Controversy in death and life

( Photograph is courtesy Daiji World )  

Teerthahalli a sleepy and quiet hamlet in Karnataka at the foothills of the Western Ghats is home to some of the states iconic writers and tallest literary figures. 

U.R. Ananathamurthy who died a few days ago is one such personality who was brilliant and unconventional and rarely shied away from controversy. He received the Jnanpith award in 1994, one of many Kannada writers who have done so and the Padma Bhushan in 1998.

His novel in Kannada, Samskara, translated to English by A.K.Ramanujan where Ananthamurthy describes the throes of a religious man midst of a decadent and rotten village of Brahmins and their archaic customs.This particular effort did not endear him to the Brahmin community even more so when he was a part of the community.

He was in the wake of controversy again after a Kannada news channel telecast a report about scholar and former Vice Chancellor of the Kannada University M M Kalburgi’s comments at a public programme. Speaking at a programme on Kalburgi had referred to remarks made by U R Ananthamurthy about idol worship in a collection of essays called “Bettale Puje Yake Kudadhu” (roughly translated as “Why nude worship is not acceptable”). The book was published in 1996.

In an essay in the book, Ananthamurthy talks about a childhood experience in which he urinates on a particular deity of the village, in a bid to challenge his traditional upbringing and the prevailing Hindu belief that everything was sacred. Many Hindu’s were not amused and URA was charged with hurting religious sentiment.

URA also decided that Narendra Modi smelt of fascism and wrote unstintingly against Modi, even threatening to leave the country should Modi be the nation’s Prime Minister. Not surprisingly he was presented with tickets to Pakistan, soon after Modi won the May 2014 general elections, leaving him rather red faced. However, after Modi became the Prime Minister, he did a complete U-turn, saying the remark was made when he was overcome by emotion and failing health.

On his death right wing activists allegedly burst crackers to ‘celebrate’ his demise leading to so called ‘secular’ organization calling for protests against this act. 

Ananthamurthty was a quiet man from a quiet place and I’m sure would be chuckling at both: the folk who celebrated his demise and those that are protesting against those that did. The irony is that Murthy believed in free speech and expression and I’m sure he would defend that even in death when on the receiving end of public opinion.

Ironically the funeral ceremonies were conducted in true Brahminical fashion with fifteen priests chanting Hindu hymns from the Vedas and performing the last rites while his son lighted the funeral pyre. This was apparently as per the wishes of Ananthamurthy, the man who courted controversy in life and death.

Changed Rules!

It is reported that on an occasion the great JRD Tata so impressed with the work of Mother Teresa, walked up to her and asked her how he could contribute to her cause? The lady simply replied that it would help if he ran his organizations well!

Business Guru, Jack Welch steadfastly held that the purpose of a business enterprise was to make profits and was echoing British economist John Maynard Keynes. Towards the end of his tenure Jack Welch was in a spot of bother when one of GE's chemical plants was accused to discharging harmful effluent into a river.( http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/1048 ) 

The point that is up for discussion is whether the responsibility of an organization is limited to earning a profit for its shareholders, paying tax's and providing employment or is it much more. Today an organization is expected to be a 'Corporate Citizen' and play a larger role in society while running a superbly efficient organization. The rules have changed!

Corporate Citizenship is unfortunately a nebulous phenomenon and a mirage to many an organization which struggles with the issue. The question that needs to be answered is whether philanthropy is important for its own sake or does it aid business and profit in some way for the organization. It is found that as organizations mature and move through their life cycle, philanthropy is viewed in a detached manner rather than as a strategic initiative. 

Most people these days would prefer organizations that are socially responsible, respond to a crisis or a challenge with empathy and are transparent in their dealings when in trouble. In the GE case, Welch's successor Jeff Immelt took responsibility for the clean-up of the Hudson River and committed funds.

In today's world few organizations would be able to get away with what Union Carbide did at Bhopal in the mid 1980's and live to tell the tale.

Corporate Citizenship in its broadest terms encompasses how an organization treats its employees and other stakeholders. Citizenship today is all pervasive an integral part of which is what your employees have to say about your HR practices.

Importantly it cannot be viewed in isolation. There was this perverse story doing the rounds when Satyam Computers went down, that its founder and chief protagonist Ramalinga Raju needed to be given some consideration because he ran a free ambulance service. Corporate Citizenship is a total concept with individual parts to it and in many ways a shifting goal post. It is not just about good governance or the environment. It is all that and much more.

In India where Corporate Citizenship is a new fad, the unfolding story can only get better and more interesting.

As Winston Churchill said:

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

The key to good Corporate Citizenship is self-interest and the interest of people 

in a connected global world and the faster organization's understand this, the 

easier will be their journey.

An Experience!

A few days ago an erstwhile colleague of mine (from my shipping days) called me up with anxiety loaded in his voice. He was distraught. His daughter had been selected, from campus, by one of India’s iconic IT firms with its HQ in Bangalore. The issue being that his daughter had received an offer letter from the organization’s HR (E-Mail) with another new joiner’s name on the offer letter. Considering that my friend has little idea of the IT industry or Bangalore, the anxiety was justified. Since I lived in Bangalore he inquired if I could assist?

I called up another friend of mine who holds a very senior position in the said organization and posed the problem to him. In turn he put me across to HR, all in quick succession. To cut a long story short, the right offer letter was rolled out shortly and the HR got back to me , saying that there was ‘systems error’ and that they felt obliged that I had brought this issue to their attention.

I was pleased that the issue had been sorted out. The following morning as I stepped out of my home for my morning stroll, I bumped into this friend who holds a senior position. My friend inquired if the issue had been sorted out and as I nodded in the affirmative, he apologized for the mess up. I politely told him that he had nothing to apologize about, to which he simply said “It’s my company.”

I teach Organization Behavior and ‘am well aware of the concepts therein, but have rarely seen them followed. Taking ownership of your organization calls for a superbly well-established organization culture, where every employee has that sense of belonging and pride in his/her organisation. They value the organization as a whole. Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes an organization work and Organization Commitment Behavior is that behaviour displayed, which is not called for by his or her Job Description. 

It is discretionary behaviour which emanates from a deep seated and well established value system which has a strong organizational culture as its bedrock. 

"I continued on my way with a spring in my step and with a belief that what I taught made sense to some people after all!

Mum's the word!

This morning after a rather invigorating walk I bumped into the newspaper delivery boy. All of eleven years of age, the kid is extremely intelligent and goes to the seventh grade in a nearby government school.

The boy jumped into the lift with me and my wife as I squinted at the headlines which read as follows: ' Jaya meets Modi, mum on support' (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa described her first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as “resourceful and rewarding”, but remained tight-lipped on whether she would accept a BJP proposal to support or join the new government.). The kid in me got the better of things and I asked, the newspaper boy (Ravi) to read the sentence. He did so with amazing diction and clarity. I went on and asked him for his explanation of the sentence, which went as follows: ' Jaya met Modi and they have agreed to support his mum!'

Even as I tried not to laugh I thought how right Ravi was. On winning the recently concluded General Elections, Narendra Modi apparently rushed off to meet his mother and sought and received her blessings. A few days later the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was in India to attend Modi's swearing-in as Prime Minister and it is reported that his own mother was touched by Modi's gesture of visiting his mother and receiving her blessing. Modi in turn sent a shawl for Sharif’s mum which I'm sure would haveturned many an eye moist.

While politicians in India and Pakistan squabble, mum's on either side reach out to each other. Back channel diplomacy one could say.

What about Ravi? Here is a young kid who works at an hour where most other's would be stretching in bed. While I admire his strength of character and spirit, the lack of understanding of a rather simple sentence left me disappointed. The boy after all is in the seventh grade! In a country where you would be labelled literate, if you can sign your name, has cause for serious concern with reference to our primary school education system.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings!

If you are into ‘Siddhuisms’ (The many incomprehensible sayings of former cricketer and Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Siddhu ) you would have heard this one:

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings!

What does it really mean?

The phrase is generally understood to be a reference to Richard Wagner and his Grand Opera. In one of his opera’s a buxom 

(Playing Brunhilde in Die Walküre: A mighty female warrior, one of the Valkyries, and a 

heroine from the German epics, especially in the Nibelungen saga, in which 

she is a Icelandic princess)

soprano concludes the opera. Her aria lasts almost twenty minutes and leads directly to the end of the opera, after which the audience leave.

Another story is that the dreaded Chicago gangster Al Capone became much enamored of opera because he thought it made him look civilized in a mean Chicago. Thorough man that he was, Capone took great pains to learn the stuff before he decided to trundle down to view one. Accompanied by two tough bodyguards, he took his seat at the opera house. After the first aria, the goons rose to leave, whereupon Al grabbed them by their coattails: "Sit-down," he growled, "it ain't over till the fat lady sings". Al got that one right, though he could not dodge Income Tax sleuths later on.

The phrase has gained enormous popularity among commentators of all kinds across the world to mean that it’s not completed till it really ends! In India till a week ago as we sat with bated breath for the election results to be announced a thought that exercised most people’s minds was if a government at the center would include in any which way two of our most heard politicians – Miss Jayalalitha Jayaram ( JJ ) and Miss Mamata Bannerjee ( Didi ). 

Most fear the two ladies, simply because they sing to their own tune and I suspect on occasion forget that they are a small part of a larger federation of states called India, governed by a constitution. When asked about post poll alliances both had their points of view and one even aspired to lead a third- front ( As apart from the NDA & UPS ) in Delhi as Prime Minister.

While most thought this not possible, some would say ‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings’. Well the fat lady has sung and we are going to have a new Prime Minister leading a stable government at Delhi.

As for JJ & Didi they are back to their verbal volleying after a hiatus of sorts – There are newspaper reports that Didi will not attend the swearing in of the new PM and the other is protesting an invitation to the Sri Lankan President to attend his swearing in by Narendra Modi and may well adopt a similar churlish stance.

I'm glad that India is attempting to mend its strained relationship with Sri Lanka, fueled in many ways by parochial politics from Tamil Nadu. The same goes for Bangladesh and the incumbent government in Bengal.

Well the fact is that the elections are done and dusted and the fat lady has had her say!

Pulling the plug

We make decisions and defend them with our lives, rarely if ever admitting that we might have taken the wrong road even when it is evident to other folk. In management terms it is what probably leads to escalation of commitment which simply put, means throwing good money after bad.

Defined as the "Tendency to invest additional resources in an apparently losing proposition, influenced by effort, money, and time already invested." 


This is always a managerial quandary and some of the spectacular failures of the recent past are The Lockheed L 1011 fiasco and the Washington Public Supply System debacle (commonly referred to as WHOOPS) are spectacular examples of organizational failure. Decisions to persist with these crippled ventures caused enormous losses. Closer home many of India's welfare schemes may fall in this category, where enormous funds have been wasted in unproductive and wasted schemes that yielded no results though the initial thought that triggered the decision might have held a germ of truth.


While escalation of commitment is an interesting phenomenon and I'm sure that many people do understand its implication, the decision to pull the plug on a failed project is always difficult. For many managers justifying the lost resources is difficult and it is easier to pretend that things are hunky dory and coast.

Escalation of commitment is a cognitive bias.The fear of change, failure, the fear of admitting we were wrong, the fear of wasting time, money, and energy, can all be enough, even on a subconscious level, to keep people motivated and working hard at something that is false and untrue. On occasion I ponder as to why seemingly intelligent people follow sadhus, clerics and other such religious nuts  who lead them up the garden path both in organized and unorganized religion.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is accept our wrong decision, cut our losses while we can, and get a move on.  This is often more frightening, especially when the stakes are high.  But we need to be able to learn how to cut our emotional attachment out of the equation and look at the objective reality.  Do the math with your head, not your heart. 

Escalation of commitment can be very dangerous when we try to manage impression. This particularly holds true in adolescent youngsters and manifests itself as peer pressure where a destructive course is charted and navigated just to confirm.

We need to be able to admit defeat and admit that we are wrong on occasion and simply pull the plug !

Where are you from?

Doing the function rounds my wife and I bump into relatives, whose basic grouse is that they do not see us as often as they would like. We try to explain that both of us are pretty engrossed with our individual careers and hobbies (reading & aimless treks), leaving us little time to make extended visits to other people’s homes. Well, this explanation is more often than not met with a sideways east-west swing of the head signifying a degree of incomprehension and disapproval.

Another often asked question is that why we do not visit our ancestral villages more often. That’s a fair question but do we really relate to tiny far away villages or towns that we had some connect to in the distant past but not in a bit any more?

A month ago I made a rather hurried visit to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and was happy to exit the city after a day, as the heat seemed to reduce me to a state of zombie like existence. On returning I mentioned this to a close relative of mine, who surprised me by saying that our forefathers lived there in the hoary past. He went on to say, that our family moved south to Mysore from Varanasi, during the time that the Mughal King Aurangzeb (His reign lasted all of for 49 years from 1658 until his death in 1707) was up to his mischief and then further moved to Coimbatore when Tipu Sultan ruled Mysore ( 1782 – 1799).

The fact of the matter is that I have little or no nostalgia for either Varanasi, Mysore or Coimbatore. Does that make me unemotional and ungrateful? Well I have no answer that can explain this seeming lack of empathy for the place of origin of my fore fathers.

As I grew up in Visakhapatnam, I manfully manage some Telugu and I’m mistaken to be an Andhrite (now may be called – Seema Andhrite, after the rather turbulent division of that state a few months ago). A young man, from Andhra Pradesh kept questioning me as to where I was really from? Unable to find a suitable answer, as I'm pretty rootless and a tad irritated I told him that I probably hailed from the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, where humans are said to have originated many million years ago!

To obfuscate the discussion further, a fairly good part of my life was spent on a ship. Should that or the sea be called home? Today I live in Bengaluru and look to the city for succor and sustenance and consider the city my home. I do not look back with moist eyes and a heart filled with longing to places where my ancestors seem to have parked themselves over many thousand years.

In a flat world as people traverse the world for jobs, it is comforting to look back through rose tinted glasses which leave many confused and an inability to settle themselves in a new place.

As David Guterson said - There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/nostalgia.html#o0kvBl0euMLT6grX.99

Turnpikes

I look back at my recently concluded trip to interior Karnataka with some fondness. The roads were brilliant, by and large, the hotels were good and the scenery that Karnataka throws up never ceases to amaze and enthrall! The sight all the way to the western ghats was spectacular and the heat, humidity and heaviness in the air was unbelievable.

Well the only sore point, if there was one, were the tolled roads which we met often. While we paid up with some rancor, it is to be admitted that the roads were brilliantly maintained. My wife incessantly grumbled that this was just another practice that we had borrowed from the Americans.

That is not entirely true.Toll roads have existed for at least the last 2,700 years, as tolls had to be paid by travelers using the Susa–Babylon highway under the regime of Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the 7th century BC. The Greek historian Aristotle refers to tolls in Arabia and other parts of Asia. 

India too had tolled roads.Before the 4th century BC , Chanakya in his Arthashastra notes the use of tolls on roads that were well laid and maintained. Roads in Rome were said to have been maintained by soldiers during peace time and were definitely tolled. From the middle of the 17th century on wards, many new toll roads were created in various parts of Britain through acts of Parliament. They were run by trusts, the tolls supposedly being put towards the cost of maintenance. Early toll gates were modeled on the old turnpike barriers and so the roads became known as turnpike roads, later shortened to just turnpikes.

Closer home at Bengaluru, a large four-fold increase in toll rate along airport road triggered tension and extreme chaos at the toll plaza near Devanahalli ( Kempegowda International Airport ) a couple of days ago. Caught unawares, taxi-drivers from the airport refused to move their vehicles as toll collection began at midnight resulting in frayed tempers and a massive traffic pileup and ensued in a lathi charge by the police, scattering protesters but adding to their angst. The common consensus is that if the toll to the airport rises, so be it, as cab drivers pass the toll fee on to the passenger who generally pays up without complaint. Another issue is that a commuter has no choice, as a non tolled road to the airport does not exist and the increase in toll rates has been steep.

Well, as India grows and people expect and get better facilities and comfort, they would also get to realize that there are no free lunches along the way. 

Of smelly curries, a nation and it's people!

Singapore, a small island nation, with little or no resources is a modern day miracle in nation building.

The architect of this miracle is a undoubtedly Lee Kwan Yew. Lee Kuan Yew was the prime minster of Singapore from 1959 to 1990, making him the longest-serving PM in history. During his long rule, Singapore became the most prosperous nation in Southeast Asia.

 In 1963, Singapore joined the newly created Federation of Malaysia. This was short lived dream though. Growing rancor between Chinese and Malays in the Federation, however, resulted in rioting in Singapore, notably marked by the Prophet Muhammad Birthday Riots, or Sino-Malay riots, of the summer of 1964. A year later, with racial strife continuing, Lee was told by his Malaysian colleagues that Singapore must leave the federation.It is said that Lee was a passionate believer in the federation and if so, this should go down as one of his failures. He ruled Singapore with an iron fist and ran his country efficiently and brought prosperity unheard of before his tenure, at the cost of a mildly authoritarian style of government. Lee was a man of great vision.By the 1980s, Singapore, under Lee's guidance, had a per capita income second only to Japan's in East Asia, and the country had become a chief financial center of Southeast Asia. 

Singapura ( Lion City in Sanskrit ) or Singapore was probably named by an Emperor from the Sri Vijaya dynasty that ruled over parts of Indonesia. There seems to be a bit of deception here as Singapore was not populated by lions. However the city state has had a checkered history till we arrive at Lee Kwan Yew and modern Singapore. Indian's have migrated to and lived in this Island since centuries.

 Singapore is a diverse nation and welcomed the educated expatriate. However today Indian and Chinese expatriates are facing increasing discrimination in Singapore with rental websites putting up advertisements saying "no Indians, no PRCs," according to a media report. A report on the BBC says it is not clear how many foreign workers have been affected because of the bias against migrants from India and People's Republic of China. However, several expatriates have described experiencing varying levels of discrimination. The island recently witnessed rioting after an Indian was killed in a bus accident, raising the temperature all around. Apparently Indian expat tenants are not on the favored list as they cook 'smelly curries'. Well, on an occasion many years ago as I dipped into a bowl of 'Dal', I distinctly heard the word 'Scheisse', as group of Germans sitting at the adjacent table stared at my food. Scheisse is shit is German.I let that one slide, as I figured that arguing with the ignorant served little purpose. Racial taunts leave deep scars and bad memories. 

I was not overly fond of Singapore and found it to be a dry and boring place, painfully picture perfect.Never the less, I hope this tiny nation can work  its issues out!

Winners Curse

The other day I spotted ( On TV - sipping a cold Bud) a rather relived Vijay Mallya watching Yuvraj Singh pulverize the hapless Delhi Daredevils bowlers in their first game of the IPL at Sharjah. Yuvi had been bought by Mallya for the Royal Challengers Bangalore at a staggering INR 14 Crores and many felt that Mallya had lost it and overpaid for an ageing, overweight yesteryear hero at the IPL auction. Warren Buffet, for many years the richest man in the world and quintessential super investor offers us some sage advise - "Stay away from auctions", he says, simply because in the ensuing excitement we tend to over call, spend too much and regret our decision later. The 'Winners Curse' has caused grief to many. The person who wins a bid at a stupendous price eventually is left looking foolish when he/she realizes that they have overpaid. Mallya faced fair flak for his spending on Yuvraj Singh. How does one mitigate the winner's curse? Buffet offers excellent advise - he says, " Decide on your maximum bid, reduce it by 20 % and do not over step that mark". Simply walk away from an auction if your price is not met and congratulate yourself that you were not left holding the can at the end of it all, because that winning smirk on your face can melt away pretty quickly when the mallet pounds or the penny drops. As for Mallya, what with his King Fisher Airlines and the ensuing brouhaha I hope the deal on Yuvi pans out well and RCB is not shortchanged. For you and me, tread warily when you choose to head to an auction, because the Winners Curse is real and ruthless!