(My bit) For the Environment

The other day someone pulled a joke on me for not having a pet. Keeping an animal at home and tending to its needs is 'animal activism' for some. But the truth is I am allergic to animal fur and an animal anywhere in my vicinity can trigger a sneeze more rapid than the rounds of a machine gun. That's why most of the times when a dog or cat petted at a home I am paying visit to comes near me, I pretend to be have a fear for animals and try to shoo it away.

What embarrasses and irritates me more is the fact that these alleged activists who claim to be saviors are the direct reason for the killing of a lot of animals, butchered every year for food and fur. I recently happened to visit KFC, for the very first time and could see people gorging on chicken and other meat products sold there without any apologies. Don't know what kind of an irony is it? Saving four or five animals in your lifetime or maybe a few more by petting them at home and killing hundreds to feed your gastronomic gullibility isn't in anyway a step towards saving the fauna! The same holds true for the incessant cutting and destruction of trees and plants for food and furniture and such nubile necessities. While I turned a plant eater long ago, I knowingly have made sure that I do my bit for the environment everyday. 

Some steps I follow in my everyday life to protect the environment are:-

1) I usually use the public transport everyday. Taking the metro is easier than burning humongous amounts of petrol or diesel everyday and adding to the traffic jam on roads. My patience also pays off in trying to steer a car.
2) Before having shifted to the new neighborhood I really didn't know the importance of water and used it lavishly. Until we came here and got to know what it is to use water judiciously.
The water we use to wash vegetables and fruits also waters our plants. Also the water we throw while cleaning the large desert cooler we have is also utilized to water our plants.
Our clothes are cleaned in the washing machine which saves about three buckets of water that would have otherwise got wasted in a hand wash. For each cycle of the water we save the lot from the previous run. The same lot of water is also used for the car wash.
3) We store water in containers, tanks and buckets while the supply is on. We try and use the motor only sparingly in times of urgency. This saves a lot of electricity that could have been sucked up by the motor.
4) We are careful to switch off the electrical appliances when not in use. Steps like switching off the electrical point after charging mobile phones and laptops can also help save a lot of power.
Most of our appliances are power saving star rated machines. Tubelights and bulbs have made way for CFL's.
5) My family rarely consumes meat and fish. Turning them into compulsive vegetarians just like me, is one of my greatest priorities.
6) We have bought a large lot of bags made of recycled paper for shopping for our groceries. Else we mostly use cloth or jute bags. We try and avoid plastic bags as much as we can.
7) We try our best to have small portions of food. If anything goes wasted we feed it to the animals in the neighbourhood or bury inside the earth.
8) From the time we shifted to this new neighbourhood we have made sure to plant saplings in our backyard as per the seasonal availability. Some have grown into trees and the others would become trees soon. A shaded backyard keeps our house cooler in summers.
9) We have asked the maid of the house to not burn any garbage while discarding it. It is a very common ignorant practice in Indian households, the servants being the culprits indulging in it due to their illiteracy. But in ours it is avoided and waste is put in the bins and handed over to the municipal corporation for disposal.
10) Our gardener makes manure by burying domestic waste in the earth! He used the first lot very recently and it surely gave better results than the fertilizers sold in the markets.

We all can do our bit to save Mother Earth because she will treat us in exactly the same way as we treat her! And if we remember that truth we can make the Earth a better place to live in, before it becomes too late to make amends.

Business Sutra--Book Review

Title: Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management
Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Publisher: Aleph Books
ISBN: 978-81-923280-7-2
Genre: Non-Fiction, Management, Mythology
Pages: 437

Picking up a book written by an author who calls him the Chief Belief officer was a first timer.
And I was wondering what could a once doctor turned thinker turned an author could offer. Since business in an interesting area of exploration and Vedas and holy books from other religions than what I follow have always kept me hooked, this was a heady concoction that did keep me interested until the end.  Reading the book was like turning the pages of a moral science book, but not that redundant. There were some ideals that didn't support the stories they were trying to talk of, but then most of them were ethics one can follow in real life too. Like the best one in the lot was "If ambition is the force contentment is the counterforce. Enjoying what you have is the key and greed would only dash the ambitions, never drive them.
The other ideals I loved were as follows:

1) Business is seduction
I agree that business is seduction. To sell a product a customer has to be lured. I had also written about a similar though in another of my posts where I had described my tale about my short tryst as an entrepreneur. The saga of the sale of pressure cookers in the Indian market was an interesting one.
2) Exploitation is violence
Yes this is a universal truth, when it comes to gender equality and even business. The story of haves and have nots depend on each other. It is impossible to keep a balance between the two.
3) Insecurity turns us into villains
We always should be content with what we have. Rakesh's story reminds me of the Hari Sadu advertisement by Naukri.com which shows an irritable and dominant boss who bullies his employees and treats them like servants. Don't know if such an attitude can help them reach anywhere, the people at the top.
4)Rules can be oppressive
This again applies to gender equality. Most rules slapped on women have put them a pedestal lower and then if they dare to be different  they are accused of breaking the rigmarole of rules. That outcasts them from the society much like the example stated where the leader has the power to forgive but sees it as a favour. Equality of sexes is not a favour much like forgiveness from the leader is not.
5) We want to control change
This is another ideal that applies to gender equality as well. Women are not allowed to change and challenge stereotypes that are wrong,  much like in business where people who think out of the box are the need of the hour but aren't allowed to flourish.

Some other ideas that were expressed in the book that I loved were:
1) Hunger is insatiable and the want for more can be a killer.
2)He who satisfies hunger becomes desirable much like Jayesh, the kirana store owner. When I stepped into business, we had thought upon the same idea. We promised free servicing/repair of equipment for the first two years to thrive in a sea of cut throat competitors. 
3) Domestication happens at will and cannot be forced. We only follow rules when we get something in return.

From a tea shop to a government office to a creative calling, the signs, symbols and stories used in the book also are also a great learning lesson for life. Although I must admit that at some places, I had to read twice to contemplate upon the idea and some stories didn't tug at my soul. My rating is 4/5, one point goes away for the drag I felt in some stories and four points go in for the wonderful lessons it taught me, and reminded me of, many which I had forgotten in this race of life. This book can make for a great course book for management students and can also double up as a leisurely read. That is the mark of a seasoned author. 



This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books! 

If my Dad was a Politician

Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed.”

This was a quote once said by Winston Churchill a true visionary who had foretold of the evil in store for us. 65 years later we realize how true he was, in every word he said.  Barring a few exceptions most Indian leaders are of low calibre and they sugar coat their tongues and come at our doorstep begging for votes at the time of elections. Not once do their hands rest when a folded twosome beseeches for votes while doling out cash and instant freebies like laptops if we promise a vote in their name. After they win, they do a vanishing act more authentically assuring than the best magician of the city. Sadly, we do not have alternatives that could be a game changer and rewrite the story of development. But if my dad would be a politician he might want to bring the following changes in his life and constituency, particularly in his life for charity begins at home and it's only a change in the attitude of the politicians that can help save this country.

He will start paying all his bills on his own and won't loot the state treasury for his personal philanthropy.

He would constrict the number of police personnel deployed for his security and would route them for the patrolling of the city while launching a "zero tolerance policy" towards corruption and anyone found taking bribery or indulging in any other corrupt practice would be impeached from services.

He would also start a helpline where in for a few hours in a day, he would give an ear to the complaints of the people in his constituency, which will insure fair and free trials. More fast track courts especially those assuring speedy justice to women are also the need of the hour.

He would deploy more women into police and armed forces to promote equality and fend more safety for women. Rapes and sexual crimes would not be dealt with kid gloves under his regime. Families indulging in female infanticide, foeticide and dowry would be dealt with a hard blow and won't be spared. Stricter laws for the safety and security of women would be put in place. Gender equality sensitization would also be made a prime priority.

A great leader would strive to invent more employment opportunities for his masses, and raise revenue that can be invested into development. So also, a government where in the people voting for a policy and not the representatives could put more power into the hands of the citizens of this country stomped by scams. Dad would struggle to bring these changes in place while also making the "Food security bill" a reality which would sponsor food for the people who lie below the poverty line.

More power to agencies like CBI, RAW and home ministry with each of them reporting to one central authority like the Supreme Court or President, would insure greater immunity from terrorism, both cross border and internal. Such agencies would also follow the "zero tolerance policy" towards corruption imputing for credibility of the highest order.

Making the media more honest and limiting their gullibility for TRP's would ensure for responsible reporting which would limit the competition that these channels are into. Any channel not affirming by these rules would be taken off air, and so would the policy hold true for all kinds of entertainment. Any programme that promotes violence or vulgarity won't be given a green signal, until it carries a message with a common censor board doing the cuts.

I know I have tried to build a mud castle on a shore, but if all these policies are put on paper and acted upon, this nation diddled by scams and frauds would see the light of the day. Else as once Mr. Winston Churchil had to say, in the coming days even the air would be taxed. Although water is a taxable commodity nowadays in the form of tankers and bottled water, so as you see we are slowly and stealthily dragging ourselves to the doorstep of doom, only if someone like Dad takes charge, we might be spared.   

This post is written for the Weekend Contest in association with Shoes of The Dead at BlogAdda.com.

A Sold Out Idea

I have worn tens of hats before having met her. But never in my life did I imagine that the eleventh hat would come with a feather. Alright, I was aware of what the dictionary had to say about an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, but then as they say to taste how cold the water is, you got to get into it.  In my graduation days, entrepreneurship  development was a compulsory minor subject that we passed as a last minute ritual to garner good grades. Other than the books on entrepreneurship, that I once read as leisurely as Chacha Chaudhary comics, business of any kind was rocket science for me.

Until one day on a cold December night, while dallying around my monday assignments, I got a call. For the first two times, I didn't bother to show any signs of euphoria towards that phone call. Although the third time, something ramified my head and I got up to answer to a vivacious Whitney Houston crooning in chorus.

"Hi, do you remember me?" said a shrill female voice.
"Nah, I can't recall, may I know who is this?" I replied.
"This is Aparna."
"Who Aparna?" I enquired rudely.
"The Aparna you met at TPRI." she said trying to unravel her identity.
"Ah! I am sorry, just couldn't recognize your voice, so how are you?"
"I am great, and I have this amazing business idea to discuss with you." she said
"Business Idea and me? Don't kid! I know nothing of it." I confessed.
"You don't have to know much to sell scientific equipment and since you are a biotechnology graduate, I am sure you might be knowing something about the scientific equipment used for research."
"Ah, I agree, it isn't as easy as you perceive. I have no masters in business administration or any knowledge of how a product is sold."
"Listen I will send you my website's rough draft and all you got to do is write content for it and put it in place  Rest I'll let you know."
"But.... and that sentence was stomped by a decree she was about to dictate.
"So, I will do as promised. Please help me with this. I am sure you can do it." she assured.

Writing a content for a website was not as easy as creative writing in which I had my grey areas. And selling a product was like dancing at the city square in six inched stilettos. I dismissed this episode as a gimmick and went about with life. Until after ten days when she called again and the blueprint for the idea was raring to be put on paper.
We put the website in place and started making a game plan. We decided to target and hunt down local universities funded by the government as they would be floored by a smaller company providing them equipment at concessional rates. Contrary to our beliefs, many project investigators and universities called us for demonstrations but none placed an order with us. We waited for the sun to shine on us but the sales didn't pick up from a zero that almost told the fate of this venture. With the big fish in the market, a smaller fish like our company struggled to set its foot. After six months of patience and prayers that bore no fruit, we were so bankrupt that to pay the rent of our tiny office cubicle we had to part with our dearest belongings, she her car, and me some of my gold ornaments. With a heavy heart, we finally decided to sell off the company to a bigger player in the market.
While the talks were on, one day I happened to watch the movie "Rocket Singh" and pondered upon a thought. What was the extra bit that we could do to attract customers and an idea struck my mind like lightening.
We decided to get the pamphlets done again but this time around we decided to promise free servicing/repair of the equipment for the first two years after purchase. Although we had to incur losses for the first six months, the sales started to pick up. With the word of the mouth references and recommendations our company started landing on big orders. A company that had once broken down to corrupt business practices, all thanks to Aparna's paternal uncle, started breathing again.

Within two years, our company also got into supplying chemicals, for such was the conviction of our customers for our credibility. Today, her company has a net turnover of a few crores. I left after an year trying to hunt for greener pastures and landed into research.

Aparna still calls me to pester me to go back to a firm I had sold my days and nights to. And we have long and livid discussions about the means and methods she is employing to stay afloat in a sea of cut throat competitors.

The business acumen I acquired while working with Aparna came as a messiah when I recently started free lancing for a literary magazine. More than establishing it as a non-profit our ordeal was in attracting more and more writers and readers. We decided to give every writer a free contributors copy, keeping in  mind that not all journals gave out contributor's copies and also promote and patronize our writers so that they can earn from their writing and become famous. Most of all from her, I learned the tips and tricks of selling anything, just about anything under the sun.

If I ever happen to step into this world of business, Aparna will remain my first teacher for neither the Entrepreneurship development classes in bachelors nor the business management classes in masters could teach me to dance at the city square in six inched stilettos without looking beggarly or boastful. Had she not pushed me into the raging waters, I would have never learned to swim.



I wish to get my story published in Chicken Soup for the Indian Entrepreneurs Soul in association with BlogAdda.com

Lost in Translation

And I remember

how we talked even in telepathy,

styled our synonymous silence

and wore each other's secrets

like the crucified Christ

hanging on a rosary

escorting us from evil,

She can't explain me her

vitrified vocabulary in

rajma, rotis, rice and university

or when I beg in disagreement

over another escalated effort

at making me

a Husband welfare organization

rearing to be a Momma Welfare roll.

Then we had our linguistic liaisons

till blue moons that thirsted

for years and now,

we whined for words

love we shared after the umbilical cord

was cut and pain sterilized with sour spirit.

She is stooping while she accuses me

of having grown in my shoes

she expects me to be her

in cooking and cleaning

while I see myself in her

knowledge and knowing.

We have memorized parting privacy

to our advantage

she says it's better to not tell

rather than not reading

each other's tales,

I don't want to loose her

while spelling this suffocation

when everything else

just seems to be lost in translation.

Facebook, Diplomacy and Freedom of Speech

Last two days on facebook made me a "touch me not" again! I have almost become numb, as a cold block of ice that is too mulled to melt, yet wants to and let go off.
There are times I believe that I want to blog more but then let's owe it to the lack of time and energy that make it impossible. And thus the facebook wall comes as a clean slate on which I can scribble my thoughts and exercise my freedom of speech. Prejudice and sadist selfism has rubbed on to me, from facebook.

In first place, I would want to begin this train of thoughts with a simple straight question? Why did I make a facebook profile? The answer could be a long winding trail of stories but it might begin with the times when   the only reason was to connect with old school friends and relatives and acquaintances I met in youth conferences and writing forums. For the shy stammering soul I was,  any kind of connection made was more of a one-way-traffic. A yearly ritual of saying "hi" to them was while wishing them on their birthday. Which was something that was returned with no thankfulness most of the times or with an icing on the piece of cake you never had on your plate. Then out of the blues one day, I started writing without the fear of being disdained, nothing great it was but just a carelessly written cortege of cliches.
Staying on facebook then became a necessity, because I had to spread my word far and wide. I made friends, to begin with from Poemhunter and then Allpoetry. And many came to know me through common friends and thus this circle started increasing in its circumference. I created an account on blogger, wrote my poems there some of which got a word of appreciation and many of which were dismissed as poorly written pieces of poetry. Although I never gave up hope and with time started writing something that won't be given a cold shoulder, to not cry on. My friend list started growing and over the years since 2008, I went on to add famous contemporary Indian poets whom I had dreamt of having a chat with. I thought facebook was the place to be, the nameless marketing manager for whatever I was writing, poetry, short stories and articles. When facebook became an everyday ritual, I became thoughtless and heedless with my status updates. Although, giving a thought to every status update I wrote was impossible since I wasn't promoting violence or vulgarity, I was simply letting my fingers speak my mind. Some hurt the elderly person who had made my poetry famous in the youth meets and an old  friend dismissed me to be a demoniac. "Rinzu, needs help" were her famous words of wisdom! Although in the grand scheme of things both of them didn't realize that I was not taunting or criticizing them but in simpler words, was exercising my freedom of speech on a platform where I owned a profile in my name and was given the right to use it by creators of the social networking site. I was an irritably impulsive person then and I made sure I had to give them a piece of my mind. Both were the flagship fans of  an Indian school of thought that promoted hypocrisy shamelessly. Presumably, had I ignored their warning calls for a face off I could have been at peace today. Though, the thought of having to seek permission from each of the friends on my facebook list before having to post something makes me laugh at myself. How can I be a "populist" and forget that I was born in a free country where women are allowed to talk, however they might get ostracized for showing it to the world that they were born with a tongue.

The other day while being in a group and expressing an old school of thought that I had borne as a cross, I was picketed for having dared to have thought like that. Don't know if you are authorized to think the way you want to, and not the way others want you to think on facebook. It baffles me! I hold no grudges against the women who misquoted my chain of thoughts, which again was a thing of the past, but had they not jumped the gun I would have been blindly confident of interacting with them in the future. It's a "Hello! Are you alive?" kind of a relationship with them from now, certainly until they will show signs of surety for me. I don't hate them but then I don't know whether they hate me for having had a doubtful dogma.

The last of the class of people on whom I have given up are the people who float like balloons in the air. They talk to you only when they want favours from you, or are in a mood to write a narrative essay about themselves. Alright! Facebook was made to add more fuel to the fire of narcissism and one can keep talking about themselves on a profile made in their name. Why advertise their achievements on other profiles and seek certificates of authentication? Will me praising them make them any greater? Or is their sole aim to belittle and bemoan others who are too shyly spooked to behave like movie stars!

I was too scared to write this post, but then I thought to myself, what the heck? Two hands call for a clap just in a way, two people make for an altercation, in real life or on facebook. It's upto you and them to decide whether you want to hold a conversation or have a conflict? I do not want to accuse them neither do I want to talk of them deplorably, all I say is had each of us known our limitations and mannerisms before striking on a conversation on facebook, life would have been easier. Isn't it?
Had everything you say and do on facebook not be scrutinized with a watch glass and insecurities kept at home before using facebook, a talk would become a two way traffic, and opinions would only stay opinions not becoming abusive accusations, as people popularly take it. Each person I have added matters a lot to me, I added them because I wanted to stay in touch with them, for every friend request that comes to me or I send is carefully combed to get accepted.

Why do people hate each other on facebook, and why do I sometimes come in their line of fire? For having a mind of my own and yearning to express, or for being a feminist. Don't know if they look down upon me for not praising them and puffing pride in their lungs! Or simply for not standing by their schools of thought!
Facebook is a strange place, where in I have seen brawls boil and spill out onto my news feed and people accusing each other by tagging their names and cursing them. I try to stay away from them, but twice or thrice I was dragged into such squabbles forcefully when I was not a diplomat! Oh yes, to be on facebook learn diplomacy! The one golden rule for surviving in this jungle! Don't know what else you need to do, to be on facebook? Perhaps, write a disclaimer notice saying that the thoughts expressed are that of the owner of this profile and does not bear resemblance to anyone dead or alive or yet to be born! What say?

The Evolution of the Music Experience--From Radio to HP Connected Music Experience

Music in the mid nineties, was a black box with silver edges for us, that made sounds once it was turned on. I still remember while dressing up for school, how the "Ashiqui" song blared out into the backyard, from the only radio channel of those times. To be able to listen to music one had to memorize timings of shows that played your kind of music with no surety of your favorite song being in the playlist, every time the show was aired. Music was a prisoner to timing and radio programmes then, and god forbidden if your radio broke down, you would have to wait for a day or two or maybe longer to give ears to your favorite show again. Cassettes with winding tapes rolled inside a plastic body was the only other option of listening to music.

Then came mobile phones, that shrunk the world. Those with in-built radio were a boon to music lovers like me. But then affording a mobile phone back then was a luxury. Not for the cost of the handset, but the cost of outgoing calls and even incoming which were chargeable! Slowly there came a time, when people started buying mobile phones and they became a necessity. The first one I had was a Nokia 3310 which did not have a radio built into it. After many failed attempts to forcefully fling it to the floor and pretend that it won't work from there on, I was given a Samsung phone on my birthday which also had the FM radio facility at the touch of a button. Again much like the black box radio days, music was the slave to request shows aired on a specific day and timing. Then came the mobile phone with the recorder that enabled its users to record songs from the FM radio. This was again not a neat method to save songs of our choice and listen to them afterwards, because one could not always be sure of turning on the recorder at the finical first second that the song began. Other than these choices, CDs also came into being, which were the sleeker compressed versions of cassettes without the brown tapes thrusted into the plastic body and a silver thin frame which was easy to carry and store.

Music was then accessible free of cost, on websites that only allowed listening to music as per the choice of the listener and not downloading, that made visiting the music website a compelling exercise. I hated keeping note of the websites that catered to my tastes and worse so, misplacing the list of my favourite music websites was an ordeal that I struggled with, off and on.

Music download then became a reality with Torrent and online websites that entertained streaming and download from a single source. Although the choices were again very narrow owing to the fact that it was impossible for any service provider to bring together music of various genres and languages in one place and make them accessible at a nominal price or for free. A search operation had to be conducted through various websites to reach a song of choice, which was a tiring and tedious task. Live streaming was not available  on all websites that allowed downloading for free or for a meager sum of money. And western music was something that one couldn't easily find on Indian websites. A careful combing of the websites based in the US or UK allowed downloading of such kind of music. Also downloading songs from such websites always left behind the threat of a virus attack that couldn't easily be cured most of the times.

When I went to the HP connected music experience meet the other day, my sole aim was to meet and socialize with the Delhi bloggers I know. But then a careful ear to the product promotion event made me realize that  indeed, the music experience has evolved with age.



Here are the features of HP Connected Music


One click access
With just one click, HP Connected Music player gives you free access to the world's largest online music catalogue.
Ultimate music collection
Listen to over 1 million songs and 20,000 artistes. Wide collection of music from various genres such as songs from Bollywood films; regional films, international music by top artistes like Enrique, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and popular songs by award-winning Universal Music artistes!
Free download
Browse through millions of tracks in various languages and across genres, select your favourites, create a personal playlist, download onto your PC and listen to your music even when you’re not connected to internet.



From the times, when music was confined to radio shows to brown taped cassettes that could break easily to the times when music was available on FM radios on mobile phones, to the times music could be downloaded from websites and were cooped in CDs, the music experience has reared to rise, with the HP Connected Music experience. To grow into an interface that allows its consumers to experience music downloads, streaming services and internet radio all in one convenient place without the fear of viral attacks or physical destruction of the source in which the music is stored and of course, being spoilt for choices.

This service will be available from February 1 on selected HP notebooks that run Windows 8 and will allow users to stream and download unlimited music and video content. It will be free for users for the first year and HP has not disclosed the subscription fee after the free usage period ends.

Looking forward to laying my hands on a HP notebook as soon as I can, and getting swamped by a never before seamless music experience, unthinkable in times when music was synonymous to a radio for us.




This post in an entry to the HP Connected Music Experience on Indiblogger powered by HP Connected Music.