Kejriwal - the good thief

Once I was invited by my friend for lunch at his place. At the dining table; my friend and his wife had a small problem. Their 2 and half year old bundle of joy was adamant she wanted pasta for lunch while they had prepared rice. No matter how much they would plead and cajole; the kid would not relent.

Thanks to having 3 younger siblings; I have some experience in babysitting and handling obstinate toddlers. I started a conversation with my friend, pretending to totally ignore the child.

“Look, all this rice is for me. Do not give any rice to Nimmi. Give only pasta to Nimmi. Only I will eat this tasty rice.  This rice is only for me.”

“Mama, give me rice” Nimmi suddenly announced.

“No, you cannot have rice. You have to eat pasta only” I played tough.

“No! I will eat rice only!” the kid screamed in a determined voice.

It speaks volumes about Kejriwal’s acumen and shrewdness that he handled the veteran seasoned politicians of Congress and BJP with the same ease as I handled the kid.

I remember the 2010-11 period when Anna’s movement (mastermind by Kejriwal) had caught the imagination of the Indian public. Cornered by the mass movement; Congress and BJP were daring team Anna to join mainstream politics. As if to get them committed on their words; Kejriwal went on length to reiterate that they are apolitical and will never come to politics.

I remember Manish Tiwari, a spokesperson from congress singing “Tadbeer se bigdi hui takdeer bana le; apne pe bharosa ho to ek daun laga le”. “File your nomination from Chandni chowk” he challenged Kejriwal. Many others made similar comments.
“He is not fit for a municipal seat” others mocked.

All these words were music to the ears of Kejriwal. Congress and BJP got castled completely. Now Kejriwal announced his plans to join active politics. The immediate fall out was split in Team Anna. Kejriwal had already calculated the price he had to pay. The good news for him was that Congress and BJP had lost their chance to accuse Kejriwal’s political ambition behind his movements.

Circa Dec 2013 feels like déjà vu. AAP has astonished everyone with its performance in Delhi Elections but just falls short of clear majority to form the government.
Kejriwal beats the rhetoric. “I vow on my 2 kids; I will never form a government with support of Congress or BJP.”
Congress and BJP both bite the bait and start prodding Kejriwal to accept the mandate given by junta and form the government. Kejriwal ignores them. He chooses to be silent for next 10 days. Congress and BJP get buoyant on their conviction that they have caught Kejriwal on the wrong foot. What Kejriwal was doing was to wait and let Congress and BJP make all the persuasion to him to form the government.

Now he accepts to form the Government in Delhi. Congress and BJP appear fools in front of him. They have lost their opportunity to taunt that Kejriwal is power hungry.

Now, the breed of politicians in our country is thick skinned. I do not expect a Manish Tiwari or Kapil Sibbal or Vijay Goel or Dijvijay Singh to look apologetic and ashamed. However, they are alarmed and intimidated. For now, Kejriwal has beaten them on their own turf. What Kejriwal has achieved is no mean feat.

Am I elated by the win of the common man? Not still. My instincts tells me that Kejriwal’s win is not win of light over darkness and hence no cause for celebrating an early Diwali. Kejriwal has just won the battle of wits. How virtuous he is and how just his governance would be; is to be seen. In all fairness, we need to give him time of next 1 year to deliver and run the government.

Let’s recount some of the handles Kejriwal used to garner his popularity; some of the moves being highly populist and unfair in my personal opinion.

Ø  He gets some picture of Sheila Dixit sharing stage with singer Honey Singh and declares her responsible for all rapes happening in Delhi

Ø  A girl is brutally raped in a moving bus in Delhi and Kejriwal caught the opportunity to blame it on Sheila Dixit. Thousands of young men joined him in condemning Shiela’s government. None of the youth in the crowd is asked to retrospect and accept if they ever were involved in eve teasing; stalking or making unwelcome move towards the opposite sex.

Ø  He found some people not willing to pay for their electricity bills; he goes and reconnects their electricity lines.

Ø  Promise to regularize all the illegal colonies in Delhi.

Ø  Promises to provide free 800 litres water to all the houses.

Ø  Promises to slash Electricity bills by half.

Ø  Encourages people to take law in their own hands

What he is doing is not something done for the first time. I find many of his traits matching with Mamata Banerjee. She has been ruling Bengal by her populist policies; not necessarily by bringing better governance or making significant upliftment  in the lives of masses. When these movements get uncontrolled; they turn into point of no return like naxalite, maosit menace we have seen in India.

What is Kejriwal’s message here?

Does he approve of everyone who wants to encroach and put up illegal settlement in Delhi or is he saying that he has done it only one time to win the elections and after he comes in power; no one should settle illegally and respect law?

Similar questions pop up about electricity. Do the electricity companies have right to discontinue supply if the consumers stop paying for bills or not?

What will he do if Haryana or UP refuses to provide free water to Delhi?

Knowing the grit of Kejriwal, I know he is in for a long haul here. He has already thrown hints of his game plan. He has told that he would not shy from prosecuting Robert VAdra, Sheila Dixit of BJP politicians. He can use this effectively to blackmail the Congress and BJP to give in to his demands; no matter how unreasonable they may sound.

Key point is; Kejriwal has nothing to lose while the Congress and BJP have everything on stake. If his government is toppled; he will say that Congress and BJP were scared that he will prosecute their corrupt practices. So, I expect a lot of dirty linens being washed in public. Nonetheless, is very good for our democracy. Feel very happy with defeat of the veterans by the rookie.
Time will tell if Kejriwal was modern day Jayaprakash Narayan or just a V. P. Singh. Hypersmash.com

What do you say to people on the streets who ask you “Do you believe in Jesus?”

Or for that matter, members of “Hare Krishna” movement; offering you free books on the street; or Muslims handing you pamphlets assuring that Mohammed was the last real prophet and everyone has to convert to Islam or be doomed?

Recently I have moved in a small town, Den Bosch in Holland and I love the old architecture of the place. The cobblestoned streets are charming, the old brick buildings and church add perfectly to the ambience and the meandering canals make the picture complete. Strolling comes natural to me. I love to walk without any desire to reach the destiny. Going for a walk gives me kicks. It fills some fresh oxygen in my brain and I am able to take my mind off the 1001 problems from office and home that keep me otherwise very preoccupied.

Except for Fridays and Saturdays, the streets in my neighborhood get sparse and lonely in the late evenings. This poses a challenge to my quest for walk. You are susceptible to being approached by some people who would like to talk to you and the deserted surrounding can make you feel intimidated.

Street crime in Netherlands is thankfully much lower than UK. Here in Den Bosch, people are very friendly and kind. Mugging, snatching or knife crime is unheard of and that is very assuring indeed. Probably that is the reason why I am able to garner courage to walk alone.  

I do get in uncomfortable situations if I venture out further from my home. Once in a while some drugs junkie would approach me and tell that he did not had food for last 2 days and if I could spare some money for him. I apologize that I was not carrying my wallet and walk ahead steadily.

Today, two well-built guys approached me as I was on my stroll. They did not fit the bill of an addict. My instinct made me quickly look around and check out the escape routes but I kept a straight face. One of them approached me and started talking in Dutch.

“Sorry I do not speak Dutch.” I tried to make excuse and move on.

“I speak little English” the guy in red t-shirt did not want to let me go off his hook.

“Have you heard of Jesus?” he started.

“Yes” I replied. I completely understood in which direction this conversation was headed.

“Do you believe in Jesus?” came the next question.

“Yes, I do believe in Jesus, AND all the other masters like Mohamed, Buddha and Hinduism; religion of my birth.” I was at my religious correctness best.

“That is no problem. You see one thing is a concept we make from hearing what others say and it is entirely different to reach a conclusion by direct experience.” The man went on with his convincing spree.

“Someone may tell you I am a good or bad person; but if you really need to know me; you will have to take me out for a coffee. Sit at the table and talk to me in person. Same holds true with our relationship with Jesus.” The poor fellow was trying to captivate me with his limited verbal abilities.

“Hang on. May I ask you a question?” I turned on to him.

“Do you believe there is only one God?”

“Yes, Indeed. I do believe there is only one true God.” The man replied.

“And you believe there is only one true messenger of God and that is Jesus Christ.” I was asking close ended questions to cut our loop in a loop discussion short.

“Yes my friend, I believe there is only one true messenger, Jesus.” The man replied.

“We have a difference of opinion here and I would like end our discussions here. I believe in multiple true messengers and you in one.” I closed the discussion and took their leave hurriedly.

“Have a good night.” The man waived at me.

I feel deep respect to this charitable, altruistic aspect of humans. People take a break from daily chore of making the ends meet and try to help others with what they truly believe is superior. These people on street did not have any ulterior motive. They did not expect monetary benefit from me in return or to receive any other favors. They try to talk and convince me with something they strongly believe is good for all.

They might be right or wrong and that is not so important for me. I salute their desire to take up a charitable cause.

50 Shades of Morality in India

Recently I came across an article by one of my favorite bloggers, Sharell Cook. She is an Australian, settled in India and writes extensively on Indian idiosyncrasies. She was making and observation on “Morality forRich vs Morality for Poor in India”.

This triggered some stream of thoughts in my mind and I scribbled a response to her blog.
Here is what I wrote:

Hi Sharell

A thought provoking article as always.

I am merely trying look for reasons for Indian double standards (or rather quadruple standards) and not to justify any of the practices. To begin with; Indian society is a far more complex mix of cultures, civilizations and schools of thoughts and accepted moral values than any other contemporary civilization or state.

There was culture of Indus valley civilization; it went through its own diversification/degeneration over time and then got forcefully impacted by the Arabs. Forced conversions; forced imposition of a foreign moral system. The place of women in Indian society has been influenced by Arab incursions. The system of purda; woman remaining indoors; having poor education is a mix of Indian and Arab culture. Then came Christians from different parts of Europe and ruled different parts of India. They came with their own agenda of influencing; controlling the behavior; put value system in Indians mind to make their job of ruling the country easier. One of the common characters of invaders is that they try to shame, insult and demoralize their subjects. Arabs called the mountain range between North West Pakistan and Central Afghanistan as Hindu Kush; which literally meant “kill the hindus”. If you read some of the memoirs of the Arab invaders; they described the Indians as very ugly; dark people fit to be either killed or converted. White people, at height of their success seriously thought they have the “White man’s burden” to colonize and “civilize” rest of the world. Of course there is free will and freedom of choice but in any culture; a very small percentage of population has that wisdom and majority fall under the “follower” group.

It is remarkable in some sense that India was able to retain its core character while still being impregnated by all the foreign influences. India is a country; always in transition; from being ruled to becoming independent; from being poor economy to emerging economy; from being under supremacy of Hinduism; to being under Islamic influence to being under control of Christians to becoming a secular state. It needs time to stabilize. Is like the new mountain range of Himalayas which is still growing; active; having landslides, earthquakes, tectonic imbalances; while many others have reached stability of a plateau. (I don’t know if I overshot in the comparison!).

In India; not only is there gap between rich and poor (which probably is there everywhere to different extent); we even have generation gap; gap between regions and on every parameters. I see in west; the society is stabilized. There is off course gap between the generations but not as pronounced as in India. In Indian society; within the same family; mother and daughter would have different moral judgment and point of view about choice of clothes; smoking; drinking, body piercing, tattoo, partying, live in before marriage; vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Where else do you see such pronounced differences?

Interestingly; Indian culture has historically emphasized on having different yardsticks or morality for different people (for good or for bad!). We have so many Gods or deities that everyone can afford to have a personalized God. Hinduism also divides people in 4 castes (In ancient times; we are told that people had choice of their own caste. They chose their caste by the profession and occupation rather than by birth.) These 4 castes were prescribed different moral values. What was moral for one caste was immoral for the other.

Within the same caste; each individual’s life was divided in 4 stages or ashram; Brahmcharya (celibate), Grihastha (family man), Vanprastha (elder of the family) and then Sanyas (renounced). In the later part of Sanyas; a person would desire death voluntarily. There are prescriptions about in which stage of life of your son, you should treat him with love; which stage you should beat and discipline him and at which stage you should treat him like your brother and equal.

Before Arabs came to India; there was no tradition of stitched cloth in India. Being topless for women was the norm (even for the richest ruling class) rather than some taboo. In Ramayana; in the episode where Surpanakha (sister of Ravana) went to the brothers Rama and Lakshmana and expressed her desire to have sex with them; his brother Ravana felt offended when he came to know that some men have refused his sister’s desire to have sex with them. That was the moral value of the time. In Mahabharata; Krishna and many of the Kings had multiple wives and we have cases of Draupadi who had multiple husbands (5 brothers married to one wife). That tradition is still carried in some north Indian communities and it is accepted to be perfectly moral by that community.

I also realize that some of the moral dictates have been just enforced to do larger good to the society as it is assumed that not everyone has the capacity to figure out the best for himself/herself. I will give you one example from my life. I grew in a lower middle class family and as a child; I always saw that those who liked to have meals in restaurants were considered spoiled; those kids who liked outdoor sports were considered bad and they were reprimanded and refrained from their life vocations. I realize now that it came from self-preservation and the fact that for the lower middle class people; being more academically inclined and having a restrained life style would help the kids to have a brighter future and a possibility to afford all those vocations in future.

Bringing the same thought to having different moral yardstick for rich and poor; if poor people continue to give into indulgences; they would never save enough to invest in their kids’ education; elevate their living standards; save for old age; health expenses etc. This is a reality in many of the slums; daily wage workers; coolies etc. They slog whole day to spend their earning on alcohol; spend on dance bar or gambling or other things like that and are not able to come out of it for whole life. Off course end of the day; it boils down to each individual’s responsibility for his/her own life. May be; educating and motivating these people for a better life strategy is the most ideal thing; refraining them in name of morality might be a practical tool which perhaps does more good than bad to those individuals and their dependents. There is a method in Indian madness. Is not the most ideal one; is not universally acceptable, is questionable and debatable but probably this is what keeps India moving.

Why we give in to Temptation

I fail every day to my temptations of sorts. Getting up early and doing exercise would give me a healthy body but I give in to the temptation to be in the bed. Doing deep meditation everyday would give me great focus for my day ahead; I give in to temptation of day dreaming and distractions. Taking my work seriously in office would do wonders to my declining and stagnant career graph; I give in to the temptation of taking it easy. If I become stingy; I can get rid of all my loans and build a small fortune; I always give in to my temptations to spend.

I am not alone in my weakness against temptations. Sreeshanth allegedly gave in to temptation of making quick bucks in betting and so did Kundra, Shilpa Shetty and our beloved Vindu Dara Singh! Phaneesh gave in to temptation of carnal kind and the list is endless.

I close my eyes and try to imagine a world where humanity has control over its temptation. I open my eyes with shock. Imagine what would happen to world economy if citizens could not be tempted by the corporate? There would be no cigarettes, liquor, high end fashion outlets, coke, pepsi, smart phone wars on the high street. You would come across only life saving drug stores, organic unprocessed food stores and khadi outlets in city centre.
Temptation is probably nature's best tool to keep the wheel of samsara rolling. . If everyone starts waking up early; do exercise, meditation, have controlled and good diet and lead a very disciplined life; perhaps the life expectancy of the world would rise to 200 years. How would mother earth provide to this ever increasing population? If all the successful people never get distracted by temptation; would the underprivileged stand any chance to excel and succeed in this world? If the citizens of prosperous and well heeled countries do not become distracted by their comfort; would the third world countries ever get a chance to progress? Nature recycles the limited resources judiciously by the necessary evil, temptation.

What will it prove if NRN succeeds in his second stint with Infosys

Majority of the Infosys employees have breathed a sigh of relief at the news. While the actual outcome of this move is to be seen in times to come; it has brightened the moods like the pre monsoon showers in Bangalore. We live in an era of instant gratification. Eggs are counted before they are hatched. It is not very difficult to imagine that Infosys stocks will reach highs in coming week (unless and until counter balancing news of some US federal rulings about visa usage irregularity by India based Software service providers hit the news headline).

NRN’s return to Infosys draws comparison with some other famous comebacks like that of Steve Jobs to Apple or Pele’s return to Brazil’s national squad for 1970 world cup though he had announced retirement post 1966 world cup. The 7.5 Billion Dollar question is; “Will he be equally successful at that?”

There are critics and skeptics within and without the organization. I have heard the arguments that success of Infosys can also be attributed a large extent to the timing rather than the pure brilliance and talent of founders. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL, Mahindra BT; almost every India based IT companies grew handsomely in the first 25 years of their existence (1980 – 2005 era). Government showered the IT industry with ample tax holidays, there was no backlash in US, Europe for outsourcing jobs; recession was yet to hit West in the way it has been hitting in the recent times.  There was untapped market and Indian companies reaped the first arriver’s award. The test of the true mettle is going to be the next 25 years (2006 – 2030). What attributes have got the Indian companies to this status in last 25 years doesn’t guarantee the same trajectory in next 25 years. Everyone needs to reinvent, adapt and innovate to avoid dinosaurs’ fate.

Irrespective of the changed industry dynamics; NRN as an individual, commands respect. He is and will remain one of most admired entrepreneurs in India. He has led by example when it comes to imbibing the values of sharing credit, sharing fortune, not letting success get into the head, non-attachment to position of power, building successors, leading a controversy free life and what could be loosely termed as compassionate capitalism. He put his integrity and transparency above everything else. Some values that have really defined the character of the company, Infosys. One can only admire the decisions of Infosys like not bidding for any work for National UID scheme launched by Government of India when Nandan was chosen to lead the project; or not to make any attempt to gobble any of the assignments being executed by Satyam when it went bust.

It pains me to see that a man has been forced out of his well-earned retirement as the successors faltered. He is 67 years old now and has taken up the role for next 5 years! Perhaps it is not a burden for him as I see it. After all Infosys has been his middle baby. I wish him good luck as I wait and watch out for his magic touching my life one more time. J

Throw your stone at Phaneesh Murthy

Phaneesh Murthy has a knack for 2 things; he makes his employer and his secretary rich. The man who joins Infosys at the age of 27 years and in next 10 years plays a key role in taking its worth from $2 Million to $750 million; falters. For the same reason that Adam was thrown out of heaven; Phaneesh is shown the doors of Infosys. Somebody walks away with $3 Million in out of court settlement.

                Next 10 years, the man works in sheath to grow another company to 4 times its original size at the time of his joining. In the process, buying Patni Computers, the organization where the 4 founders of Infosys started their careers. Probably a symbolic defiance to his mentors and previous employers.
When everything was looking like a second dream run; the man does it again. He is named and shamed and fired again. Same weakness gets him down on two occasions. Will he rise one more time?

At least one man is wishing him good luck and success. The lawyer who filed the law suit against him twice.

Solution to the acute water shortage in India

Since our childhood we have been warned of the ever depleting natural resources and most importantly drinking water. Unplanned urbanization; exploding population and consumerism are certainly taking their toll. I remember my early childhood in Patna, taking cloth bags or jhola to the local grocery shops for buying vegetables, sugar, salt, masala and biscuits were the norm rather than an ecological fad. The provisions would be weighed and packed in paper bags made from old newspaper and books. Polythene was unheard of and unseen till some point in my growing up when it just became ubiquitous.
We would sell our old newspaper, books, plastic bottles, glass jars, nonfunctioning tube-lights and electric bulbs to scavenger boys who would collect the old articles door to door. Tight fitting piece of clothing would be passed on to the younger lot in the family; old clothes would be used as sleeping suits and finally would be spoilt and torn apart during Holi, the festival of colours. The torn clothes would serve as mop for a very long time in the household. We recycled everything. I would have taken my old rubber slippers to the cobbler at least 5 times before discarding them. Same would be true for my shoes.
These extreme conservation practices were not necessarily out of our consciousness about the environment; love for our mother earth or any of those traits from responsible citizen charter but affordability. Average household could not afford to be wasteful with their limited means. Thanks to the liberalization and capitalism; households which once used to be content with a gross income of 5000 rupees per month, find it a struggle to manage with an income of 5000 rupees per day!
We call it inflation; we say that the value for money has gone down; the purchasing power of rupee has gone south. We were able to buy a lot in those good old days. All this is true along with the fact that if I start having a lifestyle that I had in my childhood; I would probably be able to live on a tenth of my monthly expenditures.
There is another aspect to it. If I stop longing for those gadgets; changing that watch, upgrading that smartphone; going for bigger, sleeker HD Flat screen TV  or changing furniture and upholstery of my house every six months; probably the big companies will go into slump; they will bring down the markets; economy will fall apart; people employed in these luxury industries would lose employment; They will pull out India’s name from BRICS; we will be out of the league of progressive countries. Probably America and China will attack India vent out their frustration and disgust for India being such a pull-down. We pay the price of modernization. Capitalism looks like riding a running lion with no way to step down.
Anyways; the purpose of me writing this blog is a question that sprung in my mind while watching these news channels and knowing of the worsening water crisis we are facing in most of the big cities in India. Mainly the two cities close to my heart; Delhi and Bengaluru.
Is the water crisis really that hard to crack? We are surrounded on 3 sides by water still we do not have access to portable water.  I read reports about new economic corridors being built between Mumbai and Delhi. Is it not possible that we lay big water pipeline along Mumbai-Delhi highway? It should be something like the oil pipelines we lay for transporting oil; albeit much cheaper and simple. Pump the sea water from Mumbai in this pipe all the way to Delhi! Identify naturally occurring rocky reservoirs on the way and reinforce them appropriately so that they can be used for storing water. Fill all these open tanks and lakes on the way from Mumbai to Delhi. This should result in lots of evaporation of the sea water filled in lakes and tanks and hopefully should increase the rainfall in the area. The rain water would be fresh distilled water and not salty. This will increase the water table in the area and also increase the green cover. Spread these water pipes to the deserts of Rajasthan. Have very robust arrangement for rain harvesting and make sure that the rain water doesn’t drain back in the sea water containing lakes. These sea water reservoirs should be land locked like Dead sea and should not have any connection with water source. In 5-10 years of time; when our rain harvested tanks get filled with sweet water; the sea water reservoirs can be allowed to be emptied by evaporation (and no replenishment by pumping sea water). We probably would be able to extract the salt by scrapping the bottom of these reservoirs commercially.
If the Dutch can claim land from sea by building dykes; why cannot we reclaim fertile land and forests from Thar desert?
This could be applied to Bangalore with much less effort. Bangalore is just 150 km from Sea! And maybe we will put an end to the acute fresh water crisis that India is facing for good. It might have a ROI period of 30 years; but this should definetly deliver.

Tell me guys am I missing a point here?