A Visitor's Guide to the Lobos

Today is Christmas and we were having a family lunch at my sisters place. My brother Frank is getting married next week, and so the whole family including Don, my other brother had flown in with his family. It was a special occasion, with the complete Lobo family getting together in 1 place after several years.

Freia wanted to make it special and wanted to give everyone a gift. She recollected that 7 years earlier when the entire family had gone to Thailand and Singapore, she had presented a collection of poems titled “9” to each family and it was a hit. She thought of creating something similar. And came up with an idea of writing a small description for each of the family members.

And came up with her version of “A Visitor’s Guide to the Lobo’s”. It made extremely interesting reading and I must admit it was a pretty accurate description of each family member. The only exception of course being mine. And every family member agreed. That it was a pretty accurate description of each family member except one. Themselves.

Read for yourself and decide

What a Change - Passport in 3 days

Traditionally all of us Indians are used to criticizing the authorities and blaming the Government for the lack of infrastructure, inefficiency, incompetence and so on and so forth.

Earlier this week, on Friday, I had occasion to experience the awesome changes that have taken place not once, but twice. I think that it’s high time we learnt to appreciate the good things that are happening all around us. This is my attempt.

The Passport application required to be filled online and you had to take an appointment.
https://passport.gov.in/pms/Information.jsp

I took an appointment for Friday at 10.30. I reached the passport office around 15 minutes early. There was a waiting line for the 10.30 appointments and at exactly 10.30 we were allowed to go in. There was an option for getting a Tatkal (Speedy) passport in a few days or the regular process that would take around 8 to 12 weeks. I had opted for the Tatkal scheme, which required you to pay Rs. 1500 extra.

There was just 1 person ahead of me. She completed her process in a few minutes and mine too was completed in a few minutes. Payment took another couple of minutes.

Earlier the Tatkal application form needed a Letter of Verification from a Senior Officer in the Government. This was a difficult task, as most of us do not know Senior Officials in the Government. Now all you require is 3 documents, from a list of 14 documents. I had my Election ID, my PAN card, and a Bank Passbook. You also need to have a simple affidavit, a format of which is given on the site. Basically, all you need to do is follow the simple instructions on the website, and you should be able o get a passport easily and without any hassles.
http://passport.gov.in/cpv/TatkalScheme.htm

Since I wanted to apply for my daughters passport (who was not eligible for Tatkal), I then stood in the line for the regular passport. Here there were around 15 persons ahead of me. In around an hour, it was my turn and here too, the officer at the counter was quick and efficient. She checked the papers which seemed to be in order, and had completed the formalities in a few minutes. The payment needed to be made in another line, which too was short and did not take much time. Before 12, I had successfully completed the application process and was to receive my passport, 4 business days later, on Wednesday.

Whilst the experience with the passport authorities and officials was very pleasant, the experience with my fellow applicants was far from good. Many were trying several things to bypass the lines and rules, even though they were so well organized. A very fashionably dressed lady with an appointment for 12.00 was trying to bully her way in. A school teacher and her husband were standing in two different lines together and jumping from one to the other, delaying everybody and creating a nuisance. A fat, rich couple were elbowing their way ahead, breaking the lines, using their children. Interestingly, in all of these cases, where the passport office staff were present, they handled them politely but firmly and got them back to where they belonged.

The authorities have done their bit and made the process multiple times better than before. They’ve changed. When will we ?

p.s.: I received my passport on Tuesday, 1 day before the promised delivery date.

Tit for Tat

I recently read V. Raghunathans "Games Indians Play - why we are the way we are". Interestingly the cover has, "Foreword by N.R. Narayana Murthy", confirming the author's Indianness, in flaunting famous personality endorsements.

It’s a book that is absorbing and I agree with most of the authors views. The only view I completely disagree with is actually the basic premise of the book. He attributes a large part of the ills in Indian society to the way we are, and considers lack of effective implementation or enforcement. I believe that Indians, replicate most of the characteristics of global citizens and the primary reason for the ills is a lack of effective implementation and enforcement of laws.

In the book, the author refers extensively to the Game Theory and its variations. The one I want to touch upon is the "Tit for Tat" algorithm. This has been found to be the most effective solution in solving "The Prisoner's Dilemma". You can read more about the Tit for Tat theory and its application in "The Prisoner's Dilemma" at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat

Let me briefly touch upon what exactly does the Tit for Tat algorithm entail. Its actually as simple as the 3 words used. It responds in the same way as the competitor. However, it has a few rules. It by itself will not be the first to defect. But, if provoked by a defection, it will retaliate by defecting. It in a sense is a smart variation of Gandhiji's "Show the other cheek" theory. Here, you show one cheek and continue to interact in a fair manner. However the moment you are slapped, you withdraw both cheeks, and slap back at the first opportunity.

This has major implications in the way we do business, as well as conduct our activities. It has implications for both, the persons who are fair minded and conduct business or their lives in an ethical manner, as well as those who are selfish and would like to maximize profits. And that's what makes this strategy so amazing. It’s not only ethically and morally correct, it’s also the one that's likely to maximize profits over the long term.

Let’s examine its veracity and the expected behavior. There are 2 scenarios as mentioned above. Lets first take the case of the honest business person, which is considered as an oxymoron by most Indians. In any of their business dealings they would like to be fair. Hence they follow the first rule of not defecting first. They will continue to keep their end of the deal, as long as the counterpart keeps their part of the deal. As soon as the counter party defects, the theory suggests that so should they. This will give a message that a defection will be retaliated with a defection.

The defecting party has an option to no longer deal or try and deal once again without defecting. The Tit for Tat, will respond positively when the counter party initiates a positive interaction. Hence the ethical business person will have a maximum of any one losing transaction with any counter party. What makes this effective for the business is that ethical counter parties will love to deal with the "Tit for Tat" follower, since they always keep their end of the bargain. Interestingly, even the crooks’ will love to deal with them, since they never are the first to defect, and so they can never lose.

And now let’s take the case of the profiteers. They would like to maximize their profits. They are likely to deal with either opportunists like themselves or with ethical people. In the first case, they run the risk of the opportunist defecting and them losing before they have a chance to defect. Even if they manage to defect first, the opportunist having lost is unlikely to deal with them again. And so the dealing will last for a short time. When the opportunist deals with the ethical person, he will have 1 hugely profitable transaction. But then will lose an opportunity of dealing with the same party. Quickly their reputation will precede them, and they will have no one left willing to deal with them.

Hence to me it seems like behaving in an ethical manner is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do. In addition to being good for the soul, it’s going to be good for business.

Handling people - Lessons from a novice

Amongst my many weaknesses, 1 of the major ones is social skills and handling people. I tend to get very judgmental and put most things in black and white. So someone is Right or Wrong. Hence I end up, calling Idiots, (or those I believe to be Idiots), Idiots. As is rather obvious, it ends up me alienating a lot of people. My new mature self, refrains from saying so, but I've been told that my demeanor and body language leave little for the imagination, and so I guess I'm not much better off.

Recently, Ivy became the Secretary of our housing Society. She's always hated administrative work and for 12 long years, she had diplomatically avoided becoming part of the Managing Committee or assuming any formal role. Several months ago, a grave injustice was done to a resident, and at that point she was outraged enough to gather support and reduce the injustice. (Read More)

Nevertheless, she wasn't able to bring about a change, since the member in question was part of the Managing Committee, was dictatorial in nature and the other members of the Committee were either too scared or just wanted to avoid hassles.

With the motivation of not being a mute witness to such gross injustice, she managed to motivate a few other like minded members to contest the elections and were elected. The members wanted her to become the Secretary and she reluctantly agreed, with a caveat of "Just 1 year". The Society was facing multiple issues, including, no money, no security willing to be posted here, no manager willing to work here, poor to nonexistent housekeeping, and so all. I was rather skeptical whether she and the other members would be able to do much, considering the mess that the Society was in.

They managed to surprise everyone. For starters, the Chairperson, and the Treasurer along with the other members were string in their resolve and willing to work hard. They managed to change the security and housekeeping, and improve the basic atmosphere. All this with major resistance and hurdles from 1 disgruntled but very powerful member and a few of her friends.

The part that was most impressive was the tackling of the defaulters. Several members had not paid outstanding for very long, several for years together. Personal calls made to them resulted in many of them clearing their dues within a few days.

But the part that was most memorable for me, was the way they handled people. They were sweet and polite, even in the face of ridiculous and ride responses. As an example a Member called and demanded to see the accounts, "Right Now". She went to the office, called the Member and said, "We appreciate your interest, and we'll be happy to share the accounts. Please come down". The member chickened out, realizing that the nuisance value that was being sought to be created was back firing. They were firm, and refused to be cowed down by rabble rousers and noise makers.

But what stands out is "How ?". They managed to handle all of the negativity with a smile, politeness and firmness. if only I can learn to handle people half as well as this team has, I shall consider it a major milestone.

The more important learning for me is that whilst we all know ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (or women) do nothing’, it’s high time, we stood up and did our bit, instead of sitting back and waiting for others to clear our mess. Whether its in our society, our city and especially our country.