Two individual journeys that changed destination of millions

Our first hero's journey!

Traveling around is considered to be a great educational experience. But some times even one journey could be the turning point in your life. Here I am going to write about two such journeys in the life of two remarkable Indians that changed the course of not only their own lives but transformed the lives of millions.

Year 1893. The place, South Africa. There sat in a very cold wintry night of South Africa a man without adequate warm clothes in the waiting room of a railway station. Nothing is extraordinary about if this wait was by choice, nay but it was by choice in a way. The story (real) is this.

Before our hero lost his belongings and found himself in the waiting room of a railway station, he boarded the first class compartment of a train from Durban to Pretoria. When the train arrived at Pietermaritzburg (also called Maritzburg) at about 9.00 p.m. a white passenger seated in the compartment did not like our hero who being Indian was ‘coloured’. In those days the whites and the coloured were segregated in every walk of life in South Africa. When asked to go out of the first class and board a van compartment at back of the train, the ‘coloured’ man refused. He was then forcibly taken off the coach but still refused to board the van compartment arguing that he had got the first class ticket so he had right to travel by first class. In the process the train left and our man found himself waiting in the cold night at the Maritzburg station. This man was none other than M.K. Gandhi, who would later become the hero of India’s freedom movement and get India independence from the British in 1947.

What happened to Gandhi that night on Maritzburg station was a transformational experience. Gandhi was new in South Africa and had gone there to develop his career as a lawyer. The physical hardship that he faced during this journey is nothing compared to the humiliation he felt being discriminated against because of the colour of his skin. He resolved to fight the ‘disease of colour prejudice’ as he calls it in his autobiography. This is when a big turning point came, Gandhi decided to take up a public cause and the great leader started one of the several battles that he won without resorting to violence and ultimately won India her freedom.

Our second hero’s journey!

Year 1974. Place Nis, a border town between Serbia (at that time it was part of Yugoslovia) and Bulgaria. Both were communists countries at that time. A young Indian was hitchhiking has way all the way from Paris to Mysore in South India!

It is a coincidence with the previous story but here also it was about 9.00 p.m. when our hero of this story was dropped at Nis station on Saturday night. The restaurant was closed and with no local currency and the banks to open only on Monday, our hero slept on the railway platform till next evening 8.30 p.m. to catch Sophia Express.

There were only two other passengers in the compartment; a boy and a girl. Our hero struck a conversation with the girl in French. The girl described how hard it was to live in a communist country. Suddenly there arrived policemen who were actually called in by the third passenger, the boy, who thought our hero and the girl were criticising the Communist government of Bulgaria. The girl was taken away and so was the luggage of our hero who was then dragged away and put in a small room of 8x8. The room was cold with stone floor and a hole in a corner to be used for calls of the nature. Our hero was left in that room to cool his heels for 72 hours without any food or water. Then he was dragged outside humiliatingly and locked up in the guard’s room on a freight train going to Istanbul where he was to be released after 20 hours. When finally he was let off in Istanbul, the guard’s parting message meant that he was let off because he was from a friendly country! India during 1970s was close to coming to communism having nationalised banks and other industries and increased the role of state in the economy. India had adopted Soviet styled planned economic development and heavy regulation of the economy since early 1950s. Anyway, our starving hero, who did have some Left leaning views at that time, had been without food for nearly five days and was shaken from inside out, literally!

Thirty five years after this life transforming long, lonely, cold journey from Nis to Istanbul, our hero writes this in his book, “ Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.” Yes, our hero of this story is N R Narayana Murthy and he writes the above in his book A Better India: A Better World published in 2009. Set up in 1981, one of the giants in IT companies in India, Infosys today has revenues in excess of $3 billion, net income of close to $1 billion, market value of over $28 billion, has created more than 70,000 well paying jobs, 2,000 plus dollar millionaires and 20,000 plus Indian Rupee millionaires.

Two journeys that changed the destinations of millions, didn’t they?

15000 hours and success in life!

Everyone wants to know the formula for success, whatever way you may define success. Latest among the several people who have tried to come up with the answer is Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the book Outliers. Gladwell is author of other popular books Blink and the Tipping Point. The title of his latest book ‘outlier’ comes from language of statistics. In simple terms outlier would mean someone outside the normal range of distribution therefore, someone who has been more successful than others. Bill Gates in getting rich, Beatles in music, Pele in football and Sachin Tendulkar in cricket are outliers in their respective fields. What makes these people so successful? Gladwell argues that most of us could be successful if we worked hard, avail the opportunities that come our way and be well networked mentally and socially. Gladwell’s thumb rule on hard work is 15,000 hours. By illustrating through lives of Bil Gates, Beatles, Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) and many others it is argued that most of these people put in roughly about 15,000 hours of hard work in their field of work be it programming, music, sports or writing to achieve the level of proficiency that sets the scene for launching into successful journey..but the argument also assumes that you have bit of luck, social skills and connections as Gladwell shows beautifully. I think 15,000 hours (read hard work) is a plausible and useful idea. It may not be sufficient but it definitely is necessary. There is no short cut to success as they say. Try it out and see the results. I think most authors, athletes, business people, communication experts or sales people or teachers and others would be receptive to this thumb rule.

Now if you were to pursue a new hobby or career or activity that you wish to excel in and you are struggling to find time for it what do you do? Let’s say you want to learn to be very good keyboard player and don’t find time to practice it. Is there a way out for you? If you have patience to read I promise to help you find secret to spare nearly double the thumb rule time of 15,000 hours assuming you are healthy and not very old.

I found this secret in one of the most curious books I have ever read. Published in 1890 the book is called Enquire Within Upon Everything, a strange title you would agree. The edition I have got is a 2003 edition printed in India while the original one was printed and published in London. The book does not have any specific author because it is collection of various entries listing good practices that people were encouraged to adopt to lead a good life in Victorian Britain. In late 19th century England industrial revolution had helped with increasing wealth of common people and there was increasing desire to find about new things and so on. But there was no TV or internet. So the book Enquire Within.. was a best seller. It has sold more than one million copies. The book contains 2,775 short pieces on topics ranging from child care to food to home economy to good business practices. There are entries like how to train parrot, how to save money (‘one way to increase your wealth is to reduce your desires’ is one the quotations although there are genuinely smart non-renouncing type tips too), how to make Indian curry powder and so on. Any way before digressig more, here is the secret to find time found in the entry titled Early Rising and in my view one way of how you can find time to become great keyboard player or whatever else you wish to do:

The difference between rising every morning at six and eight, in the course of forty years, amounts to 29,200 hours, or three years 121 days and 16 hours, which are equal to 8 hours a day for exactly 10 years. So that rising at six will be same as if 10 years of life (a weighty consideration) were added, wherein we may command eight hours for the cultivation of our minds and the despatch of business.

Let’s end by noting another entry from Enquire Within.. which contains many hints on Home Comfort but I have chosen only following three:

· Eat slowly and you will not over eat.
· Between husband and wife little attentions beget much love.
· Whatever you choose to give away, always be sure to keep your temper.

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The Oldest Democracy and the Largest Democracy Face Opportunity (challenge)

So many things have been happening in past few weeks but I am going to reflect on events in two democracies. First relates the oldest (modern) mother of democracy, Britain and the second to the largest democracy in the world, India.

Westminster Parliament complex with its famous Clock Tower does not just symbolise the great city of London but also represents a source of the economic and political power that the British enjoyed for centuries till the rise of the US in late 19th century and early 20th century. Clearly the United Kingdom had lost its global economic and political leadership in the last six seven decades. However, following the disclosure of MPs’ expense claims its great democratic institution has lost much more in past two weeks. It has lost the trust that people of the UK have in their politicians and political institutions. Members of Parliament in the UK get around £64,000 per annum as salary. They are also entitled to claim expenses like allowances for second home etc. Most of the claims made by the MPs have been according to the rules set by members of parliament. But the manner and nature of the claims have invited strongest ever public outcry and disbelief from ordinary citizens. I will not describe in detail these expenses as there is already a lot published about these. However, I’ll focus on the principles violated and why that matters not only for democracy in the UK but democracy in general. First, it seems over the years a convention had evolved to claim expenses for second house expenses etc. as a compensation for low salaries that MPs get. So rather than arguing openly for increase in salaries, the rules were framed and implemented that in a way allowed MPs to claim expenses, which don’t necessarily fit the criterion set by the parliament rules, i.e., the expenses should be wholly and exclusively necessary to perform their duties as MP. Second, the MPs tried to justify their claims referring to the rules in words rather than in admitting to the violation of spirit of rules. This does not behold good for gentlemen and ladies of the British parliament. They hold public offices and should be accountable for tax payers' money.

The consequences of the expense claims political scandal is having far reaching effects on the House of Commons and political career of many politicians. The Speaker of the Commons resigned two days ago, first time in the last 300 years of British parliament! Many politicians have been forced to declare that they will not be standing for election to parliament in future. Some ministers are worried about their jobs. The government has announced that there will be an independent regulator to monitor and sanction MPs expenses in future and that there will be complete overhaul of expenses allowed.

Now, let’s turn from this remarkable political development in the UK to India where as I write the government is being formed by newly elected parliament. There are so many challenges that the largest democracy in the world faces. They arise from the facts like the size of the nation (both geographically and demographically), coalition politics, poverty, global economic recession and its impact on India, the security and so on. All this makes the Indian prime minister perhaps, the most important executive in the world. The Indian parliament owes it to the people of India to improve the institutions and offer high quality public service. Will the MPs of Indian parliament do it? We have to be optimistic and see what happens. However, what they could easily do, as they are starting a new term, follow the spirit of Freedom of Information Act and set up individual websites. They could put before their constituents an agenda for their five year term, provide a quarterly report on how they are progressing the agenda, declare the perks/expenses they claim in addition to their salary from tax payers' money and declare a time table (even though it may vary occasionally) when they will be visiting their constituency and where so that the people whom they represent can meet and talk to them. I don’t think above few things are too difficult but they are basic mechanisms for public accountability which the MPs as public servants politicians should be expected to abide by.

If the parliamentarians in the UK fail to clean up the system effectively it will be bad example for democracy everywhere. If the parliamentarians in India become more accountable and learn from others' mistake, they will add a feather to democratic political system. What a coincident that two torch bearers of democracy face historic opportunity to improve record of democracy to serve the people who choose to be governed by politicians.

Who is a wise person? and curious science of detecting lies

Few days ago one of the readers of this blog wrote to me that “you read lot of different and varied things”. This is true but that does not mean I could boast of being knowledgeable in many areas, on the contrary, the more you read about the various things and find that so many different aspects of physical and social phenomena are studied by scholars, the more you realise how much you don’t know. For me reading has simply ensured that I don’t lose the humility. So in all humility let me start with a story that is attributed to Socrates. Once he was asked to define wisdom. The following remarkable response that I have shared earlier with many of my students, but at the risk of repeating for some of them here, is put below. The Socratic view on wise person goes something like this:

A person who does not know and does not know that s/he does not know is ignorant
A person who does not know but thinks that s/he knows is fool
A person who does not know and knows that s/he does not know is wise

Professor Richard Wiseman (the surname is real) is the only professor of promoting Public Uderstanding of Psychology at a university in England, UK. He is Quirkologist. ‘Quirk’ means peculiar or strange and logy is a Greek suffix found in hundreds of words in English and means ‘study of’ something. For instance psych-ology is study of mind or etym-ology is study of origin of words. So quirk-ology is study of strange or quirky things. For instance, how or why people smile, study of people telling lies. Professor Wiseman has written a book entitled Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives. I got this book as summer reading for my son but when it arrived in the post I started reading it with great interest.. One of the studies Wiseman conducted involved national survey on people telling lies. A large number of people participated in the survey that was run in collaboration with a British daily. Only 8% of the people said they had never lied meaning 92% of us tell lies at one or other time in our life. He also reports from other studies that 80% of respondents said that they had lied to get a job, 60% of the people have cheated on their partners at least once..hmm. Mercifully 4 out of 5 lies remain undetected. What will happen to the number of divorces if all cheaters on their partners were found! A quirky question for Professor Wiseman could be, to what extent is the institution of marriage dependent on our inability to detect lies.

Talking of detecting lies Prof. Wiseman reports his work on how to differentiate between an artificial and real smile. If you want to try and see if you can differentiate a real smile from an artificial one go to the link provided below. Meanwhile let me leave you with a simple philosophical statement that has puzzled quite a few wise people thus far:

When someone makes the following statement, is s/he telling truth?

‘I am telling truth that I always tell lies.’

Link to Prof. Wiseman’s experiments and other material on Quirkology
http://www.quirkology.com/UK/Experiment_lying.shtml

Intoxication to assassination!

These days the word assassin is used for a killer, particularly if the person killed is an important person in society or major political leader. But the history of the word assassin takes us back nearly 1000 years to conflicts between middle eastern Muslims and Christians from European. As is known the Christian holy land is part of present day Israel and Palestine area. The Christians from around the world including Europeans would visit the Holy Land for purpose of pilgrimage. However, from early 11th century AD trouble started with Christians finding it difficult to visit their Holy Land. What followed was a series of confrontations between the Christians inspired by the Pope Urban II and supported by many European kings and knights leading their armies to conquer the areas from Muslims in Egypt and Palestine. It is argued that these attacks by Christians were partly religious and partly driven by search for conquests over different lands and the wealth that it would have brought. These expeditions are known as Christian Crusades that lasted for almost two hundred years. Obviously the Muslims were not sitting quiet, they fought back too. The Islamic fighters who killed the Christians in response gave the word assassin. These fighters had religious rationale to fight Christian crusaders. Many of these fighters would consume hashish before they went into fighting, mostly as secret attacks. Hashish is a cannibus drug that temporarily gives euphoric feeling and causes intoxication. The drug is illegal in most countries now. These hashish using Muslim fighters came to be known as hashishin a word that travelling through Italian and French languages has found its place in English as assassin! In 17th century it meant Muslim assassin but now it is used for any killer.

Note: I am neither an authority on religion nor on history so take the above write up as simple historical note to understand the meaning and history of the word assassin. The use of any drugs like hashish is harmful and illegal in most countries in the world today.

80-20 Principle, G-20 Summit and Your Life

103 years ago in 1906 Vilfredo Pareto made a remarkable observation that 80 per cent of land in Italy was owned by 20 per cent of the population. Little did he realise then that he had unwittingly hit upon the ratio which will be found in so many different walks of life.

The Pareto principle of the vital few causing maximum consequences is a frequently mentioned rule of thumb in economics and management classes. For example, 20 per cent of customers contributing 80 per cent of profits, 20 per cent of employees contributing to 80 per cent of profits (and losses if they happen to be in banks one may say these days!). Try thinking about your life, does 80% of your happiness depend on 20% activities you do? Just count those vital few things you do or vital few people in your life who make your life feel good. Does 80% of your income get spent on 20% of habits? Does 20% of your knowledge contribute to 80% of your productivity?

Where the Pareto principle may not apply perhaps is the number of financial institutions that caused the financial crises. Perhaps it was less than 20 per cent of banks that created more 80 per cent of bad assets that subsequently caused havoc in financial world. Anyway, let’s see if 80-20 principle can be applied to G20 summit outcomes.

A group of leaders from 20 countries and regions representing 80 per cent of global trade came together in London to fix global economic recession. The deliberations over two days and many preceding weeks resulted in a statement by G20 leaders published on Thursday. The statement runs into nine pages, 29 numbered paragraphs and contains 3,077 words. I am going to look for those vital few 20 per cent of the statements made and try to make 80 per cent of sense! Applying the principle strictly I am going to search for maximum six paragraphs that seem vital to me.

The first vital paragraph is number five which says that the global lender of last resort for countries, the International Monetary Fund, will be provided additional resources of about $1.1 trillion; reasoning being that this will provide money to various countries’ governments to spend on public projects, green technologies and so on to boost demand and create jobs in hope of reviving the economy. The Keynesian economic principles applied on a global scale! Vital issue: The evidence of public management of infrastructure in most cases is far from satisfactory.

Second vital paragraph is number 13 which identifies the failures by financial sector players, watchdogs and regulators as the primary causes of crises. Fair enough. Response is in vital paragraphs 14 and 15 which call for setting up of tougher regulatory regimes nationally and internationally. These super regulators will regulate financial sector players, watchdogs and will coordinate with other national regulators to reduce unnecessary risk taking, improve global financial system and accountability. Vital issue: Regulatory capabilities and effectiveness would need to leap frog to higher level. Regulating smart bankers will require smart regulators who are as good as bankers. But if they are as good as bankers why would they work as regulators?

Fifth vital paragraph is number 22. It declares the intention of G20 countries to protect the world from economic protectionism. No issues with this so long as the most European countries and the USA follow this.

Sixth and final vital paragraph for me is number 25 which refers back to the problem that disturbed Pareto 100 years ago. The G20 statement promises help for the poorest countries. It is recognised that problems caused by vital few have serious immediate consequences for many. Steps announced to this end are most welcome.

Finally, there are vital signs in the communiqué that address many issues addressed by the protestors on London’s streets over the two days. Pushing for greener developmental options, promoting the interests of the poorest, controlling exorbitant compensations in financial industry and improving the transparency in tax systems are all ambitious statements. Has the G20 summit promised far too much? On the face of it this appears to be the case. Let’s wait and watch till the next summit which is likely to be in 2009 itself.