a little more

I have been really busy these days. There has been an amazing amount of travel. I have had another round of visiting cities and conducting research. Research is really exciting and a fun thing to do. it is something that I believe real marketing people must thrive in. You can’t really end up farting about stuff unless you have had the chance to meet your customers. I hold most firms including mine extremely guilty in this regard. Can you really find out ways and means to improve your services without meeting and understanding what the customer has to say about his needs and your firm?

I met another friend who is running his own start up. The biggest advice I gave him was to meet his customers. There are hundred things that need to get done at work. I am sure there is nothing (almost nothing) one does not know – on what to get done. But research at the least helps you prioritize what to do. It gives you amazing clarity on your role and what role the brand plays in the consumers mind. But still there is severe reluctance on almost anybody in so many organizations to actually do the research. We sit in our air conditioned glass offices and dream of what the consumer wants. We see bottom line and try and understand it, but we cease to see what really matters. That is what kills the company in the long run leaving it open to competitors to get a niche and exploit it.

If I had my way I would make it compulsory for all walks of employees to do atleast one day of research a year. One DAY? Yes atleast one day. It might be surprising to know that there is severe reluctance for any employee on an average to do any sort of research. Even the young marketing guys. I can’t understand this reluctance. I jump at every opportunity to go out and conduct research but the idiots in office don’t. They rather sit on their bums. I asked some young turks to go out and do some research but they dithered forever. Argh.

Lets get to the sales guys. The sales guys meet customers on a daily basis and believe that they are completely aware of the market situation and don’t require research. Of course they are aware but – there are riders to this. They only know what hits them and that too they are too busy selling to the customer to really listen. Customers just needs to be listened to and the same must be simply collated in an organized manner. In the sales system – from the bottom to the top – no one listens without an agenda. In fact I would argue – the best sales men who hit targets and sell a lot – they do so because they don’t have ears. They block out their mind to what is feedback so that they sell hard and fast. This noise distracts them. It is only the few TRULY GREAT sales people that have empathy and response that understands and genuinely wishes well for the customer. My sense is that this guy will typically lag in contests and sales on a monthly basis but builds a book over a long run that is impossible to beat. The difficult part is to survive the short run to thrive in the long run. The sales guys who I like the best and admire, all have this quality.

So coming back. I have been enjoying myself doing all this research. Also along with research , meeting people, I have been spending some time for myself in all these cities that I went. Been trying to see the local culture, a monument, a garden or perhaps the least of all – the local mall. Many years ago I had the privilege of travelling a lot. I wasted these journeys by being cloistered inside the hotel room. With the recession I released that had wasted that opportunity to see the city which I promised never to repeat. So now – with every city I try and do at least one thing that is enriching to me. Now I can talk more about a city, I can talk about a monument or a structure or even – a great place to eat, especially street food. It’s much more fun and rewarding.

Suddenly I feel even luckier to have a marketing job. Travelling and meeting people along with seeing stuff that would have traditionally been impossible. Small small things that add up in the long run. The museum in Delhi, or the street food in Ahmedabad, the obscure temple in Coimbature or the garden in central Bangalore. It all just adds up. That’s what I love doing. And that’s what keeps me alive as a marketerer.

There is one thing I want to do now. I want to pin a map of India on my desk and put a pin on every place that I have visited. I want to fill this with pins and cover every part of the country. Now that’s a good start.

China Diary

In the middle of the work mess that I am coping with, I forget to note in this blog that I went to China. Ah china. I was always fascinated with China. Especially in the last decade or so. I wanted to see China once. The economic miracle that is China. Where there is money and opportunity, the country that will rule the world, the country that exports tons of stuff and the country that India should look forward to emulate. I have been only to Hong Kong (and schenzen) if you call that China. But never to the proper mainland. China is not a place that I think I might go with family. I don’t think it’s a backpacker’s delight. It has interest from me merely as a professional and not as a tourist. I would like to visit China on work not on tourism.

Every year one firm likes to call us for a jaunt. It kept selecting Bangkok as a location. The first time I sent someone from my team; the second time they wanted me but I politely told them – of all places, I am not coming to that place. I don’t intent to have Bangkok fun and I definitely don’t want to go there and get everybody to sneer at me. I have been there once before and that’s no place for me to go. So this time they came into tell me that they have noted my suggestion and this time they have selected Shanghai as the place. Shanghai…. Hmmm.. not bad. Shanghai to China is what Mumbai is to India.  An erstwhile trading port becoming the center of finance of a country. Mumbai should emulate Shanghai is what everybody says. So I accepted the invitation.

So what’s my impression? Not that I have too many impressions. Of the three and a half days, one day was spent in the plane, one and a half in a conference room and one for sightseeing and two hours of shopping. Bah!

I have  few impressions – ofcourse no one of them speak English. For a modern city of the future, not speaking English is a big no no. I think the Chinese need to correct that. That is stopping them from taking over the world completely right now. But the other view is that – the world will learn Chinese.

The other – no Facebook. Hahaha. Yes to instagram and no to facebook. But you knew that – didn’t you.

Big city – yes. Really huge, built for scale. Tons of flyovers, freeways and these are built one on top of the other. They are five highways on top of each other. At some point you look outside the window to get – a tenth floor of a building. Wow. Scale. The Chinese know what scale is. Everywhere there are flyovers trying to move the traffic. The result – traffic jams. Yup. Not as bad as let’s say Bangkok, but yes there are jams. Contrast this with the London model, where I hardly saw any flyover megaliths. The British are very clear – you want to move – here is the public transport. What’s your excuse to take the car. Mumbai following Shanghai is stupid. The model is London. Get enough of public transport and you can move cities with less pollution and greater efficiency. You can’t build enough flyovers and have enough parking. There is no such thing.

The other bit – They managed to teach the Chinese to be clean. The city is largely very clean (not Singapore) but clean enough. I think it was as clean as London or possibly cleaner. But the Chinese can shit without a smoke. Yup. They smoke like crazy. My hotel room smelt like a smoking corner everytime I entered it. And so the public loos. At the five star hotel – I entered the loo only to run out. I spoke to the manager and he apologized. He says – he spends the whole day trying to get the Chinese to smoke outside the hotel. But he can do jack about the loos. They smoke in loos all the time. In fact there is nothing anyone in China can do about it. I told him to simply install smoke detectors; and he replied that installing them would mean stopping all banqueting business. Oh dear. Every loo I visited in China was reasonably clean but the men in the loos would simply light up and have a go. You can’t just shit in the public pots in China. And with people with severe distaste for smoking like me – nothing I could do. Malls, hotels, public loos, restaurant loos, temple loos… everywhere. They simply light up and to go.

Shanghai, China – yes it a mega city. They definitely build to ego and size. Completely phallic. But I am not to judge. I did not get any more insights on poverty (not seen), hunger (ditto); some insights on religion (largely atheist), and just simply strengthened my belief in mass rapid transit. It’s a cold country for outsiders. I did not really like it. And yes – like all places – there is one shop that the guide insists you got to to shop for pearls. They have a stopover there for sure. Crap tourist commission place that mixes some education on pearls before selling you the same. Screw you. I used the time to go out and roam around. It was cold and the drink I had was some variation of a hot lemon juice. That was pretty cool.

That’s my simple China blog. Not much but enough to be sure not to include it in my places to go with Family. But yes, at least it’s off my list. This was the easiest way to get it off. I am happy.

Ah – one more thing I checked off – in the evening, opposite the place we had dinner some of the guys noticed an exotic toy shop. Hahaha. That was one hell of a shop. But they sold it with all seriousness. Some of the exhibits were displayed like a museum. Very clean and nothing sleazy about it. that was impressive. Sales girls in formal attire selling and explaining some of the stuff, very seriously. there – one more retail format visited. Now to see Walmart and Ikea.

duniya dekh tamasha dekh

The last week we went to Aurangabad for a vacation. Now its funny to me that people were actually wondering why I would go to Aurangabad for a vacation. I wonder if it isn’t obvious that Aurangabad is the home base for Ajanta and Ellora caves. But I guess the general level of common knowledge isn’t so high as one would expect it to be. Also it is finally a tourist destination and most people I know don’t really know too much about tourism,. It just passes them by on the interest level. Goa and Bangkok is where the buck stops.

I have been to Ajanta and Ellora twice before but that doesn’t stop me from going again. I first went there as a dumb ass teen and then I went around 10 years ago when I had no clue on how to see or appreciate anything historical. So going again with Jispa aged 11 was great fun. This time around we added Daulatabad and local Aurangabad to the platter. Daulatabad is a really wild underrated fort. With its crazy defense systems it probably was built by a highly insecure king. And locally Aurangabad is home to Bibi ka Maqbara. This monument is highly highly inspired by the Taj. I realized it later that with this monument I have completed three of the monuments of similar structures and inspiration. First came the Humayun’s tomb, followed by the Taj and finally this one. Once you see all three only will you realize what is so special about the proportions of the Taj. After completing the troika of sorts I also realize that I have one important missing piece to complete the quartet – the Safdarjung tomb. The next time I am in Delhi, I am sure to make some time available to visit this place. It is also referred to by historians as the “last flicker in the lamp of Mughal architecture”.

So back to Aurangabad. Nice lovely week spent. People finish off the trip in two days but since we went for 6 nights we had a blast and could devote time to whatever we thought was interesting. At Ellora we were lucky to have this amazing guide who answered almost every query of mine on various facets of Hinduism and boy was he knowledgeable. I wonder what he was doing as a simple guide in that place. With a little bit of spit and polish he should be addressing conferences. Serious. Ten minutes into the tour and told him – you don’t bother about time and I will not bother about money. We will see everything at my own pace and we will ask you all the questions in the world. He agreed. So in the end the 90 minute tour lasted more than two and a half hour and I happily paid him double. So next time you are in Ellora, look up for Madhu at 9890632629. Guides in India seem to have really improved, from the idiot out to fleece you to the characters who really help you learn. This one was like reading a book in 3 hours. I cannot recommend him less. He is up there with the best I have been with.

We got lucky with this one. When we first reached all the guides were hired. I was very angry with Jispa as she is extremely cranky when we wake her up. She takes a lot of time to get up. So this time too we were late thanks to her. And then afterwards when we got this guide Jispa was getting cheeky an d she was like ‘ say thanks to me’. And I was – you are very very lucky today. There is really no point in seeing the place without the guide. There is nothing you can understand. It’s almost boring. You can’t make out Shiva from Vishnu in some depictions or Buddha from Mahavir. So Jispa was very lucky, as we got him while we just about turning about to come back the next day.

Jispa has really become a big kid now. Since we had a lot of time, we also went to the only mall in Aurangabad. At the Westside there Jispa picked up something she liked. She put it in her shopping basket and roamed around with me when she suddenly exclaimed ‘oh, the kiddie section is here’. “yes” I answered her. “So I picked up my t shirts from….” “The adult section” I completed her sentence. Yup Jispa has suddenly grown mentally and physically. While we can handle the size bit, Jasmine and I are learning how to cope with her mental bit. She fights differently, argues differently, get upset in a different way. The last few vacations have really seen her grow and I think now we are bonding at a different level. We are understanding each other in a way that is completely new to me.

Vacations are all about this. Growing up, exposing yourself to various things, doing new things, doing old things and more importantly knowing each other a little better. For a relatively young family like ours – possibly the greatest gift is the latter.

travel right

It’s pretty crazy. I haven’t been able to blog for quite some time. Sometimes I feel I am not just up to it. What do I write? My ‘profoundipity’ is at ebb and I am going through a physically demanding schedule. Mostly I think it’s just a matter of habit. Just when you break it, it’s difficult to get back. I guess if I start writing every day and force myself, it will be back. I will find something interesting to talk and something interesting to write about. Once I do find something interesting to write I hopefully will find it interesting to analyse and bring some seriousness to the issue… or whatever. It also doesn’t help that my blackberry is really really old and withered. I can’t even click any photos with it. Sometimes the photos used to help when everything failed. The best time for my blog when I wrote almost every day was during eth recession when there was precious little to do otherwise at office. With the markets right behaving badly, I guess these time might just make a comeback. But till then its time to push myself and write.
There I just thought of something. Last week I was doing research in Indore and Bhopal. I happened to catch up with a student a few weeks back on SMS and he happened to be in Indore. He is working as a sales manager there and has picked up an apartment where he stays alone. This was invitation enough. So I scheduled my trip accordingly and spent a couple of nights at his place. It was pretty cool to catch up with a student thus. His was a basic accommodation with him sleeping in the hall and he gave me a place in the bedroom. Nothing fancy, just a bed, a mattress, a blanket, a pillow and a fan. What more would I need? In the morning and evening to have bath, we would spend around 30 minutes getting the water hot. We would heat water on the stove and pour it into the bucket. To speeden things a bit we would heat some water in the electric kettle as well. Half to three fourth of a bucket was pretty good. Mix that with some cold water and you have enough for a bath. The biggest bug bear of travelling is having to be alone. I have stayed in five stars and in basic guesthouses but it’s always tough to stay alone for extended periods of time. Even if office colleagues are travelling with you, you sometimes yearn for some friends or family. So while Ronnie was pretty apologetic about the staying conditions, I had no complaints. Absolutely none. I was staying at my students place. What more joy could I ask for? My student was happy to have me over. We talked about life, a little guidance, a little career – some intelligent conversations about sales – done. I loved every moment of it.
We even went to the sarafa bazzar in Indore in the evening. Here the main street shops close to give way to the street food. Here sandwich stalls, pani puri stalls and every other local stall pops up, trying to sell you gastronomical delights. Nothing great to write about. If it is not hyped to you then you are not likely to be disappointed. One of the things recession taught me was to use every chance one gets to travel as an opportunity to soak in the local sights and tastes. I was normally very circumspect when it came to trying local cuisine. But now I have changed to go about and live and enjoy the tourist life. Eat the local food at the local street vendors. See what the romans do. So at one stall we asked the guy what else we could eat. We told him that we were not from here; hence he must guide us as to what the specialty was. Thus illuminated we ate the “corn kis” and the “fried kund”. Both were disasters but at least now I know that they are disasters. If I dint try them I would have never known. The good part of Indore is probably the poha that you get everywhere for breakfast. Compared to Gujarat where everything is fried, this breakfast comes as a delight. But eating it for three days in a row was a little too much. So now I have a story for Indore as well. Nice.
I was asking my host, Ronnie, on how much does he do the local thing. Does he roam out ion Sundays and holidays. Does he soak in the sights and sounds? Does he try to play with the locals, does he experiment with his food. How much of his territory besides the official stuff, does he know. I think I probably shamed him, by telling him some nuances about Indore that I picked up on the trip. I had been to the local mandi where farmers got their grain to be sold to the local dealer. Here the trading would be through the middle men who came in with plastic bags of the produce as samples. Here the trader would first inspect the plastic bag and would get an idea about the quality. Then they would shake hands and cover it with a cloth. In the absence of a cloth they would cover their hands under the kurta (long loose shirt) they were wearing. This is the deal making. A short fast series of finger touching would happen where they would decide on the price. This way they would reach agreement on the price in secret without the need for opening their mouth and disclosing the transaction in the mandi in front of everybody. So feverish trading would happen in relative silence. The only talk would be loose talk and casual conversation. It was an interesting immersive experience. I had seen these handshakes many years before but this was the first time I had seen these in full action on what was essentially a trading floor. High speed trading with no conversation.
So Ronnie is now suitably inspired to try new stuff within his territory. Good for him. What’s the point of being cooped up in your room whole day? Go out, walk a bit, eat a bit, get ill, get sunstroke. Anything goes. Sunstroke? Yup. In Delhi I lead my colleagues to Humayun’s tomb at noon only to find the three of us completely knocked out by sunstroke after the visit. I love the place and can go there again and again. Every time I get to see a new perspective. They have also improved the place and near the entrance is some sort of a display which explains some of the importance and the architecture of the place. The next time I am in Delhi on the must see list is – Safdarjung’s tomb which was the inspiration for Humayun’s tomb which in turn inspired the Taj Mahal. You can’t fully appreciate the Taj unless you see this in sequence. Also a must see will be the sound and light show at the red fort in the evening. I remember seeing it as a kid and I remember loving it and recollecting it for years to come. I can’t wait for Jispa to start learning Mughal history. I want to take her to all these places where she will see firsthand what she studies in her text books.
I have this plan of showing her the forts and the palaces of Rajasthan and Delhi over the weekends as she studies them. That is my dream of teaching her History. So that she gets a perspective from a guide, from Amar Chitra Katha, from visiting the place, museums and from the search on the internet. Perhaps a few documentaries downloaded might also help. I hated the dates that they made us learn in history. I never understood the importance of History and architecture and forts or anything. The way it was taught to us was boring, one sided and irritating. I want to teach her the exciting way. I hope I would be able to do so. I really hope. At least she will get a better perspective and she will be able to understand it better. At least she will not consider it the drab I thought it was. And hopefully she might be inspired to graduate in anything but the commerce and accounting ended up doing. Easily one of the most boring courses ever conceived. Debit and credit. Yuck. Ya ya… I do realize that smart alecs end up doing creative cooking up of accounts and seem to exercise their right brain in the field as well. But those rapists are the one that caused the recession! Too much creativity at the wrong place.

I wanted to see it... and what I unexpectedly saw

Talking about experiences, I managed to see the famous sun temple at Konark last to last Sunday. I had to be in Bhubaneswar on Monday morning and the only flight into the place would have got me late in the day. Hence if I had to be there on Monday morning I needed to be there on Sunday. So might as well reach in time and catch some sights.
The Konark Sun temple always held a certain fascination for me while growing up. Our history text books always had the image of the wheel of the temple on its cover. The sun temple is designed like a chariot with horses at the front (now destroyed) and with exquisitely carved wheels at the base. It is quite an interesting temple.
I have over a period of time learnt the importance of having a guide at any historical place. It is impossible for the layman to understand the significance of the monument without having the services of a guide. And if you consider the cost associated with the travel, the cost of the guide is a mere blip. But the simple 100 bucks he charges makes the entire journey memorable.
Whenever we have travelled we ensure we take the guide and all these years, I have always been the translator for Jispa. She has been listening to guides since she was around 5 years old. It is my job to translate what eth guide says in a language they understand. While it is great fun learning from a guide it is the greatest fun to teach a child at the same time. So I listen to the guide and then talk to Jispa, explain further nuances from my understanding and further the thought process. In time I have also learnt that the guide is designed to play to the gallery. He has a well-rehearsed script that plays the jokes. And the big rule – the guide is not the final authority on anything. He is merely relaying his version of history. Everything is a version, an interpretation, a guide. It is up to us to believe / disbelieve and for us to think through. Villains need not be that bad and the heroes may have ugly feet or possibly may not be heroes at all. They could have died valiantly possibly because they were plain stupid yet brave. Anything goes! But nevertheless the guide is an interesting person and critical to your journey.
The Sun temple at konark is a comeplet waste without your guide, he will show you such intricacies that you might have missed otherwise, look a giraffe! Yup one carving has a giraffe in it. Also there are many sexually explicit carvings around the temple. The guide’s explanation was that due the wars the population had decreased and therefore to increase the population the kind made it quite clear what he wanted the kingdom to do. It’s funny. It’s almost like he said – let the games begin! There are many theories to Indian temples having erotic sculptures on the outside. I could think of a few, though I don’t claim originality for them – possibly to show that sex is important and have your fill outside and leave it there when you enter the temple, or possibly a kind of an advertisement for the mass to come in, or possibly pandering to the king’s extravagant bacchanalian tastes, or even the priests who possibly thought of it as divine fun, or possibly the guide was right. It was an economic decision. More sex, more population, better economy. Also there were multiple forms of sex and some were of foreigners have some desi fun, which also could mean that this was an old version of Amsterdam. A critical part of the tourist /business circuit. Like many years ago I read an article that said, that to attract foreign investment it’s critical to have some kind of a night life! And that’s possibly one reason that Ahmedabad, with its prohibition laws, can never be a foreign investment destination.
Whatever. The guide was obviously happy that a couple of Indians were listening and asking questions and were open enough to understand and ask straight questions without being coy about the issue. I have seen all guides like clients who are interested in what they are saying. Asking questions and not irritating them. I saw this in Turkey as well, where the guide was happy to lose a certain section of the tourists who were least interested in his talk and was happy to take us further after giving them a slip. Every man requires having pride at his job.
I couldn’t but help think, how I would react if I were to take Jispa to these places. I hope that when she is about 15 I would be able to fell ok visiting these places with her, but till she reaches that age, taking a guide to these explicit tourist interests with Jispa intently listening, can cause a bit of an … I don’t.. can cause some…something! She is at an age where she needs little translation of what the guide is talking and I don’t know if I want to translate polygamy for her, just yet.
But hell, the other thing that got me was, I want to see the history text book with the wheel on the cover again. Which wheel photo was it? Most of the wheels had explicit carvings on them. What the hell? We went through all those years of schooling without knowing that the konark wheel was a childhood fantasy come good. We were completely starved of anything explicit and we didn’t even have internet or foreign magazines. Seesh. What a waste. I am sure history would have been a favourite subject if only the significance of the wheel was better understood by us in school.

Here is one carving. Here you see a couple in the act of giving birth contrasted with the image of a cat chasing a mouse on top. A contrast that shows conception to death. Poetic.

emptying shelves filling minds

I look forward to getting books that form some sort of series. When you get two or more that form a series in your head and you get to read them back to back, they make for an interesting argument in your mind. But that is not always possible. The next best thing is to get a series of unputdownable interesting books that one reads back to back. When I get these unputdownables, the reading progresses rapidly with the books rapidly flying off my table. I keep the to-read books on my table and the rest get pushed into the cupboards. And I also control myself and don’t buy books till I clear my backlog, else it will rapidly spin out of control with books filling up shelves but not filling minds. Hahaha. I liked that last bit of corn philosophy. Filling shelves without filling minds. I should put that up in the library that one day I will design. Hah!
The last few weeks I have got extremely lucky with my books. I first got the book ‘Born to run’ by Christopher McDougall followed by a book on the Taj Mahal, followed by ‘Employees first, Customers second’ by Vineet Nayyar followed by ‘Into Thin Air’ by Jon Krakauer. They were as disparate as they could get.
Born to Run (see link which also has an interesting video by the author) is about Ultra marathoners and an ancient tribe that loves to run really long distances. I loved it as according to me the marathon / ultra marathon is the greatest ever sport. In my pecking order it lies at the very top. While you compete with others you largely end up fighting with yourself. The ability to pound the ground every step, continuously for hours at a stretch is simply magical. The author also argues that perhaps we survived as a species largely thanks to our unique ability to run long, real long distances. It explains how humans probably survived by simply running down the animals. They would most certainly outrun in the short run, but if you understand them and are able to track them, then you can most certainly run them down by sheer determination and grit. The gazelle will simply run like hell till its body gets over heated and dies. Poop. That’s it. Of course there is a little more skill to it that the book describes in detail. It also talks about our running styles and how with the advent of padded shoes we have been susceptible to more and more running related injuries. And interspersed throughout the book are lovely descriptions of ultra marathon races. They keep you riveted to the book, waiting to see who wins. All in all an amazing book that has immediately moved to my top ten list.
It also makes a point that I completely agree with. It says that one of the most important things about an ultra marathoner is the mind and how ‘nice’ a person he is. The general sociable or amiability of a person is completely important in a long distance runner. This is a slightly less fleshed out point in the book but it makes enough references to keep my mind active to the concept. I think its worth having a look at in detail.
The next book was about the Taj. From when I remember I have always had a fascination for the Taj. I grew up thinking about it. When I first visited it I was a kid, I next visited it when I was 23. At 23 when I saw it I thought it was highly over rated. Over time I have come to think deeply about it. There has to be some mystery about it. What is it that makes the Taj, THE TAJ. Is it merely a makbara or does it have greater significance. Slowly I started understanding it a bit better. I started reading about it at every chance I got. Reading more and more gave me further insights and glimpses into the monument. I can safely say that today I understand it enough to know much more than the average guide who does not understand it nor it nuances. I understood the value of walking slowly from the front entrances and seeing the arches in line. Letting the Taj slowly emerge. Also one great insight to me is to slightly lower yourself and see the image from the pathways before the gate. Then you will realise the perfect form that architect is letting you see. It must emerge, slowly. There is a reason for it to have a gate that shields the monument from view. Else they would have just put it up without the surrounding walls. Why lower yourself. My theory is that over time we have rebuilt roads and pavement to a point higher than what was the original. If you lower yourself on the path towards the monument you will the perfect angle where all the gates come in a beautiful line of sight. But then that’s my theory. It worked for me. Another thing is to visualise the Taj with garden in front being full of fruit bearing trees a ala Eden. It would not look as naked as it is looking now. It was supposed to be full of fruit bearing trees that possibly even contributed to its upkeep. There are old paintings of the Taj that show it with trees in front. Imagine a beautiful white relief in contrast to the dense green eden. The Humayun tomb in Delhi also always held a strong fascination for me. The book also explains the taj in relation to eth tomb. I always suspected that you cannot fully appreciate the Taj without first appreciating the Humayun’s tomb. I was right there. I would like to again and again to Taj to understand it deeper and deeper. So many myths and so many explanations. It is a mystery that needs explanation and resolving.
Next in line was the book ‘Employees first, customer second’ by Vineet Nayyar. I have come to this conclusion since the lat six months that the key to happy customers is happy employees. Satisfied happy and motivated employees make for a great set of customers. Putting customers first takes the focus away from the enablers and is a recipe ripe for disaster. This book I picked up in crosswords and read it back to back, in two hours flat without leaving the shop. I simply placed it back on the shelf. No, I will not deny the author the royalty, but I promised my self that I will figure a way to buy not one but at least 200 books. And get him to speak to as many forums as possible. He has a very valid point of view. He is attempting to change the way we as companies think. I will do everything in power to ensure that the message is spread as far and wide as possible. Putting that one book down will ensure that I will remember to figure out a way to get my signed copy from the 200. How? Wait and watch. Things are already in motion. Vineet – if you are reading this. Trust me. I think I know what you are aiming for and I think I can deliver your objectives. Message will be received very very wide.
Then the next book was about the ill fated expedition on Mount Everest. Another very high endurance sport. A book that kept me awake at night and made me read like crazy. To give you an idea on how much I enjoyed this book – I woke up at 730 am when I was in Bangalore and I just picked it and continued reading it till I finished it at 830 am. I just wanted to complete it.
Now the book on hand is called ‘the human zoo’. I just started reading it. I have no clue how good it is but the opening two paras in the introduction is one of the most hard hitting ones I have ever read – I reproduce it here.

‘When the pressures of modern living become heavy, the harassed city dweller often refers to his teeming world as a concrete jungle. This is a colourful way of describing the pattern of life in a dense urban community, but it is also grossly inaccurate, as anyone who has studied a real jungle will confirm.
Under normal living conditions, in their natural habitants, wild animals do not mutilate themselves, masturbate, attack their offspring, develop stomach ulcers, become fetishists, suffer from obesity, form homosexual pair-bonds, or commit murder. Among human city dwellers, needless to say, all of these things occur. Does this, then, reveal a basic difference between the human species and other animals? At first glance it seems to do so. But this is deceptive. Other animals do behave in these ways under certain circumstances, namely when they are confined in the unnatural conditions of captivity. The zoo animal in a cage exhibits all these abnormalities that we know so well from our human companions. Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.’

Very rare that a book’s opening paragraphs slap you so hard. Very rare. I am dying to read the book to find out how hard the slaps turn out to be.

the jungle

Hiya…. Back after a one week break. Had been to kanha national park. The best place in India to see the tiger. The tiger is a magnificent animal. He walks with a grace that is unseen and a disdain for the tourists in the open jeeps. The fear and the excitement is palpable when a bunch of jeeps come face to face with the tiger. The tiger cares two hoots about your presence as he goes about lazing in eth sun or scratching his claws, peeing in the sand or even as we saw him licking sand.

But going to a national park to see the tiger is missing the point. I hate the safaris that run in search of the tiger. The only aim is to take you from point A to point B as fast as possible so as to get you to see the tiger. The jungle has many splendours to show the willing senses. There is so much to hear, see, smell and feel. A simple case in point – seeing a tiger is one thing but we had the opportunity to hear the calss before we could spot it. We heard calls and then saw the spotted deers with their tails up, erect, looking in a particular direction. This gave us the direction of the tiger. But is still only half the point, or a smaller fraction thereof. Kanha is such a lovely jungle. Going into the jungle in your open jeeps early in the morning with mist all around was unforgettable. I am pretty weird, of all that I saw I will remember the mist and the sunlight falling through the trees, leaves and the tall bamboo grass. The mist was doing the job of the haze machines, which spread smoke in concerts so that you see the light effects.

Jasmine and I have over time learnt the perils of mammal spotting. Contract that with the beautiful abundance of bird life in all their form, colour and crests. Rarely do we return unhappy from a jungle. We love seeing the jungle for all that it is. We love seeing the spider webs, the gigantic ones that spread from one tree to another and the tiny ones that are on the floor and catch trap the morning mist in the form of dew in its web. We loved spotting the red headed vulture gliding above in the sky with its huge wings outstretched. We love the interpretation zone where a lot of the jungle is explained with exhibits and details.

One thing that pleases me no end is the fact that Jispa has developed a love for museums. So she wanted to go through the interpretation zone the second time as well and see and absorb the exhibits. You can’t hurry her through this. She like to wait, see, understand before moving on.

Jasmine and I can see the birds for hours on end. Stopping to soak in the scenery and jungle. This experience was in marked contrast to the one we had at Ranthambore where the bloody canter drove like a maniac for the entire trip across the jungle in an attempt to catch the elusive tiger. We learnt nothing about the jungle, nothing about the trees, birds and felt nothing for the environment. the guide was also quite pathetic and knew nothing. The best naturalists / guides we had so far encountered were in Bharatpur bird park. Kanha also had their fair share of trained naturalists. Guys who could reel of bird names, tree names, their latin names, and most important… they would enthral us with stories about the wildlife behaviour, the plant characteristics and even jungle life (including Jim Corbet stories). When you are in a safari the excitement is not linear, there are spurts followed by lulls. It here that a good guide with his stories makes an impact. After enough of India bashing, these experiences come as fresh air. These guys are trained by the forest officials and the tourism department. They are eager minds who learn from their tourists as well.

As most good guides tell you that a lot is learnt purely interacting with tourists as some come with books, some with some knowledge and some are clear experts who teach them while looking around. A mutually benefiting interaction in the jungle. What more can I ask for?

For the record we saw the tiger in three of our five safaris. A fantastic stroke of luck aided by good tiger density and lovely expanse of grasslands. Also for the record we saw a bird that eluded jasmine and me for some time – the greater racquet tail Drongo. Supposedly fairly available even in borivili national park but this one has eluded us for long. The bird becomes even more special as we see its quite boring cousin the black drongo on almost every wire stretching alongside the length of India.

And one more amongst my favourite is the yellow footed green pigeon. Invariably found as groups on dead barren trees basking in the morning and evening sun. They make a pretty sight in the lovely yellow light, contrasting against a clear blue sky. I remember taking some nice photos of them in Gir. They might there in the one TB of storage that we have at home.

Another big experience was not having the camera with me. I have learnt that the best thing to do on trips is not to carry any sort of camera. It takes away from the trip. What is the point of seeing a beautiful sunset through the viewfinder or the tiger through a LCD screen. Why should I fiddle with the moment. I happily stopped taking photos. I had carried my camera because Jispa wanted to but then I gave it to some another person who wanted the thrill of clicking away. The first day I clicked a few really bad shots of the tiger. The next day after I gave it away, I saw the tiger entirely with my own eyes. NO VIEWFINDER. I might remember that moment better. Ok I might not. But I lived it better for sure.

Last note – I now understand what inspired Rudyard to write the jungle book. It seems it is set in Kanha.