Day 30-2011 : A Nomadic Month

We are already at the fag end of the first month of this year!  Time is flying!

This month was full of hectic travel, largely on the personal front, but also for work.  The month started with me and the family flying back to Mumbai from Ahmedabad where we spent the last week of December and brought in the new year.  The very next day, we drove down to Pune.  Priya and the kids were going to spend the week at her mother's place and I was left to fend for myself in Mumbai for the week.  Life without wife; for a week!

I did get through the week by spending most of the time at work.  Food was on 'Delivery' mode, from a few restaurants nearby.  End of the week I travelled to Goa for an offsite meeting spanning the weekend.  An early morning flight (5 AM!) after a late night the previous day set the tone for the offsite.  The first day of the offsite was hectic and very productive.  The evening was spent having dinner on the beach along with some enthusiastic singing (mostly Amitabh Bachchan / Kishore K songs!) by the gang.  Some of the gang carried on the drinking on the beach after the dinner till very late in the night.



Sea food on offer @ Goa; none for me though!

The next day, after attending the reminder of the sessions at the offsite, myself and a few others were on our way back.  The others, of course were staying for the night as well, which I had to miss, as I had to pick up

the family from Pune on Sunday.  Hence I was back in Mumbai and on my way again to Pune the next day.  The highlight of this trip was opportunity to meet Rajee, Ashwath and Anjali, who are here for a vacation from Estonia after a long time.  We dropped them at Panvel on our way back from Pune.

@ Pune with the family. 

Lastly during the middle of the month, all of us went back to Ahmedabad for Rashmi's Seemantham.  A rush rush affair this time.  But it was great to see a lot of people in the family make it to Ahmedabad for the ceremony.

The Seemantham ceremony @ Ahmedabad.

It is said that whatever you do on the first day of any year, you are bound to keep repeating it throughout the year.  Though I am not a great believer of such superstitions, the evidence so far in January suggests that it might just be true.

Take care.

Day 23-2011 : Staying (In) Power!

One of the most outrageous news item that is being reported by the media over the past few days is about the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Berlo) and his amazing libido!  Berlo has always been a bit controversial but this time he is in the dock for sexual encounters with minors, vivid details of which appear in the media now on a daily basis.  One of them being that he had a harem of a few pretty young women just outside Milan which was the venue for some wild parties.  I am thinking, at 74, this is not bad at all! 

At first, I was shocked that a sitting Prime Minister could conduct himself in such a manner.  But then the more I think about this, it is becoming very apparent to me that there is definitely a strong co-relation between politicians (especially if they are in power) and sex!  And then I said to myself, this is how the western world is.  Really?  The chubby cheek N. D. Tiwari immediately came to my mind.  At 80, His Excellency, then the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, was not doing bad for himself either, with not one, not two but three escorts at the same time! Talk of staying power!

There are many many more examples not only in India but across the globe, the most powerful of them of course, was Bill Clinton.  Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards are other examples from the United States.  The erstwhile president of Israel was recently convicted of rape, something that happened when he was in power.  Closer home, recently a minor has accused the MLA from Banda of rape.  A minister in Goa, Micky Pacheco, got into trouble when his one of girlfriends committed suicide.  Then there was the Srinagar sex scandal where many high and mighty in Kashmir politics were said to be involved.  Gopinath Munde, it is said, has a dancer girlfriend.  I am sure there are many more which have not hit the headlines and this post would have an acreage problem if I were to list down all of them.

So, the question really that I have is, why is there such a strong co-relation?  Is it because power corrupts? Does being in positions of power make one's adrenaline more active?  Or is it all about easy access?  Where is morality in all of this?  Are these politicians aware of their moral responsibility?  Do they have a moral responsibility towards the populace?  Is it just their private lives and they have the right to do what they want to or does being in the positions that they are in give them the unfair opportunity to exploit.  And they probably do!  Though one may argue that they are humans first and then politicians.  And they get exposed more often than others because they are in public life.  I am not sure that is really the only explanation for this.  But it sure makes me want to get into politics!

Just kidding!

Be good and take care.

Day 16-2011 : Vibrant Gujarat!

In a lot of my posts last year I have been mentioning the superior infrastructure in my home city of Ahmedabad compared to some of the cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai, where I have lived within the last decade. 

I am truly amazed by the amount of development work that has happened in the city.  Some of it is of course very apparent.  The roads are great, wider than ever and no potholes.  The BRTS has been a success.  I saw a note in this morning's papers that the old city is going to get the Monorail on an experimental basis for 15 kms.  The Kankaria lake has been transformed and marketed in a big way.  You can feel the buzz of progress when in Ahmedabad.  And I am told that this focus on development is not only restricted to cities like Ahmedabad.  The interiors of the state are also witnessing a change.  Some of the captains of the Indian industry seem to agree with me as they have endorsed Gujarat as the country's premier investment destination by committing investments of 250000 crores within an hour of the first day of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2011! 



Industry captains @ the summit.



Vibrant Gujarat campaign

How has this transformation been possible from the ravages of the riot ridden state a few years back?  Good governance is the only answer.  However, it is also important to understand the background and the context in which this transformation has been achieved. 

Chief Minister, Narendra Modi has been projected as the main catalyst and change agent for this transformation.  However, just a decade ago, Modi was the face of communal politics for his hard line views on Hinduism and his antics in the Godhra massacre aftermath.  I am no fan of his, because of exactly these reasons.  However, I have to admit that Modi has successfully diverted the attention of the classes as well as the masses from his narrow focus on communal politics, to the larger vision of driving the agenda of development in the state.  There has been a deliberate attempt to 'let bygones be bygones'.  Modi, in this process, has transformed himself into a CEO of the state.  Political stability since 2002, in the state has helped matters.  Something else that has made this work has been the image of the CM as well as his government.  This government is seen as a honest one; integrity being one of the cornerstones of Modi's image itself.  On top of all of this, the decision making process has been super-fast!  A good example is the Tata Nano factory at Sanand.  The land for the factory was allotted in 3 days flat, after Ratan Tata was hounded out of WB by Mamata.  And, last but not the least, the state was the leader in the agriculture sector as well last year, with a growth rate of 9.9%.

All of this makes me very happy.  I hope this good story continues and Gujarat truly becomes the engine of India's growth in the next few decades.  I am still not a supporter of the political views of the CM and his party.  However, I am definitely impressed with what he has been able to achieve on the development front. 

And, there is still a lot to be done.  For example, offer me something which will make me move back to my hometown!

Take care!

Day 15-2011 : 'Food' for Thought!

Food has never been a big deal for me.  People who know me well would know that I am probably a good example of someone who eats to live rather than the other way around.  In fact, I think I am a very poor eater, very conservative and most of times quite frugal.  In fact for a long long time, I survived on only one meal a day.

And that is exactly why I am writing this post.  I have recently started have the traditional three meals a day.  This is a result of a new year resolution! (what else could it have been!?)  The interesting part though, is that this resolution is not mine, but my better half's!  She has vowed that starting this year she is going to ensure that I have breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday.  Hence I can now be seen lugging a lunch box to office everyday.  I certainly do not want to risk the consequences of being the reason of my wife breaking her resolution!  The same experiment, by the way, has failed a couple times before, in the last few years. 

Not my lunch box!

Having said that, it has definitely been an interesting experience.  And has succeeded so far.  The trick has been the smaller servings. I have been advised (very strictly) that instead of just one meal a day, I should be having many meals (at least 3) with smaller servings. 

The lunch box certainly brings in strange challenges.  The most important one is to be able to remember that I have to eat lunch and produce the empty lunch box at home.  Hence I have now tied up with a couple of colleagues who have kindly agreed to remind me of of the lunch box!

By the way, according to Hindu mythology, the whole issue of 3 meals a day is a result of a goof up caused by Narada Muni.  It is believed that when Brahma made the universe, he asked Narada to go to Earth and convey a very important message to humans: 'Teen baar nahana aur 1 baar khana' (3 showers and 1 meal a day)!  The bumbling Narada got confused while he was on his way to Earth.  He finally conveyed the opposite message: 'Teen baar khana aur 1 baar nahana' (3 meals and 1 shower a day)!  And that is what is being followed till date by us humans living on this planet.  I am not sure if this is all true but am happy that at least someone else, apart from me, also thought that one meal a day was a good idea!

However, right now, it is three meals a day for me.  So everyone who thinks that I have put on some weight in the last few years, please be prepared to see me put on some more this year, notwithstanding my exertions at the gym every morning!

Take care!

Day 10-2011 : The Republic of Scamland!

That should probably the name of this country after what we have seen in the last year.  For anyone who rates integrity as a core value of mankind, 2010 was a horrible year.

Corruption was not limited to any specific sector.  It was apparent that corruption exists in all walks of the society.  Here are a few of those (which came to light):

• 2G was of course 'too(2) (G)rand' a scam; mother of all scams.  I am sure the stakes (read rates) would have been even higher for the 3G spectrum allocation.
• The politicians' greed also spread to an institution which is known for its discipline, the Indian Army.  The Adarsh Housing scam dragged the Army into the mud.
• Land was the cause for other scams involving chief ministers and their families in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Sports had its own share of scams. CWG and the mess around it projected the country in very poor light, whereas the event was actually meant to do exactly the opposite.  IPL and the infighting amongst its stakeholders blew the lid off another can of worms, putting the much celebrated Lalit Modi in the dock.
• Of course, when money is the root cause of all, how can the financial sector be behind.  The LIC Housing scam where the topmost officials are said to be involved continued the shameful trend.
• Medicine was not spared as well.  Ketan Desai, the president of the Medical Council of India, was finally removed from his office for allegedly amassing wealth through corruption in the medical education sector.

The very institutions which are supposed to control this disease were mired in controversies of their own.  Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) was accused of amassing a lot of wealth during his tenure.  Moreover an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court alleges that 8 of the last 16 CJIs are corrupt.  The office of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and the process through which a CVC is appointed also came under scrutiny when P J Thomas, who is accused of corruption, was appointed to the post.

All of these are only symptoms of the sorry state of the Indian polity and the society, where greed seems to be a worshipped evil.  We have all been celebrating the Indian growth story.  I am sure if we did not have the scourge of corruption, we would be growing at a much faster pace.  Purely in cash terms, the amount of money which is diverted into the parallel economy of corruption, could easily contribute to the GDP and a couple of percentage points of growth!

What can be done?  Every issue has a process and people component.  This one needs transparent processes and accountable people.  Unless we put in place both of these, corruption will continue to be a drag on our economy and culture!  This will mean different approaches and measures in different sectors of public life, the end objective of which would only be to secure the collective futures of all the hard-working citizens of this country.  I strongly think that we can make a start by ensuring that the judicial process for convicting such accused persons is expedited as well as the punishment for those individuals is severe.  Restrictively severe.

Take care!

Day 1-2011 : I Resolve To...

As indicated in my last post, my intention was to do one last post in 2010, which would sum up my performance on the resolutions that I made in the beginning of the year and my goals for the year 2011.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find access to the Internet very easily in the last one week and was in fact tied up in meeting and spending time with family and friends and hence this post on the first day of 2011!

If I had to sum up my performance on my personal goals and resolutions last year into a report card, it would be a short one.  I would rate myself as 'Partially Effective'.  Overall, I made a lot of progress on all the items but I feel there is still work to do on each one of them.  Except for keeping the promise to myself of posting to this blog every week, I cannot say that I fully completed any of the others.  Mind you, I did put in a lot of efforts in ensuring that I stick to my resolutions, but I did find myself hard pressed on two fronts:  lack of time and an inconsistent willpower!

Some of the wins for me as I look back on my personal goals for 2010 were:

1) I think I am now a more tolerant person than ever before.  There is still some way to go, but it is really amazing how much your children can change in you!

2) Most parts of the year I did look at situations from a win-win perspective.  And, it surely paid dividends.

3) 'Kick The Butt' was a moderate success.  Something that could be built on this year.

4) I did reach out and connect to more people than ever. Obviously, I discovered social networking and leveraged the Internet big time this year.

5) I did spend more quality time with the family this year.  However according to the better half, not enough yet!
6) I executed most of my investment goals for the year.

Some of the areas where I did not measure up at all were:

1) My reading habit was a big loser.  I did start reading many books but could follow through and complete only a couple of them.

2) My exercise routine was better than some of the previous years, but still not up to the mark.

3) Last but not the least, my better half insists that I include her expectation of better treatment to her in this list as well.  So be it!

 So, on the first day of this new year, what could be my resolutions or goals for the coming year?  Though the temptation is to go for a 'new' and 'different' resolution every year and be as flashy as one can be about it, I think the best thing to do for me this year would be to continue with the same resolutions of last year.  All the more so, because I had some significant successes with my resolutions last year. 

Some of the key ones this year would be:

1) Read more this year.  I almost felt like an illiterate due to the fact that I wasn't reading enough! 

2) A drastic one is to quit alcohol, though I am only a social drinker and restrict myself to beer and the occasional glass of wine. 

Rome was not built in a day.  Making lifestyle changes is a similar story.  I hope I will be in a position next year to report good progress on all of these.  I also hope, that as my well-wishers, you would keep checking on me on some of these goals throughout the year!

Wish you and your loved ones a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!

Take care!

Day 358 - That Time of The Year!

Yes, it is that time of the year, when everything slows down and everyone seems to be in the holiday mood, even those who are not taking a holiday!

It is also the time of the year when you might see a series of 'Annual Day' events being celebrated all around you.  I attended two such events over the last weekend; well actually Friday and Saturday. 

Friday was my organisation's annual day event.  It was a nice little package comprising of speeches, a song and dance show and a lot of food and drinks.  The whole program was timed just right, the speeches and the song and dance show being long enough (or short enough) to hold the audience's attention, before the booze desk took over!  The high point of the evening for me was the spirited performances by some of my colleagues.  Liana and her band belted out some terrific numbers.  This was followed by Ruchi, David and Meghana impressing one and all by their dance performances on the stage.  The low point was, a moron with zero road skills brushing my car and leaving a deep and long dent on the side of my car, while I was driving to the venue of the event  Anyway, once the show was over, the focus shifted to the dance floor and the DJ, and of course the booze!  I have not quite figured this out, but something very strange happens to absolutely sane individuals when they see free liquor!  A mad rush for the drink, till it reached a point where the bar had to be closed.  All in the space of an hour flat!  People danced to the DJ's beats to their heart's content.  The food, of course, was just incidental; or so it seemed to me. 

The 'Sheila Ki Jawani' number

Before I could recover from Friday night's exertions, it was time to attend another such event.  This time it was Suryanksh's school's Annual Day bash.  Indeed, compared to the previous one, this was a prim and proper event!  Interestingly, the theme was 'Rock N Roll'.  Suryanksh performed in one of the pieces, where he was one of the Beatles.  Hmmm...not sure which one.  He was on the guitar so probably Paul McCartney!  He did very well.  The joy on his face while performing on the stage was amazing.  He had this big smile while doing his routine with the guitar along with his other 'Beatles-mates'.  It was equally matched by Priya's tears while watching him perform on the stage.  Not sure why she has to cry everytime one of the boys performs on stage!  Anyway, it was a wonderful event with kids from JrKG till the 9th Standard performing on stage.  Of course, no booze and no food involved.  Instead we decided to treat Suryanksh for his brilliant show with a pizza after the event.

Suryanksh, in his Beatles avatar just before the show.

Last but not the least, was out again on Sunday night, attending my colleague, Cheryl's wedding.  Witnessed a Christian wedding after a long time.  It was good fun with all the rituals of cake cutting, confetti, the toast and the dances. 

In fact, I have attended a series of weddings over the last 2-3 weekends.  I guess it is indeed that time of the year!

It is also that time of the year when one tends to take stock of what has been accomplished throughout the year gone by and starts thinking about what is in store for the next year.  More about that in the next post, which might just be from Ahmedabad.  I look forward to being in Ahmedabad next week.

Take care!

Day 347 - Wanted - Plumbers!

Its leaking! And its leaking everywhere!

Overseas, in the country, in the city and even in my house, I got an errant flush rectified before I moved in!  Mumbai experienced rains at strange times of the year this time.  Maybe a result of a leaking tap somewhere up there, if not due to the detrimental effects of global warming as discussed in my last post.

Nationwide, leakage of a completely different type has been in the news off late.  The Niira Radia Tapes leak has kept everyone in the country interested; and some even amused.  The tapes reveal Ms. Radia spinning her corporate / political lobbyist web over all top dogs of Indian politics, business and even the fourth estate.  Conversations with Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi are especially very explicit and expose the connivance of the media in the unholy nexus of business, politics, babudom and crime.  As a young boy, I used to admire Prannoy Roy from the time of his 'The World This Week' days, as a pioneer in news coverage.  Further on, his election news coverage was also path breaking.  Naturally, I carried forward the same respect to his media house, NDTV, for all these years.  Barkha Dutt and her 'error of judgement' has eroded that respect.  Not only for NDTV, but for all of Indian media.  Interestingly I saw Peepli (Live) today, in which Aamir Khan Productions has given a lot of credits to NDTV, strangely, in a film which mocks the media and its greed for the 'next big thing'.  It will take me a long time to regain confidence in the media and its independence.  As of now, I just can't get the image of them as the power broker and agent out of my mind.  There is no question of whether what Barkha Dutt / Vir Sanghvi have done is right or wrong.  It IS wrong.

In other parts of the world, another big time leakage is making big news.  Wikileaks and Julian Assange have taken the world, especially the cyberworld by storm.  The release of classified information, exposing the big boys of all kinds of wrong-doing, has actually triggered a cyber war.  The United States of America has been at the receiving end of most of the classified cables which have been released by Wikileaks.  Interestingly, it transformed itself into a 'Ku Klux Klan' type of propaganda machinery, with Ms. Clinton and Ms. Palin coming out strongly and denouncing Assange and Wikileaks.  US based servers have off-loaded the website; payment mechanisms to the website have been stopped and the hence now the website itself is off the web. Assange himself has been arrested in UK on flimsy charges of rape (actually having consensual sex without condoms!). A group of Assange admiring hackers have taken on the might of US and started retaliating by hacking into many sites which supported US action.

 The question that I beg to ask is: What is right and what is wrong in this whole series of events?  Is Assange the villain or the hero?  Is he the symbol of the right to freedom of speech or a crook who has accumulated classified information to be used against countries?  I am in no doubt that the original thieves of these classified information would have been Americans themselves and are on the wrong side of the law.  Is Wikileaks also on the wrong side of law by buying the information (from the capitalist thieves of a capitalist country) putting it in front of the world?  Maybe yes, but a whole lot of people out there obviously do not feel the same way and consider Assange to be a crusader.  In the same vein, is Niira Radia wrong in what she has been doing?  Maybe not, she is just doing her job for which she is paid.  The true criminals are the people who entertain her. 

I have to however say, that after hearing the transcripts of the Radia tapes, Ratan Tata definitely comes across as someone who is not comfortable with this lobbying business.  There is nothing in the tapes to suggest that he was party to anything unethical.  He can only be accused of one thing, which is, hiring Niira Radia in the first place. 

Thank heavens for that!  My goodwill for the House of TATAs remains intact, Rajeev Chandrasekhar notwithstanding.  But then that is another chapter of the same story.

Take care!

Day 345 - Global Warming is 'Cool' - Why?

I have not posted to the blog for more than a week now.  The reason being, everyone at home, including me, has not been keeping very well.  All four of us have been suffering from various degrees of cold and flu.  All this due to the sudden climate change in Mumbai.  There is a bit more chill in the air in the mornings and the evenings.  To be frank, this is the coldest climate in Mumbai that I have ever experienced.  I hear that a couple of years ago Mumbaikars had to bring out the woollens, which was unthinkable a few years ago.  The weather patterns are certainly changing.  Blame it on global warming!

On a lighter side, how ironic though, that global 'warming' is causing cold conditions everywhere.  London is another example.  London experienced heavy snowfall last week, disrupting vehicular traffic as well as the train services.  A lot of regions in the US have had unusually cold weather in the recent past. 

Snow in London - 2010

The theory is that due to the increased emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane & nitrous oxide into the atmosphere, the ozone layer around the planet is being depleted.  This in turn is increasing the harmful radiations of the sun on the planet, consequently, increasing the overall temperatures of the planet's climate.  This causes the polar caps to melt faster and hence the sea levels rise.  Small changes in the temperatures of the deep ocean currents can cause enormous effects on the weather patterns.  Earth has its natural cycle of boom and bust, spread over hundreds of years.  It is believed that the Earth, in its present form, emerged from 'The Little Ice Age' about 150 years ago.  But the effects of global warming seem to be causing this natural cycle to play itself out in quicker and unnatural cycles.  All of this still does not tell me why does global warming cause the planet to ultimately get colder!?! 

However, something which is very clear, is that the population of this planet has to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases if it has to secure the planet and its goodies for its future generations.  While the governments of this world keep arguing about who should do how much under the banner of things like the Kyoto protocol, we as human beings on this planet can do our own little bit to reduce these emissions.  Switch off the lamp if you do not need it.  Switch off the ignition during long waits at traffic junctions. Use recyclable material.  Use solar power wherever possible. Plant trees!  Just small bits which will go a long way in preserving this planet for a few more generations.

The kids are recovering now.  So am I and wifey. 

Take care.  Of yourself and this planet.

Day 334 - My Influences

Earlier last week, I attended a training program on 'Influencing Skills', along with a few of my colleagues!  Coming just after two days of campus hiring at Indore (and the resultant nostalgia around being in a campus environment all over again), this two day training program really made me feel like a student again.  The first day was a complete wash-out as the trainer could not hold our collective attentions together.  The second day was much better as the trainer learnt from the mistakes of the first day.

The reason that I mention this in this post is that at the start of the training program we were all asked the question : 'Who has been a big influence on you and why?' and that got me thinking about all the people who have been able to influence my thought processes, behaviours and even values and ethics, over the years.

First and foremost have been my parents, who ensured that the right values and ethics are ingrained from very early on.  I have written about this in a previous post and hence will not repeat myself.

During my school days, Samir Raiyani was a big influence.  Purely because his was a multifaceted personality. And he was good at whatever he got himself involved in.

A couple of others, namely Wali Azam Chaudhary and Ganesh Iyer, whom I have worked for in the past have also been very strong influences.  Both these gentlemen are very dynamic and are gifted with the ability to think out of the box.  Their sense of righteousness was also very inspiring.

Then there are a couple of others whom I worked with and have been quite impressed.  Vijay Lavate and Venu Madhav Indurthi figure in this category.  Especially with Vijay, I have had a very long association.  He is an ideal example of how one can reach for greater and better things while still being grounded to humble beginnings and core values.  Venu had this great ability to always speak his mind come what may, almost bordering on arrogance!

Inevitably, a lot of public personalities have also been great inspirations.  Mahatma Gandhi for his innovation, Amitabh Bachchan for the ability and the will to stand up and fight back every time he is down and out and Sachin Tendulkar for the consistency and sheer passion for his trade!

Hence, there is inspiration in people all around us.  One can learn a lot by just watching them.  Provided, of course, that we keep our eyes, ears and minds open to the key qualities that these people possess.

By the way, the training program was all about conceptual models of influencing skills to be aware of in work situations, which this post is not.

Take care.