The Choice Is Ours...

The chronological history of India dates back to about 34,000 years ago, when the first traces of human existence on the Indian subcontinent were found. Since then, it has hosted some of the greatest civilizations that have significantly shaped up human history.

Right from the Mughal conquests to the Indian freedom struggle, from Vasco de Gama’s voyage to the partition of India post independence, the declaration of emergency or be it the demolition of Babri Masjid, these were all choices made by individuals which had far reaching after effects on the future of this nation.

Life always gives us choices. We can always chose to be, (or not to be) in a particular state of mind or have a certain opinion. Our nation and its history has been built based on these choices that various individuals have made at various points in time under diverse circumstances, the effects of which have been faced by generations to come.

On 26th November, 2008 we witnessed events which changed the way we lived forever. The trauma of these series of events can never be encapsulated appropriately in words. Language always looses out in the battle of superior relevance to emotions. The stark difference being, language is always expressed, but emotions, experienced.

The large hoi polloi of Indian masses revel in the values enshrined in our democratic character. We hope for emancipation through justice. We hope despite being duped of it several times before. But after all we’re Indians. We’re hardly trained to learn lessons from the past. We’re the superior breed. We celebrate Idiosyncrasies like “forgiveness”, “mercy”, “suffering”, “salvation through pain” etc.

Today, the verdict on the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of the 26/11 attacks was announced. He was pronounced ‘guilty’. There were so many of us who were expecting that ‘justice’ would be delivered. The culprits will be ‘brought to book’. The wrong doers will be punished and the victims vindicated. Well ya right. The irony of this great nation is that we still have the ability to think so naively that we can make a lolly sucking toddler feel like Einstein.

Do you really think ‘justice’ has been done? Do you really think ‘justice’ can be done? Can Ombale, Salaskar, Kamte, Unnikrishnan and others come back? Will Karambir Kang ever be able to enjoy another meal with his family in the hotel which he manages himself. Will baby Moshe ever get his parents back? More importantly will the public prosecutor bring back my sleep which I lost in utter frightful disgust while catching up on all the live broadcast of 10 men raping the dignity of my city for 60 long hours?

The answer to all the above questions is a big NO. But some of us, will be calling this trial a victory of our “Democratic Process”. Well yea, friends, leave this bullshit for the politicians to mutter in press conferences. If this is a victory, I’d rather not win. I’m tired of such victories in Jessika Lall Case, In Malegaon Blast Case, In Babri Demolition Case, In Godhra Riots Case, In Bofors, In Fodder Scam Case, and millions of other idiotic legal proceedings which have overburdened our judiciary to the extent that it has even lost its relevance.

I’d be the first one to jump in to celebrate victory if the families of the victims of 26/11 would have been compensated adequately. If the public transportation and public places would have been protected enough post the incident. I’d have rejoiced had we pulled up our socks on internal security, had we been able to corner Pakistan to arrest Hafiz Sayeed and hand him over to India. I’d have danced in joy if we were able to extradite David Headly. The problem in India is that we’re just too accustomed to the judiciary stepping in and giving us illusionary solace of emancipation.

It just gives us this illusionary satisfaction that something has been done and takes our minds off the original reasons which caused the mess or the logical steps which should have been taken to prevent another mess from occurring. Which is why, I feel that Judiciary in India is the greatest constitutional cover up mechanism. It’s almost like a lifeline or an escape route available to every wrong doer in India.

This rant is just the emotional outburst of an anguished Indian. For the rest of you’ll who think this spoils your “celebration of justice”, save me the trouble of apologizing to you. Go to the nearest legal library and look up the law books (Which I think, if all sold as scrap, would wipe out the Fiscal Deficit of this country) on provisions of Appeals to the Supreme Court. You’ll find Kasab’s lawyers there chatting up over chai, about the next course of action. There’s this dude called Mohd. Afzal a.k.a Afzal Guru as well, who attacked our parliament in 2001. He’s been cheating imminent death as per his sentence. It’s possible because he’s a believer. Nahh… not in God, in the eternal hopelessness of the Indian system and the inherent idiosyncrasy of this concept called ‘Mercy Petition’. No wonder he’s called “Guru” – The dude’s got great insight on how things work in this part of the world.

As I said, the choice is ours. We can view this verdict the way we want. Call it our success or our collective failure. Life always gives us choices. We can always chose to be, (or not to be) in a particular state of mind or have a certain opinion. Our nation and its history has been built based on these choices that various individuals have made at various points in time under diverse circumstances, the effects of which have been faced by generations to come….

Incredible November and the Pack of Cards!!

November, 2008 will go down in the history of the world as a month which taught mankind how illusionary and transitory size and scale is. November brought with it, one of the biggest hurricane the corporate world had ever witnessed in the financial meltdown and also made us witness to one of the most the horrific terror attacks in India. Somewhere, a common theme between the collapses of very different empires is that of lack of controls, discipline and processes. It is all a result of the games our mind plays with us. The fall of empires is an outcome of allowing the mind to run wild.

Let us connect this with something we do everyday. Crisis management is about creating a simpler and focused regulatory environment which is efficient, quick, consistent and reliable. Be it related to financial or human security regulation. If you look at it objectively keeping emotions aside, I think it is about clearing out all the “Unpredictability & unreliability” that exists in the way we currently tackle our situations of crisis across forms & scale in India. In a model such as this, controls come in without making the whole deal look bureaucratic. Technology takes over the role of controls and doesn’t allow leaks. This is exactly how successful business processes get built too. Responsible organizations control their minds. Or they go down like pack of cards. (Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch)

That brings me to another performance metric, which is reliability. Reliability is essentially a testimony of inherent strength. Superlative performance one week and down the next doesn’t get us too far. *(Kudos to the clinically consistent approach followed by NSG throughout the rescue operation). If you go to see, every stakeholder wants to see an expected consistency in performance levels, and here the stakeholders are the citizens of the country.

We have hugely challenging times coming up. As I have already said, “The insanity of extremism is over…but the insanity of polity will start now!” and we must collectively suppress it in its attempt to polarize us using their age old disguised sympathetic vote bank politics, especially in times of general elections looking large on the country. Times to come are going to challenge our grit, reliability and determination as a collective dynamic emerging society. Let’s look at this adversity and turn in into a positive opportunity to bring about a lasting change. The youth of our country have enormous power. Let’s give it everything we’ve got and get this period so right – like never before!

Remember we want the systems to be reliable, consistent & effective. Let’s ourselves be that. Let’s not be shooting stars. They sure look good, but they shine for a few seconds and later get relegated to National Geographic episodes. It takes a real sun to rise every morning – tear the clouds apart, chase the darkness away and say, “Sun, good morning, may I shine on you?” and do so every morning. Lets rededicate ourselves to our purpose of life with rejuvenated vigor. Let’s do, what we do best, a little better. Let’s not be terrorized by the losses of money and men. Let’s unshackle ourselves from the misery of cynicism and let’s free ourselves from being called the victims time and again.

C’mon India, It’s time to make that journey towards change. Let’s answer all the difficult questions together, and tell them… “Yes, we can……”