Nostalgic!!!

Last 24 hours have been a small speck of the phenomenon that is life. The close of our day yesterday brought the sad news of demise of our beloved Anjana Ma'am, the Principal of the Law college most of our members went to! Demise, especially of the ones you care about or who care about you brings a rush of nostalgia, thereby creating a feeling that a part of who you are has gone amiss. I really cannot find words to describe the respect we had for her or her motherly touch in any and every interaction I have ever had with her and the AIL alumni in our team would agree to it. The last time I met her, I was still a greenhorn in this profession and I told her that I want to create a setup on my own one day. She was very happy to hear of my intent and had nothing but confidence in my aims. (though, I forced her to promise me a position in the college if it did not work out). I so wish that we could have been able to meet her again and tell her about our plunge in the mean bad world, from which she had done her bit to protect us. I could walk into her office anytime and come out with a constructive result (more often than not after enjoying a cuppa), a relation I have not shared with anyone before or after those days. She rued the fact that for all the bright ideas and initiatives, I did not apply my mind to get some papers published! For a wonderful person and a good administrator, this student of hers has nothing, but gratitude!

After an early start to the day, a hearing and marathon meetings, we found ourselves amidst an annual day celebration for which we were invited as guests by one of our clients. The whole event, passed on another bout of nostalgic feeling of the days when I was a part of the performers or the organizers!! I did mention to our host, the top boss of that institution, that the final performance is the relatively easier part..It is the preparation that is scary when every mistake is pointed out. I remember the instance when I had to play the part of a fallen soldier. I simply could not do it and it came to the notice of our Principal, who decided to take the matter in his own hands. So, one day, a couple of days before the performance, he caught me in a dead tired condition after a gruesome basketball practice session and asked me to enact my part..So tired was I sounding, that he told me that this was exactly how he wanted me to sound for the final performance!!! Then there was another time, when I was playing the part of Nehru and had to read out the tryst with destiny speech. Had to mug the whole speech up only to later see on television that Chacha Nehru had himself read out the thing!!! Now that was cruel... ;)

To add to it all, a major major difference of opinion with my Partner, which did its bit to raise the temperatures of Delhi, albeit marginally (may be we can offer our services to GMR now, albeit for the role of clearing the weather in winters). The impact of these events has left a tired mind, which is all set to hit the hay and letting the thoughts to rest till another day!!!

Cheers and drive carefully...Its crazy out there..

The Idiot and the Rocket!!

Though movie reviews is definitely not our area, but 3 idiots and Rocket Singh struck a chord somewhere and have been an object of immense discussion and ripping apart (yes, that's what lawyers do in their free time, though only the subject matter is different in what they do in their 'fee time'). All the bonhomie did prompt me to add to our blog.

Nearly everyone I know has given the highest possible review to '3 idiots' which , as Sagarika Ghosh rightly puts in her blog is a tad of a sacred ritual (check out http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/sagarikaghose/223/54036/from-three-idiots-to-a-nation-of-idiots.html ) . The multi starrer flick, without any doubts has generated brilliant reviews from all ends and we end up ga-gaing over movies like this because somewhere, we all draw similarities. Hereinafter I speak solely for myself. Born in a Bihari family I know what pre-determined profession means (i.e. at birth, it is decided whether you are charted to be doctor or engineer). I can recall the days when we would use fire extinguisher for showers in hostel, I definitely know at least a couple of guys who would fit the role of Rancho and yes, have definitely heard of students going suicidal because of the pressure and expectations. But, partially agreeing to what sagarika comments in her blog, we really cannot afford to take actual lessons in real life. I have come across a fair share of 'rattu totaas', and I for one, have nothing but utmost respect for them since I could never be one myself . The sheer application of mind that goes behind in mugging up theorems , case laws, citations, definitions and latin dictums (as the case may be) in itself is a herculean task and a unique type of brilliance is associated with it. Sometimes, it does not matter that you cannot comprehend what application the dictum that you are mugging up has in your daily life but the sheer ability to apply your mind for hours and days and weeks at stretch to mug it up, is a step in character building . I fail to understand that while we go about denouncing 'rattu totaas' in college and school, we will shell out huge premiums for marketing/finance 'whizkids' who come up with umpteen quantum of BS just to sell their products without even knowing for themselves what is written between the lines. These are the 'bad products' of the education system. If anyone from academic circle is reading this piece, he/she may recall a bunch of students who would pre-empt what the lecturer is about to speak just to show off to rest of the class that the brains in the classroom rest exclusive with him. He will graduate with above average marks, pick up a marketing oriented or job that promises you the moon and sell you house loans at steep rates or get you to invest your hard earned money in finance products that are going to crash sooner or later. Find and sort this rot out.

Life after school is a different story altogether. We work with loads of small businesses and startups and get a first hand view of what entrepreneurship today is all about. Will give you a briefer. Entrepreneurship of the 80s constituted people fighting restrictive government policies to establish their businesses. Entrepreneurship of the 90s was a bunch of guys making it big after getting free from the maze of rules and regulations and the last decade was the decade of the latter making it really big on the world stage and being counted on a bunch of who's who magazines. But, somewhere something went horribly wrong, especially for those of our generation. In the name of organised working and bigger margins, departmentalisation came along and companies went about creating assembly lines in the name of specialization. Call centre/BPO culture picked up and was strictly implemented cauz' thats how money was to be made. Seeing the quantum of output generated from the employees by these BPOs, other industries followed suit to adopt such cultures. If a part of the assembly line wanted to reach out and create its own way of working , it was crushed in the name of the bigger cause. Every boss went around with the punchline, there is no such thing as 'I' and you better remove it from your dictionary, cause there is only one word, and that is 'we' (what he meant was there is only one word 'me'). Individualism was again treated as a misnomer and these companies went about with an sole intent of increasing their margins while sorely losing out on the values on which they were set up. The Google way of thinking was not encouraged, rather Google would have never survived if it operated with its base in India. I have friends working for some of the biggest brands in the industry and they are all frustrated due to limitation of horizon. The only thing that holds them back is the fat paycheck at the beginning of the month. Truckloads of paper is wasted on theories on attrition. Narayan Murthis and premjis, etc, have become legends for our generation but the fact of the matter is , can a fresher joining Infy have the hope of becoming the next Narayan Murti?? Taj staff on 26/11 showed what brand loyalty is. Can HCL/Wipro even dream of cultures where their employees can risk their lives for the customers??? As a matter of fact, most HR people admit that when they hire 20o guys, they expect just 20 to stay on. The next decade will be the decade of entrepreneurs like us breaking away from these cultures and trying to set up their own identities or companies, being hit by reality, bringing radical shift in their internal structures to accommodate innovation. India is a country of young people and the 00's need to understand that the new India will NOT acquiesce to such rent seeking. 'Live and Let Live' shall be replaced by 'Grow and let grow', and Rocket Singh showed just that!!

Cheers and a happy new year

Atten' Hun''! General on the deck..

So, finally the co creator of the idea that is A-L has taken a plunge and joined us full time. Well, to celebrate we went for a late evening show of 'Rocket Singh' and both agreed that we could relate to the movie! Apart from the innumerable similarities, the movie has its description of the egoist boss and both of us dread and hope that we do not turn into the neanderthal devil shown in the movie (and experienced by us in real life)..


Surbhi's professional profile can be viewed in any of the different profiles that are in circulation (would be glad to send u a copy) but there are some interesting facts which I should share with our friends. The first time I worked with her was as her starry eyed researcher (student version of junior) in a moot court competition down south nearly seven years ago. I remember that while getting on the train, my father asked me to obey her, since she was the senior (then and now, I do beg to differ)!!! As time has flied since that experience, we do agree that we could have never imagined going about starting our little venture and sharing a common ideal. Her decision to take the plunge was in the offing since quite a while, but as she says, what attracted her to this setup was pure jealousy in seeing me have all the fun.

We hope that we take this setup and the A-L idea to great hieghts.

Watching the moon rise!!

It has become rare for me to take out time to indulge in no-destination travel by road i.e. a travel experience in which you know where u r headed only when the car starts. At least had not done so since college days when me and my buddies did some very interesting journeys. But, as time moved on, stuff happened, we got stuck in heavy schedules and we started running out of time! Last weekend, a concoction of a need for a break and a desire to get out of delhi took me back to mountains of Uttarakhand, where I really do feel @ home..Of course, to give me company were two strangers (till then) and a buddy from initial years of college, who i hadn't quite met since a long time. To add to the experience was the fact that at the start of my journey, I did not seem to have much in common with my new found travel compatriots except the journey and the destination and the umpteen desire to chill out. Even our professions were not remotely connected, they being from the shipping industry, and I cannot anticipate if I would ever deal professionally with any of these guys. As our journey consumed enormous quantities of highway, which i admit was very difficult to digest, I realised that they were not strangers but, reflections of some of my closest friends. The fact of them being from different industries or following completely different music, different sports and different treatment of journey time just brought in a new dimension to my experiences. For most part of my education, I have been in company of people from similar backgrounds or pursuing similar objectives. In the profession of my choosing, I met more and more people from diverse backgrounds, but more on a professional front. I have made acquaintances in my journeys, but this was different from all my earlier experiences.

As I sat with my travel compatriots, watching in amazement how beautiful the moon looks when it is rising in the horizon early in the evening, I realized that life has a lot more surprises to throw. Some in the form of experiences and some in the form of challenges. But, the day one closes his mind to experiment new things, is the day he ceases to be a student of life and becomes a sceptic. When we first spotted the bright orange glow of the full moon across the mountains, we first thought that it was a forest fire. At its outset, not in the wildest of our dreams could we have foreseen that it would be so spectacular.

To wake up early in morning to capture the sunrise was indeed chilling , but except the will power that it needed to wake up so early in the morning in sub zero temperature, the joy of watching the valleys of Jageshwar covered with cloud from a mountain top at the dawn of the day, was second only to what we saw last evening. My second driving experience in the mountains is getting me to be more confident and may I am ready for the journey to leh by road. What I take back from this journey is a desire to study more and this time, amidst people from varying backgrounds. Maybe, I will go to a B school. Maybe, we at A-L will create academic programmes during ther experiences with us. How and when this happens, is an answer only time can tell.

Charity begins @ home

At A-L, we have been hard selling our climate change practice area and project ourself in a niche position to handle projects on carbon mitigation advisory and documentations. It is not just that we are quite passionate about it. Our environment friendly practices encouraging transactions (example: avoiding printouts of emails and first drafts), use double sided prints, where possible, raising digitally signed memos (i think we are unique in that aspect), to use and encourage our clients to use and avoid cheques where convenient and use online banking solutions (including recommending banks offering strong online solutions, using public transport (NOIDA's new Metro) for single transaction field work, whenever possible and some sporadic activism oriented streaks to save the environment. Of course, apart from the latter, these actions also translate into low overheads enabling us to provide low cost solutions. (please note that accepting practice of vegetarianism is still beyond our abilities especially in lieu of the quantity we gulped down @ karim's)

But, occasionally we get ourselves involved in sporadic activism, and encounter interesting views, reactions and uncalled for publicity. One event that has transpired recently is my taking of cudgels against senseless cutting of trees in neighbourhood, all in the name of pruning. Now, in this instance, I did leave my cloak and coat behaviour and got involved in what can be termed as a streetfight, all in noble cause of saving a tree, which had been handed capital punishment by a fellow neighbour for the offence of blocking sunlight from his kitchen garden. Now being witness to such ghastly activity, I, as per procedure, ought to go back, file a written complaint and await for a committee decision to bar the gentleman from cutting the trees. But, seeing the ghastly action in front of my eyes, took the short-cut and gave the worker and his 'employer' a piece of my mind coupled with what can, at best be termed as a 'push that resulted in a shove'. Of course a complaint was made to local committee heads, followed by what can be termed as humorous exchange of words in writing and a due acknowledgement of me being a lawyer (my partner calls it free publicity).

Well, the lack of understanding on basic community issues of joint ownership and rights over common property , including trees does not sadden me as much as the thought of viewing trees as a hindrance to good living. Yesterday, we were roaming around in the streets of Jama Masjid's mini market and amidst the messy traffic and bakr-id preparations (we were surrounded by goats for a mile), I was amazed by the sight of a huge banyan tree bang in middle of the chandni chowk mess. The tree was supporting a 'shrine' near its roots, a barbershop at its front, a pan shop, several boards (including those of musclemen), yet stood on its own encumbering these aberrations in its ambit. This tree was indeed an institution. Trust me, it would have blocked sunlight for several houses, yet was untouched because somewhere, someone did what it takes to allow it to just grow old and become a landmark in middle of goat mess. Though, I hope that the tree which we managed to save does not grow to entertain shops as mentioned above. Now, food for thought is not what we can do to change the attitude of viewing trees as enemy. I just hope I do not have to adopt vegetarianism. But if thats what it takes, thats what it will get.

Cheated!!

Honest Abe once made a comment on legal profession that probably every law student has heard at the beginning of his (extraordinarily) long student life. It has something to do with it being the route to highest office in the land! Well, in my brief career, I have experienced instances that support this view. You will not believe how far the black coat and white shirt can take y0u without security verification! And more often than not, there is an inherent change in mannerisms.

But Friday was different. I had to bribe a peon, a receptionist and a senior bureaucrat! All for a procedural compliance which was rightfully mine. At the end of the whole thing, such was the level of my frustration that when the parking attendant of the department told me that I needed to park my car at the adjacent parking lot or else he would be fined 200 bucks, I nearly offered him a couple of gandhis!My partner told me that this gross ineptitude should be indulged only if I am sitting in a merc and not from my poor li'l small car! During the whole process, I had a 100 rupee note in my front pocket, a 500 rupee note in my inner pocket, a couple of 500 rupee notes in my side pocket and so on....all, as part of my preparation to face the devil's department. Its not that I have bribed a lowly clerk for the first time, but in this instance, I found myself in a government department where almost everyone was nice to you for a price.People wanted their own 'fees', they wanted fees for others! I would not have been surprised if they had not charged me for my services as well.

Now, government processes are something like tatkal services. You always have the option of going by the regular process! But to cut short time, you always have the option of oiling the system to get the desired result in good time. I personally do not like that, but, can't wash away my guilt! You will be surprised to know that my experience of bribing the whole department came in an office where everything is timebound! I plead guilty of playing a part in going along with the system of corruption, when I feel so strongly against it! My former boss taught me that when entering your office, one should throw morality out of window, and I did exactly that! And I have that sinking feeling.

Yesterday was Indira gandhi's 25th death anniversary. I am told that I was born when the country was burning due to riots after her death. The elders often recount how those were troubled times and it was only with a lot of difficulty that some of my family members could pay me a visit. Now, I really have no opinion on Indira, but live through this legacy of extreme corruption at all ranks, which I have reasons to believe, are a result of her legacy. This might be uncalled for, but i wonder what will it take to get out of this mess. Another Indira or for us to change??

Patna hille la!!!

Visiting my home state has never failed to amaze me. Having spent time in the whole of this country, I can safely say that Bihar is indeed the most politically conscious state in India. Everybody is blessed with an opinion on what is wrong with the state and and its polity and no one fears to express it. Using the visit to take care of some family and professional obligations, as usual, this visit entailed meeting some really interesting people, and of course hearing what they had to say. In fact, in Bihar, all you need to survive and get familiarised is having a political opinion. It doesn't matter what opinion you have, i.e. no one will love you or hate you for being a a leftist, rightist, anarchist or secularist(i hope that is a recognised term). All you need to be accepted en masse is the ability to make public your opinion. And you will definitely get a stage. In a family get together, any greetings have to be followed by a conversation on what was the newspaper headlines. No even is spared to discuss politics, whether they be marriages, post funeral rituals (occasionally funerals too) or any event in which members of the joint family are meeting. There is a new found pride in Patna's new roads, improved law and order and of course, attribution of lack of the same to the poster boy of bihar politics. Everyone seems to be in anticipation of the next congress government in the centre with Rahul Gandhi at its helm. I came across theories pertaining to Rahul Gandhi's mistress in sweden and the factum of his having two kids. I came across theories which state hotels as the most powerful institutions having impact on policies because they have sleaze videos on every politician!!! Journalists are considered the new power brokers and any deal involving state machinery has to involve journalists. Some of them are so hilarious that you would need a crash course in controlling laughter lest you offend someone or his views. If time is not of the essence, these discussions find their way into professional meetings.

What amazes me further is that all this consciousness does not translate into development. Somehow, there is a dire need to change the attitude of arm chair philosophy and pseudo-intellectualism. Anyways, A-L's new Bihar venture hopes to play some positive and constructive role! Wish us luck!