Guru Mantra for Survival in Corporate sector
Today when I was sipping my cup of Tea and deliberating on the topic of my next blog suddenly I jumped out of my bed and shouted Eureka. After completing three blogs I was looking for a new topic for my blog. I have completed reading my new book Difficulty of being good by Mr. Gurucharan Das. So I decided to dedicate this blog to him.
As one of the survivor in the post recession era this book gave me an insight of one of the most important aspect of Life, the relevance of Corporate Dharma in today’s Dog eat Dog world. Mr. Gurucharan bring into forth, the dharma, its meaning and put the readers in dilemma by terming it as a subtle. I don’t want to delve into the review of the book as many of the readers will start yawning when the reference will be given to the Mythological Heroes of Mahabharata.
Mahabharata questions the basic essence of life, the morality by advocating that in the course of just war there is possibility of manipulation to all extent until it does not pave your way towards win. The game of dice, the disrobing of Draupadi, killing of Abhimanyu, Bhishma, Drona, karna and Duryodhana put a serious question mark on Dharma. There is no doubt that war of Kurukshretra was fought due to wrong doings of Duryodhana but it doesn’t prevent Pandava and Lord Krishna to escape the public scrutiny for the tactics which they adopt to win this legitimate war.
As I was skimming the book I found myself in the battlefield of Kurukshretra and suddenly I found all the characters in the epic resembling the corporate fiefdom.
On the one side there is a CEO and MD of the company who after cooking up the account feels helpless and distress like Dhritarashtra as the battle of survival is fought in the company. On the other side millions of people are jobless just as in the Kurukshretra war where millions of people from either side lost their lives.
But is there any way through which we can survive this onslaught. The book answers the same question in a subtle way.
How to Survive
1. First guru manta Boss is always right. No matter what he says? Just like a true follower of Dharma Arjuna, we should always heed an ear to our Boss as Arjuna follows Lord Krishna.
2. Always served the company with Nishkama Karma without any detachment so as you can always say a goodbye any time.
3. Always remember to laugh and cry with your boss. Laughing at silly jokes sometimes makes you cry and it’s very difficult to stop your dirty smile when your boss goofed up something. But like Bhishma who dedicate his life to the Kaurava and fight an injustice battle for them and doesn’t even prevent disrobing of Draupadi, it is our duty to follow our karma.
4. Management can always stake you at in any project (Govt. Client Site to be more precise) as per the requirements (to be politically correct) like Draupadi. Instead of crying and fighting always rely on Lord Krishna to come to your rescue.
5. And last but not the least always be a Yudhistra who strives for compassion and Peace even in exile; so if you are still in a queue for promotion, have patience.

Kodak Magic Moments of 2009

As the curtains are already drawn for this year as we are approaching towards the end of 2009. The time has come to capture the Kodak moments of this Year. This blog is to recall those incidents that hogged the lime lights this year and also to invite nominations for the event which will be marked as the defining moment of 2009.
Let me share you my top 10 Moments of this year
1. The IIM A admissions and recruitment of highest number of students from IIM A by Union bank of India leaving behind citigroup, BOA, Merrill lynch and ex-Lehman Brothers.
2. India climbed to ICC with No.1 ranking in Test cricket. Never mind it’s better late than never. After all it takes 432 tests to make a century.
3. Amitabh bachchan who has acted in his movie Paa for the role of a bachha and Chota B becomes Big B. Guess who was the mother .It’s easy yaar remember Vidya balan of Parineeta fame, who on the advice of critics has stopped wearing western outfits.
4. The Swine flu which not only made the common man as its victim but it doesn’t even spare our NaMo (Narendra Modi).
5. The Jinnah Episode and the expulsion of Jaswant Singh from Bhartiya Jinnah Party.
6. The Austerity drives of congress and Mr. Shashi Tharoor of Twitter.
7. The Oscar winning entry Slum dog Millionaire which after years of long struggle finally give a foot print to Indians struggling to win a single Oscar. Please don’t bother about all those depiction of filth, poverty and child trafficking about our country. All is well that ends well.
8. The Food Inflation and the first time opportunity for the people of our country to come out of their closet by offering of pizza and burgers at most affordable price. The Prices of sugar and Arhar are at unprecedented higher level so as to give our people a flavor of pizzas and burgers.
9. Satyam saga and the disclosure of fraud of 7000 crore by Ramalinga Raju. But such is the optimism of the people that in spite of such massive fraud the investors has made money by making a killing in stock prices from its all time low of Rs 11.50 to post Mahindra Satyam days when it was trading at Rs 120.
10. The National elections which prove all the psephologists wrong by giving a steer majority to the UPA government not to forgive last year our UPA was at the mercy of Mr. Prakash Karat.
Rush your entries latest by 31 Dec 2009.

The Plight of being an Indian

This blog is not meant to dissuade ourselves of being proud to be an Indian but how an individual born in India has to live up to the expectations of its country, religion, state, family, and caste.
When you are born you not only becomes an Indian but also a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or a Christian. If that is not enough you also become one of the four recipients of Traditional Hindu Caste System (Brahman, Kshatriya, vaishya or Shudra) or become either a Sunni or Shia. The Story doesn’t ends here. You are also tied in terms of linguistic and Regional boundaries. These are apart from the role a man plays in his life as a son, Father, lover, husband, grandfather and the list continues.
The Multiple identities of an Individual has been for decades and our society has been used it. These identities are not decided by an individual but are imposed by the social fabric structure of our country. Whenever somebody wants to come out of this, he not only faces the agony of those who are self guardian of the society but various backlashes, boycott or worse the honor killing.
Is our social structure so rigid that our welfare and development is only possible under the confinement of our patriarchal society? The question needs an honest answer from all of us.
Recently there has been uproar over the Telangana issue. My question is that why the development is not possible under the united Andhra Pradesh. If possible then why the people of telangana have to suffer for decades that their problem will be sort out only under a new regime.
In Maharashtra people feel proud of calling themselves Marathi by beating innocents in the name of Marathi manoos .Do we need a work permit to do a job in Mumbai? I think our politicians better knows the answer. The migrants are not snatching jobs of the local. It is the system which is corrupts that forces people from Bihar and UP to search for jobs outside their homes.
A Hindu guy was brutally murdered when he eloped with a Muslim girl and the case of Rizwan in Kolkata when he married a Hindu daughter of an influential businessman.
I remember an incident when someone introduces himself as south Indian. I have never heard the terms East Indian and West Indian. But pick up any newspaper and you will have one column dedicated for the people fighting for the cause of North and South Indians.
These references clearly show where we people are heading now. To carve out a new identity is very easy by dividing people on various grounds but is this India we have dream of. Are we people not creating another East India Company which flourished on the policy of Divide and rule? The people are not even aware of these social boundaries which are spreading venom in the heart of the new generation. The time has come to rise above this parochialism. The recent unrest over the Telangana has open a Pandora’s box out of which new states Gorkhaland, Harit Pradesh, Bodoland, Poorvanchal and many more are rising. It is obvious that states with small geo-political boundaries are easier to govern a state, but division of state in terms of regional and linguistic boundaries will lead to only disaster. It has become imperative to break this ice which never seems to melt in spite of so much global warming.

LIfe in a Metro

This Post is not about the movie Life in a Metro; remember the white tiger in the movie Shiney Ahuja. But our own experience as a dellhiiite(3 i are added on the advice of numerologist Jumani ji so that our Delhi wallas always remain happy) commuting daily from Delhi Metro.
The Metro is the only happening thing in Delhi which reminds us that the commonwealth games are right in the corner. My Journey in Delhi Metro begins when i joined Tata Consultancy services and was for an assignment in Income tax office at Jhandewalan. The next thing I was looking was a place to live in. One of My Colleague advised me to look for Janakpuri as it offers a comfortable accommodation at an affordable price. Though I was new in the city but the very thought of getting stuck in traffic for hours was resisting my move. Then, suddenly my mind struck why not takes a chance with metro it is just 25 minutes ride.The Metro not only matches the International standards in terms of Quality of Services, but it clearly demonstrates how state of art technology can be built with little political interference under Mr. E. Shreedharan.
Now, a million dollar question is how in our country such a big project can be completed without its share of controversies. Suddenly metro that early used to grab headlines for beating the deadlines was in news for all wrong reasons. The Laxmi Nagar incidents, the cracks in the Noida Corridor were not only a blot on the Delhi Metro but these isolated incidents shake the moral of Delhiiites who used to brag about Delhi Metro in front of Poor NCR fellows. I want to appreciate the sincerity of Mr.Shreedharan who not only take moral responsibility of the incident and offers his resignation. That incident occurs not due to technical failure but irresponsible behavior and lapse in security measures by Construction Company. He not only shakes the whole DMRC in to action but also ensures that such incident does not repeat in future. Thanks God he was no RR Patil who said on Mumbai terror attacks that such incidents do occur in such a big city nor Mr. Deshmukh, to escort our Ramu; to make an epic on delhi Metro with titles like Metro ki Aag.
Metro ke Side effects
It would be a matter of time when will the matter covers the whole NCR, but a mere anticipation of Metro leaving the Delhi borders and entering into the territories have resulted in high sky rocketing prices of Property. The Near you are to Metro, higher you have to fetch from your pockets. The Metro not only caters to the need of office goers it has become a favorite spot for lovers. You can spot the couples enjoying the metro rides. Recently a couple was harassed by Delhi Police on charge of Obscenity.
Take a ride from Metro and you will enjoy listening transactions of Millions from bank, or a bet for an IPL match, or a call for a credit card. If that is not enough you might also have to listen to couples fighting for no reason. Whether it is a five minute journey or a 45 minutes ride, cell phones start ringing as one enters and fortunately are off as one leaves. Earlier people used to flaunt cell phones in public but thanks to tariff wars now the focus is on how you can influence a person standing next to you by your conversation
Meeting People Expectations
As Metro enters Noida it is already showing signs of fatigue. Frequent delays and overcrowding has already taken a toll. Though Dellhiiite have not resorted to another means of transport but massive overcrowding and frequent incidents of molestations has once again put a question mark on its capability. With metro crossing new horizons and entering into new territories it has to look for Plan B to ensure that the whole system does not break down either by increasing the number of coaches or by increasing new trains. Though Metro has added new maps on its CV still it has miles to go.