From Today

Starting from this day, I am going to highlight only the positive aspects around me and especially with respect to Indian life style or way of doing things. I am not going to crib about any ongoing socio-economic convolutions in India.

Only IT-Engrs should communicate!!

CHENNAI: Anna University students will undergo more courses in communication and soft skills during the first three years of their engineering programme, from the coming academic year. Simultaneously, it is talking to global leaders in information technology services for improving the profile of outgoing students as "I.T-enabled engineers."

Read the full article here

Sometime back, I wrote about communication and how English mania spans all over India. Again I am not against the Language, but the way we address our problems elucidates that our system is crap. Anyone will accept learning comes easy & better at young age (below teenage) and our colleges are helping students (1st let me appreciate them they have realised a problem) Two things to note:

1. Leadership doesnot come just by communication and it comes by experience only. My point is looking at success and way of learning should change.

2. Why is it extended for only IT-Engr? are the other department students incapabale of going abroad? To prepare student globally would they teach French/Chinese too?

Lets see...

BusinessWeek also has the same point on Mittal's Merger...

What Price Mittal's Victory?

Mittal Steel is making such huge concessions that its acquisition of Luxembourg's Arcelor may not be such a great deal after all On the surface, Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel (MT), has won the five-month takeover battle for Luxembourg-based Arcelor, assuming the board's June 25 recommendation to accept Mittal's offer prevails. But the tycoon looks to be making such huge concessions that it almost seems a pyrrhic victory.

Read on

Mittal & Annamalai

When I see the Mittal Steel deal & Arcelor steel two things stand out clearly

1. Never say Never die
2. Goals can be achieved but there is a price

the first point is very much clear, how on earth did they get the deal? Almost the merger with russian firm was confirmed. Like the media, i assumed the doors are closed once Severstal announced the deal. But I kept saying to myself that things might change. Coz' shareholders were not happy. Of course in capitalistic society shareholders are kings and they can change things. In Tamil there is a saying instead of bribing the witness go patch up with the opposition. In this case Arcelor are a mere witnesse and the key lied in Shareholders. Dealmakers hit right on that point to turn tables. Amazing corporate story, every other B-schools would have this as a case study. 200% sure about that.

Ok at what cost do you want to meet your goal? In a different perspective it looked like Rajini's Annamalai movie where rajini just hikes the auction and the enemy looses a lot to win the auction. Though elite men in the board room would have discussed this point for sure, I still feel Severstal merger drama has been well enacted and the buy out price doubled - 23euro a share to 41euro a share. Mittal steel's biography is all about mergers (from 1997 till date) its been a merger mela. But this is the biggest off all the mergers that has happened in Mittal's World. Not sure if such a costly merger is worth it or was it well thought & forseen that the original 23-eruo a share by itself was such a knacky move?

Time will tell...

Emergency Declared in India - This day but in 1975

The Indian Emergency (1975-77) is a 18-month period between 1975 and 1977, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India.

Reason:

RAJ Narain was defeated in parliamentary election, lodged cases of election fraud - use of state machinery for election purposes on Mrs Gandhi in Allahabad High Court. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found the Prime Minister guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her election campaign.The court declared her election null and void and unseated her from her seat in Lok Sabha.The court also banned her from contesting any election for an additional six years.

The Times described it as 'firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket'. However, strikes in labor and trade unions, student unions and government unions swept across the country. Protests led by Narayan and Morarji Desai flooded the streets of Delhi close to the Parliament building and the PM's residence.

The Government cited threats to national security, as a recent war with Pakistan had just been concluded. The strikes and protests had paralyzed the government and hurt the economy of the country greatly. Indira herself had the right to appeal to the Supreme Court of India and had no legal obligation to resign until then.

J.P. Narayan, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jivatram Kripalani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and other protest leaders were immediately arrested. Organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and opposition political parties were banned. My maternal uncle who belonged to RSS was also arrested . At that time my mom had me floating in her womb. My mom used to visit my uncle (her brother) in jail and my uncle used to say that Lord Krishna (Hindu God & King of Mathura) was Born in Jail and he established Dharma!!. He wished to see similarities that If i were born in jail (if it all my mom delivered me in one of her visits), then I would grow up like Krishna to usher a new era... but i was born in Neyveli and not in a jail. Neverthless my thoughts are in the right direction. But will i make 'em to usher a new era?

Time will tell... Jai Hind!

'Fearless' - The best film ever i saw since 1976.

Yes I would rate this movie a well made one, better than many of the top class movies I have seen. I am an introspective individual, especially who thinks deep about human suffering. But, this movie is not about all those things.

A fighter who has defeated all his contemporaries in his province, falls defeated to life. This man raises back to true character, finds his 'Halo' through the simple lifestyle of mountain-tribes that save him from jaws of death. The director could have flawed easily by getting onto insidious points especially w.r.to History but has carefully avoided those traps and narrates the story in a fabulous way. Message of Gandhi in an action-filled martial arts movie!!. Subtle and strong messages of the oriental land in this movie are thought provoking. One of them is about the scenes involving a lunatic. This lunatic runs behind the Hero after his victorious fights everytime and questions "When will you be the champion of Tinjin"? "Today?" and laughs typically. Well thought.

Of course after the movie, I started lambasting the Indian movie makers about the way they produce movies, with heros standing and heroines dancing around. Kamal Haasan one of the few to do different genre of movies I wish, produces at least one with an Indian theme like this. Civilisations in East always have clashed with the West. I still feel western civilisation to a greater extent has been the reason for our degradation and increased suffering. I am not vouching here 100% eastern thoughts & life style are the best.

Hindu, Buddist, confucius type of thoughts initially ridiculed by west, have come back to limelight with many westerners themselves following such schools of thoughts & living. But we Indians have failed to understand our own history and lifestyle, simply started copying western lifestyle, and have self-inflicted misery. At a very high level to compare: West is all about creating the 'I', but East is all about destroying the 'I'.

English not THE key for global success

In 1983/84 my school levied 25 paisa as a fine, if a teacher spotted a student conversing in Tamil or their local language within the school premises. This was such a move that every other mate of mine was jittery about, just not for the monetary reason, but the primary reason was to speak in English. When a student was caught, he would lie and swear that he did not speak in local language. Obviously it withered away slowly.

The rationale behind the rule is definitely good and it was to make every other youngster in the school to converse well in English. The intent was good, but it created false and shallow characters, students feeling inferior to others who had a natural gift to tongue twist in English. Some diligent students did manage to speak, but in them for sure grew an inferior feeling.

Recently I read an advisory note in a career guide column that ‘English is a must in the new economy’. Such a column from a widely read website stressed a need that this problem must be nurtured from roots. I know many of my classmates/colleagues who have procrastinated or held back their urge to grow up, feared, felt inferior, in spite of their good knowledge in their chosen profession. The reason for the inferior feelings, the fears etc were the ones created long down in the colonial era.

Readers please do not despise me as a one, championing linguistic feelings. This article is not about languages or linguistic afflictions. This is no anti-English, pro-Indian language related write-up. One that I like to mirror is the complex ‘English’ language crazy affinity and how the blinding zeal to learn English is illusionary and provides less impetus than perceived.

A Polish couple who became good friends to us innocently quipped in their second meeting that friendship with us (Indians) could help them learn ‘English’ quickly but would not stir their inferiority complex. The story of learning English is not an isolated one with respect to India/Asia.

Recently I worked in a joint venture programme and two of our teams met for discussing the strategy. A senior colleague rose to the podium and started to speak with a different accent: “I do not belong to this country, apologies for my funny English accent and should you not understand me, feel free to interrupt and I shall try to put it the best possible way”. This man then presented clearly and concisely but simple English. Contrastingly, in the same session, a fellow Indian spoke much more articulately with a false-American accent, was turned down as a bore.

The message loud and clear: It’s the subject expertise and self-confidence with simple English that finally mattered to present his view. Neither the accent nor the vocabulary did matter. A key message underlines the incident that this gentleman-the head of the programme, did not shy to expose his weakness, but also had the courage to accept it before a tall audience.

7 out of the top 10 GDP or the Human Development Index listed nations do not have English as their official language but have worked hard for their elevated international status. Japan, Germany, France are top developed nations that have spiralled up themselves in many fields, but found no impediments by choosing English for their learning or communication. Also, they have an identity that produces a class. China, a living illustration next door is a strong case for the developing nations.

Typically in a country like India, at the grass roots level language can be a major barrier to eradicate illiteracy. When a person is expected to learn to read in a language he does not understand, becoming literate can be confusing and frustrating process. Many give up permanently, convinced that reading and writing are beyond their grasp.

Gerardo Wipio Deicat, the Peruvian educator states that "those who teach in a language other than that of the child in the lower grades are violating principles of good pedagogy and are guilty of cultural imposition. More often than not, this type of education has been the cause of native children dropping out of school and experiencing psychological trauma, resulting in their failure to learn to read and write." May be that’s one reason many of us do not pursue and be successful at higher levels of scientific education to the extent we do easily in lower levels.

Many of us do not recognise our complex sentence formations that confuse our global partners and that’s because, we sub-consciously transliterate our native language to misrepresent and let go potential opportunities in spite of our correct understanding. If I wished to incur the wrath of the persons behind, I could quote some real life incidents. Though this is not worrying problem, the real issue lies in our approach to embrace the language. Instead of concentrating on constructs, we go behind styles and words.

The situation is the Indian states that are fanatic about their local languages, are yet forced to learn for global competence. In a lighter vein, an American said: “Lots of people speak English, so? I need to learn that language dude!” That’s the way Americans chose to - create a different style of English and now ironically a sizeable section of world is following their trend.

A story goes that God created many languages to divide the humans and fail their mission to reach Heavens. Do not be pedantic about the language and fall in the world of complexities. It’s wise to quote Swami Vivekananda: “Give me 100 confident and courageous youngsters; I shall create a new vibrant and radiant India.” Yes, indeed courage and self-confidence are the vehicles for success, not the language’s fluency or volubility. It’s the clarity; brevity and simplicity of expressing yourself that can ascent you to the path of success.

Another quote to help is the story of an entrepreneur, lost his first job of cleaning the floors in an IT company because he did not have an e-mail ID. But that turned him into a self-styled top business man, is ironically interchangeable with the tongue twisting flamboyant English speaking classmate who was initially envied, ended-up in a BPO call centre with a terrible lifestyle.

I have observed that many of us in the zeal to learn English, watch hours of TV, create unnecessary illusions and forget the prime aim of why we need to learn English and wander away to become superficial and pretentious humans. The important thing for success is hard work to gain subject knowledge. If gained, confidence follows, if confident, thoughts can easily and clearly be communicated. Language is needed for communication, but should not be the hindrance to your growth or the one that creates shallow-personality. Remember the next time you speak, language is for just communicating.

Jai Hind!

Help your society back!

India is slowly nudging into future as a tall Nation. But the beloved country needs a push to a next level or what I call 'a minor step change that can be a major life change' to millions out to our mother land. Coz' of the reservation stir, I looked out for answers and found South Africa has very good set of reforms as they have a similar situation to us. But in search of that set of policies, I found interesting information that actually the society plays the big part by repaying for nation building. My thought trains started after reading that and not against or pro-reservation. Please read it forgetting all the past and just from a nationalistic stand point.

I did a simple math in the weekend and pitching this thought to you guys as a set of audience for your views. What I have done is: I have just taken 10% of non resident creamy population from top immigrated nations which numbered close to 6 Lakh NRIs world-over. If the 6Ls contributed just 50-100 units in their local currencies, it would amount to 265 Crores INR\Year. (The stats based on Wiki). 'Just 10% contributing 50-100 bucks for an year'

For this across political spectrum, the 'Will' should be there and this fund especially should be made 100% transparent on the programme execution etc. Out of the 265 crores X amount should go to education and rest amount to rebuild houses for poor or may be a common set of principles can be discussed and agreed. This needs mass attention and honest political will to do. Just this 50-100 units of local currencies can be invested as Infrastructure bonds and the investing NRIs can get a meagre % of Interest. Mind you, the plan is not for investment but as a patriotic initiative for the mother land. But I feel the interest factor is just one another check point to guard the programme. Another point is this is just for a year and if the programme is transparent and pretty well implemented, many more NRIs will contribute more than 50-100 units from the second year and this can be a roaring success. Also, Local Indians can also contribute.

Only factor I humbly request to consider: During freedom struggle this is how we collected funds. Also remember in 1965 Lal Bahadur Sashtri said, we Indians should fast on Monday nights as a move of solidarity during the war periods. Many people back home, they point at NRIs with a sloppy argument that NRIs do not contribute anything back home. (Though I disagree totally)

Key risks:
¨ Political Will,
¨ Corruption in the programme.
¨ Execution of the programme itself.

To mitigate:

¨ Political Will: Media should champion it
¨ Corruption: 100% Transparency in programme can be the best guardian and the best tool to execute
properly.
¨ Development Goals: tall political leaders & public let us decide the execution & goals through dedicated
web sites for this, and also these web sites can be used for public to track the progress.

What do you guys think? If you think this is a nice idea, forward to your NRI friends.

United States of India...

New year has kept me relatively busy but some remarks and incidents in India offlate have urged me to put my thoughts down to this blog:

Sometime in 1995 a decade from now, I placed the idea of India Pakistan and Bangladesh forming an united states of India among the growing minds of student population in Trichy where I did my under graduation. This was a rotary club event for all UG-PG students to excel in various competition. I am not sure how many of those remember. The whole crowd was stunned and listened to my speech that day! I do not belong to RSS but an young mind thinking about India's future with their neighbours. That day when the organisers asked how sure are you that this would happen? I told them about 100th monkey phenomenon and drew a parallel and quipped then at that event, a huge student population was listening that speech who numbered more than a 100 and if they pass this idea on; May be, by end of a few decades that could happen.

Why did I want that? To end the suffering in the sub continent, yes! if you observe how much amount of money we three (Ind,Pak,Bang) spend in defence and relate to the poor mass of people in all the 3 countries, that money could be channeled to their upliftment. Years later the same topic was detailed by L.K.Advani on a different podium. Times have changed. His theme then was AkandBharath and now that he stepped down from BJP and recent remarks around his latest thoughts on Jinnah does bring a big thought to me.. That BJP has let down a true leader and India too.

Why? - My interpretation:
Any one mellows with time... Advani definitely had the idea of Akand Bharath from RSS back ground. but I am sure he understands the complexity and is pragmatic about the three countries as such. His vision to unite all the three. But things have changed. His recent remarks and you could see a much wiser man. No longer AkandBharath could be formed by force, but only by wish and true minds that like to unite. May be he mulled over it and it occurred to him after his visit and that could have provoked advani to soften his stand and obviously the utterly worst reaction by us Indians would have made him to slow down or shelve till a ripe time comes??? Also may be he is associated with BJP or RSS anymore, he could not make that movement happen... may be i wish he thinks along that lines..

I am sure a tall leader like him would ruminate within his deep soul about this subject before making a U-Turn, mind you my dear reader of this blog only a strong mind could make such a big U-Turn and obviously would have a strong reason. I believe so, no one of his stature would dare do this. That's why i felt BJP & India let down a true leader. Having said that, Advani does not have youth or time to re-start another yatra that could un-do the past. Does he? "Right Man in Wrong Party?" Anyways, forget AkandBharath from RSS point, but the above I mentioned also to include Advani's latest remarks: "He (Jinnah) said now that Pakistan has been created, one should not see who is a Hindu or Muslim. Let Hindus go to temples and Muslims to mosques. In the eyes of the Pakistan Government, all are equal citizens. I had only reminded them."

Would deeper minds reflect this and create a thought reaction that one day would make it happen?