Own Goals!!!

2011 has been a turbulent year for UPA. It has battled various issues and last minute fire-fighting has saved its face. The issues of corruption, inflation, Telangana, protests of farmers across the country including infamous incidents of Jaitapur have added a lot to its worries. All the worries are self inflicted because of inept handling of PR. It seems that UPA loves scoring own goals with perfectly wrong timing. How ironic it is that the election symbol of one of its key allies is a watch!!

The skills of PR department or the national spokespersons are necessary to ameliorate the image of the party when chips are down. But they seem to come up with exactly opposite of what is required through their wrong attitude and words while addressing the key issues. Even the ministers from time to time have come out with absurd and bizarre statements. The famous “zero-loss” theory of Kapil Sibal was laughable to say the least. From Sharad Pawar’s statement on price rise to Rahul Gandhi with his ‘game-changing’ idea! After the terrorist attack, the crown prince said 99% of the attacks are prevented. The statements like these hurt even more because of their timing. It’s the last thing a future PM must say to console the grieving families. The antics of Digvijay Singh have completely baffled the masses. As if the Intelligence inputs are first shared with him rather than anyone else in the Government. Every time he comes up with strange allegations which happen to contradict the official party line. Again poor example of PR if UPA wants to improve its public image. The best example of it was that infamous attack on personal integrity of Anna Hajare by Manish Tewari. In absence of Sonia Gandhi, the veteran leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherji has to save UPA from blushes.

The latest salvo was delivered by the PM himself. At the 6th Annual Convention of Information Commissioners, he said that RTI is subject to review. Once again UPA provided fodder to the opposition. Even since scams of Adarsh, CWG and 2G broke out, the importance of RTI has been highlighted. In the absence of RTI, these scams would have never been unearthed. The major issue today is –protection of RTI activists. But PM Somehow dodging these issues opened an unnecessary debate at this point of time. If there are certain gray areas then our judiciary has been more than efficient in handling them through judicial review. The need to review RTI at this period of time is just completely bizarre. If from the same platform PM would have assured safety of activists and praised them for using RTI for improving the governance, it would have been most apt. But UPA it seems has not learnt its lessons and continues to employ self-destructing tactics.

In the age of information revolution it’s ironic that our Government seems to have lost its plot in connecting with public it is suppose to serve.

-N.D.K. Nikhil

15.10.2011

Right Responsibility

With every right comes a responsibility- It’s an age old principle.

The attack on senior advocate Prashant Bhushan has to be condemned in the harshest possible words. The organizations like “Shri Ram Sene” and “Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena” have no place in a civilized society and a vibrant democracy. But to me the issue here is not what Shri Ram Sene did. Even today there are people supporting overtly/covertly the ideas of Fascism and Nazism. These are social miscreants and its better that they are publicly condemned and socially boycotted. For them any publicity is a good publicity so its also better that they should not be given any publicity.

The issue to me is the statement of Prashant Bhushan. He is an erudite and intelligent lawyer. He has also been involved in social activism and famously been called “PIL Bhushan”. Bhushan along with Dr. Swami have been fighting the 2G scam in the courts. It’s almost impossible to defeat him in the arguments of wits. So if you argue with him about ‘freedom of expression with reasonable restrictions’, he will definitely convince you that he is well within ‘freedom of expression’ as guaranteed by the Constitution.

The problem here is Prashant Bhushan is no longer an ordinary Lawyer of Supreme Court/activist. In the fight against corruption, he has been one of the leading activists at the national level. The Team Anna is looking for mobilization of public voice against corruption. He has even represented Civil Society as a member of team of civil society representatives. If he has to represent ‘us’ then he must also understand and respect the sentiments of general public before voicing his “personal” opinions. This is the exactly what was warned about Team Anna. They are not merely an NGO, almost all the Indians look at them as the lost hope. The members of Team Anna must understand the gravity of responsibility now they are carrying. There are hounds waiting for slips like this and Prashant Bhushan has sadly provided them with fodder.

The statement becomes even more bizarre as right now there is no issue in Kashmir as such. The team of interlocutors has already been appointed (They have already submitted their report to the Government) and the people of Kashmir have been participating in the democratic process of our country. In our country we will find a lot of places which are seething with public outrage due to non-development. But the solutions for the same cannot be extreme. Telangana is demanding a separate state not a country. If we aspire to be a super power then we must take all the regions as well as different factions together and move ahead.

I must again mention that the cowardly attack on 56 year old man is condemnable in harshest possible words. But I do not attach much importance to anti-social elements. I would rather channelise my energies to support Prashant Bhushan in his noble works. All of us have many freedoms and rights as enshrined in our Constitution. But we must not stretch these privileges. Again not because we are afraid of some cowards but because it’s futile to get into arguments with these groups. When brain stops functioning we feel the necessity to resort to violence!

-N.D.K. Nikhil

14.10.2011

uTouched!!

The word “I” is one of the most powerful words but at the same time self destructing. We are often told not to over-use the word as it can exude “ego”. But when “I” is the prefix of any product, one is assured of the magic it packs. The story of man behind all these products is a perfect recipe for any thriller movie- A college dropout, humble start from his garage, an innovator in personal computing, a millionaire in his twenties, ousted from his own company when he was thirty (!!), made a comeback and helped the company back to its former glory and much beyond but died fighting pancreatic cancer……

The year 1955 must be mystical. The year when we lost ALBERT EINSTEIN but in the same year BILL GATES and STEVE JOBS were born.

Jobs started his journey just as most of early computer entrepreneurs/scientists- a college drop out and first lab as a garage. Teaming with his friend Steve Wozniak, he went on to create the biggest brand on planet.

Much was said about Jobs’ management style. He was once voted “one of the toughest bosses of America” (while in NeXT). But perhaps this was because he was a perfectionist. He always strived to cross boundaries of the industry norm. This was the root of his feud with Bill Gates. Jobs and Gates have always been critical of each other. Jobs disliked Microsoft as he thought they were stagnated and this was in the year 1994!!

Once ousted from his company, upon his return Jobs went on to create one of the most iconic brands of modern world. The success of i-products is unparalleled and may be to a great extent unrivaled also. Jobs at the time of death was credited for not less than 342 patents. The biggest success of Jobs however was in the endless pursuit of technological advancements. With each new product and its new versions, Apple and Jobs discovered new frontiers and every time their peers were catching up and running out of steam.

When iPad was launched I quipped to my friend that I fail to see its worth. But Jobs’ thinking was- consumers may necessarily not know what they want. It’s exactly this thinking which led him to defy the odds and every time come up with inspirational innovations. The revolutionary iPhone completely changed the mobile phones. The existing players were now completely out of sorts and the touch-technology became synonymous with iPhone.

Jobs should be credited for making complex technology appear user friendly. This was evident as even from his earlier Apple series of PCs, which were first to make use of GUI (Graphics User Interface). However, his return to ailing Apple in 1996 was beginning of a history. That was the time only Jobs could have made Apple the market leader once again but even for autocratic Jobs this was the only opportunity to leave an indelible mark in the history. In the process, his NeXT was taken over by Apple and now renowned MAC OS has all that NeXT Technology if one goes through the complex labyrinth of sophisticated technology. The generation of i-products set new parameters in personal computing industry. Apple or Jobs did not really invent music players, mobile phones, tablet PCs or even the touch technology. But they stretched the limits of technology far beyond imaginations of even the nearest rivals.

For a computer geek, ability of strong persuasiveness and shrewd marketing are rare qualities. As much as people looked forward for a launch of any product, they also wanted to listen to the keynote address of Jobs along with it. So much was the aura of the man that at the launch of iPhone 4S, one of the major attractions of launch was not the phone but an appearance of Jobs. Sadly little did we know that he was battling valiantly his lone war against pancreatic cancer (The rumored disease of Sonia Gandhi) that time. It seemed at one point of time that Jobs had successfully evaded the cancer. But this form of cancer is one of the most fatal ones. The success story of Jobs is even more touching as not only he battled a tough corporate war on day to day basis but at the same time he was fighting with cancer for seven long years.

To me personally, the crowning jewel of Jobs’ life is PIXAR. When he was ousted from Apple by his own recruits, Jobs started NeXT in 1985. In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group which was later renamed PIXAR. PIXAR completely changed animation movie making. If Walt Disney brought life in characters, PIXAR with Jobs at the helm brought those cartoon characters into our lives. Its first movie- The Toy Story – is most innovative way animation could ever be used. The characters in PIXAR movies are woven around heart touching stories. The movie list of - The Toy Story, Bugs Life, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Cars has truly bridged the gap between cartoons and humans. PIXAR was subsequently bought by Disney. Steve Jobs ended up being the biggest individual shareholder of Disney.

Always shrouded in secrecy, not much is known about his personal life. He is not much photographed with his family in public. He virtually spent his entire life within 20 mile’s area. His much awaited autobiography will definitely bring much clarity on his life and ideas. Apple has never marketed its products aggressively in India. And yet Jobs has profound connections with India. Once as a youngster, he has been to India to seek enlightenment at the ashram of Neem Karoli Baba and went back a Buddhist!! He also survived on the meals of Hare Krishna Temple for over one and half year.

A visionary scientist, a persuasive manager, a charismatic marketing genius and a cancer fighter – STEVE JOBS has left an indelible mark on the lives of most of us. If one has to compete with Isaac Newton for the title of “Mr. Apple” then that sums all really!!

RIP Steve. uTouched!!

11/10/11