From my Dad to my Son - Part 2 : SMILE

Dear Son (now my Dear Prithviraj),

This series takes a lot of time to come up with emotions to write. In the meanwhile I wrote 1 more blog and some unsolicited advices on Facebook.

The world has suddenly changed in these past 2 years where we are struggling with a pandemic. This is an unprecedented situation we all are in. The nature is in no mood to spare anyone! We do not know when this will end.

You are 2 and a half years old already and have started speaking a lot of things. You understand what a human must understand at this age. We have observed at times you behave very well when it's least expected. You now know how your dadu looked, his name and some stories you make out of his photographs. 

I am recording some more of his essence in this letter for you to read when you are able to. He was a fearless man when he advised:

" THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF".

I always remember when he used to scold or motivate me when ever I was fearful as a child. He would push me without saying he's looking at me against anything I feared. The best way to not to be feared is to face the fear itself. I remember when he used to wake me early in the morning at around 5 to take me for swimming when I was around 7-8 years old. He and his friends would push me into water and encircle me and I had to swim towards each one of them when I didn't know how to swim. Out of fear I tried every excuse to not go for swimming but he made sure he takes me every morning. It took time but I learnt how to swim and the fear was gone. Fear eats us from inside. But then how not to be fearless? Smile! and read on...

He held high standards, chivalry, fine behaviour that won him enormous amount of respect. That's something you need to be really careful about.

"MANNERS REVEAL FAMILY, SPEECH REVEALS EDUCATION"

One can have great speech but it's the manners that count. Just imagine if there was no money, and everything depended on your moral standards, the way you behaved and the way you treated people, how you would be doing in life? 

He always made sure that the driver who has accompanied a guest is served first! His contagious smile won him a lot of friends and lot of respect from all.

You know, I never saw your dadu deep into religion. But I realise that it was most important to be available for humankind. After he physically went away from us, we got to know about a lot of people which said that he helped him in getting the treatment done in hospitals, he helped them with various other things which we didn't know until he was there and even at times when he himself was short of resources but never short of smile. Always remember:

" THE HANDS THAT GIVE ARE FAR BETTER THAN LIPS THAT PRAY"

That doesn't mean prayers don't count, that simply means a stitch in time saves nine. Some times our simplest of actions, prove very valuable for others. 

These virtues are easier said than practiced, but "NEVER MIND FAILURES AS THEY ARE QUITE NATURAL". 

Baby, from being my father you now know him as your dadu. These valuable lessons are for life. They are the virtues that will build you, they have built me. Difficult to live by each word, but definitely worth every effort living like him. 

And the best part:

"SMILE COSTS NOTHING BUT MEANS MUCH"

Lovingly yours'

* All sentences in capital are excerpts of my Dad's diary.

The rich are getting richer and poverty can be eliminated

I just came across an article saying that 82% of the total world’s wealth is controlled by 10% of the population and bottom 50% of the world’s population owns 1% of the world’s wealth. I am not going to write numbers here, that all of you can get on the internet.

Just this one study reveals so much about the ‘economies’ we are living in.

This simply means that its just money that now runs the globe completely. Money owns power, money owns resources, money owns governments and money owns religions. And its not that people do not know this, the only shocking thing is the rate with which rich people are accumulating more money and poor people are getting poorer. We now have companies having valuations of trillions of dollars. Consumerism is on its peak. We are buying products we do not need at all. Our needs have been created by the companies in such a way that we did not even come to know that there’s a lot of stuff in our houses which we never needed in the first place.

Capitalism, communism, socialism etc. have all have failed to curb the rise of money just from being a medium of exchange to ‘own everything papers. Poverty alleviation has actually not been on agenda at all especially in democracies across the world in last few decades. Yes, a few dictator driven countries have made some rapid progress in creating welfare models for their people but I see no major democracy making any such progress in last dew decades.

The question is what are rich people going to do with their wealth? This is hoarding of wealth must stop. There must be some limit to which one can accumulate wealth. On one hand we see poverty, unemployment, economic slowdowns, job layoffs and even countries going bankrupt and on the other hand we are seeing a clear trend of more and more wealth accumulation by the richest. The system is designed by purpose to suck money from masses and accumulation by the rich and poor are just accumulating loans. Where is this money going after all?

These rich men and corporations now own so much money that they are bigger than their countries in terms of controlling the resources and power. With companies breaking into trillion-dollar clubs, what they are upto? How can so much wealth be accumulated? How can at a point of time a single organization have cash reserve more that the cash reserve of the largest economy of the world?

The way the technology companies are growing, investing in new technologies and creating products without which we were living anyways, is creating a huge non-sensical ambition among the people to be able to consume their products and at hefty prices.

I belong to that generation which has seen fixed lines telephones, initial mobile phones with high call rates, cheap mobile call rates, mobile revolution, smart phones, data in the smart phones and now the super smart phones. I think the world could live happier with fixed line phones as well! Most of the people reading this will not agree with me on this today but in the following blogs, I will try to write more on this explaining my perspective of how. The thing I want to explain is we have created needs which never existed for humans to live happily and comfortably. And with organisations growing so big, they are now looking for ways and means to build more such ‘unwanted needs’ to suck more money out of the common people and keep getting richer with god knows what to do with so much hoarding of wealth. They are destroying the environment, they are destroying the cultures, they are destroying the traditions and pushing for more than ever which in turn is destroying our lives. We would not want to accept it ever, but we are under a system of modern slavery. Slavery of the rich.

Do you believe we can end poverty on this earth? Well, 100 richest people have so much wealth that they can end poverty across the globe 4 times! Yes, you heard that right. I am not saying take away wealth of these 100 (which nobody in the world can touch any way as these people are far more powerful than the governments, rather they are the ones who drive the governments across) and distribute to the poor. But with so many Nobel laureate economists around, can someone please find out how can this current pattern of distribution of wealth can change to develop everyone financially and not only the top 10% (they can’t or won’t do it either as they are controlled too). We may say that more and more people are coming out of poverty each year, but these classifications are again a function of corporatisation of governments and the way various governments are handling the poverty lines in their countries. And along with the basic definition of poverty and people crossing that, the way the consumerism is rising, we are further falling in the trap of consumerism induced slavery resulting into disguised poverty where a person has all that he needs to survive and live happily but thinks he is poor enough to not afford what he thinks he should afford and that keeps him working like slave all through his/her life.

The simple example is a few decades ago, income of one of the 2 (husband or wife) was sufficient to support the family and sustain and live happily, now one cannot survive without the income of both. What disaster this has done to the society is unimaginable. Very conveniently the rich world coined a term ‘middle class’ who are basically the white-collar slavery class and nothing more.

All of us who believe in democracy across the globe are fooling ourselves as your government is for the rich, by the rich and of the rich! Everything is so well systematized that we don’t even think on these lines ever and even these couple of pages to a lot would sound foolish.

I will keep writing on this subject. Keep articulating thoughts and keep accumulating data and also keep thinking how to get out of this mess where you are talking against the rich and the governments they control. The only way currently I can think of is knowing what you actually need than what you think you need to live happily.

Signing off!

Siddharth

From my Dad to my Son! Part - 1 : LOVE

Dear Son,

Its been more than 14 years now, God took away my dad as he was short of good people himself. I was 15 that time. It's almost half of my life he is physically away from me. Although I rarely felt him away from me emotionally, spiritually or mentally. He has been in everything which has brought his family where it is today.

I grew, I studied, I fell, I rose, I worked, I got married and now I have a son myself. In this journey he has been with me and whenever I felt alone, he would somehow make me feel he is around. He is my God and has been strengthening me all along. He has been with me all these years in form of my Mom and Sister.

My lovely wife delivered a beautiful 'you' a few weeks back and I felt dad around you. I do not know how happy he would have been holding you in his arms. He was a very emotional person.  But I still cannot imagine how much he would have loved his grandson. He would certainly feel like:

" TO LOOK AT YOU;
TO LOOK  INTO YOU;
TO  LOOK UPTO YOU;
SHALL FOREVER BE THE JOY OF MY LIFE"

My child, this is from one of the first pages of my Dad's dairy for you.

Kid, when you will be big enough to read this, I want to gift you your grand dad, bring him back from his diaries, from his anecdotes, from the time we spent with him, from his aura, from the love he spread around him to you. I want you to be like him, love like him, be grand like him, have a big heart like him.

He was a friend of friends, a lover, a philosopher, a thinker, person with open arms, an optimist, a believer, a strong man who loved his family.
He writes in his diary from 1973:

"YOU ARE NOBODY TILL SOMEBODY LOVES YOU".

That's the first lesson he would teach you. You are born out of love. Love is the very basis of your existence. He loved his family, all of us more than anything. He would have tears in his eyes if we were leaving him for vacations, he would cry if I cried when I fell ill. He would love us like no other. This is what his life was made of. Little joys in our eyes and he would enjoy them.
Son, my father imbibed in me this feeling of love. I want people around me to love me as this is existence to me. He lived this love. I saw people loving him, people still love him. Just when I thought about posting his diary lessons for you, a lot of people showered their love on him. He was loved by too many people, more than I would ever know!

Son, love fearlessly and be someone whom the world loves. That is what I believe he believed in. Love was Godly to him. He further writes on being close to people

"TO BE CLOSER TO GOD, BE CLOSE TO PEOPLE"

That is the essence of existence.

This series I am writing for you my Son as my dad said:

"A WISE SON  MAKETH A GLAD FATHER". I hope my dad is glad for me and I will be glad for you.

Lovingly yours'


* All sentences in capital are excerpts of my Dad's diary (which dates back to 1973).

Religion

Dear All,

Watching cricket alone in a hotel's restaurant, having some chips and after hectic 3 days of travel, a lot of thoughts cross mind. Though this has happened a few times with me, but these days my writing self is pushing a bit from inside.
I just finished writing a blog on current macro political scenario a few days back. Got good hits!
I lack the knack of building a background and then subtly going on the topic which great writers so naturally possess!
Last 2 days I was in a land where politics and religion crossed paths and then devil unleashed. Now the state is back by 100 years. Punjab.
Religion has been the biggest weakness of public that politics has used. The intersection of both has killed hundreds and thousands. These two things are like petrol and fire, you bring them closer and there will be a blast!
This intersection is neither new nor unintentional. This petrol and fire combination is being used very regularly since ages and in very planned manner.
But the conman man is too emotional about both, religion being top in the order. I fail to understand the relevance.
Religion is something very personal. To me religion is a belief in an almighty who takes care of my world. That can be God or even any person whom I have immense faith in. Someone whom I can look up to with closed eyes and a sulking or a joyous heart. For me my God are my parents! Period! I don't believe in any other God!
Further all religions are way to lead a happy and healthy life. Pure science discovered 100s and 1000s years by our ancestors (and not science discovered by westerners). So far I am yet to come across a religion or a way of life that teaches violence. Consistently all religions as far as I have understood in my 30 years of life (yes I am disclosing I am 30 now, and worried too!) have taught love, peace and togetherness. That's it. That's how religions is relevant. It's purely personal and to be kept at home, mind and heart not on streets.
We as common citizens need to understand that no one can disrespect any one else's religion if we don't bring religion to streets.
Politicians pay to create disturbance and only way they can do is by instigating the point of religion.
If we believe in our Gods so strongly and know that he is so great then how can anyone insult that almighty!
So where's the point of disrespect? So where's the fight?
It's important as a society we keep our religions at our home and use it as a tool to stay healthy and happy rather than fight over it and get ourselves killed through hands of politicians (here I am referring to all those who manipulate religion in some way or another as politicians).
To me my religion may be important but I am least bothered about your views on that! SIMPLE!
And if I am actually bothered, then I am a weak follower of my parents; my God!
So decide whether you want to follow your religion blindly or just take it as a way to live your life healthy and happy.

Signing off!

Siddharth

Trump and the World

Hi

Long time no see!! Yes, I was too occupied with the system of the world which had decided my course of life before I was even born.
But today is a day that compelled me to write as Donald Trump had become the President elect of United States. He was least expected to win the elections against Hillary Clinton in an epic battle of lack of choices for the American people. They would have felt how it feels to choose between a better evil (which we have been doing for years now)!
These elections are a historical mandate and right from the time DTrump was announced as President candidate against HClinton I was sure that he will become POTUS. I do not understand why the world had doubts? Why the financial world was or is worried? There is no chance HClinton would have been a better choice.
After the general elections in India where Modi was elected with thumping majority the voting pattern of my generation started showing its effect. I strongly believe that these days you must learn to take a stand with full understanding. Either you like me or you hate me, there is no in between.
Both the elections polarised the voters, the candidates did not polarise but the opposition did.
One needs to have a point of view on things, either you are friends or enemies, either you are good or bad but now a days you cant be in between, you cant be a diplomat. The voters wont like that at all. The stand has to be strong and must catch the sentiment of voters. The stand can be polarising, non - inclusive, divisive but that's what the common man wants and that's how they vote.
Both Indian and American elections have shown that.
You cannot love fire and have an affair with ice at the same time. And then the actions must follow.


It will be interesting to see now how Trump deals with international issues like India & Pakistan. Till now the US has been supporting India and funding Pakistan and trying to have better relations with China as well. Sounds strange. But Trump might not like it that way. If he will be friends with any one he will be enemy with their enemy. I hope that happens, that's what he has shown in the campaign. He has clearly spoken his mind on many international issues.
He will have either s strong following (In India they are known as Bhakts) or people strongly hating him (In India they are known 'the all knowing intellectuals & liberals'). But that is how it is going to be.


Now, the world stands with 3 leaders with clear minds about what they want to do. Trump joining Modi & Putin.
We must expect a huge change in the power shifts with these 3 men at the helm. They all are strong, clear minded and operating big countries.

I feel the Americans have made a good choice among the 2.

Signing off

Siddharth!

Switch off news and India is safe!!

Dear All,

India is going through quite an interesting time right now. So many things happening, media busy 24x7 showing opposition parties, howsoever small they may be, barking non stop, thinking they are roaring; college students getting hyper, getting anti national; crimes of over enthusiastic (guy humari mata hai) majority increasing over abundant beef eating minorities; Parliament not functioning properly over family matters of leaders of parties not in power; the man who never spoke for 10 years, speaking on the government now; the man who does not know what to speak is still speaking rubbish and killing the Grand Old Party even more; minority super star's wives feeling scared in this intolerant India whereas the Baby and Drishyam stars enjoying super hit movies; Awards being returned on increasing intolerance (against whom is still a question) but the Afzals of the world being glorified in the heart of the country and among all this the normal man is still living a normal life hoping for development in his own motherland.

The moment you switch off the news channels, you get the feeling that you are back in India. Everything around you, your neighbourhood, friends, job etc are all same and we are all working hard to make India grow.

Right from the time when the nation had decided to vote out INC and get in BJP, the media started playing the 'polarisation' tape. And as soon as this government came into power with the kind of majority it came with and the way INC and other regional parties were cleaned up, obviously things were painful for those who have been in power for so long. 

Then the way media has became judgemental and over analytical rather than just being informative, the whole country had to be in a mess. But what option do these 24x7 media houses have. They are run by corporates, they have bottomlines to take care of, they face competition every hour, they have political Godfathers and have to keep them satisfied, they have to pay salaries and thus they have to maintain their revenues. And as they say everything is fair in love and war, so when the question of survival comes, you have to get news and if there is no news then you have to create news, failing to understand the repercussions. Then one fine day a journalist shows the news on a black out TV saying some stuff that is again not relevant as the news (now, I am being judgemental).

Now a days everything catches media attention even from a mosquito to an elephant, from aalu to beef and from 0 seat party to the party in majority. Media is creating divides in every possible way they can and off late people have started losing interest in switching on a news channel because its the same story with different role players each night, same panelists, same arguments, same tones, same fights, same blame games, same non-sensible talks or rather shouts!

I still believe and hope that majority (not by religion I mean) of people in this country are sensible and ignore these media created hue and cry each night and are busy developing this country and themselves.
The time is not far when the sensible class of this country will completely stop watching and getting affected by this media terrorism and as rightly said by some one (though a little rash) these enlightened, all knowledgeable 'presstitutes' will learn their lessons the hard way. The way they have abused the freedom of speech under this government and before is condemnable and still the government and we the people are tolerating these people, shows that India is still the most tolerant country of the world.

Jai Hind

Signing off

Siddharth


PS: I started writing this blog against reservation, but the prelude itself is so long that it will take 3-4 more blogs for me to reach till reservation until I reserve one of my blog space to write against reservation ;)

Image Credit: Rohnit Shore (taken from Google search)

The over-rated start up generation!! (Part 2)

Dear All
So here I am tonight trying to finish what I started last month! The part 2 of the blog which some of my friends told they are eagerly waiting for just to keep me happy and enthusiastic enough to not stop blogging!
Yes, so now comes the third generation or the start up generation or as my blog's title says 'over-rated' start up generation.
First of all as I mentioned in the part 1, I believe that the 2nd generation was the one which created the manufacturing base in this country and the distribution channels. They were the real start up kings!
Ours is more of a bubble generation, no doubt with a lot of substance but the advent of high communication has blown things out of proportions. We are living in a world of valuations rather than asset base. Today, like of a flipkart is valued 4 -5 times that of a Tata Steel! Are these valuations justified?
Recently I observed that in last month or so a The Economic Times has questioned these valuations thrice on its front page. I have been discussing the same over past 6 months with various people.
So our generation, instead of creating wealth, is creating valuation. Instead of creating manufacturing, organising the services through internet. Instead of creating assets, creating brands. Instead of creating a long term robust business, creating a bubble!
Well, the above paragraph sounds like I am a big pessimist about these internet businesses, but I am not! These businesses are here to stay, only issue is the valuations these are garnering. If the valuations are justified by fundamentals like revenue, profits, asset base, free cash flow, well and good but the same is far from happening in many cases.
There is a lot of money in the world wanting to be invested and somewhere some good sales man is selling a 15 year story today and that desperate money waiting to get invested is getting invested. I hope that it sustains those 15 years and finally the investment is justified.
Anyway currently every purchase I make online comes with money from the investor sitting somewhere in Japan or the US or China or India!
Fortunately currently only rich are investing their money in such businesses who can afford taking a beating.
I hope our generation creates wealth like the earlier one and all the big names remain intact after 15 years, in green with their fundamentals supporting their valuations.
I hope that this is not another .com bubble waiting to get burst...

Signing off

Siddharth!