Taxi Drivers

Taxi Drivers:

I met a gentleman yesterday, he was an Auto driver in Indore. He had picked me up from my home to drop me to office. As I have had the habit to conversing with Auto and Taxi drivers he started to chat with me. I found him to be very knowledgeable. He started to talk to me on all kinds of issues. He spoke about MBA and MCAs. Then suddenly he became very nostalgic about his past. How he had to leave studies and become a truck driver when he was 19. He missed studying. He said that all his energies went into creating a future for his children. He had two daughters and one son. All of them were post graduates and they all were well placed. Last of the daughter was even working in an IT firm.
Talking to him reminded me of another gentleman of almost the same age that I had encountered in Australia. The day I was about to leave for India, I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel where we had spent the night. Waiting for this cab was frustrating because this guy was late by almost half an hour. Everyone would feel the pain of that half an hour. Another funny incident had happened just before this when Aneela accidentally dragged of my bag instead of hers. I didn't even realise. Fortunately she realized and came back in time. It would have been real frustrating if she wouldn't have realized in time.
Coming back to the Taxi driver. He was quite a dilapidated fragile character. One of those who become creeps in scary movies. He looked odd and it was hard to converse with him. However, as I started to chat with him he became friendly.
When he found about me going to India, he was very happy. He told me that his brother used to travel a lot to Pakistan and India on business. He told me a story that once his brother was getting late to reach the airport in India and how a cab driver even with a flat tire drove with full speed to get him there. When they got of the tire was totally in shreds. The txi driver's brother was totally shocked to see that commitment. However, he said that only living in India and Pakistan made you appreciate the life in Australia from his perspective. As we became involved in conversation he told me his life story.
His father was a Jewish migrant from before the war. Around mid 1930s as the persecution of Jews started he was one the first to realise that he needs to get out. His family objected to it but he insisted and ran to Italy. After living here for sometime he boarded a boat not even know where it would take him. On the deck he found two things which would change him forever, One, his destination which was Australia and second the girl who would be with him forever. Like him that girl was also running away and migrating to Australia. They fell in love. Just after landing in Australia, they got married. The guy was 19 and the girl was 16. He was a diligent hard worker and started to work at a grocery shop. Life flourished and with in few years they had two sons. The elder one was the gentleman I was talking to.
Both of them never looked back, never tried to find people back in Germany even in the worst years of Nazi era. I found this a little odd.
How can you forget where you come from, where your past lies. What I have relaised that people with abused childhood try not to look back. Maybe the reason could lie in the pains that are in the past, when someone tries to dig into their heritage or ancestory at some levels they also bring in their recent past to associate with it.
As life would unfold for the couple, they both were very happy, however their elder son was a little learning disabled and second one a little smarter.
Life went on, the elder one became a driver and the second one left Australia for Indonesia, where he lives alone and never married.
My friend got married and had one son very late in life. When I had met him his son was 17 years old. He was given the best possible education and the proudest moment came when he was selected by an English club for their 3rd tier team to play Soccer. Amazing isn't it, playing Football in England for a Austrlasian Poor Jewish boy.
By this time we were at the airport, I knew one day I would write this story and hence I paid him $10 extra to share it with me. Here he did something which made me cringe. He gave me a card which had a list websites of a few religious cults.
I am not sure why I dislike cults however I am a firm believer of following religion in its truest form. I am afraid of any religious organization. Specially once which hide in the form of improving your life. I believe like Osho (now he himself was a cult creator, which I would never join) that anyone who gives you belief system is your biggest enemy and people who join even if they are most learned have one major issue in life and that is their self esteem.
Here I lost interest and threw away the card.

Both stories have two common threads, one they both had given me a ride from one place to another and life's long journey they were story tellers for that blip in time. Second, they both had worked very hard to provide for their families and were so proud of their children.

This made me think, Is it that however hard we try to improve our own lives we end up working for our children. I guess I would only know when I am a father.

Entrepreneurship

Last few months have been very interesting, first I decided to take up a job sadly due to global slow down it did not work out. Now I have been offered a job which was beyond my expectations. The biggest telecom firm in India and world's 3rd largest telecom firm offered me Vice President position to head their Sub-Saharan Africa. They offered me money which I couldn't even imagine. However, I have spent last 7 years learning the traits of being an entrepreneur. It's a totally different thing than working for someone else.
I have spent last few days thinking about my future and contemplating on which is a better decision for me.
On one hand I have an opportunity to lead a major world brand into an almost virgin territory. Earn a lot of money. Make a brand for myself in the corporate world. Providing opportunity to millions to connect and give them better communication.
On the other, I have my own dreams, the feeling of contributing to India's economy, feeling of my 40 employees having a sense of pride in me and the pleasure that you get when you feel that you have made a family better by your work. My own dreams about my own company.
Being an entrepreneur has taught me a lot more than any education or any job could have ever taught me.
The struggles to make money, to learn to cope up with the debts, to learn how to deal with bad news day in and day out.
I had lived alone from the very begining and hence I am not averse to lonliness, being a
To learn to loose is something that I could have never learnt if I hadn't been running my own firm. The struggle for money to pay your employees has its own high. To loose and still keep your head high is a very tough thing.
I am proud of myself to have done it twice.
So now I am totally confused, should I choose money (a job of almost $500K in this market is not a small thing) and simpler life over the more complicated life of starting a successful firm on my own. Should I just leave everything behind that I have built in last seven years.
Lets say where life takes me.
Yesterday a girl who works at my office gave me a compliment which made me feel elated, looking at her smiling face I thought that I should sing :
aaj kaho to mod dun badhkarrr, waqt ke dhaareeee

I am leaning towards entrepreneurship just to feel that elation.

India

I hate the infrastructure in India.
I dislike our philandering politicians.
I am annoyed at the level of corruption.
I have an aversion to suspended dust and haze in our air.
I hate selfish, ignorant and illiterates who roam our streets.
I feel claustrophobic about our over indulgent media which gets into people's lives.
I can't stand narrow-mindedness based on religion, language, caste and sex is still rampant.

There are a lot of reason to be proud of India, however, the most important one is:
I have freedom to say all these without any fear.

Yesterday, we had guests at our home from China. They were extremely parochial. They even hated the idea that someone can criticize their own country. Our neighbour who got married to this Chinese girl went to China and was very impressed that amongst 200 channel 199 were in Mandarin or Cantonese and 1 was in English. He was telling me that no channel ever reports anything bad about anything in China. He said everything seems to be so perfect. He thought that Indian media is so stupid to keep showing what is wrong with the country.

Me and his sister, who lives in England, had a hard time understanding that how can you praise media which is not telling the truth.

Then the Chinese girl started to criticize US for no reason, she says that freedom in the US has brought guns on the street and a lot of people kill others. By this time I didn't have any courage to argue with her.

At the end I love freedom that my country provides a little too much to give it away for even my own security. I would accept terrorists who use our freedom to kill a few of us but how can we stifle our own people with stringent laws.

I will never accept any law which curtails my thought or my speech and neither can I live country where people do not respect that freedom.

Myths, Folks and Legends

I have started a new blog where I would contribute some of the stories that I have grown up with. These are not my own and hence I thought I would keep them in a different blog.

Myths, Folks and Legends

http://mythfolklegends.blogspot.com/

Enjoy

Terrorism and us

For a long time I tried to find logic in terrorism. I used to think that this was because of poverty. Then I thought that it was oppression that caused it. I really thought that be it India or Israel there must be something wrong that the armed forces must be doing that caused it. Then there was a parochialism of fighting for their own rights and country. After 9-11 it became a war of ideology and civilization. I am not sure about it anymore.

India has been probably the worst victim of terrorism in last 2 decades. We have always been a soft target because as people and as a race we always have been very accommodating.

Also, if you look at a history our borders have always been very porous since the days of Alexander. Since those times there have been various attempts to infiltrate into India. Another thing, in the olden days, historians point out is that the wars in India were normally amongst armies and civilian population really didn't care about it. Even in mythology when Kauravs were fighting against Pandavas, there were armies supporting one side or the other. They were from as far as present day China and Turkmenistan. However, there is very little reference of people's reaction in both Hastinapur or Indraprastha. This used to be kind of detachment from nationalism. It didn't matter to people much who ruled them. They loved good kings and hated bad ones but rarely they took up arms themselves.

As far as the border areas are concerned, it took a lot of skirmishes and almost 300 years of fight to get into Sindh for Islamic armies and capture Raja Dillu's capital near Karachi. It took 7 tries and many a wars by Ghauri to get to Prthaviraj Chauhan's Delhi. It took Babar almost 15 years to reach Delhi. Even during the British 'Raj' the Baluch and the NWFP were never fully in control. Half of British Army actually went in controlling those areas. So the skirmishes on the borders were always a norm. This kind of activity used to happen only on borders but now as world becomes a smaller place these terrorists get deep into enemy territories.

Another thing to look at in larger concept is that we are a very big nation and idea of nationalism in India is a very recent phenomenon. Nationalism has its own positives and negatives built into it. The positives are that it becomes harder to divide a country based religion, caste, language or ideology. However the negatives could be that our people can become far more aggressive and parochial in their approach towards other races, religion and countries. This parochialism can only go away when we have an encompassing nature. We have always welcomed anyone who wanted to be a part of this land, this tradition of open arms to accept people who are different than us should continue.

Historians say that this nationalism was created by the attitude of Britishers towards Indians. They treated us as one people and ruled as one entity. On the Indian end, most of our leader (barring Muslim League) was convinced that whole of India from now Afghan border of Pakistan to Burma and from Kashmir to Kanyakumari we were one nation and one people. But they was also aware of the fluidity of Indian borders. Nehru, Maulana Azad and company even thought that the existence of Pakistan was an unnatural state and the cultural ties would one day bring it back into the fold of larger India. However, for people born after the independence Pakistan was a reality and for most of their life, a hostile reality.

This attack was different, it really wasn't a terrorist attack, it was almost a war like feeling to it. I think that there are two reasons for the reaction that has been in India, A serious resolve with middle class to take on politicians to put our house in order. If you look at it there are basically four parties involved here. India, Pakistan, Terrorists and Other countries with lost men (US, UK, Israel and Australia)

In my eyes here is what each of them can do and should do to prevent such an attack.

Other Countries:
What was weird is that these terrorists came to India and targeted foreign nationals specifically. Why would someone come to India and kill a young Jewish Rabbi. If you have so much of problem then please go and be a suicide bomber in Israel. Only cowards kill this way. As far as all these countries are concerned, I think they should put enormous pressure on Pakistan, this could be diplomatic or economic. I think at least the US and the UK have been doing that. UK's language has been pretty tough, PM Brown also claimed that 75% of all terrorist attacks can be traced back to Pakistan. Is this the new world order speaking OR killing of Britishers is making them say that. Such rhetoric was never seen when only Indians were dying.

India:
Get our house in order as far as city security is concerned. NSG (National Security Guard) was built for such an attack, however, it took them 4 hours to get to Mumbai. We need Police reforms badly. Not only our Police Laws are archaic but also our police needs good equipment. How can we have bullet proof jackets which do not stop bullets. We need a comprehensive approach to stop infiltration. All armed forces, Police and intelligence agency should have a proper handshake for this to happen.
Second, most important thing India should look to stop alienation of minorities. India has done a commendable job till now, however, we can't sit on our past laurels.
Third, I do not think that military option is a sane one. We are not war mongers and we shouldn't attack. If you look from a 10000 ft. level, this attack wanted India to do exactly that. They wanted India to threaten Pakistan overtly and show more attacking gestures. What this would have done is that whole of Pakistan would have rallied against India and Pakistan would have been forced to move its armed forces towards Indian border. This would have helped terrorists take more control on the western border of Pakistan. I am so glad that Indian politicians have kept themselves away from this kind of populism.
Fourth, Even when we know that we shouldn't attack Pakistan we need to make sure that economic and political pressure is kept up on Pakistan to take action properly against these organizations which operate from their soil. However, India should be aware that Pakistan's economy is in total mess, its almost a bankrupt nation and pushing economic clout could ruin it economically and which in turn might result in collapsing of the State. This would be worse for India, hence the right balance needs to be maintained.
Fifth: Politicians, please wake up. The day when people in Mumbai were still held up, I was standing in a long queue to cast my vote for the state elections in MP. I am sure many people who were disgusted by the horrors of Mumbai were also present in that queue. However we all wanted to do our bit. Please don't let the democracy in us die.

Pakistan:
Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein's Monster to show the horrors of science, however, the real world is worse than that. Here a monster doesn't go to the north pole and burns itself in self loathing. Here, not only it kills the creator but also damages everything that we hold close of humanity.
Amongst all players, the most that anyone should do is Pakistan. Not for India's sake but for itself. Terrorist organizations end up causing more damage to their creator than to the intended target.
However, I do not want to be in President Zardari's shoes. I actually pity the man. This is what we call being caught between the devil and the deep sea. Only problem is that devil here is not India but the terrorists.
Still, Pakistan should act swiftly and smartly to remove these people. Even if it comes at a cost of loosing populist or being seen as pro India.
In the larger view, if Pakistan is not able to control these terrorists the security situation in the whole area would be in deep deep trouble. Al Qaeda and Talibans are already touching and threatening Peshawar. If Pakistani army starts to loose control over the area it would be a big risk to stability and sovereignty of Pakistan.
The real problem for Pakistani establishment is that there seems to be no single sense of direction that the country wants to take. All its elements wants a different Pakistan. It's political establishment wants a democratic Pakistan where these politicians can make money and fill their pockets. Military itself is divided into two sections, the liberals and the Talibanised ones. The liberal want power at the center but at the same time maintain the professionalism of the force. The Islamists or the Talibanised ones want to help the Talibans but have no long term goal. This was clearly shown through the murder of General Alvi, who was supposed to be one of the cleanest officers. The ISI, probably the worst of the culprits is an Anti Indian organization, its power comes from being anti Indian and hence it would never let its power slip. The media again is divided into two sections one which wants to rise up and show the truth and second which drives its sales up by being anti Indian. The people are divided into few strata. The rich dont care, the poor can't care and unlike India the real people who matter, the middle and the upper middle classes, do not want to care.
Sadly, someone should do something and NOW.

Terrorists:
Why man, why? What do they gain? Any idea?
Gandhi Ji's favorite song was
vaishnav jan to tene kahiye jay peerh paraaye janneyray
par dukkhey upkar karey teeyey, man abhiman na anney ray

which translates into
The real God's child, feels and understands the pain of others
Does good to who are in misery and yet does not let pride enter his mind

Can some one please tell this to anyone who fights in the name of God and religion.


Amongst all this gloom there have been a silver lining, Indian Muslims. Not the first time but however first time in recent past, Indian Muslims have come out in large numbers criticizing the attacks and vehemently rejecting terrorism. From small gestures of wearing black armbands on Eid in memory of people we have lost to big things like rejecting the government's request to give land for the burial of the terrorists. They were categorical, any man who kills another human being is not a Muslim and how can we give our motherland for the burial of men who took our brothers away from us. Well done, don't make these terrorists martyrs.

At the end the song that has become the anthem for 26/11. This has become a grieving nation's salute to the men and woman who have laid down their lives to save many others.
Ek Lau Is Tarah ...

The Semi Conscious Me

It must be around 6 in the morning; I woke up with a weird sinking feeling. In this state you are self aware of your surroundings but your body is comatose. You are not fully aware who you are or where you are?

Today, even in that state, I was aware of all my problems. I have had a lot of problems. Most of them I have had in last few years.

Then, came all the problems that have been happening at work, worse as a leader is that you are aware of all the problems that would come in next few days.

Then, I became aware of all my debts. Debt is the worst form of problem because it keeps you aware of itself and there is no immediate solution to it.

Then, came the realization of loneliness. I knew that amongst all these problems I was alone. No one to help and no one to go for help. Your life suddenly becomes very sad.

At this moment in that semi conscious state I became aware of a solution and that was Suicide. I realized that it was the easiest and the quickest way out. I started to figure out how to do it.

As my awareness grew I realized that I was actually sleeping and dreaming. However, still couldn’t move a muscle and the sinking feeling stuck around.

Waking up was hard but once aware I became conscious of my identity. I knew this was once in almost two decades that I had this self destructive feeling. Last time I had it was when I was 18.

I had worked very hard to become the optimist and to overcome that sinking feeling. Now, I know I am an optimist and would never commit suicide. But, the feeling was enough to scare me.

When I used to play cricket everyone used to ask me what goes on in your head when you face a bowler. I always told them nothing. You are nervous when you walk into bat, you are nervous when you face the first delivery and you are nervous when you are batting in tough situation. However, I have always felt that when the bowler starts running you lose that consciousness of the surrounding and ball is the only thing you see. When the bowler bowls the ball you treat it according to its own merit and the requirement of the game. Hence, the outcome just depends on the ability to execute the reaction in your brain. That is what we all should ideally do when we are faced with tough problems, just concentrate on the next step.

(On the tangent, that is why I am so impressed with Sehwag, nothing bothers him, he always backs his ability and hits the ball without any botheration, and his ability to back your instincts is amazing)

Somebody had once told me that you can tell what would happen on the way how your day starts. My feeling is that you know by it how hard you need to work that day. Today, I am working hard even in writing this because that sadness is lingering on.

Silk through Off plus Cruel to Spinners equals to Dada

Silk through Off, Cruel to Spinners and Dada to the young brigade

When Saurav walked into the stadium on the 4th day to bat for the last time in the Indian Shirt the whole stadium was shouting 'Dada, Dada'. All his colleagues were out on the balcony clapping. The Australian commentators were trying to explain it to the Aussie audience what 'Dada' meant in Hindi.

I say, Saurav can leave the theater but the theater can never leave Saurav. He got out for a first ball zero in his final innings as did the great Sir Don Bradman.

I am sure a lot of people must be wondering why would teammates refer to someone as their 'Elder brother'. However, that is what Saurav was to most of the young generation of Indian cricketers. From Zaheer to Harbhajan, to Kaif to Yuvraj, to Sehwag to Dhoni, they all became the world beaters because they flourished under him. As the popularity grew first most of his contemporaries started calling him Dada. Then the media picked it up and then the whole of India. He became India's Dada.

Just before I was leaving for the US, Ganguly and Dravid were selected for the England tour. Ganguly/Dravid in the first match scored a hundred and Dravid a 90. That was the start of a new generation of Indians who ruled Indian limelights for next 12 years. For the first one year I followed their career on the internet. I remember that me and a friend of mine had a big argument over who is better Ganguly-Dravid or Ponting-Baven. Baven fell off in time and now Ganguly has retired. But Ponting and Dravid are still going on. Let us see who wins this battle.

I first saw Ganguly in a test match when I came back from the US. I was amazed at his skill to penetrate off side field. Though, he didn't play on the leg at all but was brilliant through off.

Ganguly would be remembered not only for his batting but also for his captaincy. It could be luck or the face of changing India but one of the accomplishments that he would be remembered by is to threw away the zonal controversy that used to happen before him. He picked his team without bias of any zones. If you look at Indian cricket team (& Bollywood) it is a perfect example of a secular country at its best.

One of the qualities of a great leader is that he knows when and how to enhance other person's talent. You need to be honest to your profession and always give the right suggestions even if they come at a cost. This is what Saurav did to the young brigade. He took bunch of young talent, gave them breathing space to enhance their talent under him. He sometimes even let them run wild.

'The Times of India' came out with a title 'Robin Hood and his merry men', it described the feelings of these young cricketers towards Ganguly. As 1999 India-Australia series winded down every one knew that Indian cricket was at its lowest ebb. We were thrashed in Australia barring a few brilliant individual performances. Match fixing saga with some of the great names in cricket including Hansie Cronje, Mark Waugh, Salim Malik and Azharuddin were implicated. From here on Saurav took the reigns of Indian team. Slowly and gradually he collected his merry men and from no where turned them into world beaters. He gave them confidence and they gave him success. Who can forget the unbelievable chase which Yuvraj and Kaif scripted in Natwest trophy final.

He was unlike any other Indian captain, he wore his emotions on his sleeve. He got hurt when Flintoff took off his shirt in Bombay after beating India and Saurav was not to be left behind. He took his shirt off on the Lord's balcony after the most unlikely win that you would ever watch. Can you imagine doing that in a place where members can't walk in without a tie and jacket. Members of Lord's would be offended, so be it, he statement was very clear if you respect my country and my people I respect you, if you don't, I don't.

As a batsman he had one limitation against short pitched deliveries and teams planned to exploit it. His average of mid 40s in tests doesn't justify his talent but then he was always number 5 or 6 in the line up. On the positive side he was probably one of the finest one day batsman and in later half of his career he should the stoutness of a fighting test cricketer.

The greatest accolade doesn't come from media or fans but from your contemporaries. Rahul Dravid had ones said that "Through the off side first there is God and then there is Saurav", He could pierce off side with a surgeons precision. Great hand-eye coordination and impeccable timing made him a great player to watch. Sangakarra the other day was saying that Srilanka used to discuss at length on how to stop Saurav from scoring through off and yet on the field it was impossible to do that.

I remember an alcohol manufacturer wanted to promote his whiskey in India and to promote how smooth it is, they used Saurav's name. The advertisement told the viewers that the whiskey is as smooth is Saurav's cover drive. That was Saurav through the off.

He was almost cruel to spinners. He could dance down the track and loft spinners into stands almost at will. Murlitharan is a champion bowler but he would never forget that day in 1999 English world cup when Saurav thrashed him to all parts for his 183.

When Rahul Dravid had declared the innings in Pakistan with Sachin on 194, the media cried fouled. However, Ganguly's ability to put winning before everything else and drilling that into Rahul and everyone else around him was the real cause.

We all would remember him as a captain uncomparable and the greatest parting gift came from now India captain 'Dhoni' in the last test match against Australia. He let saurav lead the side for the last wicket. He ended up as winning captain.