The Endemic called Loneliness

One of the many issues that people of Assam face today is that of loneliness; loneliness in the literal sense of not being able to be physically close to their loved ones. With the dismal growth in the employment and quality education opportunities in the state, thousands of Assam’s youth move out of the state to pursue higher education or in search of employment. The Assam of the 1950s, which used to be a prosperous state, on par with the national standards, is no more the same. Assam today lags behind in almost all spheres of development, both social and economic. The literacy rate is lower than national average, the per capita income is below national average. Income from the tea gardens, which are the pride of Assam, hardly stays within Assam, among its people. Investments in Assam by private enterprises are negligible, despite incentives offered by the state Government for setting up businesses in the state. Part of it can be attributed to the fear among investors due to the long history of insurgency in the state.

The mass exodus of youth every year has left a void in the families of the Assamese people. People who have left Assam either for education or employment, do not wish to return or are unable to return. The reasons can be many. One of them obviously is for personal reasons, they like it better there than their own place. Another could be they do not see enough opportunities in Assam which can best match their standards and qualifications. The outcomes of which, are that parents of the children, who are turning old, are increasingly being left alone to attend to themselves. Although this practice of staying apart after children attain maturity is quite common in many parts of the world, in India, until quite recently, children too stayed along with or near their parents. This has led to depression among many parents, who wish to be near their children, grandchildren during festivals like Bihu, Dura Puja but are forced to remain content with just a phone call. They are also skeptical of moving out of the state to the place where their children reside due to adjustment issues and unwillingness to leave the place where they had spent a considerable time of their life.

One of the things that can help prevent this is provision of enough opportunities for the youth of Assam, comparable to the other regions, so that they wish to stay back and are equally happy as they would have been otherwise. Infrastructure development is one of the issues that can help in bringing investors to the state. There are a host of other problems too that will need to be addressed for this issue but as a first, I think the Government should be really pro-active in understanding the gravity of this situation. Only when we understand what and where we need to focus our attention to, will we be able to push for the right policies in this regard. Although this loneliness issue seems too naïve at this moment today, it is surely going to be a cause of great concern in the next few years or decades if we don’t do anything about it.

Airtel and Advertising - A Glimpse

Ever wondered how a simple tune can win your heart, make you smile or cry even after the zillionth time you heard it; possessing the power to make you recall in a flash of a second the brand it is associated with. The Airtel tune, composed by A.R.Rahman crossed over 150 million downloads and had been one of the major drivers for Airtel’s phenomenal success over the last decade. Airtel today is the fourth largest mobile telecommunications company in the world operating across 20 countries in Asia, Africa and the British Crown dependency islands, delivering a host of services including but not limited to 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Airtel Money, Digital Television, Fixed line and Enterprise business solutions.

Airtel as a brand enjoys top of the mind recall despite operating in a sector where there is not much room for differentiation in services. The quality of its services, coupled with successful brand building, advertising and promotion exercises have been the critical factors for its success. Airtel has been through various phases of development in its journey and they have been accompanied quite suitably by its advertising. In 2002, Airtel shifted focus from being a “technology” brand to a “communication” brand and it was well carried forward by the signature jingle by A.R.Rahman and taglines “Express Yourself”. In 2008, Airtel ventured into Value-added-services and it was supported by “Barriers break when people talk” campaign. In 2011, Airtel put a bet on Data Services to be the next drivers for telecommunication companies and supplemented with it the “Hare ek friend zaroori hota hain” campaign which went viral too. It was followed by another mega campaign “Jo tera hain wo mera hain” in 2012 which was a follow up of its previous campaign of 2011 and capitalized on the trend of the popularity of mobile internet and data sharing among the youth.

Airtel had gone through a major rebranding exercise in 2010 as it began expanding into other countries. It removed its previous Airtel logo and designed a new logo with a lowercase “a” in the Airtel name. It needs to be seen what the strategy of Airtel would be for India and the world in the near future. We hope we get to witness another set of outstanding and hummable campaigns and hope Airtel will “Express Itself” and “Break Barriers” and bring the world even closer

What not to do at Interviews

People say you should learn from your own mistakes. I say, learn from others as well. Now that I am done with yet another placement season, let me share with you all some bitter-sweet instances of a few interviews I faced. Yes, I did have to face a few interviews to finally get an offer. Never been one to get success in the first attempts. But that is another story to be mumbled some other day.

In this age of internet memes and trolls, I think I did execute a few trolls in my interviewers, consciously or unconsciously. Here are a few snippets of my experiences and though I do not have the credibility to advise anyone, just like all other people in this planet, I do love to, and  as WWE stars would say to you, I would like to reiterate "Don't try this"

Interview 1:

The interviewer in his early 50's giving me some marketing funda.

"You see marketing is not so easy as people like you think. Forget Kotler, the real world is entirely different"

"Agreed Sir it is. But it isn't rocket science either. Nor can it be taught. The existence of thousand of firms that are flourishing is the proof that marketing is not so complex after all. You need to understand the simplicity to get the complexity. If they can do it, I think we can do it too, and maybe better"

Babbled away some random thoughts that came to mind. He didn't seem amused. End of interview. Verdict - Rejected.

Interview 2:

The interviewer is a lady in her late 50's, looked like one who is loved by her grandchildren. Always smiling.

"Describe yourself in two words only"

"Ma'am. It would be Sense and Simplicity"

"Oh! Then why didn't you join Philips"

"Ma'am, My life is good. That doesn't mean I will work for LG"

The smile faded instantly. I could predict the verdict there and then.

I wish I could have had a few more of such experiences to share but alas, another company loved my bullshit and decided to take me on board. Hence, the series of interviews came to a halt. So, until the next season, lets keep rocking.

The Days of the Blues, Linkin Park, Shakira...

As one among the few privileged to own a cassette player with two hulk sized magnetic sound boxes, I can't forget the day my uncle got home a western songs' cassette comprising of hit western tracks of that time. And what do we Indians do with something that others don't have? We tell the whole world we have that thing they don't. And the long hours of loud clanging of wood with metal and strumming of strings began to fill the air. Can one forget the deep growls of Chester Bennington that every classmate of mine tried to imitate miserably. The matching of the voice to the tune of One Love, throbbing of the heart to the drum beats of Green Day's songs, awestruck by the energy in Shakira's voice Whenever Wherever. Mobile phones were still not a part of our imagination and the only way to listen to those songs were the old and sweet cassette player. There was no internet to search for lyrics for the songs and we mumbled them with our own interpretations and accents. Still it was fun and the craze for western songs featured in our endless classroom discussions on which one's the best among them. A gifted few with good throats performed them on stage to the applaud of hundreds with "Summer of 69", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" topping the list of preference. 

(to be continued...)

My Bonding with an Airline

How often do you feel an airline brand close to your heart that you do not wish to see any other beyond it? Especially in India, which is a price sensitive market despite a significant proportion of travellers travelling on company's money. And how often do you find your favourite airline providing you the best of deals when you need the most, when you wish to think like the second Indian customer?

Being a student in a college situated some 2000 kilometres away, journey by rail was not always the feasible option, especially when time was the limiting factor. And with the entry of newer players in the aviation industry like Indigo, Go Air, a price war erupted to benefit a lot of customers like us. Of course, things have changed now a bit, but back then, well, we were overjoyed. My first journey above the clouds was with SpiceJet from New Delhi to Guwahati. Too excited about the prospect of travelling in an air plane for the first time in my life, we reached the airport some 4 hours early. Part of the fact that our train's arrival time connecting Surat to Delhi was 6 hours ahead of the departure time of the flight. And since we had no plans for Delhi, we had no other option but to head straight to the airport. Had we had faith on the Delhi traffic, we may have made some plans, but well, we were scared. Never been inside an airport, I was awestruck by the aura of the place. And the moment you step inside, you get a "rich" feeling within you, even though you came in an auto after bargaining for 15 minutes. The food inside makes you feel hungry, but the price tags say "Home is only 2 and a half hours away". 

There is a common belief that when stars come together, everything else falls into place. In my case, the timings came together when it was time to leave home for college. The arrival time of the flight into Mumbai was so well knit with the departure time of the train from Mumbai that the combo was simply irresistible. And which was the airline to provide me that; well, JetLite it was. And the bonding so formed during my flight back to college after the first holidays had still continued. Sadly, the airline was recently rechristened as JetKonnect by its parent company Jet Airways.

The journey since then has been quite a good one and I have loved the simplicity and sincerity of the in flight as well as ground staff. There had never been any situation that needed any particular attention, so can not comment on their versatility at this point, but I'm sure they would have been as sincere as we would have wanted them to. Well, that's all for today. I have quite a many years to live more, and that means many more flight journeys. Hope to see me on board soon. Au revoir!

The Real Big Thing

"Give a fish to a person, you'll feed him for a day; Teach him how to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime" - Often said, seldom implemented. Time and again we hear of wealthy philanthropists donating a significant portion of their savings (not income) to the less deserving ones. Such news are pleasant to read and rejoice. But the point to be pondered here is whether this is a better way to try to make the world a better place? Because as far as my little experience of 24 years goes, I do not see results from these short term "wellness" bear any fruit in the overall lives of the target people.

Consider another real life example. Floods are a yearly phenomenon in our country. The only steps that I see the public machinery taking in such situations are setting up relief camps, arranging for political visits from the air, distributing bags of food and the likes. What I never see (or maybe fail to see) is any concrete effort to keep out the cause itself; through measures like building of concrete banks, increasing their height in areas that are most affected, removal of silt etc.

My idea for the future stems from only one point - Long Term. As contrary to common beliefs that long term is a misnomer in business scenarios of the current era of evolving and rapidly changing market conditions, my belief and analysis rides on the hypothesis that the real big thing is to think "long term". And I propose to introduce two sectors that require attention for the progress and shining of businesses in the future, especially in the Indian context - Education and Supply Chain.

The President of the Republic of India has mentioned that "Education is the true alchemy that can bring India its next golden age. Our motto is unambiguous: All for knowledge, and knowledge for all." Thinking on similar lines, education is the next big thing that will drive India's growth. And when education is being talked about, it doesn't necessarily mean higher education in the form of abundance of Master degree holders or Ph.D holders. India will need an additional supply of educated labourers in the services industry in the years to come. There is a greater need to train people who may not be able to get into the conventional education system of 10+2+3/4 in lines of work that can guarantee them of something they can make a living out of. For eg. - vocational training to enable them to speak in English (something is better than nothing), teaching them accounts so that they may find jobs as clerks in small or mid level offices, teaching them to use computers which will enable them to be employed in a variety of verticals. This form of trainings are existent no doubt,  but the stress should be on more. The labour force in India is highly skewed towards agriculture, which does not need those extra hands. A better strategy from the Indian perspective will be to churn out a portion from the agricultural sector and make them capable of employment in the services sector. What is in it for big corporations and MNCs? Well, education is highly profitable if you know how to do it right. Investment is not on the extreme side, and benefits are continuous. This is why we reckon - Think Long Term.

When we talk of the term "Supply Chain", the most obvious answer that comes to our mind is that it has something to do with manufacturing. Supply chain encompasses almost every known form of business that exist today. Right from  agriculture to manufacturing to services. And according to recent statistics, India loses $65 billion every year due to inefficient supply chain systems. This is a very big number and is usually not visible because of the field's unattractiveness. Supply chain in IT is currently moving away from hardware to software with technological advancements, with cloud computing being one example. Manufacturing and distribution has become more complex than ever before. Increase in agricultural production is not directly replicated to increase in consumption due to inefficient distribution. These are the factors that need immediate and long term attention. Of course, it is specific to the industry type, but efficient systems in place in any industry will go a long way in cost and waste reduction and delivery of better products and solutions across domains. The chunk of the pie yet to be tasted is a big opportunity for private players. The benefits will not be visible in one or two years, and nor should a plan be devised with that thought in mind.

Repeating the same mantra again, thinking long term would be the key to a sustainable and cost effective system, that can improve the fortunes of many a players while making the life of the people they serve better.

Aaruno Kiman

My Tryst with "Placement"

I think I first heard the terms IIT-JEE, AIEEE and such weird sounding names when I was in 11th or so. Call me dumb, call me ignorant, that's how it was. And I am not ashamed of sharing this with people. And I am not hesitant to ignore people who think my parents were ignorant too to not point me in the right direction. I sympathize with such people. I got into the trap of these so called entrance examinations during my +2 thanks to my very good friends. And to my surprise, I loved falling into the trap. I still consider it as one of the major turning moments of my life, because it triggered a set of events after that, which I believe, have turned me into a better person. And which have acquainted me with hell lot of observation and experience, one among them the madness behind another not so weird term "placements"

When I hear the word "placement", the first thing that comes to my mind is cricket and Rahul Dravid. Strange but true. While every other Indian is crazy about the game, they don't remember the game when they hear the word; but I, who hardly watch cricket matches nowadays, do. Not that I don't want to be rich, have cool and high paying jobs like the rest, I seem to lack the enthusiasm to prepare for such things. And like every other guy who talks of Moh-Maya after an exam he fucked up, I seem to do the same when it comes to placements. And if you are wondering if I opted out of placements, I did not. I sat for 3 companies in my undergraduate college. Got into one. In a company which leaves me to wonder as to what is their motive of conducting interviews when they are pre-determined to make an offer to such a huge lot of students. That is a different matter altogether and not something I wish to talk today. Often my little idle brain tries to think as to what might be the reason behind this "placement" madness. I had been privileged to be a part of 2 national level institutes of repute; something that people from my part of the world dream of and admire. I was (and still am) always of the view that studying in such institutes of repute should free up your mind of any insecurity of a lucrative career prospect. You will get it. But then, I tend to forget that the amount of remuneration I hold as decent is treated by most as too meagre by their skills and limits. I don't bother to question their intent or choices, never wish to pass on an argument in disfavour of them. Because I know every one of us have our own paths and our own unique ambitions. But it is in our very nature to conceive our views as right and question others'. Am I different? No way. Some days ago, I had expressed similar views on the madness behind placements on the social site facebook in response to an student's apprehension regarding the fate of this year's placements owing to the slow rate of growth of the Indian economy and some insightful predictions of recession by a multinational "dream" bank. I do not wish to reveal the name of the bank nor do I want to know how they predicted the future economic state of the globe. As a matter of fact, the "future predictor" bank often wrongly predicts its personnel requirement and ends up laying off a huge chunk of its employees every quarter or so. That is not important and a different matter. What I responded to the post on the site was as to why do we need to be so worried about something like the economy right now over which we have no control and that jobs are something that are already guaranteed to the people like us studying in these type of colleges; what we needed to do was to make the best out of education here and enjoy the last few years of our college life. As expected I was bombarded with a lot of comments countering my view. But what struck me the most was this one post which stated that placements are the only thing which is important and relevant in context of today's education. I didn't know what to reply to that. And I chose not to.

(to be continued...)

Switchfoot - Meant to Live... And Me

I generally don't analyse the songs that I listen. I like to get into the moment, feel it and live it. Music for me has always been like a best friend. I can turn to it (or should I say her) whenever I am happy, whenever I am down and lonely, whenever I need a break. It has been there whenever I wanted it to be. Music is everywhere, in the chirping of birds to the roar of the crane, in the silent whisper to the explosion of the cracker. I was made to listen to this song by an ex-room mate and old friend, who is a great musician himself. And the first words that I captured were "We were meant to live for so much more. Have we lost ourselves?" besides the initial guitar strumming. To be frank, I really don't understand the guitar. I am awed by the talent that guitarists nurture through dedication, passion and practice that make it so soothing to the ears and the heart. We had a 2.1 speaker system in our room and the sound it created was marvellous. And this song,though not heavy like the others my room mate used to suggest me, was great to hear at full volume. Since that day, this song has retained its place in my playlist among many others. 

Whenever I turn on to this song and close my eyes, I try to reflect back on my life. I try to relate it to the things I've done and begin to imagine have I lost myself too. Am I meant for something more? I really don't know. I read somewhere that most people know where they are not good at, but really don't know where they are good at. There are of course exceptions to this statement as there are to each and every statement in this world. I know very well where I suck, and I make it my personal responsibility to not poke my head into those things, because in the end, I will only end up wasting my time. When there are a million other ways of wasting time effortlessly, why should I devote my energy to waste time. But the other end is grim too. I have no proper idea of what I am good at, where my strengths can benefit me the most. Sometimes I wonder what is it really that I am craving for, but that argument is soon forgotten when I remember the smiles that this journey has offered me. There had been moments when I had "fumbled due to lack of confidence" and my flight attempt failed due to that. There have been days, people who had broken me down, pushed me down to my limits when all I wanted was to scream. And all I wished for was one more try. Were they inhibiting my journey forward, I wondered. As the rhythm of the guitar and the drum beats continue to fill my ears, I look at the open field in front of me. A bunch of school going kids were running about. I notice the smile on their faces, their innocence, their dream of flight and above all, I see hope. I may be lost, but the track is still there.   

Remembering Anundoram Borooah on his Birthday

Every year in the Civil Services Examination, only a few people from Assam qualify and make it as IAS, IPS officers. If I am not wrong, the numbers hardly cross the single digit margin each year. Though there are a lot of reasons for that which I don’t wish to talk about now. Today, I wish to remember the first civil servant from Assam on his birthday. When I grew up as a kid, I read books on great personalities from Assam who shone in different fields and Mr. Anundoram Borooah was the person who left a deep impact on me. His journey from a modest family to being one of the most efficient and respected civil servant of the country had motivated and inspired me to work hard and reach out to achieve my goals.

Mr.Anundoram Borooah had the goal to join the Indian Civil Service. He had to secure the Gilchrist Scholarship to be eligible to proceed to England to prepare for the entrance test for I.C.S. examination. He completed his graduation in 1869 and secured a top rank in the list for selected candidates for studies in England. Anundoram Borooah arrived in England in the year of 1869. 

In 1872, Mr. Anundoram Borooah was selected for the Indian Civil Service. He had an incredible career as the first Assamese and the fifth Indian to join the Indian Civil Service. Moreover, he was also the first Indian Civilian to be appointed as a District Magistrate. Apart from being a great civilian, he was a great Sanskrit scholar. He started his career as a magistrate in Sibsagar (a district in Assam) and was later transferred to undivided Bengal where he later became the first Indian District Magistrate in Noakhali District. 

He has published many important and rare Sanskrit classics including Mahavircharita, Saraswatikanthabharna and Namalinganusasana. He has also compiled a English Sanskrit dictionary, which was completed in 1877. He is also known as “Assamese Amarsingha” for mastering “Amarkosha” at the early age of fourteen.

He remained unmarried until he took his last breath on January 1, 1889. No family wanted to marry off their daughters to him as he had been to a foreign land and had consumed meat. His early demise at an age of 39 left a great void in the history of Assam. They lost a great scholar and a great civil servant. He had been and will remain an inspiration for people for a long time.

N.B: The facts mentioned have been collected from a lot of sources including print media as well as electronic media and I have personally looked to the authenticity of the facts mentioned herein. However, a few errors may have crept in. I apologize for any errors that may be present and would request you to please point them out so that I may be able to rectify them. You are most welcome to add any new information which may deem apt.