An Open Letter to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal

Dear Mr. Arvind Kejriwal,

I am confused about what is happening. I do not have answers but a lot of questions that needs answers. Eight years ago I came across the word Communism accompanied by Socialism. I believed in it and it made perfect mathematical sense to divide an agricultural land into four equal parts for four peasants. But, I never realized that there could be more to it that that 1/4^th land would be further divided in 16 more parts and hence the geometric progression. People who proclaimed to be Communists or Socialists were not practicing it. Years passed on and I came across Capitalism and then Communalism and then Neoliberalism and so on. The –isms continued but the fundamental question remained the same – Have we made it large?

Yes we have! Our fiscal deficit has ballooned, black money in tax havens compounded, number of corruption cases rose, number of protests and the numbers participating in it have increased, number of civil/criminal cases against politicians has mounted and so has number of such articles. Articles written to condemn everything that goes wrong with the help of thesaurus.com but incapacitate to capture the emotions.

Everyone talks about 2002 Gujarat riots and a few who had strong evidence against the riot-makers in a flurry of cases were brought to justice. What about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots? George Orwell who was born in this very own country predicted that cometh 1984 and the world will change. It did and where? Half way down the globe, Steve Jobs unveiled Macintosh and here during the same time we were targeting a particular clan of people to vent a political anger. What about 1993 Mumbai riots? What happened to those who were affected? I am not in support of one political party (earlier they were founded on ideologies) over another. In fact, I am left with no option to support. My heart goes out for you, my fellow IITian.

As most hostel-debates-over-mess-tables, a fellow classmate wanted to get out of the country as soon as possible. I tried convincing him that the best is yet to happen for this country and India will shine once again and asked if he didn’t want to be a part of that rebuilding. His reaction was, “This country will burn and I don’t want to be a part of it while it burns. I want to see it burning from outside.” Although what he meant was that he did not want to be a part of the destruction of his own country. I do not blame him because it is this country that made him realize it.

Sir, I am a coward and you cannot change the nation with such cowards, after all, I am after big bucks. Because, I have a family and I must earn for them. I have mothers and sisters, whom I would like to protect and for that I need money. Because, I have realized that I cannot expect the government to protect my family and I cannot be the government.

Retd. Justice Santosh Hegde asked us to keep vigil and one day the country will change. But when? We are losing our patience. Alvin Toffler said that the Third Wave generation will change the way the systems work. Egypt tried changing, but was back to square one; Libya moved from puppet-turned-dictator to another puppet regime; Sri Lanka carried out a miniature version of Auschwitz and ended the conflict; Salwa Judum was actually not peaceful but made many of them rest in peace; protests for justice for rape victim is on and there goes my last hope. Do we really have to beg or plead? Don’t we deserve to live a peaceful life? We are the third wave generation and like Abhimanyu of Mahabharata, we know how to get into the Chakravyuh, but I wish there was an Arjuna who guided us at the right time to break it and conquer.

I am educated enough to read the definitions of the terms, but I am still confused between Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Communalism, Neoliberalism, life imprisonment, capital punishment, rightism, leftism, mid-centrism, redlight, yellow light, green light, right, wrong, partially right, partially wrong, democracy, autocracy, aristocracy, bureaucracy, you, me and the billion others.

Please help us. I won’t be able to live in this country as a non-corrupt person anymore. One last time before I give up and start living that mundane selfish life of my family, my life, my organization before my country.

Yours faithfully,

The Confused Third Wave Indian

Kali Pujo 2005

The Diwali of 2005 will be a day to remember for the rest of my life. It was the second consecutive Diwali that was spent away from home and also celebrated as Kali Pujo, and not as Diwali. Welcome to the land of Bongs – West Bengal – where people drive also on the right side of the road, not because their rules are different but because there is no space to drive. The place where intra-city buses look like match boxes on wheels and inter-city buses looked like intra-city buses of other cities. Normalcy is an asymptote to reality, yet there is joy in everyone’s heart expressed through a language known as the ‘sweetest language that you can ever hear’ – a testament it borrows, probably because it just looks like Hindi being spoken with a Rosogulla in mouth.

NIT Durgapur would have been empty if it was Durga Pujo, but not for Kali Pujo, a.k.a. Diwali. The crowd was still present in the hostel and then during the late evenings, the competition between the hostels started – the competition of who has the longevity in bursting crackers. Don’t consider the fact that we were causing damage to the green campus, we were from that era in a college that thought that grass is more legal than the drink that is saccharification of starch.

We were in our second year and as a norm of “Rectification” of our juniors, we thought we will break the monotony of spending Diwalis fighting with the other hostels and rather have some fun. The time must have been 11 p.m. and we were a group of five second years – Sangeet, Arun, Nithin, Shankar and me, with two bakras (first years under “Rectification Period”), – Deepu and Sumeet. The seven of us marched to The Oval, the main cricket ground behind the Academic building around the corner of PMC (Piya Milan Chowk). PMC is the famous place where guys bid their girlfriends good night and came back the next morning to wait until they would come out. The Oval is this magnificent ground which should have awarded me the degree rather than the Metallurgical department of NIT Durgapur. Roll No. 04/319 spent more time in Oval than any other place in those 4 years. On one boundary of The Oval is PMC and the Academic Building, the second side by the gymkhana and the third side by REC School. The fourth side belonged to the girls’ hostel. This is how The Oval, PMC and girls’ hostel are connected.

With Diwali-rockets that we imagined to be bazookas, we marched to the corner of The Oval that was the closest to girls’ hostel. Shankar had already given up on the idea and ran back to hostel. So, it was the four of us guiding two juniors. Nithin, the valiant hero, lighted the first rocket. “Zoom” it went, and it just missed the girls’ hostel. Followed by each one of us, one after the other we launched them into the girls’ hostel. Least expected of the lot, we started hearing cheers from inside. With more ammunition and more launches, we believed ourselves to be the kids who shared the sense of achievement in the “October Sky”. We were overjoyed and within those moments we were out of our ammunition – that was when we started hearing the whistles. The whistle sound started coming from all the sides and we were in a fix.

As I mentioned before, we never knew what was legal and what wasn’t. We knew that nothing would happen to us if we were caught red-handed in this launch, but we couldn’t afford to be caught with juniors. When you panic, all you can do is run. We all ran, in different directions. Some of us ran so fast that we outran a few of the dogs. Later observing their free-flowing fur tail, we realized that we mistook the foxes who came for their night prey to be dogs. One god-damn night, we were having! We lost breath and finally reached LH Mode, the market place where faculty, girls and boys meet up quite often. In the small semi-open hall that accompanies LH mode, Kali Pujo was on. Who on earth would celebrate Kali Pujo at night? Sangeet and I were the ones who reached LH mode and we had no idea on who else of our gang were caught by the security. Were the juniors fine? No idea! Camouflaging ourselves to be worshippers we went to the pandal, paid our tribute to Kali mata and were about to leave, when I was caught by my HOD. “Ekhane Kano?” was the dreaded question and I started blabbering while I saw a guard watching us closely from behind. He asked me to meet him the next day in his office. Sangeet, being from ECE, escaped and I dreaded what would happen the next day.

The next day when I went to college, there were stories floating around saying that someone launched rockets into girls’ hostel. I went to meet my HOD in his office, only to find him completely oblivious to what had happened the day before. Whatever the reasons were, I was saved. I went to Back Canteen, near LG14, only to find a group of girls surrounding Abbas and praising his valour for launching rockets into their hostel. Slowly sipping my cha, I listened to the conversation and thought to myself “Oh God! How many dates have I lost here!!!”

The round pegs in the square holes

This article is a tribute to Madhuvanthi’s article 

 

There comes a point in life when nothing makes sense. The money you had earned, the fame you had garnered, the people you had entertained, the speeches that you gave and many more things that you did because you had to and not because you wanted to. When nothing makes sense, you want to work for yourself but the world doesn’t allow you to. Still you persist to work for yourself but they will pull you down to their level and beat you with experience. In the circle of life, at every corner you find the one who will pull you back. The urge in you wants to change the world, but doesn’t know how.

Everything has an end to it and so did the stub. 71mm of pure passion lighted by a lesser-realized concept of Physics called friction, dies at the end of a few minutes. The smoke gets in, the smoke gets out and the smoke is all around polluting the atmosphere. Standing on a cliff facing the blanket of blue sea, deciding to jump or not, the liking for the cancer stick gives you an extra five minutes to decide. It’s not as glamorous as the bungee jumping or as crude a definite death. It’s the want to fly. To fly as high as possible when your feet parts the rock and you wish never to touch the earth again. To fly over the oceans and continents and to feel what it feels to carry a weightless body around. To defy Newton in every second of the flight and to realize how free a soul we ought to carry. To see from above and actually realize that it is not that bad a world as we imagine it our minds. I only wish to.

As everybody quotes Apple, I will also take the liberty to quote them.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, We see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, Are the ones who do.

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The wish to fly will come true one day. When you land back the world won’t be the same, ever again.

Why Did You Or Why Didn't You?

Yes. After seeing those semi-nude girls dancing in the beach ad, I will buy only Bacardi CD’s. Nothing else. After seeing Haywards Club Soda ad, the first thing that will come to my mind after having a bad stomach is to drink Haywards soda. Khoob jamega rang, jab mil baithenge teen yaar.. aap, mein aur bagpiper club soda. Akshay, I and Bagpiper will sit in a high stooled round-table and will enjoy Bagpiper Club Soda. What a Utopian world! ITC has garment retail in the name of “Wills Lifestyle” and Oh-my-God, we didn’t know till now that they sold cigarettes with the same name. When I was young, I asked why Wills Lifestyle didn’t sue Wills Navy Cut for using their brand. They are spoiling the garment company’s name by linking it to tobacco products. Are you freaking kidding me!!

Surrogate Advertising has really changed the way things work in the world of advertising. But the pinnacle of surrogate advertising has to be given to the brand which runs an airline to promote its beer brands. Slightly out of context, it’s high time the company has to raise its beer prices by a rupee per pint to save the airlines in return. Surrogate advertising is the innovation that was born when “The Cable Television Network (Regulation) Amendment Bill”, came in force September 8, 2000, which completely prohibited cigarette and alcohol advertisement.

Taking specific useless days like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Friendship Day, etc. (it’s my opinion because they all are marketing gimmicks. Don’t act as if you don’t respect your dad, mom or friends on any other day except these. When you need money or any help you go to them respectfully!). So, taking these specific useless days into account, a lot of companies make ads to target their customers based on their brands’ relevance to that specific day. Horlicks broadcasts Mother’s Horlicks ads around Mother’s day. Durex uses Father’s day to innovatively promote its brand, addressing their customers saying that “you could have avoided this day :P”. Although Airtel missed out an opportunity with “Tera-Mera” around friendship day, the ad is becoming increasingly irritating (They were good as long as ARR’s tune was playing in the background). But there were other equally irritating ads that come out during friendship day. So, all these companies used these so-called special days to market their brand simply because they are allowed to do so.

But, one such brand needs a special mention here. They are a premium brand and they need advertising because the Indian whiskey market is more than 100 million cases per year and they are a new entrant. The Cable Television Network (Regulation) Amendment Bill doesn’t allow them to advertise directly. Have they missed a huge opportunity to advertise on a day, which was created in Indian parlance and shares their brand name? May be or maybe not. Why didn’t they follow Foster’s “The Art of Chilling” campaign which mocked Sri Sri Ravishankar’s “The Art of Living” programme? Was it a deliberate strategy to miss out on this surrogate advertising opportunity and telling the market and the outsiders that “we are a true and ethical brand and won’t play with the sentiments of the people”? Or was it an honest mistake given their industry’s history of “I don’t give a damn!”

Whatever it is, Happy TEACHER’S Day!

Cheers!!!

Give it to the man!

Everyone was scratching their heads on what business Subrata Roy Sahara did? Whomever I asked told me that they were earlier in Airlines and later into finance. Apart from Sahara-One channel, since time immemorial they are sponsoring the Indian cricket team and now own the IPL team Pune Warriors India and the Pune stadium at Gahunje (30 km from Pune) is named after the Sahara India Pariwar’s honcho. From a marketing point of view, the Indian cricket team jersey is the best place to place your brand for maximum absorption, retention and recall. But when you don’t know what the product/service the brand promoted, the puzzle gets even more complex for the cricket-crazy viewers. Was it soap, a mobile phone or an energy drink or atleast a bank? No one knew. All they knew was that the jersey looks odd without Sahara printed on it. But why such a bizarre marketing campaign to promote nothing at all? All we look for is an ace up the sleeve of Mr. Sahara.

What I wanted to ask him was when he had his own media channel why didn’t he start a sports channel of his own? In February 2012, he strangled the BCCI by saying that Sahara won’t sponsor the Indian cricket team due to some PWI’s auction purse related issue with the board in IPL V. After 12 days tussle, the Indian team sponsorship was revoked and they got what they wanted. Why not use similar strategies and broadcast IPL as well as cricket in general by creating “Sahara Cricket One”? When you can throw money around like that, expertise is never a problem. All one has to create is a culture and make people believe. Mr. Roy has made people believe that there exists a brand called Sahara. And what does it do? No one knows!

I must admit that he is an impressive businessman. No one knew what business Sahara was running, yet they had all the money in the world. Is that not every businessman’s dream? Their recent product that received much attention was OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures). And what is that? Investopedia says that “A Fully Convertible Debenture is a type of debt security where the whole value of the debenture is convertible into equity shares at the issuer's notice. The ratio of conversion is decided by the issuer when the debenture is issued. Upon conversion, the investors enjoy the same status as ordinary shareholders of the company.” Now, what does Optional FCD mean? Give me your money, in return for which I will give you OFCDs. I will use the money as I wish. I will sponsor the Indian cricket team, will buy IPL teams, build financial institutions, buildings, hotels and infrastructure and create media houses for the betterment of the country and its citizens. In return, I will offer you an OFCD by which you may have the option of owning a share of these aforementioned assets at the end of the tenure.

This is a dream come true for any businessman and he almost managed to do it until Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) intervened. Two days ago the Supreme Court upheld the orders passed by SEBI and Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) that had directed Sahara’s two firms – Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd. and Sahara Housing Investment Corp. Ltd. to refund the money to the investors that they had raised through OFCDs. And the total money amounts to Rs. 24,029.73 crore. What Sahara did right or wrong is not for me to decide, but what I like here is Subrata Roy’s courage. He is 64 years old and is still young enough to play the game the hard way. He created a pseudo brand Sahara and established it in a big way! But the question still remains in my mind – What does Sahara do?

In the name of God!

The legend says that when I was born my dad was watching “The sword of Tipu Sultan” on Doordarshan and hence he named me Tippu. As a common factor in South India, my name was followed by an initial “S” which expanded to my dad’s name Sultan Mohideen. Thereafter, I became Tippu S. My mom took me to temples and I was well-versed with pujas and being in a Gujarati school, I learnt Bhagavad Gita. My parents took me to my dad’s relatives’ place and during one particular month of every year, we all had breakfast at 6 in the evening. I didn’t know why. My neighbor was a Christian and with her I went to Sunday classes. By the end of 12 years, I was utterly confused. Who was Allah, Krishna, Ganesh, Murugan, Ayappa, Jesus, et al.? Who were they and how important a part are they playing in my life?

I thought they were all different people who once existed on earth and different people follow different faiths based on their liking, culture and subscription. When I was young, I never thought that religion was a serious issue. Infact, I didn’t know what my religion was until I was 16 years old. Neither of my parents forced me to follow a religion and I never felt the need to be identified with a particular name.

Years went by and the question loomed large in head. I was racially abused for my confusion which was unique to me and I didn’t know if there was anyone to help me out. Not that I needed, but that was the moment the individual in me woke up. Which religion should I take to and there were no answers. I read a lot on Swami Vivekananda, accepted all his philosophies, but somehow couldn’t subscribe to Hinduism. I tried practicing Islam, but it was getting difficult day by day to learn and practice Islam. As people say it is most misunderstood religion in the world, I certainly can vouch for it. No one in the world can follow Islam strictly by the book. Neither did I know how to read Namaz nor did I know some history but, I am a Muslim at the end of the day. My name says so and I believe in God.

When we come into this earth, we are as clean and clear as a Lotus petal, but born in a muddy pond of social class, religion, caste and creed. Involuntarily we are corrupted by it and we attach a name to it and associate ourselves to it. Today we have wars everywhere, people killed and maimed in the name of religions and still, we celebrate our Eid, Diwali, Christmas, et al. and move forward in our life. It is impossible to abolish religions, but the least that we can do is to become tolerant. We don’t need these killings because we are here to live. Isn’t that’s what all religions preach? Wars are conflicts of personal ego overrated in the name of religion. Let’s avoid it because one day in this planet, we will eventually run out of oil!

Eid Mubarak!

Black kills the Red

Gotham may have been the best city to be built and The Dark Knight is its greatest protector. With the kind of buildings, infrastructure, facilities and technology, one would imagine Gotham to be a city belonging to USA. But, what Bane brought upon suggests something else. One could imagine the city of Moscow, Petrograd, Shanghai, Beijing, etc. to have faced the same kind of abuse a few decades ago.

Although Bane was going to destroy the complete city he gave hope to the people of Gotham. He gave hope in the form of power to decide for themselves. These strategies replicate the ones adopted by the Communists at helm during the 1920 until the Berlin Wall fell. They gave people the hope that everyone gets an equal share of everything irrespective of how good/bad you were. Unlike Bane, the Communists of yesteryears didn’t have an iota of idea that they were destroying the human mind in the name of Communism. There was a Nuclear Fusion bomb that was ticking while its equivalent in real time was poverty and human degradation.

The way Gotham was looted by normal beings, sky-rocketing crime-rates, power in the hands of the people who in the first place hated the powerful reminisces the old Communist days. Surely, Nolan has more to his movie than what a trained eye can see. But, this part of integrating a political theory onto the movie and finishing off in style is what he is always best at. I wish to hear if Nolan was inspired by Ayn Rand’s “We the living”. If so, he has been truly inspired and that reflects in each of the scene that he has sculpted. The dark knight did rise high!