Attempt at Short Stories...

The cute little girl giggled seeing the old friend, the auto-rickshaw walla just took the dangerous turn, the old woman ]frowned upon by the rich old man in that honda city, the traffic signal, the loud noise from a college fest, the queue of a million cars waiting for the traffic signal, my mom and dad sitting behind me in the car that i drive from my office at hazra to the hotel at Camac Street. Its all happening here. We get down at the famous old Camac Street, park the car get down, take my mom and dad along to see the girl who they think could be a good bride. There's so much giggling around, so much chatting, people trying to find out and judge both the girl and me. So much facade. We have the hand-shakes a bit of chatting and we are back in the car. Mom and Dad look at me. I smile. We are seated. I look at the seat on my left. You are no more. No one can fill that void. The whole world without you is but empty. They can get someone seated on that seat again, but the emptiness will forever remain.

Real Long time after which i tried writing again. 6-7 years. PS:  a couple of you have asked if this story is real. NO nothing is real about it except the city and the location :D. I dont own a car and never had a break up or make up ;) :P :D

Moved Back... (dont know for how long..)

This person called lokesh verma seems to have lost my blog in his computer garbage :P

:x

Waited for too log to blog... so decided that this is the better place to start again...


So here I am....

Communist Party Of India!!

This image is created by me and u are free to use it :) (Dont even need to take permission :D)

we them!

I was just wondering how 'we' keep becoming 'they' and 'they' keep getting forgotten.





Period.

Raise a toast to Mr. Ratan Tata.

How easily do most Indians end up believing that Reliance is the real forerunner of the Indian Industry and the real source of inspiration to the next generation Entrepreneurs of our country!

To me the Reliance is a very good company when it comes to vision, but far from a benchmark that I would like to follow if ever I were to own a company! I have hated the manipulatory designs they have used to influence the government. I also think that there are issues related to corporate governance in the Group.

But this is not the time to blast Reliance.. It is a time to celebrate Ratan Tata's story. The Nano is just a stepping stone to what lies ahead! I wont write much about the Nano cos its all too much there in the press these days; I would only say that I am pretty confident that this will be the car of the decade.

I remember having seen an interview of Ratan Tata saying that he wanted all the Tata Group companies to be in the top 3 companies of their respective segments. To this endeavour, the Tatas sold off what some would say, their "top" companies. ACC, Tomco, Lakme, Goodlass Nerolac, Merind, Tata Yellow Pages to name just a few!

I guess most people would only dream to own such businesses! But then the empire had become too large and was unable to stand its own weight. It was the vision and far sightedness of Mr Ratan Tata that made him dare selling these.

The Tata group companies were bleeding bad... Tata motors the Indian Giant bled to the tune of 5 billion rupees!!! Tata Steel was in blood-bath. Perhaps, only TCS was doing well. It was the determination of Mr Tata, that these companies are today one of the largest companies by Market Cap in India. TCS and Tata Steel are Global giants. TCS is the largest Indian Software Company. Tata Motors probably at its point of inflection today. I would not be surprised if it could be the largest seller of cars in India 5 years from now!

Take social causes for instance. Not one Indian corporate house has given back to the society what they have.

When Tata Tea acquired Tetley, about 7-8 yrs back, It was by far the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian Company. There are a lot of Indian companies which have a so called global foot-print but to be true not many are really global in true terms! The only Indian company to be truly global, I think is Tata Steel. It has its manufacturing facilities and clients around the globe and that is the true test of being global. A lot of eyebrows were raised when some years back, the Tatas donated a good sum to the Oxford university over our IIT's or IIM's, but I guess the Tatas were only fulfilling their global responsibilities.

Ratan Tata has successfully done what very few can dream.. To transform a lazy, lethargic giant that was dying of its own weight of internal conflicts and egos to a vibrant war horse that most would defy size and strength. Kudos.

The 'Indian' Mentality

How many times do we see reports in the newspapers citing the success of the odd Indian in the States.. or how the Media abroad applaud the performance of one of the Indians; and then how often do we ourselves have that feeling of joy from within us?

When Rehman is called Mozart of the East or a young kid is selected for a NASA project or a NRI (who hates being associated as an Indian) successfully wins a seat in the Elections abroad or any other scientific development hyped up by the foreign media, dont we all start looking at these as the idols of our nation?

Very often, as a Nation get a sense of joy. To me, this is the Indian Mentality. (you could call it the developing world mentality as well!) Half of us Indians do not think that India has a future anywhere close to the developed world. Only when we see such reports, we say for a moment that some Indian did something big; the very next moment India is an abysmal failure.

The number of people who aspire to make a career outside India is a testimony to what I am saying. I hope that we start believing in ourselves on our own and stop thinking that the west is where success is and also stop looking to them to find successes/achievements that we have.

I hope we stopped taking pride in a movie receiving/getting nominated for an Oscar, or an actor having his wax replica at the Tussad's.

I hope we start being Indians.

Has Indian politics matured?

I hate the fact that there are only two strong Indian politicians.. one is Mayavati.. the other is Narendra Modi....

I had this false impression that the Indian politics had really matured after the last Lok Sabha elections, which were fought on the issue of development!
alas.. Hindutva and Caste politics are the only way to a sure shot victory.

I hope that Modi loses this election... But then I know how politics is :(