A farce called 'Keep in Touch'

The phrase Keep In Touch makes me go konkers! It is the single most puke-inducing phrase on earth. (And its as trite as 'Fine'. You know 'Fine'? the answer that you give when you are asked 'how are you'? that 'Fine')

Now why is 'Keep in Touch' so bad?

1. What is the crux of keeping in touch? Talking from where you left? Asking about what you are doing currently? And this entire joke, about 'where are you working' is such a sham. Nobody in their right mind remembers the company you work in, unless that is their own aspirational company. So you could be working for one of the toughest and most competitive metals trading firm, but most people wouldn't remember or care about it, because that's not where they want to work! And its perfectly fine, not knowing another person's company details. But why the conversation filler about 'which company do you work for? ' (It is a completely different matter that a metals trading company will spend virtually zilch on branding in conventional media, but then who is to explain that to these people?)

2. Keeping in Touch is a prerogative. Its not a compulsion. But Keep in Touch is directly proportional to social status of that high school stud that has just moved to town. So if you don't keep in touch with the super popular guy in town and instead roam around with the braces wearing, small college studying guy, you are a jerk! All humans have friends other than their Face-Keep up with the Joneses-Book friends. People move on, make new friends and have fun with them. Its not necessary that they will have the same fun with you as they did in high school and college. And if they don't, it does not mean they are psychos, it means you are a psycho who gets the thrill out of degrading other people.

3. Have you,who wants the world to keep in touch with you, ever thought about the idea of perception? There is a major possibility that people don't keep in touch with you because you aren't their kind, or don't share the same vision. People are very finicky when it comes choosing good,sane friends you no? Such kind of people are also called successful people.

4. Just because person A was a loser in high school or college, doesn't mean he/she is the same now. Do the math and you will know that each added year adds some level of maturity and experience. And just because girl C sports a red hair do and hangs around clubs all day long, doesn't mean she is a social outcast. And if the most successful classmate calls red-head as opposed to pompous social stud, he isn't insane, he is just exercising his right to a phone call!!

What is the purpose of this post? I say, nothing. Because people don't change so easily. And it is just my way of venting out steam that has been inside me for long, with respect to stupid modern day social obligations. Why do we even want to keep these niceties amongst us? And what do we even want to know about our friends? Gossip, or information that will help us compare with other friends to see where we stand on the social ladder? And do we keep in touch so that we can dish out maximum gossip when a group of friends gather together? Why do we even ask which car they are driving these days? So if its a better model, we can act all small inside and call them 'rich people' or if its a cheaper model, we can look smug with our own success?

Is keeping in touch about emailing friends, the bullet point format email with your achievements? Or is it about talking about an immature guy from school who is still the same? Is it about cribbing about your job? Or is it about having conversations that mean something? Or sharing experiences?

I feel keeping in touch is a voluntary activity. With each passing year I have realized that this voluntary activity is becoming a chore. Who I am in touch with is also voluntary and not subject to any judgement.

To sum up, as my close friend  and philosopher once said,

"I think the only kind of people worth interacting with are the ones you don’t have to be nice to. They are the kind of people I want to be nice to"

On People being our biggest asset

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/why_im_glad_i_got_fired.html

Reproducing my favourite lines :

"Lots of businesses run this way. Words like "productivity," "efficiency," and "innovation" are defined by goal posts of our own creation: number of units shipped, revenue and profit, EPS and shareholder return. But when you think of the world this way, you forget two things: first, people, and second, that the numbers themselves are not a product. Both are symptoms of a soulless approach to business: when who we are is dictated by strategy and metrics, what we make lacks humanity — in terms of both our products and services, and the cultures we cultivate "

My thoughts about Media in General and Indian Media in Particular

Seeing Rajdeep Sardesai’s (CNN-IBN) tweets few weeks back has in a way prompted me to write about the media and today’s brand of journalism.

Almost anything worthwhile that has happened in Journalism has come from dissent, almost anything worthwhile. There are very few great established journalists. A lot of us we call journalism is stenography to the powerful. Its not because of the readers and they want want something. Journalists saying that we are actually very good guys just that the readers are so crude. That could be an argument any drug-peddler could make – I am actually a very decent guy, but these are actually the people on the street who want this stuff.

If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. what the reader wants is the last refuge of every intellectually bankrupt editor. When you know damn well that none of this is happening for the reader or the viewer, it is happening for the corporate’s that own this place, Its happening because you need to invent an audience that buys your product, thinks your way, lives the lifestyle you want them to live. It is happening because you need to invent an audience conditioned to your framework. Its happening because the advertisers need it, the sponsors need it. The media are the establishment. It is so interwoven with the establishment that it is had to tell the difference.

You have the cabinet of President of the US which is full of CEOs and top executives of great corporations. the same guys are also media owners. They are linked to the media and have media powers because they have corporate power. Editorial matter as someone put it has turned into a something that you separate ads with.

Take the case of India. Till May 2004, India was shining. The press refused to take note of the farmers suicide and agrarian distress. It kept shouting India is shining and then India stopped shining. 600 million voters went out and showed the world what electoral democracy was. They rejected the media, they rejected the pundits, they rejected the opinion polls, exit polls. They just dumped the whole thing and changed the government. I think it speaks so highly of the people of this country that they didn’t give a damn about what the media thought. They just went out and did their thing democratically.

For the media leaders, the lives of ordinary people makes no sense in their economic calculations and rationale. They cannot buy the products that these guys are selling. So of what interest is their lives to the media owners?

We had this fantastic spectacle recently where a gigantic fashion is going on with over 500 journalists accredited to cover it for a full week. The journalists and cameramen were fighting with each other for spaces threatening to hit each other to claim their space because they need to get the girls coming down in their clothes with just the right angle. The percentage of people who use designer clothes in India according to the fashion industry is something below 0.5%. You had so many journalists to cover that. Its not the journalist's fault. Its what their media wants.

In the Vidarbha area of Maharashtra more than 5000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 6-7 yrs. You work out how many hours that is. Those thousands of farmers were cotton farmers. While the fashion show shows models wearing cotton garments, the guys and their families who grow cotton are killing themselves one after the other because the price of cotton has been destroyed by Indian government on the one hand and by American and EU's subsidies on the other hand.

You do not have a single correspondent of the National Press whose full time job is to cover poverty. And the country which has the largest number of poor people in the planet, newspapers and channels do not think it is important to treat poverty as a news stream. If you are not talking to 70% of your population, how can you reflect what you are asking them to reflect. You do not have news stream called labour, rural. you have decided 70% of your population do not make news. They how can we expect the press to reflect the realities of the countryside. You cover it when 200 people die of plague, then something about them become news. They have to die in sufficiently large numbers to make news.

Earlier the western media earlier saw nothing but reptiles, disease, snake charmers and poverty in India. Right now the Western media find it very difficult to find anything wrong in India. It is the IT/Software superpower, the 4th largest cyber nation in the world as one newspaper wrote. I find it very strange, We would be the 4th largest in anything in the world. We cannot help it. This is something what you call the Tom Friedman view of the world or Tom Friedman brand of journalism. Ain't it wonderful - look at what is happening in India wow!! Where once, nothing nice, nothing decent, nothing noble, nothing good could ever be seen in this country by the media - now it is very difficult to find anything negative in it because the media is doing as it is told. It is doing what it is being asked to do - which is to increasingly handover control of its decision making, Today India is increasingly opening up its banks, the funds and to the WTO. it is to increasingly open up its markets to penetration by MNCs mostly from the Western world. When it is doing all this, how can you say that it is doing something wrong. So that is where the Friedman's school of journalism draws it philosophy from.

Don't confuse the freedom of the press with the freedom of person. My freedom of expression is not guaranteed by corporate media. It is guaranteed by the political process, it is guaranteed by the constitution of this country, it is guaranteed by ordinary people who assert their rights. I would love to see that the media played that role. I want them to. I respect the media because I have a belief and a vision of a media that plays such a role. Do they play such a role? Yes sometimes. increasingly rare and ever more reluctant. There will always be glorious exceptions, there will always be spaces even within the worst newspapers. I believe that in the worst of newspapers and publications, you get the chance occasionally to do what is the minimum job of decent journalism which is to signal the weaknesses in society.

Success is what’s left when you’re done failing

 

And you succeed because you failed. The whole process of failure, of trial and error allows you to chip away at what doesn’t work until you’ve reached what does.

Success!

But you have to be able to adapt to failure. Otherwise, it’s just failure. If you don’t change as a result, if you don’t learn anything from it, the experience doesn’t help you move toward where you want to be.

Success!!

And any success you see today, becomes tomorrow’s failure when you continue to strive for improvement.

Success!!!

Wishing You All a Blessed New Year 2012

 

Hello Friends,

We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.  We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Finally, I am putting down some bullet points that I read on HOW TO STAY YOUNG and really made sense to me: Hope it helps you as well.

• Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
• Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
• Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
• Enjoy the simple things.
• Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
• The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is God & ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
• Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
• Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
• Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
  

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

God Bless You All!!

Dear Anna..

Pune

                                                                                                                                     29th Dec 2011

Dear Anna,

Movements should be driven by ideologies not by emotions, what's worse, they should not be politically motivated. You,the so called new Gandhi of India have got both parts wrong(You got even the wrong part wrong, pity). Your so called campaign against corruption (rather Congress I should say) is not backed by any substantial ideologism and is driven by people's emotions. And I should say, whole of India, except the couple of thousand people who attended the MMRDA fast venue will accept that your campaign is politically motivated.

Let's look deeply why the movement (if any) failed.

1. Annaji, you play a bad Gandhi. None have and none can ever emulate him... (Ben Kingsley was lucky I should say!!). In an age when questions are being raised on the relevance of Gandhi on his very own motherland you made a brave move to show his relevance  and chose to follow his method of protest: Fast unto death. That's only one part you got right Annaji. In his fight for freedom against the mighty British Empire, that spanned over 28 years the Mahatma only chose this method of protest 9 times. And you? Thrice in one year!! Gandhiji only took to fasting as a last resort of protest after trying all other methods. Let me brush up your history. Remember the non-cooperation movement, Civil disobedience movement, Quit India, Dandi March, Swadeshi Movement. And each time he fasted it was fast unto death. It wasn't a 3-day demo, like your’s in Mumbai.(Oops! One-and-a-half day,wasn't it?)
2. Pity that your friends in saffron too have an ideology (skewed it may be) and you don't. Whom are you fighting against?? Congress or Corruption? I felt sorry for you when you walked out of the fasting venue, not knowing what to answer for a question about your "anti-congressness" (Kejriwal, give the elderly man some respect and next time don't forget to hand him the script). I know Congress is no saint but I will talk about it later. You first want (warn) Congress to pass the bill and while the process is underway, you can't even wait. You want an instant-bill (like instant coffee). You hold anti-Congress rallies and tell the voters of Hissar not to vote for Congress. In a democracy, you have to wait my dear man, you got to have patience. It is from elders like you that i have learnt that Patience is the biggest virtue. And when they prepare the bill and present it in the Parliament, you hold parallel People's Parliament (or whatever) in Mumbai. The bill gets passed. And your saffron friends defeat the motion for the Lokpal to become a constitutional body (i.e., of the status of supreme court, EC,CVC, CAG). Still you don't recognize the work of the Grand Old Lady. I agree it is not the Brahmasthra against corruption which you seek. But it isn't a bad thing to start with. You say you will campaign against them in UP and other states that are going for elections. My man, for 40 years the Bill has been jinxed and finally the UPA breaks the jinx and passes the bill, you still call them traitors. And you don't have a word against the saffron-clads. Whom are you against? Your ideology is anti-congress, not anti-corruption. Is it IAC-India against Corruption or AAC-Anna against Congress??
3. Annaji democracy is all about consensus and consensus is what it takes for a democracy. Your 'My way or highway' attitude doesn't work in democratic politics (Please tell this to Kejriwal). You made the Government bend over backwards for working on this bill, full points to you, but you could have moved from your position and met the Government halfway so that you could also have got some credit (which you deserve). But you had other "ideas". One more thing about democracy. You call the Parliamentarians as traitors and say you don't believe them and that the Parliament has failed. You say the People's Parliament is bigger than The Parliament( Kejriwal says Anna is bigger than Parliament. Where is the script Kejriwal?) But Annaji, people's democracy only worked in ancient Athens. For a population of 120 crore? Institutional democracy – the Parliament, Supreme Court, CAG, EC... In one word, the holy book – The Constitution of India. It is only because of this holy scripture that our country has been able to stand firmly on its feet even though countries that have formed along with India  have failed terribly (look at our neighbors who are crying for their daily bread). Hats off to Mr. Ambedkar and company. And now, you want to throw it away? What do you want to replace it with? Kejriwal's script? Remember that the way you have been allowed to organize your stage shows is because India is a democracy – and to say we do not believe in it anymore, is criminal..
4. And finally, you say you will campaign against the congress and tell the voters not to vote for it. If you are committed enough to curb corruption, why don't make the members of your famed Team Anna contest in elections? By campaigning against Congress whom do you want the people of UP to vote for? Mayawati?? (Have you heard of Taj Corridor by any chance?) or Mulayam Singh??(Please!). Kejriwal, the Captain of the ship, did not contest in elections when elections were held in his own backyard, Hissar. Annaji, if you want the country to change, don't try to bring about the change. Be the change.

Finally I would like to add, I have full respect for you. But the people around you will bring you down. They have their own agendas and please do not be a puppet in their hands. A typical proof of this was when a petition was filed in the Mumbai High Court for relaxation in the rent quoted to you for the MMRDA ground. When the court slammed the movement, you gave a statement in the media, that you had told your team members not to approach the High Court since you expected such a rebuttal from the court. Your own team did not listen to you. I am sure most of the things you do today are not per your wish

I rest my case.

                                                              No thanks
                                           (if you intend to go on fast again.)
                                                                                                                    Yours eloquently,
                                                                                                               An Indian who believes  
                                                                                                                    'Change started'.

My Take on the Anna Phenomenon

No good ever came out of collective behaviour and there is no thing such as collective thinking (aah, the oxymoron). While the media has been rife with coverage of what has become its latest obsession ~ Anna Hazare and the Lokpal Bill, I continue to be shocked by the lengths people in this country will go to avoid thinking for themselves.

If it isn’t clear yet – I do not support Anna Hazare or the Lokpal Bill (the people’s and/or the government’s).

Why? The last time I checked, India was a democratic country. We elect our governments. If we believe that the government is corrupt, we have the right to elect a new government. We also have the right to stand for elections ourselves if we deem none of the parties worthy of our votes. Anna Hazare proposes that a body more powerful than the current government be established. This body will not be elected by the people (and they will have no say in the matter of who comprises of this body) but appointed by judges, IAS officers, Padma Bhushan winners and so on.

Firstly, do we not already have enough laws that go unimplemented? Why aren’t we focusing on implementing the current laws? There’s an array of anti-corruption laws that already exist.

Secondly, do we really need more government? Creating more levels of government can never be the solution to beat corruption. It will only create opportunities for more corruption. More government is not the answer. More liberalization is. All the big scams that involved the government (2G scam, CWG) happen because the government and politicians have far too much power.

Thirdly, what is the proof that this committee is incorruptible? On what basis is this assumed?

Fourthly, corruption arises when one party has unfair power over another. Do we really want to place an unelected committee over the government in the power hierarchy? If this committee misuses its power, is influenced by the opposition party, etc. it could prosecute the current government unfairly. We might as well resign all our election rights and let dictatorship take its course. That would be quicker, wouldn’t it?

Lastly, we all know the solution to stop grass root corruption yet it’s widespread. What’s the reason? It’s not only because cops ask for bribes, it’s because we pay them. All forms of corruption is a two-way process.

It’s convenient now to come to the streets to show support and protest. But it’s difficult to not be a part of the process in your day-to-day life. It’s convenient now to shout slogans in herds and target the government and government officials. It’s convenient now to take a ‘holier than thou’ stance against the government and government officials and forget that YOU are equally guilty and corrupt for feeding such a system. This ‘holier than thou’ stance that everybody in this country seems to have taken is what I resent the most.

The sheep ‘protesting’ on the streets of India know naught about the Lokpal Bill and its long-term implications. I do not blame them for being desperate to see a change in the system, but desperate times do not call for stupidity and they most certainly do not call for letting someone else do your thinking for you. Indians are all about idol worship, but it has gone a bit too far this time, hasn’t it?

We need an objective and rational solution. Not an emotional and impulsive one.