Top of the lot...



Glancing at the TIME Top 100 people list.


Its a list of 100 people from so many fields of life - politics, sports, medicine, social service, entrepreneurs, artists etc. Some I have followed very closely in the past few years, some that I knew of, some I wasnt even aware of.


But then, if I have to find 100 people every year and only for good reasons, then I admit it is going to be not so easy. Still, i believe that a lot of the names here are purely due to the position they are occupying today -- and this applies mostly to the politicians (David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Michelle Obama, Paul Ryan, Michele Bachmann, Joe Biden, Gabrielle Giffords, John Boehner and a bunch of them others). Its an ode to the chair, not to the chairperson. Some of them are here due to their 1 year of fame -- Julian Assange, Wael Ghonim, Mark Zuckerberg, Colin Firth etc -- not due to consistent good work. The real hat tip goes to the selfless individuals whom I had heard very little (or almost nothing) who have been slogging real hard, anonymously, for a lot of years of humanitarian causes like water, education, human rights, democratic rights and often ended up on the wrong side of the lawmakers. No wonder there are so many of them in the list.


My winner from the list though is Takeshi Kanno. why? Read here.


Here are a few thoughts that sprung in my mind when i was scrolling through the list -- right at that instant --
1 - Wael Ghonim -- The google boy to caused the Egypt revolution. For me, he was the face of the revolution, not the brain. Every cause has a brain who masterminds it, has a martyr who is sacrificed for the cause, a beneficiary who gains due to the cause and a face who publicizes the cause. In Wael's case, he was just lucky to publicize the cause. I dont think that his contribution to the revolution in Egypt is bigger than any of the martyrs who lost their lives or who are permanently disabled / crippled. But he gets the publicity here because he was the face that everyone saw. He was the identity of the revolution.
2 - Julian Assange -- The Wikileaks guy. The only difference between him and Wael Ghonim is that while Wael was the face, Assange is both the face and the martyr in this whole Wikileaks episode. Not only has he lost his anonymity, funding and freedom, the only thing he has earned is a rape lawsuit.
3 - Dhoni -- someone who really is wearing a crown of thorns while sitting on the most revered throne in the country. The sole reason he deserves to be here is because he still has his feet on the ground.
4 - Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, VS Ramchandran, Aruna Roy -- Proud to be an Indian
5 - General David Petraeus -- The US Army General. Weird to read his name in this list, on the day he is removed from the post.


Those who, I feel, rightly deserve to be here -- 
1 - Reed Hastings -- CEO of Netflix, just for totally revolutionizing the movie rental business.
2 - Kim Clijsters -- It takes a lot of courage and character to leave a sport at the age of 23 when you are right at the top. And if thats hard enough, she became a mom, came back and won the US open twice in a row. Hats off.
3 - Aung San Suu Kyi -- Burma's democracy advocate. Takes guts to survive out there championing her cause. The fact that she is alive should get her to this list, every year.
4 - Fathi Terbil -- The lawyer in Libyan revolution. The martyr there. To take the Gaddafis, in Libya, via the legal route is not easy and he dared to do that.
5 - Maria Bashir -- Fighting for women's rights in Afghanistan. Try living in that country as a woman first, you should get your name on this list just for that.


Those who, I feel, did not deserve to be on this list -- 
1 - Mark Zuckerberg -- Just at the crest of the success wave of FB. Declined a big buyout offer from other companies, may have done a big mistake. With every Tom Dick and Harry jumping on the social media bandwagon, FB may not be a mighty force in a couple of years and he might be left ruing his decision. Just look at Orkut's fall from grace - nowadays, even the profile page does not load any more. Does anyone recall that scrapbook was the most craved communication medium a couple of years back?
2 - Colin Firth -- Does acting well in a good movie make you an influential person? Lucky to be at the right place at the right time.
3 - Joe Biden -- This is the first time I am hearing of him after he got elected.
4 - Ahmed Shuja Pasha -- Pakistan spy chief. The only thing mentioned abt him was that the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai happened within a week of him taking office and that he does not trust the US. How does that make him influential, important or famous?
5 - Gabrielle Giffords -- Only claim to fame is that she was shot and is now recovering in one of the best medical facilities in US, on taxpayers money.
6 - Michelle Obama -- If I have heard very little of Biden, I think MO doesnt deserve here because I have heard too much abt her.
7 - Michele Bachmann -- A politician who loves to shoot from the lip. The easiest thing to do, sit in the critics chair and point to the problem. No words abt the solution though.
6 - Justin Beiber -- Riding on the crest of momentary success.
7 - Oprah -- this one cant get enough of the publicity
8 - John Boehner, Paul Ryan -- Riding on the opportunistic budget crisis.


Not sure if you would agree with my opinion or not, but this list deserves a perusal. Go fetch!!!

The demi-god or the demi-devil?

The most revered Shri Satya Saibaba (SSS) passed away on Sunday 24th April, hitherto known in India only as Sachin Tendulkar's birthday. After a brief illness, he died leaving his countless devotees in a sea of sorrow.


SSS was famous. He had a lot of devotees - from the rich to the poor and from the famous to the anonymous - and he was literally treated as a demigod by each one of them. Like the proverbial rose flower, he had a few thorns up his crown. There were quite a few of his detractors as well.



When I woke up on Sunday, someone had shared some snippets of an old documentary which accused SSS of fake materialization. I immediately realized that SSS had passed away and this is just a crude attempt at maligning him. A few other articles digging some old dirt found its way through the blogosphere as well.

Personally, I am not a devotee of SSS -- I neither adore him nor do I abhor him. For me, he is someone whom I am just aware of - just like I am aware of any other famous personality. So, considering that I have nothing to lose, I started digging through the dirt to see if some truth can be unearthed.

I watched the video from the documentary carefully and could see that solely based off what was shown in that documentary, something iffy was going on. With every passing minute of the video, my doubts were gaining conviction and I was getting convinced of the accusations. I got angry of how these self proclaimed enlightened individuals, with same number of limbs and organs like us, trick a common man and earn crores and crores and live lavishly.

Thats when the rational part of the brain got stimulated and I started thinking of something on an entirely tangential trajectory. Why does the common man believe in these godmen? Why is it that he/she is ready to donate thousands or lakhs or sometimes even crores. Why is it that sportsmen, politicians, doctors, engineers, lawyers, CAs -- and no average individuals, the most respected and successful ones -- are such big devotees of SSS? There has to be something more than what meets the eye.

And then I realized - you dont need a publicized proof to believe in someone. Ask a mother who finally gave birth to a baby after umpteen heart wrenching failed attempts. Ask a businessman who is successful today after almost contemplating bankruptcy. Ask a sportsman who is tired of perennially ending up with the runner up's trophy. Ask a politician who can leap frog from the post of Leader of Opposition to the Chief Minister's chair. Ask a engineer who can get a job which can fulfill all his dreams. Or ask a student who gets admission to a good medical school.

In a scientific world, the concept of faith does not exist because faith can not be measured in hormones and serums. But in a spiritual world, faith does exist. Faith in an entity can tune the mind to perform miracles. And once a miracle happens, it gets attributed to a magician. Probably, SSS was the lucky magician who was at the right place at the right time when these miracles happened in the lives of millions of his followers, however implausible it sounds. Probably, he really did have the charisma to make life better.

I will never know the real truth - but if there is a debate, I know what side of the dais I am going to sit. The only reason why I am going to speak for SSS -- he built lots and lots of hospitals which tend to the poor and needy, all for free.

Personally, I have seen the SSS hospital in Whitefield Bangalore where world class medical care is given for free. The best doctors in the world visit the hospitals and take care of poor patients who could have never even considered visiting these super specialists in their dreams. The facilities are so much cleaner, hygienic and professional compared to the government clinics. No wonder people throng in hundreds to each of these centers.

If one SSS, however fake the documentary make thinks him to be, can create such a miracle in a poor man's life, I would never mind one SSS in each city of India. It is going to make my country such a better place to live.

And I would never question why people "fall" for his "fake materialization".

Heroes and Actors



Players celebrate Cricket World Cup victory against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. That winning moment


What happens when something - that you are not ready for - happens. For a moment, lets leave the sad and the bad "somethings" aside and lets focus on the "good", "awesome" and "amazing" somethings for now... 


What happens when something too-good-to-be-true happens? We just do not know how to react. Or do we just choose not to react? There may have been so many such good moments in everyone's life -- 


1 - When you get that phone call that you have been selected for that dream job.
2 - When you see your name on that admission list of that highly esteemed engineering college.
3 - When you get the phone call stating that your sister's alliance has worked out.
4 - When you see the email that you have received a prestigious award.


Probably, at that point of time, I know that the most important peak has been scaled, now the rest of it is just a matter of time. The job paperwork, induction training, admission formalities, wedding preparations or actual award ceremony -- however difficult a task -- , you know that they will fall in place. If you are good enough to scale the peak, the downward journey from that point onwards is not going to be that difficult.


May be, your mind thinks - Let me just relax and soak in the moment. There are no words to explain that feeling. May be, your body is so exhausted by then that it does not have an ounce of strength left to do anything. But the fact is, the real achiever at that stage has the most sober reaction - either they are silent, or give a shy grin or just cry. More often than not, they will never be in the limelight, they prefer to hide behind the veil of anonymity even at the zenith - because they know that for the people who matter, the real author of this epic is evident.


Within the realm of this post, lets term these people as the HEROES... 


And then, there are the shallow pseudo achievers who howl the loudest at that moment. These are the people who always hover in the periphery of the real achievers and choose the right moment to step into the limelight and take the plaudits. Either their body has not done the heavy lifting and that is precisely the reason why they have strength left to pump their fists. May be they were not fully invested mentally in the achievement, and thats why they have the mental space to think about a speech right at that instant. More often than not, they will be in front of the lenses and the shutterbugs giving bites about how their role was so critical in this journey.


Within the realm of this post, lets term these people as the ACTORS... 


In reality though, it is not difficult to call out the Heroes from the Actors. If you know what achievement you are witnessing, it is very easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. But that rarely happens in real life though. In real life, the heroes and actors benefit almost equally from every success.


This fact was proven so truly after yesterday's World Cup Final Game - the heroes from yesterday's game Dhoni was almost absent during the celebration. For that matter, after accepting the trophy from Sharad Pawar, he handed it over to someone else and then the trophy was never seen with him the entire night. He never emoted aggressively, never pumped his fists, never cried vehemently, and for that matter, he was virtually invisible during the entire celebration. He was so happy to take the back seat and let the others bathe in the limelight. A true hero for the day.


Same about Gary Kirsten, he was the mastermind behind this success - yet he was so happy with the virtual invisibility. He is not keen on cashing in on the success - he is leaving this role even though the BCCI would agree to pay him anything to continue as a coach. No wonder every player was so full of words in praising him. A true hero in every sense.


I am not saying the rest of the team is a motley of impersonators or that they are the "actors" here. This is not a moment for that - the autopsy can be done on some other day.


In a strange coincidence, movies are supposed to be a reflection of real life. And ironically, in movies, the words heroes and actors are used almost alternatively. No wonder.