Shame! Shame! Shame!

Was the demolition of an already crumbling structure worth the lives of two thousand people who died a heinous death following the Babri Masjid incident? That is a question we must ask the Sangh Parivar, the BJP, the Bajrang Dal and all those mouthpieces and stalwarts of Hindu religion in our times. We must also ask what part of the religion were they holding up or promoting when they drove the nation to the brink of civil war in their efforts to build a structure of bricks and mortar?

Hinduism at its very deepest level promotes inner spirituality and oneness with God over any other physical manifestation of worship. So it certainly wasn’t religious fervor that drove them. Then it must be a greed for personal fame and gratification that lead them to do this. And now as a nation we must bear the shame of their actions.

It is with deep sadness that our nation must turn to respected leaders like AB Vajpayee and LK Advani. Being in the positions that they were, they had a moral obligation to safeguard the nation. They violated the deepest trust and their actions left a scar on the history of this country that will never go away.

Only time will tell if any legal action can be taken against them and if either of them will be alive to see through to the end of any trials that may ensue. But certainly such a public declaration of their guilt will serve as a warning to the nation that a blind trust in communal forces can never come to any good.
Ironically the most controversial parts of this report, while damning to individual leaders, are also a slight consolation to the nation. By saying that the demolition was a result of a planned conspiracy, executed systematically rather than just brute mob mentality, it rescues the common Indian from the brink of becoming a blind religious fanatic. It is our chance to see what we were almost capable of and take a vow to never repeat it again- whatever our faith might be.

To dry or not to dry, that is the question

The view from our dinning table is a commonplace Mumbai scene- a tall building, beginning to lose its brightness as the omnipresent dust and moisture take their toll, enclosed balconies and of course lines of laundry put out to dry in the fleeting sun. I have to admit that till this morning I viewed these clothes as ugly intrusions on an otherwise nice facade. “A lack of sophistication” to be absolutely blunt. And then I read that I wasn’t alone. There were actually people just like me around the World crusading to save our suburban lifestyle from the scourge of sun-dried clothing. How shameful!

People like them and me belong to a group who are willing to pay the huge electricity bills that a dryer rakes up. We have the money we say, and we are too sophisticated to mar the looks of our communities. What we forget is that when adopting this point of view we are committing a near criminal act of ignoring the environmental impact our actions have. We forget what we “urbanized” individuals know so well, that in the Sun we have a natural source of heating that is both free of cost and environmentally safe.

On the other hand I have to admit that dryers really are useful. In the monsoon months they can actually be a real boon when you need all the help you can to get those clothes dried and need to ensure that the sticky dampness is sucked out of your clothing. Given the cramped spaces that most urban Indians live in, dryers can actually improve the look of homes and give a sense of better living. And in all honesty who will say that those rows and rows of clothes in the windows (whether it be Mumbai or Tokyo) actually look good?

So the question still remains- to dry or not to dry? Perhaps the solution lies in a combination of both options. Those who have the luxury of space and conducive weather should go Au natural and for those of us who are not so fortunate let us hope technology can soon make dryers more efficient and environmentally friendly.

When the World lowers its bar

Every financial newspaper has a column dedicated to the road to recovery from the worst economic crisis most of us have seen in our lifetime. It is amazing to see what is being classified as recovery. It seems that after the crisis the world has decided to lower its bar of what success is. Today it is merely the ability to not fail miserably, rather than actually achieve something.

This morning’s headlines talk of how GM is expecting to make a loss of just a “few” hundred million Dollars and that it would use the American tax payers’ money to start paying off it’s commercial debt. Publications are rife with similar tales of large Corporations across the world sending out signals of recovery because instead of billions they are now losing “only” millions.

None of the stories of recovery, perhaps other than those about India or China, are really about a rebound in demand or consumption. Stuff that would actually mean that value was being created and the wheels of the economy were not running due to a downhill momentum but rather because they had fuel in the vehicle!

But perhaps what is the most ironic about the state of affairs in our times is that while Corporations are allowed to flunk and are given bucket loads of money to stay afloat, the individual is being increasingly submitted to a higher and higher standard of success. Anyone who buys vegetables these days knows that the hundred rupee note buys you one third of what it used to just six months back. So with the same job and pay, we as individuals are expected to become more and more efficient while the Corporations can blow millions and still stand in line with begging bowls for more.

Economic Crises are just bad habits at a large scale

The history of Citicorp and the several rescues it’s many Avatars have seen over the past eighty years has appeared in detail in today’s edition of “The Mint”. It makes for an interesting story and if you read between the lines you will find the tale of a nation that is constantly setting itself up for failure.

Every time the bank has failed starting as early as 1929, the cause has been too liberal a lending policy, insufficient risk management and the need to win market share irrespective of profitability. And by doing so banks such as Citi have created and constantly strengthened the great debt culture that is prevalent across most of the world’s so called developed economies. And ironically enough in doing so have been victims of a system that is of their own creation.

The balance sheet of the average American household is always in the negative. Given the high credit card balances and large mortgages, most people owe far more than they will ever repay given their ability to only make minimum payments. What used to be said of the Indian farmer is true of the average American- they are born into debt, live in debt and will died in debt.

But why does and average American household have all this debt? The simple answer is that the high standard of living that most Americans have come to accept as mandatory can only be serviced by high debt. A television, a car, air-conditioners, a telephone line, even processed and expensive food such as bread and tetra pack milk are considered a norm in every household. You just have to look at the movies- even a guy living in a trailer home will have a telephone and will have a refrigerator and a pantry stocked with cereal and milk and a carton of juice.

So institutions such as Citi have come up with various methods over the years to give people the spending power they need without necessarily worrying about the consequences. So if back in the 1920’s people were able to invest through the then Citibank by putting in only 10% of the money needed to trade (thereby essentially lending them 90% of the rest of the money) in most recent times it was the “unlocked values” of their homes in the form of HELOCS and second mortgages.

Till the habit of over spending does not change, America and the rest of the developed world will always be emerging from one cycle of downturn only to enter another. And this is where the economists in India and other developing economies need to learn a lesson. Measures of development such as the amount of household debt or household income invested in the stock market cannot be used as markers for growth without also understanding the risk involved in increasing their levels.

Language is for communication and not for oppression

The news out today is that the body that regulates web addresses (ICANN) will now allow web addresses that can be in scripts other than Latin or what we commonly know as English letters. Also out is another news that in Maharashtra it is going to be mandatory for all commercial establishments to put up bold Marathi signage on store fronts.

While the world is beginning to accept that language must be a matter of personal choice and no boundaries must be put on it, here at home we have decided that the only way for our people to achieve regional identity is to curb their use of language.

There can be little doubt that a language spoken by a majority of the region’s population should be used for as much of the official correspondence and in Government offices as possible, but surely all commercial establishments should have the liberty to choose how they project themselves? The whole idea behind storefront signage is to inform customers about the business. So if an establishment felt that it would lose business by not having signage in the local language it would ignore that fact at its peril. If the shopkeeper felt it would improve his business no Government dictate would be needed to put up shop signs in Marathi or any other language that the shop keeper felt necessary.

Unfortunately this drive by MNS and like has very little to do with their love of the language or their concern for the average Marathi speaking person. It is just another tool they are using to stir up a people who are looking to find their place under the sun. Yes, regional identity is one part of the over all identity of a person. But the MNS would do much better to use the resources it has to push its followers to better educate themselves and eradicate such social evils as drinking, gambling and lack of education- all of which are a far greater of cause of poverty and misery than the lack of Marathi signage.

Innovation will always be the best weapon

“ It is impossible to break through all the clutter and noise”, this is what most frustrated marketers feel and genuinely face every day. And added to this is the fact that consumers these days have access to several un-official yet strong networks of information such as social networking sites, forums and blogs. In this kind of an environment what is a marketer to do? Well the answer is the same as has been since the beginning of commerce- innovate.

And this is precisely what marketers of goods and services are doing in India now more than ever before. Co-branding, in-programming product placement, cross promotions have suddenly seen a spurt. Gone are the days of the vanilla media plan where you bought ad space and air time and hoped to God that the viewers would catch your ad and not switch to another channel at the flick of their remote’s button. The need of the hour is to find a greater emotional re-connect with the consumer and communicate in a way that it is perceived more as a recommendation than an advertisement.

Keeping this in mind many television channels are cashing in on a new asset. They have realized that there is a deep emotional connect between their audience and the characters of their favourite television shows. So when Star Plus wanted to launch its new serial “Sabki Ladli Bebo” it placed mentions of it in its already popular “Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai”. The same channel also regularly promotes its live award events using its existing fiction series. Similarly Zee TV recently promoted its finalists of “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs” in an innovative yet awkward episode of “12/24 Karol Bagh” which is already growing in popularity.

These kinds of promotions are not limited to television serials alone. Lux just launched its new range with beauty oils. And while they roped in India’s first cine-couple (Ash and Abhi) to do the regular commercials, they also have all the doe-eyed leading ladies of their most popular soaps selling it to all the beauty hungry young girls of the country.

Faced with an ad crunch even the print industry is being pushed into innovation. Femina, a leading women’s weekly, tied up with HUL to cross-promote a range of its products this festive season. The idea of course being that the promotions would be perceived more as an unbiased recommendation by the publication than a push by the manufacturer and the consumer product manufacturer would promote the Femins name in reciprocation. Thereby crossing the boundaries of the usual promotion.

Only time will tell how succesful these tactics are. But they sure indicate a mature marketing environment where the marketers are not caving in but using innovation to reach out to the consumer.

Protest for the sake of protest

The recent uproar over the proposed telecast of Obama’s back to School speech seems to be protest for protest’s sake. The content for the speech is being made available prior to the telecast and all school districts are at complete liberty to show the speech or no. Then why are the Republicans calling it an attempt by the US President to covertly influence young children?

Seriously, do most parents really think that a single speech is enough to color the political thoughts of their children for the rest of their lives? And if the President can’t address the future makers of his country why does he hold office in the first place? All public schools are government bodies and therefore from time to time will be subject to policies sent down from the administration. These will include such things as curriculum decisions and Teachers’ wages and messages from members of the administration. They must engage in active debate if they disagree with policies rather than wasting time protesting against a short speech.

So far the Obama administration has not done anything to show that it is out to corrupt the minds of the young and manipulate them. Then why are Republicans creating this psychosis? Surely for most children capable of understanding the content of such an address it is not the most important thing. They will more likely than not be thinking of their next date, television program or snack even as Obama makes his proposed speech.

Having lived in the US I will hazard so far as to say that this kind of exaggerated fear is typical of the society where concern over personal freedom can sometimes get out of control and border on the ridiculous.

Accepting homosexuality is about accepting that nature is random

As expected, the repealing by the Delhi High Court of Article 377 (that made homosexuality a crime) has been met with both cheers and overwhelming concerns about how this affects the country’s “Sanskriti” and morality. Driven by a deep-seated fear of homosexuality and a belief that it is unnatural and therefore a threat to the cultivated and safe order of our society, a motley crew of people has filed Public Interest Litigations asking for the law to be reinstated.

To many of us who consider ourselves liberated enough to accept homosexuality, their arguments sound pitifully petty. “Different is not necessarily wrong” we say and point out that even the sculptures at Khajuraho hint at homosexuality as a prevalent practise back in the ancient days. That said, if we want to save the rights of homosexuals, we cannot simply wish away the dissenters. We must make an attempt to understand where this fear and disgust for homosexuality stems from and eliminate the root cause.

In modern society we have endless rules to bring order and control to a world that is otherwise quite unpredictable. We try to measure and judge everything by these norms and if there are uncommon or exceptional phenomena that break the norms, we deal with them by either putting them in a museum or they become the object of our amusement at freak shows. There are several examples of conjoined twins being dragged around the world to be displayed to a bemused audience and don’t we all love to see that five foot giant pumpkin that a farmer in UK pulled out of his field? Why don’t we just leave it alone and ignore it? We can’t, because it is different.

To those who are against it, homosexuality is much like the conjoined twins or the giant pumpkin- something that breaks the accepted and cultivated laws of society. It is a deviancy, a freak manifestation. But what they do not realize is that Nature is neither straightforward nor predictable. Shapes in Nature are never straight lines or perfect circles. There are millions of species of animals, insects, birds and all other kind of creatures where maybe just a few would have done. But this is Nature’s way. It is far more complex and adventurous than we are ready to acknowledge. Therefore a deviancy is neither unacceptable nor unnatural. What is unnatural is our controlled and limited view of the world and a wish to reign it in.

At some level even the concept of marriage (passionately defended by the anti-gay lobby) is a man made attempt to control the natural spirit of sexuality. No species other than human beings has such an institution. All animals simply find an appropriate mate, procreate, and stay together till such time as the off spring needs. After that the male and the female will move on to build new groups and start afresh. Even those animals, such as cranes and penguins, that “mate for life” and maybe argued are together for reasons beyond just procreation, have no such ceremony. It is only us humans as a “highly developed” species who feel the need to control and institutionalize everything. It is no surprise then that most of us with our limited view of things, believe heterosexuality is okay and homosexuality is wrong simply because the latter is a deviancy and the former a more commonly occurring phenomenon.

To conclude, homosexuality or any unusual behavior or phenomenon will only find wide acceptance or understanding amongst us when we are ready to shed our limited worldview and accept that nature is a creative genius and a free spirit. It is not limited by culture and creed and its only rule is constant change and creativity. Homosexuality is a manifestation of just that free spirit where sexuality cannot be defined in one singular way.

Armed with a sound

The busy city of Mumbai is playing host to its favorite deity- Lord Ganpati. As the ten day long festival kicked off yesterday with his birth anniversary being celebrated, the city’s annual extravaganza is afoot despite swine flu threats and drought scares. With the arrival of the idols in many homes along came the sounds that will dominate the landscape for several days to come. Drums, cymbals and loud cheers of the accompanying devotees heralded “bappa”as he faithfully returns to bless them.

Mumbaikars are not alone in their tradition of making a lot of hullabaloo to mark this special occasion. Across India and in fact in many cultures across the world, making loud sounds is part of many rituals. In Bengal women make loud ululating sounds during weddings to ward off evil spirits. Conches are blown during most religious ceremonies and in the native Indian traditions, loud animal like sounds are used for everything from calling the rain Gods to curing the sick.

Most crowds instinctively know to cheer out loud to mark their approval of a person or boo to show disagreement. In Islamic traditions, mosques come with tall minarets built specifically for the “aazaan” or the call for prayers to the faithful. We beat drums to rev troupes up for a battle and then to celebrate victory. And when two people are arguing, each tries to be louder, because we perceive loud sounds as intimidating.

In this world of headsets, honk free zones and chatting (where LOL is a poor substitute for a hearty guffaw) our basic instincts still have a hold on us. Just as we crouch when physically attacked and blink when someone flicks a hand in front of our eyes, most of us use the weapon of our voice when announcing that we are happy, upset or just staking a claim on our territory.

Decency and honesty promote efficiency

Our renters of two years gave us their notice recently and along with the usual pangs that one experiences when an investment property is being vacated, we also felt a twinge to see such a good family go.

In the two years that they were occupying our house, we barely had the need to communicate with them and any minor issues were settled deftly, simply over an e-mail. One time when our downstairs room flooded, both sides kept their ends of the responsibility and the problem was solved quickly.

Even as he is moving out the guy has been good enough to show the house to prospects, bear witness to the signing of the lease with the new renter and we instinctively know that when we get the house back from him it will be clean. In return, he knows that he will get back his safety deposit from us in time and we have fully cooperated with him in making recommendations to his new land lord and ensuring that only the serious prospects come to see the house so as not to disturb his family.

Sitting thousands of miles away from each other, such efficient contractual relationships have been possible because both sides have shown basic decency and a willingness to not only honor contractual obligations but also co-operate in the spirit of kindness.

While this maybe a very small example, it shows that when people follow promises they have made and are willing to be reasonable, it saves everyone time and money and makes things much more efficient. Can you even imagine the headache, money and lost work hours it would have cost us if the renter had in anyway not followed his side of the contract? Now expand this example to the obligations between companies, or between Governments and its citizens. Unless each side is willing to be honest there will always be frustrations and losses.

No one knows what the outcome of the KG-6 Basin gas dispute will be and what the whole truth is, but since such a large set up can not exist without prior contracts and understandings, surely someone is choosing to twist the law late in the game to benefit themselves. And in the process is willing to cause waste and loss of such criminal proportions.

Sonia Gandhi beats Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton

Forbes released its annual list of 100 most influential women in the world. The list covers a range of sectors from large Corporations to non-profits and of course politics, and as such is a comprehensive representation of the female horsepower in the world today.

For me as an Indian woman, the fact that Sonia Gandhi (President of the ruling Congress party) came in well above Michelle Obama was something to smile and talk about. It is no mean feat for Sonia Gandhi to beat the likes of Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama who have an instant advantage by being associated with the most powerful and influential administration in the world. Both the above-mentioned women travel the world, are regular features on the news in any country they visit and have a much more mature PR machinery backing them- all advantages over our Mrs. Gandhi. One is the wife of an ex-President and the other is married to one. So what makes Sonia Gandhi more powerful than them?

Forbes unequivocally acknowledges her as the “leader of India’s most powerful political party” and calls her the “dominant force” in the country. And I think that is where the key lies. By giving Sonia Gandhi her due place in the list, Forbes is acknowledging the growing importance of India. With a population of over 10 billion people and one of the few economies to continue to show a growth potential of almost 7%, India is a market no one can ignore. So a woman who has the capability of influencing this market must necessarily get her due credit.

But Sonia Gandhi’s supremacy, it must be acknowledged, is not just derived from the size of India. It is also derived from the political and social complexity she faces every day and the consecutive successes she has managed to deliver. Initially ostracized by many as non-Indian because of her Italian lineage and language handicap, she has managed to overcome both issues and put those concerns to rest once and for all. She has shown remarkable political astuteness and true spirit of public service by giving the Prime Ministership to a man like Dr. Manmohan Singh when she could have easily chosen to promote herself or her children (nepotism being an accepted part of Indian politics).

She has played tough with both her allies and rivals as and when required and against all odds lead her party’s Government to broker the successful nuclear deal with the US and win the recent elections by an unexpected majority. Both Hillary and Obama are yet to notch up any such significant achievements and thus must bow down to her.

In the end it must be said that while she may have lived under the shadows of her equally powerful Mother-in-Law and endearing husband when they were ruling India, it is clear that she learnt her lessons well. She has developed her unique blend of quite assertiveness that the world is noticing and acknowledging. Let us hope that as time passes she can parlay this influence and power to get India an even greater recognition and stake in the world stage. Congratulations and all the best Mrs. Gandhi!

Why fight over a book about the past when you have a whole future to re-write?

Much has been said and debated about the miserable losses that the BJP faced in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi’s hurricane campaign in the North took the saffron brigade by surprise and when defeat hit them they reacted like any ordinary men- pointing fingers, squabbling and playing the blame game.

But what one really hoped through it all was that their talks of introspection and serious re-organisation would result in a new face of the BJP, emerging ready to give the Congress a run for its money in another four years. But the recent debacle over Jaswant Singh’s book “Jinnah: India- Partition- Independence” shows a party driven more by religious ideologies, communalism and living in the past rather than facing the concerns of a new India.

Few people in India- the small minority who know and care enough to have an opinion about the long gone political figure- are big fans of Jinnah. Most history books paint him as the opportunistic Muslim who stole away a part of India by riding the wave of the British divide and rule policy. But that is where it ends. It is an opinion about a political figure, held by a generation that is moving on. For the others (and I fear this may well be an overwhelming majority) he is a non-issue. Let us consider a simple scenario- does an opinion on Jinnah in any way matter to the every day lives of the majority in the country today? What is more important to the person who goes to the polling booth on the morning of the election- the candidate’s track record and future capability to reduce prices, build better roads and create more jobs, or his or her opinion on Jinnah? I think the answer is obvious.

This week as the BJP meets in Shimla for its chintan baithak or a brain storming session, it is doing so under a cloud of controversy over what should have been a non-issue. Yes a party has its ideologies and must stand by them, but they need to be prioritized. What should be the priority right now for the BJP- Jaswant Singh’s personal intellectual opinion or what the Congress is going to do them in the next elections? By making an issue over Jaswant Singh’s book the BJP is letting its already depleted reserves of energy and momentum get fragmented. So the question to be asked is- why fight over a book about the past when you have a whole future to re-write and very little time to do so?

Tata DoCoMo repeats the shampoo sachet success story

The city of Mumbai is covered with the advertising blitzkrieg unleashed by Tata DoCoMo, the latest entrant into the highly competitive GSM cellularservice market in the country. Bridges, buses, hoardings on busy intersections all scream out their message “Per second billing”, enticing you to switch to the service and pay for only the time you talk.

The pricing is brilliantly simple at 1 paisa for each second making it sound cost effective. But look deeper and you will find that in fact talking for a whole minute on Tata DoCoMo will cost you twenty per cent more than its rivals! For example, the average cost of a local call is about 50 paisa per minute on Vodafone but with this service you would actually pay 60p. But the marketer is playing on our psychology that we do not talk in blocks of one minute and this will save us in our overall billing. And this is where the marketter wins.

The positioning seems to be working. A news article this morning in the Times of India quotes that over 80,000 people bought sim cards in the very first day in Mangalore alone. Now I do not have stats on how many sim cards sell in the largest cities across the developed world but I am pretty sure it is nowhere near 80,000 and Mangalore is not even the largest city in India.

Tata DoCoMo has managed to catch the pulse of the Indian market. It is doing to the cell phone market what the small sachets of Chic did to the shampoo market- making smaller sizes available at costs that are feasible. Just goes to show that conventional wisdom has a lot to teach us- we just have to be willing to listen and apply is wisely.

The Madoff conviction is no more than a Nuremberg Trial

Conservative estimates put the number of dead in the Holocaust at six million, the number of Nazis involved in these crimes as sixty thousand and the number tried and convicted at the Nuremberg trials was two hundred. Conservative estimates put global financial losses at $20 trillion of which Madoff’s share was $171 Billion and he alone has been sentenced to 150 years.

Trying and punishing Madoff while necessary and critical is no more than a token. His shame is the shame of an individual and was a far simpler swindle than the one created by the pillars of Wall Street. He is an old fashioned crook who used a ponzi scheme till the feeder pipe ran dry. But the chiefs of investment banks like Lehman Bros., AIG are guilty of creating a whole new system which is so complex and convoluted that even today there is no way to pin point the blame and the cause of the fall. They set in motion an avalanche the end of which no expert can predict. No financial model or historic precedent is capable of telling us when these “toxic assets” will be flushed out of the system so that clean money can start flowing again. Madoff was a tumor you could operate and throw out but these whiz kids and greedy people have created a cancer that has spread everywhere.

The chiefs of these institutions need to be brought under the scanner just as Madoff has been. Additionally, all those highflying executives who raked in not just handsome fees from clients, but also bonuses from their organizations, must share the responsibility. In their defense many of them say that they were merely carrying out orders. But so did all the Nazi guards who simply acted on command to save their own lives.

If these words seem a little harsh (after all we are talking about the loss of money and not of lives) it is time we looked at the human cost of these events. For millions of families this situation has had a very tangible effect- one that will live with them forever. Surely the conviction of one Madoff will never be enough to prevent this from happening again. So let us not congratulate ourselves on bringing to justice Madoff while the big criminals roam free.

State Bank of India- an unlikely mirror of Indian history

Most of us have dealt with this icon of Public Sector banking at some point or the other in our lives. Many of us happily and many grudgingly (yours truly belonging to the latter category). But despite its infamous babugiri , SBI is a surprising saga of Indian history.

It has, for example, as its subsidiaries Bank Of Hyderabad, Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, all established at various times by the then Rajas of the Princely states to mange their finances. The Hyderabad subsidiary even managed the Osmania Sicca- the state currency of Hyderabad. At the time when the various Princes still ruled their roosts, these subsidiaries must have given them a sense of control, but now as the SBI looks to merge them into the parent company it is an indication of the maturity of the banking system of the country and how the country is leaving its past behind.

A look at what happened to PSU Banks and especially SBI during the past year also holds a mirror to our financial system and the Indian mentality. During the recent economic crisis the top IT companies of the country chose PSU banks over private sector banks to deposit over Rs.20, 000 Crore. While ICICI and HDFC Banks were reeling under the shock of steep rise in cash withdrawals, almost all PSU Banks saw a record jump in new accounts and deposits. So much so that led by the SBI, PSU Banks were the first to cut loan rates.

And this is what we Indians really are- we may talk of liberalization, efficiency of the private sector banks, the new approach to buying everything on credit- but when push comes to shove, we will trust the good old SBI and PSU banks. Why? Because we know the conservative Indian Government governs them, and we will put money in fixed deposits rather than risk them in the stock market. SBI was built by and for the Indian way of dealing with money.

As SBI moves forward with its consolidation and modernization efforts, it stands as an example of modern India- one that is learning to accept that competition today demands agility but at the same time understands that at a basic level nothing much has changed. An average Indian even today is still far more concerned with saving for tomorrow than spending today.

Micahel

Debt, mystery, rumors and uncertainty- all these marked his life and also the final hours of his death. The King of Pop moved into history surrounded not by his family or loved ones, but pain and strangers.

And perhaps that is the saddest part of his life. He is undoubtedly the most well known name in music around the world. No single artist has been able to inspire so many people in every corner of the world. As stories of vigils and tributes around the world pour in it is hard not to be amazed at how much love he inspired, but never really got to have that love at a personal level.

Haunted by his skin disease and an aching desire to be more “white” Michael Jackson’s personal life was marred by pain. The legal case against him of child abuse and also the incident with him holding his infant son dangerously over a ledge, caused him enough social suffering as well. He lived in public scrutiny and private pain and perhaps without a moment of peace.

As he goes to his final resting place, it can only be hoped the world will remember him more for his music, dance and passion and less for the outrages that his life had become.

Sarkozy and the Burqa- I say Bravo despite everything!

Since I read about it, news of the strong comments by the French President against the Burqa has been running in my mind. I am still debating whether he has taken an extremely bold step or just stirred up a hornet’s nest?

There is no doubt that the Burqa or any such garments or accessories (shoes, breast and waist bands as in the case of the Japanese) that restrict an individual’s physical freedom and are meant to curb their natural flow, should be done away with. But the question here is that if these are clearly religious symbols, is it the State’s place to do so? France is a secular nation, which means it treats all religions equally giving preference to none. But by actively commenting upon the religious practices of one community it is violating that very secularism.

Those favoring this move state that the Burqa is not a religious practice but a social one. Which is to say that the Quran does not require a Muslim woman to wear it but rather the conservative Islamic societies the world over promote this tradition. Therefore the State, as a preserver of societal values in a country, is right in commenting upon it. But we must not forget that Islam is a communal religion-, which is to say that unlike Hinduism, Jainism and such religions it focuses on the community life of the individual rather than his or her private internal faith and spirituality. Practices such as mass prayers, contributions of a part of the income to the community and even Sharia, all indicate that in Islam the lines between the social and the religious are unclear. So the Burqa must be treated as a religious practice in that sense and not just a social one. By that token Sarkozy may just have crossed the boundaries of Secularism here.

But what if a religious practice is anti-social and harms a section of society? Should the state remain silent on it? In India the practice of Sati and Human sacrifice were both quasi-religious practices, they were banned by the British and the ban was endorsed by the Governments of independent India. No one would disagree that this was the right thing for the Government of India to have done. Then by the same token, we must also support this step taken by the French Government. The public ban on the Burqa is an attempt to free Muslim women of the restrictions imposed by such practices and give them the equality and freedom they deserve. (Where the Indian situation maybe different from the present scenario in France is that the ban on Sati and Human sacrifice dealt with the majority community of India- Hindus. Muslims on the other hand are a minority in France and this action maybe viewed as discriminatory if not handled correctly.)

To conclude, this action of the French President and his Government will be debated and commented upon for a long time to come and only time will tell how the larger Islamic World reacts to it. In a Global atmosphere where it takes so little to injure egos, this could be seen as yet another step by the West to alienate the Muslims. But if the French have decided to set down the bold path where religion must be a private matter and all it’s overt signs (if in any way against basic Frenchness) restricted from public display, then it must take care to apply these rules to all communities. I for one would be curious to see what Sarkozy has to say about the use of head scarves by Christian nuns. But for now I am going to side with him and say, Bravo! Someone had to do it.

Is Jobs the Only Apple on the Tree?

Steve Jobs, the CEO of the Cupertino based Apple Inc., we are told, has just had another surgery. The WSJ confirms that he had a liver transplant and is well on his way to recovery. And so begins a fresh round of speculations and apprehensions of what will happen to Apple after Steve Jobs.

The fear that the Apple may rot
The paranoia amongst the general investor community seems so deep rooted that many newspaper reports (see here for MSNBC and the LA Times to name just two) actually spend close to half of their words illustrating in detail what his ailment is and what are the chances of his full recovery! Frankly all this would be mildly humorous if it wasn’t so off the mark.

Sure the health of a CEO at any company is of great importance. Especially if we are to believe that good leadership is as much to do with the individual, as it has to do with systems and methods he uses. And hence his/her absence will have a materiel effect on the workings of an organization. But surely none of us are naïve enough to believe that a world-class company like Apple has no plans in place for a scenario where the top leadership may not be there. Also if we are to question the very existence of Apple without Jobs, what does that really say about him as a CEO?

Jobs well done
There is no doubt that Steve Jobs has had a successful run. An analysis of several Silicon Valley based companies over the last five years shows that Jobs is by far the most successful at creating shareholder value as well as delighting customers with new gizmos. While Apple stock has appreciated by 727.77% in the past five years, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have each shown losses of –19.25%, -48.02% and –15.10% respectively for the same period. Only Apple’s smart phone rival Palm, is in the green with a positive return of nearly 40%. Most of this success at Apple can be attributed to the iPod and more recently the iPhone. Both considered to be brainchild of Jobs and aggressively promoted by him. He has lead the design, launch and promotion of these products with a fervor rarely seen and this level of personal involvement has made his personality inseparable from the image of Apple as a company. But is that really the case?

Deliberately planted
Apple has traditionally been tight lipped about its new products and strategies. In a hotly contested market such as this, it is perhaps suicidal to reveal names of key product team members because competitors can exploit them. Therefore all of the Apple communication, identity and product imagery has centered around and emanated from the one source- Steve Jobs. This has helped to give its new launches the added zing of mystery and created Jobs as an icon for the gizmo freaks of the world to follow. The PR machinery at Apple has perhaps deliberately cultivated him as the ultimate gadget guy who constantly churns out these amazing products. But why do we forget that it took more than just Jobs to make these legends come true? There are many who must be given credit, including product designers, marketing teams and the whole machinery that it takes to pull off a success story like this. Undoubtedly Jobs provided the vision but it was a team that executed on it.

Time to chew faster
Health is forcing Steve Jobs to retirement a little earlier than he planned. And this is not the first time his presence at the company has come under question. The 2007 stock grant scandal had raised these concerns even before. In this in-depth article about succession planning at Apple the writer talks about the steps the company is taking to mange this struggle. This piece was written in January of 2009 but as we edge close to June, the steps seem to be ineffectual. There is as yet no clearly recognizable alternative to the face of Apple and Jobs’ health continues to severely effect speculations about the future of the company. If it is to overcome the present hurdle Apple must divert from its current strategy and expedite the process of bringing forth alternative faces and names with whom the investors and the public at large can identify.

A lesson to be learnt from Bill Gates this time
Logically speaking the success of Apple is a combination of Jobs’ vision and a job well done by the team at the company. The infrastructure and framework for its continued market leadership exists. All it needs to do is leverage it with greater speed and as Bill Gates did at Microsoft, Jobs must ease in a transition while he has the time

On this Father's Day

Let’s start off by wishing all the loving and caring dads out there a very Happy Father’s Day. It is not every day that us kids take the to time thank our dads for all that they have done for us and today I want to talk about how special dads are by telling you about mine.

Now as dads go, my dad was like most dads I know. Besotted with his kids, wishing he could spend more time with them but also pulled into long work hours and the business of life so that he could take care of those kids. When we were growing up my Dad worked with his brothers in the family business. So it was work, work and more work. He was often the last one to come home and then too with worry lines on his brow. But even then he found a way to be with us. In the chilling Delhi winters we (mum, dad and three of us) would sit in a razaai and he would cut fruit for us and feed all of us. If you ever meet my dad look at his hands. They are not delicate. They are small, pudgy, rough and they shiver. But they can still cut an apple as deftly as the best chefs on TV. He loved feeding us and listening to what we had done that day and make plans for the future. That one hour he spent with us made us feel like he was part of our lives.

He also made sure that he not only fed our bodies but also our souls. Education was always his first priority and its only now that I realize what a heroic effort it took on his part to give me the opportunities he did. Growing up in a conservative extended family with almost fifteen members in the same household, I had very little flexibility to exercise my own choices. When resources were limited, higher education for the kids was not at the top of the list. Sure it was important to get that college degree but only in as much as it improved your over all prospects to land a good match. But despite all this family pressure my dad never compromised on my education. He sent my sister and me to a progressive boarding school in the beautiful town of Dehra Doon, and when I said that eventually I wanted to work, pushed me fiercely to take an advanced computer-programming course and get a Post-Graduate Degree in Business.

Its only now that I have some sense of what it took for him and my mother to do this. In this rather stifling environment my father not only gave me these incredible opportunities, he also shielded me from all the objections that the family must have had. And may be that is why even today, he is my safe harbour in many ways. I am sure if I sat down to document them there will be an endless list of things my dad has done for me and what’s more I would still never know about all those things which he did quietly behind my back.

So for all the things I know and don’t know that you have done for me and for the strong, modern and independent woman you have allowed me to become, I want to thank you. And for all the years that are yet to come may I ask that you continue to be the loving, thoughtful and brilliant man that you are and let your kids take care of you if you should ever need that. Happy Father’s Day Papa.

If Michelangelo were a young man today

I am not a big newspaper reader. Like most people I skim through the headlines and if something catches my attention I do a quick scan and then re-read if its really worth it. So when an article in the "Mumbai Times" promised to tell me who is the artist behind the graceful statue at Shirdi ( a bit of an unusual trivia), I decided to give it a read. The article was average but what really caught my attention were these lines “Most of the lucrative big statue orders are given to experienced sculptors who have a monopoly in the market. The best option for new struggling sculptors is to work with established ones or get into commercial art used in movie sets, hotels etc.”

Now if anyone has read the story of Michelangelo’s life you would probably see what I see. This describes exactly the situation and the challenge he faced over five hundred years ago. Not born into a family of sculptors, he had to struggle all his life to get commissions and risked everything he had to create art that was of his own vision, and did not adhere to the commonly accepted norms of the time. We know him today as one of the stalwarts of the Renaissance, but the man died amidst a life long struggle to be understood and accepted by his peers and the patrons of his time.

This unexpected parallel makes me ashamed. It would seem that in five hundred years we haven’t really grown much as a race. What happened in the Italy of the Renaissance is true even today. We have not developed enough of an appetite for art so that younger, newer artists can flourish. We do not have programs to really support novices who need both the emotional and financial support to hone their art and build a reputation. How many times has each of us been amazed at the price an average work by an “established” artist can command while a stunning piece by a new artist is listed for a fraction of that?

Whether it be in cinema, sculptor or any other form of art, connections it would seem are far more important than the skill. If you choose to be an artist you must accept that struggle is an integral part of your life. So if Michelangelo was a young man today he would still have to fight with MF Hussain to win commissions and most of us would have happily bought a horse painted by the latter over a piece of what Michelangelo created at the Sistine Chapel.

One extra hot, large, Non-fat, latte with two shots of honesty, to go please!

Adding a shot of honesty to your morning or mid-day cuppa seems to be the new mantra in Indonesia. To battle its battered image as one of the most corrupt and dishonest countries in the world, the Government of Indonesia has started what are called “Honesty Cafes”. These are cafes where students and everyone else has the choice of paying either at the register or dropping the required amount into an unsupervised pot of money thus inculcating an honour system.

Using this method may seem like a long shot at teaching people how to be honest but it has succeeded in one fundamental way- it acknowledges that problems such as dishonesty, corruption and lack of civic sense exist in the very fabric of a society and therefore need ground level action to change attitudes. In other words there are no short-cuts to changing the way a society functions and if you must over haul something for the long run, it is important to focus on the youth. After all they are the generation of tomorrow and they will be the ones passing along the legacy.

As expected there are different view on the subject. Some people are cynical and see this merely as window dressing by a Government caught in the glare of international opinion. With the head of the anti-corruption agency himself under scrutiny for murder, and the President’s son’s father-in-law convicted of bribery, the problem seems to be so deep that a mere café seems at best like at attempt at fighting an elephant with a kitchen knife.

But is this kitchen knife doomed to fail and fizzle out? It may sound clichéd but with time even water can cut into stone and in the Ajanta and Ellora caves we have an example of how chisels and hammers combined with dedication created monuments that in today’s world would seem possible only with heavy duty engineering. So if the Indonesian Government and its people are serious about the drive to change its image, they must set down this path with belief and a lot of patience. Newspaper reports say that the Government intends to evaluate the program after six months. This must be done, but a few set backs should not be used as an excuse to discontinue. They must give this its due time to succeed. It is a public sector initiative and results will come at a pace unique to this sector.

To elaborate my point I would like to quote the example of the Delhi Metro system. When the trains started everyone felt that the average Indian commuter, so used to abusing public property would destroy the trans and the metro stations would soon look like replicas of the erstwhile Indian Railways’ train stations. But nearly three years into it’s operations the system is functioning smoothly and the commuters have learnt to give it its due respect.

The success of Delhi metro throws up three key ingredients a public sector initiative should have if it hopes to change something at a fundamental level- in it’s case the ability of a public transport system in India to be viable and successful. These key ingredients are

A strong and committed leadership. The Delhi Metro had that in Mr. Sreedharan. His vision and belief saw the project to its fruition through the several years that it took to construct the tracks. The blueprint of the project might be available to any such initiative to replicate but it must be understood that such things cannot be blindly copied. The Indonesian Government must, if it intends to succeed, find a person who has the belief and the strength to see the initiative through

A plan for sustained growth and levels of quality. The metro stations are still clean and peaceful because in its plans were included provisions for police personnel who would constantly supervise the traffic and the stations. Yes, the time will come when outside supervision will no longer needed but the Metro project acknowledges that this change will take time. In the meanwhile an outside supervision must ensure that the project does not fail in its infancy. So must it be so for the plans of the Indonesian Government. It must plan not just for the setting up of these cafes or other such programs, but must provide for their continued supervision and maintenance.

A demonstrable benefit to the public. No public sector initiative ca be successful unless it has a demonstrable benefit to the people it hopes to serve. The metro has cut both the travel time and cost for the city’s commuters and has significantly reduced congestion along it’s main arteries. The Indonesian Government must demonstrate to its population what higher level of integrity and honesty will mean for them, beyond just the moral aspect.

If these aspects are kept in mind and the Government is serious, honesty cafes may become the norm rather than the exception.

Make that reservation at your peril

The recent decision by the Minister of State for Education Vikhe Patil to propose a 90 per cent reservation at Junior Colleges for SSC Board students, has sparked off an expected uproar amongst parents. No one needs statistics to know that there is a severe shortage of (high quality) schools and colleges in the country and when reservations further limit the choices and the chances of a qualified student, it certainly must be infuriating.

For his part Patil has put up several arguments. One being that schools that choose not to adopt the state run Board must start their own junior colleges and therefore not impinge upon an asset based in the state- the Junior colleges. In essence there is a penalty for being a non-state Board institute. At some level this argument would be fair only if this penalty was known when these schools were given the permission to set up shop in the state, to begin with. How can it be fair to put this rule in place after permission has been granted for Non-State Board schools to start operations? Many schools like Cathedral in Mumbai have been operating for decades now and cannot be expected to change tracks suddenly. Also by annexing ninety percent of the seats in junior colleges for the state board students, Patil is implying that these junior colleges are somehow state property. This just isn’t true. Many of these colleges are run by private trusts and charitable organizations and should be allowed to decide their criteria for admissions.

Patil also feels that the ICSE and CBSE Board schools consider themselves to be “superior” to the state SSC board schools- their shunning of the state Board is an insult of the state Board he says. I say that this is an expression of choices that exist in a developed economy. It is the same as having state run and privately run banks. Would you be any less Indian if you banked with ICICI and not at SBI? The existence of multiple Boards is a sign of a mature education system. Obviously these very successful Boards are thriving because they are fulfilling a need. The existence of multiple Boards gives the students and schools a very real choice. A Non-State board, freed from many of the shackles of a state’s limited agenda, is more able to innovate in terms of curriculum and teaching methodologies. So schools that are more open to innovation have a choice in the Board the adopt, thereby creating a nation of diverse people.

And even if we agreed with the notion that there was an elitist attitude amongst the non-State Board schools, isn’t it better to use that as an opportunity to review the SSC Board and see if there isn’t a way to improve it’s image? Otherwise reservations will amount to nothing more than a way to arm-twist schools and colleges into accepting the lowest common standard (at least as perceived by them) and feel themselves sacrificed at the fake altar of state pride.

One newspaper pointed out that not only is it good to have multiple Boards but a state like Maharashtra with a huge migrant population also needs this system. Many people come here for temporary employment and their children need to have access to education in a system they are familiar with. So non-state, national level, boards like CBSE and ICSE provide them with the continuity they need in their education. And this is true not only of Maharashtra but of most states in the country. With today’s economy and lifestyles, people often move across state borders for lifestyle and employment reasons. If all states had only state level Boards and nothing available across borders, children would necessarily suffer.

To conclude, in his zeal to promote the pride of the State Board, Mr. Patil is ignoring the hidden perils that come with reservations. Reservations and quota systems kill competition and promote complacency, thereby lowering the over all quality of the output that a school could give. Competition lies at the root of progress. Scarce resources motivate people to work harder and smarter to reach the top. Take away that instinct to compete and you will be breeding intellectually inferior people who will feel no need to make any significant progress.

Have you seen this ad? See it! It will make you smile

Not sure how many people have seen the latest TV commercial by the little known Turkish Airlines. The ad features (my personal favorite) Kevin Costner traveling on a flight and receiving attentive service. Nothing surprising about that you say. The actor falls asleep and as the stewardess is picking up his pen he wakes up and signs an autograph for her but she walks away with an indulgent yet quizzical look. As the actor alights he runs into a family posing for a photograph and pushes himself into the frame much to the surprise of the family. As the ad progresses you are wondering why are none of these people delighted at the prospect of such a close encounter with a super star, till you see Kevin looking into a mirror at the airport. The reflection is really that of just an ordinary man- the commercial comes to an end with the voice over saying- “Turkish Airlines, feel like a star!” Mystery solved and you are left with a smile on your face.

It is one of the better commercials I have seen in a long time and it works at several levels. First it tells a story. David Ogilvy in his landmark book on advertising espoused the usefulness of the story-telling devise in TV commercials. The story of a man traveling on a plane and touching the lives of people along the way while lost in his fantasy world, is short but effective. The choice of the celebrity is also bang on. Kevin Costner is the evergreen rogue of Hollywood but he has not been on the front line for quite some time. So while he adds glamour to the commercial his persona does not overpower the storyline. Also the use of celebrities in airline campaigns is a rarity (I can’t think of any other example off hand) so he is able to stand out.

The punch line is in the same vein; it is short and clever and conveys the message without being verbose and taking away from the message. All in all a sixty second piece packed with an entertaining plot, finishing in style with a definite message, and using a celebrity to break through the clutter. Fly Turkish Airlines and feel like a star!

Mukesh Bhatt vs. Mukesh Bhatt and the business of entertainment

When we watch a movie or the latest episode of “Balika Vadhu” it is easy to forget the whole industry that is out there churning out these blockbusters. It is easy to get caught in the world of these fictitious characters and even forget that the people on the screen are actors who do this for a living. And sometimes reality hits us at unexpected moments

In the past twelve months this reality has struck Indians twice. First it was the stand off between the small screen actors and the producers. The artists were demanding better wages, working conditions and longer breaks. Producers on the other hand were just to greedy to share the increased revenues they were seeing as a result of higher penetration of television and the growing popularity of daily soaps that makes up a majority of the television viewing in India. Mukesh Bhatt who heads the producers’ association- who will feature again in this saga- even said that since TV was a “much smaller medium” than cinema the artists had no right to demand a hike in wages. But the deadlock was broken and the producers had to compromise because the actors held out and with no new shows being churned out, the producers had nothing to sell to the broadcasters.

The second showdown ended just a week ago and was between the multiplex owners and the producers from the film industry. This time Mukesh Bhatt was the one holding up the protest banners. He wanted his share of the revenues that the multiplex owners were getting from a whole new stream of audience that were open to watching off-beat films and a general increased spend on entertainment by an upwardly mobile population in an upbeat market. The seats reversed, Bhatt and his colleagues argued that their content was critical to the revenue stream that the multiplex owners were seeing, and therefore wanted a larger share of it. The standoff ended with a generally accepted compromise based on a sliding scale of revenue sharing. The producers got their fair share.

In all of this the main losers were perhaps the TV and cinema going audiences. Deprived for months from new content, many of us watched re-runs and dug up old DVDs. But really was this so bad? Aren’t these strikes a sign of the maturity of the industry and a necessary step in correcting the imbalance of power and money? In both cases the stronger party (the party that was closer to the audience and the source of money) were happy being selfish. In a traditionally unroganised industry it was easy for them to do so. Therefore this protests maybe actually a sign of growing awareness. The TV producers could no longer exploit young artists and continue to fill their coffers and as multiplexes saw growth, the producers also realized that they could leverage their control over content because the audience was more discerning. If the content wasn’t good enough people would go for alternative sources of entertainment and that would spell death for the multiplexes.

Strangely enough in all of this Mukesh Bhatt maybe the most paradoxical symbol of the chain effect of this new face of the media. As a producer of TV content he was at the receiving end of protests from those dependant on him and as producer of film content he was protesting against those who he depended upon for revenue.

All participants of the entertainment industry must understand that as the TV watching and Cinema going audience becomes more demanding, quality is of the essence. This means monopolies, and thus the ability to exploit and force down just about anything no longer exists. After all it is known that Big Cinemas and PVR made the first move to break the deadlock in the latest strike and other association members had to follow suit- something that would not have been possible in a monopoly. The loss of a few weeks of new movies or TV shows is worth the price to ensure that we continue to have an entertainment industry that is mature enough to always put the customer first and nurture all stake holders who will then do their best.

Want to be Speaker of the Lok Sabha- you better be a woman or a Dalit

The newspapers have been abuzz with the nomination of Mrs. Merira Kumar as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. As a woman I am delighted that after a female President we have a woman presiding over the apex Governmental body of our country. But what is puzzling is that this is the only qualification of Mrs. Kumar that everyone seems to be talking about. The fact that she is a woman and a Dalit seem to be the only two things that are being highlighted. All the analysts and the powers that be are calling this a political coup by the Congress led UPA Government in a bid to win the female and Dalit vote bank in the country.

Sure, a party's got to do what it's got to do stay in power but have we become so politicised as a nation that talks of such an important nomination purely for the sake of vote banks does not shock us any more? Not a single article has a profile of her long political career, the work she has done or even her legacy from her father Jagjivan Ram. I am not qualified to say whether she will make a good speaker or no, but as a citizen I can surely ask why no one is even asking why she has been nominated to the post. I want to know why we feel it is alright for her nomination to
be presented in such brazen political terms.

And this is not the only instance where the media has proudly paraded the total death of merit as a basis of selection for a seat in the parliament. When the TV channels were covering the swearing in ceremony of PM Manmohan Singh a reporter for India TV used the word "Malaidar" to describe the most desired portfolios in the cabinet. The term "Malaidar" literally means where the potential of earning is the most. He felt that it was alright to describe cabinet berths in terns of their potential earnings as vs. their importance to the nation.

But then again in a country where we have had years of fragmented verdict and Governments that have had to openly bow to political allies to stay in power and horse trading is a commonly used term, this is bound to happen. In a nation where cast, state of residence and whim are far more important in voting than track record, such things are bound to happen.

All said here is wishing Mrs.Kumar a successful tenure as the speaker and let us hope that even though nobody seems to be talking about them, she has the skills needed to pull this off.

Causality vs. Corelation Part II

In my recent post Causality vs. Correlation I wrote about how an incomplete representation of facts can lead to a half truth which is far worse than a lie. Here is another stark example of the irrational use of correlation in statistics. A study recently made a comment that students of history tend to have more active sexual lives than their peers. It goes on to say that students with a more active sexual life also get certain grades. No attempt whatsoever is made to establish the much needed causality. In the absence of any such scientific explanation are we to assume that people who study history just have higher levels of hormones? Should a parent whose child has selected History as a college in subject be more worried about the threat of STDs given the sexual behaviour statistics of their peer group? Sounds irrational right? It is precisely this kind of mindless representation of statistics that give it a bad name. Research for the sake of research does more harm than good to the subject.

The journalism of haste

Yes the media will always give the losers a hard time. The loser has to answer difficult questions and while the winner can just smile and make a few canned statements, the winner has to come up with a damn good reason for the loss and in today’s world- come up with that reason fast. Because our journalists today are in a hurry. They do not want news that is investigative and informative. They just want that sound byte which they can put on at prime time with a fifteen second looping video so that they can give the impression of being right there in the heart of the action.

That is what happened with the senior leaders of the BJP when the results of the Lok Sabha elections were being announced. By the time it was obvious that the UPA ( or the ruling party led by the Congress) would be able to form a majority Government at the centre, people like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi were being put on national television and asked to answer questions they could possibly have no answers to. The verdict was as much a surprise to the BJP as it was to the TV channels who had used exit polls to show a fractured verdict and a strong anti-incumbency factor less the twenty four hours before. The channels were quick to give themselves a moment to be surprised and move on, but they were not willing to wait and get a meaningful statement from the BJP leaders.

Many of those interviews, to my mind, were used to just fill time gaps. Not a single BJP leader could make any comment except that the party would meet in a couple of days and together do an analysis of what had happened for such a surprising outcome. Yet the same questions were asked in several ways and the same responses were given so many times that it was embarrassing. It looked more like a lynching of the BJP leaders rather than a serious journalistic attempt at getting news and information that would otherwise not be available to the common man. The loss of the BJP was being made out into a spectacle and was being served up to an audience hungry for thrills.

The exit polls are a symptom of precisely the same disease that is plaguing our TV media today. They hope to predict what is almost impossible to do- as the actual election results showed- and are an attempt by TV channels to cash in on sensationalism. Today’s journalists do not want news unless it is breaking news. So they will create news and sensation. No one can wait for the actual poll results- they must do and exit poll to tell you what the result will be like. Of course there is the always the unsaid footnote that all of this could turn out to be nothing more than a bunch of useless numbers.

This is such a strong phenomenon that it seems to have affected even the leading news men and women of today. Take for example the Udayan Mukherjee interview with Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. As Editor in chief of CNBC TV 18, Udayan is a highly respected figure, but the interview published on the front page of a national newspaper, sounds just like a TV interview. An attempt to extract statements about the budget before the budget is announced. Trying to make the FM commit to agendas and items in the budget knowing full well that it would be impossible for him to do so. All because Udayan and the newspaper wanted to be the ones that “broke the news” about the budget before anyone else did and before the budget was even put out there. The result- a two-page interview at the end of which you do not feel any more informed than you already were before reading the interview.

While all this maybe deemed necessary at the altar of commercial TV in this hyper-competitive age, journalism in haste has a price tag. It comes at the cost of real news. Sound bites quoted out of context and deceptive headlines leave people with half the information. It builds a culture where people do not have the patience or the taste for the kind of journalism that is truly informational and enlightening.

Looking at the TV and reading some of the stuff in newspapers today it is sad to see the waste of space and time that comes with a journalism of haste.

Causality vs. Co-relation

Anybody who has dreaded algebra and Calculus like I did throughout my years at School and then at Grad School will perhaps agree that a lot of the fear comes from a lack of understanding. Teachers expect students to learn formulas, difficult concepts and apply them to problems printed in text books as part of a syllabus. But how many teachers really take the time to tell you "why" this is relevant for you? Very few. Making it hard for people to acquire a skill that I have come to realise is critical for professional success.

I would have gone through life with a tremendous handicap but I had a bit of last minute luck. During my post-grad, a mathematics teacher decided to finally educate me on the reasons behind mathematics. and once again yesterday when I was reading "Freakonomics" by Levitt and Dubner I learnt some more- about co-relations and causalities. On page 163 of my edition the authors ask "Let’s say that you want to ask the ECLS data a fundamental question about parenting and education: does having a lot of books in your home lead your child to do well in school? Regression analysis can't quite answer that question, but it can answer a subtly different one: does a child with a lot of books in his home tend to do better than a child with no books? The difference between the first and second questions is the difference between causality (question 1) and co-relation (question 2). A regression analysis can demonstrate a co-relation but it doesn't prove cause" In other words there maybe a co-relation between books and a child's grade but causality alone can give that co-relation a meaning beyond just statistics. That is why the authors go on to add that “A regression analysis alone can't tell you whether it snows because it snows because it is cold, whether it’s cold because it snows, or if the two just happen to go together….. What we really want to do is measure two children who are alike in every way except one- in this case, the number of books in his home- and see if that one factor makes a difference in his school performance. “

This is what differentiates a pure statistician from a person who has the skill to look at numbers in a meaningful way. Unfortunately till today this skill is a rare one. And it became even more evident when I was reading an article published in “The Mint” a couple of days ago. It is titled “Wealth effects of the phone ring begin to widen”. The article – covering a good page of the newspaper spends ninety percent of the space throwing out statistics with no effort to establish a causality that would tell us why the cell phones are having a positive effect on smaller town economies. It just makes statements like “Indian states with higher mobile penetration can e expected to grow faster with a growth rate 1.2 percentage) points higher for every 10% increase in the mobile penetration rate” It quotes the MD of India’s largest cellular company saying that 2% of the country’s growth GDP growth has been contributed by the growing telecom sector. The question that needs answering here is – which 2%? Education, rural commerce and consumption, employee productivity? If we had the answer to that question then we would know where to push the mobile penetration and how. If the correlation could be extended to meaningfully establish causality then we could make the growth even faster and more efficient.

After it has quoted every industry sponsored study and the head of every organization with a stake in the growth of the mobile business , does the newspaper get down to giving some explanation of why the mobile phones maybe considered as drivers if growth. “Mobile phones can perform in under served areas and regions in the same as fixed lines did in many developed countries…widen markets , create better information flows”. But the article would have been much more meaningful if it had quantified just how much more this information spread can be.

But then maybe I am expecting too much from a newspaper article. It’s job is to give you an overall picture. They can be absolved of this responsibility but the teachers in our class rooms should never be. They should equip students so that they know when to see statistics for what they are, question them if needed and apply them where most beneficial. Because if they can not do that then it will always be lies, damn lies and statistics.

Manmohan, Mandate and the Market

Indians had barely recovered from the brilliance of what they had done in the recent Lok Sabha elections that they saw the stock market make another historic milestone- it was up by twenty percent before the half day mark and with the Sensex up more than Two Thousand Point it had to be closed because a circuit had come into play.

Yes it is euphoria and no one knows how long this will last but one thing is for sure, the Indian public has displayed a self-belief and a maturity that no one believed possible. Yes the Western Press covered our elections extensively, but most of it was around the sheer magnitude of the election. Of how operationally daunting such a task can be. But no one ever thought the Indian voter would go beyond (basically) caste, creed and past grievances and be “aspirational”.

The demure Singh from Punjab managed to work his magic and was voted back despite a down turn, a sixty per cent drop in stock market, job losses, inflation and a near miss with the Nuclear Deal and the CPI (M). His message of clean politics, consensual growth and putting professionals to work, clicked with the people. The margin with which the Congress was voted back does not merely say that people want to maintain the status quo, it says that they aggressively back a party that is focused on what it can do instead of mud-slinging and what it wants to prevent from happening.


The magic combination of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi works because while one is the product the other is the absolutely brilliant packaging- consistent, clear and with mass appeal. The good work done by the last UPA government needed to be taken to the people. This is what the threesome of the Gandhi family pulled off successfully. Coming from a legion of politicians they understood that it is not enough to do good- certain processes of a Lok Sabha election must be followed. People’s hand must be shaken, rallies must be held in villages, dust must be eaten and sweat allowed to flow.

The market’s reaction is saying that we had a belief in the India story all along- the fast growing youth population, the huge potential for infrastructure investment and hence returns, stable banking infrastructure- and now the last doubt of whether there would be a stable government or no has also been lifted so we will go and put our money behind India Inc. So now Manmohan Singh and Co, have to do what they all along have planned to do- be pro-growth, deregulate slowly but surely, continue the regulations that prevent the kind of irresponsible behaviour seen in the world’s financial institutions. And as for the foreign money flowing in- why will it not come to India? Where else will people invest? In the US and Europe everything that gets put in is swallowed up in recovery rather than new value creation. So money managers around the world will be happy to come to a country of a billion buyers who need new houses, roads, schools, factories bridges and are willing to borrow money and give returns.

A song worth revisiting

So what makes a song, a movie, a play or a book memorable? I think it’s the impact with which it is able to convey its message. While a movie or a book has the advantage of length on their side, a song is perhaps the most difficult of all because the duration is usually no more than a couple of minutes. So when a song leaves an indelible mark on it’s audience it is all the more laudable.

For generations of movie goers “ Jab Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya” from Mughal-E-Azam remains an all time favorite. No one can forget Madhubala’s defiant stature, Prithvi Raj Kapoor’s blazing eyes and the glass set of Sheesh Mahal, put up at a huge cost just for this one song and not to forget that this was the only sequence in the movie which was shot in Technicolor- again at a huge cost to the already beleaguered producers. The sheer expense of this song tells us that to the makers, this song lay at the very heart of the film.

After seeing the movie there is no denying that the expense and the effort are absolutely worth it. Madhubala is magnificent in the song. She misses no chance of conveying the message- while the powers that be, can have a public victory by killing the love between a prince and a chamber maid, privately it is love alone that will triumph. “Parda nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se parda karna kya”she sings with an almost militaristic stand and we all nod with her. And here the Director K Asif adds a masterful touch by showing the only time in the film when Akbar is forced to bow his head and acknowledge the win of his opponent.

The camera and editing too are used masterfully in the song. Throughout the sequence we are taken from person to person showing the different reactions of the members of the Royal family. Prince Salim played by Dilip Kumar wears a cautiously proud expression as his lover dares to defy the King in such a public setting. Jodha Bai, the loving mother and proud queen is amazed at the cheek of a chamber maid who can challenge her might husband and King Akbar, outraged and yet helpless sits on his throne seething in the fire of his own ego.

Most people of the previous generation know the lyrics of this song by heart. It is both tragic and victorious at the same time. Anarkali has the courage to show the King that his victory his hollow but as a maiden she can not help but mourn the loss of a love she feels so deeply. So where there is the “Parda nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se parda karna kya” there is also the “Unki tamanna dil mein rahegi, shamma issi mehfil mein rahegi” that conveys her pain.
In this song the combination of choreography, setting, lyrics and music and creates a masterpiece that should be studied by all film-makers to see why a song sequence is an integral part of hindi cinema and how it can be used masterfully to move the storyline forward and wow the audience.

The new Avtar of match finding

BharatMatrimony.com has been a popular online matchmaking site for some time now. I remember that it was started some 4-5 years ago. But the reason I am writing about it today is the series of online ads it has recently launched. Accompanied by beautiful shots of couples on their wedding day, there are slogans like “ Get married. Your parents did it” or “Get Married. Don’t be afraid to commit”. To me the message is simplistic and makes the fatal mistake of believing that the product is more important than the market demand.

All of us know that the typical online match making website is used primarily for young people (both married and unmarried) to find someone for a casual fling. Just because the name is Shaadi.com or BharatMatrimony, it doesn’t in anyway mean that people will use it to find their soul mates. Also in India majority of the internet users are in the cities and urban areas. These young people are far less likely to simply look for a soul mate online They are precisely the kind of demographic who is liberalized and westernized and will not hesitate to have a fling with someone they meet online.

In the face of this, throwing in a message like, “Commit don’t be afraid” is just too little and too simplistic. You can not change market behaviour like this and will not become popular with the current generation by asking them to ape the previous one!

But all said and done this does not mean that the eternal search for a life partner is not big business. Testimony to this fact are two new shows that are soon to come to the small screen. One is a reality show that will trace the “Swayamvar” of the Bollywood Bimbo Rakhi Sawant and the other a show called “Vivah” that essentially takes sites like Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com to TV. Their USP, on the Internet people can fool you, but on TV you will see the reality and meet only candidates who have been pre-screened for their seriousness about marriage.

So even though Bharat Matrimony maybe the wrong platform for it, or maybe simplifying the message too much, the demand for arranged marriage services is alive and kicking. But it has a new face with a dash of excitement and risk. Whatever else these shows or websites might say or do (because this maybe nothing more than a veiled poke at this whole Internet dating thing), one thing is clear, that paradoxically enough in this era of rising divorce rate and where many young people are choosing to be single, marriage and that too “arranged” has enough of an attraction.
But the why should this surprise me? I- an educated city girl with liberal views- was married less than a decade ago to a man who had every liberty to choose his spouse but decided to marry the woman his parents found for him. And on my part I married him because he is the one and only man flattered me with all the love and attention he showed me the first time he met me and also because “daddy said so”. And I didn’t even need the pretense of a website or a reality show.

Does Craigslist promote prostitution?

That is the question being asked from Craig Newmark the founder of Craigslist. The spotlight fell on him following the alleged murder by a Boston University Medical student of a 25 year old masseuse who advertised on this website.

The website which as ABC news says "is the most visited site on the planet", has a section labeled as "Casual Encounters". It is clear from the word go that this is like the personals section of your daily newspaper except that no one is mincing words here. If they are looking for an unbidden sexual orgy, that is what they are asking for. There is frankly nothing new about this and no one is complaining about this- the hullabaloo is about the ads where money is being offered and sought for in exchange of these “casual encounters”. This, the police and the general community are saying is a clear promotion for prostitution. So is Craigslist really promoting prostitution by allowing these ads to continue?

Solicitation for sex using public media is nothing new. All of us know that the innocent escort services being offered in the newspapers are nothing more than a cover up for a prostitution racket. But where these ads differ from the listings on Craigslist is that they do technically abide by the law and do not mention money for sex. They are like the ads put out by makers of alcohol for music CDs, playing cards and golfing gear. Thinly veiled but compliant by the letter of the law. We may say that they do promote alcohol, after all everybody knows what the ads are for. But till the law extends to these ads, they are legal and valid. But in many of Craigslist’s ads there is no such disguise and the offer for money is clear. They meet the simplest definition of prostitution. “I will have sex with you and you pay me in return” or vice versa. The people there are making no effort to respect the law that governs public media. And we must not forget that Craigslist is public media.

But maybe that is where the problem lies. Those who use Craigslist do not quite think of it as “public media” like commercials on TV or ads in newspapers. It is an extension of a private community they are a part of. An alternative to the mainstream media. Therefore there maybe a tendency to say and do things that you would not do in public. But even if that were true- prostitution is illegal in many states in the US and of course in many countries around the world. So whether the solicitation is public or private it is illegal!

So it is clear that there are open ads for Prostitution on Craigslist and hence Craigslist is promoting or allowing prostitution to be promoted. The question now arises who is responsible for monitoring these and who should take responsibility for this? Craigslist is mostly a free of charge community. You can list your goods and services for free and can browse all sections for no charge and there are no irritating banner ads to make money from. But there are some services that you have to pay for. So it is a commercial organization and we know that there are people managing it. Tomorrow if Craigslist was to win an award or someone was to hijack the URL, Craig Newmark and some other people would have the legal right to take action in each case. So does it not make them “owners” as it were of the website and hence responsible for ensuring that illegal activities are not going on in this virtual world?

If they absolve themselves of this, it would be like Rupert Murdoch’s Star Corporation just absolving itself of any responsibility to prevent child pornography and sexual harassment on My Space. Most services there are free on My Space and yes they make money from ads but they also have a whole department dedicated to preventing such things as prostitution and child pornogrophy.

Craig Newmark says that he expects the community to weed out such menaces. It is a democratic set up, for the people, of the people by the people. But what he is forgetting is that even democracies have a police force and a set up for law enforcement. Human nature is selfish and people do not have the time to monitor what does not directly affect them. Yes it is possible to overlook a menace such as someone posting the same thing multiple times but what is illegal is illegal. When we put into motion something that can take on its own life and yet keep ownership of it, we must put in place a mechanism that takes care of such situations. So while I do not think Craig Newmark or Craigslist are deliberately allowing prostitution to occur, they are certainly not doing enough to prevent it. And maybe that is where the paradox lies- nothing can ever be completely "free" - monetarily or legally- because there will always be people to misuse it.