floating weed

Snow Golf in the ¨End of the World¨

2010-08-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Snow Golf Tournament... when I saw the news, I said ...Oops.
I thought.. hmmm.. there are golfers crazier than me. When I reached the golf course today, there were 43 more crazy golfers.

It was the 4th time the Snow Golf tournament was organised in Cerro Castor ski resort. It is in Ushuaia, the southernmost city and also called as End of the World (Fin del Mundo).

The golf course had 9 holes at the base of the ski resort. There was one five par while the rest were par 3 and par4 for a total of 30. The Green was compact snow with a blue coloured circle around.
Here I am with Juan Carlos Begue, the owner of the ski resort

Twenty out of the 44 players were from Buenos Aires while the rest were from the End of the World. There was even a women´s foursome. In Ushuaia there is a 9 hole course which is open in summer.

The snowgolfers listening to the instructions and rules by the pro.

The Snow Golf advisory said

- dont put heavy jackets which will hinder the swing

-put on snowboard shoes

-coloured balls would be given by the organisers

-bring half a set with maximum of 7 clubs including putter.

We used tees on the fairway, which was compacted and was fairly narrow. Either side of the fairway was rough and there teeing up was not allowed. In the rough one has to blast it out like a sand shot. One can bring it to the fairway but with one stroke penalty. If one is unlucky the ball would fall into the snow and disappear under. In that case one can drop another ball and play with one stroke penalty.

It was a Lugunada tournament, which means best score of the four players in each hole. I started off with a par at the 220 yard first hole and birdied the 270 yard. I had two more pars and my partners also contributed. We had a total of 4 under. Hmm... we came fourth. The winners played 7 under...the second and third position went to those who did 5 under.

There was water hazard in two holes with a stream running to catch the sliced balls. Here it is...

The ball does not run on the snow, obviously. So one has to hit a high ball and play a longer club. Even while putting, one has to hit the ball hard. If not, it will get slowed down and get turned to right and left.

Golfers are known for craziness. I had played in a desert golf course in Libya where the fairway was all sand. The ball would fall on the sand and disappear. We used mats or tees to hit the ball on the sand. I had played at 42 degrees centigrade in Delhi Golf club. Someone commented that I was able to withstand the hot sun due to the thick skin developed in the course of thirty years of government service..
Prize distribution ceremony..

Today we were lucky with the weather. It was a sunny and beautiful day with a maximum of 9 degree centigrade. I was worried about the fierce Patagonian wind which could pierce through one´s skin, flesh and bones. Fortunately the wind started only towards the end of the game and it was mercifully mild.

After the game we had wines from the Fin del Mundo winery from Patagonia followed by a lunch in which they served the delicious Patagonian lamb.

Anna: The Life and Times of C.N. Annadurai by R. Kannan

2010-05-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

This was the book ( published in February 2010 ) which accompanied me through the train journeys from Frankfurt - Prague – Krakow-Belgrade-Thessalonika- Athens last month.
It is the biography of Anna, who has transformed the politics and society of Tamilnadu as a politician, thinker, reformer and writer. Anna developed a brand new politics of brotherhood with his Thambis ( younger brother) and inspired a whole new crop of leaders, writers and the masses. He combined astutely politics with literature, films and newspapers and awakened the tamil society, reformed it and lead the movement to power peacefully and democratically. His leagcy continues in the form of rule of his Thambis and the irreversible changes in the Tamil society. Anna was inspired by Periyar´s call for reforms of the society and fight against injustice and superstitions. Anna went beyond Periyar, mobilised the masses, took to the path of elctoral politics and captured political power. After this, Anna realised the need for building bridges with New Delhi and saw a better future for Tamils within the framework of India, shedding his earlier calls for a separate Dravida Naadu and Tamilnadu. At the same time he resolutely fought against the imposition of Hindi and thereby saved the whole country from Hindi fanatics who had the potential to break up the country. If Tamilnadu is doing well as a state and Tamils are shining in IT and in the coalition governments at the centre, the credit for this goes to Anna who laid the foundation and set the course of progress and new mindset.

Author Kannan has put the evolution of Anna as a leader in the context of the politics and other leaders at that time. Periyar was, of course, the greatest influence on Anna as well as in Tamil society in that period. While Anna started as a loyal disciple of Periyar, it was ineveitable that Anna had to move away from his mentor and start DMK. Periyar never wanted to become chief minister or aspired to any such position of power and would not let others. He was always a kind of anarchist and activist fighting for his radical beliefs outside the government system. Periyar´s eccentricities and rigid unrealistic approach to many political issues limited Dravidar Kazhagam´s growth.

Kannan describes the situation of Congress party which was feudal and did not take Anna and his Thambis seriously. Rajaji who rose to national level politics and fame played his hands wrongly and left the field for DMK to capitalise on his mistakes.

Kannan has given an objective narration and comments on all the players and parties– brahmins, non-brahmins, actors, congresswalas, Periyar, Anna, Kamaraj and Rajaji. He has quoted the comments of all the parties and let the readers judge them. He has let the writings and quotes of Anna and his adversaries speak for themselves. This is remarkable for a Tamil author. Most of the views and comments about Anna or for that matter any of the Tamil leaders are partial, emotional and subjective. I was surprised by the caustic and rabid remarks of Jayakanthan on DMK leaders calling them as Porukkis ( loafers). I am an admirer of Jayakanthan as a innovative writer and thinker and I am surprised even he has succumbed to partiality blatantly. Kannan has successfully managed to overcome this Tamil weakness of extremes …hero worship and demonisation of opponents.

I wish more such objective and neutral books are written in English on Periyar, MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Kamaraj and Rajaji. This will help the world to have a proper understanding of the Tamil society. Foreigners get confused by the giant cut-outs in Mount Road, the filmi politics, the contents and hollowness of kumudam and anandavikatan and the culture of Amma, Anna and Thambis. The books need to be translated in Hindi to educate those northeners who condenscendingly call all those beyond vindhyas as Madrasis.

America’s Real Dream Team...article by Tom Friedman

2010-03-27T04:24:00.000-07:00

I am reproducing below the article by Thomas Friedman in Newyork Times of 20 March. He is one of my favourite American writers sparkling with new theories, ideas and most importantly showing respect for Indians and others...The current article shows the new reality and new hope for Indians...

Quote
Went to a big Washington dinner last week. You know the kind: Large hall; black ties; long dresses. But this was no ordinary dinner. There were 40 guests of honor. So here’s my Sunday news quiz: I’ll give you the names of most of the honorees, and you tell me what dinner I was at. Ready?

Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.
No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?
O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.
Indeed, if you need any more convincing about the virtues of immigration, just come to the Intel science finals. I am a pro-immigration fanatic. I think keeping a constant flow of legal immigrants into our country — whether they wear blue collars or lab coats — is the key to keeping us ahead of China. Because when you mix all of these energetic, high-aspiring people with a democratic system and free markets, magic happens. If we hope to keep that magic, we need immigration reform that guarantees that we will always attract and retain, in an orderly fashion, the world’s first-round aspirational and intellectual draft choices.
This isn’t complicated. In today’s wired world, the most important economic competition is no longer between countries or companies. The most important economic competition is actually between you and your own imagination. Because what your kids imagine, they can now act on farther, faster, cheaper than ever before — as individuals. Today, just about everything is becoming a commodity, except imagination, except the ability to spark new ideas.
If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it. I can use Amazon.com to handle fulfillment. I can use freelancer.com to find someone to do my logo and manage my backroom. And I can do all this at incredibly low prices. The one thing that is not a commodity and never will be is that spark of an idea. And this Intel dinner was all about our best sparklers.
Before the dinner started, each contestant stood by a storyboard explaining their specific project. Namrata Anand, a 17-year-old from the Harker School in California, patiently explained to me her research, which used spectral analysis and other data to expose information about the chemical enrichment history of “Andromeda Galaxy.” I did not understand a word she said, but I sure caught the gleam in her eye.
My favorite chat, though, was with Amanda Alonzo, a 30-year-old biology teacher at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif. She had taught two of the finalists. When I asked her the secret, she said it was the resources provided by her school, extremely “supportive parents” and a grant from Intel that let her spend part of each day inspiring and preparing students to enter this contest. Then she told me this: Local San Jose realtors are running ads in newspapers in China and India telling potential immigrants to “buy a home” in her Lynbrook school district because it produced “two Intel science winners.”
Seriously, ESPN or MTV should broadcast the Intel finals live. All of the 40 finalists are introduced, with little stories about their lives and aspirations. Then the winners of the nine best projects are announced. And finally, with great drama, the overall winner of the $100,000 award for the best project of the 40 is identified. This year it was Erika Alden DeBenedictis of New Mexico for developing a software navigation system that would enable spacecraft to more efficiently “travel through the solar system.” After her name was called, she was swarmed by her fellow competitor-geeks.
Gotta say, it was the most inspiring evening I’ve had in D.C. in 20 years. It left me thinking, “If we can just get a few things right — immigration, education standards, bandwidth, fiscal policy — maybe we’ll be O.K.” It left me feeling that maybe Alice Wei Zhao of North High School in Sheboygan, Wis., chosen by her fellow finalists to be their spokeswoman, was right when she told the audience: “Don’t sweat about the problems our generation will have to deal with. Believe me, our future is in good hands.”
As long as we don’t shut our doors.

The new age of innovation – book by CK Prahalad and MS Krishnan

2010-01-22T06:07:00.000-08:00

Prahalad had caught my attention with his other book ¨Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid¨, which was an eye opener for me. His innovative connection of business profits to emancipation of poor people is brilliant. I had also listened to his lecture in India and I was fascinated by his cool and calm approach to the high decibel world of business management. I was therefore keen to read this new book on innovation.

As I had anticipated, the book has new insights and ideas for the new stage of business these days. Business has been transformed from firm and product centric approaches. Earlier the companies produced what they believed the consumers needed. The Model T car by Ford Motors was the best example. Ford said that the consumers coould choose any colour as long as it was black. Now the consumers have got on to the driving seat as copilots. They cocreate value and look at products as a personalised experience. To cater to this emerging trend, the companies need to be more innovative and deploy their technology assets towards this new value of cocreation. Even when producing for millions of customers, the companies need to create platforms for the customers to cocreate their own experiences. For this, the companies need not go in for acquiring new assets of technology and talents. There is no need for firms to own all the resource bases they need. They should simply have the capacity to access the vast global network of resources. They should focus on how to access and influence them rather than ownership and control. They should also make use of the new copilots. This is the message of this book.

Here are some of the interesting things I found in the book:

Consumers are increasingly becoming a source of competence. They offer advice, suggestions, new concepts and evaluation of existing products.

Foresight, not hindsight, is of value in this time of fast changing competitive environment. Experience of the past is becoming less and less relevant. This means that the business process and analytics should be flexible and dynamic to anticipate trends in technology and consumer trends.

Digitisation, connectivity and globalisation have radically altered the nature of the firms and have impacted even traditional industries such as education, insurance, healthcare, automobiles and footwear.

An example of cocreation of value by customers is TutorVista, a company which gives online tuition to thousands of students. In this business model, the students decide the teacher, timings and pace of tuition as suitable to them. Even shoe and shirt companies have started providing platforms for customer driven production. The customer goes to the shop and gives the measurement which goes to the factory and products are made as per the exact measurement of the customer and his choice of design and colour. The customer does not have to be disappointed with the limited standard size of seven or eight. Even a tyre company is offering tyre as a service in the longterm rather than as a one time sale. They monitor the tyre wear and tear through sensors and advise the driver and the fleet owner. Fedex allows the consumer to be a part of the operations experience by sharing its databases and applications so that individual consumers can track their packagaes. This inspires more confidence in the consumers besides saving the expenditure on call centres to answer the anxious enquiries for Fedex which handles six million packages a day. UPS which handles 15 million packages a day has developed an ICT system for picking up packages in a customer friendly way and moving the trucks efficiently.

The need for innovative business process and ICT for success is evident from the example of Walmart. The core elements and strategic assets of this giant corporation which delivers value for money to 100 million customers in a week through its global supply chain are its business process and ICT capability with its 500 terrabytes database.

ICICI bank in India which started operations as late as 1995 has become a leading player in India by the use of technology. It has created a trading platform, the third largest in the world, which is used by the customers to buy and sell stocks. It records 300,000 to as much as one million transactions per day. The Bank also innovated new business process for rural banking, microfinancing, internet banking and for remittance by non-resident Indians. ICICI uses only very few packaged applications and customises most of the applications. For example it has customised even ATMs for rural markets

The new emerging companies from India and China have a significant advantage over established large companies from US and Europe, which have inherited large and old systems. The big US corporations use over 70 percent of the IT budget for maintenance of legacy applications and only less tahn 20 percent for innovation. In contrast, ICICI bank of India uses 80 percent of its IT budegt for innovation while spending only 20 percent on maintaenance. This means that the new companies can grow very fast, leveraging new technologies and business processing while the biggies like GM and Cargill are bogged down with their baggage of the past.

The technology and business process innovation are not only for the corporations but also helps rural development in India. The best example of this is the eChoupal centres established in the villages by ITC. These centres help the farmers to know the prices, weather and trends of the markets and enable them to make the right decisions about growing crops and getting the best price for their produce. This is a challenging and rewarding work for ITC and Ramco, the IT company since they had to design a system for easy use by the villagers of India speaking different languages. This experience gives a unique advantage to the Indian companies who can simply repeat the business process to multinational companies operating in many markets.

The growing importance of business process and technology for corporate success is good news for India. This opens up more opportunities for Indian IT companies which are going up in the value chain of BPO business. It is no surprise that TCS is the technology partner of Ferrari for its next version of racing car. The R and D team of this project has a total of 52 out of which 23 are TCS techies, most of whom work onsite at Maranello, Italy. Ferrari is leveraging TCS´s resources in multiple domains including enterpriseIT, vehicle elctronics and aerodynamics. Lenova, the Chinese computer company does its global marketing from Bangalore using the Indian professionals of O and M. This Indian hub supports marketing in 25 languages in 60 countries.

It is not only the lower cost of India but the large pool of skills and competence of the Indians which are being increasingly leveraged by multinatinal corporatins to remain globally competitive. For example, Honeywell the aerospace and automation controlls company has a R and D unit in India which carries the complete responsibility for new products from concept to market. The business rationale for this unit has shifted from cost saving to new products and business development.

The Indian firms have also outgrown their original approach to a total cost arbitrage- based business model. Innovation, anlytics, enterpreneurship and domestic opportunity are the new mantras of Indian IT companies.

In this book Prahalad and Krishnan have not only shown the way for global corporations to suceed through new innovations but have also highlighted the competitive advantage of the Indian companies to grow faster. This makes the Indians to believe strongly in the new projections about India becoming a global economic and technological power.

Hot,Flat and Crowded - book by Thomas Friedman

2010-01-19T03:38:00.000-08:00

The full title of the book is
¨ Hot, flat and crowded- why the world needs a green revolution and how we can renew our global future¨.

In his previous book ¨The world is flat¨ Tom Friedman explained how the world is becoming flat through globalisation and internet. In this book, he has dealt with the issue of global warming (hot) by increasing consumption and consumers (crowded) . He says that this new Energy- Climate Era needs a new approach. He points out rightly that the issue is not just about regulation but throws open an opportunity for innovation for a smarter and sustainable way of living in the future. He calls for innovation of cleaner technologies for which the governments need to have the right kind of policies, incentives and support for research and development. He warns that the rate at which caron dioxide is emitted and earth is pollutted is a cause for serious and urgent attention and says that the world cannot afford any more delay in addressing the issue.

He has analysed the issues from political, economic, social, technological and more importantly from the American points of view. He has interviewed a variety of experts and brought in their perspectives. This is useful since average people get confused by the alarms raised by greenpeace types and the opposite energy politics in America driven by oil and car companies. Even the scientist are divided over the extent of global warming and their prescriptions to deal with the issue. Tom Friedman brings some clarity and widens the debate on the energy-climate issues saying that ¨Green is no longer a boutique statement, green is no longer something you do to be good… Green is the way to grow, build, design, manufacture, work and live…because it is the smartest, most efficient and lowest-cost way¨ He wants everyone to become conscious of a ¨new world with energy, environment and economy in balance¨

Here are some interesting observations by him:

-Quoting an expert he says that coal, oil and natural gas are fuels from hell because they polute, come from underground and are exhaustible. Fuels from heaven are: wind, solar, hydroelectric and tidal wave. These from the surface are clean, renewable and inexhaustible.
- Lot of energy can be saved by reducing wastage and inefficiet use of energy and innovation of energy- saving and energy-efficient devices. These measures are as important as setting up new power plants, since energy saved is equivalent to energy produced.
-In the current system of production and distribution of power by utility companies the emphasis is on greater consumption for greater profit margin for the company. This approach can be sustained only at the peril of the society. There is need to introduce Smartgrids which will give only that much power needed by individual customers and appliances and charge only for that with varying prices for peak consumption and low demand time. At the same time, the consumers should install solar panels and windmills to generate energy which should become part of the grid and the consumers will supply their surplus production into the grid. Friedman calls this as Energy Internet. He gives a vision of how daily life will be in the future when renewable energy is produced and consumed smartly.

-The high prices Americans pay for the gasoline end up as excessive wealth of unstable and undemocratic petrodictator sheikhs in middle east who use the windfall to build madrassas which produce fundamentalism and terrorists. More gas-guzzling SUVs in America generates not only pollution but also enemies ( fundamentalist terrorists).
- Quoting another expert Friedman calls the American system of policy making on energy and other matters as the ¨survival of the fattest¨- those with the biggest lobbies and deepest pockets make the policy. He points out the absurdity of American antidumping duty on ethanol imported from Brazil to protect the domestic corn ethanol industry despite the fact that sugarcane ethanol is more efficient than corn ethanol. On the other hand, the oil lobby has succeeded in preventing imposition of higher import tariff or taxes on gasoline imported from middle east, thereby contributing indirectly to terrorist enemies.
-China is moving ahead of USA in the energy- climate issue. China has set a target of producing 16 percent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020 from its current level of seven percent. The Chinese have adopted world class mileage standard for their cars. One of the richest men of China is a green technology enterpreneur Shi, the founder of Suntech Power company, which is one of the top four solar manufacturers in the world. Tom Friedman contrasts this with the Americans who are mired in energy politics unwilling to formulate a sensible energy policy.

- Friedman calls on America to lead the world in the innovation of green technologies and products as part of its strategic policy of maintaining its leadership in the world.

The book is educative, informative and provocative. This is a useful read for government policy makers and businessmen and for anyone who wants to understand the issues of climate change and sustainable development.

Born on a Blue Day - autobiography of Daniel Tammet

2009-04-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

I was born on 31 january 1979 - a wednesday. I know it was a wednesday because the date is blue in my mind and wednesdays are always blue.

This is how Daniel Paul Tammet starts his autobiographical story. He suffers from a rare condition known as high-functioning autistic savant, like the character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man. Tammet has synasesthesia and Asperger Syndrom and had suffered epilepsy seizures as a child. The result is that he has an extraordinary talent for numbers and languages.

He says, ¨Numbers are my friends and they are always around me. Nembers are my first language, one I often think and feel in. Each one is unique and has its own personality. The number 11 is friendly, 5 is loud, 4 is shy, 333 is beautiful, 25 is energetic, 37 is lumpy like porridge, 89 is like falling snow and 289 is ugly. This kind of visual and emotional experience of numbers is called as Synasesthesia. He feels excited and happy with certain numbers and is uncomfortable with other numbers such as 99. Whenever he is stressed, he calms himself by counting numbers. In his mind, he says, each integer up to 10,000 has its own unique shape, colour, texture and feel. He can intuitively "see" results of calculations as synasesthetic landscapes without using conscious mental effort, and can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite.

Tammet set a European record on March 14th 2004 when he recited the famous mathematical constant Pi (3.141...) to 22,514 decimal places from memory in a time of 5 hours, 9 minutes.

After this fantastic feat, he was asked why learn such a long, tedious and complicated number pi to so many decimals. His answer, ¨pi is for me an extremely beautiful and utterly unique thing , like the Mona Lisa or a Mozart symphony, pi is its own reason for loving it.¨

Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but has also created artwork: including a watercolour painting of Pi. He has written a poem on Pi

Three, One, Four, One, Five, and On
The numbers recount their endless tale.
Three - Barefoot green, a silent voice.
White as hunger, One is twiceBright like babies’ eyes.
Four is timid, envious of E.
Five, Punctuation or a pregnant sigh
Precedes proud Nine, colour of falling night.
Two, an unfastened knot,
A wayward wind, the hollow of Six resounding.
Nearby, Eight, a cloud of fireflies above a lake
Over which I skim Sevens
Remembering that Zero is nothing but a circle.

Tammet says he speaks eleven languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh, and Esperanto.He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels.
Tammet can learn new languages very quickly. To prove this for a Channel Four documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic fluently.
Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti, which in Finnish means pine tree. Mänti has many features related to Finnish and Estonian, both of which are Finno-Ugric languages.

He perceives words also as colours. To him, Richard is red, John is yellow and Henry is white.

He describes his meeting with Kim Peek, upon whom Rain Man was based, as one of the happiest moments of his life. They connected when they asked each other date calculations based on their birth dates, and got the answers correct instantly. Kim has read more than 9000 books and can recall all their content.

Tammet was the first of nine children born to working-class parents in London. He and his family had a tough time because of his disability. He completed schooling but found the other children as objects to cope and contend with, to navigate around, rather than as individuals to get to know and to play with. Tammet is gay and lives with his partner.

Tammet has his own website http://www.optimnem.co.uk/ , writes blogs and gives online courses for learning languages.

He has written another book, 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. This book is about his personal and scientific exploration of how the brain works and the differences and similarities between savant and non-savant minds.

It is said that there are about 50 people in the world at present similiar to Tammet. But most of them suffer from a disability. They cannot communicate, connect or have feeling for others. They are unable to live independent lives. They cannot understand jokes and take everything literaly. For example if you tell them ¨take a seat ¨they will not understand that it means sit down. Tammet is lucky that he has the capacity to connect to the world, which he has also developed consciously by controlling and training himself. He is able to express himself as he has done clearly and eloquently in his book.

Tammet helps charities which work for people suffering from epilepsay and autism and has an inspiring message ¨My main message is that difference need not be disabling, that it's ok to be different and that everyone is unique in some way and should feel it possible to live out that uniqueness. When we do that, autistic or not, we give ourselves the chance of happiness.

His book is not just for curiosity. He has a point for people like us, who consider ourselves as normal. He does not see ordinary and extraordinary as totally different and unconnected. He sees a link. His own evolving life is proof of such connection. He, the extraordinary, is training himself to become ordinary. The reverse is also possible. Every one of us is unique and we may have talents, hidden inside ourselves. We can unlock them by conscious efforts in the same way as he has trained himself to be emotional and friendly to others. So, we the ordinary mortals, can look for and connect to the extraordinary things within ourselves and make our lives richer and happier for ourselves and others.

Imagining India - book by Nandan Nilekani

2009-04-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Nandan, who is self-effacing, in the typical Indian tradition, calls himself as an Accidental Enterpreneur. But I see him as one of the best example and role model of the New Age Business of India. He could have written , like many retired celebrities, his memoirs. Instead, he has chosen to write about the story of India in which he succeeded and the new India he is imagining. He has made very little reference to himself and his company in the book. He has a new approach to the growth story of india by talking about ideas.

He has categorised ideas into four kinds;
-ideas already arrived
These have already been accepted by consensus and have helped India to become what it is now,
-ideas in progress
There is consensus on these but implementation is slow and half-hearted
- ideas in battle
These still being hotly debated till the end of the world by the Argumentative Indians
- ideas to anticipate
These are needed to realise the promise and potential of India but still not in the agenda.

The ideas that have already arrived and shaped India are: demographic dividend, enterpreneurship, English language, Information Technology,urbanisation,democracy and role in globalisation.

In the past, there was a perception of horror about the immense and growing population of India. But today, the same issue of population is looked at positively as human capital and demographic dividend. India, with its young population, is going to benefit in the next four-five decades in which the developed world will be filled with more pensioners than young skilled and innovative people. What was seen earlier as a liability has now become an asset. India can leverage this demographic dividend to become a creative power and a centre for new knowledge and innovation.
The second paradigm shift is the Indian attitude to business. Earlier, the socialistic india looked at businessmen as greedy profit-seekers without social conscience. Now the enterpreneurs are recognised and admired as creators of jobs and wealth not only for themselves but for the society and the country.
The third fundamental change is the attitude to English. The newly idependent India was seeking to assert its identity through its native langauage and wanted to get rid of the colonial English. But now there is consensus that English is the key to unlock the opportuniies arising from globalisation and so even the poor people use their hard-earned savings to send their kids to private english medium schools.
Information Technology, which was feared as man-eaters in the eighties has now been accepted as an essential tool for business, jobs and development.

The ideas in progress are: school education, urban planning, infrastructure development and unified single market of India. On these issues, there is consensus on the urgent need for reforms and investment but the implementation is slow and ineffective.

Ideas in battle are in the fields of education and labour laws. On these issues the partisan and ideological debate goes on without end. Nandan says it is time we get out of the old mindset and act pragmatically. Here he quotes the example of Brazilian President Lula, who handles issues like a violin; He holds voters in his left hand and plays the government and business with his right hand. India is, however, stuck with its constituitional label of a socialistic republic and the consequent ideological trap. Election politics overrides reforms and long term policies. On education and employment, the governemnt policies and politics have got bogged down in quotas and divisions rather than creating more avenues.

Ideas to anticipate are in the areas of environment, energy, health and social security. According to Nandan, India has the advantage of starting now as a latecomer. We can study the experience of developed countries and learn from their mistakes and formulate better policies to suit our requirements.

Nandan has taken on the ambitious task of analysing the whole gamutof the issues of politics, economy and development and trying to suggest solutions to them. It is a formidable task. But Nandan admits that he is just an IIT nerd, having lived in a relatively privileged atmosphere and succeeded surfing on the wave of IT boom. To make up for his inadequate knowledge, understanding and experience,he has chosen to take the ideas of experts by interviewing sociologists, economists, politicians, civil servants and specialists in each field.

Nandan is objective, clinical and candid in his analysis and comments. But his exercise and intent are not academic or intellectual, but are practical and pragmatic. With his optimistic and positive approach, he has explored the possible and the doable, within the context of the realities and constraints of India.

Nandan is a posterboy of the success of India´s economic reforms and liberalisation.He is also the role model for future enterpreneurs of india, as a creator of wealth, jobs and opportunities for thousands of Indians. His company Infosys has set a benchmark for corporate culture and ethics. The Infosyians don’t believe in the greasy and greedy old world business practices of India. They will forego contracts rather than trying to get it through under the table means.

Nandan calls his generation as the ¨bridging generation¨connecting the old India with the emerging new one and that which straddles the divides and the ideas that separate the two.

He sees growth and prosperity for India through creation and facilitation of access to resources and opportunities. He see the problems and issues like a computer programmer and a business management expert. One cannot but agree with his analysis of the inherited and created obstacles for India´s progress. But the conclusion of Nandan is that India and the Indians have reached a stage when they don’t have to continue their ingrained habit of shrugging and stepping around potholes, without trying to repair it. He is convinced that Indians have arrived at a new stage with confidenc, competence, tools and ambience to solve problems in this life itself rather than wait for seven incarnations or letting things drift as karma.

In the democratic system of India, Nandan´s ideas need to be accepted by the political leaders who play the critical role in development. What was the reaction of a political leader to Nandan´s ideas. He simply dismissed Nandan saying ¨people like you are neither good for votes or notes ( money). This is the reality. Hold on..there is hope behind this reality. The politician will get kicked out of power if he does not align himself with the aspirations of the people who are now getting increasingly empowered through the Information and Communication revolutions brought about by Nandan and company.

I recommend this book especially for the younger generation who have a historic opportunity to realise the dreams of Nandan Nilekani and the bridging generation which includes me too.

Dreams from my father – Obama autobiography

2009-03-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

This book is a narrative of Obama´s quest to unravel the puzzle of being a black man. The personal pursuit took a public dimension when he forced himself to embrace the cause of the black community, starting from the time when he was a college student. He looked at himself, looked at the whites and analysed what passed in the looks between the whites and blacks. He dug deeper into the issue by introspection and reading. He heard the stories of discrimination and frustration from fellow blacks. Finally, he decided to contribute to the black cause in his own way by volunteering to become a community organiser. Many black leaders and intellectuals had gone through that, before Obama. But what makes the case of Obama different is that his story is not a typical, plain and simple black and white one. He did not inherit the rancour and resentment of the others with slave ancestry. Nor did he have to struggle to get out of a ghetto of poverty and crime. He was born to a middle class white American woman from Kansas and a black Kenyan who came to US for studies. But his father left for good the wife and the two year-old child in Hawai to pursue higher studies in Harvard and for further marriages and life in Kenya. He saw his father only one more time, in 1971, when Obama Sr. came to Hawaii for a month's visit. His mother remarried to an Indonesian and went to live there for a few years. Obama started his school in Jakarta and played with brown kids in mud and dirt. On his return to Hawai , he was brought up by his white grand parents. His enlightened mother and liberal grand parents gave him affection and education. Except for the occasional and unavoidable black treatment given by white police and folks, his life was made for success as a rich lawyer. But Obama did not follow the road travelled by others in his situation. He chose a cause and mission to work for the black community. He worked as a community organiser in the poor black neighbourhoods in Chicago.

Obama is caught between two worlds as a black man in colour with white man´s upbringing and thinking. He says he learned to slip back and forth between the black and white worlds, understanding that each possessed its own language, customs and structures of meaning, convinced that with a bit of translation on his part, the two worlds would eventually cohere. This is how he sets out the destiny of his journey. But in the beginning it was not easy. While he has the constant guidance and care of his white mother and grand parents, he preferred to take the side of the blacks. His stay in Indonesia and exposure to Indians in Kenya added brown colour to the black and white world of Obama.

From his college days, Obama was troubled and obsessed by his colour. He was trying to find his identity in the society where the blacks had to play according to the rules of the white man and that too in on the courts of the white man. He starts identifying himself with the rest of the black community. Realising that his insulated and protected life lacked the real life experience of the majority of the blacks in misery and poverty, he chooses to become a community organiser to fight for the causes of the black community in Chicago. There he sees the deprivation, discrimination and degradation. He finds the black withdrawal into coils of rage with the realisation that black meant only the knowledge of powerlessness and defeat. He is filled with the anguish and doubts which do not go away with any amount of intellect, humour or faith. He plunges earnestly into the job of community organiser trying to give hope, confidence and optimism to the blacks. He tries to get the black churches and community leaders together to fight for the rights of the black community to get their dues. He tries to achieve whatever is possible in a positive and pragmatic way. It is during this work that Audacity of Hope, begins to shape his personal and public life. From then on Obama becomes a man with a mission.

After understanding the reality of Afro Americans, Obama goes on to find the root of his troubles, to Kenya, his father´s country. It is a kind of pilgrimage. He meets his numerous half brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and relatives. His grandfather was a farmer and had earlier worked as a cook for the white colonial officials. Obama´s father was one of the many children born to one of the wives of his grand father. He gets to meet one of the grandmothers who narrates the story of the ancestry of the Obama family. The father of Obama, gets a break to study in Hawai where he meets a fellow white American student, marries her and Barak Obama is born to them. But the father, who was already married to a village girl, goes on to marry another white woman during his Harvard studies, who follows him to Kenya. Obama finds in Kenya that everyone was family.

In Kenya, he is finally in a country and community where colour is not an issue. He visits the village where his grand father lived. There, Barak Obama finds his identity and says ¨ Here the world was black and you were just you. You could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or commiting betrayal. I felt a sense that a circle was beginning to close, so that I might finally recognise myself as I was, here, now, in one place¨. Standing between the graves of his grand father and father in a Kenyan village, he says¨I realized that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words..All of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away, connected by more than the accident of a name or the colour of my skin.¨

Did the land of his father become his destiny? Did his journey stop, on reaching the Promised Land? No, the reality of Africa torments him even more and gives rise to more questions than answers. The hopelessness of the black life in Kenya compounds the confusion and doubts within him. Africa turned out to be only another way point on his still unchartered journey. The discovery, satisfaction and fulfillment was only intellectual and romantic. He had to get back to the Land of Dreams where he would ultimately realise something undreamt by him and the black community.

The Kenyan historian in Nairobi tells Obama that Africa is not what the Afro Americans romanticise about. It is not pure, innocenet and noble as is dreamed by the American blacks for whom it had become an idea more than an actual place, a new promised land full of ancient wisdom and talking drums.

The unique personal situation of Obama makes him search for a definition of what is a family. This is understandable with his white American mother, black Kenyan father, Indonesian stepfater and step sister, and half-brothers and sisters from the different wives of his father. He asks ¨Is it ( family) just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me. Or is it a social construct, an economic unit, optimal for child rearing and divisions of labour? Or is it something else entirely; a store of shared memories, say? An ambit of love? A reach across the void?¨

Obama's search for identity does not even spare the law he studied at Harvard. He says, ¨the law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience¨.

I was motivated to read this book after having read his other one, ¨Audacity of Hope¨. But this one is more powerful and compelling. It is full of the raw emotion of the angry young Obama. At the time of writing this book in 1995, he did not worry about the media or the political opponents. He was just a graduate from Harvard trying to decide his direction in the crossroads of personal choices. So Obama let himself go in articulating his anger, feelings, confusion and insecurities. He did not hold anything back. He is authentic, blunt and undiplomatic in expressing himself in the street language of the blacks. This is the period when we find the Iron personality of Obama going though the furnace to become Steel.

Even if Obama did not become famous as President, this book would have found its place on its own as an interesting and inspiring one for the Americans, black and white. It brings out the perennial racial issue in a new light with fresh insight. It is positive with the message¨yes, We can¨. While clinically and candidly analysing the issue, Obama chooses to focus on the possible. His approach is to find solutions in a positive and pragmatic way. He does not succumb to the temptation of blaming everything on the whites and setting the blacks against the whites in a confrontationist or polarising way. His message is non- threatening to the mainstream audience.
He has straddled both the sides of the divide with intellectual honesty and firm conviction. This approach enedeared him to the voters who have entrusted him with the task of managing the larger community of US as President.

Obama´s style of writing is appealing, like the way speaks. He has combined his cerebral and profound thoughts with easy and conversational expressions. The memoir reads like a novel with a powerfully moving story and suspense and thrill. Obama has spiced up his story with humour and wit.

I hope he writes more books after going through the third firewalk of his life as the President of the most powerful country in one of its worst moments in history.

The book is a useful read for the brown Indians , who are aspiring to add their colour to the new landscape of globalisation.

And there is a Latinamerican twist to the tale of Obama! His white mother was inspired by the Brazilian film ¨Black Orpheus¨, the first-ever film she saw alone as an adult at the impressionable age of sixteen. It was also the first foreign film she saw. She thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The white girl from middle class Kansas should have been fascinated by the Brazilian black hero of the film which had possibly influenced her to fall in love with a black in real life. This romantic movie with Bossa Nova music set in the beautiful beaches of Copacabana and with the the colourful Carnival festival should have made a striking impact on the dreamy damsel.

So here is one more lifestory inspired by Latin America

The Audacity of Hope - book by Barak Obama

2009-02-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

When I bought this book, it was with a bit of curiosity and lot of skepticism. I thought it should be the political manifesto of a Presidential candidate. I expected the book to be full of platitudes and campaign rhetoric. I expected him to be politically and boringly correct and careful, avoiding hard issues and hot topics. How wrong I was. The book brought out another side of Obama, I did not know or expect. He is a writer, thinker and intellectual. If he did not succeed in politics, he could have made a career out of writing. He writes in the same way as he speaks: direct and forthright. His ideas flow easily , logically and smoothly. He simplifies the issues, freeing them from rhetoric and outlines all the options to tackle them. And then he goes on to give his choice with a healthy respect for the choices which others might take. He has displayed breadth and depth in knowledge and wisdom.

The title of the book fits the man. Or, as they say, the man himself is the message. He took the title Audacity of hope from the sermon of his former pastor and delivered a speech with the same title at the Democratic convention in 2004 which propelled him to nation-wide fame. In his speech he talked about ¨ the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope¨

Obama has practised and fulfilled his audacious hope by becoming the first black occupant of the white house, in a relativley short political career. He loses the election to the state legislature badly in 2000. He tries to gatecrash into the Democratic convention in LA in the same year without success. He was down with depression and denial. No one including himself could have even dreamed at that time that he would become the President. Disadvantaged as a black, with a funny name including a risky middle name as Hussein and without money or family background how did he hope to achieve what was considered as impossible just eight years back. That is precisely the Audacity of Hope. He gets a lucky break in 2004 Democratic Convention as a keynote speaker, makes use of it to attract national attention and goes on to win a senate seat. He decides to take on the formidable Clinton machine which was plotting for ten years and wins the election overwhelmingly to create history.

Obama has shown a remarkable and refreshing frankness and honesty while dealing with public and personal issues. He has shown exceptional courage in taking on controversial issues such as politics, race, religion, value system of the American society, Iraq war and American foreign policy. This was a dangerous exercise, while standing for the presidential election with thousands looking for slips and errors to pounce on him and bring him down. He has mentioned in this context the formidable power of the American media which can make or break carrers. He says, ¨ for the public I am what the media says I am. I say what they say. I become who they say i have become ¨. Still, he goes beyond political correctness , bares the facts and articulates his views fearlessly. He asserts that he is able to distinguish himself from the pack by this capacity to speak his mind on hard issues

He takes on the issue of race head on. He does not forgive the socity for what was done to his slave ancestors. He is not apologetic in demanding affirmative action. He is convinced that power would concede nothing without a fight. He recalls how white couple would toss the car keys to him outside restaurants, when he is waiting for the valet to bring his car.He chooses not to waste time by recounting the humiliations to which he was subjected as a black man. He takes it in his stride and sometimes with humour. When the girl friends of Michel consider him as cute, while he was dating her, he says it could have been because of the fact that any black man in a suit with a job would look cute. He says one is required to see America on a split screen, to maintain in sight an America that he wants while looking squarely at the America as it is, to acknowledge the sins of the past and the challenges of the present without becoming trapped in cynicism or despair. He talks about the dilemma of black politicians to gauge the right tone to take- too angry? not angry enough?. He says the black leaders should be conscious that rightly or wrongly, white guilt has largely exhausted itself.

On religion, Obama says he started off as an agnostic but later chose to get baptised. He explains why many Americans are, to the surprise of many foreigners, so religious. According to him, the Americans are not content with their work, possessions and busyness. They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives that will lift them above the exhausting and relentless daily toll of life.

He has attacked in the book, the political partisanship and polarisation which have blocked solutions and progress of the country. Everyone knows it and criticises it. The difference is that he believes that it is possible to try and achieve bipartisanship by showing understanding and seeing the merits of the ideas of the other side. He says many American politicians and party cadres are consciously or unconsciously locked in ¨either/ or thinking¨. He not only believes but practises reaching out to the other side with conviction and profit. He differentiates value from ideology. He cautions against ideology which tend to override facts and makes one blind to the other side. Can the politician be honest in the scripted and often makebelieve world of American politics. He says yes and he has proven in his words and deeds. For example while refrring to the perennial American debate about big government or small he quotes Lincoln ¨that we will do collectively , through our government, only those things that we cannot do as well or at all individually and privately. His own quote, ¨we should be guided by what works¨.

Obama delves into the value system of the American society without fear. He dares to question the singular American pursuit of being rich, thin, young, famous, safe and entertained and the empathy defict to what happens outside these pursuits. He says we must test our own ideals, vision and values against realities by a constant process of information gathering, analysis and arguments.

Obama´s commentary on the American foreign policy is a reassurance to the rest of the world which had to suffer the freightening excesses of the neocons. While defending the right of US to uncompromising approach when it comes to its own national security, he is clear that the time has come for US to be sensitive to the concerns of other countries and work with them.

Obama has dealt with other issues such as education, healthcare, globalisation and terrorism, in the same sensitive and intelligent way.

In his analysis of power, he says it requires a certain megalomania to enter politics with the bilef that one has a unique qualification to speak on behalf of others and endure the harrowing and ridiculous process of campaigning. He also points out that while others can lick their wounds privately, the politican´s loss is on public display.He had gone through this feeling of repudiation with the word ¨loser¨flashing from the minds of all around him. He is candid about the shame of begging for campaign funds from the rich and corporates and being tied to the agenda of the givers.

He is frank about his role and guilt as a father and husband. He says that a disproportionate share of raising the kids fell on his wife´s shoulder, while he was relentlessly pursuing his own goals. Whenever he undertook to look after the children, he did it on his own terms and on his own schedule. He confesses how after years of marriage, he felt to be fully domesticated, soft and helpless in attending to even simple household work.

Obama is self-critical and does so with a sense of humour and humility. He mentions the incident when he is introduced by his teenage daughter to her friend. He goes forward to shake her hand. His daughter laughts at it and says" dad, you might not have noticed, but we are in 21st century ¨ . Taken aback, he asks what does one do in 21st century. She says shaking hands is outdated. One just says hai. Regarding his style of speech he says ¨it can be rambling, hesitant and overly verbose and might perhaps find sympathy in the literary class¨.

Of course, the book was also part of his political campaign. It shows in many parts of the book. It is preachy and pleading for votes. He had to write within the constraints of being part of the Democratic party and the need to please the voters and avoid displeasing any constituency.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly and have already ordered his previous book ¨Dreams from my father¨. Obama has been great in giving mesmerising speeches and writing profoundly. Can he deliver as President? Even if he does not succeed much, it is a new start for America. Atleast he has laid an intellectual benchmark. His Audacious Hope is the right message at this present moment of fear and uncertainty caused by the global crisis and job losses.

But the Indian business has gone even ahead of the Audacious Hope of Obama. Four years back I heard in the Indian corporate seminars the phrase ¨Audacious Ambition¨. This set some of the Indians on fire. Mittal took over Arcelor. Tata bought up Jaguar and Landrover. Indra Nooyi took over Pepsi.

Hope and Ambition have become audacious ...and colourful too. The Blacks and Browns add not only colour to America and the world ...but audacious colours....

The various flavours of coffee - Novel of Anthony Capella

2009-01-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

The name coffee in the title attracted me at first sight, since café is linked to Latin America , my passion. Cafe is an ingredient of the fascinating Latin America. Café con leche is how I describe the Brazilians. Café con visa is my brand. Café con Piernas is the Chilean brand. Hmmm… the title of my first ever story in the Latin American Affairs blog is cafe means more than coffee in latin america ( http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2005/06/cafe-means-more-than-coffee-in-latin.html ). So it is no wonder I was drawn to the book like a magnet. And reading the book was indeed like enjoying an aromatic, tasty and rich cafe, sitting on the side walks of Buenos Aires, below the bluish violet Jacaranda flower trees.

The book is full of coffee all the way, describing its flavours, tastes and interpretations by lovers, African tribes and the London housewives. The author connects the coffee to love in every possible opportunity . He says love is a mixture of any number of feelings; infatuation, idealism, tenderness, lust, the urge to protect or be protected, the desire to ravish, comradeship, friendship, aesthetic appreciation and a thousand more besides. The author has brewed the coffee with passion and added love and sensuality like sugar and milk. He touches every sense and nerve exploring the sensual world of love fully and ardently.

This is the story of a Victorian- era young and idle Englishman Robert Wallis whose life was changed by a cup of coffee, and a cup of very bad coffee at that. The would-be poet and bohemian is sitting in a London coffee house contemplating an uncertain future. He comments to the waiter the bad taste of the coffee. Samuel Pinker, a coffee importer, who is on the next table hears the comments and offers to Wallis the very last thing he could want: a job. But the job Wallis is offered - composing a "vocabulary of coffees" that captures their many subtle and elusive flavours - is the beginning of an extraordinary adventure. Wallis falls in love with Emily his emplyer´s idealistic daughter. Despite their differences, they soon discover that you cannot interrogate one set of senses without awakening others. They become engaged.

Then Wallis is dispatched to Africa in search of the source of the legendary Arabic mocca. As he travels to coffee's birthplace - and sees the conditions in which the crop is actually grown - he meets Fikre, the African slave girl of a powerful merchant, who makes him coffee in the traditional Abyssinian coffee ceremony. And when Fikre dares to slip Wallis a single coffee bean, everything he thought he knew – about coffee, about love, about himself – starts to unravel….. She seduces him with coffee and coffee beans. He discovers the divine combination of love, sex, sensuality and happiness. It was a new revelation for him, although he is a connoisseur of the pleasure houses of London. Robert discovers during the high point of his ecstacy that he was being used by Fikre who disappears suddenly.
He returns to London,after his failed business venture and devastated by the trauma of deceived love. By this time. Emily is married off to a politician, after she received a letter from Robert breaking his engagement and confessing his love of Fikre and begging her forgiveness. He finds Emily taking up the cause of voting right for women while struggling to maintain her free spirit in a troubled marriage. She dies for the cause eventually after confessing to Robert her hidden love for him, which she never expressed while alive.
Around this story of love, lust and passion the author has narrated the story of coffee politics and market. His writing is delightful with the unique British suble humour and understatements. Having been born in Uganda, he has shown a passion for Africa. He has brought in Brazil briefly on the politics and markets of coffee. Pity, he did not make use of the café con leche country, its people , their passions and culture, which would have enriched the coffee book.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

- A well made cup of coffee is the proper beginning to an idle day. Its aroma is beguiling, its taste is sweet; yet it leaves behind only bitterness and regret. In that it resembles, surely, the pleasures of love.....
- She smelled of coffee: there was the taste of it in every kiss; her hands were coffee; her lips were coffee, it was there in the taste her skin and the glistening clear liquid in the corner of her eyes. This reminds me of the Colombian soap opera called as ¨mujer con aroma de café¨- means woman with the aroma of coffee.
- What does a woman want? – asks the African tribal chief to which his wife replies¨¨Never to be asked what she wants.
- How easy it is to mistake attention for interest.
- He discovered that he had loved Fikre with an absolute physical passion and even something a bit more besides. For him it was new territory to be marked in full on the hitherto blank atlas of the heart.
- He had experienced in his life a desire for many women; tenderness for some ; affection and admiration for a few. There were some who were a challenge, some a diversion and others for whom his lust itself was a kind of sweet ecstatic torment.

This is the first novel of Anthony Capella I have read. I am tempted to read his other book the Food of Love.

The Enchantress of Florence – novel by Salman Rushdie

2008-10-18T05:36:00.000-07:00

The story starts with a yellow haired westerner on a bullock cart on the road to Sikri, the capital of Emperor Akbar. He calls himself as Mogor dell Amore and lands in the royal court of Akbar claiming that he has secrets of the family to reveal. He shocks the court with his claim that he is the son of the lost Moghul princess, Qara Koz, the youngest sister of Akbar´s grand father Babar. The story causes confusion and incites emotions among the members of the royal household. Akbar is fascinated by the audacious character of Mogol dell Amore who outwits the other members of the royal court with his intellect and sharpness. He enjoys the tall tales and fantastic fables of the ingenious European.

Qara Koz, later known as Angelica, is the enchantress of Florence, known for her irresistible beauty and magical power of enchantment. She commands her own destiny in a man´s world during the medieval times. She is captured as a war booty by a Uzbeg warlord, then by the Emperor of Persia and finally she becomes the lover of Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune. Angelica has a servant girl who looks exactly like her. She includes the servant in the threesome entertainment of her male lovers with kamasutra skills. The Enchantress is a strong-willed and clear headed woman who lets her heart host the men of her choice. But when she reaches the cross road, she chooses her next destination without letting her heart cloud her mind. When her last lover is killed in Florence, she decides to take her final journey, this time to the New World.

This is the story which straddles the west and the east through the middleeast. It is about how the culture and mindset of east and west understood each other and interacted in those times. Rushdie has used the Moghul court of Akbar and the Renaisance Florentine society to bring out their characteristics vividly. Akbar, was, of course, ahead of his time with his enlightened approach and freedom of thought.

Rushdie has delved into the features of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, using the character of Akbar as a thinker. Akbar is not a believer in the unquestionable superiority of his religion. He learns, understands and respects the other faiths. He entertains doubts, like the Hindu sages, about himself, his empire, religions and the universe. As a true philosopher he is caught between the empire and self, cruelty and tenderness, treachery and loyalty, war and peace, fantasies and pragmatism.

Argalio is an inimitable adventurer. He is part of the group of three Florentine boys Niccolò Machiavelli and Ago Vespucci who grow up together with different dreams. Machiavelli writes the book called as Prince, an advisory to the kings, while Ago becomes a merchant. All three meet at the end. The other two are also captivated by the charm of the Enchantress, the lover of Argalia .

Salman Rushdie has excelled himself yet again with this story of magical realism. He connects the Moghul court with the Florentine society, fantasy with facts , love with sex and magic with reality. Rushdie excels in story telling in his own unique and entertaining way blending history with fables. Rushdie lays out a buffet of love, romance, magic, wonder, politics, religion, history , the west and the east. He is profound and profane, sarcastic and sagacious, poetic and mysterious. Rushdie has done lot of research, which is evident in the details of his story telling. He has given a long list of books he went through for this novel.

Here are some excerpts from the book
- there is a weakness that comes over men at the battle´s end, when they become aware of the fragility of life. At such time, men can think of nothing but the women´s embraces, the healing words whispered by the women and the joy of losing themselves in the fatal labyrinth of love.
- she found his vanity seductive. She was in love with his faults
- when a prince takes power he should do his worst right away, because after that his every deed will strike his subjects as an improvement on the way he started out.
- all true believers have good reason for disbelieving in every god except their own, said Birbal, and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.

Rushdie had kept me spellbound to the magical journey of the Enchantress and fulfilled my craving for and addiction to magical realism.

The Post-American World – book by Fareed Zakaria

2008-10-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is the second non-fiction book I finished reading the fastest in recent years. The first one was Tom Friedman´s The World is Flat.

The current implosion of the American capitalism , which was dominating the world for well over a century, provided the backdrop for understanding the analysis and conclusions of the author.

Zakaria has concluded that the US dominance of the world is set to decline politically, economically and culturally. This is followed by the Ascent of the Rest ( emerging powers such as China and India). He has illustrated this with tennis. The number of American players in the US Open was 78 in 1982 but came down to just 28 in 2007. His reason; ¨everyone has started playing the game now¨. He extends the illustration with the financial game. In 2005 twenty four of the 25 largest IPOs happened in countries other than USA. He has pointed out that many of the tallest, biggest, best and other superlative things are coming up outside USA.

He has diagnosed that although USA has a strong society, it is handicapped with a weak state. The American political system has got itself in a quagmire with its partisan petty wars and has been captured by special interests, money and sensational media and ideological attack groups. This has been compounded by arrogance, carelessness and lazyness. It does not have what it takes to address the fundamental problems such as health care. He points out that USA is one of the only three countries ( Myanmar and Liberia, the other two illustrious deviants ) in the world which do not follow the Metric system. The Americans left it for the rest of the World to understand USA and adopt to them. Continuation of this attitude will only accelerate the decline of USA, he concludes.

Zakaria has brilliantly summarized the problem in another American way. They used to say that what was good for GM was good for USA. Nothing seems to be going good for GM now. It has lost its supremacy to Toyota and is in a losing struggle to survive. The lesson for USA is so obvious.

He has offered some constructive suggestions for the US policy makers.

- The US should learn from the decline of its predecessor, the British Empire and should recognize the new reality and adopt a collaborative approach to tackling global issues, as the British did so gracefully.
- The US cannot solve all the problems of the world. They should prioritise and take on only those of their vital interests. Legitimacy should guide US policies.
- Follow the Bismarckian strategy of engaging the other powers and have better relations with all of them than they have with each other.
- Learn from the American MultiNational Coroporations such as IBM and GE who have successfully adopted new business models to take advantage of the new emerging markets and the globalisation.They have formed joint ventures in many countries, giving up the managerial Imperialism of their past.
- Prepare to deal with asymmetric threats arising from terrorism, drug cartel etc through innovative range of instruments.

Zakaria has brought out the folly of creation of Africom. He has explained this with a quote from Mark Twain ¨To the man who has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail¨. Brilliant !! He has commented that the US administration, while trying to scare its enemies has terrorized the rest of the world. He says that the the American policy makers are consumed by fear, paranoia, anxiety about foreign trade, foreign companies and foreigners. Contrast this with the hope, confidence and optimism of the Indians and Chinese, who want to take advantage of globalisation to conquer the world.

Zakaria has argued that USA has many strengths, unlike UK which could do nothing to arrest its decline especially the economic one. These are: economic strength, solid tradition of innovation and renewal with an educational system which nurtures these spirits and rejuvenation of the society with the energy and spirit of the immigrants.

He has brought out one of the the contrasts between the west and the east. While Christianity and Islam , believing in their inherited superiority seek to convert the non-believers, the Hindu Indians and the Confucian Chinese believe in the goodness of other faiths and do not seek to change them.

Zakaria has not pretended to be a prophet with any new revelations or new theories. He has analysed the issues in simple and clear ways understandable for readers with plain commonsense. He has advocated new ways of measuring prosperity, savings etc since the old methods of GDP and others have become inadequate for the complexity of the new realities.

The only weakness he has openly displayed is his passion for USA. Hmm.. what can I say ? …with my own passion for Latin America.

Zakaria is an Indian who went to USA for studies in 1982 and rose to become the Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and now as International Editor of Newsweek. He has concluded that to thrive in this new and challenging era and to to succeed amid the rise of the rest, USA needs to fulfil only one test. It should be a place that is as inviting and exciting to the young student who enters the country as it was for him in 1982.

Tamil connection to the ski resort in Las Lenas, Argentina

2008-07-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

While it is summer in India and in the northern hemisphere, it is skiing time in Argentina and Chile. I was in Las Lenas ski resort in the Mendoza province of Argentina 5-8 July. This is the biggest resort in south america with long slopes. The longest slope is seven kilometers and that too in both blue ( for intermediates like me) and red and black for advanced skiers. This is a favourite place for dare devils who want to try the off-beat extreme slopes.

Before starting the skiing on 6 july, I was invited to the Snow Festival in Malargue, a town seventy km from the resort. The governor of mendoza province and the mayor of the city were there. Ther cannot be a Fiesta in latin America without a queen ! They had a beauty contest and selected a Snow Queen. The fun and frolic went on till five in the morning.

Las lenas is located at an altitude of 2249 meters at the base and goes upto 3340 meters, above the tree line. The view from the top is spectacular. With this high altitude it receives more snow in comparison to the other esorts such as Bariloche and Chappelco.

While ninty percent of the skiers are Argentines, there are a lot of Brasilians too. They come in chartered flights from sao paulo direct to malargue.

The ski resort turns into a mountain resort in summer with adventure activities such as mountain biking and horse riding. The resort hotels here have a total of 4000 beds.

Let us now come to the Tamil connection... The owner of Las Lenas resort is Arumugam...not from tamilnadu..but from Malaysia. He owns 600,000 hectares of land in and around the resort and has sheep farms and a horse breeding farm. He also owns 12000 hectares of land near Buenos Aires where he grows soya and wheat. I taught a few tamil words to the managers there so that they can surprise mr arumugam with tamil greetings, next time when they meet him.

Congrats Mr Arumugam for taking Tamil to the peaks of Las Lenas !

Golf at the age of 87 ...yes ...87

2008-04-20T15:37:00.001-07:00

As usual, I was fixed today also to play with three new golfers at the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires. This is how I have been making contacts and friends by playing with new people. One of the three, Mr Carlos Bracht became my partner when they threw balls for partners.

When I reached out with a handshake, my partner smiled and said he was 87 years old. I got a shock. Then he showed the earplug and said he was hard of hearing...another jolt...I got further depressed when I saw he was going to play without the assistance of a caddy.. He was driving a single-seater cart. I thought I was going to have a miserable four and half hours.

I came out of my depression when Carlos made a par in the first hole. My spirits were lifted up when he made another par, missing birdie in the second hole. He made the third consecutive par in the third hole and then went on to score many pars and I was overwhelmed. Together we made a good score.

Carlos has been playing in Jockey club for the last 72 years! He started golf at the age of 15. He has won Argentine amateur championship several times and has won tournaments in other countries too.

Carlos now plays to a handicap of 12. He plays a serious and competitive game. He hits straight and putts sometimes with a three wood. His only frustration is that he is not able to hit drives beyond 200 yards.

The experience with Carlos reminded me of my partnership with Dr Bharat Ram in ITC golf course in Delhi in 2005. He was ninty years old when he played with me. He expired last year.

Playing golf competitions at 87 and 90 years ! What a life ! This reminds me of the saying in Latin America, " We dont stop having fun when we grow old.. we become old only when we stop having fun".

They say old golfers never retire...they just lose balls ! Bharat Ram had a ball at 90 years and Carlos is going strong at 87....playing golf competitions and having fun. I have now become a fan of Carlos.

Viva Carlos !

An Argentine who sees India through her heart

2008-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

During my endless (and exasperating...) declaratory campaign about my passion for Latin America, I come across Latin Americans who are equally passionate about India. Some of them are followers of Indian Gurus ( such as Sai baba) or spiritual groups (such as Hare Krishna). For them it is a matter of faith. The other day I came across someone who does not belong to either of the groups but whose eyes dance while talking about India.

She is Fabiana ( Fay), a young, smart, ambitious and enterprising person from Rosario. She is the chief of her own business consultancy company. She has been to India many times and to many parts including Coimbatore! She is a friend of the embassy and has been helping Indian delegations voluntarily. Now she wants to take a business delegation to India.

I have just received her write-up on India, which she has sent with a note saying she lifted the " passionate" from my emails to say she is "passionate about India ". She describes in the article below what made her passionate about India.

Quote

INDIA
India is not a country but a continent. From North to South, from East to West people are different. Languages, dialects, food, customs are different. The way they dress; and the country itself is different from many others I have explored. It is a place that somehow gets into you. Love it or hate it, you can never ignore India.

I read somewhere that poverty can bring you down, bureaucracy tries the patience of even a Hindu saint and the most experienced travellers find themselves at the end of their tempers at some point in India. Yet if you ask me, it’s all worth it. Basically India is what you want it to be. If it is history you are looking forward to re-live, you will have come to the right place, there is a profusion of temples, palaces, forts, and abandoned city ruins in the middle of the desert- and they all have their tales to tell. If it is art, music or crafts … it will be just your kind of place. If it is Ayurvedic (or traditional) medicine, pharmaceuticals, IT, automobile, or agro-business etc. …. you name it … they do it! And they do it well. But, undoubtedly its biggest treasure, in my opinion, is its people. Their wide smile, their ”Namaste” or “Vanakam” when they greet you- some people say this greeting means the divinity in me greets the divinity in you.

So this combination of people, history, arts, medicine, together with its current bustling economy make of India not just a place to simply “visit”. These factors will all contribute to making a totally different experience, an assault on your senses, a place you will never forget.
The smells are definitely strong and diverse, spices, incense sticks- especially those in Mysore- made of sandalwood burning in the countless temples you will visit or come by, the variety of flowers and specially the jasmine flowers carefully woven into long threads that are worn by women on their heads after visiting the temples. And, yes of course there is the smell of dirt, but if you are smart enough, and you “see” the struggle of this country to fight the dust, the garbage that accumulates because of the over population of its cities, because of the simple fact that they are over a billion people, you will be able to enjoy all the other things, and not just be a prisoner of pre conceptions, like "I don’t know if I will be able to cope with the dirt of India", “There’s so much poverty”, typical clichés that I have heard so much, and humbly tried to fight with all my heart since I first visited India for the first time 10 years ago.

The sense of touch is stimulated by the rich silks of the saris, the embroidered garments and brocades, the softness of the hands of the people who greet you from the bottom of their souls ... caresses to the heart I still go to when I need comfort.

The taste of Indian cuisine is also varied and delicious. There are considerable variations from North to South. Curry (which is a blend of almost 25 freshly grounded spices) produces masalas or mixes. The most well known flavours come from chillies, cloves, coriander, cardamom, cumin, and bay leaves, and several seeds that will surely captivate your palate. It is such a long list that would take pages to describe. And no fears, I won’t! But I have to mention the “breads” are also incredible a big favourite with us foreigners.

The hearing- probably most influenced by the traffic noise and its diversity in means of transportation that range from simple rickshaws, old white Ambbys (Ambassador cars), big old bikes that glide their away in dusty, sleepy streets of small cities ... and now the newest models, including the now newly released Nano (the cheapest car in the world). Then there is the chanting at the temples, the OM (really pronounced aum, some people assure if the universe had a sound this would be it!)

The sight, probably the most shocked of the sense you will experience, include the fact that you’ll see elephants, camels, holy cows, goats and other animals wandering free amidst all the vehicles, and in the middle of this chaos (an organised chaos I must say) there’s peace. Maybe the one that springs from the heart of the inhabitants of a land of religious tolerance. The colors of the saris the women wear, from bright yellow, to turquoise, fuchsia, red and green, the turbans worn by the men in the Rajasthan, the gold bracelets, the earrings, the faces of the kids that jump around you …

But besides the senses of sight, smell, touch and hearing, it is your spirit what will probably benefit more from the daily lessons of compassion, love and tolerance I personally have experienced almost on a daily basis in this beautiful country. It is a world so exotic to us; so marvellous that can instantly take you back to your childhood; to a time of fantasy and endless surprise, or to the future with all the developments that this republic is experiencing now. I hope you feel someday that it is worth taking the risk of “seeing poverty, and dirt” …but here is my tip, if you see India through your heart, I assure you, you will never regret having visited it! And like me, you will never stop going back!
FAY
(Your Honorary Consul of India in Rosario) Unquote

her email: fay.asiana@gmail.com

Sade - for ever

2007-12-23T17:14:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me, what happened to the floating weed since the last blog posting of 16 september. I responded, " the floating weed has stopped at the side of the Rio de la Plata ( Plata River in Buenos Aires). The city has captivated me completely and overwhelmingly since my arrival on 10 October. This meant a lot of postings in the latin american blogs.

Today, as I opened the videos of Sade in YouTube my non-latin american side of life came alive, refreshing memories. As i was trying the different songs, something struck me. I liked every one of the songs of Sade. I cannot say this of my other favourite singers. While Selena, Celine Dion, Luis Fonsi and Cristian Castro have taken me to the heights of ecstasy with their songs I found that I liked only a few of their songs. So when I bought their CDs I ended up with majority of songs I did not like.
But Sade is an exception. I enjoy every song of hers. Every song of hers stirs my soul and set me on romantic mood.
Sure I have some which I like more such as
- No ordinary love
- kiss of life
- I still really really love you

But I like every song of sade, in video and audio. Her soft and sweet voice touches the heart and strokes the soul. It is like a breeze entering through every cell of the body finding its way to the heart. Sade's songs are relaxing and refreshing, stirring and stimulating. I discovered her songs in 1998 and every time I listen to her, there is a new sensation and enjoyment.

Floating weed moves on...

2007-09-16T03:03:00.000-07:00

yes .. it will leave delhi on 28 september and reach Buenos Aires on 10 october. Hmm..I have been posted as Ambassador to Argentina.

The last four years of my stay in India has been fascinating and exciting. I witnessed the dramatic transformation of India and the Indians. I had seen from the vantage point of South Block the unfolding of the policy of economic reforms. I had watched with admiration the unleashing of the enterprenurial energy of the Indian businessmen who are going global. I had listened to the " audacious vision" talk of the captains of Indian industry in the business conferences and seen it in action with Mittal taking over Arcelor and Tata buying Corus. I was thrilled to see the new confidence, ambition and optimism of the Indian youth with their "can do " attitude. I was fascinated by the consumer revolution caused by mobile phones. My own village has over sixty phones! Ten years back, I thought world- class highways, malls and buildings were just dreams. Now these have come true.

Now when I go out of India, I go as the representative of this New India, with a new sense of pride, confidence and optimism.

The relocation, packing, discarding, bye to friends... and ...unpacking, living off suit cases and starting a new life in a new place, making friends, playing in new golf courses, experiencing different things... is an opportunity I always look for ...to reinvent myself.

Mani Talk

2007-08-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

"India of my dreams", was the theme of a talk by Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar ( called as Mani by his friends) at the Foreign Service Institute yesterday. As I had anticipated, the talk was was exciting, stimulating, provocative and inspiring. Mr Aiyar is one of the greatest orators I have heard. As Mr Surendra Kumar, Dean of the Foreign Service Institute put it aptly " Mr Aiyar is inimitable, irrepressible and incorrigible". Mr Aiyar kept the audience spell bound for an hour with his profound analysis,incisive comments,satire and wit. He has a remarkable and accurate knowledge of history,economic data and any number of amusing anecdotes. He made the audience laugh, think and reflect.

Highlights of Mr Aiyar's talk
-his dream of India is not the dream being trumpeted as " India shining", "India poised" and " India Rising", the current slogans which is euphoric about the high growth, Indian companies going global and Indians spending the highest in Singapore. His dream is for the yesterday ( Nehru era) when the growth, even if slow, it was an inclusive growth. The focus of the government was the common man and the poor. Some of these were: the irrigation and multipurpose projects, the unprecedented affirmative action to empower scheduled castes and tribes, the building of the foundation of democracy and the engendering of the belief in one India despite separatist dreams by some Indians.
-the policies of today, according to Mr Aiyar, benefit the rich and the middle class disproportionately more than the poor, who constitute the bulk of the population.
-The middle class has hijacked the economic and public policy agenda, seeking benefits for itself, mindless of the poverty around.Their obsession with multiplexes, malls and green cards has overshadowed the crying needs of the poor.
-The huge foreign exchange reserves come from the sweat and suffering of the poor Indians working in middle east but the rich Indians spend them away in foreign holidays and shopping.
-Panchayat Raj is a way to empower the rural masses politically and enable them seek economic entitlement. There are 1.2 million elected women leaders at the grassroot level of panchayats ( this is more than the one third reserved for them in local bodies) who can deliver inclusive growth better than the colonial sytem of Collectors and the post-independent system of Block Development Officers. More resources need to be given to the panchayat leaders.
- Mr Aiyar disagrees with the Indian policy makers who believe that the tide of economic liberalisation and reforms will carry all the boats ( of the rich and poor). He says it is not a tide but a tsunami for the rich and a minor and gentle lap of the wave for the poor. What is his model? A train, which has upper and lower classes but everyone travels together and at the same pace.

The talk was meant essentially for the new officers who have just joined the foreign service. Mr Aiyar had managed to balance the perspectives of these young officers and make them level-headed and not be carried away by the hype about the high growth. He made the senior officers, including me, to feel guilty that we are part of the predatory middle class which seeks to enrich itself, mindless of the situation of the poor.

I was fortunate to have worked under Mr Aiyar in Karachi, when he was the Consul General there. I was dazzled and overwhelmed by his brilliance,energy and vision. I told him a few days after joining ,"sir, foreign service and bureaucracy are too small for your talents. you should join politics which will give a larger platform for your ideas. I was thrilled when he left the diplomatic service and joined politics and became a Minister.

Mani in Tamil means bell. Mr Aiyar has been ringing the alarm bells within his party and the cabinet cautioning about the euphoria and asking for more attention to Aam Aami ( common man ). Many disagree with him , when he downplays the economic growth, explosive indian enterprenurial spirit and the surging confidence and new mind-set of the middle class Indian. Mr Aiyar is also seen by some as excessively nostalgic about the glorious days of Nehru and the socialistic era.

But I enjoy the sound and music of Mani, with admiration.

I could fall in love with you... by Selena

2007-07-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Selena has reclaimed her top spot with this romantic song since yesterday

here is the Youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTMESWDWMA&mode=related&search=

And the lyrics here...

I could lose my heart tonight
If you don't turn and walk away
'Cause the way I feel I might Lose control
and let you stay

'Cause I could take in my arms
And never let go I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you
I can only wonder how Touching you would make me feel
But if I take that chance right now
Tomorrow will you want me still
So I should keep this to myself

And never let you know I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you
And I know it's not right
And I guess I should try to do what I should do
But I could fall in love, fall in love with you I could fall in love with you

Siempre estoy sonando en ti
Besando mis labios, acariciando mi piel
Abrazandome con ansias locas
Imaginando que me amas
Como yo podia amar a ti.

So I should keep this to myself
And never let you know I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you I could fall in love,
I could fall in loveWith you...

The Toyota Way

2007-07-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here comes my second Japanese inspiration after i read the interview of Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota in Harvard Business Review (HBR) July-August 2007 issue.
The first one was after seeing the Japanese movie Floating Weed, which gave birth to this blog.
While the first inspiration was romantic, people might think that Toyota inspiration cannot be so. That is what I also thought untill I finished reading the interview.

Before we go to the interview here is the success story of Toyota, which speaks for itself:
-It has overtaken GM as the largest automaker in the world. Sale expected to be 9.34 milion cars in 2007.
-Its market cap is one and half times more than that of the combined mkt cap of the Big Three of USA.
-It is the most profitable car maker. It made a profit of 13 billion$ in 2006-7, while GM and Ford made losses.
-Thomas Stewart the editor of HBR says " Toyota is the best car maker on the planet"

How did Toyota achieve this?
It is by the Toyota Way.
What is it? Watanabe has explained this in the interview.

It is " Continuous improvement( Kaizen) " and "respect for other people"
Kaizen is, of course, well known. The respect for other people comes out clearly in the interview. Watanabe has quoted his juniors in some parts of the interview " As our vice president said..".
Normally it is the juniors wo quote the boss. So it is not just preaching but practice. Watanabe says "there is no genius in our company". He means team work.

The root of the Toyota Way is to be dissatisfied with the status quo. If the rate of change by continuous improvement is slow, the Toyota people resort to revoltionary change or radical innovation called as Kakushin. While there is continuity in Kaizen, there is discontinuity in Kakushin.

Toyota employees are "T" type people. The vertical stroke is for deepening and intensity, while the horizontal top is to widen horizons. So they employment is for long term to deepen ( It takes 20 years to produce a T type manager) and the managers are allowed to switch jobs to learn other things. There are 2000 coordinators to train the employees around the world in the Totota Way.

Watanabe's approach to BRIC countries is a sample of the Toyota Way of thinking.
He has no plans to compete with the herd in the fast growing markets of China and India for low-cost vehicles. He says " As people in BRICs look for better cars, as roads are built and as energy efficiency becomes more important... we should let the market come to us ".

What is the vision of Watanabe for a dream car?
To produce cars that can excite,entertain and evoke emotions...
oops... this is romance... passion...

My admiration for Toyota and the Japanese have gone up. But of course it does not diminish my passion for Latin America. This reminds me of the Brazilian Japanese ( about a million in Brazil) who have been assimilated in Brazil in the last about a hundred years. How does the japanese police detect illegal Brazilian japanese in japan. During midnight patrolling of streets if they come across a house with loud music and partying noise.. Caramba.. here they are !

kiss of death ...kiss of life

2007-06-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

In my youth I was inspired by the story of Laura ( forgot the hero's name). The hero is a poet, who is in love with Laura. But he dares not face her or try to meet her. He is so shy and timid and his is a silent love..unexpressed..umrequited.. But he follows her discreetly at a distance every day without her knowledge. Hmmm..That is what every hero thinks. One day she surpises him. She stops at the corner and meets him face to face. She gives him a kiss...a long intense and passionate kiss. No talk..no other nothing. Just a kiss. Off she disappears. The hero does not what hit him. His face is white and his eys dazed. He goes home in shock and euphoria. He starts writing furiously non-stop for days together. One day ants run allover his ears, nose and eyes.
kiss of death.

I was reminded of this when I heard the song "kiss of life" by my favourite Sade the other day. I had heard the song many times but had fallen in love with her other songs " no ordinary love" and " love is stronger than pride". But this time the kiss of life struck me like a lightning. And I have not stopped listening since then. It has become the number one in my chart, overtaking Selena's magic song" dreaming with you" and the earlier " I hope you dance" by Lee Ann Womack.

Here is the link to the music video of the song in you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcNtoHwd6Y

the lyrics...

There must have been an angel by my side
Something heavenly led me to you
Look at the sky It's the color of love
There must have been an angel by my side
Something heavenly came down from above He led me to you He led me to you
He built a bridge to your heart All the way How many tons of love inside I can't say
When I was led to you I knew you were the one for me
I swear the whole world could feel my heartbeat When I lay eyes on you Ay ay ay
You wrapped me up in The color of love
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
Wasn't it clear from the start Look the sky is full of love Yeah the sky is full of love
He built a bridge to your heart All the way How many tons of love inside I can't say
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You wrapped me up in the color of love
Must have been an angel come down from above
Giving me love yeah Giving me love yeah You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life
You gave me the kiss of life
The kiss of life

Rural Revolution

2007-05-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

daily labourers- the few old ones still available

Evening swim at Kollidam river near my village

I had been observing the changes during my pilgrimages to my village. But the transformation I saw this time was breath- taking and dramatic. It is nothing less than a Revolution; both physical and in the mind-set. Mobile fones, transporation and TV have changed the landscape and mindscap.
I saw this in my own village last week.
There are 100 mobile fones in my village of 160 households. The sheperd, casual labourer,the milkman, school students and the guy on the bullock cart carry them. Some of the fones are the latest versions with camera, music, video and can be used as torchlightalso. With my three-year old fone, I had to hide my backwardness, while the village kids impressed my with their versatility in use of multimedia facilities of their fones. When I was talking about my son in USA, my neighbour said let us talk to him. I was hesitant saying it would be expensive. But he did not care. He took the number from me and called my son in his fone and the whole gang around me spoke to him. The cost of the call to USA, he explained to me, was just three and half rupees ( 8 cents ) per minute. One of the lowest in the world !

I tried to show off my nano iPod. But there were no takers. The boy next door showed me his collection of 35 songs in his cellfone and showed me how he makes recording from the FM music channel of the TV.

Transportation has made people moving. During my time I had to walk 3 kms to school and a similiar distance to college. Now they go in buses, cycles, mopeds and motorcycles.

The TV has opened their eyes. I was taken by surprise when the boy from the the neighbourhood started discussing an NBA game. The TV ads have exposed the villagers to the whole world and to the latest fashions. No one was willing to hear my stories about America or Delhi !

My village as well as the others in the area have a problem now. There is a shortage of labour since many boys and girls from the traditional labour class are getting urban jobs. It is very difficult to get labour during peak seasons. The solution has started arriving with mechanisation. I used to do ploughing with bullock-drawn ploughs. Now most of the ploughing is with tractors. Machines are used for harvesting and are being introduced for transplantation.

In my trips in the past I used to impress my village folk about the world beyond them. This time I was the one who looked like a country bum among the villagers who knew more than me. I have come back impressed, educated and enlightened. I am now as optimistic about my village as I am about the urban youth who are becoming global players riding on the IT revolution.

Lonely Hearts - movie

2007-04-20T03:37:00.000-07:00

I grabbed this DVD the moment I saw the name of John Travolta and Salma Hayek, both my favourite actors. Salma has, of course, acted as an evil femme fatale in this film. Both Salma and Travolta have become matching with the weight both have put on.

The story is about a conman Raymond Fernandez who responds to personal ads and cheats the lonely ladies and war widows, pretending to be a " Latin Lover". One of his victims, Martha Beck is smarter than him and they become partners in future crimes, she pretending to be his sister. She makes Raymond kill the victims, unable to tolerate relationship between her lover and the victims. Travolta as the detective Elmer goes after them successfully and get them convicted to electric chair.

This is based on a true story of the forties when over a dozen women were cheated and killed by the criminal duo.

Dreaming with ....Selena

2007-04-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

I have been listening over and over to this song " Dreaming of you" by Selena, for the last one week. It has taken over my heart and soul. It is pure magic. The soft and sweet romantic voice of Selena mesmerises me. It puts a spell on me every time.

I start closing my eyes in the very opening of the song....

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I'd stay up and think of you
And I'd wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too

I become ecstatic when she goes on to...

Ahhh...I can't stop dreaming of you
Ahhh...I can't stop dreamin

I am breathless when she lilts...
"I love you"... and goes for the kill with.. " How much i love you"

the friend whom i made listen said" velvet voice "- gracias

I have listened to her other songs. some interesting..others not so.
But this particular song is the most powerful one which lifts me up in the sky and let me fly to ..you know where..

And nostalgia or what the Brazilians call as " saudade" flares up when the mexican-american Selena murmurs in Spanish

no puedo dejar de pensar en ti
como te necesito
amor como te estranho

There are also two other songs in my nano iPod on Dreaming; one by Vanessa Williams and another by Sade.. both my favourites. But to make me dream.. they are no match for Selena with this particular magical song.

The song carried me to heights of passionate eloquence today morning when I gave a talk on the subject of "Dreaming with BRICs" by Goldman Sachs in the event organised by Assocham. Of course, skeptics say that Goldman Sachs has made Indians and Brazilians " daydream" with their report.

hmmm.... It is all dreaming for me...in the night .. and in the day too...

"The Hive" - novel of Camilo Jose Cela

2007-04-10T03:23:00.000-07:00

I have just finished reading this english translation of the novel La Colmena by Camilo Jose Cela.
This is the first time I have read the book of Cela, the Spanish writer who got Nobel prize.

I started it about six months back and completed only now, although it is only about 250 pages.
The author took about five years to write it ! The story lends itself to leisurely reading. It centres around a cafe, where the characters come in midafternoon or early evening,sit around, meet others and reflect on their lives over cafe at Dona Rosa's Cafe Delicia.

The story has no big drama, suspence or memorable characters. It is like documentation of every day life of 160 ordinary characters such as an unemplyed youth, policeman, security guard, old men with young tastes and old ladies with older attitude in the city of Madrid. Cela himslef had written in his preface to the first edition "it is nothing other than a pale reflection, a humble shadow of everyday, harsh, profund and painful reality". In the aftermath of the second world war and in the middle of Franco's dictatorship, the Spaniards seem to have simply drifted along, without serious aspirations or motivations.

It is about lower middle class people and their struggle to survive. While the boys and men invent ways and means to acquire and keep up with lovers, the girls who are not luckey enough, take to the streets. The casual and easy approach of these characters to sex, partnership and fun reminded me of similiarities in Latin America.

The books of Cela were banned during Franco's dictatorship and this book was first published in Buenos Aires in 1951. Even there it had to go thorugh the censorship of Peronist dictatorship.

Volver - spanish film

2007-04-09T03:18:00.000-07:00

This is the first ever film of the Spanish film maker and director Pedro Almodovar, I have seen.Volver in spanish means return. I expected it to be unconventional and art film type. But it was a pleasant surprise.The story flows smoothly without surrealism and or incomprehensible modernism. It is a normal film with a good storyline. The mother of Raimunda, who was believed to have died in a fire accident comes back ( volver) to attend to unfinished work including rapproachment with her daughter. The story brings out the conditions of women unlucky in marriage, daughter raped by father, aunts taking care of families, hardworking single mother and rural life in Spain. It is the women who dominate the film.There is humour, pathos and passion.

There is the old traditional Spain of superstitions and the new country with modern windmills. The windmills remind me of the story of Don Quixote, who is from La Mancha. Director Almodovar is also from the same place and this is where the story starts in the film.

Penelope Cruz, who has acted as Raimunda is brilliant. She exudes the charm and smile of the warm spanish culture. I also liked her acting as a Brazilian in the hollywood film " woman on top".

Ambassador's Cup Golf Tournament 31 March

2007-04-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

Harinder Sikka of Nicholas Piramal Group organised this 2007 edition with great style. The tournament was given live coverage by Zee Business TV network. There were lots of goodies, plane tickets and prizes.
Although I did not win any trophy this year, I won two skins which got me a pair of footjoy golf shoes and a custom-fit Saville Row suit.... My score was 47 in the first nine and 38 in the second nine. Last year I played 82.

The tournament was held in JP Green in Greater Noida. The picture above is the par-3 fourth hole.

The prize distribution and dinner was held at the residence of Spanish ambassador Don Rafael Conde. Sikka had brought in a music and dance group from Srilanka, which gave a scintillating performance. The event was compered by Shivani who did a professional job with a sense of humour. The event was put together by Digraj Singh of Tiger sports marketing.

Besides Ambassadors, there were civil servants, businessmen and judges. Mr Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for defence was the chief guest.

In my group there was the Army chief Gen JJ Singh, the Chinese and Japanese Ambassadors. The Chinese Ambassador told me that 30 out of 58 diplomats in his embassy play golf. And they practice in the embassy compound, where they can hit upto 200 yards !. There are already 3000 golf courses in China. It is amazing the way the Chinese have caught up. Another few years.. and one should not be surpised to see Chinese world champions in golf !

I was asked to give a humorous speech to entertain the audience, which I did. I joked about diplomatic way of speaking and handling issues... I talked about Indian ambassadors and brought in Latin America in the jokes. I thought i would get away with my usual cultural shock to the audience with sexy jokes. Hmmm.. this time i got a cultural shock from some of the older members of the audience who found some of my humorous anecdotes too spicy.

Blood Diamond - movie

2007-03-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

I saw this film yesterday, on the recommendation of a soul mate. The movie stirs the soul and touches the heart. It is difficult to get over the tragedy of brutalisation and traumatisation of some of the African societies, portrayed in the film. Diamonds which adorn the wedding rings symbolising union of people have been a curse of death and destruction in some African countries. Instead of adding wealth, diamond resources have made countries poor and miserable. Sierra Leone, Angola and some other African countries have paid a heavy price in lives for possession of diamonds.It is heartening to know that the world has taken a stand against blood diamonds.

Leonardo Di Caprio has acted as Danny Archer, the Rhodesian mercenary who is a diamond smuggler. Djimon Hounsou (he is from Benin) has acted superbly as Solomon Vandy whose dream to educate his son to become a doctor is shattered by the outbreak of civil war. His family is separated and his son is taken away by the rebels who train him to become a killer soldier. Solomon is forced to work in a diamond mine by the rebels. He finds a large pink diamond and manages to hide it by burying it in the bush. Archer comes to know about it and persuades him to take him to the diamond, promising him to reunite him with his family. The duo is given some help by an American journalist who is trying to uncover the story of diamond smuggling.

The movie is a wake up call for Africa, some parts of which are still mired in civil war. Even the mercenary Archer says at one point " God has left Africa long back". His cynical remark TIA... This Is Africa perhaps sum up the tragic situation.

skiing in New York

2007-02-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

I made use of my transit halt in Newyork on 20 February and the unusually cold weather and excessive snowing to indulge in my most favourite passion...skiing. This was in the Camelback ski resort in Poconos area in Pennsylvania, fifty miles from NewYork city, where I used to go when I was posted there.

It was a thrilling experience. Although my last skiing was six years back in 2000 in valle nevado, Chile, i still retained the skill and was able to move confidently. I did even the half- pipe slope.

The day was perfect. After the heavy snowfall in the days before my arrival, there was plenty of powder. I loved every moment on the skis.

Breathing the pure air of the white snow ..

Drinking Hot chocolate in the cold weather ..

Following the laughter and scream of the little kids who know no fear..

Going up the lift and coming down on the slopes like kids..

the thrill of moving fast..

the fear of falling down..

hmm... It was one of the best days of my life.

Blue Butterfly - Canadian movie

2007-02-26T05:22:00.000-08:00

I chose to see the movie "Blue Butterfly" , from the Air India collection, simply because of its name. Blue is my favourite colour and butterfly is a fascinating and colurful creature appealing to my imagination. But the movie turned out to be more than these. It was inspiring and moving.

The story is about a ten year old boy Pete, who is given just a few months more to live by the doctors after diagnosing brain tumour. He is confined to the wheel chair.Pete is an amateur insect collector and admirer of Alan Osborne, a famous entomologist. Pete is taken up by Osborne's description of Blue Butterfly- mariposa azul-from Central and south america, as having magical powers. Pete wants to catch one before his death. He and his single mother approach Osborne , who says that the season is over and he has no time to take the boy to the jungle. But he relents after hearing about the terminal illness. Osborne takes Pete on his shoulders through the tropical rain forests of Costa Rica. The journey of adventure and fulfillment makes the boy recover miraculously and he starts walking.

Osborne is commited to the world of insects and is uncomfortable with the humans. He cannot handle kids and is rude and blunt in his interactions. But his space is entered by the young boy who reconnects Osborne to the human world of emotions and feelings.

The movie is touching. It is about hope and dreams. Catching the blue butterfly is a metaphor for pursuit of life, ....passionate pursuit of dreams. The dream and belief gives magical powers to oneself to achieve the impossible and overcome challenges. I was specially touched by the little costa rican indigenous girl ( Marianella) who tells Pete " you are a blue butterfly.. I am also.. everything and everyone is a blue butterfly".

I liked the smooth and pleasant flow of the film. No big drama or make-believe. It goes like a children's story but with a strong message.

This is based on a true story.

This is a canadian film released in 2004 and directed by Lea Pool. William Hurt has acted as Osborne, Pascal Bussiers as Teresa and Marc Donato as Pete.

Speech to MBA graduate students at FMS Delhi 25 january 2007

2007-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

The topic of the talk was " India Inc going global". Audience- MBA graduate students of the Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University. The substance of the talk was by and large same as that of the talk I gave to the MBA students of Bharatidasan University on 22 November. But this time I highlighted the young human resource asset of India in the new emerging Knowledge based economy, which gives a competitive edge to Indian business going global. The other two competitive edges are: first-walmart effect- Indian companies get a solid foundation of competence in the large volume market of India in which they are under pressure to deliver products and services at the lowest cost and second- globalisation which gives opportunities to those who are faster and smarter,while it becomes a challenge to the slower and less smart. The new mindset of the young Indians who have a hunger for success and achievement with a new confidence and optimism make India a winner in globalisation.

I talked about the new corporate culture and ethics being imbibed by the young and impressionable professionals in the Indian IT companies who play straight and do things correctly and properly. In the process of servicing and adding value to the best global companies in the world, the Indian IT companies are adopting the best practices of the best corporates and are establishing a reputation globally.

I also spoke of Economic diplomacy through which diplomats facilitate and promote India's enegagement with the global business.

Prof Singla, who has a formidable combination of BE, MBA and PhD and had at one time worked with TCS introduced me to the audience. According to him FMS is among the best management Instituitions of India. fifty percent of the students have work experience while over 80 percent are engineers. Mr Jagtar Singh of TCS, who took the initiative in arranging the lecture, is an alumnus of FMS.

Speech on South- South Cooperation 15 January 2007

2007-01-15T04:31:00.000-08:00

The Consultancy Development Centre of India had organised a two day congress on "Consultancy and services- global market" at India habitat centre on 15-16 Jnauary 2007. I was invited to speak at the session on South-south cooperation on 15th.

I modified the subject to south-south partnership for 2 reasons. first, cooperation sounds idealistic, moralistic and one risks being labelled as an idealist or hypocrite. Secondly, cooperation has governmental altruistic connotation. In my view, government is only one of the players in the south-south interaction. The others are business and civil society. When all these three become stake holders, the south-south partnership becomes sustainable and win-win for all involved.

South-south partnership is no longer a rhetoric or slogan. It has become a quiet reality with another name ie regional integration. I gave the example of how Brazil and Argentina who were rivals like India and pakistan have now become partners in the framework of Mercosur. Today Argentina does more trade with saopaulo state than with USA. They have free movement of goods, services, capital and people. The Argentinian and brazilian people, business and governments have mutual stake in the prosperity of each other and they have a durable partnership. Same is the case in Andean group, central american group and caricom. The west Indies cricket team and the university of west indies are shining examples of south -south partnership.

The s-s partnership has helped the latin americans get over past conflicts and has reinforced the stability and growth of each other and given collective strength.

Then I spoke about the development partnership programme of Government of India which gives ITEC scholarships, aid projects, lines of credit and promote trade with other south countries through FTA and PTA.

Indian cos have been adding value to other countries. eg Kirloskar has contributed to agricultural production of Laos, TCS - to human resource development of uruguay, chile and brasil, Ranbaxy - to reduction of cost of health care in Brazil and Mittal, Jindal and Essar- to manufacturing in Trinidad and Bolivia.

India- Brazil- South Africa ( IBSA), the new cafe con leche ( coffee with milk ) alliance is a promising south-south partnership.

The session was cochaired by the ambassador of dominican republic and Mr Ghosh CMD of Consulting Engineers ltd. There was a speaker form pakistan and another from malaysia.

Speech at the Bharatidasan Institute of Management- 22 November 2006

2006-12-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

The topic was " Indian business going global". Audience 120 first year MBA students of the Bharatidasan Inst of Management at Trichy. Dr Sankaran, the Director was present. The event was held thanx to the initiative of Friend Ravichandran of Chennai.

The Institute has a niche in the B-school circles. All of its students get placement thru campus recruitment. During interaction I found the students as bright, knowledgeable and mature. 90 percent have engineering degrees and fity percent have work experience.

I elaborated the following points:

-This year outward FDI is more than inward FDI.
-India is a capital deficit country. Interest rates in India higher than international rates.
- Essar investment in Trinidad is an interesting example. Basic logic for investment in Tinidad is availability of abundant and inexpensive gas. iron ore will come from some other country in the region. market principally USA. capital will be from international banks. technology might be foreign. So what goes from India?
-Indian bz going global is not just a matter of market or money. It is fundamentally a new mindset.
-After having been conquered, colonised and ruled by foreigners in the last seven hundred years Indians have now got the confidence to conquer the world. Mittal being the richest in UK is the sweet revenge for East India company .
-It is the IT cos which started the new phenomenon of going global, establishing a new paradigm and benchmark.
-Thanx to IT Indian is being recognised and respected in the world
-IT opened the doors to others such as pharma, manufacturing and mining . There is need for Indian cos to acquire foreign assets in energy, agribz and forestry.
-prospects for the Indianisation of global bz good based on two fundamentals: The large and growingIndian economy and market give a walmart advantage to Indian cos. The abundant young and skilled Indian human resources will be an advantage vis-a-vis the ageing developed societies facing skill shortages.
-Economic Diplomacy will bring value addition to the Indian bz going global through facilitation and promotion.

Speech to Poondi college students 21 November 2006

2006-12-29T17:46:00.000-08:00

The topic was " Poondi to Punta Arenas" The audience was about 300 plus students of second year post graduation and faculty. The objective of the speech was to inspire the students from this rural college,where I had graduated.

I spoke about the challenges I had faced and the opportunities opening up for the students in the 21st century.

My first challenge was linguistic. After having studied in Tamil medium in the school, I had problems in the English medium college. The second challenge was agricultural. My family wanted me to be a farmer and did not see the use of college education. The third was cultural challenge. I had developed inferiority complex in the college with my village background After joining the Foreign service, I faced cultural challenges in adopting to the high profile diplomatic world. Latin America had challenged me culturally when I was posted there. I have been able to overcome these, regain self-confidence and be myself after my Latin America experience.

I was able to realise my dream of travelling to the farthest place ( Punta Arenas ) because I was lucky to find the college so close to my village. If it was not for that, I would not have gone to a college.

The youth of today are lucky to have before them a new era, new india and a new world and exciting times ahead. The new era of information and knowledge society has empowered the youth. Through computer and IT they can connect, communicate, collaborate and compete with the world. The new India is emerging as an economic power and indian business is going global. Indians have gained global recognition and admiration, thanx to the IT success.The globalising world is an opportunity to the young Indians in India as well as in the developed world which is becoming old and will face shortage of skilled human resources.

I advised the students to keep up the hunger for sucess and thirst for knowledge. They also need to have some imagination and craziness to keep them flying above the reality which could be daunting and discouraging.I narrated many stories and jokes and kept them animated

empowerment of rural women

2006-12-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

During the visit to my village last week, I saw for myself the evidence of effective empowerment of women. My niece Punita, age 28 has been elected as the president of Panchayat board of Karaimeendarkottai village. This was incredible since i had always known her as a shy and simple rustic girl. Now she is totally transformed. She has become a confident, assertive and ambitious leader. There is a new glint in her eyes and grit in her approach. She told me about her priority to improve the village water supply system. She has ordered the village clerk that bulbs should be replaced immediately when they fuse out. She said proudly that in the last one month of her presidency the village looks bright whereas it used to be dark earlier. She talked about her responsibility to the voters who have placed confidence in her ability to deliver.

What is more important is that she has managed to overcome in two months the rigid caste system which has stayed for over two thousand years. Until the elections, she had never set foot in the harijan street. But during the campaign, she visited every harijan house and requested them individually for votes. She now sits with the three Harijan members in the Board meetings.

Punita talks proudly about the close contest in which she won with 44 votes margin unseating a family which was controlling the Panchayat for the last three decades. She is conscious of the potential troubles the defeated party will cause for her and her family. But she is prepared and brave. She is also realistic that her husband would interfere with her work and use her position to do his own things.

Punita is the beneficiary of the new Panchayat System in which some panchayat presidencies are reserved for women.

But there is a downside to the victory of Punita. She has spent 1.5 lakhs of rupees in the campaign of which half is debt. How does she repay the debt? There is no salary or legitimate income. She gets only a honorarium of 500 rupees. She has been advised that she should get commission from the contracts. She will lose her innocence and enter into the world of corruption !

Another sign of the emergence of women power was in my college at Poondi, which has now opened its doors for women students. There are ten girls from my village and 18 from my neighbouring village studying in the college now. This includes my other niece, Anita, who wants to study computer science.These girls after college studies are not going to stay at the staus quo home. They would seek changes and progress. They would become the leaders of emancipation for a better future for their children, families and the villages.

This is progress and indeed the beginning of a rural revolution !

Upcoming Speeches- December-February

2006-12-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

I have been invited to give a speech on 21 December at my alma mater, Poondi Pushpam college. The audience will be about 200 post graduate students and faculty.
The title of my talk will be "Poondi to Punta Arenas", the same topic on which i wrote an article for the college magazine. I will talk about the challenges of growing up in a village and the opportunities for the gennext.

On 22 December I will give a talk at the Bharatidhasan Insitute of Management, Trichy. My topic before the MBA graduate students is " India Inc going global". I will talk about the value addition to this pheneomenon by the Economic Diplomacy. Indian bz going global is not just about business or market or money. It is about mind. It is a statement of the new mindset of Indian bzmen and the arrival of the new india in the globalising world.

On 22 January, I will give a talk at the Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University. The theme will be on the globalising Indian business

On 23 February, I have been invited by the Amity Business School to give a talk on Latin America.

I look forward to the speech opportunities, since they open the tap of creativity and excite the faculty of imagination. Talking especially before the young people, getting their attention, capturing their imagination, making them laugh, provoking them to think and shocking them with Latino stories and jokes is great fun.

The Inheritance of Loss - book by Kiran Desai

2006-12-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

This Booker Prize winning novel puts together the story of three typical Indian characters: Patel, a retired judge and settled in Kalimpong with his dog and servant; Sai, his grand daughter, the convent-educated girl who comes to live with him and falls in love with Gyan the Nepali; and Biju the son of the servant who goes to United States, struggles there and comes back disillusioned. The three main characters have one thing in common. They are misfits in the place they live. The judge, after his British education and Colonial service becomes unIndian, after having alienated himself consciously from native Indians. The convent-educated girl and the rich retirees inKalimpong are foreigners, talking a foreign language and living in another world amidst the poverty and backwardness of Kalimpong. Biju is a misfit in USA caught between the illegal immigrants who confuse him and the Americans whom he does not understand.

The dilemma and internal conflicts of westernised Indians in India caught between the Gymkhana club culture and the poor folk who steal the dog of Patel is a continuing reality. The story of Gorkhaland struggle in the region which disrupts the life of all the characters is a reflection of what one sees in the television news in India day after day. I do not remember watching Indian TV news without strikes, agitations, burning of buses, demonstrations, clash with police, insurgencies, problems of Kashmiris, Maoists, Dalits, Muslims and political party workers. What Naipaul calls as the land of million mutinies ! Disruption goes on every day in some part of India or other in the name of religion, language, region, caste and culture.

Kiran Desai's story-telling is natural and her characters are unforgettable. In the clash of cultures in Kalimpong she lets even love end up unromantically after confusing and contradictory emotions which collide innocently and unintentionally. The India, which comes out from the novel is the unvarnished,uninterpreted and unromantic country of dilemmas and contradictions for the Indians who outgrow India.

Only an Indian could fully understood and appreciate the novel with its typically Indian situations, language and even jokes. It is, therefore, interesting that the Booker prize selectors had chosen this for the international audience. May be the world is trying to understand the India of what it actually is, rather than for the BPOs and IT strength ! Why not? We, in India have been reading and understanding the local cultures and customs of England, Europe and USA.

It is amazing that Kiran Desai has captured the Indian spirit and struggle although she has been living in England and USA since the age of 14. And she is said to be the youngest woman writer to win the Booker at the age of 35.

I was disappointed with the " Goddess of small things" for which Arundati Roy got the same Booker prize. Her book did not appeal to me at all. That is why I started reading Kiran Desai with skepticism. Kiran Desai deserves the prize and she is promising.

Brokeback mountain- movie

2006-11-30T00:21:00.000-08:00

I watched this gay cowboy film last weekend.
It is an interesting story of two cowboys who get to work together during a summer as sheepherders in the Brokeback mountain area. In the isolated and pristine Brokeback mountain area, they have only the company of each other apart from the sheep and mountain. Their interaction with each other becomes intimate and they fall in love with each other. But after this unusual and new experience, they go back to normal life of marriage and children. But then the love born in the mountains come back to draw them together. The wife of one of them discovers and divorces him. The other one who is more passionate gets frustrated by the inadequate response of the partner and dies young.
The director Ang Lee has handled the story delicately and sensibly and succeeded in making it as romantic and natural. The scenes of the mountains, meadows and streams of Brokeback mountain are spectacular.

Twenty years and two husbands ago....

2006-10-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Friends laugh when i quote this title of the song by Lee Ann Womack.
They jump quick to the conclusion- it should be a latina song.
I tell them if it is a latina it cannot be just only two...

The lyric and melody of this song has triggered one of my periodic seizures of sadness and melancholy. Blame it on the the double expresso of Barrista on a sunday afternoon after a golfless morning.Saddest thoughts ...threatening to spill over as sweetest songs?. The line that struck me is
"never let somebody that close". The beaten heart is more defensive, more alert and feels safe in solitude.

For a change, i said no to golf today and instead finished reading a book(review in my business blog)on ...what? Latin America..of course.

here is the full lyric.

"Looking in the bathroom mirror
Putting my make-up on
Maybeline can't hide the lines of time that's gone
Weighed 105 soaking wet
I'd knock him dead in that sundress
Had it all but just too young to know
But that was 20 years, 2 husbands ago

I remember when he took my hand and said I do
And the kitchen I was standing in when he said I'm through
I swore I'd never fall back in
Put my heart through that again
Never let somebody get that close
But that was 20 years, 2 husbands ago

Water under the bridge
I guess that's all life really is

Driving the kids to school today it occurred to me
With all the wrong turns that I've made
I'm right where I should be
But I go back there from time to time
Looking for that peace of mind
Find it's always just a dead end road
Yeah that was 20 years, 2 husbands ago

Water under the bridge
I guess that's all life really is

Looking in the bathroom mirror
Putting my make-up on"

can live without wisdom but not without cafe

2006-10-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

On wednesday, the dentist pulled out my wisdom tooth and told me that in any case it was of no use. He assured me that i had not lost anything, except a useless part.

Then he came out with the killer advice. No hot coffee for the next 24 hours. oops.. this was going to be tough. So i had to forego this life saver and stimulant for 24 hours. It was the most miserable 24 hours of my life. Normally i begin the day with coffee first thing in the morning and get into my creative world of reading and writing. This sets the mood and agenda for the day. Without coffee i started the day yesterday totally disoriented and dispirited. Afternoon came and my longing increased. Evening became even more intolerable.

This 24 hours of misery made me introspect. And the truth hit me.

Not only did i not use my wisdom tooth, but I had also spent large part of my life without using wisdom itself. I had drifted foolishly for so many years. I had made so many mistakes big and small. I was unrealistic. I let my head down and let myself be lead by my heart. As Lee Ann Womack sings, " loving might be a mistake ..but it is worth making".

My life had been lead by illusions... stimulated by cafe. After a cup of the stimulant, my imagination soars. Inspiration flows. Creativity gets in. Dreams take wings. I am above the clouds. I travel to latin America. Reality disappears. Magical realism appears.

There is another side to this story. May be i would not have reached where I am, if I was realistic and had used my wisdom. I might have got stuck like a frog in the well of my village, like many of my friends, if i had analysed my situation realistically using my head. I let myself soar with my illusions foolishly and romantically. I remember carrying paddy bags but smiling with the poems of Keats and Wordsworth. Walking along the railtrack to my school and college, I was moved with the love poems of Bharatidasan. I was so full of illusions, romance and magical realism. As Womack sings" when you get a chance to sit it out or dance.. i hope you dance", I danced without knowing dance.

Good bye ..my wisdom tooth. Good day my cafe !

Last holiday - movie

2006-10-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this delightful hollywood film. Queen Latifa, who acts as Georgia Byrd is a sales clerk in a retail outlet for kitchen equipments. Her world comes crashing down when the Indian Dr Gupta diagnoses her with a fatal illness and gives her just three more weeks of life. So what does she do? She collects all her savings in cash and goes to a luxury resort in Europe to enjoy the last few days. She stays in a presidential suite, buys expensive dress, tries skiing and orders expensive food at the restaurant and the chef attends to her personally.

Then comes the fax saying that she was misdiagnosed, coinciding with the arrival of her boyfriend who proposes marriage and there is happy ending.

More of a bollywood story! but done in hollywood format and style. It is a comedy with some depth.

iCon - the book about Steve Jobs

2006-10-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

A blurb on the cover of this book says" once you start reading, you wont want to put it down". This happened with me. I bought this at the Bangalore airport on Sunday evening and finished it today morning.

It is an absorbing and inspiring story of Steve Jobs, the rock star of technology and digital age. It is about his conquest of three different worlds" computers, movies and music"
It is an amazing resurrection of the hero who was thrown out of the company he himself founded and was in wilderness for ten long years. He is the come-back kid who defied the pundits and reclaimed his throne and title as an Icon, even after making many mistakes.

Steve, born as an orphan, grew up as a strong-willed rebel in the family of his adopted family and in the school. He dropped out of the college and pursued his fascination with electronics and got his first job in HP.

India has played a role in the life of Steve. The first thing he did after getting his salary was to travel to Himalayas seeking truth and meaning. He did not get the enlightenment like the Buddha under the bodhi tree. But the experience in India including the exposure to poverty and problems had a strong impact. He became a vegetarian and a follower of Zen Buddhism. When Michael Eisner wanted to interact with him at the time of Pixar- Disney rivalry, he invited him for dinner at an Indian restaurant in Bay area. He even went to the extent of imposing his vegetarian dinners on the guests.

Steve created a new cult with his Apple and Mac computers. He made them distinct from the rest by unique design and marketing. He has done the same thing with iPod, which has become a statement and a status symbol. He inspired the designers and creators with his visionary spirit and drive. He wanted to make a "dent in the universe" and he has achieved this already.He was shrewd in his business negotiations and managed to buy Pixar for just 10 million dollars, one third of the price demanded by George Lucas. He made one million dollars when he was 23, got ten million when he was 24 and made 100 million dollars when he became 25.

here is the flip side. Steve was overcome by Hubris at the height of his success. He was cruel and unfair to his closest colleagues. He is not a paragon of virtue. He did all the dirty tricks to get ahead of others and used others as ladders, throwing them out mercilessly after his climb. He made many mistakes in business decisions and was a hardware guy without realising the growing power of software. The joke about him was, " How did Steve do market research? ... by looking at the mirror1 ". But luck came to his rescue and saved him from oblivion. It was Disney which took Pixar to the business of full feature films and the CEO of Apple who bought his sinking NEXT venture and rehablitated him in Apple Computers. He is a changed man now. He values family, friends and respects others.

The moral of his story is " never mind the mistakes and defects... you can fight back and win "

The authors of the book Jeffrey Young and William Simon have been objective in their comments and made it lively like a story book.

This book brought to my mind the biographies( the road ahead) of Bill Gates and the Google guys ( Larry page and Serge Bin), which i hv read earlier. Unlike Steve who is more of a business hustler, these three are real geeks and nerds who have changed our lives.

Infoscion - the New Indian

2006-10-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

My visit to the Infosys training centre in Mysore on 30 Sept confirmed the arrival of the New Indian with a new mindset and value system. The company calls their employees as " Infoscions" . I call them as the New Indians. They herald a new era, a new culture and new hope.

The centre is the largest corporate training centre in the world, which has training facilities for about 4000 at the same time. They are building more facilities to expand it for 10,000 trainees by 2008.

Why do i call the Infoscion as the New Indian?
here are the reasons:

-For about 3 months the trainee stays in this 350 acre campus, which is ultramodern, luxurious and world class. The room is like a 5-star hotel room, clean and elegant. He gets to use the laundromat and all the modern gadgets. He can eat in the different food courts. He goes to work by walk or cycle . There are 1500 cycles which can be taken for free and left after use. The walk or cycle ride from the room to office is green and pleasing for the eyes. There are four multiplexes (globe picture on the top) with the state of the art equipments and latest films for entertainment. There is a large gym, sports and games facilities and swimming pool. There is a 24/7 library with the latest and comprehensive resources on the emerging knowledge society. The workplace is worldclass and at the same time provides a university campus style environment. The Infoscion starts with a princely salary of 30000 rupees, which means acquisition of the latest cellfones, gadgets , cars and accessories . More importantly, the materialistic aspiration makes him work harder, earn more money and reach greater heights.

- i have put fotos of the campus in my album http://picasaweb.google.com/viswanathanifs

-These facilities do not just give comfort. They make the Infosyan confident and free from the the inferiority complex, which afflicts the average Indian. When he goes to USA he is not going to be overwhelmed. He might even feel that the Mysore campus is much better than many workplaces and residences considered the best in USA.

-The Infosyian imbibes a new work ethic and value system from the motto of the company which is " driven by values and powered by intellect" This is not just a slogan. This is the corporate practice rigorously adopted by the company. The company will not pay bribes and will not violate rules and regulations. It has set the highest benchmark for corporate ethics. The young impressionable employees of Infosys imbibe this new culture and set new benchmarks for themselves and others who come into contact with them. They are going to practise their new ethical values even after they leave infosys and become enterpreneurs and found corporations.

--The Infosyians are working with cutting-edge technologies with varied business models for globally competitive companies. They deal with the biggest banks, manufacturers of aircrafts and cars, retailers,technology providers, insurance companies, research organisations, entertainment companies and such diverse areas. This gives them a global vision and the world becomes their playground. There is an Infosys leadership Institute(bottom picture) in the same campus, where promising managers are mentored by leaders like Narayanamurthy.

- The Infosians emerging after the initial three months training in the campus are emerging as the new indian with confidence, optimism, competitive spirit, highest standard of corporate ethics and worldclass in competence.

My pessimistic friends say " so what? one Infosys is a little drop in the ocean of india. Look at the politics and society which are pathetic and ireddemable". I tell them that Infosys is atleast a start. The new culture and ethics of Infoscions are going to spread and influence others. The Infoscions are going to create new environment in their homes, in their workplaces outside infosys. They are going to create and maintain new levels of hygiene and maintenance. A thousand infosys campuses and thousands of Infoscions are going to bloom!!. These vanguard movement will have a powerful impact on the rest of India.

I myself have come back inspired. for me, the Mysore campus is my "Dream India". It makes me optimistic and upbeat about the new india which is going to be shaped and moved by these new young generation of Infoscions.

I hope you dance

2006-09-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

I have fallen in love
with the song
of Lee Ann Womack

"i hope you dance"

I heard this sometime back
it was like a face in a crowd.. liked it ..moved along
the face appeared again..became familiar

this time when i heard it in Light FM in Newyork
the music got into my ears
travelled all the way by AirIndia
and it is here to stay with me
...making me hopeless.... and hopeful

It is the melody and voice which have captured me.
the lyric too has gone into my heart

here it is

"I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out reconsider
I hope you dance
I hope you dance"

Womack's bio says she learnt her lesson
"between the blush of a new love and the bruises of a broken heart"

One of her song says it by its title
" twenty years and two husbands ago"

Her songs are for"everyone who’s ever loved, lost, and learned hard-earned lessons and lived to tell about it, including the singer herself and this poor blogger".

E- Love

2006-09-11T03:35:00.000-07:00

Inbox is full
mails galore
jokes and junk
news alerts

i go down the list
racing for that one
the heart-stopper
breath-taker

i kiss the screen
smile and whistle
read and relax
savour and cherish

spirit soaring high
touching the moon
faith restored
feeling reinvigorated

I need a cafe
double expresso
to respond and resonate
to my E-love in cyberspace

Adding another passion...for mountains

2006-06-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

I have added yet another passion to my life..... I have become passionate about mountains ...after the fantastic eleven day and 1000 km journey over the Himalayan mountains from 9 to 19 June. It was a dream trip through the

- exotic places ... Keylong, Udaipur, Kaza, Samdo, Kalpa, Rekong Peo, Sangla, Manali and Narkanda,
- fascinating valleys of Kullu, Parbathi,Lahaul, Spiti, Baspa and Sangla
- breath-taking snow clad peaks of Kinnaur Kailash and Parbathi
- massive glaciers and moist rocks
- rushing rivers of Chandra, Bhoga, Spiti, Chenab,Beas and Sutlej
- the scenic orchards of apples, plums and apricots
- the majestic passes of Rohtang ( 4000 metres ) and Kunzum la ( 4500 m ) passes.
- historic Buddhist monasteries including the famous one at Tabo
- picturesque villages of Kibber( at 4200 metres-has claim to be the highest village in the world)and Chitkul
- the bailey bridges and the one-person ropeways hanging over the rivers connecting mountains
I was thrilled and scared,tested and humbled.

-thrilled by the tall peaks and deep valleys, fresh white snow on top and the rocks sculpted and designed by natural forces through thousands of years, lush green mountains with pine and fur trees contrasting with the stoic and Buddha-like bare brown mountains

-scared going through the high and narrow mountain roads. One gets giddy looking at the steep ravine on one side. Try to look at the other side and there are the rocks and stones perched precariously on the slopes waiting to roll down. Look in front and there are little temples and flags along the road put up in memory of lives lost in accidents. The driver of the jeep added to the fright, with stories of landslides, falling rocks and worse.

-Humbled by the massive mountains on whose shoulders i was climbing like a little ant. Humbled not only by mountains but also by other men and women much more adventurous and daring. While I was riding in the jeep, there were many who were cycling and trekking. There was the young Swiss boy who wanted to complete the 11 day trek to Chandratal even after falling sick on the fourth day. There was an Israeli youth who undertook a 15 day trek from Kibber to Leh. His only company was a guide and donkey.

-Trekking and climbing tested one's will and endurance. "Dont challenge the mountains", advised my fellow traveller,friend Harminder Sawhney, who has experience and enjoys the mountains. slow and steady pace. Dont sit down...one step at a time. Focus on the next step .. and the next one. Body gets warmed, steps become rhythmic and one keeps going and going ...That is when enjoyment starts. After every hundred metres or at every turn of the mountain one looks down at the scenary below, filled with an air of achivement and joy. The best time to go up is the early morning when the mountains are still sleeping, said my friend. The bright sun and the shining peaks inspire one to climb higher.

- inspired by the sturdy, courageous and hard-working mountain people who make use of every bit of land to cultivate crops and live, work and enjoy life amidst the challenging conditions of nature.

It was pure joy trekking, climbing, walking, and breathing. I have come back recharged. I will keep going back to the mountains, for sure.

Google Story - audio book

2006-05-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

This is my first audio book. The google story published in 2005 comes in five audio CDs. I listened to most of the book while travelling in the car.

The google story is exciting and inspiring. The last time i was inspired by a similiar book was when i read " The road ahead" by Bill Gates . The first brain to become the richest in the emerging era of Knowledge, which has profundly changed our work, communication, entertainment and life itself.

The google guys have done it better than Bill Gates. Serge Brin and Larry Page have brought about a revolution in internet search, built up a 230 billion dollar- worth company and became the youngest bilionaires in seven years after starting the company in 1998.

The google guys are audacious, visionaries and unconventional and quirky. They are free spirits like children chasing curiosity without fear.

The search system they have built is fantastic. One has got so much used to googling, life without it is now unimaginable. Their business model of free search giving objective results to users but giving enormous profits to them is a unique model. They have added so many other features like images, video, digitisation of books and desktop search and i am getting hooked.

Besides the scientific part of their achievement, they have defied business managers, wall street honchos, investment bankers and the washington lawyers daring them with their unconventional approach and beating them beyond belief in their own turf. I liked specially the way they beat the Wall Street with their own unique way of achieving success with their IPO.

Serge and Larry have built Google their own way. Even at the start, they managed to get venture capital without giving up control.

And of course, they have beaten my old hero Bill Gates hands down. Microsoft attempted several times and failed to beat Google.

I like the way Serge and Larry have made their work and achievements look like fun. They disregarded conventions, defied norms and did many things their own, sometimes funny ways. And their encouragement to employees by letting them spend 20 percent of their time in their own pet projects is smart and win-win for both. They value their employees, treasure them and reward them. Even when the company was small they employed a chef to do "culinary engineering' in the kitchen to provide healthy and great food. What a unique idea !

Having conquered the world, where do they go further. To mars , of course.....typical of them... they are involved in foundations and research on space travel, genomics, articial intelligence... and want to attach google to our brains....

I have become an admirer and fan of the google guys besides being an addict to googgle search.

Ambassadors Cup Golf

2006-05-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

The tournament was organised in JP Green at Greater Noida on 13 May 2006. It was sponsored by Nicholas Piramal. It was Harinder Sikka, President of the company who put this tournament together. Thanx Harinder...

Ministry of External External Affairs was the official partner. Foreign Secretary shri Shyam Saran inagurated the tournament. He got a shock when he hit the first ball and it exploded... trick ball !. Minister of State Shri Anand Sharma was the chief guest at the prize distribution.

I won a trophy ( big crystal one ! ) with a score of 82. I was under pressure from Kapil Dev who was in my four ball and he drove 300 yards and finished with a sub par round. He won the first prize.

The tournament was telecast live by Zee Business TV. First time, an amateur golf event was given live coverage !

There were two explanations about our playing in this summer heat
- we are already crazy... having exposed our head to too much of sun
- Having worked in the government for many years, we have developed thick skin

Tip for those who did not win... should change the clubs. Instead of callaway and taylor made, they try the "night clubs" ! And should remember that " one does not have to be perfect... to enjoy golf and sex !"

Japanese Story

2006-04-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is the second time i have been emotionally moved by Japanese .
Although this is a Hollywood film, the hero is japanese.Gotaro Tsunashima acts as Tachibana the main character. He travels in Australian desert countryside accompanied by an Australian geologist Sandy ( Toni Collete). The Australian is puzzled and frustrated with the japanese attitude and approach. Finally the Japanese opens up and bridges the communication gap and help her to get out of the desert. In the process he starts liking her which leads to reciprocation and love. When the love and understanding starts blossoming, he drowns in a lake and dies and leaving sandy completely traumatised. The Japanese wife comes to take the body. While Sandy cries that it was her fault leading him to the lake, the Japanese wife shows the typical control over her emotions and leaves an envelope containing the fotos of sandy with her husband. The movie brings out the contrasting cultures of the brash down under and the subtle japanese character. Tachibana explains how the word" hai " can mean yes or no or maybe depending upon the tone and way of saying it.
I was moved by the Japanese character. The Japanese songs played during the sad moments of the story touched my soul reminding me of Floating weed, the japanese film which triggered this blog.

50 first dates

2006-04-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

saw this yesterday.
This is a typical Adam Sandler comedy. he meets Drew Barrymore in a cafe and she invites him for breakfast the next day. But when he goes the following day she does not recognise him and drives him away as a stalker. he discovers that she had suffered brain damage in an accident. Thereafter her memory stays for only one day and during her sleep in the night it all goes away. But she remembers only what happened on that particular day , the accident took place. The rest is romance and comedy and caribbean beach resort, where the story takes place.

The friend of Sandler tells him the girl fits perfectly to the casanova-type hero who seeks vacation flings and avoids commitment.
There is another character whose memory lasts only for ten seconds. oops.. sometimes it happens to people in parties where they " are glad to meet u " twice or thrice during the same evening.
I enjoyed the movie and recommend to friends.

blue is my colour of passion and inspiration

2006-04-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Blue is the sea
moving and waving
Blue are your eyes
darting and striking

Blue is the sky
opening my horizon
Blues are sadness
fermenting poems

Blue is a song
of cristian castro
Blue is the ink
penning my feelings

Blue is a club
of poets and muses
Blue could be light
profound at times

Blue makes me smile
sad sometimes
Blue is my color
of passion and inspiration

discovery of Loreena Mackennit

2006-03-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a queridissima friend i discovered this canadian singer with gypsy legs, sufi soul and mystic magic.
i liked her songs mummers dance, samain night, mystic's dream
i got carried away by her lyrics which took me on mystic journeys through celtic lands and beyond.

here r some of the lyrics of this exotic and eclectic singer which touched and inspired me

samain night
when the moon on a cloud cast night hung above the tree tops height
you sang me of some distant past
that made my heart beat strong and fast
now i know i am at home at last

mystic dream
a clouded dream on an earthly night
hangs upon the crescent moon
a voiceless song in an ageless light
sings at the coming dawnupon a darkened night
the flame of love was burning in my breast
and by a lantern bright i fled my house while all in quiet rest
...the eyes declare a truce of trust
and then it draws me far away

when she says every journey brings its own surprises a challenge, a sudden detour a new set of friends along the way or perhaps even a destination different from the one you intended

i am reminded of my queridissima friendwho said we are the sum of the places we have been
so .. i am where i have been

Need for a new paradigm in "Bureaucracy – Business” interaction

2006-03-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

How do you make a bureaucrat laugh on a Friday?
..Tell him a joke on Monday…
..He needs five working days to process the joke and get necessary approvals before laughing !.

This was how the bureaucrats were blamed for the Hindu (slow) rate of growth in the past.

Now when there is pressure for FDI in retail sector or reforms of outdated labour laws, the bureaucrats are blamed for being too fast. And here goes the new story:

Who is the fastest in India? …The businessman boasts he can drive 150 kmph in his Mercedes….The pilot says, he can fly at 800 kmph. But they have no chance against the bureaucrat whose office closes at 5.30 pm but he manages to reach home by 5 pm !

Poor bureaucrats ! They get the blame one way or another. Bureaucrat- bashing has become a popular sport.

At the 37th Jawaharlal Nehru memorial lecture on 21 November 2005 at New Delhi, Lee Kuan Yew had put it bluntly in his characteristic style.

“My secretaries asked Singapore businessmen with investments in India what, apart from infrastructure, they found as major constraints. To a man, they replied it was the bureaucracy.They believe it is a mindset problem. The average Indian civil servant still sees himself primarily as a regulator and not as a facilitator. The average Indian bureaucrat has not yet accepted that it is not a sin to make profits and become rich. The average Indian bureaucrat has little trust in India’s business community. They view Indian businessmen as money grabbing opportunitists who do not have the welfare of the country at heart. India must find some way to reward bureaucrats who facilitate, not hinder investments and enterprise”.

The civil servants are not allowed to defend themselves, being bound and gagged by conduct rules. Of course, there are good and bad bureaucrats as there are good and bad ones in business and politics. It is not fair to condemn everyone. Good bureaucrats need to be recognized and encouraged and the inefficient ones should be filtered. Some of the civil servants are as good as the best in business. They can deliver more, if they are given the right ambience.

Here are two examples of how they can perform, when they get the opportunity.
- One of the secrets of success of LN Mittal who has made his fortune through his steel ventures around the world is his core group of 60-70 Indian engineers from the Indian public sector steel companies. They were the ones who turned around the old inefficient steel mills from USA to Indonesia and Mexico to Kazhakstan.
- The key executives behind the success of Reliance in their oil and gas ventures are from ONGC and IOC.

The public sector employees, who are stereotyped as inefficient have delivered success and profits to these two companies, which allowed them to give their best.

So what is needed is a reform of the civil service to provide an enabling environment for delivery and efficiency. The anachronistic foundation of the bureaucracy which was made for supporting a colonial structure needs to be replaced by a new set of values and rules needed for the emerging new India.

The most fundamental need is a change in the mindset of civil servants. It is not uncommon to find bureaucrats with a bloated moral sense of superiority over businessmen whom they perceive as profiteers. Some have an inverted inferiority complex and exercise their power to show off their authority. Some presume that they are the sole guardians of national interest. These perceptions need to be corrected in this new era of diminishing role of the government and strengthening forces of free market and globalisation. The bureaucrats should be reoriented to recognise that businessmen are as indispensable for economic growth and generation of employment, as the government itself.

At the same time it is imperative for the business also to change their perceptions of bureaucracy as a power-hungry and rule-bound obstacle for progress. They need to respect and recognize the legitimate role of policy-makers and implementers.

The two sides should recognize the role of each other in the society and shed their notions of superiority or inferiority. The interaction should be based on mutual respect, trust and confidence.

The s uccess of Japan, the East Asian Tigers and recently the Chinese Dragon are to a large extent based on the shared vision and partnership between the government and the private sector. The bureaucrats in these countries work closely with the business in the strategic development of industries, business and technologies.

Business organisations such as CII and FICCI can play a role in bridging the gap between the bureaucracy and business sector. They can take the initiative and organise regular interaction with the civil service at various levels to foster better understanding and working between the private sector and the government. They could be involved in the training of the bureaucrats at various levels. Business executives could be included for brief training in civil service academies and bureaucrats could get training in the instituitions of Infosys and Tatas The government and the business could consider opening up opportunities for lateral movement of bureaucrats to business organisations and vice versa. Regular and structured interactions between the two sides could be institutionalized at the policy-making process, wherever feasible.
It is time we stop the blame-game and do something constructive to evolve a new paradigm of partnership between the bureaucracy and private sector for the larger goals of growth and prosperity. Civil service reforms can unlock the potential of the bureaucrats in the same way as economic reforms have unleashed the entrepreneurship of Indian businessmen.

This article is being given space here after it missed publication in a newspaper.

"The world is flat" by Thomas Friedman

2006-01-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

I started this book tentativley, after the critical comments of Siddharth Varadarajan from The Hindu. But once I started reading, it became absorbing. Of course i do not subscribe to all the theories and conclusions of Friedman.

In 2005 this was the second non-fiction i read with unstoppable enthusiasm after Pawan varma's " Being Indian".

Friedman has given a graphic account of the supply chain which works seamlessly between countries, companies and individuals. He has highlighted the erosion of the vertical command and control system giving way to the horizontal world in which there is need to connect and collaborate.

For an average Indian, who is at the lower end of the globalisation which has opened unlimited opportunities , the book gives an overview and surprisingly balanced one coming from an American.

It celebrates the new spirit of enterpreunership unleashed among Indian geeks and bzmen.It highlights the emergence of a new Indian who has the confidence and courage to transcend frontiers and connect and collaborate,converge and synergise with the innovators and reasearchers besides the customers through call centres. The inexorable march of technology demolishing barriers, frictions and restrictions has become a tool for the Indian brain to explore its full potential and plug and play from anywhere. Anything which is digitisable is game for the new Indian hunters.

It is , of course true that this march is through the urban middle class streets and millions are left behind in the rural india. But the society cannot wait to collect all the passengers and in that waiting, miss the bus. Those who take the first bus are going to inspire and motivate the others to follow. With its massive problems of overpopulation and underdevelopment, India needs to tap into every source and exploit every opportunity.

What India has got so far in the shrinking world is a small fraction at the lower end. Not to worry. That is how the Japanese, Koreans , Taiwanese and now the Chinese moved up the value chain. Today China exports more high tech goods than USA. Lenova has taken over the flesh of IBM, which has turned into a ghost calling itself the "other IBM". Look at Iflex which has one of the best- seller banking solution product which has been exported to over 100 countries.

I was surprised to see so many pages of this 473- page book has India stories and Indian names. This coming from the other side which feels threatened, shows the arrival of Brand Indian..who commands respect because of the knowledge power.

I like Friedman's easy and conversational style of telling stories.

I would strongly recommend this book for all the Indians to reinforce their new found pride and self esteem and to get inspiration to aspire more. I hope an Indian would write the view from our side.

floating weed

2005-12-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

The Japanese movie "Floating weeds" moved me so powerfully and drove me to create this blogsite to express the craziness arising from non-latin american sources of inspiration.
so here i strart floating like a weed in rivers other than Amazon and orinoco.
Let me start with the movie first..
The Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu caught me unaware and held me spellbound with this first ever movie i happened to come by in Palika bazar.
It is the story of an itinerant actor, who comes to settle down with his old flame after his travelling career. He is forced by destiny to hit the road again and continue his vagabond movement.The movie brings out the quintessential character of Japanese. What took me by surprise was the romance and humour woven subtly into their non-expressive culture.
The last time I was moved so powerfully was when i saw the film" cold Mountain" and read Tolstoy's war and peace and Anna Karenin.
I tried another film of Yasujiro Ozu called as " The end of Summer". Again i was affected albeit in a less powerful way as by Floating Weeds.I was again taken aback by the subtleties and nuances of the Japanese character. Old man awakened and repossessed by an old flame. He conforms outwardly to the boundaries of tradition but let himself go crazy as anyone would do so.The aesthetics and sense of harmony was as i imagined.
hmm... here is a new river for me to float among many...