Walk Straight And Turn Right

Baby, enjoy the babydom!

2011-12-27T21:48:00.004+05:30

“Be careful of what you talk to your child – it shapes her future personality”. This ominous piece of advice from a well-meaning relative got me all tied up in knots.

Much as I love my little daughter, I find it really difficult to speak anything remotely intelligent to her at this stage. I mean, seriously – what can I speak “intelligently” to a squealing kid who is rejoicing in the recent discovery of her vocal chords by making the most weird of noises by herself?

The following day, I decided to start a close observation – I stationed myself strategically on the sofa, as others in the family – apparently more experienced – made conversation with the little one. “Thayya Thayya Thayya!” “Thayya Thayya Thayya!” ……. That’s my Mom, speaking to her

As if in response, Mehr – held by her arm pits, bounces up and down her lap with an utterly gleeful look on her face. The duet goes on and on and on…… till my Mom tires!

Baby is now laid out horizontally – a position she does not particularly appreciate. And she makes it known quite quickly. “Aaaaaaeeeennnn….” Her siren goes off.

This time it’s the turn of my wife – trying to make her smile once again. “Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” she goes, her lips blubbering

Baby smiles again. Mission accomplished. But the blubbering cannot stop. Else the baby siren will go off again. And so for the next 15 minutes, baby continues to hear the funny sound “Prrrrrrrr” – and the oh-so-adorable smiles keep coming

Soon though, my wifes lips turn dry. Afterall one can “Prrrrrrrr” only to an extent

Before baby can realize what is happening, her mother makes a quick exit after placing baby on the baby gym that was presented to her

For a little while, peace reigns as Mehr seems lost with the hanging dragon. Pulling at it – watching it closely. But finally, as is her wont now-a-days with every object near her, she targets to eat it. She tries to nibble at it with her toothless mouth – lets out a long sigh of despair – and then learns a priceless lesson: “Plastic – not edible”!.... and soon the siren goes off again….. "Aaaaaaaaeeeennnnnn!”…. this time though its accompanied by thrashing feet… poor dragon

It’s the turn of my Dad now.

“Ululululululululu”, “Ululululululululu”……. He carries her high above his head. The new point of view stops Mehr in her siren wail mid stream….. she considers her surroundings… and slowly, very slowly – a smile creeps up her lips. The whole family lets out a sign of relief…… “ooooooo” baby is smiling agan!

“Ululululululululu”, “Ululululululululu”………..

“Ululululululululu”, “Ululululululululu”…….

But like “Prrrrrrrrrr” one can “Ululululululululu”, “Ululululululululu” also only upto an extent. Dad soon tires. From the corner of his eye he perhaps spotted me watching …. being a bit too relaxed.

“Going to papa, baby?” he asks.

Baby – who actually did not really have a choice – soon lands in my hands. The evidence of the last 30 odd minutes was seriously worrisome to me. Forget about speaking intelligently, the only noises my daughter was hearing consisitently were the “Thaiyya Thaiyya Thaiyya!”, “Prrrrrrrrrrrrr” and the “Ululululululululu”. What effect would these have on her development, I wondered? Add to this, the fact that unike most religious minded mothers who read sacred books and hear Bhajans during the pregnancy period, my wife completed the full Asterix & Obelix series during the same period – I had some serious cause for worry. “What are we doing to this little kid?”, I wondered!

We considered each other closely. She seems to have a look that seems to say, “Well, whats the funny noise this guy is going to make now?” ….. I hold my nerve. I am just thinking, “Don’t cry baby”, “Don’t cry baby”, “Don’t cry baby”!

Surprisingly it works!.... Maybe the baby understands telepathy????

Whatever it is – she suddenly gets all occupied with a button on my T-shirt….. “goo….. goooo… guuh” she is speaking to herself. By now – there is nobody around. Its just me and baby on the sofa with her in my arms. I look around stealthily to make sure there is nobody in earshot. Then I whisper slowly to baby ears.

“Baby…. World economic situation – not too good. Gets me a bit worried on impact to our business.” Then a quick aside – “don’t worry that will not impact your milk and cerelac supply”.

“Anna Hazare – fasting again soon”… I cannot resist a chuckle.

“Pakistan in bad shape too…. Don’t know for sure where that will end up”!

“By the way, India doing good in cricket”, “But sachin still not getting his 100th ton”!

Baby turns her head suddenly and looks at me directly in the eye. “My goodness, does she really understand all that?” I wonder. But the bottom line is – she has not cried for a while, since she has come to me.

Suddenly, my wife comes back again – this time with a bottle of cerelac in hand. I stop my conversation – baby also turns her head and watches the new development.

“How come she is so peaceful?”, my wife asks?

“Just happy with her Papa, I guess”, I say. As if to reconfirm that, baby suddenly unleashes one of her biggest smiles. My wife picks her up from my hands.

“You will be fine baby – you will be just fine!” I think….. “if you can enjoy all the “Thaiyya Thaiyya Thaiyya!”, “Prrrrrrrrrrrrr” and the “Ululululululululu”….. and then also hear out all the 9’o’clock news items I whispered, calmly – you will be just fine!”

Play & serious thought can be two sides of the same coin. I hope you realize this as you grow up.

Until then baby - just enjoy the babydom!

Baby, you no Superman!

2011-11-13T22:50:00.004+05:30

The baby at home is now our favourite channel of entertainment. The last two weeks, the sole objective of Mehr's life has been to turn over - which after quite some persistent effort, she has pretty much mastered. The latest challenge in her life though - I wonder how she sets up these challenges for herself - is to propel herself forward. Its quite hilarious watching her strenuous efforts at locomotion.

She quickly turns over from her back to her tummy and then she gets into what is called in Yoga as "Dhanurasan" position - the shape of a bow. With both hands in the air and both legs also in the air - there is a desperate attempt at moving forward, which culminates in a lot of baby grunting, crying and finally slumping in exhaustion & pooping off. Poor girl, she still does not know Newtons third law of physics - that to move forward, she needs to push at something. In the process though, she looks like a baby superman, trying to take flight.

Heres an ode inspired by her efforts:

Sorry to break the news kid,
But you no superman.
No matter much you kick and scream,
You not flying nowhere!

Ok heres the inside dope kid,
You got to crawl, before you walk.
That’s the best we chimps managed,
Till the Wright bros came along.

Today you struggle, tomorrow you crawl,
And soon you will totter along.
Along the way, you will scrape your knees,
But eventually you will walk.

A step a time – that’s about enough,
To make it in this world,
Just as day turns night, as seasons change,
Easy does it now,
Easy will do it forever.

Romancing the Gumbarr

2011-09-24T13:25:00.003+05:30

We spent the last two days doing a recce (for the Team building programs that we conduct) of an enchanting property called Camp Roxx. Check out: www.camproxx.com. The property is set deep in the Pine forests of Dhadoo jungle near Nahan in Himachal Pradesh. A 7 hour drive from Delhi, it is quite appropriately located for conducting Team offsites.

Glad we checked it out – and we are quite sure we will be returning to this place quite often. The natural beauty of the place along with its salubrious climate and extremely helpful & polite hill people, make it a place that most people would cherish. The Gumbarr that flows hugging the property, make it just the place one would want to spend a starlit night chatting with friends and colleagues.

Here is a poem inspired by Camp Roxx……..

Have you ever sat, besides a gurgling stream?
And felt its spray upon your cheeks?
Or laughed as it ran along, playfully tickling your toes?

Have you taken a deep breath, and ever smelt a forest?
Lay down there, and counted the stars above?
Or heard its trees, as they swayed and whispered at night?

Have you ever walked along, the meandering paths of a mountain stream?
Watched it thoughtfully trickle at times – and at times rush in abandon?
Or collected the pebbles along its way, and set them free again?

Have you ever talked to the local folk, at deep jungle places?
Heard their stories, their myths, beliefs and wisdom?
And so been touched, in ways that change you forever?

Slow down, Slow down…. Don’t run so fast!
Don’t so worry and hurry – that the scenery whizzes past.
Life is not a race, Take it slower,
Hear the music, before the song is over.

Branding Our Baby

2011-08-31T23:20:00.003+05:30

In the not so distant past, during my stint with Hewlett Packard, every month we used to come out with dealer and distributor promotion schemes. In line with our intelligence & imagination of those days, these schemes always had some (in retrospect) corny names. So, there was a “June Jalwa”, “March Mania”, “November Rain”, the more modest “September Special”, and even one that (thankfully) got shot down by our Finance team, “October Orgy”.

However, optimist that I am, all this rich experience left me with a swagger and confidence, that when it comes to brand names, I carry a few feathers in my cap. That was until our baby was born and we had to brand her, rather name her. The first shock we the parents got, was right in the operation theatre. History has recorded for posterity that the first words we uttered when the doctor pulled out the baby and said, “It’s a girl”, was “Are you sure?”. The doctor was first bemused and then she gave us both a wary look – the one usually reserved for “baby girl haters”. We quickly recovered – and truth be told – both of us were always praying for a girl. The apparent confusion was created because our radiologist during every ultrasound kept referring to the baby as a boy. Much later we would be educated that referring to an unborn baby as a boy was a norm in Indian medical circles.

This ofcourse had serious repercussions for our baby branding exercise. During 9 months of pregnancy – after a very detailed 8 months exercise, we had arrived at a boys name – Vivaan. But as the saying goes, the best laid plans of men and mice……

And so the great search began again in all earnest – an exercise in patience and creativity.

Early in the negotiation, my wife drew out her guidelines. “The name needs to be unique and not boring”, she said. “Unique” translated to “no other girl with the same name in near vicinity or earshot”. “Boring” translated not so subtly to “not a name like Arun… and then for softening the blow, or Shweta – just too common”. Perhaps the way “Sony” was arrived at I thought – no apparent meaning but unique and catchy. That would be a hard act to follow!

Now it was my turn – “Well, no names starting with the letter “A” I said.

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t want my daughter to go through the same troubles that I did”. I smiled – that line had a heroic touch to it.

“And what are those troubles?”, my wife wore a quizzical look.

“Well, I used to miss my attendance in school even if I was slightly late. And then I had to request for attendance again.”

My wife rolled her eyes – but I sensed I was on a good wicket here, so as an afterthought, “No names starting with Z either”. There went Zara, Zoya & the gang.

“Because a few smart teachers also take attendance at times, starting from the back”.

“What a thing to factor for”, my wife said – but this was an equal negotiation. So, all points had to be accommodated.

And so, the turf was decided – it had to be the safe mid-field alphabets like J, M or S.

What followed next, got home the point of why Google is so successful. Search “baby girl names” and the number of sites offering suggestions for free – with word origins, meanings, numerology, Tarot power and a few other such variables, will make any man sick in the stomach. It will also make any woman clap her hands in glee.
To cut a long story short, after quite a laborious data mining exercise on the net, we arrived at a few options.

“Ipsita?”, I volunteered.

“Nooooo”….. my wife almost shrieked. “Do you know that Ipsita (Roy Chowdhury) is the first witch in India?”. I did not need to hear more. Name dropped.

“Sarah” my wife said.

“Nice, but non-Hindu origins may not make everyone in the family happy”. Sarah RIP.

“Mehr” my wife proferred. Reminded me of a college time heart throb, Mehr Jessia. “Now, that sounds nice”, I said. “Mehr Rao” almost had a finality to it. The name ruled the charts for a while. That was until my wife came up with the gem: “But just imagine what happens if she were to marry someone with the surname Mehra”. “She would be called Mehr Mehra”. Like the joke about Lara Dutta marrying Brian Lara to become “Lara Lara”. Could be just a joke, but “Mehr” quickly dropped out of consideration.

It has been close to 2 months since our baby has arrived. But she continues to be, “Baby”, “Sweetie” and sometimes, “Fatso”.

There is a moment while we go shopping together and my wife in her usual process of selection has tried out many many many dresses – when suddenly, every next dress she asks me about, genuinely looks good to me.

I think I have arrived at that tipping point again in this baby branding exercise. Suddenly, every new name suggested sounds good to me.

So, “A” has made a comeback with “Arshia”. A few other names are in the reckoning. “Jia” (my favourite), “Manya” (nice again), “Anya” (“A” again – but sounds good now), “Sana” (good again)… and a few more.

The good news is that my wife is now down to the final 10 shortlist – the Top 10. And to put some sort of cap on the process, the naming ceremony has luckily got finalized for the 20th October. So our baby will soon have a name afterall.

From now until then though, like pop-charts that keep changing, the quest for that special, unique brand name will continue.

And yet, something tells me, regardless of what name gets finalized, regardless of whatever letter, whatever origins, that name will be a very special sound for us, forever.

Remarkable things happen when you Dare To Dream

2011-08-26T14:14:00.003+05:30

A colleague sent me this post by mail. For all those who have ventured to take a road less travelled, here is some food for thought. And for all those of you who are currently sitting on the fence, I hope this article repost gives you more confidence. As the saying goes, you do need to look before you leap, but the danger with looking too long, is that you often dont leap at all.

The author of the piece Whitney Johnson is a founding partner of Rose Park Advisors, Clayton M. Christensen's investment firm and is the author of the forthcoming Dare-Dream-Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream

"Are you sure you aren't making a mistake?"

I had just announced to one of my dearest friends that I planned to walk away from Wall Street and my seven-figure salary.

"Yes, I'm sure." But was I?

Years earlier, I had moved to New York City with a degree in music and a husband who was beginning a Ph.D. program. My first job, and the best job I could get, had been as a secretary at a brokerage house. By working 70-80 hours a week, taking business courses at night, and doggedly pursuing a jump to the professional track, I finally got a break, and moved into investment banking. When I decided to leave Wall Street, I was the Senior Media and Telecom analyst for Latin America at Merrill Lynch, and the top-ranked analyst in my field.

In leaving Wall Street, I was not only walking away from the money that came with my position, but from a certain level of prestige and power as well. I had worked for over a decade to develop relationships with Latin American business leaders, several of whom were on Forbes' billionaire list. These influencers were now reading my research, meeting with me, quoting me, and even occasionally quaking when I'd downgrade their stock.

Notwithstanding the considerable career and financial (I am the primary breadwinner) risks involved, it was time to leave my comfortable perch and become an entrepreneur. Time to disrupt myself. We typically define disruption as a low-end product or service that eventually upends an industry. But I've found that the rules of disruption apply to the individual too. Or as thought leader Jennifer Sertl writes, "innovation ultimately begins on the inside."

Six years into my mid-career move, here are some lessons learned from my personal disruptive trajectory:

If it feels scary and lonely, you're probably on the right track
The term "disruptive innovation" has become an industry buzzword. We all want to start a disruptive company or invest in disruptive ventures, but in reality an innovation that takes place at the low-end of the market or where there is no market (yet) is just not that sexy. It's a similar story when you contemplate disrupting yourself mid-career. There is the possible loss of stature and influence and the very practical loss of financial stability. Hence, the Innovator's Dilemma: whether you innovate or not, you risk downward mobility.

My start on Wall Street as a sales assistant was, without a doubt, a low-end, if not potentially a dead end, job; playing in the secretarial pool was not the stuff of bragging rights. In fact, I remember a conversation with two Ivy League graduates after I'd become an analyst. When they asked about my background, I quailed at telling them of my plebeian beginnings. Moving into investment banking wasn't a fait accompli by pursuing a disruptive strategy, but my odds had improved. Note too that the fear of disrupting myself early on was nothing in comparison to the mid-career thrill ride when there was so much more at risk.

Be assured that you have no idea what will come next
Because disruptive innovations are in search of a yet-to-be-defined market, we can't know the opportunity at the outset. "What you can know is that the markets for disruptive innovations are unpredictable, and therefore your initial strategy for entering a market will be wrong," writes Christensen. As famed angel investor Dave McClure tweeted, "DEAR VCs/ANGELS: if you ask for pro forma revenue projections for immature startups, you are wasting their time. STOP IT."

The checklist of conventional planning doesn't work on the personal level either; disruption requires discovery-driven planning. For example: when I left Wall Street in 2005, I was writing a children's book and pitching a reality TV show about soccer in Latin America: neither transpired. I then started my Dare to Dream blog, wrote no less than a dozen draft business plans, and my husband and I launched a magazine which initially was quite successful, but ultimately failed. During this time, as I volunteered in public affairs for my church, I became acquainted with Professor Christensen. This introduction eventually led to my role as a founding partner of Rose Park Advisors and the launch of the Disruptive Innovation Fund.

It's an unnerving and unpredictable path, but you'll be in good company. Columbia University professor Amar V. Bhide has noted, for 90 percent of all successful new businesses, the strategy the founders initially pursued didn't lead to the business' success. With a nod to McClure: "Dear You. If you ask for pro forma projections about what disrupting yourself will look like, you are wasting your time. Stop it."

Throw out the performance metrics you've always relied on
"A disruptive innovation must measure different attributes of performance than those in your current value networks," writes Christensen. Nearly everyone hits a point in their life where they examine their trajectory and consider a pivot. We typically label this mid-life crisis, but isn't it more often a re-thinking as to which performance attributes matter? Perhaps earlier in your career the metric was money or fame, but now you want more autonomy, flexibility, authority, or to make a positive dent in the world. These require different metrics of success. If, for example, after leaving Wall Street in 2005, I had continued to gauge my success based on money earned, I was nothing short of a failure. But if I measured success by the progress I made during the ensuing years — learning, developing, building something, doing good — I could judge my performance as successful. It's still not easy to measure, but as social media expert Liz Strauss said, "It's not possible for the world to hold a meeting to decide your value. That decision is all yours."

Your odds of success will improve when you pursue a disruptive course
What Christensen found in his analysis of the disk drive industry (which is discussed in The Innovator's Dilemma, and is foundational to our investing), is that firms seeking growth via new markets are 6x more likely to succeed than firms seeking growth by entering established markets, and the revenue opportunity is 20x greater. It's counterintuitive, isn't it? When we start in a place where no one else wants to play, where the scope of the opportunity appears limited, the odds of success actually improve.

To say that my disruptive trajectory has been one straight shot up the y-axis of success, as noted, would be wildly inaccurate. But it was a good decision; in fact, I see no other way. Perhaps you too are ready to disrupt yourself. Maybe your hand is forced by downsizing or new technologies are automating you right out of relevance. For most of you, however, I suspect the decision to make a dramatic disruption runs deeper than that. Like me, you may be looking to do more with your life. As you walk away from a future you easily foresee toward a more obscure trajectory, there will be times when you will feel lonely, scared, and even impoverished. But as you face your personal innovator's dilemma, both the probability and magnitudes of success will improve greatly.

We give a lot of airtime to building disruptive products and services, to buying and/or investing in disruptive companies, and we should. Both are vital engines of economic growth. But, the most overlooked engine of growth is the individual. If you are really looking to move the world forward, begin by innovating on the inside, and disrupt yourself.

An Angel Descends

2011-07-18T01:13:00.017+05:30

There is a new sport that we have just discovered - and it is called, "Baby Gazing". The dining table that was usually a witness to long dinners, now finds itself deserted in super quick time. The television - which was sometimes the object of turf wars, finds itself there for the taking - the remote control lying tamely on the sofa. Even the cell phone - that prime king of gadgets that effortlessly hogs time, is strangely relegated to a strictly functional existence. Everyone is hooked to the new game at home, Baby Gazing.

It has been less than a week since a little person dropped in to stay with us. In just this small passage of time, our lives seem to have gone topsy turvy in more ways than one. Many well meaning and battle scarred friends asked us to be prepared for "the ride of our lives". But all the advice, all the baby manuals and all the doctors never told us one thing : Life as we have known it, will never ever be the same again! It truly feels like a completely new world that we are entering again.... and are we glad :-)

Penning a few thoughts, as our baby enters our lives.The dress you wear,
Looks two sizes too large.
Your teeth and eye brows,
Still an idea.

The flash of my camera,
Makes you frown,
A puff of air,
Sees you wriggle.

Oh you sleep so much,
Your fists all clenched.
You smile and sputter,
In your dreams.

And yet, from the one instant,
You gazed into my eyes,
You have me so bewitched,
Bedazzled and besotted,
I now feel touched by an Angel.

Welcome Princess, Welcome kid,
With bated breath, a world awaits.
Grace us with your magic touch,
And make it a whole new world again!

When Bapu Smiled

2011-06-09T00:52:00.008+05:30

34 injured, 4 serious, 1 nearly paralyzed they say,
Pained expressions, agony awash,
“What is happening to our country?” they wailed.

And then the roadshow moved along,
Dropping in where dear old Bapu lay.
It began all well – all serious, all concerned,
In the spirit of things, I would say.

Until I guess they could bear it no more,
To choke the triumphant smiles,
Of seeing an opposition, goof up in style,
To hell with the agony, the pain, the disdain.

Poor Bapu, he would have had a fit,
A lady even did a jig at his grave.
But perhaps Bapu just smiled instead,
Because Satyameva Jayate.

In A Chinese Garden

2011-04-09T10:25:00.003+05:30

The following write-up was written by Dr.Frederic Loomis - an obstetrician and gynecologist. In 1938, after 21 years of practice, he put aside his forceps and took up his pen. "In a Chinese Garden" is the story of a letter that completely changed his way of life, and which has since changed the lives of many others in all parts of the world.

At a time and age when most of us keep postponing all the things that we would love to do - to some time later, the message in this letter is timeless. I do hope this letter inspires you to live your best life. Read on...

I have told many times the story of a certain letter, which I received years ago, because the impression it made on me was very deep. And I have never told it, on ships in distant seas or by quiet firesides nearer home, without a reflective, thoughtful response from those around me. The letter:

Peking, China

Dear Doctor,
Please dont be too surprised in getting a letter from me. I am signing only my first name. My surname is the same as yours.

You wont even remember me. Two years ago I was in your hospital under the care of another doctor. I lost my baby the day it was born.

That same day my doctor came in to see me, and as he left he said, "Oh, by the way, there is a doctor here with the same name as yours who noticed your name on the board, and asked me about you. He said he would like to come in to see you, because you might be a relative. I told him you had lost your baby and I didn't think you would want to see anybody, but it was alright with me."

And then in a little while, you came in. You put your hand on my arm and sat down for a moment beside my bed. You didn't say much of anything but your eyes and your voice were kind and pretty soon I felt better. As you sat there I noticed that you looked tired and that the lines in your face were very deep. I never saw you again but the nurses told me you were in the hospital practically night and day.

This afternoon I was a guest in a beautiful Chinese home here in Peking. The garden was enclosed by a high wall, and on one side, surrounded by twining red and white flowers, was a brass plate about two feet long. I asked someone to translate the Chinese characters for me. They said:

ENJOY YOURSELF

IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK

I began to think about it for myself. I had not wanted another baby because I was still grieving for the one I lost. But I decided that moment, that I should not wait any longer. Perhaps it may be later than I think, too.

And then, because I was thinking of my baby, I thought of you and the tired lines in your face, and the moment of sympathy you gave me when I so needed it. I dont know how old you are but I am quite sure you are old enough to be my father; and I know that those few minutes you spent with me meant little or nothing to you of course - but they meant a great deal to a woman who was desperately unhappy.

So I am so presumptuous as to think that in turn I can do something for you too. Perhaps for you, it is later than you think. Please forgive me, but when your work is over, on the day you get my letter, please sit down very quietly, all by yourself, and think about it.

Marguerite

Competing with Google

2011-02-26T18:55:00.004+05:30

Over the last couple of months, I had the opportunity to conduct a series of sales training workshops. These workshops were across different geographies and across different product categories. One of the persistent themes that I noticed in all these workshops was about how much the frontline sales folk overwhelmingly feel that the product / service they sell is pretty much commoditized.

What then is the role of a salesman in facilitating such a sale? In other words, how does a salesman actually show “value” to a customer, so as to squeeze out a premium for his offering?

For anyone curious enough to delve deeper, yes – there are answers. But that is a discussion for another day. In this post, I only want to touch the surface of this intriguing inquiry into the role of a salesman in todays world. What exactly does a salesman currently do in a sales call, to communicate “value” to the customer?

In Economics 101, Value is defined as below:
Value = Benefit – Cost

Lets not look at the value of a product or service here. Lets look at the value created in a sales call. The “cost” that a customer expends in meeting a sales person is his Time & Energy. In an increasingly fast paced corporate world, our customer has limited resources of both, which he spends with due care. Hence, in his eyes it is a very valuable commodity.

Now, what is the “benefit” that a sales person can possibly give this same customer of ours in a sales call? The answers I generally hear are in terms of, “A good value proposition”, “A cost effective solution” and other such terms. Invariably though, I feel there is too much stress paid on the “cost” angle. This is despite the fact that we know that as consumers ourselves, we do not always buy “the cheapest” item on the block. Anyways, without debating that further, to stay with the sales call, I ask, “ok, so what does that translate to in terms of what you actually speak in the call?”, “Tell me the actual words”. Far too often, what I then hear is about a whole list of features and their related benefits.

Lets take a pause here and think for a minute. Rewind to a few years back, when you had to buy a car. How did you go about that purchase? You perhaps had a few cars in mind from the advertisements you saw on TV. You then went to a few showrooms, heard out a few sales guys and chances are that, one particular sales guy got you hooked with a few interesting features in his car. You negotiated ofcourse, but since the few features really caught your fancy you did not mind paying a little more than you had budgeted for.

Circa 2011. Same scenario again. How will you go about buying your car? Chances are, you will first log in to the internet. You will check out all the options of all the brands, available at the click of a mouse. You also browse through all the feature and product comparisons. You also have a good idea of the price ranges. Now, fully armed, you still visit the showroom. But this time, the difference is that you perhaps know more about the cars and how they compare against competitors than most of the sales people there. What is the only benefit, you think, a sales person can now give you? – a better price! From being one of the factors at the point of purchase, “Price” has truly been crowned the undisputed king in your purchase criteria.

Let us now return to our sales person who has to take his sales call. If all he can talk about in his sales call is about product features, their benefits and at best, comparisons with his competitors, is there someone else who can do a better job of that? Ofcourse there is – and the answer is GOOGLE!

In less than 0.5 seconds, Google can throw up all that data for me and more. Can ANY sales person in the world compete with that? I think not.

So, does that mean that Google has effectively killed the sales profession? The answer is an emphatic NO. What Google has done though is to elevate the requirement of an effective sales person from being someone who “communicates” value, to someone who “creates” value. People still pay a premium while buying certain products and services. But this happens only when the sales person, due to his knowledge of the industry and his offerings, brings in his “expertise” into play, to deliver “insights” to the customer that he cannot find from a Google search. An example of this is perhaps in the selling of Client Virtualization solutions in the IT Hardware space. The same customer who often cannot be sold a PC at any kind of premium, readily shells out a hefty premium to buy these solutions. Why? Because Google may tell him the specifications of the components involved, but it cannot give him or help him with the insight of how to go about it and how it can help improve his business metrics. That is the benefit that the salesperson can bring in.

The first step towards redemption of the sales profession, I think, is for sales people to understand and acknowledge that their job is not to compete with Google. The benefit that a sales person can deliver in a sales call, has to be the “insights” that come from their unique knowledge of the industry & the customer situation. That is something that Google cannot compete against.

I challenge you to think about your next sales call – will you be communicating something that Google cannot?

Horse Sense?

2011-01-25T22:58:00.005+05:30

On the way back from the airport today, Rakesh & I came across an interesting sight. At one particularly stubborn traffic jam that refused to get dissolved, we suddenly saw a man riding a horse weaving his way around the traffic that was stuck and actually making good progress!

And just like that, while all of us remained boxed in the confines of our cars, the happy man-on-the-horse, found a way and breezed away from the scene.

Got us thinking & talking – is there a case for all of us to go back to horses again in place of our automobiles? We think YES – and here are 10 reasons why! 1) This is what got it all started. Caught in a traffic jam? – Just turn around and weave your way outta there! Just remember to watch the faces of those poor souls stuck in their little cars.

2) You just can’t get any GREENER than this – no nasty fumes, no air pollution! Horses are good for the environment.

3) One of the strongest reasons from my personal perspective – no more stupid honking. A quieter, more peaceful world! The neighing?... I think we can live with that.

4) Am putting my money on this one…. that road accident rates are going to plummet big time south. Horses do have more road sense – afterall, I have never heard of any two of them having a head-on accident EVER.

5) This one is for the romantics. Oh yes, a man riding a horse does look so much more kewl. Take your pick: The man-in-the-white-horse versus The man-in-the-white-car. Which would you prefer?

6) Last heard, a heap of grass came way way cheaper than a tank full of petrol or even diesel. And yes, there could be sales schemes for trading in horse-pooh for the horse grub, just coming up round the corner!

7) Horses occupy lesser space – ideal for narrow Indian road conditions. Bumpy roads, dug up roads, no roads… no problems whatsoever for our horses – that’s after all their native terrain!

8) Lesser parking space even! Four can fit in the space occupied by my one Optra now. If you are living in a metro like Gurgaon you would know what that translates to in terms of money saved.

9) Horses have character & individuality. If you get lucky to get a good one – maybe, just maybe it can also earn you some money on the side participating in the local horse show or maybe even a derby. A car is a car is a car. An expense. Full stop.

10) And finally – keep the right kinds of horses together and you can have another new baby horse soon. Never happens with these all too straight cars.

Can you think of any more reasons why we should go back to horses? Do share it here!

The Gift of Choice

2010-12-08T19:00:00.003+05:30

I have often been bothered by a question - that would spring up to mind at the oddest of times: "What is the meaning of life?". Sometimes in alcohol induced wisdom with friends - we would go on and on, till one of us had a headache and we had to stop. Sometimes, while driving alone in a long stretch of road, the question would pop again. And then there were times when I happened to park my car in the same slot at office for 5 days in a row - when again the alarm bills went off and the question presented itself : "Is there a meaning to all this? This relentless running on the treadmill - this blur of action that never stops - this living from weekend to weekend - this chasing of some sales numbers that will never be remembered in a few months from now......."

A few days back, I was reading a particularly moving book by Victor Frankl : Mans Search for Meaning. It is an account of his experiences in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. In all of human history, perhaps no other generation had to go through such a brutally inhuman existence. But as Victor Frankl narrates: Even in those darkest of circumstances and times, there were people who lived by the highest tenets of humanity - while the large majority descended into an existence of animals. He goes on to elucidate what became starkly clear in that crucible of existence: It was that the meaning of life is not something that opens itself and presents itself like a book to be read. Rather, the meaning of life - is a choice - that presents itself in every moment of existence to an individual. Its an answer that every person needs to give for himself or herself. At this very moment of your life - what do you choose to be? Happy or Sad? Cribbing or Inspiring? Safe or Adventurous? Generous or Miserly? Cruel or Compassionate?

As Nichrens teachings of Buddhism tell us - there are many states of existence in every second of our lives, ranging from Buddhahood & heaven on one end to the state of Animality and Hell at the other end. The gift given to humans is that of choice. Do we wish to manifest our best sides or do we live by the whim of the moment?

The greatest souls who have walked this Earth - have time and again manifested this truth - that we need to own up every second of our lives & make our choices in line with the best that is in us. Thats perhaps what they really meant when they said: "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."

The below poem - that I came across in the movie Invictus was apparently a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to Nelson Mandela in all his 27 years in prison. Written by William Ernest Henley, I do hope it inspires you too!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Cooking up a Team

2010-10-02T13:16:00.004+05:30

Someone once told me: "The way you Play is the way you Work". In my work with the several teams I have had the good fortune to watch closely, I have often been witness to this truth rising to the fore unfailingly.

And so it was, during the Friday of last week, when we were conducting a team building workshop for the senior leadership team of a corporate behemoth.

The challenge laid out to them was starkly simple: to cook a meal. The nine individuals were split into 3 groups, which were handed Rs.200 each. The only other things offered were a cooking vessel, a ladle, a cutting board and a knife. No ingredients, no cooking stove, nothing else. And ofcourse, before they started, their pockets were emptied out of any other resources that could possibly come in handy. The instructions were specific: to cook a full course meal – with a starter, a main course and a dessert.

A senior leadership team – dabbling every day in millions, being asked to cook a simple meal. Whats in it you wonder?

This is where the story unfolds layer by layer. If there is one thing that is a constant in todays’ corporate world, it is the certainty of change & the spectre of ambiguity always casting a long shadow. So, back to the cooking, when the teams are thrown the challenge, how they confront the situation is a telling commentary on their approach to ambiguity.

“How can we do all that in just Rs.200?”, “Where do we get all the stuff we need to cook?”, “Where do we cook?”, “All this in just 3 hours?”, “But none of us is good at cooking!” – the objections, the resistance often flies thick and fast, at first. All of which is met with a friendly smile, a shrug of the shoulders – and a helpful line in encouragement from us as Facilitators: “All the very best!”

This is where reality begins to sink in…… “What we cook is what we have as lunch”, “We need to find a way to do this!”. There is a legendary story of Hernando Cortez the Spanish Conquistador who ordered his men to burn their ships soon upon landing in Mexico. The message was clear: there was no option of turning back. Needless to say, they won. Adversity sometimes can be the greatest motivator. And so it was with our corporate cooks – that after the initial rumblings were settled – and no way through was seen, the actual work of how to go about began to be discussed.

What generally happens next is perhaps the clearest reflection of team dynamics playing out. The natural tendencies of individuals quickly emerge. There are some who go into a “quiet-think” mode, silently figuring out what next to do, putting their thoughts together and then emerging back again to share with their groups. There are some who immediately get into “take-charge” mode – talking as they think, gathering everyone around and trying to bounce different ideas. There are some who would watch from the sidelines, waiting for a plan to emerge before jumping in to do their bit. And yes, there would also be some who wear an all-knowing smirk, twiddling their thumbs metaphorically & wait with an attitude that says, “Lets see where all this finally leads”. There would be some who would say, “Lets make a list of everything we need”, someone else who would say, “Lets go to the market and figure”. One task, different approaches – to an MBTI practitioner, it would be just the different preferences playing out so clearly as it would in any group.

Very soon however, a consensus and consequent plans, do emerge. These after all are people who make things happen in large organizations. The stage is now set for the next phase – moving from planning to actual execution. And even here, the same story – of one task, different approaches - plays out in delightful ways.

One group went by the straight rule book. Someone went searching for the nearest market, hitching rides along the way. Another group member went around in the search of a spot to cook. Yet another group member got busy in figuring out how to get a fire started.

In another group – one member approached the nearest house outside the hotel, offering to buy the vegetables in the refrigerator of the bewildered resident. “You can buy it at the market, no?” he was asked. But he pulled it off yet. A third group took a similar approach, but with the hotel pantry. Call it innovation or call it the Indian spirit of jugaad, the challenge of resourcing was well and truly taken up!

The clock ticked on and soon the 3 groups had 3 fires going on in close vicinity to each other. Ever wondered why industries tend to congregate into a certain region? Well, that’s a discussion for another day. But as the fires crackled under the makeshift stone stoves, the ticking timelines got the tempers outside occasionally flaring too.

“You were supposed to get the fire ready by the time we came back”, “Now that we have the fire ready, maybe you can also help in kindling it”, “But its not my job”, “Could you not cut the vegetables closer to the fire?”, “Don’t just stand there – lend a hand”.

Water always finds its level – and so it is said about teams. Eventually everyone found a role to do – some assigned, some assumed. And so as the vegetables simmered in the pots, the smiles, laughter and friendly banter, slowly returned again.

Soon it was time to lay out the food and present it to the entire team. The sense of achievement and pride in the team was palpable. There is nothing that bonds a team as well as shared success. We are often witness to teams going up in team cheers spontaneously at this stage! We then had the Chef-de-Presentatione of each team come up and conjure a wildly creative outpouring of what they had cooked up, that left everyone in splits!

In our work with teams, our constant search is for the elusive “team elixir”. What makes a group of people come together as a cohesive team we constantly wonder and explore. We don’t have the definitive answers as yet, but there are certain common themes that time and again appear:
• A shared sense of purpose
(Its OUR meal !)

• A shared sense of destiny
(If we don’t cook – ALL of us go hungry !)

• A shared sense of responsibility
(I do THIS best – you do THAT best – but only together we can cook a meal !)

• A shared sense of fun, play & camaraderie
(Lets try it! … So what if we go wrong!.... hahahaha!)

For sure there would be many more ingredients that go into building a good team – similarly as there would be many more ingredients that could go to make the cooking tastier. But if there is one over-arching lesson that the Cooking Challenge teaches, it is this: One cook can perhaps lay out a good dish, but if it’s a banquet you are after, you need a team.

Friends of the Heart

2010-09-12T23:37:00.005+05:30

I have always been blessed with great friends - at all points in my life. Many of these friends have moved on as we have taken different routes in life. But the beauty of many of these friendships for me has been in the numerous ways that these friends have touched and continue to touch my life. Its sometimes just a phone call, sometimes just a mail, sometimes a recommendation for my work without my asking for it .... and mostly done in a discreet, no-fuss, no-big-deal manner.

I remember reading a long time ago, that in life we come across two kinds of friends. One: "The Friends of the Road" - the people you meet everyday, work with every day, and when the time comes - with each taking their own way. The second type being, "The Friends of the Heart" - the people you meet everyday, work with every day, and when the time comes - each taking their own way too - but the difference being that they continue to stay in our hearts and lives in a way that always brings a smile to us. In a way that the heart knows that even though we are not in regular touch, we still matter to each other in some deep way.

So when i cam across this article about "Friends vs Acquaintances", its something I thought I should share with all my friends in this blog. May all of us know and be these kinds of friends.... The Friends of the Heart.

There is a difference between being an acquiantance and being a friend.

First, an acquaintance is someone whose name you know,
whom you see every now and then,
with whom you probably have something in common,
and around whom you feel comfortable.

It's a person that you can invite to your home
and share things with.
But they are people with whom you wouldn't
share your life, whose actions sometimes
you don't understand because you don't know enough about them...

On the other hand, a friend is someone you love.
Not that you are "in love" with him or her,
but you care about the person, and you
think about him or her when they are not there.

Friends are the people of whom you are reminded
when you see something they might like,
and you know this because you know them so well.
They are the people whose pictures you have
and whose faces are in your head regardless.

They are the people you see in your mind when
you hear a song on the radio because they
made you go up to the person they like and ask
them to dance with them; or maybe YOU danced
with them, maybe they stepped on your toes,
or just put their head on your shoulder.

They are the people around whom you feel safe
because you know they care about you.
They call just to see how you are doing,
because friends don't need an excuse.

They tell you the truth--the first time--
and you do the same.
You know that if you have a problem, they are
there to listen.

They are the people who won't laugh at you
or hurt you, and if they do hurt you,
they try hard to make it up to you.
They are the people you love, regardless
of whether you realize it.

They are the people with whom you cried
when you got rejected from colleges
and during the last song at prom and
at graduation.

They are the people that when you hug them,
you don't think about how long to hug
and who's going to be the first one
to let go.

Maybe they are the people that hold the rings
at your wedding, or maybe they are
the people that give you away at your
wedding, or maybe they are the people you marry.

They are certainly the people that cry at
your wedding because they are happy,
or because they are proud, or because
they are so in love.

They are the people who stop you from
making mistakes and help you when you do.
They are the people whose hand you can hold,
or you can hug or give them a kiss
and not have it be awkward,
because they understand the things you
do and they love you for them.

They stick with you and stand by you.
They hold your hand.
They watch you live, and you watch them live,
and you learn from them.

Your life is not the same without them.
These are your friends.

How many do you have?

The River Just Knows

2010-09-02T13:52:00.005+05:30

Let me be a river,
....Constantly moving.
Charting a course,
....As I am going.

Gurgling along,
....Swirling Playing.
Not a moment,
....For dark stagnating.

Rushing & roaring,
....Swiftly streaming.
Taking along,
....Quietly dispersing.

Never stopping,
....Ever finding.
Paths meandering,
....Through whats obstructing.

Nourishing enriching,
....Lively refreshing.
Creating Inspiring,
....Deeply touching.

Sometimes ebbing.
....Sometimes flowing.
But in the journey,
....Always trusting.

Let me be a river,
....Constantly moving.
Charting a course,
....In the path I am taking.

I hope you like samosa !

2010-08-03T23:12:00.004+05:30

A late night flight from Pune to Delhi. The Airline : Spicejet.
The aircraft: groaning - it’s a full flight.
The atmosphere: quiet, sleepy, mostly dark.
Our seats : One row before the last – window and middle.
Our neighbor in the front seat: A foreigner – jovial - with two kids.
The airhostess: Tired, maybe frustrated, maybe angry?
The food trolley: Starting from the front – crawling to the back.
The contents of the food trolley: Limited - slowly disappearing.
Will it have anything left as it finally reaches us – we wonder!
The food trolley – finally now – just a row ahead.
And just then, a friendly foreign head pops behind.
“I hope you like Samosa!” he grins.
Wise words – Funny words.
Words with a tangy lesson for us:
That when you don’t get what you want,
You better like what you get !!

The Power of a Huddle

2010-07-07T22:43:00.003+05:30

There is something about sitting around in a close huddle and swapping stories that makes people bond together like nothing else does.

Long ago, when I used to literally shiver at the thought of going up to a stage and speaking in front of an audience, someone wise had given me a golden piece of advice: “Pretend & act that you are confident – and soon you will start feeling that way”. “Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way round?” I wondered. “You feel confident first – because of which you are able to act that way”. But the all-consuming panic and stage fright quickly ensured that I followed the one path to survival shown to me. And wonder of wonders – it worked!! That was one trick I have used over and over and over again all through my growing years and in my professional life too!

The same thought came rushing to me again: “Pretend / Act a certain way – and soon you start feeling the same way too!”. Only this time, the scenario was different. In front of me was a group of senior managers of an MNC bank. We had just finished doing many exercises using the Myer-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI). The idea was to highlight how – below our apparent similarities, each one of us is so uniquely different as a human being, in the way we perceive the world and make our decisions around it. The day had proceeded better than expected – and the fact that the group had reached the realization of the differences was palpable. The key question now for me as a Facilitator was to now move them back in the opposite direction: “How do I get them to come together again, with the new appreciation of how unique they were individually – and yet how similar they were in many ways that wove them together as a team. How could I make them see that together they created a unique mosaic, which is so uniquely “them” as a team?”.

This is when the learning of many years came rushing to me: “To get a group of people feel like a close team, get them to pretend / act they are already a close knit team, sitting in a huddle, swapping stories about each other”.

But sometimes with people, it is not as easy to get them to drop their defenses. Years of competitive corporate life, sometimes makes one believe that showing your real self somehow exposes you and makes you more vulnerable to the office politics. “How do we get around this deep seated psyche?”. There is a popular concept in football called a “head-fake”. The footballer moves his head in one direction, when he actually intends going in the other direction. We needed a head-fake.

The head-fake for us came in the form of PLAY. The one thing that makes people let their guards down, other than small children is the act of playing. “Nothing serious, we are just playing”!.... Oh yes, that really works!

We soon had all 10 senior managers take up colors and markers and unleash their creativity in drawing a tree – complete with roots, leaves, buds, thorns, trunk, birds around…. Well, the only restriction they had was their own imagination. And then, we made a creative leap…. “Just imagine that the tree you have drawn is your personality tree and each component there represents something in your personality – for ex. The trunk being your core values, the flowers being your achievement, the thorns being your challenges & struggles, the leaves being your skills, the buds being your opportunities and so on…”, “Can you think for 10 minutes and share the story of your tree?”

This was when we got all of them sitting knee to knee in a close circle. I was privileged to be a part of that circle. The next one hour was one of the most fascinating hours that I have spent – just listening to the stories of these 10 corporate people, entrenched and enmeshed by their daily lives and day-to-day challenges, and yet when each of them spoke, the similarities, the hopes, the challenges and their unique achievements came together so beautifully to form a unique collage.

There was one person who had conquered Mt.Kilimanjaro. He did not look the mountaineering-types. There was another quiet person who donated 25% of his salary every month to charity. His aim in life was to be able to donate 50% at some point. There was another person who had taken breaks from work to be able to sneak across international borders to rescue girl children. There were many jaws that dropped at that moment. Yet another person was an avid off-roader. Atleast two of them cherished dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. One said that the achievement of his life was bringing up two very well behaved children. Many of them had started their careers from very humble beginnings – and were proud of where they had reached. Many spoke about how they want to give back to society, so that many like them would get their chances. A lady spoke about how she just could not lie come what may – another really big man spoke about how he could never ever hurt anyone and how even the thought of having hurt someone unintentionally, makes him lose his sleep. Speaking about their individual journeys, tapping deep into untouched memories, a few of them occasionally choked a bit. When one person wiped his tears, I could see 9 more that were being held back.

We let the conversation go on till there was a natural silence. Yet, it was a very comfortable silence. Somehow in that one hour, the individuals in the group had coalesced into a team. For sure, there would still be a long way to go before they would be a “great” team, but a big chasm had been conquered that day. Figuratively, the members were atleast all holding hands together. There was an invisible bond that now ran through all of them, it was a bond formed by exposing their deepest sides to each other.

The holiest of the Indian scriptures, are the Upanishads. When you break down the etymology of the word, the Sanskrit term upaniṣad derives from upa- (nearby), ni- (at the proper place, down) and sad ("sitting down near").

Truly, there is something holy about sitting around in a close huddle and swapping stories that makes people bond together like nothing else does. You don’t have to take my word for it – try this with your team today, and do let me know how it goes!

IT through the FMCG lens

2010-06-19T11:36:00.007+05:30

A few days back, we got to do a workshop for one of the leading FMCG brands in India. It was a workshop to do a Vision 2015 for one of their popular brands. The workshop was attended by senior people from across the world representing different important geographies, like South Africa, South East Asia, Brazil and India ofcourse.

It was an extremely engaging and intellectually stimulating two days that I have had the fortune to be a part of. Coming from a completely different IT hardware industry, I could not help but think of so many learnings that could be cross-pollinated between the two industries.

Made we wonder - what would happen, if a set of senior FMCG managers are taken out and brought into the IT hardware industry. Let me speculate :

1) For both industries i.e the IT hardware and FMCG - there is a huge dividend to be exploited from geographical expansion. FMCG by its very nature has an appeal to a broader base - whereas IT hardware, from a current penetration point of view at 4% of the market is still virgin territory in India. Add to this, the huge broadband expansion agenda that the government has articulated - and the FMCG manager would perhaps be licking his fingers at this familiar opportunity staring him in the face. Ofcourse, easier said than done - but fighting over the paltry 4% was never easy anyways, was it ?

2) While IT hardware sales in India is very "selling" focussed, FMCG by its very nature is more "marketing" focussed. It is about occupying a certain mindspace in the customers head. I suspect a FMCG marketer would see this as a gap and perhaps relook at the market with this new set of eyes. For example - what does brand "Lenovo" or "Acer" or "HCL" stand for in a customers head? Yes, HCL would have a low cost positioning. Acer would have a "Low cost - MNC brand" positioning. But I believe there is a huge space available for other non-cost positions up for the taking in the market. The only brand currently crystal clear on a long term positioning plank is Apple with its "Kool" positioning. Pick up the paper and go through any PC advertisement. 9 out of 10 are around tactical messagings.... around a "Core2 Duo" processor, a "Windows 7" or at best a "Entertainment PC". Seriously, in a world overloaded with brands shouting for attention, isn't it too much to expect a consumer to remember the messaging of a certain product defined by cryptic numbers, of a larger brand? Yes, I know what a Merc stands for - but do I know what a C class, E class or a S class individually stand for? Who cares?... except perhaps the brand / category manager of that product line!

But a positioning or messaging takes years to percolate down to the masses. Nike I believe took close to 6 years, before their iconic communication around "Just do it" really began to stick with people. If there is one big input a FMCG marketeer can get in - it is this tendency in the hardware industry to think with a horizon of 3 months. Michael Dells glorified statement around a "nano-second to stop and breathe before running again" - has perhaps got overhyped and has cemented a wrong kind of thinking that urgently needs a relook. The success of Apple in overtaking mighty Microsoft in market capitalisation is perhaps a lesson that hardware managers should pause to think about instead.

3) In both industries, there is again a huge potential to get people to move up the ladder from using "unbranded" or "assembled" products. The unbranded hardware market at 55% of the current market has for long been a "promised land" that hardware marketeers have eyed with much anticipation. The thinking really was: If a branded product is today made available at a slight premium over the unbranded product, the flood gates will open. Numerous really interesting projects and brilliant people have had their go at this logic. But the fortress still stands strong. Why?

I propose - maybe its a mindset issue with the industry. Many of the people who are today at the helm of the IT hardware industry are mostly folks who got into the industry during the boom days of the 90's. This was the time when a 386 PC would sell for more than a lakh and margins were generous. In boom times, the whole focus is on getting in as many orders as possible and executing them at speed. The fifth P in the marketing mix became "PACE". Therein lay the seeds of "order taking" as against "selling" value. "Price" in such a scenario got a glorified importance. What followed next was a familiar human tendency... If all you have is a hammer - everything you see is a nail! So, when the challenge of cracking the "assembled" market came forth, when the boom times subsided - it was but natural to think in terms of price proposition.

A FMCG marketeer, may perhaps have a different take. Today people buy a FMCG product not particularly due to product features, but largely due to emotions associated with the brand communication. Surf for example which says "Dirt is good" - achieves a certain association in the consumers mind, which makes him overlook the fact that it is 20% costlier than Wheel. It also makes the fact that it contains certain kind of "chemicals or molecules" a secondary fact to his buying decision. This is not to say that features or price dont matter in an IT sale - on the contrary, it does. But the balance in weightage given to "Features and price" can definitely be reduced in comparison to the weightage given to "building a consistent brand positioning and messaging".

4) FMCG marketeers have tasted huge success in India in serving out their offerings in small plastic sachets. That one innovation brought in a huge number of consumers into their fold, who used the products on 'occassions". So a shampoo sachet is often used in many households only when there is a function for which the family goes out. "Pay as you go" has been a concept that has often been dabbled with in the hardware industry in the past. But with cloud computing, SaaS (software as a service), Web 2.0, unparalleled connectivity and converged products - all coming together now, the time is perhaps right for a fresh assault on this front, that has the potential to unleash the same kind of demographic dividends in IT as it has already done in FMCG.

5) By the very nature of their DNA, FMCG marketeers are always looking to tap into societal trends. They scout popular culture, literature and the "buzz" to tap into deep insights that then reflect in their product marketing campaigns. So, when Pepsi said there was "Nothing official about it" - more than the fact that it was tongue in cheek, what really catapulted the campaign was that it tapped into a generation of people who had grown tired of Indian "officialdom". The tools of the trade of an FMCG marketeer are perhaps getting relevant today in the IT hardware industry, where consumer demographics is changing rapidly. The IT decision makers in urban homes is more often the younger generation of people. The salience of getting the "communication" just right is getting amplified more than ever. Tactical ads of the past which showcased specifications and pricing are passe. The key question increasingly will be : "What is the one "tension" in society that your messaging is giving a release to?" Apple is the only one who has it right at the moment, by its positioning of being cool, that releases the tension of the Apple user by saying "This is who I am. I am a Apple user. I am cool".

The IT hardware industry in India, I believe is in the cross roads. On on one hand, it stands at a moment in time where the earlier wave has subsided. New generic competiton from mobile players like Nokia and Telecom players like Airtel (who provides online computing) are changing the playing field. And legacy mindsets of "order-taking" as against "selling" has steadily weakened the profitability in the industry. On the other hand, it also stands at the cusp of a great new wave that will be propelled by converged products, huge investments in broadband reach, new wireless technologies and the startling figure of an abysmal 4% IT penetration to-date. My bet is that when this next lot of consumers come of age, the fight in IT hardware will be between the marketeers and not between the sales folks. The company that will win, will be the company with the sharpest marketing focus and the deepest consumer insights.

Luggage Belt : The Great Leveller

2010-06-05T11:17:00.005+05:30

"How you do something - is how you do everything" - some wise man had once told me. Though I kept my opinions open about that one, somehow that same line came rushing back to me the other day when the plane I was in, was taxiing in the runway, slowly coming to a halt. And the reason for that was the mad scramble that ensued among some of my fellow travellers to get out of their seats, grab their bags from the overhead bins and try to rush to the exit.

The poor airhostess kept repeating, "Sir, please take your seats and wait for the aircraft to come to a complete stop". While some acquiesced, many others just brushed her aside, avoided looking in her direction and went about their purposeful task.

"Why are we so impatient as a country?", I wondered. Perhaps its the competitive streak that gets ingrained in all of us right from the time we get our first admissions into kindergarten, where we have to "beat the line" to get those coveted seats ? Perhaps its the culture where a 85% marks by a student is no longer considered "good enough" in a market where 97% atmost is the cut-off for most "prestigious' colleges ? Life seen in that perspective is really one mad scramble to the finish line !!.... but does the winner really take it all ?

For each his own - and I really dont want to think about what makes someone else tick. What really occured to me though was that regardless of how much you scramble in a plane to get off it first - at the end of it all, the "Luggage Belt" will still get you !!! Its often amusing and I actually get a sadistic kick now-a-days when I see someone not heeding the airhostess, scrambling for his bag, pushing and shoving ahead - only to reach the luggage belt and keep waiting eternally for his luggage to arrive. I almost feel like going up to him and sharing some undying wisdom from Murphy : "The last bag on the luggage belt will always be yours" !

Just made me think - wouldn't it be much much better, if the announcements they make in airlines was a bit more amusing - perhaps poking fun at ourselves as a people ? Let me share a few I would love to hear and appreciate :

1) Ladies & Gentlemen, thankyou for travelling with Jet Airways. Please note that the duration of waiting for your baggage at the belt is inversely proportional to the speed at which you exit the plane. So, please time yourself to your convenience. Thankyou.

2) This is one I heard from someone : During the safety instructions.... "...... below your seat you will find the floatation device. Should the plane land on water, please take them with our compliments"

3) Here are a few other good ones I found that could be used :
- After the landing : Thankyou for flying Spicejet. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.
- As you exit the plane, make sure you take all your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.
- After a particularly hard landing : We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal
- Safety instructions again : In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask and pull it over your face.

Come to think of it - a lot of the airline safety instructions are really redundant and could do with a complete re-think and make-over, couldn't they ? Do we really need someone to say how to put on the safety belt ? Not a lot of rocket science in there is it ? Not in an age where my 5 year old niece knows how to use a mobile phone !!

In an airline market that is already overcrowded - I am really waiting eagerly to see the first airline that develops a sense of humour. I believe its a huge opportunity for one of them to stand outside the clutter - and in the process, make all our lives a little less serious & a bit more cheerful !

While on the topic - heres a hilarious video about airline safety : Maybe the day is not far when we see this happening in low cost airlines !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjVbiPzwpI&feature=player_embedded

Of Innuendoes & Blindfolds

2010-04-18T21:05:00.010+05:30

Some things in life look simpler to achieve than they actually are.

You don't agree ? Ok - heres a task for you. Try and buy a 100 blindfolds from anywhere. Yes, those simple harmless pieces of clothing that you may have not even given a second thought to when you got it from one of the airlines perhaps, during a long flight. Just so that we are on the same page, heres what you need to be looking for.For those of you who think this is an easy task, please STOP reading here - and go around trying to buy this first. For the rest of you, let me narrate our harrowing experience !

Rakesh is my colleague. The two of us set about looking for this innocuous piece of clothing around 10 days back. Before any of your imaginations jump ahead - let me clarify why. Among the different activities that we conduct as a part of team building activities, we have something that we call the "Blindfold Square". As the name suggests - the activity requires that all participants be blindfolded before we start it

Totally unaware of what lay ahead, we first went to a childrens toy store. Incidentally we spend a lot of time now-a-days in such stores figuring out activities that we can use for adults in team building - anything that is specified as for 3+ years qualifies in our radar. Since we had seen blindfolds being used in some kids birthday, we figured it must be a off-the-shelf item. "Do you have blindfolds ?" I asked. The shopkeeper gave us a grin.... "yeh aapke liye hai - ya bacchon ke liye ?" he asked. "Irrelevant question", I thought and told him in a very matter of fact way : "Ye badon ke liye hai...".... before i finished the sentence I suspected I saw his grin getting a bit wider. "Nahin sir, woh sab nahin rakthe" he said with a wide toothy grin.

"Funny guy", I told myself. And we went on undeterred to the next shop. Same question - same response. The looks were only getting funnier. By then the sexual innuendoes that we were getting had dawned on us both. At a few places we both got looked over slowly - as the wide grin was flashed once again.... almost unconsciously, we began standing imperceptibly a little further apart from each other.

5 shops and the same reaction everywhere. The hunt was quickly moving from a casual to a desperate stage. Perhaps an indication of the desperation was when I saw Rakesh slip into an Osim store. They were selling those new vibrating / massaging chairs there. Then I realised why he went there - he had spied a new product they were selling "uSleep".... if there is sleep, a "sleep mask" wouldn't be far behind - he had figured. (Notice also how the "blindfold" had quickly metamorphised into a "sleep mask"). I didn't ask him what happened there - but I guess he left behind a very disappointed salesman happy to see a customer walk in for a product, only to be asked for a "sleep mask" !

A few more shops - a few more snide looks and grins - and we arrived at the conclusion that it was time to pull out all stops. We went looking for other avenues. First stop : GOD GOOGLE. He quickly pointed us out to Amazon.com. "Good lord ! Amazon sells even this ?" I caught myself thinking. A few quick steps and we suddenly had in front of us a choice of hundreds of different types of blindfolds - ranging from 2$ to 50$ - without shipment charges. We were in no mood to go to another shop and bear those looks - so, "this is it" - we told ourselves. "Hail the anonymity of the internet", "Lets order for 100". We chose the 2$ blindfold and with a few clicks of the mouse & keyboard reached the checkout stage. And then it happened - lo and behold - "Amazon.com does not ship this product to India" said the website. "But why ?" we almost screamed !..... "perhaps some internet error", the optimist in us told us. And so we tried again - and again - and again. Finally we got the message : It was true. Considering the burgeoning population of India, amazon.com had decided that Indians could do without any such artificial aid !

GOD GOOGLE had led us to a dead end. We remembered Amitabh Bachhan : "Phone a friend" we told oursleves. I called up a friend. As soon as I mentioned "blindfolds", his broke out laughing. "Hey - interesting work you guys are doing - dont tell me you guys get people to do kinky stuff too" he bellowed. "Et tu Brutus ?" - I felt like telling him, but got away telling him something milder. "Let me see if I have any lying around at home" he said, and then quickly clarified, "picked up from some airline flight". "ok" we said.

By now we realised that buying a blindfold was a lost cause. The only honourable way of getting it was taking an existing piece to a tailor and asking him to stitch 100 more like that. And dare the tailor even bare a glimmer of a grin, we take our business elsewhere.

So, how do we lay our hands on that one elusive piece of blindfold.... we were racking our brains now. It was almost like the search for Yeti.... almost everyone had heard of it, but nobody knew where it came from !

I believe we were one step away from prayers.... when suddenly light shone. My wife who was in Bangalore for some work and who was a party to all our travails called me. Her brother was shifting houses and in the process doing a lot of "de-cluttering" - meaning throwing away lot of unwanted stuff that houses have a habit of swallowing.... and.... not one, not two - but three different types of blindfolds had been spotted. "Do you still need it ?" she asked. For just a moment, I realised how Columbus must have felt after months and months of travelling and seeing only blue seas - to see the first signs of land emerging. "Yes" I almost shouted, "Yes, please get me all the blindfolds you get your hands onto !"

Today I am the proud owner of 3 blindfolds that have come all the way from Bangalore. While they await to be taken to a tailor for further re-production, an evil thought creeps into my mind : The next time we interview someone for a job, one of the tests we put him / her through would be : "How fast can you arrange 100 blindfolds ?"..."your time starts now !"

IF

2010-04-10T12:47:00.004+05:30

Don't know why exactly, but as I was mulling over the next steps we need to take to get our business going, somehow remembered the eternally inspiring poem by Rudyard Kipling : "IF". Also got me thinking a bit about Faith. Sometimes we think of Faith as an absolute - in the sense of saying : "Do you have faith ?" or "Do you not have faith".... but come to think of it, its actually more like petrol in a car. We tank up - drive a while, but there comes a time when we need to tank up again. Poems for me have always been one such tank-up source - and perhaps it was time for me to tank up again today......

Another dear friend called in yesterday night, out of the blue, to just say : "When you think you have come to the end of the road - just hang in for another 6 months from there for my sake. I am sure this will work - I believe you will make it". Again, I dont know why he felt the need to suddenly call up and say that - but being a fan of Paulho Coelho, I do believe that these are sometimes messages from the Universe, to tank us up with Faith, just when it senses theres a need for some !

On that note, heres the wonderful poem - do read it and get inspired again :

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

The City Of Angels

2010-02-17T12:25:00.003+05:30

I have just had the most eye-opening incident happen to me - and I can barely wait to share it here in my blog. Have you ever had an experience like the one in the image above ?..... well, thats not my car - but I had a very similar experience yesterday.

Returning late at night, my wife and me took the left turn just after DT Mall on MG Road in Gurgaon, when suddenly the left tyre of my Optra sank deep into the mud there and the diagnolly opposite tyre actually went up a bit in the air !. Nothing I tried worked out - reversing it, turning the tyres and accelerating it ahead - absolutely nothing worked. Infact as I accelerated, the wheels started spinning throwing up a lot of muck and soil onto the top of the car completely covering the windshield on the left hand side of the car.

I got out of the car and had a look... and it did look to be a pretty bad situation. That stretch of road is also not much populated at that time of the night (around 9:45pm) - and so the only thing I could do was to ask my wife to get out of the car - and try to lift it out of the dirt myself. I soon realised it perhaps needed a Arnold Schwarznegger to achieve that feat - which I definitely was not. My wife in the meanwhile had that "how-could-you-do-this" look - and from the corner of my eye I could sight an impending storm on the home front.

Just as I was considering the situation - a most amazing thing happened. Out of nowhere, nearly 6-8 people passing by got together and approached the 'situation". Hardly anyone even asked me the customory questions expected..."How did this happen ?"...."You should have been careful".... "blah blah blah blah" ....... nobody even asked me whether I needed some help. The group of them - 2 students, 2 workers passing by, a gaurd standing nearby, a passerby in a car, a sardarji on a scooter and a motorcyclist with his helmet on - all came together and soon ideas where flying thick and fast. It was decided that putting a stone below the wheel was the best way to extricate the car - and so, the group of them organised the stones in a jiffy - and before I knew it, everyone had their hands in the muck and dirt trying to lift up the car as someone else quickly put the stones in. The dirt for the record was pretty significant - and all of us soon had a splattering of mud all over our clothes - including the guy in the car who came wearing a business suite !! Anyways with the stone now in place - I tried again - and this time the car made its way thankfully, out of the hole. I let out a sigh of relief !

I parked my car ahead and got out of my car to thank these selfless samaritans - but most of them had already dispersed into the night.

I have never experienced something like this before. And for all those who talk about cities that have made people cold and selfish - here is a testimony that makes me feel so proud to be a Gurgaonite, so proud to be an Indian.

All those ideals that turns humans into Angels - Love, Goodness, Faith, Helpfulness, Selflessness - everything that is considered good, is infact all around us. At times people forget, at times people stray away from these ideals - but they are people like you and me afterall. All of us have our dark sides and dark moments - but what this senseless act of charity yesterday taught me was that, we should never forget that innately, every one around us has an inner core of goodness. So the next time someone makes a mistake - or someone does things that hurt me, I will be generous enough to remember that its just a "mistake" afterall.

And yes, all it takes to convert a cold, selfish city into a "City of Angels" are these small selfless acts that we do just like that. A phrase I read once in the Readers Digest talked about this : "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty". Perhaps a few of us doing this could spark a small wave that ushers the Angels in.

Today - I raise up my hand to be a part of this movement.

Entering Circa 2010

2010-01-04T11:41:00.002+05:30

Six months without a proper "job" has been challenging, yet strangely liberating.

Its like gambling everything that you have on one roll of the dice. Its living with a nagging fear that says : "What if you fail ?". Its at the same time like enjoying the cool breeze rushing on your face when you skim on a jetski and enjoying just THAT ONE moment in time. Its risking looking like a fool, but at the same time - its like an adventure where you are tingling with anticipation on how things will turn out.

Like the guy who fell 14 floors - and said to each of his friends on the floors below.... "Well, I am all right, so far !!". Its the same with me so far. Things are beginning to fall in place - just getting the first few people in place - finalised on an office space - working on the website which should be up in next 3 weeks time. And then, we set sail....

As I start the new year, I realise that this is a defining year in many many ways. Found an inspirational poem that I want to share with everyone who visits this blog. Wish you a very happy and fulfilling new year ahead !!

The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed from fear of future pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or you own:
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to
the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from ITS presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout
to the silver of the full moon, YES!

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money
you have. I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

A little way up..... the Road Less Travelled

2009-12-16T19:02:00.013+05:30

Come to think of it.... the Road Less Travelled must be less travelled for a reason, right ? Perhaps its got the wrong sort of folks hanging out just round the corner. Perhaps its haunted. Perhaps its where the last aliens were sighted. Perhaps this was the road the PWD department gave up half way through construction, since they ran out of funds. Or just perhaps, nobody ever remembers anyone going down the road - and coming back again with a tale !! And so, its left to the imagination of anyone who stops to think, every once in a while.... "Wonder what DID actually happen down the road to the guy who took that Road Less Travelled (RLT here on)"

Well folks, for some of you buddies who have requested me to post a write-up updating about the journey..... here goes the story till now :

The first thing that you need to be aware of as you step on to the RLT is that it is not just one long undulating road. Its actually different streets that come together to become the RLT. As you step onto the first stretch down the RLT, you actually step onto the Street of Elation. No more the hectic lifestyle and no more the compulsive intimate love affair with your cell phone. If you are the Bollywood types, you begin to understand how Manisha Koirala felt when she got free of the obsessive Nana Patekar in Agnisakshi. After years and years of corporate bondage, a free weekday at home, often feels the closest experience to childhood freedom. "Wow !!" you tell yourself - "Why didn't I do this earlier ?"

Tick-Tock Tick-Tock Tick-Tock Tick-Tock..... 30 days pass by..... this is just about the time you begin to find your feet again. Yes, years of whirring-by in the corporate merry-go-round calls for atleast 30 days of recovery, for the dizzy spell to wear off !

Back to the journey down the RLT.... since there is no trace of any beaten track by now, you have to make your way through thick vegetation. Something nice happens here.... alone with yourself, your mind wanders back to the interests and thoughts of times past. You even find time to get back in touch with all those friends you kept promising to catch up with "someday". And so as you walk on lost in your thoughts - you don't realise it - but from Elation Street, you have gradually crossed over to Street Interesting.

Now, this is where the journey begins to get tricky. "Why ?", you wonder - but the reason is as simple as it is profound. As Khalil Gibran said : "Joy and sorrow are but inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed" - much the same way it is, that Interest and Fear are two sides of the same coin. After years of corporate grind, you reach a level of competence in your chosen task. But out there in the RLT all those skills don't count for much really (not atleast for now). So as you walk down the road now you are a novice again. Its "Interesting" if you approach it with a playful spirit that says : "I am here to learn", but frankly - that's easier said than done. The first thing that comes to your mind almost as a reflex action from years of conditioning is the entrapment of what old man Freud would say is your "ego". "YOU" - a virtuoso, a star in the previous journey - can you let go of that entrapment and be a wilful novice again ? "What are you doing ?" a voice within asks you - implying basically that you are NUTS to be doing this..... afterall you are not THE BUDDHA who renounced everything for a new life of enlightenment. Thats when "Interesting" turns around and shows you its "Fearful" face. The shaded stretches down the RLT now suddenly seem dark and foreboding. "Who knows whats beyond" the voice pips again - and theres a chill down your spine as you ponder whether this whole journey was one big impulsive mistake !

But somehow from deep within, you find the resolve to walk on, albeit in tentative steps. Somewhere within, you find a new fount of humility too. You accept your new found status as a novice, but also light up a flicker of ambition to not stop the journey till you become a star, a virtuoso here too. You speak a lot to yourself to drown out the voices from within that still scare you every once in a while. Every step ahead adds to your confidence that there are no lurking demons afterall - and there is hope still that there is a light at the end of the stretch of road you now are in.

Its 90 days now down the RLT.... and Street Interesting now takes a sharp turn towards the Street of Illusions. You have made the big leap - in your mindset - of getting beyond your ego and arrogance - to embrace being a novice, keen to learn again. And as you learn, and learn more - you begin to make your plans again.... and this is when - in the Street of illusions, you hit a complete dark dead-end. "Oops !!" you think..... "so this is why this is the RLT !!" you gasp. "So what happens now ? Is it a U-turn and back again ? How can this be ?". Surprise gives way to frustration. "What the xxx", you tell yourself.... "If only I knew about this 3 months back!". Slowly there is a well spring of anger building up ....... but inbetween all that steam the bottomline remains.... What do you do now ?

While you catch your breath amidst all this and slowly come to terms with the new reality, something still tells you : "Theres got to be some other way ahead. I just can't be stopping here"... and so you pull yourself up again and walk up to the edge of the darkness.... and voila !! ... you discover - the dark dead-end is but an elaborate ruse - an optical illusion setup to test your resolve. How desperate and keen are you to walk the RLT ?..... do you look to make a way.... or do you give up at an apparent dead-end ? Can you face your own fears to walk in pitch darkness for a while, till you find a new stretch of road again ?

Sometimes we astonish ourselves... and coming through the Street of Illusions is like a small personal victory. You feel like jumping with joy and clicking your heels - not for anyone else to see and applaud, but because you quietly feel so good again.

The Street of Illusions opens up to what looks like the village roads of India ..... unmetalled, hard, bumpy, dusty.... the Creation Street. This is where all the new ideas, new learnings, new experiences begin to come together in your mind in an act of conception. This is an exciting phase - as all conception is - Everything is created twice they say, first in your mind and then in reality...... it is then that suddenly, almost like an epiphany, the truth occurs to you : For every person taking the RLT - there is no fixed destination ! The destination is as imagined and as conceived by that individual person making his own unique journey !!

And so folks, this is where I am in the journey right now.... walking down the RLT !! One learning from the journey till now has been that the RLT is less travelled because at most times its a lonely journey to undertake. It challenges your faith in yourself - and it challenges you to find yourself anew. In many ways it reminds me of a banana boat ride..... can you hang on through the twists and turns - and still enjoy the ride ?

Jack & Jill on NDTV

2009-11-09T14:02:00.006+05:30

Blame it on the extreme proliferation of news channels - or on the insatiable appetite that the general public seems to be having for "reality" shows, the biggest reality show on television now-a-days, 24x7 is from the different news channels. Flash back to the Arushi murder case that became one such reality show - the TV channels milked the event to the utmost possible. So what if it put the actors through the nightmare of their lives - or so what if they were being extremely insensitive about the kind of questions they were asking ?... As long as the TRPs were ringing - its a great show - and as far as the channels were concerned, the show must go on.

Am sure many of you felt the same disgust and exasperation (at times) of this kind of news reporting. My way of handling this is to tune out of such "reality shows" and watch much more interesting channels like Pogo, Cartoon Network, National Geographic and Discovery instead. A friend of mine recently sent me this forward, which is a spoof on news reporting - the "event" being - the fall of Jack and Jill from up the hill. Read on and have a good laugh :

Here is how NDTV 24x7 would report the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. All names (except those of Jack and Jill), are fictitious.

Prashant - TV Anchor
Two persons have been injured in a freak climbing accident. Jack and his companion Jill had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water when Jack fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after. Live from the hill, our reporter, Amrita Shah, takes up the story.

Amrita Shah
Thank you Prashant. Well, as you say, two persons - Jack and Jill - had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Suddenly, Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Prashant.

Prashant
Thank you Amrita. What do we know about the hill ?

Amrita
Not too much. Jack was going up the hill to fetch a pail of water when he fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "hill breaks crown of pail-boy Jack"]

Prashant
What news of Jack and Jill?

Amrita
Prashant, it seems that Jack had gone up the hill to fetch a pail of water. We know nothing about the pail, or how heavy it was but it seems that Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. I have here with me, an eyewitness to the accident, Mr Shahid Trivedi. Mr Shahid, tell us what you saw.

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "Boy and girl tumble down hill. Water spilled"]

Amrita
Jack and Jill. What do we know about them? Are they brother and sister? Are they married? Just what were they doing on the hill together?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail a water.

Amrita
And what happened next?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack fell down and broke his crown

Amrita
Go on.

Shahid Trivedi
And Jill came tumbling after.

Amrita
Prashant, there you have it. Two people innocently going about their business to fetch a pail of water when one of them falls down, breaks his crown, and the other comes tumbling after. Back to you in the studio Prashant.
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "Water errand ends in tragedy"]

Prashant
I have with me in the studio now, Professor Chandrashekar Belagare from the Indian Institute of Applied Hill Sciences. Professor: a hill; Jack; Jill; a pail of water. A tragedy waiting to happen?

Professor
Well that depends on the hill, the two persons, the object they were carrying and the conditions underfoot. Let us look at the evidence so far.
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Clearly, one would suspect that if Jacks fall was severe enough to break his crown then the surface of the hill must have been slippery or unstable. But I think were overlooking something quite fundamental here. Who was carrying the pail? Jack fell down and broke his crown and this is the key Jill came tumbling after. If Jack and Jill had been carrying the pail together, would they not have fallen at the same time? The fact that Jill came tumbling after suggests that Jack lost his footing first and perhaps knocked Jill over as he slipped.

Prashant
Professor thank you very much. So there we have it, two persons Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Later in the programme, Osama bin Laden captured in Afghanistan, and Pakistan launches nuclear warheads against key Indian cities. But next up, join us after the break for a studio discussion about hills, boys and girls and whether water-fetching trips should be supervised. Well be right back...

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

2009-10-22T11:38:00.005+05:30

We live today in a cynical world. Are you doing something the majority frowns upon ? Do you have a thought that does not match with the current norm ?.... Hold onto it - don't let it go. The greatest of inventions afterall where all instances when someone chose to NOT follow the norm. The examples and instances are numerous - but the one which in my mind is most graphical of this truth is the one about the Fosbury Flop.

Mexico Olympics, 1968 : The customery way for a high jumper was to cross the bar with his body parallel to it - the Western Roll technique. Along came Dick Fosbury and did the unthinkable : he did it the other way round - he took off from the ground with his back towards the bar !!... the result - the famous Fosbury Flop. He beat the competition by more than a feet !!!

I have always been a non-conformist in many ways : I left my first job in HCL without any "backups" - because I wanted to do an MBA. Three months later, I was doing my MBA. In college there was this major academic craze to do as may papers as possible - perhaps to get an edge during campus placements. I firmly believed in doing only the minimum number required. And against the "norm" of doing two specialisations, I did only one : Marketing. The rest of the papers being divided between many eclectic choices. Did it make a difference eitherways - nothing really except that I perhaps had more time for fun. Another instance I remember was when a professor offered "Business Process Re-engineering" as a new elective. There was a mad rush for that. I did not even apply for that - my logic being that like all fads this would pass too - and anyways BPR work is initiated always top-down from the CEOs office - and by the time I become CEO, the concept of BPR would have disappeared. I am proud I got that bang on !!... something i keep chiding my wife about :-) The latest in my non-conformist streak ofcourse has been the decision to leave a cushy job and do something "different" professionally. No great success to report here as yet - but heck, am I learning or what !!! We tend to take things too seriously at times and believe that there is only one way up the corporate ladder - going upwards. But while doing so, we often tend to forget that the journey is as important as the climb too.

In an insecure world, conformity is appreciated and what the majority does is often seen as the right thing to do. From an Indian perspective, I really feel that the concept of "job security" is very highly over-rated. And somewhere I feel, its due to the cynicism we have developed as a society about most things which are fun. The thinking seems to be - if its fun, it must be frivolous - and if its frivolous, its not for serious adults.

In this context of all encompassing cynicism, I just happened to come across a piece of writing from the "Sun" - that a newspaperman (Francis Pharcellus Church) had once written to a little girl who had been told by her sceptic friends that : "theres nobody called Santa Claus". Its a beautiful piece of writing on the importance of believeing in such things. I am reproducing it verbatim :

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Peering Thru The Mist

2009-09-22T19:35:00.005+05:30

A thick haze of mist hangs about,

The path I seek to take.

And as I make my way ahead,

Vague forms begin to take shape.

I hear some far away strains,

Of what song or tune, I can't say.

Some smells come wafting by too,

Some unknown - some oh so familiar.

Different clues of a jigsaw puzzle,

Coming into focus and gone again.

Just about there - but still not clear.

I keep walking up the trail,

One step at a time - and the next one again.

Taking in everything coming my way,

The smells, the sights, the sounds, the thoughts,

And occassionally some creeping doubts, the fears.

Pieces of some future tapestry,

A puzzle awaiting deciphering.

What the mind can see, the man can do they say,

And so the mind endeavours.

To peep through the hazy curtain of mist,

To see the teasing mystery unfold.

The Hidden Power of Shared Values

2009-08-23T17:52:00.004+05:30

Am reading an interesting book by Kouzes & Posner called “The Leadership Challenge”. There is an intriguing passage there that resonated with me. Sharing it here, since I think its quite profound :

“The very first step on the journey to credible leadership is clarifying your values – discovering those fundamental beliefs that will guide your decisions and actions along the path to success and significance. That journey involves an exploration of the inner territory where your true voice resides. Its essential that you take yourself on this voyage because its the only route to authenticity and because your personal values drive your commitment to the organization and to the cause. You can't do what you say if you dont know what you believe. And, you can't do what you say if you don't believe in what you are saying.”

To facilitate this, they have an interesting set of questions that you can answer for yourself :

What do you stand for ? Why ?
What do you believe in ? Why ?
What are you discontented about ? Why ?
What brings you suffering ? Why ?
What makes you weep and wail ? Why ?
What makes you jump for joy ? Why ?
What are you passionate about ? Why ?
What keeps you awake at night ? Why ?
Whats grabbed hold and wont let go ? Why ?
What do you want for your life ? Why ?
Just what is it that you really care about ? Why ?

Just try it – at the least, you will know yourself better. :-)

Just got me thinking that we have such an action oriented culture in most companies, that spending time doing an activity like this would generally be considered a complete waste of time. And then we wonder why we don't see more leadership in our people in organizations. Peter Senge, in his book “The Fifth Discipline” refers to this as one of the learning disabilities of organizations : the illusion of taking charge – alluding to the propensity that most of us folks have of jumping headlong into action as the panacea for all ills. But perhaps, slow at times is fast.

As per Kouzes & Posner again, research confirms that organizations with a strong corporate culture based on a foundation of shared values outperformed other firms by a huge margin :

Their revenue grew more than four times faster
Their rate of job creation was seven times higher
Their stock price grew twelve times faster
Their profit performance was 750 percent higher

If the data is so overwhelming – why then are exercises in unraveling personal values and hence finding shared values, not an extremely prevalent practice in today's corporate world ? Afterall, what are values – but our deepest beliefs and convictions. Do people not know or is it just intellectual laziness or is it the attitude of saying : “Oh yes, we know that” (As in – yes we have read all about moto-biking, we know it now !!).

I suspect the answer lies deeper. Most visioning and value exercises are done by a group of senior management folks in an out-of-office break out session. The output is then canned and delivered to everyone in the organization for absorption. But can values really be forced ? And so the inevitable happens – and after some lip service, the whole exercise dies a quiet death. And the next time someone refers to it again, there are knowing smiles and someone says : “Oh yes, we know that” !! Things like company vision & values are often brushed aside only because more often than not – they remain as just slogans decorating walls.

For shared values to emerge, the only way then, is for it to be painstakingly forged, which means the exercise of arriving at it needs to be more widespread with a much larger representation. If people across the organization are involved in arriving at it, if they feel heard and involved – I believe visions and values can be a very effective tool in forging alignment. For shared vision and values to thrive though – there has to be a culture wherein the apex leadership has an ongoing dialogue with employees on living the values & rewarding it.

Its not for nothing that the devil resides in the execution !! ….. till then, the attractive statistic remains just that – a promised land, but too difficult to get to for the vast majority. For old times sake, pulled out and had a look at hp's iconic Rules of the Garage – values put down by Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard.

In retrospect, I wonder : would it not do hp a world of good to go back to its roots ?

First week at la la land

2009-08-11T19:34:00.015+05:30

Whew !!.... what a first week at work, here in Singapore !!

Before I get into details - here are some brass-tacks. My office is located inside Sentosa Park (yes there are offices inside !!). I am currently staying in a quaint, "studio apartment" - in a large expansive site we have at Sembawang, which once used to be the school for British children, during WW II days. Feels tickled to have so much history around me. The Sembawang park near-abouts here was the site of some intense fighting they say, and to this day - there are tales of ghosts that frequent these parts. Having said that, Sembawang is one of the most beautiful parts of this lovely city of Singapore - with old colonial houses dotting the landscape, very broad roads flanked on either sides by lush greenery and a quiet that is seldom seen in any bustling city.

Day 1 started with a program that we were doing for NUS (National university of singapore) - a group of 22 students that had 19 nationalities between them. It was a team building activity. The extreme diversity meant it was great fun - lot of laughter and bonhomie by the time we got through with it. This was followed by a steady stream of varied programs for an assortment of companies like DBS, Maersk, Singtel. The added bonus for me, other than the learnings in the program itself, is that I get to sit in presentations of such varied companies and get a glimpse of how different companies in different industries think, plan and strategise.

There were two programs in particular that really stood out for me. The first one was a "Cookery Challenge" that we did for 120 employees of the Ministry of education. I never realised that cooking of all things could be made such fun !!.... everyone was given a fixed budget, the raw material was auctioned and then.... lo and behold in 60 mins flat.... we had 10 teams all preparing a starter, a main course and a dessert. And ofcourse the final products were garnished and decorated by the "chef de presentatione", such that the offering was not just tasty, but really beckoning to the eye too. Was genuinely tough coming out with a winner on that one.... but what the heck - with so much fun, everyone was a winner !!

The other program was one we did for a group of kids from Hongkong (averaging say 11 years) ... the facilitator was going through his normal routine and so asked the kids... "Kids, so what do you want from this program ?"..... just imagine his shock when the kids started rattling out one after the other...."XBox 360"....."PS2".....one even said "a 100 dollars" !!!!..... he somehow side-stepped that one. Then the next question..."ok tell me, what happens when you put two dogs and a cat together ?".... this was a pre-cursor to a funny slide where two dogs and a cat are co-operating to get some beer out of the refrigerator. So the expected answer was "they will fight"..."kill each other" or something like that. But again - kids are kids, most unpredictable : for the next 10 minutes the room was full of cats meowing and dogs barking. The poor facilitator could only hold his hips and laugh !!!

Towards the end of the week - caught a ferry and went down to Bintan, an island in Indonesia (visa on arrival - so no problem la). Bintan is a island that the Indonesian government is almost completely developing for tourism. Its got some really fabulous resorts and some of the most pristine seashores, extending for miles. Its also got large tracts of forest areas that make for good trekking. First day here, i.e Friday was a program we did for the Bintan Lagoon Resorts management team - with an interesting activity called "geo-caching", where teams are actually given a GPS receiver each and asked to track out pre-determined locations. Good fun in all. Second half was spent with a different division of our company - "Camp Challenge", which is focussed on youth development activities. Among other things, I got to climb a 25m high tower using ropes and steel clamps, played a session of paint-ball (an activity where everyone is given a gun with paint-ball bullets... imagine the rest) and at night, we had a night-walk in the forests nearby. Quite an eerie experience, considering that its designed such that - for most parts you end up walking alone, with only the sounds of the forest accompanying you.

Second day at Bintaan, early in the morning - we headed for Gunung Bintaan - for an ardous trek through the forests to reach atop the highest peak in Bintan. Somewhere 80% of the way up, I had the realisation dawn on me, that I am really getting older afterall. Totally out of breath and de-hydrated, somehow managed to reach the peak. Rest of the day, after we decended was dedicated mostly to sea sports. First there was the Jet ski safari.... followed by banana boat and then the most scary one of all - the "flying fish". Will not explain it in detail here, else i will cut out the fun for those of you planning to be here sometime. My advise : just dont miss it. We followed this with a circuit in the ATVs (All terrain vehicles).... and finally capped the evening with a session of beach volley ball. By that time, I was tanned - two shades darker now - and it got time back for our return ferry to Singapore.

Spent Sunday at home.... watching National day on T.V. Monday was a compensatory off here in Singapore. And that bought an end to a very exciting, eventful first few days at Singapore !!

Life In Transition

2009-07-21T19:30:00.004+05:30

There was this course that I did a few years back with the Art of Living in Bangalore. As a part of that, there was an exercise where two people would sit facing each other - and one would ask the other : Who are you ?..... the other would reply.... to which the first person again asks : who are you ?.... reply again.... and once again the question repeats : Who are you ?...... and so the question kept repeating on and on......

It was a very interesting and revealing exercise, because it got you thinking about different identities, your different realities, till you came to a point of wonder thinking.... who AM I afterall ? Am I this body ? Am I the relationships I have ? Am I the job that I do ? Am I the position that I hold in my profession ? Am I my thoughts ? Am I my feelings ? Am I my deepest fears ? Am I my biggest hopes ?

But the point of this article is not to get into that discussion. It just occurred to me - now that I am in this fallow period between two professions - that we tend to identify ourselves so deeply with the circumstances of our lives.... with the labels and tags we carry. Till the end of June, I was Arun Rao, "Country Manager PC business" for hp. From the first of July, when I was no longer that "tag" - for a little while, I lost myself. Monday mornings I would involuntarily look at my watch at 10:30a.m - the weekly CSU call with AP region - 2pm, the thought would flash that its Prayer time - weekly sub-region call and 4pm involuntarily again, the thought of the ALT meeting would flash past. Its said that shell-fish, often continue to open and close their shells on the tide schedule of their old home waters, even when they have been transplanted to the laboratory tank or the restaurant kitchen. Humans are really not that different afterall !!... I kept finding myself coming back in new ways to old patterns - the activities and patterns that made me, "me" !! Whether its by our choice or by chance.... endings are always difficult - and more so transitions.

But its been 3 weeks now, since I moved on from hp - and slowly, am beginning to find myself again. I spent a great 10 days in Bangalore with Dad & Mom.... with no incessant cell phone ringing, meeting lot of old friends over beer and lunches and just relaxing. There are a lot of things that I have found time for after a long long time, like :

1) Starting a book and finishing it cover to cover in one go

2) Talking long into the night and then the next day again with Dad and Mom

3) Catching up with a lot of old friends, who I always wanted to catch up with, "sometime again"

4) Just sleeping long into the day and having brunch on a weekday

5) Visiting malls on a weekday

6) Sitting on my balcony enjoying the breeze and doing nothing

7) Catching up with Calvin, Hobbes, Asterix & Obelix again

If you think about it, all of nature actually works in a certain rhythm. Waves in the ocean gather themselves in silence after a huge surge, before beginning again towards the next crest. The leaf fall of Autumn is followed by winter - and then the green shoots appear again from the dry brown wood. Or think about how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. Life more often than not, grows in the silences. The order of things in human affairs is not far different from that in nature. Interestingly in many older cultures, there is a formalized pattern for individual growth - often referred to as "rites of passage". The individual when deemed ready is taken out of the society he is a part of and sent for periods of isolation and introspection to the forests. The key idea being that he "dis-identifies" his older identity, since the old identity is seen to stand in the way of transition and transformation and self renewal. Then in ritualised ways, he is slowly rehabilitated into the same society with a new identity. There is an interesting quote from the amazing book by William bridges : "Making Sense Of Lifes Changes", where he quotes a wisecrack he picked up from a signpost in a bar. It read : "I ain't what I ought to be", "and I ain't what I am going to be. But I ain't what I was." Somehow, I relate to that wisecrack right now.

Less than two weeks to go before I start a new journey. Am not thinking too far ahead as yet .... one step at a time, one day at a time, I tell myself. I look around me and I really appreciate how lucky I am to get a chance to get a break like this. So, while it lasts, I am determined to make the most of it. Afterall, as a zen saying goes : After enlightenment, the laundry.

Just for the butterflies !!

2009-06-24T18:25:00.000+05:30

For years now - I have been in the adrenalin pumping rush of an industry - which is like being on an ever speeding treadmill. Michael Dell made the famous statement about the IT hardware industry which is so true - that you have a nano-second to celebrate your achievements here - before you move on, to the next month - to the next quarter. Its an addictive industry if you love technology which changes at the pace of Moores law. What is cutting edge - becomes dated within a quarter, and EoL (end of life) in approximately 6 months time. One of the best descriptions I have heard for this industry though, came from one of my ex-bosses, who said : "We are actually in the business of selling fish". There are just about two key suppliers here (Intel & Microsoft) who control the prices, hence bag most of the margins in the industry. For the rest of the vendors, its a business where throughput is key. Your "fish" needs to sell fast - sometimes at "whatever" price. Else, it begins to stink. What this means is every vendor is forever on his toes. This is the charm of the IT hardware industry - constant learning, the allure of new technologies, speed & the thrill of having the proverbial Damocles sword hanging at all times. The challenge is : quarter on quarter - can you deliver relentlessly on revenue, margins and marketshares ?..... if you can, you are king - if you cannot, shrug and try again - the nano-second has passed - you are in the next quarter already !!

Many close friends - genuinely worried that I may be making a mistake - have been asking me : why then have I chosen to leave this heady rush ? .... especially when I am known to be a confirmed addict ? The truest answer is that : Everyone hears and moves to a different drummer. I have always had this voice inside, telling me to stake out on my own - be my own boss - and move in more creative directions. For long now - I have hushed that whisper - but one learns, through experience that the voice we hear - the hunches - the gut feel - is Life nudging us in directions, where hidden paths open where we thought none existed. When we do the same thing for years - we reach a level of competence (or incompetence) where we become smug about our capabilities, where we are at peace with ourselves - where we lose the butterflies in our stomachs !! Thats when, if we hear close enough - one can hear Life telling - move on sonny, get the garden back !!

The most beautiful things - the events that taught me the most, the incidents that have benefitted me the most, have always happened when the butterflies have been flitting around in amusement in my stomach. To think back in time :
1) The first time I tried speaking on stage
2) The time when I took my first car from the showroom, without knowing to drive perfectly
3) The first time I had gingerly said "I love you" to a girl
4) The one time I asked "Will you marry me ?" to a girl (this was a mega butterfly party !!)
5) The time when I stood for President of the Literary club in college
6) The numerous occasions when I had to do "cold calls" in my first sales job
7) Taking up the job of defining and starting from scratch : "Client virtualization"

I guess there are many more.... but the point really is : Its important to be slightly insecure & off-kilter in life. Its important to move out of our defined comfort zones and challenge ourselves. But most importantly, its important to stop and hear what Life is nudging us towards.

Paulo Coelho, the philosopher writer says in his book, "The Pilgrimage" :
1) The first indication that we are killing our dreams is lack of time.
2) The second indication of the death of our dreams is certainty.
3) The third indication that our dreams are dead is peace. Life becomes one long Sunday afternoon if we do not ask great things of ourselves and do not demand more of ourselves than we can give. We are, in short, refusing to fight for our dreams.

The story for me does not stop here. Infact it just begins. What I have learnt in the short time since I have put in my papers and conclusively in my mind decided to move on in a certain direction is that, life moves magically to help you. A whole new world, with different people and different vistas has opened up. In the last one month I have suddenly chanced upon so many interestng people, doing so many - different - interesting things. I have also suddenly discovered so many people whom I have known for long - doing very different pursuits on the side. Its almost like Life encouraging me again : "Move on sonny - there are many more like you - pursuing off-beat tracks".

I conclude with a beautiful passage from Richard Bachs book, "The bridge across Forever" - it goes like this : "Whatever enchants also guides and protects. Passionately obsessed by anything we love - sailboats, airplanes, ideas - an avalanche of magic flattens the way ahead, levels rules, reasons, dissents, bears us with it over chasms, fears, doubts. Without the power of that love, we're boats becalmed on seas of boredom, and those, are deadly".

We have one life to live - why not live it, with the butterflies always ?

When Two Become One

2009-06-23T18:58:00.000+05:30

Was at home today - having taken a break from office - and was sifting through some old diaries. I had this habit in college, where I used to jot down any beautiful piece of writing that I came across, which touched me in some way. No blogs those days, so personal diaries were the only mode. Over the years theres one advise from the Bible that I have found to be particularly useful. Its from Phillipians 2:3 and it says : "Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise : things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable". So, heres sharing with all of you a beautiful poem that I once came across :

Two shadows on grass,
Elongated, growing,
Walking together,
Through meadows of green;
My shoulders much broader,
Your figure much slimmer,
Two shadows together,
With sunlight between.
How far the horizon,
Violet with shadows,
As the sun drops behind us,
In a welter of gold.
My arms on your shoulder,
Pulling you closer,
Making one shadow,
When twilight takes hold.

God in indulgence

2009-06-21T08:35:00.000+05:30

Last week we took a break from our hectic schedules - to do a road trip, by car - to Narkhanda - Thanedar - Chail and back. Far from the maddening crowd, in the silence of the hills - if you keep still enough, you can hear God whispering in the winds. I guess God thinks like a business man - for while he has hectic cities, pirate filled seas & regions of human turmoil like Afghanistan and Pakistan on one hand - he definitely needs to have places like Narkanda to balance out his portfolio. In the deep silences - and the conversations of the non-human world, the soul of the world recuperates - God lies back and enjoys the play and little humans like me find our moorings again.

The wind whistled a tune,

Which the Pine caught on,

And soon across the valley,

A lilting chorus broke out.

The birds joined the melody,

A distant cow added its notes.

In excitement, a few mongrels barked,

And in symphony, a radio switched on.

The blushing sun, now in raptures,

Slipped behind her veils,

While the hills stood tall in applause,

Cheering another glorious day.

Up above, an indulgent Father,

Overlooks the joyful play.

Of His children in gay abandon,

Under His watchful eye.

New beginnings

2009-05-26T00:19:00.000+05:30

Its always a difficult decision to change course in a career - especially when you are doing well in a job, in a role and in a company. Most of my friends think its crazy for me to be leaving my job at a time when the economy is also limping. But what does one do when he hears a different drummer ? I saw a cartoon recently where one cat is telling another : "I could have done so much more with my life, if I had not focussed all my energies in tearing up the sofa" !! Because I was really good at my job, I perhaps got stuck to it for too long too .... but always - better late than never. As much as I love hp - it does feel lighter to be free of my "job".... that even though, I do not have another "sofa" in hand .... my wife, she has started calling me a "maverick" - i take it in as a compliment and feel better about myself and my world.....

Two plus two makes four my boy,
"Walk along the straight line".
Dont dare turn left, when we say right,
Fall in line, obey, comply.

March on, look right ahead,
Stomp your foot - straight in line.
Up goes the hand, that chin up too,
Not a thought from you - Robot man.

This is your world - one size for all,
Everyones a bottle of coke.
Same size, same shape, standardise,
Same thoughts, no voice - you realise ?

ok heres the dare :
First fall out of line,
Walk zig zag - hop skip and then jump.
Now take that lane, yes that off beat one,
Go on - walk on - explore.

Out at the other end now,
What did you see ?
What did you learn ?
What did you uncover ?

Its not the "what" thats important,
But the fact that you "did",
Just listen to your own drummer my friend,
For the music always tops the coke !!

One Moment In Time

2009-02-22T22:08:00.000+05:30

Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams Are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

Ships they say are safest in the harbour - but thats not what ships are made for. Call it madness, call it hope, call it a leap of faith - I don't want to be, at the end of my life be thinking, "what if...".

I need that one moment in time.

Why Kosi plays ?

2008-08-30T15:19:00.001+05:30

Kosi changed her mind last week,
Taking a right turn, on a whim,
A little way up on her way down from Nepal,
Jumping over banks she earlier caressed.

Down she rushed in gay abandon,
Taking in her way all alongwith,
Roaring along, with the mixed sounds,
Of screams, tears and lives.

For Kosi - its a whimsical play,
But the people, its her anger they say,
And so they light lamps, offer prayers,
To get her to go back to her normal ways !

Who has understood why rivers change course ?
Or why the earth quakes when it does ?
Who has understood the changing moods ?
Of nature in her whimsical play ?

Everyday Humour

2008-08-02T16:16:00.000+05:30

I had gone down to Lucknow on Friday for launching a new product in our desktop lineup. Its an interesting new desktop and within our channel community, the codename it carries : "Puppy PC" has become extremely popular.

After the launch, while discussing with partners, there was an amusing incident. One of my distributors walked up to me to say how his sales of Puppy PC was stuttering, whereas another distributor was garnering all the sales. (He had sold 20 odd units as against 200+ that the other distributor had sold). "But whats the issue ?", I asked him - "Why don't you approach more resellers and push harder ?"..... "No sir.... its not like that" he said...."You see the other distributor has got a girl who is in charge of pushing this product. So whats happening is that all resellers are enjoying calling her up to say (in Hindi)... Dho Puppy chahiye... bhej dena" (For those of you who don't understand Hindi - The word "pappi" in hindi means a smooch). Incredulous as it sounded - I checked this out later with others and apparently - it was true !!

Well I really am not a MCP - but that did make me smile. Also made me think later, as I was flying back home to Delhi - as Indians, is it that we are sexist or is it that we have a peculiar sense of humour that plays out in real life ?

Bombs Can't See

2008-07-30T00:37:00.000+05:30

So many bombs,
Popping up like crackers.
Here a bomb,
There a bomb,
Delhi, Kanpur & Hyderabad.

Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat,
Scattering people, limbs, cycles.
Regardless of faith,
Hindu, Muslim or Christian,
A bomb doesn't differentiate,
A bomb can't see.

Its terror unleashed they say,
But whats to fear ?
A mad mans world view ?
An impotent brain ?
That builds a bomb in 6-easy-steps ?
Just to fright & delight ?

No way, you cowards - that ain't us !!
Where the mind is without fear,
And the head is held high,
In that heaven of freedom,
We will ever be awake.

What Can't I ?

2008-05-29T23:47:00.000+05:30

I believe I can fly,
I believe I can touch the sky.
I believe I can.
I believe.
I can.

Deja Vu

2008-05-01T17:49:00.000+05:30

Its May day today.... wifey is travelling to China.....and so I ended up spending my day with the "Messiahs handbook" by Richard Bach. A beautiful insightful book it is.... and for any of you fellow travellers happening to pass by and read this blog - go buy this book today. It will elevate your soul. A wonderful passage that I just read there :

From time to time its fun to close your eyes, and in the dark say to yourself, "I am the sorcerer, and when I open my eyes, I shall see a world that I have created, and for which I and only I am completely responsible." Slowly then, eyelids open like curtains lifting stage-center.

And sure enough, theres your world, just the way you built it.

Got me thinking .... and as it so often happens when you are thinking on a lazy holiday at home... went off on a tangent thinking of the so many times that I have had this feeling of Deja Vu.... seeing a total stranger passing by - when for just a moment in time, the eyes lock. What if me the sorcerer had chosen a different reality ? So many paths - one life to live - too short a time to live it all, to explore it all, isn't it ?

Deja Vu
Do I know you ?
When our eyes met,
Did it feel so true ?

Hey there stranger,
In another lifetime,
Where we together ?
Me and you ?

Like ships at sea,
Passing each other by,
Having in some harbour afar,
Docked side by side ?

So many ships,
So many strangers,
From another time, another place,
Deja Vu ...... its the soul remembering you.

Slow Dance

2008-02-09T13:25:00.000+05:30

A close acquaintance of mine is down with cancer of the bone marrow. I visited him last week - and in the course of our talking, he said - somewhat wistfully - "I was too busy in my life. I wish had made more time to meet up & spend time..." he trailed away. I did not ask further. And then this week at work, a friend from the U.S, sent me a poem apparently written by a teenager in a New York hospital, terminally ill with cancer. Its called Slow Dance - and its one of the most touching poems I have come across. As Paulo Coelho says - there is nothing called co-incidence, what looks like a co-incidence is very often the soul of the universe giving us a message. Read on...

Have you ever watched kids On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask how are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?

You'd better slow down Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last.

Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time to call and say,'Hi'

You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift.... Thrown away.

Life is not a race. Do take it slower. Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Walk Out Of The House of Mirrors Baby

2008-01-20T18:41:00.000+05:30

A chirpy, bubbly - little girl,
Alive as one could be,
Chanced upon a strapping lad,
Her Prince Charming he would be.

Seven steps around the holy fire,
And off they zipped away.
Across seven oceans they went,
To a land far far away.

Everything in good time, they say.
And love - like eggs, needs time to hatch.
A small seed will a giant acorn be one day,
Given everything else does match.

What happened in that land far away ?
No time there was to question.
Nor why nor how the dreams lay shattered,
Of "Happily Ever After" as they say.

Lost in a House of Mirrors now,
The little girl stands confused.
Whats real and whats unreal - she knows not,
Who is friend and Who is a foe ?

The demons in the mirrors - Are all shadows little girl,
The world is not so scary.
A wrong turn in the woods - Thats all it is,
And not a land turned black, that you have to be wary.

Every night, a morning brings,
And its darkest before day break.
Hang on, for surely - tomorrow the sun will be out,
And you will bask in the sunshine once more.

A chirpy, bubbly - little girl,
Alive as one could be,
Will chance upon a strapping lad,
And her Prince Charming he will be.

My Theory of Spaces

2007-12-15T13:50:00.000+05:30

Its a lazy Saturday morning today..... the maids have left, having done their jobs & wifey is not around - gone to Mumbai and only returning tomorrow.....

Its one of those rare "spaces" I get in my crowded life..... and I am feeling good :-)...... the cell phone has not rung since morning (if it has a life of its own, I am sure the poor guy looks forward to weekends too..... or perhaps if it has a paranoid personality, must be feeling ditched & neglected ?..... personally i think hes an over pampered guy - always hand carried, kept close to heart (in my shirt pocket)..... and never out of sight for the rest of the day)..... whenever it is that i retire (i hope by 40).... i make a promise to myself not to carry a cell around. Is that possible ?.... Dad says YES...:-)

Coming back to "spaces"..... back in college, the days i was wooing my wife - i still held onto my concept of needing my own space - until the day i got a sermon on what it means to being a couple from madam wife. I was not too convinced, but since there were bigger priorities at that time, i decided to lose that argument. Sometime back, I felt so vindicated when I was reading Kahlil Gibran who said :

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

I bookmarked it - and went back to my wife with it. Now, my wife & I - we are as different from each other as chalk and cheese. She went berserk laughing at the "winds of heaven" dancing between us - and the "moving sea" ...... the rest of that week, i had to hear out a lot about the different kinds of winds calling out to me. Bad idea. But good learning : When you are trying to convince someone, speak the language the person appreciates.

And then there was this other time when I got into one of my compulsive moods to change the layout of everything at home. After a few hours work - as we looked at the final product again, I said : "Now, thats so cool, I love these spaces".... slightly stressing on the last word. I got a patented "look" reserved for our maids during bad-behaviour time. And then I heard a sermon on how I had conned her into not buying anything for the house under the guise of minimalism. (For the record - I genuinely love minimalism). Thank God we were not in Jaipur that day I thought - else half our house would have had Rajasthani folk items hanging around everywhere - and perhaps even our sofa would have made way for a more ethnic (read RED, full of beads & glasses) pillows & bedding arrangement on the floor. Again, bad idea. Big mouth. But good learning : Don't try to be smart - around sensitive topics.

One of my traits - that has helped me in my professional life i think, is that I am tenacious. I don't give up so easily. So, it was one of those days when both of us were in a really really good mood, we were driving up to Almora - and I thought I should try again. But this time instead of tongue-in-cheek smartness or philosophy, I thought I will use logic. "You know the difference between India & Singapore ?" I asked rhetorically. "Too many people here". "Too much density". "Just look while we are driving - how nice it is to have so much of a gap between the vehicle in front". "You know - even in music, its the gaps, the silence between two strings - that makes the difference"....."Yep" she said - "Good progress" I thought. "Even in language - just imagine what would have happened if there were no commas or full stops"..... just then my experienced eye thought I caught the beginning or hint of a smile curving up her lips. "So", she said, "Should we turn off the music, so that we have some..... spaces ?"..... my early warning systems went off : the ruse had been detected. "If the enemy detects your advance - chances of winning low" says old chinese saying. I was far too experienced a husband to fall for this one. This time, bad luck. Topic change. But good learning : There are some arguments that you can never win. And there are some people you can never convince over a particular issue.

There is this anecdote about a Chinese Master that comes to mind. As he was walking up a path, there was a raging bull in his way. Everyone around thought he would use his mastery to tame the bull. The Master however walked around the bull - and went on. The point is, I think : Very often, its not really important to win an argument or get our point of view accepted.

Today I have my "space".... and I will enjoy it & live it when I have it. I will update my blogs, I will pamper myself at the saloon, I will get a Shiatsu done, I will go for a long walk in the evening. I will enjoy the silence.

Just a disclaimer - and something I have learnt from experience : Spaces are critical to have - but too much of spaces, makes a wall look bare, makes music into one of those foreign orchestras (where you are not sure when to begin clapping), makes a city look like Dubai (empty & desolate at times), makes for bad sentences - and makes relationships unbearably lonely.

Our Times

2007-12-03T01:34:00.000+05:30

I try and not just put in forwards out here.... but once in a while, there comes a "forward" that makes me stop and think - and thats when I think, I need to put it up here and share it with all. This is an article attributed to George Carlin, a comedian in the 70s & 80s. I sent the same one to my wife - and she replied with 3 words : "Practice Practice Practice" :-)

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom,but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less....

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete

Remember : spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent. Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER : Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Coffee or Cup ?

2007-10-27T23:50:00.000+05:30

I got the below article as a forward from a friend..... it is said that the biggest truths often come in the simplest forms..... like Einsteins E=mc2. Just read on..... and do ponder over it..... Keep It Simple Stupid, is a golden rule that unfailingly works.

"The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect."

A group of graduates, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the simple and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. Then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this:

Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. Enjoy your coffee!"

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

· Live simply
· Love generously
· Care deeply
· Speak kindly
· Leave the rest to God.

You are the miracle, my friend; your life either shines a light or casts a shadow!

Shine a light and enjoy the coffee.

Leap - and have faith

2007-10-03T23:13:00.000+05:30

Life is full of choices. And ever so often, we land up at a decision fork..... and rarely, are the choices very obvious. I remember reading somewhere in MBA school about the concept of limited knowledge. A manager at any given point never has the universe of data to enable him to take the "perfectly right" decision. Thats pretty much true for everyone in life situations too. How then do we arrive on the "right decision" ?..... Just think about it - what is a "right decision" ? Like its said about the butterfly effect, a small change in starting conditions can result in wildly different endpoint conditions - but as humans, how should we know what the different end points could be ? I really don't think there can be a "right" decision. At a given point in time, using the mix of emotions, circumstances and all knowledge we have - we can only take our best shot. But having done that, there is only one way to make the decision - "right". And that is by passionately, obsessively and fanatically believing - that the path we have chosen is THE right path. Enough freedom fighters believing like this, bought us independence. A handful of scientists believing in this, put man on the moon. Ultimately, I think - every decision is really - a leap of faith, backed by an unquestioning mind.

What is it that really matters ?
To do interesting things or,
To do important things ?

Which path is it that is right ?
The one leading through the heart or,
The one lighted up by the mind ?

Whats the greater good to follow ?
Individual thought & wish or,
The collective wisdom of people around ?

Dare we turn left ?
Where we have been told to turn right ?
Or should we continue straight ahead instead ?

This or That ?
Which road to take ?
It really doesn't matter, I think,
Beyond the point of the fork in the road.

To take any of the roads - and then move on,
To believe, to be obsessed and lost to the world,
To back the faith with toil and love,
And to see just one road beyond the fork.

That I believe is the right way to go.

Whats a miracle afterall ?

2007-08-09T00:00:00.000+05:30

The little boy,
Wearing silver sunlight,
Soon realises the time is past.

How long do you clasp onto a beautiful dream ?
When its tearing away at you, all the time.
How do you undo whats already done ?
How do you turn the clock, back in time ?

Are there really miracles ?
Or are they just mirages turned inside out ?
Every dream - just a cotton cloud,
Ours to own, till the expiry date ?

What do you do,
When a dream turns sour ?
What do you do,
When what you take for a miracle,
Turns out to be a mirage afterall ?

Lost in thoughts

2007-05-26T18:35:00.000+05:30

Vast spaces in my mind,
Where I walk around from time to time.
At times meeting friends, at times old thoughts,
So old at times that they are a part of me,
Just the fleeting second of recognition, deja vu
And then gone again - lost in the spaces
Are we static - with moving thoughts ?
Or are we moving on - in a world of static thoughts ?

Its a world of imprints I think,
Every thought, sight and smell,
Maybe inconsequential, important or in passing,
But imprinted for life - all the same.
In some vast mindpsace - another world ?
Waiting to be revisited, relived and passed again.
Ours is to choose the worlds we live in,
And ours is to choose the world we create for us.

The Age Of Miracles - Its Not Past

2007-04-07T12:37:00.000+05:30

My younger sis - Poorni - finally got engaged last month. I say finally, because by traditional Indian standards - at 28, she is considered "late" for marriage. But who is to say what late is - to each his own and I really respect her for the clear headed thinking she had - that she would get married ONLY to a certain kind of guy, and if a guy did not match her standards - too bad for him. THE ONLY reason we in the family where getting a bit jittery was due to the unique combination needed to pass her "qualification criteria". The guy needed to be into trekking (that rules out 95% of all males in India), also needed to be into music (thats another 3% ruled out), also needed to be a software engineer (there goes another 1%) and then ofcourse - needed to be smart, sauve, level-headed, caring .... which perhaps left 0.0001% of the guys in the reckoning. The challenge for us was to find that guy !!!

I am a sucker for miracles - and this for me is nothing short of one. I am still to come to terms with the fact that she did manage to find someone matching every one of these criteria !!!

Got me thinking - that miracles, magic. love - they still happen & will continue to too. Thats perhaps what keeps the world going. In a world where people are perhaps getting increasingly cynical - to look at a young couple just going to get into holy matrimony, is looking at hope in this world. Poorni - I believe - is on the phone to the US with Amar - for hours at a stretch now-a-days. Am so happy for her. Its the hope & belief of two people - who think that their marriage will be the best one yet. That they together will find a world beyond the rainbows - thats full of magic, marigold, fun and warmth. I do hope they find that world.... but along the way, I do hope they also learn that much of that magic is created by them - and that they need to work on it everyday, so that the magic dust never ever settles down.

Reminds me of a beautiful piece of writing that Richard Bach had written.....

We think, sometimes, theres not a dragon left. Not one brave knight, not a single princess gliding through secret forests, enchanting deer and butterflies with her smile.

We think sometimes, that ours is an age past frontiers, past adventures. Destiny, its way over the horizon; glowing shadows galloped past long ago and gone.

What a pleasure to be wrong. Princesses, knights, enchantments and dragons, mystery and adventure....not only are they here and now, they are all that ever lived on the earth !

Our century, they've changed clothes, ofcourse. Dragons wear government costumes today and failure-suits and disaster-outfits. Societys demons screech, whirl down on us, should we lift our eyes from the ground, dare we turn right at corners we've been told to turn left. So crafty have appearances become that princesses and knights can be hidden from each other, can be hidden from themselves.

Yet, masters of reality still meet us in dreams to tell us that we've never lost the shield we need against dragons, that blue-fire voltage arcs through us now to change our world as we wish. Intuition whispers true : We're not dust, we're magic !!

For my Cinderella

2007-03-25T12:59:00.000+05:30

Was going through one of my poems - written when I was in management college. This is from a time when I had just begun going out with the person who is now my wife. I subscribe to the old school of thought - that theres nothing as heady as falling in love. The initial getting-to-know each other, the long walks, the all-eyes-on-you & the fights..... and then the making up again. But so many years down the line, am so glad that the feeling is still as new..... As with wine, a few things improve with age.... "Love" is no longer about just the romantic thoughts of walking together into the sunset, hand in hand or moonlit dinners..... yes, those excalamation points are there and are needed.... but more importantly, "Love" to me is now a more "daily" kind of feeling.... growing together, doing even mundane house-hold chores together, sharing the remote, just listening sometimes. Its about respecting each others friends & relatives, getting up first in the morning & letting the maids in - so that she can sleep some more. Its laughter - especially in the middle of a fight. Its knowing each others idiosyncracies - and finding them amusing rather than irritating..... "Love" to me, since the days of writing this poem has moved from being an adjective, to being a verb.

Walking beside,
Along long winding paths,
Losing myself,
In your casual talks.

The endless fights,
The constant tease,
Is there some magic ?
Behind these veils ?

The feel of your hands,
As I take them in mine,
That look in your eyes,
That tone of your voice.

Yet, so very different,
So far apart,
Should I like a thing,
The opposite you would love.

But hey, look agan,
Do peer through those veils,
Can't you-see-the rainbow ?
Those star spangled fields ?

Make no mistake,
Be in no doubt,
For all that I say & all I might do,
You are so very special, so unique, so true !!

The Bandits !!

2007-02-14T01:19:00.000+05:30

I've always had a major fascination for ants.....during summer breaks in school, I used to spend hours trailing the ant holes outside the house in our garden. God forgive my soul for the sins I have perpetrated on them - from cutting off their backsides, to spraying them with all kinds of liquids - wax to ink to the juices in orange peels....I gradually grew less violent with them, but to this day, I still love watching them - as they go about their busy, all important schedules. At another level - all of us are ants too, aren't we ?

A train of ants came walking down,
My window sill one day,
With a little fellow with prodding hands,
Leading up the way.

He stopped, he ran, in fits and starts,
And thus he carried on,
Until he arrived upon my shelf,
Where all of a sudden he paused.

He raised his head and glanced around,
And then he rushed ahead,
This time his destination,
Was some sugar and a slice of bread.

He spent some time, among his friends,
Thanking his lucky stars,
And then he seized a crumb double his size,
After a bitter brawl.

He walked around, showed off his loot,
Thus valiantly carried on,
Until among the crowd he slipped,
And I knew not where he was gone !!

A train of ants was walking back,
With my sugar and bread one day,
And perhaps, the little fellow with prodding hands,
Went back the same way !!

Searching For Me...

2006-09-23T23:19:00.000+05:30

Perhaps the hardest thing about growing up - for me, was coming to peace with myself as a person. Which way do I lean ? Whats the best thing to do ? Whats the right thing to do ? Should I take all advise ? Or do I myself know best ? Should I follow my mind ? Or should I follow my heart ?...... By and large, a lot of these questions for me have answered themselves - what I know now is that there is no "one right path"..... there is no "5 easy steps to finding yourself"..... in retrospect, its always like the story about Honda and Buddhas eyebrows..... que sera sera.... what will be will be. This poem is a few years old..... the questions that I now ask have definitely changed, but the essential dilemma still poses itself many a times.... I guess this is what being human and growing is all about......

I'm too old to be a kid,
Too young to be a man.
Neither a prudish dude,
Nor a screaming punk.
I ain't the "traditional Indian guy",
Nor a "modern western clone".
I sometimes like the East,
And at times, the West, I love.
Sometimes an idealist,
Yet, no way, a moralist.
At times I am the obedient son,
And still sometimes a wild rebel.
A voice inside says, "Go along",
While another says, "Don't care a damn".
Who is me ?
Which am I ?
For Gods sake - Where do I stand ?

Rainbow

2006-09-21T22:36:00.000+05:30

Love as the wise men say is a many hued experience...... figuratively, like a surfer riding the wild waves of a turbulent sea...... sometimes the heady highs, sometimes the frightful depressing lows, sometimes the joy of the cruise and sometimes the tumble.... but at the end of it all, never a surfer who would say....never again. For a long time, till I found my own island, I was a surfer too..... often in love, and more often... in love with love..... enjoying the ride, reaching out for the rainbow...... this was me again, in one of "those" romantic moods.......dream, dream, dream.....

For years now, I have been thinking of you - no, not always, but off and on - like pleasant dreams which one likes to recall - which bring traces of a smile to ones lips - a light headed feeling of suppressed joy.

Years roll on, but memories linger. Like the time we first met - and talked. It was I who blushed, wasn't it ? Well yet another incident to recall with a smile !

How soon we became friends ! College days - the fun, the studies, the heady spirit - indelible images printed in the mind for life. The innumerable times I would snatch a look at you - in class. The times when we would often be in a group - and yet I, would be so far away, alone with you. The days when I would look at you, and in silence let you know how much I love you. Days when I wished I could pour out my feelings for you - tell you how much I care - how much I wished to keep you happy always - to take your share of pain from you.

Time flies, doesn't it ?

The night sky appears beckoning. The beauty of a million stars and the silver moonlight spilling into the balcony, seems to wash us in a sea of love. There is not a question asked - not a word spoken. Just you and me and a sense of tranquility. just two little travellers going on and on in the journey of life, with no-one for support but us.

Yeah, the journey of life - past a few rusty towns, past a few hillocks and probably mountains too - but passing many a beautiful meadows, plains extending for miles and miles, a lot of beautiful gardens with bright sunshine and scaling many a summit of joy !

Where is our destination ? Where does the road lead ? - It hardly matters as long as you are with me.

Arriving through the flight of years, the two of us - working together, laughing together, growing together - knowing one another as well as any two persons ever could.

And then, the first few strand of white - yet, the mellowing of spirit, the maturing of thought - a glowing sense of satisfaction - a sense of accomplishment.

The train of thoughts chugs on and on.....

Yet, will you ever know ?
Will you ever understand ?
I wonder............

Thoughts Of Another Day....

2006-09-20T23:52:00.000+05:30

My college just disappeared...... just read somewhere that R.E.C Durgapur has now become N.I.T Durgapur....... just does not have the same tone as "R.E College..... R.E.College" - as the conductors in those amazingly packed mini-buses would shout..... everytime I close my eyes to think of those days, a smile unfailingly breaks out in my face..... just pulled out a small mock-ad that I had done for our R.E.College in those days..... and its as if it was just yesterday again......

A college is not just another place to study in.
Its a temple to the human spirit.
A place that releases the best in you.

REGIONAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE, DURGAPUR

Like when you stroll through our sprawling
grounds - the Lords & the Oval
Like when you experience what freedom is
sitting at Jupes, Canteen or Samrat.
Like when you form friendships that
you know will last a lifetime
Like when you spend quite moments in our library
Or feel the sweat running down your face
as you work out in our gymnasium.

We can go on and on and on......
But well, some things are to be experienced
...................not just told or heard about !

R.E.C DURGAPUR
.......... not just a college, a temple
.......... not just an institution, an experience !!

Till We Meet Again.....

2006-09-17T09:23:00.000+05:30

This was a small note that I had penned while in B-school for the batch of 98, when they were passing out of college. Some of the folks liked it so much that they got this printed in a small note and pasted it on the momento boxes that were given out. Few things give me the kind of high that seeing my words in print do. This was one such time.........
Its a small world.....
Of different stations,
But criss-crossing paths;
Today we are together,
Tomorrow you take your way;
In between we share our memories,
A collage of feelings, thoughts & experiences
Until the time is ripe,
For our paths to cross again;
Until the time is ripe,
To say Hello again......farewell

The Journey Is The Destination

2006-09-12T23:30:00.000+05:30

This was a poem that I had written for my wife when we were in college. We were very much in love with each other, but being two such different people, we did take our time to find a common tune. This was on one such occassion when we had moved apart - and were tentatively trying to find a way back again...to each other.

If I am I,
And You are you,
Yet in being so,
If I am hurting you,
Should the change be in me ?
Or should it be in you ?

Is this 'compromising' ?
Or is it 'adjusting' ?
Or are these just two complex words,
To indicate we are 'changing' ?

Two people haven't loved,
Who haven't fought before.
There never was a love,
That didn't hurt before.

Perhaps in so 'changing',
We discover ourselves once more,
Moving beyond the "You" and "I",
To find "Us" for evermore.

All in the game

2006-09-12T22:34:00.000+05:30

Flash back to REC days again...... those happy-go-lucky times, that was mostly one long holiday - with the occassional formality from time to time of having to give exams.... I was mostly a decent student when it came to academics...... but one paper which still gives me the chills when I think of it, was "Structural Engineering"..... that hieroglyphic maze of bending moment and shear force diagrams...urgh.....one paper that refused to be mastered with one night of night-out and cramming......and so, the inevitable happened - I actually failed the paper and had to redo it again.....in engineering college jargon, it was called - getting a suppli ..... something generally pretty dreadful.....but the most serious of situations sometimes also affords us a laugh, like it happened to me..... read on......

Life is a roller coaster - at times carrying us to those blissful peaks of ecastacy, but at times, plunging us to the abysmal depths of depression and dejection - with its all enveloping darkness and gloom. A realm where grey often appears black and a smirk often seems a sneer.

But yet, as the prophets of yesterday would often tell us - that old worn out cliche - "If you can smile at life, life will smile back at you". The minute we see the humour in our often lugubrious predicament, the dark clouds of gloom suddenly seem to lift, ushering in the rays of hope and taking the impossible into the realms of possibility.

Failing in a subject in exams may not exactly be most peoples' idea of humour. It wasn't mine either - not until I had an experience of what it really felt like.

The next day after the fateful news broke, I got up as usual. Sleep for me was the ultimate narcotic, blurring the immediate future, wiping clean the past. The first half an hour of each day hence sees me more as a mechanical zombie going through the motions, rather than as a thinking, feeling person.

It was in this state that I made to proceed towards the students mess, my eyelids yet to cover half the distance up, when one of my friends came up behind me.

He placed a hand on my shoulder, drew near, with a voice laced with emotion, bordering on grief, he whispered, "Arun, I'm sorry". My sleepy mind raced to attention. One part of it had already raced ahead, "There hasn't been an earthquake, back home in Bangalore, has there ?" I thought. "Why, what happened ?" I gasped, almost impatiently.

He gave me a look usually reserved for the kith and kin of the deceased and then almost mournfully said, "I heard about your suppli, yaar".

I couldn't help but console him. I took his hands in mine and said, "Its okay, it'll soon be over". "But why you ?", he asked. "It happens", I said, and then almost as a justification, "What else do you expect if a person takes Structures with a nights preparation ?", "Anyways, forget it, yaar". But he persisted, "And of all the professors, it had to be this person only ?" "He does not pass guys easily".

By then, I had started feeling genuine pity for him. With all the re-assuarance I could muster, I told him once again, "Look, its okay. So what if its him ? If I perform well, hes got to pass me, right ?"

He still didn't look too convinced. He was still giving me the "sacrificial goat" look, and if I had probably tried hard, I might have probably spotted the beginnings of a tear too. Anyhow, he gave me two quick raps on the shoulder, said "All the best", and a trifle sadly, walked on. "Don't worry", I shouted back to him as I walked on.

It was soon after, that the humour of this peculiar role reversal struck me, and I burst out laughing in the mess. "What happened ?" my friends around me asked.

"Nothing" I said, "I got a suppli" !!

Hasta La Vista

2006-09-10T11:03:00.000+05:30

Had written this small piece when we were on the verge of passing out of B-school...... like in every institution, the expreiences & memories for me, of those days - are a mixed bag..... with the biggest positive ofcourse, being that I found my wife studying in the same batch as me :-) .... and for that one reason itself - XIM will always hold special memories......
Here I get off my friend,
Its been nice knowing you.
We've shared the trip, we've swapped our tales,
We shared some joy and sorrow too.
At times we didn't see eye-to-eye,
It was perhaps the age, perhaps the height ?
And yet, here we are - the destination,
Or perhaps you go ahead some more ?
Good luck dear friend - God be with you,
Perhaps you can drop in a line ?
Until someday our paths shall cross again,
And we can swap our stories once more.

A dream to live by....

2006-09-10T10:46:00.000+05:30

This was me in the growing up years...... I've always believed in the "someone somewhere waiting for you" line...... life seemed so much more hopeful and positive that way.... but then, there were those days, when the wait seemed endless ,,,,, and I had to really try hard to continue to believe....... What is it that I am searching for ?
What is it that I am chasing ?

Like a mirage that moves on and on,
A shadow that is haunting.

Like a dress of golden sunlight,
Sand blown through my fingers.

Here for a moment and gone again,
Very much mine and still not quite....

Will there ever be a "someone special" ?
A fairy come wafting by ?

To touch me with her caring ways,
To put the sparkle in my life ?

Someone to share my joys, my pain,
My laughter, my jokes, my tales.
Someone to talk to through the night,
And someone to wake up to with a smile.

Animal Talk

2006-09-09T10:30:00.000+05:30

All animals talk.....if only we could understand !! Every morning as I step out of my house - I hear dogs barking nearby, birds crying out in the distance, an occasional cat who purrs by as he quickly rushes on and sometimes the plaintive long bellow of a cow or buffalo on the roads. So much of converstaion all around, it really is a talkative world !!

For those of us who call Bangalore home though, no animal sound can be more familiar than the soporific, persistent droning of mosquitoes - who despite all our clumsy swishes and swats, refuse to be discouraged.

A number of times - lying alone in my bed, I have wondered how it would be if only we could understand these animals talk....if only mankind could break through this last existing language barrier !! I've always suspected - that these mosquitoes in particular are not so dumb, helpless and pre-historic as they make themselves out to be. Anyone whos experienced the worst of Bangalore mosquitoes - like me, will tell you - the attack sometimes seems so beautifully co-ordinated and executed....something like the bombing sorties that the airforce folks carry out.

Fast forward to an era where mankind has finally broken this last existing barrier....heres how a report on one such mosquito sortie would sound.....

"The lights went out and the mosquitoes took off, each of them from a seperate base - but soon, they re-grouped, circling the room in concentric circles with gradual descent - splendid, perfect co-ordination !

Machhar-1 had already identified one target, a fat plump boy sleeping on the bed near the window. As Machhar-1 swept down the room, he spotted a second, a swarthy man with an aquiline nose and a short greying beard, lying alongside the door at the western end of the room. He switched on his R/T (receiver-transmitter) ....'Zero one to Pygmalion. We'll attack on a reciprocal course. Follow me at 12 seconds interval. Good luck'. The reconnaissance was over. The attack was on !!

Machhar-1 went into a steep climb and began to turn. Led by Machhar-2, the string of mosquitoes followed and began to orbit over the western approaches of the room. Machhar-1 steadied. The metallic voice of the automatic navigator sounded in its ear phones, 'ok captain... ready when you are'.

Below the panic signals had gone off. There was frantic movement everywhere. People were reaching for their blankets and tugging them on.

Banking steeply, Machhar-1 went into a shallow dive. the target was rising like a grotesque giant as the diving mosquito swept towards it to a pre-determined landing site. By this time the electronic mosquito repeller had already started firing. Machhar-1 swung off course. The RASS (Rapid randon site scanner) had already identified another landing site..... more firing..... automatic Pavlovian reflexes landing almost dead on target. Machhar-1 could feel the sweat running down its face as it listened to the navigators instructions, 'Right skipper, right..... hold it there'. the mosquito made a clean landing - siphon pumps almost immediately drawing out.

'Smooth landing captain.....siphon pumps operating......full throttle..... intake 1 microlitre per second..... early warning systems on full alert.......radar scanners in operation.....' it was the navigator again.

The mosquito was bracketed in several swishes and swats for seemingly endless seconds. then once again, the navigator yelled, 'capacity reached. Siphon pumps being withdrawn..... early warning sounded.... anti-mosquito missile detected on radar screen..... dead on target.... angular velocity 15 cms/ second..... coming in from 58 N 36 S....... drift captain drift' Machhar-1 went on a lateral shift, cleverly out of range of the incoming swat missile and then reared up like a frightened horse as the reflex slammed home, right on their landing site. Bathed in sweat, machhar-1 switched on the R/T again...'Zero one to Pygmalion....in you go'.....the attack continued."

A pretty interesting plausible scenario - isn't it ? ..... On the lighter side heres a teaser I heard : "What did one male elephant tell another as a female (elephant) passed by ?"
ANS : "Wow !! thats a perfect 350-365-365" !!

So the next time you hear an animal talk ..... listen closely, jokes - laughs and conversations are indeed everywhere !!!

Poetry in the mundane

2006-09-09T10:13:00.000+05:30

Heres a really creative piece of poetry that I came across - don't know who the author is - but he seems to have found music in the seemingly mundane activity of typing (probably using a typewriter ?).....

wacka wacka bang splat tick tick hash
Caret quote back tick $ $ dash
Bang splat = at $ underscore
% splat wacka wacka tilde no.4
Ampersand ( ) ( ) dot dot slash
Vertcal bar, curly bracket
comma comma CRASH

Things You Didn't Do

2006-09-09T09:56:00.000+05:30

This is a touching piece of poetry I came across in a very nice book that I recently read - "Living, Loving & Learning" by Leo.F.Buscaglia. We so very often put away for another day - telling the people we love that we really do care..... perhaps being expressive is not so macho ?.... or perhaps its the Indian middle class values of not being expressive with our love, that comes in the way..... for all such of us (and we are plenty !!).....this poem touches a chord.

Remember the day I borrowed your brand new car
And dented it ?
I thought you'd kill me, but you didn't.
And remember the time I dragged you to the beach,
And you said it would rain, and it did ?
I thought you'd say, "I told you so".
But you didn't.
Do you remember the time I flirted with all the guys,
To make you jealous, and you were ?
I thought you'd leave me, but you didn't.
Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie,
All over your car rug ?
I thought you'd hit me, but you didn't.
And remember the time I forgot to tell you,
The dance was formal & you showed up in jeans ?
I thought you'd drop me, but you didn't.
Yes, there were lots of things you didn't do.
But you put up with me, you loved me
And you protected me.
There were lots of things that I wanted to make up
To you when you returned from vietnam.
But you didn't.

Love it when its raining !!

2006-09-06T22:30:00.000+05:30

Rains....just the thought - often brings a hint of a smile to my lips.....rains, as in dark clouds, as in being curled up in bed with a nice book and hot Horlicks, as in the smell of freshness, as in the soothing pitter-patter on window panes, as in Raj Kapoor and Nargis under one umbrella.....I really do love it when its raining !!

I love to watch the rain,
The soft and tender rain,
Teeny weeny drops,
Coming miles and miles and miles.

Hey little chaps, do I know you ?
That you come to meet me so ?
Sending a chill up my spine,
As you hug me so.....

The swaying of the trees,
The chirping of the birds,
Somewhere up over there,
Theres a magician at work !

The smell of the soil,
The patter of the rain,
The distant rumbling thunder,
Following the silver streaks of light.

Tender little drops,
Collected drop by drop with care,
Sent down to earth for me,
With a bountiful hand.

Oh how I love the rain !
The soft and tender rain,
Teeny weeny drops,
Coming miles and miles and miles.

Some time, with me

2006-09-05T00:21:00.000+05:30

Its not often that I get to do this - and these days, has become increasingly difficult - to find that time just alone, pondering, thinking, dreaming.....but every once in a while, the cancerian part of me craves to do just this.....

I want to be alone, with me.
Want to spend some time, with me.
To spend some time gazing,
To spend some time thinking,
To spend some time......
In solitude with me.

I want some time in silence,
Some time in utter isolation,
To be, alone with me.
Some time to spend dreaming,
To listen to my heart beating......
Some time, all alone, just with me.

I want to go deep within,
To a place so serene,
With not the slightest bother or care.
To live, just the way I want,
At just the pace I please,
With not a soul around.......
But me.

Walk with me....

2006-09-05T00:12:00.000+05:30

This was me - in my college years - ever the perennial romantic, looking to the stars - and wondering, is "that" special person in my life also looking at the same star at the same time ? And when she does - does she wonder about meeting me ?

Walking down the years,
Dreaming every day,
Hoping every minute,
To come across YOU.

Sharing our lives,
Living our dreams,
Walking through clouds,
Being with you.

Through thick and through thin,
Through laughter, through pain,
You by me and me by you,
Forever young - forever true.

Do you see my dreams ?
Do you feel my thoughts ?
Do you think of me,
As I do of you ?

A new dawn

2006-09-03T18:28:00.000+05:30

I've always had a special relationship with God - I've always spoken to him like he was a friend who listens and often helps.....and in strange unexplainable ways - I've always felt that he does answer in some funny ways...........

With tears in my eyes,
And a fractured heart,
I knelt before God one day,
"Oh God, my Lord, my Father in heaven",
"Why do this to me ?" I cried.

My God was quiet, perhaps asleep,
For not a word in comfort did he say,
And thus in my thoughts, when I was lost,
Came a voice - loud, clear and near.

"Hey Jesus ! Is this God ?" I thought,
But then, the voice seemed familiar,
And all of a sudden it occured to me,
It was "THE NEWS", by Gitanjali Iyer !

"A hundred killed, thousands homeless",
"Children on the streets", she said.
"Hungry stomachs and outstretched hands"
Well, problems everywhere.

It was then that something clicked inside,
And a voice inside me, asked me -
If your fates as bad as you think,
Would you care to swap places, my friend ?

Suddenly everything seemed so changed,
The world no longer gloomy,
Perhaps it was my sleepy God at work,
Or was it some change in me ?

Just another moment in time

2006-09-03T18:09:00.000+05:30

A baby in the family after such a long break - they seem to bring in such a paradigm shift. Penned this when baby Arpita touched down...... it was almost like she was sent with a little pouch sprinkling magic everywhere.....wonder how it will be when we have little fellows running around in our house !!!

Just another,
Moment in time.
A - momentary pause,
Hush - for the angels of God are here,
To bring a little princess home.

A little princess,
With twinkling eyes,
And as tiny as she looks,
What magic shes brought down on us,
What new freshness, new hopes, new dreams.

A whole new world,
New thoughts - new goals,
A new generation arrives.
And so life renews, recharges, resurges,
All in - Just another moment in time.

Chameleon

2006-09-03T17:49:00.000+05:30

In the casual swat of a hand - a fly loses its life....hopes, dreams, plans and emotions - are they in the domain of humans only ?.....who really knows ?

Unto the starry night, a mother,
Once set her little afree.
A strapping young fellow so full of life,
Of wonder, of liberty.

Oh ! the joy, the ecstacy,
The pleasure of being free.
Of gliding, of diving, of soaring above,
What adventure it can be !

"Oh life, Oh life, I love it" he said,
What mysteries in store for me ?
What veils to be lifted yet ?
What beauty beckons me !

There was a stroke of lightning,
A flicker of a hand.
That instant of a mocking fate,
Sneering at life, at hope, at dreams !

The world moves on, unseeing, uncaring,
But somewhere a mother mourns on,
For the death of her darling, her lovely,
Her pride - the bubbly little fly.