Cucumber Seller of Chenai

The cucumber seller of Chennai At peace with himself and with the world rushing past, this man was dressed in poverty. But in his presence, it was I who felt poor
SUBROTO BAGCHI
On a hot July day, my colleague Moses and I were trying to locate our car on Chennai’s Nungambakkam High Road in front of Nalli Silks when I saw a roadside cart laden with cucumbers. The seller was vacantly gazing at passersby. Clad in a white shirt and a dhoti worn in the traditional Chennai style, he had long hair and an unkempt beard. I did not know Tamil, and asked Moses to find out the price. One rupee apiece, came the reply.
We wanted one piece each. The cucumber seller began deftly slicing them to put salt and the delectable red chilly powder on the neat halves. As we bit into the cucumber, I asked Moses to tell him that his pricing was too low, and that he should raise it. Moses conveyed this. The seller shook his head, and replied that “customer satisfaction” is more important than extra profit. The words ‘customer satisfaction’ were in English. I gulped my patronising comment. At this time, Moses excused himself to find our car. After a few moments, the seller asked me in English where I was from. From Bangalore, I replied. What follows here is our conversation. His statements are highlighted.
Isn’t the Karnataka budget due to be presented tomorrow? Yes, that is true. Living in Karnataka,
it was easy for me to concur on this.
I wonder how the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will ever solve the water- sharing problem. Man cannot solve this problem. It has to be God. After all, it is an issue of how much rain is going to fall! I nodded. I was not sure if I had a view at all.
See the way the monsoon is progressing. It does not look good. The progress of the rains is leaving a ‘V’ of a dry patch as the clouds move north. Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and the states up north will have problems. Politicians are the ones who use such problems to create a divide among people. They always do it. They use water, religion, anything they can, to create a divide. Look at the way Amarinder Singh of Punjab is taking a stand. I looked at him,
in part admiration and part disbelief.
You’re from Bangalore. Things are going well for you folks. But I don’t understand how
people with shady business interests can become representatives of public opinion there.It
was part complaint and part observation.
At this point, a fellow peddler arrived — helped himself to some of the cucumber, and the two had a quick conversation on some issue I did not understand. After the other person left, I asked him if selling cucumber was his full-time vocation. He told me that right now it was. Earlier, he sold lottery tickets, the trading of which has since been banned. As a result he had to switch his business to selling cucumbers on the wheeled cart. No complaints and no issues. Meaning to engage him further, I asked him his religion. This drew an instant look of disappointment from him: “Sir, I am an Indian. That is my religion. In my eyes, all people are equal, and it does not matter to me at all.”

The clarity of his response and his conviction took me completely by surprise. His net worth was probably equal to his day’s turnover. The newspaper and magazines he reads, to keep abreast of things, wipe off the disposable income he generates. Bare feet on this busy, dusty road, he sold a low-value, perishable product from a rickety cart. At peace with himself and with the world rushing past, this man was dressed in poverty. But in his presence, it was I who felt poor.
We are not complete if we are not connected. It is only when we are connected that things make sense. Only when things make sense, we can form an opinion. Standing there, I wondered how many in the corporate world know who the chief minister of Punjab is, and about the progress of the monsoon! How many have an informed view on river water politics and budget proceedings of another state.
Soon, Moses appeared with our car. It was time for me to go. I shook hands with the nameless
cucumber seller of Chennai. Actually, I wanted to touch his feet

The Spirit of Kamatchi

A journey of a destitute, young mother that began in 1926 carries lessons in leadership and decision making Subroto Bagchi (Co-Founder Mindtree Consulting Inc.)Kamatchi was born in 1898 in Kattikulam - now in Tamil Nadu. Those were the days when a female child was raised with the sole purpose of getting her married off. So was Kamatchi. By stitching together subsequent events in her life, we gather that by the time she was twenty-five, she had five children from her husband, Thalakaswami. He did not care much for her, and one day just went away.The eldest daughter was all of twelve and the youngest was two and a half years old when Kamatchi decided to take charge. We do not know how but she left Kattikulam and finally landed up in Madras in a state of destitution. She looked for work - not an easy thing in 1926. Around the same time, there were recruitment agents looking for rubber plantation workers for British clients. Kamatchi signed up and sat in a sailboat with the five children in tow, and arrived at a rubber plantation to become a 'tapper'. As Kamatchi went to work, the oldest daughter took up the task of mothering the other four. Two of these were the in-between sons who started going to school. Kamatchi and her brood braved on under a hutment of a swampy rubber estate until 1945. Then came the Japanese, and took away the two boys as slaves to build the bridge over the river Kwai in Burma. This was called the 'death railway' because people seldom returned, falling to the rampant bouts of cholera, typhoid and malaria.The war was over and the Japanese retreated, but Kamatchi's little boy never came back. The older son somehow did and went on to complete his higher education, eventually becoming a headmaster. On his return, he took complete charge of the surviving siblings, and asked Kamatchi to retire. In 1966, she passed away, a single mother - leaving behind her legacy in Malaysia, a country with the highest number of people of Indian origin. Kamatchi's son, in turn, carried on her lineage. One of his sons, Dr Vignesh, was narrating this fascinating story of courage as he was driving me to the venue of the Malaysian-Indian Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.He grew up to qualify as a veterinary practitioner. All his siblings are in the mainstream of Malaysian society today. I asked him about his recollections of Kamatchi. When Dr Vignesh was a boy, Kamatchi's sunset years had begun. Life in the rubber estates had left her an asthmatic. But she remained until her last, the matriarch who was a go-getter, who knew no fear, a motivator and a fighter. Though she believed in God, she was non-ritualistic and exhorted her children to rely on self-help. She used to say: "You have to take charge; God does not come through the tin roof to dole out bounties."We study leadership and decision-making in business - a subject that fascinates us. We debate if leaders create circumstances or vice versa. We talk about decisions and momentous ones, with the power to create generational impact. In all this, we analyse character in leadership, and use analogies from political history and military conquests because business leadership hasn't been in existence long enough to create narratives with directional value.My mind goes back to 1926. I see a twenty-five year old, illiterate woman - nah, girl. She is with five children; the youngest by her bosom. Six human frames and a small bundle of cloth, representing her departure from the past. What would have happened if Kamatchi had stayed on in Kattikulam, bemoaning the runaway husband and seeking the alms and mercy of village elders? What would have happened if she had killed her children and herself? What if she had abandoned them? I shudder and seek solace in the miracle of now.In all this, what was the most important decision that Kamatchi took? For me, it was the one to dislocate herself from Kattikulam. That single decision changed the fate of three generations. It was the potently unsafe option. Kamatchi did not go to business school but lived the saying that 'the safest place for a ship is the harbour'. But it was never built to stay there.

Ek Chup Sau Sukh

Jalsa , Mumbai July 9, 2011 Sat 11 : 27 PM

Its not what has been taken away from you that counts - its what you do with what is left that matters. The exact quote was from Hubert Humphrey, but it was relevant even in its broken form and hence its mention …

Much can get taken away from you. It must. Life would be worthless if we were to only receive and not give away. But getting left behind with whatever there is and to make life worthy and alive is what makes us worthy. We are born with some perfections and some disabilities and soon enough we realize our areas of incompetence. There are many that lament the imperfections, annoy their minds on the misfortunes, look upon others that possess more with envy and jealousy. But does it bring any result. No. They destroy themselves by continuous remark on their negativity and end up as traumatic wrecks. Consolation comes to them when they enhance themselves through substance abuse and other unnatural devices ; elevating themselves momentarily from the morass of their own building.

They are weak that resort to practices that consume rather than deliver. I may never ever deliver, but neither would I be entirely consumed with the burden of imperfections. I would strongly admit, rather than cover and disguise. I would let it be seen and shown rather than be hidden and unknown. There will descend an element of self consciousness when we do that. But better to be self conscious than to allow the other to fester and wound inside. What does one achieve by glamorizing the achievements we encounter. I would rather it lay dormant within and allow it to breathe on its own. Occasions such as this stand better chance for eventual recognition. Manufacturing competence, visibility, awareness, recognition, achievement, would take me a lifetime to reconcile with and some more -

‘Ek chup sau sukh’ !! the elders advise through generations. One silence, a hundred joys. If it has to come your way it shall find a path of its own. If not no matter how hard one may try, it shall never make an appearance. I believe valued recognition can never be led astray through manipulation and craft. Momentarily yes, the odds shall favor against you, but eventual victory shall always be yours. It is a test of patience, of forbearance, of reserves of fortitude and strength of character. When ever then was life ever going to be without these elements.

These are not just philosophical musings. They are practiced law, as it were, ready to be judged by the severest benches of judiciary.

I example myself in all matters before putting it out for public consumption. And only when I find them to be of practical use, do I share them. I am no standard of example and certainly not the best, but do find myself in positions at times where this propensity can be applied. Through the years of living and life there is but one common belief for me. Do it and leave it ! If it has to grow it shall, on its own strength of root. If not, torrents of rain water and nurturing shall not bring effect.

Better to believe that you have been wronged and keep it within. Better. When declared outside, it shall invite severe and cynical criticism and remorse. Be prepared for that, or do not allow yourself to enter that realm. Harboring hate and revenge destroys our own body and may never get a chance to destroy the other. What then ? Living with the thought of constant vigil on where and what and how the other behaved, is using up a great deal of your brain and mind consciousness, preventing it from other more deserving thought.

And then … what good does it eventually make … you are wronged, you fester the wound and at the first opportunity resolve it by utilizing the same method of technology that was used against you, in defense. But does it actually resolve ? I would guarantee not.

We are here to accomplish our tasks as have been stipulated to us, by our own deserving and accumen. Stick to it. What good if you shall lead a tributary away from the main to square matters. You would need to look after the main river and now, the tributary. Does that not increase the volume of your horizon ..? Does it not add, rather than subtract. Does it not build slush and mud on an otherwise clear and efficient pathway. Would we rather have this than that ??

I leave it to your discretion …

Amitabh Bachchan

Posted in: Others

Distance Education article in Indiatoday

Going the Distance


Prachi Rege | October 9, 2010 | Updated 00:00 IST

The Internet plays a key role in distance learning.Million-dollar salary packages are no longer just for full-time MBA graduates from the top B-schools in the country. For graduates, mid-career professionals and executives who couldn't pursue higher studies due to time or money constraints, a distance learning MBA programme is the answer. The important fact is that the industry is interested in hiring a distance learning MBA graduate. Like in the case of Upasana Mukherjee, a graduate in English, who was working as a technical writer with IBM in Kolkata. Mukherjee wanted to make a career in the instructional designing industry, so she decided to do a postgraduate diploma in instructional design from the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL). After completing the programme she secured a placement with Wipro Technologies, Pune, as an instructional designer with a 50 per cent salary hike.


Chinmay Kamat, 32, Pune

Institute: Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Subject: Postgraduate Diploma in International Business

Reason for doing this course: Wanted to start his own business venture

Previously employed: With KPIT Cummins, Pune, for over three years

What now: While pursing this course, Kamat was working. After earning his diploma, he quit his job in August and has successfully set up his own venture called Finesse Learning-a soft skills and leadership training consultancy.

Distance learning programmes are viewed as not only a career enhancement option for working professionals but are also a retention tool for companies. Some companies sponsor or encourage their employees to pursue such programmes. "A distance learning MBA graduate possesses the ability to multi-task, stay committed, work hard and be patient," explains Arvind Agrawal, president and chief executive-corporate development, HR, RPG Enterprises.

Every year RPG encourages at least five to six employees to join the postgraduate diploma in business administration course offered by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai. Though this doesn't mean that these employees get promoted immediately; what matters is they earn the required expertise and skills for the job, explains Agrawal. "Pursuing this degree makes an employee's career growth more progressive as they have a more wholesome and holistic picture of the business world," says Vidushi Soneja, HR executive, Ericsson India.

NMIMS offers customised programmes specially designed according to the needs of the company. "We trained 20 employees from Accenture through a postgraduate diploma in finance management," says Dr Vidya Naik, associate dean, School of Distance Learning, NMIMS. Graduates from Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (LNWIMDR), Mumbai, are given placements by companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T, Reserve Bank of India, IBM India, Raymonds Ltd and HPCL. Graduates from SCDL have been placed with companies like Wipro Learning Centre, Wipro BPO, Rubikube, iThink Solutions, Resource Plus Services, NIIT Ayush Software and Stylus Systems. Students at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, are offered placements by Infosys, Genpact, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aditya Birla Group, Hindalco and ONGC.

Distance learning programmes aren't a new phenomenon but institutes have finally given a shape to the courses. Most institutes have a core team comprising in-house professors. "The faculty for full-time courses trains distance learning students. As learning can happen over the Internet, industry professionals and professors from around the globe can give lectures online," says Arun Mohan Sherry, director, IMT Centre for Distance Learning. While such a programme costs from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for two years, a distance learning course costs between Rs 20,000 and Rs 60,000 for the same. "In this module the expenditure is only on the technology used," says Uday Salunkhe, director, LNWIMDR.

Upasana Mukherjee, 27, Pune

Institute: Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning

Subject: Postgraduate Diploma in Instructional Design

Reason for doing this course: Wanted to combine her language skills with technical ones and work as an instructional designer

Previously employed: With IBM, Kolkata, for one year

What now: Mukherjee was previously employed as a technical writer at IBM. After completing her course she secured placement with Wipro Technologies, Pune, as an instructional designer with a 50 per cent salary hike.

Study material consists of audio CDs that have PowerPoint presentation on each subjects with a detailed explanation of every chapter. Some institutes also give reference books. These are delivered right to one's doorstep. With case studies to analyse and assignments to submit, these courses are as exhaustive as full-time courses.

"We try to maintain parity with the full-time programme so that those pursuing it are also intensively trained," says Naik. The first-year curriculum covers a mix of subjects like organisational behaviour, marketing management, financial accounting, consumer behaviour and business economics. In the second year, one has to choose a specialisation. Though there are no entrance tests for these courses, mid-term and semester exams are conducted online.

The Internet has become a key space for communication between the professor and students. "Virtual classrooms allow students to see and hear the lecturer, ask questions and even replay a lecture. This creates a sophisticated learning experience similar to a live classroom session," says

Swati Mujumdar, director, SCDL. Students and professors can also chat online to discuss problems. "Our virtual classroom sessions are decided well in advance-twice a week in the evening for two hours. During the time of admission, students are given the schedule for the whole of two years," says Salunkhe. Students based in the same city as the institute have the option of attending personal contact programmes, which take place on weekends.

Some institutes offer admissions twice a year, while others accept students four times a year. There has been a rise in the number of people joining these courses. It's not just the mid-level executives who are pursuing them but also fresh graduates who opt for jobs instead of higher education. "SCDL has seen a rise: 8,000 students in 2001 to about 53,000 in 2009," says Mujumdar. NMIMS has from 2,000 to 5,000 students joining every year.

--Rs 60,000 is what an MBA course by distance learning costs while a full-time MBA diploma at IMT costs about Rs 8 lakh.

--53,000 students joined distance learning courses at SCDL in 2009, up from the 8,000 that were enlisted in 2001.


According to experts, the disadvantage of such a programme is that students can't experience the physical presence of peers and professors which would motivate them. "Distance education requires self-motivation. Opting out of the course, following a bad score in a mid-term test is not the solution. Students need to be focused in order to complete the degree," says Salunkhe. As they say: No pain, no gain; clubbed with determination, is a sure-shot win for the candidate.

Institutes of Note

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and Bangalore

Courses: Postgraduate Diploma in Finance, Business Management, HR, International Trade, Supply Chain Management and Banking

Fee: Rs 50,000 for two years

Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai

Courses: Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management, Finance, HR, E-Business, Retail Management, International Business and Banking and Investment and Insurance

Fee: Rs 45,000 for two years

Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, Pune

Courses: Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration, Instructional Design, Marketing Management, HR, customer relationship management, Finance and Operations Management

Fee: Rs 25,000 for two years

XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur

Courses: Business Management, HR, Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Sales and Marketing Management

Fee: Rs 1,75,000 onward for a year

Amity School of Distance Learning, Delhi

Courses: HR, IT, Marketing, International Business, Finance, Operations and Insurance

Fee: With Personal Contact Programme Rs 57,000; otherwise Rs 42,000; for two years for graduates, three for professionals

Amity Center for E-Learning

Courses: Production, HR, IT Marketing, International Business and Finance

Fee: Rs 59,000 for MBA-three years, MBA (EFT)-two years, MBA (CAFT)-1.6 years

Swami Vivekanada

Vivekananda: My teen icon wore saffron
Anshul Chaturvedi
08 January 2011, 11:09 PM IST

Long, long ago, I, too – unlikely as it may seem with the graying hair today – was once a teenaged rebel. Defiant, stubborn, questioning, a risk-taker, even reckless. Some of those traits I have, hopefully, retained. But the instigator of my transition from a seemingly inconspicuous docile schoolboy to this combative version was neither my college gang nor a rapper with an exotic name. It was a man long dead, having lived all of 39 years, speaking to me through fiery words that did not diminish in intensity with the passage of time.

I picked up Vivekananda’s thoughts one day in class XIIth, and have not quite been able to put them down yet. Having the capability to live only a little of what he practiced, I cannot lay claim to being Eklavya to his Dronacharya status. Yet, when I was beginning to decipher the questions of right and wrong, moral and immoral, he summed it up for me the complexity of it all: ‘Fear is the greatest sin my religion teaches’. Since then, I’ve tried to ensure that I did not commit the cardinal sin, whatever other errors I make.

In childhood, I learnt, as we all do, that convention and what everyone else thought mattered. Then I unlearnt it. “I will die a thousand deaths rather than lead a jelly-fish existence and yield to every requirement of this foolish world”, the monk thundered though the years into my mindspace, and is it any wonder that I was often more of a nonconformist than anyone with a dozen tattoos, eyebrow piercings and purple hair colour could have been?

When I was at my most despondent, wondering whom to turn to for help, unsure of receiving it from anywhere, I recalled the man who wrote “Human help I spurn with my foot. He who has been with me through hills and dales, through deserts and forests, will be with me, I hope; if not, some heroic soul would arise some time or other, far abler than myself, and carry it out.” I learnt to not despair for human help and reconcile to the fact that either He would chart out my survival or declare and end to my tenure here.

When I started out an inconsequential career in the back of beyond, I sometimes wondered what I was doing, whether it was all that I was worth. Vivekanda told me – “Do not be afraid of small beginnings, great things come afterwards. Be courageous.” I learnt not to despair at small beginnings and have the courage of great things to follow them.

When I faced flak, I remembered the monk writing to his boys: ‘Have faith that you are all, my brave lads, born to do great things! Let not the barks of puppies frighten you – no, not even the thunderbolts of heaven – but stand up and work!” He almost read my mind and explained in his fiery fashion: “the names of those who will wish to injure us will be legion. But is not that the surest sign of our having the truth? The more I have been opposed, the more my energy has always found expression.” And I stood up and worked, irrespective of the disapproval of puppies and the heavens alike. And learnt to no longer cringe at those wishing to injure. And lived to tell the tale – so far!

When I faced slander and innuendo, my first reactions were hypersensitive. I itched to get even. Then I went back to the monk who was not spared when in the US by critics questioning his way of life there. And his response: “Tell my friends that a uniform silence is all my answer to my detractors. If I give them tit for tat, it would bring me down to a level with them. Tell them that truth will take care of itself…” I learnt to not respond and to believe that facts would take care of themselves.

When I wistfully looked at the twenties go by in 12-hour work days and struggle and little else, when I looked around and wondered why I had neither money nor fame and whether my nonconformity was worth anything, Vivekananda told me to wait. Wait, he said, “wait, money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.” I looked back at the worst points of my life, saw for myself whether I lasted through them because I kept the backbone straight or because I had clout or cash, got my answer, and told myself not to forget it thence.

When the instinct to do earth-shattering things egged me on, only to be killed with one look at my dismal bank balance, I asked him for answers, and he told me: “Was it ever in the history of the world that any great work was done by the rich? It is the heart and the brain that do it ever and not the purse.” I stopped assuming that I was incapable of great work if my purse was empty.

It has now been many years of long hours and busy schedules, and sometimes one wants to simply be quiet and put thoughts into words, but time is scarce in the pursuit of the daily bread. But then one recalls the monk, even in his situation in life, writing to Sister Nivedita: “I was born for the life of a scholar – retired, quiet, poring over my books. But the mother dispenses otherwise – yet that tendency is there.” And for a moment my master and me are kindred spirits, joined in a thought across a century.

And as I chart the journey of what years I have lived, and what years – who knows how many – are left, every single time I face something that makes me falter, ponder, slow down, I go back to my gurumantra, words of Vivekananda that are etched in my mind from that day when I first read them as a 17-year old: “This I have seen in life – he who is over-cautious about himself falls into dangers at every step; he who is afraid of losing honour and respect, gets only disgrace; he who is always afraid of loss, always loses…”

When Vivekananda taught that to a 17-year-old, he gave him freedom from fear, he made him the ultimate teenaged rebel. Except that, unlike the tattoos, the piercings or the punk cuts, you never outgrow this rebel instinct.

You gifted me the ability to stay in my mind forever 17. Happy birthday, Naren!

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