Ten Issues - 22

1- Banning middlemen from oil trade could drive down price of crude by 40% : These middlemen add little value and lots of cost as they bid up the price of oil in pursuit of financial gain. They are "pure" speculators - investors who buy and sell oil futures but never take physical possession of actual barrels of oil.

2- Daron Acemoglu on Inequality - The US, the UK and many other countries have become far less equal over the past 30 years. The MIT economics professor says it's important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies. He also review Five Books.

3- The Emperor Uncrowned - A complete reportage on the rise of Narendra Modi.

4- The new think tank by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha:- Dry intellectual pursuits such as neuroscience and auction theory are solving problems on the ground. We met four people whose models prove how.

5- December 1984 By Sathyu Sarangi : Many of the battles begun 25 years ago, in the aftermath of catastrophe, continue today. A deep and moving saga of the struggle of Bhopal victims.

6- Of chick charts, hen charts and other such women’s stories: Saba Dewan - This could be termed as a pioneer of the Feminist movement in modern-day Delhi. It will be difficult to fathom that such sexist and misogynist behaviour existed in educational institution.

7- Plutonomy and the precariat: On the history of the US economy in decline - Prof. Chomsky explains that the current US economy is built on 'growing worker insecurity' - people who are too busy and poor to make demands.

8- The Importance of Not Being Earnest : The larger implications of a country that takes itself too seriously. - We as the Public India seems to have no sense of humour at all. And all attempt of sarcasm and other sharper kinds of humour.

9- Marx at 193 by John Lanchester - Writer review here importance of Marx and he really did have the most astonishing insight into the nature and trajectory and direction of capitalism.

10- Great biographic article on Prof. Amartya Sen who studies of social choice, welfare measurement, and poverty and do research on fundamental problems in welfare economics.

Quote of the day :- Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level - there's a little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.” — Noam Chomsky

Personal Reading History -2

‘Time, like a fistful of sand, slips through our fingers while we stand and wonder what to do with it.’

A habit is must for proper utilization of the time during our growing years. I had a nice habit of book and comics reading from the childhood days. I have already written a brief about reading history in a previous post (Personal Reading History -1). In retrospection, it feels great that I have read so many books, comics, stories and poems.

I want to read with the growing age the best of all world literature. It varies with the short stories of Anton Chekhov, Guy De Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and O Henry. UP, CBSE and ICSE board short stories and in English and Hindi from class 5th to 12th were fondly read by me. Smriti by Sriram Sharma, Gift of the Magi by O Henry, The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde, Idgaah by Premchand and A Letter to God by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes (Translated by Donald A. Yates ) are still mine favorite stories.

Books Read at friend's place: Panchatantra, Sindbad the Sailor, Pinocchio, My experiments with Truth, Gulliver Travels, Chandrakanta Santati and Prisoner of Zenda.

Books read in School Library : Moby Dick, Three Musketeers, The count of Monte-Cristo, A Christmas Carol, Time Machine, The War of Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Thirty Nine Steps, Oliver Twist, Great Expectation, You can win by Shiv Khera, Frankestein, The Red badge of courage, King Arthur and Round Tale, Sunny Days, Malgudi Days, Plays of Shakespeare

Books Read in Hindi Translation: David Copperfield, Ivanhoe, The Man in Iron Mask, Black Beauty, Call of the Wild , Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Black Tulip, Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Talisman, Don Quixote, Robin hood, Around the world in eighty days, Coral Island, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

These books were treasure house of enjoyable and informative literature that I had read in my wonder years. Sometimes, it was encouragement of the parents and cousins that later on converted into my own initiative. Thanks to my sister also who competed with me in finishing a book as fast as possible. Later on, the reading habit died due to my own negligence beyond class 10th.

I never seek happiness as those who run only for happiness never find it. On the surface when life becomes "eat, drink, be merry." It is superficial, and one day everybody get bored sooner or later. Some will seek refuge in religion and others in the work. It is extremely important to pick an advisors, mentors, friends and role models who are concerned about our intellectual growth and not just our productivity. Productivity is just like machine but thinking is done at different levels. We can only pick the best of ideas by becoming morally serious and intellectually curious.

I like books and write outdated essays on the blog. I always aspired to become an average educated reader for understanding the world around me. Currently, I appreciate reading mostly non fiction books. Simultaneously, I introduce popular concepts and idea that focus on the problems and prospects of sustainable development at this blog in a lucid manner. I feel indeed as a custodian of a common heritage of the civilized world through this cultural tradition of reading and writing.

As a grown person, it seems beyond understanding that scholars have stopped just reading novels and poems and started studying them. That is tragedy of Literature. While most of mine friends and classmate lack the habit of reading books for pleasure. Only few had started reading beyond school books, other just prefer to watch TV and Internet. They watch TV so the attention span is low. May be because people don’t read books these days.

Reading is tough and requires patience. It actually needs application to grasp the meaning of words and find hidden emotions between the lines. I act as writer at this blog. This blog is a demanding, difficult and not much reader friendly...highly personal place, typically filled with short insights. But if you have arrived here for a light-hearted entertainment's on your mind, then this blog is a wrong location in blogosphere.

As a writer, I have began to doubt my own capacity to see things unbiased, when I no longer am sure if my view is right or left. Yet, I am trying to remain as independent as possible. I suspect that market forces have altered the behavior of writers. That bothers me a lot. I will easily pass away, unnoticed and unremarked with time. Just let me read and write without censure story of my own. I thanks books as they had changed exposure and outlook. A nation must have its culture rebels, prophets, saints, heroes and martyrs. I am none but a Reader and Writer.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 3

Continuing from the 2nd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 3rd part of the learning in the field of Rural Management.  Here in 6 points what I learnt in last 3 months:

1- Integrity and Humility are more necessary to success than the knowledge. Only creating assets and giving knowledge is not enough but the spirit of service is far more essential for a rural manager.

2- For-profit firms, they argue, often face pressure to abandon social goals in favour of increasing profits. Non-profit firms and charities are needlessly restricted in their ability to raise capital when they need to grow. There should be a third way of developing the objectives of both firms.

3- There is a misplaced tendency to look at "progress" through the eyes of people in power or in powerful economic institutions. There lies a great assumption that if they do well, wealth/prosperity will trickle down into the lives of ordinary people. This approach is one of the many 'indicators' of the development, not the only one as perceived by mainstream.

4- Government can give equal opportunity to all, but still a Steve Jobs will be a Steve Jobs, all people are not going to become Steve Jobs. Equity does not mean that all children must learn the same thing at the same rate but they have the same access to same infrastructure and facilities.

5- LPG are regarded as panacea of all the problems. I don't agree with this trend. Often assets and infrastructure created that are more beneficial to the elites than the poor who created them. I am not yet sure of the access of the vulnerable group of assets created in NREGA.

6- The true institution failure happens when the voice of vulnerable people are kept silent. Not being organised, they lack representations in social, economic and political institutions and often fail to participate despite granted rights. Most of the time, they form group on the basis of their social identity and caste system thrives with changing times.

Summary of One Year :
It is not the most talented who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change. One year has passed since my admission in 2-Year Full Time Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Management. I don't much bother academic competence but trying to learn with each passing moment. MBA degree is a fast-track exposure to various functions in the organisation -- sales, marketing, human resources, finance, product management and strategy. While development studies take s in the domain of sociology, anthropology, economics, political science and even public administration. Rural Management is a hybrid mixture of both these domains. I have not allow myself time to settle down. I tried to jump at every opportunity, to do as much as I could with my time. Rural Manager is needed to harness grass-roots dynamism and entrepreneurial potential. Hoping to convert this knowledge to some useful actions.

XIMB -RM has taught me the tact to handle of academic pressure. Still, much can be done to put a student through an intellectual rigour. I never tend to prioritize the number of hours spent in the classroom over the quality of teaching, that helps me much in assessing impact of classroom lectures on me.

As an IT engineer with 12 hrs 3.5L job at MNC was good but never a satisfying one. It is not money that has tempted me to give up a stable career at IT firm and enter rural management program. It is the freedom to read widely, think deeply, write independently and keep learning—the opportunity to live in the world of ideas and realities simultaneously. I have achieved a lot of mine goals and pretty happy with my progress. In the end, I still ponder over a simple question - But what does it mean anyway — development?

Ten Issues - 21

1- Barefoot - The other side of lifeHarsh Mander -: Can anyone really live on Rs. 26 a day, the income of the officially poor in rural India? Two youngsters try it out.

2- Powerhouse on your plate! - Easily accessible and affordable, millets are making a comeback to Indian kitchens, says Shonali Muthalaly.

3- The everyday embrace of inequality :The institution of paid domestic labour produces cleanliness, meals and childcare, but it also produces and reproduces an unequal home and society.

4- Salman Rushdie & India's new theocracy :-India's secular state is in a state of slow-motion collapse. The contours of a new theocratic dystopia are already evident.

5- BCCI: Billionaires Control Cricket in India by P. SAINATH

6- 42 per cent of Indian children are underweight - Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report by the Naandi Foundation – were described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a “national shame” at a release function here on Tuesday.

7- The complex contractor-maistry system, the devastation of agriculture, an ineffective food-for-work programme, debt and debilitating mass migrions - these are an explosive mix. P Sainath joins migrants fleeing the desperate conditions in Mahbubnagar, seeking a meagre living in faraway places : The bus to Mumbai (Part I) and The wrong route out? (Part II)

8- Looming disaster : Handloom weavers in Andhra Pradesh are in a crisis brought on by policy blindness and the emphasis on powerlooms.

9- Bt Cotton, Remarkable Success, and Four Ugly Facts.

10- Walking With The Comrades :- Gandhians with a Gun? Arundhati Roy plunges into the sea of Gondi people to find some answers...

EPW Readings

1- Accessing Institutional Finance: A Demand Side Story for Rural India

Under the Reserve Bank of India’s “financial inclusion” campaign, the provision of institutional finance has been progressing at differential rates across the country. However, when we pair administrative banking data on availability of bank branches in a state with the All India Debt and Investment Survey (2002-03) capturing both institutional and non-institutional borrowing by households, we find that states with the most access to institutional finance, or supply, are not necessarily the ones with the most demand for finance. Looking at household level data within each state we identify determinants of institutional borrowing, and some of the strongest predictors for accessing institutional finance. A number of empirical regularities emerge in terms of the importance of having assets like land for borrowing, which undermines the basic philosophy of financial inclusion.

2- Crop Insurance in India : Scope for Improvement

The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme is vital for providing insurance cover to farmers, across regions, across seasons and across crops. This paper comprehensively reviews the NAIS and suggests changes to make it more effective. The paper is based on a detailed analysis of exhaustive data for 11 crop seasons, covering the rabi season of 1999-2000 onwards up to the same in 2004-05. Field investigations were also conducted in Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to assess the response of farmers, bankers and other stakeholders. The authors also rely on discussions with knowledgeable persons like government functionaries from the department of agriculture, bankers, academicians and farmer representatives in Nagpur, Jaipur and Hyderabad.

3- Case for Caste-based : Quotas in Higher Education

The roots of discrimination in India go so deep that social and economic disparities are deeply intertwined, although in increasingly complex ways. We still need reservations for different groups in higher education, not because they are the perfect instruments to rectify long-standing discrimination, but because they are the most workable method to move in this direction. The nature of Indian society ensures that without such measures, social discrimination and exclusion will only persist and be strengthened.

4- Can We De-Stigmatise Reservations in India?

The “politics of recognition” that Other Backward Classes have set into motion has its own set of terms and dynamics that contrast well with that of the dalits’ political discourse. The politics of obcs have now brought into the public domain issues that are likely to change the very terms of discourse in which the debate on reservations was pursued for the last three decades. The obc discourse on reservations has de-stigmatised policy; obcs have also articulated their demands beyond community concerns by bringing up issues related to regionalism and linguistic assertion. These can influence the very grounds on which public institutions, policy and political processes have, so far, been perceived and pursued in Indian politics.

5- Caste, Politics and Public Good Distribution in India: Evidence from NREGS in Andhra Pradesh

This paper attempts to measure the effect of castereservation policies on the provision of public goods and services in gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh using data from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The investigation finds that the effect of reservation varies tremendously in different social, political, and institutional contexts, shedding light on the conflicting results of similar studies. It provides important lessons for future research and policy about the caste-political conditions in which reservation can produce positive or perverse results.

6- Understanding the Andhra : Crop Holiday Movement
Why would farmers keep their own land fallow as part of a voluntary “crop holiday protest movement” in a part of Andhra Pradesh is a question that has puzzled many. A field visit to the Konaseema region reveals that the dynamics of class contradictions in the area are also responsible for the nature of the movement that goes beyond the issue of remunerative prices.

7- Developmental Crisis and Dialectics of Protest Politics : Presenting the Absent and Absenting the Present

There is not just a crisis of development today, but also a crisis of ideas for emancipatory forms of development. What is needed from progressives is a rigorous theory that must acknowledge what is present (class exploitation, imperialism, national and social oppression, profit-driven ecological destruction, gross commercialisation of all spheres of human life including  culture and social relations) but also what is absent (collective democratic control over our lives, our planet, our bodies, our destiny, our culture). That should be the start of the process of bringing about fundamental changes in the status quo.

8- Building a Creative Freedom : J C Kumarappa and His Economic Philosophy

Joseph Cornelius Kumarappa (1892-1960) was a pioneering economic philosopher and architect of the Gandhian rural economics programme. Largely forgotten today, Kumarappa’s life-work constitutes a large body of writings and a rich record of public service, both of profound significance. A critical intellectual engagement with his life-work can shed new light on some of the most fundamental constituents of the human economic predicament, and also contribute to a more nuanced understanding of one of the most fecund periods in modern Indian history.

9- Diary of a Moneylender

Debates about the role of the moneylender in the rural credit scenario tackle two conflicting images. One sees the moneylender as a resilient entity calling for his future involvement in the process of rural development, and the other sees him as an exploiter to be slowly weeded out. To get a more nuanced account of his role, a diary kept by a moneylender operating in a village in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh is analysed here. Even a cursory reading of this diary gives rich details on the scale and importance of the transactions carried out by the moneylender. Through this diary, formal lending agencies, be they banks or microfinance institutions, which have plans to supplant the moneylender will gain rich insights into the role played by this ubiquitous entity.

10- Critique of the Common Service Centre Scheme

The Common Service Centre scheme aims to establish nearly three lakh rural internet kiosks across India. A recent evaluation study, however, found poor demand among users and delayed roll-out of government-to consumer services, causing losses and attrition among private operators of the scheme. There is space, therefore, for greater engineering of public good outcomes by tying financial incentives to computer education goals.

Rural Management GD-PI Preparation

Later Addition (Jan 2020): Diary of Rural Manager ! on the jobs, career prospects, and life of a rural management graduate.

I was an aspirant for the rural management program last year. I applied for both XIMB and IRMA. I tried to write down a possible list of the question that may be asked by the interview panelists. Please customize the questions as per your needs.

01- Describe yourself in 3 words?
02- Tell us about yourself and your family background.
03- What is success according to you?
04- What is an Urban area?
05- Why do you think you are suited for RM?
06- Why you pursued Engineering at graduation?
07- Why do you switch to the IT industry after a degree in mechanical engineering?
08- What is Development? What is development according to you?
09- Why IRMA/XIMB/TISS?
10- Would you like to ask any questions from us? Would you like to ask any questions from us?
11- Why Rural and What is Rural? Why did you think about rural?
12- Why prepare for rural management, not for the AGM course at IIMs?
13- Is there any business plan in your mind and how it will benefit rural people?
14- So how is the campus, when did you reach it? How do you feel about Gujarat/ Orissa/ Mumbai? What is your first impression?
15- Have you done self-analysis. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Briefly outline your strengths? Briefly outline your weaknesses?
16- Why do Companies see bright prospects in Rural India?
17- Why should we select you or special points? 5 reasons why should we select you? Give one reason why should we select you?
18- Give one reason why we don’t select you?
19- Describe the nature of your work experience, responsibilities, and achievements.
20- Have you any experience of scholarly work?
21- Do you think development activities require a lot of money?
22- What is leadership according to you? Can you cite any example from your life where you demonstrated it?
23- Do you think you will be able to switch from a metro city to a rural area? why?
24- Tell us something which is not written in the resume?
25- How will you convince the poor villager to send his children to school? What incentives are on offer if he sends his children to school?
26- What kind of things have you done in the office other than work? What did you learn and understand from this?
27- There's enough aid flowing in. And yet, things aren't turning out the way they should. Why?
28- How do you plan to fund your studies? You will be requiring loans or your family would pay it?
29- How did you come to know about the institute?
30- Why management? Can you not serve a rural population with your technical skills?
31- You can do MBA from another college, and earn in lakhs, why rural management and get less paisa?
32- Why is there a need to work for rural people?
33- How can technology help the rural sector?
34- After working in AC rooms for around 3 years in the software industry, will you be able to able to adjust the demanding job profile of a rural manager?
35- The software industry is a lucrative industry then why do you want to join IRMA?
36- Asked about what I liked in the company you work for?
37- How can you use mech engg knowledge and IT exp in rural development. How will your expertise from your work ex bring about change in a village?
38- How do you relate to the background and how do you plan to apply? What part could technology play in rural development?
39- What can computers do for farmers? Explain the limitations of IT-based initiatives?
40- From where did this rural thing come to your mind?
41- Suppose you are to develop a business model for a village. How would you do it?
42- What do you mean by community service or welfare?
43- What all community work have you done?
44- What do want to convey by research and investment in the rural sector?
45- What would be my first step to develop rural people ... if I were the PM of India?
46- What is the difference between India and Singapore?
47- Gave a situation "Some money is given to a rural person through micro-credit. How will you ensure to get it back?"
48- How education of elders will ensure the development of the rural sector?
49- How will you bring about changes in a village which has been neglected over the years?
50- How will you change the mindset of a farmer towards genetically modified crops and convince him to make the switch?

Brief Idea about - Poverty, Migration, Education Policy, Agrarian policy, E-Governance, HDI, Microfinance, Annual Budget Plan, Poverty Line, GDP, PPP, PCI (Per capita income), Information of Home state and city, Various central and state(home) government schemes, NRLM, NREGA, NRHM, Panchayati Raj, PESA, Free Trade, Fair Trade, ICT (Information and communications technology), Welfare State, Market Economy, PURA, Major Sectors of the Economy, Green Revolution, Rabbi- Kharif Crops, Name of few scheduled tribes, National Food Security Mission, BT crops, Land reforms, AMUL, White Revolution, IMR, MMR, Literacy Rate, Working Population, Disguised, Seasonal and Under Employment, Polio Mission, Chipko Andolan, CRISIL Ratings, Economic Recession, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Five Year Plans, Bottom of Pyramid (BOP), NABARD, BRIC, UID Aadhar, Lokpal Bill, Rainfed Area, Inflation, Cash Crop, Public Distribution System, Rain Water Harvesting, WTO, etc etc...

Read about NGOs like Pratham, Gram Vikas, Goonj, PRADAN, BASIX, SEWA.

Ten Issues - 20

1- Food Politics: How the present National Food Security Bill will deepen Food Insecurity by Dr Vandana Shiva.

2- How To Learn the Language of Evil - Alan Wolfe's Political Evil offers lessons liberals especially need. A review By Michael Ignatieff.

3- Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012 by Dorie Clark who is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. [HBR]

4- Why I Hire People Who Fail by Jeff Stibel who is Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. [HBR]

5- On Public Funding of Colleges and Towards a General Theory of Public Options : If we want to wonder why public education is becoming expensive it is in part because we aren’t supporting it as much as we were in the past.

6- Why Software Is Eating The World : Instead of constantly questioning their valuations, let's seek to understand how the new generation of technology companies are doing what they do, what the broader consequences are for businesses and the economy and what we can collectively do to expand the number of innovative new software companies created in the U.S. and around the world.

7- FDI in Retail: A new battleground at IIM Marketers blog.

8- The Decline but Not Fall of Hierarchy : What Young People Really Want : Western education imparts the idea that if we don’t have someone supervising our work, we’ll fall into a dangerous state of low productivity and collective lethargy. But examples like the rise of Google show that youth flourish in an environment with little hierarchy.

9- The global crisis has presented India with a historic opportunity to grow faster, but according to Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of a leading independent think tank, the country is unable to capitalise on it owing to political and macro-economic mismanagement. In an interview with Santosh Tiwari, Mehta strongly criticises the Congress for ineptitude.

10 - Distant from Prosperity: The rural Indian economy, 1993-2005 - What has happened to the Indian economy over the last two decades ?

Thought of the Week : One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. ... All you need to do is to be curious, receptive, eager for experience. And there's one strange thing: when you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else. - Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living (1960)

Ten Issues - 19

1- Who Represents the Poor? by Pranab Bardhan - The Limits of the NGO Movement in Global Development

2- Why the Fight against Poverty Is Failing: A Contrarian View - Abraham George is the founder of The George Foundation, an NGO engaged in humanitarian work in India, and the author of India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty. In this contrarian essay, he explores why the current strategies that governments and development agencies are employing to reduce poverty are not working the way they should. Among his arguments: Microcredit programs, as they are now practiced in India, do little to help the poor.

3- The great land grab: India's war on farmers - Land is a valuable asset that should be used to better humanity through farming and ecology. An article by Vandana Shiva.

4- Right to Food Campaign's opposition to replacement of PDS with cash transfers : A Google group for interaction and discussion.

5- In Free India I Was Denied Entry' : - Interview of David Barsamian who is an Armenian-American radio broadcaster, writer, and the founder and director of Alternative Radio.

6- Goodbye, Steve Jobs; Long Live Mavericks! by Nalaka Gunawardene.

7- The class warfare the rich don't understand : The Masters of the Universe evaded responsibility and defiantly demanded more sacrifice from their victims, says author.

8- Veteran historian, novelist, and activist Tariq Ali in a recent interview spoke about the challenges facing the Arab revolts, the future of US policy in the Middle East following ‘disengagement’ from Iraq, and the significance of the current movement of dissent taking over the streets and squares of cities across the world. Read on the complete interview at Viewpoint.

9- Putting Growth In Its Place: It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself. An essay by JEAN DREZE , AMARTYA SEN

10- You can't bank on free speech : An extrajudicial banking blockade imposed on WikiLeaks has caused a 95 per cent loss in revenue for the organisation.

The year that was....

Year started with interview at IRMA. Failure in IRMA was hard to swallow. As they say, it rains hardest on those who deserve the sun. I learnt in hard way that never make a tall claim. Tall claim have a nasty way of coming back like boomerang to haunt you.

On Leaving CSC : Talent leaves deadwood does not. It is hard to work somewhere without proper training and background. Without context and passion, the life becomes incomprehensible.

Though there are artificial problems, I want to address human problems. I was luckily selected in XIMB. I am in the phase of rebuilding mine career now. I hope to be riding the crest of the wave that hard work has created.

The most terrible poverty is the feeling of being unloved. I found someone special. The truth of the heart can only be seen in the eyes of one who is in love. There is someone in my life. I am seeking the relationship with love and trust despite differences of age, thoughts, hobby and attitude. I am plan to be surprised by the life.

A world with only atheists would be a world with with so less holidays. There is too less holidays and lot of academic pressure here at XIMB. Still, I feel that the pain of discipline is nothing like the pain of disappointment. I have chosen to take the road less travelled on and has found myself alone in the route of rural management program.

Non-conformists always has a minor support base! This is the price one has to pay for breaking or making your own rules. Mainstream only talks but avoid the right path. It is always a dissident, a rebel, somebody always ready to buck the mainstream trend. It is important not to accept a statement as true simply because it was written in a book, but rather to rely on his own mind and reasoning.

Mainstream books and cinema always try to put a clean and family value supporting image and articles. It's few dissdents who reveal the dirty picture! Only few selected movies seen in the second half of the year. Censorship to me is any hurdle or impediment in the way of free speech. I created a secret blog to update daily upheaval and learning at XIMB. Hoping for the growth of ideas of the transparency and open governance.

Unless I have set a right balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, I can't emerge as a good scholar in any field. I am trying to control addictive habits and inculcate new habits. Mission, Vision and Complex problems bring out creative leadership. Hoping for emergence of a quantum of leader in me.

Whatever said here is mostly waste. The rest is silence. That silent part of life is my heart.

The best tweet of 2012: “September 17th. Wall Street. Bring Tent, a simple plea on Twitter that started the Occupy Revolution.

Books Read in 2011

Reading creates capacity for deep, linear concentration. That is one unintended positive outcome of the habit of reading. Books always touch man’s head and heart with a burning/soothing/boring sensation. I read books on cinema, consumer behaviour, leadership and culture having various overtones this year. They helped me to fight desperation, myopia and close-mindedness prevailing inside me; I have always tried to pay attention to theories that conflict with common perception, only if those theories are more driven by human behaviour than common stereotype assumptions. Books of great authors are the best tools to understand these theories.

"Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs." Quite an apt statement to start about reading tour of this year. I am enlisting the names of books read by me in 2011 with their background and my feedback. Ratings are highly personal.

My name is red by Orhan Pamuk - English - 8/10

Hitch 22 :- Christopher Hitchens - English- 8/10
Author’s intellectual trajectory over the life time

Among the Believers :- V. S. Naipaul - English- 8/10
He makes writing verse look so easy and publishes Journey that highlights the culture of few selected Islamic country.

Who moved my Cheese ? :- Spencer Johnson - English- 7.5/10
Motivational business fable about opportunities and life at work.

In custody :- Anita Desai - English- 6.5/10
Loss of Urdu language in India through the eyes of a dying poet.

Our Films Their Films :- Satyajit Ray - English- 8.5/10
A deep insight by an auteur about his films.

The man who knew Infinity:A Life of the Genius Ramanujan-: Robert Kanigel - English- 7/10
Biography of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan written with utmost details and articulation.

Something Like An Autobiography :- Akira Kurosawa - English- 8.5/10
It is a charming account of the legendary movie director's early life.

Predictably Irrational :- Dan Ariely - English- 8/10
A book written in the behavioural science field makes a rational person looking dumb.

Rinzai: Master of the Irrational :- Osho - English- 8/10
No comments to be made about Zen !

I Have A Dream :- Rashmi Bansal - English- 8/10
Inspiring Stories of the 25 social entrepreneurs from humble and diverse background.

Heart of Darkness :-  Joseph Conrad - English- 7.5/10
Unfathomable dark nature of human explored through the journey of the narrator

Winning by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch :- Jack Welch - English- 7.5/10
A comprehensive look on designing career path and taking decisions in the corporate world.

As French novelist Marcel Proust once said that the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. I hope to evolved as a Reader and to enjoy more books in the coming year. XIMB library here I come !

Thought of the Day- New year doesn't bring happiness but people do ! Enjoy 2012.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 2

Continuing from the 1st part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 2nd part of the learning in the field of Rural Management.

Looking into mine MBA and engineering curriculum, I can easily conclude that it is heavily influenced by American model and lacks novelty. Despite of mine low academic orientation, I have not seen really good books from an Indian author. Most of the books are from western universities. Hence, there is dire need to dejargonise and accept superfluos nature of our education.

During this trimester of PGDM-RM (rural management) at XIMB, I asked this question again and again :- why one chooses any course or college ? Whether one prefers a brand or academic learning or mere placement records of the college for routing the career path.

Any college should have these aspects for growth : Creation of knowledge through research, Application of knowledge within the industry through commercializaion and Dissemination of knowledge through classroom lectures. I am glad that XIMB fairs a good mark in this.

There will never be a final crisis of capitalism unless there is an alternative.Similarly, until students see an alternative system in RM, the prevailing dilemma of development and management will prevail. But even this duality helps us in looking for designing an economy of well-being.

When there is a large chance of being educated in an increasingly homogenised economic/educational system, RM course provide a different overview. Here in 5 points what I learnt in 3 months:

1- We don’t tend to celebrate ‘empowerment’ because there is no glamour in it. We celebrate charity because it makes us feel good.

2- We can make people accountable by giving them ownership and concrete goals to achieve.

3- We need to listen to dissonance of the participatory of the system. It is as much true for Panchayat level to the MBA college level where stakeholders are students.

4- Excess of Knowledge and logic sometimes became anti actional in nature. It makes person cautious and should be used for planning only. This country has enough critics but only few selective solution providers.

5- India have large people with an entrepreneurial nature but they only need subsidized capacity building. It is quite paradox to 'charity driven and complex' development approaches practiced by the government.

While writing conclusion is not an easy task, I can only remember the opening lines of novel "The tale of two cities by Charles Dickens" in the times of recession and protests.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the uperlative degree of comparison only."

Personal Reading History -1

"It is good to be curious because that is how one starts the journey of inquiry... into existence; but if one simply remains curious, then there will be no intensity in it. One can move from one curiosity to another — one will become a driftwood — from one wave to another wave, never getting anchored anywhere. Curiosity is good as a beginning, but then one has to become more passionate. One has to make life a quest, not only a curiosity." --- Osho

I am now searching the root of mine reading habits and how they have changed my behavior over the span of time. Even though I was attracted towards school books, I don't remember any interest in the reading at KG level. Only memory I have of reading, it is of nursery rhyme 'Johnny Johnny Yes Papa' in the classroom. I spent most of the time listening to the old songs of Kishore Kumar and Mahendra Kumar in the cassette player.

I had started reading Children stories in Hindi newspaper 'Dainik Jagran' initially in the childhood. I was reading stories and poems in the school books. Chamapak for toddlers, Balhans for folk and patriotic stories, Nandan with tales of kings and queens and Nanhe Samrat with its Murkhistan were made available for us by our parents. I was more fond of reading comics of various desi superheroes. But the summarized five page short summary of world famous novel in Nandan was my favourite of all. Suman Saurabh and Chandamama were also there but there stories were interesting but in the discrete form dispersed over various magazine issues. But the story of Vikram Betal and Ulysses left a deep impact on me for epic novels and drama.

This was the phase of my life when I was more interested in religious texts. I had finished reading of Ramcharitmanas and Ramayan till the age of 9 years. Then, I also read a lot of Gitapress books about the life of Srikrishna. By sheer chance only, I never had opportunity to read any Amar Chitra Katha. Also, I was taught various short stanzas of Rahim, Raskhan, Dinkar, Niraala and Kabir.

Now comes mine fanatical reading of comics portion. I was avid reader of Naagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Tausi, Doga, Parmanu, Chacha Chaudary and Ram-Rahim. I never had any chance to read english comic strips like Archie or Calvin-Hobbes.

One more subject that drew my attention was history books. Since, there were no hundered of comics available for a fast reader like me at maternal grandmother's home, I was given history book of 10th, 12th and graduation. It has most powerful impact on my memory. I was sheer delighted by the concept of revolution that happened in France and Russia. The complex name of Rousseau and Voltaire became familiar for me. It was also win win solution for everybody as it kept me engaged for a long time and I was like enjoying the dive into the world of knowledge.

Ten Issues - 18

Harvard professor Larry Lessig is one of our foremost authorities on copyright issues, with a vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition.



1- The Indian state of Bihar has long been a byword for bad governance. It was however governed particularly badly between 1990 and 2005, and has since experienced something of a ‘governance miracle’. How can we account for the 1990–2005 deterioration? Through this working paper - State Incapacity by Design: Understanding the Bihar Story, we will understand that the low state capacity is often a political choice.

2- La Grande Revolution, Encore? A comparison between France of 1787 with present USA as both had financed an overseas war with borrowed money.

3- The War Dogma: This article appears in the July issue of Agenda/Infochange for the theme on the ‘Limits of Freedom’. An insight on Dantewada and Operation Green Hunt.

4- Playing fast and loose by Pratap Bhanu Mehta : A overview of tussle on Janlokpal Bill - A morally insidious vacuum in government. A self-proclaimed civil society displaying its own will to power. A media age where being off-balance gets you visibility. A public whose mood is punitive. An intellectual climate that peddles the politics of illusion.

5- A weakness born of bad intent by Siddharth Varadarajan: - The UPA government's unwillingness to act against the abuse of political and corporate power has created a vacuum which others are rushing to fill.

6- Do you want to be watched? - The new rules under the IT Act are an assault on our freedom. A report by Sunil Abraham who is the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society.

7- "Tragedies darken when their victims refuse to understand the causes. Intellectual failure has thus been the principle deficit; which means the so-called men of intellect are to blame". Interview with Dr. Mobarak Haider, A political activist, scholar and renowned writer of English and Urdu.

8- Demystification of myths by Nadeem F. Paracha - In the last thirty years the number of people in Pakistan who pray regularly and attend collective prayers in mosques has risen three-fold. So have the number of mosques, madressas, Islamic evangelical organizations and religious programming on TV - and yet the rates of rape (including child rape), drug addiction, public humiliation of women has steadily maintained an upward trend.

9- Why dream borrowed dreams? - One of the most seductive myths that the Indian middle class and its elite believes in is that the 21st century is the Indian Century. A deep analysis of this myth by Shiv Visvanathan.

10- Disgust, Magical Thinking, and Morality : A short article on Morality and feeling of disgust.

Life as I know It

Anton Chekhov once said that you must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

There was a vacuum inside despite of huge knowledge in comparison to peers. You can't be thrilled with the life if it is full of knowledge.

One who not been able to love, or not been able to receive love. He has not been able to share his being. That’s the misery of one's existence. The worst bit is one does not know where to seek love.

People have no idea and nor do they care how a loner live and struggle. Life was rather repulsive once! Anton Chekhov once said that people who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.

I was alone once yet not lonely. A development of relationship blossomed but was crushed in between. Aren't the most painful stories those where the relations are left broken yet open? Yet, I prefer silence than stories.

It takes the darkest hour of your life to find yourself. The more I know who I am and what I want in the life, the less I let things upset me. No matter what happens, i will not live with a incompatible person.

When love happens, life takes a turn. I am turning !

What one want to communicate and what one hope to communicate matches then the heart becomes full of joy. All shades of sarcasm, mysticism and sorrow sublime into thin air. Reconstruction at any age in any heart will heal the anger that shackle the bonds of love.

Does a life story need to conclude and make sense, like winning at the end of struggle, or rain after a long period of drought? Life is long and destination unseen.

I have learned all these years that life and dreams can never meet because when they meet both will loose their meaning. But, I was dead wrong. Even life is full of paradox, it seems complementary.

I have seen enough days of summer, there is autumn in my life. I am feeling happy. No matter how cool, strong or smart, every man is a fool in love. If you are in love, everything falls into line, everything falls together in a harmony, everything starts having significance.

Idea and Organisations

Red Hat Linux Commercial: Truth Happens



Most of us see this advertisement either as User oriented or expert oriented operating system from marketing point of view. [ The Fedora and Red Hat Projects were merged on September 22, 2003. Fedora 15, codenamed Lovelock, was released on May 24, 2011.]

Ideas that spread, win but just because an idea spreads doesn't mean it's good for us. LINUX is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. Since free flow of ideas makes them worth more and LINUX is product of such idealogy, I enjoy this advertisement of Linux more than others.

When the willful ignorance and avoidance of the competitor become a litmus test for the applicants, the age of fall of person/company begins with this ! You can be brilliant yet ignorant if you choose to ignore the inevitable. Any market leader will try to keep others from bringing new ideas forward but then truth happens !

1- Ideas are going to continue to become more valuable, which means that the urge to control and patrol them is going to get greater. But we should act in a boundaryless fashion - always search for and apply best ideas regardless of their source.

2- People who allow themselves to be taught will remain followers and people who learn by themselves will become leaders.

3- Innovation is bringing different elements together that fits the particular phase of solution.

4- Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence but no one is obligated to understand your need to create. One need to show patience and perseverance to find the right person to collaborate with.

5- It takes all sorts to make a team, even an invincible team. You do not pick teams to please people; you pick teams to win !

Hi There, You!

As college brings out all abilities, including incapability. There was one person in my college Rajneesh who didn't want to fit into any specific mold. He has started a website recently : Hi There, You!

Hi There, You! is a place where procrastination meets witty anonymous posts composed of choice words. All your need is a bit of dry humor and you are good to go.

Go forth, check it out and spill the beans.

'Like' Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HiThereU
Twitter: www.twitter.com/HiThere_You

Why Do I like "Hi There, You!"

-Most obvious reason, It is started by my friend.

- I love sarcasm, dry humor and wit.

- Its a great idea and all great ideas are amplified when others build on them.

- Since its anonymous, there is no censorship, ownership, regulation and control of property on our ideas.

- But Don't Pay no attention to “fancy advertising” of mine that conflict with your “common sense,” and check these theories that are driven by shear gut feeling.

Development in a Trimester of rural management

John Stuart Mill is right here: there is no development, democratic or economic, without an educated citizenry. Hence with this statement, I will shade mine myopic narrative of the last 3 months of the education. Roughly, the things I am doing out here is to fight the common perception between development and management.

During this trimester of PGDM-RM (rural management) at XIMB, the question that was constantly asked by me was how much of it is “Development” and how much “management” ? With rural India in the context, this issue becomes a divergent for many budding rural managers.

The purpose of nearly all writing is to communicate easily. Here in 10 points is what I learnt in 3 months:

1- The first lesson towards developing an understanding that development is not merely about subsidies, urbanisation and poverty but also about being sensitive to the people.

2- As an aspiring rural managers should have understanding that must encompass history, sociology and the economic factors that also shape people’s lives. Quality of a learner is never an accident. It is always result of intelligent effort.

3- Between intention and implemention, there is a step called planning that needs learning from experiences, peers, teachers and most important through insight of a common wisdom of people.

4- We as managers, leaders and adminsitrators counsel and judge people without knowing much about them. Before presuming to do so, we need to be educated about why people behave the way they do. Then ask ourselves a far more difficult question: ‘Who am I to talk to other people and advise them about their development?’

5- There is nothing called perfect system, we try to make a system perfect by adapting ourselves to the problems at hand. One has to challenge organizational culture without destroying it.

6- Intent and honesty of purpose indeed attracts the valuable talent across the strata of society. But what you want to do and why holds important parameter for the people involved in any project. The character of a person/institution can be the most powerful yet most difficult competitive advantage to develop and maintain.

7- Omission is usually a luxury of the person with many choices. That we do knowingly. But denial is the instrument used by us for avoiding grim realities and ours responsibility.

8- Money does not motivate people, people want social recognition and autonomy.

9- People have capability to become intellectually self reliant and a lot of sustainable knowledge is hidden in them. They only need facilitators like us.

10- As an engineer, I learned that there is immense need to demystify technology first for the rural populace so that they will have the confidence to use and manage it. Technology can't be monopoly of engineers and technocrats.

It is the sheer desperation and helplessness that opens the world for a miracle. But messiah appears only at the time of immense crisis and disaster. We can't wait for Anna and Gandhi to show us the path always.

Develop a vision and skills for implementation, the rest pieces of mission will fall in the right places !

Annus Mirabilis

26 years of Life completed on 21st August. Yahoo !

Annus mirabilis is a Latin phrase meaning "wonderful year" or "year of wonders". A year where many dreams blossomed and similarly many nightmares ended. So life was never better than previous year (Though just late but not too late for me). Between the end of the illusions and the awakening as a different person.

I am missing my friends today. But now, they have all gone into parts of India -- and I remain alone here, with only their memories in my heart, and tears in my eyes.

"When the facts change, I change my mind," said Lord Keynes once. I am also doing the same while understanding the tussle, cooperation and competition between development sector and corporate sector in academic life here.

The motto of life in the busy schedules of life has changed to न दैन्यं न पलायनम् !

Ten Issues - 17

1- Why Zappos Offers New Hires $2,000 to Quit : The policy of providing a let-out after one week has gained worldwide attention. Columnist Keith McFarland explains why it makes sense.

2- Who Was Milton Friedman?: Keynesianism was a great reformation of economic thought. It was followed, inevitably, by a counter-reformation. A number of economists played important roles in the great revival of classical economics between 1950 and 2000, but none was as influential as Milton Friedman.

3- End Financial Control of European Governance : In developing countries and now in Europe, government debt allows creditors to exercise undue power over decision making. The Euro crisis is clear evidence that we need to break out of the economic straitjacket imposed by an over-powerful financial sector, says Susan George in an interview with Nick Buxton.

4- Who needs a bank? : Should we make banks better, or just make them redundant? Peer-to-peer currency schemes like bitcoin.org offer the possibility of networked money without banks. Should democrats embrace the possibilities?

5- Free Enterprise Vs. Regulation : Raghuram Rajan had seen the impact of over-regulation in an underachieving economy. Years later, he also saw the perils of under-regulation as championed during the Alan Greenspan era. The Eric J. Gleacher, Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business discusses the question of achieving the right mix of free enterprise and sensible regulation

6- Too much information : How to cope with data overload

7- Good Ideas and Great Ideas : A worthy idea needs to be nurtured and developed, rethought and reworked, often thrown away and picked back up again. There’s a substantive difference between a passing fancy and groundbreaking concept. It is our approach to ideas that makes that difference.

8- Johann Hari: How to survive the age of distraction - As in the book The Lost Art of Reading – Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, the critic David Ulin puts it: "Reading is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction.... It requires us to pace ourselves. It returns us to a reckoning with time. In the midst of a book, we have no choice but to be patient, to take each thing in its moment, to let the narrative prevail. We regain the world by withdrawing from it just a little, by stepping back from the noise."

9- 5 Principles of Creativity : So to compete in today’s marketplace, you have to be able to create. That’s much different than just working faster or harder or longer. The good news is that, while we can’t all be a Picasso or a Mozart, there are some simple principles we can follow that will enhance our ability originate ideas that are truly new and important.

10 - The game theory of discovery and the birth of the free-gap : Too many things to choose from, more every day. No efficient way to alert the world about your service, your music, your book. How about giving it away to help the idea spread?

Ten Issues - 16

1- Great compilation of cultural article at BBC Hindi : Enjoy Reading about Hindustani Tahzeeb

2- ऑन स्‍क्रीन ऑफ स्‍क्रीन : बहुरुपिया का माडर्न अवतार आमिर खान

3-Death by Dialogue By Trisha Gupta : What does it mean for the future of Hindi cinema if most films are now in fact conceived, thrashed out and largely executed not in Hindi but in English? Will filmmakers only tell the stories of a minuscule section of the population?

4-National Film Awards : The absurdity of censorship - An open letter to Hon’ble Minister for Information & Broadcasting on July 14, 2005 by Rakesh Sharma, a prominent Indian documentary film-maker.

5- Paradoxes of memory by Helmut König: Lasting peace agreements after wars and civil wars were for a long time considered to be conditional upon damnatio memoriae – the deliberate and reciprocal forgetting of violence and injustice. However, the established amnesty clause is only realistic where certain rules were not broken during war. The First World War is beyond its scope of applicability, the extermination war of the National Socialists even more so. Where forgetting is impossible, remembering is all that remains. Such remembrance is inextricably and paradoxically linked to forgetting: only what has been remembered can actively be forgotten.

6- Fighting Mr Smith : The Indian Murdochs will not apologise. Nor will the Indian Rebekah Brooks resign. Mr Smith has spread rapidly in Indian media. There are no Neos here to challenge him. PADMAJA SHAW says the Indian ecosystem of news has imbibed some of the negatives of Murdoch’s news empire but is not about to admit culpability.

7- Philadelphia University Commencement Speech – May 15th 2011 : Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley-based retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies in California’s Silicon Valley.

8- Am I A Product Of The Institutions I Attended? Unstructured learning in structured learning environments: A personal view of Amitabha Bagchi

9- From Technologist to Philosopher : Why you should quit your technology job and get a Ph.D. in the humanities By Damon Horowitz. Thank You Namit Sir.

10- The Brain on Trial by David Eagleman : Today, neuroimaging is a crude technology, unable to explain the details of individual behavior. We can detect only large-scale problems, but within the coming decades, we will be able to detect patterns at unimaginably small levels of the microcircuitry that correlate with behavioral problems.

Introspection

Welcome, there is a change in the Blog outlook to make it more simple and sober. I did this after struggling with slow internet connection. I am wandering in the landscape of loneliness. Today, I writing this blog in order to comprehend, not to express myself. A paradigm shift in mine thinking !

How many memories/information can a person stand, and how many does he need? Does one need either huge academic knowledge or field work only to prove his case of merit ? What is the definition of luxury or necessity for a family (not individual)? These are some basic question that is haunting me. Leave alone these question on fate.

Despite introspection, We Are Strangers to Ourselves. Ability to be ourselves is crucial, not flowing in the shallow water of superficiality. There is inbuilt existential frustation and restlessness in humans. No person can escape from the thoughts buzzing in the mind. The difference between getting lost and finding new ways distinct achievers in the fighters.

One has to eliminate what one does not aspire for and then start search for what one aspires. When everything is at stake there is nothing to lose. The phase of learning is always unglamarous and difficult in the nature. But when inspired by inner zeal, nothing in the world can stop what must rise. There will be lot of failures and setbacks in the initial years. And a floating question : Is it worth it ? But life goes on with unanswered questions.

The paradox happens when one read something like that : Doing what you know is fun, but doesn't improve you. That really hits your instinct and challenges for uplifting your standards.

A life well lived for others and with others is mine aim. Otherwise, In the words of Anton Chekhov - "Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out." Do anyone wants such meaningless life ? I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. Need a little dose of madness to become free. One need to ask : What's next? How to improve? What's this worth? Why is this happening?

Thought of the Day : ‎"He’s freed from his loneliness by the word. Isn’t that the point of poetry? Breaking through the walls of solitude. Poetry is the great S.O.S. of loneliness." --Anna Kamienska

Two Videos and Five Points Observed

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.) A pioneer with courage has just to stand up and do it first :)TED Video



There were five points that I came across in recent days. Each of them opened a new door of analysing the world and mine life in different manner.

1- One question recently bumped me off : Am I A Product Of The Institutions I Attended? I am caught in the web of traditional outlook of liberal, conservative, socialist, anarchist or even fascist. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That is the human nature emerges as a complex patterns out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.

Much of learning is not done in the confined environment of the institute. Institutes are just facilitator for providing suitable environment for the growth of an individual. But an institution should balance insanity and genius activity of the individual. Institution that reduces risk taking ability of the student as per trade off of the luxury harms overall welfare of the society. Here, the catch is that the idea of 'luxury' and 'necessities' is subjective in nature. Institutions end up in becoming one's brand/identity for lifetime that holds opposite of the development of an individual.

2- A question is not a test of memory, but a test of understanding. That should be an ideal way of learning about new field. Exams are more oriented towards memory cramping rather than understanding. Open book test gives better idea of genius in the class :)

3- The most marketable skill in India today is the ability to abandon your identity and slip into someone else's. The loss of one's identity so easily for economic reasons appears a complex issue to me. On one hand, it proves adaptability while on other, an unsustainable way of development.

4- All heroic acts are foolish to your contemporaries! The acts may be original rather than research but society gives importance to mediocrity at any moment of time. The people who have been understood are third rate. They are understood because they are saying the same things that you already believe in. It is always better to be Socrates rather than Gandhi at any moment of life for me. It will land great part of your life in loneliness but that is another story of different aspect.

5- Decorum is linked to policing in India. Yes, the study of Indian Government will prove this right.

Why You Need to Fail - by Derek Sivers

The video shows the importance of failure - for effective learning, growth mindset, and quality through experimentation. The message of the video is inspiring and worth remembering : Doing what you know is fun, but doesn't improve you.

Socha na tha....

A scarcity of availability and a ticking clock changes our perspective and the desire to take action. I have become busy in the new routine of Yem Bee Aey (MBA)college. I am not able to read and write due to busy lifestyle. I have never imagined that a day like this can come !

An advertisement (spoof) on the fact that major credit card and online payment companies have withheld over $15 Million in donations to WikiLeaks has created a buzz between liberals and youths.



Support WikiLeaks ; Inspired by Wikileaks, I have started a secret blog --- Diary of A Grass Root Manager !. I am updating this blog as per weekly basis with both positive and negative perspective of my stay here in XIMB. Nobody can access the blog now due to its sensitive nature. I will make the blog available in public realm after getting my MBA degree.

A person should have right to document his experiences and learning. I can't rely always on the history lessons presented by state or authority. Milan Kundera has famously commented in 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1979' : The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. My experiment with storage of my experiences and memories has started in the form of online blog diary.Wish me luck for my experiment.

Romila Thapar: India's past and present

Everyone has their beliefs as to how they fit into the world. However, only those who think for themselves, rather than blindly follow, will truly experience. A denial of one’s roots, whatever the attitudes and realities of the present, is an invitation to a crisis of identity. This is my opinion on history.

Romila Thapar: India's past and present — how history informs contemporary narrative



In conversation with IDRC President David M. Malone, historian Romila Thapar, widely recognized as India's foremost historian challenged the colonial interpretations of India's past, which have created an oversimplified history that has reinforced divisions of race, religion, and caste.

Last Day at CSC !

Hello Team,

I want to bid farewell to you all and today is my last day at work in CSC.  Over the span of 2 years 4 months 15 days,  I have seen many stereotyped resignation e-mails still today I can't come up with something original to say.

The decision to leave the firm was a planned one. I was selected for MBA and the bondage period of 2 years as fresher was served. For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, I have known that I might one day leave this company. And now that this has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your encouragement and care.

CSC has helped me in shaping my career path and now it is the right time for me to bid adieu.   I have enjoyed working with you and I appreciate my friends and colleagues for providing support all these years. It's been great interacting and knowing each one of you.

Comrades, please do keep in touch at Facebook (Profile Link : http://www.facebook.com/Yayaver ) where I am always alive and kicking :P

Cheers,

Himanshu Rai
Information Security Engineer
CSC

"Love your job, but never fall in love with your company because you never know when company stops loving you... " --- N R Narayana Murthy

Dil jaise dhadke dhadakne do....

There are so many books, blogs and magazines in this world, nobody can read them all. Nobody is waiting for another one of them. If I didn't have to write in order to keep myself together, I wouldn't do it. I don't want to be a seasoned writer, this isn't the reason I write.

Every man dies, not every man observe how he really lives. I enjoys writing and reading but it consumes a lot of energy. I am not even replying to the comments. Such is the phase of life going on.

I am going for higher education and have faith on my talent. This job has taught me not to expect the better man to bow before the fool. To be better take more guts than average thinking. Those who can't say Fuck to their status, can't design the future.

There are people who have once survived through some life time experience and don't understand the nature of it. Experience can supply the information but even then wisdom may lack. Equally, There are people who have not gone through life time experience but have understand and written about it. I do not understand this natural world and mysterious universe of relations . I do not understand. That is why I write, because I do not understand. I just have no choice, or rather, it wasn't I who chose.

Many persons have tried to emulate IT sector top-down economic model, but most are stuck with the Indian reality. Hence, I decided to jump directly in Indian reality. Also, there is no point in doing what is not my strength.

I have became strong in the personal life as lot of past issues were closed. A lot of manipulative and playful relationships were broken. The women psyche, I started understanding a little here bit in this place. But, overall saying goodbye to friends is most difficult of all seprations..

Time to wind up memories. Time to pack up. A new chapter in life. Will miss you Hyderabad !

Fathers and Sons

One realizes one's root when every new occurrence brings back a memory and search for an identity is over. I was trying to track history of my family through relations of fathers and sons and tell a simple story. It is not summary of growing divide between the generations but a simple tale documented fist time ever.

It is a story of my family based on the values that changed with time yet remain same in core. My great grandfather had been 10+2 passed out (first in my family) in 1902. He was born in mid 1880's and joined Primary School as a teacher despite of Zamindari background. My grandfather was born in 1920's and was educated till High-school. He didn't do any job due to his Zamindari Background. Such was the difference of view between them.

My grandfather was eldest of three brothers and remain a farmer till his last breathe. His brothers went to Jharia Bihar to work in coal mines. With the Zamindari system being abolished after independence and few court cases, the family fortune declined slowly. When great-grandfather was on the verge of the death, he said only this to his sons and grandsons : Let all things fall apart but never compromise on the education of children.

I am not eligible to comment on the education of families of other grandfathers. My grandfather has three sons and one daughter. We call biggest uncle babuji and middle one chacha. My father is younger of all siblings.

There were tough days coming ahead for the family. Babuji  followed the word of his grandfather and the level education in our family gradully rises above other families in the village and community despite of financial constraint.

The economical crisis can crush the dream and a man has to compromise lesser than his talent. When it is like not to have enough, its a all different learning experience. Tough times never last, but tough people do! That was the experience of mine father and his brothers of all those years.

It is assumed now-days that person whoever expected the young to be responsible anyway lacks sense ! But a generation ahead of me struggled and achieved education and economic stability.  Today, whenever I learn anything I remember the last words of my great grandfather that changed destiny of a farmer family.

I realized that during hard times, families pull together. If I observe anything from my past and forefathers, success will come by pulling together as families and stressing good education for everyone.

It is always better to have seen a place than never to have visited it. That I always remember while visiting many places around the world. My ancestral place still gives me different feeling whenever I experience some time span there. What is a man without forefathers vision and care...

Ten Issues - 15

1- Why Pandits aren't returning to roots ? : The Pandits, though, will tell you another story: of murders and village loudspeakers issuing threats. Jagmohan is rarely the central figure that Kashmiri Muslim makes him out to be.

2-Will Pakistanis put their national interest first? by Harini Calamur :If there is any country in the world that is a poster child for dictatorship, it is Pakistan. Over the last two and half decades at least, Pakistan seems to have been more stable and more prosperous under its military dictators than its “democratically” elected leaders.

3- Islamic Banking System: Threats and Opportunities --- The Islamic banking system is an important component of Islamic finance. Islamic finance has unique features because its foundation is laid on the principles and rules of Islamic law (sharia), which states that everything is owned by Allah and man has only been permitted to use it.

4- The predicament of the Islamic Republic by Hamid Dabashi. Green Movement's focus on civil rights voids it of the appeal needed to spark an Arab Spring-like revolution. Author is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

5- Argentine Free Book Movement woos readers : In Buenos Aires, the 'City of Books', a novel idea sees books left in public places for readers to pick up and enjoy.

6- A Critique of Reporting on the Middle East by Nir Rosen : Too often consumers of mainstream media are victims of a fraud. You think you can trust the articles you read, why wouldn’t you, you think you can sift through the ideological bias and just get the facts.

7- The Insularity of American Literature: Philip Roth Didn't Deserve the Booker International Prize : "There is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world...not the United States," Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Nobel Prize jury, recently said. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature...That ignorance is restraining."

8- The UID Project and Welfare Schemes : This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order to reap marginal benefits. A hasty linking of the PDS/NREGA with the UID can be very disruptive. Therefore, other cheaper technological innovations currently in use in some parts of the country to fix existing loopholes in a less disruptive manner are explored.

9- Uttar Pradesh to set up 2000+ mandis : The Mayawati government proposes to reduce the distance that farmers must travel to take their produce to market to an average of seven kms. This should help farming families boost their incomes, writes Devinder Sharma.

10- Revolution U by TINA ROSENBERG : The Serbian capital is home to the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, an organization run by young Serbs who had cut their teeth in the late 1990s student uprising against Slobodan Milosevic. Author throws light on what Egypt learns from the students who overthrew Milosevic.

Thought of the Day : Economist Paul Krugman once remarked: If [George W.] Bush said that the world was flat, the headline on the news analysis would read 'Shape of Earth: Views Differ'. It was a pithy summary of how news organizations are now so obsessed with the idea of "balance" they will give both sides of any argument equal coverage, even if one side is plainly absurd.

Passing Time in Summer

Life is going fast and I have discovered that reading poems are anytime better than economics. Summer, summer, summertime and it is time to sit back and unwind. I am spending too much time on Facebook. That is a quite worthless pleasure of addiction. Sitting on the roof-top chatting with friends is better time pass than this. I can only say that I am finding it hard to bear the unbearable separation from internet for 2 hour also, need guts to overcome!

Writing has brought a fundamental error of intellectuals in front of me. An intellectual knows what one opposes but does not seem to be sure what one proposes. Status quo challenged has no meaning until an alternative appears.
Change happens where previous appear even slightly worse than current to the people. This is a fundamental factor in determining the nature and degree of the solution to any problem.

The criticisms, ideologies and debate are the second necessary but not sufficient condition for uplift of the unprivileged ones. The first and foremost required is empathy and sensitivity. Third is the most important one and that is right action taken by detail study of the subject (however complex it may appear) . I have known only 3 steps from my experience. Ignore this stupidity and loose talks, enjoy these lines...

हर बदलते आज में, मैने कल को देखा है,
हर बीते हुए कल में, मैने आते हुए पल को देखा है.
अभी जो बीता है उस पल में कल को देखा है |

Frog Haiku

A lonely pond in age-old stillness sleeps . . .
Apart, unstirred by sound or motion . . . till
Suddenly into it a lithe frog leaps.

Compiled Madness !

“The scale of the human socio-economic-political complex system is so large that it seriously interferes with the biospheric complex system upon which it is wholly dependent, and cultural evolution has been too slow to deal effectively with the resulting crisis.” —Paul R. Ehrlich is president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University.
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Both - the US and the Islamic Republics - wish the region back to its status quo ante, where and when they much benefited from the state of war they had manufactured, and under which they both shared the control and domination of the democratic aspirations of the people in the region.

Political crises are definitive, sustained, and even beyond the structurally dysfunctional state apparatus rooted in the demographic facts of a young and restless population ruled by an outdated and obsolete theocratic ideology.

Questions about loyalty, the role of military and the potential instability are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity. Playboy turned zealot youths, foreign mercenaries and a lot of people on high dose of religion. Pity is the response that will most fully preserve our own humanity but hard for the society living long in the bad habit of self-justification.

Islamic legal scholars are related to patriarchal values and not to the principle of justice. Israel's "lawfare" against the Palestinian people is rooted in a fictitious narrative of having a "right" to exist. Open politics of the street bred and mature individuals and leader emerge from them organically rather than imposed from above by political organisations, religious groups, or gender roles.

Pakistan India and fighting terror ! what a joke. There are lot of people who are eating away their own soul and conscience and calling it faith and patriotism. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the ones who think differently

While India wrongly has thinking that development projects could persuade any people to forego their autonomy demands. There will be no Scheduled tribe in next 20 years as most of them will be killed, displaced in the name of development. What is a greatest sin in the world ? It is to be born poor and hungry ? There is no consensus by carrying with them all sections of middle class, rural and urban poor. It's plain genocide. 'Creation of conditions where survival becomes difficult for millions of people also amounts to genocide,' says Dr. Binayak Sen.
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I always feel greatest threats are internal rather than external? Civilizations, Institutions and even a person fall, not so much because of the strength of the enemy outside as through the weakness and decay withing!!!

Whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity. Facebook and Internet has turned me into some different creature.

Wolitzer describes them this way: “The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.”

The rule of the Information Age Jungle dictates that slowing down in life is fatal and that speed is the inherent requirement for this chaotic world that we are living in. Alvin Toffler coined the term “future shock” in the article “The Future as a Way of Life” published in the Horizon magazine in 1965. In his book “Future Shock” he has described future shock as “the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future. It may well be the most important disease of tomorrow.” It seems that he was true about information overload and the accelerated rate of change in society due to industrial and technological growth. This need for adapting to the accelerated change is making us send our two-and-a-half-year old children to pre-schools; this is what is making us want admissions to elite institutions of the country; this is what is making us want a job with a heavy CTC and no work at all. This is the reason why “Speed Yoga Tutorials,” “Fast Piano Lessons,” and “Guaranteed Orgasms in 30 Seconds” e-books are now available. (Thanks to Sridhar)
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It needs guts to learn. Learning means one has to be humble. Learning means one has to be ready to drop the old, one has to be constantly ready to accept the new. Just being logically more proficient does not mean you have the truth. One of the most difficult things is to change an experience into explanation, and from one language to another it becomes almost an impossible task.

Art can create environment of sensitivity in which any scrutiny or process of questioning in which it is possible to change to occur. But where are the artists ? Why make up gives to the women ? I assume it gives confidence to her. Same as the artificial sophistication is promoted in the name of culture. Unsustainable.

Violence as a source of entertainment rather than its actual meaning. I am afraid of violence and mine life. I just want a bit of solidarity with people like Julian Assange who has just told us things that we were entitled to know. The democratization of information may actually lead to real democracy.

I am caught between self-righteousness and savage reality. With each new blog post also, I am doing what they do best, copying and stereotyping. There is no vision in me and there write-ups are an insult to the originality inside me. From when and why has I have become synonymous with rationality with brainlessness and wrong spellings with avantgarde ? Regret is a misery what one did not do while remorse is sorrow what one did do. I have both regret and remorse.

I rigorously study subjects prescribed by our institute irrespective of whether feel it shall provide us any know-how to launch our career. The adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit can be awakened by downsizing the baggage of bore some studies and big student loans.

I am not a prodigy. I may be infected with disease of being acknowledged by others. This perception has modified reality. I am chasing knowledge without any reason. Its is a mental wilderness of thoughts that is making me anxious and full of fear.