Resilience may not be a Virtue!

So, what is different this time other than the magnitude of the tragedy and the targets? White collared elite and Westerners got caught in the ire of the heinous act of terror that ravaged high-end hotels rather than the usual crowded market places. So, instead of the hue and cry from hapless shop-keepers, middle-class citizens and office goers, thanks to the media that has almost converted this national tragedy into 24x7 soap opera, we got to hear the accented voices of convent educated, Versace shades clad citizens, corporate and tinsel horde, who suddenly appear to have every possible solution to root-out the menace of terror.

Our Attitude – the primary culprit!
Bomb the neighbor, shun away from politics, blame the intelligence agencies, don’t pay taxes, kick the bureaucrats – just a few of the solutions offered!
We as a nation, are increasingly shifting our locus of control to factors external to us, rather than looking inwards. It is always him or them and not me or us! External factors do not even mean the forces across the border, be it tasteful or stateless, and seldom do we ever realize that, it is our own Self that is responsible for anything that has happened to us or that is knocking at our doors.

Not a surprise, even a modest and highly sensible person like our prime minister, for obvious political compulsions, could not fall into the trap of pointing fingers across the borders, within hours the incident happened. Not to renounce the fact that, there is every possible reason to believe that it is the forces across the borders that caused this massacre. But, we have been doing this blame game for nearly 60 years with zilch a result.

Even if the neighbor honors our demarche, how assertive is our legal system and our political will to reign-in justice on the culprits?

Now some hard facts.
Think of us measly souls who would do anything to outsmart each other – to jump a traffic light, to venture into the wrong side of the road. Bribe to get anything done - to jump a line anywhere, be it cinema halls, government offices, ticket reservations or even in a temple, to see Mr. God - all in the mad rush to be the First. Be the First to shoot ourselves on the foot and thereby, we have a built a system that now breeds itself on corruption in every walk of life.

When was the last time we willingly offered to wait in a gate to be frisked or to display our id cards for verification? We all want security, but seldom do we realize it is all-pervasive and seldom are we ready to compromise even an inch of the comfort we enjoy.

Whatever security cover we have is merely symbolic. Remember the scenes during the parliament attack, when our poor security guards were fighting the terrorists with guns from World War 1 period. When was the last time we patiently let the security guards examine our baggage at the airport? The metal detectors put up in many railway stations, temples and malls; either does not function or keeps beeping all the time. God knows what they are detecting. Most of us would prefer to give it a skip, with no one forcing us to get thru the detectors.

When have we seriously paid respect to any policeman or security guard on the road or how much pride do they carry on their job? We still carry forward the colonial tradition, where the policeman was used for tasks other than policing – to help the master with his domestic chores. More often, the puny cop thinks he gets paid to get dressed-up and watch the world pass by, from where he stands on the streets.

More happily do we run away from the customs authorities, when we cross the airport or ready with our own payments to make a safe exit? Why are we then surprised, when the terrorists managed to smuggle so much of ammunition into the country? If you can pay, so can anyone! How reasonably possible it is to watch every inch of a coast, especially in a country like ours with so much of porous borders we share with enemies across the borders, which are increasingly becoming unstable by the day.

Look at the way the media reported the entire episode and thereby competing to be the First to disclose the operational procedures of an army, all in the disguise of bringing it live to the people? It was an appalling scene to see even responsible news anchors, emotionally charged up and running around the crime scene, even amidst the shoo-shooing of the security guards at the Taj. That’s how much we respect our Security Guards. Given the economic compulsions of running a successful news channel these days and with TRP Ratings in mind, given an opportunity, the media did not fail to stoop down to these pitiful levels of exploiting the Freedom of Press.

Just paying taxes does not absolve us from all our duties as a model citizen. It is easier to blame others and the system, when we least realize WE are the system and WE shy away from our basic civic responsibilities. Mere posturing alone would not lead us anywhere and we go in circles, waiting for another tragedy that might have already lined-up on our nook.

Post 9/11, it was a lifestyle change for the Americans, to add additional hours to your travel plans, to be ready to open and repack your baggage at multiple places and on the way, one got ready to be strip-searched at the airports. People got used to the painful frustration, all done in the need of a better protection against the enemy, who continues to out-smart us at a faster pace, both in technology and motivation. Agreed, dubiety and austerity in a hospitality industry is a misnomer. But, unprecedented events like these mandate unprecedented changes and we better get used to this.

As being widely acclaimed, Resilience is not a virtue anymore; rather it symbolizes resistance to change. Change from our age old beliefs, lifestyle, comforts and idiosyncrasies. What 11/26 could usher-in from all of us is to look more inwards, to bring in more civic sense and we become more responsible for our own actions, all for one important reason – that is our own existence!

Terror in Mumbai - Shame on the News Media!

While the media talks in length about the inept handling of the Mumbai Blasts by the Government, Security Agencies and the Politicians, it is high time they put themselves in front of the mirror and reassess the media freedom that is offered in this country, again could be due to the negligence of the politicians running this country.

What we need is a total black-out of the media from the crime scene, atleast till the action is over. Let the men in uniform do their job and let us do our part to NOT interfere in their way by disclosing their strategies. Media camera zooming in to report how the aircrafts are dropping our men in uniform, which building they are using to launch their attacks, which way they are coming. Yeah, what a way to report! "Yes, Mr. Terrorist, I just gave you an idea of where our people are and how you would be attacked. Please take cover"

We hear the terrorists carrying sat phones and communicating with the external world. What would stop them from hearing from someone watching our media, putting in display all the attack plans? The height of disgrace is each media claming it to be the 'First to Report' or 'First to Bring these scenes Live'. Yeah, be the 'First to disclose national secrets' and do your part to fall into the enemy hands. Be the 'First to add to the fuel'.

While the Home Minister shamelessly goes public with his mockery of stats, on exactly how many NSG commandos are sent and when they are sent, it is the time of the media houses to not add to that shame.

My humble request to the Arnab Goswamis, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesais is to, please put on hold your analysis for some time, till our security folks take control of the situation. You have the days ahead to pull up the people and to rant about it in length. Stop claiming to be the 'First' to deliver any news. If you were the 'First', please be the First to prevent such incidents or the First to bring about any revolution against the petty politicians running our nation. That would be of excellent credence and will take your channel to heights that no one can dispute about.

I Went to the Moon, too !

Agreed, we have joined an elite club of countries that have the capability to launch an extra-terrestrial object in the lunar orbit and we are only one of the FOUR nations to have its national flag set foot on the moon. We have a strong neighbor who just had sent its own men to the space and we need to show strength. Never would I underestimate the hard work that has gone into make such a precision guided mission, a grand success. I do share the passion and delight of the scientists who have worked tirelessly towards this maiden venture, amidst the isolation imposed on us and the restrictions in transfer of technology across nations.

While skeptics question the justification of the millions that is spent in our space adventure, all I would like to question is the relevance of such mission and the application of its results to our citizens.

Thanks to the astute leadership, at least, I am glad that we are seeing some return on investment in a public sector organization, compared to that of the various other institutions that provide a zilch for the government allocations that they get to enjoy every year.

My concern is only on the returns - more than the information on water-bodies that might exist in the moon and mapping the lunar terrain, why not focus on what is more relevant to our country and its people. Decades together, the only weather map I get to see is the INSAT image, that appears in my daily newspaper and some useless statistics that I hear in the state-owned All India Radio, on, which parts of the country received how many millimeters of rainfall and a very generic weather forecast that even my grandma could predict looking up at the sky! Value-add is the key and what is the value addition in the knowledge of temperature numbers from major cities and a very vague prediction of the weather patterns that day.

The monotonous rants of our meteorological weather men who show up their face only on the days it rains hard and that too post facto. We have had numerous instances of the cities getting deluged and office goers and school kids getting stuck in the middle of a storm completely unaware.
Needless to mention the loss of thousands of crores to our economy in the form lost cultivated produce, with unseasonal rains. Better weather forecast and reach of this information to the masses is the key. These are the days of doppler radars, animated weather maps and ever pervasive information.

I have seen in the US, where the local weather man is treated with an iconic status and the time they spend in the schools educating the kids of the nuances of weather patterns.
What we need is change in the priorities of how we spend our money, according to the changing times and needs.

To quote the father of our space program, Dr. Sarabhai himself:
"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society. "

Importers of 'Bad News'!

Importers of 'Bad News'!

In this difficult time of market turmoil, if you are an investor with a decent exposure in the stock markets, I suggest you stay away from the business channels, whichever one be it. It is the time for 'Say No to watching Business News Channel' similar to the 'Say No to Drugs’ campaign; for both of them are intended to inoculate the individual from peer pressure and social influences . Yes, it would be a blessing in disguise, if you realize how much of damage these channels and the rants from their so called financial experts can cause.

For the Indian Markets, where I think, anyone having a good skill at the dart boards can anoint himself to be an analyst or where investing in stocks is very much equated to a stroll down the strip in Vegas, no wonder there is so much of bad vibes circulated – thanks to our business channels – thereby contributing so much to the deluge over the past few weeks.

It has reached the stage of a mass hysteria to lead the poor investing public of this nation into almost a bottom-less pit. For the past month or so, it has been raining bad news after another in every form of media and they have successfully spread the fear psychosis among the masses.

Call it the curse of knowledge, to pick up a Behavioral Finance terminology; more than the liquidity crunch or the over-leveraged financial institutions, it is also the information overload that has played a significant role in the market collapse over the past few weeks. If you happen to frequent Market Watch, they pick up the largest of the fonts on their home page to convey the bad news- so large that it can wreck havoc on any decision you might make that day.

These market commentators appear to have forgotten the thin line between being a news anchor and thereby facilitating the flow of news, to becoming an analyst themselves, thereby making over-arching claims that could cause irreprehensible damage. Irrespective of all the disclaimers and disclosures these channels publish, there could be a potential cartel using these prime-time media to their advantage.

While it is beyond doubt that we are going through a difficult time, it is the way in which we have bought into other people's bad news is causing us more damage. We have become the biggest importer of Americanism, which is seen failing even in their own land, right from their missiles to colas to garbage and now - their bad news!

I doubt if it is a question of liquidity crunch anymore and the markets seem to either ignore whatever actions the RBI can deliver or whatever words of comfort the finance minister can offer; the blood bath readily bursts open any band-aid provided in the form of government intervention.

How would you explain the drubbing of some of the blue chip stocks over the past few years? Agreed the beleaguered FIIs are pulling back every buck they can garner from any part of the globe and agreed we are living in a crazily flat world, where, if the greenback sneezes, the world catches pneumonia! But, in these tough times across the globe where the R-word or the D-word are talked about every day with almost a negative connotation, in every developed country, when did the markets start neglecting a 7.5% growth rate and you call that a slow-down? Less than 5% of Indians have direct exposure in our stock market, which many people still perceive it to betting on horse racing and land their hard-earned money in FDs in public sector banks.

It can only be prudent for the investing public to listen to the words of the PM and show some patience, than to get submerged in the illusion of knowledge put to display in the business channels, by the self-acclaimed experts. It is not Armageddon yet and most of us have better things to do in life. Tough times are the best teachers and we will survive this as we did with any other crisis.

For the moment, just Say NO to the business media!

Jet, Set, Down!

Jet, Set Down!

Last week saw a classic drama of unnerving proportions, which could eclipse any Broadway show, with actors from the corporate, political and social setup playing their role to perfection. Though the end appeared to be a toast, the show did showcase the ability of a wild concoction of a politics and corporate arrogance which influenced the shameful reality of an irrational exuberance, which is buried under rugs of economic growth.

Look at the players, a group of bright tunic clad younger generation of our country, a business-man who till recently has been proclaimed as the czar of one of the growing airlines industry, a politician who is more and more becoming a self-proclaimed alcapon of Mumbai, a shrewd minister who cannot but sit on the sidelines given the electoral implications of this show-piece, a labor minister who by all means is as clueless as a common man in a remote village in this country. All these showmen provided a royal feast to the craving media who, are all set to spice up the any episode in prime-time television boxes.

It all started with a bunch of airline employees given pink slips by their employer and they started making a big hue and cry. Some of the smart ones decided to take their case up with a local political party and what a perfect photo op for its leader, standing beside a bunch of bright lads and lasses. Public and disruptive politics playing in tango is a deadly combination for this country, if at all it is concerned about its economic growth. If Singur was a shame, then what is becoming more common in Mumbai with the goonly behavior of this party is adding insult to that. What empowers them to wield law onto their own hands?

While being on the receiving side for a pink slip is always painful, yet, the whole episode some harsh realities for the young that is being enticed into a fairy-tale ride on the shining India. It is rather unfortunate that there is no safety-net for the working class, be it in the organized or un-organized sectors, in the form of any social security. While the Left considers it politically fashionable to rant against any of the capitalistic moves of the government, it is a shame that they have not spent any hours to bring about any reforms in the social security sector during their association with the ruling UPA for the past four years. Taking up the personal fight on the nuclear issue with the PM was much more enticing than fixing the maladies of the labor laws.

The icing in the cake was the hurried-up news conference by Mr. Goyal himself, who in all likelihood beat the politicians in putting up a dramatic show. Where in the world would a corporate executive be unaware of its managements' decisions? He thereby, set a very bad precedence in corporate governance and social responsibility and thereby causing an irreprehensible damage to the airline's image. Wonder the confidence level of the employees within Jet.

In the end, it was a strong dose of reality check for all of us to decide which path we are heading into – capitalistic or socialistic – or a middle ground. It is high time, the corporate, politico and the working class decide on that or be prepared for a rude jolt like these.

Save the Food!

Save the Food!
The entire politico went up in unison to decry George Bush when he made those aphorisms on the growing Indian middle-class and their growing appetite - literally - leaving a dent on the global food supply-chain! To many, what Bush said was the quite the obvious, and he did have the concurrence of many economists worldwide who attribute the crisis to the burgeoning demand for food from the developing nations, rather oddly combined with a global supply shrinkage. If not for the tersely phrased Bushism, spare a moment to reason the food crisis and try to relate it to the world around us, especially at a time when the global food prices are at the highest in more than a century. May be Bush should have rephrased his statement to mean, that, it is not the increasing consumption alone, but along with that, the increase in wastage of consumable food that contributes to this global food crisis.

On your next visit to a marriage hall or any party, look around to see how much of food is really left untouched on every plate or the banana leaf - if you happen to be from the South. Or, when you go out dining with your family and order a sumptuous thali, spare a moment to the number of cups of supplements that are thrown away. Or, when you visit a south-indian restaurant, look around to see how many people really consume all the multiple variants of the chutneys and sambhar that get served with the delicious dosas and idlis. If every drop could make a mighty ocean, it is no trivia to infer that every grain of devoured food could turn out to be a pile. This in turn can feed millions, especially in a country like ours which is attracting the global attention for its surging count of billionaires on one hand and still has a big portion of its mass not able to afford one decent meal a day. Every grain of rice and every piece of vegetable that goes into making these delectable, add up. We may lag way behind the western nations on the average per-capita consumption of food. But, I bet, we Indians, could be leading the pack on average per-capita wastage of food.

In this context, it is quite interesting to pay attention to few common practices in the West, where people at the end of a meal, do not hesitate to ask for their ordered left-over to be packed for future consumption and the availability of smart customization of a meal based on preference and measure. Why would the wealthy nations do this? Simple economics - extend the value of the commodity got in exchange for the money you paid plus being a smart consumer - why pay for things which you are not going to consume?

Ours' is a society of certain very amusing parodies. Why would us, brought up in a predominantly conservative mind set, with our elders who with their thrifty lifestyle had always planned to save for the future, not adopt this practice when it comes to our food? There were days when we used to eat our rotis or rice from previous day for their own nutritional values. But, along with the newgen lifestyle cometh our disregard for our beliefs, our own conscious rejection of our age-old value system and a contrarian outlook that takes everything for granted. With newly acquired wealth and money, we feel we can get anything for money, even with a sole idea of wasting it. Somehow, we attach a sense of pride towards having everything fresh. No canned food, except for the pickles, and food Processing as an industry is still at its nascent stages in this country with a significant chunk of what we cultivate going as wastage sans proper storage and lack of transportation logistics.

The sky-rocketing food prices could be a blessing in disguise for us to realize the economics of food over the pleasure of buying food irrespective of consuming it. What we are going through as part of the global food crisis could just be the tip of the iceberg of an impending reality. With agriculture losing its economic value-proposition in many parts of the country, shrinkage of arable lands across the globe, and the decline in the ever miserable lifestyle of the farming community, it is only a matter of time when we start paying little more attention to the food we pay for. If not just for the MTV culture and an hip-hop lifestyle, there is much more to be learnt from the West. If double whopper with extra cheese, pickles and a latte of your size, is the norm in the West, perhaps we soon should start sizing up our meal based on what we can consume. May be we would soon be paying for two idlis with extra chutney and an order of sambar, rather than assuming a plate of idli coming with an array of four to five supplements which we let go the drain. Sambar and chutneys in a sachet more like the sauces could be the order of the day.

Time for some serious thought; we have Save Oil, Save the Tiger, Save the Trees campaigns, why not Save the Food campaign for a change? The days ahead could see the food grain becoming the much conserved commodity, almost on the verge of extinction - at least to a select group of people across the globe.

Judgment vs Experience !

Another interesting topic of discussion from Jim Heskett. Should grab that book sometime soon and some of the comments were really thought provoking. Here is the link with my comments too. Does Judgment trump Experience?

Bottomline...

Bottom-line...

Not sure if Sydney ever figured in the conversations of fellow Indians this much. Neither could I recollect a test match being torn apart by pundits across the board. Few questions do linger on why all these happened in the first place.

Why did the Aussies go after Harbhajan? Why do the Aussies think it is a war against India? Things appeared to be on smooth sail with Brett Lee having more fan-following in Mumbai than Melbourne and not so long ago did the BCCI lined-up the Aussie greats of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath for its much touted IPL to rival the ICL. What has changed so drastically that would make the world champions relish a win so much so that they un-gentlemanly ignored to shake hands with the opponent, who was dragging himself out of the arena in sheer disbelief on how life could become so fickle all in a matter of 5 deliveries. Sixteen consecutive wins – alright! But the frenzy that followed after the last wicket was sheer madness – much more than a world cup final victory.

I think, all this ill will and bad blood could be traced back to the T20 world cup. The Aussies just could not believe that some other team could be anointed the World Champions on any format of the game. The win has just not settled on them and neither could they believe that they have to relinquish the exclusivity of a world champion title to some other team. May be call it irrational exuberance, as with any other mass hysteria in this country, neither could they digest the money and the accolades that were showered on the Indian players, post the T20 championship. Remember the comments Andrew Symonds made, when he saw the cavalry of the welcome parade in Mumbai?

To add insult to injury was the reality they had to confront with when the young blood of Harbhajan and Sreeshanth retorted back to their sledging, word for word, during the home series, which again left the Aussies aghast in disbelief that they could also land on the receiving end. “That's weird – are we losing our monopoly?” At the end of the series, did they not forget to extend a cold-blooded invite to Sreeshanth – reminded me of my gully cricket in school days, where we would offer a threatening invite to our next-street boys to come and face us in our own street!

Unfortunately the Aussies missed Sreeshanth and found a good enough sitting duck in Harbhajan, who could have fallen into the cleanly laid trap, set by the exponents of sledging. Credit their strategy and the timing of the incident, when the Aussie captain was getting clueless against reading the deliveries from Harbhajan, he became their victim. It could not have been timed better, when the BCCI and ICC were getting serious against racial slurs, be it a monkey or a donkey or any words that could defy cultural issues.

What about Anil Kumble's comments in the post match press conference? Anil is a gentleman and when he was chosen for the top post last month, I wondered why we are even deliberating so much on a person who would have single-handedly contributed to most of our test wins than anyone in the history of our cricket. He got the exact moment to re-live Bodyline. How frustrated can someone be, to have weathered hours of Aussie torture to score those 45 runs and not a single Aussie turned up to shake hands at the end of the game. It was a shame on the umpires and the Aussie sporting spirit.

Why did the players stay put and why is the BCCI reluctant to act?
Sachin's ego got hit. When the integrity and spirit of most of the Aussie players were there for everyone to see, Mike Procter ignored Sachin, when he was the closest witness on the crime scene. Poor BCCI had no option, but to walk a tight rope with the players and public fury flamed by the media hype (more on that later) and the ground realities that can leave a dent on its future plans with the IPL and Pawar's ascent to the ICC top job. But the truth is - the game of cricket is much more than the eleven players who play. The money, media rights, the economics that revolves around the game these days is phenomenal. No way can the BCCI rain on Lalit Modi's grandeur plans of commoditizing cricket or stuff it on the Aussie players when they very badly had to parade the most glittering of the cricketing elite this April as part of the IPL.

Why does 97% of the Indian public want the team come back?
Media fodder served in the most delectable style by Rajdeep, Arnab Goswami, Sidhu and the junta of ex-cricketers and anyone who had the least association with the game and waiting for a photo op. Nothing much happened on this country to deserve prime-time TV attention than Cricket. Why on earth would you pull in Harbhajan's mom on national television?

Mike Dash, the renowned British historian notes that studies have identified six elements that are required for a case of mass hysteria to afflict a population:

1. "Regional conditions must be conducive" to the mass hysteria's plausibility.
2. "Channels of communication must be available for the reports to spread."
3. "Social and economic stress, as well as a lack of faith in the authorities, predispose people to embrace unconventional interpretations."
4. "[E]very culture has marginal traditions that offer alternative explanations."
5. "A triggering episode often serves as the pebble that commences an avalanche of reports."
6. "[O]utbreaks of unusual manifestations are aided by breakdowns in official control."

Tell me which one of the six was not available for the media last week to fuel the frenzy. Peter Roebeck became the oft-quoted sage of Indian cricket lovers and the media. Did anyone pay attention to what he had written on Yuvraj and Dhoni after Day 3 of the Sydney test? Not to mention the ramblings from Sidhu, whose decibel level is only getting worse after he joined politics – a natural phenomenon, perhaps! Anyone, who did not want the team to comeback, was considered an anti-national. Wish the TV networks display their sample size when they yell out these percentages of truth from their SMS polls.

And, Steve (pitiful) Bucknor?
If there is any live example of a product that is well passed its shelf-life, don’t look further. But, why Steve, when his good buddy Mike Benson was equally, if not more, pitiful? Repeat offence or disgrace? Steve has chased Indian cricketers like one bad omen, right from the days of the 1992 test incident involving Jonty Rhodes’ run-out. If you call Day 5 at Sydney as one bad day at office, then showing Steve the door is such a bad precedence. I wonder the mental state of the two gentlemen who are going to stand in Perth – Assad and Billy! How nervous would they be, given the insane frenzy that may erupt after any bad decision? Let us leave the game to the umpires and the uncertainties add to the beauty of the game and let us not chase the adjudicators with a butchers’ knife.

So, where do we go from here?
Credit to the Aussie media for standing up for the game of cricket and had there be an incident like this in India, not sure how unbiased our media would be to discredit the villains. We are living in an era of make-believe hysterics flamed by the media, where the truth could very well be conjured by clamor.

Credit to the Aussie crowd, who un-equivocally cheered for every one of the FOURs that caressed from VVS’s willow and who all stood-up in ovation celebrating Sachin’s ton. Thank God, the instantaneous cheer need not flow through the media’s SMS poll; else it would have been a different result.

Credit to the Indian players, especially the Fantastic Five, for putting up such a good fight in Sydney, yet leaving the umpiring blunders, it is a shame that we could not withstand four sessions on the final day. You have much larger problems to worry about than a monkey! True, you are the T20 champs, but you also need some good people to play this classic longer version of the game. It is time to tell the young guns that neither would it help to have your heart-throb on the box seat, when your foot moves so nimble on the crease. Not sure if we have enough ammunition left to take the Aussies on the field, especially in the ultra fast wicket laid out in Perth.

Sorry Ricky, for having run your unit like a mob and especially that appeal you made for that catch you took of Dhoni. Hope you frame it up on your porch as a showcase of true Aussie spirit.

Brian Lara’s fascination for the ground was so much that he named his daughter – Sydney. Not sure if anyone in the Indian camp would ever follow suit!