We are one! Always, come whatever.

The recent panic among our north-eastern brethren that led them to flee their educational institutions and work place is really unfortunate. But, what is satisfying is that despite all this pandemonium, calm prevails across the length and breadth of our country. It is commendable that ordinary Indians didn’t bite the bait of the people with evil design. And it is praiseworthy that our politicians cutting across party lines showed a genuine concern and have directed the administration for taking immediate action for safety and security of the citizens and to nab the rumour mongers. It is heartwarming to see that police administration and our politicians are serious and are really working on it.

 It is learnt from the news reports that are pouring in that the bulk messages and the doctored photographs and videos posted on various social networks have its origins in Pakistan! Alas, the incorrigibles, once again!

While the investigations will shortly throw light on all the aspects of this unfortunate episode, it is high time for all of us to contact our north-east citizens whom we know and who fled their workplace and educational institutions to their homes fearing for their lives. Employers of such citizens must make efforts to contact them to call them back and assure them that all is well! Similarly, the educational institutions should ask their students to call up their friends in the north-east to join them as it was just a rumour. More the delay, problems will get compounded for all the employees, the students the employers and the institutes. Earlier, the better.

And yes, this rumour-gate has proved once again that India is one! We are one! Always, come whatever.

Entire India celebrated the victory of Mary Kom. Because, she is one amongst us.

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

While Food Grains Rot, Food Inflation is on the Trot

Today there were three news items on the front page of TOI-Ahmedabad Edition (dated 15/05/2012) which I found related to each other and contradicting too. While the main headline news appears as ‘Veggie prices surge 61%, fuel 7.2% inflation in Apr’, the other two news items appear under News Digest as ‘Center to give Rs. 700Cr for drought relief work’ and just below it ‘Storage space crunch for bumper harvest’! Source for all the three news items emanates from the Centre i.e. the Central Government!

It is indeed ironical that while tonnes and tonnes of food grains rot in the age old godowns and in the open storage in Punjab and other parts of the country, millions go to bed without a square meal! As reported in the news item – the FCI has warned that unless the government distributes 750 lakh tonnes of food grain, there will be no storage space for the bumper harvest being currently procured! At the same time Centre has decided to give Rs. 700 Crore as reimbursement to the state for expenditures incurred on drought-mitigation work.

The government really needs to look into its wayward policies and to put into place a system for timely collection, secured storage and distribution of food grains so as to make it available to the citizens at reasonable price and to ensure its availability to the poor citizens thru PDS without involvement of the middlemen. Looking at the current state of affairs of food grains management, it is clear that the policies, if any, are just for name sake and food grains either end up rotting in the godowns or is pilfered or pushed into the hands of the middlemen. And, the poor hungry mouths and food inflation keep on rising.

When it comes to vegetables and fruits, the prices have skyrocketed and are now very much beyond the reach of an ordinary Indian. The reason for exorbitant increase in prices is not known- whether produce is less, or people have started eating more or the middlemen have spread their network thru political backup for generating party funds! Out of these three probabilities, involvement of middlemen appears to be the major reason for hike in veggie prices too! I guess that.

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

Who would you like to be the next President of India?

With the five year term of the first lady President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil coming to an end in July’ 2012, the search for the 13^th President of India has begun. While this election will test the strength of political parties and see realignment of regional parties, some parties like Trinamool Congress may try to earn a good bargain in the process.

Speculations are being made that the current Vice-President of India – Mohammad Hamid Ansari might be the likely Presidential candidate, Pranab da’s name has also started doing rounds. However, as an ordinary Indian, I am not impressed with either of the choices! Both the candidates are learned and highly experienced, but still they lack the charm that a candidate should have for this position. Even the incumbent President didn’t leave anything worth which could be attributed to her during her tenure at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In the immediate past, we have seen luminaries like late Sri K.R Narayanan – the 10^th President and the most inspiring 11^th President- Sri APJ Abdul Kalam – who really suited for the top job and they did justice to it.

We need someone as the head of the family who is all knowledgeable, highly respected, has vision and imagination and has faith in the youth. We have the ‘Agni’ man still with us, inspiring the youth with his lectures and books and he is trying his best to carry forward his Vision 2020. We actually need a highly respected, simple and sincere Head who has vision to guide the country in the right direction. In my view, there is no other better choice than APJ!

True, President of India is a titular head; but when it is APJ Abdul Kalam as the Head of State, it no longer remains titular- because he rules over the heart of all and has the ability to move the nation , and for it no executive powers are required. I wish him back to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, who do you wish as the President?

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

Woes of a Public Sector Employee

In the morning with the ritual cup of morning tea, I was just glancing thru the main page of Times of India (3^rd April’12) when my heart lost a beat! No, no, no. I am not a heart patient. But the news item – Salary hikes pegged at 12% in India – is sure to make your heart race or falter! And surely heart would falter when you know, you are not among the ones who would get the pay hike.

The salary hike projection for the current year is at 12% overall with auto-sector employees expected to net about 14.38% followed by pharma sector at 12.8%! These figures are from M/s Mercer – a global consulting firm. It is learnt that signs of economic recovery are stronger, hence 75% of the companies are increasing their budget allocation for pay hikes. Also, 54% of the employees are planning to leave their organisation!

We, in public sector, are a different tribe. Economic Recovery or Recession, hardly it matters – to us in terms of pay. Yes, of late some facilities get withdrawn Most of the public sector companies had pay revision in 2007 – with periodicity for pay revision stated as ‘within ten years’! Going by the inflation rate since 2007 considering at an average rate of 6%, our pay rate has already devalued by about 35%, whereas, with conservative pay rate hike @ 11% in private sector during the same period – employees in the private sector have been better compensated with aggregate hike of about 68%! What compensation we get on annual basis? Increment of mere 3%!! The minimum wages for labour are revised every six months

Pay revision in public sector is not expected soon. We will have to fight tooth and nail for it. And by the time we get it- in another five years, our pay would get devalued to about 80%! We need lot of planning to do – to make the ends meet.

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

Indian Hockey – Return of Golden Era!

In India, Cricket is the only sport which gets coverage on almost daily basis – in print and as well as electronic media. We recognize almost all the cricketers of Team India by name and face! There is hardly any other game which can be called a close second to cricket. And as far as Hockey – our national game is concerned – barring a few veteran players like Pargat Singh and Dhanraj Pillai, hardly have we known others!

Cricket – as a game has been very well managed and marketed by the cricketing fraternity, especially in Indian context. And players like Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj have excelled in the game and taken it to a new level. Whereas, no other sport in India can boast of raising the bar to a new level and having produced players like the iconic cricketers.

However, I always feel that other sports too must get their due and for hockey I feel it in a more pronounced way! Of late, some support is seen coming for Indian Hockey and off and on success of our national team has given me some solace and a flicker of hope that good days are ahead.

The just concluded Olympic Qualifiers has rekindled the hope in the heart of every of Indian with the par excellence performance of our hockey players. Hundred percent winning record in the Olympic Qualifier matches with convincing wins is a good reason to keep faith in the young, energetic and talented team to win the gold medal in London Olympics.  And I wish that Michael Nobbs – the cool Coach – keeps up the good work of holding the team together and builds the momentum enough to roll over the best team in London!

It was pleasant to see this week - the cheerful hockey team on the front page and covering the entire space on the sports page – filled with hockey news articles and analysis in almost all the national dailies(beware Cricket fans!). I wish that this continues forever and Indian Hockey regains its past glory- the golden era – of winning only gold medals!

Only dreams come true! Let us dream and wish that India takes the top position on the podium.

Best of luck Team India!

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

Let us live every moment of 2012!

December 21^st, 2012 has had been in news for quite some time now and lot of discussions has been there to debate – whether it would be the last day of ours and for our mother earth? This date is said to be known to ancient cultures – as the doomsday! But, as the clock struck at midnight on 31^st December 2011; everyone gathered across the globe in formal and informal parties - welcomed 2012 with cutting of cakes, fireworks, singing, dancing, resolutions, promises and lot of enthusiasm – just the way we should have had.

Every moment that we get in our life – must be enjoyed and put to use in the best possible way, as if there won’t be another! We all know this, but still we keep wasting our time and keep postponing things that we enjoy the most. We keep postponing doing things we love the most – family vacations, playing with the kids, a round of golf, meeting our old friends and alike.

The year 2012 gives us a reason to celebrate it differently – by celebrating the every moment that we get before 21^st December 2012! I believe that nothing will go wrong with us and our earth – as far as the doomsday prophecy is concerned. But, in order to enjoy our life and find a meaning of it for ourselves, let us believe that doomsday prophecy is going to happen for sure – and hence let us not waste any moment of ours.

Let us start loving ourselves,  let us start believing ourselves, let us not restrain ourselves in expressing our love to our near and dear ones, let us start doing things that we enjoy the most – as if there is no tomorrow. Yes, let us start living!

And, as 21^st December 2012- the doomsday would just pass by as an ordinary day; we all would be the masters of our own lives.

Wish you all a very happy new year 2012!

madhukarmohan@gmail.com

In the company of Abdul kalaam and Narayan Murthy

In the first week of September’2011  I got an opportunity to attend Project Management National Conference at Bengaluru. I was looking forward to this conference because of the two very bright luminaries of India who were to address us. And these two luminaries were the real sons of the soil – Ex-President APJ Abdul Kalaam and Narayan Murthy. It was an experience to see them, listen to them and feel the aura of their extraordinary but very humble and noble souls. To me it was an opportunity of a lifetime.

On the opening day of the conference, as ex-President APJ Abdul Kalaam made his entry, he was welcomed by thunderous applause from the audience and everyone stood up to greet him. Thunderous applause was followed by pin drop silence once he took up the dais. Every word he spoke carried lot of meaning and was with conviction and love for the country.

In his speech he spoke about his Vision 2020 for India and how India could achieve it. He talked in detail about the must have qualities of a good leader. I would like to share the qualities he mentioned for a successful leader. The qualities that he mentioned are –

1.            A leader must be a Visionary

2.            Must be a man/woman of Action – to fulfill the vision

3.            Should steer the team in difficult situations

4.            Must maintain transparency

5.            Should give credit for success to the team and take failures as his/her own failure

6.            Be the master of the problem, let not problems become the master

7.            Practice Nobility

8.            Should be a man/woman of Integrity – with the belief to Work with Integrity and Succeed

with Integrity.

A lot more is there I would like to share from the speech and interactive session of Sri APJ Abdul Kalaam , but I might lose the focus. At this point, however, I would like to share the response from Sri Narayan Murthy on a question from the audience. The question was – In your opinion, leaders are born leaders Or Leaders are made? His response was- Leaders are made!

It was a great learning experience and I just wanted to share with you all - about how to being a successful leader in our own sphere of work and life. Let us make ourselves a good leader – a personality - who is respected for integrity, sincerity, inspirational work, ideas, innovations and nobility – equally at our homes, offices and the society at large!

We may also see that times change, but the age-old values that have been the guiding force for the development of civilisations, remains the same- irrespective of time and place.

With best wishes for Navratri, Durga Puja and Vijayadashmi celebrations!

madhukarmohan@gmail.com