Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
Night At The Nobel Museum
Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The prize for Economics is strictly speaking an award given in memory of Alfred Nobel that was started in 1968. The Economics Nobel winners for this year were announced today a few hours back. And Ezra Klein made the major goof up (and soon corrected it) on the Washington Post site claiming "Larry Diamond wins the Nobel Prize, continues being blocked by the Senate." The Nobel winners name is Peter not Larry points out Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics fame. According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Nobel prizes were to be awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." The Peace Prize specifically was to be awarded to persons who had been working for "fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Peace Prize has always been the most controversial. This year's decision is no exception. Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Chinese dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize, was informed of his award in prison and has dedicated it to those killed when the Chinese government crushed pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, says the Wall Street Journal.
Pablo Neruda
I love the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's poetry. Had he been alive, he would have turned a 106 on the 12th of July this year. If only I knew Spanish I would have enjoyed the flavor of his poems even more. If reading his translations can be so exhilarating, imagine the impact of reading those poems in in the language in which the poet thought of those words. Writing love poems is difficult. It is hard to become mushy or melodramatic. The ability to express this complex human emotion on paper is not easy. Neruda was a respected diplomat who always used green colored ink to write his poems. He felt green was the color of hope. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1971. He shared his insight on poets and poetry when in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. He said ...
Interview with Samit Basu
"Let us imagine that you had bought, in secret, the world’s most precious jewel, the Eye of Empire, a massive ruby known to have left a trail of lives—violently lost—behind it as it journeyed across harsh lands in the care of desperate men." So begins Samit Basu's new book Terror on the Titanic - his first Young Adult novel. Meet Samit, India's first fantasy novelist and the first well-known Indian author to cross over into comics. He is the author of an extremely popular trilogy of fantasy novels, the GameWorld Trilogy, comprising The Simoqin Prophecies (2004) The Manticore's Secret (2005) and The Unwaba Revelations (2007). He has written comics for Marvel Comics in India. Outlook featured him along with Shreya Ghoshal - India's top playback singer and Konkona Sen Sharma the brilliant actress. He got inspired to start a career as an author during a dull class at IIM (Ahmedabad) while pursuing his MBA. Read on what this talented writer is all about.
Interview at Competia.com
I believe that leaders who bring in a multi function, multi business and multi geography perspective will succeed better since business opportunities are going to lie at intersection points. For instance: When you have a leader who understands not just mobile technology but also consumer needs around entertainment or education, there is a business opportunity. If that person were to be a designer, you have a brilliant combination. I believe the consumer will become more sophisticated and look beyond meeting purely functional needs. They will look for design and aesthetics in the products or services. Leaders who are equally at home in quantitative analysis as they are in understanding qualitative nuances will be more successful. Clearly people who have a more eclectic education - say Finance, Human Resources and Design will be valuable. A more international outlook will make a leader comfortable in not only understanding cultural nuances of the consumer but will also build a more inclusive work environment which will attract the best talent globally.
The Don Tapscott Interview - Part II
Work and learning are becoming the same activity in a knowledge economy. Rather than sending executives off to a learning institution, it makes more sense to increase the learning component of their work. In the company I work for, nGenera Insight, our education program is quite simple: Everyone must blog. By blogging, they need to think about what’s going on the world. They need to become knowledgeable and develop their craft of writing. They need to put forward their thoughts and defend them. This is Executive Education fully integrated into work.
What Makes Us Happy
There are three states that we experience: (i) Contentment - when we feed the body (ii) Joy when we feed the mind and (iii) Happiness when we feed our soul.
Is Fidelity Outdated
Is Fidelity Outdated? When you ask such a question on Valentine's Day, it tends to grab attention. Anuradha Verma of The Times of India. Pritish Nandy, Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Rupa Ganguly have all shared their views. Columnist and film maker Pritish Nandy says, "Fidelity is not the issue. Has never been. What is at issue is fidelity on demand. You cannot get fidelity on demand in a marriage or any other relationship for that matter. People are faithful when they love someone enough to give up every other option, every other choice. And trust me, despite the contempt with which it is treated by many people today, fidelity is still pretty much common. It is not that impossibility which we think it is."
Learning Agility
How do companies identify high potential employees? Different organizations use different approaches. There are a host of assessments that can provide data on various competencies that makes leaders successful. There are competencies that leaders need to translate their vision of the future into a strategy. They need to have the competencies to communicate and inspire the stakeholders to buy into that vision. They also need to be able to cobble together a team that will execute that plan.
The Republic Day Agenda
Sixty years back, the Preamble to the Indian Constitution made a bold promise of a dream. The preamble went on to articulate a direction in which we wish to see India grow. It saidWE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:JUSTICE, social, economic and political;LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; ...
The Fifth Number
He looked at the photo by the bedside. She was smiling at him. She always did especially when he would do something awkward. If he spilled water from the glass at the lunch table. Or say something awkward when they had company. She would remind him to have his medicine as he enjoyed his cup of tea and newspaper every morning.
Mysore and More
Just a short drive from Mysore is the village of Bylakuppe. It is an inconspicuous detour off the main road. The town is called Kushalnagar that can be best described as Little Tibet. The town is home to the Namdroling Monastery which has over 5000 Tibetan monks and nuns.
Happy New Ear To You
Take away this ritual of NYRs and you have a greater chance of improving the level of honesty of the masses. The world needs flawed people like me – in urgent need of making resolutions. Heck most of us know just exactly what improvements we have to make in our life. Why wait for the stroke of midnight of the New Year to start doing what we should have been doing anyway? Who needs more broken promises? Here I am – resolution free and loving it. I like the freedom from guilt and broken promises. Any takers?
Reliving and Leaving
These were two memorable days spent meeting my classmates from the batch of '84 at XLRI, Jamshedpur, the B-School (see photo) where I was a student. We were all having a grand reunion back at the Alma Mater. The last few months have been spent by the enthusiastic organizers of our batchmates trying to trace out every friend now liberally peppered across the world. Some have turned entrepreneurs, some are stay at home parents, some of them are leaders of the corporate world. It was if anything, a time to change and a time to celebrate.
Secrets of Writers
How do they start their novel? Do they need to think about the opening lines and closing lines?Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk agonizes over the first line – rewriting it 50 or 100 times.John Irving begins his novels by writing the last sentence first.Do they plan out their novels or do they just write and stuff happens* Plot and story structure is all very planned for Pamuk* Ondaatje says he does not even know what the next sentence will be.* Margaret Atwood starts with a rough plot which is usually wrong.* Colum McCann prints out a chapter or two in large fonts and then take the stapled pages to a park to read. He uses eight-point Times New Roman, while he edits dialog because that forces him to squint at the tiny type and read the lines carefully* Anne Rice will spend a year or two researching a book before writing the first draft. She edits continuously as she writes.
My First Blogpost
Webneetech.com is interviewing bloggers especially those who can share the secret of how to quit your day job and start making money by blogging. I am very jealous of people who make money in this fashion. If I am unable to do it, how can someone else do it - kind of jealousy. Or is that called envy? What's the difference between the two? Anyway... they asked me about my first blogpost and why I started blogging in the first place.
A Horoscope Pisces Me Off
There are days when you are the pigeon and there are days when you are the statue. The trick lies in getting an early warning especially on the statue days, so that you can take in a deep breath and last out when your head is being held underwater. In my case the pigeon days are few and far between. It happens ever so suddenly and if I do not immediately take advantage of that tiny sliver of an opportunity I have only myself to blame. Horoscopes are helpful to take a sneak peek into the future. I read them regularly. My newspaper carries two of them (written by two different blokes) on Sunday.
Meet Cartoonist Ajit Ninan
The morning newspaper and a cuppa chai is a ritual that is common to a large part of the human race. But people read it in their own manner. Some glance at the headlines and head straight for the sports page. So open the editorial page and shake their head disapprovingly at the affairs of the world. I head for the cartoons. I grab the newspaper and head straight for Ajit Ninan's cartoon. I look for two elements of wit in a cartoon - the visual and verbal. Ninan excels in both. Usually one lands up choosing between the two. Ajit worked for many years with the India Today group as cartoonist and illustrator, before moving to the Indian Express newspaper in 1992 eventually switching to Outlook one of India's top news magazines. He is now with The Times of India as their Chief Graphics Consultant. Ajit used to run a cartoon strip called Detective Moochhwala (and his tail-less dog called Poochh, which means tail in Hindi) for the childrens magazine Target. That comic strip had cult status amongst readers and it was amazing to see Ajit pack in a tight storyline and brilliant graphics in about 35-40 frames.