Lokpal Bill - Anna v/s Government

This week marked the last consultation meetings between the Anna Hazare team and the Government to finalize the draft of the Lokpal Bill, that will be presented first to the Cabinet, and then to Parliament. The complete process has not been a consultative one. Instead it became a confrontational one, with both parties trading charges in public and the media. All of them appeared for interviews and debates across channels. Interestingly they never appeared together.

Whilst this debate was in progress, all of urban India and probably a majority of the rest of India too had an opinion. Mostly skewed in favor of the Anna team. For a change a minority of the public and an even lesser number of the media or editors were in favor of the Governments point of view. I happen to be among the few. On the few occasions that I had occasion to discuss the same with colleagues or friends, I got the look of "He's lost it." Nobody seemed to understand how  any rational person could have that opinion. I failed to convincingly explain my point of view to my colleagues. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with you.

The primary reason I no longer support Anna Hazare and his team is their absolute approach where they assume that what they say and want is the "Only Way" and the "Right Way" and what anybody else wants or another opinion is not acceptable. And will resort to a 2nd hunger strike. This is not "Democracy". They, in my opinion are violating the very principles they profess to want to preserve. In our democracy, the people vote their representatives and the representatives make the law.

If we don't agree with that system or belief, we then need to become those representatives and change the law. From within. By being part of the system. Not by holding the very system we profess we want to change to ransom. Think about it. What if every well meaning soul went on a hunger strike because they didn't like what they were getting.

However, as far as the rest is concerned, I completely agree with Anna Hazare and his team. Unfortunately, most people have an opinion but have no idea what its all about. They have neither read the Lokpal draft or the issues of differences between the Government and the Anna Hazare team.



Interesting Site / Documents you must check out:

Lokpal Bill Public Consultation

Govt’s Lokpal Bill Vs Jan Lokpal Bill: Comparative Chart

Summary of Lokpal Bill

Full text of the Draft Lokpal Bill

Happy Father's Day

Today is "Fathers Day". And I had no idea till a few minutes back when my daughter walked in with a cake that said "Happy Father's Day". The irony was that she was just returning from a weekend visit to my parents place.

I've always believed that all of these various days are just figments of imagination of smart marketing people of card companies, who came up with these days to increase their revenue, since Chritmas and New Year only came once a year. Unfortunately they were so close to each other that even here, just 1 card got sent. Since a single major event was not getting sufficient revenues, the card companies came up and poularized several events across the year, including Valentine's, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Children's Day, Doctor's Day, ... Great for their business. Until the e-Card came along and they were once again struggling.

Now that I knew it was Father's Day, I did the most obvious thing. Under the watchful glare of my daughter. Called up Dad. And wished him. And he after politely thanking me, informed that I was the last of the kids to call him. Don hadn't called, but he was excused as he was trekking with his kids in the Grand Canyon and so didn't count. Lesson Learnt. Father's Day gets entered into my to do list, reminder list, and all the other lists I keep to remind me of events and occasions. Its another matter that since I don't have something to remind me to check the reminders, I end up forgetting anyways.

Father's are probably the most misunderstood and underrated relationship. He's typically the Bad Cop in the family equation, with the Mom being the Good Cop. And in the age of equality, its the guy who typically ends up coming home late and so spends the least amount of time too. Add to that, the fact that men aren't the greatest of communicators and show very little emotion and so affection. All of this adds up to the image of an uncaring or if you're lucky, caring but not as much as mom image.

It doesn't change much even when you become a Dad and so I'm writing here what I was unable to convey to Dad on the phone. Thanks Dad for everything. You made a lot of sacrifices so that we could get opportunities you never had. All of that is much appreciated. And as our way of saying Thank You, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do the same once again for your grand kids.

Life's unfair - Even in Death

This week we experienced 2 sudden and unexpected deaths where we live. One in our residential complex, and the second in our shopping complex. The similarity was that in both cases the man of the house lost his life, leaving behind a family who have yet to come to terms with the unexpected tragedy.

June 2, 2011. 9 p.m. A typical evening at Raheja Vihar. A young learner who recently learnt driving was near the Raheja Vihar entrance. An oncoming car got her to lose her nerve and swerve violently. She lost control, and hit the 19 year old Mr. Sanjay Kurmi, who was walking home after finishing his carpentry work for the day. The driver panicked. And unable to stop, ran over the knocked down boy. By the time an ambulance arrived and took the boy to the hospital, it was too late. He was pronounced "DoA" or Dead on Arrival.

June 11, 2011, a Saturday morning, came another equally sad incident. A crime reported Mr. J. Dey a resident of Powai, was shot by 4 assailants on 2 motorcycles, who followed him, whilst on his way to his home in Powai. Passerby's rushed him to hospital but it was too late. He was pronounced "DoA" or Dead on Arrival

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Crime-reporter-shot-dead-in-Mumbai-suburb/articleshow/8820790.cms

This incident happened in broad daylight. The incident made the headline news on all TV channels, and the newspapers. It elicited comments and sound bytes from the Prime Ministers office to the Chief Minister to the Home Minister to ...

Both cases happened in Mumbai. Both were sad and tragic. Both happened within a mile of each other. Both were quiet, efficient people who went about doing their jobs with a quiet dignity. And that's where the similarity ends. In 1 case, the same is already forgotten by everybody, except for the hapless family. I wasn't able to find a single mention of Mr. Kurmi, his photograph, where he lived, nothing. And in the other, memorials will be built, medals will be given, books will be written.

We all know Life's unfair. It seems like death does not change that.

Gambling - Good or Bad ?

The word "Gambling" carries with it an extremely negative connotation. From the time we were kids, we've been taught, reinforced with stories, novels and movies that all gamblers meet a dead end, figuratively and literally.

I guess this stems from a misconception of what gambling is and what it means. Gambling is 'Risking". And the truth of the matter is we are all gamblers. We need to be gamblers to be able to live life in a social environment.

Think about this. Isn't every single thing we do a gamble ? Maybe with a low probability of failure and a high probability of success. But does that take away from the fact that its still a risk. A gamble. Walking on the streets. Crossing the road. Driving to work. In each of these scenarios, people lose their lives. Multiple times every single day. And we carry out these activities, daily.

Now that we have established that gambling or risk taking is by itself, a human requirement and that we all are gamblers or risk takers, the question that begs to be asked is, what differentiates the BAD gamblers from the GOOD gamblers. And this where opinions are likely to dramatically differ.

Here's mine. First I think I would divide the gamble we need to take into 2 distinct categories. The first is, gambles around our social lifestyle. And the second is around our working lifestyle. The first is the day to day activities we undertake. And as long as these are relatively low risk, its okay. And so we should go about doing all we would love to and that which enhances our enjoyment of life, and not worry too much about the associated risks.

Its our working lifestyle where our gambling will determine the probability of success or failure. We need to do a simple mathematical calculation in our head. The first is the probability of success or the risk factor versus the quantum of the reward. Let me try and explain this thru a few examples.

Sometimes when I interview people, I ask a question, "How sure are you ?". On most occasions the answer is 100%. Which prompts my next question, "Would you risk your job ? If you're right you get this job, else you don't.". The answer of most people is "No". And here's the catch. They're unwilling to risk something they don't even have. They don't know if they'll get the job anyways. However if they were willing to risk it, then they are guaranteed to get the job, if they're right, which they seem to believe. Its a Win - No lose risk. And you aren't very smart if you don't take it. Which is why, I've immediately made a job offer to those who took that risk, even though on every occasion they were wrong about the question. The logic was simple. This person is willing to take a risk, and that's always a good thing.

 

A classic example of risk taking is the stock market. Most people who invest in the stock market have no idea about the market. And yet they rush to invest based on the TIPS they get. From the TV channels, the newspapers, friends, colleagues and virtually everyone, including the paper delivery boy. If you bother to check you'll find that the historical return on the stock market is only around 15%. Slightly more than the safer "Fixed Deposits". On the Index stocks. However the Index stocks themselves keep changing and so its likely to be a lot less if you held on to a static set of stocks. In such cases taking a risk is stupid, since you don't know enough. You should therefore either invest in a reputed mutual fund, run by hopefully people who know more than us. Or alternately learn about the equity market, evaluate the same objectively, and then take investment decisions based on a clear understanding and thus a well weighed risk.

And another interesting risk taking is in the work we do. On most occasions, we look for another job or change because we think we'll get more money. Or a slighthly better designation. I'm no HR expert, but I think it may be reasonable to assume that most people who hit big time, have very few job switches. Professional Growth, is fastest when we stay with the same company. This is because there's a sense of confidence that develops between the bosses and ourselves. And most people wouuld rather give opportunities to insiders as opposed to outsiders. Also if we have a great track record, our value increases. The risk of switching jobs therefore is very high. Hence it should be carefully evaluated. Surprisingly, very little thought is given here. Yet another case of lack of understanding of risk.

My conclusion is again very simple. Most people who seem like "Gamblers" or "Risk Takers" are actually some of the most sensible people who carefully evaulate the risk before gambling. And most of the people who seem to be conservative or risk averse, end up gambling with the odds stacked against them. You have no choice. You'll need to be a Gambler. Doesn't it make sense to become a GOOD one ?

And no better advise have I found than the eternal wise words from Kenny Rogers "The Gambler"