Self-Help for the helpless

Of late, I've been reading self-help books. No problem finding them around every corner these days, since they breed like veritable rabbits. Some are what I would term as very me-too: basically a clever distillation of things said before, masked with the chicanery of words. But now and again, once hits a gem. Something that changes your perspective,... or at least shifts it subtly enough for you to be able to comprehend a little bit more that you did before. In the end - comprehension leads to awareness, and I am assuming that that is the end-goal.

But there is a deeper question emerging: and it has something to do with the context of a life. I'll quote from Hawking, who said that we are an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. Or think about the new ring of Saturn discovered recently (not really new then, is it!) - one so large that it would take a billion earths to fill it. The point I'm trying to make is that - life itself is a mere blip on the horizon of the universe / eternity, depending on the scale you choose. So what then, sets me apart from the illiterate scratching his head next to a dried up well in a remote Indian village with no electricity? Way I see it - the only thing that will separate us when we both buy the proverbial farm, will be that I will have eaten a couple of hundred more hamburgers than him, had a google account, watched Christina Aguilera reach #1 being Dirty, and paid a fortune to be insulted by attractive flight attendants on economy class. Get my point?

My wife says that the difference is that life experience makes me (or those of us in economy class etc..) more aware. And the more aware we are, the better choices will all shall make. Well, some of us at least. (Is that a groan I hear from Mr Woods?)

Nevertheless, will anyone remember my name when I am gone? And why is that important at all, since I will at best be cosmic cow-dung by then.

I'll let you know when I get the answer.

Waking up Sid

Methinks Ayan Mukherji (like what they have done to his name) is quite the dude. I came out from watching 'Wake Up Sid' feeling that he's done a capital job of romanticising Bombay - sorry, Mumbai - in the eyes of all and sundry. Sure, the monsoons are great, it has the dreams that stuff is made of, ... all fine. But in the end, the point didn't really hit home,... that is if there was one. I was reading one of the reviews, which said that rather than a story, it was more a slice of life. Very apt, I thought. Mind you, the slice was very well made. Ranbir and Konkona show us how it's done, and the cameo roles are nice too. And sometimes, the pathos was so stark it hit you in the face: like the scene where Ranbir tells her he is about to leave and go home... her utter desolation at the thought of her impending loneliness, almost like losing a mate (well, not mate yet!). She's the real deal.
The shots of Mumbai brought back memories - a mixed bag of allsorts that creeps up on you unawares whilst you are watching, and clings to your t-shirt like a piece of velcro when you leave the theatre. A warm and fuzzy movie - overall. Now - go watch.

I need a bath now.

The leadership ethos

CNBC ran a very successful set of interviews with accomplished business leaders from across a wide spectrum on industry: names included Indra Nooyi, Carlos Ghosn, Aditya Mittal, Ronald Cohen and Sergio Marchionne. All venerable names, held in the highest esteem in international business circles amongst peers. I bought the 2-set dvd, thinking it would be a catch-all silver bullet that I could take with a glass of water and a dispirin, to wake up in the morning and discover that I had turned into a jargon-spewing behemoth with a private jet parked in my modest back garden. Not so... but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. £10 well spent.

These men (and women) had one thing in common: drive, an eye for talent, and decisiveness. But what pretty much jumped off the screen whilst I was watching, was their conviction and belief in what they were doing, and the energy that backed that up. I'd like to make reference here to a now-famous speech from the movie "The Recruit", when Al Pacino (who else!) was addressing Colin Farrell's class of rookies, at The Farm (CIA -speak for rookie-school). He asked a question: "Why are you here...?" And he went on to puncture any notions the befuddled recruits may have had about money,fame or sex as potential motives for joining the CIA. And then he made that statement: We are here because we believe... right over wrong, good over evil etc etc. Sure, corny stuff, you may say. But think about this: the money-fame-sex thing definitely holds for the guys in C-suits. And for some, perhaps that's an end in itself. But for a few - I think it's because they believe. And in this case, they believe they are making a difference, a change for good that will fundamentally alter the way we conduct our lives - whether it's driving cars, making steel or drinking juice. Sometimes, that belief gets clouded and they start believing their own publicity, and you end up with a Bernie Ebbers or a Ken Lay. Very often, they start preaching what they don't believe.

But for the cautious few, it's a straight and narrow path laced with touch decisions, intense scrutiny, failure (at times), hard work a responsibility for the lives of his/her employees, and the customers who trust you enough to buy your product. That's a responsibility - just like bringing the news to the masses, or making food or preaching a sermon. And the smart ones are the ones who do it for the right reasons.

What's your reason?

The battle of the Bulge-bracket

Amidst an economy that threatens to shrink to miniscule proportions - possibly rivalling the earlier dresses worn by one Christina Aguilera for some of her videos - the average oaf on the street (self included) is quietly wondering how we got here in the first place. And just when you thought it was safe to go back into the multiplexes again - they hit you with a double whammy: Swine flu, and Wolverine. Apparently, one is a brain-numbing, highly contagious affliction that leaves you devoid of normal bodily functions after you've been through it, whilst the other is a new strain of fever. Leads one to wonder - SWINE FLU... just how exactly does one get swine flu? Mouth to mouth resuscitation with pigs? As if AIDS wasn't bad enough.

In other news, Barack Obama has completed his first 100 days in office, and promptly declared that he is not a miracle worker. Yeah - like we didn't see that one coming! And as the US economy limps back to a crossroads where no doubt other horrors (beginning with prime lending) will begin unleashing themselves upon it, one wonders if the news channels would do people a service and just report something 'nice' for a change.