Many years back I was told by the scion of a large industry house down south that it was a matter of shame that while the Japanese, Chinese and the Koreans always go back to their ancient corpus of knowledge at times of crisis or faced with a dilemma, Indians would fall back and rely on American and English books of management. This was seen clearly as a sign of what came to be known, thanks mainly to many historians, "colonisation of the mind". I am all against the concept, who in their right minds would like to be colonised at this day and age.
To back to the ancient Indian wisdom when faced with crisis was easy for me being trained in Indian history and having actually read some of those classical beauties. Life for me has become much easier since then and I can not resist sharing some of those philosophies with you. 1. No salary rise for 3 years? Open the Gita: it tells you "serve with love without hope for reward [sounds very biblical too]
2. Dont fear if you are blamed to be ostentatious: Open Charvaka "As long as you live happily, if need be borrow and buy ghee" Sounds dangerously like the hedonists of ancient Greek.
3. Tax Raids: Don't be demoralised. Arthashastra prescribed taxing prostitutes [I guess that would have been the service tax] Our Finance Minister has not come anywhere as close
4. Fear of taking risks: Open Mahabharata, five young men of decent upbringing chose to gamble with a professional gambler to get a kingdom and at the end they were successful... but at the very end.
5. Fear of backbiting: Get used to it. Read Mahabharata again.
6. One of the corporate tricks is not to take any decisions: Like Narasimha Rao was supposed to have done when he was the prime minister: Who did he learn that from? Of course Bhishma Pitamaha, Dhritarashtra and other seniors who just sat and watched while Draupadi was being de-sareed.
7. Non-nepotism: Remember Rama asked his wife to go through the fire test. You can do the same to your nephew at the interview.
8. Finally, gender Equality: At least 5 Dharmashastras devote 20 per cent space to the same subject "how to control" women. What does that mean? Since ancient times, women were not controllable by men... So why try it now?
Tathastu...
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
India: Living on the Edge!
As an avid watcher [and only a wacther] of AXN and other similar channels which highlight the acts of bravado that "others" perform on screen such as bungee jumping, skydiving, rock climbing, fighting with crocodiles, participating in reality shows where spiders are showered on you or you are asked to eat crocodile eggs or kiss a crocodile on the lips; I have always wondered are we Indians a nation of cowards? are we incapble of such acts of gross and raw bravery? It would apparently seem so, since not one of these shows ever features an Indian. On the other hand from American Idol to all sorts of "gambling" and guessing sort of programmes you would see a fair number of Indians participating.
I thought about it long and hard and was just about to get depressed when the idea stuck. Why do you have to display overt acts of bravado in front of a camera or in an attempt at self fulfilment when your day to day living itself is so dangerous? Irresepective of caste, colur creed or sex all indians live dangerously and on the edge. You don't believe me? Read on:
Farmer: fear of crop failure, non- repayment of loans, expenses on marriage and death, floods, caste and revenge killings
Rich Farmer: Fear of dacoity, retaliation, kidnap of children
urban poor: fear of death by contamination, death due to misdiagnosis, death due to illicit liquor, death due to train, bus accident; fear of employer, fear of unemployment
urban middle class: Fear of EMI, Fear of crowded skies, Fear of being banged by a truck on the road, fear of children being kidnapped to raped; fear of losing jobs, fear of lack of balance between home and office, fear of aspirations not being met.
Business man: Fear of new taxes, fear of collapse of stockmarkets, fear of sealing, fear of kidnap, fear of raids,
Bureaucrats: Fear of RTI, fear of being shunted, fear of being bypassed for promotion
Industrialist: Fear of workers, fear of government rules, fear of FERA, FEMA and many others, fear of hostile takeovers
Politicians: Fear of losing elections and retaliation, fear of immigration authorities, fear of tehelka
We have to overcome so many fears each day just in order to live on to the next that we find acts of bravado done for TV shows or for self-fulfillment pretty gross and pompous.
What do you say?
I thought about it long and hard and was just about to get depressed when the idea stuck. Why do you have to display overt acts of bravado in front of a camera or in an attempt at self fulfilment when your day to day living itself is so dangerous? Irresepective of caste, colur creed or sex all indians live dangerously and on the edge. You don't believe me? Read on:
Farmer: fear of crop failure, non- repayment of loans, expenses on marriage and death, floods, caste and revenge killings
Rich Farmer: Fear of dacoity, retaliation, kidnap of children
urban poor: fear of death by contamination, death due to misdiagnosis, death due to illicit liquor, death due to train, bus accident; fear of employer, fear of unemployment
urban middle class: Fear of EMI, Fear of crowded skies, Fear of being banged by a truck on the road, fear of children being kidnapped to raped; fear of losing jobs, fear of lack of balance between home and office, fear of aspirations not being met.
Business man: Fear of new taxes, fear of collapse of stockmarkets, fear of sealing, fear of kidnap, fear of raids,
Bureaucrats: Fear of RTI, fear of being shunted, fear of being bypassed for promotion
Industrialist: Fear of workers, fear of government rules, fear of FERA, FEMA and many others, fear of hostile takeovers
Politicians: Fear of losing elections and retaliation, fear of immigration authorities, fear of tehelka
We have to overcome so many fears each day just in order to live on to the next that we find acts of bravado done for TV shows or for self-fulfillment pretty gross and pompous.
What do you say?
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Globalised Names
Much before Indian economy became globalised and Indian women started wearing hipsters, Indian parents in order to make their children more competitive and hip and cool have been giving "global" names to their children. So in Punjab you had Tony, Vicky, Lucky and Bobby, In Kerala you had a Dolly Nair and in rest of India you had anything in between.
Bengalis have been very serious about names and for at least the last 70 years preferred secular names. My late father had the fancy and short name of Subrata, he was born in early 1930s. I think Bengalis did away with mythic and religious names long time back and became serious about names. A case in the point is the full version of my own name:) It is little wonder therefore, in globalised names too, Bengalis have been thought leaders. I knew someone in Calcutta who was named Monami Mitra [From the french mon ami] In the Calcutta of 1960s you could find many a woman named Lucy [not to be confused with the bengali Luchi]; and a class mate of mine was called Happy Ghosh. I do not think any other region can beat that.
My pride in Bengali names lasted for nearly as long as I have lived and increased until last week. It happened on a Saturday when I was working alone in my office with the front door of the office open and unattended. On hearing footsteps and rightly suspecting that it might be a bunch of salespersons I got up to get out my room and to confront them. I am usually very poilte but firm with such pushy salespersons but that day I was in a foul mood and decided to be very rude and nasty. In fact when I left my chair I was already gnashing my teeth. By the time I entered reached the door of my room to get into the hall from where the footsteps were coming, two young salespersons were alredy pushing open my cabin door. At which my determination to get rude became even firmer.
Finally, I managed to open the door first and before I could open my mouth, a young man, very fair and with locks that must have killed a hundred girls spoke up " Sir I am from Hutch and my name is Romeo Khan". I do not know what happened to me, suddenly instead of shouting at the guy and being rude I burst out into incessant peels of laughter.... The only thing I remembered while laughing was why didn't the guys parents name him Majnu Khan, why Romeo? By the time I had finished laughing Romeo Khan and his female colleague had left my office. Probably taking me to be insane. While I resumed work after that hysterical bout of laughter, I remembered you can not be more rude to a person than laughing at his name.
I also realised sadly that the best global names in India did not come out of Bengali households anymore.....
Jai Bharat
Bengalis have been very serious about names and for at least the last 70 years preferred secular names. My late father had the fancy and short name of Subrata, he was born in early 1930s. I think Bengalis did away with mythic and religious names long time back and became serious about names. A case in the point is the full version of my own name:) It is little wonder therefore, in globalised names too, Bengalis have been thought leaders. I knew someone in Calcutta who was named Monami Mitra [From the french mon ami] In the Calcutta of 1960s you could find many a woman named Lucy [not to be confused with the bengali Luchi]; and a class mate of mine was called Happy Ghosh. I do not think any other region can beat that.
My pride in Bengali names lasted for nearly as long as I have lived and increased until last week. It happened on a Saturday when I was working alone in my office with the front door of the office open and unattended. On hearing footsteps and rightly suspecting that it might be a bunch of salespersons I got up to get out my room and to confront them. I am usually very poilte but firm with such pushy salespersons but that day I was in a foul mood and decided to be very rude and nasty. In fact when I left my chair I was already gnashing my teeth. By the time I entered reached the door of my room to get into the hall from where the footsteps were coming, two young salespersons were alredy pushing open my cabin door. At which my determination to get rude became even firmer.
Finally, I managed to open the door first and before I could open my mouth, a young man, very fair and with locks that must have killed a hundred girls spoke up " Sir I am from Hutch and my name is Romeo Khan". I do not know what happened to me, suddenly instead of shouting at the guy and being rude I burst out into incessant peels of laughter.... The only thing I remembered while laughing was why didn't the guys parents name him Majnu Khan, why Romeo? By the time I had finished laughing Romeo Khan and his female colleague had left my office. Probably taking me to be insane. While I resumed work after that hysterical bout of laughter, I remembered you can not be more rude to a person than laughing at his name.
I also realised sadly that the best global names in India did not come out of Bengali households anymore.....
Jai Bharat
Monday, May 07, 2007
Zombie Banks
If you do not know what that term means, you can either call up an economist friend or forget about it, it does not really matter. Simply, put a public sector bank becomes zombie when the government is ready to put just enough money for it to survive and not enough for it to thrive and grow in a liberablised environment. The term was used by Percy Mistry who chaired a committee to prepare a report on how to make Mumbai a financial hub [not clear financial hub of world, india or maharashtra, I guess it must be the world since all of us are thinking global nowadays]
The excerpts of the report that I have read with a layman's perspective has lead me to the conclusion that in order to make mumbai a financial hub the enitre country or at least the entire financial policy and structure have to change. Hah hah!
However, this entry is not about making mumbai hub of high finance, but about a so called zombie bank and my experiences with it. When I enter the bank at 10 am every one seems to be awake and there are actual people in the counters, who talk to you, sort out your problems and very often know you and your last transaction. From opening to a locker to closing an account can be done absolutely fast. You sometimes also get a cup of tea while you are waiting to be served. This does not look zombie to me at all. Most important people in the counters do not change every week and they do not forget the commitments they make to you for the next week.
Compare this with a non-zombie bank which is more in news for floating ADRs and aspiring to become the largest bank in India and aiming to lead the charge if Mumbai ever becomes an international financial hub... It took me two months to convert an account to a joint account since every week the person behind the counter changed and each time I went back the person had no idea about my application form and supporting documents. Nothing is issued from the branch, you would have to wait for everything to come from "mumbai service centre"; cheques are home delivered, except that the couriers have strict indstructions to give it to the person whose name they are in [you are expected to wait at home because the couriers choose to come only in the afternoons or soon after you have left for office]. Even if you have an account with them they will not endorse your address. All these and much more in the name of "your own security". I feel proud that at least in my bank I have Z category security, makes me feel like Jyoti Basu. But does it really make my banking better. Not at all. Of course, a new feature has been added recently to help me serve better, I have to take a queue number even to queue up......
I think I would prefer zombie banks any day. What would you prefer?
The excerpts of the report that I have read with a layman's perspective has lead me to the conclusion that in order to make mumbai a financial hub the enitre country or at least the entire financial policy and structure have to change. Hah hah!
However, this entry is not about making mumbai hub of high finance, but about a so called zombie bank and my experiences with it. When I enter the bank at 10 am every one seems to be awake and there are actual people in the counters, who talk to you, sort out your problems and very often know you and your last transaction. From opening to a locker to closing an account can be done absolutely fast. You sometimes also get a cup of tea while you are waiting to be served. This does not look zombie to me at all. Most important people in the counters do not change every week and they do not forget the commitments they make to you for the next week.
Compare this with a non-zombie bank which is more in news for floating ADRs and aspiring to become the largest bank in India and aiming to lead the charge if Mumbai ever becomes an international financial hub... It took me two months to convert an account to a joint account since every week the person behind the counter changed and each time I went back the person had no idea about my application form and supporting documents. Nothing is issued from the branch, you would have to wait for everything to come from "mumbai service centre"; cheques are home delivered, except that the couriers have strict indstructions to give it to the person whose name they are in [you are expected to wait at home because the couriers choose to come only in the afternoons or soon after you have left for office]. Even if you have an account with them they will not endorse your address. All these and much more in the name of "your own security". I feel proud that at least in my bank I have Z category security, makes me feel like Jyoti Basu. But does it really make my banking better. Not at all. Of course, a new feature has been added recently to help me serve better, I have to take a queue number even to queue up......
I think I would prefer zombie banks any day. What would you prefer?
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