Of the system and the ways of tackling it

Last few months at A_L has made us witness diverse transactions, situations and the mindset behind those actions. Being the “socially recluse” person that I am (and someone whose childhood dream was to become a psychologist), it’s delightful to observe people’s reactions to a situation and the thought process by which they function. The existence of the system and the ways of tackling it is an area which has affected almost everybody’s lives. Numerous books have been written on such experiences, numerous discussions have ensued, but the topic still remains a debator’s delight.

What propelled me to share my thoughts on the subject was a candid discussion with one of our clients on his style of running an organization. The way an organization functions becomes an unfettered rule of law known as “the System”. What follows is the league of men trying to emulate the existing system as the basis of their existence. From within this league of ordinary men, a few extraordinary beings emerge who decide to challenge the system either for their own good or for general society’s advantage. For doing so, they can either fight the system head on, take up the lone battle and emerge a contended victorious aka Jerry Maguire or manipulate the system in a manner that the system itself does not know that it is being taken for a ride aka Lalit Modi.

I am not writing here on the relative merits/demerits of the respective methods and am definitely not defending Lalit Modi’s manipulations, but on the question that has been crossing my mind since the eventful discussion, has fighting the system become passé? I’ll leave it on you to decide.

Battlefields and tweets!!

A couple of weeks back, I went club hopping with some of my buddies. More often than not I find myself a misfit in such situations and would rather prefer a rooftop bon-fire party on a chilly winter night (or a summer night at a high altitutde). But this was something i will remember for some time to come. Though nothing spectacular took place, I saw myself getting quite a few inquisitive stares from people around. One good lad actually raised a mug of beer in my direction as a toast. Now, all this was a little awry 'cause i am definitely not used to be treated as a celebrity. On introspection, i realised it was the shirt tht i was was wearing, which, in very visible figures had "Siachen: I was there" written. To supplement it, another nice logo of Indian Army and a caption of "World's highest battlefield". Now , I have managed to reach the Brigade Headquarters at Pattapur and as far as the Advanced Landing Ground, but definitely have not been to siachen. This T shirt was gifted by a close buddy who relishes the time he spends in the battlefields of Siachen. Having an expanse of an area covering a few mountains and a substantial part of the glacier under his command gives him a 'high' of its own kind and he seems to enjoy every bit of it. It is interesting to see him and my father exchanging their views on the status of the area whenever he is here. The last time i had a chat with him, he was fuming on the attention that I got on the shirt. Maybe, a fair bit of jealousy on my getting the attention drawn from his "sweat". Though, when I told him that I could not vouch for a single pretty girl (the 'admirers'/onlookers being a bunch of kids), he felt better and promised to get me another. On another weekend, I went and saw "Hurt Locker" with another friend who has just completed his probation with the Para regiment, and now is a proud member of the elite Special Forces of Indian Army. Got some pretty interesting updates on Counter Terrorism strategies for which they are trained in. Its good to see my friends finding themselves amidst their own versions of Battlefields, and to add to it, they seem to be having a rocking time. Though, admittedly, it is a different ball game altogether if bullets are being showered on to you.



In retrospect, for the breed of people that surround me, battlefields are not necessarily something thrown at them. Rather, they see it as a situation they have been longing for and get their respective "highs" from the uncertainity that surrounds them. When they have negative opinions on their jobs, which they occassionally share with me, I struggle to graple with the difference in variations of our midset. Considering, till a few years back, we went to the same school/college and had a similar routine and mindset, the difference in our perceptions amaze me and am sure that the gap will get better with age. But somewhere down the line, we all will realise the dimensions of the battlefields that we are a part of and will be amazed at the sheer magnitude of decisions that we take in our day to day lives that have an impact tomorrow.

We ourselves have been facing some mini-battles. Plannning to move into a plush new office (albeit after a year and a half), we have been busy closing the deal for the new place. Every aspect involves enrmous rounds of negotiations and clarifications and we find ourselves taking very very important decisions which would have an impact for a forseable future. And to add to it all, seeing your bank balance run dry (again) and a liquidity does not entail a feel good factor.

On another note, this week the media has actively taken up the issue of Modi v. Tharoor and the associated heads that are going to roll with it. Well, I was personally dissappointed with the treatment meted out to Mr. Tharoor . I personally have a lot of admiration for his eloquence and his mastery over his subject matter , though the poor chap is a bit of a misfit in politics. He should have read the writing on the wall when he failed to make it to the Secretary General's post. He is the quintissential 'Keeda' (a term of respect in our circle to describe a person who always is prone to land into trouble). While he is happy tweeting away to glory, another technocrat, who was appoined along with him is busy entrenching himself in the complex world of finding yet another unique ID for the indian citizen. In conferences and seminars, he is seen with his ex-colleagues and I refuse to believe that he is not being informed of major projects at Infy. To me (strictly my personal opinion), Lalit Modi, Shahi Tharoor and Nandan Nilekani represent the coloqial concoction of bringing technocrats to manage projects of national importance (yes, I would definitely give that importance to IPL). Mr. Modi was assigned the task of making IPL into a global brand, Mr. Nilekani was to use his expertise in IT to make UID a functioning reality and Mr. Tharoor was to use his networking to push india's case for permanent seat on UN Security Council. It is, but human, that each of the three, essentially never being public servants, would try to derive some personal benefit through their offices. Would you expect Mr. Nilekani to close his eyes when infosys, a company that he has founded and nurtured, presents its bid in the project? Or wouldnt it be natural for Mr. Nilekani to create regulations/systems that may favour infosys? But, as long as the deed is done well, I guess the Indian public would never mind. But, Nilekani gets away only because he is smart enough not to tweet ...

I wonder why do we find ourselves amidst these battles? Is is ambition, lust for success or mere means to survival? We do not have the answer to this question and hope we never will, caus' looking for the answer itself drives us forward to the next level.

chalte raho, ladte raho.....till next time

Here I am

My maiden post on A_L's blog has been long overdue and I have been wanting to write it since the time I finally decided to quit waffling about how my life should be and actually did set it into motion. The reasons for not having been able to do were myriad (though i would want to believe it to be"in the burdensome life of your own setup, who has the time for blogging"!!!), but a recent soul-searching trip gave me the final impetus to move my *** and make it a reality. And that precisely was the reason behind the creation of the idea called A-L.

As i resolve not to sink back into the "comfortable" feeling of "cribbing", I am excited about the challenging possibilities that lay ahead of us. Life, as it is said, is not about destination, but about the experiences of the journey leading to the destination.

Till the next post, keep walking!!!!

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.