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It’s a main, it’s a side, it’s Brinjal
C'est La Vie

It’s a main, it’s a side, it’s Brinjal

The happily-ever-after formula at the dining table. Being a creature of habit, I still use the original plug point and spend many an evening guarding my precious computer from man and beast. Rajat bhai and my husband faithfully replicated all the flaws in the old flat as if their sense of well-being depended on that. It reminded me of the joke about the man who married a second time and no matter what wonderful things his second wife served him at breakfast, he would shake his head mournfully and say, “Not like what my first wife made”. Accidentally one day, she burnt the toast and ruined the coffee. Her husband beamed and said, “Exactly like my first wife made it”. I used to feed my daughter watery rasam and squishy rice with my hand, which prompted my usually taciturn father-in-law to offer me a spoon and at the same time […]

December 23, 2012 0 Comments
Cross Connections
India My Land

Cross Connections

In the markets of touristy Jaisalmer, you find, not economic trickle-down, but the global culture trickling down Driving From Jodhpur to Jaisalmer through the stark empty road with open spaces on either side, and no visible economic activity for miles and miles, my husband asked in a worried tone, every 10 minutes, “How will trickle-down ever get here?” Until we got to Jaisalmer and saw the main street, which looked a lot better than Warden Road, Mumbai, where we live. All the hotels were lit up like the big buildings of Mumbai. Where we live. All the hotels were lit up like the big buildings of Mumbai on Maharashtra Day and Independence Day. So what’s the occasion, we asked our escort. No occasion, he replied. It’s must the tourist season. “But do you have enough electricity? Are there power cuts and inverters in my mother’s house in Hyderabad. None at […]

November 30, 2012 0 Comments
People Ready, Policy Lags
Policy Perspective

People Ready, Policy Lags

Indians are using mobile and digital services in innovative ways, but policy must ensure low prices Indians, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, have all discovered the magic of mobile and of internet enabled services. ‘Product-based’ metrics like internet penetration, number of users and their activity levels or even share of smart phones to total phones nowhere near tell the story of the how central these services have become to Indian society. A people-based understanding will reveal a very high ‘digital quotient’ for all Indians, including the less privileged ones. Policymaking around issues that will impact the pricing and regulation of these services must fully take into account why and how this ‘public good’ is truly for the public’s good. In India, in addition to personal or household ‘ownership’, there is ‘regular access though I don’t own it’— my cousin has it / he created my email ID and manages […]

November 26, 2012 0 Comments
Que Sera Sera
C'est La Vie

Que Sera Sera

Where would one go shopping for strength of the human spirit? The late Ramesh Balsekar was a sought-after spiritual guru who I met by accident (though he would aver that nothing is by accident – it was all meant to happen). My former boss gave me a pile of Balsekar’s books to read and suggested that I put aside my scepticism and meet him at least once. Since the boss usually did a good job of broadening my education, be it exploring the seamier side of Paris or learning not to agonise after sounding idiotic in a television sound bite, I went. Balsekar was past 80, an ex-banker with elfin humour. He was not fussed about people calling him “Ramesh”, told jokes and stories, and exhorted me to come for his morning satsang sessions which were filled with foreigners seeking spiritual bliss. “Come, it’s the best entertainment in town,” he […]

November 11, 2012 0 Comments
Cut! Zoom in on Board Chairman
Corporate Governance

Cut! Zoom in on Board Chairman

More prattle on independent directors cannot fix governance, the chairman’s role remains terra incognita While decision-making in most boardrooms continues to be governed by “come on, let’s be reasonable” rather than “this is the right thing to do”, the good news is that there has been a quantum jump in public discussions on improving corporate governance (CG), not to mention the predictable increase in the number of awards instituted for the same! Board evaluation and performance improvement and director search and training are emerging as high-demand, new consulting areas. Hopefully, all this focus will soon raise the bar on governance quality. But for that to happen, the discourse needs to be broadened beyond its single-point focus today on independent directors. Discussion on how shareholder directors and executive directors can improve the levels of CG must also happen. But the biggest omission by far that needs to be fixed is around […]

October 29, 2012 0 Comments
The Parent BPO
C'est La Vie

The Parent BPO

Power shifts in new-age parenting One day, the same person who sent me off to Balsekar, took my daughter and me to meet Gregory David Roberts, the author of the spellbinding book Shantaram. While there was a debate on how autobiographical the novel was, we knew that Roberts was once a drug addict, sentenced to 19 years imprisonment in Australia for robberies. Two years later, he escaped from a maximum-security prison in broad daylight, and was on the run for the next 10 years. He was eventually captured in Germany, extradited to Australia and served out the rest of his rigorous prison sentence. He said that he almost escaped prison again but decided to finish his sentence. Thinking about his “then” and “now” amazing life journey — now a best-selling author, comfortably living in a swish south Mumbai apartment, about to make a movie with Johnny Depp, being paid an […]

October 14, 2012 0 Comments
Rediscover the Market Share Gene
Business Strategy

Rediscover the Market Share Gene

The slowdown is a time for companies to rediscover their core strengths to win customers over from others With the first sign of a slowdown in sales growth, the auto industry has reportedly petitioned the government for relief in the form of some excise duty concessions. They are not alone in this kind of thinking. Business targets have for quite some time now been moved up or down, based on what the economy will or will not grow at and what the sector is projected to grow at, almost suggesting that the job of chief of sales and marketing is with the government of India, and the job of fulfilment or delivery is with the individual companies. The government, it is felt, is responsible for doing things that will make the tide rise, and it will lift everyone, in proportion to the type of ship they have built. When market […]

September 24, 2012 0 Comments
Two and a Haif Women
C'est La Vie

Two and a Haif Women

There are many twosomes that have made me nervous over the years. There are many twosomes that have made me nervous over the years – my mother and my husband discussing their world views, my invaluable household help and my bossy aunt cooking together in the kitchen, my mother and my secretary having a conversation about how I misplace things. But the most terrifying of all is my mother and my daughter discussing me. “Why don’t we wait? Your mama said she would be home for lunch early,” my mother would say. “Oh, she just says it, but she never comes on time,” is what my then seven-year-old would say dismissively. Grandma would agree and spice it up with a few telling tales from my past. The performance appraisal would then continue, moving on to other topics. There is no hiding from a little girl and her grandma discussing the […]

September 23, 2012 0 Comments
The Art of Home Tutor Maintenance
C'est La Vie

The Art of Home Tutor Maintenance

Tuition teachers are here to stay, as long as the cut-offs for college admissions escalate. And if it isn’t bad enough acceding to the non-negotiable rate per hour of the teachers, it’s worse to carry the guilt of not allowing children to have any free time at all, as you shunt, drag, coerce, cajole, and bribe them to go for tuition after tuition. I carried the guilt for a long time, well after the school years were over. Recently, after reading reactions to Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother about how such children had no social life and hence have underdeveloped personalities, I asked my daughter with trepidation whether tuitions damaged her social life in her adolescent years. “Are you kidding,” she laughed, “tuitions were social life”. And when I look back on group tuitions – different groups for different subjects – and the coke-sandwich comfort food consumed […]

September 9, 2012 0 Comments
Invisible, Volatile Middle India
India My Land

Invisible, Volatile Middle India

This deprived section, sandwiched between two pampered classes, needs attention and policy support In the decade after liberalisation, ‘invisible India’ referred to the poor, barely earning, mostly rural India, which many said had got lost as policymakers’ attention was focused on the so-called middle class, whose steeply-increasing consumption was very important for GDP growth. Also, it was this consumption juggernaut that would attract FDI and vibrant domestic investment, and cause trickle-down of aspiration and incomes, and create jobs down the income ladder. After that, when it was accepted that the trickle-down didn’t trickle all the way down, the spotlight shifted to the plight of the poor and ‘inclusive growth’ became the new mantra. The hitherto-invisible India became the target for a slew of welfare programmes, most prominent being the MGNREGA. Financial inclusion, being pushed hard by the banking regulator for a while now, is also aimed at this segment, and […]

August 27, 2012 0 Comments
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