a good proposition

One of the things the country is going gaga over is the current PM. Great. He does seem to be making all the right noises and is promising an administration that works. Only time will tell what will actually happen. In any case – my vote was going for his party for a very simple selfish reason. A few years ago, I came to the conclusion that all of them are equally bad, but at least the right winged BJP when in power started the amazing road project called the golden quadrilateral. Thanks to this at least we got some great arterial roads linking the country. When Jasmine and I bought our second home, we were completely short of cash and therefore we needed a vacation we resorted to driving holidays to save time. I used to always tell Jasmine to go on a driving holiday. For many years she steadfastly refused. But I guess the lure of saving so much money was too much to refuse and she agreed. Then we were hooked and we went to places as far as Hampi or Udaipur in our car for a vacation. So my vote was clear. I get my road and you get your vote.

This time the route of the Congress has been complete. With less than 50 seats they are not in a position to even be the head of the opposition. This has the supporters going gaga. Public memory is notoriously short. 10 years ago when congress won without a PM candidate everyone expected the Italian born Sonia to take the post. When she gave the mantle to the affable Manmohan Singh, people thought it’s a wonderful thing. He was the toast of the nation and everything he did was awesome and path breaking. Especially his honesty. His wife was interviewed and was asked about the rising cooking gas prices. She knew the price and was hopeful they don’t rise. The PM’s life was simple enough that his wife was hands on in the managing the household on simple budgets. Ten years hence the poor guy was pilloried in media and on jokes and was seen as an honest man but who couldn’t speak or say anything against the high command. Let’s see what Modi has to offer. Right now he is living the PR dream.

So coming back – everyone seems to enjoying the amazing mandate that the PM got. A complete destruction of the opposition. Now here is where I turn turncoat (is that a double negative) but yes, now I am lamenting the lack of an opposition. The joker in the pack in this election was the AAP party. Born out of an opposition to corruption, this party contested the Delhi assembly polls to come in with a slim mandate and became the ruling party. After that the media turned on him and he started doing the wrong things to be in the limelight. Possibly he was doing a great job on basic governance but his last stand was to sit in a dharna outside the parliament. The CM doing a dharna in his own state. That was kind of weird. He lost some support in his own backyard. Then he contested the National elections in 400+ seats only to win 4. He hardly even made a dent as a party spoiler.

All over the AAP was lampooned. Which is possibly a fait thing but still his value to the country as a mad crazy opposition was too valuable to loose. He seems governed by his own agenda. He seems to be anti everything, he seems to be directed by his own mad passion for opposing. He is the classical opposition and for a democracy to thrive we need him. So now I would love to be with him.

While browsing around – I came to this site www.prop4rev.com. A bunch of young film makers set out to document the opposition to corruption movement and ended up following and documenting the start of the AAP party. They didn’t realize the goldmine they were onto. And they shot a real load of footage. Post which they needed money for postproduction. Here is their video

Now I normally don’t open my purse strings for charity. I don’t even donate to any party. My charity is limited to those around me. In the past I used to give for some social cause but that too is something I have stopped. I rather help people I know, touch and feel. But this seemed too good and close to my heart to resist.

Young kids deciding to shoot an anti-corruption movement find themselves in a sea of revolution. A crazy bunch of committed individuals trying to change the country. Then they go online and decide to raise money. On the website they shoot a great video and make a compelling case. Then write some nice lines and put figures against which you can see what to get in addition to warm fuzzy feelings. I opened my kitty.

A few days later I get this email from them thanking me and telling me that they achieved their funding goal.

Dear Jaimit,

Thank you for contributing Rs.**  towards our initiative, Proposition for a Revolution. You have been one of the first few to participate, and we really appreciate your gesture.

Thanks to well-intentioned and generous people such as yourself, we have already raised over Rs. 12,00,000. As you might have seen on the website, that Rs.12,00,000 was our minimum target.However, this is only the beginning.  

This is what we need to complete an initial rough cut of the film.  After this, we will also need funds for other imperative post production costs, like sound design, music work, colour correction, etc., and eventually also for publicity towards release, outreach to cinema theaters across India, etc.  We truly feel that the film should reach out to as many people as possible.

Your contribution has helped towards making this happen. Thank you. We urge you to continue sharing the campaign, and supporting the initiative.  

Visit our website: www.prop4rev.com

Like us on: www.facebook.com/prop4rev

Follow us on: www.twitter.com/prop4rev

Subscribe to us on: www.youtube.com/prop4rev

This is also the beginning of a political dialogue in the country, wherein we can voice and put into action the change we wish to see around us.  We would like everyone to become part of this dialogue.

We will keep you updated with progress on the project over the next few months.  This is your project too, now.  

Best Wishes,

Khushboo and Vinay

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Cute and nice. I must appreciate their effort. Well done.  Worth my pennies. They also very cleverly hid the fact that they need more money after post production in the appeal but slipped it in the emailer. Solid marketing buggas these kids have turned out to be. Nice job. A great proposition!

power here power there - part 2

That’s the right song to start this second part of the power blog. Nopes, it’s the blog that is powerful but the blog is about power. Seesh. Bad comment.
Why this song? I guess this is the perfect aggression anger anthem. It’s got an expletive at the heart of the chorus, repeating itself again and again. I couldn’t help shouting my throat hoarse while I was listening to this song in the car. Just a few days back I met a respondent in my research in a southern city. A decent corporate sweet guy. He took us out for a coffee in his car and played this song loud. He apologised but said he couldn’t help but like this song. This is the aggression anthem. It is telling the world to go screw yourself. What is it about rock music that is a so dam bloody aggressive release? Is it the screaming, the straining of the guitar strings, the tempo, what? But it does feel like an aggression release. I also think the bhag bhag bhag (run run run) in the song contributes to the effect. The trader we met was an aggressive investor and like all aggressive investors, sitting on a net loss.
Aggression. It never helps. It probably helped man survive and grow from a roaming Neanderthal to a stable farmer and progress as a species. The problem is that these aggressive genes are impossible to control when you are younger. Your brain starts working for the first time in a manner that you think is logical. You see the gross injustice being meted out to you or probably to others. Your natural empathy and reaction takes over and you want to do something. Your brain is not well developed to handle the overflow of emotion and your willingness to do good and pop, aggression becomes physical. You use what you are best at, using your arms and legs.
Also when you are growing up simple things attract you. I always wanted to join the army and ‘serve the nation’. I guess today I believe nation can be better served in many other ways. But why would I want to join the army? I guess there is a simple explanation that I have to offer. It was the uniform and the machinery they have at their disposal. I wanted to join the tank unit. It guess it is no better than the young boy who wants to be an engine driver as the guys seems to be in charge of a large big engine or a fire fighter in charge of a large big red bus. It’s important for the bus to be large big and red. I think the best recruitment drive for the army would be to have these army barracks in the middle of the city which don’t have walls. There they should be doing military drills in shiny uniforms and they have these big tanks roaming around for young kids to touch feel and dream. In the good old days I guess sexy equipment and smart uniforms were only available with the army and hence the young impressionable minds would be inspired by them. Now the sexy equipment is the iphones and the blackberrys and the laptops and the music players and the …. You get the point. And they all wear the uniform to work. They wear their suits and ties and the formals and go to work. Jispa notices when I wear a suit and leave office. She looks at me and wonders something. I guess she is making an impression in her mind. A positive impression I think. These are critical cues that get formed in an impressionable mind. I wanted to join the army and I ended up being firm on it when I got a chance to visit the national defence academy at Khadakvasla while I was around in the fourth or fifth standard.
Two can play the same impression game. Both the books, which I mentioned in the earlier blog (Curfewed Night as well as Hello Bastar) talk about impressionable kids being drawn to the rebel cause. There are mentions of the locals seeing these rebels flashing guns and in uniforms moving with a purpose. It is enough for them to want to enlist with the cause. And I guess that most of these young kids don’t even know what they are really fighting for or don’t really care about it. They just are swayed by the system and they are then drawn into the quagmire in which they possibly perish or possibly grow old and have no other option but to be a continuous part of it.
I think that’s the case even for most of the other rebels from the city. The young aggression which wanes in a few years gives rise to power dependency and these guys might just stay on for their thirst for power. What else will a 30 year old do if he has spent the last 15 years fighting ‘the force’. He has no skills else but the cause and the reason he fights. And then the power game starts. His interest is clearly in maintaining his power equation. He has to survive and this is the only way he can.
While we attract the best talent in office and other places, it is important that we realised that what attracts them here in the first place is not the reason why they should stay on. Dreams change, people change, and if we are able to constantly upgrade skill sets these people will also move with us. But if we let them remain there, forget to upgrade them, worry that if we do upgrade them; they will run away; then they end up being power brokers. They will cling onto their existing equations and become satraps in their own rights, ruling over their dominions. They will naturally be threatened by their status quo and would protect fiercely. The problem when they not only protect fiercely but when they start proactively attacking other dominions in anticipation of their attack. There is a reason why as you grow older and higher in an organisation the attacks increase gets more vicious. It’s a proactive attack by someone who is not increasing his dominion but protecting it.
If we constantly improve these skills the person knows that he can get hired elsewhere, he knows that his status quo is constantly changing; he is busy using his brains productively. He knows he has an option other than where he is present. This option in his mind will free him from his inward circle of control.
Big rebel leaders know that violence is pretty much useless and it will annihilate the very class it seeks to protect. But the wisdom comes after ten years of sloganeering. He can now not eat his ego and say this can’t work. You have to work with the system to change it. You must embrace peace. It is possible to work from inside and given the effort these guys tackle in recruiting friends and putting implants, I can’t believe it’s not possible to do peacefully. Without being the enemy of the people you seek to protect.
Sigh… too much gyan for someone who is basically an arm chair critic. I haven’t been to the jungles and I haven’t been inside their homes, huts and existence. All I know is that they don’t deserve ot die like this and have their livelihood snatched away. Both sides are guilty. The rebel is as much the culprit as the oppressor.
No one is bad to start with; it’s when the situation leads you to become power hungry, when you want to maintain what you earlier stood by, when your ego does not let you admit; that is when the rot sets in. it is easy for me to say all this and extremely difficult for me to understand and see it happen and stop. It needs an amazing ability to constantly see yourself from a few feet away, and ask yourself – what, why where? Are you sure?
Too much philosophy is definitely not the core of my blog and most I know simply get bored by it and move on from my blog. I try and stop writing once I exceed one page – but this blog is not meant for these people. It is meant for me as a father. It is meant for Jispa to once read and understand if something hits her.
Jispa I hope I didn’t bore you too much. You are a sweet imaginative and sensitive kid. I hope you face your share of shit and grow stronger for it. I can’t make you a good or a bad person. But I hope after you read this, you will realise what my belief of a good or a bad thing is. Or if shit hits you and if I am not around, you know what I thought of the shit hitting me. And I sure hope you find your own answers. Your own answers.

emulate

On yesterday’s ramblings on rebel behavior and breaking norm, here is an email from one of my friends. She is petite French lady, must be around 25, doing her bit to know the world. Now that’s a role model for Jispa.
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“I'm going to try to make it short cause many things happened since the last emails we've exchanged!I left Istanbul after working for the World Water Council who was organizing the World Water forum (one evry 3 years) in Istanbul in March, as a communications consultant and had the greatest time of my life there, because of a crazy life with a group of funny friends from all around the world. And I managed to fall in love 2 weeks before leaving lol. His name is ----, his father is Turkish (but grandparents are Spanish and Russian), his mom Dutch. I flew to Paris and he was flying to Amsterdam 15minutes later, we left at the same time! A few days later I visited him and his family in Holland and he came back to Paris with me, flew to the USA a few days later because he studies ecology and permaculture and has some projects going on.A week later I flew to Monterrey (Mexico) where my brother is a student, it was just after the big story about the swine flu started. He was supposed to meet me in Cancun but given he was in the middle of the Californian desert without phone or difficult access to the internet, I couldn't reach him! And the swine flu was a lot exagerated by the media, they were talking about closing the borders with the US and I didn't know if he could make it and even if he booked a flight ticket, it was not sure it wouldn't get cancelled. But he made it and we met again in Cancun :)Then we travelled the whole Yucatan and Chiapas regions together, he was supposed to stay 2 weeks. But he postponed his return every week and finally stayed 7 weeks with me, until last Monday. We've done all the Central America by bus: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, staying on average a week in each country, awesome experience! And on Monday I flew to Colombia where I am now and he flew to the US to get a certification in order to teach permaculture... So we'll see what happens.I'm going to Peru next, then Bolovia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Easter island, New Zeland, Australia etc etc. I'll be in India in February 2010 after Asia and to be honest I keep talking about my love for the country everyday!”
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Role models are important in our lives. I have firmly believed in the fact that monkey sees monkey does. A lot of what I have been able to shape my life has been thanks to the many role models I see around me. For me there is no concept of a singular role model. We learn multiple things from multiple people. I would have role models for different situations and different actions. There is inspiration from everywhere. From the taxi driver in the earlier blog to the this French lady. There is no dearth of it, only a limitation of our senses.

On inspiration here is one lovely article I read today in the Times Of India (TOI). I am not normally easily inspired by business leaders. I find them shallow, petty and stage managed. But I like the way this man has spoken, the way he is not bitter and his ability to joke on his past. Everyone has gone through tough times. I too have had my share I am sure I would have some to come. But today I can look back, laugh a bit, not be bitter and wish them well. I hope I can do so in the future as well. Normally newspapers and specially the TOI, are pretty crappy in their reporting and would rarely have gems within. Here is one such happy exception.
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‘Will we sleep on the streets now?’
Yesterday, we brought you an interview with JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon on finance and economics. Today, we bring you a story from his life that’s poignantly funny — and yet inspirational...
Vikas Singh TNN

JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon’s life could be straight out of a Jeffrey Archer novel—he was hired out of Harvard B-school by a billionaire who became like a father to him before they parted ways; he went from being heir-apparent at the world’s largest financial services company to working at a smaller, struggling bank; a few years later, he returned from Chicago to New York in a blaze of glory and now heads America’s largest and most influential bank (with assets of about $2.3 trillion). Today, he is arguably the world’s most powerful banker (at least in the private sector). It’s an empowering tale in an era of job losses. Dimon’s dramatic falling out with Sandy Weill has passed into financial folklore. The two men had worked closely together for about 15 years before they took over Citigroup. Dimon was widely seen as Weill’s successor at Citi, but in 1998, Weill fired Dimon (speculation has it that Dimon passed Weill’s daughter over for a promotion). When TOI met Dimon in Mumbai, we couldn’t resist asking him about that episode. ‘‘Sandy told me you have to resign. So, I said ‘OK’. I called my wife and told her, ‘I have to tell you something, it isn’t a joke.’ I was concerned about my three daughters, who were then 12, 10 and 8. I didn’t want them to hear about it in school, or read it in the papers. I sat them down and said, ‘Girls, I want you to know I resigned...I was fired.’ ‘‘The youngest one said, ‘Dad, will we have to sleep on the streets now?’ The middle one asked, ‘Can I still go to college?’ And the eldest said, ‘Can I have your cellphone now, because you won’t be needing it?’’’ After we’d finished laughing, Dimon turned philosophical. ‘‘It was my net worth that was involved there, not my self-worth. I remained the same person that I was the minute before, and I was determined that my values and behaviour wouldn’t change. Of course, there were times when I was depressed. I would walk into a room and people would treat me like a leper. But often, while jogging in Central Park, I’d be asked, ‘Are you Jamie Dimon?’ and when I said yes, they’d pat me on my back and say ‘Yeah!’ as if I was Robin Hood. ‘‘Everyone has their ups and downs. Tell me one person you admire, not just in business, but in life, and you’ll find they had their share. Nelson Mandela walked out of prison after 27 years, magnanimous to his captors. You have to get up, brush yourself and move on.’’ Dimon moved on to Bank One in Chicago, turned it around, and merged it with JPMorgan in a deal that ended with him becoming chairman and CEO of JPMorgan. Then, in October 2006, he decided to pull out of sub-prime loans even as other banks bet huge amounts on them. The result: JPMorgan was the only bank with enough cash to acquire the ailing Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual when they were on the brink of collapse. Today, JPMorgan has surged far ahead of the crisis-ridden Citigroup. So, is revenge sweet? ‘‘No,’’ he said promptly. ‘‘I still have a lot of friends there and what happened was so hard on people. I could play a sport with you and want to beat the hell out of you. But if you break a leg or have a heart attack, I’ll take you to hospital. I truly want Citi to get better. Citi’s problems are bad for Citi, for the people there, for America, and not good for JPMorgan. Also, it’s a terrible mistake to measure yourself by someone else doing badly. I want us to grow for us. Like Mandela said, ‘If you spend your life on revenge, then you are beholden to the prior people.’ You haven’t moved on, you’re still responding to them.’’
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Well, while we are on stories let me give you another one. We stayed at this man’s place in Jilling. His name is Steve Lall. There are very few instances that a vacation can have an impact on your life. This is that one place. Steve has not let a road come up to his estate and has let the hill remain a pristine place, free of evils of development. An absolutely amazing place. With just three four cottages to stay spread across 50 or more acres on a hill in Kumaon, it is as quixotic as can get. Steve is a man who is so full of life and very open and welcoming. We truly felt like we were staying as his personal guest as opposed to plain tourists.
He is one man you would want to meet. A lot of people know him in Nainital region. He is everyone’s friend and everyone’s uncle. He has no hang-ups and a simple uncluttered approach to his life. He even pressed and clicked my back bone into place!
After I came back and raved about it to a few friends one friend sent a link he found about him. I reproduce the content. Source - http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdmartin/3476360167/.
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Squadron Leader Steve P. Lall Ace MiG 21 pilot, Rebel, Environmentalist, mountain biker and Tony Curtiss Look-alike.
Squadron Leader Steve Lall or as we call him in India “Uncle Steve” joined the Indian Air Force along with my old back in 1966. Not only were they course mates, there were entry mates at the time of enlisting and also fought the 1971 war together.Steve was a born pilot, he was amongst the first bunch of guys who took charge of the MiG 21 when our Air force got them and in no time he mastered that aircraft. Steve was a kick-ass pilot and was too good at what he did which was air combat maneuvering or “dog-fighting” during the days when air defence was a critical strategy. Steve always stood for what was right no matter which class, creed, stature, race and caste he backed. While he had admirers, he too had a bunch of guys who despised him because he was good and they tried their best to find an opportunity to screw him. No one could touch Steve when it came to flying, so the only way to get him out of their way was to create situations which made life hard for him.And with this, Steve turned into a rebel, stretching the law, defying rules and every time he broke a law, he made that a milestone as he went along.Steve, sometime in 1974 got into a situation in which he was court martialed from the air force and was made to leave. While the Air Force lost an outstanding pilot, this changed him. He took over his old man’s property called the Jilling Estate which more or less is two whole mountains in the Himalayas’, married a mountain girl and called the hills his home ever since.Steve over the years learnt and realized the meaning of life and that meant finding happiness, peace, solace and serenity in the little that he had and made that his world. The mountains made Steve a whole new man and made him realize what it meant to live. He took up biking, became a nature and wildlife conservationist and got into eco-tourism by subletting cottages in the estate to the adventurous. Today Steve owns 6 bikes, selectively gives his place up in the hills on rent, bikes across the whole of India and derives happiness at every single step of the way, or hairpin turn on the mountains.Steve and my old man were close and some of the stuff they did back in the old days I’d personally never ever think of trying even today.Some of the wacked out stuff that Steve did back in the day were:• Taking his dog Kanchi (a wire haired Dachund) up for a sortie in a Mig 21; he had Air Force Sergeant Unni make a special harness that strapped Kanchi to his G-suit and took her for 1 sortie below 10,000 ft and did a few high speed passes across the tower.• After a binging session in the Air Force Mess and Club, Steve and a few folks decided to drive a steam roller back home and during the way, decided to say a quick ‘hello’ to the station commanding officer. Steve, while being an outstanding pilot, miscalculated the turn ability of the steam roller and flattened the commanding officers front gate, lawn and porch.• Steve and my old man created a band in the air force and in the day, many a damsel swore that Steve looked like Tony Curtiss, my old man looked by Charles Bronson and another lad they had on the drums resembled Dean Martin. Steve was awesome with the Trumpet but being short-tempered, when he did not get the right note he wanted, he threw the German made trumpet on the floor and stamped it on the stage.• The station Steve was posted in came out with a rule that dogs were to be leashed always at the station(!) so Steve to defy the rule, took Kanchi his dog, on top of his Harley Davidson he had, wore his swimming trunks and rode his bike straight into the swimming pool. That pretty much ended the rule.(!!).If there’s anyone who at any age wants to learn and know the true meaning of life and that too with biking maintenance techniques thrown in, and aint that crazy in the mind to take up smoking weed at 35 or joining the sex oozing Osho Ashram, I recommend spending a week with Steve.To know more about an outstanding human being called Steve Lall, visit www.jilling.net
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More stuff about him and his paradise
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/01/07/stories/2008010750890400.htm
http://www.jilling.net/articles.html

if it ain't broken... break it

Hey hoo hey hoo… I am teaching again. After a bit of intense lobbying and behind the scene action I managed to get back to teaching again. actually it wasn’t so tough but what the hell… teaching is quite an interesting activity for me. It keeps me on my toes, helps me connect to the younger heroes and keeps me level headed. You obliviously need to be well prepared and think quickly. My rules are simple. Have tons of fun, allow for dissent and what the hell – anyone can be right. Some are just more likely to work than others. After all I teach marketing and not a pure empirical science. Logic, research and clear thinking is all that is required. Hopefully I would be able to distill some of it in the students. It pays to be a non conformist when you are teaching the younger guys. The distaste for authority is amazing.
I too have a marked distaste for rigid rules and structures. I have learnt that establishing a few ground rules and letting the rest manage it self within the realms of fuzzy logic works best for the near and the far objectives. Lets take the simple case of these new technologies that are doing the rounds. One guy in my US office got himself a twitter page where he kept putting in updates about the Indian economy and our company. The guys following him (and therefore the reverse as well) were an eclectic bunch of characters right from the straight to the porn pushers. When it did get too popular, the business started looking at it seriously and it got evaluated by the compliance division. The establishment gaped and awed at the following. How could our brand be associated with THIS? Now that page will surely die a young man. New technologies will be disruptive in that they challenge conventional wisdom and may be hard to swallow for most. The younger guys would ignore these aberrations. The word ‘cool’ comes to mind instantly. Ok so you have a gay activist following you – cool. You don’t have anyone following you – cool. As an extension the message for most would be – chill. Relax. Have a cup of coffee. The brand these days would need to be resilient enough to accommodate these outliers as an inevitable part. You cannot avoid bad karma. It might be pointless to fight it. The good karma would need to crowd out the bad karma. The question one needs to ask is how much good karma you are attracting.
A rebel or a non conformist seeks to disregard what it believes is bad karma and embraces good karma. Rebels that catch the imagination of the people are those who redefine by their actions what the fcuk is good or bad karma. I have increasingly felt distaste for suppressive authority. I may not have what it takes to be a Che G but in my own unique way I like to shake things up a bit, rile authority a bit, promote a culture that accepts outliers as agents of change and teach the stiff necks to relax.
Organizations often face the challenge of managing growth and size. Too big to succeed is something I heard my super chief musing around once. Once we become big we out in structures, complex structures, matrix structures, cross reporting structures and the works. What percentage of your time should be reporting versus doing? Accepting it as inevitability is but an ostrich response. Breaking these dogmas is the shivite response. Question and destroy these postulates. This is when strong cultures are important. You don’t need committees and manuals to tell you what to do, you need a peer that’s instills in you the right mindset. When the terrorists attacked the Taj and the Oberoi’s, the staff did not require a manual to tell them to lay down their lives for their duty, they had a culture. Often simpler set of often unwritten beliefs that consistently push the group are more important than any brand / organization manual that you would come across.
The more I read Indian mythology the more I get enamored by it. we have enough Brahmas and Vishnus. People who actively seek to create and more than enough who seek to preserve. They keep their eyes open and take on many avatars and come to the rescue of status quo. They want to be aware. There are too few who keep their eyes shut and are detached from its varied illusions or those who seek to break moulds. The blue skinned and the lotus perched cloud out and silence the ash smeared. We love preserves are fear the destroyers. Should it be the reverse?