsibility and sincerity fritter away, not overlook the “ethics and obligations” which we are bound to. Not consume more than we contribute. Adopt a “responsible growth” path. A growth which is accountable to the environment we live in, a growth which is reasonable and not meteoric and surreal.

These growth stories will not be publicized because they might not be sensational to the media. There might not have been a miracle. It would have been a hard and arduous journey, but we should identify such growth stories in all walks of life, acknowledge, admire and benchmark them for future.

That way we will be able to make everything big – beautiful, exclusive and charming as it should be!

- Ciao

2009-01-25T11:32:00.000+05:30

Tickled!!!

Hello friends, I have also started contributing to www.tickledbylife.com - They have carried couple of articles which are already published in my blog. I hope to keep both these activities mutually exclusive.

This TickledbyLife is a concept of Mr. PS Wasu - who is a great motivational speaker and emancipator. The website is a life enhancing site which did lighten up my soul whenever I had tough times. Hope you also like the articles...

- Ciao

Cap of Good Hope!

2009-01-22T15:40:00.002+05:30

Recession! Not quite what we expected huh! The dream run, Bull Run, ball of a time… and countless other descriptions of the times gone by all sound distant now, a far cry!

People losing jobs, inability to pay up the credit, no taxes, no revenue to the government, no money in the market, no cash available to extend credit, no new enterprise, banks and companies going bankrupt and people losing jobs, it has come a full cycle. This economic situation has affected everybody, left, right and the center (literally and metaphorically speaking). People grappling with the situation are getting hooked up to anything that remotely sounds, looks or feels hopeful about it.

Look at the 2 million strong gathering for the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. Do you think they came to see an African American take oath? Not entirely! They came to witness what “audacity of hope” could achieve!

They had come to witness the miracle that was, hope, which fuelled a single man to achieve whatever he did for himself, his family and his country. They see a messiah in Obama and expect him to lead them out of the shambles. I call him a messiah because rarely in the history of mankind have individuals exhibited such courage and been an embodiment of hope during difficult times. Whenever they did, they were immortalized as a messiah. Though he does not have a magic wand to weave and alleviate the situation, at least people think that there is something new to get excited about, something which they could use to sleep over on a difficult night.

Not just Obama, there are people who have looked up to their spouses, family, friends, colleagues, mentors, bosses... So what makes someone a messiah or at the least a mortal who people could look up to in times of hardship? Well, as you might have guessed by now, the answer is HOPE.

I recently came across an e-mail forward which read, “Hope – it is the feeling which you have when you go to sleep without knowing if you will wake up the next day but still have plans already made for it”. No hope is good if you do not trust it. A similar e-mail forward had this following story which was really intriguing. “Trust is a feeling that a one year old child has, when u throw him up in the air & catch him again…he still laughs n enjoys it…in case he doubts, he will cry when u throw him in the air, that means the child is doubting on your capabilities… and whether you would really catch him or not.” Same way...only people who do not have trust in hope, worry during troubled times!

So a positive thought process, the ability to look at the brighter side of things, a good hope with the trust of the little child is the key.

During an interesting conversation with my uncle, I gave him what I thought was a predicament. It goes like “If you ever are in a situation where you, your wife and your father were drowning, and if you get a chance to wish for one person who could be saved, whom you will pick?” – Without a hesitation he replied – “Me”. I was stupefied at the answer and more so the speed at which he answered.

His reasoning was simple. If he was gone, then he wouldn’t need to be worried as to what happened to the other two. And if he were alive, he was confident that he could do at least something about them… Subhash Ghai a renowned Indian film maker once said “Unlike in cinema and everything else, there is no second take in life” – So, if one believes that all they need to worry about is their life and everything else in life can be reclaimed, they sure can relieve themselves of the entire emotional burden which they carry.

I have had few such occasions thankfully as an emancipator. I have tried my best, over a cup of coffee, a mug of beer or across the table. I have shared whatever positive I came across and hope to have instilled some confidence, and positive mindset.

Some of my queer perspectives about this whole new situation did lighten up a few souls.

For example, the social stigma (in India) around “losing a job” is getting eroded by the day. Not long ago before the lay offs became the news of the day, it was a sin if you lost your job. People were worried to such an extent that they committed suicide for losing their jobs. But now, it is OK for someone to loose a job. The society at large understands the situation. In fact retrenchment is discussed in a lighter vein.

Let us take a look at the spending habits. The young generation of Indian BPO and IT folk who started with lavish spending has been caught on the wrong foot in their very first step. They have learnt a simple but valuable economic lesson “Do not spend more than you make” very early in their lives. This is a significant development.

I had a chat with the director of finance of a large multi-national. He had some interesting insights as well. According to him, a down turn in economy is good. This is what differentiates the boys from men, the mediocre from good whether it is companies, people, and technology or as a matter of fact just about anything. He said that this is the right time for some brilliant ideas to flourish. People will now look at the fundamentals of anything and just not the speculation in the market.

So if one were to derive an inference, it is the right time for us to differentiate ourselves. Do whatever we had been wishing to do. To take up endeavors which we had feared might fail. As FDR said during similar times, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself…”

Nothing to worry about other than our own life and wearing the cap of hope with the feather of trust of a one year old kid will make us “The Emancipator”.

(Saint / Faint) Hearted?

2009-01-02T17:01:00.001+05:30

Wish you a very happy and prosperous new year!

Reality shows are in vogue on Indian Television. Any channel that you flip will always have an unknown stranger performing a song or a dance. It was one such evening; My wife and I were watching some TV. There was a teenage girl singing her “heart out”. I too, and am sure many of the differently gifted souls like me can sing their “heart out” in their bathrooms or in private.

At the end of the contest, the child walked out and gave an interview where in she justified her poor performance and losing the contest to her sore throat???????? To set the context, my knowledge of carnatic* music is as much as my knowledge of exact location of the Holy Grail. But I can certainly discern the difference between a song and noise, sense and drivel. It was absolute babble! There was no traceable evidence of training in singing/music.

In a related incident which I am sure all of us in India would have read, a child got paralyzed / traumatized because of the comments made by the jury of a reality show. I did watch the fateful show and the performance was pathetic.

During one of my trips to the UK in 2005, The Professional Association of Teachers discussed an idea that the label of failure could undermine pupils' enthusiasm. Liz Beattie, a retired teacher, proposed to "Delete the word 'fail' from the educational vocabulary to be replaced with the concept of 'deferred success".

As I pondered over these disparate incidents, one thing stood out clearly. People have become averse to the competitive atmosphere which we live in. They do not want any more winners or losers. They just want to participate, have “fun”, make a decent living and get on with life without having to compete with anybody. Given the kind of competitive person I am, I never bothered to take a different perspective. I always believed that one should deserve to desire and that there is no way to “succeed” in life without defeating someone/some system. I admired when, the then education secretary, Ruth Kelly retorted against the proposal on replacing the word “fail” with “deferred success” and said, “I think I might give them nought (0) out of 10 for this proposal”

However the rethink instinct did kick in...

The culture of competition, winning and losing, victory and defeat has been propagated since centuries. What was primarily reserved for the historically competitive North American / western culture has come to stay and has influenced cultures which otherwise have always depicted a co-operative means of achieving goals, prosperity and happiness.

I read an article titled “The Case against Competition” by Alfie Kohn. The author notes, Americans typically recognize only two legitimate positions: enthusiastic support and qualified support. The first view holds that competition builds character and produces excellence. The second stance admits that our society has gotten carried away with the need to be Number One that we push too hard and too fast to become winners - but insists on a “healthy competition” and argues that both are wrong. He opens out a third front which says “Co-operation” and “Mutually Exclusive Goals Alignment” yields better results than a competitive environment.

If you come to think of it, in India, especially in spite of our population and the competition we have had to contend with, we were taught to co-operate, let go, take turns in winning, give and take and still to “succeed”. As children we were asked to give up and cooperate in a game for the visiting relative kids. Those experiences did not leave a bad taste; instead we all had great fun. We were asked to give un-conditional love to all our relatives no matter what. Earlier to English education, there was no sense of competition amongst kids and no comparisons were made. Each kid was unique and praised for whatever they did and respected for who they were. Take the example of Pandavas in Mahabarath or the brotherhood in Ramayan. There was never a comparison made, each kid was respected for the unique skill he brought on to the table. These great epics are testimony to our culture or cooperation and not comparative competition.

The following quote by George Washington Carver also struck me hard: “How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these…”

Does that mean we do not compete at all? Because, it is a general sentiment that competition is what gives meaning to life…

Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes, we should not compete with others, but we should with ourselves. Great paintings, compositions, books, inventions were not made by competing with others. Each one of the greatest luminaries achieved glory by competing with themselves and their last achievement but cooperating with other contemporaries’. The stories of their rivalries are part of the folklore to create an enthusiasm amongst the next generation, just like the rivalries created between say Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.

When I think back, the child’s poor performance was never an issue to me. What bothered me the most was, the justification and self exoneration / self pity!

First of all, I blame the parents for letting their kids compete with others without adequate training. Secondly, for vindicating them for the disqualification using lame excuses. For the parents, probably during their days, pushing themselves hard did not earn the desired psychological or materialistic result. But that shouldn’t be the reason to tolerate their children for not pushing themselves harder or allowing them to cover up their lackadaisical performance and worse permitting the children to settle for mediocrity.

Do encourage the kids to compete with others, but arm them adequately so that they do not get hurt. Enable them to perform better than they did last time and not compare with another kid, never give conditional love and make your kid yearn for it unless he/she did something to deserve it. Teach them to cooperate.

This theory of cooperation by Alfie Kohn could change the way people, societies, countries and humanity interact. The competitive culture if replaced by a co-operative culture will definitely be a sustainable model to extend our stay in this planet as humans.

- Ciao

* Carnatic - Classic Indian Music which is centuries old.

Pandavas - 5 brothers who are the protaganists in the great epic of Mahabharath

Brian Lara & Sachin Tendulkar are greats of the game of Cricket

Bomb(aye)!

2008-12-19T15:48:00.001+05:30

This is neither the first nor the last, 62 hrs of constant bombardment of news channels was probably what was needed to push us Indians to raise up and say “Enough is enough”! A great feat I should admit, neither could Kalam’s “Ignited minds” nor Nandan Nilakeni’s “Imagining India” could achieve the awakening effect this disruptive incident brought about.

My heart goes out to all those who lost their lives for nothing. Yes, nothing! If you have observed, in the human , we always have no reason to create anything, but definitely have one for destroying, at the least we destroy things and then come up with a cause. In the history of mankind, for every life that was lost for a cause, we ended up creating something worthwhile.

However, in the recent past any incident where lives are lost on either side (good and evil) there is no cause – The perpetrators want to create a sense of fear. Even the cause for retaliation has transformed into just creating “Shock and awe” instead of arriving at a closure or creating something worthwhile.

Few things crossed my mind as I witnessed the carnage… First and foremost, this incident ignited a sense of responsibility amongst us commoners, we became more vigilant, we have become bold enough to show our angst against the system and people whom we were always agnostic about, it did not matter if you are a coffee vending boy or the CEO, all of us witnessed what happened and have more or less the same information, we all voiced our opinions in any which way we could, we are now more polarized, we are OK being looked up as someone with strong opinion which might not be populist and finally we don’t want to play into the “resilient mumbaikar” gimmicks of establishment (politicians and beaurocrats) which has been lackadaisical in delivering their duties.

After this incident Kiran Mazumdar Shah (CEO of an Indian bio-medical company) clarified with a security guard if he knew what he was checking / looking out for in the car whilst entering a 5 star hotel. The security guard in my office, while leaving for the day, ensured that he got his bag checked just to set a precedence of non-exclusivity. Both were gestures that proved that we at all levels have grown a little more vigilant.

During these 62 hours, the perspectives that emerged from the media across the border were also interesting. They said, “We in Pakistan, were told that Indian intelligence was behind every bomb that ever went up, we have been brought up with the notion that anything evil that happens is because of India, so it is quite natural that you are also reacting in a similar way”.

This statement, as outrageously outlandish it might sound, is in fact true. Earlier, it was always easy for the establishments on either side to blame the “forces across the border” as it helped assuage public anger against their incapacity. Same thing is happening with regards to world economic crisis where developed nations are blaming the developing ones for being consumerist and raising oil/food prices.

Now that we commoners are armed with advanced communications and knowledge sharing mechanisms are gaining rich perspectives and are able to make appropriate choices and informed decisions. We are demanding action, non-partisan approach, economic growth plans, and justice irrespective of which colour, cast or creed or ideology an establishment belongs to. Barrack Obama being elected to the white house is a substantial indicator in this direction from a nation of 305 million people who are leading the planet today. We the people of India moved from elitist politics to common man politics by electing the “Jan Sangh” to power in the 70’s – and made a difference to thousands of villages in this country. Proved that, we could get someone like Laloo a commoner elected to the parliament not once but every time since then.

I believe this the start of a new era in political activism from the common man in India and am sure, that we will change the course of Indian politics from a divisive one to constructive one which is focused on results!

- Jai Hind

I leave the interpretation of the sign off to the reader.

Pragoti*

2008-09-09T10:14:00.001+05:30

* progress [As translated from Bengali]: It is a struggle, the issue of contending with protests and protestors is quite critical to make progress and build a successful and prosperous nation! Title is an inspiration from a website dedicated to communist idealogies.

It was not a team outing exercise! It was neither a team building exercise as it was made out to be. It was a karmic trip, at least for me! I recently moved to this new company where they had planned for an outing – of a group of “thought” leaders of the organization. Well, it was my first time in the “thought” leadership club and I was excited.

We as a group were one of the most domesticated bunch; We came from a school of thought where good clear water always come bottled, safe air, meant curtains down and A/C on; fire could only be generated via a gas stove. We sincerely believed that all the elements, just like any other service could be availed on paying a prescribed fee. Cognizant of this background, our boss, who had already been to this place, wanted to ensure that he set the expectations. He forewarned us not to expect “5 star” facilities. Given that it was a briefing session, it was really brief without much scope for questions and clarification and much was left to our imagination and so did we!

The outing was to a place called Honnemaradu, which was about 9 miles from the breath taking Jog falls, which is the highest waterfall in India. A couple who had bought 4-8 acres of land in that area was running a facility that facilitated an adventurous outing with special focus on conservation especially for the corporate. Usually anything entrepreneurial, especially of social entrepreneurship nature is viewed through a magnifying glass in this part of the world. I am not an exception to this.

We got off our bus, with our newly purchased adventure tour kit, the backpack and set off to the “resort”. The approach was quite messy and we were taking every step of our way cautiously so that we don’t dirty our clothes and sneakers… suddenly the troupe stopped. I could see a lady walking out of a bush in the wilderness, with an unusual attire [round neck t-shirt, a khakhi Patiala pyjama], bespectacled, with an air of confidence around herself and addressing us fluently in English and the local language. She looked like a member of the typical Medha Patkar clan.

She had a small orientation session planned for us all to sensitize us to the surroundings, rules of engagement with nature and finally the facilities at our disposal. The day started at 08:00 AM with a quick briefing session [Famously/infamously referred to as ‘Circle’ by our team], sumptuous but austere breakfast. Couple of interesting activities i.e. swimming in 50 ft water with life jackets and then some trekking was lined up for the day. Lunch was arranged in between these sessions. It was basic lunch with 1 sambhar, 1 popadum and 1 curry and pickle, but we were famished to such an extent that we went running to form the queue to get the food [This practice would continue till the end of the trip]. This was the same lot which, as a ritual, complained to the food committee back at our office to change the caterer because he doesn’t give that extra popadum or ice cream. After the lunch we headed for a small trek. During the trek we stories we heard and the sights I saw shook me up and provided me with a new perspective about Green Peace, Baba Amte, Medha Patkar, Menaka Gandhi and their agitations – basically protests and protestors!

Honnemaradu – was a village which was situated 300 meters from our room where we were put up. It was once a habitat for diverse flora and fauna along with human settlement was now submerged and eliminated from the map of India. Now, there is no village by the name Honnemaradu, just that these couple had named their resort to revive the memories of people in the surrounding areas. A dam was built in the 1950’s to cater to the electricity requirements of the state of Karnataka and this village fell in the purview of its catchment area. In that water source there were big tree trunks, branches and tips still standing, but lifeless. It would have made great photo op for P.C.Sriram [Top Cameraman in Indian movie world] or Mani Ratnam [India's Spielberg], and we trained our cameras as well.

Later on, during the day we realized that the place had a sad personal story attached to it… That night at camp fire, we listened to an elderly person reliving his childhood memories. He had a story to tell especially about a ceremony attached to the dead in his village. Whenever someone died in Honnemaradu, the villagers used to plant a tree and put the ashes as the fertilizer. Sometimes it would be too much for the plant to take and wouldn’t grow, so they used to plant another tree and shower some of the ashes to it. This way he said the village had grown the adjoining forest. The villagers had named each tree in that forest after the name of the person whose ashes was used to grow it. I went to sleep with a heavy heart.

But for the tiring day, I would not have slept peacefully that night! Again, no mattress, no mosquito coils, no windows or doors to the room and some parts of the roof opened up to the starry night! We were fuming from within but put an undaunted face so that others could also pull themselves along!

In my Dream – there was a court scene and random thoughts crossed my mind: That old man was able to communicate with me, so I was moved by the story and was willing to take a re-look at my opinion on Medha Patkar clan. (Sorry, I am not taking a personal dig at anyone) But, the same project had cut off the communication channel for the elephants from Maharashtra through to Kerala [States in India]. Hence, for centuries those elephants which have been moving all along the Western Ghats freely, cannot cross the dam and hence have been cut off from each other for ever.

How can we help in such situations, when it is only our friends from the animal kingdom who get affected and there is no old man to tell us a moving story? WHO will help us realize the significance of such human interventions and especially WHEN? Will it be too late? Or what if someone forgets / does not take this as a full time job unlike Medha Patkar? What will happen to the humanity?

I am not a great fan of Medha Patkar but I now understood the world / issue from her perspective! Especially, the “Narmada Bachao Aandolan” [Save Narmada river] movement. Now, I do really understand what impact a dam could cause to its environs. Especially after listening to that old man, I realize that the issues like construction of a dam, an industrial complex like Tata Nano or projects that qualify for the “Extreme Engineering” series in Discovery channel are much deeper. Such projects need critical assessment as they throw the whole ecosystem out of gear.

When I woke up next day morning, I felt fresh, my heart was light! When I felt the whiff of fresh air and smell of leaves and deep forest, I was reminded of the story the old man told us. The court scene from my dream popped up and I continued to walk around in a daze!!! I have had strong opinion against protestors and protests which are anti-industrialization. I cannot be blamed for it as I have spent more than half of my life in liberalized India and know and understand the importance of industrialization. When agriculture contributes to around 2-3 percent of India’s total GDP growth rate, why should more than 70% of our population work in that segment? Why shouldn’t they take up alternate career in industries?

With all these thoughts rummaging through my mind, I got out of the room to find some of my team ranting away about the toilets. I surveyed the toilets and certainly was annoyed as well. It was such pathetic that we had to carry water to the toilets as there were no pipes/taps inside. The lady and her husband who maintained the facility just walked up and started babbling about “conservation”! I snapped! I asked the question which everyone wanted to ask! Does conservation mean less convenience?

I have had my own thoughts about conservation, charity, praying, confessions, dieting, working hard etc. If you carefully observe we humans have a habitual urge to balance out every act of ours. When we earn a lot, we are forced into doing charity. When we party more, next day it would be followed by a church visit and typically before and after a vacation, long hours at work!!! Similarly, whenever we feel that we have used up considerable amount of resources, we get into a conservation mode! So if you really see this is more habitual than something sporadic! It is a natural instinct. Hence, when someone talks about austerity and conservation in the same lines and act as if it is only their responsibility to save the planet, I feel - Well mmmmm… Best of Luck!!

The whole day passed off peacefully as we were in water all along and had learnt to swim effectively and also to coracle. We decided to leave in the afternoon so that we could catch a glimpse of Jog falls on our way back! We had belted the afternoon lunch [same, 1 sambhar, 1 pickle, 1 curry, and rice] and gathered in a circle for de-brief! The “Odd couple” – who by the way are great people [irrespective of their intolerance to outside worlds urge to consume at any cost!] with their single minded approach to closely guard the sanctity of the ecosystem around them were definitely a great motivation and they brought out some interesting insights about our behavior and conservation, environment and things which we took for granted.

The trip came to an end in one and half days, we as a team had put up a brave face when we were subjected to an extreme transition from civilization to wilderness! We are an organization undergoing rapid transition and transformation and no other place could have provided the necessary physical duress, mental stress [with change in surroundings] and fodder for thought which made us believe that we are much more capable than what we think we are!

On our way back, in the bus, I did some introspection, and wondered if my problem was only with the protestors or the protests themselves. I agree with the agitation in principle but not with the protestors and their timing, methods and interests! I realized that, I had a problem with only the protestors. Protest is just a ramification of people’s feelings and they are capitalized by various outfits for various reasons. People were relocated and compensated but the issue does not end there. It is a matter of sentiment, feelings, and love for land / place where you belong. The subjectivity around this issue cannot be compensated. That is why most of the conflicts around the globe are related to ethnicity and uprising against an aggressor. So, protests are fine and necessary, for, anybody to critically analyze a given situation!

So, how about the protestors? The protestors usually are not the ones who are really affected by a particular incident. They are from various walks of life, with different motivations and when they protest in their own way, life gets difficult for rest of the folks around. They also, end up diluting the protest or change the context of the protest itself! Like for instance, the focus on Singur – Tata Nano project has shifted from unlawful land grabbing and dislocation of people to a bitter battle between Mamata and Buddhadeb! Amar Singh being involved only made it look like a Bollywood movie, and finally with the elder Ambani issuing a statement in support of Tatas it’s all come to a gloomy end for the poor farmers! From here on it’s only the Tata way or the high way! Either way it’s a lost battle for the farmers! During Vietnam war protests in the US, protestors used the context to build the hippie culture, smoke up grass, and promote rock band culture!

So who should have fought the battle? We humans are usually collectivist in nature and need the support and patronage of family and friends for even our personal decisions like wedding / education! We seek help and opinion from un-necessary quarters in an urge of not becoming the bad boy. That is where the failure is – when some one picks up our battles, we do not have much control over the spoils!

Stand up, speak up for yourselves, there by getting to address the original root cause, which will in turn be beneficial to the ecosystem and hence aid conservation and better life for the future!

Chaotic theory makes absolute sense!

- Ciao

Crow - barred!

2008-05-05T12:26:00.001+05:30

Usually, a post-card image of a park has children playing, swings, couples in love, a family picnic, destitute old people, job-less youth, the homeless, people feeding birds and reading books etc., Yesterday, I was sitting in a park expecting to catch this image live. As I was observing, I had a strong feeling that something was amiss. After some serious thought I realized that the omni present bird, “Crow” was missing!

Have you noticed this? What stuck me the most was, I had not spotted a sparrow either! (The frequency of the mobile communication was the same as that of the sparrow and hence it has seen its tragic end). The very thought of us killing someone when we speak hurts me. The last time I saw a crow was in the movie “Resident Evil: Extinction”. It comes out as a surprise for the protagonists when they notice a raven and more so when it attacks in large numbers. In the last decade I have come to notice that sparrow is extinct and its poor cousin, the crow, is also headed in that direction and, it is already, in some parts of the globe. I recently came across an article about “Hawaiian Crow” becoming extinct and that it is already extinct in big cities like LA, London etc., where it is legal to hunt them because of their menace! Huh! Is the menace more than what the teens do in those parts of the world? I don’t know!

During my childhood days, not long ago, I used to have a couple of sparrows as pet! I was more concerned during those days that the “nari kuravas” (a gypsy mountain tribe in India) would steal/hunt those sparrows and hence used to be very protective of them. We as children have grown up listening to the fable of an intelligent crow. Yes, I am referring to “The Crow and the Pitcher” a fable ascribed to Aesop. In the fable, a thirsty crow comes upon a pitcher with water at the bottom, beyond the reach of its beak. After failing to push over the pitcher, the crow devises a clever plan: it drops in pebbles, one by one, until the water rises to the top of the pitcher, allowing the crow to drink. This story traces its history to 2nd century Greek and Latin era. But, I noticed that this story is now not even a part of children’s curriculum. They don’t even know the concept of scare crows. May be the story of crow would be covered as a part of the museum visit!!! Crow was something which was integral to our way life as Brahmins (a caste in India). We used to set aside a small portion of the food as soon as it was prepared to the crow on the kitchen window sill and then proceed with our meal for the day. This is a ritual which is followed even today, just that we clean up the previous day’s food instead of a crow feasting on it.

Ruminating this, I reached home and was watching the news. I came across a news item which was about the Animal Welfare Board (AWB) threatening to sue a major telecom company for making a dog run behind a school bus in one of its commercials, for, it believed that the pug would have been put under duress. I was shocked at the publicity stunt!

Where was the AWB when the coming of mobile revolution in India just rendered an entire species (sparrow) extinct? Where is it now, regarding the crow? The likes of Menaka Gandhi, Medha Patkar, and AWB are busy making headlines, page 3 appearances and publicity stunts that they fail to look at these small things which eventually end up causing ecological imbalances and big catastrophes.

I think its time WE start “cawing” about stuff which we strongly feel about!

- Ciao

Every dog has its day!

2008-04-21T16:07:00.001+05:30

Ok, the way I have scripted this story is by starting with a story of a dog, and how I used it to satiate my ego and also bring out the underlying theme of value system.

It was a cloudy day with nice breeze and no signs of an imminent rain! Basically a nice weather and no one was in a mood to work. Since the set up was a small unit, we could sense the mood in the organization right from the CEO to the office security. Everybody wanted to have some fun and was in no mood to work. So, people took to some activity other than core work in which ever possible way! My CEO started off for a campus visit to the new office campus which was getting constructed near by our old campus. I too joined the entourage. During the visit, we noticed an event, which, I think brought out the real qualities of many of my associates and the company values could easily be showcased with that single event.

A stray puppy entered the construction area of our new campus. It was a beautiful, small, spot less black mongrel puppy. The security on duty, in a strong display of his sense of duty, threw a stick which hit the puppy’s leg and rendered it immobile instantly. He had a sense of pride in his smile that he had accomplished his duty of prosecuting the trespasser. My CEO and rest of the staff from admin department were shocked to see that and immediately one of our admin officers stepped into action. He took the puppy to a vet, got its leg fixed and brought it back to our yet to be constructed office campus. Over a period of time the puppy grew up into a beautiful and fit dog called “Rani”. One of the values that my organization’s has is, “Treat people the way like to be treated” and this was a terrific example / motivator for a new joiner to experience the values being lived in day to day life!

This was some time ago!

4 years since. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and one of the boring training sessions had come to an end. The group that I attended training with was composed of some senior managers and power mongering, hot headed individuals. Their brash comments not withstanding, I wanted to prove a point that they were not the end of the world and that there could be someone/something which they were not aware of. We were having a cup of coffee and discussing about values and stuff. Just then I noticed a young lady patting Rani and feeding her with biscuits. People’s attention was obviously drawn towards the girl (not Rani for sure!) and the conversation took an ugly turn of belittling and gossips. I then realized it was time to unleash my gyan and hence started off.

I asked if anyone in the group knew anything about that little beautiful mongrel! There was a long silence. They were expecting a rude joke but what they got after that was something which even I was quite surprised and taken aback. I started telling the story of Rani and how it got there and how special it is to the company and many folks in the organization! I also explained how the values have eroded in our system that though the stray dog’s breed was mongrel, we in India call it pariah! Then I was rebuked as to how their comments were not a reflection of the value system they hold.

The way I see it is, “values” is something comparable to a person’s soul. Values give birth to beliefs, which form the foundation of our opinions and then finally gets rendered to the world as our reactions to day to day transactions. If our underlying value system is to trust and respect each other and treat people the way we like to be treated, we would believe that it is our duty to take care of our fellow creatures. This in turn will shape our opinion of an incident that we witness in our day to day life. These opinions result in our reaction to be of a positive nature.

In the case above, people had strong value system, which is why we have Rani in our campus in the very first place. We could feel the pain which the little Rani would have had to endure when it was badly hit. As the organization grew, we had to recruit at a maddening pace and it was not only getting difficult but became practically impossible to get people to practice the values.

The discussion was pretty useful as I had made half the crowd leave and the rest who were still around got an earful. The story and packaging was good enough to drive home the point in few people’s head the importance of the value of treat people the way you like to be treated and to trust and respect each other!

To get people to start reacting positively, it is essential that we get them incorporated into their value system and start believing it.

This is what many successful commercials aim at these days. They don’t just appeal to your senses. They are aimed at incorporating values into our system and changing our beliefs so that we react positively to an advertisement or a product promotion. For example, I am sure many of you would have seen the advertisement for Hamaam (very famous bathing soap brand in India). The advertisement is about young kid asking his/her mom as to what is being “honest”! The mom responds telling that being honest means “Hamaam”. The soap was also pretty good one, with no frills attached like for example, “germ/bacteria killing, “24x7 body odor preventing”. It was a pretty simple every day family soap with just basic ingredients that are healthy and gave you a nice refreshing bath. It was also packaged and priced appropriately. The advertisement appealed to the value system of the people and not to their senses. This is why its market share of 25% in a state and overall 10% market share and its existence over 70 years is vindicated.

This incident helped me to satisfy my ego component and prove that after all every dog has its day!

Unless you agree with the fact that our actions/reactions are a direct result of our innate value system, and get into the act yourself of educating ourselves, our generation and generation next with values, I think it would not be a bad idea to try and imbibe righteous values via commercials. After all, the advertising agencies seem to have got the essence of governing an act of purchase by appealing to the value system rather than their senses.

-Ciao

Lost & Found:

2008-04-21T16:01:00.001+05:30

"You preserve only what you love, you love only what you understand, you understand what you are taught…" - Baba Pioum

I read this at an aquarium in Kuala Lumpur. Given that most of the creatures are facing extinction in the order of magnificence they exude, I felt aquarium was the probably the most appropriate place as the beauty and splendor of the aquatic life is just breath taking.

Recently I saw an advertisement in Doordarshan (National TV channel in India) which is about preserving national monuments. A kid walks up to a couple who scribble on the monument and reprimands them for doing so. Then the kid recites a small poem about greatness and national pride. It is heartening to see that Indian Government or at least some bureaucrat has understood the essence of preservation which is to teach it first.

Just an extrapolation into our day to day lives..... When people say simple things like they lost your gift, forgot to call you or forgot your phone number or address it leads to a myriad of questions – Do they want to preserve the relationship/friendship? Do they love/care about you? Do they understand you? Were they taught to understand you? Who should teach them by the way?

I guess the answer lies in “you”.

It’s high time we understand the concept of learning by experience and treating everybody with unconditional love and respect and teach the same to our fellow human beings. Otherwise, we will end up preserving everything for the posterity, be it trees, tigers, climate, friendships, relationships, or for that matter our very own selves. Interestingly even the deadliest and fastest of predators, the Cheetah, does not intend to hurt the Gazelle for the sake of it but only because, it has to! But we humans hurt and hunt, deprecate and destroy without much reason other than fun! Finally, when some one shows some alarming numbers (of falling tiger population or climate change) or when relationships / friendships become estranged or when someone whom we “used” to love/care for dies, we suddenly feel the need to preserve anything and everything related to them. I guess the failed children of deserted parents need special mention in this category of preservers.

Take this thought a little further and impersonal. Imagine this story; Boss of an organization had the worst day at office with a belligerent customer, he vents it all on his business head, who in turn passes it down the chain and finally a cab driver gets the worst end of the stick from an irate employee who gets dropped at night after a long days work trying to solve the issue reported by the very same customer. The driver feels humiliated. Now, he is at the bottom of the food chain. Where can he go? Whom can he shout at? He cannot shout at fellow motorist as it is late in the night and no self respecting woman will take domestic violence, so he decides to go to a prostitute. This is not something which I made up, but one of the discussion papers on AIDS has highlighted that it is prevalent amongst drivers who are affected by road rage and inept at fighting back for their self esteem. They take this route to sanguinity from their state of despondency. Today, we have potentially lead ourselves to a crisis called AIDS. If, one of them in the chain had been rational and reacted with patience, could we have potentially averted an impending disaster?

This might sound as an immoderate story and a haughty claim of saving the planet and humanity but, David A. Shiang, an extra-ordinary thinker of our times says that “the notion of ascertaining deep truths through the mind may sound far-fetched, but it is the revolutionary nature of the human experience that makes this kind of knowledge possible”. He also says that the human mind has the capacity to understand the fundamental reality and argues that many of our deepest insights are as a result of experience and not mathematics, measurement or experiment. Any stretch of imagination is permissible and the learning gained through this kind of thinking, insight and experience is the route to achieving higher-consciousness which a select few like Buddha, Jesus, and Prophet Mohamed have achieved.

I think I have shared some hard learnt experience on unconditional love in my own style or if I were to be a little pedagogic, have taught the importance of unconditional love. Now, think twice when you humble, hurt or hunt for, you never know what you would end up preserving!

- Ciao

Lights, Camera, Action!

2008-04-21T15:54:00.001+05:30

Indian cinema has finally arrived on the international scene! With Om Shanti Om and Tare Zameen par heralding the same. After watching these movies, my thoughts wandered around Indian cinema as a whole and after a lot of clamor in my head; finally I have put some sagacity here and hope you like it!

We Indians have lot of stories to tell, some age old and some contemporary. In our part of the world, story telling and dramatization is an innate quality we all posses. Our bedtime stories and Dada dadi ki kahaaniyaan* are full of drama. The stories have a gripping script, lot of talking with strong dialogues, music, singing, dancing with a sprinkling of all varieties of emotions and sentiments. The reason is because that is the way we are, our food; our culture of combined large families, the religions and way of life practiced by millions are all varied. Our cinema is no different and is just a reflection of “our way of life”.

We have fostered the art of theater since the days when other civilizations were languishing in darkness. The makeup, sound, light and screen projections were in place even before electricity was invented. Though most of the times the story line was from Ramayana and Mahabharata the oldest stories ever known to mankind, the script was always different and that was the key differentiator among various groups/communities that practiced this art form. Kathakali**, Yaksha gaana** are a few examples that come to my mind straight away when I think of how old are we in show business.

Indian cinema similarly has come a long way since Raja Harishchandra the first full length movie and Alam ara the first sound film. From the days when the industry was dependent on few influential individuals, small time family run production houses to today where the industry is run professionally by corporate whose primary business is show business – it has been a remarkable journey. When I refer to Indian cinema, I am primarily talking about Kollywood and Bollywood, the two biggest contributors to world cinema just by the virtue of numbers and ticket sales.

During our early days we had great visionaries like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Bimal Roy who made movies which had great story line, it was about the common man, socially responsible and reflected the time and spirit of the nation at that time. As time progressed we started to get carried away with the money involved and did not really bother about story, sensitivity of the audience and society as a whole. The likes of Manmohan Desai were making blockbusters because they appealed to the masses. Their movies were again in sync with the time, had a strong script and did their job of entertaining, though however illogical some scenes might have been.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s Indian cine industry suffered a huge set back and it was not worthwhile making movies any more. Mind you, it was not because there was dearth of talent in the industry, but, it was because people were not interested in fundamentals any more, and it was just about making money. If you follow the Indian stock market, by now, you would, understand how important it is to bet on the fundamentals rather than speculate and copy. (Sensex fell close to 1000 points on the day when this article was written). This was when, the underworld used to run our cine industry; the money came from the slush funds of drug cartels and mafia. Actors, directors, music directors were all appointed on whims and fancies of mafia dons. Casting couch was the order of the day. You would probably remember a time when you would see, “Direction, screenplay, dialogues and music - <<Name>>” in the credits section. The nation was swamped with sordid movies awash with soft porn masala songs and extreme violence. The average Indian family which spent 5-10% of its gross monthly income on family entertainment (read movies) in a month was craving for value for money.

As always there was some amount of calm in the midst of chaos. Bengali and Malayalam movies were low on budget but high on quality. They were bagging the National awards most of the time and satiating the audience pallet as well. The dyslexic child in Taare Zamin par, and the subject reminds me of the trendsetter Mr. Mani Rathnam and one of his master piece, Anjali in which he portrays the challenges faced by an above average middle income group family in rearing a kid that has Down’s syndrome/autism. Otherwise, there were far and few quality movies during the 90’s. There were a few experiments as well, with movies like Kuruthippunal which did not have a single song but had a good off beat story line with a gripping script and realistic action sequences. To draw a parallel to stock market, this is a typical scenario of companies which have strong fundamentals but not so popular and trading at undervalued prices…

The baby boomers and economic liberalization brought into existence a new target audience. Circa 2000 reputed production houses and individuals in the industry decided to lead from the front. The emphasis was on story line and hence, good clean story was back in business. Big budget movie does not necessarily make big money. Indian cine industry is now treated just like any other industry (say like IT), it has become very professional. Indian movie companies have started to get listed on the stock exchange, finally, taking responsibility on their shoulders and promise to deliver value for money, family entertainers with typical mix of Indian masala which could satisfy the NRI population and also foreigners.

Today we are at a stage where, Indian cinema is planning to go global or has gone already (according to some optimists). “Seven out of the top ten global entertainment companies are active in India”. “The Hollywood studio congloms now expect their Indian movies to earn the majority of their revenues from the India market”. Statements like this definitely augur well for the future of Indian cinema.

We are now proud of our song and dance sequences, unlike the days when we were embarrassed by scenes of half naked women and men dancing around trees. Today we take pride in announcing to the whole world that song and dance sequence is the USP (unique selling proposition) of Indian cinema. In those lines, Om Shanthi Om is a perfect packaging of Indian cinema. It has all the necessary elements (a musical playing out the whole movie, reasonable action sequences, comedy, colourful etc.,) and it in fact renders the story of Indian filmography over a period of time and it is a true representation of who we are to a global audience. Taare Zamin par, is another classic. This is a movie which has proved to the world that we can make movies without typical hero, heroine and a love affair and as glamourous and colourful as any other. (Though there were some “serious” movies made in the past, but, they were of the documentary class; not feature film). They were produced by professionals, they have media partners, PR partners, a professional team for the specific areas (like music, dance, cinematography etc.,) and finally they were backed by big fund houses with deep pockets. With the coming of Jodha Akbar – the team is planning to release the movie with subtitles in couple of foreign languages, thus making it truly global.

Last but not the least, these movies, though contrast in nature, did a great job at box office and have proven, as always, that the Indian audience has the discretion to appreciate good global cinema!

- Ciao

Dada dadi ki kahaaniyaan* - Transliterates to Grand pa / grand ma stories.
Kathakali**, Yaksha gaana** - Indian Folk theater forms from ancient times.

Beer aur Biwi…

2007-12-07T19:04:00.001+05:30

Biwi (Hindi) = Wife (English)

One evening at a shopping mall… what was just another shopping trip turned out to be the most hilarious experience ever! A couple, were walking down an aisle of a posh shopping mall, picking grocery for the month. Default setup, wife walking ahead and picking up stuff and a sad hubby pushing the trolley and walking behind his wife… with occasional suggestions to pick up stuff like, raisins, groundnuts then in the toys section poor fellow wanted a spider man which were all rejected with absolute disdain.

I was so much occupied watching this little sweet shopping trip that I almost forgot what I had come for. So, went straight to the toy section picked up my favorite Transformer toy and reached the checkout counter.

Long queues again, so I tuned into my channel again. The wife was at the wine and spirits section and prompting the hubby to come over to pick a beer of his choice. The section is usually close to checkout counters so I couldn’t resist and did some eavesdropping.

Wife: Which beer do you normally prefer?
Hubby: Fosters J

Wife: Ok then, lets pick up one.
Hubby: One? Only one? Are you sure? We are doing our monthly shopping!!!

Wife: (Frowns and gently warns him) Dear, just one should be fine. Always get a brand check it out and if you like it, go for it, otherwise we could always change can’t we? (She picks up the small pint bottle).

Hubby was a proud and happy man! Definitely should have got a clue here when she said “checkout the brand” and at least when she picked 1 small pint! Anyway…

They walked away, leaving me high and dry…

Well, life as it turns out is not WYSIWYG!

Next week again, I was there standing in the long queue waiting to return the toy. Yes, my wife had some “assertive discussions” with me and I was back there promptly to return my favorite toy back L

Coincidentally I met that lucky guy again! We were in the queue and started a conversation… Each of us was explaining why we were back and stuff. I congratulated him for the kind of life he enjoyed and how cool his life was. He shot back (pretty angrily)…

Guy: What? Why? Why? How?

I narrated the entire story to him and said he should thank his stars for; his wife picks his favorite beer for him every month.

What I heard after that was pretty sad… I was feeling a lot better now!

That night… (it was a Friday night)

Wife: Honey, I will put this in the fridge, it needs to be really cold right?
Hubby: Okie dear!

Wife: Tomorrow, we are going to have a fantastic day! Total relaxation! Get up late in the morning, some breakfast, then head massages and then…and then…and then…

At this point usually guys falter. So did this poor guy. He failed to check out what those “then” meant! He thought, “have beer”, “have good lunch”, “have …” what not!

Saturday:

It was a rainy day…

All went to plan till the massage part started.

Wife: Honey! (calls out from the kitchen). I am not able to find the powder which I had bought last time around at the organic beauty shop.
Hubby: Oh! Can you check the left cupboard please?
Wife: In the meanwhile, can you please get the beer out. Otherwise, it would be too cold and I can’t put up with too much cold.

Hubby: (Delighted…) Do you want me to open it right now? Its only 11:00 clock dear in the morning!

Wife: So what? Open it…and wait for me. I will be there right away!

Hubby: (thinking and cursing himself – I should have forced her to get more bottles, but anyway, at least we have made a start so it should be fine. There is always next time)

The wife comes out with a plastic bowl in her hand, deftly making some mixture. In a flash she takes the opened bottle of beer and pours little in the bowl, mixes it vigorously till it froths out and in a single action puts it on his head!

Wife: (with a twinkle in her eyes, expectantly asks) – How does it feel? Cool? Are you enjoying it? This is the new mixture which my mom suggested, and beer is the best conditioner for use with this mixture.

The fantasy world fades away from his eyes and thoughts… This is probably the closest he could get to the “Shock and Awe” treatment. For the benefit of non CNN viewing public, “Shock and Awe” was the phrase used for initial US attacks on Afghanistan/Iraq.

He takes some time, musters up all the courage in the world, clears his throat and replies…
Hubby: Huh, ha, phew, honey, it’s cool. I thought something different…

Just then he notices all the loving, caring, gentle, smiling face turn red…*&%$^#@*&…

What ever happened after that is left to your wildest possible imagination…

By the way, WYSIWYG means “What you see is what you get” It’s not always that way you see...and also grass definitely looks greener on the other side J

I had the last laugh; at least, I was better off spared with a little disappointment that I couldn’t get my favorite toy! After all I have a second chance when I could buy it for my kid!

- Ciao

The Prestige

2007-12-05T21:39:00.001+05:30

Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called The Pledge; The magician shows you something ordinary (a bird in a cage), but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called The Turn; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary (the bird disappears from the cage). Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, The Prestige; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before (the bird re-appears in the cage). This is what every magician lives for to see that look on the face of his audience.

The above quote is from a movie called “The Prestige” which was released in 2006. It is a brilliant movie which specifically brings out the reason why a performer (magician) does anything that he does.

If we extend this thought, it applies to any one of us, in whatever role we play every day, we do it for the prestige. There are around 6.6 billion magicians in this world. Everyday and every single human act of kindness is a magic and miracle!

As a father, it gives me immense pleasure to see the bright smile on my kid’s face, when I bring back the doll which I had hidden away from her. It makes me feel special and a hero. At work, we solve many issues, tackle customers etc, but we do not celebrate here. We wait for the moment to showcase the final act which could be going beyond the call of duty or value addition and the appreciation. The midnight wish on a wedding anniversary, is the pledge, but the look on her face when she sees the little ring under her pillow is the prestige. I could go on and on…

I do remember when I first started writing. It was in my 5th standard when I wrote the crime thriller “Red Handkerchief” J It might sound outrageous when I praise myself but read on… I remember what motivated me to write the story. It was just to get praise from my grand father on how good my hand writing was. He had given an editorial from The Hindu (News paper) for practice. I felt it extremely insipid and I thought why not write some story – thus was born “Red Handkerchief” … I took this a little further and started participating in creative writing and other such events. When I read the blogs, I wondered, what it would be like the whole world reading my thoughts and writings and hence started blogging… Now I want to publish a book!

Imagine what the sheer act of prestige would accomplish if I were to win a Booker prize!!!!! J

I definitely acknowledge that there are great men other than me, so, let us take the case of 2 great prodigies from India. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan & L.Subramaniam. These two are magicians with violin. One plays for the prestige and the other for a purpose. This is how the perception is among the music lovers. Even though many people and their perceptions do not have a scientific basis, they seem to have got it right. L. Subramaniam went on to become a researcher in violin and music in general. Kunnakudi on the other hand though much praised for his innovations he is more known as a show man.

KJ Yesudas a great south Indian carnatic singer, once said, “I sing cine songs for my stomach and carnatic for my soul” and SP Balasubramanian another great cine singer (though having a Guinness record) and having performed the final act of Prestige, still searches for his soul in carnatic music.

Anyway, coming back to the story, any performer (read it as “anybody”) lives and performs for the prestige. It takes time for anybody to transcend from a stage of sense gratification to soul realization. I endeavor to write on topics which I strongly feel about, use words which could influence people, the style that would be enjoyable by all and want my writings to be passed on to the coming generations. But I guess, still I have not enjoyed the ecstasy of the prestige.

I hope to leverage it judiciously and last but not the least I am keen not to end up searching for my soul in the prestige!

-Ciao

Wannabe!

2007-12-05T18:45:00.001+05:30

Every one of us have told this kind of statement one time or the other..."I want to be a ...", "I wish I were a..." - These kind of statements are made by people irrespective of the age, caste, creed, religion, sex, socio economic status etc.,

Theory: Everybody wishes or wants to be someone else…

I have also been there and when I think back - I feel this phenomenon of Wannabe! Is quite bizarre. When the "Have not’s’ " wish for something it might sound pretty convincing, but when the "Haves" also wish for things that are easily available, I am bemused.

I presume most of you would have seen interviews of famous people. Say for example the recent Madhuri mela (festival) we had where in she gave interviews to every single channel possible as a part of her promo for Aaaja Nachle (Movie). A question that stood out was from a lass who told that she admired Madhuri and wished if she could be like her and went on to ask "What would you have been, if you were not an actress? Or what did you want to be as a child?" OK...What was she trying to arrive at? To top it all Madhuri answers, "I would have been a micro-biologist" - Huh! I can bet my bottom dollar - she would have been the most beautiful Micro biologist ever (though that might not have been the credit any micro biologist would have craved for).

Any way, what am I trying to put across is that there is no exception to the rule that someone always wants to be someone else... I guess this example is sufficient to corroborate my theory.

A couple of questions haunt me - Will this phenomenon of Wannabe! - kill aspirations and hence overall development of our human race and in turn the planet? Or is this the reason for degradation of basic human values, specifically today in the so called "third world"/"developing" countries and the developed countries in the past?

I am inclined to look the other way - Is there anyway for a lesser mortal other than attaining nirvaana, reach a state where they could be content with who they are?

A pristine and precise quote reads, "Be happy you are what you are considering all the people you could have been." Is this the mantra - I am looking for?

- Ciao

Big Fat Indian Wedding!

2007-10-06T17:16:00.001+05:30

Recently I was watching a TV program on "Big fat Indian Weddings"... It was quite an interesting program to watch. I too have had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of many and experience one for myself. And today at office I heard someone have "Maalai maatrinaal, kothai maalai maatrinal" (a famous song played during a typical South Indian, specifically Tamil weddings) as their ring tone. I thought I should share my experience and views on big fat Indian weddings…

I have always wondered why Indian weddings are called “Big fat Indian wedding”. Mind you, this thought did not cross my mind after watching the program or after the wedding party of Lakshmi Mittal’s daughter or Aish/Abhi, but much before that. My family as such is a well accomplished one and we have had at least one foreigner visiting all of the marriages that have ever happened in our family. Mine too was not an exception. And all these foreigners were flabbergasted by the event. In particular, the efficiency with which the event management is done. It is the orchestration of various parties involved in a wedding without dry runs and project management group meetings that makes this a unique accomplishment. An Indian wedding is a very valid example of our innate abilities in terms of managing crowd/people, food, financel, expectation and over all project/event management.

In a typical multi national corporate there is lot of emphasis on the above mentioned management skills. I find that all these aspects are well tested in a typical Indian wedding party than any other wedding ceremony around the globe. I used the term ‘crowd management’ because, we are talking about somewhere in the range of 1200 – 1500 and though most of the people invited to a wedding are our friends and family, in one form or the other, they all behave the same as any other mass public gathering, say, a pop music festival or carnival. So, managing the people becomes a critical issue in Indian weddings. The same applies to financial management for an Indian wedding which is probably the longest (21 years typically) and the most complex activity which is comparable to any investment banker’s effort.

Ironically we Indians in general feel that Indian managers are not as good as their foreign counterparts. I guess, our behavior of free riding, and inconsistent approach are also contributing factors towards this premise.

Setting this corporate thought aside, wedding parties are usually a fantastic gathering of people and great occasion to catch up with long lost relatives and friends. Most wedding parties bring back fond memories and anecdotes which, more often than not is common to one and all. Some interesting highlights that I can remember of…

As kids, we all have attended so many weddings. We have all graduated through the system and have participated in the weddings in various capacities.

Especially as children during primary and secondary schooling days whenever any wedding was planned or discussed about, it used to be honey to ears… Reasons for seeking leave would range from unimaginative stomach pain to a creative once in a lifetime ceremony at home or a medical emergency…I am sure we all have told our share of ‘True Lies’.

During our adolescent stages, we were not much eager to socialize and wanted to be just left alone. Our parents would force us to attend some wedding party, and suggest that we mark an attendance and push off from there, the moment we have had breakfast/lunch/dinner. After all the coercion and cajoling we used to grace the weddings with our auspicious presence… what was supposed to have been a flying visit, some times turned into fantasy flights…

Yes, I am talking about the beautiful strangers… I am sure all of us have had our share of crushes and were smitten by beauties who; we never ended up meeting ever after, and a lucky few who manage to find their life partners. Wedding parties are occasions where mingling is encouraged by all… I used to feel like James Bond with license to kill, just that I had license to flirt.

When I talked about graduating through the system, I did mean it. Drawing parallel to the convocation day, in weddings it is the day when we grow up and get to arrange the nuptials room. It is a thrilling experience to be a part of that elite team of graduates. It is an acknowledgement from elders that we have been formally inducted into the “adult” club… The reason for “” is, in India, still sex is discussed within 4 walls with lights switched off and the topic is rated “A” material… I guess the topic of sex education needs a separate discussion so that it gets the focus it deserves and I will reserve my comments for now.

Wedding parties have the other side to them too…It would be unfair to say that all the weddings have left us only with pleasant memories. There were instances with a difficult relative who cribbed and compared the size of ladoos (spherical Indian sweet) with his son/daughter’s wedding, someone insisting on a particular brand of health drink and that too at 12 in the mid-night and other such unreasonable “requests” which had consequences if not addressed. The omni-present petty fights and silly arguments always added spice to the proceedings.

The insatiable appetite to do things better in all the spheres of a wedding with just one objective of keeping the groom’s people happy all through takes it toll… I would like to take the discussion a little bit north wards and share some of my thoughts and views on the consequences of big fat Indian weddings…this might be a little heavy and might make you feel as if you are watching the second half of a typical Indian film, with all the comedy being over in the first half and drama and climax in the second half… J but still, I guess it is worth it... read on!

The most important consequence of big fat Indian wedding has been the gory episodes of female infanticide in India.

A very idealistic friend of mine has strong views against big fat Indian weddings. He says that one of the very important reasons for female infanticide in our country is because of these big fat Indian weddings. Many parents with a girl child start saving for the marriage fund the day a girl child is born. The event has turned into an overhead and concept of dowry came out as the undesirable offshoot of this otherwise fun family party. India has a 300 million strong middle class population and 700 million socially and economically weak population. The per capita income of an Indian stands at $350…and I understand that an average Indian wedding costs $10000!Check the following site and it is quite interesting...http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/002552.html

The largesse has spawned an $11 billion wedding industry, growing at 25 percent annually and beginning to rival the US industry valued at $50 billion.

The big fat Indian wedding party music turns into a screeching cry of a female infant in some remote village government clinic or care center for abandoned female infants. The ramification of female infanticide is inconceivable… Imagine a day when there would be only men and no women in this country! It’s ticking time bomb and will create a biological imbalance…Will we probably witness our own extinction?

Though the government has come out strongly against dowry practice and has put in stringent laws and measures to curtail this practice it has taken a different avatar so to say. Today, wedding parties have become an arena of competition for grandiosity. This is like the arms race in Asia. No one is forcing India / Pakistan to ramp up on arms and aircrafts but we continue to do so. We have entered into a mutual never ending race which will continue till one of us decides to stop. Similarly, we Indians have entered into a competition of grand weddings and grander gifts. The only way to stop it is for one amongst us to stop!

Following questions race through my mind and I am sure by now, in yours too…Do we need to have such big fat weddings at all? Are we abetting a crime? Should we take a win-win approach by which we can enjoy the party and be socially responsible as well? Can we get innovative and tackle the issue by having laws which provide guidelines on wedding expenses which need to be declared and approved before a wedding ceremony, just like the one we have for election campaigns?

I had a big fat Indian wedding myself but at least I am quite happy to have realized the root cause for a more severe and fundamental problem. I am convinced that we need to ponder over this thought to come up with some action plan.

Spread the word; let us see what others have to say on this.

- Ciao

MAA – LHR – JFK

2007-09-21T15:02:00.001+05:30

Yes, those who have done an international travel might have guessed it… These are the acronyms of 3 international airports, MADRAS – LONDON – NEW YORK.

International travels usually involve lot of transit time which probably is the best time for you to be with yourselves for;

1. You cannot call home because you would invariably have switched off your mobiles as they would not be useful the moment you board a flight.
2. International calls are quite expensive and even if you talk it would be usually for few minutes.
3. One invariably travels alone…

Our protagonist, Kittu, (who, detests travel from the bottom of his heart), albeit, alights at London. And friends, as Henry Boye, a famous author says, “The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway”… This story is about a travel our protagonist makes during which he meets two people in this journey halfway, literally and metaphorically.

International travel necessarily involves an early check-in, excruciatingly thorough security check and finally a long wait before you could board the flight. Kittu is a frequent traveler especially in the MAA – JFK route… Using his expertise in buttering the check-in assistants, he has deftly managed to check-in his excess baggage with all the “podi” (powder used for cooking) and pickles. During the exercise he could not avoid coming in contact with the ubiquitous travelers in this route… a “maama” and a “maami” (typical way to address south Indian, especially a Brahmin uncle and aunty).

These maamas and maamis are a species in themselves. They are uniquely identifiable. They have a style of their own. Maama usually would be wearing a T-shirt that invariably reads some University name or some park or zoo name or some arbitrary US city name, a formal pant into which the T-shirt would be tucked into, a pair of sneakers and of course grey hair sometimes bald with a cap which is the same genre as the T-shirt and finally sporting a pair of glasses with suspenders. Maami would typically be wearing a bright Kancheepuram silk saree, dazzling 9 stone diamond studded earrings and a formal leather bag…

As I was describing a typical maama and a maami they had sought Kittu’s expertise in getting their excess baggage as well checked in...

Now that the baggage was checked in, Kittu decides to check out the book store and pick up couple of travel books… which by the way no body reads in the flight as there are more interesting things to do.

Usually there are quite a few things which keeps you ticking during these flights like, the in flight entertainment, working out the scrap food and of course drinks, the challenge of making your way to or from a window seat to the loo in mid-air and finally dealing with your neighbor for sometime up to 24hrs. So, coming back to kittu, he picks up couple of travel books and makes his way to the waiting lounge and picks the pricey seat facing the TV and settles down.

Maama and maami after a grueling security check wander into the waiting lounge and the moment they see kittu, their eyes light up. Basically they were seeing their son Srini in Kittu…

In the inimitable style, Maami starts off a conversation with Kittu;

Maami: Hi, sorry I don’t remember what you said your name was?
Kittu: Krishnaswamy – in short kittu. (No smiles and no formalities, he gets back to his book)

Maami: Oh, so can I call you kittu then?
Kittu: (Grins) Oh yes…
Maama and maami settle down and try to keep to themselves, but cannot.

Usually when south Indian parents see some kid (specifically guys, I will talk about reaction to girls in a bit…) they suddenly feel as if they are looking at a Tsunami victim and that they need to help. They want to talk to the guy, check out how he is doing offer advice and counseling as if he needed it very badly and had written SAVE on his forehead and back…

With girls, the treatment would be totally different. They would talk to only a beautiful girl who they think would be an ideal match for their son. The story is a bit different if they have a daughter though…

Anyways, coming to the main story… Maami has been successful in starting a conversation off with Kittu… They have been talking for about 20 minutes now, basically around where he is from and what his family background is… Given that everything was perfect about Kittu, Maami wanted to convey her side of the story (which Kittu was trying to avoid), the story about her son, his achievements and convince that, if not better she and her family was also equally perfect…

Maami: So, Kittu, tell me, where do you work?
Kittu: BAE – London. (BAE is, British Aeronautical pioneer and it is equivalent to working at NASA)…

Maami: Oh, so you are not working in San Francisco is it? (In a tone which suggested as if it was his failure to make it to Silicon Valley)
Kittu: (Getting a feel of what is coming) No…

Maami passes on this information to Maama who is busy reading the news paper. He acknowledges the receipt of the message with an agreeing nod.

During this time, Kittu is getting a little bit fidgety. But Maami returns…

Maami: So, Kittu, what do you do in your job.
Kittu: I am a design engineer at BAE.

Maami: Oh, so you are not in software?
Kittu: NO..

Maami: (sympathetically) Ok…
Maami: You didn’t ask us where we are headed to…

Kittu: I know maami, I helped you check-in… I know you are traveling to New York and then to New Jersey...
Maami: Oh, yeah, smart boy huh?
Kittu: (wanting to avoid further discussions) Yes…

Maami: (noticing that Kittu’s answers are in monosyllables) Hope I am not bothering you…
Kittu: No maami, it’s OK.

Just then they get the boarding call and off they go… Kittu, rushes to the queue and gets into the aircraft and finds his seat. Being a frequent traveler, he had picked an aisle seat as it was strategically significant especially during the mid-air loo sojourns. Sorts out the pillow and shawl… During these travels it is quite important as to whom your neighbor is... It could be a babe, an intelligent beautiful girl (read as life partner), a business tycoon, a senior manager from a different firm (read as - new job) or alternatively, a crying baby, a nagging nanny or sometimes the fateful maama and maami.

Now having settled down himself, as people pass by he just wishes “No not this one, thank God” and at times “yeah this one please” but only to despair. He then sights maama and maami making their way towards his seat. He had totally forgotten that they were next to him in the queue and had helped them with their check-in and our typical Indian check-in assistant had put them all together in the greater good of elders…

Kittu is in absolute despair and resigns to his fate! To add to the despair, he notices that he had left the travel books at the waiting lounge…

Ladies and Gentlemen please fasten your seat belts………………

Take off was pretty peaceful and Kittu couldn’t wait for the headsets. In the meanwhile, maami, gets started again from where she left off…

Maami: So, my dear son… where is your office you said?
Kittu: London.

Maami: Oh, yeah I remember now…

Maami: My son works in software… he is doing pretty well in US.
Kittu: Ok…

At this point of time, the conversation is turning into an interrogation… More questions on work, promotions, lifestyle …And then the million dollar question arrives…

Maami: How is the pay in London? Heard its quite costly over there…
Kittu: (notwithstanding the tormenting) Yeah it is costly but manageable.

Maami: Ok, but my son gets paid 100K $ - and they have given him house and a car. Also, food is free for him in his office…
Kittu: Oh, good…so it not bad huh?

Maami: (Totally perplexed) do you mean to say that salary is not good for my son? Is he being exploited…
Kittu: (Grabbing this opportunity to play a little game)… No, no I guess the salary is definitely good enough to survive…

Maami: (She cannot believe that there could be someone who is doing better than her son, strategically she has lost the ground) How much do you get paid then?
Kittu: (With a straight face) 450000 Pounds. Which is nearly 900000 $.

Maami: I cannot believe it… huh, I mean good for you.

(she knew, it couldn’t be true and was frustrated that a kid of her son’s age wouldn’t be interested in talking to her… she was not being rude so far, probably a bit intrusive… but it was OK)

Then the retaliation starts in the form of a lecture on how some people get paid more than what they deserve and the throw away money that youngsters have, the concept of savings and holds a moral high ground that what ever is deserving only sticks… Kittu, in the meanwhile receives his much awaited headset and leaves Maami to rant … Having lost the battle, Maami was just waiting for some point which would put her back in the high ground. At this point, drinks get served and Kittu promptly orders for a Jack Daniel’s with Coke…

Maami: Do you drink? My son doesn’t… he is a teetotaler. He is very pious and definitely much better as compared to other kids.

She puts the ball back in Kittu’s court, with a heavy blow to his character and how it is not sufficient to just earn money but to live the values as well, how kids cheat on their parents and exploit their freedom etc., She bludgeons him with the “moral value” club and Kittu is now devastated. What started off as a prank cost him quite heavily! He was certainly not happy with himself.

Maami, after dealing the brilliant blow excused herself to the restroom and to rub salt into the wound she switched places with the Maama! At this point of time good 3 hrs of haranguing had passed by and the flight was over the Arabian Sea nearing Dubai… Not able to comprehend why he did whatever he did. His comments were after all not intentional. He wanted to come good. He wanted to clarify, but he realized it was a tad late.

He was reminded of a book which he had read during one such journey, “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon. An autobiography based on a soul searching 13,000 mile road trip. The author says “What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” He did not need further hint as to what he should do next…

Kittu, notices some vacant seats 2 rows ahead and requests for a change in place so that he could stretch himself. He does not have the faintest idea that someone else could also be thinking the same…

Kittu settles down in a window seat and looks down at the beautiful expanse of desert sand, and a nanny walks by and settles down just a seat away from him at the aisle. Both share a friendly smile and exchange pleasantries. He notices the English lady’s accent was Indian then British… this was sufficient for him to start off a conversation. The old lady tells him a beautiful story of her childhood and her marriage that happened at Bangalore – Holy Trinity church. She was born and brought up in Bangalore, Cox town area and left to England in 1950 along with other settlers. Her love for India, the stories of her teenage adventures in exploring Indian villages and her bicycle ride through the mustard fields took Kittu away into a wonder land.

This was a story never heard off… it was like watching a movie “1949 a Love Story”. Kittu’s perspective about British took a “U – Turn”. His recent experiences at work place, the racism row in the Big Brother series and little acts of discrimination in his neighborhood had forged an inexcusable attitude towards the British. His initial feeling that he is interacting with a foreigner had faded. He felt as if he is talking to his own “paati” (nanny as referred in Tamil language). He fell in love with that story and his fellow passenger was now his own paati.

He changed seats and moved next to the nanny who had by then had couple of Gin and Tonic and our hero had quite a few drinks to get tizzy (usually a few drinks in mid-air would get you to a state of trance quicker than on land). Kittu got into the standard assurance act. He assured granny that he would take care of her all through the flight and would do what ever it takes to make her feel comfortable…

Just then, some food was served which Kittu hogged and before he could finish, he could hear his tummy rumbling. He started sweating profusely and was feeling really uncomfortable… He requested the nanny to switch places and asked for the aisle seat. Nanny handed him the air-sickness bag and Kittu was filling and disposing bag after bag… He crashed…Assurances were kept… Only that it was nanny who had done it.

PA system blared…Ladies and Gentlemen we are about to land at the London Heathrow International Airport. For passengers alighting at London, thanks for choosing to fly with us and others please remain seated while we board our fellow passengers from London to JFK…

This announcement woke up Kittu… He couldn’t wait to get out of the plane and head home, his sweet home…

Following day he pondered over his travel and felt it was not bad after all and that probably he had learnt more than what could have from the travel book he had left back at the waiting lounge…

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang a famous Chinese writer and inventor.

- Ciao

Men @ work!

2007-09-13T19:02:00.001+05:30

I would like to share an interesting piece from the book “Why men lie and women cry” by Allan and Barbara Pease. This book extensively talks about relationships which by the way you all know is my favorite topic!

They say that men have not changed much since their Neanderthal days. In the good old days, they were primarily tasked with hunting and feeding their families. It was their day job and also a sort of sport because hunting involved moving targets and the challenges that came with it. As the human race evolved, men continued to do what their ancestors did. Even today, man does a day job to earn a living and either participates or keenly follows sports on TV for recreation. Most of the sports, especially ball games (say baseball, cricket etc,) which were invented in 1800 and 1900’s involve chasing a moving target!!

I would like to add that the only innovation is that we have started chasing not only balls but also, girls on scooty, cars and busses (again moving targets). Other than that I don’t think there has been some significant evolutionary change in the way men lead their life.

Probably we still are the same cave men living in costlier/rented caves which are aesthetically designed ;-)

- Ciao

Indiyeah!

2007-09-13T19:00:00.001+05:30

“Games Indians play – Why are we the way we are” is a new book which has hit the stands recently. The author V. Raghunathan has used game theory and behavioral economics to explain the Indianness of Indians. In this book Mr. Raghunathan explains and rationales as to why we Indians are individually smart but collectively dumb… Though the book is a little intellectually heavy, it makes a good reading as the author tries to put forward the game theory and behavioral economics in layman’s terms.

Why I am writing about this book is especially because, this book justifies my earlier discussion on “altruism”. The author says that even an altruist is selfish, as, in a way when he/she does an unselfish act it eventually is for his/her own happiness in return. This made me feel really happy that my discussion on altruism is not just a trivial thought but is a topic amongst some of the greatest minds.

J I cannot be more modest can I ;-) Well, well, well.

Just when I had completed reading this book, an interesting incident happened at my work place which went on to justify Mr. Raghunathan’s views that we Indians have weak self regulation and weaker regulations, weak enforcements and weaker punishments.

Now, see the following situation… How many of us apply for a leave and do not return on the day when we are supposed to be back? I guess all of us have done this at some point of time. Given the great manager I consider myself, I follow a unique principle which is to grant leave to anybody at any point of time without asking questions/clarification. In return I agreed with my team that if they commit to return on a day they better keep it up.

One of my team members does not turn up and violates the mutual agreement. In this case though he has earned himself an additional day’s leave, and some satisfaction points, he has lost the credibility and reward points from me in the long run. I was stupefied at the analysis of game theorists on human behavior, especially Mr. Raghunathan’s analysis of Indians. Because, the situation described above is not a common one abroad. Think this through my friends, why will not rest of the world glaringly looked down at us in spite of all the brilliance we have? We need to start working towards improving our behavior soon, as, when the world truly becomes a global village, we could soon become outcasts.

The callousness with which we have behaved in the recent incidents relating to beating up of a petty thief in Bihar, an unattended bleeding naked woman in CST terminus in the busy Mumbai suburban rail compartment, the inconsiderate sting operations for the sake of money, broadcasting gory images of Hyderabad bomb blasts are few other examples of Indianness which further vindicate Mr. Raghunathan’s views/claims.

On the other hand, recently, there are quite a few programs being aired in Discovery channel that discuss/portray India in a good light. This is a paradigm shift from the days when the world media made documentaries only about our plight around poverty situation, illiteracy, AIDS and health care issues. Especially program about Delhi Metro was heartening. Programs about young Indian business tycoons on the breakfast show on CNN IBN show how well we as a nation are progressing in terms of entrepreneurship.

All said and done, we need to think if we should take pride in the phrases, “It happens only in India” and “We are like that only”!

- Ciao

Parenting!

2007-09-13T18:57:00.001+05:30

"A hundred years from now it will not matter what your bank account was, or the kind of car you drove...but the world may be different because you were important in the life of a child." Kathy Davis.

Probably it was not that difficult for our parents to bring us up. In the Indian setup, right from Vedas to the social setup there is a proven, time tested framework. Formulae = “I will bring up the child the way my mom did” (there are exceptions to this but we are not talking about exceptions here) and as mentioned in Chanakya niti – First 5 years bring up your child as a darling, for the next 5 scold them, as they turn 16, be their friend!

These days, parenting is portrayed as an art form. Just like we have been pushed to outsourcing our own finances, there is a bigger plot to get the same done for parenting! It might not be too late before we have a degree for parenting. What have you done? B.A in Parenting!

How you treat your children? How you manage their expectations, their questions? What opportunities you provide them? …Every thing, just about everything has changed.

I can vouch that 25 years ago, children grew up more organically. They got to play in the mud, walk through the woods, play in the parks, rode the bicycle on roads and especially got to know the right stuff at the right age…! Technical, economic and socio limitations also helped parents a great deal in bringing up the children easily. With much less questions to answer life was definitely peaceful for them.

With changing times, technical advancements and commercialization we are in the age of “Glucon dads and Moov moms”... Less number of parks and playing area has meant that the child is glued to the TV set… They meet their friends on Orkut! Social networking happens in the virtual world and reality TV shows are the favorite.

Every technical innovation has changed our societal set up… Shaving was an activity reserved for a specific caste. But Gillette changed it all. So did this huge country and its society.

What are the triggers, what should you look out for? – “Spare the rod spoil the child” approach is obsolete…Can our time tested formula withstand the onslaught of technological advances and commercialization? Is the Indian parenting technique sound enough and have the wherewithal to go the distance in this Orkut age?

Do we have to unlearn and re-learn? T.H.I.N.K…

-Ciao

Bookstore...

2007-09-13T18:55:00.001+05:30

Last weekend, I visited Crossword bookstore in Bangalore. I love visiting a bookstore. There are a couple of reasons for that. One, it is the only place in Bangalore where you don't have to maneuver around and rub shoulders with “Who’s that???” of Bangalore, and the second is I love reading!

With the coming of stores like Crossword and Landmark, concept of a bookstore has changed a lot. It is not anymore a place where you do quick shopping by telling the title and the store keeper dusting it and bringing it to the checkout counter. There is more crowd and more books! Also, I could see people have started using it as a landmark. Nowadays in cities like Chennai and Bangalore, Landmark has become a “landmark” for people to meet up and plan further.

The socio-cultural anthropologist in me was awakened... I picked up an arbitrary book and started reading the place and people. It was quite interesting.

First section is usually the blockbusters and new entrants neatly merchandised. Usually the most effective sales area, as most people end up buying a book from this section. Next is the Fiction and Murder mysteries section which incidentally is the best selling section as most of us want to live in the fictitious or parallel world and all of us at some point wish to kill someone for various reasons but only that it is not possible and we at least take some respite by reading murder mysteries. To the right of murder mysteries is the self help section. Though the books were mostly on management and "how to become a millionaire" kind of stuff, name of the section “Self-help” was kind of repulsive. None of us want to be seen standing in the self help section especially if we are a little conscious about the beautiful girls around.

Yes, by the way bookstore is brilliant place to meet and pursue girls who are more often than not are available. Other than the obvious reasons which is to buy a book and waiting for their boyfriend, they also visit a book store because, they do not have a boyfriend and or they have been recently dumped and want to go to a public place which is calm and or will calm them down.

Coming back to the layout, the section next to self help is management books. I don’t understand why, is it because managers need self help? Anyways,

Just after the fiction section come the classics. This section is a good place to be, because whichever book you pickup, it would make you look like a guy with a big brain and beautiful heart. Surprisingly, this is the least selling section in the book house.

Then there is the non-fiction, religion and philosophy section. Usually guys who have been dumped or who have not managed a girl friend in their life can be seen here, with a khadi kurtha, thick rimmed glasses and possibly bearded. Some times you will find the “Namdhari” crowd as well in this section. With heavy J. Krishnamurthy book in their hand, they are a conspicuous lot. Looking at them, when I project the data at hand, the number of karma yogis our land produces must turn our country instantly to a puniya bhoomi or something…but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Just next to the philosophy section is psychology followed by romance and relationships which leads into erotica. Though not many want to look like perverts or people who need self help in their romance life, every single soul takes a quick peek at these sections. They hold the book in hand but don’t seem to read. After a little it more observation I understood the modus operandi. People take the book, and keep looking around to see if anybody is watching them, and quickly glance through the pages to get a glimpse of photos and illustrations. After all who is bothered about the theory, when you can get to see some action? Few minutes in the section and they move on, only to return back now and then.

All the sections mentioned above form the right hand side area of the book store. To the left is where actual business is, where serious readers are, and most importantly the checkout counter is. Books on specific businesses, arts, crafts, children books, workbooks, cuisine, architecture, computer books et, all.

In this country of free riders, book stores are no exception. There are people who read through the costly photo albums of stars and cricketers at the book store without paying a single penny.

Typical people who visit a book store are parents and kids who have come to search for a workbook which the school had prescribed in the desirable section (not even under the necessary category), guys in their late 20’s who have not managed a girl friend or who have been just dumped and have to kill some time during the weekend and at the same time not feel guilty for having wasted the time, girls in mid 20’s same as their counterparts, uncles and aunties who care for the environment and aesthetics, old parents accompanied by their single son/daughter in his/her 40s, recently married couple who have just bought a new house, looking for architecture or a cuisine book, married guys who have dropped their wives off at a beauty parlor not knowing how long it would take before they get the all important missed call!

This might sound preposterous, preconceived and prejudiced, but please, please, please… before commenting on this blog post, I suggest, you visit a book store again say Landmark or Crossword and then do the honors.

- Ciao

Altruistic

2007-09-13T18:51:00.001+05:30

There is no “unselfish generous deed” in this world! I didn’t say it. Joey in F.R.I.E.N.D.S says it. He proves it as well. Though comical, it was quite a statement and I definitely was hooked on to it for quite some time.

Why on earth do we have words that do not have meaning or non existent? Human brain always has this weird sense of finding things like this. Later we develop a framework for this and get people to follow/use it. Next natural step is to judge ourselves and beat people for not leading a good life! If you have not come across the phrase "unselfish generous act", how about words like "ethics" and "morals"?

This thought was sufficient for me to find out or do at least 1 unselfish generous act or ethical practice or at least a moral value. I am so obsessed now to do that one act which would prove me wrong, and vindicate rest of the human race for coining such phrases and words...

Neanderthal man killed fellow human beings to feed on / survive in their age. In the current age cannibalism is chastised...what was then acceptable is not now.

Freedom struggle: Did Mahatma fight for the freedom of our country was it an unselfish generous act? He and Millions laid down their lives for our freedom. They are called martyrs because they laid down their lives for the cause of freedom from occupying powers. Could the same be told about Osama and millions of other terrorists who are fighting the occupying forces?

NO. Definitely not. I do not want to sully the Mahatma by comparing with Osama. Hope you understand that discussion on the same plane is just for argument sake. I would like to discuss this to understand the topic of ethics, morals and altruism better.

OK, so, are jihadi's same as our freedom fighters (as the cause is noble and common, which is to get rid of their occupying forces)? Their approach was different though...Jihadis take lives of people for a cause and freedom fighters gave their lives for a cause. How on earth is this ethical/moral? I am stunted to understand this concept :-(

Recently there was a discussion between 2 senior management people (x and y), a senior member (say - z) had quit the organization and started off a venture on his own. Now there was a project in the organization he had quit and tender was floated. Tenders were evaluated and it was now between 2 companies. One was Mr.Z's and other a proven industry leader. Mr. X rejects the proposal of Mr. Z's company telling that if the contract were to be given to Mr.Z it would raise "ethical" questions as Mr.X knew Mr.Z up close. Now, this triggered a series of discussions and I brainstormed over this topic to understand if I had really found moksha at last...

Look at the situation. Mr.X believes he has done an unselfishly generous act on the other company or he that has upheld the ethical and moral values. Is it true? Would you agree to that? I initially did. But if I were to look at it from a different perspective, Mr.Z was in fact denied an opportunity by Mr.X. What was Mr.Z's fault? Is it that he happened to know Mr.X? Who is to be blamed? I gave this some more thought!

Lets take another example, ethical hacking! This is a very modern technological concept. I am again confused...Who governs what constitutes to "ethical" in hacking?

Gay marriage or way of life - we are rewriting morals even here!

So, coming back to my question, isn't ethics, morals and unselfishness surreal?

I believe concepts like these vary from generation to generation. A common book on ethics and morals need to be published probably once for every generation. Also, elders should not quote from their "code book" whilst censuring us on any of our activities, for, the moral and ethical codes might have changed!

Last time I referred the code books, I remember, it said extra marital affair was bad, has it changed? Hey, please do not misconstrue that I am trying to make a case for it...And who said I could write only about relationships ;-)

- Tata

2007-07-05T14:41:00.000+05:30

Vaaji Shivaji........!!!

- From my wife's pen - she wrote... "Me, me, me first! I wrote it first".... and then...

"WOHOO!! I watched Shivaji last night with the true spirit of watching a Rajini movie. I dont really belong to the fanatic crowd of Rajini followers who worship him. But I certainly enjoy watching his movies primarily because, my idea of a good movie( well not the best movie) is 'pure entertainment' and there is no question about getting it in plenty.The movie has met all benchmarks of : Shankar's make, Thotta tharani's sets and Superstar's enthralling stunts and dialogues. Superstar looks young as ever and to take the joy of his fans to the zenith, he imitates Shivaji Ganesan, MGR and Kamal hasan while dancing for some of their songs. This is something he has never done before! Actress Shreya is a doll I should say. I'm sure the Tamil fans are ready to take her to new heights in her career with all the cheer in the theater!! She does not have much to do with her acting skills but I can vouch that being a dancer myself, she has a very expressive face and is capable of portraying any kind of emotion.Vivek has done a stellar job again! It was also fun to watch the Tamil veterans Solomon Pappaiya and Raja in the movie.All said and done, it was no disappointment for a person like me and I definitely did 'wohoo' in the theatre like others."

There you go, what more do I need to say! :-) I thoroughly enjoyed watching it... especially with my wife!!

Psst... I will talk about "Competitive spirit" later...

WMD!!

2007-05-11T18:20:00.002+05:30

People who are married would be the ones who I think could appreciate this piece. Others just read on and pick up as much as you can.

I have lot of friends and their friends and their friends... who are married. Have heared enough stories, seen lives/relationships falling apart and getting together stronger than before. I feel the same way as President Bush when I hear the words WMD. Just that it means something different to me. I read it as Weapons for Marriage Destruction. Yes, there are several weapons which a husband / wife use while expressing their difference of opinion and perspectives on issues pertaining to the home department and also external affairs.

I would like to categorize the weapons like

1. Short distance (sur)face To (sur)face missiles - shouting at each other on face,
2. Long distance air To air missiles - shouting at each other over phone,

As conventional wisdom says these are non nuclear and hence the impact is contained.

But the fun is when ballistic missiles are used. I am talking about NOT talking! Just like this statement, life gets complicated. Situations can be turned from bad to worse and to worst by just NOT talking. Usually this weapon of NOT talking is employed through both modes of delivery as explained above. First one has less impact because still there is an option of making it up. But when the weapon of NOT talking is delivered over phone (air to air missile), its impact is huge. The communication gap would widen and could result in possible separation.

Finally, the clincher is tipping the war head with nuclear material. SEX!! The mode of delivery is through [(Sur) face - (Sur) face missile)]. NO TALK and/or NO SEX. This has a deadly impact. The moment a fight / argument moves from just a difference of opinion it should stop.

When two nations or empires go to war, they use nuclear weapon as the last option. Probably you would have heard / read in Indian mythology that Brahma astra (Indian mythological equivalent of Atom bomb - Brahma - Atom, U know what I mean??) was never used.

The moment a couple start employing the nuclear option as the first option, remember, they are going down the path of complete annihilation. If any one wins he/she loses and even otherwise they lose.

Think?

Ciao

Boys and their Toys…

2007-04-20T13:55:00.001+05:30

After wedding guys get very unromantic and insensitive. There are no more flowers, pink sweaters, soft toys, ice creams, cards, incessant sms etc., This is a usual crib among girls. Ever wondered why?

Just like the compartmentalization concept which I discussed with regards to a girl’s brain, guys have a unique pattern in theirs. I am yet to christen it. If you would like to do the honors please do so in the comments section and I will incorporate it in the article.

As kids, boys are quite happy to play with one toy at any given moment. Even with the toys, there are some requirements. The toy should be animate, make some noise, it definitely should be a no brainer and easy to use, possibly be remote controlled. The one single toy would be his world. It would be easy to feed him, make him sleep and also cajole him when the hell breaks loose with this toy being around. The day the toy stops doing any of the above mentioned functions, the toy would be worth less and would not excite him anymore…

By now I am sure you would understand the plot of this piece…anyway go on, there are few more instances which you would appreciate.

The day a kid goes to school, one of the things that keeps him going is that the fact that there is progression or change every year in terms of the subjects he reads, languages he learns, teachers, friends etc., and he eagerly looks forward to migrating from shorts to pants. Basically there are things which keep changing around him which will get him going. Also, please note, a guy does not have just one friend, but has friends! Usually, quite a lot of them... Bench mate, class mate, gym mate, team mate, lab mate, and as he graduates into adult hood, there is sometimes a pub mate too… Thus there are quite a few people with whom he interacts and this keeps him going.

Mind you in spite of so many people, there is no one seeking any commitment or tying him to a single thing at any point till now.

Also, you would have observed the behavior where the guys go gaga about their new electronic gadget every time they get a new one. Be it with Walkman, diskman, MP3 player, an iPod, or a new watch, latest model of mobile phones, ring tones and the list is just endless.

They just keep moving. At a stage when they have money, a job, an educational qualification, what next? Well, obviously it is a girl. When guys are dating or when they are in love just observe the length to which they go towards convincing, apologizing or conveying their love. It is just phenomenal.

After all this excitement and exuberance in their life the first few months of married life is bliss. Girls get floored with every act of love, care, affection, availability and the expectations sore high like the stock market bull run. Suddenly there is a shift. It comes like the tectonic plate shift that causes Tsunami’s and earthquakes. They become moronic, un-romantic, insensitive and loose the sheen I would say. Why?

Girls you should have the answer by now. And guys if they don’t get it please let them know. Girls have to keep the guy on his toes, keep him excited with something new every day and all the time. Because what they are now looking at is to becoming fathers and bringing up their child, building a new home, earning more money etc., and such an endless list till his grave.

All of us humans (man / woman) do think in the same manner, but men in general work today to live tomorrow. They forget to enjoy today if it is uneventful. Get yourselves a renewed husband.

I have said it all, I want you to think on this, is it valid or just a figment of my imagination… Let me know.

Sensible reticence!

2007-04-20T12:22:00.001+05:30

This is quite a simple word but has complex meaning. The basic premise of this piece is that guys are really frank with their girl friends / wives and have had to pay the price for it, sometimes the ultimate price of losing them.

If you are reading this line, it means you do concur or probably think so.

You must have heard or seen situations that are black or white, right or wrong, love or hate. Also, you might have heard or seen things which are not quite clear and is grey, legally right but morally wrong, and sometimes you like but not love. Yes I am talking about the “grey matter”, things that appeal to the brain and not to heart.

Now that I have set the stage, let me plunge into what I set out to communicate.

Whenever the guys are in a relationship we think there needs to be complete frankness between the partners. This drives us to divulging or emptying all the feelings, thoughts and actions which we go through. During this process we sometimes end up getting hurt or hurting each other.

Giving this a thought, I understand and believe that great relationships are not built on complete frankness but on sensible reticence. I read this sometime ago. This does work believe me.

Does this mean we should lie? No. It means that we need to be careful while communicating our feelings, thoughts and actions. Sometimes, it might be irrelevant, untimely or unnecessary. It is always better to be in a situation when you have not said enough rather than you have. By being careful with our talks and actions we are not being unfaithful. It is quite OK for someone you love not to know every thing you thought, said or did.

Ciao

Global Gyan**/Gas?

2007-02-18T01:50:00.001+05:30

** Gyan = Knowledge (translated from Sanskrit)

I guess many of you might be familiar with the phrase 3G - it means the 3rd Generation. It could be used to describe things that's to come next or the 3rd Generation as it is favouritely called...

But my definition of 3G is Global Gyan / Gas...

Most companies/entities around you give gyan/gas on things you already know of. Its called the 3rd eye or different perspective. This is the technique used by the marketing agencies to sell us stuff, the same old stuff under the garb of new technology or the zing thing. Just like that I would like to share with you some 3G... read on!!

I just returned from the UK. This is the third day of my return to India! My prodigal roommates have arranged for a small surprise. During the "chilli vodka" party, we discussed among innumerable things, the life in UK and people in UK. Now, it was inevitable for me to start a story and include some spicy stories only to get some global gyan...

I discussed the psyche of a nation that just last year bid for Olympics 2012 and won, and this year, are pessimistic about its success and far from it... are cribbing about the amount of money spent on the "sporting extravagenza". Then, I discussed about the paranoia in that country about their status in world politics to their eating habits. During this conversation as Vodka started whowing its effects I was explaining about how people in the UK especially London, get up every morning and run to their office as if the whole world depended on it, and my prodigal room mate came up with the following story.

Its about Gazels and a Lions in the African jungle. The story goes, "There are Gazels in African forest which every morning start thinking it should run faster than the fastest Lion in the forest to survive that day and there are Lions which think they should run faster than the fastest of the Gazels every day to get food for their survival; and no matter who you are every morning as the sun comes up you start running and this this the world order!!"...

What a story and what a way to put that!!! We humans are no different and no matter what we do and where we are, London or Los Angeles, New York or New Delhi we need to run every morning to survive! Following this, I was explaining to my friend about how I worked hard and what value did I add to the organisation. On a high note! Another story started!!

Its about the 1:2:3 ratio for an employee! Any organisation hires 1 person and pay them 2 people's salary and get the work of effectively 3 people done from them! This just stupefied me... No matter what I said I got a story back! This is the effect of Vodka my friends! I decided to stop telling my UK stories and join the banter!

Sorry, no marks for guessing!! My prodigal roommates are management graduates from XLRI, top dogs paid for flirting with the girls are the most eligible bachelors and giving global gyan/ global gas I would like to call...

BTW, in my last article, when I discussed about husband and wife should live to liven up each other's life! I was just giving global gyan! It doesn't work in reality and no couple is "Made for each other"! Do you want to challenge it?? Well, then, you shouldn't be reading this article together in the first place!!!

- Ciao

Great Expectations!

2007-02-18T00:27:00.001+05:30

"Do not expect and thou shall be disappointed" - Bible

This particular ariticle is for my dearest friend the "Known Stranger" and all those friends who keep egging me on to write...

Well, friends, there are certain things in this world wich the GOD tells you not to do and you end up DOING IT.... Not to hurt anybody but certainly yes, we guys end up doing it! - EXPECT!!

OK, Girls, this is not about taking a cheap shot at you and also guys not to glorify you, but this is what we all end up doing...

One fine day, a guy gets a call from his mom telling that she has found a girl - Krrrrrr - a guy calls up his mom and tells that he found a girl - The lifetime partner! They start burning thousands of rupees over the cellular network and at the end of 3 months end up tying a knot / pronouncing "kuboool"or say " I do"... to enter into a lifetime bond with a girl of their choice / their mother's choice.

Great change I should say! Afer wedding they get on with their lives and with the blessings of the elders all "seems" fine. They talk a lot, share a lot and not to mention the physical relationship, everything "seems" just perfect... 2 years hence...

The baby is crying out loud, the first sign of life, both the hubby and wife are happy that they have been able to reproduce (sorry about being harsh!, but yes) they are the proud parents of a kido who has stepped in for a hell of a ride in this evil world surrounded by expectations starting from the fact that the kid would be a he/she till he would become a scientist to "mera ghar ka naam roshan karega" (he will make us proud!). The husband and wife are happy; the life moves on... But if asked to put their hands on heart and say if the husband and wife are happy as a couple, well it's a debatable topic.

Office - Husband: Hey, you know what? I get to my house and see the smiling face of my kid, I forget the whole world!

Home/Office: Wife - Hey, I just live for my kid you know, he/she is such a sweet kid that I forget the whole world when I it's smiling face!

But as a couple are they happy? Read on!!!

This is typical of any couple in India, they get married and 2 years hence have to deliver a kid for their septegenarion father/mother a living doll to play with. They do diligently deliver! But as a couple what about their lives. The two lives which were put together in a "Big Brother" house? Whats this Big Brother house???

This is the name of a TV show in the UK inspired by the novel 1984 by Geroge Orwell where there is a totalitarian situation governed by a fictitious character called Big Brother who governs the lives of people in a house. The food, entertainment and lives are controlled by BigBrother and the social experiment is for the whole world to watch! Yes, that's how I describe a married life of an (initial 2 years) Indian couple's life as. They are 2 people who do not know each other, and are put together by Big Brother (dad/mom??) in a house and asked to live together. They undergo severe stress and ups and downs and during one of their weakest moments produce the baby!

The baby grows old and so do the husband and wife... The kid becomes the focal point of their lives. They live for the kid, when the kid smiles the husband and wife smile, when the kid cries, the husband and wife fight! (Why dont you do this, why dont you do that? Why cant you manage the kid why shouldn't you change the diaper? etc etc... and the life goes on!) Over a period of time the kid becomes the mode / channel of communication. Husband says to the kid - Tell your mom, we could go out for a dinner today, we could go out for a movie today!. The wife tells the kid, tell your father to bring this / that! Tell your dad the food is ready! etc., situations. At the end of the day the kid gets old enough to take any more non-sense and says "dudes, I am moving out with my new boyfriend/girlfriend!". The parents are left in the lurch. They start living together again till one of them sees the grave. Then the realisation strikes and they wait for their turn!

Tell me friends, how many of you have enocuntered this situation where in you are the medium of communication between your dad / mom?? This is a horrible situation. Well, if you are in this situation already and reading this article, what do you need to do? Tell your parents to go get a life for themselves! Tell them the following! If you are yourselves in this situation... I would suggest - Go get a life for yourselves!

There are only 2 relationships in this world which are the strongest!

1. Between a mother and child

2. Between a husband and wife!

These are the only 2 relationships in life where there is a physical connection and no matter what, they are the purest and strongest bonds that ever existed between 2 human beings! They can never give up each other!

Though the relationship between a man and a woman (husband and wife) is ir-revokable and tough to break but, why do they break? It is because of a simple fact that they do not care to give each other what they care / like the most. The husband fails to say "I Love You"/"I care for you" / "I miss you" and the wife fails to give her best on bed and bread! (Given the theory that way to a mans heart is through his stomach ;-)

So , the wisdom that's being shared here is, before you start saying "When you see your kid you forget the whole world / I forget all the troubles in life..." remember to check if you said "When I see my wife/husband I forget all the troubles in my life"... Couples - please ensure that you liven up each others life before you bring a life to earth!

- Ciao

Oru Iravu...**

2007-01-08T02:32:00.001+05:30

** One Night…

This is the Friday before Christmas and its 9.30PM...Head office of one of the largest retailers in the world, UK. The weather outside is just about freezing and looks like it would snow anytime. I have some company though, couple of electricians and some good music over the radio amplified by a BOSE speaker. They too seem to be finishing their work and leaving for the day. It is one of those nights which any sensible guy would want to spend with family and friend. But I have got neither at this lonely moment. I was the "chosen one" to monitor a black and green UNIX box for a magic number of 200. Nothing much for the brain cells to crunch on. So here I am, munching some grub and writing this blog. I had a choice.

1. To think of my fate and brood over it or
2. To enjoy this very special moment as it revealed itself.

I chose the later. Well, it’s been quite an experience and worth sharing.

This office does not have CCTV. So I am the master of this little universe at this hour when there’s nobody but God watching over me. I can literally do whatever I want or wish.
People whom we meet each day in office in a distant land from India are always a mystery. They usually do not talk much and keep themselves restricted to their "personal space". There are some intriguing facts about westerners at office. They seem to have a dress for all occasions, they come to office by bicycles, constantly keep munching something or the other, always have some lotion to apply, a vacation they have been just back from or going to, their dogs, cats and pets, so on and so forth. What I am about to say might be disturbing to many of you. mmm... I decided to intrude into their personal space!!

Yes, I took myself on a small tour around the desks especially some of the mystery figures. At the end of my journey, it was a revelation. Stuff I found in this office space was beyond anybody’s imagination.

Ms. Beauty Saloon: This is the desk of one of the most beautiful girls / lady in my office. Obvious choice, for the first stop. On her desk I found that she had truck loads of tissue papers, a small bottle of Nivea cold cream, a L’Oreal’s tan brown lipstick and a cute shell comb. Mind you this is an office desk and not a makeup table. No wonder, even after walk through our parkway from the other building on a windy day she is all decked up for the most important meeting with our boss. I used to look like a barbaric early Neolithic man with hair all over the place, dry hands and whitened elbow joints. I can understand the make up kit. But what could possibly explain the presence of a box which reads "Wonder bra!!”... Uh, it is beyond my reasoning capabilities. Its better unexplained. A fur coat, pedicure file, mobile charger, cute teddy bears and other possible soft toys....and the list of office stationary is endless so I should say - et al.

Mr. Muncher's Desk: My dear muncher sits few desks to the left of Ms. Beauty saloon. Well, his desk is a small convenience store. Should anybody at office feel hungry and not find anything at the vending machine / pantry, I would suggest they lookout for Muncher's desk. Food stocked at his desk is sufficient to eliminate poverty in large parts of Africa. Decorated fruit bowl (with fruits obviously), nuts, cake biscuits, cakes, chocolates, can of juice, sandwich, ketchup, salt, pepper, plates, plastic spoon, fork, knife, butter and jam sachets, a coffee maker, whiteners, sugar, a blender... practically a little kitchen, sparing the microwave. No wonder he is able to munch all the time I have ever seen him in the last 3 months... This I am made to understand is a matter of national concern. Wonder why? According to a recent study, UK is the fattest nation in the world. The government is proposing "healthy eating" at schools, the supermarkets are selling "Organic food", the TV programs are selling "healthy living" and as a result of these initiatives UK aims to become a healthy nation...unfortunately UK has got a job at hand with an un-cooperative citizen.

Mr. Love life: This guy's desk is a place where I always wanted to spend time at. He has photos pinned up all over the desk. Now was the time, I could spend, probably all night, looking at the photos at my leisure. The photographs were mostly of parties. Few friends of his, hugging each other and holding a bottle of beer, the elixir that turns sober humans into super humans at the end of a party. After almost about 15 minutes, I had a feeling that something was amiss in these photographs. A sudden brainwave helped me unravel the puzzle. I noticed that there was not a single lady/girl in any of them. I could feel a chill going down my spine. I recollected some conversations and suddenly the mystery began to unfold. He was GAY. Yes, this is a free land and everybody has the right of expression in this country. Elton John is revered here and so is his gayism. It is now a fad to be gay in the western world. Gay marriages are legalized and they get to keep all the rights and are held equal at all social forums. Earlier, he had made innumerable subtle suggestions and had given hints which my brain waves could not pick up. I slowly walked down the corridor. My mind was thinking of the guy's positional authority and the way he carried himself at office...my brain was inundated with clarifications and questions though my eyes were looking out for the next target the baby boomer.

Ms. Baby boomer: I might sound rude, but this woman is perennially pregnant and this is my 3rd visit in 3 years and all the three years she has successfully managed to deliver 3 kids with if my math is good, 3 pit stops not more than 1 and half months long...Ferrari engineers - You have quite a job at hand and may be start looking at improving your pit stop timings ;-). My employer is very staff friendly and provides us with Paternity and maternity leaves. I think of all the 300,000 employees she would easily top the list of maximum maternity leaves availed in the last 3 years. Her desk is full of "How 2 books...” “Being a mummy for Dummies” to “Child care for dummies”. Never knew the Dummies series even published books for mummies as well. Guess she understood our boss's stress on productivity in a wrong context. Anyway, everybody have their own perspective on this issue lets leave it at that. Coming to the other stuff, I did notice couple of diaper bags. she must have forgotten to take them home and probably its a "wet night" for the baby today. Sorry NO pun intended ;-)

Mr. Fitness freak: This guy come to office in a bicycle. He lives some 10 miles from office and considers cars and any other form of Motorized commutation to be too modern and not too eco friendly. His desk is one hellauva fitness zone. He has all the gear required for cycling, 3 pairs of shoes, couple of track suits, some stinking socks, gloves, fitness magazines, some chyavanprash kind of stuff, glucose and a nice sports water bottle...

Apart from these there is always the usual complement of wine and spirits that have been gifted by people and enough winter clothing to cover half of Africa and the list is just endless...

This experience gave me an insight into people's behavior, the nation's culture, the psyche of its people and lifestyle. Well, all good things in life need to come to an end and so did my little journey. I was tired at the end of this journey... and my wisdom had definitely increased by at least a factor of delta! I definitely deserve wine before I hit the bed tonight...

Ciao

Mirage...

2006-10-22T10:08:00.001+05:30

The word comes from the Latin mirare, meaning 'to appear, to seem'. This is the same root as for mirror. Like a mirror, a mirage shows images of things which are elsewhere. A mirage is not an optical illusion. It is a real phenomenon.The interpretation of the image, however, is up to the fantasy of the human mind.

Hope all you would have heard the phrase 'Life is a journey' well if not, at least the samsonite (suitcase) caption says that :-) This journey is quite an arduous one, and since it spans over at least 50 years and at most 92 years (well, that's how long my grandfather lived), one would have to go through all the terrains.

First 25 years of ones life, the terrain is an icy mountain terrain. Then for the next 25 years, its the deadly desert, then for the next 25 years for the few blessed/cursed (half glass full/empty funda) souls its the green meadows and finally for those above 75 its like Alice's Wonderland, no sense or sensibility/reality as they would already have entered the senility.

I am 27 and writing this!! Why would I choose the desert terrain to describe the journey through 25-50 years of a person's life??? Well, its the desert where the mirages are... and yes this part of a person's life is all about chasing mirages.

There are various types mirages one chases at different points of time. Like for example, 'Love', 'good' wife, job 'satisfaction', a 'fantastic' salary, a 'beautiful' home, 'top' car and some really weird ones like 'adventurous' life! Just think for a while, do you ever believe we could accomplish or get any of the above? You would invariably find that some one we know has a better version of any of the above.

The dangerous part of the plot is, we define these mirages for ourselves and alas there is no standard definition anywhere else. Furthermore, we cannot really tell what would be the satisficing point and convince others that it is reasonable to chase the same.

Usually, at the end of chasing these mirages, a person is drained out mentally and physically. That's why the retirement is planned at the completion of the chase. After the chase one becomes a 'senior citizen'. All the mirages would clear away and lead to Nirvana.

I have been chasing some of these for a while now. Recent mirage has been ' happy' married life. As discussed earlier, I have a definition. I have arrived at a satisficing point let me see where this chase leads me to.....

"Metaphysical Dilemma"

2006-10-09T02:11:00.001+05:30

- Dilemma beyond physics/scientific explanation.

Now for people wondering what is being talked about, let me narrate an otherwise beautiful evening with a "friends for life" candidate. This could be excruciatingly long, so was the play. So, read this narration at your free time when you have absolutely nothing to do....It is one of the fateful turns that life takes, especially these days with just a call on your mobile or even through an SMS.

I got to know that there was a ticket available for the 7.30PM show for the play called Flowers. This information is more than sufficient especially when it comes as an invite from your best friend. Started from home at 7.00 PM we reached the Parking area front of the theater at around 7.10 PM. Parking was as usual a Gordian knot which needed an Alexandrian solution (paying the nearby roadside shop walla a 50 quid and asking him to take care of my 5lac black beauty. ;-)

I hit the queue along with the "Namdhari" crowd... Yes, if you have heard of Organic - shirts,shaving creams, syrups, salads etc., you would definitely understand what a Namdhari crowd is. They are the upmarket, affluent class in the growing Indian metros who shop for the environment and charity, who care for "Page 3" more than the headlines in the front page of a news paper, who appreciate the abstract (obviously without any exercise to the grey cells to understand) paintings of M.F Hussain and plays of 21st century Girsh Karnad.

With French beards, pony tails, bald with little shiny white hair type - uncles and aunties sporting gold reading glasses which were hanging round their neck, supported by a gold string (New age ornament) and super cool cotton kurthas galore, I was already looking odd with a standard Grey T- Shirt tucked in a pair of Jeans. Here I was, a normal, middle class guy, who had just graduated to a 3 box car and Fab India standing amongst the Namdhari crowd.

As I looked at the poster and prepared to pass my usual sarcastic comment, I saw Arundathi Nag :-0 shockingly simple and apologising for a delayed start. I couldn't understand !! This was a mono act play and as far as I could see from the posters, Rajat Kapur was clad in towel not even a dhoti.So, I quickly understood the cause for delay should have been much more serious than make-up !!

Now seated, and settled, Lights off and the play starts...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A brahman in panchakancham (particular way of tying the dhoti) and shawl steps out from darkness into strategically lit walk way which was precariously hanging in the air. Comes to the end of this platform and starts to deliver his monologue. (Now I wish, if only I could have had a dialogue with the actor and the play wright....hmmm...)

Bangaloreans were "awakened" with introduction to the discipline of Moral philosophy through "Flowers" a mono act play by Rajit Kapur and Co., Play write: Girish Karnad. This play marked the commencement of Rangashankara" the Theater festival in Bangalore.

Globalisation of Ancient oriental philosophy carved out a new discipline of Philosophy called Moral Philosophy/Ethics.This was considered as one of the major branches of philosophy alongside metaphysics and epistemology by the Greeks and ancient Romans. This play was supposed to narrate one such internal conflict on ethics which a priest has.

The play starts off with the priest describing his feeling of lust for a courtesan called Chandraaaaaaavti...(I still am figuring out why Rajat was spelling out Chandravati with the drawl of a Texan.) Description of Chandraaaaaavati as narrated by Rajat is the best rendition of Playboy center cover photograph on stage I have ever heard. The priest's rendezvous with the courtesan and his relationship with Chandra..........is narrated as lucid as a CAT 3 (XXX) adult movie. At this stage (about 45 minutes into the play) am sure the audience would have drifted into their own 'private' fantasy world, their dark side of lives without bothering much about the "Metaphysical dilemma" which the play wright was trying to drive. Slowly but steadily the story reaches the expected climax when the Priest reaches a stage wherein he seeks a divine intervention to cover up his 'divine lover' and much to the anticipation of the crowd, he is absolved. Albeit, the priest commits a suicide, because of the metaphysical dilemma.

Fantastic narration...Rajit kapur in his inimitable style delivers a script. OK.....so what was the play wright trying to convey??? Million $ question !!! What was the takeaway?? Innovative fantasies or the metaphysical dilemma experienced by the priest??? Well, as usual it was left to the crowd to decipher and ponder.

The producers have put together a piece of article in the handout - It reads "It has been pointed out that the Indian Philosophical tradition has never treated what would be called moral philosophy as a separate discipline. But painful moral concerns are very much alive and find expression in the epic stories or narrative literature or as here in tales orally handed down"...

The narration of play was definitely not palatable. It had more on sex than moral philosophy. The narration was not about the jihad in priest's mind between morality and dharma, not about the internal conflict!! There is no discussion about the internal conflict except for a couple of lines sparsely interspersed here and there.We have innumerable literature in our ancient texts which talk about the concept of Metaphysical Dilemma. The most recent of them being 'Experiments with Truth' - MK Gandhi. In this book MK Gandhi describes his internal conflict with regards to the two ladies whom he used as support while walking. The subtlety with which the issue of moral turpitude has been dealt with in our epics and Upanishads is missing in Grish
Karnad's narration.

Anthamam:
~~~~~~~~~

This folklore from Chitradurga which is supposedly a painful expression of moral concerns of a priest, turned out to be a narrative story as in Letters to Penthouse Volume - X. It is appalling and I would like to share my empathy with the audience who had come along, with their children and family and apathy to the Playwright for such poorly scripted play.

BTW for those wondering about the solution to a Metaphysical Dilemma, it is possible only from a knowledge of the absolute nature. This play is definitely aligned to my philosophy of Wine - Women & Wisdom !!! The priest seeks a woman, has a metaphysical dilemma and realises that his next step is to seek wisdom....here you go.........this is what I takeaway from this play! (Sorry Mr.Girish Karnad for having compared your play with my blog, but that's how much bad it is)...