The Audacity of Hope

The audacity of hope! I always liked that line but never really believed in it. Somehow, it did not seem real. It is one of those lines which belongs to the books and is cursed to remain there. Well, that was what I thought until a few days ago.

Imagine this: you get up in the morning, finish all your ablutions, put on your uniform, go to school, get taught in the class, have lunch, play in the evening, study for sometime, have dinner and finally go to bed: a typical day for a child. Yes, you get to wear "civil dress" on fridays too.  You get to draw and paint and read story books and comics. You get to show off your new pencil box your mom bought you or the new school bag u were gifted for your birthday or the cool new radium watch that glows in the dark, which your uncle got you from the states. Isn't that plain happiness? Now imagine doing all that with your eyes closed. Difficult? What if you were further told that you cannot open your eyes ever, even if you wanted to, that you cannot see anymore? Scary? Would you be able to be in a room filled with people who can see and still be confident? Would you still want to go to school? Will the prospect of studying still appeal to you? 

No. At least, not for many of us. But, about 40 kilometers from Hyderabad, there exists a small isolated place with a cluster of buildings which houses close to 50 blind children who are not daunted by their disability. They had passed the 10th standard (some of them with a higher score than many of us) and are now preparing for their PUC (+1, +2) exams. They go about their routine with surprising discipline and almost all of them consider a graduate degree as their career choice. "How?", we wonder. "Why not?", they say.

The place is the first junior college in Andhra Pradesh, exclusively for the blind & visually challenged. It provides free education along with  free boarding, clothing and basic medical facilties for underprivileged blind students. For the first time in the world, students of Nethravidyala Jr. College of Hyderabad appeared for their board examinations using laptops and not scribes (Telugu and Sanskrit are an exception). These students get educated with the help of JAWS, a software for the blind: one of the most convincing usages of technology for a social cause I have seen in a long time, coupled with the good old braille language. Powered by a laptop and a pair of head phones, they go about their preparation, typing faster than most of us.

It was high time we made this visit. We have been contributing to this institute for some time now, thanks to Chakri who first told us about it. Since then, we have wanted to visit the place and see first hand, how they were managing the whole thing. Finally, we did manage to make the effort to travel all the way there last weekend. The visit coupled with the movie "Leader" (thanks to Bachi) left me in high spirits and changed my perception of blind people. It was as if they were telling me, through what they were doing, "Manoj, dude, after all, its all about the way you take it!". I was really impressed by these children. They only had voices for their friends and their hands for support. But the immense talent and hope they possess is simply out of the world. You can't help but smile at their sincere and innocent efforts. The audacity of hope is written all over them!

If you want to check out their website, click here and if you want to talk to someone about the place, you can get in touch with Chakri or me.

Guest Post: Rahul Jain

My manager and a passionate advocate of 'The Art of Living',  Rahul was on a trip to Arunachal Pradesh for a couple of weeks on an AOL mission(more on it shortly). He is back now and a changed person. In this post, he talks about his experience there, the political complications and the wide gap between the seeming and the actual in the beautiful state. Brace yourself for an enchanting read which will leave you high with utter awe! Thanks a ton Rahul, for taking the pain of making this post for me and my friends.

Two weeks in Arunachal Pradesh … and what an experience!!  I was there as part of my TTC project … and here’s my account:

Article 370 applies to Arunachal (as it does to Jammu & Kashmir), which means no one from outside can buy land in Arunachal … and the locals don’t need to pay tax. 

China has multiple interests in the Kashmir-Tibet-Arunachal-Sikkim region … (1) China forcefully occupied Tibet in 1951, which had been an independent and autonomous region since the 12th century.  With Tibet in its pocket, China controls the waters of Brahmaputra, Sutlej and Indus.  (2) In the 1962 Indo-China war, China pulverized India, and entered deep into our territory.  They later withdrew from Arunachal, but they kept Aksai Chin … This is the part of Kashmir under Chinese control.  Aksai Chin is strategically important for Beijing as it is its only link to Tibet.  (3) China also claims that Arunachal is its territory, unlawfully occupied by India.  For 2 reasons – it may barter Arunachal for official control of Aksai Chin; or if it gets Arunachal, then it has greater control of Brahmaputra waters (Siang and Kameng rivers in Arunachal are big tributaries to Brahmaputra). 

China is building international pressure and opinion about Tibet and Arunachal.  Meanwhile our MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) has been caught on the wrong foot on several occasions … first by not being strong / vocal about Aksai Chin, next with Tibet, and now by being a silent witness to loss of territory in Arunachal …

The border between China and Arunachal is a joke … there’s no check on the Indian side, and the Chinese allow free passage to Arunachal locals and their own citizens … you just need to look Chinky, and you have free passage both ways.  And guess what – the rest of India requires an “Inner Line Permit” to enter Arunachal … it’s like requiring a visa to enter your own country!  So I got a permit with 1 month validity before I could enter Arunachal. 

There’s very little infrastructure on the Indian side … narrow un-tarred roads (if at all), bare minimum transport, barely anything … contrast this with the Chinese side - 4 lane highways coming right to the border, Dams and hydro-electric projects, retail shops …

Arunachal locals call themselves tribals, but boy are they modern!  Since very little is available on the Indian side, and since the border is open to them, they just walk over to the Chinese side … buy the latest jeans, skirts, fashion accessories, electronics, food – all at Chinese rates – and walk right back in.  I had gone to Jullang village with my TTC buddy Jayant … I saw very modest, shanty looking houses made of bamboo.  The outer walls are made of Bamboo skin … just 2-3 mm thick … built like a net … with holes in it.  In winters when there’s fog outside, there’s fog inside the house too!  It just moves in through the holes in the bamboo net.  My friend Jayant, who spent most of Nov and Dec in one such hut, used to have fog in his room every morning … and he’d have to take bath in 4-5 Deg C cold water!  Some steel.   

Anyway, coming back to my visit to Jullang village … I go there and see these shanty looking bamboo huts, and as we step inside … it’s a sight … most of the old folks are dressed in their native dress, but many youngsters are dressed in fashionable clothes … girls wearing short denim skirts / tight jeans and fashionable tops.  And they call themselves tribals!!  Jayant and I were wearing kurta-pyjama, and we looked like villagers. 

Arunachalis are short in height … and shorter in temper.  They eat meat morning, noon and night.  And they drink their local liquor – Apoomb – made of rice – morning, noon and night.  The men drink, the women drink, they even give it to their children … as young as 2 years old!  Ask them why, and they’ll tell you – it’s so cold here … with all the holes in the bamboo net walls … with the fog moving into the house, drinking ain’t a matter of luxury, it’s a question of survival … Well, all I can say is that all the meat and liquor makes them rather short tempered and unpredictable.  Many tribal men carry the Dao, which is a 2 feet long iron machete (much like a flat and straight sword) with a bamboo handle.  The Dao is kept in a bamboo sheath, hanging across the shoulder.  One edge of the iron blade is very sharp and the other edge is thick and blunt to give weight to the weapon.  If a tribal gets into an altercation with you, it won’t take him long to draw out the Dao, and it won’t take him long to use it either.  With all the meat power behind it, the first blow, very likely, is a death blow.  No kidding.  When 2 tribals get into a fight, the first thing they say to each other is “let this fight remain between us, let it not go to our families” … bcos at least one of them will get seriously injured or will die.  It’s quite the law of the jungle. 

Officially, crime rate is low … but hey, the Dao fights don’t get reported to the police. 

In the main market of Itanagar, called “Ganga market”, I saw a most disgusting sight … heaps of dead rats and silk worms being sold … to be cooked and eaten … apparently they were “fresh” catch.  Arunachalis speak Hindi … and at heart they are Indian … but their temper and their food habits are definitely not. 

They enjoy the best of both worlds – China gives them free entry … so they can buy clothes, electronics and other stuff real cheap … and the Indian govt gives them special protection, so they don’t pay taxes … and now listen to this: When an election happens in Andhra Pradesh, I’m told, a liquor bottle and Rs 200 reaches every house.  When an election happens in Arunachal, a Maruti 800 car, or its equivalent money reaches every house.  With such largesse, where’s the need to work? … one of the reasons why Arunachalis don’t want to be a part of China … bcos the Chinese Communist govt will make them work!

From where do all those Maruti cars come from?  The answer lies in India’s annual budget … Arunachal has a huge land area, but a very small population – just 12 lakh.  In fact Arunachal has the biggest land area among all north-east states (even bigger than Assam), but the lowest population.  Every annual budget, Arunachal gets a disproportionately high budget allocation.  In return Arunachal pays nothing back.  There are no industries, so there’s no way for the central govt to collect taxes … and remember locals are exempt from tax anyway.  The high budget allocation has to go somewhere … majority of it goes into the pockets of corrupt politicians and babus, and a smaller fraction, when distributed among a small population, is still big money per family. 

Everybody’s happy with the status quo …

- China continues to build military installations and infrastructure on its side, meanwhile India is sleeping.  China also has a long-term plan to control the waters of mighty Himalayan rivers. 

- The Congress party keeps winning all the elections, its politicians keep siphoning off majority of Arunachal budget every year. 

- The locals keep getting free money from corrupt Congress politicians … and they buy their essentials cheap from China. 

- Meanwhile Sonia Gandhi keeps working on her agenda silently – to convert all of Arunachal to Christianity (much like Mizoram)

The only loser is India and the Indian tax payer … If Sonia Gandhi’s puppet – Mr Spineless Prime Minister (some still call him “Mr brilliant finance minister”) - has enough sense, he’s do something to tap tourism and natural resources in Arunachal.  If hydro-electric projects are setup in Arunachal, it can provide electricity to entire north-east and have surplus for the rest of India … Siang and Kameng are mighty rivers in their own right.  Also surplus water can be used for agriculture.  Tourism has huge potential … and can bring revenue to the state and the center … if only we had good roads and transport in Arunachal.

Otherwise sooner or later, China will walk in … divert the waters of Brahmaputra, Siang, Kameng, Sutlej, Indus … and 25 – 30% of Indians will be left high and dry.  Literally.  Consider this - with all the 4 lane highways that China has built right up to the border, they can deploy their army within hours.  On the other hand, every Indian battalion will have to walk 4 days to reach the Tawang / Siang / Kameng / Dibang border.   

I sometimes wonder if it’s only some Divine power that holds India together …

I’m told the other agenda China has (apart from control of water) is to Balkanize India.  They want to split India into 20-30 pieces, so that we’re not a threat to them economically or militarily.  Read this interesting article, which though not an official version … but it’ll give u some idea of what the Chinese may be thinking … I tell you I don’t trust the Chinese.

Anyway … enough political commentary …

So we were in Arunachal for 2 weeks … our mission was (1) to reach out to maximum people, (2) to create a sense of friendship and camaraderie between the locals (tribals) and the rest of India, (3) to teach Yoga and Sudarshan Kriya to as many people as possible, and (4) to gather maximum people for the visit of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living. 

So 6 people from my TTC batch land there.  3 of them were in Arunachal since Nov 2009 … I and two others came over for just 2 weeks.  We had some local support … and with their help, we were able to conduct Sudarshan Kriya & Yoga courses for 700+ people.  On 19-Feb-2010, there was a grand function in Itanagar titled “Harmony in Diversity”.  It had a musical ensemble and a fusion dance that presented 15 different dance forms of India fused in one sequence (dance forms of all 7 north east states were represented, and so were Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam, Kathak, Bhandga, etc).  A little less than 5000 people had gathered for the function … our target was 10,000 … so we could achieve only 50% of our target.  His Holiness gave an inspiring talk, which was very well received by the locals … everybody was on their feet, clapping and dancing at the end.  His Holiness also conducted a 20 minute meditation midway through the function, which was also very well received by everyone. 

Considering that the population of Arunachal is just 12 Lakh … we thought 5000 was a good number for starters.

It doesn’t end here … Art of Living will continue doing grass-roots work in Arunachal.  Art of Living is opening a number of Ayurvedic clinics (too many health problems with all the meat consumption), and will continue to teach Yoga and the powerful Sudarshan Kriya to the locals.  Meanwhile His Holiness had met the chief minister and the governer, and hopefully they listen to his suggestions about developing tourism in the state … this will bring revenue for sure, it will also build better bonds between the Arunachalis and the rest of India!

And now I’m back in Bangalore … keep thinking what a learning experience I had!!!  Meanwhile 2 of my TTC buddies who’ve been there since Nov will continue for another 2-3 months … before the rains begin, and bring everything to a grinding halt.  I so admire Jayant and Dona and Geetha for their grit and determination … for the selfless social service work they are carrying out.  I so admire them because they got results in alien territory!!!  For 2 weeks, I was just a little helping hand …

Vahe Guruji da Khalsa, Vahe Guruji di Fateh!

In service,
Rahul

PS – to be fair to Arunachalis … it does take time to win their trust … but once you’ve won their trust, they’ll stand by you in life and death. 

Guest Post: Harsha Konduri

One of the most successful entrepreneurs of BITS Goa, he has been quite an iconic figure for many of us. He has agreed to make the first contribution to the guest post series on my blog. In this post, he talks about entrepreneurship and some of the challenges against it in our country today. Enjoy the post while I sit back and sink my sinful teeth into a really huge bar of fine dark chocolate presented to me by Guru, who is back from the US :D. Thanks a ton Guru and welcome back!
     

"I play the game for the game's own sake." - Sherlock Holmes, in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.

Its been a while since I've been able to write few sentences about a freakonomic view on anything that's come my way - but there was one certain thing - next time I sat down to blog - it would definitely take the title straight out of Sherlock Holmes mouth - as a tribute to the Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes effort.

It is customary to write why : but this time it was more 'who' :  it all is , where you are reading this from.

But 'the why' is nonetheless significant :

Why are the Google phenomenon  or Yahoo trend not from India?

By asking this very pertinent question , we are eventually forced to answer three daunting retrospective questions

1. Can the next-likes of them,come from India?
2. Could they have been from India?
3. If they can,When would it be?

In my pursuit to try to get to these questions - I get the perspective from the way I've seen or been a part of the various interactions with startups which operate from Bangalore to Boston :

The Social Setup

The top pick in the blame game would be the way whole societal structure is interlinked for example :

Take a look at this :

1)A Brahman Boy - out of a well to do family narrowly escapes repeating 7th grade - we hear this : this fella should be caught in the exception block of the Indian caste system - Brahmin's are born to be brilliant at education and NOTHING else.We leave every other good bit of the Vedic chaturvarna caste system and its responsibilities and cling on to only the single glorifying characteristic of them.

2)Gets 12/75(16%)in Maths 1A in Grade 11 - has a brother who raked 100% in every possible exam in the very school - the younger brother went to.The instructor puts both of them in a COMPARATOR but the call to such a function is just with just one parameter 'MARKS'.The problem is we expect all siblings to be W'right' Brothers and their stardom - easily reproducible.

3)They guy next door syndrome - this actually stems from the fact that parents (most of them) try to identify the success/failure of their own son and that of others in the ward himself and be very attributive of this to the son and expect him to excel and protect their pride

An aggregation of the attitude we demonstrate in each of these situations will lead us to putting the premise this way - we force the son to choose the virtual 'path of glory' - which is often over crowded - more so because we are more than 100 billion people in which we belong to 2 distinct categories - 1)being the 'wandering generality' and the 2)wanting to push our son into the class of 'wandering generality' which sums upto the 100 billion - which is a reason enough that our Service Industry flourishes - not taking anything away from them that we've been able to build Infosys,TCS,Wipro,erstwhile Satyam.

The key element that goes missing here is the 'ability to risk anything,to do what you'd love to do'

Which is a amalgamation of discovering your work love - which is often inhibited at the roots because we are forced to take the path often traversed , the moment the lookout starts - the outlook changes.

Risk taking ability - Imagine if Sabeer Bhatia - wouldn't have given up the much respected BITS Pilani degree in between to go to the US - it would have taken much longer for us to see free web-based email.If the shackles of societal pressures would have played too much on Evan Williams(of Pyra Labs fame - which created BlogSpot.com) , Manoj would have had to forward this piece of thought to all of you.

While this is the 1st part of the series of why we need to play the entrepreneurial game for its own sake - would like to thank Manoj for having me guest blog on his 'very soon will be' famous blog-spot.

P.S. Dark Chocolate rocks!! \m/

Why The F ?!

It kept returning to me. No matter how hard I tried to push the uncomfortable question to the back of my mind, it just kept coming back. I knew I had to answer it eventually. But, it was not going to be easy.

"Why should anyone read my blog?" Its probably a haunting question for any blogger. At least, for most of the casual bloggers like me. Am I the geek who shares his wisdom with the world and whose every post is a tip, hack, or some kind of a value addition to the reader's expertise? NO. Am I a celebrity whose views on an issue, incident or the current state of an affair matter? NO. Am I an analyst whose mere way of deciphering a topic gives a unique and valuable insight into it? NO. Am I a gripping story teller? Do I even have a niche area or scope defined for my blog? Are my posts at least so abstract and confusing that the readers are actually tricked into believing that I am in some way, aloof and far more sophisticated as they are and embarrass them to be thinking "WTF does that post even mean!!"? Unfortunately, NO!

Praise or abuse, active criticism is a writer's way of asserting that he/she had touched someone with their work. Its an assurance that his work had not gone unnoticed. What would it take to motivate the modern audience, who thinks twice before clicking on a link as to whether it is going to do him/her any good (rightly so), to make the effort to take a moment and key in a few words of support? What would make them want more? Apparently, its a tough question.

I shall try and show to you, that there is ONE MORE different way of looking at things. That there can be immense joy in stupid jokes. That there are other things that can lighten up your day apart from cheery forwarded e-mails. That you can have awfully long and time wasting conversations without a purpose and still not regret it. That you can learn from the things and people around you without making an effort to do so. That good blogs are beyond information, reviews and prep material for GRE or CAT. That you can simply open my post, read it, smile and get on with your work feeling better :) and that I can get amusingly (read hopelessly) philosophical at times.

So, here is the deal. Every friday, when you come to work saying "TGIF" to yourself, I am going to make a new post. Something funny or something which happened over the week or something interesting or something rather silly. There shall be guest bloggers too, at times who will share their thoughts on my blog. Let me know what you think about it. Everyone wants appreciation. Geminians more so than anyone else. So, be assured that there shall not be a meaningless post here.

TGIF! Have a 'love'ly weekend. Keep an eye out for the Mutaliks and the Thackreys ;)

So long till next friday.

Hail Google!

Two States

A flurry of emotions engulf me as I sit back and start typing for the first post of my re-entry into the blogosphere. 2 years. Has it been so long? When and why has it all stopped? Was I really unable to make time for the one thing which I have always enjoyed? Seems so.

Almost two years of work experience behind me, I could not have been a more different person. Physically and psychologically. Those of you who havent seen me in a while will probably find it hard to see me now and acknowledge that I really am the same person. The Manoj you have known. Now, when did it all start?

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It was the 2nd year in college. Counter Strike, a game which occupied a considerable portion of our engineering life, has just started gaining popularity. Good CS players were gods, like the south indian film stars, for the rest of us. We were having a match, one with all the major players and I was really excited to have been included in the final 15(or was it 16?). We were losing badly.

Me: KoD, do something. We are losing.

KoD: Patience is a virtue, my friend.

Me: LOL.

Yes, I did laugh out loud at his reply. So typical of him to say anything that comes to his mind. After all, he did pride himself on being able to make up bull shit real fast, dint he? 'The Blabberer'. Somehow, that sentence was safely embedded in my mind. I did not realize the importance of that statement. Not yet. Not in the old state.

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August 1st, 2008. Finally, it was time. This was the day I had been promising myself that I would start working out. There was a gym at work, it was well equipped and it was free. 'You have no excuse to not work out', I told myself. 35 minutes. Thats all! I was gasping for my breath. I cursed myself for over-estimating my stamina and pushing myself so hard on day1. Patience, I said to myself.

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September 1st, 2008. The past one month had been the longest one in my life. I did not check my weight since the day I started gymming. I was super excited. A little tensed too. Wearily, I stepped on the weighing-machine. 104.4. Not bad. 3.5 kgs. Way to go, Manoj! My sense of euphoria did not last long. I realized that I still have atleast 30 kgs to loose. A really long way. I was not sure if I could do it. If only I had a way of seeing the future! Slap. Back to this world. Maybe I can get a lipo. Its not very expensive. 1 more month. If I maintain the rate of weight loss, I will continue. If not, I will get a lipo done.

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The new year. It has been more than a month since I stopped going to the gym. My conscience was killing me. 'I was really busy with work', I protested in denial. It was partially true. We just finished all our trainings and have been given an assignment, to assess our progress. We had to develop an internal tool on a relatively new technology and the deadlines were threatening. I quit the gym and started working overtime. I assured myself that it was only temporary. Finally, the project was over and I was heading to the gym. I havent checked my weight after I stopped gymming at 101. I could not bring myself to do it as I was scared that I might have put on. I stepped on the weighing machine ready for the unpleasant truth. I will probably have to start all over again. Sigh!

98.3. What? After checking 10 times and making all the people in the gym check theirs to confirm that the machine is not broken, I still could not believe it. Double digit weight! YESSS!

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Puff..Pant!..It was a saturday and I was just back from a morning jog. There was a weighing machine in our apartment complex and I dragged my feet towards it to check my weight. 83. I smiled and rushed up to my flat, switched on my laptop, signed in to gtalk and updated my status message: 'Celebrating 25 kgs of weight loss'.

I knew I had come a long way. It has been more than 8 months since I had first started working out. Month after month, as my weight loss continued at a wonderful rate, the exhilaration was intoxicating. I was addicted to working out. My roomies started worrying that I had turned into a fitness freak. They would not tell me but they dreaded having dinner with me because I had a 1000 conditions to be satisfied before I certify something to be edible. I would embarrass them by irritating the waiters with my specifications on how to prepare my order. I would not let them have pizza. I would nag them to submission on observing 'fruit-day's. They did bear me. Bless them!

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75. Finally. The figure I never imagined I would touch. It was blissful. I treated myself to biryani and ice cream.

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71. Oh no! Not again. I could not stop losing weight. I did start eating properly(atleast, thats what I thought) and I was concentrating on weight-training. But somehow, my body would not come out of the weight-loss mode. Everyone started complaining about how I started looking skinny and sick. My mom was very worried. Hell, I was worried too. I was just clueless!

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Today. A healthy 72.5 and a decent amount of muscle on me. I am obsessed with protein and I dream about dumbbells. Yes, still a fitness freak. I give tips and instructions on how to loose weight to all the people at work. Did I ever imagine the present 'me'? Hell, NO! Did I enjoy every moment of the transformation? YES! As 'The Blabberer' said, patience is definitely a virtue!

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the second innings of a slimmer, older and balder Manoj who has also learnt to play the drums(Hell, yeah! More on that soon..) along the way. The new state.