Little girl Babita

Babita, a little girl with hairs curl
riding scooter in the park, her face had a spark

She was my aunt, she never flaunt
Calm and gentle nature, she was a kind creature

Her persona was debonair, marriage bells were ringing in the air
A bearded man came to house, A private meeting with the spouse

Me and sweety got new dress, Mine was flashing hers was matt
Mausi Mausa ji sitting on the chair, Camera rolling everyone cheer

Charu and Ranu came in the world, Two became four Jaipur preferred
Joyful life rockstar couple, funful banter playful tussle

But one day one truckwalah came, May be he was drunk, may be insane
Driving rashly he crushed Babita, blood fell down more than a litre
She left for the heavenly abode, leaving behind our grieving souls

Her love care affection beauty, timeless charm and household duties
gloomy mind heart in pain, we feel sad and teary faced
May her soul rest in peace, Ranu and Charu fulfill her dream
Mausa ji quickly recover, act as father and also a mother

This is life, beautiful and evil, Prepare yourself for good and cruel
Even though she is no more, Her memories will always endure

Madhushala: Few more rubais

भावुकता अंगूर लता से खींच कल्पना की हाला,
कवि साकी बनकर आया है भरकर कविता का प्याला,
कभी न कण-भर खाली होगा लाख पिएँ, दो लाख पिएँ!
पाठकगण हैं पीनेवाले, पुस्तक मेरी मधुशाला।।४।

This rubai tells about the infinite dimensions of creativity and sizeless power of creativity. As per poet, the emotions lead to creative thought and manifest in the form of a poems. The power of poems is such that it is endless and would fill all the quest and needs of readers. At a deeper level, poem also describes the importance of being drunk or immersed into something which is infinite.

चलने ही चलने में कितना जीवन, हाय, बिता डाला!
'दूर अभी है', पर, कहता है हर पथ बतलानेवाला,
हिम्मत है न बढूँ आगे को साहस है न फिरुँ पीछे,
किंकर्तव्यविमूढ़ मुझे कर दूर खड़ी है मधुशाला।।७।

This rubai tells that we keep walking and walking in the quest of happiness and state of bliss. We keep searching for it in every walk of life. There comes a time when we proceed so deep in the pursuit that we become directionless. We fail to gather the courage to move forward or going back to the initial stage. Some one has aptly said if one is not happy at present, he can not be happy in the future. So live in the present. Madhushala or your passion or love lie in the present.

लाल सुरा की धार लपट सी कह न इसे देना ज्वाला,
फेनिल मदिरा है, मत इसको कह देना उर का छाला,
दर्द नशा है इस मदिरा का विगत स्मृतियाँ साकी हैं,
पीड़ा में आनंद जिसे हो, आए मेरी मधुशाला।।१४।

Madhushala is a state of bliss whereas drink is the painful experience. One shall not confuse the painful experiences of life as something bad or unpleasant. This rubai tells that a real drunkard would be one who could enojy the drink even in the state of pain. In deeper sense, it means those who can enjoy the life, and its sad eventualities with a joyful mind are only realise the true state of bliss.

धर्मग्रन्थ सब जला चुकी है, जिसके अंतर की ज्वाला,
मंदिर, मसजिद, गिरिजे, सब को तोड़ चुका जो मतवाला,
पंडित, मोमिन, पादिरयों के फंदों को जो काट चुका,
कर सकती है आज उसी का स्वागत मेरी मधुशाला।।१७।

Here poet use Madhushala as a metaphore to describe the state of bliss. As per Poet, only people who have overcome the resistance of communal forces, whose inner lamp of enlightenment has overcome the preachings of religious text and who had been able to free himself from the clutches of priests can only realise the true state of bliss, self-actualization and enlightenment.

एक बरस में, एक बार ही जगती होली की ज्वाला,
एक बार ही लगती बाज़ी, जलती दीपों की माला,
दुनियावालों, किन्तु, किसी दिन आ मदिरालय में देखो,
दिन को होली, रात दिवाली, रोज़ मनाती मधुशाला।।२६।

Here poet use Madhushala as a metaphore to describe the state of bliss. As per poet, various festivities occur once in a season or year but a person who achieves the state of bliss become eternally happy.

अधरों पर हो कोई भी रस जिहवा पर लगती हाला,
भाजन हो कोई हाथों में लगता रक्खा है प्याला,
हर सूरत साकी की सूरत में परिवर्तित हो जाती,
आँखों के आगे हो कुछ भी, आँखों में है मधुशाला।।३२।

This rubai explains the experiential feelings in the state of bliss. When a person is in state of ultimate enlightenment then whatever kind of experience, feeling of sorrow, happiness, sadness, irritation, frustration or pain occurs, he would always experience the joy
and love. Everything becomes bliss for him. This occurs when you become totally immersed in whatever you are doing.

चित्रकार बन साकी आता लेकर तूली का प्याला,
जिसमें भरकर पान कराता वह बहु रस-रंगी हाला,
मन के चित्र जिसे पी-पीकर रंग-बिरंगे हो जाते,
चित्रपटी पर नाच रही है एक मनोहर मधुशाला।।४२।

Here poet uses the metaphor of saki to describe life and hala as good or bad experiences of life. He says that life brings all sort of colorful experiences which help us in enriching the canvass of our mind. One who is immersed in enjoying these life experiences developa a colorful state of mind which exhibit the real state of blissfulness.

मुसलमान औ' हिन्दू है दो, एक, मगर, उनका प्याला,
एक, मगर, उनका मदिरालय, एक, मगर, उनकी हाला,
दोनों रहते एक न जब तक मस्जिद मन्दिर में जाते,
बैर बढ़ाते मस्जिद मन्दिर मेल कराती मधुशाला!।५०।

Poet comments on the divisive force of religion in a satirical and poetic manner. As per his observation, people may have different religion or worshiping styles like muslims and hindus but the force of life and its experiences do not differentiate on the basis of religion. It treats everyone in equal manner and in the state of bliss, everyone has similar experiences.

एक तरह से सबका स्वागत करती है साकीबाला,
अज्ञ विज्ञ में है क्या अंतर हो जाने पर मतवाला,
रंक राव में भेद हुआ है कभी नहीं मदिरालय में,
साम्यवाद की प्रथम प्रचारक है यह मेरी मधुशाला।।५९।

In this poet describes that for a man immersed in his work, differences become ephemeral and useless. In a way, state of bliss i.e. complete immersion in one's world of work or virtue or drink is a first example of communism.

Poem: Relapse

Slipping from hand
like a citadel of sand
Lack of self-discipline and
dearth of commitment

Its not music or band
neither the fire of foreign land
Nor the sensual hand
momentary slip on tangent

may be hormonal gland
Thoughts become crass and bland
Nowadays it's a trend
unconscious is hell-bent

Truth and conviction tanned
which side of grass should one stand
whatsoever was planned
Always ended as miscreant

A new beginning after every end
Should I let it flow or be resistant

Mahakavi

Mahakavi is ABP news's new documentary creation which highlights the life, times and creations of some of the greatest poet of Hindi poetry, mostly focusing on the Chayawadi kavis. Dr. Kumar Vishwas has very beautifully described the life of these great souls. Chayavaad marks the era of neo-romanticism and is known for themes of love, romance expression and humanist content. The series could be considered as tarpan of Dr. Kumar Vishwas towards the great pillars of Hindi poetry. He has given his voice to some of the great creations and combined it with modern life instrument of casio, guitar and drum.

Dr. Vishwas explained the difference between a man and a poet.
As per words of Nirala:
Atma ke saundarya ka, Shabd roop hai kavya
Manav hona bhagya hai, kavi hona saubhagya

Similarly, he gave a very interesting introduction of any poet
Mitti ka tan, masti ka man, kshanbhar jeevan, mera parichay

He sung verses of Rashmirathi (Shri Ramdhari Singh Dinkar Ji), Kamayani (Shri Jai Shankar Prasad Ji) and Madhushala (Shri Haribash Rai Bachchan Ji) to name a few. It is a must watch series for any one who takes even iota of interest in the realm of Hindi poems. This counts as another great creation of ABP news after history series like Pradhanmantri, and Samvidhan.

Unfinished pursuits of my life

Time and again when I look at my profile, some thoughts recurs in my mind about things which I should not have left unfinished or taken to completion. Today my dean faculty sent out a introductory mail for me and reading the mail, I had a sense of deja vu. A sense of reliving the same experience of incompleteness which I have had before. Quite surprisingly It is not UPSC. With respect to UPSC, I get a sense of completeness because I feel satisfied with my efforts.
So what is it I ask myself?

1. I did not publish a research paper as first author during my MS or did not pursue plan A during MS and instead settled for directed research is one on the top.
2. I did not complete the task of publishing JATF magazine despite putting in lot of effort.
3. I did not pursue the 50 days crash course program at Ahimsa due to low number of registrations due to fear of spoiling my own preparation as a result of overhead.
4. I did not write the book which I always aspired to for Civil Services aspirants. Most sad part is I did not document my feelings and emotional flight during my last attempt. If documented, it could have been a gold-chest for many others.
5. I did not complete the paid certification of RHCE and CCNA. Rather I just attended the classes and left in between.
6. I did not put in enough effort in cracking interviews of big shot companies like Google, Microsoft etc.
7. I left the RTI activism in between for UP.
8. I left the Oinfi thing in between and did not complete the process of PAN card and bank account.

People either pursue happiness or manage happiness. I believe in managing happiness. The best management strategy is to minimize your regrets in life. For many of these activities, time is not lost. I can still make a beginning and get them to work.

Global Entrepreneurship summit

As the global entrepreneurship summit is rolled out, India has come under the Ivanka-mania. Media is paying more attention to the dinner plans, dressing style and itinerary of Ivanka Trump than the grand scale global entrepreneurship summit which India is co-hosting after seven years.

As the country is witnessing an economic slowdown amid large-scale structural changes of Goods and services tax, unleashing the entrepreneurial beast seems the only answer to the impending problem of unemployment and low growth cycle. However, our flagship program of start-up India looks a non-starter due to various structural, societal and political issues.

One of the big reason for the failure of start-up India is Indian obsession with the settlement and stability in comparison to the risky ventures of entrepreneurship. Mr. Panagaria aptly described it as brahamanical attitude of seeking for the job, certainty over charting the uncharted trajectories. The lack of overall supporting ecosystem in terms of infrastructure, policy uncertainty, and finance availability add to these difficulties. Our cost of road transportation and logistics infrastructure remains costliest in the world. This amounts to nearly 15 to 20% of the overall cost. Whereas in the other competitive economies, this cost is around 8-9% only. As a result, our indigenous products are not able to compete with cheap imports from China and elsewhere in the world. In addition, our policy uncertainty in terms of taxation or excessive business overhead for startups in terms of declaration or certifications create further trouble. Even the definition os start-up was not clear till recently. Lastly, the venture capitalist and angel investors of India are suffering from Bania mindset. For them, business is about auditing of output-input on the eve of Diwali. They prefer trading over innovation. They prefer low-risk predictable benefit over the high-risk unpredictable outcome and short-term investment over the long term. As a consequence, investors have the inclination to invest in a service-oriented firm with the clear business model than a platform based community oriented business models. One can bet if Facebook was founded in India, Mark Zuckerberg would have certainly failed to find investment in India.

However, the problem is not just limited to the ecosystem. It also lies in the innovation attitude of risk-taking class. Most of our startups are a mere replication of existing business models of the developed world. Very few startups have been able to come up with an India-specific cheap novel solution tailored to our local audience. Replication rather than innovation is the word which comes to the mind when one thinks of Indian startups. On top of this, our other flagship programs like Skill India, Make-in-India and others have failed to complement the efforts of start-up India in a credible manner. For example, Skill-India is still focussing on making papad, incense sticks and pickle instead of focussing on cloud computing, artificial intelligence and robotics. Global entrepreneurship summit is a most appropriate platform to identify some out of box solutions to shed this brahamanical and typical baniya attitude of our knowledge-driven society.

All these talks of riskless capitalist attitude suggest that India needs a scheme for startup insurance. This way we can ensure some social floor for the risk-taking individual who leaves behind their settled sphere and ventures into uncharted territory. Maybe this will give more spine to them and their family members and change the perception of society which sees entrepreneurs as strugglers with uncertain future and tend to outcast them in the social world rather than appreciating their passionate instinct. We can stretch this further. Maybe we need a class of paid entrepreneurs, to begin with. Bright MBAs and engineers who are paid by the government to solve the hitherto unresolved problems. Specifics of insurance scheme and paid entrepreneurs scheme can be worked out in detail as per ground details.

Another way to boost entrepreneurship is to "catch the early bird". For this, we need to setup mandatory college entrepreneurship cells and a mandatory applied project for students during their coursework on prevailing social problems related to their respective field. One prerequisite to this is we develop a portal which lists all the open problems of our society big or small. For example, making intelligent traffic gates and lights or creating an air purifier for the house. There could be millions of such problems. All we need is to identify and document them in a proper manner. We will always find someone who can come up with more credible and trustworthy reliable solution for them.

This portal will require some investment in research and development as well. For this, we can devise a scheme similar to corporate social responsibility. We can ask our companies to invest a part of their profit in some kind of applied research. In return, companies can enjoy the benefits of such investment. This will solve the dual problem of lack of funding and lack of research and innovation in our society.

However, a serious limitation lies in the attitude of our young kids and their parents. They take pride in the pay package culture of society and society tend to consider such kids as supreme and superior to other segments of kids. Nobody asks what kind of work are they doing or are they even doing justice to their potential. To this end, we must limit the culture of million+ salary and put an upper cap on the salary of our fresh graduates. This way the prospects of working on self-dreams would become more lucrative and wise option. But we need to ask whether this will change the mindset of consumers. Consumers are driven by the cost of the product. That is why for most of the products, Chinese brand is preferred as Chinese have mastered the technique of cheap production by scaling up the units of production. Therefore, another drastic step would be to ban the possible range of Chinese product so that we create some breathing space for our own entrepreneurs. We can also send special teams of young people to go and explore Chinese production methodology so that things we understand their sutra of cheap and large-scale innovative production.

Another stick in this conundrum is the nature of management studies in our country. By its very nature of market focus and profit orientation, the focus of management curriculum has remained concentrated in urban areas middle class and upper-class population. They seem to not consider the rural population or the rural area as a viable market. However, most of our problems start from villages and flow outward. For example, problems of urbanization are rooted in poor drought management or poor food processing industry in the villages which force people to migrate.Thus the time has come to give a rural orientation and touch to our management education.

A complete ecosystem demands that people not only see the issues but they discuss, talk and participate in the issues.For decades, our society has become too focused on discussing individuals and somehow we have stopped discussing ideas. Now the time has come for a course correction. In this regard, the role of media assumes a lot of importance as media is one which sets the agenda of discussion and acts as chief opinion-maker and articulator nowadays.

Media needs to promote the thinking which shed the fear of failure and encourage people to think differently to solve routine problems. Struggling entrepreneurs should also get enough space on media and should be recognized and rewarded accordingly. This exercise would more fruitful for media as well if we conduct all-around year competition, events and promotional program for promotion of entrepreneurship at all level be it rural, taluk, district, state or national level. We need to think, eat and drink entrepreneurship and feed the same to our population to change their mindset at faster than the normal pace.

But can we create that kind of culture when the brightest lot of our society runs away to Singapore or Dubai or the US at the very first opportunity? The answer is no. It is very difficult to overcome this selfish mindset and think of social good. It also requires immense mental strength and conviction in the idea of futuristic India. One solution to this could be to create a Singapore or Dubai type territory out of the large territory in India. I wonder why can't we convert a vast territory of Thar into Dubai Land or Lakshyadweep into Singapore. We need to take these grand initiatives and shed the bullock cart age mentality. Only if we think big, will be able to achieve big.

Entrepreneurship is the elixir to convert elephant into the tiger. We can not seek refuge inside our caves forever when dragons keep flying all over our head and cannot act like an ostrich and dig our head in the sand and ignore the imminent disaster.

Poem: To Father, with Love

This poem I wrote on the retirement day of my Father.

karm aapki pahchaan hai
aap mahanon mein Mahan hai
Vyaktiva aapka prakhar hai
AApka karya amar hai

Devo ki kripa hai aap par
Indra viraje lalaat par
Vijaya sri aapke charano mein
Komalata aapke hridya mein

Vaak vidya aapko
Hai chaturta aapko
Aap baton ke dhani
Aap rekha ke hani

Adbhut anokhe baap ho
Pati parameshwar aap ho
Mitrata mein sachai hai
Man mein bahut gehrai hai

Hai ek bas ye kaamana
Hai ek bas ye prarthana
Ashish ki hai kaamna
Rahe margdarshan aapka, Rahe path pradarshan aapka
aap yun hi badhte rahe, swasthya tan man se rahe
Jitendra ka vardan ho, AApka samaan ho, aapka samaan ho

Lust vs Lost

Lusty eyes greedy heart
thirst and hunger taking far
from the soul in the world
standing naked amidst charade

Lust not virtue feels like sin
compulsive thoughts, making din
lust and love not synonym
clinging soul, feeling grim

Do this do that, body cries
heart feels pain, mind fries
tears roll down from the eyes
neurotic clouds cover skies

Search for self in this sea
Lost connection, burned spirit
feeling void, feeling sink
words not flowing through the ink

My Dubai chronicles

Story of Dubai is story of overnight success, selling dreams, visionary leadership and disciplined development. Dubai was A port city which survived on fisheries till 1960's but sudden discovery of oil in decade of 1960's turned the fortune of this small coastal emirates. One can sense the money and opulence flowing on the streets of Dubai while walking on the roadsides of Palm Jumeira or tracking the coast of Burj Al Arb. Was it a result of sudden discovery of wealth or was it a planned effort from the visionary leadership of Al Maktoum family? Will Dubai be a blip on the horizon of developmental history of modernistic world or will it remain there as a shining star forever?

The answer lies in understanding the development model of Dubai and UAE in larger perspective. First important ingredient to any task of development is the leadership. Dubai has got it right on spot. The leadership of Al Maktoum family has proved to be benevolent to public. Leaders have created a concentration of power but the futurist vision of leaders and focus on technology have created new avenues for public. For example, from the very beginning leaders understood that oil has bright but a limited future. Once the oil resources are consumed, the country may face existential crisis. In fact, Dubai did not even have oil. For Dubai questions were much grave. But they found answers in creating a jugglery of dreams and experiences for the world. Dubai focused on tourism and finance sector. It invested in building trademark buildings like Burj-Al-Arb and Burj Khalifa. It promoted beach events, desert tourism, adventure tourism and built global village. It provided good offices for negotiations and created a Singapore in the middle east for traders of Finance. As a result, an emirate which has no natural resources, no productive outcome of its own and depends on import for even basic necessity of food grain, turned into a gold vault of money. Today Dubai's sovereign wealth fund is one of the largest in the world. This can be gauged by the fact that first colony on the Mars is going to be funded by Dubai.

The focus on technology is visible in the next generation projects Dubai has taken up. The world's first Hyperloop project is coming up in Dubai. Any new technology in the world is first tried and tested in Dubai. The architectural marvel of Burj Khalifa and Burj-Al Arb were extremely difficult technological challenges and stands as an example of human resolve, constructive skills and architectural advancement. From the airport to hospital, every public office is occupied with high tech technologies.

Was it all so simple? Is political will the only thing needed to make this dream turn into reality? If that is the case then why country like India are not able to develop at this faster rate despite having a leader like Modi at the helm. More interestingly it is bewildering to know that most people who transformed Dubai are people from South Asia, mostly of Indian origin. If you stop at a traffic signal, very likely you'll find all drivers to be from South Asian nations which are known for their lawlessness, chaos and rule-breaking attitude. How do they get transformed in Dubai.

The secret to this transformation lies in strict law enforcement system. Machiavelli rightly said for a king, it is better to be feared than loved. Nowadays we live in generation of 'Lex Rex' i.e. law is king. All the nuisance creator, chaos lover, rule breaker and incorrigible Indians suddenly turn most law-abiding and sincere residents of the coastal nation. When compared to India, one can say that Dubai's secret of success lies in its politics and society. They extract the maximum work from Asian workers and do not allow them to have any citizenship in return. They have successfully sold the dreams to Indian middle class to come and work in Dubai and become rich. They have masterfully sold the dream of being a center of development and tourism to western nations from where large number of people come every year to enjoy the life here despite 6 months sweltering heat of 50+ degree centigrade. The dictator form of government has allowed them to keep the system as close box and portray a positive image of Dubai. For instance, posting any negative image of Dubai on social media account is a crime. Begging is a criminal act punishable with strict penalties on life. All this has helped Dubai in creating an atmosphere where people can focus on their work and enjoy the fun which Dubai offers. Shedding aside the traditional Islamic emirate tag, Dubai has a become Thailand of the east. Prostitutes from all different nationality could be found in Dubai at reasonable prices.

A general question that comes to our mind is whether India can achieve this kind of development and money generation. Has our democracy become a bane for us?

The question raised above is a serious question which needs to be investigated from multiple vantage points. Prima facie, it looks yes that democracy has turned the country into a slow bullock cart and put cap on the animalistic instinct of people. The extreme freedom of expression allows peoples to violate the law and create chaos in the system. The slow decision making create unnecessary hiccups in our development cycle. But deeper in the detail, one can see that problem is not with the democracy itself. Problem is not with the politics also. Problem lies at much basic level. After all, politics is general behavioral pattern of public and democracy is merely a template of behavior to public. Problem in India is that its society is failing itself. Politics is just a microscopic mirror of the social system. As a society we have failed each other. For instance, with all political will we launched demonetization but then as a society, we tried our best to assimilate and protect the black money hoarders and helped them turning their money into white. That's where we fail. Our law and order is very lenient. Our fatalistic attitude and forgotten principles of karma/duty results in chaos at traffic signal. The scale at which we need to execute our plans add another level of complexity in the whole system. Diversity in lifestyles further complicate the rule making and rule execution. One may ask, where lies the solution? Can we really wish for achche din? Can India or at least a part of it could be transformed into Dubai some day?

Yes is the only thought that comes to mind when one ponders over this question. The real question should have been when and how? But before that we need to answer why we think the answer to above questions is YES. The reason is democracy. Listen to any all India radio discussion at 9:30 Monday evening. One can hear people calling from remotest part of the India offering advices and giving suggestion over how should India go about the development and how can we succeed as a society. This is possible because we have democracy. Our people can be transformed into most law-abiding performance oriented people. All we need is strict law enforcement. The wisdom of democracy will soon take us to that path. But administration of such norms, rules and regulation is possible only with the spread of technology and education. This is the answer to how? The problem of India's woes lie in greater use of localized contextualized technology and educating our growing population with focus on specialization. UID is one very good initiative in this direction. Once in place fully, it can be panacea for most of our problems. People could be tracked and challaned for jumping traffic lights or peeing in public. All this is possible. Education will help in rectifying social system and help people in overcoming ethnic identities and local caste/class relations. And once achieved such status, it would be more sustainable because India is home to all sorts of natural resources and goods.

The development model of Dubai is standing on the sand. It sells dreams. It has created an ecosystem but the roots are not very deep. Contrary to it, in India roots are very deep. It is democracy. People have a sense of ownership. It is not subjected to whims and fancies of one good leader. We believe in institutions. But we have failed to give dreams to our population. We have failed to create an ecosystem. Time has come for us to work on our core competencies and utilize technology and education to reform two pillars of development i.e. law and order as well as society.