Diwali - Festival of Lights or Sound ?

This week was Diwali and for all practical purposes a holiday week. Wednesday was Laxmi Puja, Thursday was Balipratipada and Friday Bhau Beej. As our friends in the US called it, "Indian Christmas".

The world is going through a financial slowdown and India is no exception. The Indian stock market indices had lost around 20% of their value since the last Diwali. So most people now had less than 8-% of what they had 1 year ago. The losses amount to over Rs. 1000 crores / hour of trading during the year. On a television show, the stock market wizard and current market favourite Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala made an interesting comment. "This was my worst trading year ever. And I got all my calls Right". That seemed to sum up the feeling of all those who traded on the stock market. Did everything right. Yet made huge losses.

Somehow it did not seem like the global slowdown affected the common man. The malls were full. The shops were brimming with people. On Dhanteras, the day that Indians buy Gold, lines to pay stretched for as long as 20 - 30 minutes with several additional counters. One interesting point I noted that a large proportion of those transactions seemed to be in Cash. This is not based on any scientific survey and is at best a dip stick observation. I continued my observation to restaurants and the same story seemed to be repeating itself. Hence it looks like a significantly large number of people have Cash.

You need not be Einstein to figure out that large amounts of Cash cannot be legitimately earned. Hence it seems like the only people who can afford the good things in life are the "Not Honest". So I guess what we learnt in school "Cheaters never propser" and "Honesty is the best Policy", is at best questionable. On an aside, if the government wanted to curb black money, all it needed to do was ensure that "Cash" is not accepted for any trasaction for more than Rs. 100.

Diwali is the festival of lights. And most Hindu homes are completely lit up. Traditionally Diyas were used, but now they have been substituted by extremely cost effective beautiful LED lights. Like all cost effective good things, "Made in China". The city looks beautiful, with brightly lit buildings and homes. And the city wears a festive look. Its a time of celebration and like all Indian celebrations accompanied by good food. Varities of sweets, completely delicious, totally tempting and irresistible. And of course, full of calories. So next month, shall be spent on losing the weight put on in the last week.

One of the only aspects of Diwali, that bothers me is the firecrackers. An Indian tradition where a lot of fireworkers are burst. The problem is the noise, smoke and dirt. The fireworks are burst through the day on Laxmi Puja nd the 2 following days. They increase the already high noise pollution levels to unbearable levels. Their smoke increases the already smoggy air, to smoggier. And their remnants dirty the city that could do with a major clean up. I just wish that we could do what many other communities across the world do. Community fireworks at pre-designated public places. Everyone has a good time without any of the issues.

And the millions of rupees that are burnt into nothingness, can be used in helping the million have what we are fortunate to have, "A Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year".

Etiquette. How important ?

Yesterday I attended a presentation on Business & Social Etiquette by Mr. Vincent D'Silva. Mr. D'Silva is an accomplished speaker of repute and has conducted I'm told 100's of sessions and trained 1000's in various aspects of business.

Mr. D'Silva is apparently so popular that you need to be able to book a year in advance if you want him as a trainer or speaker. The reason for the speakers popularity became obvious as soon as he started his presentation. He managed to have the audience captivated whilst he walked them through the various aspects and importance of etiquette, both business and social. He stressed the importance of etiquette and the links between success and etiquette.

I was intrigued enough to check out some aspects of the subject. Mr. D'Silva had kindly mentioned 3 websites which gave more insights into the subject.
www.executiveplanet.com
www.tips4me.com
and especially for women www.sitagita.com

Not satisfied, I searched a little more and amongst the various excellent resources I found one that was really very, very good.
http://www.ravenwerks.com/
and this section was just what I was looking for
http://www.ravenwerks.com/etiquette-communication/

The question to me however was how important is etiquette. I'm not referring to the part about acceptable social behavior. I'm referring to the specific business etiquette that have a long list of Do's and Dont's, such as "Never say Hi, when you pick up a business call".

I do realize that most of you'll are likely to disagree, but I think that social and business etiquette should be about doing what feels right. And what one is comfortable with. "Half shirts are worn by drivers and peons", is something that's said. And in some MNC's even if you are a photocopy repair person you wear a full sleeved shirt, take permission, fold it, finish your work, clean up, fold your shirt down and then go take the customers signature. In my mind that's plain silly. Just wear a half shirt. Or even an overall.

A lot of the etiquette are remnants of the British era, exported to most parts of the Western world. Whilst some of the traditional companies continue to follow a relaxed version of the traditional etiquette, most modern companies aren't particular about traditional etiquette. And the mantra is comfort. So if you're comfortable working in shorts and sandals, you're welcome to come dressed up like that. On Fridays. And all other days that you work.

I'm a fan of this culture. Do what you're most comfortable with. Just as long as your comfort does not make people around you uncomfortable.

p.s.: My wife happened to see Mr. D'Silva's presentation and was hopeful that I would start wearing smart clothes. Sorry Mr. D'Silva and Ivy, it'll need more than an awesome presentation to convince me that "Wearing Smart Clothes" is more important than "Wearing Comfortable Clothes".

Perception is Reality

I once told a friend, “You know what, perception is greater than reality”. His reply a true classic, “Perception is Reality”.

To begin with, why should there be a difference between perception and reality. Shouldn’t they be a reflection of each other. Whilst this may be true in the sciences, it doesn’t apply to human beings. We perceive things first . Later we put together in our minds, what we think are facts to make it seem that our perception is justified. And most of us, no matter how hard we try find it difficult to change our perceptions.

Surprisingly, perceptions are viral in nature. They have the ability of taking on a life of their own and spreading until it becomes a reality. Some of the classic perceptions, many of which seem to defy the facts. Here are my favorite 5.

1. Congress is a secular party
The complete Congress part machinery shouts itself hoarse claiming themselves and their allies to be secular. Its strange considering that the Congress Party has several tie-ups with parties like the Muslim League, both historically and currently. Additionally many of their programs revolve around sops for the minorities. Their definition, which strangely no one has questioned revolves around, Secular is equal to non pro majority, or pro Hindu.

2. Nuclear weapons are dangerous in the hands of small countries
The facts are that the only nation to have ever used nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons happens to be the US. And that too, whilst it was a superpower. So where does this perception come from. It comes from the US and its powerful allies talking about the dangerous possibilities of nuclear weapons and how rogue states could misuse it.

3. Bill Gates and Microsoft are greedy and want to dominate the world
Bill Gates is one of the worlds nicest and most generous person. He has distributed a large chunk of his enormous wealth (over 80%) to social causes all over the world. And unlike most philanthropists has shied away from taking credit, except to the extent of encouraging fellow entrepreneurs to join in supporting social causes.

4. All politicians are stupid, lazy, and corrupt
A large section of politicians are the smartest, most hardworking and honest people in our society. Whilst there is no doubt that a large section of politicians are corrupt, in my mind, the very nature of politics will prevent them from being either stupid or lazy. They have to be very smart and hardworking to be able to interact and satisfy their constituents, all of whom are highly demanding. As regards corrupt, whilst many are in all probability corrupt, the fact that so many good things happen seems to indicate that many of them would have to be honest. Another benchmark would be looking at their personal worth (Including close family). Many of them are worth less than you and me, inspite of having devoted their lives to working for our causes.

5. Indian are smarter than Americans
This is this perception that most urbanites have, especially families with Indian Americans. Two obvious facts disprove this immediately. The first is that If we were so smart, then we would be far ahead of the US, which by any benchmark we’re not. The second is that as a nation, neither our IQ or any other parameter indicate any mental advantage. The reason for this myth is probably the fact that Indians in the US outperform the locals. However the reason for this is obvious. The ones that go there are the smarter once, definitely in the top 10 percentile. Comparing them with the general population will give skewed results. Compare them with the top 10 percentile, and you may arrive at different conclusions.

So whats the conclusion. Since we can't change the fact that "Perception is Reality", we need to be careful that we consciously convey through our words and actions, aspects that reflect the truth as we perceive it and thereby would like to perceived.

The dots finally disconnected – Goodbye Steve

Earlier this week on Tuesday, Apple launched the new iPhone 4S. The next day,  ((Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011) the company announced that Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has died of pancreatic cancer at age 56.

The impact that Steve Jobs had can be fathomed by what my younger daughter Reia said. “Lets pay a real tribute to Steve Jobs. Let’s get an iPad 2”.

He had been hailed as the next great inventor after Einstein, amongst many glowing tributes paid him.  To my mind the genius of Steve Jobs was in his ability to make things simple for users. He seemed to follow Einstein’s thoughts accurately and effectively."Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

What better way to say Goodbye to Steve than in his own words.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

"That's been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

“There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.”

“A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition ... Stay hungry, Stay foolish."

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions”

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”

And finally Steve Jobs at Stanford. Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself -- at the university's 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.

Ideas worth spreading

There are many occasions when you’d like to find something interesting. Search Google or Wikipedia and you have a few billion hits or websites to choose from. Go to youtube and you are slightly better off. Billion reduces to a few million. Nevertheless, so much to see and learn, so little time.

And there’s one place where you can go to. And you’ll be amazed. The presentations, the speakers, the ideas. Out of this world. It could be about a simple thing like English, or about forging, or about robotics or about bird like planes, or …

So  what exactly is TED ?
"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

I started this blog by wanting to write a few lines of my favorite presentations, with links to them. But just as I was about to, I realized that the greatest joy I found was in discovering new thoughts, new ideas, new presentations, new … So I’m just going to let you go discover some pretty cool stuff.

Go check out www.ted.com.



To  sum up, as TED says “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”