India I feel Ashamed

India has been in the news for the wrong reasons for nearly a fortnight now.

There isn't anything I'm going to achieve by reminding everyone of what happened, as whatever happened was the most atrocious and henious act we would have heard in our life time. May be this happened or could happen elsewhere in the world too, which we aren't aware, but all of it adds to the same thing - we human being are vulnerable.

  

To quote Gandhiji, "Consider India to be free when women can walk out freely even @ midnight."
Sorry Gandhiji, we have neither heeded to your words nor have we used our freedom well, despite more and more being educated, and our becoming technology advanced. We still live in times of the past, else how will we explain that even today a "Girl" is not safe in her mother's womb, nor outside.

Am sure I am an injured and sad Indian today, as many are. Thank God Gandhiji you aren't live to see this ill-fated India.
 

Share this to as many if you really care. Let this be the 2013 New Year Wish We Share

 

Manage Your Moments

Life can take care of it self...

Whether we want them or not, the next moment will bring with it a whole lot of new challenges;

Whether we seize them or not, the next moment will bring new opportunities.

Whether we want it or not the New Year too holds several such moments and what you can convert it into is entirely in your hands.

It's easy to make the best use of each moment and our life time is composed of several moments which we need to knit together to make a life worthy of living.

Inspire yourself with this wonderful quote...

"When someone tells you that you can't do something, perhaps you should consider that they are only telling you what they can't do. ~ Sheldon Cahoon

Lesson from the Pigeons

by TSK. Raman

 

There was a family of pigeons which had made the top of a mosque as its abode. They were living happily for a sometime and when one day when the mosque was being decorated for a festival, the pigeons had to think of a relocation.

The head of the family discussed the migration with the family including so they moved to a church. They settled down in their new abode and life was going on smoothly till the church was being decorated this time again for a festival.

The family go together and discussed this issue and they planned another migration. This time around they migrated and made their new abode atop a temple.

One baby pigeon had a doubt and asked its mother, "please don’t mind if I ask you a question."

The mother pigeon said, "go ahead."

The baby asked, "When we were in the mosque people who came to worship were all known as Muslims and they followed Islam. When we moved to the church, people who came to worship were all known as Christians and they followed Christianity. Now here people who come here are called Hindu’s and they follow Hinduism. How come the same people just because they go to different places of worship get called by different names, where as we are called pigeons everywhere we go."

To this the mother replied, "We are way ahead of them. Good doubt indeed, we stay at a height and we also fly, where as human beings are on the ground and they do not ever rise, it is just for that reason we are so elevated in our thinking and they are still on the ground. When perhaps a man raises his level he will be able to see himself above all these minor divides."

The moral of this story: When we are on the same level, we can’t see that far, but when we raise our levels we see from the top we see things we enjoy a more broader vision.

To Change or not to is in your mind

DEVELOP A GOOD MINDSET

- A HEALTHY, WEALTHY AND A WISE ONE

by TSK. Raman

The biggest stumbling block to progress is our mind set. We often go back to the previous experiences we have had in life and we look at the situations you confronted, and act accordingly. You might be tended to want to use that expereince for a solution this day. Not a bad deal, however, you generally do not take into account is the fact that the world around you is changing constantly and rapidly with the advancement and use of technology in our daily life. It's your mindset that prevents you from thinking ahead, but if you think about it deeply, there are several ways to improve your mindset. Doing so will ensure that life situations are forever improving and developing a healthy (pure thinking) wealthy (wisdom rich) mindset will gauantee that you build your life in a much better fashion. To help you maintain your new mindset, each week, re-examine your core beliefs (which shouldn't change much), attitudes (a positive one, with a never say die spirit), and actions (proactive rather than reactive), regarding situations in life and repeat this process for any slips back to your old, ineffective mindset.

Changing and improving your mindset is the first step to add value to your life, which will spin off into good health first and wealth later. It is your mindset ultimately that will determine the opportunities thatcomes your way. You will recognize and create, as well as determine your ability to capitalize upon them. What are you waiting for. Get started today and watch your life soar to new heights.

How to develop such a mindset?

1. Scrutinize your current mindset. At this point of time, how do you view life, health, money and wealth?
Ask yourself what needs to change about your beliefs and attitudes if you're going to give yourself the opportunity to make your life different by becoming healthy, wealthy and wise?
Do you think and feel only positive things when you think about these aspect of life - health that you have, money that you make and wealth you create.?

2. Adopt a new set of beliefs.What new beliefs would you need to become the changed person you want to be?
Make a list with these ideas, if it may help:
    Do you routinely spot opportunities to make life better?
    Do you routinelly spot opportunities to make a better living working hard?
    Do you spend money on things that don't provide real value to my life. If yes take another look into what's useful and
    what's not, if possible elimate the waste.
    Think was to what all you can generate all the wealth I could possibly to make a decent living.

3. First rehearse - mentally. We do everything in our mind before we put it into action. This is called visualization. We do not realize this truth because of its becoming a habit. Therefore, while you're still lying in bed, imagine, every morning approaching the world with these new beliefs.
A good way to do would be to make your new beliefs habitual by daily visualization.
This practice will become even better and solid if we repeat this once again in the night before you fall asleep.

4. "Change your past because it is history."  The first suggestion would be to forget your past, but remember the misakes you've made. Concsiously recall and review the mistakes you've made in the past. Check if you've learnt any lessons from that expereince. It can be very helpful to revisit the mistakes you've made in life and the opportunities you've missed, but this time, change your history to see yourself in the same situations acting with your new beliefs.
What would you have changed about your approach and your thought process?

5. You be your own judge and evaluate yourself.  At the end of each day, examine your thoughts and behavior for that day. What would you have done differently if you were in your "new mindset" mode? Just as importantly, what did you do well, examine what could have been done better, if it was not, and what needs to be changed?

When you've done all this 'pat' yourself and keep evolving always.

Life Is What We Make Of It

Life Is What We Make Of It

by TSK. Raman

It's about 15 odd years ago my little boy called Abi who began to play league cricket, used to have matches every Sunday, and I would take him, be with him the whole day and bring him back. I would also always get tempted to play, as I used to play regularly long ago, but I resisted my temptation for a reasons

- I didn't want grab a chance which could very well go to a kid,

- I wasn't wanting to risk any injury should I play, because an injury would affect not only my home but would also interfere with my professional life because injuries can always take a while to heal

- I wasn't going to last a whole day playing from morning to evening, week-after-week, as grabbing a day's rest during a working week was most essential to recharge myself for the week ahead after the weekend.

All this said, there was a match I wanted to play very badly for two reasons

- It was going to be played in one of my most favorite grounds, a place in the Army Cantonment side. The ground nestled in a serene locale surrounded by trees all around, and a hill in the background making it a perfect setting of playing in the countryside. I told my friends, who were in charge of the team my son was playing for. These guys were known to me earlier too as they started playing just a few years before I called it a day. Now these guys were grown up too and they were playing along with their sons, for encouraging them and also coaching them in the process.

Finally the day which I was waiting for arrived.

A few days before this I used to do a bit of jogging and stretching exercises just enough to feel a little loose. It was just enough, but by no means anywhere close to what it ought to actually be. For this level and that too for just one day, it might have just served the purpose.

We got up early and got dressed up and made a dash to the ground which wasn't far away from where we stayed. I was dreaming that I would take to the field along with my son, and who knows we might even bat together, so that I might guide him to make a substantial contribution. We reached the ground before the others and slowly one by one all the others trickled in. We greeted each other, and as soon as my friends saw me dressed, they knew I was serious about it. they went into a huddle and in a few minutes they came to tell me the news that only one of us could play (my son or me), and the choice was on me. I looked into the distance, my son was practicing catches, after knocking a few balls. As told earlier, I wanted to play this match, very much because it also had some of my old friends in the opposite camp. I was furious as much as I felt sorry for my little son should I choose to play, because he will be disappointed. My heart was heavy, however, I gathered courage to share this thought with my son. He looked at hi mates for he has been a part in a few matches earlier. His mother back home knew that he had his heart set on being in the play and she was worried about how he would react if he wasn’t chosen.

This day was never like any before as I was feeling anxious about the outcome. Abi, his eyes were shining with pride and excitement, hugged me, and said, "Guess what Dad," he shouted, and then said the words that can provide a lesson to us all, "I've chosen to clap and cheer for you today."

THE ROAD TO ORISSA AND BACK

THE ROAD TO ORISSA AND BACK   

From the journal of my adorable son

Abishek Bharadwaj

- abishekbh@gmail.com

It all started with me wanting to work at the grassroots after completing my masters in the US. When I started my assignment, I chose to take over the micro-hydro projects, staying out of Kalahandi, one of the remotest districts in India, a part of the infamous KBK region. Transitioning from Pittsburgh to Bhavanipatna was a challenge as expected, but at the end of one year I have experiences things far more intense than I had imagined.

In a new millennia with development paradigms redefined every decade in a developing country like India, Kalahandi is like none other. One can drive 50 kms at a stretch without lights and devoid of basic necessities. But who defines what people truly need? It is astonishing how these people settled in areas which possess quite a challenge to reach. All they cared about is an access to basic resources and fertile land, most often close to perennial streams and amongst vegetated hillocks. Elsewhere technology and capital prosperity are factors to determining a future. There are superfluous amounts of money flowing into the district only for lack of ingenuity, extortion and fraudulency to mirror any positive intent, rendering hopelessness.

I came to work in the village of Punjam, which is situated at a distance of 60 kms from the nearest town. Placed in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills and amidst two perennial streams, this 110 household village, comprising mostly of tribals is one of a kind. The soil is incredibly fertile and the climate is apt to grow absolutely anything under the sun.

My one year in Kalahandi has changed me quite a bit. Since the organization’s focus was not micro-hydro, I was working independently on the project. I was responsible for the technical, social and financial implementation of the project with no support whatsoever. I started off in Punjam, not knowing the language and my communication was initially all sign language, only later to pick up a language that I called Okhra, a major concoction of Oriya, Hindi and Kui (a tribal language).

I was stationed at Bhavanipatna, where I worked with a local workshop team that fabricated the turbine and an electrical winding person who helped install the project. Staying in a shady room, scavenging for decent food and water, withstanding temperatures as low as 1 degree and as high as 48 degrees were a part of the craziness in this lackadaisical town where intermittent telephone signal and incessant power cuts were accepted as inadequacies of technology.

I should say I enjoyed working in the beautiful micro-hydro environments where a perennial stream and steep terrains amongst thick jungles are pre-requisites. Understanding the tribal way of life and innovating my way through to blend in the technology with few available resources worsened by unsuitable terrains and remoteness, were indeed positive takeaways. There were lots to experience from riding through streams, staying in malarial endemic conditions without contacting the virus and just about avoiding being washed away by a flashflood. Revisiting these memories what I would love to share were the last two weeks of the project which has certainly left an eternal print.

Fighting against time because of pressure from the funders, I had to complete the project in two weeks; I had great help from a Sri Lankan friend Ajith Kumara, who is by far the most talented barefoot engineer I have worked with. He supplied the Electronic Load Controller (ELC), a very essential part of the project and boy…was it good! The plan was to provide the street lights as soon as possible and then work on the supplying the power to the houses while concurrently tuning the ELC against the street light load. Persistent unyielding rains were acting like a persuasive force against the progress of the project. Slushy roads made it impossible to traverse the road in a vehicle and we had to walk 6 kms off road just to reach the village which also included wading through the bulging stream. Ajith and I had long working days which involved an average of 16 kms walk. I took care of the affairs at the village while Ajith was working out of the powerhouse situated 2kms uphill from the village. Communication was a challenge as the village does not have phone lines. We devised innovative strategies to work in tandem and to test the supply.

It took nearly two days to test and supply power to the street lights. Punjam received its first light on 31<sup>st of July, 2012, which is also ironically the day a significant part of India had a blackout due to a grid failure. Punjam did not realize the failure of the modern world and its energy options as they already become self-reliant with their alternative energy option lighting their streets. That was certainly a significant progress.

A bizarre incident marred the usual excitement in the villagers with the first shine of light. Apparently the local goddess (Devi) was flustered by the light which punctured the quintessential darkness that absorbed the way of life in the village till then. The spirit of the Devi embodied a maiden in the village resulting in her losing control of herself. I witnessed the incident with circumspect as these beliefs were archaic for my urbane way of thought and I initially believed it was all staged. But the maiden’s uncontrolled continuous shivering coupled with rising body temperature and incongruous inscrutable lamenting convinced me that she was naturally in a state of dementia. According to the villagers the only way of placating the Devi was to perform a tribal pooja or a ritual the following day at the dam site, since the micro-hydro project was held accountable for the occurrence of this. The ritual was performed with a tribal priestess involving a sacrifice of a goat so that the Devi is satiated with the goat’s life thereby departing the maiden’s body. The sacrifice was undertaken by a trained villager with an exquisite two generations old antique axe. The goat’s neck is to be slashed by a single blow, devoid of which the entire ritual will have to be repeated and indeed the sacrifice was done with great dexterity. Though I was in opposition to the sacrifice of the goat, I was certainly intrigued by the turn of events following the ritual, where the maiden reclaimed her normal self after a short slumber. When I interrogated her out of curiosity, the maiden declared that she does not have the faintest idea of what happened and the entire night snatched from her into oblivion.

The following week was equally exciting with us supplying power to each household. Ajith and I worked assiduously in installing the safety equipments, energy meters and checking the house wiring in all the 110 homes before energizing them. We trained the operators selected by the village committee to handle the system in our absence and counseled them through the week on maintaining it in order. The celebration in the village commenced very early in the day with almost the entire village intoxicating themselves at the advent of energy lighting their houses. Most of them were too inebriated to grasp the gravity of the moment the lights were actually turned on. However, I did bask in satisfaction from the ecstatic reactions radiated by the sober few. The quality of AC power supplied to the houses was flawless illustrating a perfect sinusoidal wave in our oscilloscope. I could not have asked for anything better after a years’ toil.

By then I had already put in my papers and those were the last few days of my stay in Kalahandi before I set out for my next phase of life in a more urban setting. Ajith and I bid our goodbyes to Punjam and Bhawanipatna before embarking on our journey back to the head office at Berhampur. Settled in the bus, Ajith and I finally got time to reflect back and discuss the project. After the adrenaline levels and exhaustion at its peak we were enjoying the sobriety. Even in our wildest dreams we wouldn’t have sermonized what we had in store that night. Around 12:30, while we were travelling through the forest in Kandhemal, our bus was stopped and 6 men with glossy INSAS guns entered the bus. Yes it really happened, the maoists had information that a cop was travelling with us and they needed him. They quickly examined all the potential men to find the cop. I was particularly scared for Ajith, as he was a foreigner had does not understand a word of the perfect Hindi the maoists communicated in. The maoists were not convinced with our answers and they decided to haul the bus off road into the pitch dark forest for about 400 mts. After we parked they asked every man in the bus to disembark in singles for interrogation at gun point. Ajith and I fortunately were sitting at far end of the bus, much to my dislike, till then. With a comrade standing right next to us, I had to whisper to Ajith, explaining what was happening as he was completely lost and was almost thinking it was some weird drill. I was concurrently harassing myself to come up with a plan as I absolutely would not know how they would react when Ajith’s turn comes. Again fortunately when Ajith’s turn came we were called in pairs. This greatly relieved me, as I can be the mouth for Ajith too. The interrogation at gun point was certainly harrowing and this happened for 15 minutes. Lots of questions asked, lots answered and they let us get back into the bus with empty pockets! We were held hostage for almost 3 hours till they were convinced none of us were cops and finally much to our bliss, the ordeal ended. We then drove to the nearest police station where there was CRPF presence, only for them to deny accepting that we were stopped by maoists and they filed a report saying we were mugged by conventional low grade armed dacoits. There is so much to talk with respect to naxals and the few I had met and the state’s frustrating stance against the movement. I will probably write a separate piece on that.

This maoists incident almost serendipitously happened just to make me aware that I had not experienced enough and needed this to complete the cycle, just like an icing on the cake, only layered much thicker and will stay longer in my memory! At the end of one year I can say I am multi-dimensionally enriched and am proud of changing something in the lives of 400 people, and this exactly between the Independence days of 2011 and 2012. Jai Hind!</sup>

Thought for the day:

"Education is not studying for examinations, clearing them, earning marks and then a degree, but, what is really important in life is to retain that which you learnt for the exam, and those you were not tested on. You develope yourself by applying your learning appropriately with relevance too, to your work and life and experience a joy. That is what will keep you well on track for a balanced life." ~ TSK. Raman

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." ~ Helen Keller

"We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, clim over them, or build with them." ~ William Arthur Ward

" The greater the tension, the greater is the potential."~ Carl Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." ~ Winston Churchill

"Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." ~ Karl Barth

"I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties." ~ James Cash Penney, 1875-1971, Founder of J.C. Penney Stores

"You've only got three choices in life: Give up, give in, or give it all you've got." ~ Unknown

Calmness in Chaos

Author unknown

Once upon a time there was a king who ruled a certain country and was known far and wide for the way in which he ruled his land always seeking the welfare of his subjects.

Also known for his artistic tastes, he decided to hold a competition for painters. On a fixed day painters came from far and wide to display their skills. With all humility he was endowed with, he acknowledged them and urged them to create the best they can.

The competition began and all the artists assembled there began their painting.
After about three or four hours all of them had painted what they had conceived.
The king went about seeing all of them and spent time talking to each of the creators to understand their creations.

Some of them had painted beautiful landscapes, some painted the mountains, some the seas, some the stars and the sky, some the villages and the scenes etc.
All of them were beautiful in their own way.

It was now time for making the decision and announcing who was the best.
After he saw every one of the paintings, and evaluating the paintings on their merits, he chose to award one painting that projected a thunderous waterfall, with strong winds blowing the trees and heavy dark clouds hovering in the sky. Amidst this chaos, just near the falls was a bird's nest in which the older bird was feeding its child.

The painters and people were pretty surprised about the king's choice and one of them dared to ask the king for the logic behind his selection.

The king replied, he chose to award that painting the best because he saw "Calmness in Chaos." Amidst, the thunderous waterfall, the violent winds, bending trees, impending storm, a bird unmindful of all the chaos around it was feeding its child as if nothing is happening around it. Everyone applauded the king for his wisdom and choice.

What can such a story and such a wise thing teach us in modern times where we are all living in a chaotic world.
My thoughts on that...

 

It is undeniable that we are caught up with many things every given day. Man has created things by learning, understanding and using technology, which has definitely made our lives comfortable. However, the fact is, we are all living life in a mad rush, forgetting the fact that we do things to make a living, and, we ought not to make our living be dominated by those things we created around us for convenience.

Can we imagine living in a world of today minus the mobile, the computer, the internet etc.?

The answer would be an emphatic, "No."

Accepted.

But did people in the not so long ago past live minus these gizmos and did they not go to create some things that enable mankind take a big step forward in civilization like for instance – invention of wheel, saw a revolution of creations like the carts, cycles, trains, cars, etc. that enabled him go distances in lesser time. Looking at the birds and wanting to fly man made his flight in the sky on an aero plane and taking it all forward he also landed on the moon. The radio, the telephone, T.V. etc., was all man's creations much before the technology revolution. All of this was because of his curiosity and so the Edison's, the Einstein's, the Graham Bell's etc., are all people who are remembered even to this day.

Suddenly over the last two decades or so everything seems to have changed so drastically that we would be left behind if we are not able to upgrade ourselves.
And that is the right thing to do.

However, too much of everything is 'bad,' they say and that's what the state of our lives is today.

We seemed to get worked up very easily - we get upset if the

・E mobile signals don't reach your mobile
・E mobile stops working because of a technical problem
・E computer hangs while working
・E internet is down
・E the chosen internet sites do not open

These are just a few examples cited on how we react when things go wrong. After all these are all our own creations. The ripple effects of these failures have a bearing on the way we react and the we behave be it at work, or the house or where ever.

We have become very short-fused, we have lost control over ourselves. Everyone blows out at the slightest. Like things can go wrong very quickly our relationship too go wrong easily. Divorces, suicides, misunderstandings, arguments etc., are all a result of our dependencies and the way they work.

I do not want to suggest that am old-fashioned in my thinking, nor would I want to start saying anything like, "In those days..." I do not deny that technology has done wonders to our living, however, I would like to urge people to keep it under limits and also enjoy things around them.

Just see this for an example, we have known days when plastic was not heard of. Plastic emerged and came to stay. People hailed its arrival and found it convenient. Over a period of time people have realized the harm it can cause to argi produce and the nature. Now there is a world-wide call to 'ban' plastics.

Another example is the felling of trees. In order to meet the growing demands of providing houses, better roads, electricity etc., man pulled down trees and met his wants. With this forest began to shrink in size, it started effecting the climate world over calling it 'global-warming.' It has affected rainfall, and because of that most rivers are running dry, the ice on the poles is melting and the seas are swelling because of melting ice. Earthquakes, tsunamis are most common occurrence. Man suddenly finds his existence threatened and so today we want to fight against that and we want to plant more trees etc.

Good at least now people have been to recognize this and are making efforts, but the fact is it is just a small population of the world that seeks to live in "Calmness around the Chaos," where as there are many who think these people are crazy impractical dreamers and that they seem to be the only intelligent people who know how to use time, money and all the resources available at their mercy to make more than a living.

Be it that way, as here too the same rule will apply 20% of the people all over the world look after the welfare of the other 80%.

Decide whether you would want to be among the 20% or the 80% it's your life anyway, but we are interested in ing mankind survive. We owe it to the generation that it is yet to come, we want to leave this earth much the same way as we inherited.

To All My Seniors in IDL Chemicals Limited

Dear Hon'ble Seniors,
I take this as a opportunity to thank the almighty for bestowing on me such a wonderful and envious life. I am very proud of every accomplishment thus far in my life, and I quickly add, I haven't reached a plateau, I have many more miles to cover before I sleep.
Part 1.
My humblest pranams apart from everyone firstly to Mrs. Pramila Nanda, who was my first boss when I started my career even before I got into IDL. It happened by chance, thought today I might say it was 'God's Will, and his Gift of Future to me." Mrs. Pramila Nanda was my first boss in IDL too, however to me she was much much more that that, she was my mentor, coach, guide, well-wisher et all. She was an integral part of the first half of my professional life, and has been pretty instrumental in making me in many ways what I am today. May her tribe increase. An 'incredible lady' in every sense of the word, for me a "treasure."

Next after that would be my to everyone else who presided over my life. Everyone who crossed my path, encouraging or discouraging, whatever it may have been, known or unknown, deliberately or accidentally, all of them have taught me something in life which is worth it's weight in gold. They can be inscribed on the tombs of time in letters of 'diamond' 'paltinum' or any invaluble thing that those who see in the future shall be proud of. Looking at the several things that are prevalent in our country in present time, I can vouch my life to say, we all lived and lead an 'exemplary life.' We can all lift our collar's with pride ... read this story which will spell out more. We were a part of this club the Ex-IDL Club ...

I've been very keenly following every mail that's been flowing, it's been perennial. Wish really the rivers in India flow as much and as these memories, thoughts and strings of gratitude from our colleagues, dispersed across geographies. It's not only nice to read it but also nice to savor to such an extent that it transports you in time to relive the past, despite the present circumstances - personal or otherwise.

It's amazing how times flies and can remember this vividly, I was schooling in St. Patrick's High School, Secunderabad and one of them from our neighborhood asked an uncle of mine if he was interested in a job and so he landed in IDL, appointed into the crimping shop. Facilities were good salary, free pick up and drop, subsidized wholesome canteen milk, free tea when you check into work and about to leave and that to virtually at your door step.

Now all these things and that too around 50 years ago is something that is super-visionary, and that could come in only for one of the finest gentlemen I have met on this planet, and that's our Late Sri. M. Varadarajan.

Part 2.
I am far too junior to most of them in this august gathering, however, this flows from my heart freely and that too with my head bowed in reverence.

To me and am sure that there would be many in this group who will swear by this fact that he made many homes, many lives. I will not be surprised that his picture would be in their pooja rooms along with the Gods on display. I'm not being a sycophant, by any stretch of imagination. I say this with absolute authority as I have spent the other half of my professional life in IT. My journey in this space has brought me in touch with some leading lights on the global IT map. The world has acknowledged many of them for all of their accomplishments, however, to me all of them come only after our Late Sri. M. Varadarajan. So I would first offer my gratitude to him where ever he is to let him know that even my life was one that he molded. I can hardly recall a single day that he doesn't cross my mind. When I see books written by and about the IT czars, a book of Late Sri Varadarajan if it were realized a few years ago, might have sold a million copies. What ever he conceived, he put it to action, followed it up, gave all the support it deserved be it in terms of money, workforce or expertise, he provided it all to ensure it worked. People talk abut Infosys, WIPRO, TCS, Cognizant, NIIT, Satyam etc., these companies were started by people who were at the right place at the right time doing the right thing, with again people like Dr. Sam Pitroda, the then Scientifc Adviser to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology. That gave it the boost, for a new industry, and the rest is history. So to me they contributed to the National exchequer wonderfully well, and also amassed a lot of personal wealth as they figure in the Forbes list of some of the richest people in the world. I feel proud being an Indian, but that's it. Their feeling for people who worked for them or their companies do not go beyond some very closely trusted colleagues. Their talks on platforms and forums about the people who work for them is good to the ears, but not to the hearts as everyone involved within knows that the company can't be without them and so they take a lot of money for what they deliver, the rest they take it as a bonus. So the underlying thing for me is the lack of real passion on both sides.

Part 3
Let's go back to history for a moment again, a highly charged, passionate, and ambitious young man around 38 years, decides to start a company manufacturing industrial explosives, puts the seed money - authorized capital of Rs.8,00,000, all from his own sources. Builds a small band of people to assist him on his mission, scouts for land in the out skirts, ensures that lots of it is available (keeping in mind future expansion + safety). takes it on long term lease and starts off. I now wonder how he would have located people whom he wanted on his venture and on his team to take his mission forward. I'm sure he wouldn't ever have said there is a talent crunch, because in those days while people were brilliant, they would be in secure government jobs, and to convince them with his story would call for extra-ordinary narration skills. He could do it because of his honesty and sincerity of purpose. For him welfare of everyone around him was an equally big concern. Growing from the grass root level, working on the mission of import substitution, working within the framework of all statutory conditions laid by the government, using every little scheme that supported his cause, he built a self-dependent future not only for the one's who worked with him, but for the nation too. That is what to me is passion in every aspect. He didn't ever flaunt his wealth and was modest as ever, in what he wore and swore. He lived as much as know in a leased accomodation, drove an Ambassador or Fiat car (could have very well afforded a Mercedes, but chose not to). I can go on and on like this, and you all know yourselves as you have seen him in 'flesh and bones.' He was walking along side us a 'towering personality' he was.
Part 4
If the late Dr. Kurien was called the man behind the "white revolution," and Dr. M.S. Swaminathan was the man behind the "green revolution" and awarded the Padma's (Sri, Bhushan and Vibhushan), I believe late Sri Mudumbai Varadarajan should have been recognized along side them because in real terms he was the one who started making explosives - technology imported but manufacturing it indigenously, were as the only other company in existence at that time was importing explosive and just assembling them in India.

Again going back further deeper into history Alfred Noble was cursed for his inventing the dynamite, but that later paved the way for using the same destructive material for very constructive purposes, like becoming a boon for miner's of the future.

Part 5.
Today, it has gone even further, as all the new mines are open-cast, whereas the old one's are underground still. Here again Mr. Varadarajan excelled as his frequent travels abroad to gain first hand information on developments and technology enabled him to foresee this change and start the bulk loading system closer to the mines and delivered straight into drilled holes by trucks. The best possible in every aspect, commercially effective and safely too. I sometimes wonder what all he would have done if only he had the Google and the Mobiles and the I-Pads at his disposal.

His vision on technology was again unparallel - The thought on Solar Energy, the use of Cold Bitumen, High Explosives Bulk Loading System etc., were all way ahead of time. And today all of these things have become a default practice of people pursuing it vigorously campaigning hard for adaptation. If he were there amidst us today, I am sure he would have taken no credit what so ever for any of these, but would have named some of his trusted advisers like late MSN, late KSV, the VCK, MND, Dr. AKC, VYT, Dr. KC, ......

On the welfare side, the establishment of diary farm, the Diagnostic health Check Up scheme, the IDL Rural Development Trust, the family planning policy, Children's Education Assistance, Housing Loan to the Management staff etc., has no parallel. All those beneficiaries or these or some of these schemes will endorse what I say. To say the least it was amazing and it came from a man who loved the people he was engaged with. He trusted them and earned their respect all the way. He was a true leader in every sense of the word.

I am stopping with this for now as missing out on any would mean bad, but believe me he would have acknowledged everyone for all that they did to make him what he was. His modesty would be unbelievable.

I have learnt more that one or two things - IDL didn't just give me bread but it taught me the skill of kneading the dough to make "bread" all my life and to make a living of it all.

This story that follows will elaborate several other learning's in life, and the credit for all this goes to my formative years in which IDL is included.

Thank God For The TATA's, By L. N. Mittal

It is one thing for all of us to compliment Tata's, but this compliment coming from their prime global competitor (Lakshmi Mittal,currently fourth richest man in the world.), is indeed THE ultimate compliment. It makes us all proud and proves even in today's selfish, greedy and egoistic world, there is nothing higher than core Zoroastrian values.

Note what Mr. Mittal has to say-about Tata's managing Director being humble and smiling silently with humility .

Moreover, they are very eco conscious, the clarion call of this age, a basic Zoroastrian tenet. (you just might want to compare that with BP) .

A lesson to the greed-driven corporate culture of the world. May there be many Jamshedpur like cities around the globe.

A TRIBUTE - Thank God For The TATA’s.

By Lakshmi Mittal

As Lakshmi Mittal says ......... we have more to be proud of than what the Infosys and Wipro's of India provide ...........

I visited Jamshedpur over the weekend to see for myself an India that is fast disappearing despite all the wolf-cries of people like Narayanamurthy and his ilk.

It is one thing to talk and quite another to do and I am delighted to tell you that Ratan Tata has kept alive the legacy of perhaps India's finest industrialist, J.N. Tata.

Something that some people doubted when Ratan took over the House of the Tata's but in hindsight, the best thing to have happened to the Tata's is unquestionably Ratan.

I was amazed to see the extent of corporate philanthropy and this is no exaggeration.

For the breed that talks about corporate social responsibility and talks about the role of corporate India, a visit to Jamshedpur is a must.

Go there and see the amount of money they pump into keeping the town going; see the smiling faces of workers in a region known for industrial unrest; see the standard of living in a city that is almost
isolated from the mess in the rest of the country.

This is not meant to be a puff piece. I have nothing to do with Tata Steel, but I strongly believe the message of hope and the message of goodness that they are spreading is worth sharing.

The fact that you do have companies in India which look at workers as human beings and who do not blow their software trumpet of having changed lives.

In fact, I asked Mr. Muthurman, the managing director, as to why he was so quiet about all they had done and all he could offer in return was a smile wrapped in humility, which said it all.

They have done so much more since I last visited Jamshedpur, which was in 1992. The town has obviously got busier but the values thankfully haven't changed. The food is still as amazing as it always was and I gorged, as I would normally do. I visited the plant and the last time I did that was with Russi Mody. But the plant this time was gleaming and far from what it used to be. Greener and cleaner and a tribute to environment management. You could have been in the mountains. Such was the quality of air I inhaled!

There was no belching smoke, no tired faces and so many more women workers, even on the shop floor.

This is true gender equality and not the kind that is often espoused at seminars organised by angry activists.

I met so many old friends. Most of them have aged but not grown old. There was a spring in the air which came from a certain calmness which has always been the hallmark of Jamshedpur and something I savoured for a full two days in between receiving messages of how boring and decrepit the lack lustre Fashion Week was.

Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata had created an edifice that is today a robust company and it is not about profits and about valuation. It is not about who becomes a millionaire and who doesn't'. It is about
getting the job done with dignity and respect keeping the age-old values intact and this is what I learnt.

I jokingly asked someone as to whether they ever thought of joining an Infosys or a Wipro and pat came the reply: "We are not interested in becoming crorepatis but in making others crorepatis."

Which is exactly what the Tata's have done for years in and around Jamshedpur.

Very few people know that Jamshedpur has been selected as a UN Global Compact City, edging out the other nominee from India, Bangalore. Selected because of the quality of life, because of the conditions of sanitation and roads and welfare. If this is not a tribute to industrial India, then what is?

Today, Indian needs several Jamshedpur’s but it also needs this Jamshedpur to be given its fair due, its recognition. I am tired of campus visits being publicises to the Infosys and the Wipro's of the world.

Modern India is being built in Jamshedpur as we speak. An India built on the strength of core convictions and nothing was more apparent about that than the experiment with truth and reality that Tata Steel is conducting at Pipla.

Forty-eight tribal girls (yes, tribal girls who these corrupt and evil politicians only talk about but do nothing for) are being educated through a residential program over nine months. I went to visit them and I spoke to them in a language that they have just learnt: Bengali.

Eight weeks ago, they could only speak in Sainthali, their local dialect. But today, they are brimming with a confidence that will bring tears to your eyes. It did to mine.

One of them has just been selected to represent Jharkand in the state archery competition. They have their own women's football team and what's more they are now fond of education. It is a passion and not a burden.

This was possible because I guess people like Ratan Tata and Muthurman haven't sold their souls to some business management drivel, which tells us that we must only do business and nothing else.

The fact that not one Tata executive has been touched by the Naxalites in that area talks about the social respect that the Tata's have earned.
The Tata's do not need this piece to be praised and lauded.

My intent is to share the larger picture that we so often miss in the haze of the slime and sleaze that politics imparts. My submissions to those who use phrases such as "feel-good" and "India Shining" must first visit Jamshedpur to understand what it all means.

See Tata Steel in action to know what companies can do if they wish to. And what corporate India needs to do.

Murli Manohar Joshi would be better off seeing what Tata Steel has done by creating the Xavier Institute of Tribal Education rather than by proffering excuses for the imbroglio in the IIMs.

This is where the Advani's and Vajpayee’s need to pay homage. Not to all the Sai Babas and the Hugging saints that they are so busy with. India is changing inspite of them and they need to realise that. I couldn't have spent a more humane and wonderful weekend. Jamshedpur is an eye-opener and a role model, which should be made mandatory for replication.

I saw corporate India actually participate in basic nation-building, for when these tribal girls go back to their villages, they will return with knowledge that will truly be life-altering. Corporate India can do it but most of the time is willing to shy away.

For those corporate leaders who are happier winning awards and being interviewed on their choice of clothes, my advice is visit Tata Steel, spend some days at Jamshedpur and see a nation's transformation. That is true service.

Tata Steel celebrated 100 years of existence in 2007. It isn't just a milestone in this company's history.
It will be a milestone, to my mind of corporate transparency and generosity in this country.
It is indeed fitting that Ratan Tata today heads a group that has people who are committed to nation building than just building influence and power.

JRD must be smiling wherever he is. And so must Jamshedji Nusserwanji.
These people today have literally climbed every last blue mountain.
And continue to do so with vigour and passion.

Thank God For The Tatas!

'Fifty Years in the Global Village': Remembering Marshall McLuhan on His 100th Birthday

William F. Baker, August 4, 2011

Marshall McLuhan, the visionary media theorist who gave us the phrases "global village" and "the medium is the message," was born a century ago this month. I first came across his ideas while finishing up graduate school and working as a TV producer in the 1960s. At the time, McLuhan’s journey from obscure Canadian English professor to world famous sage was almost complete. To me, most of what he said sounded like nonsense, because I had not yet realized that he wasn’t offering description, but prophecy.

He was the first to tell IBM, for example, that they were not in the machine business, but the information business. Today, the term "information technology" is commonplace, but fifty years ago it was a revolutionary idea.

It is no exaggeration to say that McLuhan also predicted the internet. While other futurists declared that computers could lead to either utopia or Big Brother, McLuhan quietly anticipated Facebook and Twitter. Writing in 1967, thirteen years before the first Web site even went live, McLuhan got the trivial, distracting qualities of our digital life just right. He told us there would someday be "one big gossip column," powered by an "electronically computerized dossier bank," that would keep an uneraseable record of our tiniest actions. This would be the background noise against which our lives would play out.

McLuhan also saw that our participation in this collective gossip column would be voluntary. He claimed we would all become not the unwilling but rather the "unwitting workforce for social change." In McLuhan’s world, change does not announce itself or even arrive by ambush, but instead creeps up on us. After every advent in media technology, we wake up to an invisibly but fundamentally altered world.

How did McLuhan attain such foresight? Through "pattern recognition," yet another phrase we owe to him. As a way of thinking, it is an excellent tool for survival in a world of information overload. In pattern recognition, facts are less important than the patterns they reveal, and comprehension takes a back seat to intuition. It is a skill we have all had to learn just to keep pace in our jobs and our lives, though not everybody can apply it as widely and effortlessly as McLuhan did.

For a thinker of such wide sweep, it is no surprise that McLuhan’s scholarship has sometimes been called sloppy. One of his most famous books, The Gutenberg Galaxy, contains numerous factual errors, but still feels fresh fifty years after being published, something few academic works can claim. In The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan documents the effects the printing press had on European civilization. He argues that books changed much more than just how people got their information. Unlike listening or talking, reading is done alone, and isolates what we see at the expense of all the other senses. The outcome of a conversation is determined by at least two people, while in a book thoughts are dictated by a single author. Printed books, McLuhan argued, became the first industrial commodity, and united peoples around standardized languages into large communities that came to be called nations. The mere fact of printed words on the page, regardless of what they said, created a whole different type of person. The medium, in other words, was the message.

The Gutenberg Galaxy also contains the first printed use of the phrase "global village," which has gone so deep into the language that it is hard to believe we know who said it first. But, as with Shakespeare, Marx, and Freud, McLuhan is one of those thinkers everybody quotes all the time without knowing it.

When used today, "global village" usually has positive connotations. As media and commerce make us more interconnected, the argument goes, the world shrinks into a peaceful, prosperous, global village. But McLuhan did not think of the global village as a happy place at all. He saw it as a place of terror, the home we would all have to move to when electronic media had finished re-tribalizing us.

Tribal society and digital society are similar for McLuhan because both are in a state of ceaseless change, where everybody is constantly affecting everybody else. In a re-tribalized society, the orderly thought patterns of reading and writing are eroded by the constant flow of new information, and a paralyzing uncertainty about the future remains behind. Tribal societies and digital societies also lack privacy. When the whole world moves in next door, everyone becomes everyone else’s nosy neighbor.

The last ten years conform painfully with McLuhan’s predictions. High hopes for globalization have given way to what seems now like permanent economic uncertainty. Privacy has become harder to manage in the age of social media, and may even seem old-fashioned to the rising generation. The War on Terror is still officially being waged, and is perhaps the most McLuhan-esque feature of the present. Since it began in 2001, the War on Terror has slowly become one of those assumptions behind every news story — part of the media environment that we step into every day, as McLuhan once famously said, "like a warm bath." The News of the World hacking scandal, with its terrible crime, invasion of privacy, global scope, and empowered popular outcry could be the perfect illustration of all of McLuhan’s ideas operating at once.

About the Author

William F. Baker
William F. Baker, president emeritus of WNET, the country's largest PBS station, is Bernard L. Schwartz Professor and Journalist-in-Residence at Fordham University.

Marshall McLuhan Foresees The Global Village

http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_mcluhan.htm

Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. - Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964.

Marshall McLuhan's insights made the concept of a global village, interconnected by an electronic nervous system, part of our popular culture well before it actually happened.

Marshall McLuhan was the first person to popularize the concept of a global village and to consider its social effects. His insights were revolutionary at the time, and fundamentally changed how everyone has thought about media, technology, and communications ever since. McLuhan chose the insightful phrase "global village" to highlight his observation that an electronic nervous system (the media) was rapidly integrating the planet -- events in one part of the world could be experienced from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience was like when we lived in small villages.

While McLuhan popularized this concept, he was not the first to think about the unifying effects of communication technology. One of the earliest thinkers along this line was Nicolas Tesla, who in an interview with Colliers magazine in 1926 stated: "When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."

McLuhan's second best known insight is summarized in the expression "the medium is the message", which means that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it transmits. For example, reading a description of a scene in a newspaper has a very different effect on someone than hearing about it, or seeing a picture of it, or watching a black and white video, or watching a colour video. McLuhan was particularly fascinated by the medium of television, calling it a "cool" medium, noting its soporific effect on viewers. He took great satisfaction years later when medical studies showed that TV does in fact cause people to settle into passive brain wave patterns. One wonders what McLuhan would make of the Internet?

Like Norbert Wiener and J.C.R. Licklider, McLuhan made a study of the extrapolation of current trends in technology, and specialized in the effects on human communications. He generally felt that the developments he described would be positive, but particularly worried about the potential for very sophisticated, manipulative advertising.

McLuhan's ideas have permeated the way we in the global village think about technology and media to such an extent that we are generally no longer aware of the revolutionary effect his concepts had when they were first introduced. McLuhan made the idea of an integrated planetary nervous system a part of our popular culture, so that when the Internet finally arrived in the global village it seemed no less amazing, but still somehow in the natural order of things.

Resources. Two of McLuhan's best known books are The Gutenberg Galaxy, published in 1962, and Understanding Media, published in 1964. The following references provide more information about Marshall McLuhan the man and his work:

Marshall McLuhan's 'Global Village'

by Benjamin Symes
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/bas9401.html

In the introduction to McLuhan's Understanding Media he writes: ‘Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned’ (1964: p.3). Like much of McLuhan's writing this statement is vast and poetic, with its strength of conviction making it quite persuasive. But if we are to be believers in this rhetoric we must have an understanding of what he means. The underlying concept of McLuhan's view of electr(on)ic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, particularly those of sight and sound. The telephone and the radio become a long distance ear as the television and computer extend the eye by projecting further than our biological range of vision and hearing. But in what way does McLuhan suggest how this has happened? The basic precepts of his view are that the rapidity of communication through electric media echoes the speed of the senses. Through media such as the telephone, television and more recently the personal computer and the 'Internet', we are increasingly linked together across the globe and this has enabled us to connect with people at the other side of the world as quickly as it takes us to contact and converse with those who inhabit the same physical space (i.e the people that live in the same village). We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as normal face to face verbal communication. The effect of this McLuhan suggests is a new ability to experience almost instantly the effects of our actions on a global scale, just as we can supposedly do in our physical situations. Consequently he concludes we are forced to become aware of responsibilty on a global level rather than concerning ourselves solely with our own smaller communities. He writes: ‘As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibilty to an intense degree’ (1964: p.5). Before I consider whether any justification lies in McLuhan's view I need to distinguish between two different meanings in the metaphor of the 'village'. In one sense the village represents simply the notion of a small space in which people can communicate quickly and know of every event that takes place. As he writes: ‘“Time” has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village... a simultaneous happening’ (1967: p.63). McLuhan is suggesting that through our 'extended senses' we experience events, as far away as the other side of the world, as if we were there in the same physical space. Watching the television premiere of the Gulf War and seeing the pilot's eye view of missiles reaching their targets, it would seem that McLuhan is right, but we do not experience the events around us solely through our ears and eyes. There is a large space between watching a war on the living room TV and watching a war on the living room floor. Our biological senses involve us in our situation whereas there is a sense of detachment in our 'extended senses' echoing the detachment of the afore-mentioned pilot. Through technology we bring the action closer to us, so the pilot can get a better shot, but it also enables us to stay at a safe physical distance, so our plane does not get shot down. Is there not a sense then that we are communicating through technologies that allow us to remain physically isolated? In a broader and more ideal sense the village represents community and the idea that we can all have a role in shaping our global society. Mcluhan writes:

We live mythically and integrally... In the electric age ,when our central nervous system is tecnologically extended to involve in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate... in the consequences of our every action. (1964: p.4)

The image is of 'one being' connected by an electric nervous system within which the actions of one part will affect the whole. This idea seems apparent in both the workings of the global economy and our increasing awareness of the fragile eco-system. With the moon- landing came the first definate image of the globe and captured its fertility and beauty against the dark void, suggesting perhaps that the whole was alive. James Lovelock, the author of Gaia, said that it seemed ‘to scream the presence of life’ and as television brought us those pictures it strengthens the idea of communications technology creating this sense of oneness and potential harmony. As McLuhan writes:

The aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a natural adjunct of electric technology...There is a deep faith to be found in this attitude-a faith that concerns the ultimate harmony of all being. (1964: p.5)

It is with this idealistic view that McLuhan has gained prominence again amidst the emergence of the 'Internet', a medium that seems to promote the idea of an integrated global community. One of the major claims for the 'Internet' lies in the belief that it has the potential to break down centralized power, and help form a community that lives on a more integrated basis, with more shared responsibilty. This is the sense of McLuhan's 'interdependence', as he writes: ‘Electric technology... would seem to render individualism obsolete and... corporate interdependence mandatory’ (1962: p.1). Is McLuhan suggesting that this web of communications technology spun itself catching individualism unawares? Is is not because of our individual differences that we communicate and look for community? Perhaps it is we as individuals who are looking for more inclusive ways of communicating and using these technologies to do so. Bell surely must have had some dream for what he wished his telephone to be. It seems we are often striving for some feeling of unity. Looking back through other cultures and religions there has long been a sense of all connectedness between people and nature in both a spiritual and material way, with Buddhists believing in the oneness of everything, and Native Americans believing that if you take from the earth you must give something back. In this context the earth seen from space was not a new symbol but more a confirmation of some feeling that already existed. Perhaps, in western civilization, it was the circumnavigation of the world that first planted the seeds of a global community, for a flat world has margins whereas the model of a globe suggests that there are no edges and that we are all connected by its very geometry. There is a sense then that we have always wanted the world to be a global village and that McLuhan is working within this ideal of community himself. Mondo 2000 says of McLuhan: ‘Reading McLuhan is like reading Shakespeare - you keep stumbling on phrases that you thought were cliches, only this guy made them up’ (1992: p.166). It could be argued that far from making it up, McLuhan is simply naming an already present concept. By writing about a global village he is creating a greater awareness of that concept and this in turn stengthens the ideal in people's minds. It seems that it is the ideal that is the 'message' and McLuhan's statements that are the 'massage'. As he wishes: 'The electronic age' has sealed 'the entire human family into a single global tribe’ (1962: p.8). But if we disentangle ourselves from the way that McLuhan would like to see the world, it seems likely that the world was circumnavigated with a more imperial purpose in mind. Technology is still used today to help us understand our environment and in doing so makes us more able to predict it and control it. Just as the discoverers of the new world brought back their own accounts, the media through which we hear of events and the way in which we hear and see them is mediated by those who run the corporations that pay for these technologies. We see that which is considered 'important' for us to see, and these decisions are often far from in our hands. McLuhan writes: ‘Today,electronics and automation make mandatory that everybody adjust to the vast global environment as if it were his little home town’ (1968: p.11). But 'little home towns' still have sheriffs who 'don't want no strangers in town' and there is a sense that the technology that is used to connect people together is also used to exclude people who are seen as not being able to give anything to the community or who perhaps do not share the 'right' values (i.e. those of the greater community). If the 'global village' is run with a certain set of values then it would not be so much an integrated community as an assimilated one, and this carries with it a reflection of the 'Big Brother' society. Again the claims of many of those that use the 'Internet' are that as information becomes freely accessible we break down centralized power and mediation. However, information is not simply a package to be collected and shown on screen, for we all interpret the information relative to our individual experience. In order for communications technology to build an all inclusive global village surely everyone has to want to live in that village. People will only communicate what they wish to communicate and governments are hardly likely to do a 'Top Secret World Wide Web Home Page'. We are only able to access certain sites on the net which are placed there for us to see and there are only as many sites as there are people with computers. This leaves much of the developing world outside the village walls. McLuhan seems to assume that the entire population of the globe is plugged in to communications technology to the same extent. That we can hear of any single event at any time we choose. Indeed it is increasingly difficult not to hear of world events, for even if, as individuals we choose not to turn on the television or answer the phone, we are informed by others who do, but we cannot yet connect with anyone we wish anywhere in the world. Perhaps we are laying the foundations of the global village and eventually everybody may be connected through an inclusive web, but even if we were all connected and aware of our interdependence would not mean we could all instantly get to know each other and solve our problems. We have trouble enough living together harmoniosly in cities and as humans there is a sense that we can only know a limited number of people well - in The Human Animal Desmond Morris suggests the number as around 150 - and so although our personal tribe of friend may be spread across the globe, how can we possibly feel a strong sense of community with all the millions of us on this earth? Besides can we have as intimate a relationship with people through a telephone line? I personally do not believe we can. McLuhan writes: ‘The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village’ (1962: p.31) His 'image' is a reflection of the way he interprets the world and wants it to be, and in a 'post-modern' sense, it could be argued that his view is thus justifiable as we all see the world through our own eyes based on our own values and beliefs. There is some truth in what he says in the sense of a greater awareness of global responsibility and his belief in closer analysis into the effects of these media, but he falls in his sweeping generalisations about the nature of mankind. Perhaps my essay should be entitled 'Understanding McLuhan: the Generalisations of Man.' It is easy to see why McLuhan was popular in the counter culture of the sixties and is again today amidst the computer revolution, for his ideas encompass a an ideal that has perhaps always been with us. Is there not a possibility that if we place too much importance in achieving an idealistic unified global village, we perhaps risk losing a sense of our physical humanity and our identity and thus forget why we are communicating at all. I do not believe that we are anywhere near a global village in the sense of an integrated community and I'm not certain that as humans we could ever reach it. To achieve it we would have much communicating to do, and by that time we may had made the first tentative contact with extra-terrestrial life and so begin the long journey towards a 'universal hamlet'. 26th May 1995

References

McLuhan, M.(1964): Understanding Media. New York: Mentor
McLuhan, M.(1962): The Gutenberg Galaxy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
McLuhan, M. and Q. Fiore (1967): The Medium is the Massage. New York: Bantam
McLuhan, M. and Q. Fiore(1968): War and Peace in the Global Village. New York: Bantam
Morris, D.( ) The Human Animal
Rucker, R v.b. et al. (Eds.). (1992) Mondo 2000. New York: HarperCollins

An exchange of notes and a huge learning

An exchange of notes and a huge learning

by TSK. Raman

A friend of my released a book last month. I bought it read it and posted my review. Later he sent me a link of another review that I read and wrote to my freind: "Thanks for sending this link to me. I read the review. The review I wrote in fact is earlier than his, but mine looks an abridged version or is like a summary of what he too has said therein. His has been very detailed and mighty elaborate. Best wishes once again .... I Pray you have more tha a million hits on your FB and an equal number buying your book. I ended te mail this way ... Am reminded of a quote from: Anne Frank (1929–1945), Dutch diarist "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. "

So quick that he is he wrote back ...and that is why I have been hounding you all these years :-(

(Background: My friend who has been seriously backing my written skills, has been pushing [ punching would be a better word], me to think of writing a book We've had several discussions on that subject in the past, but I didn't move forward. Thoughts of it kept lingering in my mind always, and does continue even now. Haven't moved one inch forward, reasons were and are many. It's clear that I have the ability, it's just what to write and to whom that holds me back.)

I replied back: "Am feeling delighted and flattered that too coming from a future million FB hits and million copy author."

He replied back: "...but that is not enough dear, and you know it!"

That triggered this long response from me:

In a foreign land, one man feels hurt that he is thrown out of the train despite having a valid ticket for travel. Takes it to heart, vows to retaliate, starts from where it all happened, enrolls them in his mission, returns back home, decides to rally the people of a diverse nation living mainly in its villages.

Moved by this sacrifice and the spirit of a half-naked fakir, several educated youth throughout the country join him in this struggle, knowing fully well the hardships that have to encounter.

Spread all over the country were some educated people who volunteered to support the cause whole heartedly, irrespective of the consequences. They pledged not only their support but were willing to also die for that cause. These people went around villages, heard people's stories, told their stories, established a credible link with them, instilled belief in all and gained their trust. Barring a few most people committed themselves unconditionally by trusting the men who were leading them because right there in the front was one man with self belief and self confidence willing to give his life to achieve what he had set out to. After years and years of struggle with the help of people the nation got emancipated from slavery and a new nation is born.

65 years hence that nation has grown in size and stature but is sick - morally and economically. We now boast of 100 crores of people - with several noteworthy achievements and several worthy people with about 35-40% of them have a university education. A nation that stands on its own legs can defend itself fairly well from any external aggression, stands crippled. The left is weak, the rights is weak, the centre is weak the head is weak, but still we manage to move from one day to another as though nothing happened. Quite a few are happy that we have built nice homes, have a good family a good educated spouse, well educated decent children well settled either in this country or abroad. Regular mobile phone chats, FB, Twitter, emails are enough to keep them under the illusion - 'all is well.' Sadly this is the middle class, supposedly the most influential but absolutely spineless not able to rally around to hound a few hundred corrupt politicians and a few thousand beauracrats, to redeem a nation that has been surrendered to a set of bandits. Chaltha hai attitude, I scratch your back you my back is the mantra of the day. The ones in the schools and colleges - majority of them live in a different world altogether - school, college, computer games, mobile games, mobile calls, FB, Twitter, cars, races, IPL, DID, SaReGaMaPa etc. Parents are happy as long as they get marks scores, get into the best courses in the best colleges IIT/IIM, BITS or go abroad, get a plum job, live well, eat well, sleep well, get established, get married, stay together for a few years raise a child, divorce, remarry, live in, stay in, divorce, and the cycle goes on. This is the 'India' I see, and I am charging myself to see what can I do. My mind is full with this and is seeking to erupt like a volcano. I see this all around me. Am slightly scared to speak the truth for who knows I'll be done in by a guy who gets paid Rs. 500/- ( a supari on my name for that day because I opened my mind and spoke the truth). I need some more time to align my thoughts as to what do I want to say and to whom. I say this because 'I think, and I know that I think,' am trying to make others think too am about building a base. The process is slow, but I am sure it is taking shape. I know I will make it, not some day, soon.

My friend wrote back immediately

"Thanks for ventilating yourself my friend and I feel honored to be given that privilege for I empathize with each and every thought and concern you have expressed.

You are aware that I have chosen to live my life almost like a sanyasi.. being in this world.. doing my bit.. enjoying myself.. yet not under any illusion that I am destined to "change" the world. I am a firm believer in the theory of chaos and fully realize that the world will continue to run the way it does with or without me.

Having internalized this to myself my options are to continue to stand on the sidelines and keep burning with the unfairness of it all or else enjoy myself in doing whatever arrests my passion and allow the world to take note of me or ignore me... I am clear with the Geeta funda of whatever is mine.. will be mine.. whatever is not.. cannot be given to me.

So in a nutshell while stray thoughts like yours also plague me at times but I choose to continue my own "prukriti" and live by my rules within the confines of the larger world."

It was as you can see a hard hitting response and it brought me to senses and I replied back, " I am deeply touched by your reply and by your thoughts. Am with you, it's just that feelings like this get aroused, and wants to let itself out. I am also under no illusion and am also sure that I am not destined to 'change the world.' I too am on the same path, though I might not ever claim that I could be anywhere near you, however, I am slowly breaking away from the shackles. Every word here lights my soul. I'm much more at ease now than I was about thirty minutes ago. I'll do what I like within playing my game my way within the rules of the game, and enjoy myself.

My friend replied back again: "Way to Go!"

I responded this way, "I, Thank God every morning, as I rise up from the bed, that I have something to do which I do, because I like what I do. I always try to do my best, because it will breed in me a hundred thoughts and virtues which the idle will never know. I know, I don't have to stir the ocean or move mountains to make a difference. When I accept responsibility to improve life in my own family, workplace, my neighborhood or where ever, I know that I change the world by that much.

Seems we are living in times of achievement and accomplishments, and that's what is raging the storm within all of us to be competitive. We have forgotten that we are all running our own races, and that we ought not to compete with any other living or non-living beings. Yet we do, however we need to just remember no matter where we start, if we work hard and if we think positively and if we dream dreams and if we have good character, we can lift the status of ourselves, our family, our friends and everyone around us. This doesn't mean that our object in life is to become rich or famous. Just do the best we can with ourselves. Believe that Almighty has put that into us and we are going to do the best we can with ourselves. Achievement or accomplishments mean to be what, by the grace of God, each of us can be.

My friend replied back " The 'gyaan' is all there Sir! All you need to do now is start putting it into practice NOW! "

What he said was absolutely true, the lesson dawned on me and am more blissful that I was earlier in the day. I am beginning to realize one truth, and that is read the news paper, see what's happening, but do not let it activate you for nothing, Stay informed, do not get consumed.