Corruption - Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way

Hey all, after a long break - i have come up with a blog here. Hope it serves you all with some food for thought

Corruption - is probably the most talked about topic all over India right now. One usually understands when a topic becomes a hot potato amongst people - when everybody has a opinion on it. Everyone you meet tends to give gyaan about corruption. Most of us i feel dont understand the root cause for corruption

Corruption in very literal terms means deviation from ideal. Deviation from moral grounds is generally attributed as corruption. One thing people fail to understand is - in India, people want corruption. Ya, you read it right !!! But the root cause of this kind of behavior i feel is somewhere else. Its in our upbringing, its in our way of living. We, Indians from childhood have been made to believe that - it's ok to cheat if you are looting the government. Do check the income tax rates in 70s and 80s - its mind-blogging.

Tax rates in India How has personal taxation evolved in India?  If one were to look at the table on personal income tax rates in India, the trend is quite shocking. Imagine those who lived in the seventies paid up to 93% of their income in taxes! And to think of it, we complain that we pay high taxes. Anyway, with the continuous rationalization of tax rates, India is only moving closer to global standards when it comes to tax rates. Year Exemption limit (Rs) Number of Rates Entry  Rate (%) Peak  Rate (%) Peak rate income (Rs) 1949-50 1500 4 4.69 25 15000 1955-56 2000 5 4.93 26.25 15000 1960-61 3000 7 3.15 26.25 20000 1970-74 5000 11 11 93.5 200000 1974-75 6000 8 13.2 77 70000 1980-81 8000 8 15 66 100000 1985-86 18000 4 25 50 100000 1990-92 22000 4 20 56 100000 1995-96 40000 3 20 40 120000 1997-98 40000 3 10 30 150000 1998-99 50000 3 10 30 150000 1999-00 50000 3 10 33 150000 2000-01 50000 3 10 35.1 150000 2001-02 50000 3 10 30.6 150000 2002-03 50000 3 10 31.5 150000 2003-04 50000 3 10 30 150000 2004-05 50000 3 10 30 150000 2005-06 100000 3 10 30 250000 2006-07 100000 3 10 30 250000 Source: Report of the Task Force July 2004, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India

Its root cause has been the demand-supply mismatch in India, children are taught from childhood to grab as much as they can whenever the opportunity arises. We always have been looking for loopholes in the system to exploit them & get special treatment. The problem here is people seem to forget all the moral high grounds they talk about, when the law or moral issues rest on them for closure.

One more problem in India is people respect a person even more if he can evade the authorities & break the laws without any casualty. One's status is estimated by the amount of laws one can break to suit it's own convenience. Everyone would like to have a friend who has contacts in administration, police, politics etc. This allows one to bend the rules/laws - in a sense to receive special treatment.  How often you have seen some person brag about breaking rules & going scot-free in a social conversation? - I bet many times

I can give you many examples:- Tax Evasion - very normal phenomena in India, Govt. tenders, Crime scenes - trying to save your near or dear one from prosecution etc etc. The list can go on and on. 

Its so much a part of our daily routine for e.g. - in chennai - its normal to have yourself looted by rickshaw-walas.  The attitude now in chennai is very simple in case of rickshaws - dont focus on fighting with them, try to negotiate. This tedency to accept immoral behavior as normal & to start negotiating is from where the problem starts. Take one more example - If you are caught by a traffic police - you would like to get away with minimum casualty - negotiate - promote corruption. We all (at least most of us) are part of these promotional activities in India. 

There has always been a two-prong strategy to control any kind of morally inappropriate behavior - carrot (incentive) & stick (punishment) approach. The problem with India is the carrot available for staying away from corruption is not juicy enough and on the other hand the stick is not powerful enough for people who do indulge in immoral behavior. For the matter of fact aspiring for the carrot in this case can lead to severe stick beatings - because no one wants a honest and morally sound person in the system of dishonest & immoral people. Here also a simple funda is followed for indulging in corruption - "Lead, follow or get out of the way"

I am not trying to lead a fight against corruption here, just trying to create a more clearer picture for all of you to ponder over this hot topic - "Corruption".

Do let me know your thoughts on this topic.. comments are welcome...

Placements - One which covers entire human psychology

Yes, friends i m back with my new blog, after a long time & this time the topic is "Placements".
Placements is a season which brings along all colours in the human psychology - happiness, sorrow, hatred, frustration, anger, pity, gossiping, satisfaction etc.... there are hundreds of such words - each one itself can be a topic of a new blog.

What am goona talk about in this blog -  specifically is the relative comparison which one makes with others.
Put in very simple words, questions which come in our mind during & after placement season--
How can he/she get through such an such job ?? - I am much better than him/her...
Why is my package lesser than his/her ?? - This is injustice..
These are just few examples of the hundreds of comparative questions which one tries to find answers for.

When I entered NITIE, I was introduced with two phrases "the" placement & "a" placement. It was really fascinating to understand the meaning of the two phrases. "the" placement in essence suggested a placement, profile & most importantly package which is a cut above the rest of the peers competing with you. "a" placement in contrast led to a indication of a placement which every tom, dick & harry can achieve, nothing to be proud about.

Now lets take an exercise..
Suppose God becomes very happy with you & comes down to the earth & gives you two options to choose from...

Option 1:- Jobs with US$ 75,000 dollar salary for you & two of your best friends in USA
Option 2:- Job with US$ 50,000 salary for you, & US $25000 salary for two of your best friends (All in USA)
Which option will you choose ?? Option 1 where all can be happy at the same salary or Option 2 where you are at an advantage over your friends.

Take your pick.. I dont want to get your answers on this... just asked your choice to stimulate thought process.

If you remember the film "3 idiots" - it had a scene which actually describes peer pressure - Dost fail ho jaye to dukh hota hai, lekin dost 1st aajaye to jyada dukh hota hai.. :)

Believe me, the plight of being recognized as a person with "a" placement can be really really painful, especially if most of your peers has secured "the" placement. You suddenly fall off the cliff; cliff which is built on confidence, belief in one's ability & most importantly knowledge. Life seems to be useless, one feels quite a loser which has lost a big race on the back of high expectations. Frustration creeps in to the system which further detoriates once performance. Its a viscous circle, one circle which is difficult to break if one goes the wrong way.

On the other side of the coin, the person with "the" placement starts oneself on a streak of spirutality - where he/she tries to pacify each of the people who have secured "a" placement. He/She will try to decorate "a" placement such that it should look like "the" placement. He/She will become very humble & try to make you understand that all is not lost.. & its just a bad phase in the life.

Its all human behavior friends, i am sure all of you have experienced these situations & emotions, may be not in your life but in lives of others. The point of the matter in this discussion is the pressure one feels after securing "a" placement. No matter how many sugar-coated words are supplied to the bitter heart of a person with "a" placement, it will leave behind the scars may be small, but will be there.

Now the big question which arises how can one use these scars to its advantage.
One very simple solution - become a monk - become free from love of wordly things, it will make you a person who doesnt care of the peers. He is satisfied with what he has. I surely think most of the people in the present age.. will try this thing but will end up fooling oneself. Therefore instead of fooling oneself why not become bold & accept that greedy feeling inside & make it a point to score a cut above the rest.

This leads to the second option, use the scars as a burning fuel & catalyst to future growth. Learn from mistakes & improve on them, competition always brings out the best in a person. Satisfaction will inturn stop creativity & would create roadblocks for innovation. This type of gyaan can go on & on, but my feeling is you have already understood what i am trying to convey, so i would not waste my energy & bombard you with great statements which you will skip anyway :P

In this blog, i have said nothing new, everything was known implictly to most of you, but i felt its necessary to make it explicit once in a while. Would love to hear your comments on this topic... thanks for patient reading.. :)

Music - The Stress Buster

That soothing sound into the ears, which releases all the pressure & makes the body sway in it's rhythm - that's nothing else but Music.

Sangeet - is the hindi word for the same.. which seems to be more than appropriate for the fabulous art.. which rules lives of millions across the world.

No wonder that music has a long history to back its importance & significance.

Stress, strain & problems - everybody has its own share in them. May it be a school-going child or college teenager or working adults or distressed housewives or alienated elderly... no-one is isolated from the daily issues & problems of life. Its much appropriate to say.. that the person without any stress is hard to find in this materialistic world.

As one always needs a pain-relieving balm for all physical problems, one also needs something for relieving the accumulated stress. Some people tend to turn towards drinking.. which does nothing but to slow down your mental processing.. which in turn then is not able to process any stress.. and hence drinking acts as an stress reliever. But one also needs to be aware of the repercussions of excessive drinking.

Music can & does act as an excellent stress buster & reliever. It has been proved in many researches that music acts as an pain-relieving balm for the mind. No wonder music has been acting as an primary source of entertainment for centuries now. It is also known that rather than listening to music, playing any small instrument.. acts as a even better stress-killer.

There are different forms of music which people follow & like.. youngsters like foot-tapping & ground-shaking music, while most of working class like music with much of melody & rhythm. All of it boils to relieving oneself from worldly issues. One forgets all problems & stress.. while listening to one's favourite music. No wonder i-pods have managed to cuddle the music loving fraternity with enormous success.

Imagine if the world goes silent for sometime.. no honking vehicles, no noise pollution, no construction activity, no sound at all from any man made source.. then what we will be able to hear would be smooth.. sounds of nature.. chirping birds, free-flowing wind clashing with every other obstruction in front of it, waves of the sea fighting for space with the onshore rocks... in short we will hear nature.. expressing itself. Imagine the relief & refreshing which one is able to experience in nature's music.

Would request all of people reading this blog, to turn to music for stress relief rather than pursuing other methods. Music will help you get out of your problems & stress-burdened life & sooth your senses..

People do drop in with your comments & stress-relieving ideas you follow in your personal life.. seriously give it a thought.. what is it in your daily routine. that u pursue to relieve stress ???

Work - One Thing which never ends

Work - its an unusual type of thing. Its importance is diluted once there is more of it & on flip side its importance becomes clearer when there is none of it.

Most of people reading this blog will agree to the fact that I am & always be an workaholic. The basic point is I cannot stay unoccupied or in other words I like myself busy.

Straight of Engineering college, i joined Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd. - a leading Oil & Gas Services provider.

As you all know, with the first job, everyone generally wants to create an impression on the operations of the company. The only goal in mind is to make oneself indispensable. There are many factors which work together in creating this behavior - can be family issues, peer pressures, market conditions or self esteem.

Family Issues - making money is important, but in this case making money every month is even more important.

Peer Pressures - People from peer group are moving ahead & creating impressions - no one likes one's own friend moving faster than he/she himself is. Thats the truth.. .. ya.. believe me.. !!! - its human tendency.

Market Conditions - As observed last year, with bad market conditions everybody in the industry wants to hold on what one has in hand

Self Esteem - Very few people are motivated by this factor.. but believe me.. these are the people one should look upto. These people feel low or incompetent.. if they are not able to solve a problem on hand.. they strive for excellence - as baba Ranchoddas would say :)

A combination of the above mentioned factors or in some cases overdose of a single factor.. creates a mindset for the burning desire for making oneself "indispensable" in the organization.

Same was the case with me when i had joined Schlumberger, i used to work like hell.. even on weekends.. :(

I had a strange mentality at that point of time, i used to think,... "Yeh thoda sa baaki hai.. chalo kar lete hai - finish karte hai - kaam khatam karte hai"

This continued for quite some time.. & there are side effects also... personal life, social life.. & fitness.. all tend to get secondary attention..

I remember a quote of one of my mentors - he used to say..

"Age of 18-30, is a fountain of energy & one is always oozing with the same.. In this period, one's body can handle all kinds of stresses & lack of attention.. it wont complain.. but once you cross 30.. the same body tends to play a foul game & starts interfering with your normal life"

How true is that.. i have seen real life examples.. after age of 30, most of professionals end up with blood pressure, diabetes or cholesterol problems. Its all the result of crimes which one preforms on the body during the golden period - age of 18 to 30.

Remember one thing... "Khud khatam ho jaaoge.. kaam khatam nahi hoga" - "One's own self will get finsihed.. but work will never be finished"

There are some cases like me,, who on a sunday.. when there is no work.. take up writing a blog as a work... :P

But still take time off to do things which u like.. i like writing blogs... i take time out for the same..

As an experienced candidate from industry.. an advice to all the people joining the corporate world.. please take care of yourself - strike a work-life balance.. at least strive for it..

Take out time from your busy schedule.. now being a manager.. focus on smart work rather than hard work..

Please do drop in with your comments.. your tips & techniques for maintaining Work-life balance... :)