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Showing posts from March, 2011

A tale of 1 country: Brothers in arms

I stand at my balcony and watch the unfortunate (no not unfortunate) events unfold 2 floors down. Dadi (grandmother) has fallen to the ground and is crying, my mother has a face of steel, its frozen into a blank stare; I know this state, I have seen it before, she is controlling herself showing a brave and proud wife to the world. She is helping dadi. Uncle keeps pointing past the gate and is shouting something at dada (grandfather). Dada has just locked the gate and is walking back to the house. Past the gate I can see a group of people all clad in white, surrounding something lying on the ground covered with a white cloth. My governess Shobhadi stands next to me holding me, afraid that I'll run downstairs into the scene unfolding. She and and the servants have been given strict orders that I can not be allowed downstairs. Dada thinks I do not understand what is happening, he thinks I cannot comprehend what is going on, but I do. The year is 1940, my name is Sandip, I'm 10 y

Where art thou?? Oh! enlightened ones!!!!!

Sitting on a desk, having gone through hundreds of profiles and tens of interviews, literally pulling his hair out he gives up for the day. On his way back home, driving through the little deserted streets of the city he ponders upon his plight. He rues the scarcity of capable people in his country. Its been days and he hasn't been able to find them. Where are they? Where are these illustrious Indians he wonders. "Have I gone blind or is it a nationwide conspiracy to bring down my venture?" He sits back on his chair and ponders on his laptop screen superficially going through the social lives of his "friends" on social networking sites. He comes across articles of how proud we should be that X% of Indians are in the NASA, on the moon in a NASA mission, in the pentagon and hell one of them( his acquaintances) has joined the US marines!!! The updates start to irk till he comes across one where a "fellow countryman" is talking about the various scams t

Taking lessons of Brand creation from Indian politics

( Wrote this for a friend who needed an article about this topic) Indian consumers are quite typical in their tastes and preferences. If you wish to learn brand management and desire a role for yourself as a business leader, you can learn quite many lessons from political science. Of course, political sciences in today’s times have been left quite behind, and it’s the business and technical sciences that rule today’s trends. But what people, conveniently forget is the fact that there is a lot common between political science and business management. Both have power as the integral plot of their story. You got to have the power to run a business behemoth and you need power to win an election and rule the masses. Sadly, we have never learned a lot of lessons in building brands from history. I will give you here an example of Mohandas KaramChand Gandhi. He was a political and social figure of high repute in India. But he was and is still used as a brand called Mahatma Gand

Economy Rise-Does it benefit all?

The economies are on the rise, what do they show,human rise? or rise of some humans in tide. why economy rise doesn't raise wages? why the low-paid worker still rages. what should i call it human ignorance?, or people over-privileged, only get chance. why the poverty is so widespread, like disease while the urban population lives in luxurious seas We are going for more industrialization but what is missing is equalization, of resources, of money, of rights, of society. Sword nor pen, just human choice is mighty. So,if India is the largest democracy, and in rise, then why its farmer families have to commit suicide?

Evil Practice in the name of God

Orthodox Hindu rituals which have no scientific proof for their results are still practiced at different places in India. I happened to see one such ritual at my own parental village in Uttranchal. It is called a 'jagar'. Jagar is not similar to other rituals performed by Hindus. Its different because the method to worship is very unholy. Some animals like goat, gecko and frogs etc are worshiped and then sacrificed in the name of pleasing the demigods. Some selected people dance like crazy around fire. The village people think that they are avatars of God! So called holy men smoke 'ganja'- or the local form of drugs in communities and dance when they're out, all in the name of God. Few men in the village who are otherwise purposeless and job-less argue in its favor, and tell people to believe this for the fear of God. People there think that each community or caste has their own demigod(s) that takes care of that particular sub-society! So each caste's people