Fire

It was an innocuous Thursday evening. Schools and colleges were closed for Christmas vacations, people in corporate jobs were on their year- end leave. A nice time to have a quiet celebration. 

Parel in Mumbai was once upon a time a hub of flourishing activity with quite a few textile mills situated there. However the textile mill strikein the 1980s  ensured that most of the mills never opened. Slowly the mills were sold and Corporate Offices and Shopping Malls started coming up in these mill compounds. Lower Parel regained its status as a hub of economic activity in Mumbai. Most Television Studios are located here. Quite a few Corporates have their head office here. It is but natural that the locality also morphs into a party hub. After all people working more than ten hours a day need to let their hair down. A whole lot of fine dining restaurant and bars have mushroomed in the area. Being centrally located, it ensures a decent footfall.

Communist ideology which once flourished in these mills has given way to crass capitalism.

However 28^th December wasn’t another Thursday. A few minutes past the hour when the dates change, there was a spark. Suddenly one of the restaurants caught fire, and spread. Fourteen innocent lives were lost, mostly women.

The standard blame game has started. Corrupt municipal officials, politicians, fire department the promoters of the restaurant have been blamed. Some people will be arrested, some will be suspended and after a few days everything will be forgotten.

I personally think it is we as a society who is to blame. When I say we, it means you and me. We patronize corruption, right from childhood. On a daily basis I see a lot of people driving on the wrong side of the road. These are educated people and the vehicle ranges from a motorbike to auto to even a car. The perpetrators of the offence (in their minds it does not qualify as one) range from teenagers, middle-aged women, to even senior citizens. We have scant respect for the rules. Many times I have stopped people and admonished them, only to get varied reactions. Some are sheepish and apologise, but a majority respond arrogantly with “Mind your own Business.”If a father takes his child on a bike on the wrong side of the road, the child never realises that it is wrong. Now if this person meets with an accident, we will always blame the bigger car, and the police for not doing its duty. We sympathise with the aggrieved person even if he / she is wrong

Similarly I see people littering on the road, when dustbins are nearby. I have seen people who are in senior positions in corporates, throw the soft drink can out of the running car, throw the toll receipt at the toll station itself. In spite of strict enforcement on drunken driving, we still have people who drink and drive. Those who refrain from driving after a drink only do so out of fear and not out of concern for fellow drivers or passers by.

I have seen people disappear during fire drills in corporate offices. It is considered a colossal waste of time. I have rarely seen a fire alarm taken seriously. People don’t even stir when the alarm rings. I wonder whether they even recognise the sound of the fire alarm.

You will ask, how is all of  this connected to the fire. It is part of a larger malaise. We simply don’t follow rules. We take pride in boasting about how we have bent the rules. How can children who have grown up seeing their parents break the rules, be expected to follow the rules.

Tomorrow when our children grow up and are setting up an office or a restaurant and the department throws them the rule book, they will throw it back with a wad of notes. Because rules are meant to be... bent, broken, twisted – but not followed.

Today as we get into the new year, let us take a pledge – to follow the rules, not bribe officials, pay our taxes, not litter on the roads, stop jumping red lights even when no one is watching. Let us take the pledge to be a model citizen... so that we leave this country as a better place for our children. Let us stoke the fire of compliance within ourselves. We need to make the beginning ourselves. Charity after all begins at home.

Match Referee

Game. The word represents a contest. Two teams playing against each other or two individuals matching wits and skills. However, there is one game which you actually play against yourself – golf. It is an ultimate test of concentration and trying to focus on your abilities and routine and get a better score than the last time you played the same.

When you play the game on a weekend, you are not offered solitude. The club pairs you with different people. One such pairing, found me playing with a lady who was had represented India in cricket. For someone whose long cherished dream was to play cricket in whites at Shivaji Park, one of the nurseries of Indian cricket, it was a dream come true. What more can a cricket fan; no a fanatic want than to spend four hours in the company of someone who has played cricket at the highest level? Of course at the age of 45, the fanaticism has been converted into admiration and I began picking her brains. About the sport, the concentration levels, fitness, staying motivated and the love for the game.

It turns out that the lady in question is also a Match Referee. Now that is interesting. For me a match referee was someone who has a very cosy and dream job. Wear a tie and suit, go out for the toss, get paid to watch a match and then hand out a few fines.

As a child, we were told that the grass is always greener on the other side. I understood the meaning of this statement, when the lady explained to me her duties.

She is a match referee for domestic games in India. Her job begins a few days before the match. It starts with inspecting the arrangements for the players, in terms of accommodation, food, travel etc. No, as a match referee, she is not responsible for the same, but is responsible to report on the appropriateness of the same. She then has to inspect the ground conditions and also the equipment like rollers, super sopper, scoreboard, sight screen etc. After all the Board has paid for the equipment and she has to report whether the same is in order and fit to use.

She then has to inspect the cameras, whether they are placed properly as per standards. She also had to interact with the cameramen, to check facilities and arrangements for them. We take a lot of things for granted when we watch the matches on TV, but an incorrect placement of the camera by even a few degrees can impact the outcome of a match. She has also to check about the availability of a doctor at the ground and whether an ambulance is present at the ground.

Once she is convinced that everything is in order, she has to convene a captains’ meeting. She has to explain the basic behaviour and the code of conduct. She conveys to the captain cases where a certain player cannot bowl, as they have been reported for suspect actions. She also conveys the disciplinary history of players coming into the match and the impact a violation of the code can have on the team, or the player concerned. She has to handle super sized egos. The bigger the player, the bigger the ego. She also mentioned that she has to play the dual role of the third umpire.

At the end of the game, she has to prepare an umpire’s report, which is a very critical part of the job. This reports the decisions they made on the field, the quality of decisions, errors if any, how they handled player pressure, enforced discipline, ensured speed of play etc. Over and above they also have to report on the facilities, the equipment, the conduct of the match as well as handing out disciplinary actions against the players if any.

On the whole it seems to be an enormous job. She says, that in India the system is more difficult, as the match referees also have to double up and play the role of the third umpire and adjudicate on decisions referred by the on-field umpire.

So it is a tough job, where the match referee cum third umpire has to concentrate on every ball, at the same time, focus on the conduct on the ground. The match referee for international matches has an easier role, as there is a separate third umpire.

I was told that India has only one match referee for international matches. One of the reasons is that to be an international match referee, one needs to have played international cricket. Apparently most of the male match referees in the domestic circuit don’t have international experience. Hence they are not on the international panel. But the lady match referees in India have played international cricket. They can qualify as international match referees.

Very recently, Claire Polsak of Australia became the first woman to umpire in an Australian men’s top level fixture. Another glass ceiling broken. As a follow up of that, why can’t women be nominated as match referees in international cricket?  They have inbuilt softer skills to handle delicate situations better.

Since the 1983 Cricket World Cup, the BCCI has had a great impact on international cricket administration. With the amount of cricket being played today, there is going to be a huge pressure on the existing pool. It is time to expand the pool.

The BCCI should moot the idea of Women match referees in international cricket and begin by referring some of its own woman match referees on the international panel. Time to break another glass ceiling. 

Snakes and Ladders

Sunday afternoon, was a day when I had nothing to do. The house was a mess as it was getting painted, hence the favourite pastime of watching Sooryavansham on SET Max (if not anything else) was not available. And freshly painted walls of whichever colour aren’t exactly interesting.

My six year old decided not to sleep and hence I ended up playing Snakes and Ladders with him. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It is divine to play with a child. It completely de–stressed me. The pain of the monster at office, the worry of making ends meet at the end of the month, the stress of my growing paunch, receding hairline, greying hair, concern about where my son will study fifteen years from now, anxiety about whether I will have enough money to fund his education, his marriage and my retirement, the fear of ill health striking any member of the family, everything vanished for those fifteen minutes.

The hunger to get a six to start off, getting an accurate number to get the ladder, avoiding the snake, the joy at getting the ladder, the disappointment at getting a snake and the joy at finishing first were infectious. It brought back the child in me and I was extremely happy.  I should do this more often, I thought. After the game, as I was putting my son to sleep, I pondered over the game. And what it taught me.

First of all, it is a brilliant game. One rarely finishes the game, without encountering a snake and falling down. To me playing this game with the child, teaches him / her how to deal with failure. As a matter of fact, it might be interesting to observe the child’s reaction to a snake. In today’s competitive world, where success is measured by marks and the rank in class, we prepare children for success. But we don’t prepare them for failure. They need to be taught to be resilient to failure or to play on after stepping on a snake.

The first time your child gets a snake, they will be unhappy, because it will push them behind in the game. I know of parents, who will cheat and ask the kid to throw the dice again, so that he / she does not encounter the snake. Some will deliberately miscount and ensure that the kid ends up either before or after the snake. This is a huge disservice we do to the child. We have to teach the kid the rules of the game, to play by the rules even if the outcome is not in their favour. As a parent we have to ignore the child’s tantrum and cajole him / her into playing till the game is over. Most importantly we should not allow the child to quit because he / she is losing.

If anybody remembers the game, there is a snake at 99 which brings you down to 7. I think that snake is a great tool to teach the kid never to give up. Obviously you can’t give this gospel to the six year kid, but you need to inculcate fair behaviour, letting him / her lose sometimes and demonstrating that all is not lost even if someone is miles ahead. We are actually inculcating life skills in the kid.

The more I think of it, I marvel at the genius of the creator of the game. I am equally amazed at the similarity it has with one’s career. We get ladders of education, promotion, job changes in the early stages of the career and rise fast. We dodge snakes. Sometimes we step on some which are like bad bosses, tough projects, bad jobs which make you feel you are pushed back. Sometimes life is boring when we get ones and twos and we simply try to avoid that snake which will push us down further, and try to catch the ladder.

The faster we rise, the chance of stepping on a snake goes up. The chance of climbing a ladder is minimal.  That to me is the simple truth and a Eureka moment.

In the first ten to fifteen years of my career, I am used to scaling ladders. Post that ladders don’t exist. Am I ready for another for the next fifteen years of my career to be boring without scaling ladders? And that’s where a lot of us make decisions. Decision to quit the job, get into consulting or into entrepreneurship. Or we get bitten by a snake. Bad ratings, lay- offs.  At this age, we are no longer a child and hence have a huge ego. It is mentally demeaning to accept this fall.  Whether we stay in the game or leave it depends on how we react to such snake bites.

This game has taught me three lessons:

1.      There are quite a few ladders available at the beginning of the game

2.       The higher I go, the chances of stepping on a snake are high.

3.       Closer to the top, there are no ladders. It is a tough grind

Next time I encounter a snake, I hope I have the childlike tenacity to roll the dice... and look at the ladders available. Again to go up, dodge the snake and reach my destination.

My parents had safe jobs. They played Ludo. Today we are playing Snakes and Ladders.

Technology and Roller Coasters

I am sixteen. Sweet sixteen. But my wife says I am getting old. I just completed the sixteenth anniversary of my 30^th birthday last week. They say a person is as old as he or she feels. I dont think I am a day over thirty.

All women start developing a new strand of DNA when they get married. And this DNA is so firmly entrenched it is not funny. It is the DNA of showing the mirror to the husband. While she continues to rib me about being old, I consider myself young.

When she points to my being out of shape, I say round is a shape. She can outrun me, outwit me and outsmart me. But I point all of that to genes and not to age. What do I do if she has a manufacturing defect and is better than me in all these areas? After all I am human.

The one area where she is right pertains to roller coasters. While life is a roller coaster, I can’t sit on one. I am afraid. I don’t know of what, but I refuse to sit on one. She then proceeds to turn the screws by saying,  that a big sign of old age, is that I am slow to adapt to new technologies.

There are four kinds of people in this world. There are people who are technologically savvy, technologically friendly, technology agnostic and technologically averse. I believe I am on the cusp of technologically friendly and technologically agnostic. My wife maintains that I am on the cusp of technologically agnostic and technologically averse. It  is time for me to accept reality as mirrors don’t lie.

When I board a roller coaster, I lose control, especially of my life and safety. My survival depends on the safety equipment, and how my intestines react to the ups and down. I get the same feeling with technology. It is moving at a very rapid pace from being helpful to being intrusive Every website I visit, I end up leaving a footprint and I am not comfortable with that.

Last week I wanted to see how the White House looks. So I entered what I thought was the website of the White House. I was shocked at what I saw. It was a porn site. Just imagine, if I had accessed it from my workplace. I would have lost my job for inadvertently stumbling into objectionable content.

I love innovation. I love the comfort it gives me. But it makes me lazy. Makes me a parasite. Once upon a time, I used to remember the telephone numbers of my friends and relatives. Today, I dont know a single number. For survival reasons, I have to state that I remember my wife’s telephone number. But I dread the day, when l leave the cell phone at home. I am completely handicapped.

Last week the latest version of an iconic phone was launched. There were a host of jokes around how one needs to sell a kidney to buy one. The phone came with face recognition features. Apparently it would unlock only if it recognised the face of its user. There were another set of jokes about how women would be unable to open the same without applying makeup. There is an old saying “Jiska Bandar usise naache?” I am more worried about disasters. What if one is caught in one, and the onlookers who want to help and can’t unlock the phone to identify the person?

As mentioned above, I leave an indelible footprint every time I visit the world wide web. If I search for a flight ticket for Chennai, immediately my screen is flooded with hotel options for Chennai. Artificial intelligence is getting intrusive. I hear that companies are hiring psychologists to view facebook photos and fathom the mood of the person, so that an appropriate product advertisement can be pushed. A day will come when I may start getting sucked into the whirlpool of the internet and the internet will start guiding my thinking.

This is exactly happening with the Blue Whale game. Players are getting sucked in resulting in disastrous consequences. I know of exactly fine people who want to try out the game for ‘kicks’. We are at the cusp where technology will slowly take over our brain, and we will not even realise it. Daily we are getting sucked into it.

I use technology, love it but don’t want it to take over my brain.  I love the highs of technology. But am hugely scared of the lows.

That is why I stay away from roller coasters – real as well as virtual. I am not getting old, I am getting wiser. That is what I would like to believe. But mirrors and birthdays don’t lie

Casting the first stone

8^th November 2016. I was in a restaurant in Hyderabad sitting with a bunch of fresh Chartered Accountants.  It was a few minutes past 8 p.m. We were waiting for the juicy succulent kebabs to come in, when suddenly mobile phones started buzzing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced Demonetisation,. All currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 were now invalid. Processes for exchanging the hard earned money were announced.  The next hour in the restaurant was an animated conversation. On one side there were people who extolled the virtues of this move, on the other was another bunch who criticised the move completely. 

All of us converted into armchair critics in a few minutes. It did not matter whether you understood the move, criticising and having an opinion were extremely important.The entire nation got converted into a bunch of instant economists and critics, each having acquired their expertise instantaneously. The nation got divided along political lines. and the political tamasha had begun.

Over the next few days, the media fed us with visuals of people suffering and dying while standing in queues. On the other side, there were visuals of police having found money flowing in rivers, in garbage dumps etc. Experience has told me that both sets of reporting can either be factually true or manipulated.

Over the next few months, everybody who has an opinion and more were discussing the benefits or otherwise of demonetization. It was predicted to be Prime Minister Modi’s waterloo. But the forth coming election results surprised everybody. The BJP made a clean sweep of most elections. The opposition could not believe it. They now started contesting the validity of the Electronic Voting Machines.

Anyways 10 months later RBI has finally released data. More than 99% of the invalidated currency notes have come back into the system. Most economists and armchair critics are out to fry the Government for what it calls as an unsuccessful experiment or a colossal failure.

And the Government on its part is trying to give a different spin to the episode, by insisting that the success of the Demonetisation move has to be measured differently.

As for as I am concerned, demonetisation is a thing of the past. Today by looking at the number of notes returned, we are only conducting a post mortem. The organ has been removed. Was it cancerous? Or was the surgery unnecessary?  This post facto analysis tells us whether the Prime Minister was right or wrong.

I wish the prime minister had the benefit of clairvoyance at the time of taking the decision. Or there was a crystal ball which he could have looked into and decided about taking this decision,.

Let us look at the decision making process. First, is there or was there black money in the domestic market? The answer is yes. Anyone who denies the same, is either blind or naive or motivated. Would part of it be held in currency of a higher denomination? Would these people holding this black money have difficulty in converting money into cash? The answer to both the questions is yes. With this evidence, was demonetisation a correct decision? Maybe. 

Now let us look at what foiled the plans.One there were a host of accountants indulging in a colour change operation. Secondly, there are stories of corrupt bankers, who helped these people exchange their old notes into new notes for a commission. These were the two factors which ensured that most of the notes came back into the fold. Wonder whether the Prime Minister had bargained for  the ‘support’ of these so called professionals who made a fast buck themselves in this process.

On 1^st July, 2017, addressing a bunch of Chartered Accountants, he chastised them for these activities. I don't think the Prime Minister has failed. If we look deep, we as a  society have failed.

I remember a story where a liar was going to be lynched. Along came a wise man and said, “Let the first person to  throw the stone be someone who hasn’t lied ever.” No one came forward. Similarly, for those who are expert at throwing stones at failure, let me say, “Let the first stone be cast by someone who has taken a risk and never failed.”

Grip of the Patriarch

Once upon a time Hindi movies came with a social message. It was about good winning over the evil. There was a moral to the story. The protagonist would be allowed to stray, but would suffer and would always come back to the righteous path. Since 1990s plots have changed. Most of them are now shades of grey.

However things seem to be changing. ‘Toilet – A Prem Katha’ is a movie with a strong social message. I am sure it will do a lot for the Swach Bharat Mission. Movies have a magnifying impact on society. While the movie emphasises the importance of building toilets for women, the protagonist is unable to build a toilet in his house or village due to objections from the village head and his father.

Indian culture lays an emphasis on respect for elders. I have seen families where the father figure’s writ runs large. Nobody dares protest or speak anything against him. Let us call him the controller. Deviations from his script are practised in private outside the house, only to have a mask of compliance and respect in front of him.

The controller does all this for the good of the family. He is the one who has raised the family through tough times. The children were young and the family was struggling for two square meals. The controller worked hard, put in long hours, skipped meals only to ensure a strong future for the family. And today when the family is strong and independent, he does not want to let go. He wants the next generation to carry on his legacy, not on their ideas, but as per his wishes. He still continues to wield an iron fist. Any attempts to break free are chastised.

Most of the times, the progenies of the patriarch are weak. They can’t, don’t want to take or are not allowed to take independent decisions. Initial attempts at breaking free are snubbed and chastised. The patriarch takes pride in ensuring his writ runs large across the family. The patriarch’s decisions are not to be questioned. The problem with these families, is that it becomes very difficult for the patriarch to walk into the sunset. The progenies aren’t strong enough to handle crises and the patriarch is always relied on for advice. When the patriarch is no longer available, the families struggle to thrive.

The behaviour of the patriarch is part ego, part concern, part resilience to change. And in this environment, the younger generation feels suffocated. Outsiders who get married into the family feel the suffocation even more. They come from a different environment, a different culture, sometimes even an open culture. They are raised as independent individuals in an environment where creativity is encouraged, issues are debated and people are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. These outsiders find it very difficult to adjust within the family. They either rebel against the patriarch or leave the family. They are then accused of splitting or driving a wedge within the family.

What then is the solution? The patriarch needs to start loosening his grip. The patriarch needs to decide which battles to fight. The smaller battles need to be left to the progenies to fight. Failure needs to be tolerated. It is not about being victorious all the time. Discuss the repercussions of various decisions and leave the progenies to make mistakes. Let the progenies learn from their mistakes.

In case of a failure, criticism should not be “I told you so.” It should be, “How can we now retrieve the situation or minimise the damage?” The next generation should be hand held into succession and the reins should be handed over. The handover process should be initiated well before retirement and the transition has to be smooth and lengthy. Most importantly standards of success need to be altered. 

One cannot expect perfection all the time.

Most of the times, the routes may be different. There are multiple ways to success and the patriarch has to realise the same. Different routes need to be tried out, to identify what will work and what will not. There has to be a tolerance for different thoughts, failure and different measures of success.

At some point of time, even though the patriarch has a stake in the family, he needs to disengage from the proceedings  and focus his attention on something else and let go. The child has now grown up and needs to find its own feet.

Do you see similarities in your lives?  I thought I was writing about the Infosys and Tata episodes. 

Kumble-ing Lessons

Recently, Anil Kumble, one of the pillars of Indian cricket, resigned (or was forced to resign?) from the position of coach of the Indian Cricket Team. The team had a very good run under his leadership. The resignation, was due to reports in the media, that there was a rift between the Captain of the cricket team, Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There are also reports that the players felt suffocated b y 

Kumble’s approach to practice sessions and his leadership.

The media is gaga about how it is a sad day for Indian cricket, or how Indian cricket will be at a loss due to Kumble’s departure. There are also narratives about how Virat Kohli (a superstar in his own right) is growing too big for his boots. I would like to present two perspectives here.

Firstly, India as a society is very patriarchal. Our culture talks about respecting elders, and the word of elders is final. There is no appeal, no reasoning. However, there is a difference between listening to elders and respecting elders. People can chart their own paths, deviating from elders’ advice, without disrespecting them. The narrative can be “Fine, I heard you, but I beg to differ. Let us agree to disagree.” There is no feeling of disrespect to the elders. For eg. I love my father, respect him, but don’t agree with his perspectives.

The elders have good intentions in their heart. They don’t want the juniors to make the mistakes that they have made. But what they don’t realise, is that their strength has only been obtained by learning through these mistakes. Our society frowns upon disobedience confusing it with disrespect.

This is exactly the narrative that is being played out. I don’t think Virat Kohli disrespects Anil Kumble. He may not be agreeing to his methods and hence wants someone with whom he can be more comfortable.

The other perspective is from the corporate world. Many times when two strong personalities, clash, something has to give. Let’s take this case of a very strong Leader who is extremely hands on, bright, brilliant and very talented. And then there is another person who is recruited as a second in command, let us say the Deputy, who is equally bright and equally aggressive. Something has to give. There have to be times, when one of them takes the back seat and allows the other to prevail. Leaders tend to get blinded. I am differentiating blindness from arrogance. They get blinded by their own success and confidence in their own abilities. This confidence leads them to want to have their own way, always.

Initially the Deputy soaks in everything that the Leader says. He is also in awe of the Leader and wants to learn from him. However this continues for not more than 6 months. Being bright and talented himself, the Deputy has his own mind. And slowly starts getting stifled. He believes (rightly or wrongly is not relevant here) that some decisions of the Leader may not be right. He wants to try things in a different manner. But the Deputy does not get the independence. The longer that happens, chances are that this relationship will break.

It is not who is right or who is wrong. This is a reason, a lot of children fight with their parents. The stubbornness is transferred genetically, which leads to clashes. This is exactly what happened in the Kohli –Kumble saga.

In Corporate Life, employees leave their bosses. In sport, players sack their managers. Ravi Shastri was more successful in managing the boys than Anil Kumble. Who was the better player? No doubt Anil Kumble. But maybe Shastri was the better coach.

I personally think this divorce is very good for Indian cricket. The victor is not always the villain as is being painted in this picture.