The Patel Movement and the triple concept of Society Academics and Economics

The Patel Movement : Hypotheses Emerging

The Patels are rallying across Gujarat seeking inclusion ... ah inclusion into the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category such that they get a proportion of government jobs reserved for them as part of the OBC pool. . This is a very interesting phenomenon that needs to be looked at with the triple lens of Society - Economy - Academia .. and here is why ....

The Patels are traditionally the Landholding class - The Patidars.. the ones with the patti  or ownership etched in stone to land.  .. The ones raising this demand are in Gujarat .. a spectacularly successful state in India  in terms of economics. The success so much touted that it is virtually worshipped and in academics debated as the Gujarat model of Development. What we must keep in mind is that it is believed that over the last decade Gujarat has achieved a 10% growth rate in Agriculture. This is how academics looks at the success of the Gujarat model of development.

Try putting these three facts together and you will see an interesting anamoly emerge with every possible permutation ...needless to say if this anomaly can be resolved then it may be a big ticket way ahead for Policy making in India in times to come.

The major landholding class in Gujarat - Gujarat achieves 10% growth rate in agriculture - they demand reservations stating they are not having good opportunities ?

The three don't add up simply..if the first two are correct - the third ought to unjustified unless the profits of agriculture were usurped by business models downstream or out of the value chain rather than the farmer.. which can be a major cause of distress.. and sustained distress.. do we have another suicide capital building up despite a 10% growth rate? This is an important topic for society -economy and academics as well as policy makers who are all three rolled into one to engage in.

if the latter two are true.. then what happened ? where did the land of the patels go ? or does it mean that the growth story of Gujarat agriculture was scripted by new generation farmers red as non-traditional progressive farmers who may not have a significant land holding but who out of sheer skill have crafted a growth story of upwards of 20% on individual farms to achieve a overall agricultural growth rate of 10% . This could be an eye opener for policy makers in agriculture and rural development. This is without doubt a great topic for society -economy and academics as well as policy makers who are all three rolled into one to engage in. This has the potential to sustain India's economic growth rate at over 7% for the next two decades.

If the former and the latter are true then what is circumspect is the figure of 10% growth rate of agriculture. In this case is the figure different and if yes then it must be so abysmally different such that people have to take to streets to demand reservations for jobs with paltry salaries or are they looking with jobs with low salaries and high perks including kickbacks at times.. In this case academia has to rise to the occasion and turn a new leaf and understanding the phenomenon. this is definitely not economics alone .. rather it goes to show that economics alone is never enough.. you have to take society into account. and academia has to point out that both are to be considered else method or no method youre irrelevant in the true scheme of things .. where the real world is .. and the matrix of academics has to choose wisely between the real world and the virtual matrix of seeming reality.

Deciding to come back to the blog and to split it up .. one personal blog and one more professional  blog.

The personal blog will therefore be more guarded and about my life in general and more about my relationship with my daughter as she grows up and our musings ..

The Professional one will increasingly be about two things - rural marketing and livelihoods - but in general about rural life.

Hope you will like to visit them and read the experiences and musings and gain from knowing about rural India which we rarely do we engage with and about a father and his daughter again a relationships which is rarely talked about and rarely understood correctly. more myths than reality seem to abound it .. as they are personal views they will have heavy bias and personal touch :)

Looking forward to resurrect , reconnect and renew life and its knowledge

Lessons for Rural Marketing from Delhi Elections 2014 and the way AAP fought it

This is a post dedicated to one of my gurus on rural marketing Sanjay Panigrahi​

What academicians and rural marketeers need to learn from Delhi Elections  2014..

1. Business as usual is always a strong alternative. Dont ignore it. 
The AAP moved closer to politics as usual - candidate selection (dodgy pasts) , maybe liquor and cash rewards (unconfirmed so far) ...fighting elections the way other parties fight it .

2. To innovate , go back to the drawing board.. 
Innovation for rural areas and the BoP segment in urban areas ( the electorate largely in delhi) needs new designs to be served..drop caste .. drop poverty don't idea talk development.. show tangible benefits - subsidies included ...security (women) modern amenities (wi-fi) , but more so an ability of the politician to get back on the dirt tracks of the real world away from the media and the ability to connect to the real masses who are not otherwise customers to markets, media and increasingly ignored by the government despite being consumers of services of all four.

3. To resegment the market 
The fault line is no more between the BoP and the RoP  (Rest of the Pyramid) but somewhere different.. there is need for a new segmentation that is not  hierarchical or linear.. security (women) , modern amenities (free wi-fi) , traditional urban amenities (water and electricity bill) , service based segmentation rather than age or caste based. especially realise that we don't have a unified culture or a single dominant culture in many parts of India .. we are still about diversity than dominance of singularity.

4. in the absence of clarity do not keep all eggs in one basket ..
resegment , redraw to innovate, use business as usual  use multiple strategies in an intensive focus to get benefits (multiple strategies within a cluster)

5. To focus intensively and learn before you expand..
Delhi had important lessons to teach before AAP can even think of expansion.. this intensive focus is essential for integration of marketing strategy.

6. to appeal to basic needs and qualities of human existence -
no not development but even more basic honesty , a corruption free framework, community feeling and collectivisation, the ability to listen rather than speak , and an earnestness that generates trust from people . ( all of these may be debatable but the lessons are there at least at the perception level) - especially important for rural marketeers.. for designing marketing communication

Ivanshika - By the grace of God

Dear Ivanshika


This is perhaps the easiest and most difficult blog i will ever write.

Today you complete one month and i reminisce the beauty of this time with you filling the space reserved for you between your mom and me.  I want to tell you how you have made life beautiful in so many ways for us and so many in our families and near and dear ones. First thing you should always know and feel good about is that this month has been full of love and blessings for you and you will never be short of them my little angel. today i will only talk about how much you packed for me in those moments when i first saw you and held you in my arms..

The morning you arrived you changed so much in life. you changed what i was .. what your mom was and what your grandparents were before that.

The first moments were full of anxiety when i awaited your arrival and your mom was in the Operation Theater. In those few moments you re-taught me Faith as the answer to all anxiety.

In the moments that followed you taught me that Anxiety fades to give way to excitement .. and i cant tell you how excited i was to be the first one to look at my lovely little one out side the delivery room and how much i wanted to hold you in may arms and tell how much love was overflowing from me.

Excitement is difficult to conceal within and i had to share it with those who matter to me and you taught me one more reason why family is always family.

Excitement was followed by a wait .. Wait looks longer when your waiting but totally fades away once the wait is over.. and i was overwhelmed with love .. Love for my little one and her mother who had seen through so much anxiety and discomfort  to make you a living joy for us forever.

This is most important about those first few moments my dear - i was least interested in how you looked .. whether you took my looks or your moms.. i was not interested if u were fair or dark....i was practically least interested if you were a girl or a boy.. All that came to my mind was .. This is God's grace and i wished to know if you were healthy and doing well. The rest did not matter and it never will.. in that moment you taught me all that matters is if you do well and you remain healthy dear. So Always remember these will be least and most basic expectations your father will ever have from you. the rest all will be truly optional for us. To me you are a flower that i will always behold and protect and this is why i might appear conservative to you at times. But i will always be happy if you blossom and not otherwise dear.

When i first picked you up my lovely little angel.. you taught me responsibility .. your well being was my responsibility as long as i held you. I was responsible for you and i will continue to be always. In that moment as i moved with you in my arms i discovered that i needed to be careful myself to be able to care for you.

As your Nani and Masi looked at you ..and as i talked to you ba-dada the responsibility eased out and the joy returned.. cause family will support when u need it and that takes responsibility away so you can enjoy your joys and happiness with full wanton.

I was afraid to touch you and lift you cause in my mind i thought you would be so delicate that i might hurt you.. but love is what makes us soft and rough ..and love is what softened me to hold u so dear to me and the serenity in your face was the most comforting sight ever for me cause i somehow knew you sensed you were so comfortable in my hands.

All this soon was taken up into another thing you re-taught me .. your birth wasn't the end of a nine month long wait.. it was the beginning of a long journey for all of us .. you me your mom and your grandparents and the lovely family around us- all for you. To serve us well in this journey we quickly went about to collecting blessings for you while you were taken by the nurses to observe your vital signs.

Love you lots Ivanshika.. you are very special for us .. truly the Grace of God.. His Beauty!!!

Gandhi- Why i want to remember him today

There is no surprise in remembering MK Gandhi today. Its his birth anniversary today and it is only fashionable in intellectual circle to use his name either by name-dropping or using it to effect. However, today is a genuine desire to write about my thoughts about him and my following of him.

I am no Gandhian by far. I am not even a staunch believer in his ideology or ideals. It is not that i have not tried but i have tried and often failed to come close to him but have been attracted to his persona in more ways than one. It is this substance that i want to talk about here.

MK Gandhi was introduced to me , as he is to every Indian child, as the Father of the Nation, The one man who almost single-handed led the nation to independence through the early half the last century. He first struck to me as a Man who did a lot for a nation - one of the biggest nation's in the world even then. This could be done only when someone was larger than the self and had subdued his Ego. This was my first impression of Gandhiji. A little later i learnt the concept of a hero and i discovered that Gandhiji was a hero in the true sense cause he led a scattered nation. A nation scattered by geography  castes, classes, rulers of princely states, religions, faiths and beliefs, cultures, languages and occupations. Gandhiji successfully led this Scattered nation to give us one whole .. a holistic India. HE suddenly appeared inhuman to me. a HERO. He was a modern day Sankaracharya who was omnipresent in every nook and corner of the country.

Gandhiji was becoming larger then life for me when i learnt of the story of the little boy who used to eat a lot of jaggery and Gandhiji being unable to give him advice as he himself was fond of sweets.. the humility and simplicity of Gandhiji was the next feature that made me realize here was a man who retained his simplicity of the heart and yet rose to become Great and a leader in terms of thoughts, people and nations. for the first time in my life i believed that it was possible to be simple and great at the same time.

As i grew up and joined an engineering college , i was introduced to terms like Gandhian Philosophy and Gandhian Economics and for the first time became aware that here was a man who was deeply academic , well read and truly knowledgeable. What made Gandhiji stand out for me was that he was a man of wisdom whose knowledge did not start nor did it end with theory but was always put to use in practice in matters of everyday life as easily as in matters of extraordinary circumstances. Unknowingly Gandhiji had taught me that  if i cant put to use a knowledge i have it is pretty much useless to myself first before it is to anyone else.

As i completed engineering , as fate would have it no way else , i was offered a job 15 kms away from the land of Gandhiji's birth Porbandar. There my weekly outings for sanity and escape from the drudgery of Job were to Porbandar and often to the Home of Gandhiji now converted into a museum  I started buying his books and reading some of them and i was introduced to Gandhi , the author and thinker and researcher in action. I fell in love with his clarity and style. he would introduce a phenomenon and then immediately delve into its many aspects clearly listing each and then belaboring to list the various dimensions in each of the listed aspects. the meticulousness could not be escaped and i fell for it . I had learnt the difference between a thinker and a thought leader. Only later i realized i was only starting to learn that difference. I still hold his meticulousness at writing with crisp clarity and simple language and sentences as my ideal.

The visits to that home and followed by visits to many libraries where his works were stored including visits to the sabarmati and kochrab ashram in Ahmedabad left me amazed - a man with more than ten thousand volumes of meticulously written works that were crisply conceptualized and molded into simple words and sentences of at least three different languages. How on earth could a man who was a public figure like him manage to achieve so much ? Those were the days without computers and rapid technology and yet this achievement is almost unparalleled today.

These are the small nuggets and many such similar nuggets join to create a halo around this person that i see him in a different light and revere him for what he was and what he has helped so many people to be. In a way i ask myself would i write this blog so freely if it were not for him and the independence struggle ?

To sum it up. Even today when someone talks to me about "Äction-research" i acn actualyl think of no better example than  the Father of the Indian Nation - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and in that he taught me why he said "My life is my message."

Musings from the Year Going by

Musings from the Year going by

This year is about germination and to an academic germination must be synonymous with thoughts and a lot of thinking .. So this year has been about a lot of thoughts up in my head and they continue to dance day in and out up there.

Thoughts about reframing and focusing where i ought to ..  India and the knowledge and wisdom that has existed here for a long time and how NEW but similar wisdom must be created to tackle situations and catapult the country and more importantly society into a new but correct direction. I call this the need for indigenous wisdom. It has been bothering me for quite some time and i am trying to build a group of like-minded individuals fro a collaborative set-up on this.

There are thoughts about this one input in life and its multiple metaphors possible - WATER. This has been on the mind for some time and small beginnings were made and then have been sort of cold for some time but a lot more needs to be done and soon this kettle will be brewing up a lot.

There are thoughts about the spirit of the individual amidst situations of collective irresponsibility and apathy. this leads me to the thoughts on entrepreneurship in agriculture and the general  apathy that some sensitive individuals in my generation are worried about - the rural-urban divide and many such divides.  These thoughts have precipitated into action that has seen me launch two electives in as many years at IIMA (http://www.iimahd.ernet.in)  as a faculty . Last year i made a beginning with "Agricultural Entrepreneurship" as an elective for the students of the Agri-Business Program and followed it up this year with "Bridging the Rural Urban Divide" (BRUD) for the PGP or MBA students in General Management.

Yes there will be questions and thoughts on how broad and deep is my definition and coverage of Agri-Entrepreneurship and that will be an area of concern for me always. That is essentially a quest that is best defined by the curiosity. i worked for about two years to figure out that there was very little relevant material that existed in this sphere especially if i were focusing on India and would usually confuse itself with a) BoP markets and b) Agri-business and worst of all be devoured by c) Social Entrepreneurship.  The latter being my fear because almost half of social entrepreneurship is in the Agriculture domain and often does well for society but not enough for Agriculture cause it is seen more as Social than as Agricultural Entrepreneurship. This does not really help the domain of agricultural or the people involved in it and as such became the cause to salvage Agricultural Entrepreneurship from Social Entrepreneurship and merge it only where it made sense.

I also anticipate more questions about BRUD starting with if it is about BoP markets.

In this blog piece i think i can take on only this one question. BRUD is not really about markets at the surface or by the looks of it. However it is every bit about a large chunk of BoP markets as it takes a Sociological Orientation mixed with Management Objectivity and Economic Rationality and tries to learn more from Tacit Knowledge than hard coded Explicit Knowledge. It is also about psychology and Individual Dynamics as it is about Organization Behavior and Institution Building and therefore contributes to Consumer Behavior and Segmentation for various BoP markets.despite this It also takes a holistic perspective and doesn't look at Rural areas as only markets or suppliers but looks at them as both supply sources as well as possible markets. The same is true for Urban areas. But this is what the homo-economicus in us wants us to understand. This is also about different world views and multiple divides that separate the rural and the urban areas of the world and India in specific. It is also about various aspects of each of these divides but integrates them into interconnected Divides. This is the challenge that we look at in the first half of the course.

The second half talks about some broad solutions at present. More broad than deep at present as the deeper solutions are more complex to understand and also so specific at times that they don't really make an impact at the holistic level. The second half of the course picks up 7-8 such approaches and these are discussed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each .

The course ends with the project presentation that runs parallel to the teaching.

I guess this is good germination as of now but the nurturing is yet to take root.

Welcoming the Year of the Growth

This comes in very late for a year that might be so important.. but better late than never.. this continues my tradition of naming every year and working it around a theme and that helps me organize my life. A quick recap on this :-

2006 - The year of the 'Transformation'
2007- The year of the 'Rising'
2008 - The year of the 'Making'
2009 - The year of the 'Realization'
2010 - The year of the 'Blossoming'
2011 - The year of the 'Consolidation'

and now it is only likely that after consolidating .. new life and new beginnings ought to be made in this year.. and yet there has to be a precursor to growth. This year can be nothing but the year of the 'GERMINATION'.

'Germination' arises from preparation and also sowing of seeds and irrigating them . The Vedas says that new life is created only when fire and water come together . Thus this act of germination is going to be interesting for the times to come. What we sow is what we reap and out of what we sow .. we germinate few ...and even fewer see the light of day and grow into something tangible and productive later on with time.

Germination is therefore the cusp for the past and the future and is firmly the present and this is how i can expect this to be. However, Germination can be a lot more and can be described in many other ways as well and only time will tell how this turns out to be in actual apart from expectations. It is this very uncertainty about germination and life that fascinates me as a cause for evolution and therefore survival. I am also eager to learn what changes in this process necessary for survival and being poised for growth.

I look forward to new beginnings which might be small but are connected to the strong branches of the past and grow to become the strong branches of the future.

To sum it up, Germination can be representative of precursor to growth, life , evolution, survival and success, and a cusp between the past and the present. Germination also represents a lot of fulfillment of hope and faith and leads to expectations. Only Time will tell how this goes for me and all those with me..

Report Card for the Year of the CONSOLIDATION

I think i had something in mind when started this year and decided to call it the year of the CONSOLIDATION. This year has been lot different than what was expected of it by many around me. Precisely what i had in my mind is what makes it so different from people's expectations. Having said that i submit the report card for the year of the Consolidation hereby.

I completed my shift from IIM Indore to IIM Ahmedabad in January -February amidst a brief trip home to be with my parents on thier 40th Marriage Anniversary. Only this time i wasnt alone and i was home with my wife, their daughter-in-law. I reaffirmed within me that pleasures of life are not only mostly non-economic they are also emotional in character. Common Sense will tell that Pleasure is an emotion of sort.

The IIMA story has been sort of revelaing itself slowly and the year was defintely less ventful than the year at IIM Indore :). I taught one course (management of agri-inputs) and am teaching another one that i have developed as a new elective - agricultural entrepreneurship.


This is proving to be an interesting journey as it is very cose to grounded theory involving generation of transmitable knowledge as close to the phenomenon as possible. The classes are largely in a workshop mode.


Work apart from teaching saw me fnially get my case on KNIDS green pvt. lts pubslihed at the Indore Management Journal. I am already working on two more cases - one on Jain Irrigation Systems Limited as an Indian company that has gone global. The other case is about a Farm mechanisation project which is a partnership between the DSAG (Development Support Agnecy of Gujarat) , John Deere and NGOs in 4 districts. This might also expand into a bouquet of cases on entrepreneurship, PPP, New Development project managment for NGOs, and tapping of hitherto untapped markets for marketeers and manufacturers.

The year also saw a project proposal on studying the consrvation impact vis-a-vis the water utilisation impact and economic impact of micro irrigation systems being accepted. This is slated to start soon as well but the action will happen in 2012. apart from this the year saw me and my colleague and teacher prof. Gandhi develop three chapters for the India Infrastructure Report for the policy group of IDFC.

This year Also saw me being invited to a group of researchers brought together by Ford Foundation and Prof. MS Sriram inducted me into it to take a closer look at NRLM and it has developed ino a huge learning exercise for me abut government systems, livelihoods and rural management and developemtn as such.

I made some progress finally with the help of Rini in doing data entry for a study on happiness and MBA students which is still in its infancy but shaping well. I also made some progress on a data set in hindi on decision making by farmers. This year also saw two Independent Projects by Students - one on Organic food and elasticity of consumers choices and the second one on the hybrid seed sector using a system dynamics model. The Year also saw a paper presented in a conference in US on development of a framework for anti corruption and transparency led governance change at grassroots in three Eastern States.

On a personal Note, i tried to collect the results of the social project in greetings but the results are incomplete and what has been compiled has not been either stated very crisply by me or it has not clicked with the readers as per their feedback. This year also leaves with a wish left unfulfilled of taming my Temperament and the passionate me is still at unease with the logical me and the fight within continues. I was also unable to connect to as many old friends as i wanted and was unable to take over a 500 year old scroll of genealogy. That sums the year that has gone by and it closed on a note of a ranking of our PGP-ABM (Post Graduate Program in Agri-Business Management) as the best of its kind in the world by Eduniversal.

Overall This was a year to consolidate my development of the past.

Yeh.... Aaj ki Zindagi

ek khwaish si hai zindagi..
ek aazmaayish si hai zindagi..
kisi hod mein fasi hui si hai zindagi...
rukk ar sisakti si hai zindagi..
daud kar thakti si hai zindagi..
ek aazmayish si hai zindagi ..
ek khwaish si hai zindagi

gar khwaish ho puri ..
to khushi ki fuhaar si hai zindagi...
aazmayish ke baad na ho haath khali...
to aksar ek numaish si hai zindagi...
daud mein niklo aage..
ek tamge mein samayi si hai zindagi..
aur kinara kar ke dekho to..
aksar insaan ki ghulam hai zindagi..

ek nirantar dhara si firbhi hai zindagi..

dhara jaisi khud ko nirantar naya banati hai zindagi..
ek nashe si bhi hai zindagi...
kyun ki har nas nas meni rahti aur bahti hai zindagi...
har din suraj si aati hai ek nayi zindagi..
aur chand si sheetal chandni andhere mein deti hai zindagi..
chandni mein sapne piroti hai yeh zindagi..
ek khwaish si hai yeh zindagi

V.B. 15th November - 20th November, 2011

the field of management and the affective domain ..how insensitive!!!

We talk about professionals need to be logic oriented and not emotional.. and then we only crib that they don't bring any "passion" into their job..
tell me o wise businessman and academicians.. when did 'passion' cease to be an emotion ?

ek aane ka sach..

main sirf ek aana hoon.. aaj ka zamana rupye aur paison ka hai.. main isme ak aana hoon...
aise to zamane ko meri koi zaroorat nahi mehsoos hoti lekin jab logon ke paas kisi naye shahar mein thoda samay hota hai to museum mein jakar mujhe dekhna man kafi khushi hoti hai.. mujhe dekhte hue.. nawvadhu ka haath uska pati pakd leta hai aur dono mein romance ho jata hai..
mujhe dekhte hue gusse se alag thalag hue dampatti bhi ekdoosre ke paas akar apni ekta ko jagruk kar gussa pee jate hain ..
mujhe dekhte hue kitne Boyfreind apni girlfreind ko kissa sunate hue "patate" hain...
thik waise hi jaise kisi chote bachche ke ma baap use meri kahani suna kar rijhate hain..

par main ek display mein band item matra hoon.. shanti se ek sthir bhaav se sab kcuh mahsoos karta hoon . dekhte hoon samajhta hoon .. lekin kuch kahta nahi.. gir kar awaaz karta hoon ya takra kar.. lekin use koi na to sunta hai aur na samajhta hai...main chup chap apni jagah mein pada rahoon tabhi achcha hooon...

mere saamne jo aata hai woh meri banavat and dhalti umar ko dekh kar apna man banata hai .. ki main dekhne layak hoon ya uske samay ki barbaadi hoon.. aakhir main sirf ek aana hoon...

waise majboori mein bade kaam ki cheez hoon.. bechne par apni rupye mein keemat se zyada hi laata hoon kyun ki main antique hoon.. aur kafi achche dhatu se bana hoon isliye "thos" hooon ..agar kuch na ho to mujhe bech kar kahin bhi fit kr ke kafi kaam ban sakta hai.. suna hai kayi automatic locks mere kone se ghumne par khul jate hain.. main kaam pade to aise hi tale kholne wali chaabhi hoon.. lekin agar mueseum main qaid hoo to sirf ek item matra hoon.

waise socho to is duniya mein sabhi buddhe aur purane logon ka yahi haal hain. item matra hain.. sab kuch dekhte hain samajhte hain .. lekin kh kuch nahi sakte.. jab tak apni jaagh baithe hue hain tabhi tak achche hain.. uske siwa waqt ki barbaadi hain.. aur haan waqt pade to kafi kaam ki cheez hote hain khas kar jab chote bachchon ko palna ho.. unki dekh rekh karni ho aur unhe kuch sikhana ho..ie automatic locks ke liye main ek mast chabhi hooon.. kyun ki logon ki apni chabhiyan to aaj ki bhag daude mein kab kahan gir kar kho gayi kisi ko bhi pata nahi....

buddha samjho ya antique main sirf ek aana hoon..waise kaam aata hoon to main sirf "anna" hoon

Captain Cool and Public not so cool..!!!

I have been interested in that phrase called 'Captain Cool' coined for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is definitely an icon like no other, sharing space with Tendulkar yet so commanding in his presence that he stands taller. However the recent spate of criticism of Captain Cool has led me to think of why are we as Fans and public not so cool.

The captain was 'cool' when his attitude to risk taking paid off and won us matches , series and tournaments.. He is the one who brought stability to the captaincy of the team and to the team.. do we remember how we had the best individual players and managed to lose so many series and matches when we were poised for victory. He and Saurabh Ganguly are to be credited to make us believe that we can do it as a team. They stand out.. they took some risks and they excelled. Risks by nature will not work out all the time. Ganguly took risks and didnt work out. This series the risks of Dhoni did not seem to work.

Isnt it all part of the plan.. you keep taking risks.. and you keep learnign to take better risks.. and take risks better...but if the personality of the captain is about taking risks .. he will and he should continue to..cause that is what works for him. You stop him from taking risks and we lose one of the best players across the various fromats of the game from the infant T20 to the over aged Tests. A player who probably comes second in consistence to Rahul Dravid in the last half decade. A record of consistency better than even Tendulkars at number 7 down !

for me clearly the captain is cool.. he has give us the team of tomorrow... ajinkya rahane.. murali vijay...suresh raina.... virat kohli....Rohit Sharma....r ashwin ... Ravindra Jadeja...R P Singh..Sreesanth.. and more importantly he has made them play together as one unit.. which was difficult even when the greatest of individual players ramped up the Indian team together in a group of 11.

To me the captain has a more long term focus than most critics and analysts of the game can have.. he has made us think.. what beyond the world cups and the best coaches and the best individuals players... ask yourself .. Do you think Team India can be a world winning side without Tendulkar / Dravid and Srinath and who takes the credit for enabling that..

Take it from me.. The Captain is Cool.

Hope is a subtle glutton

Emily Dickinson had written

"Hope is a subtle Glutton
He feeds upon the fair;
And yet, inspected closely,
What abstinence is there!

His is the halcyon table
That never seats but one,
And whatsoever is consumed
The same amount remains"

Little did i expect to see a mass explanation of this ever in my life. But i am only lucky to see it so. How many of us had ever expected this to be the result of the movement against corruption led by Anna Hazare vouching for the Lokpal bill ?
Yes the answer is not that we had not, But not so surprisingly the answer is that yes most of the common man worried about corruption had thought that this will happen - a middle path shall emerge and the country shall stand united against corruption.

There is no point to doubt that the country today and actually the society stands united against corruption. whether we are or we are not for or we are still considering where to be for on the lokpall bill, we are all definitely against corruption and stand united in an effort to take the first step. An Individual taking a step ahead had no hope but a huge mass of people like India (which is practically like a continent in itself given the diversity and vastness we have) move together .. who will feel afraid? being on in such a mass can only give hope.
Gandhiji was the first one to realise the combined power of mass of people and non-violence. Anna ji has proved that it is not a ghost of the past but a living giant of the present times and of probably many more centuries to coming ahead.

Hope it was that bound us together in this movement from a corrupt society where the head is not held high to a society where the head is not only held high but also is allowed to work in peace. This is the dream of hope.

Hope is that we will be able to create the space and willingness towards this goal / dream. Hope is that we will be able to stand tall and hold hands together and not let this huge movement go in vain. Hope lies in our collective being and collective fate as in Ramlila ground we saw not only young IIM and IRMA alumni from metropolitan cities rub shoulders with illiterate and octogenarian members of the movement from hinterlands like Gorakhpur and Nalanda. In this Hope against corruption , i have hope for the disappearance of the differences that fissure our society into oneness of holding our head high.

So this is a toast to Hope, Oneness in society ( India) and ability to connect between different Indians (members of society).

Another Day of Rain and Another Terrible Night..

As it continues to rain continuously for the 4th day in ahmedabad.. almost incessant rain..i am happy to be in at home..and as i sip that one wisp of smoking sip of tea from my saucer .. i am transported back to one eventful night which changed many things in my life.. it is that one night that movies are made on and this story is no less..only this night and story won't get people to pay money to watch as a movie until shyam benegal steps in ..

i was a young kid wanting to do something in this world and wanted to work on the set of rural problems as the world was gearing to move into the next century based on IT and computers..i had taken admission into IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand.. http://www.irma.ac.in/) and was promptly as per schedule left in a village for a week to learn about the environment that IRMAns are supposed to work for and understand if i could survive. I was alotted to stay with Haribhai in his village .. in his home.. and this home was a kuccha hut made of cow dung with two cots and a few utensils and clothes.. haribhai worked as an agricultural labourer and did not own farming implements. He was the only one in bhangi colony of the village who had successfully passed the high school exam but owned no land. His father decided to give all his landholding which was very meagre to his elder brother who was illiterate thinking haribhai would land a job. he landed none and was forced to work as an agri labourer.

The first night was alsmot like eco-tourism as in the gujarati hot summer night i got to sleep on a cot under a neem tree with the breeze soothing me.. i knew i had made the right choice to join IRMA and work for the rural areas of the country.

The second night was more eventful, we started on our cots outside the hut and under the neem tree but the breeze was cooler and more moist. after about an hour when i had barely slept for about half an hour.. there was a drop that fell on me..i was so pleased.. i have always been fond of getting drenched in the rain on every opportunity irrespective of whether health allowed it or not. i still continue to be so. My happiness increased porportionally to the number of drops falling on me and my heart was ever so romantic and i wanted to write a poem.

Five minutes later as the rain got more dense and the droplets increased in size my host came running and haribhai called out "lets take the cot inside you wont survive a night full of rain outside gettign wet!".

and then it hit me.. and do you know what hit me.. take a moment to think about it.. feel it and imagine yourself there..

A night with nowhere to go and take shelter.. and its raining.. all drenched all night long.. no warm cozy room or heater .. no warm drying with towels .. no escape from the rain.. damn.. i was already thinking of rain as a capturer and i wanted to escape it. haribhai and i moved the cots inside and i for the first time got to know that out of the five cots that were put up under the tree only two were 'owned' by haribhai. suddenly the cot was a really big asset as it was the license to stay dry the whole night. wait..staying dry to survive the night was that what i was thinking? survival? in something called rain? we have always loved it.. we have always danced in rain dances.. and i am talking of survival in the rain..

inside the hut we got down to putting the cots only to realise there werent enough leaves on the thantched roof, the dust storm in the day had blown some away and now the hut was a huge leaking bathtub and the cow dug -mud mixture had started to turn into a sludge on the floor where it was bright and clean and savi ben (haribhai's wife) had cleaned it to perfection. she took a great deal of pride in keeping her home clean despite her poverty. we moved the cots to the east and the west and then 20 degrees to the north we rotate it and nothing helps..there is still water falling on the cots. While we are busy positiong cots to sleep, savi ben is positiong the limited utensils of home to capture water and protect the cow dung sludge flooring of the hut or she will have to do it again but only when the water would dry. Finally we placed the cot in a position we thought the least amount of water was coming to it and was likely to come even if it rained the whole night.

this had taken an half hour to position to cots.. and now haribhai wanted me to sleep on a cot while saviben and their three kids aged 5, 3, and 1.5 would sleep on the other cot and yes for the record.. there was no privacy for saviben or the family.. i as a stranger had no option but to stay that night in that hut .. first i felt awkward to sleep on a cot next to a couple sleeping and i could'nt give them privacy... second i felt bad at how unequal the world was. . i had one cot to myself and they were five humans to one cot. i requested haribhai to lend me the kids for the night so that they may sleep in my cot while he and saviben managed on the other cot. yes these were cots and not king size double beds.

after an hour and half of bargaining .. thanks to the indian hospitality which defeats reason and logic for emotion and tradition hands down.. haribhai was convinced by me to 'lend' me two kids for the night. it was really touching that in such adverse conditions haribhai thought of hospitality to his guest.. (sadly this guest was me and i was feeling guilty of being there at that moment as a guest). i for once never thought about the mission of IRMA or going where i was needed versus rewarded.

so the ordeal happened but did not end here.. i first positioned myself so that no water fell on me as i slept on the cot and haribhai would not have the arrangement in any other way. then the two kids who were borrowed by me for the night came into the cot in positions so that minimum water fell on them or if possible no water fell on them. in less than five minutes they had hugged me like little kids will when they want to keep warm and i was happily asleep with my loan of "two" kids for the night.

That nightful of rain, the fact of having nowhere to escape rain , and that fateful 'loan' of two kids taught me what POVERTY was. i for the first time understand what dr. kurien meant when he had told us "Go where you are needed and not where you are best rewarded". i understood a need that night.. the need of LIFE and HOPE because i wanted to see a morning SUN after a rainy night.

i hope Saviben and Haribhai are doing good in life and their kids are getting educated.

An Experimentation in Real life - Part II

In part I we had a prologue, an introduction and a description to the experimentation in real life. As indicated by the comments of few readers they are eagerly awaiting the results. Those who join midway can get to the start here http://vitalenergy.blogspot.com/2011/03/experimentation-in-real-life-part-i.html

Well First let me state that those were not only experiments.. they are based on my belief that such wishes have the potential to have a good effects and hence i put my beliefs on the anvil of judgement. So neither were those who received them guinea pigs nor were the wishes only experiments. i believed in every single wish i sent and i start to present how my belief fared with the results.

Many People will say that a simple good day or good morning will be a passing greetings and will have no impact on how a day really goes.. here comes the twist.. add a message to reason how to make the day good or why the day might be good.. so the greetings now becomes.. "starting the day with smiles brings smiles back .. have a good day with many smiles" seems silly yet simple..
and this seems to work.. it evokes response from most who receive the wishes.. even if it is for courtesy sake of etiquette..It means that people are reading these messages...

Result No. 1: Most people are open to positive ideas..irrespective of gender..

many friends in random discussions had remarked that such responses are more common from a particular gender . my experience says otherwise..irrespective of gender people are reading such messages.. this still leaves open how the interpretations and responses can be different according to gender but thats a matter to be dealt later.. for now.. People do read and are open to positive ideas.. thats good news for the world around us.

Some people are perplexed and even ask the meaning of the message if its not so simple or if its counter-intuitive..now thats wow!.. People not only skim they actually read and try to understand!

Result no. 2 : People are trying to find ways to give positive ways a chance

now that's too far a conclusion from what i mentioned above but ill tell you how i make that conclusion and you can decide if its fair or not.. when people ask meaning they also tend to discuss what they had initially thought when they first read and if its conditional or more true universally and stuff like this..All these discussions have a common underlying thing about them.. people are searching for universal truths in good and positive statements.. the quest for goodness in human beings may be subdued but it is not over.

Now to dampen all that positive spirit. Most of the times the people who ask for the meanings or appreciate the status or like the thought are the same bunch of people .. about 30 percent of those who receive the messages.. maybe not everyone is searching for the positive thought.. actually try looking at it in a different way .. .like this..

Result No. 3 If you are looking for positive things you try really hard to find them and often find a way to find the positive energy around yourself

i have put this in bold because this is an important result and the one that needs to be critiqued the most. generally the same set of people replying in a similar manner.. that is definitely a pattern of behaviour.. maybe a trait in these people that they all share.. to that extent they are similar individuals.. well they are all trying to figure out the meaning of positive statements.. maybe even some random statements.. they are seeking the truth behind them and that means a lot. My experience and this is where you may disagree ..and feel free to do so.. is that they are more inclined towards positive energy than negative energy or in negating the statements .. the latter are likely to ignore the statements and the wishes.. and even more so after pointing out their flaw once or twice especially when in close succession. so here is the twist.. there is some reason to see they look at the wishes and statements as positive. there is a lot of reason to believe they are trying to uncover the truth .. and the two add up to individuals who are interested in showing that positive energy is a truth and it works..

ill close this blog here.. on a very positive note.. lets sum the results..

Result No. 1: Most people are open to positive ideas..irrespective of gender..
Result no. 2 : People are trying to find ways to give positive ways a chance
Result No. 3 If you are looking for positive things you try really hard to find them and often find a way to find the positive energy around yourself

and i build my own inference from all these... I am part of a network of individuals who are inclined towards positive energy and the positive aspects of existence.

so till then keep chewing and keep reading and ill present more results from the experiments.

An Experimentation in Real Life - part I

As a young boy i did not read but learnt from people around me - the story of my experiments with truth.

in retrospect, the Mahatma has had a profound effect on me . Maybe not so much in being an ascetic but definitely in terms of beng foolhardly or having the courage to say the right thing sometimes even at the wrong moments. Also in terms of experimenting with life and its various facets only to learn more and more about it and myself.


I grew up constantly hearing people complain that the fast pace and eroding value system of life was rapdily transforming people into more inhuman mehcanical living beings rather than being emotinal beings with a quotient for societal and relational existence. I decided to experiment like Gandhi. Can one individual make a difference? The believers say Yes and the non-believers say Impossible and to me the confused individual it was a puzzle that i had to try to solve.


I put myself in the shoes of an individual everyone would judge. I became the experiment myself to reduce any side effects if any affecting anyone else who would be the subject to the minimum. I put myself on the anvil to be judged because that would reveal the true character of the people of the world in close measure to me.

I decided on a simple activity.. small to be almost unnoticeable and an optional activity for all of us and yet placed at a time of the day that it had the ability to impact manifold events of the day.

I decided to send "Good Morning" wishes to some individuals to see what happened. I chose this because since my childhood i like to wish people and i saw the incidence of wishing and greeting each other reducing around me and it is one small thing i want to revive around me.


At this moment many of those reading this can relate to my good morning and good day wishes that i send online or at times over the sms. Yes these small wishes are the treatment in the experiment. I started by wishing some people regulrly good morning and some also good night through emails. This was strange for many to receive nothing in an email apart from just "good morning have a nice day". It almost felt like spam for many. the responses to the wishes are interesting and make for a separate follow up blog on its own lest this on gets to be too long.


So after almost ten years of running this experiment what do i feel and how has it gone.. ? I wish this was an easy queston to answer.. the very fact that it has taken 10 years to answer reveals a lot. what started as simple wishes has seen many versions and multiple forms also.


The wishes can be sent online through email , through yahoo or gtalk messenger , through social network sites like facebook and twitter. The wishes can also take the mode of the mobile either from the handheld itself or through the internet through sites which give free delivery to mobiles for text messages within a limit.

Thus there are multiple people , multiple modes delivery, and one treatment .. and mutiple interpretations.. we will talk about each of these separately one by one in the following blogs..in the meantime feel free to send your interpretation of the wishes if you were receiving them.

The need for Systems Processes and strong Institutions

Today Everyone is talking about the ouster of Mohd. Yunus from Grameen Bank. Most of the discussion is judging its righteousness or the lack of it. My thoughts drift to a different reality. What do i learn from this event? a learning that stays with me for long.

Most young entrepreneurs entering the development / social / rural space in emerging markets and economies rarely realise what it really means when they say that there are so many other factors apart from performance that matter in order to survive and be sustainable. Politics and the burden of history or morality might be the most frequent or they might not, however the events of Bangaldesh and Grameen Bank highlight the need for systems , processes and strong institutions to effect development (whatever your definition of development might be) and the amelioration of people and thier lives.

Assume that Grameen Bank delivered a required service to some people of Bangladesh. ( please not i have not even claimed they are poor or needy). Also assume that the need for the service remains. What do events like the ouster of Mohd. Yunus mean for these people ? you can make your choice out of the options given below

a) uncertainty of whether the services will be the same or not.. for some if the services will be continued at all.
b) uncertainty if Grameen Bank will remain afloat and if so the uncertainty if their own investment and activities with the bank are safe or not. its an uncertainty of both the future as well as the risk exposure.
c) Loss of an inspiring figure and strong brand ambassador for Grameen bank and its services. This is likely to lead to another agency to deliver the same services and in an emerging economy the search costs can be susbtanital and the chances of committing an error high.
Given these three instinctive reactions from people. Do we realise that the strongest human instinct will stem from uncertainty of Future and the Financial and business risk they are exposed to ( some can read business risk as livelihood risk depending on the dependance on microfinance and Grameen for the respective livelihood).

If the unceratinty is about the future and the risk.. due to the sudden change in leadership..Do we need more evidence to see that leadership alone is not the best form of governance. It is clear that a governance system which survives beyond the individual leader, the larger than life founding father is an absolute must. How do we generate such non-indivudal leadership and directioning capability in an institution?

The answer is in making the Institution adaptive - capable of absorbing shocks like a crisis of individual leadership and resilient to be efficient and reduce the risk exposure of the clients. My Thesis is about creating such adaptiveness in institutions. ( you can get the same from this link...http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/library/ )one of the points that i highlight is the need for complete structures so that there is not one leader but more individuals are forced to come together and collectively work for the institution.

The open processes provide both flexibility and continuity by defining the routine procedures and leaving the speical requests to discretion. The binding force is nothing but a strong institution which is larger than the founder or the paternal / maternal individual leader. Suddenly the conclusion flows , to me at least smoothly.

To the youngest of entrepreneurs there is an important lesson - if you operate in an emerging economy or an environement where politics or some such external environmental force matters .... it is not a choice but an imperative that you need robust systems, superior processs and a strong institution to continue delivering services to those who require them.

The moral implication of this monologue is .. if the systems and processes are not in place and the weak institution crumbles - you might have to be ready to take the blame for breaching the faith of people twoards fulfiling their needs.

Year of CONSOLIDATION

Transformation

Rising

Making

Realization

Blossoming

Is there a pattern that you see? This might be the journey of a branch on a floral tree through different seasons and stages. For me it’s more like the story of the various stages of my doctoral studies. Blossoming included the start of my new job at IIM Indore. These are also the themes around which I lived my years as I led my life into a new phase altogether. Having completed five years of the journey I look back with satisfaction and some sense of achievement and loss. Satisfaction, I feel because I am satisfied with what I set out to do and what I achieved. Yes for satisfaction no one else but only me and those very very near and dear to me matter. Achievement I feel a little because moving in the mainstream while being different is not easy and I have survived so far. My experiments with life and my own convictions have not left me lacking good stead so far. There is also a sense of loss as I have made compromises on the time and togetherness I could have shared with those who matter to me. Economics it seems is more important in life than anything else as I realize. TANSTAFL – There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Well especially if you’re on the receiving side.

Here starts my learning, if you got to create free lunches. First get to the giving side.. give some free lunches and hope that more people may start giving. The surety is never there but this is the only way to have a probability.

So I start another new year.. trying to create change trying to put together the wide variety of experiences and learning that I have collected through my travels in geography, demography and sociography. I am consolidating my learning and experiences to make better sense of them. This year I also start my new job at the Centre for Management of Agriculture at IIM Ahmedabad. (http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/faculty-and-research/research-centers/cma.html). This sets up the need to and also enables me to consolidate my professional leanings and focus on being most productive to creating change where it is needed. Professionally this is clearly a year of Consolidation of the blossom in the last season.

Personally, Mridul is set to complete her thesis and we start our true journey of life together ( at least a new phase of it) as a couple shifting to officially one city of residence and therefore we also consolidate our life together. I also want to reconnect to the people and friends and individuals who have mattered and who inside the deep of my heart do still matter to me. A start has been made but much more needs to be done. Hence at a personal level also this looks like a year of consolidation.

So with folded hands and faith in my heart .. I welcome the YEAR of CONSOLIDATION.

Report Card - The year of BLOSSOMING

Just like every year i shall be putting up a report card out for everyone to see. Like every year (for the past 5 years) this year had a theme - it was the year of BLOSSOMING. At the start of the year i expected to complete my Doctoral Studies, get married and start my professional life as a management teacher and researcher. The expectations were definitely not modest but were loaded with many events of the past few and many years.

The PhD got over and i graduated in March. see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221357&id=723865049. The happy go lucky soul was ready to start searching for happiness in the real world moving out of the cocooned environment of being a student. I was trying to be a little experimental. The PhD Left me feeling satisfied as i have mentioned in the opening blog for the year with the appreciation i received in Australia followed by Indore , Lucknow and back again at Ahmedabad. So some dissemination has happened and lots more is waiting to happen and focus must be on that in the first half of the coming year.

I also got married this year. see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=247130&id=723865049. Finally me and Mridul are one family. She has brought a lot of luck and focus to life and it has been giving rich dividends so far. Marriage starts with benefits of so much more love from new relatives and friends.. it also makes your old relatives look at you in new light and shower more love, especially if you have been a little rebel younger kid in the family. Marriage also delivers at times, like it did for me, benefits of home cooked food, a loving wife to look forward to when u leave office and more goodies like hot tea and snacks served to you with a round up for the day.. and no office gossip !!!

I also started my new job . see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=222840&id=723865049. I joined the Economics Area of IIM Indore and found myself in between a group of lovely people. We were able to expand the area from 3 to 6 people ,i,e, double the strength this year. We also launched some 3-4 new electives from the area in this year. We hopefully continue to be one of the highest rated areas in the institutes.

Professionally at IIM Indore i had a rewarding stay. I launched a new elective called the "Economics of Rural-Urban divide"(ERUD) that was well received by a bunch of very enthusiastic students who show a lot of promise of doing new and different things in the near future. I was also able to complete teaching in almost all programs of the institute - the MBA (PGP as we call it) first year, second year, The Doctoral Programme (FPM) and the one year Executive programme (EPGP) as well. I was also able to revise and rehash the "History of Management Thoughts" course for the doctoral students. The end of the year was exciting as i collaborated with other faculty to launch a new stream called the "Role of New Media in Management" which aims to look at communications , IT and Strategy aspects of new media and take it one notch higher to Management levels. ERUD looks at Rural and Urban areas with a theortical base , URP or Unlocking Rural Potential took a look at the same with a practical in-situ approach and saw the students visit DRI in chitrakoot ( http://www.chitrakoot.org). What could not be done was the development of UCRM or Understanding Culture for Rural Management and a connectivity conference fro the PURA work. We did a one day workshop on PURA in June (http://www.iimidr.ac.in/iimi/pages/posts/working-conference-on-pura-conceptualization-impact-assessment-and-implementation-issues162.php?p=10) which was graced by none less than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Shri Arvind Mayaram of GOI. A research Proposal on Wastewater irrigation has firmed up and one case is set for publication while one more is in the pipeline. There was one paper at an international conference too http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/agsaare10/58885.htm

The year was marked with a short visits to Australia and Portugal overseas and to the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. There was a fair bit of travelling and obviously with travelling comes learning. So there was a lot of learning this year too.

So the year did see a lot of blossoming and a lot of other things that i keep doing either kept on in reduced measure or were put on the backburner for a while...sure to return in the future..

The not so good patches of the year were - not enough time with parents and family .. not able to visit Dubai ...

And as we must move one.. we must enter the new year .. a new year.. a happy new year :) that leaves us happier and healthier.

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