The Seeker's Song....

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed, I’ve lived and cried,
Every trick in the book I’ve certainly tried.

Success and fame are my loyal pets,
I made a killing on every one of my bets.

I’ve traveled the world over and oceans wide,
I’ve also brought my people honour and pride.

So many of my friends I’ve always bailed,
Seldom before in a venture I’ve ever failed.

Yet somehow at the dusk of my life,
I feel the emptiness and an internal strife.

There’s an urge to hold onto all things fine,
I guess it’s the insecurity of being past my prime.

I’m a seeker and till death I shall seek,
A little bit of love and a caring person to speak,

Death is inevitable and soon it will arrive,
But at that moment I wonder, will there be someone who wished I was alive?

Take my message, to you my heart I pour,
What good is success? does it matter how high you soar?

If at the end, you lament and say…..
"There isn't a single person on this planet,
who gets to know my everything anymore."

An Idea for India….

15th August, 2008: Instead of the regular and almost ritualistic wake up trance on the Independence Day morning of watching the PM’s address from the Red Fort, this time I did something rather different.. Or indifferent I must say. It was a Friday and yes, today I would get my copy of the Economic Times, *(I don’t subscribe to it on weekends due to affordability issue – it costs Rs. 9 on Sundays). So cherishing the great opportunity of browsing through the ET early morning, I came across this masterpiece compilation in the “Corporate Dossier” supplement of the ET. 9 of India’s CEO’s had volunteered to write for the special publication. It was truly a special issue which indeed brought out the varied opinions of these CEO’s on nation building, articulating their ideas for India’s future. It was truly insightful. I’m just attempting to summarize what I gathered from their opinions with my own inputs here. Let’s see if An IDEA can change our lives….

Henry Luce, the legendary founder of TIME, called business, an instinctive exercise in foresight. So is nation building, said the learned CEOs. Let us acknowledge the fact that in the history of this world, nations sometimes find themselves on the threshold of opportunity, it is then that their adopted actions & policies that determine how successful these nations emerge as global powers. There are various such opportunities that time has given to the world. Be it the World War, Cold War, Humans going into space, birth of atomic & nuclear warfare, or the more recent global economic slowdowns. The series of events have always thrown up opportunities in times of adversities.

India is today faced with the great paradox of population. Where today every 6th person in the world is an Indian, where do we see our country going ahead into the future? We as the people of this country must decide how we want India to be positioned at the turn of the next decade. We have some inherent strength in the form of our young populations, a pervasive & strong democracy and the naturally entrepreneurial spirit of our people, but is it enough to make us a superpower in times to come? Certainly not…

Despite having one of the best democracies in the world, ironically Indian polity faces the chronic disease of opportunism & petty shortsightedness. Most of all, it is the sheer distorted priorities of leadership in this country which has posed a most ghastly scare to the nation’s progress. Just to sight an example, the CM of Maharashtra offering a Rs. 10 lakh reward to Abhinav Bindra, the millionaire shooter Kid of a millionaire father. This is not to undermine Abhinav’s magnanimous achievement in bagging an individual Gold for India, but just goes to show the completely distorted priorities of our leadership. Does Abhinav actually need that money? What does Maharashtra specifically have to do with Abhinav, who is actually a resident of Chandigarh? And then they complain that farmers are committing suicide in Vidarbha!

With the inflation at its peak, and the world facing a financial slowdown, the Government is busy making its point by proving its majority on the floor of the house, just because a handful of old fashioned red obsessed Bongo Malyali comrades thought that the Nuclear Deal is not in India’s national interest. Also if all this drama wasn’t enough, our old protagonists at nationalistic drama, the saffron brigade pull out a sensationalism & wannabe’ishness personified cash for vote sting, which was nothing short of Rakhi Sawant antics thrown in the media just to get undue attention. The Hon. Speaker of the house of Lok Sabha is suspended from his own party and bundles of notes thrown in front of the parliament. Multiple bomb blasts across Gujarat & other cities across the country are only few of the examples of the high handedness with which this country is Governed.

Nandan Nilekani, the Co Chairman of Infosys in his article (which I could relate to the most) writes that Policy Makers need to recognise that free markets and reforms in themselves can be pro poor. We do not need the glam high but brittle promises of thousands of crores of farm loan waivers. He wonderfully describes India as “Limited Access” state. The rapid growth that India witnessed over the last 2 decades is fuelling new hopes amongst Indians, for better lives, incomes and employment. But there is too much that still barricades the way. And the reason that so many Indians remain cut off from the economy is that we have yet to fully embrace what ought to be the core idea behind reforms – expanding access.

Air Deccan, a wonderful model of expanding flying experience access to marginalized people has been dumped because of the taxation policies of the Govt on Surcharge & taxes on Air Fuel & Airport development. The lack of capital means, average Indian finds it difficult to take loans to start up his business. A weak subsidy system means that poorer Indians lack any kind of safety net to take big life risks, such as attempt higher education or migrate for better jobs. Only 15% of our farmers have bank credit. With our Government run schools in dismal state and almost 90% of our populations still languishing in the underpaid, underdeveloped unorganized sector we sure have a reason to regroup and rework our strategies.

If we have to match upto the “Great American Dream” of the 1950’s and the 1960’s or walk head to head with the Chinese Great Leap of the 1970’s and 1980’s we need to expand access of basic resources to the most poorest of the poor. We need many more “Lead India” & “Teach India” campaigns. Many of us will find this goal a struggle. But then, most of our past triumphs have come after a great struggle. All our battles that we have won have been hard fought. We are seen as a country which exemplifies struggle. Now, we must ensure that the world wakes up and takes notice of the sheer power of the hopes and aspirations of 1.1 Billion people. After all, it is said, that a single idea can change your life…

Champions are boring!!!

It is a rainy evening. Its already 8:00 p.m. and I'm anxiously waiting for my mum to serve up some dinner. I am really hungry after a nice long and brisk walk at the seaface. In the midst of this agonising wait, I suddenly learnt an invaluable lesson in excellence!!!


As a matter of habiutual ritual, I was flipping channels... India was getting thrashed at the hands of the archrivals Pakistan in an important Asia Cup cricket match. How could I have continued watching the ordeal! Hence, as a natural progression, I switched to watching the Wimbledon!!! Let me tell you, it's one of the most classy sporting tournaments held accross all disciplines accross the wide spectrum of international sporting arena. Everything about the tournament exudes class, from the ground staff to the ball boys to even the crowd. Even the applause after every point somehow sounds perfectly in sync and rhythemic.

Yesterday, I happen to catch the Quarter Final clash between the World No. 1 Roger Federer and Mario Ancic, who has the distinction of being the last man to have defeated FedEx, on his preffered grass surface, way back in 2002... The champ, hasnt lost a match since!!!


The match, mildly put, was a highly boring, one sided affair with short streaks of brilliance on display by the gutsy challenger, Ancic. But as anticipated, he failed to make too much of a headroom and lost the match in straight sets. And then in hindsight I sat wondering.... Why do so many people die to see such boring matches?? What's so great about this dumb guy who just doesnt know the art of loosing?? What's so great about him??


And then, on serious contemplation... I slowly began to find answers to my questions. The first premise I established was "Champions, more often than not, are boring!!"



More often than not, all of us are in our average lifetime, are faced with our big moments of truth. These are moments which decide, how the coming generations would remember us, or rather, will they remember us at all or not! Champions, as species, are plagued with this habbit of treating such important moments as if they are inconsequential!!!


They go about doing what they do best, the way they know best, which in most cases, is by beating the rest!!! Champions are almost always on top of their game. They are sheer antonyms of excitement. Obviously as one gets excited and nervous, only when one is uncertain about the result. Champions are always sure of what the result would be!!


More importantly, and boringly true champions are humble. As a press person, you will never be able to extract a 'headline statement' out of them which would provoke further sensationalism. They'd never criticise, never throw brickbats as their peers. Aaarrggghhhh so irritating!! They are agonisingly monotonous and colourless in their personalities. They are a gossip columnist's nightmare!!

Also, something which baffles me, is the sheer hunger to win that these morons have. I mean.. why would Sachin want to score a run more in his lifetime... he already has thousands of them stacked up anyways.... or probably.. whats the joy Federer would get in lifting the same damn wimbledon trophy 6 consecutive times...isn't he bored of doing the same thing again and again??? Or to top it all.. whats the fun, Schumi would have got... going almost insanely around a race circuit at top speed like a rat lost in his hole.... for more than a decade!!!

I mean.. there are no answers to these questions!!! But yes, through all this contemplation, I have finally concluded that "Champions are boring" - Probably that's what makes them the champions they are!!!