Remove your glasses first

As mentioned in my last blog, today I went to Jantar Mantar.I had been to Jantar Mantar numerous times before but this time it was different.For the first time in my life I was going to that place to register my presence in protest to a national cause.It was only after reaching there and standing for first 30 minutes that I felt that I went there for a personal cause rather than a national or international one. I found my self there standing and listening to the way every one around was expressing himself or herself. There were mainly two forums , one of which was totally political and the other one was totally emotional. Rationality was still missing. Everyone was whole heartedly blaming the police,the government, the system, the laws and even the public which did not extend support in time to the victims. I started to feel that everyone was looking at the case through their own perspective and through their own glasses of politics, emotionality, hatred, excitement, consciousness, insecurity but hardly anyone was rational. It was a big hue and cry over the spilt milk but no-one was having a clarity on vision on what is to be done next. There were suggestions about being pro active in such situations arising in future or creating a social police which may act at an interface of public versus the existing Police. A couple of rational thought also appeared when someone shared his inclusive view on everyone around in society in all possible roles and status. He said that police or a leader is no more different from us. If we are indifferent to such incidents then we can not expect them to behave differently. After spending around two hours I started my journey back to my home. While in the Metro a lot of things were coming to my mind. Suddenly I realized that almost every one I heard was speaking by looking at the incident through his own glasses. No one was finding himself actually responsible to what all has happened.Everyone was trying to prove in his own might that he is really making a great contribution by facing the police , water cannon or even spending their time in such a chilly weather at jantar mantar. Reality remains that we all are a part of the police, the public and the government. Till we start looking at this incident by removing our glasses then we may find that it is us only who is responsible for this all. The police is secondary , even the people who have ignored the victim on the road should be treated as a primary accuse. Even ourselves who have been so silently watching eve teasing or any indecency with the females around us for whole of our life are equally responsible. This incident is not the first of a kind.It is a bursting at the tipping point.We should be thankful to the youth of the country to have taken such an initiative without any face of leadership.I feel that today is not the time to change the world outside rather it is a moment to go inside and change the way we behave against all the atrocities happening against woman and even children. Let us open forums at all places and even within our houses. Let everyone talk about it and become responsible to react appropriately at all the places where such incidents are taking place. Let us all talk about it and look for all possible solutions which are far beyond all laws and policies. Even laws have also limitation to support those who are aware of their own rights. Let us make our country and the world a place where instead of preaching dos and don'ts to the females, we give them a free environment where they could feel safe and secure. Let us all remove our glasses of self praise and looking good and not looking bad image. Let us all feel and realize the contribution which we have offered in happening of this historic incident.

A movement without a leader

The end of 2012 has seen a dramatic shift in the paradigm of leadership. The whole nation with second largest population in the world and rest of the world with rest of the population just got united over an incident which brought shame to humanity. That was just not another rape or gang rape. That was not the first rape in which the victim was brutally murdered.It was not the first time that police was found very casually passing their time in the latest SUVs with latest weapons and communication instruments. It was also not the first time that the public transport has ditched us again. It was also not for the first time that the traffic regulations meant to be abided by everyone to be there on the roads were just not followed up completely( My earlier blog ( almost two years back mentioned the need for governance through traffic rules). India the country of billions has more than 60 % young heart and this time that heart got beaten somewhere deep down.The kind of movement which started just proved that we were at the verge of the tipping point as per Malcolm Gladwell best seller.The blast occurred and everyone in whatever roles of a brother, father, husband, friend,mother, aunt, sister, uncle and even grand parents unleashed their threshold of bearing and surfaced up on roads in the chilly winters of Delhi. No barricade, no water cannon, no tear gas could stop them. The girls once again became the flag bearer and showed that till now only the fairer sex has a first right of refusal to get rid of evil in this country. The western attire might not be mistaken with a weak or casual attitude towards atrocities taking place around.The Durga or Kali is in the the DNA of Indian girl, however this time it erupted out a bit late.It could have saved a large number of such incident, had this social enlightenment occurred a bit earlier. Delhi with a statistics of almost two rapes a day ( recorded) and uncountable when it comes to the molestations and exploitations occurring at all levels and all age groups required such movement much before. Better late than never, the society is waking up, defying all laws of leadership in which a movement is never complete without a leader. Our youth has proved that he is not going to succumb to any circumstances as well as does not require any purposeless, stupid leadership to come and use them for their political dreams. The youth of today has understood its power and is leading himself as well as developing synergies with everyone around. The concept of "I am Me" is emerging and that is where my "India merging with Bharat" is all about. The english speaking Durgas and kalis in western attire are today the frontline facing the water cannon in chilly winters. We are proud to have them as our sisters, mothers and daughters. Let us all join this movement and contribute in our own might to let the whole world come together with us to get these malicious intention of anyone around towards women get turned into respect and love which they deserve. Let us not support and accept any such actions from anyone including our own family members. I just could not go to India gate but now I wish to visit Jantar Mantar and light a candle and so I expect from you also to do it in wherever you are living and let this candle be incessantly fueled by your will to get the due respect and love being deserved by the women in our society back to them at all levels.

Inculcating governance through traffic rules

Governance will be the order of the day in 21st century. The backbone of governance is the ethics and value system in a society and the irony is that you can’t teach ethics and values to anyone. Values and ethics evolve over a period of time through the dynamism of culture. The dynamism of culture particularly in India has been following a downward mobility towards convenience rather than a robust value system requiring high levels of self discipline. Some one has rightly defined ethics as a choice of decision one make while facing a red traffic signal light on a deserted road in winters at midnight. It is not important that whether he should jump a red light or not ; the important aspect is whether he is bothered about the red light or not.

People would soon start believing that the traffic sense in any society would be a unitary measure of state of entropy in their social system. On a busy road in a metro or on a highway or in the hustling lanes of small towns, road manners are the true measures of rowdiness around. It is felt that the mannerism divide on the road is bigger than the financial divide in our society. The majority of the society is hoarding more and more money by all means to gain power and not to earn prestige. The road manners displayed by a citizen are symbolic to the character of the personality and true indicator of the level of ethics underlying all of her thoughts , acts and deeds.

The society in true sense is exuberating power by breaking traffic rules rather than attempting to create a benchmark for others by following the same rules. Even the system is found in an embarrassing situation to handle such situation of chaos. Due to bureaucratic setup we have been classically conditioned to succumb to circumstances being created by the glitter of wealth. Neither a petty traffic inspector nor the highest judicial personnel could ever do justice to his duties while handling any direct or indirect violation of traffic law by these miscreants. It will be too foolish to consider these petty incidences of traffic indiscipline in our society to be considered as a cause of concern in 21st century. Such incidences are more or less routine and are now hardly get noticed also due to conditioning of all our senses.

However the message which these incidences carries to the up coming generation in India is a key destroyer of the high value system in any society. Everyone is living in a highly over communicated society. We come across thousands of messages everyday and later our cognitive processes help us to organize and interpret them in a unique manner. Such incidences of traffic irregularities and partial behavior of our system to handle such cases would simply paint a highly corrupt picture of our public security system. If we do not develop a uniform law at least for the traffic on road in true sense then we may end up painting the image of an ideal citizen to be the one with lots of money and a free will to break red lights , have dark films on the windows, over speeding, taking lives and endangering other lives regularly and above all a person most respected in the public functions of his area.

Felicitaion of Kuldeep Sharma by Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh

Dear all,



Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister Himachal today launched an ambitious Rs. 300 crore NABARD funded Operation Doodh Ganga Project, by lighting the ceremonial lamp to make Himachal Pradesh self sufficient in milk production and to mark commemoration of the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaya at a remote village Paplota in Arki Sub Division of Solan district today.It became a great day for us as I was felicitated by the chief minister for advising and setting up the first milk processing plant for a woman SHG enterprise in the state. This project is also the first organic milk production and processing plant in Himachal Pradesh. The project is being done for Jagriti Mahila Kisan samiti under the stewardship of its yound and dynamic leader Ms Kiran Koundal. Ms Kiran is also a recipeient of many state level and national awards for her contribution of developing SHG and providing livelihoods to hundreds of woman in the area. Taking it further the project Doodh Ganga is being implemented by the State Government in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department of Himachal Pradesh, targetting 10,000 woman Self Help Groups (SHGs). The project aims to transform them into micro-enterprises engaged in dairy farming and to empower 50,000 rural households economically.



Addressing a public meeting on the occasion, Chief Minister said that the Doodh Ganga project would be initially launched on pilot basis in the districts of Solan, Sirmour and Mandi and would be extended to rest of the State to achieve the objective within the fixed time frame. He said that all eligible SHGs would be provided interest free loan under the Project for dairy farming activities for a period of five years subject to a maximum of Rs. 3.00 lakh, through various nationalised banks all over the State. He said that 10 percent of the project cost would be borne by the members of SHGs out of their savings.



He said that Operation Doodh Ganga would be generating livelihood opportunities to the members of SHGs on a sustainable basis encouraging them for taking up income generating activities and setting up rural micro enterprises in dairy by imparting training for acquiring/upgrading relevant skills and entrepreneurial abilities and also infusing fresh capital through Venture Capital Fund.



Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh and NABARD were closely inter-related as both had jointly achieved the objective of constructing 13,672 new rooms to provide every government primary school with three-room accommodation under Sarswati Bal Vidya Sankalp Yojna at a cost of Rs. 126 crore during the earlier term of the government in the State. He said that the State had successfully achieved the target of constructing 13,672 rooms within a period of three years.

He said that NABARD had been funding various road construction projects to strengthen the communication network in the State. He thanked the NABARD authorities for their cooperative and helping attitude towards the developmental requirements of hilly State. He said that Himachal Pradesh was primarily a agrarian State and 92 percent of its population was rural based. He said that there was necessity to strengthen the basic amenities and infrastructural facilities in rural areas so that migration to urban areas was checked. He said that the State Government was committedly moving ahead to achieve the objective of road, education, health in every village thereby generating self-employment avenues for rural youth to make them self reliant to ultimately live with self respect and dignity.



Prof. Dhumal said that the State had already launched Rs. 353 crore Pandit Den Dayal Kisaan-Baagwan Samridhi Yojna to motivate farmers to go for modern farming in controlled climatic conditions. He appealed the farmers to avail upto 80 percent subsidy over the total cost of the poly houses and micro-irrigation schemes. He said that women empowerment was on the top agenda of the State Government and was committedly implementing various schemes aimed at their socio-economic upliftment.

He said that the State Government had also announced awards to the people informing the local authorities of any female foeticide which had emerged a big challenge before the State Government. The State Government had already decided to provide 50 percent reservation to women in all the panchayati raj institutions with a view to provide them population proportional representation for the policy formulation at the grass root level institutions of democracy. He said that besides implementing various programmes effectively mass awareness was being created amongst the awakened society, especially amongst the women and NGOs could be instrumental in bringing the sex ratio in the State at par, he added. He said that the gram panchayat with highest female birth rate was being awarded an additional development grant of Rs. 5 lakh as an incentive.

Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh was known for its quality milk production which required to be revived. He said that the State Government had already enhanced the procurement price of milk by Rs. 4 per litre during past 20 months to motivate farmers for taking up animal husbandry activities. He appealed to the rural masses to adopt dairy farming as their self employment venture, and earn livelihood for themselves and their families, at their door steps and also meet the milk demand available in State itself and make white revolution endeavours a dream come true in the State. He assured the people of providing them at home veterinary services promptly. He said that nodal officers had also been appointed in every district of the State. The deliberation of the chief minister not only unleash his noble intentions to support the 90 % of population of the state who live in the rural areas but also the role and support of NABARD in non farm areas like education and roads. I wish all the stakeholders a great success. I feel this is a true epitome of inclusive marketing in non farm sector to give a fair chance to everyone to grow.


I feel our contribution and for that matter of the state government also as a drop in the ocean to bring prosperity for all in the world.




With best regards

First Things First

First Things First
For the last few days I have been finding myself blessed as well cursed the most. Seems to be a paradox but it is true and such is the state of most of us but we are not courageous enough to accept it. A man of our generation takes around 15-20 years for an overnight success. In my case it is slightly more than 22 years. One actually starts to feel the success and the fragrance is shared amongst all the members of his community in the environment around. Every one you meet is ready to do a project with you and every call is getting converted into sales. Your time become completely booked for the year and your scope of earning just gets seized as there is nottime left in the calendar to spare. This becomes the blessed part but simulatenously with the commitments come the responsibilities also. God the greteast socialist of the world has actually given 24 hours to everyone in the world. Same was done with me also. Now the curse started to play its role when I began to struggle to meet the timelines for various projects which I undertook and committed to deliver. At that junction of time I contacted various time management experts but most of them told me about those stale theories of prioritising the work and activities. Suddenly I got suggested by my friend Amardeep about a book by Stephen Covey i.e First Thing First. Amardeep also was undergoing a program on I Can I Will by some motivation training group in Delhi. I was watching him becoming more comfortable in delivering the jobs at hand in time and with least of stress. I read and heard Covey for his famous book on seven habits and also remembered the habit of First thing First but was unable to identify on what else could he elaborate in a dedicated publication on this habit. Then one day while I was at Ahmedabad airport and waiting for my flight that I found this book on the book store. I started to read this book and belive you me by the time I reached Delhi I had almost finished half of this book. This book though was having some practical templates and more cases and anecdotes to get the point through but I feel the lesson which I got was much more relevant then all the theories on job and activities prioritisation.
This book talked about prioritising the role before prioritising the jobs or activities. Friends that has become the turning point in my life. Since then I have been identifying various roles which I live and also trying to prioritising them. I suggest all of you to buy and read this book to become more effective in whatever you are doing.

Cheers Kuldeep

The chance of making a choice

Day before yesterday I got a once in five years( if everything goes fine) chance to make my choice for the parliament from my constituency. It happened for the first time that Clause 49 (o) was publicised freely and even few newpaper also talked about it. The clause gives you a right to reject all the candidates if they are not worthy enough(which is a general perception about the candidates). I still went to the polling booth around 3 PM with an inquisitiveness about the clause as mentioned above. Howevere after entering the booth and looking at the list I found one of the name appearing above the party name . The moment of truth was entirely different from what I expected it to be. While pressing the button of EVM, neither I thought about the local problems nor the national issues but I only made the decision on the basis of whether the candidate is accesible or not.

This action validated my firm belive in thory of constraints. I feel that access is a major constraint to the effectiveness of any candidate. Most of the time due to the perosnality clout of the candidate or his dubious image become responsible for him getting accesible to a common man. All the parties thus to begin with consider the constraint of accessibility associated with a candidate while giving ticket to him. Most of the times the parties consider all the factors related to cast and creed which is another constaint to accessibility but I feel that analysis should go beyond the limits of caste and also look into other effectivenss parameters which are consideed in corporate world for establishing leadership qualities in a candidate. The more appropriate criteria could be education, communication, vintage of the candidate in the constituency, the character of the person and his behaviour with his family and business partners, nature of business, past performances, followership(casteless) and above all his willingness to serve and not to be served.

Ideas to make a country of your choice

Yesterday I attended a session with Dr Amartya sen . It was a a divine experience . His wrods were feast to ears and his sight was soothing to the soul. He was sitting amidst Gautam Thapar, Jamshyd Godrej and Tarun Das. The session began by keeping a one minute silent to pay homage to the victims of Mumbai terror attacks. Mr Godrej, started the session by making everyone realised about the poor state of affairs and probably he pointed it out to be a pure slocialism( to the best of my understanding) as the society currently has made everyone equally secure or unsecure. Gautam Thapar at times was looking at me also as I was in the third or fourth row. He was sparkling with confidence. He started the sesion by raising three very critical points.
a. Collectively we do not aspire big as a nation.
b. What we celebrate is gloablisatuion of businesses and not the Indian value systems.
c. I value imagination more than knowledge as knowledge is the past.

The third point touched me somewhere and probably I missed out the whole session which followed till the dinner time. Though Dr Amartya was clear on the most critical issues for India as Education, hunger and accountability but my thought process was still hovering around the words of Mr Gautam Thapar.

I feel that our educational and social systems have made us knowledge driven rather than imagination driven. That also calls for more emphaiss on out of the box thinking to solve the problems rather than reinventing the wheel. I take it further as out of your box thinking. So friends with this back drop I am beginning to share my views on some ideas which could create an India of our dreams.

Kuldeep Sharma
ideas8work.blogspot.com