Young Sathya Sai Baba

Loving Sai Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam.

Everyday, each and everyone of you [over 15,000 in fact], receives a picture post card from us, the Sai Inspires Card. Many have written to us about how wonderful these messages of Sathya Sai Baba are, how they were faced with a particular problem and the message that they got that morning sorted it all out almost instantly, etc. We are happy to learn all this but we wonder nevertheless how many reflect on the profundity of the messages. For example, the Sai Inspires message of 23 rd September 2006 said the following:

Today, people think that Spirituality has no relation to mundane life and vice versa. This is a big mistake. True Divinity is a combination of Spirituality and social obligations. National unity and social harmony are founded upon Spirituality. It is the Divine that links Spirituality and social existence. The Creator and Prakriti are inextricably associated with each other. Hence, God should not be regarded as separate from Creation. See God in the Cosmos.

If we have to see God in the Cosmos, then we must actively cultivate what Swami refers to as Vishaala Bhavam or broadmindedness. This Sunday, we want to touch upon the topic of Divinity, social obligations and mundane life, because they too are connected with Vishaala Bhavam. We shall try to explain the linkage by first bringing to your notice a heart-warming story of a young man born into poverty, his struggle to come up, and how when he finally turned the corner, he began to serve Society even though there was a lot to be done at home.

The young man in question is Sarat Babu, born in a slum in Madras/Chennai into a family of five children, who were solely dependent on their mother, the sole breadwinner. Sarat Babu has two sisters elder to him and two brothers younger to him. His mother, who had studied up to the tenth standard, was able to get a small job in a Government school connected with the Government Mid-day Meal Scheme. Her salary was thirty rupees a month – believe it or not that is less than a dollar for an entire month! And she had to support all her children and herself on that! So she had to earn extra money and that she did by making idlis at home and selling them. Even that was not enough and so in the evenings she participated in an adult-education programme that fetched a little bit more; thus three different jobs, and still the earning was far from sufficient – that is what poverty is all about.

Sarat Babu felt deep anguish to see his mother struggle so hard and firmly resolved to do all he could to come up in life and lift his family out of dire poverty. He studied hard, got good grades and worked his way up to the tenth standard. There were two more years of school but for studying in those classes, he had to pay a special fee of two thousand rupees. Imagine that! His mother was making just thirty rupees a month in her main job and had to take on two more jobs to feed her five children. Where was this young boy going to produce two thousand rupees from?

This is where firm determination comes into the picture. Sarat Babu was determined, come hell or high water, to pull himself and his family out of the rut. So during the summer vacation he did book-binding work and managed to earn some money. In fact, at times business was good and he was able to employ 20 other kids and give them employment too! As he now says, “That was my first real job as an entrepreneur.”

Hard work always pays, and Sarat Babu was not only able to complete school but come out as a topper. He now began to set his sight higher. A classmate told him about an Engineering University named Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani in the State of Rajasthan in North India. BITS is a well-known institute and entry is tough even as the fees are high. Thanks to his high marks, Sarat Babu managed to get into BITS but fees? The tuition fee alone was Rs. 28,000/- per year; added to that was the hostel and other fees. In all it came to Rs. 40,000 /- an astronomical sum really, for a boy, whose mother’s main income came through the sale of idlis.

But nothing would stop Sarat Babu. He applied for a Government scholarship, which he secured, and that helped some. However, it was not enough. His sister pitched in by pawning some of her jewels [in India , even poor families manage to invest in jewels; it is a kind of bank!]. Sarat Babu felt very bad about it but he needed money; and since what his sister gave was not enough, he borrowed heavily at a high rate of interest.

Money was one part of the problem; living and studying amidst fellow students who were all from either rich or well-off middle class families was another. To make matters worse, Sarat Babu was not good in English when he entered the University. But Sarat Babu kept on, propelled by his unquenchable determination. His subject was Chemical Engineering but in his spare time, Babu worked as a welder and metal cutter. This fetched some money and in fact he was even able to pay some of his debt and redeem the pawned jewels of his sister.

Engineering work was tough but it had its rewards. Firstly, people began to respect him for his hard work. Next, he began to get experience in teamwork and leadership as well. After four years, Babu was an Engineering graduate, and his mother was dreaming that her problems would soon be over. However, friends who admired his management and entrepreneurial talents said, “Listen, you should do MBA. That is what you are destined for. And you must do it in one of the best Management Institutes in the country.” Babu too felt that was his calling and not a mere job.

Getting into a brand Management Institute is not easy. It requires hard work, intense study and concentrated preparation. At the same time, there were urgent family obligations. So Sarat Babu took a job in a software company, earned some money, paid off some debts and at the same time prepared as best as he could for the national competitive exam that selects candidates for the six prestigious Management Schools in the country. Babu’s mother was not too happy about what her son was doing; she wanted him to quickly earn as much money as possible, and improve the family’s finances. However, Babu’s mind was made up. He did not clear the entrance exam in his first two tries but he persisted. Third time he was successful and he studied Business Administration in the country’s top Management School in Ahmedabad.

In Business School, Babu served as the Mess Secretary and this not only gave him managerial experience but also taught him how to feed a large number of people. Even before he graduated, Babu received many attractive employment offers – one employer even offered Rs. 800,000 as annual salary – but he rejected them all. He was set on becoming an entrepreneur; his mother was not happy but she had to yield. Recalling that his mother made idlis and sold them to educate him, Sarat Babu decided he too would run a kitchen that prepared food and distributed to clients.

He started on a very small scale but hard work paid off. Today he is rapidly expanding his business and soon expects to have a chain all over the country. He even hopes to have franchises overseas. Why this obsession to be an entrepreneur? Babu says that comes from the fact an entrepreneur creates jobs for others and thus serves Society. He has always admired big industrialists and in the next five years, he wants to create 15,000 jobs!

At last, Babu is tasting success. He still has a few debts to pay back but he is definitely round the corner. Has success gone to his head? This is what he says and you can judge for yourself. “Luxuries like a car or a bungalow do not matter to me. Even money does not matter to me. I feel bad if I have to have food in a five-star hotel. I feel guilty. I have no ambition but I do want to give a house and a car to my mother.”

One cannot help recalling the glorious example set decades back by our beloved Sathya Sai Baba. When He was young, Sathya Narayana Raju as He was known as a boy was super brilliant in school. The entire family pinned its hope on Him; no surprise in that because the Raju family was very poor. And Sathya sure could have got a good Government job , and climbed to the very top; no question about that. But what did young Raju do? At the age of fourteen, He quit school and started serving Society.

Just look around Puttaparthi today. Sathya Sai Baba did not personally turn into an entrepreneur, but there cannot be any question that He is literally a “one-man industry,” as a professor in our Institute once described Him. Not only is Bhagavan making the entire economy of Puttaparthi tick but, thanks to Him, airlines are getting tens of thousands of passengers every year, tour operators round the world are getting business, taxi drivers are getting business, hotels in Bangalore and Bombay are getting business and so on! So Satya SaiBaba is literally a very efficient engine of economy and He has become one simply by investing Love and the Spirit of Service! And don’t forget the massive projects He has done, all of which have brought employment to so many in so many places.

We are here reminded of a story involving Mother Teresa, a story recorded by late J. R. D Tata, a doyen of Indian Industry. Once, Mother was invited to Jamshedpur where there is a big steel plant established by the Tatas. Mother had gone there on JRD’s invitation. After the function, JRD and Mother travelled in the Company aircraft to Calcutta where Mother lived. It was evening and as the aircraft rose in the air, Mother took out her rosary and started praying. Down below were the slums of Jamshedpur. Looking at them JRD turned to Mother and said, “Mother, while you are praying, please tell God to do something about all these poor people.” Mother looked at JRD and sternly replied, “Mr. Tata, God knows His business and we do not have to tell Him what to do. On the other hand you would be serving God if you concentrate on creating employment and help these poor people to earn some money.”

So you see, creating jobs need not be regarded merely as an economic activity. It might appear a “mundane” and worldly activity but as Swami points out if the intentions are noble, even the mundane can be raised to the level of the Divine. That is how Work is elevated to Worship.

The Gita, it is said, is essentially three Yogas telescoped into each other, the Karma Yoga, the Bhakti Yoga and the Jnana Yoga. What Swami is telling us is: “Start with ordinary Karma . Do it with sincerity and without any selfishness. Then good work becomes God’s work. That is the essence of Bhakti. And in due course, Bhakti would help you to become one with God and experience Ananda, and that is the end point of Jnana.” In other words, discharging social obligations is a path to God, and one recommended by Sathya Sai Baba.

That makes sense, does it not? And it is not very difficult to understand either. Sarat Babu and many others like him may not have heard of Bhagavan Baba or read the Gita, but they intuitively know what it contains, and that is all that matters. This young man remembers his humble origin and now simply wants to help others. Isn’t that what Sathya SaiBaba tells us: HELP EVER?

Once again, every message of Swami that comes via Sai Inspires is very deep, if only we think about it for a few minutes.

Jai Sai Ram.

With Love and Regards,
“Heart2Heart” Team

I have realised blogging is hard work, it needs a lot of time and effort and a consistent use of logic. Since I have none, I will continue blogging.

When I was a young man growing up in Mumbai,(not that I am very old now) there were a number of things I liked and disliked extremely. The world which upto this day, is endlessly repetitive. Well, what the heck am I talking about? My usual rant against people that can get mundane and boring.

So, as I was walking in the Pere Lachaise cemetery, what do I see suddenly? The grave of Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata or known to most of the world as J.R.D Tata. Now I remember reading his biography and I also remember discussing this in a crappy conversation with one of my self-serving friends(no enemies).

FRENCH KISS
To my credit, since I met some lovely Frenchwomen and a few stunning Americans( see, I exaggerate a lot: I saw a group of American women: they may have been lovely, I really did not notice), I made a quick exit. Now studying in this university makes me realise how stupid and frivolous most women are. Actually they may be better than men, who knows? But let’s stick to stererotyping them as witches, since they have been partially instrumental in making my life miserable for the most part.( along with the men ofcourse).

So I walk out of the cemetery, go the wrong way, meet a very polite Frenchman, who for a change, speaks excellent English and tells me to go the right way. I then locate the student hostel, the Auberge de Jeunesse D’ Artagnan where I meet a few rowdy British Asians and head into the most disgusting nightclub I have ever visited in my life, close to ‘Bourse’. Again, since I am so much in love with me, I drink all sorts of alcohol and cocktails mixed together. I want to sound like Cyrus Broacha, I’m a great fan you know! Actually obesity is a curse, an affliction and results in extreme sadness, as I wrote in my last article.

Neways, a distraction, try reimagining Paris. I am not a European, but I see some exotic brown Indian flesh staring out at me in the Paris tube. I also meet a whole load of my sometimes nauseating, sometimes helpful brothers from the North of the Indian subcontinent.

CRUISE CONTROL
The next time I am there, going on the cruise will probably be better. I will not see images in the river shadows, and no imaginary people calling out to me from the great unknown. I hate Indians and the world around me, since it is an endless whirl of status and sociability, and subjects me to constant humiliation.

Journalism apparently is the art of explaining things simply to a large amount of people, so that it makes more sense. I will try that and learn more about standfirsts and sidebars. After that, I will tackle the bastards of the world, who want a more conventional and staid life that matches with their oversmart, self-serving and accepted approach.

THE LAD LIKES POETRY
Till then I want to try to be like some obscure poets I may like but I may never have read completely. For instance, I was totally taken in by the life of Dom Moraes. I managed to read Nissim Ezekiel partially, since he made me a member of the P.E.N society in Mumbai, in another strange otherworldy place, the Theosophy Hall. I remember meeting this strange gentleman, with stains on his shirt, somewhat like me, well not exactly. I also remember listening to Parag Trivedi and his workshop on Western classical music.

Where will life take me? The other day, I went to the Courtauld Art Gallery and see India House on the way. I then eat a salad and drink Chardonnay in a great place. Now as all the Indians here give me the “royal ditch”, see, my friend, your idiotic words still play in my mind, they are an inspiration, for the dirt that still remains to be tackled, life will take me somewhere. I do not want to sound philosophical, since it is extemely depressing and a demotivator for some serious work. Messes up my mood. For now, I sign off.

So, what do people like reading, a question I ask myself repeatedly. I have read, liked to read, and will possibly read a lot more things in my existence on the third rock from the sun.

But now I come to the more intricate part, are my feeble attempts at blogging appreciated? In a virtual universe of blogs, put up by people in various stages of life, probably farting, somebody who possibly broke up, or who learnt something very important about their own lives, where do I fit in?

Something clicked in my brain, I saw “The Wizard of Oz” many years back and loved Dorothy and “The Tin Man”? Now random comments may come from different people, a lot many of which can possibly be irrelevant. The idiocy of my brain is to give importance to virtual non-entities and their consistent verbal jibes.

The great Mr X, my ex-boss, is the reason why I am not unhappy in England. I am insanely happy when I see anything remotely humorous. God bless him, even though I do not know how any person’s mind thinks.

TEN REASONS TO BE HAPPY

Good For Health
Some stupid book told you so
I have repeatedly read Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale
Most people in India and across the world do not read books
I do not know what the f*** I am yakking about

If all of this makes you happy, I will put in a song. Seems like a late-night radio show. Now nobody likes me, says some idiot or most idiots. Well who, pray, are you?

Why were you people even born? Was it to serve your own idiotic fancies or die serving yourself. I will figure out some way to be calm, cool, collected and still deal with the dirt of the world that will come at me everyday. But the best thing is to shut up, and keep abusing the world in my blog.

Tata Crucible – The Campuz Quiz 2009

Organizer:

Tata Group

Key Dates
Event in Indore: March 10, 2009
Event in Chennai: March 13, 2009
Event in Delhi: March 15, 2009
Event in Hyderabad: March 21, 2009
Event in Mumbai: March 22, 2009

weblink:

Website: http://www.tatacrucible.com/

 
‘Tata Crucible – The Business Quiz’ seeks to bring together sharpest young minds in India to take on the heat of the toughest business quiz in India. Youth is a key audience cluster which the Tata Group is focusing its communication at and Tata Crucible is one of the key initiatives towards this engagement.

Tata Crucible was started as a key initiative in 2004, a year which was christened as the ‘Century of Trust’ year to commemorate the death centenary of the Founder of the Group – J.N. Tata and the birth centenaries of two of its illustrious leaders – J.R.D. Tata and Naval H. Tata. It generated huge response as a high quality business quiz in the very first year and has now become an annual event. In a commissioned research Tata Crucible Campus Quiz has been judged highest rated ground quiz by the students of participating colleges.

The Tata Crucible Quiz is a team based contest (2 participants per team) and is held in 3 tracks. Two back to back tracks – separately for Tata Corporates and Non-Tata Corporates which is followed by the National Finals. The third track is held for Campus students each year which culminates into a National Final. Five editions of Crucible Corporate and Four editions of Crucible Campus have been held so far to enthusiastic response.

Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2009 now expands its horizons to four new cities and also emerges as the biggest business quiz for campuses in India spanning across 16 key business destinations.

The phrase ‘hauntingly beautiful’ was unmistakably coined by someone wandering through Pere Lachaise, the most romantic of cemeteries tucked away in the north-eastern corner of Paris.

Wonder apart, a strange wave of envy sweeps over when one comes upon acres of rolling hills, swaying willows, heritage chestnuts and secret paths that surround sprawling monoliths, private chapels, ornate mausoleums, priceless sculptures, statuary tombs and sepulchres of some of the finest names in history. As a mere strolling minority flanked by this extraordinary stone-artistry, one cannot help feel overwhelmed and hopelessly outnumbered by thousands of quiet souls that rest all around.

Affectionately called “La Cite Des Morts” or The City of the Dead by Parisians, Père Lachaise is home to about 300,000 graves, making it not just the largest cemetery in Paris but also the most popular in the world. In 1803, Emperor Napoleon I bought this land and had it laid out as a new cemetery in an effort to alleviate the overcrowding of city’s central burial grounds. After its inauguration in 1804, however, the hoity-toity of Paris refused to have their mortal remains rest there deeming it to be in the middle of nowhere. After all, a blue-blooded Parisian had to, in death, as in life, be part of a crowd which was famous or infamous! To convert the establishment into a place of prestige, the cemetery administrators struck upon the idea of ‘transferring’ the remains of the noteworthy French playwright Molière and the celebrated lovers Abelard and Heloise to Pere Lachaise in the early 19th century. And sure enough, a noteworthy brigade soon queued up for a potential place. Today, the maze of graves is almost impossible to navigate through without a guide map that is easily available at the entrance to the cemetery.
Thousands of the most interesting, talented and creative people like the Polish composer Chopin, the noted French writer Proust and the much adored American dancer Isadora Duncan have chosen this as their final resting place.
However, Père Lachaise is largely famous due to the grave of the 1960s rock icon, mystic poet and lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison. It also happens to be my first stop. Going by the Parisian police records, Morrison died mysteriously in 1971 at age 27 of a heart attack in the bathtub while writing poetry. He was buried here but soon after the original bust on his tomb was stolen. As if to dispel the starkness, scattered cigarette butts, empty beer bottles, dying flowers, melted candles, cards with messages and graffiti attempt to make up.

Next on my pilgrimage is paying homage to my all time favourite novelist and poet, Oscar Wilde. After being jailed on account of his (then) unacceptable sexual orientation, Wilde died of “drink” in 1900. He is buried beneath a strange but massive monolith adorned with a Pharaoh-like winged angel. The story goes that over the years, the sphinx’s rather impressive private parts mysteriously disappeared, only to reappear as paperweight! Today however the smooth, grey granite is dotted with fresh lipstick kisses, and strewn with flowers and messages. Did I make my mark? Well, well…
A weeping muse sits on the top of the crypt while, a riot of flowers from the Chopin Society pay their tribute to the Polish composer who died of tuberculosis in 1849. Chopin’s grave is as calming and soothing to the eye as his music is to the ear.

The highlight of the day was spotting J R D Tata and his family’s grave at the cemetery. The father of Indian commercial aviation and accomplished business icon was awarded the Legion d’honneur, an order established by Napoleon Bonaparte that is today the highest decoration in France. As a mark of respect to his Parisian upbringing, he was laid to rest here after he passed away in Switzerland. The cemetery is adorned by flowers from the family members.

Before I realised it, I had spent over three hours at the cemetery and it was fast getting to sundown. This grand city for the dead lies still under the oak and almond trees, and all that moves today amongst these stones are wonderstruck visitors, camera shutters, and stray cats. But it does not take much to imagine how magnificently magical it must be here under the moonlight. Perhaps, if you listened closely, you could hear Chopin at work, or even catch a glimpse of Isadora’s twists and turns under a full moon. It would not be hard to imagine Wilde poking fun and clinking a goblet under the chestnut trees, and what a delight it would be to chance upon the silhouette of Morrison, sitting all by himself on one end of a hill, idly humming, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher”.

The Lord and the Lady wanted to get laid in Britain.

So, what am I talking about? Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big black bat. Another riddle again, no this is just a clear-minded imaginative explanation of when Mountbatten left India.

The greatest tragedy in human history befell the Indian subcontinent when Britain decided to leave India. Govind Nihalani’s “Tamas” and countless books by various writers in the Indian subcontinent attempted to make sense of the tragedy of the partition of India.

Somebody, including me, ask sometimes, why does this thing even matter? Ancient history, 61 years since Indian and Pakistani independence, 4 wars later, why does the partition of India even matter? I was born well after the events took place and grew up in a city remote from where the action actually took place, the blood-stained borders of the Punjab and a less ferocious but equally tragic Bengal.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Mumbai city never really understood what a “North Indian” is anyways. BTW, I don’t think even North Indians understand what it means to be a North Indian. They are some of the most self-serving opportunists in the world. The people of Maharashtra and the South are fragmented in their own regional angst but bind together in the all-consuming regional, language and religious biases that is the Indian subcontinent.

After this rather bleak dissection of India, something that I do on a regular basis, I want to talk about something else. India’s China war.

When the Harrow-educated gentleman Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of India, his first agenda was the development of India, pacifism and acting as a pioneer of the Non-Aligned Movement as a counterbalance between the United States and an all powerful Soviet Russia.

Nehru along with Marshal Tito and Sukarno, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana were the founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement.

What exactly did this great arrangement achieve? There can be countless debates about this!Certainly Nehru’s brainchild, the movement was a group that challenged the existing status quo.

Nehru, a great visionary, built the Indian Institutes of Technology, where many people including some of my uncles, dean of Carnegie Mellon, another one who worked in NASA and my great ex-boss studied. One of the most interesting episodes I read about Nehru was his tussle with J.R.D. Tata.

Now as most people know, Tata is one of India’s greatest industrialists. Spawned by a generation of Parsis before him, Tata built some of the temples of modern India, a whole city, Jamshedpur, to make some cash himself, primarily and increase India’s industrial prowess. The Parsis were intelligent commercial lackey boys of the British, a fact which can be corroborated by history.

After this digression, what do I want to discuss? India’s disastrous 1962 war with China. Japan raped and plundered China and the Korean peninsula with great abandon till 1945.

A resurgent China under Mao Zedong wanted to build up muscle and show the world that it could not be taken for granted. The Chinese were always more rational and less religion-obsessed, say Lin Yutang and Nehru. Seeing the country practically, I don’t think this is true. A combination of atheism, ancestor-worship, Taoism but mixed with a great commercial knack like India’s Gujaratis has made the Chinese dominate the world market.

The Brad Pitt movie, “Seven Years in Tibet” illustrated and exemplified how the Chinese overcame an essentially peaceful Tibetan people with a mixture of guile and mandarin diplomacy. While the Indians were sleeping, and essentially imagining utopia with a world statesman like Nehru, China moved forward to assert its dominance in Asia.

The Middle Kingdom still plays cat-and-mouse with India, acting as a friend and stabbing it in the back whenever it gets an opportunity. I don’t say this, this is the gist of the coverage in the Indian media.

Now Nehru’s vitriolic foreign minister V.K. Krishna Menon, who smoked dope in London, and was an erudite gentleman, is believed to be one of the reasons why India was taken by surprise in the 1962 war.

The Malayali Genius

I am relatively insignificant to cast aspersions on the man a size of V.K. Krishna Menon, but this was the gist of the article on V.K. Krishna Menon, by Rashmee Roshan Lall. Read this article, interesting reading.

According to Maxwell and some Indian sources, V.K. Krishna Menon was one of the reasons India lost the 1962 war. When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, Britain thought he was too commie, pro-Russian and pro-Chinese to be trusted. Menon was the first high commissioner of independent India to Britain and was known as Nehru’s “evil genius”.

Britain also hated Menon for encouraging the cause of “African independence”, bringing about the collapse of what was and still remains the greatest empire in the world.

The intelligence documents also reveal Krishna Menon as different from the conventional Indian historical view of him being a hallowed figure as an architect of Non-Aligned politics, Mephistophelian figure in a Saville Row suit.

The Indian state of Kerala is great in many respects,but it is also home to a vitriolic intelligentsia that had largely communist leanings. The Malayali is a malicious rogue who can be found in any part of India. I am not going to generalise here, and sound like Sir Winston Churchill, who classified all Indians as “liars, thieves and scoundrels”. Many Indians do conform to this definition, but being Indian myself I cannot sympathise with Churchill. In a 2008 world, this definition is of very little significance as many people are largely ignorant about history, global, local or regional.

Emphasis on keeping it short and sharp. Like the great Nirad C. Chaudhuri, whose book was published by Jaico in 1951, my book “Existential Angst” was published by Jaico in 1999. I read one of Mr. Nirad’s books, “Autobiography of an Unknown Indian”. Boring to say the least, Chaudhuri can still be admired as a vicious Bengali gentleman with a degree of brooding servility to the Empire.

The Age of Empire

For people ignorant about Indian history, Bengal was the first incursion of the British into India. The last place the British managed to conquer in India was the Punjab. The Punjabis had defeated the Afghans but the British never really managed to subjugate the Afghans anytime in the 19th century.

It was only in the 20th century with internal weakness, the advent of radical Islamic fundamentalism as a response to centuries of imperialism of the West and the rise of the Taliban as an asphyxiating Islamic force that Afghanistan was aerially bombarded and finally conquered.

Afghanistan had been Indian (Hindu Aryan) territory at the time of the Epics, converted to Buddhism and finally became largely Islamic after invasions from the Arabs and conquerors from Central Asia.

For people who have only seen reruns of “Rambo” with Stallone or other American heroes fighting what are obviously caricatures of Muslims, a historical brief is necessary. Movies are partially realistic, and after coming to Britain, I can only shudder to imagine how people actually live in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Western supremacy and smug self-absorption is evident, but there is some degree of truth in every fictional narrative. There are slums in Mumbai, India’s maximum city, it is a daily struggle for survival for some 16 million people, half of them being poor, but reality is relative and convenient for a lot of us. I am trying to speak as a Scrooge myself, as many of my previous bosses were probably an incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge.

So, the professor in International Media Business, clarifies what “bean counters” means – Somebody who counts a lot of money. I want to qualify as one myself, if all the oversmart world lets me do that.

Well back to the main focus of the blog. As I was discussing India’s China war, and Neville Maxwell’s objective British dissection of it, all of your interests would be served if I put up the text for general worldwide/Indian consumption

I have always been of the opinion that well-researched and objective books about India have been written by Westerners and this is one more example of that. A Westerner can afford to write with cold, honest, dispassionate and objective brutality about India since he lives many thousand miles away and does not have to deal with the madhouse, the frenzy of passions, and the complete idiocy of India.

What does India mean

Being Indian myself, I have no choice but to embrace the all-clutching/strangling grasp of the motherland, I mean India. India is a thought and an abstraction, I really do not know what it means. Rabindranath Tagore, (I will not use the word, great to describe him, as the British will penalise me and the Bengalis will get offended and come after me) was mystical and poetic when it came to describing India. I can never really understand the significance of Tagore’s verse as I am not Bengali.

But here comes a poem (Tagore)that had a deep impact on me in school:

Where the mind is without fear,
Where the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free,
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert of dead habit,
Into that heaven of freedom, Lord, let my country arise.

I do not want to sound cynical here, as poetry, this translated verbatim still is a masterpiece. But corrupting frenzy of nationalism in an already narcissistic nationalist world, is a contradiction in terms.

I do not want to be a nationalist. I will attempt to discuss nationalism only in the narrow confines of this blog.

For now.

SUPERMAN (SUNIL KUMAR)

Ratan Tata was born to Soonoo & Naval Hormusji Tata on December 28, 1937. He was brought up their grandmother Lady Navajbai after his mother moved out following a troubled marriage. He studied at the Campion School in Mumbai.

At the age of 15, he moved to the United States for further studies. He completed his graduation from Cornell University with a degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering. He has also completed a Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Despite his wealth, Tata always kept a low profile. During his stint in the US, Tata had no qualms in doing odd jobs, he even washed dishes!

He joined the Tata Group in December 1962. In 1991, after more than 50 years at the helm, JRD Tata stepped down as the chairman of the Tata Group. Taking over from him was Ratan Tata, his nephew.

In 1998, Ratan Tata launched the Indica, which is India’s first indigenously designed, developed and manufactured car. Pooh-poohed for getting into the passenger car segment, Ratan Tata turned the tables on the naysayers within a few years. Tata Motors’ Indica and Indigo is two of the hottest selling cars in India.

Today, Tata is an indispensable part of the Tata group, striving for more glory year after year. If 2007 would be remembered for his acquisition of Corus, the biggest acquisition in the history of India Inc. He has also bid for Ford’s marquee brands: Jaguar and Land Rover.

His pet project — the Rs 1 lakh People’s Car — likely to be launched in mid-2008 is also certain to shake up the Indian car industry.

Ratan Tata has also initiated the restructuring of the vast Tata empire to reduce hierarchy, focus on profitable operations, and increase efficiency. The group is managed through holding company Tata Sons, which controls the Tata brand.

The Tata Group comprises 98 operating companies in seven business sectors: information systems and communications; engineering; materials; services; energy; consumer products; and chemicals.

Bombay House: Tata headquarters

Over 100 years ago, a merchant set up a mill in Mumbai to manufacture cotton goods and flagged off what was to become the $11 billion Tata Group.

The group observed the death centenary of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of the group, on May 19, 2004. J N Tata was a great visionary, nationalist and a person who with his determined played an important role in the industrialisation phase of the country.

The group’s other best known ‘Tata,’ Jehangir Rattanji Dadabhoy Tata or ‘JRD,’ also has his birth centenary in 2004.

Bombay House, situated in the heart of Mumbai city, is the headquarters of the group.

The building itself is a fascinating piece of history. In the early 1900s, a plot of ground was put up by the Bombay Municipality for sale in Bombay and purchased by the Tatas.

George Wittet, who once a consulting architect to the government and who later joined the Tatas as the head of the then Tata Engineering Company Limited, constructed a building that was completed in July 1924. That became the ‘Bombay House’, the headquarters of the Tata Group.

J N Tata: Boy who would be a giant

In 1868, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata — who was then just 29 — started a private trading firm with a capital of Rs 21,000. His travels in the Far East and Europe inspired in him the desire to manufacture cotton goods and so in 1877, he launched the Empress Mills in Nagpur. The mill laid the foundation of the industrial power house that was to become the Tata Group.

In 1886, J N Tata instituted a pension fund and in 1895, he began to pay accident compensation.

At 47, he launched the Swadeshi Mills to mark the beginning of the Swadeshi movement, whose aim was to reject foreign made goods.

The first hotel started by the Tatas, the Taj Mahal, Mumbai, was also a rejection of the British. J N Tata took two British clients with him to the Majestic Hotel but was denied entry because he was Indian. Stung by this insult, he decided to set up the world’s finest hotel, and this led to the foundation of the prestigious Taj group of hotels in 1902.

Jamsetji’s vision lives on

A nationalist and a true visionary, Jamsetji believed that India should have factories in key sectors.

A report on the rich iron ore deposits in India motivated Jamsetji to travel to Europe and the US for technical advice and then start a steel plant.

Jamsetji had passed away in 1904, but The Tata Iron and Steel Company was formed in 1907, and the Steel City, Jamshedpur, was built in Bihar.

His dream of setting up a hydroelectric scheme with an objective to supply cheap and clean electric power for the growing needs of Bombay was also fulfilled in 1910 when the Tata Hydro Electric Power Supply Company was established. An institute for premium Technical Education and Research that he had visualized was realised with the setting up of the prestigious Indian Institute of Science in 1911.

JRD, the visionary

Jamsetji’s son, Dorabji Tata, carried J N Tata’s legacy forward. Under his leadership the Tata group added the steel plant, three hydroelectric power companies, a large edible oil and soap company, and two cement companies.

The aviation unit, however, was JRD Tata’s legacy. Tata Airlines, was started as a division of Tata Sons in 1932. This was nationalised in 1953 and made into two separate units Indian Airlines and Air-India.

In 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru requested the Tatas to launch a cosmetics brand in India. Nehru wanted to ban foreign cosmetics in India but not without offering an alternative to the Indian woman. His request to the Tatas led to the birth of the Lakme brand of Cosmetics.

JRD was awarded the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1992. On his death in 1993, the Parliament, in an unusual gesture for a private citizen, was adjourned in his memory and the state of Maharashtra declared three days of mourning.

The fab four

A rare picture from the Tata archives captures the four original partners of the Tata Group.

In the picture are J N Tata (sitting right to left), the founder of the Tata Group; Sir Dorabji Tata, (standing right to left); the elder son of J N Tata, Sir Ratan Tata, his younger brother and R D Tata, father of JRD Tata.

The Tata empire today is one that has touched almost every aspect of Indian life.

It is the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate and runs about 80 companies in seven main sectors: chemicals, communications and IT, consumer products, energy, engineering, materials, and services. Two of its largest operations are steel making, through Tata Steel (Tisco), and vehicle manufacturing, through Tata Motors.

Credit to all of that goes to the four in the picture who had the courage to dream and make it come true.

Courtesy :- Rediff

This has become a very relative term, with ethics and corporate placed as asynonmous words with each other. The Enrons and Arthur Andersons’ of the world have managed to create perceptions of corporates looking at various dubious means to reach their business ends.

What consists of an ethical company? A company which conducts business in a clean and transparent only or does it also include various parameters like the way it believes in responsibility towards the community at large or even the way it treats its employees in matters of creating a work-life balance as well as dealing with cases of racial and sexual abuse.

Though companies might talk in glorious terms about issues like diveristy and addressal of abuse cases, however when it comes to dealing with real life issues, most of them place their business interests at the forefront. However there are companies like the Tatas Group and Infosys in India who have become trailblazers when it comes to placing the employee interest at the forefront. Whether it was the case of Phaneesh Murthy at Infy or the creation of the Jamshedpur city by JRD Tata, both the companies have shown that when it comes to their employees, bottom lines are just a part and not the entire crux of the business.

However as the world starts getting smaller and flater and companies are no more restricted to their geographies they need to start looking at companies like Microsoft, Citi Group, to name a few. Microsoft in fact can take the credit for being one of the most diversified company on the planet…it has some of the most striking examples of cases of equal opportunity.

With consumers and employees looking at issues such as CSR, transparency as key ingredients for either joining a company or even buying their product it is time that companies seriously started looking at ethics as a key part of their business process and not a talk to be given at trade and HR forums.