I’m Gonna Laugh My Arse Off Tonight!

I’m sooo looking forward to the Big Laugh show coming into town!  Wooo hooo!  I get to go to a comedy show!  Yeee haaaw!  Can you tell I’m excited?

India is catching up to the international comedy scene.  Okay, we’re far behind, but we’re working on it.  We have had Russell Peters for quite some time.  I had never heard of this guy, Papa CJ, so I googled him, but apparently he’s another.  I saw a video of him doing sets in the UK and a short one in the US.  His material isn’t as good as Peters’ stuff but it seems funny.  I like Peters because almost all the stuff he talks about, it’s familiar and so it’s all hilarious.  He throws things at you that you experienced or heard from friends growing up.  That’s my 1.5GI side tilted towards Americana!

Back in the States (yes, I can now officially say, by a standard of officiality** I just conjured up, ”back in the…” referring to the US when I’m in India and India when I’m in the US), I’ve seen comedy shows in many cities.  I went to the Laugh Factoryin Hollywood a decade plus ago.  Yes, this is THE Laugh Factory, the same place that turned out Richard Pryor, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, etc.  Apparently, it was ranked the number one comedy show by USA Today.  That’s a pretty big deal.  I’ve also seen a few shows in Boston and in New York.  It’s nice to check one out in India now too.  I hope the comedians keep circling out this way.  Finally, there’s something more to do than watch a movie! 

As an aside, let me tell you about “things to do” in Delhi.  Delhi is a happening city but the variety is limited.  It’s usually a club or a movie.  There is a pool hall but no one seems to go to it.  And that’s really the only one unless you count the people who have them set up in their basements and allow you to play for a nominal charge (i.e., not gonna happen for me) or the place visited by a skanky crowd.  Bowling places opened and then shut down.  A new place opened up about six months or so ago at Ambi Mall in Gurgaon.  There are many cultural shows and plays happening, which I should go to more often.

Hah, but what do I care what all is there to do in Delhi (this week), I’m gonna go catch a comedy show!  Bring on the laughs!

** My standard of officiality has to do with the longevity of inhabiting a country.  I habitated the US for a decade and a half.  I can therefore refer to America as “back there”.  I grew up in India till I was a teenager.  (Much) more importantly, I’ve been here the over-the-hump-period of two years!  So Hindustan qualifies too!

Indian Philanthropy and Social Development

I have been researching the education sector in India on-and-off since I came here two years ago.  The last few weeks, I’ve been spending a good deal of time on it.  Education for all is one of those things that I have a soft spot for in my heart.  Healthcare is right up there as well with my shift towards “ed”, and higher ed specifically, happening over the past few years.

India is going through massive changes, as we all know.  This is true in every area of life.  The transition to the knowledge economy, however, is stunted by the fact that India does not have the skilled workforce it requires.  In fact, there is a dearth of talent.  Students graduating from college are not equipped with the skills the industry is demanding.  Because of such a high growth trajectory the past few years, what has also happened is that the young are promoted to ever-increasing managerial responsibilities while not having the experience or training to meet the requirements of the new position.

There is a need to dramatically reform all levels of education – from primary to college.  Freshers (students who have just graduated with their Bachelor’s) are in need for improved learning as part of their education.  Young professionals require training.  There’s a lot that needs to be done.  I’m not talking about going from good to great.  I’m talking about bare bones necessity to a moderate level of functioning in most cases.

Along those lines, I have been scratching to start a new business providing education and training services.  I initially thought about doing it as a nonprofit (the specific services I’m talking about are generally seen as falling into that sector) because it has many advantages that come with it. The problem is that those advantages may be flipped on its rear-end here in India because of the country’s general stance and lack of interest in philanthropy.  Take a look at this article by Dean Nelson in the UK Telegraph.  It hits the issue on its head.  Indians donate but only to religion.  They do not donate to the social development sector.

Because of the general negative view of philanthropic donations to nonprofits in India (not that it doesn’t come with some good historical reasons), I thought about setting up my business as a for profit entity.  In India, you require about two years to get a business off the ground.  In the US, the general recommendation is to have 6 months to 9 months, maybe a year, of expenses saved up.  The gestation period in India is longer unfortunately.  Because I fear an unlimited (2 plus year) time frame before I can earn a good deal, I have not ventured out into starting the business.  My preliminary research and discussions with potential clients, not to mention a study of the state of the country and industry, convinces me the market is there if I get started.  I might need to do a little selling to a few folks as far as paying for it (which is another reason I want to do it as a nonprofit, I think it’s more likely to work).

While researching and reading, I came across the issue of Indian philanthropy.  It’s indeed a sad fact that in a country with such great needs, an increasingly well-to-do middle class, and many with large amounts of disposable money, regular giving is foreign to people.  I’ve been giving since I was a fresher in the US, much longer than many of my much older family members have done here.  It’s just something you did growing up.  In fact, the academic and professional world considers volunteering and community service a critical piece of the selection process for each subsequent step.  Those who have done it get selected and those who haven’t don’t.

That leads me to another aspect of giving back, whether in the form of philanthropy or the notion of civic service.  There is a huge amount of apathy towards community service.  People do not volunteer.  No one does it.  Students don’t do it in high school or college.  They’d rather do awaragaddi (basically goof around).  Professionals do not do it either.  The community service that does happen usually has to do again with religion or perhaps something like an alumni association of a person’s university.    The goal is to achieve recognition in the community or to get a post in the leadership of the alumni group.  The goal is not service to the people who really need it.  I guess that’s not so different than in the States but it just feels different.  Maybe it’s because of the lack of it here and the prevalence of it there.  I’m not so young or naive to say, as perhaps I did years ago, that some level of self-interest is not acceptable.  Too much is not good and this is where we are in India today as far as civic engagement is concerned.

Update on September 5, 2009:

It’s nice to see prominent people in India take active steps towards social change that needs to happen.  I was reading today’s Mint newspaper and saw a Joy of Giving Week has been planned in the country!  Good stuff!  Jai Ho!

Request for Bribe from Cops in India

How many of you have been asked for a bribe?  By a police officer?  Haha!  If you live in a Western country, it’s highly unlikely you had the pleasure of such an experience. 

Being asked for a bribe in India is common.  This is, many times, the only way things get done!  Unfortunately!  Very unfortunately!  Having a police officer who is not a traffic cop ask for money creates an interesting situation.  On the one hand, because it doesn’t have to do with a traffic violation, let’s say the cop is someone who can play an influential role on the issue at hand.  Maybe you should pay him.  On the other hand, you think a cop should do his job and that’s what he’s being paid for.  Why is the idiot asking you for money to do what he’s supposed to do anyway?

Indian National Psyche and My Cigar Friend

One of the interesting topics of discussion between my cigar friend and I has to do with an Indian national psyche.  One of the things that bugs me is constant copying and tit-for-tat.  I tell my cigar friend that there is a lot of this happening everywhere around me and I struggle to deal with it.  She argues that it does not happen.  How can it be happening if it is occuring everywhere?  Everyone can’t be wrong, she said.  My response: yes, it does happen everywhere and everyone can be wrong!

This discussion stems from the fact that my cigar friend is a copy cat and a tit-for-tat rat.  Haha, okay, she’s not a rat but I wanted that line to rhyme.  Now watch, she’s gonna read this and somehow a reference to a cat and a rat will occur sometime soon.  Or, she may try to hold back.  Eventually, she’ll think I’ve forgotten about it and then she’ll say something.  Why?  Because she has to say something and she’ll do it quietly, feeling good that she’s said something.  Hmm, sounds like passive agressiveness.

Is there really a national psyche that I seem to be butting heads with?  Yes, yes, and yes!  Up to now, the people I am dealing with on this are really my own immediate family and my cigar friend.  My cousins also do it.  I run into people once in a while, like my banker, who are also guilty.  It doesn’t bother me much with the banker.  I just brush it off.  I have no relationship with her outside of being my banker for it to matter.  I don’t tell my cousins too much about it, but I do mention it, because telling them something is usually pointless (for reasons I can discuss some other time).  However, when my family does it, it bugs me and I tell them.  When my cigar friend does it, it’s the same situation.

I was researching for work and came across an article with Infosys’ Narayana Murthy.  Let me quote:

The Global Education Centre addresses a key aspect of the national psyche.  “We have realized that our challenge is to take the reactive mindset of Indian youngsters and change them into proactive problem solving ones.  By and large, because of our culture, family background, etc. we are reactive.  To change that, we have to understand problem solving as a science and an art.  We have to understand algorithmic thinking,” he says.

Ahah!  National psyche!  Reactive!  This is the same kind of thing with the issues my cigar friend and I talk about.  She tells me that I’m in India, so I should follow Indian thinking.  Well, that’s true.  But only to some extent.  And only if I want to regress!  What I do need to do is find a better way to deal with it!

Says Narayana Murthy in the article:

We have to understand interacting with people from other cultures, the ability to get into a new unstructured situation and use our generic learning to ask questions in a systematic way.

Ahah, this is so true!  Why are Indians across India, including such distinguished business leaders as Murthy, talking about adopting new ways of thinking and learning and my cigar friend is telling me to regress?  I hope she reads this, gets pissed off, then smiles, and then decides to tell me she’s reading my blog!

Ted Kennedy – Family, Life, and Lessons – Part 4

The article in my last post was the introduction to the Newsweek series.  You can get to all the sub-articles through that.  Here’s my next citation.

What Teddy Can Teach Us, Evan Thomas, Newsweek, August 29, 2009 from the magazine issue dated September 7, 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/id/214247

• He possessed two qualities rarely found in our elected representatives: he did not hog the limelight and, and he was never petty.
• Part of just showing up for Kennedy was presiding as paterfamilias at endless family graduations, weddings, and funerals.
• Kennedy devoured briefing books – huge binders stuffed with mind numbing research – the way most people read novels, recalls Jim Manley, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
• Kennedy could posture and yell on the Senate floor, but he managed to make his foes into friends.
• Kennedy could be harsh in debate, but he was careful to make amends.  He never let himself get too offended by others.  After Sen. Strom Thurmond would rail against him at labor-committee hearings, recalls Kennedy’s longtime aide Melody Miller, “he would amble over to Thurmond and throw his arm over his shoulders and laughingly say, ‘Now, Strom, don’t get too upset. Come on over to Judiciary and I’ll give you some judges!’ “
• Kennedy was at this best – at his most genuine – when other people were in trouble and feeling abandoned.
• Kennedy thought a lot about things, he recalled, and began reading all the books he hadn’t read in college, his family joked.  Maybe it was his Catholic faith, deepened by tragedy and redemption.

Hogging the limelight has a big affect on getting things done.  Those two things can be directly opposite most of the time.  If you want to get results, you cannot worry about the limelight.  You just have to know you’re doing what you’re doing to achieve your goal.  If you’re around decent people, you’ll get the limelight you deserve.  Heck, if you stick around long enough, you’ll get it even with not-so-decent people around you.

It’s not as simple as that, of course.  I used to believe that you shouldn’t worry about credit, just do your job and that’s what matters.  I didn’t even know you should look for credit.  For years, I was turned-off by what I saw as the American capitalist notion of self-promotion and the Hindu value of humility.  I was torn between the two with a definite skew towards humility.  I thought self-promotion was evil.  Really, I did.  It’s probably because I was humble to a fault.  I still am in many regards and don’t toot my own horn. 

I’ve learned over the years, though, that telling people of what you’ve done isn’t necessarily bad.  In fact, in many ways, it’s very important to do that, both in your professional and personal life.  People get to know you, your character, how you think, and your priorities by the things you tell them.  If those things happen to give you credit, then that is what they do.  My thinking on the evilness of self-promotion has turned around to the point it doesn’t turn me off when I see it.  You cannot tell everyone but you do need to tell the people that matter – your spouse, your family, your boss.  Who you deem important to know is important.

I consider being petty just plain-ol bad.  There is little reason to be small-minded about things.  I know people who fall into that category.  If they’re people I hardly meet, it doesn’t really bother me.  I’ve also been in situations where it’s been with people I interact with regularly.  Now, that’s when it gets annoying.  That’s when you remember that breathing deeply helps keep you calm!

One of the things Ted Kennedy apparently did really well was reading, i.e., preparation.  Many of his colleagues and family members mentioned that during his funeral.  I am always reading news online or trade magazines.  I also enjoy reading the latest in management books.  There’s so much to know and understand and it doesn’t happen overnight.  You need to keep up with this stuff continuously.  Still I think I can improve on this.  I need to read more targeted trade literature.

One of the things I found the funniest was when people said Ted Kennedy would yell and scream and vigorously debate on the Senate floor and then turn around and put his arm around you and ask something like “How did I do?”.  I think this is so critical.  I was like this and still am with many people but I do need to do more of it.  Because of a tough situation as a twenty-something adult, I was repeatedly in situations where cutting things off was the best thing to do.  In hindsight, I have realized that cutting things off became too much a part of me.  I need to re-acquire Ted’s ability.

Since a difficult relationship with one of my paternal aunts, I have thought about the things that makes people tick.  It is interesting to me.  People are interesting to me.  Why do they behave the way they do?  Why do they think the way they do?  I ask a lot of probing questions because I like to get down to the root of things.  I’m very curious about people, behaviors, and attitudes.

When you go through a tough period, something so severe that it causes post-traumatic stress disorder (see the “Diagnosis” section) or whatever is the appropriate term, there is a compassion switch that gets turned on in you.  You relate to those who suffer.  It can create a deep desire to bond with people and to help people.  Sometimes, that is not so good but that is what happens with severe traumatic situations.  Your brain gets rewired.  The death of Ted’s brothers had the affect of rewiring his brain!