Yesterday I was going from Santacruz West in Mumbai to Chembur on an autorickshaw and was passing Western Express highway when suddenly out of nowhere a huge traffic jam appeared. As with other traffic jams, no one bothered to inspect the reason and everyone was content, lost in conversations. Suddenly right behind me an ambulance started its emergency alarm. People obviously took note and tried to wedge around and create some space for the ambulance.

And this is when we realized that jam was not because of a pothole or a faulty signal but it was a roadblock setup because a VIP was passing by. He was going to attend some award function at Hyatt hotel. His cavalcade had some 20 odd cars and an ambulance in the tow. After he passed through, the fat policeman lazily ambled and opened the road block. I dont even know what would have happened to the person in the ambulance who was in dire need of medical attention.

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What could be one idea that combines entrepreneurship, travel, media and entertainment, community and youth? While most people think of social networking and community blogs, YOFA came up with GrassRoutes.in.

GrassRoutes is trying to find a group of young Indians who would get an all expenses paid travel to a pre-decided community. The team would then travel for about 7 days, understand and document ideas, issues and inspiration from these hinterlands. Finally they will act as evangelists to make put shape to these ideas and address the issues.

The ideal person for GrassRoutes should have

… high amounts of passion and commitment towards working for social change. Ideally, team members should have complementary skill-sets that can help them achieve the goals of the Grassroutes Program. Traits that we are looking for – Good leadership skills, adaptable, innovative, adventurous, interest in photography, movie-making or journalism, some good wit, and genuine love for challenges & coffee!

The last date of application is Nov 15, 2008. Please apply fast.

However as with all good things, there is a catch. You have to be under the age of 25 (sadly I am not - but I am still applying) and willing to do the grind work after the trips are over. Requires a lot of determination. Please check them out.

GrassRoutes.in for me is yet another New New Thing. Something that has the potential to change the way we look at issues confronting us as a nation. Please spread the word.

On 15th Oct, Jet Airways took a decision to retrench about 1900 employees (800 had already been asked to leave with another 1100 on the line). Obviously the decision was not personal and was taken to help the company battle the profitability and sustenance woes.

With all the media hype and popular delusions about the upcoming recession and job losses, the entire world went into a frenzy. From news channels to blogs to twitter to phone calls to SMSes, everyone had opinions. Opinions on how to save jobs to finding new ones to saving money in case you are retrenched by your company.

Employees obviously protested, spoke to political parties, Mr. Thackery even asked Jet to reconsider and company was held to ransom by MNS, CITU, Aviation Industry Employees Union and I dont know who all for this retrenchment.

I expected the company to stay confident and justify the move. Surprisingly, they did not. Infact, Jet Airways gave up and called back all the sacked employees. People touted this as the victory of morality, common mans’ win, employees rights and other such things. I beg to differ. In my humble opinion, India Inc lost again. A company was yet again held to ransom and was made to take a decision that does not do any shareholder any good. If I was a Jet Airways shareholder, I would have asked them how could they roll back retrenchment. How could they not work towards enhancing the shareholder value? How could they take decisions that were not in favor of the business.

Naresh Goel said that he was unaware of the decision. Makes me wonder what kind of management runs the company that forgets to update the Chairman about such a big decision. And was Mr. Goel deaf and dumb to have not heard all the news reports and noises? Mr. Goel clearly separated himself from the top management of the company and put the entire blame on them.

Obviously sacked employees would cry. There would be heart burns. Political parties would go any length to get free publicity and aligning themselves with causes. Politicians would have opinions. However, capitalist need to be firm and confident. A business owner needs to show confidence in the decisions made by him and his company. I find it absolutely ridiculous to first let go these many employees and then blame everything on the top management. I should ideally be writing this post criticizing media and politicians but with one move, Mr. Goel has lost all respect what-so-ever I had for him.

With the recent controversy around Tata and its Nano project, this comes as yet another rude shock to the business fraternity. We are clearly sending out signals that conducting business in India is getting more and more difficult. I do not want to pump in hard work and time and effort to create a company and then see it being forced to take decisions that are irrational and populist in nature. As an entrepreneur, I am skeptic. And I am scared to even think about creating businesses.

I ask why. India asks Why.

Exchange4Media reports that India Post has unveiled a new campaign to try and resurrect the 154 year old organization. As a part of the campaign, O&M Delhi has come up with a new logo and a tagline - “Giving wings to your dreams”, which in my humble opinions looks like a line created with Dilbert Mission Statement Generator

The agency says that the new logo “depicts yellow flourish on a red rectangle, symbolizing an envelope. Yellow represents a rising sun, while red, signifies the dawn of a new era.” I mean all that is fine but it lacks the class and panache of the simple, classic and yet powerful logo. Who would remember the “dawn of a new era” few years from now? I did not even realize that the yellow pseudo-swoosh on the red background is supposed to resemble folds of an envelope. Continue Reading »

Mr. Raj Thackery has now said that all the shops and establishments in Mumbai Maharashtra (or is it Maharashtra Mumbai) have to have their signboards in Marathi (IBN, TOI). He has also gone ahead and said that

Two days is what the shopkeepers have. Consider it a threat or whatever

I obviously respect Mr. Thackery’s enthusiasm and affection for the Marathi language but he has ignored a few very important things in his blinding excitement. Things like law and order in the state. Things like livelihood of these business owners. Things like putting the nation of a billion people first (compared to the proverbial Marathi-Manoos). Things like development of his beloved state of Maharashtra. Things like dividing the country into pieces.

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I got this SMS from a friend

While v celebrate 61 years of independence, i hav just one ques fr u - after spending more than 2 decades in this 61-yr old country, r u a proud indian or an apprehensive indian? I first heard the latest rabbi song ‘bilqis’ 5 days back on india’s independence day and am still haunted by it. And i am still looking fr n ans to the ques raised - ‘jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan hai?’

And since its 9:30 PM, I am in office and don’t have anything important to work on, I thought why not some self-reflection. Please beware that this is going to be a rant where I go on a mental trip and hopefully get an answer. And to put things in context, the song that Sonali is talking about is this. And while I am writing this, I am listening to it.

So the question asks me if I am a proud Indian or an apprehensive Indian. In one line, a short and sweet answer is that I am a proud Indian. And more than apprehensive I am confident, curious and motivated, all three at the same time. If you asked me why, I would have no real reasons except for the statement that everything India is, defines me (large, full of contradictions, basking in the past glory, struggling to cope up with realities of world fast changing world) and everything I am, defines India (young, mediocre, forward-looking, ambitious, trying to prove a point, wanting to lead the world).
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I dont know how many are even aware of Mr. Abdullah’s blog (Chacko posted about it on Mutiny), but as on yesterday he decided to shut down his blog (via this post). I tried posting comments but they are not being either approved or responded to.

Omar Abdullah says that he is shutting down his blog because

Last night as I finished my last post I realised that I was filled with dread at the heap of personal abuse I was expecting when I logged on this morning and I was not wrong. We truly are a bunch of intolerant people. We want to be heard but do not have the strength to hear, we want to have an opinion but do not believe anyone else is entitled to one.

Can we @ mutiny do something about it? I know the regular signature campaigns are just another way to show you care and not do anything. What if we as Mutiny Media (a publication starting 15th Aug) talk to him and try to give him more reasons why to blog? What if we show him that there are enough people who care about his blog and respect his opinion? Any media specialists hanging out on Mutiny?

I think a politician blogging is a very good idea because.

• It makes him more human and approachable.
• He gets timely and honest feedback. People can write back without fearing bureaucracy and lashback.
• People get to know what he really thinks (and not just the excerpts from media - media that can be biased).
• He sets a precedent for other politicians and public figures to follow suit and start writing.

Shutting a blog just because it attracts a lot of hate comments is simply not done. Blogging as a medium has its pros and cons and what we see in Omar Abdullah’s case is just one bad example.

Can we come up with ideas? Can mutiny finally make a difference and be counted as the “New Media”? Someone?

Last night, just before I slept, I chanced upon another song from Rabbi Shergill on Channel V. I just caught the last part of the song that ended with the beginning of our National Anthem.

Today morning first thing I did was download (illegally) the song. I heard it and it swept me off my feet. It is a must hear for anyone who thinks of India even remotely. While searching more about it, I realized that the song is about a month old and already has already been featured elsewhere on blogosphere (a very good post on Sepia Mutiny).

The song is available on the website of the album Avengi J Nahin at ajn.co.in. For those who prefer images to music, I found a low quality version on youtube here.

I will lift part of the lyrics from there, with due credits to Amardeep (Amardeep’s blog).

Mera naam Bilqis Yakub Rasool
Mujhse hui bas ek hi bhool
Ki jab dhhundhhte thhe vo Ram ko
To maen khardi thhi rah mein
Pehle ek ne puchha na mujhe kuchh pata thha
Dujey ko bhi mera yehi javab thha
Itno ne puchha ki mera ab saval hai ki
Jinhe naaz hai, hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai, vo kahan hain

Mera naam Shriman Satyendra Dubey
Jo kehna tha kah woh kah chukey
Ab pade hai rah main dil main liye ek goli
Bas itna Kassor ki humane likha tha
Woh sach jo har kisi ki zubaan tha
par sach yahan ho jaate hain zahreele
Jinhe naaz hai, hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai, vo kahan hain

Mujhe kahte hain ? Manjunath
Maine dekhi bhatakti ek laash
Zameer kay beech sadak lakhiyonpur khedi
Aadarsh phansa jahan baataon main
Aur chor bhare darbaron main
Wahan maut ? ki ek khabar hai basi
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Maza naam hai Lavleen Kumar
Unnees june unnees baar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees baar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees unnees unnees .. baar
Looto to haath kholo bazaar
Nalaspora aur Virar
Cheeno zamin humsey
Bhejo humain pataal
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

In this song, Rabbi talks about Bilquis Rassol, Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath and one Lavleen Kumar in the song. I know about Bilquis Rasool, Satyendra Dubey and Manjunath but can someone tell me who is this Lavleen Kumar? I searched his name and the context 19th Jun but could not find a thing. Someone please add here.

The lyrics talk about all these modern day Indians who have suffered because they thought they could raise their voices. Because they thought they could ask Y. Because they dared. Because they were Indians.

And their sacrifice probably got lost after our dear media moved onto other “more important” matters like health conditions of movie stars and relationships of cricketers. This song comes as a reminder for us. We do not want any more young engineers, management graduates to suffer the same fate. If these incidents fail to awaken the society, I wonder what would.

As I said earlier, the song ends with riffs from National Anthem and when it ends, you are left feeling good and bad at the same time. On one hand you are proud because you are humming your favorite tune. And you feel bad at the same time because music brings back memories of things being talked about in the song. The injustice, the call for action and finally the harsh realities of society we all dearly love.

In the end, I simply love the song and the entire idea of using music to spread word about India and being Indian. Do we know of more musicians like Rabbi? Can we please have more musicians like that in India?

After all the drama that happened in the parliament, very few people actually stand out for their conduct in the parliament yesterday. Somnath Chatterjee probably leads the way. He made sure that the trust vote proceeded without major interruptions and moderated the entire discussion with a mastery of a ring master.

However, his party rewarded him with an expulsion for “seriously compromising the party position“. His only crime? He did not resign from the post of speaker of the Lok Sabha when his party wanted him to.

Before the trust vote CPI(M), Mr. Chatterjee has been a member of CPI(M) for 40 odd years, asked him to resign from the post of the speaker so that the number of votes against the govt. goes up by one (the speaker does not vote in the confidence motion - he only votes in case of a hung verdict and his vote becomes a decider). However, Mr. Chatterjee stood high on his moral ground and decided not to resign and precede over the motion.

CPI(M) polit bureau member, Mr. Biman Bose said

Somnath Chatterjee might have acted according to the Indian Constitution, but our party has its own constitution and decisions are taken as per party rules

This is as ridiculous as it can get. Are we trying to say that Mr. Chatterjee was penalized because he put the Indian constitution higher than a political parties’ rules?

And with all these shenanigans they are trying to take on Mr. Chatterjee who has served on various committees and has even won the coveted outstanding parliamentarian award (in 1996) for his conduct and contributions.

Obviously expulsion from a party does not threaten his position as the speaker. A speaker cna only be removed is a no-confidence motion is passed against him. It is real unfortunate to see leftist parties acting in such a rash manner and being very short sighted.

What does the trust vote mean for India ..?

After all the drama that we witnessed yesterday, it actually comes as a breather that govt. is actually solid and will be till the next elections. Yesterday, probably was the blackest day in the history of independent India. From allegations on the ruling government to personal remarks to show of cash in the parliament to utter disrespect to the constitution, we saw it all. The entire world saw it all. And this is the world’s largest democracy we are talking about.
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