Born on a Blue Day - autobiography of Daniel Tammet

I was born on 31 january 1979 - a wednesday. I know it was a wednesday because the date is blue in my mind and wednesdays are always blue.

This is how Daniel Paul Tammet starts his autobiographical story. He suffers from a rare condition known as high-functioning autistic savant, like the character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man. Tammet has synasesthesia and Asperger Syndrom and had suffered epilepsy seizures as a child. The result is that he has an extraordinary talent for numbers and languages.

He says, ¨Numbers are my friends and they are always around me. Nembers are my first language, one I often think and feel in. Each one is unique and has its own personality. The number 11 is friendly, 5 is loud, 4 is shy, 333 is beautiful, 25 is energetic, 37 is lumpy like porridge, 89 is like falling snow and 289 is ugly. This kind of visual and emotional experience of numbers is called as Synasesthesia. He feels excited and happy with certain numbers and is uncomfortable with other numbers such as 99. Whenever he is stressed, he calms himself by counting numbers. In his mind, he says, each integer up to 10,000 has its own unique shape, colour, texture and feel. He can intuitively "see" results of calculations as synasesthetic landscapes without using conscious mental effort, and can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite.

Tammet set a European record on March 14th 2004 when he recited the famous mathematical constant Pi (3.141...) to 22,514 decimal places from memory in a time of 5 hours, 9 minutes.

After this fantastic feat, he was asked why learn such a long, tedious and complicated number pi to so many decimals. His answer, ¨pi is for me an extremely beautiful and utterly unique thing , like the Mona Lisa or a Mozart symphony, pi is its own reason for loving it.¨

Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but has also created artwork: including a watercolour painting of Pi. He has written a poem on Pi

Three, One, Four, One, Five, and On
The numbers recount their endless tale.
Three - Barefoot green, a silent voice.
White as hunger, One is twiceBright like babies’ eyes.
Four is timid, envious of E.
Five, Punctuation or a pregnant sigh
Precedes proud Nine, colour of falling night.
Two, an unfastened knot,
A wayward wind, the hollow of Six resounding.
Nearby, Eight, a cloud of fireflies above a lake
Over which I skim Sevens
Remembering that Zero is nothing but a circle.

Tammet says he speaks eleven languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh, and Esperanto.He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels.
Tammet can learn new languages very quickly. To prove this for a Channel Four documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic fluently.
Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti, which in Finnish means pine tree. Mänti has many features related to Finnish and Estonian, both of which are Finno-Ugric languages.

He perceives words also as colours. To him, Richard is red, John is yellow and Henry is white.

He describes his meeting with Kim Peek, upon whom Rain Man was based, as one of the happiest moments of his life. They connected when they asked each other date calculations based on their birth dates, and got the answers correct instantly. Kim has read more than 9000 books and can recall all their content.

Tammet was the first of nine children born to working-class parents in London. He and his family had a tough time because of his disability. He completed schooling but found the other children as objects to cope and contend with, to navigate around, rather than as individuals to get to know and to play with. Tammet is gay and lives with his partner.

Tammet has his own website http://www.optimnem.co.uk/ , writes blogs and gives online courses for learning languages.

He has written another book, 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. This book is about his personal and scientific exploration of how the brain works and the differences and similarities between savant and non-savant minds.

It is said that there are about 50 people in the world at present similiar to Tammet. But most of them suffer from a disability. They cannot communicate, connect or have feeling for others. They are unable to live independent lives. They cannot understand jokes and take everything literaly. For example if you tell them ¨take a seat ¨they will not understand that it means sit down. Tammet is lucky that he has the capacity to connect to the world, which he has also developed consciously by controlling and training himself. He is able to express himself as he has done clearly and eloquently in his book.

Tammet helps charities which work for people suffering from epilepsay and autism and has an inspiring message ¨My main message is that difference need not be disabling, that it's ok to be different and that everyone is unique in some way and should feel it possible to live out that uniqueness. When we do that, autistic or not, we give ourselves the chance of happiness.

His book is not just for curiosity. He has a point for people like us, who consider ourselves as normal. He does not see ordinary and extraordinary as totally different and unconnected. He sees a link. His own evolving life is proof of such connection. He, the extraordinary, is training himself to become ordinary. The reverse is also possible. Every one of us is unique and we may have talents, hidden inside ourselves. We can unlock them by conscious efforts in the same way as he has trained himself to be emotional and friendly to others. So, we the ordinary mortals, can look for and connect to the extraordinary things within ourselves and make our lives richer and happier for ourselves and others.

Imagining India - book by Nandan Nilekani

Nandan, who is self-effacing, in the typical Indian tradition, calls himself as an Accidental Enterpreneur. But I see him as one of the best example and role model of the New Age Business of India. He could have written , like many retired celebrities, his memoirs. Instead, he has chosen to write about the story of India in which he succeeded and the new India he is imagining. He has made very little reference to himself and his company in the book. He has a new approach to the growth story of india by talking about ideas.

He has categorised ideas into four kinds;
-ideas already arrived
These have already been accepted by consensus and have helped India to become what it is now,
-ideas in progress
There is consensus on these but implementation is slow and half-hearted
- ideas in battle
These still being hotly debated till the end of the world by the Argumentative Indians
- ideas to anticipate
These are needed to realise the promise and potential of India but still not in the agenda.

The ideas that have already arrived and shaped India are: demographic dividend, enterpreneurship, English language, Information Technology,urbanisation,democracy and role in globalisation.

In the past, there was a perception of horror about the immense and growing population of India. But today, the same issue of population is looked at positively as human capital and demographic dividend. India, with its young population, is going to benefit in the next four-five decades in which the developed world will be filled with more pensioners than young skilled and innovative people. What was seen earlier as a liability has now become an asset. India can leverage this demographic dividend to become a creative power and a centre for new knowledge and innovation.
The second paradigm shift is the Indian attitude to business. Earlier, the socialistic india looked at businessmen as greedy profit-seekers without social conscience. Now the enterpreneurs are recognised and admired as creators of jobs and wealth not only for themselves but for the society and the country.
The third fundamental change is the attitude to English. The newly idependent India was seeking to assert its identity through its native langauage and wanted to get rid of the colonial English. But now there is consensus that English is the key to unlock the opportuniies arising from globalisation and so even the poor people use their hard-earned savings to send their kids to private english medium schools.
Information Technology, which was feared as man-eaters in the eighties has now been accepted as an essential tool for business, jobs and development.

The ideas in progress are: school education, urban planning, infrastructure development and unified single market of India. On these issues, there is consensus on the urgent need for reforms and investment but the implementation is slow and ineffective.

Ideas in battle are in the fields of education and labour laws. On these issues the partisan and ideological debate goes on without end. Nandan says it is time we get out of the old mindset and act pragmatically. Here he quotes the example of Brazilian President Lula, who handles issues like a violin; He holds voters in his left hand and plays the government and business with his right hand. India is, however, stuck with its constituitional label of a socialistic republic and the consequent ideological trap. Election politics overrides reforms and long term policies. On education and employment, the governemnt policies and politics have got bogged down in quotas and divisions rather than creating more avenues.

Ideas to anticipate are in the areas of environment, energy, health and social security. According to Nandan, India has the advantage of starting now as a latecomer. We can study the experience of developed countries and learn from their mistakes and formulate better policies to suit our requirements.

Nandan has taken on the ambitious task of analysing the whole gamutof the issues of politics, economy and development and trying to suggest solutions to them. It is a formidable task. But Nandan admits that he is just an IIT nerd, having lived in a relatively privileged atmosphere and succeeded surfing on the wave of IT boom. To make up for his inadequate knowledge, understanding and experience,he has chosen to take the ideas of experts by interviewing sociologists, economists, politicians, civil servants and specialists in each field.

Nandan is objective, clinical and candid in his analysis and comments. But his exercise and intent are not academic or intellectual, but are practical and pragmatic. With his optimistic and positive approach, he has explored the possible and the doable, within the context of the realities and constraints of India.

Nandan is a posterboy of the success of India´s economic reforms and liberalisation.He is also the role model for future enterpreneurs of india, as a creator of wealth, jobs and opportunities for thousands of Indians. His company Infosys has set a benchmark for corporate culture and ethics. The Infosyians don’t believe in the greasy and greedy old world business practices of India. They will forego contracts rather than trying to get it through under the table means.

Nandan calls his generation as the ¨bridging generation¨connecting the old India with the emerging new one and that which straddles the divides and the ideas that separate the two.

He sees growth and prosperity for India through creation and facilitation of access to resources and opportunities. He see the problems and issues like a computer programmer and a business management expert. One cannot but agree with his analysis of the inherited and created obstacles for India´s progress. But the conclusion of Nandan is that India and the Indians have reached a stage when they don’t have to continue their ingrained habit of shrugging and stepping around potholes, without trying to repair it. He is convinced that Indians have arrived at a new stage with confidenc, competence, tools and ambience to solve problems in this life itself rather than wait for seven incarnations or letting things drift as karma.

In the democratic system of India, Nandan´s ideas need to be accepted by the political leaders who play the critical role in development. What was the reaction of a political leader to Nandan´s ideas. He simply dismissed Nandan saying ¨people like you are neither good for votes or notes ( money). This is the reality. Hold on..there is hope behind this reality. The politician will get kicked out of power if he does not align himself with the aspirations of the people who are now getting increasingly empowered through the Information and Communication revolutions brought about by Nandan and company.

I recommend this book especially for the younger generation who have a historic opportunity to realise the dreams of Nandan Nilekani and the bridging generation which includes me too.

Dreams from my father – Obama autobiography

This book is a narrative of Obama´s quest to unravel the puzzle of being a black man. The personal pursuit took a public dimension when he forced himself to embrace the cause of the black community, starting from the time when he was a college student. He looked at himself, looked at the whites and analysed what passed in the looks between the whites and blacks. He dug deeper into the issue by introspection and reading. He heard the stories of discrimination and frustration from fellow blacks. Finally, he decided to contribute to the black cause in his own way by volunteering to become a community organiser. Many black leaders and intellectuals had gone through that, before Obama. But what makes the case of Obama different is that his story is not a typical, plain and simple black and white one. He did not inherit the rancour and resentment of the others with slave ancestry. Nor did he have to struggle to get out of a ghetto of poverty and crime. He was born to a middle class white American woman from Kansas and a black Kenyan who came to US for studies. But his father left for good the wife and the two year-old child in Hawai to pursue higher studies in Harvard and for further marriages and life in Kenya. He saw his father only one more time, in 1971, when Obama Sr. came to Hawaii for a month's visit. His mother remarried to an Indonesian and went to live there for a few years. Obama started his school in Jakarta and played with brown kids in mud and dirt. On his return to Hawai , he was brought up by his white grand parents. His enlightened mother and liberal grand parents gave him affection and education. Except for the occasional and unavoidable black treatment given by white police and folks, his life was made for success as a rich lawyer. But Obama did not follow the road travelled by others in his situation. He chose a cause and mission to work for the black community. He worked as a community organiser in the poor black neighbourhoods in Chicago.


Obama is caught between two worlds as a black man in colour with white man´s upbringing and thinking. He says he learned to slip back and forth between the black and white worlds, understanding that each possessed its own language, customs and structures of meaning, convinced that with a bit of translation on his part, the two worlds would eventually cohere. This is how he sets out the destiny of his journey. But in the beginning it was not easy. While he has the constant guidance and care of his white mother and grand parents, he preferred to take the side of the blacks. His stay in Indonesia and exposure to Indians in Kenya added brown colour to the black and white world of Obama.

From his college days, Obama was troubled and obsessed by his colour. He was trying to find his identity in the society where the blacks had to play according to the rules of the white man and that too in on the courts of the white man. He starts identifying himself with the rest of the black community. Realising that his insulated and protected life lacked the real life experience of the majority of the blacks in misery and poverty, he chooses to become a community organiser to fight for the causes of the black community in Chicago. There he sees the deprivation, discrimination and degradation. He finds the black withdrawal into coils of rage with the realisation that black meant only the knowledge of powerlessness and defeat. He is filled with the anguish and doubts which do not go away with any amount of intellect, humour or faith. He plunges earnestly into the job of community organiser trying to give hope, confidence and optimism to the blacks. He tries to get the black churches and community leaders together to fight for the rights of the black community to get their dues. He tries to achieve whatever is possible in a positive and pragmatic way. It is during this work that Audacity of Hope, begins to shape his personal and public life. From then on Obama becomes a man with a mission.

After understanding the reality of Afro Americans, Obama goes on to find the root of his troubles, to Kenya, his father´s country. It is a kind of pilgrimage. He meets his numerous half brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and relatives. His grandfather was a farmer and had earlier worked as a cook for the white colonial officials. Obama´s father was one of the many children born to one of the wives of his grand father. He gets to meet one of the grandmothers who narrates the story of the ancestry of the Obama family. The father of Obama, gets a break to study in Hawai where he meets a fellow white American student, marries her and Barak Obama is born to them. But the father, who was already married to a village girl, goes on to marry another white woman during his Harvard studies, who follows him to Kenya. Obama finds in Kenya that everyone was family.

In Kenya, he is finally in a country and community where colour is not an issue. He visits the village where his grand father lived. There, Barak Obama finds his identity and says ¨ Here the world was black and you were just you. You could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or commiting betrayal. I felt a sense that a circle was beginning to close, so that I might finally recognise myself as I was, here, now, in one place¨. Standing between the graves of his grand father and father in a Kenyan village, he says¨I realized that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words..All of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away, connected by more than the accident of a name or the colour of my skin.¨

Did the land of his father become his destiny? Did his journey stop, on reaching the Promised Land? No, the reality of Africa torments him even more and gives rise to more questions than answers. The hopelessness of the black life in Kenya compounds the confusion and doubts within him. Africa turned out to be only another way point on his still unchartered journey. The discovery, satisfaction and fulfillment was only intellectual and romantic. He had to get back to the Land of Dreams where he would ultimately realise something undreamt by him and the black community.

The Kenyan historian in Nairobi tells Obama that Africa is not what the Afro Americans romanticise about. It is not pure, innocenet and noble as is dreamed by the American blacks for whom it had become an idea more than an actual place, a new promised land full of ancient wisdom and talking drums.

The unique personal situation of Obama makes him search for a definition of what is a family. This is understandable with his white American mother, black Kenyan father, Indonesian stepfater and step sister, and half-brothers and sisters from the different wives of his father. He asks ¨Is it ( family) just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me. Or is it a social construct, an economic unit, optimal for child rearing and divisions of labour? Or is it something else entirely; a store of shared memories, say? An ambit of love? A reach across the void?¨

Obama's search for identity does not even spare the law he studied at Harvard. He says, ¨the law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience¨.

I was motivated to read this book after having read his other one, ¨Audacity of Hope¨. But this one is more powerful and compelling. It is full of the raw emotion of the angry young Obama. At the time of writing this book in 1995, he did not worry about the media or the political opponents. He was just a graduate from Harvard trying to decide his direction in the crossroads of personal choices. So Obama let himself go in articulating his anger, feelings, confusion and insecurities. He did not hold anything back. He is authentic, blunt and undiplomatic in expressing himself in the street language of the blacks. This is the period when we find the Iron personality of Obama going though the furnace to become Steel.

Even if Obama did not become famous as President, this book would have found its place on its own as an interesting and inspiring one for the Americans, black and white. It brings out the perennial racial issue in a new light with fresh insight. It is positive with the message¨yes, We can¨. While clinically and candidly analysing the issue, Obama chooses to focus on the possible. His approach is to find solutions in a positive and pragmatic way. He does not succumb to the temptation of blaming everything on the whites and setting the blacks against the whites in a confrontationist or polarising way. His message is non- threatening to the mainstream audience.
He has straddled both the sides of the divide with intellectual honesty and firm conviction. This approach enedeared him to the voters who have entrusted him with the task of managing the larger community of US as President.

Obama´s style of writing is appealing, like the way speaks. He has combined his cerebral and profound thoughts with easy and conversational expressions. The memoir reads like a novel with a powerfully moving story and suspense and thrill. Obama has spiced up his story with humour and wit.

I hope he writes more books after going through the third firewalk of his life as the President of the most powerful country in one of its worst moments in history.

The book is a useful read for the brown Indians , who are aspiring to add their colour to the new landscape of globalisation.

And there is a Latinamerican twist to the tale of Obama! His white mother was inspired by the Brazilian film ¨Black Orpheus¨, the first-ever film she saw alone as an adult at the impressionable age of sixteen. It was also the first foreign film she saw. She thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The white girl from middle class Kansas should have been fascinated by the Brazilian black hero of the film which had possibly influenced her to fall in love with a black in real life. This romantic movie with Bossa Nova music set in the beautiful beaches of Copacabana and with the the colourful Carnival festival should have made a striking impact on the dreamy damsel.

So here is one more lifestory inspired by Latin America

The Audacity of Hope - book by Barak Obama

When I bought this book, it was with a bit of curiosity and lot of skepticism. I thought it should be the political manifesto of a Presidential candidate. I expected the book to be full of platitudes and campaign rhetoric. I expected him to be politically and boringly correct and careful, avoiding hard issues and hot topics. How wrong I was. The book brought out another side of Obama, I did not know or expect. He is a writer, thinker and intellectual. If he did not succeed in politics, he could have made a career out of writing. He writes in the same way as he speaks: direct and forthright. His ideas flow easily , logically and smoothly. He simplifies the issues, freeing them from rhetoric and outlines all the options to tackle them. And then he goes on to give his choice with a healthy respect for the choices which others might take. He has displayed breadth and depth in knowledge and wisdom.

The title of the book fits the man. Or, as they say, the man himself is the message. He took the title Audacity of hope from the sermon of his former pastor and delivered a speech with the same title at the Democratic convention in 2004 which propelled him to nation-wide fame. In his speech he talked about ¨ the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope¨

Obama has practised and fulfilled his audacious hope by becoming the first black occupant of the white house, in a relativley short political career. He loses the election to the state legislature badly in 2000. He tries to gatecrash into the Democratic convention in LA in the same year without success. He was down with depression and denial. No one including himself could have even dreamed at that time that he would become the President. Disadvantaged as a black, with a funny name including a risky middle name as Hussein and without money or family background how did he hope to achieve what was considered as impossible just eight years back. That is precisely the Audacity of Hope. He gets a lucky break in 2004 Democratic Convention as a keynote speaker, makes use of it to attract national attention and goes on to win a senate seat. He decides to take on the formidable Clinton machine which was plotting for ten years and wins the election overwhelmingly to create history.

Obama has shown a remarkable and refreshing frankness and honesty while dealing with public and personal issues. He has shown exceptional courage in taking on controversial issues such as politics, race, religion, value system of the American society, Iraq war and American foreign policy. This was a dangerous exercise, while standing for the presidential election with thousands looking for slips and errors to pounce on him and bring him down. He has mentioned in this context the formidable power of the American media which can make or break carrers. He says, ¨ for the public I am what the media says I am. I say what they say. I become who they say i have become ¨. Still, he goes beyond political correctness , bares the facts and articulates his views fearlessly. He asserts that he is able to distinguish himself from the pack by this capacity to speak his mind on hard issues

He takes on the issue of race head on. He does not forgive the socity for what was done to his slave ancestors. He is not apologetic in demanding affirmative action. He is convinced that power would concede nothing without a fight. He recalls how white couple would toss the car keys to him outside restaurants, when he is waiting for the valet to bring his car.He chooses not to waste time by recounting the humiliations to which he was subjected as a black man. He takes it in his stride and sometimes with humour. When the girl friends of Michel consider him as cute, while he was dating her, he says it could have been because of the fact that any black man in a suit with a job would look cute. He says one is required to see America on a split screen, to maintain in sight an America that he wants while looking squarely at the America as it is, to acknowledge the sins of the past and the challenges of the present without becoming trapped in cynicism or despair. He talks about the dilemma of black politicians to gauge the right tone to take- too angry? not angry enough?. He says the black leaders should be conscious that rightly or wrongly, white guilt has largely exhausted itself.

On religion, Obama says he started off as an agnostic but later chose to get baptised. He explains why many Americans are, to the surprise of many foreigners, so religious. According to him, the Americans are not content with their work, possessions and busyness. They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives that will lift them above the exhausting and relentless daily toll of life.

He has attacked in the book, the political partisanship and polarisation which have blocked solutions and progress of the country. Everyone knows it and criticises it. The difference is that he believes that it is possible to try and achieve bipartisanship by showing understanding and seeing the merits of the ideas of the other side. He says many American politicians and party cadres are consciously or unconsciously locked in ¨either/ or thinking¨. He not only believes but practises reaching out to the other side with conviction and profit. He differentiates value from ideology. He cautions against ideology which tend to override facts and makes one blind to the other side. Can the politician be honest in the scripted and often makebelieve world of American politics. He says yes and he has proven in his words and deeds. For example while refrring to the perennial American debate about big government or small he quotes Lincoln ¨that we will do collectively , through our government, only those things that we cannot do as well or at all individually and privately. His own quote, ¨we should be guided by what works¨.

Obama delves into the value system of the American society without fear. He dares to question the singular American pursuit of being rich, thin, young, famous, safe and entertained and the empathy defict to what happens outside these pursuits. He says we must test our own ideals, vision and values against realities by a constant process of information gathering, analysis and arguments.

Obama´s commentary on the American foreign policy is a reassurance to the rest of the world which had to suffer the freightening excesses of the neocons. While defending the right of US to uncompromising approach when it comes to its own national security, he is clear that the time has come for US to be sensitive to the concerns of other countries and work with them.

Obama has dealt with other issues such as education, healthcare, globalisation and terrorism, in the same sensitive and intelligent way.

In his analysis of power, he says it requires a certain megalomania to enter politics with the bilef that one has a unique qualification to speak on behalf of others and endure the harrowing and ridiculous process of campaigning. He also points out that while others can lick their wounds privately, the politican´s loss is on public display.He had gone through this feeling of repudiation with the word ¨loser¨flashing from the minds of all around him. He is candid about the shame of begging for campaign funds from the rich and corporates and being tied to the agenda of the givers.

He is frank about his role and guilt as a father and husband. He says that a disproportionate share of raising the kids fell on his wife´s shoulder, while he was relentlessly pursuing his own goals. Whenever he undertook to look after the children, he did it on his own terms and on his own schedule. He confesses how after years of marriage, he felt to be fully domesticated, soft and helpless in attending to even simple household work.

Obama is self-critical and does so with a sense of humour and humility. He mentions the incident when he is introduced by his teenage daughter to her friend. He goes forward to shake her hand. His daughter laughts at it and says" dad, you might not have noticed, but we are in 21st century ¨ . Taken aback, he asks what does one do in 21st century. She says shaking hands is outdated. One just says hai. Regarding his style of speech he says ¨it can be rambling, hesitant and overly verbose and might perhaps find sympathy in the literary class¨.

Of course, the book was also part of his political campaign. It shows in many parts of the book. It is preachy and pleading for votes. He had to write within the constraints of being part of the Democratic party and the need to please the voters and avoid displeasing any constituency.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly and have already ordered his previous book ¨Dreams from my father¨. Obama has been great in giving mesmerising speeches and writing profoundly. Can he deliver as President? Even if he does not succeed much, it is a new start for America. Atleast he has laid an intellectual benchmark. His Audacious Hope is the right message at this present moment of fear and uncertainty caused by the global crisis and job losses.

But the Indian business has gone even ahead of the Audacious Hope of Obama. Four years back I heard in the Indian corporate seminars the phrase ¨Audacious Ambition¨. This set some of the Indians on fire. Mittal took over Arcelor. Tata bought up Jaguar and Landrover. Indra Nooyi took over Pepsi.

Hope and Ambition have become audacious ...and colourful too. The Blacks and Browns add not only colour to America and the world ...but audacious colours....

The various flavours of coffee - Novel of Anthony Capella

The name coffee in the title attracted me at first sight, since café is linked to Latin America , my passion. Cafe is an ingredient of the fascinating Latin America. Café con leche is how I describe the Brazilians. Café con visa is my brand. Café con Piernas is the Chilean brand. Hmmm… the title of my first ever story in the Latin American Affairs blog is cafe means more than coffee in latin america ( http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2005/06/cafe-means-more-than-coffee-in-latin.html ). So it is no wonder I was drawn to the book like a magnet. And reading the book was indeed like enjoying an aromatic, tasty and rich cafe, sitting on the side walks of Buenos Aires, below the bluish violet Jacaranda flower trees.

The book is full of coffee all the way, describing its flavours, tastes and interpretations by lovers, African tribes and the London housewives. The author connects the coffee to love in every possible opportunity . He says love is a mixture of any number of feelings; infatuation, idealism, tenderness, lust, the urge to protect or be protected, the desire to ravish, comradeship, friendship, aesthetic appreciation and a thousand more besides. The author has brewed the coffee with passion and added love and sensuality like sugar and milk. He touches every sense and nerve exploring the sensual world of love fully and ardently.

This is the story of a Victorian- era young and idle Englishman Robert Wallis whose life was changed by a cup of coffee, and a cup of very bad coffee at that. The would-be poet and bohemian is sitting in a London coffee house contemplating an uncertain future. He comments to the waiter the bad taste of the coffee. Samuel Pinker, a coffee importer, who is on the next table hears the comments and offers to Wallis the very last thing he could want: a job. But the job Wallis is offered - composing a "vocabulary of coffees" that captures their many subtle and elusive flavours - is the beginning of an extraordinary adventure. Wallis falls in love with Emily his emplyer´s idealistic daughter. Despite their differences, they soon discover that you cannot interrogate one set of senses without awakening others. They become engaged.

Then Wallis is dispatched to Africa in search of the source of the legendary Arabic mocca. As he travels to coffee's birthplace - and sees the conditions in which the crop is actually grown - he meets Fikre, the African slave girl of a powerful merchant, who makes him coffee in the traditional Abyssinian coffee ceremony. And when Fikre dares to slip Wallis a single coffee bean, everything he thought he knew – about coffee, about love, about himself – starts to unravel….. She seduces him with coffee and coffee beans. He discovers the divine combination of love, sex, sensuality and happiness. It was a new revelation for him, although he is a connoisseur of the pleasure houses of London. Robert discovers during the high point of his ecstacy that he was being used by Fikre who disappears suddenly.
He returns to London,after his failed business venture and devastated by the trauma of deceived love. By this time. Emily is married off to a politician, after she received a letter from Robert breaking his engagement and confessing his love of Fikre and begging her forgiveness. He finds Emily taking up the cause of voting right for women while struggling to maintain her free spirit in a troubled marriage. She dies for the cause eventually after confessing to Robert her hidden love for him, which she never expressed while alive.
Around this story of love, lust and passion the author has narrated the story of coffee politics and market. His writing is delightful with the unique British suble humour and understatements. Having been born in Uganda, he has shown a passion for Africa. He has brought in Brazil briefly on the politics and markets of coffee. Pity, he did not make use of the café con leche country, its people , their passions and culture, which would have enriched the coffee book.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

- A well made cup of coffee is the proper beginning to an idle day. Its aroma is beguiling, its taste is sweet; yet it leaves behind only bitterness and regret. In that it resembles, surely, the pleasures of love.....
- She smelled of coffee: there was the taste of it in every kiss; her hands were coffee; her lips were coffee, it was there in the taste her skin and the glistening clear liquid in the corner of her eyes. This reminds me of the Colombian soap opera called as ¨mujer con aroma de café¨- means woman with the aroma of coffee.
- What does a woman want? – asks the African tribal chief to which his wife replies¨¨Never to be asked what she wants.
- How easy it is to mistake attention for interest.
- He discovered that he had loved Fikre with an absolute physical passion and even something a bit more besides. For him it was new territory to be marked in full on the hitherto blank atlas of the heart.
- He had experienced in his life a desire for many women; tenderness for some ; affection and admiration for a few. There were some who were a challenge, some a diversion and others for whom his lust itself was a kind of sweet ecstatic torment.

This is the first novel of Anthony Capella I have read. I am tempted to read his other book the Food of Love.

The Enchantress of Florence – novel by Salman Rushdie

The story starts with a yellow haired westerner on a bullock cart on the road to Sikri, the capital of Emperor Akbar. He calls himself as Mogor dell Amore and lands in the royal court of Akbar claiming that he has secrets of the family to reveal. He shocks the court with his claim that he is the son of the lost Moghul princess, Qara Koz, the youngest sister of Akbar´s grand father Babar. The story causes confusion and incites emotions among the members of the royal household. Akbar is fascinated by the audacious character of Mogol dell Amore who outwits the other members of the royal court with his intellect and sharpness. He enjoys the tall tales and fantastic fables of the ingenious European.

Qara Koz, later known as Angelica, is the enchantress of Florence, known for her irresistible beauty and magical power of enchantment. She commands her own destiny in a man´s world during the medieval times. She is captured as a war booty by a Uzbeg warlord, then by the Emperor of Persia and finally she becomes the lover of Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune. Angelica has a servant girl who looks exactly like her. She includes the servant in the threesome entertainment of her male lovers with kamasutra skills. The Enchantress is a strong-willed and clear headed woman who lets her heart host the men of her choice. But when she reaches the cross road, she chooses her next destination without letting her heart cloud her mind. When her last lover is killed in Florence, she decides to take her final journey, this time to the New World.

This is the story which straddles the west and the east through the middleeast. It is about how the culture and mindset of east and west understood each other and interacted in those times. Rushdie has used the Moghul court of Akbar and the Renaisance Florentine society to bring out their characteristics vividly. Akbar, was, of course, ahead of his time with his enlightened approach and freedom of thought.

Rushdie has delved into the features of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, using the character of Akbar as a thinker. Akbar is not a believer in the unquestionable superiority of his religion. He learns, understands and respects the other faiths. He entertains doubts, like the Hindu sages, about himself, his empire, religions and the universe. As a true philosopher he is caught between the empire and self, cruelty and tenderness, treachery and loyalty, war and peace, fantasies and pragmatism.

Argalio is an inimitable adventurer. He is part of the group of three Florentine boys Niccolò Machiavelli and Ago Vespucci who grow up together with different dreams. Machiavelli writes the book called as Prince, an advisory to the kings, while Ago becomes a merchant. All three meet at the end. The other two are also captivated by the charm of the Enchantress, the lover of Argalia .

Salman Rushdie has excelled himself yet again with this story of magical realism. He connects the Moghul court with the Florentine society, fantasy with facts , love with sex and magic with reality. Rushdie excels in story telling in his own unique and entertaining way blending history with fables. Rushdie lays out a buffet of love, romance, magic, wonder, politics, religion, history , the west and the east. He is profound and profane, sarcastic and sagacious, poetic and mysterious. Rushdie has done lot of research, which is evident in the details of his story telling. He has given a long list of books he went through for this novel.

Here are some excerpts from the book
- there is a weakness that comes over men at the battle´s end, when they become aware of the fragility of life. At such time, men can think of nothing but the women´s embraces, the healing words whispered by the women and the joy of losing themselves in the fatal labyrinth of love.
- she found his vanity seductive. She was in love with his faults
- when a prince takes power he should do his worst right away, because after that his every deed will strike his subjects as an improvement on the way he started out.
- all true believers have good reason for disbelieving in every god except their own, said Birbal, and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.

Rushdie had kept me spellbound to the magical journey of the Enchantress and fulfilled my craving for and addiction to magical realism.

The Post-American World – book by Fareed Zakaria

This is the second non-fiction book I finished reading the fastest in recent years. The first one was Tom Friedman´s The World is Flat.

The current implosion of the American capitalism , which was dominating the world for well over a century, provided the backdrop for understanding the analysis and conclusions of the author.

Zakaria has concluded that the US dominance of the world is set to decline politically, economically and culturally. This is followed by the Ascent of the Rest ( emerging powers such as China and India). He has illustrated this with tennis. The number of American players in the US Open was 78 in 1982 but came down to just 28 in 2007. His reason; ¨everyone has started playing the game now¨. He extends the illustration with the financial game. In 2005 twenty four of the 25 largest IPOs happened in countries other than USA. He has pointed out that many of the tallest, biggest, best and other superlative things are coming up outside USA.

He has diagnosed that although USA has a strong society, it is handicapped with a weak state. The American political system has got itself in a quagmire with its partisan petty wars and has been captured by special interests, money and sensational media and ideological attack groups. This has been compounded by arrogance, carelessness and lazyness. It does not have what it takes to address the fundamental problems such as health care. He points out that USA is one of the only three countries ( Myanmar and Liberia, the other two illustrious deviants ) in the world which do not follow the Metric system. The Americans left it for the rest of the World to understand USA and adopt to them. Continuation of this attitude will only accelerate the decline of USA, he concludes.

Zakaria has brilliantly summarized the problem in another American way. They used to say that what was good for GM was good for USA. Nothing seems to be going good for GM now. It has lost its supremacy to Toyota and is in a losing struggle to survive. The lesson for USA is so obvious.

He has offered some constructive suggestions for the US policy makers.

- The US should learn from the decline of its predecessor, the British Empire and should recognize the new reality and adopt a collaborative approach to tackling global issues, as the British did so gracefully.
- The US cannot solve all the problems of the world. They should prioritise and take on only those of their vital interests. Legitimacy should guide US policies.
- Follow the Bismarckian strategy of engaging the other powers and have better relations with all of them than they have with each other.
- Learn from the American MultiNational Coroporations such as IBM and GE who have successfully adopted new business models to take advantage of the new emerging markets and the globalisation.They have formed joint ventures in many countries, giving up the managerial Imperialism of their past.
- Prepare to deal with asymmetric threats arising from terrorism, drug cartel etc through innovative range of instruments.

Zakaria has brought out the folly of creation of Africom. He has explained this with a quote from Mark Twain ¨To the man who has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail¨. Brilliant !! He has commented that the US administration, while trying to scare its enemies has terrorized the rest of the world. He says that the the American policy makers are consumed by fear, paranoia, anxiety about foreign trade, foreign companies and foreigners. Contrast this with the hope, confidence and optimism of the Indians and Chinese, who want to take advantage of globalisation to conquer the world.

Zakaria has argued that USA has many strengths, unlike UK which could do nothing to arrest its decline especially the economic one. These are: economic strength, solid tradition of innovation and renewal with an educational system which nurtures these spirits and rejuvenation of the society with the energy and spirit of the immigrants.

He has brought out one of the the contrasts between the west and the east. While Christianity and Islam , believing in their inherited superiority seek to convert the non-believers, the Hindu Indians and the Confucian Chinese believe in the goodness of other faiths and do not seek to change them.

Zakaria has not pretended to be a prophet with any new revelations or new theories. He has analysed the issues in simple and clear ways understandable for readers with plain commonsense. He has advocated new ways of measuring prosperity, savings etc since the old methods of GDP and others have become inadequate for the complexity of the new realities.

The only weakness he has openly displayed is his passion for USA. Hmm.. what can I say ? …with my own passion for Latin America.

Zakaria is an Indian who went to USA for studies in 1982 and rose to become the Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and now as International Editor of Newsweek. He has concluded that to thrive in this new and challenging era and to to succeed amid the rise of the rest, USA needs to fulfil only one test. It should be a place that is as inviting and exciting to the young student who enters the country as it was for him in 1982.

Tamil connection to the ski resort in Las Lenas, Argentina

While it is summer in India and in the northern hemisphere, it is skiing time in Argentina and Chile. I was in Las Lenas ski resort in the Mendoza province of Argentina 5-8 July. This is the biggest resort in south america with long slopes. The longest slope is seven kilometers and that too in both blue ( for intermediates like me) and red and black for advanced skiers. This is a favourite place for dare devils who want to try the off-beat extreme slopes.


Before starting the skiing on 6 july, I was invited to the Snow Festival in Malargue, a town seventy km from the resort. The governor of mendoza province and the mayor of the city were there. Ther cannot be a Fiesta in latin America without a queen ! They had a beauty contest and selected a Snow Queen. The fun and frolic went on till five in the morning.

Las lenas is located at an altitude of 2249 meters at the base and goes upto 3340 meters, above the tree line. The view from the top is spectacular. With this high altitude it receives more snow in comparison to the other esorts such as Bariloche and Chappelco.

While ninty percent of the skiers are Argentines, there are a lot of Brasilians too. They come in chartered flights from sao paulo direct to malargue.

The ski resort turns into a mountain resort in summer with adventure activities such as mountain biking and horse riding. The resort hotels here have a total of 4000 beds.

Let us now come to the Tamil connection... The owner of Las Lenas resort is Arumugam...not from tamilnadu..but from Malaysia. He owns 600,000 hectares of land in and around the resort and has sheep farms and a horse breeding farm. He also owns 12000 hectares of land near Buenos Aires where he grows soya and wheat. I taught a few tamil words to the managers there so that they can surprise mr arumugam with tamil greetings, next time when they meet him.

Congrats Mr Arumugam for taking Tamil to the peaks of Las Lenas !

Golf at the age of 87 ...yes ...87

As usual, I was fixed today also to play with three new golfers at the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires. This is how I have been making contacts and friends by playing with new people. One of the three, Mr Carlos Bracht became my partner when they threw balls for partners.

When I reached out with a handshake, my partner smiled and said he was 87 years old. I got a shock. Then he showed the earplug and said he was hard of hearing...another jolt...I got further depressed when I saw he was going to play without the assistance of a caddy.. He was driving a single-seater cart. I thought I was going to have a miserable four and half hours.

I came out of my depression when Carlos made a par in the first hole. My spirits were lifted up when he made another par, missing birdie in the second hole. He made the third consecutive par in the third hole and then went on to score many pars and I was overwhelmed. Together we made a good score.

Carlos has been playing in Jockey club for the last 72 years! He started golf at the age of 15. He has won Argentine amateur championship several times and has won tournaments in other countries too.

Carlos now plays to a handicap of 12. He plays a serious and competitive game. He hits straight and putts sometimes with a three wood. His only frustration is that he is not able to hit drives beyond 200 yards.

The experience with Carlos reminded me of my partnership with Dr Bharat Ram in ITC golf course in Delhi in 2005. He was ninty years old when he played with me. He expired last year.

Playing golf competitions at 87 and 90 years ! What a life ! This reminds me of the saying in Latin America, " We dont stop having fun when we grow old.. we become old only when we stop having fun".

They say old golfers never retire...they just lose balls ! Bharat Ram had a ball at 90 years and Carlos is going strong at 87....playing golf competitions and having fun. I have now become a fan of Carlos.

Viva Carlos !

An Argentine who sees India through her heart

During my endless (and exasperating...) declaratory campaign about my passion for Latin America, I come across Latin Americans who are equally passionate about India. Some of them are followers of Indian Gurus ( such as Sai baba) or spiritual groups (such as Hare Krishna). For them it is a matter of faith. The other day I came across someone who does not belong to either of the groups but whose eyes dance while talking about India.

She is Fabiana ( Fay), a young, smart, ambitious and enterprising person from Rosario. She is the chief of her own business consultancy company. She has been to India many times and to many parts including Coimbatore! She is a friend of the embassy and has been helping Indian delegations voluntarily. Now she wants to take a business delegation to India.

I have just received her write-up on India, which she has sent with a note saying she lifted the " passionate" from my emails to say she is "passionate about India ". She describes in the article below what made her passionate about India.

Quote

INDIA
India is not a country but a continent. From North to South, from East to West people are different. Languages, dialects, food, customs are different. The way they dress; and the country itself is different from many others I have explored. It is a place that somehow gets into you. Love it or hate it, you can never ignore India.

I read somewhere that poverty can bring you down, bureaucracy tries the patience of even a Hindu saint and the most experienced travellers find themselves at the end of their tempers at some point in India. Yet if you ask me, it’s all worth it. Basically India is what you want it to be. If it is history you are looking forward to re-live, you will have come to the right place, there is a profusion of temples, palaces, forts, and abandoned city ruins in the middle of the desert- and they all have their tales to tell. If it is art, music or crafts … it will be just your kind of place. If it is Ayurvedic (or traditional) medicine, pharmaceuticals, IT, automobile, or agro-business etc. …. you name it … they do it! And they do it well. But, undoubtedly its biggest treasure, in my opinion, is its people. Their wide smile, their ”Namaste” or “Vanakam” when they greet you- some people say this greeting means the divinity in me greets the divinity in you.

So this combination of people, history, arts, medicine, together with its current bustling economy make of India not just a place to simply “visit”. These factors will all contribute to making a totally different experience, an assault on your senses, a place you will never forget.
The smells are definitely strong and diverse, spices, incense sticks- especially those in Mysore- made of sandalwood burning in the countless temples you will visit or come by, the variety of flowers and specially the jasmine flowers carefully woven into long threads that are worn by women on their heads after visiting the temples. And, yes of course there is the smell of dirt, but if you are smart enough, and you “see” the struggle of this country to fight the dust, the garbage that accumulates because of the over population of its cities, because of the simple fact that they are over a billion people, you will be able to enjoy all the other things, and not just be a prisoner of pre conceptions, like "I don’t know if I will be able to cope with the dirt of India", “There’s so much poverty”, typical clichés that I have heard so much, and humbly tried to fight with all my heart since I first visited India for the first time 10 years ago.

The sense of touch is stimulated by the rich silks of the saris, the embroidered garments and brocades, the softness of the hands of the people who greet you from the bottom of their souls ... caresses to the heart I still go to when I need comfort.

The taste of Indian cuisine is also varied and delicious. There are considerable variations from North to South. Curry (which is a blend of almost 25 freshly grounded spices) produces masalas or mixes. The most well known flavours come from chillies, cloves, coriander, cardamom, cumin, and bay leaves, and several seeds that will surely captivate your palate. It is such a long list that would take pages to describe. And no fears, I won’t! But I have to mention the “breads” are also incredible a big favourite with us foreigners.

The hearing- probably most influenced by the traffic noise and its diversity in means of transportation that range from simple rickshaws, old white Ambbys (Ambassador cars), big old bikes that glide their away in dusty, sleepy streets of small cities ... and now the newest models, including the now newly released Nano (the cheapest car in the world). Then there is the chanting at the temples, the OM (really pronounced aum, some people assure if the universe had a sound this would be it!)

The sight, probably the most shocked of the sense you will experience, include the fact that you’ll see elephants, camels, holy cows, goats and other animals wandering free amidst all the vehicles, and in the middle of this chaos (an organised chaos I must say) there’s peace. Maybe the one that springs from the heart of the inhabitants of a land of religious tolerance. The colors of the saris the women wear, from bright yellow, to turquoise, fuchsia, red and green, the turbans worn by the men in the Rajasthan, the gold bracelets, the earrings, the faces of the kids that jump around you …

But besides the senses of sight, smell, touch and hearing, it is your spirit what will probably benefit more from the daily lessons of compassion, love and tolerance I personally have experienced almost on a daily basis in this beautiful country. It is a world so exotic to us; so marvellous that can instantly take you back to your childhood; to a time of fantasy and endless surprise, or to the future with all the developments that this republic is experiencing now. I hope you feel someday that it is worth taking the risk of “seeing poverty, and dirt” …but here is my tip, if you see India through your heart, I assure you, you will never regret having visited it! And like me, you will never stop going back!
FAY
(Your Honorary Consul of India in Rosario) Unquote

her email: fay.asiana@gmail.com

Sade - for ever

Someone asked me, what happened to the floating weed since the last blog posting of 16 september. I responded, " the floating weed has stopped at the side of the Rio de la Plata ( Plata River in Buenos Aires). The city has captivated me completely and overwhelmingly since my arrival on 10 October. This meant a lot of postings in the latin american blogs.

Today, as I opened the videos of Sade in YouTube my non-latin american side of life came alive, refreshing memories. As i was trying the different songs, something struck me. I liked every one of the songs of Sade. I cannot say this of my other favourite singers. While Selena, Celine Dion, Luis Fonsi and Cristian Castro have taken me to the heights of ecstasy with their songs I found that I liked only a few of their songs. So when I bought their CDs I ended up with majority of songs I did not like.
But Sade is an exception. I enjoy every song of hers. Every song of hers stirs my soul and set me on romantic mood.
Sure I have some which I like more such as
- No ordinary love
- kiss of life
- I still really really love you

But I like every song of sade, in video and audio. Her soft and sweet voice touches the heart and strokes the soul. It is like a breeze entering through every cell of the body finding its way to the heart. Sade's songs are relaxing and refreshing, stirring and stimulating. I discovered her songs in 1998 and every time I listen to her, there is a new sensation and enjoyment.

Floating weed moves on...

yes .. it will leave delhi on 28 september and reach Buenos Aires on 10 october. Hmm..I have been posted as Ambassador to Argentina.

The last four years of my stay in India has been fascinating and exciting. I witnessed the dramatic transformation of India and the Indians. I had seen from the vantage point of South Block the unfolding of the policy of economic reforms. I had watched with admiration the unleashing of the enterprenurial energy of the Indian businessmen who are going global. I had listened to the " audacious vision" talk of the captains of Indian industry in the business conferences and seen it in action with Mittal taking over Arcelor and Tata buying Corus. I was thrilled to see the new confidence, ambition and optimism of the Indian youth with their "can do " attitude. I was fascinated by the consumer revolution caused by mobile phones. My own village has over sixty phones! Ten years back, I thought world- class highways, malls and buildings were just dreams. Now these have come true.

Now when I go out of India, I go as the representative of this New India, with a new sense of pride, confidence and optimism.

The relocation, packing, discarding, bye to friends... and ...unpacking, living off suit cases and starting a new life in a new place, making friends, playing in new golf courses, experiencing different things... is an opportunity I always look for ...to reinvent myself.

Mani Talk

"India of my dreams", was the theme of a talk by Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar ( called as Mani by his friends) at the Foreign Service Institute yesterday. As I had anticipated, the talk was was exciting, stimulating, provocative and inspiring. Mr Aiyar is one of the greatest orators I have heard. As Mr Surendra Kumar, Dean of the Foreign Service Institute put it aptly " Mr Aiyar is inimitable, irrepressible and incorrigible". Mr Aiyar kept the audience spell bound for an hour with his profound analysis,incisive comments,satire and wit. He has a remarkable and accurate knowledge of history,economic data and any number of amusing anecdotes. He made the audience laugh, think and reflect.

Highlights of Mr Aiyar's talk
-his dream of India is not the dream being trumpeted as " India shining", "India poised" and " India Rising", the current slogans which is euphoric about the high growth, Indian companies going global and Indians spending the highest in Singapore. His dream is for the yesterday ( Nehru era) when the growth, even if slow, it was an inclusive growth. The focus of the government was the common man and the poor. Some of these were: the irrigation and multipurpose projects, the unprecedented affirmative action to empower scheduled castes and tribes, the building of the foundation of democracy and the engendering of the belief in one India despite separatist dreams by some Indians.
-the policies of today, according to Mr Aiyar, benefit the rich and the middle class disproportionately more than the poor, who constitute the bulk of the population.
-The middle class has hijacked the economic and public policy agenda, seeking benefits for itself, mindless of the poverty around.Their obsession with multiplexes, malls and green cards has overshadowed the crying needs of the poor.
-The huge foreign exchange reserves come from the sweat and suffering of the poor Indians working in middle east but the rich Indians spend them away in foreign holidays and shopping.
-Panchayat Raj is a way to empower the rural masses politically and enable them seek economic entitlement. There are 1.2 million elected women leaders at the grassroot level of panchayats ( this is more than the one third reserved for them in local bodies) who can deliver inclusive growth better than the colonial sytem of Collectors and the post-independent system of Block Development Officers. More resources need to be given to the panchayat leaders.
- Mr Aiyar disagrees with the Indian policy makers who believe that the tide of economic liberalisation and reforms will carry all the boats ( of the rich and poor). He says it is not a tide but a tsunami for the rich and a minor and gentle lap of the wave for the poor. What is his model? A train, which has upper and lower classes but everyone travels together and at the same pace.

The talk was meant essentially for the new officers who have just joined the foreign service. Mr Aiyar had managed to balance the perspectives of these young officers and make them level-headed and not be carried away by the hype about the high growth. He made the senior officers, including me, to feel guilty that we are part of the predatory middle class which seeks to enrich itself, mindless of the situation of the poor.

I was fortunate to have worked under Mr Aiyar in Karachi, when he was the Consul General there. I was dazzled and overwhelmed by his brilliance,energy and vision. I told him a few days after joining ,"sir, foreign service and bureaucracy are too small for your talents. you should join politics which will give a larger platform for your ideas. I was thrilled when he left the diplomatic service and joined politics and became a Minister.

Mani in Tamil means bell. Mr Aiyar has been ringing the alarm bells within his party and the cabinet cautioning about the euphoria and asking for more attention to Aam Aami ( common man ). Many disagree with him , when he downplays the economic growth, explosive indian enterprenurial spirit and the surging confidence and new mind-set of the middle class Indian. Mr Aiyar is also seen by some as excessively nostalgic about the glorious days of Nehru and the socialistic era.

But I enjoy the sound and music of Mani, with admiration.

I could fall in love with you... by Selena

Selena has reclaimed her top spot with this romantic song since yesterday

here is the Youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTMESWDWMA&mode=related&search=

And the lyrics here...

I could lose my heart tonight
If you don't turn and walk away
'Cause the way I feel I might Lose control
and let you stay

'Cause I could take in my arms
And never let go I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you
I can only wonder how Touching you would make me feel
But if I take that chance right now
Tomorrow will you want me still
So I should keep this to myself

And never let you know I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you
And I know it's not right
And I guess I should try to do what I should do
But I could fall in love, fall in love with you I could fall in love with you

Siempre estoy sonando en ti
Besando mis labios, acariciando mi piel
Abrazandome con ansias locas
Imaginando que me amas
Como yo podia amar a ti.

So I should keep this to myself
And never let you know I could fall in love with you
I could fall in love with you I could fall in love,
I could fall in loveWith you...

The Toyota Way

Here comes my second Japanese inspiration after i read the interview of Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota in Harvard Business Review (HBR) July-August 2007 issue.
The first one was after seeing the Japanese movie Floating Weed, which gave birth to this blog.
While the first inspiration was romantic, people might think that Toyota inspiration cannot be so. That is what I also thought untill I finished reading the interview.

Before we go to the interview here is the success story of Toyota, which speaks for itself:
-It has overtaken GM as the largest automaker in the world. Sale expected to be 9.34 milion cars in 2007.
-Its market cap is one and half times more than that of the combined mkt cap of the Big Three of USA.
-It is the most profitable car maker. It made a profit of 13 billion$ in 2006-7, while GM and Ford made losses.
-Thomas Stewart the editor of HBR says " Toyota is the best car maker on the planet"

How did Toyota achieve this?
It is by the Toyota Way.
What is it? Watanabe has explained this in the interview.

It is " Continuous improvement( Kaizen) " and "respect for other people"
Kaizen is, of course, well known. The respect for other people comes out clearly in the interview. Watanabe has quoted his juniors in some parts of the interview " As our vice president said..".
Normally it is the juniors wo quote the boss. So it is not just preaching but practice. Watanabe says "there is no genius in our company". He means team work.

The root of the Toyota Way is to be dissatisfied with the status quo. If the rate of change by continuous improvement is slow, the Toyota people resort to revoltionary change or radical innovation called as Kakushin. While there is continuity in Kaizen, there is discontinuity in Kakushin.

Toyota employees are "T" type people. The vertical stroke is for deepening and intensity, while the horizontal top is to widen horizons. So they employment is for long term to deepen ( It takes 20 years to produce a T type manager) and the managers are allowed to switch jobs to learn other things. There are 2000 coordinators to train the employees around the world in the Totota Way.

Watanabe's approach to BRIC countries is a sample of the Toyota Way of thinking.
He has no plans to compete with the herd in the fast growing markets of China and India for low-cost vehicles. He says " As people in BRICs look for better cars, as roads are built and as energy efficiency becomes more important... we should let the market come to us ".

What is the vision of Watanabe for a dream car?
To produce cars that can excite,entertain and evoke emotions...
oops... this is romance... passion...

My admiration for Toyota and the Japanese have gone up. But of course it does not diminish my passion for Latin America. This reminds me of the Brazilian Japanese ( about a million in Brazil) who have been assimilated in Brazil in the last about a hundred years. How does the japanese police detect illegal Brazilian japanese in japan. During midnight patrolling of streets if they come across a house with loud music and partying noise.. Caramba.. here they are !

kiss of death ...kiss of life

In my youth I was inspired by the story of Laura ( forgot the hero's name). The hero is a poet, who is in love with Laura. But he dares not face her or try to meet her. He is so shy and timid and his is a silent love..unexpressed..umrequited.. But he follows her discreetly at a distance every day without her knowledge. Hmmm..That is what every hero thinks. One day she surpises him. She stops at the corner and meets him face to face. She gives him a kiss...a long intense and passionate kiss. No talk..no other nothing. Just a kiss. Off she disappears. The hero does not what hit him. His face is white and his eys dazed. He goes home in shock and euphoria. He starts writing furiously non-stop for days together. One day ants run allover his ears, nose and eyes.
kiss of death.

I was reminded of this when I heard the song "kiss of life" by my favourite Sade the other day. I had heard the song many times but had fallen in love with her other songs " no ordinary love" and " love is stronger than pride". But this time the kiss of life struck me like a lightning. And I have not stopped listening since then. It has become the number one in my chart, overtaking Selena's magic song" dreaming with you" and the earlier " I hope you dance" by Lee Ann Womack.

Here is the link to the music video of the song in you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcNtoHwd6Y

the lyrics...

There must have been an angel by my side
Something heavenly led me to you
Look at the sky It's the color of love
There must have been an angel by my side
Something heavenly came down from above He led me to you He led me to you
He built a bridge to your heart All the way How many tons of love inside I can't say
When I was led to you I knew you were the one for me
I swear the whole world could feel my heartbeat When I lay eyes on you Ay ay ay
You wrapped me up in The color of love
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
Wasn't it clear from the start Look the sky is full of love Yeah the sky is full of love
He built a bridge to your heart All the way How many tons of love inside I can't say
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life You gave me the kiss that's like The kiss of life
You wrapped me up in the color of love
Must have been an angel come down from above
Giving me love yeah Giving me love yeah You gave me the kiss of life Kiss of Life
You gave me the kiss of life
The kiss of life

Rural Revolution

daily labourers- the few old ones still available

Evening swim at Kollidam river near my village

I had been observing the changes during my pilgrimages to my village. But the transformation I saw this time was breath- taking and dramatic. It is nothing less than a Revolution; both physical and in the mind-set. Mobile fones, transporation and TV have changed the landscape and mindscap.
I saw this in my own village last week.
There are 100 mobile fones in my village of 160 households. The sheperd, casual labourer,the milkman, school students and the guy on the bullock cart carry them. Some of the fones are the latest versions with camera, music, video and can be used as torchlightalso. With my three-year old fone, I had to hide my backwardness, while the village kids impressed my with their versatility in use of multimedia facilities of their fones. When I was talking about my son in USA, my neighbour said let us talk to him. I was hesitant saying it would be expensive. But he did not care. He took the number from me and called my son in his fone and the whole gang around me spoke to him. The cost of the call to USA, he explained to me, was just three and half rupees ( 8 cents ) per minute. One of the lowest in the world !

I tried to show off my nano iPod. But there were no takers. The boy next door showed me his collection of 35 songs in his cellfone and showed me how he makes recording from the FM music channel of the TV.

Transportation has made people moving. During my time I had to walk 3 kms to school and a similiar distance to college. Now they go in buses, cycles, mopeds and motorcycles.

The TV has opened their eyes. I was taken by surprise when the boy from the the neighbourhood started discussing an NBA game. The TV ads have exposed the villagers to the whole world and to the latest fashions. No one was willing to hear my stories about America or Delhi !

My village as well as the others in the area have a problem now. There is a shortage of labour since many boys and girls from the traditional labour class are getting urban jobs. It is very difficult to get labour during peak seasons. The solution has started arriving with mechanisation. I used to do ploughing with bullock-drawn ploughs. Now most of the ploughing is with tractors. Machines are used for harvesting and are being introduced for transplantation.

In my trips in the past I used to impress my village folk about the world beyond them. This time I was the one who looked like a country bum among the villagers who knew more than me. I have come back impressed, educated and enlightened. I am now as optimistic about my village as I am about the urban youth who are becoming global players riding on the IT revolution.

Lonely Hearts - movie

I grabbed this DVD the moment I saw the name of John Travolta and Salma Hayek, both my favourite actors. Salma has, of course, acted as an evil femme fatale in this film. Both Salma and Travolta have become matching with the weight both have put on.

The story is about a conman Raymond Fernandez who responds to personal ads and cheats the lonely ladies and war widows, pretending to be a " Latin Lover". One of his victims, Martha Beck is smarter than him and they become partners in future crimes, she pretending to be his sister. She makes Raymond kill the victims, unable to tolerate relationship between her lover and the victims. Travolta as the detective Elmer goes after them successfully and get them convicted to electric chair.

This is based on a true story of the forties when over a dozen women were cheated and killed by the criminal duo.

Dreaming with ....Selena

I have been listening over and over to this song " Dreaming of you" by Selena, for the last one week. It has taken over my heart and soul. It is pure magic. The soft and sweet romantic voice of Selena mesmerises me. It puts a spell on me every time.

I start closing my eyes in the very opening of the song....

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I'd stay up and think of you
And I'd wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too

I become ecstatic when she goes on to...

Ahhh...I can't stop dreaming of you
Ahhh...I can't stop dreamin

I am breathless when she lilts...
"I love you"... and goes for the kill with.. " How much i love you"

the friend whom i made listen said" velvet voice "- gracias


I have listened to her other songs. some interesting..others not so.
But this particular song is the most powerful one which lifts me up in the sky and let me fly to ..you know where..

And nostalgia or what the Brazilians call as " saudade" flares up when the mexican-american Selena murmurs in Spanish

no puedo dejar de pensar en ti
como te necesito
amor como te estranho


There are also two other songs in my nano iPod on Dreaming; one by Vanessa Williams and another by Sade.. both my favourites. But to make me dream.. they are no match for Selena with this particular magical song.

The song carried me to heights of passionate eloquence today morning when I gave a talk on the subject of "Dreaming with BRICs" by Goldman Sachs in the event organised by Assocham. Of course, skeptics say that Goldman Sachs has made Indians and Brazilians " daydream" with their report.

hmmm.... It is all dreaming for me...in the night .. and in the day too...

"The Hive" - novel of Camilo Jose Cela

I have just finished reading this english translation of the novel La Colmena by Camilo Jose Cela.
This is the first time I have read the book of Cela, the Spanish writer who got Nobel prize.

I started it about six months back and completed only now, although it is only about 250 pages.
The author took about five years to write it ! The story lends itself to leisurely reading. It centres around a cafe, where the characters come in midafternoon or early evening,sit around, meet others and reflect on their lives over cafe at Dona Rosa's Cafe Delicia.

The story has no big drama, suspence or memorable characters. It is like documentation of every day life of 160 ordinary characters such as an unemplyed youth, policeman, security guard, old men with young tastes and old ladies with older attitude in the city of Madrid. Cela himslef had written in his preface to the first edition "it is nothing other than a pale reflection, a humble shadow of everyday, harsh, profund and painful reality". In the aftermath of the second world war and in the middle of Franco's dictatorship, the Spaniards seem to have simply drifted along, without serious aspirations or motivations.

It is about lower middle class people and their struggle to survive. While the boys and men invent ways and means to acquire and keep up with lovers, the girls who are not luckey enough, take to the streets. The casual and easy approach of these characters to sex, partnership and fun reminded me of similiarities in Latin America.

The books of Cela were banned during Franco's dictatorship and this book was first published in Buenos Aires in 1951. Even there it had to go thorugh the censorship of Peronist dictatorship.