Amazing state India is..

Last week i heard the following three news:

1. A fake encounter scam in which a person of a minority community was killed in one of India's richest and highly Hindu governed state.

2. In the same indian state,a leading Indian political weekely-India Today in its April,23rd 2007 issue covers a district which has shown exemplary communal harmony ,where both the majority and minority communities assemble together in a worshipping platoform of a saint and recite Sufi Qawwalis and Bhagvad Geeta.

3. The chief minister of one of india's southern most state known primarily for its Anti-Hindi rhetoric goes for an election campaign in North India and delivers a speech in Hindi.

You must be wondering --So what has this to do with me and you?

It has...

It is this 'India' which has confused all the leading India centric socio-political intellegentsia across the world.They wonder how come a country with such a diverse demography, a country which is plagued by the politics of caste and religion, a country with deep rooted corruption is making waves across the world for its economic growth and is poised to become the third largest economy by 2020.

With my limited to exposure to literature pertinent to such an issue, i too was unanswerable and was looking for a convincing answer.

Finally i got one to a large extent in Edward Luce's book "Inspite of the Gods-The strange rise of Modern India"

Luce gives a good analogy.He says India is like a big truck with 10-12 big tyres,so even if couple of them goes flat the truck keeps on moving or like a group of honey bees who individually keep on flying in erratic direction but when seen as a whole bunch will always be moving in a single direction.He goes on to say that the fact that india is so demographically diverse helps it inadvertantly in non-proliferation of communal / anti-social incidents in other parts of the country. A very good example can be the gujarat riots which was luckily confined to with in the boundaries of that state.States like UP and Bihar with a much higher concentration of minorities remained peaceful under complete law and order.

It also reflects the patient and absorbing character indians have developed in due course of centuries. Had it been an extremely homogenous society like china,wonder what would have happend in india with these events having the high propensity of conflagration into the neighbouring states.

Having said all this and appreciating india's diverse character i strongly condemn whatever happend in Gujarat or the first bulleted point in this post.

Sharing Shay's story with you...

'Two Choices'

• What would you do?
• Would you have made the same choice?

Now read this...

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children,the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?".The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. "I believe that when a child like Shay - physically and mentally handicapped - comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps. Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play.The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning." Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt.His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs, but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly,Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball .. the smallest guy on their team, who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay" Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!".

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team. "That day", said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world".

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!.

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, most of us hesitate.The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the "natural order of things." So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with either of the choices:

• Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity
• Do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said "every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them".

Mr.'D'

We always talk about 'time' as an eternal friend,but there is another guy(Apologies for keeping this masculine) who too accompanies you in all phases of your life. We call me 'Decision'(Hence forth 'D' in this post). Try to recall any phase of your life where you havent been encountered to take 'D'. I bet its tough.. .Lets me try to broadly chart out the various milestones which generally we all have to meet:

1. Schooling say from Std 5th -Std 10th: Esp during exams was tough to go and play cricket in the eve or sit and study. I remember one incident when i wanted to go and participate for a painting competetion(Ya...bachpan mein enthu thaa..:) ) but my mother refused and i didnt talk to her for the full day as she wanted me to sit and prepare for exams.

2. Now enter the first major interaction with Mr.D. One need to pick a stream in Std 11th. Maths/Bio/Commerce etc..

3. Now on top of this if one makes a stupid choice of picking maths/bio as a majors, then he/she has to take Mr.'D' along-which exams to appear,which course to persue(Engg/BSc) , which stream to pick for Engg?

4. Taking a case of 'Engineering': Once inside the college, 'D' is back right from 1st yr where you look for like minded friends to sink in the system till deciding which company to get-in the placements in final yr.

5. Once bored with the job after graduation,'D' forces you to think about the future.He makes you feel that a Post graduation is a necessary evil.So one is stuck among a plethora of PG options with 'D'.

6. 'D' doesnt leaves you alone even on the personal front. A small eq: To propose someone or not, To take someone for a date or not, to get married in an arranged manner or in self-arranged manner:),the correct time to have kids,buying a car,going for a home loan,'D' is always there..

Luckily i haven't interacted with Mr.'D' to a large extent on the personnal front:) aur bhagwaan karein things automatically fall in place for me:)

A short tale of two companies

'J' : Acquirer
'S': Acquiree

Last week i heard the news that 'J' has finally decided to acquire 'S'. It sounded slightly strange to me from lot of angles...But all these facets finally converged to one concensus..Does this happens only in India? Here i go...

• 'J' has already got a lot of flak for tearing apart CSR practices by making a previous attempt to acquire 'S' and hence been able to see S's balance sheet and eventually backing out.
• Whats interesting to me is ..how much in deep mess 'S' would have been for agreeing to be bought by 'J' even at a much lesser valuation than the previous one.
• It also shows legal loopholes in M&A practices in India. I think corporate laws should contain statues mandating prospective acquirers to take a decision on acquisition within a stipulated time frame once they do the valuation of the acquiree.

Apart from the above

• The new Joint entity would be having a much lesser market share as what it would have 6 months back,which puts a question on the returns of this acquisition.

From a consumer point of view, this marks the first move towards consolidation in the domestic aviation space in india which shall surely lead to price rise esp in high traffic routes like Delhi-Bbay,Bbay-Blore and Delhi-Blore..and i for sure is going to be one of the victim.

Cricket WorldCup 2007: Is it a flop?

To a large extent,the moment India was shown the door from the ICC WC07,the entire tournament lost its sheen just as a cricket ball loses its' by the mid of an innings.

Coupled with Bob's tragic demise and the added controversies attached to the same incident,the current world cup can clearly be voted as one of the worst worldcup till date.

Having said that,lets not completly overule the game itself. This world cup will also be remembered for the following:

• Gibbs's six sixes in an over.
• Malingaa's 4 wickets in 4 consecutive deliveries.
• The highest WC score set by any team. India against Bermuda
• The biggest margin of win for the above mentioned match.
• The revival of stalwarts like Jayasurya,Murli not to forget McMillan.
• The amazing batting display by Mat Hayden.
• The shaded farewell given to Inzamam
• Lets give Ireland and Bangladesh their due credit.
• The beating which greats like Pollock and Mcgrath got in the match between SA Vs AUS was a rare treat to watch.
• Newzeland's worst defeat in its ODI cricketing history.
• The fact that a tiny nation like WI has been quite successfully able to manage the even resonably well..though day/night matches are missed

Pray..by the time the event ends the bulleted list shall be further stretched.