Alok Sud

The Snakeman is an avid photographer too !!

2009-04-22T15:47:00.001+05:30

I have in this blog written about my chance encounter with Capt. Suresh Sharma and how I ended up befriending this avid nature enthusiast and keen photographer. I keep recieving by email On a regular basis, his latest photographs on subjects that are close to his heart. I save all his images and admire them from time to time at liesure, often wishing these images were mine. I am putting up selected images of the captain so that more and more people can be exposed to this great adventurer.

His full work can be seen on flickr.com and you can know more about him from his websites :

www.snakehiss.com or

www.snakecell.org

All images here are courtesy Capt Suresh Sharma and all copyrights are his.

Wake Up, India !!!

2009-03-26T16:03:00.004+05:30

A famous tea company in India is currently running a TV advertising campaign called 'Jaago Re' (lit. Hey, wake up). It talks about how the average citizen needs to wake up to his responsibility in electing good candidates as the peoples representatives to the 15th Lok Sabha (House of commons in the Indian Parliament), elections for which would be held in a phased manner in April-May 2009. The results are expected to be announced on 16th May 2009 and the new house constituted thereafter.

We have been witnessing a steady decline in the standard of our members of parliament over the past two decades or so. In the early years of our Independence, we had the leaders from the freedom struggle who had dreamt of India’s independence and strived hard so that our country could take its rightful place in the commity of nations. They worked tirelessly to achieve economic milestones as well as in the development of its people.

Once the post-independence generation came to occupy these positions, they realised that being a member of parliament gave them an opportunity to make millions from public money by distributing a part of these gains to an ever-ready bureaucracy. So the politician-bureacrat-contractor clique came to rule but atleast they had a modicum of respectability about them since whatever they did was behind closed doors and their public face was one of respectability and they continued to pay lip services to the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’ (eradicate poverty).

But after 1985 or so, after the politicians had divided the electorate, first in the name of religion and thereafter in the name of caste, the candidate’s ability to win elections became the guiding principal while shortlisting candidates. Muscle-power became vital since stakes were large. So all sorts of mafia dons, smugglers, history sheeters, murder accused and convicted felons became the new darlings of the politicians. Some of them were in jails and running their rackets from there, be it extortion, abductions, smuggling, gambling or plain racketeering in government contracts. The scale of financial inducements offerred and a free flow of countrymade liquor have become the hallmarks of Indian Parliamentary elections of late since these are the only currencies available with the ganster-politician. Debate and discourse have long vanished from the electoral landscape.

We seem to be heading into an abyss of mayhem and anarchy. The frankenstein of gangster-turned-politician is about to gobble at the vitals of Indian Parliamentary Democracy. It is about time we wake up and vote with an eye on the future of the country and not get swayed by caste, religion or vote out of fear or inducement. I sincerely hope we wake up in time and bring about a revolution and Indian democracy is reborn.So my countrymen, wake up and vote sensibly with an eye on the future on the country, since that alone will secure your and your child’s future.

Jaago Re !!!

Bharat Ratna (Gem of India)

2009-03-05T17:26:00.009+05:30

It was in 1954 that civilian honours were first instituted in India. Since then only 41 eminent Indians have been bestowed India’s top hounour “The Bharat Ratna” (lit. The Gem of India). These awards have been in the following categories:

1 Academecian
1 Economist
1 Film maker
1 Industrialist
3 Scientists
4 Social Workers
5 Musicians
25 Persons in Public Life

It is indeed amazing that a country of such immensly talented people, many of whom have contributed so significantly to improving the quality of life of the populace has found only 41 people, of which a majority were politicians, worthy of it’s top civilian honour in almost 55 years. It works out to less than one per year and one per 60 million Indian people who have claimed Indian citizenship since independence.

Of these 41, 21 were awarded in the first 34 years of the institution of awards while 20 got the honour in the last 20 years. Of 25 from Public Life, a euphemism for politicians, 14 won the honour in their lifetime and 11 received it posthumously. Surprisingly in the last 20 years only 2 people managed the honour while alive and 9 were awarded posthumously. Obviously hectic political lobbying has been responsible for the posthumous awards. Imagine a person of the eminence of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad getting the award 34 years after he died, Sardar Patel being recognised 41 years after passing away and the famous Assamese leader lokpriya Gopi Nath Bordoloi being conferred the award nearly five decades after his death.

The amazement is further compounded when one considers the situation amongst non-politicians. Of the total of 16 awards in this group, 14 were given in the awardees lifetime and only two were posthumous awards viz; Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Satyajit Ray. Obviously the non-politician class who have very little lobbying skills while alive have no one to canvass support for them when they are no more. In nearly six decades since independence only one Industrialist, J R D Tata has been conferred the award. This in a country where large industry was seen as ‘Temples of modern India’.

It is indeed a pity that we can not find enough talented people to confer the nation’s awards outside of the political class. Are we as a nation bereft of talent ? I believe nothing could be further from the truth. What we lack is the ability to applaud, cherish and honour those who contribute to enhancing human life in any manner be it through their espousal of Social causes, by making good Films, pleasing our senses with their Art & Craft, Music, contributing to advancement of Science and Technology, creating Industry that makes affordable products and provides large scale employment or any other field of human endeavour.

This trait is visble in every walk of life. We are so poor at applauding our winners that even when someone wins a lifetime achievement award the applause dies down in a little while. In the western world that most of us tend to cite as a point of reference, the applause would last a great deal longer and get manifest in myriad other ways in day-to-day living. The awardees would be recognized on sight and accorded simple courtesies by the ordinary people while they go about their life and work. I donot know why in public places we shy away from acknowledging great personalities and reaching out to shake their hand and greet them to let them know that we care.

Many extremely popular and eminent personalities do not figure amongst the list of winners, notable amongst them Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Lokmanya Tilak and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. In the area of non-politicians the ommissions include people like the eminent environmentalist Sunder Lal Bahuguna and Medha Patkar, the world reknowned doctors like Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, Naresh Trehan, P K Sethi, Devi Shetty, R K Jain, S Ranawat and K K Venugopal, Scientists like J C Bose, spiritual gurus like Sadhu Vaswani and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Industrilaists like Ratan Tata, Narayan Moorthy, Ghanshyam Das Birla, Aditya Vikram Birla, Rahul Bajaj, Dhirubhai Ambani and Baba Kalyani, Media barons like Pranoy Roy and Khushwant Singh, Film personalities like Ashok Kumar, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Raj Kapoor and Gulzar.

Sampooran Singh Kalra or Gulzar as he is better known is a multi talented personality. From humble beginnings he has scaled dizzying heights that others can barely dream of. In a career spanning over four decades as writer, screenplay writer, dialogue writer, short story writer, lyricist, director of both film and television he has provided soulful lyrics to 96 feature films including evergreen hits like Mora gora ang laile, Do deewane shahr mein, Yaara silli silli, Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi and Aanewala pal jaanewala hai, directed 21 skillfully crafted masterpiece films like Machis, Mere Apne, Mausam, Meera, Aandhi, Khushboo, Koshish, Parichay and Lekin, produced such wonderful TV series like Jungle Book and Potli baba ki, partnered with stalwarts to produce music albums like Marasim with Jagjit Singh, Main aur mera saaya with Bhupen Hazarika, Vaada with Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Visaal with Ghulam Ali and Dil padosi hai with R D Burman and Asha Bhosle. This wordsmith beyond compare is going strong at 72 and I am sure has many more aces up his sleeve.

Gulzar has already bagged all the honours that this nation had to offer any creative genius in films : 20 Fimfare Awards including Best Lyricist(11), Best director(1), Best dialogue(4) Best story(1),Best documentary(1), Critics award for best film(1) and a Lifetime achievement award in 2002, 5 National Awards for Best Lyrics(2), Best screenplay(1), Best Direction(1) and Best popular film providing wholesome entertainment(1), The Sahitya Academy Award and The Padma Bhushan besides hundreds of honours bestowed by a nation of grateful moviegoers. The one honour that had continuosly been denied to the Mumbai film world, The Oscar by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was brought home by Gulzar in collaboration with A R Rehman for the song “Jai Ho” which has become a kind of anthem for the achievers from humble origins.

Why the government does not consider Gulzar for the award of Bharat Ratna baffles all his admirers.

From Slumdogs to Supergods

2009-02-24T06:42:00.003+05:30

The 81st Oscar Awards presentations yesterday ensured that all film enthusiasts woke up early and spent nearly five hours glued to their TVs. Indians had a special reason to rise early since it was for the first time that fellow countrymen were nominated in such a manner, all for one film ‘Slumdog millionaire’, A R Rehman for ‘Best original score’, A R Rehman for ‘Best lyrics’ for ‘O Saya’, A R Rehman and Gulzar for ‘Best lyrics for ‘Jai Ho’, and Resul Pookutty for ‘Best Sound Mixing’.

The whole country rejoiced in the stupendous success of the Danny Boyle directed story of Jamal Malik, (played by Dev Patel, an NRI actor settled in England) the slum dweller who strikes it big in a game show to change the course of his life, ignoring the temptations to take a short cut to wealth and a better life by choosing a path of crime that his brother Salim, played by Madhur Mittal, another promising young actor, chooses. That he manges to win over his girl Latika, played by another little known Bombay girl, Frieda Pinto, is what holds the audience spell bound. In this wonderful tale you want the good guy to win all through. It is as if the elements and God himself conspire to make him succesful. It is this wonderfully simple message that has had the global film audiences enthralled.

But one pauses to ask, was it a victory of Bombay Film Industry in anyway ? I dare to say ‘NO’. If at all it was a victory of good cinema over the usual mediocre stuff that the Hindi (rather Indian) film Industry churns out week after week, year after year. It was a thumbs up sign to those who want to achieve excellence in every aspect irrespective of whether or not anyone notices.

I am reminded of the story of a sculptor who was working on a statue in ancient Greece. An observer saw that there was an identical statue lying nearby and asked him why he had made two identical statues. He said he needs only one but had to make the second one since he had accidently chipped the nose of the first one. The observer asked where it was going to be installed and the sculptor replied ‘on top of that pillar’ pointing to a pillar about 5 meters high. ‘At that hieght who would know that the nose is chipped’ said the observer. The sculptor replied ‘I would know’.

The pursuit of excellence is what earns laurels and increasingly commercial success too since audiences have become so discerning that anything that is irrational, illogical and shoddily produced doesn’t last beyond the first two days at best in this age of instant nirvana with such rapid dissemination of information. A movie or a book might as well be dead by the first Sunday after release if it is shoddy. Those who have realized it and make the effort continue to rake it in while those who think they are smarter than the audiences and can take a short cut to fame and fortune are seen sobbing hysterically when it is all over and the audiences abandon their movies on day 2 if not on day 1 itself.

Rehman epitomises excellence in ones work, treating his work as worship. It is his humility that people talk about. His humble beginning and his ability to stay grounded even after achieving such magnificient height of success is what gets written about. His quality of film music is something that has become a kind of hallmark for film music in the last fifteen years or so that he has been on the horizon. Who can forget his excellently composed numbers be it from ‘Roja’ or ‘Bombay’ or ‘Dil Se’ or ‘Lagan’ or ‘Rangeela’ or ‘Swades’ or ‘Rang de Basanti’. Who can forget his rendition of ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Maa Tujhe Salam’.

Even his signature tune for ‘Airtel’, India’s leading telecom company, is testimony to his musical genius. I am sure many artistes would willing trade a lifetime of ordinary work to author a composition such as the Airtel signature jingle.

Every Indian, from all walks of life be it films, music, politics, sport or public life are gushing, tryng to place on record their feelings for the genius that is A R Rehman. In this moment of glory one needs to pause and ask, Where were Sukhwinder Singh, who sang Jai Ho in the movie and was slated to perform live at the Oscar awards ceremony and Gulzar, who wrote those excellent words that captured the minds of the global audiences, ‘Aaja aaja dil ke shamiyane ke tale, aaja zariwale neele aasmane ke tale, ‘Jai Ho’?? I hope the allegations that are flying thick in the Indian media about A R Rehman sabotaging their visits are untrue because I wouldn’t want to see my Idol with feet of clay.

A R Rehman has produced such great compositions at such a young age, he is only 43, that one can selfishly wish that he lives for a hundred years to enthrall us for our remaining days on this earth.

image courtesy ; Mark J. Terrill / AP

Judicial overreach

2009-02-14T15:59:00.004+05:30

The infamous Nithari killings of 2005-2006, in which Moninder Singh Pandher, a Noida businessman and his servant Surender Koli, were accused of raping and brutally murdering 19 young slum children, dismembering their corpses and disposing off the body parts in the sewage drain close by, rocked the whole nation. Surender Koli was further accused of Necrophilia (making love to corpses) and Necrophagia (eating corpses). The whole country was left speechless as gory details emerged in what can only be termed as ‘media frenzy’ at best and ‘trial by media’ at worst.

The media threw caution to the winds and made no provision for preserving the sanctity of the dead and went about the whole sordid saga without any concern for the basic tenet of jurisprudence ‘innocent till proved guilty’. They had already made up their collective minds about Pandher and Koli’s guilt. All sorts of legal experts and former police officials were brought in to sentence the guilty without the police, and later the CBI, having even filed the charge sheets. If the media had had their way Pandher and Koli would have been dead and buried a long time ago.

Ms. Rama Jain, the special CBI judge in Ghaziabad sentenced both Pandher and Koli to death in a landmark judgment announced yesterday. That the CBI had not even sought death for Pandher since he was not even in India at the time when the victim, Rimpa Halder was killed did not stop Ms. Jain in handing out the sentence. The CBI had ample evidence of Pandher’s philandering and debauchery but none whatsoever of his involvement in either the killing or the concealment and destruction of evidence.

What Ms. Jain said in her pronouncement about the ‘stench of a slaughter house’ pervading the Pandher residence being palpable a mile away to which ‘Pandher could not have been oblivious’ Is not enough to term this case ‘the rarest of rare’ to hand down a death sentence. By the same logic all residents of adjoining houses were guilty of the crime for which Ms. Jain handed a death sentence to Pandher. The stench did not provoke anyone to file a police complaint for over 18 months when the crimes were said to have been committed. Ms. Jain forgot that no one can be held to account for the criminal acts of another adult.

I feel this is a case of judicial over-reach and the sentence would be overturned by the Allahabad High Court in case of Pandher. He may be guilty of many other crimes but none so serious as to hang him. Pandher’s son Karandeep said that the matter of Pandher’s debauchery was between Pandher and his wife and even he would not like to comment on that. I think he had a point there.

Philandering or engaging in sexual acts with someone who has accepted some compensation is not an offence, unless that victim is a minor or the act is done under duress. That is not grave enough to hand out a death sentence. Pandher’s debauchery had already cost him his marriage and even his son was not living with him. He deserves to be punished for his criminal acts of enticing innocent girls and raping them.

I think Pandher has already realized that he can not lead a life that is anywhere near normal after what he has been accused of and as such asked his family members not to file an appeal and let him fade away. That would be an easy way out for him. His biggest punishment would be to sentence him to a term in jail and then live in a hostile atmosphere thereafter. The public memory, that is proverbially touted to be very short, is not that short so as to forget his gory crimes. I sense no one would come forward to embrace him or have anything to do with his family hereafter.

The house in Nithari would neither find a tenant nor a buyer. Nor would any member of Pandher’s family find the courage to ever spend a night there. As such it should be acquired by the administration and demolished to build a befitting memorial to those children who were brutally assaulted and killed within that house.

Travelling back in time - The Patiala Re-union

2009-02-10T16:45:00.003+05:30

Einstein’s theory of relativity postulates that no body can travel faster than the speed of light. However the human mind defies all logic and allows one to travel back and forth in time in split seconds. Recently I undertook such a journey, some thirty years back in time, at the behest of Dr Arvinder Singh Chawla, the Director of The Punjab School of Management Studies, my alma mater, to attend a re-union in the thirtieth year since we passed out in 1979, from what was then called The Department of Business Management, Punjabi University, Patiala.

The ball was set rolling when Dr Chawla sent the invitation in early January. Since I did not wish to be alone in such a gathering, I went about the pleasurable ordeal of re-connecting with all old batchmates, spread across the globe. I came to know that Rahul Sharma & Resham Singh had died in the interregnum. Of the twentyone alive, I was in touch with only one, RVS Minhas who happens to live close by in New Delhi. I had no clue about the others. However to my pleasant surprise it just took a few long distance calls, a few searches on Orkut, Facebook and LinkedIn, help from some really nice people in some company offices and some emails to re-establish the network.

A chance encounter with Somnath Walia while strolling in Connaught Place one lazy afternoon in January 2009 led to Rajinder Bhandari and Rakesh Singla, who in turn led me to Ms Sadhna Saini (now Sood) and Sanjiv Sachdev, who mentioned that Jagdish Chandra Sodhi was in JCT, Phagwara and Hazari Lal Singla till 2002 was with Fujitsu which led to another round of emails and telephone calls ending with success in locating JCS & HLS. A lucky break led me to Rajendra Prasad Pandove (Pikka), the younger brother of BCCI and Punjab Cricket boss M P Pandove. Pikka by chance mentioned that Iqbal Singh was in PRTC till a few years ago. This prompted another series of telephone calls and web searches culminating in Bhatinda where Iqbal is curently located.

LinkedIn opened the gates to Gurcharan Singh Woodwal, now a solicitor in Canada and Rakesh Chawla, now in the US, who offered me Harinder Singh Sahota’s contact details. “Red Skeleton”, the decades old tailoring shop in Patiala provided Rajinder Singh Nagi’s whereabouts in New Jersey, US where he owns convenience stores. A lead from Rajinder Bhandari about Narinder Kumar Saini led to another chain of telephone calls to Vikram Cements offices in Neemuch (MP), Delhi, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Bhatinda but with no trace of NK. However seeing my enthusiasm Bhandari deputed someone to go to Balachaur, NK’s village and obtain his contact details.

Iqbal mentioned that Kulwant Singh was last in Jalandhar with the Punjab Co-operative Department and Suresh Kumar Agarwal in Haryana Financial Corporation, Chandigarh. From there it took was some persuasiveness on the telephone to contact Kulwant and Suresh. It’s a wonder that they manage without an email ID in these days and Suresh doesn’t even need a cell phone. It must rank as the eighth wonder of the world.

A visit by Deen Dayalji, a good friend to R-9, Rajouri Garden, the one-time residence of Rajesh Sethi in Delhi led to his brother and then to Rajesh’s wife, Bindu who provided Sethi’s contact details in Thailand. About Harjinder Singh Goodwal I always knew he was from Jagson Paul Pharma, the makers of the famous ointment ‘Ringcutter’. A search on the internet yielded their office address in Hauz Khas, which led to their new office in Okhla where a telephone operator told me he had left ages ago and joined AIMIL Pharma in Gurgaon. Another web search and telephone call ensued. The guys at this place told me he had quit ages ago and started business but gave me his number. This led to an extremely surprised Harjinder on the phone when I called. He is at present recuperating from major surgery.

When I called up all these guys they were surely surprised but I am sure they were as glad to re-connect as I was. Regrettably no amount of research so far has yielded any information on Amrik Singh, the tall and lanky beared boxer, who I gather is settled in Canada. I haven’t stopped trying though. NK has assured me that he would help locate Amrik.

The journey to Patiala with RVS Minhas on the wheel on the beautifully laid out National Highway took around five hours on Saturday morning, but the mind had already raced back three decades to that day when I first landed at the university gate with my bags in tow. The neighbourhood of the university, be it Bahadurgarh, where one used to go to fetch the occasional bottle of booze for some celebration or the other or the tea shop at the main gate brought back many memories of those youthful days of recklessness.

The venue, ‘Kala Bhawan’ is a new addition to the campus. Tea and sandwiches started as soon as we arrived, on dot, at the appointed hour of 10:30 AM. Seeing RVS Minhas, Somnath Walia (with wife Sangeeta), Rakesh Singla, Rajinder Bhandari, RP Pandove, JC Sodhi, Iqbal Singh and HL Singla after ages was really heart-warming.

The function which started around 11:30 was an energetic song and dance affair with a large number of boys and girls chipping in with their efforts to welcome us all. What pleased us all was that the present batch strength of 140 has almost an equal number of boys and girls, a situation far removed from our times when a group of twenty three had only one girl student in Sadhna. Was it any surprise then, that we were always chasing after the girls from the English Department?

Lunch had to be in the town since alcohol can not be served on the campus. But in any case who was interested in eating. Guys just want to soak it in. So ‘100 Pipers’ played along as we went on this delightful journey back in time. Iqbal still can't resist singing if there is an opportunity and he enthralled us all with his excellent Punjabi Sufi renditions.

Meeting Dr B S Bhatia, Prof U C Singh, Dr R K Sehgal and Dr S K Bansal brought a torrent of fond memories and a few eyes were left moist. We also came to know of Dr P K Kapoor and Prof K C Singhal’s passing away in the intervening period. We reluctantly departed from there around 6:00 PM after assuring Dr Arvinder Chawla that we would return to our alma mater as and when called.

The party however carried on at the Punjab State Electricity Board’s VIP Guest House in Power Colony in Patiala which was arranged by Pikka, who is the PSEB's PR Boss. This was only for the 1979 batch. The day finally got over at around midnight. HL Singla’s wife Saroj, his daughter Rashi and Pikka’s wife Sangeeta joined us for breakfast on Sunday. After a liesurely round of stuffed paranthas and endless cups of steaming hot tea, we went over to Pikka’s house to meet his lovely children. It was my pleasure to get to meet Divya, Tanya and Akul. The family photograph of the Pandove family in their front lawn on that sunny Sunday afternoon shall continue to remind me of our re-union at Patiala for the rest of my life.

Millionaire Slumdog

2009-02-02T11:19:00.007+05:30

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ the film by Danny Boyle, is about the lives of an orphaned boy ‘Jamal Malik’, his older brother ‘Salim’ and their childhood companion ‘Latika’. Deven Patel, a first time film actor from England, who plays the protagonist’s role, is ably assisted by Frieda Pinto as ‘Latika’ and an amateur young man from the Mumbai slums playing ‘Salim’. It has veteran Hindi film stars like Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Saurabh Mishra in beautifully scripted, short but meaty roles.

The film is stark and holds a mirror to the reality of life in the slums. Its theme is provocatively violent though there is very little violence actually shown. It is full of police brutality, entrapment of slum kids for prostitution and organized beggary, roadside gambling, illicit liquor trade, communal flare-ups, hoodwinking of foreign tourists and various assorted petty crimes. It actually shows the filthy underbelly of Mumbai but it could well be any other big Indian city.

The multiplicity of experiences that Jamal goes through in life before he plots his way in to a game show as a participant prepare him well for winning a large sum in the game. However at the end of the day one when the show gets over, Jamal is ahead by ten million rupees but decides to ride his luck. Sensing that something is out-of-place, Anil Kapoor, playing the game show host gets Irrfan Khan and Saurabh Mishra, playing cops, to check him out. They resort to the usual brutal police methods to make him confess to cheating at the game. That is when he narrates the story of his life.

There may be nothing new in the story per se, but the treatment and the presentation are something one was totally unprepared for. Boyle has done well in taking unknown actors since any big star in the key roles would have glamorized and thus reduced the impact of ‘Slumdog’.

Amitabh Bachhan writing in his blog raised questions about the poor depiction of India in such films and about the morality and necessity of hawking poverty in Mumbai slums. While there may be some merit in what he says, one must not forget that film-making is essentially about story-telling. If you feel you have a good story that you think will provoke all right-thinking people in to action in some way, you should just go ahead and tell the story as you visualize it. Film is essentially a director’s medium.

Yes, it is true that the movie at times is too crass, like the 1973 scene where Amitabh Bachhan, the movie star’s helicopter is about to land and Jamal, who is an ardent devotee of the star, is locked inside a crude ramshackle toilet on the fringes of Mumbai airport. To escape from the imprisonment and to meet his idol, Jamal jumps out of the toilet, landing in a heap of sh*t. Then in that sh*t-laden condition he runs to greet the star and take his autograph. That scene should have been done a bit more aesthetically. Again that is my perception and I guess the director is free to present it as per the demands of the script or as he sees it.

However the highlight of the film would have to be the scene in which the older brother, Salim, who has become a gangster, forces Latika, whom Jamal, who has joined a call center as a chai-wallah (a tea boy), manages to locate after an extensive search, to sleep with him. It is an extremely touching scene where the sheer helplessness and rage of Jamal comes through as does his extreme affection for ‘Latika’. That he yearns to ‘protect’ her rather than ‘have’ her like ‘Salim’ is what distinguishes the two characters.

Danny Boyle has churned out an engrossing ‘masala hindi movie’ where the characters happen to speak in the English language. One only wishes the language was a little less profane, but such transgression is permissible, given that this is about the underbelly and no one from a Mumbai slum can be expected to have gone to a finishing school and speak the Queen's English.

Whether it deserves to win ten Oscar nominations is likely to be debated for long. It would, in all probability, end up winning three, may be four Oscars. The Bombay film industry ardently hopes that list would include an Oscar for our very own A.R.Rehman or at the very least Gulzar Sahib, for their excellent work in the song that comes at curtain call, ‘Jai Ho!’

That ‘Jamal’ ultimately manages to win twenty million rupees and gets his girl is what appeals to a large majority of the viewers. It is this fairy-tale ending that inspires euphoria.

image courtesy the producers of the movie

The bare truth

2009-01-28T17:16:00.009+05:30

'Satyam Computer Services Limited' (SCSL) was named after the sanskrit word for truth. The scam perpetrated by Mr.Ramalinga Raju has been termed 'a blot on image of India Inc.' by none other than our Prime Minster, Sh. Manmohan Singh.

It now appears that way back in 2002, an Income Tax investigation had unraveled a can of worms. A large scale evasion of Income Tax, many incidents of Insider Trading and related matters came to light but the enterprising income tax official was transferred and the files buried.

After the change of governments at the centre and the state of Andhra Pradesh, one would have thought that the new regimes, in the centre and in Andhra Pradesh, would go hammer and tongs after Mr.Raju, till then considered a protege of Mr.Chandra Babu Naidu, the erstwhile Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and an important partner of the NDA government at the centre. However as no such thing happened, it would be fair to assume that either the new regimes are incompetent or that Mr.Raju has managed to win new friends. We all know what is most likely to have happened.

Single-handedly, this man has jeopardised the careers of nearly 53,000 young men and women. He has nearly undone what nearly two decades of economic liberalisation had achieved for India Inc.'s image. After so many decades of the brain drain taking away our talent to pursue their dreams abroad, our young computer software writers and engineering talent had brought the entire western world to virtual dependence on our IT services. The west needed our low-cost IT services to stay viable and India benefitted because of the higher earnings of it's youth. This helped both India and the west.

But Mr.Raju's acts of ommission and commission at SCSL would have created some doubt about our ability to prevent recurrence of such scams. The TV footage of Mr.Raju donning a business suit travelling to the courts in his Mercedes car gives the impression that he is proceeding for a business meeting. If we do not act decisively and fast we might create an impression that political affiliations matter more to us than national economic interest.

It is obvious that Mr. Rama Linga Raju was not alone in this devious and long-duration scam. I pray and hope that good sense prevails upon our politicos and any effort at saving Mr. Raju are abandoned and all those who are guilty are punished forthwith.

The Satyam saga - blame it on the auditors

2009-01-24T17:40:00.003+05:30

It is now crystal clear that Mr. Rama Linga Raju, the Founder and till recently the Chairman of the board of Satyam Computer Services Limited, a listed, public-owned and widely traded company that is India’s fifth largest IT company by revenue and an E&Y award winner as ‘The most admired company’ in 2007 has cheated the Satyam investors.

He not only diverted funds from the reserves of the company to satisfy his unending appetite for land, he also created around 13,000 fictitious employee records to inflate the salary bill and siphon out money. Though the Satyam bankers have denied opening any bank accounts for these fictitious employees, it remains to be investigated how this money was transferred out of Satyam’s bank accounts. If any complicity by anyone at HDFC Bank, one of Satyam’s bankers is even suggested, Mr. Deepak Parekh should step down immediately from the Government appointed Satyam board chairmanship.

It is therefore no surprise that the net profit margins (NPM) of Satyam were lower than the top four IT companies for all these years. The balance sheets of Satyam over the last seven years show the NPM averaging at around 20% against the top four companies average of 28-30%. Which means by overcharging salaries he depressed the gross profit margins (GPM) and thus the NPM of Satyam.

In effect he also understated the Earnings per share (EPS), which led to a greatly reduced market value for the Satyam stock. He caused massive erosion in the daily trade turnover, which also caused a great revenue loss for the exchequer.

When cornered he admitted that he had overstated the GPM due to competitive pressures and that the actual GPM was much lower. What he wanted us to believe was that the profits were non-existent and never accrued to Satyam while the truth it appears is that the profits were real, the expenses were not and thus Raju was not merely guilty of window dressing the Satyam book of accounts. He was responsible for large scale swindling of investor wealth.

The question uppermost in the mind of a common man would be “Who guards the stake of a small investor whether investing through the primary or the secondary market or through the Mutual Fund route?”

Similarly the State needs to ask itself “Who ensures that the State gets its rightful dues in Income Tax, VAT, Security Trading Tax and so on?”

Obviously sharks like Raju are lurking to steal and swindle. What are the ‘Eyes and ears of the investors’ like SEBI doing? Just pinning the blame on Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), the Satyam auditors and sitting smug is not going to be enough. PWC are global players with more than two hundred years of experience and know well how to play this game of ‘passing the buck’. They would have reams of fine print in their agreement with Satyam to save their skins.

The games must stop. The law should be allowed to take its course and Raju tried in a fast track court. If convicted he should be made to pay dearly. All his assets must be taken away and he should be forced to lead the life of an ordinary man once again.

If he is all that smart, let him start Chapter II of his life or better still Satyam II, if anyone would lend him a dime for business.

Priorities for public spending

2009-01-16T13:19:00.003+05:30

Everyday as I drive from home to work I cross the stretch of road near the foot of the Savitri cinema flyover in South Delhi. Daily I wonder why after such revolutionary leaps in road building technologies is that part of the road so uneven, potholed and bumpy.

My civil engineer colleagues, who I thought should know better, usually give the explanation of inferior quality of raw materials being used. The civic authorities come up with the novel explanation that the plants to make hot bituminous mix are located too far away from the city, as per Supreme Court (SC) guidelines which means to the mix gets laid at a much cooler temperature than desired and this leads to the prevailing situation. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) would like to paint the SC as the villain of the piece for its insistence that Delhi residents get a less polluted air to breathe. According to the MCD the residents of Delhi have only one choice – Poor carcinogenic air to breathe or lousy roads.

No one seems to have an answer to my next query. If the choice is so simple then how is it that the entire length of roads is not so bad and only patches are rotten? And why are the roads in and around the city center viz. Connaught Place, India Gate, Parliament House and Jan Path so much better? Obviously these places are at a much greater distance from the hot mix plants, which are located outside town.

We as a nation have convinced ourselves that our politicians are superior beings and deserve the best that modern technology offers. The lesser mortals can simply go to hell. We have come to believe collectively that these suckers, who have no choice but to have their incomes taxed at source and very little chance to evade taxes, have no right to drive on good roads. The politicians most of whom are accused of rioting, looting, arson, many times rape and even murder have a birth right to good roads so that their imported luxury SUVs and latest brands of highly prized sedans can take them to state assemblies and to Parliament in total comfort.

Till this set of notions change we are doomed to drive lousily built Indian cars on lousy roads. When the cars break down we are doomed to shoddy service at ill-equipped workshops and have ourselves cheated by some manufacturer of spurious motor parts, who has even forgotten when he last paid any VAT or income tax but lives in a beautiful mansion in a swish South Delhi neighborhood which would obviously have much better roads.

Our people have to understand that Quality is not an accident. It is an outcome of sincere and hard work over long period of time. It is something you achieve when you tell yourself that I have paid the price so I am entitled to what I seek. I am not going to settle for anything that is second best. It is only when a vast majority of Indians cultivate this kind of value system that the ‘Made in India’ label would become a hallmark of quality. It s only then that the 14 km. Ride to my office would be a smooth and comfortable one.

Dilli ki sardi !

2009-01-03T15:22:00.006+05:30

(The Delhi winter cold)

I remember a song from 'Zameen', a film released few years ago which compares love for the beloved with 'Dilli ki sardi' (Delhi's biting winter cold) probably because both don't allow one to sleep in peace.

Delhi had an unusually warm December with average temperatures remaining 4-5 degrees celsius warmer than normal. The weather office stated yesterday that December 2008 was the warmest since 1953. Well it took them 33 days to know what the average Delhite already knew well in advance. I guess they must have been sifting through old tattered and moth-eaten registers to know for sure that it was 1953 and not 1853.

The weather gods in the last few days are trying to make amends and since the dawn of this new year the average temperatures are about 3-5 degrees celsius cooler than normal for January. Yesterday night the minimum was 3 degrees and today morning was around 8 degrees celsius. The thick fog that engulfs the whole city makes the experience almost poetically romantic. A brisk walk in the morning (with not more than 20 of the 200 or so regulars in our park) leaves one totally energised and ready to face the day.

One is beginning to enjoy the biting cold. I guess Delhites would now get an excuse to gorge on the winter goodies like 'Gajar ka halwa', 'Gulabjamuns', 'Makki ki roti and sarson ka saag', 'Gachak', 'Moongphali', 'Bhugga' and many other delicacies which our sweetmeat shops have meticulously crafted to shift the focus from the cold.

I guess in every part of the world there are such man-made diversions associated with extremes of climate to shift focus from the cold and attendent discomfort. One starts looking forward to the acutely cold weather so that one can savour such treats that are associated with extreme cold and one is free of any guilt. In a climate any less hostile partaking of these delicacies provokes a feeling of guilt.

In case any one reading this piece is familiar with such weather related goodies please offer your inputs and enrich me.

How mega brands cope with these changing times

2008-12-31T11:00:00.004+05:30

Changing times require corporations to make suitable changes to stay afloat and to live upto investor expectations. While some resort to job cuts, others go overboard in cost control. However the really large global corporations revise their business plans drastically, sometimes it means taking a new look at all their properties to see if they can be put to some alternate use.

2008 - The year of amazing highs and painful lows

2008-12-26T15:13:00.018+05:30

2008 would go down in Indian public memory as a year of extremes, the highs of the year were exhilaratingly higher and more glorious than those of past many decades while the lows were so horrendously painful that we may not forget this year for a long, long time.

The year that was saw India achieve many notable milestones - the most outsatnding being the landing of a probe Chandrayaan on the moon with pinpoint precision and accuracy and at a cost that was a fraction of what the western world spent on similar projects. This one achievement can establish India as the world's leading satellite launch agent. It can help us garner billions of dollars of global business both in terms of the launch itself as also the satellite time that we can sell.

The second major feat was in the arena of sport. Something that no Indian sportsman had achieved, since the beginning of the modern Olympics over a century ago, was achieved by Abhinav Bindra when he won the shooting gold at Beijing. The gold also demonstrated to other sportspersons that one has options all the time : the option to curse the officialdom or the option to get up and do something about the way things are.

Of course there was the added joy of Vijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar, our boxers from Bhiwani, picking up India's first boxing medals at the Olympics. It was equally heart-warming to see Vishwanathan Anand emerge stronger and claim the undisputed World Championship in chess.

The impossible was achieved by our boys in cricket when they beat team Australia in their own backyard to emerge as a force to reckon with. The test series and ODI victory over Australia was followed by beating England in a test and ODI series comprehensively in India by Dhoni and his boys. The emergence of a galaxy of new, younger, fitter and hungrier stars in a variety of sporting discipines gives us tremendous hope for the future.

The salience that the first T-20 Indian Premier League (IPL) championship achieved has catapaulted India to a global leadership role in cricket. India is a major moneyspinner for world cricket, thanks in no small measure to our billion plus cricket crazy population. Today when India speaks, the cricketing world listens. In the earlier era Indians went to faraway lands to pursue careers, today cricket brings many international cricket stars to Indian shores to seek fame and fortune.

These were all moments that would be etched in our collective memory for long.

2008 also saw the horrying terror attacks on the Indian state and its hapless citizens in Mumbai, Jaipur, New Delhi and at countless other places. The patience of a giant is time and again being tested by a pygmy amongst nations. Pakistan doesn't realise that the state of Pakistan could easily get crushed should this gentle giant merely wipe the irritating sweat off it's brow. The only solace in this entire episode was the emergence of a national feeling against terror, with people rising up in arms agains Islamist jihadis, irrespective of their religious beliefs unlike the past when people responded to such extreme provocations based on whether they were Hindu or muslim. That India manged to gather world opinion in its favour and organized a UN Security Council resolution against the LeT (or JuD, as it is now known) speaks volumes about not only the fairness of our claims but also the victory of our diplomacy and our economic policies.

The global financial meltdown which has already caused tremendous hardship to many by erosion in net worth and loss of jobs and employment would be the catastrophe of the century. It is variously estimated to be graver and more severe than the great depression of 1930s. Many iconic centuries old financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Citigroup, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae just wilted in the aftershocks of this grave crisis. Analysts anticipate this crisis to last over 3-5 years in the west. However China and India appear to be somewhat better-placed to cope, considering their large populations and growing, domestic consumption-driven economies.

So I feel 2008 would go down as a highly forgettable year in our collective memory. A year which need not have been.

Pakistan - A state of denial

2008-12-25T13:00:00.009+05:30

The events of the last month have amazed the global community. Post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, when ten armed terrorists of Pakistani origin, the intelligence agencies of the countries whose nationals were targetted agreed that these ten Pakistani men were trained, armed and provided technical and logistical support by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or the Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD) as it is now called. They were aided and abetted by the ISI and to a limited extent by the Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who virtually operates as a Guest of the Pakistani establishment, residing a few hundred meters from the President's bungalow in Clifton area of Karachi.

The Pakistani media is largely irrelevant in the current scenario since we can not be sure of its objectivity. The establishment has reduced the once independent media to a mere propaganda arm of the state apparatus. Some good stories do emerge from time to time that provide a ray of hope like the story on the surviving terrorist's home, family and village elders etc and the Nawaz Sharif interview where he accepted that the surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasav was a Pakistani national and his family was in isolation and their village cordoned off and out of bounds of world media.

One has just to see the glaring anomalies in the state's positions which have shifted faster than sand dunes in a desert storm. Any self-respecting and truly patriotic Pakistani must be hanging his head in shame at the brazenness of the Pakistani establishment.

One day the Pakistan government wants evidence of Pakistani nationals' involvement from India. The evidence that results in the JuD being branded a terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and banned worldwide also forces Pakistan government to claim arrest of the JuD leader, sealing of their offices and freezing of their bank accounts. But to them that is still not evidence enough.

When Ajmal's father acknowledges to the media that Ajmal is indeed his son even that is not evidence enough. Zardari and Gilani and their assorted lackeys go to extremely untenable positions saying one thing one day and contradicting themselves, and many times other spokesmen, the next day.

No sensible observer of world events has any doubt whatsoever that the ISI is deeply involved in the affairs of LeT / JuD and its personnel are manning these organisations to wage a low cost war on India while the Pakistan government continues to hide behind the fig leag of non-state actors may be involved.

I think the time has come to call Pakistan's bluff. If India does not act decisively now this menace would not die. The Indian politician must stop playing the Muslim card. I sincerely hope the likes of A.R.Antulay get a well deserved kick on the back. Such guys need to understand that this is the time to play the India card.

Uncle Sam needs to ensure that denial does not become an instrument of foreign policy of the Pakistan state. If that happens, then the government of Pakistan would be responsible for the ensuing destruction and for denying its citizens the right to life and liberty since they would be pitted against the might of the civilized forces of the world who at this juncture seem well and truly behind India.

Information post ....

2008-12-25T12:58:00.001+05:30

I have transferred 17 posts today from alok-sud.blogspot.com (Radical Thoughts) to aloksud.blogspot.com (my main blog). The purpose is to provide access to all visitors of my blog to all my documented thoughts.

The aftermath of terrorism

2008-12-08T13:55:00.009+05:30

The events of the last ten days since the terror attacks in prime south Mumbai locations, which left the nation dazed and extremely angry, have seen a huge amount of writing in the print media and blogosphere. A vast amount of air time has also been spent in discussions on various aspects of the issue on TV and radio.

However the following thoughts emerge after having religiously followed the discussions:

That ten terrorists arrived unhindered and managed to land at the Gateway of India shows without any doubt that somewhere someone who was supposed to guard our shores goofed up. We need to identify and hold accountable the people concerned and if there is an iota of doubt about their motives they should be penalized.
The Taj & Oberoi Trident staff have shown remarkable courage in extremely trying times. We must appreciate that they were not trained to handle this kind of a situation and hence must be recognized and suitably rewarded.
This attack and its aftermath have shown to us the true character of our politicians. Some of the placards which one has seen at various rallies in Mumbai and around the country show the utter contempt that a vast majority of the Indian people have for this class. It should goad the political parties to introspect. They must try to make amends in the general elections that are fast approaching by fielding men of a nationalistic fibre who would rise above partisan politics in times of national crisis and refrain from politiking in calamities.
Some renowned columnists have written about their childhood memories of the grandeur of The Taj. Many have gone to great lengths bragging about how they discovered the joys of 'The Wasabi', 'The Tiffin', 'The Ocean Bar', 'The Zodiac Grill' and so on. One columnist went on to write about an unsubstantiated story of a waiter offering the appropriate wine glasses to a white guest who when hostage inside the hotel whisked away some rare wine for consumption when the hotel was burning. Can one say anything to these trivia mongers disguised as celebrity columnists who I guess are just trying to earn some brownie points with the owners of the two hotels so that they can wrangle some invites when these hotels re-open. All of this so that these celebrity trivial writers can get sloshed on some expensive and prized spirits and wines for free.
That we lost our top cops just as the battle of Mumbai started shows we need to ask serious questions about hierarchy and line of command in our armed forces. It is akin to losing the army chief in the first half hour of a war. Why should they have visited the site so soon. That the inferior equipment used by them offered no protection is a national shame. It is a sin that we can not wash away in a million years.
There are technologies, such as 'Snifex' available, that can detect even a millionth of a gram of almost all known types of explosives. Why were these systems not in place in The Taj & The Oberoi hotels should be investigated? These hotels are known to charge upwards of Rs. 25,000 per room night and over Rs. 2,000 per head for a meal sans liquor. If they can't afford it for their top customers it is unreasonable to expect the Government of India to install it in public places ?

If a serious effort is made to find answers which have so far evaded public eye, I am sure we may be able to prepare better and see terrorism being thwarted in future.

Delhi state assembly elections

2008-12-02T16:43:00.000+05:30

It is evident from the general anti-politician mood, and more so anti-incumbent party mood prevailing in the country today that ruling parties are not expected to do well in whichever state goes to the polls.

Delhi state assembly elections happened in the midst of the Mumbai terror attacks. The jihadi elements who caused so much devastation and death at The Taj Hotel were still engaged in a fierce battle with the NSG Commandos and a fight to the finish was underway when polling started on Saturday 29th Nov 2008 at 8:00 AM.

Delhities were out in large numbers to vote. The voter turnout was over 60% which was almost 6% higher than the last assembly elections.

Coupled with the anti-incumbency mood arising out of the Mumbai terror attacks and the insensitive effort to exploit the death and destruction of Mumbai in the fag end of the Congress media campaign was the huge daily distress caused to hundreds of thousand commuters, by the hare-brained BRT traffic management system. These are sure to lead the Shiela Dixit led Congress government in Delhi out of office. Psephologists predict a keen contest with the BJP but I feel BJP will romp home with some help from the independents.

I hope the expected rout of Congress in Delhi would be a lesson to the likely new BJP led dispensation that you can not afford to ignore the public sentiment.

Let it be known that the people want career politicians and not dynastic politics. We deserve accountability and transparency in public life. We alos need a just and fair civic society that believes in live and let live. Divisive politics must end. We do not want another basket case of a failed state like Pakistan ruled by feudal families who continue with mindsets of the 16th century in the 21st century.

In this information age, we the people of India would not allow that.

Yeh Jo Desh Hai Mera !!

2008-12-01T18:00:00.009+05:30

(This country of mine, this line is inspired by the famous song of the hindi film 'Swades' by Ashutosh Gowarikar starring Shahrukh Khan)

India is a land of culture and strong democratic traditions. Since times immemorial it has been recognized as a land of learning and wisdom. But the events of the last few days in Mumbai when hundreds of innocent people were massacred by islamist jihadis with links to Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Tayebba (LeT ; army of the pure) force me to abandon my cosmopolitan and democratic heritage and values and seek vengeance.

The memory of the dead is not served well by our politicians. Mouthing platitudinous comments like ‘we have provided incontrovertible evidence of LeT’s involvement to the government of Pakistan’ is of little significance. In the past too, India has provided the international community with ample evidence of the involvement of LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed and the like in similar terror strikes. It is naïve, rather stupid of us to believe that the rogue elements within the fast-Talibanizing society in Pakistan, spearheaded by the demonic ISI will call a halt to their nefarious designs to destabilize India.

It is high time we wake up and smell the coffee. We need to first understand what we are up against before we can declare a war on terror. We are up against a failed state, which under the garb of democracy propagates feudalism, which in the last 60 years of its independence has failed on all parameters of development, which is woefully devoid of industry and economically so weak that it can not even pay for two weeks of its imports and now seeks to confuse its citizens with the ultimate opiate “even India is no better” so that they do not revolt and the ruling elite continues its dynastic rule for generations to come.

It is time we decided enough is enough and gave hot pursuit to the rogues who cause death and destruction in Indian cities including those behind the recent Mumbai attacks. We need to show that the benign sleeping giant has awakened. That India of today is a mighty and self-respecting nation, who refuses to allow the likes of ISI, LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed to kill even one Indian and all efforts of disrupting our lives will be dealt with firmly. They would only understand strong and decisive action, not mild and veiled threats. Only a strong adversary gets respect in present times and we need to show we are strong and capable. If we do not act decisively now we would forever be consigned to living our lives in fear.

The political leadership knows all that needs to be done. Any more advice is meaningless. Any effort by them of obfuscating matters by appointing empowered teams of experts to help in deciding the government’s response will meet with a terrible backlash from Indian society. Rahul Gandhi was spot on when he said he did not want India to be seen as a nation of Wimps.

Sh. Man Mohan Singh should disregard the advice of Sh. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s External Affairs Minister who said a war between two nuclear states can be catastrophic. It just goes to show how out of sync with India of today he is. The youth of India would be willing to die in a do-or-die nuclear war with Pakistan if need be but hate to die meaningless death at the hands of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.

The message of the youth of India is clear. Either carry the battle to Pakistan’s backyard or make way for a leadership that understands the youth of today. The ruling party needs to pick up the signals fast or else the young people of India would speak in a deafening roar at the next elections.

That politicians like Shiv Raj Patil, India’s Home Minister and R. R. Patil, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who tried to pretend that the Mumbai attacks were ‘one of those things that happen in a big city’ have been shown the door are good omens. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh must also be cashiered for his insensitivity in trivializing this national calamity and taking his family and friends on a conducted tour of The Taj Mahal Hotel and The Oberoi on Saturday. You cannot trample on the society’s sentiments so ruthlessly and hope to remain in a seat of power. It would be suicidal for Congress in Maharashtra if he is allowed to stay even for a day.

Mumbai must be the last Indian city to be attacked by terrorists backed by Pakistani authorities. My motherland must never be held to ransom by these or similar elements. Anyone who tramples on my fellow countrymen must never go free. He must be made to pay dearly. I am sure the whole world would stand by India should such an act recur.

5-0 brownwash for Pietersen and his boys

2008-11-27T17:07:00.000+05:30

The 6 wicket defeat inflicted last night by Dhoni and team at Barabati Stadium upon Kevin Pitersen and his boys was sweet, rather extremely sweet. Actually Viru, Sachin, Suresh and Mahi ensured we went without dessert yesterday. A 5-0 win over England in an ODI series, unbelievable doesn't even begin to describe the superlative feeling.

The whole nation went into celebration mode last night. One began wondering aloud if it was destined to be a 7-0 series win and if such a win has ever been recorded by any team against any opponent in a 7 game ODI series. I am sure the statisticians must have spent the night researching historical statistics. The bookies must be calculating what odds to offer on such an outcome.

The whole nation was aghast today morning when they got to know of the Mumbai terror attacks and that brought an abrupt end to the celebrations of last night.

While we would like to celebrate & felicitate Dhoni's boys for a job well done, we must stop and shed a few tears for those who met an untimely death at the hands of a band of misguided youths calling themslves the "Deccan Mujaihideen".

It is about time someone told these guys that no houris await them in heaven after their martyrdom. What awaits them in an unglorious end on the other side of the barrel of highly motivated police and armymen who would ensure no terrorist escapes alive.

That the English team has called off their tour in these circumstances is totally understandable.

Mumbai under siege

2008-11-27T16:35:00.011+05:30

The dastardly terrorist attacks on innocent civilians by an organisation that calls itself "Deccan Mujahideen" at 12 or so crowded locations in Mumbai that started last night and continues as I write must be condemned by all right thinking Indians.

This is the time for all political parties to take a non-partisan view and rally behind the Maharashtra and Central Governmental agencies who are engaged in fighting the radicals. A large number of high-profile foreign visitors are hapless victims to this scrouge. The Governments of the countries whose citizens are affected have reposed their trust in our security agencies. As per latest reports from the TV and media, 14 brave policemen have laid down their lives in this valiant battle and more are even at present fighting the battle at grave personal risk.

I continue to hold my belief that guns don't resolve issues and that all weapons must necesarily be in governmental control. Civilians must be emboldened to never need a weapon and our policing and intelligence gathering systems must be strengthened.

We must not fall victim to the usual civil liberties groups who are quiet today but once the heat and dust settle will come out clamouring for the rights of the radicals and their supporters. However the authorities must also make a conscious effort not to give them any reason to, by not picking up and detaining people without and strong evidence etc. This is the time when civil rights can be foresaken in larger public interest. I would be more than willing to foresake mine. What does the average Indian think ? I invite comments.

Official media briefings suggest that nearly 130 people have died in these attacks. May God grant peace to the departed souls and courage to those they leave in mourning to bear the irreparable loss. This loss of precious human lives was totally unjustified and deserves to be condemned. Such reprehensible action can not have sanction of any faith or religion.

I am sure my countrymen would conduct themselves in an orderly fashion and not fall prey to the nefarious designs of the terrorists. I am certain those killed were killed because they were where they were and not because of their faith.

image courtesy : www.Reutersindia.com

3 up .. 4 to go

2008-11-20T17:53:00.000+05:30

Mahi and the boys have shown that if you try hard enough even fate conspires to make you succeed. Fortune truly favors the brave.

At the Green Park in Kanpur today India lost the toss. England elected to bat first, a decision anybody in Pietersen's place would take given that the pitch was expected to help the batsmen. And a big score on the board never fails to put the other team under tremendous stress.

Mahi's boys managed to get the English boys out for a modest score of 240 in a match reduced to 49 overs each side. Dhoni managed to get four dismissals, 2 stumpings and 2 catches. Harbhajan was the best Indian bowler, getting 4 wickets in his quota of 10 overs, bowling 2 maidens and giving away only around 4 runs per over. In the home team's innings Virender Sehwag top scored with 68 while all others who came later also chipped in with useful knocks. When bad light forced play to be suspended after 40 overs, India was placed at 198 for 5. Since play could not be resumed due to bad light the Duckward Lewis rules were brought to bear and India was adjudged the winner. Harbhajan was adjudged the Man of the Match.

So India is 3-0 up and M S Dhoni and the boys must be on cloud nine. But guys don't let up. India needs a 7-0 brownwash for the whites. Give them an Indian Christmas gift they won't forget in their whole life.

Yuvraj Singh on fire

2008-11-18T13:48:00.000+05:30

After licking the aussies in the recent test series 2-0 to reclaim the Gavaskar-Border trophy, the Indian cricket team is currently playing a seven match ODI series against the English team led by K Pieterson.

The Indian middle order was bolstered by the match winner from Chandigarh, Yuvraj Singh who in the first match at Rajkot on last friday hammered a wonderful 137 off just 78 balls, hitting exactly a 100 runs in boundaries and sixes. And yesterday at Indore he pummelled the English bowling attack to score 122 runs in 117 balls and also claimed 4 wickets. In both the matches he has been adjudged the man of the match.

Yuvi has shown he has not lost it yet. His deft touch was very evident in these two games. He was on fire and one wishes he goes on like this. If he goes on like this we are likely to give a 7-0 drubbing to the visitors. Indian supporters would be delighted with such an outcome which can lift the country's morale in these recessionary times and lift the pall of gloom which hangs across the entire Industrial and corporate landscape of India.

Modern day Vishwakarma deserves a Bharat Ratna

2008-11-18T13:44:00.002+05:30

In the pantheon of Hindu gods, Vishwakarma, the celestial engineer holds pride of place. When Lord Brahma, the creator, wanted to create the universe he entrusted the task to Vishwakarma who completed the task to perfection in the stipulated time. It was therefore ordained that a day be set aside to offer special prayers to Vishwakarma and so Vishwakarma Puja is celebrated by all artisans to this day in all parts of the country.

When a resurgent India ushered in an era of liberalization in 1991 under the Prime Minister Sh. Man Mohan Singh, then Finance Minister of India, a modern day Vishwakarma was required to upgrade the inadequate railway infrastructure to one that was state of the art and futuristic on one hand and built in reasonable time and with less than abundant financial resources. The choice was narrowed down to Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, someone who was known to have always lived up to his word and honor the trust reposed in him. He had retired from the Indian Railways a year earlier.

Sreedharan was born on 12 July 1932 in Karukaputhoor in Palakkad district of Kerala. The surname Ellatuvalapil belongs to the famous Tharavad in this part of Kerala. He was a classmate of T. N. Seshan, the former Chief Election Commissioner of India in school. He later studied at the Victoria College in Palghat and then graduated as an engineer from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada (now JNTU). After a short tenure as a lecturer in Civil Engineering at the Kerala Polytechnic in Kozhikode and a year at the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice, he joined the Indian Railways in its Service of Engineers. This was through a nation-wide selection procedure and his first assignment was in the Southern Railways as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954.

In 1963, a huge tidal wave washed away parts of Pamban bridge that connected Rameshwaram to mainland Tamil Nadu. The Railways set a target of six months for the bridge to be repaired while Sreedharan's boss, under whose jurisdiction the bridge came, reduced it to three months. Sreedharan was put in-charge of the execution and he restored the bridge in 46 days. The Railway Minister's Award was given to him in recognition of this achievement.

In 1970 - 75, as the deputy chief engineer, he was in charge of implementation, planning and design of Calcutta Metro, the first ever metro in India. Anyone who is familiar with the topography of Calcutta would know how this entirely underground service was constructed without jeopardising any existing structure on the ground though it was terribly delayed due to the land acquisition issues in a communist regime.

There has been another first to his credit. It was during his tenure as Chairman and Managing Director of the country’s premier shipbuilding company Cochin Shipyards that their first ship, RANI PADMINI, was launched. He was General Manager, Western Railways during 1987-89 and was elevated to the post of Member Engineering, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India. He retired from Indian Railways in 1990.

He was appointed the CMD of Konkan Railway on contract in 1990. Under his stewardship, the company executed its mandate in seven years. The project was unique in many respects. It was the first major project in India to be undertaken on a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) basis; the organisation structure was different from that of a typical Indian Railway set-up; the project had 93 tunnels along a length of 82 km and involved tunneling through soft soil. The total project covered 760 km and had over 150 bridges. Many new technologies were developed to overcome topographical limitations. That a public sector project could be completed without any significant cost or time overrun is no mean achievement.

He was made the Managing Director of Delhi Metro and by mid-2005. He had put in a condition of non-interference by politicians in his administrative decision-making which was granted with a view to meet tight deadlines and minimal disruption of civic life in Delhi. The first phase of the project covering three lines of a total length of about 70 kms was commissioned in 2005. Line 1 (a length of 23 kms over ground), Line 2 (a length of 11 kms underground) and Line 3 (a length of 36 kms over ground) are already operational and carry over 3 million passengers daily. All the scheduled sections were completed before their target date and well within their respective budgets.

Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh while inaugurating the underground section on December 19 2005 appreciated the efforts of the Delhi Metro and observed, "The time has come for all of us to think big and think into the future. The 21st century will be the Century of Asia and without doubt the Century of India but to hasten this journey, we have to create the required social and economic infrastructure." And think big, Sreedharan certainly did. The phase I is expected to generate substantial benefits. Not only would it bring down the number of buses on the roads by 2,600, it would increase the average speed of buses from 0.5 km per hour to 14 km per hour. Two million man-hours per day would be saved due to reduction in journey time. Fuel cost worth Rs 5 billion per year would also be saved.

"We had an able and experienced team leader in Sreedharan. He spelt out the mission statement and the corporate culture clearly to one and all. The idea was to make Delhi Metro a world class Metro, a vehicle to promote dignity and discipline in the city," recalls the chief public relations officer of the DMRC, Anuj Dayal. "Sreedharan’s personality was a crucial factor. He led by example."

The "corporate culture" accordingly lays out that integrity of executives and staff should be beyond doubt; punctuality is the key word; targets are most sacrosanct; organization must be lean but effective; corporation must project an image of efficiency, transparency, courtesy and "we-mean-business" attitude; and construction should not lead to ecological or environmental degradation.

What contributed in no small measure to DMRC’s success was the autonomy given to the managing director. "Sreedharan took up this task on the condition that he should be allowed to choose his own team. Furthermore, he came to enjoy a fair degree of autonomy. Financial powers were vested in the managing director. Also, the managing director was the last authority on tenders," explained Dayal.

Another precondition was the minimum interference of the government. The work culture was so designed as to reduce dependence on subsidies. Soon the message went down the line that there is nothing called a free lunch or freebies. The organization therefore was able to resist pressures from many quarters. Even the Prime Minister bought a ticket for enjoying a ride on the Metro.

What makes the DMRC a case study of management is the insertion of a clause into the contract with companies that they must have an Indian partner. Consequently, the DMRC is procuring the trains from Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Bangalore, and elevators are also being produced indigenously. Another feature is the punctuality with which the DMRC pays its contractors, who are called business associates.

The success of such a venture would have been impossible without divine intervention. Any other project of this magnitude might have got bogged down in litigation, but not so with the Delhi Metro. There are about 400 court cases pending in the courts, no court has given any stay order till date. This meant the Delhi Metro could go on executing its work without worrying too much about cost escalation or delay.

In the past nine years, the Delhi Metro has redefined public relations to a certain extent. It did not employ conventional methods, though. Instead, it chose alternate ways to generate goodwill for the organization. Fortunately, it did not need to look far. In ensuring minimum inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians alike, the Delhi Metro successfully converted a challenge into an opportunity. That paid rich dividends too. All utilities were diverted in advance to ensure that there was no disruption of water, electricity, sewerage and telephone connections during the construction of the area. Barricades were put up and an alternate traffic plan drawn up with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and in collaboration with Delhi Police. Also, new roads were built or the existing roads widened to accommodate traffic.

The Delhi Metro organized community interaction programmes for redressing problems that arose among the local people. Every Monday, heads of department would meet and set new or review targets. "We have also devised a reverse clock," says Dayal.

Not only does Delhi Metro offer a more comfortable and safe travel for the commuters, it would help reduce atmospheric pollution levels by 50 per cent. Commending the Delhi Metro for paying due attention to environmental concerns, the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi recently said, "The construction had been undertaken in an eco-friendly manner and ten trees had been planted for each one felled."

The Delhi Metro has also secured ISO 14001 certification for adhering to environment protection norms and the OSHSAS 18001 certification for meeting world standards in protecting the health of workers and passengers alike. Another hallmark of its operations has been labor standards. It employs 45 persons per kilometer of work. This ratio is one-third of that of the organizations elsewhere.

Sreedharan was given the sobriquet of Metro Man by the media. In 2005, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the government of France. He had previously announced that he would like to retire by the end of 2005, but at the behest of Prime Minister Sh. Man Mohan Singh, he agreed to carry on for another three years to oversee the completion of the second phase of Delhi Metro. He has also been approached by Pakistan Government for the development of the Lahore Metro plan, an offer he politely declined.

He has never chased monetary reward. In a country with billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, a man of his abilities could have written his own paycheck but he chose to serve India and inspire teams of brilliant engineers to chase the same dream. That some of his junior team members were picked up by the corporate world at salaries that were 50-60 times higher than what the government jobs were fetching them would indicate what he would have been worth in the job market had he chosen to chase monetary compensation. In mid-2005 in an interview with The Indian Express, an Indian daily he admitted that he was drawing a salary of $ 1000 a month, what others in similar positions in Government jobs were drawing. A similar position in the developed world would have been worth million of dollars per year in bonuses alone. When asked how he managed to retain his team with such low salaries, he said he managed that by giving them a superior work ethic, by instilling pride of achievement and by job satisfaction.

In his illustrious career spanning over 45 years, he has been bestowed numerous awards and honours. The following list is representative and not exhaustive. I am sure many laurels await this great son of India. He has brought honour to these awards as much as they have to him.

· Railway Minister's Award (1963)
· Padma Shri by the Government of India (2001)
· Man of the Year by The Times of India (2002)
· Om Prakash Bhasin Award for professional excellence in engineering (2002)
· Juror's Award for leadership in infrastructure development by CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) (2002-03)
· One of Asia's Heroes by TIME (2003)
· AIMA (All India Management Association) award for Public Service Excellence (2003)
· Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) from IIT Delhi.
· Bharat Shiromani award from the Shiromani Institute, Chandigarh (2005)
· Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the Government of France (2005)
· CNN-IBN Indian Of the Year 2007: Public Service (2008)
· Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India (2008)

Sreedharan is also a Fellow of The Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K., The Chartered Institute of Transport, U.K., The Institute of Railway Transport, India and The National Academy of Engineering, India.

It appears that he would be there to oversee the Delhi Metro and many similar projects to completion, may be in a different capacity. He is a Vishwakarma who can not be allowed to rest since India is in a hurry and has a lot of catching up to do. One only prays that God grants him a very long life to leave his imprint on the stable foundations of the modern and fast developing India. The people of India need him to carry on so that they can move ahead fast.

Today's newspapers reported that he has tied with similar-minded senior people in public life to start an NGO to try and usher in systemic changes to eradicate corruption and improve transparency in public affairs and politics. I am sure our worthy PM Sh. Man Mohan Singh would also put his weight behind this endeavour.

It remains to be seen when the Government of India would bow to the wishes of the common man and bestows upon this worthy son of India the honour of Bharat Ratna, the gem of India, that would truly befit his immense contribution to the motherland.

images courtesy Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

New Delhi : BRT woes

2008-11-11T14:58:00.002+05:30

The adjacent photograph of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system of traffic segregation and management is something the Shiela Dixit led Congress (I) government in Delhi would rightfully claim credit for in the forthcoming state assembly elections scheduled for end-November 2008.

An imported concept from the city of Bagota in Columbia which pioneered this idea, it is no doubt a beautiful visual message to send to the world at large to announce the coming of age of India.

During the construction of phase I of the BRT, a few young lives were lost in accidents due to haphazard construction and poor lighting. Residents of Delhi thought of it as an offering to appease the lords who would offer them some relief and 'Moksha' (salvation) from the eternal mess of road traffic in Delhi. What Delhi got after a patient wait was endless delays when the new traffic signals were instaled with timings that were faulty. To tide over the initial troubles the contractors were asked to provide a certain number of road marshals at every junction. Virtually one half of the traffic policeman descended on the 5 km route in the first 10-15 days when BRT stretch was opened to public.

When confronted with the situation on the ground, Mrs Shiela Dixit, Delhi Chief minister insisted that it was because the Delhites demonstrated poor road discipline. She said once they became accustomed to the BRT the commuting would become pleasant and shorter. She also explained that if the design was found to be faulty the whole BRT would be scrapped.

It has been over six months since I have been travelling on the BRT corridor twice or more per day. The 14 km ride to my office in Connaught Place that earlier took 35 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evenings has become a 60 minute ride in the morning and a 75-80 minute ride in the evenings.

I always thought I was good at analysing problems so I decided to ask myself why BRT was not working as designed and the commutes were taking longer than they ought to. I am no expert at road design but to my mind the following are the major reasons why it is in the current mess:

The trouble starts at the Chirag Delhi crossing itself. Now I have to wait for two if not three green lights before I can get on to the BRT. A loop over the flyover would have cost around 35 crores but given an uninterrupted flow-in to the traffic coming from Nehru Place / GK II. This would also make the movement of Shiek Sarai - Moolchand traffic smoother. All the resultant traffic chaos at Nehru Place / Savitri Cinema / Panchsheel side would disappear with the lop over the flyover for traffic wanting to turn right (which incidently would be atleast around 85% of the total traffic).
All right turns from the BRT corridor at the Archana Cinema crossing should be scrapped or mandated to go underground to lead to a smooth traffic flow. In future too all right hand turns on BRT must be done away with.
The road surface on any BRT corridor should be even and flat not undulating like one sees today. Such convoluted and undulating surfaces take longer to negotiate and also slow down all the vehicles.
Even if one person decides to go slow it slows down the entire traffic. Thus minimum speed must be stipulated.
Many Govt / Police vehicles are routinely seen flouting BRT discipline and driving in the Bus Lane since these are usually seen to be less crowded. The answer is CCTV cameras on the road, regular Police patrolling and Heavy fines for violators and not lowly paid Road Marshalls. I recommend a Rs. 10,000 rupee fine and a 5-year ban on driving in Delhi by someone violating BRT discipline.

The Congress (I) government of Mrs. Shiela Dixit deserves another term in office to rectify the mistakes made in the design and implementation of the BRT. I am sure the Delhites would show some more patience and oblige.

A time to celebrate

2008-11-10T13:56:00.007+05:30

The Indian win over Australia in the fourth and final cricket match played at Nagpur, now playing under the dashing Mahendra Singh Dhoni, helped the home team win the 2008 India – Australia Test Cricket series and retrieve the Gavaskar – Border Trophy. More than the trophy this win helped India emerge from the shadows and regain its rightful place in the International cricketing arena.

A well-deserved win for India saw the entire team chip-in with their contributions. The match saw our batsman score runs aplenty. The highlight was the innings of Sachin Tendulkar (109 - his 40th century in tests and 12), Virender Sehwag (66 & 92), V. V. S Laxman (64 & 4), M. S. Dhoni (56 & 55), Saurav Ganguly (85 & 0) and Harbhajan Singh (18 & 52). All lead bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma were amongst the wickets.

This match also saw Gautam Gambhir sitting out because of a one-match ban and Murali Vijay of Chennai making a well-deserved last-minute appearance and he debuted well with 33 in the first innings and 41 in the second innings. He also affected the run out of Mathew Hayden and Michael Hussey in the Aussie first innings. His ground fielding was a treat to watch.

It was also the last test match for Saurav Ganguly the former India captain who had previously announced his intention to retire from cricket after this series and he did so in some style – scoring 85 in the first innings and a first ball duck in the second – joining the ranks of six former greats who started their careers with a century on debut and a duck in their last matches.

At one stage it appeared as if Ricky Ponting had the match under his belt. India in their second innings was 166 for 6 in the last over of the post-lunch session on the fourth day. For some odd reason, after tea he discontinued using his strike bowlers and brought in the part-time bowlers. That allowed Dhoni & Harbhajan to score 108 runs for the seventh wicket in under two hours. The hosts saw a chance to consolidate their score and the Aussies failed to press home the early advantage. Critics point out that this was to catch up with the over rate since inability to bowl the requisite number of overs would have meant a penalty for the Aussie captain.

History would judge whether a desire to avoid a one-match ban clouded Ricky Ponting’s judgment to such a level that he not only sacrificed the Nagpur test but also any hope of leveling the series and retaining the Gavaskar – Border Trophy.

Some cynics say this is the weakest test team ever to visit India but I feel that is a meaningless pursuit. A win is a win. The series win is celebration time for Dhoni and the team. So guys go out, get drunk and paint the town red. The whole country celebrates with you and waits for an opportune time to fete you.

Good riddance

2008-10-22T15:35:00.002+05:30

The recent events in Mumbai, when people of North Indian states, notably Bihar & Uttar Pradesh, who had come to Mumbai to appear for a written test for jobs in The Indian Railways, were beaten up leading to many being hospitalized was a law and order issue, plain and simple. The Maharashtra Navnirmaan Sena (MNS) headed by Raj Thackeray claims to represent the ordinary Marathi people, ‘The Marathi Manoos’.

Did he actually speak on behalf of ‘The Marathi Manoos’ when he challenged the administration calling the Chief Minister and his deputy ‘spineless’? I am not so sure that the ordinary ‘Marathi Manoos’ has such contempt for the duly elected government. Raj Thackeray has found it profitable to speak the un-parliamentary language that he is so familiar with, only because he has been allowed to get away with it so far. Had his antics been nipped in the bud he would have remained a small-time wannabe politician. The Frankenstein called Raj Thackeray would not have developed had the Congress–NCP coalition in Maharashtra not worked with the ulterior motive of splitting the BJP-Shiv Sena vote bank with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections.

As we have seen so often in the past in many places, the politicians sow the seeds of hatred for their own narrow political considerations but the common man reaps the fruits of violence unleashed by these goons.

Raj Thackeray, the head of the ‘Goon Sena’ is at last behind bars thanks to the judicial system and the few individuals who found the courage to call his bluff. He has been arrested and in due course he would be held accountable for his utterances and his unlawful activities. It is my fervent desire to see the animal of hatred tamed.

Civil society owes it to itself to prune such weeds at the right time or else the beautiful garden that we so assiduously created on the soil of parliamentary democracy would become a jungle. And we all know jungles are full of wild animals. So the choice before 'The Marathi Manoos’ is the same as choice before the Indian people: ‘Jungle Raj’ or ‘Parliamentary Democracy’.

By making a valiant effort to tame Raj Thackeray the rest of India has shown what it stands for. It is time ‘The Marathi Manoos’ tells the rest of the country what he stands for.

image courtesy : www.gulf-times.com

Keep going giant killers

2008-10-22T15:17:00.005+05:30

October 21 2008 will remain etched in my memory eternally, not only because this day was my daughter Sanya’s fifteenth birthday but also for the crushing 320 run defeat inflicted on the Ricky Ponting led Aussies by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his band of giant killers.

That the Mohali test would end in a result became apparent on day three of the match. One expected to see the Indian team coming under the relentless Aussie pace attack. The visitors were expected to make a match of it. In the end the Aussies wilted under the new found pace combination of the veteran Zaheer Khan and the longhaired heartthrob of Delhi, Ishant Sharma. The guile of Harbhajan Singh and the debutant Amit Mishra also proved to be too much to handle for the guys from down under.

The Mohali test match would also be remembered for Sachin Tendulkar achieving the distinction of becoming the first and only batsman to score 12,000 runs in test cricket. That he has lasted so long despite his various injuries is a testimony to his tremendous willpower and strong desire to represent India. He is an iconic star who has never been involved in any controversy whether on or off the field. He is humility personified and always willing to give credit to his team members where due. An excellent team man, he would remain a star as long as he lives. The people of India would remember his tremendous contributions to Indian cricket for all times to come.

In this moment of euphoria following the Mohali test victory and the celebrations surrounding Sachin’s achieving the rare feat of 12,000 test runs, we seem to have somehow missed out highlighting the contributions of another stalwart, The Wall of Indian cricket, ex-Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid. He has scored over 10,500 test runs at over 55 per innings, which ranks higher than Sachin and the original little master, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. Rahul with his reserved persona and his unremitting cricketing style has somehow not become as popular with the Indian public as some of the flashier stars, however his contribution has been phenomenal and his success sweeter than most contemporary cricketers.

That his runs have resulted in more test wins than most other stars has also been overlooked. In my book he is as great a star and icon as Sachin, if not greater. May be history would be kinder to him and the Indian cricket fans evaluate his cricketing achievements better with the benefit of hindsight.

images courtesy : www.ndtv.com

Man on the moon, anyone ?

2008-10-15T13:20:00.005+05:30

On 9th October, last Thursday, on the auspicious day of Dusserah when the whole of India erupts in rapturous joy to mark the victory of good over evil, at around 0945 hours, Sonu, a small child aged 22 months fell 70 feet deep in a pit dug to sink a borewell in a village near Agra, a north Indian city made famous globally by the Taj Mahal.

The civic authorities struggled to recover the child for two days, with the help of modern machines, under constant TV coverage. On the third day they called-in the army. Valiantly the armymen endeavoured and reached the child who by then had sunk even deeper. On the forenoon of Monday, 13th October, after struggling for over 100 hours, the child's body was pulled out.

'A tragic accident'is what the poor parents would say in consolation to each other. The politicians would rush to announce ex-gratia payments to the family to atone for the callousness of the engineers of the U.P.Jal Board in digging a 150 feet deep pit and leaving it uncovered for such an accident to happen.

This is not the first such case. One remembers vividly the case of 'Prince' in another village near the national capital in Haryana when fortunately the child had not sunk so deep and where the army was called in much earlier and the child was saved. Then in another such case in U.P. a girl child 'Vandana' had fallen into another borewell pit but was rescued in two days, thanks again to the valiant soldiers of The Indian Army.

In a recent programme on 'Times NOW', an English news channel, the anchor Arnab Goswami and media stalwarts like Vinod Mehta of Outlook fame, Anil Dharkar of Debonair fame and Nalini Singh, crusader sister of former union minister Anil Shourie and daughter of Common Cause founder H.D.Shourie discussed the matter. One thing that all of them agreed upon was the role of the media. It is time that some right thinking individuals file public interest litigation (PIL) under relevant laws for 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder' against the engineers and other officials responsible for this monumental blunder and tragic loss of life. Only when a few people are put behind bars would those responsible for civic infrastructure wake up and take the steps necessary to avoid such tragedies.

It is a national shame that we have no respect for sanctity of human lives. Every year thousands of human lives are lost in needless accidents caused by the callousness of concerned officials or greed of the contractors.

While on the subject, the concrete sidewalls and railings on the Oberoi Hotel-Lodhi Hotel flyover in Lutyen's Delhi were dismantled nearly 6-8 months ago. One thought these were in preparation for erection of steel crach barriers like the ones seen on the Moolchand and Defence Colony flyovers nearby. But no such luck. Even after a long time no construction work is visible. I guess it would start a day after a drunk driver, in the dark, drives his car over the edge and a few lives are needlessly lost.

India aspires to soon launch Chandrayan, an ambitious mission to put an Indian on the moon. India which hankers for the tag of a Developed Nation, a recent opiate dished out to the poor masses by the politicians at regular frequencies, that can't put covers on its sewer manholes or on borewell pits, has no business in even attempting to conquer outer space.

Smell of the Earth !

2008-10-15T12:40:00.002+05:30

Have you ever smelled the Earth ? If not I recommend that you listen to the creations of The Wadali Brothers. Their music is so close to the earth that you can actually smell the soil of The Punjab.

Music, created in moments, sometimes lasts a lifetime by transcending the limits of time and space. The most divine melodies reside in the treasure-chest of the Sufiana tradition, which draws inspiration from the sacred emotion of love and its power to transform the world. Wadali Brothers are the torchbearers of Sufiana music today. The Wadali Brothers are legends in their lifetime and their canvas is vast. Practising for decades, these unassuming brothers excel in all Sufi genres, from Sufiana Qalaam, Qawwali and Kaafi to Bhajans, Shabads and Ghazals.

Puranchand Wadali & Pyarelal Wadali are Sufi singers and musicians hailing from a small village called Guru-ki-Wadali in Amritsar District of Punjab, a village said to have been blessed by the Sikh Guru Arjan Dev Ji, who himself was a great lover of music. They are the fifth generation of a musical tradition given to singing the messages of the great Sufi saints like Kabir, Rahim, Amir Khusro, Sultan Bahoo, Waris Shah, Ghulam Farid & Bulle Shah. They dabbled in the most unexpected of professions before music became their religion. While Puranchand, the elder brother, was a regular in a wrestling pit for over 25 years, Pyarelal, the younger one, contributed to the meager family earnings by playing the role of Krishna in the village Rasleela.

Their father Thakur Das forced Puranchand in to music and later Puranchand went on to take his music lessons from the celebrated masters like Pandit Durga Das and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb of the Patiala Gharana of classical music. They also claim to have learnt the nuances of the sufi folk tradition from the musically inclined kanjaris (prostitutes) of their times, some of whom they visit till today. Payarelal was trained by his elder brother whom he considers his mentor and Guru even today.

Their first musical performance outside their village was at the Harballabh Temple in Jalandhar. The duo went to Jalandhar to perform at the Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan but were not allowed to sing due to their rough appearance. Disappointed they decided to make a musical offering at the Harballabh Temple, where an officer of The All India Radio, Jalandhar spotted them and recorded their first musical rendition.

Wadali Brothers sing in the Qawwali, Gurbani, Kaafi, Ghazal, Bhajan and Sufiana genres of music. They live in their ancestral house in village Guru Di Wadali and teach music to those who promise to preserve the genre. They do not charge their disciples and lead a very simple life devoted to the divine one.

They believe in the Sufi tradition deeply. They consider themselves as mediums through which the preaching of great saints has to be passed on to others. They have never indulged commercially and they have only a handful of recording to their name. They believe in singing freely as homage to the divine one. They do not feel comfortable in using electronic gadgets in their music and stress on Alaap and Taans. They believe that spiritual heights can only be attained if you sing unreservedly, in a free atmosphere.

Completely devoted to music, the brothers move on, rendering divine melodies. They have always remained partners in rhyme, except when in May 2007 Pyarelal contacted the deadly brain fever. The medical team attending to him laboured day and night to save him. Soon upon recuperation, a dedicated Pyarelal sat alongside his elder brother to give a performance at the Shimla summer festival. Little did he know, however, that the fatal fever would relapse. This time the doctors gave no hope. Puranchand took his brother home to Guru ki Wadali and abstained from food for four days. On the fifth day, a Sufi saint from Baba Mastan Shah’s mazaar came visiting. He touched the ailing Pyarelal, sang a few verses and declared, "Shamman nu bol payega"(he will come around by nightfall). Pyarelal virtually came back from the jaws of death. Ever since, both brothers have been offering music to the Almighty more ardently than before.

Recently they stepped into the world of films with hindi film ‘Pinjar’, written by celebrated punjabi novelist Amrita Pritam, in which they have added divine dimensions to the pain of Partition, by rendering Gulzar’s soulful lyrics in their "mystical" style. Also on cards is a documentary, which the Discovery Channel is planning to make on them.

The list of their musical albums released so far is small but their repertoire is vast. They have not released any albums of their numerous live concerts, which are at the rate of 3-5 per month for nearly four decades. All these were recorded and released by Music Today, a division of The India Today Media Group, after a great deal of persuasion. Their reluctance was overcome only after India Today agreed to their terms, which were definitely not mercenary in nature.

* Aa Mil Yaar
* Paigham-e-Ishq
* Ishq Musafir
* Folk Music of Punjab

While they have never lobbied for awards and patronage they have been bestowed a variety of honours by various private and Governmental agencies. The Union government chose them for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1991. This was followed by the Tulsi Award, an award for Folk & Traditional Art instituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1998. The Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi Award came in 2003.

Puran Chand Wadali has also been honoured by the President of India by bestowing upon him the Padam Shri in 2005. He was celebrating the achievement, thinking it belonged both to him and his younger brother Pyare Lal who is as much indispensable for Puran Chand on stage as in life. But on 26th January 2005 the morning did not dawn bright and gay in the ancestral home of the singers.

The reason is evident to those who have followed the Wadali brothers’ journey from Punjab’s akharas to the prestigious spaces of performance across the world. They have never pursued any musical ambition singly nor have they ever been separated in life, except on the Padma Shri award list which mentions only Puran Chand’s name. This is for the first time that the “jugalbandi”(duo) of Wadalis has been disregarded in the matter of conference of awards.

In 2003, the President of India jointly conferred the brothers, who have excelled in all genres from Sufiana qalaam and kaafis to bhajans and shabads, with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award. But this year, the joy of reward stands shadowed by its limitation, which Puran Chand terms as “painful.” Illiterate as he is, he could not read the Government of India communique mentioning only his name and not his brother’s in the list of this year’s awardees. But now the brothers have consented to write to the Government to award both of them.

Says Chetan Joshi, their manager “Puranji was shocked to learn that the award is only for him. First he refused to believe it, then he broke into tears.

The reluctant celebrities want only their music to speak for them. One has not seen them on TV or read about them in the newspapers. The only known interview given by them was ages ago to The Tribune, Chandigarh in 2003. Here are excerpts from an interview of the two maestros. Puranchand takes the lead in answering the queries, while Pyarelal occasionally chips in to supplement the information provided by his elder brother.

Do you think you were destined to learn music?
Our father Thakur Das was a famous musician in Guru ki Wadali, our ancestral village in Amritsar. But he was unhappy because he had no child. I came as a gift of a musical offering, which my father made at the famous mazaar of Data Ganj Baksh Saheb at Lahore before Partition. I was born 14 years after his marriage. I was an impetuous child, always interested in wrestling. I would go to school but bunk classes after collecting my share of sweets and ghee, which teachers offered us. But as a fakir at the mazaar had prophesised, I had to be a musician. My father would beat me up, sometimes brutally, to force me into music. I, however, kept resisting. Whenever I sat for a session with my father, I would end up crying for hours. I remember my father taking hold of my long hair and dragging me into the rehearsal room. I was so fed up that one day I got my hair chopped off. But even that did not keep me away from music, which was to be my destiny.

How and when did you start enjoying music?
As a 10-year-old I once went to attend a fair dedicated to Baba Sadiq Shah of the Chisti lineage. The air around me resonated with music and I was compelled to pay a full-throated musical homage to God, using Sufi music. When I sang, "Mitti diyaan murtaan ne dil sada moh leya; umraan di kitte nu pal vich kho leya", people showered me with praise, gifts and money. I realized that music was not such a bad deal after all. I asked my father to buy me a gramophone on which I started listening songs rendered by famous kanjaris of our times. I also picked up renderings of Baba Bulle Shah, Baba Farid, Amir Khusro, Sant Kabir and other saints. Later I learnt music under the tutelage of Pt Durga Das and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb of Patiala Gharana. I washed utensils at the houses of many blessed musician saints to earn their guidance.

When did Pyarelal join you?
We are four brothers, all musicians. While one of them is with a raagi jatha (a group of musicians who perform at Sikh shrines), the other is a dholi (percussionist). Pyarelal was destined to sing praises of God with me. He did not go to any guru. I am his mentor and guru. Those days it was a norm for brothers to sing in pairs. So I began signing with Pyarelal.

Pyarelal Wadali adds: As a youngster, I used to dance for Krishnaleela presentations. Das-das gaaon ekatthe ho jaate the (people from tens of villages would assemble to see me). Then one day Baba Mastan Shahji, a Sufi saint, told me to remove my ghungroos (anklets) and start singing Sufiana qalaam and qawwali. My father felt that by asking me to quit dance, he would be depriving me of a steady income. I, however, chose to devote myself to singing Sufi qalaam. Bade bhaiyya helped me. Together we made many musical offerings at the Durgiana temple, Amritsar. We even held jagratas (night long musical soirees at Temples of Goddess Durga).

When did people first take note of you outside your village?
Our admirers in the village told us of the Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan in Jalandhar. Ready to perform, we headed for the concert, where we were disallowed entry due to our appearance. We did not even remotely look like musicians, what with my handlebar moustache and all. We were attired in chadar kurta (rustic attire) and had no airs around us. When nothing worked for us, we decided to make a musical offering at the Harballabh temple, where N.M. Bhatia of All India Radio, Jalandhar, spotted us. He said that our voices ‘rang with an inner harmony.’ He took us to the radio station and recorded our first song.

Initially, you disliked the mike. Why?
We were used to paying full-throated homage to God. We thought the mike would suck away our voices. It was when Bhatiaji convinced us that the mike would only embellish our voice that we started using it. We are still not very comfortable with electronic gadgets. We feel spiritual heights can only be attained if you sing unreservedly, in a free atmosphere.

Tell us about your journey to success.
The AIR recording happened in 1975. After that we began performing across the country. Initially, our presentations were restricted to youth festivals in colleges and universities. Then we began frequenting the concert circuit with celebrated musicians. Despite several concerts, we never felt we had perfected the art of singing. Even the awards did not mean anything beyond being signs of recognition. The real blessing is the power to render divine verse. Hamara talluk to chashm-e-shahi se hai. Khuda ka sangeet behta rahe. Bas yehi dua hai. Aur yehi hamara inaam. (We draw from the eternal stream of music. We pray that divine melodies should keep flowing. That would be our real reward).

How would you describe Sufi music?
Sufi means virgin, pure, unadulterated. Sufi saints have sung verses in the praise of God. Sufi music is soaring, healing, and penetrating. It rips the sky open, revealing the radiant face of the Beloved. It elevates us to a totally different level and brings us closer to God. We consider ourselves as mediums through which the preaching of great saints has to be passed on to others, as Baba Shah Hussain said, ‘Man atkeya beparvah de naal, us deen dukhi de shah de naal.’ (Our mind is stuck on the almighty and we are one with the lord of the impoverished)

Your admirers rue the fact that there are very few records of your music. As of today, you have only about four music albums. Why have you stayed away from commercial recordings?
We were never interested in commercially exploiting our popularity. Our recent Music Today release Aa Mil Yaar was also agreed upon through friendly channels. The production company’s young staff persuaded us to leave something for posterity. We have other albums, including Paigham-e-Ishq, Ishq Musafir and Folk Music of Punjab, released by Music Today. In all these albums, the music is traditional and the orchestration minimal. Alaaps and taans dominate.

Many music directors wanted you to sing for their films. You had also been roped in for 'Ek Chadar Maili Si'. Why were you finally not heard in the film?
Believe it or not, we never watched any films, until recently. Hum to bas rab se ley lagate hain. Fakiron ki bani ko sur dete hain. Isi mein hume sukh milta hai (We just interact with God. We just give a voice to the words written by the saints. That makes us happy). The films you mentioned did not offer enough scope to sing the way we wanted to. After years, we have found something divine in the music of 'Pinjar', for which we have recorded two songs. We have also recorded for another film called 'Dhoop'.

How did you agree to sing for Uttam Singh in 'Pinjar'? How would you describe his film?
The film explores the tragedies that occurred on our own land. It dwells on Punjab before and after Partition. The music is inspired by pain, so are the lyrics by Gulzar saheb (a famous Punjabi and urdu poet and film lyricist, screenplay writer and Hindi film director). We accepted the offer because the music director did not interfere with our style of rendering. Rather, he used my technique and Pyarelal’s vivaciousness to weave scores that are hauntingly beautiful.

Tell us something about your repertoire, your children and your disciples.
Trained as we are in Hindustani music under Pt Durga Das and the great Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, our repertoire encompasses our guru’s exclusive compositions. Otherwise we sing all forms of music – qawwali, gurbani, kaafi, ghazal, bhajans and Sufiana. My eldest son is in the Army, the younger one sings pop music in Canada. Pyarelal’s son Satpal is picking up our style well. We have many other disciples, from whom we never charge money. We would be happy to pass on our legacy to those who promise to preserve it. We have some very gifted students back home in Guru ki Wadali, where we still live in the same ancestral house where we were born.

How would you describe your journey till today?
Jab tak bika na tha koi puchhta na tha; tune mujhe kharid kar anmol kar diya. (no one cared till I was sold, you bought me and made me priceless)

It is our good fortune that we live in times when such artistes are around for whom music is merely a form of worship and who bring such glory to the art form. May their tribe increase.

You can obtain free downloads of their musical offerrings from 'You tube'.

The image of the family photograph is courtesy Mr. Rajesh Sharma of The Tribune, Chandigarh. The collage of album covers is made by me from images courtesy Music Today, a division of the India Today Group.

Interesting bits

2008-10-06T16:27:00.003+05:30

I am writing a story on the conspiracy theory surrounding the 9/11 attacks. This research started after I chanced to see 'Loose Change' a 90 minute documentary on the subject. In the meantime a few amazing details to mull over.

The size of the entire universe is estimated at around 150 billion LYs
The observable universe is only 15 billion LYs in size
There are over 40 billion galaxies in the universe
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 50,000 LYs in size
There are almost 100 billion stars in the Milky Way
One LY = 9.385 trillion kilometers

Thank the Lord for he allows man to think and believe that the universe revolves around him and he is the centre on this universe.

Burn your demons this Dusserah

2008-10-06T15:39:00.001+05:30

The last few days have witnessed hectic festivities across the whole country. The Muslim community celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr with lavish feasts after fasting during the month of Ramadan. The whole of India is currently celebrating Durga Puja and Navratri, which will culminate in the grand festivities around Dusserah. Diwali is also around the corner. I sincerely hope the farmers bring home bumper harvests so that they can celebrate in style. I also fervently desire that nothing mar these celebrations across India.

In the last week one saw a few newspaper stories that brought out India’s truly secular ethos like no amount of bombastic speeches by politicians can ever hope to achieve. Three stories stand out which I found very motivating:

The first was about a small hamlet with a mixed Hindu-Muslim population called ‘Bakshi-ka-talab’ on the Lucknow-Sitapur highway, about 15 kilometers from Lucknow. In 1972, a local Muslim trader started a Ram Lila, an enactment of the life and accomplishments of the Hindu Lord Rama using locally available talent. The Ram Lila usually lasts three weeks leading up to Dusserah when Lord Rama slays the evil king Ravana. This Muslim trader played the part of Lord Rama while he was alive. After his demise, the family continued to organize the Ram Lila with family members playing key characters. This year the month of Ramzaan coincided with the Ram Lila.

On a particular day last week the audience of the Ram Lila grew restive when there was an unscheduled break in the proceedings. The audience was unaware and thus started shouting and booing. In a bid to control sentiments the organizers had to announce that the break was needed because Lord Rama had to break his fast and was partaking of the Iftaar, the ritualistic evening meal. The audience was immediately silenced and waited patiently for Lord Rama to finish Iftaar before Ram Lila resumed.

The Second story is about the Muslim community in Bhubaneshwar, the capital city of the eastern coastal state of Orissa. In one colony of the city every year a Durga Puja is arranged by the Muslim residents since last over 40 years. This Puja celebration has witnessed increasing number of mostly Hindu visitors each year to make their offerings to Goddess Durga over five days of festivities with no untoward incident ever reported.

Most of the artisans who create idols of Goddess Durga for these festivities in Orissa and Chattisgarh states are Muslim.

The third story is about the Muslim artisans from a village near Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh who come to Delhi each year to make the simulacrums of King Ravana, His son Indrajit also called Meghnad and his brother the mighty Kumbhkarana. An actor playing Lord Rama in the local Ram Lila destroys the effigies on the day of Dusserah to epitomize the victory of good over evil. On Dusserah Goddess Durga also slayed the demon Mahishasur after nine days of battle.

All the above stories symbolize the secular culture of India. India has over centuries built it so as to make communities inter-dependent and thus avoid skirmishes of any sort. Let no shortsighted political force ever destroy this cherished secular fabric of our society. Let every Indian pledge to burn the demons of communal hatred as we burn the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakaran and immerse ourselves in love and fellow feeling as we immerse the idols of Goddess Durga so that India can awaken to a new dawn of harmony and peace.

I am sure there must be many more stories of this kind that need to be told. Any reader who knows some similar story, which highlights the secular tradition of our great country, can write in his comments.

Just another Tuesday

2008-10-01T16:40:00.001+05:30

The 30th of September 2008 marked the first Navarati. It was just another Tuesday in the lives of the 10,000 or so people who had lined up to seek the blessings of the Hindu Goddess Chamunda Devi at the temple inside the historic Mehrangarh Fort near Jodhpur. A rumor of a bomb planted somewhere in the temple complex started a stampede that killed over 147 people and injured many more. Many are struggling for their lives in hospitals that are ill equipped to handle such a rush of patients. It would be a miracle if more people were not killed by lack of medical facilities and proper treatment.

A study that Times of India, a highly credible newspaper in India, published today shows that in the last ten years 4341 people lost their lives in 14 incidents of stampedes. It is no solace that 690 deaths occurred in India and the rest overseas since precious human lives were lost needlessly, which I think is criminal. In contrast the World Trade Center strikes on 11th September 2001 killed around 2792 people according to CNN.com.

It is not my brief that what the attackers did in New York was in any way justifiable. It definitely was an attack on the United States and the American way of life. It was certainly a criminal act that needs to be condemned vociferously and the culprits, whoever they may be and wherever they may be hiding, need to be brought to justice and punished severely after due process of law. I am certain the American people and their judicial system ensured a fair trial to all accused.

Consider for a moment the amount of media space spent in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. If one tracks column centimeters, 9/11 would have generated more than a few million pages in the American newspapers indicating the angst of the American people. Simultaneously security in public places was beefed up and systems put in place to prevent any such incident. In almost seven years since 9/11 those systems seem to be delivering expected results.

In contrast we see lop-sided media coverage of incidents in India. Twenty dead people in a bomb blast in Delhi get extensive coverage lasting for weeks. Readers are given news, background stories, expert views and political statements, opinion polls etc. on various aspects of the incident. Seven times more people died in the Jodhpur stampede. The story made the front page today. But there were no screaming banner headlines like September 14 2008, the day after the recent bomb blasts in Delhi. The story will in all probability go cold in 2-3 days and a week later Indians would be hard pressed to recall where the Chamunda Devi temple is.

It is ironic that a few people killed in a bomb blast triggered by a terrorist outfit gets so much attention and media space & time. The politicians get hyperactive and are seen baying for blood, but such incidents of stampedes in congregations at places of worship that happen with alarming regularity evoke nothing more than tokenisms. It must evoke a strong sense of outrage and collective anger. No sincere and visible effort is made to ensure that such incidents do not recur. Till such time that we continue to be fooled by tokenisms by the ruling elite, human life will continue to be lost. Only when the administration is held accountable and made to pay for their lapses would such avoidable deaths end.

On closer and rational analysis this kind of incidents can be easily avoided. A study of the practices adopted at some places of worship like the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupathi, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the shrine of Khwaja Chisti at Ajmer Sharif and Mata Vaishno Devi temple amongst many others will show that a few simple practices can lead to orderly conduct of large congregations.

The religious shrines are managed by boards, which have local eminent persons as their members. These are mostly local merchants who work voluntarily, part-time and with an aim to gain social acceptance. Most of them are also patrons and fund many projects undertaken by these shrines and they want to do an honest job. It is equally true they are not trained administrators. In public interest the government should bring an ordinance that mandates the following acts in such shrines:

1) All shrines must record the daily count of all visitors to the shrine with a view to proper planning of facilities and operating procedures.

2) All shrine boards must have a member who has served at least at the rank of Inspector of Police to advise the shrine boards about crowd management. They must be registered with the central government and made to undergo periodic training on these skills.

3) All shrines must seek permission of the local administration for organizing such congregations after they have demonstrated compliance with crowd management systems as indicated by the ex-police officer member of the board.

4) All shrine boards must be permitted to charge a nominal amount for entry to finance crowd management systems. Public address systems must be installed at all shrines. Shrines must permit entry of a small batch of people only. Proper barricading and fencing must be installed to ensure stampedes are arrested at the outset. All structures must be periodically tested.

5) All shrines must arrange suitable number of volunteers to assist the police in managing and guiding devotees. Adequate number of ambulances and doctors should be on call as per established norms whenever permission is granted to arrange such large congregations.

6) In the event the shrine board defies norms the board must be superseded and the administration should takeover the shrine. Any board that is in charge of a shrine at any time must be held accountable for the safety and security of the devotees. A board that is not able to cope with the sudden surge in number of visitors should be allowed to temporarily close down the shrine.

Many multinational corporations these days devote a large amount of money and time to meet Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) concerns. At Castrol BP, my previous employers, no meeting would start before the HSSE Manager had briefed the assembled people about the safety procedures to follow in case of a fire and the location of exit points. When the practice first started we would mock the company’s paranoia about safety but once the realization sank-in we became the torchbearers for the cause of health and safety.

Making schoolchildren study HSSE would ensure that we have a crop of young men and women who as they step into adulthood are aware of the steps to be taken and avoid the safety pitfalls and ensure precious lives are preserved. I feel any amount spent in this effort would be more than recovered even if one human life can be saved.

image courtesy http://www.nydaily.com/

India over the weekend

2008-09-29T15:58:00.000+05:30

Sanya, my daughter’s mathematics examination on Monday, September 29 2008 ensured that we were at home over the weekend. More so with the recent serial bomb blasts in Delhi, venturing out wasn’t such a bright idea unless one genuinely needed to get something.

So one spent a large part of Sunday reading an array of newspapers. The themes for my weekend reading and TV viewing was set by ‘The Big Fight’, a current affairs debate on NDTV, hosted by the dashing Vikram Chandra, on Saturday night. The discussion this time was on the findings of Justice G T Nanavati on the Godhra and post-Godhra riots in Gujarat and role of Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi & his ministers in the same. While the overall debate was along expected partisan lines with both Congress and the BJP well represented at the program by their respective spokesmen, one felt that the BJP guys were clearly lacking in conviction and it soon became apparent that lung power would take over since their brief was to defend the indefensible.

In this debate, when confronted with startling facts by media stalwart Ms. Harinder Baweja of Tehelka fame, the BJP team led by Prakash Javdekar and including media person Mr. Swapan Dasgupta, decided to shout her down. Mr. Swapan Dasgupta cut a sorry figure giving such outrageous arguments that he did, and on a debate that was telecast nation-wide. Ms. Baweja’s final remark that a Muslim youth in India today has very little choice but to pick up the gun was a bit over the top and designed to grab attention. Ms. Baweja, the total population of Muslim youth in the ages of 15-35 in India can be safely estimated at over 25 million. Surely if all of them had picked up the gun every street corner of India would be burning. You need to moderate your speech, Harinder, or else your utterances would be rated ‘Hyperbole’.

Even if one was to give credence to what BJP and their followers have been saying about a Muslim mob burning 59 innocent kar-sevaks alive in coach number S-5 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, it still eludes me how 59 dead kar-sevaks equals 2500 innocent Muslims killed in the aftermath of Godhra? I guess India is yet to learn modern Gujarat Maths.

Saturday’s bomb blast at a Mehrauli market, which is otherwise known for ‘Phoolwalon-Ki-Sair’ a procession taken out by flower sellers of all faiths to lay a ‘floral chaddar’at a nearby Sufi shrine, was the second theme of my weekend reading and TV watching. The death of nine-year old Santosh Kumar, who innocently picked up the plastic bag containing the bomb dropped by the motor-cycle borne bombers and chased them shouting ‘you have dropped your packet’ that left me thinking seriously about where we as a civil society are headed. This little child could not have been the target of the hate of those who plotted the bombing. I would like to believe they were targeting to bomb the deep-rooted bias that we all unknowingly harbor against the Muslims.

Ms. Rakshanda Jalil’s piece on Ghettoisation of Muslims in Urban India and different types of bias that they are subject to is illustrative of the above. Hindu parents are reluctant to send their children to a birthday party of a Muslim classmate in a Muslim dominated area. She talks about Pizza Home delivery firms sending Pizzas four kilometers away but refusing to deliver to her home though they are located less than a kilometer away from the outlet giving some excuse or the other. Her contention that there is no Mothers Dairy milk outlet or Safal vegetable outlet in ‘Zakir Nagar’ because these are Muslim dominated areas appears a bit stretched but I would like to believe that these decisions were influenced by commercial considerations of viability. Since the lady raised the issue in a national daily, it would be appropriate for the Government to order an inquiry and make amends. Punishing a few guilty junior officers of bias against Muslims would not solve the problem, opening these outlets would go a long way to assuage feelings of hurt and neglect. I am sure Ms. Rakshanda Jalil would agree.

There is one recurring thought that just refuses to go away. In the 1940s and 1950s, a Muslim actor aspiring for success in the Bombay Film Industry was given a Hindu name since it would increase his appeal. Thus we had stalwarts like Dilip Kumar and many others resorting to this tested formula. Not only that, they would never be seen publicly celebrating any Muslim festival. The fact that today a Shah Rukh Khan or an Aamir Khan or a Salman Khan feels no such need would have one believe that times have indeed changed. But have they? Have the underlying prejudices vanished?

I am sure that if the Khans start speaking or behaving as Muslims rather than as actors their popularity would begin to wane. We must remember that president A.P.J.Abdul Kalaam was loved by the whole country, not because he was a Muslim or a Hindu but because he was a good man with a clean soul and a gifted scientist. And a good soul by definition means he would have been a good Muslim first. But a good Muslim as defined by the prophet not by some Imam or Ayatollah.

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that it all started with the concept of the partition of India to create a Muslim state of Pakistan and a Secular state of India. Had India been declared a Hindu state the issues would not have arisen since then the various governments would not have resorted to using Muslims as a vote bank, which the Imams willingly allowed in exchange for a few pieces of silver. All policies then would have been created with a Hindu mindset and Muslims given a second grade citizenship with few rights as we see happening in most of the Arab world. But since we cannot yet travel back in time, erase and re-write History, we need to live with what we have been given and make the best of the situation.

In this I feel the Hindu community has to show a spirit of accommodation but at the same time the Muslims too have a responsibility. They need to shun visible symbols of their being ‘different’ because if they keep harping on their being ‘different’, the Hindus would keep seeing them as such and it would assume an air of ‘us’ against ‘them’.

Muslims must ask themselves why the Muslims in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerela etc are so integrated with the local culture and ethos that one only gets to know their faith upon asking. They participate with equal fervor in Puja, Pongal and Onam Festivities. Even nature shows that animals and plants that adapt to their surroundings by suitable change in color or texture etc. manage to win the battle of survival.

I keep citing this example every time this subject comes up. Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib started his day with his musical offering at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Was he a lesser Muslim for it? Some of the best Hindi film bhajans have been written by lyricists like Jaaved Akhtar, Hasrat Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi etc. and composed by the likes of Naushad, A R Rehman etc and sung by the doyens of playback singing like Mohammed Rafi, Suraiya etc and filmed on Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan etc. Visualize the evergreen hit film bhajans like ‘Madhuban mein radhika nache re’, ‘Ram Chandra keh gaye siya se’, ‘Madhuban mein jo kanhaiyya kisi gopi se mile’ or ‘Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo’ and you would agree that while the people behind these works were Muslims they were able to create masterpiece bhajans since their own faith was strong.

It is indeed such an India I would like to leave for my children. An India that is Secular and Independent and truly free of all kinds of prejudice.

image courtesy www.boston.com

Asif Zardari in the US

2008-09-27T13:21:00.005+05:30

Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistan President on his recent visit to the US made the biggest and historic blunder of flirting blatantly with his hosts. I guess he could have been given the benefit of doubt if he had stopped at his first remark to Ms. Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, when he said he found her 'even more Gorgeous than she had appeared on TV'.

He went on to put his foot in his mouth not once but repeatedly. Saying things like 'now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you' and shaking her hand without letting go after a decent interval was bad enough but doing so again for the benefit of camera crews and even mouthing a readiness to hug Ms. Palin were pure animal instint, Mr. Ten Percent, sorry Mr. President.

Asif Zardari is the husband of the slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who despite the fact that she was educated in the west and was highly modern in her outlook, was always seen in public with her head covered. She never shook hands with visiting dignitaries, forget embracing. In her personal life she was known to have many male friends but in the public perception she couldn't do any wrong because she realized that image was paramount for a woman in Pakistan politics.

She had the benefit of the training imparted by the Bhutto family to guide her on conduct in public life. Unfortunately Mr. Asif Ali Zardari had no such luck. I guess it was the training given to him by the friends he made in various Pakistani jails, mostly rapists and other assorted perverts, over the 15 or so years he spent there.

A matter of faith

2008-09-27T13:02:00.000+05:30

India has been the target of terrorist attacks in the form of bomb blasts in crowded markets like the ones in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Varanasi, Faizabad or Mumbai, attacks on establishments like the Ram Janma Bhoomi / Babri Masjid in Faizabad or the Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, attacks on places of worship like temples, churches or congregations of people for some festivity, attacks on symbols of nationhood like the Parliament or monuments like the Red Fort and the vicarious personal attacks on scientists and dignitaries to thwart a particular program or the other.

But no attack can be as devastating as the one on India’s secular credentials. The very notion that a group of fundamentalists can destroy the mosaic of India’s multi-cultural ethos by a few wanton acts of destruction of life and property shows how little these groups or their masters, wherever they may be based, know India and the Indian people. This lack of understanding and awareness on the part of these outfits would have been laughable but for the fact that their unpardonable acts destroy so many families.

I like a majority of Indians have believed that faith is a personal matter and is just one of the roads chosen towards the same destination. It would be a gross error on the part of anyone to believe that any religion can preach hatred and encourage violence against another section of mankind. Killing innocent people in dastardly bomb attacks by a group of Indian Mujahideen (or SIMI if you please) youth, trained across the border as per Government agencies, is despicable but so is the heinous crime of Bajrang Dal activists attacking churches in Orissa, claiming to represent the Hindu majority’s ire against ‘forcible conversions’.

The problem with the silent majority is that it is silent. Majority communities everywhere become so complacent in their numerical superiority that they unwittingly allow the extremist fringe elements to hijack the social agenda and those who don’t know better start believing that the fringe is actually the core.

Having spent nearly five decades breathing the Indian air and soaking in the Indian spirit, I feel my India is not the India that these radicals, whether Hindu or Muslim, claim to represent. I have friends who practice different faiths. I have spent many years living in Muslim, Christian or Tribal dominant areas in the course of the last thirty years of cross-country travels across India and made many friends who helped form my secular values.

In 1979, I was barely twenty-two and posted in Ranchi. Around Ram Navmi, Hindu-Muslim clashes broke out over the route of the Ram Navmi and the Muharram processions. I was at that time staying in a small lodge, owned by a Muslim gentleman, in the Hindpiri area of the town. The riots lasted nearly three weeks. Initially there were twenty odd boarders but after three days of rioting when curfew was relaxed all but six Hindus departed to the safety of their homes. I distinctly remember the lodge owner and his two sons standing between the agitating mobs and the Hindu boarders. We were certain that death awaited us in the coming days at the hands of the mobs thirsting for Hindu blood. We had we run out of money and food stocks of the lodge had been exhausted. These three guardian angels and their families must have gone hungry for a few days to provide us with an uninterrupted supply of all food that we desired without any certainty of payment. I feel that was the time of my rebirth.

Similarly in 1988, I was around 32 and posted in Guwahati when the ULFA agitation against non-Assamese persons reached a boiling point. At that time when the agitationists demanded that our landlord evict us, he stood firm his ground. That gentleman admonished the student leaders for harassing innocent people and told them that they would have to go over his dead body. I also saw Bijoy, my assistant and a famous Assamese film lyricist stick his neck out and bring back two traders, who were abducted by the rebels and held hostage, unharmed and without any ransom having to be paid.

When these fanatics and their agents claim to speak for their communities they make a mockery of such valiant individuals. I firmly believe India is a mosaic of many such brave people in every town, in every faith and race. It is time these courageous soldiers of ‘Mother India’ became vocal and wage a battle to preserve the secular, multi-cultural and multi-racial fabric of India, as we have known it.

Thank you Mr. Prime Minister

2008-09-26T12:51:00.006+05:30

The Prime minister, Man Mohan Singh has again proved that he has a hand on the pulse of the nation and knows the mood of his countrymen much better than any career politician. In the matter of Oscar Fernandes' unfortunate and ill-considered comments about the brutal murder of Sh L K Chowdhary, CEO of an Italian auto components unit in Greater Noida on Monday this week.

As I had predicted in my last blog, Prime Minister played true to form, admonished Oscar Fernandes and made him apologise. He was given the usual fig leaf of 'I was quoted out of context' to cover his modesty.

The PM needs to be complimented for having shown great statesmanship in bowing to the public outcry and getting his labor minister to retract and apologise. However at the same time we also need to compliment Oscar Fernandes for having the courage to withdraw his unacceptable comments and having shown that there is no shame in apologising. Other career politicians would have viewed it as having to eat humble pie.

Mr Prime Minister, both you and your labor minister have gone a notch higher in my perception. May your tribe increase. I am sure that the captains of industry and various chambers of commerce, in India and abroad who had raised their voice in this matter would let bygones be bygones and move ahead.

The law must however deal the severest punishment to those found guilty of the murder so that such an unthinkable and brutal attack is never ever attempted in any part of India.

An Oscar for Oscar Fernandes

2008-09-24T21:18:00.007+05:30

While inaugurating the Third India-EU Seminar on "Employment Relations and Resolution of Conflicts" yesterday, the Union Labor Minister, Oscar Fernandes, conveyed his condolences to the family of Lalit Kumar Chowdhary, CEO of Cerlikon-Graziano Transmissions India Pvt. Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of an Italian company in the auto-ancillary business in Greater Noida.

Mr. Chowdhary was killed in his office on Monday by an irate mob of over 150 laid off workers. Many other senior officers were also brutally attacked and are in the ICU, fighting for their lives. Mr. Fernandes said it should serve as a warning for managements. He appealed to managements that workers should be handled with compassion. He talked about the simmering discontent among workers and remarked that the corporate sector was seen to be lacking in compassion. He said that the number of organized workers had been decreasing. It has come down from 7% to 6%. He said he would raise the matter of hire and fire in the next labor congress. He also stressed that the workforce was unable to express its simmering discontent over the management policies, leading to strained ties between them and the management.

It is sad that a union minister expressed such feelings at a public function. Even to harbor such a sentiment would be against the norms of civil behavior. Since when has ‘murder’ become legal in India? Even more surprising is the fact that Sonia Gandhi, who must pride herself as the upholder of culture and civilized conduct, decided to keep quite in this matter. Surely the fact that factory workers constitute a numerically larger constituency than CEOs must have weighed down her catholic revulsion to such utterances by a Congress party member.

Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh can be expected to take it up strongly as he has shown by his conduct thus far that he cares little for petty electoral machinations. I am sure when it is brought to his attention he would suitably admonish his minister. Decent public conduct demands that he asks the minister to make amends. One can expect a press release from Oscar Fernandes’ office saying he was quoted out of context, the usual trick adopted by all public figures when they wish to deflect criticism for their controversial utterances.

Mr. Fernandes, the talk about the number of organized workers coming down is utter humbug. It appears that you are unaware that the service sector in India has grown from around 50% of a much smaller GDP twenty years ago to nearly 65% of a much larger GDP today. As any child knows the service sector is largely unorganized in India and thus any employment data would not show those numbers. Typically organized employment data is about the ‘brick and mortar’ manufacturing sector, which is going down as a percentage of GDP and where computerization has yielded tremendous productivity enhancements over last 15 – 20 years.

And when you talk of ‘Compassionate Corporates’ what stops you from enacting stringent laws of disengagement and implementing them in totality? In any case a country which never hesitates to pat its back for its IT revolution can not afford to talk ill of a small private enterprise outsourcing to cut costs to remain viable. India’s IT earnings Mr. Fernandes, are built on jobs outsourced from the west. When the American people protest about job losses in the US we are quick to rise in defense of the IT sector citing lower cost to the consumer but then talk about ‘simmering discontent’ when the troubles are closer home.

Mr. Oscar Fernandes, you should consider the context and totality of your utterances. Don’t forget that Mr. L K Chowdhary has a family who are grieving. You owe it to them to seek forgiveness for such blatantly inhuman and ill-considered speech.

Now I know what “Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden” means.

image courtest www.hindu.com

What to do with SIPs now??

2008-09-20T16:38:00.014+05:30

From Alok Sud

Since January this year the markets have seen erosion of stock values by a third on an average. In sectors like real estate and infrastructure the cut has been much deeper. The high inflation and the ever-rising crude oil prices have compounded the already grave situation even further. The collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and many more in the pipeline has not helped matters one bit and the sentiment appears to be at all-time low. The phenomenon is not restricted to the US, even Russia, Europe, China and South Asia has seen massive erosion in stock prices. The Insurance, Banking and the financial sector are on life-support systems almost around the world.

In contrast the RBI and other statutory and regulatory bodies like SEBI, IRDA etc have done a commendable job of managing the crisis and not allowing the confidence of the people to be shattered. Elsewhere we have seen runs on many banks, long queues for redemptions of invested amounts in Mutual Funds and Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIP) etc. The interest rate on US Treasury Bonds has dropped to an all time of 0.61 % per annum, which is lower than the 2% interest rate on Bank Fixed Deposits. So deep is the mistrust of the banking system that no one is making any Fixed Deposit. This is despite the insurance cover of US $100,000 per bank account that is in place in the US, payable in case of the collapse of a bank.

I have been asked by some of my younger friends about what one should do to one’s investments in mutual funds through the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) route. Should one continue or buy more units or stop buying fresh units or exit altogether?

I hadn’t thought much about the issue and when confronted with this query I decided to study the issue in greater detail. I wanted to give an answer that would be seen as rational upon closer scrutiny and not harm the financial interests of friends.

I gathered data of six MF and ULIP schemes where I have some exposure and studied the quotes from July 2007 onwards till date. The basic investment has been kept at Rs 4,000 per month. An investor had two options when he started investing in July 2007. He could either invest a fixed sum per month or buy a fixed number of units per month. When the market crashed in January 2008 he again had two options. He could either continue as before or cash out. I have not analyzed the cash out option since cashing out at an all time low causes maximum loss and no other avenue appeared attractive.

Based on my analysis I can confidently say that continuing to make the SIP investments at the same rate as before would afford the best protection for one’s long term wealth in such times. The investor ends up picking up more number of units at subdued rates, which allow the average acquisition rates to be the lowest in this scenario.

The low average acquisition price allows one to exit at any time with minimum loss in a market heading downwards and maximizes gains in a market going up. So all my friends out there, who doubted their decision to stay invested in SIPs in these turbulent times wondering if they did the right thing, can let their minds rest. You would have the last laugh after all.

Customer equity - A fix for modern marketing

2008-09-18T15:33:00.021+05:30

As a marketer one has heard the finance guys often ask aloud why a campaign or a promotion is required or what it would cost and the cost benefit thereof since by training the accountant understands only return on investment and is numerically driven. A marketer on the other hand understands that the customer's mind itself is like a nautilus, chambers within chambers. The sub-conscious mind plays a significant role in helping the conscious mind decide. The landscape becomes even more complex when the rational and the emotional aspects are taken in to account.

No marketer can ever hope to measure what works and how, forget how much. To compound matters further the stalwarts of marketing proclaim that one out of every two rupees spent on advertising is wasted, the problem is no one knows which one. Given this background, I was reading up on the subject on the web to see if I could find a model that can help the marketers address the queries the finance guys typically raise when a proposal for any marketing campaign is put up for approval. I chanced to visit 'Copernicus Marketing Consulting' website and read an article titled as above by Kevin J Clancy & Peter Krieg which I reproduce herein below.

The Rise of the Customer
Since the 1960s, the customer has taken an increasingly higher profile in marketing decision-making. In recent years, as the economy has become increasingly service based, the slow shift from a product-focus toward a customer-focus has occurred across a range of industries. The emphasis on building relationships rather than transactions has resulted in a greater awareness of the customer.

Yet strangely, the metric marketers use to evaluate and measure the success of marketing programs remains product-focused. Brand equity is still the most commonly used measure of success for brands and companies alike. It's the intuitive and commonsensical standard because everyone else is using it. The fact that managers can measure brand equity (although the components of the measure differ across companies) may be one of the reasons companies have continued to focus on brand building and other product-centered programs while merely paying lip service to being customer-centered. Yet if the goal truly is customer-centrism, both marketing efforts and marketing standards should reflect that goal.

Customer Equity: A New Approach
The concept of customer equity, which unifies customer value management, brand management, and relationship/retention management, has recently emerged from the work of Professors Roland Rust (Univ. of Maryland), Valarie Zeithaml (Univ. of North Carolina) and Kay Lemon (Boston College). They view customer equity as the basis for a new strategic framework from which to build more powerful, customer-centered marketing programs that are financially accountable and measurable.

Quantitatively speaking, a firm's customer equity is the total of the discounted lifetime value of all of its customers. In their new book Driving Customer Equity : How Customer Lifetime Value is Reshaping Corporate Strategy, Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon state that customer equity has three drivers:

* Value equity, "the customer's objective assessment of the utility of a brand, based on the perceptions of what is given up for what is received"

* Brand equity, "the customer's subjective and intangible assessment of the brand, above and beyond its objectively-perceived value"

* Retention equity, "the tendency of the customer to stick with the brand, above and beyond the customer's objective and subjective assessments of the brand."

The customer equity model enables marketers to determine which of the three drivers—value, brand or retention equity—are most critical to driving customer equity in their industry and firm. Using this approach allows marketers to quantify the financial benefit from improving one or more of the drivers.

For example, if a regional grocery chain wants to evaluate whether or not they should spend $2 million on an advertising campaign that will improve ad awareness by 1 percent, the customer equity model translates the percentage improvement in ad awareness into the percentage improvement in brand equity (a component of customer equity). The percentage improvement in customer equity then translates into dollar improvement. Comparing the advertising expenditure to the dollar improvement allows the company to calculate its return on the advertising investment.

When Brands Are Commodities, Owning the Customer is Essential
Recently, Copernicus Marketing Consulting undertook a joint research study with leading researcher, Market Facts that investigated whether brands are becoming more similar and commodity-like over time. The study examined consumer perceptions of similarity in 48 pairs of leading brands and 51 different product and service categories - from both the Old and New Economy.

Our research found that in categories as diverse as hair care products and rental cars, a nationally representative sample of adult consumers perceives the leading brands (#1 and #2) becoming more similar rather than more distinct. Of the 48 categories evaluated, the leading brands in 40 of these categories are perceived as becoming more similar. Moreover, in 28 of 37 categories, consumers indicated price was more important than brand when making a purchase. In six categories, price and brand were about equally important, and in only three categories was brand more important (automobiles, liquor and beer).

Given this research, it is clear that brand equity alone is becoming an increasingly weak measure for marketing efforts. The customer equity model provides a basis for projecting the ROI of any strategic investment that improves customer equity whether as a function of value, brand or retention equity. It provides a catalyst for companies to become truly customer-centric and to make marketing programs more successful and accountable.

It's a mystery to us why managers seem to spend millions of dollars on marketing programs without knowing if their investment produces a fair return. One possible explanation, however, is that managers simply do not know how to project the return on investment for their marketing programs. They have lacked a basic model that links marketing actions with customer spending actions, and instead use intuition to make decisions. The customer equity model has the potential to forge that missing link.

Becoming Truly Customer-CentricThere is no question that customer-centrism is essential for a business to thrive - customers, after all, are what keep companies in business. But customer-centrism must be much more than something that managers talk about. Companies claiming to be customer-centered should evaluate whether they are practicing what they preach and use the customer equity model as a check on their actions. Rust, Zeithaml, and Lemon's customer equity model enables companies to understand the drivers which are most important for influencing the buying behavior of their customers and will help make managerial actions accountable to their ultimate impact on customers.

The above collage created by me with images courtesy http://www.bloomberg.com/, http://www.effervescence.co.uk/, http://www.manandmollusc.com/, http://www.sealifegifts.net/, http://www.soulsides.com/, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/, http://www.geocities.com/, http://www.britton.bc.ca/ and http://www.wheelockweb.com/

Merrill Lynched & Lehman Broke

2008-09-16T13:58:00.001+05:30

One has been a stock market player for over 20 years. My investments may have been small but I feel I know more about the goings on behind the scenes than the man on the street. As any stock market veteran would tell you, never be guided by hearsay while deciding your stock calls and exercise due caution.

Similarly one has learnt to be suspicious when anything goes up or down too fast or too soon. There is always some insider trying to manage some smart returns. SEBI and the like usually catch up with them but regrettably after a few months of investigations, during which time the gullible have been suckered and the crooks have stashed the ill-gotten wealth safely in some tax haven.

The financial sector in the US, by various estimates, lost between US $ 800 – 1200 billion in the sub-prime housing scandal that broke almost 15 months ago. The US Federal Reserve tried their best to bail out the large financial powerhouses, by a series of rate cuts and other measures, obviously influenced by the social, financial and political clout of the big daddies of these corporations. Another fact to consider is that the US Presidential campaigns need a lot of money, which these financial giants control in large measure.

How do the shareholders of these loss-making corporations take it? They are expected to gun for the CEO since he is the captain of the ship that is sinking. To avoid large stakeholders baying for the CEOs blood at the next AGM, these losses must be wiped off the balance sheet and quickly at that. Or else the multi-million dollar bonuses, generous expense accounts, stay at swanky apartments, permanent suites at fancy boutique hotels and resorts, membership of by-invitation-only exclusive clubs, latest yachts and travel by private luxury jets would be a thing of the past.

The ominous coincidence of international crude prices rising alarmingly from around 70 dollars to around 150 dollars per barrel in a short period of less than a year was unexpected and unprecedented to say the least. OPEC was an easy target to pin the blame to. Some western news and current affairs analysts even labored to cloud rational thinking by creating scenarios of how part of oil gains by OPEC was finding its way in to the hands of Islamic fundamentalists and being used to finance terrorism, particularly against the West.

The real story may never get told since so many vested interests would be working overtime to zealously guard the guilty. The scenario that I present for consideration is simple. These financial superstars entered the oil futures markets buying up all oil on offer and placing more orders than could be delivered by traders, who normally hedge future deliveries against future purchases. It led to crude prices rising rapidly with no shortfall in supplies. To allay fears of a shortage OPEC did what could be expected, they announced periodic hikes in production. Bear in mind, that for the later part of 2007 and early 2008, Iran complained of no buyers for crude and the Arabian Gulf was choked with oil supertankers, loaded, ready and nowhere to go.

The financial wizards thought that after oil is pushed to dizzying heights, the various Governments would swing into action and buy large quantities to offer the comfort of oil security to their populace. An alternative scenario was a war in the middle east to ensure long term oil security. They planned to offload their positions and book billions of dollars of profit to square up the sub-prime losses. And the party would have continued.

Alas, the governments did things differently. They passed on the oil price increases to the consumers and the consumers cut back on car usage leading to a severe drop in oil consumption across the world. This led to oil supplies greatly improving. These financial institutions did not have more funds to pick up the additional oil that was now available to shore up the prices to have an iota of a chance to sell their positions for a profit. They had to square up positions since holding on to them would have meant even more losses.

So now you know, who to blame for oil prices spiking and why Merrill got lynched and why Lehman went broke.

First image courtesy http://www.clipartof.com/ and second image http://www.corbis.com/

Thank you. Oh ! Master

2008-09-13T16:22:00.002+05:30

I write this piece to thank Raj Thackeray, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the munificent, magnanimous soul that he is, for the most charitable and noble act of his life, of granting a pardon to the one and only evil force in Mumbai, Amitabh Bachhan and Jaya Bachhan, who dared to raise a banner of revolt while staying in Mumbai. How dare he ?

I fully agree with you, Raj, that they deserve no mercy and the Bachhans along with their progeny must be crushed at any cost, for the ‘Marathi Manoos’ to live in peace and breathe easy after you and your ‘staunch supporters’ have removed all traces of the Bachhan influence from the sacred Marathi domain.

It is your greatness that you still thought it fit to pardon sinners like Jaya and Amitabh Bachhan. It speaks volumes about your large-heartedness and spirit of charity. That you even spared that police officer Prasad, who dared to question whose father this land belonged to, is the epitome of your spirit of accommodation for fellow Indians. That he can never move around without his badge and uniform would ensure that Mumbai law and order would improve in days to come. Even R.R.Patil didn’t have the guts to challenge your supremacy, though he claims to be Deputy Chief Minister. I guess even he wants to continue to live and work in Mumbai.

Raj sir, I doff my hat to you for your initiative and courage of conviction in taking up the causes that are so close to the hearts of the common ‘Marathi Manoos’. These hapless people were suffering in silence for long, while these Bihar and UPwalas were raking it in. Amitabh is said to command a fee of 10-12 crores per movie and he doesn’t even give a few lacs for the MNS. He expects to live in this wonderful metropolis of ‘Aamchi Mumbai’ without paying the rent to the real owners of Mumbai? How silly can these UPwalas get?

Your name would go down in history as one of the greatest warriors in service of Maratha pride, probably next only to Shivaji. There would be a slight difference though. While he only adorned the female attire to gain entry in to the mughal palace, you actually turned chicken when faced with the challenge from that man named Amar Singh.

Image courtesy www.newsline365.com

A glaring contrast

2008-09-12T16:02:00.009+05:30

When the Kosi river breached its embankments, changed its course by over a hundred kilometers, flooded vast areas in North Bihar, caused a great amount of destruction of standing crops and uprooted millions of people from their homesteads. One saw people scampering from their fragile habitations, which were on the verge of collapse, with their frugal assets be it a few heads of cattle, a bit of jewelry or some utensils. We saw the Indian army mount a mammoth rescue and relief effort, securing vast areas to avoid loot and plunder by the unscrupulous elements who like vultures feast on human misery, in their effort to make a fast buck. The government agencies responsible have been largely missing in all the action.

This is in stark contrast to what one saw in US when Louisiana was flooded after Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of young and not so young men and women volunteered in the run up to Katrina hitting the US east coast. One saw the civil administration gainfully utilizing their efforts in sand bagging the embankments of the River Mississippi, making public announcements, informing the general population about the preventive measures to be taken, helping convince people to evacuate to safer areas and actually helping in the evacuation process. The police was seen intensifying patrolling to ensure there was no loot or plunder by robbers. After the hurricane hit the coast and flooded vast areas, the volunteers were engaged in rescue work and once the storm abated the same groups helped in providing relief and in re-building homes devastated by nature.

We have witnessed a great outpouring of sympathy from the Indian people. Millions of employees, in places thousands of miles removed from Bihar, have contributed a day’s salary for the Bihar Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Many more have sent their contributions through special funds set up by large media groups. Many non-governmental organizations have set up relief camps and offered cooked meals, set up temporary camps and arranged medical facilities. It speaks volumes about our desire to do good for those less fortunate.

One also read reports of jewelers in small towns buying gold ornaments at a fraction of the current gold rate taking a moral stand they are helping preserve lives by providing instant cash in time of need and that life is more precious than gold. While nature’s fury is known to abate with passage of time, human greed knows no such limits. It only intensifies with each passing day. The stories one hears each day are more ghastly than the stories one heard yesterday.

‘Why is it that natural disasters and calamities always bring out the beast of greed amongst us?’ is a question that has bothered me since the time I read reports of the calamity in the press. If as a community we want to be seen as highly concerned and charitable then why is it that on a personal level we look at such disasters as a means of getting rich quickly at the expense of someone devastated by nature’s fury? Frankly I could think of no one single reason.

Social scientists tell us that in attempting an answer to this question one needs to look at the psychological, sociological, moral and financial reasons responsible for such behavior. Since I have no pretensions to understanding these complex issues, I can only say what appears to be commonsensical. The distribution of economic resources in India is unequal among social groups and also amongst various geographies. The effects of such catastrophes are felt most by those in a certain geography and belonging to a certain social grouping.

The well-heeled buy mental peace and social comfort by giving away a few thousand rupees, usually some discarded garments and soon-to-expire medicines and looking the other way as if to say their job is over. These resources then reach another group who pocket the proceeds from selling a major part of it, throw some crumbs at the hapless and believe their job is done. The government agencies are normally the last to arrive and show the audio-visual media evidence of large piles of relief material arriving at special roadside camps. These agencies, their camps, the relief materials and the politicians disappear as soon as the media goes away.

Strong moral values imparted through ten years of structured moral education will definitely help. A strong sense of community, socially useful and productive work would become a norm. Every child would be encouraged to put in at least a hundred hours of community work per year. The marks scored in academics and the grades earned in social work would be considered at the time of admissions for higher education. I believe moral education in one’s years at school would help forge strong character. It would also ensure that the Indian people would volunteer for such charitable and humanitarian missions.

images courtesy www.daylife.com

Rock On !! Live your dream

2008-09-11T13:51:00.008+05:30

One has grown up hearing parents chiding their children to study hard and achieve something in life. ‘Achievement’ typically signified becoming a doctor, an engineer or a chartered accountant. Parents were usually seen to be reluctant to allow the children to follow passions like singing, dancing, painting, writing, sport etc because these pursuits were seen as the shenanigans of the offspring of rich and famous people since they provided no guarantee of future employment.

It was in the last decade or so, when Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and M. S. Dhoni became high-grossing and much sought-after stars that parents actually started pushing their children, who showed even an iota of interest in the game to pursue cricket on a serious note, often accompanying them to pre-dawn coaching camps run by ex-cricketers. The children were eyeing a fulfillment of their passion and the parents were guided by the possibility of greater financial accomplishment than previously thought possible.

This pursuit of cricketing passion, for whatever reasons, resulted in creating a full bench of serious contenders for the Indian test and ODI cap and brought about a situation where even the erstwhile star cricketers could not take their place in the national team for granted. It generated a wave of young stars from the smaller towns of India, who struck it rich. This caught the imagination of an even larger number of youngsters in the country who have started to believe that if these guys from Allahabad, Barielly, Baroda, Hissar etc could make it so can they. This crop of young talent, fired by self-belief, has done India proud at the junior level. The young stars inside the team can never become complacent, as they have an even larger number of equally talented players breathing down their necks, eagerly waiting for them to fail.

What has happened in cricket is slowly beginning to happen in other walks of life as well, be it other sports like tennis, billiards, squash or badminton, painting and other crafts like sculpture, poetry, theatre or films, hospitality business or event management. Parents’ desire to see their children settled and financially secure in life and the options offered by these seemingly unusual vocations has gradually brought about a greater acceptance of the fact that one need not be a doctor, engineer, chartered accountant to be deemed successful. The irony of the situation is that these unusual pursuits usually offer greater earning potential and a superior lifestyle to its proponents, I guess primarily because these kids are chasing their dream and when your heart and soul is in something, you always do a damn good jo of it. One would rather be a top-notch chef than a mediocre engineer.

The films of the time also amply portray this changing reality. I chanced to see Rock On! yesterday. It is a film starring Arjun Rampal, as Joe, the lead guitarist and debutantes Farhan Akhtar, as Aditya, the singer, Luke Kenny, as Rob, the keyboardist and Purab Kohli, as KD, the killer drummer who form the rock band called Magic. It has been written and directed by Abhishek Kapoor and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. It is a story of this young group splitting apart, when ego clashes arise upon getting the first album contract but re-uniting years later after leading miserable lives doing other things. Of the four, two continue pursuing music with nothing great happening in their lives. The other two are shown pursuing other vocations and are seen to have achieved great financial success. Yet their passion brings them together to create Magic on stage, in the end of the movie. I thought the names and situations were rather symbolic.

While you can achieve name and fame and material success doing anything else it is only when you pursue your passion and chase your dream that the end result becomes meaningless. The pursuit itself becomes so fulfilling that attain Self Actualization. You continue and try harder and struggle to attain perfection and that is when Magic is created.

The above image is the poster design of Rock On. I am sure the producers of the film wouldn't mind my using it.

Mumbai wants rule of law, Raj

2008-09-10T13:35:00.001+05:30

India has been witnessing the utter disregard that Raj Thackeray, chief of the Maharshtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) has shown for democratic values. It his trademark style he and his 'supporters' first went about vandalising the various english language signboards, hoardings and the like in Mumbai, which prides itself as the commercial capital of India. Mumbai plays host to a large number of business travellers from across the world. How does Raj Thackeray expect his 'Aamchi Mumbai' to prosper in the backdrop of such utter contempt for the convenience of those travellers who bring business and opportunity to Mumbaikars?

After his misguided tirade against Amitabh Bachhan, who being the man that he is refused to buckle and stood firm his ground, Raj has gone and picked on Jaya Bachhan's innocuous comment at the 'Drona' music launch. When Jaya Bachhan was called to the stage, she ribbed her son and his producer / director friend, Goldie Behl both of whom addressed the relatively small audience in english, by saying that she would speak in hindi since she is from UP. Mr Raj Thackeray, a comment at a private function is not a political statement. You need to explain to the Indian people what was so disturbing in her comment that you took offence as the guardian of the marathi language and the marathi speaking people. Is the vast legacy of a rich language like marathi and the culture of its people so fragile that it would be damaged by a celebrity making a speech in hindi. Would you be happier if Jaya Bachhan had spoken in english instead? India demands an answer from you and the MNS.

It is indeed ironic that the likes of Raj Thackeray forget that to be good Mumbaikar one needs to be a good Maharashtrian first and to be a good Maharashtrian one needs to be a good Indian first and it can not be any other way. Sane and rational people of our country would not allow it to be any other way. Raj Thackeray and his brand of 'leaders' must be made to realize this truth by the democratic people of Maharshtra. Mumbaikars must uphold their long-cherished democratic traditions and make these misguided 'youth' leaders realise that parochial and chauvistic politics will only destroy the social fabric of a throbbing metrolpolis, a truly world city like Mumbai. The Raj Thackerays of this world must be made to pay a price for their follies. The political leadership ensconed in their ivory towers, for fearing of rousing passions, would not like to precipitate matters by branding Raj Thackeray a 'goon', a 'troublemaker' and putting him where he belongs : behind bars, but the secular and liberal democratic people of Mumbai and Maharashtra must do the best they can : say 'NO' to his brand of chauvinistic politics in the next elections which he contests.

image courtesy www.topnews.com

Emerging Asian Superpower

2008-09-08T14:01:00.009+05:30

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) worked overtime, often late into the night with a few meetings lasting all night and in to last weekend to find an honourable and mutually acceptable forward path to meet India's nuclear ambitions. That this move was spearheaded by uncle Sam speaks volumes about India's growing credibility as a mature and responsible state which has a right to peaceful exploitation of the atom to meet its energy requirement, that is growing exponentially and has the potential to wreck havoc on international crude prices and can lead to considerably increased global warming.

It is also an acknowledgement that though India may not have signed The Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), it remains a nation where the world need not be afraid to transfer sophisticated nuclear technology since there is no chance whatsoever of the same flowing into wrong hands irrespective of which party is in power in New Delhi. Indian political establishment may have conducted the extensive negotiations, which saw the NSG and the Western nations often bending over backwards to accommodate India's aspirations but in reality it is the Indian democratic tradition that has really won the day for us.

I congratulate all fellow Indians on this historic occasion and look at the future with tremendous hope. The contours of a golden and rosy future, where power is available 24x7 across the country, where Rs 10,000 laptops can be plugged in at a roadside internet kiosks, where nuclear medicine would help pharma research scientists conquer the yet pervasive diseases, where IT companies would explore newer frontiers with nuclear capability and take India to an even higher level, really excite this generation of Indians.

It is also an earnest desire that while we try to conquer the power of the atom, we would also parallely endeavour to conquer hate and erase all forms of dogma, fanaticism and racial or communal bias. Then we could rightfully call ourselves a glorious nation. Then the Indian innings would have truly started.

It is now imperative upon our leadership to simultaneously attack illitracy and poverty. Imagine the might of a billion plus enlightened and secular Indians. They could then rule the minds of all mankind backed by a wonderful legacy of tolerance and co-existence, values that are so intrinsic to Indianness.

I see India emerge as a real 'Sone ki Chiriya' (Hin. Litt The Golden Bird : Prosperous and soaring high) in the 21st century.

Of feudal lords and blood money

2008-09-06T13:43:00.012+05:30

The concept of paying blood money, to compensate the victim’s family for accidentally or intentionally extinguishing the life of a person started in the middle ages. It has been called by different names in various parts of the world. The purpose was to ensure that the absence of a breadwinner and a source of livelihood for the victim’s family did not lead to starvation and to ensure that they were economically secure for life. The emotional loss obviously could not be compensated, so no effort was made in that direction.

In earlier times
These fines completely protect the offender (or the kinsfolk thereof) from the vengeance of the injured family. The system was common among the Scandinavian and Teutonic peoples previous to the introduction of Christianity, and a scale of payments, graduated according to the heinousness of the crime, was fixed by laws, which further settled who could exact the blood-money, and who were entitled to share it. Homicide was not the only crime thus expiable: blood money could be exacted for all crimes of violence. Some acts, such as killing someone in a church or while asleep, or within the precincts of the royal palace, were "bot-less"; and the death penalty was inflicted. Such a criminal was outlawed, and could be killed by anyone on sight.

The payment of weregild, the word literally means "man price", was an important legal mechanism in early Northern European societies, such as those of the Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons; the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood revenge. The payment was typically made to the family or to the clan. If these payments were not made, or refused by the offended party, a blood feud would ensue.

The size of the weregild in cases of murder was largely conditional upon the social rank of the victim. In early Anglo-Saxon Britain, an elaborate tariff was prescribed. A prince, was worth 1500 shillings, a yeoman farmer was worth 100 shillings, a serf was worth between 40 and 80 shillings. Thralls and slaves technically commanded no weregild, but it was commonplace to make a nominal payment in the case of a thrall and the value of the slave in such a case. A shilling was defined as the value of a cow in Kent or elsewhere, a sheep. As the Northern European tribes were a nomadic people, great importance was placed on the survival of women and children, as they were integral to the propagation of the tribe. The killing of both women and children were also dealt with severely, usually bringing on the larger of the fines.

Early Germanic law forms were very specific to differentiate between the wergelds for free people as opposed to bonded servants. Payment of the weregild was gradually replaced with corporal punishment, starting around the 9th century and almost entirely replaced by as late as the 12th century throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

Weregild was also known to the Celts, who called it ericfine in Ireland and galanas in Wales, and to Slavic peoples, who called it vira in Russia and główczyzna in Poland.

Qisas is an Islamic term meaning retaliation, similar to the biblical principle of an eye for an eye. In the case of murder, it means the right of the heirs of a murder victim to demand execution of the murderer. As execution for murder was conceived as the retaliation of the victim's heirs, traditionally the state could carry out the execution with their permission only, and they were free to forgive the murderer, either as an act of charity or in return for compensation. However, the Quran also prescribes that one should not demand retribution but seek compensation called Diyya (plural Diyat). There is no specific amount for Diyat and the fine should not differ based on the gender of the victim, or state of freedom of the victim. However, the Qur'an left open its quantity, nature and other related affairs to the customs and traditions of a society. Today one sees Diyya for women being half that for men. Those who fail to raise the money to pay Diyya are executed. Qisas is enforced today in many countries which follow the Sharia, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan.

In modern times
All over the world the rich have been known to be somewhat arrogant since they seem to have vast quantity of something that the rest of us don’t; Money, Riches, Maal, Moolah or call it what you will. In the more civilized parts of the world this arrogance is reflected in the rich seeking special favours from the state including special tax status. In the developing world, this mindset is reflected in their breaking every rule in the book, rash and drunken driving, at speeds in excess of laid down traffic and speed limits, running over ordinary mortals, be they policemen on duty or pavement dwellers and showing no remorse whatsoever, being one of the prime examples of this mindset.

The sentence in the infamous Sanjeev Nanda BMW hit and run case by a New Delhi court and some comments made by the eminent judge bring to mind the earlier times when the law treated those who could pay, and those who could not, differently. So, even today, as in earlier times, all over the world, most of those executed happen to be poor folk who could not hire top-notch lawyers or pay the penalty while the rich hired the best legal teams, paid and walked free. It matters little whether the incident happens in Mumbai (Alistair Pariera, Salman Khan, Niel Chatterjee and many more) or in the heart of Delhi as in the instant case, they always manage to get away cheaply.

http://blogs.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/archive/2007/10/19/to-poor-to-live.htm

For the judge to say that the sentence was guided by the mitigating circumstance, of the Nandas paying compensation of Rs 1,000,000 to the next of kin of those killed, and Rs 500, 000 to those injured, soon after the date of occurrence of the event, is a travesty of justice. The whole world, seeing their attempts to create a confusion of a truck instead of the BMW car, tamper with evidence, bribe witnesses, strike unholy deals with prosecution lawyer etc believes they did not pay compensation to make the lot of the victims’ families any better; it was their attempt to buy silence.

Image courtesy IBN Live

Did the PM mislead India ?

2008-09-04T13:54:00.001+05:30

At the height of the debate on the Nuclear deal, the PMO was consistent in its assertions that the 123 deal would in no way compromise India's security and sovereignty. The assurance given to the Indian people and parliament was that the Hyde Act would not apply since the various clauses of the 123 deal covered all US concerns and those of the NSG and that India would retain the right to test and that the latest nuclear technology and reactor designs would be forthcoming.

From the US State Department's letter to the US Congress, it now emerges that is not the case. So did the PM mislead the Indian people and Parliament?

The Congress (I) upon the insistence of the PM went as far as risking the government and faced a vote of confidence riddled with, then seen as wild, accusations of a sell-out to US business interests and the PM, Manmohan Singh staking his own position at the altar of his word given ostensibly to US President George Bush. The Left parted ways with the Congress after nearly four and a half years of a somewhat turbulent liaison. It appears the inhibitions of the Left were not without reason.

In a hostile environment and ever-changing geopolitical realities, a large country such as ours, with thousands of miles of International borders and coastlines to guard, can ill-afford to give up its right to test. Tying the Indian nation for ever to a situation of no-testing for the sake of a few thousand megawatts of nuclear power and a few billion dollars of US investment may be the greatest disservice that Manmohan Singh has done to India in his otherwise glorious and unblemished career. Only the future would show if his moves were right or whether the PM would be held accountable by history for compromising India's security and sovereignty.

The above image is courtesy Outlook.

A Sign of our times

2008-09-03T12:25:00.019+05:30

After a long wait of over nine years, the Indian Judicial system yesterday delivered its verdict in the infamous Delhi BMW Hit and Run case. As everyone knows by now it involved Sanjeev Nanda, a young man of 19 years, the grandson of the erstwhile Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral S M Nanda and son of Suresh Nanda, a leading businessman of New Delhi, driving under the influence of liquor. He is now convicted of running over 6 bystanders including three policemen in the middle of a foggy winter night in early 1999. A verdict of Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder has been handed out. This carries a maximum of ten years in jail.

That the young man's rich father attempted to bribe his way to secure acquittal for his son is despicable for the sheer audacity of trying to circumvent the legal system. Think of the message the father's actions must have sent to a young impressionable mind of a budding teenager studying business management in the US on a vacation in India. Gifting such an expensive car, costing more than a lifetime's earning for an average Indian, was bad enough but allowing him to show off his driving skills, impaired by alcohol, to a bunch of his friends on a foggy winter night was an unpardonable crime.

After that the father attempts to remove evidence, bribe witnesses, strike unholy deals with prosecution lawyer and even obfuscate matters to try and make it appear that a truck caused the accident. The legal system has shown exemplary courage to act against it's own by disbarring R K Anand and I U Khan, two well known names in legal practice in New Delhi and imposing fines.

The court would pronounce the sentence today. May be Sanjeev Nanda would be sent away for ten years. But can civil society ignore the fact that it was the father who is the actual perpetrator of the crime for the manner in which he tried to buy freedom for his son Sanjeev Nanda and also setting up a distorted value system in his son's impressionable mind. By not acting against him, the courts would be shying away from their duty.

Some critics may argue that this is perverse justice, a trial by the media or even a witch-hunt, where a rich man is expected to pay a stiff penalty for a crime committed by him whereas the same crime if committed by someone who is not so well off earns a lesser penalty or even an acquittal. Well, they may have a point about uneven application of the law but does it in any way take away from the fact that Sanjeev was responsible for the ghastly accident that killed six innocent people while, Mr. Nanda, your son was sozzled ? For you to say today that Sanjeev has suffered enough is ironic indeed.

Sanjeev, all men make mistakes in life. Greatness does not lie in running away from them, hiding them or trying to have your rich dad bribe witnesses or all things you and your dad have been doing. Real courage would lie in admitting wrong-doing, expressing remorse and making amends and rising above your follies like a phoenix. I am sure you have a long bright successful career ahead of you after you have erased this dark chapter of your life. So take heart and come back a stronger man, a real brave man.

The above image courtesy www.spock.com

Vignettes of Holland

2008-09-02T17:49:00.000+05:30

Airlines, Flights and Cabin crew

2008-09-01T12:25:00.005+05:30

My friend & erstwhile colleague Sudhir Bisht wrote in from Nigeria to give feedback on my blog. I refrain from putting the rest of his comments here since I may be accused of blowing my trumpet. He also asked me to include one of his articles in the blog which I willingly do since I found the matter exceedingly relevant for a larger group. The story just goes to show that we need to take pride in the success of our friends to experience joy.

This story by Sudhir was first published in The Business Day, Nigeria’s respected business daily of May 11 .

http://www.businessdayonline.com/analysis/comments/9524.html

The Virgin Nigeria flight, VK 302 from Johannesburg to Lagos, on 20th April was expected to be a long and boring one. The plane is rather staid with no personal TV screens in its economy class section (unlike Emirates). The first morsel is served at 11:30am and by then the stomach starts to grovel, if you have not eaten breakfast before you enter the flight.

To catch the 10:30am flight you need to be at the airport by 8:30am which means that if you have stayed in Pretoria, you need to start at 5am to be the airport on time, given the traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

I was lucky to find a place to sit in the crowded lobby opening into several boarding gates. Tired from the exacting business tour, I immediately dozed off only to wake up minutes later when my fellow traveller and friend informed me that the boarding was announced.People rushed towards the boarding gate and waited a full fifteen minutes before the boarding actually commenced. This is one aspect of customer service where all the airlines need to improve a lot. Why must boarding be announced when those in charge of boarding aren't ready to receive the passengers? This is quite annoying but is something which happens all over the world, in all airlines and it involves the passengers queuing up restlessly before the boarding actually begins. An elderly lady who was a bit of a heavyweight and was fifth in the queue complained bitterly about her aching feet. Standing in the queue for fifteen minutes is much more painful than walking for fifteen minutes.

I could have slept for 15 more minutes, I thought.The flight was full. The passengers were of all hues. There were Lagos bound businessmen from South Africa, tourists returning to their homeland, well recognizable Political leaders, Cricketers on their way to London via Lagos and thirty school children with their teachers. Travellers from different origins going to different destinations were all ushered in the VK 302 flight by the smiling Flight stewardesses whom I instantly recognized. It was the same set of crew that flew with me on the onward Lagos-Johannesburg flight VK 303 on 17th April.One lady said, "Welcome back Mr. Bisht. Hope you had an excellent stay in South Africa." I was surprised by this reception. I may not be the most nondescript person on the earth but I am not famous either. May be because I was the last passenger to enter the flight VK 303 from Lagos to Johannesburg and that I had asked her for beer thrice on that flight, that she remembered me!

There are no in-flight magazines or newspapers for those who travel economy and I had forgotten the Jeffrey Archer’s book that I bought at Pretoria, in the taxi that took me to airport. This meant that I would have to watch the movie on the main screen, I thought.

The plane took off on time and after the mandatory safety demonstration, I waited for the drinks to be served, which were served very well. Time to watch the main screen, I thought but there was no sign of any entertainment there, much to the dismay of the school boys some of whom were flying for the first time and couldn't wait for the movie to start.

The controls of main screen entertainment were on the baggage space near my seat. The stewardess was trying to fix something and from her exasperated "Oh No! Oh me Gosh!" sounds I could make out that the big screen wouldn't work.

The announcement to that effect came soon, much to the disappointment of the school children. But the apology that followed from the cabin crew was straight from the heart. The stewardess who apologized said that the big screen system failure had happened for the first time and that she wasn't able to fix it because the system was a new one and she wasn't an "Engineer" by training and that she was really sorry about it.

The apology was so sincere that it melted the hearts of all concerned. Many questions started flying in my mind though. If the system was a new one, why was the crew not trained on fixing up small problems? Are the Flight attendants of other airlines "Engineers"? The moot point however is that the stewardess had saved the day for the airlines. The food was served which was OK to me since the chicken n rice meals had run out of stock and only beef n rice was there to be served. As I don't eat beef, I thought that I would have to remain contented with just bread, butter, salad and the dessert. Suddenly a steward with the most honest smile sprang to action and said that there was a vegetarian meal in their stock and that the same could be given to me. The flight attendants of Virgin Nigeria are really very good human beings, I thought.

Having taken my customary two cans of beer and eaten the delicious vegetarian meal I went into a deep slumber. I must have slept for the next 3 hours and when I woke up, the landing was being announced.

And then came a very important announcement."Ladies and Gentlemen, the man walking down the aisle is Flight Attendant Adebola. He has completed 2 years and 2 months with Virgin Nigeria as Flight Attendant. Today is his last flight with our airlines" The voice was dramatic and there was a momentary silence and then it went again, "As a flight attendant that is! From tomorrow Adebola starts his paid leave and would be going to the Pilot Training academy in Florida. So Ladies and gentlemen, if after a few months, you find a certain Captain Adebola flying your aircraft as a co-pilot, please remember that it would be the same Captain Adebola, who is presently walking down the aisle as a Flight Attendant."

There were thunderous clapping and shouts of "Congrats man. You’ve done it man. Keep it up, Captain." The old lady who had complained of her feet aching while she stood in the queue for fifteen minutes exclaimed, "Wow. What a nice company to work for. Looks after its employees so well! " I heard one schoolboy say that when he grows up, he would want to work for Virgin Nigeria.

The "Captain-in-waiting" shook almost every passengers’ hand. I felt elated when he came to shake hands with me. There was a standing ovation for the young man and I could see that all his colleagues were genuinely happy for him. What was it that was most remarkable about the last leg of the journey? What aspect of it impressed people the most? That the airline was sending a deserving employee for training so that he could move up in life is indeed remarkable. However what was most remarkable was the way the other colleagues celebrated his success. This is what impressed me most. I don't know if they were trained to celebrate the success of Flight Attendant Adebola like they did and even if they were it doesn't take away any credit from that set of joyous cabin crew.

With a crew like that Virgin Nigeria can afford many big screen failures.

2008-08-30T12:58:00.000+05:30

Hi ! I have just started this blog today. I shall start posting after I have collected / collated my random thoughts.

Discovering parts that gradually start to give way

2008-08-29T13:29:00.013+05:30

One of the effects of aging is that gradually parts of your body start to show signs of deterioration in their functioning. Aches and pains become your partners. My wife Neelam was led to believe her lingering backaches were Sciatica. My ignorance of the subject prompted me to study the subject on the net.

A comprehensive report was prepared but even before Neelam got around to reading it, an MRI scan and expert's diagnosis showed it to a case of slipped disc. She has just started her familiarization with Sacro-Lumbar support 0511, a belt she has to wear for some time. The report is published for general use by anyone in similar situation.

“Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression and/or irritation of one of five nerve roots that give rise to the sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve itself. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, and/or various parts of the leg and foot. In addition to pain, which is sometimes severe, there may be numbness, muscular weakness, and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body.

The medical term for sciatica is a radiculopathy, which means that a spinal disc has extended beyond its normal position and is irritating the Radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which connects with the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve branches off as it travels down the lower extremity through the back of the leg. Sciatic pain can be experienced along this nerve route.

Although sciatica is a relatively common form of low back pain and leg pain, the true meaning of the term is often misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve, causing the pain. This point is important, because treatment for sciatica or sciatic symptoms will often be different, depending upon the underlying cause of the symptoms.

Causes of sciatica
Sciatica is generally caused by the compression of lumbar nerves L4 or L5 or sacral nerves S1, S2 or S3, or far less commonly, by compression of the sciatic nerve itself. When sciatica is caused by compression of a dorsal nerve root (radix) it is considered a lumbar radiculopathy (or radiculitis when accompanied with an inflammatory response) from a spinal disc herniation (a herniated intervertebral disc in the spine), or from roughening, enlarging, and/or misaligning of the vertebrae (spondylolisthesis), or degenerated discs. Sciatica due to compression of a nerve root is one of the most common forms of radiculopathy.

"Pseudo-sciatica," which causes symptoms similar to spinal nerve root compression, is caused by the compression of peripheral sections of the nerve, usually from soft tissue tension in the piriformis or related muscles (see piriformis syndrome and see below).

Spinal disc herniation
One cause of sciatica is a spinal disc herniation, pressing on one of the sciatic nerve roots. The spinal discs are composed of a tough spongiform ring of cartilage (annulus fibrosus) with a more malleable center (nucleus pulposis). The discs separate the vertebrae, thereby allowing room for the nerve roots to properly exit through the spaces between the L4, L5, and sacral vertebrae. The discs cushion the spine from compressive forces, but are weak to pressure applied during rotational movements. That is why a person who bends to one side, at a bad angle to pick something up, may more likely herniate a spinal disc than a person falling from a ladder and landing on his or her back. Herniation of a disc occurs when the liquid center of the disc bulges outwards, tearing the external ring of fibers, extrudes into the spinal canal, and compresses a nerve root against the lamina or pedicle of a vertebra, thus causing sciatica. This extruded liquid from the nucleus pulposus may cause inflammation and swelling of surrounding tissue which may cause further compression of the nerve root in the confined space in the spinal canal.

Sciatica can be caused by tumours impinging on the spinal cord or the nerve roots. Severe back pain extending to the hips and feet, loss of bladder or bowel control, or muscle weakness, may result from spinal tumours. Trauma to the spine, such as from a car accident, may also lead to sciatica.

Spinal stenosis
Other compressive spinal causes include spinal stenosis, a condition wherein the spinal canal (the spaces through which the spinal cord runs) narrows and compresses the spinal cord, cauda equina, and/or sciatic nerve roots. This narrowing can be caused by bone spurs, vertebral dislocation, inflammation, or herniated disc which decreases available space for the spinal cord, thus pinching nerves from the spinal cord that travel to the sciatic nerve and irritating them with friction.

Piriformis syndrome
In 15% of the population, the sciatic nerve runs through the piriformis muscle rather than beneath it. When the muscle shortens or spasms due to trauma, it can compress or strangle the sciatic nerve beneath the muscle. This cause of sciatic symptoms is piriformis syndrome. This may be the major cause of sciatica when the nerve root is normal.

The risk of self-inflicted sciatica has increased in recent years with the fashion trend of lower-hanging trousers as well as lower-positioning of the pockets. For instance, sitting on a wallet for prolonged hours every day can cause self-inflicted sciatica. Symptoms of numbness and/or pain behind the knee cap are associated with this form of sciatica.

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
Another cause of sciatic symptoms is sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Unhealthy posture, habits such as sitting in chairs for excessive lengths of time and sleeping in the foetal position, along with insufficient stretching and exercise of the relevant myofascial areas, can lead to both the vertebral and soft tissue problems associated with sciatica.

Trigger points
Another source of sciatic symptoms is active trigger points of the lower back and the gluteus muscles.[citation needed] In this case, the referred pain is not consequent to compression of the sciatic nerve, though the pain distribution down the buttocks and leg is similar. Trigger points occur when muscles become ischemic (low blood flow) due to injury or chronic muscular contraction. The most commonly associated muscles with trigger points triggering sciatic symptoms are: the quadratus lumborum, the gluteus medius, the gluteus minimus, and the deep hip rotators.

Pregnancy
Sciatica may also be experienced in late pregnancy, primarily resulting from the uterus pressing on the sciatic nerve, and, secondarily, from the muscular tension and / or vertebral compression consequent to carrying the extra weight of the fetus, and the postural changes inherent to pregnancy

Diagnosis and treatment
Because of the many conditions which can compress nerve roots and cause sciatica, treatment and symptoms often differ from patient to patient. Diagnostic tests can come in the form of a series of exams a physician will perform. Patients will be asked to adopt numerous positions and actions such as squatting, walking on toes, bending forward and backward, rotating the spine, sitting, lying on back, and raising one leg at a time. Increased pain will occur during some of these activities.

Treatment of the underlying cause of the compression is often the most effective course. When the cause is due to a prolapsed or lumbar disc herniation, research has shown that, with supportive treatment to help relieve pain, 90% of disc prolapse will recover with no specific intervention. Genetics appear to influence the risk of developing disc herniation.

Imaging methods such as MR neurography may help diagnosis and treatment of sciatica. MR neurography has been shown to diagnose 95% of severe sciatica patients, while as few as 15% of sciatica sufferers in the general population are diagnosed with disc-related problems. MR neurography is a modified MRI technique using MRI software to provide better pictures of the spinal nerves and the effect of compression on these nerves. MR neurography may help diagnose piriformis syndrome which is another cause of sciatica that does not involve disc herniation.

Most cases of sciatica can be treated by one or more of the following:
1.Acupuncture
2.Anti-inflammatory medications (for example NSAIDs or oral steroids)
3.Chiropractic
4.Osteopathy
5.Pain medication (for example acetaminophen)
6.Physical therapy
7.Surgery
8.Stretching exercises
9.Structural integration
10.Yoga

Specific surgical techniques include:
Intradiscal Electrothermoplasty (IDET)
A needle is inserted into the affected disc, guided by x-ray. A wire is then threaded down through the needle and into the disc until it lies along the inner wall of the annulus. The wire is then heated which destroys the small nerve fibers that have grown into the cracks and have invaded the degenerating disc. The heat also partially melts the annulus, which triggers the body to generate new reinforcing proteins in the fibers of the annulus

Radiofrequency Discal Nucleoplasty (Coblation Nucleoplasty)
A needle is inserted into the affected disc, although instead of a heating wire, a special RF probe (radio frequency) is used. This probe generates a highly focused plasma field with enough energy to break up the molecular bonds of the gel in the nucleus, essentially vaporizing some of the nucleus. The result is that 10-20% of the nucleus is removed which decompresses the disc and reduces the pressure both on the disc and the surrounding nerve roots. This technique may be more beneficial for sciatica type of pain than the IDET, since nucleoplasty can actually reduce the disc bulge, which is pressing on a nerve root. The high-energy plasma field is actually generated at relatively low temperatures, so danger to surrounding tissues is minimized.

The term sciatica describes the symptoms of leg pain and possibly tingling, numbness or weakness that travels from the low back through the buttock and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of the leg. The vast majority of people who experience sciatica get better with time (usually a few weeks or months) and find pain relief with non-surgical sciatica treatment. For others, however, sciatica can be severe and debilitating.

The clinical diagnosis of sciatica is referred to as a "radiculopathy", which means simply that a disc has protruded from its normal position in the vertebral column and is putting pressure on the radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve.

An important thing to understand is that sciatica is a symptom of a problem — of something compressing or irritating the nerve roots that comprise the sciatic nerve — rather than a medical diagnosis or medical disorder in and of itself. This is an important distinction because it is the underlying diagnosis (vs. the symptoms of sciatica) that often needs to be treated in order to relieve sciatic nerve pain.

Sciatica occurs most frequently in people between 30 and 50 years of age. Often a particular event or injury does not cause sciatica, but rather it tends to develop as a result of general wear and tear on the structures of the lower spine.

Sciatica symptoms
For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and debilitating. For others, the pain might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse.

While sciatica can be very painful, it is rare that permanent nerve damage (tissue damage) will result. Most sciatica pain syndromes result from inflammation and will get better within two weeks to a few months. Also, because the spinal cord is not present in the lower (lumbar) spine, a herniated disc in this area of the anatomy does not present a danger of paralysis.

Sciatica symptoms that may constitute a medical emergency include:
1.Progressive weakness in the leg
2.Bladder/bowel incontinence or dysfunction.

Common Causes of Sciatica:
1.Lumbar herniated disc
2.Spinal stenosis
3.Degenerative disc disease
4.Spondylolisthesis

Patients with either of the above symptoms may have cauda equina syndrome and should seek immediate medical attention. In general, patients with complicating factors should contact their doctor if sciatica occurs, including people who (1) Have been diagnosed with cancer; (2) Take steroid medication, (3) Abuse drugs, (4) Have unexplained, significant weight loss, or (5) Have HIV.

Sciatica medical definition: Radiculopathy
To clarify medical terminology, the term sciatica (often misspelled as ciatica, cyatica or siatica) is often used very broadly to describe any form of pain that radiates into the leg. However, this is not technically correct. True sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve is pinched or irritated and the pain along the sciatic nerve is caused by this nerve (radicular pain) and is called a radiculopathy. When the pain is referred to the leg from a joint problem (called referred pain), using the term sciatica is not technically correct. This type of referred pain (e.g. from arthritis or other joint problems) is quite common.

Practical point
Symptoms of sciatica pain can vary greatly but usually decrease after a few weeks or months with non-surgical treatment.

Sciatica treatment
Sciatica nerve pain is caused by a combination of pressure and inflammation on the nerve root, and treatment is centered on relieving both of these factors. Typical sciatica treatment include:

Non-surgical sciatica treatments, which may include one or a combination of medical treatments and alternative (non-medical) treatments, and almost always includes some form of exercise and stretching. The goals of non-surgical sciatica treatment should include both relief of sciatica pain and prevention of future sciatica symptoms.

Sciatica surgery, such as microdiscectomy or lumbar laminectomy and discectomy, to remove the portion of the disc that is irritating the nerve root. This surgery is designed to help relieve both the pressure and inflammation and may be warranted if the sciatic nerve pain is severe and has not been relieved with appropriate manual or medical treatments.

Active exercise is important for sciatica (radiculopathy) relief
While it may seem counterintuitive, exercise is usually better for healing sciatic pain than bed rest. Patients may rest for a day or two after their sciatica flares up, but after that time period, inactivity will usually make the pain worse. Without exercise and movement, the back muscles and spinal structures become deconditioned and less able to support the back.

The deconditioning and weakening can lead to back injury and strain, which causes additional back pain. Exercise is also important for the health of the spinal discs. Movement helps exchange nutrients and fluids within the discs to keep them healthy.

Many sciatica exercises focus on strengthening the abdominal and back muscles in order to provide more support for the back. Stretching exercises for sciatica target muscles that cause pain when they are tight and inflexible. When patients engage in a regular program of gentle strengthening and stretching exercises, they can recover more quickly from a flare up of sciatica and can help to prevent future episodes of pain.

Specific sciatica exercises depend on the cause of the pain
A physical therapist, certified athletic trainer (ATC), chiropractor, physiatrist or other spine specialist who treats the back pain and leg pain associated with sciatica may recommend exercise as part of a treatment program. It is important to first get an accurate diagnosis for the cause of sciatic pain, as the specific exercises recommended will depend on the cause of the sciatica. It is also important to get a diagnosis before starting any sciatica exercises because, while rare, sciatic pain can be caused by some serious medical conditions (such as an infection or tumor) that require prompt medical attention.

Caring for sciatica should be considered part of one's daily living, not just something to add to the routine at the end of the day. In addition to an exercise routine, patients with sciatica should minimize everyday stress on the lower back, including using good ergonomics while lifting, maintaining good posture, making sure the lower back is supported while sitting, and avoiding standing for long periods of time.

Practical point
For many people with herniated discs, extension exercises that arch the spine backward rather than flex it forward will provide more relief.

An amazing story - What goes around comes around

2008-08-28T00:27:00.015+05:30

After reading my first few blogs, my daughter, Sanya brought to my attention the folowing story. Saying that it is quite interesting and would inspire charitable thoughts in readers since one never knows the outcome of one's noble acts. I decide to post the story but decided to google for more information and some startling discoveries .

But first the story:

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black mulch, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.Someone once said, "What goes around, comes around."

If you're thinking this story rings too good to be true, you are absolutely right. "Charming as it is," observes a Churchill Centre page devoted to alleged convergences between the lives of Winston churchill and Alexander Fleming, "it is certainly fiction. Among the reasons set forth in support of that conclusion are:

There is no record of Winston Churchill nearly drowning in a Scottish bog when he was young.
There is no record of Lord Randolph Churchill paying for Alexander Fleming's education.
Though it is true that Winston Churchill contracted pneumonia more than once during World War II and was treated with an antibiotic called sulfadiazine ("M&B"), he was never, according to available medical records, treated with penicillin.

That said, Sir Alexander Fleming was indeed the discoverer of penicillin, and Churchill did apparently consult with the brilliant physician and professor of medicine once in 1946 when he had a staph infection that proved resistant to the drug. The Churchill Centre attributes the apocryphal tale, which has circulated in email form since 1999, to a 1950 book called "Worship Programs for Juniors" by Alice A. Bays and Elizabeth Jones Oakbery.

Moral of the Story : Don't blindly believe the written word. In every media, be it Print, Electronic or the Internet, there are con artists and the gullible get suckered. Be inquisitive, a bit adventurous and explore. Just googling a subject and believing what one comes up with is surely going to lead to a disaster. Make an effort and read atleast the first 15-20 search results.

Alok in Thailand

2008-08-27T23:37:00.004+05:30

Best man Naresh at Google ?

2008-08-27T14:17:00.002+05:30

In my previous blog I mentioned that I had written to Google querying what drove them to recruit Naresh, a double amputee. The reason for raising this query was to try and understand what drove them to it. Were they just being good samaritans or doing it for the publicity it would generate for them. They have not yet responded. Since my last blog on this, I have sent emails on their website, to Google co-founder Larry Page and today to their Vice President People Operations Laszlo Bock. In some corner of my mind ia desire that they would respond saying they recruited Naresh because he was truly the best guy for the job at hand.

Google website says they seek motivated self starters who demonstrate initiative & ownership. They must be dedicated to customers while continuously striving for superior quality and must be in a continuous learning mode since the environment is fast changing. They must be flexible to work in different & diverse projects. Google offers encouragement, freedom to innovate and a chance to work in a flat hierarchy. Candidates must be highly performance driven and display innovation in their way of thinking. Eagerness to solve problems and working as a team with respect for peers is a vital trait they scout for. They are expected to be Talented, Energetic and Detail-oriented. Besides these, the individual must possess role specific technical skills.

I am sure that Naresh is talented and competent and also has the right attitude. However one musn't forget that he is, after all a fresher. So Google must say that he was truly the best guy available for the position and that they were not driven by the desire to be good samaritans and this was not for free publicity. Their silence would indicate that a position has been denied to another more deserving candidate. Being physically challenged should not become a candidate's passport to a job involving state-of-the-art technologies. However, having special needs can not be a reason to reject a deserving guy.

Recruiting someone who is physically challenged must require monetary outlays to modify the office. We need to know that Google is where it is because they always choose the best man to create a superior performance environment, to deliver superior products for the end users. The Governments must realise that legislation can not create equal opportunity. It can only aspire for limited opportunity. We need to open our minds.

Google has done well and Naresh would show them what he is made up of. Having stirred the nation's collective conscience, I have no doubt he would remain in public memory for a long time. This is not the last we have heard of him.

Don't let anyone shape your thinking

2008-08-25T11:35:00.004+05:30

Devi Dayal Mittal, my friend and an alumnus of The Punjab School of Business Studies, Patiala, my alma mater, though several years younger, sent me this wonderful story today. I feel it needs to be shared with all to show that human genius comes into play when we challenge paradigms.

Sir Ernest Rutherford, President of the Royal Academy, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and Sir Rutherford was selected.

Rutherford read the examination question: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."

The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."

The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit was given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. Rutherford suggested that the student have another try. He gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics.

At the end of five minutes, the student hadn't written anything. Rutherford asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had so many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. Rutherford apologized for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, the student dashed off his answer, which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch.

Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^2, calculate the height of the building."

At this point, Rutherford asked his colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While leaving the colleague's office, Rutherford recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so Rutherford asked him what they were.

"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," Rutherford said, "and others?"

"Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and his will give you the height of the building in barometer units."

"A very direct method."

"Of course. If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g [gravity] at the street level and at the top of the building.
From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."

"On this same tack, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession".

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem."

"Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer."

At this point, Rutherford asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

The name of the student was Neil’s Bohr. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

Alok in Holland

2008-08-23T17:49:00.022+05:30

Alok in Mumbai

2008-08-23T14:21:00.011+05:30

I chanced to visit Cafe Mondegar, near Roxy Theatre in Colaba Mumbai recently. Their draught beer is worth dying for. This was the bar patronized by the world famous Goan cartoonist Mario Miranda in his earlier impoverished days in Mumbai. The legend goes that the owner of this bar would offer Mario endless beer. Mario would design his crockery, cutlery, drapery, linen and even painted his walls in his landmark style. The pictures are testimony that the progeny of the cafe owner have maintained the heritage Mario work to this day. The place should be on the must visit list of all art enthusiasts travelling to Mumbai. A table by the window, overlooking the street with its array of food aromas wafting in, on a lazy sunday afternoon with regular refills of the famous Mondegar beer, in the company of friends is the ultimate luxury.

The Snakeman

2008-08-14T15:45:00.033+05:30

From Alok Sud

In March of 2004, I chanced to meet Capt. Suresh Sharma and his lovely wife, Dr Rajbir Kaur, in The Reliance A1 Plaza at Shahpura, on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, where we had stopped for a cup of tea. They were returning from an assignment in Gujarat, in their caravan named `Kingcobra’, which has become a kind of second home to them. It has been over four years now and we have remained in touch. It is his passion for the cause of wildlife and it's conservation, notably snakes, which has led him to do what many of us can never dare to think of, denounce the comfort of a secure job and chase his passion and make a career out of it. This separates Capt. Suresh Sharma from countless others and makes him stand head and shoulder above the rest.

Today I am going to tell his life story. Capt. Suresh Sharma is one of the lucky few to get introduced to the charms of nature while still a toddler. His father used to take him for daily morning walks to a wild patch near their home. Suresh has kept in touch with nature to this day and is now highly passionate about it. His love of nature, photography and travel got him to join Indian Army, which took him to all corners of India.

Capt Suresh served in the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1988 where he came in contact with Satish Bhaskar at Chennai. Satish is well known for his work on marine life, especially sea turtles. This became the turning point in Suresh's life; Satish introduced Suresh to Dr Indraneil Das at The Madras Crocodile Bank, Mammallapuram.

Suresh expressed his curiosity to Satish to get a firsthand look at how wildlife films are produced. At the time, Rom Whitaker, the world famous herpetologist and Shekar Dattatri were filming ‘Silent Valley - An Indian Rainforest'. Suresh met Rom and Shekar and expressed his desire to work as a volunteer on the film’s production to which they readily consented. He applied for ‘leave without pay' from the army and got to work on the film production for three months. He fell in love with filming – ‘love at first sight' as he puts it. He decided to bid farewell to the Indian Army, which he loved the most till his exposure to nature films. It was all for his love of Nature and Photography that he hung his uniform. He worked with Shekar Dattatri on three films, two of which were produced for The National Geographic.

For some personal reasons and unforeseen circumstances, he had to abandon filming career abruptly at its early stages and moved back to Chandigarh. With no job in hand, he faced serious financial hardship for a couple of years but decided not to go back to a ‘Nine to Five’ job. At this point, he decided to remain in touch with nature by starting Nature Conservation through Education, which needed no money to begin and would be his contribution to nature conservation effort. He offered free lectures at schools and colleges. While pursuing his dream of educating people about nature conservation, Suresh felt that people would not come forward till they harbor apprehensions, myths, misconceptions and fears about animals. He saw every individual contribution as vital for conservation. At that time he offered his skill of handling snakes to rescue those snakes that had strayed into houses. He discovered that it was the best way; use snakes to dispel misconceptions about animals; to convey the message of nature conservation through educating people.

Suresh requested his old friend Dr Indraneil Das to be scientific advisor to Snake Cell. In 1999, Suresh met Dr Rajbir Kaur who is a qualified homeopath. He was requested to conduct a program that was coordinated by Rajbir, to educate rural women about snakes and snakebite.

After this program, Suresh suggested that Rajbir work as a volunteer with Snake Cell. Their association grew and soon they were married. With Suresh, Rajbir aims to accomplish their mission to educate people about snakes and save `Ignorant people & Innocent snakes’.

Rajbir handles fund-raising activities and administration. She is an active field member and coordinates all programs of Snake Cell. They devote most of their time in educating and motivating people about nature conservation.

They vie to understand the problems of snakes in human habitations and design better means to educate people and design suitable programmes to train snake handlers. It has been an uphill task and they had to negotiate many obstacles to bring Snake Cell to its present level. They pursue their passion with a missionary zeal. Both have worked tirelessly to raise funds for Snake Cell and have been supported by their friends and well-wishers. They have been producing wildlife T-shirts by hand. These are rated the best in India. They also organize quality nature tours to raise funds. Their baby ‘Snake Cell’ has been successful as is evident by the program being sought after by schools, colleges and other public institutions.

People seek help from Suresh & Rajbir to remove snakes from their houses, offices, factories etc. Since they first met both have been rescuing snakes in and around Chandigarh. So far, they have rescued about 950 snakes from houses, including Common Krait, which is 15 times more poisonous than a cobra and is the deadliest Indian snake. They have so far attended over 1250 emergencies till now. It’s a Free Service 24 Hours a day.

Suresh has also been associated with wildlife film projects including two for the National Geographic Society, USA. This multi skilled army veteran designs and fabricates natural history sets & props for wildlife film shootings under controlled conditions. He also designs cine equipment for wildlife filming.

They have the able support of a highly eminent team of advisors:
Advisor Natural History, Dr Indraneil Das who received his doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK for his work in Ecology. He has conducted fieldwork in many countries in south and south East Asia and is the Chairman of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) South Asian Reptile and Amphibian Specialist Group. Dr Das has written several books and numerous research papers on wildlife and has described several new species of snakes and lizards. He has also taught at Harvard. Currently, he is conducting scientific research and teaching at the Malaysian University.

Advisor Snakebite, Dr. Ranjan Maheshwari has been working for the rescue of snakes and on snakebite cases for over a decade in Kota in Rajasthan. Kota being surrounded by forests is a good habitat for four of the most lethally venomous snakes found in India. He has been helping in the management of snakebite cases. His pioneering work on "Physiological manifestations under venom interactions" has led to the award of Doctoral degree to him from IIT Roorkee. He has developed an objective method to identify the snake species by studying the bite marks and has published many research papers and delivered many lectures on the subject. He is a referee to many scientific journals. His mission is to reduce the cost of medical management of snakebite, which is vital in saving human lives in the Indian subcontinent. Currently he is the Associate Professor and Deputy Director in Rajasthan Technical University, Kota.

Advisor Environmental Education, D.N. Mazumdar who is a professional manager and director of several companies. He spent his early years hunting, when big game was plentiful throughout India. Long before hunting was outlawed, he gave it up and became an ardent conservationist and served for several years on various committees of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in Calcutta and Madras. After retiring from a well-known industrial group, he continued his passionate affair with environmental issues by working with an NGO. He authored ‘The Endangered Valley’ for the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and is fighting to save the Rajaji National Park from further degradation. He resides at Dehradun where, as the Environmental Advisor to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he works to bring about awareness for the need of water management.

Advisor Film and Media, Piers Warren is well known throughout the wildlife filmmaking industry as the editor of Wildlife Film News and producer of www.wildlife-film.com - the industry’s information website. Though experienced in various aspects of filmmaking, he has specialized in multimedia productions through his company, Wildeye. He is regularly called upon as an Internet and communication consultant for wildlife film and conservation projects. In 2001 Piers was a final judge at the International Film Festival in Montana, USA and in 2002 at Nature Vision Wildlife Film Festival in Bavaria. In 2002 he produced the book “Careers in Wildlife Film-making”, the only careers guide of its kind. This book is essential reading for those who yearn to get into this pursuit. With a background in biology, education and conservation, he has had a passion for wildlife films and has a wide knowledge of natural history. He is the Vice President and one of the founders of the international organization, Filmmakers for Conservation (FFC), Norfolk UK.

The image of Capt. Suresh Sharma is © Gurbir Singh Brar. To see more images by him visit :
Flickr: gurbir singh brar's Photostream

All other images are © Capt. Suresh Sharma. To see some excellent and highly acclaimed wildlife photographs by Capt. Suresh Sharma and to know more about him and his work please you may visit :
http://www.snakecell.org/
http://www.snakecell.org/blog/
http://www.captsuresh.com/

http://www.captsuresh.comhttp//www.flickr.com/photos/wildhiss/

Deep, yes you may reproduce the story

2008-08-11T13:32:00.007+05:30

Deep, a friend from Kolkatta has asked if he can reproduce the Naresh story on his website, http://www.marketingpundit.com/ targetted at school children. I have also recieved similar queries on my other email IDs from people known to me. I have only the following to say on the matter. One, this is not copyrighted material so you may go ahead and use it in full or part and two, the intent of this blog is to start a debate on such matters of everyday life with a view to inspire those whom life has challenged in some way. So Deep, YES YOU MAY USE THE STORY. Promise that it would be in a positive vein.

I wish to start a debate through this blog on matters concerning the physically challenged. In my overseas travels I have seen the extreme care with which the civic infrastructure is laid out so that the physically challenged can go about their lives independently. I often wonder when would India reach a stage when physically challenged persons can get out of their home unaided, grab public transport in their wheelchairs without needing any help or go into a public place, be it a theatre or a restaurant, without the rest of us staring at them. And silently conveying to them how unfortunate we think they are.

Geeti, my cousin, who is a year older and owns a rather sharp and creative mind but can not move around normally due to cerebral palsy has taught me that the physically challenged are individuals in their own right and deserve their space as much as we deserve ours. Life becomes a challenge when they are confronted with negativity. Feel free to write what you think the civil society can do to change things.

My friend Captain Suresh Sharma of Chandigarh wrote in today inviting all of us to witness a rare celestial event that would next happen in 2287 AD. So miss a few hours of sleep on the intervening night of 26th & 27th August and enjoy the spectacle Nature has laid out for us.

"A rare thing to watch ..... Two moons on 27 August. 27th Aug the day the whole World is waiting for............. Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky in August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on August 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287 AD. Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again............... "

Captain Sharma, many thanks. I am sure many of us would willingly give up a few hours of sleep to see this rare occurence.

Why did Google recruit Naresh

2008-08-08T14:00:00.012+05:30

There is some amount of skepticism in all of us. To some of us even basic human goodness appears like scheming. A few would think Naresh was very lucky to encounter such profound compassion that a total stranger on a train volunteers to pay his hostel expense for five years. The skeptics further argue that Naresh must have been truly blessed to encounter such an atmosphere as he did at IIT Chennai. The professors and staff who went out of their way to help him must be repaying their debts of earlier births. And Google must have selected him to show that they champion the cause of the physically challenged and are in fact an equal opportunity employer.

I also viewed this story with a bit of disbelief as it appeared straight out of a fairy tale. I sought an answer for myself. "What drove Google to recruit a double amputee? Was it just to be seen as an equal opportunity employer even if it meant having to constantly make adjustments in the way they would work or was it the fact that Naresh was truly the best guy for the job?" I asked Google in an email.

I shall share with you what Google guys say in their response when I hear from them. In the meantime I ask all of you to write in with what you think could have driven Google to do it.

Naresh's saga of grit & determination

2008-08-07T13:53:00.008+05:30

My friend Mukul sent me this wonderful story of Naresh, the 21 year old IIT Chennai graduate who recently joined Google at Bangalore. I found the story so amazing for the innate goodness of the human soul that I had a strong desire to start my blog to share the story with the whole world rather than through a limited number of contacts in my email system. I repeat the story in its entirety with an earnest desire that such stories which bring out the best in the human spirit, be it of the protagonist or his associates, be circulated widely so that they inspire others who may be in a similar situation.

Naga Naresh Karutura has just passed out of IIT Madras in Computer Science and has joined Google in Bangalore. You may ask, what's so special about this 21-year-old when there are hundreds of students passing out from various IITs and joining big companies like Google?

Naresh is special. His parents are illiterate. He has no legs and moves around in his powered wheel chair. (In fact, when I could not locate his lab, he told me over the mobile phone, 'I will come and pick you up'. And in no time, he was there to guide me). Ever smiling, optimistic and full of spirit; that is Naresh. He says, "God has always been planning things for me. That is why I feel I am lucky."

Why Naresh feels he is lucky.
Childhood in a village I spent the first seven years of my life in Teeparru, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, on the banks of the river Godavari. My father Prasad was a lorry driver and my mother Kumari, a housewife. Though they were illiterate, my parents instilled in me and my elder sister, Sirisha, the importance of studying. Looking back, one thing that surprises me now is the way my father taught me when I was in the 1st and 2nd standards. My father would ask me questions from the textbook, and I would answer them. At that time, I didn't know he could not read or write but to make me happy, he helped me in my studies!

Another memory that doesn't go away is the floods in the village and how my uncle carried me atop a buffalo. I also remember plucking fruits from a tree that was full of thorns.

I used to be very naughty, running around and playing all the time with my friends. I used to get a lot of scolding for disturbing the elders who slept in the afternoon. The moment they started scolding, I would run away to the fields! I also remember finishing my schoolwork fast in class and sleeping on the teacher's lap!

January 11, 1993, the fateful day
On the January 11, 1993 when we had the sankranti holidays, my mother took my sister and me to a nearby village for a family function. From there we were to go with our grandmother to our native place. But my grandmother did not come there. As there were no buses that day, my mother took a lift in my father's friend's lorry. As there were many people in the lorry, he made me sit next to him, close to the door. It was my fault; I fiddled with the door latch and it opened wide throwing me out. As I fell, the iron rods protruding from the lorry cut my legs. Nothing happened to me except scratches on my legs.

The accident had happened just in front of a big private hospital but they refused to treat me saying it was an accident case. Then a police constable who was passing by took us to a government hospital.

First I underwent an operation as my small intestine got twisted. The doctors also bandaged my legs. I was there for a week. When the doctors found that gangrene had developed and it had reached up to my knees, they asked my father to take me to a district hospital. There, the doctors scolded my parents a lot for neglecting the wounds and allowing the gangrene to develop. But what could my ignorant parents do? In no time, both my legs were amputated up to the hips. I remember waking up and asking my mother, where are my legs? I also remember that my mother cried when I asked the question. I was in the hospital for three months.

Life without legs
I don't think my life changed dramatically after I lost both my legs. Because all at home were doting on me, I was enjoying all the attention rather than pitying myself. I was happy that I got a lot of fruits and biscuits.

The day I reached my village, my house was flooded with curious people; all of them wanted to know how a boy without legs looked. But I was not bothered; I was happy to see so many of them coming to see me, especially my friends! All my friends saw to it that I was part of all the games they played; they carried me everywhere.

God's hand
I believe in God. I believe in destiny. I feel he plans everything for you. If not for the accident, we would not have moved from the village to Tanuku, a town. There I joined a missionary school, and my father built a house next to the school. Till the tenth standard, I studied in that school.

If I had continued in Teeparru, I may not have studied after the 10th. I may have started working as a farmer or someone like that after my studies. I am sure God had other plans for me.

My sister, my friend
When the school was about to reopen, my parents moved from Teeparru to Tanuku, a town, and admitted both of us in a Missionary school. They decided to put my sister also in the same class though she is two years older. They thought she could take care of me if both of us were in the same class. My sister never complained. She would be there for everything. Many of my friends used to tell me; you are so lucky to have such a loving sister. There are many who do not care for their siblings. She carried me in the school for a few years and after a while; my friends took over the task. When I got the tricycle, my sister used to push me around in the school. My life, I would say, was normal, as everyone treated me like a normal kid. I never wallowed in self-pity. I was a happy boy and competed with others to be on top and the others also looked at me as a competitor.

Inspiration
I was inspired by two people while at school, my Maths teacher Pramod Lal who encouraged me to participate in various local talent tests, and a brilliant boy called Chowdhary, who was my senior. When I came to know that he had joined Gowtham Junior College to prepare for IIT-JEE, it became my dream too. I was school first in 10th scoring 542/600.

Because I topped in the state exams, Gowtham Junior College waived the fee for me. Pramod Sir's recommendation also helped. The fee was around Rs 50,000 per year, which my parents could never afford.

Moving to a residential school
Living in a residential school was a big change for me because till then my life centered around home and school and I had my parents and sister to take care of all my needs. It was the first time that I was interacting with society. It took one year for me to adjust to the new life.

There, my inspiration was a boy called K K S Bhaskar who was in the top 10 in IIT-JEE exams. He used to come to our school to encourage us. Though my parents didn't know anything about Gowtham Junior School or IIT, they always saw to it that I was encouraged in whatever I wanted to do. If the results were good, they would praise me to the skies and if bad, they would try to see something good in that. They did not want me to feel bad. They are such wonderful supportive parents.

Life at IIT- Madras
Though my overall rank in the IIT-JEE was not that great (992), I was 4th in the physically handicapped category. So, I joined IIT, Madras to study Computer Science.

Here, my role model was Karthik who was also my senior in school. I looked up to him during my years at IIT- Madras. He had asked for attached bathrooms for those with special needs before I came here itself. So, when I came here, the room had attached bath. He used to help me and guide me a lot when I was here.

I evolved as a person in these four years, both academically and personally. It has been a great experience studying here. The people I was interacting with were so brilliant that I felt privileged to sit along with them in the class. Just by speaking to my lab mates, I gained a lot.

Words are inadequate to express my gratitude to Prof Pandurangan and all my lab mates; all were simply great. Prof Pandurangan sent me to Boston along with four others for our internship. It was a great experience.

Joining Google R&D
I did not want to pursue PhD, as I wanted my parents to take rest now. Morgan Stanley selected me first but I preferred Google because I wanted to work in pure computer science, algorithms and game theory.

I am lucky
Do you know why I say I am lucky? I get help from total strangers without me asking for it. Once after my second year at IIT, I with some of my friends was traveling in a train for a conference. We met a kind gentleman called Sundar in the train, and he has been taking care of my hostel fees from then on.

I have to mention about Jaipur foot. I had Jaipur foot when I was in 3rd standard. After two years, I stopped using them. As I had almost no stems on my legs, it was very tough to tie them to the body. I found walking with Jaipur foot very, very slow. Sitting also was a problem. I found my tricycle faster because I am one guy who wants to do things faster.

One great thing about the hospital is they don't think their role ends by just fixing the Jaipur foot; they arrange for livelihood for all. They asked me what help I needed from them. I told them at that time, if I got into an IIT, I needed financial help from them. So, from the day I joined IIT, Madras, my fees were taken care of by them. So, my education at the IIT was never a burden on my parents and they could take care of my sister's Nursing studies.

Surprise awaited me at IIT
After my first year, when I went home, two things happened here at the Institute without my knowledge. I got a letter from my department that they had arranged a lift and ramps at the department for me. It also said that if I came a bit early and checked whether it met with my requirements, it would be good.

Second surprise was, the Dean, Prof Idichandy and the Students General Secretary, Prasad had located a place that sold powered wheel chairs. The cost was Rs 55,000. What they did was they did not buy the wheel chair; they gave me the money so that the wheel chair belonged to me and not the institute. My life changed after that. I felt free and independent. That's why I say I am lucky. God has planned things for me and takes care of me at every step.

The world is full of good people
I also feel if you are motivated and show some initiative, people around you will always help you. I also feel there are more good people in society than bad ones. I want all those who read this to feel that if Naresh can achieve something in life, you can too.