Playing spoilsport....

I was reading an Indian newspaper online yesterday and I came across this bizarre news item in the sport section. It was the President of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Anil Khanna making some dullard comments on national media. He is trying to unhinge a company which has associated itself with the country’s star tennis player, Mahesh Bhupathi to release their spending details of their scholarships and to scrap their advertising campaign. Apollo tyres in a tie-up with Mahesh Bhupathi are going to help fund prospective junior champions to make them Grand slam winners by 2018. They are selflessly pumping in about 1 billion rupees over 10 years to help actualise a prospicient dream. There is one company for a change who are not looking for quick publicity through funding cricket, but have put their interest in tennis. Imagine being treated like this for doing a favour.
Sports in India other than cricket lack selfless funding to make an impact. Athletes are always left fending for themselves and these financial constrains restrict talented athletes to make it to the international stage. The AITA should respect Apollo tyres for a feat that it is ready for the big task. Getting a huge sponsorship like this is only possible with stars like Bhupathi trying to make a difference to the sport that brought them their riches and fame. This is a commendable act by the champion to put his credibility on the line to create champions. Sponsorships do not come easy and I have had a firsthand experience of that with my sibling. It is a humungous task to convince a funding source that the money they spend on the athlete is justified. Many give up hope due to the slack of the respective sports associations to bring in the critical finances.

The sports associations in India are headed by people who are distantly connected with the sport, but come into power due to their political or social connections. Once they get into decision making positions, they have no clue as to how to manage and improve the affairs of the sport. But the disappointing scenario is that they are a constant obstacle to people with a real interest to make a difference. Anil Khanna in his statement repeatedly says that he is not against Mahesh Bhupathi. The very fact that he reiterates the same sentence makes it very obvious that he is targeting him. Bhupathi owns a sports promotion firm which help manage international tennis tournaments in India. These events tend to give our in house players some much needed international exposure which they cannot afford due to the costs involved in overseas trips. If my memory serves me right, Anil Khanna has made another pitch against Bhupati by passing a resolution that private organisers could not conduct international tournaments in India without the AITA’s nod. Well all these series of events and circumstances makes it evident that a person with good intentions is victimised. It is shameful on the president to behave without consideration against a well known personality. This shows that he is the most incompetent person and that he cannot tolerate Bhupathi’s contribution and achievements. He does not have the capacity to either bring in a huge sponsorship deal like Bhupathi has done with the kind partnership of Apollo tyres, or neither let the combination work in peace.

Individuals like Anil Khanna do more harm to the sport than good. His organisational incompetence is showing up and his evil face is being revealed. Another classical example of a sport going rot is hockey with the mess than K.P.S Gill created. He sent our national sport stumbling down like an avalanche after taking over the post of President of Hockey Association. I just hope tennis; a game that has retained some dignity and popularity in India is not headed the same way. Let’s all cross our fingers and support champions like Bhupathi to create their clones to bring us fame.

A presentation ceremony of a tennis tournament.
President: “ ladies and gentleman, lets applaud the players for their fantastic “BAT” (for racquet) skills......
The kids chuckle in the background....

Hypocrites preaching human rights....

I am shocked at the recent bombings in Delhi where in innocent people have become victims to the cowardly acts of some narrow minded individuals lead by a set of bizarre ideologies and psyches that would win a Nobel Prize if ever reasoned out. Imagine if there would be an article published titled the “psyche behind the cause of terror” which has solid scientific backing. Psychology would be the “in thing” and absolutely savvy. But I think you have heard the word “cowardly” way too many times for comfort from the past few days. The sad part is that the word has been used more times than the number of cricket matches that India has played in the last 1 year! Well that is real high frequency I should admit and it is scary. The people who have been using the word “cowardly” have proven themselves that they suit the description best. It is a failure not in my opinion about intelligence of our forces, but the lack of political will from the individuals in responsible and governing positions to send out a stern message that these kinds of insane acts would not be dealt with lightly. We have a dude, who has been a political agenda, an eternal news pot for the press and a topic of casual conversations over beer, enjoying his time in prison from the last couple of years. His nice holiday sponsored by our tax payer’s money is courtesy….. his act of attacking the seat of our democracy, the parliament building. And what has the government done? It has been extending his holiday indefinitely than packing him off to the gallows. Well the explanation is pretty obvious for the moment I think; it is a classical case of vote bank politicking in which the collateral damage are innocent people. If the Indian home minister have had half as much loyalty towards his country than what he owes to his political party president, the lives of innocuous people would have been saved. Karnataka has been a witness to apparently some kind of religious tensions and clashes over the past few days. Any lives taken? NO. The central government wants to pressurise the local government to protect the affected people. Well, I am not saying that it is a trivial issue, but it has been blown so much out of proportion that the situation does not demand. The national human rights commission has stepped up its investigation in this regard. People at the central government have gone into overdrive to make the state government a scapegoat holding them responsible for these incidents. They want to curtail the powers of the state by attempting to use an act that is no longer taught of in law schools.
Why is the home ministry taking all the trouble to protect a bunch of people who live half the country away and why all of a sudden this immense interest in the welfare and the protection of our countrymen?
My impression is that this is a perfect way to make a mountain out of a mole hill to skew the attention of the people away from the real issues that really matter. I believe we have more pressing problems on our hands than investigating petty issues. The ministry has to step up its force on matters that mean a matter of life or death for the common man. We need our resources to be spent on strengthening our internal security to assure a peaceful life for our countrymen. The people responsible should be shown no tolerance and compassion and treated in a way that they chose to be. When they can ruthlessly take the lives of thousands of people who have no connection to them, why should our country give them the luxury called existence?
The human rights commission if they really mean business should initiate legal proceedings against the home ministry for not doing their job. Didn’t the victims of the blast have a right to live? They too have families, had jobs and had been bread earners for them. What can the government do to these victims of a real human rights tragedy? Oh well yes they can, make it a political agenda! Accuse someone else remotely connected with a petty robbery and axe him. Pass the baton on and shun away from responsibility.
The individuals at the powerful executive positions in the country are the most fearful ones I have seen. They fear political repercussions to protect the lives of our people. They fear losing their skin and are ready to trade it for the security of our people. The human rights commission has no real role to play and they are just a puppet in the hands of the ruling governments to act and make a noise when they are told to do so.
The people making statements on human rights should first awaken themselves to the fact that every individual has the right to live, irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Please show human life some respect by using the law in the true spirit of human rights. Avoid being synonymous with hypocrisy.............

Year 2020, the clerk in the Finance department,
“Sir there has been a request for a room A/C and a new limo”
“from whom?”
“The commission for the Delhi blast investigation of 2008 sir”

Line up and get drunk….its free……

I was at a house party hosted by my friend here in Perth. It was a potluck party and I have to mention that everyone survived my cooking! We had an excellent dinner and some even more delicious desserts. Then being a connoisseur of wines, he laid out a platter of different kinds of wines and cheese which most of them tasted and appreciated well within decency limits.
Imagine a situation where in a random person at a party goes overboard with the alcohol served to them at the host’s place. I have seen it happen umpteen number of times in parties back home in India. But what surprised me most was that it happened here and sadly the person happens to be from my motherland. There arose a situation where this guy went so drunk that he actually ended up verbally offending the host who had so kindly invited him to his house and who played the role of the host to perfection.
With my limited experience with parties involving alcohol and me being an almost novice when it comes to the subject, I was particularly taken aback at this kind of atrocious behaviour. Even as a child, I was brought up in a way where in, if we were invited to a dinner or a lunch, we had to maintain a decorum which caused the most minimal of inconveniences to the host of the party in their house. I was always expected to lend a hand at any household chores or organisation problems. It has been my duty many a times where I have played the role of the food and beverage manager at our friend’s place during a celebration or event.
Another important lesson I was made sure that I learn to perfection was that if we were invited to a third place like a restaurant and if we had the liberty to order according to our wishes, I would have to pick an item on the menu that would be on the lower spectrum of the price list and that which would cause no monetary burden on the person paying the bill.
The incident that I witnessed a few days back has reiterated my preconceived notion that our country men tend to cross the line when there is free alcohol served. I cannot reason out this kind of behaviour and I am not able to judge whether it happens in other cultures and societies as well. I have being witness to such incidents at home and abroad which had multicultural groups in their invitee lists. Every time I have seen one, it has involved an Indian, which I very painfully have to accept at this point in time.
It boils down in my opinion to the atmosphere in which one has been brought up. It is a perfect reflection of the values and culture of public decorum that has been imbibed in a person as child and adolescent. Some of them perceive that if it is something that you don’t have to pay for, try and misuse it to the highest degree and make the person offering it miserable and kick himself in the room after the party for the mistake he made in inviting the wrong person. What saddens me most is that people in other countries now categorise our men or women as junket seekers and it is a reputation that sticks for life.
I am extremely lucky to have been brought up by fantastic parents who have put some of these important and life saving cultures into my genome. I value those upbringing skills to no end when I am exposed to a western society and culture. It has helped me behave in an acceptable and appreciable manner and being accepted in a culture and society that was alien to me. Looking back at it, it is not rocket science that one needs to know these behavioural skills, but as the saying goes, common sense is not common among all people.
I only hope that I am not witness to incidents like these in the future, where it not only puts the person to shame and ridicule, but the our whole country’s image at black and shatters.

Can we still call it Tennis elbow?

Having beaten the stress from the past 5 weeks for the exams, I thought I will catch up with some news on the other side of the globe in my beloved home country. I logged into the online newspaper. I saw a humongous dedicated news edition that only had articles written on the Cricket World Cup which India won in 1983. I was a bit surprised at the entire spotlight it has received. I then thought to myself, is there the existence of responsible journalism anymore? Well, I do accept the fact that it was an achievement considering the circumstances that we won the cup and the unprecedented glory that was part of the package. I do have regard to all the cricketers who represented the country and their contribution to reaching and getting our hands on the penultimate trophy of the sport. With due regards and respects to all part of the squad, I think we have to look beyond those old times and move on. For how long can we just bask on the past glory of winning the cup, about a couple of dozen years back and have valuable money and time spent on its celebrations. If my memory serves me right, I think there is always a mention of the country winning the cricket world cup back in those golden ages when the topic of sport is discussed in India. I don’t deny the fact that it is an achievement; my only disappointment is that why most other sports in India don’t get the same amount of credit and regard. Why are all the other sports neglected and pushed to the way side and its only cricket that keeps the country running. By being the most lucrative cricket body in the world, this is definite proof that the BCCI definitely has some extra pocket money to spend.
Why don’t we remember Leander and Mahesh winning the Wimbledon trophy? I will be surprised if any of our country men or people in the sports decision making arena remember when India won the gold in the Asian games or their splendid performance in the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy.
The cricketers, whether one was a yesteryear player or a current player have received enough monetary benefits and lead comfortable lives. In the pretext of celebrating these occasions of anniversaries of each of our significant wins, there is more money than asked for which is being pumped into their bank accounts.
We have Geeth Sethi and Pankaj Advani who are world champions in Billiards and some notable champion Badminton players like Arvind Bhat and Kanitkar. But the media does not seem to care and nor do the central sport bodies.
I really don’t understand where the root of the problem is present for this kind of discrimination that occurs in sports in India. It may be partly due to the individual administrating bodies that have only the vested interests of its board members and its internal politicking on their agenda than serious sports promotion. I am indeed witness to one of them that occurred to two most promising lawn tennis players in Karnataka.
This celebration now has made me a critic of the saying that history repeats itself. In cricketing terms, it is yet to repeat and we still live and muster pride, courage and solace in the history rather than looking into the future. Cricket is a minority among global games when compared to football, basketball, tennis and others that are played virtually all over the globe, not to mention athletics. With all the resources poured into cricket, I think their performances should have been the top among all world teams and by now should have won the world cup times over and again. India with more than enough green bills in its association should have in my opinion fared much better than its present performances.
What hurts me most is that the media too is always cricket centric and portrays it as being the ultimate sport that man has ever played and it’s the next best thing that has happened to the human race after sliced bread. Is the ratio of expenditure to performance justified in cricket in India? I remember an incident narrated by Geeth Sethi when he led a contingent of sportsmen other than cricketers to the then Prime Minister. I believe the national hockey team mates were filling out a petition to the PM to provide them with jobs. This is an utter disgrace to the national game of India.

Cricketers rob others professionals of their jobs. They have virtually replaced all the models and actors in endorsements and television commercials. Even a trivial ramp show is not spared. Then there is this whole new debate on the recently concluded IPL which in my opinion was the most expensive movie made on this globe. It was total apathy towards the tax payers’ money that was used up to provide power, security and other expenditures for some mega event which was absolutely unwarranted. The revenues generated should have been shared among the owners of the club and the state. This arrangement then would have negated the expenditures incurred for using the state machinery for these events.
I come from a country where for the large section of the population doesn’t know where their next meal is going to be coming. And here we have some rich blokes and their mates spending these insane amounts of money on virtually nothing beneficial. We have problems in food, health care and education; we don’t need expensive events like these.
The media should rather focus on issues like the food crisis, climate change and other more pressing issues rather than giving a subject like this which do not matter to our existence on this planet. Sadly folks, in reality we cannot breathe, eat and drink cricket and please get present to it as quickly as possible.

Can we still call it tennis elbow? You know Sachin Tendulkar had it…..I thought someone with an unexplained passion and dedication to cricket may want to call it something else, maybe “Cricket elbow”

Child – “mom is school closed tomorrow?
Mom – “why are you asking this question?”
Child – “ you know it is the 60th anniversary of the Indian cricket world cup win, 17th anniversary of the sahara cup win, 32nd of the reliance cup………………{and the list continues}

The circle of life and everything in-between….

Life by no means is a perfect circle. It is not even close to the circles I churned out when I got a grade “C” in geometry while in school. I am sure you would have figured out by now, but my math was as good as my knowledge of the Latin language.
In this circle of life is where “Murphy’s Law” plays its part in many ways and circumstances. It may be career, finances and loads of other problems known to mankind, which more often than not do have preventions and solutions if worked with a diligent mind. But the main obstacle which is almost impossible to overlook is the one concerning health issues. Well, this is where my audience, the part of the “Health Care Sector” shows out its ugly face behind a kind and smiling mask.
As a professional in the health care system, I always wondered the way corporate hospitals run the show and their sustainability strategies. I see my share broker friends investing heavily on the health sector as it yields high dividends and gives more value on selling them. I could never imagine the corporatisation of the health profession. Doctors I agree are not here for charity although a small section of them still do it for saving the grace of this so called “Noble” profession. Doctors also have mouths to feed and families to care and provide for. The point I want to make here is the question of ethical practice, where the intention is to benefit the needy more than making them crib and ponder over the costs incurred.
I would like to narrate an incident where a cousin of mine in India landed up at a fancy corporate hospital for a broken leg. It demanded surgical intervention and rightly so. But the bigger shock was the manner in which the bill for the expenses was generated. Although she was taken into the operation theatre only once and the surgery was performed at a single go, the different procedures of the surgical treatment were billed as three distinct surgeries. Although the anaesthesiologist, the surgeon and all the support staff played their part only once, the bill presented to her categorically stated that each of them be paid thrice! So the surgery cost went up by three times flat. This was an intriguing situation for her and she demanded an explanation for this. The reply given to her was that the insurance is paying for it, and why should she care as to what the bottom line reads? This is just one off real life example I have narrated. Other actions of prescribing an expensive drug because the company would give the doctor a fat payback when cheaper alternatives exist and unnecessary diagnostic procedures to recover the cost of expensive equipment are a few.
Now this opens up a whole new debate about these insurance companies. Since the insurance companies know that hospitals are going to manipulate the costs, they raise their premiums and add a few hundreds of clauses which have an explanation to every tricky question even Einstein could come up with. To augment the agony and to suck the policy holder silently but yet efficiently are the numerous hidden costs behind the Great Wall of China where it is virtually impossible to even imagine that a whole new equation lies behind it. I always wondered why business graduates from premier institutes were paid so high. Does it answer the same question which I am thinking about now?
Well the argument about whether the chicken came first or the egg still persists and it is hard to point a finger at one particular area. But the truth lies in the fact that the general public is getting ripped off their valuable and hard earned money due an unethical system which exists in our country presently.
Here is a situation where we see a vicious cycle of rising costs of insurance and health care expenditure. Health care to a society is one of the main issues which can make or break an economy and a nation. The human resource is one of the most important and strategic resources for a country like India where growth is driven by knowledge processes. With an unethical health care sector, the percentage of people who can afford quality health care is limited. Like medical education and most other needs which has become a luxury only for the rich, it alarms me that health care is also taking the same direction and its effects are already been felt.
Is there a way out to this? Not that I can think of at the moment. As a health professional, the only part I can play here is to endorse ethical practice and not to make my Hippocratic Oath in my graduation gown a formality for nice pictures. The vicious cycle has to be intercepted at some place and why not start from us.
Health care is a delicate and emotional area where hard core corporate rules of making more money and attracting a large number of share holders should not be the ulterior motive. Increasing volumes that have access to genuine care and making it affordable should be the goal. Churning out profits through legal and ethical means should be the path we should resolve to take.

Doctor 1- “Dr 2 bought a Mercedes Benz last week; I am still driving my 1 year OLD Skoda. NURSE! [He shouts], is that medical representative from the MNC drug company representative outside? Send him in and tell the patients to wait……..

Think local to be global

I was grocery shopping in Perth where I tend to live for a little over half a year trying to be prospective researcher and hoping someone would fund me for all those bizarre ideas I get. Dad are you one of them?
Well, like always I tend to deviate from the core subject. Coming to the point of grocery shopping. I was at an oriental shop trying to identify the pulses and cereals and attempting to figure out in which dish they are supposed to be a part of. Mom its time for you to write a cook book to help beginner cooks like me! They were kept in huge open containers for display. Like shopping in India, I put my bare hand into the container and picked up a few grains and started to examine them like a seasoned grain dealer although I did not know what I was looking at. Within a few seconds, the shop assistant made aware that I made a mistake. It did not strike me at that very moment that I should not have. I did buy some of the pulses that looked familiar to me, unaware of their nomenclature.
On the way back I wondered how shopping styles varied from one country to another. I then connected it with a book that I was reading with great interest. It is a book called “It Happened in India” written by Kishore Biyani, one of India’s well known businessman. He is the founder of a humongous shopping chain in India under the brands of Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar and Pantaloons.
In this book he always mentions about the Indian way of shopping. There are some things we Indians do when shopping. First, we always look for low prices, although sometimes we do give the saying “penny wise, pound foolish” it due and meaning. Secondly, I think we are keen examiners of the articles we buy. That is what results in people picking up grains and examining them before buying. If one has observed, most grocery stores in India have samples of all the grains in stock displayed in small bowls on the cashier table with a hand written price slip carelessly poked into it. This example of touching the grains we buy is one classical way Indians shop. Kishore Biyani illustrates in his book how he used the Indian sentiment to build his consumer empire which is worth a few million dollars today.
Like every other variation that we see between different countries, business too should be country specific. In my opinion, irrespective of the trade, the strategies should be country specific and locally oriented. This gives businessman an opportunity to blend in well into the local culture and make the consumer feel he is part of the fiesta.
Well, I am a dentist by profession and I fell in vain trying to have a dental practice the Indian way. I am now in the process of reaching a summit in a field that seemed odd to many of colleagues. My dream is to be a researcher, is there an Indian way of doing research? This would open up a whole new endless debate which would eventually not change much.
Anyway, where do the international business graduates fit in here? Can someone enlighten me on this?

Petit Pleasures

I was driving through a road leading from the conservative Bangalore to the swanky side of the city when it struck me like lightning! My hands were trembling and my head was on a merry go round, I was finding it hard to even clutch my steering wheel when I decided to stop. It was my “Hunger pranks” and not a typhoon I was experiencing. Adding to my woe was the parking problem and I had to park a fair distance from a popular café I decided to go for my much needed bite. I then found a Babylonian garden to cut across and beat the dust and smoke and I eventually got in.
This is supposed be a connoisseur’s paradise and a regular stop for people addicted to its coffee. It was peak snack time and the place was packed and bustling with activity.
I found my place next to a couple enjoying their delicious food and I had to pretend a smile to the lady although I had my curious eyes on her plate! They were an elderly couple and man had with him a cloth bag stuffed with fresh vegetables, had stopped by on their way home from food shopping. I called for the waiter to place an order to live again. By then the elderly couple had finished eating and my shared table was empty expecting another group of customers. My table mates were this group of men who got seated. One of them unfolded a newspaper and started to read. The guy on the table next to mine started to read its flip side and started a conversation with group. The conversation included various subjects and I even wondered why our pals did not actually start their own newspaper! My order finally arrived and I got tucked in with their dialogue in the background. Then heralded the entry of the local political gang to socialize with this huge conglomeration of humanity which had assembled here. The latest trends in the political scenario were then the centre of attraction with people voicing their opinions and future predictions. The financial damage for our “leader” in waiting was the evergreen and never refused cups of coffee which does not cost the world in places like these. I then looked around and found wannabe artists, writers and journalists lounging around the place. I saw our slow paced government employee seated to beat his frustration as he sipped his coffee with his snail pace. My visuals then included young families with their noisy children enjoying their day out.
I then became present to these kinds of small pleasures which are hard to find in posh eateries and restaurants. The table etiquette is blown into the air and people enjoy their food whole heartedly. The chatter is a bit too loud to me, but who cares; it’s the freedom to be oneself that matters here. There are no DJs playing, no dandy cutlery or crockery. Its just plain great food with no strings attached and homely atmosphere. I feel sad for people who need to always need to play the character they are not for the sake of others. These are the people who are totally unauthentic to others as well as to themselves. They are pseudo modern, pseudo sophisticated and spurious. Today, I was impressed by the happy moments and pleasures that people living in a conservative society experience and cherish that many perceive insignificant. I hope this would give you some food for thought.
My satiety centre in my brain was refusing to give up and I had to order something more. “Would you like to have anything else sir?”
“one bonda soup and coffee”

Religion Inc.

I am getting into the habit of being very critical of the seers and religious heads off late. Please do not catch me wrong that I am trying to analyse the confluence of different religions that exists around me. I think I would leave this to the socio-religious thinkers of our barren and fractured society.
I have got a very different angle to the way the some seers and the religious heads lead their lives, their ambitions and goals they set for themselves. With exception to some of the gurus that live in this age and era most of them in my opinion do not lead the stringent and pious lives that they are expected to do so.
Very recently I have started reading and trying to learn the nuances of how businesses are set up and run. I do have some clues about what a start up company is and how the green bills flow into a company. Although I am taking toddler steps towards getting the big picture, I can at least recite the alphabets correctly now.
I saw a picture of a great personality of our country inaugurate a humongous medical college set up by a well known religious institution a few days back. The cost of building one must have been equal to half yearly revenue of an established information technology company I guess! But the irony lies in how a non profit organisations which is supposed to have dedicated its life to the amelioration of society raise this kind of money? It has come to such a state where in the majority of the educational institutions in our country excluding the ones that are setup by the government seem to be solely owned by the seers. Try getting yourself a chance to study there and you will see the brutal side of the otherwise pious and peaceful mask the seers adorn themselves with.
Coming up with such colleges and schools and also running them successfully and profitably require a deep sense of entrepreneurship. Seers and religious heads have a huge pool of unquestioning and unconcerning potential venture capitalists in its followers and devotees. That’s a businessman dream investor of sorts. They usually head the management in these institutions and dictate its affairs. The seers employ advertising agencies and public relations personnel to popularise their institutes. They are looking for paying customers who can increase the bottom line in their organisations. The only prerequisite that one has to posses to study here is a fat bank balance. Meritorious and deserving students form a minority here. The profits are also exempt from most taxes by the virtue of being a religious organisation. No wonder you see seers having the latest Mercedes or helicopters as their prized possessions! I think they do more harm to the society by churning out doctors and engineers below the average competence standards. What hurts me most is that innocent people are victims of these qualified quacks that live amongst us today.
Its is very disheartening to see that organisations which have the elevation of moral and spiritual values of the common man as their main mission, in all reality do more harm than good. This is like skipping the main course to eat dessert in a buffet! The short sightedness of the people with apparent high intellect and positions of high social responsibility is starkly lacking and I think it should be exposed like a raw wound. Hope to see that day soon…..or will I ever?
“Captain Sharma, you will be required to fly our customer today barefoot”
Why? This is obnoxious!
We have a seer chartering our jet today captain…….you know the customer is always right eh!”