I read of passing of former Indian President R Venkatraman somewhere hidden inside Rediff news on the second tab. Perhaps he wasn’t celebrity enough.

I have two personal memories of him:

One, when he passed by in a closed government car in the ‘hospital daara’ (area in front of STNM hospital) of Gangtok, Sikkim in 1987 as we, as children, stood watching, most with a little paper Tricolor in our hands.

Second, when he walked past us in December 2001, wearing a traditional white shirt and weshti, and a red shawl over his shoulders, at the Kalahasti temple near Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. I was on a temple tour of South India taking my parents and elder sister on a pilgrimage right after their surgeries. Sri Kalahasti is one of the five temples celebrating Lord Shiva as the embodiment of the 5 elements - with ‘air’ being the element under worship here, thus referred to as ‘Vayu Lingam’.

Ramaswamy Venkatraman passed away at the age of 98.

Fall was here in New York City…now it’s beginning to get cold. Before the trees turned into brown skeletons, Archana, 6-week old Eesha and I went to the Pelham Bay Park to soak in the yellow, red and orange of the autumn leaves.

I read about the killing of Benazir Bhutto 15 minutes ago (Thu 27 Dec, 10:30am New York Time, 9:30pm in India). I’m shocked and shuddering. My feet were cold and I was delaying wearing thick socks for a while. Not sure whether it was the temperature or the news - I actually shivered on reading about Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like a news story on somebody’s passing which they cover in detail in the media - from the Nepal royals to Pramod Mahajan to Teji Bachchan.

I was shocked, angry and sad..it was as if I had some personal hope for Pakistan from Benazir that I hadn’t realized. I don’t remember a moment so personally shocking since the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. When Rajiv Gandhi was killed - there was this feeling..how can they do this…how can they kill the most charismatic leader of India…weren’t they satisfied having witnessed the deaths of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi…how can you make a single family suffer so much….what will happen to India..that was May 1991..

And now…end of 2007…I am overcome with the same thoughts…how can they make a particular family suffer so much…Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the sons Murtaza Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto and now..Benazir herself…with all her imperfections….Pakistan was witnessing a change…what will happen to Pakistan…what will happen to the world…is there any hope? You might disagree with her..but how can you kill her?

Suddenly the moments when I read her autobiography ‘Daughter of the East’ during my school days in Gangtok all flashed before my eyes…the way her mother taught her to count a no. of times to make sure her teeth are brushed and clean…the recent interviews on ibnlive.com that I watched where Karan Thapar interviewed her on Devil’s Advocate…all the news of her intent to return to Pakistan…her return..assassination bid…threats to her life…flashes of names..her husband Asif Ali Zardari…her mother Nusrat Bhutto…her niece…Fatima Bhutto…Murtaza’s daughter…who hates Benazir..I think she’d be sad and crying too…sad for the Bhutto family, despite her disagreements with Benazir…

As the news is slowly sinking in, I think it’s a sad day for Pakistan..for India..for the world…it brings to the fore an ongoing war - between the fundamentalists and uncivilized people (who do not know how to disagree without violence)..and the normal world as we know it ..or think it is…Perhaps the world is not what it seems…it seems like a very dangerous world…anybody who wants to do something gets killed… Is there hope? There must be…images of Mahatma Gandhi lying dead flash….there can only be hope in non-violence…when people learn to disagree through non-violent means…

Just found this old 10-minute video I’d put together from photos and 1-minute video clips taken by Prateek on my 2002 birthday at Tanjong Katong Road…check it out

ये मेरी पहली िहन्दी ब्लाग एन्ट्री है ।

आपका,
नरेश

This is going to be my first proper post in this blog. Just came back from a class on Case Research (2:00pm - 4:00pm). The professor, Dr Pan Shan Ling is on a trip to IIT Kanpur. His Ph.D. student, Ravi Shankar M.N., took the class to describe his experiences in India (Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad) and Singapore while collecting data from InfoSys, Wipro and Satyam for case studies on their Knowledge Management initiatives (and perhaps also IT outsourcing). Incidently, right after the class, I saw a missed call on my cellphone. When I called back, the person said he was calling from Satyam (some coincidence there) and wanted to explore if I would be interested in a job opportunity (something to do with Taxonomy) with them. It was pretty simple - told him I’m doing my Ph.D. and so not available for employment. Well, this is not why I decided to write this post. I wrote this to discuss 5 types of people. Ravi, during his talk, said something to the effect of, "At the end of every interview (case research generally involves a large number of interviews), it’s a good idea to slot the informant in one of 5 categories - suspicious informant, patronizing informant, friendly informant, diplomatic informant and scheming informant". That will help you analyse the quality of data you’ve collected better. 1) Suspicious informant: Always worried! Why do you want to know? What do you want? How are you going to use it? 2) Patronizing informant: Ah, you don’t know. Let me tell you…speaks for 3 minutes non-stop. Has ready answer for every question (even before he’s listened to the question). You just give a trigger in the form of a question and he’s ready to start speaking, with the look in the eyes that (I know all..you don’t know anything) 3) Friendly informant: The ideal case, the name says it all 4) Diplomatic informant: Usually very smart; tells you everything in exactly official lines. Even after a 1 hour interview, he hasn’t told you anything that is not already known or public 5) Scheming informant: Has a hidden agenda e.g. carry a box of sweets to Singapore. So how well your interview goes depends on whether you answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that request. So while Ravi was talking about purely an interview/conversation context, I thought perhaps all people could be classified under these broad categories (based on how they talk to most people or their general style of talking deduced over a number of conversations). Here’s my take on this (assumed that the ‘friendly talker’ is ideal): 1) The Suspicious or insecure talker: always wary about what he is saying. Sometimes tries to be more authoritative.
Reason: insecurity. Such a person is deeply insecure inside Questions: a) How to deal with an insecure person? b) How to help him change from suspicious to friendly? 2) The ‘Know-all’ talker: hardly ever gives the other person an opportunity to talk. Has a theory or explanation for everything. Brushes off your arguments habitually.
Reason: inferiority complex. Such a person needs to keep telling himself that he knows. Questions: a) How to deal with a ‘know-all’ person? b) How to help him change from ‘know-all’ to friendly? 3) The friendly talker: Generally straight-forward and honest. In peace with himself and the world. Knows his own strengths and weaknesses well. Gives the other person his due. Generally a happy person.
Reason: introspection, intelligence, secure inside 4) The diplomatic talker: Your typical marketing guy image (though stereotyping can be dangerous). Knows how to say the ‘right’ things. Knows what is the stand to be taken, what is considered ‘cool’ or ’should be the case’. You never know what is actually in this person’s mind.
Reason: intelligence+greed/ambition Questions: a) How to deal with a diplomatic person? b) How to help him change from diplomatic to friendly? 5) The scheming talker: Such a person might say just the opposite things than what he actually means. Might be overly nice and polite to you and typically has a hidden agenda.
Reason: evil temperament, or conflict of good and evil (don’t know if this is totally black and white) Questions: a) How to deal with a scheming person? b) How to help him change from scheming to friendly? Of course, people you encounter and talk to might lie in between these categories or have traits of more than one. Also, the degree/level of fit within a particular category may vary. Or there could be more categories outside this list. Of course, on a deeper, spiritual level, and as what Vedanta says, everything is one. So differences or classifications are only apparent then! What do you think?

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