An Idea To Get Rid Of Corruption [VIDEO]

How tired are we of corruption? And how much do we do to arrest it? Precious little.

My MBA classmates and I shot and composed this video in the fall of 2009 while we were studying at Bharati Vidyapeeth Management Institute. It's our take on how we can combat corruption without entering the system.

This video won awards wherever it entered a competition - Father Agnels' Institute, IES MBA Institute and others. The video was also applauded by renowned Marathi actor Sachin Khedekar. The following was his take of our video:

"I'm not so concerned about videos which constantly portray the problems we face. I don't want to hear people constantly say "It's not possible", "We can't do anything", "It's always been like this", etc. I want to see a positive sign where we are provided with a solution to such issues. This video is a classic example of such solutions." - Sachin Khedekar.

The team with Sachin Khedekar. The one on the extreme right is me.

We must stand as one against corruption. The process of reducing it (elimination is impossible) will be painstakingly long, but every bit worth it! We must not lose hope. It's important to stand as a united force and oppose corruption. If we do this, we'll fix the problem of rampant corruption without having to enter the system. Forget the saying "Apna kaam banta, bhaad mein jaaye janta (As long as my work is done, the world can go to hell)" and stand as citizens of one country.

5 Awesome Books for Reading!

I’ve blanked out! I’m neglecting my blog! I’m woefully short of ideas & topics, feeling quite blue and appear to finally have HIT the phenomenon called ‘Writers’ Bloc’.

To keep my blog going, I’ve compiled a list of my 5 top favourite books. These books have pretty much moulded my thought patterns and outlook towards life (in & around me).

1.) India Unbound: Arguably the BEST book depicting the India story. The author, Gurcharan Das, analyzes India since the days of Alexander and brings us to speed with the current scenario. Historic, economic, political, social and cultural aspects are looked into to give us an in depth idea as to how India has developed through the ages. The New York Times sums it up best as "Something tremendous is happening in India, and Das, with his keen eye and often elegant prose, has his finger firmly on the pulse of the transformation.” Truly an amazing book which I can (and do) read over & over again.

2.) Predictably Irrational: This book shot author Dan Ariely to fame, and quite deservedly so! We humans are endowed with brains which differentiates us from animals. Hence, we must take rational decisions. However, we humans defy logic and take a lot of irrational decisions. That irrationality, however, has a pattern to it; that irrationality can be predicted! Dan Ariely shows us how through witty experiments and case studies. A must read for someone who wishes to understand human psychology better.

5 of my all time favourites. What about yours?

5 Great Online & Social Media Tools For Everyday Use!

This post featured on Social Samosa and We Speak News .


You have (or are looking for) a good presence on social media. But, you also have a social life. You’re looking to balance both. Also, you’re looking to share good content with your friends and followers; you don’t want to pepper your social media contacts with stuff like you’re spamming them; you’re looking to reduce manual work on Facebook and Twitter, etc.

These two sites (and others) are great ways to direct traffic to your blog and ensuring the right content is posted at the right time. Using appropriate social media tools is key to achieve that goal.

I haven’t spent too long researching social media, but have come across 5 great tools which make life much easier for you in the online world. Some people already know about these, but those who don’t can experiment and see which one works best for them.

1.     Instapaper:  We’re all familiar with the concept of bookmarks in our browsers. Sometimes, however, we have bookmarks stored in different browsers (home computer, office laptop, mobile browser, etc.) and it’s hard to access them from different places. That’s what Instapaper fixes. All you have to do is create an account, install the ‘Read Later’ option on your most used browsers and you’re all set. Read anything interesting online? Simply click on the ‘Read Later’ option in your browser and it automatically gets saved into your account. You can log into Instapaper from anywhere and access the link. You can even share it on Twitter, FB, Pinstorm, Tumblr or Evernote at your convenience. Robert Clay introduced me to this tool, and it works like a dream.

Some tools to make you a Social Media Rockstar

The Best Thing In Life Is...

FREE! Yes, the best thing in life is FREE! Your family! The family that brings you into this world, nurtures and nourishes you, teaches you values which steer your life, stands you up on your feet and then supports you for the rest of your life. This family includes your parents, grandparents, wife and maybe children.

But there is a price we pay for sustaining this family and maintaining its strength; the price of sacrifice, hard work, time, thought and effort. It’s a price we all gladly pay. Every individual has to do her/his bit to ensure the family functions smoothly (I know ‘functions’ sounds a little crude word, but you get the idea, right?). True, there are bad times, but as we have to remember what William Shakespeare says – “This, too, shall pass!”

Today’s manic world demands a lot of our time. So much time that we spend a lot more time with friends, colleagues, work buddies, etc. than with our families. I had talked here about how we youngsters have started focussing more on materialistic things. Technology, elite goods, fast food, movies, trash TV programmes, etc. now take up a lot of our time which we otherwise could have spent with family. More time spent with work colleagues than with a significant other is one reason for the spurt in extra marital affairs. We’re gradually being pulled away from our roots and being plunged into the culture followed in the West, something we prided on avoiding earlier.

File photo of my family some 2 decades ago

Unparliamentary Behaviour, Really?

I will focus my attention today from daily musings to a phrase in English – ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour.’

I was fooling around in office one day, pulling people’s legs (something I’m good at) when one of the copywriters told me to stop my ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour’. And that’s when the discussion started.

I am not the 1^st to question this term; it’s been questioned by a lot of people before. But how did the people who coined the term agree to it in the 1^st place? Yes, ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour’ is a term to describe unruly behaviour on the part of a person/people. Quite a paradox, that! Not just India, parliaments across the world have witnessed various instances of more than mere unruly behaviour while the house has been in motion.

It’s hard to find images of unruly parliamentary behaviour online, but Isreal, Zimbabwe, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, etc. have all seen many instances of vandalism in the parliament. Research states that about 22% of the parliament’s time is lost due to such misbehaviour. Australia and some other countries have proposed a fine on politicians who misbehave and cause damage in the parliament. This should rein in those hooligans. Pity it won’t work in India, though...

So, is ‘unparliamentary’ an apt term for unruly behaviour? You would agree it should be the opposite, isn’t it? ‘Parliamentary Behaviour’, right? But it’s highly unlikely this change in diction will be implemented because it’s gonna be a major blotch on the so – called image of these politicians.

I still don’t get it! Do these politicians & bureaucrats assume their behaviour is an example for us? Where is the correlation between misbehaviour and behaviour of bureaucrats?  My office colleague and I are still scratching our heads. Someone please make sense of it for me! :(