Wit Wisdom and Whoop

This again was a article published on Linked In on 20th January 2020 and shared here For the benefit of those who seek full disclosure let me first state that I have been a great admirer of this Govt's policies and performance and have been particularly impressed with Mr. Piyush Goyal as one of the few articulate and talented ministers that this Govt has. But I am no blind admirer and will call out issues which to me are incorrect. Secondly my reactions are NOT about Amazon, NOT about Mr. Jeff Bezos but about the image, attitude and message that a Govt sends out when it makes certain comments in certain circumstances. While the statement of Mr. Piyush Goyal did set off a storm and he tried to clarify it, the headline picture of this article tells a completely different story. Lets dissect it item by item. Mr. Jeff stated that his company had helped create 700,000 jobs. One is free to question that number, one is equally free to also take a contrarian position to say tha...

This is again an article published on Linked In on 12th March and being shared here  Every manager worth his name would have heard of Jack Welch the legendary CEO of General Electric & the manager of all managers globally. His contribution to Indian economy I think is not well appreciated & when you consider that the Govt has never conferred on him a Padma award (I am open to be corrected) it’s the biggest travesty of justice in my opinion. His faith in India has been far beyond that of Indians themselves. He recognized India's potential far before anybody else in the world & leveraged it thus opening up multi billion dollar businesses for India globally. His faith in India has been far beyond most global technology companies especially in the manufacturing sector. Code named the Birmingham project (If I remember correctly and in the ‘80s/90’s) he leveraged the time difference between India/USA much before the country woke up to something called Information Tech...

This was published on Linked In on 23rd March by me and since many said that they faced issues in being able to access/read, posting it here also. In early 2001 when I made my first visit to USA, I was fascinated by everything I saw. I was surprised to see people drop money correctly into toll booths. There was an openness and honesty that frankly unnerved me. Taking a wrong turn in Washington DC we ended up at a no go in the Pentagon and were shooed off politely. Finding no parking we see this empty place and happily park. Just to be sure I went up to a gent and asked if we could park. He said – this is the senators parking lot so if your car gets towed away don’t be surprised, but hey it’s a holiday, hopefully the cops will be in a good mood. We find slow traffic near the White House and typical Indian style I jump out, take a picture and run back into the car even as the cops looked on amusedly. That evening having to catch a flight from Dulles airport I was delayed and re...

Symbolism in life is very important. Even if you don’t believe or think differently about something, you live in a society where opinions about you are formed from perceptions.   As a political leader holding high office or aspiring for it, perceptions are everything, symbolism becomes the cornerstone of reputation. Let’s take a festival – say Holi or Diwali or Ramzan, you may have views that clash with   aspects of it –   chemicals, water used,   health ,   pollution, animal cruelty,   and these views may be logical but the fact is that a significant number of the population celebrate, enjoy and believe   in it wholeheartedly. As a citizen, you can scream from the rooftops about such things and at best people will say – party pooper. As a political leader you will have to temper down your views, grit your teeth, shut up, smile and actively participate and pretend to enjoy so the voter thinks you are like him.   Any attempt to impose you...