Thinkleton

Why the New Coke Ad is More Sad Than Happy

2012-01-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

I also like the ad that shows happy kids singing, but there are unhappy truths behind fizzy drinks people should know as well

Before I write any bad things about Coke, Pepsi or any other carbonated beverage company, let me first make an admission. I have had plenty of these drinks in my life and enjoyed them as much as kids still do today.

But then, I was also ignorant like most kids (and though I'm still ignorant to a big extent, I've also learnt a few things along the way).

So, what has changed?

For one, I started drinking fewer fuzzy drinks and began reading more about health issues, water problems and environmental destruction.

But more importantly, I became a father twice over – and began to get worried not only about what I consume but what I allow my kids to have. And when I see my young kids crave for a Pepsi, Fanta or another carbonated drink, and when I relent and let my wife share some with them and see them get aggressive or irritable after that...that's when I realize that a lot has changed, must change, from how things are now.

And that's why when I saw the new Coca-Cola ad in which kids sing a paean of hope while joyous stats are displayed on TV screens, I felt that this is wrong, just so wrong.

It's a great ad and I really like it – I only wish it weren't promoting fizzy drinks in the name of happiness and hope. Not to say it comes from a company that allegedly has double standards and dubious practices in the name of an iconic brand (to throw some light on this, readers may point their browsers to this interview of Michael Blanding, who wrote the book The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink. And if you search “Truth + Coca-Cola” on the Web, you'll be swamped with millions of links, many of them quite revealing).

But unlike me, there are millions of people, many of them impressionable children, who will watch this ad and find happiness in bottles of Coke rather than more health-giving fruits, milk or even water. Few would work for the causes espoused in the Coca-Cola ad; most would just sip a drink and be happier than before. Or at least live in an illusion of happiness. Like I had been doing, for quite a while, unfortunately.

My first eye-opener about our current state of food-and-beverage industry came a few years back when I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. In this book, Schlosser went deep into the working of McDonald's and revealed the smudges behind the golden arches – all in their gory details (the conditions and manner under which cows are killed and processed at a factory that supplies beef, for instance).

But I wouldn't like to single out Coke, Pepsi or McDonald's for the current sorry state of public health – which is increasingly getting riddled with obesity, hypertension, diabetes and scores of other ills. It has much to do with the entire process of looking at what we eat and drink from the profiteering lenses of giant corporations. Corps that are more concerned about economies of scale and the money they make rather than what ingredients are used and what effects the products have on people's health.

Kids in India (as probably in most places before the assembly-lining of food and beverages) used to enjoy home-cooked snacks and occasional indulgences of treacle toffees or aampapad (a locally made sweet of natural mango). Now they are gorging everywhere and all the time on industrially made 'addictive' wafers, fat-inducing burgers and large doses of carbonated sugar water. These and many similar obnoxious things is what you see all around you – in malls, at the local grocery shops, even at remote hill stations.

So dads like me (and moms, who aren't like me at all :) are forced to buy unhealthy things for their children if they ever want to step out of the house.

Some of us are trying to control and minimize the damage – but our little blogs and tweets get drowned in three-billion-dollars-a-year worth of massive advertising unleashed by the likes of Coke. And our tips and messages and efforts are lost in the sheer availability of “junk stuff” and the irresistible pull of the “convenience factor.”

Will someone please make an ad on that and highlight the real thing?

Let's celebrate and be joyous in the new year, but let's do it for the right reasons and for the real heroes – not for some cunning company.

Create Luxury or Remove Misery?

2011-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Does it make sense to create luxurious things and artful objects when so much squalor remains to be eliminated?

We live in a world full of ironies and conflicts. The world’s rich fret over how to gratify their palates with a new recipe, while the poor wonder when or whether they are going to have their next meal. People in one part of the world go to bed nestled in comfort, while in another they spend sleepless nights looking for a few inches of space to rest their exhausted bodies. There are some who don’t know what to do with all that cash piling up in their vaults, while there are many who are unsure how they’d support their families if they lose the only jobs they have known for years…

In the midst of acute food deprivation, we keep worrying about exotic cuisine. In the midst of widespread homelessness, we keep building sprawling bungalows. And as we face alarming levels of job cuts, we never tire of devising ways to hike productivity and efficiency.

Why?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to first bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots? Shouldn’t we work at equally distributing wealth, means of production and living space? Why should we cater to the luxurious living of the rich when we can’t take care of the basic needs of the poor?

Our conscience pricks us uncomfortably at these questions. And we are often left speechless when we try to defend our pursuits. But centuries of physical, mental and spiritual evolution has meant that creating creature comforts and continually developing things that please us is something that’s gotten etched into our minds.

We see luxury not merely as production of things that gratify us, but as an aspiring pursuit for enhancing our lives with things which we really value and which prod us to go higher – be it art, literature, music, gadgets or anything else that doesn’t necessarily have to be pursued in order to merely survive.

At times, this aspiration does get bogged down by the misery of fellow human beings around us. But it never dies out. On the contrary, the coexistence of squalid subsistence and luxurious living creates a vivid contrast of how things are and how they should be.

For instance, a landscaped apartment block surrounded by slums does look like an eyesore, but it’s also a very powerful pointer to how we should and should not live. One that blaringly reminds us that well-built homes in a clean and green environment – not dingy slums – is worthy of our emulation. It’s only that the contrast between the two highlights it in a painful way.

But such a contrast also heightens the intensity of our aspiration. Potholed roads make a new, superfast highway all the more valued just as a rag makes a finely tailored suit so much more desirable.

That, however, doesn’t mean undesirable things such as potholed roads or rags or hunger should exist. But the fact of the matter is that they have always existed in human history – and we’ve always been struggling to keep them to the minimum, but with different degrees of success.

We are a race that is forever seeking new pleasures, exploring new frontiers and improving upon our own concepts of beauty. It’s hard to think of how to distinguish between two delicacies on an empty stomach, or go for an adventure trek if we’ve been shivering in cold without shelter for weeks, or create a designer label when our nakedness is a compulsion rather than a choice. But once our basic needs are taken care of, our mind itches to get more, to make better what we already have, and to excel in our chosen field.

We can’t altogether reject this ‘itch’ – it’s an inseparable part of our character, chiseled into our brain over centuries of civilization.

Creation of luxury and of things we consider beautiful is the only way for us humans to exercise and stretch our faculties that make us so different from other animals. That creativity and urge to create is the bulwark upon which we have honed our ceaseless efforts to become more and more civilized. If we stop to evolve in our creativity, we’ll most likely retreat to our uncivilized ways – and perhaps finally become just another species.

That’s why we must keep our creative efforts going – in spite of all the wretchedness surrounding us. We must not see our attempts to live a better life as counter-productive to our intent to create a more equitable and just society. But we should see it as a challenge before us to balance our quest for luxury with the removal of our destitution.

The day we achieve that balance more peacefully and successfully will be the day of a paradigm shift in our rise to the top among fellow animals. It will also be a time when we’ll be free – perhaps for the first time in history – of the collective guilt of inequality we’ve been carrying on on our shoulders for ages.

So we must continually ask ourselves: How far is that day and what can each one of us do to make it happen?

Remembering the Ganesha 'Miracle'

2011-09-21T02:59:00.000-07:00

Did the Hindu god Ganesha really drink milk in thousands of temples on this day many years ago?

I can never forget what I saw on that twenty-first day of September when I reached the temple nearest to my home. It changed my whole outlook toward God, life and people in general.

I had paddled fast on my bicycle on that slightly nippy morning and, leaving the bike unlocked against the temple wall, I rushed inside. I had to jostle my way through a motley crowd of devotees to reach the inner sanctum, where Lord Ganesha’s stone sculpture was affixed amongst several other Hindu deities. The idol was thronged on all sides by devotees, who were all falling over themselves to offer spoonfuls of milk to Ganesha.

In Hindu rituals, Lord Ganesha is usually offered a laddoo, a round sweet made of gram flour, but on that particular day of 1995, news had spread that Ganesha was “accepting” milk. On normal days, the faithful would put a laddoo to Ganesha’s mouth and then place it at His feet or in a tray nearby. This act of offering is essentially symbolic and a portion of the sweet remains stuck to the idol’s mouth. But that day, people claimed that Ganesha’s idols everywhere were literally drinking the milk offered to them, spoon by spoon. Within a few hours, the phenomenon was being hailed as a miracle in modern times.

It was this miracle that I had come to witness. I got up a little late that day, and as I was rubbing the early morning sleep out of my eyes, my overly credulous and religious mother told me that Lord Ganesha was drinking milk in temples everywhere and I must go and offer some to the Elephant God.

I was not exactly irreligious but, in my haste to see the impossible happen right before my eyes, I had rushed out of the house without carrying any milk to offer.

Now, as I stood inside the temple, agape, and watched the throng near Ganesha’s idol, I just could not believe it.

Not the miracle but what I really saw.

People were actually tilting their spoons, cups and other dishes full of milk they had brought with them at the stone idol – and the milk that was supposed to be sipped by the deity was spilling down its body and away into the drain that led out of the temple and mingled into the bigger culvert outside.

All of these religious people had come running to the temple hearing that Ganesha was drinking milk, and all without exception were actually pouring milk at the idol. They did it one after the other in quick succession, without stopping for a moment to look at what happened to the milk. Their already devout beliefs needed no confirmation – the idol was indeed drinking milk as far as they were concerned.

I carefully looked at several more acts of milk-offering, hoping to see Ganesha take a single sip of the white liquid - if only to help me form my own faith in miracles. But my eyes saw the same thing over and over again: milk trickling down the sides of the idol without so much as a hint of acceptance by the deity. I even dared to ask the person standing next to me, “Don’t you think these guys are spilling milk instead of feeding it to the idol?” But he only chided me for being an atheist and for making such a sacrilegious comment. “You shouldn’t doubt this miracle, or the gods will punish you. If you can’t offer any milk, at least don’t poison other people’s faith!” he retorted.

With a heavy heart I walked back home, my bicycle beside me. But I kept thinking: How could it be? How could it be? Was I shorn of any devotion whatsoever, that I couldn’t see the miracle? Or were people so blinded by their faith that they could not see what was obvious to me?

By late evening that day, the “news” of the “miracle” was breaking on all TV channels and other media. Not just temples in Delhi and across India, but many places of Hindu worship in several countries of the world, including Britain, Canada and Dubai, reported the same phenomenon being replicated.

Some novice reporters even got carried away by the spectacle and, in addition to the reports they filed, made their own offerings to Lord Ganesha right there on live television – and came away “believers” themselves. At the same time, there were some channels that had rounded up a bunch of rationalists in their studios and were putting up questions to them, demanding either plausible explanations or asking them to surrender their rationality to the televised images of the miracle beaming alongside their somber visages.

I watched as many programs as I could. Among other explanations given by the scientifically inclined, I remember hearing “capillary action and surface tension” as being responsible for milk getting slightly sucked out of the spoon before making its way down the idol in minute trickles. The tiny streams of milk down the idols went mostly unnoticed. Or it didn’t matter to those who had already decided to believe in the miracle.

As for me, I wasn’t really looking for explanations, for I had seen the truth behind the miracle with my own eyes. But it really amazed me how millions of people across the world came to believe in it in such a short time – and that they still carried on with their belief even after many scientists repeated the “miracle” in a laboratory setting, offering their explanations in layman’s terms.

Like I said earlier, not that I was completely irreligious, but from that day on, I vowed not to be blind in my faith. Whenever any other news of such miracles appeared (and many times it did, in fact), my mind played out the images of people spilling milk at Ganesha’s idols as if in a movie flashback – and my sense of reason prevailed over mass mirage.

Today, 16 years on after the incident, my own spirituality and religious beliefs have gone through tremendous changes – and perhaps will continue to evolve till my last moment. But that single incident taught me more about mass hysteria, herd mentality and blind faith than any volumes of literature could. It also acquainted me with the power of telecommunication and electronic media – and what it could wreak together with a little rumor let loose.

Looking back to that incident, I’ve often tried to make sense of many other widely believed miracles – often dating back to times when there was no television or photography. I’ve also tried to make sense of people’s own experiences with worship and prayer and with bringing their loved ones back from the clutches of terminal illness through their religious leanings, especially after the world’s best doctors had given up on them.

Can these personal experiences be called the real miracles? Did Moses really part the sea? Did Jesus Christ really rise from the grave? Did Savitri (in Hindu legend) brought her husband back to life on the strength of her love and devotion to him? Did scores of holy men and women who are said to have healed thousands through their touch over the centuries really perform miracles?

Then what of those whose heartfelt prayers go unanswered and their loved ones are lost forever? What about those who die in a stampede or burn alive in a fire at the very place where they have come to worship God (irrespective of whose God it is)?

And then I look at the mess in the world surrounding us – global warming, terrorism, religious fanaticism, food crisis…and think again: Can anything other than a miracle save us from hurtling toward a collective catastrophe?!

Will somebody perform that miracle? Till when will he or she wait?

The questions keep flooding my mind until they form a deluge and I have to set them aboard an ark so they could float away for a while and allow me to breathe.

Meanwhile, my own search for true spirituality – with or without miracles – goes on…

Anna, Corruption and the Development Equation

2011-08-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

We must look at the whole development structure, and not just corruption, if the mess called “India” needs to be set right

It is a dumbfounding moment for a lot of Indians. This Anna Hazare thing and the whole idea of a nation suddenly up in knots against corruption.

Most people are beginning to feel that the Jan Lokpal Bill as envisaged by Team Anna will rid India of the cancer of corruption – to a significant extent. Some feel the Sangh Parivar is ready to ride on the back of the moment – and the movement. Yet others are trying frantically to save a government from whose cupboard the skeletons of corruption just can't stop coming out.

While corruption has become a buzz word, a love-hate word, a cure-all and curse-all word, I think it might not be a bad idea to look at the whole development equation and see where corruption – and we, a nation of billion-odd people, including oddest ones – fit in.

Let me warn you: this could be a longer article than the mostly asinine tweets and cut-and-paste status updates fast gaining currency as our preferred mode of conversation rather than well-considered and longish pieces of writing. So if you are just looking for some sound bytes, scoot away now! Please.

So, what does the whole development equation look like?

This questions is directly and significantly related to corruption, so just think it over.

To my mind, to embrace development in today's fast, technologically advanced and increasingly rights-aware world is to ensure these things: people are able to feed and clothe themselves, children get to play and learn the things they find interesting, adults get to work and get paid in fair proportion to their abilities and labor, and there's a speedy and reasonably fair system of settling disputes and administering justice.

What we have in the world today is this: a huge proportion of humanity goes to sleep on a hungry stomach; each year thousands of poor people die in heat or cold waves for want of proper clothing and shelter; millions of children are malnourished, millions more are child-laborers who hardly get to play anything, let alone learn about interesting things; most people have to settle for whatever they get for the back-breaking work they do (with only a few complaining about salaries and weekends – and still fewer making noises on taxes directed at the really wealthy); and justice is either out of reach for most, too delayed or simply putty in the hands of the powerful.

When you consider these parameters of development in third-world countries like those of sub-Saharan Africa or India (not very different if you look at the bottom two-third of the pyramid), you find that the development situation is truly appalling.
And yet...

Yet there is development happening. Can't you see, there are malls sprouting all around suburbia? Didn't you read about the 20 or so Bentley cars sold in India? Haven't you seen advertisements of bathroom fittings that promise to drench your body with hundreds of liters of water in a single shower? (Okay, the ads don't say anything about how much water is needed to “enjoy water” with those fancy fittings, but you could make out, couldn't you?) And hey, didn't you hear about the new shampoos for your dogs launched by that cult multinational brand?

Truly, there must be a lot of people out there willing to bathe their doggies in exotic shampoo? Or installing a thousand-dollar shower and taking a bath themselves instead? And don't you forget all those vacations in picture-perfect locales that the papers are so aggressively promoting through ads and articles (I forget which is which these days.)

So the top one, two or five percent of an economy is full of all these people – the mega consumer-owners who keep the bulldozing engines of “modern” development going on. And they get the economists to throw a beautifully coined term at anyone who raises an objection to this resource-hungry and environment-ravaging model of development: the “trickle-down effect” that reaches the common man.

The bottom 95 percent? Most of them just manage to keep alive, a majority never having any real chance of shopping in the same mall they helped build with their own hands. And a not-so-big-as-made-out chunk, the neither-here-nor-theres of the world, the enamored middle classes, looks up dreamily at the owners-superconsumers and aspires to reach there some day. But most never do.

The result is a gaping structural deformity in development. Which means a tiny portion of people enjoy all the luxuries of the world, a significant number work blindly for money in the hope of making it big, but the astonishing majority barely scraping through life in unhygienic, depressing and impoverished conditions.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against capitalism, if that's the idea you are getting from the above views. We've seen socialism fail miserably and the days of autocracy are long numbered. So capitalism or market economy is what we are left with essentially.

What I'm just trying to get at is the root cause of corruption and the enabling environment that helps it grow and enrich a few at the cost of so many.

At the heart of such an enabling environment are three things: natural resources, power and greed. Corruption results from the unholy mix of these three ingredients. In particular, when the legal and systemic structure of a country is not designed to take care of huge structural inequalities in development, corruption seeps in, becomes a flood and starts to boil the blood of the suffering millions.

The unholy mix of corruption, in which powerful people loot the natural resources of a country to largely distribute the wealth thus generated among themselves and throw some peanuts to the milling crowds, is not a new phenomenon. Right from the old colonial masters, be they the Spaniards or the British, down to the current power-brokers and “industrialists,” this loot has been going on for ages. Nothing seems to stop it. What can be realistically expected, perhaps, is that this loot somehow lessens to a tolerable level so that people at the bottom can breathe a little fresher air.

The current upsurge in India is an acknowledgment of the huge and multiple instances of rampant loot going on in the country for the past so many years. The worst part is that almost all political parties that make the so-called democratic polity of India have been caught with their hand in the till at one time or another. Which is why “the common man” has lost faith in the democratic process itself.

If you look at the candidates who fight elections, who are they? Most of them are goons, goondas, boors, hardened criminals, apathetic profiteers and so forth. Many of them are the already rich scions of political bigwigs or their proteges. A tiny minority might be sincere and honest, but there numbers are too few to make a big difference.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the natural resources of a country are limited. That is why, after the process of economic liberalization in India has gathered pace, there is an urgency among our political and owner-superconsumer class to quickly dispense the remaining resources (mines, land, etc.) and ensure their own further enrichment. If palms need to be greased to hasten that process, so be it! If inferior material can be bought at exorbitant costs to the exchequer (read to “you, me and other tax-payers”) but at enormous profits to those giving and receiving contracts for infrastructure and other “nation-building” exercises, why not? Such is the rationale of the corrupt.

And what happens in successive elections? The party or parties that come to power blame the previous regime for all the ills of governance, including corruption, lack of financing, poor decisions, etc. – and continue to line their own pockets while mouthing blames and expressing their own helplessness. Given that almost all parties in India shelter a growing flock of bad sheep in their midst, this cycle of blame and loot just keeps on repeating every five years.

And what development do we have at the end of the day? Oh, my God, don't ask me that! We have a monstrous situation in the country. But let me first talk about a few good things: there are some spanking new, world-class malls and office buildings, a huge number of automobile beauties are available for purchase, some expensive medical facilities have come up, a few lakh educated folk have found employment and there's a cornucopia of consumer goods out there in our urban markets.

Now, get ready for the not-so-good, bad and really ugly parts. There's muck and filth all around those swish malls. Muck and filth in large parts of our cities – on the roads, along the railway lines, around our very houses. Some posh localities and gated communities aside, the sheer amount of muck and filth is mind-boggling. If one were to weigh all that garbage in, say, Mumbai, it would perhaps equal half the waters of the Arabian Sea! Maybe more.

Come to the roads now. The Merc, the Alto and the cycle-rickshaw all stand side-by-side, trying to wiggle their way out of massive traffic jams. Flyovers have turned into nice places where cars crawl bumper-to-bumper, giving their occupants an opportunity to enjoy wide-angle views of their sprawling city – except nobody seems to be enjoying. The honking and heat and smoke are just all too annoying!

There have been many reports of the five-star-type hospitals charging exorbitant money and still not being able to provide the necessary healthcare to their customers. The poor are just turned away (despite the fact that many got land from the government at concessional rates in order that a certain number of poor can also avail of their facilities).

The increasing amount of burgers, pizzas and processed foods are making more and more Indians grow – their bellies, that is. And also grow the instances of diabetes and heart disease amongst them. Why do you think they are building all those expensive hospitals? All marketers have got their projections in place and are readying for the battle to fight diseases that the very pseudo development caused in the first place!

This whole development equation is coalescing around the few: the owners-superconsumers. Along with the politicians and bureaucrats, they are creating these development paradigms and profiting from it at the expense of millions and millions (for whose real uplift and betterment the public money should have been spent).

I can see the objections and the barrage of questions coming: At least more people today are well-off than at any other time in history. Wouldn't some inequalities creep in given the size and scale of our country? And then, what is the way out? Should we just live in shacks in villages? Shouldn't our children aspire to work and live in modern corporations in modern buildings in modern cities? What's wrong with having so many flavors of ice-cream? And how can we root out corruption?

Let me try and answer them in the best way I can.

I'm not against modernization or capitalism. And I love to experiment with flavors in ice-cream along with my kids.

I'm against the mess we have created in the name of development. Why I write strongly about all this is because much of it could have been avoided. Corruption is part of the problem but lack of a holistic vision and poor quality of leaders are bigger causes for this mess.

Why did our leaders throw open the flood-gates of economy without proper planning and preparation? How could we not learn from the mistakes of Western countries? If we had, a monster like Gurgaon should never have come to life. Why do we seem hell bent on aping the West, mostly guzzling their beer but not imbibing their spirit of freedom and justice?

Lokpal Bill may or may not cut down on corruption. But if we do not overhaul our existing laws and labyrinthine governance systems into simpler, speedier and more equitable ones, our development equation – and corruption situation – won't change much.

Over the past few days I have seen the resolve and sacrifice of a simple-minded – though sometimes confused – man, Anna Hazare. But he's already 74 and doesn't seem to have either the experience or the intent to play a larger and more active role in running the affairs of this country. His collaborators and team members seem well-meaning people but will the current political establishment allow them center stage once Anna's ongoing fast recedes into some complicated reconciliation?

To run a country as big and diverse as India, you need at least a dozen or so best minds who can review, change and execute our existing model of development. This will require an immense effort, honesty and perseverance of an order that would make Hercules' task seem tiny in comparison.

It will also require some radical thinking and steps on development: those that do not look at development as encouraging billions to crowd the roads with raucous cars but instead put more Metro tracks and create more walking space; those that include prevention of diseases and espousing a healthy lifestyle as essential elements of a nation's healthcare planning; that take systemic measures to ensure there's bathing water for every citizen and not bother too much about pricey faucets and showers; that rationally allocate natural resources to the production process for a more justifiable and environmentally friendly dispensation...

I hope that Jan Lokpal would be a right step in that direction, but I know that so much more is needed in India to set the course right. And I will be wary of what happens next. Won't you be?

Four Life Lessons My Kids Taught Me

2011-08-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

In one of his poems, William Wordsworth famously remarked, “The child is father of the man.”

I had read this line years ago. But now, when I look at it again I'm not only in a better position to appreciate its import, I can perhaps make my own little additions to the very notion as well.

As an unabashedly proud father of a 14-month-old son and a seven-year-old daughter, I have spent countless wonderful hours with them—loving, learning and laughing enough to feel a little preachy.

So, my dear poet, not only is the child father of the man, the child is the teacher, guru and even God to man.

If the smiling face of a young child does not belong to God Himself, what else does?

If the whooshing cooing gurgling bubbling sounds of the child do not come from God's own throat, what else does?

If their little innocent pranks and pulls are not rooted in God's mischievous mind, what else could be?

In India I've heard a lot of old folks say, “Children are the embodiment of God.” Not only do I second them but I think the reverse could equally be true: God is made possible by children.

But let me not take you too far into the domain of theistic or ontological questions. Let me only share some of the most vital lessons my kids have taught me.

The first and foremost lesson—though I'm yet to fully imbibe it (revive it, rather)—is to always take delight in the little things around us. The melodious sounds of a toy, the vibrant colors of a book, the playful dance of a piece of paper in a whorl of light and air. Delight in anything that is pleasing to the eye, sweet to the ear, cool to the touch. Delight in anything that is new, exciting, mysterious, inviting...

They have made me discover the beauty of the world and take delight in it through their experience. So whenever my senses are numbed by the greedy and possessive ugliness of the world (and they often do), I need only look at the kiddos laugh and play and share their delight.

The second vital lesson is simplicity of being. A child just wants to be. Period. The thought of emulation or rivalry or the blind pursuit of a vocation is thrust upon them in their formative years. Have you ever heard children spontaneously say what they want to be? It is the parents or other people who usually put the nasty idea of being or trying to be someone else into their fragile brain.

True, sometimes the children say they want to be whatever they fancy at any given moment. But these whims keep changing and no true picture emerges until at least teenage. I've learned—and continue to learn—that we must let kids be. Our role is only to help them identify their true calling and facilitate their journey as much as we can. The rest is up to them.

Another great learning is that, tied as we have become to our clockwork schedules, we must sometimes allow ourselves to be yanked away from the tyranny of time—and be thrown cheerily into the timeless playfulness that is immanent in all children. (And in all Nature indeed.)

By simply throwing their arms around me, or clinging to my legs when I’m late for work, my children have often taught me, without saying a single word, how infinitely better it is to be a willing slave to love than to be a forced prisoner of time.

That is not to say that we do not meet our professional commitment or neglect work we are paid for—but just to reiterate that one thing cannot be a substitute for something entirely different and certainly much more important. (Unless your only priority is to chase greenbacks, in which case you shouldn't be reading this article.)

Perhaps one of the most important lessons children have taught me is forgiveness. They just keep forgiving me for my innumerable imbecilities. No matter how cross I’m with my daughter or how much I’ve scolded her (my son is too young to be scolded, though my wife disagrees :), she hugs me with an unconditional love that puts my tyranny to shame—and makes me want to become a better-behaved father next time around.

And these are not the only lessons. As I continue my parental journey, I'm sure there will be countless occasions for me to learn, unlearn and re-learn life's most vital lessons from children.

And so my education goes on...

-o-

India and the Morality of Corruption

2011-07-01T02:33:00.000-07:00

A scathing look at the state of corruption and its root causes in the world's largest de-Mock-racy

For the past few weeks, corruption has become a fashionable topic in India. Starting from Anna Hazare's fast over Lokpal Bill to Baba Ramdev's anti-black money drama, anyone who's got an opinion is voicing it stridently. There's a flood of opinions in electronic media, in the papers and on the chatter of Facebook and Twitter.

But all this brouhaha is the product of an increasingly and shamelessly corrupt nation. And it would hardly result in a major change in the way politicians and bureaucrats have been looting the country.

Before giving my reasons for saying so or suggesting any semi-cooked corruption-curing recipes of my own, let me state where my loyalties lie.

I'm neither with BJP-RSS-Sangh types nor with the Congress or its multiple splinter groups, nor with any just-for-name's-sake-group on any social networking site. I am with the proverbial and much-abused common man who, while all this media circus is going on, is busy carting a back-breaking load of supplies through our ramshackle markets.

I'm with the man who is trying to survive with meager earnings from his nondescript kiosk-shop. I'm with the girl who must hurry home if she doesn't want to be raped or teased and who hasn't got a chauffeur-driven car to take her home. I'm with the homeless beggar who is being harassed by the policeman and the gangster alike. I'm with the farmer whose irrigation water is diverted to serve five-star hotels and resorts...

In fact, I'm with about 700 million poor people of India who never understood the meaning of Shining India and probably never will.

Let me take you a little back in time. I'm not sure how many of you would appreciate it, but I grew up on an ample dose of all-round prosperity shown on Krishi Darshan (a government TV program). It was also taught in school books and preached through a state-controlled media.

I was under the impression that the founding fathers of this nation had done a great job by putting together a wonderful Constitution. And by following in the footsteps of our erstwhile rulers (the British), they kept a gargantuan bureaucracy as well-oiled as you would find in a spanking factory.

How was I to know that all that oil was actually grease, exchanging millions of palms for the enrichment of their owners alone? How was I to know that while our leaders threw out the tyrant rule of the British, they wittingly or unwittingly installed a draconian regime that thrived on abusing power?

I wouldn't bore you with all the details of a newly Independent, proud India with great leaders having a great vision for our great nation. But the bottomline is this: our population control measures have failed. Our aging infrastructure (much of it bequeathed to us by the British) is deteriorating. The sub-standard products made by our 'license raj' industrialists have mostly failed to stand against global competition (do a count of how many products we buy come from China and elsewhere). Our socialistic mutlipoint programs and hare-brained schemes have failed to give social security to the poor...

The list of failures just goes on and on.

But yes, we have succeeded in creating a vicious, greedy, bloated and extremely corrupt 'governance' system. And at the tentacled head of this system sits that obsequiously dynastic, shamelessly appeasing and pathetically spineless 'grand old party' – with a foreigner madame and a stooge of a man currently at the helm.

This otherwise useless party seemed to have done a good thing when it opened up the Indian economy in the early nineties. But, alas, it all came a cropper!

While the license raj was being disbanded, a new band of robbers and looters emerged – and they were of all forms and persuasions, comprising politicians, bureaucrats, land grabbers, deal brokers, thugs and curmudgeons.

This band set out in earnest to divvy up the natural and other resources of the country. They did it largely among themselves, but threw away some bits and pieces off and on for the rising middle, lower middle, lowest middle and god-knows-how-even-lower middle classes.

Some crazy statistics were rustled up about the benefits of all this 'wealth creation' trickling down to the lowest rungs of society. Never mind that the trickle has been nothing but a stinky obnoxious drain.

If you are stats oriented, chew these: more than 75% of Indian population has a purchasing power of less than Rs20 a day. Nearly half of Indian children are malnourished. About 110 million agricultural workers found employment for only 209 days in 2004-05 compared to 220 days in 1999-2000. Around 150 of India's 607 districts are engulfed in Naxalite movement. And while the much-touted GDP growth races ahead in the 7-9% range, employment growth has been a meager 1%...

In these twenty or so years of liberalization, one of the most 'liberalized' things in India has become honesty and integrity. While the slogan of India's freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose was “Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhein azadi doonga” (You give me blood, and I'll give you freedom), the prevalent leitmotif in an increasingly corrupt India has become “Tum mujhe ghoos do, kyonki main kisi aur ko doonga!” (You better give me bribe, coz I gotta give it to somebody else.)

Mera Bharat mahaan, indeed! (My India is great.)

It is this ghooskhor or bribe-infested culture that seems to have captured the absconding imagination of a few lakh people (a handful in the colossus of India) all of a sudden.

Ask any businessman – from the local chaiwalla to the global Ambani – about the number of times they have to bribe the multiple power brokers in order to survive (in Ambani's case, thrive).

Ask the owners of the buildings in any Indian city (most of which are truly ugly and urgently in need of fresh air) whether they could have erected those eyesores without making “the authorities” turn a blind eye to their multi-storied plans?

Hell, ask yourself, would you be able to survive the daily horrors of getting a gas connection, registering a property, obtaining a government stamp of approval, securing school admission for your child and innumerable such “tasks” without paying any bribes to someone?

So, in a broader view of things, almost all of us are corrupt.

But the way in which the high and mighty are corrupt – and the way they engender this culture of corruption all around them – calls for special discussion.

Imagine a unit of society in which the head of that unit is corrupt. The unit could be a family, a resident welfare association, a local governing body, a state government or the central ruling formation. This head goes about lining their pockets at the expense of others, asks and permits others to do as they please so long as all those “involved” get their “cuts”, and generally remains unaffected by the misery of those way down below in the hierarchy. How do you think one can cure this unit of the curse of corruption?

By asking those at the bottom of the ladder to not pay bribes? By just complaining about the situation and the whole machinery? By pressing the Like button on someone's anti-corruption page?

No, dear reader, of course, not. And that's precisely what we the people of India seem to be doing. From the above example, I'm sure you would agree that the most effective way of making the unit corruption-free is to remove the head of the unit and replace him or her with an honest, caring one.

And that's where the biggest challenge for India lies. My question is, who do you install in place of the current corruption-laden ruling parties in India? Which national-level party today is without the stains of corruption?

A bigger and related question: Do we have any leader of the stature who can clear up the mess in our heritage-rich but idea-poor country? Can anyone take India to the social, economic and scientific heights achieved by the likes of US and Japan (or by its own people centuries ago)?

Is there anyone who can ensure that calling India a superpower in the making is not a laughing matter but a matter of progressive achievement? (For one, I laugh out loud at such peasant-like thinking, given the way things are going.)

Who is going to be that person? That leader?

Anna Hazare? Hmmm, perhaps, but let me think...

Sonia Gandhi? I was so happy that she refused to be Prime Minister (PM) – only to be much angry later when she installed that puppet-puppy PM...and we all know how many corruption scandals have erupted. Why, you are reading this article because of that!

LK Advani? Gadkari? Narendra Modi? No way!

Baba Ramdev? He doesn't see himself in politics – and neither do I!

Rahul Baba? He has neither the credentials nor the credibility (what he has is the Gandhi dynasty and a boatload of sycophants)...

You? Me? What are we talking about!

Alas, my dear reader, no one. To my eyes, there is NOT A SINGLE human being (as far as that weary eye can see) with the moral courage, impeccable integrity, caring humanity and a wide support base who can lift India out of the abyss of corruption and then take it to the greatness we are so fond of remembering.

And so? So we keep on trying (or pretend to), while the millions keep on dying. Sorry, CK Prahalad, despite your philanthropic economic advice, when it comes to India, there's only misfortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

Six Effective Ways to Relax Your Mind

2011-04-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Are you finding it difficult to ease life's chaotic pressures on your mind? Take a deep breath and just follow these six steps to a soothing mental symphony

We live in a noisy, chaotic world. Many might argue that it's always been like this. Maybe. Perhaps we had the same basic notions of cacophony eons ago. But the prism of modern development has magnified the human noises to an unbearable extent.

The result: even when we shut ourselves indoors, far away from the madding crowd, we can still hear the echoes of that clamor in our mind. Echoes that refuse to go away. Echoes that cling to a mind desperately wanting to relax. Echoes that impede or interfere with the body’s natural tendency to remain in an easy, happy existence.

Tell me frankly, haven’t you been in situations when – even after you lie down – your mind continues to overflow with thoughts of care, worries of yesterdays, and noises from the daily rumble around you?

The dictum “A healthy mind in a healthy body” holds true in its inverse form as well. If you keep your mind in a poised, relaxed state, you are more likely to have a physically fit body. As modern research in psychosomatic medicine suggests, the condition of the mind directly or indirectly affects the body’s wellbeing.

So, how can you detox your mind? How can you drive out stress, commotion, conflicts and other detritus from the daily life and invite in a gentle sense of calmness and poise? Can you do it without retreating to a remote, secluded (and often, expensive) resort or spa? Hell, can you do it in your existing routine?

Don't try and raise hell. Try, instead, these simple tips for giving your mind the peace it's been asking for.

Finish what you start: The mind is like a non-stop factory in which our words and thoughts are either woven into new fabric to clothe our personas or taken apart to be deposited on a growing pile of rags and tatters. Often, there are many unfinished strands that just lie about frayed in our mind, without finding their perfect-knit. A growing list of incomplete things can make you feel miserable and wanting. So go back to your to-do lists and keep them to a manageable minimum. If you know you can only do ten things rather than twenty-three, leave the unwanted thirteen out.

Make only the commitments you can keep: A businessman once gave this advice when starting up his son: “My son, never break a promise; but then, never make a promise!” Well, you’ll have to make commitments in your daily life: just be sure to make only those that you can keep. If you are firm in accepting only what you can do now, it will save you from the gnawing feelings of failed commitments later.

Exercise focused concentration: According to mind-training experts, one must pursue what one wants to achieve with “focused concentration.” Through constant practice, one can indeed train one’s mind to think about one thing at a time. This is what most meditative techniques also suggest: focusing the mind on one shape, sound, color, or any other object. The idea is to constantly train the mind on the job at hand. After sufficient practice, this ‘training’ should cease to be an effort and become second nature to you.

Forsake your regrets: We often don’t realize it, but we routinely carry a scary load of regrets at the back of our minds. If only we could do this! If only we had seen that coming! Our laundry list of regrets keeps getting longer and longer – without ever getting ample washing. Unbuckle your past lamentations and let them rinse down your memory drain one by one – and you’ll feel the same lightness and crispness that you do when you put on a freshly washed and sunned piece of garment.

Practice doing nothing: It is usually said that “an empty mind is the Devil’s workshop.” However, there’s an art to emptying the mind that yogis, rishis and monks have been practicing and preaching over the ages. An art that, instead of making your mind a playground for Satan, can make it a blessed abode of the gods.

Think about it: we are infused with a lifestyle that requires us to be always doing something or the other. If we were really programmed that way, there would be no need for sleep, isn't it? By doing nothing, however, I don’t mean sitting idle or staring at the idiot box. What I mean is being free of your troubling, trivial and compulsive thoughts.

Choose a moment and place when you are just by yourself. Take a posture in which you are comfortable and let the whole world pass by you as if you were a spectator serenely yet effortlessly watching life’s little episodes. In such a state of nothingness, you can often feel the goddess of peace whispering gently in your mind.

Curb your craves: This one is not easy, especially because most people live to have more, get more or possess more. But if you can reduce the number of things you depend on or cut down your list of must-haves, you’ll also reduce the burden of relentlessly going after them. Pursue your ambitions or follow your dreams by all means, but don’t let them become your daily pester points. Set out to achieve big things that matter to you, but try and shun mere objects of desire that you constantly crave. Like I said, it’s a bit difficult to achieve this balance between worthy objectives and petty longings – but it’s far from impossible. And indeed very tranquilizing. Just ask your mind.

5 Mistakes PR Pros Must Avoid but Often Don't

2011-03-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder why your communication wasn't well-received in the media? It might have misfired because you failed to avoid one of these traps

Public relations is a tricky, often thankless business. While the tricky part is acknowledged by the PR pros, it is the journalists who often bring in thanklessness (add ungrateful clients, too).

But it's a business – and a lucrative one at that, all right. So it wouldn't hurt to go through some tips that might help.

In communication schools or on-the-job, most PR executives learn the common tricks of their trade: treat clients (and journalists) with respect, always spell-check your releases (do you?), and yes, don't forget to bill clients for the out-of-pocket expenses.

Yet, there are also some no-nos that a seasoned PR exec should avoid under most circumstances. Unfortunately, in the hurly-burly world of 'mass' communication, things are prone to turn out into 'mess' communication. That's why it's important for a PR pro to keep in mind these five don'ts when communicating with journalists:

Long-winding story pitches: In the course of writing their stories, journalists often go through a lot of background and research material. But they would rather look at a lot of text about a story they have chosen to do than read paras upon paras intended to give them a story idea. So keep your pitch mailers or calls short and sweet. If the journo likes it, they'll jump at it anyway. But if it doesn't cut ice in the first couple of sentences, don't bore him with dense details, please.

Mixing up similar media: The media scene today is crowded. But that's no excuse for calling up a journalist and mixing up the name of their media house or publication with another one – which, annoyingly, usually happens to be a key rival. Get the journo's name, their paper's name and, if necessary, the name of their dog right. Names are important, very important (as you sometimes might have realized when your client's name appeared misspelled in the headline!)

Corralling journalists for a conference: “You must come.” “Please, it's the most important event for our client!” “The client is holding this PC (press conference) after a gap of two years.”

Understood. Your client and their conference is all-important to you. But unless you can find something of relevance to the journalist in question, it's not good practice to request-force them into attending the event. Even if you send the cab. In any case, most communication today happens on the phone or over email, and journalists (especially experienced ones) usually attend only the really significant conferences or those where they expect to network with lots of friends or industry execs.

Following up too much: If not following up at all is a disaster, pestering the journalist with too many calls for a press release or a story is anathema. Too much aggression can perhaps get you in the first time, but the media will be alerted to your tactics sooner rather than later. And then? Then they'll avoid you like a diabetic shuns sugar. So learn to strike a balance in how much you follow up.

Hiding the negative: Thanks to the Internet, it's not that difficult to discover skeletons in a company's cupboard (and these days there are many). Then there are journalists' contacts and other 'sources.' So if you happen to know that a journalist has gotten wind of something fishy or negative about your client, try to illuminate it in the light that your client wants to. Trying to hide it or cover it up with fluff usually makes the journalist more dogged in their pursuit – and, of course, leaves a worse impression than they started off with.

Needless to say, these aren't the only don'ts. For instance, you shouldn't miss a journalist's story deadline if you want to ensure that your client's inputs are taken or their name mentioned where it matters. But the above are points that keep recurring in PR-media communication and that often harm your efforts behind-the-scenes rather than upfront. For want of caution, don't let your key messages go wasted.

Excuse Me, an iPad for You? No, Thanks!

2011-02-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

In spite of being labeled as the fastest selling gadget, the iPad is doomed to fail in India. The reason? The dynamics of the Indian market are completely different.

Apple Computer has always regarded the Indian market as the boondocks, keeping its presence in the country very limited and launching many of its products late into the country's ultra price-sensitive market. The most recent example: the iPad, which was launched here almost 10 months after its US debut.

Not that the company is entirely wrong in its thinking. Only 10 million PCs are estimated to be sold a year in a country of 1.1 billion – whereas this figure is over 70 million for US, whose population is about 300 million.

But that's only the macro picture. When you look at the details of how and why most consumers buy computing devices in India, the case for a product like the iPad becomes clear. Whether it's a desktop, a laptop, netbook, or, ahem, a tablet, Indians go shopping for computers mainly for two reasons: office work or children's education. And the majority of them look for the cheapest options on the market.

So when you drill down to the lowly category of tablet computers, all the thrill and whistles are confined to a few thousand people – including geeks, aficionados, analysts and media. They may chorus excitement and wonder in an echo of the US market, but the realities in India are totally different. But even they would prefer a sleek notebook (even netbook) or go for a smartphone rather than loosen their purse strings for something that is neither a full-fledged computer nor a handy smartphone.

Consider this. When a product like the iPad is launched in the mature and advanced markets like the US or Japan, people queue up outside hundreds of retail stores even before the doors open. Here in India, if you go to a handful of Apple stores that exist (only in the big metros), they mostly maintain a bare, clean look. And the few curious visitors who do enter the stores come out rather quickly, usually empty-handed.

So the iPad might have sold in millions in USA and Japan, in India the sales number over the next one year is bound to be in single-digit thousands or even just a few hundreds. Some market estimates put the total number of iPads in the hands of Indians thus far - including gray market sales, online purchases and those brought from abroad – at 40,000. But even this number seems suspect on the higher side.

One might argue that the starting price tag of about Rs28,000 isn't that high. (To give you an idea of the priciness of Apple products, an entry-level Mac starts around Rs60,000 whereas one can get a high-end custom-built or branded PC for less than Rs40,000. The iPad range is priced up to Rs45,000 in three versions.)

However, for a product like the iPad – and there's a debate about what animal exactly the iPad is – it is not just the price that will act as a stumbling block. There just isn't enough traction for it in India.

In developed countries where iPads are selling like crazy, consumers are used to a rich online web experience. This includes putting up lots of pictures and videos online, listening to music and podcasts, even reading books and periodicals (remember Kindle?). There's a large consumer base and widespread and easy availability of high-speed connectivity, applications and quality content.

India, in contrast, is a country where all this enabling infrastructure is missing. We are still arguing about 2G licensing irregularities while the world is moving on to 4G. Here, the average time spent online is among the lowest. And the 30-million-odd Internet users who do go online mostly surf job sites, buy travel tickets or send/receive emails. A few thousand do hang around on Facebook, Orkut or LinkedIn, but so what? They just hang around most of the time.

None of these constituents of the Indian cyberworld would need an iPad. Not in the short term at least.

Some reviewers and analysts are urging consumers in India to hold their iPad purchases until iPad 2 is unveiled. My response to them: don't bother, guys. They wouldn't buy iPad 1. They wouldn't buy iPad 2.

Why Reading Your Horoscope Doesn't Help

2011-01-24T01:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, first the facts: millions of people around the world spend a fortune on knowing about their future. And what they spend is not just money but invaluable time when they read predictions of all kinds in a variety of media.

But do they get their money and time's worth when they rely on a motley bunch of people who know zilch about them? Palmists, numerologists, tarot readers, and others who use all sorts of animals from parrots to Pomeranians. Can there be some truth in what they churn out?

If you really ask me, horoscopes suck. Especially the daily horoscopes appearing in newspapers, magazines and websites. And they suck big time. Here's why.

If you look carefully, most predictions are vague and based on common sense. They could have come from anyone with half a brain. Sample this prophecy I picked from a popular website: “Your curiosity is running on high, and you just won’t stand for anything less than the entire truth, no matter what question you ask. Your antennae will tell you whether it’s an honest answer.”

Well, my antennae tell me that not many people would admit that they'll “stand for less than the entire truth.” Needless to say, such a cloudy bit of mumbo jumbo would put me off rather than bolster my confidence – and boosting their self-assurance is what many horoscope readers look for.

Here’s another specimen from the Sunday edition of a paper: “You suffer a great deal because of others’ wrongdoing. Maybe it’s time you stopped others from taking you for granted. Just be more assertive and you’ll find all the happiness you deserve.”

Wow! Reading these lines, our bleary-eyed reader is sure to scream with self-pitying joy: “I told you so. See, it’s all their fault!” The advice may not turn our feeble fella into a bold brat, but it can perhaps make them feel a bit over the top.

Again, I'm not sure of the usefulness of the proffered suggestion. Tell me honestly, who benefits from being over-emotional in this day and age?

Wait, there’s more stuff coming up. This one was buried inside an old stack of newspapers. And it caught my eye when I was looking for something else. (Isn’t that how you find anything these days?)

It goes like this: “Your stars are shining bright and mighty. Just the perfect time to make that critical move you have been waiting for all your life. Lucky numbers 1, 3 and 7; favorable colors Blue and Orange.”

Oh, really? You mean, if I wear a blue shirt to office today, I can tell my boss to take a walk? Or if I pick a lottery ticket with these three digits in it, I’ll become an instant millionaire? Aw, c'mon dude, stop kidding me. If it were that simple, we would all be enjoying pina coladas on a sunny beach doing nothing but reading horoscopes.

Now, tell me, do you still want to know what the stars say about you?

Why Companies Like Infosys Consistently Fail

2011-01-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

Far from making it a software superpower, Indian technology firms seem to be struggling to remain relevant in the global market. The financial results of Infosys are just one indication. Here's why.

Once again, the financial results of the so-called Indian tech bellwether Infosys have disappointed – but there are much bigger concerns for its future.

In its recently declared results for the third quarter of 2010, Infosys made net income of $397 million on revenues of $1.58 billion for Q3 2010. This represents a year-on-year (YOY) growth of 28.7% in revenues and 18.9% in net income.

Despite growth in the numbers, shares of the company fell on both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) on the news, mainly because analysts expected still better numbers. The company's less-than-encouraging future outlook did little to help matters.

This is a story that keeps repeating in the media – with slight variations – each quarter when the big daddies of Indian tech industry (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL and a couple others) declare financial results.

In most cases, analyst expectations are either barely met or missed by single-digit percentage points. Likewise, the stock of the company goes up or down a little – sometimes taking the BSE Sensex (sensitive index) down as well.

While this little see-saw of results keeps anaylsts and media busy, few are asking the bigger questions that face the future of Indian software industry as a whole. How long can the likes of Infosys, TCS and Wipro grow linearly on the basis of hiring more code-writers?

Can they make the next big leap from $4-5 billion companies they are today to $50 billion or $100 billion global corporations in the foreseeable future?

Can they rise significantly above their current minuscule share of 0.6% in the nearly $780 billion worldwide tech services market?

And most importantly, can their existing business models remain relevant in a world where sea changes are happening in the way consumers buy products, including software and applications? (Think of the app stores for anything from iPhones and iPads to Android-based smartphones.)

For decades, companies like Infosys have spawned an army of low-level software programmers, plunging them into projects for maintaining applications, providing technical support, managing systems, etc. Such work usually comes from big global corporations in various industry segments, who bought expensive hardware and software from companies that had the intellectual property (IBM, Oracle, SAP et al) and then began seeking cost reduction in maintaining or upgrading these systems.

Indian firms like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL and multinationals such as IBM and Accenture have been competing to get these tech projects, with Indian companies usually quoting lower and lower prices they charge clients on an hourly basis (now with large developer bases in India, MNCs can do that, too). Already, such rates seem to have hit rock bottom (around $10-15 per hour) and many Indian firms have increasingly focused on BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) for additional growth.

But again with BPO, the business model has been 'more bodies on the job for more projects'. And even in BPO, there has been a race to the bottom as far as pricing is concerned.

This is not the first time Indian firms are being criticized for their lack of vision and daring. But they have responded to such criticim with intermittent, half-hearted attempts like trying to 'move up the value chain in consulting' and developing or monetizing branded products. And they have consistently failed in achieving any speakable amount of success in anything other than hiring more people or spreading into more locations.

To be fair, Indian tech industry has given a new recognition to the country of snake charmers and roadside bovinity. But its success has been only modest, to be polite. While many in the industry and media gave India the moniker of a 'software superpower', advanced economies such as US, Germany and Japan have tech behemoths whose turnover still far exceeds the scrapings of the whole Indian tech industry.

So, it is this failure to grow beyond their existing business models and become world-class global corporations that should be more worrying for Indian technology firms than short-term needs to meet analyst expectations. Unfortunately, keeping shareholders happy and stock price afloat is where they spend their time and energy – instead of developing something that creates higher and lasting value.

It is well known that most top tech companies in India are awash with funds and have ample human resources (the biggies employ 100,000-plus people). But they like to keep the cash in banks or use it for things like hedging on currency fluctuations. Likewise, they keep their armies of techies happy with flashy campuses and infrastructure. But they do little to ingite any sparks of creativity in their people so that they could come up with the next Facebook or Zynga.

As I said before, that's where the likes of Infosys have consistently failed.

How long can they keep failing like this?

Happening New Yeahhh

2011-01-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

Time did not exist, but we invented it. We sliced and diced it as we wanted, adding a week here or a month there, to suit the calendar of our life.

It's curious that at the end of each year – not month, week, or day – we engage in a wishing war. Shooting off last minute SMSes or making turn-of-the-midnight phone calls in order to perch ourselves in the moments between the passing of the last year and the emergence of the new. Goodbye Old. Hello New.

I, too, do all of that. But I also like to take the opportunity that comes at the end of 365 days (sometimes after 366 days, for the mathematically minded) to turn my gaze inward. To think back, to reflect, to pause for a moment at the absurdities and profundities that went through the cauldron of my mind.

And if people share all those goodie goodie wishes, why not spill out some thoughts that indeed make us who we are? And that prod us to become what we want to be?

Please feel free to share anything you like or dislike below. Just don't forget to attribute the quote to me :)

Best wishes, then. Here you go:

Time flies
But tomorrow never dies;
It merely frolics in the lap of eternity,
Unfettered in the boundless skies...

* So many of us want to live the good life. But so few are willing to do good.

* Looking at the mess around us, we can now divide society into just one class - the Muddle Class.

* To avoid the coma of its aroma, give a bigger pause; use semi-cologne!

* The mere thought of children puts a smile on my face, a song in my heart and a supreme sense of blessedness in my soul.

* Being lost in time is often the only way to find our space.

* We often forget that being connected is more about listening than talking.

* For the rich the world is not enough; the poor don't know what is enough.

##
The child inside man never dies;
Only, more and more silent grow her cries
Of joy, of pain, of wonders infinite...
Ah, won't we be child again if time'd permit?
##

* We keep thinking of doing so much, without even taking the first step; all the same, we keep doing stuff we barely pause to think about. This mismatch between thoughts and actions is one of the key disconnects in the world today, isn't it?

* Life = death = life. . . Death is an interregnum; life, a continuum

* Inside God's mind at each apocalyptic moment: Aw shucks! I got it wrong once more. Now I have to start all over again. . .

* To cry sincerely is as important as to laugh freely. Perhaps more...

* In India you don't Do the Dew, you don't Do the New – you only Do the Queue...long, long queue.

* Difference between vampires and politicians? Vampires stop sucking after the victim is dead.

* For some dull people there's never a bulb moment.

* If God did play dice and won, would it be by chance?

* Kindness of the heart is in direct proportion to broadness of the mind.

* Truth can have many versions but it has only one character.

* I'm necessary but not sufficient: if I were not necessary, I'd not have been born; and if I were sufficient, I'd have been dead.

* We can wander much farther in our mind than we can in the physical universe.

* Man tends to be absent-minder; God, absent-bodied.

* Potential is not what you can do as a matter of routine; it is what you can achieve at the extreme edge of your abilities.

* Part of a writer's job is to reflect the true image of society. And do it with as little distortion as possible.

* The problem is neither with us nor with the world; it's always with the relationship between the two.

* Understanding comes with Dime – lots ov 'em! (with undue apologies to Time magazine)

* Too many meetings makes it discuss-ting!

* Flyovers in Delhi seem to have become Cryovers!

* It is not the truth that is ugly; it is our reluctance to face it.

* “Kentucky!” Cried Chicken. Or so it seemed. What the bird actually shouted before it was killed: “Can't-Take-It!”

* As long as there's possibility that the poorest man alive can be happier than the richest one kicking, there is hope.

* What do you call a complete ass? The Ass Whole.

* Not a fable: The Thirsty Grow.

* It is irrelevant whether the world was built bit by bit or all at once; the main thing is, it was built.

-0-

Why Green is More about Habit than Tech

2010-10-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

There is an abundance of literature on what constitutes green technology and how manufacturers and consumers can adopt cleaner, greener alternatives to power-guzzling products.

So, for a change I will not talk about ‘green technologies’ here.

On the contrary, I’m going to talk about things that may not sit well with how the entire ecosystem of industry and consumers operates in a fast-globalizing – but hot and crowded – world.

In the current scheme of things, manufacturers-sellers talk about faster times to market, constant product upgrades and creation of new niches or segments. Consumers, armed with all the new wealth being generated (especially in the developing world), are ‘going shopping’ with a vengeance. The result: an ongoing, accelerating cycle of ‘buy more, sell more, buy some more, and throw away a lot’.

I remember growing up as a typical middle-class child in pre-liberalized India. There wasn’t much to buy in the first place. We didn’t have large disposable incomes to splurge. And we were happy with what we could get, use and, more importantly, reuse. Books and clothes were handed down from older children to the younger ones. Fridges, TVs and other contraptions used to last generations. And there were few unnecessary gewgaws around us.

Today people buy ‘all kinds of stuff’. In all kinds of places. At all kinds of prices. For all kinds of purposes. And quite often, for no purpose at all – they grab it just on a whim or because it was on sale or because they couldn’t say no to the salesperson. The reason is not important – not in an alarming number of cases.

And what happens to the ‘stuff’ that is bought? It’s hardly used. Or goes phut all too soon. Or becomes out-of-fashion or obsolete. Or makes you feel bored with it because there’s a spanking new one on the market. Ultimately, much of the stuff is thrown away prematurely, remains underused or was never needed in the first place!

Like I said before, all this will not easily go down the gullets of marketers, salesmen and consumers determined to, well, promote sales and consumption. Their obvious objection: What happens to the industry’s growth and consumers’ prosperity? What happens to G-D-P? (I don’t know; something happening to GDP is important but so is something happening to the environment. Perhaps more.)

In my opinion, green is more about habit than technology. The habit of producing goods that last longer. The habit of selling customers what they really need. The habit of optimally ‘consuming’ things and not throwing them away or refusing to get them repaired and extend their life.

For the sake of the environment and our future generations and their secured well-being, are we prepared to change our habits to green? GDP and technology will follow.

An Encounter with a Polar Bearer

2010-08-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

No, there’s no spelling mistake in the headline and I’m not going to talk about any chance sighting of the great white beautiful resident of Arctic regions. (Given that chance, however, I would talk about it, too.)

This is a post about a man, his childhood dream, his perseverance to realize it and, finally, his global mission to keep one of the world’s biggest and remotest pieces of wilderness, Antarctica, out of the clutches of the wildest and weirdest of species – homo sapiens.

When Robert Swan was 11 years old, he saw a video about Antarctica. From then on, he knew he had to go see it – no matter what. Around the age of 22, he began raising money for his trip ($5 million to be precise), thinking it would take two, maybe three, months to do so. He was quite confident of his abilities of persuasion. And persuade he did, but it took him a little longer than he had imagined – seven full years. During this time, recalls Swan, he even drove a taxi to support himself and often got laughed at for his crazy ideas. But never once did he let go of his childhood dream.

Swan was in Delhi recently to address a motley audience gathered for a talk organized by 9.9 Media. The rather smallish room was bustling with people who had come to listen to Robert Swan. And the big draw? Not that he’s decorated with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) but the fact that he is the first person in history to walk to both the North and South poles.

As Swan began his story with impeccable humor, masterful narration and exemplary humility, the audience was all ears. There was a sense of adventure and achievement in the air, even though listening to the tale about walking the white wilderness in an air-conditioned hall was no match to actually doing it in extreme subzero temperatures while lugging hundreds of pounds of survival supplies.

It was in 1984 that Swan embarked on his first polar expedition, titled ‘In the Footsteps of Scott’, to the South Pole. (The title is in honor of Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions.) He and two fellow travelers, Roger Mear and Gareth Wood, completed the first ‘unassisted’ 900-mile walk (without any dogs, radios or other means of communication) to the South Pole on January 11, 1986.

Ever since, not only has Swan undertaken several expeditions to both the poles but also managed to evolve his childhood dream into a noble mission – and, in the process, inspire and motivate business folk, corporations, young people and anyone who would care to save what Swan calls ‘the last remaining piece of wilderness that nobody owns,’ the Antarctica.

He knew he just had to do something about the polar regions when, walking to the North pole, the color of his eyes changed and the skin began to peel off his face – thanks to a hole in the Ozone under which Swan and his team happened to walk for several days. Swan learnt of the reason for his condition when he came back, and decided he must spread awareness about ‘climate change’ (his preferred term to ‘global warming’, which he says tends to confuse people).

Initially, Swan talked to people about the effects of climate change but it did not receive the attention he had expected. “People don’t accept or appreciate negativity easily and are often turned off by alarmist talk,” he says. So he started lecturing on team-building, motivation, success and other positive aspects of his journeys. And the results, too, were positive, as more and more people came forward to help his larger goal of saving Antarctica and attracting investment in clean, green technologies.

Toward the end of his talk, Swan flashes a number before the audience: 2041. Besides being the name of his company and the address of his website (www.2041.com), 2041 is the year when the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty expires. As per this treaty, no mining is allowed on Antarctica. But come this year and things could change.

It is the mission of 2041 and Robert Swan that things change for the better and Antarctica remains what it is – pristine, unexploited, unowned, unfought-over-for by corporate or political squatters-spoilers…

I do hope this mission is achieved much before the deadline and, for once at least, ‘our story’ – as Swan calls the whole enterprise – has a happy never-ending.

The India of My Screams

2010-08-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was looking for something to write on India's Independence Day today, when this idea just struck me...

In many schools in India students are often asked to write an essay on 'The India of My Dreams.' Having done my own share of such juvenile writing in school days, I just thought it might be time for me to put out a little writeup with a slightly twisted but perhaps more realistic title, 'The India of My Screams.' So here it goes...

We used to be a sort of sleeping giant before liberalization began in the early nineties. But ever since we've 'woken up,' we don't seem to stop screaming - for one reason or the other.

First of all, none of our geriatric leaders had the vision about how to really go about liberalizing a country as vast as ours - so they took a patchwork approach to it, doing a little here or a little there, but never enough anywhere! And I feel sorry to say that even to this day, we don't have a single leader who can pull the country out of the morass it is in (And even if there were, he or she would find it difficult to steer things their own way in the midst of coalition politics).

So while the incumbent Congress government won on the promise of doing something for the aam admi (common man), nobody knows what it is they've done. And the common man? He's screaming to be heard against rising cost of basic necessities.

Our infrastructure - be it roads, power, water, electricity or sewage - is screaming, creaking and, as we've seen during recent rains in Delhi, weeping too. We have made it a fine art of always allowing infrastructure to lag behind current needs. Lag not in number of months or a couple of years, but lag in decades - perhaps centuries! Has any of our rulers heard of the term 'town planning'? I seriously doubt it. Have they wondered at the mess they have been able to create in and around what many call the Millennium City (Gurgaon)? I have. At least one person wouldn't be complaining (Mr KP Singh of DLF, the biggest builder in the area and the country as well)! The so-called builders of modern India have 'malled' our cities but, in the process, also 'mauled' its infrastructure, the environment and, often, the local inhabitants and the underprivileged...

Our people, especially those ensconced in cars, keep on screaming, too, and they often use the machines they sit inside for several hours each day for screaming. It's called honking and it's a favorite pastime of drivers in most places in India. Never mind that the guy ahead of you is not in a position to move in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, let's honk! Or so goes the popular mood amongst motorati.

Even within the malls, people just cannot help screaming. On most Saturdays and Sundays, they shout their throats hoarse, trying to catch the attention of the cashier at the food court. Then they go to each 'cuisine' counter (the cuisine often being industrially made formula food) and again scream to be heard and served. When they have had 'a good time' hopping from counter to counter for food and are ready to head home, there's a long line of vehicles waiting impatiently to get out of the mall's cavernous clutches and onto the crowded roads. Of course, there's plenty of scope and opportunity for honking and screaming, and most people find it hard to give it a miss.

The situation is no better for those who don't - rather, cannot - go to the malls. They often wait in queues for the water tankers to come. Meanwhile, they scream at each other for breaking the queue or putting two buckets instead of one in their 'occupied' position. On other occasions, they gherao (surround a place for a demonstration) the local power distribution center, demanding that they have had enough going without electricity for the past 10 or 15 hours. There is a lot of screaming going on here, too...

That's not to say that our leaders and rulers are immune to shouting and screaming. But they are much used to it - there's so much screaming and blaming going on in the Parliament and in state legislative assemblies that nobody notices any longer. Many of our leaders are often seen sleeping or snoring amid all this din - most probably dreaming of their multi-million dollars stashed away in Swiss accounts. After all, foreign education of kids, separate lucrative businesses for kith and kin, and other desirables in life come for a cost - and a lot of screaming, apparently...

Mera Bharat Mahaan! (it's a customary salutation in India to show respect and appreciation for your country - the countrymen be damned!)

Punishing the Powerful

2010-06-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Just read a news item about a "sitting MLA" getting jail for committing murder during riots in Kandhamal in Orissa. The report says he has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a fast-track court.

This is a rare type of news, especially in a corruption-infested country like India, where justice is not only routinely delayed (Bhopal gas leak is a case in point), it is in such a shambles that the corrupt and the powerful are actually 'encouraged' to perpetrate more crimes and excesses.

It made me wonder: what would happen to India's polity if there were a way to accentuate such 'fast-track' courts and punishing verdicts against the high and mighty? It will be nothing short of an all-body cleanser, a transformation of sorts, a miracle...alas, miracles seem to happen only in the movies!

Going to the Wash Room? Be Warned!

2010-05-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

I don’t know who said it, but I kind of agreed: India is a vast latrine. Everywhere you see across the nation, there are people relieving themselves in open spaces, on railway tracks, at the boundary walls of ill-lit bungalows, near drains on the roadside or just about anywhere they feel they must go.

Of late, however, there has been a shift in the way Indians, especially urban, well-to-do Indians, obey the call of nature when not at home. Thanks to a growing number of restaurants, malls, multiplexes and other concrete contraptions where you can now find toilets, people finally have alternatives to open spaces. In fact, sometimes, it seems too good to be true. Toilets in public places? For Indians?? Wow!!!

But when I look at how the toilets are constructed, and how they are maintained and serviced, the wow factor goes down the flush. Let me give you some examples.

There’s this restaurant I went to one of those weekends when you go to a restaurant to eat out. After a while, I felt the urge to pee and went in search of the rest room. Now, this was a fairly upmarket restaurant with upper-class clientele. But look at their toilet! Soon as I pushed open the door, the commode blocked it from opening fully. One way to get inside the toilet was to clamber onto the pot – there was no space around the pot – and shut the half-open door right back. But there were two dangers in doing so: one, I could be seen in this funny position; two, I could break a bone if I slipped. Neither option appealed to me. So what I did instead was slightly open the door just so to squeeze behind it beside the wall, and then close the door from this spy-like position. I did what I had to do and hurriedly maneuvered my way back out.

Why is it so hard to find a decent sized and utilitarian rest room when you are away from home in India?

Consider another wash room, this one at a spanking new mall. They had done up the toilet nicely, with starry floors and expensive-looking bath fittings – only, they didn’t know how to fit them. Take the faucet of the wash basin, for instance. The curvature of the faucet was so elongated that it jabbed into my face as I lowered it down for washing. “Why can’t they keep things simple if they don’t know how to do it?” I remember cursing under my breath while rubbing my bruised nose.

Another time, as I used the loo at a multiplex, I found that there was no waste bin kept for the toilet paper. Had the builders resigned themselves to the fact that most Indians don’t use the bins anyway and flush the toilet paper down the drain (often clogging it)? And the spray tap they did provide was indeed weird. Because when I pressed the tap, water came out with such formidable force that I nearly drenched myself in the squirt. By the time I trained myself to use the tap with considerable self-control, I was already looking like I had performed the miracle of getting wet in the rain inside an enclosed loo.

The rest rooms are supposed to be places where people can relieve themselves comfortably. What we normally get, alas, are ill-conceived pissing holes.

But part of the blame for the sorry state of affairs should go to the toilet users as well. We Indians don’t really know how to behave ourselves in public places, even if those places are as private as toilets. So maybe the builders and restaurant owners try to beat us at our own habits. I remember seeing this notice next to a soap dispenser in a restaurant toilet: 'Push once gently for enough soap.'

“What a cleverly contrived message,” I thought. In one go, it communicated to people about two of their nasty habits: of pounding too much on the push button and of making a mountain of soap on their palms. I have seen many soap-starved chappies collect more than their fair share of soap. Enough soap, in fact, to make do for a whole bath. Not that I ever saw anyone take a bath at the wash basin, but you never know what can happen in the world’s largest democracy! Anyway, I have witnessed far too many people supply themselves with ample soap – and then wash it off their face vigorously by spreading their personal wetness around. One of my most pressing thoughts at such moments: Get out fast.

One novelty that seems to have emerged as a result of toilet users’ nasty habits is the push-type water tap that spits out water for a split-second - often making you wonder if it was indeed water or a bolt of lightning that kissed your hands. You have to push the darned thing several times if you are really serious about achieving any washing. On second thoughts, it gives you an opportunity to exercise your muscles. But should you be doing so in the wash room? I doubt it. Useful tip: if you do not want to die of irritation at pushing the tap two hundred and forty three times, keep one hand constantly pressed on the tap and do your business with the other one.

Nothing beats the stupid infrared, however, when it comes to inducing irritability in the rest room. I’m sure most of you would’ve noticed infrared-activated flush systems installed in several places. The moment you walk close to the urinal (this one is for men specifically, and I don’t know how or if it works for women), the sensor gets activated in a hurry. Before you know it, water from the flush pipe, which is often funnily positioned and perforated, sprinkles onto your clothes in addition to spurting down the ceramic wall of the urinal. It looks as if the system is peeing at you before you get to pee into the system. This problem is so severe that very few automated flush systems ‘get it right’ – causing me to develop extreme anxiety each time I approach one.

It’s going to take a little while before I either become tolerant of toilets or there’s some sort of revolutionary change in the way toilet makers make toilets and the way people use them. Until then, going to the loo is certainly going to be a pee-vish thing. Hey, can you stop splashing it around, please!

Some Old Thoughts on The New Year...

2010-01-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

For many, each New Year is a time for resolutions. I have often made such resolutions - and usually broken them (just like most others)...

This year, I'm doing something different. I'm just going to reflect on some of the thoughts and 'bulbs' that flashed somewhere in my grandest personal 'home theater', one that needs no electricity but displays the highest-definition results (you guessed it right, I'm talking about the mind). Some of you would've already seen these as Facebook posts, but hey, in a world of retweets, ain't I entitled to some rethweets :)

Without much voodoo, here you go:

* Your own heart and mind is the best place to escape the wretchedness of the world.

* Love and hate have remained constant since the time of Adam & Eve - 50:50.

* If we truly try to be sincere to ourselves, there'll be no need to feign sincerity toward others.

* There's so much heartburn in the world, it's causing global warming.

* Wanderlust often leads to wander*lost* but that doesn't mean we should stop exploring - only that we should be aware of where we are going.

* The world is full of a**holes - but that's no reason why you should be one...

* As long as children have the ability to love unconditionally - no matter how much the grown-ups tamper with that - there's hope for all of us.

* The future shocks us, because we spend too much time reconciling our present to our past.

* An evolved person is not necessarily one with a refined palate, but essentially one with an exalted mind.

* Regrets are nothing but detritus of past actions that keep floating in our mind until we forgive ourselves.

* A heavy heart is worse than a heavy mind.

* A lot of politicians call themselves public servants. They are right - with a stinging twist: Public Serpents.

* The distance between despair and hope can be a leap of faith or a chasm of doubt.

* The mind is the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And the rainbow itself is the bridge - invisible but perceptible - from the heart to the mind.

* The way a child touches you - physically, emotionally and spiritually - nothing else possibly can. . . Is there anyone who still thinks angels don't exist?

* Music is the vacuum cleaner that smoothes out the cobwebs of tangled thoughts from the remotest corners of our mind.

* What we do not do often reveals more about us than what we end up doing.

* Do not give me wisdom at the cost of kindness.

* In many places in India paperless office is dead; paper mess office, however, is still alive - and kicking you where it hurts most!

* Don't mortgage your present to your past - the future has no interest in it.

* The burden of the lies we speak is nothing compared to the burden of the ones we live...

* The day I stop doing any of these three L's - Learning, Laughing and Loving - will be the day I stop Living. . .

* There are only two things that really matter in life - unfortunately, nobody knows what they are!

* How to get more time, you ask?? Stop killing it!

* No matter where we are, most of us tend to think we should be somewhere else!

* Diwali is not so much about setting fire to crackers as it is about lighting up your inner selves with the spirit of celebration - of joy over sadness, of good over evil, of friendship over enmity, of love over hatred...

* Dieting tip: don't lose steam; lose cream!

* It takes a little time to realize that mathematics is the science closest to God. Thankfully, you don't have to be an Einstein to say this.

* No matter how much we know, there'll always be more to know than we do.

* Theory of relativity: what's "austere" for a few is simplicity for some, necessity for many and, unfortunately, luxury for many many more...

* What Obama probably said (or should've said) to General Motors: "I know what you did last Hummer!"

* The world is a stage and we are all puppets - but some of us do try to pull our own strings...

Let's continue to hope that the drama played out in the global theater becomes more interesting than ever in what can be construed as the year of Vision Perfect: 20-10

Happy New Year...

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

2009-10-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

On Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary today, I'm reminded of a powerful message that used to play on TV a few years back. For effect, it was preceded by a quick sketch-squiggle that people could easily identify as the man most credited with handing India its independence from British rule. The message read: "The greatness of this man was his simplicity. Let's discover Gandhi in ourselves."

I had read Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, in my teen years and was greatly influenced by its honesty and power (not the power that corrupts but one that uplifts and strengthens).

Then more recently a few years back, I watched Lage Raho Munnabhai and, despite all the criticism of trivialization and other shortcomings of the movie, really appreciated the passion and skill of those who made the film (it was produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani). It really got Gandhi's messages of non-violence and truth across to today's youth, most of whom are now engaged in the blind pursuit of money, sex and power.

Today morning I read a small report in Hindustan Times that talks about a village in Orissa called Panimora. It says that once the village was a birthplace of freedom fighters and has been a follower of Gandhi's tenets. But its model of autonomous development is now giving way to squabbling over funds and petty politics (aggravated by the death of most Gandhians).

All the same, politicians are busy as usual in highjacking the Mahatma's name for political mileage through lavish ads.

Unfortunately, we either dismiss Gandhi's ideas and ideals as anachronistic or put them just on a pedestal, with no intention of using them or really discovering what they mean.

I just feel like telling all those who even remotely want to identify with Gandhi or truly remember him on his jayanti (birthday): Don't bother too much about wearing Gandhian caps - just make do with the heads thinking Gandhian thoughts. Hopefully, springing forth from those thoughts, actions that benefit the masses and not just the classes will follow...

Happy Gandhi Jayanti.

Twittering out the Social Media Thingy

2009-09-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, I won't begin with how Twitter-beat-Facebook-beat-Internet-beat-TV...quicker and quicker in terms of popularity or user base -- we are now beyond that stage.

I'll begin instead with how everyone is perplexed about this "social media thing". As I write this, new social media agencies are being set up, articles are being written about this *phenomenon* (including this one, if you can call this post an article), and the marketing pros are figuring out whether to suck at the Vampire widget or indulge in a Mob War to reach their target group.

The point is, the buzz around social media (btw, did we have anti- or un-social media before that?) is growing.

At the same time, some are even beginning to wonder if we could indeed be outgrowing Facebook. Lane Wallace of The Atlantic magazine says, for instance, that we might be at a stage where our initial, teenager-like fancy to FB may give way to fatigue or boredom. Still she admits that sites like FB and Twitter are growing and becoming increasingly popular with 30-plus folks and not just teeny-boppers.

Something doesn't gel, isn't it?

I think if we look close enough -- at human behavior, not websites or widgets -- we'll discover that the process of social evolution takes a long time (Darwin already told us that anatomical evolution takes even longer). In contrast, the breakneck technological evolution of the past decade or so has thrown up numerous tools and twitgets (note that!) for humans to play around.

So it's a playground out there, all right. But unlike earlier, when people played in more segregated age groups, in the virtual world we now have a whole smorgasbord of pre-teens, teens and umpteens 'behaving' in unprecedented ways. Combine this with the fact that this interplay goes on in several handshakes of connected gadgets, irrespective of where the players move across the globe. (We even have extreme cases in which people are being de-addicted for being too connected!)

Personally, I feel that the new tools of staying connected and sharing have brought out the kids in adults and allowed younger people to acquire wisdom or knowledge at an accelerated pace. If anything, the contours of our age-tied and time-bound behaviors are being pummeled into newer and more possibilities -- of what communication and sharing in this or the next digital world (Web x.0) will be really like.

So it's only natural that there's so much complexity and perplexity. I guess it'll be a progressive case of profusion - confusion - infusion (until more things come up and the cycle repeats).

Keep your fingers clicking...

Writers of Passage

2009-08-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

Can you learn your way to writing a book?

This question wouldn’t perhaps arise in the more mature markets of the West. But for a developing country like India, most aspiring writers are unaware of, or unexposed to, the lessons and master-classes that can catapult them into the league of a J(h)umpa Lahiri or a Chetan Bhagat. In the US, for instance, there are oodles of creative writing courses and workshops and retreats and many more, where budding authors can see their writer’s block unfold into textual bloom. But in India, there are few such options and devices, though things are beginning to change I must say.

So when I happened to be present during a fiction-writing interaction at Delhi’s Oxford Book Store, I lent my ear to lecturing by guest author Jaishree Misra even as my eyes continued to browse the bookshelves. Despite this double act of dual-tasking, I was able to gather some pertinent points shared by Jaishree. What follows is a recollection (and remixing with my own two bits) of some of those tips and traps…

The best thing I liked about Jaishree’s advice was that she urged the audience – most of them young women, a couple of lads and even a few old curmudgeons – to stick to their day jobs (or night ones if they work in a call center). Why, she herself continues to hold her job as a classifier of films in Britain (admission of envy: I want a job like hers) and still come up with a book or two. I couldn’t agree more: writing becomes a full-time *profession* only when you’ve already published a bestseller (unless you’ve inherited ample dough and can indulge in timelessly baking your writerly ambitions).

Another tip the author of Secrets & Lies shared was that aspiring writers must try and live the life of the characters they are going to create in their books. This would enable them to breathe realism into the characters which, needless to say, can have an impact on the readers as well as the number of books sold.

Jaishree also advised the audience to carefully pick a genre that best suits an individual, read up as many books in that genre as possible and reach an understanding of the nuances of writing for that genre.

She also shared some helpful tricks of the trade when it comes to dealing with publishers and agents (their role in the publishing process, how to deal with them, et al) –– in the smiling presence of HarperCollins India’s publisher and chief editor, VK Karthika.

Don't you think we need more of such learning-the-art-of-writing events, especially extensive ones at that?

Writer Kelby Offers to Make it Up to SRK

2009-08-24T05:38:00.001-07:00

I am pleasantly surprised that the writer NM Kelby (see previous post) has picked up my blog entry about the Shah Rukh Khan airport controversy and put out a very generous post. Her post (read it here) does reaffirm the fact that one should never paint all people (Americans in this context) with the same brush.

Not all Americans are rude or offensive or uncaring, of course. Citizens of all nations are truly bound by a collective humanity with the same set of emotions. Unfortunately, our world is so complex and rife with the threats of violence and intolerance that uncalled-for incidents do happen from time to time. But we must not give in to the temptation of fomenting further unrest and, instead, move on with better understanding of each other. Do read Kelby's post to learn a lesson of humility and to know how to take things with a hint of sugar...

My Name Is...KKCan't (Remember)!

2009-08-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

How famous is Shah Rukh Khan really in America (or anywhere, for that matter)? And why all the brouhaha about his prolonged, uncomfortable (for King Khan) questioning at the Newark airport in the US recently?

Even though the so-called "controversy" is assuming sickening proportions, what with multiple media mud-slings, I happened to come across an interesting blog post from - surprise, surprise - a famous (that tricky word, again!) US author (I almost wrote authoress (sic) to highlight the fact that it's a woman and an SRK fan). Her name is NM Kelby. Doesn't ring a bell, I know - at least none rang with me. All the more reason perhaps why you should read her blog entry (to entice you some, it's got some similar, unbelievable who-are-you stuff about Bob Dylan).

Didn't they say it's all relative?

Mixing up Drunks and Driving

2009-07-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sanjeev BMW-hit-and-run Nanda is likely to be out in a few months, news reports say. For a change, I'm not dwelling on how justified or unjustified the quantum of punishment will be for him (the rich lad ran over and killed six in Delhi in a post-drinks rampage and spent a little under 2 years in jail since the incident in 1999). Instead, I'm amused at how media writes about someone who drives after drinking (drinking alcohol, that is, and not juice or lassi).

The majority of reporters or subeditors call such acts "drunk driving" or "drunken driving" (the latter sounds like taking drunk driving to sunken depths). But some papers also write it as "drink driving" (Imagine, DRINK driving! As if you can hand over the steering wheel to your favorite bottle of vodka).

Actually, I'm just thinking, why not add "drunkard driving" to the list as well. With this appellation, whenever we see a Merc or Beemer swerving and speeding toward some unlucky chaps, we can at least shout out: "Hey, look! Drunkard driving!"

A Matter of Sexual Freedom

2009-07-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I have seen a lot of excitement, rage, disappointment, disgust and several other feelings poured over the historic Delhi Hight Court ruling that decriminalizes same sex among consenting adults in the city. Now with Baba Ramdev publicly coming out against homosexuality, the debate is only going to get intense...

Even though I have taken potshots at how the new public display of affection among gay men (not women, curiously) turns me off, this post is not about my sex preferences or about Baba Ramdev's supposed powers to "cure homosexuality".

This post is simply about being progressive, rights-oriented and, in the spirit of the current buzzword, "inclusive". The new world order that we now see is one in which more people than ever before in history can make choices -- about how they live, whom they vote, what they wear or eat, among other things. And it's essential that this order include more and more people (still stuck in repressed regimes or who otherwise live on the fringes of fear and deprivation) for our continued physical, emotional and spiritual evolution. As a free citizen of a democratic country (however pathetic the democracy currently is, I still prize it) I believe that each individual has the right to choose his or her sexual inclination -- so long as he or she is not enticing minors or forcing others against their wishes. The government's job is -- should be -- to protect people from cutting each other's throat, not from cutting ice in what can be a mutually agreed and meaningful relationship.

At the same time, if Baba Ramdev wants people to approach him or his ashram and be cured of their "wayward sexual leanings" -- and if there are indeed people who do that or are willing to do that -- then we must also respect their choices and opinions. As long as we all get to exercise our choices with dignity and impartiality, it should be fine.

I only hope the courts all over the country (and the big daddy Supreme Court) do not get entangled in political opportunism of various groups -- but instead make further rules that facilitate adult informed choice while continuing to protect children and punish criminals (the real ones).

Rain...

2009-07-10T01:34:00.000-07:00

Rain for my soul
For the parched dust and dry wind and heated minds
For replenishing life-giving water
For rejuvenating the hope that lives on...

Rain for everyone
For those who know not its real significance
And for those who pretend to know
For all who love to get soaked in its fullness, its true bounty
As well as for those who cringe at the drippy disturbance...

Rain for recession
Not only of the economy but of the completeness of life around us
Rain for the restoration of bits and pieces of nature
That must coalesce together to give humans more cause for celebration...

Did You Switch Off Your Lights Today?

2009-06-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ever since the year 1972, the world has been 'marking' June 5 as the World Environment Day (as declared by the United Nations). One wonders why it took such a long time to reach a general consensus on the criticality of global warming and environmental degradation - and get the skeptics to at least acknowledge that global warming exists.

It's been over 30 years since the setting aside of a day for the environment - but it's only very recently, less than five years, that some serious concerted effort is beginning to happen (energy-saving bulbs, for instance). In all those years we missed, it's possible that we already reached a point-of-no-return from where the ill-effects of greenhouse gas emissions WHILE continuing to pursue a globalized growth model espoused by the US of A (imitating might be a better word here than pursuing) cannot be reversed. Still, we must keep trying...

As a consumer in a developing nation, I try to switch off the lights when possible, avoid polythene bags and do other little tricks to reduce my carbon footprint - but listening to politicians or celebs mouthing green promises without any backing of policy decisions makes me go sick in the stomach. To cite an example, it's one thing to ask people to "say no to polythene carrybags" - and quite another for the politicos to resist the lobby (and quite possibly, palm-greasing) of those who stand to gain from making and selling these toxic things. (Regarding the question of rehabilitating those whose livelihoods depend on the polythene business, it must be the government's responsibility - aided by tax money from you and me - to wean them away to some alternative businesses or work.)

Left to their own devices, consumers will not compromise the convenience that a lazy non-green lifestyle entails.

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away!

2009-05-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

Unlike the poem most of us read in the childhood, in which little Johnny asks Rain to go away because he wants to play, I wish that rain would rather stay a bit longer - and splash us all with cool droplets. At least for the parched denizens of Delhi, that would seem to be a pretty desirable thing in the middle of May. Besides, each time it rains, it reminds me of my daughter Saundhi (the name means 'the sweet smell the earth gives off when touched by the first few drops of rain').

But then, it hardly rains in Delhi now. I remember how 10 or 12 years back (another age?), Delhi used to get a decent drenching every monsoon. But for the past few years, the rainy season is just touch-and-go -- it teases more than it eases (the heat). Fortunately, there was some intermittent rain last summer, which made it more bearable than most years.

How I wish for those long spells of rain, when you could enjoy and appreciate the lush green beauty of the city! Just sitting in the balcony and seeing nature's regenerative wet miracle all around you was so refreshing...made even better by an endless supply of pakoras (spicy fried snacks).

Alas...Who stole our rain?

Nano? Na, No!

2009-05-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

More than 2 lakh bookings and counting: Tata Motors’ cheapest car, Nano, which will ‘hit’ Indian roads in July, is being awaited alarmingly eagerly by an ever-increasing and impatient breed of wannabe motorists. As an owner and driver of a Santro car, why should I get worked up?

Simply because, my dear fellow-motorist, with more and more cars fighting for scarcer and scarcer road space, I’ll get to wait longer in my car as I drive around the city (Tip for carmakers: instead of offering free fuel or service, give a few kilometers of unclogged road space to each new buyer). And as I wait longer inside the car, I’ll consume more fuel, cooling myself and warming the planet in the bargain.

But then, it’s better to be inside an AC car than venture outside in this heat. The other day I happened to pass by a largish car and got a shock from the heated fumes emanating from its body. No wonder I cursed under my breath and vowed to return to the cool confines of my own fuel-guzzler!

Sitting inside, I peer out at the fellow car-toons trying to honk their cars ahead in a sea of automobiles (looking at their faces, you can tell how desperately they want their honks to yield an extra inch of road space ahead – especially at toll gates and busy intersections). Some of them frown at me for not sharing their honking traits or urgency tactics.

My thoughts invariably turn to the Metro rail network. When fully operational, will it reduce the number of cars on the road at any time? I doubt it. Rather, it might add more commuters in Delhi – with thousands and thousands more flooding the trains from within the city as well as the neighboring regions. What Metro might do is mitigate the impact of more Nanos on the road – even if only to a nano extent!

As I pointed out in an earlier post, I’m eager to either get rid of my car or use it less frequently (that’s why Nano-like developments get me in knots). But in addition to the Metro, Delhiites would also need a better bus and taxi network to fill the gaps not served by train. The government has already made a mess of BRT (bus rapid transport, in which buses ply in demarcated lanes). With Commonwealth Games fast approaching and the election process in the country over, one can only hope that better sense will prevail – both among the government and the car-owning public.

Elec-shun? Please Don’t!

2009-04-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

Now that a lot more people in the intelligentsia and youth communities (isn’t it fascinating that the two are years apart?) know that they must vote – courtesy kyunki agar aap vote nahi kar rahe ho to aap so rahe ho (if you don’t vote, you are sleeping) and sundry other campaigns initiated by corporates and media alike – I don’t need to repeat the same spiel.

So, what have I got to say? I want to talk about the dilemma that most voters in India, especially the youth, face. Should it be the party or the particular candidate in their constituency that we should vote for? Even if our chosen candidate comes to power, his actions are likely to be dictated by the party he belongs to (and we may not like the party per se), so there’ll be little good he’ll be able to do on his own. And if we vote for a party, the person from our constituency may turn out to be a shlook (I don’t know if that’s a word, but you get the idea). In any case, there are more chances of a coalition government or a hung parliament, so all the policies of a party that look good on their manifesto may not materialize in reality.

Unfortunately, most of the people who have clean records, a cleaner conscience and are youthful and intelligent as well never ‘run’ for elections – they’d rather run away from it. So we end up wracking our brains about choosing the lesser of several evils.

I wish it were possible for the people of India to vote in a ballot asking them whom they want to elect for certain roles (prime ministership, key ministries, national security adviser, etc.)…

So, What If We ARE Slumdogs?

2009-02-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Why should I write about Slumdog now, when the whole world has already known about it, debated the movie, sang songs of victory for India and the cast, and what not?

Because there are some things I felt strongly about and must get out of my mind.

No doubt the movie is an excellent cinematic achievement – with superb direction, great acting, amazing sound and other aspects of movie-making.

But…

For one, I strongly believe that Rahman should have got an Oscar long back and am glad that he got it for Slumdog. But it grates a little somewhere in my mind to know that Jai Ho is by no measure Rahman’s best composition. So the question: isn’t it like doing the right thing for the wrong reason (song)? Rahman has given much, much better music for so many films, including (in no particular order) Gentleman, Roja, Bombay, Lagaan, Swades, Taal, Saathiya…all in all, a long list with many, many Oscar worthies than Jai Ho. Okay, Jai Ho is good, very good in fact. But not that good. Not Oscar good.

As for the raging debate about how India has been ‘projected’ in the movie, I’ll say, Why create so much fuss about India’s image just on the basis of a movie? India’s image is not something that’s anyone’s fiefdom. Nor can it be ‘damaged’ by showing realistic scenes – however ‘shitful’ they might be – on the silver screen.

Let’s get it straight: Danny Boyle and team have done a commendable job in showing many of the ills plaguing ‘third-world’ India through an amazing (even if pretty contrived) narrative.

But, again…

Neither is Danny Boyle the first one to be enchanted by the crazy place that India is, nor will he be the last one. But multiple awards and the West’s growing interest in India (because of our vast, increasingly consumerist population that can keep their companies growing, and not out of any fatherly love – make no mishtake!) have meant that the contradictions and agonies depicted in the movie will be discussed for a long time.

So? So, how should a typical Indian feel about the whole thing, you know? To become a part of the ‘it’ crowd – which goes to multiplexes munching mountains of popcorn and guzzling gallons of carbonated sugar drinks.

Well, well, well…my suggestion is, dear, why do you want to be a part of this crowd in the first place?

If the movie has really shaken you up by showing a mirror to the kind of place you live in, why don’t you do something about it? From refusing to pay bribes to demanding your rights (from the political mafia) to helping out street and slum children, I’m sure you’ll find a whole lot of ideas. Why leave everything to the NGOs?

Boyle has done his job as a film-maker and gotten acclaim. But what about you? What about me? What about us Indians?

Hollow Scope

2009-02-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

Why does the world go bonkers over vacuous fortune telling?

I used to think that writing horoscopes is serious business, what with millions around the world spending so much time and money on a varied bunch of fortune tellers – palmists, numerologists, tarot readers, and other folks who use all sorts of animals from parrots to Pomeranians. But sometime back, when I read through what some of the so-called celebrity star-gazers had written in their popular columns, I realized how mistaken I was. To my horror-scope, I found that too much ink had been spilt praising the non-existent virtues of people and telling them how great they are and how the times are set to change for the better and how, just by wearing a certain color or betting on a particular lucky number, they can beat the holy sh*t out of any possible stumbling block to a great fortune that awaits them round the corner. Blah, blah, blah…

Now, if I were a self-preening narcissistic type I might’ve approved of all their goody-goody, schmaltzy stuff. So instead, I felt rather compelled to take you, dear reader, through some of the really over-the-top gems of prognostication that I found. I bet you might end up, like me, rolling on the floor with laughter or pulling your hair out trying to make sense of the whole shebang.

Sample this prophecy from a reputed site: “Your curiosity is running on high, and you just won’t stand for anything less than the entire truth, no matter what question you happen to ask. Your antennae will tell you whether it’s an honest answer.”

Well, my antennae tell me that the person who wrote this is really smart enough to know that the best thing to keep people from pointing fingers at your predictions is to write something entirely vague or utterly common sense. Now, tell me, how many people will admit that they’ll “stand for less than the entire truth”? And, won’t our keen observation (antennae) tell us if we are getting an honest answer or not?

Here’s another one from the Sunday edition of a paper: “You suffer a great deal because of others’ wrongdoing. Maybe it’s time you stopped others from taking you for granted. Just be more assertive and you’ll find all the happiness you deserve.”

Wow! Reading these lines, our bleary-eyed reader is sure to scream with self-pitying joy: “I told you so! See, it’s all their fault!” Merely reading this may not turn our meek fella into a bold brat, but it sure will make the person feel quite worthy of all the happiness in the world he or she ain’t going to get anyway.

Wait, there’s more stuff coming up. This one was buried inside an old stack of newspapers but fortunately caught my eye when I was looking for something else (isn’t that how you find anything in the first place these days?).

Here it goes: “Your stars are shining bright and mighty. Just the perfect time to make that critical move you have been waiting for all your life. Lucky numbers 1, 3 and 7; favorable colors Blue and Orange.”

Oh, really? You mean, if I wear a blue shirt to office today, I can tell my boss to take a walk? Or if I pick a lottery ticket with these three digits in it, I’ll become an instant millionaire? Aw, com’on, you must be kidding me.

Never mind what I feel, there are millions out there who lap up the fortune tellers’ words with inexplicable zeal and sincerity.

All right, there be might be some – maybe one in a thousand – fortune tellers whose predictions aren’t as ridiculous or vague or inaccurate. But at least I haven’t found them--yet.

Why such mumbo jumbo continues to get so much attention often baffles me – and I can only hazard a guess. Maybe it’s simply because people like hearing nice things about themselves. Or maybe they are already so weary and burdened with their unspectacular lives that they’ll latch onto anything that keeps their hopes of a radical positive change alive.

How many people would still read their horoscopes if the lines they read did not go down well with them or did not portray them as superb human beings? For instance, would they continue their patronage of the forecast column if it says: “You have a really crappy day ahead today?” Or if it proclaims: “Whatever you do, you are going to get laid off from this thankless job of yours – so just stick on to it while you can, you schmuck.”?

Fat chance they would!

So the fortune farce keeps going.

And the world keeps getting sucked into the slush that a daily dose of divination delivers.

Bombay Burns...Again

2008-11-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

So we had another terror attack - perhaps the maddest one this time, with terrorists going berserk in the city's landmark hotels (Taj and Oberoi) plus several other places in southern Mumbai.

How many terror attacks will it take for our wily politicians to do something about the security of innocent civilians?

As I watched the stupefied media coverage on TV (with anchors and reporters blabbering on and on without giving much information, filling airtime with nonsensical commentary), I realized that in a day or two everything will be back to "normal" - with normal people and normal politicians and normal media going back to their normal routines.

I don't have a .32 like Mr Bachchan (and don't support a US-style gun culture), but I must say that technology-driven surveillance and a trained police force are essential to avoid repeated terror attacks in India. I'm afraid people will start taking things with a pinch of salt like they do in the Middle East.

One of our biggest problems (besides scheming and self-serving politicos): rampant corruption amongst policemen across ranks. (Most of us are also guilty by taking the easy way out of a situation in our daily lives through greasing their palms.)

I acknowledge and honor the courage and honesty of those who laid down their lives in saving people. At the same time, I (and every other Indian citizen) must question the manner in which the attacks in Mumbai were carried out. Either we were extremely stupid or extremely corrupt - or a bit of both.

Terror's ugly face is irrevocably masked with the filth of corruption.

Don’t Mix Religion and Terror?

2008-11-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

I was watching a free-for-all kind of debate on the Times Now channel about keeping religion and terrorism separate and about the aspects of getting political mileage out of the recent arrests in connection with Malegon blasts of September 29.

It was not so thought provoking as it was funny, though there were some flashes of seriousness.

As one might predict, the political spokespersons threw logic out of the window in favor of their affiliations with their respective parties. They took devious and convoluted stances, harking back to Gandhi’s murder and other historical figures – interpreting everything in a way so as to benefit the so-called ideology of their own clique.

In the commotion resulting from many people speaking at the same time, there were no strong opinions to be noted or taken away.

The point I wish to make is that politicians – irrespective of which party they belong to – live with the compulsion to be seen by their co-workers and higher ups as milking the maximum benefit out of every situation. Even if it’s at the cost of making fools of themselves as blabbering monkeys in front the camera.

I also wonder at the repeated failure of our politicians (and often news anchors) to debate about some controversial topic with a reasoned and seasoned voice and keeping things in the studio decent, logical and civilized (nobody seems to care about the viewers). Instead of hearing a voice that should come out of the mouth of a civilized, educated person discussing and debating something on facts and merits of the case, we get one brazenly and illogically blurting out as many words as the anchor would permit before he or she moves on to the next politico.

Now, regarding the issue at the core: most people, especially intelligentsia and the liberals, seem to contend that religion must be kept separate from terrorism.

I want to ask them: In the real world, is there no connection between religion and terrorism? (Even when many blasts have taken place as a matter of revenge against people following one religion by those practicing another?)

On a parallel note, Is business separate from politics? Is urbanization separate from the condition of villages? Is the process of putting dams across rivers separate from the issue of displacement and destitution? Is global warming separate from industrial progress?

Let’s deal with things as they are in the real world. Why fake it, guys?

The ‘Seat-of-Your-Pants Approach’ to Writing!

2008-10-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

There are three things that every person (almost!) on Planet Earth thinks they can easily do if given a chance: sing, act in or direct a movie, and, yes, write. Write as in, write books, especially novels. The same kinds that appear on the bestseller lists of newspapers and book clubs for several weeks at least.

Of course, most of the unsung, un-acted, un-written billions never get to do what they think they can do.

Recently, I came across a rather odd contest for wannabe writers on a website. Running through the whole month of November, the competition is being celebrated as the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in the US. (I guess being available on the Web, it’s open to all netizens who fulfill the usual T&Cs.)

The best part of the contest – or the worst, depending on how you look at it! – is that anyone who enters AND completes at least 50,000 words of fast-paced composition is a winner. According to the site, everyone who finishes the writ-a-thon will be given a winner’s certificate and a web badge. While the prizes may not be widely recognized, the idea is to pull people by the nape of their neck and get them to write. Hopefully, a lot many Charleses around the world will get the Dickens out of their writing!

To give you some statistics, the site claims that in 2007 as many as 100,000 participated and – gulp! – as many as 15,000 crossed the finishing line of 50,000 words by the midnight deadline. Alas, only two of these 15,000 “works” were published into regular “books.”

That, however, is unlikely to stop the “participants” from pounding away furiously on the keyboard!

Check it out by clicking here.

Insect Attack

2008-10-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Oh, what a little nagging question can cause one to discover!

Over the past few days, Delhi has been literally bombarded with gazillions of small insects that try their best to get into people’s eyes, ears and other openings as they go about shopping (people, not the insects) in the crowded markets. One just can’t escape their onslaught if one is near any source of light. It seems that the festive season has become sort-of ‘pestive’ season!

So the question that keeps biting at the back of my mind: Who are these insects?

Yesterday, as I was returning from a friend’s home on my two-wheeler, waiting for a red light to turn green, a whole army of these insects flew into me – and met their inglorious (for them) and annoying (for me) death. Had it not been for the helmet with a tight visor around my head, my eyes and nose would’ve been full of these tiny creatures, causing me to swerve and perhaps crash my scooter. Thank you Habsolite, Studds and other helmet makers!

Today morning I was wondering again about who these insects were and how come they invade Delhi almost each year just before Diwali. And why are they in so much abundance this time around? Earlier, I had remarked to my friend that the subject is worthy of a story in a Delhi paper.

As I was still wondering, what do I see? A front-page news story titled ‘Mutant insects over Delhi’ in the Hindustan Times!

The insects are called Brown Plant Hoppers and they are rice pests. According to the HT story by Satyen Mohapatra, Delhi’s neighboring state Haryana just had its rice crop harvested. With no crops to feed on, the hoppers hopped onto the next wind toward Delhi and made their way into the markets, streets and people’s homes – struck the lights wherever they found them turned on and died down soon after from starvation. With a life span of about 30 days, these insects usually die by being eaten by their natural predators like frogs and spiders. But the use of insecticides by farmers had killed most of those natural predators and also rendered the hoppers immune to it.

The result: they multiplied like mad, had to flee to Delhi and in turn made millions even madder with irritation.

But the story doesn’t end here. When I did some Google searching on the Brown Plant Hopper, I came across an interesting story in the International Herald Tribune that relates, among other things, how crop research funds are being reduced in the face of a growing food and hunger crisis. Our little hoppies also find a mention in the story.

Didn’t someone say, it’s all connected together?

Raj Thackeray’s Arrest - Mumbai's Unrest

2008-10-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

So the cops finally got to Raj Thackeray, who has allegedly been inciting his MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman (!) Sena) workers to go on rampages beating up non-marathis around town.

I remember the day when the Elder Thackeray (Bal) was arrested by the then Deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal some time around 2000. I was eating pizza in Bandra in Mumbai when all of a sudden, shops started downing their shutters and a riotous noise came from not too far. As the pizzeria I was at downed its own shutter – trapping people still eating inside – I was wondering what the whole fuss was about. Later somebody told me that Bhuj had dared to arrest Bal – but it would be a matter of minutes before the roaring lion would be out.

In the meantime, however, lakhs of people on the street going about their work or eating pizza must suffer anxiety and risk injury at the hands of the marauding Shiv Sainiks who were livid at the incarceration of their beloved deity.

Like that time, I think this Thackeray, too, would get out sooner rather than later.

But it amuses me how the media is going rapturous with malicious delight as to how the whole arm-twisting drama between Raj and those in the raj will play out.

As Raj allegedly unleashed his goons on the city, so have the TV crews (read ‘crudes’) descended on unsuspecting viewers – giving ball by ball account of the arrest, the unrest, and the rest.

We have seen this recently before. But I can’t help thinking that Raj is able to do all his rabble-rousing because there are so many unemployed able-bodied youths in the state who, having nothing better to do, are only too happy to flex those muscles.

Rather than a Raj Thackeray, we need a Kaj Thackeray who can give lakhs of jobless people some constructive kaam-kaj (work).

Globalization and its Stinky Contents

2008-09-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, there has been a sharp media focus on the stink that garbage dumping has raised in what can perhaps be called India’s first globalized city, Gurgaon. The name literally means a “village of jaggery” and it used to be a typical sleepy town not too far back. Now Gurgaon boasts of countless 24x7 call centers (usually with thousands of sleep-starved workers) and innumerable MNC offices.

Within a few years, Gurgaon has become a sprawling city of malls and offices, more malls and offices, residential gated colonies and, well, more malls and offices. Many of Gurgaon’s buildings vie with each other for supremacy in size, height and abundant use of glass.

The recent ruckus is about the gargantuan pile of garbage riling the wealthy residents of some DLF flats (DLF is the main builder in Gurgaon, whose honcho KP Singh is now one of the richest in the world). The flats in current market value cost upwards of $500,000 and house several senior executives from Fortune 500 companies (hence the group’s influence in the media).

It seems that while the Haryana government and builders like DLF were busy making mountains of money from their hyped high-rises, nobody thought about the piles of garbage that the multitude would generate. For lack of a proper disposal system, garbage is being dumped in open, empty lots dangerously close to residential areas.

As it is, the pot-holed roads in Gurgaon are responsible for causing huge losses in vehicle maintenance and for medical bills incurred in repairing dislocated joints that travelers on these roads must be getting. Power cuts and shortage of water are already well known and widely despised. The stink is the latest in the litany of woes that Gurgaon inhabitants – and visitors and workers – face.

What did the government and the builders think when they built and booked those gleaming offices and spiraling houses? That somehow ‘the stink’ won’t show up?

With 2 million people cramped in condos, malls, offices and cars – and counting – you bet it would!

My guess is it would take a minimum of two to three years in time and at least half a billion dollars in money to set things right. And yes, a whole lot more in political and executive will.

Meanwhile, The Hindustan Times is carrying a series of articles titled Gurgaon Collapsing.

The Free Pisstakes of My Life

2008-09-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

I went to the Delhi Book Fair in Pragati Maidan a couple of days back and had a day’s browseful of books. Needless to say, it was a refreshing experience - as leafing through books always is for me.

Apart from a leaner crowd compared to last year’s (at least in terms of the days when I visited), there was something unusually obvious this year. Umm, what was it?

Oh yes, yes, I got it! Arrrgghhh!! Hmmmph!!! Can’t escape it – few book-watchers in India can. The Three Mistakes of My Life. The Three Mistakes of My Life. The Three Mistakes of My Life.

As if writing the title of Chetan Bhagat’s latest teeny bopper sensation three times will serve as an act of my own triplex of confessions! But I just had to get it out of my itching throat and steaming head. Excuse me, I’ll say it once more: The Three Mistakes of My Life. Sigh.

The book fair seemed to have been unfairly booked by Bhagat’s publisher as well as other opportunistic exhibitors, many of whom had plastered handwritten posters on their stalls: The Three Mistakes of My Life and other books by Chetan Bhagat available here. Many prominently displayed a bookcase pack of all the three novels by what The New York Times has called India’s best-selling English author.

While I was busy flipping through Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies or Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, some chick or the other was heard eagerly asking: “Baiiya, do you have The Three Mistakes of My Life?” Most of these naïve young ladies had trouble speaking Hindi and couldn’t pronounce the usual “Bhaiya” [meaning “brother” in Hindi, without any intended brotherly, motherly or any otherly feelings] that all salespeople, hawkers and attendants in India are supposed to be addressed as. But the girls were Indian enough to know that if they wanted to grab their attention, Bhaiya was the word. (Before I’m termed as sexist, let me tell you that there were quite a few boys, too, asking for Three Mistakes as well – even if in a rather sheepish accent or a voice borrowed from their friends who happened to be girls. Okay, call me sexist if you must!)

I hold nothing against Bhagat or his publishers. I haven’t read any of his books, but saw some reviews that were not as flattering as the sales. But I just can’t stop wondering, Must the marketing propaganda succeed where literary merit failed to make a mark? And what about India’s true literary geniuses, who have slogged much more and deserve much more sales hits?

I’m sure most of India’s less-than-bestselling literary lights must be sulking and squirming…

Meanwhile, I overheard one youngster remark to another: “Ernest Hemingway? I think I read his name somewhere but am not sure how he writes, so can’t give you my reco [recommendation]. Have you tried Chetan Bhagat?”

No Reliance on Their Connectivity and Service?

2008-08-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I had written about how technology can play spoilsport in your daily life. But it was all in a lighter vein.

This time around, I want to highlight the serious lack of responsiveness on the part of companies that provide technology to the masses. We tom-tom the great strides we have taken in telecom and Internet connectivity and our top companies thump their chests on huge subscriber numbers they keep on achieving month after month. But what about listening to the customer? What about the quality of their products and services? What about tons of customer complaints they receive?

It is indeed extremely outrageous that the telecom companies show a pathetic customer attitude toward those who are their very reason for existence (and fat profits).

To cite but one example, my friend Rakesh Raman, who runs a multi-faceted global technology site, wwww.mytechboxonline.com, is facing a harrowing time getting his complaint of dead-slow internet connection addressed by Reliance Communications - one of India's top telecom service providers that prides itself on its so-called 'superior' CDMA technology.

Why am I taking up Rakesh's cause? Not only because I know him personally and professionally, but because I've been personally through the painfully slow speed of wireless Net access that I once used from Airtel. Recently, my brother also got a USB net connection from Reliance - with fast speeds promised - and is facing the same hassles as Rakesh. (Read Rakesh's story of Reliance's callousness at http://mytechbox.wordpress.com)
These large companies make tall promises to customers during the 'acquisition' time - and later keep them running from pillar to post when those same customers find the promises shattered by shoddy service and want to voice their grievances.

I'm sure many of you would've come across similar tales of apathy by large telcos, banks and other 'growing' organizations whose call center service support is deteriorating by the day.

What will make these companies listen?

Does Technology Get Your Goat?

2008-08-13T00:57:00.000-07:00

In our digitally loaded lives, it’s hard to imagine what we would do without technology. We wouldn’t, for instance, be able to check our email every five minutes if there were no email. On the contrary, it’s not much difficult to imagine that we would achieve certain things faster if tech didn’t play spoilsport.

We’ve all read with sympathetic fervor about the system-bashing tendencies that a hung computer induces in the most non-violent of workers. There was a short video clip, even, in which a man literally pounds on his machine and throws it off his desk. Poor chap.

Over time, I’ve compiled my own hate-list of instances when technology, instead of increasing our productivity, increases our brain temperature by unwelcome degrees. Sometimes I wonder if the gadgets, networks and software come together in a combined conspiracy against workerkind.

Let me begin the ordeal with the good old telephone. Suppose you are trying to concentrate on something that seems important and the telephone rings. You choose to ignore it for sometime but, after many unrelenting rings, decide to pick it up. And there you are! Soon as you pick up the darned thing, it stops ringing. No matter how many rings you allow to pass, the moment you pick it up, it goes silent when it really wants to annoy you.

Things are no better when you are dialing in, especially the customer service of a telecom or banking company. With most companies now using IVR (interactive voice response or irritating voice re-routing, take your pick), it seems easier to get access to George Bush than the company’s customer rep. Some IVRs are especially configured to avoid giving you any option to talk to somebody – or the option is hidden deep down several press-this-key-and-press-that-key loops. At times, when you finally get down to hearing the human “hello” on the other end, you are so tired punching buttons that you just ask the person to hang up.

Those who are used to exercising their fingers on mobiles for SMSes would also have encountered this next item on my agenda. It’s called “Message not sent this time” – an error you get after your attempt to send an SMS results in failure. So you try another time, and another, and yet another time – until you see the message fly away from your outbox. Ultimately, you end up getting an SMS from the party you are trying to reach: “Stop spamming me, will you!”

The Internet offers its own share of irritating tricks to unsuspecting users.

“Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and will be shut down” screams the message bang in the middle of the screen – just when you thought you found what you were Googling for. Now, your only option is to tell Microsoft about this problem through a link. But irrespective of what you tell those nerds or what they later do about it (if anything), all your IE windows will be shut down. No, sir, you can’t do zilch about it, thank you very much for reporting this problem!

Automatic page refresh is another trick that can make you go bonkers while you are in the middle of reading something on a web page. I do not doubt the good intentions of the developers who wanted an automatic mechanism to update the page so the surfer gets current information. But imagine the spark of fulmination an automatic refresh causes when you are suddenly taken to the top of the page from wherever you were in your reading. You have to inch your way back to that place – and hurry up reading the page if you don’t want to be hit by the refresh wave again.

I could go on about umpteen other Netty things that get my dander up – and probably yours too. But at the moment, in another window open on my desktop, I’m just trying to figure out the stupid blurry characters in a patch that I must copy into the registration field of a website to prove that I’m not a bot. Darn!

Nuclear Energy – Are You Clear?

2008-07-22T03:37:00.000-07:00

When following some of the biggest news stories of our day, many times it so happens that the readers or the audience lose track of the real issues behind the stories. As the stories progress – or shall I say drag on – all they get to see on prime time television or read on front pages in the papers is a vicious string of denials, sound bytes, counter-charges, backtracking and other circuitous paths that lead them nowhere.

So it came as a welcome relief – though it increased my anxieties on other counts by highlighting certain things – when I read on rediff.com this well-argued piece by Kanchan Gupta about nuclear energy and its relevance to a country like India (Will nuclear power benefit the masses?).

Let me give you a glimpse into some of the startling data highlighted in the story: Contrary to Congress’s claims of nuclear energy having the potential to provide electricity to significant numbers of people, the share of nuclear energy in India’s total power output will be only 8% by 2020 if new reactors are set up. Compared to the cost of producing thermal power at Rs 2.50 per unit, that of nuclear energy will be Rs 5.50 per unit. No new reactor has been set up in the US in the past 35 years, and only one is coming up in Europe (Finland) after a gap of 17 years. Arguably, the ones to benefit the most from the 123 Agreement will be US and French firms dealing in nuclear reactors.

I’m not saying that one should switch over to the anti-nuclear agreement lobby merely on the basis of one article, but we need write-ups like this to make an informed opinion on matters concerning our country or the world in general – rather than be forced to confront mindless buck-passing by opposing parties through most of our media.

Tale of Two Cities: Bombay & Delhi - Part II

2008-07-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

(This is the second in a series of posts on my experiences in Bombay and Delhi.)

During my initial days in Bombay, there was another wondrous thing that I noticed. Something that few places in the whole of India can boast of: twenty-four-by-seven electricity. For the first couple of days after I found a paying-guest accommodation – another Bombay novelty for India – at the Santa Cruz Railway Colony, I was uneasily at rest. And this unease was not from the creaking trains and howling airplanes that went by the house in disconcerting succession, but from the inconspicuous presence of on-tap electricity. Since I was used to sweating it out countless times a day in the sweltering heat of Delhi, the existence of this uninterrupted, unobtrusive supply of power dawned upon me only after I realized that I didn’t have to unduly exercise my forefinger on the switchboard even once in the past two days! This was something too good to be true. I mean, how could you have such a smooth-functioning utility in India! As the days – and nights – went by, my wonder grew into amazement and sheer appreciation at the bounteous fulfilment of this basic need of mine: continuous supply of electricity and the feeling that I live in a metropolitan city belonging to the Information Age and not some godforsaken remote village in the Dark Ages!

Although I took to Bombay as a fish takes to water, I never stopped wondering about how the city continued to survive. For survive it did despite enormous population pressure, including my own which - I can say with some saving grace - was not at all enormous. Despite organized crime and disorganized politicians. Despite huge swathes of jhuggi clusters and growing numbers of skyscrapers, the more recent ones being in residential areas. Despite several metric tonnes of human and industrial waste spilling out into the sea…

Ah, the sea! To me, nothing symbolizes Bombay more than the sea, lapping at its shores with renewed vigour in each successive wave. Never mind that the waft coming from the sea often carries a sharp sting of foul smell, I cannot but look admiringly at the Queen’s Necklace – the epithet given to the crescent-shaped Marine Drive along the sea. Especially as it sparkles with lights from the buildings dotting Mumbai’s famous skyline and the headlights of vehicles moving steadily along the road. The sea also makes an emphatic statement whether you are looking over the romantic ruins at Bandra Bandstand or crossing the bridge to New Bombay (a suburb created in the hope of decongesting the main city). In its vastness, tranquility or agitation; in its expansive beauty; in its calming or prodding effect upon the mind, the sea never fails to connect with you. The sea is there even in the non-coastal areas, through a recurring stench of fish or moist breeze. The first thing I remember when I think of Bombay is the sea – both of water and people.

There’s an old barb I remember about the stifling crowds of Bombay. It is said that space is at such a premium that even dogs in Bombay have to wag their tails up-down rather than sideways! While I failed to spot any canine calisthenics of that sort, the gibe is not without bite. The crowded bazaars from Borivli to Haji Ali bear visual testimony to a space-starved city. You know the real meaning of the idiom ‘rubbing shoulders with others’ in case you happen to be one of the gazillion people forming a part of that crowd! And you need a mix of correct posture, attitude and evasiveness to pass through the crushing mass of people unhurt or without getting interminably delayed to your destination.

Not that Bombay can’t offer you any breathing spaces, but such spaces are few and far between the crammed dwellings that mostly make up the city. Two such breathing spaces I recall are the famous Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Azad Maidan (sadly, the environment of the former is threatened by encroachments while one can’t enjoy the openness of the latter because there’s a large procession of commuters passing through it all times of the day). Another breathing space is the large paved area outside Vashi station, which is in extreme contrast to the packed-like-sardines scenarios in and around most other stations.

In fact, the geography of Bombay offers an interesting insight into why the city is cramped in most places. Bombay is more or less spread out linearly – from the southern thin tip, the downtown, to the gradually broadening northern parts, the suburbs. Put simply, it’s a triangular strip of land, with two coastal sides very long and the third, joining the other two, quite short. The net result: the closer you go downtown, the more difficult – or expensive – it is to find larger areas. So if you go northward into the suburbs, beyond Virar on the Western line and beyond Vashi on the harbour, you are more likely to see appreciable breathing spaces. As I was once told by a colleague: “Go that side if you feel claustrophobic here in the middle of the city.” I considered the idea many times, but the horrors of an increased commute time in locals held back my fetish for open spaces.

Bombay’s peculiar, strip-like geography once made a friend of mine remark: “Bombay is like a dirty drain, and there’s only one way to travel in it - by flowing in that drain from one end to the other!” His jibe, of course, didn’t flow too well with the staunch Bombay crowd but I, as a dispassionate observer (and as a flailing dirt speck in that drain!), could see a ring of truth to it. Later on, whenever I happened to travel in the locals for a rather longish duration, his remark would come rushing to my memory like the reeking smell of a drain. The analogy of the drain is even more apt if you take into account the filth that follows you all along the iron rails.

Railway tracks are perhaps the perfect place for squatters in Bombay. Which may be fine for you as a commuter if it’s not for the muck that this rampant squatting creates almost as sinuously as the tracks go. You can actually see people squatting on abandoned rails a few feet from the track your local is running on - and doing what they must do each morning (or most mornings if they do not have constipation). You pinch your nose with your fingers to stop the inflow of the stench but, pretty soon, realise that you’ve been holding it tight too long and need to take a breath in order to complete your commute alive! Because, it’s the same story everywhere – people defecating on a mass scale and jhuggis lined up along the tracks, their ‘backyards’ serving as convenient dumping grounds for all kinds of waste (I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to name them). I was even told by a ‘long-standing’ fellow commuter, who couldn’t help but notice that my one hand was employed in pinching my nose instead of supporting the other in holding on to the handgrips overhead, that there were accomplished commuters in the city who, blindfolded, could give out the name of each station as it passed by matching the place with its peculiar stink! I never knew the human brain could store, segregate and retrieve so many disgusting smells with such precise efficiency – until he told me, of course.

At this point, let me warn you against making a biased mental picture of the beautiful city called Bombay based on my positive or negative portrayals of its varied aspects. Bombay must be seen, lived and described with a multi-faceted prism capable of reflecting the innumerable hues concealed in its unified persona. The city is, in fact, a mesmerizing mix of glamour and grime, surplus and scarcity, calmness and cacophony…Nowhere else in India can one see the juxtaposition of the paradoxical vagaries of life brought out as starkly as in Bombay. So any attempt to singularize the city’s essence or see its way of life with a blinkered vision will not do justice to its motley character.

G Ate; Others, Please Wait!

2008-07-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

As the G8 Summit of the world’s richest countries is on in Hokkaido, Japan, I’m thinking of the growing disparities and despairs of the world – the current so-called boom in India and other developing economies notwithstanding. Today, many point out that global warming and green initiatives have become bigger issues than terrorism. Leaders of the world are worrying less about third world war and more about the “devastating growth” in third-world countries (which are second-world, by the way?)

Recently there were some interesting articles in Economist and Newsweek on the future of energy and the greenness – or lack of it – on the only orb we got here. For all the hype and the hoopla, apparently less than 1% of the current energy is supplied by renewables. On the lines of GDP, thinkers are coming up with calculation of EPI (Environmental Performance Index) for various countries. The only ones who seem to fare well on the index, apparently, are sparsely populated nations of Europe.

Making all sorts of calculations and coming up with theoretical models keeps economists and scientists busy – but does it really help solve the problems? It may or it may not. But IMHO, it often certainly does create complications – like those we saw with the misplaced corn-ethanol frenzy and carbon-trading. Shifting resources or carbon emissions elsewhere is something like sweeping your house clean but depositing the pile of garbage on your neighbors’, or, sometimes, “distant relatives’”. Only, the fumes from the garbage now reach far and wide – causing weather nightmares everywhere.

While people at the top (those with the power to make policy decisions that can have country-, region-, or globe-specific impact) lunch and munch together – not to much avail – the consumers and citizens of the world are getting increasingly confused about “their tiny bit” in bringing down their carbon “footprint”. According to an essay ‘I’m So Tired of Being Green’ by Susan Greenberg (what a surname! – no offense) in Newsweek, there’s an entire branch of eco-psychology growing out of people’s eco-anxieties.

It’s OK for people of rich countries – who have been devouring resources and gallivanting around the world for several decades – to now feel a pinch of conscience at their profligate ways. But who will nudge the minds of hundreds of millions of developing-country consumers who have barely begun to guzzle gas, munch meat and throng ‘1,000 places to see before they die’?
All these tree-uprooting, carbon-sooting and vehicle-scooting years the rich have left a deadly trail of environmental destruction and economically-induced cult of consumerism – which the poor and upcoming are only too happy to emulate. Do the paunchy leaders of different countries have the stomach to ask these billions to wait? And even if they do, will they wait?

In the Name of God

2008-04-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is the secondary title of a movie I just saw, the primary one (with the same meaning) being "Khuda ke Liye." Without intending this to be a review of the movie, I must say it's a great attempt to foster a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. The underlying message is that no unethical, wrong or persecutional thing can be - or rather should be - justified in the name of God.

At least for me, the movie has done tremendously well in clearing some of the misconceptions and long-ingrained notions of what true Islam is. The very word means peace with God and a Muslim is one who "submits to God or the will of God". But the big question: Who is God and what is His will? Now that's where all those Muslim clergy - many of them rather than all - cause confusion amongst the impressionable and, often, uneducated, youth all over the world. How many of us have studied Islam and its tenets? (I certainly haven't. And while on my personal beliefs, I haven't studied any scriptures of any religion and am still an "explorer" when it comes to a single God - but that would be a series of blogs! But I do believe in the absolute values of ethics, morality and goodness.)

One sureshot way to multiply hatred is to blame an entire community of the wrongs done by a few. Painting the West morally bankrupt is as bad as calling all Moslems terrorists.

Why do most of us carry on with our ill-conceived notions of people who are "not like us"? Can we pause to understand the other viewpoint and, more important, spread that understanding? I think this might work better than shock and awe or terror and bombs...

The Flame of Tibet

2008-04-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

So. The Olympics torch is carrying on with its journey round the world. Yesterday, I read that the relay passed off "without incident" in Delhi, the city that many thought would cause more "trouble" than Paris or San Francisco. I'm sure the Red brigade in China would've heaved a sigh of relief.

But what many consider trouble or incidents are, to me, Tibet's rallying cry to appeal to a callous world. I believe their protest should have had a better outcome on the minds and motives of powers-that-be across the world than the muted murmurs of sympathy we get to hear.

About China, the less said the better. Here's a country that's had indisputably bad human rights violation record - one that's contaminated the simple and noble lives of lakhs of buddhist monks through repression, mindless economic expansion and other dubious means. Here's a country that's caused unspeakable suffering and environmental destruction in its march for modernism. Here's a country that's bent on displaying its might on the lofty pedestal of the Olympics by hook or by crook. And what do the great democracies, leaders and thinkers of the world do? Most of them worry about the "nuisance" or "irritation" caused by the pro-Tibetan protesters to the Chinese authorities. Many are sh*t-scared about disturbing their relationships with the world's fastest rising superpower.

In this mad scramble for seeing the Olympics torch through, who will carry the flame of Tibet that's in danger of getting completely extinguished?

Is luxury expensive?

2008-03-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

The world is getting wealthier and more people are seeking luxury than ever in the history of humankind. In Delhi, there's this luxury summit organized by the Hindustan Times Group currently displaying how to splurge your money. As if the square upon square miles of retail shopping space weren't enough to tell the filthy rich how to get dirty with their desires!

Okay, don't misunderstand me - even I want a piece of the luxury happening all around me (so I'm not squeaky clean myself when it comes to wishes - just that I don't have oodles of money!).

But quite often, I wonder what real luxury is. Does it mean I can buy the watch I feel attracted to or does it mean I can have the time and do what I want to do in that time? Does it mean I can buy the specially designed pillow or does it mean I can afford to sleep as much as I want (the roadside beggar, by the latter count, can afford a luxury I can't)? Does it mean I can buy hardbound volumes of books to decorate my bookshelf or does it mean I can enjoy reading the books I always wanted to irrespective of how they look? And does it mean I can drown myself in parfum (isn't that how expensive labels spell perfume?) or does it mean I can feel fresh in my mind in spite of the stink around me?

(What are "filth" and "stink" doing in a write-up on luxury?! Anyway...)

Is it possible to have both? Can we enjoy an expensive meal with the same taste we find in street food? Can we wear a Rolex without feeling shortchanged on time? Can we wear our cologne without the nausea that often accompanies it in the company of many cologne-clad creatures?

Maybe. I really don't know...

Do you?

News Media Inanity in India

2008-03-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

Aren’t we all sick of the inanities that the current sackload of news channels in India keep bombarding us with? At least I am. Why, it’s become so goddamn difficult to turn on a news channel and just watch news rather than horror shows, domestic tiffs, or the same old celebrity crap!

They say the channel guys are doing it to raise their TRPs. But, looks to me, they are doing it more to raise the blood pressure of otherwise normal folks like me! Why can’t they just show some real news, which is what I – and I believe zillion others – would want to watch on a news channel? If we want some monkey business or celeb gossip, we’ll switch over to specialized channels that do it a thousand times better, no?

Another irritating thing about the news channels is the awful delivery of news by their reporters. The guys just drawl on and on and on, without coming to the main point and delaying what they should say right at the outset. To make it worse, they hum and haw, and say “umm…” and “aaa…” and mouth a few phrases they all have learnt to parrot again and again ten times in the space of a single stupid sentence.

Sometimes, I just feel like reaching out beyond the idiot screen and give them a vigorous shake by the shoulders!

Tale of Two Cities: Bombay & Delhi - Part 1

2008-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

(This is one of several entries I intend to post about my experiences in Bombay and Delhi.)

I had heard a lot about it. Had read in papers how people’s daily lives depended on it. Seen the flashy images in so many movies.

But nothing prepared me for what I came face to face with when my 6:35 Churchgate local began to screech to a halt. It was a fateful evening when I met the fierce reality of travelling in Bombay’s local trains. (I still refuse to call the city ‘Mumbai’ because the word ‘Mumbai’ can’t give you the cosmo, go-getting flavour that only ‘Bombay’ can.)

I casually hung onto the steel pole affixed to the passage of the bogey I was travelling in. I was going downtown to attend my first press conference as a reporter in India’s City of Dreams and I was told that the best and fastest way to travel from Andheri to Oberoi Hotel was to take a local to Churchgate and then take a taxi. What my advisor meant by ‘local’ was local train, but the suffix ‘train’ is considered a wasteful appendage by Bombayites; only an outsider would call a local a ‘local train’. (Just as a Delhiite would drop ‘rickshaw’ from ‘auto rickshaw’ and merely hail, “Auto!”) Since I was moving from North to South - a direction opposite to evening peak-hour traffic – most of the seats were empty and, even though I could sit down, I stood near the door and enjoyed the breeze from the nearby Arabian Sea.

Now, as Churchgate Station approached, I came upon a horrible trait of humans – a trait native only to us Indians perhaps – that haunts me to this day. And as I was standing lost in my thoughts, I first encountered it through the sense of hearing. “Tak-tak-tak-tak!” the sound echoed in my ears like a magnified patter of giant raindrops on tin sheets. Only, the drops were not water but men, women and children hitting the iron floor of the bogey with terrifying speed. In a split-second, I was swept somewhere inside the compartment by the ruthlessly but systematically attacking mass of humanity that descended upon me from both sides. Every ‘occupiable’ inch of berth-space was taken up by this voracious mob, determined to crush anything that came their way. The whole spectacle was over in a matter of seconds. There were a few who, beaten to the punch by their more nimble-footed fellow commuters, could not find any resting place for their eager bottoms and, in exasperation, simply muttered obscenities at their own failure to perfectly time and execute Operation Berth Capture. By now the train had squeezed itself between the two platforms and just taken its last belch before agreeing to a final stop.

Dumbstruck, I slowly popped onto the platform, unable to believe the scale or speed of the entire episode. How could people pour into a train at such speed just like that, with utter disregard to those wanting to alight? Hell, how could well-dressed and (apparently) educated people scamper like raving rats just so they could travel seated? This was not what I had been told what Bombay was all about. If this was the shape that India’s own melting pot had taken, then I for one wasn’t going to be stirred in it. Not in the way the scene at Churchgate unravelled.

As I managed to find a standing space near a ticket-window pillar – without getting jostled around by the milling crowd, that is – my bewilderment continued. I saw tens of hundreds of people coming onto the platform from the subway and from across the road with a determination that belied their harrowing daily routines. Routines they must have been keeping for tiring years. Their gait was bouncy, not from excitement or pride, but from the urge not to miss their almost-always-on-time locals. That they had a few minutes to spare before the departure time did not deter them: they simply had to hurry. As if hurrying about was a prerequisite to being a Bombayite. Even years later, I cannot get a plausible explanation for all the hurrying around going on in Bombay – it must have gotten into their blood!

Leaving the protection of the pillar was not exactly a pleasant thought, but I had a conference to attend and so, plunging myself into the immense sea of people, I made my way to the taxi stand just outside the station. It took me quite a while to brush past that giant swell of human tide. (In fact, it would take me several weeks of practice in the art of dodging and pushing to learn how to negotiate the swarming railway platforms in Bombay while swimming against the tide, literally.)

Thankfully, all my experiences with Bombay and Bombayites were not ghastly – there were several pleasant surprises too. One great thing about Bombay, for instance, is the professionalism of its taxi and rick wallahs (auto-rickshaws, the three-wheeled taxis, are shortened to the spiffy ‘ricks’ in Bombay). The cabbies don’t look at you as if you are from another planet when asked to take you to a place not too far off from where you stand (which is what Delhi cabbies usually do, if they choose not to snicker at you in the first place). You can even hop into a cab before you tell the driver where you want to go. The best part is, you can take a ride in a taxi for less than two tenners – something the Delhi taxi guys would consider blasphemous.

Anyway, I took the taxi to Oberoi and, as the Premier Padmini cruised along Marine Drive, forgot about the hubbub at Churchgate and looked dreamily around me. This was Bombay, real Bombay! For Marine Drive and its line-up of skyscrapers is the scene almost every Bollywood flick shows you when your beloved rustic hero is transplanted from his humble village to the merciless, fast-paced world of a glamorous city. And which city in India can boast of glamour other than Bombay! I looked at the beautiful, placid sea to my right and envied the smartly dressed walkers on the pavement alongside. Especially the business tycoon-types who seemed to be regulars around those hours, many of them restraining their Dobermans or Alsatians at the leash. What would happen if they let go of the raring canines? I felt amused at the thought as the taxi swung into the entrance of the hotel.

Not wanting to tip the heavy-mustachioed janitor, who made for the taxi to open the door for me, I thwarted his move by flicking the taxi door open quickly and getting out in time. I paid the fare and quietly slipped into the hotel lobby. I’m not one of those (often fake) blue-blooded creatures used to other people opening doors for them, you see. I’m also not a person who allocates a good part of their meagre earnings for tipping people (which might be the real issue, actually)!

My first press conference started (almost) on time. Quite unlike those Delhi affairs that were pretty often late by half an hour to three full hours – the equivalent of an insipid Hindi movie. Other professional interactions that I later had with people in Bombay, whether it was a one-on-one meeting or a photo shoot, were mostly punctual. Bombay is more punctual than Delhi, I had always heard that, but now I could feel the difference myself. On that count, the city scored another brownie point in my appraisal book.