The Omaha Experience – attending the Woodstock of Capitalism aka the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway

There are a few wish lists that I have had over time. Like I am sure, all of us do.

One of those was to be able to go and watch tennis action at the Wimbledon Championships. I had the good fortune to accomplish this wish, a few years ago.

One other wish was to be able to attend the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway and see Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger in person, over the day-long event that happens in Omaha, Nebraska, in the US.

Few years back, I booked the hotel and had worked on the shareholder badges for the event also, and I was all set to go. However, Covid hit, and I could certainly not travel, but moreover, the event itself was cancelled that year.

Then last year, again, I had booked the hotel and had also worked on the shareholder badges that get you entry. But I met with an accident that led to some health issues, and I was stuck at home for a few months, and was advised to not travel. And I could not make it last year as well.

Meanwhile towards the end of the last year, the 99-years old Charlie Munger passed. He made a fantastic pair with Warren Buffett, at Berkshire Hathaway, but also, he was the more colourful of the two, when it came to his quotable quotes, his humour, his candid and quick responses, and he was very popular at these annual events. So, I felt bad that I could not make it while he was around and a part of these annual programs. I felt a stronger urgency to go now, as Buffett is also not getting any younger, at 93 years of age, and moreover, there are already very conscious moves happening in the Berkshire organization, where management and leadership are being transitioned to others, beyond Warren Buffett. Before Buffett completely transitions out of the company, and especially reduces his participation at the annual shareholders’ meetings, I reckoned that I needed to make a trip and fulfil my long pending wish. And which is how, I found myself headed to this event, often referred to as the Woodstock of Capitalism!  

And I summarize my experience at the event, in this article.

The Back Story

Over the years, as I went from dark black to grey hair (!!), I have experimented with many styles and modes of investing. Winning some, losing many, I did not find a true calling when it comes to a framework for investments. Till I got to the idea of value investing. Reading a few books, following some people who were into value investing, listening to many podcasts on the subject, somewhere I found a certain conviction in this approach. And as one follows the value investing trail, it inevitably leads you to Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. Which is how, I ended up consuming a fair bit of Buffett speak, and consequentially, Charlie Munger speak as well.

I know many other investors who have probably consumed all of the published materials by these two or who are far more disciplined than I am, on the value investing approach. But I am reasonably focused on this style, and which is how, I have been fascinated to this annual event in Omaha, when Buffett and Munger engage the shareholders in a day-long session of talks and Q&A.

As regards what Value Investing is, my simple understanding around this, is to be able to identify high quality businesses, trying to ascertain the business’s intrinsic value, and when you get an opportunity to purchase shares of the business below this intrinsic value (for whatever reasons – this is where it shows that the market – or Mr. Market as Benjamin Graham used to refer to it – is not perfect and is often swayed by different reasons, including some short term events or emotions etc.), pick up these shares and generally hold these for long, as the stock price will move towards and perhaps better than intrinsic value, in time, and which is that difference that you get in terms of your profit on the purchase.

There are other elements to this value investing idea, especially from where Buffett’s philosophy (and that of many other value investors’) comes, and which include:

• Thinking of this purchase of shares not just as an investment, but as becoming an “owner” of the business and having a long-term view on it,
• Which means, it is not just about making profits and exiting, but letting the compounding of growth benefit you, over many years,
• Which also puts the onus of the initial selection to purchase to be very critical; the identifying of such opportunities, evaluating them from all aspects, with an idea of potentially hold the shares “forever”. Which might lead you to make very few purchases, but those being significant in size and length of time.

I am still very much a work-in-progress when it comes to implementation of these principles of investment, but nonetheless, an exposure to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting would provide the right inspiration on this path, and which got me planning to attend the event.

Preparation to Attend

So, first of all, what does it take to attend the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting?

1. It is held on a date announced well ahead of time, in Omaha in Nebraska. For example, the date for the 2025 event is Saturday May 3, 2025, and is already announced, nearly a year in advance. Omaha is one of the smaller cities of the USA located bang in the middle of the country, with not a whole lot of other attractions nearby, beyond this event. With the limited infrastructure in terms of hotels etc., as a large number of people descend on the city for this event, good hotels do tend to fill up soon, and rooms get expensive. So, the first thing to do if you intend to go, is to work out a tentative schedule of travel and book the hotel or Airbnb etc.
2. While entry to the event is free, it is restricted to shareholders and their friends/ family. You could choose to purchase a share and become a shareholder and ask for passes for yourself, or you can find a friend who owns a Berkshire Hathaway share and ask the friend to get the passes, which you can use. Just for information, the Berkshire Hathaway original Class A stock (BRK.A) is mighty high priced, at around USD 600,000 a piece!! Yes, you read it right. 600K for one share! The stock has not seen any stock split and all the value of the business has continued to be retained and captured into the stock price! However, there IS a mini-Berkshire or a Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock that they created a few years back, and which runs at around USD 400 each, and which may be more accessible and affordable, if you wish to purchase one and look for shareholder passes. Shareholder passes are available, even on the Class B shares, and each shareholder can ask for and get up to 4 passes, so 4 persons can attend the event. While you need to figure out and purchase a share if you wish to go that route, or find a friend who is a shareholder and who is willing to arrange passes for you, the actual request for the passes can usually be done only about a month or so, ahead of the event.
3. Planning the travel: The event usually happens on a Saturday and starts early morning on that day. So, you need to plan to reach at least a day ahead of time. Omaha is a mid-sized city and is not super well-connected to the rest of the US, in terms of number of direct flights from various other larger cities. Hence, you need to plan the travels in advance. While the actual meeting starts on the Saturday morning and gets over the same evening, there are some related events that happen on the previous day (some even a few days ahead), and it may be useful to reach say, on Thursday, or at least on the Friday morning, prior to the event. You can then look up and try to attend some other investor meets that happen, or even try and catch up with some other investors who arrive for the meeting. It is a good atmosphere to seep in, on the day before. Many also pay a visit to the humble abode of Warren Buffett on that previous day. There is a large expo of investee companies of Berkshire Hathaway that happens along with the meet, and which is also open the previous day on Friday. One can take time to move around the expo, also on Friday.

My Visit – seeping in the surround sound in Omaha

I flew into Omaha from San Francisco. I took the red eye flight on Thursday night and got into Omaha on Friday morning. Not the most convenient of schedules, taking the red eye flight, that too one that had a stopover in Denver, but somehow, as I viewed my options, this one was the best, in the sense that it gave me most of Friday in Omaha, before the meet on Saturday.

I was fortunate to have a friend of mine from the SF Bay Area, Jawahar ‘Joe’ Samagond joining me on this trip, so we travelled together from SFO.

One of the investor events that I had heard about, was a talk by Mohnish Pabrai, which was happening on Friday morning, at the University of Nebraska campus in Omaha. Mohnish has been very close to Buffett and Munger, runs his own and extremely successful investment business, and has been known to have completely cloned the Buffett model, getting enormous success while doing so. He is a well-known and highly respected speaker. His event on Friday was shown to have been “sold out” (in the sense that the registrations were not open anymore – it was a free event otherwise), but thanks to the suggestion from Vishal Khandelwal (Safal Niveshak), I decided to go and take my chances. Travelling to this event, straight from the airport, we reached just in time, and had the pleasure of listening to Pabrai’s thoughts and also enjoy a lively Q&A that he held there.

We also went to the event centre and spent some time at the expo. It was so mighty impressive to see the many successful brands and businesses, which are part of Berkshire’s investments, and who had taken booths in the expo, e.g. Geico, Netjets, See’s Candies, Brooks, Duracell, Bose, Dairy Queen, Pilot, Borsheims and so many others. One can only marvel at Buffett’s acumen to have identified and picked these businesses very early and seen enormous growth via these businesses. Several of these were selling their products as well as merchandise for the 2024 event and one just could not resist from picking up some stuff. In fact, See’s Candies is one of the busiest booths at the expo and is estimated to sell more than 10 tons of their product, over the 2 days!

We drove around Omaha, meeting an investor at a beautiful country club there, paying our respects at the very modest Buffett home and hitting the Old Market area of Omaha, to hang out for some drinks and food. We met up another group of investors there.

All in all, Omaha appeared to be a nice, decent sized city of middle America, with very decent people (as represented by the many Uber drivers we connected to, as well as the staff at restaurants etc that we met), a nice countryside, the mighty Missouri river running by the city.

The BIG Day!

Saturday morning, the day of the event, there is expected to be a long queue outside the centre, to get in. We had our passes and were ready, but we still needed to get there early and stand in queue, so we get good seats once we get in. We were to Uber it and had made a reservation for the Uber as well. However, the Uber app warned us that due to high traffic that day, the cab could come in late. Knowing that, we were exploring other options. Thankfully, the other investor group we had met on Friday evening, and who were also from the Bay Area, had rented a car. They were three of them, and they could accommodate two additional pax in me and my friend, Jawahar. So, when they offered to come pick us up, early morning on Saturday, we accepted their generous offer. It was important to have reliability, than to keep waiting for an Uber that could be running late. Moreover, the city of Omaha is fundamentally quite small. Most times, your ride from almost any point A to point B in the city would be no more than 15-20 min at most. Which is why we were okay to have those investor friends come and pick us up from our hotel.

Once we got to the event location at around 6.15 am, the CHI Health Centre, we saw long queues already there. Gates open at around 7 am. With rains the previous night, there was a slight chill in the air, and we bore up that cold, as we waited for 7 am to happen, and we go in.

The pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests that have been happening at different US campuses, also reached this venue. Considering a huge gathering of capitalism, of wealth, of investments that are made in very large amounts by people at the event, it was an appropriate event for these protestors to be seen. They were not present in very large numbers, but their message was heard loud and clear, as they had a captive audience of people waiting in long queues, while the message was being broadcast!

Finally, by the time we were allowed in, there were perhaps a few thousand people already ahead of us. So, our expectations of getting really good seats were lost. However, thanks to the experience of the investor group with whom we had gone, they recommended that we sit in a location that faced the stage, and which way, we would not have to turn sideways to see the speakers. So, we settled into our seats across from the stage. The venue seemed like a basketball or ice hockey stadium otherwise, from the looks of it.

There was a draft of cold air coming from somewhere and that kept us cold most of the day, even inside the arena.

The arena was packed with people. All waiting for the big man to arrive and begin proceedings.

The event went on from around 8.30 to 3 pm, post which there was some more formal proceedings of the AGM that we did not attend. There was just the small lunch break in between. But it was truly creditable to see Warren Buffett sit through the entire proceedings, without needing a break.

At our end, even as we were waiting in the audience, we needed to step out for the bio breaks, and occasional snacks etc. That said, would wonder about Warren Buffett, as to how he manages to sit there for these long hours, talking, answering one question after another, on a wide range of topics, and at his age of 93!

The people inside were a mixed bag. A large proportion were, Caucasian Americans, perhaps from ages of 20 to 80, and leaning to an average of around 55 or so, by my rough estimate. Most of them seemed like people who had been invested in Berkshire for many years and would have made good money on that stock itself, besides learning new things, from these events that they might have attended for many years. Yes, many of the folks looked like the kind who come year after year.  But beyond this most common demography, there was a mixed bag – a lot of people of Asian origin, both Indian as well as Chinese / Singaporean / Thai / Korean / Japanese etc. Of these, maybe 80% were people of these origins but now based in the US, whereas the other 20% were those who had traveled to the event from their home countries (like me). There were few much younger folks too, including some kids, brought to the event by their parents, to get inspired, maybe! Unlike corporate events of this kind, where people hang out outside of the halls, networking and talking to each other, most people attending this event, were at their seats almost all day, listening with attention, to the proceedings.

While morning breakfast in terms of coffee, water bottles and some muffins / doughnuts etc was provided free to all, lunch boxes were sold for a small price, as was other snacks and beverages.

Other than the long queue to get inside, in the morning, for everything else, be it food or toilets, there were smaller and faster moving queues. In that respect, the event was quite well managed.

The Content – what I took away from the day’s proceedings.

To begin with, there was a reinforcement of the fundamental principles of value investing, expressed in direct and indirect ways, through the day. That made for good reinforcement that my investment framework to a good extent, was in alignment with the ideas that are shared by Buffett and Berkshire!

Beyond that, some highlights for me:

• An amazing tribute for Charlie Munger. As was only expected in this, the first AGM after his death, and where he would not be present! A good film covering his background, how Buffett and Munger met, how they got along brilliantly well, how they made a fantastic pair, how they almost never disagreed, some clips of Munger from these annual meetings of the past, some appearances of Munger in popular shows of the times like The Office, Desperate Housewives, etc. There was a recorded tribute for Munger from Buffett, which was a part of the film, but later, in response to a question in the Q&A, there was some more interesting and little more emotional sharing that Buffett did, about Munger. It does seemed to me that I had missed an opportunity to listen to Munger, having not come to this event, while he was around!

• Berkshire puts great people in charge of businesses, and then lets them be. By and large. This also aligns with their culture to stay invested in businesses for long, long time, tending to “forever”. The underlying thought being that once you have identified a good person or a good business, trust them and give them the reins and empowerment and let them run. In spite of occasional challenges that they may face, they would generally be able to turn things around.
• Businesses like their railroads business or the energy business have not been doing so good in recent times. In response to questions, there was no contesting this fundamental issue. That showed total transparency that they have with their shareholders. And yet, there was no question of exiting the businesses or anything. They fully expect the respective team that manages those businesses to figure their way out and bring the businesses back to good shape.
• That they cared totally for their shareholders, who were constantly described as “owners” by Buffett was also seen from Buffett’s comments on how they don’t bother about meeting analysts etc. as other public companies do. They’d rather present to this group of shareholders and talk to them than go and answer questions of analysts!
• There was a question on how the data analytics aspect of Geico had not made the necessary progress and was sub-par for the industry. Ajit Jain, who heads the insurance businesses, didn’t offer the smallest defense on this. He admitted that they were lagging and said that they had now got good people and were working to catch up with the industry levels. That said, Buffett did add that their positioning on Geico is to provide the best rates for insurance to their customers, and they have kept costs low, and which still brings the customers coming back to their business.

• From Buffett and coincidentally, also from Mohnish Pabrai on the previous day, I heard how they accepted when things were outside their circle of competence. And they were clear that if things were outside their areas of interest or competence, they would not want to offer any serious viewpoint as they would not know better. And moreover, how, due to that gap, they would not invest in those areas for sure. When Pabrai for example, was asked about opportunities in China, he had this to say. And likewise, when Buffett was asked about AI, or some other geographies, he had the same to say.
• In fact, when asked about certain geographies, Buffett said clearly that those places could have great opportunities, but they (Berkshire) didn’t have any differentiated advantage in terms of knowledge or connections there, that could make a difference. And as against that, they understand the US very well, and there is ample opportunity here. So, they would continue to have their focus largely on the US. It was good learning – a) to accept when you don’t have the competence, and b) not to get dragged along in some market momentum, to invest in areas where you lack that competence!
• When later however, someone asked a pointed question about India, Buffett did not quite brush that away in the same way that he had done about other areas where he lacked competence. Here, while he confirmed that he did not have the required skills and competence for India, he acknowledged that India could indeed be a great big opportunity for them. Earlier, they have established a good presence in Japan, and India could be another of those kinds. However, he said that this needed a lot more energy than what he had to offer at the moment, and he would leave that to the next management at Berkshire Hathaway to consider and take up.

• As could only be expected, there was a question on Gen AI. To which his views were very clear: a) that he did not understand Gen AI much, and he’d rather not answer the question, b) that it was like a genie that was out of the bottle now, much like nuclear weapons earlier. And that, while there are possible advantages, there are a lot of risks and dangers as well. But it is too late now, since the genie is out anyway and c) that he had experienced a deep fake video of his, which was AI generated, and he realized the huge dangers of the medium.
• On the other hand, in response to a question on AI and is likely impact on their insurance businesses, he again started by saying that he does not have the competence to respond much, but also added that he has full faith in the management teams at his insurance businesses, to understand and utilize AI as best as they could. This was again a strong reaffirmation of the trust in the team.
• There was a lot of discussion around succession at Berkshire Hathaway and transition. On the insurance business, there was confirmation and emphasis that Ajit Jain is the best you can have. In fact, Buffett acknowledged how their insurance business (which had owned for long) really took off after Ajit joined in 1985. But then the next worry was about Ajit Jain himself. If he is so good, what is something happened to him! And which is where Ajit also elaborated how he has regular interactions with the Board, about succession after him, should say, “a truck hit him suddenly” some day. It was amazing to hear that, as also how Buffett ensured a good transition to Ajit Jain, from the time he was anointed to take over and manage the insurance business.
• In much the same way, there was discussion around how Greg Abel, the new CEO is managing the entire business – including the energy, railroad etc businesses that they own, as well as the investments that they make in other companies. For anyone concerned about someone new coming on board, in place of Charlie or later, Buffett, there was clarity given that Greg will manage it all, and they had full trust in Greg doing a good job. Also how, Greg at 61, had many years ahead of him, and is well suited for the role.

• There was mention in passing, across the many questions that were asked and replied to, about fundamentals that they live by, such as staying invested in a company for long, how Coca Cola and American Express have been good long term holdings, about See’s Candies and the margins they earn, about their Apple bet that happened when they saw the right opportunity to enter and how it might be their biggest holding at the end of this year, and of course, about the benefits of compounding!
• Buffett said that he still reads a lot, though not as fast as the used to do earlier. This was one of the few points where he indicated that he may be slowing down. I am not sure if this happened in earlier years too, or was this some emotional context to not having Munger with him anymore? I would not know that. But two of the most poignant moments for me, by Buffett, were:

• When early in the day, after completing his response to a question, and turned towards Greg to add more, but ended up saying, “Charlie.. ?” as if to cue his long-term partner Charlie Munger in fact!

• And towards the end as he was thanking all those who were present and as would be a normal thing to say, he added that he looked forward to having everyone here next year as well. But quickly added, “provided I am there next year..”. Again, the crowd went wild! Was this in jest, or are there any plans afoot for him to finally retire, or whatever, we are not sure.

All in all, it was excellent interaction on the Q&A across a variety of topics, all of which were answered with complete openness and clarity.

That covers my summary of the Omaha experience – the Woodstock of capitalism, my financial pilgrimage!

Would I go again? I am not sure. Definitely a great experience and many keep visiting year after year. Will I be one of those? We will see..

Would I purchase Berkshire Hathaway stock after this? Again, I am not sure. While I appreciate the principles of their business, and also see the amazing growth the stock has had, I would not impulsively say yes. Because that will go against the value investing principles, which demand study and understanding, before making a commitment!

Will I continue to improve my diligence towards value investing as a framework for my investments? Hell, yes!

Across the two sides of the Indo-Bhutan wall

Wall demarcating Indo-Bhutan border at Phuentsholing

The transformation could be gradually sensed over the 4-5 hours long drive that started from Paro in Bhutan.

But let me start with a little background.

We spent the last 7 days in Bhutan. We were in Thimphu, Punakha and in Paro, three of the popular spots in Bhutan.

Besides the brilliant tourism value of the place, what was remarkable was the calm and quiet of the entire country, virtually! As is well known, this is the country that measures and is known for its Gross Happiness Index! The country is focused on being satisfied, living a calm and comfortable life. Can you believe it that there are no traffic signals in Bhutan? Vehicles are driven at slowish speeds, no one seems to be in any tearing hurry. This in spite of the fact that the roads are pretty good. Over the 7 days, I don’t remember seeing the smallest of road rage, or even a scolding or angry sound! Everyone accommodates others and it is truly a place where you are comfortable with each other. The country provides free education and healthcare for those who need, the country is carbon positive, there is a very high degree of environmental sensitivity. Hardly any waste to be seen on the road, at regular intervals you would find bins to dump waste in.

The most striking and pleasing element is that you don’t find all kinds of hoardings and advertising in your face, like you do most anywhere else these days. So much so that even hotels don’t put 10 boards informing you that you’re on way and you need to take some turns etc! In fact, milestones for distances are also very few and far in between!

So you basically enjoy being with your own self, enjoying and admiring the beautiful nature all around, unhindered.

The one reason that the country is carbon positive is that there is very little production activity inside the country. They are hugely imports dependent. Which is why you don’t see the constant movement of goods, production facilities etc.

So, all this was the backdrop of what we observed over the last 7 days.

And then our last leg of the holiday is to be in Darjeeling – in neighbouring India. And the best way to go from Bhutan to Darjeeling is by road, via this last point in Bhutan called Phuentsholing. While this is one more district in Bhutan like a Thimphu or a Paro, its main significance is being at the India border. Maybe because of that, it is also a lot more of an “industrious” place than the rest of Bhutan that we saw.

So, going back to the beginning of this note, as I said, the change could be gradually seen as we drove from Paro towards Phuentsholing.

The buildings started to get a little different, people seemed in just a little more hurry, even though we were still in Bhutan.

We had an overnight stay here before we headed into India and to Darjeeling. In the dining room of the hotel we stayed in, we saw a Bhutanese local, for the first time, being a little loud and demanding. He was still being polite enough and not angry, but like I said, just a little demanding. Unlike anything that we saw in the previous 7 days here.

And then to go from Bhutan to India, we need to walk through this small immigration building of Bhutan. Where they check papers and let you go. And as you exit out of the building, you are literally in India. As you look sideways, you see this long and large wall, which separates Bhutan and India.

I am sure there are many parts of the world where such simple walls or boundaries separate two countries. But unlike say, the US-Canada border which I have crossed few times by road, this India-Bhutan border had busy towns on both sides.
Phuentsholing of Bhutan on one side and Jaigaon or Jharna in West Bengal, India on the other.

And that wall made such a huge difference!!

Suddenly as you get out on the India side, you are bang in the middle of a busy market. There are street side hawkers on the tiny lane. Unfortunately, the street is dirty with garbage strewn around. And as you walk out of the lane and on to a bigger road, the sudden increase in density hits you unmistakably. The number of vehicles on the road, the auto rickshaws, people walking all across, the general sense of noise, and the general sense of “activity”! As we got into our car that was to drive us to Darjeeling, we saw small production units, lots and lots of stores, perhaps even serving the border town in Bhutan, from here. The large number of Maruti and Tata vehicles (which were not present in Bhutan), the many many goods vehicles ferrying all kinds of materials, and as we drove forth, the massive tea gardens and the activities around it.

What a contrast!

It seemed like we had been away at some idyllic, almost imaginary place, and we were brought back to reality!!

At first thought, one may feel that why can’t India be more Bhutan like? Quieter, calmer, less noisy, cleaner etc. Yes, that would indeed be the first reaction.

But dig a little deeper and think harder and you also appreciate these facts:

• an environment like Bhutan can be a good retreat, a place to go to for a few days, but it cannot exist independently
• being carbon positive is great to be, but if that is by not doing much “activity” and being totally dependent on other countries for your needs, it is like being clean by dumping your waste out to your neighbours’ place, isn’t it?
• gross National happiness index and all that is fine, and maybe people in Bhutan are generally okay with their beings, but in a connected world where the young see the lives of others around the world and don’t live in isolation, does this Bhutanese way factor in the aspirations of the Bhutanese youth? Don’t think so. From what I heard from locals, many young people are leaving the country and going to the US, Canada and other western countries! This was something we had heard in Nepal also, when we visited few years back. And of course, Nepal does not offer the serenity and calm that Bhutan does and hence the draw to stay back, is even lesser.

Net-net, if it is possible to run a country on the most idealistic means, from happiness to sustainability and all things in between, it is amazing.

However, being industrious and independent, being able to provide jobs and growth aspirations of your youth, even at the cost of some compromise, is not bad either! Or maybe it’s better, in fact?!

What do you think?

12th Fail: Vidhu Vinod Chopra still going strong!

Posting a film review after a long time!
With so much of OTT content, have been seeing very few feature films, especially in theatres, hence this is a rare one!
First of all, I didn’t see this film for a long time, as soon after the release, a couple of friends had shared that it wasn’t so great. After putting it off for long, and meanwhile continuing to read good stuff about the film, finally went and saw Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail.
And I have to say that Vidhu Chopra has not lost his touch, even though he directs few films nowadays. The director of classics like Parinday, 1942 A Love Story, Mission Kashmir and others, continues to impress with 12th Fail.

While we hear and read about the obsession of kids to get into IITs, many of us may not be fully aware of the equal if not more, obsession to get into civil services via the UPSC route. So, first of all, this film reminds us of that. The film follows the journey of a young man from a village in Chambal, trying to get into the IPS, overcoming all kinds of odds.
One has heard how, in the IITs and other similar competitive exams, students from states like Bihar, UP, MP, Jharkhand and others, are at the forefront, since it is their one passport to get away from poverty and joblessness. Clearly, UPSC is a similar path for them, as we can see in this film.
There are many poignant moments captured by Chopra. Like when the protagonist gets to Gwalior from his village, after working hard and after getting a huge surprise from his grandmother who gives away her savings, for him to make it through his exams and career, only to have his belongings stolen.
Or when he first reaches Delhi and sees the sea of people, and the very large number of students competing for UPSC, and with the odds stacked against him!
Chopra has his nuances too – like the scene where a police officer drives our hero to his home and there is conversation between them. The entire conversation is picturised with the camera on the rear view mirror, shifting from showing the police officer and our hero, successively, but all in the rear view mirror of the jeep, with everything else blurred out. Classic Vinod Chopra.

The casting is excellent. With mostly new faces, all of whom appear very real to their characters. The emotion that they bring out, of small town folks, for whom a civil service career, responsibilities at home etc are so crucial, is amazing.

The story, apparently a real one, is an eye opener for us city folks, as we keep learning about the many Indias that exist within the one country that we are.

As the end slate of the film says how the film is dedicated to the few officers who are not corrupt, who are dedicated to their jobs and do justice to their positions, the film also shows characters beyond the officers, who are selfless and “good” people. Like the person who has made multiple attempts to make it through these exams, has been unsuccessful, who restarts after each failure, and even after his last failed attempt, is still dedicated to help others who are working to the same goal!

Indeed, this country – and this world- runs because of such good people! And one is so glad to have such folks around in what has become, otherwise such a selfish world!! Renews your faith in humanity!

I must add my one personal connection to Vidhu Chopra. Many many years ago, maybe around 1998, when we were building some of India’s first few websites, we had made the first website of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, called vinodchopra.com. That was also when he was releasing his film, Kareeb, and we had also made kareeb.com then! I had the chance to meet and chat with him during those days, also go to the sets of Kareeb few times. He was an amazing person, and the conversations with him then, were so rewarding as one saw his creative brilliance up close!

In conclusion, I enjoyed 12th Fail, and also learned that I should not be blinded about a film based on 1-2 reviews!!

2023: Looking back, looking forward

As happens towards the end of a year, and especially as we idle through the holiday times, the mind wanders to think about the 12 months that went by and looks ahead to the new year coming up soon.

I can say without a doubt, that this has been one of the most significant years of my life. But the way I would like to look back upon it, is more philosophically than anything else.

While the beginning of the year saw me take part in my very first marathon of any kind – where of course, I did only a 10K portion of the Tata Mumbai Marathon – but the absolute next day after that marathon created an unforeseen turbulence in my life. The next 4-5 months were quite tumultuous, and I am definitely not getting into any major details about the same, here. However, suffice to say that the months gave me time to introspect on life like I have never done before. It also brought me closer to my family and helped me appreciate how lucky I have been to have such a wonderful family. Likewise, I felt deep gratitude for the friends that I have, for my business partners, my team at work, all the senior folks in our organization, all of whom provided such phenomenal support. While I consider myself a gratitude practitioner, if anything, this entire phase of life and my coming out of the stressful situation, only enhanced my faith in the higher one above.

While all this was going on in my life, there has been one long war going on for many months, and another one also getting into a multi-month situation now. I would have never believed that modern day warfare would involve field battles of the kind we are seeing in both of these places now. I thought modern day warfare would be the economic kind or maybe a cyberwar or perhaps a chemical war. But that, we see today, soldiers on the field, in gear and in their tanks and aircraft, battling away, it only means that the more things change, the more they remain the same!

Then again, news about the first of the wars, and to an extent even the second one, is slowly slipping off the front-page headlines, even while the wars themselves show no sign of ending anytime soon! That makes one feel that unless you are directly impact in the middle of a war field, everything is a matter of short-term interest and focus to this world. One that you lose interest of, and then you are looking forward to the “next big thing”, whether it is another war, or some other such earth-shattering event! Which obviously is sad, since the world is letting countries fight away, people keep dying or getting injured, children getting orphaned, and we seem to have just “lost interest” in these now!

That a very large percentage of young population across the globe has grown up spending thousands of hours on video games, and then on social media, has all that made people always looking for the next fantasy, the next headline, the next viral sensation on social media, rather than focus on a few heart wrenching events that continue to sustain in our midst, and perhaps doing something about these??

Amidst all this stress, would you believe it, that there has been such a significant flood of capital into all kinds of investments – be it the capital markets all over, the startup world, fancy new ideas such as crypto currencies and the like, capital that is going into sports and sportspeople, into entertainment and generally all over! If you see the wealth numbers of the richest folks in the world today, their numbers are in a different sphere all together, from where these were hardly 5-10 years back! The kind of monies being raised by startups, the always-on-fire stock markets of the world and the significant records of market capitalization that these are reaching, the huge numbers being spent and earned by sportspeople, by entertainment stars, etc. etc. are all indicative of the massive capital infusion across the board.

These seem almost unreal, and momentarily you wonder what kind of fantasy are we in the middle of??

Meanwhile this has also been the year of the AI upsurge. And while I would like to believe the many others who believe that while AI will cause temporary inflexion across the board, the human being will come back strongly, as he has always done, and move forward and beyond AI, somehow, I have a contrarian disbelief about this thought. There has never been anything like AI before. While enough and more technology driven disruptions have happened earlier, all of those were finite in nature. Never before has any technology assumed significance to the point where whatever a human being can do to move forward, beyond the realms of that technology, this new technology (AI) will continue to learn and learn fast and keep staying a step (or more) ahead! This is definitely a new challenge for mankind, and I am not fully convinced that the human being has the means to take this on. Still, to keep the good and positive spirit on, let me also stay with the larger prevailing thought that ultimately, mankind will prevail. Even if we don’t have the faintest clue how!

And from the world back to the self, there has been a lot of change that has happened in the working life as well. And while such things happen in corporate MNC life, certainly we are all still coping with the change. And as we hit 2024, it is very clear that more of that change will hit us sooner rather than later. And we will need to keep adapting and keep learning, and which I have no doubt, we will.

That said, it is with a fair degree of VUCA or volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, that one looks ahead at 2024! Maybe it is this sense of VUCA that challenges a creative mind, that makes life exciting,  one that frees us of boredom, and makes life worth living.

Maybe..

With this hope and optimism, I look forward to 2024, and wish you all the very best for the new year!

P.S. Meanwhile, I will be attempting to do my second 10K at the Tata Mumbai Marathon in Jan 2024! Wish me luck 🙂

Ten Days at the Jindal Naturecure Institute : A Retreat for Health and Rejuvenation

Some of you may have heard of the Jindal Naturecure Institute (JNI) located in Bangalore, India. It has been around for more than 40 years now, and is a place associated with naturopathy-based treatments for various diseases and chronic problems, as also a place where one can go for general body cleansing, detoxification, and health rejuvenation.

My parents had gone for such programs to JNI many years back, and I had a kind of general perception around what the program was like, how it worked, etc. However, it was only a perception, and while the JNI website had some more information, the details of what exactly happens there, how it works, how is it for a person who enrolls there, was not much known to me. But I had enrolled for the program all the same, basis the strong reputation of JNI that gave me a conviction that it will be good for detox.

Having been through the program now, I am penning some notes on what I went through, as much for serving as a reference for me, as to share with anyone else, who may be interested to consider the JNI program.

Before I get into the treatments and the program itself, here’s some other general facts.

JNI as I mentioned earlier, is a 40+ years old institute, located in Bangalore and spread over a sprawling campus. The campus is beautiful, with amazing horticulture – fabulous large trees, plants, flowers, and fruits of various types, extremely well maintained. There are a variety of birds also, on the campus, and every morning, as one walks around, one is treated to variety of bird sounds. Across the large campus are also fruit orchards and other open spaces, and as you take your walks around those areas, you also spot the many peacocks that are part of the habitat there. The complex is situated just beside a huge lake, and which makes for a most spectacular view, especially as the sun and the clouds play to give many different hues, making for a fascinating visual of the landscape. And the “regulars” who have been coming here for years informed that there is always some expansion or development that they have seen, as the campus kept growing with new things there. While I was there, I saw work going on, for example, on a health museum. I can only imagine how they probably are creating a place to explain various facets of health and wellness, via displays and commentary, perhaps.

The campus also has services like laundry, library and a store providing the many essentials. This sells stuff that you may need while you are there (like I forgot to carry a swimming costume and purchased one there) to stuff that you might like to purchase and take back with you (some “products” based on naturopathy that they have created) to even a large range of books that they publish themselves. I particularly loved and purchased a coffee table sized book explaining the fundamental approach of naturopathy and the various treatments they have there, in a simple, single-page description.

On campus are also sports facilities like for badminton, tennis, basketball, etc., a swimming pool etc. Daily evening post dinner there are programs that one can attend, which include a mix of entertainment (antakshri, movie screening etc.) to knowledge sessions (talks by their experts, or about healthy recipes by their experts, etc.).

Across this large and beautiful complex are well-maintained walking tracks that you can use, at all times of the day. They are mostly flat, easy to walk on, with very small inclines. Amongst the many residents who are staying there at any point, often, the point of discussion would be as to how many steps or km each person had walked that day!

Speaking of residents, in fact, a very integral part of the stay is the opportunity to meet and mingle with many others who have enrolled for the program. There are many points in the day, be it when you are consuming one of the 4-5 juices that you are advised to, at different times of the day, or perhaps at lunch or dinner time, when you spend time with other residents. It is very natural to strike up a conversation, starting with the favorite parts of where one has come from, and how many days they are going to be here, etc. You end up finding people you connect well with, and they become your regular “hang-out” partners, thereafter. You can easily strike up friendships here, that would go beyond the course of your stay here.

People come from all around India, and all around the world as well. In my stay, people I met came from far and wide places like Mumbai, Delhi, Bellary, Lucknow, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore (locals), as well as Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, London, the USA etc. Most of the people from outside India were NRIs, but there were a few “foreigners” as well. Clearly, the reputation of the place has spread far and wide and draws people from around the world.

Also, most people that I met were repeat visitors. Of course, there were few first-timers like me, but several were people who had come maybe 2-3 times or 4-5 times, or some who had come 15-20 times also, before their current visit. They had made it a routine of sorts, to make maybe, an annual rejuvenation trip, or some, even doing a half-yearly visit! And people were also of all ages. Some very young, say in their 20s, and all the way to senior citizens in their 80s. Some of the people that I saw looked so fit, I was wondering what brought them there. On asking the question to such people, the responses I got were that “x years back, they were heavier and after coming to JNI, they saw the change happen, and have been coming back frequently thereafter” or “that they suffer from diabetes or some such thing, so even though they look fit, they need the chronic issue addressed, and they prefer doing it the natural way”, or that “they are convinced about the natural way as being a holistic way to wellness and hence visit here”. All of such conversations made me feel even better about my own decision to have enrolled there for a program, and if anything, I felt that I should have come here, a few years earlier!

JNI also has a very large staff strength – from qualified doctors, yoga teachers, physiotherapists, acupuncture experts, masseurs, a team of coordinators helping participants with their programs, to the regular hospitality kind of team, such as kitchen and F&B staff, housekeeping, maintenance, horticulturists, etc. And the one thing to say about them is that all of them were fabulous in terms of their service levels, their dedication, their commitment to the work, their eagerness to help, their skills, etc. The service and maintenance levels were perhaps better than what you’d see in a good 5-star hotel! The extent of personalized service that one took, e.g., the number of massages, say, there would generally be a tendency to tip such service providers. But they don’t take a tip! And yet, they serve with a smile and with complete dedication. Some of the tasks that they performed were particularly “personal” such as giving enemas or the hydro colon therapy (more about these later), and these were also performed with a lot of dedication and care.

At the time of your check-in, your data is taken, and then you are to consult a few doctors, including a main naturopath who is assigned to you, as your consulting doctor, for your entire stay, and then a yoga specialist, a physiotherapist, an acupuncture specialist etc. Based on your case, your specific issues if any, your health constraints if any, your objective for the stay there, a fundamental program is created for you. Specifically for yoga, it spells out certain yoga sessions that you should do, certain asanas that you should avoid. And similarly, a basi program is spelt out for you, for acupuncture and physiotherapy.

The main consulting doctor that you are assigned to takes a more exhaustive health history of yours, records the initial parameters including height, weight, BMI, blood pressure etc. And makes some broad notes on the approach and starts you off for the first day or two of actual diet and treatment. In case he needs you to take any tests, such as blood test etc., he may ask you to get those done too, for him to assess your condition that much better. Thereafter, you are to meet this doctor every day, and basis your feedback and whatever other observations he draws, he keeps tweaking both, your diet and your treatment on a day-to-day basis.

The tariff for the program is based on two factors: a) the type of stay that you opt for (there are various levels at different price points) and b) the different types of treatment that you take or that you need to take, such as the different massages and other such treatments.

Basis the kind of room you have opted for, you get an access badge, and besides that you get another smart card. Both of these, you are supposed to carry around with you, most times that you are going anywhere on the campus.

I was particularly very impressed by the smart card. It is connected to your record and all you need to do is to swipe the same, at various places, for them to know what you need to be doing next. For example, you swipe the card in the lunch room and it will tell the persons there, what food you are supposed to eat in that meal, you swipe the card at the therapy center, and they know what massage you are supposed to have at that time, you swipe the card at the juice place, and of the many juices offered at that time, they will tell you exactly which one is meant for you. All this data is available on a phone or an iPad, to the attendant at each place. Of course, the doctors also have the same information when they see your record, as the information is all centralized. This tech was very impressive, I thought.

Beyond this general information, let me share something about the specific diets and treatments:

The typical day’s program:

The typical day’s program is supposed to start by around 5.30 am. With minor differences, most people have this common morning schedule, viz. one takes maybe a 15-20 min walk, then heads to what is known as the Kriya Centre. Here, I was prescribed a first thing where two drops of ghee are put in my nose, and then the nose is massaged, and this is to clean up the nasal track. Thereafter, there is salt-water gargling, and then cleaning the eyes using eye cups filled with a liquid. Once these are done, one heads to the amphitheatre, where yoga mats are laid out. The program starts with meditation for a few minutes. Post-meditation, there is a laughter therapy session, followed up pranayama. After that, there is yoga, where for the first two days that one is there, you’d follow a learner’s yoga session, and beyond that, you’d join the general yoga session. In each of these, you may not do all asanas, if the yoga teacher has marked those out for you, basis your health constraints, if any.

Post this yoga session, by around 7.30 am, you get to have your first intake. Typically, it is a juice of some kind. In my case, most of the days, it was a warm water with jaggery and a little lime. When you are not “fasting”, you would get a small helping of sprouts with a little pomegranate too, along with the liquid.

Once you are done with this morning schedule, you’d either go and see your consulting doctor for the daily appointment (they are available from 8 am onwards) or maybe done another walk for 30-45 mins, or maybe go back to your room.

Other activities planned for you during the day could include an acupuncture session (generally 30 min duration), a physiotherapy session (also around 30 min duration), some packs that are put on you like a mud pack or a castor oil pack or an abdomen pack, kidney pack etc., which can happen at different times of the day, and are anywhere from 15 min to 45 min each, and 1-2 massage or enema or such sessions, planned in the course of the day.

Beyond that, there are evening yoga sessions for specific purposes like for diabetes patients or for anyone with hypertension or cardiac problems, there is also a yoga for eyes session, there is an aqua yoga session that happens in the swimming pool, there is a relexology area where you can go and “walk” barefoot over pebbles, sand etc. There is also a vibration place, which is this large platform hung over a large tree, where maybe 10-12 people could go and stand and then, the entire platform is subject to vibrations, even as you stand on the platform, for about 8 minutes.

Beyond these, there are always options to keep doing walks across the campus.

Juice breaks happen further around 8.45 am, 2-30 pm, 4.45 pm and post dinner at around 8.30 pm. Lunch is around 11-12 in the morning and dinner is around 6-7 pm in the evening.

A typical day, if you are going through a few of the treatments, has you busy for large parts of the day, especially as you rush around from one place to another, where the different treatments happen, and where meals and juices are served.

Diet Program:

Sensing my issue being largely one of being overweight, my diet program was catered accordingly.

The first 2-3 days, I would have some solid food like fruits (pineapple, papaya, watermelon etc.) along with steamed vegetables and sprouts, along with soup, for lunch and dinner. At different times of the day, I would have liquid intake like warm jaggery water with ginger or lime, kokum juice, tender coconut water, some mixed fruits smoothie etc. The post-dinner night liquid was always cold coconut milk with chia seeds, for me.

For 4 consecutive days in the middle, I was put on a fast. Those 4 days, I had all the liquids intake, but no solids. So, no sprouts early morning, no solid fruits, no steamed vegetables or sprouts at lunch or dinner. Lunch and dinner were just one bowl of soup, in fact.

Massages and other treatments:

Over the time that I was there, there were many different massages and other treatments that I needed to take. Sharing details of some of these:

1. Enema: This is administered in your room itself. And is a first process to get your bowels cleaned. I was administered this for a couple of days, right in the beginning.
2. Oil therapy massage: This was like a basic oil massage and perhaps, one to just get you started on massages. After that, many other, more intense and specialized massages happened. Post oil massage, one sits in the steam room for 10 minutes, before taking a shower to get the oil off!
3. Kairali massage: The next massage was the Kairali type, also an oil massage, but done the Kairali style. With two masseurs, working your body, in synch, so that the two sides of your body get synchronized massaging. This is also followed by steam and shower.
4. Deep Tissue massage: This is also an oil massage but where the masseurs put more pressure, going deeper on the muscles.
5. Herbal Therapy massage: This is a very interesting massage. They use freshly ground and mixed herbal powder to spread over your body and rub it in, with a certain pressure, to give you a massage. After extensively doing this on all of your body, they clean out the powder as best as possible, and then follow up with a regular oil massage, and then steam and shower. This is supposed to be very effective, and I had this massage a couple of times, over my 10-days stay.
6. GIB Bath with Epsom Salt: This is where you are in a tub filled with warm water and there is a lot of Epsom salt mixed, and the masseur rubs all of it over your body. It is part of the overall detox process.
7. Hot Stone Therapy: This is a very interesting massage type. Again, there are two individuals who work together, to give this massage to you. There is extensive use of round, flat stones, pre-heated, along with oil. So, the body is oiled out and then it is rubbed with these hot stones. Hot stones are also kept on the body for certain periods of time, and allowed to provide the therapeutic treatment, from those.
8. Salt Glow Therapy: This is a natural treatment using salt and oil, mainly focused on improving the skin, ridding it of dead cells, getting the pores opened up, mainly for purpose of detox, again.
9. Hydro Colon Therapy: This is a very interesting therapy, kind of like enema, but with the idea of using pressurized warm and cold water, for purpose of cleaning the large intestine, specifically for waste that has accumulated there, for a long time. The equipment used has a display unit, where you actually see the waste coming out!!
10. Vibro Therapy: This therapy uses a variety of vibration heads and same are applied across different parts of the body, to provide an exhaustive and holistic vibration across the body.
11. Jet Hydro Therapy: This is where you are asked to stand towards a wall, and a person using a high pressure jet of water sprays water across various parts of your body, in a concentrated manner. The pressure makes it seem like sharp objects are being shot on to your body, but again, this has a therapeutic purpose.
12. Whirlpool Bath: This is where you are asked to lie down in a jacuzzi kind of tub, and sharp streams of water are coming out, below the water surface. You are asked to move specific parts of your body, specifically the ones where there are fat deposits, such as your tummy, abdomen, thighs, etc. close to those jets, and get a strong hydro massage in the process. Like a typical jacuzzi, this is a circular shaped tub.
13. Under water therapy: This is somewhat similar to the whirlpool bath, except that the tub is like a proper bathing tub in shape, and most of your body, except the head, is below the water and you are lying flat (you would also turn around and

have your back on the top and chest below, as you lie flat on your tummy, under the water). Water jets come in across the tub and the person helping you, also rubs on your immersed body, giving a massage.

While I saw some of the people who were coming to the place, repeatedly, making some choice on the treatments that they choose to take or not take, I, going there for the first time, chose to simply submit myself to the entire program, as envisaged by the doctors there. I followed their suggestions and tried to follow as much of the prescribed schedule set for me, as I could.

Even after doing this once now, and seeing the immense overall benefits, I am not able to pinpoint which of the parts contributed less or more, to my final results. So, I am not sure if I can really pick and choose even the next time that I go there.

Speaking of the “next time”, I am quite convinced about the relevance and benefits of the program and feel that a 7 to 10 days stint at JNI should become a part of the year’s agenda, each year. I hope to be able to do so.

Overall, I found the entire experience excellent, and I would highly recommend anyone considering the same, to take the call and enroll!

A year of pottering around in the garden

Prior to August 2020, my only contribution to gardening was to engage a professional gardener, pay him a fee, and let him do his thing, in our garden. And he did an “okay” job in the once-a-week visits he would pay us. It was clearly not enough to get the dream garden that we wished for. But then I did not particularly get around to investing more time or energy behind it.

Come March 2020, and the pandemic and the lockdown ensured that we did not get any outsiders coming in, and which included the gardener too. So from March to August 2020, the garden was poorly looked after and started looking terrible.

That was the point when, at a moment of inspiration, I decided to get into some gardening work myself. In fact, the desire was always there, but I had not put my mind to it, and I was also not sure where to start. Luckily, I had subscribed to the Masterclass series online, and one of the great masterclass series was around home gardening. Which I saw. And after that I went and saw a few more videos on YouTube. And that was just the trigger I needed, to plunge into this new hobby.

And it’s been an amazing 12 months now, of pottering around the garden, trying out things, failing a lot, learning new stuff, experimenting, seeking help from friends, visiting nurseries, and getting to some decent state of developing a home garden.

We have not called any gardener for our garden, since March 2020, so I am able to take full responsibility of the good, bad and the ugly in our garden, with no one else to point fingers to!

And this is what has emerged in terms of the flora and the fauna now.

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The learnings have been many over this one year. And in fact, as an entrepreneur, I saw a lot of parallels between trying to nurture and grow plants, and trying to build out a business venture! In fact, gardening experiences are a lot like life itself. I am pleased to share a few of these points, that bring out the parallels:

1. I tried to grow plants starting from bare seeds. This turned out to be the most challenging. The journey from a seed to a plant that can reasonably self-sustain is a long and arduous one. Many things can go wrong in between. Some of these don’t even get started, in terms of showing up above the soil. Others sometimes give way, in a few days or weeks, just as they start showing up, above the ground. Many startups have the same story. Early period needs extreme care.
2. Sometimes a plant reaches a certain size and then needs to be transplanted into a bigger planter. Or sometimes you get a ready, small plant (instead of a sapling or just seeds) and you are working to grow them from that point onwards. The transplantation from an existing soil structure to a newer one has to be done very carefully. This is to ensure that the roots are well-maintained and don’t snap off. And you need to settle down the transplanted plant, in the new planter also, well. This is much like M&A in startup life. Needs to be done with as much care!
3. As you do gardening, you realise that by and large, nature has tremendous resilience. There were at least two major occasions of heavy rains and very strong winds that damaged several of my plants very badly. Few small and delicate ones did not survive and died! Some others were badly damaged but survived. Once the storm passed, I cleaned them up, and provided further tender loving care, for a few days. And lo and behold! The plants recovered and came back to their own, like nothing had happened. That resurrection of sorts, from the dead, was very fascinating and showed the amazing resilience that the plants had. Sometimes in startup life too, one would face storms. But the entrepreneurs’ and the teams’ resilience can enable a startup to battle it out, survive and come out stronger.
4. After several experiments, what I finally concluded in terms of the causes of failed plants, was that these were either under-watered or over-watered. Too little, mostly infrequent watering deprives plants and causes them to get spoilt or die, but also excess water causes similar and sometimes worse damage. It is much like the need of capital in startups. Too less capital or too much capital could potentially cause the same kind of damage to startups!
5. When you have dried up leaves or damaged leaves in a plant, there is no way to undo that damage and make them nice and green again. The only option is to cut those damaged leaves, and which allows the rest of the plant and the rest of the leaves to survive and grow well. And soon, you would have a nice healthy plant all over again. In a startup (or even a matured company), if there are some some team members that are not fitting well, it is best to let them go, and give the rest of the team and the company a chance to survive and thrive again.
6. I am totally indebted to some great friends and some experts in our housing community, to provide me with great suggestions, whenever I had questions. There was a keen willingness to help and guide and it just felt good to know that there was someone to go to. And it is on account of that support that I was able to fumble and falter but yet correct and try and get things right. In a startup too, it is important to have access to good advisors that you can turn to, from time to time!
7. Gardening is not about a lot of work for a short period of time. It is not about this massive burst of effort. Rather, it is about a continuous and committed effort on a regular and constant basis. A certain investment of time, almost on a daily basis, perhaps a slightly longer effort at least once each week. But the bottomline being that one just has to be “at it” relentlessly. There are almost no short cuts to that. Results do not show up every day, in fact, they often do not show up for days and week together. But still, you have to be at it. Because that is the only way that growth happens, that the flowers and fruits show up. Any sort of impatience on the journey means that you will not get the desired rewards of your labour! This is again, so true for startups as well. As they say, the journey of a startup is a marathon and not a sprint.

It has been a great one year of gardening for me. And the journey has just started, it would seem to me. I find the time I spend gardening to be therapeutic, to provide me with a lot of happiness, away from my phone and other devices, and very rewarding as well.

Like I feel running my business venture..

That Memorable Summer of 2015

It’s that time of the year.

Cannes is in the air. And so is Wimbledon.

And in these pandemic times, as I experience these sitting at home, on a remote screen, nowhere close to Europe, I am reminded of that wonderful summer of 2015, one which was very special for me, in many different ways!

It was earlier in 2014 when the digital agency that I had co-founded, Social Wavelength, was acquired by the global advertising network, WPP. We were folded under J Walter Thompson, one of the oldest and highly reputed advertising agencies.

Even as we were getting inducted into the WPP network and getting to know people in the group, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to be on the Jury for the Mobile Lions at the very prestigious Cannes Lions Awards for advertising and creativity. Unlike colleagues in the WPP group who had grown in the advertising industry and many of whom had had a chance of experiencing Cannes, for me, having come to the advertising world, as a kind of “outsider”, Cannes was the holy grail of sorts, an awe-inspiring event, and one that ordinarily, would have remained aspirational.

So, the invitation to not just be at Cannes Lions, but to in fact, be on the jury, was absolutely out of the blue, and an unbelievable surprise.

What followed was a massive effort of pre-screening entries (while still in India) to help come to a short list of entries (once all jury members had done their pre-screening), and which entries, the jury would sit together and review in Cannes.

The jury experience itself was fabulous. One of the major highlights of that summer of 2015!

Being in a room with other eminent jury members, coming from agencies around the world, together looking at one entry after another, discussing the merits, debating some where we were not all on the same page. And doing this day after day, for almost a week. Meeting and engaging with these amazing folks, and also networking with them, beyond jury hours, was an experience of a lifetime!

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  Was a busy jury schedule

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  Intense discussions in jury room!

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The large part of this jury effort in Cannes happened about a week prior to the actual start of the Cannes Lions event. So, just as we completed the jurying effort, it was time to swing to the exciting part of actually being at the event and participating there. As a jury member, we got free access to the event (registration is pricey otherwise!). And specifically, for the day when the awards for the specific category that I was a jury member for, viz. the Mobile Lions, were to be announced, we got pride of place, in terms of being right up front in the main event hall. Being up close, right in the front, in a hall and an atmosphere that felt like being at the Oscars, was totally surreal. I had goosebumps. And as I saw the many winners come up on stage to receive their Lions, there was such an adrenalin rush, wanting to so badly, want to go up on that stage, to receive my own Cannes Lions!

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There was a lot more about the Cannes experience, including the beautiful city, meeting up with many friends and colleagues from India, attending some really great sessions of knowledge from the absolutely top speakers and panelists from the world, etc.

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With all these, Cannes was not done just yet for me.

Besides all the above mentioned exciting stuff that happened, there was one more very significant meeting that happened while I was at Cannes that year.

As mentioned earlier, in 2014, we became a part of WPP Group and were folded under J Walter Thompson (JWT). At this time, JWT was in the process of creating a new digital agency brand called Mirum. This was being created by bringing together a few of the digital agencies that JWT owned, around the world. We had just become a part of the group few months prior to this, and were still getting to know people in the network. Becoming a part of Mirum was going to be by invitation, and we were certainly not expecting that call so soon. However, the Cannes visit gave me an opportunity to meet with Dan Khabie, the global CEO of the newly formed Mirum. That meeting was a get-to-know meeting, which became the basis of our subsequent induction into Mirum. The opportunity to meet Dan in person, and for me to understand the vision for Mirum, and for him to understand what Social Wavelength was about, was an important development. Looking back, we know that becoming Mirum, has been an absolute game changer for us, and in many ways, the seeds of the same were sown during that summer of 2015, in Cannes!

While it all started with the invitation to be on the Mobile Jury at Cannes, as the travel plan was getting ready, I noticed an amazing opportunity. Just as the Cannes Lions event was winding up, on a weekend, the Monday that followed was the beginning of Wimbledon at London. Being the tennis fan that I was, this was an unmissable opportunity to add a few days to my travel, and grab the opportunity to make my “pilgrimage” to Wimbledon!

I did not have tickets for Wimbledon already, and an effort to try and procure tickets only returned very expensive options. But it also led to the discovery that there were a few tickets that Wimbledon sold at low prices on a first-come-first-served basis, every morning. And for which people would queue up, potentially through the previous night! That was a part of the big tradition of Wimbledon, and had it’s own charm!

So, that summer of 2015, in London, I did the whole works of spending a night in the Wimbledon lawns, getting a ticket to go inside, next morning, seeing some amazing tennis, and seeping in the brilliance of the Wimbledon experience. More detailed photos of my Wimbledon trip are shared here.

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Thus happened, one of my deep desires as an avid tennis fan, namely to attend Wimbledon live.

In this manner, a matter of three weeks turned out to be extremely significant and crucial for me, in 2015.

• Being on the Mobile Jury at Cannes Lions
• Spending an amazing week attending Cannes Lions
• Having a crucial first meeting with Dan Khabie, global CEO of Mirum, that led to Social Wavelength being invited to become Mirum
• Making the “pilgrimage” to Wimbledon

Sometimes destiny ordains you to be in a place at a time, and it turns out to be the perfect place at the perfect time, and the rest of the dots just start connecting seamlessly.

The summer of 2015 was one such memorable period for me!!

Covid-19: Ask not JUST what your country can do for you, ask also what YOU can do your country!

There is absolutely no doubt that India is in the midst of a health emergency, due to the second wave of Covid-19. And as citizens grapple with personal tragedy, and scenes of grief at hospitals etc., there is a natural anger seething within all of us, as to why we have ended up in this state.

And one of the intuitive directions where the blame goes, is towards the government – both state and centre. I have myself been very vocal on social media and personal Whatsapp group conversations, about my own disappointment with regards to the government in terms of what they could do, and what they have done so far!

That said, at this point, I was reminded of the famous call of John Kennedy, that went, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”.

I am making a small change in that line, to say that “Ask not JUST what your country can do for you, ask ALSO what YOU can do for your country”!

Before I get into the detail of this, let me focus on the many messages going on, across media, in various private conversations, where we seem to lay all of the blame to the governments. And reckon that if they had behaved better, we’d all have been safe and sound at this point.

To that narrative, let’s understand a few things to begin with:

• Last year, when the rest of the world was grappling with very large number of cases and fatalities, somehow or the other, we had managed to keep the numbers at bay, and kind of managed to flatten the curve; essentially, ensured that the number of patients demanding a Covid hospital bed were lesser than the number of hospital beds available
• Considering our population numbers and density, it seemed to be quite an incredulous feat to have achieved, and we gave credit to all kinds of reasons for this, including our higher immunity due to the various diseases we go through, growing up in India, or that we had had the BCG vaccination as kids, or that our weather made it harder for Covid to survive or spread, etc. At the end of it all, these were all considered speculative, and no one really pinpointed the real reasons for our better numbers.
• As we tend to be more critical of government at any time, we did not give much credit to the initial quick steps taken for administering an unpopular lockdown, or the rapid creation of new healthcare infrastructure, etc. Maybe also the citizens’ higher levels of discipline to stay at home, sacrifice a lot, to contribute to the curve getting flattened then.
• Whatever be the reasons, towards the end of 2020, a certain feeling was getting across that we are putting the Covid monster behind us, slowly but surely. It was on this basis that government started allowing the opening up of the economy, from transport to offices to cinemas and malls etc. And people also started getting comfortable about stepping out, going to work, and resuming their pre-Covid life, gradually.

Note that this was the backdrop, of gradually overcoming the Covid monster and an increasing confidence to resume the pre-Covid life, in Jan-Feb 2021, both for the government and for the people. And it was against this backdrop, and kind of against the turn of events, that we were all taken in by this shocking and surprising second wave of Covid.

Yes, appreciate that none of us expected it, none of us anticipated it – not the government, not the people. Unlike the first wave where it started from China and was seen to be hitting other countries, unfailingly, and it was only a matter of time before it hit India as well, the second wave did not come with such predictive knowledge.

But then, towards end of of February and through March, it became clear that the second wave WAS indeed happening and one had to start taking adequate steps in an urgent manner. Perhaps, this was the very crucial period where adequate and urgent action did not happen, like it had been done in anticipation of the first wave, in March, 2020.

So, let’s understand the role of the government and the role of the people. And note that when I speak of “government”, I refer to the centre and the state and all the connected teams and departments including municipalities, health ministry, etc.

Appreciate that hindsight is a great place to preach from (“we should have done this, we should have done that”), but at a point in time when decisions need to be taken, you don’t really have the advantage of hindsight. So, consider that fact as you raise your “expectations” of what should have been done.

What should (could) the government HAVE done?

• Reacted quickly and strongly, as soon as the sense of the second and large wave, was felt in late Feb 2021
• Rang the alarm bells out early enough, and on the back of the same, put an immediate stop to all mass gathering events like the Kumbh mela, farmers’ protests etc.
• Paused the 5-state elections immediately
• In doing all this, give out a clear message that “this is serious and needs everyone’s immediate attention”
• While we were rolling out one massive vaccination program for a country of our size and it was being done with some planning, in terms of logistics etc., and if there was no second wave, we might have been okay with the pace and the distribution, considering the extremely special situation created out of the impending second wave, additional and corrective steps should have been taken. Like figuring out any supply chain hiccups for current vaccine players, or figuring out means and modalities to hasten the larger population into vaccination, or exploring additional vaccine types to be approved on priority and allowed in, etc.
• Put quick curbs on non-essential public gatherings. Yes, it was back to the lives vs livelihood debate, and like the first wave, quick and essential steps, even if they were unpopular, needed to be taken.
• Reassessed the eligibility criteria for vaccination, tweaked it as necessary basis the demography being most susceptible, looking at entire families that were getting infected, perhaps figuring alternate SOPs on quarantine etc.

There might be few more bullets to this list. But, yes, the governments – state and centre – missed out on various opportunities to react sooner and better.

Having said that, some of the (hindsight based) expectations that one reads in social media today, about what the government should and could have done, seem a tad unfair.

What are perhaps, unfair expectations of the governments:

• That they should have rolled out the vaccination program much faster and to all, to begin with; there were logistical challenges of a large and diverse country like ours that needed to be figured out. And after all that, the rollout when it began, and started taking pace, was one of the fastest and biggest around the world. In fact, people were taking their time to register and go for vaccination as everyone seemed to believe that there is ample time to get this done. The government could have not anticipated the current huge rush for getting people vaccinated faster, at that time.
• The choice of vaccines was made as per scientific basis and also keeping with the demands of storage and distribution in a country like ours, where availability of cold storages and reliable electrical supply across the country is not that great. So, the expectation again that, many different vaccines should have been simultaneously cleared at the outset, is unrealistic.
• That the hospital beds infrastructure should have continued to be kept growing and maintained in numbers, even as Covid related demand for these had dramatically gone down, from the peak levels. Just think about it, if the capacity was 100 and demand was 10, and not looking to grow, how would there be a justification to not only maintain that physical infrastructure and people associated with it, but also keep increasing that capacity, for a “possible” much larger second wave, whose likelihood there was no hint about. Hell, people are finding faults in the Health Minister’s quote last year that we have adequate hospital infrastructure. Heck, he was referring to the situation at that point in time. He did not have any idea of such a huge second wave coming in! This is akin to the statement that Bill Gates has apparently said to have made many years back that “640K memory should be enough for any home computer” or words to that effect. These have all to be read in the context of the history at that point in time.
• In the same context as the previous point, the idea that government should have ensured large scale production of Remdesvir or Oxygen cylinders for healthcare, or even purchased these and kept with them, at a time when case numbers were dwindling down, is an unfair expectation.

So, broadly speaking, the point being made is that while we are happy to blame governments for everything basis the hindsight knowledge of the current numbers of second wave cases, it must be appreciated that these are not like monsoon that was expected at some point in time for sure, and for which “rainy day”, the governments should have stayed prepared. This second wave and its intensity has caught everyone, including the government, by surprise, unfortunately.

So, if we have vented out enough about the governments, let us turn inwards. As the title of the post goes, let’s not just ask the government what it can and should have done for us, but let’s see what our role is, in this current emergency that we are all grappling with.

The people’s role:

• Yes, we had all felt choked sitting at home for many weeks last year, so as soon as the slightest window opened, we were keen to rush out. Going out to work, as it had been hampered badly due to closures or WFH scenarios was one thing, but we could not wait to get back to our celebratory ways and partying and random travel etc. As we expect the government to have an eye on still existing Covid threats, did we not have the same sensibilities??
• The crowds that were seen together in festivals or the weddings that resumed with the same gusto as pre-Covid times, or the lakhs of people that rushed to Goa and other destinations were a testament of how we, as people, took things for granted too. While there were restrictions at play, the jugaadu Indian took pride in how he was able to “bet the system”!
• The height of such “beating the system” stories are the fake Covid negative certificate scams and people roaming around freely in their housing complexes or even travelling or roaming around in the city, in spite of being tested Covid positive. That someone enables such routes to be exploited and that there are huge takers of such short cuts, is again proof that we get what we deserve!
• Note that I am not talking of daily wage earners and other working population who had to step out due to their needs of livelihood. Those could not be put off beyond a point. It is the scores of others who went out and mingled “just like that” or who chose to have large weddings or who went for large religious gatherings etc. that I point to. Absolutely unnecessary and suicidal, as we are able to see in hindsight now!
• In late December and then in January, I could sense people giving up even on the mask, in a big way. Simple mask discipline or social distancing was being compromised big time. Because of the complacency that had set in, but that time, that “things were normal now”.
• And even as the second wave has hit, and is clearly much stronger than the first one, there is a huge hangover on the post-first-phase liberties that we don’t want to give up. While we lived totally locked down, without domestic help, learned to manage our chores ourselves, now, with a much bigger wave, when an idea of cutting down domestic help is mooted, there is “furore” in the housing complex! We want it all, but want Covid to go away, and want some magic from governments!!

This is really the point around what WE can do for the country.

• To start with, appreciate that we are in a serious health emergency!
• Don’t wait for someone in your own family to have to go through the agony of finding a hospital bed in an emergency, to come to that realisation. Appreciate it already, as you see the situation around you!
• The fundamental challenge is again around flattening the curve or cutting the curve, or whatever term you choose to use. And to understand this, it is about that difference between availability of hospital beds (including ICUs, oxygen, etc.) versus the demands for the same. At this time, the demand is surging, it is already above the capacities at most places.
• How do you get this diverging curve under control? On the one side, you increase capacities. However, that is a slower process and we cannot expect overnight results here. And the increase of capacity will also be in finite numbers at a time. So, the other option to bring the diverging curve under control is by reducing cases.

• And, there are effectively two ways to reduce the demand. Fewer people getting infected and more people getting vaccinated. What we can do about the former is to fundamentally follow the disciplines around masks, social distancing, not mingling, not stepping out unless absolutely necessary, and urging our friends and families towards these aspects too. Don’t step out and begin routine again, at the first signs of reopening, unless you need to do so. Basically do your bit.
• And on the latter part, as soon as you qualify for vaccination, do get vaccinated. Get your families vaccinated. Spread vaccine education so as to remove the resistance against vaccination amongst certain people.

And if I may dare to share this last suggestion for people. And perhaps, the most critical one!

Unfortunately, most of the dialogue on social media and in private groups is around finding faults. Most times, with the government. When suggestions for lockdown or curbs are given, the response if around “why those other things are still on, and we are asked to restrain??”.

How does this help??

This is an emergency like any other emergency, such as a war. These are the times to stand as one, and focus only on the enemy, which in this case, is the Covid virus. At such a time, why are we wasting our time and energies, on fault finding, and throwing doubts around anything constructive that anyone is attempting??

Just support the steps that are being taken. You or I are NOT in a position of decision making, and if you ask a 100 people, there will be a 100 different approaches that you might get. So, just because the government is not doing what YOU think they should be doing, does not necessarily mean that they are wrong, or that you should not support them at this time.

Hopefully, we will fight this war and win, and then there will be ample time to analyse the mistakes and blame the concerned people. But for now, there can only be one objective, one laqshya, viz. to overcome this challenge of the covid emergency and win! Let’s all stay focused on that goal, and do whatever we can, in that endeavour, from our side.

In the above, where I have described the less than responsible behaviour of people earlier, I have kept using the pronoun, “we”, as I have equally been a part of that behaviour. This message is as much to myself, as to every other citizen in the country.

Let’s go, win this war against Covid, TOGETHER!

Are you too quick to judge??

Are you? Too quick to judge?

Like someone is speaking to you, and even as you hear her speak, your head is going, “She doesn’t get it” or “she is so biased” or “this is such nonsense” etc.??

Whether we verbalise such thoughts of ours or not, too often we find ourselves jumping to such conclusions.

While it is a fact that we need to constantly analyse all inputs (knowledge, experience, opinions, what we are hearing, etc.) and come to our own conclusions, rushing to such judgments may be detrimental.

Yes, it is a busy world and we have other things to do in life.

Yes, there is a lot of data to process.

Yes, we need to get on with life.

However, that does not mean that we need to judge prematurely and risk making a wrong call.

So, when you are reading some content or talking to someone, and you let your mind take a decision about the subject too quickly, what you are doing is to keep a closed mind and not allow a potential alternate thought, or a clarification from the other person to come in.

And thanks that that, we can end up forming prejudices about people or topics, for example:

• He / she is leftist / rightist and hence those views
• He / she comes from a very different background and won’t understand this subject
• He / she is wrong
• I know what he / she is going to say next
• There he / she goes blabbering away
• I have made a mistake in hiring him / her
• This client is so irrational / insenstive
• My boss / manager / colleague / client hates me
• etc.

I am sure all of us are guilty of doing this, to small or large extent. But if you see yourself doing this all the time, you might want to pause and think.

What you might be doing is to put the cart before the horse. Or to put a conclusion without merit, or without having heard the perspective completely.

The traits that lead to such behaviour are as under:

1. Overconfidence: you feel that you know everything, and don’t even need to listen to what the other person is saying, or what that other view is.
2. Arrogance: a feeling that “what can this person teach me”!
3. Not being a good listener: is when, you are supposedly “hearing” the other person, but not really “listening” to them. Which means that you are blanked out to that person’s talking, and your mind is elsewhere. Or perhaps preparing a response, basis the little initial part that you heard.
4. Not having empathy: you choose to not put yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand where they are coming from, on their viewpoint

As you handle larger responsibility in any field, the demand to take decisions, and sometimes quick ones, is high. And that requires that you reach a judgement quickly too. But that should not come at the cost of being over confident or arrogant or not being empathetic to the other person.

Walk the balance between quick decision making and not being judgmental well, and you should see a huge impact in the quality of decisions that you make! And the consequences thereof…

Stockdale Paradox: Confront the brutal facts, yet never lose faith

The Stockdale Paradox is a concept that was popularized by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. It was named after James Stockdale, former vice presidential candidate, naval officer and Vietnam prisoner of war. The main gist of the idea is that you need to balance realism with optimism.

If ever we needed to think in this manner, it is probably now!

Let me give you the context of this Stockdale Paradox first.

James Stockdale, former vice-presidential candidate, during the Vietnam War, was held captive as a prisoner of war for over seven years. He was one of the highest-ranking naval officers at the time.

During this horrific period, Stockdale was repeatedly tortured and had no reason to believe he’d make it out alive. Held in the clutches of the grim reality of his hell world, he found a way to stay alive by embracing both the harshness of his situation with a balance of healthy optimism.

Stockdale explained this idea as the following: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

That is the concept of the Stockdale Paradox. Confront the brutal facts, but never lose faith!

The current situation we find ourselves in, demands that kind of thinking.

We cannot be pretending that “oh, this is nothing, and we will be out of this in no time”. That is clearly not the case.

We don’t have a vaccine. We have no particular confidence about how the virus won’t spread rapidly once lockdown is lifted or is normal life resumes. We know that this shows up also asymptomatically, and if one’s immune system is not strong enough, it can be fatal too.

All of these are realities. So let’s not pretend any other way.

So accepting these brutal facts, we need to do what we can to face up to the challenge. These could include:

1. Working to improve your own immune system

2. Being safe by avoiding too much external contact, as far as you can help

3. Following best practices of social distancing, using sanitisers, washing hands regularly etc.

Doing all of the above for one self, and one’s family, including seniors at home.

Besides that, as a consequence, there will be economic challenges. Again, one has to accept that brutal fact as well. An event of this nature, WILL take a toll. As Jack Ma put it, if you come out of 2020 alive, you are in profit! That may be about as brutal as you can go, in terms of accepting current situation!

So once you accept that, you work on your personal challenges. How do you hold cash for as long as you can? How do you secure your career? Are there new skills that will be required in the new normal that emerges, which you can get trained for? Etc.

So all of this is about accepting the brutal facts.

But often what ends up happening with such acceptance is that you get depressed! You start feeling like it’s the end of the world.

Over that seven years of being held as a prisoner of war, and being tortured constantly, if James Stockdale had felt that “this was it, I am not going to come out of this alive, I am never going back to America”, then he would have actually died!!

The accompanying belief to the acceptance of brutal facts, is the one that says, “never lose faith”.

So is also the case for us now.

We have to have this humungous faith in the abilities of humankind to survive challenges, of the scientists to be able to figure out a vaccine or any other solution, to the innate survival Instinct that we all have to come out of this safe and sound (maybe a little scarred, perhaps!), and most of all, at least the way I see it (atheists, please don’t mind!), is trust in God, to bring us out of all this. Think of this as a huge test that HE has thrown at us, one that we must pass with flying colours!

And we will!!