India, my India!

The recent 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of Berlin wall had an unlikely fallout here in India. The hopeless romantics amongst us got off indulging in unnecessary and ill-informed banter about Indo-Pak unification. What made it incredible was the fact that such discussions were being spearheaded by people you’d normally believe to be well read.

Many years ago, as part of a school competition, I had written an article about the basis for formation of a nation. I’ll try and reproduce the gist of the piece and add my two cents of learning since then.

Every nation in history has had its foundation in either one or both of the two basic pillars - religion and language. Notwithstanding invasions and temporary conquests, these have been the only unifying factors.

This brings us to India - a marvel that seemingly has no such basis for existence. We are as fragmented as we could be - half a dozen major religions, a few hundred castes, thousands of sub-sects and millions of deities. We supposedly have close to 2000 recognized languages and god-awful number of derived dialects. Though all this makes for a nice statement about oft lauded Indian diversity, it also brings to the fore the lack of a common thread that could keep a country glued together.

In this context, it is no surprise that we are strife ridden - be it the religious riots, Naxal violence, the Maratha Manoos, Kashmir separatism, Khalistan movement or any of the innumerable other skirmishes. The undercurrent of hatred erupts every once in while, primarily online. A cursory glance at the discussion forums on any of the India-focussed content sites would suffice. Even the most harmless of articles like a movie review is enough to polarize our people - often on geographic lines between the “southies” and the “northies”.

This can be traced back to our history. Till the beginning of the 20th century, we were nothing more than a collection of princely provinces unified by invasion. The idea of India has absolutely no historical basis. At different times in our history, we had morphed as dictated by the military muscle of the dominant kingdom. Even the religious books like the Ramayana considered “Bharath” to be the fertile lands north of the Vindhyas. The “rest of the Indians” were either primates or random beasts. The only unfortunate commonality was the strict social stratification perpetuated by bloodline. For all the noise that we make about racism, India has been and will be (at least for a few more generations) the most racist country (and also the most hypocritical one).

Hence, it is astonishing how we managed to wriggle our Independence. Not everyone was unhappy under the British rule.

India’s first war of Independence in 1857 was dismissed and derided by the intellectuals of Bengal and the South as nothing more than a drunken misadventure. Trade, commerce, technology and western education flourished under the British. The oft neglected lower castes felt a little more secure. A lot of social inequities were diluted as the whole nation was one of slaves.

The idea of India comprising of the current nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and parts of Afghanistan is a fairly recent one - not older than a couple of hundred years. The dominant communities in these present day nations are as different as chalk and cheese. People may cry hoarse about generations of marriage across the current borders; which is true - but only within the community. The entire independence struggle was based on a very shaky truce between communities and provinces and the realization that it was the only way.

Post independence, the mistrust resurfaced and manifested in the form of creation of Pakistan - it was an eventuality that no one wanted to admit. It is easy to place the blame of partition on the shoulders of a few, but takes lot of courage to look beyond the sham of bonhomie forced upon us by the invading British. Pakistan’s creation, thus, was based on a very strong foundation of Islam. It would not have become the sorry mess of today had the rulers been ingrained in the tenets of Islam. I’m not, even for a moment, suggesting that fundamentalism is the way for Islamic states. Running a country requires discipline and that was lacking in the western educated rulers of Pakistan. All middle eastern nations are good examples of excellent governance - don’t slam me with human rights and other such nonsense. Trying to straddle the Islamic foundation with their brand of western capitalism, the ruling elite of Pakistan pushed themselves into chaos.

In the same breath, one needs to ask the question - then what is it thats holding India together?

People may offer a million answers - some jingoistic and others a little more plausible like economic interdependence.

However, I have a theory - THE GREED OF THE POLITICAL CLASS IN INDIA IS WHAT IS KEEPING US TOGETHER. It may seem very simplistic and to some, idiotic. But there is no stronger force than greed. The collective wealth of India is manifold than that of the sum of the parts. The potential to grow and multiply that wealth is limited only by one’s imagination if we stay together. And this opportunity with unlimited upside is one that is not lost on the politicians. Hence, inspite of their petty bickering and occasional secessionist spiels, our politicians will keep us together. And that is the irony of it all :)

To wrap up, Indo-Pak unification is not even fit to be a pipe dream because there is no role for Pakistan in this cozy arrangement. All you people thinking about it, STFU keep dreaming!!!

Disclaimer: I am NOT a separatist!

Now, you can start throwing the eggs!!!

Tweet! Tweet!

Twitter totally kicks Facebook’s backside!

Where else, but in twitosphere, would two diverse personalities as a bollywood actor (@gulpanag) and the editor-in-chief (@nramind) of India’s best newspaper respond to and connect with someone on the same day.

Without doubting the merits of FB as a social networking platform, what makes twitter such an awesome social tool is the simple fact that I can choose to follow the lives of people who interest me without necessarily being acquainted with them. Similarly, if I pump out good stuff - stuff that interests people, twitter makes it easy for others to find/know me. This, my friends, elevates Twitter from being just another social networking site.

Apart from the obvious marketing and monetization potential of twitter accounts, the big game can actually play out in education. During my school and college days, I would’ve loved to get daily bite-sized (140 characters at a time) nuggets of gyaan from professors and authors who were nothing more than faceless names on my reference books. How awesome it would’ve been if I were able to propose improvements in theories directly to their proponents than to skeptical lecturers!

Twitter empowers every single individual to circumvent “the system”.

If you’re a wannabe author, you don’t have to grovel in front of publishing houses!

If you’re a salesman, you don’t have to knock on doors!

If you’re an activist, you don’t have to conduct a thousand meetings to galvanize support!

You may be anyone - doing anything. But if you want an audience - to connect with your reader or customer or even a fellow ideologue - twitter lets you do that.

As long as you have what it takes, the world is just a few clicks (or is it tweets?) away!

When is the right time, eh?

This post is in response to all those people who keep asking me - when is the right time to start off on my own?

Just because I’ve been an entrepreneur for a few years now doesn’t mean that I have the faintest idea when one should start a company or even if one should! There are a million and one people out there who would love to assist you. They’ll tell you everything - from how much to save (depending on your risk appetite) before starting up to planning for your marriage and family.

But from my limited experience, I can safely tell you this - If you need someone’s sanction (be it your astrologer’s, for all I care!) to dive into the world of entrepreneurship, KEEP AWAY, my friend.

I’m putting in writing what I tell wannabe entrepreneurs who come looking for advice. Don’t let the romance of a startup fool you. There’s nothing romantic or cool about it. Its a life full of struggle and impossible deadlines - deadlines that you cannot afford to miss. Nothing can be put off for tomorrow - everything needed to have been done yesterday. And most importantly, have the ability to swallow your pride and grin when your classmate shows off his new big car!

So, if you got the steel to survive the rigours of being your own boss, start today, nay, NOW!

P.S. There’s a pot of gold (and a very BIG car) at the end of the journey - that is, if you last that long :)

Where did Cleartrip screw up?

Those on twitter would already know about the Kiruba Incident and Cleartrip’s response. Though Cleartrip did make up for the lapse by quickly compensating Kiruba, their handling of the social media has been disastrous to say the least.

The emotion heavy cleartrip post does not even address the core issue - breakdown/non-existence of their international ticketing process. No one really cares what happened post-facto. Nor does anyone want to know if there were other players to be blamed.

If I am not responsible to my customer, who is? I’m, not for a moment, implying that all fault lies with Cleartrip. Kiruba should have been more careful while filling his details online. But thats not the issue, is it?

All that was required of Cleartrip was an acknowledgment of the fact that there was a failure in their process and the steps that they’ve taken to rectify it. This was a perfect opportunity to engage and reaffirm their commitment to exceptional customer service. Cleartrip’s handling of the return journey would’ve earned brownie points instead of being relegated to the background. This needn’t have degenerated into a slugging match between the so-called “social media” and Cleartrip.

At the end of it all, companies need to realize and recognize the growing importance of social networks. Tools like twitter, seesmic, facebook and others have amplified individual voices. And this is only going to grow louder - barriers are crashing, distances disappearing - and the word travels faster and farther!!!

Cleartrip.com, you sure did lose out on an opportunity to win some a lot of love!

UPDATE: All’s well that ends well - Check out Part 2 of Kiruba’s post. Hope the love is not lost after all!

Disclaimer: I’m a Cleartripper - absolutely love their service. And my company is a partner of Cleartrip.com!

P.S. Check out Gary’s handling of what could’ve been a PR nightmare!