Reflections

Book Review : Mastaan The Fallen Patriot Of Delhi Vineet Bajpai Vineet Bajpai has done it again… after the immensely successful and thrilling Harappa tri-series, he is back with a bang, and how! This time, with a book on the First War of Independence. This book actually surpasses the first 3 with ease; for reasons as to why it is so special, read on! Suffice it to state for the opening paragraph here, that this is a must read for all Indians. Kudos, Vineet – and thanks for a really special landmark book! THE PLOT The book is themed on 1857, and based on the background of a love story that intertwines with the freedom struggle. The key protagonist is Mastaan, a Subedaar in the East India Company’s Army, and a devoted servant of the EIC. The EIC Officers, particularly one kindly gent, had helped his family, and he thus holds almost a worshipping attitude towards the EIC. His best friend and senior is Chhagan, a Subedaar Major, who is the exact opposite – someone

Lets take a stroll through the market – any market, any city in India. Go into the shops, and observe the products therein. The one thing that stands out – the proliferation of MNC Brands, brands that originate outside India, with only production in factories in India, if that. In some cases, even that is not there – the product is simply imported. Either that, or its key components are imported. A similar trend, though not so easily observable, can be seen in industrial markets, with the tendency of imports being ever-present. Be it steel or be it dairy, it is the same story everywhere. This, far from being a success story of the past 28 years, is actually a telling failure of our local industries, a compelling tale of abject failure, as company after company falls in share {sometimes even shutting shop}, with the gains being made by Brands that are not Indian. Our per capita income has gone up, yes. Opportunities for people have increased, yes. Lifestyles have improved &am

Walk Away! Two simple words, but they hold the key to our mental peace of mind and happiness. Also, two simple words representing an action that is possibly among the hardest to execute among all actions in life : Walk Away. Something even the best of us fail to do, again and again. We tend to cling, hold onto situations, relationships etc far beyond their value and importance, creating stress both in our own lives as well as those of others. Rather than cling – my advice is to simply walk away! RESPECT : THE BEDROCK Any relationship – be it spouse, or children, or friends – is built on a bedrock of mutual respect, mutual interdependence and communication. Of these 3 – it is the first, mutual respect, that leads to the following two. You tend to talk to {regularly and openly, transparently} only those people for whom you have some degree of respect for at least some of their characteristics. Only when true communication happens does mutual interdependence get built into th

PAIN… Pain is a touchstone for Spiritual Growth; this is a dialogue I heard in a TV Serial; this is a strange concept, but well founded in many other literary sources as well. In short, Pain has a capacity to unlock deep spiritual longings and growth in an individual, something no amount of material happiness can give or bring about. It has been said that the path to the development of a deep character, a strong constitution, a strong faith or belief, a sense of balance, and a deep understanding of the nature of humanity are all rooted in pain; these aspects emerge from the Ocean of Pain. …AND HAPPINESS Happiness, on the other hand, leaves little in your development from all of these. Such is the strong nature of the pull of material happiness that it overcomes and subdues all else. It gives a human a sense of superiority, of achievement, of knowledge, of pride, of lust, and much more; it fuels passions and blinds a person to the negatives of life. As the person has achi

Risk is a part and parcel of business; the uncertainty of the future, and the vagaries that this uncertainty causes in the business situation is one of the key aspects of planning at any level in an organization. The current book under review is my first book on Risk Assessment that I have taken up, in my attempt to understand why plans fail, and what is the nature of risks confronting an organization. Before I commence, let me underscore something – we in Organisations as well as in Management Education should place a lot more emphasis on understanding and evaluating risks than we do now. THE BOOK Risk Management – A Practical Guide by Sorin Dumitrascu is a practical approach, a guidebook of sorts, towards identifying and implementing Risk Management Procedures. This looks at a very basic approach, yet eminently practical. It introduces in a very succinct summary form some of the types of risk that confront an organization, in a basic bare categorization, and then moves

The question Who Am I has a standard response, one of self identity. We identify ourselves by a specific name, religion, nationality. We have a specific identity. This identity, this sense of self, this uniqueness about I-Me-Myself, and the resultant deep entwined involvement with it is what makes us humans; most of us, indeed nearly all, cannot even dream of a situation where this does not exist, this identification. Even when we merge   in groups, families, organisations, activities we keep this sense of self, this identity, this uniqueness, this Ego. This is what makes humans tick. Image by John Hain, Pixabay THE SKIN DEEP IDENTIFIERS This identification is skin-deep, quite literally. It is entwined with our physical appearance, outward associations we have of family & society & status, our material possessions and so on. The question Who Am I gets a name, an appearance, a status, a family, a home and possessions, as a first level response. A thinker, an intel

EXPLAINING REBIRTH Do we have a multiplicity of lifetimes? Is there anything called rebirth? If so, what is its nature? What is the scriptural take as per Vedant on this matter? This is what I would like examine in the light of such scriptures as the Upanishads and The Krushnaarjun Sanvaad {SBG}, in an attempt both to deepen my understanding, as well as to enable the reader to engage with these thoughts. References will be provided in the Bibliography Section.    A QUESTION OF SMRUTI It has been taught to us that we have many lives; this is a a misinterpretation of the reality. If the Aatma, the soul, is not born neither dies - where is the question of rebirth? The Krushnaarjun Sanvaad {better known as Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta} makes it clear that the soul is eternal. If the soul   does not die, the question of rebirth does not arise! Further, during one individual sensory cycle {which we western influenced people call Lifetime}, all the senses, buddhi, smruti get lef

THE COMPETENCY MATRIX : A BASIC LOOK AT FUNDAMENTALS This article is an instrospective analysis arising from a study of a multitude of sources relating to Management Theory and Practice, and has been born out of studying the Business Failure of a couple of organisations where I worked; thus, this is an attempt to answer some questions on where organisations fail, and how can we prevent failure. I have looked / am looking at many parameters of functioning – Logistics & Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and more… here, I focus on a part of Organisational Development and Business Strategy. Do leave a comment with your thoughts on the same. This is an article born of introspection and  studies of both theories as well as case studies - but I have abandoned theoretical approaches for a more brusque basic approach to explain the concept,  A Competency Matrix is a tool that documents the required competencies for each position in the organization; and compare w