THe Quota Issue

Disclaimer – The write up is completely a personal opinion of the write and is ripe with a lot of assumptions implicit and explicit.

Lot has already been said, debated, scientifically analyzed, contemplated, fought and even blood spilled over this critical issue which has taken this country (especially the youth) by storm. While writing/speaking over it, I am still to see a single person who does not get emotionally charged (for whatever reason) and I am no exception to it. Reading through all their reasoning and arguments, I have tried to present my take on the issue.

The Intention –

1. Among the first ‘Reservations’ introduced in India by the British were to the Muslims to woo them to fulfill political intentions. And no one can deny the disastrous effect of this division in the society.

2. Under Gandhi’s guidance and Ambedkar’s leadership, India decided to experiment with a similar, already failed system to uplift the socially outcast, “Harijans”, but with some really good intentions backing it up.

3. Generations changed and so did the intentions. The experiment had opened up a Pandora’s Box, for the Politicians to manipulate over the next half of the century which took a monstrous shape first in 1991 and then in 2006.

4. No rational and sane person can deny the fact that backward caste people are still socially discriminated in this IT hub of the world. At heart we all agree that poverty, untouchability and illiteracy need to be rooted out to make this country a better place.

The Problem –

1. The Legacy: In this land of Hero worshiper’s we cannot accept the fact that our heroes are also humans, liable to make mistakes. Gandhi’s and Ambedkar’s experiment failed and it failed for the same reasons which lead to the making of Pakistan. But no one dared pull the plug. Why??? Because, how can ‘Gandhi’ be wrong? How can ‘Ambedkar’ go wrong? Faltering of heroes is equivalent in India is equivalent to blasting off of the Bamiyan Buddha or Public burning of Quran – a sacrilege. And thus in 60s ‘Reservations’ were made permanent.

2. Politics: Unfortunately, India’s problem today is its own leaders who are no longer the leaders of the citizens of this country rather are leaders of castes. A country marred with 36% illiteracy and 26% population below poverty lines (BPL), backward caste is a huge vote bank to be exploited. And even this recent move of the UPA government of increasing the Quotas in the election season is nothing more than a shameful example of the deteriorating Indian Political system.
Most depressing thing is that ….if put in the Parliament, the bill for increasing Quota would be passed unanimously without a national debate. No marks for guessing the reason!

The Effect –

1. The pro-reservationists argue that qualification brings the backward classes into the mainstream. The implicit assumption here is that ‘Good Qualification’ fetches a job with handsome money; which literally means social upliftment of the backward as no one bothers himself about the caste of a rich. But in India, good education (from IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other reputed institutes) comes at a cost (not the admission fees; rather the investment required to prepare for the entrance in these institutes). This results in ratio of people coming from metros (people who can afford costly education) to those coming from backward/rural areas (with a meager per capita income) is astronomical (As almost 40% of India is poor). Thus the vicious circle of education is making rich even richer.
Conclusion –The lower passing marks for ‘Quotaites’ is errorneous as only those who can invest in preparation give entrance tests for the reputed institutes. This policy just deteriorates the quality of education.

2. In colleges there are two kinds of groups students tend to make – one based on the region they belong to and the other is caste centric. While the former happens because of the comfort of language (As India is a country where language changes at every 100 Km), the latter happens either because of a shared feeling of inferiority, complex and discontent ( as the relaxation in entrance gets directly reflected in the scholastic pursuits of backward class people especially in institutes with relative grading) against the higher class (Recall the reasons for India’s Partition-they were no different).

The Solution –

Increasing the number of seats in no way solves the problems I have tried to point out in this write up; rather they only aggravate an already deteriorating scenario.
Everyday, one of the factions proposes something and the other disposes. The problem requires a well devised long term plan to be implemented under a tightly monitored time frame. Three components of this plan which I strongly feel would be the soul of this plan are –
1. New Education Policy (System) – Almost every section of the society has proposed and debated over the pos and cons of revamping the education system of India for making it a real medium (and not a dummy one as it is now) for the upliftment of backward classes. And this is merely one module of the whole solution package.
(Empirically) Number of students from government colleges making to the best higher education institutes in India (IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and others) can be counted on ones fingertips. As argued earlier, the majority is still of the people who can afford costly education from the private schools (Even here Cost is associated with Quality for the reasons described later). What we require is
a. A sincere overhaul of the complete education system which is long overdue now.
b. Subsidizing quality education for the backward classes’ up to class 10th/12th & let the merit decide the future of this country.

2. Learn-Pay-Earn: IITs, IIMs, AIIMS pass-outs education is subsidized by this country’s taxpayers. A simple financial logic asks for a pay back.
Devise a “Rational” policy (which is next to impossible in India but its future is still dependent on it) through which these passouts directly/indirectly return back the favor, before they move on to carve a golden future for themselves. Hence, let the Learn-Pay-Earn (LPE) principal replace the Learn-Earn(LE) principal.
(I support this argument as there are countries in which youngsters have to undertake defense training and serve the country for a minimum period)

1. The Infrastructure: Even if all these policies are in place, would the benefit reach the deserving living in places where there are no schools for many kms, no quality teachers and nothing to motivate them???
Hence there are a few pre-requisites we need to take care of even before all those policies are even thought over. The foremost among these would be an intensive infrastructure laid out across the length and breadth of the country.
Even today in Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, Chattisgarh, Himalyan states and many other parts of the country are completely inaccessible.

Quality education asks for Quality teachers who require a Quality incentive to share their knowledge, which refers to an infrastructure which provides a sufficient standard of living for which they have slogged throughout their lives. Basic economics teaches us that infrastructure attracts industries, Industries require manpower, to attract manpower schools, hospitals, parks come up which improve the standard of living – attracting Quality scholars resulting in better education which would help us achieve the desired objective. Examples of this are all around us from Bombay to Bangalore and now Baddi. Even China achievements today are the result of its investment in the infrastructure.
Putting the effect of infrastructure more simply in the words of my friend N.H. Krishnan – “A road in a village means a bus stand, which means another hanging place for children, means observing people of all classes and creed and thus a brush with a whole new world. This in turn lights a desire in them to explore more of this ‘New World’, motivates them to know more which is an incentive enough for them to learn and gain knowledge. Development automatically follows.”

A Thought – The world will provide you with stones every day. What you build out of it is your outlook ---- a BRIDGE or a WALL.

Winning

‘Gyaan’! The first impression that any typical MBA grad would get about Winning – another addendum to Welch’s ‘Straight from the Gut’. And after GE Money proudly announced that anyone sitting for their interview needs to go through this book (during the pre placement talks), I got a bit more eager to lay my hands on it.

Believe me, in no way is the book an anticlimax to its title. Welch’s proprietary no-nonsense, precise and dominating style keeps one bombarded with surprises. Thanks to the amazing layout that makes the book a 20-30 minutes read J. Every chapter hangs independently like a ripe mango from a full grown tree, ready to be plucked from the branch closer to your side.
Enriched with personal anecdotes, I personally found – Candor, budgeting, The right job and Work-Life balance the most amusing of all the chapters. Every word of them is worth imbibing.

The pointers are so precise and to the point that their elaboration gives an impression of repetitiveness at times. Though it does not seem to be a business Encyclopedia as claimed by Warren Buffet, it is definitely a job well done.

Interestingly, Welch shares his views on the one of the hottest topic being debated currently in India i.e. Quota in the private sector. His views seem to resonate through the Indian Industry on Manmohan Singh’s call for affirmative action.

“Winning companies (read countries) are meritocracies.
Quota undermines meritocracies. They artificially push some people ahead, independent of qualifications. That can be demotivating to the top performers who are passed over, and it doesn’t do much for results.”

My take on the book is 7.25 on a scale of 10. Hope you would enjoy it too.

Stumbling my way to ward off Boredom

On the threshhold of joining for my first job after MBA, I found something interesting as well as scary over here.

Fell upon some brilliant adds and videos over here.

Secret of making Money - This is how a Taxi Driver explains it - "I have a happy and active mind, and that is why I make a lot of money". No MBAs Dare miss this story.

How has Raj Theatre Survived

In the days when movie watching was a luxury, my father proudly recalls how he saved money to watch his favorite hero Dilip Kumar in Mughlae Aazam 5 times in the Raj Theatre.
At some point in time there were 4 very well known theatres in this small city of Hoshiarpur, the place I belong to. Now there are 3 left and none of them has a decent infrastructure.
One day when I passed in front of ‘Raj Theatre’, the most notorious of the three as most of the time it screens C grade adult movies, set me thinking because – it happens to be in the centre of the main market.
The location of Raj theatre is quiet precarious for its business as in a country like India people would prefer to watch such movies in places where they are lesser known and buy them from shops in other cities. Moreover, Hoshiarpur is such a small city that almost everyone knows one another. Surprisingly the theatre has survived at the same place for quiet a long time which made me curious of the reasons of its success.
For almost two and a half hours I watched people around the theatre and passing in front of it. Almost everyone tried to ignore the lewd scenes on the posters on the theatre walls (currently showing “Doosra Pati”). Lack of time restricted me for further investigation but I certainly thought over the reasons for Raj’s survival –

1. These movies are targeted to people in the lower section of the society. And in Punjab the majority of this section comprises of migrant population from the Hindi belt of India. In the past decade, the population of these migrants has almost exploded. The last census showed that the official figures stand at 8.7% migrants of the total population of Punjab. But I believe this figure to be around 15 to 20%. This increasing population majorly comprises of males who leave behind their families in villages and are the right targets for such theatres.


2. Punjab’s Sex Ratio is one of the lowest in the country, the second lowest among Indian states, standing at 874 against the national average of 933. This also adds up indirectly to the thriving business of such theatres.

Amazingly, these are the two most disturbing problems Punjab is facing today.
My conclusion thus stands that these two problems have started exhibiting themselves in almost every part of our life today.
When one can deal with the problem of lowered sex ratio through increased awareness and education (which is on full swing), the problem of migrant population is the one which plagues even the most developed nation also.
In this case it’s the genesis of the problem lies in the skewed growth and development of different Indian states. While Punjab is among the most advanced state, the states in the Hindi belt are plagued with extreme poverty and illiteracy. It is something like spilling ones tea on someone else’s shirt. Hence, the onus of rectifying Punjab’s problem lies with the government of the lesser developed states. Punjab government can think of –

1. Finish the counting of this population within 3 to 6 months with the help of police stations and other government bodies. The police are given the charge and authority to restrict the migrants inflow in their areas beyond a specified limit decided upon by the local administration in accordance with their limited resources for civic amenities and the economic condition of the area.


2. The government of Punjab can further help these states through exchange of expert technology in agriculture. It can further arrange for the farmers of Punjab to take some workshops in these states exchanging their experiences and helping the farmers of these states solve some of their problems.

All these are definitely a very short term solution which has to be complimented by a rapid infrastructure development in these states.

A week's Catalogue

Rangla Punjab (Haveli) - Jalandhar's own Punjabi version of Nakhraali Dhani













Wagha Border - Where the religion divides!
There is a piece of poetry I recall everytime I go to the border -
Hum hi hum hain to kya hum hain,
Tum hi tum ho to kya tum ho.













Darbar Saahib : Harmandir Sahib : Golden Temple














Jallian Waala Bagh - Memorial for the Martyrs of April 13, 1999















Where Punjab Lives! The Village Fields.














The Simla Diary - A few things I foun out
1. Severe damage has been done to this summer capital through continuous deforestation and cement aforestation.
2. A few years back Simla Government drew a plan to perform vasectomy(nasbandi) on the monkeys of the region to contorl their growing menance. Now the thing to ponder is who has entered whose territory and who really requires vasectomy.
3. If its really pssible to travel back in time one thing I have really added in my priority list is to steal and burn the 'Partition table' from the Victorian House now Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
4. Punjab is not the only place where the hindi belt is migrating but exploitation in this area is far more. May be because it is not as resourceful as Punjab.

Two unforgettable Days

I had not even a speck of doubt when Mr. Rao, the CEO of IDBI Bank, the chief guest for the Pre convocation ceremony said that, “Believe me you are going to remember these moments throughout your life”.

Never ever thought of this day even while I was preparing for CAT . Getting in and later grabbing a job are what we all think of. Rehearsals, Group Photographs, the final ceremony all seems like a dream now.

Whats it like to Pass Out !!!














No more a Textile Engg.















A Dream Come True!

And, in the words of our Chairman now its time to "Prove ourselves worthy of this honour."

Blogging

" Extremly amazing mode of communication"-This is what I said about blogging in my very first post 5 months back when i entered this virtual world.
In this 5 month journey I have definitely tried and witnessed an appropriate exploitation of this fascinating concept. This Thursday's Business Line also presents a case of the same but I cannot agree more with Frederick Noronha when he says about blogging in India that-

"In a country where we are great at simply mastering the technology -- rather than applying it efficiently to our own needs -- we're probably missing the point here too. Blogs have the capability to empower the citizen, simply because entry barriers are so low, and it's easy to express oneself on them.
While we can crow about how influential blogs have shown themselves to be, fact is that India is hardly a nation of bloggers. For a country of a thousand million, we have just a minuscule number of blogs.
Bloggers seem to be working in isolated islands, rather than building synergies with more traditional media. This probably results in bloggers 'talking to themselves'."

The complete post can be read here.

The table below clearly shows the standing of India with respect to the rest of the World in exploitation of this channel. Moreover, as for every 100 people in India who tried blogging, only 40 continued after a while. Hence the figures are even more worse than this.

Have the issues that require attention dried up in India? Or it is so that we have become completely averse to the everything happening around us?

I am damn sure that we can do far better than this; at least on this campus. Merely 10% of the 'highly enlightened and intellectual capital' of India on this campus contributing their bit, I feel is far below par.

Manish Saini

Sources -

1. Number of Blogs per country
2. Population

Indian railways: The Chaniging Face

Whether its lalu or Mamta Banerjee at the helm, Indian Railways has definitely geared itself up for this new millennium.

First the whole awful ordeal of ticket booking was turned into a pleasant 15 minute virtual experience called ‘i-tickets’. While I was still debating the implications of the success or failure of latest pilot project of the Indian railways – ‘e-tickets’, I find another surprise waiting in my mail box today.

“Dear and Valued Customer,

We are happy to inform you that we will shortly be launching a Loyalty Program - A Scheme for Frequent Travelers (SOFT), wherein members will earn loyalty points for buying AC Class (except 3AC) tickets & will be able to redeem these points for FREE railway tickets.”

All this along with some animations and a promise to reach back to me very soon. More on the above scheme can be read in detail over here.

Today, when the competitive environment in air travel is pushing the companies to offer out of the way discounts and schemes, Indian Railways an organization which is virtually enjoying monopoly, comes up with a loyalty scheme. Man!!! The way they are changing is just awesome.

To just know more about their activities I did a small research and here is what I found –

1. Railways is planning to use RFID to track is wagon fleet and parcels.

2. The Rail Tel Corporation, has started to build a nationwide broadband and multimedia network by playing optical fiber cable along 62,800 kilometers of railway track by utilizing railways' 'right of way.

3. Realizing their astounding aversion from the field of ergonomics, the Indian Railways have decided to redesign their bogies starting first at the high end customer level.

4. To improve security and enhance reliability in its railway network, the Indian Railways is deploying GSM-R network in place in two zones within this quarter of 2006.

5. Southern Railway has been operating its road vehicles using bio-diesel since 2004. Its general manager V Anand flagged off these vehicles from the Perambur Loco Shed in Chennai.

6. Flexible Ticketing: The Centre for Railway Information Systems has centralized the purchase and management of unreserved tickets with the use of simple and innovative technology.

Traveling through Indian railways is definitely undergoing an oceanic change. This small picture on the surface definitely gives a hint of lot more happening deep inside out there. And the good thing is its all happening for us to witness. We are definitely going to be a lot richer in bedtime stories for the coming generation J.

Manish Saini

The harmony of Worlds

You would find a column on Astrology virtually in every newspaper and every magazine on the newsstand (This is not a debate on astronomy and astrology). Majority of the people I meet would definitely ask me my sun sign. I believe that in India, astrology runs in our blood. Every thing we do has to fall in congruence with the “auspicious moment” as declared by astrology.
I have always been fascinated by the thought of knowing the future but had my doubts in believing astrology as a science till I found an analogy to explain the rationale.
First of all, let us understand the origin of astrology in the words of Carl Sagan –
A few thousand years ago, the idea developed that the motions of the planets determined the fates of Kings, dynasties, empires. Astrologers studied the motions of the planets and asked themselves what had happened the last time that, say, Venus was rising in the constellation of Goats; perhaps something similar would happen this time as well. Astrology developed into a strange combination of observations, mathematics and careful record-keeping.
Now, as I see, astrology developed into a forecasting technique which used Historical Data.
If I talk about the Technical Analysis of the shares, calculation of Value at Risk and RAROC, Time Series analysis, Regression……aren’t these themselves tools for forecasting based on similar technique i.e. using historical data.
The next argument would be that these analyses give you just an approximate idea. But so does astrology.
Astrologers have developed very sophisticated and comprehensive models like the Vedic Sidereal Model. As all forecasting techniques tell us that greater the amount of historical data taken better the accuracy, then astrology must be able to predict far more accurately; and so is it. But, had every one been able to master the science behind financial models, every one would have been Warren Buffet or George Soros. Thus the only condition for a near perfect future forecast is that the person handling the model has a thorough knowledge of the science he is dealing with.

“An argument for those who find ‘despising astrology’ as a fashion statement.”

Creativity at its Best

Just happened to come across an awesome practical application of the phrase “A problem can be solved in a million ways”.
On the famous AB Road of Indore is located an institute called IPS Academy. Just close to it there is a very narrow bridge over which two loaded trucks cannot pass simultaneously; hence is an accident prone zone. The only solution I visualized whenever I crossed it was widening of the bridge.
But, hats off to the Indore Municipality’s creativity; they came up with such a low cost solution that I have starting doubting my MBA.
They simply built up speed breakers on both the sides of the bridge (.

When Words Fill In The Blanks

Some times there are things and feelings which are beyond expression and when you happen to read something or hear what you have always tried to put into words….u just jump out of the chair saying…..exactly!!! These three dialogues from “Before Sunset” made me do it -

• Happiness is in doing and not in getting what you want.


• People come with big idealist visions of becoming the new leader that will create a better world. They enjoy the goal, but not the process!

But the reality of it is that the true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day.
The people that do the real work, the people that are the most giving, hard working and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader.
They don't see the interest in superficial rewards, they don't care if their name ever appears in the press, they actually enjoy the process of helping others, they're in the moment!

• Memory is a wonderful thing if you didn’t have to deal with the past!

Before Sunset happens to be one of the best movies I have ever seen but to enjoy it you will have to watch Before Sunrise first!
Enjoy
Manish

The Gandhian Spirit

Be it in Bilgaon’s micro hydel project or in the Tilonia Project of non violence education Gandhi’s experiments with truth still continue even 58 years after he left. If Dilip’s post summarizes the change these experiments have undergone then the Telecom Italia’s add does indicate the manifold effect of these experiments in a changed world.

Marty’s day does revive this Gandhian spirit in most of us. We realize that something of the sort of Bilgaon or Tilonia to happen we need to keep this spirit alive and hence we at IIM Indore organized a small blood donation camp.

Statistically, for any city, the yearly requirement of blood is merely 1% of the total population of the city. Indore has a population of around 30,00,000 which means only 30,000 people need to donate blood once a year. Medically a person can donate 1 unit i.e. 300ml of blood every 3 months hence we require merely 7.5 thousand people to donate blood 4 times a year. Interestingly not even this 0.25% of people is available from this historical city.

I hope a small contribution of 85 units from the IIM Indore family would in some way help revive the Gandhian spirit and not confine it merely to the statues on squares.

Swades Remade

After a 14 hour of tiring journey three chaps from the Planet I drove into a land where they were going to have a brush with reality over the next two days.
This land of “Mogli” (the character from Rudyard Kyping’s Jungle Book) now popularly called Seoni, is situated on the Satpura Plateaus of Madhya Pradesh, India. The visit was a part of the project which IIMI had taken to provide professional assistance to the district government with the “100 day assured employment scheme (NREGP)” launched by the central government.
To have a better understanding of the topography and demography of the place, we happened to visit Block offices, Panchayat offices and attended Gram Panchayats in villages over the next few days. But this turned out to be a remaking of Swades for all three of us.
We always knew that India as shown in Swades does exist; but it is easy to brush past it in an AC theatre and digest it over a discussion on a dinner table. But when confronted with this India in reality, our purpose of existence was shaken to the roots. I remember my hands shaking in a gram panchayat when Mr. Tiwari (from Green Brigade, an NGO) tried to explain the villagers that this scheme has an assured employment of 100 days and at no point would they be cheated.
I thought that how can somebody cheat these people who are struggling to live from hand to mouth. And the answer I got was “In The same way as people like you and I turn a blind eye to what we have seen and realized”.
Even if I fail to deliver what we are expected to of this huge project, one thing which I am damn sure of now is that I am not turning a blind eye this time.

City Beautiful - An analysis

City Beautiful - Chandigarh, the only planned city in India which has been immitated throughout the country in one form or the other. Designed about half a century ago it has survived all kinds of pressures on its infrastructure and still retained the tilte. But would it survive the another half?

Let us do a small analysis -

The whole infrastructure of the city including water, sanitation, transport system is built for approximately people based on following alculation -
(48 sectors)x(4 sub parts)x(1200 houses each)x(5 people each) = 11,52,000 people which is I guess a fair estimate.

The population according to 2001 cencus is 9,00,914 people with a decinnial growth rate of 40% approx. Leave apart the transient population.

This means that we wiil approach the limit within this decade.

Repurcussions -

a) Transport system sufferes first due to an unexpected explosion in the number of vehicles. Parking can be taken care to some extent through underground planining. But Safety on roads would definitely go down (But the Traffic Police till now is doing a wonderful job). First impact of it which is quiet visible now would be on the pollution. Next to go would be the squares - some of it has started already. Not to mention that these squares do add to the overall beauty of the city.

b) Water and Sanitation system poses pressure on Sukhna which has already been too much disfigured what I saw of it a decade and a half back. Again a major source of physical beauty would get on the verge of disapperance.

c) Even if these pressures are taken care of and We start building sky scrapers and say in a span of next 30-40 years we create something on the lines of New York. How many parks would exist is the question?

d) For the subject of the impact of these changes on the people of the city beautiful - I guess the answer can be found in the Desmond Morris's book - 'Human Zoo' which does describe impact of such an expansion on people taking cues from the human evolution.

Thus the real question is - If the administration is really aware of all these things what is it doing currently to face these challenges?

Above all, as citizens of City Beautiful, what is that we need to do is the question?
Can we really sit back thinking it to be a passing phase and wait for it to receede?

Manish

Jobs Gallore

Approaching the end of the last term, there is only one thing on everyone's mind - Job!
Well, I am not going to discuss the plus and minuses of starting your own business or joining a multinational. Its just that the management education prepares you for everything and anything. The only thing to be found out is what one actually wants to do! Some like Bhagat Singh know from the begining what they were born for, some like Sidin find it out in the course of ones life and some just regret of missing it on their death bed.

Kim Woo-Choong rightly says "Every Street is paved with Gold". One only needs to open up his eyes to look the world around.

In Jasdeep's Words the best job in this world is something like - Being a "Test Driver" for Ferrari. Man! they pay you for Driving a Ferrari, skidding it around and trying out what not.
Just on my way to set out, to look for something similar, I thought of droping in a few words around.
Manish

A Random Thought

History speaks of Holland as the home of letters, science and art, and undoubtedly the most learned state in Europe. The per capita number of laureates and scientists that the state produced is unmatched till today.
Such a heaven, today, is out of this world.
But there is one interesting point to ponder - What is required to be a successful scietists apart from inquisitve thinking and sound basics? "Money"!
Be it Keplar or be it Einstein - why is it that almost all the famous scientists have to be poor?
Now if I link all of these thoughts - A budding scientist has a sound head over his shoulders, needs money to fund his researches and most probably is poor!!
So, why not impart the knowledge of business subjects to science students so that in future they could fend for their endeavours for themselves.

In the name of welfare - A chapter for Freakonomics

A survey done by the Excise Dept. in Tamil Nadu some time in the mid 1970s gave an estimate of yearly liquor consumption of 25 lac litres in the state. While the figure for Karnataka stood at 75 lac litres. A repeat survey after a decade showed an increase in consumption of around 10,000 litre in Karnataka while Tamil Nadu during this period had overtaken Kaarnatka.

The figures shocked the whole state as this was a period when prohibition act was in force. Every department took whatever measures it could and gave all kinds of explanations.

But as Levitt says – “You need to talk to the right people and look at the right data to get the right answers”.

Following is an excerpt from an interview with a laborer conducted by an organization doing field survey to unravel the causes. This one interview unraveled facts which went on to solve this whole mystery –

Q. How much do you earn in a day?
A. Rs. 12 - 13

Q. How many people are there in your family?
A. Eight. My four children, my parents, myself and my wife.

Q. How much do you spend on food daily?
A. Rs. 6

Q. Rs. 6 for a family of 8! Is it enough?
A. Sir, we belong to a "special class" of people according to the Govt.* My children are entitled for a meal in the school, my parents under Old age pensioners (OAP) scheme are entitled for free rice while my wife being pregnant now and then also falls under one or the other program of Aanganwaadi.

This was a big slap on the face of Welfare Activists.

So much in the name of welfare.


*He was trying to point out that he fell under BPL families category.

Disclaimer: This complete story is an excerpt of an interview with a director of a prominent NGO for whom I was doing consultancy on a project. In the process of capturing the theme I might have distorted a few facts. Kindly ignore them.

One Night @ The Call Centre

A 289 pager by Chetan Bhagat, the author who shot to fame through his 5 point someone. I admired the way the book was advertised by the promoters even before the launch and so couldn’t keep my hands off the book as soon as I saw it on the stands.
As expected, Chetan hasn’t changed his witty, dark writing style. But his overemphasis on this style makes him sound very clichéd at times. The best thing about the novel is its strong characterization.
A story knitted around 6 call centre agents’ life; I prefer calling it ‘One Shift’ rather than ‘One Night’ when almost the hell breaks loose on them.
Chetan, through his character Vroom, has epitomized the discussion for pros and cons of call centre boom in India. While other characters add on spice to the story, through Shyam, Chetan seems to have addressed a problem which almost each one of us is going to face – a bad boss.
On the whole, the purpose of the novel is quiet noble - "To make the youth of today more conscious of the choices one makes in life". But 289 pages leads to over dramatization and the story seems to drag at various points.
I would rate it 3 out of 5.

Bhopal: A case on Brand Management

1945 - 2 big cities of Japan were nuked to ashes. 2 decades later, if one talked about Japan he only talked about its technological and Business Acumen. "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" were burried with the dead in the summer of 1945.
21 years have passed but even today if you hear of Bhopal, you recall the bloddy night of 3rd Dec 1984 and the events that followed (The Bhopal Gas Tragedy). Somehow the name Bhopal leaves a bad taste on ones tongue.
An accidental journey through the city of Bhopal (better known as The City of Lakes) left me spellbound with its natural beauty. I have already seen a number of Jaws fall when I tell them about the beauty of Bhopal.

The semi mountanious terrain of Bhopal gives a feeling of troting on a hill station. A panoramic view from the top of "Manav Sanghralya" (a unique mueseum which is a remake of traditional lifestyles) over the 'Baddi Jheel' leaves one wondering if it was really true.

But even 21 years later, a majrity of the world hasn't seen or even realized this face of Bhopal. Even being a state capital hasn't changed its perception much.
These Politicians and bureaucrats seem to need real good lesons in Brand management and a few case studies like that of Tyenol (The famous J&J drug crisis).

Birthday Thoughts

There are few things I have been always confused of. And celebrating birthdays is one of them.
Now, what do you think is the best way to celebrate a birthday -
1. Party around-cutting cake, blowing candles, dacing whole day long.....
2. Organize a Hawan in your house or any kind of Pooja (Prayer)....
3. Distribute clothes and food to the needy....

Or is there still a better way?

I always prided myself that I am not the normal kind who goes on banging his head whole night long just because one more year of my life was wasted. I always believed that blow off a candle, is a sort of signalling Darkness to overcome your life. So, its better to light up a 'Diya' and invite a bright future.

This break, Preeti knocked me with a brilliant thought -
"Manu, don't you think that B'days are days when we must actually thank our parents to bring us into this world? Don't you think its we who should give presents to our parents rather than the other way round? Isn't it a day to be celebrated in honour of our parents rather than ours?.........."

Now this is something which never crossed my mind...........