Sunday Posts

A comment on my earlier post: Hi Supriyo , Your comments are profound and insightful. But they are a third party comment. Ask me = a Mumbaiite to the core what I feel when I see the fire in Taj , the people running scared. It hurts - something inside me has died. My beloved city is being brutalised again. It has been used by various people to push their agendas - we all saw Raj Thackeray doing this for the last three - four weeks. And now it is the terrorists. Everyone seems to be discussing about what has happened - what are we going to do to stop this from happening again? Are we just going to fill blogs or are we going to get on to the streets and demand that our politicians do something about what has happened. We seem to be always ready to march on the streets for religious ceremonies, weddings, protests etc. Are we ready to march for our safety and our security? OR are we going to continue to cower in our houses or worse, pretend it never happened and carry on? We heard Sobha D...

I feel angry. I can not sleep. The TV still shows the pictures of Taj Mahal Hotel burning, bodies lying on street, blood stains and sounds of gunshot. I felt like this during the Belsan seize, when innocent school children were held hostage. Filled with a WHY in my mind. A terrible dawn, this - the terrible dawn Faiz Ahmed Faiz saw on 15 th August 1947. Our country is imploding from a seize within. The day will go down as India's 9/11. The day the fear made a comeback. Terrorists came on boat, and seized, without much resistance, some of our treasured landmark. Held our biggest city hostage. Killed the guests to our country. And, some of our best police officers. And, innocent citizens. And, all these terrorists were our citizens. Most probably. All they wanted to do is to play on our fear. Their aim : stoke our idiocy, and start another riot. They tried to strike us down, when the nation is wreathing under the global recession, sustained inflation and all that. They used our ...

I am watching the TV - the terrorist attack on Mumbai is being telecast live. This is going to be a long and cruel night. It seems that terrorists have taken over certain spots in Mumbai - VT station, a cafe in Colaba , and some of key hotels downtown. There seems to be encounters going on in different locations in South Mumbai . The reports are also saying that groups of young men, armed with grenades, explosives and assault rifles, have come into hotels and asked for British and American nationals and taken them away. There is a lot of confusion on the streets, and TV channels are broadcasting whatever they can. One noticeable thing is that there is a complete communication breakdown. The police did not make any substantial statement - no facts are being shared or communicated. I can see, right at this time, the Home Minister of India, Shivraj Patil , is making a statement. The statement sounds unsure and he is vainly trying to reassure people to stay calm, not to draw conclusio...

HR's brave new frontier is, of course, Talent Management. As Tom Peters puts it [as no one but Tom Peter can put it] - look at a business like a football team or an Orchestra, hire top talent and let them play. This whole thing about Talent is music to all ears, hire the best, retain the best and reward the best - and you get the job done. I believe in it. Yes, of course, the reasoning is obvious, and proof all too evident. There may be debate on what the top talent is - Tom Peters talks about someone who is a nonconformist, who 'would have screwed up something when they were twenty' - and how best to get them. But it is undeniable that being able to hire the best people puts the organization on a positive feedback loop, and improves performance beyond ordinary measures. However, the question is how to hire these people. They are not always available, looking for jobs. They are usually motivated by money, opportunity or by something more intangible - like making a differen...

The ultimate middle class urban Indian dream is to be able to live in a Gated Community. Yes, like the one above - which has nice playgrounds and swimming pools and 24x7 security and all modern luxuries of life. One can not avoid the city, its potholes, its terrible people, its hustle and bustle, the traffic, the pollution and the noise. And, hence, the ultimate dream is to be able to live completely oblivious of this, inside a community of like-minded high-earners, who are educated and suave, who send their children to expensive schools and attend the right parties, and share a similar mindset. Gated communities, hence, have sprang up all over India and found eager buyers. Sumit , a friend and one who bought a two bed flat in a Calcutta property, explained: More than one reason, really. First, there is no law and order outside - the first thing you will have to pay is a tola to local musclemen if you want to live anywhere else. You are at least immune from that here. Besides, the f...

Today there was snow in the morning, followed by some afternoon rain and a bitter cold breeze afterwards. It was too daunting to venture out, and besides I did not intend to go out to the mall because I did not have anything to buy. I have noticed, indeed, such days when I am out and about without the need to buy something, I end up buying things which are completely unnecessary. So, I stayed home to keep myself away from such wastefulness. My mood isn't all too sunny, so this caution was well-timed. I have this feeling which is midway between despondent and totally desperate , and I guess it is not getting any better. The news channels are full of gloomy news, and everyone you talk to is down too. British economy seemed to have taken the hit - and it seems, will continue to take hits in the coming days - from this recession. As expected, the United States look far more resilient than Britain, though I am sure it is not exactly at the best of its economic health right now. Compar...

I am hoping, despite various commitments on the calendar, that I shall stay home for the next six weeks to Christmas. In fact, I am dreaming about a week's leave around Christmas and may even take a short trip outside London. Indeed, I need all the time to recharge and resurrect myself - I have spent 2008 trying too hard. It is almost time for me to recount what happened, and what hasn't happened, and prepare fresh for the oncoming year. 2008 was a rather terrible year for me. Not as bad as 2006 - when I come to think - when I lost my mother and faced serious setbacks in my personal life; 2008 started as a promising year, building on the hard won gains of 2007, but did not deliver on the promises. Of course, 2008 was a ruinous year for many people, across the world. A credit crisis broke, and many people are significantly worse off today than they were at the beginning of the year. So, I can't complain, in fact, I should consider myself somewhat lucky by that measure. But, ...