The Half Yearly Review!

So, today is the last day of the first half of 2013. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly have taken place in the first half of 2013 both within the Blue Caramel universe as well out of it.

In Blue Caramel offices at Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur as well as Mumbai, there has been nothing much to write home about but newer projects have been envisaged and executed in these last 6 months. The tie-ups with Udaipur Dopahar, Chetak Shopping and the progress of the travel handbook were some "Goods" from the first half of 2013.

In the wake of natural disasters such as the Uttarakhand Monsoon Mayhem, unearthing of more scams, the falling Indian rupee, the economy in the doldrums, the Indian cricket team being crowned the ICC Champion Trophy champion in its last edition, was probably the sole bright spot in the first 6 months of 2013.

The second half of 2013 promises much action with the unfolding of the ambitious WEB 2.0 by MyDestination.com. The launch of the monthly events of Udaipur Dopahar, the full launch of the travel handbook and taking our tie-up with Chetak Shopping to a completely new level in on the anvil.

The assembly elections in states like Rajasthan seem to be the big news from the political arena, upheavals withstanding, that will dominate the second half of the year.

The second phase of 2013, in a nut shell, promises much more than what the first half has delivered, which actually has been quite a forgetful phase for all of us.   

The Champions-Top 5 Failure to Success Stories!

In a movie of the Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan, "Baazigar" the main protagonist states that the person who wins after being defeated is actually the Champion. The cases in which people have been successful at the very first attempt, have been very few and far between. More often than none, people have been unsuccessful and gaining experience out of the 'unsuccess', have become success stories themselves.
Following is a list of 5 unsuccessful stories that transformed into grand successes-

1) Walt Disney- As a child I was more often than none on a diet of Walt Disney cartoons & animation movies and hence it was a real shocker for me to find out that not only Walt Disney was fired from his job citing that he lacked imagination, his first venture also went bankrupt. He persisted in what he believed and was able to create the empire that Walt Disney is today.

2) Albert Einstein- This genius was thought to be mentally handicapped by his teachers as he could not speak till he was four years and was hardly able to read till he was seven. That Einstein's brain has been preserved to study the reason for his immense intellect is a testimony to the scientific acumen of the man.

3) JK Rowling- Divorced, raising a single child, fired from her job as a secretary, not really the perfect recipe for the making of the Harry Potter blockbuster series. But Rowling was not only able to stem the tide but also take into her stride, the many rejections that her Harry Potter script faced at the hands of the many publishing houses where she went.

4) Mamata Banerjee- This diminutive first woman chief minister of the east Indian state of West Bengal was termed as a mad woman, rabble rouser with nuisance value by her many political opponents. She literally rose from the ashes to become one of the most powerful politicians in India today.

5) Team India- The Indian cricket team lost all their matches when they visited England, last year. This included a drubbing in a 4 match test series as well as losses in the ODI and T20 matches. This time, the Indian cricket team went to England with a vengeance. They did not loose a single match during the tour and the successful campaign culminated into India being crowned the Champions of the ICC Champions Trophy involving 8 cricketing nations. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose head the critics wanted before the start of the tour, has emerged stronger after this impressive performance. In fact, MSD became the first captain in the world to have won all types of International championships- T20, World Cup and now Champions Trophy besides leading team India to the number one position among the test playing nations.

What all members of Blue Caramel need to understand is that problems and failures are momentary and continuous. But beyond each failure, there lies the sweet taste of success for which we have to persevere. Thus Failure is the mother of Success!    
   

Nature's fury-Kedarnath, Rudraprayag and the destruction of the hills

In a previous post, I had written about nature's fury. A premonition or just a coincidence, the first two weeks of June has been witness to large scale destruction in the hills of Uttarakhand state of North India due to cloud bursts and resulting flash floods. Thousands of people were affected and property worth crores were destroyed in the wake of Mother Nature's ire.

The most affected places have been the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Rudraprayag and Kedarnath. Coincidentally, Rudra, as per ancient Hindu texts, is famed to be the Lord of Storms and the storm and early monsoon rains that lashed these places not only destroyed these places and affected its inhabitants but also cause panic, misery and fatalities among the lacs of devotees who had thronged these places.

Nearly, two weeks after the disaster struck, it is again the same menace that has been dogging the country for long. The politicians are squabbling to get maximum credit during this crisis as thousands still remain unaccounted for, presumably buried under the debris or washed away by the waters or even still waiting for help to arrive. The administration is on crutches and the unscrupulous businessmen, be it road side food/water vendors or high flying aviation companies, charging their pound of flesh from the people affected by the deluge.

The only people who seem to be actually carrying on their duty selflessly during this, are the personnel from the Indian armed forces. These people have been tirelessly carrying out rescue sorties, braving inhospitable weather and terrain in search of survivors and providing relief to them. As always, these silent warriors have again given their countrymen reasons to feel proud, in these distressing times.   

Ascent of Narendra Modi and while LK Advani steals the thunder!

The Goa convention of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) ended on 9th June amid high drama. The so called 'party with a difference' came out of the convention as a 'party with differences'. Narendra Modi, the chief minister and BJP strongman from Gujarat was made the chairman of the 2014 election strategy committee of BJP and he emerged as as a strong prime ministerial candidate. Many in the party rejoiced and many looked gloomy.

NaMo, Rajnath Singh, Advani

What ever said and done, love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Narendra Modi and his elevation brought fore the dissensions that simmered beneath the surface of the BJP. Though there were many a dissident murmurs and also large scale absenteeism at the National Executive conclave, real action began when the 85 year old BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani, as a protest to what he called divergent path that new BJP leadership had taken from the original ideology of BJP, resigned from all posts of BJP. Whether he perceived the GOA convention as a Go Out Advani convention or he really still thinks of himself as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, one could not fathom out.

Narendra Modi / Nitesh Kumar

But what it did was, it stole Narendra Bhai Modi's thunder and stirred a hornet's nest. Janta Dal (United), a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the largest political party threatened to pull out of the 17 year old coalition alliance. Its leader, the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar seen as a messiah of the minorities, who also has bigger political ambitions and who is a known Narendra Modi opponent wants an immediate political divorce from the NDA, a move which might help him score a few political points over BJP and more importantly the Congress, among the minorities and enhance and consolidate the minority vote bank. Every political party is seeking to derive the maximum political mileage from the seeming commotion that has erupted on the Indian political scene.

I am in the process of writing an article on Maharana Pratap for mydestination.com/rajasthan and the political scene during that period in Rajputana was so similar with commotion reigning supreme as present day. But the difference was the emergence of a strong personality like Maharana Pratap which helped the state of Mewar in the longer run, as it reinforced the image and prestige of the state. Would anyone like him emerge from today's political hotch potch? Anybody's guess. Till then keep enjoying the theater of the absurd!! 

     

Fury-Summer, Cyclones and Naxalites

The month of May has been a month of fury! The Sun has been shining with full fury on the Indian subcontinent and the people are looking forward to some respite from the scorcher. Nature's fury was evident when a tornado hit Oklahoma city in the USA killing many and destroying property worth millions.  Closer home, Cyclone Mahasen created havoc in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

These natural furies are, in a sense, Nature's way of getting back at Mankind for the indiscriminate destruction of natural resources in the name of development and economic progress. Trees have been cut and large swath of forested areas have been encroached upon. Use of pesticides and insecticides have contaminated soil and the produce from such soil is acting as a slow poison for the end users which is us. The mineral wealth is also getting depleted at an alarming pace. Emissions from automobiles and industries have created the "Green House Effect" and the overall temperature has been steadily rising over the years. The glaciers are melting and the sea water is claiming back land. The fragile ecosystem has been damaged beyond repair. The "Fury" that nature has unleashed can be best summed up through the idiom "You will always Reap as you Sow".

That brings me to another form of fury that saw the decimation of many in the tribal district of Bastar of Chhattisgarh in Central India. In a well coordinated move that amplified serious security lapses on part of the state government, a large convoy of vehicles carrying Indian National Congress leaders and workers was attacked by a group of well armed Naxalites. Two hours of frenzied fury left many dead including Mahendra Karma, a leading Congress leader and a staunch anti-Maoist, Nand Kumar Patel, the Congress party chief of the state of Chattisgarh and his son to name a few and scores injured including VC Shukla, a former central cabinet minister. More than the killings, the brutality of the killings gave rise to another round of "Fury" amongst the masses all across the country.

The menace of Naxalism termed as Red Terrorism is more of a class conflict than anything else. What started as an armed movement between the haves and have nots in Naxalbari, Bengal, has been to a certain extent hijacked by enemies of the state. The state of the art weapons that the extremists now possess are a tell tale sign of the same. Things have compounded as the Naxalites have been able to garner the support of the tribals as the states have failed miserably to stop their exploitation. The tribals have been forced out of their age old refuges in the jungles as these areas have been handed over to big corporations for mining activities. The corporates rake in profits at the expense of the locals.

With their natural habitat destroyed and the government showing apathy towards their plight, the tribal turned towards the Naxals and Maoists who were trying to establish themselves. The result, Naxal affected area today includes parts of Chattisgarh, Andra Pradesh (though the Grey Hounds elite corps have nearly wiped out the menace there), Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharasthra, Odisha and West Bengal to name a few.

If there had been an equitable distribution of wealth at the very outset and the administration had had more empathy, the peaceful tribals would have remained peaceful and the menace would have been curbed. That again brings me to the idiom that has already been quoted "You will always Reap as you Sow".



       

Book, Bookie, IPL6 and Srini!

So, the 6th Edition of the Indian Premier League, the T20 cricketing extravaganza came and went. The defending champions the Kolkata Knight Riders were knocked out even before the knock out stages and Mumbai Indians became the new champions at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, champions for the first time defeating the Chennai Super Kings, the most consistent of all IPL teams in the short history of the league.

But the real action in this year's IPL actually took place outside the cricket stadiums. The suspicions that fixers both of the "Match" as well as "Spot" varieties were at play were confirmed during the course of this year's edition. The Rajasthan Royals team led admirably by "The Wall" Rahul Dravid got involved in an ugly tangle when three of its players were arrested on charges of spot fixing.

Ex-Indian International player Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and spinners Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were caught by the police on charges of being in touch with bookies who placed bets on the basis of information supplied and actions the players indulged in during matches. The cricketers in turn were stashed with cash and supplied with girls by the bookies. It is ironic that a team that was lead by Rahul Dravid, the epitome of gentleman ship and sports spirit should have these rotten apples amongst them.

After the arrest of the cricketers and a few bookies, as the investigations further intensified, an even more startling arrest took place, that of Vindoo Dara Singh, the son of the legendary Indian wrestler/actor Dara Singh. Himself a winner of a reality show Bigg Boss, Vindoo, it seems was a conduit between the bookies and the people who were placing bets on the IPL matches. In custody, Vindoo is appearing to be singing as a canary does and the first high profile catch has been, Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of the BCCI honcho N.Srinivasan (Srini). Incidentally, Gurunath also happens to be a co-owner, principal and CEO of Chennai Super Kings, which again coincidentally is owned by his pop-in-law, Srini. That CSK have been the most consistent team in IPL, that they lost this year's final, that Srini and his son-in-law own the Team would have us believe that IPL is full of "co- incidents".

Daggers are out for Srinivasan's head and the pressure is on for him to resign as the president of BCCI but he has till date refused to bow. Probably, money power that he has in abundance and the fickle mind of the public at large probably gives him the confidence that he would withstand the present storm. But then does Money buy you everything?? Interesting but shameful times ahead it seems. IPL envisaged as a sporting entertainment extravaganza has turned into a den of vices and the billions who follow it, may now start feeling that they have been taken for a ride for Six years continuously.
S for Six, S for Sreesanth, S for Srinivasan, S for Superkings, too much coincidence again?? It seems my mind has gone for S for sixer and I am seeing coincidences all around as we near the S for sixth month of the year 2013!!!

The Open Mouth!

Most of the problems that we encounter in our daily life, it seems emanate from the huge amount of noise that most of us are able to create day in and day out. Oratory, rhetoric are good but foot in mouth disease that handicap people, is spreading like an epidemic. The problem is that people get so carried away bragging and trying to impress upon others without actually listening to the other person's view that they create enormous difficulties in their lives, both professional as well as personal.

An old Indian quote says that a word from the mouth and an arrow from a bow, once shot cannot be recalled, hence people should be very mindful of what they are saying. Alas, in today's fast paced materialistic world, time is at a premium and people are getting into a habit of speaking without thinking, trying to cover up their short comings.

It is said that a lie travels half the world while the truth is just pulling up its socks. If nature had wanted us to be more talkative and less attentive, then we would not have been bestowed with one mouth and two ears but the "Open Mouth" has resulted in a world of deception, deceit and duper y. A small lie leads to more lies which become bigger and bigger overtime and finally leads to doom and destruction.

What all members of Blue Caramel need to realize is that you can fool some of the people, some of the time, all of of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, be it your professional colleagues, friends or family!