Not a Good Idea Sirjee!

The decision of the Hon Supreme Court in canceling all of the 122 licenses issued on or after Jan 2008, will create more problems than solve them. It will essentially tar all the players with the same brush and club the folks who used it to make money with those who rolled out services as per commitment. Consequently, it will prove to be a bonanza for the players existing before the Jan 2008 in those circles as there will be significant movements from those likely to be cancelled to the older established players, using mobile Number Portablity. The Hon Supreme Court is absolutely correct in trying to ensure that old wrongs need to be righted, but the key question that will emerge is what happens to the millions of subscribers who have adopted a new service provider in the last four years.
That A Raja is culpable is probably beyond question. That some private players suborned the process is also beyond question. However, in righting these two wrongs, the onus of the burden has shifted to the consumer who probably had no clue or did not have any wherewithal to deal with the issues.
The big beneficiaries will be the big three Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance - who will see massive influx of subscribers from the cancelled licensees. Is it anyone's cause to suggest that Raja's wrongdoing should lead to a windfall for the old players.
I am sure that while examining these issues, the Hon Supreme Court must have applied its mind on the above issues. It would be a good idea to get some clarity on the issues sooner rather than later

Angry Young Society

Back in the 70s, when I was a kid, Amitabh Bachchan typified the Angry Young Man. 40 years later, for a generation which has seen many such avatars on screen, the society of an Angry Young Society is played out.
Just about everybody is angry. Starting from Anna Hazare to the kid next door, there is a scowl on our faces and anger in our collective conscience. We are angry with everything and everybody - our neighbours, rulers, doctors, terrorists, milkman, bus conductors... ad infinitum. Most of the time, it is impotent rage - a realisation that we are unable to 'do' anything about the state of affairs. Sometime, it is at ourselves, most of the time, it is at others.
The favorite punching bag is the politician. We are angry with 'them' because they have destroyed the country. Aided and abetted by Anna's team, our justified rage has an easy outlet - hundreds of breathless TV anchors, who purportedly represent the face of India, young twentysomethings who thrust a microphone under the nose of an ordinary citizen and ask him profound questions - 'so what do you think is responsible for the corruption in our country today?'. Then we have the ponderous Arnab Sen asking very seriously a panel of reasonably experienced administrators and politicians 'the nation demands an answer!' followed by thunderous clapping from the audience.
Ina ll this, we stubbornly refuse to face the fact that WE are the problem and that 'they' are nothing but faces of 'WE'. They gave come from our society, our apathy, our indifference and our callous disregard to the concept of a social goal. They are not people from some heavenly body. They are the result of our behavior. Today, thanks to some irrational din, they will go and will be replaced by another set of 'they' who will also degenerate into exactly the same set of blokes that we deride so much.
They are unapologetic because WE are unapologetic. They know that we are essentially pandering to the flavor of the day, and all will be forgiven, and forgotten (except, of course, Arnab's hairstyle). They know that since we dont want to take responsibility for our actions of the past, we dont really have the courage of our convictions.
I was watching one of the team members of Anna Hazare proudly saying 'we will not fight elections' and we will remain outside the system and raise these issues. What he was actually saying was "we will take up issues which fancy us and whip your passions, because you dont know what you want". I am not sure how many of us WANT the changes we are asking for. I think most of us believe that as long as our leaders are free of corruption, things will be hunky dory.
THEY WILL NOT BE.
There is rot at the bottom. There is petty corruption at all levels of our society. From the scam in platform tickets at the station to the largest telecom deal in the world. If we want to stem the rot, attack the root and not the top. The branches and leaves will grow again, and again and again.
The Anger will remain.

Nasser Hussain ko Gussa kyon aata hai?

They are after all human. For decades they have been laughed at, soundly beaten in all forms of the game and suddenly they find themsleves having beaten the highest ranked test team and becoming No 1 in Test cricket. Nver in the last 25 years has England achieved this kind of a status in cricket. Coming as it does after an embarassingly long time and after the ICC HQ was shifted out of thier country, the English are ecstatic, and some of them want to get even.
That explains why people like Nasser Hussain et al have been making some rather damaging statements attacking players personally. Remember, this is the same Nasser Hussain who captained the team which lost the memorable Natwest 2002 to Yuvraj and Kaif; this is the same Vaughan who was soundly thrashed in 2007 and again in 2008, when the English team visited India. Consequently, these two gents are so angry that they call players names, simply because they have the mike in their hands.
Remember, Hussain was no Bradman. His ODI average is 30, way lower than most people he comments about. His Test match average is 37, far lower than most Test batsmen who we call good these days. Vaughan's ODI stats are even worse, with an average of 27.
Hussain and Vaughan are examples of many a frustrated cricketer who believes that he never got his due. So when they get an opportunity to have a microphone in front of them, they tend to go berserk.
Interestingly, the day when Hussain made this comment, I was watching the replay of the 2002 Natwest finals when Ganguly made a fierce cut which raced to a four after hitting Hussain's wrist. Not only did  the donkey did not stop the ball, he allowed it to go for a boundary, imagine!
So why is Hussain now calling others names? Simply because, sans that, nobody would recognise him. People like him and Vaughan, are simply screaming for attention. The intemperate language, choice of words, stubborn refusal to even temper down, smacks of a need to be recognised, much after the 'sell-by' date has expired.
True he is articulate, and that is why is ESPN retains him. They dont need great players (In any case, you would be scrapping the bottom of the barrel in England looking for great players), just donkeys who can speak well, and get them good TRPs, even after a match has been washed away. To that extent, the broadcaster loves Hussain. And the latter, like a good lapdog, will bark and bite, to keep his paymasters happy. After all, he does not influence the outcome now.. not that he did when he was playing.

Jobs leaves to Cook

I'd hate to be in the Shoes of Tim Cook now. Imagine, succeeding Steve Jobs as the CEO of Apple. everything that he does, or does not do, will be compared against the golden run of Jobs. Expectantly, Apple's shares fell over 5% no sooner Jobs announced his intent to resign from the day-to-day running of what was, at one time, world's most valuable company.
We will probably miss Job's annual presentations at the Apple annual conference, where every year, he come sin his trademark black T Shirt and announces a revolution. Somehow, I cannot see Cook in a Black Tee, perhaps a canary yellow, yes, but not a black tee. I also dont see where will Apple go from here? Not that there is any danger of Apple losing its position in the marketplace, but will Cook be bale to keep the 'wow' factor intact? Job's strength was not just getting a product out of the door, but in the way he packaged it for the market. Here was a messiah, thin and scrawny, coming year after year and giving you stuff that was not just great technologically, but was actually cool. It felt good to show off the Macbook pro in an aircraft, when the rest of the crowd is pulling out its dowdy laptops...The mac would always make heads turn.. it did then, it does now. Will it, in the future?
There was always this rather irreverant look about him - he could not care less about what was in vogue today.. he would take you where you wanted to go.. and didn't know it! That was, if anything, the true genius of the man.
Not that he did not understand the numbers behind the thoughts. If anything, he drove it relentlessly. What caught his attention was that he never talked about how big or profitable Apple was in the Apple World events - here it was always the products, the markets, the consumer, the cool quotient.. the rest would, inexorably follow. If anything, he was probably the smartest numbers guy in the valley. From Nextstep to Pixar, he created huge value in the companies that he created. Along the way, he also created some of the most memorable animated flicks that the world will swear by. And therein lay his ability to transcend the world of computing and entertainment - something that has become commonplace today.
And that is why I dont want to be in Tim Cook's position today. 

An outrage called Arundhati Roy

One of the most horrifying experiences in life is when somebody who you actually dislike for her views  has a view that you agree with - it can be deeply embarrassing. I read Arundhati Roy's views on Anna Hazare and my heart went out for him.
Let me make my position very clear. In my humble opinion, Arundhati Roy stands for one of the most regressive aspects of our society - a one book wonder, she had been propelled by Outlook for her shock value, and not for any great erudition. She opposes everything that the Indian middle class stands for. Many a time, she has taken stands which have been in congruence with many other social workers - for all the wrong reasons.
So when I read Ms Roy's piece in the Hindu, I was deeply embarrassed for the company I keep. Ms Roy's angst with Annasaheb is not because she supports corruption, but that he represents, the section of society that she disagrees with. Left to Ms Roy, she would just as soon give India away to Maoists, Naxals, Islamists, LeT terrorists et al.
My peeve with Annasaheb, is not for the cause, but for the creation of one more institution while not caring for the existing ones. Ms Roy would like to destroy the institutions, including the Indian polity. My peeve with Annasaheb's team is that they dont want to fight the system from within but want to create a new edifice in the system  from the outside. Ms Roy, left to her devices, would just as soon destroy the system to create chaos.
Arundhati Roy does not support Annasaheb, not because of any principle, but simply because she finds any change in the existing system not to her taste.
And therein lies the irony.
while we can bicker about the way and the process adopted by Annasaheb, what many of dont question is the need to weed out corruption in our lives. Some of us want end to the daily corruption in our lives, others want our politicians to reform first.. People like Ms Roy want the Indian polity to become dysfunctional, something that most of us, if not all, disagree with.
Hence my embarrassment at being on the same side as Ms Roy

Aw, come on, they are our boys

Just two months back, they were the heroes - the world cup champions of cricket - tests and one-dayers. The Golden boys.
Two months later, they are the villains of the country with choicest abuses -traitors, betrayers, money-minded, spineless.. I have left out some of the more colorful ones out.
What makes us so fickle minded? is it our own insecurity? Is it our own national lack of  a sense of achievement? Is it that we derive our greatness from the shadow of the great and hence when the supposed-great fall, we feel naked, in our own smallness?
It is important that we understand this phenom a little bit in detail. Sometimes, I also feel that we don't really 'own' the people that represent us. Consequently, when they win, we take them to a pedestal but  when they are down in the dumps, we trample them even more so. A pendulum that knows no way to come to the center.
I mean, come on, don't we have our off days? As business people, don't businesses have one year when they do badly (I know several which have converted the art of poor performance into an art form), as Individuals, don't we have seasons  (weeks, months, years..) when nothing goes well. How will we feel if during those times, the people who were supposedly your supporters and well wishers turned vicious against you? Would you ever feel anything for them? Why should your earning more or less make any damned difference to how you are treated?
When it comes to our Cricket team, why do we have such polarized reactions? What is even more astounding is that we justify it by saying 'they are making so much money that they SHOULD be ready to face the flak for poor performance! Nothing can be sillier than that. You and I retire at 65 or work till 75 (it is our choice). They retire at 35 (unless you are a Mr Tendulkar, when you retire when you want to), and then have another 40 odd years when they earn nothing. Secondly, I have not known a cricketer to have earned his millions by stealing from you and me. They are making that money in the market, so why does that make us so angry - that we are not and they are? In my books that is called Jealousy - plain and simple.
What is amplifying the problem is the media - newspapers and TV channels, which have relinquished the role of a copy editor! Consequently, we have a liberal usage of adjectives - 'abject, miserable, shameful, absurd, spineless...' both in the newspapers as well as channels, that are prefaced when talking about the Indian team's performance.
The second argument is that when they do well, we put them on the pedestal. Are they asking for it? Sure they will like it, but you are doing it on your own. does that give you a right to hammer them when they are down? I don't think so.
They are our children, our boys. If we come down so hard on them when they are down, don't expect them to go all misty eyed for you when they are up. In fact they will know that given our fickle-minded swings of mood, their penchant for being more aligned with the monetary issues will go higher and higher.
Support them when they are down. They have enough guys out there (Boycott, Nasser Hussain etc) who are anyway baying for them.
At the end of the day, they are our children, right

Why do I disagree with Anna Hazare

Let us get some facts right first - I am not for Corruption, and neither am I a card carrying member of any political party. I am just another Indian, who is equally frustrated by the way this country is being run by the government - any government, it does not matter - UPA, NDA, XYZ... they are all the same. I also get angry, very angry, when I see the sanctimonious nonsense that these politicians spout against corruption in public, knowing fully well that most of them, if not all, are venal and corrupt.

At the same time, I do not agree with Anna Hazare and his ilk. I believe that if you have institutions which are not functioning as they ought to, creating one more monster institutions does not help. In fact it creates bigger problems. The solution, I believe, is to fix the institutions using the methods that are available. My one simple question to Anna is - why dont you fight the elections? Anna Hazare knows that any election that he fights today, he will win, hands down. However, his reluctance to fight elections is testimony to the fact that Annasaheb does not want to strengthen the institutions, he wants to destroy them. He is a true Gandhian, in that sense - Gandhi did not want the British to reform, he wanted them to leave. In Annasaheb's case, he also wants the existing politicians, judges, civil servants to become subservient to a new super cop - he does not want to reform the cops and the system, it is too cumbersome and may throw up some new heroes.

It somewhat akin to saying that if your hand is not functioning well, for some reason, don't fix it, get a new hand, better still, create a super organ, that will now manage your hand. Same for head, brain, kidneys... I know that we are now bordering on absurdity.. but that is exactly what the civil society is asking for.

Has anyone in the civil society (learned members all) ever talked about joining the political system? Has any one of them Annasaheb, Bhushan (pere et fils), Kejriwals, Bedis, ever expressed a desire to get into the hurly burly of the Lok Sabha or the rarer echelons of the Rajya Sabha? Why not? Why are they so chary of something that we, as a country, should be justifiably proud - a parliamentary democracy? I believe that Annasaheb's team is not fascist, hence they do believe that democracy works, so why not get into the one forum which they keep criticizing, all the time? Frame policies, influence the policies and then, only then, pronounce judgments about whether the system works or not. If the system does not work, fix it. Get more like minded people to enter politics, fight elections, create own party... the solutions are many.

But no, Annasaheb's team knows it is a long haul, like any change in a democratic civil system. They want a vigilante justice. My way or highway. They know very well, that as Indians, we have almost a birthright on emotional outbursts sand logic. And this is what Annasaheb is waiting for, rather hoping for - an emotional outpouring of outrage over the so called 'politicians' who are destroying India, a popular middle- class uprising over the injustice meted out to Annasaheb, a scared government which only reacts to the antics of Arnab Goswami and/or the shrill banshee-like Sagarika Ghosh...the drama is being played out exactly as the learned men and women of Civil Society want, or hoped.

Annasaheb, what is the end game? Do you seriously think that the Parliament will consider your draft, even if it is presented as a private member's bill? You know it will not? So then what happens? Will you again go on a fast-unto-death for another 'mockpal'! In this game of brinkmanship, don't you think you are using the same pieces, that you are accusing the government of - the people's emotions, the only difference being, the government uses the poor and you are using the middle class!

I am not getting into a debate of whether the PM must be under lokpal or not (that is another blog, another day), but I think it is time for all of us, thinking citizens, to just pause and reflect for a minute.

For the last 64 years, we have allowed apathy, encouraged corruption and abetted systematic destruction of each of the institutions. Do we have the courage of our conviction to even partially accept our mistakes, our acts of omission and commission? We have voted the corrupt, not participated in elections, bribed for passports, traffic tickets, train tickets, school admissions, college seats and so on and so forth. Let us first accept our follies. Once we do that, we then ask our civil society members to form a political party and support them - I will support them, openly. Change the system from within. Let us stop dishonesty in our lives, in small or big ways. 

Then and only then, will change come.

This my 16 Anna truth!