Arunachal Pradesh ... on route to Bomdila

At Kaziranga.

On the Brahmaputra at Guwahati.

 Maitreyi, With Subha Rani Pegu and daughter Siddhima Mili on the Alfresco Grande

Devavrat & the BOSS Devayani

Interaction with Tim Sassoon

Tim Sassoon's historic visit to Mumbai.

 Devayani, Pushpa, Timmothy, Rajiv and Devavrat in front of Sir David Sassoon's statue at the Sir David Sassoon Library at Kala Ghoda.

Tim in Rajiv's office (Manoobhai Doongursee & Co.) sitting on the Chair his great grand aunt Flora Sassoon sat on and the conference table  she sat at while chairing meetings. More about Flora Sassoon at click here

For more on the Manoobhai Doongursee Group click here 

Tim Sassoon is the President of Sassoon Film Design in California click here

Have we won the battle ..... or the war .......? In any event, congratulations to all!

What's your problem?

Our house maid was travelling on the local train last week. She shuffled in her seat to comfort her cramping legs and back. The lady sitting next to her asked her in Marathi “kai problem ahe?” (meaning : what's your problem, why are you shuffling around and causing me discomfort?) My maid just smiled at the lady next to her and both of them later went their ways at their destinations. The maid reached our house and narrated this incident to me. Trivial as the incident was, to me and our house maid, it provoked some thinking, to our state of existence, reactions and daily conduct. We are  a suffocated lot.

Facilities, infrastructure, processes, systems, implementation of laws, attitude problems, arrogance instead of a healthy progressive pride, depth and breadth of thinking, vision, project management and so on, leave much to be desired. Much of our past and present doesn't provide quality direction to the next generation. If they are to be the ones who will get us out of `this' then we shouldn't we do something about setting up the right platform for them?  But for that we need Anna Hazare to have a healthy, active and long life. The best leaders need to hang in there. The triumph must be of good over evil. Of the positives over the negatives.

Most of the time the average citizen is an extremist. Either complacent towards ones environ or then overly emotional with short lived out bursts. Is it not possible for us to be balanced and sustain regular efforts towards progress? We do tend to over intellectualize and thereafter implement poorly. We quit on the way. We elect leaders as if they were circus performers and watch the show thereafter. Its time to move down from audience and spectator stands and into the ring. This is not an eleven player - billion experts game. To my mind, it is a billion player eleven experts series.

Very early in my working career my then boss,  the late Shri. Tonse Ramesh Upendra Pai of Manipal, Dakshin Kannada,  explained to me that make and execute as many legal documents as you like, nothing will compel any one to do anything, save and except intentions arising from a vision of the merits of good business conduct for sustained growth.

I have learnt that to make progress we need to improve our existence and to do so we need to participate and professionalize our own conduct. Lets select our eleven experts well and the billion players must work with them in some semblance of order and discipline. Good will triumph over evil and positives over negatives.  Corruption is not possible without givers and takers. Problem yeh hai ki tali do haathon se bajti hai (the problem is that it takes two hands to clap). Your hand is at the end of your own arm (ie. in your control). The rest is left to you.

Jai Hind!

PS: Anna saheb has asked for the formulation of a joint work group to develop a better document and not an acceptance of the peoples draft as is. Neither is the Govts present draft nor the peoples present draft,  the solution.