The objective virtues!

My writings took a sabbatical; the thoughts are still alive :)

I would be getting married soon, which should be a fair indication that the times bygone in the recent past have been eventful. The times have also been vocal, intriguing, altercating and awakening!!

Every human being is unique in appearance, defined in character - shaped up through his or her values and beliefs and in turn constructs his/her own personality. This ‘Onion’ of self concept is shaped over the years through learning’s from elders and peers, education, culture and life in itself.

The concept then across time is well ingrained and congenital to an individual, a change or a disagreement, be it an internal or an external influence - to any of its prophecies is dealt with defense, vindication, rejection and ego. It’s hard to believe for oneself, that over the years what he/she dearly preached and practiced is not in agreement with what someone else believes.

The best solution in such cases of conflict for a man is to adopt abeyance!!
Confrontation would be an exercise in futility, and compromises with such deep rooted beliefs for each one of them would not be amicable.

‘A’ finds ‘B’ squashing his/her ‘Onion’; they walk their own paths to live their life ahead high in their confined opinion, belief and conscience. The walk out is easy if A and B are mere acquaintances, a bit difficult if they are dependent and in love with each other, but nevertheless possible!

However, the situation gets utterly complex, pretentious and ambivalent when A is married to B!!

The obvious reason being that two humans with disparate self beliefs take vows to tag their lives to each other under the biblical myth of being chosen for each other as man and wife by the angels themselves.

The other reason being that the institution morally jails them with ethical and righteous exit barriers, even if they do discover that their ‘Onions’ are sour to co-exist with each other – they cannot afford to walk away in callous abeyance like A did to B.

Every human constructs his/her beliefs and self concept, in brick and mortar through out his existence and at each stage of life, reinforces the righteousness of the same. The irony is that his/her validation holds good repeatedly for him/her, making the belief cement further deep that even if on the day of conflict he/she is stripped down to be proven wrong and unrighteous, the innate EGO, disbelief and inertia precedes pragmatism leave alone projecting altruism.

It is not that I was not aware of the fact that Man and Woman have by far been nature’s complex creation of contradiction. However, i always thought that irrespective of such contrasts – we always met a common ground when it came to basic moralities and objective virtues!
I thought irrespective of one’s undisputed beliefs; one shall always consent and act accordingly in life to practice these virtues, if not in totality at least in capacity.

Also what has surprised me off late has been that not everybody’s definition and interpretation of these acclaimed virtues are the same either. To add to more clarity, a mother shall always teach her kid in the lesson of life to never be greedy, however when the child has his onion shaped up – what may be greedy to his mother, may not necessarily be greedy for him!
These objective virtues such as chastity, integrity, honesty, selflessness, empathy, kindness etc have been stamped on us by moral science stories with open interpretations. We then formulate these jargon(s) and give them our interpretations as we learn from artifacts of life.

I call the teachers as artifacts of life cause sometimes the notions knock on our head through sermons and speeches by the learned, sometimes by an incident – a tragedy, a realization or an enlightenment – sometimes it could just be the definitions of a text book that could ignite the renaissance. We all draw our own interpretations from each such instance – we sometimes though blatantly accept the ideologies without our own reasoning, which at times baffles me.
E.G – If you were to witness this incident - a nice decorated female walking home from office wearing her high heels, finds a 100 Rs note lying on the ground enroute. She takes a look around to identify the bearer of the note and when confirmed that it belongs to no-one, packs it into her handbag and makes her way home. As she reaches home richer by INR 100, a young kid in rags with a bowl to beg, taps on her toes for a rupee at her mercy – she ignores the boy away and shuts the door.

You conclude the female to be selfish, lacking empathy and kindness
One who has suffered poverty, bred on a loaf a day and survived hunger would relate more to the kid and demean the women.

If Ayn Rand (with due respect to the esteemed author) were to be one of the observant, she would conclude that the female was an opportunist, capitalist and extremely self centered (which according to her book is a prime virtue)
Most, who swear by Ayn Rand would have as well concluded on similar lines – but if you d ask them why self centeredness is defined by the author as a virtue and how is it different from the vice of selfishness, there would be few who would be able to convincingly answer!!

Just to draw further on that point by taking the example of the virtue of selfishness, one school of thought says that a man/woman is termed to be selfish if he or she puts solely his/her interests ahead of the other. For e.g. Husband asks wife to cancel her commitments for the Sunday, cause he proposes to be alone and needs company. Wife accordingly agrees, but discovers that come Sunday noon and the husband all of a sudden is invited to a baseball match by his superiors which he cant turn down– also allows him to do some business networking, he expects wife to understand and is away leaving her alone!! Would we be right in terming him selfish here?

If yes, then as Ayn Rand or a Paolo Coelho says – would it be qualified for a virtue? There are arguments which also say, that the husband anyways wouldn’t have been happy if he was @ home with the wife – he d be brooding over the opportunity missed, should one always end up doing what one wants to do irrespective of how the endeavor impacts the other? Would the husband qualified to be called unempathetic by not recognizing the fact that his wife had shown concern towards to him to cancel her plans and he retorted by taking her for granted? Should we all take care of ourselves first and only then bother about others, irrespective of bloodline and associations – and if we do are we selfish?

There is another school of thought which says that all human motivations are based in selfishness. Even cases like when you volunteer for a cause, donate money to charity, or when you give someone a helping hand, though many regard such an action as ‘selfless’, the able theorists’ again say that it isn’t because helping people makes you feel good about yourself

The general agreement however is that a truly selfless act means you receive no sense of satisfaction or benefit from doing the act and would require doing something against your will.
As we all juggle with such interpretations of the basic meanings of life and the objectivity of its virtues, i hope that at the appropriate age – each individual though in character may stay unique but in acts shall strive to be righteous and true to its meaning.

Meanwhile my better half and myself shall trace our records to the heaven and shelf our gratitude to the angels !!

Switzerland is no UTOPIA and India is no HELL!!!!

In an archive, I had talked about how one of my esteemed friends bragged about the methodical, organized and meticulous ways of life abroad ridiculing and mocking the chaotic and bantering lifestyle of India!!

Last week, as I boarded my flight to Zurich – embarking on my first trip abroad – I ran through the experience of anxiety and uncertainty, the emotions of awe amidst a deep found gratitude towards my employer for creating this new chapter in my life. Ironically, with changing times – crossing the oceans today elevates a man to a new found recognition in society as compared to the earlier days when it was considered a taboo……

So as my mother propagated the departure of her son to the most beautiful place in the world amidst pride and pomp to her colleagues, as my cousins gave me looks of awe and my aunts (their mothers) gave them speeches of inspiration positioning me and my new achievement as their benchmark – I wondered at the marvel of this phenomenon of going abroad, and the honor that it brought with itself!!!

The aircraft that I was flying on was easily the biggest that I had ever seen in my life (I have had my share of flights!) and to a large extent – the encounters of going away from the familiarity of your country and its life began to hit me the moment Swiss air and its hospitable staff took off from my lands!!!

I saw fair skinned people all around me, with discolored hair – some men looked like women, while some women looked like men – they all spoke different languages and wore unisex clothes – all of them were aliens returning home and as I saw the slums of dharavi zap through the air strip – I had the first indication of being thrown away from my comfort zone!!!
From here on things were very different, the seat belt wouldn’t hook easily – the in flight entertainment system would only not work for me – to find the wireless remote that would shuffle channels looked like a treasure hunt, and once I discovered it tagged under the arm of my chair, to remove it was another embarrassing ordeal!!!

Early morning, the air hostess woke me up for coffee – as I looked at my lukewarm cup with drowsy eyes, I smelt something raw – the drink was black, sugarless and without milk. The flight GPS showed that we were passing above the ALPS, I peeped out of the window and thought that the skies had come down – with the ray of sun screeching through the clouds and a huge blanket of snow covering the earth, I was struggling to interpret this splendor of nature – I had not seen anything like this before, a morning so unique, a coffee so different, people so unfamiliar, sounds and conversations so unusual and a land so white, pure and beautiful!!

Zurich airport, immigration and rail-station is a four storied building – it being one of the busiest airport in the world….My co passenger said, if you haven’t been to Heathrow – take a keen look at the airstrip and the radar inclination – every 5 minutes, we saw a flight landing…as if like magic, like a relay race, like an army queue – a flight would appear from within the clouds, behind white mountains and land in the blue looking strip and as it taxied, another would do a replay and as the other one taxied, another would follow suit – all smooth, no jerks and on time!!!
Electronic trains would transmit you from one terminal to another terminal within the airport, you only would have to change floors to transport yourself from the aerodrome to the rail station, before you know your baggage is screened and dispatched and you are set for your onward journey into Switzerland!!!

My first insight into a foreign country was overwhelming; Airports, escalators, pay phones, washrooms, baggage belts, aerodrome bridges, roads, lounges, immigration, customs, helpdesks, rail tracks, wagons, aerial view, country side landscapes, hills, rivers, yatches, cars and skyscrapers – everything about Switzerland seemed magnificent and beautiful – Construed by God, Constructed by Man – My first entry across the seas of India was an education, if not an experience!!!

I took my train to Basel – for a second class ticket, I thought the ambience within the coaches were quiet extravagant…There were first class coaches, some were no smoking, some were silent (meaning you aren’t allowed to speak in them), some double deckers and some carried only dining halls along zig zag routes through the alps and above the RHINE….

As I peeped out of the window discovering the looks of my new lands, I realized how vastly my country of origin and my current host were different. If economics are any indication, Swiss is one amongst the top 3 countries carrying the highest standard of living while India is 86th in the latest rankings. The roads that I was wading through had never seen a war till date, while my country’s lands have suffered 3 national wars amidst a perennial civil and communal crisis. Swiss has enjoyed fundamental independence along with god gifted natural splendor while by the time we Indians regained our soil, the British had robbed us of our inheritance for 200 years…..

Countries like the Swiss constructed, while the Indians resurrected – Countries like Swiss progressed, while India regained control – Countries like Swiss developed while India was just establishing its existence… While India can defend itself by saying that history has never been kind to its fate, that it is 10 times as big as the lands on which I walk today and that it has to feed and employ 20 times the people with whom I converse with today – India can only defend, not justify!!!

Our country has a long way to go – if it has the constraints, it also has the means – if it has too many to be fed, it also has too many to till - If it has too many to be sheltered, it has too many to be employed – If it has a tainted history, it has a faculty of penance and an ambition to progress – if it has a diseased and infected mode of governance, it has the will of its people – if it has a need to progress, men like me give it hope !!!!!

Strangers walking down the roads give you a smile, irrespective of your recognition – it hardly takes one to break the ice with the other – over a ride in the elevator, you d greet and strike a conversation with your co-passenger within seconds to end up discussing about the last night s football game and the weather in Basel – But that is the most you can intrude!!! You would be working with your European colleague (same like ur fren in the elevator) for ages, but would have no clue how many kids does he have and which school do they study in – Its easy to break the social circle amidst the whites, while the personal circle orbit is very strong and they hold its intrusion very dear to their hearts; While we Indians are opposite, we do not break the ice easily while once done, we allow unprecedented intrusion!!!

As you cross the roads on a zebra, you d find the whole world respecting your endeavor and waiting for you to pass by; You would never experience a power cut; it would be snowing outside, yet within your house – you can roam around wearing your shorts; Post offices would give you electronic receipts; Railway stations will give you combo offers and designer swipe cards, Prostitution and Strip Clubs would be legalized, available across every nook and corner and accommodated within the culture….

Swizerland is as romantic a place can be; blue skies, cozy homes, pristine rivers, aristocratic buildings, artsy pictures, monumental museums and perfumed air – Despite all the aura around it, the alps here remind me of my hills, the Rhine of my waters, the crowd of my mob, the isolation of my family and home, the unfamiliarity of my acquaintance(s), the bizarre of the usual, the exotic of the ordinary, the order and harmony of the chaos and confusion – Switzerland is beautiful, but somewhere down the line, I get the feeling that it is not mine!!!!

I am all enamored by the Swiss, I think they have built a very beautiful and an organized country, I wish India was like Switzerland –I hope one day it becomes the same; however, I have to leave, I cant stay here – My home is dirty, Its unorganized and not as beautiful as here, but it’s all the same – Switzerland is no utopia and India is no hell ! :)

"LOVE" – a bliss -> a fantasy -> an illusion - > a hallucination -> a perception -> a virtual reality -> a blatant mistake?????? -> a divinity!!!!

To be very honest, I am very surprised to find myself writing on this topic – nevertheless, this space has been my biography and requires all entries to be recorded – even if the content is beyond my own imagination – so be it!!!!

Hence, I must confess that this latest post took an eternity to arrive, because I found myself too occupied – living certain days for myself, trapped amidst something recognizable but uncontrollable called – LIFE!!

I have always been a person who has had high regards for rationality – and an even higher precedence towards practicing the same as an approach to live and survive. This means that more than once, emotions have had to make a compromise – because their cravings were unrealistic, illusionary and blissful!! This means that temptations have had to more than once be murdered, because they were wilting to succumb to impossibilities!!!

This means that to long, to crave, to yearn, to aspire, to LOVE – the heart had to seek numerous permissions, pass several examinations and rational interventions of prudence and foresight – and only if every test was cleared upto satisfaction – would it be allowed to have its ways!!
The principles governing the emotional hub has always been – if it aint right - it aint possible, its never momentary - its for a lifetime, if it aint attributed to longevity - it aint realistic – it aint happening!!!

And today, if it has got what it has loved – guess it’s earned its prize and rightly deserves so!!!

More so, I do not know, who is luckier – the prize to have got the victor or the victor to have been honored with the prize – however, the prize definitely must be congratulated to have passed the severest of examinations!!

Over the last 3 months, I have lived like one would live in the movies – moments shaped like stills, minutes like shots, days like frames – emotions instilled the impulses while rationality and maturity directed action as life wrote its own script.

Contrary to popular beliefs, to fall in love isn’t a very complicated process – A is from Mars and meets B who is from Venus, they come from different planets, come with a history, different genetics, different memories, and different upbringing(s) and develop an acquaintance at some juncture when the orbits intersect.

Despite the veracities, they strike a chord, further re-enforcements lead to an emotional connect between the two – and in turn, they share things that mean the world to themselves and when they are accepted and understood by the other – they are comforted and are more willing to be with each other than with anyone else, cause none has been so considerate, affectionate and understanding – they name the relationship as to be in love with each other, which does nothing but promote A and B in designation to be called more than friends, exercise certain rights over each other and also in turn demand certain expectations.

A and B might pass through all these phases, however for them to be eventually together for a lifetime – they need to appease certain stakeholders, who have been primarily responsible for their existence and govern their life(s) – if they fail to do so, they might have to fall apart. In the case of the later happening, the process is painful, but nevertheless they made the mistake of living their life for that moment and showed lack of foresight – they repent, cry, howl, die everyday and then recover amidst a renaissance of life!!!!

Despite all this I say that the process isn’t complex, the participants are!!! Inevitably, they make it humanly complex!!!!

Things get even more complex if the participants are more in number and it’s just not only A and B!! Even if the numbers are more than a pair, things go worse if the count is odd!!!

The breeds are unpredictable, both to an extent are selfish and both fall prey to temptations – more than once, hurting one too many and at times falling in grace, self respect and dignity. I fail to understand the disappearance of education, intelligence and self governance amidst this blasphemy of emotions. At times things can get far more embarrassing than the Indian parliament and the thoughts and actions can get far more emotional and dangerously fanatic!!

A and B – fall in love, recognize each other as elixirs of their lives – are inseparable – then realize that they did not follow protocols and both together would not be accepted – by parents or by society, at times they might fall just for the sake it and then realize that they weren’t made for themselves – this realization can set in at the end of 2 weeks or can set in even after a period of 4 to 5 years of companionship, at times they just get together thinking that they might need each other for support – they fail to understand the involvement that the relationship would demand and it would go beyond mere companionship, dependency and support – by the time they realize that, its too late to push themselves back - they cry, howl, crib, suffer – survive – MOVE ON – find C and D – WHO UNDERSTAND – and live through the process again. We can only hope that this next innings lives for a lifetime!!!!

Sometimes, A wouldn’t let go of B – despite things going nowhere – while B would want to MOVE ON (a favourite jargon of the affected breed!!) and C would want to UNDERSTAND (another favourite jargon of the accepting tribe!!) and this transaction of love – I call it a transaction cause sometimes you would emote to sell yourself, emote cause the relationship demands it, emote artificially, sometimes you d also try and push yourself onto another person and manufacture love – rather let me call it the business of love enters many more complications – until time and life writes another script of its own!!!

As I saw this movie, being produced – directed and screened live, I hated the acts more than the characters – though its easy for one to blame the characters, but being humans they behave as the situation forces them to behave!!!

B leaves C and MOVES ON breaking all promises made for 4 years – B is not at fault, B doesn’t bother to tell C the reason – B may not be at fault again – the world judges B to be the villain, cause C has been speaking to the world about how hurt and distraught C is while B has chosen to be silent in his/her acts – the world is not at fault!!! C, however only tells the sympathetic part of his story to the world to generate more opinion on his favor, while there is more to it – C is still not at fault!!!

B and C made an attempt and failed – be it for 4 years, but still failed – both do not see hope in each other – C ‘FOUND HOPE’ in D – while B has to find hope in the rest of the world!!! Hence, C immerses himself/herself in D while B sells his side of the story to the world – the hungry world listens to the tragic story and appeases its appetite for gossip and allows time to re-organize new relationships, old status quo’s and accommodates new members!!!

The scenarios can assume many proportions, Z and Y ‘GO AROUND’ – then decide after some years that they aren’t clicking – they MOVE ON – Z finds X and Y finds W – and then despite memories of pasts hanging around their heavy hearts, amidst optimism they live in hope – meanwhile X and W immerse themselves honestly and completely in Z and W, UNDERSTANDING the baggage of their past – Z and Y however accidentally have a rendezvous – be it by choice or be it by design - they meet and recollect their old charm and chemistry – throwing away all four of them in a haywire – until again they decide to pick their own pair and really MOVE ON !!!

At the end of it all, given the situations witnessed, the experiences garnered – I have come to a conclusion that TO LOVE is to not only emote, to attract, to understand, to empathize and live for the moment – along with all that TO LOVE is also to appreciate, to assimilate, to analyze, to comprehend, to unprecedentedly commit, to respect and to sensitize and satisfy all meaningful stakeholders in life.

A has to not only love B, has to love the making of B, has to love the people involved in the making of B, love the fallacies of B and respect B for what he/she is, where he/she comes from, what he or she proposes to do with life and for whom does he/she proposes to live for.

Only if A loves and respects all this, and is in turn respected by B’s world can this phenomenon proceed – last for a lifetime – else it will fade inevitably – and people will MOVE ON – and people will UNDERSTAND – until people DECIPHER the true meaning and all pervasiveness of LOVE and hopefully find it too, at some juncture!!!

Letter to the Prime Minister

Honorable Prime Minister,

Our deep regrets to all the fellow citizens in this moment of national grief. The Mumbai attacks have thrown up emotions alike any other calamity – grief, helplessness, anger, frustration, and fear – however, indifferently though I must say; this ruthless act of terror for the first time has brought in a sense of realization, empathy and accountability into all of us.

In an attempt to act and not just - pass the buck, criticize leadership and blame the system -  enlisted are some points which if politically can be implemented would do democratic good for India.

Unfortunately Indian politics despite having many able men lacks sanity and accountability. Leaders propagate populist measures, dwell on regional/communal agendas to attract vote banks - judiciary, legislature and defense are chained amidst bureaucracy and corruption – its time we had accountability!!

 

1.      Regulate Elections - Let us get done with the age old qualification(s) for being a politician (above 40 years and be an Indian citizen) and re-define the criteria – some of which could be - intellect, relevant experience related to the ministry, philosophy and societal contribution etc. Nomination of the candidate for a particular post should only be allowed if he/she satisfies the above parameters and the election commission must govern the same.

mMore so every party must announce more than one candidate, and then leave the candidates to debate amongst themselves in public forums, political forums and corporate forums with their agendas to fight for their party seat. The media again shall play an important role here in acting as an interface between the people and the government. Having multiple candidates would ensure competition within parties themselves and as has been the case in industry, competition shall ensure that excellence is achieved.

2.      Corporatize governance – When a political party is sworn into power, every minister handling each portfolio drafts an agenda and presents to the public with a timeline. The media shall act as an instrument between the public and the system; agendas shall be debated across public forums, industry forums, and political forums and finalized with sorted time lines for each point.

 

The minister at the helm is responsible for the mandates being achieved according to deadlines; else the public has the accountability to vote him out for not having delivered.

 

3.      Appraise and Audit – I can understand the sensitivity of the data that the cabinet carries, however, there must be a department - given exigency authority to audit the finance and economics on which every ministry works. Just like a corporate undergoes an information security audit, a system audit, infrastructure audit, income tax audit, operations audit, financial result and statement audit etc – A independent governmental node must be formed to conduct periodic and random audits across these areas, across ministries and these should be reputed IAS officers manning the organization.

 

They also must rate each ministry, quality ratings – budgets and performance of the ministry must be linked to the evaluations and so should be the perks and incentives of the ministers to the same. Every ministry must also have an annual performance appraisal of each minister, official working by measuring his actual performance with the drafted agenda agreed to while he/she was sworn in and the ratings must be made public. These ratings and the score cards shall serve as a benchmark for the voter to mark his performance and cast his vote next time.

 

4.      Incentivize democracy – all this would only work, if people, who ultimately rein the system, would vote and take ownership of mutual governance.

 

A positive impetus to vote would be to make the voters’ id an important cum mandatory identity proof. Voters ID must be made the primary key of an Indian – link driving license, ration card, passport, life insurance, bank accounts and one’s existence to the ID – just like what a SSN does in America.

 

Secondly with electronic voting these days, its easy to record and log in the voters turn out. If any voter id goes blank without casting his/her vote – have strong amendments to penalize him/her. You could also may be cancel his/her licenses and insurances and call him/her for an inquiry to justify his/her decision to not vote. If the justification is valid, like say a personal emergency which is proved by submitting hospital bills, death certificates etc the case can be considered.

 

India having a big rural electorate would also need to do a fair bit of teaching to the rural voters. They would have to learn to vote based on parameters like rating of the politician, his outspoken agendas on television and his score cards. We can have campaigns and debates and all the literature posted in Hindi and other regional language. Election commission and the media largely can again take care of that.

 

At the end of it however, one can always find loop-holes in the system – the system can never be full proof until people own morality and responsibility. This is the difference between us and the America’s – may be now is the time to change and manufacture our Obama’s

 

Helplessly yours, 

An Indian Citizen

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE APOCALYPTIC GLOOM

Times have never been kind, deeds have never been righteous and fate has never been hopeful – albeit despair has never struck with such brute force and cataclysm – questioning men and their esoteric greatness, haunting prophesies of their distinction, not only crucifying economies but vandalizing dreams – tragic as it may sound, the apocalypse announces its arrival – impartial and all-pervasive!!!!

Nostradamus would probably give me a kick on my ass; however given the state of affairs, may be he counted a year too many and 2012 is a touch too far!!

It’s his domain of specialization and my proclamations might just not be qualified enough – however I don’t intend to create a revolution nor attain a legacy for having foresight – my interpretations see men pre-maturely retire, banks running out of liquidity and owning nothing but tarnished reputation, employers filing bankruptcies, crumbling stock exchanges, plummeting exchange reserves, depressed growth rates, and collapsing economies

Doom - If not here, is inevitably near!!!

It is not something that is unknown/unseen to this world, we have had our share of previews before – 1929 was a prime evidence of how close exhibits can get to reality and 2000-2001 was a perfect example of how encapsulated a trailer can be – however, with such magnanimous references being proclaimed to be mere clips, one wonders how treacherous and malignant eventuality could be!!!!

Being ambitious, I always wanted to work with an employer who operates on a large scale, a glamorous business model and on the most expansive markets. Of course, little did we know that ambitions if not chained amidst rationality, prescience and objectivity can turn into abject extravagance.

Some of my friends have already been sacked, worthy candidates – committed if not extraordinary, able if not enthusiastic, talented if not gifted and employable only if there were reasonable opportunities.

No-one is blaming the employers, they need to maintain green balance sheets and feed their stomach bags, charity would only prove to be a hindrance and blessings unfortunately cannot be valued monetarily.

When both the individual and the world together live in a state of melancholy, societies at large feel paralyzed, more so - civilizations fear extinction!!

If you suspect me of indulging in euphemism, scratch your heads and snap your fingers – if its not jogging at the corners of your memory then read your newspapers again – I know at least 5 countries, independent nations inhabitated with billions of people on the verge of declaring themselves bankrupt – Zimbabwe, Argentina, Iceland, Pakistan and the latest shocker being Japan!!!

Probability is a very loosely used word but carries a very meaningful definition – which would what keep us in this moment of despair all alive. The likelihood of something happening - something good, path-breaking, inspiring, magical, employable, scalable and sensational!!!

Agony, this time is not only loud in terms of arrival – it’s quite penetrative too!!

As I turn 20 something, I go through a phase in life where I can sense an era passing by.

If being a little unsure of our career graphs and braving the vagaries of economics was not enough, our emotions too, for reasons known best to ourselves today stutter – unsure, uncertain and seeking support – in whatever shape or variant it comes, most of us are living alone, fighting multitude battles within thyself, at times stable – at times insecure, at times controlled and at times uncertain and unsure, fighting – isolation, stress, need for belongingness – parental aspirations and societal obligations.

20 – Something is by no means a walking -stick age; but I still feel a lifetime passing by - not only cause of companies (also read as Lehman brothers/General motors) that I swore by while shaping my intellect have ceased to exist now, only to be case studies for the generations coming by but also cricketers (Kunble, Ganguly) who have modeled my character are fast hanging their boots signaling that probably my time and its ripeness is now over!!

In all this that has happened both microscopically as well as around the paraphernalia, we shall look forth with trust, belief and confidence and place our faith on the Obama’s, Bernake’s, Manmohan’s and Chidambaram’s. They are men of honor and increasing accountability; they are no more governing a framed constitution but together amidst this crisis are expected to stabilize the preamble of our economics.

As has often been the case amidst adversities, let our leaders ignite the revolution, let followers tread the path less travelled by and let men not sweat but perspire the pangs to redeem the world back to normalcy!!

Our survival tomorrow would be on the thresholds of our ANTICIPATION and only in HOPE shall we seek inspiration!!!

For all those who believe in the Gospels – WE SHALL OVERCOME; for all those who don’t, WE LL PROVE YOU WRONG!!

Every day is a WEDNESDAY!!

My dad is a journalist, and he has never been so busy in his entire 35 years of tenure in the industry.

 

I remember – the editor of Indian Express and my dad’s erstwhile boss, cum close friend – told once over a dinner, that when a journalist finds it easy to get his stories, when he gets busy with having too much to cover, edit, report and telecast within no time, things tend to get a little eventful around us!!

 

While Shekhar was being a little subtle, politically correct and euphemistic in his statement, I d say things for sure get a little eventful, but more often than not they tend to get a little ugly, tragic and depressing!!

 

Journalists are a peculiar breed - intellectual, artsy, eloquent – non temperamental, erratic, moody, unpredictable – sincere, honest, sensitive – likewise to the juggled chronology of adjectives, they are contradictory but constitutional!!

 

A lot of good would happen to us – to the world, to not keep the tribe occupied, not let the ink spill - the cameras roll and not sensitize their job descriptions.

 

Alas!! Contemporarily, the demons have been maliciously busy, and the institutions have been found wanting amidst lethargy and ineffectiveness.

 

17 major terror attacks, all bomb blasts, across the length and breadth of the country in the last 4 years – causing irreparable damage to life, emotional depression across the country, a sense of insecurity amongst citizens and most importantly depreciating the value of a surviving a human life – doesn’t make a rosy headline, but believe me a lot of copies would sell on this.

 

To bomb and to explode was never difficult, but to kill in genocide has never been this easy!!!!

 

All through this, the one’s who have eaten their bread in peace are the one’s who are making and detonating the bombs – the one’s who have brainwashed the executioners and architected the venom - the one’s who have had their stories to ramble about – the one’s who have had no problems searching for prime time to advertise their products – and the one’s who pride in calling themselves the parliamentarian opposition and cash upon the tragedy to enact political opportunism.

 

While all these stakeholders are busy going through their motions religiously, there is another sect, equally a witness to this tragedy – busy making phone calls – some out of undoubted worry and some out of business like courtesy and artificial concern to folks of theirs, who if were victims of fate would have had a fractional chance to be one amongst the affected.

 

These calls are hung upon quite often breathing a sigh of relief and by paying thanksgiving obeisance’s to the lord for keeping their acquaintances alive and away from the tragedy.

 

Now that nothing about the tragedy is personal, this sample of mankind does not bother to dwell much into the mishap – it aint related to them anymore, it deserves no attention, no afterthought and no concern – they continue living life amidst ignorance and bliss until the next bomb explodes and the telephone calls are again answered in tune to their anticipation and prayers!!!

 

 

Before we miss them, there is another party – participant - to this chaotic and woeful calamity.

 

The 11 year old child, as humane as you and me and as anyone blindly picked up from that large chunk of mankind – who would start making calls – watch news channels – and forget about the incident with the passage of time – the moment this tiffin box, that he shall pick amidst kiddish anxiety and innocence -  explodes, butchering the young body, skull and flesh apart in red, ending a promising life – abrupt and sudden!!

 

How I wish one of us could empathize – with the already dead child, with the now half living – half dead mother/father and the frustrated kith and kin. None of us would be able to empathize – None will, until it happens to us!!

 

Amidst trauma, shock and disbelief – as the family makes its attempts to seek justice for their dead child, the police turn’s a blind eye to their misery, claiming that a case has been lodged and that they are not the only ones who have got affected. They have many more to attend to !!!

 

The politicians visit the family and the victims showcasing articulated concern and man-made sympathy. Ensuring that they get media space and their political image gets an impetus, they give templated speeches which condemn the attack, blame a jehadi party that is on top of their mind and announce a baseless compensation figure for the killed and injured.

 

Courts log sessions for months, years and decades, only to add woes to the already grieving family. They have lost their child, they face the wrath of an insensitive investigation, await the judgment of an impassive judiciary and fall prey to the promises made by a corrupt, communal, villainous and opportunist leader.

 

All this while, they are being observed by miscreants who architect and breed terror!!!

 

They brainwash an already gullible and worn out mind, they sensationalize a heart already overwhelmed with emotions, they sow the seeds for revenge and in turn use them to architect terror, The mantra, The motif - kill more11 year old’s, they did it to u and u shall do it to them and keep the cycle alive!!!!

 

We need more sensitive and reactive systems – a proactive one would be even better. However, even a reactive one would be enough to clean up terror!!!!!

 

Terror can only thrive, until people start believing the system – and people shall only believe the system, when the system reacts in their favour. If in an encounter, the owner of that exploding tiffin box is killed the next day, we can jolly well stop another terrorist reproducing. If and only if, the system can react, transparently, intelligently and effectively!!

 

However, our case is even more severe, blatant and incurable.

 

The honorary leaders and managers of the system themselves are a primary cause for terror. Either through their communal ideologies or intolerant, insensible and barely scholastic and intellectual political wills and ambitions. Terror outfits fight for their creed and fanatic fundamentals, these are quite often cemented by the fall outs of a tragedy – an isolated tiffin box bomb explosion is less risky – but communal riots and massacres that have happened in our country – their scars are indelible and permanent!!

 

Jinnah, his desire for power coupled by a sense of insecurity amongst a hindu dominated country – desired for a different Muslim country, which fundamentally created animosity amongst the sects which is still bitter and alive. Riots followed the great partition, bitterness of which is still alive, hurting people’s conscience even today.

 

Indira Gandhi’s operation blue star, gave birth to the bhindranwala and the fundamental creed causing her own demise, which resulted the 1984 riots. The massacre had Sikhs butchered, orphaned and murdered. People still await justice for the same!!

 

L.K.Advani s rath yatra, triggered the babri masjid demolition, which in turn graduated the local Mumbai mafia to a jehadi Islamic fanatic outfit. Bombay exploded in 1993 – hundreds orphaned, and the cycle of revenge, fight for venom has never ended since then.

 

Narendra modi’s camouflaged kar sevaks attack on the godhra train let Gujarat burn for no reason. A man wailing for his dead child held in his arms was the TIME end of the year cover picture. Who knows what all has the helpless father done to avenge the loss of his child?

 

With elected leaders such as these, what does a common man like me do, but write such briefs and record his impotency!!

 

To survive in a country, anesthetized by a useless system, one needs to either behave tolerant and paralyzed or take the reins by ones hand and bring about change.

 

Me and my dad were discussing things over a casual talk today, a Sunday – on how the world looks peaceful and less paranoid when the media takes a day off – he immediately retorted back saying  - I wish I would get to cover a nasseruddin shah in reality someday!!

We d be busy for the right reasons, and not everyday will be another WEDNESDAY!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communication and Brand(a speech at a corporate forum)

Following is a speech written for a corporate discussion at my work place:

If not professionally yet, my academic grades qualify me to be called as a ‘Marketer’ and on the same grounds, I shall key some thoughts of mine here!!

To me the concept of marketing is simple – We all conduct businesses in a crowded market, where the customer has the liberty to choose his options and businesses need to break the clutter, to differentiate and then deliver quality to ‘woo’ the customer again!!!

To do the same, one needs to talk to the right customers, needs to reach out to target them and hit them with messages, visuals, symbols, logos, pictures, credentials, testimonials and what not - conveying ‘what’ the product/solution/idea being offered to them is and ‘How’ would it be useful to ‘Give’ them some benefits.

The above paragraph captures the essence of this write-up, cause it explains nothing but the process of ‘Communication’ [albeit one-sided] and talks of the mediums which when registered as an identity in the mind of the customer is promoted to be called a ‘Brand’.

Creation of a ‘Brand’ is the ultimate property of a Marketer and it’s an outcome of a strategic psychological process involving mind games between the marketer and the customer’s targeted.


One of my favourite examples has always been FAIR & HANDSOME

Fair and lovely – the first variant of the product was positioned only for female’s, however, marketers failed to realize that Men also wanted to look fair and stealthily used/bought fair and lovely – to wade away from the embarrassment of using a feminine cream!!

Consequently, they marketed the same product (not many changes in terms of ingredients and the basic product manufactured) differently, renamed it as Fair and Handsome and positioned the product for MEN.

The message was communicated through mass-media as Shah Rukh Khan (Credential, testimonial) shouted to all men in the world, that finally we have realized your underlying ‘need’ to look handsome (WHY), we have made an exclusive product for you (HOW) and you can buy that facing no embarrassment and look – ‘fair and handsome’ (Benefit)!!

Fair and Handsome – The name in itself was the Brand and Shah Rukh – the ambassador. The message was clear and convincing and so were the sales figures later!!

Creation of a good brand begins from the marketer, establishes with a customer and ends with a manufacturer!!! If the product does not stand up to the hype, hoopla and expectations created by the marketer, then the product would never-ever be able to recover!!

Imagine if after all the marketing, fair and handsome ended up ‘Tanning’ and ‘Darkening’ people – be it Shah Rukh Khan or Sachin Tendulkar – the product would not sell !!!

Like all cricket captains after losing a match say – that the captain is as good as the team. A marketer and his Brand is also as good as the product itself!!



Branding is a philosophy and not an entity! It has its constituents that encompass its beliefs and convey a message.

People, who share the same philosophy, vouch for the brand and are willing to pay a premium for it!!

The exercise of Branding involves complements like; Brand Identity/Logo/Picture etc, Brand Name, Brand Ambassador, A Punch line etc

Taking the case of Infosys – the trademark logo calligraphically written as INFOSYS is the Brand Identity. The logo is nothing but a representation of the company – but the company’s positioning as a quality and ethical IT business partner exudes the philosophy of being a righteous and successful business entity.

It is only because of this philosophy that customers are ready to pay a premium to us; it is only because of this philosophy that resources want to be part of the company. It is this philosophy – built successfully over a period of time – that represents Infosys – at large and is identified by that logo!!

It is this philosophy that I call the philosophy of Branding!!

Other examples that I can think of are – ADDIDAS identified by its calligraphic logo along with the parallel stripes is positioned for high spirited, passionate performers and people high on octane. The slogan matches the same philosophy as it shouts ‘Impossible is nothing’.

Nike – Swoosh (Tick) is a famous brand identity underlined by the caption of ‘Just Do it’ philosophizes the art of challenging oneself and accomplishing the impossible.

The process of branding would be rendered ineffective if it is not executed with the same vigor as it was thought of, strategized and planned.

‘A blemish that often stains most branding exercises is the marketer’s bias towards strategy and planning, than towards its execution and communication’

Marketers quite often spend a lot of time, thought and resource on strategizing the entire exercise of branding i.e. to identify the segments, articulate the positioning of the product, design the brand identity, and carve its philosophy – however, all this would only make sense and effect, if and only if – it is communicated in the appropriate manner.

It may sound a little exaggerated, however to my understanding, the act of designing the branding strategy is so involving and overwhelming that in the mix of it marketers deem the process of communication to be a mere activity and not an integrated process of the entire philosophy.

One needs to chose an appropriate medium for the message to be communicated, a medium that can articulate the message well, a medium which has a good reach, desired frequency, suits the budget and importantly hits the right audience and creates an impact.

Ariel once released a global print advertisement across the globe – in leading local country journals. The advertisement showed a storyline (an advert jargon) wherein the clips ran from left to right. Left – first, showed a transparent bucket full of soiled- dirty clothes, Left-Second, showed Ariel detergent being dropped into the bucket and the dirty clothes and the final clip from the left showed washed, neat clothes dried on a rope string.

The message was simple and clear; the detergent was being positioned as a powerful cleansing agent, the medium (print) and the story line designed - created an impact; however the execution failed especially in the Gulf and Middle East part of the world.

Marketers did not pay attention to detail, in the gulf and other Muslim countries, where people read from right to left and not from left to right as is the common practice.

This meant that the advert to them conveyed that ‘Ariel is a powerful detergent that could grease and soil your neatly dried clothes’!! The advert bombed and boomeranged to create a negative impact as Brand Ariel ended up getting de-marketed.

Disney, worlds most popular cartoon maker, amusement park operator and owner of some of the most recognized brands such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other cartoon characters – could not establish themselves in Europe and to a large extent even in China.

The reason again is a communication strategy failure – they failed to localize their marketing messages and customize their branding exercise to the local lands from where they were operating. They represented themselves an icon of the Americas, communicated the same aloud amidst envy and pride.

Lack of subtlety in communication led to their failure in two of the world’s biggest markets – again establishing a classic case of how communication of a brand is of supreme importance!!

As markets explode and customer’s purchasing behavior matures, the relevance of brands and their existence transpires!!

Hence, as products compete for space and attention in the crowded, global markets – the one’s who would pass Darwin’s law of survival – would be the one’s who would carve an identity; the one’s who would be known, recognized and philosophized by the customer.

The one’s who would be branded; marketed and communicated would be the one’s to stay alive!!