Shit Happens !!

The government fought tooth and nail against the “I am Anna” motion and in the process turned it into a commotion. I say MMS (beloved Man Mohan Singh) could have instead asked his cabinet colleagues to come out and sing “I am Anna” and wear the “Anna topi” in unison with the rest of the country. MMS can be pardoned for not being able to wear the “Anna topi” for technical reasons beyond his control ! :-)

Playing to the tune of “I am Anna” had so many benefits that CONgress failed to see... at least it could have obliterated its past sins and a few current ones like promoting Rahul Baba as the next PM in making. 

Never the less CONgress by saying “I am Anna” could have seen the other benefits of supporting the cause, beyond the of course feel good factor of supporting a genuinely National sentiment. The following are the benefits that CCC failed to C ( Congress Core Committee failed to See).

(1)    Let’s say Congress supported the cause and requested the countrymen to show solidarity with Anna by skipping at least 1 meal for a day.

Now if we do the elementary maths this is where we stand with basic assumptions that a person has only “dal” and “chawal” i.e lentils and rice for food.

If we assume:

100 gms of rice and 50 gms of lentils for 1 meal / person

Population of India = 1.2 billion (1.2B)

(-)

 People who don’t have access to 2 meals a day = 50% of 1.2 billion = 600 million (600M)

Therefore, the people who can skip a meal a day = 600 million (600M)

So the total food saved = 600M * (100gms rice + 50gms lentils)
                                    = 60M Kg rice & 30M Kg lentils

                                    = 60000 tons of rice & 30000tons of lentils

Assuming India produced around 100M tons of rice in 2010-11 and expects a similar production this year, per quarter rice production translates into 25M tons.

Similarly, considering chana dal’s (assuming that is the cheapest dal) production in India is around 6M tons per year, per quarter production translates into 1.5M tons.

Thus, 60000tons of rice saved by skipping a single meal = 0.24% quarterly production.

Similarly 30000 tons of lentils saved by skipping a single meal = 2% quarterly dal production.

Now, assuming agricultural growth to be around 4%, 0.24% = 6% extra rice in a single quarter. On the same token, 2% = 50% extra lentils in a single quarter.

With 8% sudden increase in rice production and 50% in lentil production there will be a sudden spike in supply in the markets. With people not changing their fooding habits overnight, demand for these two items shall remain constant. This will lead to a huge demand – supply mismatch, with supply more than demand. As market forces come into play, suddenly prices of rice and dal would reduce leading to a dip in inflationary pressures. Now, hoarders who typically play a huge role in increasing inflation will be forced to book profits before prices dip further. So, they will offload a lot of rice and dal saved in there go-downs. This offloading will further add to extra supply of the two items in the market, leading to further reduction in prices and thus causing a further dip in inflation. This has the potential of bringing down inflation by at least 2% points to around the 6% figure. Congress could have then used this sudden reduction in inflation as a marketing tactic and proclaimed Sharad Pawar was doing enough to save the country and not just busy looting it. Reduced inflation would have attracted FIIs and FDIs into the country promoting overall growth, taking India towards achieving 9% annual growth and leaving Prabab Babu a happy and gay man. Rahul Baba who already feels gay all the time would have been gay-er by finding an old-fidget by his side.

(2) Beyond the financial reasons, CONgress could have promoted peace, harmony and secularity among the countrymen. With Ramzan round the corner it could have b(r)ought the muslim populace’s vote as promoting the idea of skipping meals which would have attracted Bukari to make some amiable comments.

(3) Simultaneously, it could have also used the occasion to promote good health. Yogi’s have since ages said skipping a meal sometimes is good for health. That would have been some challenge to the www.DesiBaba.Ramdev

(4)  Finally and most importantly it could have saved some embarrassment from its DKBose coterie (D – Digvijay Singh and K – Kapil Sibal). If Bose seems like an appendix then it can be read as D(ic)K as well. 

In the meantime Pranab Babu has come out strongly in support of the “I am Anna” campaign and declared his assets as the effect of inflation can be seen on his depreciating wealth – from over Rs2crores couple of years ago to just over Rs12 lakh now.  While he seems to be going through emotions of deep loss a different motion seems to have got a privilege in the parliament. And my bowel says “offer open for a limited period only” – Apply Soon. SHIT Happens..

What a coinincidence !!

Sometime in early 2005 while I was working with Infosys in Bangalore, I had an interesting conversation with an auto-rickshaw driver. After the conversation got over I realised the august "company" I was with. Talk of inclusive growth these days ? Infosys had cracked the code much before Dan Brown decoded Monalisa's enigma !!

Here is a snippet of the conversation I had had (recaptured as much as I can fairly) with him !!

Driver : Saar ! Aaap Bangalore me kya karta !!
Me: Kaam karta hoon !!
Driver : Kidhar kaam karta hai aap ?
Me : Electronic City mein !
Driver : Oh ! Saar kaoon sa company me kaam karta hai aap ?
Me ( quite hesitantly and pretty much not interested to talk anymore ) : Infosys !
Driver ( almost jumps up with excitement & looks back at me ) : Saar.. mera bibi bhi udhar ich kaam karta hai !
Me : Kidhar ???????? Infosys mein ?????? ( I can add fairly large number of Q marks actually)
Driver : Haan Saar !
Me : ( by now pretty much bemused... and thinking about the driver's virtue.. 'didn't stop the talented wife from working while he drove a rick..'. )
Driver ( on finding no response from me for a few seconds comes up with a statement himself ) : Saar ! Mera bibi ko bahut kaam hota hai...
Me ( with a smirk and sense of amusement ) : Haaan !! Sahi bol rahe ho aap ! Bahut kaam karati hai Infosys..

(with a pause and about to say 'ekdum faaltu company hai' when the driver responds )

Driver : Lekin Saaar baahuut accha company hai Infosys..
continues...
Mera bibi ne uske bhaai ko bhi kaam me laga diya Infosys me...
Me ( pretty much vacillating between petulance and amusement by now) :

( 'I haven't been able to get a reference interview call for my friends and here is this rick - driver's wife merrily getting the entire family into the company'...)

.....

('but have to concede Infosys provides equal opportunity to everyone')

When the driver interrupted my thoughts
Driver : Saaar !! Wo Jaynagar me kaaam karti hai.. itna ich maloom mere ko...
Me (shocked to find that Infosys had an office in Jaynagar ): Kyaaa ??? Jaynagar me ????

Driver: Haan saar.. mera bibi udhar ich kaam karti hai.. Ghar ke pass hai to jyada time bhi nahi lagta usko jaane ko..
Me (tottalllly confused by now ): Aaapki bibi wo Narayan Murthy wale Infosys me hi kaam karti hai na ?????????
Driver : Haaan Saar.. woich.. udhar Electronic City me bhi uska office hai... 
Me : To aapki biwi kis department me kaam karti hai aapko malooom hai ?
Driver : Saaar.. !! Utna kaha se maloom mere ko.. accha paaise deti hai.. utna ich ...
Me : I was like ( What the hell is the guy talking about.. '..Infosys is a good company' ! '...it pays well....'  !!! 
This was tottallly against Infosys culture... 'From when did Infosys start paying well ???'  !! 'May be the pittance that we are paid is good for the driver's family but it didn't certainly last a day more than 1st of every month for me' )

As  I contemplated and got confused more and more... a coincidence happened (somewhere close to a junction near Kanakpura road).. when the driver prompted me to something...

Driver : Wo dekho Saaar Infosys .. ???
Me : Kidhar ??? Idhar to koi Infosys ka office nahi dikh raha.... ??

The only board that was displayed nearby read  - Nirmal Sauchalay - or in other words - Pristine Lavatory

Driver : Sahab ye ich to hai Infosys .. pointing towards the Nirmal Sauchalay board !!!
Me : ( 'When did Infosys start exporting 'shit' ) .. I thought 
( 'I exported sophisticated codes after all' ) or (' at least that was 'sophisticated shit' )
 Still confused very much with whatever was in front of me
Driver : Mera bibi idhar ich kaam karta hai... and then pointing me towards the Infosys I was looking for

Just below Nirmala Sauchalay was written in an innocuous manner - Supported by Infosys Foundation.

Me : Thankfully it didn't read - An Infosys Foundation Product...
Couldn't speak much after.. kept mum to escape the delirium... Infosys tag coudln't have sucked anymore!!

Rethinking Our Democracy !!

Debates around what form of governance is best suited for the peoples have been in existence since eons and still present enough fodder for contention as the world’s two biggest countries (economically) represent absolutely divergent forms of governance. The United States remains the oldest democracy in the world and China remains the only major functioning authoritarian communist state. While there is still no conclusive evidence regarding which form of governance leads to greater economic development, general climate of opinion considers democracy as a Universal value as it leads to better overall development of the people.

Democracy as a means of governance was first postulated around 2 millennia ago in Greece before it collapsed and was replaced by more authoritarian and asymmetric forms of governments. The triumphant emergence of modern day democracy happened around the 18^th century in the French and American Revolutions. The rise, death and rise of democracy has often attracted proclamations around its vitality by great thinkers such as Winston Churchill, George Orwell and William Durant. Succinctly democracy has often been argued as: “It is not the best form of governance, but the best one we know of”.

Democracy and the Indian State

India today represents a very unique and successful experiment of a democratic set up. Her monolithic structure presented a source of skepticism and pessimism about her success as a democracy. During its formation as a democratic country in 1947, the British expressed anxiety over the Indians' ability to govern themselves. The anxieties had been re-expressed by John Stuart Mill’s hypothesis (1958) that democracy is completely impossible in multi-ethnic societies especially in linguistically divided societies.  However, the collective wisdom and clairvoyance of the then Parliamentarians headed by JL Nehru paved the way for what we today call as the Biggest democracy in the world – India.

In 1950, the constitution or the supreme Law of free India was laid down with its basic tenets significantly borrowed from the liberal democratic societies of the west, esp. British democracy and in parts the American constitution. The Indian constitution provided its peoples with Fundamental rights and their duties towards the nation. It also defined the political principles, powers and duties of government institutions. The basic framework of the Indian constitution provided for the three pillars to support the functioning of the democracy: Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. The creation of the constitution involved strategic debates that characterize normal politics and had reasoned deliberations to define public interest where individuals are treated equally and fairly.

Questioning the Indian democracy

Having succeeded in carrying forward a democracy that was deemed to be a failure more than half a century ago, is it time for India to have a renewed look at it once again? I strongly believe so.

The moot question for us today should not be whether we have succeeded in our quest for creating institutions where the heads are simply democratically elected representatives. According to me, we should now question whether the quality of the very institutions the representatives were elected for has depleted. This becomes significantly more important considering the dire times we are living in India. Mismanagement by the governments both at the state and the federal level and rearing corruption in the legislative, judiciary and executive, have significantly degenerated the sanctity of public service.

Shouldn’t therefore, the putrefaction of the democratic framework of the constitution lead us into questioning the relevance of the three pillars of the constitution? Do we still need to abide by the wisdom of the great leaders who framed our constitution in 1950? Is our constitution so sacrosanct that we can’t question its relevance today? What if we added more pillars to the constitution, after all dire situations call for extreme actions?

I am strongly of the opinion that no text is sacrosanct, the constitution more so. After all it was only framed by a set of individuals. Today, we not only should feel the importance of the Legislative, Judiciary and the Executive but also add two more dimensions – a free & fair Press and the People of the country. Occurrences of the recent past suggest many of the people or the civil-society issues have been taken up by the press first – the 4^th pillar – before the legislature acted upon it. It is a complete reversal of the ideas of 1950. During the formation of the Indian constitution the legislature was supposed to take up people issues and press simply express them. Hence, why not consider providing controlled powers in the hands of the people directly such as formation of legislations through referendum, especially when legislative fails to perform its duties proactively? While the press in India has remained fairly vocal and free for quite some time, the people have lost cogency. Considering, the legislature who is an elected representative significantly forgets the people who he is supposed to take care of but for every 5^th year, the people should be assigned more powers to control the representatives. Especially in the 21^st century technology should play a significant role in controlling the one up-manship of the existing arms of democracy.

Rethinking the Democracy

Can we rethink our democratic government system in terms of a private ltd. organization?

In such a system the people of the country can be considered as shareholders of the organization and public office bearers of the government as the board members of the organization. While the board members act as agents of the shareholders to perform smooth functioning of the organization, their failure to deliver proper returns leads them to be shunted out even before their contract is over. There are multiple checks and balances that prevent board members or agents of the shareholders to benefit their own coffers. These occur through quarterly reporting by organizations, reporting standards set by statutory bodies and external audits which together bring in greater transparency.

Like private organizations therefore, can’t democratic governments bring in greater transparency in their operational efficacy? Can’t our governments provide a much more fair distribution of power to its people such as those with the shareholders of an organization?

Some of the simplest and easiest solutions for bringing in greater transparency in government functioning can be quarterly reporting of targets achieved and not achieved in the projects implemented. These reports can be made available on the government websites for all to view. Similarly, comprehensive ratings about the performance of the ministers in their constituencies can be obtained on a bi-annual / yearly basis from the electorate. Most importantly instilling greater ethical standards in public office functioning should always be paramount for engendering greater public faith.

A lot of work still remains to be done to take the nation ahead. May be rethinking our democracy is just the right antidote. After all, we are still a “Flawed Democracy” according to the Democracy Index.

Catharsis of Cognition !!

Recently, I had an interesting debate / discussion with a friend of mine. The discussion started after she described an incident that she noticed while returning from office which seemingly had stirred her up from within. The incident was something that many of us would have heard of or may have even experienced firsthand.

“A thief while trying to break into a car was caught red handed. All the people around got their act together and beat the thief black-and-blue, short of having reduced him to a pulp, till the cops arrived and the just-about-alive thief was handed over”. Perfect example of mob-justice.

She was baffled with the fact that none intervened to stop the treatment meted to the person (okay – the thief) by all and sundry. She was more vexed by the inhuman, almost fiendish, nature of humans especially the way everyone enjoyed reducing the accused into a pulp. Her contestation was simple. Have we all become cathartic of cognition? Wasn’t there a single upright “human being” in the crowd who could have prevented the mob-justice and did the right thing of handing over the culprit to the police? Who gave us the right to provide justice the way it was done?

I tried to disceptate that while the incident in itself was sordid and despicable when viewed from a noetic standpoint, for the layperson the means appointed was the best and easiest form of justice. My argument was that in a country where getting access to the law(through the police) is as difficult as its execution(70% of the prisoners in India are under trials), citizens vent out their frustration time and again by applying means that are legally untenable at best and socially abominable at worst. According to me the manifestation of pent up anger occurs in the form of mob-justice which is the worst form of justice and the best form of liberation. Everyone is partner in the crime but no one is guilty.

(The discussion between me and my friend ensued into a debate by then)

 My friend argued, the mob may have been unjust and unapologetic of its actions but wasn’t there a single sane mind in the huge crowd who could bristle up to the occasion and do the right thing of letting the appropriate institutions (the police in this case) decide the future course of actions. I contested that in a nation where the institutions are incapacitated by the filth of corruption and incompetence people lose trust on the justice system. (The single best example of such a trust deficit and the ensuing action was the formation of a civil society team to draft the Lok-Pal bill). The actions of the lynch mob are certainly not what “nyaya- comprehensive concept of realized justice that affects the world that emerges out of the actions pursued” should be but can certainly be justified as a course correction “neeti – organizational propriety and behavioural correctness”- although devoid of propriety.  As Prhalad Kakkar reckoned in a recent chat show “the action of the lynch-mob is a signaling mechanism for the failure of democratic institutions”. In a fractured democracy like ours where all the three pillars – legislature, executive and judiciary – are found shaking, the lynch mob –justice forms an appealing proposition to the masses while it certainly forces the lumpen institutions to be proactive.  

But coming back to the heart of the issue – Is Creating Justice by perpetrating Injustice the right way? If we zoom out of the current example and pan our focus on the broader context of bail being denied to the multiple accused in cases such as 2G scam, CWG scam etc., we shall realize that even the Supreme Court of India has failed to deliver “nyaya”. After all, as the law stipulates “for offences upto 7years bail is a rule unless there are alarming facts such as someone perpetrates terror”. Shouldn’t therefore, reasonably, the accused not be let free as personal liberty and presumption of innocence are foundation stones of our constitution?

Notable philosophes from Voltaire to Immanuel Kant to AmartyaSen have argued upon the importance of Reasoning as they noted that “bringing reason to the world raises hope of humanity”. However, I would like to dig deep into my vault of courage and beg to disagree with the eminent scholars and so with my friend, who was disgruntled with the unreasonability and cruelty of mob-justice. My line of reasoning toes the fact that we emphasize a lot on rationality and reasoning at the expense of other considerations such as humans’ non-rational and emotional sides, variations in thinking and valuing across cultures and individual freedom of choice.

According to me the fabric of our society shouldn’t just be about a well ironed reasoning, rather it should also encompass crumpled individual volition and emotions.

(The debate continues!!)  

Doorstep to ....

This traces back to those days when I was just another teenager and didn’t understand elections. I was still in school, away from home, in a hostel in the capital of Uttar Pradesh - the city of Lucknow. The hostel was located at the colligation of three major dailies of the state: The Times of India, Dainik Jagaran and Economic Times. For all the kids in the hostel though, the proximity to those News Papers brought many rewards. One such reward would arrive every day at the dead of the night, when we lay our hands upon bundles of empty – yet to be printed upon newspapers. We stole those to make them our rough notes sheets!!

However, beyond this oft repeated act of larceny, which we as kids found to be really amusing, there was another major reward that we received on a rather frequent basis. And that was the News which was always served red hot. One such occasion was the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh. Elections for me had always been about a black dot on a finger nail before that. My proximity to the prominent dailies and the momentous occasion of assembly elections, in the then biggest state of India, ensured that I moved beyond the black dot and understood something more. For the first time ever I found myself excited about elections without even understanding a bit of it. On the day of the declaration of results I still remember having crashed into the studios of a news channel close-by, with a few of my fellow hostelites, to find the scribes scampering all around us trying to decipher the numbers. The enthusiasm of the scribes was virulent as I started feeling the pulse of excitement while the numbers arrived. To me it felt more like a cricket match where opposing parties were going neck to neck waiting only for that sucker punch to be delivered from some corner.

When I think of it today, I realize that at a time when electoral numbers to me were nothing more than points scored by opposing teams in a match, an individual had taken upon oneself to create a team of winners from zilch. Almost 13 years later that individual – Mamata Banerjee, is on the verge of achieving greatness. She successfully mustered a team of nondescripts to dethrone the default champions – the comrades in Red - who had remained unchallenged in a long - long time.  She turned up in a Green crochet to slug it out against the Reds in their own citadel – Gladiatorialike – except that the means were not archaic. The match was fought in a much more restrained democratic set up of assembly elections. The margin with which she won the elections in Bengal – the erstwhile citadel painted in red - in 2011 is evidence enough that commitment and hardwork pays. The margin of her victory signifies that no one is infallible, however great your powers may be, for the real owners of the citadel are not the kings but the proletariat.

The red zone created by the comrades had over the last three decades in Bengal stalled any progress for the state. The green tinge of hope that Mamata has brought to Bengal is symbolical of the fact that the state is now ready to move as the signal changes from Red to Green. Mamata stands on the doorstep of greatness. With bated breath millions await the moment when the door to greatness opens, to see if she could capture that moment of glory. For if she fails to do so it would hardly take a moment to throw the state from a moment of delirium to a moment of derision.

Meanwhile a little birdy tells me that the Communist Manifesto is being revised to make it much more user-friendly - lets say suitable for the IPads !!

Simple Pleasures of Life

In today’s constantly churning tumultuous world, accentuated by the FaceBooks and Twitters, life seems to be moving at a pace which is not comprehendible by most of us. Considering we conceive of ourselves as the most intelligent species on earth, the inventor of the all pervasive computer, the incomprehension of any activity drives us into delirium.  With so much more information to grasp and our increasing rabidity to analyze them has left our emotions paralysed. We are not treating ourselves as a unique creation by a Supreme Being with a heart capable of falling in love but as an incredible human machine with a central processing unit that beats 100000 times a day. In this constant crusade to analyse and over-analyse all (our) actions and in-actions, we are consistently inflicting wounds on ourselves, without even realizing the long term effects. Once the adrenaline of the moment that keeps us from feeling the pain settles down would we realize how caustic the wound has become.

In this effort of ours where we regress our mental faculties over the happenings of the past to predict a better future for us, we are significantly missing our present. The present that brings with itself the Present of Joy, Happiness, Fun, Craziness and kegful of Emotions. The very essence in the innocuous admiration of a beautiful girl has got lost in the intricacies of her AL (age & location). Gone are the days when we would immediately throw ourselves to stargazing, building castles (in the air) adorned by a priggish couple – you and that beautiful girl. The fun of the fantastic imagination has got lost in the worldliness of the Facebook Id and Twitter handle.

And considering I have mentioned about castles and their inhabitants, I am currently reveling under the influence of a wonderful Royal occasion – the marriage of Prince William with Kate Middleton (now the Duke & the Duchess of Cambridge). While almost 2 billion people (most of them watching live on TV) across the world enjoyed and marveled at the wonderfully conducted nuptial ceremony (at times so prissy that it was almost boring), skeptics were under a lot of anguish. Anguish as of theirs that bringeth forth economic worries, cruel wastage of misplaced priorities (by the media, when it should focus on Gadaffi) or a simple loss of sense about how an entire country can be crazy about a Royal wedding (when we live in a world that is largely democratic). I for once decided to let the skeptics grudge with their thinking hats on, and instead enjoyed the pleasure of witnessing Royalty from a close distance of a foot (watched the entire episode on my laptop). I enjoyed the live exhibition to have a sneak peek of Royal traditions and found myself lucidly soaked into centuries of history.  The Royal kiss – William kissing his wife Kate – on the balcony of Buckingham shall remain deeply entrenched in my memories.

I think I am slowly falling into an abyss, a Dreamland. The magnificence of English Royalty is slowly giving way to an Indian Regality. I see someone arriving in a Palanquin? The Palanquin bearers singing - Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing, We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

Analysing Anna Hazare

Almost 65 years ago when India had put its baby foot forward, crawling and finding its way through the maladroit democracy, an Anna ( 1/16^th of a Rupee) formed the most basic unit of sustenance in the Indian households. A Hazaar (1000) Annas during those days meant a long list of family members could be easily entertained over the weekend. With the passage of time, the Anna wore out and went out of the reckoning, paving the way for the freshly minted 25paisa.

The occurrences of the past few weeks, however, have only strengthened my belief in the fact that what goes around comes around. While the decision makers of the country decided to disband the 25 paisa, the collective memory of the country brought the grand old Anna back into public conscience, relegated otherwise mostly to the pages of Wikipedia.  This time, though, Anna was not about the sustainability of just one family; Anna had now become an elixir for the entire Indian society.  The Hazaar Annas had been replaced by a single Anna Hazaare – A septuagenarian Gandhian by cause and means. Anna Hazare paraded to “Jantar Mantar” on a pre-declared date to surmount his fight against corruption, which the incumbent government had become synonymous with.  What followed over the next few days was nothing short of a “Janta’s Mantar”. The supporter of the fight against corruption, the middle-class Indian population, engaged in a never seen before on Indian TV, “PDA” (public display of affection) for Anna Hazare in front of the 24x7 Reality News Channels (more Reality TV and less News). Anna drew support not just from citizens of India but also from denizens who resided in virtual worlds. Anna Hazare and his champions forced the government to surrender to their demands for a formal joint committee which would formulate an effective Jan-LokPal Bill.

What has been interesting since then has been the take by the print media and certain sections of the electronic media, which has tried to post mortem the movement by debating its efficacy. Litres of ink and electricity have been spent trying to deliberate its impact on the future. After having gone through most of the views (pro and against), there are some points, raised by those who opposed the motion, that I found to be very frivolous. The list of people who opposed the motion has generally included the intellectuals of the society – Editors of Newspaper/ magazines, Lawyers, IAS officers etc. Considering, these people don’t generally have to go through the wrath of govt’s disengagement, unlike the proletariat, a cold blooded approach to analyzing such public movements can be anticipated.

The most common objection raised by the beau monde is that such movements (where the leader fasts unto death) can be used to blackmail the governments in the future. This particular act of dissidence has set a precedence for all and sundry who can in future use similar arm twisting tactics to achieve their goals. The examples that have been used are – Jats blocking railway movement to be included in OBC list, Chandrashekhar Rao going on a fast to get his share from an erstwhile peaceful state etc. However, what these analysts failed to note is that none of the other causes that they typically cite has achieved a sense of national unity the way Anna Hazare’s movement did. Not only did it find resonance among the Indians in India but also with those sitting across the seven seas.

Secondly, while most of the dissenters have had parochial agendas directed towards benefiting a sect of the populace, Anna’s cause was nationalistic, something that could bring grace to India, hence purely nationalistic in nature.

Thirdly, these analysts have failed to realize the main cause behind such public outrages time and again. If we delve deeper we shall see that somehow or the other such outrages are manifestations of gross neglect of the commoners by successive governments. For ex: , Rao’s movement for a separate state of Telengana found public support (including university students) because people from the region of Telengana had been grossly deprived of basic amenities such as water and electricity far too long. Similarly, even though the call for reservation in public service by Jats was selfish by all means, the movement had seen the light of the day because of the vote bank politics that successive governments had played far too often. Had the governments been sincere about upliftment of the neglected, reservations in the current form wouldn’t have existed.

Another objection that had been raised against Anna Hazare’s movement has been that an all powerful Jan Lok Pal will hinder public servants to go about their job creatively without fear of implication. Oft cited example has been Dr. E Sreedharan (Delhi’s Metro Man) who, for an effective project execution, had reportedly violated many norms set by the government. In such cases therefore E Shreedharan can be sent to trial by the Jan Lok Pal. This argument although valid, has to be seen in the context of aggregate level inefficiency and corruption plaguing the executive and the legislature (and to some extent judiciary) in every walk of life. For every sincere Sreedharan, there are scores of insincere bureaucrats and far more politicians. The genuine problems that Sreedharan faced wouldn’t have even existed had the executive and legislature gone around their work earnestly.

Of course the Jan Lok Pal bill in its current form has many weaknesses to be considered as is.  But, there had to be a start somewhere. The governments have had a very poor record when it came to passing such a bill. The malaise of corruption and inefficient governance has had a churn on people's lives.. Hope the national awakening brings the current government out of its slumber or else it may be thrown out of its bed on the 15^th August, 2011.

The game has just got more interesting!!! Jai Hind!!!

Education of Business

Not too long ago in India (lets say 35yrs) the business of making money was a despicable act. Movies were replete with villains, typically represented as the cunning local baniya (shopkeeper), played by Jeevan, who would cheat poor people. India then was trying to cope up with jobless youth, an autocratic PM, and big businessmen who minted money by playing a monopoly game in the license raj. The bourgeoisie hated the capitalists and the gap between the rich and the poor was simply too huge to mend. The best graphic portrayal of the bourgeoisie was Amitabh Bacchan who perfectly portrayed the ever angry young man.

However, wealth as such was never seen as a bad thing by the masses. It was only those people who minted money in a wrong way, who were a source of hatred.  As I was growing up the teachers of Hindi and English literature invariably asked us to write essays about the auspicious occasion of Diwali. The essays on Diwali perfectly echoed the value system of the masses. While we celebrated the essays by the joyousness of Lakshmi -Puja (the worship of the goddess of wealth being the main event on Diwali ) an equal measure of time was devoted in writing about the ills of gambling (a popular tradition during Diwali). The Indian bourgeoisie therefore made a clear distinction between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong.

That was also the time when India didn't produce MBAs. XLRI, which was then Xavier Labour Relations Institute, was meant to produce people who could manage labourers and IIM-B was set up for to prepare competent persons for fulfilling the needs of the public sector. For IIM-B the organisation that were kept in mind were bodies like electricity boards, water supply boards and HMT, ITI, BEML, road transport, corporations, municipal corporations, and the like. Hence, the main idea behind setting up of these intuitions was not about producing businessmen but about producing competent managers.

Circa, 2011, a lot of things have changed. Businessmen are no longer seen as beguilers. In fact the negativity of businessmen has been replaced by the positive creatively of entrepreneurs. Gambling, though still remains a bad thing when it comes to individual households, has found a better pasture in the stock markets, where it is prudently known as speculation. And, erstwhile management schools are today more famously described as business schools.


Speaking specifically of management education (business education), even the schools seem to have changed their vision. From producing competent people who can bring change to a society in transition, they have become financial intermediaries where a quality investment can be made to bag huge ROIs during the placement season. While the schools established in the 20th century still hold on to the management tag, the more recent schools prefer the term business. A clear example of this is the way schools have been christened/ re-christened. For example among the older schools we have: Indian Institutes of Management while the newer schools have Indian School of Business. XLRI is another case in point. From being known as Xavier Labour Relations Institute, today it has been renamed into XLRI- School of Business & Human Resources. Whether we prefer to call them as business schools or management schools is simply a matter of convenience since all of them today operate with the same goal in mind.

As it stands today, a large number of the founding members of Indian School of Business finds itself indicted in separate cases of criminal conspiracy.  To name a few: Rajat Gupta, Anil Kumar, Mendu Rammohan Rao and Anil Ambani. Once again if we track the places where these people had their share of education we will see a huge contribution of the term business. For ex: Rajat Gupta: Harvard Business School, Anil Kumar: Wharton Business School, Anil Ambani: Wharton Business School. Although, both Harvard and Wharton are considered to be the doyens of management education, these very places have also churned some of the biggest fraudsters in current memory.

Here, I have a pertinent question to ask. My question is are we treading on the right paradigm of education by reorienting ourselves from management to business?How is it that the same set of people who belonged to the God fearing Indian middle class, which had a clear definition of good and bad, has also produced some serious scamsters? Most management/business school tend to answer this predicament by trying to address the effect rather than the cause itself. They have launched courses in ethics to apprise the students about wrong business practices. But can a 3 months course on ethics really change a person's value system built over more than 22 years?

According to me today it is more important to apprise the future business leaders about the repercussions of wrongful deeds rather than laying a stress on teaching ethics. And if the schools are really serious about imbibing ethics among future leaders they should target primary and secondary schools where the foundations are being formed.  Most importantly the schools should introspect about their own vision and distinguish between management and business.

When a GOD was mortalized !

Today with the culmination of IPL4 auctions I came to the end of a wonderful chapter of my life. The chapter named Cricket. Although the last paragraph in Cricket still remains unread I know that the chapter is pretty much done for me. The last line that I read marked the beginning of the climax of a glorious story in which "God on the Off side" was Crowned as "Prince of a City of Joy". In this story the Prince created a legend of his own quite different from the other Kings who also find glorious truisms through out. The other Kings are Gods in their own Right too and each worth more than the word itself. But I am not going to mention them here for they deserve a separate dedication. I ended reading the chapter as the story got filthier with the God on the offside finding an unceremonious exit. 
The God on the off side, the Crown Prince, is famously known as Sourav Ganguly a.k.a Dada. He created his legion of fans who could trump all logical reasoning for a dose of insanity, for he was their ambrosia. They would go to lengths where they could immolate themselves to protect the Prince from being harmed. But then fans are meant to be unreasonable.
I am here to dedicate an ode, for the Prince himself, which reads something like this -
You are the God on the offside, With that glorious cover drive -- { memories of the cricket field}
You are an attitude, Which made the team stand up with pride -- { the Australian tour of India & vice versa }
You saved the game, From a bunch of fixers  -- { took over captaincy from Azhar in 2000 }
You made the game look beautiful, With those "dancing down the track" sixers -- { memories of Toronto galore}
You waged a lone war,  Standing behind enemy lines -- { the era of Greg "Chappal" }
You made a glorious comeback each time, Defying their sinister designs -- { the SA tour & MoS in Vizag }
You are Sourav Ganguly, A name which no money can buy -- { proved literally true in IPL4 }
You are my (our, Kolkata's, India's) Dada, To see you bat again I am ready to die. -- { Ask me }

With the story's penultimate paragraph I have learnt a valuable lesson. Business & sports can't go hand in hand. Both are wars but of different kinds.
The war of Business is fraught with Greed, Cold emotions & Inglorious Bastards.
The war of Sports is  fought with Grit, Killer instincts & Glorious uncertainties.