Thoughts for public consumption

Remembering Teachers Who Have Long Forgotten Me

2014-09-06T23:18:00.000+05:30

As happens with every occassion, this Teacher's Day brought back fond memories of teachers - for many people on social media. Of course, the icing on cake was our dear Prime Minister's speech for school children. As someone rightly asked on Twitter, shouldn't he be addressing teachers. Well, I guess teachers will need to wait a bit more for their Ache Din!

Leave that, coming back to teachers and the special bond that many of my friends shared with their teachers. Believe me, when I say, I feel a little bit jealous because I do not have any teacher who I can proudly call the beacon of my life. This coming from someone who attended 6 different schools - not including FIITJEE, where I spent an year to be able to go to CUSAT, where I spent 4 years to be able to get a job. But despair not, even though I did not have teachers whom I considered emulating - and this, to be sure, is not necessarily something lacking on their part - I had lots worth remembering.

Schooling started with LKG and UKG at Velammal, Anna Nagar Chennai. I hope you will understand that I do not have any memories of my teachers from that time. I am sure even my teachers from those time do not remember a (shall I say cute) little boy with two ponies jutting out from his head, as if Lord Shiva decided to have two outlets for Ganga just to make sure the pressure did not get to him. In case you are interested, one memory I have of that place is feeling jealous on seeing other kids with three box tiffins when I was sent with one. The other one is not something to be proud of and I apologize to my parents for starting the process of letting them down at such an early age. Basically, I did it in my pants .... in school. When the teacher asked me to sit down after my due greetings, I refused (I remember this), and before long I was in the bathroom being given a thorough wash. Thereafter, I was put alongside my half pant right near the main gate for both of us to dry. It did not help that parents had starting filing in to collect the apple of their eyes. My granny still recounts the horror of seeing her apple standing naked waist down.

Next was Fatima in Malad, Mumbai. Here I have to apologize again, in fact more, because I do not even have personal experiences to fall back on. You can start getting an idea of how simple (you can read pointless) my school life was. I do however remember my father dropping my sister and I on a Lambreta. On many occassions he used to stop at a stationery shop on the way to buy scented erasers for us. To be sure, during those times we called them rubbers - of course, it was before the liberalisation era of 90s when rubber was something you used to rectify a mistake and not to avoid one.

Cut to Prakash in Ahmedabad. One of the best school days I had. In fact, this was also my Gupta period when it comes to teachers. I had a teacher who, while teaching us Geography, told us that the earth would be subsumed by an exploding star after millions of years. Her simple act of going beyond the syllabus ensured that I remain worried for the next 2 days. Of course, times have changed now. I give a damn even if a star explodes this very moment - I have got life insurance, you see. We had a teacher, and my classmates know whom I am talking about, who was known for his temper. He was known to have thrown a compass at someone in his class. When I attended, he just threw a duster. And this was SUPW class. This was also the time, when I met a beautiful young teacher who came to teach us Hindi for a year. One of those young liberal teachers who students take a liking towards. Guess what, I even attended her wedding along with my parents.

Next stop was an year long experience at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhandup, Bombay. I remember only one teacher - a tall lady from Delhi with a bob-cut hairstyle. She taught us English and I was relatively good in that subject. And yes, she was a very good teacher. Contrary to all expectations it was in her subject - English - that we first did something practical. We created a radio show. She once asked all sections of class 8th to read my essay on "Recess". I had a crush on her. But all that did not last very long. Within a year, along with my dad's transfer came mine.

I joined Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Sitapur Road, Lucknow. A boys school. Every tuesday we attended school in Kurta-Pyjama and Kolhapuri chappals. When I rode my cycle to school on tuesdays, I looked like a journalist in the making. Everyday we used to spend 15 mins in the morning and evening on Transcendral Meditation. I was in 9th. The last thing on my mind was meditating. A lot of us dozed off while sitting on their benches. Each and every teacher, barring one who was very young and left very soon, kept one or two canes with him. Please understand, each and every teacher. It seemed as if I was in an encounter zone. I had a Chemistry teacher who seemed to have picked up a tip or two from the army training manual. Let me give you an example of his modus operandi. Assume he is sitting in the teacher's chair and you are speaking with him about something - most probably trying to see if you can get that extra mark just by that Puss in Boots Innocent Face. Of course, the rest of the class is murmuring. Of course, there is strength in number and this murmuring of 60 students creates a cacophony. What does our teacher do? He cool headedly asks us "Who was speaking?". We, the future of India, remain silent. This is not a scene from a Bollywood movie, mainstream or otherwise. So he starts giving each and every student in the class 30-40 canings ... on the palms. Of course, the cane breaks midway and he sends a student who is yet to undergo this experience out into the fields to get a new one.

Things were not so bad though. We had a teacher who though equally brutal used to smile. "Killing me Softly" had a new meaning for us. Let me give you a sneak preview into his ways. Assume he gave us an internal test of 30 marks and the passing marks were 20. Now, you are me and I am like most of the class. So we score below 20. Now, here are the rules read out when the answer sheets are being distributed. For each mark less than the passing marks, you get one caning on the palm. However, please do not misunderstand our teacher to be a cruel one. He gives us an option. Either take one on the hand or two on the bum. I think I took the latter option only because I already knew how it feels to be caned on the palm.

After 2 years and a board exam, I realized that there are better schools around. And I joined City Montessori School, Mahanagar, Lucknow. The school boasts of being the largest of its kind in the world and its founders are well-respected by everyone except their own students. We used to pray for them to not attend our functions - because their speeches lacked something called a concluding part, or a conclusion for that matter. Of course, our prayers were not answered and that played a major role in my religious beliefs today. We had a Chemistry teacher who told us what to write in the board exams. He told us "Write what I am writing on the board irrespective of the question you are asked. If you write anything else, I will not take responsibility". There was a teacher who did pass a friend for a bottle of liquor - we were grown ups. I guess these were the things that remained to be learnt from teachers in my last year in school. Fortunately, we had an excellent and amazing teacher for English literature. He made Wuthering Heights, Twelfth Night and Great Expectations interesting to us. We actually learnt from those books.

This, people, is an abridged version of My teachers' Experiments With Me. For all the talk of "Aacharya Devo Bhava", I think we forget that a lot of teachers are teachers because teaching is a profession. I mean, how many people have you met who are software engineers because it is their passion and not because this is the only job their degrees could get them. So let us take it easy and get ready for Children's Day.

For those who are interested, here is how it all happened to me chronologically.

1987-1989 Valiyamal
1989-1992 Fatima
1992-1996 Prakash
1996-1997 KV
1995-1997 Maharishi Vidya Mandir
1997-1999 CMS
1999-2000 FIITJEE
2000-2004 Cochin University

Kya Hua?

2014-08-05T00:19:00.001+05:30

Returning from office, it was the start of a regular evening walk from the main road to home for Aman. Not too long back, he had started pooling with a colleague and the fifteen minute walk was a welcome side effect.

Hardly had he walked a few steps, when he noticed a small group of people crowded around something that lay on the ground. Such sights were not new for Aman. Situated strategically near a liquor shop and a municipal garbage can, the stretch was the the de facto public toilet for people in the vicinity. Consequently it emanated a perennial stench of urine. He had often seen people - men & women alike - in their most drunken state. Some walked in a dangerously unpredictable manner; some of them, stumbled down, struggled to get to their feet; others, drunk way beyond their capacity, lay on the ground - possibly enjoying one of the most peaceful sleep they may have had in a long time.

Usually, Aman used to walk past wondering about what he saw and thinking about the motivations that made someone forget everything and find solace, laced with humiliation, in liquor. On many occasions, he had wanted to help them get to their feet, but something held him back. Maybe the sight of everyone else going about their work provided a normality to the scene which made helping the person look like an aberration.

Today though, he stopped and peeped through the cracks between people milling around. He saw the back of a woman, in a green saree, lying on the ground. What made the, otherwise routine, scene unforgettable, was the sight of two children sitting right beside their mother - expressionless. The elder one looked around 3 years old, his own daughter's age, Aman realized. Clutching a half eaten samosa, she stared blankly, trying to avoid eye contact with the strangers who stood staring at the immovable mass that lay unconscious on the ground. The younger one was too young to fathom the situation. Both the children stuck close to their mother putting one hand on her trying to gather strength from her mere presence. None of them cried. Maybe too scared of the crowd or maybe too dazed to know what was happening. Maybe unfazed by normality of what was happening or maybe just on the verge of breaking down.

As Aman stood there, he couldn't help but notice a pattern that manifested itself. Almost every other moment, a person would stop by near the crowd, inquire with someone who seemed to have been at scene long enough; and pose a question in the exact same two words "Kya Hua?" (What Happened?). To which they were told that "a woman got very drunk and lay unconscious but had two small children with her". Some people wanted to know if the woman was dead, unable to comprehend the fuss over a living person. Most, in a strange display of humanity, exhibited relief that she was alive and moved on.

Normal situations of emergency warrant a call to 108 - the number which could summon an ambulance, a fire engine or the police, depending on the nature of the emergency. In a country like India, the high number of casualties, across any kind of eventuality, force upon emergency services the need to prioritize peoples' miseries. In such a context, the case of a person lying in drunken stupor is very interesting. Some years back, Aman had used 108 to summon an ambulance for a man who was lying on the footpath, drunk! Unfortunately, what he viewed as a responsible act was seen as wastage of precious resources at the cost of more genuine emergencies. The ambulance doctor explained to Aman that calls like his prevent emergency services from reaching those who actually need them, in a sense implying him to use his discretion next time around. The man in question would wake up in the morning, stagger to his feet, dust his clothes and walk away, maybe at the cost of a life he prevented from being saved.

This time, though, it was different. While we could ignore the woman, as we did usually, her two children presented a dilemma to which none had an answer. Hoping to outsource our problems, as is our wont, Aman called up the emergency number assuring himself that the current situation warranted their presence. Strange as it may sound, if they could somehow get her to stand up and take her children home, it would bring a sense of proper closure to those present. This is a variant of the head in the sand approach that the ostrich takes. As long as we do not have to witness anything wrong or sad, it is easy to keep such things beyond the radar of our psyche.

Near the scene of action, people constantly poured in like water heating in a vessel - the warmer molecules moving outside giving space to colder ones. One lady, in particular, looked very agitated - she either knew the woman in question or was too piqued by the sight of a woman lying drunk with her two helpless children. She slapped and hit the woman many times to get her back to senses. As a finale to her act, she picked up the woman, holding her hair with all available force and shook her violently. Horrified, the elder daughter broke down, the half eaten samosa still in her hand.

After a call punctuated with long silences, the ambulance arrived, sirens blaring, with a sense of authority. A young doctor disembarked, wearing a crisp white coat emblazoned with 108 and a motto which sought to assure people of their mission. Putting on cheap disposable plastic gloves, he took stock of the situation. His expression gave away that his apprehensions had indeed come true - this was a call which he could not do anything about and should have avoided.

The young doctor did try a few things to get the woman to respond but to no avail, something that he himself was not very surprised or disappointed about. He did seem amused and, then frustrated with bystanders who wanted him to do "something". The doctor mustering all sincerity in an effort to hide his irritation asked them to tell him what he should be doing and that he would do it. The driver of the ambulance doubled up as an attendant and was busy trying to disperse the crowd of curious onlookers. Finally, when repeated requests did not work, a lathi manifested it from inside the ambulance and was waved at the bystanders in an effort at some serious crowd control.

At this point, the woman too gained consciousness, jolted into sanity by another bout of vigorous hair pulling by the well-wishing woman. Aman too resumed his walk home. His thoughts went to the visibly drunk man who offered his unsolicited counsel "If you want to drink then drink at home". As someone who lived his life insulated from the perils of poverty, Aman wondered if people who drink themselves to unconscious levels do so out of irresponsibility or as a carefully deliberated choice in face of their ever-shrinking range of options.

five ingredients that zest my life

2014-07-19T03:44:00.003+05:30

When you hear zest, you immediately relate to phrases like "zest for life", etc. I searched on Google and figured out that there was another equally interesting meaning - an ingredient for adding flavor. And isn't that exactly what Zest does in our lives - add flavor to it. Zest as a flavor is analogous to our lives in another very interesting way - Like food, life (or living) too is a necessity. But it is zest, whether in food or in life, which adds a flavor and, dare I say, meaning.

5 things that most add flavor to my life would be

People

[image courtesy: geniusquotes.net]

For me, People are at the top. The four that follow are, nothing but, products made by people. Be it my grandmother's Bhojpuri, or my mother's laughter, my daughter's whims or my wife's anger, the guy who cut my lane on my way to office or the traffic constable to let me go seeing my family in the car, that auto rickshaw driver who refused to take me home or the stranger who gave me a lift, people are the ginger-garlic paste of life - the staple addition to every dish. I am always reminded of the time when I was riding my wife's Scooty to office and I gave a lift to this person. The next 30 mins was spent in him trying to convince me that I should sell the scooty and buy a bike because that suits my image. It was such an interesting encounter that I wrote about it here.

Road Trips

[image courtesy stickywallpapers.com]

My own addition to the quote would be "And those who do not travel by road have read the book skimming a lot of words they could have understood only if they had stopped to consult a dictionary"

If there is a way to travel that allows you to immerse yourself in the experience it is a road trip. I have done quite a few of them till now and I hope to do many more before I hit the dead end. Some of the most memorable ones have been a 2500 km road trip along the western coast of India about which I have started writing here, or the road trip from Hyderabad to Goa and back with my wife and 6 month old daughter to attend the Tehelka Thinkfest, or the one from Hyderabad to Lucknow and back when my wife was 7 months pregnant - yup you read that right! So you now know how crazy we are and also why Road Trips comes just after People.

Movies

[image courtery lifehack.org]

Unlike Audrey, I cannot claim to have learnt everything that I know from the movies. I can definitely vouch for the fact, though, that the right selection of movies can instill in you a strong sense of appreciation of things in real life. To be sure, I have seen brain-dead movies too, whose only purpose was to prove that I had a mind that works. But I have also seen movies that so beautifully have conveyed some of most complex of emotions in a beautiful manner. I am sure all of us have movies that have inspired us, made us cry, made us realize our shortcomings, made us feel lucky, don't we? I think it is only apt for us to thank those who made films for our "entertainment". You could watch The Lunchbox, Carnage, Revolutionary Road, The Shawshank Redemption, Lagaan or even an Andaz Apna Apna to identify that zest that I am talking about.

Books

[image courtesy imagesbuddy.com]

A large chunk of us may have moved to Kindle, but that only reaffirms the joy that reading brings to a lot of us. Depending on what you like reading, a book can take you on a journey where you would like to get lost. I, personally, like reading a lot of non-fiction. And when reading non-fiction, I realize that when people say "Truth is stranger than fiction", they are not exaggerating a week bit. I grew up reading classics (fiction) like Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Wuthering Heights, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and many more. As I grew older, though, I gravitated towards non-fiction and read almost all books by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. Their books are a must read if you would like to know about some of the most historic moments in history and that includes their detailed & acclaimed book - Freedom At Midnight on India's independence. The latest that I am reading is the Pulitzer Prize winner Emperor of Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee - which is, in his own words, "a biography of cancer". Reading books have allowed me to live a lot many other lives, which would have been impossible if I were to live only through my own life.

Languages

[image courtey: englishcoursemalta.com]

"What? Languages?", you may ask. How can languages be among my zests, or anyone's zests, for that matter? Well, even I would have thought so if I had not studied in Kerala and if I did not belong to a family that traditionally speaks Bhojpuri. I lived in Kerala for 4 years as an engineering student and within a couple of years, I was able to speak Malayalam quite fluently. And the way it opened up avenues for me to connect with people was simply amazing. When I spoke their language, they considered me one of their own and to be treated like that is truly a great feeling. Only yesterday, colleagues in my office were amazed at the fact that I could speak Telugu. It felt as if I am not an alient anymore but one of them made of the same flesh and blood. Last but not the least - Bhojpuri, which is such a beautiful language and which allows me to connect with my grandmother at a much deeper level than a formal Hindi would! And so it is language that closes this list for me.

I hope you enjoyed reading the list. Do share yours too with me through the comments. Also let me know about what you felt about my five.

This post is a part of the #ZestUpYourLife activity in association with TATA Zest and BlogAdda.com

a moo-ving case for bovine intervention

2014-07-19T01:41:00.002+05:30

While people the world over - of course, excluding those representing democratic governments - were expressing displeasure over Israel's military action against Palestine, there were other, equally cringe worthy, attacks being made on specific people's right to experience "bovinity". No clues for guessing who it was - all clues are in the tweets below. Madhu Kishwar literally kicked up a "storm in a milk cup" when her dear cow was taken away from her. Not to be cow-ed down, she took to ruminating on twitter blaming this injustice on the municipal authorities driven by slave mentality.

The lady has clearly told us that there is a cow in the room and it cannot be ignored anymore. More importantly, the whole issue is about keeping the cow moo-ing in the room.

I, for once, rubbed my hands in glee. For the funny person that I am known to be my blog never got to see my funny side. It has always been about cribbing or philosophizing. But this "pet peeve" of Madhu Kishwar set my mind thinking and opened a "whole new world of possibilities" of what could happen if keeping cows as pets became as ubiquitous a practice as dogs and cats.

[image courtesy: cowism.com]

First, and foremost, the morning routine. The cows that I have seen normally do number 1 and 2 both standing in the same place. This cannot be allowed in western influenced homes. We need fit cows. So every morning and every evening, someone needs to take their cows out for a walk. Of course, there has to be a leash. And you will need to ensure that the cows do not settle down in the middle of the road, as is their wont.

The next thing you will need to take care of is cleaning up after them. This puts us in a very tight spot, as you will see. Traditionally we have been a dung picking nation - we have made cow dung cakes and these cakes have been used as firewood, the dung has been used to sweep floors and walls of our homes. So ideally we are not averse to "handling" cowshit, and in the same context bullshit too. But things have changed now. We can't be seen picking up cow dung off the streets, pavements, porches, gardens or whichever place it is that has caught the fancy of your bovine pet.

I see ladies and gents alike look the other way when their dogs are relieving themselves of the big one - acting the same way as they would for any crime that were accidental witnesses to. Not very long ago, I saw a lady being taken for a walk by three dogs. And one of them graced the pavement with the outcome of his metabolism. I had to remind the lady of the society rules. Now, remember, with cows, things get murkier, literally. In case of dogs or cats, you can stoop to conquer and like a watchful eagle nailing a rat, you will be done before anyone noticed. Unlike their canine or feline counterparts, the goods of a cow are not amenable to swooping and you need a dust pan more than (or along with) a plastic bag.

The third thing to take care of would be to buy a vehicle big enough so that you can carry your pet around to people's houses. In any case, do not forget the rope. Just tie it to the security guard's table on the ground floor. If your friend stays in one of those luxury apartments with big elevators, problem solved. Take it right up.

I can only feel happy thinking of the Gupta period of pet ownership when people would be walking in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in South Delhi discussing silly nothings while their Ponwars, Dangis, Khilaris ruminate over "Who Stole My Fodder".

packing a sumptuous lunchbox ...

2014-07-15T15:35:00.001+05:30

... without masala is possible and Ritesh Batra exhibits this with aplomb.

[image credit: http://rahulda10.wordpress.com]

Before I write about the movie, some background into why the delay in getting around to watching it. I was very excited after seeing the trailer. I would be honest, back then I was more excited because of Irrfan Khan (IK), Nawazuddin Siddiqui (NS) - two actors for whom I hold the most respect - and for the story that I could tease out of the trailer. I did not know Ritesh Batra as a movie maker then. As customs demanded, I duly shared the trailer on Facebook and "earned some Likes" (the upper case L denotes the Facebook adaptation of this phrase - how smart!)

A bit about the kind of movie goers my wife and I are. Many of us know those happy couples who make sure they watch at least one movie every weekend. Pray, some of you may be those couples. I envy you. My father has a friend like that. I have friends like that. Unfortunately, my wife and I are not one of those happy couples. Before this blows up, let me clarify that we are happy as a couple, just that are not happy watching everything that is served on a friday. And I do understand that this is not necessarily the mark of a true film lover. A true film lover has a much wider range and does not judge a movie without watching it, in fact does not judge a movie at all. Not that we have not had our share of misadventures. We have learnt our lessons the hard way including that time we walked out of Raavan mid-way. That the tickets were free helped us make a quick decision. Or that time when I went to watch Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag along with colleagues. Here is a gem from one of those who accompanied me "I will never order food during a Ram Gopal Verma movie. It is just so dark that you cannot eat your food". Or that time in college, when law of diminishing marginal utilities caught up with us when we tried to wrap up One 2 Ka 4 immediately after watching Russel Crowe's Proof of Life. I know I have digressed.

Coming back to The Lunchbox (TL), wife and I both agreed that this is a movie to watch. Of course, it has been sometime we watched a movie together in the theater. My 3 year old daughter's impatience with movies which are not animated or do not have animals (preferably named as humans) ensures that she stays away from the movies we like. So the plan as it rolls out is, one of us watches the movies first and then the other follows. I always ask Ipshita to go first and this is for a purely selfish reason. I do not want to be in a situation where I have watched it and she has not. Plus with the uncertainties of life with a small baby, it can only get worse if she doesn't get to watch it at all. So Ipshita went with a common friend. Watched it. Loved it. And I was happy - genuinely happy. Of course, Murphy caught up with me and I could not watch it in theater and that, my friends, is how I got to watch it yesterday in one of those moments where you do not want to "achieve" anything but to watch a good movie.

One thing that stood out, ironically, was the subtlety displayed by all the main actors - IK, NS and NK (Nimrat Kaur). Like those who cook food at their own pace to bring out the flavors, Ritesh builds the plots at a very easy pace - be it Ela and Saajan's relationship or that between Sheikh and Saajan.

At its easy pace, the movie is able to latch on to those small things that we encounter in our every day life but fail to appreciate because of its "routine-ness". The relationship between Ela and Aunty is simply beautiful. I especially loved the part where they listen to music together. What a beautiful way to share their space. To an engineer like me it reminds of a Venn Diagram - there are overlaps but their are independent areas too.

In the scene in which Ela tries to approach her husband for a second baby, I found the emotions very tense. As though the husband was a bomb waiting to explode. Of course, it was handled very delicately and the Ela's emotions diffused with the husband's "Please Aloo Gobhi mat banaya karo" maxim.

The scene in which Saajan receives an empty box is beautiful - without a word, it screamed "I need an answer". And, of course, it is a respite from those memory testing movies where the villain has to clearly spell out the conditions under which he killed the actor's father so that the actor finally knows. I think someone needs to tell certain people in Bollywood - we normally do not speak our heart out in as clear terms as you show and definitely not in the way you depict.

The parting scene between Sheikh and Saajan at the former's marriage is especially touching. There are very few scenes of friendship between men that I have seen that display it without being loud. That in this case it was not even a friendship of peers but more of a guardian-ward relationship makes it even more beautiful. That it was a scene between two of the most amazing actors in Bollywood makes you thank Ritesh again and again for choosing to make a movie like TL.

Nawazuddin's accent is very very affable - something about it made him a person next door and not an actor. I am especially talking about the way he spells his Rs or rather does not spell it. I do not think that is his usual accent. Irrfan Khan's "My wife is dead" in a deadpan voice is reminiscent of Arnold's "Come with me if you want to live". That time when Irrfan asks the auto driver for the name of the lady who commits suicide is tragicomic.

IKs' realization that he is old and then the next realization that he is not that told is beautifully shown. The way IK becomes acceptable to his young cricket playing neighbours displayed so beautifully by the window. Simply amazing.

The first question that I wanted to ask Ritesh was whether he wanted Saajan to meet Ela in the end. Also if he has seen Bridges of Madison County. Rhetorical question maybe, of course he has. And if he saw any resemblance in the situations of the female protagonists.

As is customary after watching a good film, I started scavenging for the film maker on the internet and hit up on this short film by him which was part of the Sundance Festival. Called Masterchef, it's theme too is centered around making of food. Take a look

Ethics, Ivory Tower & Hypocrisy

2014-06-17T01:53:00.003+05:30

[When I first wrote this post, it was late in the night and my thoughts were floating like snakes in Kekule's mind. Now that I am awake, I hope to edit it in a way that it makes more sense to those who read - just like Kekule came up with the Benzene structure after the snakes aligned :)]

In the past few days, I have discussed with friends and colleagues on ethics and ethical dilemmas. In almost each of these conversations, people have questioned my stand with a plain statement (which masks a rhetorical question) - "You are in a position where you can practice your ethics but not everyone has that comfort" or "You are saying this now sitting in an AC room but you may act differently when facing real life".

While not going into the exact point that was being discussed in each of these conversations, the point made by such people is definitely worth pondering. How valid (read honest) are one's ethics if they have not been created keeping in mind the entire gamut of possible life situations they MAY have to go through?

While it may sound obvious, my ethics have been built from my own experiences and they have definitely changed over a period of time. I have not really given a thought to their validity in all cases irrespective of the probability of their occurrence e.g. stealing is bad we say but will we not steal to feed our families in times of crises? Such questions which try to filter everyone's ethics through a "trial by fire", more often than not, just serve as an excuse for not adopting a different (I did not use the word better) set of ethics.

There are a few facets of this discussion that can help us gain some clarity on this subject and help remove the clutter that is our own creation. First, when I practice a certain set of ethics or hold a certain "ethical" viewpoint on a subject, I do not (at least try my best not to) judge a person not holding the same viewpoint e.g. even if I am vegan, I do not judge a person who consumes meat as someone barbaric. I do want to try and understand his/her viewpoint on what they think about killing animals for food, but again, not judging them.

Second point, does someone's ethics HAVE to confirm to all possible situations that one may face in life. How does one even arrive at an exhaustive list of such situations? And do we account for the probability of occurrence of a particular situation? Can we not take a cue from Pareto's analogy and create our ethics for 80% of the situations that we face in life and not for the 20%. Is it even right to say that unless my set of ethics confirms to all possible situations, I am not even going to start practicing what I know for sure is the right thing to do - just because a particular tenet may fail me at a later point of time.

Also, is it right to call a change in my ethics when faced with an unaccounted or previously un-encountered situation an act of hypocrisy? I do not think so.

I feel a lot of problems arise when people start preaching what they practice e.g. I can be vegan but I do not necessarily have to force others to be one. Also, when we start judging people who do go by the same set of ethics that we follow.

While my search on the internet did give me a lot of matter on the subject of ethics, including ethical dilemmas, I could not find anything worthwhile on the topic of "validity of ethics in extreme situations". If you know of someone who has written about it, please do let me know through the comments section.

A few resources on the internet can get you started on the topic of Ethics - BBC has a micro-site with chapter like layout (though I cannot vouch for the depth in which they deal with each topic), there is http://www.friesian.com and of course there is Calvin and Hobbes who have made a point very close to what I made - my ethics are for me and not universal.

The case of "killing" plants vs killing animals; It's the Sentience...I "feel"

2014-06-06T00:16:00.001+05:30

Ever since I have started carpooling with a friend, we end up discussing a lot of issues, some of which we may not really concur on. One of this is the idea of killing animals for the purpose of food. Before non-vegetarian readers rally against me, let me make it clear that some of my best friends are non-vegetarians. Consumption of meat is not an issue on which I target individuals but one where I try to understand people's motivations (or the lack of it to change their lifestyle).

The conversation started by a question I posed by speaking out aloud "I wonder if it is possible for us to not be able to relate to the pain of an animal that we slaughter (not necessarily by our own hands) for food". In case you are wondering, I do not use parentheses when I speak - that is just meant to preclude any thoughts that may run off in tangents.

My friend, in the spirit of a good discussion for the next 30 mins, indulged me and joined issue. A lot of points were discussed and it ultimately rested on a piece that often comes up in the discussion between vegetarians and non-vegetarians - "Plants too are living beings and by hurting them one really is not practicing the tenet of not hurting beings". I tried to draw a line between taking the life of an animal like a sheep or plucking a tomato (or cutting a tomato for a salad). However, I was not able to articulate it properly because I do not think I knew a lot in this field.

I accepted my lack of an adequate response to this point but came home and searched for information on the internet. Like all things that you search for, this question too was discussed umpteen number of times across different fora. The main point that differentiates plants & animals is the capability of sentience in the latter which is missing in the former.

What is sentience? Wikipedia introduces it as

the ability to feel, perceive, or to experience subjectivity....In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations (known in philosophy of mind as "qualia"). The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, which is held to entail certain rights.

And that, my friend, differentiates "killing" a plant from killing an animal. An animal, individually as well as as a species, has preferences, tastes, feels happiness, sorrow, anger among other things. Plants do not exhibit these characteristics. So, while plants are beings in the sense that they grow, employ processes like transpiration and photosynthesis, they do not have feelings towards another plant of the same variety or another variety. And that is why the argument that eating plants or their products is also an act of killing life is not tenable.

PS: While having this discussion or many discussions, I noticed that most of the times discussions involving laymen like most of us, concentrate more on comparing a stand with other similar ones instead of evolving a stand objectively e.g. many times people have tried to show me how I may still be hurting animals while discussing the concept of consuming meat - not necessarily with the intention of helping me improve on those counts but most probably with the intention of nullifying the steps that I am already taking in that direction. In fact, this is a style is followed in most discussions that center around one's principles.

The Violent Streak in us

2014-06-05T00:38:00.002+05:30

The week gone by has brought a lot of bad news - sexual violence against women continued unabated bringing with it renewed ways of victim abuse and in the process revealed a sinister side of the male psyche that shocked a lot of us. A techie in Pune was killed by a group of Hindu fanatics who were enraged over some Facebook and WhatsApp posts which were insulting to their religion or religious figures.

What puzzles me is the tremendous appetite for barbarism and utter lack of respect for human life that we, Indians, display. Of course, this also reveals our hypocrisy because we do not leave a chance to remind the world that MK Gandhi, recognized as the epitome of Ahimsa, was an Indian too. Well, but that is where our relationship with him ends (even though he is the Father of the Nation).

The Dec 16th rape case which supposedly "shook the conscience of the nation", also threw up a lot of very uncomfortable but important questions - is rape the malaise or a symptom of malaise much more wide spread than the epidemic of rape itself? At least a few people whom I know were of the opinion that the girl did not make the right decision in moving around at night. It looks like a harmless comment to some but hides within itself, the inherent consent to the assumption that the society that one is living in is not just bereft of basic human mores but also lawless in nature. After all, why should you assume that traveling alone for a women at night is unsafe until you are convinced that the existing dispensation is incapable of providing security to its citizens and cannot be a credible deterrent to criminals.

Jason Burke of The Guardian wrote a brilliant essay titled "how India's other half lives" explaining the background of the six perpetrators of the rape. As the byline to the article said

The brutal gang-rape on a bus highlighted the routine abuse of Indian women – and how the nation's surge to superpower status has left millions behind struggling on the margins

As a country with burgeoning population and concomitant aspirations, we have somehow managed to articulate about almost everything relating to us - need to be a superpower, economic reforms, schooling, poverty - but have not paid sufficient attention to what constitutes or shapes our ethos or moral code. You could call it by some other word. Irrespective of where one belongs in the caste hierarchy or in the financial ladder, the status of women as equal to men has been grudgingly accepted at best and and violently resisted at worst. And the current education system is not helping redress this at all. In fact the focus in all pvt schools has been to create "leaders" (which is short code for MBAs, Engineers and new age glamorous jobs). Govt schools are the last resort even for those who have to stretch considerably to send their kids to a pvt school. This only serves to accentuate the divide.

Coming to the current case where two cousins (minors) were gang-raped and hanged (while they were alive) conveys that things haven't changed much on the ground. Viewed along with the recent killing of a techie in Pune by members of a Hindu extremist group over Facebook/WhatsApp posts, one starts to wonder - what really is the cause of the violent streak in Indians? Is it the grinding poverty, or is it the upbringing which, most of the times, reinforces stereotypes and ignores basic human values, or is it the utter lawlessness which has ensured an abysmal conviction rate of gender related crimes, of course for cases which get filed in the first place.

There really was a lot of hope among people after the Dec 16 incident that concrete steps would be taken by the government to tackle this. Not only did the earlier government fail miserably, even the current government doesn't instill confidence from its current track record. I wonder if this barbarism among citizens of a country is a recurring feature of any country's history and if, yes, then what are we doing to break the jinx?

What would you do ...?

2014-05-20T00:25:00.002+05:30

A few months back, I got to know about this lecture series called Justice - delivered at Harvard by Michael Sandel. It came highly recommended and from the first episode on I was hooked on to it. Through a series of lectures given at the historic Sanders Theatre, Sandel takes us through a number of moral questions with ramifications in everyday life and much beyond that.

[Photo Credit: Sun Yat-Sen Business School]

He starts off grabbing his students' and viewers' interest by putting forward a situation which translates into a question - "Would you kill one man to save five?" Turns out, the answer is not as simple as it may sound. I would have put the exact question that he puts forward but I would want you to enjoy the lecture.

[Photo Credit: Infosys Science Foundation]

The lectures do get dense as we proceed through the series, and it cannot be heard as one of those things that run in the background while you tend your daily work. True to its name, it is a lecture and therefore demands the attention that a lecture requires.

I found the series remarkable in the way it takes us through actual theories/thoughts put forward by philosophers on issues of morality and justice and in the way it elicits responses and comments from the students sitting in the hall. Honestly, it makes me want to go to Harvard and study this.

In one such lecture, Michael Sandel takes the famous Queen vs Dudley & Stephens case where a group of shipwrecked crew resorted to cannibalism to survive. These sessions do not provide answers to questions - they provide fodder to the mind to ask more questions and find one's own answers.

There are also important point for someone who is interested in honing his political philosophy understanding as Michael Sandel takes us through the hoops of free will - does it really exist or is it really total in a society?, he talks about utilitarianism - its proposal of maximizing utility and the pitfalls in such a thought. I think this closely touches the concept of majoritarianism and is hence worthy of further study. He also introduces us to the veil of ignorance - a very powerful concept who modern usage was developed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. A Theory of Justice, in itself, is a work worth studying. I hope I get the time to do that.

Listening to these lectures and many others has helped me realize that a lot of our opinions are based on perceptions, which unfortunately, more often than not are not rooted in facts e.g. our calmour for meritocracy is mostly based out of the idea that there is no better way to level the playing field than judge people on their abilities - forgetting that abilities and opportunities do not present themselves in the same way for everyone, if they manifest at all. Study of data and a deeper study brings us to some discomfiting conclusions.

Strongly recommended!

Welcome Mr Prime Minister

2014-05-17T01:41:00.001+05:30

As the national electoral process comes to close after, what seemed like a very long wait, it is time to sit back and, yes, you guessed it right - write a blog post. While the campaigning was at its peak, I did feel like powering on my laptop to resume writing, but, I guess, my laziness, had the better of me.

The mandate that the BJP has received does not have a precedent, at least not in the last 30 years, which by public memory seems eons ago. The party is set to cross the half way mark all on its own. I am an Aam Aadmi supporter, but I think it would not be wrong to congratulate BJP for emerging as a the single largest party, and that too in such a way. And consequently, to Mr Modi for becoming the Prime Minister of a large (and hopefully great) country like ours.

While places - real as well as virtual - are agog with celebrations, I think it is a good time to also give a thought to what may lie ahead. For this, it is important to realize what has happened. A lot of people, almost 40 percent of the electorate, has voted for BJP and its allies. A point to note, apart from the fact that 60 percent have not, is that this 40 percent consists of a variety of people who have equally varied expectations from the government. Some of them are the pro-development middle class, some of them are the pro-job working class, some of them are the business class who adequately compensated for their lack in numbers with money in its various forms, some of these are, what we may call, BJP's bread and butter supporters - those who see in Modi the saviour of Hindus, Hinduism, Hindutva - good luck to those who try finding the differences between the three. If you have studied logic the way I have (which I assure you is primitive), it is hard to miss the inherent tension between the diagonally opposite expectations which each group comes with. Fortunately, for me, my ego is not bigger than my wish to see the country on the right track and therefore, I wish Mr Modi the very best in the tightrope walking act that he is embarking on.

Let us not forget that Mr Modi, whether you like it or not, by virtue of being PM of India, is also the PM for all those Indians who did not vote for him. And, ideally, he will need to address their concerns too. So the environment-wallahs, jhola-wallahs, the LGBT wallahs and many other interest groups - he will need to be cognizant of their concerns too.

A lot of us are actually rejoicing the fact that the BJP victory has been so "complete" that there is no opposition party left (it seems that you need 55 seats to be an opposition). Well, the absence of a credible opposition is not good news for a well functioning parliament and democracy. So that is something all of us need to be aware of.

The fact that BJP has come to power on its own, even without the support of its allies, is a good thing when it comes to taking decisions, especially related to reforms, which have been stuck for a lot of time. It also means that a lot of decisions that may merit discussions and invite disagreements, can be ramrodded through without paying heed to any argument.

Coming to AAP, it was indeed a tall order to expect more than 10 seats. I think that is what all of us, myself included, were hoping for. But the fact that we drew a blank in every state, including Delhi, and except Punjab, was disappointing as well as saddening. But looking at the positive side - there is no doubt that AAP can claim credit of being one of the major forces which changed the way elections are contested and the general discourse around elections. Today, I feel that maybe resigning from Delhi was a costly decision. I would still desist from saying wrong because, I think Arvind Kejriwal's brand of politics is different and it is painstakingly costly - it will test its supporters before it starts giving results. In the process, many will desert it disillusioned, many will write it off, many will jeer it. With the din of the Parliamentary elections dying down, it will be interesting to see how AAP manages to keep itself relevant in the political discourse and in people's minds. They have already expressed the intention of contesting assembly elections in Punjab & Haryana.

Last but not the least, a big thank you is due to the Election Commission and every single person who was involved in the conduct of this election. The exercise was indeed humongous and the effort unprecedented. Thank you.

The election story has finished. The real story has started. And this time, actually, not everyone is watching!

We will not be asked about what we didn't know ...

2014-03-04T02:15:00.002+05:30

... but we will be asked about what we chose not to know. After watching "No Fire Zone", a documentary chronicling the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces against Tamil civilians, leaves one in a very disturbed state of mind.

Some of us may remember that not very long back, there was a hue and cry about the CHOGM being held in Colombo. More importantly, the debate was about whether our dear Prime Minister, whose image is as clean as a black slate, should attend the meeting. Instead of taking a principled stand, he showed yet again that he considers politics to be a card game and the only way to win is to keep quite and wait until someone else picks one of the cards and puts down for him. He did end up on going but the lack of a principled stand nullified any message that he wanted to send, of course if he had one.

Coming back to the documentary, it shows how starting from the first to the final day of the offensive, the government forces willfully broke every rule of engagement and targeted innocent civilians. Scared cries of young children portray a very chilling picture which cannot be easily forgotten. In the later part of the documentary, we witness some stomach churning scenes of suspected LTTE soldiers being executed. There is clear documented evidence of gruesome acts of sexual violence against women which leaves one wondering if the army that is meant to protect people was actually sent to ravage them. If you wish to read more about this issue, this Frontline piece would be a good place to start.

I came around to seeing this documentary when I read about it being banned for general release in India by the CBFC because it found "most of the visuals are of a disturbing nature and not fit for public exhibition". It is disappointing indeed, to see what our dispensation finds worthy of public exhibition and what it considers unfit.

I think it is very important for each of us to stay informed of what is happening around us, not just in our city, state or country, but even beyond it. Staying informed helps us form opinions on what we consider right or wrong. It helps us form valid arguments when we are discussing our opinions with others. Most importantly, it ensures that we, as humans, rise beyond our mundane cocooned pleasures to understand life from a higher perspective.

Here is a trailer of the documentary. Do watch it unless you CHOOSE not to!

SLP India Day Hyderabad '13

2013-06-16T19:43:00.000+05:30

"Stay away as much as possible", this was the advice that Jayaprakash Narayan (JP as he is known), founder of Loksatta Party had in response to an audience question which asked him how to should entrepreneurs deal with bureaucracy. JP's excellent key note was a fitting start to the Startup Leadership Program's inaugural India Day event.

JP touched upon the nuances of collusive and exploitative corruption. He asked entrepreneurs to not waste time in fighting exploitative corruption; the whole trouble is never worth. He did talk about the opportunities available in terms of the number of problems waiting to be solved. Hearing JP approach the problem of governance from a very objective standpoint was a refreshing point of view and gave me hope that we can hope to see change for the better in the foreseeable future. One of the most important aspects of JP's speech was his rightful stress on the importance of organization in creating a favorable and encouraging ecosystem.

Inspiring entrepreneurs like Rajiv Chilaka of Chota Bheem fame, Aloke Bajpai of Ixigo and Vamsi Reddy of Apalya spoke about their journeys and reflected on their experience. Hearing entrepreneurs who have slogged it out in the unforgiving heartlands of Indian startups, and seeing them come of it dusted and ready for the next big thing, was heartening.

Change is not easy...and mostly is not simple

2012-12-20T02:35:00.004+05:30

With the middle class again in arms against the ruling government and its administrative machinery, it is time for the TV news media to work overtime again. Plus with social media being as accessible as it is, everyone, including the writer, who has an opinion (or even if he/she does not have one), has a point to make. Rapists should be given capital punishment, there should be fast track courts set up for trying rape and sexual assault cases, there should be more police patrol vehicles and of course more police on the road, impounding vehicles with tints on, asking buses to drive around with interior lights on at night. A few among us also talk about the more important issue of creating the much sensitivity in society about the rights of woman, which, in case there are any doubts, the same as that of a man.

An important point to be noted is that when this incident took place

i. The order to remove dark tints (in fact any tints) from vehicle glass panes was already in force for more than a month

ii. The bus was running in clear disregard to the rules of contract carriage.

iii. The bus passed through multiple police check points while the ghastly act was taking place

So, as you see, had existing rules and laws been implemented in spirit, the probability of such an incident going undetected while it was happening would have been much lesser. Maybe so less that the culprits would have been too scared to even commit the crime.

In an ideal world, our average citizen is well educated to know that one of his prime duties as a citizen is to follow the law of the land. However, considering these are not ideal times neither are we in Utopia, we should realize that before we start respecting the law, we will need to start fearing it. That would not happen unless we see better policing, water tight chargesheets, a senstive and sensitized administrative machinery and higher conviction rates.

To all the measures being taken by all the government arms after the Delhi rape incident, my question is "Why now? Why not earlier?". Were rapes not happening before this one shook the conscience of the nation? Or have be become shameless enough to start categorizing even rapes as important and not-so-important. We need to ask the steps being taken by governments in other states to ensure something like this does not happen in their state.

To ensure that rapes and sexual assault in our society do not become acceptable as "that thing which happens to other people", we need to start asking for a cogent policy to strengthen a woman's confidence as she moves about in society doing her usual business.

It is sad that it took a brutally assaulted girl left half dead to bring something as important as woman's safety (and even citizen's safety) back on the discussion table.

The Independence Day Rant

2012-08-15T02:25:00.001+05:30

It is 1:40 AM and when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom for the 66th time. As you cut out the din from the tv channels celebrating Independence Day in their own way - countdowns and entertainment shows, you visualize a blank screen staring at you. And in its state of blankness, it asks this question to you "What is meant by independence day?"

What does Independence mean to us?

There are facebook and twitter messages; there are definitely discussions and arguments on all available platforms ruing on where the country is and where it could have been had our founding fathers - to borrow a term from a country to which we have given so much or, shall I say, so many. Not to mention there are op-eds and blog posts (like these but better and beautifully worded).

I think most of us do not understand the meaning of freedom - either because we have never seen the opposite or because we are still not free. I would think we belong to the former category.

As an independent nation, we are very young. And, from the looks of it, we are not being brought up very nicely. We are afraid of using the "spare the rod..." method, lest we anger the human rights wallahs. We are afraid of encouraging open discussion within people, lest we are made to let go of "assumed" power over certain ways in which society has been functioning.

When I vent like this, it is not because I am pessimistic about my country's future. In fact I know someday it will achieve greatness. Every country goes through its turmoil. Following the laws of nation evolution, we will definitely become better - America like - as we would like to believe. But the difference will lie in the answers to questions like "at what cost" and "are we learning from the history of other nations"

It is not possible to understand the importance of an independent country by just visualizing the pre-Independence era. You need to live it to remember the lesson. On this Independence day, I just wish we love our country so much that we actually think about it in our actions.

The Wednesday Soul

2012-04-01T14:46:00.002+05:30

[This book review is written for Blog Adda under their Book Reviews Program. If you have a blog and would like to review a book, visit the link to enrol]

Let me confess upfront, I am not used to reading 'The Wednesday Soul' kind of fiction. My kind of books are non-fiction. In fact the last book that I reviewed for BlogAdda was a non-fiction. So when I started reading this book, I was take by surprise. The Wednesday Soul is the story of Nyra, Chittr and their lives or after-lives shall I say. Sourabh has created an entire world which peopled with people who die - looks I have inherited some of Sourabh's writing style too after reading the book. The book is a free flowing smooth read. Again, it is one of those books which you can carry on your train journey and finish it before getting down. Of course, when I talk about train journeys, I am talking about going from south to north.

One characteristic of the writing style in the book is the way it portrays life in India, urban life in particular. And then it marries (or tries to marry) this writing and living style of urban youth to the afterlife - something that is faithfully portrayed in the tagline for the book 'the afterlife, with shades'. It is an easy read for someone looking to start reading a book. But not everyone would like this book. The writer you can closest try and compare to is Chetan Bhagat and the comparison will fail when you reach the point of story. Even though both portray urban youth, in case of Sourabh, the youth category is even narrower.

Having said that, I commend Sourabh Pant for writing a non-fiction with an unexpected storyline like that of 'The Wednesday Soul'. The reason I have not written much about the story is because if you want to read the book, then you better not judge it by its story. My final one line - 'If you are going on that train journey and do not want a carry a book beyond the journey and if you are into non-fiction, this is one of the books you can think of'.

What do these numbers mean?

2011-12-20T12:37:00.000+05:30

Just read this report on how India fares better than the last in a 76 country study coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This when the only states participating from India were the top 2 states! Man, what a close shave with the last spot.

Though I am not a big fan of the school education system in India, I have some reservations about the basis of this study and also about what interpretation can we draw from the results. Without sounding boastful, I can say for sure that what has helped India make its mark in the world is large number of really smart people who were or were not schooled properly.

In a country like India which is in a peculiar state both in terms of where its society is in terms of Human Development Index and also in terms of its position in the world. So we have an education system which focuses on rote learning; but it is the products of this rote learning who are occupying a large chunk of the Silicon Valley and Wall Street - giving a whole new meaning to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As many voices in the said report have said, there is more to it than India just being in the last place!

Guest Access @ SLP Silicon Valley

2011-12-17T11:38:00.000+05:30

Once I landed in San Francisco with the knowledge that I would be spending one whole month in the Bay Area, I started racking my brains on things to do here. That's when it struck me that Startup Leadership Program has a chapter in the Silicon Valley. A couple of emails later Ankit Jain played the perfect host and invited me over to two sessions of the chapter that were happening the same week.

The first two sessions that I attended were at the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati office in Palo Alto. Rama Sekhar, VP at Norwest Venture Partners and a previous SLP fellow, talked to the class about financial modeling with a VC perspective. One thing that made Rama's presentation interesting was that he talked not only about the known issues when presenting to a VC but also things like "How we need to be early but expect the partner to reach late" or "How we need not get hassled by an audience distracted by BlackBerries".

The financial aspect and therefore its presentation will differ based on the stage we are in. However, it is important that we presented our financial model clearly. It is important to spell out your assumptions clearly. Incidentally, on a related topic, I read an interesting post by Jason Goldberg of Fab.com.(shared by, Kapil, again a SLP Silicon Valley fellow) He talked about how he designed a new process to pitch to the VCs so as to ensure that the entire cycle of securing securing venture capital was not only shortened but less painful and less distracting from their actual goal of running the company.

Rama's presentation was very useful for understanding what aspects we need to keep in mind when making a presentation of the financials aspects of our venture. This was followed by an activity based session by Barbara Fittipaldi of Center of New Futures. As far as I am concerned, it was an "interesting" session. I am wary of activities that can be categorized as Self Help and I fought hard in my mind not to approach this session from that angle of skepticism. Even though it would be difficult to summarize the message from the session into a paragraph, the underlying theme of Barbara's message was "If you want to go great things, in all probability, you are not going to reach there by doing the normal". She gave anecdotes and pointers on how to map your path to achieve your goals. What was interesting to know was that there were so many people in the class were open to her ideas and her message. Belonging to the Hyderabad Chapter, I could not help thinking, what would be the value add and reception to such a session in my chapter.

The third session that I attended was on a bright Saturday morning in the TiE office, Santa Clara. The topic, Financial Modeling, was kicked off by Ann Rogan. Ann presented the class with a template of a financial model that she filled up with data from her enterprise. This particular session was the most interactive of the ones I attended in SLP Silicon Valley. Most of the participants, on account of being existing or budding entrepreneurs, were informed on different financial aspects about an enterprise. Some of the topics discussed were - "projecting your startups' numbers on a monthly or quarterly basis - when to go which?", "the sensitivity of your financial model to a set of parameters that you use", "how to arrive that Customer Acquisition Cost", "differences in your model depending on your startup being an enterprise or eCom ?(or similar) startup". After Ann's walkthrough, we watched a video on Balance Sheets from the Khan Academy. Following that Sheila Maithel of Brillist, who was with SLP Delhi and is now with the Silicon Valley chapter, walked us through her thoughts about a financial model when she came up with her idea. Evidently, Sheila was still working out the financial aspect of her startup. But the discussion in the class was not only supportive but constructive too - for Sheila and for everyone else.

Overall, for me, it was a valuable learning experience to share time with fellows from the SLP Silicon Valley. One thing that struck me and which I also told fellows here was that it was interesting to note the kind of problems we were solving in Hyderabad (India in general) were different from what we were doing here in Silicon Valley. This obviously is a reflection of the needs of the market or shall we say the needs of the society in a particular geography. I wish all the entrepreneurs, best of luck, in their entrepreneurial endeavors. Hope to meet all of you again soon.

Real issues are Google and Facebook; to hell with Nation Development

2011-12-06T18:05:00.001+05:30

When I first heard Kapil Sibal's statement about censoring social networking websites, I took it really lightly. Not because I am not for freedom of speech but I am for it and as long as Kapil Sibal is only "saying" and not "doing" anything, we are better off letting some people just be.

But as the furore rises, it is important to make our reservations felt, just to ensure that the minister does not mistake our silence for acceptance. I am using an Indian Express article on this to ask KS a few questions

I suggested that these platforms should evolve a mechanism on their own to ensure that such content is removed as soon as they get to know of it... I have told them that this cannot go on

What content are you talking about? If I say "Screw the Government because it is not dealing with corruption", I am sure the government and its ministers are going to feel slighted. Which means I cannot say these things. Which means the government can just about do anything and I cannot do anything. I think the minister wants to teach us manners and confusing it with something else.

I believe that no reasonable person, aware of the sensibilities of a large section of the communities in this country, would wish to see this in the public domain

Totally agree Sir. I would not like to see discussions which say "Muslims are the cause of all problems in India". But do you think by stopping people of these opinions to post on social networking sites you are going to change their thinking or at the least stop them from talking about these issues. I don't think so. If you think a nation's thought process can evolve by censoring (sorry monitoring) what they say, I am sorry you are sadly mistaken.

This government does not believe in either directly or indirectly interfering in the freedom of the press

A non sequitur in this particular issue; why does Kapil Sibal think Facebook and Google constitute press. If he really wants to do something, let him first bring the TV news media under the press category and then start talking about Google and Facebook.

The same article says that India has more than 25 million Facebook users. Now I do know that Facebook had some role to play in the Arab Spring, in the Anna Hazare movement but if you think banning/monitoring Facebook can prevent large scale riots, there is a clear disconnect in the minister's mind.

And before I end, much before there were hate pages against Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, there were thousands of pages with child pornography. I did not see the minister charged up take up the arms on this one.

What is the worth of a company?

2011-11-24T18:38:00.001+05:30

Evening "chai" at our office is a very lively event. 4-5 of us gather over tea and discuss almost anything under the sun and move from one topic to another quite fast. One such topic that came up for discussion was started by a friend who was surprised at how "Tata's are worth USD 83.3 bn whereas Facebook is worth close to USD 100 bn".

I had a feeling that somewhere there was a flaw in such a conjecture but was not able to put it across in absence of actual facts. Coming back to the desk, Googling helped me a bit. So to put facts in order.

i. Tata's worth (I will come to the question of what this term means) is not USD 83 bn. USD 83 bn is actually its revenues in the year 2010-11. Information source - Tata website

ii. Facebook's revenue in the first half of 2011 was USD 1.6 bn. Information source TechCrunch. Another projection puts its revenues at USD 4.27 bn.

iii. The market capitalization of Tata group companies is around USD 77 bn. Information Source Tata website Detailed break up too is available on the website This is just the valuation of Tata companies that are listed. There may be companies in the group which are not listed.

iv. Facebook's project market capitalization is around 82 bn USD. Information source Vator

Now in light of these facts, the point put forward by my friend still holds true i.e Facebook, a young company started in 2004, has a market capitalization which is more than Tatas, a group which is only 7 years short of celebrating its 150 years of existence.

Now, the sky high valuations for tech companies seems to be a sign of irrational exuberance, to borrow from Alan Greenspan. Sometimes there may be a connect between revenues and valuations like Google; sometimes the market valuation may be in expectation of a future revenue windfall - a la Twitter.

Coming back to the Tata-Facebook comparison, however, we see that the gap between revenues is very wide. Tatas are earning USD 83 bn worth of real money whereas the same figure for Facebook is USD 4.2 bn.

In light of the above point, I would like people's views on the worth of a company. Can we use the terms worth and value interchangeably? One obvious school of thought uses the straightforward market capitalization of a company to arrive at the worth. There may be other schools of thought and other methods that may consider other pointers to arrive. Would love to have your thoughts on this and also references to links on the value of a company.

Interesting volunteering opportunity at Dhonk

2011-11-22T10:59:00.001+05:30

[I am a supporter of Dhonk. Run by Divya Shrivastava. I came to know about the organization when I attended a workshop organized by Tiger Watch, again based out of Sawai Madhopur ]

Dhonk is a social enterprise based out of Sawai Madhopur. We support women around Ranthambhore, Rajasthan by providing opportunities in various handicraft activities. This winter, we have started a pilot initiative to support women, who have been victims of domestic violence. Women who are part of this initiative make toys and are also capable of picking up other crafts. We are looking for volunteers who are involved in toy making or similar crafts and are willing to train others on these skills.

Details of volunteering opportunities

Duration of the stay would be around 15-20 days. Dhonk will provide basic accommodation facilities to the volunteer. Even though there will be no remuneration to the volunteer, the beautiful weather at Ranthambhore will be available to the volunteers free of cost and all round the day. The volunteering opportunity is open till Feburary-March; the period till December, however, is the peak tourist season and this is when you can make the maximum impact.

If you are interested, contact Divya at divz333@gmail.com

A book about Mumb[h]ai's behens, mummys and nanis

2011-11-21T00:01:00.001+05:30

[This book review is written for Blog Adda under their Book Reviews Program. If you have a blog and would like to review a book, visit the link to enrol]

Hussain Zaidi became a household name when his book Black Friday was made into a film by the same name and the film caught the attention of the nation. I never read Black Friday but after watching it I had thought that the book which inspired it would be a work to reckon with. When Zaidi came out with Mafia Queens of Mumbai, he definitely raised the expectations of the many fans - some of whom were fans of his earlier book and some of whom were fans of the movie and hence his book.

Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges have definitely done their research for this book. Through eight sections, they tell the story of more than a dozen women who left their mark in the dark underbelly of Mumbai's mafia. With their simple style of their writing, the reader runs the risk of reading the book like a racy fictional novel. The only harm of such a pace being the failure to realize that each of these characters were real and existed at some point in Mumbai's criminal timeline.

The following lines from the story of Gangubai - The Matriarch of Kamathipura, echo one of my sentiments about the book.

It is not like she was all milk and honey. We mustn't forget that she was running a brothel at the end of the day....there was surely a dark side to her that people have chosen to forget. You cannot prosper in this business otherwise

The authors - intentionally or otherwise - have not projected the hard matter possessed by these ladies in the book. Something which is essential for anyone - irrespective of gender - to survive in the underworld. I would have liked that part to be highlighted because when contrast women with their actions and attitudes in this manner, you show how these women had to exploit their feminine characteristics and, in many cases, shed them to be able to thrive in hostile environments.

Having said that, the detailing in the story of each "queen" is impressive and makes you want to turn the page. The story of Monica Bedi, who was in the news not so long ago, reminded me how lives of simple girls living next door can change in ways they would have never imagined. I found all the stories interesting especially those of "Sapna Didi" and "Gangubai".

I would recommend the book for that one day train journey which you are planning to take. It entertains and surprises and does not bore you for a minute. But it does not leave you with that one thought which you may want to have after reading a book. I leave you with this excerpt

Ayaz had reached the first floor when three women stopped him. They were dressed in gaudy saris and had red and yellow bindis on their foreheads. "Saar, Mahalaxmi Papamani's case ..."

"No, don't bother. Give me the papers and I will handle everything"

But the women didn't mov; instead they made Ayaz sit down and hear them out. Twenty minutes into the conversation, Ayaz had learnt his lesson; appearances could be deceptive.

These women were actually well-read legal functionaries of Papamani. They knew the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act by rote. In fact, they actually enlightened Ayaz about the technical loopholes in the prosecution's case. Even before meeting her, Ayaz was impressed with the team of brain and brawn that Papamai had gathered around her.

The Night I Was A Terrorist

2011-11-20T08:12:00.001+05:30

A couple of days ago a friend of mine introduced me to an acquaintance. I think I first got talked to the acquaintance over phone but I do not remember it now. Very soon the acquaintance broached a topic which, I guess now, was what he got introduced to me for in the first place. Before I realized, I had said "Yes" to be part of a plan to plant a bomb on 26th January somewhere - Again I do not remember but I get reminded of Delhi. Again I don't know why.

Now that I think about it, I think I said Yes for the money. I do not see any other reason. Yes, I do have complaints against the state but I am sure Terrorism or even Naxalism is not the answer. In many cases, they do come up in response to some conditions created by the state but they are not the answer. Coming back to my case, once I had started, I had a partner. Both of us were going to do accomplish the task together. I remember traveling and in a very surreptitious way (now when I look back it does not look surreptitious at all) two cell phones were given to each of us. I remember thinking what will I tell Ipshita, my wife. What excuse will I tell her about the cell phone because telling her about the plan was out of question.

In a sudden realization of the enormity of my action and the one-sided nature of the path I was taking, I developed cold-feet. It was as if suddenly I had woken up from a dream to realize that I had taken a decision to plant a bomb and now I was stuck with my decision. Any deviation from the current plan would not be a simple "desist and restrain" order.

I started thinking about how the police and other agencies have the wherewithal to trace such people - people like me. Not to forget that I started thinking of the number of people who would be killed by such an action. I realized that I should go to the police now. I will tell them about the plan and that I have no idea how I came to join this plan. I knew that I may have to spend sometime in prison and also become a one-day star of the 24x7 breaking news soap drama. That thought was definitely unnerving because I knew how media had a habit of discussing everything except the news. I also remembered how in real life I used to write about issues in the society and how on hearing about this action of mine, all that would be discredited and my intentions would be suspected. Time was literally running out. I knew that the people who had recruited me into the plan would not really be happy hearing I had copped out. I decided to go the police.

I did not know what would happen from there. Torture! Arrest! Parade in full media view! Court cases! I could feel the sweat breaking on my head. It was then, fortunately and thankfully, that I woke up. To the happy realization that I am still a simple man not yet entangled in anything even close to what terrorism is or represents or is a product of. I immediately woke up and told my wife about the dream. She tried to be a good listener but the sleep was overpowering. I wanted to share this on this blog because the sense of relief that I got when I woke up to realize all this was a dream was a sense of relief that I am not living a life that many others are living as I write. Hope this means something to us.

We Are All One....Inhabiting Different Worlds

2011-11-08T21:50:00.000+05:30

The last post I wrote was on the last day of last month for the Tehelka Thinkfest. While the week which followed Thinkfest was spent in relaxing in Goa, two weeks after that were spent in paying back for these holidays at office. But as I went about my usual work and also while I was taking in Goa, the conversations that happened over three days lingered in my head. Over three days, I heard a lot of people - most of them well known, some of them not so well known and a few of them not known at all; coming from backgrounds that were not even remotely connected unless you invoke the whole "we are all related in some way or the other" theory. I could write a post on each of the sessions - such were the quality of discussions. And, for all we know, I may do it, at least for some of them.

But this post is about an overarching thought. A thought that is so simple yet so profound. And, mind you, a thought, the meaning and relevance of which, I have not yet realized. The thought that "We are all one, but living in different worlds". On one side we were listening to Gregory Stock who said how science will help us decide what qualities our offspring will possess; how the weak would be weeded out by this process of (un)natural selection. On the other side, we heard Himanshu Kumar and Kopa Kunjam talk (in Hindi) about how a (hopefully) duly elected state government was "undermining" (and I cannot overlook the fact that undermining has the word mining in it) the rights of its its own people to achieve larger objective of progress. On one side we listened to Chitrangada Sigh discussing the subject of "Love, its meaning and its powers" and on the other hand we heard the fiery Dayamani Barla defending (in Hindi again - which for some strange reason was a relief to hear on stage and even sounded like music) the rights of the tribals to the earth, mountains, rivers, air.

Many times, I feel confused. Is our progress akin to that of stretching a chewing gum. One end stuck to one finger while the other keeps on going further away and ultimately making a mess of everything. It was shocking for most people (including myself) to hear the contents of Soni Sori's heart-rending letter to Himanshu Ji. But what beyond this shock. Isn't this shock similar to the shock you got when you first witnessed an accident on the road and now laugh about as you drive past to your destination. And when I say this, I have not hidden the needle of guilt to poke you. Because many times we have the best of intentions but a lack of motivation.

And so while we shared the roof for three days and ate together, most of us went back to our daily routine. Living in a city like Hyderabad, while I crib of hundreds of things, I also take for granted thousands of things that are a dream for many living in this very country and many times living only a few hundred kilometers away. Have we thought of what can happen to us if we choose to take on the state? Have we thought of what will be the compensation you will seek when your government comes tomorrow and asks you to sacrifice that flat and job which you were so sure about till yesterday. And how would you feel if after promising to help you pick up the pieces, it left you in the lurch. A la Lawaris. Honestly, I do not know.

It is understandable to live in worlds that are separated by culture, geography and ,to an extent, financial status. But it is not understandable when our worlds are separated by ignorance.

#OWS Occupy Which Street!

2011-10-31T23:10:00.000+05:30

[This is the 8th post in a series that I am writing in the run up to Goa Thinkfest organized by Tehelka]

I first heard Ashis Nandy on a talk show discussing the Anna Hazare movement (and supporting it). My thought was, "For once, we have a voice of reason supporting the movement". During the Anna Hazare movement, I saw a large number of well-meaning but uninformed or unfortunately still, ill-informed people who wanted to get rid of corruption from their country but everything stopped at this lofty ideal. They did not know what Anna Hazare and his team were asking for, they did not know what the Lokpal in all its versions stood for - they were simply not tuned in.

While searching I found this detailed piece on Ashis Nandy. He is with CSDS - an institute I got to know about once I read A Free Man - the author Aman Sethi wrote the path-breaking book is a Sarai CSDS fellow. The topic I would wish Ashis Nandy to take up would be about the mass uprisings - if that is the right choice of words - happening in almost every part of the world. Including the Anna Hazare movement, the anti-dispensation protests which have been collectively termed as The Arab Spring, the Tea Party and now the widely held Occupy Wall Street Protests. In fact such protests are not new to us. The Colour Revolution, which includes the popular Orange Revolution in Ukraine, has its roots since late 80s.

I would like to know his views on popular uprisings of this kind. What is the genesis of such movements which seem to happen with regular frequency. In many cases, the movement has retraced its path later on e.g. the Orange Revolution. Are such movements a middle-class specific phenomena. Are they a symbol of the selfishness in our system - the #OccupyWallStreet, as I see it, are happening only now but the policies they are fighting against have been there for sometime. Is it because high level of unemployment in the system has come around to bite the people who lived off these very policies?

It will be enlightening to know from a man like Ashis Nandy which street is going to be occupied next! And why!

Libya and Kurukshetra

2011-10-22T23:32:00.002+05:30

Picture Courtesy: The Hindu

Gaddafi is dead and how! Some say it is Karma. Quite possible. One of the articles about his death had an interesting comment. The reader compared the treatment meted out to Gaddafi with an incident in Mahabharata - when Bhima kicks Duryodhana on his head after the latter has fallen to the ground being a dealt a blow, which though fatal was against the rules of engagement. Looking up on the internet I found scores of interpretations of this incident - am talking about Duryodhana not Gaddafi. It is amazing to see the kind of polarized views people have of an incident which is part of an epic that many of us even doubt had occurred. One of the most believable, I thought, was this one.

Now if I have to take the analogy one step further, if Duryodhana is Gadaddi, who is Krishna? I think it is the NATO. Who are the Pandavas - the NTC I guess. Sirte is Samantpanchaka. Russia is Balarama in this sequel.

If the tumultuous history of India after Mahabharata is anything to go by, Libya's hard days have just started. It is only selective memory which can help forget Iraq, which is being vacated by the way, and Afghanistan.

But the most important question is, 'What is Dharma?' Was Dharma at the time of Mahabharata the same as it today? Gadaffi's fate is adequately explained by Karma but leaves a big question when you try Dharma. I guess even after thousands of years, the question of Dharma still looms large.