Where's the innocence gone?

This evening, we had some innocent fun. Oh yes, it was me and my pals here at college. We chose to play a game from our childhood, something I used to be really fond of. And during those few minutes, each one of us was just as happy as innocent kids are. As we closed it, once again we were all serious individuals with loads of thoughts in our minds, to each one his own. And this is what left me wondering long enough, to come up with the lines that proceed.

Why is it so that as we grow older, one of the purest qualities of human nature, the quality of innocence drifts away gradually? Why is every grown-up so different from his childhood? Or are we all just actors, hiding our real self, adorning our cloak of maturity and wisdom, because this is what the society we live in expects us to be like?

As we grow, there are so many biases that we face. For instance when parents say,” Oh come on! You are not a kid anymore” or “Don’t be childish!” or “You are not mature enough. Look at this friend of yours who is so wise and responsible, takes his decisions for himself”.

Wish things had been different. Wish there was no such obligation to adorn this cloak. Wish my childhood had stayed longer and if not, wish at least the society wouldn't have looked askance on grown-ups who chose to stay the same, with their child-like innocence on.

The Kite Runner, Me and the Journey

A lot has been happening these many days and I regret not being able to give enough time to something I’ve started to love, the love of penning my thoughts down.

Another semester has gone, taking me closer to the completion of my MBA and here I am today, writing from my train to home. Of course I’ll post this draft once I am in the confines of my home, when every byte of data will struggle to get uploaded from my small town’s BSNL broadband - a service that promises much more than its ability to deliver.

Its 3:15 p.m. now on the second day of my journey, a 46.5 hours one in total, with me on the side upper berth where there’s just enough space for me to lie down straight and yet I’m glad. Not because I’m perched high, glad because I could finish reading this awesome piece by Khalid Hosseini, “The Kite Runner” in a period of a day and a half straight. This is not how I usually spend my monotonous and long train journeys, I prefer peeping out of the tinted window and occasionally chatting with complete strangers around.

But this time, the vibes were not just right and I decided to get immersed in “The Kite Runner”. Now that it’s read, I’m glad that I began. The desire to read it was stronger because of the fervor with which Shreya gave me this one in my hand and said “You must read this” while I stood confused in front of the fiction section of our an year and a half young library. And now, I’ve been so moved by the story that I decided to pen down a few thoughts about it.

The pictures of Hassan & Ali, Amir & his Baba, Rahim Khan, Soraya & her parents, Aseef, the Talibs and the landscapes of Kabul – before & after, are all painted so clearly in my mind now that I won’t wonder if my tonight’s train dream will have them all or maybe there won’t be any dream at all, maybe no sleep even, all because I’m going home after ONE LONG YEAR. The last time I’d been home was on the morning of Diwali’08 and tomorrow will be Diwali’09, exactly a year has passed and I keep wondering of things that would’ve changed. There’s so much drama entwined with all our lives that often I feel, the direction of it all is just perfect, something that no human can judge and no Oscar can reward.

I could witness some serious drama in the pages of “The Kite Runner” too and I’m left wondering at the deadly skill that the art of writing could be, wondering that how easily could Amir write his first story, how naturally he got the talent of writing ‘irony’ in the same, and how simply his illiterate servant Ali’s illiterate son Hassan, who later turned out to be his half brother, had pointed out the ‘plot hole’ in his interesting small first story.

I had never realized this before until I read from Khalid’s pen – not that there are people in this world who mean every word they say, but the fact that these people think that everyone else does the same too. So when they speak of something, casually do they take the words of everyone else, as if they were also meant exactly like them! How true & how fascinating!!

I was fascinated by the drive that Amir had to win the kite flying tournament so that in the eyes of his Baba, he could become someone who was looked at, not seen, listened to, and not heard. So much to strive, for a dream that was not his own, but his Baba’s. A whole lot of the world does that and I’m not judging the extent to which it might be right.

But yes, the drama woven around the tournament was so captivating that I regret not having learnt the art so far. Maybe this time when I’m home, when my neighbours’ kite will be up in the sky on the festival of Chatth, 6 days after Diwali, I’ll try my hands at it and in those moments, maybe I’d think of Amir to get the rush of adrenaline, a must to drive one crazy at any sport.

At one point, I could not keep myself from smiling when I found the melodrama that a Bollywood film has, when towards the end, in desperation to save a loved one’s life, Atheists turn to God, pray, become believers and stay on like that.

Also did I find out that a dialogue from one of my recent favourite romantic movies, ‘Jaane Tu’ was an abridged version of the lines by Hosseini – ‘You can take Afghans out of Paghman, but you can’t take Paghman out of Afghans’. Pardon me for my ignorance if something like this is a clichéd phrase that the author had passingly mentioned. And if it is not, we should appreciate Bollywood for being so diverse!

The crux of The Kite Runner’s story is something I’m not disclosing here. It’s a recommended read for all those of you passionate about fiction and who at the same time wants a peek into the Afghanistan of the Monarchs, the Rebels and the Taliban.
It makes me wonder though, how people change for and with power and how they forget the larger interests of humanity in this quest of theirs, which they shamelessly try to justify in the name of God, of religion and of the past.

Siddharth
(Onboard Sanghmitra Express)

Religion & Me

Before writing this post, I am definitely sure of one thing that no matter what your religious view is (or is not); you will find something here that you can relate to.

Born and brought up in a deeply religious Jain family, there’ve been quite a few customs/rituals that have become a part of my daily life. And these have not come up by my choices or my conscious decisions, rather as learning from my parents and grandparents as to what is right and what is not. Isn’t this the case with many of us?

Don’t the majority of us look up to God only when we get into some trouble or when we need something really badly and are worried that we are not strong enough to get out of the trouble or not capable enough to achieve the need!

Even those who religiously follow the customs would agree that the best they achieve out of their prayers is a sense of security that there is a power higher up which will save them from the perils that might come on their way. And that, in their times of need, they can offer prayers, make wishes and in the hope that these will be granted, continue to do their daily chores with a little more ease. Believe me when I say this that I do the same too and the kind of support I receive by the mere offering of these prayers is inexplicable.

With the instinctive quality of curiosity that all humans are born with, I’ve had my set of many questions too and in response to those many, I’ve got a few answers, a fewer of which have convinced me and others till date have failed to do so. All these unanswered or unconvincingly answered questions on God, on religion or on the many aspects of our social lives have made me realize that learning on these will come from time to time and in many hidden ways. All I need to do is to keep my eyes open and follow my own way.

The Sudarshan Kriya

Recently, I was fortunate enough to participate in the basic course conducted by the Art of Living foundation here at Electronic City. And I feel that the experience that I had is something I must share with all my friends, fellows, family and also the visitors to my blog.

All those who feel that this is related deeply to spirituality and that only those very keen on it should go for such a course are wrong. After my tryst with it, I can say firmly that if you have not yet experienced what this very powerful technique of Sudarshan Kriya can do to your body and mind, you are really missing something in life. And when I talk about the greatness of the course, it’s not just the calmness and relaxation that one gets after doing the Kriya but also the wisdom that comes from the five sutras given by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the universally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader.

For more on my views about the course you can either call or mail me at siddharth.anand@ymail.com. Please click on the tab below to join the Art of Living group for people residing in Electronic City, Bangalore.

Click to join Art_Of_Living_Ecity

Efficiency & The Human Factor

My days at SIBM Bangalore have been bringing with them insights of all kinds. The period of my summer internship has been a really great experience and has brought with it something new every other day.

Today during a discussion with my project guide who is the Head of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and Manufacturing Excellence at SKF, the issue of the factors responsible for lost efficiency came up. To this my guide said that the role of the human factor is by far the most important for productivity and efficiency.He said that if an industry has an efficiency of 70%, its the human factor that can take it from there to 90% and beyond that the other factors come in. Technology comes the last when its effect on lost efficiency is considered.

Although his views have been so framed as a result of his 18+ years of experience in companies like TVS, Arcelor-Mittal etc., I still find it difficult to comprehend the extent of the human factor's importance. Of course if this very factor wishes to bring the efficiency down, it can be achieved in no time. But taking it up from there would definitely need a deep resolve, a connection with the larger goal and loads of motivation for achievement.

The initiatives taken at SKF under TPM with a great deal of involvement from its employees are in some way trying to change the mindset of this human factor. The SKF India unit which now has nearly $325mn of revenues is in a transition phase and it aspires to become a billion $ firm soon. The company is thus taking its most important resources quite seriously.

In my last post, I talked about how employees come first so as to put customers first, and here we have this live example supporting the view.Though the extent to which SKF will go in this direction is something to be watched for.

The Customer Comes Second

Shocked?

Then who comes first??

"It's employees" says Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of Rosenbluth International in his book titled "The Customer Comes Second".

"If you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first" says Tom Peters.

Quite insightful, isn't it!

How important is Design?

Dear Readers, lately I've been reading 'The pursuit of WOW!" by Tom Peters and I want to share some of the interesting insights from the book in few of my next posts.

The one about Design goes this way:

"Vital.For products, sure. But, paradoxically, design is more important for services."

And then Tom goes about quoting Harvard marketing guru Ted Levitt: "If your product is tangible(plane,boat,car,penknife), distinguish yourself from the herd by emphasizing intangibles(e.g.,service). If your product is intangible (banking services, travel services), distinguish yourself from the masses by emphasizing the tangible- to wit, design. "

The example of FedEx comes next.

"Fedex which offers timely delivery service also stands out on the tangibles.

Tangibles, such as spiffy-and clean-trucks.(why, for God's sake, don't companies realize that trucks are a fabulous/awful form of advertising?) And easy-to-use forms.

(Why, once again, don't most businesses understand that forms are part of their signature and therefore great/awful advertisements for their businesses?)

So if you're in a service business, worry a lot if you're not working on the tangibles." says Peters.

I found this to be interesting and I am not sure whether our marketing fellows already learn about it, its definitely worth sharing.

Please post your valuable comments to make this blog post worth.

The SWEET side of Vowels

Ever wondered the reason for having nicknames for all your good friends? What makes you decide the nickname (if it’s derived from the true one)? Or even the nicknames we are called at home by?

Well if we observe the many nicknames that surround us, there definitely lies an answer to all these Qs.

I feel that it’s the “sweet” factor that makes a nickname likable.
Think of some of your dear friends’ names and the nicknames you have given them. Do you observe that each of the resultants have a common factor towards the end of them? The nicknames of your sweet friends will definitely be having the “sweet vowels” as I call them, towards their end. The phonetics being aa, i, y, ee, u and oo.

For instance, consider a Siddhu, an Ashu, a Puttu, a Ribu, a Gomzy, a Guddu, a Jeny and the like.

Not convinced ? Noticed that those of your friends whose names already end with these sweet vowels, have not got a derived nickname?

Probably because the name is already “sweet”! Most such names end with aa, i and y.

You might choose to differ and I would love to get your views on this very banal interest of mine.

The White Tiger ( Was that really White?)

Ironically, me - a so called budding manager (though that’s not what I prefer to be called as, especially considering the way I’m managing myself these days) could finally manage in a long time to finish reading this so very popular Booker Prize winning book by Aravind Adiga, “The White Tiger”. And as I keep it back to the shelf, my apprehensions are troubling my thoughts. You might wonder, why so?

For those of you who have read the book already will most likely share this concern with me on whether this one is a story of a white tiger which is rare to find or of just another brown one!

The protagonist Balram Halwai alias Ashok Sharma in his letter to the Chinese premier talks about almost all the twists and turns his life has taken so far including some of those special instances of a servant-master relationship where at times he is very loyal to the masters and at others, a very selfish being trying to suck out as much money as to satisfy his cravings, the extreme case being the murder of his master.

Well I feel that such a story is not of Balram’s alone but that of every human being, isn’t this our ingrained trait to be looking out for every single opportunity that can be exploited, be it in monetary terms or otherwise!

Doubts apart, I loved these lines by Adiga while summing up the comparative on the scenarios of 1947 and the present, “In the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat- or get eaten up.”

Apt, right?