Akbarnama

11th January on FB

Akbar bhai.... meraa bhi ek sawal hain aapko......jo baataan shadab cafe mein chai pe chotti samosa khatey waqat bolney hain, woh baataan camere ke samne kaiku karrain miyaan? panga kaiku lerain phursat mein khali-peeli sarkar sey? 

The mahaul at Nirmal is such that anyone can get into a rhetoric mode, get irrationally impassioned and indulge in senseless bravado....... while some of the allegations, sentiments voiced by Akbar bear a semblence to reality, truth, a lot of it was hyperbole & it would be foolhardy to say the listener would take it all as God's word...... Akbar is no polished politico, he comes across as immature, kiddish...... more than what he said about the infamous 'pandrah minute', more worrying is the way the crowd erupted in cheer & approval of that idiotic posturing........... dimaag khaan bhoolkey phirrain yaaron ye logaan?

Secular India would do good to focus on the funny side of all this & show it to the understanding Muslim population out there which also has a sense of humor... (believe me... there were a few concerned, confused and amused faces right behind the sher-e-deccan :-)...) to me this speech is nothing more than a excitable shahri showing off to the vulnerable dehathi....

(main section is between 48th & 60th minute)

Climb down from the towers BoDs..

We are all Board Members on LI by Lucy P Marcus

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121120235138-60894986-we-are-all-board-members?trk=mp-reader-card

As an employee who always worked with a sense of ownership, accountability, I always felt its strange that the board's engagement with key employees (second line, executing level) within the organization is non-existent & more often than not, its strategic guidance is based on a colorful slide-deck or an birds-eye-view executive summary that rarely reflects the subtler aspects of business realities and it's short & long-term sustenance. While I see a common thread here that the board has a responsibility towards company's vision & and should represent the stakeholders interest rather than it’s own, I am wondering why so many critical decisions are still taken by boards without ever engaging directly with the stakeholders that actually go about translating the vision into action? & I’m presuming that employees at key positions too are considered a part of the stakeholder pool & not just the investing PE universe.

Provoke, par zara bachkey :-)

Want to Deepen Impact in 2013? Be a Provocateur on LI by Ben Mangan

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130104051308-132220-want-to-deepen-impact-in-2013-be-a-provocateur

Quite nicely provoked :-)... I though see most provocateurs use the 'why' primarily for disruptive purposes (unfortunately) than otherwise.... I guess these belong to the category of 'those who don't give a damn (like Veronika J wrote below...), but provoke nonetheless for the heck of it' (OR to topple some apple-carts...) Whichever type one is, my message to all prospective provocateurs is "Ask WHY?, but be well prepared when countered by 'WHY NOT'?" 

Your message bothers me Esther and how....

Should I Bother With Your Message? Persuade Me! on LI by Esther Dyson 

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130116205459-28157-should-i-bother-to-read-your-message-persuade-me?goback=%2Eptf_*1_*1_*1_*1_recentPosts_*1&trk=who_to_follow-b

With all respect to the departed soul, I'm starting to get why Aaron Schwartz decided to end his life...... sender of a message pays on a social network? - Monetizing a few lines as though it were a validated piece of patented intellectual property? – bad enough reason for any cyber-socialist to give-up on hope and die! 

I remember & believe that cyber communities/ DBs started out in a spirit of sharing knowledge, thinking & perspective with whoever displays a similar trait to engage & evolve. If companies like LI & FB monetize this engagement for their own stock valuations, I still understand, particularly seeing how FB is struggling with its sub-par listing & trading post such a hyped-up public issue. What I don't understand is the increasing tribe of self-appointed thought-leaders & experts who believe a mere mail to them deserves a valuation!!!!! – Is it that I should’ve been a citizen of Pandora OR Is this really the most obscene manifestation of assumed self-importance? 

If I have a need that requires me to pay to someone just so that he/she receives my mail in a non-spam folder & for which he/she may not necessarily respond even, I’d think my need itself is ill-articulated &/or illegitimate and the person whom I’m trying to pay to get through to isn’t worth reaching out to after all 

Indeed, a good self-image is important in life..., but gents & ladies extreme self-importance is avoidable - never forget the “Rule Number 6” (http://dannyhageman.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/never-forget-rule-number-six/) 

Cheers

Back with a BLOG!!

It has happened! - the progressive, unavoidable & of course overt monetization of the cyber social space has made me invisible to myself let alone others on my own home page! 

I’ve been noticing that my status updates aren't what they used to be....., LinkedIn hides them on the side-bar, FB sweeps them under the carpet of paid postings & decorates them with weird hyperlinks and Twitter turned into a whimper for all non-celebrities. The marginalization of my thinking on LI is so complete that my comments on the LI Today articles don't show-up on my activity nor I get any email alert for the same! & I'm a bit too old fashioned to spam my way to attention by liking, sharing every crap out there & post remarks against updates & articles on which I neither have an interest nor knowledge on.

Without sounding too narcissistic, I want to admit that I'm none too happy with many of my posts, comments, observations & tweets, thereby much of my perspective that I feel has some merit doesn't get enough eye balls to gather others perspective & thus validate my own.

Hence here I'm again, blogging after a mammoth sabbatical of 66 months! Without being repetitive in this era of information overkill, here I'll try and only recapture some of my social media updates, if not for anything else, as a way of chronicling my own honest thoughts in one place and thus escaping the drudgery of having to go through reams of digital pages before I can find out what I've said earlier in 2010 on LI/ FB/ Twitter.

If in the bargain I get some audience..., hey why not? bring 'em on :-)

Cheers!

Passion....rather the lack of it !

bloggin sure needs passion....

where's mine?

well...what was any one expecting after the tell-tale title? i am still figuring on how to be a regular with my posts...

what'as happened in my life lately that's worth a blog? - not much beyond my profession...and hey wait a minute...not much in my career too....

oooh ... looks like i need to re-focus in life....not a nice thing to live feeling as excited as a can opener..may be i should enrol for some course.... may be i should get worked up on Indian crickets’ sad demise... may be i should hyperventilate on the stubborn attitude of government on the 27% issue....speculate on the Georgia Tech assassins bullied life?....may be yes....some purpose...some passion...

closer home....the life-lane is getting narrower,....i am busy...doing nothin'...everyone's busy doing nothing....we have time for none..not even for ourselves..

passion.....it needs some serious make-over
purpose....I will look for it.....passionately....

SadDam(n) execution

I have seen the video on Saddam’s execution...

no special love I have for him, but strangely felt bad...may be because it is tough to see anybody being bumped off like that...one could see the sheer hopelessness in his eyes before his neck broke....or was it because the-one-stubborn-man who thumbed his nose at the self-appointed global top-cop couldn’t hold on much longer…..not sure yet…

while watching, I felt that Saddam surely was thinking of all those people he put to death & of what they felt like seconds before they died... can't really call it remorse but still he surely would have re-visited them mentally & lived their agony for a nano-sec….

I am confused ....I do believe dictators should be dealt with severely so that others get the message loud and clear ...however given the sheer size of war casualties caused by them, (countless examples ranging from Vietnam thro' Iraq..) I wonder what would one call the US president(s)?.... the leaders who are the paragons of democratic virtue within US of A & bloody war-mongers outside?

will these oil-seeking, self-seeking crass creatures getaway with everything they do on the name of global war against terrorism?...the worst they ever seem to face is some blokes pitching tent before their house (White-House) and holding placards.....(they could’ve tried this technique in Iraq…right?....:-)) And yeah what does one say to half the population that seems to actively support their war-crazy President’s misadventures...(of course the rest seem to find the voice of their conscience) – THREE CHEERS FOR CHEAP GAS... perhaps !

ponder this…..Saddam hasn’t been convicted for his wars & war killings against Iran or Kuwait or the Kurdish, he has been convicted of murdering a group of Shiite people supposedly involved in a plan to assassinate him….very intelligent & very convenient….Clearly Bush admin says that it is not wrong to kill people as long as the situation is called WAR…..in effect saying in-spite of all the thousands killed owing to the countless wars, USA is beyond reproach and beyond judgement...

oil for thought....