Taming the Devil

31^st December 2016. A crowd of unruly hooligans molested a whole lot of girls in Bengaluru.

31^st December 2015. A crowd of supposedly Middle Eastern immigrants molested and raped a crowd of revelers in Cologne, Germany by engaging in a game of Taharrush.

Some other party, some other place, some other country, women are molested and raped. The deplorable act is repeated time and again.

I will not even try to lend credence to what some idiots have mentioned, by mentioning their statements and condemning them. I would rather condemn these people and their statements by simply ignoring them.

However one fact has come out very well and that is, there has to be a better way by which we raise our children. There are no two ways about this. Guys need to be sensitized about what is correct and what is not correct right from a very early age. And that early age begins at say 2 years or even earlier.

I know of a 5 year boy, who is taught to discriminate between boys and girls. He will not dance to a certain song, saying that this is a ‘girl’ song.  He will not wear clothes of a certain colour because it is a ‘girl’ colour. And this is being taught to him by either his parents or grandparents. He is being conditioned that it is not right to lose to girls. I am sure his outlook towards girls when he grows up will be interesting. By the way his parents are very well educated.

It is very easy to deplore an act like this and say that our boys need to be taught the right values. I myself have a son and take ownership to teach him the right values. What is the solution and how do we go about making this change? What I am going to write now is going to be extremely controversial.

We also need to change the way in which be bring up our daughters. Before all you women stop reading and start cursing me, let me tell you I am not going to write about curbing the women’s freedom or talking about what they wear or what they drink. This is a piece of advice to their parents. A lot of people in cities, or people who are reading this may not be able to associate with this.

When we bring up our children, especially girls, we tell them not to talk to boys. How many girls have guys as friends? And I am not talking about boy-friends, but just simple friends? If a college going girl goes out for a coffee with a boy, eyebrows get raised. Get real guys, it is just a coffee nothing else. If a girl mentions the name of a guy in her list of friends, the mother gets worried and does not encourage her going out with the guy. Thus when the children are growing up, the interaction with the other gender is limited.

You have a gang of guys hanging out separately and a gang of girls hanging out separately. The gang of guys, because they have very limited or negligible interaction with girls while their hormones are growing up, is an absolute recipe for disaster. Most of these boys will get into an arranged marriage and are extremely awkward when they are faced with a girl. They don’t even know how to talk to one. These guys then look at the girls only from one perspective, not as friends but as objects of desire.

As a society we are hypocritical. We as parents will choose the boy or girl of their choice for arranged marriages. The arranged marriage process is one where the boy meets girl once or twice. Before they can meet further, there is pressure to ‘at least get engaged’. Why? Because it supposedly harms the girl’s ‘character’. Think of the girl, parents, she is going to say yes to the guy based only on one or two meetings when he is possibly at his best behavior? The true colours are discovered only after marriage. Arranged marriages are a lottery (#1: I have a happy arranged marriage. #2 : Even love marriages are a lottery, but more about that topic in some other post).

Once you are engaged, there is pressure to get married fast. And god forbid if the marriage is to be called off after the engagement and before the marriage. One talks of family honour and all that shit, without thinking of the girl.

So we are ensuring the girl actually gets into bed with a stranger before getting comfortable with him. I personally believe that in most arranged marriages, ‘the first night’ is nothing but marital rape cheered on by family and friends in absentia. What about walking out after the marriage? Unthinkable.

So basically it is fine to continue in a marriage where the girl may be unhappy, but not to disturb the family honour. A lot of the above is justified in the name of ‘culture’. People also say that high divorce rates are a result of western culture. I believe that a high divorce rate is simply because the girl wants to assert herself (nothing wrong with that) and is not acceptable to a society washed in ‘culture’ believing that the girl should serve and be under the thumb of ‘Pati Parmeshwar’ who is not necessarily a paragon of virtue.

There are a lot of wrong things which are passed of under the name of culture.

While there is a responsibility for parents of boys, there is also a huge responsibility for parents of girls. It is time parents of girls stop treating boys as devils. If not, chances are that boys will believe that they are devils and convert into devils.

It is time to start taming the devil.

No Taxes Please, We’re Indian

“We have to beg to get out own money!” The middle aged lady uttered these words loudly to no one in particular, but to vent out her frustration.

I overheard this when I was waiting for my turn to withdraw cash from a leading Private Sector bank last week. While RBI allowed me to withdraw Rs. 50,000 from the current account and Rs. 24,000 from the savings account, the Private Sector Bank had imposed limits of Rs. 10,000 from Current Account and Rs. 6,000 from the savings account.

There was another half an hour to go before my turn arrived, so I placed the gaze of my eyes on the branch of a tree across the road, while letting my ears wander. This middle aged lady in her late 30’s or early 40’s had arrived with her husband and now started calling her friends to see if they could help her.

Based on the few phone calls she had made, I gathered that she wasn’t here for a white washing job, but for a colouring job. She was seeking help publicly from friends to convert her hard earned, tax paid white money to black. And I don’t even think she was realizing that she was creating black money in the system. She wasn’t from the mafia, underworld or any other clan which thrives on black money. She was just an honest tax payer participating in this process.

The moment I realized, what was happening, I was in a state of shock. Over the last few weeks, I have not been shocked by the amount of undisclosed non-tax paid money which has come out of the closet. While I have been disappointed by the efforts of a section of society to help people convert such tainted money into legal assets and protect their losses, I haven’t exactly been shocked by this. I perked my ear lobes and started paying more attention to the lady’s telephone conversation.

I don’t know her name, but let us call her Anita. Anita was getting her house renovated and she had to make a payment to the interior designer. I wondered, why does she have to pay her interior designer in cash? I mean interior designers aren’t exactly, illiterate, bottom of the pyramid people having no access to banking system. They would be more in the league of people being serviced by Wealth managers. She could simply issue him / her a cheque.

Well the designer told her that the cost of the work was 10 lakhs, and if he / she were to be paid by cheque, the bill amount would be 11.5 lakhs, out of which 1.5 lakhs would be extortion money, to be paid to the government. Translated, it means Service Tax @ 15%. Anita who has hard earned tax paid money, and working on a tight budget, doesn’t want to inflate her bill. So she is hunting for people who can withdraw cash so that she can give her interior designer. To me this was a light-bulb moment.

In the last couple of weeks, I have attended a couple of weddings, so called low scale due to demonetization, but ostentatious by my standards. The people who were the bride / bride groom’s parents were all salaried class, who had duly paid their taxes. I made a few calls to these people and realized that all of them were in the same state. Nobody was willing to pay the 15% Service Tax and were willing to pay in cash and knowingly / unknowingly participate in the parallel economy process.

I have realized that, in the last three weeks, both whitewash as well as blackening were going on in equal measure. Which is why the queues at ATMs and Bank branches are not going down. Looks like over a period of time, the entire cash economy is going to continue to thrive.

Suddenly a thought struck me. If it was my house to be renovated or my son’s wedding what would I do? I then remembered a famous dialogue from an Amitabh Bachchan movie….”Jao pehle us aadmi ka sign lekar aao….”

Politics of Currency

This blog is not how good or how bad the demonetization move is. It is not an opinion about how the Prime Minister has killed growth and is reneging on his promise of “Achche Din’. This piece is about reading the tea leaves. In trying to do so, I am trying to post facts in a dispassionate manner with some opinions thrown in.

8^th November 2016 will be a watershed day in Indian history. On this day, the Prime Minister of India announced the withdrawal of Indian currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000.

Since then life has changed for everybody. Right from a street vendor, to a senior corporate executive to a top notch businessmen, to a politician life changed for everybody. Across the spectrum, everyone has been subject to hardship. People who had little money, were scrambling to change notes. People who had too much colored money, were wondering what to do.

One thing is sure, the decision has been bold. I am sure it has been unpalatable even for the BJP. It is a known secret that the political machinery runs on cash. This move has just cut out the funding tap not only for other parties, but also for the BJP. There are accusations that BJP people knew about this beforehand, but these accusations are rubbish. Narendra Modi is too suave politically to commit this kind of error. In an operation like this, secrecy was the key, and there is a report in public domain that only 6 people knew of this and the cabinet were told only hours before the announcement, and were allowed to leave only after his television address ended.

The jury is out whether this is a good move or a bad move. You have one section of the opposition crying coarsely from rooftops about how it hurts the common man. On the other hand reports about the resiliency have started coming in. I have seen street vendors move to Paytm and turn cashless. Last week I was in Faridabad and spoke to a whole lot of people from taxi and auto drivers, waiters, daily wage earners etc. Everybody is happy about the decision and is backing the Prime Minister on this.  On the other hand there are reports about how people are suffering at the mercy of hospitals in rural areas. There are also reports about people willing to stand in queues for money, while there is another shocking report (unconfirmed) about people being hired to stand in queues and make them look longer in order to give an impression that the common man is suffering.

The most interesting response has been from the media. A lot of the English media is already predicting this as a Waterloo moment for Narendra Modi. 20 days after the event, media is still talking about unending queues and how if cash is not supplied fast, public patience will shift to anger. They talk about possible riots on the streets and one Chief Minister publicly warning about the same. On the other hand there are quite a few surveys which says that more than 70% of the public is backing Narendra Modi on the same. One of them is a survey by the PMO itself on an app which is called the Narendra Modi app. Do I see a hint of megalomania? The media response, is that the survey is not well designed and have criticized it from a technical point of view. As if the respondent cares!

There are three events that lead me to believe that the media lives in a cocoon of its own making. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, most predictions presented a BJP majority but very few predicted an NDA landslide with BJP getting a simple majority. In 2015, in UK even the Brexit vote was predicted wrongly. And the 2016 US Presidential elections took the cake. Nobody gave Donald Trump even a small chance, they predicted a landslide win for Hilary Clinton. Does the media hear and listen to only what it wants? Has it become so elitist that it cannot listen to the voice on the ground? I sometimes think so.

Now let us look at the timing of this decision by Narendra Modi. It is middle of his term and two and and a half years to go to the next general elections. Diwali is just over and no major festivals in sight. Christmas is 45 days away. Some economists are saying that this demonetization is at a time when the economy is in a take off mode. There is 7% growth, we have had a good monsoon and inflation is coming weaning. By demonetizing 86% of the currency, the PM has shot at speeding tyres. Here’s where the economists get it wrong.  A radical measure like this has to come when the going is good and there are shock absorbers in place. Imagine trying to do this when inflation is high and the economy is struggling for growth. The timing of the move is completely countercyclical which is good. If the pain subsides in three months and some good comes out of it, Narendra Modi will be an absolute hero. Remember public memory is weak and the recency effect is massive. I personally will give Modiji a 10 on 10 for getting the timing perfect.

A small voice tells me, that this is Narendra Modi’s defining moment and biggest political gamble. If he pulls this off, I am sure there are other tricks in his bag of a populist nature which he will unleash closer to 2019 General Elections. Something tells me, that 2019 is already in the bag.

Shattered Accountant

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant more than 20 years ago. At that moment it was a matter of absolute pride in qualifying in an examination, where the passing rate is in single digits. A long and bright career awaited me. The entrepreneurship bug bit early and I started my Chartered Accountancy practice. Fate however had other ideas. 

It is said that a lot of  juices flow in washrooms including the creative type.  In my case, that was the place where I chanced upon a great opportunity. While relieving myself, I found myself standing next to a person three years my junior. He casually mentioned that their college was looking for someone to teach them financial management. One thing led to another and next day I was in the B-School meeting the director, and in three days, started teaching. Not bad for someone who believed he had pathetic public speaking skills at that time.

It was a good way to get some money in to supplement the practice. I might have done a decent job, as now more colleges called me to be part of the faculty. I realized I was liking teaching and at one point of time was teaching 12 hours a day.  Life was co-existing as a faculty and as a Practicing Chartered Accountant.

One fine day, the pivotal moment happened. An Income Tax Officer asked me for a bribe and I had to pay to save my client. My client was right, however the ITOs argument was irrebuttable. I paid the cash and moved to the Pizzeria at Churchgate. At 4 in the afternoon, with a muddled head, I had a couple of beers and a couple of pizzas. Alone… looking at the Arabian sea. I asked myself the question, “Is this what I want to do? What use is education, if you are going to have a lifetime paying bribes? “ That evening on Marine Drive, the sun set simultaneously in the Arabian sea and on my Chartered Accountancy practice.

Twenty five years later, I am training a bunch of fresh Chartered Accountants in a technology company. I accompany a dozen of them to dinner and the news arrives. The Prime Minister has declared that notes of Rs. 500 / 1000 are invalid. The rest of the dinner conversation focuses on the appropriateness or otherwise of this move. Some of them are euphoric that this is a great move. One shows me a whatsapp message, where his acquaintance, has 5 cr. in cash and looking for options. One girl comes up to me and asks me for a solution. Being a lady, I have to maintain my composure and 

tell her that I no longer do this business.

There are multiple views about whether this move is right or wrong. There are talks about people not having bank accounts. Small traders are having very little or no business. Who is to blame? People have embraced technology for communication but stayed away from the same when it comes to financial dealings. The Government has been persuading people for financial inclusion. Do you know why financial inclusion is not successful? It is not due to lack of efforts by Government, it is due to people not wanting to transact through the financial system.

A lot of small businesses, who make a lot of money, have not switched to banking systems or credit cards. They do not want to get into the accounting system and pay the necessary taxes be it Service tax or VAT or Income Tax. They are happy to do business in cash.

Gentle persuasion, as a strategy did not work for more than two years. A ‘’Gun to the Temple’’ move was required and is good for everyone. People will suffer for a few days, but definitely the normal has changed. The economy will take a different shape from now on and there are really interesting things in store.

It has been a week now, and I have come across quite a few Chartered Accountants. Apparently they are busy advising clients how to save their ‘’hard earned’’ money from turning into smoke. The more I see these things happening around me, the more I wring my hands in despair. I have mixed emotions. On one hand I am extremely happy that the people with huge cash on their hands have been squeezed. On the other hand, I am sad to see, qualified, educated, people helping these people to work out ways to ‘’protect their losses.’’ Sometimes I feel that a prostitute’s job is more honorable than what these qualified people are doing.  When we educated people participate in the creation of black money, we should not complain if we have some hardships.

Today, twenty years after I left practice, I am ashamed by the behavior of some of my fellow professionals. A lot of them will say, that this service is the need of the hour. From their perspective, they are just meeting the client’s needs. I wonder whether they are trapped in their own success from which they cannot escape. Will these people participate in nation building by discouraging creation of black money, or advising clients how to avoid taxes? I have very little hopes.

Today in a true sense, I have turned into a Shattered Accountant. 

Lessons in Succession Planning – from Narendra Modi

(This piece was written during the run-up to the 2014 general elections. Suddenly looks relevant in light of the Tata-Mistry saga)


Over the last few days we have been hearing how Narendra Modi has been ruthless and shunting out the old guard in the BJP. People have been talking about how seniors deserve respect and Modi is not giving them enough of this.

While by no means is this a piece on BJP politics, one cannot but see similarities to Corporate world. Don’t know if Modi is picking lessons from Corporate or the Corporate world has to learn some stuff.

A lot of times, when the person at the top changes, so does the management structure at Level 2 or even Level 3. The CEO brings with him / her, his/her own set of people whom the CEO is comfortable with. It is extremely important for the CEO to have a free hand in this. While the organization is going through a change, it cannot change its stripes fast enough with older thought processes.

First of all let us understand why, this change is required. The earlier CEO may not have got the results or simply has resigned / retired due to age / tenure. In the first case, there is a need for new ideas and new processes. Each CEO will have their own protégés or trusted lieutenants. Change is the most difficult thing to accept and hence, these trusted lieutenants could cling on their older beliefs, which are not giving results. Thus there is “deadwood” in the system which needs to be removed or else the jungle will just not grow.

The new CEO sets about just doing that. In case a successful CEO moves on, he is replaced from someone within the system, generally who is a protégé. This person goes about on the same path as the previous CEO and hence faces lesser resistance. However this person faces different problems. This person is suddenly now asked to head a team, which comprised of peers. It is a very tricky situation and people are firstly unhappy of not having made it to the top. They believe that they should have been the chosen ones and hence starts the process of “sabotage”.

Hence in both cases, one finds that teams change with change of CEOs. A prime example is of a leading private sector bank in India, where, when a highly respected and successful chairman stepped down, the entire management team was shunted out (or moved out).

The new CEO needs a free hand to succeed. Does it mean, none of the old loyalists survive? Not necessarily. People who are “loyalist” to the person may get shunted out. People who adopt change and accept the new guard will survive in the new system. A prime example is another Advani loyalist, Sushma Swaraj. While she has accepted Modi’s leadership, she is making noises in the way some people are being treated. Why is she not being shunted out ( As I finish writing this she may be…)?

Remember the world at the top is very lonely. It is very easy to be surrounded by sycophants or yes men. Sometimes the advice can be everything the new person does is right and everything the old person did was wrong. This statement can be nothing further than the truth. Also one can be blinded by success or potential success. Jamie Dimon says, you need to be surrounded by people who tell you the truth. If Modi has to succeed, he needs a Sushma Swaraj, who will tell him the truth even if it is bitter. However there is a difference between “sabotage” and “constructive criticism”. While “sabotage” is a word from the world of espionage, it exists in all organizations (political as well as non-political). The perceived dividing line is very thin. As long as it is constructive criticism, Sushma Swaraj has an extremely strong role to play.

As a matter of fact, she could turn out to be Modi’s biggest asset. She is the “mirror” in Modi’s party and has her value in the entire scheme of things.

We could actually be seeing a great story of change management in an organization, where corporates have to learn from politicians!

Standards of Living

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” This is one of the things that I had learnt as a child. Twenty years of Corporate Career have ensured that I do not have any of the three attributes mentioned above.

The first few years of corporate life are spent in proving yourself. 15 hour work days are the norm.  If you leave office at half past five or six, comments about leaving half day are normal. So the entire day is spent having endless cups of coffee networking and then working furiously after 5 to impress the boss and other colleagues. Of course there are fringe benefits like ensuring that your departure time ‘coincides’ with that of some interesting colleagues. Adds a little spice to a completely boring life.

Then when you start getting older, the ‘interesting’ colleagues lose interest in you. So now your late evening journey from office to home gets frequently interrupted at a watering hole. Inherited health, studied wisdom and earned wealth get sacrificed during the journey from office to home. The accumulated balance of all the three attributes is very limited. So one fine day, I decided to quit Corporate life and follow the above wisdom, which I learnt in school.

The time I used to leave from office, is the time I go to sleep today. The time I used to return home after a party is the time I wake up. But leaving corporate life ensures, that wealth of the material kind is a bit scarce.

In order to hoard and save on this scarce commodity, I decided to go to work by public transport last week. The first stop was a shared auto rickshaw which would take me to the nearest suburban railway station. I found myself in the company of two middle aged ladies and a young driver. While I was busy reading an article on my cell phone, one of the ladies shrieked. The auto had just avoided an oncoming car. I suddenly realized that we were in the wrong lane. Majority of the traffic was coming from the other side. It was directly out of the movie Octopussy, where Vijay Amritraj drove James Bond in an auto at breakneck speed through the streets of Rajasthan. Fortunately I was not on a secret mission, nor were we escaping from some gun toting villains.

The next stop was at a traffic signal. We were supposed to go right, and the signal for us was red. However red lights don’t stop daredevil auto drivers. At a speed which would put Lewis Hamilton to shame, he swerved left, cut through the traffic at 90 degrees, took a U-turn and then turned left to go coolly on his way. All the while listening to Bollywood music.

Finally we decided to protest and interrupt his music concert.  He was grossly irritated at listening to a sermon early in the morning. He squarely passed the blame on other commuters. Apparently, in peak hours, commuters pester him to go fast, break all kinds of traffic rules and ensure that they reach the train station quickly. He went on to add that this has been a phenomenon, since fingerprinting has been introduced at the workplace.

Fingerprinting ensures that the entry time is captured accurately to the second. Thus people coming late are easily identified. In an era of 15 hour work days, where performance matters, people are still being pulled up for punctuality. The person who introduced fingerprinting access as a security feature would never have imagined the risk it could bring with it.

In this race to survive, we are compromising basic safety. Apparently it is the educated class which is encouraging people the break the rules. Those of us who drive will vouch that there is no shortage of people driving on the wrong side of the road. I have had cases, where people are honking behind me when I stop at a red signal, making me wonder, whether stopping at a red light is an offence.

On a different note, when I see people in fancy cars throwing bottles, coffee cups and pieces of paper on the road, I wonder whether these people are educated. Education is supposed to make the world a better place. It is also making the world a competitive place. Is it this competition that is making us lose our basic civic sense? Or is it the power which gives people a sense of entitlement to do what they wish.  And where does power emanate from? Does it come from money or from position, status? Wherever it comes from, with a brash display of power especially in simple tasks like not following traffic rules and littering the roads, what kind of example are we setting for our children?

It is very clear that education does not make us wise. Is it the rat race that is making us lose our wisdom? The chase of greater profits, has led to better income, more and bigger cars, better standard of living. But wisdom is lost and we are chasing material benefits even by putting our lives in peril.

The standard of living has improved. The standards of living have fallen.

Junoon

A month ago, I did an author interaction session in a library in Mysore. When Crossword, who is my publisher tweeted about my book, Chitra, the manager of a library chain invited me for an interaction.

My initial thought was, you spend money on a flight ticket and a taxi and hotel stay and what do you get? I started analysing the invitation through an excel sheet. Fortunately for me, there was a work assignment in Bangalore, which ensured that the flight would be taken care of. Suddenly the colour on the excel sheet turned a lighter sheet of red.

Closer to the date, I started interacting with Chitra. I thought she was just a library manager or a franchise owner for whom the author meet is just a tick in the box. I asked her to read the book, and then decide about the audience. What she told me had me thinking. Apparently, she had read the book, even before she extended the invite. It was not just getting an author, but she had liked my thought process and hence wanted me to speak to members of the library. I was flattered, honoured and humbled to say the least. I felt sorry in my thought process in evaluating an invite like this on an Excel sheet.

As the event drew closer, Chitra invested her time in meeting corporates, inviting their HR managers, talking to business schools, sending books to the media and promoting the event in social media. When she learnt that my editor was from Mysore, she personally visited her house and invited her for the function. She even felicitated her, which I thought was a great gesture

 I am sure even a professional event manager wouldn’t have done as good a job. My friends mentioned that she would be the franchise owner. Turns out she was just an employee... with a lot of passion towards her job.

Today, a month down the line, I received the news that she had resigned from her job. I was sad to see her go and hence decided to speak to her and learnt her story.

Chitra was a practising therapist in Chennai who helped autistic kids. She had a roaring practise for nearly twenty five years. Once when she was visiting her in-laws to Mysore, she visited the library, which at that time was a franchise. The franchise owner was closing it down, as it wasn’t doing great business. On the spot she convinced the franchise owner to continue, closed down her practice in Chennai and moved lock stock and barrel to Mysore to work for the library.

Over the next few years she developed the centre, created a reading culture in Mysore. She recruited staff from various backgrounds, trained them, introduced them to reading, developed them in such a fashion, that the centre now functions independently. She would read every new book and promote it among the readers. A city where once library was closing down now has two libraries which Chitra manages.

Both the centres are doing well and hence now Corporate wants to take over the centre. They realise that the staff is well trained and centres can function independently. I am sure the Operations guys must have pressure from finance to cut costs, and hence what do they do? The ask Chitra to resign. Her fault? She created a reading culture, created two centres, staffed them well and made them independent. Her losing the job is not about money or losing income. It’s about Chitra losing a child. The work which she does passionately and likes doing, is being taken away from her.

It is like telling Gopichand, now that Sindhu has won a silver medal at the Olympics, she can train on her own and your services are no longer needed. Trust me, without leadership, Corporate will run the libraries into losses.

In this era of ecommerce, every third young person is opening an ecommerce company and looking at valuations. The key to evaluate is, whether the person is passionate about the product or about money. 95% of them are in this to earn money. Trust me they will never succeed. Only those who have conviction in their product / service and are passionate about their solution will succeed. Rest will fall by the wayside.

As I am writing this, I realise that the correct word is not passion. It is ‘Junoon’. A lot of times I mention about my inadequacy to use the English language to bring out the correct description of the underlying emotion. In this case the word passion is inadequate to describe the motivation behind Chitra’s actions. It has to be Junoon... to make a difference. I would think the English meaning of ‘Junoon’ will be Passion X Madness.

Business can be evaluated on Excel Sheets, but cannot be run using the same. You need one mad person with Junoon for every business to succeed.  As for Chitra, I am sure she will get back on her feet and find another Junoon. Thank you madam for teaching me the value of Junoon.

(Names have been changed on request)