life: as is……..

well some years back a particular movie caught the fancy of most of my friends in IIT Delhi. The movie ‘Life in a Metro’, narrates the individual lives of a few ordinary people living in Mumbai and deals with topics like extra-marital affairs, sanctity of marriage, and love, failures, tragedy, happiness & so on. Though a ordinary film with lots of flaws in production & direction - the film somehow touched one and many – probably due to the failures that one face in life and maybe the happiness, ultimately when (like in a typical hindi movie) everything turns out fine at the end.

In reflect often why failures are important in life and why does a normal human being attach so much importance to failures. I am no different with my fair share of failures in life. It got me thinking this weekend as I went through over 700 kms of travel over tons of laid out uneven gravel, that we call roads in India. As my family managed to doze off amidst the rocking of the Chevvy – my mind raced through as I relived every moment of my life as it had been played out in the last 27 years. And gosh that was something.

Life comes in certain packages and our past is more or less a part of that package. When I say past, the only thing that comes to our mind are often unpleasant and bitter memories. We all must have dealt with it at some point in our life, but we never seem to come out of it. When I recall an era of my life, the only things that come to my mind are my mistakes. It puzzles me all the time that why is it that, I regret my mistakes so much that i almost forget to acknowledge my own achievements? Why is it that we always end up regretting our mistakes all our life? And I am not really talking about the end (i.e. end of life when these things hardly matter anymore)

My dear friend had an altogether different take on that. According to her she never regretted making mistakes because if she wouldn't have made them, she would have never known how to correct them. Though it sounds very sweet, but I was never convinced with her theory. Another cousin of mine thinks time is the best healer and everything settles down with time. I really don’t think so because if this was the case she would have long gotten over her first love. From where I see she is still in the ruins of her past relationship.

In my search for the truth, I happened to read something. According to it the only path to liberation is truth and the truth is, “YOU WILL HAVE TO GIVE UP THE HOPE THAT THE PAST COULD BE ANY DIFFERENT ".

This is the best thing I have heard in ages. I don’t know if it liberated me but it certainly took off the baggage I had been carrying for years.

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hypocrisy_the indian way of life…!!!!

Pronunciation: \hi-ˈpä-krə-sē also hī-\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural hy·poc·ri·sies

Etymology: Middle English ypocrisie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage, from hypo- + krinein to decide — more at certain

Date: 13th century

1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion

2: an act or instance of hypocrisy

Why do I start this piece today with a definition picked up from Merriam’s – just read on. I was deep in thought reflecting on a plausible future for myself as I was It is a peculiarly Indian form of reasoning: to flat out deny the existence of reprehensible practices in the face of incontrovertible evidence. While the common man has been facing a hostile barrage of rising prices across all items of daily use be it food grains or even cooking gas – I was bewildered because the politicians (read central government) had been blaming the state governments and their policies for the situation – no one was owning up or even trying to bring into picture the bigger cause of global inflation and food shortfall. And while the ignorant “common” Indian man was blaming everyone else for the inflation, the politicians try every trick in the book to suppress the problem or even the peoples voices & opinions at least till the next election.

The new “next best thing” – hold the innocuous cheerleaders responsible for indecent show and criminal acts of indecency. Net result the irresponsible media (read seemingly irresponsible Indian channels headed probably by stupid men admittedly suffering from a bout of intellectual diarroea) airing news about how the common man has been affected by lewd movements of the cheerleaders and how the Mumbai police & politicians were responsible enough to act up and prosecute the cheerleaders.

This coming from the state which has dance bars operating in bandstand in Mumbai let alone Navi Mumbai. This coming from a land from which Kamasutra originated.

I am bewildered why a common Indian man not differentiate between indecency & entertainment (read acts of levity). When will we grow up?

PS: This post is not indented to be of manipulate intent - social, political or religious. Any objection will be seriously considered that may prompt the author to take this off.

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fallen heroes......

"Learn to live in this world with self-respect. You should always cherish some ambition to do something in this world. They alone rise who strive. Some of you nurse the wrong notion that you will not rise in this world. But remember that the age of helplessness has ended. A new epoch has set in. All things are now possible because of your being able to participate in the Politics & Legislatures of this country"

- B.R. Ambedkar

I start this post with a quote from Babasaheb Ambedkar whose birthday happens to be today i.e. 14^th April. For the uninitiated, Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (April 14, 1891 — December 6, 1956) was an Indian jurist, scholar, Bahujan political leader and a Buddhist revivalist, who is the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Born into a poor “Untouchable” community, Ambedkar spent his life fighting against the system of Chaturvarna and the Indian caste system. He is also credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degree of national service.

Overcoming numerous social and financial obstacles, Ambedkar became one of the first "untouchables" to obtain a college education in India. He went on to pursue higher studies in Columbia University, New York, United States and England, where he earned law degrees and multiple doctorates for his study and research in law, economics and political science. Returning home a famous scholar, Ambedkar practiced law for a few years before he began publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for India's untouchables.

Well I can go on mentioning his numerous deeds – well this page might fall short. For more info please refer to Wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar

Anyway I mention this because he is one of the heroes every Indian should feel proud of – these people were the ones who shaped up India as it evolves and grows today. But somehow the teachings and the learning’s from the sacrifices these great leaders made during our struggle for independence, somehow seem to have been lost in time.

I was on my way back to office from a quick dinner with my wife (it was our new year after all) – and I saw a huge din on the road i.e. on the intersection of M.G Road and Ambedkar road in the heart of Pune. Well I would not mind getting caught up in a procession meant to pay tribute to our heroes – what the major concern of dismay for me was hordes of youngsters hardly in their twenties swaying to some cheesy & cheap hindi songs and making wild gestures in air with all their limbs. An average American can identify the situation if on a peaceful Independence day procession up there, someone started playing Metallica or for that matter any kind of punk or rock music.

Shame on these people – while we take pride in the small but growing number of Indians leaving a mark globally in these modern times, I feel somehow sorry for the masses who somehow are clearly at a loss, hardly contributing to India’s economy or social wellbeing as a whole. When will the common man stop blaming the government for every small incident and take it upon themselves to create a better India. The beauty lies in self-creation – when an average Joe goes beyond the norms and creates his identity. No we are not an nuclear superpower (and I wonder if we ever will be), or have the largest oil reserves so that in the future we can hold the capitalist countries at ransom, nor we can always sustain a phenomenal growth rate – what we have is our people. They are I believe the key to India’s well-being in the future. This shift in the emphasis from natural resources to human resources is epochal – and must be recognized. If India wishes to shine better, it has to boost the marketability of its human resources. And not always can govt hold the key to this.

When will an average Indian learn, what pride is?

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change....not quite !!!

Well not quite. It’s New Year according to the Bengali calendar and things haven’t turned out quite rosy for me. Had to get up at 6 in the morning to help my better half with Pujas i.e. morning prayers (the usual norm on a day like this back home). Got to work and somehow the greetings from my colleagues all fell to deaf ears almost. I had a long day ahead of me – had to visit a temple in the evening and take my wife out for a dinner. That too, with a long list of queries and mails to be answered back in office. Boy I had a long day ahead of me.

My mind wandered back - around couple of years to be precise. We were discussing life with a couple of friends back at the Nescafe stall in IIT Delhi. One of my friends from engineering days, an architect who was doing his masters in Design from IIT Kanpur had dropped by and we were busy recollecting thoughts and sharing amusing anecdotes of life in campus when we got caught up on a discussion of things we had learnt from life. Scribbling on a piece of paper we tried to make a “dhobi-list” of things we as individuals have learnt and follow religiously in our lives ahead. And the fun we had that day…..

Things look so different today in perspective.

And then I realized nothing around the world has changed – the change has come in us that somehow leads us interpret the same things in a different way. The following small story might reinforce my idea…..

Once upon a time in a certain village in India there lived a guru. Every evening the guru would sit on his seat and deliver a lecture to the public. It so happened that the guru had a cat, and just at the time of giving the lecture the cat would create a big disturbance.

Being greatly annoyed by the cat, the guru decided to tie the cat to a tree before starting his lecture. So doing, the guru then delivered the lecture without disturbance. It worked so well that the guru regularly tied the cat to the tree before beginning his discourse.

After some years the guru died. His disciples carried on the guru’s program. They also continued tying the cat to the tree. When the cat died, they bought another cat and thus the ritual of tying a cat to a tree continued generation after generation.

In the fifth generation that followed the guru, one of the renowned followers wrote an elaborate treatise on the spiritual significance of tying a cat to a tree before beginning one’s studies of the scriptures.

“For the current of our spiritual life creeds, rituals and channels that may thwart or help, according to their fixity or openness. When a symbol or spiritual idea becomes rigidly elaborate in its construction, it supplants the idea which it should support.”

- Rabindranath Tagore

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the beauty of simplicity.....

"......the time has come to unleash the creative potential of our scientists and innovators at grassroots level. Only then we can make India truly self-reliant and a leader in sustainable technologies....propose a national foundation for helping innovators all over the country. This fund will build a national register of innovations, mobilize intellectual property protection, set up incubators for converting into viable business opportunities and help in dissemination across the country.''

This is what screams out loudly on the homepage of National Innovation Foundation. I was scouting through a pile of documents looking for a particular one when I suddenly came across a certificate that I had obtained from them during my MBA days at IIT Delhi – me and my team of 4 AV, KB & N reached the zonal finals of a b-school competition hosted by NIF & IIM Ahmedabad. How we reached & finals and that too managed to actually do the scouting in record time & submit the B-plan is a different story altogether.

I don’t remember the dates specifically but it was the second last day of entering the competition. That we registered – it was good till then. Then we sat on it for over 20 days thinking that one would finally take the initiative. Then with 6 days till deadline the panic bell rang. Two from the team decided to give it up and not submit the plans at all – while dutifully me and AV decided to go forward. The night we were supposed to leave for Rampur a remote town in UP, AV walked out citing some problems. Some insane force actually took over and in an hours time I was off with KB to the bus depot to somehow reach Rampur minus any concrete directions to it.

We managed to change a couple of buses & hitch a ride of a tempo and then take a hike for a couple of kilometers – reached our destination took the info of the ‘tile making machine’ and off we went. (It’s a different take that we took a detour to Nainital that afternoon and got back somehow to Delhi next morning – bouncing all night on the last seats of a dilapidated Volvo).

With 3 days till submission we were in a dilemma – the plan was on tile making machine.(figures are close approximations of what we obtained from the inventor)

Cost to setup = Rs 8000-12,000

Raw Materials = Rs 100 /day

No of tiles made = 50/day

Labour Charges = etc

Price of tile = 3 (approx including labour charges)

Cost of a similar tile in market = Rs 5-8

Cost advantage per tile = Rs 2-5

Now looking at the overall picture and the rural economic conditions we decided the best use would be for someone to set up a sort of small workshop with say 20-50 machines which then would not only provide steady employment to people in the locality (believe me the peoples’ economic condition in Rampur was deplorable), and our concept was supported by the inventor as well. Also although the cost advantage of Rs 2-5 per tile was huge one had to keep in mind logistics and sales costs. So individually selling tile making machines we found out was not a viable option at all.

Net-net we aired the same views in the competition and the entire crowd was appreciative of our logical conclusions (even the team that won gave us a standing ovation), but in the end we could not make it to the all-India finals because of the simple fact – we had gone out of scope. The B-plan was that of a “tile making machine”, and the judges contested that I should have prepared a plan that would have enabled them to sell these machines to individuals – how weak an argument when the per capita income is less than Rs 10,000. Just imagine that of uneducated simpletons in rural India. Take again in consideration sales & logistics costs – how would that be borne. These were questions they never addressed. Sigh………

Today I look back and the entire episode makes me smile – with due respect to the judges, I felt then and still feel that simplicity is often the key success factor in innovation. While in retrospect the business model would probably make sense with people with management degrees tweaking the business model every now & then making it complex at each stage to juice out efficiency, the end user who was the rural Indian would be completely at sea manufacturing the stuff, distributing it, and selling it subsequently. That to after spending a couple of years earnings for buying this machine.

Whoa!!! I never saw any sense in that then. Even now as I study various businesses and interact with various people both in and outside my company, this fact emerges every time that simple process planned & executed efficiently, was the indication of success in every organizational function.

“This single point of administration ultimately increases the simplicity of running complicated systems while reducing the cost of ownership a great deal. This is what enterprises are looking for and need”

- Don Becker

Maybe that’s why we are in business.

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the cutting edges of the mind.....

A couple of years back during my stint in college I met a couple of friends working for a NGO in Delhi. As we got talking amongst other things a couple of questions popped up regarding the fascinating work they do – this was more to satisfy my curiosity about the same. They seemed to be working with so many kinds of people from different segments in life - working with the common man, politicians, corrupt politicians, film-makers or even sometimes locals goons. Sounded like a fascinating job – interacting with top directors, thought leaders, and even celebrities at times. The “Narmada Bachao Andolan” episodes she mentioned in detail were vivid and realistic – somehow they had a way with words and I and my friends could visualize everything.

Wonderful!! After the realization the basic human characteristic “maya” took over.

How do you get that kind of career? Most of these guys were BA or B-Coms and just “fell into it” by accident. My mind went racing and it actually took me a long time to decide what to make do with my life.

Well I had gone through a similar advice from Scott Adams from “Dilbert’s Blog”, only recently and that probably struck a chord in me. Maybe someone else had earlier discovered something before me but the entire event was one sweet moment for me.

I second the same emotions that were portrayed in that blog:

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.

2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

Well I had believed in this theory for the last 10 years or more. I could have opted for medicine or engineering in grad school (almost) – but I took up engineering possibly studying the number of avenues that would open up instead. I realized that with the kind of mindset I had, it would be difficult for me to be the best scholar in medicine in particular batch – and no way could I settle to be the average physician round the street corner.

Then again I took up chemical technology as my engineering major – computer sciences were passé and mechanical or electrical would prove too technical – although I realized in the later part of my stint that reactor design, process technology or thermodynamics though interesting for the top 25% of class, failed to hold my attention for long, although I could fairly understand and comprehend most of it.

Then my MBA – Finance was the buzz of the day with investment banks being the key driver for students choosing the major. But I opted for marketing as majors & IT+ Strategy as minors – a strange choice that was mirrored by some of my colleagues. I was always a decent speaker in school or college and my people skills were really never in question.

What I lacked (which I had identified earlier was the subject matter and the scope to which I could speak on). Well all my career choices seemed to be right to this point as I am chasing targets speaking to tons of people around the world discussing their business, their pain points, and probable solutions on a daily basis. While travel and interaction with people are probable incentive for my job – what I most admire is the knowledge that I gain every time I speak to a customer discussing his business challenges. I get to see parts of the whole business conglomerates just speaking to these people - whether they be in the engineering, R&D or the CEO’s office. It’s always a rewarding experience.

Well I must say at this point there are so many avenues I want to learn more on. As I delve deeper into the life sciences & health care industry I feel there are so many more things I need to know – building knowledge is like natures way with life. It has got to evolve and shape up better with time. This is one more key factor to success I guess.

Well look around for most of the celebrities & famous people around – they seem to be better than 25% of most people in 3 or more things. It’s a simple concept of evolution that nature has followed every time for survival – if you can’t be the biggest be the fastest or the strongest etc etc or the smartest or maybe a combination or three or all of the above.

There might be 1001 ways to fail in life, but only a handful of ways to be successful. Make it worth - make yourself worth it.

Always remember Einstein’s golden words:

Try not to be a man of success, but rather to be a man of value……….

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friends are forever.....

Well I have shifted to Pune for some time now - 4 months to the calendar. Shifting between jobs, a new city, new people - i guess life was chugging along merrily but somehow i had completely lost track of it. Setting up a new place so that it can at least be called a house instead of a home, getting the essentials in place - somehow I lost track of so many things in my life - one including my friends.

Well I am no the sort of guy who would completely lose track of the good things in life – friends essentially are right there in the top 5 of my hit list. An occasional hi over the phone could never substitute the hours of fun and meaningful (J) conversation we had amongst the 4 of us – somehow I am not mentioning the names here but I am sure they will know its meant for them.

Nothing could substitute the unadulterated threads of friendship between us – the nights that were spent shivering in the cold of the coffee shop in IIT Delhi or under the main building of the complex. Neither the incessant bites of mosquitoes nor the glaring eyes of the sentry’s could deter us from having a hearty laugh while the others toiled away for the semesters. Mind it – somehow we too were appearing for the same semesters – it was either a act of foolishness or the random obscure though or fearlessness backed by self-belief (maybe) that gave us the courage to still enjoy & live life in that serene ambiance.

Well life was never the same as we all duly completed our Post Grad with finesse (well almost) and got jobs – a avenue to probably fight meaningfully to make a life of what was thrown at us. And yes I guess we did well. Two of us in the same company in Delhi, one other in Bangalore (all 3 trying still to make a career out in the IT industry), while the other after some sour-searching found her calling for a PhD from a university in North Dakota. Similar fate was somehow awaiting me as a year later again a couple of friends went their own ways – one pursuing targets in the US, the other trying his hand in a business he had long planned.

Email trails went cold somewhat, calls hardly happened an occasional scrap on facebook or orkut wishing on an eventful occasion was all that was left. We still feel the excitement mutually when we talk once in a blue moon, over the phone probably trying hard to relive the older moments of glory trying to quench the hungry soul of emotions & feelings.

Yes, it is hard to be away from the people who really care for you. But, that is life. Everyone moves on in this journey called life.

Maybe it is because people move on that we finally start to understand the meaning of a true friendship. Maybe if life were to be enacted as a fairytale, we’d probably never be able to appreciate the good things in life….friends, laugher, unadulterated joy, banter.

But, one thing is for certain. Once the paths of life have met and an exchange takes place, there is no need to renew it. Unlike others, with friends life continues at any point in time. You may be engrossed in a big business, a major crisis and yet when a mail, call or a forward arrives, you are transported back to the days and moments you’d spent with this person called friend. And that is enough for this Indian to push on and live life in this world of aliens.

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