* The Legendary JRD
in the summers, i read a book named "JRD - mee paahilele" ('JRD - through my eyes') by D R Pendse. Pendse worked with TATAs from 1968 to 1991, as an economic advisor. he is a very well known economist, and has done great work for spreading awareness regarding important issues concerning indian industry, global market and economics, development of think tanks etc. through this book, i could take a peek into JRD's life as the head of TATA group of industries. he led the group for grand 53 years (!!!), from 1938 to 1991. it was a very dynamic era - from the time before world war II to the time when independent India was opening up its markets to the global industries. JRD led TATAs through all of this.
while reading about him, two things struck me the most --
1. the unshakable set of ethics and the integrity this man showed. he was a true patriot, who, while leading a private sector industry, proclaimed "what is good for India, is good for TATAs". he built an ethics system inside the group, which still lives on. a pioneer in Indian Aviation, he started TATA Airlines in 1932, which later became Air India. he was the one who funded TIFR and paved way for India's nuclear research, he was the one who initiated the family planning movement long before the government did. he was sure a visionary, and was aptly decorated by India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1992.
2. JRD's power to identify bright, capable people and apply them at the right positions was awe-inspiring. an example that i know of is Sumant Moolgaonkar (popularly known as SM - the man who headed Telco for 40 long years, made it a successful business, exemplifying a great manufacturing industry.) JRD picked up, applied and took with him all these great men, often eccentric. hats off to his leadership !
JRD's life is an inspiration. I have one of his posters on my wall which says: "No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people, and is achieved by fair and honest means."
* you may wonder who gave me that poster, and that is the second thing i am going to talk about.
before i left for USA, i attended an "orientation-cum-info" session organized by a well known coaching center for GRE, TOEFL etc. the person who heads this center had the JRD poster (and a copy of Bhagawad Gita) gifted to us students, which was very thoughtful of him, and i was impressed.
but my impression was tarnished by what he talked in front of the young students ready to fly to the US. his talk was far from inspiring. he talked about and criticized corruption in India, and how the talented ones are getting wasted staying here. he in fact said "go to the advanced countries abroad. your talent will be recognized and appreciated there. no one cares about your credentials here. just dont forget your parents, send money home. blah blah blah"
that was all of his "expectations" from 500 bright (i believe) and young students going abroad for higher studies. there was no mention of making use of educational facilities there, becoming experts in the respective fields and contributing to India in whatever way one can. (btw, i am not hinting you cannot contribute by staying outside India. in fact in the modern world, one's physical location matters less and less. but he simply did not touch on any of this). the man who gifted us JRD's poster talked only about how nice, clean, honest, healthy an environment one will get abroad. he said and implied that it is not much of a use to stay in India. he never uttered the terms "giving back to the country", "contributing to India's progress" etc.
i thought he would use this golden opportunity to voice out the need for the educated and privileged ones to contribute to the nation's progress. he had a huge young audience. but he lost the opportunity. i kept thinking. the next time i go back home, i am going to see him and tell him all this.
* (reposting from my blog)
I remember hearing about Che Guevara while in school. he did not figure in the history books i read, but there sure were some passing remarks by my teachers and seniors. i never went ahead and found out more and almost forgot about him - till, one fine day, one of my senior roomies showed me the film - The Motorcycle Diaries.
it's an amazing and very very moving film, to say the least. i loved the shooting through picturesque latin America, and a desire of going to these places sprang up. the movie, as it turns out, is much much more than a 8000 mile journey two friends make, a large chunk made using a beat-up motorcycle, which they fondly called "The Mighty One". the journey becomes a life-changing one, one of self-discovery for the two friends. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, (better known as "che Guevara" - this "che" is not a nickname or something. it's Argentinian's way of saying what US guys say as "dude", i gather.) and his friend Alberto Granado take on a journey to discover Latin America that they had never seen, they travel and empathise with people they have never met, they work amongst volunteers in the Leper Colony in Peru. before they know, their lives are changed - forver.
in the movie we get to see a large spectrum of emotions and the types of situations. there is love, physical challenges, agony, pain, poverty, oppression, fun .. amazing combinations ! i felt like going on a roller-coaster ride. surely one of those movies i will never forget :)
-- Mandar Gadre.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Three Questions
hi all,
Today I am going to write on 3 questions I stumbled upon recently and what answers I thought of.
* Which is the thing lacking in todays India according to u?
* What value u have added in this world.
* Say after 10-15 years from now in which field, subject u want to be called an expert? Or even u want to have deep knowledge/study/understanding/wisdom?
* First one was when we were having a group discussion in college. The person who was conducting the GD, asked us few questions before the actual GD just to have warm up.
And one important question he asked was, which is one thing lacking in todays India according to u?
Question was not extra ordinarily different.. because there r many things lacking in todays India one feels. Try giving answer to this urself.. I will tell u what I think.
What I think India is lacking today is Indian-ness. There is Japanese way of doing things, American way of doing things, European way of doing things… what is Indian way of doing things? Further, what is Indian philosophy of economics? Running the country? Schooling? philosophy towards life? We have to explore and identify that. There is no reason why we should follow what westerners do blindly. And as we undergo economic revival, India has to contribute to the world Indian way of thinking towards everything.
And not doing that is the thing modern India is lacking today.
* Second question was asked to me in an interview. He was asking me about my career aspirations… and I was telling him about how I would love to do entrepreneurship sometime.. and while talking about that, I said that my idea of entrepreneurship is diff than just doing business, but being innovative and making best use of resources to create something which will add value to the world. And then he asked me “ ok chaitanya, tell me what value have u added to the world till now?” I was not prepared for this question and I gave some very arbit and unsatisfying answer.
Really, what value can we add to the world… when I think about it now.. here is what I feel. Adding value according to me is doing something which is not expected in normal course.. doing something extra or out of the way( for betterment of someone ofcourse)
We can add value while studying by learning something which is not formally taught, we can add value in workplace by doing same work but in a diff. and better way.. we can add value in a group by helping friends see more, think more, do more… and we can add value to ourselves by taking more exposure,thinking more, doing more…
We have to ask ourselves this question more frequently…” what value am I adding to this world?”
* For third question, I dont have any answer. Say after 10-15 or even 20 years from now on, in which field u want to be an expert? Or read it as in which field or issue u want to have deep study/knowledge/understanding/wisdom? Sure u want to be in some field.. and this may be different than the field in which u r for earning money.. but the field u have passion in, and u will work hard to be expert in that. I don’t have any answer to this question.. and thats disturbing..
I am eager to know what answer do u have to all these questions..
-- Chaitanya Bokil.
Today I am going to write on 3 questions I stumbled upon recently and what answers I thought of.
* Which is the thing lacking in todays India according to u?
* What value u have added in this world.
* Say after 10-15 years from now in which field, subject u want to be called an expert? Or even u want to have deep knowledge/study/understanding/wisdom?
* First one was when we were having a group discussion in college. The person who was conducting the GD, asked us few questions before the actual GD just to have warm up.
And one important question he asked was, which is one thing lacking in todays India according to u?
Question was not extra ordinarily different.. because there r many things lacking in todays India one feels. Try giving answer to this urself.. I will tell u what I think.
What I think India is lacking today is Indian-ness. There is Japanese way of doing things, American way of doing things, European way of doing things… what is Indian way of doing things? Further, what is Indian philosophy of economics? Running the country? Schooling? philosophy towards life? We have to explore and identify that. There is no reason why we should follow what westerners do blindly. And as we undergo economic revival, India has to contribute to the world Indian way of thinking towards everything.
And not doing that is the thing modern India is lacking today.
* Second question was asked to me in an interview. He was asking me about my career aspirations… and I was telling him about how I would love to do entrepreneurship sometime.. and while talking about that, I said that my idea of entrepreneurship is diff than just doing business, but being innovative and making best use of resources to create something which will add value to the world. And then he asked me “ ok chaitanya, tell me what value have u added to the world till now?” I was not prepared for this question and I gave some very arbit and unsatisfying answer.
Really, what value can we add to the world… when I think about it now.. here is what I feel. Adding value according to me is doing something which is not expected in normal course.. doing something extra or out of the way( for betterment of someone ofcourse)
We can add value while studying by learning something which is not formally taught, we can add value in workplace by doing same work but in a diff. and better way.. we can add value in a group by helping friends see more, think more, do more… and we can add value to ourselves by taking more exposure,thinking more, doing more…
We have to ask ourselves this question more frequently…” what value am I adding to this world?”
* For third question, I dont have any answer. Say after 10-15 or even 20 years from now on, in which field u want to be an expert? Or read it as in which field or issue u want to have deep study/knowledge/understanding/wisdom? Sure u want to be in some field.. and this may be different than the field in which u r for earning money.. but the field u have passion in, and u will work hard to be expert in that. I don’t have any answer to this question.. and thats disturbing..
I am eager to know what answer do u have to all these questions..
-- Chaitanya Bokil.
Chaay/Coffee
Jara sadhya wishayawar lihu mhatla.
Its seldom that we find ppl who do not consume tea or coffee... and unknowingly we exclaim... "kay?? chaha peet nahis???" Its assumed that if someone is not consuming tea or coffee... there must be some reason or the other behind it. But in general we find it abnormal.
The other day, I had gone to play football at 630 am in the morning. Someone said lets have tea n then play. Everybody followed him. This kick-started my thought process. I think we all needed a cup of warmth in that freezing cold. While holding the cup of tea in both hands, and savouring the aroma, it started feeling warm inside. You all must have had this experience while having tea in winter season.
Rain and tea/coffee is just unseparable combination. In Pune we tend to add 'bhaji' to that menu. Sipping a cup of coffee and watching the rain... truely enjoyable and at the same time nostalgic occasion. According to me, that is the most common nostalgic occasion. It DOES make us to remember the past incidents. I think everyone would agree on this.
And not just us, the whole world drinks tea/coffee. The most common eatable it seems. 8 out of 10 have a habit or kinda addiction of tea or coffee. they just cant do without regular doses of these drinks. it may just be their mental block. who knows. this happens with me and i am sure with many of us. during night studies, i have to have tea/coffee else i'd fall asleep. seems a mental block but yeah, it does work.
and this addiction, as some call it, is the most harmless and cheapest addictions from the list of available addictions. 'amrut-tulyas' are the best example of that. we can always find ppl sharing tea n cigarettes there. but WHAT a great tea they serve!!! people with no money, even us when we used to carry <10 rupees with us, survive on tea/coffee + cream-roll or bun-muska. (tea n bun-muska... guys raise hands who LOVE this combo). but on the other hand, the europeans consume tea as a matter of prestige or upper class. so more than the addiction, all have separate reasons to get used to the habit of these drinks.
coffee is now catching up with chahaa in India. the main reason i see here is coffee is still bit costly than tea! but the american culture lives on coffee. the coffee joints are the most happening places these days. parents also dont mind their children hanging out at a coffee joint rather than hanging out at a disc/pub thing. Me too has the same opinion. coffee joints like ccd n barista serve many purposes. we get excellent coffee with the 'drushti-sukh' that pleases the voeyur present within ourselves. i truely love their motto... "a lot can happen over a cup of coffee" . I have had many meaningful discussions over a cup of coffee.
with many of us working in the software industry, we all know the significance of the coffee machine. all the employees get so addicted to the coffee/tea that its the BIGGEST news in the office if the coffee machine is broken.
to conclude, i dunno if i have written anything meaningful. asach lihawasa watla. purists may still debate on the negatives of tea n coffee. but certain things we do even when we know their negative aspects... just because we enjoy to do it. drinking tea/coffee is one of them, atleast for me.
-- Makarand Joshi.
Its seldom that we find ppl who do not consume tea or coffee... and unknowingly we exclaim... "kay?? chaha peet nahis???" Its assumed that if someone is not consuming tea or coffee... there must be some reason or the other behind it. But in general we find it abnormal.
The other day, I had gone to play football at 630 am in the morning. Someone said lets have tea n then play. Everybody followed him. This kick-started my thought process. I think we all needed a cup of warmth in that freezing cold. While holding the cup of tea in both hands, and savouring the aroma, it started feeling warm inside. You all must have had this experience while having tea in winter season.
Rain and tea/coffee is just unseparable combination. In Pune we tend to add 'bhaji' to that menu. Sipping a cup of coffee and watching the rain... truely enjoyable and at the same time nostalgic occasion. According to me, that is the most common nostalgic occasion. It DOES make us to remember the past incidents. I think everyone would agree on this.
And not just us, the whole world drinks tea/coffee. The most common eatable it seems. 8 out of 10 have a habit or kinda addiction of tea or coffee. they just cant do without regular doses of these drinks. it may just be their mental block. who knows. this happens with me and i am sure with many of us. during night studies, i have to have tea/coffee else i'd fall asleep. seems a mental block but yeah, it does work.
and this addiction, as some call it, is the most harmless and cheapest addictions from the list of available addictions. 'amrut-tulyas' are the best example of that. we can always find ppl sharing tea n cigarettes there. but WHAT a great tea they serve!!! people with no money, even us when we used to carry <10 rupees with us, survive on tea/coffee + cream-roll or bun-muska. (tea n bun-muska... guys raise hands who LOVE this combo). but on the other hand, the europeans consume tea as a matter of prestige or upper class. so more than the addiction, all have separate reasons to get used to the habit of these drinks.
coffee is now catching up with chahaa in India. the main reason i see here is coffee is still bit costly than tea! but the american culture lives on coffee. the coffee joints are the most happening places these days. parents also dont mind their children hanging out at a coffee joint rather than hanging out at a disc/pub thing. Me too has the same opinion. coffee joints like ccd n barista serve many purposes. we get excellent coffee with the 'drushti-sukh' that pleases the voeyur present within ourselves. i truely love their motto... "a lot can happen over a cup of coffee" . I have had many meaningful discussions over a cup of coffee.
with many of us working in the software industry, we all know the significance of the coffee machine. all the employees get so addicted to the coffee/tea that its the BIGGEST news in the office if the coffee machine is broken.
to conclude, i dunno if i have written anything meaningful. asach lihawasa watla. purists may still debate on the negatives of tea n coffee. but certain things we do even when we know their negative aspects... just because we enjoy to do it. drinking tea/coffee is one of them, atleast for me.
-- Makarand Joshi.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
All About Football
Silent revolution of football-our school team performance
Some of you r out of pune.. so u must not be aware of a silent revolution going on.. its football revolution.. many signs of it can be seen,, people wearing football jerseys, everyone has a favourite football team.. heavy discussions about recent matches,, and all this starts from very young age. Following example will surely make u believe that football scene in pune has improved vastly. When I hear about jpp playing in a football tournament, only one figure comes to my mind..-- 7-0. that’s it.. but u know what happened this yr? we sent our team for zilha parishad tournaments in football under-17.. and it won 3 matches and lost 4th match.. and that too defeating don bosco in second round.. can u believe it.. fortunately i was also involved in preparation of that team.. we even took help from internet sites about coaching teams, and sometimes showed taped football matches of world cup and discussed it... if a school with such limited resources and limited talent in football can go football crazy and even win 3 matches, football mania in pune is sure on the rise..
Our JPL
Next thing most of u don’t know is about JPL.. Jnana prabodhini league.. I have to tell u about this. We conducted a 3 month 5 teams football league from mid September to December.. advay joshi (dalya) was the creator and manager of the league… we had a test of football skills of each player and then each player was given a value.. and then managers who had limited points in hand, had to buy each player.. there were 4 teams originally, and we added 5th mid season.. each had one colored jersey.. each squad was of around 15 ppl and matches were 8 a side.. great thing was on each matchday there used to be 45-50 players present.. 50 players on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7 am on a single ground to play football.. isn’t it great.. it ended on 3rd dec, there were trophies for league wining team, cup winning team, best attacker,midfielder,defender,and manager.. league was played in fierce competitive spirit.. and we had a great experience.. now waiting for JPL season2 starting from mid January..
How it all started…
And I also have tell u how it all started.. it dates back to around 4-5 years.. we had a football passionate group from yuvak vibhag.. who used to play football on Saturday morning each week.. we used to call it champions league… (in the sense league of champions) there were just 10-12 of us but we used to gather very regularly.. on Saturday mornings.. on phatakbag ground.. many of us had no contact in whole week.. and in yuvak vibhag, just playing football for love of it was uncommon thing.. slowly each year some more ppl started coming in, but core group remained constant… eventually we grew so much that we started a league- and that was JPL. In jpl many ppl were such that they didn’t know anything about jnana prabodhini.. and many other players.. now all of 50-60 of us are good friends.. we never imagined that we would come this far.. I am certainly excited about this journey.. and it was just love of football( and some more things ofcourse) that made this happen.. this clearly gives us msg that we should continue doing things which we love to do… even if it has no practical applications.. one day it will certainly become big..
Think today what is the thing that u do just for love of doing it… and never ever stop doing it…
-- Chaitanya Bokil.
Some of you r out of pune.. so u must not be aware of a silent revolution going on.. its football revolution.. many signs of it can be seen,, people wearing football jerseys, everyone has a favourite football team.. heavy discussions about recent matches,, and all this starts from very young age. Following example will surely make u believe that football scene in pune has improved vastly. When I hear about jpp playing in a football tournament, only one figure comes to my mind..-- 7-0. that’s it.. but u know what happened this yr? we sent our team for zilha parishad tournaments in football under-17.. and it won 3 matches and lost 4th match.. and that too defeating don bosco in second round.. can u believe it.. fortunately i was also involved in preparation of that team.. we even took help from internet sites about coaching teams, and sometimes showed taped football matches of world cup and discussed it... if a school with such limited resources and limited talent in football can go football crazy and even win 3 matches, football mania in pune is sure on the rise..
Our JPL
Next thing most of u don’t know is about JPL.. Jnana prabodhini league.. I have to tell u about this. We conducted a 3 month 5 teams football league from mid September to December.. advay joshi (dalya) was the creator and manager of the league… we had a test of football skills of each player and then each player was given a value.. and then managers who had limited points in hand, had to buy each player.. there were 4 teams originally, and we added 5th mid season.. each had one colored jersey.. each squad was of around 15 ppl and matches were 8 a side.. great thing was on each matchday there used to be 45-50 players present.. 50 players on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7 am on a single ground to play football.. isn’t it great.. it ended on 3rd dec, there were trophies for league wining team, cup winning team, best attacker,midfielder,defender,and manager.. league was played in fierce competitive spirit.. and we had a great experience.. now waiting for JPL season2 starting from mid January..
How it all started…
And I also have tell u how it all started.. it dates back to around 4-5 years.. we had a football passionate group from yuvak vibhag.. who used to play football on Saturday morning each week.. we used to call it champions league… (in the sense league of champions) there were just 10-12 of us but we used to gather very regularly.. on Saturday mornings.. on phatakbag ground.. many of us had no contact in whole week.. and in yuvak vibhag, just playing football for love of it was uncommon thing.. slowly each year some more ppl started coming in, but core group remained constant… eventually we grew so much that we started a league- and that was JPL. In jpl many ppl were such that they didn’t know anything about jnana prabodhini.. and many other players.. now all of 50-60 of us are good friends.. we never imagined that we would come this far.. I am certainly excited about this journey.. and it was just love of football( and some more things ofcourse) that made this happen.. this clearly gives us msg that we should continue doing things which we love to do… even if it has no practical applications.. one day it will certainly become big..
Think today what is the thing that u do just for love of doing it… and never ever stop doing it…
-- Chaitanya Bokil.
Po3
Hi !
We are starting a new group effort, wherein everybody will see through everybodies eyes...the name is power of three.
the concept is that we see many things happening around us. sometimes we think on them and sometimes we leave them.. but more things we intentionally register in mind and think upon, more beautiful person we can become. so this is an effort to make us see more and think more. what we have to do is just write about any three things we just want to tell our friends... we have to be more expressive and make a habit of keying in our feelings..
this is completely informal activity and completely voluntary too..still, some structure we can follow is as - write about any THREE things every 15 days... no limit on lentgh but make sure its readable in one go. let's commit to writing atleast every 15 days.
write about anything...things related to books, people, places, programs, experiances, general thoughts, college life, job, curriculum subjects, past, future...anything u seriously want to tell your friends. it can be about what you experianced or it can be what you think on something...
i am sure that we all want to tell many things to and hear many things from each other.. let's kick off!
be expressive, be beautiful.
-- Chaitanya Bokil
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