I'm a patriot but I have seen what no patriot should ever have had to witness

I'm a patriot to the core, I love this country with all its greatness, beauty and its shadows. I am proud to be born Indian and would not change that, no matter what the choices are in any life this or the next.

I'm a patriot. My heart swells up and I stand taller every time I see the tricolour. I have seen it fly high and wrapped around the patriots I am indebted to. 4 generations of olive greens and I'm proud it flows through my veins.

I grew up in the India where soldiers were "martyred" in battle and only the enemy was "killed". Where the family of a martyr was seen to have earned a lifetime of respect. Where the small city stood still just to get news of those fighting at the front so everyone else could hold up their head. Where medals were recognised as blood and sacrifice not metal. Where every one knew the real meaning of Naam. Namak. Nishan.

I'm a patriot but I have seen what no patriot should ever have had to witness. I saw a media falling over itself to cover a murder and ignore those who gave their lives to protect this country. I saw the same media mention in 2 lines an encounter where 5 terrorists were killed by the army in a "fierce battle". I saw the forces called to maintain peace where people were burning tax payers property because they wanted their demand for special treatment met and in the same breath I saw the media print propaganda against the veterans calling their demands a burden on the GDP. I saw a 22 year old threaten the peace of an entire state bringing it to its knees and I saw the medals and respect ripped off a veteran on peaceful protest by the police. I saw thousands of crores being promised for votes and I saw the veterans being evaluated as a burden on the GDP. I saw the flowers being laid amidst flashing cameras in a tokenism of "respect" for the martyrs of 65 while the wife of a Param Vir Chakra holder of that war has to wash utensils to keep alive because the 5000 Rupees of pension does not last the week. I saw the media at its prestitute worst calling the boycott of the very same war event by those who won it "disrespectful".

I saw the thankless people sitting in their air conditioned rooms trolling the veterans on social media complaining of a burden on the GDP and I saw the media print propaganda, I saw paid Twitter trolls amplify propaganda in an effort to break morale and systematically destroy public support for the very same ‪#‎OROP that the babus quietly signed for themselves decades ago.

I saw people call our veterans impatient, greedy, stubborn and as the media mocked all this or ignored it. I saw the tiny ticker of "PAK Firing: 3 killed 22 injured. Cease fire violation yet again firing from across the border escalates" on news channels. I saw for the first time ever indians quoting the enemy taunting our troops "humse Jo takrayega jantar mantar pe dande khaye ga"

Meanwhile the widow of the Param Vir Chakra awardee from the war of 1965 we celebrated the golden jubilee of today... Lives in extreme poverty and that news ticker which announced "3killed really said 3 more are now in line for a lifetime of thanklessness"

I saw the future but I am afraid to voice it for it 

The "well-wishers" stereo-type

From experience and that of a few well placed friends, here is an attempt to stereo-type "well-wishers" the sarcasm be obvious these are the people one encounters in life who go out of the way to wish you into the deepest well they can conjure up. So many well wishers, so many wells one can never figure out which well you are being wished into. Please feel free to add to this list n the benefit of humankind. 

The random acquaintance who targets you: This "Well-wisher" you will never figure out, takes sides where there are none. Will make it a point to be a jerk in public not to target you but to have his "bro's" think he is a strong supporter of theirs.

Precaution: Completely ignorable, do not give much thought they are more talk less bite.

The gives free advise: A common "Well-wisher" every one has one. Will give you constant advise which when not taken will go around looking hurt and crib about you and the decisions you make, comes disguised as a friend, colleague or even distant family. 

Precaution: Do not pretend to like the advise, this only serves as encouragement to this breed. 

The goody 2 shoes: This is one "well-wisher" you will always have a niggling doubt about. You may have X-pals in common with this one. Moment you discuss something he will go tell your not so good friends. You never really find out till you get tiny pieces of news from people you never talked to. 

Precaution: You may never really nail this one down but the good thing is that they are not so significant

The "saint and best pal": This "well-wisher" is a piece of art, God forbid if you meet one. Will be your best pal, will constantly remind you how much he / she has helped you, and how you are blessed to have them as a friend, this is a clingy and secretly jealous individual. Uses every trick in the book to try lower your confidence and has developed rumor mongering to a science, in most cases their viciousness increases in direct proportion to your success. Its common for such "well-wishers" to go whining to their other friends with hurtful looks trying to garner sympathy.  

Precaution: Avoid clingy people, if you see this type, run like hell. They will only poison your life with negativity, like a bad stink they refuse to vanish completely even when gone.  

The waggly tail: Mostly encountered at workplace, is of average intelligence and high ambitions, prefers to inhabit large organizations, though is not unknown in smaller ones. This "well-wisher" will try his best to make you believe that he worships you, will be supportive of all your decisions especially the wrong ones, every time you turn around he will be there right beside you. Beware if you had not turned around he would have snapped at that ankle. True colors of this ankle biter will be revealed when you make a career move. 

Precaution: Watch your back! don't trust any one who says they trust you completely. Carry that pinch of salt

The crab: Yes perhaps the most common of the "well-wishers", hates every one! You are not special. Blames the world for his troubles, constantly lives in the past, is competitive but not hard working, will carry mediocrity like a flag and quite proudly so. Will pull any one down just so there is equality in his world. 

Precaution: There is rarely an opportunity to avoid this one completely. 

to be continued .....     

"its a small, round and messed up world"

A true story: In 2011 putting in 48 work hour day's to start up, struggling to get a window with a “MNC” (lets call them MNC as I do not want to name thisOrganization) who would not shell out a brief, pick up the phone or have the courtesy to just clearly say no or why. Once they did send in a brief this great company would not even clarify what they had written in the 2 slides. “Present what you understand” was we are busy”. When there was the rare window to present and we made the cut it was always the same “ we like what you presented but we want to go with a bigger company” Right down the ladder the attitude was the same. We eventually stopped making the calls and focused our efforts towards those who appreciated good work or even the effort.It stung at times how common professional courtesy had died it would have been perfectly ok had the organization just said, “We are not open to working with new agencies at this time”. It takes all kinds and having buried the episodes life goes on. All we got in a text or a 1 line email. It was hopeless but not being one to give up with out serious effort we still worked over night on pitches preparing concepts, pulling together samples and creating designs,only to be told “mail it” ther is no time to meet as “

A lifetime later things have changed, the agency has shown its metal and is firmly on a path it carved for itself, I got a call from a young technology organization that were anxious for a window to meet. As a policy we always meet startups and prefer to work with them if there is proof of concept. Years of P&L and list of clients don’t matter as long as the team is solid, sincere and there is synergy with their offering. They got their meeting. A fledgling organization with a team of two obviously stressed but bright individuals. Imagine my surprise when I saw one of them from the MNC. Not letting on the connect and without a mention the presentation started, in the 1^st 15 minutes I knew that they were in a nascent stage, they had neither grasped the humbleness of entrepreneurship nor appropriately grasped the market challenges of their offering. I wont deny thatI was tempted to stomp out and give them a taste of their own medicine but Idid not. I sat through the 30 minutes and discussed the product answered their questions and went through multiple rounds of coffee.

The presentation soon turned into an interview, what is the market like? Who are the big players? What is the best product in the category we have seen before?How do you approach clients? What are the payment terms in the market? When did you decide you needed a big office? It went on. 3 hours I sat through a string of questions, sharing experiences and giving pointers. The gentlemen from thatMNC sheepishly said “I am ex - --- company” waiting for a reaction, we let it slide as they joined us in evening snack time.

As we finally drew to the end of the session with the agreement to work together if they could revert with a proof of concept and a plan, the gentleman said“thank you for everything but most of all for the time. We rarely get the window to present ourselves, you may not remember me from a few years back…” I told him I remembered and also that “someone gave me the time when I was looking from that window and even if that someone was not you I am returning the favor”. 

I do not know if the gentleman got any of the answers he was looking for, if he learnt any thing or when he is on the giving end will he show better courtesy to fellow professionals. I do not know about him but I learnt that it is far better to move on and forget the tiny people who lack basic courtesy, because the world is round and they will have the chance to remember me without me remembering them.   

To my fellow bikers… This cross is ours to carry

This week yet again we lost a fellow biker. Long days of riding, back-to-back long distances, and fatigue bad luck what ever. The truth is a good soul was laid to rest too soon leaving behind a grieving family and a few friends. The rest of the world will forget in a matter of weeks may be days, the Facebook posts will fall down the timeline, the tweets will be buried, the newspapers well they just about managed to sell a few more copies with the death of a biker on a big bike. Today there are judgments and there is gyan. What happened? Then come the guessing games. Maybe it was fatigue, maybe the breaks gave way, may be the rider was going too fast, maybe was not able to bank the bike, was a novice, was a good rider tried too hard to keep up with the boys …. It’s endless for about 3 days. The postmortem report gives closure from the speculation – internal injuries. In the end the family and the friends grieve alone. 

A lot of us bikers push the limit once too often, brag about the speeds we reached, proudly share the 1000 Kms runs without a break, share horror stories of near misses over a drink, take off on 10 K in 7 day missions the list is endless. I am guilty of it myself. So why the gyan? If we are so learned what are we doing about it? All our experience, and learning for the day a biker goes down never to get back up again, and mark my words at this very point some hard headed fellow biker who is short by 2 days of leave from office is planning a 8000 Kms X 7 day trip, motivating his buddies to take the plunge with him. When was the last time you said NO? No to a certain road because it was unsafe, no to a certain speed because it was not ok? No to a couple of extra 100 KMS because it was too much in a day? No to riding like a maniac at night to get from point A to point B? How many times did you put your foot down and said NO I will not be party to this? If you did then my guess is that you got snickered at behind your back, got called a chicken or worse your pretend friend called you a back stabber for not taking that trip with him / her.  

Pushing the limit on safety is like drinking and driving you cannot do that even one time! Same with safety you cannot ignore it even once. And lets not make bones about it; safety is not about just the helmet the gear and the boots, because when you hit the concrete at 150 Kmph no amount of gear will save you. You will get hurt and really badly hurt. You may not get lacerated or get road burns but your insides will turn to mush and your brain will dislocate inside your skull – oh yes the helmet will protect your skull from cracking but fat lot of good that will be to you when you are dead or even worse a vegetable for life. Are you angry yet? Well you should be because this is the truth, the truth always hurts and unless you have one of those nine lives stacked away ready to use, you better pray that the next high speed high fatigue crash either leaves you completely unharmed by sheer luck or you end up dead on the spot, being a vegetable will be no fun for either the biker or their family.  

This part I will get a lot of flack for and there will be many judgments on this article but I will say it any way. If you want to end up an old biker with the engine still running and a couple of lac kilometers on the ODO you know that safety is about discipline. You also know that when you are old only a certain type of friends will still ride along side you. The ones, who will still be alive. So the next time some one makes a trip that is more than a 550 odd kilometers a day, rides faster than their guardian angel, goes without a break for more than an hour, rides without gear, rides on a rickety bike or rides when fatigued. Say NO!. Loose that friend or one day you will loose that friend anyway and then you will be party to the blame for a rider dead. Every one of us who have pushed the limit, been party to the limit being pushed or bragged about it so that some idiot with a piddly ego wanted to better those stats, we are all guilty. Say no and stop making kilometers, speeds and hours into medals to be stuck on our jackets. 

To all the experienced bikers out there the cross is ours to carry …… to all bikers everywhere God be with you on the road you are going to need him.

An open letter to a young professional

I prefer not to name you, not because of any courtesy but simply because I can’t recall your name. There have been more than a few of you walking through the hall ways over the years looking quite important but frankly noting inspired me to remember your name. There have been an increasing number of you over the years, fresh out of college thinking you were the topper of the smart batch wanting success to be your inheritance. This is open advise which you will do the rest of us a favor and not take. 

The next time you read that article which talks about taking it easy, strictly 40 hour week, offline

weekends, no calls after office hours and all that lovely watch the sunset in peace on a work day do your self a favor, check the bio of the author and figure if he is a fellow 26 year old with 4 lines of professional experience. Then it would be good to research how the author spent his time when he was 26 and what he spent his days doing. I have yet to come across any published author or journalist of repute who sailed through with 40 hour no pressure work weeks and has found a publication worth its salt to feature him. 

I’m glad that you have made up your mind that your senior colleagues at work are over loading you with unnecessary pressure, and that they spend all week conspiring to ruin your weekend, when they are working away on their desks they are actually figuring 20 ways to ensure you basically have no Friday evening peace. That they are lucky bums who hit the jackpot and its a matter of time before the biggest cover of their last 10 years of profession life is blown! Before you cement that thought remember Darwin’s theory? (Its the theory that was being taught when you were busy thinking that the professor is an idiot) well this is the practical of that theory. I have never seen any lazy idiot make the cut for a leadership role professionally if it wasnt their daddy’s business. But go ahead disregard Darwin had he included you in his research he would have modified his theory. 

You have skills, you should believe your Mom, you really are cut out to be a leader, get famous, be on the the cover of Time Magazine, or (begin with India) Economic Times. Before you sit back and relax sit and write that nomination. Nominate your self for that cover (actually Time magazine should find you and nominate you by them selves) but they haven’t heard of you either. Wrote that nomination? Now compare the 1st 10 achievements you jotted down (did you get to 10? "I have friends" and "mommy loves me" does not count) with any of the last 10 years featured professionals. Where did you get to? - Blah! don’t worry! All this is not for you. At your level of professional excellence you must not cloud your mind with this benchmarking. Just focus on how to improve your life with your next paycheck. 

One thing you have absolutely got right you will get hired, (may be the 5th time in 3 years will take longer, but look at the bright side - more personal time) you will almost always have a job (till the India economy is growing). You will get promoted probably with a double digit hike (for the first few years any way) every organization needs fuel for Darwin theory (yeah it works). The fit, hard working co workers who gave up that all important movie and learnt from their more experienced colleagues and set goals, benchmarks and all that unimportant stuff will of course be happy to hire and promote you when they are calling the shots. 

To every one who I know is going slam the insensitivity of this letter, or say its too scathing or in-fact advocate this upcoming trend of belittling those who are one step up the ladder and over valuing your current call to fame, face it! Its a competitive world and survival, let alone excellence demands hard work and commitment. There is a time for enjoying that awesome self earned lifestyle and then there is a time for giving it all you got to get to that awesome space in life. To the 26year old as I said right in the beginning do not take any of the advise from this piece, you may actually start doing something worthwhile and give the goal oriented ambitious ones added competition.  

Business owner by accident, Entrepreneur by design

Once upon a time there was a stingy King of a small kingdom. The kingdom was small, the King was rich, the people were poor. A port town and the king earned taxes on every thing that landed from the sea to his land. The port was busy and there was money to be made, the shacks for food, the pubs, from the tailors shop to the ship yard everything belonged to the king. The king managed his kingdom like a trading war zone, young outsiders ran his business while the people of his kingdom labored. One day a young sailor was having his ship mended and seeing the poor work, he asked the ship yard manager "is this ship yard yours"? The manager said "I am just the manager no one but the king trades in this town",.The sailor was puzzled and he said why do the people not have the need to progress in life? The manager replied "those with the skills and the will moved on, those who are here do not have either.

The sailor walked across town and found the same story every where, people labored while outsiders managed and the king filled his coffers. The sailor wend to ask audience of the King, and sent him a message, your ship yard looses 20 gold sovereigns every day. The King was perplexed and furious, he rode out of his castle to meet this sailor. The king asked him for the logic behind the 20 sovereigns loss because his ship yard earned 10 sovereigns, how could it loose 20?. The sailor replied for every day that you do not earn 20 Sovereigns its 20 sovereigns lost. The king was greedy and thought "this sailor knows how to run a yard", so he fired the manager and gave the yard to the sailor to run"

The sailor was happy that he had got a yard to run and worried that he knew how to mend ships but knew nothing about running a yard. He set down to work, mending ships by day and learning to manage a yard by night. As 2 years passed the King came to admire the sailor, the 10 sovereigns grew to be 100.  The King was worried that the sailor will run away and his shining yard will fall to ruins the sovereigns grew to 300 as another year went by. The King got restless, he called the sailor and promised him a share in the yard next year. The sailor was thrilled, for the 1st time in his life he would own a part of something he began to work harder. The sovereigns grew to 600 a year passed and the King never mentioned the share. The sailor patiently waited, he was enjoying his learning, the year grew in business and the sovereigns grew to 2000, yet the King never mentioned the share. 

One night the sailor went to to the town tavern, tired but happy with the days work. He ordered a beer, as he was about to sip his drink he got thinking about the last 7 years, about the sailor who was now the captain of a yard it struck him that he was no longer a sailor and that in this yard he could never be captain. The sailor made up his mind to set up his own yard. Time went in whirlwind as the sailor put together all his savings and then walked miles to a shore line farm which was ripe for a yard. He bought the land from the farmer and began to plan his yard. 

One bright Sunday morning after church the sailor announced to the king that he will be moving on. The King was aghast! He offered the sailor 5 times the money, a horse and a boat. The sailor politely declined "Sir Its time to move on" he said.  The King tried harder and offered the sailor 8 times the money, a horse, a house and a boat. The sailor politely declined "Sir Its time to move on" he said.  The King was angry and said what will you do sailor? If you refuse my offer I will destroy you!  The sailor politely replied "I am a small man sir not a great King but Sir Its time to move on". The sailor packed his bags and the king threw him a tearful farewell. The sailor saw the tears and thought "the crocodile cries for his sovereigns" and he politely said "its time to bid farewell sir". God be with you sailor said the king. As the sailor walked away the king sent his spies after the sailor. 

The word spread far and wide, the sailor had his own yard, captains turned their boats towards the sailors small yard. The king rehired the manager. The sailor worked day and night as his little yard bustled with ships big and small, the manager packed his bags and shut the yard at sunset. The King grew more vengeful with each passing day, his yard was the largest in the 7 seas, a mere sailor dare challenge it!  The king asked his manager, why are you loosing the ships? The manager said "the sailor works for pennies sire" the King hated the sailor and sent his army to scare away the sailor, but the sailor stood strong. The king ordered the manager to personally tell the ships that the sailor was a thief. The captains still went to the sailors yard, The manager began spending his waking moments conniving to harm the sailor and the kings yard saw fewer and fewer ships. As years passed by the kings yard looked deserted and the manager's waistline grew. The Sailor's yard grew from humble beginnings to become a a big yard famed across the land. 

One day the sailor and the king crossed paths, the king asked the sailor why did you give up the big yard! I was going to give you a share, you could have been rich. The sailor quietly replied, sir for every year you did not keep your promise I lost 100 sovereigns.    

Kingdoms and corporates the soldiers and the generals will always be the same

Once upon a time there was an ambitious soldier, his ambitions ran high, he wished to be the General. So strong was his desire that he secretly started hating the General and systematically began maligning the good general's name. 

As time went by the soldiers evil ambitions grew, the King and his parliament began disliking the general. Seeing that the kingdom was doomed the general retired happily to his farm. 

The soldier was elated, he began preparing for his new role as general, he got his uniform stitched, made the announcement to his fellow soldiers, bathed and dressed his horse, worked hard on his list of favorite cronies, got a new hair cut and practiced his speech full of humble surprise. 

On the day of the big announcement he stood in line, expectantly waiting for the King to call out his name. The King walked in, and made his announcement. 

"Country men, as you know our beloved general has retired, My nephew has returned from France and i hereby announce that he be my new General" 

The soldier was stunned, heartbroken, as the King walked out he whispered to the soldier, "you have done me a great service, I never did like that righteous fool. You will get a new horse"