Property and Money

We have seen business houses collapsing, brothers fighting brothers, we see hate where there was once love- all this for what? For property. And if you want to understand why the Ganga is polluted, you must first look at Gangotri which is the source of the Ganga. So what is the source of property? Firstly property is not a natural phenomenon, it is a cultural phenomenon. In nature, the tiger or the lion does not bequeath his territory to his children, it can only happen in Walt Disney movies. Why do we need property? At a fundamental level, we need property to ensure our survival – as a roof over our heads. We need food, clothing, shelter, a car to take us around. But property is also a source of significance. There is an emotional connection between me and my property. Bigger house equals bigger person. “Bada ghar …bada aadmi” Smaller house equals smaller person. “Chota ghar…chota aadmi” So you are valued in society based on the value of your property. It defines who you are. 

When I wear a branded shirt, I feel good about myself, so the shirt is making me feel good about myself, I don’t feel good about myself. My notion of my self-worth and self-esteem comes from my shirt. I feel good about myself when I sit in a Mercedes or a BMW and I feel terrible about myself when I have to travel in an auto rickshaw. If your self-image is poor, you depend on a brand to feel good about yourself. Actually our survival needs are very less but our needs for significance are infinite. So 1 house, 2 houses and even 20 houses are not enough. The focus is on what I have and not on what I am. 

What is the difference between a house and a home? A house is a physical structure and a home is an emotional structure. You send a child to school assuming that the school will impart values. A school will impart school values but not give home values. Values don’t come from what you are told but what you see. And when a child comes home from school what does he see. He sees that his father is not at home, he is working late to earn money and the mother is engrossed in watching soap operas. He sees that parents value money and entertainment over him. So this atmosphere at home creates a subconscious layer of belief in the growing child that money is more important than relationships. And this plays out in the future. 

My friend’s mother is 70 years old. She stays alone in a 3 bedroom apartment. She has 2 children, one in Dubai and the other in London and they send her lots of money every month. But the mother feels that her sons have abandoned her. Flashback several years ago – this mother would scream at her children and tell them that if they did not get good marks, they would not get good jobs and would not get a chance to go abroad to Dubai and London. So now the children have grown up, one is in Dubai and one is in London. So why is the mother complaining – isn’t this what she wanted? 

We live in a world full of conflict. Even the TV serials and reality shows that do not have conflict have seen their TRP ratings go down. And conflict begins when the child who has passed out from college is unemployed. We pass comments – “Are ye to kaam nahin karta – nikamma hai” “This fellow does not work – he is good for nothing”. The conflict continues even when he gets a job because then he is compared. Oh you earn only 10,000, look at so & so, he earns 15,000. Look he has gone to Dubai. So this conversation – the young man begins to realize that this is what my value is. My value is how much I have in my bank. He gets a sense that the amount of love that he will receive from his family and society will be in direct proportion to the money he has. Money has then become a currency for love. And this is most unfortunate thing to happen. 

We must realize that property is a delusion. If you get it, enjoy the delusion. If you don’t have money or property try to learn why you don’t have it. And when you learn, money will follow. Realize that money is one of the important things in life, not the most important thing in life. It is also money and not only money.

A tribute to the one and only “Venus of the Indian Screen”

Those arching eyebrows, those large, languishing brown eyes…that shy sweet smile…the full lipped mouth, the perfect nose…the delicately sensuous figure…a truly rapturous beauty and unarguably the most beautiful woman to have ever graced the Indian movie screen…Madhubala, remains to this day one of the most enduring legends of Indian cinema.
Her mischievous stare was both confiding and questioning, a look that defied the dogma that man is superior to woman. Her sheer good looks overshadowed her acting talents but her swansong…the epic movie Mughal-e-Azam showed the world what this ethereal beauty was capable of. Is it by coincidence that she was born on Valentine’s day? Whoever named her Madhubala couldn’t have done better than that; for even the name translates to honey, fragrant, spring of love.

The Fall Guys

Here's an interesting article By Rushabh

Are today's CEOs tomorrow's Fall Guys?
by Rushabh Mehta - Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 04:41 PM

Headlines across the world are rejoicing the sacking of Tony Hayward, CEO of BP. He has been tried and convicted by the mass jury comprising of media and public at large.

In February, Toyota’s President, Mr. Akio Toyoda, had to fly all the way to America to apologise in front of a congressional committee for Toyota growing too quickly and overlooking safety issues, specifically the issue of sudden acceleration in some of its vehicles. (Of the 89 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration, many now seem to be from human error).

Nokia’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, will be replaced very shortly because according to the company’s investors, Nokia as a brand has lost its meaning.

These are just three of the many examples of leaders being implicated for problems caused by the companies they lead. While CEOs and top managers do need to shoulder responsibility for any wrongs or nuisances created by their respective companies, it seems that in today’s trigger-happy world, CEOs are increasingly being attributed all the blame. Agreed, Tony Hayward did make a lot of gaffes on record, but so did George Bush. While the “Bushisms” were laughed off on late-night comedy shows, Hayward’s verbal blunders sounded his death knell.

It is common knowledge how expensive it is to replace an employee in any company today. The direct and indirect costs of finding, recruiting, training and (sometimes) relocating make “employee attrition” a feared phrase around the world. These costs multiply as we go up the employee hierarchy. Replacing CEOs costs tens, and sometimes hundreds, of millions of dollars to the companies and their shareholders. Yet, over 30% of the CEO successions in USA in 2008 were forced replacements (Booz Allen). Tony Hayward’s tenure as CEO at BP will be 3 years and 5 months in October 2010, and he will be most likely “exiled” to Siberia as a non-executive board member of TNK-BP with a severance and pension package worth millions of pounds. Bob Dudley, who had to flee from Russia as former head of TNK-BP in 2008 after disagreements with local shareholders, will now become CEO of BP.

While the media and the public demanded Hayward’s head on a platter, has this reshuffling by BP served any real purpose except help the company save some face? The real culprits – the politicians, the legislators, the companies that supplied and ran the rigs, the companies that built the safety devices, the engineers and supervisors meant to look after the safety issues, etc. are all getting away scot-free. The only good thing BP did was to wait till the oil leak was plugged before announcing Hayward’s replacement as CEO. They did not want the incoming CEO, Dudley, to end up holding an uncontrollably flaming torch that Tony Hayward supposedly lit. They probably learnt that lesson from last year’s replacement of the world’s topmost CEO – the American President. Obama is getting all the flak for the fires Bush lit before his tenure got over.

Since childhood, we have been taught to forgive and forget. We have been taught to give people a second chance. We have been taught that someone who apologises is a bigger person than someone who refuses to accept the apology. Why then do we see this archaic “off-with-his-head” attitude every time a CEO’s head pokes up from a crowd? The end result is that a CEO’s tenure gets shorter, his job gets more stressful, more corners are cut to appease stakeholders, and unbelievable amounts of money is spent in recycling the CEO position every few years. This adversely affects a CEO’s performance, and directly affects the stakeholders. If a CEO is bold enough to put his hand up and say that he is responsible, and needs time to correct the problem, why not give him a second chance? Citibank’s Vikram Pandit did that, got a second chance, and delivered on his promises.

And what happens to these laid-off CEOs? Some lie low, going into early retirement, to enjoy their fabulous severance packages. Many come out with their autobiographies, which are lapped up by the same people who criticised them. And some like Carly Fiorina run for the US Senate. At least people today forget easily, if not forgive.

- Rushabh

The Lock

The prime minister of an ancient kingdom died. It was a custom in that land to choose the wisest man in the country for that post. To this end, many were examined and three were chosen. They were sent to the capital for the final test.
When they arrived in the city, they were tense and worried, wondering what the final test would be– like any student. They asked whoever they met if they could tell them what the test was going to be; and were surprised to hear that everyone knew. The king had built a special room that was fitted with a lock that opened only with a mathematical solution. They would be kept within this room, and the first to come out, would become the prime minister.
Two from among them were very worried, but the third made straight for his room and went to
bed. The other two thought; "Maybe he has already given up!” These two ran to the shops and
bought all books that contained information on locks, and sat poring over them the whole night. They knew everything about everything but locks; for they were neither thieves nor locksmiths, nor engineers, nor politicians. They were in a fix! They made inquiries from locksmiths and mathematicians. They asked engineers; they read all night for it was a question of their future; and the sacrifice of one night’s sleep was not too great.
The third contestant got up refreshed after a good night’s rest. He washed his face, got ready and left for the palace with the others. The rumours were correct. The king took them to the house where the much-talked of lock was, and explained: "This lock opens with a mathematical figure. He who opens it first becomes my prime minister. I shall wait outside.”
The three men entered the room, and the door was closed. The one who had slept all night went
into a corner, and sat with his eyes closed. The other two laughed: "Can locks be opened by closing the eyes?” They jeered. They dismissed him for a stupid fellow, and plunged into their work. They brought out the books they had smuggled in. and began to pore over them.
As soon as the doors closed, they drew out their books. The third man sat for about half an hour.
Then he walked silently up to the door. The other two were too busy to notice him. When he reached the door, he tried the lock. Lo, it was open! All he had to do was to walk out! The king came in and told the other two to fold up their books. He had chosen his prime minister.
”The man who was to come out, has come out!” he said.
”But how could he? He had done nothing!”
”There was nothing to be done,” said the king. ”The lock was merely hung, and not fastened. I had gathered that the most intelligent of you will not first inspect whether the lock was really locked.” Before solving a problem, is it not necessary to first find out whether the problem actually exists? If it exists, it needs to be solved but if it does not, how can it be solved? This man demonstrated his wisdom. He first set out to know whether the problem existed. That is the first sign of an intelligent man.

The Confusion

When I was working for my earlier company Voltas, we had a driver called Nathan. Nathan had this uncanny habit of using a combination of Hindi and English words in any sentence. Who could have ever thought that one day; this habit of his would lead to such Confusion.
This incident took place when we were doing the Villagio Mall project. Those days we used to operate from the site office and almost the entire project team was newly recruited. We had Milind, the new mechanical engineer - Tall, dark & handsome – just like me – But no he was much taller – about 6 feet 3 inches. The driver Nathan I have already introduced in the beginning.
Then we had – Sadanand, our receptionist, a perpetually jittery character.
And last but not the least we had a new office boy. He was short guy with a very peculiar name - Mohan Kumar Limboo. Hardly anybody called him Mohan, we all loved to call him Limboo, which incidentally means lemon in Hindi.
Now, one day Milind, the tall mechanical engineer had ordered some masking tape from one of the hardware suppliers and asked Nathan, the driver to collect it. As Nathan was going out, Limboo caught hold of him and requested him to buy some bread on his way back.
Nathan reached the hardware stores & approached the salesman at the counter.
“Sir, I’m from Voltas and I’ve come to collect the masking tape.”
“Yes yes - So, which one do you want?”
“What sir?”
“I said which one do you want, white or brown?”
“I don’t know sir”
“If you don’t know then ask your sir”
“Wait sir, I call sir”
Now Nathan called up Sadanand and said
“Can I speak to Lamboo sir, please?”
Lamboo means tall in Hindi. And Sadanand probably didn’t hear him properly and instead of transferring to Milind, he promptly transferred the line to the office boy Limboo. Limboo wondered - why the hell is he calling me? I only asked him to buy bread. And Limboo answered.
“Hello”
But by this time Nathan decided not to confront his boss and gave the telephone to the salesman.
The store fellow said - “Ya, hello – which one do you want white or brown?”
“I beg your pardon?” said Limboo
“Which one do you want? White or brown?”
Limboo replied.
“Anything will do– but it should be fresh”
“Pardon sir”
“I said, It should be fresh”
The counter fellow wondered – Just look at the quality of engineers we have these days –They don’t even know proper English – using an adjective fresh to describe brand new. So he replied
“Don’t worry sir , its all brand new but do you want 35 yards or 45 yards”
Limboo was simply stunned and now he understood, Nathan was trying to pull a fast one on him, so he decided to give him a smart reply
“Whatever it is -I want a sliced one”
“Pardon sir?”
“I said, I want it to be sliced’
This was too much for the counter fellow to handle and he called his supervisor. The supervisor was annoyed.
“Why what happened – can’t you handle simple orders such as masking tape?” He grabbed the telephone and said
"Hello, who's speaking please?"
"Limboo speaking"
"Pardon me"
"Limboo speaking"
"Can I speak to Milind"
Its only when Milind spoke to the shop supervisor that this whole confusion was cleared.

This incident has taught me an important thing - Always address people by their proper names.

From Scarcity to Sufficiency

Money does not belong to us exclusively. It either belongs to all of us or to none of us. It is one of those great commons that has been created by man. Money, in fact is so much like water. In some people’s lives it flows gushing forth like a river and in others, it flows like a tiny trickle. But whether it flows like a river or a trickle, money brings opportunity. Opportunity to reallocate it for something good, for the people & for this world.

But is this happening, is the money being used for something good? Unfortunately not. Today, huge proportions of the world’s financial resources are going towards destruction, depletion, war, terrorism, weaponry and consumption. And who wants all this?, not me, not you, nobody wants it. All of us want money to move towards what we love, towards life, towards the affirmation of life, for the well being of our species and our planet and our habitat.

So what is stopping you and me from achieving this? It is our mindset of scarcity. All the time we think that things are not enough and so we end up in trying to accumulate more and more, just like tyrants. And when we become busy in scrambling for more and more, we fail to notice & appreciate and nourish what we already have. We have reduced ourselves from citizens to consumers. A consumer consumes, destroys, depletes. And a citizen is somebody who creates, who contributes, who gives. So how can we become citizens once again? It’s quite simple really. All you have to do is use your imagination. For a moment, imagine that there is no scarcity, there is enough for everyone and you will soon realize that actually it is true there is really no scarcity. Our needs are always met one way or the other, and often by ways that we never expected.

This journey from scarcity to sufficiency can be accomplished if you stop trying to get more and more of what you don’t really need. And when you stop this unnecessary accumulation, the result is that it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you already have. When you make that difference, then whatever you do whether it is social work, volunteering, philantrophy, whatsoever little you do, it multiplies, expands, increases. In simple words, what you appreciate, appreciates.

There are 6 ways to begin this journey from scarcity to sufficiency.

1. Get the clutter out of your life.
2. Don’t buy unless you can let go of something.
3. Practice appreciation for what you already have.
4. Learn to value intangible gifts much more than tangible gifts.
5. Nourish your body instead of filling it.
6. Whenever you spend money, ask yourself how is it going to affect the world.

Remember - Scarcity breeds competition, sufficiency breeds collaboration. We all have a duty to perform. We have to carry out the sacred work of reallocating the world resources away from fear and greed and move them towards love and compassion. And the only way to do that is by changing our mindset. Changing it from scarcity to sufficiency.

The humanist mystic

The Sufi poet, philosopher & humanist, Bulleh Shah left behind some writings, which seem to transcend time. The sheer simplicity with which he has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of why he appeals to so many. Here’s a small couplet which is in Punjabi & then its English translation.

Padh padh ilm hazaar kitaabaan
Qaddi apnay aap nou padhiya naee
Jaan jaan wadhday mandir maseedi
Qaddi mann apnay wich wadhiya naee
Aa-vain ladhda aye shaitan de naal bandeaa
Qaddi nafss apnay naal ladhiya naee

Yes, yes, you have read thousands of books
But you have never tried to read your own self
You rush in, into your temples, into your mosques
But you have never tried to enter your own heart
Futile are all your battles with Satan
For you have never tried to fight your own selfish egocentric desires