PMS...!

A week ago, on last Friday, I expressed a concern on Pune city LocalCircle about the SPV to be set up for implementation of Smart City Project and warned the Punekars that it would be us who will eventually pay the price of it and yesterday’s Pune newspapers proclaimed there would be a hike of 12% in Water Tax under the ‘ambitious round-the-clock water supply’ project! This revolutionary ‘joint’ decision was taken after ‘brainstorming’ the options of hiking water tax by 50% for the non-metered users and by 25% for metered users. Now, I am neither a water expert nor a technocrat to decide who should use how much water, who would provide it and what the provider should charge for the ‘service’ offered? However my common sense suggests that whatever needs to be ‘charged’ should be ‘measured’ as it would give a realistic account of how much we have, how to consume it and why it should be charged? If this was not the case, hotels wouldn’t have menu cards, petrol pumps wouldn’t have meters or any consumable wouldn’t have price tags ever, isn’t it?

In the present scenario while humans are already using 1.3 earth and all its natural resources are being consumed exorbitantly making them scarce one by one, I am no fool to say that water should be provided to a soon-to-be-smart city for free but would it be illogical or unreasonable to expect to be charged for what you consume and not what your postal address reads? Why can’t we have metered water connections just like electricity, CNG, telephone, internet, TV cable etc.? Won’t it be rational to let the consumer decide what, why and how it consumes any utility as long as it is made to pay for the consumption? If a wealthy person decides to take shower 3 times a day, wash all his/her cars daily, water his/her garden profusely and also give bath to all his pets and no ethical, moral or ecological counseling could convince him/her to rethink the routine, why not make him/her pay for it, at least? Even the wealthiest of a person would be forced to rethink any of his/her indulgence once a rupee-measurable cost of the luxury is arrived in form of a monthly bill! The revenue generated from such billing could be used to subsidize the taxes for those who really and genuinely cannot afford to pay them but would need the basic facilities like water, all the same.

But being the SMART administrators that we are, we have come up with a new revenue generation model which is nothing but old wine in, not even new but, rebottled bottle – compulsion of wearing helmets which is monetarily punishable otherwise. To support this re-charged decision some statistics is being presented about the deaths of helmet-less riders in road accidents. Those facts and figures might be right but at the same time it would have been logical to present the figures of deaths of all other victims of road accidents including pedestrians and law-abiding citizens just because of sheer indiscipline of the vehicle drivers including but not limited to two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers and buses. If the traffic controllers believe that making the two-wheeler drivers wear helmet would bring in the discipline in the entire city traffic, they are either day-dreaming or are being threatened by some nightmare. In the core city area where it is extremely difficult even to walk or cross the roads at times, what good a helmet could do to the rider who is busy in shifting gears and maintaining balance except tucking his/her mobile under the helmet and have a ‘safe’ mobile talk while driving?

Moreover, if the people elected representatives are really and sincerely concerned about the health and safety of its people, why don’t they think of some measures like TDS – tax deduction at sources? Why the manufactures are not instructed to include helmet in the list of ‘compulsory accessory’ (another oxymoron!)? Why two-wheeler dealers are not compelled to provide a helmet with every purchased vehicle? Why RTO cannot make it mandatory to produce the proof of having a helmet at the time of registration of the vehicle or validating the driving license? Why it always comes down to street level as disciplinary action and never conceptualized at policy level as social behavior development? There is no ban on making Gutkha but you cannot sell it… where would we take the civilization with such hypocrisy bundled in politically (ill)motivated intentions?

Even an illiterate, uneducated and lifetime villager, farmer has the least conventional wisdom of checking the roots and nourishment of a plant that bears a rotten fruit. He never blames it on the fruit or curses the surrounding branches and leaves of the plant for having produced a rotten fruit. He immediately reaches the roots to check the infection and apply pesticides to kill the germs and bugs that are bugging the healthy growth of the plant. Unless and until we check the sources and deploy PMS (Preventive Measures at the Sources) there would be no use of any ‘development’, including river-front, for a larger good in long run.

Although this hypothesis is universal and applicable to any human civilization in any niche of the only livable planet; being a Punekar I have taken the references from the recent developments in the over-smart city and would love to hear Punekars reacting on it as well. Meanwhile, there is an idea being discussed around at my place to buy a Helmet as Birthday gift for my daughter, how about that…?

Stay tuned, Be Aware and Take Care! (Protected) Way to go…

SPV...!

A lower middle-class family struggling to make both ends meet has only hope of their descendants receiving good education, securing a decent job/profession and doing well, eventually. All the compromises the family makes, the loans it borrows from time to time and bargaining it is forced to do at every single transaction while living frugally is in anticipation of the fruits it will bear when the next generation will settle and rise to a higher step in the social status – middle class, to the least, if not higher middle class! Imagine what happens to the parents who struggled all the way to make their children well-to-do and those same children suffocating their parents as they grow old. Would there be any limit to the pain, grief and agony the poor souls would be put through? No tragedy known to man can match this sorrow. However, if we follow the filmy plots, there always would be somebody who (not from the close family, preferably) would enter the scene and prove its loyalty by taking care of the distressed ones.

Now consider human species around 500 to 250 years ago. In the wake of early industrialization and new trades and markets emerging all around, particularly in Europe, put the Growth and Development of Man on fast track. Discovery of new energy sources fuelled the engine of development and offered it enormous power to conceive, create and consume. It was quite obvious that new revolutionary products were required to satisfy the almost insatiable needs of all-consuming modern machine-age man. Of all the innovative products of modern age, the one that tops the list is Rubber in any form including Plastic. Man discovered rubber, employed all extreme measures to extract, process and market rubber for it was the most flexible and supposedly immortal material known to man with high level of plasticity that allowed it to be molded in any shape and form as required. Rubber was the first child of this modern man that went on to produce tyres (wheels) and containers of all sizes and shapes!

A glance through statistics about Plastic Consumption reveals the dreadful facts as –

• Up to 20 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans each year. Plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, but never goes away. Seals, dolphins, turtles and orca eat plastic – mistaking it for real food. Toxins stick to plastics; plastics are eaten by fish and then enter the food chain. These toxins, like PCBs, have been linked to reproductive failure in polar bears.
• Plastic is durable and lightweight, but it's these properties that allow it to persist in the environment for hundreds to thousands of years. Plastics are among the most persistent synthetic materials in existence and are now a significant and extensive marine pollutant. 

Source: http://www.mcsuk.org/plasticchallenge/

These are the ‘earnings’ of the First Good Son of the Modern Man!

The second kid born to the modern man was Concrete, another revolutionary discovery that changed the course of infrastructure development history. Again, its adaptability found place in modern man’s heart as now his imagination had no boundaries and its property of ‘being rock-hard once settled’ fascinated the man as strong permanence always had been one of the major basic instinct of man right from Stone Age! With the ability to take any form and presumed endurance against all forces, concrete made it to be the first choice of man for any and every construction, including roads – the means of transportation. The complete concretization of every possible square inch of surface of earth is affecting the seepage of water that maintains/increases ground water level, not just adversely but dangerously. On the other hand, concreting requires enormous quantity of water – the basic essential natural resource required for any ecosystem to breathe – that is being scarce already and could not be produced.

Secondly, of the various ingredients used to produce a given quantity of concrete, the cement is the most energetically expensive. Even complex and efficient kilns require 3.3 to 3.6 gigajoules of energy to produce a ton of clinker and then grind it into cement. Many kilns can be fueled with difficult-to-dispose-of wastes; the most common being used tires. The extremely high temperatures and long periods of time at those temperatures allow cement kilns to burn even difficult-to-use fuels completely. Another essential ingredient of concrete is aggregate (sand-and-gravel) obtained by river mining. Excessive in-stream sand-and-gravel mining causes the degradation of rivers by lowering stream bottom, which may lead to bank erosion. In spite of these scientific statistics, there is a hustle of making concrete roads without any impact assessment, all around right from a small village to a metro. Even the rivers are ‘developed’ by massively concreting their banks and bridges and culverts.

Such are the ‘by-products’ of the Best Son of the Man!

It's high time the world learns Triple R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) instead of Tripe C (Conceive, Create, Consume). If all these facts and figures are swept under the carpet of ‘Political Will’ and developing ‘Smart Cities’, it’s high time the Republic of the Nation should wake up to its rights and responsibilities and question the intent and content of all such proposals. The first basic question could be ‘Why do we need Concrete Roads that are enemy of water and even proved to be perilous to the tyres of the vehicles, when we can have tar roads of good quality with long life and which can even use-up some plastic in the making?’   

One of the invaluably fundamental guiding principle on which I am trying to build edifice of my life has been ‘Find the Purpose, Means will follow…!’ It simply means that, as for me, Purpose is paramount and not the means. Unless and until every Public Proposal or Undertaking doesn’t find an extremely selfless, absolutely profound and impartially humane Purpose, the 'means' would be converted to 'margins' and wasted, no matter ‘for what’, ‘by whom’ or ‘how much’…? ‘The end justifies the means’ idiom doesn’t make sense for a project of larger good and without any Socially and broadly Acceptable Purpose, not the ‘Special Purpose’, it should not even be considered! However, the only way to make it happen is by PPP – Prolific Public Participation combined with SPV – Smart People’s Vision! And it only could be that loyal 'unattached' hero that becomes the solace in the films!

Philosophically, these 2 modern age inventions being extremely dear to the human species is quite obvious for their 'convenience' - an intrinsic trait found in 'civilized' man. Human today is flexible and ready to mould in any shape, size and form faster than plastic for instant gratification and personal advantage. The same human adopts the characteristics of Concrete - adaptive in formation state and rigid once shaped - when it comes to his sacred beliefs, particularly religious!

Stay tuned, take care and Be Aware! (SMART) Way to go…

Republic Day!

I had this opportunity to attend the Republic Day Function and hoist the flag at Podar International School, Kalyan (Mumbai) on behalf of Milind Kshirsagar - the founder of Shivaji Trail, Pune. It was an exciting, enriching, enlightening and exhilarating experience all at the same time! The efforts of both, students and their teachers, went into the preparation of all the performances like dances, songs, speeches, skit and gymnastic not only overwhelmed me with their commitment but also made me little worried for the professional approach of making it a flawlessly successful event! All such events of National Importance could do with little less conditioning and a lot more empathizing, I thought!

Anyway, overall it was a great show and I was little concerned whether my Republic Day speech as the Chief Guest would be received well or would it spoil the tempo developed by the enthusiastic young performers? But it was great to learn that all the students loved what I shared and the teachers, staff and guest thought it was a good patriotic speech. The Principal Ma'am went on to praise it as very inspirational and relevant speech and she would like to include it in school's newsletter. Many others were also seemed interested in my speech and hence I thought of publishing it as it is, here...

Respected Principal Ma’am and all the teachers devoted to nation building, esteemed attendees and guests of the event and my dear students – future of my Incredible India, Good Morning!

At the outset, I would like to thank Priya Ma’am for inviting me for this function and providing an opportunity to interact with leaders of tomorrow on the most auspicious day any democratic country would cherish and celebrate – Republic Day of Nation! And why do we need to celebrate it? It’s not just because we celebrate our birthdays but we should celebrate the events of national importance to learn to respect our past. In Winston Churchill’s words – “A nation that forgets its past has no future!”

On 26 January, India was declared Purna Swaraj by the Indian National Congress in 1930 that’s why 26 January was chosen to bring Indian Constitution into force. After 20 years, in 1950 on the same day, the Constitution of India came into force. After its enforcement the Union of India officially became contemporary Republic of India and replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as fundamental governing document. Republic means the supreme power of the people living in the country and only public has rights to elect their representatives as political leader to lead the country in right direction.

So, India is a Republic country where public elects its leaders as a President, Prime Minister and other constitutional positions. In the conclusion of his Making of India's Constitution, Justice Khanna writes - "If the Indian constitution is our heritage bequeathed to us by our founding fathers, no less are we, the people of India, the trustees and custodians of the values which pulsate within its provisions! A constitution is not a parchment of paper; it is a way of life and has to be lived up to. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and in the final analysis; its only keepers are the people."

It’s been 66 years we are celebrating this Republic Day! By now we must be very well acquainted with the basic objectives of the constitution which are Rights and Responsibilities. With the outburst of media and rocketing speed of communication made us well aware of our rights but what about the responsibilities? Are we doing justice to this other side of the coin?

There is a lot of discussion and debate going on about a Smart City all around as there would be 100 Smart cities to be developed in India. All of you must have heard about it and some of you might have prepared projects on this concept as well, if I can guess it right. But what is a Smart City or for a moment let’s forget about the City, what is being Smart? Because it is not just the infrastructure or high-tech facilities and gadgets that make any place smart, it’s the people making, using and controlling those smart tools that make it smart. Obviously the user must be smarter than the tool. Just having a Smart Phone doesn’t make you smart, you should be smarter to use it to its potential, isn’t it?

So what is being Smart? Is it about looks? Well, may be a little bit as your appearance is the first impression and you never get a second chance to make a first impression! So let us say we would give 10% to the way you dress, look, walk and talk, what about the other 90%? There are 3 attributes each having a 30% contribution in making any person smart and those are – Asking Questions, Taking Actions and Assuming the Responsibility of the result!

Asking questions is important for you won’t reach anywhere if you don’t enquire about the path. The greatest legendary scientist of all times Albert Einstein used to say – “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious…!”

Secondly, there is no point in knowing everything but not acting or reacting on anything. The library, and nowadays ‘Google’, has all the knowledge and information in the world but it cannot do anything about it, can it? So the other 30% of acting on what you believe is equally important.

And last but not the least is Assuming Responsibility of the result of your action. If you fail in any exam/contest, it is not because the question paper or the competition was tough but it was because you have not prepared good enough.

Since I only have encouraged you just now to ask questions, you might ask ‘Isn’t it too early for us to think of Responsibilities put on us by the constitution?’ To which I have only one thing to say – patriotism has no constraint of gender, cast, religion or age! A newborn doesn’t take years, months or days to recognize and love its mother. Similarly there is no criteria for start loving your motherland and act accordingly. About 370 years ago in 1645, there was a boy of 16 years of age who took oath of Swaraj by cutting his finger and dropping the blood on the Shivling of the Raireshwar Temple. This gallant boy who went on to become the Great Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj haunting the Moguls in their nightmares and chasing them out of his motherland, had absolutely nothing to fight with the mammoth army of Moguls except his undefeated fortitude and his soldiers (मावळे) having unwavering faith in him.

The only other strength he had to counter the atrocious army of moguls was his FORTS! Shivaji discovered, built and nurtured over 350 forts of various types and a variety of strengths in his small life span of just 53 years. These forts were so dear to him that he regarded them as his children and had all the possible measures in place for excellent upkeep of them. All these forts were central to his empire and their remains are among the foremost sources of information about his rule. He not only relied on the Forts for the protection of Maratha Empire but designed, developed and nurtured them as the mainstay of his rejim to lead a secured life. Foreign Historians like Grant Duff and Douglas have studied, appreciated and regarded forts of Maharashtra as ‘not less than an invention that was the most classic example of an organized effort’. The French missionary Father Fryer witnessed the fortifications of GINGEE, Madras, built by Shivaji after its conquest, and appreciated Shivaji’s technical know-how and knowledge. However glorious and enchanting this history of 400 years stands, the present status of these forts is pathetic and deteriorating so fast that we have a reasonable fear that once the Wealth of the State and Jewels in the Crown of our state, these forts would remain for namesake with the abandoned relics.

To improve the situation and introduce some conservation measures, Milind Kshirsagar, a sports teacher at Loyola School, Pune started ‘Shivaji Trail’ with a mission of ‘Save Forts Save Heritage!’ The first precondition of any Fort Restoration effort is to know the fort thoroughly and this would be possible only when we visit the fort and document it in first place. We at Shivaji Trail are committed to both these activities for about 19 years now and in 16 Trails, we have taken about 1,000 students from different schools of Pune to 157 Different Forts of Maharashtra. We look forward to many more schools of Maharashtra to join us in this expedition of visiting, understanding and preserving our forts, that is our culture and our heritage! 

With an open appeal to all of you to join this initiative that provides opportunity to develop your physical, mental and spiritual strengths and make you a patriotic responsible citizen as expected by the Constitution of India, I look forward to meet you on one of the forts that we are having Durg Pooja on soon. I wish you all the best for leading a responsible life and hope you will live up to the expectations of Constitution that we have conferred upon ourselves on 26th January 1950.

Be Aware, Take Care and Way to go… Jai Hind!

Who am I…?

I am your constant companion...

I am completely at your command...

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden...

I am easily managed - you must be firm with me...

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure...

Half of the things you do you might as well turnover to me and I will do them - 
quickly and correctly...

Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically...

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin - it makes no difference to me...

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet...

I work with the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a person...

I am the servant of great people, and alas, of all failures as well...

Those who are failures, I have made failures...

Those who are great, I have made great...

Be easy with me and I will destroy you...

I am not a machine though...

Who am I? 

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I AM HABIT!

To bid Goodbye to the passing year 2015 and Welcome New Year 2016, here is a list of 15 Habits and one Guiding Principle that is the Six[teen]th Element of the message for 2016...

DON’Ts

1. Stop lying… to anybody, at any time for any reason… with any justification!
2. Stop procrastinating… you can never start anything if you keep on postponing!
3. Unlearn unnecessary tenses… Past is gone and nobody knows the Future… live in present!
4. Stop dreaming about anything… Visualize to realize it!
5. Say ‘NO’ to any distraction… Remember all distractions are extremely tempting!

Keep up…

1. Exercise
2. Meditation
3. Healthy Diet
4. Dialogue 
5. Self-evaluation

DOs 

1. Get One Page Plan: A one page plan keeps things simple.
2. One idea executed flawlessly could change the game for you.
3. Your magnificent obsession: What your best year would look like?
4. Focus on your vision: In today’s world Focus is more valuable than intelligence.
5. Go to the EDGE of your LIMITS and your previous LIMITS will become NEW NORMAL.

And to live a peaceful and balanced life, for everything you do, ask two questions to yourself...

'Is it really worth it?' and if 'YES', 'At the cost of what...?'

Take Care, Be Ware and Happy New Year... Way to go…!

Intention...!

A wealthy lawyer was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass. Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate. He asked one man, 

"Why are you eating grass?" 

"We don't have any money for food," the poor man replied. "We have to eat grass." 

"Well then, you can come with me to my house and I'll feed you," the lawyer said. 

"But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree." 

"Bring them along," the lawyer replied. Turning to the other poor man he stated, "You come with us too." 

The second man, in a pitiful voice then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!" 

"Bring them all, as well," the lawyer answered. 

They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine. Once underway, one of the poor fellows turned to the lawyer and said, "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you." 

The lawyer replied, "Glad to do it. You'll really love my place... the grass is almost a foot high!"

I found this on the web and it was under the 'Jokes' category! What a cruel joke...

Anyway, it doesn't make you generous if your intentions are selfish. Similarly, it doesn’t make you needy if you try to be greedy. And collaboration of two self-seeking elements is hardly sustainable…! So, I will say it one more time, all what matters is intention...!

Way to go...

Filmy...!

There was a Second Bollywood movie ‘Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin’ (first being Rishi Kapoor starrer, a typical Nasir Hussain film of 1977) with a start cast of Big B, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Aishwarya Rai supported by Satish Kaushik, Annu Kapoor, Anupam Kher and Paresh Rawal. The reason to list the entire cast is to establish the fact that the movie had to be taken notice of and although it was a David Dhawan movie and had all the privilege to be a no-brainer entertainment, it had some catchy (I will not say ‘brainy’!) things about it apart from the credit of the casting director who selected such a ‘towering' cast!

The film was an ‘enjoyable’ (pun intended!) version of a Robert De Nero starrer fantastic Hollywood comedy ‘Analyze This’ but that was not the only good thing about it. It had some great eye pleasing locations and some good Interiors, like Dr. Rastogi’s clinic, showing a great aesthetic sense. So the credit goes to the Art Director and Production Designer as well. However there is another element who could claim the credit for the success of this movie for doing their bit; the screenplay and dialogue – Robin Bhatt and Rumi Jaffery – the duo who, in the context of the settings and characters in the story, did their job right up to the mark.

In a Scene where Dr. Rastogi, completely frustrated by the constant bullying by Munna Bhai for persuading him to marry his sister to Munna Bhai, enters Munna Bhai’s Haveli and scolds him while losing his cool and says many nasty things to the Don. When the Doctor has finished, the Munna Bhai, in his usual cool tone responds…

"Apun ke ghar mein aake, apun ko gaali deke, apun ko dhamkakar, apun ko badmash bolkar agar tum zinda khada hai na ... toh isse badke aur koi sharafat nahi ho sakti!" 

[After coming into my house, after cursing me, after threatening me, after calling me a rowdy person if you're standing alive ... then there is no decency bigger than that!]

I don’t know what reminded me of this scene, but must be something 'filmy'! Let’s not waste our time on it anymore and let’s focus on another AK (Arvind Kejriwal), the hero who supposedly was the Maseeha (or should I say ‘Godot’) to bring the 'Rule of Justice' by following the path of ‘Satyamev Jayate’ and make this country ‘Incredible India’ and was recently ‘forced’ to hug Laloo Prasad Yadav (the picture shows otherwise, though!) as Laloo wholeheartedly believes in ‘Atithi Devo Bhav’! After all he is the man who can do it for you after Anna Hazare and not someone who is already PK and has a problem of Short-term Memory Loss!

Nevertheless, I am pleased that PK is living up to his reputation of perfectionist by sharing even the bedroom discussion between his wife and him and one must recognize the fact that it was his wife who is worried and not this secular, nationalist and most patriotic person who always fights for his nation… remember Rang De Basanti, Sarfarosh, Lagaan, Mangal Pandey… and to top it, Satyamev Jayate, in which he literally cried so many times? Now don’t you dare to say that he did all of this, or the TV commercials of Coca Cola and Snapdeal for money and fame. Because if you say that, you can even go to the extent to argue that whenever Mr. Perfectionist encounters any National or Social issue, it falls in the month of November while he has his most ambitious (he doesn’t settle for anything ordinary and mundane, you know!) and only movie of the year to be released in December… what a coincidence! ‘There is no chance of improvement in Perfection!’ as Aakash puts it in Dil Chahata Hai!

Now, if you have had enough of this, let’s get back to the work as we must work to earn the money to buy the overpriced tickets for the iconic value of ‘Dangal’…! Got it…? Sab Kushal Mangal Hai!

Honorarium ...!

Image source: http://openbuildings.com/buildings/tata-consultancy-services-profile-3331/media#!buildings-media/4

I was traveling from Pune to Mumbai by train to attend a GRI-TCS one-day workshop ‘Moving beyond Disclosure to Drive Change’ at Thane campus of TCS on Friday, 20th November 2015. The Indian Railway is an independent ecosystem in itself of distinct and influential character and dynamics. Being the largest corporation with highest no. of employees in the world, it has to be. However, apart from the Rail Management and travelers, there are different types of elements in this ecosystem that bring it to life, sustain and maintain it. Hawkers are one of them who board the train to sell anything from snacks, beverages to accessories, toys and what not. There are help seekers of various types, right from singing blind beggars to transgender community members capitalizing their guise. I never pay any heed or money to any of these for my own philosophical reasoning. However there is a new emerging community I am witnessing lately that acts as a ‘silent worker’ whom I always pay!

Without making a fuss of their vulnerable category, pitiable situation or deprived status, they have discovered a ‘decent’ tool for a ‘clean’ purpose to earn their means, without even asking for it, most of the time. They sweep the floors of the rail compartment with whatever piece of cloth they can find and most of them do it almost professionally and with a commitment more than majority of the government employees. I always pay the member of this community that I find on the train I am boarding and also make it sure that I will not use coins but paper currency; coins make noise and declare the philanthropy to the world in an amplified tone! Now, why I pay these people has a multi-layered explanation on personal, social and global levels –

1. I am committed to cleanliness to the extent of developing an OCD for it, almost. I love everything spick-and-span, a major reason I love the conferences at star hotels. Everything there seems to be as clean as a mirror except for the thoughts and intentions of the humans I meet.
2. It’s a matter of national shame that its citizens make filth around them all the time, live happily amidst it and expect somebody to clean it silently for them without any demand or expectation.

3. The members of this community could have formed a group, union or a party to rebel against their ‘exploiters’ OR could have joined a Militia OR simply surrendered to their condition and have chosen to beg like their fellows without moving even a finger. But they chose otherwise.

That’s why, on behalf of all my countrymen who should be ashamed of filth they keep on creating, I pay them this ‘Honorarium’ that they deserve and not the ‘philanthropy’ they have intrinsically disclaimed.

Well, the workshop did not provide me greater impetus to write about it than this small mundane incidence happening round the clock and could have been smartly ignored, just like any other responsible and tax-paying citizen of the nation but somehow I found a thread between the take-away (Can anybody explain me the meaning and intent of this phrase in context of a seminar…?) of the workshop and this activity. Reporting merely cannot change the situation as it will always lack the complete transparency in first place and secondly it is like expecting the road vehicles to abide by all the traffic signals as we have installed the Signals, Speed-barkers and signs all over. We must not forget the very fundamental right and hard-earned mastery of any human being, particularly in this part of the world, to ‘Ignore’, ‘Bypass’ or ‘Manage’ anything that might discomfort it. Discipline happens only when each individual is ‘conditioned’ enough to follow the signs and lights just like its basic instincts, a very common thing for a self-centered human, mostly concerned with I, me and myself.

With the rise of personalized products, gadgets and equipments, the already dying ‘communication’ is entering the phase of monologue day by day. Loads of information and knowledge from all types of ‘sources’ is drowning the human brain in an info-pool (formerly known as info highway!) empowering it to have an opinion over virtually any matter (not just under the sky, but even beyond it!) that concerns it or not. The ‘smart’ gadgets competing with the jets in the speed and connectivity service providers trying to win over each other with light-speed guarantee have made it sure that the dozed brain full of trivial garbage would be over-armed to voice their opinions which would be immediately upheld by the Media and Social Media developed to be at their disposal 24x7. This has created a chaos that has a noise of its own and no voice of any specific value; exactly the situation for any government when it wants to govern the least! And this is the picture of all developed, developing and underdeveloped nations invariably, a pathetic picture for the humanity for sure!

And there is a bigger noise inside that needs a vent. The paradoxical state-of-affairs happening incessantly in every part of the nation in purportedly each field provides the opportunity to vent out this noise in the thought-crowded head at such a speed that there is no time to listen, understand, reflect or reciprocate… just express, emphasize and forget! If Sanjay Leela Bhansali decides to film a beautiful dance number by 2 gorgeous women of the nation by taking the cinematic liberty and fantasizing the ‘history’ a little for glamorizing his effort, suddenly it becomes talk of the town but nobody seems to be concerned of the historic monuments that are deteriorating fast to reduce to ashes. While, if a Yogi decides to diversify his ‘business’ with products of neighboring country with [supposedly] local and healthy ingredients and to achieve ‘revered’ purposes, we accommodate it in his ‘interests’ and chew it religiously but won’t pressurize the government to find the offenders who have blood bathed the war of thoughts by brutally murdering the rationalists and activists. 

Well, the question remains the same as it was for decades – could any such new Legislation like CSR Act, or GRI Guidelines G4 or OECD principles make any difference in the situation? What could make the CSR more proactive than reactive? How the Corporate sector could be made aware, encouraged and facilitated to accept and imbibe the CSR, CSV or Corporate Citizenship in the business process? And, as for me, the answer also remains the same – by developing a culture of CSR / CSV and not appointing a ‘panel’ to take care of it!

It should be done as voluntarily and inherently by the entire organization as sweeping the floors without expecting any direct, instant or material returns from it. The moment Corporate will understand this, no more Act or Reporting Standard would be required as there is no effective evaluation of works and deeds than self-appraisal! [Read the story here] Way to go…