Quantum of Solace

Read somewhere and found it interesting. This is from a short story called Quantum of Solace which is a part of For Your Eyes Only

"I’ve seen flagrant infidelities patched up, I’ve seen crimes and even murder foreign by the other party, let alone bankruptcy and other forms of social crime. Incurable disease, blindness, disaster - all of these can be overcome. But never the death of common humanity in one of the partners. I’ve thought about this and I’ve invented a rather high-sounding title for this basic factor in human relations. I have called it the law of the Quantum of Solace.
Bond said, "That’s a splendid name for it. It’s certainly impressive enough. And of course I see what you mean. I should say you’re absolutely right. Quantum of Solace - the amount of comfort. Yes, I suppose you can say that all love and friendship is based in the end on that. Human beings are very insecure. When the other person not only makes you feel insecure but actually seems to want to destroy you, it’s obviously the end. The Quantum of Solace stands at zero. You’ve got to get away to save yourself."

Thoughts

"The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them”

Thoughts

• Expecting the world to treat u fairly coz u r a good person is like expecting the lion not to attack u coz u r a vegetarian. Think about it.

• Beauty isn't measured by outer appearance and what clothes we wear, but what we are inside.So, try going out naked tomorrow and see the admiration!

Some thoughts on leadership

• Any important leadership decision will piss some people off. The bolder the decision, the more it will impact the status quo and the more it will piss people off.

• Three important things everyone wants to know from the leader :

1. Where are we going?

2. How are we going to get there?

3. What is my role?

A thought

To stick to what you stand for in life is the most difficult thing you can do.

Lessons from Tough times.

While tough and extremely tough times take a long while to go away, they do leave a lot of learning's. Some of what i have learned :

• You learn how to best make use of your finances. The credit card of course is your best friend in these trying times.
• You suddenly realize that fuel is more costly than it has even been. A thousand rupees seem to get you less of gasoline than it did when you had enough moolah at hand.
• You realize that your friend list seems to shrink everyday, this is the best time to say good-bye to most of them, they were not worth it anyways.
• The electricity bill seems to be more than ever before and seems to come at too quick a frequency.
• Eggs and not pizza is the best food ever created.
• Suddenly your entire set of relatives want a job in your organisation, if not that, nearly all have something to do with the organisation that you just quit.
• The electricity pole just outside your house seems to have developed a fascination for your car and seems to move just as to hit it while you are engaging the reverse gear.
• The bathroom sink and electricity fitting suddenly give up and you realise that inflation has actually increased when you pay a huge amount to the friendly neighbourhood electrician.
• All your younger relatives seems to get married at this time only and your family wants them to given the most expensive gifts.
• Every meeting or party that you attend has to be in Gurgaon, if you are living in Noida.

JRD, Ratan and the Nano

The year was 1989 or maybe 1990 and these were the pre-cable days when at 9.50 there used to be program on DD where a dude called Rajeev Mehrotra(hope the name is correct) a bearded guy used to interview celebrities. Most of these were boring oldies in whom no one was interested, but then, there was very little choice. It was between studying and watching TV and i always preferred the latter. In one of these shows our dude was interviewing JRD. I cannot forget this interview even after close to 20 years. Here was a man who was supposedly one of the richest in our country, wearing slacks and t-shirt, with a half filled crystal glass filled with scotch. Apart from the general talk about what are your future plans and all that crap, a number of things impressed me about JRD.

• The fact that during the half hour he took very very small sips from the glass(unlike tanks like us). I found this most elegant. Even when the interview ended the glass was about 25% full.
• JRD had two regrets in life 1) not having been able to speak or write Hindi and having no permanent residence. The latter he added was a matter of convenience as most of the places he went, there was a Taj hotel and he need not be bothered with stupid things that he couldn't handle like maids and cooks etc. I was mesmerised as i had never heard of anyone who did not have a permanent place to stay.

JRD passed away sometime later and the man who succeeded him was Ratan Tata. The man was most non-impressive. He did not have the enchanting personality like JRD, the world was abuzz of his 'different' sexual preferences, he was failure in whatever he had done till date(Voltas and Nelco Blue Diamond TV) and was succeeding JRD just because of his DNA.

Life continued after that and Ratan Tata fought with the world just to be where he was. The fact of the matter was that JRD was a Sultan of his empire and the world treated him like one. The Russi Modies and JJ Iranis of the world were his Satraps who were just loyal to him and resisted change, never realising that the world around them was already changing completely and these old men should hang their boots now. They were irritated by this new Tata who treated them as his equals and had completely different ideas to do business. The junior Tata fought with each one of them till they realised that JRD is happy in his grave in Paris and his history and so will they be if they don't walk in line with the new guy. Most of them walked out with the prophesy that Tata group is doomed. The Buddha was smiling. The status of the group was thus : Tata Steel was ranked 100+ in the worldwide ranking of steel companies and was not doing well at all. Tata Motors could never think beyond TATA 1612 and TATA 407, those old model Merecedes trucks that were of the 1947 variety but were still loved by drivers, again, the raking being nothing to speak about. Ratan later launched a new company called TCS which was into an unrelated field of software etc. Overall a bad sign for the group. Buddha was still smiling.

Tata Motors then planned launch of the first Indian car and the world (including yours truly) thought it would be a disaster as other of Mr. Tata's projects had been. The world couldn't have been more incorrect. Indica sold like hot cakes and became a success story. TCS then became one of India's best IT companies. Ratan Tata, unlike his counterparts at Reliance /UB/Birla was never seen in parties, never agreed for interviews and remained a recluse for the media.

Tata announced the launch of a car which was priced at Rs.1 lac. The world laughed, Suzuki's of the world said that this was a impractical and the Buddha smiled. One fine morning there was news that Tata Steel had decided to buy Corus, a steel major from Europe. The country stood up and noticed the fact that RatanTata, despite being media shy had done more for the economy of the country then some of his more brash and media savvy industry cousins. The Corus deal made TISCO one of the top 10 steel companies in the world.

Jaguar and Landrover, the iconic brands were up for sale and both the owner of the brand as well as the unions, who had been a pain the ass for buyers agreed on only one name : TATA Motors.

2008- Ratan Tata drives Nano, the Rs. 1 lac dream car that he had promised that he will launch, the world takes notice. This is the cheapest car in the world. The Suzuki's of the world are feeling stupid, Bajaj decides to follow suit and no one can understand how this technological miracle happened. Tata still remains the media shy guy that he has always been, even, though both CNN and BBC dedicated enough time to the product and company then probably both the Ambani brothers combined. The news channels of the nation went gaga over the great technological feat and the country was proud of Ratan Tata and his vision.

Hats off Mr. Tata for giving the dream car to the nation. Whether our screwed-up infrastructure will be able to handle this or not is not for you to decide. The nation has agreed to the fact that your vision, foresight and business acumen is par excellence,probably far more than your father. That you have decided to call it a day is sad news for the country, may we have many more unrelenting visionaries like you. The country is proud of you and your vision.