Mystic Midnights

Rather, Midnights with the Mystic. That is the title of a book written by a fan of one of the new gurus of the current age who is a rage- his name is Jaggi Vasudev. Even if you don't like gurus, this guy is worth listening to. He speaks well, and is intelligible to people like us. Don't know if he cuts any ice with the masses.

A fan of his from Atlanta had a series of conversations with him when he visited her house. The gist of these conversations is what the book is about. I have heard him speak on TV, and seen him playing golf at Chennai (he was with a group ahead of us). I think he is a cool guy. His explanations of many things in life make a lot of sense (to me), as in there are no gaping holes in the logic, or let me say, mostly believable stuff about yourself, the higher self that remains unrealized mostly, and how to get there from here.

This fan is a white woman based in Atlanta. I think she is a real estate person with a long list of diseases or disorders that she had before she met Jaggi Vasudev, and which she doesn't have now. The Isha Yoga program of the guru is credited with making the difference.

The book is nicely written (the usual questions are answered succintly), and worth a read. Even a visit to the Dhyana Lingam (I happened to visit when I went to Coimbatore a few years ago for a lecture), a dome at the foothills of some mountains in the Nilagiris is soothing.

Influential Thinkers

As I was listening to a presentation by students in my course on Thought Leadership, my thoughts wandered. To our college days. The reason? Funnily enough, the Age of Reason, and the author who propagated that line of thinking. Ayn Rand was the topic of the presentation. She was as popular back then, as she is now. Rarely would you come across a college student who doesn't adore her books like The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Difficult to come across such a clear-headed propounder of any philosophy of life.

Another line from an article in a newspaper crossed my mind too. This was a statement made by Edward De Bono, author of Lateral Thinking. He says, we have stopped thinking, for many years. That is a pretty strong statement, but it makes some sense. When was the last time we thought carefully, about anything? If we did, individually and collectively (according to Ayn Rand, collectivism is always a compromise of individual thoughts, because only individuals can think), no problem is without a sensible solution. But instead we usually choose dogma, tradition, or fall prey to false egos and worship false Gods.

We also had a presentation on Wars and their impact on society earlier. It is curious how easy it is for dictators and democrats alike to start a war and continue with it for the flimsiest of reasons. They seem to be inevitable, and even glorified, to always benefit a select few in power at the cost of many others who fight, willingly or unwillingly. I am somewhat pleased that India as a modern country has gone to war only once, in 1971. Though there are all kinds of wars within, and issues that require resolution-hopefully without a war.

Excellence

The thought of Excellence as a way of life strongly came back strongly last week- it does, from time to time. The trigger was a guest lecture I hosted for my course, titled Seminar on Thought Leadership. The guest faculty was Padmapriya, a former student of mine from the 2002 MBA batch of Kirloskar Institute of Management.

She has made a habit of excelling at everything she does. From academics, where she has been among the top of her class, to dance (a diploma in Bharatanatyam), to beauty paegents (Miss Andhra Pradesh at one time), to corporate work (at GE Capital doing high end analytics) and what takes the cake, a movie career with 33 odd leading roles in 6 Indian languages, winning several accolades, including National and Filmfare Awards. Not to mention NGO work designing a program for tribals in coastal Andhra to produce and sell organically grown farm produce. And the last was a part of her Diploma program at National Law School, Bangalore.

Can't help thinking how the world would be if everybody took themselves so seriously in everything they did! Self-belief and focussed work can really take you places. And she is not finished yet. She intends to go on to do a Master's in the U.S. and try her hand at world cinema. I can only wish I had a lot of students like her, so I can bask in all the reflected glory.

Uplifting Movie-Golconda High School

Saw Golconda High School, in Telugu. It's at one level, a formula sports film, about a school cricket team that finds a coach who inspires them back to winning ways, in the process also saving the school ground from being auctioned off. Good performances from the kids, and a tightly edited script keeps you engrossed, aided by some upbeat background music and songs. The heroes for me are the young cricketers and the school Principal who shows courage in adversity, and is willing to stake his job for a cause he believes in.

But it has a deeper meaning if you care to look for it. It points a finger at all of us who don't do enough to achieve what (we say) we want in life. From a cricketing victory, to personal goals of different types, we want a lot, but we don't necessarily do the needful. Sometimes, due to our own immaturity or unpreparedness or lack of knowledge, we may need a guide, a coach, a sounding board, so to speak. At other times, knowing fully well what is needed, we are just too lazy. But in either case,a sincere effort from our side is needed-even if it is just to find a mentor. Perhaps that was also the hidden meaning in all our stories about a king or a commoner doing "tapasya" to get a boon. The boon and the penance probably represent the achievement and the goal-oriented hard work, respectively.

Differentiating Cars

Cars all look alike. I can't tell the difference between the Swift and not-so-swift, a car with an Accent, and one without, one that plays Polo or one that plays Golf, or the car that provides you with Esteem, or just drives you around the City. I used to think Corolla is a part of a flower (as the movie Chupke Chupke told us through its Botany professor character), until one appeared with four wheels on the road!

Similarly, Tavera sounds like a second cousin of the revolutionary Che Guevara, but is not. Alto sounds like 'facebookese' for altitude, like congo is facebookese for congratulations. Ritz, glitz and glamour is actually right for the fashion world,and not the world of the automobile. A Safari is supposed to be had in a jungle, but takes you through the concrete jungle today.

Infiniti is something that most kids are scared of in their Maths class, and elders, in old age. Micra sounds like a bikini for men, but is also a name of one and an anagram for my car (spelt mi car). Figo is definitely a four letter world in Italian. Or at least, a challenge to someone who remains unilluminated about some unfolding mystery, as in 'go figo'.

Marketing experts will of course, vehemently deny all these attempts at breaking down their defences and will swear by some irrelevant excuses to charge more, like "this car has 22mm of extra luggage space or 45 microns of extra leg space", or "we have a windshield wiper that goes from 0 to 60 metres per hour in 3.7 seconds flat". But don't let that fool you. All of them have 4 wheels and a steering, as a wag said(actually, Ricardo Semler said it), and have had them since 1857, or whenever the car was invented). And in the Mumbai traffic (or in Bangalore, or elsewhere for that matter), you can't go at more than 20 kmph anyways!

Jessica and The Fourth Estate

I saw No One Killed Jessica yesterday. The impact of the film is like a Muhammad Ali punch in the solar plexus. The difference is, the punch would knock you out for a few hours, but this one gets you thinking, at least for some time, about ourselves as a society. Two other films which had a similar impact were A Wednesday, and Aamir (which I believe had the same director as Jessica). Aakrosh, about honour killings, was also good, though the punch was slightly held back, it seems.

The story was already there, but making it into a tight script and keeping the audience engrossed can still be difficult. Also, to make certain things stand out, effective dialogue is a necessity. The cop asking Vidya Balan, "Kaise logon ke saath ghoomte firte hain aap?" after every one of the 300 guests refuses to acknowledge they were present at the crime scene was very effective. Rani Mukherjee's unflinching attitude towards her work, and her acknowledgement that she made a mistake in not taking up the story earlier are other high points.

Vidya Balan has played the nerdy Sabrina very well indeed. She is one of my favorite actresses of the present time. What the movie also does is that it underscores that the demonised media sometimes is the only watchdog left in a democratic society, which sometimes begins to resemble a jungle. Watergate and the journos there who nalied Nixon also made this point. Hope to see more of this director.

Seminar on Thought Leadership

This is the name of a new course that I am teaching this term at IMT Nagpur. This is an attempt to learn from diverse fields and innovations therein. We will cover a lot of ground in two months, ranging from Branding to Objectivism, and from World cinema to fashion, war and terrorism. The idea is to try and synthesise what drives innovation and how it affects us in business and in life. A team is assigned a topic, researches and presents it for about an hour, followed by a question hour (or half an hour).

Returned from a nice but short (aren't they all?) vacation at a beach resort in Shrivardhan in the Konkan area of Raigad district. This is a really unspoilt place, with basic amenities, in the lap of nature. You eat, drink, swim, play and generally relax. Food is typically custom-made, and seafood is a specialty. A big group of around 20 family members were there and we intend doing this once a year. Cheers to that!