Dabbawallahs

What do dabbawallahs do? Where do they do what they do? Why do they do whatever they do? What is it that shot them to fame? Why do management gurus, kings, leaders alike took notice of these quiet men of honor?

We had Dabbawallahs themselves answering these questions during the sessions they conducted inhouse. I went over with my friend to get a first hand feel of what they do and why they are considered with such regard. Leave alone the six sigma statistics thay they have bettered. What captured my attention was the confidence and the pride with which he spoke and the humbleness that he displayed, a rare combination. They take home food to the offices and then bring it back to the houses after the lunch for a meagre amount. Like the business itself the process is extremely simple and is not replicable as such - it caters to the Mumbai city's needs and depends entirely on the electric train. And more than this on the passion and commitment of the Dabbawallahs who are stakeholders in the business. To a large extent this hinges on their desperation for earning a livelihood and their belief that distributing food is a divine task.

What is also noteworthy is the time management and the fact that the process is kept as simple as possible to keep the costs low. Despite that it needs to be seen how many more decades they will sustain. May be their younger generation will reconsider how much more money they can make with so many opportunities around!!

Maximum City - My opinions

He just captivated me with his words, dragged me into the details, humbled me with the heroics of the under privileged and teased me with the tale of the mislead. Suketu Mehta's brilliant work on 'Mumbai' truely kept me hooked on to the book for the entire length. A definite recommendation from my side, 'Maximum City' deserves accolades for the neutral view of the city.

I am a big fan of leading a peaceful life in a country like setting. I dream of having a quiet home far away from the hussle and bussle of the big cities. And i hate the fact that in India we do not preserve our rivers or even take enough pain to control growth in cities. We grow inorganically and reach a point where our infrastructure breaks. All our rivers are mere dumpyards and we fail to look beyond the confines of our homes.

The author comes across as a global citizen who can see the whole world without the burden of his context. He skilfully describes every character and event they were part of. I loved the non-partisan view on even his friends, for example on how he describes Vidhu Vinod Chopra as someone who is confused between the western movie styles and the Indian public's likes. There are places in the book where the author reflects in a philosophical manner of why people go through what they do. There is no right or wrong, there is no one way of living life and the one who most enjoys life is certainly the one who can open mindedly take in every opinion and change himself to accomodate what appeals to him.

Iran Awakening - Book Review

I admire the strength and honesty of Shirin Ebadi whose book i read last. Similar i felt a long time ago when i read "Lajja" by Taslima Nasreen. But to be fair it is no way a comparison of two personalities but just a tribute to courage these women have shown under similar circumstances.

What i liked the most about this book is that it conveys quite lucidly what a woman went through under such tremendously trying conditions. She speaks to you as a mother, daughter and a wife. But above all, she speaks to you as a patriot who loves her country but despises only the fundamentalists - which is very noble. I dont find me even mustering half as much courage if i were to imagine myelf under similar conditions. All the attrocities commited in the name of religion was really unbelievable in the beginning. Time and again i kept telling "No... this cant be true!!". Such is the madness that the regime has unleashed on helpless people. What is striking is total lack of respect for women that shows how weak and insecured the men in power would have been.

Not only do i salute these brave women but also wish them all the luck in succeeding in their big fight for equality. Let men understand that by eliminating women from circle of decision making they simply lose out half their intellectual strength!! Let some sense prevail.

Sudha Murthy - Through her books!!

I am quite aware that i have not read all her books but still this benevolent lady has left such a strong impression on me that i cant help but write this blog!!
I recently read two of her books "Wise and Otherwise" and "The Old man and his God". I found them to be extremely simple yet honest account of her day to day experiences. To me she stood out from just being Mr.Narayan Murthy's wife. I felt a certain strength of character through the words she had for what we dismiss as everyday incidents.

There is a clear difference between how a poet sees a flower from how we see it and it is bringing in this fresh perspective that he/she gets applauded for. I felt the same awe reading Ms.Murthy's explanations on the events during her very meaningful work with the Infosys Foundation. I find also some passages where she has responded back to her critics - which i think is absolutely unnecessary. There are always people to criticise - only if they could help others with half that enthusiasm!!

Sensational overdose

If you ever have difficulty in explaining to your young son on what the word "sensational" means just allow him to watch news in any television news channels for 10 minutes!!! I cant believe that the media can stoop to such lower levels. I see a very disturbing trend in the media where quality is going down day-by-day for the sake of high TRPs or readership.

Not only is the content repeated infinite times, it is also overly sensationalised and hyped to suit the mass' apetite for emotional content. A Sunita Williams who probably recalls that she is of Indian origin is remembered by every household in India. Thanks to Kalpana Chawla and the high attention that media is providing for her!! I definitely dont mind this news being covered but i hate the fact that we dont care about the rest of the crew who are not originally from India.

Why are we always short of good news? Why is it not simple for folks in the media to understand that they have a much larger responsibility than cover the opening of the movie "Sivaji" in such a grandeur manner? I have been a big fan of the daily 'The Hindu' for the fact that they do a great job in playing down unwanted hype.

Freedom of expression is misunderstood as lack of responsibility. There are either skewed interpretations from the political mouthpieces or just attractive sizzle for the eyes and ears. The best one can do is to limit the viewing and take a nap or enjoy an activity with the family!

"The reluctant fundamentalist" - Book Review

This book is no amazing piece of literature, but then it has a slice of

author's soul and that is what i liked about it. This is an easy book to read - keep it for a sunday afternoon or a travel.

I recently read an article about the confusion that the muslim youth nowadays go through. Categorically listing the religion as anti-modern and illiberal faith it condemned the 9/11 attacks where only a fraction of lives were lost compared to Iraq or Kashmir. Does it require genius of Einstein to understand that no amount of security measure can save your lives after instigating violence for selfish reasons. Knowing this i can understand the amount of insecurity that has crept in. I am no advocate of violence in the west, but i am also no fan of considering that lives in the west are more valuable than the poorer nations. Newton's third law catches up - "Every action has a equal and opposite reaction". And remember like it is said that "life begets life", so does violence.

I was interested in knowing what a learned Pakistani feels like upon treated the way he is like he is in the airports of America. From the book though there is a commonness in the culture and the food and the description of streets in Pakistan and India. Also a feeling on either sides that the other one is hawkish. Thus i identify myself with my brother living in Pakistan. This book is just a narration of how the author searches for his identity and achieves it finally in Lahore. I dont think the book is loud and clear as far the exact sentiments go. Nevertheless it conveys how even a Princeton and Harvard educated Pakistani sitting in the safe confines of a well paid job can feel for his nation. Like Sashi Tharoor said, "There is no place under the sun like your own country that a man can feel comfortable standing". I cant agree enough.

High Performance Entrepreneur - Book Review

This book is a gold mine waiting to be discovered. This is a very honest narration of what Subroto Bagichi has gone through in setting up Mindtree. Right from expectation setting to various tips to increase sales this books gives a lot of information. Whats also impressive is that it focuses on sustaining business and not just on how to get started.

If you have questions on what all a business plan should contain or even if there has to be a business plan at all in frist place then read through the pages where the author tries to convince you on his opinions. Very honest and confident, he easily takes you along his journey of memoirs.

As can be expected there are a lot of behaviourial aspects discussed as well which insists how deeply he is involved with the subject of leadership. Only regret that i had was that he did not write much about his experiences having failed in sustaining starting up a company earlier in his career. An account of these learnings would have been extremely valuable. On the whole, a definite recommendation for anybody who is interested in becoming an entrepreneur or even an intrapreneur.

O Jerusalem - Book Review

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy."

These lines from the psalms, the Jewish Bible more or less summarises the passion and the sacrifice that the jews had shown during their "war of independence" for creating a new "Jewish nation". This i quote before the inclusion of the other group in war - the Arabs, as i was deeply moved by the resolve with which the Jews fought. Though this book does not take away anything from the Arabs and portrays both warring factions in fair light, what does not come out very clearly is the reason why the British government acted the way it has. There are definite mentions of biases and betrayals by the British - and this further proves my conviction that the British in all their colonies has sown seeds of hatred. They had for one crafted the divide between the hindus and the muslims in India where they have been co-existing.

Coming from one of my favourite authors Dominique Lapierre (co-authored with Larry Collins) whose books i have always enjoyed reading, this book turned to be a easy choice. But still there are a many instances where i could really predict that some body will end up being a victim of the war a few pages down because of the slight overusage of the melodrama. Nevertheless, as the book promises it gives an account of how the Jewish nation was formed and a very good portrayal of various difficulties that both sides had to endure during this period of war.

If you are looking to know on why and how Israel became a reality - this is the book that i would recommend you to read!!

"Kiss"aster

This is no sleaze. But plain rib tickling stuff.

1. Richard Gere (a veteran actor from a liberal culture) kisses Ms. Shilpa Shetty ("Big Brother" fame flop actress - almost western) to show that there is no harm in kissing an AIDS patient (supposedly funny way to convey an important issue)
2. Two Bollywood stars Hrithik 'the' Roshan and Aishwarya 'now' Bachan kissing uncomfrotably in Hollywood type movie Dhoom2.
3. Media having a feast at these - are the editors sleeping?!!!

Result: Our own vigilant moral police waking up to the cultural violation these acts have caused. I agree that we need to preserve our culture wherever essential (this is for sure not one) - but not with a hawkish dispose!!

I just find these hilarious!!

Cruise missile - A great inspiration!!

Time for some true inspiration - lock your seat belt, raise the windows and cruise through this road of BrahMos highway.
BrahMos (= Brahmaputra + Moskova) is a success story out of the Indo-Russian tie up on building a cruise missile. Slated to be the world's fastest cruise missile(as of today!!), is a highly sophiscated addition to our defence capabilities.
what we see in the image is a Tatra truck with the BrahMos missiles. It is launched at an angle and then the missile turns horizontal moves up in the air and travels the considerable part of the journey at this height(so that the fuel efficiency is high). As the target comes nearer the missiles climbs down so that the enemies' radar finds it diffcult to trace or atleast by the time they do it are left with not enough time to react. Same is the logic with the fighter planes - they also travel at a lesser altitude to avoid radar detection. But with the sleeker design of the missiles, detection by radar becomes a little more difficult when compared to the fighter planes.
A test was conducted just a week back at Chandipur-on-sea range and what was exciting about this was that the army had sought a complicated manoeuvoring at the end. The test was successful much to the delight of the people who put in their weight behind this effort. Some truely interesting facts:
Missile range: 290km
Payload: 200 to 300kg warhead
Speed: 3 mach (3 times speed of sound!!)
Notable among the team is Dr Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and MD of the venture and his team who have spared no effort in making this a success ( including offering prayers to their favourite deities before the launch!!) And if you by some chance wonder who named the missile i can only give you a hint - he is the supreme commander!!
Catch up on more in this article:

Then we set his hair on fire - Book Review

Advertising for many of us would be an industry where wierd eccentrics in dirty jeans come up with very creative spots - well its totally not quite so!!
Hear this and much more from Phil Dusenberry, former chairman at BBDO. Beyond the glamour and excitement of coming up with creative snippets that compels consumers to procure these products lies a thorough and hardworking team.
What i liked about the book is that it concentrates mostly on the meticulous work that a campaign pitch warrants and takes us through the planning part rather than on execution part. It talks a lot about the research that the team goes through before they arrive at that successful "insight" as the author puts it. "We bring good things to life" and "The Best a man can get" are some of these theme lines which were created during his time which has remained in consumers minds even today after decades of its induction.
There are also some exciting incidents on how it was to work with Michael Jackson and Billy Crystal. On the whole a totally different experience considering the fact that all celebrity advertisements have to be effected by working with some super-egos!!. I havent put my two cents into this - as everything i read here was an eye-opener. This is a definite recommendation from my side for an easy read. Just before i quit - may be it is worthwhile to know whose hair they set on fire... well read the book to figure it out!! ;)

Games Indians Play...A book review

With some days under my belt for good friday i decided to browse the book shops for an attractive title befitting my current apetite. I stumbled upon the title "Games Indians Play" by V.Raghunathan. What made me buy this book ofcourse was the foreword by Narayanamurthy who i have great respect for.

It turned out to be a un-put-downable book and led me into very fascinating aspects of how Indians think. It could not have come at a more appropriate time as not too many days ago i was debating within me as to what makes us litter and jump traffic signals without any guilt? Why is it that we always end up getting the wrong influences from the west? Not only did this book introduce me to game theory but also compelled me to take notice of the scientific way used to analyse behaviours. I must agree that not all experiments are very detailed but still gives a fair idea of the Indian mentality - not to diagree that it bought reminisces from my past where i have displayed lack of self-regulation and apathy towards collectivism.

On the whole i thoroughly enjoyed reading a very small but honest and mince-no-words book about Indians by an Indian. I do not know for sure how this will translate into my day-to-day life yet but then to start off i will recommend this to anyone who asks me for a suggestion on books to read!!

If the author were to read this blog by some coincidence then i offer my gratitude and best wishes for lot more titles like this to come.

No more sleepless nights!!

"Eleven fools playing and eleven thousand fools watching" is a classic quote from George Bernanrd Shaw regarding the game of cricket. What would be surprising for him is that the fact that the number of fools watching have reached millions and a advertisers delight!! And i being one of those fools almost had a heart attack watching Indian team playing a total lack lusture One Day International and ultimately saving me of many sleepless nights i had prepared myself for.
So i decided to come up with my own conspiracy theory ;) and here goes my theory: Some Indian players after learning about the Bob Woolmer murder is now worried that some of them who are heavily involved in the betting racket would ultimately get exposed at the end of the murder investigation. And so they decided to lose the match soon and come back to the safe confines of their homes. Well after formaulating this conspiracy theory i could sleep better and also feel happy about the fact that i could now sleep happily at nights and watch the highlights in the mornings without having to worry about who wins and who loses!!

Dalai Lama...

Another interesting topic that i have been reading offlate is about the Dalai Lamas from the Tibetan Buddhism. It is very intersting to note how they arrive at a 'spiritual teacher' and how he is trained to take the qualities by the other Lamas(equivalent of Gurus in India). There is also the concept of the Panchem Lama whose primary responsibility is to come up with the Dalai Lama.
In short the story goes like this. After the People Republic of China(PRC) took over Tibet which used to be administered by the Dalai Lama they started electing the Dalai Lama using a process unacceptable to Tibetans. And so there arose a conflict as the Dalai Lamas elected by either parties where different and the Tibetan Dalai Lama(14th one in the picture) had to escape and seek asylum in India. So here he is fighting for more rights for the Tibetan Buddhist ideas against a fairly huge opponent which is the government of Peoples Republic of China(PRC)!!!


Dont limit yourself to this - get more information from the link below. Happy enlightenment!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_lama

Albert Einstein - The genius

It is no secret that Einstein is one of the greatest scientist of the modern era, be it his works on Theory of Relativity or the Photoelectric Effect he is held with high regard even to this day. So i picked up this book called "Ideas and Opinions" when i saw it on the shelves. Whats notable is that this book is a collection of articles of Einstein on varied topics like war, religion and lots more and so it automatically picks itself up as a window to his personality.

But then what surprised me a lot is the deep understanding of the cultures that he could write about back in an era when the media was limited to just the print version. Also considering the fact that he is a notable scientist with serious accomplishments his interest and opinions on a wide range of topics astonished me. I was recently in conversation with one of my German friend and he reflected on how big a loss it is for Germany to have lost a great personality just because he was a jew born during the Hitler era!! Well thats what makes history interesting

Time for resurgence

I recieved yet another wonderful article on India today. It portrayed the reality claiming that there is a section of India which is highly optimistic which dreams of building and acquiring the multi nationals and the other half mostly pessimistic with their own uncertainities. Those who are ready to lead and those who are waiting to be led!!

I am really amazed at the disparities of our Indian society. On one end there is so much pride on our shoulders when we hear about acquisitions like the Arcelor one and on the otherside we have so much pain when we see the poverty. It is not possible to easily get rid of the differences. I have friends in the west who think it is cruel for me to enjoy any luxury when my fellow citizens dont have even 3 times meals a day. But then i do not agree to this. I think i really need to experience what other nations are like. I need to know how far we are behind or what is better in my country as compared to the developed countries.

But i think it is this optimism that we need to shift ourselves to. We need to add quality to the quantity that we have. We have to develop a sense of vision to every little thing we do. It is time to resurge to bring back our old glory. To take a relook at ourselves and identify the rich cultural heritage from hollow meaningless rituals. Max Mueller once said that India existing today is a hollow skeleton of the glorious past that we had. And before we lose sight of our moorings trying to ape the sophosticated west it is time for us to resurge and reform ourselves.

Truely liberation!!

This is one of the craziest things that i have heard of recently. Pakistan has its first mixed sex marathon and what is even better is that this is claimed as a way to show the world that the nation is progressing.
I have always hated cultures making a big weather of women doing things. For that matter i think both men and women have to exercise restraint. And the very fact that the oppressed in a society shows how backaward and narrow minded a culture can be. There can be certain rules in a society so that we differentiate ourselves from animals. But then any regulation that oppresses even basic freedom based on gender, race, creed is a definite step backwards. But to round it off, i must admit that it must really be ecstatic to have this event in a society that makes such a heavy wind about it!!

Democracy for India

I am from the largest Democracy and honestly i dont know if i should feel happy about it or not!! On one side you have the freedom of free press, elections etc on the other hand you have the problem of illiteracy and disparity. People who do not understand the implications of not voting or voting for the wrong people.

The so-called uneducated literates who are intelligent enough to neglect the dirty world of politics and prosper in their MNC jobs. Or worse those who are a part of the system and exploit all these factors.

The other day i had this interesting discussion with one of my colleagues who said we are not yet ready for democracy. In a good democracy you need people who are educated, who are serious about being a part of the selection and who really think that they need to make it work for them. So we ended up in discussions like China Vs India for the Communism Vs Democracy kind of discussions. Coming to think of it it is like finding fault with the blueprint when actually the project execution is at fault.

I dont think that the system is the problem - i think the way it is executed is the actual issue. So there goes my vote for democracy still - and i hope we learn to improve awareness to better the situation rather than living in a mood to establish faults!!

Board games to socialize

I have had some of the most fulfilling insights into the German culture this trip i must admit.
I was here to see both the Christmas and the Silvester (New Year's Eve) celebrations and also to make a few visits to my colleagues' houses.
But the one i want to write to you about today is about how the board games are used as a medium to socialize with colleagues. Last thursday i had the opportunity to play "Thurn and Taxis" with another three colleagues of mine. This was a game about establishing routes and then building post offices with a few roles and rules which allow to accumulate points along the way. I found that this is a nice way to strike a chord with colleagues you dont directly work with but exist being in the same group or even in the same cubicle. Leaving away the fact that i had the least points in the game we played , but i thought we had loads of fun. I think this really is a very effective way to build a team. Just keep it going - now your turn to roll the dices!!

Black or White

What you dont have is what you are always after and till you realise all that you already have is enough, there is no peace of mind. Well, i know i have a written an extremely confusing statement though i honestly believe ;) that it conveys something profound.
I am rather pondering over one such thought - in India, it is considered better if you are fair in complexion. Now what is perplexing is that in the west the caucasians would rather like to tan their skin!!
So i thought about a lot of reasons as to why this contradiction across cultures with regards to you skin complexion exists and i feel this one is the most likely reason. Being fair complexioned in a country where there is lots of sun means that you are well off and dont necessarily have to toil hard in the sun - a sure sign of prosperity. Whereas in the west, anybody who is tanned (atleast in the past when there were no sun studios) has probably been on a vacation to an exotic beach destination - which also is a sure sign of prosperity!! And my conclusion is that able to convey this message gives a elevated status in the society.