Life : Race with a marble on a spoon

Speech by Chetan Bhagat (Founder of CRISIL) at Symbiosis

Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced
means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable
if your mind is full of tensions.

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no
point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your
life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. ……………….

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are
like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need
to get so worked up? …………….

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your
spouse. We are people, not programmed devices..... ...." :)

Start your day with a smile

42 crore crown for God, Mr Reddy !! Are you crazy !

Just about a day ago, I read a story about the Karnataka tourism Minister Mr Gali Janardhan Reddy is donating a crown worth 42 crores to Balaji. Something did not seem right to me. I tried reading a little more detail about Mr. Minister.

I am not a atheist. But I fail to understand Mr Reddy, 42 crore crown for God ? What is it worth for ? To me its a pile of precious metal sitting in some secure locker in a bank . For people who do not know, Mr Reddy is a mining baron in Bellary, one of the poorest place in India. The reality is people in Bellary do not have enough money to make both ends meet. Children work in mines. No school. Not enough drinking water for everyone. These are the very people who elected (though I am not convinced, he was actually elected) Mr Reddy to the assembly. And he in turn donanted the 42 crore crown to the God. And Mr Reddy believes God actually made him the MLA.

In detail, the crown is made up of 32 kg of pure gold, 70,000 diamonds weighing 4000 carats, and a 890 carat African imported emerald. In contrast I am wondering, how many crores Mr Reddy had donated to any hospital which treats the very people who get hurt in his mines and get treatment in a hospital ? Has he ever imported some life saving drugs for the very people who actually toil in his mines to make on an average of $2 per day for a 5 member family to feed. Let alone get treatment. Let alone sending their children to schools.

What a blatant scathing display of superficial devotion to God who actually have never understood the pain of people from his own constituency. Haven't we learnt anything from the greatest philanthropists like Mr John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffet, William Robert Gates Jr ? People from foreign countries donate money to control AIDS, treat malaria, construct schools in India. And so called our very democratically elected rulers donate a pile of precious metals to temples. Are we are boasting of roughly 50% of our population being in their 30s or 40s and have at least a bachelors degree to their credit. NASSCOM boasts itself being the foremost organization of the India's flagship IT supremacy in the world. The world regards India as a fastest growing economy in south east Asia.

I believe it would be fair to say, we have not grown with this culture of giving. How many of our celebrities actually involve themselves in a humanitarian activity ? Shahrukh Khan and Mr Bachchan are super stars because the average rickshaw puller in a poor dirty potholed city sheels out atleast 10 rupees to buy a cinema ticket to boost the overall box office collection of the so called superstars. But I never heard Mr Bachchan or Mr Khan donating some money to any hospital or any NGO for that matter. I am not saying its only the Bachchans or the king khan.

The Ambanis, the Premjis, the Mittals are continuously in the Forbes list of most wealthy billionaires. Apart from occasional charities, I have not heard them doing anything for the country. Instead the Ambanis build "international schools" for the richie riches of Mumbai. How many schools they have built for people who can not afford to send their kinds to govt funded schools because they don't want let go the daily wage of the child worker who feed the big family.
Mr Mittal flys his guests to a french castle for his daughters wedding, treats them to imported wines, imports flowers from Thailand for the decoration, but how many malaria vaccines he has supplied to the poor in India. Doesn't it sound embarrassing to call himself an celebrated Indian in front of the world ?

Mr Reddy, Mr Carnegie or Mr Rockefeller were also religious. They would have had probably built a gold coated church for Jesus if they had wanted to. But instead, they donated there entire wealth to the human cause. And rightly so Bill Gates and Warren Buffets have committed all , yes all of their wealth to human cause. Sure, we Indians boast of a rich history, rich cultural heritage. Sure, we claim education started in Nalanda and we invented the Zero. Sure we did. But we still lack in the education of loving a human being. We can donate 42 crores to a temple, but we fail to pay the right wage to the workers who spend their entire life making us rich.

I understand, corruption is everywhere. Greed is human nature. Show off is the other side of man's pride. But are we forgetting we are humans after all? The most intelligent species on earth. Are we forgetting, 45% of Indians still make under $1 per day and can not pay for a decent meal every day ? Are we forgetting a large number of our children can not afford school even today when we are announcing to the world that our GDP grows at 9% per year?

Mr Reddy, I believe you have the common sense to understand that you have just donated the 32kg Gold to the God who already holds tonnes of Gold in HIS locker which to my opinion does not even save one life and saves one children childhood. However, the donation surely gave you a place in history as the highest donor to the temple. But you should know, 42 crore would have actually opened a couple of schools, feed thousand hungry stomachs, saved some lives from AIDS and malaria. That would have been the right donation. That would have made you the real devotee in front of God.

I still have hope that we will learn from lives of Baba Amte and the like and someday understand the true worth of being a human being after all.

The CEC who is going out !

I dont know Mr G Gopalaswami. There is nothing you can find about him in the Internet. There is nothing good you could find in the Indian national news papers. The Times of India never ran any story on his work in the CEC or before. Not a single national newspaper in fact ran any story on his achievements in CEC or before. However, I see him as another TN Seshan who has been taken out before he could do any damage to any vested interest of our old vile politicians and particularly the Congress party. Before we go into this discussion, let me tell you, I am affiliated to any political party or any political establishment. That noway means I am not interested in politics. I am as interested as any young educated and old uneducated Indian would be. I am very much interested in politics. I was really enthusiastic in the last general election when a lot of Harvard, Oxford, IIT/IIM educated people jumped into the fray. I agree they did have good intentions. Everyone was looking towards a fast developing India and was a part of it. What happened to the Jindal, the Pilot, the Deora ?? Well, they became one of the run-of-the-mill politician listening to their parents or political mentors and see and only see how they benefit. Part of the blame goes to them and part of the all of the blame goes to the so called political mentors. But I have not lost hope. If Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav can think about the country and do something which has been appreciated all over the world, then I am sure, India will see the day. For sure.. 

Coming back to the Mr Gopalaswamy story we were discussing. We all sensible people know how the national establishments like the CBI, the CEC, the other improtant cabinet positions has been politicized. Its not new that these positions are politicized. They always were. But this time, the so generous Mrs Sonia Gandhi ( I really do not like she calls herself as Gandhi !!) has even politicized the post of the President of India. She connived to replace Mr Kalam who was much more eligible for the ultimate position than the Mrs Patil . (No offence, but I am not able to control my anger). So now, when Mr Gopalaswamy spoke against the establishment and tried to reveal the wrong doings of the Govt, he was thrown out like the Mr Seshan, Mr Kalam and so many others who have met the same fate. Now the puppet CEC who is a slave of the congress party will serve as the CEC and he will be rewarded for his allegiance for his loyalty for Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Shame Mr Chawla. You are much more efficient than the loyal Gandhians. Do something which you promised to do when you joined the elite group of administrators. 

Although, I never objected to Mrs Sonia Gandhi being in active politics in India and never questioned her so called foreign-ness, I am in two-minds now. What does she want ; Really !!. Where is she leading the country ? Is she even eligible to lead ? No doubt she is the president of the Congress party. Make no mistake , the very people who brought her in and the people like the Mr Mukherjee and Mr Singh and so on. The very people who never won an election and have been in the helm of affairs in the country just because they undoubtedly worshipped the Gandhis. And they were aptly rewarded. Otherwise we would never have had a home minister like Shivraj Patil. I dont know if he has ever completed his bachelors degree. No kidding.. 

Anyway, people like Mr Gopalaswamy who are the real people who can change something are shown the doors ! All I can do is wish him best of luck for his future and thank him for his selfless service to the country.

Indian Govt and 26/11

Sounds like a terrorist agenda I am forming here , isnt it ?

No, I love my country as much as any patriotic India does.

However, this is not same for our ministers and judges and other

so called government functionaries who are there to suck the tax payer money

and give interviews.. Oh yes, make statements like "I wont celebrate my birthday".

After the 26/11 attack on Indian financial capital, all we have seen is rhetoric and more

rhetoric. India threatening to do this and do that. They understand the Indian goverement more than anybody. In fact, there has been instances where ministers are linked to taking money to assist in terrorist attackes. Hmm. Sounds like a bollywood movie plot. but that the truth my friends !!. This time, the only shift I have seen is the PMO and the foreign ministry giving a little more audacious comments compared to usual ones. I know they wont do anything, but for the sake of it, atleast saying it.

So why I say we need one more attack ! Thats because it will take just one more attack for common people to take matter to their hands and do something about it because I think we should present bangles to our ministers for their valor in front of camera.

So one more attack to get the dead spirit awakened and bring out a revolution !! Enough is enough.

I know it leads to some more common people dying but are not they dying now itself in vain. Preciosu lives of people are taken for nothing. And our president is doing world tour with tax payers money !! So why not some more blood for a good cause. We need to listen to our imortal leaders like Netaji Subhash Chanda Bose. You need to shed some blood for peace. That is the truth. And it will take one more attack for Indians to realize that they need to save their own ass. No govt, atleast not the congress govt will do anything for them.

So sorry guys, if I have been so brazen, but thats what I mean !! I am just waiting for the day when people will understand violence will only lead to more violence. And at the same time, you should not tolerate injustice towards the helpless.