Olympic sized Competitions

We can certainly create some competitions where we will have the Gold for the asking. If nothing else, we can win the Creativity Olympics.

1. Speeches. If you go by speeches made, we leave American Presidential candidates far behind. We have been pretty much making/hearing the same speech for around 70 years, which could be in for a medal, you think?

2. Good intentions. Whatever we may do, our intentions are always good, and cannot be faulted. So, here's another, for good intentions.

3. Inseparability of officials from players. It's hard to say if the players are playing games, or the officials. There are so many of them. Maybe if the officials can compete among themselves, we might win a few gold medals.

4. Media hype. Perfected in cricket, we can create hype about almost anything, and do a few debates after that to continue that through the night. Gold Medal material?

5. Excuses. Not just realted to games, but in all walks of life, we are a Golden Benchmark for excuses. Smart ones, stupid ones, untenable ones, ill-thought and illogical ones. We have them all, and this is a unique attribute we have. We are on a road paved wit Gold; we shouldn't complain.

Appointing (Brand) Ambassadors

I am going to appoint a few. Only condition is, their names have to be suitable for the category they are endorsing. Here are my top picks-

Hardik Patel- any brand of Motels
Sunny Deol- Deo
Sunny Leone- Lion safari
Mayanti- Aunty's home-made Pickles
Dig-vijay- Excavators
Akshay- Malabar Gold-special campaign for Akshay Tritiya
Shilpa- Hyderabad's Shilparamam
Raveena - Cloud computing (Ravi-na)
Kangana- Branded bangles
Dhoni- A new single called Anhoni ko honi karde Dhoni hai yeh Dhoni
Rahul- Arhar dal brand (it's called Kandi pappu in Telugu)
Obama- A cocktail to be invented, on the lines of Bahama Mama-that's a real one.

Solving Grave Problems in a Jiffy

I was thinking. About grave problems that the media tell us we are facing these days. And then, I thought about them for about 30 minutes. And bingo, came up with solutions for all of them. Here they are-

How to Stop Chinese Incursions

-Threaten to exchange our currency for theirs. We get a strong currency, and get rid of the Chinese, at one stroke.

Problem of Import of Oil Leading to Current Account Deficit (CAD)-whatever that is.

-Make Nano the only passenger car that can be sold in India. This solves all the above, in addition to solving the parking issue, and congestion on our roads.

-Another one for the CAD. Ban gold possession by individuals, citing ancient and modern philosophers. We are the land of Buddha, who taught renunciation. The women ,may not vote for you, but that is a calculated risk, because the men might!

If you ban gold, it will automatically boost the bank deposits and stock market investments by Indians, and we don't need FIIs (whatever they are) to do that. Masterstroke, or what!

Calicut Revisited

I had a chance to visit Calicut to attend a program at IIMK where I worked earlier in 2003. The campus (pic alongside) is so beautiful, you feel like staying there forever. The trees have grown since I was here, and so has the institute in number of students and faculty. There are still about 4-5 old faculty I knew from before. The current director was an old colleague at IIM Lucknow.

Calicut retains an old world charm, spoiled only by the gold showrooms, I think. What does the fascination with gold indicate? I have no idea. Went to eat at Paragon, a popular restaurant, with a friend, Ravi. Also visited Prof. Kumar, and family at the campus. The city is clean, and compact, and has not changed much.

The contrast between Bengal and Kerala is stark. Bengal looks a lot poorer, thanks to lack of any coherent plan for growth for 40-odd years. Kerala is dependent on the gulf region for its earnings, but has used it to improve life here. But the standard of spoken English and Hindi is poor, and is a problem impeding careers for youngsters.

Hope to return again for Kerala and Calicut are a sight for sore eyes. Amazingly green. Coincidentally, I also had a look at a TED talk series organised at IIMK the day I was there. It was an interesting event, with a diverse set of speakers from all walks of life.