A Misfit's Musings

Musings 2011

2011-12-22T13:43:00.002+05:30

As if it isn't bad enough that I generally inflict my musings on a few (my friends have been wondering why in a moment of weakness they befriended me, as now they are forced to read my drivel) - the end of year calls for certain reflections (translate musings). Like all years it has been one with its highs and lows, ups and downs etc. Usually the lows get talked about much more than the highs. This year had its share of stories- "News of the World", the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Euro crisis, Silvio Berlusconi finally resigned (his inappropriate behaviour just went over the edge), Gaddafi finally is removed from Libya...one can go on and one. Since I really didn't want to remember 2011 by all these events, I decided to pick a few themes that caught my attention. If I offend anyone with either including (or not including) some issues then I beg your forgiveness.

People Power

This was the year Facebook and Twitter got more powerful and started exercising political impact. The "Arab Spring" was ostensibly triggered through a post on You Tube. Egypt - the cradle of civilisation decided that enough was enough. It wasn't just Egypt. Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq, Algeria and a few other countries had major protests and uprisings. India too had a significant uprising triggered by a small gentleman, Anna Hazare, with a big mission - root out corruption. Unfortunately only the Indian protest was truly non-violent. However all of them had significant social and political impact in their respective countries. Towards the latter part of the year "Occupy Wall Street" occupied headlines in the US and other parts of the world. Infact the one common thing about each of the above protests was their extensive media coverage (making it much tougher for governments). Perhaps the worst spectacle to me was the riots in London as shops were looted as vandalism took the place of vocal disenchantment. It was also interesting that protest reared its head in China and has now become commonplace. Not something I would have imagined possible ten years ago.

The reasons might each have been different but there is one common agenda - dissatisfaction. This is in itself not a new sentiment but the fact that now someone seems to be paying heed and listening is all the encouragement needed. Tired of poor governance, corrupt officials, rising prices - people have taken to the streets to express their exasperation. The middle-class (the slumbering giant) has awoken. Politicians all over the world hope it will get quiet in a few months and life will be "business as usual". Somehow I feel the world has turned a corner and people are not going to go silently away anymore (perhaps it's a hope).

Economy Downsize

It's been another very tough year economically for the world. The developed world has struggled under the weight of increasing debt and low-to-no growth. Even developing countries like India and China, while growing at reasonable rates, have seen slowdowns (India more than China).

It's also been interesting that along with economic recession has come a regression in the progress of economic "reforms". All of a sudden "protectionism" is not such a bad word. India decided that it would not stall a proposal to allow foreign investment in retail and there's a bill in the US targeting outsourcing (potential impact would be on US consumer, India and Philippines - in that order!). Interesting "red China" accused the US of protectionism for imposing anti-subsidy tariffs on imports from China.

Since India has been in the forefront of this discussion once the proposal to allow foreign investment in retail was pulled back, there's been a very interesting coming together of the "left" and the "right" - both politically and in terms of individuals. Politically the Left has always been protectionist and against allowing global companies to operate in India. In this case the impact to the middle-men in retail would have been significant (while potentially benefiting the customers and farmers but who cares about them). The middle-men as a group are important contributors to the coffers of political parties - even more so of the Right. So suddenly we found the extreme right and extreme left saying essentially the same thing (for entirely different reasons of course). Who says miracles cannot happen. The Left and Right are also against the US anti-outsourcing rule. The Left feel that the West has "plundered" India for centuries and need to pay up for it (yes, it's true - have actually read articles to this effect). The Right is not even willing to engage in any reasonable debate on the matter. Overall I have some respect for the Left. At least they are consistent (however impractical their recommendations are).

Somehow the economic recession all over the world has resulted in polarisation. Centrist politics and policies seem to have lost the ability to engage the media. Hopefully they will re-emerge sooner than later. However it is critically important that we continue to foster Left and Right ideologies in our societies. It preserves debate and allows for an understanding of what one should NOT be doing. To follow the centre one should know the precipices on one either side.

The year ended with an the "Lokpal" bill (a bill trying to create an institution in India to root out corruption) not being passed in parliament. Both government and opposition hurled accusations at each other. Shenanigans were tried by all politicians to ensure nothing happened. They did succeed. It all seemed remarkably familiar. Essentially to expect parliament to come up with a bill that creates an organisation that will scrutinise its members further is asking thieves to design the locks of jails. Democracy, with all its strengths, does have its drawbacks. We just saw it play out in India over the past few days.

World Cup 2011

As I was writing the above sections I began to feel more and more despondent. Was there nothing to feel happy about last year? Then of course a day in early April came to mind when India won the cricket world cup. As I jumped with joy (seriously testing the strength of the floor and apartment complex I lived) when the Indian captain hit the winning "six", India went into spontaneous celebrations that lasted for days. Nothing quite replaces that feeling. Sport is a great unifying force. The divisiveness of religious fanatics, politicians and others can be destroyed with one blow of a bat. Sadly the high from such a win can only last so long. But it was a moment to savour for cricket fans like me.

On the matter of sport I would add the joy I felt as a Manchester United supporter when we won another league title but that has now become routine (if that sounds cocky then I have done my job). However it still feels so good! Go Reds! Let no impostors bearing the similar first name be a deterrent.

The God particle and a God-sent discovery

I am not a Physicist. I am married to a scientist (a biologist) and have a few friends who are physicists. I also enjoyed Physics in schools and college. But I do not understand theoretical physics. So those who do please forgive my interest in this subject (largely driven by the fascinating title above). I know all true particle physicists hate the term used for the Higgs boson (however I am not sure whether they like being called Higgs hunters either).

The layman's view is that scientists at CERN are closer than ever to confirming experimentally, the presence of the Higgs boson - the particle that is given credit for being the "building block of the universe". Scientists are most dismissive of the phrase "god particle" to describe it but the name has stuck. Whoever thought science and God have something in common (sorry that was facetious, scientists please excuse me, after all I am a mere commoner - I know not what I say).

However finally I realised there is a God - or at least some "use" for Science (sorry again - no hate mail please - can't help this cheeky streak I seem to have caught on). Most women (and increasingly men) seem to have a clear view that body hair is utterly "useless". Shaving companies and beauty parlours are increasingly being filled with men getting shorn of all body hair. Well for those who haven't and face a barrage of complaints from their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends (just wanted clarify that the commas in this sentence are meant to be "ors" and not "ands"!) scientists have given them a reason. There is a reason why evolution has kept them hairy. Body hair can sense the presence of bed bugs more effectively than clean shaven skin. Suddenly the "hairy hounds" of the world have a new "raison-d'etre". They can go back to their "partners" (a far more politically correct word than my previous attempt) and reason with them on the bed bug angle. Of course a potential downside for these men is that once their partners hear they have bed bugs it might seriously compromise their ever wanting to come anywhere near their beds (which as I am sure you would agree has very serious implications). Anyway - something for the hirsute to be happy about.

Flash Mobs Hits India

I find the idea of a flash mob utterly entertaining. Just to have people come together for no obvious reason and start to dance in a public place seems something so whimsical. Well India had not joined the fraternity of nations where "flash mobs" had been staged. All that changed on the third anniversary of Mumbai terror. The location was the railway station where the terrorists had announced their intentions. A young girl appeared from nowhere and started dancing to a popular Hindi film song and was soon joined by many others. It was brilliant. Since then there have been two more - in Delhi and Mumbai - again.

The most recent one was yesterday in Mumbai. The song they did it to was "Kolaveri Di" - this rather strange song that seems to have become unbelievably popular in India and some parts of the world - despite (or probably because) of its ridiculous lyrics. Just confirms that popularity cannot be manufactured or designed.

Kids say the Darndest Things

With each year I am increasingly amazed by the wisdom they impart to us (if only we have the ability to be receptive to it all the time). A son of a friend (a most amazingly talented and lovely ten-year-old boy) said something to his mother the other day. She was telling him bedtime stories (in India stories of the exploits of Gods is common). His response:

"Mumma, I now understand. God is like the writer and we are like the book. Just as the book needs a writer, so too does the writer need the book." The wisdom of ages encapsulated in one sentence. I hope his mother gets of her backside and writes some of the stuff he comes up with. If not for the world, at least for herself.

My six-year-old daughter seems to mastered the art of the wisecrack and cool-one liners. Here are a few:

Why is everything in this world these days about "I"? IPod, IPhone... It's irritating.
I wish I could be little for the rest of my life. Play with friends, eat special food and sleep as long as I want. Growing up is a pain"
Why do adults say words like maybe, let's see etc. Can't you just say YES or NO?

Thank God for kids.

Hospital Musings

I spent a reasonable amount of time in the hospital (my mother was in for a surgery) earlier this month. It certainly occurs to me that the one thing that does not change is the circle of life. The hospital is a place where one gets to see it all right before one's eyes. People entering the hospital - some leave happily (cured illness, birth of a baby etc) and some leave in the depths of despair. This drama of agony and ecstasy plays out each hour of each day. No wonder the doctors and nursing staff find a way to stay immune to it.

While I sat outside the operating theatre while my mother was inside, I saw two families experience such contrasting emotions that it left me quite numb. Two men, of about the same age (perhaps in their mid 50s) were wheeled into other rooms. In a few hours one came out and broke the happy news that he was well and would be fine. His wife, unable to control her emotions, broke down and wept with happiness. Within a few minutes another doctor came out of the other room and informed the teenage son of the other man that his father had passed away. I left the hospital a few days later with my mother healthy and well but with a real awareness of the fragility of life.

2011 For me

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way... (Charles Dickens - Tale of Two Cities)

That's how it's felt for me as I blundered, stumbled and stuttered my way through another year. Overall it was (as it has been for years) another great year (with very little in that regard because of anything I did). Some of key highlights

It was another year of me trying to be a Don Quixote, as I tilted with my perennial windmill - the quest to lose weight. I would have to say I had some success (miles to go before I "eat" though). I also think I have inadvertently picked up a skill in ballet. When I stand on the weighing scale I will try anything if the end result is a few grams less on the display. Standing on one leg (Baryshnikov would be proud), leaning either way (moving over leaning tower of Pisa) - you name it, I've tried it all. However beating the weighing-scale blues is a lifelong battle.
I've continued to enjoy blogging. It's coming on two years now. My wife (who has suffered the most by having to read all of them) presented me with a bound copy of all my blogs as a birthday present. It meant a lot to me. It was her idea and push that got me blogging. It has been a remarkable experience for me. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary a few days ago. I am yet to get her a present. Thanks for putting up with me wifey dear. It has been such a lovely journey.

I wanted to leave with a quote from my football hero Socrates, who died earlier this month.

"Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy". That's a good thought to end the year (and the blog). Happy Holidays and have a great 2012. Live in Joy.

Three Years On...

2011-12-04T14:53:00.000+05:30

It's taken me over three years to write this - largely because it's one of those events that was too close to comfort - both physically and emotionally. As I write it I know that three years is still too short to have any sort of perspective but here goes...

November 26th, 2008 was a regular day in Mumbai. Nothing particularly memorable happened. The city started its day in its usual frenetic pace. There is a hardly a moment when Mumbai pauses anyway - the city that never sleeps, maximum city - whatever you would like. But as I awoke I knew it was going to be an important day for us. It was the day results were going to be published on whether my whether my daughter of little over three, had been admitted to the school of her choice. Yes, such is the trauma that parents in Mumbai deal with that "getting their children into a good school" becomes a key preoccupation. After a fairly ordinary day I went to the school in the afternoon to check the list of children admitted. I remember leaving the school that afternoon with a feeling that my daughter's die was cast. For the foreseeable future she would be at this school. As I walked out an older girl (probably in the 9th or 10th grade) asked me if my daughter was joining. When I smiled and replied in the affirmative, she congratulated me and said my daughter was going to have a blast in her school. I remember feeling a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach - someday my daughter would be as old as this girl. Not sure I could deal with that thought (or still can!). I then attended a meeting at Nariman Point (the building right next to the Trident Hotel) and then returned home.

That evening some friends whose daughter was also in the same school, suggested a dinner nearby. We all had a relaxed dinner at the Taj President (yes, indeed) after which we decided to go to a deli right next to the Taj Hotel for dessert. As luck would have it (and never have truer words been spoken) my daughter fell asleep on my lap in the restaurant. We all decided to go home. Just as we reached home I heard a couple of loud blasts from afar. We all thought it was either someone with a few remaining Diwali firecrackers (or a few folks celebrating India defeating England in a cricket game). Suddenly the phone started ringing and it all started unraveling. The rest, as they say, is history.

It's been three years since 26/11 happened. It's odd how only the disasters of our times are given the honour of a date we remember. 9/11 started this trend, 26/7 (a day in Mumbai when floods engulfed the city for a couple of days and permanently scarred the psyche of some of the city's inhabitants towards heavy rain), 7/7 (when bombs hit London) and of course more recently 26/11. I've never heard someone say 15/8 (15th August - Indian Independence day) or 7/4 (4th of July - American Independence day). Recently I thought the day India won the cricket world cup might make the list 2/4 (2nd April - the day of the final) but while the sweetness of the win lingers on the date has been consigned to history.
Well anyway, 26/11 lives on in the minds of many in Mumbai as the day "we "realised that "we" were truly not safe.

It's odd that I should say that since Mumbai has had a spate of attacks every few years ever since 1993. Every few years there has been a bomb blast. So why the sudden realisation? Actually the epiphany is not as significant as the "we" part of it. It came to Mumbai's elite. It was carried out in Mumbai most fancy hotels. It was done in a part of town where South Mumbai, the old money of India, lives. However for some of us who don't qualify as old money, South Mumbai is still very dear for other reasons. It's where I grew up, went to school, college etc. The wounds from watching it being defiled in this ruthless manner, may have healed but the scars remain and twinge. My wife would prefer not to enter the Taj Mahal hotel enter unless absolutely necessary (she attended a work related conference recently but not for a family outing), Even when I drive by those areas I see the extreme security that surround those place even today and cannot but remember.

Immediately after the attacks there was an outpouring of resentment towards the government (for not providing adequate security) as well as the terrorists. People held candlelight vigils in prominent parts of the city. It felt as though the city which never paused to blinked, sleep and certainly never paused to introspect - had done just that. Three years on, does that spirit remain? The daily bustle of life has taken away the intensity. That's what all political parties count on. Any kind of sudden uprising will recede just as quickly as it rose. Sometimes they are wrong (as the Arab Spring revealed) - usually they are right to play the probabilities.

Are the attacks of 26/11 doomed to become another footnote in Mumbai's violent history? Perhaps if we expect improved safety (as the bomb blasts in July 2011 revealed). I overheard someone say that 26/11 was just an over-hyped event and the reason it got such media coverage was because it affected India most rich and famous. Would we all have moved on with much less fanfare if it had happened in a poorer suburb? It's was an unworthy sentiment and one that I was and am still too stunned to react to. Somehow I feel this time the knife cut deeper than it ever had before. Not because it was an elite part of Mumbai or because it was in fancy hotels (people forget it all started in one of Mumbai's busiest train stations). The ruthless callousness with which a group of terrorists walked around the city taking pot shots at people who were enjoying a Friday evening, elicits a sense of revulsion. It is an unspeakable sorrow. I struggle to come to terms with it.

Perhaps it is because the city of Mumbai is much more to me that just a place I was born or live and work in. It is a living, breathing and dare I say caring entity. It is a parent that never says no to any of her children, even she has nothing left to offer them - somehow she extends herself just that little bit more. Her doors are never closed and despite many who may try to close or restrict them, she provides those with nothing, a subsistence. My father came to Mumbai in 1950 as a young boy with hopes and dreams in his pocket and not much else. Along the years he was able to build a life for himself, his family and later on for my mother (who came to Mumbai after she was married to my father) and me. They made a life for themselves. I inherited their love, admiration and eternal gratitude to this city. I know it is not unique. Many millions, whether they say it or not, know their lives would not have been the same if not for what Mumbai provided. I do not appreciate the views of those who have had privileged lives and yet complain about the crowds, traffic, beggars, dirt or other aspects of the city that we all know of. It's a free world. Find your own place. If you choose to live here then either fight to do something about it or at least provide it the courtesy of not grumbling over whatever it has offered us.

I am sure that Bombay (this name is used purposefully) will rise like it always does. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, "the deeper the sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain". I look forward to filling all the scars with the joy of knowing my daughter will inherit the same love for the city that my wife and I have for it. 26/11 for me is the day my daughter was admitted into a school in Mumbai and extended the love affair generations of her parents families have had with this city. That's a joy that can fill and overflow any sorrow caused by the cut of any knife.

A Question of Etiquette

2011-11-16T19:59:00.000+05:30

Recently I was over at a friend’s place when I overheard the word "etiquette" being used by her. Now this friend, while being very polite and all those nice things, is one of those who would not want to be associated with a conformist word like etiquette. What was even more fascinating was she was earnestly asking her teenage daughter "rules of etiquette". While I noticed the huge smile on the daughter's face (I suppose the wideness of the smile was for generations of daughters past and present who have been hauled up for "inappropriate conduct becoming a young woman") I was still a bit nonplussed. What sort of etiquette could she be seeking advice from her daughter on (in retrospect I am sure there are many aspects - the daughter is a wonderful young girl who could be quite instructive to her mother - indeed child is the father of man!)? Answer - Face book Etiquette. Apparently the mother had just set up a facebook account and had been introduced to a term called "Facebook Etiquette".

I've been using social media for some time now. When I hazarded that I had never heard of such etiquette, my wife helpfully pointed out that she was not surprised. In fact she went on to point out that she would have been surprised of my awareness of any sort of etiquette. Regardless, I soldiered on in the quest of knowledge. What is this form of etiquette that is unique to social media? What could it be? Don't use punctuation or capitalise your letters? Try and be as incoherent as possible?

I decided to look it up on the net and not surprisingly it exists (so much for my trying to suggest I was hip and with it to the younger generation). Infact there are a huge number of articles, columns and posts dedicated to online etiquette. There are of course the obvious (do not use foul language, do not be racist etc). I was also reliably informed that the use of capitals signified anger. So if I wrote "THANK YOU" rather than "thank you" it meant I was thanking the person concerned in rage. Another issue is that people tend to befriend relative strangers without too much thought (now where has one seen that before - I wonder!). Apparently (this is a story I read about on the net so please attribute only as much veracity to it as should be) a person "de-friended" another causing the "de-friended" to get quite cross. The end result was the "de-friended" set the home of the "de-friendee" on fire. Now I am sure not all online "relationships" end in arson but I found the entire episode quite fascinating. Anyway I found a very interesting take on social media etiquette http://www.details.com/social/201109/rules-of-social-media-etiquette#ixzz1VyjaFwGE. Here is one

"When someone dies, don't immediately reduce his or her entire life down to 140 characters of snarky dismissal. Remember, they were someone's son/daughter, brother/sister, etc. The only time its okay is if your post is really funny. Alternatively, nobody cares about your heartfelt "RIP" tweet.

This entire deliberation on etiquette got me thinking. Etiquette is all around us. Each country, society, community (perhaps even locality) has its own unique etiquette. There is a global bank that has built a fairly clever ad campaign on the back of these differences. As I reflected, I thought I would put down a few of the most interesting that I have come across over the years.

1. The Hello. Good place to start. We all have a manner in which we say Hi. A wave of the hand, a bow, folded hands, a handshake and so on. For those of us who work in the offices of today, this has become interminable. We meet the same people quite often as we walk past the corridor. In India there is an unwritten code that you say "Hi" once. After that you pass without as much as a look in that direction. This was also only to people one knew. However when I lived in the US, I found that this was not the case. Firstly one had to wish everyone (not just people you knew) and secondly if one met them over and over again one still had to find creative ways to wish them. So the wave is replaced by the raised eyebrow and the smile, a hearty comment like "hey big guy" or the ubiquitous "How's it going?" or "What's Up"? A friend of mine made the innocent mistake of answering that question once. The next time they were walking towards each other I noticed this person make a decisive dive towards the washroom. It is interesting that there are many websites assisting people on different and interesting ways to say "Hello" in corridors.

2. New v/s Old it is fascinating how etiquette has changed over the years. Now that I am middle-aged 42, I remember the old days and find it fascinating how diametrically opposite etiquette has become. For example it was certainly not a fashion statement for men and women's underwear to appear over their trousers as it does now. There is an entire designing industry in underwear strap (or probably is). "Times they are a' changing". Of course language has changed dramatically. "Get Out" doesn't actually mean the person is asking the other to leave the room and "Shut Up" doesn't mean "keep quiet". If you held your hand up and said "talk to the hand" in the 1980s (and perhaps even the 90s) you would have had people looking at you very quizzically.

3. Dining Etiquette: Oscar Wilde said "The world was my oyster but then I used the wrong fork". Chopsticks, forks, hands - you name the implement - they are all used to determine whether a person is "noblesse". Eating with your mouth open, making loud chomping sounds, and licking your fingers (and sometimes your palms if you are from certain parts of India) while perhaps being very enjoyable are not considered polite. Having said that I cannot for the life of me imagine why one needs so many different forms of cutlery for a seven-course meal. "Start from the outside and work your way in" was what some character said in "Pretty Woman". From Oscar Wilde to Julia Roberts - etiquette impacts all.

Come to think of it even the word "etiquette" has a certain flourish to it - both in the way it is spelled as well as in its pronunciation. If you say the word etiquette in certain Indian universities, people would commiserate with you for having failed in an examination ("ATKT" is a dreaded word that given the Indian slang could sound quite similar to etiquette). I've always felt etiquette is important in the context of being sensitive to cultural differences that exist between all of us. However etiquette is not "finishing school" stuff. They are not traits and behaviours that have been designed to show and determine the gap between the "old money" and the "new" or the affluent and the struggling.

Coming back to "Facebook Etiquette". I find that almost a contradiction in terms. Facebook (and other social media) that strive to be more and more inclusive certainly should not have a grammar, rhyme and metre about it that all its users are obliged to know. Soon I can imagine "classes" in "facebook etiquette" (just like finishing school many years ago). Every new revolution is destined to become the establishment only to be upstaged by new ones. The one thing that will not change is that each revolution will bring with its own etiquette.

Of Two Books...and the Joy of Reading

2011-10-27T07:11:00.000+05:30

I've been a bit slow with my reading over the past six months. So when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to indulge in a bit of much needed catch-up. I say the opportunity presented itself because the first book of the two books I read over the past two weeks was, "Twice Written", by K. Sridhar. Sridhar, a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has certainly written one of the truly unique books I have read in quite a while. It charts the life of three characters, Prahlad, Ananya and Laila, initially through the eyes of the writer. There are many other significant characters - not least of them, Dorai, a writer and friend to the threesome meets them again after a gap of thirteen years and decides to rewrite their lives. Hence the title "Twice Written". However the chief protagonist is most definitely Bombay (as it was known then) in the 1980s . Writing two interpretations of the lives of the same people in different perspectives and styles is a challenging task and the writer has delivered it exquisitely, making for riveting reading. I will go no further with this introduction of the book as am not qualified to review books (certainly of this stature). I can only luxuriate in and enjoy them. However please check out http://www.facebook.com/twicewritten for a flavour of the book. It is a must-read. I was at the immensely successful book launch of "Twice Written" in Mumbai (the books sold like hot cakes) at Crosswords book store in Mumbai last week. By virtue of being a friend of Sridhar, I happen to have one of the authors first signed book (and am keeping it as my six-year-old daughter's inheritance - not only because it will be worth a very tidy inheritance very soon, but as an example to her of how talent and passion can never be curbed).

After attending the reading by the author, I was browsing through the store (something I seem to do so little of these days) when I came across Julian Barnes "Sense of an Ending". Barnes ("History of the World in 10-and-a-half chapters", "Flaubert's Parrot", "England, England" being the ones I have read) is one of the better of the recent crop of writers. I bought it not only because he had just won the Booker but because I've always liked the way Barnes writes. It also helped that I was in the warm afterglow that accompanies the completion of a superb book ("Twice Written") and the urge to continue to extend the feeling a little longer was strong. I was not disappointed. But I was also struck by the similarity between the two books.

"Sense of an Ending" is a completely different kind of book and yet in some ways similar to "Twice Written". It charts the lives of three friends as told by one of them. It is written at the ripe old age of the life of one of them. Similar to "Twice Written", there is a second half in which certain encounters force the writer to reinterpret life as he has known it and written it. The second half is about filling in the gaps and making alterations to the writers perceptions of events, people and life itself. I was struck by the simplicity of style which Barnes adopts as well as how engrossed he keeps the reader into what is essentially an ordinary story about people. The idea that one makes interpretations and conclusions to ones events and life without realising that time not only dims memories but conveniently omits significant and uncomfortable moments) is brilliantly brought out in this book (and in "Twice Written" for that matter). Again, I do not profess to have the ability to review this book but can only suggest that everyone read it.

This blog actually has little to do with either of these books (despite this rather elaborate and convoluted introduction) . It is only inspired by them. Every now and then, life tends to sweep you away with its ebbs and tides. I've always liked to believe that if "real life" is about the daily routine we undergo, jobs we do, people we interact with etc then books have the ability to keep maintain the distance between the observer and the doer. We cannot but be enveloped in life. It consumes our time, attention and mind. However it doesn't (or shouldn't) consume our soul. Our soul is our own. To be jealously guarded against the floatsam and jetsam that life chucks at us. One of the protectors of the soul is a good book. Books that while examining the intricacies of human nature also take us down a path of self-discovery. I have always felt that maintaining such parallel existences is key to keeping things real. Every now and then life overwhelms you. In my case some fairly strenuous work pressures over the past few months certainly made me feel that the natural "joie de vivre" was a little muted. It has happened in the past and my response has usually been to dig deep into a good book. I don't think it is pre-meditated. Infact it's only as I sat to write this blog that I realise this is what I do. It works like a charm each time. This time was no different.

What is so special about reading a good book that cannot be eclipsed by watching a good movie? Firstly the book is an intensely personal experience. The eyes only transmit what's in the book - the brain does the rest. The words, characters and visualisation is entirely in the mind of the reader. Depending on his or her personal experiences and background each word, paragraph and chapter evoke a different response. It is unique to that person. When you read a book, you are alone with your own thoughts and the writings of the author. How we interpret it is upto us. Not what critics believe the writer is saying.

That's why I find certain kinds of book reviews and interpretations of books bordering on intellectual snobbery. They use words like "layered" and "metaphor" and typically say things like "what the author actually means here..." as if they somehow have a hotline into the writers mind. It also is a subtle message to the less literate amongst the readers (like me) stating "if you did not pick this up, you are beneath contempt". At its purest the role of the art critic (books, music, movies, art etc) is to provide the audience with some detail that could aid their appreciation of the piece. Oscar Wilde said "the critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic". Not sure either play their role. Today the artist panders to the critic who then preaches to the public.

Coming back to the question - what is so special about reading a good book? The personal experience notwithstanding, a book is unique because it is not a finite experience. It does not start and end with the first and last page. It is a journey, initially when the reader goes through the book and later after completing the book. Most good books impact the reader for not only the duration of reading (let me add here I am not talking about a good spy thriller - though they are most enjoyable) but for days and even months afterward. I remember when I first read Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" many years ago, I was in a state of melancholia for more than a month (I guess the fact that I had just read "Waiting for Godot" and watched the play a few days beforehand also did play a part). When I first read Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" I experienced a mix of exhilaration and despondency that cannot be explained - only experienced. Probably my most complete reading experience so far has been when I read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (probably the best book I have ever read). I have still not fully recovered from having read it when in my late teens. Books are not a finite experience because they stay on your bookshelf and we often re-read them - only to uncover a new facet of the book that we had missed the first time around. The real reason is not that we had missed it, but that we have changed just a little bit between the first and second reading and each time we read a book it reflects a little bit of our state of mind. I remember having read a quote that "no two people read the same book". I would go so far as to say the same person reading the same book twice actually reads two different books.

Why then do I not read good books quite often enough? Why do I need to be jolted into a reading experience? That's a simple question with a complicated answer. Of course, I quite enjoy the books of John Grisham, Michael Crichton and other bestseller writers. However they rarely touch the soul. Reading books like "Twice Written" and "The Sense of an Ending" forces you out of a comfort zone. One is thrilled to be reminded that there is a facet to ones personality that appreciates something insightful. However its tough to be put through the wringer too often. Sometimes one needs the comfort of floating.

Harper Lee once said "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing". Hopefully I will not take another six months before I exhale again.

Lights Out

2011-10-17T20:25:00.001+05:30

Sunday morning am. I woke up with an unfamiliar sense of discomfort. I checked the time – 4.45 am - too early by far. But why was I feeling so uncomfortable. Of course I pride myself on my astute powers of observation and ability to perceive minute changes in my environment. Within the next ten minutes I was finally able to deduce the reason for my discomfort. There was no electricity (I suppose the fact that the air conditioner and fan were off was a pretty obvious clue). My wife woke up a few minutes later and I provided her with the vital information. “Lights are Out”. My wife, ever the believer in the use of brevity when it comes to certain forms of communication (and here I should add the operative word is “certain”), responded with the supportive “Thanks Sherlock. Figured it out all by yourself?”

After that initial ascerbic comment, my wife suddenly jumped out of bed looking very concerned. I must admit a part of me was rather touched with her show of extreme concern for my well-being (after all she knew how much I hate the heat – particularly in the night). She got ready to leave the house and find out what could be done for her suffering daughter and husband. Choking back the tears that welled up I mentioned to her that perhaps she didn’t need to find out – I could try calling some people. Even in the pitch dark I could see the look of incredulity on her face. “Find out what's wrong? I am going over to my laboratory to see if my mice are comfortable and my chillers are operating on the back-up generators." Then as an afterthought (perhaps realising I was shattered at this revelation of hierarchy in her totem pole of "emergencies", she said "but since I am going out I will check if I have the time”. So its mice followed by man (a unique interpretation of Steinbeck's book).

After her exit, I valiantly tried to get back to sleep. These efforts did not bear much fruit as my six-year old daughter was now awake and much too excited (and a little annoyed) by the goings on. When I mentioned it was 5 am and probably worth if she went back to sleep, she mentioned it was much too hot and anyway she was up now. She recognised that I was weak and could be prevailed upon to give her anything so that I could catch a few winks. The demand list came out without delay – TV, DVD and finally the computer (to play games). I tried to suggest that there was no power but she quickly pointed out that the computer was on battery power and could be made available for playing a game of “angry birds”. While she sat next to me playing this gruesome game of birds being flung against all kinds of structures (making the most abominable sounds) I tossed and turned, trying to sleep. It was no use. Dawn was breaking and in my daughter’s world the slightest trace of sunlight equals “wake-up”. She is not bothered by early sunrises, summer solstices or equinoxes. No point telling her its 5.30 am. It was day. At this point my wife returned with some amusing story of imagining a ghost following her as she walked down the staircase (only later to be found to be a poor chap who had been carrying his mother-in-laws laden suitcase down the staircase as the elevators were not functioning). My daughter was thoroughly amused hence ending any hope of any rest for me. Of course my wife was pleased as punch that she had saved her laboratory and mice from imminent danger (apparently one of the back-up generators was not living up to its name). I have learned from experience that it never hurts to have my wife in a good frame of mind. In a sudden surge of benevolence she arranged breakfast for herself and our daughter and suggested I perhaps get some for myself too.

Lack of electricity is not something I have been familiar with through my life (there is no innuendo in that statement). While this is pretty much commonplace in most of India, I have been fortunate to live in a city and neighbourhood that has not had this problem. In a country with a crippling supply-demand shortage in power, I have been lucky to have had no practical experience. So this was all new and quite intense. I decided this was something that was good for soul. Such trials come to us to make us better human beings. Learn to cope with the rough and the smooth. But when the clocked ticked past 10 am in the morning (over five hours of no electricity) I decided that the soul had now been tested enough. I resolved to go down for a quick workout so that when I returned I would be a few much required calories lighter and with electricity coursing through the wires at home.

When I returned from my gentle (yet long) trundle, I had worked up quite a sweat. What I needed now was a cool shower and an hour in front of the telly watching some footie. I realised as I got back that I would have to postpone the telly as there was still no luck on the power supply front. I soothed myself with the thought of a long, cold shower. My simple desire for a shower was rudely crushed when I realised that we now had no water. My soul was really being put through the ringer now. The utilities systems of Mumbai had decided to be non-cooperative. What on earth? Why no water? My wife of course knew the answer. She quietly pointed out in that tone usually reserved for me (and other people of low IQ whom she has to tolerate) that while there was no water shortage per se, there was no power supply to pump water up to the tanks from which it could be distributed. She also made a few disparaging comments (quite like the Sherlock comment earlier in the day) about how people who proclaimed to have studied technical degrees like engineering should at least know this much. I was provided a rationed two-three mugfuls of water for a wash. I am sure this largesse from my wife was largely because she could not bear the thought (well the head was not the part of the sensory system that was struggling to deal with) of me walking around unwashed in the house. She of course had had a bath before the water ran out and proceeded to tell me how much she had enjoyed it.

We had hoped that there was some technical snag which would be resolved within a few hours. However as the hours went by it became painfully clear as the afternoon heat bore down upon us, that was not going to be resolved quickly. A few friends decided to go to a nearby mall for lunch. Fine cuisine may not be been provided at the food court but it certainly was cool. Also it allowed us to entertain the hope that when we returned back home all would be well. We ate a very relaxed lunch (probably the longest I have spent eating food in a mall) and then proceeded to visit every single shop in that blasted place. For those who know me, they would be aware that a visit to mall typically starts and ends with the food court. Not only because of my love for food but also because I don’t like shopping. I have a health problem. I am allergic to shopping. Whenever I enter a shop my feet instantly starts hurting. Often I get a headache, blocked nose et al. But here I was visiting designer soap shops (ridiculous as it may sound), clothing, shoes, greeting cards etc. I finally found a coffee shop and retired my aching limbs while the others pottered around. I reflected as I thoughtfully sipped on the vital oolong, that my soul had been through just about enough for an entire lifetime. I yearned to return back home to the delicious comfort of a home with power supply. When we returned there was to be no such respite. The soul was in for much more.

Electricity permeates our lives in a manner we just do not give it credit for. No TV, internet, computers, cell phone (once the charge dissipates). All the basic stuff needed to exist. Of course the key issue is the refrigerator. There was one thing we had missed (even the real Sherlock – my wife). Hours of no electricity would result in a warm refrigerator with food inside being spoilt. When she did remember, she emerged from the kitchen with about 4 tubs of half-melted ice-cream. I remember the Sherlock Holmes story “A Scandal in Bohemia” where Holmes creates a false fire in a house so that the incumbent (a lady) would rush to the thing which mattered most to her. In times of great danger people tend to run to save the people and things that matter most to them. My wife had initially run to save the mice and her science. The second dash was to save the ice-cream. My daughter and wife had the time of their life eating ice-cream (prompting my daughter to wonder why such power outages had not happened before). Since I am on a diet, I just looked on realizing that the soul – already crushed under various other pressures – was being dealt another severe (and perhaps irretrievable) blow.

The end of the power shutdown came in the form of a stand-by generator being set up. However actual power was not restored. The generator requires to be refueled periodically (typically meant that a couple of hours in the night was spent awake and without electricity). The end appears to be anything but nigh. However it has taught me an important lesson. However uncomfortable things might be without electricity – we can all cope.

As we went past the 36 hour limit (except the relief of having generator power for a few hours) a strange peace descended upon me. Not sure when things will be back to normal. It might be days. I can only say one thing. My soul has been tried and found to be true (well not really but it sounds like the right thing to say). Whenever I saw one of those movies with armageddon-like situations (half the world exterminated etc) my biggest concern used to be, “How will I survive without air-conditioning?” Forget about nuclear fallout, widespread arson, disease and looting et al. I would feel uncomfortably hot. Now I can say that “I can overcome”.

Monday evening 8 pm. Lights are back. So is the familiar sound of TV. If there is anything from the past 40 hours that I can remember, its the sound of ambient silence (and the voices of people and birds). Now that its back to the sound of machines (TV, computer, music) and silence from people (except my daughter). That's perhaps the way the lord intended it.

I Can't Dance

2011-09-17T23:26:00.001+05:30

My few remaining friends (the ones who actually care enough about me to suffer through my interminable blogs) have made the comment that my blogs often start with what they are not about. However in the same spirit (after all predictability with friends is important), let me state that this post is NOT about the music of Genesis (or something very clever like "the influence of Genesis music post Peter Gabriel on pop music"). It has certainly been "inspired" by the album of the same name and is merely a pithy phrase to reflect the quality (or lack thereof) of my ability to "move my body and feet to music". In short, I really, really can't dance. I remember reading a quote by Bob Hope about dancing that aptly reflects my style - "I grew up with six brothers. That's how I learnt to dance - waiting for the bathroom".

Why did I think of such a bizarre topic? A few reasons. I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a track by the Killers (this is also an ill-disguised attempt to show I am hip enough to know of a band like the Killers that was formed in the 21st century as opposed to those that pre-date the 1970s) - "Are We Human or Are We Dancers". I am sure the band had some deep philosophical reason for this title (something I have not checked on Wikipedia - after all they are named Killers - how philosophical can they be) but the phrase itself totally resonated with a deeply held belief. I think dancers (not the ones who make an ass of themselves in nightclubs indulging in some sort wild mix of ancient semaphore and modern apoplexy) who gracefully gyrate themselves across the dance floor doing the salsa, jive, waltz, cha-cha, rumba or samba are not human (by the way when I first heard the names of the last three dances mentioned above I thought it meant an uncle who wanted to eat lot more of a spicy South Indian lentil dish). It is abnormal, atypical, unnatural and above all unfair (how can people be so graceful, cool, suave, sexy et al). God did not mean for it to be that way. Or perhaps he did. As Robin Williams said "Men wearing pants so tight you can tell what religion they are. My question is what about the dumpy, uncoordinated and plain amongst us?

When I was young I subscribed to the school of thought "Tough Guys Don't Dance". It was a convenient one since it allowed me to sit on the sidelines of energetic dance parties and watch on. My view was that 90+% of the world were humans (read apoplectics and turtles) and the rest dancers. The male of the species (these fortunate few) would have a line of ladies waiting with bated breath for their chance to dance with them. I only realised later that dancers were quite open-minded and allowed cross-species mingling (can you blame them - their numbers were so few). During daylight hours they could not be easily distinguished from the lesser of the species (us humans). But the moment the music started something changed. They suddenly began to slide around the dance floor with partner in tow. It was also the cue for me to stay the hell clear away from them. If you've seen a good dancer dance with a bad one you know what I mean. The subtext typically is "I've got poise and you look like a tortoise". Of course the more charitable dancers would encourage the tortoises a bit by appearing very impressed by the clunky attempts. Anyway I found "tough guys don't dance" was the easy way out. Of course the fact that I came in a "super economy" size pack meant any attempt at dancing would have immediately result in lives being lost (if not literally then imagine the sheer ordeal of watching Jabba the Hutt boogie with Princess Leah). It did mean people were very comfortable not "insisting" I join them on the dance floor.

Life, however, is not that simple. As luck would have it I married a dancer. My wife, a scientist by day, loves to dance. Infact as I write this she is watching a professional dance competition in Mumbai. As I mentioned the dancer is the more evolved species (of course you do not need to know my wife is a dancer to make that assessment when you meet both of us together). The DNA is preserved. Our daughter is also a dancer. She learns an Indian dance and at the age of six is passionately in love with the art form (and is really graceful). She just can't stop dancing. What's the issue? Nothing except anyone who knows me as either husband or father knows that the phrase "tough guy" and me bear no resemblance whatsoever. My cultivated look of malevolence in my youth (at least I believed I had the look) along with the Jabba look-alike ensured I stayed off the dance floor. Over the years the "malevolence" is a thing of the past. Also as time has gone by the young Luke Skywalkers have started to resemble Jabba (if I may continue with my Star Wars motif). So I have lost my USP. It's a tough time. Apparently the phrase "I Can't Dance" doesn't seem to cut it (did pretty well for Mr Collins and his chums though).

The latest phenomena (also the final nail in the human coffin) is the emergence of these TV dance shows. There have mushroomed around with the sort of frequency that is quite tiresome. The dancers have suddenly decided that they will not be kept in bars, nightclubs and living rooms. They have "come out" (an unfortunate turn of phrase but please forgive me - quite unintentional). They have claimed their rightful place at the head of the evolutionary ladder. My daughter (who of course has exclusive TV and remote rights - but that's for another time) will veto any attempt by me to watch footie, cricket or frankly anything else if there's a dance show on the telly (and there is always a dance show on some obscure channel). My deep feelings of inadequacy that were buried have resurfaced. I dread the day when she asks me to dance with her (actually I wonder whom should I feel more sorry for). A child should keep some illusions of perfection about her parents. Mine are hanging by a dainty little thread.

Has it always been like this for me? Ah No. I did have my moment of glory. For those of you who have read GK Chesterton's poem "The Donkey" (about a donkey who while knowing he is laughed at for his stupidity and dullness is proud for his one moment of triumph - when Jesus was transported into Jerusalem on his back) the last stanza could have been written about my moment of glory. Goes something like this...

"Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, I keep my secret still. Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet: There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet"

Let me savour the drum rolls as I reveal all. I actually won a dance competition! Yes I was 12 and while it is true I was dancing with my mother and perhaps the fact that the other were all upward of 50 did have some bearing on it. But I did win. How many humans can say that about themselves. For a moment I was a dancer too. Just like the poor and hungry little boy who remembers the one day he didn't have to press his nose against the window of the gourmet restaurant but was actually invited in.

So my request to the dancers who hold such sway in the world. Do your arabesques, pointe, foute, glissade et al. But allow us humans the opportunity to co-exist. Let us compete for your affections but also for the all-important TV time. Forego your dance shows and let us watch some global breaking news every now and then (like an earthquake, global recession or something equally important like a Man Utd game). Anyway some wise guy once said "If dancing were any easier it would be called football". Maybe that's the middle ground we humans are looking for. Amen to that.

Beasts of Burden

2011-09-11T12:58:00.000+05:30

Last week, on the morning of Teacher's Day in India (Sep 5), I was walking towards the bus stop to drop my daughter. I noticed some other older children walking towards the bus stop. I see them every morning but perhaps the occasion had me slightly more alert than I would normally be. I couldn't help but notice the sheer weight of books they were carrying on their small frames. One of the kids almost appeared to have a permanent stoop. It got me thinking (something I do very little of and do not plan to do very often as well). What are we celebrating on "Teachers Day" - great teaching or the permanent indentured labour that we have brought upon our children? I am an optimist and still believe in the former but since the central reason for teacher's day is children perhaps one could spare a thought for them as well.

I pushed this image to the back of my mind and carried on with my day. At work I happened to meet someone who had returned from the Canada a few weeks ago. This person had actually gone through the laborious process of getting citizenship in Canada but returned after just over a year there. I asked him why the sudden change of heart (perhaps hoping for a romantic answer like "I missed home" or "I missed my family"). The answer was quite surprising. It was because of the education system in Canada. When I probed a bit further he said "my daughter was not being challenged enough. Her cousins in India were learning much more advanced stuff in Math and Science. She just kept doing projects. We decided to return to India so that she would have a more rigourous academic experience." I didn't know whether to applaud him for his egalitarian views on supporting education for his nine-year-old daughter (a big issue in India) or whack him on his head for this stupid "benchmarking" of skills of his child with other kids in India. After some thought I decided to choose the latter (at least in my mind!).

The two images of young children with piles of books and this little girl being forced out of learning so she could accelerate rote learning left me quite dismayed. The title of my blog probably reveals where I am going with this. Why do we insist on burdening our children with the weight of our expectations (however faulty they may be)? Why do we believe that the more they learn and the earlier the learn - the better equipped they will be to deal with the world out there? Why do we still get so insecure about the "employability" of our children? I had a vision of this man telling his daughter the reason for moving back to India. "You have to have a tougher education system so that you can become a doctor (apparently that's his aspiration for her)". Bravo! Enter another beast of burden (perhaps kids would prefer this as their new tag-line and not "we don't need no education" - even though Rolling Stones are no comparison to Pink Floyd!).

Here are a few questions which I ruminate on?

When should children be given homework?
When should exams be introduced?
Should students grade teachers as well?

My answer to both questions 1 & 2 is "as late as possible". The idea that a child in the first grade (or as I am given to understand in earlier classes in some enlightened schools in India) needs to be kept on their toes during the weekends with school work is simply ridiculous. I remember Lily Tomlin (playing the character of Edith Ann) who said "I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework". Now that's something to aspire towards.

Similarly we all know examinations neither prepare a child for real life nor improve their ability to learn and comprehend better. So examinations are not for children. They are actually for adults - teachers and parents who can get a quick answer to what would otherwise be a painstaking process of continuous learning. I am not an expert in education nor do I have pretensions to be one, but clearly anyone with a sane mind can figure that examinations are just a solution designed for adults. I applaud the attempt by the CBSE board in India to abolish exams. The people who are struggling most to deal with this - other educators (and because of it children).

The question regarding children grading teachers is an interesting one. I feel very strongly that it must be done and its results should be used to develop teachers in their teaching skills. No students minds being challenged or even admonished if they need to be, if they know overall the teacher is for them. It will start to root out the menace of teachers not teaching but preferring to take "tuitions" outside of class as a means to income. Not to mention other forms of misbehaviour. Most of all it would provide well-meaning teachers with real feedback on how they can get through to students more effectively. I have yet to see or hear of a school in India that does this (hopefully it is only my ignorance and there exist some).

But are parents and teachers any less "beasts of burden"? Not really. I've had many teachers in life through school, college and university. All of whom I am grateful for. They all provided me with a door to knowledge. They also taught me that they are human beings first. I don't share the same experience of Woody Allen who said "I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers." My view is that most teachers are well-meaning but need to eke out a livelihood too (their pay in many of the not-so-elite schools is pretty miserable). They are no less beasts of burden. They have to deal with some pretty tough circumstances. In addition to their personal challenges many of them face the onerous responsibility of always having the right answer for the children they teach. However within all these constraints the one's I am truly indebted to are the few who taught me to love learning. Confucius said "every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner and it is for you to find the other three". Such teachers are few.

Parents bear the biggest burden of all (I guess my being a parent makes me slightly biased). The burden of believing it's up to them to make a successful, good, honourable human being of their child. That's a tough ask. They will go to any extent to make this a reality. I've always felt hopelessly inadequate as a parent as I largely in awe of my daughter and usually feel incapable of providing her any guidance. It's also an extreme burden to feel like one is the "role model". Robert Fulghum, the brilliant author of "All I really needed to know I learned in kindergarten", said "don't worry that children don't listen to you; worry that they are always watching you." Jeez. If my daughter was to be anything like me the world would certainly be a tougher place (thankfully both my wife and daughter are well-aware of this).

Richard Bach said "Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers and teachers.". I am sure parents and teachers would feel a lot less like beasts of burden if we all got a little less beastly and burden ourselves and our children less. In the immortal words of Louis Armstrong "I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They'll learn much more. Than I'll ever know." Amen to that.

Of Degrees of Separation and Income Disparity

2011-09-05T18:00:00.000+05:30

I was watching an award show on TV yesterday rewarding India's unsung heroes. Men and women who have been doing some amazing work in India across multiple disciplines. The story of an elderly lady who has become a "mother" to 60 abandoned girls was particularly inspiring. She smiled disarmingly and spoke simply and with great love and compassion. The camera panned over to all the "celebrities" who had come to witness the event. I noticed a few checking their blackberries and one lady, bedecked in jewels, was even yawning. The "yawning" gap between those who do and those who provide lip-service (or blog service like yours truly) was never felt more by me. It also took me back to a different time in my life when I had learnt an important lesson on income disparity.

In the early 90s, I went to the US to study. Of course this was the era just before the internet so we all went with our own view of what the US would be like (formed from a mix of books, movies, magazines and anecdotal comments from people). I remember one of the first things I did was to connect with other Indians in my entering class. There were six of us (out of a total of 200).

During a welcome dinner for all freshers, I was seated at a large table when I found that one of the Indians (who were seated at my table) was from Mumbai. After a few questions I automatically asked him "which building do you live in" (a phrase unique to us in Mumbai when one wants to find out which apartment complex a person lives in). He answered and since I recognised the name, I mentioned someone I knew who lived a couple of "buildings" away from him. We exchanged a few words on this "third person". He then asked me which school I had been to. Not surprisingly he had heard of my high school as well and proceeded to mention a couple of people he knew from my school (it later transpired there was another student who was actually from my school in my class). Once we had finished this interchange (which lasted a few minutes at most) we immediately returned to chatting to some of our other friends around the table (not wanting to be rude).

I will never forget the look of utter incredulity on the faces of two women from St Louis who were also at the table. One of the girls said "I can't believe in a city of 10 million (yes tragically Mumbai was "only" about 10 million in the 90s) you both know so many of the same people and here we are two girls from a city of a quarter of a million and there is no overlap". I had never thought it to be unusual largely since I had come to almost expect it in Mumbai and India. Infact I was beginning to wonder if these two women were perhaps a little socially challenged. Later when I met the remaining Indians in my class we all found at least one or two people in common (the others were from Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore). Our other classmates (particularly the Americans) thought it was ridiculously funny. We had been aware of something we took for granted.

This was repeated in various places I visited in the US, UK. Later when I returned to India and started work this phenomena was repeated. Somehow we Indians, despite our incredibly large population, seemed to be very closely connected. I remember watching "Six Degrees of Separation" and finding it quite awesome that we are connected to any person on this earth by a chain of at most six people (as long as they are the right six). Six degrees? Hah! We had got India spanned in just two or at most three degrees.

The real reason for why India appeared to be so "well-networked" only became apparent to me later. The unfortunate reality that one moved in rarified circles and such opportunities seemed to come to a select few. Those who were from "old money" ruled the roost. The ones with the best education closely followed (hence the obsession for Indian parents to have their children become engineers, doctors etc). The rest did not get the exposure or opportunities. The most obvious manifestation of this was when it came to the "foreign trip" (a holiday in a country outside of India). It was considered almost a status symbol to travel out of the country. A sign of wealth, affluence and elitism. I remember when my parents took me on a trip of Europe and the US when I was 12. It probably burned all their savings but they wanted me to have that exposure at that time in my life. It was very unusual for the socio-economic strata we came from (which was certainly upper middle-class but not with huge amount of cash to burn). Today this would be within grasp of a much larger group of people in our country (another good reason why many global airline companies are increasing flights to India).

There has been a significant change in India over the past 20 years. While the growth may not have been "inclusive" growth (i.e. inclusive of the lowest segments of society) it has started percolating down to those who in the 1990s could only dream and aspire to the lifestyle they now lead. For those who were reasonably comfortable in the 1990s, it has been almost a gravy train in which they have been swept to prosperity. Today the degrees of separation are not as easily "connectable" as it might have been twenty years ago. This is the huge middle-class that advertisers, media and corporates look at and salivate. A large band of 250 million people with disposable income (who are looking to spend). It's the same group of people who have recently decided they would like to have a political say in the running of our country.

Does that mean that the poor in our country really have a better lifestyle than they did twenty years ago? I don't really want to enter this discussion but the short answer is still a vehement NO. I am sure economists and government agencies will argue otherwise but quite simply poverty, poor healthcare and inadequate education keep them out of the India story. Above all, the lot of the girl child in India continues to worsen. So while I am heartened to see that degrees of separation increase and the opportunities for advancement go beyond the few, I am disheartened when I continue to see mass poverty, hunger and illiteracy in the country (while the remainder of us either have or can aspire to fancy cars, luxury holidays, high-paying jobs et al). If 250 million have seen a better life over the past 20 years then life for the remaining 1 billion seems just as bleak and desperate.

Infact they probably feel worse than twenty years ago because the Indian consumer has suddenly decided that they will flaunt this newly acquired wealth. This is perhaps the biggest change in attitudes. The advent of satellite TV in small towns and villages and the connectivity increase on account of cell phones has only made this income disparity more stark and evident to the "have-nots" - all 1 billion of them. Patience, which was once in abundance, is now in short-supply (like electricity, food and quality education). The political class has less and less time to fix the problems. Times they are a changin'.

I realise clichés like "Rome was not built in a day" probably apply. One should have patience. The sheer inertia and momentum of India's growth may well get us to a stage when there will be inclusive growth. However I have to say that I see no planned attempt to get there. Even in the early 1990s, the first wave towards progress was not scripted by any enlightened policy. Financial reforms were enacted in India after we had literally "pawned" our gold with the IMF. I do hope we are not pushed to the wall when we are left with "no other choice". Perhaps we could finally learn from our own history and do the right thing, at the right time and in the right way. Perhaps we can bring some "degrees of separation" between such events and "yawning" celebrities who are only at an event to get some face time on television (not true of all of course, some are indeed very sincere).

48 hours of Peril..and counting

2011-08-29T22:35:00.000+05:30

Aug 25th, 2011 - morning

I woke up in the morning and as is my customary routine checked my blackberry for overnight email. Pleasantly surprised to find that no mail overnight (also slightly concerned that I an unwanted but suppress such feelings as being beneath me and unfounded). Decided to go for a run. I do indulge in a morning trundle to ensure the roads of Mumbai are pressure tested with suitable load. My little piece of social service for the day. Once again the roads held firm. I return from my trundle a little quicker than normal to check my blackberry - clearly there must have been a server issue and a whole bunch of mails are waiting my immediate attention.

Strangely no mails. I check my blackberry in the only way I know (shut it down, remove the battery and restart - tech savvy - that's me). All of a sudden there is no signal. I face the immediate reality that my BB is not working. Not working! NOT WORKING! I race over to my computer and connect using a complicated VPN process to my office network. Can't believe I was callous enough. There are 10 unread mails. Good grief!

Upon closer scrutiny 7 of them are mails informing me that my mail box if full. Then I find it. One mail from a client in San Francisco. Good lord! And I haven't responded before he left work. What a calamity! I open the mail with dread in my heart.

Thankfully the mail just says "OK. Tks" (a response to a mail of mine from the previous day). I breathe a sigh of relief. Only for that to be replaced by my original panic. Blackberry not working! How will life go on.

Aug 25, 2011 - evening.

I've been in a state of nervous delirium for the entire day. My blackberry has been handed in for repairs. The dude said it will take a week. A WEEK! I am sure you understand the seriousness of the issue. I cannot check my email on a real-time basis. People will send me mail and consider me unresponsive because I haven't responded for a whole one hour. This is a catastrophe, a calamity, an apocalyptic, monumental unadulterated disaster. I buy a regular phone immediately and send sms's to everyone I know - "Blackberry not working. Will take time to respond to urgent mails". Get quite a few snide responses but ignore them.

I've been in meetings all day so haven't checked mail for an entire 12 hours (actually not true - I've called my office on the hour to have someone check my mail. I thought I caught the phrase "OCD" when I called last but I am sure I was imagining it). Now I have to travel to Delhi the next morning. Another day of no email access. I guess I can return from Delhi and hand in my resignation letter along with it.

Aug 26th, 2011 morning

Have an early morning flight to Delhi but wake up an hour earlier than needed to check mail (at 230 am to be precise). Surprisingly no mails either pending or responses that required me. A couple of mails that did come to me but were resolved within a few hours of their being sent. Hmm. Very odd. Guess I'm just very lucky and the events are conspiring to be kind. There is a God.

Am facing a new critical issue. Normally I use my blackberry to check current news, events so that I can be well-informed. I land in Delhi and overhear on the TV screens in the arrivals halls that the crisis in India is worsening. Anna Hazare's fast has moved into day 11 (or was it 12). Hurricane Irene is moving to the North-East of the US. Libya has almost been taken over by rebels. You call this a crisis?! I don't have a blackberry!

Aug 26th, Evening

Strange but no one from my office is picking up the phone. I've only been asking for my mail to be checked every hour after all. Not too frequent or anything like that. Resolve to have a word with them the next day. This will not do.

Sitting on an uncomfortable seat at a departure gate in Delhi airport trying to check email. Good lord. An entire 12 hours of not having checked mail. A guy on the PA system says passengers MS Dhoni, VP Singh and Mohammed Rafi - please report for boarding (for those unfamiliar with those names they are the names of India's cricket captain, the late Prime Minister of India for a brief period during the 1990s and the late singer of great repute in Hindi films. Despite my extreme stress can't help but look up. Very disappointed to see the three who actually showed up. Very nondescript fellows - who also distracted me in my pursuit of email. Gah!

The world as I know it has probably ceased to exist. People will be sending out an APB on me wondering where I am. I will be vilified for being "unprofessional". Even worse, when I get off the flight I will have no mails to check. I will look so "uncool" as I switch on my regular cellphone as the plane taxies after landing. It's not even a smartphone (I curse myself for being stingy and not having bought a fancier phone).

Oddly enough all the mails have been dealt with. The only ones that have not been are a couple of emails from the admin department informing us of a fire drill that day. As Alice in Wonderland would have said "curiouser and curiouser" (not to suggest that I am a little girl with a penchant for chasing rabbits but you get my meaning). In Alice in Wonderland her journey down the rabbit hole makes her so surprised that for a moment she forgets her English. So is it for me.

Aug 27th, 2011 Morning

I can fully understand what Anna Hazare must be feeling like. I've been without my blackberry for more than 48 hours. Starvation and deprivation of any kind does a number on one's mind. I woke up this morning and did not check mail. Did not even look for it. Had a leisurely breakfast with the family. Played with my daughter (the fact that my daughter asked my wife who this man was just her idea of a joke, I'm sure).

It's a Saturday morning and after breakfast I check mail using my computer. Again nothing urgent. A few mails that I respond to within a few minutes. There is a mail from my client in SF who compliments me on the speed of my responses despite my not having a blackberry. Well, he's just being nice I suppose. Since I have nothing to check every 15 mins, I settle down with a book that I've been meaning to read for weeks.

Aug 27th, evening

Am feeling very strange. It's clear that the effects of no blackberry are far worse than I imagined. I feel a sense of light-headedness. My fingers - normally well exercised using the blackberry - are not hurting any more. I've read an entire book (hardbound). The perpetual anxiety of waiting for a message (or responding immediately after one comes) has started to recede.

Hey this reminds me of someone else I met a few years ago. Wait a minute. I think this affliction is getting worse. Somehow I seem to remember that someone as "me". Was I ever like this? No way. Ahh - all will be well when I get the BB back.

Awakening the Slumbering Giant

2011-08-22T16:55:00.000+05:30

It's been a pretty tumultuous time for the world over the past few months. Riots in the middle-east, looting and ransacking in the UK, mass uprisings in India against corruption, protests in Greece against austerity measures imposed, widespread protests in Israel against economic inequity and most surprisingly to some, an anti-pollution demonstration of 12,000 people in a Chinese city. Each one of these events are unconnected but taken collectively reflect growing disenchantment amongst people of the world against the establishment.

The events of the past few years - starting with the economic recession have taken their collective toll on the psyche of people. There are a large number of people in many countries who look at spiraling costs, an uncertain future and a more insecure world and are looking for someone to blame. In democratic countries the obvious culprits are the politicians (even more so in countries like UK and India where the political class have not covered themselves with glory at all). Is there anything that's happening in the world truly unprecedented? Recession, price increases, crime, terrorism, job losses - none of them very new or different from what people have faced before. So what's driving this sudden activism?

Let's take the one I am most familiar with - India. Why are so many thousands of Indians coming to the streets in support of a 74 year-old man, Anna Hazare? Is it his engaging personality? His track record? Is it the cause (anti-corruption)? Or is he a symbol for something else? Indians have been facing challenges of one kind or another for years. Poverty, lack of infrastructure, corruption, price increases, terrorism - the list goes on. So what's changed? Why has the middle-class Indian who has typically watched on in "silent desperation" suddenly decided to take this to the street? To me the answer is one word. Discontentment. This reaction is not about the cause. It's about the need to "take accountability and make a difference".

For years the middle-class Indian has been the silent sufferer. Typically they have been accused of abdicating responsibility of running the country to the politicians as they went about greedily feathering their own nests. This is a position India's affluent politicians who wear white "dhotis and kurtas” (the clothes of the common man) like to propound to the poor. The message communicated is that somehow the middle-class have sucked all the good stuff coming to India and left nothing for the poor. It's not the fault of the faulty public distribution system or the self-serving nature of the political and administrative classes. Oh No. Blame the middle-class (who conveniently get termed as the rich when that is anything but true) and the corporates. They are the folks who are enamoured by global brands and a fancy lifestyle. Even today you will find articulate members of the opposition and government speak in an impassioned manner as this being the one of the real issues affecting India. The middle-class has typically been the soft target.

To be fair, the middle-class has for 60+ years post-independence been focused on improving their economic lot. They have tried to build a financially secure life for themselves and their family. Most who are considered affluent in India today can look back at fairly humble beginnings for their parents and grandparents. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have not let themselves be distracted by anything but the pursuit of economic security. They have taken the barbs about their apathy of the state of their country without changing their behaviour.

However their own improving fortunes and relative security for the future of their children has brought back an age-old ache to the forefront. An ache they have revealed only in coffee-shop debates or forcefully written “letters to editors” in leading newspapers (or obscure blogs no one reads!). An ache they have quickly pushed into the recesses of their minds, as they carried on with the task of taking care of their families. An ache that reveals their frustration and disenchantment with the way India is lurching along the way of economic progress. It's not that they do not care for the poor. It's not that they do not feel the impact of corruption, poor roads, insufficient quality education or the guilt of eating three square meals a day while they watch a child on the street starve, cry and eventually die for want of food. The ache runs deep. If they have reaped the benefits of India's economic growth (and let's face it - they have), they have also borne the brunt of its failings.

As the middle-class look on their future it appears secure. There is confidence that their lot will only improve. The past 20 years have given them this assurance. They are grateful for it. As India's middle class move through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from self to self-actualisation, morality of a fair society has become more important and the self starts to recede (largely because it is taken care of). For few years now they have been looking to have a greater say in the running of their own country. There was a need for a spark to ignite some of these emotions. The activist streak that lay embedded within needed a trigger. Enter Anna Hazare and his "Gandhian" form of "aggressive non-violence" and the cause of anti-corruption and it was the making of a perfect storm. The slumbering giant (250 million plus people) has finally woken up (or at least stirred).

The environment over the past 20 years has also changed. The electronic media (TV news), social media and telecommunication (particularly mobile phones) have become widespread in India. There is a perpetual message of discontentment being delivered. It is overt and subliminal. It has all acted as a catalyst to trigger the current wave of reaction. Add the "right to information (RTI) act" and people were now in the know about everything that their elected leaders and government officials were doing on an almost real-time basis. This heady cocktail has pushed them over the edge.

Many learned folks (politicians, legal experts et al) have said that such a model of activism (fast unto death) is pulling at the fabric of democratic institutions. While they support the cause they strongly oppose the means. They argue very eruditely, that a fast is a barbaric and petulant form of protest that cannot be the way to resolve differences. These are all very persuasive arguments but do not tackle the fundamental issue – of credibility (or lack thereof). There is no patience left to listen to a politician say “have faith in us, this time we will get it right”. After 60 years of being consigned to being called "self-serving" and "sponging of the earth", the middle-class has suddenly realised they do have a voice. They are now not willing to be reasonable any more. There is a tacit acceptance by many that perhaps the means could be different, but their entire lack of trust in the intentions of the "establishment" suggests the window for reasonable discussion has ended.

There is also a structural challenge with the democratic system of proportional representation. Every five years you vote for a person who then represents you in ensuring governance of the country reflects your views. In a country like India that choice of person seems to have become a Hobson's choice (or Morton's fork). Essentially there is no choice. People who are given election tickets by large parties are often morally bankrupt. Good independent candidates do not have the financial muscle or mass support required to win an election. There has got to be a way for people and their elected leaders to interact on real issues in-between elections.

The politicians of the governing and opposition parties as well as administrators will have to stand up and accept they have not shown the intent required to solve the country's problems. Until they accept their lack of credibility the situation will remain. An open admission of “folks we have got it wrong for 60 years but let us do our job this time and assess us” may result in people being mollified and giving parliament the time it needs to fix issues. However I do not see any such event happening. The typical view raised by the establishment to those agitating is "Why don't you stand for elections?” I don't buy this as a reasonable response.

The current issue may be resolved (I say “may” but as I write this no one seems to blinking in this stand-off) but the Indian middle-class have "tasted blood" (in a manner of speaking). They will be back on the streets because it makes them feel like they are doing something for the country. Patriotism is a very heady emotion. Strap yourselves in folks. This is going to be around for the long run. I only hope and pray it continues to say non-violent.

Of Trust Deficit and Activism

2011-07-30T10:14:00.000+05:30

"Everybody Lies", is a famous quote from the immensely successful TV serial "House". The chief protagonist, Dr Gregory House (Hugh Laurie, take a bow) is a brilliant and cranky diagnostician. His very simple view of life is "It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what. I've found that when you want to know the truth about someone, that someone is probably the last person you should ask. Truth begins with lies."

A bit cynical you think? Nothing quite as romantic as that. Just common fact. Everybody lies. Let's start with the cannon fodder - politicians. From the time of their manifesto promises to their next election, they lie. About work they have done and the work not done by their opponents. It's the only way they know. They cannot afford to be honest (or at least entirely honest). When was the last time one heard a politician actually compliment their opposition. I always find it fascinating when you see two politicians debate on TV. Usually one alleges some wrongdoing of the other (whether it is policy or propriety). Clearly one of them is lying. Yet we blissfully ignore that part, comfortable with this tenor of dialogue (perhaps we are not comfortable but we certainly tolerate). Recently we had a scandal in the UK regarding benefits of MP's (essentially a local newspaper broke the news of widespread misreporting of expenses MP's were claiming). Most of the MPs concerned denied them. The British public, after giving them a bit of a roasting, have moved on. Indian parliamentarians regularly flout codes of conduct. Clearly we have quite comfortable dealing and indeed expecting all our elected representatives to lie. These are the same people whom we task with preserving our security, economy and future. Not a very high bar to set is it? We've seen this sort of behaviour politicians all over the world (right from the US, Russia, Europe, Japan etc). In fact it's hard to find a country that will stand up and say "my politicians are squeaky clean". It's the nature of the beast. As Lord Acton, the British Historian said, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

It's not just politicians. Bureaucrats - the quiet manipulators of a political system - also are quiet accumulators of ill-gotten wealth. Corporates need to be perpetually "regulated" to ensure they are not "colluding", "conniving" or "contriving" to show higher than actual profitability (key driver usually is either stock market performance or executive bonus linked to financial or market performance). The industry of regulatory, lawyers, accountants et al who all come together to prove corporate results is almost as large as the industries they audit.

The relatively newest entrant to this gravy train of corruption is journalists. News is big business and has the ability to make or break political parties and corporations. Tabloid newspapers make their money with sensational news which often requires resorting to the types of methods "News of the World" did. However the mainstream TV news channels and print media are going for the cheap tricks as well. Sensationalism is the name of the game. Information is secondary. Once balanced reporting, as a philosophy was lost the road ahead is a slippery slope.

So anyone left? The police, armed forces, teachers? Unfortunately not. Each of these face real challenges to their credibility today. The last bastion - judiciary - seems to be facing quite a few internal demons as well. So where are the few good men and women? Actually there are more than a few good men and women. But a lot of the above is not new. What seems different now?

My sense is that we have hit a critical mass of "trust deficit". Trusting and naiveté have become synonyms. We do not take anything or anyone at face value any more. We assume there is an angle and wait for it if it is not evident. There have always been corrupt people and organisations. However my sense is that when the world goes through economic depression, we tend to focus on these things a lot more. The past few years have been tough on the world and suddenly we want to find reasons why we are having a tough time. Each time we hear of someone in power on the take we somehow chalk it down as another reason for the mess we are in. We don't trust our politicians (but vote for them anyway). We don't trust corporates (but buy shares in them). We don't trust journalists but buy newspapers and watch news in greater numbers than ever before. We don't trust ads we see on TV but buy the products anyway. Regardless of our lack of trust, we have not changed our behaviour.

It only further reaffirms the simple truth that there is no "Us" and "Them" (except perhaps the poor and disadvantaged in any country). If there is corruption in the world we are all sponsors of it. We are actively supporting it. Each time we pay a small bribe to a policeman or bureaucrat to "speed" things up, or buy a product despite knowing the dishonest and glitzy TV ad is anything but honest - we sponsor corruption because we embolden it. We send the message "It's ok to lie to us. We will not believe you but will play ball anyway". There is no point bemoaning one's fate in the lack of good and honest politicians if we were responsible in electing them in the first place. There is no "us" and "them". We are right at the centre of the mess we find ourselves in. So let's start by stopping all the whinging about how bad things have got. We did it. If we don't like it, all we have to do is stop it.

In India some well-meaning individuals have tried to create a group of individuals who will sit "above" the legislature, executive and judiciary. A board of a few honest people who will keep these malfunctioning and corrupt systems in check. Well who's going to keep this board in check? Another board? Where does it end? Neither a "Benite solution" nor some right-wing mumbo jumbo is the solution.

It's a tough world. We have to deal with bombs, barbs and bribery. I am not sure the solution is to keep building organisations and systems that will keep checking up on each other. It might help in the short term but there will soon be workarounds and people will find a deceitful way out. Sooner or later we will have to accept that the trust deficit that exists within in will have to be addressed. We will all have to get a slightly activist streak within each of us. This does not mean "fasting unto death" at the drop of a hat (sort of like a petulant child who says they will not eat until they get a toy) or other kinds of vigilante methods. It does mean getting engaged with our society.

Just today in Northern India, bombs were found on a bus and a bad situation was averted. Reason? Not the police or some other system. Vigilant passenger noted some packages and reported it. It's the same when it comes to bribes, environment, women sex ratio decline, offensive journalism or ads etc. We can all be a little more of an activist and put our money where our mouth us (which is hopefully where our mind is as well). Then we can get along with the business of living fulfilling lives rather become voyeurs to situations we have created.

Defending the Indefensible...

2011-07-10T22:12:00.000+05:30

Over the past weekend, we have seen the spectacular demise of one of UK's longest running newspapers ever. After 168 years of informing and (more often than not) titillating readers, "The News of The World" (NOTW) pulled of a Samson act. In trying to expose the weaknesses in the police and justice system they went outside the gamut of the law while successfully exposing the weakness, managed to bury itself in the rubble. There are many allegations and counter-allegations flying about. Phone tapping and interfering with the justice system have been age-old criticisms of the tabloid press but when a newspaper is accused of tapping into the telephone mailbox of a murdered girl and tampering with messages (resulting in her parents feel she was alive) it was felt enough was enough. I don't believe what we are seeing played out is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. However the nexus between politicians, police and the press was reinforced in a pretty outrageous manner making it a politically loaded issue (threatening to eclipse Wikileaks). Having said that, this post is not about this specific issue or even about this nexus as I do not possess the requisite intellectual equipment to be able unravel the "wheels within wheels” that are evident in this story. So why did I title the post, "Defending the Indefensible"? I am not actually trying to defend NOTW or this issue. However NOTW is not the only one.

The pride of the free and democratic world has undoubtedly been “freedom of speech”. Just ask those who don’t have it and one will know what life would mean if these inalienable rights were not to be available to the common man (the struggles over the past year in the Middle East being a case in point). The key question and challenge for the press has always been the ability to bring to the reader the truth in an entertaining manner while making a decent buck for themselves. For most of the past 100 odd years, the printed newspaper has been the mainstay for people to stay informed on the happenings in the world and their country. However the last twenty years has seen a big change in that. Print news is on the wane in most developed countries. The influence of 24 hour TV news and recently the internet has meant the fickle user has been swayed by instant news. Why wait till the next morning when information could be provided in a succinct and interesting manner through TV or the internet. Paid-for-news is on the downswing like never before. According to a recent review in the Economist, other than a few exceptions (like India, Brazil and China) most countries saw de-growth in daily newspaper sales (accompanied by a big swing in internet-only news websites like The Huffington Post). The rules of the game have changed. The newspapers had to find a way to get more aggressive to win “market-share”. In that process, “journalistic ethics” was always going to be compromised.

What I’m driving at is that while this particular instance is not defensible, it’s probably fair to say that it was waiting to happen. Over the past 7-10 years one has seen an upswing in “sting” attacks across newspapers all over the world. Let me also clarify that this is not just about Britain. There has always been a division between “gutter press” (also called tabloids) and “serious journalism” (broadsheets) for years now. Their roles have always been quite different. The change over the past few years is that the lines are blurring. News International, owned by Rupert Murdoch, owns both that venerable institution of news, The Times as well as NOTW. In the US, The New York Times and Washington Post are no more the papers that were the conscience of a country. Washington Post went into journalistic folklore when two young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought about the downfall of President Nixon through the Watergate scandal. Today perhaps good journalism feels has to co-exist with gutter press in the same newspaper for it to stay financially viable. There is certainly more focus on the "scoop" rather than the "researched piece". One only has to take one look at many of India’s “broadsheets” to know how news and sleaze are woven perfectly together (if my words suggest praise for these newspapers please mark it down to poor language skills). Of course I am generalizing as there are many good newspapers but the trend is alarming.

However the presence of gossip and sleaze in a newspaper does not itself imply falling journalistic standard. Or does it? Can one actually run a newspaper entirely on the back of getting the “lowdown” and then say one did it upholding the finest traditions of the free press? My guess is no. And that’s where I feel this has been a road we have been careening along for quite some time. The fact that we are now facing such searching questions about the unholy nexus between the fourth estates and the other “estates” is something one has seen coming a long time ago.

The world is seeing falling standards in all forms of ethics. For each time we point the finger at self-serving politicians, corrupt law-enforcement agencies and unethical journalism they are actually pointing back to the root cause. Us. If we buy these “squalid rags” (as some tabloids are referred to) then why are we so surprised when it is found that one of them have used dubious methods to feed our own frenzy for the sordid. We are like the thief that has no real moral dilemma about committing the crime but is outraged at being caught.

David Cameron, the British PM, facing challenges with his choice of a former NOTW editor as media advisor, is trying to deflect criticism to the one issue all politicians in democracies have been itching to do for years without sustained success - viz. controlling the free press. Putting in place safeguards and counterbalances all sound good stuff now but it’s definitely the thin end of the wedge. Also will it actually have any impact? It is the moral ambivalence that exists in society that is resulting in us electing corrupt politicians, bribing policemen and thirsting for gutter press. Do we want these elected officials determining the future of the one right that keeps them from going over the edge? The answer is a firm no.

Just as we cannot curb the freedom of all companies just because a few scams (like Enron or India’s Satyam Computers), we cannot have the press regulated by some political stooges (however “independent” they may seem to be). We the readers have to become the regulators. We have to realise that NOTW is in fact directly caused by us. If we truly seek change we will show it by patronizing the right newspaper (as also electing the right people). Till then it will be a tussle to find a common ground – where ethics and business realities can co-exist. However there is no point deriding NOTW or any other tabloid newspaper. They are monsters created by us - and that's indefensible.

Constable Baldrick Sets Priorities

2011-07-08T08:52:00.005+05:30

Last Sunday night seventy-one twenty-something-ers were dancing the night away at some pub in Mumbai. The police entered the pub hoping to find acid, dope and people indulging in other nefarious activities like prostitution. However what they found was worse. Much much worse. Read on if you have the stomach. Let it not be said that you have not been forewarned.

Here is a transcript of what transpired. For the sake of keeping the identity of the brave policemen, I have changed their names and used characters from Blackadder (this is no laughing matter by the way). To those who haven't seen or don't know who Blackadder is - what can I say, other than commiserate. For the Blackadder faithful, please don't expect what proceeds to read like an episode of Blackadder. Two very good reasons. One - this is not a funny matter. Two - In case anyone hasn't figured out the patently obvious - I do not have the writing prowess of Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis or Ben Elton.

Constable Baldrick: "Sir, Sir"
Sub-Inspector Blackadder: "What is it Baldrick?"
Baldrick: "I've heard this pub is a hotbed of all sorts of deviants who indulge in every form of criminal activity. Sex, Drugs Rock & Roll - its all there. Permission to arrest these deviants and rid society of their menace."
Blackadder: "Go ahead Baldrick. But proceed with caution. Such deviants typically are very dangerous."

Baldrick enters the pub and returns after a couple of minutes. His face is as white as a sheet.

Blackadder: "What is it Baldrick?"
Baldrick: "Sir, suggest we call for backup. There over over 100 people in the pub"
Blackadder: "And. Is it as bad as you expected?"
Baldrick: "Worse, sir. Much worse."

Blackadder looks concerned. He radios for backup. Baldrick and he take up strategic positions outside the pub. About an hour later a jeep pulls up along with a police bus.

Blackadder. "You guys took your time. Oh no wonder. It's Percy at the wheel. When did you last leave the desk Percy? Two years ago?"
Sub Inspector Percy. "Blackadder. Leave it to the professionals. Please note who has come as backup"

Blackadder: "Inspector Melchett. An honour sir"
Melchett gets out of the police jeep along with Constable George. A young rookie cop with a slightly vacant face.
Melchett: "Blackadder. Bad business this. Give me a quick update."

Blackadder gives him the update giving Baldrick full credit for the operation so far. Baldrick is thrilled to be in the presence of such eminence as Inspector Melchett. Melchett listens to the report with a grave look on his face. He then claps Baldrick on the back, commending him on his quick intellect. Baldrick beams with pride.

Melchett; "Right men. This is a tough situation. I want all of them taken in. This must act as a lesson to all of civil society. Percy, George and Baldrick enter the pub and arrest everyone inside and bring them to the station for questioning in the police van. Baldrick - stand outside as cover. I will return to the station and inform the Superintendent of Police, Queen Lizzie. We need to be prepared.

Melchett leaves. Baldrick boldly steps in with George. Percy follows them looking quite concerned. Blackadder waits outside. There are sounds of commotion inside. After waiting a few minutes Blackadder enters. He finds that the three policemen have rounded up the offenders and are marching them towards the pub door. Blackadder looks for tell-tale signs of evidence of the despicable acts of these heathens but can't find any. Clearly Baldrick and co. have been very efficient in rounding up all the evidence. The offenders are all bunged into the police van. They are taken to the police station. Blackadder, following in the jeep, reflects with pride on a job well done and on a real strike against crime in the city.

At the station the wastrels are counted. Seventy-one. They are then individually questioned. In the meanwhile there is a briefing in the station where Baldrick deposes before the senior officers along with Percy and George (all basking the glory of their efforts). Blackadder is present as well along with Melchett. Superintendent of Police Queenie Liz is presiding.

Melchett: "Blackadder. Begin the briefing".
Blackadder: "Sir, it's only fair that Baldrick do the briefing. After all this was his initiative."

Baldrick takes centrestage. He is bursting with pride.

Baldrick: "I was walking by the pub in the late evening. I remember watching a man walk his dog. The dog was straining at the leash, sniffing away at every passing bush and shrub. Finally he decided that the road was the more acceptable place to "lighten his load" . The gentleman scurried behind the dog and scooped the result of the dog's activities into a plastic bag (using a scoop) and continued walking. I remember being quite surprised that there were "dog-poop pick uppers" in Mumbai..."

Blackadder: "Baldrick. Can we get to the point".

Baldrick: "Yes of course sir. As I was saying, as my eyes followed the "dog-poop pick upper", I noticed a couple walking hand in hand into this pub. My suspicion was naturally aroused. Such blatant public displays of affection outside could only mean very serious trouble within".

Melchett: "Go on Baldrick. What happened next"?

Baldrick:"I went to the squad car and reported to Mr Blackadder. He suggested I take a closer look. So I went in". He paused for effect.

Melchett: "Go on, go on Baldrick. What did you see?"

Baldrick: "It was just awful. Such decadence. Men and women were dancing on the floor. And not in the tasteful manner in which they do in our movies. Oh no. They were fully clothed sir. But instead of dancing in a line and shaking their hips and bosoms suggestively they were dancing... with each other. That too fully clothed". He stops and looks hesitantly at Queen Lizzie.

Queen Lizzie: "Baldrick. Don't be embarrassed because of me. I've forgotten more depravity than you will ever get to see. Nothing will shock me. I suppose your saying "with each other" is a slang for something truly outrageous. What were they doing?"

Baldrick looked a bit surprised. "Madam. I don't know if you heard me right. They were dancing WITH each other".

Blackadder eyes starting rolling in his head. He decided to take control of this meeting. "Baldrick. Let's get this straight. When I asked you if there was drugs, sex et al you said it was a lot worse. What did you see".

Percy jumped in. "Blackadder. I am appalled that you would not understand the issue. Drugs, prostitution, underage drinking is normal stuff. We wouldn't arrest people for that". He then whispers to George ("We policemen are the beneficiaries of such behaviour")

George pipes in. "That's right. In fact it's because of the well-meaning pimps and drug dealers that I could my buy my Audi A4 car last week." Melchett, Queen Lizzie and Blackadder quickly move to strike that comment from the meeting notes.

Blackadder: "Are you telling me that all they were doing were dancing. Nothing else."

Baldrick decided it was time to take control of this conversation. "Mr Blackadder. It's bad enough that they were dancing with each other. Some of them were even holding hands. I even saw one couple hug. Need I say more."

Percy nods vigourously. "Never have I seen such abominable behaviour. Men and women holding hands. What do people think this country is?"

Blackadder: ""The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?" (sorry couldn't resist bringing my favourite line from Blackadder in!)

Melchett and Queenie Liz look at each other. Melchett says. "Release all of them. Give them a cup of tea and send them home. Fine thirty of them for indecency to justify this entire fiasco. Also let's make sure no one from the press hears about it" Percy, George and Baldrick leave the room sullenly to obey their orders.

Blackadder (rolls his eyes again): "That's right. The press would really not be interested in a story where the police spend their time catching partying youngsters while they stand by while journalists are killed by thugs."

Just another day in Mumbai....

The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner

2011-07-02T20:21:00.000+05:30

So, I decided to start exercising. "About time" is the refrain I heard from most of my friends. My wife and family smiled approvingly in supportive encouragement So overall friends and family were right behind me. My own state of mind was gung ho. Bring on the six-pack abs. Perhaps I could try out for the Mumbai half-marathon early next year.

Let me also quickly disabuse the reader who may be quite impressed by the phrase "long distance runner" in my title. I've seen the movie adaptation of the book by the same name when I was young and was quite inspired by it. It tells the tale of redemption a young lad - who uses long distance running to find his way in life. But there is a twist in the tale. Read it if you haven't read it and see the movie if you haven't seen it. However don't listen to the Iron Maiden song of the same lyrics (not their best I'm afraid). Anyway the only resemblance between the title and my situation was the extent of "redemption" that is required for me and the character in the book. Perhaps a more the appropriate title depicting my situation would have been "The Portliness of a Short Distance Ambler".

Nevertheless, with steely determination, I embarked upon my tenth exercise regime attempt over the past 18 months. This time determined to succeed. I told myself the previous nine will act as great learnings of what not to do. "Tenth time's a charm" was my slogan. It took a spider's seventh attempt to inspire someone as great as Robert Bruce to overthrow the English in battle. My limited capabilities should be granted at least 10 attempts. Such was the positive state of mind with which I embarked upon this final frontier!

The day before the first day I bought a pair of new shoes (quite a fancy one at that). Along with it I bought some cool running shorts. In case my long and punishing exercise regime required something to spice it up, I loaded over 200 songs on my cell phone. My alarm clock was set for 550 am. I went to sleep early with my gleaming new shoes, socks, shorts and comfortable t-shirt all neatly laid out. The moment was upon me. The push for fitness had started. I was ready. The next day I would wake up to a fit new me.

The next morning I woke up with the alarm. I was oddly excited. I changed (marveling once again how squeaky clean and shiny all my new stuff was) into my gear. My cellphone was beating out some truly motivating and pounding music. I stepped downstairs and before starting did a few stretches. After all didn't want my hamstrings or muscles strained, did I?

Let me explain the word "downstairs". We live in a pretty large research campus. One round of the campus was almost 1 km. Ideal for working out - whether it be walking or running. I thought a comfortable 4-5 rounds on the first day would be a good place to start. After all, didn't want to overdo it. The plan was to walk the first round and then run the next two before I walked the last 1-2. A sort of a light start. 4-5 km was just the sort of beginning I needed (I told myself) - nothing too adventurous.

I began my first round with a brisk walk. I was setting a pretty impressive clip as I turned the first corner of the campus. This was fun. Pink Floyd in my ears, the crisp morning breeze for company - I kicked myself for not doing this before. Perhaps I would do 6 rounds today. It just felt so good.

I started feeling the first signs that perhaps this was not going to all smooth sailing when I felt a sudden throbbing in my right leg. That's odd. My foot had not been twisted. I had gone through an elaborate warm up routine. I decided to slow down my scorching pace just a bit. I was also beginning to feel my breath getting a bit raspy. This became clearer to me when another walker walking about 10 m away (in the opposite direction) looked at me with a concerned look and inquired if all was well. I waved him away jauntily. I had just got a bit winded. My second wind would come along momentarily.

An inkling that this second wind was going to take a while to materialise became clear a little later when I felt a light breeze blow from behind me as I noticed someone pass me whilst they were walking. I looked up and noticed our neighbour. She gave me an encouraging smile as she quickly disappeared over the horizon. It was at that point that I became aware that perhaps the word "scorching pace" was perhaps a slight overstatement of my speed.

Before any of you feel that my male ego was affronted by being overtaken by a lady let me quickly correct that. I am actually very comfortable being second in most things in life to women (indeed that's been the secret of my marriage). That I had been overtaken by an 80-year-old who suffered from rheumatioid arthritis and walked with a stick because of her limp, were the real reasons for my concern. I decided to up the tempo with the first target of catching up with the sprightly great-grandmother. However I was not able to see her, despite some significant increase in pace. I figured she must have made one sudden spurt before she stopped. This sudden spurt had brought back two old friends - raspy breath and throbbing legs (this time it had spread to both legs). I slowed my pace again, annoyed that I had been trying to be competitive with someone else. Set your own pace my friend. To the pounding rhythm of "LA Woman", I found my mojo again.

Unfortunately the speed change did not do much to raspy breath (RB) and throbbing leg (TL). I figured I must be completing a round by then. I noticed that some smart aleck had actually measured and painted the distance on the ground. The number I saw had me reeling. I looked again. Can it actually be? No, have I only done 350 m (as it turned out it wasn't true at all, I had begun from the 100 m mark). I decided extreme situations called for extreme measures. Fortitude is my middle name (actually it isn't, I don't have a middle name, but you know what I mean). I began running. The hope was the elusive "second wind" would be embarrassed into making a quicker appearance. However my fluid, long, loping strides (RB and TL notwithstanding) were thrown off by two interruptions. The first was my wife, who had caught up with me (wanting to be the supportive spouse on my first day of exercise) and the second was I had been lapped by great-grandmother (complete with encouraging smile).

To say I was shaken would be to put it mildly. I noticed the distance measure of 450 m as my wife began walking beside me while I jogged. She was beginning to get some sense of what was happening. She asked me how many rounds I had completed. I falsely put up two fingers (RB did not allow any sort of sound to emanate from my throat but my mind was clearly not having any challenges conjuring up falsehoods) which she looked at disbelievingly. She then a patted my shoulder, said some encouraging words, and took off on a brisk walk leaving me jogging in her wake.

Some of you may have by now astutely observed that the day was not going to plan for me. I decided that perhaps my approach had been wrong and the best would be to return home and strategise first before I began on the following day. The painful part was I had completed half a round and returning home would require me to complete the remaining 500 m. The subsequent two hours were a triumph of mind over matter (and I can tell you there was a lot of matter to triumph over). My breath sounded like that of an acute tuberculosis patients and my legs felt like badly set jelly. Eventually, I dragged myself into the house and stayed on the drawing room floor for about 30 min before venturing to crawl into the bedroom. I was done for the day. I called in sick to work.

When I finally was able to get up, I took stock of my day. 3 hours, 1 km. Every muscle in my leg and arm was in excruciating pain. I had bruised my knee taking a stumble during my ill-fated "run" but this bruising was nothing compared to that of my ego. However I had survived my first day. I knew there would be another day. And another. And another. The next day would only get better...

Epilogue: Always like to end on a positive note. It's been three months of working out. Great-grandmother now does not lap me. Eye of the Tiger. Second Wind still to be found.

The Sound of Silence

2011-06-19T15:03:00.001+05:30

bIn case a few of you have clicked in assuming this is a post regarding one of Simon & Garfunkel's greatest songs, you will be sorely disappointed (but an effective way for me to get a few "hits" on my blog, if indeed that was my objective). This is also not a mail about the self-imposed "sound of silence" a couple of weeks ago by the yoga teacher with no interest in shaving turned corruption-buster of India, Baba Ramdev. It's just another one of my ramblings about the state of modern life. If interest wanes after the above disclaimer I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised.

One of the most amazing changes in the world has been this entire "social networking" stuff. Until the early 2000's, we as a world, would have been classified as pretty self-contained. Communication was largely to people whom we knew and on a one-on-one basis (or perhaps in groups), with the exception of the email cc (even that was an exception rather than a rule). Then we had facebook, twitter, you tube et al and all of a sudden the world changed. People around the world shifted from being restrained to wanting everyone in the world knew what they thought, what they had just eaten, whom they had just met and the even more mundane and banal ("just finished brushing - feel fresh in the mouth - ready to take on the world" - true quote). We just don't seem to get enough of wanting the world to know about all the trivia we are thinking of at that very moment. The worst offenders - blog writers (yup, better to take it on the chin upfront!).

Actually the worst offenders are all the entertainment celebrities who perpetually "share" all that's happening in their life with their adoring "followers". I am sure it serves a significant financial benefit and if one was to be generous, I can imagine it helps them to have a platform where they can correct the various stories being printed about them by squalid tabloid newspaper and gossip columnists (whom they secretly love and support because it keeps them in the news until a story emerges that is over the top even for them). Anyway this blog is not about classifying the various forms of serial social network users but rather examine what it is about human beings that flipped the switch from being reserved oral communicators to unbridled internet chatterboxes.

One of my friends was explaining facebook to me (when he was trying to sell it and get me to join) and described it as walking into a cafe with friends - past and present (and their friends). You could say what you want and delete it if it was inappropriate (or made you sound stupid). You could take the cleverest thing one group of friends were discussing and discuss it with another (and hence claim smartness rights). The best thing, you could do all this without actually having to feel concerned about how you looked (since it is after all an e-cafe). By the way this point on looks was particularly targeted at people like me, whom obviously he had concluded, shouldn't be brought in plain sight of public (can't disagree unfortunately). Anyway, you could also use it to get back in touch with old friends who have since then moved on with their lives. There is always the concern that there would be a few inappropriate folks who would enter, but if you kept a reasonable control of who is coming in, this could be kept to a minimum. What's not to love?

I guess my question initially when I saw all this brouhaha around social networking was actually quite simple. If I actually walked into such a cafe or pub (even if it was filled with old and new friends), it would forever for me to break the ice with some older friends. It was very unlikely that I would find things to say to sustain many a conversation (you may have inferred that I am not exactly a raconteur - Galahad Threepwood is merely one of my favourite Wodehousian characters and bears no resemblance to my personality). However it was not just about me. In general I find people congregate in small groups and stay that way through the evening. Social networking seems to be breaking down those self-imposed boundaries. I've observed two people who bear no relation to each other (other than the fact they know me) getting into intense discussions on some fairly tricky topics. I am sure this would not occur in a face-to-face situation. So what causes this removal of the social etiquette mask and a formation of a new social networking etiquette that is far more liberal? I should add that the actual amount of communication has only increased. It's not that we suddenly have more time for introspection.

Is it simply the relative anonymity of the entire exchange? Have we all actually been craving to be such people and just held ourselves back because we couldn't be seen to be too "forward"? I find it hard to imagine that sites like facebook or twitter just created a new form of behaviour. It must have been an essential nature of us as human beings that it tapped into. If all of us behaved on the internet in exactly the same way as we do in person, it would be unlikely that Facebook would be valued at $50 billion (with some industry experts suggesting it could top $100 billion).

What is also interesting is that while we have become "e-chatterboxes" my guess is we have actually become less social in person. The few parties I have attended (or few pubs that I have been to) nowadays are filled with people burrowed into their blackberry's or I-Phones responding to some other set of friends (not the ones in front of them). The sound of conversation has been replaced by the rhythmic sound of the keys of the phone or keyboard clicking away. We have replaced actual communication with e-communication. Or is it the age-old fear that we all have of fearing judgement - for our appearance, lack of interesting conversation, intelligence etc. I should add that the actual amount of communication has only increased. It's not that we suddenly have more time for introspection.

Social networking has started playing a significant political and social role in our world. If we continue to use it as predicted then it will become even more relevant. However it does beg the question - is it a fad, doomed to eventually become irrelevant. Will we all finally shut our phones and computers and start communicating with each other using our vocal chords (or even telephone).

I'm sure this is no flash in the pan. The telephone was ground breaking in the field of communication. So was the computer and later on the internet. Social networking would appear to be as path-breaking as any of the other great evolutions in human communication, if not more. The main reason is that it taps into one of our greatest weaknesses - the need to be accepted and be popular (as also the need to seek attention). Till then expect all of us to continue getting louder and more garrulous on the net and quieter in really life. If not it’s a really long-winded way for me to say I am grateful as it gave me the opportunity to blog as well as retreat to my phone when I do not want to have a conversation!

A Train Journey and a Trans-Atlantic Musical Debate...

2011-06-13T15:08:00.000+05:30

I sat down at my reserved seat on the 930 am First GreatWestern train from London Paddington to Cardiff with a huge sense of relief and intent. Relief, because I had made a complicated mix of planes, trains and automobiles to make it in time for this train and intent, because I had every intention to utilise the entire two-hour journey for some well-earned "kip" (what the Americans call "power nap"!). The comfortable first class seat looked very comfortable and the relatively uncrowded train suggested my intent could well be realised. I placed my laptop and handbag on the luggage rack above my sat and sank down to get an early start to my morning's endeavours. I refused the polite offers of coffee by the attendants and settled in.

Just as I was about to fall asleep I was rudely awoken by the entry of two young chaps. They had just made the train. They were both dressed in perfect suits and it only took one second for me to realise they were investment bankers. I offered a silent prayer that the bankers would sit as far from me as possible. Of course they did not (would have made this entire blog very short and without any purpose). They occupied the seat beside me (which had a table between them). I fervently hoped they would take out their laptops and work (rather than talk). As you will see, this wish was not granted as well (the big guy was obviously not too thrilled with me this morning - or so I thought). They settled down and pretty soon we were on our way.

I must have fallen asleep because I suddenly awoke to the sound of what could only be described as some sort of shriek of a banshee (upon further investigation it was just the sound of the train's horn as it pulled out into Reading station). By this time the two chaps were engaged in an animated discussion. Without meaning to be intrusive, I overheard one of the chaps, clearly an American (it's fascinating how that accent stands out in its volume, pitch and drawl with the unerring ability to move a person from restful slumber) say "... Black Eyed Peas are modern-day troubadours. I saw them in Switzerland last week and they were awesome. That's what I love about the American music scene and miss here in Britain." His fellow traveler, a Brit, embarked upon some sort of a response but I was not interested in this topic or frankly his response. Thankfully I fell asleep again.

I awoke with a start and looked around. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and crisp. Perfect day to be out in a park rather than sitting in a train trying to get some shut eye. I should perhaps explain my excessive state of fatigue. I had flown in that morning from Mumbai to London and after a cursory shower at Heathrow airport - had made my way to London Paddington just in time to catch the 930 am train. It had been too active a morning for what was anyway going to be a very busy day for me. Sleep was essential. Anyway, this time we were somewhere in the middle of English countryside - the typical rolling hills, green grass and grazing cows and sheep. I guess we must have been in somewhere near the Cotswold's (perhaps not) and started reminiscing of the times when my wife and I lived in London and used to drive around on weekends. The Cotswold's was certainly one of the destinations we enjoyed (a small town Bibury, in particular). My reverie was interrupted by the American (no surprises that). Mr A said "American musical heritage has shaped world music over the past 70-80 years like no other cultural influence". I was suddenly curious to hear Mr B's (the Brit, in case you were wondering about my terminology). Prompt came the response, "That's ridiculous" (actually the two words were interspersed with another word - a rather colourful one - that perhaps you can guess. I wanted to return to sleep but just couldn't - I wanted to hear this.

Mr A: "I will give you just two names, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley to conclude this discussion. These two and others like Bill Haley & the Comets, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry influenced people like Beatles and the Stones. Hey, I'm not saying that the Beatles were not great. Am just saying that they were shaped by American R&B and guys like Bob D and Elvis (very knowledgeable fellow for a young chap who a little while ago was talking about Black Eyed Peas)".

Mr B: "Well maybe the Beatles were influenced a bit by Bob D, particularly their later work, but they influenced world music like no one ever did. They are the true pioneers. Look, everyone is influenced by somebody. But in terms of sheer magnitude of influence - there was no one else like them. The sixties and seventies music movement was all about the influence of the Beatles".

Mr A: "That's crap (again I am paraphrasing here). What about Jimi Hendrix? He was the soul of Woodstock. The Doors are still one of the most iconic groups ever. I am not even including Eagles, Simon & Garfunkel and Jefferson Airplane."

Mr B: "Now you are just being selective. In addition to the Beatles and the Stones what about The Who, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath - I can go on and on. They took over the rock scene around the world including the US. Forget everything else. What about Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Sorry mate, the sixties was clearly the decade of the Brits".

Mr A, who seemed to be waiting to respond throughout Mr B's diatribe suddenly grew quiet at the mention of the last two names. Clearly Mr B had scored a point for the Brits. However he resurfaced with his rejoinder pretty quickly.

Mr A: "Well, I am not saying that there were not some pretty amazing British bands. However they only became great cracking success at home (clearly this was an emotional argument for him). Till then they were small bands. That's why the United States of America has had greater influence on world music over the past 50 years. They did it through a mix of the musical influences and providing an open and large market for these bands you mentioned to get a world stage. You've just proved my point dude (by the way I don't remember the dude at the end of this sentence but somehow if a Brit says mate, then an American should be saying dude at some point)".

I thought it was rather clever of Mr A to bring in the market angle here. It was now the turn of Mr B to be a bit nonplussed. He had felt his previous argument was a winning one and was just sitting back expecting a weaker response (or perhaps even an admission of defeat). Here Mr A had turned his entire argument as the clinching point - a verbal judo manoevure. After much deliberation and a few "fair point" as he collected his thoughts, he did respond.

Mr B: "That's true but not the point of this discussion. We started out discussing whether America or Britain had exerted more musical influence on music over the past 50 years. If you are telling me the clinching argument is the size of America's market then that's absurd. America has been the world's market for music, movies, fashion, technology and a whole bunch of other products. It's a given that it's the world market that a musician needs to succeed in to be a world influence. But that's not the same as musical contribution. Are you saying that without the money argument, you agree with me"? Comeback kid Mr B, take a bow.

Mr A was now a bit rattled. He was given a few minutes to get his thoughts together again as the train pulled into Bristol Parkway station. The distraction was provided by the ticket collector as well who wanted to check all the new passengers on the train. It gave Mr A enough time to rally his troops. I too found this a distraction as by now I was quite taken in with this debate (although I kept my eyes shut so that I wouldn't appear too inquisitive).

Mr A: "Why are we only talking about the 60's and 70's. What about the last 20-30 odd years. Rap, Hip-Hop, Grunge, Modern R&B as well as Pop. It's been America leading the way. Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin - all of the Motown guys. I'm just saying over the past 50 odd years we have influenced musical tastes and tradition more than the Brits. Even bands in the 90s like Pearl Jam, REM and ACDC were iconic and continue to be so.

Mr B, who was looking uncomfortable with this new train of discussion, suddenly perked up. "This is the problem with you Americans. You guys think everyone is American. ACDC is an Ozzie band (it was the first actual error by any of the two. Factual errors are great in a debate. You can derail any argument). Anyway the 80 and 90s had multiple outstanding Brit bands - U2, Queen, Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Police, Oasis. My view is that the 80s onwards is even-stevens between America and us. However the clear superiority in the 60s and 70s shades it for Britain over America (Mr B was obviously keen to get back to an era he was most comfortable with). Add the fact that Britain is less than 1/4th of the size of America and you have a concluding argument."

Mr A nodded vigorous dissent and was about to retort when there was an announcement for Newport, Wales. With a crisp "To Be Continued", Mr A got up and started preparing for getting off. I realised I had spent a thoroughly useless hour or so listening to two guys argue about an indefensible hypothesis (either way). However I must say I felt refreshed after having enjoyed a discussion about some of my favourite musicians over the past 50 years. Each time either Mr A or Mr B mentioned one legend after another, my mind would wander over all the great music they had made. This interlude in an otherwise highly predictable and overly efficient day was just what I needed.

But that's the way life is, isn't it. For the most part we are focused with getting through the daily chores of life. In the humdrum and repetitive highway of life, one sometimes comes across an unexpected flower in bloom on the wayside. Just for a moment it makes the humdrum worth it. Not because of the flower itself but because of the memories triggered of a different time and place. A time and place we all cherish but have learnt to submerge in favour of the practicalities of life. Thank you Mr A and Mr B.

The Evolution of Democracy

2011-06-09T17:24:00.000+05:30

The events of the past few months have been pretty tumultuous (to say the least). Egypt rose as one and asked for self-determination and democracy. Along with them so did Libya, Syria and Bahrain along with assorted murmurs of differing decibels from other Middle Eastern countries. At the same time we saw the US; the self-proclaimed "bastions of democracy in the world" do something very un-democratic. In the wee hours of the morning, they flew a helicopter into a home on the outskirsts of Islamabad and took out Osama Bin Laden. India has had some key ministers jailed without bail for a telecom scam. The corruption levels in the country came under such scrutiny that there have been two “fast-unto-deaths” – one by a prominent social worker Anna Hazare and the other by a self proclaimed saint Baba Ramdev. The latter ended with the government resorting to some strong arm stuff to get the saintly gentleman and his adoring masses separated. Something very undemocratic – was the allegation of the opposition forces in India.

What’s happening here? Is there any common theme in all of this? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in studying the evolution of other democracies for a clue.

Stage 1 - Formation

When a democracy is formed there is usually bloodshed. France was one of the first countries to embrace democracy towards the end of the 18th century (after the French Revolution). Quite a few royals had "out of body" experiences of a very unpleasant kind watched on by bloodthirsty masses. The monarchy that ruled France for centuries was decimated within a matter of three years as people power had it say. It is said about 50,000 people lost their lives during the revolution. It had followed another bloody battle – the American War of Independence. Triggered by something as simple as stamp duty to be paid by colonies to Britain – it ended in the formation of America and resulted in loss of over 500,000 lives. The same can be said for the creation of many of the significant European democracies – Germany (World War II and the Cold War), Spain (as recent as the late 70s post Franco and his alleged killing of thousands of opponents). India – the largest democracy in the world – was formed after a non-violent struggle against the British. Immediately afterward, the partition of India and Pakistan resulted in the death of over 500,000 people (some estimates suggest 1 million), as 7 million Hindus from Pakistan and 7 million Muslims from India moved across the border. The newly formed governments were just not capable of handling this kind of scale of people movement. Each reason was very specific to the country but the one unalterable truth was that democracy resulted in bloodshed of unimaginable proportion. As we contemplate the same in the Middle-East, I can only hope we have learnt from history. Current indications would not suggest we have learnt much.

You may note, I have left out Great Britain. It is the exception as it was very slow process of democratisation, that can be traced back to the creation and adoption of the Magna Carta in 1215 when King John bound himself by the due process of law. With each century England made slow progress but it was during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century that real democracy came to stay. The industrial revolution made economic progress more dispersed. The gradual move towards democracy probably prevented any sudden carnage of the kind mentioned above – but the slow battle over centuries between working class, middle-class and the nobility did its casualities.

Stage 2 – Consolidation

Democracy brings with it the highest hopes for the people as well as the belief that their lives will now be different. This has historically proven to be the toughest phase in the evolution of a democratic country. Nothing epitomises this more than the 1800s for the USA. Post-independence, the union of the various states was never an amalgam of like-minded entities. The one issue that triggered the highest degree of disagreement was that of slavery. The split between North and South was stark enough that the Southern states created a Southern government – the Confederate States (with South Carolina actually claiming independence from the USA in 1860). The resultant war with the Union lasted years. Interestingly, President Lincoln, who championed the cause of the abolishing slavery, was a Republican and the Southern States largely were Democrat run. Times certainly have changed today (as it would appear have voter bases).

India, which has been a democratic country for the past 60+ years, is probably in the latter stages of consolidation. It is interesting that one has seen quite similar issues in India to that which impacted America during its first 50 or so years. Strong disagreements between states (Tamil Nadu – Karnataka), calls for secession (Hyderabad, Punjab, Kashmir) and protests about language, race and religion. Some of the protests have been bloody and some less so, but it all seems to follow a pattern. Consolidation of a republic which is created with the stroke of a pen (despite many cultural similarities) happens through the natural course of attrition. The underlying basic human necessity of economic stability continues to remain. However these other emotive political issues of their time continue to absorb way too much time.

Democracies have one common trend. They took the power out of the one and gave it to the many. However they also concentrated power in the hands of elected representatives and government officials who suddenly saw their influence as a means to generate quick and significant personal wealth. This is not to suggest that corruption does not exist in a monarchy or communism (some argue it might be even more). However when undue influence suddenly comes to an individual who for years has been economically deprived, greed does get the better.

Stage 3 – Maturity

It is interesting to note that most of the Western democracies did not have certain “basics” in place like universal adult suffrage until the mid twentieth century. The democracies were not as “equal” as one may have liked them to be. Certain European countries did not allow Women to vote until even after that. I’ve always felt the position of women in society and healthcare are key attributes towards determining the state of

Mature democracies seem to have a different set of decision metrics amongst the people on whom to have as their elected representatives. It appears to be less about emotive issues like religion or race and more about what it takes to reach economic stability. So we have economic, healthcare and education etc – the cornerstones for sustainable growth, becoming crucial toward electoral success. Of course in today’s world defence of the realm and security will always be crucial but the swinger is still sustainable growth. Many of the emotive issues will upon deeper discussion actually still be either be about economic or health (immigration, environment etc). Mature democracies exert a far greater influence due to their economic strength and military influence (which usually appears to go hand in hand). They are usually also targeted by other countries as well as opposing ideologies (the current wave of terrorism, while appalling, is certainly not without historic precedent). The mature democracies also have an innate belief that they are “better” than the rest and hence certain laws applicable to others are not relevant to them.

What’s the point of all of this? Well in my view India, is not yet a mature democracy (much as we may like to say we are). That is not to suggest we run the risk of slipping back into some other system. It just means we need the time as a political and economic force to get there. The old adage of “three women cannot make a baby in three months” still holds. While information interchange, technology and education will certainly crash timelines, it cannot do so completely. The protests that we see today in India on corruption – whether by social activists like Hazare or more colourful personalities like Ramdev, are all part of the consolidation process.

I often find myself frustrated with the rate of progress in India – whether it is corruption, poor infrastructure, state and status of women, literacy and education or inadequate healthcare. At a micro level the struggle and frustration must continue – only then will sustainable change occur. However at a macro level, I do feel that despite all the “fast-unto-deaths”, “self-immolations” and other seemingly retrograde means of protest – the essential journey India is on is towards maturity. Most importantly, we have the benefit of not making the mistakes the other democracies made. In the words of the Spanish philosopher George Santayana “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it”. History of world democracies should be a required subject for all our political leaders.

Of Parenting, discipline, ketchup and 4G...

2011-05-27T22:34:00.000+05:30

Yes, yes - you read right. The last word in the title sentence did not just show up because I was beginning to think of something unhealthy to eat (and as a result its ever faithful sidekick popped into my mind). Anyway I am perpetually thinking about something "unhealthy" to eat and often the thinking actualises into action (we all know the importance of "Execution" - Messrs Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy made quite some moolah for themselves writing this book with the same name). So we have determined that execution is an important aspect of my life (quite untrue actually but always good to say). We have also determined that being focused isn't (since I have not begun the topic of this post yet).

My daughter, wife and I had gone to Hong Kong for a few days (my six-year-old daughter is very religious and wants to pay her respects at every "Disneyland" in the world). Well, she being a vegetarian (and a picky eater) it would be fair to say she did not get food entirely to her liking. Infact it would be more fair to say she did not get food entirely to "our" liking (fries, pasta, pizza et al can be found in most places now but may not classify to most as the perfect nutritious meal). The first morning after our return, I asked my daughter what she would like to eat. The answer was immediate. "Dosa". I went towards the kitchen with a beaming smile on my face. Her South Indian roots had kicked in. Phrases like "My daughter!" wafted through my mind (as aforementioned "beam" continued to stay on face). I reached the kitchen and started making the "Dosa" when my daughter decided to finish the sentence "with some ketchup please"...

There was a pigeon, sparrow and crow all sitting on our window sill observing my culinary skills enjoying the morning sun. However their restful reverie was rudely disturbed by the violent tremor caused by the shake of a rather large body. The sparrow decided this was too dangerous a window to spend his morning contemplating the infinite (I must add the hungry look of the crow could also have been the reason), the pigeon just looked around quizzically and then flew off (clearly imitating the sparrow) and the crow made a protesting "kaw" and returned back to the window not willing to give up hope just as yet (perhaps he had read the story of the crow who with a few pebbles managed to get his sip of water).

Readers (who have lingered on through this drivel) may have picked up on the "shimmy" in the kitchen. Let me allay some concerns.

1. I am not a serial "shimmier".

2. I do not shimmy while I cook (in addition to being distasteful, it would certainly be a fire hazard)

So clearly this atypical shimmy was caused by some extraneous force. The answer - "the image of my dosa being dunked into ketchup and eaten with relish by my daughter". My mind that had only moments ago been filled with words like "my daughter!" was suddenly hearing words like "sacrilege". A thing of beauty like the Dosa was to be defiled by my own blood? Then out of the blue the smirking face of my father popped into my head. Then I knew I had been taught the same lesson in parenting and discipline that he had been many years ago.

My father considered "ketchup" quite the no-no and did not approve of my having it with pasta and noodles. Secretly he quite liked ketchup as a condiment with some foods but as an attempt to lead by example, he did not eat ketchup for pretty much my entire childhood (well at least till I left home) and often made sardonic comments about its ills. I blithely ignored it and continued to use it wherever and whenever I pleased. The poor guy finally bit the bullet and started eating it when he was convinced his Gandhian "I will forego" tactics were not going to work with me. He learnt an important parenting tip. Do not try and impose, cajole or beseech one's progeny into doing something that one may want them to do. One will most certainly fail to do so. Certainly not, as in my case, if you are the "Gilhari".

Let me elucidate this analogy a bit. "Gilhari", in Hindi, means squirrel. However this has nothing to do with me being like a squirrel. Far from it. It also bears no similarity to my ability to move at great speed up a tree trunk. If I was to move, it would not be with any sort of speed (the word "trundle" or "lumbering" has been used to describe my movement). Furthermore, if I was to attempt to climb a tree trunk, it would most certainly result in the death of a tree (and result in serious censure from India's hyperactive environment minister Mr Jairam Ramesh). It has to do with the law firm Gadge, Gadge, Gilhari and Gupta (4G" as they like to refer to themselves - the next generation of lawyers). One of the first two names (no relation as they are quick to point out) refer to one of the star lawyers in this firm. The second Gadge, by virtue of sharing the same name as the first is sometime mistaken and hence gets quite a sizeable practice. Gupta is the other star (that's why his name is the last). Unfortunately "Gilhari" is not a star, does not get confused for Gadge and has a name which means squirrel (at least his name does not mean "rat" - could have resulted in quite a unique clientele). Probably gets picked on by both the Gadge's and the Gupta. In summary he is a persona non-grata who is part of the firm because he is good at writing notes, booking tickets for the other "3G's" and on the odd occasion can write a good brief. Now you may start to see the reason for this analogy.

In our family I am the Gilhari. My wife is the star and so is my daughter (there is no corresponding member for the second Gupta as well but you get the point). My daughter refers to my wife as the "boss" of the house. Once my wife feebly suggested "your father could be the boss as well". My daugther's response was to go into peals of laughter and say "Mumma, don't be ridiculous. Daddy is no boss". Riveting stuff. As I said - "Gilhari". What does that mean in the connotation of the "dosa and ketchup incident"? Well, it means that hard as I try, there was never going to be any chance of my daughter changing her opinion on ketchup as a condiment to the dosa.

After wrestling with multiple emotions, I finally poured a liberal dollop of ketchup and took the dosa in to my daughter. I left the room afterward. It would have been too difficult to watch. My daughter ate the dosa and at the end proclaimed "Daddy, dosa and ketchup was not so tasty. Actually it was disgusting". My parenting lesson was complete. Go with what the child says. If she continues to do it, learn to live with it (as my poor dad did). If she doesn't then rejoice in private (as I did). However resisting is futile, particularly for the Gilhari's of the world.

But as far as the parent-child relationship is concerned - parents are always the Gilhari's - and that's the rub. It's clear who the boss is. Just one example is the clincher. Look at people when they travel - their only focus is their kids food, entertainment and general well-being. They complain about their "lost happiness" and independence but the truth is the role of "Gilhari" is one we may enter into with some trepidation but every increasing day we embrace with greater and greater joy.

PS - My deepest apologies to Mr Gilhari. You are a fine lawyer and a good man.

Desperately Seeking Visa...

2011-05-18T09:15:00.000+05:30

Earlier this week, after a span of 19 years, I found myself at the US consulate in Mumbai applying for a visitor’s visa. The last time I was there was as a student - applying for the dreaded student visa. Since then I have once applied for a regular visa from London as well as by drop box in Mumbai. However I’ve never actually visited to the consulate in Mumbai since 1992. The rules have changed and everyone is required to attend an interview.

The country that tops the charts globally, in terms of demand for visa applications (be it student, work or simply visitor) is not surprisingly the US. However it was only when I lived in the UK that I realised how much of a uniquely "Indian" or "developing country", the visa experience is. When I mentioned to my Brit colleagues in London that I had to "apply" for a visa to travel to the US, they just didn't believe me. A few wryly suggested that it was my way of getting a day off in Central London! If only they knew how long it takes in terms of lines, queues and wait times (at the end of it sometimes a brusque immigration officer - but only sometimes)!

In India, the US Visa was once almost a status symbol. Having a 10-year US visa was a stripe to brag about. The US, as a country, has certainly come into existence largely on the back of immigration (now of course a very emotive political issue). David Letterman, once famously said "They say there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in this country. Of course if you ask the Native American, he will probably say 300 million". However this is really not about the political issues around immigration. I'll leave that to the politicians and late night talk show hosts.

As mentioned earlier, the one thing that is common about any US visa experience in India is how long it takes. This time was no different. I decided to pen down a few observations and comparisons from the previous time (19 years is a long time but surprisingly there are still a few memories that have survived advancing age and rapidly reducing neurons).

What a Welcome! The moment you enter the consulate you are accosted by the photograph of a rather fierce looking police officer with handcuffs and standing by a jail cell. The message states "Many doors will open for you if you are caught with passport fraud but one door will certainly close - that of the United States". Very grim stuff. If I were attempting passport fraud that photograph would certainly have me hightailing back out the door (or perhaps not). Anyway a very hospitable and welcoming environment. The welcome doesn't stop. One is not allowed to carry bags, electronic items (cell phones et al) or even wear heavy belts. Since the consulate staff is not allowed to hold stuff for people, one has to leave the building and leave it with nearby shopkeepers and "keepers". Interestingly they all seem quite honest and honourable. Sustainable earnings are worth a lot more than a single arbitrage opportunity. The power of commerce. There were also not surprisingly lots more security, guns and the like. Sign of the times.
A Yogic experience: Then and now, it seems to take an interminably long time to go through the process of finally getting to an interview (which took 60 seconds, both 19 years ago as well as now, at least for me). I think it is actually a yogic experience for people like me who are used to doing something on the go. Checking email, making calls, doing work on the laptop or even just listening to music. The US consulate does not allow any electronic items. I mean ANY. I hear there is now legislation being placed in front of Congress to have pacemakers left outside the consulate before an applicant enters (of course it isn't true but given the focus with which the "no electronics" rule is implemented one cannot but wonder what the next step is). So I had to spend three hours basically twiddling my thumbs. Suffice to say I revised and re-revised the pamphlet on "Irresistible Idaho". Very Yogic and soul-strengthening. Gets you in touch with the real "You". Nineteen years ago my journey as a Yogi began in those hallowed years and yesterday they came a full circle (interspersed with largely non-Yogic moments but we'll leave that unimportant detail out for the moment).
Service with a smile: If I gave the impression that the consulate is stuck in a time warp from 19 years ago then I should quickly correct that. It has moved along (perhaps not galloped but certainly a gentle trundle). Computerised interview slots does mean the time and lines are a bit more sane than they were nineteen years ago (or perhaps is it possible that less people are applying?). Nineteen years ago it was a rather barbaric first come first serve approach. So people would line up for the interview of the following morning on the night before (sort of like teenagers waiting in line for buying tickets to a rock concert). However there still are long lines everywhere. The good news is that there is a system and it is adhered to (no one can bribe a guard to move up the queue - at least not overtly). It's got a photographer who can take an immediate photograph (if the need arises). In general a more humane face. There are also pamphlets to read about the wondrous tourist spots in the US (afore mentioned "Incredible Idaho" - also "The Dazzling Dakotas"). There is also a pamphlet for Himachal Pradesh. Very strange but I guess a good captive population to have multiple tourism options thrown at.
The great whiners: Some things never change. Every line has a few complainers. One who says that there should have been one more ceiling fan, the air-conditioning is too hot (or cold); the information provided beforehand is sketchy. This chap in front of me (perhaps in his early 50s) was asking if there was a "senior citizens" special line. (I was tempted to say if a 50 year old qualified so should an out-of-shape 41-year old like me). Anyway I enjoy listening to the complainers perpetually whinge on about what is not ok. Something very therapeutic about listening to a guy moan along only to become silent when a consulate official comes by. Nineteen years ago there was a lady who wouldn't stop complaining about how much easier it was when she applied for a visa for Finland (I guess she hadn't figured that the total population of Finland and those applying for the US visa from India were about the same!).
Polite graffiti: Indians are compulsive graffiti artists. Take any historic monument in the country and you will find people have etched, carved, written or used some other creative implement to express their emotions (be it love or something more carnal). We also feel compelled to be creative public bathrooms. The one that caught my eye was a message in the loo just below the sign that said "Please use dustbin". In an exhibition of rather shaky penmanship was the message "Sory No Dastbin". I could not imagine such politeness from any bonafide Indian graffiti specialist (also such atrocious spelling). I had the vision of this chap reading the message and on not finding a dustbin, feeling the urge to express his frustration. However this frustration was probably over-ridden by the fear of perhaps a CCTV in the loo that would broadcast his foul writings to his visa interviewer who would then deny him the visa. Hence the polite note (also the fear of not getting a visa). Hopefully the guy did not mis-spell his own name in the application form.
The Mating Season: I remember as a student being amazed at the number of young women all waiting to be interviewed after a whirlwind "romance" of one week where the man "selected" her from a bevy of other beauties whom he visited on the first day of his return. After shortlisting on day one, day two would be the obligatory lunch that the couple would be “allowed” to go on ("we are progressive parents - let the boy and girl go for lunch. One of us will sit at the next table) the next step would be engagement on day 3 followed by the marriage at the end of week one. After this would follow the "honeymoon" for 2-3 days at a scenic location in India after which the sincere professional dashed back to the US to continue his critical job as a computer programmer (ouch, that was probably too nasty but couldn't resist it). The ladies were left trying to explain to an American immigration official what they were doing there after a week-long meet-greet-marry case (and not a means to get a US green card). I was pleased to note that yesterday this number was markedly reduced. Perhaps the women of India see more hope in the men who live in India now (or what would be much better their families have realised the value of allowing the girls to make decisions for themselves).
The Learning curve: The largest group of applicants both then and now was the student group. I am sure they were nervous then and still look nervous now. The student community is the one who betray their emotions most on getting a visa (or being denied one). I remember seeing quite a few whoops of joy as well as a few tears. When I was a student and emerged from the interview I was asked engulfed by a few students who asked me if I got the visa. When I said I had, they all thrust their folders in my face asking me if I thought they stood a chance. The idea of my being an "immigration expert" tickled me no end. It's nice to see some traditions don't change. Those who get it are still engulfed by those waiting. I spoke to a few students who were waiting and the one thing I felt happy out was they all felt that getting a US visa was not the "be-all and end-all". If they didn't they had options to work in India that were pretty good. Times have changed and that's a good thing
We are family: Anyone who visits the consulate in Mumbai would not be surprised to wonder if they have suddenly been transported to Gujarat. Other than English the only other language spoken at the consulate is Gujarat (and written for that matter). Being an adopted Gujarati myself (my wife is a Gujarati), I am particularly partial to the unique and wonderful ways of this dynamic and entrepreneurial community. One thing that I remember long train trips when I was young was that if a Gujarati family occupied the seats next to you, there would be no shortage of delicious food for the entire duration of the trip. Gujarati families love to eat together and share their food with others in the journey. This philosophy was extended to the US consulate as well. While they were not allowed to bring food in, they immediately invaded the food counter and bought chips, sandwiches, soft drinks et al. Those sitting next to them were offered the food. One elderly lady sitting by me offered me a sandwich and even apologised for not having anything tastier as "these guys did not allow me to bring snack in".

What I did walk away feeling. In the past 19 years it’s not that the US visa process has changed. It's me who has changed and my own perspectives to life. At 22, I felt such excitement and anticipation over the adventures that lay before me. At 41 there is feeling of "been there done that" which perhaps gives one the ability to have perspective, but one it’s also India that has changed. It's no more an obvious that one has to leave India for "higher education" or "jobs" for the US. It's no more the most desired thing in the world to have a "mail order" bridegroom from the US. The Indian middle-class is growing in importance as a global market potential (hence the bewitching tourism options of Idaho and the Dakotas and articles on the value of US university education). The feeling of hope I could see and hear in the eyes of the students who sat waiting their turn for interviews was worth much more than relative inconvenience of the three hour wait.

Language is not for Communication

2011-05-08T16:37:00.000+05:30

Recently I was at a business meeting in Mumbai. As we entered the offices one of my colleagues asked our host if the security slip he had been handed (which required all sorts of personal details) would ever be tracked and hence did it really require us to have them signed. Our host responded without a moment's hesitation "Well, it's a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance". On noticing my colleague's quizzical expression our host rephrased it more pithily with something like "Security requires it". I say "something like" because I was still savouring his use of the phrase "a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance". One of my favourites from Shakespeare's, Hamlet (and there were so many in that one play itself). It took me a good few minutes to orient myself back to the mundane topic at hand as my mind wandered over the exquisite use of those few words, which collectively said so much, and so beautifully.

It's not just about English. It's about any language. It's also not in the use of bombastic words. A couple of weeks ago, a friend's son (who is in fifth grade) was asked to recite a poem about "festival" (in Hindi). Both father and son scoured the net for a suitable poem but found most poems pretty boring and run-of-the-mill. So he (in a fit of sheer madness, I thought) decided to write a poem for his son about a festival, in Hindi. Let me profile this guy a bit. He is an eminent scientist, from the South of India. Neither of these suggests depth or subtlety in Hindi (in fact that profile would often quite the reverse). However what emerged was a poem of such simplicity and lyrical quality that anyone would be amazed. That his son was awarded the first prize in the elocution competition is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the father's joy and love for the language has been permanently transmitted to his son. Now that's really worth something. I would have published the poem but would not want to do it without his permission (I do hope he publishes it sometime).

I rarely have strong points of views and have usually tried to not let that come in the way of what I write. However in this case I do not have any qualms in saying that language is not meant for communication. Infact, language is the finest form of art; and in the immortal words of Oscar Wilde "All art is useless". If we seek to create too much "use" for language then we run the risk of moving from being fundamentally esoteric and eclectic to the functional and prosaic. Tennyson said, "Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within". I am not one who considers myself an expert in any language - and that's not the point. Reading the greats of English - be it Shakespeare, Wilde, Shaw or Matthew Arnold or the more recent geniuses of the language - Peter Ustinov, Stephen Fry and Salman Rushdie - has been a lifelong passion. Their use of the language be it in wit or depth of thought is mesmerising. For that moment I feel liberated from the humdrum of life. It's not about great writing or literature. That is quite different. Language is the expression of beauty in the everyday of life. I am a lazy man (as most who know me would be quick to agree) but I much prefer to call myself indolent. Indolence appears classier. One can be tired but "exhausted" sounds far more dramatic. For that matter lovers "cooing like billious pigeons" is far more entertaining than "whispering sweet nothings" (which in turn is better than something syrupy like "walking hand in hand"). Communication is just a side benefit of language.

Let me recount a few classic turns of phrase of the modern day great raconteurs. Those who not only write beautifully but also are performers for whom humour is the use of wit - not foul language (though that can be funny too but sometimes get repetitive). Peter Ustinov, commenting on a rather garrulous lady once said, "Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much". At another time he was asked about how he felt as a parent. His response "I have three daughters and I find as a result I played King Lear almost without rehearsal". His children must have burst with pride to have a father capable of such a "one-liner". He once said he was "irrevocably betrothed to laughter. The sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world." One just listens in admiration and acknowledges the work of an artist. He did not use language for communication.

Stephen Fry is probably the most wonderfully intelligent and witty person I have ever had the privilege of reading, watching and listening to (he does quite a lot of radio as well). Recently he was asked whether there was a future for books with the introduction of "Kindle". His response was "Books are no more threatened by Kindle as stairs by elevators". His love of the English language is well known. His own view of language - "Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette. Language is the breath of God, the dew on a fresh apple, it's the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning sun when you pull from an old bookshelf a forgotten volume of erotic diaries; language is the faint scent of urine on a pair of boxer shorts, it's a half-remembered childhood birthday party, a creak on the stair, a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, the warm wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl, cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot." Phew! However while he is sometimes seen by the short-sighted as a sort of jaunty, upper-class TV comic he is infact an outstanding writer. In his book "Moab is my Washpot" he writes about the frustrations of being a gay teenager in public school system in Britain. "Choking with dry tears and raging, raging, raging at the absolute indifference of nature and the world to the death of love, the death of hope and the death of beauty, I remember sitting on the end of my bed, collecting these pills and capsules together and wondering why, why when I felt I had so much to offer, so much love, such outpourings of love and energy to spend on the world, I was incapable of being offered love, giving it or summoning the energy with which I knew I could transform myself and everything around me." The power of language, unbridled.

Language is for all of us. It is nobody's private property. It's power lies in imagination. We are not an gaping audience watching a spectacular opera or piece of classical music, knowing we could never hope or aspire to such greatness. Language is an art form that allows us to participate with it in our daily lives. It reminds us that we live our lives not for the ordinary but in the anticipation of the exceptional. The unexpected pleasure I derived listening to the business associate with a love for Shakespeare is one I hope to experience again and again. There is nothing to feel hesitant about using a word or phrase that is beautiful and majestic. Many of us fear we will be considered impractical or whimsical for trying to bring back real language into our interactions. The remainder have long forgotten the part of them that was inspired by a poem. Their first feelings of love and passion was not expressed in the form of a mundane sentence but usually tried to capture the depth of their emotions. Wonder how the SMS "i luv u" holds up against

I am not suggesting we burst into flowery language at the drop of a hat. It's just an awareness of the difference between the sublime aspiration of using language as an art form (even if it means using a quote) or the ridiculous depths of using it entirely to get a message across. I suppose like most things it has to do with one's family and early schooling. I have my parents and a few teachers in school to thank for having sown the seeds of the love of language in me. One does not need to be "good" at language (in terms of good grades or excellent public speaking). I was certainly good at neither of them. But I do appreciate the powerful use of language for something much more than the ability to communicate my thoughts. As we "evolve" our communication from letter to fax to email to sms (and after that who knows what) we certainly seem to foregoing the art part of language and concentrating on its mere utility. The onus on family and education to maintain the soul of the language within the hearts of our children is even greater. Just as my scientist friend did, we can all be awestruck by language and by that spread that feeling of awe to those around us. If not, we can admire its absurdity. In the immortal words of George W. Bush, that linguist par extraordinaire, "In my sentences I go where no man has gone before. I am a boon to the English Language". If he can be a boon I am sure a few of us could aspire as well.

Of Corruption and Us

2011-04-13T15:39:00.001+05:30

Are we all corrupt? What is corruption? The dictionary defines it as "Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery". That's pretty broad. What is a corrupt act? Here are some pretty standard acts of corruption

A payment made (financial or other) to a government official to "speed up proceedings" or to award a contract. The various scams in India over the past months (2G, Commonwealth Games et al are all part of the same as also bribing a tax official to make an income tax query go away)
A payment made to an official in a company or educational institution to gain business or right of admission.
Payment by real estate developers to get approvals (as also from homeowners to get occupancy rights or reduced taxes)
A political party uses cash and "gifts" to buy votes before an important election

So the above is clearly corruption on a "grand" scale. Let's see a few more situations.

Bribing a cop after speeding or running a traffic light
Buying a ticket on the blackmarket (or "scalping") for a movie, cricket match, rock concert, train ticket etc
In cities in India, the poor often have to pay to have a water connection placed near their home (or shanty)

Again most would agree this genre of acts can also be deemed as corrupt acts. Many term these as "petty" corruption - in reference to the relatively small individual ticket sizes. However these are the most prevalent in society today. The very same amongst us who denounce "grand" corruption would be quick to agree that many of us have at some point indulged in "petty" corruption – largely due to the relatively small "ticket size" and its widespread nature. Recently a friend went to see a movie and couldn't get tickets. He bought them on the blackmarket. After the movie he went for one of the anti-corruption campaigns being run in the city. I asked him why he felt he had the moral authority to protest against one form when he was perpetrating another form himself. No reasonable answer except to say "everyone does it". When I asked him he would ever take a bribe from a supplier of goods at his company he was most offended and required quite some placating. Clearly he felt his "moral compass" allowed him to buy a movie ticket but abhorred the idea of the bribe from a supplier. I will come to this point later.

Finally another set of scenarios:

A salesman (it is irrelevant whether he has a fancy designation attached to his name like Vice President even CEO - if he is selling some product or service to another firm then he is a salesman) takes his customer out for a fancy dinner or sends his customer dry fruits and gifts for Christmas or Diwali
A doctor accepts an invitation from the medical rep of a pharma company for a "technical" conference to improve his knowledge. The meeting ends with drinks and dinner (in India lot worse happens which I will not get into for now)
The family of the bride pays for the entire expenses for the wedding. They also provide "gifts" to the newly-wed couple to get them going in their life - TVs, Cars etc. The family of the bridegroom graciously accepts after some token resistance. Of course they are staunchly against dowry.

Some wildly varying cases but may be seen to have an element of "bribery" built in. Even giving a crying child some chocolate as a reward for stopping could be seen as the earliest teaching of bribery. Indeed any form of a "carrot and stick" has the potential to be seen as such. However clearly it is open to opinion and could be classified as "grey areas".

While I do not want to moralise or pontificate the source of the argument lies with "moral compass". Everyone has one and everyone justifies his or her own actions to themselves (otherwise it would be hard to live with oneself). The cases of petty corruption are the most rampant in society (as also the above "grey" areas). However it is their very prevalence in an individual's frame of reference that justifies them. If I've grown up seeing petty corruption (or other "grey" issues) transacted by people I would otherwise consider fine, upstanding and honest - my moral compass would allow me to do the same. Petty corruption becomes socially acceptable practice (at least socially practical). It would be foolish to be "holier than thou".

I would assume the same holds good for those who partake in "grand" corruption. Their peer group is all doing it and no one is getting caught. The probabilities are worth taking the risk. A businessman is used to taking risks. "Grand" corruption feels like the most acceptable of risks for the return. He would feel "foolish" not to bribe a high-ranking government official to ensure his company gets some allowances but would immediately fire his purchase manager if he knew that person was taking a bribe (two worlds collide).
"Grand" corruption within a frame of reference obviously feels quite normal for those who do it. They justify in just the same way those who perpetrate the "petty" stuff.

So what does all this mean? Can we ever root out corruption? Not until we root out human kind. But we can drastically reduce by exerting control. We have to make "petty" corruption socially unacceptable - just like we did with smoking. There is no way petty corruption can be fully controlled through any systemic means (unless mass hypnosis suddenly becomes a workable alternative). One has to use education; regulations and some blame & shame tactics to implement this. However the law alone is not the answer. Typically the more corrupt the state the more the laws (and India has many many laws). There is a silver lining in that some countries in the Western world have been able to reduce petty corruption - particularly that impacting the common man. That would be a huge start for India.

As far as "grand" corruption is concerned it is much tougher to root out as long as the probabilities make it sensible for people to give it a shot. It's here that a grassroots movement, driven by society - yes the very ones who indulge in the petty variant, can make a difference. Established forms of corruption can only be rooted out if the probabilities don't make it sensible for too many people to try their hand at it. It is here where democratic countries are most vulnerable as the people's representatives are also those who are the largest purveyors of corruption. A group of representatives from the "people" (like the jury model) could play an effective role in controlling such big ticket corruption (as being suggested in India through the Lokpal Bill).

Of course in an ideal world we would all change and develop a more sensitive moral compass. The reality is such a change is not practical or feasible to expect in a finite period of time. However, in the immortal words of Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV (not meant to be facetious by the way), "If I can change, and you can change then we all can change". For those who quail at the idea of such muscular analogies delivered by the Sylvester Stallone, let me quote Mahatma Gandhi . "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with dirty feet". That's a good place to start (and end).

Related reading:
http://neerajgarg72.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/a-responsibility-to-say-no-and-a-right-to-say-no/
http://ajitmahadevan.blogspot.com/2011/04/anna-whos-she.html

Anna? Who's She?

2011-04-08T12:04:00.001+05:30

Earlier this week, I was taking a morning flight within India and was at the airport watching the news on TV screens that seem to be all over Mumbai airport nowadays. For a change they had moved away from the topic of India's cricket win and were featuring Anna Hazare and his amazing attempt at galvanising India into action against the bane of corruption in our country. Two young girls in front of me were looking at the screen too. One said "Anna" (pronounced in the "Western" way) - Who's she? The other one chuckled and very knowledgeably responded "It's a He, and he's some social worker". They both then shrugged their shoulders and carried on an animated discussion having moved on from a topic that never really interested them to start with.

I would aver those two young girls; now know who Anna Hazare is. Along with them so does a large portion of India. Not just about him but what he is trying to achieve. What has amazed most is Anna Hazare's "sudden" emergence on the socio-political scene and the overwhelming response he has been receiving from regular people - whether by joining him in protests across multiple large and small towns, or by writing, blogging and just talking about the cause he is fighting for. The cause is one very dear to us - it is the last bastion towards the fight from India's independence - the fight against corruption.

First of all Anna Hazare is neither new nor is his emergence "sudden". He is 75 years old and has devoted his life towards rural development - in particular towards the development of a village in Maharashtra, Ralegan Siddhi. When he started work there it had been affected by drought, social ills like alcoholism and was in a state of extreme poverty resulting in migration to urban slums. Through his organisations efforts he was able to change the village to a "model village" using water conservation, education, and healthcare and encouraging a flourishing local business. The per capita income of the village increases more than ten-fold. Please check out http://www.annahazare.org/ for much more details. Amongst many other initiatives, he was also instrumental in getting us the "Right to Information" act. Why am I recounting all of this - for two reasons. Firstly, to say that Anna Hazare knows India well and has realised the future is the upliftment of our villages (something most of our politicians will only pay lip service towards but do nothing to help as it does not suit their interests). Secondly, very few people know that such outstanding work is being done by individuals like him (he is not the only one). Please check out http://nandigram.org/ and the stunning work done with tribals by the late Makarand Dave and the of the Valsad region of Gujarat. I am too small and selfish a human being to comment on these great souls other than very humbly say thank you. Thank you for caring so much and not being resentful of people like me who watch on in silent desperation, write blogs but do nothing.

India has always been a corrupt country. A recent survey by Transparency International ranked us as the 87th amongst the league tables of corruption across the world. What is most disturbing is that we continue to slide down this table. In 2006 we were ranked 70th (nothing to be proud of). But we don't need these statistics to tell us that if there is one area that is singularly responsible for preventing equitable growth in our country it is corruption. It permeates everything - right from law & order (corrupt policemen), government functioning, public distribution, income tax and of course the biggest of them all - policy making and governance (courtesy our politicians). However even by our "high" standards - the past two years have been disastrous. I can write and write and will not be able to recount the scale of corruption that has gone unchecked - commonwealth games, cash for votes, mining rights being sold, 2G, the appointment of the CVC, IPL, food distribution, fake pilot licenses et al. I feel nauseous to write any further.

The "Lokpal" bill - which is the cause of this entire standoff between Anna Hazare and the government - seeks to bring accountability in public life. It has been tossed back and forth for over 40 years (something I was not aware until Hazare brought it to notice). He has taken an extreme measure by going on a "fast unto death" until we get a clear way forward on the bill - with people's involvement in executing this and making it real. Naturally the politicians are baulking at such clear intervention from the people but are not left with too much of an option. Some commentators have suggested that this measure is too "radical" and have suggested restraint and discussion. Hazare has done that most Gandhian of things - go on a hunger strike - which is a form of non-violent violence that forces the hand of those who are prevaricating. Perhaps even he may not have expected the upsurge of support from India's young, middle-aged and old - poor and wealthy - were just waiting for such a call to come in support. People power - "the power of many" - has started moving the needle and the government looks nonplussed and caught between a rock and a hard place. With every day the support seems to be growing. What has been most gratifying is the rejection of any attempt by politicians from opposition parties to somehow join the rally.

I have to make a few notable exclusions to the support list. In India the most influential people other than politicians are filmstars, cricketers and industrialists. As far as the film fraternity is concerned, the big stars have been keeping mum. Top cricketers have been quiet too (perhaps the hangover the cricket world cup win and the forthcoming lucre to be had from the IPL is too distracting to think about such matters right now). The strongest silence has been from top industrialists - those who have been the first to condemn our corruption as the reason for lesser investment in India. We know words like "banana republic" have been bandied about in that context. When it comes down to it there is stony silence from these folks. Is it that they are afraid of the backlash from politicians or they realise how much they have benefited from corruption, palm-greasing et al using speed money. The smaller industrialists and entrepreneurs have joined this as they have been at the receiving end too. I only hope Hazare's health stays good and this issue is resolved quickly. India cannot afford corruption but we really cannot afford to have anything untoward to happen to Hazare.

When Egypt's uprising took place, many asked the question whether it would happen in India as well. I was sure India needed a popular uprising against corruption but never imagined it would happen in the way and manner it has - just two days after an Indian world cup cricket win - when rejoicing on the streets had barely ended. It appears almost miraculous. However, when a social ill reaches a level where "enough is enough" - we see the sort of reaction we are seeing today. What makes me proud is the non-violent manner in which the entire demonstrations have been carried out. There has been firm civil disobedience but no unrest. Hazare's inspiration, Mahatma Gandhi would be proud of his India. Let's hope India's elected officials recognise that the "party" is over and get on with the job they were truly entrusted to do.

P.S. Clearly the public outpouring of support for Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement had its effect.The government has agreed to make the requisite amendments to the bill. But this is just the beginning. The intent of the politicians will have to be reviewed repeatedly. However today is a day of hope. Thank you Anna.

On a separate note, the girl who wondered who Anna a week ago would not have the same doubts again.

No Country for Young Girls

2011-04-02T08:54:00.002+05:30

Warning: All those who want to have a good weekend - this is not the blog post you want to be reading.

As the country rejoices over our Indian cricket teams victory in cricket as we enter the final, a small but telling piece of data has been flashed a few times but not discussed in the kind of missionary zeal one would have expected from the news channels (right now there is only time for cricket - India's sex ratio in the category of age group 0-6 has shown its steepest decline since India's independence in 1947. Very simply put we are "erasing" more girls from being born in India than we have ever done in the past.

Is this a universal phenomenon - i.e. is it happening in all states? Yes. Let the numbers do that talking. Only 7 of the 34 regions witnessed growth in the girl child numbers since 2001 - Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Mizoram, Gujarat, Andaman’s and Tamil Nadu. Take a bow at least these 6? No as 4 of them - Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and HImachal Pradesh have such poor absolute numbers to start with (under 900 for 1000 males) that they hardly move the needle.
The laggards - the states with the lowest girl child sex ratio - J&K (biggest reduction across all states), Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat - the biggies. Punjab had the biggest gain but their overall numbers are still under 850 girl children per thousand males. I cannot feel too proud of their achievement unless this is repeated at an even faster rate in the next 10 years.
The smaller regions showed big drops - Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Manipur, Nagaland, J&K. No place to hide frankly
The few bright spots - Kerala (not surprisingly), Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Andaman’s, Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were not too bad either. - So the South and North East were significantly better than the rest of the country.

I am not going to say "shameful" or any such thing. I think people are just being practical. Why do I say that?

Rape of young women has shown the similar rate of growth as our GDP (perhaps even more). It's the fastest growing crime. In the time I took to write this blog (about an hour) over 20 young women were raped. Delhi, the nation's capital and city with the best roads - felt the need to top this statistic as well. Mumbai, I fear, is competing to be up there as well. I am sure we all remember seeing horrific images of a girl being molested by a mob at the gateway of India a few years ago.
Dowry related deaths continue to increase at about 10-12% per year. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar topping the charts.
Child Abuse - 53% of children in a reasonably detailed study reported some form of sexual abuse (according to the National Study on Child Abuse in 2007). The only leniency to the girl child here was that little boys were just as likely to be abused. One statistic in which there is equality. Finally some progress...
Maternal mortality due to neglect, domestic violence against women - all these are on the up. I will not enter into statistics like sexual harassment, discrimination at work - suffice to say that there is not a single statistic regarding women that suggest a positive trend. Statistics of where the women have to be the "supermom" - abound - but that seems minor (which it isn't) in the face of such overwhelming issues.
Under reporting is still rampant across all of the above. So the numbers we have are actually lower than the real situation.
Literacy for girls has increased but again of a very low base. Even today the general trend is for a choice to be made in education and boys to be educated over their sisters

What this means is that a girl born in India who has to survive child abuse, rape, wife beating, sexual harassment and dowry related violence has to be pretty fortunate. Of course after all that she cannot earn money for the family through dowry like boys can. With such odds, perhaps the "practical-minded" just find it easier to "erase" the girl child as soon as they can. If they can bribe the ultrasound technician and find the sex during the first few months then an abortion is pretty easy. If not and they have the child, then a nearby dustbin or a quick live burial can always be considered. If not that they are fed dry rice that would puncture their windpipes, swallow powdered fertilisers. Who said Indians cannot be innovative.

In many parts of India it is still the "wise course of action" provided as advice by elders to mothers of baby girls. My grandmother was offered this advice as well by some "well-wisher" when my mother was born. That "well-wisher" was never seen again. The "well-wisher" was a woman - as is tragically and often the case. This is not just a story with the poor in India - it's very much a middle-class malady.

There is so much rhetoric about India's respect for the woman. Our worship of woman deities, women prime-ministers and presidents, respect for the "mother" figure et al. none of this has over ever will cut any ice with me. If we cannot be a country for women that don’t systematically eliminate girl children, then all these hopes and dreams of economic progress are of very value.

There is hope, because there is always hope. But there is also despair when one is reminded of where we still are by statistics such as this. As a father of a baby girl - whom I adore, I am left with many more questions than any answers.

In Victory...

2011-03-27T15:34:00.006+05:30

Last year I embarked upon a series of posts that charted some of my experiences from trepidation about fatherhood to the gushing, pushover of a father that I am now. It's been almost a year since I confessed of my stupidity and moronicity on fears of being a father (my wife hastens to add that while I might feel the confession was made last year but most of my near and dear were well aware of this for quite a while and it was mere noblesse oblige that prevented them from mentioning it before). Recently an old friend on seeing a photo of my daughter and me termed it as "Baldy and the Beast". Clearly the noblesse oblige can only be contained so much.

Its fascinating to see how easily my daughter is able to have her way with me - whether it is buying her something, taking her out to the park or just muscling me away from watching a cricket match on TV so that she can watch cartoons). However the most illuminating has been how much she, in her loving and innocent way, shows me how much I have to evolve as a human being, hence taking over some of burden from my dear wife, who has tirelessly made efforts to reduce the said gap from the time we have met (not very successfully, I should add). But this post is not about my lack of wisdom (I fear a mere blog would not suffice for this). However it is about my evolution (or lack thereof).

Very predictably, the past month has seen be glued to the cricket world cup (even when those two powerhouses of world cricket, Kenya and Canada, played each other). A few days ago India defeated the defending champions Australia (just feels so good to write that sentence). The next morning, like a sensible cricket fans, who has watched the entire match the night before, I was watching the highlights. My daughter walked into the room and I excitedly told her, "India won. Defeated Australia". She looked at me with an indulgent smile and said, "Dad, wouldn't Australia be feeling sad?". To say I was deflated would be putting it mildly. I've seen tyres at the nearby rubbish dump appear sprightlier than I felt. Nevertheless if there's one thing I have its resilience. I sprung back with a telling response, "I'm just happy because India won?". I thought that was enough to take out a six-year old.

While I mentioned I do have resilience what I perhaps failed to mention is perhaps the absence of any "sense" (hey that rhymed) of my daughter's genuine skill for the knockout punch. Her response, "But Dad, India won. They must already be happy. It's Australia that's sad". She then moved on from a topic that was never of any great interest to her and left me reeling (as is often her wont).

Sir Winston Churchill once said "in defeat defiance, in victory magnanimity". It's not a bad approach to have in life. After this unintentional "wake up you Neanderthal" moment with my daughter, I have been horrified to notice the TV and print media in India's reaction to India's win. "India thrash Australia", "Indians pouch Kangaroos" and "Australia's night of torture and pain" were amongst the few I saw. Some of the local language media had even more colourful language deriding the Aussies and celebrating the Indians. There was also this "cleverly" constructed photo where it appeared as if an Indian cricketer, Yuvraj Singh was swinging his bat at the Australian captain (who was kneeling) - the title was "India Whup Australia". The article also talked about this victory ending careers of many leading Australian players. Guess Winston Churchill should have changed that quote above to read "in victory revenge". It's just not ok. I do not buy the rationale that "they do it to us, so now it's our turn".

I suppose I sound like a real "kill joy" and "poor sport" and should be more "chilled" in today's day and age where talking trash when you win is just the thing to do. However thanks to my daughter, I was reminded that something deep within me did not like this. Years of conditioning and even "expected social behaviour" may have desensitised me, but I feel there is something truly noble and great about winning with grace. I noticed that the Australian captain was choking back the tears as he gave his press conference and many press folks asked him insensitive question after insensitive question and suddenly I didn't feel all that exultant about the victory anymore. It was a great game and should have been celebrated as such. However in the quest for TRP's, advertising and revenues such language seems to sell - quite like a soap opera. It's pandering to man's basal instincts.

We all want to win. We all love to win. However is it really all that much fun to rub the loser's face in the dirt. No true sportsman would ever do that because they know what it feels like to lose and have their face rubbed in it. It's the media and commentators who believe in doing this so that we all are kept further engrossed. We all know it’s a circus and yet we are comfortable jumping to the whip of the ringmaster - like poor circus animals.

In a few days India play Pakistan. I hope India win (and win the world cup for that matter). Infact I hope India wins every match it plays in any sport. I don't mind the build up to the match and the banter and gamesmanship that comes with it. If India wins, I will not allow myself to find entertaining, the humiliation of the loser after the game is over. However much of a "boring git" it might make me out to be. If India loses, I will not find anything too entertaining anyway.
Thanks little girl...

Of Temptation and the Bigger "Yes"

2011-03-22T15:37:00.000+05:30

"I know I need to lose weight. Not just to seem less unseemly but also for my health. But darn it - every time I try I falter and its back to square one". Sound familiar? This could (and should) be me but it’s also innumerable people who are on diets to get fit and healthy. However the success rates are not always the same as the firm resolve with which the initiative was undertaken (which is why I have so much regard for those who are able to sustain it - keep it going guys - you are an inspiration to us all). However I don't mean only diet and weight - it’s about the "mammon" in is. Be it eating a sinful piece of cake corruption, tax-evasion, binge drinking, excessive shopping or philandering. These all are examples of matter winning over the mind (in varying degrees). Shakespeare said "Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart". Most would not deny that he's right but it doesn't change one's behaviour does it? Guess we all quite like the "scum of our heart". Or is it?

A writer/cartoonist that has been a fountain of wisdom for me is Bill Waterson (Calvin and Hobbes). Those of you who read him will nod in agreement (and perhaps even break into a little smile). The rest of you may certainly feel this is a new depth of shallowness (my wife would be ever present in that corner of the ring should you need company). Here's another nugget from that master. “Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I'm not sure that man needs the help”. I vehemently agree. We seem to do an outstanding job without too much help from the good man with fire and the trident. Oscar Wilde wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" We are doing the yielding to temptation part very well but not necessarily the "getting rid" part.

The Bible and most religious texts talk about temptation as the work of the devil. Let's take the case of the seven deadly sins (these were considered so lethal as sins go that it was prefaced with the word "deadly") - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. At least in a few cases one can argue that it is directed outward (i.e. at another person or thing) - like wrath, envy and pride. In the case of lust and greed - there is always the hope that one will not get caught (as in the case of philandering or corruption). It would be almost a self-destructive mindset that would push the limits of that sin. Yet we as a society are only getting more and more gluttonous (of course large portions of people have no feed to gorge themselves on) hence recklessly endangering our health. Or is it?

Is there something to be said for "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die"? The Epicurean way. Of course, legend has it that the Epicureans went another step ahead and after a particular sumptuous meal and drink, decided to use the old index finger to the mouth trick and hence create space again for more food and drink. While this may be an excess that defies logic (except to a bulimic mindset), there are still many today who would carry on their ways regardless of its consequences (until perhaps it is too late).

I am someone who has struggled to resist the temptation of good food all my life. However I was able to quit smoking - and have stayed off that beastly habit - for the past 18 years (fingers crossed it continues). I ask myself the question - why was I able to show the necessary will power with regards smoking and not with regards noshing on a whole bunch of unhealthy stuff? Perhaps the answer lies in the words of Stephen Covey. You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically - to say 'no' to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger "yes" burning inside."

How does one get a bigger "yes" (or the inspiration) and when does it suddenly start burning? A friend of mine, a chain smoker, gives up smoking for the month of Lent (unfortunately only to resume smoking the day after Easter). For that month his obvious craving for the smoke seems to be subsumed by the "bigger YES" of faith and belief. Another friend I know suddenly realised he was not a spring chicken anymore after a health scare and with a young child did not want to take further untoward risks. A confirmed foodie who loved his drink, he embarked upon an austere exercise and diet regime that resulted in significant weight loss. Each of us knows so many people who have shown the benefits that can occur when inspiration kicks in.

We are all aware of the ill-effects of alcohol or cigarettes as also of a poor diet and exercise regimen. Yet the flesh is weak and incapable of turning the tide until we are faced with something significant that breaks the inertia (Newton's Laws state, "you need an external unbalanced force"). It might be a disapproving spouse or child or the realisation of one’s responsibilities to one's family or even religious faith. While none of this is new, when events conspire to create a perfect storm that results in an AHA moment – the “bigger YES".

Wouldn't it be just brilliant if all of us could find the inspiration from within with no "external and unbalanced force" (and so much easier as well)? Sadly human beings, blessed with all the benefits of a brain are also cursed by an inability to control the mind. Solution: keep the intellect open and the bigger "YES" we are all seeking will manifest. This is the best of human spirit and almost impossible to achieve. It is man's final frontier - conquering one's own mind. Along the way one can seek help but this is a journey that must be traversed alone. I intend to embark upon this journey just as soon as I finish the bar of chocolate in my hand.

What If's of History & Coincidence...

2011-03-06T18:14:00.000+05:30

When I was in school, I remember reading a story about the great Mughal emperor Akbar and his wars with an Indian king, Hemu. It was certainly news to me then that there was a king that had actually defeated the great Akbar's army both in Agra and Delhi. Abul Fazl, the great poet and writer of the times, in his treatise Akbarnama, Fazl even suggests that Hemu was actually going to launch an attack on Kabul. The Mughal army decided to reclaim Delhi in battle and were again facing heavy losses, with king Hemu himself leading his troops. Just then a stray arrow pierced Hemu in his eye and he fainted. When his army saw him fall, they believed him to be dead and instead of fighting on, lost their nerve and lost the battle. That one arrow changed the history of the Mughal empire in India. "What If" that arrow had harmlessly sailed by Hemu?
There is, of course something called "Alternate History" where some eminent writers and historians have written about the potential impact to history if a particular seminal event did not happen (or did). What If "Pearl Harbour" did not happen, What if the Confederate States won the American Civil War, What if JFK had not been killed etc. "What Ifs" are fascinating at all ages - children love to imagine other alternatives to the norm. My wife, ("what if I hadn't been on some sort of hallucinogen when I met my future husband")was listening to my idea for this blog (of course another "what if" for her is more like “What If I had never suggested the idea of blogging to this chap”) reminded me of Shel Silverstein's poem "What If" that begins
"Last night, while I lay thinking here, some What ifs crawled inside my ear and pranced and partied all night long"... and goes on to describe all kinds of hilarious "what if's"

It's clear that even at an early age children know the importance of the "What if". What fascinates me is to look back at the pivotal role "coincidence" or "chance" has played in the evolution of the world and where we are today (sort of an extension to my general thought of the relevance of "superstition and luck" in our lives). Albert Einstein said "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous". Was it mere coincidence that on the same day Prince Siddhartha wanted to take a drive in his chariot outside of the confines of his palace, he should see three people who changed the world - poor, sick and the dying and started the journey towards becoming the Buddha?

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand is widely seen to have started World War I, leading to the great depression, the rise of Hitler, the Holocaust, World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulted in the cold war and Vietnam (amongst so many other things). Franz Ferdinand was to be assassinated but the attempt failed (the bomb fell behind his car and injured others). It was only because Ferdinand visited the injured without adequate security that it allowed this group in Sarajevo to have another crack at him. They were second-time lucky (as it were) and triggered the chain of events mentioned above. The rise of Hitler itself has to do with his failed aspirations as an artist (he was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna - twice). Since he had nothing to do he joined the German Army. The rest is history.

Napoleon Bonaparte, the "little corporal" of the French army with big plans of ruling Europe (he became emperor Napoleon - a very fitting end to the French revolution which started with wanting to cast of the nobility - another contradiction in terms) was born in the island of Corsica that was part of Italy until it was sold to France (in a sort of shady land deal not dissimilar to the ones done by politicians today). So he joined the French army around the time of the revolution - again the rest is history. If he had been in the more "cavalier" societal climate of Italy, he would probably have been giving people "an offer they couldn't refuse" rather than getting too involved in socialist causes that resulted in separating head and body - quite a departure from the original intent of separating state from government. I couldn't resist slipping in the refrain from "The Godfather" while trying to describe Italy - of course it is a caricature but one I find too irresistible to not include whenever I can!. Actually it’s more Italian-American that Italian (but since America itself was discovered accidentally by Columbus going westward to find India, perhaps it makes sense after all)!

There are so many What If’s to science that no truly great scientist will ever doubt the importance of serendipity in the evolution of science. What If the apple had not fallen when Newton was sitting under the tree? What if Archimedes had not filled his bathtub to the brim (he would have also saved men and women on the street quite a sight)? The microwave oven we all use today was accidentally discovered when scientists at Raytheon Corp were experimenting with a magnetron. The chance of fate was that one of them had a chocolate in their pocket which melted. The next time they tried using popcorn and hey presto. The real chance was that the scientist had a chocolate bar in his pocket.

In any great transformational movement, there have been a few moments which if they did not fall in a particular manner would have irretrievably changed history as we know it. One only has to surf the net to check out all sorts of unbelievable stories (I am sure many not validated). It also got me thinking on some of the coincidences and chances in my life. I can think of so many pivotal moments in my life that is always interesting to think "what if" it didn't happen (as I know it is for all of us). I guess that's why we all love the "twist in the tale". We know our own lives have had so many little twists and turns, ups and downs.

To me, the greatest coincidence that can ever occur is the question of how an idea pops up at the right time and right place. What if a particular thought did not occur? Now that’s a humdinger. Just leads one to feel that is truly exceptional in life is not based on anything deliberate but actually an elaborate series of chance events interwoven to make our lives exceptional as well.

Superstition and Luck

2011-02-26T06:54:00.000+05:30

Recently, when on a visit to London, I was chatting with a work colleague and the discussion turned towards superstitions (not sure what triggered the train of thought - it’s not a normal conversation topic for me!). He mentioned this bizarre superstition in Britain where it was felt a child riding on the bare back of a bear (but of tongue twister that) would be cured of whooping cough (Ah! I remember the discussion now - it was about tropical diseases positively impacted by vaccines like small pox and whooping cough). I would have thought a child riding on the bare back of a bear might have a few more things on its mind than just whooping cough. Of course we both laughed about how stupid the idea was. A few days later, back in Mumbai, while walking on the street a black cat crossed my path just a few metres ahead of me. I was amazed that I noticed it and was even more amazed that I was little relieved that someone else crossed that path before I did. It got me thinking about the entire idea of superstition.

Of course superstitions exist all around us. Different cultures have their own superstitions (though this black cat thing seems to have either been exported by the British or would count as one of India's early import’s along with spices). India is a land full of fascinating superstition and myth. But why are so many of us so eager to believe them? As a matter of fact I don't think that many people have faith in them. I believe most of us realise the importance of luck in our lives - despite the best of preparation, hardwork and intelligence it is often luck that can make or break. Rather follow the superstition than feel at the end that we had not courted luck. Of course the reality, as Francis Bacon said is that “the root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses”.

I find that the eccentricities and whims that often make up such myths, most entertaining. It adds variety to life. In India most new ventures are always started with a prayer or "puja" - to pray for its success. I've seen the most ruthless of corporate folks suddenly say they would prefer their new plant to be blessed by someone with "feng shui" or "vaastu" to ensure the "energy flow" is correct. Important meetings are planned (or not) on particular days or dates of the week. Essentially it's all based on blind faith with the eventual goal being a good one - namely the betterment of oneself or one's near and dear.

One of the most interesting to me is the level of superstition that exists amongst sportspersons. Often the more accomplished, the stranger are the quirks. The interesting part is that they spend their entire lives honing their body, mind and sporting ability to minimise mistakes and maximise the chances of winning. Yet they, above all, they seem to realise the importance of luck in winning or losing. One of world's greatest cricketers and India's pride and joy, Sachin Tendulkar, a man who has spent over twenty years honing his game, even today believes he has to wear his left pad first before he comes in to bat. Goran Ivanisevic, the charismatic tennis player, always wanted to be the second get up at a changeover between games. If he won a match during a major tournament he would repeat everything he did before the match (including visit the same restaurant!). Michael Jordan, "Air Jordan" wore his University of North Carolina uniform underneath his Chicago Bulls uniform - pretty much through his entire basketball career, since he thought it brought him luck,

It's not only sportspeople who suffered this. Politicians and actors (we all understand why clubbing these two together makes sense) have been known to be highly whimsical. Apparently the great Roosevelt ('FDR") - was scared of the number 13 and never travelled on Fridays. After the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, his schedule used to be okayed by an astrologer - only then was it considered confirmed. Apparently the great actor Al Pacino believes in paying strict attention to all the weird theatrical superstitions (and there are many). For instance he was most upset by a co-star who mentioned the word "Macbeth" backstage (it is supposed to be bad luck).

Unfortunately there is a murkier side to superstition. Essentially since most superstition is born out of blind faith - credulous people can be manipulated to behave in cruel and discriminatory ways - a perfect situation for bigots and politicians (again it would appear the politician is like a potato - works perfectly on the side of anything). Many social customs in India have been used keep "women in their place" like horoscopes for marriage, dowry and of course the now hopefully extinct practice of "sati" (the expectation that a woman to join her dead husband on the funeral pyre). Certainly, the medieval practice in Europe of burning a woman at the "stake" was really about making an example of those women who spoke out against the oppression of men. There are so many evil superstitions perpetrated by human beings against each other that I would prefer not to go down that path.

Some great men of have suggested we are all culpable in varying degrees in perpetrating the scourge of superstitious beliefs. We may consider our own whims harmless and even endearing, but it’s all the tip of an iceberg. Bertrand Russell said “"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." For me, I cannot be that hard about human frailty and weakness, because while we admire what is strong about each other, we nurture and love that which is weak too. Such nurturing leads to a love beyond compare and can conquer all the wickedness that lies in the souls of some of us. However I do resolve to be less affected by silly superstitions. Now if only someone would cross the path where that annoying black cat just passed, I will start this journey of self-improvement right away.

Of Bananas and Republics

2011-02-18T12:04:00.000+05:30

A few months ago, one of India's most eminent industrialists expressed his that India, if we were not careful, would go down the path of becoming a "Banana Republic". I've always found that term fascinating. When I first heard this term as a kid, I thought this sort of a place seemed pretty cool (since I like bananas). However it is anything but a cool place. It refers to a "servile dictatorship" that used large-scale plantation agriculture (like Bananas) for kickbacks. I think that's some pretty bad press for bananas. If India was truly a banana republic and each starving Indian could get a few bananas per day, life would not be so bad after all. However that one comment caused quite a stir amongst our media (it doesn’t take much to create a stir in our media) and politicians - many of whom seem to agree with this respected industrialist.

Anyone who has read any of my posts will realise the first paragraph I write has little to do with what the post has to say (chalk it down to my unbelievably poor skills at getting to the point). However what I am about to put forth is a set of questions to judge whether India is a banana republic or not. I would also like to add as an aside that industrialists and politicians, who have their fortunes by using and misusing the systemic flaws they publicly attribute as a reason for impending banana-ism, should perhaps introspect a bit. Their lot has only been benefited by our corruption, politicking, "license raj", leakages et al substantially. Nevertheless going ahead, I do agree that a country's environment must incentivise investment in manufacturing and infrastructure - the areas we need most to feed our burgeoning population of employable youth. So without much ado, here are some of the questions I pose to judge whether we are on the path to being a "banana republic" (BR)

1. Are we truly democratic? There are many who have written treatises on whether India is truly democratic or not. Let's take the facts of the 2009 general elections. They were free and fair (no hanging chads!). Of an electorate of over 700 million, almost 60% voted (an astounding 420 million or so). While there are state-to-state variances in voting, affluence (or lack thereof) cannot be attributed for low turnout. Relatively affluent states like Maharashtra and Gujarat as well as laggards like Bihar and UP all had equally poor turnouts. Even the always financially flushed capital city of Delhi had a low turnout. Women accounted for 45% of all voters. Typically lower income groups accounted for higher % of votes. In summary, this is about as reflective a result as one can expect to get. This is what Egypt and Tunisia are fighting for. Sure there may be anomalies and imperfections in the system but this is the parliament we wanted. We can debate whether we should have a parliamentary form of government or a presidential form (like the US) till the cows come home. But we have a government that is "off the people, by the people and for the people" (where Lincoln perhaps miscalculated in all his brilliance was to assume that a government of the people and by the people would automatically be "for the people"). Joseph Heller once said "In democracy you get the government you deserve. Alternately you deserve the government you got". Pick either side - after all it's Catch-22. Accountability for results and promises is still a long way away - whichever side you pick.

2. Do we have freedom of speech? This inalienable right is the public face of any democracy. During emergency in the 1970s there was an attempt to revoke this – the attempt resulted in the ruling party being unceremoniously dumped in the next elections. Today the overzealous press is an excellent example of our freedom of speech. Anyone who wants to say something inflammatory is bound to find a welcome ear, in the form the umpteen TV channels (in all languages), radio or newspapers. Infact the news channels like "rabble rousing" so much they taken to hire anchors who could easily win a "loudest voice of the year contest" if they weren't so busy shouting down their guests. This constant bellowing notwithstanding, it is true that the press has truly come to roost in India and will continue to play a crucial role in keeping the powers that be honest. I am not debating quality of discussion or the insightfulness of journalism. I am just saying the sheer number of channels all clamouring for share of voice will ensure free speech can never be curtailed for long. The truth will out - whatever the spin (and there is a lot of that).

3. Are we Secular? This is tough one and has various colours and hues. Some argue we are pseudo-secular and some argue that we are not secular at all. However there still is sense of outrage in most Indians when there is an act of violence perpetrated by one faith against the other. They still happen and faith-based politics (along with caste politics) remains one of the key vote banks. But recent signs are suggesting that people are beginning to assess their elected representatives by the basics - food, clothing, shelter and employment. The direction is positive. The pace may not be satisfactory but critical mass is moving towards focusing on the things that matter and should matter.

4. Are we equal? This follows pretty much in the same vein as the secular argument. Equality is an aspiration for all societies. People should not be judged by caste, religion or sex. Today we have challenges in all these three areas. Our caste system still prevents progress for impacting us the way it should (as also our attitude to women and girl children). These are societal ills. We cannot cleanse them and when you have a government that is formed from people from society; it is not surprising that the same ills are present in our representatives as well. Despite all aberrations, it is clear the road ahead is towards removing these ills. Like in the previous point on caste - the painfully slow pace may make many feel we are going nowhere - but at a macro level one can see the change. Just look at the movies of today and compare them to the movies of yesteryear. With each year the movies are less about these inequalities and more about a hopeful and equal future. The greatest inequality that exists and what we should be more concerned with is the growing income disparity. Growth in India has meant disproportionate gain for the middle-class and above but India still has many to whom this economic growth has meant nothing (this includes tribals and many people in the North-East of India).

5. Are we are a Just society. This is the toughest one by far to judge positively. Do we really have justice in our country? According to RTI (Right to Information - another reason why we are not a BR) we have 30 million cases pending in court (10% in the higher courts and the rest in subordinate courts). As a result there are about a quarter of a million people in jails awaiting a verdict (with neither guilt or innocence proved) and over 2000 of this have been in this state for over five years. What then gives me the right to say we have justice in this country? Add to this the political interference as well as the impact of corruption and one wonders what is left. Yet I say we do have justice in India. At least we have all the institutions in place to make for successful implementation. And if they choose, they can be independent. That is most important. There may be scoundrels in the system (as they are in all walks of life) but over a sustained period the system allows for independence of the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of the country. That they are in conflict – internally and with each other - is bad but overall probably helps our cause.

6. Are we Sovereign? As a country do we have a mind of our own or do we easily reflect the views of a powerful ally. In the last century, India, while remaining committed to the view of non-alignment (Nehru, along with Nasser and Tito introduced the non-aligned movement to the world). While many scoffed at that (given our obvious Soviet leanings till about 15 years ago), today the charge is we are too aligned with American interests. Is there then a place for India to exercise its own opinion in the voice of nations? Increasingly so. The economic downturn (and India emerging relatively unscathed) has only resulted in a stronger position for India globally. The size of India and consumer orientation will mean we will always be the market to focus on.

7. Are we fiscally responsible? During the heydays (late 1980s - early 1990s) of the American meltdown, inflation in Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia was such that it used to be joked that if one ate one's breakfast, lunch and dinner at breakfast, one would save money. A few years ago Zimbabwe had a year-on-year inflation of 11,000 percent. While India has never had such a situation, we have been contending with an inflationary environment for years now (with the past year being particularly bad). Despite all these challenges we managed to emerge from the economic downturn largely unscathed.

Are these the only seven questions that determine whether India is on the path to becoming a banana republic? Of course not. However they are seven important questions which do factor in any such assessment. As I wrote about each, it is clear one can see the flaws in our system for each of the above, but I was not able to see any of them turning in a manner that one had to fear us becoming a banana republic. However the greatest weakness that everyone talks about is our poor “governance”. Essentially this means people not doing what they are supposed to do. This one issue can overturn many of the positives India's system and structure offer. Then let’s talk less about banana republics and more about how we can reduce the volume of banana peels we are throwing in the path of our own progress.

When do people feel enough is enough?

2011-02-14T21:15:00.000+05:30

Egypt has just shown what the power of many can do? Not that any one of us had too much doubt over what a large group of motivated people can do. In 18 days Egypt went from being an autocracy for most of its recent past to being a country with people who could bear it no longer. I marveled at the dignity and forbearance with which its people resolved to evict their dictator. The world took notice and pretty soon the dictator - who threw all means - fair and mostly foul - eventually legged it out of the country.

But this post is not about the political fallout of this on the Middle East or even of the future of Egypt. What got me thinking was simply one thing - what was the tipping point that suddenly made millions of Egyptians feel this is enough. Suddenly the tipping point overcame any fear they may have had of retribution or violence from the regime. Using a largely peaceful approach, the people of Egypt got what they wanted. The question is -what took them all these years? Was it the really facebook, twitter, satellite TV that brought to a focus and attention their own concerns over high costs of food, corruption, unemployment, poverty etc even compared to their own neighbours? Was the unrest in Tunisia merely the spark that triggered the fire?

If one looks back at modern history a revolution caused by people is certainly not unusual. Right from the prophet Muhammad, the Hogen rebellion of the Samurais of Japan, the wars of Scottish Independence or the Catalan revolt of the 16th century (I have stayed away from including the Crusades because I do know enough to have a view whether it was people led or really political - there are many suggestions to the latter). The world has witnessed hundreds of rebellions - usually "peasants" or "workers" uprising against royalty or the ruling classes. Critically - after the uprising, the peasants have gone back to doing what they really wanted to do - i.e. make a livelihood for their families. The uprising was a means of ensuring their just claims were taken heed.

In the more recent times, the American War of Independence stands out as a unique movement not only as it began the eventual end of the British Empire (of course it took almost 200 years after 1776 before the British Empire was finally laid to rest). It was also critical because it was one of the triggers for the French Revolution just 13 years later. Clearly the issues for America and France were very different but the French were inspired by the success of the American war of independence and the constitution of America (which in turn had taken inspiration from the doctrines of many French philosophers like Rousseau and Voltaire). Perhaps what took 13 years in the 18 century took a few days in the 21st century? The independence struggle of India against the British - on the premise of non-violence and civil disobedience, was another watershed event. It was a mass movement that found an unlikely leader in Gandhi - a quiet man who had the unbelievable view that he could "shame" the British into leaving. And he did. Most recently we say two amazing human beings - Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela - fight for that most fundamental of rights - respect and civil liberty.

It is clear that all these movements were not short term - there were peaks when the world took notice (like the storming of Bastille or Dandi March). However the tipping point in each of their cases that caused the ultimate reaction is difficult to pinpoint. The commonly held view is that it is derived from that most fundamental of sociodynamic constructs - critical mass. Is there enough momentum in a movement that it becomes self-sustaining? All societies (autocracy or democractic) have inbuilt in them rebellion. Establishments try and prevent that "tipping point" - using logic, socialisation and of course fear and coercion. However if a movement has enough momentum a point will come when it becomes unbearable and that's how change happens.

It is equally interesting that after the desired result is achieved most people-led movements dissipate as they go back to the day-to-day challenges of providing food, shelter and clothing to their families. That's probably why most such movements leave a huge void once they have achieved their end state. That void can either be filled with something virtuous or something violent. The French Revolution was followed by decades of bloodshed as the nobility was found and brutally guillotined publicly. The American War of Independence was followed by a constitution and a President that provided some stability but the issues that plagued their society - the conflict between the North and the South - resulted in a bloody civil war less than 100 years later. Most other countries where there has been a people's revolution, has seen acute suffering as the void created has been painfully filled (the exception of the recent past seems to be South Africa).

What will happen to Egypt? Will the times to follow maintain the dignity of the uprising? Will the people power finally come to be in a reasonably orderly fashion or will there be some vengeance play that will play out between the past and the future. Of course all of us hope and believe in the former. However I would like to take heart from the relatively bloodless rebirth of South Africa. The provocation was no less severe. It requires the wisdom of a man like Nelson Mandela. But it certainly doesn't hurt that the omnipresent media will ensure some level of monitoring. That leaves me with lot of hope for the future of Egypt and along with it all of mankind. Egypt is one of the cradles of civilisations - a strong Egypt is in all our interests.

Egypt is not the only country with issues. There are so many countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa facing similar issues. Will the spark that was lit in Tunisia and raged in Egypt become an uncontrollable forest fire destined to burn and burn? Are we looking down the barrel of a "perfect storm" of people power? Having said that, I believe we are just beginning an era when the "power of many" will finally outlast those of the few. There will be some attrition and pain during this process but inevitably it will result in a more sustainable society for us and generations to come. That's a hope worth hoping for. If enough of us believe that, we will get to critical mass.

Politeness and Niceness

2011-02-08T13:32:00.000+05:30

An old friend posted something interesting on facebook a couple of weeks ago "the way you treat others, shows your class" (and by class he meant a "classy" individual and not some kind of snobbish class distinction). Got me thinking. I've always loved this anonymous quote "‎"Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, or because you want them to be nice, but because you are". Pretty sums up one of the oldest "treat others as you would have them treat you". However is politeness the same as "niceness"?

From my perspective, polite is not the same as "nice". Infact "niceness" is often not even "good"ness. To me niceness is a deliberate visage people put up as they seek to influence you or sometimes even control you. "Be nice to people on your way up as you will see them on your way down" or "be nice to people till you've made your first million, then people will be nice to you" is the usual refrain on niceness. It is more of a strategy and sometimes can lack "genuineness" (goodness - that's too many words ending with a "ness"!). Unfortunately these words are used interchangeably by us. They could not be more different.

I believe politeness defines a person. How a person treats another - particularly those who may be financially or otherwise dependent on them is the true test of the mettle of an individual. Does that mean one must always say "nice" things to everyone? Of course not. If one has to be firm then that's what you've got to do. However one can do so politely and pleasantly without being nasty. I wouldn't go so far as to do a "Godfather" on people ("it's not personal, it's just business") but for the most part I believe losing one's cool when one has to communicate something to another - particularly someone who is not in a position to give it back in the same manner - is a sign on one's own weak character and personality.

As in most things, politeness probably starts with the way one is treated as a child. I notice many adults and parents who deal with their children with the greatest of respect and that is reflected in the language used as well as tone of voice. Even if something is said firmly, it is said so without raising one's voice or using language that would suggest they have lost control. Treating a child like they are a "little" adult would appear to be the easiest thing in the world. Unfortunately I have also seen parents shout at children at the slightest pretext. I would aver that expecting politeness from a child who has not been shown that common courtesy is a tough ask. They probably grow up to use the same approach that was used on them.

Is politeness truly a desirable trait? I believe so. Politeness just shows that one respects oneself and the person one is communicating with. It does not mean one is agreeable (that goes back to the "niceness" angle). My guess is even the most polite amongst us is impolite quite often and I know for a fact I am impolite much more than even that. That's why I know how much I would like to rectify those occasions when I am not polite.

The workplace is the one area where "politeness" and "niceness" can be observed in all its various hues. However I do feel that sustained politeness results in better team work and camaraderie. It tells each member of the team that they are valued as well as respected enough to be honest with. Over a period such relationships build the kind of camaraderie that can result in successful organisations (whether corporate or otherwise).

So is there a place to just "vent" ones emotions. Yes there is. It usually is done in relationships where one is most secure and comfortable as well as where there is no power dynamic present. Siblings, best friends and spouses are the categories who are targeted for this special dispensation. I have often heard people lose their rag and then say "I feel close enough to you and that's why I can vent emotions without thought for what you might feel". Having said that, who am I to comment on the varieties of close human relationships - if it works, it works.

In a world where one increasingly finds "politeness" viewed as "weakness" (we are back with the "ness"es again), I feel a polite person is an evolved soul. In the short term an impolite person may make some small gains but over a lifetime they are doing themselves a disservice. Alexander Pope said "True politeness consists in being easy with one's self, and in making every as easy as one can". Now that's something worth aspiring for. And if I am to be "polite" to myself - I have such a long journey to traverse.

Righting the Reading Gap

2011-01-31T11:19:00.000+05:30

When the BRIC report came out in 2003 it said many great things about the future of Brazil, Russia, India and China. I remember even then only one thing stood out as really important as far as India was concerned - not that India's growth rate would be higher than China's and not that we would be the third largest economy by 2040. Only one statistic - that India would add over the next 20 years (till 2030), a staggering 250 million to our workforce. These are those who are in school today (or going to enter school in the next few years). Against this number China will add a mere 10 million people and Brazil 20 million in the same timeframe. Russia will reduce by 20 million. Essentially this means India will have to support the requirements of not only India but of the world in terms of labour. It represents a significant opportunity but also means that if we do not get our act together and provide them with gainful education and employment, we would have a huge disenfranchised youth with nothing to do. A time bomb that's ticking...

The agenda is clear for India - education has to be the most important focus area. No point in investing in a huge defence budget against international terror and war when one would be breeding a potential army of 250 million of one's own who could be against the state. The issues we see today in North Africa - Tunisia, Egypt and increasingly Sudan - is the issue of millions of educated youth, who have access to the internet and understand what's happening in the world and what those opportunities for themselves. In the case of India we have always prided our "stability" (another word for the patience of the many downtrodden in our country who have listened to one more failed promise after another and yet have the hope and faith to come back in droves to vote). It's as simple as this - we need to put in place an education system on a mass-scale - and this time we need to educate our girls as well. Our current minister for education also has telecom as a portfolio. Doesn't this one issue justify a minister all for itself?

The success of China over the past twenty years can pretty much be traced to one event - educating its huge labour force and people - men and women. In China women are a significant contributing member to the work force. Overall in India one-third of our people are not literate (China has a literacy rate of 95%). When one does a gender cut the situation is even more stark - almost 50% of our women are not literate. In addition to the impact low female literacy has on other social issues like family planning, female infanticide, dowry and healthcare, low female literacy has a debilitating effect on driving a faster growth of education even amongst their male children. Statistics clearly show that educated mothers are far more likely to have more successfully literate children.

"Righting the Reading Gap" in India will automatically right many of our gaps we have today. Infrastructure and healthcare being starters - that will have to be sorted out if we are to grow at anywhere near the rate we are. There is of course another amazing statistic which suggests 700 million Indians will be urbanised by 2050. So the agenda is clear - "Educate our people". The rest (infrastructure, healthcare and jobs) will inevitably follow. How can one be so sure about this? Well today India's economy is roughly 17% agriculture, 20% manufacturing and the remaining services. India's future will be by making productive use of cheap and well-trained labour force. This is the sustainable way for a country like ours to ensure employment and job growth. It all starts with having an educated workforce. Skills imparting can only come after a base level of education is imparted.

Of course the challenge is clear - we have huge state-wide variations in literacy. Bihar at less than 50% and Kerala at 95% being on two ends of the literacy curve. The impact on other social indicators also shows what impact literacy has. Let's just take one - Kerala has an infant mortality of 10 per thousand while Bihar has 61. But can we learn from Kerala's successes in education (I am not sure we should learn from their employment generation statistics but literacy is perhaps something worth emulating). It started in some parts of Kerala in the 80s but by 90s there was a sustained state-wise campaign for total literacy that was triggered by the district administration in collaboration with other voluntary groups and NGO's - the critical word being collaboration (Kerala's challenge has been the lack of quality in education - that's another issue - and a material one at that). India has huge administrative machinery at the state, district and central level but the typical approach has been to assume they are corrupt and ineffective and try to drive initiatives without taking them with you. The phrase "leakage" is a unique one but refers to the % of funds allocated that actually make it to affected people - be it in food, microfinance, infrastructure or education. The current Home Minister (and erstwhile finance minister) Mr P Chidambaram has recently mentioned in Davos that the "greatest swindle in India" is the building of roads with only 50% of funds are actually make it on the highway! A friend of mine recently said that the daily "collections" of traffic policemen in the city of Delhi is Rs 5 crs per day. When the volume of corruption is at such a level how can one ever hope to incentivise the system towards real goals of making things happen on the ground. Here's an internet joke I saw yesterday that tragi-comically sums it up:
"Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in D.C. One from Bangladesh, another from India and the third, from China. They go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Bangladesh contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well", he says, "I figure the job will run to about $900. ($400 for materials, $400 for my team and $100 profit for me)". The Chinese contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700. ($300 for materials, $300 for my team and $100 profit for me)". The Indian contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700." The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure? The Indian contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from China to fix the fence.""Done!" replies the government official." If nothing else, at least we can laugh at the situation.

The education system today is no different from most of our other systems that utilise "public distribution". It fails on a mega-scale and the people who make money are the middle-men and politicians. However that is not a good reason to give it a real shot. India has so many challenges that one can always argue if education is the one area to give top priority. Isn't spiralling food costs, poverty alleviation, unemployment and terrorism far more important. I don't think so. All the above are symptoms - the cure for which lies somewhere in providing a sustainable future for our people. Education is the proverbial "fishing rod" for our population. All other sops are just "fish" that are tossed to our starving masses around election time to garner votes. It will invigorate domestic consumption such that our companies will struggle to meet domestic demand.

The task is a labour of Hercules - cleaning the Augean stables perhaps. In the original story Hercules realises the effort is so "herculean" as the stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years. Hercules rerouted two rivers to clean out the filth in a short period of time. In India, the rot has set in for perhaps more than 30 years and will need some huge force of nature to be trained in the direction for this to be successful. My suggestion is the "two rivers" with the force to provide the resultant effect when it comes to education are - the news media and Bollywood. These are the only force of nature that can force some level of compliance and awareness. Let the channels pick up this one issue and report progress at centre, state and district level. Let our iconic actors spend a few second less hamming for the screen and supporting the cause of literacy. One will see how things will change. Sounds fanciful - of course it does. But we are now left with not much of a choice. 250 million children are in the pipeline and we need to find work for them (our girls too). Then we can rewrite the BRIC report as having been conservative in what India can achieve for its own people. If that's not a good enough incentive then let's do it because it is the birthright of every child to be educated - it brings out the best in them.

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.” - Swami Vivekananda

The Power of Many

2011-01-25T05:23:00.004+05:30

When I started writing this, I did not know of or envisage the scale of events that would transpire in Egypt, Tunisia and the potential to impact many countries in West Asia. It is a momentous occasion when one of the world's oldest civilisations makes such a strong and powerful statement for the "power of many". Democracy has existed in the world for over 250 years but it is only now, with the democratisation of knowledge and information, that the impact is being felt. I truly feel we are entering unchartered territory here. The powerful old despots who ruled and continue to rule so much of the world will feel the weight of something they have not really cared about so much - public perception. We may warmly accept the "power of many" or we may fear it. But we have to deal with it.

The blog below deals with the "power of many" - both at an individual, social and political level. However I do not mean to be political because that was neither the intent nor am I qualified to opine. I am just one of the many - and there really are many.

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I've been reading and listening to so many platitudes about Steve Jobs, the iconic founder of Apple, that one would imagine that he had passed away. The trigger is that he has taken a leave of absence for ill health. When this was announced the Apple stock price dipped (only to be revived by a strong earnings performance for Q4 2010). However there are many articles questioning the future of Apple. How will it survive if Jobs was unable to return and words to that effect? I find it amazing that a $65Bio company with over 35,000 very smart people is still considered to be vulnerable without its one leader. Got me thinking - how important is the "power of one"?

The "Power of One" is pretty amazing. I am not really talking only of leadership skills (though it is inextricably linked). It is about the importance of a visionary. Jack Kemp, the US politician who was given the Presidential medal of honour in 2009 once said, "The power of one man or one woman doing the right thing for the right reason, and at the right time, is the greatest influence in our society." History is certainly full of so many stories of great people - be it da Vinci, the quintessential "man of the renaissance", Gandhi, the small man in loincloth who fired the imagination and patriotism of a billion Indians and overthrew a powerful British empire only using truth as his weapon, Buddha - who sat under a tree and achieved enlightenment - and then decided to shed the same this light to the rest of the world, Joan of Arc etc. Millions of people all over the world followed them - without doubt. We all love the "David and Goliath" stories - the ones where one person beats all odds and wins - all in a noble cause. Hollywood feeds of this kind of stuff (Rambo, Die Hard et al). Man is a social being but we love our individual heroes.

Andrew Carnegie once said "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results". That's the exciting bit - attaining "uncommon" results. Not surprisingly the power of one is infact the power of many. But isn't it true that when one looks at the world, the needs and wishes of the "one" have often superseded those of the "many".

While its important to nurture the truly exceptional, for the most part it follows the 80-20 rule. It's 80% (maybe even more) that give the 20% of the people a reason to exist (and vice-versa of course). The "Power of Many" is the power that can move mountains. In the Presidential elections, Barack Obama tried something innovative for his campaign funding. While he did have big contributors, he brought in a whole bunch of small contributors - people who would contribute $25 towards his campaign. He had millions of contributors which served the dual purpose of resulting in a huge campaign fund but also got the regular voters engaged in the election process and what he was saying. It was a master-stroke - politically and financially.

It is perhaps only over the past 15-20 years that the power of many has truly come into its own. The key driver for this has been the spread of electronic media through satellite tv, internet and mobile phone. In the past the only way to communicate was through newspapers, radio and terrestrial TV. While politicians and companies used these media to sell themselves, their penetration is nowhere near what it is now. The internet and mobile telephony has taken this to a new level. What Obama did could not have been possible without the net. Facebook has over 500 million users.What a powerful tool that is. Advertisers around the world care only about TRPs, hits and eyeballs. The past few years have seen a democratisation of information like one has never seen before. Also we have gone from a culture of measured responses to instant responses. As an event (whether sporting, political or business) unfolds we have influential people "tweet" their thoughts and views. It's not about whether its right or wrong or better or worse. It is what it is.

The coming millennium will finally be about the "Power of Many". The visionaries will be the ones who can use the internet in creative and effective ways to put across their views. Even in countries like India, where net connections are still only on the rise, this phenomenon will overwhelm anything we have seen so far. The good part - people will be back in control rather than a few people controlling what we saw. Even autocratic countries where truth is not shared openly, will have to bow down to this huge avalanche of people connectivity. Ignorance being used as a tool by politicians to spread hatred and corner votes will be a thing of the past. The current obsession with "appearances" that has been fuelled by television and media will undergo a change as people learn to see beyond externalities and look for the real stuff within a person or product. Two hundred years after Abraham Lincoln said it, we will finally have a government and life of the people, by the people and for the people. What an exciting time to be alive? But isn't it always.

Of Philanthropy, Charity and Giving

2011-01-18T02:08:00.000+05:30

The world and all of us within it chugs along. The rich get richer, the middle-class move up the income curve and the poor, well, they seem to stay where they are or move to slowly to make a real change in their lives. A friend sent me this amazing short film (4 mins) which shows the progression of 200 countries over 200 years in 4 mins. Am copying the link for all to see <http://www.flixxy.com/200-countries-200-years-4-minutes.htm>. The conclusion is not something we are unaware of - that all countries were pretty much in the same position 200 years ago but today there is huge gap with the US and Europe leading the pack, Asia and Latin America in the middle and African countries bringing up the rear. I am not going to get into geopolitical, social and other reasons for these changes but the summary takeaway is that in order to maintain an overall equilibrium in this world, financial aid, philanthropy - call it what you want - continues to be a dire need. Not only between countries, but critically, between people.

Just last month, one of India's richest business leaders, Azim Premji, moved about $2 bio of his personal wealth from the shares in his company Wipro, to his foundation. There was the usual cynical responses from some who saw this as a tax-saving measure, others who felt it represented a mere drop in his ocean of wealth and even a few who went over the top referring to him as one of the most giving people in the world. The world will always want to see ulterior motives to everything but regardless of whether there is some tax saving to be had; it is something we as a country and as a world are in sore need of. Over the past few year we saw people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet really set the bar by setting aside huge portions of their wealth for philanthropic uses (close to $100 Bio). Not only have they set it aside, the Gates Foundation has actually put in place a distribution mechanism to ensure the funds are disbursed effectively.

Gates and Buffet are pretty amazing for what they are doing. The focus is "providing the tools and then teach to fish" rather than providing the fish itself. However they are not the pioneers. Even in the 20th century people like Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie - in the US - have bequeathed huge portions of their fortunes to foundations that have promoted innovation, art, education and supported charities in the US and around the world (to name a few). Their focus was always on building sustainability. Rockefeller once said "Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it". I know a little more about the Carnegie foundation, since I went to a university founded by him in the late 19th century - Carnegie-Mellon (then called Carnegie Institute of Technology). During our orientation, we were shown a film on his philanthropy. I have been and talked to students of many good schools & institutes in India, but don't believe that the entering students are shown people like him as a life worth aspiring for. He was a hard-nosed and tough businessman. As a Scot, he valued every dollar he spent. Yet when it finally came down to it, his family received a very small part of his inheritance. The passion with which members of the Carnegie Foundation, spoke about this and their work has stayed with me. I remember visiting the beautiful Bienecke rare book and manuscript library at Yale University. When I mentioned to the librarian that I was from Carnegie Mellon, she said that I had a greater stake on this library than anyone from Yale because the donations for this incredible building came from the Carnegie foundation. But I did not mean for this to be a piece on Andrew Carnegie.

India and many other emerging economies, have often been questioned for not being as charitable. India is often referred to as a "rich country full of poor people". While we have many wealthy industrialists who have "donated" to the cause of India, it has perhaps been felt that not many have given big. In the context of this, I had a few questions in my mind - some which I will seek to answer and some which I just want to raise.

1. Is it still too premature to expect Indian industrialists to give in the manner in which a Carnegie, Rockefeller or Gates-Buffet have? Carnegie's work began in the late 19th century and came in full force after the First World War (during the Great Depression in the US). Is India of today not at the same level as the US of the early 20th century? Certainly that's true economically. So what's the issue? The huge wealth just seems to go to their families (who may or may not be equipped with the talent and skill to run the organisations they inherit) resulting in the inevitable squabbling for the pie. What a waste!

2. Most Indians feel they pay huge taxes and nothing much comes of it. The first part of the statement is not true. India has one of the lowest tax regimes and surprisingly we still complain. The second part is true - our public distribution systems and government organisations who disburse funds are corrupt and ineffective. The result is nothing happens except for disillusionment. People who have and want to give do not because they know it will not trickle down. We are much more willing to give large sums of money to temples like Tirupati or Godmen (who in many cases do set up some real institutions but not always). While it's actually pretty much a global feature - most people are more comfortable in just giving to religious institutions than political or social ones as the feeling is at least there heart is in the right place - India seems to trump most others in this. So we also see many of our industrialists who seem reticent about philanthropy build fancy temples all over the country.

3. Are Indians essentially not a giving race? That is not true. As a proportion of their income, middle-class Indians give a much larger sum away through charity (referred to rather crudely by certain NGO's as "cheque-book charity" - what's so wrong with that?) and at least partially supporting one (sometimes two) domestic workers and their families - in terms of employment, children's education, health etc (of course that amount is too little for their needs when prices are going northwards). Nevertheless a family that earns Rs 5-10 lakhs a year may be spending 10% of that on supporting one domestic worker (salary, loans, children's education etc). However as we move from middle-class to the rich the % of giving as a proportion of income may not stay the same. Someone who earns Rs 100 lakhs is probably not giving away Rs 10 lakhs. So do we get more tight-fisted as we get richer?

The answer to this question lies somewhere in the individual or societal answer to the question - Philanthropy, Charity and Giving - what's the difference between these? I love the etymology of Philanthropy - "the love of what it is to be human". Under its umbrella come all altruistic initiatives of private individuals towards a societal or public good. The government has within it a key role of doing much of the same, but philanthropic organisations provide both the capital as well as the organisation to make things happen. While by definition, charity should not be too much different; in actual fact charity tends to more short-term. It fills an immediate and short term need. However it may not have the ability to influence the evolution of societies and humanity in the way that philanthropy can.

So what is giving? Kahlil Gabran, in the Prophet, has a beautiful piece on Giving that I would strongly suggest that all read. But let me just quote a couple of lines...

"You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?"

The evolution of a soul towards "giving" is not one which can be easily institutionalised. If society becomes a "giving" one, then the above discussion is relevant. We will always have inequities but we will not have to strive so hard to bridge them and provide basic services to the poor of this world. However we can become more charitable and philanthropic. This can be institutionalised - if role models are provided to younger kids that giving back is actually "cool" and something desirable in the evolution of a human being. For all its defects the US does manage to do this well. Many Americans feel strongly like contributing to their schools, universities, local libraries, parks as they see it as part and parcel of life. It may not be $100 bio but it is a small and regular. India needs to find more societal constructs that make it cool to give back. As it is now the role models make it cool to own a fancy house (or building!), buy a fancy car or spend lavishly on designer clothes. The aspiration for the young in our country is all wrong when they see all of us behave in such a hedonistic manner. This is not to suggest that the US is not hedonistic but as far as individual philanthropy and charity is concerned they've certainly got something right (though it is not a "giving" culture).

So where do we go from here. I think the future of philanthropy and charity in India is bright. There will be many more cases such that the aspiration of young person in India will not just to be rich enough to buy a house or a yacht or a Ferrari car, but rich enough to take care of a few villages, build and support a university or school. As India goes down its inevitable path of growth and prosperity, I am sure all of us will want to give not only to Indians but to people around the world where the need is felt. if India could make smoking uncool we can and will make philanthropy cool. And what about becoming a "giving" culture? That's a topic for some other time and for some other more evolved person.

My 50th... With thanks to all...

2011-01-15T07:35:00.000+05:30

It's been almost a year since my first blog post and I am writing my 50th post. When I started writing I had hoped to find something to "muse" about every week. Surprisingly and most enjoyably (for me) - I have.

I have been writing meaningless musings for many years now. Not with anything like the kind of frequency I have over the past year but with reasonably regularity. They are usually inflicted on family and friends via email. Sometime towards the end of Feb last year, I wrote a piece after Sachin Tendulkar hit a double century titled "Sachin Tendulkar dedicated his double century to me". My wife decided enough was enough and decided to finally squelch this stupidity by asking me to start a blog (of course she was quite discreet and couched it by saying that I should start a blog and include this as my first post) with the fervent hope that public ridicule would certainly ensure I put a sock in it. But she did not count on the largesse of my friends and the others who may have accidentally read some of my posts (I've seen her expressive left eyebrow raised on many an occasion when no abuse has been heaped on some of my tripe). However on a more serious note, I have my wife to thank for getting me started on a journey that has become an integral aspect of who I am. Also all my friends and other readers who have kept my motivation up and provided so many ideas for blogs.

A friend asked me a year ago - why "A Misfit" - since my work, life and career suggest I am about the most boring and mainstream kind of guy you can get. Nothing adventurous or risky has been tried. I don't really think I am a "Misfit" but perhaps it is as much an aspiration to be a "Misfit" than anything else. In the words of Cervantes in the "The Man of La Mancha" - "When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? To surrender dreams - -this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all - -to see life as it is and not as it should be". Only a true misfit can seek to see life as it should be and not as it is. I am nowhere near getting there but I can hope.

For me, the part that has been most enjoyable about blogging has been reading comments – all of them. Whether in twitter, facebook, by mail, sms or in the blog - they have been brilliant, insightful and taken the discussion to a level that I had not envisaged. I've just picked a few randomly as a means to say thank you - from the bottom of my heart - for caring enough to comment.

1. The blog "Feet of Clay" - about the degradation in society and worshipping false gods. "A few quick observations that I wanted to share : (1) Moral failure : I think engagement in the world and disengagement with our true self exposes us to the possibility of such failures. It is something all of us are vulnerable towards. The desires of lust, greed etc. are spiritual challenges that shape our evolution. Ramana Maharishi spoke about a highly evolved yogi who lived in his ashram for a long time who suffered from pangs of lust when he saw beautiful visiting female devotees. He decided to therefore leave the ashram for a life of solitude to complete his spiritual practices. (2) Corruption : This is also shaped so powerfully by ones economic circumstances and overall contentment with life. As the poor fisherman who worked for a contraband smuggler in the movie nayakan said, there is no sin in what I do to put food on the table for my family. The convergence of greed and power magnify the impact of this aspect of human nature and the enormous damage it causes to the collective well being of people. But this is a function of our place in the socio-economic development and evolution cycle of our democracy and is something that will dissipate in time into a smaller corner of our world. (3) The Renaissance : Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The renaissance you speak of is something that begins with an individual and evolves into a collective movement. I think it has already begun though I am not able to hazard a guess on how long it will take to gain critical mass"

2. The blog "Mixed Marriages in India - Inevitable or socioeconomic irrelevance". "You touch upon a topic that I found very interesting. I too am married to someone from a different background to my own - in this case, a Sindhi. However, when I look at our son, I don't think he has become Sindhi over an UP'ite or the other way around. I think he has found his own persona and as he grows up, he will continue to define that. At the end, I'm with John Lennon...love is all he needs and my wife and I are going to make sure he has that."

3. In "Returning Home". "Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian Sadhu to go to the US and Europe. The orthodox Hindus felt that crossing the oceans was almost a sin for a Swami. How much has changed? Going and staying abroad has now 'a snob value'! But India is growing fast in terms of GDP etc. Now the 'resolved returners' have many more opportunities, unlike some of us who returned in sixties or seventies. The lure of material conveniences that the resolved stayers enjoy in the US can be a major rationale for their being NRIs. When many NRIs comment on all the ugly sides of India, they often miss out on some of our cultural and spiritual strengths. In my family, the NRI grand children can not read some outstanding literature written by authors of our own family. Missing out on these roots is indeed a loss. The sad part is there is hardly any sensing of this loss. India has a destiny to fulfill. It is not the hubris of a great nation but humility and tolerance of a kind culture that will help us to play our global role of being spiritual friends. Indians, anywhere and everywhere need to bear that in mind and put that in practice. Then classifying Indians may become a redundant exercise"

A big thanks once again who cared enough to comment. It's one thing to read and quite another when people comment. It brings to life an exchange of thought in a manner I had never expected. Please continue to do so.

On reviewing what I have written over the past 49 posts, not surprisingly the subjects written on are either those that I feel deeply about or stuff that has been happening around me that I would like to comment on. But here are three posts - which I truly enjoyed and loved writing even more than the others:

1. Fatherhood. The emotions flowed and so did the words. I was the happiest during the time of the when I was writing it and bizarrely did not want it to end (which explains the seven parts). I love quoting lines that have made an impact to me. This one had an original line that has made a significant impact to me -"I love the person who is my daughter's father".

2. Of Abundance and its Mentality. I wrote this after seeing a monument to discontentment and avarice being built in Mumbai (am sure most of you know what I am talking about).

3. The Gentleman's Game. This was written around the time of the hullabaloo of the corruption in IPL and allegations of match fixing by some Pakistani cricketers. I feel sport still is the last bastion where pure ability and skill is supreme and not just politics or branding (which also exist, but can only take a player so far). Cricket has always been as spotless as the white flannel that the players play in a test match.

I just wanted to end by saying that writing is just great fun and something everyone should do. It has been a great release and something so different from the humdrum of daily life. But there is another reason. One of my friends commented that the number of typos I make has been reducing since the early days. If that's true then that is good enough for me.

Musings of the 2000s

2011-01-02T21:01:00.000+05:30

It is quite normal as one ends a year and starts another that the mind wanders a bit over seminal moments that made the year memorable (or horrifying). By virtue of writing a blog, I've always wanted to reflect with a broader brush of time - like a decade. However we Indians are a superstitious lot. The "1" at the end of a number is extremely important. If we give someone a gift of money there will always be an extra 1 for good luck (Rs 501). In keeping with this tradition, I will be reviewing the decade after 11 years. A more real reason might be that the decade ended last year and I did not have a blog then, but the analogy of 11 sounds much more interesting.

The 2000s started with tremendous hope. It also started on the back of many challenges. Not surprisingly, eleven years later the challenges have increased. This has been an unprecedented eleven years of violence, war, natural disasters and corruption. However I really don't want to remember the collapse of the banking system, Wikileaks, 9/11, 26/11, the continuing struggle in Africa, the Tsunami or the tidal wave of corruption that has threatened to submerge all our lives. There have to have been some really uplifting moments that will sustain us through the next 11 years and more.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past". Interestingly when I checked the net for "top moments of hope" for the decade or even the year there were precious few listings. Most were reminders of our failings as human beings. So I am not going to recount them but rather focus on those that showed the best of what we are as human beings - kind, passionate, innovative and above all - bound by a common goal of harmony and prosperity. Of people, moments and things that caught my eye. So without much ado here is "Musings of the 2000s"... (listen carefully and you can hear the drum roll...).

I have to start with the Internet. The Year 2000 started with the paralysing fear of Y2K - that all systems could potentially come to a standstill along with life as we know it. It was a great old yarn. Companies and governments spent billions of dollars and the millenium bug came and went without even a whimper. Instead what happened was an internet boom to beat all that could be imagined - the christening of the social network. As we enter 2011, YouTube is a widely used tool for entertainment, voyeurism and even some journalism (mostly dodgy but every now and then riveting). Facebook and Twitter has opened up an avenue for people to get back in touch with each again. I've heard many people say that they are back in touch with friends whom they lost touch with years ago. Of course one now knows when they are eating, sleeping, catching flights, meeting others and many other exciting and important information!

But despite all that happened to keep us away from the "real world", it remained firmly out there. And the last eleven years have been a humdinger in terms of reminding us how "real" the world actually is. But what I remember are the amazing moments that reassured us of our future and our innate goodness. I've just mentioned a few...

For every Tsunami, flood or act or terror there was something that stood above it all. The kindness and generosity of ordinary people. Genuine good deeds in times of strife - be it the floods of Mumbai or Katrina or the Tsunami that claimed over his one trait just never changed. In most case the "real life heroes" were just regular folk who are placed into extraordinary circumstances and showed extraordinary generosity and courage. The newspapers and TV channels could be filled with many such stories instead of what they are filled with today - but that's another story,
In a time when politicians all over the world became famous for squalid corruption and money grabbing, two entrepreneurs, who may not have been known till then for their generosity, gave away huge portions of their wealth as a philanthropic gesture. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet - stand up and take a bow. I have to say it is rare to see such philanthropy in India (other than that which is directed at themselves).
Barack Obama, during his run up to the presidential elections of 2008, was being criticised for his friendship with a pastor - someone who had made some fairly "colourful" speeches from the pulpit about racism in the US. Obama could have denounced the speeches or the man (which he did). But his response, at a time when he could have been excused for a "safety-first" attitude was amazing. Here's one part... "For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny". Its relevance goes well beyond the US. He may or may not be a great President of the US, but he is a man of outstanding vision and substance which the world can only be better off with.
Better news on the environment issue. Most would disagree but I see hope. From the rhetoric of the 90s and even the early part of the 2000s, the progress has been considerable. At least countries keep trying to find common ground on carbon emissions. At least there is a genuine hybrid car that people can now drive (Toyota Prius). CFL's are replacing the tungsten filament. People are shutting taps while they brush their teeth or shave. It's finally on everyone's agenda. Not just Greenpeace.
The world moved beyond being all about the US and Europe towards recognising the importance of "emerging economies" like China, India, Brazil. Russia, Malaysia etc. The G-8 became the G-20 as they worked together to resolve the economic crisis. One thing's clear. The world will not be the same ever again in terms of geopolitical dominance of any particular country or geography.

While I set out not wanting to bring up the gloomy or depressing, I cannot but mention one man who has had a monumental impact on the world during this period - Dubya. Not because he waged an illegal war or divided the world like never before. How many can say they waged a war despite not finding anything "nuculear", start a trend of having shoes thrown during press conferences (which he adroitly ducked), gave Angela Merkel a neck rub, showed his dancing skills while with African dancers and above all confused the normally "with it" Condoleeza Rice to refer to him as her "husband". What can I say, except to quote a few "Bushisms".

- "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

- "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

- "Queen Elizabeth first visited America in 1776..."

Dubya - you put the world back 50 years but along with the tears of war but you gave stand-up comics 100 years of material.

On a personal note, what really got my juices going was - sport and entertainment. And here there were so many moments to savour.

Football. Despite the head butt of Zidane there was the joy of watching three world cups with some amazing memories of the underdogs- Ghana, Chile, Turkey and Korea and the class of Brazil, Argentina and Spain. The clinical precision of Germany and the predictable position of team I support, England.
Cricket. India finally answered its billion delirious fans and became the team to beat. We ended 2010 the top-ranked cricket team but the 2000s was India's - the growth of an average cricketing team to being the best in the world. I also have the indelible memory of Sachin Tendulkar scoring a double century in a one-day international and spontaneously dedicating it to all his fans around the world. There were many more great moments and outstanding performances but the one I care to mention is England's generosity in returning to India days after the horrific attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai and the amazing win for the Indian team.
The continued dominance of my favourite team in the world Man Utd (glory glory Man Utd). The brilliance of Usain Bolt, Federer/ Nadal and the flawed genius of Tiger Woods.
The Indian women at the Commonwealth and Asian Games - all of them. They showed us all how so many "traditional" families in India are so much more supportive of their girls than the so-called "elite". Well done ladies.

In addition there was never anything better than taking one's mind off reality than books, movies and music.

I was totally taken in by movies like Lord of The Rings, Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception and The Departed (admittedly a slightly dark and melancholic set of movies - reflective of my personality unfortunately). Movie-making extraordinaire.
The 2000s started of cool and intelligent Hindi movies (thought they would never happen). Ones that cut across economic and social biases and boundaries. I really liked Mr & Mrs Iyer, Black, 3 Idiots, Lagaan and Omkara. The success of a whimsically hilarious movie like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye or a stylised "Rock On" showed how wrong film producers had been for years about the Indian audience.
This was the decade when a new format of books was "Kindled". But I love the feel of paper in my hands. I read a lot less than I usually do (a worrying sign) but a few books resonated - Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid Hosseini, "The Enchantress of Florence" - Salman Rushdie, "The Plot Against America" - Phillip Roth, Dreams from my Father - Barack Obama and Atonement - Ian McEwan.
Music - Here is where I have been most remiss - not really heard too much new - have stayed stuck in a time warp... have liked Arctic Monkeys but otherwise stayed true to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and many other Classic Rock greats. The world did lose one of greatest songwriters of all time - Michael Jackson. RIP MJ. Peace is something that's been a premium in your life

Overall this was the best eleven years of my life. I became a father and life has never been the same. I've devoted many a blog post to my journey towards fatherhood so will not spend any more time on this other than to say that these memories have been the most cherished of all. Most of all because I really like the person my daughter brings out in me. The future looks full of hope as I see it through her eyes - the eyes of a child who sees good in everything and everybody. I am deeply invested in making sure her life is as grand and full as life has been so far for me. I round off in the same way as I started the 2000s- with great and unabashed hope for the future - for the world, India and of course my family. In the words of Albert Einstein "Learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow" - and don't you know, tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day.

Originality

2010-12-27T13:37:00.003+05:30

Jesus Christ is said to have turned water to wine at a wedding reception at a place called Cana, when the wine at the reception ran out. That has nothing to do with my post (though it is apt to start a post at this time of the year with Jesus Christ). This relates to a story in a small town in Britain during the early 19th century. A teacher asked the students of 3rd grade to write an essay describing the miracle of Cana. All the students started writing pages and pages to describe the miracle. One boy sat still with an empty page in front of him. As the time allocated was about to end, he wrote one line and handed it to the teacher. The teacher was intrigued and looked at the paper. This is what it read - “Water saw its Creator and blushed". The teacher was amazed at the profoundness of the thinking as well as the beauty and simplicity of expression. He was given the first prize. That boy name was George Gordon Byron, later Lord Byron. If that's not an example of originality I'm not sure what is. The person I am most impressed with is not Byron - he was a genius and this was the only way he knew. The teacher that gave this boy the first prize in an essay for just one line rather than those who wrote reams and reams of pages, ought to be eulogised and thanked by all of us who love Byron's work. He recognised creativity. Even genius does require some encouragement - particularly when they are young.

Life's a funny thing. We most seek what we are least prepared for. I was having a conversation with one of the most unusual thinkers I have met (shall leave his name out to avoid embarrassing him) and the topic veered to the importance of originality in this world. If one looks at most careers or jobs in life, the importance of innovation is always underscored. "Think out of the box" says the corporate strategy coach - a trait most business leaders will strongly agree is the difference between the average and exceptional. Science and technology - the cornerstone to progress in our society - is about striving to find the next dimension. Literature and Art is most appreciated when it is not imitating that which already exists. We enjoy movies that are "different". You get the drift.

If one looks at some of the seminal events in the history of man - they are born out of genuine sparks of originality. What's common between the "eureka" of Archimedes (his subsequent sprint in the buff may have only accentuated the uniqueness of his discovery!), the apple that bounced of Newton's head paving way for the theory of gravity (also redeeming the lot of apples after Adam and Eve), algebra by brahmagupta (though I know a few math students who are slightly less thrilled with the results of what he did in the 7th century), or the Cubist movement pioneered by Picasso and Braque in the early 20th century? They are common in that their work broke ground and paved the way for many things we take for granted today. Even if you take some of the modern day marvels - TV, Computer or the Internet - these have all happened in the last 60-70 years and have changed the way we live our lives. Society as we know it relies heavily on originality to progress. Man is essentially a curious being - a tinkerer. From the wheel to the web - it's been a frenetic pace of breaking with the old and rediscovering the new. Even the slightly more incremental innovations - where people have improved upon an existing platform (like mobile phones or computers) - still show great creativity at play. Evidently society values it and is willing to pay for it.

In stark contrast is our education system - particularly what one sees in India. From as early an age as possible kids are encouraged to reproduce as accurately as possible what already exists in the book - understanding be damned. With each advancing year students learn the great art of reproducing in their exam papers what exists in the text books. Those with photographic memories become the stars of high school and university while others struggle their way through school - perpetually feeling less able. The ideal mix is those who have both memory and understanding - the Kingdom of God (in a manner of speaking) with all its riches and accolades are truly theirs. Or so we are led to believe.

When they emerge from their education and survey the world around them, all of a sudden they are asked to be creative. Those who enter the business world are suddenly asked to find ways to be better their competition. Those who take up research and academic pursuits are asked to be original and work on an area no one is working on and they are passionate about. All of a sudden there is confusion. All these years of improving one's memory does not equip one for what lies ahead. "You mean we have to find stuff that's outside the book?" They find they cannot "copy" what someone else has worked on without infringing a whole bunch of copyright and patent laws. Good lord - no one ever brought this stuff up before. What do we do now?

No fear good news is always around the corner for the "right copier". Since copyright and patent laws in India are pretty primitive and protectionist (the ostensible reason given is that they are for the betterment of the weakened sections of our society) we are allowed to blithely copy products that are made by someone else. Not surprisingly the industry that took the most advantage was the Indian film industry - just copy the story and music with suitable local "embellishments" (not sure the "weakened section" argument was meant for films). That's when I find it hilarious when they get all shirty about video piracy. Their form of piracy is no better. Still it's much easier than to try and actually make a movie which says something original (this is not to say that Hollywood does not ape itself - of course it does - but I leave that for them to figure out). But why single out the entertainment industry - we are great imitators in all walks. Be it the pharmaceutical industry (copy medicines made globally and sell without any royalty), Fashion, Consumer Goods - the list is long and distinguished. They survive because of some pretty archaic protectionist regimes and ill-implemented intellectual property laws. The future will not be as rosy once these laws are changed. Rules and regulations will also prevent brazen copying. Also the day will come when Indian consumers figure out the difference between the real deal and a cheap knock-off. What then?

The root cause is how and what we teach in primary and secondary schools. Currently we stamp out and ridicule the creativity that exists in each and every one of our children. As parents, we know that original students are more likely to be successful than the imitators. Yet we flock to those schools and colleges that proudly display their results in examinations designed to test only one thing - short term memory. These are the institutions that we are willing to do anything (including bribing) to get our kids admitted into. No wonder even the more "alternative" education schools use yardsticks like "how many of my students got into the top business or engineering colleges?” Is that the yardstick of eventual success? Certainly not in the real world. So we are willing to pay an arm and a leg to get our kids admitted into schools and colleges that are designed to act as much as a deterrent as a help to their future. Why blame schools - it is only reflective of our own priorities as parents. It is also incumbent upon teachers to recognise their importance - particularly during the formative years - and allow children to be themselves. My guess is that if each child had one or two teachers in their primary years, who would support their "eclectic" and unique nature - their would be a unleashing of creative force in our country.

I guess it comes down to the 80:20 rule. The role of education does not seem to be to produce unique thinkers but perhaps provide a large supply of literate folks who can be employed - essentially an army of white-collar and managerial labour (sounds harsh but that's what we seem to be doing). This is fine to an extent in a country with high unemployment rates and low levels of literacy where quantity over quality is often the right decision to take. Not surprisingly industries that India considers as the zenith of its achievement are outsourcing and IT (essentially implementing the IT service requirements of a global multinational). But the next thrust to India's progress will come when we get our priorities straight and cater to the 20% as well - those who will provide discontinuous growth and create new avenues of progress. Today the successful examples of Indian companies who have innovated do exist but are limited. That is not to suggest that creativity cannot be shown in even the most mundane of activities - of course it can and we value it. However discontinuity, by its own definition, cannot be incremental.

GK Chesterton, when commenting on the "women's liberation" movement cynically said "Millions of women stood up and said we will not be dictated to - and promptly became stenographers". I do not want to enter the debate on women’s lib - but a similar analogy can be drawn for India - "Millions of Indians became literate and promptly became outsourcers". Once again let me hasten to add that I am not against outsourcing - it has provided livelihood for a large number of Indians and provided a great platform for future growth and progress. However let us not celebrate it as the end, but rather the means to an end. As we look ahead at this millennium and plan for the future, would it not be prudent to not only think about the 80% but also at the 20%. The next time a Byron shows his/her creative spark in one of our schools let it not be stomped out by the greatest nemesis of originality - conformity. Otherwise one is left those who take pages in a blog to elaborate on a simple truth of Einstein, "Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them".