In thick of things

Only reason for my inactivity is that I am right now in thick of things.
I have been doing donkey stuff, which does have certain value addition but also gives a feeling that you have earned your salary for the day. When I began 5 months ago, I wondered whether there would be any serious activity in the Power Transmission sector but suddenly things started rolling when every thing else seems to be slowing. This clearly shows how decoupled I'm from the main stream business, it's seriously contra-scenario here.


However the decoupling is only till the point where white paper is involved, as soon as the time comes for the other paper (Indian currency is in different colors, so can't say greenback)things are gonna change. But you have to be optimistic till the time you actually face the situation, you can be prepared for the worst though.

Solstice this year will be held on 19th and 20th Nov and I am looking forward to meeting all my classmates again. While 6 months is not a long period at work, most people would have overcome the starting troubles. I look forward to listening whether the paid holiday syndrome is over or is it still on.

Meanwhile it would be interesting to see how immune B-school admissions are from recession.

The current financial melt down is going to provide a new episode for "Commanding Heights." Uncertainty rules

Modernity is not chronological, modernity is conceptual

That was one of the key points mentioned Dr. Parakala Prabhkar, a doctorate from LSE and M.A., M.phil from JNU, Delhi.

Some of the key points he highlighted were:
1. India and Indian people always were wealth creators. It is a misconception that Indians focused too much on religion, god and philosophy. According to Kautilya, Dharmas rests on economy, economy depends on Rajya or the law and order, law and order rests on humility and respect for elders, respect for elders emanates from control of Indriyas or senses.

Indians always believed that economic well-being is the foundation of Dharma and not vice-versa. How can anyone haunted by scarcity be rightful. So in order to see that people follow dharma, it is essential that they are economically strong.

2. India has been attacked for more than 1200 years continuosly and only in the 19th century the British established control, even then not on the complete country. Though it is claimed that British ruled for 200 years, the actual complete control was for about 90 years only. During all the invasions, lots of wealth was carried away from India, again and again relentlessly but despite that India was rich.

3. In the 8th century India contributed about 33% to the world economy.

The gist of the talk ad discussion is that we, Indians have to interact with cultural self-confidence when dealing with the world. We had been rich, we are rich and we will be rich. We are rich in every aspect of life - cultural, social, political, religious, and even economic wealth creation.

One of the participants raised that our education system doesn't highlight all this and we are actually forgetting all these. We are confused as to whether we follow the west or dig deep inside.

In my view, India is not about a country and Hindu is not a religion, both are referring to a civilisation that got strated and evolved in the midst of almost ideal conditions for human civilsation and being in these circumstances, so much knowledge and wisdom got developed. In our headless-chicken-run, we are fogetting that there is so much lying in our ancient literature. It is time for us to go back to school, learn sanskrit and decrypt all the wisdom lying within us.

For all of you who may read this post, my advice is learn sanskrit, study all the Indian ancient literature from a modern perspective and you wouldn't need even a MBA to become a Global leader.

Guru - A film that I liked after a long time

After long time I dared to watch a movie in the release week. I stopped watching any movie in the release week from almost last 10 years. But after a long time I could overcome my inertia and made effort to get tickets and watch the movie. I think I had a similar urge to go and watch the movie way back, when I saw the trailers of Roja and again only for Guru.

To be honest I am an avid movie watcher since childhood. But slowly as I grew up, I become very choosy and settled down to watch only movies that hit the 100 day mark and seem to make some sense.

From last 5-6 years I had been wondering why movies are made around only few subjects - love, action, hero-oriented or some simple nonsense remakes. I was wondering, how come there are no topics/subjects that can show the success stories through the so powerful medium called cinema. I was very happy to see movies like Munnabhai and Lage raho. It's not that I don't enjoy the romantic and action types but once in a while you need to get in touch with reality.

By making Guru, Maniratnam had fulfilled my long drawn wish - to see a success story, not just of love but of life in totality, on screen. I have lots of appreciation for the movie - the screen play, editing, music, casting and so on, but my biggest praise is for the subject. Though Mani denied that the movie is made based on the life of a successful businessman, it definitely has too many resemblances.

I felt the key part of the movie is when Guru bhai states his reply to the enquiry commission. That 3 minutes, I feel, is the most impactful part of the movie. The dialogues were excellent and exactly depicted what happened from Independence till Dr. Manmohan as the finance minister, initiated the reforms. You have to watch the movie to feel what so many entreprenuers of that period might have gone through.

For Aishwarya, it was a fantastic opportunity and she did very well, all credit goes to the director. For Abhishek, Guru will make everyone accept that he has arrived. I don't know if Abhishek will ever get another role like Guru once again.

Today each one of us are enjoying the fruits of the entrprenuerial ventures of a few handful visionaries. We have to salute those few who dared against all the odds and the fingers pointing at them.

One of the very good points in this movie is the aspect of marriage - Guru marries Sujatha only to get capital for his business, but keeps his promise that he will take care of her. When she realises this she leaves him but quickly realises the truth. No great sacrificial love story and no over-emotional-dialogues, a simple truth about marriage is revealed so subtly - in marriage you take care of each other, love and romance just happens.


Last point that I liked very much is the go-getter and never-say-die attitude that is displayed by Guru. When you want things to happen really, they do happen, even the most tough situation changes into the most favourable one.

A must watch for all B-school aspirants, current students and even Alums