La vita è bella

For most part of our life, we run after things that do not last. We run after ‘jobs that pay the rent’; women/men that break our heart and money that doesn’t last. What we do not realize is that we walk through an entire lifetime without spending much time appreciating the gift of “one life” that we have got. Guilty- as charged! Well I am as much a culprit as you all are. Somewhere down the line, we lose focus of the whole point of “living” and spend a lot of time running from one goal to another. Don’t get me wrong, ambitions are a must and one must try and achieve all that one is capable of, but we must also not lose focus of the larger picture – enjoying the life that we have. Don’t leave too much to do for too late, for we have no clue how long we might live. ‘Make each day count’.

Most of you might wonder, why this new found love for life? Are you dying or something? Well, not really. There are times in life when you come across people or events that make you stop and wonder – have I lived my life completely? There are even times when you feel, “I wish I could life my life that way”. Well, I just realized it is never too late to change. Today, I wish to narrate my experiences meeting this Korean guy named Song Angler. I barely talked to him a few sentences and must have met him for a total of 40 minutes, but man! They were the best 40 minutes I ever invested talking to another person.

I was out shopping for china clay tea-set at Shanghai technology centre (known for scores of shops and inexpensive stuff) and I chanced upon this little shop in the corner where the prices were too excessive, considering the neighborhood. I would not find it difficult to accept the fact that the only reason I entered the shop was to check out how this man can stay in business selling stuff that has such a markup as compared to other shops in the arcade. As expected there was no one in the store and the only things on sale were clothes for children – years 2 to 6. What was more shocking was the entire line of clothing was British-Victorian. You had the Scottish 3 piece suits for young lads and dress gowns with accessories for the young ladies. Imagine an entire line of clothing dedicated to dressing up an age group, which doesn’t believe in “dressing for the occasion”. That’s not all; the entire line of dressing was too formal for the age group and was priced on par or slightly higher than adult clothing in the shops nearby. Too many handicaps I remember thinking to myself, no wonder this guy has no business!

Song Angler welcomed me with a warm smile and his first words were “sorry, I don’t know mandarin”. After exchanging pleasantries, I stood there looking at his clothesline and silently judging him for his abject lack of business skills. After noting down a few points on his laptop, he turned to me with a smile and said, “You must be wondering how I do business?” I remember smiling at him as if to say, “I think you are too ambitious for your own good”. He suddenly pats me on the back and says, “Its not just you, very often I keep asking that to myself.” It was good enough for me that finally I could talk to an Asian guy who spoke fluent American English. He said, “Don’t look surprised, I have lived almost 20 years in New York”. Intriguing! How could a man living in the business capital for 20 years, make a rookie mistake of opening up expensive clothing store in China – known for its inexpensive assembly line products. He looked at me and said – “No I am not stupid, I am here by choice and following my dream”. Wow! That must be one hellu’va dream that brought a man settled in New York with a high paying job to move to China.

Song worked for Ralph Lauren-Polo, a designer clothing brand known for its dress shirts and trousers. For 15 years he worked up the corporate ladder to become the chief buyer for Ralph Lauren for Asia market. He told me that he even visited Shanghai couple of times to understand business in China and to use Chinese labor to create a cost effective supply chain for Ralph Lauren- Polo. It was during these visits that he got to know that the fashion industry was on the decline (according to him) and the designer clothes were more about how to increase the bottom-line rather than the pleasure of creating new styles. It was not why Song had joined the fashion industry and that very moment he quit. He goes on to narrate how for the next few years, in New York and Shanghai, he continued on his quest to bring back style quotient into the clothes we wear. According to Song, newer styles must be more practical for the end consumer rather than a means to grab money for the designer. For the next 15 minutes, he showed me the intricate design and techniques of tailoring that he had taught a family in rural China, who were now his suppliers and he had stores open in Shanghai to sell the same. Song said this business was to satisfy his creative quotient and give him the happiness of creating dress fashion for a whole new younger generation (who have lost taste to authentic fashion in the haze of party wear). “Its not for profit, I have fixed sales target and want the quality rather than quantity; also quality doesn’t come cheap” says Song.

I asked him, “Do you not fear the Chinese assembly line manufacturing style. There would soon be inexpensive versions of your clothes-line”. Song says, “ I hope they copy me and make it better. The world needs better clothing style”. I ended up buying nothing from his store, but he still had a smile on his face. He was happy to have shared his passion about clothing with another human being and enriched his life with some basic knowledge of picking up good clothes. Song loved fishing too. He spent most of the time outside the world of clothing with his family, fishing. I am an inventor says Song. I like inventing new things and I am not constrained by the thought whether the idea would sell. As I left, he handed me his card and said, “it was a pleasure talking to you and thank you for listening to me.” I was humbled to the core. I just thought to myself, how many people could claim to be as happy as Song Angler; doing things they love and living life with its full glory. A handful maybe, and I left the shop learning few lessons on life that I do not intend to forget anytime soon. I thought to myself, I love writing and can express myself well on that medium, how much pleasure would I get if I had a job doing what I like. Would I be as happy as Song Angler? Well, let the time decide on that one.

So long….

Freedom ? What were they thinking !!

Its that time of the year when people are out in the street trying to enforce their freedom to oppose even at the cost of some one's freedom to speak. Yes, I am indeed talking about the Sir Salman Rushdie fiasco that happened at the Jaipur literature fest (JLF) last weekend. It got me thinking, even if the Muslim organizations were right in saying that Sir Rushdie's book "Satanic verses" critiqued the practices of Islam and hence caused them immense hurt; were they right in trying to hound him out of the seminar that he was supposed to address. Is this actually a case where freedom to oppose a viewpoint triumphs over freedom of speech or is this a case of misuse of freedom of speech? The more I thought on those lines, it began to dawn upon me that there is a very fine line to distinguish the two and in India we usually don't see the line at all.



Indians are notorious for their hypocrisy. They want the perks of being a free country but still haven't gotten down with the concept of freedom. Incidentally, freedom also has a class bias in India and many times the rich and the mighty seem to be more free than the rest of us down here. The prism with which we view freedom is often political and hence the degree of freedom that we enjoy changes from time to time (based on how far the next elections are and who is currently in power). In Sir Rushdie's case, his plans to address a group of people about his book "Satanic verses" was just too close to elections and hence his freedom of speech got curtailed and the deoband and ullemas enjoyed the higher freedom to oppose. People all around cried hoarse about the unfair treatment meted out to a scholar like Sir Rushdie; even the opposition fought for his freedom of speech - pretty rich huh, for a political outfit that recently hounded noted painter (Late) M.F. Hussain out of India for some paintings that was objectionable according to them. It got me thinking, this is unfair! Are we actually free or does our freedom have political constraints. Can artists have absolute freedom to express themselves or should all freedom be tempered with reasonable restraints.



The maze of thought is very confusing because what rules fit for one case, fails in other cases and there cannot be "one rule for all" and this makes freedom of expression the most complicated freedom to enforce in a multi-lingual and multi-racial society like INDIA. Very recently, the Delhi high court was in the news for pulling up the executives of online content companies like Google, Face book, Twitter, YouTube etc. for showing scant respect for local laws and being unable to effectively monitor the content posted by users on their websites. The case was typical as the websites argued that they have immunity from libel laws for content and monitoring would amount to transgressing freedom of speech of its users. The court put these companies to notice by giving out a stern warning that the websites will be blocked if they don't comply to local laws. No sooner, the headlines read "India going the China way"; unfair? maybe, but certainly not excessive.



In this case, the netizens (as they prefer to call themselves) had taken their freedom too far and sought to use slander as a means to critique. Somehow, due to lack of proper definition, FREEDOM was being (mis)used to justify unacceptable behaviour. There was a big hue and cry when the companies carrying content stated that it was impossible to censor the Internet; yet, at the same time allowing their medium to host caustic views stating freedom of speech and not taking accountability because of laws that disallow libel and slander proceedings against such companies. It basically meant, you are free to use Internet to post anything you want and nothing can harm you as long as you are outside the geographical borders of any particular nation state that you are choosing to slander. This is unacceptable, I mean for God's sake, even the envoys and ambassadors are accountable for the views that they carry and can be declared "persona-non-Grata" by the host country (so much for diplomatic immunity). How can people run away from the accountability and state freedom of speech as a reason?



While I was still concurring with the views of the honorable judge in forcing accountability to the views that one posts online and stating that "No freedom is absolute, it has to be tempered with reasonable restraint", did the Sir Salman Rushdie incident happen. Again, this was a case where the author in question, a noted scholar and winner of Booker prize; had his book "Satanic verses" banned in India in 1988-89. Now, 24 years later, he was invited to a literary fest in Jaipur where he was to read passages from the said book and present his views. It seems that the deoband and the ullemas haven't moved past 1988 and this time wanted the author banned and muted rather than his book. In this case, one party states freedom of speech and the other states libel and slander laws. Dicey eh! You betcha. No wonder we had the Government of Rajasthan cowering under pressure and creating a story or two about terrorist strikes and keeping Sir Rushdie from attending this fest. If you try and go by the letter of the law, Sir Rushdie must be stopped because for one, he plans to read paragraphs from a banned book and secondly his views about Islam was bound to create disharmony in the community. Does it go by the spirit of our constitution? well that's a whole different matter. Indians do not realise one basic thing, we cannot have different laws for different cases, we have to use the statute and temper it with the spirit of the constitution to apply the same law for different cases. Executive does not have this wisdom, as its often laden with the burden to satisfy people's aspiration (however unreasonable), so it should be the purview of the judiciary to take a view in all such cases. Somehow, the executive gets involved every time and the entire drama makes the constitution look foolish.



Instead, the Supreme Court has to read the law and lay down the spirit of the law for all people irrespective of who they are and who they know, to follow. If the executive is in violation of this spirit to gain in electoral battle, it should be termed unconstitutional and the Supreme court should direct the President to dismiss the Government, for an executive that cannot follow the constitution in the letter and spirit (for whatever compulsions) has no right to remain in office. If one such example is made out, maybe we wont have more such dramas being played out in public and maybe people will not mock at the constitution with absolute impunity. On the Republic Day, we had an article making rounds, "Have we failed our constitution or has it failed us?"; I would have no hesitation in saying, we most certainly have failed our constitution and not the other way around.



The spirit of freedom, as enshrined in our constitution and other such documents around the world have the same spirit of accountability. It can be encapsulated by the Miranda rights of freedom to remain silent; and if you choose to give up this freedom, you will be accountable for the words of your mouth. Its as simple as that. It solves both our cases both in letter and spirit. Freedom does not mean Sir Rushdie is allowed to slander any community or religious belief nor does it mean anonymous persons being allowed to post anything on the Internet. It actually means, holding people accountable to the views that they carry. For a truly free man/ woman would not run away from that accountability.



Most importantly, one must distinguish between slander and critique. The judicial contempt laws help us on this one, "ability to critique a judgement without critiquing a judge or ascribing motives". If someone finds a religious practise wrong they must be allowed to critique it without slandering the religion, wholly on merits. If we as a society cannot take criticism and have too many holy cows whom we do not question, then we will have to spend more time filing suits against people for questioning our faith. We must encourage healthy criticism right from childhood and have schools provide a platform to young minds to question everything we do. If we do not embrace criticism, it re-routes itself into our society as abuse and slander. Lets provide a healthy outlet for all citizen to bring out their views and not force them to take anonymous paths to spew venom. Lets truly define and follow freedom in letter and in spirit and not force people to ask "Am I really free in India?"



So long....

Open letter to Arvind Kejriwal

Credits: This was a wonderful post authored by Mr. Anant Rangaswamy. Simply loved it. Will share it with you guys. I simply had to have this post. So here goes....

Arvind Kejriwal has written an article in The Times of India asking people to suggest the way forward for Team Anna. “The anti-corruption movement is at the crossroads today. Where do we go from here? We are conscious that a wrong decision at this stage could prove disastrous for the movement,” he writes.

Here we go, Mr. Kejriwal, if you care to listen.

Remember that you’re the salesman. You have a product and you want to sell it to the political class, particularly to members of Parliament. This is not your usual sale; the ‘buyer’ has no need and no want for the product — which immediately means that in negotiations, the salesman is significantly weaker than the buyer.

If at all you want to sell your Jan Lokpal Bill, what you cannot afford to do is to walk away from the deal; the politician would be delighted. What you cannot do is heap abuse, belittle and besmirch the buyer.

The only way forward is to deal with the situation as a good salesman would.

• Tell your client why he needs it at all: Imagine, 25 years ago, you were a salesman of vacuum cleaners, a product neither wanted nor needed. Think of the Lokpal bill as a product facing similar challenges, and remember that the sale is going to be long and hard. Time needs to be spent on evangelism and education.

• Describe your product in detail to the client: Spend time with parliamentarians and party chiefs and explain why your version of the Jan Lokpal Bill is better than all others, in the same spirit that a salesman of, say, photocopiers educates his prospective customer. Get more and more parliamentarians to buy in. Think of all these parliamentarians as members of the household who could influence a sale – perhaps the party chiefs are equivalent to the head of the household, the final decision maker.

• Build a relationship with the prospect: This is not a quick, uninvolved sale, like a razor blade. The product you are trying to sell is such that the sale process will be long and tiring. Establishing a rapport with the client is an essential ingredient in your chances for a sale. Clients are more likely to spend time with salesmen they like, rather than salesmen they do not like. Get your clients, the politicians, to like you and admire you for your effort and persistence. No salesman worth his salt will rave and rant at a prospect; none can abuse a client and hope to close a deal. Good salesmen will build relationships with prospects they do not like and prospects who treat them badly – because the only thing that matters to them is the sale.

• Do not set unachievable deadlines: The moment you do, desperation will show as the deadline approaches. The moment this happens, the salesman gets more aggressive – and the customer more wary. Remember, in this case, the customer never wanted the product in the first place. The moment the desperation increases, politicians will be relieved – that the endless pressure of being sold a product that they didn’t want will end soon.

• Make the client feel like a winner: Let the client feel that he is a part of making a significant decision that will change his life for the better. Good sales make the client look good, not the salesman. Do not broadcast details of the negotiations when they are in progress, especially when you think you’re winning or you think poorly of your client. The more you do this, the less the client will want to meet you, let alone buy from you.

Fundamentally, in all sales, good salesmen need to establish how much or how little a prospect needs and wants the product on offer. Establish negotiating positions from there.

Team Anna is selling a product which is unwanted – and the negotiating position needs to reflect this truth.

What we have seen since April is negotiations based on a premise that
a) The salesman will convince the buyer
b) That the sales process would be short; and;
c) That the buyers would just keel over and fall when they come to the negotiating table.

That’s our advice. Unlike you, we don’t say this way or the highway. There will be others with other views that reach you as well.

The minimum you have to do is to listen – that’s something Team Anna has proven to be very poor at.

So long...

What the fuck !!!

"Leave the cockiness to the cocks!!" A not so subtle message to a certain ex-officio IRS who is getting on everyone's nerves and believes in his "in-your-face" statements, to create an "Arab spring" like situation in India. 2011 has been rightly called the year of the protester. Even TIME magazine named the "Protester" as the person-of-the-year. If we study carefully, what started as a campaign against autocratic rule in Syria and Tunisia and later moved on to the non-monarchic Arab countries like wild fires taking down autocratic rulers one after another; some killed while others facing trials for their repressive regimes; we see a pattern. Hence its becomes imperative that 2011, which began with a revolution for democracy and should rightly end with the victory of democracy.



There are several takes on what made 2011 a year of revolutions. Of the several stories that are making rounds calling it a victory of people, few calling it victory of social networking sites and others calling it a impromptu uprising of the oppressed against the oppressor; a question that was never asked and never answered - WHY the ARAB COUNTRIES??? My humble submission on this is the true story about "Arab spring" may never be known. After all (forgive my mentioning) its not like all Arab countries have rich mineral and fuel reserves and its not like we know of specific countries who might go to any extent to gain uninhibited access to such huge reserves; .....or do we ?? Ummmm....well lets see, in most of these countries; namely, Tunisia, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, the autocratic rule was in place for more than 35-40 years (give or take). So its not an of-late development that there has to be an uprising in 2011. All these countries had rulers who had mellowed down and were in the last lap of their lives. At one time, these rulers were tyrants and mostly eliminated any voice that stood against them. Today, after ruling their countries for several years and gaining acceptance of their people they were mellow and not repressive. Interesting........ so what exactly changed in 2011 and the only question WHY NOW ??



2011 brought in a year of gloom in the developed economies. Most of the developed nations were facing sovereign debt crises, rampant unemployment, rising fuel costs and economies that were on the path of recession. Few people know, that a specific section of Arab nations were no longer pliable to the will of the "greater nations" and were sticking to their demands on keeping the fuel export price at a higher levels to be able to afford the excessive trade imports (mainly food grains, vegetables etc.) into their countries. The "greater nations" humored the Arab countries for a while, almost 4 years. Come 2011, the economies of these "greater nations" were unravelling and it became imperative for them to have controlling voice on all forums to make most countries pliable to their diktat. The only problem was, these authoritarian Arab states had rulers who were beginning to get cocky and standing up to these nations was getting increasingly difficult. The utility of having these mineral and fuel rich nations to be run by autocrats was getting lesser day by day and so these "greater nations" thought, "ummm.. you know, we all stand for democracy, so maybe we can fight for democracy in these specific areas". Rest is history. Today, we can lay the credit to the doors of the people who stood up against tyranny; pat the backs of social networking sites for bringing revolution to our doorsteps but we cannot make the mistake of losing the trail behind two questions; WHY NOW?? and WHY HERE??



What started as "rise of Arab nations" against "autocratic rule" or Arab spring as we call it, later turned on the countries that sponsored the move. The so called democratic "greater nations" forgot that the fuel that can ignite fire in other countries can sooner, than later burn their own backyard. So we had the riots by local people, holding the erstwhile "kingdom, where the sun never sets" under siege. It struck them rather late that they had taken the lid off a cyclone that would soon engulf everyone. People got together on social networking sites and messenger groups and wilfully planned which neighbourhood to attack and how to destroy public and private property. It soon began to dawn on the "greater nations" that what they had started as "fight for democracy" using social network can soon bite them in uncomfortable places. The larger point that the "greater nations" overlooked was that social network has no boundaries and having a democracy is not the panacea; you need jobs and money too. After seeing the "sponsored" fight for democracy and benefits of social network, people began to express themselves more freely on social network and have began to think of this new found way to vent your frustrations as "freedom of speech". After the riots, we had the OCCUPY movements in 85 countries where it seemed democratic right to protest was the only right people were going to use in 2011 (right or wrongly) and what started as a movement to unseat dictators in Arab world was soon starting to have some casualties that were unaccounted for.



Meanwhile, closer to home, a self styled "Gandhian" had emerged from no where and had taken everyone's imagination by a storm. Most of us were going through difficult times because of the financial crises of sorts in the world economy and the opposition parties built a perfect or lets say "near perfect" campaign on the predicament most of us were facing. Firstly, the political parties, all of a sudden, began a demand that the grey economy was burgeoning and we needed measures to curb this and we needed newer laws to "bring back" these monies stashed in tax havens and use them for "nation building". We weren't facing a pinch in our pockets as yet, mostly people ignored the call and the campaign seemed dying its natural death. Meanwhile, the incumbent had started re-negotiating taxation agreements with a slew of countries, popularly referred to as "tax havens" to control the outflow of slush money. All of a sudden, the world economy started looking gloomy and several nations were close to bankruptcy. This coupled with rising prices of fuels and essentials was making the public restless and the incumbent seemed to have no solutions to curb this menace. At this crucial juncture, on the horizon arrives a "Gandhian" who has a magical wand to all the problems faced by people.



The "Gandhian" has a team of an ex-officio IRS, an ex-officio IPS and 3 legal eagles who walk upto the incumbent and give a demo of the powers of the 'magic wand' that will purge the problems of the masses. The incumbent feels the price is too high and refuses to buy the wand. Meanwhile, the dying campaign against slush money gets a saviour and they join forces with "Gandhian" and his team provided they promise to use the wand as a stick to beat the incumbent. Deal goes through and we begin to see a drama planned to the minute details. Firstly, people's support is invoked by stating the problems they are facing and then they are given a demo of the "magic wand" and how it has powers to alleviate their pains. Most people, bearing the brunt of the sliding economy and too many accusations upon the incumbent of misusing public money for "private good" which otherwise could be used for public good, were angry but did not know what could be done. With the advent of the "Gandhian
"' and his magic wand, they latched on to it hoping it will get them a better standard of life.



The "Gandhian" and his team played to the script and never deviated. They never engaged with politicians and that seemed to have increased their credibility in the eyes of the masses. Once they were sure that they had led the people far enough, they brought out the second act - selectively attacking the incumbent at the centre and carefully avoiding comments (even stray) on states ruled by opposition. The people found this credible too and soon, it seemed that all the things that went wrong in past 64 years we because of the mistakes of the present incumbent. Few people objected to these large strokes of brush while tainting the incumbent but much of these protests fell on deaf years. The incumbent, on its part, kept making false moves and adding to the credibility of the "Gandhian" and his team. There came a time, that the "Gandhian" and his team thought they were important enough that they would talk only to the incumbent chief-executive (lets call him PM) an no one else. People who had put all their faith in the story of the "magic wand" did not see anything wrong and almost propped them up to a parallel chief executive who could dictate to the incumbent like the PM never did.



The whole drama was based on one premise, the incumbent will keep making mistakes and would never call their bluff. In the final act, the incumbent actually embraced the magical wand and began to hard sell it to the other political parties. This was a move never imagined by the team. All of a sudden, the incumbent seemed more keen than "Gandhian" and his team to acquire the magic wand - no matter what the price was. Almost instantly, people who were blinded by the magic wand's powers began to see that the magic, if misused, can cause great damage. The wand which they swore by until recently started causing uneasiness amongst the political class and they spread misgivings among the people about its powers. Lo and behold, the entire opposition who had propped up the campaign began to fall under its weight. The cockiness of the ex-officio IRS and the ex-officio IPS did not help either. People began seeing the fault lines in the arguments placed in front of them by the "Gandhian" and his team and began questioning them. The team who had so far, gotten used to blind faith, didn't like the new change in equations. They began to call all those who questioned them as corrupt and this further reduced their credibility. Such was the power of the magic wand that it gave them protection until it stayed with them and was now giving the same protection to the incumbent. The spell of the magic wand was finally broken.



So, 2011 may be remembered for a slew of reasons, but it will be most remembered for the WTF moments. The moments where revolutions were being manifested by fanning certain genuine concerns of the masses and using them to ignite passions and cause an uprising. By the end of the year, the trends suggested that revolts cannot be sustained and soon boomerangs on the initiator. Social networking sites played their part by supporting "free speech". How much freedom is too much, this question my find answers in 2012. Meanwhile, wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2012 and hope we don't repeat the mistakes of 2011.



So long.....

Much ado about nothing

Sheila Dikshit is in big time mess, or is she ??? First of all, turns out that she is not blamed for corruption and the media indictment should be taken with a bag of salt. Most people commenting on this are taking into context that the Government has recently been in the dock for corrupt practices and in that back drop we are seeing devils where none exist. I know we must hold the government accountable where its necessary and its not wrong if we are asking questions to the Delhi Government about its spending pattern but we need to factor in a few facts before we lynch Sheila Dikshit's credibility in public.

1. The Government of Delhi is not like every other state government. Even though its elected and legislates for the city of Delhi, many arms of the state machinery are not under its control. Its peculiar to Delhi but its true. For starters, the Delhi Police is answerable to Union home ministry and its not under the Delhi Government. Yet after every rape in the capital we blame Sheila Dikshit (CM) for security concerns. The MCD and NDMC (municipal corporations) are controlled by the BJP (opposition) and are not under the control of the Delhi Government. The DDA (Delhi development authority) is answerable to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and not to the Chief Minister. Only the the ministry of PWD is under the control of the CM.

2. Sheila Dikshit has all the accountability but very few powers in the Governance structure of Delhi.

3. She was not involved in the Common wealth games until 2008. She got involved after concerns were raised by several sectors about preparedness of Delhi for the games and the Prime Minister intervened and asked her to take control of the infrastructure development. In a race against time, she did manage a pretty decent job. Even during final 3 months, she took control of the games village and made it high class from high crass.

4. Estimation for infrastructure development is rudimentary in India. I cannot think of any project that can be finished in time and within budget. Its been a problem and it happens all over the country. The Bandra-Worli sea link was estimated to be completed in a budget of 400 crores and within 3 years. It was completed in 8 years after spending 1600 crores. Is that corruption ??? At worst it is mal-administration. So if Sheila Dikshit spent 4.8 crores/ km on road pavement; we need to compare it with national average to understand that it was within limits.

5. No one seems to ask if the company Space age who imported lights for Delhi, had actually underwritten its inventory to avoid custom duty on the bulbs. If they did, then the company must be prosecuted for mis-representing facts and avoiding custom duties rather than going after the Delhi Government for bloated expense.

6. If someone takes up additional responsibility and delivers an exceptional event on world forum, they need kudos and not brickbats. If there were some decisions that caused excess expense, then I request the people to allow her to explain her stand. If we have to ask her to resign, then so must every CM who cannot complete infrastructure projects in time and within budget.



So long.....

Majority wins !!!!

"Jo jeeta wohi sikandar". This is the theme of all democracy. In democracies all over the world, Presidential or Parliament, the rule of the game is one word - majority. You need a majority in the house of representatives i.e. Lok Sabha in the case of India; House of commons in the United Kingdom or the Congress in the US. It makes sense to have the Government have their nominees and take the accountability.



In most democracies around the world, the incumbent makes appointments using his executive power and this decision has to have the backing of the majority in the house of representatives. In case of Parliamentary system the backing is implicit but in the Presidential system, this is explicitly done. In short, the executive is empowered with the mandate of the people and accountable for the decisions taken during the term in office. Now, no where except in India, that people are saying the following "we mandate you to take decisions on our behalf, but we do not trust you, so you must involve a healthy mix of people outside the government to take these decisions". Its absurd and the executive cannot function in this manner. You cannot hamstring the executive by taking over its power or eroding it. If we need a stable India, we must allow the executive to function. Despite my political leanings, I have been pretty clear in my mind about the constitutional obligations of every limb of the constitution. We need a healthy Judiciary who functions independent of the legislature and the executive and provides a legal remedy for laws enacted in violation of the constitutional spirit or sets aside executive orders which are "not in law". I feel this should be the ambit and limit in which judiciary must function. Executive must take accountability of all the laws made and execute them in the letter and spirit of the constitution. Law and order and national security must also be solely the prerogative of the executive. The Legislature must at all times limit itself to making effective laws and discuss the workability of existing laws. If each limb works within its limits, we have a wonderful and functioning democracy. Problems occur when one starts to get into the ambit of the other.



Today, I read in an editorial column of the Times of India about appointment of Lok pal. It seems to the editor that if a Government appoints the Lokpal, then it would not be independent. I would like to question this. We must know that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is appointed by the President, armed with executive orders by the cabinet. The COAS /COAF/CONS (various defense heads) is appointed by the Government. The Chief Justice of all the high courts are appointed by the CJI with advice from the Government. Union government appoints all the IAS officers of union cadre with Chielf Election Commissioner, Comptroller & Auditor General and Chief Vigilance Commissioner included. We know in the past excellent people have occupied these eminent offices and there are various appointments that have gone bad (from time to time). Since we do not shower accolades of appointing a bright officer upon the executive, we must not blame it for a few bad appointments (unless mala-fide intent is proved). This brings me to my question. Why is the Lok Pal a holy cow whom the union government can not appoint. How come conflict of interest occurs in this one appointment, when in all other appointment, especially the Chief Election Commissioner (for electoral benefits) we don't question the Government. I find it a strange argument. Be that as it may. In some situations, people do not reason to logic and this happens to be one such occasion.



Democracy works best in a rule of majority of voices (since unanimity is impossible). In this case, the Government is the majority (unless voted out in the Parliament) and hence the opposition and civil society groups must respect that. Its good to show your dissent and make your voice heard, but its bad to cry hoarse and throw tantrums if your opinion is not adopted by the majority. As a majority, the Government holds the right to rule (for the period of the mandate) and should be allowed to rule. NO ONE MUST OVERRULE the government. If the days come when a minority decides, we will be greatly disadvantaged and governance paralysis will set in. I hope the Union government is listening and hopefully the PM enforces his authority and command as the Chief executive to the President of India.



So long....

Friends with benefits

Hello guys. On the occasion of friendship day 2011, I would like to write some thing about a certain kind of friendship- Friends with benefits. First of all, get your mind out of the gutter and think straight for once. I am not talking of the kinda "friendship" where you get extraneous benefits from a "friend", I am merely talking of a set of people who if turn into friends, will cause a lot of benefits for the rest of us. Lets call these friendships as "Friends with benefits" for our convenience.



USA-Muslim world: I cannot think of the last time the US has not screwed with a Muslim country. The US stand for democracy and universal human rights and yet they have very close associations with autocracries, theocracies, monarchies and dictatorships. The problem with the US is that its double faced foreign policy. World over, the US President makes public speeches about the need to conserve democracy and spread it. However, when it comes to spread of democracy, it chooses to unseat governments in small Muslim countries and place a "democratically" elected government who works for the US interests. There are major Arab countries with whom the US have oil interests and trade and most of these countries are Monarchies and yet the US don't seem to have trouble with them. China antagonises the US often and the US ignores these public dares by China because of trade interests. This screwing around with small countries in the Muslim world is not helping the US or the world. The double faced foreign policy is creating a lot of bad blood in the Muslim world against the US and its allies. Hence the attacks around the world on US citizen and embassies. If the US invests in friendship with the Muslim world and genuinely respects the sovereignty of these countries, maybe the entire world gets the benefits of this friendship and it stalls the bloody attacks that happen around the world by jihadi terrorists.


Government of India and Anna Hazare: There has been no serious governance business in India for almost a year now. The more the government is conceding, the more is being asked by it to concede. Sometimes the government is too obdurate and there are times when its too lax. All in all the grandstanding is not helping anyone. The Government is right in its place to rub in the fact that it holds the right to draft legislation and the civil society can lobby hard but must not force the hand of the Government. Social activists are right up to a point saying we have seen a lot of corruption and its time we act strongly. However, some foolish lawyers on the activist side are nudging them into taking unrealistic maximised approach. This "all or nothing" zero sum game is not helping the same people whose cause they are espousing. The Government needs to be more gracious and see the politics behind the fasts and acknowledge the fact that they this is not a suitable time for them to take on the activist. No one is conceding an inch and nothing is moving forward. Its time, the government shows some large hearted-ness and provides the activist with a long rope. If he remains obdurate, sooner or later he will hang himself using the rope provided. I still stand by my assessment that in collaboration both sides have to concede some ground, the Government can't afford to trounce all demands of civil society while the civil society cant appear to take joys by embarrassing the government into accepting their bill verbatim. Their friendship and collaboration would benefit the 1.2 billion Indians.

Government and the opposition: Time and again, we have seen the two national parties at each other's throats for silly political brownie points. We do not have a proper sensible political discourse as all the sane voices are drowned in silly political up manship. Even in important legislative business when the nation stands to gain, they oppose for the sake of opposing. Goods and service tax regime, Direct tax code, Lokpal bill, land acquisition bill, Women's reservation bill.... the list of pending legislation is long and yet everyday the Parliament is adjourned. Can't these parties be more responsible and keep their politicking to outside the Parliament and maintain strict professionalism inside. I think it can be done. You can debate and legislate inside the house and fight out political battles in the streets and news studios. Instead what we have today is political fights are fought on the floor of the house and legislative debates are held in news studios. India will benefit hugely if the main political parties of India maintain minimum friendship within the perimeter of the Parliament.

You get the drift... So long.....

It feels good to have someone to blame

Human beings are above all in the hierarchy of living beings not because they have a more developed brain than others, its mostly because they have the power of will and an ability to reason. Most living beings are instinctive and lead their life by answering to their basic instincts, except for human beings. We are bestowed with the power to reason and a strong will power to overcome our instincts and act in a distinguished manner as compared to other living beings. However, in the face of adversity, human beings lose the power to reason and the will to distinguish between right and wrong and tend to become as instinctive as most animals do. We popularly call this "lynch mob mentality". This a useful mechanism used by human beings to vent off their frustration and get back to normalcy. If we do not have this from time to time, then with the amount of frustrations that we face in our life, we would fuse sooner than later.



Today, we face a tough life. We face pressures at work, pressures in our relationships and many a times economic pressure. In the face of so many adversities, we usually want one avenue where we can blow off the steam and restore the balance. This explains the need for a 4 day party schedule that begins from Thursday night. Having a "good time" with friends over a few drinks and chats kinda helps you get over yourself and feel at ease again. It helps you go to work with enthusiasm (even though your boss is giving you a hard time); it gets you home with a smile (even though after a long day of work you don't want to invest more into a relationship) also it helps you get over many adverse situations. The party culture of the cities actually helps them get over many a troubles in their life over a few drinks. I do not for a moment suggest alcoholism helps. I am merely saying that the dim lights, surround sound in high decibels and a dance floor acts as a perfect ambiance to lose yourself and be "happy" for a while. This also explains how urban population is indifferent to the political climate and no matter what adversity comes, "aal iz well" is the mantra for them. Life in a rural setting is a little different. They live with limited means and suffer most of the brunts of life that a urban resident suffers. When they try and talk it out on village forums, they realise, every other person is as miserable they are and this collective misery angers them. They lash out at the Government for making their life miserable and for not being able to provide them with suitable means to livelihood. This explains why Governments are more in tune with rural problems. They know that incurring the wrath of rural population would mean losing the elections while urban voters hardly care who is ruling them and have found refuge elsewhere.



But, I digress. I was talking about the lynch mob mentality. Every once in a while, when faced with a lot of troubles, we tend to blame others for our misfortunes and feel solace in this. It makes us feel better that some one else is responsible for our misfortunes and it gives us the momentary feel-good factor. In most cases its the government. People around the world, love to trash their governments and politicians alike. They like to blame all the bad things happening to them on the government and in most cases like to take credit for all the good things happening around them. Its part of the job and kinda of an occupational hazard for the Government. Today, when we see unprecedented events happening around us and it makes me wonder why is it that all of sudden anything the government does is falling in the domain of negativity. Actually, I did analyse and these are the findings.
1. People are faced with inflationary economy and the current trends are digging a deep hole into their pockets and savings are taking a dip. Normally inflationary trends are temporary till the demand supply mismatch is corrected, but in our case firstly due to an absentee agriculture minister and then due to global fuel price hike, inflationary trend is rather extended one and this is hitting people hard.
2. There is a an anti Government propaganda going on all around and competitive politics is making it more difficult for normalcy to return. Look at the US, even though its obvious that defaulting would be disastrous, opposition parties were indulging in political brinkmanship. Look at the London riots. Propaganda against the elected government is working because of adverse economic conditions. Even in India, the feeling has set in that if not for the huge amount of corruption, we would have better living condition. Now this is totally false propaganda and is only to feed the gullible. We must know that the moment inflation comes under control and household expenses will normalise, no one will be out with Anna Hazare or Ramdev or the opposition to shout slogans against the Government.
3. Government is the fall guy and will be the fall guy for all wrongs that happen. They should be gracious to accept the failings and let it pass rather than contest it. Over a period of time, people do realise on their own that some of their actions were absurd and will support their Government. Its not if, its when.
4. India is very unique where people like to do grandstanding rather than debate on substantial issues. So we have lot many opposition parties oppose the Government for the sake of opposing without any substantial points. If you ask them for inputs on how to tackle corruption, or price rise or terrorism they will not give you points on how they would tackle such a situation, instead they will go on harping on how the government is wrong and should be voted out of power. Its rather amazing that we fall for shallow propaganda always.



These are some of the issues that are causing some major grandstanding in all facets of governance today. I hope the media is listening. As a consumer of media, I would like to see valid and measured debates in our news studio, but all I see is one sided government bashing with even the news anchor taking sides to almost grill the government representative. Lets even it out guys. Lets show we are a democracy and not a mobocracy.


So long.....

"Such a Laila you are....."

Indians have contributed so many words, phrases, slang to the English language; sometimes to enrich it and sometimes because we genuinely did not know the English equivalent of a vernacular word. Most of the phrases used in Indian English are not a part of ENGLISH. Yet we use them time and again and the funny part is, people all over the world have began to understand what we mean when we transliterate a vernacular phrase into English with such seamless ease that would shame the purists. "Chutney" is the word that now find mention in the oxford dictionary as accompaniment for "Idly" - which is also an Indian word. Most of these words which are not English have found acceptance because the world loved Indian cuisine and had to use the terms the Indians use, due to lack of relevant words in the English language. Similar explanation can be given about the word "Chaai", now in this case, we have a relevant word Tea, but the way Indians serve their tea is way too different from the way tea is being served world over. Hence the acceptance of the term "Chaai". I could list so many words on similar lines being accepted in the English language.



Now lets move on to the phrases, "Don't eat my head" is a toto Indian-English phrase which is equivalent of "Don't get on my nerve" in English. Yet world over, Indians make use of this phrase and are perfectly understood. Then there are cases where Indians use local equivalence of and English phrase. Like a phrase say, "They are like romeo-Juliet" becomes "They are like laila-majnu". No one knows who the hell Laila is or who Majnu was, but we replace them conveniently with the immortal characters of Shakespeare while depicting endless love. Now, today, I propose to add a new phrase that I assume will gain acceptance sooner than later. When someone is sweet to you or goes out of the way to accommodate you, you tend to say, "You're such a sweet heart". Let me introduce the Indian equivalence which I hope will be accepted world over (fingers crossed).

Phrase: "Such a laila you are" :: equivalent to "you are such a sweet heart", changes observed as Indians don't go by the grammar to frame a sentence but go by the words that explain the feelings behind the words. In this phrase the feeling to be conveyed is the excess of sweetness and hence most Indians will begin it with a 'such'.

Origins: Now all of you might be wondering, "who the hell is laila", well at least most of you :P. To tell you the truth guys, I don't know either. She does not epitomise love or friendship or care. Nor is she part of some eternal couple like Romeo and Juliet. So its absolutely okay if none of us had heard of her or have seen her. Let me describe Laila as I have heard. She is this girl-next-door who goes out of the way to keep the important people in her life happy. She is the one who makes them feel special and wanted. She is a shoulder whom you can count on when you need to cry , she is a ear to you when you want to bitch about anyone and everyone, she is a girl you can count on to stand by you when things are going tough but more than anything else, she is the one who makes you feel that she stands to gain from your friendship with her. In short, she is so much more than a sweetheart.



So the next time you find such a person make sure you say "Such a laila you are". :D

So long.....

Governance paralysis

I don't remember, over the past year if there was any decision taken by the Government that was not torn into by the opposition. I am not talking about the central Government, even various state Government and local bodies. Ever since we have taken the word "corruption" seriously and have been tearing into our administrators for alleged misappropriation of funds, no one seems to be willing to take any kind of administrative decisions. At every level, bureaucrats and politicians are stalling important projects just to ensure that they are not flouting any rules; also, if any of their decision can be misconstrued as an act of ommission or commission. Today its a sad state of affairs where most of the politicians who are corrupt are daring the system and making money and the few honest ones are scared to take decisions because they don't wish to be embroiled into controversies that do not exist. Today, in high inflationary times, the most cheap item is reputation of other person. We have stooped to a level wherein we can tarnish any one's image with few allegations and when proved wrong, nothing is done to make good for the damage caused. Gone are the days when people and institutions were responsible for their words and deeds alike. Today, cut and run seems to be the order of the day.



Let me state a relevant example. Couple of days ago, my room mate walks into my room and says " Dude! the PM is indicted in the 2G scam". I was shocked to the core. From the days I have followed politics in India, I have never seen or heard anyone questioning the intent and conduct of Dr. Manmohan Singh, as a bureaucrat; as a Reserve bank Governor; as Minister of Finance or most recently as the Prime Minister. Even if you line up a thousand people Indians or otherwise; layman or world leaders; politicians or economists, it would be difficult to find a single person who would question the integrity of Dr. Manmohan Singh. People may question his style or differ with his policies, but not one would say he is corrupt. For all practical purposes, he is like Yudhisthira, above all this mess. So you can understand my concern when I heard about his indictment by a court of law. My belief in goodness was shaken to the core. When I switched on the television, no doubt there was a ticker "PM indicted in 2G scam..". After watching the news for the next 15 minutes, it dawned upon me that some accused in the 2G scam (who was a former Minister) had, in his defense to the charges said that a few of the decisions were taken keeping the Prime Minister in the loop. He conveniently hid the fact that the parts discussed with the Prime Minister were later changed by him and this event caused the financial loss. I do not understand the word "indictment" in this context. Are we using a defense used by an accused to tarnish the image of our PM? Was the news channel unaware of the meaning of the word "indict"? The journalists who are crafty with words when it deals with people's reputation are very careful when they defend themselves. The ticker ran the entire night despite being pointed out by several legal luminaries that the word "indict" in this context is outlandish. Be that as it may, there was no regret expressed either, they simply moved on leaving scores of us with the impression that the CBI court had indicted the PM of wrong doing.



We Indians were known for blatant breach of privacy, now we are also using our media for slandering and rumour mongering. With everyday that's passing by, so many skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard about how media is being used to settle political scores, it has become imperative that we rein them in. My prayer to the Supreme court of India would be, "Your honor, I know we are a free country with certain rights which are fundamental so far as they don't impinge upon the fundamental rights of others. If we allow media to slander and tarnish reputations with impunity by upholding their "freedom of speech", the people whose right to live with respect which is being wrongly trampled upon, should be compensated for the loss". Like the ancient Greece, we must hold the messengers accountable to the words that slip out of their mouth. If slandering the judiciary can amount to "contempt" and the person faces punishment, we must also hold people making light comments about major institutions like the President, the Prime Minister, the CAG, the Parliament, the CVC and CBI in "contempt" and if proven frivolous, the person must face punitive action for misusing the "freedom of speech".



I would like to state at the outset, constructive criticism must be always welcome. My problem is with the TRP hungry media who manufacture 'headlines" to capture eyeballs. In many cases, there is hardly any link between the headlines and the content. I object to criticism of the nature where you attach motives where none exist. I agree the Government is answerable to the people as they are our custodians and as tax payers we should question them. The way we frame these questions is very important. When a journalist with no experience of economics or finance whose only exposure to the banks is while he withdraws funds from ATM, sits in judgement of a policy decision made by people who have spent entire life in economics, and makes light of it, it insults my intelligence and the intent of those making these decisions. If every aspect of my day to day work has to explained at the end of the day to a dimwit who then suggests you alternatives and attaches mala-fide intent, I would be pissed off. I would rather avoid taking a decision and procrastinate every small decision for fear that if I go wrong, it would not be a honest mistake, it would be a "colourful" scam. Today this fear has gripped our bureaucracy and politicians. People whom we have elected to take decisions on our behalf are doubting their ability to make the said decisions. There are people who suggest having a referendum on all decisions but they constitute a dumb minority who have given up on the system we have. The only reason Mumbai could not get CCTV surveillance was because no one wanted to take a call on which company to tender for procurement. No one wanted to be blamed for receiving illegal gratification because they chose A instead of B. In the end, the city of Mumbai loses out on security apparatus. My point is, in the process to make them accountable, don't go to the extent of micro management that it becomes impossible to make day-to-day administrative decisions.



My favourite quote by Dr. Manmohan Singh (PM, India) to the bureaucrats, "If 5 out of 10 decisions taken by you are proven right post-facto, you are doing an excellent job". We need to let it be known that humans are supposed to err and many times when you make a policy decisions, you do not have all facts in front of you. Yet you take tough decisions, some of them work out some others fail. As long as your intent was clear, you should not fear taking decisions. I hope this message is being passed on by the political bosses to the bureaucrats working under them, cos if they don't, governance will be crippled and the India story will have an unnatural death.


So long...