You never know when something deep inside you gets triggered.

Could be a near miss with death, losing a close friend/family – or a chance meeting with a stranger.

4 years back – I had a chance meeting with a retired Bank Manager in Bangalore. He suggested I read Conversations with God.

I then read all of Paulo Coelho’s works – my favourite Brazilian author. Then Steve Jobs died – and read all about him and the spiritual side of him.

I have been trying to figure out Who I am and Why I am here – and I am nowhere close to the truth.

I am confused and clearer at the same time – just like light – which is both a wave and a particle at the same time.

I am not an Atheist

I am clear on one thing. I do believe in God as some mysterious supreme power or light or energy. Earth and Humans are not here by chance. I did briefly stray into being an atheist when my father passed away. Did shake me up and for sometime went around not being bothered about God or Religion or any customs.

I dont practice any Religion

Religion does not make any sense – so I dont pray to any God form anymore. However I like the philosophy that is present in all Religions. I like the meanings hidden in Bible and Hinduism. Love the sufi songs and Quawwali. Yet to read Quran. I don’t believe in the shortcuts in the form of Sanskrit Verses and rituals present in Hinduism to attain Enlightenment.

I am not an Apatheist Either

Though I don’t follow any religion – I am not an Apatheist – one who does not care if God Exists or Not. I believe in God, but not in Religion.

What am I to be classified?

If someone asks me – are you an atheist, or an apatheist, or are you a Hindu/Christian/Muslim?

My answer is none of the above.

It is quite simple. I am in a journey to discover by my self what this is all about. More like my running – I don’t run with any group – I do my own research and discover new techniques and find what works and doesn’t work through trial and error.

I am unravelling the mystery one day at a time – through books, through songs, through movies – keeping my eyes and ears open for any interesting tid bit that helps forming my mental model about God, Life & Death and Love.

Buddha figured it out. Dalai Lama figured it out. Many Saadhus have figured it out.

I know I am not going to run in the Olympics – but I can still run a full marathon ( 42 kms ) some day. Working towards it one run at a time.

Likewise – I am not sure if I will get the enlightenment in this lifetime’s journey. Unlike the sequential model we are so used to – in the next lifetime I will be born in the past like in 10th Century BC or in the future like in 30th Century AD- I might be a wiser man than what I am now and I am sure I will be continuing this journey.

Signing off as someone who is Spiritual but not Religious.

Alright here it goes – the best kept bong secrets are all revealed.

All these from the observation I made during a Bong wedding I attended in February.

Fish is a vegetarian dish

This is an open secret – but I will not get full marks if I do not list it here. I am yet to figure out this mystery.

Wedding doesn’t get over on the same day

On the night of the wedding day, the boy and girl are kept awake by the 2 sides. There is a mythology where Lakhinder of the Behula Lakhinder legend has to stay awake on their wedding night or he dies. This turned out to be lot of fun – and we all became deep and spiritual ( after 3 am ).

Groom’s Mom should not attend wedding

If this comes up in any of the Tamil TV Serials – all the heads watching the TVs will just explode in unison. I don’t know the reason behind this tradition.

Bongs hate Rosogolla

I am not kidding. Try giving Rosogolloas to them and they will all go – ohh.. eeh.. and if they are pushed to eat and they realise there is no way out – they will take the rasogolla and squeeze all the syrup out of it before putting it in their mouth. Perhaps the bongs living outside Kolkata might not exhibit this behaviour. The only ones who were stuffing ourselves with Rosogollas where the Tams.

Mark my words – My in-law race will take over this world for sure  – and that time most of the words that you know will be replaced. Here is preparing you for the future.

Punjaabi – Its the Kurta as you all know it
Puchhka – Paani Puri
Loochi –  Poori
Shingaada – Samosa

Jokes Apart – I am in total admiration of Bengalis.

They are very deep and spiritual. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Paramhansa Yogananda ( Autobiography of a Yogi – very interesting book – the only book Steve Jobs had in his iPad and he read it once every year) – all are Bengalis.

Bengalis are forward thinking in lot of ways. Birthplace of Indian Freedom movement, Music, Art and Literature, Movies and now there are many Rock Bands. Their songs ( once translated to me of course ) are deep and spiritual in many ways.

They are very brave when it comes to naming their kids – the wife’s cousin kids names are based on Currencies for instance ( Rouble, Ringgit and Lira )

Bengalis never give up a fight for whats right – and are an impractical but passionate lot.

Someday I will write a book on just Bengalis – from a 3/4 Tam + 1/4 Kannadiga’s view point.

 
In 2008 when we started ApartmentADDA we were faced with a myriad of questions / objections.

You have all the data with you. What if you close down.
I can build my own.
I want to buy your software and put it on my computer. 
Why can’t I pay onetime and use it lifelong?
I want a backup of all my data, emailed to me every day.

The questions haven’t stopped, and new ones keep getting added.

I look around and see so many Indian SaaS Startups fighting similar battles. Educating the populace on SaaS and its benefits.

We also market our product through SEO, Videos, Posters and a few lucky days when media bothers to write about these interesting SaaS products.

Imagine. If there was a single site which does all the marketing and brings people to its site. It educates the visitors on the advantages of SaaS, lists all the SaaS apps that are available and also lists prices and user reviews. How cool will that be?

Advantages of a SaaS App Store

1. Startups like mine and others need not repeat the same argument over and over to educate customers.

2. Customers will not feel that they are dealing with only one “unique” idea – but lot others are there and will give them confidence – This is where the world is going.

3. Increases Discoverability – I come here looking for a Personal Finance Solution and I stumble upon this interesting Apartment Management Portal or a Telephony App or a Site that helps you find a good guitarist.

4. Customer Reviews. Before I purchase a mobile app ( including the free ones ) I always read the reviews. These reviews have become an important decision point. This will also help in deciding between similar offerings.

5. Single point of invoicing and billing – each portal now has to run its own billing invoicing workflow. I will happily pay to get listed on this site – as this opens a new Sales Channel and I can direct my customers to this site to complete the purchase.

6. The Site also sends reminders for renewals and can also earn when a customer renews.

7. We can focus on building a kickass SaaS product and delight customers – while the Sales, Marketing, Billing, Invoicing, Renewal tracking are all taken care of – even if not 100%, a percentage of it will take away some load off us.

That’s it – go ahead and create this nice SaaS Portal for SaaS products to get listed. I will be your customer – will get listed and also shop for other SaaS products.

On 16th December, 2012 Nirbhaya / Jyoti Singh Pandey was tortured and murdered by 6 humans ( sorry cannot use the word animals as animals are much too nobler ). The country woke up to a cold hard truth – this country is going down fast – and without any control.

The establishment has thrown its hands up – we have laws but they are of no use to prevent such atrocities or we cannot enforce it effectively anymore.

Recently saw a video where someone from the audience asked a question to Rahul Gandhi – when kids cannot even read what is the use getting internet in schools?

Rahul Gandhi just asked back – what do you think the answer to the question is.

This video is being circulated and being laughed at – but actually – I am not laughing. Rahul Gandhi has a point – the establishment has given up. They cannot solve the myriad problems facing this country.

Acute Water shortage. Electricity disruptions. Economy in a mess. Movies being banned. India earning just 4 medals from Olympics. Women and Children exploited. Talented Meritorious students not getting a seat they deserve. Media not portraying the truth. Neighbouring country beheading our Jawans.

I can go on and on.

We can point the fingers at the Establishment – the Bureaucrats, the Politicians and write long blog posts, or on Facebook or Tweet gyan – saying fix it.

But like the profound statement Rahul Gandhi has said – it is up to us to fix it. The situation has gone out of control and it has gone beyond the grasp of the establishment.

There are many people who have the answers and are willing to fix it – if they are voted to the position of power. It is upto us to find them and vote them to power.

In the next election – I will do my research and when I find a good candidate I will go campaign. I will do my part to spread awareness. Will do my best to send the right person to the Legislation.

You may ask – but there are no clean candidates? Well – not any more. There are 3 good organisations which are promoting clean politics.

LokSatta – http://www.loksatta.org/leaders.php

I know of Mr.Ashwin Mahesh who is part of LokSatta – he contested the Graduate MLC election ( but lost unfortunately ) in Bangalore. He educated everyone about Graduate MLC post – which I did not know about in the 5 years I had lived in Bangalore. This is a special MLA post where the voters can only be graduates. Till now no one bothered about this as some dummy candidate will get elected by a few votes – but this time lot of awareness was created, Mr.Ashwin Mahesh met lot of Apartment Communities – first explaining about this whole Voter Registration process for this election and also spreading awareness on how Educated Elite should participate in politics. The turn out on election day was not that fantastic but its a start.

Not only that Mr.Ashwin Mahesh has helped Bangalore’s Traffic situation improve a bit and also was instrumental in introducing Big 10 buses all around Bangalore. He is constantly on the news – saving lakes, supporting anti corruption rallies etc.

He is part of LokSatta party – an answer to but there are no good candidates to vote for. He is contesting the Bangalore MLA election now from Bommanahalli. His second attempt – and he he will win this time.

Nav Bharat – http://www.nav-bharat.org

One of the founders of Nav Bharat is R.K.Misra – renowned entrepreneur and winner of Lead India initiative by Times of India in 2007. The concept of Nav Bharat is to back clean candidates – whichever party they belong to – and put them in power by helping them through campaigns, funds etc. This is the essence I have derived – but there is more to their philosophy.

Watch Nav Bharat during Election time – they would have done the background checks for you to go out and vote for the right man or woman.

Aam Aadmi  – http://aamaadmiparty.org

Like him or Hate him – the Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal is a force to be reckoned with. His party has set its sight on one thing – Corruption free governance – and this focus is what will make them win. Many are skeptical on Aam Aadmi party- corruption is not the only issue we are facing. But I am with Arvind Kejriwal on this.

Roll back to December 16th. The joy riders of the ill fated bus had just bribed the policeman so they will not be stopped anywhere. The horrible deed would have not happened if there was no corruption.

Mr.Manivannan – Bescom MD – https://www.facebook.com/md.bescom?group_id=0

Just a couple of days back one Mr.Manivannan – Bescom MD – has become the darling of Social Media. Using a public facebook page  he interacts with customers and shows the working of his team – how they are trying hard to give continuous power. Hats off to an innovative and honest bureaucrat – you give us tremendous hope.

Well – there are many more such people / ideas / organizations that are rising up to the task to answer Mr.Rahul Gandhi’s question.

Also these might seem too little but remember in 1984 BJP won 2 seats. In 1999 a BJP Prime Minister came to power.

Now lets fast forward to the future.

This is what will happen – in the New India.

In the 2014 election – 2 or 3 of these good candidates will go to the Parliament. They might be independents or from LokSatta or AamAadmi and if its a hung assembly ( in all probability ) – these good candidates will get pulled into the winning party as Cabinet Ministers.

They will get the “useless” ministries – could be Sports ( I may be wrong ), could be water, could be health – and they will run these brilliantly.

Media and the world will take notice. Finance Ministry, Home ministry will get pushed out of the lime light and these small ministries will be spoken everywhere.

The good governance will start spreading through the length and breadth of the Government.

I have tremendous hope on this New India. It is going to be awesome!

I do this yearly look back of books I have read. [ Here is the 2010, 2011 ]

Following is my 2012 list of books I read or came in touch with

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 

Love this man or hate him – do read this book. The phone, tablet or laptop you are reading this post right now has Steve Job’s hand in it somehow. [ Oh Steve Jobs! ]

Nurtureshock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

If you are responsible for a toddler, at times does it send a chill down your spine – gosh I am responsible for this kid now and how am I ever going to bring up to be a good citizen of the world – wish there was a manual! – Well there is – highly recommend this! [ Nurtureshock ]

4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

I am a productivity hacker. I keep looking for new ways of doing more with the limited time I have. 2012 has been very demanding. I tried pomodoro, 3 focus areas a week, even GTD – but will drift off to my bad habits.

However this book made me rethink how I look at the chores I am doing – and how I can effectively blaze through my work day. It gave me new ideas to prioritise tasks on 80/20 rule and also helped me cut off all work distractions – news, twitter,fb.

Highly recommend this one [ 4Hour Work Week! ]

Paulo Coelho – A Warrior’s Life

Biography of my favourite writer – Paulo Coelho. If you don’t know him – dont read this book – instead read his books – Life changing! You will fall in love with his books and then you can read his biography [ Paulo Coelho – A Warrior’s life ]

Isn’t it Obvious – Eliyahu Goldratt

Another favorite author of mine – Author of Goal 1 and Goal 2. I was stuck in a train with this book – so had to finish it. Avoid this.

Necessary but not sufficient – Eliyahu Goldratt

This was good. I recommend this for all Project Managers – has similar out of box thinking present in Goal 1 and Goal 2

Wind up Bird Chronicle – by Haruki Murakami

What a fertile brain this man has. What a story teller. This was one weird ride. Highly recommend this.

Open – An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

Even if you don’t read this book – just read the first chapter. It is the best part of the book and will transport you into Agassi’s mind and body for that duration. I love Tennis – and enjoyed this book thoroughly ( even though I am not a fan of Agassi and rooted for Pete Sampras )

Special Mention : Autobiography of an Yogi

I have started reading an interesting spiritual book – Autobiography of an Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda – it is available for free on Kindle. It is very funny in the beginning where he will keep running away from home to Himalayas to become an Yogi – and also has interesting stories on miracles and stories on various Yogis. Then it gets very deep and explains even christianity, the science findings ( book was written in mid-20th century ), his own spiritual experiences etc. In fact I am planning to visit Serampore when I go to Kolkatta next month – where this Yogi lived in an ashram.

Now I follow a little bit of Tim Ferris’s very bad philosophy when it comes to reading books –  he recommends scanning stuff and not diving deep into something in order to do more. I scanned a few books based on this philosophy.

Here is the list of half eaten apples! 

What to do when there’s too much to do – Laura Stack : Avoidable
Business Stripped Bare – Richard Branson – lot of expectation but a dud
Work Less, Achieve More – Fergus O’Connell – 4HWW is much much better.  Nothing of significance
80/20 principle by Richard Koch – If already know about the title you can avoid the book.

I gave up on these

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Started reading this and saw the trailer. Also the book was going on and on about a sloth. So gave up. After seeing the movie I realized it has got a spiritual bent to it – now I regret not having read this book.

Hermit in Himalayas by Paul Brunton : It was interesting – but I have kept it aside for now.

Dark Tower – Gunslinger – 1st book in the mega series and The Green Mile by Stephen King : I don’t seem to have a taste for Stephen King. Had read a few of his short stories but could not sustain interest and dropped both these books

The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama – It was a nice book but lost interest mid way.

Tibetan Book of Living and Death – Very good book. I started reading this in beginning of 2012 but gave up. Now when I look back I wish I had not given up – would have helped me later when I had to console myself and my family. Will pick this up again sometime.

I am planning to embark on a 52 books goal this year – 1  per week. [ Inspired by this guy who finished 366 books last year – one per day ]

Wish me luck!

When the whole world is going androidy, I – an early adopter and still a fan of Android – switched to the iOS world.

If you have already made up your mind to get a Samsung Galaxy S3 ( kickass phone ) or an iPhone5 read no further – go ahead and buy it. Don’t break your head trying to decide which one is best – both are great choices – its a win win situation!

If you are trying to make up your mind – here is what made me switch from Android to iOS. And actually it has got something to do with the Business Philosophy of Samsung.

First – my disappointment with Samsung Galaxy S : my first Android phone I got in 2010.

In the initial days there was a noticeable lag. Some problem with the file system. I put a Voodoo Lag Fix which solved the problem. The phone came with Eclairs.

Then I waited and waited to upgrade to Froyo – the next version of Android. Kies – the amazing piece of software ever written – never showed me the magic upgrade button. So I was sitting with Eclair while the world was Froyoing.

Then came Gingerbread – and Samsung refused to release Gingerbread for SGS – as they were peddling Galaxy S2 ( which I recommended my Brother in Law and now I am not so sure )

Then I read about Cyanogenmod and these hackers had released a Gingerbread version for SGS – I started the whole effort of “jailbreaking” the phone – and after one disastrous attempt ( http://venkat2.blogspot.com/2011/09/android-adventures-how-i-bricked-my.html ) I finally managed to upgrade the phone to Gingerbread ( CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S and 3 Button fix ).

Then later I could upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. Life was good but not ok.

The phone will hang intermittently. It would at times just die randomly. At times I will call some number by mistake and will try to cancel – but the phone will not respond – the call will go through. It was never consistent. And no good music player. Sigh.

Samsung is to be blamed – SGS is a nice handset – but Samsung is interested in profits and they refuse to give the latest Android OS – so we will throw their handsets in a landfill and go purchase their latest phone. I will not blame the nice hackers at Cyanogenmod – they are God Sent to us – reverse engineering and trying to make old handsets work so they don’t go to landfills unnecessarily.

iPhone envy

In April 2012, the wife – a long time Blackberry user – decided to join the touch revolution and we went to Croma in Bangalore. She played with the Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy S3 – and decided on the Note – she has a bigger screen to browse and also it came with a Stylus – good choice we thought.

And if I remember correctly she even asked the Croma sales store person to bill the Note.

Then I said lets try out these Windows phone and iPhone – and she tried Windows phone. It was mediocre. Then she took the iPhone in hand – said it snuggly fit in her hand – and started typing.  That was the decision point for her – typing was perfect. It was 10k more than Note, she wanted the iPhone but did not want to put in that much money as we were shifting to Mumbai that month and had no clue how the financial situation was going to be.

After almost an hour of deliberation during which she even called a friend of hers who was a long time iPhone user – and finally we got the iPhone.

The more I started playing with the iPhone – the more I liked it. It had the right amount of things – and it all worked well. No fancy widgets, no fancy lock screens – simple straight and consistent. It just did the job and let you get on with your life / work. The phone upgraded itself wirelessly. Apple makes stuff which simply works.

iPhone5

Then I read about iPhone5 being released. Lot of expectations and everyone was disappointed. I was actually quite happy as the phone was not a revolution but just another iteration of the previous iPhone.

First few versions of Apple products tend to be buggy – either poor hardware specs or faults ( eg. antennagate ) – but as the products mature it becomes really refined and almost perfect.

MacBook Pros ( the ones prior to the Retinas ) – are at that stage. The keyboard, battery life, screen adjustment, touchpad, the fit and finish – everything is inch perfect. You just need to reinstall the OS once a year to have the same experience.

I knew iPhone5 is going to be like the MacBook Pro – as Apple Engineers would have ironed out all the chinks – and also this phone will live with me for the next 3 to 4 years – as Apple always supports their old hardware. At home we have an iMac purchased in 2005 – still chugging along fine.

I was eagerly waiting to feel the iPhone5. The day it got released went to Croma and played with it. Liked the feel and responsiveness. Placed the order and got it on my Birthday!

Life with iPhone5

Initially Maps was missing and was a major handicap. Since I am still discovering Mumbai I rely on Maps a lot and Apple Maps is useless.

Google released Maps and that completed the migration. I don’t miss anything from the Android world anymore.

iOS is fast responsive and consistent. It never hangs or hesitates. Here is a list of things that I got out of the box without any hacking around.

iTunes Wireless Sync
iTunes Remote App
Photo Stream Sync to iPhoto
Contacts Sync
Podcasts
iTunes U
Do not Disturb ( love this one as I am a light sleeper and ICICI typically sends NEFT SMS notifications at 2 AM )
Nice keyboard that autocorrects ( I have horrible butter fingers – and have tried swype, swiftkey but nothing comes close to the iOS keyboard in its guesses and letter touch accuracy).

And icing on the cake – Apple released iTunes Store to India. Purchased AR Rahman’s “Kadal” the day it was released – it wirelessly synced to my iPhone and was able to play immediately – it was magical.

All of the above can be done in an Android phone – but needs some tinkering and searching for the correct App.

Will I recommend an iPhone to non geeks – Absolutely.

Will I recommend an iPhone to a geek – not so sure.

I am in this cross roads of my life. Nowadays I find less time to hack things – perhaps my next phone might be an Android Phone or an Ubuntu Phone.

Sharing a few thoughts / observations on the TiE Summit held on Dec 20,21 at Goregoan, Mumbai.

Also these are not exactly their words – I am looking at my notes and I only have a few phrases. This is a venkatised version of it – essence is the same.

Kunal Shah of Freecharge : We are all engineers. We are good at solving problems. But where we suck at is defining the problem. Brilliant!

Kunal/Vijayanand of Proto and another Gentleman – didnt note his name : They discussed on traction and finally someone gave a nice sound byte : Traction is when you get customers without spending. That was a superb definition!

Ronnie Screwala, Founder UTV Group : First step to start something is big. But don’t sit there basking on it. So many first steps have to be still taken  – getting funded, forming a bigger team.. it never ends. [ Perhaps thats why we call them as a Startup!  ]

He gave more tips

• Invest in Teams
• Get a good vision / mission – this gives clarity more than anything else.
• Timing is important at every step – including Exits
•  Scale > Control 
•  1 good trait of an entrepreneur – he is a good listener
•  Attract good talent – spend time on hiring the right team – even if it takes 6 months and multiple coffee shop visits. [ So true – keep reading about this courting process in Silicon valley ]

Ajay Piramal – has a pharmaceutical company and others – and is one of the top 50 Richest people in India [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajay_Piramal ]

•  Stressed on the importance of Values. He gave a great definition of Integrity – Integrity is the alignment of thought, speech and action. [ Simple and straight. ]
•  1 good trait of an entrepreneur – courage to take a decision. 
•   Convert challenges to opportunities
•   Be passionate but also be dispassionate from results. Focus on action and leave results out. He gave a supporting story on how they dealt with their acquisition.
•  Associate with people of high value
• Avoid “slippery slope” – I will do a bit of this small short cut or concession – and this will begin small but will become big in the end.

Ganesh Natarajan, CEO Zansar technologies

• Innovation is destroying paradigms
• Dont assume that you have a great solution for today. It will change and your solution will become invalid ( explained how Aptech was no longer relevant when colleges started having IT in their curriculum )
• Scale quickly – that is what entrepreneurship is all about [ huh.. hate that word scale ]

Alque Padamsee [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyque_Padamsee ]

He gave the best talk of the entire event.

Leadership through Innovation

• Innovate
• Enthuse not enforce
• Vision Statement

There were 2 more sessions I attended.

One was Mahesh Murthy, Poonam Pandey and Ramesh Srivats – all Twitter superstars.

They brought Poonam Pandey just for the crowd? Boo – the time could have been well spent with another twitter celebrity.

• Poonam Pandey earns 80,000 per sponsored tweet. She does one such tweet per day – and a 17 member team manages her account – so what did the bunch of hard working entrepreneurs learn from it?
• All 3 have everything to gain from their twitter presence – so if the other two tried to make you believe that twitter is a good addiction etc.. – don’t listen to them.

 There was one more session where Alok Kejriwal, Vishal Gondal, PK Gulati and an IAN member came on stage. It was good – nice sound bytes but I got distracted in an email/sms chat with a customer.

Overall the event was good. Met lot of unsung entrepreneurs – fighting their own battles. I am sure 10 years from now most of these unsung heroes will be on stage – inspiring the next batch of entrepreneurs. 

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.

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?

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.