Modi – The Corporate Style Leader

I have been and I am a big fan of Mr. Narendra Modi ever since his rise on the Indian horizon. Just a fortnight back, he has taken oath of Gujarat Chief Minister for the fourth time in a row, not a small feat to achieve by anyone anywhere. The development of Gujarat during his tenure has been phenomenal. He has transformed his state to so business friendly that most corporate honchos of India and even abroad drool to setup their plants/ units in Gujarat.

Recently, he was invited by Delhi based Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) to deliver a lecture to the college youth.  The invitation to Mr. Modi was not decided by the college authorities by choice, but rather through a ballot process where students had to pick one name out of 5 possible names. One name was of Mr. Modi and the 4 names were of others including Congress Yuvraj Mr. Rahul Gandhi. Because Mr. Modi received maximum votes, he was invited as the speaker by the college authorities. Mr. Modi being chosen above Yuvraj Rahul Gandhi is also noteworthy considering that both State and Central Governments in Delhi are of Congress.

His talk of ~60 minutes was completely mesmerizing. When I started playing it on YouTube, my plan was to just watch the glimpses by skipping the portions of the video, but I could not do that. The speech both in terms of contents and style was so intense, lively, connecting, interesting and captivating that I watched the video in its entirety.  I am describing some of his musings with connection to corporate style.

Unique and Out of Box thinking

He held a glass of water in his hand which was half full and explained as to how two categories of people perceive that differently. He said the people with optimistic thought process perceive the glass half full and the people with pessimistic thought process perceive glass half empty. Modi Ji propagated his own and third creative interpretation saying that neither the glass as half full, nor the glass as half empty. Instead it was completely full, half with water and half with air.

In corporations, the great leaders perceive and visualize things in non traditional manner, an out of box thinking.

Business Diversification

Modi Ji, mentioned that his growth model of Gujarat was not based on just a single sector. Rather, it was based on three growth sectors;  Agriculture sector, Industrial sector and Service sector. This 3 pronged model was implemented to ensure that weakness in any sector is compensated by the strength of the other sectors. This is a classic example of business diversification.

Most top successful companies follow the same diversification mode. The American conglomerates GE and Fidelity Investments and Indian conglomerate Reliance, Airtel, ITC are some great examples of diversified corporations.

Branding

He took an example that a label “Made in Japan” inherently means quality. The quality centric perception that Japan has created around the world has not come out by accident. Rather, it is years of hard work by the Japanese people.  Similarly he cited the example of South Korea as to how that country used the Seoul Olympic of 1988 to create its mark on the world stage. Today, South Korea has a well established brand. He also reminded the audience as to how we squandered the opportunity we had in the form of CWG for creating an India brand. What happened as a result of CWG is well known to all of us, a disaster. He called upon the youth to create a “Brand India”.

Most successful corporations’ modern success is attributed to the brand they have created over the years through sheer hard work. The “Intel Inside” by Intel or “We sell for less” by Walmart and Indian brand “Tata” are some examples.

Business Expansion         

He took an example as to how his administration is working on tapping new development areas of economy. He has constituted a team to go over all the things that a human being needs in life and come up with a comprehensive list. The team came up with close to 1,000 things that a human needs. Based on this list, his team is working on creating new focus areas for skill development which will be used to open new frontiers of the economic development.

Most successful businesses keep looking for new growth areas. Apple did not stop at iPod which was probably its first mass product. It went on to create a market for iPad, which did not exist to begin with.

Pride in work

Modi Ji cited  an example of his meeting with Taiwanese leaders during his visit ,  where he was asked if India is still a country of snake charmers. His response , kind of unique and was well thought out, said that India has moved on from a country of “snake charmers” to country of “mouse charmers”, an obvious reference to India’s growing prowess in the IT sector.

He took another example of then President Mr. Bill Clinton visiting one of the villages in Rajasthan where many of the women, while covering their faces with the veil, were using computers for their small businesses. A young man in a very assertive manner approached Mr. Clinton to ask/say something. Many of the village leaders who were present there, managing Clinton’s visit got worried that the young man might ask for either visa, or job or even money. But what the young man asked was totally unexpected. The young man firmly looked into Clinton’s eyes and asked if Clinton still thinks if India was a backward country. Clinton was forced to say, “No, it is not”.

Most successful corporations create a sense of pride in their employees. It is not just the money that attracts the skill. It’s the larger purpose of the organization and how the corporation is able to make connections with its employees to create a sense of pride which glues its employees together to achieve larger goals.

Empowerment

Modi Ji cited an example of a person who showed up once to meet him, who did not impress Modi Ji at all in his brief meeting, but later went on to set up his business in record 18 months time, which today supplies coaches to Delhi Metro. This was due to the empowerment Modi Ji  has done at the district level , Tehsil level and even block level.

The successful companies empower their employees in taking risks. It’s the risk taking ability of the individuals fostered by the corporations’  top management’s commitment to risk taking , that results into innovations which drive future value creation and growth.

Value Creation

Modi took an example of cotton production in Gujarat which stood at 23 Lakh bells in 2001, and which now stands at 1 crore 23 lakh bells. This is more than 5 fold increase and is something to be proud about. In some ways, it is tremendous value creation through productivity increase.  But Modi Ji’s version of value creation is his ambitious 5 F’s plan where cotton produced in Farm will be converted to Fiber which in turn will be converted to Fabric which in turn will be converted to Fashionable clothes which finally will be exported to Foreign markets.

This is an example of value creation that successful corporations follow. Many companies in our IT sector which were initially exporting human skills (body shopping) have moved on to create products.

On a different note, we export our iron ores to China, why? I think this should stop now. We should rather export more finished products made out of iron.

Packaging

Modi Ji told how the market of Indian Medicine did not pickup till the packaging was made attractive. A commission named “Hathi Commission” was setup by Pt Jawarhar Nehru more than half century back, recommended better packaging for Indian medicines.  Modi Ji demanded the packaging needs to be right along with good product quality. He mentioned how the tourism industry of Gujarat has grown tremendously by focused campaign by making great Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as the Brand Ambassador of Gujarat.

Most corporations strive to create attractive packaging after studying the consumer psyche to increase the selling chances for their products.

Socially Responsible

All over our country, the water level in earth is going down at an alarming level. Gujarat was no exception due to its climatic conditions. Modi mentioned in his speech that he has constructed over 50,000 small water bodies all over the state to store water. That has resulted into the ground water level in Gujarat to come up in last 10 years as against most part of our country where water level has gone down drastically.

These days, many corporations are adopting social responsibility and striving hard to balance growth , environment and society.

Goal oriented Offsite

Modi Ji mentioned as to how his team of advisors meet under the umbrella of 2 months event called “Krishi Mahotsava”, during the month of May and June when the temperature outside is scorching 44 degree celcius.The team focuses on finding new and innovative ways of agriculture development. He mentioned that Gujarat maintains the health card for the soil and that soil health card is used for picking the correct fertilizers and plantations.

Most successful corporations conduct goal oriented off sites to brainstorm and generate the strategy for the future action plan.

Global Reach

Modi Ji cited examples of presence of products made in Gujarat in foreign countries. He has examples of export of Okra ( Bhindi) to Europe, Milk to Singapore, Tomato to Afghanistan and many other parts of the world. He also mentioned that the global summit of Gujarat was attended by the leaders of 121 countries representing more than 50% of the world GDP.

Most corporations today have global thinking in their long term plans.

Eloquence

Like any other corporate leader, he threw many keywords. Some are given below. These keywords serve a great purpose in effective communication and help in keeping its impact long lasting.

In one of my company’s offsite, a speaker from GE cited the phrase EEE ( Energy, Edge and Execution) which I still remember, even 3 years later and I can vividly  connect to what he meant by each E.

Some of Modi Ji’s citations are below.

P2G2  - Pro People Good Governance  ( On Su-Raj means good governance which is pro people)

5 F’s – Farm to Fiber to Fabric to Fashion to Foreign

3 S’s – Skill, Scale and Speed ( three things needed to move forward )

Google Guru  - Our one stop place for finding anything we need

My Conclusion

India in last few years has gone thru either non governance or extremely turbulent governance. The current government of UPA-II is more dud and non-functional then its previous version UPA-I. Our Prime Minister  Mr. Man Mohan Singh has transformed himself into Mr. Mauni Mohan Singh. Both current home Minister Shinde and previous home minister Chidambaram keep attacking the identity and ethos of a large section of people. I am not sure whose interest they represent.  Our country is big country with 1.2 billion people having 65% population below 35 years of age. The country needs a leader who can lead such a large nation to put India back in the forefront of nations of the world, a leader who can channelize the energy of youth for productive and constructive use. That leader can be no one except Mr. Modi. India strongly and desperately needs Mr. Modi as its Prime Minister.

- Devendra Singh 

  

Attributes of a Leader

Last week, I attended one ELT ( Extended Leadership Team ) meeting of my company in Hotel Movenpick, Bangalore near BEL circle.  The theme of the meet was "Leadership". Some of my colleagues asked me ( strongly) to recite a poem. I used the theme of the day and penned down a few lines in the form of a poem, on attributes of a Leader.

Here is my impromptu poem that I wrote and recited there. 

वक्ता से पहले श्रोता, पर द्रष्टिकोण का ध्यान धरे ।

बन उत्प्रेरक जन मानस का, परिणामों की नींव भरे ।।

कथनी और करनी में जिनके, कोई अन्तर ना पाये ।

दुर्गमता और बीहड्ता में, कभी नहीं जो अकुलाये ।।

मधुर कंठ से शोभित हो जो, ऊर्जा का संचार करे ।

जटिल राह को पट करने हित, आत्मशक्ति का भाव भरे ।।

तीव्र गरम जो रहे स्वयँ पर , परजन पर जो नरम रहे ।

वस्त्र सद्रश हो परोभाव और, धरा सद्रश साहसी रहे ।।

बिन्दु बिन्दु से सिन्धु बना है, ऐसा जो उद्घोश करे ।

मुख्य भूमिका है हर जन की, सब के मन में जोश भरे ।।

कर्मयोग ही महायोग है, कर्मयोग का पाठ करे ।

राह अपरिचित या एकाकी, उस पर भी वो नहीं डरे।।

ध्यान लक्ष्य पर केन्द्रित कर, ले जन मानस को साथ चले ।

बढ़ता जाये कठिन मार्ग पर, कभी नहीं वो मगर टले ।।

By Devendra Singh

जय हो अण्णा !!

I feel extremely privileged to witness the history being made and rewritten. It does not happen frequently when the entire parliament comes together to pass a resolution for larger goods of the nation, even if done when pushed to the wall by the public. Several key politicians have spoken in parliament during last few days.

The by-default future Prime Minister of our country Rahul Gandhi during his speech in Lok Sabha appeared largely arrogant, brash, defiant and totally unaware of people’s sentiments and expectations. How could he boast about his idea as a “game changer”?, just because it came from him? Let others say that and no one has said that yet. On the contrary his cousin Varun Gandhi showed tremendous grace and immense maturity during his speech/ deliberations. He, several times had put the people of India above everything else. He has showed as to how far he has come from two years back when his controversial remarks landed him and his political career in trouble. The unanimous clapping after his speech showed that it is all about growing in life and also about moving on. I think the speech of Sharad Yadav was very good, though at times, it looked a bit sarcastic. Even “Manuni” Mohan Singh broke his “maun”, though he sat stone faced and his words did not have anything inspiring.

Yesterday’s lower house and upper house sessions were culmination of true collaboration between representatives of public and public itself. The yesterday’s resolution would go a long way in restoration of people’s faith in parliamentary and political processes. The leaders of major political parties have displayed exemplary leadership skills in resolution of the impasse. I will cite a quote from Nelson Mandela “Quitting is also leadership” on situational leadership. Our parliamentarians have done just that. They have quit from their position of rigidity, they have quit from their position of protecting their turf.  As the yesterday’s collective debate in the parliament reached its culmination point, I could hear background chants following Vedic shloka in the air.

ॐ सहना भवतुः सहनौ भुनत्तुः सहवीर्यम करवावहे ।

तेजस्वनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषामहे ।।

ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शन्तिः

During last few days, several other people, prominent in their own fields have expressed their opinions about Anna agitation.  I will cite a few, who I think have made mockery of themselves by opening their mouths.

Arundhati Roy: This lady only sees rights and sympathy for the criminals and terrorists so it does not make any sense for anyone to analyze her comments. There are always going to be some nuts in the system and we have to learn to live with that and we should leave it that way. She is another Rakhi Sawant and will do anything to remain in the limelight.

Nandan Nilekani: He is a person known for his integrity and intellect. I fail to understand what his compulsion to say whatever he said was. How could a person running a program called UID for larger public could question another movement involving people for the same larger public. He appeared a diehard congress party worker.  

Imam Bukhari: This bigot has crossed all the limits. His statement that supporting Anna is un-islamic because the people participating are chanting the “वन्दे मातरम्” and “भारत माता की जय”, is highly deplorable. My response/suggestion to him is that then go to Pakistan/Bangladesh where you belong to and live/settle there. What is wrong in Vande mataram and how can it become anti-religious for any religion? All it says that “I salute my motherland”. But it is not his fault; it is due to his upbringing, like father like son. Even some renowned people like Javed Akhtar from bollywoord, have very myopic views and see discrimination in everything and try to bring an untrue color during their comments even in regular TV programs. “Bukhar” in Urdu means fever and this guy bukhari has proved that he is suffering from some sort of mental and emotional fever.

Which country can be more inclusive than India, a country of 1.2 billion people with 80% Hindus (officially)? But look the power setup with president a Hindu woman, vice president a muslim, loksabha speaker a dalit hindu woman, prime minister a Sikh, leader of ruling party a foreign born (and current foreign passport holder) catholic Christian, leader of opposition a woman, defence minister a Christian, law minister a muslim. These are some undeniable raw facts that put the inclusiveness of our great nation above every other nation. No other country on earth had / has / will have and can have such inclusivity.

During last 2 weeks or so, there have been leanings for everyone, the civil society has learnt as how to deal with the government, the government has learnt that people’s movement can not be suppressed and had to be looked into, and the people have learnt as to what and how much they can achieve through united efforts. Anna has more learning to do. He has to assess his team and get rid of people who have ulterior motives. One such person is Swami Agnivesh (see 1m15s video).  He is no Swami but a bigot , congress agent and untrustworthy. The team Anna should completely dissociate from him and his actions. Anna has to also ensure that good people continue to support him. Mr Hegde is one such person. The other trait Anna needs to build is to show some flexibility.

Anna, an ordinary Indian, who has worked in Indian army as a driver, who does not have any formal degree, has galvanized the nation of 1.2 billion people, has created a sense of urgency in the minds of Indians that corruption pox has to be eradicated. Anna has solidified the position of India on the world map as a truly functional democracy. It is completely unbelievable that such a large people’s movement, spread across every nook and corner of our motherland, has not resulted into loss of even one rupee worth of property, forget loss of any life.

I want to cite an example from Kishkinda kand of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. The entire monkey army is sitting on sea shore contemplating who can go across the ocean to Lanka to find out whereabouts of Sita. When all the warriors of the monkey army expressed their inability to cross the ocean, Jamvant approached Hanuman to remind him about his inbuilt and inherent powers.

कहहु रीछ्पति सुनु हनुमाना । का चुपु साधि रहे बलवाना ।।

We all know that Hanuman ji flew to Lanka and succeeded not only in finding out whereabouts of Sitaji but also in assessing the strength and weaknesses of Ravana the enemy.

Anna has proved to be the Jamvant of our nation. He has reminded people of their inherent and latent strength and awakened them. The nation is indebted to you for being the “Jamvant” of Indian public. Anna, my sincere and respectful salutations to thee.

Lets Eradicate This Corruption Pox

The corruption today is indeed a big menace facing our society. It has crept into and found place in almost all walks of our lives. The BSNL’s, the registrar’s offices, RTO offices, public works, BESCOMs, etc are a few entry level examples. Then, the high offices of judicial branches and armed forces are also corrupted/ polluted. Our political system and politicians sets the benchmark of corruption. Under the clock of current central government, one or more high level scams are always active. Our prime minister Mr Manmohan Singh, who is at the helm of the affairs of the governance, has transformed himself into  “Mauni”Mohan Singh and has maintained a prolonged silence. The real Prime Minister Sonia Maino has gone abroad unexpectedly for some medical treatment. Only God know her true motives as it is hard to believe that that she could not find a single good doctor for her treatment in a country which is capable of making nuclear bombs, a country capable of making fighter planes, and a country capable of launching satellites into space. Even the by-default future prime minister is not coming out with any comment as to what should be done to deal with this corruption menace. Our by-default future prime minister quickly comes out on national TV when he has to score points over rival governments in UP or MP or Gujarat but goes to hibernation when he has to deal with the issues faced by the national public.

There are many social crusaders fighting the corruption in their own ways. The Civil Society team under the able leadership of Shri Anna Hajare ji is fighting the battle to enact the Jan Lok Pal which will help in creating an ethical framework at public places. A few weeks back, Bharat Swabhiman Sansthan under the able leadership of Baba Ramdev launched campaign to fight the corruption. The present government in an extremely cruel manner suppressed Baba Ramdev and opened investigation against him using its investigative agencies. Also, the officials and ministers of the present central government have entered into character assassination of Anna as well. 

True that the parliament makes the rules but who elects the parliament, people, right? Who pays for the bills of the parliamentarians, people, right? True that the parliament has a role to play in democracy but democracy also says “for the people, by the people”.  It does not say “for the parliamentarians, by the people”. If the parliamentarians are called the servants of people, why can’t they listen to their masters who are people? Both Anna and Ramdev may have tens of shortcomings but that’s OK, they are human beings but their heart is at right place. They are fighting for the betterment of our country and trying to provide solution options to fight with the corruption leprosy.

Our nation is passing thru a tough ordeal right now where failure is not an option.  We as nationals of our country have to take sides.  The team Anna and for that matter whosoever is filling the vacuum of able leadership should be provided our active support.  We need to do whatever little we can to eradicate this corruption pox from our nation.

I want to share a couple of examples from my side which I have done and intend to do.

Last August (2010), I made the final payment to Kotak Mahindra (KMPL) of my Honda City car loan. That was a moment of pride for me as I could call the car my own from that point onwards. But, the RC book still had KMPL name on it. So, I took an NOC from KMPL and approached Yelehanka RTO office to de-hypothecate KMPL name from the RC book. In the RTO office, I was made to run around from one place to other place and was made to come to RTO office several times. The folks in RTO office came up with new set of documentation requirements during my visits there. I knew and realized very well as to why I was getting such a hard time from RTO folks.  But me being me, I was hell bent and determined not to pay any “suvidha shulk” to anyone, not a single paisa, and provided them the documentation whatever they wanted. Finally, after 4 visits to RTO office, the KMPL name was removed from the RC book. My perseverance and forbearance has paid off. I feel proud that I was not the medium of further corruption of already corrupted environment.

I have moved to my new house about one year back. In spite of my not liking, I have reluctantly paid thousands of rupees as “Suvidha Shulk” for registering my house. Now the next thing is to transfer the “Khata” in my name. As my residential complex comes under the jurisdiction of Panchayt, I approached the Panchayat office where I was told that I have to pay a hefty amount for “khata transfer” into my name.  Here also, I intend to be a tough cookie. If I have to go to the Panchayat office ten times, I will go. I will provide them whatever documentation they need from me. If need be, I will not hesitate in making use of RTI. But one thing I certainly have in my head that I will not pay any “Suvidha shulk” here as well. I have already started feeling proud about it.

It is my appeal to all of you to take this kind of tough stand on one or two things. I understand that there will be areas where tough stand will not help. But if we start picking one two areas, it will start showing positive results. There is a famous saying in Hindi

बिन्दु बिन्दु से सिन्धु बना है,

बिन्दु बिन्दु से ये बादल ।

बिन्दु बिन्दु से निर्झर झरता ,

बनता लघु सरिता का जल ।।

चक दे इन्डिया !! जय हो !!

Little could have anyone imagined and hoped when the God of cricket legendary Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was made to walk back, as the second man out to the hut, after scoring a paltry 18 runs, right after famous machine gun Virendra Sehwag went silent on the very second ball of the game, that he would be hoisted back on the shoulders of his teammates after Dhoni’s helicopter shot launched the world cup into India’s lap. What an amazing game it was all the way through?

It all began with the toss. The Lankan captain Sangakara has proved once again that he is not fair person and that he is a cheat. This is not the first instance of its kind from Sanga. Last August also, during tri-series in Dambulla, he manipulated his bowler Suraj Randiv to deprive Virendra Sehwag a cricketing milestone, a well deserved century. This time he went on to stoop to the extent that he invalidated the first toss, realizing that he had lost it. This was the final game of the Worldcup and the need of the hour was to accept gracefully the outcome of the toss, no matter what. Sanga is a disgrace to the game of cricket and should be penalized for his improper, unethical and unsporting conduct. The destiny has responded very well to Sri Lanka as to what the sporting cheating can lead to.

During the Sri Lankan inning, Team India’s bowlers had put together a terrific show for most part except the batting powerplay when thing went awry. Sri Lanka, who at one point was struggling to reach 225 could muster 274 runs, an above par score for Wandkhede stadium.

The Indian chase began or rather disastrous note. Sehwag’s second ball dismissal and Sachin’s 18 runs 7^th over dismissal were two great blows to India’s chances to reach the target of 275. I had almost lost all the hopes on Team India’s ability to reach target so I proceed to do my “हनुमान चालीसा” little early. Then Mr serious first with Kohli and then with Dhoni steadied the India’s run chase and never allowed the required run rate to go beyond ~6. Finally Dhoni sealed the fate of the game through a variety of shots including the last helicopter shot sixer.

It has been “a dream come true” for all Indians. The 28 years drought is over. It is my sincere hope and wish that we will not have to wait for so along for another WC trophy. These kinds of victories take the confidence of the nation several notches up. Over the last several years, our nation India has been performing exceedingly well at various World sporting events and have brought glory for our country. Keep it up. Chak De India!!

Since WC victory, there is non-stop coverage of the India’s WC victory on almost all the news channels. The news papers are also full of all sorts of stories from front to back. The BCCI has showered with an award of Rs 1Cr each. Many of the Chief Ministers have also handsomely rewarded the India’s WC players in cash and kind, all in an extremely deservingly manner.

But India is a big country with a huge population. Recently conducted census has counted upwards of 1.21B people in India. For such a large population, there have to be more sporting avenues available. The winners and heroes of other sports should also be recognized and rewarded in similar manner. The central government, state governments along with private partnership should come up with concrete, actionable and executable plans to promote other sports as well, in every nook and corner of India. The recent rise of India in sporting events such as Olympic, Commonwealth and Asiad should be allowed to go up further by creating conducive sporting environment.  India is slowly becoming a sports loving nation, though game of cricket stays way above any other sports. There is a need to convert this sporting craze as part of India’s economy which can open up news kinds of employment opportunities for lacks of people through out the depth and breadth of our country.

Also, there is need to bring some reforms in ticketing of all the cricket games. Currently, most of the tickets are taken by politicians and various other regulatory bodies. Most of the remaining tickets are sold for huge sum of money in black market. The games are for the common people and there has to be a fair way for the common pubic to have a fair share in number of tickets of the games.

Any way, these are some of my thoughts and I am sure many of would agree.

I conclude by congratulating again the Team India for their victory over Sri Lanka in WC final and bringing the WC Trophy home. More cricketing is coming on the way starting April 8. Many players of WC Team India, who worked as a cohesive team for last 6+ weeks, will be competing against each other. Gambhir who together with Dhoni was instrumental in India’s victory will be fiercely competing against him in IPL 4 opener. Then Sachin will be Mumbai Indian captain competing with Yuvraj, captain of Pune Warriors. In a way, IPL4 will further help each Indian player to understand other players very well from strength and weakness perspective which will help them in working together when they have to represent country for any upcoming sporting event.

I have a few quotes/phrases for the trio, Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvi.

Sachin

भगवान के घर देर है अंधेर नहीं है ।

Dhoni

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Lead from the front — but don t leave your base behind.

                -Nelson Mandela

Yuvraj – Shawshank Redemption

चक दे इन्डिया !! जय हो !!

Team India Badhai ho Badhai!!!

When I am writing this blog, the Pak team must have been dropped at the Wagha border by one of our Tata mini buses and from there, the Pak players must be on the way to their homes either walking or on horse/bullock cart. Home Sweet Home for all of them.

Back to last night’s game, what an exciting, nail biting and emotionally draining the game was. Out of my own nervousness, I must have consumed hundreds of extra calories through chips, biscuits, soda etc. But that is not an issue and I can/will do extra workout to burn the additional intake of calories.

What a terrific game it was with each player chipping in their own way. It is rare to witness Team India excelling in all 3 aspects of cricketing, batting, bowling and fielding. But yesterday was that rare event. Our confidence was higher and our demeanor was better than our opponents. We outperformed our opponents in every possible way in all aspects of cricket including “Mind games”” where Pak team has years of experience and expertise.

Though Sehwag was out early, his hurricane contribution of 38 runs was a gift to Team India. It was due to those runs that the run rate of Team India never fell below 5, even when Pak had tightened the squeeze around us during middle overs. It was during those squeeze overs when I stopped watching the TV and went on to chant “हनुमान चालीसा”. Then, God’s 85 runs were exemplary. He proved once again as to why he is called God, who else can get so many chances, but Sachin did get the chances and made best of them. The end of Indian batting by Raina was phenomenal. It is due to him that team India had reached 260 otherwise 230 was the achievable target looking. Raina has proved yet again why he is a better player than Pathan. What is needed is a longer stay on the wicket and not a short lived glory of 2 sixers.

The entire Pak team played with a “Tantative”approach. Afridi, though looking confident through body language, was weak from inside and that was good for us. I had the hunch that Sehwag would take on Afridi and he did by taking his catch. One of the big contributors to our victory was Misbaha who stayed on crease for way too long without propping up the scoreboard numbers, and when he did decide to go for big shots, it was way too late. There is a saying in Hindi “का वर्षा जब क्रषी सुखाने । समय चूकि पुनि का पछिताने ।।”.

When the last missile fired from the muzzle of Zaheer was going to rest in the hands of Kolhi after hitting its target Misbaha, I could hear the soft Vedic Chants coming out of air.

ॐ पूर्णमिदम पुर्णामिदम पूर्णात पूर्ण मुदच्यते ।

पूर्णयस्य पूर्णमादाय पुर्ण मेवा विशिष्यते ।।

Why not, team India had offered its entireself in the game so the result had to be the Ultimate.

Beware Lankan Tigers; Indian Tigers are coming to hunt you.

Best wishes to team India in the final.

Go Team India Go!! Jai Ho!!

Although the Wednesday’s semi final match between India and Pakistan is still 40+ odd hours away, the battlelines are already and clearly drawn between the two cricket teams. The significance, relevance and excitement of this match will not be any smaller than the grand finale of this cricketing extravaganza which started about 6 weeks back. Cricket in India has assumed the role of “Second Religion”, which unites most people of our country. I have deliberately used the word “most” here and opted not to use the word “All” as using the word “All” would be tentamount to the falsification of the truth, at least from my point of view, based on my observations.  I am going to use an example from my college days of 20 years back in AMU Aligarh when victory of India used to get mourned and defeat of India used to get celebrated, to base my observations/convictions on. I’m sure things would not have changed much in Aligarh even after 20 years.

A victory of team India not only boosts the morale and psyche of the team but also takes the confidence of our great nation one notch up. The Pak team has already started playing the “Mind Games” and that’s the one area they are really good at. Why not, they have years of experience doing it. But, we also have the same number of years of experience beating them in World Cup games beating all their “mind games” as well.  

The Pak Team needs to look back at the records and see for themselves as to how many victories they have against India in World Cup games. A big “Zero” and that big “Zero” will not change in the Wednesday’s game either.  The team India is going to continue to maintain its winning streak and Pak is going to maintain its losing streak. Nice!

The Pak player Misbaha has probably forgotten as to what happened to his scoop attempt over the Joginder Singh’s ball in T20 final, just a few years back.  Misbaha is going to do something stupid again only to make him walk to the pavellion.  There is a saying in Hindi “विनाशकाले बिपरीत बुद्धि”.

And, this Sahid Afridi guy can overspeak in a boastful manner till he meets Sehwag and Sachin’s bats.  There is a saying in Hindi that “जब ऊँट पहाड़ के नीचे आता है तो उसे पता चलता है कि वो सबसे ऊँचा नही है”. This Afridi guy is going to get such a good “धुलाई” through our batsmen that he is going to remember it throughout his life. As it is, many players in Pak team are subdued and edgy by the charges of their involvement in match fixing so their expression of public confidence is “Fake and Farce”. They are pretty weak from the inside which will be exposed by our batsmen right infront of 30,000 strong match viewers.

We have Sachin. Talking about Sachin’s greatness, wow, he is a gem of a person, full of integrity, honesty, simplicity, commitment, determination, hard-work, focus and dedication. It is for that reason that he is called “God of Cricket”. His decision to walk off the crease during one of the recent matches, though I personally do not approve it, can be termed a Super Class by itself. The guy was standing on the threshold of his ‘Tons of Tons” , the team and country having high expectations from him, umpire not making call on him but referring to the third umpire instead. But, he listened straight to the sound coming out of his gut and did not wait at the crease which any other player would have done. I remember legendary Sunil Gavaskar doing that a few times during his tenure as a cricket player. But then, the technology was not so advanced at that time and there was nothing like third umpire.  So, Sachin’s case can and should not be compared with Gavaskar’s case.

India eventually won that game but Sachin should be more deligent this time. I would wish and pray to the Almighty to direct Sachin to take advantage of all possible resources in the upcoming game if the situation demands so.  He is too important a player to throw his wicket away like that. Even in great “Dharm Yuddha” of Mahabharat, the Pandava had to rely on things like “अश्वथामा मारा गया” to get rid of their opponent Dronacharya. I wish Sachin completes his “Ton of Ton” in Wednesday’s game and helps team India romp into the finals.

What to say about the performance of our crown prince (Yuv Raj) of Team India? He has been phenomenal in all three aspects of cricket: batting, bowling and fielding. What a fantastic redemption from just one year back, when everyone had written him off. The Punjab IPL did not keep him as Captain and even did not re-sign him. His place in Team India was dwindling and people started saying all sorts of things about him. But, he had goals set out for him and he was on continuous path of relentless pursuit of his set goals. Yuv Raj has shown the importance of individual contribution in a team game. He has shown that if each individual starts contributing to their fullest potential, the team’s delivery can be guaranteed.  The same applies for nation building as well. If each citizen of the nation starts contributing towards the national goal, it would not be long before we are found standing in the forefront of the nations of the world.

I believe that all the stars are aligned this time through for India’s victory over its arch rival. The team India is going to repeat the history of 1983 when it won the Cup under the leadership of Kapil Paji. All our team needs to do is manage the pressure well and maintain its cool, confidence and composure. Only a cool head can take sound decisions in pressure situations.  Each Team India player has to understand their roles and responsibilities and perform to the best of their abilities.  This team is the dream team that will bring the Cup for our nation. Whatever little gaps we have on bowling and fielding side will be compensated by the seven specialist batsmen. The Team India is going to remember that its strength is its formidable batting lineup and that it has to play from and around its strength.  The Team India is going to make good use of its powerplays especially batting powerplay. The Team India is going to remember learning from the recent matches that it will set target of 40 runs from batting powerplay and would not become greedy.

Then there are a number of things which in my opinion are handled in the worst possible manner. The two important ones are below.

·         The Cricket fans are treated very shabbily all across the nation at the ticketing counters. Inspite of having reasonable capacity in the stadiums, why are only a few hundred tickets left for the general public, just for namesake? Why are the cricket office bearers given huge chunks of tickets only to become available in open market at rigged prices? Last night, I saw one News channel reporting the ticket price of Rs 100,000 for Indo Pak semi final match which is more than double than the per capita income of our nation. How can we have and sustain such a situation? Why do so many people from political, law enforcement, city/town administration want to have the birth right to watch the cricket matches free of cost? Something needs to be done to streamline the ticket sale and also to increase the capacity. The general public and especially cricket fans should not be taken for granted and needs to be respected for the larger benefit of the game.  There has to be some ethics by-lawys which are enforcible, varifiable which the cricket officials should have to abide by.

·         Let the game be a game and should not have any influence whatsoever due to or because of our politicians whose judgement in general is questionable.  I am not sure why our PM Manmohan Singh has extended the invitation to Pak President and PM for coming to India to watch the game? Why are we dilly dallying on our stated stand? We had clearly spelt out our stand after Mumbai 26/11 attacks that no more talks with Pak unless Pakistan hands over the people responsible for 26/11 to us. For the past one year or so, we have started seeing the dilution of our stated stand. If we had to dilute, why did we take the stand to begin with? Why should anyone take us seriously?  It may be acceptable and that too marginally to have unscheduled bi-lateral talks at the corridor of common events of large forums such as UN, SAARC etc. But inviting heads of the states of a terrorism sponsoring country in this manner only sends a message that we are weak and that we can not take tough stand and if at all we take tough stands, we can not maintain our stand and that we can be easily bullied and that we have a very short memory. On a different note, not calling the Pak officials would have enabled a few more seats becoming available for our nation’s cricket fans.

I wish Team India all the best for the semi final victory. The team is motivated and is peaking at the right time. Of course the pressure will be high on Team India due to larger population of majority of nation. But that’s what the pros stand for, to deliver from the high pressure situations.  It is very apt that Mohali has been chosen for this semi final match. The Indo Pak Wagha border is not too far from there. The Pakis can take the passenger train which I believe still runs between Amritsar and Lahore. Alternatively, we can drop them on the Wagha border by a Tata Mini bus on humanitarion grounds. And from Wagha border, they can either walk or take their horse cart and go back.

Go Team India Go. Jai ho!!!!