If so then how many times has he traversed it and shouldn’t he remember the other previous traversals?

Or is the argument that in a lifetime everyone has to go start from his first traversals himself and since this is a feat too exhausting for the human mind, we never reach beyond our 1st or the 2nd?

Can he accelerate it through culture? Or does culture just act as an initial booster which then kills his ability to go beyond a point for art is like a crutch that can only take you through an already travelled part and any point beyond that is just unthinkable for a person who has come till there on crutches…

That Mr Behl is a very learned and well respected man is something that came across in first half an hour thorough the insightful incisions he was already making to our fertile minds. It was attended by around 80 inquisitive minds and was held at the Vicarage Lodge at Delhi University North Campus. The skeletal framework of this course was set in around 26 documentaries that were commissioned by Doordarshan pertaining to Indian art history and had come as a weekly program in around 2003 (not sure). More than the actual technical discussion of the painting the focus was expectably on Indian history and some controversies related to it. But refreshingly Mr Behl  was also able to redraw what could have been some of the ethical guidelines of Ancient India from very seemingly innocuous traditions that he observed across paintings. As a student of management and life this is what made by 2 days worthwhile. I will try to list them out there for posterity.

The well known (to others at least) concept of Chitrasutra – a kind of bible for painting –of the Vishudharmottarra Purana tells us about an highly developed and formalized knowledge of art in India and an understanding of painting which is comparable to what was the best in the world at that point of time. His viewpoint that “God” , as a powerful entity outside our being is a concept was given to us by the westerners and that we have always had deities rather than god is a very interesting and to me, a very intuitive concept. So what’s the difference? Deities are more of a representation of a quality within you that want to bring out. Here is where he brings in the folly of our understanding of another word/concept. The word puja according to him is more adoration rather than prayer. And when you do puja, we by adoring a representative personification of a combination of virtue (and vice?), are trying to open our inner treasure chest to release these qualities onto the word though our being. And from this new perspective, if we take a closer look at it a lot of our seemingly inane traditions they suddenly start making sense. For example our oft ridiculed pantheon of 33 crore gods (read deities) seem more purposeful as representative of different sets of virtues and vices.

From a technical viewpoint as he traced the evolution of Indian art from ancient to medieval to modern times we moved from a “infinite softness or tenderness” to “dynamism of intellect” finally to a more “materialistic” view point (attributed to colonial styles) and then back to an evolved state of understanding as revived by the Bengal school under Tagore, Nadlal Bose etc.

Again the ethical undertones that he brought about from different paintings were beautiful and I’ll try to illustrate the same by some examples. His perspective that the eternal dance of Shiva is not complete without his loved one Shivkami standing and looking at him dancing gives us a peek into Indian viewpoint on the sacred bond of love and the gratification of completeness that comes with it. The representation of moods and facial expression to everything in the pictures from men, women, and animals tells us about the oneness of the universe that we Indians believed and believe in. The complete absence of name of kings and others who commissioned the work is indicative of the collective civic sense of belonging that people had. We also traced the evolution of buddisum, jainisum etc though art particularly the idea behind the emergence of the bodhisatva as a simplification of the concepts of buddisum as a means to reach the common man thru the jataka tales etc. The common technical heritage across different religions helped pointed toward a culture of guilds of artists that helped create beautiful art and also codify and improve the various techniques by them through the patronage of general society from the kings to housewives to fishermen.

The interpretation of stupas as a representation of different levels of self realization as clearly evidenced by a stupa in Indonesia (since they were wrongly interpreted as burial stones by the colonial historians) was of particular interest to the management student in me due to its close similarly with Maslow’s triangle. I saw traces of other management concepts underlying a lot of the observations and it possibly merits deeper study at some point. On a side note, our faculty Mala Sinha at FMS, Delhi is one of the foremost researchers in this field of understanding linkages between management concepts and Indian mythology and its different undertones. Having got a starting nudge in the same I am now looking forward to the results of such explorations that I can apply in my managerial career.

As the best takeaway to the whole course, to my often dismay at the thought that unless I understand a lot more about art my experience of it will be unfinished, Mr Behl  had the perfect panacea. His view point that art (Indian art at least) was a means – and this being its intended purpose than anything else – to at least temporally achieve bhramanadandam – the eternal bliss itself – and that does not require technical knowledge. This makes perfect sense to me as art is art for it speaks without you knowing the language and there is something special that art can give you whatever your proficiency levels in the technical details of it are.  To sum it all up, of course too many things were covered for me to list out but the general ethical framework that invisibly was woven into completion by the end of the 12 hours across 2 days left me richer and closer to my Indian heritage and am looking forward to Mr Behl ’s book on the same when it comes out.

Endnote : For people interested in knowing more about Mr Behl’s work, I am, with permission posting some links of articles written by him which traverse the same annals of history

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/india-ancient-art/interactive-map.html

Article 1:  ”Eternal India”  (General and Indus Valley)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2416/stories/20070824507606600.htm

Article 2:  ”Birth of Classic Form” (Maurya period + Bharhut)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2417/stories/20070907505406400.htm

Article 3:  ”Harmony Set in Stone” (Sanchi)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2418/stories/20070921505506600.htm

Article 4:  “Grandeur in caves” (Early Western Indian Caves)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2419/stories/20071005505506600.htm

Article 5:  “Of divine forms” (Kushana period)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2420/stories/20071019505206400.htm

Article 6:  “Valley of stupas” (Krishna Valley, Andhra Pradesh)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2421/stories/20071102504206400.htm

Article 7:  “Mind over Matter” (Gupta period)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2422/stories/20071116504306400.htm

Article 8:  “Simply Grand” (Later caves of Western India)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2423/stories/20071207505906600.htm

Article 9:  “Early Perfection” (Chalukya period)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2424/stories/20071221505406500.htm

Article 10:  “Living rocks” (Mamallapuram)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2425/stories/20080104242506600.htm

Article 11:  ” Royal shrines” (Kanchipuram and Kalugumalai)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2501/stories/20080118504906500.htm

Article 12:  “Miniature cosmos” (Development of the temple and Central India)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2502/stories/20080201505906500.htm

Article 13:  “Soaring spirit” (Ellora)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2503/stories/20080215250306500.htm

Article 14:  “Tradition of grace” (Orissa and Shravanabelagola)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2504/stories/20080229503906500.htm

Article 15:  “Thought and images” (Pala period, Nalanda and Vikramasila)                            

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2505/stories/20080314250506600.htm

Article 16:  “Chola marvels” (Chola temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2506/stories/20080328250606500.htm

Article 17:  “Tradition in bronze” (Chola bronzes)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2507/stories/20080411250706800.htm

Article 18:  “Mountain magic” (Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2508/stories/20080425250806300.htm

Article 19:  “Colour of peace” (Ladakh, Kinnaur and Spiti)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2509/stories/20080509250906400.htm

Article 20:  “Beauty of devotion” (Khajuraho)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2510/stories/20080523251006400.htm

Article 21:  “Glorious blend” (Hoysala temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2511/stories/20080606251106600.htm

Article 22:  “Tallest of them all” (Sun temple, Konark)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2512/stories/20080620251206600.htm

Article 23:  “Images of change” (Hampi)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2513/stories/20080704251306500.htm

Article 24:  “Sacred spaces” (Later temples of Tamilnadu)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2514/stories/20080718251406500.htm

Article 25: “ Temples of Peace” (Gujarat and Rajasthan Jaina temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2515/stories/20080801251506600.htm

of pleasure and pain
that one can’t feel

of a constant high
weaved with melancholy

of an armour too thick
for the tears of love

they claim as cost
of a Faustian pact

I see no riches
But it does feel
Like something sold

(Written on a movie and a book)

In paranoidland It may be safe to assume that for us to actually become a super power , which seems to be the obsession and motive behind a lot of radical cries in the media today , we will have to cultivate a better queuing culture. The dichotomy of a guy who will push aside a septuagenarian to get into a running bus but who will without question queue up in front of a liquor shop is something that must be reconciled for any super power ambitions as it is also the social aspect that will make or break countries in this era.  But I digress

But even within this unfair asylum following a dictionary sans the word “queue”  there are areas where the sanity of queues prevail. From the liquor shop that we visited earlier to a school or college where people get queued for anything and everything. The subtle  hint of authority that can reprimand is probably the pill that creates this sanity but never-the-less sanity it is.

But having established the basic need for queue sanity in these places, there is a obvious question of ordinance to decide the order and here is where we find another human folly. A lot of situations present themselves with a natural order of things that we can easily translate to the law to be used for ordering. Let’s call this “natural fairness”. But then there are other areas where nature abandons us  and leaves us on our own. Imagine a roll call for a viva, or anything related to ordering in a class room of students.  Where is the unfairness you ask?

Imagine two scenarios

People are ordered on the basis of their roll number which is decided on the alphabetic ordering of our names

People are randomly ordered by a pure random selection

Which seems more “fair”. The first right? I have seldom seen fist-fights being broken down or many a agitated minds being calmed down when it is told “…the lists shall proceed alphabetically…”. With the A’s most cheerful (or dreadful as is the case) and the Z’s sharing their counterpart’s anti-emotions. The result ? Conditioned fairness.

While alphabetic order seems like a good order to get back order (I always wanted to say that ) , its only as much arbitrary and more unfair than a pure random selection. The letter that one’s name starts with, be it the product of painstaking research of one’s parents thru peer reviewed classical academic treatise like “1000 Hindu names for your baby” or “Names for Games” , or be the product of a eureka moment of the father (even mother) after 3 pints of beer , is still , surprisingly , arbitrary.

And it’s more unfair than pure repeated randomness because the unfairness has be institutionalized. For once the guy/gal is named there are no more random events controlling his fate at least in this respect  (for the vast majority of course, judging by the scant number of name change advt’s in newspapers).  On top of that the poor “Zuhaib” or “Ankur” has been conditioned to believe that this is fair while the “Manoj’s” of the world go around scott-free cushioned on both sides.

So my final world? Make India a superpower. Invest more in queuing theory research

The worries that I have seem so distant like the lingering sadness or fear that stays with you after a dark dream night. One that infuriates you and kills your sanity for it seems to stalk you without you ever finding out and yet you are vaguely aware of a foreign presence. And then there are  ones that I have conjured up in this lie, which seem so near. The guilt of a sin never committed but as real as truth in the lie. The joy of a happiness never bestowed.

And then someone wakes.  And I die.

Finally sitting down to write about the Delhi haat experiences! Though I would like people to belive that it’s because I am doing an MBA and have no time, the sad truth is that I have been lazy. In the meantime, I was handling the same stall at American center for 2 days in connection with the monsoon festival too.
There are multiple aspects to the experience that I have had at these stalls. For example there are awareness, thought, marketing, merchandising, NGO operations, retailing, contact development etc aspects and each probably will hold me in good stead if I ever get into a BDM role.I am planning to touch upon most of them and try to do justice.

Awareness
As far as ecological initiatives are concerned there are two awareness related issues. One is in terms of actual awareness that exists and the unclear distinction between “common” wisdom and actual scientific truth. Now the problem is the former is just misleading and the latter too ambiguous. When I say ambiguous, what I mean is that there are lots of facts that can be twisted either way depending on the way you look at it [as is probably the case with anything..ohh! my elusive quest for truth ) . For me to get into a debate about the truthfulness of these would be futile, because I neither have the required expertise nor the time. But there are some facts that are startling for me actually get off my ass and start working. For example, the issue of sea encroachment is not some futuristic story; it is happening currently and has been happening in a tangible manner in the last 20 years. Orissa has lost WHOLE VILLAGES to it. Now the question of the cause being global warming is still debated, but I am convinced that it’s time for us to start working, because even if we take the position that it’s not affecting today, there is enough proof, when viewed from the most cynical viewpoint, to state that it will happen tomorrow. But yes, these interactions with different people has lead me break away from my cocooned mindset of this being a immediate non-issue.

Thought
One of the biggest problems that we as MBA’s studying in India face today is that of similarly in background and thought of our colleagues, Even at FMS (Or more so because its FMS) the diversity, though better than most other top notch b-schools because of our unique test system (50%tile cut-offs in different sections), is deplorable. 80% of my classmates are engineers and in the similar age group. Though this has its advantages, the exposure to new ideas or rather new ways of thinking gets limited. For the new age mantra of divergent thinking, this is one of the biggest hindrances, as once your way of thinking matches with your team-mates, they synergy is trampling constructive thought process and even conflict. In this respect, this stall stint has brought me contact with so many people that I cant even began to comprehend the effect of it all on my thinking. From fanatical environmentalists to NGO founders to Sports reporters to Academicians to NIFT graduates, the level of exposure has been phenomenal. And they way they approach problems is truly something that has started to help refine my own approach. This is probably more in line with the “learning from unusual sources” concept that I was exposed back in MindTree.

Accountability

The biggest turn off for a disciple of the capitalist world in these things is the lack of accountability. Initially it made me crazy to think of the whole lack of accountability and proper checks that any rational and practical (read slightly misanthropic) mind would dictate. But then I never factored in the way some of the people involved think and it’s a bit unrealistically honourable and noble. I am not trying to paint a pretty picture, because it’s obvious to anyone who sees it that there are different drivers for people and 90% of them are probably driven by not very noble (but not dishonourable) factors, but the rest 10% turn the rational model on its head. But there is still a lot of scope for management research to be done. Or if it had been already done , for it to percolate down.

Contact/Opportunity Development
I really didn’t realize how much difference it makes when you put up a stall in a fair (even a permanent one like dilli haat). Having been a placement team member in one of the worst times in terms of placement , the phrase “cold calling” is not something which will create good image/word associations in my mind. [actually now that I think of it feels like fun..but definitely not during that time]…well I digress…the crux is that the amount of contacts and opportunities that you can create in a fair is like a gazillion times more!

I guess I have covered some of the pressing things in my mind. Awesome learning experience that it was, it was also fun interacting with people who are totally different from the kind of people that I have been around for a while now. As far as more volunteer work for the next few months are concerned I will be on a hiatus till placements get over!

———————

Eco-products stall at Dilli Haat INA

Start: 08/01/2009 11:00

End: 08/15/2009 21:00

Timezone: Asia/Calcutta

The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) Delhi, in partnership with Conserve and Manzil, and supported by Haathi Chaap, Darpana, Freeplay, and several others, are setting up an eco-product stall to promote alternatives to plastic bags (made of paper, waste cloth, organic cotton, jute bags, and waste vinyl) and to distribute other unique eco-products (solar lanterns, hand-crank torches, elephant dung paper, and lots of waste-based products).

When : Saturday, August 1, 2009- Friday, August 14, 2009
Where: Dilli Haat, Sri Aurobindo Marg, Opp. INA Market,
New Delhi, India 110023.

Timing and duration: 11am-9pm

—————————-

So now I can be found at this place most days from 4^th till 14^th between 7 and 9 pm. Please do come along as there are lots of awesome stuff on display!! pics soon

Very exciting stuff and lots of new things to learn. Will share  my learning’s soon

The status message of a fellow classmate shook him from his sleepy conversation with his laptop.
“It rained?” he thought. When? Now?
“I cant hear anything.” He runs to the nearest window, shakes off the curtain as the dust finds its way  into places he will never think about of his body, but places that will remain with him till the day he dies, he stares at the cold dark night illuminated by light without a celestial origin.
“Well it’s not raining now”
“Obviously, they why would she write ‘it rained’ it should be ‘it is raining’. Did he miss anything? Was he too engrossed in his artificial friend? The irony of the situation struck him, to people, who he cared the most he had not time, but to this thing of plastic he had devoted the best part of his last year.
“Never mind! lemme ask”
His plastic proxy for communication is activated. Magical 1’s and 0’s race with light.

Pop comes something in the right hand corner.

“Oh it’s that buffoon pinging me. What does he want now?”
“Hi”
“Hi there”
“hey one small doubt?”
“sure”
“it rained?”
“???”
“your status…did it rain??”
“are you making fun of me?”
“huh? No? why?”
“well its raining”
“hmm lemme see”.. “nope its not..i cant see anything”
“our hostels are close it cant be not raining at ur place now can it?”
“hmm possible..why not!”
“sabari! ur crazy, I just asked bajaj..he said its raining! And his room is just 2 rooms away from yours!”
“huh!”
“what Huh!”
“lemme ask him”

“Hi Bajji”
“Hi saber!”
“Its raining?”
“yeah”
“??? Where are you??”
“at 2 in the night? Where do you think??? My room!”
“!!! Ok..lemme come there..”
This time the rush in his being is gone as he gets up from his bed and puts a t as he walks towards the door. “I should probably clean my room” “later perhaps”
He take the turn moves towards room no 65. “its locked from outside” “how come?”
Knock knock
Knock know “bajji” bajjiiii”
Retraces his steps.
“Where are you man?”
“I was waiting for you ? where are you?”
“Well your room is locked…from outside”
“Impossible I can see it, its open”
“come on..i just came and saw”
“stop faking u lazy bum, let me come to you then”
Chat silence
“what games are you playing sabari, where are you?”
“what? I was waiting for you”
“room no 59 rt?”
“Yeah”
“Well its open but no one inside”

(No..this is not a reflection of some deep rooted fear of being alone..cuz I already considered it before writing and by the law about the universe it ceases to be the truth…this is just a writing experiment )

His bike’s flirting with the 100s and suddenly he realizes that he has been pushing the self destruct button a lot lately. Not a great realization when you are riding at 100 and are only faintly present in the present.  And your hands and legs are frozen. Anyway no brake is going to stop that routine circle until it collapses in its own gravity. But the silence of this moment is deafening and the darkness blinding.

To the cynic every sense is misplaced, even his sense of cynicism. There is that part of him that wants the brakes to be applied, the one that wants to see a sense devoid of indifference, but the breeding is too ingrained now to be killed by simple wishing. The idea of second chances appeals to him, but after seeing though the mask it’s too hard for him to go back to believing the lies. It’s hard to once again remember god’s face when you have been face to face with the Satan himself. But he is convinced it’s the other way around in his case.

And it is this mask less world that he sees all around.   In shattered glasses lying on the highway, the last signs of the genesis of a lifelong disability. In the stoned gazes from the shaded glasses of the new aged diners, trying to remember (forget?) a night filled with disguised sadness. In the mirror of his own urine falling down creating an unfamiliar face staring back at him.

Is it too late for him to bypass the answering machine culture, filled with urgent conversations but nothing communicated? A world he now sees naked in all its brilliant, disgusting glory.

http://www.mindtree.com/blogs/thinking

A awesome outline post by someone I really admire. I know Kalyan Kumar Banarjee needs no introduction. He is one of the outstanding personalities I have interacted with during my time with Mindtree. The post is a nice collation of the different types of thinking and also a brief intro on why “systematic” is not just a buzz word be it any fiend breathing! to running to thinking . I am going to take  the liberty to copy and paste it for prosperity’s sake

1. Lateral thinking (Edward de Bono) – encourages thinking up multiple alternatives, not just going into depth on one – and suggests techniques to do it.

2. Six Thinking Hats (again, de Bono) – helps separate emotional responses from objective ones or distinguish inspired thinking from critical thinking. It also leads to parallel thinking (rather than adversarial thinking) where all criticize together or seek opportunities in a new idea together.

3. Nine Windows – helps us think of super-systems and sub-systems, and thus broaden our perspective. For example, if we are designing a pen, it tells us to think of people who will use our pen, the shop that displays our pen, or the crates that will ship our pens (all examples of super-systems). Useful when we need to focus on multiple stakeholder perspectives, or to understand the customer’s customer. Using this tool, we also focus on the system in the past, and how it could be in the future. Focusing on the past helps us understand why things are the way they are.

4. Systems Thinking – leads to realizing that we are part of a larger system, and the complex interrelationships between causes and consequences, Often, cause and effect are far removed in time and space, so learning from consequences does not always come naturally.

5. Ideal Final Result – helps us think on the ideal result we must aim for, and how we can get there.

6. Resources – triggers us to look for unused and probably free resources, to achieve our goals.

7. Personal Mastery – spiritual leaders and management gurus, all teach this. Covey dwells in depth on this, so does Senge.

8. Disruptive Innovation (Christensen) – well researched theories from the Harvard professor explain the success factor of innovative ideas; predicts when a startup will succeed with certain ideas, and when the incumbent is more likely to succeed.

9. Learning from Unusual Sources – a MindTree initiative, stemming from the belief we can learn from any situation, from anybody, or from any industry. We need to develop the capability to connect experiences in one situation to another scenario where we are looking for answers.

In terms of all thinking leading to innovation, I feel it depends both on the nature of the problem and how you define innovation and hence to expect magic to happen every time is pointless.

But there is one thing that bothers me about the whole concept which is put in perspective by what Peter Senge talks about a fad. The problem with systematic thinking that I have seen is that for most people already in the industry, there are too stuck in their motion already that its hard for them to stop and change their shoes. When they do come in touch with something like this, its more like someone throwing water to clean the shoes while they are running. It goes back to its old dirty self in time. Its hard for it to stick.

I know this rant can be quite generalized to anything new and put into better words with something like “You cant straighten a dog’s tail” but I think this is particularly important in the case of systematic innovation. The gains that systematic innovation can give in a real life scenario is quite intangible. Unless someone comes with with the next google or twitter during a TRIZ or a 6 Hat session, its possible that the incremental gains wont even get noticed, which brings us to the problem of keeping the interest levels up.

This is something I feel most organizations need to address along with trying to introducing systematic thinking and probably what will decide whether the initiative fails or succeed.