Monthly Archives: December 2012

Musings

The Enemy is Within

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The delhi events going on are as if it was scripted right out of a poorly made Political themed movie.

In Rang De Basanti, the mom of a fallen soldier gets lathi charged. A similar photo was captured a few days back and got circulated.

A police stamping the face of a kid lying on the ground – apparently stolen from a different protest is now being circulated by the protestors on Police atrocity.

Honourable Prime Minister addresses the nation – reads out a lifeless 2 para speech in English assuring Security for all women and utters  “Theek hai” to check with the cameraman if it recorded fine which the editors missed to cut off – and it has become the new joke.

A police constable who collapsed because of Heart Attack and unfortunately died has now taken the center stage as cases have been booked against 8 kids – even though the Doctors have said there was no internal or external injury and cause of death is Cardio Arrest.

I doubt if anyone still remembers why this all started. The poor 23 year old still struggling to live has been forgotten.

Its sickening to the core. Who are we fighting against?

India against India?

How did things spiral down so fast.

I strongly feel that the enemy is within each one of us. It is not external – it is not another country, not a religion, not a person, not an idea – its in different shades of everything – hidden deep inside us.

Yesterday I saw a well dressed lady take her well bred cute pup for a walk near the Saree shops stretch near Marine Lines in Mumbai – and the dog pooped – she dragged the dog away not bothering to scoop the poop and put it in a waste basket.

I was angry and even had the holier than thou attitude thinking I would not let such a thing happen if it was I with that pup.

I should have gently talked to her – humorously perhaps – pointing to her that we should not be trashing our country. Or I should have suggested her to carry a waste cover all without hurting her ego.

Instead I did nothing – went my way. That lady and dog will be out today and will be doing this deed for the next 15 years. I could have stopped it forever with a simple gesture. I did not.

How many such things that I – as one person – a simple honest gesture – can start doing – so an impact will still be made.

I should start discovering these streaks within me – the laziness or anger or ego – which prevents me from doing the right thing.

It is time I discover the Enemy within me – before I start pontificating to the Government how they should run it.

Musings

How do you change a Society?

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The past few days I am reading news and protests centred around the atrocity committed on a 23 year old College Student by 6 drunken men. Right now college students in Delhi are fighting with Delhi Police demanding harsh sentences to the accused. Perhaps their anger is not towards the 6 accused – but the general malaise that has spread on how a woman is treated in India. Perhaps they are demanding for a draconian law to punish the criminals.

Go back a few months – Anna Hazare was on a fast unto death to brink Janlokpal bill to curb corruption. Anna Hazare has a clear plan – have a good law and that will curb corruption.

In both these instances will a law help in preventing both these crimes?

Can a law change a society?

Indian Men should respect Woman and accept them as their equals if not more.

We should stop taking short cuts and not use our unfair advantage ( be it a last name that I have or a big fat wallet ) in order to trample upon others.

Can a law bring the change in the above two scenarios?

The more I think about this the more helpless I feel. All the sound bytes, twitter feeds are full of anger and vitriol. But I don’t see any solution.

What would have Gandhi done? He fought Casteism, Hindu Muslim communal clashes – apart from fighting the British.

How do you change a Society?

Musings

Gandhi

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Gandhi is the father of the nation. He preached ahimsa. Got freedom for India. A compelling movie was made by Hollywood that went to win Oscars..

I did not know this man’s greatness till yesterday.

Blame the boring History books of this country – they never taught how cool this man is. I was busy mugging the dates and the events to get marks – actually used to hate these history classes.

It was the last keynote of TiE Summit held on Dec 20,21 in Goregaon, Mumbai. I was actually bored – a linkedin geek came and gave a geeky boring presentation. Sorry dude – any other day I would have appreciated the hard work and innovation that is happening in linked in – but I did not pay to TiE for this gyan. Rant done. 
Then this fine old gentleman, Alyque Padamsee – comes on stage – with lot of difficulty he climbs the stairs. I had no clue who he was – [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyque_Padamsee ]. Apparently he is the father of Indian Advertising and has created over 100 brands in his time. Also he had portrayed Jinnah in The Gandhi. 
The topic was Leadership Through Innovation.
The content was very simple – just 3 core ideas
As a leader :
1. Innovate
2. Enthuse dont enforce
3. Have a Vision Statement
He was full of anecdotes and amazing stories. He kept the hall in trance. He came to the importance of Vision Statement.
Then he asked a question  – what was Gandhi’s vision statement. 
Lot of answers – be the change, give me freedom, follow me etc. – the crowd shouted lot of answers. I tried very hard to think what was the Vision Statement. 
Then he displayed on the screen. 
“Quit India. “
He demonstrated how powerful this vision statement was. It was so simple but it shook the mighty English Empire. 
He narrated the Dandhi march. Gandhi started walking from his Ashram to Dandhi. He walked 24 days – and in those days when there was no facebook, twitter, SMS – the crowd kept joining him as he walked through the villages – growing day by day. He picked a handful of salt and got arrested. The symbolism was so powerful.
No big baashan. In fact any explanation given on this incident would have deflated the power of this idea. Just a simple action – that every single Indian understood – educated or other wise.
Next incident he narrated was Gandhi’s Patented Fast Unto Death. 
Gandhi could have drank poison or shot himself for the cause ( stop the riots, or the partition or the numerous massacres that were perpetrated on poor helpless unarmed Indians ). The wave would have lasted a month or two. However this cunning old man decided to die the slow way.
Those days any news of Gandhi was banned in the Newspaper. However the message spread like wild fire. The hindu muslim riots stopped. International media picked up the news and they started putting pressure on the British Government ( Want to credit the British Govt of 1940s – they had a heart. ). 
Again – simple yet powerful – and without any big statements or Punch Dialogues – he brought change, melted stone hearts. 
Thank you Alyque Padamsee for having shown Gandhi to me. It was an aahaa moment – I will always cherish. 
And to top it all – he showed lot of short videos he had directed – one of them being Gandhi – which demonstrates this idea of Gandhi – the power of simplicity of Gandhi – and that I had seen million times on Doordarshan but never understood the message. 
Here is a video of Alyque Padamsee at TedxJaipur. 
Here is a TeD X Video of Alyuqe Padamsee 

Musings

Paulo Coelho – A Warrior’s life

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I read Paulo Coelho’s – The Alchemist – in mid-2008. The right book to come to my hand at the right time of my life. If I write my auto-biography some day I will give credit to The Alchemist for having changed the direction of my life. 
After that I read all his books and loved them all. I am not a big fan of biographies but after reading Steve Jobs my opinion on biographies have changed – now I am curious to know what made them successful. 
I picked up this biography on Paulo Coelho and got a glimpse of my favourite author.
He had a troubled childhood. He had no interest in schooling but was a voracious reader – he was crunching 300 books in a year at one time! That is almost like one a day. 
He was a rebel, did not want to toe the line his parents were setting up for him – the usual college education – but wanted to be a writer. Conflicts happened everyday and Paulo was generally not interested in his daily life. His parents put him in a mental asylum – 3 times. He was made to undergo electro shock therapy.
But he bounced back – started doing cameos in Theater, started writing screenplays, became a lyricist and started a new era in Brazilian rock song, became a Music Executive and money poured in from all quarters. 
Still he was not satisfied. There was an yearning desire to be a writer. He went to London and spent almost half a year trying to become a writer. But nothing came out of it. 
Then he gets inducted to the order of the RAM – Regnus Agnus Mundi, or Rigour, Adoration, Mercy – where he had to undergo lot of quests periodically – like spending 40 days in the Mojave desert or going on a 700km pilgrimage. 

All these experiences will form part of his books.

The first book will be The Pilgrimage. He wrote this book in one stretch of 21 days – not leaving the home but working day and night. This book will immediately go on to become the best seller even though critics tore it apart for its simple language and no literary value.  

Later he will write The Alchemist – which will go on to become not only a best seller in Brazil but throughout the world – even while the critics in Brazil gave demonic reviews of it! 

This is the gist – like a fairy tale – Paulo fights the inner demons and comes out successful. It was not an easy life he had – but all the experiences made him produce books that just don’t entertain but also give a new perspective and direction to ones life.

Here are my posts I had written on some. 

The Alchemist and another post on my 2nd blog. 

He is still young – 65 years – and the best are yet to come! 

Viva Paulo Coelho!