Ek aadhi anniversary ka sukh

Ek aadhi anniversary ka sukh
Ek aadhe aane vale saal ka rukh
Aur hum dono ki rangeen ulfat
dil maange thodi si fursat....

ki dekhon teri aankhon mein
sapne sunhari palkon mein
ek haseeen rang-khushbu bhare gulistan ke
tere-mere masoom nazneen afsane ke

fursat ke do lamhe mile
to tera phir se deedar karoon
chukar tere mann ke taaron ko
fir tujhse ikraar karoon

aa hath pakad kar baith zara
ek chai ke cup se chuski lo
dhalte suraj ki kiran ko pakad kar
aasmaan ko naye rang do..

Ek aadhi anniversary ka sukh
Ek aadhe aane vale saal ka rukh
aur hum dono ki rangeen ulfat
dil maange thodi si fursat...

happy Half anniversary dear Mridul on our marriage

The Bihar Diaries

Writing for the first time after i joined IIM Indore and it takes a big event to move me out of the state of being silent on the blog.. the big event is my fascination with a geography and society called Bihar.

The election results of Bihar have sparked a multitude of thoughts within me. I am reminded of Lord of the Rings and the Star Wars or the Matrix trilogy as Nitish Kumar clearly emerges the Hero on whose shoulders there rests the hope of almost everyone in society around him. All hopes rested on one person .. there were many forces he was up against... and most of the hopefuls were unsure of how many forces will combine in his support and i stop the analogy there.. we have a HERO in the chief minister of Bihar. We have a story to tell and a moment to rejoice.

We the people of India have shown our commitment to development and to growth in action at the grassroots and not mere rhetoric of India Shining. The politics of India may seem to be in a far from ideal state but the election results in India are as good as it can get.

Why do i say so.. ? This is based on a partial understanding of Indian Politics and that comes as a disclaimer of a theory in the motions of formation.

The myth about elections:

1. Most of us educated anglophone urban individuals carry this impression that the rural individual, who actually votes and does not merely indulge in rhetoric like this blog entry, is illiterate and naive and exploited and first of all UNAWARE.

2. The politics is so decrepit that only money and caste equations drive politics and the objectives are narrow to individual vested interests.

My view of the truth about elections : as this is my view it is an interesting conjecture , a conjecture for being a viewpoint and interesting cause it comes from me .. an optimistic cynic as my friend Deepak Iyengar will like to call me.

My view of the elections and specifically the results:

1. India is not shining. the voters across the nation rejected the argument or belief of a shining India long back . We can still claim that those vote do not live in the India or are not connected or do not benefit from the India that shines. More interestingly , we can pursue the thought that India is not shining but the glitter of a lot that was not Gold has been last and so the shine on India is only comparative and hence most likely short-lived. That should be scary for many of us who have forgotten what it is to travel in Sleeper Class railway compartments and State Transport Buses but that proves the point that the voters know their stuff very well. Better than we know ours maybe.

2. Mere Rhetoric is not the modern mantra. Rhetoric needs to be backed by action. Voters are discriminating between mere rhetoric and a planned vision and following concerted action. The responses to the three seem to be very clearly different. ( Is that a hypothesis worth checking or is there enough evidence to prove that?). For a teacher of MBA students the nearest imperative is Where do the b-plans that i see in competitions and assignments lie on this continuum of mere rhetoric - planned vision - concerted action. Clearly less than 1 % reach the right extreme of the continuum. ( If not noticed.. then please notice the intended pun in using the "right" extreme of the continuum.). Sadly most of us miss out on this pun and hence never move in this direction of the continuum. As far as voters are considered, given an option mere rhetoric is neither necessary nor sufficient .. it is simply archaic and needs to be buried in its rightful place.

3. What is development?

This is the most interesting and debatable of the conclusions i draw.

The development sector, it seems, will perennially seek to figure out what development is and in that effort continually fail and strive for a better definition and in the process keep getting developed itself.

Clearly this development is about gaining depth , Accumulating Diversity and allowing it to thrive, resisting reactive actions and events, and of a straightforward action-oriented approach that is not restricted to few or that move closer to being holistic and simplistic.

I think this is the simple understanding of development that emerges from a development driven script of the elections and their results and we must bear in mind this was scripted by none other than the voter.

4. A Development Driven Script

As more and more people wrote about the vote for development i was thinking and questioning why do we say so and how can we be so confident about it ? As a researcher i was taught to believe nothing that was told to me and to ignore nothing that was told to me.

(This is the most crucial part of my blog and the only part where i say something that i think is intelligent).

The voter did not align on caste equations - i am unsure about that. I think we still have a caste formula that worked with the breaking of the M-Y combine and the focus on Mahadalits. If i go back to the voters understanding of development then the focus on Mahadalits makes perfect sense but there is greater meet in the realignment of the caste combine.

Earlier the Political affiliations decided what I gained and that decided in turn on what side of the beneficiary-non-beneficiary divide I existed as a voter. Now the alignment of castes is driven by development and my choice to be on what side of the beneficiary - non-beneficiary divide is determining my influence on my caste alignment. This radical shift in the thinking, in the minds of the voter, maybe .... subtle and unrecognized, has delivered that now caste alignments are based on how to bring greatest hope for development. and this is as traditional as it can get.

Only now we can link up that the definitions of development is different and more sharp in the minds of the voter and more localized too it seems. The development is not mere rhetoric but followed by a planned vision and even concerted action in some cases, the voters ability to give a clear mandate is recognized and the smart politician focuses on serving this mandate. And for politics in India in the post -independence and especially the post economic-reform era, this is as non-traditional as it can get.

Clearly the mandate of the people of Bihar ( the voters are supposed to represent them) is very very clear and enabling for a Chief Minister who understands it. However the pitfall that the CM has to avoid is his own casting as a HERO. Everyone now looks up to him and he runs the danger of developing a megalomaniac ego or a focus on enjoying the fruits of his hard work. I guess the Civil society has to understand the mandate that the vote is still for the hope and the evidence seen in the past but it is a mandate for continuing the hard work on the ground and the grassroots. The mandate is for the realignment of castes in new combinations that give hope to promote development powered by society and not by the schemes of the government. This subtle but radical shift is what in my opinion will determine a third term or a new government.

The Strange Coincidence of a being A BACHELOR

Now that i am all set to marry in less than a fortnight's time.. i can share this piece.. not that i could not have shared it earlier but then .. No one would have believed me.. and.. even now some are not going to believe me but then that's what this is about the coincidence of being believed and not being believed because people live by their own beliefs.

As a young bachelor ( i am not so young any more lols for many people ) there were coincidences of coming across beautiful maidens and vying for their attention... only to be saddened that most of them lacked the charm to hold attention beyond a particular duration and if they did hold the attention .. they lacked the simplicity of being "my types". it's about such coincidences that bachelorhood is about .. and not just in India but the world over.

Being an open guy who could say what was inside me .. only made things difficult and coincidences more common. here are some funny and not so funny experiences.. which reflect the times in which i lived my bachelorhood.

Two ladies treat me to an ice cream and cold drink each (for some long overdue favour ) and ultimately steer the discussion to ask "are we beautiful?" and sadly enough all that i could reply was "No Comments" .. (the bachelor was trying to be a Gandhian at that point of time) . Coincidence taught me later on .. if you want to Brew a relationship.. it pays to be non-Gandhian or else you as a matter of coincidence you need to have super -patience.

A girl is narrating a tale to me about herself and her friend and asks me "its like you and me and we know that we will not think of each other in an amorous way.. . right we wont?"...lo ls and not by coincidence i wonder what was the question.. will we or will we not ? and months later she says do i feel as if i am getting feelers from her .. cause someone else she was talking to thought so.. lols.. only by sheer coincidence could i feel the feelers someone else was feeling when she was talking to him. absolute ROTFL.

A girl tells me reasons why i would probably not get married so easily.. and repeats the same ones for herself and then asks me "don't we have a lot in common ?" .. i wonder is it by chance or design ? and whether we have a lot in common or we lacked a lot in common ? maybe it was just a coincidence....

i admire a girls dress and tell her that her dress looks beautiful and she asks me back "is it my dress that looks beautiful or me ?". coincidentally to her dismay i answer in the affirmative for the dress.. and then to make matters worse as a matter of coincidence she asks me why not her ? and i have to answer cause i cant see her at all .. the dress is all i can see ... she thinks this is the case for some other reason when all i meant to say was that the dress is so beautiful that i don't see anything else. lols.. Hail bachelorhood.. it coincides with peoples attempt to discovering the wrong meanings of your words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

i was travelling in a train .. the family on the opposite side had two daughters.. they were promptly pushed to the window as i sat towards to aisle. about five hours into the journey a discovery is made that i am about 10 years elder to them and they are allowed to change places and then five minutes later on it is known that i am still a bachelor.. and they are soon sitting cornered to the windows :) whatay coincidence to my bachelorhood.

I used to live in this small town in Gujarat called Anand and one day i meet one of my neighbours outside my bank and they introduce me to a boy .. a nephew who is in town from New Zealand.. and i wonder they have never introduced me to any nephew before.. in the late evening as coincidence will have i discover he has a sister who is to be married off....and i wonder who is more desperate for marriage "the girls parents and relatives" or "the bachelor"

I am travelling in a train and offer the seat next to me to a young girl who is standing since long due to the crowd. We hardly talk or speak and as the journey is about to get over ,she asks me if i want her phone number ! Is that coincidence or is it NOT!!!

Bachelorhood coincidentally changes the meanings of numbers.. my orkut list at a point in time had about 600 friends out of which 450 were male and 150 were female , linked had about 400 contacts out of which 70 were females and facebook had about 200 contacts out of which 60 were girls.. and yet coincidentally everyone seemed to think that i had too many females on my lists !!!

Another strange coincidence of Bachelorhood is that people remember the names of females who are your friends and the poor males are ignored and forgotten . Now this must be a coincidence.

However the high point of Bachelorhood in 21st century is being asked if i was married ..and then the next question is "how many children do you have"..i pointed out that i was unmarried and i was told that in the modern world you didn't need to be married to have children. and i wondered why they asked about marriage first and children later on and why not vice verse.. i guess only coincidence can explain this.

diclaimer: i am sure most of what i present has been experienced equally by women as well .. so bachelorhood is used in a much broader and gender neutral sense here.

Points to ponder for completing a Thesis .. you can feel good about

A Thesis can be a lot of fun .


There can be no statement as untrue as this. If you want to differ ask someone who has just tread the path.


Its a long as in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng process. There are few reasons in between to cheer , be happy or party about. There are few things to compete for (it seems). There are few guiding stars and you are unlikely to end a thesis without many guardian angels.


From the editing of chapters in the end to the conceptual diagrams at the start and the suggested readings all along, inputs to a thesis come in various shapes and sizes. Sometimes the most unexpected people give the most valuable tips and the most silly things can lead to the most valuable insights. There is however seldom an advice better than what my guide gave me early on... "The only way a building is made is brick by brick.."There is rarely something as true as this for a PhD or a full blown research.


So here is a small collection of principles for completing a Thesis you can feel good about.


a) Open up.. talk about your work.. to the right people and get their views ... while you talk .. talk less and listen more.. the only reason you want to talk is to get inputs from all possible. All research intends to ultimately find a universal law.. if yes then start with accepting universal diversity.


b) Close down...reduce the amount of diverse things you do in work and concentrate on few things.. the focus is not on diversity of things you do but on the depth and ability to complete the things that you do.. in the case of the thesis these are the various tasks of the thesis.


c) link laterally .. A thesis is a huge task like a mega project comprising of numerous small and odd tasks .. making them link up and scheduling them seems next to impossible at the start. so don't try to link up too many activities.. try to link up friends who can help you with them.. a do-it-ALL-yourself PhD is not a good idea for completion though a great idea for learning. The more you link to people the better ideas you will get and the more you will end up learning. The idea is not to do everything but be capable of doing everything yourself.


d) Having good people with whom you can share your emotions is important to complete the process. The process is like a fellowship of many different tasks and good people are the binding material.


e) You have the ups, downs, lateral links, the binders, and the filling? yes what do you fill the PhD with.. Nothing but Hard Work.


f) The PhD is a process of learning the process of doing research till you can produce a complete finished product. The stress is on learning the process... complete...finished...product.. and think if you were evaluating a thesis .. what would you want to see to convince you that it was a finished and complete and final product and that the process had been learnt on the way.. clearly the last can not be evaluated and is left to the guide so guides at times have to be harsh.. and for the same reason the examination committee gives you some amount of work to check the process learning.

g) Your THESIS will be evaluated and not YOU. so choose people to guide you towards completing a THESIS and examiners who know what to evaluate.

h) The only way to complete a Thesis is to KEEP GOING ON . Only when you keep going can you ever reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

These are neither necessary nor sufficient and neither comprehensive nor exhaustive and each one of us might add our own rules to the list..or even i may revise this in a few days time . However i expect these to be helpful to most PhD Scholars who want to feel good about their own Thesis.

I..I...am..I..= IIM I

It was a normal trip on a very well known route .. the same train .. the same destination .. the same bogie.. the start was different this time. It was Ahmedabad and not Anand.. and this time i need travel towards Mumbai from Indore only a few miles to the IIM indore campus instead of the 100 kms to kasrawad.

It was a wonderful morning except that it was earlier than the usual morning for me. There were the usual issues of not knowing if a taxi had been booked or if i had to arrange on my own , whom to contact at six on the morning but these are like the minor crease on an otherwise flat and smooth landscape.

The gate of IIM indore is built huge but in it's not so good looking condition is far from impressive but then many years back my sister had told me that IIMs are supposed to built people and not great buildings and gates. Never the less the hills of IIM Indore and the pleasant view there and the morning breeze definitely caught my fancy and my mobile was soon overworked as a camera.

The morning was extremely beautiful and it now seems as a good omen for things that were to come. Thus began a day of meeting old freinds and making new ones while meeting the director thrice. A faculty recruitment seminar thrown in between and more friends and fun times with them.. a crisis situation for a friend and a change in travel plans to work out things and a lovely lavish dinner from a friend and bhabhi that left me licking my fingers as i left the campus.

The meetings with the faculty of the economics area were freindly , open , and pretty informal making the going very smooth and nice. smiles exchanged , hands shaken and new friends made. Last but not the least was a phone call , an important one. but this is about Indore and how i see the city .. the campus is beautiful with huge spaces and hillocks and palash trees the flame the ground red as if there was a forest there :).

Indore has been an enigmatic city always for me.. a mix of the old and the new .. more like the new trying to fight the old to break free. This time too it was much the same. The shops looked similar, the roads are being constructed just as i remember them in 2003. The retail formats have moved in but either their names have changed or they have changed hands, the more swanky and flashy shopping destinations have come up. There are more avenues for the indulging consumer to indulge in behaviour that is more asssertive of money linked status than the depth of character that the city has been known for in the past.

However the city retains its past, the narrow bylanes and much more so nicely still. twain extremes are allowed to flourish together so far and that makes Indore unique apart from the little job offer that IIM Indore has offered me. I guess i have to spend more time in Indore than everyone had thought.

The Year of the "Blossoming"

For the past four years, the new years have begun customarily without resolutions and with the year being named.. as a year of... transformation - rising - making- realisation. This year must follow the tradition to be linked with the past and must add a new dimension to be a harbinger of the future.



The seed was transformed (germinated) and it 'rose' to become and then as it was 'made'.. its presence was 'realised' as a result of activities put into effect. Now the plant must blossom.. for there is no youth without blossom.. youth is a riot of colours, energy, a search for stability in constantly new things and innovations , nervous anxiety, idealistic and full of ideas of change and visions of the future and a lot of hard work .

The metaphor only indicates so must be this year.. full of various hues, energy, search for stability, innovations, nervous anxiety, idealistic and full of ideas of change and visions of the future and A LOT OF HARD WORK. the two months that have gone by for the year only confirm that this year is just that.

A mad rush to submit the defensible draft of the thesis to frantic paperwork for a trip and a chance meeting with a very dear school and college friend as a bonus in between.. things were on a roll in January. February only made it brighter more colourful and exotic but equally hectic as it saw me travel to Australia for a hectic trip along the river Murray seeing some of the most wonderful sites and meeting some of the most wonderful people and discovering some very innovative ways of trying to save and work the environment. Thanks Lin :) , Sue, Bethany, Christine, Prof Gandhi, Floriane, Marian, Alok ji, Anna and the others that we met on the way.

The 54th annual conference of the Australian Agricultural Resource Economics Society (AARES) was a pleasant break with the mini symposium for the project and me presenting some of my thesis work. the work was well received and got some nice discussion of some of the biggies and most relevant and exciting people in the field in Australia :) Indian Irrigation and its experience is sure a best seller.

The two day stopover at Bangkok was a concise tour of a almost a new world for me. The politeness of the people, their hardworking nature and the eagerness to help strangers really weaved a magic for a person like me. indeed i don't like to call myself a tourist. we, as Indians and a growing economy have a lot to learn from Thais. the secularism, the openness to strangers, the humanity is mind boggling if you can focus on it. despite being the prostitution capital of the world as some would call it, it is one of the safest place for women that i have ever come across and hats off to that:). What had me most enchanted was the simple but overarching love for beauty and artistic touch that the Thais have as their culture and still seek to espouse. Bangkok has been made a great showcase of the same.I wonder if this is true for their villages as well or is Thailand a dual existence like India.

Finally i also cleared my Thesis defense paving the way to convocate this year and finally put an end to the uncertainty that people around me have been forced to live with. So now the search is on for teaching positions which allow me to do research as well.

Coming back to a year that is one sixth gone by already.. the seed has transformed- risen- been made a plant- and its presence in the garden realised.. and now it should Blossom.

In the year of the 'Blossoming' i have visited the land of Thailand and Australia and moved much closer to my destiny by getting done and over with my PhD. Let us all enjoy the bloom ahead :)