All dynasties come to an end (Why not political dynasties?)

All dynasties, small to large, little control to very powerful one's, they all had a start, peak and an end.

Take the case of mighty Mogul dynasty who ruled over a larger portion of Northern India. They had a beginning with Babur. Their real growth came with Akbar at the helm. The kingdom saw a peak with Taj Mahal being built in the times of Shah Jahan. After Aurangzeb, it began to lose out steadily and came to end.

Look at Vijayanagar empire who ruled entire South India. It had a humble beginning with Hakka-Bukka. To reach its peak, it had to wait till its 19th king Sri Krishnadeveraya. Their 21st king was their last king as they lost out in a war and their capital got ransacked and burnt.

Glancing though pages of history, you will see many kingdoms getting born, rising and coming to an end to give way for another. Though the time periods they lasted were different, the underlying reasons for the change in direction are very much common for all of them. There has to be need for a change and an opportunity at the moment for a new kingdom to be born. A king is a product of the times he represents. And then to build on it and expand the kingdom, it requires different skills. An able king can expand its solid base already built and take its glory to new heights. That is when the problems begin to arise, bigger the kingdom larger the share of problems too. It would take smart and able king to be at helm to keep the kingdom intact. A weaker prince coming to power, who neither has the foresight of those built the kingdom nor the burning ambition and skills to keep it going, will find the problems he has to face are beyond his capacity. Then the events will take drastic turns. The loyalty base for the current king shrinks rapidly. Enemies rise and become powerful. A new kingdom arises on the ashes of the old one.

Let us take a look at political dynasty ruling India. Nehru who discovered modern India and ruled it as PM for a longer period, trained and promoted his daughter Indira into politics. Indira had grit and a strong determination to rule. Though she wanted her other son to come into politics, by luck and accident, it was Rajiv who became the next PM after her. Rajiv's death had almost brought their political dynasty to an end but Sonia took charge of the party and she was the reason behind Narasimha Rao and Man Mohan Singh becoming PM's. Now Sonia promotes her son Rahul as apparent political heir. Rahul is neither a pundit like his great grandfather, nor has the courage of his grandmother and does not possess the pleasing personality or dreams for India like his father. He resembles those princes who helped mighty kingdoms come to an end. Look at what happened during last general elections. Their loyalty base was at its lowest and their enemy took charge putting Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty into dust. Though INC won couple of state elections later, it was the effort of the local leaders and they did it for themselves and not for the dynasty.

In the midst of general elections again, it is clearly a time for change for the old dynasty. For those who do not learn from history, they help repeating it. INC may survive only if an able administrator takes charge. Else they certainly can become history too.

Who is responsible for Mirage crash?

In the last week, a trainer Mirage Aircraft crashed at HAL Airport in Bangalore killing its two pilots. (Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/2-pilots-killed-as-upgraded-mirage-trainer-crashes-after-takeoff/articleshow/67799191.cms)

This Aircraft was on a test ride out of the factory after its upgrade. It failed to take off properly. What went wrong is not known yet.  Though the newspapers report that a detailed inquiry is ordered, I wonder why neither HAL nor Indian Air Force took responsibility and apologize to the society for failing in their duty? Are they waiting for final report to fix a blame on one party?

Though they will formally make someone a scapegoat, this incident raises more questions. Is HAL doing the right job of inspecting before they let the aircraft hit the runway? Why IAF is not furious for losing both Aircraft and its finest men? Why does not defense ministry pay attention to this?

If we let this pass as one-off situation, it is going to haunt us again and again. Tax payers fund the Govt. to take care of country's defense. And when an expensive aircraft, worth a few hundred crores crashes and two of bright young dedicated men lose lives, no one comes forward accepting the responsibility and promising to correct the mistake. Will it motivate the new generation to join IAF? What kind of credibility HAL sports? Why does Govt. remain tolerant of both? If no one pays for it, how things will change? Mera Bharat Mahan.

Nehru was right. And Manmohan Singh and Modi too

Rich-poor divide

Have you thought why rich remain rich and poor remain poor? What drives this phenomenon? Let us see through few simple facts.

a. Access to education: If a child is born in a poor family, it’s parents do not have the affordability to send him/her to good school. Despite the talent and interests, higher education may not be possible for economic reasons.

b. Job and Income level: Without higher education, it is not easy to get a high paying job. Accepting a menial job would mean the income is not sufficient to get out of poverty zone.

c. Marriage and inheritance: A rich room is likely to get a match from the well to do family. That marriage will result in a union of two rich families. And they are likely to inherit the wealth of their parents. So, the cycle of rich becoming richer continues while for the poor gets trapped in vicious cycle of poverty.

So how do you create a level playing ground? Not at individual level but at the country level.

Creating a level playing ground for India

Nehru’s socialist approach: When India became independent, majority of the residents were poor and if left on own, things would not have changed. Nehru was a socialist. His Govt. was not a liberal one but that was what India needed. He taxed the rich as poor were not able to pay any, but he built Govt. machinery to help the poor. Not only primary education, IIT, IIM’s got built where the education fee structure was subsidized. Both poor and rich could have the same opportunity as the talent was the selection criteria and not the economical background. It needed to be so for few decades. At least until two generations got access to better education.

ManMohan Singh’s economic reforms: When you have a good number of people with good education, you should let them start businesses, support them by minimizing Govt. intervention. That’s what ManMohan Singh did. He ended the license raj. Gave liberty to businessmen who created the new wave of service industry which provided employment to the new generation of workforce.

Modi’s protectionist policies: With so much protection given to backward castes and the likes for a longer period since independence, at the disadvantage of General Merit class, someone had to revive the Hindu religion. Also, its farmers with efforts to double their incomes to catch up the with the rest. And carry out tough reforms like GST.

You might think I am pointing out only the good things each of these PM did. But think of Modi as first PM of India, it would not have worked well. Similarly, Nehru’s socialist policies in today’s world would have done more harm than help to India. But these happened in the ways beneficial to India. All these PM’s did good to India and did what was the need of the hour.

When I hear criticism of these PM's, it appears to me like we are forgetting the context these PM's operated in.

Floods are no more rare events

Kashmir, Kedarnath, Kaziranga, Chennai, Kerala, Kodagu…. these are the places which witnessed how much damage can floods cause in the recent past. In each place, reports said it had not happened like that in the past few decades. Yeah, not in the same place but in half a decade it happened in many places all over India. South East monsoons which first hit Kerala’s coastal line, begin there journey from there and the clouds take the routes where the pressure drop is high and pour the rains there. if no where else, as a last stop, they reach the Himalaya’s and empty out themselves fully.

What seemed to be a rare event, is no more a rare one if you observe the regularity of it happening in one or the places of India. Of course, global warming is for real. It is making the seasonal patterns abrupt and taking the sea water levels high too. As a result, we are experiencing extremes of weather – too hot and sunny during summer and water pouring from the heaven during the winter.

If we look at how we respond, we are not doing any great job with weather forecasts. And when things break loose, our citizens just cry for help. Why did they built their houses on the riverbeds and encroached lakes in the first place? What happened to the rain drains? Where did they disappear? Why did we build such low bridges across the river streams? What kind of town planning did our Corporations made? It is a collective failure in anticipating risks and managing them.

If no one takes responsibility and pass through this again as a one-off situation, nature will continue to give us lessons every year. It is time to take long term corrective actions and learn the ways of the nature. History shows those who did not adopt to nature’s ways like those of Mayan civilization (and our own Harappa too) did not survive the master strokes of the nature. Hundreds of years of civilization disappeared in a matter of few days when they were faced with floods, earthquakes and other natural calamities. We Indians are surviving for 5,000 years but it does not mean we will survive in future too. Last week’s chaos and deaths in Kerala showed how ill prepared we are for the nature’s ways.

Mother nature is kind and nurturing. But she will wash away all those getting on her way too.

Science creates history and not vice versa

Lots of feeds on my Facebook on how great ancient India was not only annoys me but makes me worry about the state of our society. Sure, our forefathers achieved lots of great stuff. They could do so because they thought innovative. Had they spent singing how great their ancestors i.e., cave men were, there would not have been any development of a subject like Ayurveda. While numerous of them worked on studying and developing subjects from Astrology to Astronomy, ancient India flourished building upon the expanding knowledge base. They made India great, a sought-after nation by remaining relevant to their times and not getting lost in their past. Their contributions to science created history.

Now many of us spend time praising achievement of ancestors on a smart phone manufactured in Taiwan or China on Facebook application which is developed in the US using the Internet as a medium, the technology of which again is not developed in India. I wonder those spam the Facebook feed, don’t they feel ashamed? What is the use of saying that aircraft technology is many centuries old and it was in use in ancient India? Why and when did it disappear? What point do they want to prove tracing the evidence of Mahabharat? I think what else we are doing apart from it is more important.

Greatness comes from creating new solutions for the current problems. Go and find solutions for new age diseases, that would make India great. Grow the talent who will rule the space technology and challenge Elon Musk. Build finer products than Apple does. Find newer materials for battery technology and free up world’s dependence on oil. Help farmers increase output multiple times using less land and water and make sure no one in the world goes hungry. Things like that will make India great. Contributions to science creates history. Just praising history leaves us where we are and we lose the race to those who live in current times.

We need to be proud of ancestors. But need to remember that they fell victim to invaders because of their own weaknesses. Blaming the foreigners for today’s issues leads us nowhere but building upon the good things done by our forefathers can make India great again.

This too shall pass but what is the take away?

Everyone’s life comes to an end. All phases of life are momentary. Look at the picture of Pele on the wheelchair. He was a legendary, one of the greatest footballers of all times. He had to run across the field several times, taking the ball under his control, hit a goal and repeat the process again! What kind of energy his legs had then and now why they are failing him even to walk on his own?


Coming to my events in my personal life, in the last couple of weeks, I had to meet two bed ridden people who were very active physically before uncertainty of life gave them a blow.

First one is my relative in my native town of Maski, who is in her seventies. I had never seen her sick before. She was always active, treating all her guests, keeping a conversation with all the people at home, also moving in and out of kitchen, ensuring that they are all fed properly. She had not only raised six of her kids but also several grandchildren to adulthood. She had never missed any gatherings among the relatives, kept a close watch on all the happenings and developments and many a times she had led the developments herself. Now when I went to meet her, she was sleeping on the bed. I could see her senses were active as before but the body is not able to keep up with her active mind. She could not sit on her own, was on a liquid food diet and someone had to help her answer nature’s calls. Body is aged, not her soul for sure. But her situation is no better as she has become a dependent for simplest chores of the daily routines.

Second one is my neighbor. He was the first one I got introduced to in the neighborhood when we started building our house in the outskirts of Bangalore. He was into marketing, he roamed around Bangalore on his bike, clocking 100 km's everyday easily. He was very quick in making friends, getting to know things early and spread the message around with same ease. A total extrovert person, an easy going person, he had to face lots of uneasy things of life. Call it bad luck or destiny, he had to go through serial physically injuries. First one was an electric shock blowout when an electric transformer exploded during the rainy season. It burnt one of his hands badly. Before he fully recovered from it, he had to go through a surgery and the recent one is a bike accident which broke his leg and now he is forced to take bed rest. And likely he will not able to ride a bike for the rest of his life.

When life is going good, we think it will be so eternally but the normal aging process or a sudden accident can bring a screeching halt to the pace of life. Now I am questioning myself, what should be the priorities of life? What am I doing after getting the wake-up call?

If life is momentary, it shall pass too. When you wake up from a bad dream, you will realize that whatever had happened in dream is not real. Similarly, when death happens to us, it would make us feel that the lives we had lived were momentary like a dream. While it is certain that death happens to everyone, it is uncertain that when that would happen.

The choice we have is to make the life we lived a pleasant one, Execution seems to be more important than mere planning. I am asking myself, what am I doing? Do you have any recommendations? Not the philosophical guidance I am seeking, it is the practical adjustments you have done in your daily lives that will be interesting for me.

5 Cultural Stages (TED Talk: Tribal Leadership by David Logan)

I have recently changed my job and was noticing the cultural differences between the organization I had worked for before and the one serving now. I was thinking what causes the difference in culture? Of course, it is it's people. But I wanted to get a better understanding how those people shape up the culture? This TED talk by David Logan gave the answers I was looking for. I found it impressive and interesting so I wanted to mention it on my blog.

David Logan shows how the tribes (a group of around 20 to 150 people) form and adopt a culture suiting their outlook towards life. He shows most organizations operate at Stage 3 which is incidentally the larger population too.

Source: http://www.triballeadership.net/business-culture/five-stages-of-culture

Having this knowledge allows us to identify what kind of tribe we are part of and why there are  cultural differences across the groups operating at different cultural stages and how to evolve and move forward. And this understanding also makes us more tolerant towards the groups in the lower stages of culture.

Competition is good but who are we competing with?

From childhood we have been taught by our parents and teachers to compete and win. We were told competition is good and necessary. Probably they wanted to introduce us early in our lives to the unfairness life. But who are we competing with? During school days, we had running races with our own classmates. Of course, I did not win in any of them but I was congratulating the winners. I was scoring well in academics. It had made me feel good to draw attention and feel like a winner. But what about those who did not win either in sports or academics? How did they feel? In the eyes of teachers and winning students, they had remained an unimportant mediocre mass. Were they not destined to be successful?

Out of curiosity, I started learning how those my classmates are doing in their lives after a gap of 20 years we finished our schooling. Some of them had remained mediocre, time had not brought any change in them. But few were surprisingly successful. I started looking into details of their lives. They did not draw attention when they were in school but they had better social lives and had a wider circle of friends than winners had. They gelled with a broader society with ease. These mediocre students did not make their parents proud but they were the dependable most and were available at a call for any petty help to make things run during their absence. They made their parents social circles theirs too and slowly got into the business their fathers were running. When they had passed out of school or college, they were confident enough to run the business their parents were running. Over time they became street-smart businessmen too. Some of them ventured into politics. Few of them built schools though themselves were weak in studies but had hired the right people to run those schools. And the interesting point is, they had formed a network of friends (who too were mediocre in school days) and they stood for each other always. They became a testament to how good life can be if we learn to cooperate than compete with our own fellow schoolmates.

And those who were winners during school life, got on to corporate life and have continued competing at every phase of life. Today I was seeing how the office-goers rush out of a Metro station in Bangalore competing with fellow passengers to check out as early as possible. I was wondering how many seconds they would save by outsmarting fellow travelers. Well, competition is in their blood now, they would not let any opportunity slip off their hands. They cannot let go of any promotions in their office and they would compete fiercely to get to the top-notch job. They will tell you if they let go of the opportunity, someone else will seize it and step on you in the career pyramid. Wow, winning makes them less empathetic. They do care less about who are not winning. They did promote competition in their kids too. And the relay continued to the next generation.

Taking a step back, seeing both instances from a longer-term perspective of life, it feels important for me to have a happier life than competing constantly and winning. Winners will be left with few friends as their ability to to make friends reduce as preferences differ and they will be left with little choice. It makes sense for me not to win and retain friends thereby. I would rather cultivate cooperation in my kids than competition. I would feel good if we stood for each other than force ourselves through career pyramids. I see that many European countries are valuing life more than career (especially the Scandinavian countries). No wonder people are happier there than rest of the world.

After the metamorphosis, I took a conscious decision to get off the corporate treadmill. I still need employment for some more time but I would avoid competing with my own friends and make way for those who are in a hurry. I have changed the job to have a better work-life balance and foreclosed much of my debt. I have informed my family that I would not be buying any assets in future rather prefer a slow life being a non-rich person. I am letting go of the opportunities to earn higher amounts of money and acquire assets thereby. I am out of that race and I would not mind being termed a loser.

My desires are tamed now and I am at peace with myself. I think this is what Buddha had realized two thousand years ago, under a Bhodhi tree. And that is all any fool would learn in future as well.

Corporate Lessons: Observations from 20 years of work experience

While I was studying and when had I started working, I had assumed few things to be important over others. But over years, I learnt the hard way that those I assumed important are overrated and which I ignored were underrated. Let me describe those things here.

Dressing is overrated:
This is unless you work in a fashion industry or in a customer facing role. I do not contest at all the pleasing appearance good-appearance brings in. But one needs to go beyond that too. Having a great presence of mind is needed to shoulder higher responsibilities and fetch the rewards come with that. At the next level, a compassionate heart earns you comradery over fellow colleagues and that leads to the path of leadership.

Close your eyes and visualize the people you know well. You may likely see their face and their attitude towards you may come to your mind rather that what dress they wear. In the long term, we tend to remember the personality more than just outward looks. Now you may see my point. Another point I want to make is, I have seen may executives with not so pleasing looks but carrying themselves with high confidence and getting the results they wanted. If you only see their gestures and body language, you may conclude they may not be considered for a minor supporting role in Bollywood or TV serials, but they are business savvy. They make right business decisions and act on what is critical. Their deficiencies in physical appearance if any, is completely ignored by their conduct.

Networking is overrated:
In the beginning of my career I was told networking or how many people you know is important. It may be true if you are in marketing or similar fields. But for rest of us, it is grossly overrated. If you know just handful of people in key positions, it may be enough for getting mentored and for your career progression. It is just like having hundreds of friends who you barely know over few friends who know you better than you know yourself.

My point is, there is nothing wrong in knowing more people but rather spending that time and energy in strengthening the relationships with the people you already know might be more helpful.

Communication is underrated at junior levels and overrated at senior levels:
At junior levels, technical skills are perceived to be important but if the ideas and thoughts are not communicated clearly in written or spoken words, it may not have the desired impact and they may fail to draw the attention those junior employees deserve. Similarly, executives focus more on the preparing presentation slides and conveniently ignore the fact that Steve Jobs and Elon Musk did so well without slides.

In the beginning of career, while striving to gain mastery over one domain, it is also necessary to spend time in improving communication skills. And as one steps up the career ladder, they also need to stay relevant with the changing technologies to command respect from their juniors.

Interpersonal skills, most ignored but can be a dark-knight:
If you can read another person’s emotions, understand what drives or influences him or her and have tolerance to work with people having different attitudes and approach, there is nothing which can prevent you from growing in your career. Of course, interpersonal skills do come with mastery over one’s personal emotions which require understanding the emotional intelligence aspects. It would mean understanding how people behave in different phases of life, varying preferences across different personality types, cultural differences and different motivations and fears driving the human beings.

Go and study any great leader in the history, from Alexander to Napoleon, from Mahatma Gandhi to Abraham Lincoln, you would notice how they built trust in their followers. If you lack interpersonal skills, you are unlikely to have any following. Develop empathy and have genuine interest in others, you will see your circle of influence widening too.

Life is calling. Don't say you are struck in traffic.

I am a regular user of Bangalore Metro now. It feels like a wonder when you travel in it at a nice speed and you watch the traffic on the roads below it is struggling to move an inch. Ask any Metro passenger, they would appreciate its reliability and convenience. Especially the women passengers, Metro has made life little easier for them. Why the traffic in Bangalore has worsened despite Metro running at full capacity carrying thousands of passengers every hour? I see following reasons for it.


Metro construction: The extension line construction of Metro (at Whitefield, Mysore road etc.) has really taken a toll. New bottlenecks are created and the average speed has come down drastically. A travel between KR Puram and Whitefield, though it is just 8 km’s, takes past one hour to two hours as Metro construction has occupied half of the road width. Everyone agrees the pace of construction is relatively fast but yet it will take good time before the civil works are complete and the lanes are freed up.


Increasing population: More people are moving into the town. Bangalore’s majority population has always been migrants. Not just from other parts of Karnataka and neighboring states but people originating from all parts of India are making Bangalore their new home. Probably Bangalore ranks highest among all towns of India in the number of new jobs being created (while rest of India seems to be under performing in job creation). Those new jobs mean new workforce moving in with their families. It also creates the increased need for supporting services like Schools, Hospitals, and Banks etc. George Soros had called this a self-reinforcing phenomenon, growth creating new growth opportunities. It is good to see Bangalore representing whole of India. But the bad part is all these new people are welcomed by the same old roads of it.


Picked up construction: A secondary impact of the new migrating population is increased demand for housing, office space, and commercial real estate. So the construction activity has picked up and much of construction materials have to come outside of Bangalore into it. All those trucks and the material moving vehicles of all sizes rush in and out Bangalore for brisk business.


Elections: Elections are nearby. National leaders of political parties are frequently visiting Bangalore and the local leaders have become actively engaged too. They roam around a lot along with their party workers. And there are political rally of many kinds being conducted bringing in lots of floating population. They all hit the clogged roads of Bangalore.


Call it a booming economy or a under developed infrastructure, Bangalore’s traffic finds new reasons to worsen with time. The pace of economic growth is not matched with the infrastructure addition. Though Metro is helping, it seems inadequate. Bangalore's seamless growth has its disadvantages. It is not just commute time or air quality, a drought year can bring its citizens a serious trouble over water.


To make it sustainable, industries based in Bangalore need to create jobs in other towns and voluntarily move their offices out of Bangalore. That would happen anyway but to make it early it needs encouragement from Govt. in the form of providing the infra needed for such a move. It seems like Chicken first or Egg first problem for now. Who would make the first move? I think it is the industry and the tipping point for that would be when the costs (real estate, transportation costs and wages) begin to hurt their profitability. May be five years from now, we would be in the middle of that problem. Until then, we need to learn to cope with the traffic or find alternatives to cut our commute time. Yes, find a house near to work location (or find a job near to your house) or go in shifts avoiding the peak hour, do whatever works for you (I have changed my job).


Save yourself from spending all evenings on road. Life is calling, where are you? Don't say you are struck in traffic.

Your vote is worth at least Rs 5 lakhs

How much each vote is worthy? In some constituencies voters do get paid a couple of hundreds and in some it could be a few thousands. Can we do a valuation to arrive at what could be the fair price for each vote?

For this, first I looked at GDP per capita figures. It is $1709 per year. Converting this at an exchange rate of 64 rupee a dollar gives Rs. 1,09,376. Yes, every person in our country contributes a lakh rupee (on average) to the economy each year. Since election do come at every five years, cumulatively each person would have contributed around Rs.5.5 lakhs in that period. If we take GDP per capita as a proxy for valuation of vote, each vote is worth Rs. 5.5 lakhs of impact to economy. Since those aged under 21 do not vote but are counted for GDP per capita, this valuation figure may marginally go up.

So now think before you vote. If a politician is giving a couple of thousands to vote for him, it is dirt cheap, really. Think of the impact your vote is making on this country’s economy. If we elect law makers who manipulate systems for their own benefit, they are robbing away the benefits a flourishing economy gives to its citizens. Our central govt. has a budget to the tune of USD 200B a year. They collect so much in taxes (and little deficit is borrowed) and decide where that money should be spent on. Your vote has a share in that since it is public money.

My objective is to make each voter think like he or she is giving Rs. 5 lakhs out of their pocket to the person they are casting their vote. They need to think "Will that person make proper use of those funds?".  "Will he give higher benefits in return?" Yes, it is a social investment each voter is making. The better fund manager they chose, the better are the returns.

Can we have a financial metric for politicians? India is a democracy, we can and should have such a metric. Well, in reality we are not that mature. But if the voter become aware that their vote is actually worth lot more than they think of, it would lead to better selection. And those who do not vote should get a feel that their 5 lakh rupees is down the drain. That would lead higher participation and a better outcome from elections.

Earning freedom (from banks and employers)

(This post is for those who pay higher portion of their income to housing loans)

A post on LinkedIn said buying a house on a long term loan takes off the creativity from us and it does not let us do whatever we want to accomplish in our lives. True, as we have to honor the EMI we owe to bank, we step away from taking risks and stick to routine jobs and in the process, creativity and innovation get lost. So what is our aim in life? If it is just owning a house, then we should buy a house as early as possible and stop worrying about rest of the aims or purposes in life. But the mid-life crisis does not let us live happily in the houses we built from the borrowed money. The question comes back again and again of what we wanted from our lives and owning a house at the expense of our careers tied to it for decades does not look that meaningful. At least to me.

Then I came across this article. https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/15578-you-can-t-thrive-and-change-the-world-on-a-hamster-wheel. It was a straight hit on the head of the nail with such an impact that it got into my head effortlessly. Probably I was convinced with the idea already and this article came as a reinforcement. We end up buying many unwanted things, buying a house bigger than we need and so on. The worst part is we do it with debt. That is how we walk into slavery. As we owe more money to banks, we start liking our jobs and bosses like never before. Time rolls on. We slowly understand what we are missing and as we start realizing the how we got into this trap, it is the housing loan which begins to appear like a mountain on our path to freedom. Ok, we have realized our mistakes. What can be done now? We can transfer loan to another bank at a lower rate and get some relief. We can liquidate some savings to pay-off the debt partially. Well, if it still hurts then it is time to become an even harder working slave. Take a resolve and direct much of savings to paying off the debt. That way a 20 year loan can be repaid in 5 years or so. Well, we can earn freedom from EMI at least 5 years from now, that is a lot better than 20 years.

I have figured out how I can bring down my housing loan EMI to equivalent of rent. I am focused on executing that plan and keen to end the slavery in couple of years. I know buying a house is not at all a mistake but we should be willing to be a slave (let go of other good things in life) to digest that loan. Shorter the enslavement period, the better it is. When I am off the hamster wheel, I will let you know.

Feedback & Rating system for Schools and Doctors: Anyone thinking of it?

e-Commerce changed the way we buy things. We search and compare the price in the major portals and make sure we are paying the right price or getting the right discount. Competition and rivalry among retailers made things transparent for consumers. Benefits does not stop there as we tend to take a look at ratings provided by the previous buyers. Was it delivered in good condition? Did the product perform to the expectations? How quickly it was delivered? Many parameters and the whole country’s consumers are giving that feedback. Yeah, those feedbacks are better than just checking with our neighbors or inquiring a cousin before we make a buy decision. That really gives the prospective buyers a good sense of what product to buy, which seller to choose from.

Similarly, you book your travel on Redbus. Again here the travelers would have left the feedback on whether the bus came on time, was it clean and how was the overall experience and so on. Is not it helpful? For sure it helps us to avoid those operators with bad service. And you don’t have to give them a chance as the numerous passengers would have already made their opinions public and yours experience too is more likely to remain the same.

For the services consumed, feedback and consumer rating is a great way of alerting the prospective consumers and making the system to become more transparent and avoiding the possibilities of taking the consumers for a ride. But there are two sectors – education and healthcare, in which we consumers spend considerable portions of our incomes but rely on very limited ways of knowing what other consumers experiences were so we go ahead and take a chance. We don’t know what kind of experience we would go through when we put our kid to a school and visit a hospital in the wee hours. That gives the players in that sector an opportunity to mishandle many things. If there was a feedback and rating system available in the public domain for them too, would those schools and hospitals dare to mess with customers?

First of all to make such a system available for the public, all of them have to come on the same platform. Who would bring them together? And who will take the responsibility of keeping the feedback data not being massaged to favor a few? Is anyone thinking on those lines? If not soon, gradually consumers would get organized and it would become inevitable for those bad players and curb corrupt business practices followed by few of them.

Similarly, how about having a formal feedback and rating system for those whom we elected and those Govt. officials? When their job is to serve the society, why the society has to wait until the problems go out of hand? Facebook and Twitter are already acting as a feedback mechanism of public opinion to some extent but hope that trend leads to better solutions.

The world's happiest man

The label got my attention and I wanted to hear what he has to say and the experience was great. He is indeed a happy man and he surely teaches you how to be happy too. Happiness is a choice and if you have decided to be unhappy, it is a different case. Otherwise listen to him and increase your happiness.

https://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness

Where the jobs have gone?

Every month approximately 10 lakh youth come to the job market in our country and majority of them are not absorbed. Yes, on a yearly scale it is ~1% of population trying to find a job and that is way more than those retiring from the jobs. So the unemployment levels are increasing to highest levels we have ever seen. What happened to those job creation engines of India? And how this can be solved?

First of all let us see which sectors need the workforce most and what is ailing them.

Construction: This sector was a major job provider. Since skill levels do not matter much here, this sector was feeding all those with low skilled labor with low wages. Owing to unrealistic land price rise in the last decade, it was slowing down and demonetization brought it to a grinding halt. Much of the job creation got evaporated into thin air. Check with those masons, low-wage daily labors, electricians, plumbers, construction material providers and transporters, you will learn how they have lost their hopes.

Manufacturing: See Auto industry performance. Whole of last year, they saw with disbelief how their sales declined. With all discounts, unbelievable offers and intense marketing promotions, they were not able to clear their inventory and meet their targets. General Motors recently decided to wind up their India operations. In such a scenario, how will they increase capacity and what will happen to OEM (Original Equipment Makers) companies in the entire of supply-chain? When there is no capacity being added, why do you need more people? Case is the same with Steel, Cement manufacturing sectors too.

Services: BFSI (Banking, Financial services and Insurance) is the sector which gained the maximum benefits of opening up of Indian economy after 1991 reforms and created more jobs. Total services sector sped faster than Agriculture and Manufacturing (typical growth engines before 1991) and provided jobs in big numbers. It employs 40% of work force in India but now it is seeing a saturation. IT (Information Technology) which was a negligible job provider 25 years ago, grew at a faster pace during the last two decades but now has lost steam. Forget new job creation, those in the sector are striving harder than ever to survive.

Infrastructure: During last decade, Infra looked like a sunrise industry for all of those in this sector, but the sunshine did not last long for them as many of the infra projects did not make the intended money and in fact lots of big infra companies are on the edge of bankruptcy. They took their lenders (mostly PSU banks) down with them too. Take a look at the recent list of companies prepared by RBI and most of the infra companies find a mention for being a risk to economy.

Ok, India’s job creation engine is not firing on all cylinders. What can be done to improve the situation? I am no expert but being a participant in the Indian economy, I need to have an opinion and express it to shape the collective decisions we make as a society.

Govt.’s commitment to their motto: Why do ministers and Govt. officials want cars made by multi-nationals? Why cannot they drive cars made in India fully? Such actions would show their commitment to tags such as “Make in India”. And it will increase the demand for local manufacturing and its entire supply chain. You know one job created in manufacturing creates two in services sector. Investing in public transport to make it more efficient and serve more people would mean less fuel burnt overall, good to climate and lighter on import bills. The jobs created in these sectors along with productivity benefit with infrastructure upgrade would pay-off for the investments made.

Open up Corporate Bond Market: As of now, most of the load is on Banks to fund the growth story of India. But they are in bad shape. With increasing distressed assets, they are not in a condition to lend big sums to corporate. Take a look at international markets, it is the bond market which funds the corporate most and not the banking sector alone. Interest rates (or the coupon rate) is based on the risks of the borrower unlike how Banks fix a common rate to their borrowers. That would let the markets find a balance and help those with clean records to raise money from capital markets at a lower rate, build new factories and provide employment. Is not it a better way to avoid those bad performers from burning the debt they got from banks? For this to happen, RBI needs to get out of its conservative stance. But their eyes are fixed on the inflation, always. Following their intentions, it seems to be on their horizon but not as a priority yet.

Increasing public spend: Our current finance minister has done an applauding job in reducing the fiscal deficit and as a benefit we are seeing lower interest rates (as Govt. is borrowing less), a very low inflation and Rupee is stronger against USD. That is all good but whenever the economy slows down, public spending has to go up to kick-start those dead cylinders to make them firing again. I personally believe benefits of inflation do not surpass the disadvantages of lower number of jobs being created. If we maintain the status quo, rich will become richer and the poor will become jobless. That can have bad effects on the entire society. When the match is Economy against Sociology in a country with a billion plus population what will you do? Compromising on inflation (stoked by higher borrowing) for creating more jobs would not be a wrong thing to do. Why not fill in all those open positions in the Govt. owned companies at a faster pace by speeding up hiring process?

Promoting Entrepreneurship: We need more job creators and a support system to encourage them. Giving subsidies to them would bring more benefits to economy than giving fuel, fertilizer subsidies en masse. But the reality is, our country does not fare good in ease of doing business. If we want to increase the job creation pipeline, we need to make it easy for entrepreneurs.

In summary, we have answers to the problem on hand. Our youth need to find jobs. How else do we take India to next level?

Literature Festivals, do they create new readers?

There are so many good things which can happen in a literature festival. I will touch upon them before I proceed to grim factors. First of all, readers to get to see the writers. You will hear their personal stories or their favorite writers and other details which are not documented in the form of books. You get to know of new literary works and their creators or even remembrance of some of the legendary writers. Yes, the discussion would revolve around the subject of literature. At last they, the literature lovers, got a forum to get together.

But beyond a physical meet-up of existing literature lovers, will these Literature festivals attract more people to read literature? Try asking the book-sellers at those festivals, the answer is not that encouraging. Those who were already attracted to literature would definitely buy books at every opportunity. Leaving them behind, are there new readers being created through these festivals? And in what numbers? You see, the writers who conduct panel discussions or read-out sessions are no movies stars. Much of them are introverts and may not feel easy at public speaking. They may not have the physical charm to attract new audience and hook them up into reading. Reading has to be done in solitude and the choice to become a reader is internal. So if the young are not coming in considerable numbers into the field of literature, how long these lit fests would make sense?

You check with the younger generation if they had watched the movie ‘Bahubali 2’. They would quote a dialogue or two from the movie. They would not have missed the IPL series too. And they would read hundreds of messages on their Whatsapp. But reading a book? It does not interest them. Some of them would have had a copy of Chetan Bhagat or Shiva trilogy. But beyond that can they name couple of authors or their interesting works? Don’t ask or get ready to face a strange look.

When the majority of population is not interested, that business line does not make much commercial sense. Let us look at best-selling authors. Books of S L Bhyrappa have been doing well but has he made any serious money from it? Who is the next author in Kannada who can find considerable number of readers? A publisher would tell, selling 10,000 books would make him see some profit. When Karnataka’s population is more than 7 crores, it is just 0.0001% market penetration. A savvy marketer would make more money selling off perishable things than books which last really long.

Those who write for self-expression may not experience pain learning this. But the budding writers who want to make a living out of it would understand first that their probability of seeing success is 0.0001%, may be same chances of winning in a lottery. Better they find a job which pays and limit literature to a hobby.

The literature fests, though they intend to revive the habit of reading and spread its joy, are unlikely to see much success. Publishing may never become a commercially attractive business anytime but keep losing its shine and disappear some day or live a negligible presence. Don’t blame the modern life style for it. Change is part of evolution. But have sympathy for writers who could not learn any other life skill.

A Tale of Two Cities

I am talking of Bangalore and Mysore. I am living in Bangalore for the past two decades and I have visited Mysore more than a dozen times and I find both of them very contrasting. One moves at a breakneck speed and other is slow and peaceful. Not just the cultural variation across these two cities is too drastic and it is the outlook towards life that puts them at opposing ends.

It is money over happiness. Every one of us know that money is important. But how important? If the money making is the prime purpose of life, even at the expense of your health and reduced time with family, you are likely to be a Bangalorean. If you want to strike a balance between money and family and also aim towards peaceful life, Mysore could be your home. If you go by GDP per capita, Bangalore may score well but if you go by happiness measure, Mysoreans would beat Bangalore by a huge margin.

Now let us look at things apart from money. See how the waste is being handled. Bangalore has garbage heaps everywhere. Mysore is titled the cleanest town of India. Now you know why I say Mysore people are healthier.

Look at population density. Bangalore is geographically 4-5 times bigger than Mysore but it has 10x more population. That would mean Bangalore’s population density is 2-3x higher than that of Mysore. And if you look at vehicles per family, Bangalore is no comparison to Mysore. So all these numbers explain why Bangalore is a choked city while Mysore is not. And I don’t have to mention separately about air quality.

Think of water? Mysore has a dam at the outskirts. Bangalore gets its water pumped from as far as 60 km. Think of green cover? Mysore has protected forests at less than an hour drive. In Bangalore, you drive for an hour, you will still be in the middle of traffic, among the cruelest animals of this earth.

In Bangalore, if you have money, you can get food or most kinds of services round the clock as the city refuses to go to bed and aims at making money in the night too. In Mysore, if you did not have dinner before 9 pm, you are likely to go hungry as most of shopkeepers close and go home for a restful sleep. They are not lured by the money the night travelers bring.

These comparisons can go on and on. And probably you are convinced now why these two cities are different. They are meant for different kinds of people. A proper Mysorean would not be able to live in Bangalore for long and he would return as soon he gets an opportunity. And an aggressive Bangalorean would see Mysore as no more than a tourist place. So the cultures of these two cities continue to remain as they are.

I wish Dara Shikoh was not killed

He was the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and also his favorite. He was the crowned price and an able administrator. He was rational. He was on a spiritual conquest. He tried to understand the meaning of life. He got Upanishads translated into Persian. He respected all religions. People loved him. Army generals hated him. Spirituality and wars, they do not get along well. Dara Shikoh lacked the skills of an able warrior. He understood the secrets of religious texts but failed to understand the secret plots his younger brothers. He went to war to fight his brother Aurangzeb who was everything that Dara was not. Dara lost the battle and ran away for life seeking help. He never got it. He was hungry for days, his wife died on the way. He was easily conned and handed over to his brother. An enlightened man had to meet a brutal death along with his son. You can call it fate or destiny, but it is all history. Dara was dead and religious extremism was born.

I wish things have had happened otherwise. I wish Dara was less spiritual. I wish Dara knew how to fight a war. I wish Dara knew moves of enemies. I wish Dara had got help. I wish Dara was not killed. I wish Dara had become the emperor. I wish people had understood what Dara knew very well. I wish there was only one religion. I wish Dara gets another opportunity.

Leave to Live!

Purna Chandra Tejasvi, a noted writer had said in a casual conversation that Bangaloreans, when they die, directly go to heaven as there would be no hell worse than Bangalore in which they had spent their life time. Well, he had said that a long time ago, and it was a dark humor with a warning then. Now that has become reality.

Ask any resident who has stayed in Bangalore for long about how it is transforming, you will realize how a paradise gradually turned into a hell. Ponds and lake beds became space for public utilities and residential townships. Green cover had to be sacrificed for roads and highways. Natural resources got depleted at an alarming space. Now how and why do you expect Bangalore to remain cooler?

Around 15 years ago, it was possible go around Bangalore in a bike like how one would do in any other town. But if you attempt it now, you would return home not just exhausted but with extreme rage and uneasiness. It won’t be a surprise if you woke up next day coughing which won’t leave you for days.

Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities in this world. It kept growing for its ingredients. In the post-independence era, Bangalore became home to many public sector companies like, BHEL, HAL, BEL, BEML and many more. Industry got developed. There was Indian Institute of Science and good number of Engineering colleges attracting and growing the talent feeding the developing industry. Then came the IT wave which changed the geography of Bangalore completely. Sleeping farm estates of Whitefield turned into a silicon valley of India. People came to Bangalore and they never returned as they built there home here.

It was difficult for Govt. machinery to cope as they had not anticipated this kind of growth. Coupled with their inefficiency, temporary measures adopted by the residents such as improper disposing of waste, drilling deep bore-wells along with unscientific ways adopted by the construction industry including sand mafia helped accelerate Bangalore reach the present state. All of us living in Bangalore, directly or indirectly have contributed to this mess. There are many videos being circulated in social media and numerous articles being published on newspapers and magazines on how Bangalore would become unlivable soon. As we just keep talking and not do what is necessary, we would consciously walk into the reality of unlivable Bangalore.

Then what? Many of us would be forced to leave Bangalore and build home elsewhere. Our employers would change their base. Government may move out some of its offices too. Before that happens, lots of residents would be losing their health for the ill-effects of pollution of every kind – water, air and noise primarily.

So why not leave early? Don’t we deserve a better a life? Of course, there are practical issues like job opportunities are not there outside Bangalore. But for those of us who can find an alternative, it would be worth considering. Cities are harsh on daily life leading. Higher the time spent in commute, lower the time available to do anything else. Higher is the exposure to pollution, lower is the life expectation. Higher earning in Bangalore would also mean higher costs with health deteriorating and reduced ability to earn or remain in job over a long period. Considering the opportunity costs, it would become economically viable to leave the high-paying job in Bangalore to lower earning but a simple life of a small town.

To me (and to some like-minded) this discussion is making sense. I hope I would be able to leave Bangalore before I am forced to.

Wheel of History turns all the time

There were times when the saying “Sun never sets in British Kingdom” was true. It got changed. Brexit now demonstrates that the British like to hold their fort through protectionist policies. Their forefathers were very different, they went around the world exploring the opportunities. As the wheel of history turned, upward motion did not last.

Donald Trump’s win in the US and the emphasis he puts on in hiring locals shows that their upward movement too is ending. America became economic super power as it was consistently attracting best talent in the world. Look at those who are running Silicon Valley companies and holding highest patents. Immigrants have a greater share in it. In a vegetable market, if you stop fresh vegetables coming into the market, soon you would be left with rotten tomatoes. Why that would be different when you stop attracting fresh talent?

The last two centuries had belonged to the British and Americans respectively. They made most of it but now they are losing out their place. Before the 18^th century, India and China were half of global GDP. Now they are regaining their lost position. And there is Russia who had lost the opportunity to the US despite winning the Second World War making a fresh attempt joining hands with India and China. During the medieval times, Japan had shut doors to outsiders for many centuries. They were the losers, their economic growth started only after they opened their doors. Similarly, if US wants to close its borders, its benefits will be ultra short term as the history has shown it,

India is slowly shedding its socialist image. Now we have toll roads and the poor too pay for clean drinking water. As the subsidies fall out, India sees an economic progress. At the same time, it is going back to its roots as it is becoming economically stronger. How else “Patanjali” as a brand can take on the mighty “Hindusthan Unilever”? Clear majority for Modi showed that Hindus are uniting. And it helped pro-Hindutva activities. Take a trip to Gangotri, you will notice scaling 10,000 feet altitude in the Himalayas is an easy drive now and compare that with the experiences of pilgrims of the past decade going for a char-dham visit. Religion is getting higher importance for sure. Yogi being appointed as CM of UP proves this point again. Not just Yoga, Sanskrit and Veda too will be learnt in great detail in coming days. Economic growth seems to have no connection with religion at the high level, but both are beneficiary of each other. They take each other up or down so go together.

Wheel of history is turning and taking up India, China and Russia economically. That will rewrite the history all over again as long as it lasts. And that is going to last few generations. Forget going to the US and be there where the momentum is if you want to be part of the good times to come.