The Elections of India

It is one of the most difficult organized events put together by humans and certainly one of the greatest ironies of our lives. The process leading up to Election Day or the chaos that follows does not remotely fit the word ‘organized’ but we know it is one of the better systems in the world. There is no better place to use the term ‘method to madness’ than while referring to ‘Election’ in India

Indian election is all about the numbers and chemistry of some unlikely and strange bed fellows. Parties with polarized views (read no views) cite some nonexistent chemistry to align with the others both before and after elections. Who cares about logic as long as the numbers add up. Isn’t that the logic of an election, in the first place, to get that magical number of seats? 

We usually have an opinion or two about everything that does not concern us so why let go off this opportunity to speak our mind (while most politicians speak out of it) – especially when this event is all about us. If you are already scratching your head about who to vote for, then all those free flowing opinions in the media (social and otherwise) won’t help much either. The important thing to note is that, one way or the other, every one becomes patriotic and urge each other to vote for your ‘rights’ – for their preferred party of course.

All that we hope for is for the new government to be a little different. When we say things can’t get any worse, we hope that the new government does not take it as a challenge statement. We are realistic enough to understand that the new winners won’t ‘sweep’ the state of all its ills or stop ‘con’ing people with new scams. We don’t care if it’s going to be Mandir’s or toilets. All we hope for is not a repeat of the bad movie that we sat through for 10 years.

So all you first timers please vote. Don’t bother understanding the politics. Just do what Bhagadwad Gita preaches you – Do your duty. Don’t bother about the results. If the Gita is too preachy just follow what Nike says – Just do it. If you prefer the more polite modern English – Vote, damn it.

B2H - From the ATM

I recently chanced upon two articles on two different mediums on two completely different subjects. One was by some marketing experts on how the businesses are no more about B2C or B2B but about B2H. The other was a radical proposal by the new boss of Reserve Bank of India to let people withdraw cash from ATM without a bank account. Surprisingly, both these articles triggered some of my memories from the past and also got me thinking. The more I thought about them, the more I saw that amazing connection between these seemingly different articles.

“Soon, you can withdraw cash from ATM even without bank a/c

I read this on paper today. I neither see an immediate personal need for this facility in the near future to feel thrilled about it nor do I have any reservations against this proposal. But, weirdly though, it took me back to a distant memory from the late 1990s or early 2000s.

As was customary and fashionable in those days (read compulsory) I was shopping for a greeting card to wish a friend. I don’t mean the online version of the card but the conventional paper version by Archie’s. Trust me; gifting a greeting card to a girl was not as easy as just picking one of the shelves. Too mushy and you will be branded a wimp. Too funny and you will never be able to trigger that emotion that you hope to trigger. The trick is to pick a funny card and personalize the emotions by scribbling something on it or pick a mushy card and add something funny to make it look cool. To hell with modesty, this was one of those rare few things I was good at. Too bad, that culture is dead. On one such ‘compulsory’ customary visit to a greeting cards shop, I saw this funny one that had a man standing in front of an ATM, scratching his head with a caption “I didn’t know you needed an account to withdraw from ATM”. I almost felt bad for that poor little cartoon guy that day. I guess, not anymore. What was once meant to be a funny joke on a birthday card is becoming a reality today. No wonder, I don’t find that card anymore. Or maybe the RBI governor saw that card too and decided to do something more than just feel sorry as I did that day.

It’s no more B2B or B2C. It’s all about B2H

For the uninitiated, B2B is business to business, and B2C is business to consumers. An electronic chip manufacturing company selling their product to a mobile manufacturing company is B2B whereas Pepsi selling their watery sweet drink to you is B2C. So what then is B2H? According to the marketing gurus, it’s ‘business to humans’. Their collective wisdom makes them believe that the business world is actually moving to an era where businesses happen with humans. Wow. That’s profound.

I remember reading a very wise quote long back (must be early

2000’s again) during my initial days as a Sales executive – “All things being equal, I’d like to do business with a friend”.  I don’t know who said it or when but I decided to attribute it to the Chinese. While you are training the younger lot, quoting a proverb makes you look wise. But quoting an ‘old Chinese’ proverb makes you sound wiser and also adds that extra layer of wisdom to that quote itself. Old or new, Chinese or not, the quote made and still makes so much sense. From groceries to vegetables, from Gold to new dresses people always tends to buy from a particular shop. Not necessarily the nearest one. We always felt comfortable doing business with a friend. Reading about this newfound wisdom of B2H I started wondering. When was it ever not about B2H? Maybe, we live in a world and era of buzz words. Perhaps, B2H sounds a lot more modern than an 'old Chinese proverb'. Or maybe, Google’s new search algorithm identifies with this new buzz word better. So B2H it is for now. Until we come up with something that sounds cooler or buzzier that is.

The unlikely Connection

Like that head-scratching disappointed cartoon guy on that unsold birthday card there would have been millions of real humans who would have wished the same. 'How I wish I could withdraw money from that ATM even if I don’t have an account'. The RBI perhaps heard their secret wish. The use of technology and innovative ideas might be about creating that niche to capture a larger pie of the market share. But somewhere a wise man would be secretly smiling (I still bet it is a Chinese) at this proposal of using mobile technology to transfer money via ATM. because it means that the world still believes that businesses will thrive only as long as they are friendly to humans. It always was, it always will be business to humans - B2H if you like it.    

    

Silted memories

I’m not an environmentalist or a nature conservationist. I’m not an expert on Indian villages and their ways of life. In fact, I have hardly lived in a village to even have a remote understanding of them. 5 or 6 visits to an ancestral village spread over 40 years can hardly qualify as an experience. Short stays (day trips) and such long gaps between visits haven’t given me enough memories about villages that I could feel the emotional connect. 

Or so I thought, until I visited Arumugamangalam, the ancestral village recently.

Arumugamangalam - A small village very close to the shores of Bay of Bengal (6 kms to be precise) and few kilometers off the Tamirabarani river. Of course like every other small village this one too enjoyed the great package deal offered by nature which includes Ancient temples, powerful deities, beautiful green farm lands, poor farmers (Who still treat you like Royalty), silent, peaceful and almost pollution free environment etc. Oh, how can I forget that special extra feature of this miracle package deal – a large water body. To a visitor, this large tank is just a fun place to swim or bird watch. But for the locals, this is the back bone for their very existence. Maybe, it’s this water source that helped it become a village in the first place all those 2500 or so years back. 

Nature with all its power and beauty sometimes could not measure up to the potent combination of changing times and human apathy. Some populist policies by the government like the ‘100 days employment guarantee to the unemployed’ and ‘free cattle to the poor’, meant these villagers could now afford not to work all 365 days. These cattle’s, religiously follow God’s most interesting of commandments –“Go forth and multiply” and all that a man has to do is to sell them every once in a while. Who needs a job when we have such friendly God’s and governments? This coupled with the lure of a city life has led to fewer gen X villagers willing to jump into the dirty and messy farms. 

Nature has written human evolution as an important part of its storyline. Hence, every time humans destroy the gift of nature, nature helps man to evolve and overcome their mistakes. Mechanisation of farm equipment’s, scientific farming techniques etc might have helped us temporarily overcome the lack of manpower. In fact, they might have even improved the overall agricultural process efficiency. But, is nature good enough to keep pace with our apathy? - Apathy, both from the governments and from the ‘son of the soil’ himself towards the very land that has provided them their livelihood for centuries together.

All the modern techniques apart, we still need water for agriculture - This means, care and maintenance of the water bodies that nature has given us. But what we see today in all of its 800 acres are silt and unwanted vegetation. Apparently, the tank has not been de silted in over 35 years. This has resulted in the tanks depth to be reduced to less than half its original depth. If we have the government administrators to blame for this apathy, who do we blame for slowly but steadily deteriorating this beautiful village to a disgusting public toilet? Today, It takes little more than love for the place and nostalgia to help you walk around this village. You need a strong stomach and an ineffective sense of smell. Who will save this village from the Aam Adhmi and the government? 

Will it make a difference if they both become the same entity? That's a debate for another day.

There are still those die hard romantics who are waging a losing (actually lost) war with the deaf and the mute. They have sent millions of petitions and proposals to de-silt the tank that clearly explains the road map and the process of doing it, the merits and de merits associated, the revenue potential etc. Each petition is rejected with an excuse more lame than the one given before. Who knows, the government is thinking long term, may be. “Drain, Dry, and Sell” – I was told that this could be their plan. Residential localities in a dried out lake bed is not a new concept.

An objective outsider glance at this struggle would reveal the futility of the efforts by these aging crusaders. Are they climbing a ladder leaning towards them? – To me it looks like it – impossible and pointless. What drives them to keep battling on are the combination of their deep sense of history of this place, respect and love of their ancestors, the self-imposed moral responsibility to continue the centuries old family traditions and above all a deep sense of gratitude and love for the place that they enjoyed growing up in. May be, they don’t want to let their memories be faded by silt deposits caused by human apathy. I’m sure the story is similar in each of the 5000 plus villages across our country. 

I’m an outsider with no emotional connect to a village and all i wished for was to stare at the vast expanse of water in the majestic tank and maybe smell some fresh air. I said good bye to this village after 2 days, more sad at how the story is unfolding. It is never a pleasant sight watching man destroy Mother Nature one layer of silt after the other. 

Nostalgia

I’m not a big one for posting personal pictures online but some photographs are just too wonderful to be kept too personal. Especially if they are similar photos of the same people shot couple of decades apart.

I was lucky enough to meet some old friends from college recently - A reunion of sorts. Keeping with the tradition of modern reunions, we too decided to click some photographs. Maybe we don’t trust our memories any more or maybe nostalgia is not just something that exists in the mind and touches your heart anymore. No reunion is complete without those lovely pictures of friends showing how happy they are to meet each other. A picture is not just for keeps, but a great way to let the other friends know that 'we had all the fun', while they didn’t. After all, what are true friends and their lovely reunion pictures for?

Looking at these pictures it is obvious that we felt closer than before. With our ever growing frames and bulging tummies, we certainly did feel closer posing for the photo - Hardly any gaps between us. What’s more, the photos also gave us a feeling that we were a lot fitter – how else do you think we fit the entire picture frame. Maybe we should start throwing our weights around a bit - If you know what I mean.

20+ years might have given us a truck load of varied experiences, added few layers of grey added little more than 150+ kgs on us. Some of us even looked wiser. But what fascinated me was the fact, we were just as immature as we were back then. Those silly jokes sounded funny even today. We still felt proud about those childish pranks. All those anecdotes about the embarrassing moments (we had more than plenty to choose from) still made us laugh. Photographs or not, Facebook uploads or not, there is nothing like nostalgia that makes the heart smile.

Smile we did, a lot that day, not just for the photographs that you see on FB but with all our heart that only we could feel.

A Selfie gone wrong

The good part about pencil sketching is the compliments you get from your polite friends who are willing to forgive you for all your bad and very bad sketches.  The bad part though is, your friends eventually run out of their politeness and start sharing their honest views. No honeymoon lasts forever.

With my previous attempts at self-portrait – A ‘Selfie’ if I may call it not clearing my own biased quality standards I was determined to get it right this time. There can only be two possible reactions to a self-portrait. “Your sketch is good” or “You look better than this”. I had nothing to worry about. A Self-Portrait will be a winner either way. So I spent 2 hours learning few last minute tips and techniques to draw that ultimate portrait and put the new learning to use over the next 8 hours. The result was a decent sketch that to my blinkered vision, looked a photo replica of me. I couldn't wait to see the reaction of the others. In fact I was all set to receive the wow’s and brilliants from the world.

The first response I got from a close friend who is known to be generous with the praises was “???”. Yes, three question marks. Not one, not two but three. When I pushed for a more specific response, the reply was “Not even remotely close” - So much for my cockiness and pride.

If the first response crashed me back to the ground, the second one almost buried me under it. “This is a young Bhaskar”. Clearly suggesting that (a) it is a bad sketch (b) I look lot older in reality – So much for my theory of compliments. 

The third response made the first two sound like compliments. A friend who is known to give honest positive feedback responded thus “Is that your final version”. Clearly, this didn’t look like a completed version for this friend – So much for my perfect portrait.

There were some compliments too - "The features look alright just that the face looks as if some one has twisted the two halves in different direction" Not willing to admit defeat, I decided to post it on FB. Couple of hours later I got 3 personal requests. The politest of them read “Please remove your bad profile picture”

I learnt, that when it comes to sketching human faces, your eyes fooling your brain or your brain fooling your mind is not good enough. Anything short of perfect will be considered bad. 

Watch out, my dear friends.  Save all your compliments. I will get there soon one day some day. Going by the feed back for my last attempt, the soon might be take a little longer. A lot longer maybe. 

Nelson Mandela

Have you heard about Apartheid? Do you know what it means? 

Apartheid – One of the filthiest policies that man designed to rule a nation. In Afrikaans it means ‘the state of being apart’ or literally ‘apart –hood’ (Wikipedia). It was a system that segregated people based on their race – white, black, coloured and Indians.  For some strange reason, certain segment of mankind with all its intelligence believed that one race was better than the rest. Shameful and sorry as it may sound today, many parts of the world were forced to follow such misguided notion.

South Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s was ideally set for a hero to step on stage. It had the most important thing a hero required – A villain - A mean and strong villain in the form of a government policy - The Apartheid

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear"

Fortunately, for the downtrodden in South Africa and the world at large, the ‘Lead Man’ (Mandela) was not a macho gun trotting hero but one of the greatest humans to have lived in this world.

27 years in jail did not kill his resolve. The seclusion did not make him bitter. The great man walked out of the prison a greater man. He was as brave as he was noble. "If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal.Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness".

He was not the average vindictive hero like in a Hollywood or Bollywood movies. He was not after any ones blood. He was better than our notion of the best.

So, if you did not know the meaning of apartheid or never heard of racism before, don’t feel bad but feel proud. You are the generation that the great man dreamed about. The least we can do is to spare a moment to thank Nelson Mandela and the many other real life heroes like him who have not just inspired us but have changed the way we live our lives. Who knows, if not for them, we might still be as shamefully barbaric as we once were

"I detest racialism, because i regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man"

When one innings end, another begins....

The Good & The God

The most remarkable journey of emotion and love known to man is nearing its destination. A little boy had taken us through this magical trip that even the most romantic dreamers could not have envisaged better. He took us all through a journey that inspired us, that gave us reasons to smile, to feel sad and above all to feel proud. We ran out of adjectives to appreciate this little boy who did better than we could fantasize that we chose to revere him as THE GOD.

Sachin has enriched the lives of billions over the last 25 years. He has enriched cricket. He has enriched the virtues of super humans. While we have the right to feel sad at the end of this fantasy ride we will do better to believe in another miracle - If a little boy can make it this far, why not a gifted young man who is already in the same path.

So don’t unbuckle your seat belts yet. Get ready for another magical journey with the man who will be the greatest one day – Virat Kohli. 

A pause at Green

The festival of lights just got over for the year and it’s time for the real celebration - A celebration of the return to normalcy. Yes, we don’t have to pretend that we care for our environment anymore, we don’t have to pretend that we don’t like to blow our money and let it go up in smoke , we don’t have to pretend that we truly care for all those kids that are employed to make these crackers, we don’t have to pretend that we care for all those annoying pigeons and barking street dogs. We certainly can be ourselves at least, until the next Diwali. It’s time to celebrate this freedom from the self-woven shackles.

Most of us resolved to “Go Green” and celebrate a noise free, pollution free Diwali.  It was not just the ‘one night stands’ affair with our environment that sky rocketed during Diwali, our love for fellow humans flashed brighter than the brightest of flower pots. Every greeting was suffixed by “Be Safe”. Suddenly we started caring for the safety of fellow humans. Maybe the Good finally overcame the Evil.

Many of us, (the less excited ones) could actually sleep way past sunrise on the Diwali day and not be jolted out of the bed at 3 am by a nuclear bomb, as was the usual culture. I could drive or walk on the roads without having to fear a cracker bursting under the legs or tire. God Bless the ‘Go Greeners’

I almost gave my thumbs-up to this ‘Go Green’ culture and to our new found maturity until I saw a group of kids in my apartment lobby playing with one of those fancy electronic gadgets. I almost screamed, Really? On Diwali day? Is that the best fun they could think of? As I was driving past the noiseless roads, I wondered. Has our new found maturity or care for our environment taken the fun out of this mother of all festivals? Didn’t we enjoy our childhood without a care for the environment? Didn’t we burst the noisiest of crackers without a care for safety? Didn’t we enjoy being the first one to burst the loudest cracker and wake the entire street up in the wee hours of the morning? Didn’t we blow our fathers money and enjoyed watching it go up in flames? We did. Could we have enjoyed this day and looked forward to it every year during our childhood, had our parents counted the money or took a moral high ground in support of the environment. Aren't we denying the kids their right to fun with this new found fashion statement – Go Green?

My head was bursting with the rights and wrongs of the changing culture until I was jolted back to my senses and reality with a loud honking noise from a car behind me. In my moral tussle, I failed to notice the signal Go Green.  

Strength of Weakness

Have you ever experienced a brain freeze? No, I am not talking about the one induced by an extremely chilled drink or an ice cream.  I am talking about the mind numbing experience induced by a seemingly simple question like “What are your strengths and weaknesses”? 

Out of the many stereotypical questions we face in a job interview, this has to be the one of most annoying. Somehow this question always manages to flick off a switch to the part of our head where we have stored some carefully chosen adjectives. No matter, how well prepared we may be, somehow a question about strength and weakness is one of the biggest weakness for many. 

Even if we manage to pull out some of those adjectives and call it our strength, it’s the search for our weakness that invariably pins us down. Our frozen brain tries to go into an overdrive to list some weakness that sounds more like strength. After all, we don’t want to declare our strong weaknesses to a prospective employer. This internal turmoil invariably gives that dumb embarrassed expression to our face which leads to an even more annoying follow up response from the interviewer. 

“You mean to say, you don’t have any weaknesses?” 

Is it a weakness not to know our weakness? Is it not enough to know our strength alone? Or can our weakness actually be our strength? 

Humans, like everything else in this world, are not perfect. In fact, it is the imperfections in us that make us unique and it is this uniqueness that we call our strength. More often than not, we need some of the weakness to bring out our inner strength. Fear is an apparent weakness that triggers the all-important instinct, fight or flight. Being fearless might sound heroic but in the natural world, it is sheer stupid.   

As a natural instinct we are designed to use our strengths to survive and succeed. Not so much to analyze the cause of failure. After a certain point in time, it makes more sense to work on our strengths and improve them further than correcting our so called perceived “weaknesses”. More often than not, our strength is in having those weaknesses.  

“Never fear shadows. They only mean that there is a light shining somewhere nearby”.  

Don’t fret about your weaknesses. Let them be. Trying to correct all of them  might be futile too. So the next time when you struggle to list your weaknesses don’t feel bad. The interviewer might not know that your strong point is your 'Strength of Weakness'. 

Winners Vs Champions

In every sport there are the winners and then, there are the champions.  A winner of course is the one who wins the top prize. A winner is appreciated, applauded, respected and maybe even admired. Whereas, a champion apart from receiving all these adulation is also the one who wins the heart of his fans. A champion gets worshiped  a champion gets prayed for. We want the champion to do well, We don’t care about the result but just happy to witness his / her journey

So what does it take for a winner to become the champion? Is it the consistency of performance over a long period of time? Is it winning by thorough domination? Is it by never loosing at all? Is it their impeccable character?

Some of the greatest champions of today like Tendulkar or Federer have had their fair share of failures. Woods or Warne are not the typical role models for their behavior on or off the field. Steve Waugh or Dravid  chose winning by attrition than domination. Longevity and consistency are a key common factor but is that all that is required to make the cut?

They somehow make us feel nostalgic every time they set foot on ground. They were probably the first winners that we looked up to and grew up watching. They are the only constant in our lives while time changed everything around. We love them not because they are invincible but because they are not. We call them champions because they inspired us during our personal lean patches, by showing how to bounce back from a failure. They gave us hope when all else seemed lost. They made us smile and they made us shed tears in silence. They grew beyond their mind boggling statistics and became emotions in our heart. Deep inside, we secretly wish them success even if they played against our teams. They gradually and gracefully grew from being the child prodigies to the legends of their sport. Their reputation transcended generations, countries and everything else. Not every winner can be a champion

They are not champions because they won; they won because they are the champions. 

The Logic of Beliefs

Apes to neanderthals to homo sapiens. At least that is the evolutionary 'Logic' Science has taught us to 'believe' in. Faith and belief have been a part of mankind's psyche ever since we started walking on two feet. Humans have constantly been debating on these polarized views -  Logic Vs Beliefs.

How do we explain the authenticity of one of the greatest epics. Science might not be able to prove that mankind existed back then. Yet we have enough historical and religious facts supporting this epic, strewn across the country, even today. For thousands of years, people have believed in this story and are continuing to do so even in this modern world. Are they all illogical and blinded by some non existent  truth? Or do they see some thing that Science is yet to comprehend.

Humans have always looked up to a fellow human to guide them, lead them, tell them what is to be done. Yet, we also frown upon these hero worshipers and belittle these God men for misleading the humans. Why would highly educated and intelligent people follow a spiritual leader with absolute reverence and 'believe' that it is the most logical thing to do. Do they experience something things that Science or logic could never explain. 

When the believers have faith in the existence of a Supreme power, Science rubbishes it. When Science tries to explain the logic behind faith the believers frown up on it. Heck, when science tries to explain the moon landing, we question the logic and beliefs behind it too. 

Won't life be easier when we simply respect both these views and not over analyse. If someone feels solace in praying to a stone or serving a fellow human with reverence, let him be. If some one tries to explore the logic of every thing around, let them be. Why do we always believe in the logic that some thing has to be better than the other. Why can't they be equally right? 

It is the war between Science (Logic) and Beliefs (religion/faith etc) that has helped this race evolve faster. 

Maybe we need more faith to believe in this logic. This debate will continue till the end of time, (as we know it logically)...or the time there after (as we believe it to continue)