3 Idiots and the new Hindu growth rate

Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, written in the mid 80’s has a section which very evocatively brings out the quiet desperation of a newly emerging middle class to not slip back into destitution. I read it over 20 years back and it still resonates. It talks of the writer as a young school boy who is visiting his not-so-well off relatives in a poorer part of Calcutta and from their balcony he looks out at the shanties and ramshackle landscape around him:

It’s true of course that I could not see that landscape or anything like it from my own window, but its presence was palpable everywhere in our house; I had grown up with it. It was that landscape that lent the note of hysteria to my mother’s voice when she drilled me for my examinations; it was to those slopes she pointed out when she told me that if I didn’t study hard I would end up over there, that the only weapon people like us had was our brains and if we didn’t use them like claws to cling to what we’d got, that was where we’d end up, marooned in that landscape: I knew perfectly well that all it would take was a couple of failed examinations to put me where our relative was, in permanent proximity to that blackness: that landscape was the quicksand that seethed beneath the polished floors of our house; it was that sludge which gave our genteel decorum its fine edge of frenzy.

And this context is what probably led a generation of the more fortunate urban, middle class kids to slog their backsides off in schools and colleges all over the country. And that in turn helped them do well enough to buy their homes on mortgage, marry, have children and make those poor kids go through a similar rigmarole so that they in turn don’t fall into that ‘sludge’. While the thoughtless scramble to conform and make the kids mug their way through school is not very edifying, it’s important to understand the background against which this happens. And while we all decry this method of education by rote – which has been given a strong collective voice by 3 Idiots – we must also remember that it’s the same education system that has at least given us the perspective to understand this issue and hopefully address it. I dare say, it has also helped us to become better engineers, managers and contributed in no small measure to a new, more enviable Hindu rate of growth.

What Matters Now

Seth Godin has a very interesting and provocative e-book, ‘What matters now’ (free to download - scribd version here). It’s a collaborative effort involving a lot of people from different fields who share what occupies their minds as they move into the New Year.

I particularly liked Seth’s thought of Generosity; as he says ‘in the digital world, the gift I give you almost always benefits me more than it costs’. Another one I liked a lot was Tim O’Reilly’s idea of Government 2.0
One thought that I missed (at least overtly, though many have touched upon it) is the idea of ‘personal’. I believe we are moving towards a time when we will increasingly be communicating one-to-one or one-to-few rather than the one-to-many that we have become so used to.

This is of course partly driven by more personal means of communicating and touching people; but more fundamentally it harks back to one of our very primal need to connect with individuals as much as with larger systems. This could mean many people and marketers may have to re-set their
expectations from their marketing initiatives. It may mean being happy with a handful of very strong connections rather than thousands of weak connections.

Very similar to the game of oneupmanship played out in the early days of social networks where the race was to have more friends in your networks. And now as we know, people are rushing to de-friend inane, long friend lists.

What's the good word

Steve Reubel recently blogged on words or phrases which may soon become history. Set me thinking of a few more and here's what I thought of:

1. Postcard

2. Carbon paper

3. Cassette player

4. Wall calendar

And the one I'll miss the most if it does become history - Novels.

Right to Information

I spent an extremely engaging couple of hours yesterday hearing Shailesh Gandhi talk about the Right to Information Act and the impact that single act could have on governance and civic issues. What impressed me most, other than Gandhi’s enthusiasm and energy was the fact that we have, for once, a system in place that forces the faceless, big-brotherly bureaucracy to listen and respond to each of us as individuals.
Though it may be Pol Science 101, I found it extremely interesting to think of the system of elective democracy as an exchange between the state and the individual – the individual giving up a part of his / her sovereignty for services rendered by the government.
The RTI is a simple and very powerful tool to put pressure on the system by individuals seeking public information which otherwise gets obfuscated by the vast tangle that passes for bureaucracy. And it’s so simple that I still am trying to figure out if there’s a catch; after all I too am a part of generation that has grown up learning to fear ability of the mai-baap system to run circles around me. I haven’t yet been able to find that catch. The more important thing, I guess if for us to use the tool to participate and engage with the state. Check out the site Satyamevajayate.info for simple information on how.

Economics of Marriage

"So what drives modern marriage? We believe that the answer lies in a shift from the family as a forum for shared production, to shared consumption...the key today is consumption complementarities . . .Today, it is more important that we share similar values, enjoy similar activities, and find each other intellectually stimulating" - contentious (some may say simplistic), but an interesting idea on the new economics of marriage. The writers go on to say it's no longer about the old adage of "opposites attract" because of which it made sense for the husband and wife to have different interests in different spheres of life.

Check the full piece here (Link via Marginal Revolution).

And the Winner is . . .

Who is the NDTV Indian of the Year? Who is the CNN-IBN Person of the Year? Which will be the CNBC Car of the Year? What about the BS Motoring Car of the Year? Which will be the AutoCar Magazine’s 2-Wheeler of the Year? The Filmfare Actor of the Year? The Screen Awards Movie of the Year? Which programme will be the Telly Awards Soap of the Year? The PC-World Magazine’s Gadget of the Year? Pets & More Magazine’s Pet Cat of the Year? Ok, I just made that one up. But, what a conundrum!

Shame!!

I wonder which is worse. This incident at Juhu, Mumbai; or the Police Commissioner saying that everybody is making a “mountain of a molehill”.

Of Rights and Wrongs

A couple of years back, I remember one of our American Creative Directors being aghast at my defending the pirated books sold on our streets. My point was (and is) that trying to curb piracy by cracking down on the peddlers and printers is simply not practical – and more importantly goes against the grain of free business.

Firstly, the principle of copyrights itself is a recent phenomena ushered in by agents and publishers. Neither Mozart not Shakespeare copyrighted their works. And for a good reason; there is an argument that the more a piece of work gets transmitted to more people, the greater the respect for the author which in turn leads to more lucrative assignments. This argument gets even more pronounced in the age of instant sharing of ideas. Not only are restrictions difficult to administer, they are also barriers to new mash ups. As Seth Godin says, he could possibly earn some money by getting people to pay to read his blog; but he gets much more by seeding his ideas in the public domain, getting people to talk about it and growing his reputation as a thinker / speaker.

The notion of copyrights is also a lawyers’ delight – for instance, am I violating laws if I lend my book to a friend? What if I lend it to 10 friends? 1000 friends? What if I write the text of a book, post it on my blog and send the link to those friends? David Pogue illustrates how gray this subject is on his post here where he quizzes students about the ethics of digital piracy. Their responses are telling.

But I read the best one on this topic by Suketu Mehta some months back. While traveling in a Mumbai cab, he was accosted by a street kid selling a pirated of “Maximum City”. When told he was the author of the book, the kid offered him a discount. A bit like Mario the postman in “Il Postino”, who having read Pablo Neruda’s romantic poetry narrates it to a village girl as his own – he insists that having read and internalised it, the poetry is no longer Neruda’s but his own. How can you argue against that?
UPDATE: This post by Chris Anderson adds one more interesting perspective to this subject.

Of Civic Campaigns and Talent Searches

Two leading newspapers are currently in the middle of initiatives that seek to encourage public debate and participation in civic issues. The Times of India is doing the Lead India campaign and the Mumbai Project is Hindustan Times’ attempt at raising, debating and engaging stakeholders on civic issues plaguing the city (and god knows we have many).

While both are public campaigns, the differences are very telling. The TOI campaign takes a top-down approach – it invited SMS votes to select a candidate who may actually participate in the country’s electoral politics. The HT initiative is a completely bottom-up approach. Over two weeks, there were a lot of facts and some very good debates that were stirred and the newspaper simply served as a platform raising civic raising issues.

The TOI’s Lead India campaign was a marketing initiative complete with televised debates and celebrity moderators (they even asked a candidate’s wife to sing his favourite song on the TV show). They also roped in Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and the likes to promote the initiative with a huge television and outdoor campaign. Not that marketing the campaign by itself is wrong (in fact some of the TV ads are very nice). But at some point, it became a campaign highlighting the personalities rather than the issues they represented. And while I am willing to accept drama being a surrogate for singing in shows like the Indian Idol; issues like governance, education, infrastructure etc. are far too important to be decided through SMS campaigns.

The HT’s Mumbai Project on the contrary was primarily a journalist-driven initiative. It had a lot of meaningful content, in-depth analysis and a platform to debate those issues. The content was obviously put together with a lot of assiduous effort and hence there was enough material to have a serious engagement with.

In fact spending 15 minutes on each of the campaign websites highlights the stark differences between the two initiatives. One filled with relevant content and the other, a slickly packaged show. I don’t know about the larger world, but I would any day take the content.

A judge in New York state lost his job because he ordered 46 people in his courtroom to be taken in custody after they refused to admit whose mobile phone had rung while his court was in session. I feel he was doing what many of us fervently desire when the woman sitting behind in a cinema theatre instructs her son to look for the dal in the top row of the refrigerator. Hope somebody starts an online petition to reinstate the honourable judge.

On Creativity and Education

I just heard this outstanding speech by Sir Ken Robinson on creativity and the role of our education system in nurturing it. It’s simple, inspiring, witty and profound – everything the current education system isn’t. He delivered it over a year ago at the TED conference. What a pity it took me this long to stumble across it. Listen to it, if you haven’t already. Actually listen to again even if you have. It’s beautiful.

Update: Got a couple of mails saying the download was somewhat patchy. So I've uploaded the mp3 version here. Hopefully this should be easier.

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit

Today is my birthday. Not relevant for anybody but me.

But the text messages I’ve been receiving is indicative of the pressure a lot of friends are under. Most of the people don’t seem to be happy just wishing a happy birthday. There is almost a compulsion say something more interesting / smart / witty. So all sorts of contorted witticisms find their way to my inbox.

There was a time when greeting cards took away that pressure by being witty. So one just had to spend twenty bucks and bask in somebody else’s wit. Alas, e-greetings have taken that pleasure away. Most of the e-greetings are too busy serving up gif files of cartoons to have anything smart to say. Ditto for mobiles and their dry emoticons. Hence most people are left in the lurch trying to be smart while messaging their friends. Which leads to me believe that people may be willing to pay money to be able to easily access smart quotes for birthdays, anniversaries etc. It saves them the time and trouble of thinking too much and makes them feel good. So what if they aren’t able to conjure it themselves, at least they’ll be seen as having the right sensibilities to choose and appreciate the smart lines; the way I've headlined this post by borrowing a quote from Oscar Wilde. Am I not smart?!!

The Reluctant Politician

“Politicians instead must revel in the political process. They must adore people, jump into crowds, pump hands, kiss babies, travel by train to remotest corners, walk where there are no roads, speak a language that touches hearts, causes tears to flow and raises a million cheers.” . . . Sagarika Ghose writes in today’s Hindustan Times about Dr. Manmohan Singh as the accidental politician. Worth a read.

A Matter of Livelihood

I was talking with Sharmila today about the new found passion of our government for SEZs and the public protests against them by local residents in various parts of our country. And the discussion got me really confused. She claims she’s got research papers (she’s working for a not-for-profit organization now) that show how SEZs in particular and most such large schemes in general often end up harming the local people.

I disagreed and felt that development is not a zero-sum game and in the long run, everybody gets pulled up. The problem is that in the short-term a lot of people actually suffer – take for instance the Nandigram issue where a lot of people have been farming the land for generations but don’t have papers to prove the land is theirs. Most such people will not get adequately compensated. They’ll also need to be re-skilled in new jobs; not the easiest of things for people who’re mostly illiterate and lack any soft skills. So what does one do? Do we let them continue with what is undoubtedly subsistence farming and living or should the government encourage industry and try to manage the collateral hurt caused to a lot of the local population?

So many questions. Such limited knowledge. Maybe we should just have a television debate with Mahesh Bhat and Ashok Singhal.

Craftsmen at Work

What can modern businesses learn from the art of the craftsmen? That was the subject of an excellent episode of In Business on BBC Radio 4 that I heard yesterday.

It again brought to the fore an ongoing discussion on several discussion boards recently – the central role of business in society and what drives successful businesses. Sociologist Richard Sennett put forward his thesis that people who practice a craft know better than “business people” how organizations ought to be run.

Businesses are set up to meet genuine customer needs and they are typically driven by the passion of entrepreneurs who love making and delivering a product or service to their customers. Then the businesses grow. And they get “professionalized”. "Performance optimization” becomes the holy grail and very insidiously, the focus starts shifting – from the product or service to the company’s revenues and stock price.

Soon almost everybody forgets that goal is not making more money but celebrating the craft which gave birth to the business in the first place. Of course lip service is paid every now and then to the core of what the organization is about, but key strategic calls are made with an eye on the Street.

Also a dubious theory gets propounded that craftsmen are so involved with their craft that they don’t know how to run a business. Dubious because there is nothing to suggest that a person adept at a craft will not be able to collaborate with teams, will not be able to develop meaningful relationships with customers and employees and will be unable to command a fair price for his / her product or service. Most of the iconic brands and businesses we talk about reverentially today were created by such craftsmen, people who cared about the businesses rather than care about the money - whether it was a McDonald’s or Starbucks or Apple or Google or whatever. The bigger challenge for businesses in fact is to continue keeping their core craft at the centre of their business – note the classic memo written by Howard Schultz to his employees earlier this year. Even if it is not real, the memo became famous because it so truly seemed to reflect the passion of a founder-entrepreneur for a craft undermined at the altar of efficiency.

Finally going back to the BBC radio programme, the proposition of craftsmen as better businessmen was best articulated by Richard Taylor of the WETA workshop which produced the stunning special effects for movies such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Asked how they run such a stupendously successful creative business without any formal business training whatsoever, he said they did it by turning the accepted business model on its head and driving it from the heart of creativity. Instead of pursuing the last dollar, the bottom line, they looked at producing the most beautiful work creatively and in turn, good business will follow. Now how many businesses can say that hand on heart?

Twenty20

On a talk show on NDTV about Twenty20 vs. Test cricket, Imran Khan made an interesting point. Cricketers, he said need talent, technique and temperament to do well in Test cricket. Twenty20 takes technique and temperament out of that equation. It brings out the sheer force of raw talent which is in abundance in both India and Pakistan. But by that yardstick I wonder how New Zealand reached the semis. They are one team who have plenty of character and spirit but can’t be accused of being too talented.

10.30 PM Headline News

It’s 10.45 PM now and mindless channel surfing across four Hindi TV news channels tells me that:

Mangetar ki chaahat . . . saheli ka balaatkaar

Shouhar ki khaaish . . . biwi ki blue film

Ek missed call . . badal gayi jindagi uski

Videsh se lauta . . . flyover kaa lutera

Thankfully, a fourth channel had sports news so I learnt that Sachin ne sanyaas lene se inkaar kiya.

That is how India kept abreast with news, today.
Don’t worry. Be happy. Aur bhi gam hain jamaane mein.

Cricket in Any Language . . .

Watching the first India-England One Day match on the new Star Cricket channel with Hindi commentary was an interesting experience. I had always assumed that the Hindi commentary one used to hear years ago on radio and early DD and which nowadays gets mocked in television commercials was history. But I realized otherwise. The commentary that I heard Tuesday was a throwback to those days. But going beyond language, I also feel the Hindi and English commentaries are one more reflection of the vastly different sensibilities of different sections of Indians.
1. The Hindi commentary was high on statistics and facts (two slips, a leg gully, a sweeper and a long on - a nod to the old “aakhon dekha haal”) whereas English commentaries were more casual and seemed more interested in communicating the feel of the game – there was a discussion on the Barmy Army being made to pay more for a trip to Australia to watch the last Ashes.
2. The Hindi commentary seemed like a series of breathless exclamations; the English one was much more sober and considered.
3. The Hindi commentators seemed to carry on monologues for entire overs; they almost seemed to be afraid of silences (btw, have you noticed how audiences in a Hindi cinema hall start twittering and shifting uncomfortably when there is a silent pause in an emotionally laden scene). The English commentary was more of a dialogue with long pauses, which also gave the viewer time to ponder and form a point of view on the happenings.
4. The Hindi commentary seemed to be high on repetition, saying the same thing again and again (this also reminded me of the way Hindi News Channels play the same news footage looped over and over). On the other hand, the English commentators seemed to be better at building up a story and forming hypotheses.
I think these differences reflect a different idiom of not just speaking, but also feeling – for the game as much as anything else of consequence. That also explains the different type of news coverage in English and Hindi News Channels. That’s also probably why Chak De does well in the metros while Partner is the biggest hit of the year in the rest of the country.

From Sea Shell to New York City

I saw this billboard at Thane, on the extremely hazardous and pothole-ridden road that passes off for the Mumbai-Nashik Eastern Express Highway. Sandwiched between aggressive paan-spewing Indica cab drivers and 14-wheeled monstrosities that precariously straddle giant potholes, the promise of New York City seemed a bit surreal and truly poignant.

It also reminded me that what we choose to call our houses reflect our changing aspirations. The house I grew up in didn’t have a name at all, just a number. Those were quieter, humbler and dare I say more innocent times. In the city where I grew up, either the houses were named after people who owned them (after all there were no apartments), or they had names like Aashirwaad, Tulsi, Sneh Sadan etc. – with all the inventiveness of a Balaji serial. The house that had the first television in the locality where I was growing up was Shalmali. The most exotic one for us used to be quite a fancy looking house named Sea Shell - the owner used to work in merchant navy.

The 90’s were truly depressing times; Disasters like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Khuda Gawah happened, Sooraj Barjatiyya made super-duper hits and Govinda sang Sarkhailyo Khatiya. I remember buildings with names like Highway Darshan (I am not joking) and Lake View which used to overlook a mosquito infested swampland.

Now, as the front-pages of newspapers never tire of reminding us, we are living the India story. The world is ours and the names of our abodes should obviously reflect that. So we have buildings named Phoenix, Dreamz, Englewood and Wellington and roads named Central Avenue and Forest Avenue which cut through 14-storied buildings. Seen in that light New York City (which I learn is a housing complex coming up at Kasarvadavli in Thane) is one more leap of imagination, hope and stubborn optimism – the potholes be damned.

What is the meaning of Jugaad - Part 2

This story on IBN about “Jugaar” – rural India’s new hot wheels, makes for interesting reading.

“Jugaar” is a cross-over vehicle made with Kirloskar irrigation pump, Mahindra Jeep tyres, and a steering wheel and moving at a constant speed of 30 km/h. It’s also another example of the common Indian’s vibrant mix of entrepreneurial instinct and make-shift engineering which meets a real consumer need and makes a decent profit for the owner.
Not that this is new. I believe that two of the most fundamental changes in India over the last fifteen years – the cable TV revolution and the ubiquitous PCO - have been driven by thousands of small entrepreneurs scattered across the country.

There is a huge potential for bigger, more organised companies to tap into this. But it calls for a new business model and a lot of patience and energy to manage the vast multitude of people and partnerships. One company that is doing an admirable job of attempting this, I think is Tata Motors. Though Mr. Ratan Tata now feels that they haven’t done enough to reinvent the business processes, they are making brave attempts with their sub-One Lakh Rupee car. Wonder how long it will be before more organizations start to look at this as viable opportunity.