Symbolism

This week has been strange - the clock virtually stopped ticking.....

Over this week all the 3 clocks in my apartment started going dead one after the other. May be I changed the batteries of all the wall clocks in my house at the same time last year......, or maybe the cold in my apartment has started affecting the clock batteries .....

But interestingly even my wrist watches stopped working.

While I am trying to figure out the symbolism of this, I now rely on my old Omega which I earlier used to ignore because it needs to be manually wound up.  I now laboriously wind it up daily.

Encounter @ Indian Restaurant in Cairo

So this weekend I legged it to the newly opened and strangely named "Maharaja-1" restaurant in my Cairo neighbourhood. Enough of my own cooking .... I was ready to be spoilt by a royal treat from the Maharaja himself.

But especially I was looking forward to meeting the Indian chef who ran the place - some kindred soul with whom I can exchange recipes and share the feelings that well up when a chap stays far away from home.  And maybe he will prepare especially for me that special dish that is not on his menu ......

Enter the place and head straight to the busy looking owner-cum-chef.  I introduce myself as another Indian, and wait for the emotional welcome and hugs expected of a person meeting another from his home country.

He looks me and up and down.  And then........

He : "So you have come to eat, or........."

I : "err .... yes, to eat"

He (looking pointedly behind me) : "and who else with you?"

I : "err .... no one else - just me - you see my family is ....."

He (obviously uninterested in my family saga) : "so you want a table for ONE?" (emphasis his)

I :"errr ....yes"

He stopped looking into my eyes from that moment.  I could empathise with the hapless cockroach that might dare enter his kitchen

He : "well, you can take the table near the entrance - that table actually seats 4, but you can sit there ...."

I (with great relief) : "oh, thank you, thank you, much appreciated ...."

Head straight to the table which seats 4 - but which will now seat only 1.  All the other tables were 8 seaters over-flowing with large Egyptian families obviously having a good time enjoying the gastronomical delights.

The table for 4 (but which now seats only 1) is the one next to the exit.  I have a good view of the pavement outside from here.

Go through the menu.  I realise suddenly that I am not so hungry after all .....

But since I have come here .... "I will have a vegetable pulav and raita" I told him.

He : "That is it?"  And he waited, his pen expectantly poised over his large notepad.

Of course, table for 4.

I : "umm - ah - Ok, I will also have a bottle of water - small one".

He : "No small one.  We only serve big bottles here"

That is called rubbing it in.

I don't recall the taste of the food - but I can vividly recall every passerby that passed by the restaurant while I ate.

Spreading Happiness through the "Like" button on fb

I initially disliked - and used to ridicule - the "Like" button on Facebook.  I thought it was superficial and  used it very very selectively, and only for content that really really impressed me.

But enlightenment struck me recently, and now I use it liberally and with a clear conscience.

The "Like" button is not merely for the post. It is much bigger than that.  When I "Like" it, it means that the person who posted it is important enough to me to read what he posted.  It is recognising his effort, and by extension acknowledging his presence in the virtual world. It has very little with whether you actually AGREED with the contents of his post, or whether or not you liked the looks of his gaudily clad heavily mascara decked wife in their honeymoon photo. And if you are delighted about it then "Comment" on it or better still post it on your own wall.

"Like" is like giving a positive stroke to an individual - in the same way in real life you go around wishing people you like, and smiling at them, and therefore acknowledging the role they play in your life even if on that particularly day they are having a bad hair day.

So go ahead and use the "Like" button liberally - you will help spread some happiness in the Virtual - and consequently - in the Real world. 

Birthday reminder on Facebook

The Birthday reminder is one of most superficial and irritating feature about Facebook.  I actually dislike the almost "automated" birthday greetings on my fb wall from friends & acquaintances as a result of Facebook reminding users on my birthday - and therefore indirectly putting social pressure on them to wish me (even if they did not want to).

I like it as it was in the pre-Facebook days when without any automated calendar reminders, friends either write to me by email or call to wish me.

Anyway I removed my birthday from Facebook so that no one gets a reminder and hence are not forced to write some automated greeting on my wall.  And neither do I send birthday greetings to people if I did not know their birthdays by heart in the first place.

I am truly becoming a relic. 

Notes To Myself - on Farewells

1. A few years ago when I was leaving an organisation I sent out a general "Farewell & Thank you" mail to the entire organisation, thanking a lot of individuals by name.  Inevitably as it happens I forget to mention a few names - either by accident or by design.  Those whose name I mentioned will not remember me for this gesture; but those who thought they deserved a mention but who I - accidentally or otherwise - forgot to mention will not forget the omission. 
2. The best thing to do - either in farewell speeches or farewell mails - is to keep it general and thank everyone without mentioning any specific individual names (except perhaps your direct manager).  If I need to thank some specific individuals, I will write to them individually or drop by their office and thank them personally.

7 Reasons why 2012 was so smashingly good for me

And why was 2012 so smashing good?

1. I have completed 2 years in post-revolution Egypt.  Surprisingly, the 2nd year has been even tougher than the first. This year I discovered hidden strengths which I never realised existed. I have developed such a steely resolve now that apparently the steel is even reflected in my hair.
2. I read Ben Graham's "Security Analysis" cover to cover - twice.  Visitors to my house thought my reading of this book was connected to the security situation in Egypt.
3. I had the opportunity to visit several police stations in Cairo. It is rumoured now that policemen spring to their feet and salute me and speak in hushed tones when I pass them on the street
4. I had a quarrel with the "Pehla" cable TV chaps over subscription rates and they disconnected my cable.  So now-a-days I come home, switch on the TV and watch a black screen - I find that even more entertaining 
5. I thought I will give myself a break from my own bachelor cooking and ate out at the recently opened Indian restaurant in my neighbourhood - and then I realised how much I missed my own cooking 
6. I play so much of the harmonium now that the neighbours checked with my maid whether I was banished from my country because of my music.  They no longer come to borrow sugar.
7. I won the bet with my Egyptian driver on who will win the Egyptian Presidential Elections. 

And there has to be an 8th reason (7 sounded so much better for the title)

8.      I finally learnt and have started using the Arabic for "Today" - otherwise the only word I knew and heard was "Bukrah" (tomorrow)

I have a feeling next year is going to be even better!

A Dummy's Guide to Hindustani Ragas

I have now given up trying to learn more and more Ragas - it is like an ocean, and if I try to learn more and more Ragas my knowledge on Music will always remain shallow.  So now I have decided to focus on some of the more commonly used Ragas, and dive deeper into it.

The result - I have uploaded on YouTube a video series in which I discuss a dozen ragas which are commonly used to compose Bhajans and Abhangs. 

Now you may ask why an amateur half-baked harmonium player like me is attempting to do the equivalent of a Dummy's Guide to Hindustani music - when there are millions of professional musicians out there who are queuing up and jostling to teach you the fundamentals of music.

The reason is simple - I always believe that it is simpler for a layman to understand an amateur than understand a Professional.  This is an undisputed fact. Amateurs tend to focus on the key themes (because they don't know the complicated detail), and they also deliver it in simple layman's terms. And amateurs only share - they don't teach.  So there!

Here is part 1 of the 5 part series which I have labelled as the "Essential Raagas" - the rest of the series is also up on my channel on YouTube.

And I will be a very happy and content person indeed if even one layman feels that she can now recognise at least one Raag after watching this video.

And as usual feedback and brickbats are welcome. 

Getting What We Deserve

"I am extremely disappointed with the caliber of researchers in the industry today.  Where are all the good guys gone?" commented the client the other day.  This is a client who habitually demands meetings at extremely short notice - and then makes the agency team wait in the reception for hours.  This is a client who does not return phone calls even from senior members in the agency, and who treats the views of the best guys from the agency with a "I know better" hauteur.

A few years ago when I was working on the "other" (client) side, I quickly realized that my Market Research budgets are limited, and not comparable to the MR budgets that other larger client organisations had.  In the beginning, I could not get the best guys from the agencies to service me.  If I make some threatening noise to the agency head, for a brief while I will have some of their best guys coming in for a couple of meetings, but then not turning up subsequently.

For me therefore to ensure that I get the best possible servicing on a regular basis I had to completely change my approach.  I realized that the only approach was to use "soft" power.  I prepared a list of the individuals on the agency side that I thought were best in the industry and then literally wooed them. Some of these individuals were industry dons when I was a mere baby.  It did not take much really to woo them - just treating them like a friend, calling them over for lunch or dinner, not making them wait in the reception, giving them the right respect in front of their junior colleagues .....  Very soon I was punching much above my weight - and had the best of the talent involved even in routine matters as they felt valued and respected.

Fortunately or unfortunately the MR industry has reached a situation where there is a massive scarcity of the really good research talent on the agency side. I will be surprised if such expert talent is more than 5% in any agency. These rare talents have their own egos, their own desire for being valued, and a need to prioritize their time both for their own and agency's maximum benefit - which need not always be revenue. Increasingly those rare talented individuals can pick and choose who they service, and what level of servicing that they will provide.  A large client can throw his weight around and bully an agency into getting a particular talented individual to being involved in a project - but such attempts will be very short-term - the talented person will always find ways of reducing his involvement if his heart is not simply with the client.

The only way some of these complaining clients can get what they think they deserve is by ensuring that they start acting as magnets - a magnet that the best people from the agency side will love - and will do anything - to service. And the funny thing is that it is not difficult being a magnet - and fortunately a few clients have cracked this little secret. 

Corporate Nirvana

The more I spend time in the corporate world, the more I realise the truth in the ancient Indian belief of "Non-Attachment".  "Non-Attachment" in the corporate world does not mean "non-involvement" or "lack of passion" - on the contrary it means that I acknowledge that:

1. I do not own my current position - and nothing I do will ever ensure that I can continue in that position as long as I myself like.  So be humble, and avoid indulging in self-aggrandizing behaviour or creating personality cults
2. there will always be people who are better than I am and who will step into my role or even supercede me, and it makes more sense to encourage this than resist it.  Rat Race - imaginary or real - is the biggest destroyer of harmony
3. I will always strive to do my best in my role within my physical & mental limits - but there will always be lots of things that I will have absolutely no control over, and in those situations it is best to go with the flow, keep smiling, and leave the rest to God
4. Often, for quick corporate glory we will be tempted to make "small, and for-this-one-time-only" deviations from our values such as honesty, openness, or what we stand for in terms of principles.  However, the moment you take a "small" deviation you are on the irreversible path to self-destruction and the end of any hope for corporate nirvana
5. Ultimately it is my choice on what kind of organisational environment I want to be in.  It is a trade-off that I need to make.  If one cannot cope with a certain organizational environment, then don't blame the organisation, but blame the choice and then do something about it.  

Unfortunately these are easier said than done.  It becomes definitely easier to live these beliefs if one is not chasing a constantly upward spiralling life-style. A constantly upward spiralling life-style brings in a state of perpetual comparisons with others (and hence dissatisfaction) and leads to the ultimate killer tendencies for Corporate Nirvana - Greed and Insecurity.

The End of the Ancient Egypt civilization:the Mystery

There are huge similarities between the Ancient Egyptian religion and Hinduism.  The temples of Luxor and Karnak remind me of Indian temples.  Of course the Egyptian temples are at least 2000 years older than the oldest surviving Indian temple, and are built on a much grander scale than any existing Indian temple.

And then there are the other similarities - especially the startling parallels in the various forms God is depicted in  the ancient Egyptian religion, and in Hinduism. In fact there are so many similarities between the 2 religions, that it is not possible to cover all the similarities in a small blog post.

What puzzles me is : How did a religion that existed for more than 3000 years simply suddenly disappear by the 2nd century AD? The Egyptian civilization was supposed to be the most powerful and wealthiest - but it just crumbled away suddenly, and not a living trace exists of it now.  Only a few of the temples survived thanks largely due to being buried under the sands for thousands of years, before being re-discovered recently.

I checked with our very knowledgeable Egyptologist guide - but he could not come up with any convincing reason.  The only explanation he could come up with was that the ancient Egyptian religion was not a religion, but was a degenerate civilization which crumbled in the face of a superior monotheistic religion (Christianity - which was largely supplanted by Islam later.)

To me this does not seem like a convincing explanation for the sudden death of the ancient Egypt religion/civilisation.  If that is indeed the explanation, then how come Hinduism still survives as a vibrant way of life despite its exposure to Islam and Christianity over a thousand years ago when Hinduism was in an advanced state of decline? Is it because Hinduism has a strong philosophical under-pinning (e.g. the Bhagwat Geeta and the Vedas)?  But then possibly even the Egyptian religion too might have had it in the ancient times - though no evidence exists.  Or is it Hinduism's famed flexibility to adapt to existential challenges, and to be re-born in new avatars that is responsible for its survival e.g. the famous 13th century revival movement (the Bhakthi movement) which cleaned up many of the ills plaguing Hindu society?

Anyway this is not a discussion on India.  For me the puzzle is about why a religion which flourished for 3000 years just completely vanished abruptly in a matter of less than 100 years. So far I have not found any convincing reasons for its demise anywhere on the net.  My own personal hypothesis is that the ancient Egypt religion had - just before it vanished - degenerated into a personality cult for the kings - and that the temples were just a means to propagate their own divinity.  And as with any personality cult, when the personality dies, the cult too dies, and a new thought/belief system rushes in to fill the vacuum.

There is a lesson to be learnt here.

Anyway, I hope one day I will know the real answer.

Egypt Luxor Cruise - worth doing it again?

So many places to see in this world and so little time and money - is it worth repeating places that you had  already visited?

There are a few historical destinations that are worth a repeat visit.  The Taj Mahal in Agra is definitely one such destination - every visit exposes you to a different facet of the magnificent mausoleum.  The other historical destinations worth re-visiting are the ancient temples of Egypt in Aswan and Luxor.

We are just back from such a visit - our previous visit was 7 years ago. This time we did this during peak summer - and got virtually baked under the 45 degree heat.

I am glad on hind-sight that we did this again - everytime I see these magnificient temples (most of which are more than 4000 years old), I am amazed at what this ancient civilization achieved - and about how mortal even the most powerful civilization is.  As usual we ended up taking a lot of photographs - but unfortunately photos do not do any justice to the scale and grandeaur of these temples.

So to all those who have already made the Aswan-Luxor trip once: please do it again.  You will pick up details which you had completely missed out in your 1st visit - and your appreciation for this culture - even if you are not a history buff - would go up manifold. And of course if you combine it with a Nile Cruise, then you could also chill out taking in the beautiful Nile scenery.

However, please do it between October-March - pleasant weather does indeed enable one to study the details better.

Et tu - Standard Chartered?

The news that Standard Chartered Bank allegedly has violated US laws caused me a bit of distress.  My links with this bank go deep : my father spent his entire career with this bank, and such was his passion for the bank, that the whole family developed a lot of very happy associations with the bank.

The pride was for its then caring nature - and for its reputation for integrity and fairness - both to its employees and to its customers (It never sold anything to customers if it was not good for the customer).

It was a conservative British bank, and my father proudly used to say that the bank will never ever violate laws, and has entrenched value systems unlike the "cheeky smart-alecs" - a reference to the aggressive American banks.

A lot began to change in the bank towards the end of my father's retirement in the late '80s as it started imitating the American banks.  However, when Standard Chartered came out relatively unscathed from the financial scandals of the recent years, it seemed to reinforce - much to my pride - what my father used to say about the deeply embedded values of Standard Chartered bank.  It was almost as if this bank was immune to the big G (greed).

Until now, of course ....

For me, growing up as a kid - this always remained the aspirational employer (though I landed up in a different career).  I hope that this pride will return, and children of existing employees of Standard Chartered would feel the same pride that I once used to feel.   

Whither Sarcasm

"Apologies - there will be no further delays.  My cable technician has neared your home, and will be at your home in precisely 7 minutes" said the clipped military voice from the cable shop.  And typical of a person who values and measures time precisely, he hung up before I could ask him anything else.

I can understand if a person says "5 minutes" or "10 minutes" - it typically means in Egypt (as in India) anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours.  But the "7 minutes" had a ring of authenticity to it - nobody can be so precise unless they know for a fact that it is indeed going to happen in 7 minutes.

I waited.  And waited.  Finally he turned up almost an hour later.

After the repair man left, I called up the cable shop owner to give him a piece of my mind.

I (in my most sarcastic tone) : "Your cable guy finally came to my house in PRECISELY 52 minutes 37 seconds after your phone call".

Cable shop owner : "He came, did he?  Good.  Good night" and then he hung-up before I could slip in another word edgewise.

I am losing my faith in sarcasm.

Precision

There is something formidable about precision.  We all love Swiss watches, and we all love precision in our Market Research data.

I was visiting Muscat and was having dinner with a client, and another person called CS whose agency conducted the fieldwork for us in Oman.

During the course of the dinner, the client - who had a reputation for being a stickler for accuracy - said:

John (the client) : "it is unfortunate that none of you Market research agencies seem to be able to give me precise market shares of the leading lube brands ...."

I : "Yes, it is difficult to assess that unless we carry out a large quantitative study"

CS (field supplier): "Your market share is 93.56%"

Stunned silence at the table.  The client's mouth was agape.

The client : "From where did you get this figure, CS?".

CS : "I know that for a fact".

I : "John, there is some soup on your collar".

The change of topic helped.  But the client was silent for the rest of the dinner, raising his head from the plate only to dart quick suspicious glances at CS.

After the dinner I took CS aside.

I : "Where did you get that number from?"

CS : "The client's brand is everywhere - it is obviously the leader"

I : "Yes, we all know it is the leader, but where did you get that number of 93.56% from?"

CS : "What is the problem? That is just a number to indicate that the client brand is the market leader.  I have seen lots of you researchers presenting such kind of numbers to clients in their presentations, and clients don't question those numbers"

I : "You cannot make up a random number like that.  We researchers present such kind of numbers only after we carry out fieldwork".

CS  : "Yes, and it is I who carries out all your fieldwork".

The conversation was getting into dangerous territory, and I thought it is better to beat a hasty retreat than probe into the implications of that statement.

There was one client though who seemed to have forever lost his taste for precision.

Egypt Elections - Tail Piece

Tail Piece 1

I love pulling my driver Mehmood's  leg - and knowing that Mehmood is quite religious, I put on a straight face and told him that I am ordering him to vote for Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate.  He reluctantly refused, and said that he will be voting for Fatouh - an independent candidate who is slightly more liberal compared to the orthodox and bearded Morsi.

He then turns to me, and tells me with a straight face : "If Morsi comes to power, all of us will have to take on 4 wives".

And after a very pregnant pause he adds: "I don't think I can afford 4 wives."

1st class Egyptian humour.

Tail Piece 2

I went to the hair cutting saloon today to trim my hair.  After he finished cutting my hair, the barber politely asked me whether I would like a shave (I had a 3 day stubble owing to the long Election weekend).

I thought I will practice my Egyptian humour on him, and told him "No thanks - I am now following in the footsteps of Morsi and am growing a beard", and expected him to smile.

Too late - I realised I had put both feet into my mouth. The room suddenly turned very quiet, and all the 4 barbers looked at me with a very somber expression.

Oh oh - with Morsi topping the 1st round elections, the fear that Egypt might soon turn into a country of bearded men must be causing deep agony in all the hair cutting saloons in the country.