World Airlines Ranking

The world Airline rankings from Skytrax have just been released. Not surprisingly, only one American Airline figures in the top 25 - Virgin America (which is incidentally not of American vintage) - just about manages to make the grade at No.25.

What is more surprising is that a majority of the top 25 airlines are from the Asia region.  19 of these top Airlines are from Asia. While these rankings are provided based on an independent review, clearly service wins over efficiency.  In their endeavor to becoming more efficient (both cost and time-wise), Airlines in the western world have forgotten the most critical element of providing service, which makes or mars an experience.

On a recent trip I flew part of the way in Emirates (ranked No.1 in 2016), and another part of the way on American (ranked No. 77).  In both cases, coincidentally, I asked for a glass of juice about 30 minutes before the flight was to land. In Emirates, the Air Hostess was polite, explained to me that we were landing shortly and I better hurry up and complete my drink.  In American, the Air Hostess did exactly the opposite.  She promised me that her colleague would bring me my drink,and conveniently forgot about it. When I called for my drink, eventually the other Air Hostess turned up and refused to serve a drink because we were landing.

Of the top 25 airlines, three have steadily improved their position over the past five years moving from  a top 50 ranking to a top 25 ranking - Air France (up from 55 in 2011 to 14 now), Japan Airlines (from 49 to 21), and KLM Royal Dutch (from 46 to 24). KLM Royal Dutch and Air France share the same parentage, and obviously the same culture.  EVA Air,a top 10 contender, has moved quite dramatically from a rank of 16 five years ago to a rank of 8 in the current year.  A quick review of what really pulled them up reveals that all of them paid special attention to quality of service without necessarily attempting to invest more in the fleet.

On the other hand, two Airlines - Dragon Air, and Asiana Airlines have moved southwards in the ranking.  it is surprising to see Dragon Air's ranking going down, especially since it is a subsidiary of Cathay and was expected to share the same cultural moorings.  It would be worthwhile to watch this space.  Asiana Airlines, the other airline which has moved down in the rankings, probably having lost its s(e)oul. Both Dragon Air and Asiana have been concentrating on discovering more profitable routes rather than developing more profitable customers.

One important trait which these companies did (and continue to do) is to constantly push the envelope.  They have not rested on the fact that they have been performing well.  They have looked for improvements and innovations to continuously upgrade their offerings.

A basic tenets of quality is not how good you are perceived to be, and not necessarily how good you believe you are. To improve perceptions about yourself, it is important to be customer-centric.  Every action that is undertaken by a company must be focused towards ensuring that the customer gets what he wants.  For some reason, this fundamental of operating the airline business has got lost in the maze of achieving financial success.  Instead of worrying about the real customer, Airlines in the west have been chasing the surrogate customer - the shareholder.  Perhaps satisfying the shareholder ensures that the Top Management of a company survives, but in the long run, a company survives only because of its customers.

Where exactly Is India, Ms.Doniger?

For a change, instead of my regular insipid blogs, here is a very nice book review by one of my good friends, Ali Sheikh on a not-so-important book.

Banned in Bangalore, the New York Times op-ed said.  Why ban a book, no matter how offensive, the literati fumed.  No one can truly ban a book in the Internet age, friends pointed out.  The book in question is a 690-page nonfiction account of Hinduism titled The Hindus: An Alternative History, written by Ms. Wendy Doniger, a university professor with doctorates from Harvard and Oxford.  Naturally, I bought a copy—and more to the point, read the book. 

Before we proceed, let me say that I do not support banning any book (or even legally requiring a book to be withdrawn from circulation, as was the case with this book in India).  But I do hold that every banned book isn’t necessarily a well-written, scholarly work.  Indeed, a ban of any kind instantly confers an aura of hyper-legitimacy on the banned work, regardless of its intrinsic merit, and I believe that’s what happened with Ms. Doniger’s book.  I contend that her book is biased and sloppy, and that’s what this op-ed piece is all about. 

Let’s start with the big picture.  A well-written alternative history of anything, let alone Hinduism, generally has the effect of making the reader pause and think twice about what he may have held all along as the truth.  From someone of Ms. Doniger’s stature, I was hoping to hear a serious insight or two that would make me go, Gosh, I’ve known that story all my life, but why didn’t I look at things that way before?  

So, what major insights does the book offer?  According to the author, the main aspects are diversity and pluralism in Hindu thought, treatment of women and lower castes, the erotic side of Hinduism, and the many tensions and conflicts within Hinduism.    

That’s where my disappointment started—those are not major insights, nor do they add up to an alternative history.  Let’s go item by item.  Diversity and Pluralism?  Caste system?  Anyone with a passing interest in India knows about it.  Treatment of women?  I am not trying to minimize the importance of women, but what’s new here?  Were the other ancient cultures any better?  Conflict and tension within?  Hardly surprising for a country of a billion people.  Eroticism in ancient India?  Oh please, who hasn’t heard of that?  Yes, yes, Ms. Doniger adds a ton of detail, but my point is that things don’t become groundbreaking by adding detail.  It’s as if someone wrote a very detailed book about the Mississippi river and Southern cuisine and called it The Americans:  An Alternative History.

All the detail opens up an even bigger disappointment.  It appears that Ms. Doniger frequently cherry-picked the facts to suit her views, and on occasion, even twisted them to suit her narrative.  I realize these are harsh accusations and the burden of proof lies on me, so please allow me to present enough examples to make my case (within the space limitations of an opinion piece).

Let’s begin with the epic Ramayana, with the king Dasharatha and his three wives.  The youngest, the beautiful Kaikeyi, assists the king in a hard-fought battle.  In return, the king grants her two wishes, to be claimed at any time of her choosing.  Many years later, when the king is about to retire and Rama, his son from the eldest wife, is about to be crowned, Kaikeyi claims her two wishes: that her son Bharata be named king, and Rama be exiled to the forest for fourteen years.  The king is torn between his promise to Kaikeyi and his obligation to name the eldest son as the next king, as convention dictated.  When Rama hears of the king’s predicament, he abdicates his claim to the throne and leaves the city.  This is a defining moment for Rama—the young man respects the king’s word (i.e., the law) enough to renounce his own claim to the throne and loves his father so much that he spares him the pain of having to enact the banishment.  Indeed, this point in Rama’s life even foretells the rest of the story—that the young man would, in the years to come, make even bigger personal sacrifices for the sake of his ideals.

That’s the mainstream narrative.  Let’s hear Ms. Doniger’s alternative narrative, in her own words.  “The youngest queen, Kaikeyi, uses sexual blackmail (among other things) to force Dasharatha to put her son, Bharata, on the throne instead and send Rama into exile.”

Now, was Kaikeyi beautiful?  Yes.  Was the king deeply enamored with her?  Yes.  Did Kaikeyi lock herself in a room and create a scene?  Absolutely.  Was the king called a fool and other names by his own sons?  You bet.  But there is far more to Rama’s exile than sexual blackmail.  Ms. Doniger covers this topic in excellent detail (page 223 onwards), but it’s interesting that she doesn’t bring up the king’s longstanding promise.  Before we draw conclusions, let’s move on to a different story from the same epic. 

Ms. Doniger retells the story of the ogre Shurpanakha, who approaches Rama and professes her love for him.  Rama tells her he is a married man and mocks her.  In the end, Rama’s younger brother Lakshmana mutilates the ogre.  To Ms. Doniger, this data point (to be fair, not the only data point) indicates Rama’s cruelty toward women.  Ms. Doniger then contrasts this story with one from theMahabharata, where an ogre named Hidimbi professes her love for Bheema and is accepted as his wife—again underscoring the author’s point about Rama’s cruelty.  All of this might sound reasonable at first glance, but let’s look closer.

This is how the story goes in the epic.  Shurpanakha approaches Rama when he is sitting next to his wife, Sita.  When Rama mocks her, the ogre gets angry and charges at Sita.  Rama holds the ogre back to save Sita and then orders his younger brother to mutilate the ogre.  Rama even says, “That ogre almost killed Sita.”  One would think these details are pertinent to the discussion, but strangely enough, Ms. Doniger doesn’t bring them up.  Also, Rama was a committed monogamist, whereas Bheema was (at that point in the story) a single man.  Aren’t we comparing apples to oranges here?  Isn’t this just the kind of nuance one would expect a researcher to pick up? 

To be fair to Ms. Doniger, there are many versions of the Ramayana (and sadly enough, some scholars have received a lot of undeserved flak for pointing this out).  So, is it possible that she and I were reading different renditions of the same epic?  I checked.  Turns out we both got our details from the Valmiki Ramayana (also known as the original Sanskrit version).  What’s going on here? 

Normally, one would expect an alternative narrative to add nuance—as if to say, “There is more to the story than what you lay people know.”  But Ms. Doniger manages to do the opposite—she takes a nuanced, compelling moment in the epic and reduces it to sexual blackmail or cruelty or sexual urges, whatever her current talking point is.  Speaking of sexual urges, indeed there are no sex scenes in her book.  But it can justifiably be called a veritable catalog of all the phalluses and vaginas that ever existed in ancient India, and there is no dearth of detail in Doniger’s book when it comes to private parts.  She even cares to tell you whether any given phallus is erect or flaccid.  Details, people!

But enough about men and women.  Let’s move on to animals.  In the Mahabharata, Arjuna burns up a large forest and many creatures die; the epic even describes the animals’ pain at some length.  Somehow, Ms. Doniger finds this worthy of filing under the “Violence toward Animals” section.  Was Arjuna supposed to first clear the forest of all the wild animals and only then set the forest on fire?  Is that how other cultures cleared forests so they could grow crops and build cities?  Has it occurred to Ms. Doniger the very fact that the narrator of the epic bothered to describe the animals’ pain (instead of just saying “Arjuna burned the forest”) indicates some sympathy toward animals in those times?  Then the professor brings up—and this is a recurring talking point under the cruelty section—the line from Mahabharata that says, “fish eat fish.”  Ms. Doniger calls it “Manu’s terror of piscine anarchy.”  Oh, the humanity!    

Yet there is no mention of what Bheeshma says in the Mahabharata (Book 13), over pages and pages of discourse, on the virtues of vegetarianism and kindness toward all animal life.  Bheeshma calls “abstention from cruelty” the highest religion, highest form of self-control, highest gift, highest penance and puissance, highest friend, highest happiness and the highest form of truth.  One would think this passage merits a mention when discussing cruelty towards animals in the Mahabharata, but it doesn’t get one. 

Ms. Doniger uses the phrase “working with available light” when describing how she had approached her subject matter, which is very true when working with a complex topic such as Hinduism.  But the problem is, she then proceeds to turn off many lights in the house and use a microscope to detail the bits she cares to see.  She is of course free to do what she likes, but can someone please explain to me why the end result from such an approach qualifies as an “alternative” map of my home? 

Still on the topic of animals, let’s discuss dogs, a subject Ms. Doniger covers in great detail.  Even lay readers of the Mahabharataremember that in the end, Yudhishtira declined his chance to go to heaven unless the stray dog that had been loyal to him was also allowed in, and many Mahabharata enthusiasts may recall a different dog at the beginning that was unjustly beaten up.  Ms. Doniger’s book mentions many other dogs as well, and for good measure, she even shares a weird story from contemporary India, 150 words long, quoted verbatim from an Indian newspaper, about a man marrying a dog.

What about Krishna’s words in the Bhagavad Gita, where he says wise people cast the same gaze on a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and someone who might cook a dog?  Ms. Doniger does mention those lines, but with an interesting twist.  She prefaces those 24 words with “though” and reverts to her chosen narrative without even waiting for that thought to finish: “though the Gita insists that wise people cast the same gaze on a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, or a dog cooker, theMahabharata generally upholds the basic prejudice against dogs.”  Has it occurred to Ms. Doniger that, while men were beating up dogs, God was professing a kinder, more egalitarian approach?  The whole man vs. God angle escapes her, and in the end we are left with a world where “man marries dog” gets 150 words and God’s words of compassion are limited to 24, topped with a though.

Ms. Doniger calls her book “a history, not the history, of the Hindus,” which is, of course, fine.  Further, I do not hold the mainstream narrative to be beyond reproach, nor do I expect an alternative narrative to merely confirm the status quo.  Alternative histories do very frequently upset the balance, and, frankly, that’s how progress is made.  But my problem here is that Ms. Doniger seems to think the mainstream narrative is ipso facto a biased one, and that her alternative narrative is more compelling, never mind the facts and the counterevidence.  She draws the graph first and then looks for data points.  That’s a very interesting trend you’ve spotted there, Ms. Doniger, but what about all those big, ugly blots of truth that don’t fit your graph? 

So much for stories from ancient India.  For the benefit of any kind souls from the Western world who have been patiently reading through all this, let me throw in an example from relatively recent times that involves America.  No doubt you've heard what the physicist Robert Oppenheimer said while reflecting on the first nuclear blast he had helped spawn.  He quoted a passage from theBhagavad Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."  Why would he quote Gita?  The simplest explanation I can think of is that Oppenheimer was a well-read man, and he felt the passage was appropriate when describing the unprecedented firepower he had just witnessed.  It’s not much different from Carl Sagan’s quoting Mahapurana in his book Cosmos, one would think.  But no, there is more to it.  Ms. Doniger’s take: 

“Perhaps Oppenheimer’s inability to face his own shock and guilt directly, the full realization and acknowledgment of what he had helped create, led him to distance the experience by viewing it in terms of someone else’s myth of doomsday, as if to say: ‘This is some weird Hindu sort of doomsday, nothing we Judeo-Christian types ever imagined.’ He switched to Hinduism when he saw how awful the bomb was and that it was going to be used on the Japanese, not on the Nazis, as had been intended. Perhaps he moved subconsciously to Orientalism when he realized that it was “Orientals” (Japanese) who were going to suffer.”

There you have it.  Weird Hindu doomsdays.  Sex-crazed kings.  Cruel gods.  Men marrying dogs.  Phalluses everywhere—some erect and some flaccid.  Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have an alternative history of Hinduism.  And yes, left uncontested, in all likelihood these are the “insights” a whole new generation of students and researchers might learn, internalize, and cite in future scholarly works. 

So much for an alternative history.  Now, how about some mundane, regular history stuff?  Let’s go back to the Mahabharata, an epic that Ms. Doniger brings up dozens of times in her book (she even calls the Mahabharata “100 times more interesting” than theIliad and the Odyssey).  Let’s ask two questions:  When did the main events of Mahabharata occur?  And exactly how long is the epic? 

Ms. Doniger mentions the years as: between 1000 BCE and 400 BCE, most likely 950 BCE, or around 3012 BCE, or maybe 1400 BCE.  That narrows down the chronology quite a bit, doesn't it?  Really, there is more to writing history (particularly the alternative kind) than looking up the reference books and throwing in all the numbers one could find.  But in Ms. Doniger’s defense, she is not a historian per se (and she clearly tells us so), so let’s let this one slide by.  I’d even say she does deserve some credit here for at least bothering to look up things.  On the next topic, she fails to do even that. 

Ms. Doniger says the Mahabharata is about 75,000 verses long.  Then she helpfully adds, “sometimes said to be a hundred thousand, perhaps just to round it off a bit."  My goodness, 25,000 verses is some rounding error, don't you think?  Most sources put it between 75,000 and 125,000.  It took me all of two hours to find a very detailed account (not on the Internet though), compiled in the 11^th century, putting the total at 100,500—and I’m not a researcher, not by a long shot.  And yes, the exact number of verses is secondary to the big picture.  What bothers me is the offhandedness with which Ms. Doniger brushes off 25,000 verses as a rounding issue.  Why this half-baked research? 

Oh well, maybe we expected too much from the bestselling book on Hinduism and it’s our fault.  So, let’s try again, one last time.  Where is India located?

Ms. Doniger states, very clearly, without any ambiguity, on page 11 (footnote):  “Most of India… is in the Northern Hemisphere.”

I think I’ll stop here. 

     *     *      *

Ali Sheikh is a business nerd and author of the novel "Closure of the Helpdesk – A Geek Tragedy."  Unfortunately, no one has yet banned his book, so it continues to languish in obscurity. 

Misdirected enthusiasm or Misogyny?

I have been following this recent enthusiasm for celebrating certain days as special days with some amusement.  It is rather naive to assume that only one day in a year should be given prominence for a certain event (Father's Day, Mother's Day, and today, Women's Day).  I have been trying to really delve deeper to understand what it really means.
I have been following this huge enthusiasm in TV channels to portray the Woman's Day as a special day of celebration, and this has perplexed me.  Would a celebration of this day mean that on other days we need not treat women with respect?  Does not celebrating the day make you a misogynist?
The Indian culture is often blamed for having too many holidays for celebrations.  But if one looks closely at any of these holidays, they are typically meant to celebrate an event - a triumph of good over evil, a welcome for a new season,  etc.  No celebrations have been meant to remind us of something.
So,where exactly did this culture of trying to celebrate days after persons start? I believe it is much more a western culture which we have been attempting to ape without really understanding the implications in our cultural settings.
India has a deep seated belief in the position of women in society - no, it is not rooted in equality between men and women as is practiced in the West, but in a clear understanding of the position each gender plays in making a society vibrant.  No married man can deny that even if the man can claim to be the boss, at home, his ear belongs to his wife first and foremost. A man's domain is clearly different from that of a woman, and in India, this is acknowledged, mostly without shouting from the rooftops about it.
Just as the males have a reasonably undisputed say in domains outside the house, the women have an undisputed say in domains inside the house.  The difficulty arises when, influenced by western thinking, we attempt to make men and women equal in everything.
The biggest demerit of such a claim of equality is comparison between the two genders, which is often unequal, and many a time leads to poorer relationships. The question should therefore never be who is superior - the man or the woman; rather the question to be asked is what is a man, or a woman good at, and are they given the space to explore these spaces.
It also leads to unhealthy competition.  Should the country then consider reservation for women at all (for seats in colleges, in buses,etc.)? A well educated woman is an asset to any house as well as to society, but not necessarily by 'earning' her living through contributing money to the household.
Ancient India always gave space to geniuses of women, as does modern India.  They have contributed to sciences as well as society without in any way contributing to the commerce.  To respect these women (as any other women), is normal and should not require any further ado.  To expect to remember a day to treat women differently presumes that on most other days, this respect need not be bestowed, and this is an unfortunate thought.
Let us take a moment to reflect on our culture of mutual respect, of quiet celebration of our uniqueness, of our togetherness, and the strong culture that persuades us to treat all with respect no matter what their strengths or weaknesses are.
TV studios have a task to increase TRP, and they are free to air programs of a certain nature - we need not fall into the trap of doing the same in our personal lives.

Big Brother is the new watchword..not Big Data

Increasing online presence of individuals, both as a matter of social habit, as well as due to commercial compulsions have opened up an unexpected Pandora’s box.  Inadvertently (and sometimes deliberately), a lot of our personal information is posted in electronic formats which are readily available for others to view, or manipulate not fully realizing the consequences of our action.

In an age where even Governments machineries are willing to peak into our personal world’s our continued use of the electronic media only makes us that much more vulnerable. While the electronic world has become a vital component of our daily life, sometimes we over indulge in it and unknowingly provide free fodder for the information kleptomaniacs out there. This information could be as simple as the location where are you to what you are going to this weekend or what all you shop. So it’s always better to know where to actually draw the line of making available personal/professional information on electronic media. Here are a few tips which could be useful:

1. First things first, be clear about the purpose of your transaction or post and reason it to yourself whether it is a personal or a professional interest.
2. Check out the information "visibility ". Is it open to friends or friends of friends or to the entire public? It is always better to have separate email for managing personal information and another one for public transactions.
3. Be aware that mentioning personal information, such as your phone numbers, place of work visible to the public make it vulnerable for this information to be misused by others.
4. Online transactions from public access sites are always prone to problems and can be avoided as much as is possible.
5. Online forms which require you to give information typically ask for much more information than is required.  When you provide information online, question yourself whether this information is absolutely essential to provide; fill in only mandatory information.
6. Maintaining multiple passwords is a challenge.  Yet, changing passwords at least once in 2-3 months would ensure that data theft does not happen. Rely on good old pen and paper for keeping a track of passwords.
7. Some e-commerce sites allow you to access their websites by logging in through any of the other social media logins (such as Facebook) that you may have. Be cognizant of what information they are going to take when they actually allow you to login through Facebook. While it is convenient to login through Facebook, be aware of what you actually tell them about yourself; un-check any info that you do not want to divulge to them.
8. Unless to a closed group, do not post your views, especially if you consider that they could be seen as radical.  The same goes for pictures and photographs of your home, or the place where you stay in, or photographs of your kids/friends/acquaintances in social networking sites.
9. Review the sites that you access periodically.  Unregister from the sites which you had registered, but no longer use.
10. Be aware of the kind of documents and other information that you save in public storage sites like DropBox, Google Drive, etc. These could be easily accessed by others.
11. Many applications that we download on mobile access data on your devices.  Be aware of the data being sent from your phone to online data storage sites which back up your device data.
12. Last but not the least; do not accept friendship requests from strangers. Social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin) thrive on getting you ‘linked’ to as many people as possible. The more people you are connected to, the more you propagate your information, and the more popular you tend to become.  Linking to strangers just for the sake of improving your network is the most dangerous thing that you could do. Instead, go out and socialize.

(Thanks to Raghu and Pavani for helping with this compilation)

Looking forward..looking backward

2013 is going to be very different than any of the previous years.  This is not as much a prediction, as a realization that changes are happening much faster than ever before; the world is moving at a pace which many of us are unable to keep up with.  Here are a few things which I believe are revolutionizing the way we will view our world in the coming year.

1.  People Voice vs. Political Power: Even democracies which pretended to represent its people have gradually moved away from listening to the very same people who elected them.  People all over the world have begun finding their voice, whether it is in the Jasmine Revolution in Middle East and Africa, or the Spanish people's protests, or the Anna-Kejriwal lead multiple anti-corruption morchas.  These are reminders that somewhere these voices are being muted, muzzled, lost in the wilderness.  These voices will now continue to echo again and again, until they are heeded to, Governments will need to start listening to the people.  

2.  The Power of Technology: Technology has played multiple roles – it has made the silent people audible, the invisible people visible, and the powerless suddenly having their voice heard.  It has also dramatically reduced the gap between those who have used brute power of money to gain popular voice, and those who have no money but have important messages to convey.  More and more, those who have something to say are being listened to, not because they are powerful, but because they make sense.  Whether Facebook and Twitter make commercial sense may be debatable but clearly they have changed the world for ever.

3.   Gaps, Distance, Frustration: While in the past, gaps were taken for granted, as a part of any system, this status quo has being questioned many times in the past few months.  In the coming times, gaps arising out of lack of communication, or responsiveness are likely to lead to heightened frustrations.  To top it all, there continues to be a blurring of lines between what consists correct and what incorrect.  So, in any debate one is likely to find as many people proposing, as opposing any sentiment.  The days of hand-down winning of one-sided debates are over.

4.  Economic Blues: The economic pain is here to stay.  For long, governments have  borrowed much more than they deliver, and these borrowings have traditionally hidden the inefficiencies of governance.  No matter whether one talks about the now averted fiscal cliff in the USA, or the pains of Euro Zone, or the fiscal deficits of India; all are due to over-governance with little accountability.  A floundering government has no ways of encouraging private enterprise, which is now beginning to show signs of fraying at the edges.

5.   Uncertainty, the new status quo: We are in the age of two minute titillation -   momentary pleasure, angers, frustrations, and then on to a new high or a new low, depending on ones’ choice.  Younger leaders, with smaller lifespans are causing greater energy dispersion with lesser satisfaction.  The younger generation is eager to adapt to the new, without completely understanding what the new direction is all about whereas the older generation tries to cling to its known paths of safety.  The young will prevail.  

And on this rather bright note, let us hope that the New Year brings in new hopes and renewed faith in the overall goodness of human kind.

This is Me!

My posts have always been about issues that I feel strongly about.  When I first started blogging, I really did not have a coherent thought process, neither did I really know what I stood for.  However, when I started reviewing my posts, I discovered a pattern that made me recognize this.
So, this blog post is an attempt to define me! Readers can be aware that henceforth when you read my posts, you will identify them with who I am.

1. Lots of patience: As a person, I take a lot of abuse, mostly with a smile. Where does this quality come from?  I do not know, perhaps from my Dharma, perhaps from my father who taught me the virtue of patience, perhaps from my belief that no matter what we do, we are governed by forces greater than us, and we should learn to respect and accept them. Many of the people close to me have been amazed at how equivocal I remain in the face of adversity, and am even able to absorb pressures where others could have crumbled.  I somehow, have not been able to appreciate other's views of me as much as I should, and realize this point only through other's perspectives of me.
2. Observe a lot, talk a little: I am an introvert; this is not a confession, it is the reality.  Where others would prefer to say a thousand words, I would probably say a few, and stop at that.  That makes me intransigent at times, difficult to understand or grasp, but then, that is me.  If people around me are not perceptive, they are likely to miss the point.  More often than not, it is what I do not say, which has to be read, then what I say. So, how do you get to know me? By carefully observing exactly what I say, even if it is rarely that I speak. Also, because of my need for brevity, listeners will need to fill in appropriately for what I do not say, and if that does not happen, I lose interest in the conversation fairly quickly.
3. Take note, move on: I have rarely looked back.  There are ups and downs, good and bad in my life too, as in everyone's lives.  I find instances of people cursing their past, or living in past glory.  Neither of these interest me, or affect me.  For me, life is about moving on, so long as the path you believe in is right.  If I do look back, it is only with a quiet sense of satisfaction, and gratitude towards what the world has provided for me, in spite of all my failings and shortcomings.
4. Keep making mistakes: There is this general tendency in this world that everything must be 'perfect'.  What a boring world it would be, if that wish became a fact.  Being human is realising that we are bound to make mistakes. Sometimes, the mistakes are because of commission, other times, due to omission.  Once you realise that they are bound to occur, you start accepting them and then moving on to your next mistake.  Each mistake that I make gives me some learning, but that does not prevent me from making my next mistake. The main thing for me is to accept mistakes when I make them, ignore them when I am accused of them, and move on, 
5. The fall guy...implicit trust in relations: I have always placed implicit trust in relationships, sometimes, blindly and foolishly. When such implicit trust is broken it does not hurt me as much as it saddens me. Faith and trust are earned with great difficulty, and breaking such trust is a difficult task. If at all, I have always left it to the other person to demonstrate a lack of trust before I give up.  On many occassions, I find my trust is misplaced, but then I count it as one more mistake on my part, and move on.
6. Brook no nonsense: Now this could be contradicting what I said earlier, but then which human being is not a bundle of contradicting thoughts? I am fairly clear in my mind as to what is correct and what is not. I may decide not to be vocal about it, but that does not alter my thoughts.  When I find people who are continuously against my grain, I ignore them altogether.  People either need to respect me for what I am, or learn to live without me in their frame.
7. Respect for law, even when I believe it is flawed: I find a lot of things wrong with the law, the way it is conceived, the way it is implemented, and the way people around me decide to follow or flout it. At many times, I am at loggerheads with it, unwilling to accept it as correct, and yet unwilling to break it.  For every such dilemma that I face daily in my life, I prefer to follow the law even if I do not understand or agree with it. For, if we were not to follow the law, any law, for that matter, we would add to the chaos of a lawless world, and that is something I would hate to do.
8. Change should begin with self, not with others around you: I keep hearing so many sermons from so many people who preach the world what they should do.  I am sometimes surprised when some of these preachers fail to practice what they preach. I find it difficult to ask people to change, especially when I know I myself resist change.  So, what do I do? Stand up for what I am, the way I am.  Neither proud, nor defiant; just the way I am.  if people see a role model in me, so be it. Follow my examples, good or bad. if on the other hand, you disagree with me, follow the path that you think is correct, even if I or others may not agree with it.

This is me as I am today.  They say that in a person's lifetime, he lives seven times, and recalls his 'previous' life only as a distant memory, disconnected with the present life.  The me of tomorrow could be very different from the me of today, and that is a law of nature.  What I am today is because of my past; as I keep growing, new experiences will make a new me, and that will gradually change the old me.

Thanksgiving

Well, many of you may be wondering, why a blog on thanksgiving in the month of October. And then, what does it have to do with Indians; Is this not a very American/Canadian affair?
As we toil away in life, to satisfy our own desires for greater achievement, or fighting our disappointments, we fail to recognize or even give credit to all those around us, who have silently, and many times, with absolutely no expectations of any returns or rewards, done their bits to make us happy, satisfied, and secure.

Archit and Vasudha

So, here is a thanksgiving message to all of them:

1. First and foremost to my parents, who have been the reason why I can write this blog.  For their untiring encouragement, for their assurance to me when I am down, for their  
2. To my wife, Vijayalakshmi, for her unflinching support in all that I believe, continuing faith in my love and affection for her, and for taking care of all the small details that I quite grandly ignore.
3. To my two lovely kids: my son Archit, and my daughter Vasudha, for giving me a reason to continue to do what I do.  While I get to see very little of them, they give me the most pleasure, even at times when I get angry with them, or when they come to me to cuddle for some love and hugs.
4. To my school teachers, who have contributed the most in shaping me, and making me who I am. For all their tireless and selfless efforts, knowing fully well that their students would one day go far ahead of them.
5. To all those who have consciously or sub-consciously taught me and have been my gurus.  Many of them, I will continue to respect through my life because they are the ones who have made me who I am, slowly, one piece at a time.
6. To all the wonderful people who have surrounded me through my so many years, looking up to me, expecting me to be their leader and putting their trust in me, which I will try my best not to betray.
7. To all my students from various batches, who have patiently listened to my mix of lessons in theory, as well as lessons of life.  I hope that you will look back at your lives and benefit from our brief interactions.

Just thinking of all those wonderful people who have made me what I am, it is just not possible to call myself a self-made man.  In fact, who is?  And I am thankful that I have so many people to thank for making me what I am.

What should I do in return?  All that I would like to do is to try and give back as much as I can; be the teacher that my teachers were to me, be the parent that my parents were to me, be the friend, adviser,confidante, guide, and mentor that I have been so fortunate to find in others.

I will strive to make a mark, not as a successful business person, but as someone who has given back much more than what he has received in life. And that is what will be my biggest acheivement.