2014 Indian Parliamentary Elections: Idealistic vs. Practical vs. Unknown Challenger

Indian Parliamentary Elections, 2014: Idealistic vs. Practical vs. Unknown Challenger

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections is the battle between three distinct visions of India. There are tons of details available in the speeches and interviews of their leaders. But simply put, it is a war between the three leaders, who represent the “practical” vision, the “idealistic” vision and the “unknown challenger”.

Arvind Kejriwal of AAP represents the most ideal vision of India. His idea of a corruption free, prosperous country, an honest nation, where there are no bribes, no money laundering. Arvind Kejriwal is the idealist- zero tolerance to corruption, crony capitalism, pure and shudh 100% honesty in politics. He challenges anything and everything that is wrong or has a whiff of dishonesty in it. He wants to lead us to a perfect world bereft of the demons of dishonesty and corruption. He is the ideal Vishnu avatar born to banish evil from our society forever.

The guy with the most likely chance of making it to the chair, Narendra Modi, presents the practical approach, where he will inherit the throne with all its biases and imperfections and turn it around, slowly but steadily into a country that is progressive and thrives on opportunities for everyone to grow and let grow. 

And finally we have an unknown challenger in Rahul Gandhi. It is ironic that he is labelled the challenger, since he is supposedly born to rule. But fortune only favors the brave. Lack of skills can only propel you so much. He asks questions with no answers. Questions which we all know.

Kejriwal represents the ultimate future state; Modi presents the roadmap along with the low hanging fruits.

Where will your vote go?

Give a voice to your enterprise applications

Imagine having lunch with your colleagues and laughing your way to glory over frivolous jokes, when your phone suddenly displays a text message. It is the Boss! And the boss badly needs you to send the top 10 customers by sales for that month in Australia. “I need it now!”

What would you do? Leave the lunch table, possibly your lunch as well and rush back to your desk. Find the information and email it across to the Boss. And while emailing it, you are probably swearing at your boss.

But, what if, you had an app on your phone, where you could just speak, “Who are the top 5 customers by sales for this month in Australia?” and the phone displays the list. And you now say, “Email to Jeff!”. And it perfectly obeys your command. This sounds like a Siri or a Google Now. Not for finding the nearest Thai place, but for making you more productive at your work-place. A voice enabled enterprise-mobile (VEEM) app that works with your enterprise applications.

A simple voice command can be systematically converted into a structured query that links to the enterprise database and fetches relevant information to the user, Siri/Google Now style. This is limited not just to display of information or reports, but also transaction processing.

You could also say, “Create a Purchase Order for Vendor XYZ Inc. for Raw material RM1 for a quantity of 100 units.” The workflow understands your organizational data and can create the purchase order after you hit a confirmation button. Imagine the benefits of such VEEM applications and the productivity it creates for your workforce!  

We are already seeing a lot of consumer-like behavior in the enterprise world. E.g. companies are looking to subscribe rather than buy, pay as you grow, etc. Something we like to do in our personal lives. If we can order Google Now to navigate to the nearest Cheese Cake factory, why can’t we order a Google Now like app to create a transactional record or merely display and share a report. 

Which companies are willing to invest in a technology like this? Is your company ready?

A tribute to the God of Cricket - Sachin Tendulkar:

 A tribute to the God of Cricket

It is not for nothing that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is known as the God of cricket. Like God, he excels in his game. Like God, he is humble and compassionate. Like God, he gifts the good (deliveries) and punishes the bad ones. And like God, their is always a method behind the madness.

There is a reason why certain things happen in a certain way, which ordinary minds find it hard to decipher. The common man curses and scorns at God, while He merely smiles at us, knowing fully well that his actions have been executed for the greater good.

Many an article has been written and re-written on why the God of cricket has been at least a few years late in announcing his retirement. Those lesser mortals quote statistics on his form, runs scored, centuries cracked, fitness, etc to prove their point. They are making every effort to belittle the God.

Little to these folks realize that God never retires. Because, if he did, the world would come to end.God only transitions responsibilities to God-like creatures. He tests finesse and attitudes of individuals to ensure they can continue without his active involvement. And he takes time to satisfy himself before he transitions. Creating and testing the chosen ones with difficult events and ensuring they have reached the stage where they can represent God with ease.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has done precisely that. Had he announced his retirement from “active” cricket a few years ago, all hell would have broken lose in the world of cricket in his absence. He has taken time to transition to God-like individuals. He ensured that the chosen ones like Dhoni and Kohli and the others are fully equipped to lead in his absence. Once satisfied, he has announced his retirement from active cricket, knowing fully well that the God-like individuals will continue on his path of excellence.

When God transitions, his legacy stays for everyone to remember and worship. Commoners don’t stop talking about God, rather, they start reposing their faith in the chosen ones, while still remembering that the God is still there, watching them, albeit passively.  

Thank you Sachin God Tendulkar for everything you have given us!

Five lessons a “Dehati Aurat” can teach Nawaz Sharif

Five lessons a “Dehati Aurat” can teach Nawaz Sharif 

When you think about a “dehati aurat” (a village woman) what is the first impression that flashes your mind? Probably, an uncouth old woman paan-chewing, nose-pricking, loud- talking and talking unpleasant gibberish about people on their back. However, if you are on who likes to ponder over the insignificant things in life, you will realize the Dehati Aurat can teach couple of things to Nawaz Sharif:

1.    Uncouth: The uncouth exterior of the Dehati Aurat is an indication of the lack of cleanliness and poverty that has refused to go away, irrespective of any ethnic or economic progress we may have made. Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif should focus on eliminating extreme poverty from the country and let the degree of uncouthness be an indicator of how successful they have been.

2.    Paan-chewing: Chewing paan or smoking bidis offer solace to the poor and downtrodden and provide a way to escape from thinking about their lack of wealth, hygiene, job and possibly a home. It also represents the bad habits people get into due to lack of constructive engagement. Nawaz Sharif must focus on creating new employment opportunities in Pakistan and provide jobs to the people. Terrorism is not a constructive engagement.

3.    Nose-pricking: Pricking and therefore cleaning your nose keeps you clean internally and away from diseases. It will suit Mr Sharif perfectly well to do some “internal” nose-pricking. Clean up the rogue and disease causing elements in Pakistan and make it a safer place. The dehati aurat does a much better job here and he should look at them for inspiration on how to clean-up. 

4.    Loud-talking: The Dehati Aurat talks aloud to make her heard, amongst a bunch of other Dehati Aurats. Loud talking represents the ability to establish the dehati aurat's presence in an environment of equals and often in one of superiors, given the male dominated society. In either case, it requires courage to make your presence felt in adverse situations. Nawaz Sharif can well take a leaf out the dehati aurat's book and make his presence felt not only in Pakistan but throughout the world. Neither Pakistan nor humanity gain from an impoverished and terror struck country. It needs authoritative execution to lead the country out of the mess.

5.    Talking Unpleasant Gibberish about people on their back: When the dehati aurat talks gibberish about people behind their back, she demonstrates trust in the recipient of the information and also an innate ability of deep observation. It takes skills to observe and an innocence to trust. Nawaz is better off developing intelligence and skills for observing negative elements and building trust and confidence for himself and for Pakistan in the international arena.         

    

While Nawaz Sharif clearly has a pervert, lowly image of the dehati aurat, she clearly has more on her sleeves than he thinks.

Why IAS Durga must send a Rakhi to CM Akhilesh

Why IAS Durga must send a Rakhi to CM Akhilesh

History has it that the brave Queen Karnavati sent Rakhi to the Mughal Emperor Humayun when the security of her subjects and her personal security was in danger. The enemy was close to the kingdom and her own nobles were reluctant to fight the war. The queen was in serious predicament and had choice between humiliating defeat and death or death by jauhaar, the famous Rajput way of self immolation.

The queen chose a third option. She sent a Rakhi to Emperor Humayun imploring him to protect her from the impending danger. The noble emperors who was leading a.campaign in Bengal immediately rushed to Rajasthan to help and protect his new found sister. Unfortunately, he was too late and the Queen had to commit jauhar.

It was an age when communication was snail paced, unlike today's digital age.

Today, we have another Karnavati trapped between the evil sand mafia and political leaders who support them. Their is a Chief minister who claims independence.

The brave IAS Durga must send a Rakhi to CM Akhilesh and see how he.reacts. Does he do a Humayun or will be pretend arrogance and as they say, "let the law of the la.d take its own course." Because if that happens, another brave daughter of India will be sent to oblivion after a memorable start.