गुरुपौर्णिमेच्या निमित्याने !!!

साधारणपणे सहा ते सात वर्षांचा असेन मी त्यावेळेला, दापोलीला पोष्टाच्या गल्लीमध्ये आम्ही रहात होतो. पोस्ट ऑफिस समोरच्या घरी (मला वाटत देपोलकारांची चाळ असावी ती) पहिल्या मजल्यावर कॉलेज मधल्या मुलांच्या नाटकाची तालीम चालू होती. 'प्रेम तुझा रंग कसा', हे नाटक असाव अस आठवतंय आणि या नाटकाचे दिग्दर्शक होते पेंडसे सर. मी खूप वेळा या तालमी बघायला जात असे आणि त्या नाटकामध्ये बुडून जात असे. त्यावेळी प्रत्येक संवादाचा आणि त्यामागील लेखकाच्या भूमिकेचा अन्वयार्थ तळमळीने समजावणारे सर मला अजूनही आठवतात. वय लहान होत त्यामुळे तपशील काही आठवत नाही पण नाटक बसवण ही एक खूपच छान गोष्ट आहे हे मात्र नक्की कळल. अर्थात नंतर अगदी भरताच्या नाट्यशास्त्रापासून नाटक कसे वाचावे, पाहावे या सार्याचा अगदी सखोल अभ्यास त्यांच्याच मार्गदर्शनाखाली करायला मिळाला. पेंडसे सरांची आणि माझी ही खऱ्या अर्थान झालेली पहिली भेट. 

खर तर कला शाखेकडे मी थोडा मनाविरुद्धच प्रवेश घेतला होता, मला व्हायचे होते इंजिनिअर पण नशिबाचे फासे असे काही विचित्र पडले आणि बारावी सायन्सच्या परीक्षेत मी गटांगळ्या खाल्ल्या. यानंतर मी अतीव निराशेने बारावी कला शाखेला प्रवेश घेतला आणि त्यानंतर वर्षभरातच मराठीचे शिक्षक म्हणून मला सर शिकवायला आले. त्यानंतरच्या साधारणपणे दोन महीन्यातच त्यांनी माझा कला शाखेकडे आणि मराठी साहित्याकडे बघण्याचा दृष्टीकोनच बदलून टाकला. 

मराठी साहित्य हा केवळ एक बी. ए. ला असणारा एक विषयच नसून तो एक जीवन समृद्ध करणारा एक अतिशय व्यापक अनुभव आहे याचा प्रत्यय त्यांच्या शिकवण्यातून सरांनी सतत आम्हाला दिला. त्यानंतरची साधारणपणे तीन वर्षे म्हणजे आमच्यासाठी अक्षरश: ड्रीम रन होती. एका मागोमाग एक वेगवेगळे साहित्य प्रकार म्हणजेच लघु कथा, कथा, कविता, एकांकिका, दीर्घांक, नाटक, कादंबरी, आत्मचरित्र, समीक्षा या साऱ्यांमुळे आमच अनुभव विश्व समृद्ध होत गेल. मला आठवतंय त्या काळात फावल्या वेळात ( आणि आर्टस च्या मुलांना हा वेळ तसा बराच मिळतो) मी आमच्या कॉलेजच्या लायब्ररीमध्ये पाठक सरांना मदत करायला जायला सुरवात केली आणि त्यामुळे मला असंख्य प्रकारची पुस्तके वाचायला मिळाली. सरांनी एखाद पुस्तक सुचवायचं, मी ते मिळवून अधाशासारख संपवायचं आणि मग सरांशी त्या पुस्तकाबद्दल गप्पा मारायच्या असा तो सगळा रमणीय अनुभव होता. तशी मला वाचनाची आवड खूप लहानपणा पासूनच होती पण त्या वाचनाला दर्जा आणि उंची मिळाली ती सरांमुळेच. एखादी कलाकृती वाचावी कशी किवा त्याही पुढे जाऊन अनुभवावी कशी हे आम्ही सरांकडून शिकलो. जी कलाकृती उत्तरे देण्यापेक्षा प्रश्न निर्माण करते, वाचकाला आनंदी करण्यापेक्षा अस्वस्थ करते ती खरी कलाकृती हे सरांचे विवेचन नंतरच्या आयुष्यामध्ये पुरेपूर पटले.  साहित्यातील जगप्रसिद्ध वादाचा म्हणजे 'जीवनासाठी कला की कलेसाठी जीवन', आशय सरांकडून समजून घ्यायचा प्रयत्न केला. 

आनंद यादवांची 'गोतावळा', ही कादंबरी, गौरी देशपांडे यांनी लिहिलेली 'एक एक पान गळावया', ही कादंबरी, लक्षण मानेंच 'उपरा', लक्ष्मी बाई टिळकांची 'स्मृतीचित्रे', विजय तेंडुलकरांच 'कमला', हे नाटक आणि या सारख्या असंख्य अभ्यासक्रमा बाहेरील कलाकृती सरांनी अतिशय तळमळीने आम्हाला शिकवल्या. गोतावळा मधील यंत्र संस्कृतीचे मानवावरील आक्रमण, एक एक पान मधील मुक्त होऊ पाहणारी नव्या जगातील स्वतंत्र स्त्री, कमला मधील सोनेरी पिंजरा तोडण्याच धाडस दाखवणारी आणि पत्रकार असणाऱ्या नवऱ्याच सुप्त शोषण उघड करणारी नायिका या सगळयांची सरांनी अगदी जवळून ओळख करून दिली. आज जगताना त्यावेळी नीटसे न उमजलेले  संदर्भ जेव्हा समजतात तेव्हा सरांच्या सशक्त शिकवण्याची पुन्हा एकदा जाणीव होते. सरांनी नुसता मराठी विषयच शिकवला नाही तर जगायचं कस या एक मोठ्या अभ्यासक्रमाची एक सुरेख सुरवातच करून दिली अस आज वाटत.    

सरांनी कधीही निव्वळ परीक्षार्थी तयार करण्यामध्ये धन्यता मानली नाही, त्यांना सतत चांगले जीवनार्थी तयार करण्याचा ध्यास होता. साहित्याची आवड केवळ परीक्षा पास होण्यासाठीच नाही तर त्यानंतरचे अख्खे जीवन समृध्द करण्यासाठी खूपच महत्वाची आहे हे त्यांनी जाणले होते आणि म्हणूनच त्यांच्या प्रत्येक विद्यार्थ्याला ते परीक्षेपुरतीच नव्हे तर कायम स्वरूपी पुरेल अशी रसद देण्याचा त्यांचा प्रयत्न असे. 

माझ्यापुरता त्यांचा हा प्रयास चांगलाच यशस्वी झाला असा म्हणायला आता हरकत नाही. त्यांनी माझ्यामध्ये ज्ञानलालसेची अशी काही बीजे पेरली आणि साहित्याच्या अभ्यासामधून असा काही आत्मविश्वास मला मिळवून दिला की कॉलेज संपल्यावर मी फक्त कला शाखेचा पदवीधर आहे असा न्यूनगंड मला कधीच वाटला नाही. सैद्धांतिक पातळीवर जीवनाची बैठक सरांमुळे इतकी पक्की बसली होती की नंतरच्या व्यावसायिक आणि व्यक्तिगत संघर्षाच्या काळात माझा कधीच अर्जुन झाला नाही. आजही लौकिकार्थाने मी काही खूप यशस्वी वगैरे नाही पण समाधानी मात्र नक्कीच आहे. कामाच्या धबडग्यात आज काल वाचणही फारस होत नाही पण आत कुठेतरी निर्माण झालेलं स्फुल्लिंग स्वस्थ बसू देत नाही. सतत नवीन काहीतरी सुचत असत आणि या माझ्यामधील नवनवीन करण्याची क्षमता निर्माण करण्याच श्रेय मी निश्चितच सरांना देईन.

सरांना त्यांच्या पुढील आयुष्यासाठी शुभेछा, आमची सगळ्यांची अशी इच्छा आहे की सरांनी काहीतरी लिहाव आणि आम्हाला सतत मार्गदर्शन करत रहाव आणि त्यांच्या लिखाणाच्या माध्यमातून सतत कार्यरत रहाव.   

Wipers !!!

While driving today I noticed something exceptional. It was raining when I pulled out my car the glass was full of droplets, ideally I would have switched on the wiper and brushed aside the water to clean the glass, for a change I didn't do that I just let the water fall on the windshield and to my surprise even after glass was completely drenched in water still I could clearly see from the glass without any problem. I drove for almost ten odd kilometres and never needed to use the wiper, I could see very clearly through the glass soaked with water. Here is the lesson I learnt from this small incident. Windshield is our mind, thoughts rain in and on the mind when these thoughts litter our mind we switch on our wipers i.e. we start reacting to these thoughts though they seem receding back but they wont go away however if you neglect these droplets and don't switch on the mental wipers we can still see clearly hence though you may use the wipers in real life when its raining :) don't use mental wipers to clear your thoughts just ignore them, get over them !!!

What would you prefer an Arranged Marriage or a Love Marriage

I am asking this question with specific context and hence staying single wont be an answer :) Every grown up Man or Woman decides to get married and find a match to make their life complete then they start family and live their life happily (?) I want to extend this analogy to another important choice we make in our life and that choice is about our profession, about our career. So let me ask the question once again in the newer context, would you prefer an arrange marriage ( Employment ) or love marriage ( Entrepreneurial venture ) 

Most of the parents at least of my generation were never comfortable with the love marriages I mean let it be in the literal sense or in the symbolic meaning the term used here that is starting an Entrepreneurial venture ( Love Marriage)  or a finding a job ( Arranged Marriage)  they always wished their Boy or Girl must

study hard, pick up all the good traits of the clan and safely marry a nice Girl or Boy well in time and that too from the same religion, caste or creed to extend this corollary get employed with an established employer which is considered as a safe bait. I have seen in my generation kids of doctors becoming doctors and kinds of lawyers becoming lawyers and the same goes with typical middle class families wherein kinds of LDCs ( Lower Divisional Clerck ) becoming LDCs and the kids of Bank Clerk becoming Bank Clerks. Business was always considered as something risky was not preferred by middle class career aspiring youth. Govt of Bank employees or teachers were used to get considered as golden goose by the fathers of marriage ready daughters.

Please evaluate an attempt made by me to understand the deemed relationship between marriages and careers.

Arranged Marriage / Employment	Love Marriage/ Entrepreneurship
Normally decided by parents wherein the Boy/Girl concerned don’t have any say	Initiated by courageous & rebellious kids who wanted to do something different than the conventional.
Supported by Family and Friends	Most of the time not supported by family and friends
When marriage/employment receives turbulence  family readily supports as they feel its their  responsibility to help	Often sidelined by family and relatives during troubled waters as they feel that one must face the consequences of choosing a different path
Largely successful or at least deemed to be successful as most of the time hollow or broken marriages and dissatisfied employees just pull on considering what they are getting is their fate	Whatever happens the result is wide visible. People don’t hide their failures and those who make it really make it big.

By the way I am not implying here that one marriage or one type of livelihood is more valuable than the other :) what I am simply trying to say is we need both kind of marriages and livelihoods to keep our society and country ticking. We need entrepreneurs or love birds who keeps on taking risks and making our life better by their enterprises and their start up ventures and we also need all those arranged marriages wherein there would be stability and constant supply of workforce to the entrepreneurial engine.   

  

Digital Social Networks over conventional publishing platform !!

Social Networks are the buzz word of the day. Every day you learn controversies created by social networks. A Minister had to face wrath for tweeting about the cattle class and governments going down because Social Networks provided platform to people to unite against the tyranny of the state. One prominent spokesperson of a leading political party had to go in hiding after follow up taken by netizens about his deeds ( You can read about this more in my earlier post here )

We have seen rise of Social Networks in India not more than last five years. People started using Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Slide Share etc. to keep their friends informed about whats happening in their public as well as private life by using these social networks. At certain point in time in the past suddenly Social Networks went viral and now you will find every fifth person using internet on at least one of these social networks. Following are some of the important characteristics of social networks.

Land full of Dichotomies !!!!

We the people of this land are full of dichotomies. Since last many days I am thinking on this post and the more I started thinking I got more evidences of this phenomena which I believe now is very deep rooted in our society.

We criticise politicians and government officials for being corrupt and being manipulative and promoting dynasties in politics.

What we do in our daily lives is no different than what our politicians do.

• We offer bribe to get our driving license,
• When we jump the signal we happily pay 100 bucks to the cop not insisting on receipt of the penalty.

Few battles of my life !!!!

Yesterday I heard Mahesh Murthy first time live :) in NASSCOM EMERGE OUT Pune 2012 and it was an awesome experience. He started speaking in his calm and soft voice about the journey of an entrepreneur. He spoke about eight to ten battles every entrepreneur has to fight and succeed to become an entrepreneur and what an amazing observation. At one point he said and I quote ' Just do what you are destined to do if you firmly believe in what you do, you don't know what ripple effect it will have on the world in the long run'.I literally had tears in my eyes and goosebumps in my stomach.

Now I'm almost a 40 year old largely unsuccessful entrepreneur however when introspected my journey I realised though I'm largely unsuccessful in most of my ventures however every failure contributed to make me what I am today. I guess apart from these classic battles Mahesh spoke about I was caught in an additional kind of battle during my every venture and it was trying to do something which is a bit ahead of time. Today I have decided to open the archives of my entrepreneurial journey and share the same with you.

Why I love Apple !!!

I am a convicted gadget enthusiast :) I have been using electronic gadgets since I started earning money. It started with a small 64 K Casio Digital Diary way back in 1996 and the journey is still on. I get amazed by the innovation happening around and so many interesting and fantastic gadgets showing up in the market to make life easier. 

I hooked up to mobile phones in early 2000. I bought my first Panasonic Mobile Handset in year 2000. Flaunting mobile phone was a kind of style those days. Later I shifted to Nokia and stayed with Nokia till late 2006. I shifted to Blackberry and started using Blackberry for their push e Mail service (At that point in time Push e Mail was a kind of unique thing and it was available only with Blackberry in India) I used a couple of Blackberry handset also used Palm Trio in the meanwhile then again shifted to Nokia E71. I still feel that E71 was the best smartphone available during that time and I think Nokia was so busy celebrating their success in that segment they almost ignored the entry of another giant who swiftly taken over the smartphone market i.e. Apple IPhone. 

The real issue of JOBS in our College Campuses

It was around the corner, people use to talk about this in whispers, all the stake holders were aware that it was happening but it all came out in open due to this article in Business Today

Please refer the article here http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/recruitment-racket-fraud-it-companies/1/187011.html

Placement is the real BUZZ WORD !!

As a Technology Enabled Education Services consultant I have been visiting college campuses since last seven years and whenever I meet the stake holders there such as Institute Directors, Principals, Training & Placement Officers or in few cases Students the only issue discussed is placements. Yes I do realise the importance of this particular issue and yes placements are really important in the career life span of a student and institute however there are few questions which needs to get answered before we dive deep into the problem itself.

I helped them loosing 10 Million in Sales !!!!

Our life is surrounded by experiences of number of products and services some good many bitter :( unfortunately in the country like us where consumer is still unorganised one can just pant and fume over the bitter experiences and let go on the other hand regarding some good experiences we cant share them effectively to aid others to make their mind in choosing the right options.

One of Alok's tweets reminded me of an idea I thought about sometime back to teach a bloody lesson to the companies who don't care about their consumers.

Today these companies are fooling us happily as they know that disgruntled customer cant do much besides due to gigantic growth they are getting loads of first time customers as a result they don’t bother to retain their existing customers. Actually its a saying in Sales that its easier to retain the customer than to acquire a new one however such sayings are becoming myths :( You walk in to any mobile company sales outlet and you find chaos, old customers quarreling for inefficient service and immediately next to them new customers buying the connections.

I have thought of a website which will quantify the harm done by stupid performance of the product or bad quality of the service received by the consumer on the sales of that company.

911 through Social Networks

The first disclaimer we all read when we run through the home page of Skype or similar kind of applications is that we can't assume this to be a communication tool we can depend on in the case of emergency. Still I would like to propose a strong case for use of Social Networks in the case of emergencies of any kind.

While checking out my timeline yesterday I found a couple of interesting tweets. Now if you notice this caring and helpless father on a traveling train is asking for help by using 140 Character twitter as his 911 distress call. I would like to bow to the ingenious of this person and immense faith he has got on his tweeple (Digital synonym of People) If you check the tweet it has received 23 retweets !!! Assuming that every user has minimum 50 followers, in the first chain of distribution the message must have spread to at least  1150 people in a flash and if these 1150 chose to retweet in such case you can just imagine the number this whirlwind can reach up to.