AR Rahman & the Art of Focus

Sitting here end of the day and listening to an all time favorite song Munbe Vaa, originally composed by AR Rahaman. The link embedded here points to a version by the Iyer sisters that features Shanker Tucker. That said, even as the song keeps playing, my mind goes back to the first time I got to spend some quality time with Rahman, how happy I came out of the meeting with him, and the story I wrote around him.

Soon after I got out of AR Rahman’s North Mumbai home (which also doubles up as his studio), I went online. To look up ‘Munbe Vaa, ’ a song in the Tamil movie, Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, for which Rahman had composed the music.

Now, I don’t understand a word of Tamil. And I can confidently say—without fear of contradiction from my wife—that I’m rarely ‘mushy.’  But the moment the song started to play, I was lost. Lost in words I didn’t understand, and—I hate to say it—falling in love with love all over again.

We had visited Rahman with a clear brief in mind. There’s a section in ForbesLife India , ‘The Pursuit of Happiness,’ where we talk to people who are perceptibly happy and ask them one central question: How do they achieve happiness? In earlier issues, as part of this series of dialogues, we’d spoken to people like the absolutely lovely Asha Bhosle, Bollywood’s original charmer Shammi Kapoor, and the redoubtable Leander Paes who’s known to play his tennis with his heart worn loud on his sleeve.

When my colleague Jarshad NK, who has known Rahman now for many years, asked him if he’d spend time with us, I was pleasantly surprised when he agreed; Rahman, to my mind, projected reticence, a deep regard for his privacy, so I’d pretty much taken it for granted he’d politely decline to let us into his head. I was wrong.

And he continued to confound my expectations. There was no name-dropping; he didn’t carry the gravitas of somebody who’s worked with some of the biggest names in the world; there wasn’t the sense of self-importance you’d expect in someone who has won practically every award in the business, including two Oscars and two Grammys.

On the contrary, he made me feel at ease—almost like I was with an old friend, with whom I could share a couple of boy jokes, laugh at a few silly unprintable things, and ponder the world and its machinations. I found myself doing fanboy stuff like telling him how crazy my dad is about his music and he smiled and asked me to thank him for listening to what he composes.

To read the full story, click on this link

A matter of time

Qutubbudinn Ansari pleading for his life in 2002

Twelve years later, the both of them together at Kannur in Kerala

The Mumbai Mirror carried a brilliant story today on how they got together in Kerala.

One is the face of Gujarat riots, the other the defining image of its perpetrators. They met on Monday at the unlikeliest of places – a CPI (M) seminar in Kannur in Kerala and did something implausible – joining in a duet of peace and brotherhood.

    While Qutubuddin Ansari’s face – caked with dust, tears and dried blood as he pleaded with security forces to save him from rampaging rioters – had become the image of 2002 riots; Ashok Mochi’s picture, a saffron band around his head, a rod in one hand and the other clinched into a fist, represented the blood-thirst of the aggressors. 

They would have never met in Gujarat, where almost all cities and towns are now neatly divided into Muslim ghettos and Hindu enclaves. But here they were in Kannur, sharing the stage at a seminar titled ‘A Decade of Genocide’. They sang, shook hands, and Ansari accepted a rose from Mochi. Behind them were posters carrying the pictures that had made them famous

While the political overtone of the event was hard to ignore in an election year, one did feel like buying into the imagery – the dream of ‘and they lived happily ever after.

A book based on Ansari’s experience of riots and post-riots Gujarat--‘NjanQutubuddinAnsari’ (I am Qutubuddin Ansari)--was released at the event, marveled at the fact that he was seated next to Mochi. “Even though we are both Gujaratis, we could not have met in Gujarat like this. This is a new experience for me,” he said.

Ansari said that Mochi, who was charged under sections 435 and 436 (arson and causing destruction by fire) and spent nearly two weeks in prison, wasn’t the first Hindu to apologise to him for the riots. “A retired army officer named Anand Shroff, a resident of Pune, had apologised to me on behalf of the Hindu community some years back. Today, my brother Ashok Mochi has asked for forgiveness. It means a lot to me. Let this be the beginning of a new chapter in humanity,” he said.

Mochi,who looked nothing like his famous picture -- now clean shaven and the middle parting giving way to a neater side parting – called the riots a mistake. “It was a huge blunder. I do not know what to say, I have never addressed so many people in my life. But I cannot leave without talking about insaaniyat (humanity) -- that is what I have learnt over these years,” he said.

They sang the famous song from Manoj Kumar-starrer Purab Paschim ‘Hai preet jahan ki eet sada…’ completely out of tune. For sure, the crowd comprising mostly of Malayalees did not get a word of it. But the message somehow must have reached, because the applause was loud.

Both Mochi and Ansari were critical of Modi and his development model. “Where is development in Gujarat? Any talk of development is just a sham. I still live on a footpath in LalDarwaza. I am still single. Ican’t afford to get married because of my financial status,” said Mochi, 39.

Ansari said Modi by posing with Muslim leaders is trying to cultivate the impression that the community is now with him. “The truth is that the BJP has done nothing for Muslims. People living in other states should know this truth. That is the reason I have come up with the book,” said Ansari. The event was organised by the Co -ordination Committee of Minority Organisations, an arm of CPI (M).

Does anybody believe this?

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Earlier in the day today, I saw a man, child in arm, talking to a friend, outside church, where I was minding my daughter. A quick disclaimer: I'm not the church going kinds. I baby sit while my devout wife attends to her Sunday rituals. There was a Bloomberg logo as well on the side. Does anybody have a clue what this is all about?

As for whether or not honest businesses exist in India, that is a contentious subject. I don't think any black or white answers exist.

On the back of my various conversations with various entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and some very idealistic young people in politics over the last week,  I can assure you there is room for honesty. And yes, people are giving it a bloody hard shot. I intend to chronicle some of their stories in the weeks and months to come. Until then, if there is an interesting idea or person you come across, do drop me a line with a pointer. I'm keen to hear of them and follow it up with stories on what makes them tick.

To eat or not to eat meat?

I never thought a day would come when I'd be conflicted about consuming meat. I must confess I can't stand vegetables either. So when my friend S Srinivasan this piece that appeared in The Independent, it triggered off more guilt. "In a recent blog post called "It might be wrong to eat meat", Bob Comis summarised his ethical dilemma in a sentence: "This morning, as I look out the window at a pasture quickly growing full of frolicking lambs, I am feeling very much that it might be wrong to eat meat, and that I might indeed be a very bad person for killing animals for a living." Here, he talks about the self-doubt he feels while raising animals for slaughter and his desire to see humanity evolve into a species that does not kill to eat..."

Click here for the full piece

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Why you procrastinate and what to do about it

Over on the Harvard Business Review, Heidi Grant Halvorson shares the thee reasons you find yourself unwilling to finish a project, make an important decision, or hit the gym. Fortunately she also gives us solutions for overcoming whatever’s holding you back. Halvorson writes:

The good news (and its very good news) is that you can get better about not putting things off, if you use the right strategy.  Figuring out which strategy to use depends on why you are procrastinating in the first place.

Reason #1 — You are putting something off because you are afraid you will screw it up. Solution: Adopt a “prevention focus.” What you need is a way of looking at what you need to do that isn’t undermined by doubt – ideally, one that thrives on it.  When you have a prevention focus, instead of thinking about how you can end up better off, you see the task as a way to hang on to what you’ve already got – to avoid loss.

Reason #2 — You are putting something off because you don’t “feel” like doing it. Solution: Make like Spock and ignore your feelings.  They’re getting in your way. Somewhere along the way, we’ve all bought into the idea – without consciously realizing it – that to be motivated and effective we need to feel like we want to take action.  We need to be eager to do so.  I really don’t know why we believe this, because it is 100 percent nonsense.

Get all three reasons for procrastination, and solutions for each, from Harvard Business Review.

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News business to grow 1000 percent?

So, Marc Andreessen thinks the news business is going to grow 1000 percent. The arguments sound compelling enough. Cut pasting an excerpt here from a blog post that appeared on Wired Magazine.

Marc Andreessen is at it again. First, he said that software is eating the world. Then, he told us the bitcoin digital currency will remake global finance. And now, the venture capitalist and founding father of the web browser says we’re on the verge of a major boom in the business of journalism, an internet-powered resurgence that will see the industry grow more than tenfold.

Andressen isn’t the first investor to bet big on a new wave of original online content — either in this internet revolution or the last one — and few bets have actually panned out. But there’s hard evidence that the boom he forecasts is already underway.

I wonder though what's on the mind of publishers in India. Just when I thought I had figured the damn business out, every publisher wants to shut news operations down. And if you think that is because everybody is migrating to the digital space, I can assure you, they don't know their heads from their backsides.

Don't ask me names here. But one of the largest media Indian media companies with interests in television, print and digital is pumping money hand over fist into their digital properties. Last fiscal, the flagship property earned a topline of Rs 75 lakh (a little over $122k). Chump change for the kind of investments they've made. This fiscal, word on the street the numbers may be double that. But traffic is slowing down and they don't know which way to go.

Then there's the big daddy of them all who's pumped in god-alone-knows how many million dollars and earning practically nothing out of it.

A bloody good time to disrupt and take incumbents on. They've had a good ride for way too long. 

And I can assure you, the challengers are on their way.