A rare gem in Indian sports arena

IPL has popularised cricket more than ever before. Even bits and pieces players like Jakati, Saurabh Tiwary, Abhishek Jhunjunwala, Asgonkar, Trivedi, Bisla are household names now. Nothing wrong with that as BCCI, first during Dalmiya period and later during Pawar's period, and now Lalit Modi has managed to package the product extremely well so much so that IPL has the second spot amongst franchisee based sports worldwide, after NBA and ahead of EPL. Good luck to them.

But there are quiet achievers on the Indian sports arena, especially on the distaff side. Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika, Chess Grandmasters are the prominent amongst them. Sania Mirza showed lot of promise but then withered away. She reached a peak ranking of late 20's a couple of years back, but is languishing now amonst the backpack. She is in the news these days for wrong reasons regarding her personal life than for her tennis.

The person who has quietly made tremendous progress as a world class sportswoman from India is the Badminton Ace, Saina Nehwal. Just 19, she has already achieved a career high ranking of 5 and is currently the 6th best player in the World. She was awarded Padmasree and comes across as a very intelligent, hard working, dedicated sports person who has her head screwed in the right places. While Sania has hogged all the limelight for achieving much less, Saina has gone miles ahead of her in achievement in the sports field.

Not many know that gut wrenching hard work goes into making of a world champion. Listen to Saina "Everyday is a gruelling nine-ten hours schedule except perhaps Sundays. My day begins at 7.30 am with training and is divided into sessions with fellow players and my coach Gopichand till about evening. And that's just on-court. Off-court activities involve extensive physical training at the gym and stamina-building exercises"

She is also very balanceed and sensible for someone who is just 19.... "First, be fair to yourself and ask whether you really want to take up sports, professionally. Even if you don't intend to play professionally, definitely play to keep fit and for your health. If you are a natural in the game, then work hard, practise every day. But come what may, don't leave your studies. If you want to play professional sports, make sure you maintain a balance between playing and your education"

Her achievement is no mean feat, considering her rivals - the chinese, indonesians and the koreans. These countries have tremendous badminton infrastructure and State support. As against this, Saina had to fend for herself and she has come up, despite the badly managed Indian Badminton Federation. She had the fortune to be tutored by the All England Champion, Gopichand, and her ranking was earned brick by brick through sheer consistent top class badminton. She won the World Junior Championship in 2008 and the tough Indonesial Open last year.

May her tribe increase.

'Fire Engine'

It is alright to make a car, but there should not be any compromise on basic safety and quality. Toyota is paying a heavy price for brushing under the carpet safety related issues and may have lost its market leadership status forever. Built on the promise of a no nonsence quality value for money premise, Toyota has been on a downward spiral since the news of its sudden accelaration problems started hitting the newschannels.

The original peoples car was the wonderful Volkswagon Beetle. The car was an engineering marvel, an epitome of German technology. I can vouch for it because I drove one for 2o years. The car was strong as an ox and efficient as a beever. That is also why the car, manufactured first during WW II, lasted seven decades with minimum changes.

Tata Nano is touted as the modern people's car. The ultimate aspirational product for the teeming lower middle class at an affordable price of Rs 1 lakh plus taxes. But there is a worry that not all is quite so right with Tata Nano. Electrical short circuits, wires melting and other issues have plagued the car from day one. These were pooh-poohed as teething problems. But now, during the third week of March 2010, disaster struck.

A family of husband, wife and 5 year old son were driving home a brand new Nano from the showroom and ecstatic about it when the car burst into flames (see picture above). Fortunately, the family escaped unhurt but has vowed never to buy another car in their life. All Tata offered to do was to either replace the car or give a refund - but what about the compensation for the trauma suffered by the family? Tata is silent on this and has treated the whole issue in a cavalier fashion, quite unbecoming of a Brand known for its customer care. The link below gives the whole story, including the bland letter from Tata and I am sure you would share my outrage at the way the company has treated such a serious incident. Why is it that, in India, people have to die before someone sits up and takes notice of things?Tata is lucky that this happened in India or else they would have had to pay multi million dollar damages.

The whole story in the words of the customer plus the atrocious response from Tata can be found in the link http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/mar/250310-santosh-purushottam-sawant-tata-nano-fire-mulund.htm

Is Tata falling into the trap of 'chalta hai' attitude of Indians?

Courage in the face of adversity

Courage in the face of adversity is wonderful and the field of sports is replete with stories of how sportsmen overcame personal tragedies for the greater cause of the team. Who can forget Anil Kumble, jaw broken by a bouncer wired together, face covered with bandages and body pumped with pain killing injections, walking out to bowl a memorable spell in West Indies in a Test Match? Then there was Sachin Tendulkar, in a world cup match, a day after he lost his father, coming out and scoring a century. Lance Armstrong, the legendary cyclist, overcoming cancer to win multiple Tour de France. Then there is Phil Mickelson, the then No.2 Golfer behind Tiger Woods in 2009. During the year, he heard the shattering news of his wife Amy having breast cancer, and then later in the year, his mother Mary also being diagnosed with breast cancer. Shattering for any man, but Mickelson is made of sterner stuff. He put aside his personal problems and roared back with magnificent golf during the later part of 2009 to earn the respect of one and all. But all the above pales in comparison to what happened to young Bob Blair, a 21 year old New Zealand Cricketer who was touring South Africa in 1953. The melancholy of the situation is poignant.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/sport/3481631/Kiwi-courage-at-its-best

Imagine knowing you have lost your beloved, and then continue getting letters from her, written before she has died!!

Very often we give ridiculous excuses for not completing our tasks. Before you think of doing that next time, remember the story of Bob Blair. At least, it will make us all better human beings.

Choice of Colours of Dress

I have always wondered at the diversity of India. Have travelled a lot in my teens and early 20's. The journey from lush green Kerala, to the buzzing national capital in Kerala Express, through the dry, barren Tamil Nadu, the black soils of the western and central India, through the mountaineous terrain covered with distant forts in Madhya Pradesh, a glimpse of the majestic Taj at a distance in Agra - the 42 hour trip which I made at least twice an year during college days was an excercise in education.

The traditional dresses of people from various States have attracted me. Remember this was a quarter of a century ago, unlike today where the dresses across the country have become more standardised. Those days one can hardly see a churidhar wearing girl in Tamil Nadu or Kerala.

One thing that struck me was how Malayalis prefered white coloured dresses, as depicted by their fondness for mundu set (for ladies), mundu/shirt (for gents) while the Rajastanis wore multicoloured dresses and still more 'colourful' turbans. The Rajastani dress worn by ladies is a riot of colours ( I presume all the Indian film makers who shoot song/dance sequences have been inspired by the Rajastan dress sense ). The contrast is striking.

One reason could be that Kerala has been blessed with so much natural beauty of various hues and shades- from the dark green trees, to the light green paddy fields, to the red hebiscus flower, to the yellow konnappoo, to the colourful dahlias, to the blue sea, to the blue/greyish sky. Hence people living there must have chosen to wear plain white dress as a contrast to the colours around them to make them stand out.

In the case of Rajastan, the nature is dreary- miles and miles of white sand merging with a blue sky with only splattering of while clouds. It could be why the people decided to add some colour to an otherwise dreary canvass by wearing multi-coloured dresses.

Why travel abroad when you need a life time to discover the diversity of our own country and its wonderful people.

More the merrier

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader" - John Quincy Adams

'Auto'mate

Egalatarianism is a social philosophy whose ultimate aim is to remove inequalities (economic or otherwise) among the people.


You need tools that facilitate egalatarianism. Socialism, communism, good natured samaritanism all propound the cause of egalatarianism.


I would like to add Internet to this list. When you see the link below, you will know why,


http://www.tuktastic.com/index.htm

Very ingenious way of marketing a commodity and differentiating isn't it?

There are thousands and thousands of autos in Chennai, a town whose auto drivers are notorious for squeezing the passengers. This auto driver, Samson, is really using the power of internet to target western tourists.

As an aside, on the topic of Chennai auto drivers, there is an anecdote. One of my favourite towns, Calicut (Kozhikkode in malayalam) is renowned for the honesty and integrity of the auto drivers. They do not refuse fare nor do they overcharge nor are the meters tampered with. They are also extremely courteous, polite and a lady can safely take any auto in the town even past midnight. Even today, when I drive down to Calicut, I park my car in a hotel, and use auto to commute locally.

Once, as the story goes, a Tamil Nadu minister who happened to visit Calicut was so impressed by the culture of the auto drivers, he asked his Kerala counterpart to send a delegation of Calicut auto drivers to Chennai to teach all the good habits they are known for to the Chennai auto drivers. After a week, the Tamil Nadu minister woke up to a call from the said Kerala Minister, who started abusing him profusely. Reason - after a day or two, the Chennai auto drivers started 'teaching' the Calicut delegation the 'tricks of the trade'

Predictably unpredictable

Many things we foresee in market place dont happen when we think it ought to.

I had predicted to my Cable TV operator in India, way back in 1995, that Cable TV (by which I dont mean satellite TV, but the business model in which a Cable operator supplies to multiple houses) will be a thing of the past by the millineum - to be replaced by Direct To Home television (DTH). The exhorbitant cost of owning a DTH delayed its oncoming by a decade. With Cable operators getting greedy and increasing the monthly rates and with DTH prices coming down drastically, the demise I predicted is finally about to happen.

One of my students did a project on M-Commerce in 2004. We were gung-ho about the prospects of mobile commerce then and predicted that it will revolutionize the way we purchase things. We had predicted then that in a few years we will be ordering through mobile, making payments through it and all we have to do is collect the product. We had also envisaged mobile as a E-wallet, replacing the credit cards. But six years on there is no sign of M-Commerce picking up and the product is nearly dead.

Segway, the personal transporter, was another product that was expected to alter the mobility landscape. Technical and reliability problems, and a high price tag killed the product.

Electric cars replacing Petrol driven vehicles have been talked about since I was doing my MBA. Quarter of a century later, we are still only talking about it, and nothing else.

Video telephony is another concept that was expected to make a significant breakthrough during the last decade. We are still quite far away from making that a commodity product.

Teacher less global education through web - still a long way off. The good old teacher, with all his/her limitations giving lecture is still quite popular. Concepts like E-tuition all died a quiet death after a brief flaring.

Demise of Radio was another prediction that has gone awry. The FM revolution has revived Radio like nothing else. The popularity of local FM stations in rural india needs to be seen to be believed.

Only thing predictable about Market place is that it is unpredictable.

CONgress

This gem is from a reader of India Today,

If 'Con' is the antonym of 'Pro', is Congress the antonym of Progress???

GDP as per Congress Party

Manmohan Singh is concerned only about GDP growth. He has treated fiscal deficit, inflation, wasteful subsidy, disinvestment, rural credit et al with utter disdain.

This used to leave me baffled, till it dawned on me that GDP in Manmohan Singh's and Congress Party's lexicon do not mean Gross Domestic Product, but

(Sonia) Gandhi's Dynastic Propensity

CC

To succeed in business, an organization needs 'Core Competency'

To succeed in politics, a party needs 'Crore Competency'

Quick test to check whether an organization is well managed

In India, I form my preliminary thoughts about how well an organization is run through two things.

First, I check how many times a telephone rings before it is picked up, both at the operator level and at the extention level. If the employees allow the telephone to ring more than three times, then it is a sign that the company is not doing well. Good organizations ensure telephones are picked withing two rings, especially in the service sector.

Second, how clean the toilets are.If the toilet stinks and/or is unclean/dirty, then it is a clear indicator of poor administration/management. No decent manager can afford to work in an office with a smelly toilet.

In good organizations, employees take pride in their work and in their surroundings.

It is a dog's life

People have short memory. In the third week of November 2009, PM Manmohan Singh, in an attempt to test all his ministers, demanded his ministers submit a 'performance report' for his personal monitoring. The deadline for submission given by the PM is November 30. This is great, but for a small fact. No one knows how many ministers did indeed submit the self appraisal and more importantly, what MMS did with it. Knowing that he cannot even show his displeasure at most of his ministers, and specifically the 'best non performers' like Sharad Pawar, Raja, Mamata Banerjee and some of his own party ministers who are close to Sonia, this was a classic case of making an ass of himself.

MMS government is unique. In India, as a rule, we always have Authority without Responsibility, whether it be Sonia Gandhi, Prakash Karat, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, Mayawati, Laloo, or any leading politician for that matter. Manmohan Singh must be the only guy who has responsibility without authority. When Woman's Reservation Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, it was all because of Sonia. Suddenly she was there in TV channels being interviewed by friendly journalist claiming credit ( remember, Sonia never ever gives interviews, press conferences - at least to Indian media ) and there was no mention of the PM. Being India's Prime Minister when Nehru-Gandhi family is ruling the party is stray dog's life. You get kicked, stoned and cursed by every passer by. And you need a very supple spine to survive.

The plight of the silent 'common man'

The common man has lost his ability to protest.

I remember my school and college days in 1970s and 1980's when the common man was not afraid to take to the street in droves to protest against price rise and other issues affecting him. Of course, he was aided by the various political parties who used grass root workers to mobize them. This was true especially of my home state Kerala. Everyone was politically and socially very consious. I have heard arguments, and even I make them, that today's generation is blessed with information explosion that makes them more knowledgable than our generation. But pertaining to socially relevant causes, the current generation falls way short. They are more informative about macro problems like global warming, carbon emission, financial crisis than about matters that affect their day to day life.

R K Laxman's famous caricature of the common man (see above), in his legendary cartoons that spanned a few decades for Times of India, was always a bystander and never spoke one word. Then, I had thought that this was a misnormer, for the common man was very vocal. Maybe he was ahead of his times, like most geniuses are.

Today's protests on the streets are more for the TV cameras. The hype created by TV channels about protests 'all over the country' is laughable, as it shows maximum ten people shouting some slogans for the sake of the camera and then vanishing. Gone are the days when thousands march in protest showing their strength. A more materialistic life style, a sense of futility, lack of faith in government listening to the common man, chaging culture of political parties that have become highly centralized in decision making, lack of incentives for grassroot level leaders to organize protests, and a general apathy towards social and political causes have led to this pathetic scenario.

It is because there are no massive street level protests, that the Governments are getting away with double digit inflation for the past few months and the food inflation is hovering at 20%.

No one gives a damn for the common man. Well, he himself doesn't give a damn for himself. Then why blame the Government. The common man gets the government he deserves.

Disconnecting India!!!

Recommendations made by two government appointed committees are eye openers. Both has to do with companies that help 'Connect' India - Air India (Indian) and BSNL.

A high power committee appointed by the Government has denounced the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. The committee has called the merger ill advised and a disaster. Further, they wanted to fix the accountability on those who approved the merger in the first place. This has been endorsed by the civil aviation minister Mr.Praful Patel. The merger became a reality on 1st March 2007. It was a no brainer strategy, for the Airlines industry is strewn with the carcasses of failed mergers and acquisitions. And do you know who the Minister for Civil Aviation was when the merger was approved - the self same Praful Patel. And who finally gave the green signal for the merger - Cabinet headed by the eminent economist Mr.Manmohan Singh. So who should be held accountable?

The second committe was headed by Mr.Sam Pitroda and looked into the working of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). Amongst other things, he identified that 1 lakh employees are redundant. It has even made recommendations on operational issues like leasing equipment instead of buying it.

No one questions the expertise or capability of Sam Pitroda, who had a free hand during Rajiv Gandhi regime and who unleased the telecom revolution in the country. But what is wrong with our PSU is precisely such kinds of external advises from people and committees who are not accountable for the performance. It is easy to give advice as to what is wrong when you dont have to set it right, and also when you wont be in the firing line when your recommended action is not up for review. Will the heads of these committees pursue the action recommended by them were they to be the CEO's of the respective companies? I doubt.

I am not against PSU's, though in today's context Government should adopt the role of a facilitator than the actual owner of any business. But the PSU's have to be allowed to be run like professional companies with a professional board and top management team. There should not be any interference from the Ministers or worse still the government babus. IAS cadre thinks that they can run railways, airlines, hotels, sports, museums etc etc just because they are IAS. Each industry needs specialized top professionals from the industry who knows the dynamics of that particular industry, not a generalist who knows only to administer and who doesnt have the freedom to operate, being under politicians pressure all the time.

PSU's are the assets created by common man's money. Let us at least manage them professionally and give the stakeholder a decent return - at least let us not burden him more by creating huge losses which ultimately the common man has to bear by way of higher taxes.

Let us 'Connect' India rather than facilitate 'Disconnection'.

Inclusiveness, and not exclusivity

I am concerned about the Women's Reservation Bill that reserves 33.33% of the Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats to women. Now, before all of you ladies sharpen your knife calling me a typical MCP, let me tell you that the reason has nothing to do with my being a man. I respect women's abilities and am of the firm view that they are equal to men in all spheres barring none.

My reasons are different. Democracy is about making a free choice. There should not be any restrictions for the voter while making a choice.

We have 545 seats in the Lok Sabha including the speaker and the 2 nominated members. Out of this 79 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 41 for Scheduled Tribes - a total of 120. 33 1/3rd seats reservation for women means 182 seats in total, out of which 42 will be sub reserved for SC/ST. Hence, the total number of seats reserved will be 282 which is more than 50% of 545.

Any reservation, be it women's or SC/ST or OBC or minority (the last 2 a distinct possibility) reduces the voters choice. Why should Government dictate to me, a voter, that I have the right to choose from only women, SC/ST, OBC, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jain, Parsi etc......, and that too in more than 50% of the constituencies. This is ridiculous.

Instead of gloating over the prospects of getting 33 1/3rd reservation, the women of our country should demand equality. Abraham Lincoln did not ask for quotas for the Black, he asked for them to be treated equally. Gandhiji did not ask for reservation for the Dalits or Harijans as he called them. He fought for equality for them. He tore apart the caste barriers and fought for them to be treated on par with others. He wanted them to be allowed inside the temple just like any other hindu citizen. He did not ask for special darshan for Harijans. The political parties can suo motto give 33% of their seats to women candidates. Why limit to 33%, they can give 50 % or 60% or even 100% to women or anyone of their choice. But the voters be given the full range of choices. That is the hallmark of a true democracy.

What we need in our country is total inclusiveness, not exclusivity.

Choice for the Common Man

Despite our claims to liberalize the economy, when it comes to the common man, the government continues to take pleasure in not allowing him to make choices, that is the hallmark of a developed economy.

Take for example the domestic LPG scenario in India. The refill cylinders sold by Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL are standardized. But instead of allowing the customers to pick up his cylinder from a dealer of his choice, irrespective of which company's customer he is, the Government has tied him to a particular distributor (in fact, the customer cannot even approach another distributor of the same company). This has led to the creation of small monopolies where the the customer is taken for a ride for getting a refill, which is so essential for him, and is dependant on the whims, fancies and the arrogance of the LPG dealer. The obvious solution is to allow the customer to approach any LPG dealer of his choice when he runs out of LPG. This will ensure LPG dealers changing their mindset and improving their services drastically, as otherwise they will lose their revenue. This shall also incentivise those dealers who do offer excellent service.

Need a paradigm shift

During my more than a decade long period of teaching, I have seen a drastic change the way in which people learn. The current generation spends more time on TV, Internet and probably computer games. They have more opportunities than my generation, and dont have to struggle as much as we did in getting a well paid job. In life too, they have more to choose from. I am genuinely happy that they have these opprotunities and choices that were denied to us.

A generation born out of getting answers instantaneously through web or that gathers news by listening to headlines on TV or used to watching a 3 hour 20-20 cricket match than a 5 day Test match or gets the notion that success can be achieved easily like those participants in the reality show needs to be taught in a different way.

The current crops attention span is limited and they are less keen on dependent/ instructor led training. The focus of the teachers should be on developing those skills the students have that supports independant learning.

In olden days formal learning ends at the college level and the rest is learning accrued through experience. But todays generation can be trained to do continuous learning throughout their lifetime. The job of the modern teacher should be to create self-directed learners who are motivated to learn every day for as long as possible.

This calls for a paradigm shift.

Why?

I have always been curious and try to find a logical answer for many of our age old practices.

Why are the deities in our temples face either East or West most of the time (there are exceptions where the Deity faces the North but they are few and far between)? - For finding the answer one may have to go to an era where there were no electric lights and even possibly no fire. The idols were normally inside caves or other covered places. The worship was done during early morning and late evening , before and after the agricultural activities. Since there was no electricity, life began and ended with sunrise and sunset. Morning sun and evening sun are low in the horizon and their rays directly illuminated the deity depending on which side the deity faced. This became a practice and convention later on.

The same logic is applicable to lighting the camphour at the end of a pooja. Camphour gives sufficient illumination for the devotees to see the deity clearly, albeit briefly and they would indeed like to see the deity's face once the 'archana' has been done. And of course, the temple lamps or diya are lit for illumination purpose too.

You might ask 'What about incense sticks?' or Agarbathi as they are popularly known. The sanctum sanctorium has little ventilation and is closed for most of the day resulting in air becoming stale. Burning incense sticks smokes away some of the flies and germs apart from giving a sweet fragrance which is quite welcome.

Our forefathers were very wise. There was always a solid reason for all of their actions. Only thing is that we have not cared to ask 'Why?'

Terrible Consequences Await

The inflation has started hurting the Indians badly. The inflation figures based on Wholesale Price Index for various categories is given below. All the % are on an annual basis,

Food articles: 7.02% (in 2007) to 17.41% in January 2010.
Food products: 3.43% (in 2007) to 22.55% in January 2010.
Food commodities: 5.60% (in 2007) to 19.42% in January 2010.
Foodgrains: 6.27% (in 2007) to 17.89% in January 2010.
Cereals: 6.27% (in 2007) to 13.69% in January 2010.
Pulses: 2.14% (in 2007) to 45.62% in 2007 in January 2010.
Rice: 6.05% (in 2007) to 12.02% in January 2010.
Wheat: 6.77% (in 2007) to 14.86% in January 2010.
Dairy products: 6.08% (in 2007) to 12.87% in January 2010.
Eggs, fish and meat: 6.38% (in 2007) to 30.71% in January 2010.
Sugar: (-)14.69% (in 2007) to 58.94% in January 2010.

The Government has argued that poor monsoon in 2009 is the reason for the spike in food items. But a casual look at the figures refutes the Governments claim. Prices have been rising steadily since 2007. And this cannot be due to too much liquidity in the market. In fact the high interest rates prevalent has sucked the liquidity out of the system. And this is also not due to a sudden increase in the demand. Everything points out to a major supply side problem. Poor monsoon in 2009 is definitely a cause, but not THE cause. Allowing organized retail has led to these players hoarding so as to sell at a higher price. It almost looks like the Government is hand in glove with the organized retailers. Added to this, the Public Distribution System which has been a solace for the low income people over the decades have been systemmatically undermined since the reforms in 1991. The PDS is not functioning efficiently in states like Kerala that has perhaps the best PDS network. Other States are miserable in this aspect.

And to think that this has happened during the extended tenure of an 'eminent' economist Dr.Manmohan Singh is a crying shame. If his economic policies do not ensure the common man able to meet his basic needs, then it has to be a failure.

Less said about the Agricultural Minister, Sharad Pawar, the better. The Sugar inflation is 58% and we recently had an expose that Sugar was being exported despite a ban. It is clear where his loyalties lie.

Reforms have been stalled, economy mismanaged, monetary policies dont facilitate growth, fiscal deficit is spiralling, delivery mechanisms in shambles, vaccum in leadership and no one is accountable - what a crying shame?

In any other country, the opposition would have been out on the street, mobilizing people and fighting against this shameful situation. But with elections fought through TV and most parties headed by nincompoops who are where they are due to their lineage than their grassroot political credentials, what else can you expect. Sitting in ivory towers is alright but it should not lead to a situation where there are food riots, a situation that is not too far away. The consequences of such riots will be terrible.

Blank Brain

A case of lack of interesting topics coupled with a blank brain - shall be back when I get something nice to post