Human Capital Series - 3 - On leadership development...

These are some of the excerpts of an article which I helped co-create on the various initiatives one can do under the umbrella of leadership development...

Leadership competencies
Every company has it own take on what they want their leaders to accomplish. This wish list needs to be broken down into a series of winning behaviors. These behaviors can be further be grouped under various leadership competencies. These leadership competencies become the recipe for the development process. It provides the context to the basic development process and also gives cues on the design of the development process

Leadership Kindergarten
The fundamental tenet for every nursery or kindergarten is to create experiences around what the child needs to learn. This could be in the form of rhymes, action songs, jigsaw puzzles et.al which provide support to the basic framework of learning whether it is numbers or the alphabets. What organizations need to do is to create leadership nurseries for their employees- opportunities where the individual can work and learn. The essence of these programs is also to design experiences where the individual has to be exhibit these leadership competencies to solve and manage real life work situations. The experiences need to be created around class room training and board room interactions.

Leadership Mentors
A good practice to follow in these programs is to assign a leadership mentor. These mentors need to be professionals in the organization with high credibility and whom the entire organization admires and the junior management wants to emulate. Constant interactions with these role models reinforce various management behaviors and also serve as opportunities where the individual can use the mentor as a sounding board for bouncing off ideas and doubts. The role of the mentor is to also probe the various actions of the individual and delve deeper and ask questions on the rationale for various actions. These dialogues need to tease the reflective analysis skills of the individual and help him or her to question various exhibited behaviors. Reflective observation lays a key foundation in building the ability in the individual to cement his learnings from various diverse experiences and also connect them to the larger the structure in his / her mind.

Leadership Fox trot
While mentoring helps in the tutoring process, a more personalized approach is the ‘leadership fox trot’. Fox trot unlike most other dance forms around the world enables the pair of dancers to gradually match up steps and then encourages the dancers to develop their own signature style. The basic slow-slow-quick-quick rhythm helps the individual to slowly pick up pace and then match the routine of the leader. Such close interactions with leaders help in building confidence in the individual and also help to explore what suits best from him or her preferences - behaviors that suit the individual strengths of the person.

Leadership Musical chair
There is no substitute for the exposure different positions – with the changed job description and different expected work outcomes – it contributes to the overall development of the individual into a well-rounded professional. The metaphor of the different chair in each round is for the change assignments and the reducing number of chairs denotes the move up in hierarchy. This also helps in fostering a general management outlook in the individual rather than the targets and pressures of the respective function of business unit.

Leadership Podium
An experience and learning sharing process of the individual in front of the top management core of the organization build confidence in the person and also provides an opportunity to interact get the views of the wider leadership community. Organization needs to have a structured program where the individuals get an opportunity, on a periodic basis, for formalized learning sharing capsules. When this process is embedded in the operational fabric of the organization, it serves as a regular experience reckoner.

Leadership Chronicles
“Education is best imparted through fables” – one cannot over emphasize this notion. Whether it is our Panchatantra or Grimm’s fairy tales, we have always found their allegories build a basic sense of life, good, evil, socially acceptable actions in all its readers especially in their formative years. Leadership chronicles are what great leaders in their organization or industry did in various trying and dodgy times and how they prevailed over the obstacles. These ‘stories’ filter through the rank and file of the organization and become the subject of many a discussion. Whether it is the water cooler chat or the coffee table tête-à-tête, these discussions are indispensable in creating an atmosphere of positivity within the organization.

Leadership project management dashboards
These programs and initiatives need to have a serious focus on execution. Although organizations have several such implementations going on at every point of time, what they lack is the discipline to create a robust feedback and control dashboard which also encourages the rigor of project management on to some of the less tangible initiatives. Having execution metrics is also fundamental to the sustainability of these initiatives.

They say that HR budgets are always under the axe when the business cycle hits a rough turn ; little needs to be emphasised that the HR role needs to play the vital role of the blacksmith to hone the skills of its leaders and enable business to meaningfully circumvent every new challenge ...

On Schooling ...

Entering the portals of an educational institution is one of those and holy functions which one comes across in life. While we kids tagged along with our parents on their professional sojourns, I managed to change eight schools till matriculation. Every other year, I was staring into a class room with a bunch of strangers. By the time, I have made friends, it was always time to move on. This continued into college, but I found some stability in engineering college where, it was the same environs for four formative years. What had never occurred too seriously at least in my mind was – was I going to the right institutions? Well, I guess I did not care less as a student…

But this seems like a whopping question in the minds of parents of my generation, who do everything short of hiring a consultant to help them identify a framework to identify the right educational institution for their toddlers. I guess as concerned parents, everyone has the right to choose the best ecosystem which suits the value system of their family. Broadly if you look at the options in front of them, I get eager to put it into a framework.

There are essentially four categories of schools which the parents look that
# International Schools
# Indian schools modeled on International syllabus
# New concept schools – innovative teaching methods
# Traditional schools teaching the state, central syllabus

International Schools have always been of attraction from the point of view of internationally ‘exposed’ course material and boasts of having been tried and tested in lots of geographies. It does make sense for kids whose parents travel abroad for extended periods and the family migrates temporarily for these periods. Some semblance of continuity is required. For the social elite, it is also a matter of prestige to put their kids in these schools as it adds to their social resume, makes a statement of their financial with the steep rates they pay as fees. The second category are the wannabes ; they take up franchisees and at times the blends the positive from the international schools and try to also build in the best from our age old rigmarole like exams and homework.

The new concept schools are what the name suggests – New Concepts. Somewhere they try to bring in the oldest Indian forms of gurukuls and build in some of the old scriptures of learning in the tutoring format. We also hear concepts like ‘green learning’ and several others in the experimental mode.

The last is the regular school a lot of us have been to. Big classes, entrance interviews even for nursery, tons of homework, class tests, annual exams , competition, teacher pressure blah blah.

So, what did I choose for my daughter? The fourth category. Why? Not a very complicated consultant reply. I wanted her to appreciate competition – the fact that however unique you are as a person, you will have to compete for every other accolade in life. ‘Appreciating someone who has done well’, easier said than done – it takes a lot more to step back and appreciate someone else’s success and respect someone who has beat you to it. Our standard run of mill school sets the stage for those realisations. It is for the individual to develop on those and build his or her own value system...

On a summary of the IPL redux...

Well, maybe this time I have taken too many liberties and have run out of excuses for not writing. Too many working Saturdays and another barrage of workload impending, had clouded the lean periods of relaxation and the immediate priority remains spending some time with my daughter who started official schooling last week. Having said that I thought I do a little postmortem of the IPL to begin with and then return to the rigmarole of writing.

IPL 2 was not a whimper like what a lot of us believed and firmly advocated. With the resounding success of this format and the tournament, I seriously question my ability to predict current affairs. It was also slap on my hand that – “Rajesh, stick to advising organizations on strategy and human resources, let the pundits do the same for cricket!” Moreover ‘The fake IPL player’ blog ruled the roost and I enjoyed it too much to critique or to copy the style!

A quick dekko at a team wise personal view :-

Deccan Chargers - They emerged champions after languishing at the bottom of the pile last year. I always maintained through out last year that they were one of the best teams in the tournament even last year and the performance in the previous tournament was never totally lacklustre , they just seemed to be loosing it at the end ! But they re wrote the story this time with Gilchrist carrying on from where he left last year and Rohit Sharma turning out some gems during the choking stages. Ojha’s bowling impressed me more than purple cap RP Singh and somewhere I appreciated the grit shown in dropping Laxman though I do not think the Ravi Teja or Venugopal Rao justified being brought in ahead of Laxman.

Royal Challengers - My favorites for the year ! Not because Kumble proved that his art is ageless, or Dravid fought hard to keep his reputation intact but for just standing up and delivering against the media who were somewhere cozy lampooning Mallya. Ross Taylor played the innings of the tournament and young Pandeyji came good when the spot light on the team.Whether it was Roelof, Kallis, Praveen, Dale Steyn, they laughed at the media for counting them out.

Rajasthan Royals – Well, you can’t win them all. Lady luck does not always the favor the brave and even if you have Shilpa Shetty as your mascot, it takes a little more than sheer grit to be the Big Boss ( or brother) ! Pathan did his cameos and Warne spun it around but Sohail and Shane Watson were badly missed. Like last year no one gave them too much of a chance and this time there were no stars and master protagonists.

Mumbai Indians – Well, Sachin and Sanath can only do so much ! Duminy turned consistent and Malinga was easily the best bowler of the tournament, but it takes a lot more than that to stand on the winning podium and somewhere they lost the plot big time inspite of the elegant Nita Ambani personally sitting with the crew in the dugouts.

Preity’s Lions – They just could not get the act together when it mattered and lost some crucial matches. Brett Lee came too late and Sreesanth did not deliver. Poor Purple cap contendee Abdullah was swatting flies in the dugout and cursing his luck for being dropped after his wicket taking spree and being replaced by Sreesanth. Finally when Sree came good, he had to dance and celebrate – wicket of Dhoni – Something tells me from Dhoni’s face that – it was the end of Sree’s career with the national team.

Chennai Super kings - I have never remembered anyone as consistent as Hayden who went out there on each match and gave Chennai the start they wanted in each game. Dhoni’s astuteness as a captain was questioned time and again but he still managed to douse all criticism with wins and a semi final berth. Murali spun mysteriously as usual and Raina came good with the bat and on the field. I guess they will always be among the top contenders for the tropy each year for a while.

Delhi DareDevils – Perhaps the best team on paper ! Dilshan and De Villiers outshone Gambir and Sehwag by miles and they were quite good at backing the totals of their batsmen with bowling. But have we not seen the best teams choke in the semis especially when one is hit by Hurricane Gilly ! Nehra and Nannes came good for them and but Sehwag’s excuses for not including McGrath was just not convincing enough. You cannot leave McGrath from any team in the world !

Kolkatta Knight Raiders – Last and definitely the least was the baffling consistently poor performance of this team. They played hard to throw muck on Shah Rukh’s face. The fielding was pathetic and sitters were almost consistently dropped. Saurav truly showed how a retired player should play – lazily, in deep fatigue and thorough disinterest! Eventually the cheer leaders of KKR were dancing whenever he got out eagerly awaiting for Hodge to improve things! From me Booooooooooooooooo !

Finally kudos to the BCCI and specifically to Lalit Modi who rocked it, even in South Africa !

On Networking and Not working ...

Hi,

A deep, sincere and heartfelt apology to all of you who have been sweet and stern (:-)) and definitely correct in reminding me that the output of the blog has been on a decline in this financial year (since March). No excuses,it was one of the normal pressures of time of adult life - the ushering in of several little sundry activities which were unavoidable. And of course our tryst with finding a domestic help (!) for taking care of our child.

The interesting part of ‘connecting back’ is the way we naturally pick up the threads and twines and run around tying things back in place. ‘Connecting back’ itself is a phrase I pick up from a good friend and colleague who uses the word effectively and truly understands the word – Networking! While we normally use the epistemology of the word more, ‘net – working’, and usually do the rigmarole of sending a mail rather than truly connecting through a meeting face to face, there is something worthwhile even in the occasional mail. Whenever I go to into a shell blaming it on too much work or busy travel schedules, I remind myself that connecting with others is something as essential as a daily hygiene activity. I have in the past insisted to a lot of my juniors and ‘attentively listening clients’ that there is no substitute to keeping in touch with people to have a ‘world’ view of things and know what is happening around you. And with communication costs reaching the rock bottom, we now don’t have the excuse of ‘costly exercise’!

With this emphatic moral cause in mind, I paid a little more than warranted attention to a client’s mail asking to connect on Yaari.com. Once I opened the site, the geeks behind the site had a mail send on my behalf to all the hapless members of my address book and on my Inbox. Fortunately I was online for a while longer to realize the faux pas, and send mails to my college groups and the few clients on my private mail box. Obviously some of them confirmed that they have already had a similar experience and we exchanged a sheepish chuckle.

In the past couple of weeks, I have still been bombed with more requests and the like from the names of friends with highly emotional mails ‘ X is having sleepless nights since you have refused to connect to him’, ‘Y is fallen sick in depression because Rajesh Nair refused to connect to them’ ! My heart is with all those who have fallen prey to such sites and the immense embarrassment they have to go through!

Having said that, I don’t want to enter into a spiel maligning networking sites. I use LinkedIn quite often and have often suggested friends to do the same. I have stayed clear of Facebook since I have heard the addictive facets of the site and don’t want to get into another time stealer as of now, however good the site is. Times launched Peer.com and I connected more out of obligation to the guy who send me the invite rather than an intention to use the site. The infusion of these sites and their time stealing facets has given the English Lexicon a new word – “Notworking’ – a characteristic of various net junkies who effectively spend most of their working time on the networking sites and land up NOT Working !

On the South African Premier League outsourced from India

So the IPL-2 started more on a whimper rather than a bang in the far away wilds of South Africa. The common man has to stick to his television to have a dekko at the cricket fare, the mundane and fairly insipid coverage. The Set Max team covering the event are doing everything except covering cricket. There is the Chinki dentist from Dhanbad, Meiyang Chang, cashing on his Indian Idol fan following and trying very hard to impress exercising his Hindi and often landing on a pile of tomfoolery. There is Mandira Bedi, back in full form and less hair, doing a wee bit better than her performance in the coverage of the 2003 World Cup. There is some tall dude, model, I guess, doing such that- modeling and engaging with Arun Lal. The normally loquacious and glib Arun Lal has perhaps been given feedback to improve his vernacular and keeps more engaged at communicating in Hindi rather than concentrating on cricket. The ever trustworthy Samaritans - old stalwarts Harsha, Gavaskar, Ravi et.al., restore some semblance of propriety with proper cricket coverage.

For the game, I must say I do not have too many complaints. The nature of the 20 – 20 terrain is such that the most innocuous of batting skills can win the day and couple of bad overs can take the game away from you. If you can live with that then there is a lot to applaud to. There is the dependable Hayden starting off Chennai Kings on a run riot in each game. Rahul Dravid is a man on a mission and plays all the shots he never played in his career. Gilly continuing from where he left off last time, has been playing like someone who easily has another ten years in him. Shane Warne turning and bouncing as usual and leading his band of unknowns. Sachin has turned in couple of blitzkriegs, though I think he is ‘trying’ too much. But the best batting so far has been AB De Villiers’s century, which was a classy innings and made Delhi Daredevils’s batting line up perhaps the most destructive. Then the magic man Murali whom I still can’t read and don’t think most of the batsmen do – but then at time swings connect and runs come in this form of cricket.

The celebrity quotient is fairly high with actors, models and business heads wanting to show their mug and talk cricket. There is Shilpa who is basking in the glory of her new found role, Priety continues to charm her team and the crowds, Shah Rukh flys kisses at the televisions as if the entire world is watching IPL to have a glance at him ( secretly I like him in this role, far more tolerable than his film roles and prosaic acting ), The GMR hoi polloi with whistles and clarnets, Nita Ambani showing some polish and looking more glam than the others and our man Vijay Mallya keeping his fingers crossed and praying that Jessie Ryder and Peitersen will do some justice to the Kingfisher beer sales – gobbling beers if not runs !

The popularity of the event is definitely no match to what it was last year. The ad men are running around frantically with the falling TRP rates, with election coverage in India picking up equal TRP and some viewers preferring to read the news rather wake up till late for the match results. The cheer leaders seem to have faced the recession with receding top lines and reducing bottom lines. Thank God, the Muthaliks of the world did not have enough dollars and are totally engrossed with their political futures, to fly in the moral police from India and mess up the dances. Lastly, I do feel for the Pakistani cricketers who could not participate in this event - I hope things are better for the next IPL and we see them play active roles.

For the business consultant in me, this is another venue for more consulting / outsourcing moolah. The IPL actually seems like the South African Premier League outsourced from India !

On the changing landscape and shifting of residence…

I render my apologies to all of you folks who have been motivating me to write more often and commenting on the slowing output of the blog entries. Not as an excuse, since I consider my writing seriously and will one day be hopefully sitting and gazing at the ocean and watching a sunset and nibbling away on a laptop, watching the sea gulls and the birds guarding the sea and lilting to the tunes of my mother’s ancient lullaby from those wonderful days of childhood; Huh( deep sigh !) – But I digress.

Moving into a new residence can be a tedious task, even if you are lying around in the couch and firing away orders to a group of thin wiry Bihari and Bengali packers chewing and sucking on their ‘khaini’. We shifted into another part of town near the buzzing M G Road and the busy Brigade road. In spite of the busy traffic and the proximity to thickly populated business streets, we are cushioned in the saddle of some aging greenery and large rain trees. The streets inside are more silent, has the everlasting dampness of the tree guarded denizen has the rare smell earth one has to consume and not write about. As the rain gods showered blessings in the last two days, the green gained in pulchritude and the jacarandas boasted their blossom, suddenly I felt I was in the Bangalore of the yesteryears when it was truly called the ‘Garden City’. Those days when your backyard had the Mayflower, Moulmein Rosewood, Hibiscus, Tabebuia, Silk Cotton, Indian Coral are just memories and we have to rely on the ‘Namma Metro’ to restore some of that green grandeur. For someone from Kerala, like me , greenery is no novelty but the sheer variation in the naturally found trees in Bangalore has been a matter of a queer inquisition. Lalbagh has managed to retain much of the old glory in spite of the plethora of vendors and the apathetic citizens trying their level best to tarnish the place with all sorts of waste being thrown around.

One of the ills of urbanization has been the children of this generation missing all the faun and flora. When we stayed in our apartment in Gurgaon which we were always talking of the day when we will have to show our daughter a ‘rain tree’ on Google and not take her one and bask in the wide shelter it gives to the on lookers. When I first considered Bangalore for relocation, I was warned of the nagging traffic and the disappearing trees and I must say that some of my earlier day trips to Bangalore have been excruciating on the count of traffic and have barely managed to reach the Domlur airport for the return flights in the evening. But the shift never felt so rewarding till the last few days at the new residence.

Today, a walk in search of the morning dew, preciously stored in the folds of leaves, is not a futile one. I can step out after a down pour and shake a branch to shower on me with the saved droplets. I can hear the odd bird chirp in glee inviting the rains. Little pleasures in the ‘garden city’ where I am yet to see a house with a garden …

On Booing, Shooing and ‘Shoeing’…

We are from the land of ‘non cooperation’ where, we believed that active non-participation can move mountains or at least the British. What we learned from the efficacy of these tools is also the power of such protest and a non-violent way of showing dissent. Well, some of these methods may find takers when the opposition is full of civilized minds but may fall by the wayside when the opposition is paan chewing, red spitting, back and front scratching politician. But methods of protest have always seen the creativity of times!

Bush survived two strong well directed volleys by an Iraqi journalist – much credit to his fitness and reflexes. When you have eight years experience of ‘ducking’ issues, one gets a little talented at this kind of stuff. But I secretly admired Bush’s reflexes when the Iraqi statesman standing next to him did not even blink while Bush was all in parry posture.The sales of the particular shoe model increased thirty fold in the next three months ( are you hearing this Gucci, Jimmy Choo ?).

A blog entry on the Wall street Journal writes “ shortly after the incident, online shoe throwing games were the rage. At http://www.sockandawe.com/ 91,498,174 have already hit Bush in the face and the website is even offering a $1,000 prize for the person who hits the 100,000,000th shoe. The tech freaks at DVICE even did a Top 10 listing of Internet shoe games.” In February earlier in the year, another shoe was hurled at the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Cambridge University did not find its target. This time the Chinese media panned the coverage and virtually censored the news and the video recording. But the effect remained and the inspiration to all those potential ‘shoe warriors’.

Now our own ‘desi’ shoe throwing incident! I would not call it 'throwing' as our man Jarnail Singh gently tossed it at Mr. Chidambaram who did nothing to duck or evade but still maintained his calm and shot out his innocent smile and asked the security to treat the journalist gently. Well, my lament is that the journo targeted the shoe at Chidambaram who is definitely one of the better political faces we have ,and definitely did not deserve such a demeanor. On the same breath, I also wish some one had shown the shoe at some of the other ‘worthy’ politicians.

While the security let off Jarnail Singh and no official police case was registered ( the Iraqi journo is on a three year jail sentence ) the media and the Sikh groups made a hero out of him. Also interesting was the monetary rewards, job offers and even a Lok Sabha ticket that were offered to him. With such incentives, shoe throwing is here to say. For the concerned security men, this is a new challenge – how does no prevent people from wearing shoes to conferences. Well, they may take a page out of ancient Indian ethos were shoes were always left outside houses and places of worship and encourage conference and meeting invitees to remove their shoes at the entrance of the building. But I pray this will not usher the era of a new protest weapon – smelly socks!

On the God of Nano things...

It has finally arrived! India and a good part of the global fraternity had been keenly following the story – the development of the world’s cheapest car. The initial plaudits have found takers in both the television and the print media. Every automaker has envyingly admired the car with the green tinted lenses. ‘Low cost and affordable’ is fashionable in these times of global penury and perhaps the timing of the launch matches the sentiments of the current hoi polloi.

For me, the news ushered in a lot of wonderful memories. The great old GET days at TELCO Jamshedpur! The homely colony, the friendly club, our favorite bar man Khayoomji, the thrill of riding a two wheeler, the October chill in the air and … True, it has been a long while since those days. And it has also been a long while for Tata Motors to emerge into its new avatar. “Why does every TELCO product have to look like a truck” – a cheeky fresh engineer has asked during a top management open house at the Jamshedpur works. The comment was directed at the Tata Sumo. The market also did not take favorably to the products – Sumo was involved in more toppling incidents in those years than all the other vehicles combined. The centre of gravity of the vehicle was the initial target of the critics and then the plethora design errors. But these comments did not dent the market demand and it more or less reigned till the advent of the Scorpios and the Qualis.

Indica (which began as Tata Mint – till the brand definition was changed from small car to Indian car) had too many startup issues right from design bloopers, reneging suppliers, conniving competitors etc. Even when the recalls ended and the design modified, the car was still not the favored passenger car that a consumer would want to take home. Even the wallet conscious did not flock around a very economical diesel design introduced later. But what Tata Motors won the process was the heart and faith of many a consumer and even the customers of other cars unanimously agreed that “Tatas have learned how to make a car!”

To top it all, the name ‘Tata’; it brings in a kind of romanticism and ethical purity like ‘Gandhiji’, our national anthem, our national flag – four letters which have some kind of a spiritual connection in the mind of every Indian. Amongst a lot of us Tata ( and ex-Tata) couples – we have a common joke that our kids will say that Ratan Tata is the father of the nation and not Mahatma Gandhi !

And now the Nano ! Indian technology has for once hit the business headlines and every business reader in India has definitely read the news with lot of pride and for me, it was the kind of feeling where one gets goose pimples and a soft Yanni tune plays in the background. It was a semi–emotional moment where I just wanted to call everyone I knew in Tata Motors and talk, talk and talk… Of course, the first response from their end – “So when are you buying the Nano?” followed by the chuckle. Well, it is not a ‘Na’ or ‘No’ to Nano now, let me just enjoy this feeling and walk around glowing in pride and pray that it will be the dream that a lot of us Indians cherished…

The young turks, rabid remarks, future of Indian Politics ?

Weekends are for relaxing, a little extra time at home, playing with my daughter and trying to make some sense of the vertiginous political landscape. And that is a tall task! Frankly, I do not worry too much about the outcome of the elections,as the dealings of the governing framework is in the hands of educated and erudite civil servants and increasingly the business leaders have been, of late, not been hauled up with any rabid legislations. Somewhere, there is also a broad consensus that business should be let alone and but for the odd Mamtas, it is business as usual.

Now politics is a whole different smorgasbord! With a little wisdom and some common sense, I feel I can state that ‘Days of coalition politics has now confirmedly become a reality’. All national parties have lost lustre and have increasing dissociated themselves from state level issues. State level issues have been under the grip of the regions which perpetually harbour national ambitions! Without a charming national face and a party to look up to, the media runs around each day to cover each face in the elction fray.To catch media, the new Turks seek routes of infamity and voice the most provocative and thoughtless (Well, perhaps not all that thoughtless) banter.

Latest to enter the melee is Varun Gandhi. His volatile comment against the Muslims is totally uncalled for and is a page straight out of the diaries of the Muthaliks of the world. From relative anonymity and only a ‘Gandhi’ title in his armoury, he has now emerged the ‘media boy’ and soon will be among the league of star BJP campaigners and all in the space of ten days. For the young ‘babalog’ of and the impressionable ( and also the older politicos), this is a crash course in how to make headlines and draw national attention.

1. Make a fiery casteist, racist, provocative comment
2. Be a little temperate – blame the acoustics and see the reaction of the media and the crowds
3. If the reaction is negative – blame the media and the politicians chiding you and claim that the story was concocted and you were misinterpreted by the media
4. If the reaction is - attention and the media is mollycoddling you for airtime – stick to your speech and blame the others for duplicity and hypocrisy – the beauty of our politics is that there are enough instances of leaders and parties taking partisan stances

For the Sangh Parivar, he is the chocolate boy – ‘well’ groomed youngster with a ‘national’ surname right down the lineage of the enfant terrible of National politics once upon a time – Sanjay Gandhi. For BJP, which is projecting L.K.Advani as the youth icon – this maybe the long searched for answer. For the Congress, this is a new line to throw brickbats at – and also an avenue for branding Rahul Gandhi as the more mature face. For the media, the sundry debates and interviews of politicians. For the mother Maneka, sworn animal lover, moments of deep pride – her son seems to follow his father’s footsteps and has picked up some animal instincts too !

It is win-win for anyone concerned. But for the poor, confused voter – another silent prayer – if the youth face of politics demonstrates this demeanour – God save this country!

On getting lost in the rigmaroles of life...

Thinking on the same lines as my earlier in the blog, I perused my old journal of five six years ago and saw this unfinished set of stanzas. Wrote a few more lines and posted the same. Maybe it is a slightly retrospective, since life has been sunshines of late :-)

There were days when I felt choked,
So full of energy and zest of life
But so less time to take space
A moment for my breath

The rush was everywhere
The cars, the mad rush at the lights
The hungry hands at the closed window
We were all in a hurry

The birds were never there
The green was always a passing blur
The sky, I guess must have been there
And we lived, of course

Then when the time came
I looked for all these
Something to hang on and cling
To a support for our dear lives

But the flowers had withered
The leaves were dry
The smell of rains were gone
Just the heat and the dune remained

I lived a life of noticing nothing
Never the leaves and the pulchritude
Never the soft whispers of nature
And never the touches of loved ones.

But life is strange healer
The smiles were fast to come
The minds bend to forgive
I was on a bed of roses once again !

Of motions of life, seeking meaning, ennui ...

The other day, ‘once in a while’ periodic call from one of my prior colleagues, led me into a train of thoughts into my past consulting life. The rush between the planes, trains and automobiles; the sundry presentations, the lonely drinking sessions to cut down ennui in an alien hotel, the detached run through motions of life…

“Life is good. I have got the best ratings among peers; I got favourable feedback and my seniors are happy with me. The clients trust my advice and the current assignment is going on really well. But there is some void somewhere; where is all this leading? What am I actually delivering? Am I happy?” he asked with the amazing earnestness that he shows in every interaction. “Six pegs of vodka, plenty of lime and some cubes of cube and the drink induced stupefaction and then deep dead slumber should do the trick!” I joked. But amidst the ensuing smiles and chuckles and the easing air, I went into some of my null days of the past – before my teetotalling present.

Yes, life just drifts away most of the time when we are working with that ‘detachedness’ a sort of ‘present but absent’ existence. So do a lot of us go through the rigmarole of daily life, hurry through every minute of life and blame it on the ‘pay cheque’ or realities of adult life ! Yes, we do – because we just want to; because it is convenient to do so; because that is what my friends, batch mates and colleagues do; because it is so difficult and unpragmatic to do anything else. I could think of a thousand excuses to confirm to the schedule I don’t like but I find it difficult to think of even one ruse to do something I like!

Fundamentally looking at life like an engineer, a bean counter and a stodgy management consultant, we spend most of our waking life in our working careers festooned in cubicles, office spaces and maybe boardrooms. With all checks and balances of life to cancel out in this life time, that is a tough call. The work scale is always heavier and tilts the balance to its side. So what is your advice Mr. Consultant – I ask myself. Well the key thing is to enjoy what you do … “Ok save the spiel, not another ‘lift me’ literature!” I reprimand myself.

So what else – a very simple set of rules

1. Look around you – notice all the different colours
2. Smile at every opportunity
3. Look at the faces of people around you – they are all going through life
4. Buy a bunch of flowers to give it someone you love
5. Watch a romantic comedy or read a comic

So, will this solve all the problems in your life ? No, it wont. Because we are the choices that we make. Nothing will change till you make that choice to lead a meaningful life – whatever that may mean to you!

'IT'ty, 'BIT'y conversations...

Change is one of the phobias that most of us have in our cells. True , but this fear can be in various proportions and intensities in various individuals. This phenomenon can be seen at its diseased worst in the employees of this organization which I visited the other day. The chief executive of the enterprise has, in the recent past, picked up a fascination for ‘IT’.

With our man’s new interest in Information Technology, the company is sweeping all over its various factories. IT education has been made mandatory to all employees and the added carrot or rather the stick is that – promotions and upward movement in the organization is linked to IT prowess.

But what does poor Mr. Rami Reddy have to do with this entire melee.

He has seen change in the last two decades and was always a silent unthinking spectator. Work life had always its sanctimonious reverence and it was too sacred to be shaken by the machinations of governments and the leaders. Things always happened for the better. The screen ‘god’ had emerged from the green rooms of the top management and set out to ravage the company landscape. The benevolent Maintenance head, was always there to provide spice to life and at times a little ‘peg’ to boost the moments. All in all there was the must-needed tranquility in the offices.

Then came that thing – computer. That small television screens seem to fascinate everybody to no end. How can one trivialize all those important information lying around in lazy dusty bundles ? Is there no sanity in the ambience any more ? How could a ‘Kam-puter’ do jyada work? Now CEO Garu insists on all employees in the office to go to Secunderabad for a training program. Imagine what will Kalyan think of his father. What face will I put on the next time I teach him arithmetic? His Appa has still to learn!

This was a short conversation I was privy to, sitting in Rami Reddy's office

“ Reddy Garu , have you heard about the computer installation in our office. There will be a computer in every table. It seems we will not have files on our tables any more.”
“ So ?”
“ At least we will have space to keep our tiffins on the table. There is a rumor that the machines get very hot after a while. Maybe we use it to heat our food during the lunch time.”
“But I heard that the air conditioning the entire office.”
“ In that case we get kulfis also from home.”
“ Our record room is also going to be demolished. There will be a ‘customer complain booth’ in the same place. Now those filthy contractors will trouble us more for their bills and tenders.”
“ But of course the computer will be on our side. It won’t team up with rogues and scoundrels.”
“ But what if the computer starts taking bribe ? Our pocket money will reduce, na ?”
“ Oh my God ! There is also a rumor that these machines are actually robots spying for our CEO. It will send all-important messages to him by something called ‘e-mail’. It is some kind of courier service.”
“ Yes, yes I have heard about that; and if anything incriminating is caught, they will send vigilance by this same e-mail and have us put into some ‘datawarehouse’.”
“Oh! What is this world coming to? There is no ethics in the office anymore.”

Road less traveled – Of bumps, jumps and aching bones...

It was an eventful evening… We huddled into the dilapidated Herbie ( read A/C Volvo) which had seen more bumpy rides than several human lifetimes. Inspite of the driver informing us that the vehicle is younger than my daughter – three years, I could not help gaping at it observing a silent homage to the battered warrior. I humbly offered a few excuses about nausea and vomiting and sat in the front throne just behind the pilot. The conductor still tried hard to convince me to take a seat at the back – “ We have plastic bags on every seat ; You can comfortably vomit ! “ A thousand expletives found its way to my tongue but I restrained myself. A damp stench filled the vehicle as if it were perspiring, thinking of another twelve hour journey to our destination.

The initial portion of the journey was fairly uneventful besides my admiration towards of hoard of mosquitoes which repeatedly attacked me with the zest of a samurai and vengefulness of a Ronin, trying to reclaim the faith of the emperor. My much cultivated habit of sleeping in a jiffy deserted me and I kept blinking at the lights and most the darkness ahead.

When my eyelids finally gave in, a sound of a revving engine came from the back seat . There was a rookie Lewis Hamilton – a fellow traveler, revving up, bludgeoning his nostrils and letting out snorts through his nasal exhaust. So much for sound sleep, I lamented.

The terrain had the inconsistency which made the Indian Cricket team look like gods. During the dips and the leaps, I remembered a person from my wanton school days. Sister Agnes !! She was like an Amazon inside the garb of a nun, always looking busy teaching us Biology. Her fury and deep baritone voice made her seem more like a drill sergeant taking ‘extreme’ PT lessons !But I digress …

But what I remembered was, she teaching us that there are ‘XXX’ no. of bones in the human body. Man, she was wrong! I just counted a wee bit on that evening. Every joint groaned like a mangled dog and I was just beginning to feel like a bundle of bones loosely attached with some adipose tissues.

The Oasis came after our camel had trudged a good three and half hours over sublimely rural India and we reached the land of the 'bald surd'. The welcome break had me rejoicing like a traveler in a Thai Massage joint. Suddenly I saw a surd with flowing sweat licked hair sitting at the counter. Was this a mirage or what is just fatigue? A sardarjee in an obscure part of South India – Man, that is enterprising! Luckily before I lost my marbles and perspective on reality, I saw the good old bald surd squatting on a coir bed and busy counting the hair around his navel under the rolled up vest with his right hand, and casually scratching his family jewels with his left hand… Needless to say I lost my appetite!

I looked around to relieve myself and had company in a cow letting out pee by the buckets with a purposeful look in its eyes. The seriousness made me begin to look for my business card and introducing my consulting company to the creature who seemed to be only sane animal ( read potential customer) in that dhaba ( colloquial for road side inn) of inebriation. I was just into the first introduction when I heard a muted thump!! Two dollops of a green substance dropped in retaliation from behind my new-found bovine friend … Message was clear “Dude, I dole out shit when I need to; But you do it for a living”. With these wise words of deep understanding, I lazily trudged on, for another leg of dips and leaps !

Tribute to a woman's life...

Growing among 'women of substance', this is a tribute to all of them who , made me who I am and still make me want to be a better human being each day of my life, on this International Womens' Day.
To my late grandmother, who, unshamedly lavished her love and partiality to me among all her grand children...
To my mother, who wanted nothing more than my happiness and prays every living moment for my well being...
To my sisters, whom I bullied and teased, but never flinched from calling me the best brother in the world...
To my wife, who is my favorite and most ardent critic keeping me grounded in reality, who I want to wake up with each morning...

To my lady colleagues, who have understood and appreciated every professional victory of mine ...
And to my daughter, who remains the centre of life , whose smile is worth all the troubles of adult and professional life...

This is for you all -------------

As a sister to brats galore,
She tends and mends fights
Bullied and tugged by the ponytails,
She still makes it up in the end

Brothers are always lost
Without the care and the compassion,
Without the trusted ear
Who is sump for every secret

As a wife to a kid (men never grow up)
She mollycoddles and massages
Gargantuan egos and complexes
And makes the day special in the night

She lends ear to every bickering
Comforts every rejection
Lauds each achievement
Lends a shoulder for each grief

As a mother, the creator of all
She has learnt the trade
After mothering her husband
She has the child in every heartbeat

She has a premonition of a kind
An accurate sense of feeling
Of whatever the child goes through
And prays every minute for the well being

As a grandmother of toddlers
She develops prowess in stories
Spoils with gifts and goodies
Pampers to heart’s content

She reminisces through life
Proud of what she was and is now
And readies herself for the yonder
And another life of love and care.

Human Capital Series -2 Understanding regulation...

While I have clients constantly asking questions related to their people issues, organization and corporate strategy, there are also the general questions on the state of the economy, markets and various management theories, I get to field. The most recent has been the tanking of the stock market – both the Dalal and the Wall Street and the eternal debate of “How much regulation is good?”Most of my replies are the logical dissection of the various parameters and the informed guesses and speculation on the future of business. I also attempt to create a model for clients to use and clarify such questions themselves. Now, the interesting or rather the difficult part of modeling is the inability of us professionals to create rules or patterns around various phenomenon. The corollary is the complaint that we tend to trivialize ‘facts’ by fitting them into models and formulae. As a senior client once commented “ You consultants have a model for everything – the only difference between you and an amateur mathematician is the jargon you paint it in and the tie !”

So I try to tread the waters to explain why markets are complex systems rather than rolling out another jabber or formula.

The financial system much like the ‘textbook’ complex entity is one that shows spatio-temporal correlations and are not determined purely by localized conditions. With large number of forces and flows affecting it, there are several limits to the tractability of the modeling process. Regulation brings in boundary conditions to any equation making it more focused for an optimization. Although at risk of classical reductionism, it also helps in detailed denotation in some of the presuppositions and logic. Regulation brings in a boundary condition that at times may 'intelligently' prevent 'excessive creativity.

Complexity brings with it its own virtues. Every complexity puts forth variables which we at times tend to neglect, newer permutations of key parameters and in essence brings out the need to always have a Plan B.In retrospect the immunity of our financial system vis-à-vis the western markets is perhaps a victory of institutional boundaries over individual unleashed creative thinking. There is an interesting article by David Brooks in the NY times speaking for institutional thinking over individual thinking - He says “Faith in all institutions, including charities, has declined precipitously over the past generation, not only in the U.S. but around the world. Lack of institutional awareness has bred cynicism and undermined habits of behavior. Bankers, for example, used to have a code that made them a bit stodgy and which held them up for ridicule in movies like ‘Mary Poppins.’ But the banker’s code has eroded, and the result was not liberation but self-destruction."

Like all management consultants, I have been pre-conditioned to avoid complexity when ever we enter the domain of decision making. May be there is a little virtue in using regulation to simplify the representation of financial market as a complex dynamical system.

On Wall Street, terrorists and Sachin Tendulkar...

Every now and then I wake up to the political canard like Rip Van Winkle from his reverie. "A little knowledge," said an English poet, "is a dangerous thing." I have always believed that partial knowledge lead us from what little light we have to greater darkness. Meticulous reading and understanding is warranted before one decides to exercise his right to opinion and debate. So I decided to use this Sunday to peruse the dailies and the NY times, to wake up to discussions and debates around me.

World has not changed – Blood bath continues on the Wall Street, Obama is on a quotidian, uninspiring agenda of the bail offs and the complete circle of violence in our unstable 'curry republics' states which slide on the terrorist gravy train in and around India (which looks unstable itself).Employment statistics in the US enter new crevices, the economic uncertainty clamps on the businesses and the optimism business world leaders tanks further.

Bangadesh Rifles just decided to take the pecking order into their own hands and planned a ‘private’ restructuring assignment - all because of a little comp & ben problem (Compensation & Benefits as the HR folks)!! When the army – the most disciplined of organisations - takes up cudgels in such fashion, one is politely reminded that every organisational entity is adrift with cultural and process based underpinnings and no one is immune to it !

The terrorist attack on the Srilankan cricket team proves the myth of inviolability of sportsmen - wrong and reminds us to leave security matters to the heads of the state and policy makers ; we would be best served by listening to their analysis on security and take their recommendations seriously and not plough through it in television debates. The stodgy IPL organisers and Mr. Modi better keep their fingers crossed during the event and pray to all their Gods to revent untoward events – we are in no way different from a Pakistan when it comes to these issues. The TV anchors may also be quietly nudged around the corner – ‘attack on Pakistan opens discussion on the fragility to the security cover of this region and not only Pakistan’.

After a few cursory glances at the cricket match at Christ Church, took a moment to savour the forty third century of our own ‘baby faced dynamite’ Sachin Tendulkar. Being around his age, cricket according for me has been laced with pages from his illustrious career and in every Indian match – my sole concern like millions of Indians,has remained – How much did Tendulkar make ? True, the senior most player of the team displays the kind of enthusiasm that one would expect from a rank fresher or a rookie !

Human Capital Series – 1 Understanding culture…

It is very often we hear the spiels – “Our key success factor is our culture!”; “There is something wrong with our culture”; “We want people who will fit into our culture!” While these are more like the clichés and banal statements, they also present an interesting cue point to understand the organization.

Culture is like the pulse of an organization. It cannot by itself give you a lot of information – slow, fast, normal, weak et.al. But it is an opportunity to peek into the portals of the organization. It helps you to ask questions to delve deeper into the institutional psyche at the moment – what ails it and what could be the probable causes. With the mindset of organizations moving from the ‘asset based’ to ‘people based outlook’, this discussion populates your guesses and surmises about the organization and helps in ‘intelligently’ drafting questions during your interactions.

Edgar Schein the ‘supreme guru’ of culture defines it

“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”

“…a basic set of assumptions that defines for us what we pay attention to, what things mean, and how to react emotionally to what is going on, and what actions to take in various kinds of situations.”

“…is neither innate nor purely driven by strategy, rather culture is learned and therefore can be changed.”

The interesting thing about culture is that – it can never be clearly defined by the people bound by it – difficult to ‘see the forest through the trees’. The task of the consultant is to ask questions and understand the connections between the various symptoms and draw a palette of link diagrams that effectively helps one to boil down to couple of causal factors.

All the tools that we use in the normal context – Culture web analysis, Social network analysis are triggered to categorize and affinitize various issues and present to you a diagnosis chart that broadly describes the organizational alignment to various people and strategic issues.

Hence the end document of a culture diagnosis should be like the diagnosis chart of an executive health check up – comments and readings on a sundry of data points which enable us to read and mull into the ‘What next ?’ strategy with the client

Human Capital Series - Introduction

Having sold ‘knowledge and experience’ through this last professional decade, I have encountered sundry of material on the ‘art of selling’ including the highly acclaimed and read publications on what makes ‘rain makers’. Moreover during the academic stint at B School we of course had an entire discipline of Marketing teaching us the finer art and also preparing us for the never ending battle at the corporate battlefield. What I remember from those days is mostly the skullduggery of the plethora of case studies and anecdotes and some guiding principles that I have modified and used to some success and lot of failures at the market place.

Intriguingly interesting has been my stint of selling human capital services across the national geography. ‘People issues’ and Organization Behavior were a one credit course in my entire selection of courses at the B School. But over the years, personally I have found work in this space the most challenging, fulfilling and engaging. The more intricate and esoteric travail is selling these services. I always found it squeamish to even ask “Do you have any people issues?” I am sure the ubiquitous reply from anyone right from the CPO to your laundry boy would be – “Don’t we all?” In this rather naïve or ordinary repartee lies the essence – All of us individually, in a group or in an organization are bound by principles and rules that the environment prescribes on us. Our successes are based on the efficient maneuvering of ourselves through these labyrinthine routes. At each bend on this road is the enquiry post where we seek advice – The talking post may be an elderly person, a psychologist, a psychiatrist or a human capital advisor / consultant.

So what these animals – human capital advisors- do in organizations? More often than not, people policies in organizations tend to fall on the ‘black spots’ of the organizational outlay. While strategic issues like structuring and target setting remain on the top of the memory of the CXO, some of the root issues on the people front do not present themselves on the same level just because they are shrouded by multifarious factors and each issue has a spin much like the locus of a toroidal plane! The very nature of these issues requires a Socratic mode of questioning to unravel them. Having said this, I must apologize if this area suddenly sounds like rocket science. As all areas, there are simple and interesting principles here which make it interesting, exhilarating and totally engaging.

The broad palette of these ideas and musings has led to a few governing ideas which I use time and again. The following series intends to traverse some of these areas and explore ideas and experiences, test various principles empirically and provoke some thinking and tickle the grey matter…The other reason for penning these down is to articulate and understand issues and discuss what are the signs one needs to be cautious of. The broad format will be to look out for the symptoms and understand their connections of the systemic pathology.

And the award night goes to ....

Ok! I take all the besmirches on the movie back and ignore the ‘bloopers’ which were omitted by the Oscar winning editing department. Poverty porn/tourism or regaling dystopia – all complains and shenanigans have been vehemently discarded by the 5810 strong jury. There were some lovely scenes which will be etched in our memories forever. The kids looking dapper in the designer attires, suddenly gorgeous Freida Pinto, ‘little boy’ Rahman in a black Sherwani, a shy Vikas Swarup in the background, Anil Kapoor swaying the ‘golden man’ as his own and the magnanimity of the producer who made the podium look like a party while accepting the award. Eight Oscars and the issue is settled. Let us move on …

It was one of those days when there were minimum surprises at the announcements at Kodak theatre. Some may argue that Sean Penn sneaked the rug from under Mickey Rourke’s feet but we all know that Sean Penn has been an academy favorite and some of Mickey Rourke’s antics would not have earned him too many fans in the past and the Academy has long memories. Poor Jim Carrey is still a pariah when it comes to Academy Awards. I saw ‘Milk’ yesterday and really liked the movie and the superlative acting – as Robert De Niro said ‘Sean is never in his movies – it is always the character - whether it is a Sam, a Milk or Dead Man walking!’( Secretly let me confess, this is fifth time – I see a movie on the eve of the awards ceremony and the actor wins Best Actor in a leading role – As Good As it Gets , Training Day, Mystic River, There will be Blood… )

Like the Oscar acceptance speech, I could not resist making a few notes and words of mention to squeeze in before the ‘limiting tune’ plays again …

Kate Winslet, finally overcame the thirteen year curse and embellished her already awesome filmograhy with the golden statuette on her sixth nomination. If anyone has any realistic expectation of even coming close to the ‘15 and still running’ record of Meryl Streep – it is her. Like Meryl each movie of hers is like a once in a lifetime performance. Kudos – We hope to see more of you!

Penelope - for making it big Hollywood with the accent and getting over the glam doll innuendo and some mindblowing original stuff in perhaps the most fought category of the evening. Finally you emerged ‘the woman on top’!

Simon for writing Slumdog Millionaire from an otherwise trite and average story (sorry Vikas ! Much as I like your writing ‘SM’ is a Simon Beaufoy creation!)

Antony Dod Mantle – for teaching us that there are visages and hues of India that make it starkly different from any other place in the world. And a silent prayer that there will be bolder attempts behind the camera in our cinema !

Heath – May your soul rest in peace! Perhaps not for the untimely death, the others could have given a run for the award – nonetheless sadly the grand finale of one who could have been up among the legends of all time. Perhaps you are already there !

The brilliant format of actors coming on stage to introduce the nominees of this year was amazing. I hope our own Filmfare and other organizers copy this remarkably wistful and delicious idea. I hope this is here to stay – listening to Sissy Spacek applauding Anne Hathaway was itself like an award bestowed !Finally for Hugh Jackman for being one of the most underplayed hosts at the Academy Awards who flitted and sailed in and out effortlessly, making this perhaps one of the most punctiliously coordinated Awards functions I have seen !

All the hubbub about the pub !

What people do for a little airtime in the name of political propoganda ! The phrase Ram Sena has taken the infamous innuendo and just blemished the original folflore for years to come. While some channels are taking media responsibility to new avenues like the Greenathon, we have a motley crew of disgruntled and queer pack of mendicants who subscribe goons to their version of 'society cleansing'.

My first tryst with a similar group was when we in first year of engineering school heard that couple of our batch mates were roughed up a gang of seniors calling themselves 'Bajrang Dal' and had censored all activities of our the Literary and Debating Society which indulged in 'anti- ethical' activities like debating, JAM, book reading which encouraged 'untoward' interactions of boys and girls. The issue was immediately laid to rest with our hero 'Princi' pulling the whole group up and sending them off on a two week suspension !

Feb 14th was also celebrated amongst us friends but for a much different reason from Geoffrey Chaucer, St. Valentine or courtly love - Feb 14th is the death anniversary of P G Wodehouse and as Wodehouse buffs we had to get together with a cuppa and dog earred book off the shelf and one of us would read the 'ever sensible' Jeeves out to the others and share our Wodehouse jokes and phrases. Wodehouse has been the greatest purveyor of pabulum for me then and now and is infamously responsible for my amateur writing forays.

When we had larger purses to gloat over, the cuppa turned into a pint size beer bottle and the cheeky cocktails and our 'gaggle of friends' invaded the - the very old English establishment - The pub ! True, some of the discussions were curtailed by the excess inebriation of a group member and the odd interest in a more serious topic like the latest Madonna album or the Van Halen poster, but we were never marched out of any establishment by the 'tyrannical aunts' !

While I never intend to glorify excess drinking - the current threat on the pubs amuse me. Has all the national issues become so prosaic that political mileage needs to be had from some wayward moral policing - and who are they trying to recruit and what are they trying to achieve through this excess show of tomfoolery ?" The Western habits have corupted our minds .." quoted a senior politician - So what ? 'The very word 'corruption' here is a state of opinion and if a twenty five year old decides that he wants two swigs of beer with his female collegaues - it is bloody business whether he chooses a pub , a friend's home or his own apartment ! It is not anyone's right to disenfranchise our friend of his constitutional right and curtail his frisson.

BCCI officials ask - What Recession ?

The scene was one we pass off with a ‘nothing in particular attitude’. But a late train and ennui in general, induced a not too casual perusal of the station premises. A group of filthy smelling urchins had crowded around the edge of the platform and were looking with immense glee skywards. A ball of thread in the hands of two of them explained the laughter and the enthusiasm. There were two distant spots in the horizon, which move in random abandon. The dialect was an incomprehensible nasal tone punctuated with the shrill of whistles. But the exuberance and the joy of the toddlers were evident. At least someone was not bothered about the late running trains and the herd of flies, which seemed to be everywhere.

The sun set and the group dispersed in parts. There came in the lights and another bunch of ‘enlightened’ mosquitoes. A chaiwallah with a soiled or perhaps rusted kettle came along. A cup of tea as a companion didn’t seem to be a bad proposition. Ignoring the package, I audaciously asked for a cup. The tea was not bad at all. “ What time is it, babuji?” enquired the host dressed in tatters. On hearing the time, the chaiwallah hurried along with an urgency our trains seemed to have forgotten.

A voice from nowhere announced that ‘my train’ was indefinitely late. No apologies, only a silent mockery of the passengers, who had by now unpacked on the floor of the railway station and were settling down to their rigmarole. There seemed to be no panic and the quietude was alarming.

After an unsuccessful bout with the hordes of mosquitoes, I got up to stretch a little. The ambience was one of calm. The officer at the enquiry had removed his shirt and was scratching his armpits. There was a leaking faucet under a banner ‘Drinking Water ’ and a seemingly fleas stricken dog was lapping at the puddle formed below. A group of ladies were fanning themselves with their sari ends and seemed to have a lively discussion on. There was a cow defecating at the edge of the platform caring a damn about the trains, the passengers or the station.

“Saabji, latest evening newspaper”, I looked behind to see one of those urchins, now with a bundle of paper under his arms. “Cricket officials ask – What recession?” reported the boy with the authority of those roadside ‘cure all medicine’ salesmen. I shelled out the barter and picked up a newspaper. There was an air of importance around the boy similar the midwife who reaches the king to tell him about the birth of a new baby boy.

The IPL auction was all over the pages. Flintoff and Peitersen posted astronomical amounts under the auction hammer bettering the record our desi Dhoni. In these times of recession, a Bangladeshi player got the price of lifetime and now is the richest sportsman in his country. Preity, Juhi, Nina and now Shilpa Shetty made the proceedings much more glamorous and there was confetti and celebrations everywhere. India, it seems, will now be revered as a force to reckon with.

What an exhilarating moment! I should share the news with the others, I thought. The urchins will be delighted to hear that now Indians can feel rich. The chaiwallah, I’m sure will distribute free tea on this auspicious occasion. The officer will for once perhaps wear his shirt to ‘dress’ for the occasion. The ladies can sing some patriotic songs to illuminate the event. The cow will of course smile bovinely and shit in ‘peace’. As for me I decided to put the entire issue of late trains behind me; after all how can one crib about a few late trains when the country is busy beating recession on the cricket field!

Elegy on the death of the engineer !

Technology has invaded the lives of billions with an unseen ferocity. Social strictures have changed and so have the ethos and the codes of daily conduct. In this deluge, the most confused are the technocrats of yesterday and the budding engineers of tomorrow…

Change has turned into the unwanted salesman who pops in at the oddest of hours with an infuriating roster of products. What is more frustrating is that the products are attractive, lucrative but beyond the reach ! Technology mocks at the portals of every institution and the resource centers and libraries resemble Jurassic parks and historical museums. With genetic codes of the most wanted classified columns ushering in avant-garde, engineering colleges of today look blankly at their mediocre armory and the ‘now-not-exploding’ ammunition. Four years in these walls students bandy words of an extinct civilization and learn a trade which finds no buyer. At the end, a confused ensemble walk out into an unforgiving world equipped with nothing other than an extra cell of ‘common sense’. Four years of rigor and hardships and now he has to pick up another set of skills that are alien to his education.

The best at the craft think of when they can do their MBA and pursue the ‘big bucks’. The pragmatic ones have their eyes glued onto the next software company and have ‘when do I get to go abroad ?’ brooding like a Damocles Sword on their minds. For the once who also tried and failed the only option is to get an engineering job in some organization which will treat them with the disdain of a stepmother reminding them each day that they are there due to the dearth of better options !

True, the brick and mortar needs a set of hands to make concrete jungles and labyrinthe circuitry, but the engineer behind is the blue collared layman of today. While he values years of ‘experience’ and working , enter the geek of today half as old as he is and twice as current. Speaking a language foreign to the engineers he even plans to retire by forty with a fortune unheard of to the mind which turns to the tune of worn out gears and unlubricated grey matter…

Calamity dawns even though a little late then the beginning of a quest of unlearning and erasing a knowledge block which was bread and butter of a generation long past. Crowding into blocks of new avenues, a sojourn into the unknown embarks. With the curiosity of Alice and the impetuousness of the Cheshire cat , the fight goes on with the worst nightmare of all – Unemployability !

Understanding Art – The Pressure Cooker

Some things amuse you as much as they baffle you. My daughter always had this fascination for the pressure cooker – She would be excited at the whistling sound and a wee bit scared though. The first sound she attempted which had nothing to do with the gradual buildup of her vocabulary was a hissing sound which we interpret as an impersonation of the pressure cooker whistle. Interesting this sound is also lavishly used for other purposes. This is also the sound of pee which we try to orchestrate when she sits on her potty time and again with the zest of cheer leaders dancing to invite their favorite team on to the gridiron. The most amusing moment is of course when she tries to make the sound herself - there is immense glee in her eyes and naughty quirk around her lips and then the tongue conjures into a semicircle and the air column is excited to produce a vibration which comes out to the audible ear as a hiss.

Interesting when she started to scribble on the hapless walls and every book in my collection, she chose to draw a pressure cooker … Every time she mischievously wields a pen it is to draw this very same inanimate object !

Interestingly she always chooses the top view. Having seen these myriad times, I sat on the web to interpret what this means in terms of art. A rather inane task but I was determined to crack the code behind each of these ‘old C scrolls’. The chase began by concentrating on the art forms of the twentieth century – trusting that he must have been influenced by what she sees around the house and the in her ambience which is bridled with etched of modernism as we understand.
Since most of the century has been marked by clear focus on abstract art in which pastels, lines and figures have always been independent of the subject matter.

Did it have anything to do with Fauvism ? There were moods of ‘les fauves’ – wild scribbles and there were also traces of the remarkable alacrity and pace of most such works. But then she never tried to mix colors into the boundaries of the art and let the lines define the picture.

Cubism? All the pictures were single dimensional and a immediate representation of the picture she sees in the perpendicular plane. There were never the multiple dimensions or interpretation of various views cluttering the diagram. So I ruled out analytical cubism and synthetic cubism without further thought.

Futurism? Definitely not. None of the various forms suggested movement or energy and she never attempted to represent the steam from the nozzle.

I ruled out Orphism when I saw the works against the back drop of the Eiffel Tower with pronounced taste for color rather than the forms.

Neo – Plasticism was exciting with its stress on lines and even audacious representation of the male and female lines. But her drawings had the blend of curvaceous lines rather than the defined straight vertical and horizontal lines.

Expressionism seemed a likely explanation – The whole picture was expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects and the empty spaces had also profound proportions

After this pensive cookie cutter syndrome where I tried to fit the simple picture into multiple forms of art – I decided to let the artist grow from being the toddler and figure out what she scribbles which are clearly nothing but the virtual impression of what sees and retains after her visual senses are out of direct sight of the object.

So now I let her scribble more pressure cookers each time with a sense of déjà vu and the joy of having created another work of art.

The Awards season...

Back to more things prosaic and quotidian. I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books in 2008 - perhaps as much as I used to do during college days where we were given a 'must see' movie list by our Quiz coach and the English class needed a review every fortnight. So a quick tour of the movies I saw and savoured and some which I just could not watch...

1. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye - I think it was one of the best or perhaps the best movie I saw last year ! Strange , but I just loved the movie - be it the camera, the accents, the acting and of course Abhay Deol. Move over everyone - this guy is right there ! It was the first movie I saw of his and I really enjoyed it. Now this is a Deol who can act ! But secretly I have always been a great fan of Dharam paaji too ( I still see Chupke Chupke & Sholay whenever it is playing ! )

2. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - The worst movie I have seen this year - Mr. Khan, I have decided not to visit the theatres for amy of your movies again! I never liked your 'acting' skills but this was the cake !You may be Baadshah or whatever shit, but as far as I am concerned "You are just one hell of a fortunate cookie "

3. Ghajini - OK, it was better than the Tamil version and that itself is saying a lot as Surya is as classy an actor as Aamir. Aamir has done the fab job and now a benchmark on 8 pack abs is sure going to give his compatriots nightmares. He is truly the best ! The discussion is over.

4. Rock On - Different and a good acting ensemble and neat movie. Hopefully it will pave way to some decent scripts to the movies.

5. Wednesday - Good ! I don't normally get surprises when I watch movies but Pandeyji - the twist was good and Naseer Saab - Tussi thop ho ! I watched it on DVD and watched it twice back to back.

6. Aamir - Absolute surprise of a movie. I never knew some of these Ekta Kapoor employees can act - This Rajeev guy was just right for the role and of course with a script and background score like that - you can't get it wrong

7. Jaane Tu ... OK, maybe I am too old for this gelato and chuski - though again I loved Naseer Saab on the wall !

8. Jodha Akbar - Well, a very hardworking movie ! You know the kind of class mate in school who would slog through out the year and then again burn the midnight oil on the exam eve too and chew all his finger nails and look nerdy and be the teacher's favorite. Well for me that was Jodha Akbar - But music - ARR rocks !

9. Tashan - Sorry no review ! I actually slept in the theatre inspite of my wife nudging me throughout to control my gentle musical snore !

10. Roadside Romeo - My daughter's ( She will 4 years in Feb) favorite movie and hence we went to the theatre and dutifully bought the DVD and saw it more than 20 times ! But frankly I loved Javed Jaffery's bull dog Anna ! He is perhaps the most underrated, unlucky brilliant star - imagine we have brain dead turkeys who are more popular him.

11. Dostana - Not for me ! I did not see too much humor in it and it takes more than yellow underwear, John Abraham and svelte Priyanka to drag me to the movies.

12. Fashion - OK , now the Madhur Bhandarkar style is getting monotonous and trite. Though I sure did some good performances from the female stars

My film awards for the year

Best Screen Play : Wednesday

Best Original Story : Wednesday

Best Musical Score : A.R.Rahman - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi - Guzarish

Best Art Direction : Jodhaa Akbar

Best Costume Design : Jodhaa Akbar & Oye Lucky Lucky Oye

Best Cinematography : Aamir

Best Animated feature film : Roadside Romeo

Best Film editing : Aamir

Best Regional Language Film : Kadha Parayumbol ( Malayalam - Original of 'Billu Barber')

Best Actor ( Female ) Debut : Asin Thottumkal

Best Actor ( Male ) Debut: Farhan Akthar

Best Actor in a villanous role : Ashwini Khalsekar in Phoonk

Best Actor in a comic role : Javed Jaffery in Roadside Romeo

Best Actor ( Female ) in a supporting role : Shahana Goswami in Rock On & Kangana Ranaut in Fashion
Best Actor ( Male ) in a supporting role : Ravi Jhankal in Welcome to Sajjanpur
Best Actor ( Female ) in a leading role : Priyanka Chopra in Fashion

Best Actor ( Male ) in a leading role : Naseeruddin Shah in Wednesday

Best Direction : Dipankar Banerjee & Neeraj Pandey ( Consolation prize to Ashutosh Gowarikar :-))

Best Picture : Wednesday & Oye Lucky Lucky Oye

Life time achievement award : Gulzaar

Special Jury Award : Abhay Deol for Oye Lucky Lucky Oye

Living beyond of the hype of 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Well now we are getting bored Agreed that the movie was Ok and but there is more to life than the Oscar expectations of this movie ! Check this out - ( I subscribe to the online version of NY times - just as a language reckoner rather than anything else and to read movie and book reviews ) one of the critics wrote "..Western film critics instructed the laity to 'see Slumdog Millionaire in order to better understand this benighted Asian metropolis".And, despite the temptation of easy available pirated DVDs, I waited for the official movie release, hoping for the full 'movie-going' experience.

Well, the positives first -

The kids ( especially Ayush Khedekar) was fab ! Lovleeen Tandon take a bow for selecting these kids. I liked Dev Patel - given he is a little goofy here and there but he does have his moments. It is shot very well - Anthony Dod Mantle's disarmingly honest camera and India has been captured the way Mira Nair did in Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding. It does have a Dickensian flavor and one leaves the movies feeling all is well in Jamal's life unlike some of the arthouse stuff where we walk out of the cinema even more frustrated and feeling helpless ! Simon Beaufoy's screenplay is far more superior than Vikas Swarup's novel which I found very trite and much like a one trick pony - every chapter has one answer !

The bloopers are many - you have already added some and let me also add some more

1. Which govt primary school in India teaches Dumas ?

2. Towards the end when Don song is blaring in the background in Javed Bhai's den - Kareena is dancing to the tunes of Yuva ?!

3. Jamal knows Samuel Colt invented the revolver because Salim's got a gun ? Since when did Mumbai goons leave 'khoda', 'samaan' and switch to 'Colt' ?

4. Since when did call centres serving customers in Scotland keep telephone directories of Indian cities accessible at the click of a button, where mobile phones are listed in telephone directories ?

5. How does the blind kid 'recognise' Jamal ?

Having said all this regarding the ever continuing debate about romanticising of poverty of amchi New York - this is what a western reviewer wrote on how the West would have reacted on a similar movie based in US - " Say an Indian director travelled to New Orleans for a few months to film a movie about Jamal Martin, an impoverished African American who lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, who once had a promising basketball career, but who -- following a drive-by shooting -- now walks with a permanent limp, whose father is in jail for selling drugs, whose mother is addicted to crack cocaine, whose younger sister was killed by gang-violence, whose brother was arrested by corrupt cops, whose first born child has sickle cell anaemia, and so on. The movie would be widely panned and laughed out of theatres."

Ok, if 5810 film aficionados finally decide that this movie needs an Oscar, I will shut my trap and change my spiel and start liking the film all over and meticulously find more things to praise it.

Saw 'Luck by chance' yesterday. Despite my irritated daughter who totally got bored and I had to walk out seven times with her for excuses of popcorn, Samosa, ice cream and susu , I still liked it. Maybe it could have been edited better and made a little shorter and the implausibe last five minutes where everything is about Konkan SenSharma who was just one of lesser characters in the movie till then - it is still worth one dekko !

Satyam, Sharam, Scandalum !

This was the caption on one of Amul Butter hoardings at a busy traffic junction ! Besides of course the obvious disturbance of each passerby stretching to see and savor the hoarding, one could not but pass a silent chuckle on seeing this satire. True our own version of the 'Enron' scandal has come in the form of Satyam and the seething rage is also because the organisation has the audacity to fudge a bluebook of its 'socially and environmentally concerned' policies and win the Golden peacock award for corporate governance !

Perhaps one of the good outcomes of such a scandal is the stricter review of what auditors do at the firm during the periodic audits. True it is very difficult for auditors to pick out anomalies in organisation which have cooked and marinated records for years and even the law suggests that the auditors need to treat the records furnished as bonafide ! But now auditors will go the extra mile and ask more questions to vouch their work.

The hapless employees of such organisations - my sympathy goes with them. After doing all the right things - burning the midnight oil and delivering value to the orgnisation and its clients, one fine day uncertanity walks into their lives as an invited guest and eats up their supper and usurps their houses. To add to it the general stigma attached to them - as if they were somewhere part of a unholy nexus which cheated not a company but an entire industry and the aspirations of a nation. Then the auditing firm PWC. Once such scandal is enough to turn stars into pariahs and the obvious plethora of coments like the Shakespearean " There is something rotten in the state of Denmark!"

With able names and eminent personalities joining hands to clean the mess, one hopes and prays that this will also pass !

Slumdog Millionaire again !

We just can't have enough of this movie, can we ! And not the ten Oscar nominations and the wider acclaim to A R Rahman has endeared this movie more than any Indian movie. And I finally watched it !

Absolutely wonderful, like a sugar candy with the sweetness lingering longer and I refusing to fluch my mouth to retain the taste. Danny Boyle has done it ! To think it took an Irishman who has never really seen India to make a movie like this - capture the city like none of our desi directors . Perhaps the only similar camera work of an Indian city was Monsoon Wedding by Mira Nair where she painted Delhi like no other. Simon Beaufoy's screenplay is amazing and far more captivating than Vikas Swarup's book and of course the famous potty scene - One of my all favorite cinematic moments which will remain with me for a long time.

Our media had a field day with some pundits including our own Big B raising an opinion or two. But nothing can take away the glory from this story and actors like Ayush Khedekar who will never age in the mind of the viewer, being the same 5 year old all his life.

And then of course the Oscar mention for Gulzar. Boss, take a bow - You may attribute everything to A R Rahman but every song you pen deserves a bow !

'Slumdog Millionaire' at the Golden Globes

Yesterday morning had the Golden Globes ceremony coming on live on the television and I beat the morning cuckoo to wake in the wee hours of a Monday. With A.R. Rahman being nominated, it promised be an occasion not to miss and that too with a lot of favourable press reports of his chances and the prayer of another 'First Indian to ...."
And disappointed I was not ! When the shy maestro fished out a little piece of paper and read out his 'acceptance', one felt a rare sense of pride. When Danny Boyle walked to the dias to accept his 'Best Director', I tried to hide my face seeing Anil Kapoor monkeying around and thumping the air in a gauche manner. But what the hell, all is pardoned when honours galore were bestowed on a movie we have now 'adopted' as our own !
What I hope it will usher is more foreign studios hunting for scripts in the subcontinent, looking for talent in areas more than acting like music. I also hope we get more Indian producers getting attracted to more 'interesting' and meaningful cinema. But with the films that hit the screens last year, there is also a promise of good cinema with audience flocking to the multiplexes appreciating 'different' genre films and actors like Abhay Deol, Vinay Pathak showing the way to senior colleagues.