Take a Bow the Aam Aadmi !

At the outset of this post, I shall state that I have been a supporter of the ruling party partially due to the fact that my family have been traditional supporters of the Gandhi family but over the years I have found my own reasons to support the UPA. But this post is my attempt to objectively analyze the results and lessons for the various parties.

The Left

The biggest losers in this elections has to be the Left Front considering both the bastions of Kerala and West Bengal falling to the Congress. The loss in Kerala was on the cards considering the infighting and corruption charges, but West Bengal was the big surprise. The consistent high pitch attack on Manmohan Singh on the nuclear deal and the threat of not supporting Cong in the post poll scenario cost them big time.

The reasons which cost the Left the elections complacency in taking Mamta Banerjee and Cong lightly, secondly demonstrating rigidity in policy issues e.g. the nuclear deal and other economic reforms. Prakash Karat and company need to evaluate their political relevance and adjustments to their rather rigid political outlook.

Lalu, Jaya, Maya, Paswan, Pawar, Mulayam and all alleged king makers

The glorious dream for the regional parties that a hung parliament was smashed. The members of the third and the fourth front wanted to capitalize on instability and derive maximum power for self. None of these parties had a plan for the nation in terms of strategy or a clarity in addressing the key issues in the area of economy, foreign affairs or handling terrorism.

The nation has rejected these brand of politics, although regional parties retain relevance in the state politics as in Nitesh having a strong presence in Bihar and Naveen Patnaik in Orissa. The regional parties will keep the national parties in check.

BJP

The BJP made several tactical blunders, in an electorate which no long identifies with religion as a factor for determining self worth, condoning Varun Gandhi's hate speech was a big mistake. The second blunder L.K Advani targeting Manmohan Singh who has a clean image and consistently labeling him as a weak PM, ( it is tough to justify that when the PM risked his government and had a face off with the Left for the nuclear deal, a PM who removed the Home Minister post 26/11 ) and thirdly projecting Narendra Modi as the next PM candidate which was political harakiri. He may be the undisputed leader in Gujarat but his actions in the post Godhra riots, his venomous tongue in talking about his political opponents was not appreciated in most circles.

BJP is in great disarray with no fresh agenda to offer to the Indian people, no charismatic leader who can lead the BJP and NDA coalition to present a credible alternative to the Cong led UPA in the coming years. If they fall back on Narendra Modi as the next leader they will only alienate potential allies and the electorate in general.

Congress

The Cong should not fall in the trap of sycophancy of trying to elevate Rahul Gandhi to the top seat yet. The role Manmohan Singh played in builidng the credibility of the UPA is as significant to the victory as Sonia Gandhi's charisma. The Gandhi family taking a back seat, to let Manmohan Singh take the top job showed the maturity with which Congress is having a long term view to restore the party to its former glory. If the party wants to really shut out the competition for the future, they should give youth a chance, put in qualified ministers in place and ensure the connect with the electorate is in place.

Indian Voter

The rural voter is generally derided for being influenced by money/alcohol, or the urban voter is accused of not even exercising his/her franchise. The voter has sent a clear signal that he/she does not believe in hate politics or put his trust on small regional parties. A key note to reflect upon UPA has a mandate which is 10 seats below the majority mark, which is a warning to them that do not be too complacent, the Indian voter is watching you ….

Take a bow aam aadmi you showed the netas who is the boss !!

The Enemy Within

The Warriors of Amesopotia

The warriors of Amesopotia were the most feared in the medieval world, they were known far and wide for their valor and the can do attitude. They had won several wars for their king and were willing to lay down their lives for the empire. The conquests made the king avaricious and he ensured more and more of the young lads in the kingdom were recruited to become warriors. Since the plunder ensured there was enough gold in the treasury, to train and pay salaries for these fine warriors.

One winter, he led the army to an improbable mission to defeat the kingdom of Nardua which was considered a tough nation to beat in ordinary circumstances itself, the winter could have posed a greater risk which was ignored by the advisors and generals. There were optimistic scenarios plotted, songs of glory were sung and a wild frenzy which ensured blinded all people of any rational reasoning.

So the army marched in, the biggest enemies was the environment itself, with food reserves running out , the king doubted if the army could make it to the end of the winter. Some bumbling accountants calculated mere 40% of the standing army could defeat the Narduan forces. The king ordered the execution of the remaining Amespotian warriors for the greater good of the kingdom. The rest waited for the winter to end. The king was expecting the war to end soon. It did but not in his favour. He was routed, his warriors scattered, defeated and most of them retreated.

War is not an arithmetic, people have memories, they carry scars for life. In time of optitism, generals end up raising large armies without looking at the costs involved. In a time of glory, the advisors ignore obvious signs of decay and ruin, and make outrageous plans. Unfortunately when things go wrong, the heads roll not at the top but of the foot soldiers. The decisions which the few make impact a vast majority and when the time comes for the army to perform, it is morale of the soldier on the ground which matters !

Does the above story ring a bell in today's world. Whatever be the odds and the adversity at hand, it is enemy within who undermines the organization.

In this recession hit era, most companies are under the impression that cost cutting and layoffs are the only choices to solve problems, although I agree that it is difficult to come to a quicker solution but there are better strategies in the areas of recruitment, utilization of employees and targeting new markets/segments to overcome economic difficulties. But blind cost cutting is not the answer although it is a very tempting tool which shows immediate results. The test of a organization is not how it treats its employees in the good times but it handles the work force in tougher times.  The recession will end one day, and so will the credit crunch, but the hit on the employee pysche cannot be restored magically over night. 

When the only tool you have is a hammer, then you tend to see every problem as a nail – Abraham Maslow

Love, Friends and Sitcoms

One interesting thing to notice regarding the themes running common in the most popular sitcoms in the era :- F.R.I.E.N.D.S , How I met your Mother and Coupling ( BBC Brit Comedy I am addicted to these days) is love and friendship. Why are these two themes so universal, I guess the reason is that these are two relationships which a person chooses for himself and it is not imposed by him by nature or society. 

It is also bit ironic, that the relations in which we have the greatest freedom to choose, makes us the most vulnerable. These are the relationships which give us the greatest joy and despair. Guess, that is the price we have to pay for the freedom.

The inspiration for this post is me watching back to back episodes of How I met your Mother season II for past 2 weekends which I finished shortly before starting this post. So the main characters in this serial really represent the various views people hold regarding a relationship. 

Ted – Who believes in true love and the concept of finding the one and yes bit unlucky in love

Robin – an independent woman who finds commitment and marriage unacceptable

Lily and Marshall – The college sweethearts who have been eternally together and symbol of true love for all other friends in the group. I guess we all have such a couple in our friend circles although you do admire them but there is always a tinge of envy if we too could find some one special like that.

Barney - A chronic bachelor who loves the single life who seems shallow and callous on the surface but does have a warm side as good friend who however is cynical towards the some one special concept.

The season 2 beings with Lily and Marshall broken up and Ted and Robin getting together. The journey sees ups and downs for both couples with Lily and Marshall getting married whilst Ted and Robin breaking up for good at the end of season.

One more interesting dimension of this serial, it is set in the future Ted telling his children how he met their mother. It is known to the viewers that Robin is not the some one special but Ted does not know that yet and he believes in the magic of this current relationship and goes through it with smiles and tears on the way. 

The beauty of the serial lies in the fact the true identity of the mother is never revealed but it always ends with the promise of a better tomorrow for Ted.

Life often does not follow plans perfectly but it often turns out more perfect than planned. Keep the faith ! 

A sloppy Job(s) when the enemy was at the Gates

This post is the result of me watching the movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley – a not so well known made for TV movie which tracks the rise and fall of Steve Jobs and the rise and rise of Bill Gates with the backdrop of how the computer industry was revolutionized by the duo.

Before I go into more details of this topic, I would like to digress a bit regarding why this genre of two powerful men battling it out excites me. One of my favourite books is the Fourth Estate by Jeffery Archer which is the battle between two competing media barons. The struggle between Karunanidhi and MGR was also nicely captured in Mani Ratnam's Iruvar for the chief minstership in Tamil Nadu. In a way, even the Mahabharata boiled down to a battle of wits between Lord Krishna and Duryodhana's tactics. The seemingly two protagonists ( The grey shades in both the characters makes it difficult to pick an antagonist in cases) who keep pushing their way forward initially unaware of each other's existence hurling towards their shared destiny. The intriguing part when they come face to face and the chess game which is played out later makes for interesting reading/viewing in most cases.

Initial Days - Gates and Jobs

Gates and Jobs dropped out of college in order to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Gates from Harvard and Jobs from Reeds College. Gates had a friend Paul Allen who had a steady job in Honeywell and completed education. Jobs had Steve Wozniak as friend working for HP. The friendship forged early on took them ahead on the road of entrepreneurship.

Jobs had audited a course in calligraphy and design which he claims later was the inspiration for fonts in graphical user interface, Gates had taken a infamous maths 55 class which he struggled through which made him realize there are far more intelligent people than him in this world. These two being really significant lessons which history would later come to tell.

Sleeping Giants who let the upstarts in – HP,IBM and Xerox

One of the interesting sub plots in the rapid ascent of the duo was the lack of interest shown by the leading industry players towards the personal computer market. As Wozniak was working for HP initially, the company had the first rights to apply for patents to his work but decided against it as they did not see the reason why ordinary folks would need a personal computer.

Similarly when Bill Gates did not sell the DOS operating system but chose to license it to IBM. IBM did not realize the implications of the power Microsoft would gain in the future over the hardware players including IBM.

The pioneer inventor of modern GUI and the mouse, Xerox research scientists could not convince their top management for a chance to commercialize the products, instead the management allowed access to Steve Jobs and his team to understand the system in exchange for shares of Apple Computers.

These costly mistakes which the big corporations let these two entrepreneurs to dig in deeper and create their personal empires.

Management Styles

Jobs was more an arrogant idealist who believed he was an artist and his products needed to change the world around. In contrast, Bill Gates realized the need to be indispensable and to create a need and do a vendor lock in, so that the customer cannot opt out.

Jobs ran his company in a fanatical fashion which tore the company into two, the team working on Macintosh as the chosen ones and rest as nobodies which led to great discomfort. This finally led to Steve Wozniak to quit Apple and own eventual ouster from Apple 3 months after his 30^th birthday by John Sculley whom Jobs had bought in from Pepsi Cola.

In contrast, Gates knew how to keep his friends close and enemies even closer. He was always aided by Paul Allen who actually managed to buy the DOS operating system from Seattle Computer Company for a mere $50,000 which shaped Microsoft's destiny and off course current chief executive Steve Ballamer who have always stood by Gates.

Why Jobs lost out to Gates

• Jobs was too arrogant and did not see that his arrogance alienated him from those closest to him

• Market realities are more important than mere idealism, which Gates realized much more quickly

• The enemy is seldom the big Goliath but lurking close by, ironically the way Apple blindsided IBM, HP in the first race, in the second contest Microsoft got the better of Apple.

• The lesson of humility that there are more people smarter than him, let Gates be more careful and calculative

  
  

Epilogue

Bill Gates is still of the most richest men in the world but Microsoft is struggling with Google in the battle for services in the Internet space. Steve Jobs has made a come back of sorts with the Ipod / Iphone revolution, so I guess there are no permanent losers and winners in business or life.

An apt quote which was used in the movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley to end the piece.

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal" by Picasso.

Jobs was a good artist however love him or hate him Gates was the great artist in the operating systems wars.

Random Images ....

For a while now, I have been thinking for a theme to blog on but some how, nothing seems that pertinent to write on elections, hate speeches or monster dads. So just decided to pen my thoughts on some random images which have stayed with me for the past week or so.

A perky 4 year old kid in a train

I saw the kid in the train accompanied by his parents and he was one cocky, loud kid screaming his lungs out at 6.00 am in the morning and at that time did not seem cute at all to me or the co-passengers. But there were two stand out moments in the journey though

• At one point of time, the train was going really slow, he said mom i will get down and push the train to move faster, his mother giggled at this show of strength the kid obviously hurt said he is really strong and pick up the train too with all seriousness
  
• Second really funny moment was when the kid was given a drawing book to color and he was to color Mickey Mouse, the kid ended up coloring the entire page black and saying mom see how fast I can color with proud approving glances from mommy dearest !

What can I say, the innocence and the perkiness of the kid and love of the supportive mother made this image stick on my mind.

A photo of a newly wed bride

Thanks to the update features of social networking sites, the most often thing you see are newly updated photos, and I saw one such photograph which captured a very serene and peaceful look of a newly wedded bride. I mean there was love and happiness in the eyes too, but the strong sense of completeness which has come about by the union was very apparent.

The reason the image stuck in my head is probably I often see people happy and over excited which often is short lived and leads to strife soon but then we do find the one eventually after a few bumps on the way and we know it is the bond of a lifetime the moment is rather special.

Old Age a Reality Check

I met a relative of mine close to 7-8 years later and found him a completely changed person, teeth gone, sagging shoulders and mentally very tired. As a kid, I remember him as a very sharp, intelligent and well dressed person but time has taken severe toll due to illness and other problems.

This image did shake me up a bit, I cannot generalize but I always behave like I am going to live for ever and I take a few things for granted youth, intellect and health perhaps I did exist in a bubble of illusion. The bubble has finally burst and I do have food for thought.

Summary

If I have to just put a common theme around these three images, in childhood we are rambunctious and so full of life, we do not know what lies in store in the future. In our youth we face our victories and defeats which shape our lives. Finally time catches up with us and we fade away inevitably.

Quoting from a movie I saw long back, which had these closing lines which are apt here

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives, but I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived"

The choice is up to us if we want to fear time as an enemy or enjoy the moments as they come.

The importance of being Assertive ...

The inspiration for this article was a soft skills training I attended recently. Most folks attend such trainings because they are on bench or like the pretty instructor or similar such nefarious intentions, but this session on assertiveness did force me to think a lot about it for several days.

In today's world people seem to operate at extremes only. If we see the actions of the Taliban or extremists attacking the civil world or the US trying to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq into submission. In India itself, the self appointed 'moral' police who are uncultured brutes who resort to aggressive tactics to suppress the rights of women. The usual common man in India backs down to such pressure and does not bother to vote and takes the passive way out to deal with the world. What both sides are missing is the virtue of assertiveness

Let us take a simpler closer to home example, how many of us have been mollycoddled into doing something we did not want to do by our loved ones, to act against our will. Haven't we all not succumbed to pressure not wanting to hurt others and ended up hurting ourself at some point of time?

Assertiveness as per definition is standing up for your rights without infringing on the rights of others. In a way, referring to the epics Lord Krishna asking Arjuna to take on his cousins in the battle of Kurushetra to even history Mahatma Gandhi leading the non violent freedom moment shows us the importance of being assertive in our lives.

Rights of an assertive individual

• The right to voice his opinions without fear
  
• The right to make mistakes ( without malice or as Hriday points out freedom to make mistakes and not a right persay )
  
• The right to be accept one's ignorance
  
• The right not to be emotional manipulated
  
• The right to change your mind
  
• To right to make unconventional decisions
  

As they say, with power comes responsibilites, we cannot be just self centred in pursuit of own rights so there are some duties as well.

Duties of an assertive individual

• To listen to other person's point of earnestly
  
• To work for a workable compromise
  
• To stand by your views in adverse conditions

Before, we start practicing assertiveness, what we need as individuals is the clarity of purpose, an open mind to entertain opposing views and the ability to engage in dialogue without being highhanded. With these thoughts in mind, I think the world will be much better to place to live in if we can find the voice to speak our minds and offcourse listen to others.

Pointless Things People Say !

Considering the 'busy' lives we yuppies (young urban professionals) allegedly live with only weekends to unwind and recoup. The weekends are the only thing to look forward to in lives. But people are always wanting that piece of our time. The ever increasing modes of communication like emails, social networking sites, mobile phones and instant messengers like gtalk/yahoo has made avoiding these people even tougher!

In order to avoid such people, a new set of pointless statements have been manufactured in order to make this more platable. These have now become part of daily conversations when we really do not want to keep in touch with people but also want to seem so politically correct about it.

Top pointless lines people say and what they mean :-

We should meet up/catch up sometime !

More like next lifetime or something, I hope I never bump into you any time soon.

I am bit busy at work, can we talk in the evening ....

Never mind, I am sitting right now in the canteen with similar jobless colleagues having coffee but I really do not want to talk to you.

I will call you on the weekend pucca

yeah Right, you could die waiting by the phone ….. get a life loser !!

Dil se he/she is not bad !

When you have nothing nice to say about a person … you end up saying this !

We stay in the same city and haven't met up it is really bad !

We stay in the same city and WOW am I glad the city is so big, I can avoid people like you :)

How is life ? Bas chal raha hai tu bata

Ultimate filler statement... I do not want to tell me how my life is !! but I do not mind if u spill the beans about your life...

I am so busy re, I just don't have time for anything these days...

I am not THAT busy, it is just that I do not have ANY TIME for you these days !!

This post has been written partly in jest and is highly exaggerated but the truth lies somewhere in between.