Corruption Begins at Home

Hello Folks,

The word Corruption is not a new one nor has it been brought into public existence lately, everybody knew and knows about the most dangerous and rampantly practised social evil. But, who is responsible and why does it happen ??

The answer to this is not very easy and shallow. I am trying as an humble effort to give it an explanation. The answer lies in the Definition of the Science of Money ECONOMICS, to a part at our upbringing and habit cultivation at the best school THE HOME, and to a part in Bhagwad Gita.

As per Economics, Human Wants are Unlimited and the means to satisfy them are limited. This gives rise of the human going to any extent in fulfilling his wants. It is but natural that scarcity in resources will give rise to a cut throat level of competition and well, where there is competition, everything is fair and legal to survive and Achieve. In fact, Survival of the Fittest (jungle law) is applicable everywhere around us.

INCENTIVE !! The whole world works and functions on this word !! From a grade 2 kid to big corporate honchos. What is an INCENTIVE ?? The carrot attached to a stick to get desired level of output irrespective of your inherent feeling about doing the work. Even the TIP we pay to cab drivers, waiters, etc has a meaning To Insure Performance. Bribes and Corruption is just a Glorified Incentive which lures people to take up job irrespective of their willingness or love to perform a job. As a kid, I was always given an incentive to bring marks in my exams, which always made me work hard to get the gift rather than understanding the inherent importance of studies and scoring well as a big step of my life. From that small gifts, to big Payouts in the Financial Market, everybody works towards achieving it no matter how. Shady Deals, Frauds, Scams everything in the way of a ruthless pursuit to achieve the carrot of Incentive and after a point in time meet Personal Ego Demands.

Sacred scriptures, very well philosophised, in Bhagwad Gita tell us to work honestly, without actually expecting and attaching rewards to the work performed. But Incentive decided before hand of the task performed just makes us go crazy to get it and we fall into doing tacit stuff. It is perfectly natural, cause the seeds sown are itself faulty.

It is very deep rooted in us, Corruption and its a Demon which can be destroyed only by education and the right way of looking at stuff. Going on a hunger strike, or getting public support and agitations can tame the devil for the moment, but not destroy it completely. Its about morals of the individuals involved and not with the lax of governance and law. All laws are passed with the inherent existence of loopholes. With time, smarter individuals will find it and capitalize but the Devil will always raise its ugly head again and again.

Mahatma Phule, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Raja Ram Mohun Roy did not end evils like Sati, Child Mariages, Dowry, etc by going on an indefinite fast unto death but by leading with examples and education. Even Mahatma Gandhi did not sit on a Fast Unto Death till the British Leave India but took steps like Non Cooperation Moment, Civil Disobedience Moment and Quit India Moment. It is a process but we believe always to skip the process and come out with a result on ransom. We do not want to stop doing it at a smaller scale but want it to be stopped at the greater scale. Just because, we are not in that opportunity, the person there should be brought to book.

Stop doing stuff to get the incentive tagged to it and start doing it because you want to do it and lets inculcate the sacred value of doing things without thinking of the reward in us as well as the future generations.

As the good old saying, Charity Begins At Home !! or else lets stop whinning about it because then its Hypocrisy and no Concrete word against it.

Do offer your opinion, and we can have a dialogue about the most discussed topic of all for time being.

 KS :) 

Resurgence - Part 2

Hello Folks,

To continue, from where I had left in my previous article, Mr. Murthy had become the uncrowned king in the Company he worked for and in the real sense was responsible also, for its stupendous growth from a small startup in the early 1990's to a mammoth IT Giant in a span of 10 years.

In that decade he had a ride without any bumps and only on the uphill. But then, in June 2002, the American Journey came to a sudden full stop. Mr. Murthy was accused of sexual harassment of his executive assistant, and was dragged into courts. He would stand accused of suppressing facts, misrepresenting them to the board and, as a former colleague points out, "guilty of a serious error in judgement". Rather than choosing to fight, he agreed to a $3 million payout to the person accusing him. Phaneesh denied being a party to the settlement, but the company says the exact opposite. With Karmic wheel in complete spin, the price was dear - loss of job and definitely reputation.

Cast down from nine circles of heaven into purgatory, he wandered looking for a fresh start. He f ound temporary relief in Quintant, a consulting outfit. He raised $30 million ($15 million was actually invested) before his funding agency, the Rs. 2,500 crore GMR Group, a successful investor in ING Vysya with large interests in power, decided to pull the plug. GMR said it wanted to invest in its power business. But there was talk of Phaneesh being unable to get revenues and business, and his investors getting impatient. Without the redoubtable army of developers, Phaneesh was forced to abandon the fresh start and allow himself to be courted as CEO of a software company iGate. Life slowly slipped back into the familiar. The future started looking more like a linear extrapolation of the past, Phaneesh woke up from a new dream into an old reality. But what matters is that it is real.

He was ready to float once more.

 When you listen to his interviews it feels, he works like a modem. Like modem screeches, whines and wails as it tries to match its thoughts with the modem at the far end of the line, Phaneesh keeps rummaging, shuffling and hunting through analogies, metaphors and incidents to help prove his point. It is the glimpse into the mind of a man who is claimed to have scaled up the IT Giant's sales from $2 million to $700 million. He did it all over again.

He is travelling to various offices of iGate across the globe and confesses it to be tough and gruelling, the man who never had to try too hard to make things happen. He cheekily says "Sometimes I wonder if it was all a fluke. I really want to test myself again." referring to his innings at the IT Giant. The innings unfortunately ended in way that was never ever imagined or anticipated.

Today, iGate being much smaller company, went ahead and acquired Patni Computers, a much larger company in size and also very old and reputed company to bring him back in the Billion Dollar Club. He again reached a position where he belonged all his life, but which was not given to him as a gift just because he was worthy of it and deserved it. He had to prove his worth again to get it even though his Talent and Work was already witnessed once and was a blue chip running script for inventors across the globe.

Phaneesh Murthy will not go down in the history books with the accolades he actually deserves to achieve a no mean feat, because of lack of consistency and the scandal, but for people who actually read about him will surely not disagree that he was a Phoenix in real sense.

Hope to have offered something new and very viable to understand through the two part story of Resurgence. Please offer opinions and views to have a constructive dialogue.

Till the next work

  Cheers !!
 
   KS :)
 

Resurgence - Part 1

Hello Folks,

We have always been dazzled with stories in life, from fictional to mythological to real and have dreamt to make a story about our life as well. Even, a cinematic experience, can leave a lasting impact on our sub conscience.

Often, we see ourselves, doing something being played in the story and involve our mind in it. We get happy with some situations, sad with some and also greatly inspired by many situations. I have always, much like many been inspired by the story of growth, achieving something out of nothing, envisaging to create something much bigger than our existence, our being and our world, when actually everything is just a dream with wide open eyes. Hence, all rags to riches stories are the best tonic of motivation in the world. We all like reading about Bill Gates to Dhirubhai Ambani, from Roger Fedrer to Sachin Tendulkar, from A R Rahman to Eminem. All these distinguished personalities are prime examples of motivating stories and people know about it.

Today, I am writing about a gentleman, I have got to know very recently through a lot of reading and research. Mr. Phaneesh Murthy. His story, till growth is somewhat very similar to any story of Rags to Riches, but the crucial part is after, what people might say is the ultimate peak. I am sure, many people keeping abreast with the latest ongoing dealings in the financial markets, might be knowing about Mr. Murthy but this story is for the youth, the people who will get Success and the trials with it.

Mr. Murthy belongs to a small place in Southern India. In his teens, he wanted to pursue medicine, but with some parental guidance ended up giving IIT JEE, secured a AIR 132 and got selected to pursue engineering from IIT Madras. After completing his course, he still was inclined towards Medicine but once again Parental Intervention made him give the CAT and Mr. Murthy secured admission in IIM Ahemdabad.

When he left IIM-A, FMCG was big. The Nirma versus Hindustan Lever battle was drawing to a close; most people from the top of the class headed for a Lever or a Britannia. Phaneesh made the first unconventional decision of his life. He chose Sonata Software, a start-up in a tiny industry. To put things in perspective, TCS, a $1-billion company today, had a turnover of $15 million in 1987. "I did not find soaps intellectually stimulating. I wanted to do product management. In soaps or industrial products, most of the product definition is rarely changed. In software, you can use the customer feedback to improve the product," says Phaneesh. In Sonata, he also started on his first Mission Impossible. Design and sell a software for the Indian market. All the heroics were in vain though. The Indian IT industry was undergoing a disruptive change.
TCS started the offshore business model in mainframes in 1989. Soon Indian firms figured that a dollar was 17 times better than a rupee. Phaneesh realised the domestic software industry would not go anywhere. Indians could not take advantage of great products as they were just not ready for automation.

And then, in 1991, India Today carried an advertisement.
It was a two-page recruitment advertisement for a company who is now a giant in IT industry but a small one then. There was a small line at the end of the ad: "We also need a marketing manager for the US. Should be willing to relocate and travel extensively." The position did not require major qualifications. "I said this is a company that needs some serious marketing help. For every other post advertised they had at least a paragraph of qualifications!"

The owner thought Phaneesh will not be able to do the job. Phaneesh did not smoke, did not drink, did not eat meat, a perfect misfit in the marketing industry. But he liked the fact that Phaneesh was a numbers-driven, facts-oriented marketing guy. The deal was done. But before that, a target had to be set. The promoter, domestic business head and Phaneesh sat down to set one for the first year. "I told $1 million," Phaneesh says. Why? "Because it was a nice number!" Promoter agreed. The turnover of the company was about $2 million then. Domestic business head was bewildered and asked the promoter: "Aren't you going to ask him how he will get $1 million?" And the promoter replied: "That's his problem. If he wants help, he will ask." Phaneesh was told that he had one year to show results.

And he did !!!! In a span of 10 years he converted a $2 million dollar enterprise into a $700 million dollar IT giant. Such victories made the man who was once a doubting Thomas, a believer. He was not allowed to decide his career and his path of liking did something unheard off ever in the industry. He became as powerful as the promoter in the Company rather more powerful because of the results he produced.

In the process, Phaneesh broke the inverted first law of robotics: "A human may not injure a machine, or, through inaction, allow a machine to come to harm." That machine was the company. Phaneesh had already met the person who would dastardly end his dream in the company that was where it was all by his blood, sweat and efforts. "He tried to hurt the company," says a person who knows the promoter really well.

I will continue the story in the subsequent blog, hope people await it and do not look up for the person mentioned.

Until the next part,

Cheers,
KS :) 

नीड का निर्माण फिर फिर (Need ka Nirmaan Phir Phir)

Hello Folks,

The title will surely make people wonder whether NEED is Want or something ?? But this is Need i.e. Base and its establishment on a continuous basis. I have been highly impressed by this poem of Late Mr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan, better known as Amitabh Bachchan's father. I came across this poem for the first time in grade 10 and was so impressed by it that ended up mugging it up and till today it is right in my mind. It is the epitome of the phenomenon of coming back after you are severely hit.

नीड का निर्माण फिर फिर

नीड का निर्माण फिर फिर, नेह का आव्हान फिर फिर
यह उठी आँधी कि नभ में, छा गया सहसा अँधेरा
धूलि धूसर बादलों ने, भूमि को इस भाँती घेरा
रात सा दिन हो गया, फिर रात आई और काली
लग रहा था अब न होगा, इस निशा का फिर सवेरा
रात के उत्पात भय से, भीत जन जन भीत कण कण
किंतु प्राची से उषा की, मोहिनी मुस्कान फिर फिर
नीड का निर्माण फिर फिर, नेह का आव्हान फिर फिर

क्रुद्ध नभ के वज्र दंतों में, उषा है मुसकराती
घोर गर्जनमय गगन के, कंठ में खग पंक्ति गाती
एक चिडिया चोंच में तिनका लिए, जो जा रही है
वह सहज में ही पवन , उनचास को नीचा दिखा रही है
नाश के दुःख से कभी, दबता नहीं निर्माण का सुख
प्रलय की निस्तब्धता में, सृष्टि का नवगान फिर फिर
नीड का निर्माण फिर फिर, नेह का आव्हान फिर फिर

the hinglish version is as follows

Need Ka Nirman Phir Phir

Need Ka Nirman Phir Phir, Neh Ka Ahvan Phir Phir
Yah Uthee Aandhi Ki Nabh Mein, Chha Gaya Sahasa Andhera
Dhooli Dhoosar Badalon Ne, Bhoomi Ko Is Bhaanti Ghera
Raat Sa Din Ho Gaya, Phir Raat Aayee Aur Kali
Lag Raha Tha Ab Na Hoga, Is Nisha Ka Phir Savera
Raat Ke Utpaat Bhay Se, Bheet Jan Jan Bheet Kan Kan
Kintu Prachi Se Usha Ki, Mohini Muskaan Phir Phir,
Need ka nirman phir phir, Neh ka avhaan phir phir!
 

Kruddha nabh ke vajradanton mein, Usha hai muskaraati,
Ghor garjanmay gagan ke kanth mein, Khag pankti gaati
Ek chidiya chonch mein, Tinka liye jo jaa rahi hai
Vah sahaj mein hi pavan unchaas ko, Neecha dikha rahi hai.
Nash ke dukh se kabhi, Dabta nahin nirmaan ka sukh
Pralay ki nistabdhata mein, Srushti ka navgaan phir phir.
Need ka nirmaan phir phir, Neh ka aavhaan phir phir.

Harivanshji has here given a simple message of Resurgence in a heart yearning manner. He also created sarcasm with the example of a sparrow on the next day of a storm and lots of damage, picks up small branches of trees to create a nest, whereas, we humans are busy wondering and contemplating. The last few lines are which have left a deep impression on my mind. The sorrow of damages and loss and never be greater than the joy of Reestablishment.

I hope people enjoy and also take something from this piece of work.

Regards,

KS :)