Congress Now Fighting Terrorism For Us?

Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab hanged within 80 days! I don’t know what’s more amusing; them being hanged or how gleefully we Indians have lapped this up.

Where did the Congress suddenly get these balls from? Until a few days ago, this very party running the government was ordering lathi charges on citizens. It sat twiddling its thumbs while the youth demanded justice for the gang rape victim. The Congress sat on its huge ass since 2009 while the Indian economy almost hit rock bottom. Policy paralysis was talked about daily in newspapers. The government failed to bring about a consensus on retail FDI, GST and other policies which should have been implemented long ago. CWG, the telecom spectrum, coal mine allocation... all these scams and more came to light when the Congress was in power since 2009. Mamata Banerjee dumped the Congress, Mayawati’s support was listed by dropping CBI investigations against her; there was no respite from the Naxalite issue either. Instead, the Congress went around trying to implement Section 144 and banning books which they claimed hurt religious sentiment. Pakistani soldiers beheading Indians was also publicized in the media to distract the Indian population from the Delhi gang rape issue. It was easier to make Pakistan look the villain and shift focus from a matter we called our government to action on. Did that party really find the guts to hang terrorists; something which wasn’t done since 12 years?

Kasab & Afzal Guru hanged?

The biggest terrorists are Congress party leaders themselves. In this article, I’ve pointed out how twisted and malicious Sonia Ghandi is. The news of the terrorists being hanged is a political gimmick. Just like the Americans claiming to have killed Bin Laden and buried his body at sea. So fucking predictable! Why would the Indian government have the terrorists hanged and burn their bodies in a hush – hush manner? Wouldn’t they want to display the dead bodies to showcase what they’ve done? Isn’t that normal human tendency? In my opinion, the jailed terrorists have not being hanged. They are alive and well; probably moved to secret location. The government merely wants to earn some brownie points from us citizens ahead of the 2014 elections.

The Congress has repeatedly violated my motherland in this stint. True, other parties have done and will do the same. But when awareness has increased, why must we behave like we used to a decade ago? The Congress needs a jolt like one they got when they lost out to the BJP. They must realize that they can’t take their power for granted. The jolt in 1996 was enough to galvanize them to action when they came to power in 2004. Our GDP grew substantially and people started predicting India’s bright future. Where are we now?

One thing is certain – I’m not voting for the Congress this time. Fuck that, I’ve never voted for them. Instead, I vote for some independent party worker who will be more passionate about development in my area. We need to show politicians that they cannot live their lives battling accusations of corruption, allow crime to continue and try to distract us from core matters by focusing on petty ones. We expect them to provide us a secure environment – economically and personally. What are you going to do?

image: Courtesy Google Images

Happy Republic Day?

“Happy Republic Day!” “Happy Independence Day!” – we tweet, share status updates on Facebook, attend our colony’s flag hoisting, games and  parties, and are back to our usual selves the next day. Flags lie strewn on the streets a day after every colony has patriotic songs blaring from rented loudspeakers. Our sense of patriotism gets deflated in less than a day.

What is achieved by celebrating Independence or Republic Day? At the national capital, the Prime Minister and the President speak hollow words; the government shows off our military prowess in parades when it can’t provide safety to its own citizens. Closer home, we attend parties which have nothing to do with talking about becoming responsible citizens after flag hoisting, play games and worst – liquor shops remain shut.

Google Doodle - Happy Republic Day

This Unity in Diversity is hurting us more than doing us good. The politicians are preying on pockets of caste, creed and religion and each community abandons the other when it gets what it wants. We gel well and accommodate each other but live as fragmented parts of society. We can’t take someone grievously injured on the street to the hospital for fear of a police enquiry on us. Cops, politicians, lawyers and government servants take more advantage of their power than use it to fulfil their duty – protect common man. Rapes, murders and other crimes are the order of the day. New infrastructure takes eons to build, and when done, they lie idle waiting for some minister to inaugurate. Each state has a separate history, separate Gods, taxes, festivals... how are we ever going to feel united?

Do we need Republic/Independence Day to organize sports competitions in our buildings? Can’t we do it on any given Sunday? Why waste these days having fun? Why not try to do something (at least on these days), that make us feel more Indian? Why not forget our caste, creed and more and look at ourselves as Indians first? Shouldn’t we stop differentiating on the basis of language? Ensure safety of people who live around us? Aid in spreading education so that reducing illiteracy will make a stronger India? Or would we rather prefer satire tweets and Facebook updates about how messed up our country is?

The time is not only now; it is always. If we want India to be better, we must start with ourselves. Make ourselves worthy to contribute to society. Then pay back to our motherland who has given us so much but is being raped repeatedly by politicians and the likes.

image courtesy: Google

The Indian Cricket Team: Familiarity Breeds Predictability

The Indian cricket team lost the One Day series 2-1 to Pakistan and the Test Series 2-1 to England. They tied the T20 series 1-1 with each team. They lost all matches against England & Australia when they visited those countries. We can’t remember the last time the Indian team won a series comprehensively after the World Cup. This team is just a pale shadow of the one that won the World Cup and probably one of the worst title defenders, right?

We could go on and on. But one thing to factor is the amount of time the Indian team has spent on the road. Before the World Cup in 2011, India was constantly playing since November 2009. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies and other countries were toured, apart from the series of matches played at home. Injuries, fatigue, loss of form and frustration become a norm at such times. And knowing how much the BCCI cares about these aspects, combating them becomes very difficult. Most people say these are mere excuses, but it’s important they put themselves in the players’ shoes.

The dejected Indian cricket team

Let’s look at the time after the World Cup. India had a small break before they toured West Indies and then left for England. Something went wrong and we lost all matches there. That’s ok occasionally; even Australia lost both test matches, the ODI and T20 when they came to India. Then we began castrating our heroes; the very players who won us the World Cup. Everything they had done was suddenly washed away and we were back to calling them ‘incompetent’. The disaster at Australia and other places followed. Forgotten were the facts that this team had won us the Asia Cup crown in 2010 also.

The Indian team isn’t going through a good patch now either. Expected to win 3-0 in the test series against England, we lost 2-1. To add to that, we lost the ODI series to Pakistan also. But have we wondered why? It’s because of familiarity. The Indian cricket team plays maximum matches every year. Mini series are squeezed in between tours. Players are always on the road and barely have time to relax, recoup from niggling injuries (most Indian players play at 60% fitness), or add new weapons to their arsenal. Consequently, they become predictable. The same batting strokes, same bowling variations, same bowling options, etc. Oppositions are so familiar with the Indian team because of the amount of videos that must be available to study that they’ve dissected our team like a frog in a biology lab. They’ve broken down each batsman, bowler, fielder and probably know them better than our players themselves. That’s why Ashwin is being taken to the cleaners while Bhuvaneswar Kumar is successful; he’s relatively unknown. But I guess Kumar will go down a similar path of most Indian fast bowlers – dream debut, awesome performance for some time and then injuries and lack of infrastructure will make him toothless too.

The seniors need to be rested, but the BCCI won’t take that step because it will mean loss of revenue for the richest sporting body in the world. New blood should be given a chance and our calendar should become less gruelling. These aspects have been argued over rhetorically for ages now without any outcome. So we must understand where our players are coming from rather than being so harsh on them. Until the BCCI doesn’t take steps to correct this, or until our players don’t stand up for themselves the way they did before the Sydney Test, all we will see from our team is spurts of brilliance. We must ensure they have our support, not our criticism. Do you agree?

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Book Review - Jugaad Innovation

“An innovative fix; an improvised solution born out of ingenuity and cleverness.”

That’s how authors Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja define Jugaad. While we Indians generally associate the term with a negative feel, the trio give it a much more holistic definition in their book ‘Jugaad Innovation’. The Economist states that this is the most comprehensive book to appear on the subject. Is it true? Well, you have to read it to find out.

The book sets off in Ramakrishna Nagar, a village in the desert of Gujarat, where a potter Mansukh Prajapati turned into an entrepreneur a few years ago. He designed and developed Mitticool, his version of a fridge. It’s a terracotta box entirely made of clay, except for a glass door and plastic tray at the bottom. Water from an upper chamber seeps through the side walls, cooling the lower food chamber through evaporation. The fridge consumes zero electricity, produces no waste, is completely biodegradable and costs merely 2000 bucks. Witchcraft, right?

Jugaad Innovation

There are other ingenious designs and business models across emerging nations cited in this book, which make it a pleasure to read. The concept of Jugaad, the authors say, is not restricted to India. The Brazilians call it jeitinho; the Chinese have their own term for it: zizhu chuangxin while the Kenyans term it jua kali. Gustavo Grobocopatel from Argentina, unhindered by scarcity of resources and funds, launched his company Los Grobo which is now the 2^nd largest grain producer in the country thanks to Jugaad. Tulsi Tanti from Gujarat, faced with infrastructural bottlenecks while setting up a textile company, founded Suzlon Wind, the world’s 5^th largest wind energy solutions provider. It examines business models of YES Bank & Future Group (the founders of Big Bazaar) and tells us why and how those unconventional models succeeded in India. This book is laden with many more such examples.

Research states that a whopping $550 billion (about 60% of the total borrowing by the Indian government in 2011!) was spent by western countries on R&D in 2010. Organizations’ constant desire to over engineer and structure an innovation process does them more harm than good. That’s probably why we witness many western firms filing for bankruptcy.

Hence, the authors explain that corporate entities can (and must) incorporate Jugaad to encourage innovation if they want to survive cut throat competition. They enlist 6 principles of Jugaad entrepreneurs, which are:

·        Seek opportunities in adversity

·        Do more with less

·        Think and act flexibly

·        Keep it simple

·        Include the margin

·        Follow your heart

These principles are elaborated upon in form of 6 chapters very well; each chapter also has lessons on how the corporate sector can use the respective principles to innovate. The book inspires not only corporate leaders, but also normal people like us to develop resilience, passion, flexibility, frugality, simplicity and empathy so that we can contribute to society. A foreword by Ratan Tata and an introduction by Sam Pitroda (who pioneered the telecom revolution in India) only add to its credibility. A good entrepreneur is one who can feed 1000 families, directly and indirectly. Let’s try and make ourselves capable of feeding even ½ that number. And the only way to do it is through Jugaad. Jugaad Innovation is a must read for everyone, whether we want to be entrepreneurs or not. It will make you exercise your mind and come up with ideas of small innovations which can make even your daily lives easier.

One Surefire Way Of Becoming A Constructive Critic!

Purvesh (read and subscribe to his awesome blog) & I got into a discussion during a booze session about my previous blog article. While he agreed that people readily dish out criticism (and another blogger took a jab at me here), he didn’t agree with the heading. He rightly pointed out that the whole world is not your critic. Only people who know you criticize you; some do it for your good while others do try to go one up on you.

Purvesh suggested the next article be on how to be a constructive critic. So here it is.

Who is a critic? Wikipedia says “A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgment. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgment. At its simplest, and for whatever reason, a critic may have either constructive or destructive intent.” So why do YOU criticize someone?

Simon Cowell - A constructive critic? Yeah, right!

Early in his life, Abraham Lincoln criticized people ruthlessly. He’d leave letters in the marketplace lambasting someone and readers would heartily laugh. It was when a politician challenged him to a duel and it came to life and death did he decide that he wouldn’t make his negative feelings public anymore.

As I said earlier, we criticize people because we want the best for them or because we want to show them down. But the words we use almost always decide how the person takes it. Harsh words generally compromise the point we’re trying to drive, while sweet words probably ensure the person won’t heed them.

So how do you become a constructive critic?

The secret: YOU DON’T! We cannot criticize someone because we think are better than them at something or we have dollops of advice to offer. Often the advice may be way off target or totally redundant. Then we have criticism techniques – sandwich method and chutney method and blah blah. But are we qualified enough to criticize anyone? Maybe someone is not as interested as us in that aspect; they’re much better at something else. Does that mean they retort by criticizing us on what they’re good at? The war will never end. So don’t criticize anyone.

Yes, you’ll say criticism is important to help subordinates improve at work, help children learn what’s right, help friends get out of bad habits… News Flash! No one does anything unless they want to do it. Will your criticism convince them to do something that doesn’t interest them?

If you really want someone to improve, trust his/her capability to learn and improve. Be it at work, home or amongst friends, let the person do things his/her way and learn from experience. He may come up with alternate and better ways. And if that doesn’t happen, the person will approach you for help. Don’t start the “I told you so” bit and dish out advice like water. Ask relevant questions to make the person himself provide the answers you wanted to give all along; he’ll accept the point faster. If the person is stuck and asks for help, hand out a pointer or 2 to get his mind running.

I’ve worked under a lot of people, but distinctly remember one superior who did exactly what’s written above. He never spoke badly to anyone, never tried showing his authority or tried teaching us what to do. He offered advice when asked or when the situation was critical. Even in the latter, he would ask the person to come up with an action plan after reviewing which he would add pointers if needed. Needless to say, he is one of the most loved and respected people known.

I know this is the hardest thing for us humans. We subconsciously end up judging a situation/person and offer our 2 cents. But merely trying one step of not criticizing anyone (constructively or unconstructively) will change the way we look at the world. We’ll be more patient, accepting and approachable; we’ll broaden our horizons. Plus, the world will start looking at us differently. And remember – today, to stand out, you have to be different.