Do what you think is right ?

I am not a frequent blogger, but I always wanted to be. Need to build some discipline around it. So what brought me back. In the early days, had posted a one-line blog titled 'Do what is Right'. For very long I didn't find anyone practicing this. However a couple of things happened in quick succession and here I am. 

The CEO of the company I used to offer my services for, did two things which brought cheers and hope. We were debating the introduction of two new products. Obviously, I wouldn't name given professional confidentiality. Many arguments were being put in favor and against both. He came back thundering that it doesn't really matter which is tough to implement or what RHQ or HQ thinks, whether it's acceptable to them or not - but think 'what is right for the company'. Align your thoughts accordingly without any bias of ease-to-implement. For a min, there was a deafening silence. Something like this had landed on our ears after a very long time. It had the desired effect. 

Was this a one-off incident...and I was very delighted to be proven wrong on this. We were deciding about a candidate, who had sent in his acceptance to our offer, albeit a bit late. We had certain constraints around hiring. We could have technically said no to him ...but again the CEO put in a question for the team..... do what is right....not willing to tread the path of technicalities, escape and look good to RHQ. It was very heartening to demonstrate within our spheres with full integrity to do what is right. 

On the fictional side, I happened to see 'Shaurya' *ing Rahul Bose, KK, Javed Jaffrey, and Minissa Lamba which had similar overtones. I loved it. Two close friends pitted against each other as prosecution and defense attorneys. One of them was deeply indebted to the other due to various favors he has sought. He landed in a situation where he could stay quiet and could have helped the other, something the friend wanted or hoped for. But he chose not to. He did what was expected of him, his professional and personal duty and what was right. The best part is without truly jeopardizing the friendship. I have been in a similar situation in my professional life where I have been on the Sales side whereas my very close buddy was my Risk counterpart. Without ever compromising, we did what was right, in the process ending up fighting on deals...but the friendship was intact...in fact, the bond grew firmer and the foundation grew stronger. 

Maybe it's more a coincidence. I also happened to buy a DVD of 'Halla Bol'. Halla Bol is a street cry, used by street theatre artists to convey issues of importance - socially relevant, current happenings, malaise in public life, issues threatening the national fabric, etc at times requiring mass consciousness by creating awareness amongst them. Off late people have responded leading to a public movement, the most recent being the Jessica Lall murder. Here again, the protagonist, who temporarily strays, comes back to the path of righteousness, given his strong roots and upbringing on the principle of 'do what is right'. Obviously, the path was shown by his Guru. It's tough, it's painful, it's full of thorns but it's immensely satisfying to the soul. 

I really believe that we do have 'Raja Harishchandra's' amongst us and within us. We are answerable to Supreme power and more than that we are answerable to ourselves. For the latter's sake  'Do what is Right'.

Reflections in pandemic times!

As Fall sets in and leaves don beautiful pastel shades of red and yellow before turning crisp to detach themselves - the finale performance act of the season by Nature is a timely reminder for us to take a pause and reflect on the year gone by.  Reflection is a very empowering and fulfilling process irrespective of the time of the year and infinitely more so when we have been wrecked by the pandemic.

The Corona pandemic has taken away the lives and livelihoods of millions, pushed them into poverty eroding all the gains made over multiple decades. While the economic impact attracts more attention, the social and mental impact has been worse. Continued isolation due to stringent lockdowns, no social get-togethers, birthdays, anniversaries, vacation breaks with friends, working from home, no team or client meetings, etc. almost no social engagement in any form has created unbearable pressure on our minds. Homo Sapiens, the social animal, has been confined to the four walls and is progressively slipping into the ‘cave’ syndrome. With the possibility of multiple Covid waves, there is no end date per se, the psychological pressure thus created is beginning to take its toll. We can see the reaction in the form of defiance to rules and protests. In some cases, Governments not wanting to lose their political capital, have given up and left it to the citizenry. Does this mean we are in the throes of permanent structural damage? 

The world has witnessed pandemics before but nothing this widespread or of this scale.  It has stood testimony to events of similar impact, not necessarily referring to previous pandemics alone, but calamitous events of significance, and in this blog, I plan to draw lessons from these and extrapolate to help us navigate the emotionally complex situation currently we find ourselves into. Going telescopically back in time, into the Greek and Roman civilization, and taking a leaf from a generation of practicing philosophers of the time down to events from the past century, we have a lot of wisdom. We can also look to practitioners, survivors of catastrophic events, or revolutionists who were confined to solitary imprisonment for years.  Picking up wisdom from them and reflecting would be more fulfilling, allowing us to embrace the continuing uncertainty and prepare for it at the same time. I am certain it will calm our minds and help us to withstand the impending storm. It will also allow us to acknowledge, appreciate and value things that we took for granted and hopefully keep it that way when it gets better. My final hope from this blog is that it will help us reflect in connecting with our lives which we were losing to the maddening pace and make us humbler and kinder human beings.

With awful stillness around us, for the majority, our minds have been running on overtime mode, and in the process raising more questions than finding answers. I can certainly bet that most ruminations must be philosophical in nature. These questions always existed and were always meant to be asked but the rat race didn’t allow us to do so or if I may dare to say that we were trying to find an escape from answering these uncomfortable questions by knowingly indulging in the rat race. The accompanying action did not leave much time and space. Therefore the current pause, despite its tormenting origin, has afforded us much-needed time to think about what we take granted as 'normal'? What is truly important in life/to us? What is life? What is the nature of our existence? What is the meaning and purpose of life? Is it only material or something beyond that, something more meaningful? How much do we truly need to live? What is ethical and moral to do? and how did we fare against our own moral standards? or did we conveniently overlook at the expense of the weak and poor? For e.g., is hoarding of food and essentials by who can afford (read us) ethical? When facing a shortage of beds, ventilators, medicine, oxygen, etc., who should be saved first, elders or kids or who is in the queue or those who can afford it? Plus many more questions that you and I have. The mixed emotions of uncertainty, anxiety, stress and fear brought about by the pandemic have forced us to ask the very same existential questions which philosophers have been exploring for centuries. We can benefit from their wisdom. Another positive fall-out of this exercise is that pondering on these questions makes all of us philosophers.

In this expedition, I gravitate towards people who have lived it like us and are not of the preacher kind. Giving ‘gyan’ to others without having to live through the constraints of real life, is simpler stuff. It was therefore natural for me to gravitate towards Aurelius, the last in the illustrious list of Stoics whose timeless philosophy and wisdom continue to be the north star to this day and guide us to sail through these tempestuous conditions safely. The lineage of Stoics is much longer and each a school unto themselves, I anchor myself the most with Aurelius because in him we have a real person, in flesh and blood, who was able to reflect and practice while living with real-world responsibilities and challenges. He was King of the largest and most influential empire of the time, was under constant attack from enemies (majority of his notes are from the war-front), was faced with a raging plague-pandemic which killed millions of people and likely him as well, and was challenged with the rise of Christianity as a religion. Despite kingly responsibilities and all-out assaults, he was able to reflect and practice. In fact, most of his reflections were from the war-front. There are many texts including religious which have similar lessons for us, but they are mostly mythical or coming from preachers, with the onus on others to follow, whereas Aurelius wrote for himself.

The crux of his reflections and answer to most questions I asked before lies in the practice of ‘Virtue’, the highest good. Not the dictionary meaning but as Stoics defined it - Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Justice. It has the capacity to respond to all situations we face and gain what we seek - love, honor, reputation, happiness… Be good...Do good. He reflects, “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.” Going further, “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, Be one.” His philosophy is rooted in Action over Words to achieve a fulfilled life, akin to Karma in Hindu philosophy. “Live a good life. If there are Gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are Gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no Gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” A life led in harmony with nature and the universe leads to happiness.  Many a time unhappiness stems from the fact that, per us, someone said or did something wrong. Instead of finding fault with others, “whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”  Drawing parallels in Indian Philosophy, Kabir Saheb, the philosopher-poet had similar wisdom for us in his doha (couplet), “When I went out in search of the rogue, I did not find any. But when I searched within, I realized I am the worst of all”. Therefore, I believe that acting justly, even in most adverse times, is the path to happiness, “If it is not right do not do it, if it is not true do not say it.” As a citizen of one cosmic city, doing well for humanity and appreciating what one has is the way to live. That’s the answer to anxiety, fear, stress -  the feelings we are experiencing amidst the pandemic. These feelings get exacerbated when; a) we think too much about the future and; b) measure ourselves based on others' opinions. During the beginning of the pandemic, I too was completely capsized by the former. I believed that this vicious cycle of waves across the world and the bleak prospect of achieving herd immunity would lead to the collapse of lives and livelihood and my own family may not remain untouched by it. A similar line of thinking also led a close friend of mine to mild depressionary bouts. To such a state, Aurelius reflects, “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present”. Roughly two years into the pandemic, at a macro level the people and the states have reacted and coped with it spectacularly, well beyond my initial apprehensions. On the latter thought too, Aurelius reasons, “I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” When others' thoughts fuels our ambition and we tie it to our well-being, the path cannot be anything but unpleasant. Despite knowing where it will lead to, we still follow it and bewail from feeling miserable. We are mostly concerned, what will people think? “The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.”  “But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary.”

In the real world, there are constraints and priorities, hence stressors exist and will continue to do so, therefore it boils down to our response towards it. Aurelius dwells on, “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” In one of his notes he beautifully captures how he goes about practicing it, “Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions - not outside.” I find echoes of similar thoughts in Viktor Frankl’s reflections in ‘Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager’ later republished in English as ‘Man's Search for Meaning’. He lived through Holocaust, a genocide on a scale never seen before. He lost his entire family to this pogrom, and would not have survived himself either, but he never lost hope. In his notes, he profoundly reflects, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” So deep and metaphysical. His entire family succumbed to gas chambers, he himself was moved over to four camps including the most dreaded Auschwitz-Birkenau but even within these extremely barbaric circumstances where odds of survival are next to none, he chooses to exercise his power of response. He notes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Two of the greatest personal reflections from persons from two colossally different eras, who experienced and responded, strikingly carry the same message for us.

Another set of people who have seen very long periods of solitary confinement are the Russian revolutionists. Many of them wrote memoirs that give us a glimpse of how they felt and responded. These memoirs are full of insights and have profound lessons for us in this period of continued isolation. My light-touch summary does not do justice to the unimaginable hell they went through but I hope we can pick a few of the many lessons they offer. In isolation, one of them reminisces their feelings, “Full isolation, being torn away from the entire external world, the lack of contact with people—all this acts amazingly oppressively on a person’s psyche.” “ ...isolation was absolute and hopeless..”. We are experiencing similar thoughts, obviously though to a much lesser degree than a solitary-confinement. However, the common ground is mental health and it is the biggest issue cutting across generations. The brain is going crazy that we have not been able to meet friends or some of us staying overseas have not been able to travel and meet parents. Many of us haven’t seen office colleagues or for many of us,  the new school of our kids is the computer screen. Women are having to take a disproportionate load of managing homes, kids' schooling, and still delivering results in the office. Relationships have become fragile. The Russian revolutionaries went through worse and their response is a goldmine of their actions and thoughts and can be extrapolated to build our response. They went to great lengths to form communities and communicate in some way, at times inventing new means. However little or broken that communication was, it was meaningful. When their ways were discovered or some prisons behaved notoriously, they trained their minds through the power of imagination, dreaming of an alternate reality. It was not running away but a response mechanism. Many of them mastered new foreign languages and read the Bible or Rousseau or Goethe or Marx in the original text. Instead of letting the mind wander from dawn to dusk, many found escape in books. One revolutionary recalls, “If reading is a necessity on the outside, then it is far more necessary in prison, with all the monotony and uniformity of prison life, where with the lack of people in, say, solitary confinement, a book often replaces a comrade.” Few of them found their release in keeping the body busy - the easiest way being exercising. The exercise was not a physical activity anymore but assumed larger significance. In whichever way one could, one tried responding to gain control over the insanity the solitary confinement was inflicting. I have tried many of these and can vouch that they work. I learned German, a new foreign language (partly due to necessity as well), developed a deep interest in Western Philosophy, and immersed myself into it by reading a lot and listening to lectures. This blog is also a result of that. Continuing with learning a new skill, recently I have started taking Guitar lessons, hoping to pick up the basics and play a few chords of my favorite nos. One of the things I noticed is that many communities got together around cooking. I tried out too and have enjoyed the process. Some of the new things I have tried have now become a regular in lunch or dinner. Maintaining a sense of community has largely been through group video calls, better than nothing but far short of in-person connections. I do sorely miss meeting my friends and parents, something I hope to make up when barriers are lifted. In my case, since the entire family was together, we kept each other in good spirits. The occasional outbursts reminded us that we are still human and fragile. With sports, I would consider myself lucky. Golf is unique in that it can be played alone, is a non-contact sport, and can be played outdoors. With some relaxation, twosomes were allowed and that helped me maintain community touch within a bubble group. Interestingly, I haven't played as many rounds in 5 years as I have played this year. My place offers many forest walks and is thinly populated making it easy to maintain some kind of exercise ritual. We were never much into watching television but in these confined times, as a family, we watched or rather caught up on many series, most memorable being binging on all the ten seasons of ‘Friends”. Collectively all the efforts put together have helped me and my family in beating the isolation to a great extent. It worked then with Russian revolutionaries and works now in the current context.

Staying long in the minimalist mode, haven’t we all encountered the question, what is truly important to us? and suddenly money wasn’t on the top.  In the peak of the 2nd wave in India, the money could not buy medicines or oxygen or could get a bed in the hospital. The virus doesn’t differentiate between the rich and the poor, though very strictly speaking the poor have been impacted disproportionately. This extraordinary situation underscored the appreciation of what is truly necessary in life. “Remember this, very little is required to make a happy life.” We have heard this from the ascetics but rarely from the head of the richest and the most powerful kingdom who could have had everything he wished for. The pause also brought upon the realization that we are ‘what we are’ and ‘where we are’ because of the hundreds of people who have touched our lives and supported us.  We are indebted to them and yet we have been overlooking gratitude towards them. One of the most distinguishing features of Aurelius’s journal is the way it begins. Book 1 titled ‘Debts and Lessons’, is full of gratitude towards each person who shaped him. It is just not the thank yous but also why he is thankful and what is learned from them. Of the many, I have picked up two of them to make my point - “From Rusticus: to get an impression of need for reform and treatment of character; not to run off into zeal for rhetoric, writing on speculative themes, discoursing on edifying texts, exhibiting in fanciful colors the ascetic or the philanthropist. To avoid oratory, poetry, and preciosity; not to parade at home in ceremonial costume or to do things of that kind; to write letters in the simple style, like his own from Sinuessa to my mother. To be easily recalled to myself and easily reconciled with those who provoke and offend, as soon as they are willing to meet me. To read books accurately and not be satisfied with superficial thinking about things or agree hurriedly with those who talk around a subject. To have made the acquaintance of the Discourses of Epictetus, of which he allowed me to share a copy of his own.” “From Apollonius: moral freedom, not to expose oneself to the insecurity of fortune; to look to nothing else, even for a little while, except to reason. To be always the same, in sharp attacks of pain, in the loss of a child, in long illnesses. To see clearly is a living example that a man can be at once very much in earnest and yet able to relax.” It is a masterclass on gratitude and if we do the same we can battle out anxiety and depression and enrich our lives with happiness. I have a lot of work to do here and kick it off in earnest.

My reflections will continue as I continue to experience, read, think and do. Never cease to follow and persevere the path of Virtue. There is no end, no destination, just a journey with numerous milestones. As a parting thought, I quote Aurelius one final time, “When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Let me wake up with gratitude of being alive!

                                                                                     ***

P.S.:I started writing this when Fall had set in last year and the pandemic was in its full rage. I left it and could complete my reflections only now but decided to leave the opening para as it is, though we are in full-blown summer.

Black Swans, probability of an outlier on top of an extreme tail event

What are the chances that an extreme tail event like a pandemic is followed by another outlier? asked my senior colleague and further nudged, pretty low, right? wanting to engage all of us and stir up a conversation amongst colleagues and global fora.

Before I dive into sharing my views please allow me to indulge in a bit of mathematics – what are the chances of another outlier post an extreme tail event? Contrarian, as my response may seem to be, I would argue its ‘High’. The world loves simplification because that is what a human mind can absorb and fit into its logical neural circuits. But that’s precisely where the problem lies. More or less all analytics, economic, financial, geopolitical, or otherwise assumes Normal distribution of outcomes. The number of studies done, starting from Mandelbrot and Fama, proves otherwise but still, we choose to regress, consciously or unconsciously, to this convenient simplification. This convenient relapse, an amenity, allows one to limit the probability of a tail event, due to finite variances, and therefore exclude the unpleasantness associated with increased risk, if assumed otherwise. This understating of risk helps every participant to look the other way and keeps everyone happy, for e.g. allows a portfolio manager to provision lesser loss reserves and look good on returns, a credit rating agency to bias its way towards investment grade and earn additional fee income, an institutional money manager to manage capital by calculating VaR acceptable to investors, etc. However, this simplism which coerces us to eliminate all outcomes that cause jarring dissonance with our ‘yeah, it makes sense’ simplified thinking, is also its curse. Continuing with the parsimony of the Gaussian assumption is unreasonable and potentially dangerous in an increasingly VUCA world and we ought to move to fat-tailed distribution as a default assumption and wed it with an EVT distribution for tails. Normal distribution has to be relegated to being a ‘special case’ And why limit it to the world of economics and finance, we are now seeing extremes of temperatures, storms, wildfires, floods, etc. In the words of Leslie Rahl, founder of Capital Market Risk Advisors, “We seem to have once-in-a-lifetime-crisis every 3 or 4 years.” Therefore, coming back to the opening comment – what is the likelihood of another outlier after the current tail event? – I say, “High”.

Direct Democracy as a (Black Swan) idea looks most appealing at an individual level, very logical and yet very revolutionary. Looks like epidemics are akin to ‘stress test’ on political and economic functioning. In a curious case of similarities, it was the Cholera epidemic of 1867 which laid the foundation of direct democracy in Switzerland, and the COVID pandemic could well prove to be the stimuli for a similar outcome in many EU countries. Still, to me, the path to the full form of direct democracy appears to be distant, best case I see some optionalities on its way – something which may be guiding in nature but not binding. In a binding scenario, we could see some bizarre situations, for e.g. the trial and death of Socrates back in 399BC, a consequence of direct-democratic action, while frivolous but understandable given the era it took place. Fast forward to this century, another direct-democratic action, an ultra-modern, super-rich, well-educated, democratic state, Switzerland, didn’t allow women to vote as late as 1971!

I like colliding two different thoughts to generate new ones or solidify my thinking. So let me collide the (Black Swan) idea of direct democracy with another (Black Swan) idea, the fiscal union of EU, and let us see where it leads us to. In a fiscal union scenario I see more tough calls coming its way than popular calls. And the citizenry will be asked to vote on that in a direct democracy. This will require a heightened feeling of solidarity, very understandable within the national boundaries (e.g. centre-state) and in recent history during German unification. But to wish for that across National boundaries is a stretch. Let us remind ourselves that bailouts didn't come out of solidarity. It came out of compulsion and fear of contagion. I regularly come across intelligentsia making a case in favor but find it difficult to fathom support within the masses. I foresee the raw tsunamic wave of referendum votes smashing the fiscal union idea on its path. Let's run a thought experiment and play out an actual referendum - citizens of a Country X, toil hard, pay high taxes, maintain fiscal discipline at the sovereign and individual level, are asked to vote - 'to take on liability for a loose sovereign spender' who breaks the fiscal rules. Not too difficult to imagine the outcome. Another round - this time citizens of a country who currently pay lower taxes, have maintained a competitive economy and therefore retain jobs are asked to vote on a referendum to pay higher taxes because of EU fiscal policy, a byproduct of which would be redistribution, lost competitiveness and jobs destroyed. Not too difficult to predict the outcome here either. Continued severe levels of austerity aren't very popular either. Fiscal union goes with the political union and that is a minefield. Politicians are accountable to local people and an argument that they are helpless is difficult to fly. That they are puppets with rules being set in the opaque chambers of Brussels will not get them votes. Do you see an opening for far-right here? I do. In summary, both not happening or best happening in a diluted version.

Staying with the fiscal union just a little longer to connect it with my next observation, as much as I hate to think and certainly would wish that I be entirely wrong on this one, the tail event I foresee is EU break-up rather than progressing on a fiscal union. With the foundation of the longest peace-time period history has seen completely rattled, the break-up need not be full-scale. On the lower-risk side, the introduction of multi-tiered Euro currency, which gives some leg room to economies and on the higher-risk side, multi-tiered EU unions or an absolute worst-case scenario of multiple exits. The bloc is a study in contrast – loose spenders at one end of the spectrum and the ones who run a tight ship at the other. It will require an exponential leap of faith to expect that citizens of the latter keep bailing out the former and smilingly keep assuming debt, a paradoxical reward for being fiscally disciplined. With the existing paradigm shaken by an earthquake of a massive Richter magnitude, the idea of the fiscal union stands weak on its knees and resultant challenges may lead to a break-up. An EU break up would be a catastrophic black swan. 

Being a European lover and not wanting to end on low, let me sip a white wine to gulp down this black swan thought and truly wish it never happens! Simplistic thinking of a simple man!

 

#Solidarity

The head of the division of the bank which I work for posted a discussion note on an internal discussion site ( and also on LinkedIn) -

Quote

Imagine it is 2040 and the exam question at school is "#Solidarity during the Corona crisis in 2020" - What will the next generation with the massive benefit of hindsight, assess as successful, and what might we have missed? especially on multiple aspects of #solidarity for e.g.

 - was our #solidarity national / continental / global
 - economic #solidarity with Italy
 - was there any money left for climate change or was it just fashionable topic at summer conferences
 - #solidarity with people suffering from mental illness due to the ubiquitous fear
 - #solidarity with people getting laid off and prevention of stigma
 - #solidarity with people more worried about livelihood than life
 - were we given unbiased facts or fed worst-case scenarios and sensationalistic headlines
 - #solidarity with people not engaging in panic buying due to lack of financial cushion
 - ...

Unquote

and many more aspects. I have picked up a few and have simplified some of the comments above. I was very impressed that not only he thought about these but also posted them in a public forum and invited views. It is commendable as it makes senior leaders understand their bias and be more sensitive to differing opinions and show #solidarity with differing opinions.

After a long time, I came across such a pertinent post, a post other than showcasing financial successes, products, webinars, etc. and my heart called out to respond. I wished and hoped that world leaders thought and acted that way.  Thinking on those lines, my fingers started dancing on the keyboard and I picked up some of the elements to respond. Here I reproduce the same.

The biggest casualty would be Globalisation and along with that the #globalsolidarity. National boundaries that got faded and blurred through years of multilateralism, trade and cash flows will see heightened gerrymandering. Not all re-penciling may happen at physical borders but through new controls, tariff and non-tariff barriers aimed at protecting 'their' people. Further dealing a knock-out blow to #globalsolidarity, the supply chains which serve as foundation and lifeblood of globalization, be it in the form of tangible parts or intangible services will be brought back in. In some cases, it may be a genuine case of risk-management but in most, it would be otherwise. We have seen how countries responded by aggressively closing borders, banning supplies of personal-protection equipment, ventilators, etc. The crisis laid bare default position of many countries. Nothing stands out more starkly than the poorly coordinated global response.

Beyond a point citizens of one country do not share the pain on behalf of the other especially financial. Passports start showing off their colors. This is the reason why we saw rise of political leadership and support base swinging right. We saw trade and currency unions but not fiscal unions. We saw Brexit and time to time keep hearing calls for other such exits.

The crisis gave a glimpse of what 'good' looks like - people could see Himalayas from afar and sparkling clean canals of Venice among the many such miracles. Despite that, I believe climate change initiatives will take a hit. It will remain important but will not retain the same priority. Taking a cue from Thomas Szasz (15 Apr 1920 - 2012 ), author and professor of psychiatry, who said, " The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic - in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea - known to medical science is work." With work and therefore livelihood getting impacted all resources are going to get directed to address that and climate change goals will take a backseat.

Having said that it is not all negative. Many firms are showing #solidarity by not firing people, by providing mental health programs, by actively encouraging#workfromhome, by multiplying contributions. Shout out to my firm #DeutscheBank for going far not only on each of the above counts but also tinkering with its well-recognized logo to relay the message.

Individual #solidarity is at an all-time high. This life and livelihood crisis brought a sobering realization that it is about humanity. We know about many existing and new helping groups that are doing their every bit to help the disadvantaged, especially the financially disadvantaged. For many who manage to get only one meal a day, do not have shelter and don't have access to clean water forget regular washing of hands, Covid is a distant and far less dangerous enemy. I am aware of individual stories where people have gone above and beyond to help the elderly.

I particularly admire EU and within that Germany, where I live, for its response on many fronts - #solidarity towards workforce through Kurzarbeit programs, #solidarity towards EU through delayed border controls, #solidarity towards personal rights and privacy in wake of increased calls on surveillance, #solidarity towards neighboring countries by taking in their patients, #globalsolidarity by making public the Covid test-code, #solidarity by supplying kits etc.

To individuals, it has also brought in a hard philosophical realization that life is ephemeral. Also that what one truly needs is hardly anything. An in-our-face realization that if one 'left' having lived for himself/herself then was it truly worth it? A call for volunteers in UK led to an army of people registering for it. A similar call for financial support led to a massive inflow of contributions in India. This collective thought brings lot of hope towards heightened #solidarity towards vulnerable segments.

Coming back to the essay, if a similar essay was to be written immediately after WW2, it would have been difficult to imagine the world we live in today but it did turn out differently. So will be the case here. In the long run everything bounces back and so will the economy, wealth and prosperity of today. What matters and what is important are our actions in the intermittant!

Mirza Ghalib and Shakespeare - Tribute to the Bards

Two great bards from two different time periods, language and civilizations, left an impression on the culture of the times and for years to come. Even today, the world continues to be in awe and admiration of them. Both of them enriched the language by their writings, so much so that the language looks incomplete without them. This post is to celebrate the greatness of these two literary masters.

Taj Mahal is not the only marvel Agra has produced. But Alas! the city has been very unkind to its other Gems, foremost amongst them being Mirza Ghalib. Dec 27, happened to be his birthday. 2014 also happened to be 450 years of Shakespeare. Fortunately, he didn’t meet the same fate. History and times have been more kind to him.

Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, known to the world as Ghalib, a non-de-plume he adopted, was born in Agra on Dec 27, 1797. With his marriage at the age of 13, he moved to Delhi. That was a defining moment for him. His initial years were very comfortable and the later was the opposite, largely in penury and on pension. He showed his poetic brilliance while he was very young. A large part of his work in Urdu was done by the time he was 19 years, within 6 years of his arrival to Delhi. He later dabbled in Persian and 30 years later, returned back to writing in Urdu, when he was a courtier. He produced pieces, both prose, and poetry, which were as brilliant as his younger years. It was due to him that this language of commoners attained poetic status.

The site below has more details about his life and captures the perspectives of the times very well.

http://smriti.com/urdu/ghalib/intro.html

The toughest part for any lover of Urdu poetry is to figure which are some of the best couplets. It’s impossible to pick up a few. I have picked up a few, which I loved. There are many more, which I equally love, but want to restrict for this article. I don’t claim that these are the best nor do I have the competence to say so. Just enjoy them. If you love it, go for more on the net or buy a book.

The maestro had his own ‘signature’ style…andaaz-e-bayan aur..a class apart.. 

हैं और भी दुनिया में सुख़नवर बहुत अच्छे 
कहते हैं ग़ालिब का अंदाज़-ए-बयां और ..

That he challenged the widely held concepts, to the disliking of the fundamentalists, tell me that he didn’t hold an orthodox view of religion.

हमको मालूम है जन्नत की हक़ीक़त लेकिन

दिल को ख़ुश रखने के लिए ग़ालिब ये ख्याल अच्छा है ..

Here is another one that drives the same point I made before. It becomes clear to me that he was a true liberal and disliked practitioners of orthodoxy, hypocrisy, and narrow-minded approach…the same very preacher was seen coming out of the pub…

कहाँ मैख़ाने का दरवाज़ा ग़ालिब और कहाँ वाइज़ ,

पर इतना जानते हैं के कल, वो जाता था और हम निकले ..

This one is my favorite…

हज़ारों ख्वाईशें ऐसी, के हर ख्वाइश पे दम निकले 

बहुत निकले मेरे अरमां , लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले  ..

Have you seen a better romance with pain ...isn’t it true in real-life…when the pain goes beyond tolerance...that very pain turns into the balm …

इशरत-ए-कतरा है दरिया में फ़ना हो जाना ,

दर्द का हद से गुज़रना है दवा हो जाना   ..

The final one, I present to you, sums up the philosophy of life…mantra for leading a happy life...

कुछ इस तरह मैंने ज़िंदगी को आसां कर दिया ,
किसी से माफ़ी मांग ली, तो किसी को माफ़ कर दिया  ..

His compositions represented elegance and deep philosophy. He challenged the conventional.

His birthday comes and passes by as a non-event, even in his birth-town, Agra. Thrice I have been to Agra and the trip has, by and large, included the Taj, Akbar’s tomb, Red Fort, and the little far off Fatehpur-Sikri. Never does the hotel or nor do the guides suggest about Ghalib’s birthplace. It has been left to the citizens who enjoy his poetry to celebrate the life of this poetic genius.

Well, looked differently, irrespective of how we treat our masters, his writings make him immortal.

Let’s move to the dramatist. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, and 2014 marked the 450th anniversary of his birth. It’s impossible to study the English language and literature without studying Shakespeare. The Bard of Avon captured the complete range of human emotions through his histories, comedies, and tragedies [and we can add Romance to it].

The Balcony Scene by a known painter

How can one not feel the churn within oneself after going through, the dark, The Tragedy of Macbeth, or the depressing tone and tragic consequences of The Tragedy of King Lear? The tragic outcomes are life lessons of following an evil path or listening to flattery. Some of the tragedies are deeply ingrained and now part of popular folklore or are sort of the standard if there is a discussion on that topic. If you talk of tragic love stories, the discussion is incomplete without mention of the young, star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. His writings had powerful visualization. You can almost imagine the whole plot unfolding around you and you become a part of it, a character as if you were around. The moment I think about Romeo and Juliet, I can see Romeo up on the balcony kissing Juliet. By far, in my view, this must be the most popular of all his writings. Hundreds of thousands of adaptions [many of them modified to happy endings…] are doing the rounds all over the world.

As a kid, I felt very sad when a a pound of flesh was asked by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice [ it also sent a social message against predatory lending practices, which by the way, today's Investment Bankers are accused of.. and even today Newspapers pick this up as headlines to make a point]. or felt overjoyed when Portia disguised as a clerk of the lawyer, made the ingenious argument, that only a pound of flesh and not even a hair’s weight extra should be extracted and that not a drop of blood should flow!

Another very interesting aspect of Shakespeare was the commanding presence of the ghosts and jesters in his plays. In fact, the supernaturals - ghosts, witches, prophetic apparitions, etc. have been integral to many of his plots, having acted as catalysts for many of the actions. They have helped create the atmosphere and tension in the story, augmenting and expanding many of the scenes, characters, etc. I cannot imagine The Tempest and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark without them. And that would be true for jesters as well. How can As You Like It, Twelfth Night, or What you Will and The Tragedy of King Lear be complete without Touchstone, Feste, and the Fool? They were not just fooling around but very integral to the plays. The jester was only a mask and behind that was an intelligent person, who made his point with wit.

City of Verona

Locations in Shakespeare's plays played an equally important part. While being an English writer, a third of his plays have been set in Italy [ Venice, Rome, and Verona ] and within that three of them are set in Verona - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet. The romantic air, the beauty of the place, the culture appear to awed Shakespeare. Or maybe Britain wasn't that liberal, the machinations were too much for Britain to digest. These locations helped him layout the scenes making them inseparable from the storyline. Some of these will be on my itinerary when I get to visit Italy.

In the Indian context, he is more known for his tragedies, but he has churned out comedies with equal mastery. As you like it, his pastoral comedy has philosophical tones. Live your life as you like it. Find your own meanings to situations [love]. His works are probably the most quoted ones, one of the famous ones comes from this comedy ‘All the worlds a stage and all men and women are merely players.’ Therefore don’t get serious beyond a point. Have fun, your way.

The emotions are as relevant today as they were in his times. It’s this relevance that his works have seen adaptation to film, television, opera, novels, variants, poems, comics, etc., and draws full audience even today, though they have been continuously played for centuries. There is no one more celebrated and adored than him.

Closer home, I am totally in love with Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaption of Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet as Maqbool, Omkara and Haider each of the tragedy-trilogy, a masterpiece. The depth of Shakespearean characters have always enamored leading actors who consider it an honor to play lead roles.

Well as is the case with Mirza Ghalib, there are many more masterpieces that I may not have quoted. It’s impossible with these two bards.

I have learned a lot and enjoyed them enormously. Thank you for enriching our lives with your greatness. 

Loyalty Vs Performance ?

A recent event prompted me to ask this question. What is the nature of the relationship between the firm and the employee - is it of Performance or is it of Loyalty?

Well, I asked this question to my peer groups within the industry. The answers I got were equally polarised with a bias towards loyalty [well the sample size consisted of senior folks doing fairly well]. I wonder what it would be if I extended this question to the entire spectrum of employees.

Will the answer be different at two different time periods, junior vs senior, retained vs fired or at-risk, geography to geography, expanding or contracting economy, etc., etc.? Thinking through this prompted another question, Is Loyalty a fallacy? Or the earlier clamor when professionals saw large-scale retrenchment in the US, that ’Loyalty is dead’?

Let me put forth some scenarios …

1.       You have been in the firm for years. Toiled hard. Sweat. Have done fairly well. You have had 2 bad years in a row. You are asked to move on.

2.       You have been doing extremely well. The firm promotes you. You quit the firm for a better opportunity.

3.       You are doing extremely well. Have been with the firm for years. Toiled hard. Sweat. Turn of events-Economy contracts. Assets have to be sold. The firm decides to exit your business line. You are at-risk and eventually asked to move on.

4.       You have been with the firm for years. You are doing extremely well. The firm decides to exit your business line. You are taken care of and placed in a different department. You do well. You have now received a good offer and you move on.

5.       You have been in the firm for years. Your performance isn’t up to the mark. The firm continues to support you. Other high performers emulate you. The firm goes down in performance. Profit goes down and so do the Taxes paid. Society is hurt.

6.       You have been a star performer. You keep moving up. You find a very good offer where you can create more value. You move on and actually create more value in another firm. Others emulate you in that firm. The other firm does well. Pays higher taxes. Society is benefited.

7.       You get hired from campus. The firm spends a couple of years training you. You have been consuming value so far. You are now in a position to pay back and deliver value. You receive a good offer from a competitor and you move on.

What if in the above scenarios the person who moved on had the opportunity to move-on on earlier occasions but had stayed back [may be at a significantly lower salary]? I can create many more from actual life examples. By the way, all the above are inspired by real life.

Some of them will resonate with you. Maybe the you mentioned is YOU? or your friend ? and the firm could be one known to you, your current firm or your earlier firm?

Does expanding economy and contracting economy produce different results? In growth, tolerance is high, performance coupled with loyalty may fetch you senior roles. In recessionary trends tough choices have to be made to save the firm and managers most likely will vote for consistent performers?

Has globalization had an impact? Has employee mobility had an impact?

Or is it that both are aware that, 1. You are not expected to be here lifelong; 2. The firm may/may not (be able to) keep you lifelong[ job security is dead], but both are maximizing their positions?

Legally both of them signed a contract with an option to resign or terminate with a notice period?

Has the definition of long-term change? Should one have long-term awards?

Are Loyalty and Tenure being seen interchangeably by the Employee? Who is a more loyal – tenured underperformer or recent top performer?

Loyal but discouraged, new but motivated? Who is more preferred? [Research suggests that happy and motivated employees create more value]

Interestingly when I spoke to Headhunters and leading B school professors, they were quite unanimous in their answer, the relationship is of ‘Performance’. If it’s coupled with Loyalty, it's great but fundamentally it's of Performance.

The answer is still a difficult one. So I have to put you in a spot? Here is the voting machine with only two buttons – Press 1 for Performance and Press 2 for Loyalty [ there is no don’t-want-to vote button ]. Initially, I too had pressed button no 2. But having stayed with this problem for some time and debated with me, I finally pressed 1.

Which one will you press?

Manthan….

The last couple of months have been quite tempestuous for me. One can always feel the storm and turbulence it brings along within when it’s anything to do with fulfillment. If you are not happy, whatever be the reason, it’s bound to convulse your mind. It keeps going back to that issue. No matter what starting point of your argument is, subsequent arguments are framed to your line of thinking and you reach the same conclusion yet again but with increasing intensity.

My situation took me to extremes; there was hardly a moment when I was thinking of something else. It almost paralyzes you, so much so that I took a complete break from the situation. I then revisited the challenge. The question haunts and pounds heavily. If it’s not that intense it’s not a big real problem. One also needs to stay comfortable in that uncomfortable zone. That zone could run into days and weeks. The violent shake and prolonged stay in that zone help one carry out some real introspection. You then cannot afford to stay at the surface. You are forced to peel off layers and the process reveals deep insights. And those insights are priceless. Traditionally held notions are tossed and ones that appeared to be on sitting on the periphery make their value felt and emerge stronger. Overall you are able to differentiate between variables basis what is truly important and of value.

In this ‘mansik manthan (mental churn)’, I learned a lot. I came out awakened and alive to myself, my loved ones, and my friends. It reminds me of the ‘Samudra Manthan (churning the ocean)’ talked about in Puranas. I always saw that as pass-time folklore. I am now able to better appreciate what our forefathers were trying to convey. The jewels which Manthan released were nothing but insights. The ultimate output couldn’t have been anything else but Halahala (most lethal poison), which is akin to succumbing to the thoughts and sliding into depression, or Amrit (nectar of immortality), which I think is ‘absolute clarity or ‘truth’. ‘Truth’ and only ‘truth’ has the power to stay immortal.

The biggest of all insights was the value of my relationships. Relationships I took it for granted and at times ignored - what it means and how important it is in my scheme of life. The experience helped me re-value them. I was able to see through clearly what it meant. It made giving up big money and title a simple affair.

It was also about the confidence in oneself, the power and strength to stick to the truth, irrespective of how you get perceived at that point, the conviction in the immortality of the Truth and act on it. In my case, it was about entering into a new relationship. I could not have started on a false foundation and still believe that it would take me far. Staying with truth brought me inner peace, which is immeasurably more important than anything else. Staying with truth helped me stay comfortable with trade-offs and not repent, then or ever. Stay with Truth helps you hear ‘the inner voice’.

Life of Truth is life fulfilled. My Manthan, my Amrit.



2012...Tipping point for India

Everyone I talk to tells me that 2012 was not a good year. The never-ending scams, persistently high inflation, the slowdown in industrial activity, lay-offs, the impact of global events, and towards the end, the savage rape of a young girl. The gravity is not lost on me, but I still hold a different view, I believe it’s was a watershed year for India. It may have not have been a great year in an economic sense, but probably the best in a social sense. This year could be termed as the year of the awakening of the average Indian powered by the energy of the young. Citizens gave a titanic jolt to the ineffective political class by making its roar felt. I am certain that this year will serve as a tipping point in the modern history of this nation.

India has undergone colossal change over decades and obviously so have Indians. With the urbanization of India, the struggle and aspiration of an average Indian changed as well. New social strata called the urban (middle) class was born. They transcended the primal caste boundaries and were united by their routine drudgery of day-to-day struggle. It was slogging hard to make ends meet and generate resources to secure its future in this cut-throat world. So much so that it would typically show up on work in the very next hour of high-intensity disturbances because it couldn’t afford to and was euphemistically called as a resilient class. A good majority also got exposed to the western world and saw themselves no-less smart and intelligent and therefore worked even harder to achieve satiate its craving.

This class stayed mute for reasons above but was seen as stoic. It never really engaged with Indian political tamasha, something which Indian politicians of each shade understood very well and exploited this silent majority. The worst part is that they kept increasing the degree of insult over years and the absence of any reprisal, gave them the confidence to try out increasingly bizarre stuff including complete disregard. The bureaucracy-police which should have held its ground led itself to degenerate into a master-servant relationship and went the same way. In-fact they scratched each other's back and this nexus prospered, forcing young India to take charge of their destiny.

The past decades also witnessed changes in demographic profile. We now have a large educated young pool - energetic and restless. Two-third of India is now less than 35 years of age. They are willing to slog and earn their way to a decent life and expect leaders to do the same and not live in the world of entitlements. While economic forces saw this as an opportunity – the sales pitches identified its ‘demographic dividend’, the impact it would have in a social context was underestimated.

The problem was despite having similar thoughts, challenges, and asks nothing connected them. It’s no surprise that internet-mobile devices provided the platform for the like-minded groups to connect and share. The facebook-twitter networks started as a casual social network eventually metamorphosed into a potent force, a groundswell, a tsunami that no one could afford to ignore. This connection went beyond metros to all cities and villages. It is a bit surprising that while this played out loud and clear in the context of Arab spring, why the political elite failed to see this coming in our own country. It helped this new social class to connect and react to situations on a real-time basis. For once ‘going viral had a positive connotation. I have never been a bigger fan of this network.

And whenever this viral phenomenon hit through the course of this year, it left the incompetent political bureaucracy-police fumbling. This year, exposed the extent of ineptness. A sample bungled response to recent viral outpouring - lathi-charge and water-canons on students, Sec 144, shut-down metro, call young Indians as Maoists, urban women called as dented-and-painted, never-to-be-heard Maun-Mohan Singh living up to his reputation and woken up from slumber after 7 days only to say ‘theek-hai’, top-rung women political leadership Sushma-Mamta-Sheila-Jaya-Maya making customary statements and finally, so-called young-connected political the leadership of Gandhi-Pilot-Scindia-Deora not to be seen anywhere. Their why-should-I-go-to-you-you-come-to-me attitude smacks of entitlement mentality which this demographic profile disapproves of.

Whether it was the Anna Hazare led a protest against the corrupt-disgusting political class or impromptu getting together to express solidarity with the Delhi girl and demonstrating against sycophant-incapable bureaucracy-police, seeking justice, these events mark the coming of age of this new social class. It’s no more willing to tolerate the taken-for-granted attitude and willing to hit the streets, flexing its muscles, demanding its rights and exercising its franchise.

The rot is deep enough, hence the diseased body will need multiple such protest-therapy sessions. 2012 saw just one dose of medicine. Youth-led social surgery stands a good chance to cure the patient. Yes - it will not be easy, Yes - it will painful, Yes – it will be long-drawn but YES – it will tip the nation to its greatness and glory. Yes, we are at a tipping point and part of that historical transformation!

The ‘Arab Spring’ could very well give way to ‘Indian Summer’ and ‘Tahrir Square’ to the ‘India Gate’.

Time to welcome the new year...welcome 2013!

Bal Bal Jayoon Main Tore Rangrajwa....Rangrej Mere..

While all languages are great, Urdu, I feel enjoys a special place amongst them. Its elegantness flatters you and its expressiveness romanticises you. I am love with many words within that language, and wish to explore one of them in this blog post.

When you talk about colors (रंग), ‘Rangrej  ( रंगरेज )’ or related expressions like ‘RangRajwa ( रंगरजवा )’ crop up in mind. Though its literal meaning is ‘the dyer’….but is often poetically substituted for GOD, Master ( Guru ) or as the Lover,….जो उन्हे उनके रंग में रंग दे …..someone who can color them in their colors.

The Sufi Songs or the ones with Sufiana soul or bent have most expressively used this word. In most usages you will find them easily substitutable, beyond the obvious Dyer, GOD, Master and Lover. When you think of it as the GOD or the Master ( Guru ), then it’s the color of spirituality and when it’s the Master (Lover), then it’s the color of love…both the colors permeate through the mind, body, heart and soul …in a very sublime way… and leaves you intoxicated…in that state, that’s the only color left….and leaves both in unison…it’s the ultimate unison…which uplifts you and transports you to a different world…a world which is much more expansive than the one we live in…a state of forgetfulness, beyond the worldly pleasures…a world in complete trance…a world which is boundless… infinite…this intoxication has to be experienced..

I have picked up a total of three compositions, two from earlier writings and one recent Bollywood song, for detailed treatment, which gracefully captures the expressive essence of the word. I have also added the English translations. Though the translation always doesn’t do justice to original writings …nevertheless…

The first is from the writings of Kabir Sahib (Satguru), the 13^th century, mystic and saint. I have translated the same…the translation is not literal…but what lines try to convey …

साहिब* हैं रंगरेज , चुनरी मोरी रंग डारी

स्याही रंग छुड़ाए के रे , दियो मजीठा रंग

धोये से छूटे नहीं रे , दिन दिन होत सूरंग

भाव के कुंडी , नेह के जल में , प्रेम रंग दई बोरी 

दुःख देह मैल लुटाये दे रे , खूब रंगी झकझोर 

साहिब ने चुनरी रंगी रे , प्रीतम चतुर सुजान 

सब कुछ उन पर वार दूं रे , तन मन धन और प्राण

कहत कबीर रंगरेज पियारे , मुझ पर हुए दयाल

सीतल चुनरी ओढ़ी के रे , भयी हों मगन निहाल 

*Sahib is generally used for ‘Guru’, as I explained earlier it can also be used for ultimate Lover…

Master has colored my mind, body, heart and soul.
He has removed the existing stains and applied fresh color of love

The beauty of this freshly applied color is that…rather than fading ..with every wash ( each day ) it gets brighter and more lustrous…
In the bucket of feelings, which is filled with water of affection...he has mixed

the color of love… and when I bathe with this water…it has cleansed the dirt of sorrowness…and now I look even more splendid…
Its my Master who has colored me, he is great..I surrender my everthything onto him…even my ‘self’…my own being

Kabir says, the Master, the benevolent, has blessed me.
With his cover of kindness…I feel myself at peace...settled…pure …fullfilled…in a blissful state…

  

The above composition has been delightfully rendered by Smt Shobha Mudgal Ji and is produced below.

The second one I have chosen is Amir Khusrau’s composition. Khusrau, the 13th century Indian poet, musician, scholar and mystic, has written this for his Master (Guru), Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.. As earlier, I make no claims of literal translation…but have kept it crisp…as these compositions have so much ‘bhaav’ in it.

छाप तिलक सब छीनी रे, मोसे नैना मिलाइके 

प्रेम भटटी का मढ़वा पीलाईके, मतवाली कर लीनी रे , मोसे नैना मिलाइके 

गोरी गोरी बहियां, हरी हरी चूड़ियां 
बहिंयां पकड़ धर लीनी रे, मोसे नैना मिलाईके

बल बल जाऊं मै तोरे रंगरजवा

अपनी सी कर लीनी रे, मोसे नैना  मिलाईके

खुसरो  निजाम के बल बल जईए 

मोहे सुहागन कर लीनी रे, मोसे नैना नैना मिलाईके

छाप तिलक सब छीनी रे, मोसे नैना  मिलाईके

A mere glance by you has taken away my ‘self’ ( my looks and my identity )..
I am now intoxicated by drinking the mixture produced by furnace of love and by your mere glance…

Your mere glance has clenched my fair delicate wrists ( which has Green bangles...Green bangles are worn in Saawan ( Spring Season), and is symbolic of season of love..

I totally bow unto you (walk on my knees.) ...my Master….I have merged into you ( got dyed by the dyer )…by your mere glance…I have become your bride ( my soul has become yours spiritually ) by your mere glance..

The no of people who have lent their voice to this composition is astounding. That speaks volumes about it. The one below by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is my favorite.

Chhaap Tilak ....Ustad Nusrat fateh Ali Khan

The most impressive recent usage has been the number 'Rangrej Mere…’ in the film Tanu Weds Manu. The lyrics are by Rajshekhar and the song is composed by Krsna. There are two versions – one sung by Krsna and other by Wadali Brothers. While both are good, the latter is pure and magical.

The song takes the word ‘Rangrej’ to profound heights. It explores the words in all possible forms, shades and hues.

I must confess that though I have been thinking about this blog for some time, but it was this song that pushed me to work on this blog. The translation I am quoting below is also done by Krsna.

ए रंगरेज मेरे, रंगरेज मेरे , एक बात बता रंगरेज मेरे 
ये कौन से पानी में तुने कौन सा रंग घोला है 
के दिल बन गया है सौदाई , और मेरा बसंती चोला है 

O dyer of mine, Dear dyer of mine, Please reveal your secrets divine,
What concotion have you created, Of your colors and godforsaken water
My heart's all blue in love so profound, My cloak's soaked in saffron unbound

अब तुमसे मैं क्या शिकवा करूँ, मैंने ही कहा था जिद कर के,
रंग दे चुनरी पी के रंग में ,पर मुए कपास पे रंग ना रुके रंग इतना गहरा तेरा की जानो जिगर तक भी रंग दे... जिगर रंग दे

How am I to complain of my tale ?

I like stubborn asked you to color my veil,

Oh! Your colors penetrated my fabric, insane

Deep within my heart n soul everything's dyed of your stain

Color my heart away, Oh this feelin'...

रंगरेज तुने अफीम क्या है खा ली,
जो मुझसे तू ये पूछे के कौन सा रंग ?

रंगों का कारोबार है तेरा,
ये तू ही तो जाने, कौन सा रंग 

Dyer, Are you so intoxicated on Opium!
Why ask me, what shade now to come undone !
Color and stains is your business of things
You only know, what should you be coloring

मेरा बालम रंग, मेरा साजन रंग, 

मेरा कातिक रंग, मेरा अघहन रंग, मेरा फागुन रंग, मेरा सावन रंग,

पल पल रंगते रंगते, रंगते मेरे आठों पहर मनभावन रंग

एक बूँद इश्कियां डाल कोई तू , मेरा सातों समंदर जाये रंग

Oh! Your colors penetrated my fabric, insaneMy Beloved hue, My soulmate shade, My spring, My autumn, My Monsoon
You color all my seasons with your palette
A single drop of your love ingredient, Just a single drop of your romantic blend
Colors up my seven seas in a second

मेरी हद् भी रंग, सरहद भी रंग, बेहद रंग दे, अनहद भी रंग दे 
मंदिर मस्जिद मैकद रंग, रंगरेज मेरे रंगरेज मेरे,

रंगरेज मेरे दो घर क्यूँ रहे, एक ही रंग रंग में दोनों घर रंग दे
दोनों रंग दे 

Color me off limits, Color my boundaries, Color me extreme, Color my unceasing infinities
My temple, My mosque, my entire world indeed
Oh Dyer, why must we separated by two different spaces,

Paint just one single shade to both worlds with your embraces,

पल पल रंगते रंगते रंगते रंगते नैहर पीहर का आँगन रंग

पल पल रंगते रंगते रंगते रंगते मेरे आठों पहर मनभावन रंग

नींदे रंग दे करवट भी रंग

ख्वाबों पे पड़े सलवट भी रंग

Paint every moment, The courtyards of my maternal and marital heavens

Drape in one single shade all my 24/7 s

Color my sleep, Color my rolls

Color even the creases of my dreams

ये तू ही है, हैरत रंग दे आ दिल में समा हसरत रंग दे फिर आजा और वसलत रंग दे, आ न सके तो फुरक़त रंग दे दर्दे हिजरा लिए दिल में दर्दे , हिजरा लिए दिल में दर्दे  मैं जिंदा रहूँजिंदा रहूँ, जुर्रत रंग दे 

Color my amazement of you, Come paint the desires of my heart too

Color away our union, and if you can't, forget not to paint our separation,

Even with the pain of being apart, I must live on,

Must live on, Color my dare to carry on,

रंगरेज मेरे, रंगरेज मेरे, तेरा क्या है असल रंग, अब तो ये दिखला दे 

मेरा पिया भी तू, मेरी सेज भी तू, मेरा रंग भी तू, रंगरेज भी तू

मेरी नैया भी तू, मजधार भी, तुझमें डूबूं, तुझमें उभरून,

तेरी हर एक बात सर आखों पे 

मेरा मालिक तू, मेरा साहिब तू, मेरी जान मेरी जान, तेरे हाथों में

मेरा कातिल तू मेरा मुंसिफ तू 

तेरे बिना कुछ सूझे ना, तेरे बिना कुछ सूझे ना,

O dyer of mine, What's your own real color ? Reveal your shine,
Oh you're my lover, my resting ground is you, My color and my colorful dyer too,
My sail, my centre of ocean, I sink in you, I come afloat under your beacon
Your every word is my Supreme given
You are my owner and my dearest friend, My breathing soul is in your able hands,
Oh my murderer, my justice giver
I'm clueless without you foreever,

मेरी राह भी तू मेरा रहबर तू मेरा सरवर तू मेरा अकबर तू

मेरा मशरिक तू मेरा मगरिब तू जाहिद भी मेरा मुर्शिद तू

अब तेरे बिना मैं जाऊं कहाँ ,
तेरे बिना तेरे बिना तेरे बिना 

My journey, My travel mate in sight, My riddance, My genesis, My guiding light,

My lord is you, my disciple too, I found found a sage and divine signs in you

where could I go without you, where could I ever go without you,

Without you, Without you

ए रंगरेज मेरे, रंगरेज मेरे , एक बात बता रंगरेज मेरे
ये कौन से पानी में तुने कौन सा रंग घोला है
के दिल बन गया है सौदाई , और मेरा बसंती चोला है

As I conclude, I also came across some very recent composition in Peepli Live, where the word has been given a very different treatment. Here it talks about our nation as Rangrej and how it has colored us with its uniqueness. On our 66th Independence Day, this number is a very grim reminder that we have a long way to reach 'Purna Swaraj'.

देस मेरा रंगरेज ये बाबू , घाट घाट यहाँ घटता जादू ..

Thinking of colors also takes to me patriotic numbers  - Rang De Basanti Chola, which I have not dealt with in this post.

I am so enamored by this word, that I just can’t stop thinking about and admiring it. 

Concluding thoughts in my words,

ओ रंगरेज, मुझपे तेरा रंग चढ़ गया है 

जो मैं अब तक था अधुरा, मुझे पूरा कर गया है 

हज़ारों सवालों से तपते हुए इस मन को 

तेरे रंगों से उठती ठंडक से, शीतल कर गया है 

ज़िन्दगी जो अब तक काले और सफ़ेद रंगों में बटी थी 

तेरे इन्द्रधनुषी रंगों से , एक रंगीन सफ़र में बदल गया है 

जो मैं अब तक था अधुरा, मुझे पूरा कर गया है

ओ रंगरेज, मुझपे तेरा रंग चढ़ गया है