Jaago Re.. Oram Po..

It happens with Chennai Autowalas - Yes, my blogs. Dusting off my blog after a long time.

Scene 1: Mumbai Airport. Just before the departure of my flight to Chennai, had a conversation with a friend from Janaagraha on their new initiative with Tata Tea - "Jaago Re! One Billion Votes". I am sure many of you would have seen and appreciated the TV ad. The initiative is very commendable for multiple reasons

• Its new approach with the strong message of "Agar aap soyenge to desh kaise jagega!"
  
• Making voter registration a much simpler process esp. by leveraging technology
  
• Endorsement by Election Commission
  
• Support of a corporate body - Tata Tea
  
• Execution by a dedicated Janaagraha team (with most of them below 30 years and alumni from IIT Madras who devoted their career to work for social causes)
  
• Last but not the least, the YOUTH factor - the initiative is to be driven by youth - Yes, true to what Vivekananda says "Give me 100 youth, I would change the fate of the country."
  

It's an excellent case of how multiple stakeholders can work together to begin a new era - a change that many have wished to bring in.

Scene 2: Chennai Airport. Landed at Midnight - I couldn't believe myself for having gotten an Auto from Airport to Nungambakkam for Rs.150, that too without any bargain. Yes, remember Chennai! The driver immediately proved his kindness and honesty by helping a poor airport worker on the way. I couldn't avoid but to ask him "Chennai eppadi irukku?" (How is chennai doing?). The conversations during the rest of the journey were interesting. (It's interesting to have conversations with auto drivers - they mirror the mentality of a common man and they know / see the mentality of many random people who travel in their autos). He began with how inflation is affecting the common man - He gave a statistics, which I never realized and found hard to believe - a tomato costs more than Rs.2! His point was that Government is driving the inflation and that the politicians just suck out people money (whenever he mentioned politicians, he promptly prefixed the Tamil abuse starting with "thev.." - I couldn't resist but to laugh at hearing the Senthamizh!). I decided to listen than giving gyan on inflation. He continued "I may not pay income tax, but i'm paying tax indirectly - from the match box to the petrol. Have these political Bas***** ever utilized the money properly? Look at the roads... For sucking and looting people's money, they and their families will never have a good death." Yeah, I asked the question, most of you have in mind - "You are complaining so much.. what did you do to change it? Did you vote in the last election?" With an ephemeral laugh, he said firmly "I'm 49 years old and have given up voting long time back.. I also encourage my family to not vote." Filled with rage quickly from tummy to eyes, I remarked "You dont vote.. but just keep complaining huh?" He quickly responded "Are there any good politicians or parties here? All are bas**** Whom will I vote for?" He made it clear that he doesn't support any party / politicians and that he believes in just 4 things in life (a) Being an MGR fan, though he never supported him as a politician (b) Lord Muruga devotee (c) Responsible family man (d) Honesty in work. I said "Hmm.. you wouldn't bother about what is happening outside your life. yeah, there are bad politicians.. but you won't make an effort to change things". He replied "Nobody can change these. I can't change the world. I will just do my work honestly and will help the person next to me in whatever small way I can". Auto reached door #9, **** Street, Chennai. Would have been nicer to hear more of his view points about life and politics, but just had to thank and bid adieu to him.

People might be perplexed by the title of the post! "Jaago Re" in hindi means "Wake up" - A call for action from others. "Oram Po" in Tamil implies "Leave way for me" - a typical phrase used by autowalas. In a broader sense, the 2 scenarios depict 2 different ways of living. W.r.t. voting, they imply different standpoints. In fact, it's not just the autowala - lot of people give up on voting saying "No good politicians", "things can't be changed." My good friend quoted this article - she said it makes much more sense to take an economist view and not vote in India today.

So, should we shout "Jaago Re" or "Oram Po"? You decide what you want to shout, but I would make my call loud and clear "Jaago Re"! I strongly believe - voting is not just a "civic duty", "self-interest", "make-a-difference", "feel good", "look good" factors, rather it's the "foundation" for many things. Like a foundation for the building, it incurs a significant cost at the beginning and may not have any immediate perceptible benefits, but it's absolutely necessary for a solid building. Voting may not be a cure-for-all solution. It may not be the ONE step, rather step one for solving many social issues.

So, what are you waiting for? If you haven't registered yourself, go ahead and register to vote at www.jaagore.com and no harm in spreading a good message to others! :)

Saadhveeka

Coach S2, Seat Number 23. Beautiful evening! Mild drizzles, which showered as a panacea for the hot month of May! I boarded the train and it was just leaving the station.

I looked around. Nobody seemed interesting to talk with – A couple talking to each other; an old man noting down something in his torn diary and a mid-age woman reading a novel. So, I continued with Chapter 4, India Unbound. So much information in that book that I had never thought of thinking! Huge price for hating history in school days!

Kreeechhhh…. The train stopped at Thirumangalam, a town near Madurai. It was still drizzling. The evening had almost bid adieu and the night baby was ready to smile with its white teeth, moon.

Perfect setup! A young & beautiful gal boarded the train. Silently, I prayed “Oh, God! Save me from this boring crowd around. Please let the girl come and sit near me.” God wasn’t deaf that day! Wish granted!! I felt heavenly.

She said “Berth number 18”. I thought “Good number”. She sat next to me. She was simply gorgeous! I couldn’t believe my eyes – She was wearing capris a.k.a pedal pushers (For tam guys: Mukka-Kaal Panttu) with clean shoes and a nice sleeveless t-shirt. I wondered how come such a gal from a village. We remained silent for few minutes, but I couldn’t control the excitement and eagerness to know more about her.

I began with a pretty mild voice -- “Hi, Are you from Thirumangalam?” She gave a wired look and replied “No, from Bangalore.” I felt a little awkward, but didn’t bother too much. Quite liked talking to her, so didn’t feel like stopping. Continued “Where in Bangalore?” I think she felt a bit comfortable now. In her sweet voice, she replied “Padmanaba Nagar.” I knew the place but looked a little baffled. She clarified “It’s the place near the famous house of Mr. Kumaraswamy.” Then, I shook my head, as if I understood things. I replied “Oh, Great place, it is! How come in this village?” She was quick to reply - “Came to visit my Grandpa.”

She gave a very brief intro about her. The most striking part was her name – “Saadhveeka”. It was unique and sounded blissful. Fell into love with her name immediately. She explained, “It derived from Sanskrit – It means Some one who is very peaceful and will get everyone’s respect” I was in a double-mind to tell the meaning of my name, since it sounded a little scary, but continued and proclaimed “My name in Sanskrit means Six-Face!”. (My parents were generous enough to add more stuff to my name, which I simply ignored for the sake of simplicity.) She sounded excited (Not sure whether she was surprised or scared! ;))

I was thinking what to talk next. Came in handy, the usual-but-never-boring “What’s your hobby?” I thought I should ask it in a different way and asked “So, what are your interests other than your studies / work”. 1000 watts bulb in her eyes and teeth (We probably could have turned off the lights in our compartment). She talked in-length about her interest in oil painting, glass-painting and some other craft which she does with mud and beads.

During the conversation, I realized she didn’t seem to know much about Tamil Nadu, not even the places near her grandfather’s village. I thought that was my chance to strike the chord. When asked about the places she had visited in Tamil Nadu, she listed few places and narrated random descriptions about each of them in her melodious voice.

When my chance came, I started telling about the places. She listened with keen interest, occasionally blinking her beautiful eyes. We crossed Thiruparankundram. I moved back to show her the temple and the enchanting view of the near by hill, unfortunately it wasn’t visible because of poor lighting. She seemed to enjoy the history & mythology behind the place.

We were crossing the Vaigai River, which to my surprise, was over-flowing with water on that particular day. I explained her some stories behind it esp. about “Aathula Alagar Eranguthal” (Lord Vishnu getting into River) – She got excited and jumped from her seat to get a glimpse of the river.

Lots of conversation and I thought she was pretty comfortable talking to me – Felt happy. I thought, time for some personal questions to her. I didn’t want to jump into very personal questions abruptly – I wanted the conversation to flow smoothly. Since the conversation was on Gods, I asked her “Who are your favorite Gods?”

Was quite surprised and laughed at the response!

“Bal Ganesh, Hanuman and Hanuman Returns”

I told myself “This is the digital age of internet and animation. This is what you should have expected, when you asked the question to a four year old sweet little girl”

No Wonder why the Indian Animation Industry is on a Roll.

:)

How much for Central Station?

“How much for Central Station?”

“Sir, you tell how much will you give!”

“It’s ok. You tell!”

After some silence, with a smile he said, “70 bucks, Sir”

Thought myself “Guy seems reasonable. No need to bargain much!” Got into the auto and told him “Ok boss, make it 60” (It’s a sin to not bargain with Auto drivers Chennai!)

“No Sir, not much business today!”

Yeah, 10 bucks won’t make a big difference to me, but may not be the case for him. So, didn’t talk more about the fare.

“Which route should I take, Sir?” he asked

I replied, “If you are a Vijay (Tamil film Star with huge number of fans following!) Fan, take the Ponamalli High Rd – You can get a glimpse of his huge cut-out of the forthcoming flick, Kurvi; Else take the Mount Road.”

He said enthusiastically “I will take the Mount Road, Sir”

“Boss, please stop calling me ‘Sir’. Also, I am much younger than you!”

Came his next question “Ok nga, should I go faster or slower?”

“I have lots of time. You can go at your own pace!”

I found the guy interesting. After a couple of minutes, I initiated the conversation, “I would like to understand auto-walas – their concerns and a little about their businesses”

He started revealing the secrets – business models, strategy & revenues etc. Though he didn’t use the business jargons, I would say he’s pretty smart in business.

First, he said how much he makes per day –

Gross Revenue = Rs.800-900 (1200, if it’s a lucky day!)
Fuel Expenses = 300
Auto Rent = 150 (Most of the auto-walas drive the autos from Settu – They need to give Rs.150 per day excluding maintenance charges!)
Operating profit = 400-450
Daily personal expenses = 150
Take home = 250-300
All figures are “per day average"

I told, “Hmm, that doesn’t seem like great money for someone who works very hard from early morning till late night. So, why can’t you try to increase your revenue by improving the occupancy rate?” (Yeah, this is what Airlines try to do!)

Came the reply, “We, the auto-walas are bound to a particular area. My Auto, for e.g., belongs to Anna Nagar – In our area, we can pick up any customer. In other areas, we can pick up customers, only if those autos don’t want to pick them up. We begin the day from our area and after every trip we try to come back to our area. On the way, we drive slowly and try to get customers. We also try to take the route of crowded places. After 8 PM, we go only to areas near our homes. There are auto drivers having different schedules – people starting very early in the morning and going early evening; starting late and drive till mid-night; there are night-drivers as well”

I exclaimed “Looks like a tough business!”

We were half-way through the station. After hearing my sympathetic response, he paused for a moment and said “Sorry, sir. Really Sorry, sir!”

He opened up, “Sir, I had drinks today and sorry to drive you when I am drunk!”

“Hmm, what did you drink – Beer, Whisky, Brandy or Rum?”, I asked inquisitively

He tried to justify --“Just a very little of Brandy. Really Sorry, Sir. I had some major issues with my uncle. That’s why drank.”

I lectured, “Yeah, I don’t say you shouldn’t drink – it’s up to you. But not while you are driving - you are risking the lives of travelers like us.”

He replied apologetically “What to do sir, we lead such a life. It’s not just me. 90% of the auto-drivers drink and drive. If you are really concerned, I can get another auto for you, Sir”.

I was astonished with that unverifiable and alarming statistics he gave. I replied “It’s ok. I don’t mind. Next time, when you take someone in your auto, please avoid drinking”

He was silent for few minutes. I guess he felt guilty.

I began the conversation again “So, who are the major pain-points and competitors for auto-drivers”

“Traffic police and share-autos”, came the immediate response!

He continued, “Share-autos charge 5-10 bucks per passenger. People who want to travel in the main roads have almost ruled-out using expensive autos. We can take only interior & long routes that these guys don’t cover”

I thought myself – The share-autos ensure that their vehicles run continuously – Theirs is a high volume business and normal-auto is a high margin business.

I told him “Yeah, added to that MTC (the Govt. owned metro buses, which are very economical) is planning to introduce the hugely successful 'mini-buses' concept in Chennai, I was told 1000 of them!”

He was smart -- “Yeah, it would affect our business to some extent, but share-autos would be heavily affected. It’s their direct competitor!”

I was about to reach the station. I just wanted to conclude the talk with some food for thought for him. “You could reduce your personal expenses by nearly 50%, if you reduce taking drinks. Your take home salary per day could increase as much as Rs.50." Keeping a serious face, he replied "Sure, Sir. I will try to reduce drinking."

I concluded "Have you heard of this Rs.1 lakh car by Tata. Once it’s available, will you buy one and start driving it instead of auto?”

I didn’t expect that reply from him.

“I am completely aware of that, Sir. I am a mechanic myself and have a diploma in the same. In fact, I was the proud owner of a reasonably big car mechanic shop – we did all sorts of things – servicing, painting, repairing.. everything!! But.. but.. unfortunately, I encountered a huge loss of more than 5 lakhs rupees and I had to close down the shop. So, I resorted to driving a rented auto”

We were in front of the station. I was very much interested in knowing the reasons for such a colossal loss, but time and the place didn’t permit. I just handed over 70 bucks and patted on his back saying “Don’t bother, your dream business will prosper soon. All the best!”

With bright eyes and smiling face he bid adieu “Thank you very much, Sir!”

Mind Trading

In B-schools, you are asked to wear others' shoes, esp. when you are analyzing case studies. In Edward De Bono's lateral thinking, you are required to wear different hats. I am sure, most of us would be receivers of "Can't you sympathize with that poor fella?", "Why don't you empathize with me?!", "Think from my perspective." Hope all of these would help in better understanding of people and the situation.

8 PM, last Wednesday. The dinner plan with my friend didn't materialize, my bike got punctured and the auto-walas in front of the Bangalore Central asked insane money for a 5 km journey. Decided to experiment something - Walk till Trinity Circle, explore people and places on the way & travel in the local crowded bus. Quite an interesting experience it was!

Walkers, Riders, Pillion-Riders, Sleepers, Road-Side Enterprises - the aggressive entrepreneurs and its loyal customers, Beggars, Traffic Police, Poojaris, Auto-walas... I told myself "Let me play the Mind-Trading-Game" - When I see a random person in the road, try to think of what might be running behind his mind - his joys, worries, concerns, ambitions, objectives etc in life. Most people seem to be lost in thought. I guess they don't even realize they are walking in M.G.Road or crossing the ING building. But apart from the usual ones, there are lots of interesting observations!

Next time, dont tell you are bored when you have to travel all-alone or when you have nothing-to-do at home. Just take a walk and start noticing people around! It's interesting & fun!!

Paanch Punch Pics

4 days. 5 Movies. Finally, moved them from my 'TO-WATCH' to 'WATCHED' list - Taare Zameen Par(TZP), Jodha Akbar(JA), Jab We Met(JWM), Page 3(P3) and U Me Aur Hum(UMAH). Yes, they had been lying in the former list for quite sometime (except the last one).

Quite liked all of them. Different themes. Different actors. Different levels of seriousness & fun. TZP took me to the world of children. JA to the period of Moghuls. P3 to the lesser-known side of few Mumbai cliques. JWM to Punjabi marriages & running trains. UMAH to cruises and asylums. Hmmm.. but is there anything in common among these movies? Apart from the obvious factor of being bollywood movies without the usual masala stories, I found the following interesting connection.

In all movies, the characters face tough-to-handle life problems - TZP: Problem of a child & its parents, JA: Political problem, Page3: Social problem, JWM: Pre-marriage problem, UMAH: Post-marriage problem. But they all try to handle the problems in an UNCONVENTIONAL manner.

• TZP: Ask the basic question "Is what you call a 'problem' really a PROBLEM?" and most importantly try to understand the so-called-problem from the 1st person. Find the root cause of the problem. Try to solve root cause than reacting to the symptoms.
• JA: Collaboration instead of head-on competition & fighting to solve the problems. Yes, I mean Akbar's approach of hindu-muslim cultural synthesis & collaboration - including Hindus in the courtyard, marrying Hindu princesses (seems like Akbar had 40 wives! Gowarikar, can we expect movies like - Akbar Jodi No. 23 ;)] etc
• P3: Be part of the system, while you want to reform the system.
• JWM: A cool attitude simplifies the problem and a better way to handle it. (So, the next time someone dumps you, burn & flush it out OR use your friend's phone to call the person and you-know-what-to-talk)
• UMAH: Never lose hope in solving the problem. When there is love and that you are determined to solve the problem, you would solve it. At least, you would learn to live with it.

Also, impressed with the kind of PATIENCE that the characters show in solving these problems. Any difficult problem needs time and continuous effort to be tackled.

Mentoring Mentality

Experience is the best teacher in life! Yeah, but life is too short to experience everything in first person! So, fortunates are the ones who get right mentors. These mentors have the ability to positively impact our lives – They guide, motivate, direct, suggest, enlighten, correct, criticize, comment and most importantly share their experiences! The extreme case: they become our living role models. But getting the ‘right’ mentor is not that easy – He or She needs to (a) Understand you (your personality, ambition, likes & dislikes etc) (b) Understand (and have good experience & insights in) the environment / field in which you would like to be mentored (c) Have good people skills & a genuine willingness to help without selfish motives (d) Time (e) Have a reasonably long term association with you (i.e. doesn’t make sense to have different mentors every other month!)

I set my mind to think on “Apart from satisfying those hard-to-meet conditions, how can we get the right mentor?” Few tips I could think of:

• Be open and “listen” to what people have to say for me, be it my workplace, home or any social groups
• Initiate talks with senior / elder people – Seek their advise, Listen to their experiences
• Choose people whom I have high regard for – Unless I respect him, it’s tough to follow what the mentor says
• Do the conversations with him make me think deeply? Do they change my perceptions or course of actions which ultimately yielded positive results?
• Am I able to connect with the person?

Oops, I had so many people helping and guiding me at different points in life, but what about life-long mentors? I couldn’t think of any one other than my sister. Hmmm, I guess I should take the initiative, as the Tamil proverb says “Crying child gets the milk”.

Couple of things before I close down: Seek mentors’ help, use their advice, but preserve your individuality and the ability to analyze & make a personal decision. Be willing to genuinely mentor and help others, since the world runs on the principle of GIGO (Good In Good Out / Garbage In Garbage Out)!

Begging & Payer's Dilemma!

Two parties. One transaction. Different levels of exchange. The world runs around this simple funda! Few examples: Ideal Business - mutually profitable with equal exchange. Donation & true love - Giving without expecting anything back. Greed - Expecting more than what you give. Stealing - Taking without the knowledge of the counter-party. Begging - Getting without any obligation!

Similar to Prisoner's dilemma, (With 2 players, optimal solution is possible with cooperation. But the players end-up with a sub-optimal solution due to lack of trust, since trying to cooperate when the other competes has higher penalty!) Payer's dilemma is a major issue - Yes, both might lead to suboptimal solutions.

Payer	Beggar
		No need to beg	Need to beg (and he begs!)
	Don’t pay	Ideal, if Beggar resolves not to beg	You didn’t help the needy!
	Pay	Laziness supported & beggar gets free lunch, if he decides to beg	Sub-optimal, but might be inevitable

The dilemma is to pay or not - by paying a beggar, am I helping him? Or is that I am promoting begging as a profession and impede his learning of any skill? It's a very tricky situation! But it's clear that begging is good for none: Beggar - no descent lifestyle, no sustained income, he doesn't develop any skill; Payer - Loses money without getting any service in return; Country - No net addition to the GDP. Hmmm.. Seems ideal to have no begging. Is it possible? If so, how? Will a ban on begging help? To answer these, we need to answer the very basic question - why does he beg?

People beg because of (i) Incapability - physical or mental (ii) Unemployment - Unfit for existing jobs or unavailability of jobs (iii) Laziness. [There is a fuzzy fourth category, predominantly that of monks who does it in the name of spirituality - Some genuine monks beg because working for a living is inferior to them; fake monks will come under the "laziness" category. This fourth category goes beyond the scope of this post!] Among these, lazy beggar is the troubled category - the payer's resolution is simple (it shouldn't be supported) but the solution is tough - You can take a horse to water, but never make it drink, esp when it has determined to not drink! Also, it's not possible to differentiate the beggars - lazy beggars hurt themselves or lie or put up a false image to earn people's sympathy. Yes, "information asymmetry" problem!

Looking at the reasons, two things become clear. First, a simple ban might not work - it might backfire with still worse consequences (a banned beggar may die / suicide or turn into a thief / anti-social element) and/or turn out to be ineffective (It would be a rule on paper like the prohibition of smoking in public in Chennai). Second, the beggar is not the sole reason for begging - the payer, the society and the government are all parties to it. Unless there is a concerted effort from all, it's tough to uproot begging.

I believe the begging problem can be reduced (if not eradicated) gradually in 2 stages (if not overnight):

1. FIRST, Slowly and gradually move the existing beggars away from begging pool
• Plan and create "Beggars Rehabilitation Program" with funding and support from Government, NGOs and Wealthy individuals (if required, add a new cess for income exceeding a certain limit). Register all the existing beggars in every town, city and village under this program
• Categorize the beggars - The "incapable" has to be sent to the corresponding NGO or Government sponsored helping homes; The "unemployed" should be arranged for skill-development programs; IT could be leveraged to create a database of these people and it would be an ideal CSR initiative for companies to employ people from this database. Lazy beggars should be given strict warning to not beg, else face severe punishments (Remember the Tamil movie Anniyan!)
• The program could also create centers in every town (similar to government departments or NGOs) - People who want to help the beggars should donate to the centers than directly to the beggars to avoid the "information asymmetry" problem.
  
2. SECOND, Stop the inflow of people into begging population
• This calls for bigger things - Efficient, Good & Incorrupt Government; Zero Child Labor; Marginally Low (Zero is bad for economy!) Unemployment
  
• Build / Improve homes for "incapable" category & "skill-development" centers
  
• Set a future date for complete elimination of begging
• Creation of Beggar's helpline - If you happen to see a new beggar, call them up!

All of these may seem ambitious, but where there is a will, there will be a way!

I am sure government officers, politicians, people dedicated to & socked in social service would have better information, context and ideas to make a beggar-free India than this computer-science & management graduate. I wish they come forward to make it a reality! :)

Force called 'Fear'

Utter Darkness. Bottomless Pit. Sky-high hill. Ultra-speed wind. Abyssal Ocean. Mysterious Sound. Poisonous Snake. Hungry Tiger. Angry Elephant. Man-eating Shark. Black Cat. Giving a Speech. Final Exam. Important Interview. Ghost. Skeleton. Blood. Death. List goes on! For human beings, the entity that unifies the list is "Fear" and its related cousins viz phobia, panic, scare, terror, guilt, paranoia, nightmares, anxiety & worry etc.

The list is understandable. But I was baffled by my friends' fear for getting into 3-ft H2O, jumping from 4 ft height, riding on 100cc bike at 60 kmph, climbing on a small rock, talking to a Prof & walking in darkness. "WTH", I thought. But my friend gave a profound statement - It's quite natural; everyone has his/her own customized list of fears and no fear is inferior or superior. Yes, it made sense and I tried to enumerate my list - Oops, quite a long one! (Let me not list them here to make you realize how stupid my fears could be!)

Three questions kept lingering in my mind: (1) What exactly is fear? (2) Can one be fearless? Rather, should one be fearless? (3) How to avoid unnecessary fear? Being an expert neither in Psychology nor in Physiology, I can't give a comprehensive scientifically-proven answer. Neverthless, I will make an attempt, since people keep saying "Don't fear" [Nice tamil quotes like - 'Anjathey', 'Accham Thavir', 'Accham illai, accham illai, accham enba-thillaieh; Uchi meethu vaan idinthu veezh-gindra pothilum accham illai', 'Accham enbathu madamaiyadaa, anjaamai dravidar udamaiadaa']

I would explore Fear in 2 different ways. First: fear spans past, present and future. Foundation of fear is PAST - We start developing fear out of our personal experience or what others tell us. That way, our society, upbringing, parents and friends play a major role in what we fear for. When your father keeps saying "Never climb rocks. You will slip down", you inherently develop a fear for rocks & heights. (Side Note: In Tamil movie "Thenali", the hero Kamal Hasaan has countless phobias thanks to his bad childhood experience) Going by this logic, fear is not completely natural to human beings. Fear is an experiential emotion in PRESENT - there are lots of physical & psychological changes that happen when we fear. Fear is associated with uncertainty about FUTURE. When there is certainty, there isn't any fear - A person sentenced to death knowing the exact date, time, place and the procedure of dying won't fear for death as much as a normal person. Second: Major stems of fear - (a) Fear of Death / physical discomfort (b) Fear of Rejection / Failure (c) Fear of losing one's respect / ego / identity (d) Fear of losing an external entity (e.g. loved ones, money, motor bike)

Like many others, fear is a double-edged sword. Being fearless is great, but it's stupidity to believe we shouldn't fear for everything. In one sense, fear stifles our improvement, fends off taking bold decisions, avoids changes & exploring new paths, obstructs stretching oneself. It eats away our productive time, brings in stress & tension, makes us poor-performers (esp. because of stress & tension). At times, it makes us behave unnaturally. On the other hand, fear drives away our laziness, makes us careful creatures & good future planners.

So, the key is to differentiate necessary & unnecessary fears. Fear of punishment (e.g. murder, robbery, copying in exams etc.) goes to "necessary" bucket i.e. always fear to do wrong. Clear "unnecessary" categories: things on which we don't have any control (e.g. earth would be hit by a meteor, germs in your just-cleaned hand etc); hiding our true personality (e.g. fear that someone will stamp us ignorant) - i.e. no need to fear for being natural & ourself; unproven & non-experiential stories (e.g. darkness, ghosts etc). [Just reminded of this: the phrase "God fearing" is an excellent selling point for Grooms in matrimonial advertisements. My belief: "fearing God" goes to the "unnecessary" category. Unless you experience , don't fear, instead pray Him out of Love, if you believe in God. Once you experience, it's your choice!] The problematic area is the gray section - E.g. Fear of exam is both good (makes you study at least 1 day before the exam) and bad (tension leading to poor performance!), Fear of death - Good (insurance for your dependents) & bad (Never makes one enjoy the exciting white water rafting, mountain climbing). In such cases, try to answer whether the fear helps or hinders the improvement / experience / enjoyment of self & others. To summarize, the litmus test to differentiate the fears - (a) Punishable? (b) Not controllable? (c) Being yourself? (d) Unproven & Not experienced? (e) Helps or Hinders?

Half the job is done with the differentiation. Nevertheless, the 2nd half is not that easy. Fear might emerge from our subconscious mind and hence simply telling ourself "don't fear! don't fear!!" at the surface level may not help. Head-on fight with the fear or denying the reality might not help. First, we need to be aware that we fear, observe the sensations because of fear. Few ways to tackle the fear: (a) From the PAST angle - awareness that fear is unnatural & is shaped by just our experience and that there are many other people who don't fear them; don't believe everything that we hear, read and see (b) From PRESENT - Engage in some activity that we like; Pass on the fear to someone else - God / Guru / Our loved ones / Our Higher self, if we believe any of them (c) From FUTURE view point - Big picture view - will my fear help in anyway to serve a higher purpose; Awareness that the uncertainty can't be ruled out because of our fear & that we can't take control of everything; Realize that it's just uncertainty, outcome is not yet known, one can worry if the outcome turns out to be negative instead of worrying about it even before it has happened. Another way is to understand the stem of fear and tackle it: (a) Death - everyone will die one day (b) Failure / Rejection - What's life without ups and downs - Trying & failing is a lot better (c) Ego - Better to be a known devil than an unknown god (d) Losing external entity - one doesn't even have complete control on oneself; Nothing is permanent in this world.

Yeah, similar to many of my earlier posts, all these methodologies seem simpler on paper, but it needs lots of effort and prudence to be fearless than being driven by the Force called Fear.

Hampi "Rocks"

With most of my trips in the past, I would be dead tired during the return journey. The last trip to Hampi has been an exemption - Felt rejuvenated after the trip. Yes, it's yet another enjoyable trip with lots of fun with friends, but the interaction with nature & historic ruins is different! The weather was just perfect - It started drizzling the moment we boarded the train and the nature continued its cool shower throughout the trip. The experience of lying on the rocks by the river side with mild drizzles, pleasant breeze, sun playing hide & seek with moving gray clouds and absolute silence except the occasional chirping of birds and the rhythmic flow of water in the near by river is something beyond comparison!

I can't do justice to the greatness of Hampi through this post, but still my 2 Paise. :) I was simply amazed by the countless number of temples built of gigantic stones with beautiful carvings & etchings. Most of the temples were missing the vigraha (the statue of the main god in the temple) & many other statues were beheaded - Yes, seems like the temples of Hampi, the capital of once prosperous Vijayanagar Kingdom were destroyed after the kingdom was captured by Muslim Sultans. These days, people don't give due spiritual significance to most of these ruined temples, since the main vigrahas are absent - Good in a sense that these are not crowded, the beauty is not destroyed in the name of rituals! We saw some temples being excavated and recreated. In fact it's not just temples, but the entire city from queens' bath to the elephant's stable to the bazaar to the tank to the palace seemed to have been built in stones with highly artistic sense.

Seems like Hampi is not yet exploited in the name of tourism - The ruined town still looks desolated without much crowd - but that's what makes it more exciting! You can be at peace with the nature and ruins - We didn't bother to visit all the places of historic significance, but wherever we went, we enjoyed spending hours in peace! Few places we enjoyed the max and you should never miss if you visit Hampi:

• Virupaksha Temple - The main temple near the bus stop & the Hampi Bazaar - [One of the very few monuments still regarded as temple by people. Tit bit: Don't be deceived by what's called the "inverted image" of gopura - it's just a painting in a dark enclave!]
  
• Hemakuta Hill - Series of structures built on a hill - Simply awesome to have a walk over the hill. You start from the sides of Virupaksha temple and end it near the monolithic Gorgeous & Gigantic Ganesha statue!
• Vittala Temple - Need to travel 12 KM from Hampi centre. It turned out to be my favorite monument in Hampi - esp. the stone chariot and the astonishing stone pillars used to make musical tones.
  
• Palace & the Mint - Don't expect a leela palace here, there are just remains of the place. Also, I believe they are just rebuilt from the excavations. It takes 10 mins to just travel the entire area by bicycle.
• Dibba - Center of attraction of the royal enclosure, a tall pyramidal structure (Top portion seems to be missing & one climb to the top!) - Gives an amazing view of the surrounding enclosure
• Tungabatra River - One can reach the river either from Rama temple or Purandaradas Mundapa (near Vittala Temple) - The river was just pleasant when we visited, neither gushing nor dry. Coracle ride and river side walk are never to be missed!
  
• Mango Tree Restaurant - The only restaurant that we liked in Hampi. It gives a panoramic view of the river and you get to eat under a mango tree with nature's intimacy!
  

Hampi may not sound exotic for people who don't have a flair for history or monuments. But it's not case - Apart from the river side walk, coracle ride & bouldering opportunities, one can't escape falling in love with Hampi's rocks & ruined creations from stones! Yes, Hampi rocks!!

One should definitely experience Hampi at least once in life!

Mobile Business

As of Sep 2007, there are 210mn mobile subscribers in India and is expected to go up by 300mn by 2008, which translates to 25-30% mobile penetration - pretty impressive for a once-termed "poor country". From a school student (Knowledge Management, Strategic Planning for homework) to auto-walas (Customer Relationship Management) to street-shop-vendors (Supply Chain Management), mobile is a big boon - It has fundamentally changed the way certain people do business!

Wait.. the post is not about mobile phones, rather about interesting "mobile business" in the world's largest Railways network - Yes, within moving, day trains of Indian Railways. Yeah, they offer various categories of products: (a) Eatables (Major chunk!) - full-time food, beverages, snacks, fruits; (b) Entertainment / play items targeting children; (c) Personal care - Flowers (yes, women in south India like to get down from train fresh with flowers), (d) Fancy products like bangles, ear-rings, key chains etc; (e)Education / Recreation - Books, newspaper, magazines; (f) Textiles.

Apart from food, all the other categories are sold by hawkers. Selling process is heavily dependent on the impulsive buying behavior. Here is a sample: books by small local publishers (printed in cheap paper, priced Rs. 10-20, with attractive titles for a typical middle class) and pirated DVDs - the selling process is quite interesting - Seller brings a bundle of products & hand it over to you saying you don't need to buy but can just flip through them. Three problems with these businesses: (1) Unlawful, since no permission from Railways (2) Disturbance to travelers (3) some are sub-quality products. The other side of story is different: it's rice & rasam for poor fellows doing these businesses; good & useful time-pass for travelers (esp. for the Indian middle class which doesn't spend much time on shopping! - But metro women are fast catching up with people abroad!!). So, rather than banning them altogether, Railways can promote them after carefully eliminating the problems.

So, here are few suggestions:

Simple:

• IRCTC has done a wonderful job w.r.t. food - they can extend it to other categories
  
• Strict rules to prohibit the sale of unlawful products like pirated DVDs, books etc
  
• Provide movable trolleys for the sellers
• Have big TVs similar to buses
• License to sellers of different product categories
• Sell those frequently used in trains - locks, chain, tooth brush, playing cards etc
  

Ambitious:

• Dedicate a coach or a part of it as "Mobile Shopping" - Have mini-shops as in exhibition - People can walk in for shopping during travel
  
• "Movie Theater Coach" - Designate and design a coach as theater running multiple shows per day - People can get tickets for the latest movie shown in the mobile theater
  
• Short education / training / seminar sessions - e.g. cooking, oil painting, basic computer, spoken english, personality development, yoga, meditation, dance, table etiquette, vedic mathematics, abacus
  
• Mobile Restaurant
• Aquarium, museum, gaming zones etc
• Library / Reading room / Book shop
• Recreation hall with chess and other board games
• Spa / Massage, beauty parlor
  

Yeah, all these sound exciting, but economic viability & customer interest are questionable and hence needs a more thorough analysis. Even more pertinent question to ask is "will Railways be able to implement and maintain them well?" [We all know of one service which is maintained very badly in every coach! ;)]

All these are fine and might get implemented in future, but one should never miss the beauty of country side and the fun of watching innumerable interesting things sitting in a moving train! :)


PS: Shall explore business opportunities in stations/platforms in a different post!

e-motion

Hmm.. 3 months break! Plan for roaming, traveling, catching up with friends, doing something useful.. Oops, still left with free time. Ok, resort to Blogging! Decided the following guidelines for blogging (a) Regular, frequent, crispy posts (b) Avoid non-sense just for the sake of humor (c) Try some thought-provoking-stuff. Here goes the first!

There was a time when "e-" was prefixed to every damn thing to signify the usage of internet: e-business, e-tail, e-ticket, e-commerce e-tc. But there is word to which 'e-' was added long before internet was known. It's e-motion - the motion has nothing to do with internet nor is this way of splitting right. Ok, with that intro, let me get into the actual post!

My PG farewell hasn't been as senti as UG's. I told myself I am more matured & less emotional now - esp. accepting that changes are part of life. But... Recently visited CEG, my UG college - went alone since it was a weekday (office time for friends!). After meeting my favorite profs, spent 1-2 hrs roaming in the campus. It is tough to explain how I felt - something within me seemed to resonate with the buildings, class rooms, trees & hostels; heart felt a little heavy; preferred walking slower (and sit at every place); had a feeling of having left something. Hmm.. So, it has probably to do with the impact that the place has created than the change in myself.

Many a times, I used to think that being emotional is a sign of weakness - We tend to lose the true picture, get driven by impulse from inside - makes us more dependent on outside entities - brings to us sadness, disappointment & frustrations when expectations are not met. Does that mean being senti is all bad? No is the obvious answer - Without emotions, life will be robotic, dull, boring and without any force. Shouldn't force-ful life be a sign of strength and not weakness? Also, emotional drive might work better than rational drive in certain cases (e.g. Gandhi Vs Hitler?). Most of the Entrepreneurs and many of the high-achievers are driven by emotion. So, it's easy to derive that one needs to balance emotional and rational drive, but implementation is not that easy. It needs prudence, real wisdom, full consciousness of onself & everything around us - Will post an entry, if I invent a formula for balancing! :)

Gods and Costumes

Disc. 0: This post is not entirely about concepts of God or Spirituality
Disc. 1: The song "Seval Kodi" (from the Tamil movie "Billa") is one of the inspirations for this post
Disc. 2: No intention of denigrating any God or the sentiments of the people. Just read it for fun.

There are countless concepts, theories, beliefs, realizations and assumptions about God; "Idol Worship" is predominant among them. As changes happen in every aspect, from layman's life style to rocket scientist's research methodology, they are bound to happen in the way people seek God & Spirituality. The concepts of Deepam & Aarathi[1],[2] have transformed a lot in the past – people started off with burning woods, then used oil, then camphor, then electric lamps/lights and who knows, may be in future, using some digital projectors. Similarly the way temples are built – Rajaraja Cholan[3] built the Tanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple using majestic stones; my elementary school teachers told he used elephants to carry those gigantic masses. (The biggest of all the stones at the top of the tower still amazes me a lot – without any machines or electricity, how did they manage to take them to such a height. As a kid, I used to think that they built it lengthwise on the ground and rotated it by 90 degrees, like I did in building set games). Today, the temples are built using ultra polished marbles & granite-stones, have intelligent security systems, advanced and hassle-free Q systems, with built-in entertainment, recreation, restaurants & shopping (gives you a feel of visiting a fun fair – children no longer say “no” to temples, it’s a good weekend dhamaka for them!). And the outlook of the Poojaris[4] – from a-poor-man-who-ate-nothing-but-what-was-served-to-God to today’s ultra modern man who manages all his appointments using a Blackberry and travels using different cars to different temples.

I am not at all saying the above changes are bad – I welcome the changes, esp. if it’s positive and hence this post! Yes, almost everything has changed, except may be the dressing style and costumes of Gods.

People envisaged Gods[5] as human beings and each God represented few noble qualities. I believe there are multiple reasons why this was done – (a) people have different tastes in life, as in some people like dosa[6] over rice and some others like rotis[7]. So, it’s like giving more options to people – the path doesn’t matter, end goal is what matters (b) Associating all good qualities to one God may be too much for people, which might hinder focused prayer – So, if you want to start a new business, pray to Ganapathy; if you want to study well, think of Saraswathi etc (c) More temples, more spirituality, more travel, more rituals and yeah, more holidays.

If we observe closely, the costumes of most of these Gods haven’t changed over centuries. (May be except Ganapathy, who gets interesting costumes during Vinayagar Churthi day) Some of the things that remain the same with Gods

• Many of Gods still not wearing shirts (Yes, many centuries back, people weren’t wearing shirts, but today things have changed)
• Same old Sarees, dhothis/veshtis
• Some of them still using natural dresses like tiger / deer skin, which are obsolete and illegal in today’s context
• Primitive traveling modes like using animals such as rats, peacocks, tigers etc
• Archaic weapons like rustic Vel (Spear), Thandayutham (A heavy sphere at the end of the rod – a blow using this tool would be lethal), Chakras (Wheel with sharp teeth, which is capable of traveling at Akthar’s bowling speed and cut off opponent’s intended organ)
• Using antiquated fragrance and body sprays such as natural flowers & sandal

One of the reasons of reduced levels of interests in Gods/Spirituality with the new generation youth / kids is because they find it difficult to associate themselves with Gods ;) – they don’t understand the old customs and dressing style. So, here comes some interesting ideas for changing the outlook of the Gods

• Vinayaga: He’s the god of Knowledge. The IT & gadgets geek. Always seen with the latest laptops, mobile phones, iPod and Kindle. He believes that life can be simplified by IT and technology. (There is an interesting story to tell to kids: When his dad Shiva asked him and his bro Muruga to explore the world, his bro was using a private jet and Harley Davidson to travel around the world… our intelligent Ganesha used Internet Explorer, Google and Wikipedia to explore the entire world!). He has put on some extra weight because of a typical software guy’s lifestyle, not much of exercise and spending most of the time in front of laptop. He blogs quite a bit. He’s up to to date on everything happening around the world.
• Muruga: God of Righteousness, Courage, Beauty and Romance. Wears Rayban glasses with full black dress and has a machine gun (as in Matrix movie) with 2 babes by his side in a Harley Davidson bike. His beauty, charm, cleanliness, style and personality make every gal fall for him.
• Ayyappa: God of bachelorhood. Believes that desire, lust, jealousy, greed and anger are the reasons of worry in this world. Lives in secluded places – spends most of the time in introspection, meditation and thinking about how to make the world a better place. Doesn’t mean he’s meek & feeble, his alter ego is fierce and ruthless when it comes to fighting baddies of the world.
• Shiva: God of all gods. But simple in outlook – just white pajama. Likes pet animals a lot, ranging from snakes to bulls. He’s the international arbitrator and his panchayathu always happens in the abodes of Kailaayam. People respect him a lot for everything he does.
• Vishnu: Wealthy god. Wears long gold chains with precious stones and lots of bracelets, rings etc. Silk cloth when not in office. When he goes to job, he wears fine fabric Raymond suits with Golden silky tie. It can’t be perfect than him. He’s all powerful and can be present in multiple places at the same time under different identities.
• Brahma: He’s an interesting contradiction – on one hand, he’s the most creative person, on the other hand he does the most repetitive job. He sets an example to people by saying that even if you have to do the same job again and again in life, make it interesting by being creative and different in every time you do it. He likes casual dressing – Denim jeans with half sleeve shirts, tucked in properly. Always seen wearing the cool Reebok slippers.
• Shakthi: Goddesses of Bravery, Power and a portrayal of equality of men and women. A very charming face and looking at it, everyone would get a feel of seeing their mom. She too has 2 kinds of dresses – very traditional & ultra-modern.
• Saraswathi: Goddesses of intelligence, wisdom, education and knowledge. Very professional in outlook – be it suits, or salwar kameez or sarees, she looks very sophisticated. Solves The Hindu crossword in minutes and just takes fraction of seconds to solve the “Hard” level sudoku.
• Lakshmi: Goddesses of wealth. Uses very costly costumes – from Swiss watches to Lexus cars, there is luxury in everything. She works closely with Wall Street. She’s fair, honest and confident in everything she deals with.
• Anjaneya: Great gym body with countless folds. Carries 100 Kg dumbbells in either hand. Always wears tight T-shirts showing his muscles and track pants.

Hopefully these new outlooks and dressing styles create more interest among the youth for God and spirituality. Of course, it’s just for the initial attraction – once they dwell into it more, they might just realize that spirituality & God are not external, everything is internal – May be the search begins inside.

And may be couple of centuries from now, an MMS might write a blog to change the dressing style of the Gods from what we discussed above to the style then.

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[1] These are the ways of worshipping, the most important ritual of waving lights or fragrant smoke to Gods

[2] Coincidental – both these names are my good friend's names

[3] Means King of all kings, the greatest King of Chola empire, who ruled South India long back (I’m poor in remembering dates!)

[4] The worshipper of God, who does all the rituals to God on behalf of the people

[5] Because of my limited knowledge about other religions, I am limiting to Hindu Gods/Goddesses

[6] Can be thought of as flat bread or pizza made out of rice flour

[7] Indian bread

The 4Cs: Case of "Cause-Consequence-Confusion-Cycle"

Though we frequently say "don't confuse cause and effect", many a times, it's difficult to understand whether the something is a cause or a consequence. At times each one feeds to the other to form a cycle.

A few examples

• Chicken & Egg
• Supply & Demand
• Poverty & Illiteracy
• [some people] Success & Being motivated
• [few others] Success & Failure
• [few more] Diffidence & Failure
  
• Happiness & Helping others
• Happiness & Having fun
  
• Mistakes & Frustration
• Anger & Unhappiness
• Learning & Being Passionate
• Learn & Experience (oh, that's why they call "learning experience!?")
  
• A little different: Love & Marriage
  
• In relationships: Talking & (mis)understanding
  
• Friends & Celebrations

In many cases, it's very tough to halt the cycle, once it starts (be it positive or negative) - The key is to realize how & when to break (for negative) or feed (for positive) the cycle to make it favorable for us and others.

MAdSense

Google's AdSense! A very interesting and a successful concept in deed! It, along with AdWords, contribute to nearly 99% of revenues for this $175bn MarketCap Internet-Behemoth. With Google's products becoming integral part of our life, its impact could leapfrog with the advent of rumored gPhone.

Here is an imaginative prototype of MAdSense, the next generation AdSense. This software sits in all Google applications and gPhone applications, analyzing everything that you do (e.g. email, chat, phone conversations, meetings, blogs, calender etc) - Based on the analysis (yes, only computer algorithm, Google's privacy policy doesn't allow programmers to read them - so, people can relax!), you would be given various suggestions. Some samples

• For a college student: who doesn't take bath regularly, it gives a reminder "Last bath since 12 days, 13 mins, 34 sec (and counting!)". Text Ads from gPhone would flash "Replacement for bathing: Killbuoy Deo. Effective for 720 hrs. Kills germs and even ppl standing next to you"
  
• For a guy who is in dating spree: MAdSense uses 32-Generation Artificial Intelligence programs. The MAdSense client programs are called Agents and could communicate among themselves intelligently. The MaMa module of the Agents analyze innumerable profiles of Google users and suggests dating partners based on their interests, location, availability etc. You just need to hit "I'm feeling Yucky" button - the best matching profile would be presented. A sample profile would read as "Careless, lovally, god-fearing. Free between 8 to 9 pm today. Would prefer Chicken Briyaani with double eggs. Pick-up and drop near MG Rd"
  
• For a computer nerd: Runs a program on the Distributed Agents System - DNA analysis of whether he could marry Priyanka Chopra. gPhone flashes "Simulation #1055 out of 1048576 - 0.001% complete. Current analysis suggests that Priyanka mighty be a risky proposition for you - complete mismatch of genes"
  
• For a workaholic: Flashes the message "Wife and children out of home for last 2 days. Dog wants to pee. Go home and help it"
• For a Cricket fanatic: (He watches every damn match!): (a) Mesg window1: Live Cricket match b/n "Royapuram Rockers" and "Sunnaambhu Kaalvaa Sharks" - Sharks need 5 runs from 5 balls with 5 wickets in hand to win the "Machi Vests & Briefs Weekly Cup" (b) Message window2 showing the 1983 world cup win by India (c) Mesg window 3 - India winning T20 in 2007 (d) India winning England in Lords (e) window 5 showing ESPN compere, Dhoni, explaining the rule of new format T2 (two-two) match
  
• For a movie buff: Flashes the news "Sharukh Khan just got up. His wife is getting him a Chilly tea with salt and pepper for acting very romantically with Maanavi Dixit, the daughter of the once-bollywood-queen, Madhuri Dixit"
• For a guy who watches news channels 24*7: ODTV streaming a poll - "Should Rama marry Seetha in the serial Khahani Chor Chor Kii?". Local channel, Bannerghatta TV shows a clipping with traffic jam for last 7 hours - Helicopters are being flown by Traffic police to find out the cow that has blocked the traffic.

Ok, this post might sound ridiculous for many.. but, it's not far away - Demand "are" there! Just that we need a able provider like Google or Apple or Microsoft to revolutionize this space.

PS: MAd sense => Meta AdSense

What If?

A creative prof in our not-so-creative course said that "What-If" analysis could turn out to be really interesting... Let me try out a few

1. What If "Giant Wheel" is not circular, instead elliptical?
   
2. What If kids don't learn anything new?
   
3. What If women stop shopping?
4. What If your dog doesn't bark at all?
5. What If Indian politicians speak less?
6. What If you feel sleepy during the class?
7. What If Prof feels sleepy during his class?
8. What If life expectancy becomes 400 years?
9. What If our masculine ant proposes to the beautiful elephant?
10. What If there are no computers and internet?
    

And here is one possible set of answers:

1. Law of fairness would be violated
   
2. Would turn out to be adults of today (majority!)
   
3. Men in peace. GDP(new) = 0.526*GDP(old)
   
4. You are feeding it too much. Reduce
   
5. People would do useful work.
6. Sleep!
7. Then also, you can sleep! Alternatively, you can empathize and ask him to sleep.
   
8. Our man can have a family binary tree of 20 generations with 1048575 people (2097150 ppl, if we include spouses as well) -Difficult to remember so many names! hmm.. what if everybody decides to have 8 children, the likes of earlier generations - our man would have 2305843009213693950 ppl in his family tree, before he dies (His family is ~350million times the world population estimated in July 2007!)
9. Queen Elephant IV can say "If you can take me on your back. I will"
10. I would be peacefully sleeping and you would be doing something more useful.
    

Corruption <=> Cancer

Longtime since I updated my blog... Something I wrote recently as part of my course... it could better be rated as a blog... so, posting it here...

Film Review: Indian

Cast:

· Actors: Kamal Hassan (2 Roles), Manisha Koirala, Urmila, Sukanya

· Director: Shankar, Music: A. R. Rehman, Producer: A. M. Ratnam

Language: Tamil, later dubbed into Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi (as Hindustani)

Year of Release: 1996

Central Theme: Eradication of corruption in the society by an extremist-freedom-fighter

Story Line:

During the British rule, looking at their atrocities to the Indians, Senapathy (Father Kamal Hassan) decides to rebel against the British in a violent way. He learns Varma Kalai (a rare martial art practiced in Kerala) that enables him to kill enemies with his bare hands. He gets strongly involved in the Indian National Army formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose – He goes to the extreme of joining a death squad in order to destroy the British tanks. Fortunately or unfortunately, his attempt fails and is captured, jailed, beaten, and tortured by the British before India gets Freedom. In between, he saves a woman called Namrata (Sukanya) from the British’s ill-treatment and marries her.

The second part of the story happens after 40 years – the couple has a son, Chadrabose (Son Kamal Hassan, a.k.a. Chandru) and a daughter, Kastoori. Senapathy is still very honest and straight-laced and this behavior creates a split between him and his son. Chandru thinks his fathers principles are not practical. Upon a quarrel with his father on his principles, he leaves the house. He takes a Government job in the Regional Transport Office by offering a hefty sum as a bribe.

A twist in the story happens when Kasthoori is grievously hurt in a house-fire. Senapathy is not willing to bribe the doctors and officers and this delay causes Kasthoori’s death. He realizes how corruption is rooted deeply in every government offices & its impact on the society. He decides to uproot the corruption in a style similar to the one he adopted against the British – give capital punishment to the people who are involved in corruption and to create a general apprehension against corruption.

Senapathy punishes the doctor, village administration officer & collector etc by killing them and making the public aware of it – Media plays a huge role in disseminating this information. The country sees a slow transformation – People deny giving or taking corruption. In such an occasion, Chandru accepts a bribe and grants license to an old bus that causes the bus to get into a major accident, killing many school children. Senapathy comes to know of this. He is very firm on his principle of eradicating corruption at any cost, be it a Filicide. The movie concludes with a message: Giving or getting bribe is wrong, since it’s the major hindrance to the prosperity of the society. Increasing the severity of punishment is the way to reduce and eventually eradicate corruption.

Review: The message of the movie is the need of the hour for the Indian Society, since corruption impacts Businesses and Society at the cost of few individuals benefiting.

· Origin of corruption: Giver Vs Getter

o Instead of debating on the origin of corruption, the movie states that giving bribe is as bad as getting it and severe punishment is applicable for both.

o In majority of the cases in India, the Getter is a Government officer, where as Giver is an individual or a business entity or a political party.

o Views of Bimal Jalan in The Supply and Demand of Corruption[1]

§ In Politics: Relationship b/n high cost of election & corruption

§ Low salaries of some Government officers, politicians etc.

§ Vertical integration of corruption at different levels of Govt.

o The movie compares corruption to cancer that grows and corrupts every part of the system

· Social & Economic cost of corruption

o In the transaction b/n Govt. officers and Business entities, Society is the one that gets impacted the most. It also acts as a de-motivating factor for those who follow a straight-laced approach.

o Government’s quality of expenditure suffers

o Hinders new companies from entering the market, restricts Foreign investments

o Negative circular relationship between corruption and investment explains the Poverty Trap of India 1

· Corruption in India Vs other countries

o The movie contends that Corruption is the reason for India still lagging in the development. It claims that other countries (esp. developed) also have corruption, but the officers are bribed whenever they have to withhold their obligations, whereas in India, even to deliver the obligations, they are being bribed.

· Parallelism between External (British) and Internal (Public officers) Corruptors

o The interesting aspect of the movie is the parallelism that it draws between external and internal corruptors

o It calls for a quick & concerted effort from the people to fight against corruption

· Ways of eradicating corruption – Capital punishment?

o Milton Friedman notes that eradicating corruption is one of the CSRs[2]

o Few suggestions to reduce corruption

§ Let Government handle the entire election campaign costs

§ Increase the salary of Politicians and Government employees

§ Make the government processes more transparent and accountable

§ Reduce the complexity and bureaucracy in Government offices

§ Implement a better feedback, tracking, investigation systems

§ This movie’s approach: Severe punishment

o Though capital punishment might seem inordinate and impractical, the message in the movie is that the punishments should be severe enough to deter people from it.

· Impact of Media

o The hero of the movie uses Media effectively to take the information to the public. It is true in the real life situation as well [Many of the corruptions are brought into light thanks to Newspapers, TV Channels etc]

Conclusion

The director understands the pulse of the audience and hence this powerful message to the society is presented with lots of entertainment factors. Though this movie could not eradicate the corruption by 100%, it has made so many officers think about giving up corruption. Violence may not always succeed – As in our independence effort, the best way to eradicate corruption would be through a Top-Down approach, in which the leader (Gandhiji then) be it Political or Administrative sets an example to its subordinates.

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[1] Bimal Jalan – The Future of India: Politics, Economics and Governance

[2] Milton Friedman - The Social Responsibility of Business is to increase its profits