Sonya’s book list : L N Mittal vs Arcelor, Who’s side are you on ?

shekhar8 Comments

You might look upon him as an underdog ( never mind that he’s the world’s fourth richest man) Or you might (as much of the European establishment did) see him as the noveau riche, pesky Indian, getting above his station in life . With a peskier son by his side . But whichever way you look at it , L N Mittal’s 5 month long battle, for the crown jewel of the European steel empire , is a tale worth trawling through ( Cold Steel by journalist Tim Bonquet and communications consultant Byron Ousey, pub Little Brown UKP 20). Its racy ; and with its bizarre twists and turns, its code names, its moles and it’s multiple locations, more thriller than business book.
It’s a battle of billionaires that began with Mittals’s bid to buy Arcelor ( code named Operation Olympus) . A bid that also made the Indian born entrepreneur into the barbarian at the gate ( he was ok as long as he kept buying rust bucket plants in Uzbekistan and Mexico) …..

Continue reading “Sonya’s book list : L N Mittal vs Arcelor, Who’s side are you on ?” →

Am I in control of my Destiny ? Who is the ‘I’ ?

shekhar36 Comments

Aditya, my new assistant asked : Am I in control my destiny ?
There is a more fundamental question. Who is the ‘I’ that is asking that question ? If the question is being asked by stepping outside the illusory ‘I’ and looking it from a universal point of view, then the ‘event’ (that is perceived to be destined) and the ‘I ‘ are the same. There is no difference between the two as they are locked in an eternal embrace. There is no ‘question’ that can separate the two, existing as they are, in the same matrix of bubbling potential. However if the question is being asked from inside the illusion of being in the ‘I’, then the question is completely valid and will always remain a valid question with no valid answer. It is in the nature of the Illusion of our existence that the world can be imagined only in questions and resolved, if at all, in fantasy. For ultimately all the questions arise from desire, and what creates the desire is the imagined separation between desire and the event that is desired. That separation or duality gives rise to the question.

Socially unacceptable behavior

shekhar29 Comments

Does anyone remember when Indira Gandhi declared an emergency ? And because there was a food shortage at that time, she forbade any party of more than 50 people if food was being served. Is it time to do that again ? In this lopsided world where some people fly private jets all over the world for fun, regardless of the shortage of aviation fuel, and the number of cars that cost 1 crore and above, which are the greatest gas guzzlers in the world snail through the Mumbai traffic, is it time for us to sit back and actually make it socially unacceptable to indulge in such consumption ? Instead f admiring their wealth and aspiring to do the same ? How can one talk about food riots, the economy on the brink of bankruptcy, and yet all over the world the very people that cause such shortages in the world through speculation and economic manipulation for their own profit, continue to act and live as if these problems do not exist ? And why do we, our press, our aspirations encourage such behavior by making such consumption socially acceptable ?

Sonya’s Desert island List

shekhar25 Comments

Talking Books
One woman’s inspiration is another man’s toilet paper. Nowhere is this truer than in the world of books. In my family, there are emotional arguments. The man I married, is disappointed in me. I never , never, he complains, get around to reading the wonderful non fiction volumes he dips into- Danziggers Travels, Spice, An Intimate History of Humanity et al . I’m unhappy with him as well. He can’t afford the time, he says, to get drawn into the fiction I’m constantly gripped by.
At my book club, the divisions are even sharper. There are Rushdie haters. There are Rushdie Lovers. ….

Continue reading “Sonya’s Desert island List” →

Other people on our blog ?

shekhar16 Comments

I have long struggled with that. Not that I wish to be the only voice, but because blogging requires commitment. If I am going to invite someone else, then they should commit to us that they will be regular. For we begin to look forward to their entries, and we look forward to discussing them amongst ourselves. My web administrator was totally against it – but I have convinced him that we should include other voices on this blog. Sonya Dutta Chowdhary writes regular book reviews for many papers and magazines, runs a book reading club in Mumbai and teaches reading and writing skills to children. She has committed to writing regular reviews on books and about authors etc. under something called “Desert Island Lists”. Welcome Sonya.

Steve Jobs : Are entrepreneurs artists ?

shekhar9 Comments

Which part of the brain does Steve Jobs use when he makes what we call a ‘seat of the pants’ decision ? Where the idea or solution lies in the realm of the subconscious – or as some would say in the universal consciousness – that somehow the mind/brain accesses. Not unlike Mozart’s discovery of an harmony in discordant and contradictory notes. Not unlike Einstein’s moments of finding the connecting equations between impossibly disconnected ideas/theories of time/space. Not unlike Archimedes’s Eureka moment. Not unlike Van Gogh’s first brush stroke knowing and trusting that there is a pattern that will emerge if he trusts his instincts and has the courage to move with it,
And so to the other similarity between an artist and an entrepreneur. Courage to paint an empty canvass, courage to create harmony where there was none in musical notes, courage to create a new products where there are no models to follow. Courage to isolate oneself for years even writing a novel. So is Steve Jobs and entrepreneur or an artist ? …….

Continue reading “Steve Jobs : Are entrepreneurs artists ?” →

Is Bandit Queen my best film ?

shekhar24 Comments

Certainly more people have seen the two Elizabeth’s, Massom and Mr India. However the following were the director’s notes attached to the DVD that were written in a tearing hurry. The Independent newspaper, in the UK, however, decided to publish my notes as a full page review of the film ! And so I read my notes again. Sometimes when you write under pressure, as I did this piece – your own words surprise you with their honesty. I am sharing the notes with you :
“When a Directors reflects on his body of work there is always a film that stands out as his personal favourite. Often that impression is coloured by the experience during the filming. But when the ‘on set’ experience is astounding and results in a film that survives years that have passed. When the film has been etched in the political consciousness of the people that watched it. When a film has caused a social re-evaluation. When a film has been at the centre of a political storm and caused an uproar in India’s parliament. What can a Director say, but that this was my most defining film – one that I would find very very difficult to surpass…..

Continue reading “Is Bandit Queen my best film ?” →

Guest Blog by Raju Narisetti : Coming Home

shekhar10 Comments

I don’t really know this 60-year-old very well any more. I wasn’t alive for her first 20 or so years. And I haven’t been around for her last 20 or so years. So, when I am asked—quite frequently—how it feels to be back home, I have to pause and search for words that say what I mean and mean what I want to say. What I often end up saying is that it is ‘work-in-progress’ because, in many ways, it is as much about me as it is perhaps about India, which was definitely home once and ought to be home again.
The trouble is that intellectually, I can grasp that the time I have been away has perhaps been the most dramatic one-third of the maturing of this 60-year-old nation. And I am not just talking about the blossoming of entrepreneurial energy, the wholesale embracing of the pursuit of wealth and material happiness that dominates urban India, or the well-chronicled infrastructure woes and the real estate boom. I am also talking about that magical shift in India’s psyche, where large sections of population have moved, lockstep, into a “we can do it too” mode, much like what was visible in China in the late 1990s. Full-blown envy, of most things West, appears to have been replaced mostly by an active curiosity, and a belief that while we may be slower or different, we will now do it our way. And, guess what, here is the money to back up that thought.
But, it is my heart that makes it harder to accept this new 60-year-old ….

Continue reading “Guest Blog by Raju Narisetti : Coming Home” →

Being active, not reactive. The power of silence

shekhar32 Comments

How many years does one spend being reactive to the constant noise of external stimuli and mistaking that for hard work and activity. And then looking back and wondering why what was achieved was either not enough or not satisfying enough ? The mind becomes a whirlwind of thoughts, ideas, doubts and contrary messages. The ego becomes an instrument of the search for affirmation in other people’s eyes. Not even a clear idea of what other people think of you, but just what your mind imagines they think of you ! We mistakenly start to think that we are responsive and responsible to the world – but actually we are just responsive to the whirlwind of what sometimes becomes our greatest enemy. Our own mind. So how do you discover ACTIVITY rather than Reactivity ?
Silence. …..

Continue reading “Being active, not reactive. The power of silence” →

Cricket 20/20 : Going for the kill, not skill. Lets get back bodyline bowling !

shekhar15 Comments

Abi said :We watch EPL, we watch Spanish League, we watch FI races, where is it written that people should always uphold their national identities on the sports field? Why do we expect the fans always carry their national flags? Why do we expect them to be just Indian players, when they can be great cricketers without color or creed?
Abhi, I have no problem with Pakistani players playing in India and I love the idea that the whole Eden garden erupts when Shoaib Akhtar scares some of the great Indian batsmen into submission. Even if he is on drugs, it is great to watch him exult like a panther hunting down his victims. I think it is great that a retired Auusie player is proving a better captain to lead new young Indian players than Tendulkar, Dhoni and Ganguly put together. I think it is great that we get to see Jayasurya hitting sixes all over the ground one after the other. I think that Sharukh Khan and Ganguly would have still been winning and be friends if they did not let their best batsmen from ‘down under’ go play for their own country. I think they should double their salary to keep them here, for who wants to go and play for a national team with the old rules any more ? Boring, boring.

Continue reading “Cricket 20/20 : Going for the kill, not skill. Lets get back bodyline bowling !” →