Sparsh

Life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Enjoy 2013. I will say goodbye to 2012 with an appeal of common honesty and decency. " Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it. " Jim Rohn had captured essence of reading long ago with this lucid statement. We choose for ourselves the sort of literature we want. Yet, this year was spent in going through easy books. Absence of books related to concept of business strategy and marketing may be counter of prevailing norms of reading list of an MBA student. I still want to read the forgotten matters of culture and society. Reading Economic Times has already made my vision one dimensional in nature. The reading list is getting skewed in favor of English language is not an healthy sign. Is the gradual exit of mother tongue from our reading materials a rational choice? It will be immense loss of mine command over both languages and misunderstood social acceptance that discourages...

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley. The reality of India depends on where you stand, what you seek and how you choose to live. I went to Kolkata for two days with Gaurish in Durga Puja festival. This travel tour was a way forward to learn about diverse cultures as I know very little about my own country. And, yes this was welcome break from avalanche of bullshit mountain of patriotism on the virtual word of facebook. This travel tour was a chance to enjoy a festive season with Bengali people. With arrival in Kolkata, I was caught in the race of hundred of people looking for exit at railway station. Watching the city for the first time was like reading through the pages of history with one's own eyes. The city was dipped in colors of Puja festival and I was trying to figure out the spirit of the Kolkata as few call this as city of joy. And yes, everything was either appearing either holy or historical. While traveling around ...

1)Watch the changes in the list of top billionaires, learn how they made their billions, and note how many billions they made. This information provides a quick bellwether for balance of growth, across income class and industries. A country that produces too many billionaires, relative to its size, is in all likelihood off-balance. 2) Strong companies and stock markets should - but should not necessarily - make for strong economies, so don't confuse the two. The clearest examples are countries dominated by oligopolies, like Mexico, SA and to some extent Philippines. 3) Watch for steady momentum behind economic and political reform, particularly in good times. Nations typically implement reforms when their backs are against the wall. 4) Check the size and growth of the second city, compared to the first city. In any big country the second largest city usually has a population that is to 1/3rd to 1/2 of the biggest city. 5) Watch the locals , they are always first to know; ...

All Thanks to Ruchir Sharma for his splendid book : Breakout Nations. 1) The old rule of forecasting was to make as many forecasts as possible and publicize the ones you got right. The new rule is to forecast so far into the future that no one will know that you got it wrong. 2) Goodhart's Law (Coined by former Bank of England, adviser Charles Goodhart) : Once an economic indicator get too popular, it loses its predictive value. 3) It is said that it takes money to make money, but for nations to grow rapidly it is much easier to be poor - the poorer, the better. 4) Typically it is difficult for any nation to expand the manufacturing share of its labor force much beyond 20 % , and China is already at around 23%. 5) "Low context", in contrast describes societies like United States and Germany in which people are individual oriented, care about privacy and more likely to stick to timelines and their word. Both India and Brazil are "high-context" societie...

An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there? ” There must a greater emphasis on individuality and questioning the status quo in very academic program. Continuing from the 3rd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 4th part of the learning in the field of Rural Management. Here in 10 points what I learnt in last 3 months: 1 - RM student could barely handle the stress when the pile of assignments came to them. They devolve from sensible students to the frenzy morons looking for their grades. 2 - The exposure to the American just do-it culture can produce entrepreneurs rather than a MBA degree. MBA is only as mandatory prestige tag for sure success in industry. 3 - Everything that we do, revolves around the singular concept of landing up with a great job. And the fact is no matter what we do, we will end up with a decent enough job in a corporate environment. 4 - Marketing is...

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson Continuing from the series of Poetry of Protest Part 1 and Part 2 , we are looking more in the power of protest. Protest is a sign of repression to overlook voice of love, reason and critical criticism. Looking for the identity, dignity, autonomy and culture in current scenario across globe, the inertia of the tradition can only be resisted by individuals of great integrity and confidence. Out of disobedience one starts being an individual. We live in a arbit society where pregnancies, marriages and divorces of D-type celebrities became the national news but there comes a threshold where the public's right to be informed on the matters like naxalism and corruption takes back seats.With the loss of confidence, the capacity of outrage goes. We are living in the ages where even speaking against Sachin Tandulkar, Shivaji Maharaja and Dr. Ambedkar is considered sin leave aside deemed demigods. The one sided mov...

Attention span refers to the amount of time we can focus on a task before we start to "zone out". Due to boom of the social media, the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to a staggeringly short 5 minutes. People’s attention spans are much shorter now as their interests have moved on to sports, technology and fashion. The attitude of our younger generation has changed so rapidly with the introduction of Twitter and Facebook. Even then social media can't be blamed entirely as knowledge accumulates to people who read Wikipedia on screen that to those who mush their brains with Twilight on paper. “According to UNESCO, the biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to thrive at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure.” Growing numbers of children are being turned off books by the end of primary school because of the influence of the internet and lack of reading in the home, according to research. I don't vouch for the Americ...

1- Smokers’ Corner: Real revolutions by Nadeem F. Paracha. 2- The Night Shastri Died And Other Stories by Kuldip Nayar. 3- Why Elites Fail by Christopher Hayes. 4- The real wealth of nations - The Economist 5- Children of the Taliban - PBS Frontline 6- The wedges between productivity and median compensation growth By Lawrence Mishel 7- 'A Perfect and Beautiful Machine': What Darwin's Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence by Daniel C. Dennett. 8- Why so many communist philosophers? by Santiago Zabala 9- Destroying the commons by Noam Chomsky. 10 - Theories of Oppression and Another Dialogue of Cultures by Ashis Nandy Perspectives Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend...

I love world cinema. I have habit of checking IMDB votes of good films. I am a person who love movies, conversations about films, and people who love films. That's who I am, A cinephile. Part I Cinema provides us a cosmetic version of nationhood. We, Indians can great affinity to our cinema. We pay homage to movies through the use of dialogues, style, body language and even songs in daily life. So much of their impact on us that we can either hate or love our films but definitely can't ignore them. Ramadhir Singh is more subtle and strategic way in Gangs Of Wasseypur : "Every fucker's got his own movie playing inside his head. Every fucker is trying to become the hero of his imaginary film. As long as there are fucking movies in this country people will continue to be fooled." There is always so many feel-good and masala potboiler films in our mainstream Hindi cinema. They serve a very important function of delivering entertainment in our society. But on...

मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी । यह तीन लोकों से न्यारी काशी । सुज्ञान धर्म और सत्यराशी ।। बसी है गंगा के रम्य तट पर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। नये नहीं हैं यह ईंट पत्थर । है विश्वकर्मा का कार्य सुन्दर ।। रचे हैं विद्या के भव्य मन्दिर, यह सर्वस्रष्टि की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यहाँ की है यह पवित्र शिक्षा । कि सत्य पहले फिर आत्मरक्षा ।। बिके हरिश्चन्द्र थे यहीं पर, यह सत्यशिक्षा की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यह वेद ईश्वर की सत्यवानी । बने जिन्हें पढ के ब्रह्यज्ञानी ।। थे व्यास जी ने रचे यहीं पर, यह ब्रह्यविद्या की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यह मुक्तिपद को दिलाने वाले । सुधर्म पथ पर चलाने वाले ।। यहीं फले फूले बुद्ध शंकर, यह राजॠषियों की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। सुरम्य धारायें वरुणा अस्सी । नहायें जिनमें कबीर तुलसी ।। भला हो कविता का क्यों न आकर, यह वाक...