Life has to move on

I learn to like the place I live in.

I have heard many Indians talk wistfully about how life is great back in India and how horrible Kuwait is. I wish they were at hand to listen to my good Kuwaiti friend Dr. Mansour. While travelling in his Ford Grand Marquis one day a few years ago, he was refering to the prevalent fad of bitching about Americans amongst Kuwaitis, "Rajan, we Kuwaitis got our country back because of Americans, we study in America, we drive American cars, use American goods, price our oil in US dollars and after all this we have the temerity to bitch about Americans"!!!

Touche.

There are two sides to any country - the good and the bad. If you look at only the bad side (as a good number of my Indian friends do) then you will have many things to crib about. But if you were to look out for positive things, then you will see the brighter side of life in Kuwait.

I am completing almost 10 years in Kuwait. I have had my ups and downs in the country. I take it in my stride. Kuwait taught an impatient man like me the value of patience. It taught me the value of perseverence, for without it one cannot hope to succeed. One has to plod countering heavy odds as things move at a relatively slow pace. The tenure in Kuwait helped me learn additional skills in my professional life. If someone had told me a decade back that my future is in Corporate Finance, I would have laughed at it as the biggest joke of the millenium. But 3 years with First Investment Company and the last 2 years with AES allowed me to add this powerful Brahmastra to my Quiver of Professional Arrows. Needless to say, the country also allowed me to have tax free income and a quality life style.

Learn to like the country you live in and learn to love the job you are in. Job satisfaction is a frame of mind. Show considerable passion in whatever you do. The perfection of the outcome is itself a reward.

But like everything else, this too must pass. Time to bid adieu to Kuwait. A decade is a long time in one's life. The law of diminishing marginal returns (not on the monetary front but on the professional development front) has started catching up with me in Kuwait.

Will I miss Kuwait? I might, till I settle down in the new place. For one can't live on nostalgia and a 'what might have been' feeling.

Life has to move on and it will.

Another Idi Amin?

Chirayu Amin takes over as IPL interim Chairman - For IPL's sake I hope he doesn't become another Idi Amin!

The PP Trap

A friend of mine touched a chord in my mind during the weekend when he mentioned Peter's Principle.

Peter's Principle originally published in 1969 declares,

"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence"

In most of the companies, promotions are based on the performance at the lower level, not taking into account the ability and skill sets of the employee to perform well in the 'promoted level'. This leads to an employee doing extremely well, say as a Salesman, but failing miserably when he is promoted to the post of a Sales Manager, for the skill sets required for both the jobs are totally different. And incidently, work in an organization is normally done by those who have not attained their level of incompetence.

I remember couple of classic cases from my HPCL days. One was a senior ex-Caltex (HPCL was formed merging ESSO and CALTEX) guy, who joined as a clerk but later went on to become a hard working Sales officer. Towards the fag end of his career, he was promoted as Dy.Manager (I&G), where he was a disaster. His experience had all along been as a retail Sales Officer and he was totally ill equipped to handle the I&G sector. Also, he just did not have the managerial skills required to extract work from the younger high profile Sales officers..

The second was a ESSO sales officer, who had handled Coimbatore Sales Area for a decade, later came to the Region as the Regional Manager. Unfortunately for me, I was handling the same Sales Area. Instead of behaving like a Senior Manager, he started acting like a Sales Officer and started meddling in my day to day operations and showering favours on his old crony dealers. It took some deft politicking, blunt speaking (you might wonder whether a junior officer like me had the guts to take on my Regional Manager! but I was a brash wild young MBA those days who brooked no interference. In fact many of my old HPCL dealers whom I met recently couldnt believe that I have mellowed so much over the years) and fistfights to re establish my rightful authority.

It is noted that stable companies are more likely to have a higher percentage of incompetent managers as compared to fast growing companies. Companies dont make any effort to groom the employees to take over from their seniors these days. One of the reason is that, with employees jumping jobs at the drop of a hat, no one wants to invest on grooming a successor, for he is not sure whether the chosen guy will stay back or not. This leads to unprepared people being forced to take over additional responsibilities without having a clue as to how to go about it.

Another reason attributed to why Peters Principle is rampant in organizations is 'negative selection'. This happens when the person in top of the hierarchy is insecure and wants to enjoy the power. Towards this end, he chooses his next level of managers whose prime attribute is incompetence. The idea being that they must not be competent enough to move up and replace him from his post.

We see this in politics. Manmohan Singh was chosen over Pranab Mukherjee to be the Prime Minister because of negative selection by Sonia Gandhi. MMS do not have a mass base (he do not even dare to enter Parliament through Lok Sabha, but gets in through the backdoor Rajya Sabha way) and has always been a career beureaucrat, always obedient to the political masters. Another classic case was the erstwhile Home Minister Shivraj Patil- a classic case if ever there was one. The current Chief Election Commissioner and I suspect even the current Chief Justice of India are other two classic cases of Peters principle in work.

How do you avoid this trap? Look and plan ahead. See where you are headed 3 years down the line. Find out the skills, both hard and soft, required for the job and invest in training/acquiring knowledge. Avoid the PP trap.

What do you talk about?

"Great People talk about Ideas;

Good People talk about Events;

Small People talk about People"

How about you?

Democracy is about making free choices

The intentions behind governmental subsidy is good. It is supposed to help control the prices. But the government has adopted the wrong delivery mechanism, which breeds inefficiency and the ultimate beneficiary ending up not getting the intended benefits.

Let us take the case of Fertilizer subsidy. The Government fixes the price of the fertilizer and then bears the difference between what the fertilizer companies should charge and the control price. This difference is given to the company. One might ask what is wrong with this, as the farmer benefits from the lower price. The trouble here is that there is no incentive for the fertilizer companies to improve their efficiency and reduce the cost. Over a period of time, they keep on claiming that higher input costs have affected their margins, and the government keeps on increasing the subsidy, not for once checking to see whether the claims of the fertilizer company on input costs are really justified or whether the companies are using it as an excuse to cover up their operational inefficiencies. Increased subsidy, which is in effect a compensation for the inefficiency, has to be ultimately born by the country through higher taxes. This scenario is repeated whether in the case of Public Distribution System (PDS), Education, Hospitals, LPG and even State Road Transport Corporations.

In the current political scenario, it is next to impossible to reduce the subsidies and it is not advisable too, since the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) citizens need governmental support. Now, rice and essential items are given at subsidized rates to the BPL citizens through PDS or ration shops. The card holder is tied to a particular ration shop and more often than not taken for a ride. The rice, sugar,kerosene etc are regularly diverted and inferior quality product given to these people, if at all. The ration shop owners indulge in hoarding and are arrogant. It is demeaning to anyone with self respect to stand in long queues in a Ration Shop to get his dues. And poor people's self respect is trampled with regularity.

A solution could be to allow the BPL citizens to choose avail the ration from any ration shop of their choice. For this, the supply chain has to be strengthened and more outlets opened. This would ensure that only those ration shop owners who provide good service and quality products will survive in the long run. This is the same argument I put forward in an earlier post regarding LPG cylinders - to allow the LPG customers to choose their distributor.

Similarly, Government should allow more low cost private schools offering primary and secondary education to come up all over the country. The poor students can be given Education Coupons worth, say Rs 1500 per term, which they can use at any of these schools. This shall encourage competition, as if the school dont give good services like employing quality teachers or if the operation is inefficient, the student will simply transfer himself to another school at the end of the term or year.

It is time we dispensed away with subsidies given to the service provider. Give the subsidy directly to the ultimate beneficiary, be it LPG customer, Farmer, School Childre or BPL citizen. Let him/her make an informed choice. This will empower them and make the provider accountable, which is sorely lacking today.

After all, Democracy is all about making a free choice, isn't it?

A voice from the past

Jack Russel is an ex-England Wicket Keeper. One of the vanishing breed of pure Wicket Keepers in the world of cricket these days, for what we have today are batsmen who can keep also. Russel was a pleasure to watch and is considered to be a bit of a maverick. This impression added by the fact that he is a good painter too. There is an interview with him in cricinfo. Couple of answers from the interview stuck a chord in me (the points are highlighted by me in green);

I can pinpoint the exact moment that I decided to become a cricketer. It was 1977. Alan Knott dived across first slip and took an amazing catch to dismiss Rick McCosker off Tony Greig at Headingley. I thought, "I want to do that". That's when I decided I was going to play for England and Gloucester. That was the inspiration.

Knott was a huge influence. I used to knock on the Kent dressing-room door to talk to him. Mr Knott was the world's slowest changer; he'd be in there until 10pm, which was great because it gave me hours to talk to him! I used to pick his brains, as I did with Bob Taylor and many others. That was the way we learned then. We didn't have many coaches around, so you had to find out for yourself. You always talked to the great players if you could. We stay in touch. Knotty would ring to say, "Well played", or tell me if he'd noticed something. It was great to have someone who understood the little things that only wicketkeepers understand. We are in our own little nutty world. Knotty was unique; Taylor had the technique to copy really.

For one to succeed, one needs a role model. You need to look out for the right role model and be inspired. As Kunjunni master used to say 'there is a past in present because BC is within AB'. The past and people older to you is a great source of learning.

The second point set me thinking. As Russel said, we didn't have coaches nor did we have the luxury of getting information at our finger tips when we were young, as the current generation do. We had to go out and seek information. The information obtained in such a manner was cherished and considerable value attached to it. Though I am happy for today's generation, the information explosion and easy access has made them less appreciative of the contents of the information, for they have got it without breaking a sweat. I am amused that todays generation attach less importance to gaining knowledge, for we are living in a knowledge economy. I thought that should have been their core competence to succeed in life!!! or am I wrong?

WAW factor

On a strict diet, post a health scare, I have discovered that we don't need as much food as we think we do. And a simple change in diet can work wonders for the body.

I have cut down my already limited vegetarian food intake by half and am none the worse for it. One thing I learned during the past 100 days is that I have a strong will power and am very tenacious - two qualities which were not associated normally with a laid back person like me. Typical of me, I coined the term WAW for my health plan - Walking, Apple, Water

Though I just love fruits, I have always hated Apple, till recently. When the good doctor advised me to eat more apples, I cursed him silently and told to myself "fat chance". But wanted to give it a good old fashioned try. And guess what? If I don't have half a dozen apples in the fridge at any point of time, I get mighty nervous.

The second had to do with walking every day. Ask me to play cricket, tennis, shuttle badminton or table tennis - or for that matter anything competitive, you can't drag me out of the ground or the court. But ask me to walk in the garden, then I find all sorts of excuse to get out of it. But not any more. I gritted my teeth, brought out my walking shoes and just started hitting the walking trail. I decided to increase the distance I walk everyday bit by bit. The good old 'kaizen' philosophy of quality improvement put into practice. I pushed myself a little extra every day. I have clocked at least 3 kms everyday for the past 100 days, except 4 or 5 days and have not missed my regular walk in the garden or on the beach front during the past 30 days on a trot. From a person who could barely walk quarter of a kilometre at the beginning of the year, now I dont break a sweat even if I walk for 5-6 kilometers. And this was achieved step by step, literally and figuratively. In the bargain, I discovered the beauty of the Kuwait beach front, the miles and miles of walking paths in the country, met some interesting people and on the whole have a different outlook of the country where I have been living for the past 10 years.

The regular walking has also increased my water intake. Though I am not a great believer of drinking 2 litres per day, it is a fact that drinking water does energize you and keeps you fresh for the whole day.I have lost weight, look and feel fitter and have more energy levels - both images captured by me

When day turned to night

Had a disturbed night. The insistent beeping of a message on the mobile woke me up. Was shocked to find it was already 7.35 am. Haven't slept beyond 6.30 am for ages now. Head was throbbing silghtly, body aching - a sign of age catching up perhaps. Feeling guilty, made up the bed, brushed the teeth, fixed the normal cup of coffee, switched on the Laptop for the customary reading of morning news on web. The windchime, hanging outside on the balcony, was ringing steadily - the sound melodious. Still sensing something amiss, I Opened the curtain, expectings blazing sunlight and yet another harsh pre-summer day. What I saw made me double check my Cuckoo watch. There was no mistake. It was indeed 7.50 am and getting dark. I could see the monsterous dark clouds looming on the horizon. I had to hastily close the balcony door as the swirling wind picked up dust and the rain drops starting to fall steadily. The chime was ringing wildly, reminding me of the fire engine back in Kerala. The darkness amazed me. I made a quick dive to get my Camera, once again thankful for my forethought in having kept it fully charged. The dark clouds moved overhead, reminding me of the train passing through a tunnel on the Mumbai -Pune sector. My trusted camera captured the wonderful moment for posterity,

The sky slowly turned to pale dusty orange. The street lights were on. The steady drizzle had intensified to a short sharp downpour. Camera in one hand and coffee cup in another, I watched, fascinated. The child in me, in awe of the vagaracies of the mother nature, danced with joy. Camera clicked on furiously,

The streets were empty. The cuckoo came out and cooed 8 times. I thought it might not come out during the rain. I was forced to shut the door to the balcony as the rain was coming down hard and the wind was blowing towards me. The dust was gone, the sky turned to a healthy grey, as one would expect during a steady downpour. The cars parked downstairs got a free wash, and water was flowing on the asphalted road in a steady stream. I desperately wanted to make some paper boats, go down and place them on the stream of water, but that is not on for a 46 year old man - or is it?

Then the rain stopped. The whole thing lasted 25 minutes, but wonderful 25 minutes. Reluctantly, I moved away from the window. The coffee had grown cold, for I had forgotten to even take a sip.

I was sad when the sky cleared and wanted the rain to endure. But hey! I could still enjoy the weather. The chime was still ringing, indicating a steady breeze. I pulled on my walking dress and got out immediately. A few drops of rain was still in the air, backed up by a steady breeze. The Garden was washed clean and I had it to myself - all alone. The birds, sensing the end of the rain, had started chirping. I could hear the rustling sound of the leaves. It was pleasantly cold with water still in the air. The cobbled walking path, wet from the rain, reminded me of the Kerala temples - pure and unadulterated joy pervaded the air. I took a few lung-fulls, nostalgic of the days gone by in native Kerala. There was a spring in my steps. It was as if I had rediscovered my youth. The sky was still grey, but the clouds were moving away. By the time I finished walking, the sun was trying to peep out, indicating a glorious day around the corner. Three young kids, barely 3 years old, had come by then to the Garden, running around screaming. The joy in their innocent beaming faces were worth seeing. One kid looked at me, his smile freezing at the big overbearing intruder of his joy, but on seeing me flash a huge smile and a wink, reciprocated with a whoopee. I wished I could let my hair down like him, realising the futility of a bald man letting his hair down. The heart, however, is still that of a simple kid brought up in rural kerala, amongst the paddy fields, mynahs and monsoon rain.

I gave a silent prayer to God, for giving me such a wonderful diversified experience over a short span of an hour and a half.

Happy Vishu

May the New Year bring all of you Health, Peace of Mind and Prosperity!!!

Of good and bad

I don't see eye to eye with Pritish Nandy on many issues. But his latest article on lack of good guys in public life is worth reading,


http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/where_have_all_the_good

I personally think we, as a nation, changed during mid 1980's. Corruption was prevalent prior to that, but the corrupt were afraid and not as brazen about it as they are today. The term 'under the table' was quite appropriate. But Bofors changed all that. I saw the first signs of it when I went to Delhi after a gap of 7 years in 1994. The amount of money being vulgarly spent in the nation's capital was mind boggling. The quiet, peaceful Delhi of 1980s was totally gone. And since then, it has been a downward spiral.

During my college days and for a time after that, I had been a left sympathiser, like many of my ilk. But the post EMS left front has turned out to be the biggest disappointment. True, EMS made mistakes, but he was personally clean and had in fact donated all his wealth to the party. Today, the CPI(M) has assets worth more than 2000 cr rupees in Kerala. The common man's party is not so common any more. Ditto for most of the other parties, almost all of them family owned proprietory institutions- be it DMK, AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal, TDP, BSP, SP, JD(U), JD(S), PDP, NC. Leave alone public accountability, even inner party accountability is absent.

In Kerala, people are quick to fight for their 'rights', paying scant attention to their 'responsibilities' as a citizen. But in other parts of India, people neither have responsibility nor do they care for their rights.

When State fails, when law and order is in shambles, when there is poor governance, when the judiciary is not above reproach, when there is scarcity - then it is everyone for himself. In such a scenario, even good guys turn bad.

The country awaits a principled leader who will take over after a mass movement, but I suspect it will be at least a couple of decades till that happens.

When you have a PM like this........................

US economy is in doldrums. US super power status is being questioned. Even their staunch ally of all these years, Israel, has clearly snubbed US recently when its PM refused to attend the nuclear summit. The Afghan President, post a surprise visit by Obama to that country when Obama apparently ticked off the Karzai, have stood his ground and told off America and Obama in no uncertain terms. And mind you, Israel and Afghanistan are two small countries, with Afghanistan dependant heavily on US aid. But their leaders dont bend before anyone, least of all US.


Compared to them, India is an emerging super power - at least economically. US cannot afford to antagonize India, purely for economic reasons. International diplomacy is all about national pride and standing one's ground. It is about projecting the right image of one's country at the right time. This US government under Obama has been staunchly anti-India right from the day it took office. Being one of the few countries that stood tall during the recent Global financial crisis and as a country which has a healthy 7% plus GDP growth, one would have expected our (dis)honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to read the riot act to US or at least treat US on an equaly footing at least. But what do we get? A PM who is so weak that he has made India to be a vassal state to US, as reflected in this statement made by him to Obama on the propsed state visit by Obama to India,



"You have caught the imagination of millions across the world, including the people of India who are anxiously waiting for your visit.We were greatly looking forward to this visit"



In International diplomacy, each word and its tenor will be carefully noticed for any signs of weakness. And the above is as submissive as one can get. PM has to understand that he is representing a billion plus self confident, assertive countrymen and not just a few spineless Congressmen like him.


When you have a PM like this, why do you need enemies!!!!!

Sauce of the goose is not sauce for the gander

It is an open secret that most of the North Eastern states feel totally alienated from India. They have complained that they have been ignored, rulers in Delhi do not do anything to bring them to the mainstream and at times they feel downright insulted at the thoughtless action of the Central Government and the various institutions under its control. If you read the following article, you will know why;

"Government is mulling the transfer of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran to another high court in the wake of his defiance to not proceed on leave as advised by the Supreme Court collegium.

Sources said that the collegium headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan has suggested to the Government that it consider the option of shifting Dinakaran but there was no official word on it.

They said the collegium has conveyed its decision to the Law Ministry. There is speculation that Dinakaran may be moved to a high court in a northeastern State.

With Justice Dinakaran refusing to go on leave, the Government is finding itself in a piquant situation"

How can a corrupt judge, who has been found to be unfit for the post of a Supreme Court Judge, who has been unfit for the post of Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and against whom there is an impeachment motion in the Rajya Sabha, be fit to be the Chief Justice of Sikkim? Does this mean that it is alright for a sensitive State like Sikkim to have a corrupt Chief Justice?

I smell the hand of the 'worst' Supreme Court Chief Justice India has seen K G Balakrishnan behind this drama. He had, in the first place, tried to push through Dinakaran to become a Supreme Court Justice and later had tried every trick in the book to stonewall the inquiry against Dinakaran, till his hands were forced. What a crying shame!!

Looks like 'Sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander'

For a good nights sleep..............

Vaasthu Sastra tells that one should always sleep with head pointing either, East or South.

Sleeping with head pointing East, and legs pointing west will make you healthier, both mentally and physically - basically ayussu, arogyam and sowkyam

Sleeping with head pointing South, and legs pointing north will give you wealth and prosperity.

Whatever, never sleep with head pointing North. This will have an adverse effect on health.

It is advisable to have the children sleeping with head towards East all the time.

Velikal thanne.................

What is sad about the current state of affairs in India is the ethical bankruptcy in the higher echelons of the governance.

Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakaran ( I had earlier posted about him) has been accused of corruption and amassing wealth far disproportionate to his income. He was to have been elevated to the Supreme Court, but public spirited lawyers and citizens managed to provide sufficient evidence to admit an impeachment motion in the Rajya Sabha. Dinakaran's buddy, the disgraceful Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan (who defended him till the end) finally had to bow to judicial propriety and public pressure and requested Dinakaran to go on leave, till the issue is resolved. Anyway, Dinakaran has not been assigned any cases since December 2009. By any yardstick of professional ethics, Dinakaran should have entered on leave long long ago. But despite a polite request by the Collegium headed by the CJI, and despite an acting Chief Justice posted to Karnataka High Court, Dinakaran has refused to to on leave and has brazenly continued to work. It is no secret that Dinakaran has powerful political friends in Tamil Nadu, who are part of the UPA.

Velikal thanne vilavu mudichal

Kaalikalenthinu Chollidunnu?

(If the fence itself destroys the crop, why blame the Cows- A loose translation)

Low level of blogging

Blogging will be at a low level this week. Bear with me

Headlines as per a prominent newspaper

• Pak Government tables bill to curb Zardari's powers - Better to table a bill to curb his percentage (remember his nickname 10% Zardari for taking a 10% cut in all projects during Benazir's tenure as PM?)
• India committed to N-liability law, says US - Fine. As long as the N-liability doesn't stand for National Liability
• Congress MLA's demand luxury flats in Commonwealth Games Village - Err..... how about arranging a 'local family' too to them in addition to the Flat, all at State's cost?
• Sania Mirza will continue to play for India, says AILTA - AILTA really has a death wish. Or else who wants a player who has not won a set in WTA during the past couple of years to represent your country? Let her play for Pakistan for all we care. Who wants a loser?
• Couples who do more cleaning will have more sex - I can hear chairs being pushed back in a hurry as my readers scramble for the mop.
• Smoking makes a person dumb - Wrong! How can you make a dumb, a dumb. Any one who smokes is dumb in the first place.
• Sports and liquor dont go together, says M S Gill - Unless it is Vijay Mallya and IPL/F1

Candour

"In a world full of people lacking it,
Having candour is my curse"