It is that time of the year when I avoid meeting people. Everyone wants to know about your New Year resolutions. This question just forces me to lie through my teeth just so that I remain politically correct and acceptable to my loved ones. It makes me worry, that, by myself I am not good enough. Like a soap bar I have to be relaunched periodically as “new and improved” every year until someone discovers that the jingle refers only to the wrapping and not the soap. The “new and improved” bit refers to the resolution and not me.

The pressure to lie is incredible. My physician (who himself weighs more than a walrus) tells me that he wishes I resolve to lose weight this year. I nod, smile and say, “Thanks, Wish you the same.” He is not pleased. I swear I did not mean it that way. I thought he was going to say the usual stuff about wishing me a very happy and prosperous new year and I just wanted to return the favor. The Lehman Brothers and other members of The Family have ensured that they wring the mickey out of this year. Anything that salvages the next year is welcome.

In the office, my boss is throwing the mandatory Holiday Season lunch. I am trying to make the most of the opportunity. Soon some twerp announces that we should all share what resolutions we have made for the new year. Before I can stop the train wreck, the thing gathers momentum. There is the usual nonsense about quitting smoking and drinking (only after the new years party, they add). Someone talks about spending more time with their kids Рinstantly drawing a few ‘awwwwNN thats so sweet’ from those present. This is like seeing someone’s kid’s pictures. The ONLY socially acceptable response is to say, “They are really cute”. Everyone has gone through the drill. The biggest shirker in the office is sitting next to me. He climbed two notches higher by saying the politically correct response at work, “I would like to improve my work-life balance” Рthus implying that being overworked was not an option next year. I was about to make a nasty crack about the fellow’s work ethics when I realized that it was my turn to share my resolution for the coming year. The world goes blank around me. I am still working on mine, I state. There is much disappointment. I am relieved. I snap up the last dregs of coffee and thank the boss for the bonding moment.

Why must I want to improve myself? Why must I quit doing something? Why must I develop a puke inducing habit like waking up early to go for a run? That’s what I call a double whammy. Wriggling out voluntarily from under the quilt on a cold winter morning Рis that being smart? After that one bad move, why would I want to further add to the stupid act by choosing to go running aimlessly?

In an office situation, make sure you never share your resolutions. You will never win. I have learnt this bitter truth the hard way. I had once said that my NYR (that’s New Year Resolution for those who still haven’t got that one figured) was to learn cooking. My feminist colleague almost clawed out my eyes for stating that my R reeked of chauvinism. I have not even started cooking yet, I protested. That’s exactly what makes you a chauvinist she said. You can’t ever win with that chick. She could traumatize a serial-killer.

I want to be a better human being next year, I had once stated, in a weak moment among friends. There was much derisive laughter. Going by where you are, anything will be an improvement and an easy one at that my friends said. Who needs enemies, I woefully thought as I looked at those sitting at the table and laughing at my expense, literally.

Take away this ritual of NYRs and you have a greater chance of improving the level of honesty of the masses. The world needs flawed people like me – in urgent need of making resolutions. Heck most of us know just exactly what improvements we have to make in our life. Why wait for the stroke of midnight of the New Year to start doing what we should have been doing anyway? Who needs more broken promises? Here I am – resolution free and loving it. I like the freedom from guilt and broken promises. Any takers?

–

Abhijit Bhaduri has authored two novels Mediocre But Arrogant and now Married But Available that is published by Harper Collins. You can read his writings on management, movies, humor, etc. on his website www.abhijitbhaduri.com.

Every human resources person worth his payroll has heard and used these clichés over and over again.

“People are our greatest assets” takes the cake. It is usually put on posters all over the organizations that least believe in that philosophy. Ask anyone why they wanted to choose HR as their major in business school or as a career and you get another cliché that makes me groan. The person will curl up their toes and say, “Because I really enjoy working with people.” or that “my friends told me that I am really good with people.” That basically means I am not sure what I am good at, but I think I can have coffee and make conversation.

So why do people choose HR as a profession? I chose it because
a) I knew enough about all other courses to dislike them.
b) This was the only one that I did not know enough about to dislike.
c) All of the above.

Of course, when I started working after B school, they used to call it personnel management. Today you would be really deemed to be uncool if you did not know that we no longer handle personnel. We are the new and improved human resource department. I guess those days we had to handle the animals in the zoo ourselves, unlike the new kids who get computers to do it all. No more human contact. We can now outsource the contact part of it. Someone told me that anything that can be templated can be outsourced. So I guess human contacts have just been so classified. Outsource that stuff so that we can get down to doing real work.

In one company where I worked, they were implementing a new fangled ERP system that was sucking up more resources than the Gulf war. I was told we had to implement that HR system so that it would leave the HR folks free to do real work. “If all the work was taken away, what would be left for the fellows to do anyway?” I had asked. My boss who was standing at the podium with the big cheese of the ERP company said that he would take my question offline. That basically means that he would either ignore the question or he would stab me when he met me in the hallway later that evening.

Please don't joke about your HR manager

Look at the seminar topics on HR. That will tell you what is the big question that the clods are grappling with. In those days seminars were around topics like “Human Resources РArt or Science?” Two days or five days of asking bad questions left neither the participant nor the trainers any wiser. In fact I have always had a queasy feeling when I was told that someone was a trainer. It always reminded me of the trainer who came to teach Rover how to shake his paw without wetting the carpet. It was after I joined HR that I discovered there were trainers for humans too. Their task was not different from what Rover’s trainer tried so hard to do.

I am just curious. Do all functions manufacture clichés like HR does or is it just us? Do all other blokes have self-doubt like we do? Well you know every now and then we will hear seminars where people ask “Is HR a business partner?” The answer is obviously expected to be yes if you are to be let in to join the party. But truthfully speaking the jury is still out on that one.

There is this eternal war between those who communicate using mass media and those ABOUT whom the communication is all about. BusinessWeek asks a relevant question “What’s the right corporate policy for Twitter, Facebook and blogs?”

There is stuff about most employers anyway. It is on blogs, Facebook, news articles, Twitter, Orkut, Groups, Communities anyway. Conversations and opinions that affect the way others look at your brand – as an employer and also as a service provider. Imagine the world full of paparazzi (some of who are your own employees) ready to show the seamy side of life. People have opinions and they will express it – so what should the employers do? Some employers choose to deal with it by blocking access to social media sites in office. Can they do it? Of course they can. After all the employer can decide whether they will have you spend your time in office in anything other than office work. So complaining about the office cafeteria on Facebook during office hours can lead to action by the employer. Can they restrict employee? Yes.

Should they? If they spent the same effort fixing the menu at the cafeteria it would delight the employees and take away the need to police conversations. So why not work on that? In the early days of the Net companies used to block access to job search sites from the office network. The policy assumed that the unhappy employees will be so tired after a day at the office that they will not have the energy to trawl the net for their next employer. It would have been a easier option to for the employer to do focus groups with employees to find what they were unhappy about. In the pre Web2.0 world employers could screen and proof read articles before they were dashed off to the media. These “Press Releases” were what the Public Relations department managed and hence the organization had a fair degree of control over the media image. Unless some investigative journalist tag teamed with a whistle blower, the Enron like exposes would be hushed up. Photos of the indiscretions of the senior geezers were all hushed away.

Then came blogs. Opinions were cheap and easily broadcast to a willing audience. The control changed hands from the employer to the blogger. Clearly there will be some jerks who will grab the ball and run all over the beach attracting attention and spoiling your game, but most follow socially acceptable norms voluntarily. Blogs gave employees and opinion shapers the power to influence a much larger audience. Anything was fair game. Hagiography was out and after a brief run with the ball on the beach, most bloggers settled down to responsible blogging. Then it was not just text. You could upload videos of the office party with your colleague wearing a lampshade and flirting with the office cat. Then there was the microblogging thing with Twitter where you could message opinions to all those who were followin you (maybe even your employer … eeks). The line between public and private was blurred. It changes the definition of who is representing the organization in public space. After all everyone is a publisher of opinions.

The organizations rarely mention these policies explicitly in the terms of appointment which they hand out to newly hired. There are generic all pervasive clauses that are coated with legalese and incomprehensible to most employees. That may in itself be the basis of breaches. Tell the employees what information they can and cannot share online and the consequences of violation. Employees sharing information that is proprietory and the basis of competitive advantage are taken to task. Employees sharing what they thought was a harmless photo could inadvertently give away priceless bits of information to the competitors. A photo of the workspace put on the Net could give away the new packaging or bottling option that is currently being tested within the organization’s labs.

The power of the social media is creating a new set of ethical dilemmas with no clear guidelines. Most employers want to know during an interview why the candidate is looking for a change. Anything that cannot be supported by data is an opinion. Hence if the employee shares opinions about their current employer, their policies and the culture or a potential product line being shut down, is that wrong? Or does it become more wrong if it is put up on the Net. Remember, there is no such thing as a delete button on the Net. So a photo of a wild college party will be available to your future employer when they do a reference check about you. Some innocuous “friend” who knows intimate secrets about your online adventures may turn out to be your team member/ colleague/ manager someday. So the word of caution to employers and employees alike: Don’t do anything that would make you squirm if it made the headlines of every newspaper and TV channel in the world and where the anchors or scribes are your sworn enemies. Till you know what is good for you stick to Tweet Nothings.

In my opinion, the single reason to drive diversity is about providing a non discriminatory employment experience. Equal opportunity is the strongest reason. To be denied employment based on any criteria other than merit is discriminatory and illegal in many countries. How do we implement this in the workplace?

Most employers start with hiring targets that encourage diversity. The usual measure is to define the representation of the “diverse” group within the organization to mirror the percentages in which they are represented in the society in which the organization is operating. For example: If African Americans represent x% of the population, the diversity programs aim to eventually have the same percentage of African Americans among the employees. The issue is based on the assumption that education levels and skill sets are represented in equal proportion in the population.
To make diversity work, there are two conditions to be met. Let us take an example. If you are looking to hire surgeons or doctors for a hospital, the assumption is that

a) The diverse group is represented adequately in the population of qualified surgeons who are keen to work for the hiring organization.

b) The diverse group is represented in that population in the same percentage (here is the catch) – to allow for normal selection/ rejection rates.

If either of the two conditions is not represented in the population then it defeats the purpose and spirit of the diversity program. The first criterion is the necessary condition. The second is the sufficient condition. A good measure to look for is to see if the selection and rejection rates are the same as that of the other groups.

The other challenge is to define what element of diversity should the employer pursue? There are visible and identifiable elements of diversity eg Gender, Age, Disability etc. There are those which are not visible and more difficult to identify. For instance: Educational background, Sexual orientation, Economics Status, Political Orientation etc. Gender diversity in the employee population is usually the first of the diversity initiatives to be launched.
All too often I have seen organizations focus only on launching the diversity initiatives without focusing on how to build an inclusive environment that supports diversity. Having just one process – the staffing process focus on diversity will limit success of the initiative. How do we address needs of the diverse group as far as their on-boarding is concerned? What about their mentors? And yes, please do not have them be mentored only by “diverse” leaders. Women employees do not only need to be mentored by women managers. Making them successful is not just the other women’s obligation, it s also for male managers to partner in the success of the diversity initiative. Performance management, succession planning, etc are all processes that need to be examined to see if they are being inclusive.

Inclusive does not mean having varying standards for individuals. It means focusing on development to give everyone a fair shot at the opportunity. As soon as you consciously drive a diversity initiative in the workplace, the policies, infrastructure, opportunities etc will need to be amended to address the needs of the “minority”. Every HR process needs to be examined to see what measures would reflect progress and fairness in the diversity program. So while it may be good to check for percentages of diverse employees at all levels of the organization, it is just as important to see that the performance standards are not varied to “accommodate” an increase in diverse candidates. It may be better to examine what is missing in the talent nurturing and mentoring process that makes it difficult for enough diverse employees to progress at the same rate as the rest of the employees.

Read more articles on management, music, fiction and movie reviews by Abhijit Bhaduri at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

I have a simple solution to this problem. I am taking writing out predictions not by zodiac signs but by topic. This horoscope is about the twelve things that matter to everyone regardless of what zodiac sign you are – crab (Cancer) or twin (Gemini). It works even if you follow the Chinese calendar and you are a pig or rooster or monkey. Net net, no matter what beast you are, I have a prediction for you. What’s more, it s a prediction you will like. Read this on a bad day and it wll cheer you up.

1. Health: You are in the pink of health. If someone asks you start exercising, remember, this week is not a good time to start. After all the year has 52 weeks. Choose an auspicious time to start the regime, not now.
2. Money: Money is coming your way. If you are facing a temporary cash crunch, don’t worry, you will get bailed out – remember how everyone gets a bailout package just before they go bankrupt? So chill. Think big. You ARE rich.
3. Romance: The opposite sex is called so because they have been going in the opposite direction. This week, your magnetic charm will work. So be prepared to read advice on money (point 2 above). So stuff will happen even to you. Honest. It has to…
4. Office: This will be the best week you have had in a long time. Your projects will all finish in time. Your work will be praised – even by that nasty person who sits in the corner table playing Solitaire all day. You will be given a raise and made to be the big cheese so you get an unlimited expense account right away. (Read point 2 and 3, who do you think will be popular? wink …wink…)
5. Shopping: Plan your shopping. You are going to be busy buying stuff all of next week to spend what will come your way this week. Some of the brands have strange spellings. Learn them. Remember your shoe size and color choice as you leave home. Credit cards will work. So go splurge.
6. Travel: This week will see you doing a lot of travelling to exotic places. By that I do not mean your long commute to the office. The Pizza Shop is not my idea of an exotic destination. Think out of the box or suitcase if you must. It could involve air travel – relax. Read section on Food to feel reassured.
7. Traffic: There will be no jams this week. You can drive like a maniac and everyone on the road will indulgently wait for you to drive past. You are in a hurry. You have stuff to do. We all understand. Read section 8 below.
8. Parking: Parking will be plentiful. That is going to last for the next seven days from the time you read this prediction. So save this one for a rainy day. That is the time you really need to park someplace and run to the nearest washroom. If in doubt read section on Traffic.
9. Telephone: The phone company will waive off charges for you to use the phone. This is that wee of the year when telephone companies like to give customers a surprise. Nothing like having a 100 free minutes added to your account – evey minute. You can even call your microwave for an hour and you will still have minutes left to spare. Oh yeah, there will be no telemarketing calls to receive – unless you are making them. Remember this could lead to what section 3 predicted.
10. Food: This is your lucky week. Even airlines food will taste delicious. This is the count no calories week. No matter how man helpings of chocolate cake you have you won’t resemble any of the animals mentioned in the zodiac sign – leave alone the sixth one in the chart.
11. Television: TV will feature your favorite program (including those that you secretly tape and delete diligently). There will be no annoying ads at crucial moments of sporting events – unless you have made any of those ads. In that case only the ad will play all day on all channels. So no matter who watches what channel, your ad will get the highest TRP ratings.
12. Emails: The office email server will be taken down for maintenance this week. They are upgrading stuff. If you don’t answer mails for a week, the world will take you off their mailing list. You will no longer get annoying emails that assign work to you.

If you feel I have not given enough good news in a certain section, leave a comment behind. We need to build a horoscope around these twelve vital areas and not zodiac signs.

You can read more articles on Humor at http://abhijitbhaduri.com/category/humor/

If you want to read the usual stuff on sun signs, here is a link to Linda Goodman’s sun signs.

The film has some amazing songs. The combination of lyricist Gulzar and composer RD Burman produced many gems. But I will always rate this as a film where the chemistry was unbelievable.

My favorite song from Ghar has to be the classic Aapki AankhoN MeiN Kuchh Mehke Huey Se Raaz HaiN आपकी आँखों में कुछ महके हुए से ख्वाब हैं (trans: Your eyes are lined with the aroma of mysteries.). The voice of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. What is also interesting about this song is that it is based on Raga Kedar which normally so typical of devotional music (remember the Kedar based classic Hamko Man Ki Shakti Dena हमको मन की शक्ति देना from Jaya Bhaduri’s debut Hindi film Guddi). There is of course anothe great example of using Raga Kedar to creat a romantic mood in the film Ek Musafir Ek Hasina. The song was Aap Yunhi Agar Hamse Milte Rahe

The second song I have always loved is Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye Na तेरे बिना जिया जाये ना (trans: It is so hard to live without you). Watch Rekha who plays the pining housewife, arrange her husband’s photos like a deck of cards that gets blown away with a gust of wind.

Phir Wohi Raat Hai, Raat Hai Khwabon Ki फिर वही रात है रात है ख्वाबों की (trans: It is the night that dreams are made of, once again… ). Set to the Latino beat that was so dear to RD Burman.

Aajkal Paaon Zameen Par आजकल पाँव ज़मीन पर नहीं पड़ते मेरे (trans: Have you noticed lately that I don’t walk on the floor anymore) talks about the heady feeling of being in love. See the video here. This look of Rekha reminds me of the other film Khoobsoorat (check out this clip) made in 1981 that had her singing in films for the first time – the song is Kaida Tod Ke Socho Ek Din. Rekha clearly will not be remembered as a great singer but as one who was never afraid to experiment.

Ghar is what the Gulzar-RD Burman-Kishore magic is all about. I have always wondered whether this is a film one should watch because it shows the transition of Rekha as an actress or just listen to the music. I think I’ll vote for the music.

To read more articles by Abhijit Bhaduri on music click here

Nephew of the cartoonist Abu Abraham (1924-2002), Ajit grew up in Hyderabad. The highlight of his time at Hyderabad Public School was when he used to get “suspended” for drawing cartoons of his teachers. According to Ajit, “That allowed me to sit in the library and go through stacks of Punch and New Yorker cartoons. Cartoonists James Thurber and Arnold Roth were my inspiration. As a kid I spent many doing detailed sketches of machines and turbines. My love for these gadgets showed up when I drew Moochhwala who used hi-tech inspired gadgets like Katchem Krime Komputer – which was a dig at the Ku Klux Klan.” Ajit looked at my caricature of him and said, “That’s spot on! The hair on the eyebrows was michievous.” We caught up over lunch and many cups of coffee.

Abhijit Bhaduri: Where was your first cartoon published? How old were you then?

Ajit Ninan: My first work was published in the last issue of the children’s magazine Shankar’s Weekly. I think that was in 1968 or 69 and they shut down after that. Maybe because of my cartoon!! They sent me a Money Order for Rs10/-. I promptly spent eight bucks out of that buying myself a new pair of school shoes.

Abhijit: How did you know that you wanted to be a cartoonist?

Ninan: I am a “Mallu” (Malayali for the uninitiated) but from Hyderabad. I was weak in Math. So it had to be art. My ambition was to teach in a college. I thought I would move all my classes to the afternoon and get to sleep late everyday.

But I did not start off doing cartoons. I started off drawing complicated machines and turbines. As a cartoonist you have to learn to draw all kinds of things and from all angles. If you need to draw a tractor, you have to know how much of the wheel would be visible, what shape the headlights are. Where are they fixed etc. You have to be able to draw all those details. Only then can you use them in a cartoon. A cartoonist’s mind has to be like a Rotoscope. When I am looking at a person, or reading a news item my mind automatically churns ideas, creates images, exaggerates a point of view. That is important for a cartoonist.

(According to Wikipedia: In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.)

Abhijit: Whose cartoons do you admire?

Ninan: Mario Miranda’s drawings. He is the only Indian cartoonist who can have a hundred characters in a drawing and still have harmony. His pen strokes are so confident. He will take care to make a guy in a black coat stand in front of a white door to bring out the contrast and details. I grew up admiring the works of James Thurber and Arnold Roth of New Yorker. There are two kinds of cartoonists – those who attract attention with the blacks and those who use white (space). American cartoonists use a lot of black – their politicians and business people wear black. That explains their style. Our style has to be to use white. Abu Abraham shifted to using more white after he started to draw in India. I love Lurie’s style of big heads and small bodies. I used this style while drawing the business leaders caricatures.

Abhijit: When you draw cartoons for a living, does it not tend to take the joy out of what could be a nice hobby? How do your friends treat you?

Ajit: It is a stressful and lonely role. You cannot delegate it to anyone. You always have to have ideas that have at least a 24 hour shelf life. If you are on vacation, the continuity has to be maintained for the reader. My friends expect me to always come up with something wacky. Some of them are wary about getting themselves depicted as a cartoon.

Abhijit: How do you draw caricatures? Are good looking people more difficult to draw caricatures of?

Ajit: Yes, good looking people are more difficult to draw. I find it tougher to draw women than men. When Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister, I was worried until he built his helipad ! By making Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister, in one stroke Sonia Gandhi has deprived cartoonists of so many cartoon topics. Manmohan Singh is difficult to make fun of. But cartoonists still manage to.

I always start with the nose. Then decide where to hang the rest of the face. (hands me a collection of biz leaders’ caricature he has drawn.)

Abhijit: What is it about the state of Kerala that has produced some of India’s best known cartoonists – Vijayan, Kutty, Shankar, Ravi Shankar, Abu Abraham to name a few? (Just check out this list at http://keralacartoonists.blogspot.com/)

Ajit: I think it is a combination of literacy and political leanings that Kerala has to offer. All that Leftist ideology encourages people to cock a snook at the establishment. And then of course, having a largely matriarchal society ensures that the banter between the sexes is always witty.

Abhijit: How did having the cartoonist Abu Abraham as your paternal uncle influence your work?

Ajit: He was a very insightful man. Abu used to say, you need a high degree of intellect to be a cartoonist. Get to the essence of a situation, then visualize it in the most concise fashion. Do not fill up your drawing just to show people that you draw well.

Abhijit Bhaduri: How did Detective Moochhwala and Pooch get created? I was a great fan of those cartoons. I know I am not alone because I see many others pining for Moochh and Poochh. (Download a hi-res copy of this cartoon from here)

Ajit: Moochhwalla was inspired by cartoonist David Low’s character Col Blimp. I kept the dog Poochh white in color as it would save the hassle of coloring and shading the dog. (Pulls out a comic book version of Moochhwalla comics collection and shows me). I just loved coming up with those stories and crazy gadgets. Fitting a full story and the drawing on to 35 odd frames was a challenge. And not to forget the “silent” cartoons.

Abhijit: How would you go about hiring a cartoonist?

Ajit: I would gauge the person’s mind more than the lines. You need a wacko sense of humor. Then look for the person’s ability to visualize. I would ask the person to come up with as many visualizations of say, the hammer and sickle or any other party’s logo? After all the cartoonist is conveying a political point of view with visuals. The cartoonist should not have to wait for a news headline and then think of a cartoon. Humor can’t be simplistic humor either.

Abhijit: What is the role of a cartoonist in a newspaper? With newspaper readership dwindling worldwide, what will happen to cartoonists in future?

Ajit: There are many opportunities for cartoonists. Look at animation films like Shrek and Madagascar. They could employ hundreds of cartoonists. There are web sites and TV channels that look for cartoonists. Above all cartoonists need to be able to work in teams.

Abhijit: Any cartoon you regret having made?

Ajit: At the height of the Bofors scandal, I had drawn Rajiv Gandhi like a Pope surrounded by black sheep with one white sheep that was supposed to be VP Singh. Instead of the cross on his clothes I had used the Congress party symbol. That had offended some Christian groups. Another time I had shown the map of India to be like a Ganesha. Gujarat and the Eastern states being the ears etc. That offended a few Hindu groups. So I apologized.

Ajit Ninan has a fan club on Orkut. Click this link to join that community.

Read more articles on Careers, Management, Music, Books and the usual this and that by Abhijit Bhaduri on his website at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

Partha Basu, best known as the writer of the column Quiz Mountain for the Illustrated Weekly has written a what-if book based on Holmes (clearly someone who the author has a not-so-high opinion of) that makes Watson, the chronicler get a lot more of the limelight. This book (The Curious Case of 221 B – published by HarperCollins) takes a complicated narrative style – three view points and takes some of the well known cases of Holmes and either carries his story forward or backwards or fills in the missing years with fresh exploits starting with Jit, the protagonist who discovers a wooden box in remote Deogarh in Bihar (why Deogarh may I ask?) soon after his parents are gunned down by assailants in the summer of 1970. The box contains “a thin bundle of letters and two linen bound notebooks.” The diaries contain Dr Watson’s versions of the “true stories” behind eight whodunits.

Like several good quizzers, Basu is clearly a trivia buff. He ran a travel business for a few years. That stint took him to see everything from opium dens of London to the slave dungeons of Zanzibar – stuff that showed up in this book. He was one of those who almost won the BBC quiz program Mastermind that was televised a couple of years back. I asked him a few questions myself to find out what kind of a man rewrites Sherlock Holmes mysteries (in two months, according to the author) and puts a twist to it!

Abhijit: Tell us about your previous books.

Partha Basu: My first book was born out of a quiz weekly column I did for the Illustrated Weekly of India, for about two years. Which meant lots of questions! I finally bowed to pressure from my readers to compile the best ones into a book and Quiz Mountain was born. In 1992. A couple of years later I published a longish monograph, if you can call that a book, for the Poona Film & Television Institute on Ritwik Ghatak. Six years later, my friend and I did The Calcutta Persona, a different sort of book on the city. It sold very well. I never seriously thought of writing fiction; nor consciously chased a writer’s dream.

Abhijit: (I saw him refusing oatmeal and honey cookies. “I am allergic to honey”, he explains) Is your allergy to honey reflective of the fact that you hate deification?

Partha Basu: First, the allergy. I’m told it’s a ten thousand to one chance. I’ve received emergency treatment in sick rooms in Singapore and Dubai and once in the city of York in England because I ate things which had honey in them, without knowing it. Apparently it’s the enzymes; most people get it from bee stings.

The deification ? I dislike our habit of deifying people at the drop of not a hat, but a pin. But I’m not allergic to Sherlock Holmes. He shall remain immortal, in spite of all that is and will be written about him. That’s how it’s been for almost a hundred years.

Abhijit: I am not familiar with every story of Sherlock Holmes. Can you help us understand what the Canons are?

Partha Basu: According to the OED, a canon, has many meanings. Including a collection of the authentic works of a particular author or artist. In this case the Long and Short stories concerning Sherlock Holmes. When you add one more “n” to the word, it becomes a weapon. Conan Doyle created other heroes too, like Brigadier Gerard and so on. He was very prolific. It’s interesting that at one point, Conan Doyle got so bored with Holmes that he killed him at the Reichenbach Falls. But intense public pressure forced him to resurrect Holmes. The next time, he made Holmes fade quietly away to a little farm in Sussex.

Abhijit: How do you think the readers will view Sherlock Holmes once they read your book.

Partha Basu: The response, so far has not been negative at all, from both readers and reviewers. There could be some Holmesian outrage bubbling around the short horizon, what with over 2000 Sherlock Holmes Societies, world-wide. Though I’ve passed the famed London Society’s litmus test, comfortably. Newcomers to Holmes will probably say, ‘How can you presume that we know the canon and its twists and turns as well as maybe you and some others do?” I had to put in synopses and Emma Hudson’s explanatory mid-words, for this reason. I was worried that it would break the flow but both have clicked.

Abhijit: You have been in the travel trade. How have those experiences showed up in your stories?

Partha Basu: I’ve been to almost every place my book talks about and I made sure that the feel and historicity was authentic. From the opium dens of London, past the wild beauty of the Cape of Good Hope to the slave dungeons and markets of Zanzibar. All of it. Actually, I should have written a superior Travel book, like Bruce Chatwin wrote, but I was too busy traveling.

Abhijit: What is the next piece of fiction you are working on?

Partha Basu: I’m trying to complete, on a Harper Collins contract, a novel I had started much before 211B. It’s called Silicon Valley Wives; I have a love hate relationship with the Valley.
————-

INVITATION: Partha Basu is launching the book at Cafe Mocha in Gurgaon on 19th September 2009 at 5:00pm. I will be reading out excerpts and talking to the author. So come over if you are in town.

Read more articles by Abhijit Bhaduri at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

Mahatma Gandhi made the devotional song Vaishnava Janato based on Raga Khamaj, almost synonymous with his own name. This bhajan gets a modern interpretation from Pandit Jasraj, Shankar Mahadevan and Jaspinder Narula in this video.

Raga Khamaj is a late evening raga and is brought out rather elegantly in the light classical form of thumri. It has been a popular choice for film music as well. The romantic nature of the raga is brought out by this delightful composition of Salil Chowdhury O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi. This song is supposed to have been set to the swishing of the wipers of an Ambassador car when the composer was caught in a torrential downpour. The original version done in Bengali called Na Jeona was also sung by Lata Mangeshkar. She is said to have chosen this song when asked what is the ONE song she will take with her to a desert island. I suppose that question was asked before the age of the iPod.

Shubha Mudgal sings a soul stirring version of Raga Khamaj in her song Babul Jiya Mora Ghabraaye. In the song the little girl tells her father not to marry her off to riches but instead to a blacksmith. He is the one who can melt my chains, she implores.

The composer RD Burman had used Raga Khamaj in the film Buddha Mil Gaya for the song Aayo Kahan Se Ghanshyam. He used Khamaj twice in the same film to compose two brilliant songs for the film Amar Prem. One of which was Bada Natkhat Hai Re and the other was the song immortalised by Kishore Kumar – Kuchh Toh Log Kahenge. While all the songs of the film are timeless classics, I am sharing with you Kuchh Toh Log Kahenge in Raga Khamaj.

One last flavor of Raga Khamaj lies in this piece from the film Kaala Paani made in 1958 starring Dev Anand and Madhubala. The film was based on AJ Cronin’s Beyond This Place. Sung by Asha Bhosle to the tune of SD Burman, this is a song that brings in an element of flirtation and mischief all within the light treatment afford by a Kshudra Prakriti raga !! Couldn’t help that jibe. The song is Nazar Laagi Raja Torey Bangley Par.

Now to give you a flavor of the classical form, Kaushiki Chakraborty, daughter of the classical singer Ajoy Chakraborty sings Raga Khamaj in drut teentaal (16 beats, allegro)

Finally, here is a Ustad Abdul Karim Khan singing Khamaj in a recording that is supposed to have been done in 1906 – more than a 100 years old ! Click to hear

Other Songs Based On Raga Khamaj

Aa dilse dil mila le – Navrang (1959) Music by C Ramchandra, singer Asha Bhosle

Ab kya misal doon - Aarti (1962) Music by Roshan, singer Mohd Rafi

Ayo kahanse ghanashyam - Buddha Mil Gaya (1971) Music RD Burman, Singer Manna Dey

Bada natkhat hai…ka kare yashoda maiya – Lata – Amar Prem (1971) RD Burman

Bata do sakhi kaun gali gayo shyam – Music by Naushad Ali

Bidhir bandhon kaatbe tum – Film Ghare Baire (Satyajit Ray), Lyrics and Music by Tagore, singer Kishore Kumar

Chunariya katati jaye – Mother India (1957) Music: Naushad, Singer Manna Dey

Dhal chuki shaam e gam - Kohinoor (1960), Music Naushad Singer Mohd Rafi

Hum Apna Unhe Bana Na Sake – Bhanwara (1944) Music by Khemchand Prakash singer KL Saigal

Khat likha de savariyake nam babu - Aaye Din Bahar Ke (1966), Music Laxmikant Pyarelal, Singer Asha Bhosle

Mere to giridharagopala - Meera, Music Pt Ravi Shankar, Singer Vani Jayaram

Sakhi Re Suun Bole Papiha – Miss Mary (1957) Music: Hemant Kumar, Singer Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle

Sham Dhale Jamna Kinare – Pushpanjali (197o) Music by Laxmikan Pyarelal, Singer Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey

Tere bina sajna lage na jiya hamar – Aarti (1962), Music by Roshan

Woh na aayenge palatkar – Devdaas (1957), Music SD Burman, Singer Mubarak Begum

If you enjoyed reading this then check out a similar article on Raga Desh on my website http://abhijitbhaduri.com/2009/03/the-charm-of-raga-desh/

Kiran Bedi was the first woman to join the Indian Police Service way back in 1972. Never a darling of the establishment, they have seen her challenging the status quo and disrupting the existing order. Her peers detest her celebrity cop status and say she seeks the spotlight wherever she goes. When the Beijing Olympics torch was to pass through India, she boycotted the torch run and kicked up a storm. Yet, there are an equal number of people who see in her all what the Police force could and should be – honest, approachable and reliable.

Kiran has always been in the limelight but for different reasons. Sometimes as a tennis champ, then as the first woman IPS officer, then for taking on the establishment and sometimes for the accolades and brickbats. She first shot into the national media very early in her career when she singlehandedly took on a sword brandishing mob. She once again came into the glare of the media when she ordered the car of Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to be towed away. The press named her “Crane” Bedi. She writes columns in the national press and hosts a TV show Aap Ki Kacheri - where she dispenses her verdict over numerous domestic spats.

She was awarded the Magsaysay award in 1994 for her work as the Inspector General of Prisons, Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993-1995), for initiating a number of prison reforms and initiating several innovative programs yoga, vipassana meditation and literacy programs for the inmates of the jail. She also ensured that jailed mothers could keep children born in prison for five years, with their schooling and healthcare guaranteed. In December 2007, she took voluntary retirementand quit the Police force after being denied her next promotion. She launched her own e-portal, www.saferindia.com, where anyone who is refused help at a police station can write in to seek redressal.

She has since been working with two NGOs – Navajyoti (which literally means New Enlightenment), set up in 1987, and India Vision Foundation, set up in 1994, which were established by her with the objectives of improving the condition of the drug addicts and the poor people. Her energy and impatience is contagious. “I want to die with my boots on. I dread being dependent on others!”, she says.

She is the subject of a documentary Yes Madam, Sir produced and directed by Australian film-maker Megan Doneman. The documentary has won the USD 100,000 Best Documentary award and the USD 2500 Fund for Santa Barbara’s “Social Justice Award” at the festival.

I caught up with her at her home in New Delhi which was teeming with volunteers and employees of her NGOs. Over a cup of chai, we taught about what makes her tick.

Abhijit Bhaduri: In a country where Police and corruption have become synonymous, what do you see is the way out?

Kiran Bedi: The Police has to build trust. It is this trust that gets passed down from generation to generation. When you see the Police applying the law selectively, the common person feels let down. The law needs to be applied uniformly regardless of the person being impacted. The rich and powerful have a different set of laws and get preferential treatment. They have are immune to the consequences of breaking the law. This situation can never generate trust. The leaders of the country must vow to build back the confidence of the common person in the country’s administration in a time-bound manner.

Abhijit: How could you personally stay away from the temptation of corruption?

Kiran Bedi: I believed that I would always do the right thing and worry about the consequences later. I came into the Police force having been a tennis champ. Then with each assignment, the deeds built a track record on which my reputation was built. Then there was a time when my reputation preceded me in every new assignment. People would know that I was incorruptible and that I would not spare anyone who broke the law – no matter who they were.

Abhijit: Where does your conviction come from?

Kiran Bedi: From my parents. Being a tennis champ (national and Asian tennis champion) the game taught me to win in an environment that was transparent. You learn to play before the spectators and win. That gives you the confidence to do your best always. If you do the right thing, then the worst that can happen in a Government job is that you may get transferred to another location. That’s the worst someone could do. They can’t sack you for doing the right thing.

Abhijit: You won the Magsaysay award and many others. What do they mean to you?

Kiran Bedi: I feel good momentarily and then continue working.

Abhijit: In 2002 you were voted as India’s most admired woman and fifth amongst all Indians. What is it like being a role model?

Kiran Bedi: You have to always self audit. You cannot remain inconsistent in your thoughts and actions. It is a responsibility that you bear. So even if I think of taking a vacation, I just think of my responsibility and turn it away.

Abhijit: Your NGOs reach out to about 10, 000 people everyday. What do you see as the goal that you personally wish to accomplish through these two organizations?

Kiran Bedi: My father taught me to believe in the saying you can do it, no matter what. I would like these two NGOs to help 20,000 people every day and be able to run on their own withoutmy being there.

Abhijit: You are the subject of the documentary by Helen Mirren called Yes Madam, Sir. What happens if the documentary wins the Oscar?

Kiran Bedi: It would be a dream come true. I want the world to know my parents. Through the documentary the world will know who they were and why we as daughters (four of us) were ahead of our times. It is such parents (like them) who produce daughters like me. (That is, if u like my kind).
So if you appreciate what I stand for, you will know what brought that about.

In 1994, a maverick called Sashank Ghosh (MBA from University of Jodhpur), left MTV to become the creative head at Channel Vand created a character called Quick Gun Murugan. Those “fillers” in between programs were a rage among the youth. Quick Gun Murugan trailers quickly became the talk of the town especially in the colleges across India. It introduced the phrase “We are like this only” as a tagline that reflected the growing comfort with Indian English. Years later in the film Om Shanti Om, Shahrukh Khan imitated this character complete it the catchphrase “Enna Rascala”! This is an out and out spoof on film heros who duck bullets, thulp twenty attackers without ruining the shirt crease. The character is said to have been inspired by MGR, the cult movie hero of yesteryears in Tamil films.

Everything about the film is tongue in cheek and exaggerated. The storyline is wacky. Quick Gun Murugan (played by 57 year old Telugu actor Rajendra Prasad) , the Indian cowboy drinks whisky and smokes, is loyal to his dead sweetheart (Played by versatile actress Anuradha Menon of “Lola Kutty” fame) and is now on a mission to protect the world from being fed non-veg dosas being churned out by McDosa company run by villain Rice Plate Reddy (played by Tamil actor, director, Nasser). Rambha, plays the buxom love interest of QGM – Mango Dolly. Chaplinesque in its exaggerations, this is not a movie that will appeal to a large base of movie goers. Those who are familiar with the concept of Murugan will appreciate the transition from a 30 second avatar to a full fledged movie.

The memorable part of the movie lies in the way it uses exaggerated literal translations of Tamil and Hindi phrases right through. The movie has been made in three languages, Hindi, English and Tamil The film opens with the zany, “The earth is my bed, the sky is my ceiling, the whole creation is my native place. My name is Murugan – Quick Gun Murugan.” Quick Gun’s sentences end with Mind it!”

Exaggeration is the name of the game. The green shirt, the leopard skin jacket, the cowboy hat, the pot bellied hero and voluptous heroine in a blonde wig all spoof regular characters in mainstream Indian cinema. There are political comments made on traffic in Mumbai, fast food chains (wonder who McDosa chains were trying to point to) to the TV anchors who sensationalize news, the addiction to soap operas on cable tv – nothing has been spared.

That perhaps is one of the limitations that will restrict the number of people who will want to see the film. The audience who wants a clear plotline with no ditracting hyperlinks will find the storyline thin. You know what, there will be movie goers from mainstream cinema, who will not find anything comical in this film. They are so used to the hamming actors that this may just seem mainstream to them. If you loved him in the 30 second commercials, go check out the film. Or maybe you want to become a fan on Facebook.

Summary: This movie is a genre breaker.

Download a caricature of Quick Gun Murugan at http://abhijitbhaduri.com/2009/08/quick-gun-murugan/

You can read more about books, movies and management at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

Here are a few pointers that can help get the most out of the STAs for the organization and the employee:

1. Agree on the duration of the assignment: Many assignments tend to keep stretching beyond the initial term agreed upon. It is just as difficult for single employees as it is for those who are married or have children. (read some of the comments on the article posted here) The problems are different. Agree on the motivation of each player – the employer and the employee. What do they both expect to get out of the assignment – the outcomes, learnings and possible challenges.

2. Agree on the what if scenarios as best as you can: Knowing what role or assignment one could come back to is comforting and reduces anxiety of the assignee. If the business scenario demands a shoter term or extension of the time of the STA, agree on the what-if scenario upfront.

3. Agree on allowances, benefits upfront: The number of home visits, emergency trips back, allowances etc all need to thought through and agreed upon before proceeding on the assignment. It is important to stress how this may change if the duration of the assignment changes. It is also important to think of providing emotional support and anchors during the assignment to the employee and the significant other – especially if they are staying back.

4. Encourage the assignee to talk to others: Especially who have been on STAs – especially if they have worked in a similar or neighboring geography. Assigning a buddy or an employee who they reach out to can help quell some anxiety. Some organizations assign a coach even for the spouse or partner or significant other.

5. Insist on cross cultural training and preferably language training: This helps the assignee understand the sensitivities of working in a different environment and makes them aware of what might potentially be a deal breaker in the new land.

6. Design a re-entry plan: It is hard to hit the pause button in your life and go away on an assignment only to return after the assignment and resume seamlessly. Even if the person comes back to the old assignment and role, the equations would have changed. The colleagues would have changed and certainly the world view of the assignee would have changed. It is a time for adjustment for all – colleagues, employer, employee as well as the family. STAs when handled skillfully can offer a win-win for the employer and the employee. Yet there are plenty of examples of the best employees failing at these. There could be broken homes, messy relationships, disappointments if there is no partnership between the organization and the assignee. So build in the support anchors before you need them. If nothing else, before you go say yes to the assignment, read this research report and then decide.

Download a copy of the cartoon from here

Read more articles by Abhijit on Management by clicking here

The break was over. All newbies were asked why they had joined Human Resources. Most of us tried to look cute and said, “Because I loooooove talking to people” or that “I am a people’s person” or that all my friends love telling me their problems and so I thought I should be in HR”. Over the next few years reality struck us between the eyes and blew all those cute statements to smithreens. But even now there are HR people lurking around in organizations who say, they are in HR because they “like being with people”. Hmmm… but dude, do PEOPLE like being with you? If like me you get heebie jeebies when people give that as their reason to choose HR, do something about it. Nip this tendency in the bud. The next time you interview HR people, spend the first hour asking them these questions. If they answer them confidently without too many disclaimers, then that is your HR person for the next few years.

 About the current employer Caveat: Whatever is not in the public domain or cannot be shared for confidentiality reasons should not be asked for during the discussion. These are some questions that help you understand if the HR person has really been a business partner or was it just a lot of sweaty nothings

1. What is the competitive scenario of that industry. How has it changed over the past three years. What do you think are factors that will impact the industry over the next three years. What data do you have to support these assumptions?

2. How does your company’s go to market strategy differ from the competitors. Which one os better and why. What has been the greatest advantage or disadvantage of using that approach.

3. What are the major consumer trends that are impacting the business? What is driving the change? What are some of the white spaces in the market? What will it take for an organization to reach those consumers? What should be investments the company should make to bring down those costs? What is the latest technological innovation that will dramatically impact the way customers choose your company’s products? Are there new demographic segments that are emerging, or going away that will affect your consumer base strongly?

4. What percentage of your time do you spend with your organization’s customers and suppliers? What do you think the suppliers or vendors’ pain points are? What are the regulatory requirements of the company’s product? What are the recent legislative changes that have had a major impact on the way the company does bnusiness?

5. What are the innovations you have done in your assignment(s)? How did the innovations come about? What alternatives did you think of before choosing this option. What is the biggest drawback of the solution you have recommended? If you look at your approach of implementing your idea, what went well and what could be done better?

For the new assignment Problem Definition and Planning Approach: It is always useful to ask for the candidates ideas on how they would approach an actual problem that the business has. It gives the hiring manager great insight on how the candidate goes around redefining the problem? Breaking down the information, creating a project plan, talking to experts, research or benchmarking are all approaches that are possible.

Ability to Innovate: Once the applicant has outlined the problem definition and planning approach, you could now check how innovative the person is. Does the person try the beaten path? Does the person come up with alternatives? Does the person have out of the box ideas? Incremental innovation or transformational innovation – what is it? (Check out that video on the innovation process and how Google uses it. )

Deep functional skills and knowledge gained through application: Functional skills that have not been applied in the business scenarios are unproven. Of course if you are hiring someone for whom this will be the first job, then this it is OK to test depth of knowledge and perhaps a deeper grill on what the internship projects or term papers have been about. All that it does to check if the person goes deep or is happy skimming the surface. Stay warned, these habits may show up often in a work setting as well.

Career path and motivation: If there is a happy fit with the candidate and the current role, most employers jump in to close the deal. Find out what drives this person. What are the career aspirations the person has and what time frame does the person wish to achieve them. Do they want a career as a generalist or as a specialist? This will be an important way to check for a match between the options available within the organization and whether the time frame that the candidate has in mind will match what the company would offer.

Whoever said hiring good HR people was an easy task?

More articles by Abhijit Bhaduri at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

Get a hi resolution version of the cartoon from here

I suppose the pyschologists and pyschiatrists – called “shrinks” in popular parlance – have their own code of silence. Once they are certified to practice, they are not supposed to give away the secret tests and techniques about how they figure out if the person lying on the couch is normal or abnormal depending on the response to the tests. To the person being tested this can evoke different feelings eg Awe or Aw (short for awful) and everything in between. So naturally people are anxious – which by itself could tell the shrink stuff about you that you don’t want them to know.

The personality tests are designed to provide insight into the human mind or at least the test takers mind. There are projective tests (open ended) and objective tests (with multiple choice answers). A projective test, lets you respond to ambiguous stimuli which could be pictures (Thematic Appreception Tests), sentence completion tests (eg. asking you to complete the sentence “I have always dreamt of …”) , drawing tests (eg asking you to draw a House Tree and Person) to presumably reveal your hidden emotions and internal conflicts.

When the physician advises me to go for my annual health check up there is this apprehension about what hidden time bomb might the tests reveal. If instead of physical health it is about mental health the wait for the final judgment is worse. In projective tests there is no right answer. So it is difficult for you to argue with the shrink. In the Adventures of Legionnaire Beau Peep comic, the shrink shows a card with a straight line drawn on it and asks Beau Peep what it reminds him of. Beau Peep says, “Woman”. The second card has some circles and triangles on it. “Woman”, says Beau Peep to the military shrink. The third card gets the same response and the shrink asks, “Why does everything remind you of a woman?”. Beau Peep retorts, “Who has been showing me the dirty pictures?”

The most popular projective test has been the Rorschach test, a series of 10 inkblot plates created by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach for his book ‚ÄúPsychodiagnostik,‚Äù published in 1921. (See one of them reproduced above). Quick look at it and tell me what you see in that inkblot. If you knew that the answer you had first thought of shows you to be, let us say, “disturbed and psychotic”, would you still articulate your first thoughts?

These inkblot cards have been around on the Net for a while – since 8 Dec 2007 on this site, for instance. The New York Times reports that psychologists are incensed that someone among them has loaded not only ALL the ten inkblot tests on to Wikipedia but also the most common answers for them.

“Yet in the last few months, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been engulfed in a furious debate involving psychologists who are angry that the 10 original Rorschach plates are reproduced online, along with common responses for each. For them, the Wikipedia page is the equivalent of posting an answer sheet to next year‚Äôs SAT.”

Magicians never tell their tricks. Or so you think. There are several sites (here’s one) that reveal secrets of magic tricks that a magician may take years to practice and demonstrate. Are you trying to deprive someobody of their livelihood by sharing their secret? Is that the adult equivalent of telling a two year old that there is no Santa Claus? Should some things remain shrouded in mystery?

There are sites such as Webmd.com that laypersons can access and learn from. You can know about the disease, the myths and facts, learn about managing the condition and know what to do about it. Here is a neat quiz about how to reduce your level of Cholesterol). Has the presence of this information reduced the earnings of doctors? The last time I stood in queue to meet my physician, it did not seem so. While knowing the full form of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can make you look like Sigmund Freud to your co-worker, it will hardly impress your doctor or shrink. Besides everybody in the world does not read Webmd.com on a daily basis. MIT has made all its course material and lecture notes available to the whole planet for free. Check out this link and that has in no way impacted the number of people clamoring to join MIT anyway. The more zealously you protect information, the more people want to pry open the secrets. The more accessible it is, the less of a forbidden fruit value it has.

You may argue that if a criminal who has been “coached” on how to respond to the inkblot by his or her lawyer would escape detection. For that matter the Snellen’s Eye Chart is also available on Wikipedia. If you mugged it up before going for your drivers’ license, you could fool them into giving you a license, but you are the one whose life would be at risk. The smart trick would indeed be to not mug up the test (like in this case) and get the necessary glasses so that you do not make a spectacle of yourself. The test is not intended to be a lie-detector anyway.

So my advice to the fretting psychologists: relax. This too shall pass.

Read more articles by Abhijit at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

It is truly a magical moment when you read the manuscript and suddenly feel that there is nothing more left to add or to take away. If you add stuff you will feel the need to trim the fat and you cannot take away a single word without leaving gaps in the mind of the reader. It is that moment when you feel the most self-confident. You are ready to take the book to a publisher.

You write to the publisher and give them a taste of the good stuff. They do not seem to share your enthusiasm. Hmmm… maybe it is time to take your manuscript to another publisher. Some of them tell you that your work is not good enough, some find it “interesting” but they have their hands full, some say that it would be a couple of years before they can think of publishing your book.

Publishers really look for a commercial proposition in every manuscript. They want to understand how many people will buy the book you have written. It is always worthwhile to do that Math before you go to a publisher. The easiest way to do that is to go to a bookstore and see if there are other writers who have published books somewhat like the one you wrote. Ask the store, how many copies of the book they sell in a month or in a year. Now repeat that exercise for a few more stores. Maybe you can ask a friend in another city to do a similar exercise on your behalf. That will tell you if your book will have a market or not. If you have written a text book, ask a few schools if they would recommend your book as a required reading. Be prepared to explain why they should do that.

Finally, look into you list of friends, relatives, colleagues etc and ask how many of them will buy your book. Most of them will want you to “gift them a copy of your book.” Majority of the planet does not know that authors need to buy their own book if they have to gift it. You will occasionally find some people who will say, “Don’t expect me to BUY your book.” At this time resist any urge to kick their shin. They speaketh out of ignorance and not malice. Here is where self-publishing kicks in. For a small fee you could see your own book in at least your own bookshelf. NY Times had talked about self publishing thriving as the publishing industry undergoes some huge shifts with many publishers dropping advances paid to writers.

Vanity Publishing is used to describe books where the cost of writing, printing, production, distribution and even publicity is funded by the author. If you are a rich dude, this is your chance to be an author. The critics are less than kind to such books. A better version of this is called Subsidy Publishing where the publisher will bear part of the costs. Self Publishing is a good way of doing limited copies of your own book and testing the market. This is a good option if you want a 100% control over the contents – esp if what you are publishing may be controversial or off beat. Publishers do not take any of the proceeds and if the author distributes it too then there are no distribution fees as well. The result is a larger payoff because it is a much larger percentage of the sale price. Don’t feel apologetic about self publishing. The Celestine Prophecy, Chicken Soup for the Soul, What Color is Your Parachute are all books which were self published.

Some popular sites are Lulu, FastPencil, Create Space and Xlibris. Check out the website of Xlibris for their FAQs on why self publish.

Advantages of self publishing

1. Time
   Traditional publishing takes too long; most traditional publishers work on an 18-month production cycle. Choose to self-publish and your book could be ready for the market within three months. (AB: I highly recommend that you work with an editor who will trim the manuscript and make it more readable. Imagine if you could edit and clip your home videos and give it some crispness)
2. Your book-the way you want it
   A book is a reflection of the author. Self-publishing gives you complete control on the direction of your book. The decisions are exclusively yours and not limited by third parties with intentions and interests different from your own. (AB: You can choose the font, the cover design and paper quality of the book, even if you know nothing about it. Each choice will impact your cost. So keep an eye on the tab as you keep ckecking those fancy options. It is like assembling your own computer. Each accessory has a cost and it all adds up. )
3. Retain all rights
   As a self-publisher, you own all rights to your book. If you use a traditional publishing house, they will own all rights. If they lose interest in your book, you will not be able to print additional copies unless you purchase those rights back. (AB: This is one big advantage you have. If some regular publishing house thinks that your book has potential, they will be happy to offer you a deal if they get you to the negotiating table.)
4. Testing the market
   Because your book may fill a niche that has not been met, you can test the market by self-publishing. Find out how well your book will sell, and how successful it will be. (AB: This is a polite way of saying that if your book self only three copies then you know that it was not born to be a mass market product. It is what we will politely call a ‘niche product’. You will also realize why publishers did not find it a commercially viable proposition. You can print limited copies that you know for sure you could personally sell and then decide if you want to print more copies to hawk. That is the advantage of print-on-demand technology. If you want to make only three cups of coffee, no point buying a truckload of coffee beans.)
5. A limited market
   Your book may appeal to a limited market and, therefore, may not be of interest to a large publishing house. (AB: See commentary with point 4 above. Think of a school’s yearbook. How many times have you rushed out to buy someone else’s yearbook? The same would hold true for say most people’s family history unless you have a recognizable surname.)

Writing a book is tough. Finding the right publisher is tougher. Self publishing solves the second problem. But distributing the books and selling it through a bookstore is a helluva task – esp if you self publish. But that story is for another time.

Check out this neat piece on self publishing from NY Times or this one from HowStuffWorks

Over the years you have managed to move up the food chain. You started changing your focus from being the most competent, professionally speaking, to other stuff that helped you climb the rungs of the organizational structure. The per capita frequent flyer miles of the continent have gone up because of you. You are mastering the golf stroke. You are no longer the innocent wide-eyed teddy bear. You are the political animal a lion tamer would dread. The corner office is in sight. You point to your beer belly that is now competing with Homer Simpson’s and laugh it off as a sign of prosperity (it still makes you a slob). Building those muscles. Learning is not on your agenda. When your coach tells you that your IQ and EQ points have not improved for eons, you are annoyed. That is so not true, you say. “I am the one who speaks at every seminar on the critical importance of building a learning organization (cool phrase, what!) and my favorite story to motivate the troops is on taking risks. You know, the lightbulb fellow, Edison did not get the filament right the first time either.” You will point out, as evidence, to those motivational quotes that are framed and put on your wall about why we should all aspire to be lifelong learners.

You show everyone the dozens of group photos of you and bunch of fat-cats from your weeklong training sessions on Leadership Development at the ski-resort and the 5 day seminar on “Life’s Lessons that Golf Taught Me”. Or that Team Building do at the place tucked away in the mountains which is famous for the sea-food grill … By the way, have you noticed in all the fat-cat photos, that it is the same bunch of guys who seem to be landing up for these paid holidays and generally speaking the same fat cats speak at EVERY seminar with the Powerpoint slides they made ten years back? Ever wondered why their ‘menu and venue driven’ training should be funded by the employer? Why??

Not saying for a minute that ALL training is only menu and venue driven. Not at all. That would be painting everyone with a broad brush. How do we differentiate the good guys from those with the horns and tail? If only individuals had to fund their own learning and development agenda with their own vacation days and their money instead of being paid for by the employer, there would be a sea change in the way people would view their own learning options. Instead of taking the ‘menu and venue’ based courses, you would choose what you truly need to be ahead of the pack. You, like all employees, would take those certifications to refresh your knowledge and those that you need to build your soft skills, to learn how to run a virtual team, to know what is the next big thing lurking around the corner waiting to snap at your ankles and render you obsolete. That is the only way to separate the wheat from the chaff or the lean from the mean. Have everyone fund their own effort at keeping their skills upgraded.

So what is the role of the employer in getting the new upgraded version 2.0 of me? Here is the deal. If the new improved me, results in my manager noticing the large shovels of contribution I have been heaping on to the company’s bottomline since, they will need to pick up the cost of that skill upgradation plus add some more to fund all the coffee I had while I was slaving away, credit back the vacation days (and maybe throw in a few extra), it would be a win-win. The employer would be only paying for what is visibly and in a measurable (not miserable) way adding to the bottomline. The employee would really think very hard about the courses that will add value professionally and then be at pains to show how it is showing up in the new improved behavior at work. No more menu and venue based training. Let that place famous for the sea-food grill appeal to the tourist and not masquerade as a training destination.

The one video I will play for you will be this funky piece called आजा वे Aaja Ve. It is a funky piece that I love. It has got attitude.

Recently I had a chance to catch up with Sona in a free flowing interview.
Abhijit: After an Engineering degree and an MBA in Marketing is music just a hobby or passion or career?

Sona: Well you don’t choose music, music chooses you. Music is my life and I have a lifetime of learning to do. I took the long road to it but all the stuff that I learnt on the way has been worth it. I hope to make original personal music and reach out to my audience despite the fact that that our country seems to be obsessed with Bollywood culture with limited breathing space for any alternative. The silver lining is that things seem to be changing now. Bands like Kailasa – Kailash, Naresh & Paresh manage to put out their records regularly by cleverly using Kailash Kher’s celebrity status through Bollywood & Reality TV

Abhijit: What was your biggest moment musically speaking – the day you recorded your first album… or the day you saw the album in the store or was it the music video or was it when you recorded with INXS.

Sona: None of the above , if I may say so ! It was the moment I decided to plunge headlong & fulltime into music . No ‘Escape’ buttons et all !

Abhijit: You have been jamming with other artiste abroad as well. How has that impacted your own sound?

Sona: I loved working with INXS because ‘Afterglow’ is an Indian song at heart! It’s so melodramatic and romantically ambitious that I just fell for it the moment I heard it. It was great meeting them & hearing them praise our version of the song so much! Since it was released in the UK & did really well, we were planning more such collaborations but then the band went into hiatus, so no news as of now . With Bowie, it happened through agents, as they were looking for artists who could re-interpret the song, ‘Let’s Dance’, which is a childhood favourite of mine. They loved what we did and it’s supposed to be part of a compilation of remixes of Bowie’s songs. Now all that remains is to actually meet the Thin White Duke himself! I actually dream of jamming with the great voices that walk this earth. I actually have a long fantasy wish list. Angelique Kidjo, Wadali brothers, Aruna Sairam, Tori Amos, Youssou N’ Dour, Cassandra Wilson, Cheb Mami, Richard Bona. The list goes on & on. It’s going to take a lot of riyaaz (practice) !

Abhijit: Are some of these tracks composed by you? If not is there any piece of music that you have composed?

Sona: Yes , I do compose once in a while & a song in my first album Jai Phulo Re has a bit of that ! Having said that , I do believe that one doesn’t neccessarily have to compose to be an artiste. I consider myself a storyteller and hope to be inspired by the vocal greats like Pandit Kumar Gandharva , Nina Simone , Girija Devi , Geeta Dutt , Richard Bona …the list is endless & ‘get closer to the flame’. My blessings include working in a great team with Ram Sampath who has composed my songs in the album & Munna Dhiman who has given words to our ideas in the same.

Abhijit: Who is your favorite Bollywood composer? Does an artiste have to be a playback artiste to get to the mass market in India? Would you rather be singing for the masses or a niche market?

Sona: There are many , Madan Mohan , RD Burman , Vishal Bharadwaj , AR Rahman , Ram Sampath… Jagjit Singh hasn’t needed to be a playback voice to be crowned as the King of Ghazals and seriously mass market at that ! So while it seems to be the easiest way to reach out, mostly cause the infrastructure is built around the same, I don’t think its the only way . We need more live venues for sure and if the government isn’t helping, corporates like yours should !

Abhijit: Have you sung Oriya songs?
Sona: Yes I do. I’m planning an Oriya album for the international market soon. Infact, I had the pleasure of meeting Mira Nair post my Lincoln centre NYC concert this year and she turned out to be half Oriya (from the state of Orissa, India) . She loved my music and infact suggested that I do this project .

Abhijit: You prefer to be described as “unique” rather than be called “unusual” through your music that bridges the ancient and the contemporary. How do you plan to do it?

Sona: My music and my world are about bridging the timeless and the contemporary. I love history, architecture and am fascinated by how things age. I love the fact that all classical singers reach their artistic peak post their 40′s. I want my music to get better with time, but I also want to enjoy the moment. That contradiction is who I am..

Abhijit: As a trained Marketing professional, how did you go about marketing the brand called Sona?

Sona: Haven’t figured that one yet. It is difficult trying to soak yourself in music and also see yourself as a product /brand at the same time. I do understand the importance of it though and hope to find partners and collaborators to do so! On my part , I believe in being ‘consistent’ in what I do and say and hope that it builds towards a single & strong “brand ‘

Abhijit: Your musical idols – tell me about lesser known music that you recommend for the readers. Specific albums and bands that you want us to listen to.

Sona: I’ve always been inclined towards earthy, rootsy music. Give me the Blues any day! I feel the same way about Indian music. Our folk music has all the ingredients that are vital to pop music – great stories, beautiful melodies & funky grooves.Vocally, my biggest inspirations are Girija Devi, Pt. Kumar Gandharva, Begum Akhtar , Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Nina Simone, Tori Amos & Geeta Dutt . Bands like Ojos De Brujos , Tinariven inspire me .

Abhijit: Besides singing and music, what keeps you busy?

Sona: Lots . I am a partner /producer in a music production house called THE MINT. I love travelling and am a keen student of history , culture & therefore a voracious reader & film buff too. I usually watch world cinema. There’s actually very little free time in a day but since its filled with things I love, there’s little to complain about !

Abhijit: What are you reading currently?

Sona: I read only non-fiction. Currently reading a book by a favourite author of mine , Pankaj Mishra , called Temptations of the West . I’m simultaneously reading a book called “An Intimate History of Humanity” by Theodore Zeldin

Ali Akbar Khan’s sister Annapoorna Devi (born Roshanara Khan in 1926 in Maihar) played the surbahar. She married the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar for a brief period before their divorce. Ali Akbar and Ravi Shankar together made for great brand ambassadors of Hindustani Classical music to be made accessible to the listeners outside of India. I was fortunate to have heard both of them perform at Delhi’s Modern School grounds when they rung in the dawn of a New Year having started playing post dinner on 31st December. The experience of listening to the two legends on the same stage remains a defining moment in my musical journey. Ali Akbar was 13 when he made his debut as a performer at the Allahabad Music Conference in 1936 and accompanied Ravi Shankar during his debut performance at the same conference three years later. Over the years they toured the world together and performed to mesmerize listeners who did not need to to know the alphabet to understand the new language the duo was teaching. Check out this clip of the duo performing.

The sarod is a complex instrument with 25 strings. These include four main strings, four jod strings, two chikari strings and fifteen tarab strings. This fretless instrument is played with a plectrum that is usually made from coconut shell or even the shell of tortoise. Ali Akbar became one of the first names to become synonymous with sarod. He was music director of All India Radio station, Lucknow before leaving it to become the royal musician in the court of the princely state of Jodhpur.

He briefly dabbled with composing music for films much against his father’s wishes. Satyajit Ray invited him to compose the music for his film Devi (1960). Ali Akbar did not think Ray had the same sensibilities in Hindustani Classical as he did for Western. The same year he composed music for Tapan Sinha’s classic Khsudita Pashaan (Hungry Stones), based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore.

In 1989 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor, and in 1991 he became the first Indian musician to receive a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” He is credited with the creation of many Ragas. He was not flashy or flamboyant but just a musician who obsessed with his craft. Someone who made the complex instrument communicate in a language that we loved even if we did not understand all of it. Hear Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (April 14, 1922 – June 18, 2009) play Raga Marwa – a Raga that is played at the time of sunset. After all it is the end of an era.

You may have one duck but when a few more join this a lone duck, it is called paddling or badling of ducks. Some call it a raft of ducks or a bunch of ducks or for the less adventurous, it is a safe of ducks or a sore/ sord of ducks. If the same bunch of ducks are in flight they can be called a skein, string, twak or team of ducks. The same skein of geese when they are not in flight but waddling around on land will be called a gaggle. A collection of swans is called a bevy, herd, lamentation or wedge. A mustering of stork. Hawks are interesting too. You could have a cast, kettle (if they are flying in large numbers) of hawks but call it a boil if it is just two or more hawks spiraling in flight.

If it was just birds in general I would simply refer to them as a flock, flight, congregation or volery. It is not just people who brood. You could have a brood of hens or peep of chicken. A tiding, gulp, charm or murder of magpies. A collection of owls is called a Parliament. The flamboyant peacocks gathered together is called muster or ostentation or pride. Murder, horde, parcel or storytelling is to crows while a collection of ravens are called an unkindness. A clamor or building of rooks but a rookery of penguins and a pandemonium or prattle of parrots.

A collection of apes is called shrewdness while a group of baboons is called a troop. You have a clowder, pounce, dout, nuisance, glorying, glare or clutter of cats but an intrigue of kittens. An obstinacy of buffalos. It is a kine of cows but twelve cows or more are a flink. A yoke, drove, team or herd of oxen. An intrusion of cockroaches (what else). A business or fesnyng or cast of ferrets. A tower of giraffes or a bloat of hippos. A quiver of cobras, a rhumba of rattlesnakes, a battery of barracuda and a nest of vipers. A leap of leopards, a pride of lions and an ambush or streak of tigers.

There are collective nouns not just for animals and birds. There are many interesting ones for people as well. I will start with my favorite. A collection of writers is a worship (really, that’s what they are called) while a group of worshippers is called a congregation. An audience of listeners, an eloquence of lawyers and an ambush of widows (the same term as a a collection of tigers… hmmm). It has to be a conjunction of grammarians. A cutting/drunkship of cobblers and a hastiness of cooks. A bunch of critics is called a shrivel – as in may their tribe shrivel? Painters when together could be a curse/illusion or misbelieving. A collection of magicians is called an illusion just like the painters. It is a disguising of tailors but scolding of seamstresses. A tabernacle of bakers but a babble of barbers and a gaggle of women. A troop of boy scouts but a company of girl guides. If you know some more of them please do add them here.

I could go on and on but let me end by asking you what a collection of such collective nouns is called? A lot of fun for sure.

The music composer whose work introduced me to Malgunji is Rahul Dev Burman. Pancham as RD was known to his friends and family is the fifth note of music. Born on June 27, 1939, RD had composed music for more than 350 films until he breathed his last on January 4, 1994. He signed Bhoot Bungla (The Haunted House)in 1965 as his first film as a music director. This is also the film where for the first time Kishore Kumar the singer and he worked together. But Chhote Nawab (The Young King) also a film directed by Mehmood in 1961 is the one that RD Burman made his debut with. The song Ghar Aaja Ghir Aye (lyrics by Shailendra) is brilliant composition in Raga Malgunji (a Raga that combines elements of Raga Khamaj and Raga Bageshri). I will always rank this as the best ever Hindi film song composed in Malgunji.

Salil Chowdhury wrote many of the songs that are now inherent part of the cultural identity of Bengal. His music was a blend of the western classical (he grew up on Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, and a bit of Chopin), folk ditties, and a smattering of the Indian classical. Another all time favorite film composition based on Raga Malgunji is from the film Anand (1970) and composed by Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1922-5 Sep 1995). Na Jiya Laage Na (My mind is restless without you).

Listen to the Bengali version of the same song song. I love the introductory notes of the Bengali version better. I did not count this as a separate song and make this my five favorite Malgunji compositions.

There is a inherent tinge of sadness in Raga Malgunji that comes through beautifully in this song from the film Safar (1970) composed by Kalyanji Anandji. If you really want to feel the impact of the compositions in Raga Malgunji, then listen to it between 10pm and midnight to resonate with the pathos of longing that this Raga brings out so beautifully.

The film was Adalat (1948). The composer was Madan Mohan (25 June 1924 to 14 July 1975) and the when you have Lata Mangeshkar sing a composition in Malgunji and the poignant lyrics of Rajendra Krishan. Unko yeh shikayat hai ki hum kuchh nahi kehte. Translation: I never have anything to say, says he. It is not like me to say anything anyway. Just as RD Burman brought out the best in Asha Bhosle as a singer, Madan Mohan’s music and Lata’s voice is a heady concoction.

There are just a handful of hindi film songs based on Raga Malgunji. Nain So Nain Naahi Milaao from the film Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje is one of them. Yet no other song captures the beauty of Raga Malgunji the way these four do. So while I started the article by sharing five songs that I would recommend, I could only find four – unless you count two versions of Salil Chowdhury and make the five song reco! !

You can listen to clips of Raga Malgunji played by the sitar maestro Nikhil Banerjee. There is a sitar performance by Kartik Seshadri a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar playing Malgunji.

I have seen several candidates vigorously shake their head and vehemently add that they have been interviewed by so many people by now that every nagging doubt has been buried deep under heaps of information. They will get up and run out of the office building the way teenagers like to practice running as far away from parents as possible. Every little behavior of yours during an interview is an opportunity to influence the perceptions of the decision makers. This question is an opportunity to ask questions that show the employer that you are “detail oriented, well prepared, motivated…” – just go ahead and say all those great adjectives that get people hired. What could you ask questions about?

About the Organization: Please do not ask questions that are answered on the company website or in the briefing sheets/ job description. Else you can ask questions that show that you have researched the company adequately and now are looking for more in depth information about the company’s strategy, product portfolio, recent changes in partnership or announcements eg: What factors went into deciding the choice of the new product range, factory location or joint venture. What changes to the competitive scenario do you expect? What is the company’s approach towards developing internal talent? Is the company planning to diversify into xxx area?

I always find it illuminating to answer someone who has done some reasearch into the organization, the role and knows something about the person or the team that is interviewing. There is enough and more information available about every company on the web. So look for news items, blog posts, financial information, product launches, competitor analysis and analysts reports on the sector, the product range or the company before you go for a job interview. It is important to do the homework not just because you need to impress the panel but to know for yourself enough about the potential employer to make an informed decision.

About the Role: The job description should be able to answer some of your questions. I would always recommend that you understand more about what would be key deliverables for the role in the first year and what could be some of the outcomes expected in a 30-60-90 day horizon. Find out who the stakeholders are who you would need to work with and the people or team who would be supporting you in delivering the results. Find out if the role has a requirement of dealing with stakeholders who are external to the organization eg Government or trade bodies, Chambers of Commerce, media. If you have not managed a geographically dispersed team before, it maybe good to have that information in advance so that you can decide whether you want to use this assignment to learn about managing such teams or to decline the option if the risk associated with it is too high. It is a good idea to know if the role requires you to travel. The extent of travel required can often be a reason for early trouble in a role. You may want to know about the roles previous incumbents have moved to so that you have a good idea about the career path that you could have. It maybe good to know when you would be expected to start should the job be offered to you.

What should you NOT ask during an interview. I have just one guideline – until the job has been offered to you do not get into discussions on compensation and benefits. Once the hiring manager decides that you are the best fit for the role, the comp and benefits discussion will follow. So hold the deeper questions till then. Some candidates are just dying to know whether they have got the job or not. Most employers will interview multiple candidates and each one will meet more than one interviewer. So till all the results are compiled no one can realistically answer that question. So don’t waste your time asking it either.

In short, during an interview use the opportunity to ask a few but relevant questions that demonstrate your in-depth preparedness for the meeting. Besides, the questions should help you gather enough facts and figures to be sure that the role in question is what you want to do at this stage of your career and that this will keep you adequately challenged and motivated. During the interview when someone asks you, “Do you have any questions?” make sure you have a couple that you need information on.

“Rap is a way of life bro’. Wanna rap? You gotcha live like us – the ghetto clothes. You gotta dress right … like a gangsta. Give attitoood and you’ll get it.”, the guy offered me the first AHA experience about Rap. He should know. He was the young 20 something who was being interviewed as he stepped off his stretch limo. I had gone to drop off a hysterical gang of teenagers at this Rap Concert. (Is that an oxymoron?)

I did not like being addressed as a dawg or a gangsta -even if it came from HIM. My kids explained that I should be honoured that HE even looked at me while saying that stuff. There were so many drooling fans around. And of all people he looked at the “unkewlest of them all”. And being called a “gangsta” is a sign of being accepted even in High School, my daughter consoled me.

“If he is from the ghettos, why is he flashing the diamond ear-ring while stepping off a stretch limo?” I put a clincher.

“Oh DAD!! Don’t you understand anything?”:roll:

Kids are low on patience when explaining kewl stuff to parents. (yeah… it is not cool. “You are SO like 70’s, Dad”)

I put my apprehensions aside. If dressing right was part of the solution, so be it. So, for a while I pretended that I was hip just like those people – the “kewl dudes”. I started referring to my kids as gangsta. That was rough on my nerves. Try saying, “Hey Gangsta! Finished your homework? Get on the case dude. You got a TEST TOMORROW FOGOSSAKE!!”

I even wore appropriate attire. I wore loose pants and that’s not easy to maintain. I normally have the reverse problem – my pants suddenly become tight. Here was a twist. I had to buy pants that would be loose enough to hang around my derriere (look I know some French and it makes me sound classy). But that meant I had to also had to buy new boxers that would be on display for the world to see. My shopping list was becoming longer and leaving me poorer. I took one of those baggy shorts and tried wearing them. How could anyone call them shorts? They reached till my socks. They were unwieldy at that. I almost tripped over in the trial room itself trying to catch a sideways glance at myself in the mirror. Loose pants around my kneecaps gave me the necessary pizzazz and the oversized T shirt made me look like a novice mountaineer emerging out of the tent he tried to put up. I wore a bandana and dark glasses that were three sizes too big for me. Satisfied that I was now ready to listen to The Music, I stepped into the streets. Wearing those dark glasses in the evening was a mistake. A kind old lady who was my grandmother’s age held my hand firmly and walked me to the other side of the street. I kept protesting to say I was fine but she wouldn’t let go.

I reached home and switched on the channel that features these Rap artistes. I always thought you got to have the anorexic look to be featured in a music video. I mean that’s what it was like in our times. The skinny models would walk down the ramp swaying to some crazy music only they could hear. The left ankle carefully placed in front of the right foot before they switched places. But Rap videos featured folks who would win Obesity Contests. One lead singer was narrating his life story (presumably) in a monotonous monologue while the drummer was concentrating on practicing a basic beat on the jungle drums. From time to time the lead singer would draw out an imaginary outline of his underwear. He would trace the design around his groin keeping his thumb and index finger as far apart as possible from each other.

I did not get it. Never will. And that’s OK. I am relying on the great divide called the Generation Gap to prevent the beast from reaching my part of the jungle.

How can this get classified as music when you can never play any of these tunes on a musical instrument? If something is beyond the scope of an instrument is it music at all or is it poetry? After a while the effort was too much for me to figure out. I switched back to good old Beatles stuff. By the way The Beatles are kewl even in High School, says my kid. I guess I am too old to rap and roll and too young to try.

Just how do they do it? The premise is simple. Past behavior patterns forms a basis to predict what you are likely to do in future. The premise works on getting hold of huge masses of data that can be analyzed to look for trends and patterns. Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the twenty-first century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists (The Numerati really) is beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior — what we buy, how we vote — without our even realizing it.” As you swipe a credit card to pay for purchases, pay at the toll booth through a pre-paid tag, blog or leave a comment on a website, visit the dentist or even write an email or sms a friend, you are creating a big electronic footprint that says something about you. When any such data is collected over time some patterns begin to emerge. When this mass of data is analyzed to look for patterns, it builds up the probability of behavior patterns. You got to hear Stephen Baker explain how this book happened in this video before I share my interview with the man who brought the word Numerati into mainstream.

The photo of Stephen Baker with his cat Rock Sand is courtesy the private collection of Jalaire Craver.

Here is how my interview with him went:
AB:. Who is the reader you wrote The Numerati for? What impact did you hope to create in the reader? Do you think your book has made the Math nerd cool?

Stephen Baker: I wrote the Numerati for people like myself. They don’t think much about math or computers, but are interested in the forces shaping the history of our times. I knew as I wrote it that the book might disappoint the true Numerati, that they would likely look to it for a level of detail and technical insight that it lacks. But most of them have been surprisingly generous in their responses. More than one has told me that his mother can finally understand what he does.

I can only hope I helped people to understand how cool math nerds are, and how fascinating their work is.

AB: You have mentioned the work the Numerati are doing in various areas like Marketing, Politics, Healthcare, Blogging, fighting terrorism etc. Where are we most ahead of the game?

Stephen Baker: The Numerati are by far the most advanced in marketing and advertising. These are areas where they can afford to experiment widely, and make lots of mistakes at a very low cost. If you think about it, Google has built a empire on educated guesses.

AB: You have been exploring the concept of Friendship for sometime. What is the best measure of friendship – the secrets we share? The ones we yearn to meet again and again? The one who shares our deepest secrets?.Has the social media made it tougher to have the sense of privacy that builds depth in a relationship? So much so for having 300+ friends on Facebook.

Stephen Baker: I think the best measure of friendship, as you say, are the secrets you confide in your closest friends. (Of course, we have ways of dividing different secrets among different friends.) Maybe it’s taking some people time to figure out the nature of online friendships. But I think the younger generation will teach us all how to protect the fragments of privacy that add depth to our friendships. Privacy itself, though, is a shifting value, and it always has been, through history and cultures. It will continue to evolve.

AB: You have been a journalist for 20+ years, a published author for a year and a very widely followed blogger* for a few. Why have corporate blogs not been as successful as you predicted in your cover story in Businessweek.

Stephen Baker: The power of a blog, as in so many other endeavors, is tied related the amount of control one cedes. Successful corporate blogs, and there are very few, give full and unfettered voice to the public. They interact with it, and learn from it. And that conversation attracts more people. The problem with corporations is that they want to control the message. They control comments and publish press releases. Usually the result is a dreadful bore.

In my defense, I don’t think I predicted that corporate blogs would be such tremendous successes. The most important point for corporations, from my view, was to take blogs seriously, to monitor and interact with them.

This has to do not just with blogs, but all of the other grass-roots activities of networked people. Think about it: The Obama campaign, Linux, YouTube, Facebook. This is a huge story of this decade. (And all of these phenomena produce mountains of data for the Numerati to analyze.)

Read more about The Numerati at http://thenumerati.net/

*Stephen Baker’s blog was rated by NY Times as one of the Top 50 blogs to watch

Most of us inherit most employees at the workplace. We do not raise them in the strict sense that parents raise children. Parents lovingly will potty train their progeny, teach them language skills, pass on core values and give them unconditional love despite the pranks and bad report cards. They will willingly cart them around for soccer matches after school, suffer them through teenage tantrums and beyond. Is it even fair to expect managers to do somewhat similar stuff for their team members? Unlike parents who choose to have kids most managers do not necessarily choose every one they need to manage. They hire some of them, some are inherited and some join teams as a result of the shifting sands of time. So is it fair to expect a similar kind of almost evangelical commitment towards their team members. If they did all that for their team members, would it really matter? Do we all need to live with the natural level of intelligence that we are born with or can this level be influenced by the environment we grow up in. Is it Nature or Nurture? A psychologist had answered a journalist by asking her to choose what impacts the area of a rectangle, the length or the breadth

If you planted corn in two different fields, one with rich soil and the other which is less fertile, the differences in the height of the plants in the same field would be what people call Nature and the differences in the height of the plants which were planted in the field with rich soil would explain Nurture. Over the years the debate on intelligence has primarily been divided into these two schools. So when parents tell their child that our family always excelled at/ struggled with Science, they are voting for Nature. This view tells you that any number of after school tuitions or coaching classes will do little to improve Science grades. Those psychologists who vote in favor of Nurture will tell you that given the right environment, it is possible for an individual to go beyond the limits that Nature built in.

Intelligence is the ability to “figure out” and make sense of the world around us as we go. So why should one aim to be intelligent? There is research that shows good schooling correlates particularly closely to higher I.Q.’s. Be warned the kids who abandon reading books and intellectual activities during the summer vacation will come back with a few IQ Points dropped – honest ! So keep them busy is the advice to parents and teachers.

The author of the book INTELLIGENCE AND HOW TO GET IT – Why Schools and Culture Count, Richard Nisbett’s research interest has for long been in understanding how laypeople make sense of the world around them. That kind of explains that he would eventually start examining the whole concept of intelligence ie how to make sense and figure out the world as we go along. His book is based on three premises:

1. The right interventions especially in school can make people smarter

2. The changing culture and educational environment is making the population smarter. Around the world IQ points have been rising by three points every decade.

3. It is possible to reduce the gaps in IQ that economic inequality creates.

Why Facebook is a challenge

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” – the Facebook Generation says Gary Hamel - the management guru. Very clearly if you are one of those who believes that you are now with it because you now know how to use email, you do not belong to the Facebook Generation. Dear Gary, you will be happy to know that I am no stranger to Facebook. As someone recently mentioned that you haveto be on Facebook (which I am even if it is really tough) to be considered cool.Many teenagers continue to express deep angst at the enhanced age generation who have now taken over as Facebook users. When a website has like two or even three generations using it simultaneously, it clearly is a message to the youngest of the family to move on and seek online shelter for the homeless someplace else. The young and the young at heart cannot necessarily share the same cool hangout spots.

Despite all the developments on the net, none of the social networking sites have found an answer to the Three E-mail Challenge. Put simply it means, with friends it is tough to exchange more than three emails on a subject without running out of steam. Let me explain what this is all about. In the pre-email era, the probability of meeting someone from school or college was remote. You met a couple of them at the airport or maybe if you missed your flight, the way I met Pingy after years. A freak snow storm had left me stranded in a remote town and that’s when I met Pingala Reddy, my class mate from school. While he wasn’t my best friend then, I must confess I really enjoyed meeting him after so many years. Right after I got back I wrote him an email (email no 1) thanking him for his hospitality and how much I had enjoyed meeting Pingy and his family. That I would love to host him and his family when he would visit my part of the woods next. Pingy wrote back instantly (email no 2) saying he will take me up on my offer for sure. I wrote back (email no 3) that he was welcome to do so any time and that my family would love to meet the Reddy family. This email was followed by silence. The point being that with friends who you meet after years it is impossible to have an email exchange beyond the three. Facebook doesn’t have a solution either. After many years Pingy wrote another mail (enclosing photo of family vacationing in Spain) and asked me if I was planning another trip to visit him? This was email no 1 of this exchange. In email 2, I responded that a family vacation in US would break the bank and hence not on the cards unless he offered to fund the trip. Pingy sent a cryptic smiley  in email 3 as a response. We haven’t corresponded since. See how going beyond the third email is a challenge.

I met Rascal Rusty at Dubai airport last December. He was running to catch a flight but managed to convince me to sign up on Facebook before he rushed off. All the blokes of our class were evidently getting buttonholed into joining this social networking site that all the college kids had discovered a while back. I signed up and promptly added Rusty to my list of friends. I trawled the site to look for more classmates. Slowly I found Joy and Gur there as well. I now had 3 friends on Facebook. The community was growing. The only thing was that I did not quite know what to do after that. One day I learnt how to write on the facebook wall. Spray can in hand I went and wrote a bold “What’s up?” on all three walls. Joy ignored me. Gur replied “Nothing” and Rusty said that he was traveling for the next 2 weeks to Venezuela and will respond after he is back. The three email challenge has been replaced by the Facebook version of it.

Meanwhile I got a friend request from a person who I could not remember ever having met in my life. I accepted it simply because of the compulsion to not be seen as a boor who would not say hi to a stranger. That’s how Josh became my friend. He had 462 friends on facebook. He was clearly a popular beast. He could well be the next President with such a large number of friends to support him. By now I had discovered how to peek into his photo albums and heck, was I scandalized by some of them. Since he is a friend I will not share with you what I saw beyond gently hinting that Josh has the lifestyle of a rock star if the photos were anything to go by. The next morning I found that he had thrown a sheep at me. Thrown a sheep? Whoa !! What’s that all about. What was I supposed to do at this act of unprovoked violence? Should I throw a knife back to show that I was not to be taken lightly. I thought of asking Rusty, Joy or Gur for advice. Then I remembered that in most murder mysteries lesson no 1 is if someone threatens you, do not broadcast it. So I decided to be discreet. The next morning I found Josh had sent me a patch of green earth. The fellow is finally coming to his senses I thought and wants to make peace. I have decided to keep quiet and see if this fellow is serious about gifting me real estate.  With the falling prices of real estate this fellow probably thinks it a bargain to pacify me with a nice 4 acre plot. Hmmm… I wonder if I should forgive him by accepting the “patch” as he likes to call the plot. I changed my mind. I maintained a cool aloof silence which got Josh to send me a poke on Facebook. How does a poke get delivered? Maybe someone comes home, rings the bell and without exchanging even a hello, pokes you and goes off. I am really ticklish and hence I stayed home without answering the doorbell for a day. I was wildly successful in throwing the “poke delivery person” off track. They could not find me. I have since then been discovering one new surprise everyday. There is a quiz which lets you learn what you were in your previous life or scary ones that discover how low your IQ is. Today I checked my Facebook account. I think Josh is crazy. He sent me a party hat. He is mistaken if he thinks I will forgive him so easily for throwing a sheep at me and that too when I had done nothing to provoke him.

Classical Music from India

There was of course an old turntable and a large collection of vinyl records that we all heard through the weekend. My father was a classical music buff and if he was home, the radio was on. He would occasionally pull out an old diary and scribble some notes after he heard a piece of music. I maintain when I have heard what Raga and the name of the artiste, he used to say. The same raga sung by a different artiste will evoke a different feeling. He had once explained the mystery of Ragas to me. The ragas sound best when they are sung at the time of the day they are designed for. The day is divided into twelve clusters (prahar) of approximately two hours each and the ragas assigned to these. There is a certain magic that you can experience when you listen to a Raga Bhatiyar or Raga Lalit if you hear it between 4am and 6am. Just try it out.

Over one summer vacation I heard many of the ragas at the designated hour and must say I was not disappointed. Each one seemed to resonate a little more when I heard it at the designated hour… or maybe I just imagined it. That summer I fell in love with Hindustani Classical music. I always marveled at how Baba always seemed to know which raga was being played just by listening to some snatches of notes. I wanted to do the same. When asked how, he would always smile mysteriously and ruffle my hair. One day he said, “Learning about Ragas can take a lifetime. Enjoy the different notes of a raga and notice how the dominant notes define the mood. Notice the patterns. Let me introduce you to Raga Desh. The song Vande Mataram is based on Raga Desh. If you remember this song you will always be able to identify the Raga when you hear it. This song is played every morning on the radio. You know the song, don’t you? Now try to look for a song that sounds like Vande Mataram. If they sound like long lost twins then chances are that song is based on raga Desh.” Here is what it sounded like…

Armed with that knowledge made it a mission in life to look for an audio twin of the national song. I kept trying to play the song in my mind over and over again so I would remember all the features I would need to identify the sibling. But none of the songs that I heard sounded the same. The year was 1971. My parents had gone to see the Hindi film Anubhav (Experience) and had gushed about its music director Kanu Roy, the brother of the singer Geeta Dutt. I did not understand anything of the movie. It was all about a husband and wife who were fighting with each other. And then it happened. The song Phir KahiN Koi Phool Khila (translation: Somewhere… once again a flower has bloomed) started to play. I sat up and listened. Something was happening to my mind. The sound of Vande Mataram played in my head as if tugging my sleeve and pointing towards a face in the crowd. I screamed in delight much to the disgust of others around me. My parents were embarrassed. I whispered to my father, “Daddy! I found the twin of Vande Mataram. This song is the one.” 

On the way back, he said, “You have made your first friend among the many Ragas. It is Desh. It sounds the best between 8pm and 10pm at night. That is what the great musicians will tell you. But you can also enjoy Desh just as much during the monsoons.” I waited patiently for the monsoons so that I could enjoy this new mood of Desh. Eventually that happened too. That evening in July the sky was dark with monsoon clouds. I ran to rummage through the vinyl records to look for Raga Desh. The streaks of lightning were writing mysterious messages in the sky. I stood in my courtyard waiting to feel the first drops of rain on my face before I would go and switch on the turntable. The drops fell and I ran back to turn on the music and shut off the lights to enjoy the new flavor of Desh. It was an evening I will never forget.

Vande Mataram also underwent a new interpretation with AR Rahman when India celebrated its 50th year of independence. It appealed to the youth and made it cool to feel patriotic. Watching the youth icon raise the Indian flag brought a lump to many a throat of even die hard cynics. I loved the video but missed the pristine version of Desh.

Another example of Desh being used in a modern idiom is RD Burman’s composition Pyar Hua Chupke Se from the film 1942 A Love Story again a beautiful example of the romantic flavor of Desh. This film was also the last that RD Burman composed music for.

You can learn more about Raga Desh from this amazing site of Rajan Parrikar

What you see around you is at best a snapshot in time of a billion plus people that are incredibly diverse. An Indian in two different states of the country may celebrate the same festival but know very little about each other and have limited exposure to the overarching Indian experience. The myths and legends of India have stories and subplots that weave effortlessly into the main strand. There is no such thing as “Indian” cuisine. Every one of the 28 states that make up India has its own unique cuisine that has a mind boggling variety from appetizers to dessert. Perhaps the MTV tagline, “We are like that only” (and the title of another fascinating book by Rama Bijapurkar) sums up what we feel when we fail to make comprehend the dualities and shades of grey in everything around us.

While in some cultures (for example in Japan), the traditional and modern coexist. In some (for example, in Philippines) the Western culture has almost existed at the cost of the orginal Filipino culture. Yet in India, the contradictions blend and create a hybrid that assumes a life of its own. Language is a great case in point.

There is no single language that is understood by all citizens across the country – not even Hindi! The Hindi that is used in the official media like Doordarshan (the state run Television channels) or the radio is somewhat distanced from the Hindi or maybe I should say Hinglish that is spoken by the commercial television channels or radio. Bollywood has created its own language and I daresay that Bollywood has created a much more powerful idiom to integrate the country than any campaign run by the Government. While Hindi in the Devnaagari script is the official language of the Central Government, the Constitution of India recognizes 22 “official” languages – English is one of them and is the de-facto language of the business.
Pavan Varma is a senior bureaucrat of the Indian Government and a seasoned diplomat. The author of a dozen books on equally diverse areas such as biography, poetry, social sciences, civic affairs, and history. His book The Great indian Middle Class (1998) tends to be the first one that people read when they try to decipher the rise of the middle class in India. Being Indian (2004) is a masterpiece that even Indians should read to understand who they are and why they are. The subtitle says “The truth about why the twenty first century will be India’s.”

“Perhaps Indians are a sui generis people. They cannot be colour-coded for convenience into white, black or yellow. They do not belong to the Christian world. They cannot be included in the Islamic… They cannot easily fit into a mould. They are not post-communist, nor are they pre-democratic. They are not theocrats, nor are they irreligious.They are too may to be ignored, but somehow too different to be included in convenient generalizations. Moreover, for all their complexity, they are not entirely unfamiliar.”

Pavan has some sharp – possibly even controversial insights on Indian’s attitude towards Power. That was my favourite chapter. It explains why there is no absolute sense of morality or right and wrong in the Hindu tradition. The pliant nature of Indians is the reason why democracy has thrived in India – not because it is a superior method of governance but simply one that allows the people to rise to the highest levels of power beyond the confines of what the caste system or sociological challenges would allow!  There is a subtle acceptance that the powerful will serve their own interests blatantly. What else can explain the number of politicians who get re-elected even after they have been convicted of accepting kickbacks or indulging in crime.

The chapter on wealth explores why pursuit of money and entrepreneurialism flourish in India. Hinduism philosophically sanctions the pursuit of material wealth. Even the Ramayana says, “There is no difference between a poor man and a dead man.” Indians have had little option but to be street smart about making money. In a country where nine out of 10 people are self employed – the street is the biggest employer. From the food vendors to rickshaw pullers. 60 percent of India’s gross savings come from the unorganized sector.  Indians are entrepreneurial by nature and have been ambivalent about morality. While they condemn it in public they just shrug when they need to bribe someone to get past the system. In a country where education (especially in English medium schools) has the ability to propel someone to the top of social hierarchies, it is easy to understand why even those who can ill afford it will spend money sending their children to “English medium schools”. When the TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati – the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to be a Millionaire became a rage, there were coaching classes that “coached” aspirants on strategies that would guarantee them some level of success. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and Ganesh, the remover of all obstacles are widely worshipped.

Where the argument is a tad weak is when he goes on to explore why India has become a world power in IT despite having the largest number of illiterates. Indians naturally break down things into finite categories – nine kinds of emotions (wonder, terror, disgust, humour, pathos, anger, love, heroism and peace), women are of four kinds (lotus like, conch like, elephant like and variegated), men are of 4 kinds (sincere and devoted, cruel, one who distributes affection equally and shameless), the list goes on. Each one of these classifications has further sub classifications. Hence the innate ability that Indians develop in understanding the interconnectedness of things and the inter-relationship among them helps them to be intuitively good at computers, says Varma. Yet, the rationale may be more simply that a career in IT is seen to be the fast track for upward mobility. Given the Indian’s growing love for consumerism this is inevitable. Will we only be a land of “software coolies” or will we become a centre for innovation and development besides being just a call-centre superpower is the moot question.

The final chapter on pan-Indianness says that the new supranational Indian culture is influenced by elite aspirations without being controlled by them. It is hybrid. Borrowing from whatever that makes it work for the lowest common denominator. The development of mobile technology has made the realization of the economic dream within reach of the masses. The middle class can now see the good life within affordable reach. Despite the motley group of political parties that make up the coalition government, we need not be apprehensive of going back on the economic reforms agenda. The masses will make sure that no political ideology will make them step back.

What is my recommendation? If you have to read just one book that helps to make sense of why Indians are what they are – then this is the book I would recommend. It may not be always what you want to hear but it surely will set you thinking.

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Abhijit Bhaduri has authored two novels Mediocre But Arrogant and now Married But Available that is published by Harper Collins. You can read his writings on management, movies, humor, etc. on his website www.abhijitbhaduri.com.