Management and me!!

I feel ashamed

2010-07-06T12:20:00.000+05:30

I feel ashamed when my countrymen trouble their fellow countrymen. I feel ashamed when my people try to hault their country's progress in the name of 'bandh'.

To oppose the rising prices, the whole of opposition united to fight against the United Progressive Alliance. The opposition that consists of parties with ideologies ranging from extremism, shallow secularism, communism, regionalism mixed up to form a cocktail that proved to be a an unbearable bitter concoct for the common man.

I feel sorry for myself and for all my fellow country-men that the ruling party is unable to control the rising prices and the opposition instead of properly opposing is further pricking the wounds of the terribly troubled population.

--sudharm baxi

Memorable quotes

2010-07-01T19:27:00.000+05:30

Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something deep inside them - a desire, a dream and a vision. They have to have the skill and the will, but the will must be stronger than the skill.

--Md. Ali

Someone has so wonderfully stated that if you have the will to do something, half the task is already done. But the real trouble is there is no shop where one can buy this 'will'. One has to create it within oneself, one has to forego luxuries, every pleasantries, sleeps and all those things that give temporary pleasure instead of the permanent one. But, we humans are bad at analysing the fruits of hard and smart work. We, on the other hand, are more willing to enjoy the fruit cakes in front of our eyes.

We are not willing to go that extra mile in order to ensure much more luxuries..

Updates

2010-07-01T18:46:00.003+05:30

I know nobody is interested in these trifle things..but still i would like to mention them here...

RAS notification 2010 out - I don't know how geared up am i to fight the battle?
Purchased an MTS data card for internet mobility.

Football fever

2010-07-01T18:44:00.000+05:30

I am not an ardent football follower, but still like to read about the happenings in South Africa about the most followed sport on this planet. Looking forward to the match between Argentina and Germany - the two biggies are surely going to lock some horns and spill some blood...A big day in the sporting history..

Oh God, if tension could help!!

2010-05-19T20:26:00.000+05:30

Oh God, if tension could help, I would have been the happiest person alive. A few months back, I used to lecture everyone (particularly the two important women in my life) on not taking tension whatever the circumstances are.

But now, I am digressing from my own saying. I used to say, if we can't do anything about a problem than what is the point in taking tension, and if we can, we must devise a detailed contingency plan. But, in both the cases we should not be tensed or stressed out.

But recently, I got terribly apprehensive, poked my nose in every negative happening at home, at workplace or for that matter anywhere and everywhere.

In a way, I became a spoilsport, who not only ruins others' parties but also squader his own. A person who gets so terribly drenched in pros and cons that he no more can swim and gets deeper and deeper in the pool of depression.

The pros and cons should be used as oars to sail the boat of decision-making, but I never use them that way. My fault entirely.

But now i am trying to change. Change the course of life, change the approach and bring in a lot of positivity from where ever i can.

God give me strength to achieve the same.

--sudharm baxi

Do more, act more ..think less

2010-05-19T20:13:00.000+05:30

The other day at a showroom inaugration, I met an architect, a jolly guy with good command over both English and the local language Marwari, let me quote one of his beautiful lines - सोचो कम करो ज्यादा (think less, do more). How true? Isn't it?

At least, I have a very bad habit of thinking toooooo much. I analyse so much, I keep on calculating the pros and cons for an indefinite time, I am calling it indefinite coz it almost never ends. Recently, I was in a heavy conundrum of whether to join a job (that i did not like) or not. One moment i made up my mind that i m gonna do it; the other moment, no in no case; yet another moment, then what? so it keeps on going untill infinity. The confusion actually arose because of the option given to me. If there had been no option, I would have continued with what i had in hand but i received an option, got tempted and went to join a job that I had so terribly disliked and left 4 months back.

I worked there for 3 loooooooong days, and at the end of the third day, I said enough is enough. I can't take it anymore, I know I got to be more responsible, I know INDECISIVENESS screws like anything, but i could not help, I kept on going deeper and deeper into the conundrum and finally decided to resign just after three days :(

The reason for my trouble and the trouble i transferred to all my well-wishers was nothing else but a weak process of thinking, in fact a lot of thinking; I was in fact thinking of things that were of no point, somewhere down the lane I was indecisive too, but the real culprit was my imbalanced brain that kept on counting pros and cons of all the prospects I have, I might have or I could have.

Now i am back with a bang, handling my dad's business, looking out for something new to start with and above all focussing on my civil services preparation. In crux - Life is complex, work towards making it simpler..that's it.

--sudharm baxi

IPL debacle

2010-05-19T19:24:00.000+05:30

Talks are going on for replacing Mahi with some other young gun. But would that be of any use? If players don't perform what can a captain do? You got to have a team like Australia's in order to experience the magnificent captaincy talent of a guy like Ponting or Waugh.

The Australian team is at the top of the small pyramid of a meagre 10 international cricket teams, for more than a decade now. They are consistent, they bounce back like no other team in the history of sport ever has (West Indies could never bounce back). They take up responsibilty, they face termination just on losing the final; we on the other hand feel happy that we were the runners-up. It is all approach and nothing else.

A big pot of blame for the poor performance in T20 WC hangs on the IPL and its (in)famous night-parties. In fact, our players need to take up dictionary and look for the meaning of the word party. We party to celebrate, but in IPL they party coz they are part of IPL.

Players get worn-out, they think more of the parties than the upcoming matches and we see results right in front of our eyes. And when our captain-perfect says-it was because of the IPL parties that the players could not perform well. He gets a thrashing from the veterans as well as the young guns, who all are by mistake on IPL payrolls.

Things have to be straightened out, as this is amongst the few sports where India stands SOMEWHERE. We need strategic changes at the governing bodies, we need people who take up responsibility and not pass on the bait at the time of failure. We need people who are actually willing to take the sport to greater heights and not just the hoopla associated with it.

That's the last ball to score the winning run for cricket as a whole.

--sudharm baxi

Smart phone operating systems

2010-05-18T13:03:00.000+05:30

Thanks Anurag for publishing my article on MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEMS on your website.

--sudharm baxi

Give me Command

2010-05-17T14:53:00.001+05:30

Oh God, I demand no riches, I demand no prosperity, If You are willing to give me something..give me COMMAND and not OPTIONS in life. Command me to walk that one path.

Whenever I am given options in life, trouble creep in, I get tripped, I get into the conundrum and get so terribly engaged in the pros and cons surrounding the maze of life, that i can't concentrate upon anything.

How much more do you wish to test me God?
How much more do you want me to be stronger?

Kill my indecisiveness and give me strength to be sure of whatever i do, take me to the toughest path and i shall walk on it with earnestness, but don't provide any other path...

The explosion

2010-04-01T15:08:00.001+05:30

I saw a large explosion far at the zenith of a big hill or may be a mountain. Strangely though, there was no sound. Before I could tell others around me, there were a series of explosions at distant places towards my left. Everyone panicked and ran towards a series of rooms. Me and a friend of mine, don't know exactly who, occupied the first room. I was not in India for sure but where was I, probably America because just after one of the explosions I saw a big statue lying meekly on the ground holding the torch in its hand.

I closed the room from within, we could hear rhythmic steps of death at our door steps, we were thinking who could these people be? Chinese, Russians, Arabs...And then they were visible, hordes of them walking on the road with a clear mission of massacre of one and all. All of a sudden I had a scimitar in my hand, I don't know where it came from, but will I be able to fight the mighty army with just a fancy sword, instead I wanted a nuclear bomb to blow-off everything and become a martyr.

Outside the room I could hear the movement. They were out there to kill me, I was not thinking about my friend, in fact he was not in sight, where was he, he can't go anywhere from this small room except through that door where the killers awaited us.

But I was not afraid, there was not a trace of fear within me. All the while I was pretty sure that the Americans in retaliation would bomb them before they fire a single bullet on me. Americans!! Why? Was that America for sure?

They opened up the door, and all of a sudden I woke up; I was dreaming and had a terrible feeling about why I was not afraid in my dream. Is it that I realized in my dream that it was a dream. I was pretty much confident that nothing is going to happen to me. From where that foolish confidence crept in?

Was that normal? Do people tend to lose sanity when death is in front of them or they apply a simple logic that there is no point in being fearful of a death that was so certain.

I was still thinking and there was a thuderous knock on my door. Ohh they are here. They have chased my dream. But how is that possible? Or was that not a dream at all?

'Son, get ready soon we need to fix a lot of things before we leave for America.' a familiar voice, in fact much like my dad's declared.

--sudharm baxi

Hail Sachin !!

2010-03-27T15:48:00.005+05:30

Yes yes i am the same guy who uttered profanities at the God of batting, reason being i felt he knew his batting well and cared only for his batting and never his team or nation. But he has changed i guess, now he is more of a team player and a team instigator than just a sole master blaster.

He has proven to be so much more confident and motivating, he is the torch bearer of the present Mumbai Indians squad.

He truly has proven all the critiques wrong (including me). I have always admired him as a batsman but now i admire him as a player, a team player.

Long live Sachin and long live cricket.

--sudharm baxi

Mahavir - pinnacle of spirituality

2010-03-27T09:21:00.003+05:30

Mahavir - the man who left all the worldly pleasures to seek ‘the truth’, the man who never angered, was never jealous, was least interested in the luxuries of life, who ate to live and not to satiate his palate, who lived to spread happiness and not collect wealth, who never preached but always taught, who taught to make people aware and not boast his own knowledge, who never argued but always discussed, who sought truth and got enlightenment, who smiled in his personal pains and empathised with others in theirs, who never wanted revenge but believed in the power of forgiveness.

The man who relinquished the last cloth on his body, just because it got stuck in a rose plant and if he had tried to get it back, a few branches of the plant could have been damaged. So, he left it there and never wore anything else after that.

Mahavir was the epitome of non-violence, an idealistic human being to be followed and cherished. He was a lover, a lover of honesty, nature, kindness and the entire human race. He never discriminated on the basis of caste, colour, creed or gender.

On this birthday of Mahavir Swami, let us take the oath of being truthful and loyal to our partner, be patriotic, take every possible care of our parents, being honest with our customers, love everyone, hate no one, be happy and spread happiness.

He is the answer to most of the global problems; in the present times, if we adopt his teachings even to an extent as small as 20%, all our troubles, hatred and disliking for each other would vanish. This world would become a paradise. His simple living, his ‘live and let live’ style of life is the real solution to all the troubles between nations, creeds and castes.

But the only trouble is, if only a few people follow him and walk on his footsteps, they will suffer because generations like to follow Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Saddam and never Mahavir or Buddha. They like violence, they believe in the power of hatred, they prefer ‘an eye for an eye’ over forgiveness. Walking the path of violence and hatred is much easier than following the travails of Mahavir and practicing non-violence. We sincerely need guides like him, those who are willing to brighten our thoughts and help us in reviving the whole panorama.

His philosophy should act as the colour in our life’s sketch. His ideologies should be the ultimate lesson in selflessness and happy living. Driven by this selfless act, we can be kind and helpful not only to our brothers and sisters, but to the whole mankind. And that is something that can bring peace and harmony in the whole world.

--Sudharm Baxi

P.S. - The hindi translation of this article appeared in Dainik Bhaskar on 28th of March, Jodhpur(Rajasthan).

What's happening to me?

2010-03-26T22:22:00.002+05:30

Sincerely, I don't know what is happening to me. I have been having various thoughts simultaneously at a time. One moment, I wish to get back into IT, another moment I wish to start something new, yet another moment I wish to join my Dad in his business, and so many other things in the remaining moments.

Life is confused and entangled like a wire maze, it now succumbs me from time to time. If i only think of myself then there is no trouble, but whenever others come into picture then the trouble creeps in, then i start thinking for them.

God show me the path, give me the way, at least light the torch.....I shall walk on that path till my legs ache and my eyes get sore...but please please show me the path.

Man - the worst animal

2010-01-30T15:32:00.003+05:30

Just 1411 left.
I was shocked to read this in today's Hindustan Times in context of the tigers left in India. How mean, cruel and wicked we humans are? We are ripping off the entire planet at a pace that is non-traceable. We are killing the animals faster than we breathe. We are ruining everything around us.

The poor animals can't help themselves; if the situation continues, in a decade or so, tigers could only be seen in photographs.

Please spare them, let them live; they are the most crucial link to the ecological balance; don't disturb the mother earth, or else the mother won't even give a warning...

I am Back

2010-01-28T17:54:00.002+05:30

After all the happenings, i am back on the blogosphere..

I won't say i'll be writing more frequently from now on because whenever i say such a thing i am unable to stick to it. So, i am just going to write.
Write write and write....

Initially to get back on track, to get the flow and then improvising upon the content.

**** Sachin

2009-11-06T17:55:00.006+05:30

First and foremost, this is not to confront anyone, don't take it as if i am arguing or grumbling, instead i am just putting up my thoughts..

A great batsman.. agreed, but a good sportsman NO
A great human.. agreed, but is he known for being a great human NO
Very modest.. agreed, but is he known for his modesty NO
Great technique.. agreed, but was that of any use NO
Fantastic player.. agreed, but a team player NO, NEVER

Let me take the help of my favorite analogy. Consider Sachin to be a cook. A world renowned cook who has reached the pinnacle of aesthetic, orthodox cooking, one who knows every damn dish and still keeps on adding some new variety, some new flavor and some new aroma to the dishes. But this chef has unknowingly cultivated a bad habit. As soon as the dish is ready to be served, ready to fill someone's belly, he throws it away. As simple as that, he just throws it away.

Everybody saw him cooking many a times; everybody enjoyed the lovely aroma of the splendid food that was being cooked. BUT, what good that food is, if it can not satiate the hunger. Smell, however sweet it may be, can never fill the appetite. You have to eat food, but our master chef loves throwing it away.

I completely agree that there are ten other players who are equally responsible for the debacle, but is it like necessary for HIM to throw away things for the junior cooks to reassemble and serve. They sometimes do it too, but why only Dhoni or Yuvraj think of sticking around till the end and not our GOD. Ponting, who has been considered next best, tries till his last breath to take his team to the podium; he might have a short hand at batting when compared to the GOD, but this lord of Cricket has done more for his team than for himself. He might have thought of chasing Sachin in the number of centuries scored but did Sachin ever try to actually stick till the end and score the winning runs? NO.

I hated Brian Lara for the very same reason, he always played for himself. He was rarely a match-winner. His square drives, cover drives, those hooks and whatever, did they serve any purpose except his own? No. Chanderpaul or Sarwan must have sailed the drowning Windies boat more than what Lara did. Even though both of them are not even near to what Lara has to offer in statistics.

I sincerely feel if Sachin had been a part of some individual sport like Tennis or Chess, he would surely be a great for me too. But he has hurted my feelings not once, not twice, but a million times. He was made the captain, I was more than happy; but he fumbled, I was perfectly okay with that too, being a human he has every damn right to fumble, he was never a GOD for me, but i certainly admired him for the various facets of his personality; particularly his humbleness, his calmness, the love for his family and above all, the way he handled burden of fame on his tiny shoulders.

BUT, he should understand the difference between taking your team to the victory and the actual victory. You kill a thousand soldiers of the rival army and being the king, foolishly jump into the well; you are not doing any good to your nation. You will be admired for being a fierce fighter but will you be a patriot. NO. I don't give a damn about his 170 odd runs or that mammoth 17000, what i know is INDIA LOST..and that is where the story ends for me.

This might sound foolish or immature, but that is how cricket rules our brains. Our emotions are attached to it; till the last ball, our hopes, however shattered they are, still stand tall against the hot and scorching winds of the rivals. That's cricket for us, and Sachin in those senses is neither God nor a loyal responsible sportsman. My heart weeps writing this, but this is the truth at least in my soaring eyes.

--sudharm

Do it now..

2009-10-29T12:19:00.005+05:30

Come out of the procrastinating you.

The procrastinating armour certainly protects you from the labour, the pains and the bitter realities of life. But it also bars you from the fruits of timely work, from the fruits of getting a few steps ahead of the world and most importantly from living your life to the fullest. The world is asleep, so why not you go out, turn on a few street lights and start the race; be that facilitator, be that protagonist and hit the road.

Don't wait for things to happen, take the burden of actually making them happen. This habit has to be shed; just like those leaves that are to be shed to welcome the arrival of the newer ones. This is life, welcoming the new and hence welcoming the changes attached.

In the journey called life, if everything goes by without any speedbreakers, haults, fuel getting exhausted; then what's the fun. Magnify your dreams by applying this added lens, called change. Then see the effect, the dream would be much clearer, much better visible and hence much more comprehensible.

Procrastinate the procrastination for some future time in life and never let that time come by. Gear up, gird up your loins and go for the kill; be it finishing some assignment, studying for some exam, bringing back some relationship on track, conquering the world or even climbing the Everest. Go for it!!
Go for it now...

More soon..
--sudharm baxi

My resolution..

2009-10-28T23:55:00.004+05:30

I took a resolution a couple of days back and missed it on the very first day. Damn it.

No worries. This is how life is, FLEXIBLE. You plan something, something altogether different happen to you and then you find books, theories and philosophies claiming what you think is what you get; what you visualize gets materialized and similar SECRETs.

But i only follow one simple rule... Never to worry. Always keep your worries aside, give your best shot, whatever you get in return, is what is best for you. Always be honest to yourself, never let your spirit go on a shopping spree to find out the easier ways, the less troubling ones.

Instead, create your own ways; devise your own paths and you won't even realize when those paths become roads for others to follow in your footsteps, not just to admire and cherish you as a pathbreaker but more importantly as a pathmaker.

Live this life to the fullest, never have remorses, never regret decisions; instead always learn from the decisions that somehow went wrong. Those decisions might have crumpled you entirely but what will you gain in worrying now? Nothing. In fact, more worries. Your ruined past is ruining your present and hence your future. Come out of this cycle, break the chain.

So, go out and shop for a few seeds that will conceive fruits for the life ahead. With a positive mind, toil the land, sow those seeds, water them, take care of them and hence, experience the enlightening growth.

More soon..
--sudharm baxi

I am a writer..

2009-10-26T20:00:00.005+05:30

The other day, i was thinking about writing, yes, instead of writing i was thinking. Absurd, no? I am a writer and i love to write and yet i write so less, why? No answer.

Time doesn't permit. How much time is required in shooting off a few well-organized words on the web? A few minutes. Then what must be the possible explanation for a writer who loves writing, yet doesn't write much. No answer again.

But not anymore. From now on, i am taking a resolution to write; write till my eyes go soar, write till my fingers ache, write till my thoughts exhaust and then write some more.

The things i would write might amuse you, entertain you, enlighten you or God forbid bore you. But those few words on a daily basis, are surely going to help me out in exploring various facets of my writing and also widen my scope of writing.

But, why am i writing this thing here? So that someone out there give me a tight slap whenever i get lethargic, whenever i procrastinate.

So God, give me power and creativity to pen the words in my mind and the feelings in my heart. On this positive note, ending the post...
--sudharm baxi

Ingloriuous Basterds

2009-10-04T18:49:00.003+05:30

I have not seen much of Tarantino's works, but have heard a lot about him and of course his works. Out of many of his famous quotes in media, I particularly like this one - “Sure, Kill Bill’s a violent movie. But it’s a Tarantino movie. You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the f*****s to turn the music down.” Pulp fiction and Kill Bill; for many come at the top of their best ever list.

Inglorious Basterds, beginning from the very first scene till the end, the movie was a canvas depicting shades of black. I guess Quentin always deals with the darker side of life. It always gives a lot of scope for a director to depict or portray a gloomy, dreary, dark scene; but it also takes a lot of skills to make it look really devilish (Joker of 'The Dark Knight' is at the zenith). Every one has a devil hidden somewhere in the closet of his thoughts and Quentin can portray that devil better than anyone else. He reveals the devilish grin out of every character in every possible minutest detail. He surely is a master story-teller, a fantastic writer, an offbeat director and above all a super expressive artist.

The dialogues, the frames, the immaculate choice of actors and a heavily fictitious plot set in real times strikes the chord in an innovative manner. Christoph Waltz as the 'Jew Hunter' was impressive and Brad Pitt has set a new level for himself by delivering one of his most memorable performances ever. Brad delivered this particular dialogue extremely well - "Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps..and I waant my scalps." A must watch even if you don't like the dark, violent cinema.

--sudharm baxi

Wake up Sid

2009-10-04T18:02:00.004+05:30

Wake up Sid, a lovely, well-paced and beautifully articulated movie, produced by Karan Johar, whose name if attached to any movie definitely makes it catchy on style and vibrancy. Be it Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum or this latest offering.

You might not like the food but the ambience of the restaurants even remotely associated with KJ, leave you wondering about the fantastic aesthetic, colorful touch KJ puts in. Everything ranging from the clothing, the sets, the cinematography and the overall styling of the movie is pretty chic.

KJ has not directed this movie though, but he always has a major say in all his movies, directed or produced. Ayan Mukerji, as a debutante director has done good work. Though, I doubt if he can handle anything other than this kind of cinema, time will tell.

The film has a colorful vibrancy, a very naive and jolly effect attached to it. It keeps you engrossed for the most of the part. Songs are not something to really vouch for, barring the lovely composition of Amit Trivedi's 'Ek tara' (yes, the same guy who did the godly work in Dev D). Ranbir Kapoor has done a good job, he has almost been type-casted in such roles and stereotyping is not good unless he is the next Salman Khan.

As the climax approached, it appeared as if the director was in a hurry to wrap things up quickly, there can always be a twist in a typical Bollywood movie and Wake up Sid lacked it. But still a good movie to watch.

--sudharm baxi

Wake up Raj!!

2009-10-03T15:43:00.007+05:30

Hello Mr. Thackeray,

How are you? I have been thinking of penning a few lines in favor of you but something always stopped me from doing so, what it was I am not sure, but there was something. But now, I have woken up and with profound pleasure decided to write this letter.

There are a few people on this planet who have the personality, the aura of a leader. In a way, they are born leaders. God has made them that way. And with a little grooming they become solid mass-pullers. You are certainly one of them. People listen to you, people adore you, people follow you. Undoubtedly everyone would agree that you are the next Thackeray (no offenses Bal Thackeray Jr, I mean Uddhav).

You are pretty much sure of your ideologies, but I am not sure whether you are sure of your motto or not? I mean do you really want all the non-Maharashtrians to be thrown out? If that is the case, okay. You have your point and I completely agree with it. There should be overall development and prosperity across the country and not just here in Maharashtra. Why not create a couple of more Bombays....err Mumbai (will come to that in a while)?

But sincerely speaking I have a gut feeling that a man like you should be doing much more than what you actually are doing right now. I agree that Maratha is your gadh but emperors don’t have a single castle, they also have a lot of palaces and forts. So why don’t you go for a bigger cause. Go for something that would aid in the development of the nation.

Sorry to say, but the work you and your people do; not exactly lead to anything apart from disturbances and of course some media attention, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vir Sanghvi and all the other honchos get to do an episode or write an editorial on that, but that’s all. And I sincerely feel that’s not your worth for sure.

If there is some genuine face-reader somewhere, please please consult him and I tell you from the depth of my mind he’ll suggest the same - Go for something big and not just involve yourself in the local politics, it is the right time for you, and this nation needs your energy, your enthusiasm and your leadership.

I also know that if you move out of Maharashtra, you surely are going to lose grip on the Maha-politics, but even if you stay here, the rewards, the results are not that enormous; they are petty when compared to your skills.

About Bombay, I have just been living here for last two odd years and what I fell in love with was Bombay and never Mumbai, because I always felt that Mumbai was for the Maharashtrians and Bombay is for the rest of the Cosmo population. I might call my mother-ma, mummy, momma or whatever, but for others she will always be auntie and that’s what Bombay for us was and is.

In a way you have made it that way for us. You made us feel that. I completely agree with you on that too, why should I call your home mine, why should I ask for food from your mother. But the thing is she is also my auntie and she loves me, not as much as you, but at least to some extent. So she lets me lead a tough yet fulfilling life. A child always has a feeling that his/her mother might start loving other kids as much as she loves him/her. So is it this thing that worries you?

About Wake up Sid, I am not sure why was that necessary? Is it a crime to do so? Are you the moral police? If yes there are dirtier things happening in the streets of Bombay, your men can clean those up, instead of wasting their energies in such a petty thing. It was just a movie nothing else, nothing more. What say Raj? The complete episode to me was incomprehensible. Just like in the flood times, I am more worried about the brand of the blanket provided to me than whether some food, some aid would be provided at all or not.

So, these were just suggestions from a person who himself is going through a lot of turmoil in his life. I too wish to do whatever I can for my nation; I too wish to serve my nation and be its loyal child and hence suggest a few things to a few people who are in my eyes are - the CHOSEN ONES!!

With positive vibes,

--Sudharm

Vikram Hazra

2009-10-02T17:45:00.005+05:30

Went to see Vikram Hazra’s concert cum satsang at Fine Arts Society, Chembur. Seeing him perform was such a delightful sight, his energy, charisma and the way he took everyone along with him on the spiritual journey is simply mind-boggling.

A devoted pupil of Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, he has been spreading the love and message of his guru for many years now. I have not heard or read of Sri Sri much, but one thing I remember watching on TV, when one of the reporters asked him about his never fading smile and the love and jolliness he carries? He replied – “I refuse to grow up” with the same childlike smile, so pure, so serene, that you can’t help but fall in love with the mojo of the Guru.

Vikram Bhaiya, as he is famously called, sang bhajans of many deities including Shiva, Krishna and Durga. In his mellifluous voice, it appeared as if even the songs were enjoying themselves. We were all singing along with him with the same fervour and same energy.

How time passed not a single soul in the auditorium realized. When he was singing ‘Radha raman hari bol’, people started leaving and I soon realized it was his last song for the evening, but he had not sung ‘Achutam Keshavam’, his most loved bhajan, yet.

As soon as he finished, put his guitar aside and bowed to say goodbye, I stood up from the farthest corner of the auditorium and shouted, “Vikram Bhaiya, Achutam Keshavam”, he was humbly adamant of not singing it and said now even the guitar has fallen asleep. I replied no guitar needed, just you sing. Soon there were pleas from all the corners, “please”, “please”,” one last song.”

So he picked up the guitar and hence came the most mesmerizing of all the performances of the evening. Everyone was spellbound , singing and enjoying , reaching the seventh heaven on that spiritual extravaganza.

It was one of the most memorable evenings I have ever had. Thanks Vikram!! Thanks Sri Sri!!

Catch a glimpse of Vikram's jamming.

Back

2009-09-30T21:14:00.003+05:30

'Life hasn't turned out quite the way i wanted to be' - these words from Nickelback's Rockstar echoes with almost every grumbling soul on this planet. Calling all those souls grumbling would be harsh, since they had dreams that went off-track and hence they are crying and singing about

Why?
Why me?
Why my dreams?

It has been ages since i have written anything here, my irresponsibility can be attributed for the same.

Life has taken multiple turns in these few months for me. Turns can be for good or bad of the being, but since they are turns, they certainly disturb the smooth ride one is having on the autobahn called life. This autobahn has resting places, motels, bars and of course toll-booths. All the luxuries are there on this expressway but not a single house, because it doesn't allow to stay at a place for long. It tells you to move on, it prompts you to continue the journey after a beer or a few hours' sleep.

You can't sit and become stale because everything around you is moving: nature, life and every drop of the river that leaves the regions of prideful mountains just to become the part of the universe called ocean.

And let me tell you, I am willing to move on. I hate to sit, i hate to walk leisurely, i am a runner for life, i am a fighter and i am going to enjoy every damn turn, every damn speed-breaker that may or may not come my way...

More soon...

Keep visiting..

A clear mandate

2009-05-21T11:29:00.004+05:30

Arun Jaitely's early response after the BJP's debacle in the big polls, "Absence of Atalji affected us." Certainly true, but in my opinion, what affected them more was the presence of LK Advani, a peson who stayed in the shadow of Atalji not because he was loyal to him but because he lacked caliber. All the vigor he had, he wasted it in spreading hatred in the name of Babri Masjid and even till date there is no solution to the problem (even after a full tenure of NDA government).

There was no agenda in place for NDA, all they knew was - if we come to power, our most senior leader (capable or incapable - not a question) is going to be the prime minister. Not because he wants to take the nation to new heights of progress or he wishes to serve the country but because he has an aspiration of becoming the prime minister of India once before dying.

Apart from the Ayodhya escapade, he has nothing to his credits, he boasts of being a loyal politician for 6 decades. It might be true, but in no case this implies that instead of carving out policies for the country, penning a smart agenda; you just tell your people that I WANT TO BECOME PM, now this is upto you that how you guys campaign, how you bring me to power.

Let me tell you one thing as straight as it could get - this is not America; here party, its ideology, its agenda is given more credit, more value than the leader of the party. Even Obama won not because of his clean image or being a democrat, or the incumbency factor or Clintons, Gore backing him up, but only because people of America found a ray of hope in his 'Yes We Can' campaign; he had a clear agenda, a clear thought process and at very few instances he talked about John Mc Cain, he was more focussed on his own strategy instead of demeaning the rival's approach.

And in no sense LK Advani is Obama (he prompted Dr. Manmohan Singh for an open debate, just like the one between Obama and Mc Cain), he is not young, he has no new approach, he is not at all a secular (more on that after a few more paragraphs), he can't actually praise or admire his rivals, he has more of a constrained, restricted approach towards nation building.

If BJP had projected Mr Modi as their Prime Ministerial candidate, the picture surely would have been different, but they saw nothing apart from Mr. Advani. Not that Mr Modi is a secular person, but he is a torch bearer, he is a development enthusiast, exactly the kind of man India needs at this developing stage.

Still, I am happy (so is corporate/rural/urban India) with this victory, this mandate. Some of the salient points, I particularly liked about these results:

An almost clear mandate to UPA, hence a stable, self-reliant government.
Communal/regional parties (that cashed upon hatred and narrow-mindedness) received a slap on the face, viz., Shivsena, MNS, RJD, SP, BSP.
Left-scarcely left, no more outdated restrictions for the new government due to a bunch of oldies who themselves are not sure why they are still leftists.
Many biggies having a tainted image lost, viz, Paswan, Lalu (in one of the two constituencies he contested), Sadhu Yadav and a few more, particularly Bahubaleez.
Shashi Tharoor contested from Trivandrum as a part of Congress and won by over 1 lakh votes; people like him if enter the parliament, India is going to be in the league of developed nations in no time.
A whole brigade of young guns contested and won the elections - Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, J Scindia, Rahul Gandhi and a few more.
Rahul Gandhi said no to the pre-poll alliance with SP, and still got 22 odd seats in the big state of UP.
BJP got a bashing from the states that it took granted for. For instance, in last election, BJP won 21 out of 25 LS seats in Rajasthan, and hence they started feeling - this is our bastion, we don't need to do anything here, we can anyhow win. But the people reversed the mandate in Rajasthan and strongly stated that you can't take us for granted; you don't work, you ought to suffer.

Varun Gandhi, another fiasco, another hole in the stumbling boat of BJP. He tried his hands at the old clichéd hindutva mantra, he tried to woo the hindu extremists; though he won a seat for himself (in the hindu prone region called Pilibheet), but somewhere down the line tainted the image of BJP as a whole. In the global era of cut throat competition, famines, floods, recession, rivalries with not only immediate neighbours but far flung nations too; how can we afford to keep fighting within?

There is no time, no space for being communal now. Indian politics is a caste driven politics for sure, but the masses have started hating communal extremists (all kinds, hindu, muslim, sikh); regional strifes can find no place in the national politics, it may provide some goombah, a few hoodlums who may try to out power the minorities based on caste, region, race, creed or whatever, but will never find the support of the masses from now on.

Be it the Shivsena, the Bajrang Dal, the MNS, the Ram Sena, we don't like you. We might disagree with a certain section of society but the way you reciprocate - We don't agree with that. We hated it when you kicked the poor bhaiyas out of Bombay, we hated when you almost molested club-goers in Mangalore, we hated when Christians were killed in the far off eastern regions of India, we hated when the simple definition - Anyone who is involved in terrorizing is a terrorist - was not understood. We, as the new people of India hate you, we don't find any damn attachment with any one of you. And this mandate was in a way our answer.

Enough of politics of hatred, enough of blame-game, enough of communalism, enough of communism, enough of regionalism, now we shall come out of all this negativity, step into a new foray with a new open approach with a combination of fresh and experienced blood in the cabinet that can usher the Indian subcontinent into a flourishing garden of variety of flowers.

--sudharm baxi

Obama - changing stance

2009-04-24T15:11:00.001+05:30

Barack Obama is certainly a gem of a person, apart from the startling facts about his winning the Presidentship, his color, his age; he has also stood with the theme of 'CHANGE'. Before going into a little depth, let me quickly state a few points that i feel makes him stand apart...

John McCain was initially not even a part of the probable race; the real fight was between Hillary and Barack, about who is going to be the democratic candidate for the Presidential race. At that time, Americans were in a dilemma to choose from either a black or a woman, both first timers in the American history. After a lot of effort put in from both of them, Barack Obama was chosen as the democratic candidate for the race to the coveted post.

Now, let me digress a little here, i would like to explain who the democrats are? There are two major political followings in almost all the occidental (western) countries, let us focus here only on USA. In America, they have Republicans and Democrats; George Bush belongs to the Republican Party while Bill Clinton belongs to Democratic. From a superficial glance, the ideological difference between the two parties - Republicans favor the rich while Democrats think much of the middle class and the poor. Democrats feel the rich should be taxed more and more and the money should be used for the upliftment of the poor, while Republicans feel rich drive a nation on the path of success and hence they should be availed rebates, facilities and other sanctions, so that they flourish, and hence the nation.

So, Barack Obama is a democrat, and hence thinks of the majority of Americans and not the few with white collars. His previous comments about outsourcing and other stuff showed more of his democratic attire. But as soon as he donned the Presidential attire and retrospected things, he had to alter his stance a little. Recently in G20 summit, he stated that America has to walk along with developing and developed nations towards the highway of prosperity.

He very well understands that amidst the storming recession and pouring bailouts, no country can stand alone, there has to be a mutual respect and there has to be mutual economic affairs. Limitless amount of bailout money would be required to calm down this monetary conflagration. And Mr. President is a cool and intelligent guy with a very smart team of professionals and not "war heroes". Men like him are made to bring organizations/nations/civilizations out of crises.

In such times, no nation can afford to say anything derogatory about two nations in particular, India and China, the two nations that have an unmatchable workforce and offer an immensely huge potential market, solely driven by emotions.

--sudharm baxi

Emotions rule!!

2009-03-30T11:23:00.006+05:30

While reading an article, i came across this fantastic quote –

'Rational Marketer - Irrational Consumer'

How true!! A marketer always thinks he is completely rational in introducing new policies, or launching a particular range of products, or any marketing strategy at all. But when that strategy fails or is not yielding; the marketer thinks i was damn rational, i have every possible reason that justify my approach and my plan of action - but still it did not work out the way i wanted to.

He feels that the consumer is utterly irrational. The strategist is unable to comprehend why his strategies failed?

If we try to dig out for the core reason, it comes out to be - Emotional involvement and attachment of the customer towards ‘unthinkable/unexplored’ something. This is an aspect never touched upon by the failed strategists. They need to understand that customers are driven by emotions, and so should their policies.

When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. --Dale Carnegie

The USP of a chief strategist should revolve around emotional understanding of the masses. To substantiate this fact, i would like to throw light on some rules for all those well-learned marketing strategists:

Target customer - Any strategist should have a very clear picture of his target customers. You can't bring in a product directly into the market and expect a positive response. The strategist should be aware of the customers who are expected to buy or show interest in the product.
Show it all - Throw light on the USPs of your product. Though it is applicable everywhere, it is particularly observed in the tech sector; take for instance the mobile market. It is solely driven by - The more you show the more you can sell principle. Prerequisites - Your product ought to have all those claimed features.
Create an image - There are companies that do a lot to create an unmatchable positive image in the minds of not only potential customers but also non-potential customers. This point appears to be contradicting the first point, but actually it complements the first one. It requires you to identify target customers and also people who may influence the target customers or might become customers in future.
For instance, not everyone can buy a BMW, but the image it has developed over the period of time - aids in creating a positive feeling towards it. My Boss asks my opinion about a new car and i suggest why not go for BMWs XYZ model, it is fantastic. Why i suggested BMW? All because of the image it has in my mind.
Here i would also like to mention Bose - world's most renowned stereo company. They have a fantastic marketing strategy. You go to a BOSE store and they are so willing to show you their product. You are sure in your mind that you can't buy the costly stuff, the sales guy may also be sure that you won't buy this product. But after a display of the product, the respect BOSE gets from you suffice the BMW example.
And also very important to note here - In future, i may become a potential buyer of any of the above two - BOSE or BMW, hence the foresighted marketing strategy fits perfectly.
Show care and respect for your customer and never take them for granted. No need to elaborate on this one i guess.
Proper availability and providing options: Instead of your competitor cashing in on some new option or choice, why not you go for it? Provide as many options to the customers; supply products in various sizes, shapes and prices. Many a times it happens that the customer is willing to try a new or an improved product but can not find it in the market. This is very bad; the advertising cost incurred upon you actually is doing no good for you instead it is demeaning your name (brand).
An Rs.800 shampoo bottle would be unimaginable for a middle class woman but why not provide her with a Rs.15 sachet for one wash.

I have deliberately not mentioned money anywhere in this article because that would lead to umpteen new facets (Agree or disagree - money is THE driving force). It is one sole reason for majority of the strategies to fail. Unless a company provides customer's money's worth, it can't stand in the market place. It may sound clichéd, but actually it is the one mantra for success of any strategy - provide 'Value for money'. A company should sincerely be concerned with the customer's money.

So, strategists don't just be a marketing expert, but also try to comprehend various intricacies of the complex emotional behavior of humans in order to get your strategies in order.

--sudharm baxi

Bitching about!!

2009-03-25T15:57:00.003+05:30

Homo sapiens have an unbound affinity towards bitching, be it their bosses, their company or for that matter anyone or anything at all, they have an unflinching tendency to bitch around.

A major attribute deciding the sociality of a social being is his ability to bitch. The better he can bitch, the more chances he has of getting accepted in a new bunch of guys. There are bitchers all around. But mind you, if you are a hardcore bitcher, you would have no friends on this planet, because even a real bitcher hates another.

And any sane person would think if this guy foul mouths everyone, he would surely do the same for me too in my absence, and he is certainly right. So, the bitcher has no friends but a whole lot of people for passing time, for talking about things that would create no difference except strengthening his image of a true die-hard BITCHER.

In these times of recession, this habit has aggravated. Many a times, while having a coffee or just chit chatting, i end up debating with someone or the other about my boss, my company, my country and many other things, because i can't listen to people who foul mouth(an understatement for bitching) something that doesn't deserve to be.

In fact, nothing deserves to be foulmouthed, why should we talk bad about anyone at all in his absence? I know it is tough to praise someone, to appreciate someone's efforts, and it takes a lot to be a real genuine praiser (I doubt if this word even exists).

If praise can't come that easily out of your mouth, try to keep your mouth shut. It is better to stay hungry than eating shit. But one would argue for how long you can stay hungry, that limit won't be touched upon, because still there are people with half-filled glass ideology who love to pick positive, who don't really foul mouth anyone, no matter to what extent they hate them.

Disagreement is fully accepted, but bad mouthing those disagreements and that too not in front of those whom you disagree with, is a grave crime.
Life is short, not enough time for good things and still you waste it in talking shit.
Bad mouthing never helps anyone, it may start up a conversation, create a couple of laughs but in the long run it is unethical and surely harms the one doing it.
Bad mouthing never allows loyalty, accountability to thrive; you can never be loyal to your company if you foul mouth it every now and then.
'Bitching' knows how to entrap the person employing it, the person never gets to know when it becomes a habit. And after that, all he does is - Bitch this bitch that, Foul mouth him foul mouth her, bad mouth country bad mouth company and nothing else.

And to be on the safer side-don't talk about people; instead talk about ideas, thoughts, processes, etc. More on this in some future post. Thanks for reading.

--sudharm baxi

Getting into it..

2009-03-24T19:56:00.003+05:30

Dear reader/admirer/critique/passer-by,

Apologies for the name, it may sound egoistic but in actuality it is not; just to keep the things in sync with my other blogs, i chose this name 'baximanages' (after 'baxiwrites' and 'baxireads'), so please don't criticize me of being an EGOIST.

This blog would solely be revolving around all my understandings, interpretations and derivations of all i see around. Lessons taught by life, humans, books, aberrations, scarcities, discrepancies and ofcourse gurus (esp.Osho) would be discussed here. I would like to discuss:

Management theories: My take on some famous theory or one of my own.
Management/Economic terms: I always longed for such a blog and could not find one.
People’s behaviors: Every individual has a distinct behavior, but still some pattern can be traced.
Latest international happenings: In the times of these crises, anyone would love to do that.
All my new reads, learnings and understandings.

I would update this list as I diversify my writings. All the articles you read on this blog are entirely my own creations unless otherwise stated. I get my thoughts moulded into words on this blog only because my writings adore the fact that different eyes are reading it.

And recently, i learnt that if an artist writes/paints/dances or does anything in order to get accolades or recognition; he is doing nothing but feeding his ego hunger, he is nurturing the ego within. And no artist can create good pieces while thinking of the bigger self.

In fact, a true artist should just perform, give his best shot, improve upon previous works and appreciate feedback from a layman to a connoisseur, from critique to fans, from haters to lovers; then eventually a time would come that he would start creating something that is flawless, that is of the order of Mozart's symphonies, Shakespeare’s plays, Van Gogh's paintings, Osho's self-discoveries and all the other divine stuff.

I leave you with the promise that I would do my best to create genuine stuff that would not only be informative but also thought-provoking.

Thanks for dropping by, i will never let you regret.
sudharm baxi

Writing – From hot-pan walk to cake-walk

2009-03-12T20:05:00.000+05:30

There are a variety of readers with varying tastes; they have a reading pattern of their own, some like to read the old fashioned detailed writings, while others prefer crisp and to the point writings.

A writer writes to be READ and hence he strives to improve everyday, with this thing in mind, I would like to share some points that may come handy to my fellow writers and to-be-writers who are willing to be read:

Keep in mind the target audience, anyone who is going to read your writing is your audience; he is going to see you perform throughout your article.
Never show off, your writing is not your attire but your attitude and hence carry it with utmost care and never ever show off.
Have a clear picture of what you wish to convey, unless you are clear about the ideas you wish to share, it would be very tough for your audience to grasp the same.
Never make unnecessary assumptions which would eventually alter the entire style of your writing. For instance, don’t feed in a lot of details about some basic scientific phenomena when your target audience is scientists or take it the other way round, never write so much superficially that your readers are flummoxed and are even unable to comprehend the piece.
Using thesaurus is good but it is not meant to show off the language; to pick a precise word is one thing and to pick an unknown, uncommon word another.
See if your ‘writing’ interests you or not, if it can not interest you, there is a very high chance that it won’t interest anyone else; I tell you a secret – NO ONE READS TO GET BORED!!
If I want to get bored, I would never prefer reading over umpteen other mediums; hence never take chances and try creating a piece of work that could be anything but not BORING.
Be specific, digression is good only if you know your destination, you digress and reach somewhere, which leaves not only you but also your readers confused, is unacceptable.
Read your article a couple of times before actually publishing it, every time you would be beautifying your piece at least a bit.
Neither feel contended nor complacent; you might have written a fantastic article but DON’T get carried away, always have the zeal to improve upon yourself, bring in consistency, bring in charm, bring in a new wave of magic in each and every article.
Novelty is what we are all are looking for; bring in the variety and kill clichéd works in your article; this newness is always admired and talked about (This novelty made Aravind Adiga win Booker for The White Tiger).
Experiment with your articles; never be afraid of trying something new: it may or may not be liked by one and all, but it would certainly make you much wiser.
In the journey of your article writing, bring in unexpected twists, turns and sharp curves; grave and joyous picturesque sceneries for the reader to admire and then leave your article up to the reader to praise, love and cherish.

""13 points is just a matter of chance, no voodoo attempts""

Comparing writing with the culinary skill, some points garnishing this analogy are:

However good your dish may be, it has a scope for improvement.
All the best dishes in this world are a result of experimentation.
Same kind of the best delicacy if eaten daily can lead to monotony and hence food merely becomes a daily bread rather than a piece of art, so bring in novelty.
Be it a food connoisseur or your 10 year old kid, anyone can give you a tip or two to improve upon your dish, so listen to them.
The content is certainly important but equally important is the overview of your dish; work on the overall presentation to ensure that no one makes a decision without even tasting it.
Prepare food that can be digested, if the eater is required to take in something to digest it, you are to be blamed.
Never prepare the food without the prior knowledge of those who are going to consume it, you serve the best sea-food to a bunch of veggies and end up receiving boos and shoos.

Unless you are very clear about the target audience, you can’t create a good piece of art.

Be it
a painting, a song
a poem, a dance

give your best shot
and never miss a chance

it should be appealing enough
even in the first glance

it is a piece of your soul
and not a piercing lance

it would bridge the distances
shorten the gaps

it would narrow the lanes
put you ahead some laps

Spread magic and charm
And make the cold life lovely and warm….

So gear up authors, mould your thoughts into words and present them in a beautiful platter to be remembered and admired till eternity.

You will die but your writing won’t, it would see the times that even your last worn-out strand of DNA won’t be able to.

This post is primarily motivated by a writing project on a fantastic site ‘Confident Writing’ to improve your writing skills by Joanna. Thanks Joanna for the inspiration!!

--sudharm baxi

The Grand Indian IT brigade

2009-03-04T19:57:00.000+05:30

India and IT are somewhat synonyms in one way or the other. India, being the leader in outsourcing (more about it later) boasts of high revenue from IT. Till 1991, India used to be a big importer. Only after a lot of amendments to the existing tacky policies, India could retrace all its past glory (YES! India used to be a lavish exporter even before the British came to India).

A lot of companies emerged and eventually flourished as a result. Companies like Infosys, TCS, WIPRO, Tech Mahindra, Satyam, Patni, LnT Infotech and umpteen other small Indian IT enterprises became the front runners amongst exporters in India.

So what exactly do they offer?
They benefit from something called as outsourcing. Now, what is outsourcing? It would be much easier to understand this strange business practice using certain analogies.
Consider a shirt making company that makes variety of shirts. Now, is it required for this company to necessarily manufacture buttons, threads, collar material and other stuff? No not at all, pertaining to various constraints they avoid manufacturing all such stuff by themselves.
So, what they do is - They outsource (out + source) such material from some industry preferably devoted to manufacturing of that particular stuff. By doing this, they can focus on their core competence instead of thinking about other mundane stuff. This practice removes the pain off the shoulders of the shirt manufacturer and let them focus on their shirts.
In IT scenario, the big organizations of US of A and European nations prefer to get their IT operations outsourced, so that they can focus on their core competency - be it Banking, Manufacturing, Marketing, Advertising, or whatever.
They could have a full fledged department for carrying out their IT operations, but in that case their focus would be diverted and also they would require a lot of skilled professionals to carry out miniscule works (Compared to their major business flows, IT is just a small section).
One more reason for not doing their IT operations themselves is – Transformation of the business knowledge into IT panorama. So vendors come into picture, these vendors provide that ‘IT competence’ for the businesses. And where are the major IT vendors based on this planet - Ofcourse India!!
Now the question arises - why India? Because we are cheaper than our western counterparts; we know their language very well and above all we have learnt the tricks of trade over the period of time. The internal competition has made us smarter and more practical.
Before presenting another analogy about this scenario let me throw light upon some of the familiar IT companies:

Oracle: the Giant Database

SAP: the ERP pioneer

SUN: java fame, open source giant

MICROSOFT: who on earth has not heard of MICROSOFT

IBM: the real hardware giant, much into software development nowadays

YAHOO: the pioneer search engine, email provider

GOOGLE: the Giant search, the API/code provider and much more

ADOBE: .pdf fame, front end beautifier (particularly with FLASH)

All of these are the driving forces of the IT. I would like to do a little more detailing with the aid of another analogy that would explain the IT scenario as a whole.

Consider all the companies mentioned above as car manufacturers. They manufacture both customizable as well as non customizable cars. They design, innovate, and refurbish these cars from time to time.

And all the Indian companies (IT VENDORS) are either drivers or mechanics or both for these cars. As IT vendors, we drive the cars manufactured by some of those WESTERN car makers, we also modify, service, maintain, beautify, manage, buy/fix accessories for the owner of the as per his needs.

Now the drivers can also be put into varying categories based on their driving styles or the kind of car they prefer to drive:

Some are good at driving the robust and reliable JAVA cars (INFOSYS, TECH MAHINDRA)
Some are good at driving and customizing the automatic SAP cars (TCS, LnT Infotech)
Some like to drive the legacy vintage cars (Patni)
Some like to do a mix of all (WIPRO)
Some are significantly into servicing (SATYAM- yes after all the ups and downs it is still a major player)
Some provide stylish chauffer driven services (MINDTREE and many other small companies)

Some prefer to drive big cars, some small; some drive petrol cars, some diesel; some drive ready-to-use automatic cars; some others modify them according to the needs of the end customer and some offer chauffer benefits. The entire-grand-Indian-vendor-brigade is like a driver to the cars manufactured by US or European companies (particularly German and English).
All of these cater myriad of customers, aiding them in various IT tasks related to various business processes and existing at various stages of the business-process-life-cycle, in brief their operations can be pointed out as:
they modify and customize the ERP systems as per their needs,
they provide support and maintenance for the existing systems,
they provide solutions to ease out the businesses using latest technologies
they help customers to migrate from an old car(some legacy system) to a new one (some new technology).
But the only thing that trips me is being a Vendor - we don’t really get into R & D and bring up new products on our own.

I am not suggesting that the driver is not important. The driver is certainly an integral part of this complete process because the customers are unwilling to drive/service the car themselves; they have to have a driver cum service guy to do all this as per their needs. But how great it would be if our own IT giants (vendors) also try their hands at some R & D and develop newer technologies for themselves to work upon.

This is not like Indians are not a lot into product building but they do all this being in one of the ’car making companies’. Most of the guys in those western companies are Indians only but not in any Indian company that could develop such new technologies.
Have a look at the ‘credits list’ of Acrobat reader:
HELP- >> ABOUT ADOBE- >> CREDITS
And you will find every third name in the team is that of an Indian. So, ultimately Indians are driving everything everywhere in IT, but not the way that can help Indian companies come out of the garb of being a service provider.
The car manufacturers do listen to the drivers extensively because ultimately they are going to drive the cars and not the manufacturers or the real Customers.
But my urge to the Indian IT vendors is to spend more on R & D and develop newer technologies to cater the clients more ergonomically; provide solutions that help them in planning and creating a clearer picture of their businesses and ultimately helping them gain benefits where they actually want, that is - the BOTTOM LINE (i mean in monetary terms).

P.S.- Please put in your thoughts to provide a new direction to this debate.

Goodbye - salutations

2009-02-24T15:49:00.000+05:30

It is always tough to part from your loved ones. Hence, the English language takes care of it through so many adopted words, phrases and idioms from various languages.

Some of the most appealing and widely used ones are briefed here, all of them suggest a meaning very close to goodbye:

Ciao - Italian (pronounced Chao).
Hasta la vista - Spanish (meaning: until next time) (remember Terminator 2).
Sayonara - Chinese.
Adieu - French.
Adios - Spanish.
Au revoir - French.
auf wiedersehen - German.
ta-ta - British (informal).
Do svidaniya - Russian.

And the regular ones - See you later/soon/tomorrow(cya), goodbye, take care, b-bye etc. (Origin of Goodbye - God be with you).

OK so bye for now!! More coming up soon, keep crawling (a term used by Google to look for your search items in the web pages worldwide).

2009-02-23T15:41:00.000+05:30

Each one of us is both a sinner and a saint,

the difference lies in the ratio.
-sudharm baxi

Writing - my endearing romance!!

2009-02-23T11:48:00.000+05:30

This blog is like my baby. I once heard somewhere - किताबो से तो शादी करनी पड़ती है (One has to get into a wedlock with the books). But my engineering books never found me worthy enough as a life-long soulmate, hence i could just manage short term relationships with them (short term implies one semester).

And no traces of anything studied in that semester could be found in the rarest-remotest corner of my brain post that semester. Still, somehow i managed to clear engineering and ended up in an IT company. Here the ghoulish coding languages were awaiting my welcome to this graveyard (sorry for being harsh - i know this is my PRESENT EMPLOYER - making me a PAST). Somehow i managed to finish off with the gruesome training and right now doing something that earns my company some dollars.

During this whole expedition, i came across the world of blogging. And here i could deliver this baby - i was expecting ever since i came across linguistic communication. I could give shape to my thoughts, my ideologies, my understanding and as per my title - my underintelligence.

So why do you write?
Because i love writing.

And who gave you the right to impose this writing upon others?
I never imposed anything...

Yes you did..you forced them to read and admire your so called 'baby'..
Nooo!! i just send the link and if they wish they read it...

Don't send the link even - this is like forcing them to read..
I don't force them, i share it only with the selected few and that too i stop sharing if i feel they might not be interested in it.

This is like showing off, displaying your ego..
Showing off- i can't believe this, i have stopped using a capital 'i' ever since i started writing and you accuse me of showing off.

Ok Ok!! Still stop telling them that you have added something on your blog, stop imposing your love of writing upon others - Be humane, you should not trouble others because of your love. Should you?
No i should not and i will try that i do not.

But let me assure you of one thing - i will never let this baby grow old. Right now the baby is maturing with time, it is going through the vicissitudes of life and once it attains adult-hood, i would stop the process of its ageing (Yes, i can do that, but don't ask me how?). Because if my writing grows old it is bound to die, and i can't let it die.

I would die but my writing won't, it would see the times that even my last worn-out strand of DNA won't be able to.

Contentment is bad

2009-02-20T14:51:00.000+05:30

Contentment is bad unless you are Buddha or Mahavir. You would not even realize when this contentment transforms into complacency and thence your (asked for) failure.

The world is full of examples that claim this fact. You remember Romesh Powar, the red-goggled Mumbai spinner. He might be talented as he got into the national team, and then out of contentment, he started to take it for granted; never tried to improve his fitness, his fielding and above all bowling, as a result he is out forever. Ask a guy who practices cricket 8 hours a day, sweats out in the gym, pool and race tracks for the remaining day, just to get into the Ranaji team or the university team. And here we have a guy who got such an immense opportunity, a chance to represent the nation and he wasted it like anything.

Have you visited any of the 'More' stores by the Aditya Birla Group? They have huge establishments, so many employees, so much space, money and experience to experiment with and become a leader in FMCG sales. But where do they stand right now? Nowhere.

This is because of the very basic reason - they don't even understand that the force that drives the middle class is money; if you don't give discounts, if you are not healthy on the pockets of the consumers, why would the customer prefer you over the local kirana store or any other local grocery store.

Have you visited any of the huge book stores namely 'Odyssey' or 'Crossword', i am not sure if they generate profits or not. But one thing is for sure, if they deploy a few very obvious strategic techniques, they would be heavily profitable.

People actually love reading, they want to purchase original books, but the books are so heavily charged. A piece of fiction which is not more than a few hours read for a voracious reader is worth 500 bucks. I can not even imagine buying that book; hence i go to the road side vendor and purchase the duplicate copy for 70-200 rupees. Yes, i feel guilty in doing so but i can't help, i can not purchase a book at an asking price of Rs.500.

Firstly if that book had been priced 250 or so i would have gone for the original one, secondly if those grandiose stores offer schemes like discounts on future purchases or gift coupons or for that matter anything which make me feel that i get worth of MY money whenever i go to so and so store, why would i go for the duplicate cheap purchases (Recently i purchased the duplicate titles of - 'Go kiss the world' and 'The White Tiger' for the very same reason).

Contentment certainly leads to happiness but it kills the urge to get ahead. In a race, you are contended that there are five cars behind you, but that would never make you win, what would make you win is i have to speed up, there are still 8 cars ahead of me.

Just after college, we get into the job without thinking or giving a second thought to WHAT IF i go for this or that? I seek contentment in - Hey! At least i have a job. Also, in the job we don't put in our 100% because we don't find it necessary. But in order to succeed we have to get ahead, think of new frontiers, think of new horizons and without fail head start in that direction.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
--Norman Vincent Peale

Bombay - a transposer

2009-02-18T17:52:00.000+05:30

While talking to a friend on phone yesterday, who has just shifted to Bombay, i tried to comprehend how the life in Bombay can be characterized for the middle class. Also, let me tell you that - you are just another middle class guy here in Bombay, irrespective of what you or your native city thinks of you.

Bombay had always been a dream city for me; i have always admired the beauty, the mojo, the excitement and the quality of life here. But the charm is available only for less than 0.001% of the people (Don't ask me how i reached this figure, just wanted to state an enormously small quantity, hence 0.001). For everyone else, the life is killing out here in Bombay.

Once, i met a couple of well-to-do bank guys in their early forties at around 10:30pm in the local. They were returning from the job, so out of curiosity i asked them If it was the usual time to return. Of course they said yes, and told me they won't reach home before 11, just to leave the other day at 5:30 am. I was severely surprised to find out that it had been their routine ever since. Now tell me- What kind of life is that?

They can surely be considered amongst the well paid middle class, but what for - Raising just a modest living even after so much pain.

Bombay is a city full of luxuries both necessary and unnecessary. Yes, here in Bombay you get to learn that luxuries can also be necessities, you can't live without certain luxuries that could have sounded utterly unnecessary earlier, but no more in Bombay.

My father says - 'Bombay is a city to enjoy for those who don't actually require to personally go and do business. The business creates money for them and they get to spend this automatically earned money.' These people actually enjoy the life in Bombay; all the others, however hefty pay packs or revenues they generate, have to lead a laborious life.

I feel whenever a new guy comes to this city, he gets transposed to the bigness of Bombay from his native place in three stages as mentioned underneath:

Excitement -- So many people around; so much to see; so many trains, buses, expensive cars, malls, hence the guy is so much excited; he travels in the local and shares the experiences with friends; experience a fight or an accident and narrates it with minute details to his relatives and so on and on. Hence, everything excites him like anything.

Boredom -- After a while, the same crowd that had created a sense of excitement, now is a source of constant trouble; the endless queues at the ticket window; daily pouts of fights both verbal and physical; uncaring attitude of passersby, and all the robotic attributes now appear mundane and boring.

Habit -- Now the time comes when the guy is completely acquainted with the vicissitudes of Bombay, he has experienced enough to start the mundane life without the minutest thought of excitement. For boredom, there is no time at all. In a way he got bored of getting bored and is no more bored in anything for that matter.

He is no more astonished looking at the queues longer than the great wall.
He no more fears at the look of heavily crowded buses and trains.
He doesn't care to say a sorry to the passerby whom he has overstepped.
He doesn't believe in creating relationships with the shop wallahs.
He goes to the job, comes back, to go back the next day.

So, this is how life changes for a guy from a small town (barring a couple of cities on this planet, all towns and cities are smaller when compared to Bombay). He becomes acquainted too quickly and rarely wishes to move out of this habit. No pain, no excitement, no feelings, just plain robotics.

He doesn't want to get out of this mechanical trail just like the train that knows nothing but to move on the same parallel tracks over and over again. He doesn't even think of moving back to his home town. A personality trainer in a workshop once said for Bombay

You can checkout anytime you like
But you can never leave...

(picking it from the famous song 'Hotel California' by The Eagles).

But one thing is for sure, this city hates slow movers. Bombayites might not respect anything else but they definitely respect time. You have to be quick-moving, 7:32 local arrives precisely on time and you can not afford to even think of missing it.

Bombay creates quick movers, fast learners, pompous-flashy-socialites and laborers (yes not at all i've mistaken here). It can and will teach you high class management lessons but at a cost which might not be acceptable to you; but do you really think you have a choice against BOMBAY....No you don't have...Here

Bombay decide and we quietly reside..

Diana

2009-02-10T19:32:00.000+05:30

A lady probably having half a dozen disclosed affairs, if still is adored by the masses, that lady ought to be Lady Diana.

She was so very beautiful and charismatic and wonderful (one adjective is never enough for 'Di') that you can’t live unnoticing her. Leaving the pulchritude (physical beauty) apart, she was so gracious, so magnanimous, so helping, so much eager to work for various public causes, that you can not avoid getting inspired by her. One of her pictures, showing her sitting with an AIDS patient is considered the best ad campaign ever for awareness towards AIDS.

This is always believed that her aura shadowed the complete royal family, one smile of hers outsmarted umpteen claims of her bad attitude by the members of the royal family.

Prince Charles did not like her even a bit, pertaining to various reasons:

Out of many girlfriends, he adored Camilla Parker (yes the one whom he married later in life - God knows WHy??) to an unacceptable and unbelievable (she was not beautiful even when she was young - take my word, I have seen her photos) extent.
Diana was more like a necessity for Charles because only a virgin; royal/partially royal member could be a soul mate (yes yes ironically speaking) to the royal heir (what heir, Still at this age, Queen rules and there is no King).
People loved her much much more than any other royal member ever, this made Charles particularly uneasy. There were umpteen incidents when Prince Charles was standing all alone and people, journalists, paparazzi chased 'Di'.
And of course, with time people showed unprecedented love and warmth for Diana, that was incomprehensible and unacceptable to Prince Charles (I don’t like using the word ‘Prince’ for this jealous, good–for-nothing guy).

Prince Charles, at that time was a crappy, spoilt, extra rich kid who got a toy which could have been a beautiful possession for life time but he kept on looking in dirt for something else and never ever cared for it. And when others took care of her, showed interest in her solely because of his negligence; he became utterly jealous and started to foulmouth and misbehave with one of the world's most beautiful possessions.

If Andrew Morton (author, Diana-Her True Story) is to be believed:

she tried to commit suicide five times;
had a digestive trouble called bulimia, a severe eating disorder;
was constrained so heavily by the royal family (Charles particularly) to behave in a way they wanted;

So, she was covering the wounds caused by an uncaring husband under this veil of smiles, love, warmth and affection. The real love was offered to her by many friends, many of whom have actually lost lives, lost jobs and whatnot. But i m not sure, any one can actually prove this ever.

I admire many women, and Diana for me is much more than a mere admiration, she is a ray of hope, a beautiful way of life. And i am sure whosoever knows even a bit about her would share the same thoughts.

I leave you with the beautiful lyrics by Elton John, a special tribute to the love of all...Diana

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Loveliness we've lost
These empty days without your smile
This torch we'll always carry
For our nation's golden child
And even though we try
The truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express
The joy you brought us through the years

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned our long before
Your legend ever will

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
Goodbye England's rose
From a country lost without your soul
Who'll miss the wings of your compassion
More than you'll ever know

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And you footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Front seaters - Back benchers

2009-02-02T19:31:00.000+05:30

This post is a consolidated effort of all my fellow movie goers and me.

What are the benefits of sitting in the first (in worst case second) row in a movie theatre (read Multiplex):

No pain of finding the seat.
Enter the hall and here is your seat.
You watch the movie afresh, it gets worn out after passing through eyes of so many sitting in front rows.
We get to see the minutest details of the movie.
You are amongst the best of the lot, all these guys are your fellow back benchers in various institutes around the globe.
Full leg space, stretch your legs as much as you want without worrying about anyone.
Don't like to lower your head, use front rows and keep it high always.
Movie ends and out you go, no need to wait for the uncle or auntie to clear stairs

So, by now, you must have left the wrong notion that guys buy front row tickets, because they are cheap.

No man no.

They buy them because of the reasons mentioned above.

What say front seaters (syn: back benchers)?

What say all my fellow movie goers??

Feel free to add, i am sure i have missed out quite a few...

Socialism

2009-01-16T16:38:00.000+05:30

Socialism – Industrial Revolution is a serious requirement for a nation to thrive. But rich individuals or business houses don’t aspire to bridge the gap between rich and poor. So, the state (read government) has to take responsibility to drive all the major industries. Whatever losses incurred, the rich should never be promoted to trade freely. There should be a lot of restrictions, regulations and bans on the private entities. The state should play the role of developing and managing the complete industrial base for the nation as a whole. This is Socialism.

Typical example - Post independence India under the visionary rule of Nehru, who envisaged a mixed economy, a government that would be a mix of capitalistic and communistic ideologies, where the state ran all the major industries and necessarily make the remaining dependent upon the state.

But things did not turn out, the way Nehru wanted them to. Bureaucrats enamored power and felt no shame in using it for the betterment of their own being. Bribing became a common phenomenon, from T.C to collector, from manager to peon, from tax inspector to sub-inspector; everyone employed under any government organization was corrupt.

Later on came Indira Gandhi with her stiffer, uglier policies of socialism – she nationalized all the banks (China still has all its banks owned by the government); imposed free trade barring acts like MRTP (Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices act). In her regime, came the era infamously called the License Raj, where a company was required to get licenses for almost every new act. You wanted to open a new shop; buy telephone, scooter; go abroad or for that matter anything which state felt like required license, you had to get a license. The same required a whole round of bribing starting from peon to the ministry.

As a result of all such (mal) practices and that too for such a long time, Bureaucrats gained more power and hence became more corrupt than ever.

But there was an uglier and much more unacceptable consequence bound to happen. The Indian businessmen created this hard and harsh notion, that here in order to run industries you have to be corrupt. A businessman before writing the first draft of his proposal/plan had to bear certain things in his mind:

No matter how good his plan was, he had to bribe the bank officials to sanction the loan.
No matter how he is killing his margin, he had to convince (read bribe) the ministry that he was doing it not for the sake of profits (A businessman starting a new venture and that too not for profit – how foolish!!).
Once the plan would go on track anyhow, there would be union troubles even before the first quarterly results would be declared.
Expanding the business would require more convincing (bribing) than starting the same.
In no case he could think of promoting the business oversees, pertaining to the strict laws with regards to exports and foreign trade practices.

Once, Nehru told JRD - NEVER TALK ABOUT PROFIT IN FRONT OF ME, PROFIT IS AN UGLY WORD.
(JRD always felt bad for not being able to convince Nehru (also Indira) about the benefits of a private enterprise parallel to the one owned by state)

So, what socialism did for Indian private companies willing to grow was something like this –
They kept on pouring acid instead of water to the seeds that were sown by someone else (private houses). Knowing the fact that the seeds would require proper care and nurturing and above all water, they still poured acid. Certainly, they killed most of the seeds; the plants were nipped in the bud. But the ones that were able to thrive even upon acid-care, Can you even imagine them to be any fruitful to the nation building. No they can’t. They can’t conceive any fruits for the people of the nation (who anyways were willing to eat anything that came their way, pertaining to the prolonged hunger and the prolonged beatings by the mighty).

The businessmen became corrupt from the root itself. Tax-theft was no more considered a theft, illegal imports, bribing the officials for official/unofficial sanctions, bending jurisdiction as per the trade requirements with the aid of contacts and the green notes became a daily practice. From a small kirana-store to the million-dollar business house, all lost their ethics, their morality; all they knew was how to get rid of the ugly, sticky clutches of the socialistic beast, Nehru created (though unknowingly).

But times have changed ever since India adopted the free trade practices. Now Indian companies are buying out their foreign counterparts. And there are enough of initiatives by the government to pour water instead of acid.

Paulo Coelho

2009-01-16T13:33:00.000+05:30

I have particularly liked Coelho ever since i read 'The Alchemist' because of the simplicity in his writings. He tries to teach life lessons that are so simple but all forgotten, all buried in the sands of civilizations. He is the guy who is removing the sand. For me he is a cleaner, a soul cleaner.

There are gurus who say do this dhyaan, asana, Samadhi and whatnot, and we forget all that, minutes after listening. But Coelho is different, he is a simple story-teller with that grace, that aura, and that magic to transform the complex life lessons into easy, comprehensible and good to read fables.

You always wish to live in the world, in the shoes, in the troubles of the central characters of Coelho. Be it the girl who decided to die (Veronika decides to die) or the guy who was willing to cross deserts to attain his much desired treasure (The Alchemist), or the girl willing to learn magical powers (Brida) or any character for that matter.

You actually think what if I get to experience all this, but here is the trick, Coelho through his lessons want to convey one very strong point and that is – You need to experience everything in this life yourself and no one is going to actually teach you any of those strange or mundane or whatever things. You have to be a self learner.

You have to go through the pond of wealth as well as the creek of bitter life yourself. Life and time are bigger teachers than anything else ever existed on the face of this planet. So, I sincerely request you to read Paulo Coelho, he may sound silly, insane, or childlike at some instances but he is actually a connector between the unknown, unidentified being and the small us.

This spiritual extravaganza awaits anyone who wishes to explore, who is willing to remove the dust off the lid. One who is eager to take pain, suffer at the hands of the society, the customs, and the dictums to find the unknown will be the one who is going to find true spiritualism, true eternity and will eventually become the flag-bearer of the coming generations.

India Unbound

2009-01-12T13:33:00.001+05:30

After reading 'Freedom at Midnight', Gandhi's autobiography and 'Hind Swaraj', i was willing to read something that could give me more insight into the transition of India from
Narrow minded - socialist - Nehruvian - licence raj driven - India
to
Global minded - capitalist - Privatized - business people driven - India
and hence i found 'India Unbound'.

Authored by Gurcharan Das, one of the most senior guys in P & G (then, now he is an independent consultant cum advisor cum journalist cum board member of various institutions, and ofcourse a fine author).

He has recollected the events of Indian uprising very brilliantly. He has criticised and praised everyone whom he felt responsible for the Indian upbringing from a socialist state to a global economy.

He has suggested how Nehru failed in his socialist model of India where capitalism was driven by the state itself. All the industries regularised and restrained. All the policies benefitting the government and sucking the private industies. One of the astonishing figure of these times - 55%of workforce belonged to the public sector but that only contributed to 27% net output of the nation.

Than he suggested what was wrong with the Indira era - Bureacracy by this time had become such a stiff, corrupt and unabashed dragon that private bodies were left with tax theft, smuggling and false practices to stay existent in that red (-tapism) world. State disliked globalization, exports, better farming practices, open policies etc.

The Rajiv Gandhi era was also not very noteworthy because what India wanted at that time was full freedom from various money and idea sucking acts and not sanctions.

Than came the time of openness in 1991, things started to pace up. Laws like privatisation of banks, MRTP Act (Monopolies and Regulatory Trade Practices Act) were removed with direct effect. Bringing in a new wave of globalisation, a new light of hope for Indian entrepreneurs which implied more openness.

Apart from all this there were essays on Palanpuri Jains (hey!! i am one :)) and marwari banias (i am one here too coz i am half gujju and half marwari). Various revolutionary acts by majors like Birlas, Tatas, Ambanis etc.

So, a must read.

Hind Swaraj

2008-12-16T17:46:00.001+05:30

After reading 'My experiments with Truth' - the famous (and of course only) autobiography of M.K. Gandhi, i was dying to read 'Hind Swaraj', to get a view of the real ideologies of the Mahatma before he actually became one. This book is a collection of questions answered by him on Swaraj, concept of civilizations, kind of education and language to be imparted to the Indians and his idea of the India he wished to see.

Industrialization and globalization were more taboo to Gandhiji than anything else. In one way or the other i sensed so much of Communism in Gandhi's ideologies that i tried to differentiate his thoughts with it.
'We have had no system of life-corroding competition.Each followed his own occupation or trade and charged a regulation wage. It was not that we did not know how to invent machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre.'

He despised industries on the whole because in his view, machinery has ruined human kind more than anything. Industries have created slaves and reduced happiness and work for all.
'Machinery is like a snake-hole which may contain from one to a hundred snakes.'

He despised railways, doctors, lawyers and of course the complete English approach of the European development.
'It must be manifest to you that, but for the railways, the English could not have such a hold on India as they have. The railways, too, have spread the bubonic plague. Without them, the masses could not move from place to place. They are the carriers of plague germs. Formerly we had natural segregation. Railways have also increased the frequency of famines because, owing to facility of means of locomotion, people sell out their grain and it is sent to the dearest markets.'

Gandhi, who himself was a lawyer and had helped Indians immensely in South Africa, felt derogatory for the profession.
'My firm opinion is that the lawyers have enslaved India, have accentuated Hindu-Mahomedan dissensions and have confirmed English authority.'

About Doctors..
'I have indigestion. I go to a doctor, he gives me medicine, I am cured. I overeat again, I take his pills again. Had I not taken the pills in the first instance, I would have suffered the punishments deserved by me and I would not have overeaten again. The doctor intervened and helped me to indulge myself. My body thereby certainly felt more at ease; but my mind became weakened. A continuance of a course of medicine must, therefore, result in loss of control over the mind.'

This book actually was used as a pamphlet to promote Gandhian philosophy to the Indians. This proscribed literature was sold at nominal cost to the proletarians across India to let them know the Gandhian philosophy and make them aware of the concept of 'Hind Swaraj'.

Israel - some other blasting title required?

2008-12-12T14:03:00.000+05:30

When Jews were tortured in an affluent corner of this planet, they looked for a place to rehabitat. And they headed towards middle east since there were Jewish colonies in Palestine already. There was a rapid shift of Jewish population from the Christian extremism (if i may say so) to the centre of most insendiary Muslim epicentre.

They were accepted to some extent but with time tensions started to creep in. With the intervention of UN, two states were created out of Palestine. Ever since (the independence of Israel in 1948), it has kept itself engaged for various conflicts with almost all the Muslim countries.

India can not even imagine, the way Israel works or thinks, being so small, trapped amongst umpteen muslim countries (surrounded by Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan) and still fighting all the time. With a population of less than 8million, Israel is one of the highest spending country in terms of intelligence and security.

Many a times, US intervenes and get treaties signed or ceasefires agreed upon in between Arab coutries and Israel. But history is evident, Israel keeps no resolution for long and attacks one of those countries, captures its land and shows the middle finger to all the Arabs and the treaty makers from US, UK and the lame elephant UN.

The reason for the States not taking harsh actions against Israel is that there are myriad of Jews at prominent positions and with enormous wealth in US (Steve Ballmer, Sergey Brin, Larry Elison, Michael Dell and many many more). And also many politicians..

http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_Famous_Jews/

And guess what - Harrison Ford, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Sandra Bullock, Milton Friedman, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Levis Strauss, Ralph Lauren, Henry Kissinger, Mark Spitz, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks are all Jewish.

So, in one way or the other Jews are damn influential when it comes to deciding the policies for US (read UN also). They have enough of green notes, grey cells (ofcourse in brain) and leadership enzymes embedded in themselves. So, world better watch out coz they are looking out for their small community to place bookmarks (they are a lot into literature also) in each and every corner of this world.

Gandhi

2008-12-11T19:24:00.000+05:30

Mahatma Gandhi (2nd Oct 1869 to 30th Jan 1948)- Much is already known, said and written about this frail saint. A man with whom you might agree or disagree but can't avoid. A stern follower of his home made policies, medicines, philosophies and attire.

If you have to choose one man for the good or bad or whatever India faced - it has to be Gandhi. He was not liked by most of the Britishers for obvious reasons but many Indians (not necessarily extremists) also disliked him. Anything you might feel about Gandhi, but one thing is for sure, he was a man of immense will power.

After reading 'My experiments with Truth' (i would love to call it-'I, ME, MY, MINE by Gandhi' - yes yes i know it was his AUTObiography), you get to know how an underconfident man lifts himself with self proclaimed ups and downs. He faced immense humiliation at the hands of Whites, Hindus, Muslims, and loads of leaders, but life goes on for this kind of guy. For him no praise was small and no humiliation big enough.

He not only had ardent admirers and followers like Mountbatten, Nehru, Patel but also had Jinnah, S.Bose, Churchill and many extremists (Godse, Savarkar to name the influential) on the other side of his spinning wheel.

One can never undermine his achievements, but also can't forget his distinctive personality traits, i would like to elaborate some of them here:

1. His campaigns to raise awareness about sanitary cleanliness in houses is unimaginable. He rushed from vilas to houses to even huts, only because of his willingness to see Indians live a cleaner, healthier life.
2. It is said that no one can ridicule you without your consent. Gandhi is the best example. He just made a note of every disrespect in his mind but never actually felt humiliated.
3. His unbound love for the motherland, mothertongue and culture.
4. His Vegetarianism.
5. His belief in earth and water techniques (and other self experimented remedies).
6. Vocational training to others, so they can live a respectful life.
And above all, his never failing brahmastra- Fasting and that too till death (many a times) proved an aid in making him Mahatma.

Me and most people like me neither have rights nor hold any feasible reason to justify the stands of Gandhi in various struggles of his life, but one thing is for sure - He was a stern being with a lot of guts, will power, dominance streak, truthfulness and leadership skills. Somewhere in his heart he might have a will to be MAHATMA - but as i said i can't and i should not comment on that.

But, someone like Osho certainly can - "If a threat to kill another person is wrong , how can the threat to kill oneself be right? If it is wrong for me to make you accept what i say by pointing gun at you, how can it be right if i make you accept the same thing by pointing gun at myself?"

Freedom at midnight

2008-12-11T18:42:00.002+05:30

Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins can be considered amongst the best historians this world has ever seen. They research so thoroughly about a part of history that while reading , you can almost see yourself standing in the midst of the incident, you can actually feel the trauma, the tragedy of those times.

'Freedom at Midnight' is one such piece. It is not only beautiful and exceptionally venerable but also highly informative. It is written in the real times with real dialogues, experiences, tragedies, and whatnot. So much of research, so much of pain taken to create this masterpiece that you almost visualise the real times.

Apart from describing independence and partition with great details, the authors have laid a very good attempt at throwing light on some of the major figures who were critically important in that panorama -- Gandhi, Mountbatten, Nehru, Jinnah, Extremists (Savarkar, Godse) to name a few.

Authors have tried to collect the feelings of kings, freedom fighters; politicians, bureaucrats (both English and Indian) and the common man. The narrative describing the plight of partition is really heartening. At times, various elaborations appear exaggerated, but there is no proof that no such thing happened.

A must read for all those who wish to get the idea of the times of partition through various eyes.

Everything you desire

2008-11-10T13:32:00.000+05:30

IIM guys are writing more and more books. But let me tell you the bitter truth - they are not good at it. Their books look like a diary. And that too not very well written.

'Everything You desire' is yet another attempt to join this brigade, written by an IIMB alumnus - Harshdeep Jolly like a memo. If you were given a task of compiling all the events of your college life in 250 pages - you would end up writing something like this.

Though, this was known to me prior to picking up the book. But life at IIM fascinates me and who would like to miss it only because of not so good English or no deep thoughts. Any one calling it a bad book - would be harsh enough to neglect the beauty of IIM life. But i have read much better blogs by IIM guys then this book as a whole.

But also, one must keep in mind that writing a novel is much tougher than writing a tiny article. One can experiment with his article but when it comes to a novel, a small experiment would ruin the essence, the setting, the portrayal and above all the overall charm of the novel.

You might have guessed by now that how confused i am with regards to this novel. I can't say if i can recommend this or a complete NO NO.
Go 4 it if IIM fascinates you.

Go Kiss the World

2008-11-07T11:59:00.002+05:30

If you have never heard of Subroto Bagchi, you have certainly missed very big life lessons. He is the founder of Mind Tree and likes to be called as GARDENER of MINDTREE. He belonged to a modest Bengali family with very high moral values. In his book 'Go Kiss the World', he has mentioned how he coped up with various problem at various stages of life.

He was elected as the best NCC cadet, and was fecilitated by the President. It would have been very easy for him to enter the military or the civil services (yes i said easy pertaining to his vast knowledge and upbringing).

He is the kind of guy whom you look up to. The way he was brought up. The way he found his own ways, took crucial decisions in major and minor dilemmas of life. The way he adjusted himself with life. The way he grasped leadership traits from his peers (Ashok Soota, Azim Premji and others).

And biggest of all his technique of finding out something positive from an utterly negative situation. Being in Wipro, how he tried every possible business tactic to establish it in on the Global platform (more precisely USA).

I really admire Bagchi for his skill set. He had never been an IT guy but still is amongst the best known faces of IT in India. A very good writer. An equally good orator. His speech 'Go Kiss the World' at IIM B made young turks every where realise his mettle.

I sincerely feel this book is a must read for all who wish to know what it takes to be big. If you would like to get a hint of his immensely beautiful writings, visit--

http://www.mindtree.com/knowledgecenter/articles.html

World War-1

2008-11-06T17:22:00.000+05:30

I have always loved reading and knowing the intricacies of Wars. I have always liked to know what must have been the reasons involved that could lead to humongous wars on the face of this planet. And a war as huge as World War would certainly fascinate any one.

And i would like to share the knowledge i have acquired over the period of time about those times of blood, toil, tears and sweat. This article is about World War-1.

By the year 1913, tensions had been building up in various affluent countries of Europe over myriads of issues like:

-Huge spendings on the warfare.
-UK having large colonies across the globe (Imperialism), made Germany jealous (yes right word).
-France's resentment over its large territories acquired by Germany.
-Many smaller European colonies no longer wanted to be part of their larger counterparts (like Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer wanted to be a part of Austria-Hungary but instead be part of Serbia.)

But one incident that triggered this sleeping Dragon (read war) - The assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the Austrian Empire) at Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia). A member of Black Hand Gang (which wanted to rid Bosnia of Austrian rule) shot Franz and his wife. This agitated Austria. Austria suspected Serbia becuase of its closeness to Bosnia and sensing the selfish motive of Serbia taking over Bosnia. This lead to Austria attacking Serbia.

But Serbia was an ally of Russia and hence Russia jumped in to rescue Serbia. Serbia alone could have been an easy prey for Austria but now that Russia was also involved - Germany was called for help. Germany entering war made France angry but Germany was willing to help because of something more dangerous cooking up in its closet. This was the Schlieffen Plan.

Schlieffen being a senior German army officer felt that German army was better than any other army in Europe. But it would be tough for it to fight both France and Russia on the warfronts. However, he felt that the large Russian army would require at least 6weeks to mobilize and this time was enough for diminishing the French front. Hence, after finishing off France, the advanced railway network of Germany would take the army towards east and deal with the Russians.

So, the Schleffen plan was carried out to attack France via Belgium. But Belgium was supported by Britain and hence Britain came into the picture. Later on Italy also jumped in to aid Germany-Austria.
Now there were two clear fronts:

The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy) and
The Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia)

All these alliances were solely based on selfish motives. For instance, France aided Britain for the want of the huge fleet of British navy and Britain due to France's modern army. Only aiding each other, they could stand against the mighty Germany - which had the most modern warfare both on land and sea.

Later on almost all the European countries and their colonies got involved in the bloodshed. This all lead to uncountable strategies and alliances all around the globe. But one major event turned out to be very major setback for Germany.

US was unwilling to join the war as an ally to the Britain and party. There were tensions with regards to Germany bombing passenger ships carrying Americans. But, a message decoded by Britain that was sent by Germany to Mexico urged US to roar. Actually, Germany wanted Mexico (with the aid of Japan) to attack US, provided it jumps into the war. In return, Germany would help Mexico get the US acquired states like New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

This stirred up America and hence it actively got involved in the war as an Associated Ally in the year 1917. By then, things had already started getting rough for the Triple Alliance. Russia under smart leadership of Lenin was gaining force. France and Britain aided by their colonies all around were fighting hard. Germany, Japan, Austria started losing the sheen.

By the end of the year 1918 - time for treaties was round the corner. Germany agreed on armistice with the allied powers on 11th of November. And the war completely ceased with Treaty of Versailles (called "Versai") in the mid of 1919. The whole of Europe was redefined as a consequence of war. Central Powers lost a lot of territories and new nations were formulated.

And this also lead to the creation of League of Nations which failed in the years to follow. More about that and WW-2 in some future blog.

I feel good i compiled this :)

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

2008-10-30T12:14:00.001+05:30

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker-2008. A debut novelist winning an award which every author on this planet aspire to win some day but after substantial exposure to his genre. But here we have an Indian (read NRI) author delivering a piece that bangs it on the first roll. He is witty, humorous (darkly and deeply) and above all not preaching but telling.

I have hated Anita Desai for her hungry-poor-superstitious-India portrayal. Because from the first page of her writing, i felt she is depicting all this to win accolades of the English. And for the same reason i feel good that she never won Booker!! Her writings always appeared to me as if looking for the shit even on sea shore-so that she could write about it. Ohh! I saw so much shit all around the sea shore instead of how beautiful the sunup and sundown!!

But Mr Adiga is certainly different. As i mentioned, his way of style is not at all preaching but narrating the bitter life of poor. So, beatifully he places all the sweets and bitter snacks in the same platter and only after devouring, one can find whether it was a sweet or something else. You need to be a connoisseur of both taste and styling.

And the sole reason behind winning Booker-The work is damn ORIGINAL. Never ever i have read such literature in my life. A style distinct enough to set the rules of writing on fire. And this innovativeness, this novelty made him win the most coveted of all the awards.

Really looking forward to his next book (Between the Assassinations) due to realease in November in India.
And by the way i read this book in one day-so gripping :)

Lehmann down, y?

2008-10-24T13:35:00.000+05:30

I solely feel the reason behind the sad demise of Lehman Brothers is over-smartness of the policy makers, not only in Lehman but also other such banks.

Let me first of all brief you about the kind of work investment banks do. They basically invest the money deposited by the customers-big (companies) or small (individuals). In return they pay them some interest to them. This is a sound business. Since, you get a lot of money to play with. And with highly intellectual strategists (no sarcasm!!), they devise newer plans everyday.

And everything worked out well for them (read Lehman and alike companies). But we all know something hit them real hard. And this something was- Sub prime crisis. Now, what is sub-prime crisis?

Every bank has a set of customers to whom it is going to give loan or provide a particular set of services. Technically, these customers are called Prime customers. So, the banks were giving away loans to them and everything was going their way. But these banks had a lot of money and fewer and fewer prime customers. So, they started looking for Sub-Prime customers. These were the customers to whom the bank was unwilling to pay loans earlier. But now, they were also considered 4 loans.

Even now the ball was rolling well. These customers were paying their installments and the cycle was good. But now comes the twist. The customers (majorly sub-prime) loaned money for buying properties and making profit. The property rates as a consequence were reaching sky. And people found it an easy way to make money. Let's take a scenario to understand the whole stuff.

A customer (name him Sam) took a loan of 10,000 USD to buy a property (with sole purpose of making profit by later on selling it at higher rates.)
He was paying the installments faithfully and things were good. But, the real estate prices have a limit. The real estate prices started plummeting due to certain factors pertaining to global reasons.

So, what happened to customers like Sam? They did not know what to do because their real estate costed less than the amount they had invested. Suppose, Sam's property now costs 6000USD, so what would smart Sam do? He would leave the papers with the bank and would stop paying INSTALLMENTS. Smart Sam as i said!!

Now, bank finds out that Sam is unwilling to pay his installments-So, the bank goes into the market to sell the property and guess what, it finds out that the property against which it had availed a loan of 10,000USD now costs 4500USD. Leave the interest, its principal amount can't be recovered even. So, the bank gets screwed up. And there was not one Sam. There were Sam’s all around. Becoming defaulters and making banks poorer and poorer.

So, why on the first hand banks did this? They could have kept the extra money with themselves instead of risking it with the Sub-primers. But banks never do so. They are always willing to loan it for INTEREST. And if one bank does that, others unwillingly also have to follow the trend in order to stay in the market. And hence, the complete cycle of the downfall of not only Lehman but all the other biggies.

The Kalam effect: My years with the President

2008-10-03T14:20:00.001+05:30

This coloumn has nothing to do with my respect for Kalam. We all know how generous, intelligent, honest and futuristic person he is.
But this book is not at all upto the mark. You expect a lot more from P M Nair, a man of immense intelligence (obviously being an IAS, he ought to be the best amongst all the learned people in India).
This book contains a very few detailed anecdotes pertaining to the grand tenure of the President. Picked the book with an assumption that i would get to know a lot of new facets of Kalam, but with disappointment. A few excerpts were good but they were mere facts, no credits to the author.
Lastly, i would say this would have been a good Sunday newspaper coloumn or an article in India Today, but certainly not a book.

The Tunnel of Time

2008-09-18T16:41:00.002+05:30

First things first. I did not know till reading the autobiography of RK Laxman that-RK LAXMAN and RK NARAYAN are brothers.
Narayan being much elder than Laxman had always been a protective and nurturing shield.
The quintessence of the tunnel, in my view is Much early in their lives they realized what their passion was. And never ever deviated from their passion.
For instance, Laxman started sketching very early in his life.
Narayan was writing fables about his daily incidents.
And what a family to talk about. Majority of his autobiography talks about his childhood and why not..
Laxman was a man who knew what he was good at. And always stuck to his plan of becoming a political cartoonist-a field so scarcely employed.
He was refused admission to the coveted JJ College of Arts. But, this is not a guy who gets moved by a small defeat.
I particularly liked the details of his extravagant Europe journey, where he met some of the biggest authors, cartoonists.

Give it a quick read. I finished it in 4 or so hours.

india shud rule

2008-08-29T14:06:00.000+05:30

Tradition is something we put forward whenever we don’t try or don’t intend to try our best. Sometimes in life, the protecting shield moreover becomes a burden and not only a burden but also a hindrance in our ventures. And this is what Tradition is doing to us.

We knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally use it as armour against our own prosperity.

Most of us can end up firing a panegyric instead of an argument against our so called tradition.
One can avoid anything but CHANGE.But we Indians have been doing this ever since.
Moghuls reigned, English ruled and who ever came to devour us was welcomed.
That golden bird was butchered many times and was praised as an easy prey by the predators.
And guess what—at the bottom of our hearts we took it as an encomium.
We admired being praised. As we are not Germans. Ok, I would leave that for a later thought.
The English admired Indians being arduous and not archaic.
Our most noble people sang songs in praise of our new self made rulers. (Jan Gan Man by Tagore- a classic example).
Neither I nor anyone on this planet can demean the Queen’s people because it is the human tendency to conquer, to expand their territory.
But it should also be a human tendency to defend your territory. You don’t attack its ok but you don’t defend yourself, your people; you don’t erect a bulwark to safeguard your traditions; you are defying the first and foremost rule of the planet. You are serving yourself in the plates of the predators and when they have devoured the delicacy, you go out lamenting and shouting that the British robbed us. No they did not. Instead we robbed ourselves. We robbed ourselves of our values, of our courage, of our basic human insignia.
We did not spare a single thought about the outcome of all this and now here we are.

Now let me come back to where I started that is CHANGE.
We don’t accept changes. We have become as stagnant as a pond. And that pond is covered too, so no sunlight no fresh air but only smell of our own sweat. So however hard we toil our soil, we still would require fresh air, sunlight and if I may say so global exposure to flourish our lands.

And what is wrong in that. This is the era of globalization. Even the stiff and stern Chinese are changing as according to the need of the hour. They are learning from the States like no one else has ever before yet they don't let anyone interfere in their political matters. It is upto you to erect boundaries or limits.
Leaving tradition apart, consider India as a teen who has just acquired enough maturity to understand tactics of this cruel and harsh world. Now at this time it has to learn as much as possible from the giants around. It has to embellish itself with the smartness of the smart.
This is like garnishing our own pizza with toppings from around the world.
And guess what, we can select the kind of toppings....like:

Sophistication of the French,
Killer instinct/Engineering of the Germans,
Innovativeness of the Japanese,
Market-understanding of the Chinese,
Arduousness of the Koreans,
Diplomacy of the British,
Farsightedness of the Americas,

And whatnot…

So, who would not like this customized pizza? The pizza with our staple and toppings peculiarly selected from around the world as never done before in the history of mankind.
There may be an argument here - why should we learn from them. I say why we should not.
History is full of precedents where pupils have outsmarted their cicerone.
All we need to have is a victory over our narrow-mindedness. As known our bigotry smartly acts as bottleneck for any of our future endeavors.

So, I come to being a rebel. Show rebelliousness against our straw-like mindset.
Osho has very rightly quoted:
विद्रोह नही तो जवानी कैसी!!

Speak out against injustice, malpractice, black-marketing, and chauvinism.
Say your word. Discuss nation instead of discussing mundane sitcom or silly page-3. Our nation needs us more than a cancer patient needs chemo.
And the time is right; if we still delay this cancer would be incurable. So, act before it is too late. Act, don’t think don’t talk.
We Indians have a basic tendency of analyzing things instead of acting upon them. And hence in the process, many times we put our human instinct on bay. And after a thorough analysis which way do we opt—Ahh the safer one, the less tedious one.
We don’t invest in R & D- because America is doing it.
We don’t look after our education system properly, because politics is more important here.
Our politicians are ruined because we’re more ruined and stale.
Think about this, how many times you went for a safer side instead of listening to what your instinct told you to.
In the words of Jonathan Spencer- We never ask ourselves a simple question before foregoing our initial instinct-
"What would you do if you were not afraid?"

We never think that way- We rationalize things like no one else on this planet.
We never risk things, never risk luxury, never risk comfort and as an outcome have to RISK LIVES.
I once read these beautiful words (sorry I don’t remember where?)

Fight the tendency to quit while you are left behind.
When we trail in a race-we sit back and start enjoying the race. We have been very good admirers which is certainly admired but wont you prefer to be a participant. A watcher does enjoy a game but do you have any idea of the gratification, the gusto of the player actually involved.
So, why not be that player। Make India that player that virtuoso who not only enjoys his game but also keeps in mind that future would come apace than imagined.

Don't compare our state, our problems with the likes of US or any other nation. We have to forget the trembling past and plan for a swift and smooth future. We have to be forgetful of our own people and our own mistakes..
With these beautiful words(again don't remember where i read) i would like to finish my work for a while::::
क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को, जिसके पास गरल हो
उसका क्या जो विषरहित, विनीत और सरल हो

Siddhartha

2008-08-29T13:42:00.002+05:30

So, i am finished with Sidhhartha. Though using a word like finish is derogatory for this jewel. It invokes you to start an altogether new beginning. A beginning you were always looking for, just like Siddhartha in myriads of trifle thoughts and words stuffing our books and literature.

I can love a stone, Govinda, and also a tree or a piece of bark. This are things,

and things can be loved. But I cannot love words. Therefore, teachings are no good for me,

they have no hardness, no softness, no colours, no edges, no smell, no taste,

they have nothing but words. Perhaps it are these which keep you from finding peace, perhaps it are the many words. Because salvation and virtue as well, Sansara and Nirvana as well, are mere words, Govinda. There is no thing which would be Nirvana; there is just the word Nirvana.

A very sound thought that wisdom can not be taught. It has to be acquired and for that very sake, Siddhartha did not even stayed at the grove of Buddha. He wanted to experience life and hence gain wisdom. Hesse is a master at conveying thoughts simplistically. You almost feel for yourself the sense of veneration towards Sidhhartha. About meditation and prevailing techniques of self healing:

And Siddhartha said quietly, as if he was talking to himself: "What is meditation? What is leaving one's body? What is fasting? What is holding one's breath? It is fleeing from the self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a short numbing of the senses against the pain and the pointlessness of life. The same escape, the same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a few bowls of rice-wine or fermented coconut-milk. Then he won't feel his self any more, then he won't feel the pains of life any more, then he finds a short numbing of the senses. When he falls asleep over his bowl of rice-wine, he'll find the same what Siddhartha and Govinda find when they escape their bodies through long exercises, staying in the non-self. This is how it is, oh Govinda."

Till my next read bye....

The Fountainhead

2008-08-27T14:35:00.001+05:30

Ayn Rand-the mother of Objectivism, the lady who redefined the whole definition of egoism, selfishness and above all the real human values.
Her foray into the real BEST SELLING work came with 'The Fountainhead'-Story revolving around an architect named Howard Roark. This architect is not only a fictional character depiction of a building architect but instead a society architect. A person, in whose hands we can actually give our society to mould our values, our ideologies and our thoughts.
Seldom in the history of mankind, we find a man who fight for his values, who puts on stake all the luxuries of life to pursue the core belief he has in his values.
Howard Roark is one such guy. You can't make a guy like this do wrong.
Above all the style of Ayn Rand is so gripping that you would complete this large novel in very less time than expected. The scenes she has imagined, the plot, the correlations and corollaries- they are all very fantastic.

Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons--a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything
we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute
of man--the function of his reasoning mind.

She feels there are no comprosmises with thoughts. Hence,

But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a
collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement
reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn
upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary
act--the process of reason--must be performed by each man alone. We can
divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach.
No man can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared or transferred.

Her definition of Altruism- made her the nail of the eyes of the dogmatic people:

Altruism is the doctrine which demands that man live for
others and place others above self.
The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man’s first duty is to
himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of
others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not
depend primarily upon other men. This includes the whole sphere of his creative
faculty, his thinking, his work. But it does not include the sphere of the
gangster, the altruist and the dictator.

Go and read this masterpiece by Rand and i assure you one thing- It would atleast make you think about various aspects of life with an altogether new approach.

You will be Randalized...

The Godfather

2008-08-27T14:23:00.000+05:30

Godfather-first and best work of Mario Puzo.Inspiration to umpteen number of other novels, movies, serials and whatnot. The character depiction is so fantastic that you can make a clear picture of the kind of person you are reading about. The Godfather's image, his intelligence, composure, style could not have been better depicted by any other novelist ever. And how can one forget the theatrical brilliance of the movie-Marlon Brando showed all his cards and that too in one movie. Such good dialogue delivery, such classic aura, such grace, that you almost feel Ahh!! how come such perfection....That is Coppola for u but Puzo has left very less scope for modifications or enhancements...

Some of the quotes i would certainly like to share--
A lawyer with a suitcase is stronger than a thousand soldiers with their guns....
Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold.

I can state a whole collection of dialogues or scenes but would like to share a couple here--

Michael had one time asked, “How come you used a guy like Luca Brasi? An animal like that?”The Don had proceeded to instruct him. “There are men in this world,” he said, “who go about demanding to be killed. You must have noticed them. They quarrel in gambling games, they jump out of their automobiles in a rage if someone so much as scratches their fender, they humiliate and bully people whose capabilities they do not know. I have seen a man, a fool, deliberately infuriate a group of dangerous men, and he himself without any resources. These are people who wander through the world shouting, ‘Kill me. Kill me.’ And there is always somebody ready to oblige them.

and here is one more

Hagen knew he was being mollified. “Maybe I can help,” he said.
Michael shook his head decisively. “You’re out, Tom.”
Tom finished his drink and before he left he gave Michael a mild reproof. “You’re nearly as good as your father,” he told Michael. “But there’s one thing you still have to learn.” “What’s that?” Michael said politely.
“How to say no,” Hagen answered.
Michael nodded gravely. “You’re right,” he said. “I’ll remember that.”
When Hagen had left, Michael said jokingly to his father, “So you’ve taught me everything else. Tell me how to say no to people in a way they’ll like.”
The Don moved to sit behind the big desk. “You cannot say ‘no’ to the people you love, not often. That’s the secret. And then when you do, it has to sound like a ‘yes.’ Or you have to make them say ‘no.’ You have to take time and trouble. But I’m old-fashioned, you’re the new modern generation, don’t listen to me.”

So, at the end i wud suggest-A must watch and a must read --The Godfather (Read it before watching--it wud b fun...)

Journey to the east

2008-08-25T19:19:00.002+05:30

A beautifully crafted jewel, by Herman Hesse- A german philosopher, poet, novelist, and painter. Germans are very good philosophers, for instance Marx, Nietzsche, Kant and many more not only devised new ideologies but also sparked fire amongst people. Here i won't give a point favoring any of such stuff because that would be a heavy digression from our cynosure- Herman Hesse. He is so much into Indianism that on reading him it feels as if you are reading a learned NRI guru or some high profile spiritual leader.

Journey to the east is a beautiful course of his description of a league that wanted to go to the East for spiritual enlightenment. This journey could not take place because of some reasons, and all the consequences and relations are mentioned beautifully in this work.

Enjoy this captivating excerpt from Journey to the east:

I asked the servant Leo why it was that artists sometimes appeared to be only half-alive, while their creations seemed so irrefutably alive. Leo looked at me, surprised at my question. Then he released the poodle he was holding in his arms and said: "It is just the same with mothers. When they have borne their children and given them their milk and beauty and strength, they themselves become invisible, and no one asks about them any more."
"But that is sad," I said, without really thinking very much about it.
"I do not think it is sadder than all other things," said Leo. "Perhaps it is sad and yet also beautiful. The law ordains that it shall be so."
"The law?" I asked curiously. "What law is that, Leo?"
"The law of service. He who wishes to live long must serve, but he who wishes to rule does not live long."

and how can i miss this beautiful poem-

"He who travels far will often see things
Far removed from what he believed was Truth.
When he talks about it in the fields at home,
He is often accused of lying,
For the obdurate people will not believe
What they do not see and distinctly feel.
Inexperience, I believe,
Will give little credence to my song."

Right now i m reading another masterpiece of Hesse- Siddhartha..

So, expect more from me on Hesse soon....

As a man thinketh

2008-08-19T17:58:00.001+05:30

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass
Environment is but his looking-glass.

Such an instigating start to the masterpiece that you can't help yourself but reading it again and again. 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he' is the foundation on which the beautiful book rests its thought. With beautiful yet simple analogies James Allen has tried to throw light on one of the biggest secrets known to human race ever since (Recent bestseller 'The Secret' talks about this very same secret).

"Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and
growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend
the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and
impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and
fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts.
By pursuing this process,

a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his
soul, the director of his life."

Buddha, Mahavir and all the others have always tried to preach the very same idea. Never think bad of others. Never create a universe of ill-will or evil even in thought. Because this thought materializes apace. About criminals:

"A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of
fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and
base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by
stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been
secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its
gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him
to himself"

We are actually creating a world around us with our own will but probably unknowingly. So, all what we are required to do is-Do it knowingly, as desired and not merely 'as destined' because we write our own destiny. U conceive a thought in your mind about something like-

I can't reduce weight or how can i get into such a big college or i can never be a successful manager or i have to live this terrible life the way i am living it. In all these cases You are right. Because you have opted for these situations (though unknowingly but yes you have done it...), so what is the solution. As simple as that- Think positive. Think confidently. Think jovially.

And then have a look at the world around. You would be amazed how soon things have changed for you....

"So You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, 'environment,'
But spirit scorns it, and is free.
"It masters time, it conquers space;
It cowes that boastful trickster, Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown, and fill a servant's place.
"The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
"Be not impatient in delays
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands
The gods are ready to obey."

Winston Churchill

2008-08-14T11:56:00.000+05:30

Came across a biography of Winston Churchill-Prime Minister of UK during 2nd world war. A man of multifarious personality- nobel prize winner author, artist, historian , soldier, journalist and whatnot. He is considered by a few as the best orator ever. Whenever he was to speak on the radio, the announcement would be-"The lion would roar on the radio tonight".
Some of his handsome quotes:
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. "
"In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice. "
"Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it. "
"Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it. "
He was initially a conservative and later on became a liberal.
He is the kind of man for whom one can say-"He lived his life to the fullest".
He opposed Indian leaders at the time of Indian independence heavily, about Gandhi, his thoughts:
"It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle-Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace...to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor."
and about Indian Congress leaders:
"Brahmins who mouth and patter principles of Western Liberalism."
In one way or the other he hated both Indians and Nazis. But not India and Germany. That is why he was always against the Dominion Status and all the stuff about giving powers in hands of the Indians.
But even big people make mistakes...

games indians play

2008-07-31T19:29:00.001+05:30

Why we are the way we are?

Recently read 'games indians play'. Came across this book in my company library and picked it up.. and more or less liked it. Read such content from an Indian author for the first time , but not to forget Mr. Raghunathan is an IIM professor. This is like in the league of The Blink, Tipping point, Freakonomics etc.. But moreover i would have liked it more had it been more India specific.But still liked the wittiness of Mr. V. The game theory, different dilemma problems and alike stuff remind one of the fact that here is a guy from IIM, who believes in Experimentation. Devises theories only based on practical implementations and researches.

So, give it a go..
Give it a quick read and u wud love it..
If it can make u think over even a couple of things India has to face knowingly or unknowingly bcoz of us (i sincerely mean u and me..) than the book solves its purpose...

Book Reading

2008-07-30T13:34:00.000+05:30

Books!!!
A man's jewellery-one of my professors used to say so. And certainly why not? What is the purpose of jewellery, the real purpose if you try to dig in comes out to be-- In the old days people used to put their money into jewellery so that in ill times, this could act as a LIFE saver.
And so, books fit pretty well into this definition.
But i have never liked my academic books . That is probably why i am in the IT industry at the moment and doing myriad of mundane stuff. But i wont get into how-bad-IT-is right now.
So, i developed a good reading habit while i was preparing for my mba entrance (as mentioned i m into IT rite now and so not doing MBA but may be in near future).
I read a variety of stuff ranging

from philosophies and ideologies of Ayn Rand to drama and suspense of Sidney Sheldon/ Agatha Christie..
from scientific fiction of Dan Brown to life realities by Kahlil Gibran..
from complex Mein Kampf to simple-yet-beatiful Jonathan Livingston Seagull...
from life inspiring lessons of Robin Sharma/Paulo Coelho/Lance Armstrong to i-hate-life kinds..
from strategic beauties like the goal, the blink, the tipping point, freakonomics, you can win,power/future shock types to over hyped literature of Chetan Bhagat (i hate to use the word literature for this guy--I have always felt my dad writes better diaries than what he does in his so-made bestsellers)...
from beautiful character depiction by Mario Puzo to ideas-are-bigger-than-man writings of OSHO...

So, i recommend all you guys to READ. Read till u can and then read some more...
It wud change your life and there are benefits of outsmarting anyone at any instance whenever u want. But only if u are a voracious reader...

More from me if even one person on this planet likes this article....