It does happen in Japan - 1

Kansai Kenshu' Center - AOTS O'saka....


On our way to the Kansai Kenshu’ Center [KKC, O’SAKA, which, as I previously mentioned, was slotted for our stay, dining & Japanese language & lifestyle training for the first 45 days] from Kansai International Airport, O’saka, I was more curious in reading the people and admiring the country than in concentrating on the route to the destination. We took some two electric trains to our destination (totally clueless as to what were all the places that were en-route, how much the ticket costed) blindly following our Suzuki Colleague. The name of the places were either written in Japanese or even in-case if they are in English, the train would rush past before you could actually congregate the letters and read the name of the place. So, I decided not to strain myself.

The route to the destination was so beautiful to sight-see. Every house that crossed us en-route had a car standing glossy on its gates. Big-houses & bungalows had two or more. My eyes felt so odd to see the roads so clean & straight, cars so glossy, no cows or donkeys en-route, no frequent blowing of horns, religious adherence to traffic signals, no chit-chats with each other inside the train, almost nil dark faces (except us, of-course), beautiful girls all around (of-course similar looking), similar-looking men, less cars with Suzuki badge & of course rear-wipers in all vehicles.

Religious adherence to traffic signal needs a special mention. The following instance was quite rampant here. I am in the 8th floor of my building, watching this. The road is a narrow road where not many vehicles would you be able to see at any point of time. There is a pedestrian crossing across this road. There comes a car speeding along this narrow road at around 80 miles an hour. The pedestrian crossing signal goes green (which means, it is a red-signal for the car). No one crossed the road. There are no other cars that went across or on the other side of this road. This is the only car (or traffic, on a larger scale) to have got involved into this whole incidence. But, this car, to all our surprise, stopped and waited for about a minute for the green signal to turn on, so religiously. Huh! Awesome!

On getting down from the second electric train (in a station called Sugimotocho), we had to a take a 15-minute walk to KKC. AOTS, Kansai Kenshu’ Centre (O’saka) is located in a not so busy place called Abiko (here in O’saka). It is a glossy nine-storey building (Average building height in Japan ;)) having a very beautiful entrance. The automatic sensor gates opened to welcome us all in. Beautiful receptionists in smart attire, who were expecting our arrival anytime, greeted us with their smiles. The reception area was extremely clean and organised. We were made to do some formalities and were informed about the rules of the Centre and were handed-over the room keys.



Presently, I am in the 8th floor of the building in Room No. 826. It is a beautiful private room, not so big, but is convenient enough for a single person. A TV (where you have only Japanese Channels), a table, a rotating chair, a phone, a reading lamp, a bed lamp, a mirror, few electric sockets, a neat wash-room, a fluffy bed, a water-jug, hell lot of shelves, dust-bins, Air-conditioner, LAN socket, LAN cable, a small balcony etc making it all convenient to reside.



The food is served on the first-floor of the building (Ground-floor equivalent in India). You get dishes getting catered of all varieties here. Veg, Non-veg, Egg, Fruits, Tea, Coffee, Juices & what-not. Food is served thrice a day. Like, I noticed in quite a few places, this building too, has got quite a lot of vending machines (Lay-man technology in Japan) having various options from Cold juices to hot coffee to cater your any-time needs. All facilities right from laundry to calling card buying machines to Internet-room are available. KKC has got a big gymnasium/court where you can play any game of your choice, from Basket-ball to Shuttle to Table-tennis to Volley-ball. There is an awesome dedicated party-room with rocking acoustics, karaoke and thudding speakers all-around the room, which could be used on reservation basis.

People from various countries (mostly Asian), who have come to Japan for various training reasons, have been put-up here for the Japanese language & life-style training till End-January 2010. Japanese classes & life-style training are ON is full swing and are all interesting. The way we are being taught Japanese in an organised manner is all admirable. The humorous way in which our tutor handles the class is also interesting. The funny part is, it feels like I am back to school. We have home-works and tests daily and our performance in the Japanese language is being keenly monitored. On some days, we would have lectures on Japanese life-style where in some Japanese expert would be delivering his know-how in Japanese and an English interpreter will be having tough-times in interpreting that to us.
It has all been going smooth till now. More analysis on Japan, its exploration & its people in the subsequent ones. ;)

It does happen in Japan - 0

....Japan Beckons....

Though the excitement level was quite high, it did not fill to the brim of the basin. With a pinch of dissatisfaction, I started the check-in formalities at IGI Delhi(abbreviated form of Indra Gandhi International, Airport) on 2009/12/07 (Japanese style of writing dates...), reasons being, one was, I was leaving INDIA, my motherland (cough!! cough!! :P ;) and the other being, I'd carried considerably excess baggage 'n' so was a bit apprehensive about getting caught at the check-in counter... (infact a lot apprehensive !!). The weight limit per person was 50 kg. (Thanks to MARUTI SUZUKI for increasing the weight limit by 15 kg by striking a deal with Thai Airways. On producing the ID card, the cost for 15 extra kgs is waived). I had close to 60 kg and had the least clue as to which thing inside the baggage should I throw out, in case, I am ordered to do so. The excess baggage cost is a mind-boggling Rs 1360/- per kg. I was not in my senses at all and was the least excited (and the most apprehensive) among our group (given the very fact that everyone had carried within safe limit. Courtesy – my poor planning). The check-in started at 10 am IST on 2009/12/07. We were 8 of us. So, we (infact “I”) decided to go for a group check-in. (which meant that the baggage weight must not exceed 50X8 = 400 kg putting all ours together). To all our elation, it did shoot up by a few kgs. But the decent educated looks on our faces (my hair was not combed though :P) made the girl in the counter overlook the excess baggage weight (FYIP, she looked beautiful ! ! !). She handed over the boarding passes and the passports to us with a smiling face. Huh! I became 75% lighter both physically & mentally, more so because of not getting caught than because that she smiled at me. We received our boarding passes for both the flights. DELHI-BANGKOK & BANGKOK-OSAKA.
Immigration formalities were over. Visas were stamped at another counter. Final frisking was done. Did not have even a glass of water right from the morning. So, my stomach badly needed some food. CCD (Cafe Coffee Day) came of a good help serving me with a veg-pattys on my request while one of THAI AIRWAYS’ sweet voices announced its departure to Bangkok from Gate 10.

The aero-bridge took us all out of Indian-Glossy airport floors into the Air-craft once for all for the next 365 days. ;) Not so good looking air-attendants welcomed us in with their fake smiles (for which they are being paid in lacs). ;) A confused mob roamed inside the air-craft to get settled onto their seats after stuffing their so-called "7 kg" (but 15 min. kg) baggage onto the shelf on the top. I had no place to stuff in mine. So, I was allowed to keep my baggage on the business class shelf. (Bonhomie right at the start...) Finally, we were settled. The doors of the air-craft were closed. The TV in-front informed us about the 4 hour flight time and the route that it would take to reach Bangkok. (It was to fly over Varanasi, Kolkata, Yangoon & reach Bangkok) It was 12 noon IST (1:30 pm Bangkok local time). The turbines were on, the announcements were multi-lingual, to cater to all nationalities. Finally, the air-craft reached the run-way after a few metres of taxiing (The final ride on Indian Roads for the next one year ;)). The air-craft picked up speed, took off from INDIAN sands (or roads whatever) bidding a good-bye to INDIA (on 2009/12/07 12:05 PM IST). "Bubyeee INDIA"....!!

The seat-belt sign was off once the flight steadied itself into the air. Catering kicked-off and went on for the next one-hour. We were served with Juices, tea, coffee, veg-food, non-veg food etc.... I had something and settled myself to miss INDIA for an hour stretching the push-back and hearing to ear-phones. About 90-odd minutes passed when an announcement shook me up from my deep-sleep. We were just half an hour from Bangkok and our descent had started. At 3:55 pm IST (5:25 pm Bangkok Local time) we landed on the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok. Again, the aero-drome took us to the glossy-floors of Bangkok Int'l Airport. Huh! Cloud Nine ! ! Finally, I stepped into a different county for the first time in my life. :) To my awe, the air-port was so huge and very very lengthy that we had a fear of getting lost inside, despite the availability of lot of help-desks across the air-port. It was an awesome place more so for the reason that this being my first non-indo place than for the reason that it itself was. It had some 4 floors. Hell lots of shops, hundreds of flights arriving and departing, frequent announcements, this airport mainly serving as TRANSIT for passengers travelling east and west of the globe. We became excited and started clicking random photographs at the air-port. We had some 6 hours left for our next flight. So, we decided to roam around Bangkok city and enquired about it at the Help-desk. But they denied saying that it would be peak-hours in the city and the return would become tough in the night. So, we decided to roam 'n' explore Bangkok Airport. One could find people from almost all nations here. So, variegated and assorted was the crowd. We were not able to fully explore the airport. It was so damn lengthy on all sides, that the Airports Authority have installed hundreds of travelators (not escalators, please note the picture below. This is used for easing the travel on the same plane without walking) inside the airport.



We roamed and roamed the airport till our legs badly wanted rest and our stomach - food. We decided to barge in a restaurant to have some food. Noodles was the only veg-item that was available in the menu (other than breads). So, I ordered one and then had one coffee. The currency here in Thailand is Baht. We did not have any. To our fortune, they accepted Indian Rupees. So, I paid the bill in INR itself (For your GK  100 INR = 45 Baht).


At 11:30 PM, 2009/12/07 Bangkok local-time, we checked in and boarded the next flight bound for Osaka. This flight had less passengers, better facilites, ‘better’ people to serve us too (you know, what I meant) ;) The flight took off to Osaka at 11:50 pm from Bangkok. Once the plane steadied itself, we were served with Juices and breads, as usual. After having it, I flipped thro' some movies on the TV in-front and then finally decided to sleep for a while. When I made myself comfortable and started to take a doze, lights were on, music too was on and “Ohayo Gozaimasu” gestures kicked off. Breakfast was served. For your information, the time was 2 am IST (which is 5:30 am O'saka time). That was totally a strange timing to have breakfast while the whole INDIA was sleeping deep. But, still I had it. (I never say NO to foods).

Finally, at 6:45 am O'saka local time at 9 deg. C, our flight landed onto the Kansai International Airport, Osaka. "Welcome to Japan, dude. Finally, you are there" - I told to myself and proceeded unknowingly with the mob. I had a really crazy feeling that our flight would crash land onto the Pacific Ocean, for the reason that, it had almost touched the ground, but still, I was able to see only water around. I almost, started to search for my Safety-Jacket with a slight regret of not listening to the initial safety instructions. But, we landed safe. The airport was an island in itself. The view of the seas from the airport was mind-boggling. “Huh! I am in a foreign country” – I confirmed. An over-head tram took us from the arrival zone to the baggage claim zone, where we completed our immigration check and finally claimed the baggage. Was elated to see all three baggages arrive O'saka safe.



We had to wait for one of our colleagues from SUZUKI, Japan to arrive and pick us up to our destination. In the mean-time, we clicked some random photographs and started reading (infact admiring) the people of Japan & Japan itself. "5S" (The cleanliness mantra) - Japan has to be the real example. Extremely clean country. No pollution at all. Not a speck of dust could I witness. Right from the time, we got down from the air-craft, we were receiving over-dosages of “Ohayo Gozaimsu” & “Konnichiwa” (meaning ‘A very good morning’) with friendly smiles from even strangers (Girls included. Beautiful ones too. Oops! Everyone looked beautiful, infact. But, one thing I noted here was, every girl looked alike. Straightened hair, eyes open 10 deg., unusually fair, chubby, cute, very-short skirts, long stockings, high heeled shoes. Japanese husbands, probably, would be having tough times at Market places during weekends in finding out their wives in-case they get lost. Same could be the case for Japanese wives too, because Men, too did not have much differences with each other in terms of features. Everyone had a long-hair standing thorn-sharp on their heads, eyes open 5 deg., decent-looking trousers, well-polished shoes). Coming back to the gesture over-dosage, “Konnichiwa” & “Ohayo Gozaimsau”. I liked it. This bonhomie is another speciality in Japan. People here are genuinely friendly and helpful. Here, they never treat us like strangers. Of course, they stared at us for quite a while because we looked different. But, when it comes to helping, they lent us with great pleasure. One doesn’t feel the isolation here.



Alas at 10:30 am Local time, Nakamura San (Suzuki colleague, who happened to be a female, for our misconception) [“San” – Commonest of Words used in Japan. This is a respect word which generally follows the name of the person. It substitutes Sirs/Madams. So, this gives one the authority of using Names for calling even a highly revered gentleman but for a San to follow without fail] arrived and informed us that it would take about an hour to reach the destination and electric train is going to be the means. We stepped out from the airport into the winds of Japan that blew cold at 10 deg. C at 10:45 am local time on 2009/12/08 and started our way-on to the Kansai Kenshu-Center [KKC, Osaka] (which was slotted for our stay, dining & Japanese language & lifestyle training for the first 45 days.)

The analysis of Japan en-route the KKC and more on the Life-style & people of Japan & interesting happenings in the subsequent ones....:)

The Fallen Tomato Cart

This item appeared in TOI some years back – Good read.


SUBROTO BAGCHI (Subroto Bagchi is the co-founder & CEO of Mind-Tree)

I pass through this very intersection every morning with so much ease. Today, the pace is skewed. There is a sense of disarray as motorists try to push past each other through the traffic light. The light here always tests their agility because if you miss the green, you have to wait for another three minutes before it lets you go past again. Those three minutes become eternity for an otherwise time-insensitive nation on the move. Today, there is a sense of chaos here. People are honking, skirting each other and rushing past. I look out of my window to seek the reason. It is not difficult to find because it is lying strewn all over the place.
A tomato seller's cart has overturned. There are tomatoes everywhere and the rushing motorists are making pulp of it. The man is trying to get his cart back on its four rickety wheels and a few passersby are picking up what they can in an attempt to save him total loss. Though symbolic in the larger scheme of things, it is not a substantive gesture. His business for the day is over.
The way this man's economics works is very simple. There is a money lender who lends him money for just one day, at an interest rate of Rs 10 per day per Rs 100 lent. With the money, he wakes up at 4 am to go to the wholesale market for vegetables. He returns, pushing his cart a good five miles, and by 7 am when the locality wakes up, he is ready to sell his day's merchandise. By the end of the morning, some of it remains unsold. This his wife sells by the afternoon and takes home the remainder, which becomes part of his meal. With the day's proceeds, he returns the interest to the money lender and goes back to the routine the next day.
If he does not sell for a day, his chain breaks. Where does he go from here? He goes back to the money lender, raises capital at an even more penal interest and gets back on his feet. This is not the only time that destiny has upset his tomato cart. This happens to him at least six times every year. Once he returned with a loaded cart of ripe tomatoes and it rained heavily for the next three days. No one came to the market and his stock rotted in front of his own eyes. Another time, instead of the weather, it was a political rally that snowballed into a confrontation between two rival groups and the locality closed down. And he is not alone in this game of extraneous factors that seize not only his business but also his life. He sees this happen to the "gol-gappa" seller, the peanut seller and the "vada pao" seller all the time. When their product does not sell, it just turns soggy. Sometimes they eat some of it. But how much of that stuff can you eat by yourself? So, they just give away some and there is always that one time when they have to simply throw it away.
Away from the street-vendor selling perishable commodity with little or no life support system, the corporate world is an altogether different place. Here we have some of the most educated people in the country. We don the best garbs. We do not have to push carts; our carts push us. We have our salary, perquisites, bonuses, stock options, gratuities, pensions and our medical insurance and the group accident benefit schemes. Yet, all the while, we worry about our risks and think about our professional insecurity. We wonder, what would happen if the company shifted offices to another city? What would happen if the department closed down? What would happen if you were to take maternity leave and the temporary substitute delivered better work than you did? What would happen if the product line you are dealing with simply failed? In any of those eventualities, the worst that could happen would still be a lot less than having to see your cartful of tomatoes getting pulped under the screeching wheels of absolute strangers who have nothing personal against you.
All too often we exaggerate our risks. We keep justifying our professional concerns till they trap us in their vicious downward spiral. Devoid of education, sophisticated reasoning and any financial safety net, the man with the cart is often able to deal with life much better than many of us. Is it time to look out of the window, into the eyes of that man to ask him, where does he get it from? In his simple stoicism, is probably, our lost resilience.

10 Most Xpensive Cars.

Auto LOVERZZZ!! This might interest you.!!

(In order: Rolls-Royce Phantom, Porsche Carrera GT, Pagani Zonda, Merc SLR McLaren, Maybach 62, Lamborghini Mercielago, Koenigsegg CCX, Enzo Ferrari, Bugatti Veyron, Aston Martin Vanquish)
(Not necessarily in the order of their price)

Naraya Murthy's inspirational sermon ! !

Recently, I came across an interesting speech by Mr.Narayana Murthy. It was on LEARNING FROM THE WEST.

Here, it goes...


"LEARNING FROM THE WEST
Speech by Mr. N R Narayana Murthy at Lal Bahadhur Sastry Institute of Management
Ladies & Gentlemen:
It is a pleasure to be here at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a man of strong values and he epitomized simple living. He was a freedom fighter and innovative administrator who contributed to nation building in full measure. It is indeed a matter of pride for me to be chosen for the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for Public Administration and Management Sciences. I thank the jury for this honor.
When I got the invitation to speak here, I decided to speak on an important topic on which I have pondered for years - the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society. Coming from a company that is built on strong values, the topic is close to my heart. Moreover, an organization is representative of society, and some of the lessons that I have learnt are applicable in the national context. In fact, values drive progress and define quality of life in society.
The word community joins two Latin words com ("together" or "with") and unus ("one"). A community, then, is both one and many. It is a unified multitude and not a mere group of people. As it is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can survive only collectively. Hence, the challenge is to form a progressive community by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this, we need to develop a value system where people accept modest sacrifices for the common good.
What is a value system? It is the protocol for behavior that enhances the trust, confidence and commitment of
members of the community. It goes beyond the domain of legality - it is about decent and desirable behavior. Further, it includes putting the community interests ahead of your own. Thus, our collective survival and progress is predicated on sound values.
There are two pillars of the cultural value system - loyalty to family and loyalty to community. One should not be in isolation to the other, because, successful societies are those which combine both harmoniously. It is in this context that I will discuss the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society.
Some of you here might say that most of what I am going to discuss are actually Indian values in old ages, and not Western values. I live in the present, not in the bygone era. Therefore, I have seen these values practiced primarily in the West and not in India. Hence, the title of the topic.
I am happy as long as we practice these values - whether we call it Western or old Indian values. As an Indian, I am proud to be part of a culture, which has deep-rooted family values. We have tremendous loyalty to the family. For instance, parents make enormous sacrifices for their children. They support them until they can stand on their own feet. On the other side, children consider it their duty to take care of aged parents.
We believe: Mathru devo bhava - mother is God, and pithru devo bhava - father is God. Further, brothers and sisters sacrifice for each other. In fact, the eldest brother or sister is respected by all the other siblings. As for marriage, it is held to be a sacred union - husband and wife are bonded, most often, for life. In joint families, the entire family works towards the welfare of the family. There is so much love and affection in our family life.
This is the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths. Our families act as a critical support
mechanism for us. In fact, the credit to the success of Infosys goes, as much to the founders as to their families, for supporting them through the tough times. Unfortunately, our attitude towards family life is not reflected in our attitude towards community behavior. From littering the streets to corruption to breaking of contractual obligations, we are apathetic to the common good. In the West - the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand - individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their community.
The primary difference between the West and us is that, there, people have a much better societal orientation. They care more for the society than we do. Further, they generally sacrifice more for the society than us. Quality of life is enhanced because of this. This is where we need to learn from the West.
I will talk about some of the lessons that we, Indians, can learn from the West.
In the West, there is respect for the public good. For instance, parks free of litter, clean streets, public toilets free of graffiti - all these are instances of care for the public good. On the contrary, in India, we keep our houses clean and water our gardens everyday - but, when we go to a park, we do not think twice before littering the place.
Corruption, as we see in India, is another example of putting the interest of oneself, and at best that of one's family, above that of the society. Society is relatively corruption free in the West. For instance, it is very difficult to bribe a police officer into avoiding a speeding ticket.
This is because of the individual's responsible behavior towards the community as a whole On the contrary, in India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and bribery have eaten into our vitals. For instance, contractors bribe officials, and construct low-quality roads and bridges.
The result is that society loses in the form of substandard defence equipment and infrastructure, and low-quality recruitment, just to name a few impediments. Unfortunately, this behavior is condoned by almost everyone.
Apathy in solving community matters has held us back from making progress, which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We behave as if the problems do not exist or is somebody else's. On the other hand, in the West, people solve societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India.
More than 40 years ago, Dr. K. L. Rao - an irrigation expert, suggested creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in North and South India, to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided to build a thermal power plant to meet Bangalore's power requirements. Unfortunately, we have still not started it. Further, the Milan subway in Bombay is in a deplorable state for the last 40 years, and no action has been taken.
To quote another example, considering the constant travel required in the software industry; five years ago, I had suggested a 240-page passport. This would eliminate frequent visits to the passport office. In fact, we are ready to pay for it. However, I am yet to hear from the Ministry of External Affairs on this.
We, Indians, would do well to remember Thomas Hunter's words: Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for all this? We were ruled by foreigners for over thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that public issues belonged to some foreign ruler and that we have no role in solving them.
Moreover, we have lost the will to proactively solve our own problems. Thus, we have got used to just executing someone else's orders. Borrowing Aristotle's words: We are what we repeatedly do. Thus, having done this over the years, the decision-makers in our society are not trained for solving problems. Our decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately, there is nobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy.
Our intellectual arrogance has also not helped our society. I have traveled extensively, and in my experience, have not come across another society where people are as contemptuous of better societies as we are, with as little progress as we have achieved. Remember that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. No other society gloats so much about the past as we do, with as little current accomplishment.
Friends, this is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousand years old. For instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logician and traveler of the 10th century, who spent about 30 years in India from 997 AD to around 1027 AD, referred to this trait of Indians. According to him, during his visit, most Indian pundits considered it below their dignity even to hold arguments with him. In fact, on a few occasions when a pundit was willing to listen to hm, and found his arguments to be very sound, he invariably asked Barouni: which Indian pundit taught these smart things!
The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and learn from them. Contrary to this, our leaders make us believe that other societies do not know anything! At the same time, everyday, in the newspapers, you will find numerous claims from our leaders that ours is the greatest nation. These people would do well to remember Thomas Carlyle's words: The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.
If we have to progress, we have to change this attitude, listen to people who have performed better than us, learn from them and perform better than them. Infosys is a good example of such an attitude. We continue to rationalize our failures. No other society has mastered this part as well as we have. Obviously, this is an excuse to justify our incompetence, corruption, and apathy. This attitude has to change. As Sir Josiah Stamp has said: It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
Another interesting attribute, which we Indians can learn from the West, is their accountability. Irrespective of your position, in the West, you are held accountable for what you do. However, in India, the more 'important' you are, the less answerable you are. For instance, a senior politician once declared that he 'forgot' to file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years - and he got away with it. To quote another instance, there are over 100 loss making public sector units (central) in India. Nevertheless, I have not seen action taken for bad performance against top managers in these organizations.
Dignity of labor is an integral part of the Western value system. In the West, each person is proud about his or her labor that raises honest sweat. On the other hand, in India, we tend to overlook the significance of those who are not in professional jobs. We have a mind set that reveres only supposedly intellectual work.
For instance, I have seen many engineers, fresh from college, who only want to do cutting-edge work and not work that is of relevance to business and the country. However, be it an organization or society, there are different people performing different roles. For success, all these people are required to discharge their duties. This includes everyone from the CEO to the person who serves tea - every role is important. Hence, we need a mind set that reveres everyone who puts in honest work.
Indians become intimate even without being friendly. They ask favors of strangers without any hesitation. For instance, the other day, while I was traveling from Bangalore to Mantralaya, I met a fellow traveler on the train. Hardly 5 minutes into the conversation, he requested me to speak to his MD about removing him from the bottom 10% list in his company, earmarked for disciplinary action. I was reminded of what Rudyard Kipling once said: A westerner can be friendly without being intimate while an easterner tends to be intimate without being friendly.
Yet another lesson to be learnt from the West, is about their professionalism in dealings. The common good being more important than personal equations, people do not let personal relations interfere with their professional dealings. For instance, they don't hesitate to chastise a colleague, even if he is a personal friend, for incompetent work.
In India, I have seen that we tend to view even work interactions from a personal perspective. Further, we are the most 'thin-skinned' society in the world - we see insults where none is meant. This may be because we were not free for most of the last thousand years. Further, we seem to extend this lack of professionalism to our sense of punctuality. We do not seem to respect the other person's time.
The Indian Standard Time somehow seems to be always running late. Moreover, deadlines are typically not met. How many public projects are completed on time? The disheartening aspect is that we have accepted this as the norm rather than the exception. In the West, they show professionalism by embracing meritocracy. Meritocracy by definition means that we cannot let personal prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. As we increasingly start to benchmark ourselves with global standards, we have to embrace meritocracy.
In the West, right from a very young age, parents teach their children to be independent in thinking. Thus, they grow up to be strong, confident individuals. In India, we still suffer from feudal thinking. I have seen people, who are otherwise bright, refusing to show independence and preferring to be told what to do by their boss. We need to overcome this attitude if we have to succeed globally.
The Western value system teaches respect to contractual obligation. In the West, contractual obligations are seldom dishonored. This is important - enforceability of legal rights and contracts is the most important factor in the enhancement of credibility of our people and nation.
In India, we consider our marriage vows as sacred. We are willing to sacrifice in order to respect our marriage vows. However, we do not extend this to the public domain. For instance, India had an unfavorable contract with Enron. Instead of punishing the people responsible for negotiating this, we reneged on the contract - this was much before we came to know about the illegal activities at Enron.
To quote another instance, I had given recommendations to several students for the national scholarship for higher studies in US universities. Most of them did not return to India even though contractually they were obliged to spend five years after their degree in India.
In fact, according to a professor at a reputed US university, the maximum default rate for student loans is among Indians - all of these students pass out in flying colors and land lucrative jobs, yet they refuse to pay back their loans. Thus, their action has made it difficult for the students after them, from India, to obtain loans. We have to change this attitude.
Further, we Indians do not display intellectual honesty. For example, our political leaders use mobile phones to tell journalists on the other side that they do not believe in technology! If we want our youngsters to progress,
such hypocrisy must be stopped. We are all aware of our rights as citizens. Nevertheless, we often fail to acknowledge the duty that accompanies every right. To borrow Dwight Eisenhower's words: People that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Our duty is towards the community as a whole, as much as it is towards our families.
We have to remember that fundamental social problems grow out of a lack of commitment to the common good. To quote Henry Beecher: Culture is that which helps us to work for the betterment of all. Hence, friends, I do believe that we can make our society even better by assimilating these Western values into our own culture - we will be stronger for it.
Most of our behavior comes from greed, lack of self-confidence, lack of confidence in the nation, and lack of respect for the society. To borrow Gandhi's words: There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed. Let us work towards a society where we would do unto others what we would have others do unto us. Let us all be responsible citizens who make our country a great place to live. In the words of Churchill: Responsibility is the price of greatness. We have to extend our family values beyond the boundaries of our home.
Finally, let us work towards maximum welfare of the maximum people - Samasta janaanaam sukhino bhavantu. Thus, let us - people of this generation, conduct ourselves as great citizens rather than just good people so that we can serve as good examples for our younger generation."

The GUY, inimitable....

As I sit to type this, with JAI HO, running in the background, I could feel the goose-flesh arising on my hands.

"Chinna Chinna Aasai, Siragadikkum Aasai.
Muthu muthu Aasai, mudindhuvitta aasai"

It all started here. Yes! The film ROJA's music, stole every Indian's heart. Yes! This is guy is no nonentity. Gave a new definition for MUSIC in his first film itself. For A.R.Rahman, the fervid fan of Illaiyaraja, music has been everything in his life.

From Roja to Slumdog millionaire, his journey has never been a cakewalk. His every composition had a different savour and flavour and I, like million other Indians, loved every bit of his music.

Hats off to this genius for having won two coveted OSCARS for his music in Slumdog Millionaire. But, frankly, Rahman deserved an OSCAR in his first film itself. For this 40+ gentleman, by age, but teenager, by looks, these OSCARS are just another of the umpteen awards that he has won. His passion and LOVE (which he chose over HATE) for Music will never abate in days to come and these OSCARS would, infact, enhance his profusely over-flowing enthusiasm. With music in his heart, this guy would get younger and younger year by year.

JAI HO Rahman!! We are all proud of you. Hats off!!

Opinion that differed....

"A very good movie" was my comment on SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, as I stepped out after watching it. A.R.Rahman, being my favourite, I could not resist giving the music and the background score, a 5 on 5. The background score was just too irresistably good. It's no big a surprise, this has been nominated for oscars. Good to hear that it has received 10 OSCAR nominations.

But,
Here is the other way of looking at this film.

The other side of the coin

On reading this, I had no words to comment.

An excerpt...

"Trusting yourself is trusting the wisdom that created you"

- Dyer

2009 - Ready, Steady, Get Set, Go....

Well,

As we finally step into the first dawn of this new-year 2009, we carry lots of desires with us, which we expect to get fulfilled as soon as possible, without even delving deep into its feasibility study. We expect a very high conversion rate.

I don’t mean to demean people having very high hopes and dreams in life. Infact, Dr. Abdul Kalam has requested the youth to DREAM, DREAM, DREAM. Basic physics says that, there’s some term called “work” which is involved in-between for an input to turn into an output, which quite a lot of people (like I) shirk, but expect quick and successful outcome.

Anyways, Like everyone, let me also complete my formal greetings first.

“Wish you all a very happy new year. May all your efforts bear fruit.”


As I started to type down this NEW YEAR POST, I had no ideas of penning the first few lines that I’ve typed right now. But as I started typing, I couldn’t resist doing it.

Well,
2008 – An year which had lots of bumps on its roads. An year which brought mixed emotions among people. There could have been lot of good times, (like Indian Space Research Organisation had quite a lot of successes in 2008), gay and gala aura in lot of places, but there was one word, that kept us all haunting right from the start of the year till its end, and will still follow its trail into the new year – TERRORISM.Frequent bomb-blasts that rocked India, developing friction between India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine Conflict, and lots of intra-nation conflicts and problems in various countries etc will all persist, unless some proper peace plan is accomplished. One more word that rose its head out towards the fag end of this year, which added fuel to the burning terror fright fire - RECESSION.

Let’s expect something different this new-year, from last year. Let’s hope for the things to get back into the track this year.

2009 - Ready, Steady, Get Set Go!!