Think Tank

History Past Perfect – Present Imperfect  Whenever we discuss about the state of women, we end up saying its ‘man’s world’! Also, there is scepticism about our own culture and history. We think, and it is politically correct to speak so, that all religions are the same, all traditions are the same, and our this attitude [...]

IndiaKeralaThey also Feel Pain We all must have heard of and accepted the term “God’s Own Country” for the state of Kerala. And I always wondered why would some people call their country as “God’s own” and hence would imply that all other countries are not God’s own? Here is the short background:  The term “God’s Own [...]

Mumbai Past Perfect: Present Imperfect  Visiting the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (formerly known as Prince of Wales Museum) was a long time dream of mine, which I fulfilled some months back. Though I made a quick round, I noticed some things which I can never forget:  *** 1.   The wonderfully planned Drains and Sanitation system during [...]

Now get it from the horse’s mouth… About a nation done wrong with, and anti-nationals being coddled and fed at our cost. Every paragraph is a wake up call.  IndiaJ&KPoliticsBorrowed  Terrorism & Kashmir Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd.) A CRPF Inspector General was transferred from Srinagar, on 13th August, 2008 after an uproar in the Kashmir valley, led by [...]

‘Timing’ has been everything in politics and business. Now ‘timing’ has become so important in religion also! But who said religion was not politics and business? Read the bold fonts also.India V2 ‘India’ ‘gets’ ‘first’ ‘woman’ ‘saint’ Vatican City, Oct 12: India got its first woman saint when Pope Benedict XVI canonised Kerala nun Sister Alphonsa at [...]

Books V3 ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’Khaled HosseiniBloomsbury; Amazon [A]; Rediff Books [R]  It seems before writing this book, the author had prepared himself to write the world’s most heart wrenching story. And I would say he succeeded in his endeavours.  This is the story of Afghanistan – starting from before the warring days and extending to [...]

आज सुबह मैं दुर्गा पूजा देखने गयी थी. लेकिन जब मै लौट रही थी तो रास्ते मे एक बिल्ली को देखा. छोटी सी ब्राउन ब्राउन थी और उसकी पूँछ बहुत लंबी थी. बिल्कुल मेरे घर के पास वाली बिल्ली की तरह. मैं जब नजदीक गयी तो देखा कि वो मरी हुई थी. मै बहुत डर [...]

Life V2People Every man is a story  One of our professors shared his life story with us in bits and pieces. Connecting them gives us a glimpse of ups and downs on the way to a success story called India.  *** Born in a small town in Bengal, he went to a school where the medium of [...]

As we read this, one top Maoist leader has taken responsibility of killing Swami Laxmananda Saraswati [Link]. It can’t go more interesting than this: they don’t want government to do any investigation and are sending scapegoats to accept all the blames! Think how much exposed and globally embarrassed the missionaries will be if government carries [...]

Books V3 ‘To have or to be?’Eric FrommContinuum International Publishing Group; Amazon [A] At first this book seemed to be so heavy that I had to put it down a dozen times, only to pick up again at last to do a justice with having borrowed it.  “To have or to be” reveals many things in the [...]

Books V3 ‘The Open-Book Experience - Lessons from over 100 companies who successfully transformed themselves’ John CasePerseus Books; Amazon [A] Open-Book management is a new approach to management – the term being coined by the author John Case who is an author of 4 business books including Open-Book Management: the coming business revolution. The author is executive [...]

Books V3 ‘The Case of the Bonsai Manager – Lessons from nature on growing’R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata SonsPenguin Books; Amazon [A], Rediff Books [R] Recently one of our marketing professors made a very good point: that Western authors in management haven’t and can’t know the pulse of India and hence we can’t learn marketing by reading [...]

Men and LeadersOur Lal Bahadur How many times do we realise how strange this world is? Looks can deceive. Many a soft spoken men and women have shown unparalleled courage and strong leadership so many times in our history. Lal Bahadur Shasri was one of them. His life is full of examples that he set [...]

Indian companiesThe American financial sector is in the turmoil. From Bear Sterns to developments with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the crisis unfolded and took companies like AIG and Lehman Brothers in the grip. Coveted institutions which took generations to reach the enviable positions were down in some months.  It is all in the newspapers [...]