Dawn in Prabhat

Leadership Beyond Corona

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:42:00 +0000

Sometime in March, I began to question if Corona will change the way Behavourial Science scripts new chapters. Chapters that may change the way how the science is applied to understand and relate to people and societies.

Thinking more about how Corona may impact our public behaviour, I began to recognise that we may relate to people based on so many newer factors. The gentleman or the lady were more likely to be noticed in the public washrooms for their nobility in the way they use the tap at the washbasin, or, by the way they respect others’ rights to their spaces, as well. The high notes of pedigreed public behaviour may be used as a benchmark to judge people in general.

That is when I developed a presentation: Success Beyond Corona - Responsible Leadership; and, later spoke how Corona may change the way leadership is understood or appreciated. Interacting with the industry communities, and, the academicia, I did not quite realise the depth of the newer public order is likely to develop, as Covid impacts more people, all of 2020.

Are we civilised enough to respect individuality at another level altogether? The grace will now definitely be in respecting the privacy of space for someone sitting next to you on the dining table. The nails, the cuffs, the sneeze or the hiccups will be observed so much more. The restaurants may change the way seating is spaced around a table. The expansive spacing will so disrupt the budgets of every business where people come together. That's the economics of it. However, how on earth do I make my guest at home feel cosier over a meal?

Should the more welcoming dining table at my home be 10x6 feet for only six to seat? Would my hospitality be more welcomed if I do not invite more than a couple of friends over an evening so that a sofa is left between two persons in my living room?

As we go along the apprehensions are sharply turning real. I am getting more definitive that we are not too loud in our imaginations. As more people remain uncertain how soon Corona will go out of our lives, its imprints continue to make us fear and be anxious about public behaviour.

Sensitivity towards people has suddenly emerged as a responsibility. A growing social responsibility.

People are not likely to be limited to judge leadership based on initiatives, achievements or accomplishments. Leaders are likely to be viewed a whole lot more in the way they maintain protocols in the public. Not necessarily on the go, over the phone and the video conferences as well.

Are they hygienic enough? A very personal sense of responsible citizenship is likely to be under the scanner by people, publicly.

Do they understand that I have my rights to keep my hands in my pocket? Do they realise that exchanging visiting cards may not be the most responsible practice?

How distant is polite? How erudite is someone over the video conference?

The biggest challenge of it all, how do I reach out, being at a distance?

They are just a few of the entirely new dimensions of the post Covid public behaviour.

The witness to the impacts of Corona will be more real, when we get back to normal lives as we lived until 2019. People may have outlived the reassurance of a warm handshake. They have not been hugged enough by people outside their families. People have not met people enough. How do you address such people so distant from humanity for so long a time?

That is when I am likely to see ways of breaking the barriers of emotions, while I respect strictly the barriers of discipline. How testing will the experience be?

How do I reflect warmth, trust and confidence amidst isolated environments? Would I find the body language of people whom I have known closer, now incomprehensible, when I meet them, like I met them before March?

Human sensitivities long lost in the race for leadership positions seems to have suddenly awakened. From the neighbour to the grocer, to the staff at work, or the customer, they are all now worthy of respectful distance with a sense of privacy.

In keeping the distance, the real leaders will emerge to inspire. To set examples. Raise the levels of human behaviour. As the outstanding will be observed, respected and trusted.

Ram Ray. Much Pearls. To Many.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 07:32:00 +0000

Ram Ray.

Much Pearls. To Many.

At an impressionable age, encountering a boss with distinguished impressions was my biggest challenge when I moved from Ernst & Young to Response. The responsibility to establish a technology driven finance management system in 1984, was the first ever, I assume, in an advertising agency in India. The task was a much less challenge, however.

With the background of transforming accounting systems from the traditional book keeping into a digitised information system for large corporations such as American Express Travel Services, Bata or even the Indian enterprise like the Hindustan Motors or Orient Paper and Industries, I needed to understand the transactional flow in an advertising business and apply that to the technology available.

Only Ram Ray could explain the financial transactional flow as I was the first accounting employee. He offered a Mac, and a senior Informational Technology Consultant, Mr Bedi who would design the software, as my only support.

The environment at Response was inspiring. Almost everyone wanted to develop the best work. If they didn’t, Ram Ray was mammothly present with his roving eyes in finding them circumvent the his standards - usually higher than the best standards. His eyes would zoom into the pantry and the work desks as much.

In my interactions, I guess he knew he was not too sharp in the financial discipline, much like most advertising managers, however legendary they may be. Very soon I had a visiting Consultant, followed by a senior finance professional.

In under a year the system was established, reducing my work to allocating expense heads to the cash flow. At the same time, advertising had begun to inspire me as a career.

Communication was my greatest shortcoming. Yet it was communication that drove the spirit in me.

Ram Ray’s virtue of benevolence among his several unique traits, worked in my favour, when he agreed to give me an opportunity to move over to Account management from Accounting management. He asked me as bluntly as he would address a rookie, “What if you fail as an Account Manager?”. I had worked upon the courage to answer that as bluntly: I will quit Response. His next question: “How long should the test be?”. I was a bit clever there, when I said, working under him it should be just a quarter, yet I hoped six months was not a big ask.

That is when Ram Ray caught me in a zone that belonged to him entirely. It was coincidental that I was the first Account Manager as well at Response. Until then, it was just him and others from Media, Creative or Research seconding, or supporting him.

Cruelty of sorts was heaped upon me as he begun to review my expressions of the conversations in a meeting, as a formal Service Report.

Six months later, I was not asked to leave, even though a few other Account Managers had joined. But I was the only slave between the clients and Ram Ray. I was crushed like keema in rolls that Calcuttans enjoyed for a meal or between meals; and, Ram Ray could enjoy anytime of the day.

The greater I was crushed, the deeper was my determination to sneak into what made him a giant.

I continue my attempts to express better, a learning I grant him alone as the source of my inspiration. Minimal words, better expressed, as I call that practice. Express to the individual alone you relate to, never as a standard narrative. I am very certain he would dump most of what I write or say, as no where close to linguistically acceptable English.

I would not bother. And, continue. He was never explicit, yet he taught me hard, not to allow appreciations or ridicule come in the way of what you are committed to doing, or dedicated to learning uniquely.

I got over the hangover of being impressive, or be impressed. Let those virtues be in the passing. The inner being is better preserved if the impressions, or the expectations based on impressions are left behind as garbage in the bin, while the pursuit to get better lives.

So, Ram Ray, in his own style, never concluded if I was a good enough Account Manager. Pushing me to find if I believed so.

Inspired by his style of taking a larger leap to conclude if anything was good enough, I sought interviews, outside Response, and Calcutta. When I concluded with an opportunity with HTA, Delhi, I knew Ram Ray had made me what, like most of his trainees, I would have expected from my term with him.

He stayed in touch. He would often Inbox a few articles, or, have a quick chat. I also found his recommendation on my LinkedIn profile, without asking.

I knew he was not keeping well. Yet I was selfish enough to be proud that I was not a sundry in his list, whenever I found his notes in my Inbox. They stopped about six months ago. I sensed the Master will not be longer to reassure me that I existed in his mind.

I have met legends, or known them. I cannot relate to him as another legend or a star. He left a distinct mark on people he knew. In a way of his own. Distinct and distinguishable.

All that is Manly isn’t quite Wisely

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 11:59:00 +0000

All that is Manly isn’t quite Wisely.

Man is a man. A woman is just a woman. A vast majority of children, both boys and girls grow up amidst the sexual discrimination. Boys will be boys. Girls are girlish.

The boys strive for the more powerful man. The girls begin to contest the idea of men as superior. Most often the boys don’t know if men need to be gentlemanly. And the girls may begin to show what’s manly in them.

It’s a saga that diverts the attention from the very normal learning curve of the human growth.

One hears often parents say very proudly, at least in the context of Indian families, that they brought up the girls as well as the boys. That they gave the girls the same opportunities. Oh come on! That in itself is a statement loaded with sexual discrimination. A genuine parent would let the child be - girl or the boy. They may educate them about the prevalent discrimination, how to be conscious about them, how to address them. Can they sow the seed of the difference and make all the efforts to be just and fair? The seed of manliness is cultivated by the attitude itself.

Growing up against the benchmark of the conceptual manhood in itself is derogatory to the human individual. Building boundaries that destroy the natural instinct to grown and evolve individually.

Education is compromised. Behaviours are compromised. Disciplines are compromised. Personalities are compromised. The concept of manliness is such a curse on the humanity.

Eventually it may be too late for people to recognise how silly, stupid, even inhuman the strife for being the man is. More often it is too late to change the perspective in order to be just simple human beings. Yet the day one comes out of it, their path of self evolvement opens up. So what if it is too late in life?

It is not a social phenomenon in a less developed world. Even the most evolved societies may be fraught by the perceptual order of such a waste of human reserves.

Is it really such a challenge to recognise a being as an individual, irrespective of their sex? What if a boy is seen for what the boy is. And the girl for what she is. At least they would know they are an individual in a vast world. And they would be responsible only if they engage their energies in building the individual driven by their aspirations to be.

Perceiving the human, based on skills, talents, behaviours, outlook or responsiveness is not quite an uninspiring aspiration.

If we respect humanity as the supreme, how does manliness come in between?

Do we perceive humanity to be devoid of aspirations, imaginations, inspirations or ambitions? If it is humane to have aspirations, imaginations, inspirations or ambitions, how does being manly change its paradigm?

Unless humanly is considered too soft for the worldly challenges. Isn’t manliness a facet of the humanity? Do I conclude that manliness as a variance of humanity is not good enough to address the worldly challenges? If it is not, do we need bulls? Or wolves? Such a manly aspiration cannot get uglier.

Preparing to face such a horribly deranged world, developing one’s skills, honing up our talents to resolve the inhuman world around in itself breeds inhumanity. Who is that man who built such an image of the world? Who is that man who has distracted people from building simple human skills to resolve simple human issues?

Is it really a man’s doing? Or, the surreal image of men that has hounded men and women to be? Or is it a subconscious in the human mind to be the animal they grew out of?

If the women suffer because there is an overdose of manliness, its the men who kill themselves in being the man they are ought to be.

It is often hilarious to see the men suffering from the manly ideologue. At work. At social get togethers. On the plane or the train. In general, on the streets. The supremacy felt by them makes them appear part of a zoo that has drained the free will out of their real human selves.

It is not, however, as hilarious to see women display their concept of manliness. It is not hilarious because it is mostly a safety belt they wear assuming the malady of manliness being supreme.

Godliness is a weakness often because it attempts to build another kind of safety belt against fears or apprehensions. Is manliness any different?

Fears or apprehensions can be faced with skills, wisdom or cultivated talents. Walking around with the cloak, at least one of manliness is a laughing stock at best.

#MeToo, #WeToo, #WeTwo.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 18:04:00 +0000

#MeToo, #WeToo, #WeTwo.

As the #MeToo moment builds, one fears if it will have its way as a social movement. It is not because it is skewed. Not because it’s just urban. Not because it’s old. Not also because it is not legally tenable. The fear is if it will be able to cross over the barriers that will be built by people in position.

After all it is the people, rather men, in position who gave the intrusive misbehaviour with women a pattern, almost as a right to be.

When men and women come together to work, it makes the workplace encouraging, inspiring, and promising, at least at the entry levels. People become more conscious about how they dress, they present or cultivate a conversation. All that is vital in promoting skills, competence and aspirations.

Just then, however, women begin to feel being watched. The story takes a sudden disillusioned turn for them. They are made to be conscious about what they wear, not from the perspective of what will make them comfortable or make their personalities more noticeable. They are imposed to be cautious of what could attract a pinch, or an attention that has no space in the professional enhancement, or an image that will be cast against the various sexual benchmarks.

Why must a woman face that challenge? She takes to work because she wants to give her skills a professional direction, earn a position worthy of her competence. Just as men do. Why should she face challenges that is beyond professional expectations? Why should she be engaging her energies in thinking on ways to encounter the various men in various ways? Why should keeping her body safe, secure and guarded from intrusive indulgence become a daily engagement in her professional life? Isn’t this an extraordinary challenge imposed on her?

Should this culture continue undisturbed or unchallenged? These are questions that must get due response. And, it can’t happen in a Court of law. It simply cannot be put to a legal trial for redressal. It is a fight for the rights that women are justified in asking.

It does not matter if a few mighty names feel defamed. It should not concern if the allegations are not substantiated by facts or evidences. It should not disseminate the cause if a few are frivolous. It has been a continuing exploitation. Even if it was consensual at the time of its occurrence.

There are just two sides of the instances. Either a man and a woman came together beyond their professional obligations to be physically engaged, and felt cheated; or, the man designed an occasion to make her succumb. Both can be contested legally, and it is a choice of the individuals to choose the course.

The issue is deeper: the growing phenomenon of indulging men, specially those in a position to impact professional aspirations.

The context that has been brushed under the carpet is: She ‘never’ wanted. He wanted it ‘no matter how.’

That she never wanted it, and he wanted it no matter how, is a cult that has evolved since about the 1970s as workplaces broke the gender barriers. The men continued to cultivate the craft while the women were coerced to conceive better ideas to evade.

Having worked for long in the advertising, media and cinema industries, I stand by my conviction that men have been exploitative. Women have had a tough, humiliating and suffocating time navigating their professional aspirations.

More, this trend has set such an established mistrust and faith in men. Are men proud of that position? Do men enjoy anchoring women as ‘safer’ friends because that is one of the ways women can get away from the menace? Do men feel comfortable as they go through a series of tests before they can be accepted to meet? Do men not feel insulted if the woman opposite her is more absorbed in noticing where their eyes go, or how she sits?

It is a delightfully stimulating experience for a man and a woman, as colleagues, spend an hour or so in not so matter of fact a conversation. Go for a movie or a play or a walk together, despite their status as married or engaged. It is unreal to conceive that charms do not work between a man and a woman when they are professionally related. Man to a man, or a woman to a woman is another level of a conversation. The man -woman conversation is endowed with dimensions that encourage individual flair and charm.

Once when a lady client and I, as her service manager, would never agree professionally, my boss and hers secretly planned to send us both on a work assignment to Mumbai for a week. When we returned, we were both taking agreeable views on most issues.

Sharing a cab, having breakfast together in the hotel lobby, trying new restaurants for dinner, or taking a break for coffee together helped us both understand one another. Yes that was as good as dating but both knew that we did not attract one another. Yet we were both conscious of striking a rapport. We returned more agreeable professionally.

Such is the power of man and a woman working together, without indulgence. A relationship evolving out of this is a private issue. To believe that an engaging interaction between a man and a woman must conclude in some physical relationship is archaic and medieval. To impose the physical dimension is nothing less than a crime.

Of course it is a crime when a man intrudes into the private space of a woman despite her reservations. The crime, however, cannot be redressed in a Court of law.

Just as the freedom of nations from monarchy was not fought in Courts, the #MeToo campaign will lose its significance if it is given a legal direction. The battle must be fought by a compelling voice. A voice that will give freedom, respect and dignity for women as individuals.

There will be women who will hesitate to share. There will also be women who will use this as an opportunity. The momentum that the #MeToo is building must not lose its course. It will conclude only when men begin to accept them as individuals with their personal choices as their exclusive rights. It does not matter if this does not resurrect the larger cause of the prejudices faced by the women across the nation. As someone commented that the freedom movement in India began at the levels of the intellectual urban, inspiring others to acknowledge freedom as a human necessity.

The Government will quite naturally form committees or forums to address the issues. Lawyers will be willing to offer legal help. That is their job. Such a solution will dissipate the impact of the movement, not enable the change that is expected.

The movement requires a social direction only. Mobilise people. Make it engaging. Participative and voiced. The issue can be truly addressed if it finds solidarity from across professions, by men and women equally. As it stirs the women to be responsible for the future women, it must stir the men to think hard. Think what the men can do to establish trust and respect in women. How men can inspire themselves to see women as individuals. That women’s personalities are based on skills, competence and intellect, as variable as the men possess.

Of course it will take time for the dynamics to change as the mutual respect, trust and dignity never got established. Perceptions, judgements, fears, doubts, insecurities and mistrust have shadowed what could induce the romance between individuals of contrary genders. The dynamics ought to revolve around its potential to enhance professional skills, individual capacities, and, further trust, faith and respect between the individuals.

Can we expect #MeToo transform into #WeTwo?

Fight for Freedom between the Rights and the Might

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 09:31:00 +0000

Fight for Freedom between the Rights and the Might

The freedom of India was never limited to the Sovereign Republic governed by a Constitution that lends justice, rights, and equality to its people through a parliamentary democratic process.

To the contrary, August 15, 1947 led India from the might of the British to a fight for rights that brewed within; across generations and over centuries. Except for this time, the craving for rights and liberties was not in bits and pieces, across various segments and regions but got consolidated in the Union of India.

It might be naive to assume that the mass participation in the Freedom movement would have concluded on the very day of Independence. However, those who might have assumed that, might have also been naive to assume that the rights of Muslims would be honoured, when a large segment of people was considerably absolutely sure about the idea of a nation founded on the principles of its cultural civilization, rather than a mere succession from the British administration. They would, in fact, have been naiver to believe that any concept or idea of a new India will further the idea of liberation, as multiple groups of underprivileged people would want to be an equal stakeholder in the new demographics.

The people who formed the new India carried ageless grievances against exploitation, whether before a foreign invasion or after that. Was it, therefore, a wiser choice for the Indian leadership to harness upon the Hindu-Muslim divide in a way that the other multiple diversities do not seek liberation instantaneously? As the incidents of the past 70 years reflect in the sub-continent’s history, the yearning for liberation spread wider to several other communities beyond the Hindu-Muslim. Although leaders in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have continued to keep the challenges on the periphery of the Hindu and Muslim, the foundation for the partition of British India, they have messed up its simpler differences, bringing in some ugly and unworthy dimensions of grievances. However aggressively they may have pursued the cause, whether, in India or Pakistan, they could not subvert the seeking of equality by a Bengali Pakistan subdued by the Punjabi Pakistan. The Hindu Muslim narrative is so frivolous in comparison to the idea of liberation fostered by Gandhi, developing successively among the people of this region.

The Hindu-Muslim divide did not quite reflect the division at the leadership levels. At the leadership levels, they were more inclined towards peaceful coexistence with the view to expand the spirit of freedom or liberty across the various communities as propounded by Gandhi, their ideal. A significantly strong segment within were deliberate to see the dream of a consolidated nation based on its heritage, the way it existed before the foreign invasion using Hindu as its foundation. They were convinced that the social diversities would merge to identify with the Hindu philosophy. After all, if they could be inclusive in an Islamic, Moghul or the British rule, why would they resist the transformation of a more at home, Hindu heritage. That is when the Muslim would have questioned their faith in the ideas of India underlying the succession plans. They may have doubted the idealistic aspirations of Gandhi but feared more the threats of ideological Hinduism.

The democratic transition of India met with its first expression of wanting equality in the seeking of Pakistan. It was also an expression of the will enforced by Gandhi to place human liberation above all. Gandhi’s idea of independence could not have prospered in an environment of fear and apprehension. It is therefore realistic to accept the India - Pakistan as an eventuality when a substantially large segment within the nation dreamt passionately for the return of the Hindu civilisation, against a whole new demographic in the modern world.

The dream of a nation founded on the cultural affiliations of an old civilisation continues. However, the seeds that Gandhi had shown in seeking human liberation exists at the level of an individual, that is much deeper, and cultivates beyond identities with religion, culture or region. It asks for freedom from practices, from cults, from the ethos that had left a geography completely isolated from the rest of the world.

The cultural transformations will continue in India as the people have rightfully adapted ways that were more convenient, advanced or evolving among the Portuguese, Islam, the British, the Jews or the Persians. That is how even the Hindus evolving, embracing new ideas has never been alien to this land.

But the idea of Gandhi is stronger, more subtle and deeper. It has forced the people to realise how the liberation of people can transform their potential. People have witnessed how the leaders from India have been honoured by the worldwide communities, not based on who they are, or how they qualify to be recognised, but because they represent the world’s largest democracy, a sixth of people in the world.

As people continue to seek their stakes in the democracy, they are likely to emerge speculating if they are fully endowed with the privileges that the State guarantees. The barriers between the ruled and the ruler at the various micro levels exist deep and strong. They cannot stay in Gandhi’s India. It will be realistic to assume that the process is long and challenging. It is evolving as well in following the never-so-staid Gandhi. The emergence of Patels or the Savarns is simply just another seeking of rights, justice, and opportunities. That, however, will not be part of 2017 calender. 2018 will bring more. 2022 will inspire more. Yet another may emerge in 2050. Gandhi’s ideas will continue to imaginatively and suitably anchored well until 2200. We are after all amidst 1.3 billion people who have seen a light that left human needs of dignity, pride and respects unattended for over centuries.

Whether one likes it or not, wants it or not, loves it or not, lives it or not, an Indian cannot ignore facing the challenge, so well established now, to further the rights, justice, and liberties as a free citizen of India. The foreign rule was just a period of time in the history of this region. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Geeta or Kabir, Rahiman, Tulsidas contain elaborate inspiring actions that attempted to celebrate human values over discriminations.

Until the arrival of Gandhi, the freedom fighters in India struggled between philosophical ideologies of scholars or manifestations of rebellion by passionate revolutionists.

Gandhi, instead, engaged what he saw in the more evolved European culture, of negotiations, debates and persuasive arguments based on law and justice amidst the military fervour of the time.

One of the reasons why Gandhi caught the fancy of the Western world was that he put to practice what some perceived as a possibility; a way to negotiate politically without military intervention. It was equally fanciful to India. Seeking peace this way stood genetically as the most trusted faith among the Indian people. However, seeing peace accomplish victory over an authoritarian rule was inconceivable to most at a time when the military had become such a champion for political leadership worldwide.

Yet Gandhi had a plan based on a genuine and trusted experiment. In that plan, the will to seek rights and justice from those in a position to grant, transformed into an essential expression for the masses; and, that was not to stop with the Independence of India, perhaps begin from the day when the rights to be an Independent nation was granted.

Peaceful negotiations, peaceful protests, expression of a contrary view, with an intent to establish a dialogue became credible enough for the British to note and listen. No wonder then that a large number of Indians educated in Europe got inspired by using the more mature way of engaging the power of people in seeking justice. They began to trust the efficacy of a plan that demonstrated the power of resolute will over the powers of a Government.

The rebellion that was sporadic or nomadic, turned just, fair and equitable. It expanded across the nation engaging spirited participation. It was dramatic, romantic and surreal. Did that then stir fear among the traditional satraps, leaders or royals? Or did several other leaders found that foreign to their native skills and political crafts? Irrespective, they had no choice against Gandhi. Of course, they could alienate, or hope for another time when their own wisdom takes over. That too was right as these contrary views turned into foundations for democratic contests of ideas or ideologies.

At another level, Gandhi’s ideologies threatened the traditional hierarchies of community leaderships across the varied and diverse regions, as most were inadequately skilled to retain the power structures against a growing aware public. The traditional leaderships never reconciled to the idea of the man on the streets to seek more than their share of bread and butter.

Successively, as the awareness of equality and justice inspired a cross-section of people, the feudal Indian society began to cultivate insecurities. As the rationale for the rights of underprivileged became just, one could not deny that the privileged becoming insecure would also breed coming together to seek justice.

Whether the struggle for social justice converted successfully into political power in form of Karunanidhi, NT Rama Rao, Jyoti Basu, Lalu Prasad or Mayawati, the levels at which people seek social justice remains unexpressed yet. Reservations based on castes is just one among the several ways the political leadership will have to deal with the challenge that will evolve more and longer. Sheltering the insecurities of the privileged communities has just begun to be a potential new found human cause.

Of course, the more privileged will be threatened. And also, those who have become more privileged since. Nationalistic politics is never a long-term resolve against a society that is still to experience freedom and justice. It is neither Secular ideologies that can face the true challenge because secularity sees just one of the several layers of diversities. Nor is economic prosperity a way to address a Naga feeling insecure in Delhi or a Bihari being found unwanted in Maharashtra, just as a Tamil being out of place in Haryana.

Proverbial arguments, political ideologies of the Left, Right or Moderate and the legislation will perhaps require evolving more imaginatively. The highest ideals of social justice, not described or narrated by Gandhi, but gently stimulated among the masses of India will scale up against the changing times.

It will be unkind to consider Gandhi, a crusader for the underprivileged, as his foundation of equality of rights, human justice, and liberty never excluded the educated, the rich, the powerful or the old King. The churn may be more visible at the levels of a Dalit, farmers or people deprived of the basic necessities, the Indian inspired enough to enjoy the rights of a free citizen of a country committed to providing opportunities for growth, advancement and pride exists at every level. They may not be as forthcoming, willing to demonstrate or demand, but they will seek and would like to be addressed.

Those who fear the challenges may rather take a back seat than throw in quick-fix sprinklers to delay the urge. India needs smarter, agile and imaginative political leadership to carry forward the dreams of Gandhi, as they continue to come alive in ways beyond apprehensions.

Among Tanushree, Kanhaiya Kumar, CS Rao, Thackeray, Chirag Paswan, Hardik Patel, the Savarn, the Naxals, the Adani or the Ambani, there will be the silent or the more revolutionary. The unequal justice as a cause will prevail, perhaps prevail more as people begin to recognise the thought behind the Constitution of India. A favourable judgement or an Ordinance is a temporary healing, not a cure for the Gandhian belief at an individual level or for masses at large.

Legends are visionary. What they do is beyond a lifetime, rather beyond time. One may research Gandhi, invoke his ideals or quote his aspirations, the unwritten, unscripted ideas of Gandhi are shaping up, whether wanted or unwanted. Gandhi is an idea beyond time.

The Limelighted Shortsighted

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 11:59:00 +0000

The Limelighted Shortsighted.

I don’t know if you are proud, or, at least, satisfied by your achievements as you cross three forth of a majestic term. Or, if you find that you were shortsighted despite the limelight you were so privileged with.

May 2014 was not an ordinary month in the history of free India. It was an unprecedented moment when the entire nation showed solidarity with a mysterious name Modi. The Indian voter believed your words, expecting that even if half of your promises came through, India would take a giant step forward.

The foundation of the conviction was so strong as everything else appeared negligible in the face of Modi. Oh! What a golden opportunity was that for a PM!

An economy fairly well placed. The global markets back from the recessive moods. Oil prices crumbling its charts. A billion Indians enthusiastic. A huge battalion campaigning within and outside the nation to further mobilize support for a PM. Not shy of confronting or aggressively downsizing even a minor spurt of a criticism. Media, of all the communities, changing its tack with the view to present the glorious side, often hide pitfalls, and, further going out of its way to find the good side amidst scattered critical views.

No Prime Minister was ever publicly honored with such a favorable posturing.

As a matter of fact, the Indian voters, except for the BJP, or to a certain extent the Communists, have never been loyal to any party. They have been cruelly favorable to see through a stronger Government against circumstances. They brought down the Indira Government when the opposition looked sizeable enough to give an alternative. They did not show any emotion in bringing down Rajiv Gandhi once they realized his political novice could weaken the Government at the Centre. They stood behind Vajpayee when he looked strong. They also showed faith in Sonia when an experiment was made with Manmohan Singh. Equally, they were willing to accept a mysterious Modi despite several accusations as they felt that it was worth seeing a new alternative than standing by a Government in doubt.

How does it matter to a common Indian citizen what ideology the political parties follow? How does it matter to an electorate whether a caste, community or sect is given an edge of a privilege? How does it matter even that the candidate has criminal records against them? So long as they believe that the candidate has the will to deliver opportunities for education, health, public utilities and income.

So you were right in opting for “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas”. However, you did not deter from giving cues of inclinations that were opposite to your promise. If you were wise, you were also shortsighted in knowing that the electorate is wiser. If you were shrewd or crafty, you were also shortsighted in knowing that the electorate is just a little more endowed in being shrewd or crafty, literacy aside.

Your missions engaged strategies that had become ‘touch me not’ after Indira Gandhi proved that they were eventually devastating, and the Governments before you were scared to ever use them.

I am sure you knew that the whispers that often fear a strong Government, get more dangerous than the applauds you get because people want you to stay charged in the faith that you are a doer, and you will not hide. So, they want to push you to the farthest point of your potential. Surgically. So that they have squeezed the best meat out of you.

Building BJP as a party. Engaging media and the network of administrative chain to glorify you. Using emotional tools to keep the ‘this man has the capacity to do something’ perception ride over pitfalls. Coercing trusted opinion builders to essay out the ‘good work’. They took your priority over just sticking to seeing through the ready plans work more energetically, demonstrating, therefore, that a strong Government at the Centre can do much more than a Government founded in a coalition of varying purposes.

Come on, Mr PM. You were so evident and visible in telling what you wanted to keep in the hiding.

Why was it so compulsory for you to deny the religious, communal and cultural diversity in India? Did you not think to disrupt would draw out whatever nutritional values the soil retained for a yield. Did you seriously believe that consolidating a dogmatically inclined community would inspire a young evolving nation well connected with the modern world? You may blame Congress for appeasing. But they may be appeasing a range of diversities. Choosing one in multiple societies to surge above the rest is a fanciful appeasement. Did you not expect that would open up unmanageable corridors of disapproval.

So, why would you shy away from the core? And why did you ignore the opportunity in hand?

Were you scared that your weakness would tumble out of a facade that was working in your favor, if you chose the priorities of the nation above a willing to die battalion?

These are questions that are likely to become stronger by the 2019 elections. You may still win, but can you deny that you alone have weakened your position to win better.

You will be megalomaniacally inclined if you still believe that the crying farmers will be insensitive to the photograph of your reading the miles long letter of applaud sent by a farmer proud of you.

#modiforindia #indiaagainsthate #indiaprogressive #mannkibaat #aadhaar #swachhbharat

Rajputs Burn as Congress defies democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 08:22:00 +0000

I have no right to doubt or criticize Rahul Gandhi as the candidate of choice to head the Indian National Congress as it is a choice of the Congressmen.

I would reserve my rights to criticize him when he is in a position to drive the national policies.

As a citizen, I wonder though when the Rajput will burn without a genuine pride.

The freedom of India is not about going back to when India lost its freedom. In reality, there was no freedom before the various foreign invasion. The freedom to be the will of the people came in 1947. So the true freedom exists in shaping the way ahead for democracy. Not principally, or literally but really.

If the party that has been at the forefront of the majority of democratically elected governments in India, itself fears the right to elect its own leader, it is equally responsible for obstructing the path of the nation to evolve democratically.

As people, India may not get over the hangover of being ruled, or go beyond the wish to have a Master, or let the Monarchy stay as a history of the Rajput or other kingdoms. However, how will India change until it gets an opportunity to see democracy in practice at the leadership levels?

Congress must take that responsibility.

I do not expect the BJP to do so, as the BJP has failed to establish itself as a party that will represent the diverse interests of India. Not that the 'Rajput' in BJP has shied away. Oh! being in BJP even as just a member is taking the Lordship by the horn. Further, BJP is just a political representation of the RSS, whose goals are limited to imposing a Hindu India as a vengeance against Islamic Pakistan.

Congress may claim to govern better, or lead the socio-economic growth in India, or be expansive in its reach. At its core is just a political strategy. Not a democratic means.

One may argue why the BJP, the only other political party with a sizeable representation, as a democratic political party. Is it truly or really? The RSS signature, just as the Gandhi legacy helps the image fall apart. And the BJP is unlikely to change that as they too fear to lose the ground without the backbone of the RSS religion. Modi may have cried for India but he never willed to use the power of his mandate to reflect a change within the BJP. Instead, he was more willing to be the Lord of the party, the Government and the nation without upsetting its political foundation that is yet to rest at 11, Ashoka Road.

Is it harsh to assume that whereas the Congress limits its scope in the national interest, the BJP does the same by their compulsive addiction to Congress, RSS and Pakistan in the guise of national interest?

If people are left without genuinely democratic political choices, the war of ego between the Congress and the BJP will build further as political strategies, at the cost of national pride. And India will be denied its freedom.

Indira Ungandhi

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 09:10:00 +0000

Indira Gandhi is perhaps India’s most powerful and popular Prime Minister. Following the more diplomatic and visionary Nehru, and the honestly dedicated Shastri, Indira Gandhi relied on power of the seat. In doing so, she compromised much with the values of liberty or human freedom that Mahatma Gandhi stood for.

Was Indira, Gandhi enough?

It is not graceful to be critical of a Prime Minister on her anniversary. Yet it is not easy to forget the damages that the Prime Minister did to the process of democratic evolution in a country that was fighting hard to survive against the genetics of monarchy.

Her achievements are abound no doubt. Abolishing private banking, nationalising mining and liberating East Pakistan as Bangladesh were drastic decisions lending enormous power to the less privileged or the more deprived people. If it was not for the public sector enterprises the middle and lower income groups in India would not have seen wider opportunities for employment. The private industries neither had the resources, nor the capacity or the drive to establish large enterprise. They simply would not have invested as much. It is a genetic issue, very visible today when despite several emerging opportunities, the giants limited themselves to profiteering within India. At least the Government bankers reached out to include less accessible geographies in India so that more people would have access to capital and other banking services.

Bangladesh was a phenomenal success, as its people found a proud existence than being the poor cousin of West Pakistan.

However, with a will to execute predetermined goals, Indira Gandhi did not have the patience to let the law of the land prevail. Over a period of time she pushed ahead the Executive Bodies to compromise on the values and the framework of the Constitution of India.

The Constitution of India is perhaps more vital to the country it meticulously cuts across the challenges of multiple diversities. It challenges the civilisation weaknesses in a way that yield a place of pride for India amidst the evolving world. Provided of course if it is followed for the sake of national prosperity. It enables the people to evolve with a sense of discipline and integrity. It is uniquely endowed to help humanity evolve whether one is rich or not, educated or not, equal or not, and even loyal or not.

The election process of a Government itself is an example of how the country can emerge powerful against a history of turning weaker. It is not designed to mobilise the electorate in favour of a candidate, or even a party. Look at it closer, it is simply designed to elect the most competent or relevant representation at its micro levels upwards. One that ensures the continuity of the chair of governance more powerful than the person occupying it periodically. The difference between the Indian Constitution and others is that it obstructs the path of an individual turning popularly powerful. In fact it attempts to subvert every such possibility.

Whilst the Prime Mininsters of India before Indira Gandhi graced the chair with honour, Indira Gandhi began the process of guarding the one occupying it without a genuine need for it. The process gradually emerged to coerce the laws.

Once the law breaks at the top, can you stop it from destroying its fabric on the streets?

Despite several crimes, India was a country of noble people with strong faith and trust in its Governments. Not just law abiding but law fearing as well.

Crossing the boundaries of law got a booster of sorts, and its impact on the politics of India were immense. While she may have acted rudely to check the opposition gaining favours, she also permitted the opposition to turn more rude.

One wonders how long India will take to overcome the brutal disaffection towards the law of the land. One wonders how much more the test of good governance will lie in how ‘strong’ a Government is. One wonders if at all one will see citizens inspired by the power to be just, fair and graceful, and its Government enabling that further.

The successive fall of the Governments in India in the 80s

and 90s may be seen as the weaker period of a feee India. Yet the continuity of democratic governance justifies the strength of the India founded in 1947. In fact that period ought to be considered more successful against testing times. Weaker Governments elected constitutionally may not be as powerfully endowed to deliver. Yet they are more likely to yield a better nation over time. On the other hand, the examples laid by Indira Gandhi to deliver unconstitutionally will continue to haunt India being susceptible to autocratic rule of law for a long time. Every enormously powerful government in India will be tempted to attempt at making the Indira Gandhi rules of law better.

At the moment one can see such an attempt by the current Prime Minister Modi.

Credibility

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 10:32:00 +0000

CREDIBILITY

If you do not manage the cash flows, you are bound to err on honouring credits. If you have not honoured credit over six months, a year or more, it is time you relook if you are worth running a business.

If you believe that your creditors reflect trust when you stretch their credits, know well that they would dump you unhesitatingly when they can.

I recall an attitude reflected by a very large conglomerate. They believed in negotiating real hard as they believed just their name in the customer list of a business would expand the scope of the vendor. You may call it an attitude or find it exploitative crass.

Misusing credits tell about a business that is deprived of cash in hand. There is no limit to engaging the payables as capital for investing more in one's business or expanding its scope. There is also no limit to riding on cash owned by your vendors. Equally, there is no limit to stretch the fallacy of trust.

If the practice is common in an industry, it may just be justifiable to doubt the true strength of the industry and its competence. The stakeholders may not read beyond the revenues and profits. The owner themselves may overlook how definitely their business is playing havoc with their cash and their credibility.

Some companies stretch credits on an average of 3 to 6 to 12 months and beyond. Its telling effect is truly seen when the industry takes an adverse swing, or the economic mood is uncertain. It transforms into a snowball effect on the entire industry or even the economy.

Maintaining the just right cash reserves is an art that the accounting professionals ought to know. It may help during adverse business. It may enhance credibility. It may make a business feel proud of its worthiness.

The Dream to be Indira in India

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 11:10:00 +0000

The Dream to be Indira in India

Several political leaders in India would have lived a dream. The dream to be Indira Gandhi.

Indira Gandhi showed the power of being Supreme in India, using the Constitution to her advantage than being committed to it in its true sense.

Her own father Jawaharlal Nehru believed intensely in the rule of law and the Constitution as the final word in a democracy, and her predecessor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, a duty-bound Prime Minister, who perhaps knew to engage the systems towards a goal, rather than use the privilege of the seat to derive power.

Sure Indira Gandhi may have had her own dreams for India. Yet in managing her team of Ministers or the systems that she inherited, she pronounced her words as a Commandment of sorts. For her, the people around or the resources available were mostly for the purpose of directing them unquestionably. In return what she got was several 'yes men', even though she had a few among them well qualified as her best Counsels. She never, however, compromised on her authority.

She used the Constitution to cross over the boundaries of her position. Whether it was the media, the Judiciary, the Independently elected state Assemblies, she never considered it improper to impose her authority or intervene in their normal process. Leaders like her are always on the verge of converting a democracy into an autocracy. Particularly so in a country that may not be as disciplined, or its citizen law abiding. They create a need among 'some' to have a leader who is an autocrat than a champion of human freedom and liberty. When the sum of 'some' multiplies it suits both the leader and its constituencies.

However, the one reason why the Indian National Congress lost its values and stifle its able leaders is that Indira Gandhi helped that process of decline the most. She left competence questionable, authorities deprived of responsibilities and leaders turn into a moth.

Yet she is undoubtedly the most successful Prime Minister of India ever. Therefore the dream to be the Indira Gandhi is justifiable.

Narendra Modi may be absorbed in that dream. He may not, therefore, be able to see how it may impact the nation or its constituencies. At least so it appears.

Buying out opposition leaders, persuading institutions to adopt like-minded people, engaging the Council of Ministers in image making, influencing the system to second him.

I wonder if he is living the dream of being Indira. A dream of his own. Whether or not it is the Indian dream in reality.

India may have gone through such a change that millions do not flock to get a sight of their leader, but Mr Modi might want to see that happen.

Indians may have become more mature to see through the slogans and expect duty-bound deliveries from a Government, but Mr Modi wants slogans broadcast.

The Indian democracy may have become more broad-based with the Governments in the past, having learnt from intruding into the independence of its various functionaries, but Mr Modi wants one goal.

The Judiciary, the Media, the Executive may have all become more responsible individually in a more willing-to-listen administration, but Mr Modi wants more listeners.

Informal or formal social groups may have turned more vocal, but Mr Modi does not want voices.

The state broadcaster may have been turning into being a competitor with the private broadcasters, but Mr Modi wants them to air well.

Thankfully BJP is not a one-man party, so it has a better chance not to decline under Modi like the Congress did.

Think however about the Constitution, the Democracy and the Indian Executive Mr Modi will leave behind after it outlived the torture of a Supreme leader.

Bachchan - A Signature

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 09:58:00 +0000

Bacchhan - A Signature

There have been stars in India - not just in Bollywood, in politics and sports as well. Milkha Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Amritraj, Nehru, Indira among others.

Amitabh Bachchan is an unparallel legend. I do not think anyone, anywhere in the world has been ever such a legend as Amitabh is.

Being popular is one. Being the symbol of popularity is another.

Taking the transit bus at the Delhi airport to board a late night flight with my wife, we suddenly saw him rushing in. Lo and behold, he stood right next to my wife. From her expressions and behaviour, I knew that she had her dream come true. Those were not the days when one had a camera on phone. She was so spellbound that she did not take the opportunity to speak with him. So I shared with him, how, like most people, she was simply enamoured by him, and that as he stood by her, she would cherish the moments all her life. As a gentleman, he said he was fortunate and honoured. He scribbled his signature on the Boarding Card for her and smiled.

As a gentleman, he made the way for her when the bus halted by the aircraft.

The next time I met him was as a guest at a special show of KBC in a Mumbai studio.

You are struck by his dignified presence. Graceful, polite and wears so elegantly.

For a person who did not possess the looks or the personality of the typical Bollywood star material, he used his voice and delivered expressions most compellingly attractive.

His roles were cast almost in the image that one fancied him being. Call that the Angry Young Man, or whatever, but the scriptwriters followed a unique, definitive fancy of his character when they wrote.

Yet the man saw his worst period. Almost rejected by the industry, his face showed beleaguered nerves, and his eyes cast a defeated scar.

That is when the legend in him rose I think. When he fought the various allegations politically and as an entrepreneur and reemerged as an actor, the skill that he mastered like his pet.

Roles after roles, you know it is Amitabh when one sees him in his late age characters. The way he lends an aura to the character defined.

Remarkably disciplined as the industry will acclaim him for. Arriving on time, rehearsing in quick time and delivering without the least retakes. That's exceptional cost efficiency for a director or producer.

Boy, hasn't he arrived his 75th with aplomb? Challenges of health, an unsuccessful career of the son he loved most, gossips, accusations and other odds just did not pervade upon his will to excel.

For anyone who is in search of excellence, Amitabh can be a real-life example!

The Price of Development

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 08:17:00 +0000

The Price of Development

When there was no democracy there was wisdom.

Strange. Isn't it?

Do review. I urge, to see the truth.

There was a time when the noble did not have to be rich. They had to be wise and intelligent. They were in a better and stronger position to decide for the society as a whole and impact their communities better. The process fell I guess when they did not pay as much attention to the have-nots. That, however, is just one argument.

In a democracy, one found the opportunity to give the have-nots the power to decide. It worked fine only so long as the educational have-nots got the grip on power.

However, as the democratic establishment expanded to be more inclusive and bring in people with or without education in the decision-making process, it appears to have presented an unforeseeable dimension.

What do you do when the goals have been limited to make ends meet? What do you do when the aspirations for an age beyond just the means to live, or live better take over the greater human pursuits? What do you do when the wisdom to prevail over the needs and explore knowledge to transcend the basic curve of life loses priority?

That's when the intelligent, the wise or the knowledgeable turn minorities. Minorities who may simply argue, debate or make a point of view. Yet fail to impact the decision making. Further, they will not find a share of quotas as they will be branded critics of policies and crying loud.

It is a challenge that not just the emerging nations like India face, but the more advanced nations - the UK, the USA and the Europe are unable to manage.

The voice of the majority people in a more established democracy narrows down to the lower end of the constituency, thereby, giving power to those who are faced with the basic challenges of lives, than carry forward the greater human aspirations inspired by the more evolved generations of the 18th or 19th centuries.

Consider a few harsh possibilities. As the educated, the wise or the more evolved people lose their significance in the more inclusive society, will the exchequers find it more reasonable to stop at the basics of human lives?

I must concede that more advanced or evolved soap is just a basic need. So is the laptop, mobiles or the gadgets at home. They are driven by the aspiration of consumption. Will the R&D, education or technologies orient themselves to meet better consumption? Will the Universities find more vacancies in the philosophies, literature, humanities, social sciences, scholarships? It is laughable when the mission to the moon or Mars are being imagined as a way to make a fancy trip or making a township. Such an advancement may turn more mammoth by the big size commerce giants meeting the larger common needs. In its process eliminating perhaps the possibilities of more evolved boutiques or the signature brands.

And the entire fraternity of poets, writers or thinkers will remain happy so long as they get their share of the audience - good, bad or woeful?

Already you can hear the whispers about the quality of news or the quality of entertainment.

Wonder then if democracy is a cruel form of communism.

Am I serious?

Modi Beyond 2019 - Published December 8, 2017 LinkedIN

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 13:16:00 +0000

What is wrong with PM Modi?

Nothing I dare say, even as his critic.

He is doing everything that is politically right and possibly justified.

Mr Modi’s demonetization move tells much more than one may have ever guessed or learnt about him.

Let us begin with the fundamentals of Modi: he is a highly ambitious, aggressive and risk-taking leader. And, he makes better from the opportunities he gets.

In just one move he has given a thrust to his goal to take forward his PM tenure beyond 2019. Power is addictive. But it is only those with a genuine appetite to swallow the addictive pill who can make it work for the better.

Modi has given Indian politics a new edge, to cut across the barriers of class, castes or religion. He has in one stroke attempted to consolidate his appeal among a hugely potent electorate by nudging their deep-seated emotions.

No, it is not the poor or the deprived. It is perhaps what I would like to call the Mr Righteous, in order not to sound sexist, let us call them The Righteous.

The Righteous exist in every society, more so in age old civilisations that have been bred upon and cast against high morals or ideals. In India, it exists in a wide range of masses amidst its billion people.

Those who have held vengeance against the ‘unjust’ owners of wealth and prosperity. Those who suffer from being the less fortunate. Some who could not succeed being lazy. Some who enjoy and rejoice painting the grey-white.

The Righteous chain is not necessarily the prerogative of the one deprived or challenged. The Righteous could well be a fairly well to do, except that they have deep-seated ambition amidst wide-ranging opportunities that they cannot touch. The Righteous will also be the one who knows deeply that the Heavens will come one day, the Ram Rajya. You may call The Righteous the proverbial fool as well if you wish. However, as they do not yield to a definite character, they cannot be measured on a scale.

One of them is the auto rickshaw driver who may not know the why and the how, but he believes fairly firmly that rich and wealthy are cruel people who for generations have shelved the vast resources, a part of which could be theirs. Another, the delivery boy in a restaurant chain who is mesmerised by the gloss of the living room when they knock upon the doors to deliver the cargo. Another, the executive who cannot see their daily worksheet as their mind is ticking in becoming Bill Gates one day sooner. The community may also include the milkman who adds chemicals in the fresh milk but justifies that they would not do so if they were to get a fairer share of profits whenever their conscience bites them. And, it also includes that big wealthy guy who does not yet have the best mansion in town.

They may be a Yadav, a Jat, a Rajput, Brahmin or the Bania. And they will be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or a Parsi.

I know I am failing to define them more precisely, but there is such a broad and complex range of shades to their persona or the degree of vengeance in them against the powerful or the wealthy and plentiful. As much as the shopkeeper who barely survives to meet their ends, in their eyes is a person loaded with wealth and plenty. Merely because they have a shop, even if rented.

Trump could see that in an enormously rich America. If Modi saw that in India is no big deal, you may say. But, let us accept that Mr Modi saw that to his or his party’s advantage, or he could make that corridor open for him. Mind you; he has just nudged the corridor. He still has several options to build upon that.

Obviously it is a whole new political benchmark Mr Modi has set for the leaders within and outside the BJP. Mr Modi's ppt must be well drawn to rationalise as the new age political formulae. How this new corridor could help access electorates over a longer term as its first mover. Therefore he may well be using the ppt to lure leaders from across parties. It must be an arithmetic that the political sense will see it more sharply.

The Dalits, the Scheduled Castes, the poor, the aam aadmi is passé. Except for Aam Aadmi, which is limited by its tilt towards the Hindu land, Mr Modi’s constituency of The Righteous offers the touch and feel across the North South barrier, and covers the North East, Kashmir, the Bimaru States and perhaps every single community segment dissected by the politicians so far in India.

It also breaks the divide between the haves and have-nots, as it is an emotional, sensitive and a very personal appeal. Why not I? Why only they? I now have an opportunity. I can look into their eyes and dare.

Remember, Lalu used that most brazenly to reduce the middle class to a disabled minority in Bihar. As Lalu made the literate, the educated, the better off or the rich seek shelter across a range of other parties.

If middle-class adults are just 14% of all adults in India, the social media opinions can at best be the inconsequential minority voices. And, the Upper-class adults have the entire range of abilities to fit in with the current political trend, with a few having the more powerful potential to support a favourable political direction. Take a sizeable The Righteous from the Middle and Upper-Income Indians, and, convert more The Righteous from the lower Income Indians. That is a huge number sympathising with one another.

It is no rocket science that it is Modi who knocked at the open doors, while others ignored, or may not have seen. And he is doing so as The Righteous himself. Someone who fought so hard. And is fighting still against the more powerful who are leaving no stone unturned to make him bite the dust once again. Indira’s grouse was very different. She was fighting the battle against the foreign hand. Modi’s enemies are within and more dangerous.

At the same time, Modi is not throwing in a magical never before scarf. BJP has proliferated upon the disgruntled Indian community, ever since the days of Independence or perhaps even before. The grousing Indian who could not be at the right place at the right time. And the BJP has mobilised that community more, using the sentiments, emotions and sensitivities. So the bond is stronger and has a potentially longer life. Modi has now redefined its parameter by crossing the boundaries from the better off to the more deprived. He has repositioned the opposition, to quote the advertising term.

He will lose some among the traditional BJP base, but he will win many more numbers in this game. So, it is a pay off all the way.

If the phenomenon of driving The Righteous aggressively has ensured at least two terms for a debutant at a state level, there is no reason to doubt its efficacy on the national scale.

Conceptually it is social justice: reaching out the advantages of democracy to those who may not know what democracy is. So, he is not wrong. Is he?

Move over Lalu, Mulayam, Mamta and Kejri. Modi is here to stay.

Recounting Modi.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 10:35:00 +0000

In 2014, I thought India took a huge step forward. They denied every idea for the sake of having a singularly powerful mandate.

Very reasonable and mature I thought as Indians set aside their other choices to favour the need of the hour. Surgical decision. Let us forget our differences and get what may help a Government work for us better.

Mr Modi gave very strong reasons: Sabka Saath. Sabka Vikaas. Minimum Government. Maximum Governance. Two Clear Objectives. Growth and Development.

In many words, Modi emphasised that if we make BJP powerful, he would compromise upon the popularity missions of their party so that Indians get convinced that the BJP offers competent abilities in leading India.

I believe that a leader recognises the opportunity more than the popularity laced in it. Opportunities well-taken returns many times more glory, I think.

Oh, what an opportunity Modi got?

Wasn’t that a Cinderella dream come true?

After decades a single party formed the Government with a substantial majority. A PM with three-term of leading a state Government successfully. A strong PM candidate. Ambitious. Powerful and willing to take the next step with greater zeal and elan.

What chained Modi to sacrifice the opportunity for India and work towards building trust and faith among the ever loyal segment of the BJP vote bank. I mean 'their' Hindu votes is always with them? The minor Hindu segment with an idea or a notion of their own will never surrender BJP as they cannot reconcile to another. Further, the 29% formulae at best stretches to 31%. Did Modi stoop to a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush? But that's ownership, not inspiring leadership. Its foundation lies in building loyalists, favourites, die hard, herd like concretes. Uninspiring for an evolving people.

Worse, the formula disowns the majority as they want to have a choice, as they wish to consider, or because they want to evaluate.

On the other hand, I would have felt that Modi would have seen the golden opportunity to prove to the vast majority of India that the BJP is a stronger candidate to lead India because it can. Almost as it has reflected at the state levels, based on able governance. 

Do I get a sense that Modi slipped when the time walked through your doors? 

Then on November 8 he emerged to show that he could use the power in him to take a big decision. For the first time since 2014. I say first time as on most other occasions the focus was driven towards the opposition obstructing Modi brilliant ideas to take shape. 

Modi continued rapidly in less than a month to exhibit how the golden move was never secure in its start. The one opportunity that could reflect upon a Modi like giant decision making, he came by poor in decision making, planning and execution. Worse he shook the trust in him. Is he capable in taking able decisions upon the situations that the nation is posed against? when he could not direct his own craft.

Mr Prime Minister. More than what you did, what you said thereafter shakes my confidence in you as a citizen. When you said that having sacrificed his family he had nothing to lose in walking away. Isn't India part of your family? Isn't taking responsibility of one's family along side not as much pride? 

Giving time to work over family commitments is a human reality. The parking boy leaves their home early morning, many miles away from the city for their daily duty and returns late. The soldier on the border leaves their family upon the call of duty. The son goes away to another town upon transfer of duties. It really is no big deal when you abandon your mother and wife to work for India. 

I dig more. What was the contextual relationship of that statement with demonetisation? Why did Modi sound as if he was compelled? I thought the opportunity to address the people was to convince them how he thought his grand plan would work for them?

And then he cried his life was under threat. What was its context when the issue was just demonetisation? 

Even Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi did not cry that their lives were under threat, when they were really shot dead. Such rare incidents also do not prove that the Indian security system is incompetent. In one struck Modi shook my confidence and faith in the Police, the IB, the para military forces. Mafias will exist. Isn't the state machinery powerful?

Mr Modi is India's PM whether one likes his party or not. His stakes are in the nation. In its people. Why should he weaken my trust and faith in him? Why should he set a doubt that he would leave me high and dry if that comes to? An able head of family never says that they would run away as they had nothing to lose. And I thought the term that he crafted for Kejri ji 'bhagoda' signified incompetence!

As I see India losing its golden opportunity of 2014, I am back in hope and prayers that the brighter side of his leadership makes good the possibilities that still exist to make the lifetime moment of 2014 work for India, even though the first 15 overs were forsaken.

Cashless Me.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 07:30:00 +0000

Mr Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, would like me to believe that I should feel rich without a penny because living that for some time will help the nation fight a battle against a malpractice. Living that for a few days will help the next generation Indians evolve as a more respectable world community.

Before you jump the gun, I am not a Leftist. I am also not one of those middle-class people who holds a grouse against people reeking with money. I am not too a citizen who wants to either campaign for or against a political ideology.

I wish to simply share as a citizen of India the way I have seen, lived and understood it.

In my small hometown that is now a district, cash is the only way you pay or earn. They, until six months ago, when I last visited, did not trust a cheque as it might bounce and the pain of its recovery is an avoidable add-on burden in an already neck to neck daily fight for survival of the most.

In fact, I have a long list of bounced cheques in my own professional career that I could not take to the Courts so long as the payee was a valuable client, or because I succumbed to the emotional side of their story or a strong recommendation by a third party made me postpone the legal process. Such cases are also used as a way for extra profits by several business owners - big, small or medium. So a cheque in India is trusted once it gets credited to your account, that is, the cheque converts into cash.

An online transaction is never an across the counter solution. Credit card machines are not pocket-friendly either.

Credit? I do not think any organisation honours that as a matter of norms.

So think about the largest commercial regime in India. Locally called the galla, better understood as the wholesale and large retail trade market.

The galla centres would be typically located in the Metros supporting several million smaller traders regionally. Normally, the smaller trader makes a periodic visit to the most competitive galla where they purchase in bulk based on the current trends, market needs and prices. As a result, they do not patronise an individual vendor. You may ask how the buyer carries so much cash. Well, there is an existing cash supply chain for a fee who deliver cash at the desired destinations. And most such traders patronise the cash exchange of their choice. They will be challenged by regulations. However, business needs feed innovations. So it is uncertain if cashless will replace only cash or only cash will keep finding its space despite cashless trending.

Transactional cash is not replaceable. Cashless may exist, minimally, partially or substantially but not wholly anywhere in the world. Bargain is an age-old practice. And, cash on the table buys the best bargain.

You cannot dilute the value of best bargains against hard cash in New York or London even today. Pay a cabbie cash in Manhattan, you may get a discount!

Those who are spreading an information that the more evolved economies are cashless, I dare make you hear you are rumour mongering. Go and see how Chinese buy condominiums in Manhattan.

Cash in itself cannot be a sin. Nor dealing in cash a malpractice. It is not honouring credit that is a crime.

Manipulating cash or currency is a crime. And the law must act against manipulation of cash or the currency. Despite the fact that no law can abolish manipulation, cheating, crimes or the wrongdoing, creditworthiness is a culture that can help economics, commerce, industry and trade evolve better.

Societies across ages, over time and across territories will have the wrongdoers. Now and perhaps forever. Some may have less, some more and will be some genetically so. Yet it is a society that respects and honours words and credit for dues will take the next generation ahead.

As I see today, there are a dozen currency peddlers on the streets willing to give you the valid currency notes for a price against those that have been abandoned. There are a number of people willing to stand in the queues for a price, to deposit or withdraw. There are a few people offering to take Self cheques against cash for a price. I do not know but that just may make a collusion with the bankers a quick buck making machine.

If I see this every day over the past week near my home or in the neighbourhood of my office, I do not believe that there is a law in place that will wipe out black marketing of currency notes in India. As India is several, several times bigger than my individual territory.

I do not wish to take an economist's viewpoint as I am not. If it has the fiscal sense that will help India economically, I will not contest, as a Government policy that the experts vet must be accepted and encouraged as an honest citizen.

If you tell me however that it will change the way cash is used in India or curb malpractices, I will contest that. If cash exists, it is the most potent currency for the best bargain. If trade and commerce exist, malpractices at best can be contained by intelligent or strategic decisions.

More, if I see Indians using their personal help taking the pains to transact cash at banks for their masters, I do not think India has matured to be a respectable world community.

I would now like to see how cash is used and how potent the INR is when the economic life in India gets back to normal.

Modi Beyond 2019.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 07:11:00 +0000

What is wrong with PM Modi?

Nothing I dare say, even as his critic.

He is doing everything that is politically right and possibly justified.

Mr Modi’s demonetization move tells much more than one may have ever guessed or learnt about him.

Let us begin with the fundamentals of Modi: he is a highly ambitious, aggressive and risk-taking leader. And, he makes better from the opportunities he gets.

In just one move he has given a thrust to his goal to take forward his PM tenure beyond 2019. Power is addictive. But it is only those with a genuine appetite to swallow the addictive pill who can make it work for the better.

Modi has given Indian politics a new edge, to cut across the barriers of class, castes or religion. He has in one stroke attempted to consolidate his appeal among a hugely potent electorate by nudging their deep-seated emotions.

No, it is not the poor or the deprived. It is perhaps what I would like to call the Mr Righteous, in order not to sound sexist, let us call them The Righteous.

The Righteous exist in every society, more so in age old civilisations that have been bred upon and cast against high morals or ideals. In India, it exists in a wide range of masses amidst its billion people.

Those who have held vengeance against the ‘unjust’ owners of wealth and prosperity. Those who suffer from being the less fortunate. Some who could not succeed being lazy. Some who enjoy and rejoice painting the grey white.

The Righteous chain is not necessarily the prerogative of the one deprived or challenged. The Righteous could well be a fairly well to do, except that they have deep-seated ambition amidst wide-ranging opportunities that they cannot touch. The Righteous will also be the one who knows deeply that the Heavens will come one day, the Ram Rajya. You may call The Righteous the proverbial fool as well if you wish. However, as they do not yield to a definite character, they cannot be measured on a scale.

One of them is the auto rickshaw driver who may not know the why and the how, but he believes fairly firmly that rich and wealthy are cruel people who for generations have shelved the vast resources, a part of which could be theirs. Another, the delivery boy in a restaurant chain who is mesmerised by the gloss of the living room when they knock upon the doors to deliver the cargo. Another, the executive who cannot see their daily worksheet as their mind is ticking in becoming Bill Gates one day sooner. The community may also include the milkman who adds chemicals in the fresh milk but justifies that they would not do so if they were to get a fairer share of profits whenever their conscience bites them. And, it also includes that big wealthy guy who does not yet have the best mansion in town.

They may be a Yadav, a Jat, a Rajput, Brahmin or the Bania. And they will be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or a Parsi.

I know I am failing to define them more precisely, but there is such a broad and complex range of shades to their persona or the degree of vengeance in them against the powerful or the wealthy and plentiful. As much as the shopkeeper who barely survives to meet their ends, in their eyes is a person loaded with wealth and plenty. Merely because they have a shop, even if rented.

Trump could see that in an enormously rich America. If Modi saw that in India is no big deal, you may say. But, let us accept that Mr Modi saw that to his or his party’s advantage, or he could make that corridor open for him. Mind you; he has just nudged the corridor. He still has several options to build upon that.

Obviously it is a whole new political benchmark Mr Modi has set for the leaders within and outside the BJP. Mr Modi's ppt must be well drawn to rationalise as the new age political formulae. How this new corridor could help access electorates over a longer term as its first mover. Therefore he may well be using the ppt to lure leaders from across parties. It must be an arithmetic that the political sense will see it more sharply.

The Dalits, the Scheduled Castes, the poor, the aam aadmi is passé. Except for Aam Aadmi, which is limited by its tilt towards the Hindu land, Mr Modi’s constituency of The Righteous offers the touch and feel across the North South barrier, and covers the North East, Kashmir, the Bimaru States and perhaps every single community segment dissected by the politicians so far in India.

It also breaks the divide between the haves and have-nots, as it is an emotional, sensitive and a very personal appeal. Why not I? Why only they? I now have an opportunity. I can look into their eyes and dare.

Remember, Lalu used that most brazenly to reduce the middle class to a disabled minority in Bihar. As Lalu made the literate, the educated, the better off or the rich seek shelter across a range of other parties.

If middle-class adults are just 14% of all adults in India, the social media opinions can at best be the inconsequential minority voices. And, the Upper-class adults have the entire range of abilities to fit in with the current political trend, with a few having the more powerful potential to support a favourable political direction. Take a sizeable The Righteous from the Middle and Upper-Income Indians, and, convert more The Righteous from the lower Income Indians. That is a huge number sympathising with one another.

It is no rocket science that it is Modi who knocked at the open doors, while others ignored, or may not have seen. And he is doing so as The Righteous himself. Someone who fought so hard. And is fighting still against the more powerful who are leaving no stone unturned to make him bite the dust once again. Indira’s grouse was very different. She was fighting the battle against the foreign hand. Modi’s enemies are within and more dangerous.

At the same time, Modi is not throwing in a magical never before scarf. BJP has proliferated upon the disgruntled Indian community, ever since the days of Independence or perhaps even before. The grousing Indian who could not be at the right place at the right time. And the BJP has mobilised that community more, using the sentiments, emotions and sensitivities. So the bond is stronger and has a potentially longer life. Modi has now redefined its parameter by crossing the boundaries from the better off to the more deprived. He has repositioned the opposition, to quote the advertising term.

He will lose some among the traditional BJP base, but he will win many more numbers in this game. So, it is a pay off all the way.

If the phenomenon of driving The Righteous aggressively has ensured at least two terms for a debutant at a state level, there is no reason to doubt its efficacy on the national scale.

Conceptually it is social justice: reaching out the advantages of democracy to those who may not know what democracy is. So, he is not wrong. Is he?

Move over Lalu, Mulayam, Mamta and Kejri. Modi is here to stay.

The Rajah Beta as he left the 2BHK abode!

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 08:59:00 +0000

The Rajah Beta (the princely son) as he left the 2BHK abode!

Even if his dad earned just enough to manage the family well, he was brought up as the princely son. A princely son whose ancestors owned massive villas with several housekeepers, orchards and farms. Whose grand father was one of the best known lawyer, respected and honored by honorable men as his family lived always a better legacy in the past.

His little sister was the princess of home, adored and admired for her sharp skills.

He was taught to live up to the name. He was taught that once well qualified he could bring back honours much more than his father could. His father could not provide the royal legacy for reasons none other than the woefully changing times. Times that had destroyed the glorious past and compromised for declining values in ethics, education and respect for the more honourable communities.

Yet he was told that he was fortunate to be in a time that would get better for so many reasons unknown.

That God was definitely almighty and His reverence changes destinies despite challenges. That all he needed to do was to work hard for best results in his examinations. Be conscious not to waste much time and energy in games, hobbies or as friends. That there were wild youth on the streets and he should be conscious of the quality of friends he chose. That he should be honest, fight for the truth and live for higher ideals.

He accepted, questioned and often rebelled. The love and affection of the family mellowed his stronger will to let go the comfort zone. Choicest food, good clothes and some torture of not allowing the fanciful as that could influence his princely traits to go beyond his means.

As he came out of the door, his mind hammered volcanoes of advices, prophetic words, cautions and a few very rigid 'Nevers'.

He would test them, risk them and break them in freedom. Yet the academic formulae of getting the best scores he dared not challenge. Just one more qualification will break the barrage of challenges. Just one, and he would be the man of princes.

He rode over the ridicules, the ovations, the various looks and a few slangs.

It was just a matter of a few months.

Family celebrated his success and campus recruitment into one of the most successful companies. He had arrived indeed!

But where were the daily dose of adulation, celebration, glories and fame? Where was the coronation of the Prince?

At work he does what his boss thinks fit. So how does education fit in here?

Ah, he knows the catch. Better position, better car, better lifestyle, more money. Until he encounters the Guru who says what for? Be happy and content and let go.

Now the Rajah Beta knows so well what Americans are all about. Where the British, the French and the Germans went wrong. How Japan is successful because it prides in their language and cultures.
Why India despite having the best resources in the world is unable to be part of an evolving world. He knows exactly where the political parties in India went wrong. And he perhaps also knows how the ancient Indian civilisation had once all the knowledge that the world craves for.

He watches now his Rajah Beta take his plunge into the ideas, ideals and idioms of a 5000 year old civilisation Version 3100.

#child #education #growing up #world #home #family

Emergency. In Teenage.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 12:28:00 +0000

Emergency. In Teenage.

The year of 1974 is unforgettable for most in India. A lot happened that year leading upto the Total Revolution, or Sampoorna Kranti.

As a teen in a remote town Dhanbad, I remember several changes that occured within just a year.

A few very aggressive policies by Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister then, had shifted the economic power from the top industrialists to a range of public sector organisations. That had rather swiftly changed the demographics of India. Liberating Bangladesh by winning a direct war with Pakistan shifted Hindu loyalties to Indira Gandhi. The Jan Sangh leader and the most prominent opposition leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee described Indira Gandhi as the modern day Durga.

The common public saw the change. The banks were located in your vicinity, being Government managed, their goal was to reach more people than build profits. Among the many industries, steel and mines were now managed by Government institutions. As Dhanbad was a hub of the coal, steel and other mining activities, we felt the pulse more.

Family owned mining gave in to more organisationally managed industries led by officers (a term that reflects better the educated, more discerning professionals). That drove people from across the nation to Dhanbad to take managerial positions. The labour were jubilant as they were now looked after as citizen with rights to housing and health than being limited to just wages. More housing and better townships were developed to accomodate people. As a result, hospitals, marketplace, eateries and other avenues got better.

Yet the Rangdari tax net continued, or perhaps got more lucrative with a sizeable increase in the paying capacities of people. For the unaquainted, Rangdari tax was a token that you paid the local mafia for your protection. The bloke who did not make much money was not in the net as the local mafia found them unworthy. The doctors who practised privately despite being on Government's payroll attracted the mafia, as it was illegal. The Income tax officers paid the Rangdari tax as they would make pots of black money stacked up in their homes that required security. The shop keepers paid as they were considered to be tax offenders. The officers who were extraordinarily rich paid.

As the economic system changed rather rapidly, Rangdari tax evolved out of its undercover to become more visible. Yet a disquiet prevailed. The disquiet was more among those who considered it a privilege to be honest earners and work more towards professional accomplishment than bend for the temptations of cash for work or its other various kinds.

The Rangdari tax mafia for its own ends would also use means to tempt more people. It was a battle of minds, wills and wits for most.

There was another temptation of a kind: the Indian middle class temptation, as I call it, to spend less. As the economy of India grew, so did the prices of essential commodities. Quite honestly I would not say they were unbearable, but they impinged upon the money budgeted for savings.

Jayaprakash Narayan, better known as JP, a socialist leader was on the rise, engaging the less privileged youth to seek the streets so that they got a better pie of a growing economy. Many of the officers community were not appreciative as they believed that the less privileged must take the route of merit, no matter how long it took them to earn it. But a whole new people that were part of the more organised industry sectors at the lower levels saw in it a faster opportunity to move into the officers class.

The natural feudal structure of India transferred a very natural right to the officers class: they were meant to be looked upon, heard and guided. To an extent I remember, very distinctly, that the less privileged people would ask the closest officer they knew whom they should vote for the nation's prosperity. And the officers were divided between the Congress, based on a perception that it was more worldly, and the Jan Sangh (now BJP), as the more culturally Hindu. So the less privileged tossed between the two based on the choice of officers they knew.

JP brought together the youth wanting to be officers through the movement Sampoorna Kranti, or the Total Revolution. Strikes, Rail Roko (stop the train) and several other such public outcry on the roads brought the public support systems to a halt. Every time the Government used the Police force to check the chaos, stories would run across papers highlighting the injured or the wounded.

JP also managed to introduce the Janata Khana (poor man's food packet) avaialable for Re 1 across train or Bus stations. And stationery in form of Janata notebooks that costed a fourth of the regular.
I don't know how the economics of such damn cheap offerings worked. The people wanting to stretch the savings budget, however, saw the possibility of commodities sell cheaper, and, therefore doubted the current system for profiteering.

Although JP was an uncle of mine, Phuphaji, he was a very quiet family man. I had met or visited him, therefore, I felt proud that he was a new generation's Hero. Indians began to see the new age Mahatma in him. And politicians of all order, shapes and sizes became his new found soldiers. George Fernandes, Ram Vilas Paswan, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Chandrasekhar took the centrestage. As a student from the officer class family, boys and girls like us would be guarded against the emerging revolution. We were however deeply influenced that a lot can change for the better with a new practice.

Jan Sangh saw an opportunity to boost up their popularity and joined the movement forsaking their core Hindutva goals. That was a big support as the well organised ground level workers of the RSS could make the movement stronger. Jan Sangh to be a socialist was a big surprise, and, suppoorted the argument that the crisis in India caused by industrialised economy was dangerously favourable towards the rich and the officers. A reason why even a rather fundamentalist party such as the Jan Sangh was willing to support socialism for the sake of saving the nation.

The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, could not do any more than appeal and act against the agitation that had changed the expectations of an entire generation of Indians.

As a teenager we read much and heard more on the radio. We did not, however, see much in our daily lives, except for the unusually higher number of school holidays on account of calls to halt the system.

Everyone knew that Indira Gandhi will get tougher than take another course. After all it was not a call to introduce a Bill or an amendment, or even wanting a legislation. It was as simple a call as Indira Gandhi and her ways of governance must end.

June 25, 1975.

Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency. We heard that the media was censored. The Executive was asked to make things work more efficiently. Officers and workers were expected to attend their work more strictly. The top leaders put under house arrest while the Intelligence Bureau chased the miscreants or the possible miscreants.

All I remember is that the trains ran on time, and the stations were a lot cleaner.

Stories of how Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son, had turned into a dictator of sorts continued to build. One heard of how he introduced compulsory sterilisation to check the excessive growth in the population. The story that became a nightmare was that despite Islam condemning sterilisation, Muslim neighbourhoods were driven to the sterilisation camps. Scandals of Maruti, Haryana Tourism among several others helped plots take shape in the movies and in the media. Not much of that hit the streets until the elections that helped Janta Party come to power in 1977.

As I look back, the year 1974 gave a stronger reason for India to accomodate the less privileged more lest the trouble shoots again. And the politics of India turned more regional.

#Emergency #IndiraGandhi #JPMovement #India #Socialism

Staying Alive. Online.

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Fri, 06 May 2016 13:26:00 +0000

Being online is not a pleasure. Nor is it fun, frolic or trivial. It is necessary, beneficial, and, it is real.

Back in the 70s or the 80s, and even the 90s for many, learning, knowing was such a yearning. More so if you were keen to reach out to people who knew better, or opportunities that would bring together knowledge.

No longer.

The world has converged before you, offering you at the key of a button, anytime at your convenience, what you wish to know, or, what you want to learn. And, there are people who make your learning better, sharpen your knowledge better and tell you that there is more to learn. Much much more, than you can or will imagine.

Why then some people consider being online an addiction, a phobia or living with the unreal? Why are children dissuaded and employees warned?

Online is not the issue here. Seeing online as a waste of time is the issue. Of course, it is a waste of time if you do not know what to do online. But if you do not engage online in your daily life, you may just end wasting an opportunity of a lifetime.

If you know that being online is to know, you have crossed its first barrier. You then know that there is a science and art in engaging the opportunity better. For your good, for your growth and for your better existence. It is now when your cultivation skills take over.

The kid will go wild on games, the employee on chatting. But when they learn that they can strike something out of it, more meaningful and valuable, that kid or the employee would take a leap.

The benchmarks and standards of being responsive has changed. If you take longer than a day to respond, you will soon be blocked as lazy. And, very soon, being instantaneous will be considered responsible.

Of course it is a challenge. That is why the applications and tools exist to help you meet the challenge better.

The learning curve is not simple. It will take hours, days and years to be adept with it. The more you postpone making online part of your daily life, the more you will set a gap between the world and you. Sooner the world will expect you to be amidst it as a matter of course. Not convenience, nor privilege.

Finding the most efficient tools is a learning. Further, you have to keep pace with it.

Customising the social media for you is a learning. It is also a learning to use which social media for what and how. It is a learning how to articulate exclusively on the various media, and, with diverse and varied people. It is a learning which are the contacts that make a difference to your knowledge and who you would simply stay in touch with. You will begin to know who will help you cultivate your skills, hobbies or interests better.

It is a learning to use the social media to build your network or friends or business colleagues better. It is a learning that the deeper knowledge of using digital will never come at the key of a button. It will take time, experience and expertise.

At any given time, there will be a lot to catch up with. Therefore, keeping the windows on screen is wiser as it will be your best break between work. Making the breaks shorter but more frequent will be a learning yet again. The successful one will learn capturing the right knowledge, and even the more varied and diverse knowledge smarter and better. As you evolve the digital will enhance your efficiencies with words, phrases and sentences.

Is it not a joy? When you find your understanding of knowledge, people, images, art, designs, sciences, societies, business, industry and trends get better by the day. How much more proud you will be when you can relate to so much at ease, and in plenty?

Soon you may find knowing your 5000 contacts closer, and, as they add value to your life, profession, business or success, you are endowed.

Look into it closer: in the foreseeable future online is not forsake- able. To the contrary, your proficiency in using the online media to your advantage will better your V Card or CV.

Just as you managed to come out of radio or television addiction, and use them appreciably, you will find it simpler to stay out of the online addiction. Then you will stay alive online, wiser and better.

It is quite realistic to see that soon not knowing the craft will virtually paint one with being unrealistic with times.

#online #internet #digital #news #media #art #design #people #business #future #images

The Diminishing Laws of Ethnicity

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 09:18:00 +0000

The Diminishing Laws of Ethnicity

Try Hard. You cannot preserve Ethnicity as a pickle in this century. It can exist no more than a flavouring.

Ethnic was when people existed with lands, rivers and seas struck between them as never broken barriers. When one group of people did not know what the other groups were like. It was ethnic when you did not know any better than how you or your neighbours could do it.

Ethnic is faded and jaded as the world melts and merges into one another to accept, engage and adopt what never was your own.

Is ethnic the same as the ethnic was a hundred years ago, or more?

So what is left with ethnicity? Race? Identity? Belonging?

Hasn't it faded so much that recognising it the way you did 50 years ago is difficult. Yes ethnicity is walking lame in the face of global convergence.

True global convergence lacks a clear identity. But it is only when identities diminish that the world converges.

Yet people will exist who feel threatened just as the weak get nervous amidst change. And the weaker lose their nerves. That's when the revolution begins against convergence. Such a revolution can never be evolutionary as it fights against the very core of evolution. It resists change. It denies change. It battles against change. And when several get together, it imposes a wall against change.

They often give reasons and most reasons are based on fear. Fear that you will lose. Fear that you will be lost. Fear that you will be overcome. Fear that the other world has bad, odd and the terrible. Fear that change is short term. Fear that you ought to fight against any that influences change. They will want to curb it, eliminate it or even kill it.

Now that gets violent. And some find a window of an opportunity as they know that there is a large number of people who fear the change. People who fear they will lose their existence. So they will create or build organisations. Most such organisations start with promoting ethnicity as a culture.
Come on, even the one changing is losing. They are willing to lose in order to get better. As the fight against change gets tougher, they are likely to impose, coerce or threat. As they want more people fight against change than those who are willingly merging and converging.

Ethnicity is acceptable as long as it is silent. When it begins to get a voice to destabilise change, it will evoke resistance. Promoters of ethnicity will evoke people to lobby against those who are more willing to change. They will fight hard to showcase an identity amidst merging identities. It is also like to evoke people to surround a wall around them with age old cultural and historic practices, behaviour and even ways of life. And, those who resist or desist are likely to be labelled dissenters or traitors. Thus breeding provocateurs of ethnicity.

It is then that ethnic loses its innocent flavour. Its flavour lapses to attract or inspire acceptance or its adoption by others. People wish to converge when the ethnic lives naturally, not as a cult or as a symbolic practice.

The fight is on very much not just in the Asia or Africa but even silently amidst Asians or Africans in the Europe or Americas as some people may believe that setting an identity in a foreign land will empower them. Thankfully it is meagre. As most people are willing to merge ethnically willingly. And no one wants to engage the ethnic that has been crafted or constructed with the view to brand it better or superior than the other. It is not a toothpaste.

Empowerment in the modern world however comes out of how well you adopt, adapt and are willing to share, exchange, give and take. How well you improvise on the converging ideas, habits, practices or lifestyles. How well you cultivate them for the better.

Some countries have died fighting ethnicity. Some more are willing to die. Eventually however only those worlds are likely to empower and evolve who will let ethnicities converge with the view to evolve more ingeniously, successively for the better, for the more superior.

Ethnic that is silently unique, delightful or evokes a wow is that will merge better. Ethiopia may be a much less developed nation. Ethiopian food however is a choice for many as it simply exists as an art.

As none know that the time has better to offer as it moves ahead, better than the times that have flown by.

The Proverbial Joint Family

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 20:39:00 +0000

The Joint Family Cult is a very eastern world charm. In the West, its closer version were more royal living out of a mansion with over 50 people living as one grandeur surname.

In the East, it carried a brand too, based on the laurels and accomplishments of its members, than the mercy of a lineage.

It continues even now - mostly in China and India. So you can see a few dozen people walk out of a small home, may not be so much in Delhi or Beijing, more so in the smaller towns and more remote districts.

There will be kids of similar ages but they may be a generation apart: as one of them would be an aunt or an uncle.

Now waning as space does not permit civilised living for so many within a door.

They have also waned as the family's old values and ethos were challenged or compromised.

I see the scenario more as a hardware store owner who in his 20s started out a venture for a family that included his brothers and sisters besides his own very young children. The business was more a men affair and the household women's domain.

So you could walk into the store and see the startup owner sit at the cash whilst other members would be simple salesmen.

And at the home, the elderly father in his 60s would decide whom to welcome at home, which neighbour to be friendly with and which neighbour to be treated with a distant grace. The elderly mother would decide the menu but the overall kitchen would the exclusive domain of the store owner's wife, the elder most of the senior generation.

As the brothers got married, the family expanded with the newer kid generation thrice the size.

So, the two brothers were just the right hands to manage the sales at the store. Until the next generation boy turned 16 when they would be the trainee floating around for the odd jobs. Soon they crowded the salesmen's roles.

In the older times, following the ethos, values and disciplines that kept a joint family together, the start up store owner would diversify and invest into another store or another venture.

In this age, the owner has a bigger question: should the new investment be for his next brother or for the son? If he would for the brother, that will be just, as the new venture could get more mature and experienced hands. What happens however if the capital is blocked into the brother's business who might not treat the family just as his own? And the son, when he grows does not get a share out of his uncle's business? These questions that were not ever relevant to the old age norms turned very realistic and wise in the new age.

So, you might just find several such stores with more pouring hands of salesmen than the size of the daily customers. The sharper, keener and the agile now turned into lazy ducks, sitting pretty, doing little but passing well.

The newer store in the neighbourhood could swallow its old pride. Or, if the business split into its various members lending financial freedom, so would the families multiply into more homes.

Back in the home, the changing tastes and preferences of the newer generation would make the rule keepers job very challenging and often threatening.

On the bright side its trusted financial and affectionate support made people more secure. But they also made the newer generation take to life a bit easy, often even lazy!

Lineages get threatened by the declining zeal to keep the decree high and above. If the aspirations lose, the financial challenges overcome other needs to separate into more nucleus. And the old name loses its charm. It does not then matter if the newer may make a name or just keep up with the old.

I was at a chemist shop in one of the posh Delhi markets when I saw three generations managing the store dutifully as despite having their Mont Blanc pens and glasses signed off on their attire, they would be so willing to attend to an angry customer. Despite that there were at least six more hired sales guys - some appeared as old as the master at the cash.

Yet I could see that the youngest boy in his new age blues wasn't quite so comfortable in listening.

The proverbial joint families still live. And they live in Delhi and Mumbai. In Bangkok or Shanghai. The Westminster is very very different.

Beware Digital!

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 17:11:00 +0000

It's digital all the way.

Some may be at the leading edge of it. Some catching up faster and some may be waiting to move with it. But Digital is here as a medium, the means and the resource in everything that we do for work, leisure, learning, news, keeping in touch or reaching out.

A few things digital is corrupt. Its worse than virus that inflict your computer. It damages more than the system, its very essence.

Has Digital opened the doors for fraudsters?

Well, the medium does lend a very natural opportunity to cheat, mislead or fake. And the industry can be saved from building its spiralling perceptions, if the leaders see the maturity and be responsible.

Plugging hashtags in your posts that are out of context with your content or putting a product in a marketplace whose standards or quality is not verified is irresponsible. It will further stimulate the urge to cheat or fake.

Casting an unrealistic profile or painting a wrong perception about yourself, your skills or offers will rip you off all the cumulative good built over the years when you face the real. Once done, you wont correct that simpler. As it is digital, the damage travels just as fast.

I remember my days in advertising when the more established agencies would lay much emphasis on ethics. Ethics in not making the consumer believe what is falsely untrue about the product. The consumer will in the longer run use your product based on real experience. So you wont cheat if you wish to be for the long run. And if you collapse in the short run, there is no run for you ever! The best agency would research and dig into the product to find what is the best in it so uniquely that the consumer would preserve that as a lifetime experience.

Flirting with a much faster medium as digital is dangerous as dangerous can get. Digital captures. And captures for the longer run. If you are irresponsible to engage the digital to populate a view, an opinion or a trend as a crash landing, it will haunt you back soon when senses have recovered. As the err you make when captured over time can populate manifolds to call you a name you may not have wanted. Think about it. It is as dangerous.

I see many proverbial Digital Gurus engage various ideas or techie tricks to make you swell. It is their job. But that job is shabby and shady. In just a few years they would have gone as individuals but the brand you invested in for a lifetime will choke under a name gathered out of tricks.

I once bought a set of vests that looked as a bargain from a reliable online store that did not turn out to be any close to what they said. Returning that was a long protocol. Now I am cautious not to choose the unknown. But more than that, when I find an online store as good that does carry rubbish inventory, I will be the first one to log off my current reliable online.

As Digital is new, it will have its learning curve. Its leaders however will take that role not to engage the learning curve into traps that may turn into a grime of sorts.

If you push the Digital so hard into the whirlpool of its open doors to grab the wrong one, do not then complain that people seek testimonials for every offering on the net.

If that process begins, every opportunity one gets on digital will first run through tests against mistrust. And the opportunity to convert decisions fast, real time and almost instantaneously will be lost.

What if the research then proclaims that doing something without digital was faster, easier and more efficient? It will drown the very spirit of the age called Digital.

Beware Digital. You have a big way to go. Don't grab the pennies just yet!

Leaders Don't Dominate

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 07:38:00 +0000

The Devil in us wants to dominate as by dominating it believes you will stay firm forever. Wouldn't you also get grounded then?

What good is domination if it does not help others fly or float?

True leaders, as against, stay away from the will to dominate. As dominating breeds slaves. And slaves cannot imagine, cannot think, cannot bring forth ideas. Perhaps cannot breathe on their own.

Liberation is intrinsic to humanity. A liberated can see beyond the boundaries. A liberated can think beyond. A liberated can imagine the unheard, the unknown and the unseen. In the pursuit of that a liberated can deal with the impossibilities and turn them real.

Liberated human beings may astray and go in several directions. That is when a leader sets forward a goal, a mission, or simply a possibility. And that's when the leadership works. It simply gives a sense of a direction.

Dominating is collecting a mass of slaves. Slaves who cannot on their own work. Those who cannot work for themselves, can never work beyond.

It is that spirit of detaching from slavery that has given the world freedom to be and to be recognised free in the modern world. In the 21st century.

21st century is a test for how you engage freedom. How you work upon the freedom. And the choices you make.

And its worst choice is that I am free so I can do whatever. Hey, you are a leader.

As a leader you would drive your freedom towards a direction so that many others can see the vision and wish to take a role in that direction. Freely and indomitably. As they come together the possibilities work faster, better, crisper.

But there is an indomitable divide here. Between the dominance based less developed people and the dominance ridden advanced humanity.

The role of freedom gets challenging against that background when the fight intensifies between what works better. More so as the world of the 21st century gets closer, touching one another against boundaries. Domination contests with liberation. Opening up a multitude of possibilities of compromises between the two.

You may be totally liberated but if the bloke on the other side is dominating, you may need to adapt. On the reverse side, the dominating would need to see the perspective of the liberated, and adapt.

It mightily depends upon who leads in this contest. Tough to stay liberated faced against domination. Yet compromising on the liberation to deal with domination can can slowly and silently eat away the liberation. And may kill it too.

If the world must change, it must change for liberation, no matter how joyful the power of domination is.

As domination will help breed the rudimentary. And further breed the will to contest for the rudimentary.

Fight your will against the spirit of domination. Or you will lead the dominated. And soon you will be part of the dominated mass. Oh, how I would hate that!

NaMo Namah should not be a Swaha!

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 07:48:00 +0000

Much like the Hindu ritual of an yagna that engages pounds of grains, fruits, nuts, sweets, coins and butter being fuelled in a small fire that ends up choking the child and the apartments in the modern era rather than purify anything but ashes, the NaMo Namah paranoia could end up being swaha, leaving behind piles of ash.

The NaMo Namah could end up as swaha if the Prime Minister does not recognise that there is an opportunity that struck him amidst the charade that was incensed by his Bhaktas. And that was just a vehicle. Its moment of reality is now in driving that position to pull back the notion of a nation demolished, than to fight the party war with the Congress vanquished.

Fighting a 44 seater Congress and a novice of the street AAP will invite wretched issues to deal with, as both want to fight harder, and their issues are age-old: aloo, daal, pyaaj and Pakistan. They may faint or gain, but they cannot take the advantage of the 325 seats away for another 40 months.

325 seats in the Indian Parliament is an invincible opportunity as the remaining represent varied and diverse groups driven divisively to an extent that almost every tribe is well represented. Its reality is that you are larger - much larger - amidst broken pieces. Therefore, there may be an opportunity to win them as diplomatically.

There is a lot that can be done for the economics of the nation with or without the parliamentary drama. If you are a pusher, you will see what you may push, you can push and you should push. That decision or choice will not require a Cabinet decision. However, will Modi let go his 'hatred'?

If the push must succeed the will to lift up beyond the past must be conceived. Let your Bhaktas perform chivalry, charade, theatrics and yagna for you. And let Mr Amit Shah do the promotional job for the party.

That story of fancy was played well to its theatric epitome by charadiers (sic). They faked the Modi maverick in Gujarat visually, articulately and defiantly. I remember I was in New York at that time and almost all Indians I met were so pumped up with the Gujarat mythology that they believed if a New York existed outside New York, it was Ahmedabad. I had a tough time showing them facts and figures to suggest that Gujarat was simply another state in India, and it has been consistent in developing trade and commerce ever since 1947 or even before. If Modi was a maverick, the state should have upset the Indian economic charts as most of India was still very poor. At best during the Modi tenure, the state had bettered its position from 16 to 14, or 3 to 2 or even 1, but it hadn't set a benchmark of sorts. And in any case, economic and social success does not need a magician. It needs able, agile craft and will.

(One fact says it all: Reserve Bank of India’s FDI figures encompassing the decade of 2000 to 2011 reveal that while Gujarat received just about $7.2 billion in FDI, Maharashtra got $45.8 billion and Delhi over $26 billion. Even Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with a $8.3 billion and $7.3 billion share, got a larger piece of the national FDI pie. And Modi's International Trade Shows did not change that)

So, Modi might just acknowledge that the past was fanciful and the time is now to use skills, crafts and stature, more than any more charade. Elections 2014 simply justifies that India remains largely an illiterate society despite its people succeeding remarkably elsewhere, despite its passion for education, and despite the Internet age touching them.

So it is simpler to turn the disgust of the people into a fanciful Avatar. Sto blaming the past and glorify the unknown, unheard Genie. It is better told to the kid unable to build a way ahead. The story may rather be constructed by quietly, silently yet diligently attending to what may help turn 2019 much better. Let the charadeiers (sic) chant, perform or regale. You are yet to achieve.

Just as Nehru and Gandhi were made into larger-than-life epitomes, there would be people who want to dig them out of the ashes and burn them once again. It is better therefore to stay the size of the human.

In any which way you will have your critics. But you have an opportunity to push a few things aside so that what you push now makes a change visible.

You are in a position to make a change - your fight against corruption is a battle corollary to the main, as corruption is, as you said, deep, very deep. It has its deep roots into even the most saintly. There are several other areas of equal priority.

In reality, Digital India, Swachh India, Housing for all, Power for all, Education for all, the Girl Child precious are all campaigns - campaigns for a dream come true.

The reality is that Indian entrepreneurs must invest. They must invest in a stable and consistent economy. They must invest more and bigger. They must invest for a larger and deeper Indian exchequer. They must invest for more valuable employees.

There is a huge world market dreaming of the billion Indian consumers. Yet there are consumers outside India and the world over that the Indian entrepreneurs can drive home. Korea did not create LG, Samsung or Hyundai for Korea, Japan did not create Sony, Toyota and Toshiba for the Japanese. Yes, the smaller Indian brands could be happier with the larger Indian consumers. The bigger Indian entrepreneurs can bite into the bigger world market.

That is just an idea. But the reality of recognising the power of the entrepreneurs and pushing them into bigger leagues will not bring Congress or Aap as a block. The bania will see where the buck lies.

India's biggest pillar outside the four pillars of democracy is the traders and businessmen. They may err in carrying out their business, but their business supports people, families, children's education and the Exchequer. Their wheels must churn and churn faster and more. A Bania will always give you back even if they cheat a bit.

The pandit doesn't contribute. The pandit excites you to throw everything into the yagna, negotiating a price for drowning your own goods and leaves behind a dream!

The power of economics can give you an edge - an edge to resolve Kashmir, Pakistan, onions and land bills. And the power of economics cannot be seen from an India centric view. Indian business is for the globe and the world. Knitting and piecing it within the geography of India is nitpicking. If you can drive that worldwide, there will be lesser chances of India breeding corruption, India feeling cornered or India not turning competitive.

You are so good at pumping people. Pump up the entrepreneurs to venture out, compete, succeed.

You have relied upon the power of NRIs. Make more NRIs succeed as employment givers. Not takers. Let the Indian brands talk beyond India. Let the Indian business break barriers. They will return more accomplished and richer. Their offerings then will not be bribes but gratitude towards India.

If you have any better, roll out that story. But your story now should not churn another campaign! Mr Amit Shah is sizeable enough to do that.

(Readers, please NOTE that the references to the terms Banias and Pandits are in the context of the traditional professional practitioners, and in no way disrespects any community).

Do you pay back the precious?

noreply@blogger.com (Dawninprabhat) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 10:16:00 +0000

The lady in a hurry to find something in her bag spilled out almost everything that may have been once kept very securely in the bag. They were now part of just a huge mass of garbage!

Buying a bag is an experience.

We so carefully look into the various compartments that the manufacturer so carefully designed keeping in mind how the most valuable possessions of the user could be securely kept. Small compartments, big compartments, the inside compartment, the most usable compartment just right to fit the various sizes. And that applies to both, women's bags or men's wallets.

Hand bags, office bags, travel bags, overnighters...

In much the same way the makers design and think the appliances, cars, gadgets and instruments.

Alas, the user went a little beyond the basic utility and considered those products as a piece of art.

We also pay the price for a piece of art, as that is what we seek. Something that is more than just a usable stuff!

In not using the piece of art as indeed the piece of art, do I ridicule the finesse of the mind that saw the piece so preciously?

Or is it expected? that if I paid the price for the piece of art, it is my choice how I deal with it.

Nah, that's being insensitive.

If we wish to laud the ingenious efforts and wish to engage them better over time we ought to reckon that there is an utility of a precious kind in using products for daily use.

We don't want the consumption cycle to get back to filling in the utilitarian space and no further.

I would like to keep where the coins belong, where the pen belongs, where the calculator belongs, where the lipstick belongs and where my napkin ought to be. And the credit card must have its place another than the Health Card or the Driving License.

Utilising is one and utilitating can be mutilating its purpose.