I am back after a long break from blogging :-). The topic of today's blog post is a tad bit random in nature.
I am sure that all of us are familiar with the term "Placeholder". I am going to write something around this term, in this blog post.
Many of us who are working with (or have worked with) India based companies in the IT / ITES services space, would probably identify with what I am about to mention in this paragraph. Often I see the signboard (Yes, the ones with a velvety red background, with letters in golden colour playing out some form of greeting etc), near the entrance of my office building, and see a message which goes like "XYZ Co Welcomes You!" The word "You" in the Welcome message is what I call a placeholder:-). Yes, you guessed it right - It means that there are no "welcom-able" current or prospective customers visiting the building that day, and so we welcome....You!
The "placeholder" phenomenon can be extended to other areas of life too.....
Many of the sports channels in India, many a times adhere to repeat telecasts of the classic knocks played by Sachin Tendulkar way back in 1998 vs Warne & Co in Sharjah, during periods when no live sporting events are there to be shown. [Please note: I am a die-hard Sachin fan, and watch each of these repeat telecasts with equal zeal. Just that I wanted to throw around some more "placeholder" examples. Warned you - This post is totally random:-)].
One of the Hindi movie channels (Don't remember which one), uses the Govinda starrer "Dulhe Raja" as a placeholder, with repeat telecasts of this "superhit comedy masala".
A few years back, one of the English movie channels was using the Stallone starrer "Cliffhanger" as a "placeholder".
Ok, folks I am done with all the random notes:-). Will be back soon with something "less random"... Enjoy....
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
(Mis)use of Business Terms Or "MBA Jargons"
All of us who have done an MBA course, would have experienced the thrill of getting familiar with the various business terms (also referred to many a times as "MBA jargons"). These terms which were Greek to our ears till then, and used to be something which were mouthed only by presenters on various business related TV channels and by corporate honchos, suddenly becomes something we understand and use with ease. Makes many of us feel like, we are now in the big league :-).
So, is having a knowledge of these terms, really important? Yes, very much, if you have to operate smoothly in the business world. However, just like with most things in life, we need to use them correctly and in the right places (with the right people). Listing below some incidents in this context, which might help explain to some extent what prompted folks to term important business terms as MBA "jargons".
Incident(s) 1: There are more than one instance of teams from the revered "Big Four" Management Consultant Firms having been thrown out of boardrooms due to (a)Incorrect application of business terms in the context of the presentation, (b)Overdoing the usage of business terms, in front of the business world stalwarts in the audience, especially when the solution being presented in no way appears close to solving the business problem of the client.
Incident 2: While doing my MBA, my study group had to study the employee transportation system in BPOs and present the results to an automobile company. The automobile company wanted to understand which of their models in the "cab category" would meet the needs of the BPO industry. As part of this study, we got an appointment with the Head of the Employee Transportation and Security division at a leading BPO firm. We had to interview this gentleman to understand the primary needs and requirements of his team and the employees, when it comes to the kind of cabs they use for employee pick-ups and drops. My study group mate, chose to healthily intersperse his questions to the person whom we were interviewing, with the heaviest of "MBA jargons"(some of which are never heard outside the realm of a MBA classroom). As should not be a surprise, it had the Head of the Transport Division (an ex-Army man, with pure Operations experience), totally flummoxed! It took a good 5-10 minutes, for me to intervene and bring back the interview on track (without offending my study group mate, in front of everyone)!!
My MBA classmate forgot the basic principle that we were all taught in our Marketing classes: Speak in the language of your customer (or audience), or else you are doomed to lose him or her completely (and to paint yourself as a show-off)!!
Incident 3: A trend among many B-Schoolers is to come up with "business" jokes, and to use the newly learnt business terms/"MBA jargons" to describe non-business everyday scenarios. Given the already pathetic sense of humour of some of them, I do not think I need to explain how unbearable the "MBA" jokes they come up with could be :-). (Note: My apologies to those with a good sense of humour, who come up with good jokes i.e. MBA related or otherwise)
I am sure many of the readers of this blog (MBAs, current B-schoolers, and others), would have more interesting incidents and perspective to share in this context. Welcoming your thoughts and inputs.
Catch you later folks. Shall be back with some blogs on some other business-related topics.
So, is having a knowledge of these terms, really important? Yes, very much, if you have to operate smoothly in the business world. However, just like with most things in life, we need to use them correctly and in the right places (with the right people). Listing below some incidents in this context, which might help explain to some extent what prompted folks to term important business terms as MBA "jargons".
Incident(s) 1: There are more than one instance of teams from the revered "Big Four" Management Consultant Firms having been thrown out of boardrooms due to (a)Incorrect application of business terms in the context of the presentation, (b)Overdoing the usage of business terms, in front of the business world stalwarts in the audience, especially when the solution being presented in no way appears close to solving the business problem of the client.
Incident 2: While doing my MBA, my study group had to study the employee transportation system in BPOs and present the results to an automobile company. The automobile company wanted to understand which of their models in the "cab category" would meet the needs of the BPO industry. As part of this study, we got an appointment with the Head of the Employee Transportation and Security division at a leading BPO firm. We had to interview this gentleman to understand the primary needs and requirements of his team and the employees, when it comes to the kind of cabs they use for employee pick-ups and drops. My study group mate, chose to healthily intersperse his questions to the person whom we were interviewing, with the heaviest of "MBA jargons"(some of which are never heard outside the realm of a MBA classroom). As should not be a surprise, it had the Head of the Transport Division (an ex-Army man, with pure Operations experience), totally flummoxed! It took a good 5-10 minutes, for me to intervene and bring back the interview on track (without offending my study group mate, in front of everyone)!!
My MBA classmate forgot the basic principle that we were all taught in our Marketing classes: Speak in the language of your customer (or audience), or else you are doomed to lose him or her completely (and to paint yourself as a show-off)!!
Incident 3: A trend among many B-Schoolers is to come up with "business" jokes, and to use the newly learnt business terms/"MBA jargons" to describe non-business everyday scenarios. Given the already pathetic sense of humour of some of them, I do not think I need to explain how unbearable the "MBA" jokes they come up with could be :-). (Note: My apologies to those with a good sense of humour, who come up with good jokes i.e. MBA related or otherwise)
I am sure many of the readers of this blog (MBAs, current B-schoolers, and others), would have more interesting incidents and perspective to share in this context. Welcoming your thoughts and inputs.
Catch you later folks. Shall be back with some blogs on some other business-related topics.
Friday, February 12, 2010
India and Pak - Pls Do Not Unite As One Nation!
As the new year dawned upon us, I am sure most (if not all) the readers of Times of India would have been surprised (pleasantly or otherwise), at seeing the "Aman ki Aasha" initiative to promote Indo-Pak relationships at the level of the general populace. I would be honest enough to admit that I was not really overjoyed, even though I find it a positive attempt by Times of India (and their counterpart across the border - The Jang Group of Newspapers of Pakistan). One good thing about the newspaper articles which have been appearing over the past few weeks as part of this initiative, is the realistic view aired in most of them that all this is not a replacement of the much needed attempts (political and military) to rein in the anti-social minority (terrorists etc) who are still a potent and real threat to the peace loving majority on both sides of the border.
This blog post is covering a topic which is closely related to the aspect highlighted in the opening paragraph above. A few weeks back I also jumped on to the Twitter-ing bandwagon, and became part of the burgeoning "tweeple" population. As soon as I joined the micro-blogging site, I promptly became a follower on Twitter to a number of celebrities including a renowned Indian model and actress. The actress tweeted an idea on Indo-Pak relationships to her followers that, India and Pakistan should unite and become one sovereign nation. I strongly believe this idea is quaint, but purely idealistic and impractical when it comes to actual implementation (and more importantly, not needed at all to be considered)
Listed further below are some points from an Indian perspective (and some generic, overall points), as to why there is no need to unite both countries as a single sovereign entity. I am sure that there would be many of our friends in Pakistan, who would support my view on this topic, with points to add from their perspective. I request readers of this blog from both sides of the Indo-Pak border, to read this blog post and the subsequent comments from others with an open mind. If you find my views to be offensive in any manner, I apologise in advance.
Also sorry for the blog post to be long. Sorry, still working on the aspect of keeping my posts short and crisp, while still interesting enough :-). I tend to get a bit carried away by the subject of the blog post and by my tendency to make the language flowery:-).
Anyways, coming back to the topic, let us first go for the significant reasons for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
1> Economic Reasons:
India is zooming ahead economically, and is being recognized globally as a leading supplier of high end services in information technology etc. This is good, as it is inline with the views of all leading macro-economists that any country is truly developing when its economy moves from being primarily agrarian, to one which is more based on industries (including a keen focus on high-end services). Furthermore, this economic growth is buoyed by a young, well-educated, and English speaking Indian workforce. In this context, do we see any gains by uniting with Pakistan? My answer to this question is an unfortunate (but emphatic) "No". Why? I have jotted down a few points below as an answer.
--> Pakistan has an unstable democracy, and a highly disturbing law and order scenario. Especially, the reach and effects of terrorism are deep-rooted across Pakistan (unlike the same effecting only parts of India, while the business nerve centres are pretty much insulated from the same). If we bring in Pakistan into our fold, all of these things would scare away the foreign companies and investors (We cannot afford it!!)
--> Pakistan's GDP heavily hinges on foreign aid and on remittances by their citizens who have re-patriated to other countries. The Indian economy (especially since 1991), has seen growth purely fuelled by internal efforts. How many companies or business powerhouses of the calibre of an Infosys, the Tata empire, the Reliance empire etc, can Pakistan boast of? So, as is obvious, what would be the attraction to the Indian side to partner with Pakistan in this context?
--> Most of the future needs of Indian economic growth, requires a well-educated, English-speaking workforce. With the educational institutions in Pakistan not being anywhere close to the Indian ones in terms of quality (and an over-supply in this context within India), India cannot see any advantanges coming from the Pak side on this front.
--> Pakistan does not have much of an industry to speak of, with most of the economy still being primarily agrarian in nature. We have a pretty decent agricultural sector (even though it might not be the best in the world) of our own in India. Given this, Pakistan's economy does not paint a lucrative picture to the Indian side.
--> The Pakistani market is not really big, lucrative,or even relevant in many cases, to Indian businesses. So their go the export prospects, right out of the window. As the above points hint at, there is really no big business case for imports from Pakistan. So with this being the sad view from the Indian side on the export-import front, what viable bilateral trade are we really hinting at??? This coupled with the bitter ground realities in terms of the security situation, paints a very stark picture of things unfortunately - Which self-respecting business concern on either side of the border would put to risk their existence, by investing hard-earned money into any cross-border venture???
2> Social and Cultural Reasons
We in India see the following things which we value and enjoy a lot, being promptly endangered, if at all India and Pakistan get united:-
--> We are a truely secular nation. Our constitution itself says that. On the other hand, Pakistan is an officially stated Islamic state. I am more than sure that, we in India love to maintain our society's status quo in this respect. An unification of countries with this background, would cause major mutual adjustment issues. It is a "merger" destined for disaster.
(a)We have Muslims and Christians captaining national cricketing sides, being cherished film heroes, being Presidents of the country. All of us in India, have seen through school and at work, that ours is a truly equal opportunity culture when it comes to employment options (If you have the skills and means, you get an equal shot at becoming whatever you want to). I would like my friends in Pakistan to look into their hearts and tell us, if they really foresee a non-Muslim ever becoming the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan?! I am not denying that we have had our share of non-secular organizations and communal riots. However when viewed in the context of our huge population and long history, these are very few in number and purely outliers!
(b)Our society allows each religion to freely practice their cultures. To that effect (unlike what some countries in developed Europe are doing now), we have prudently ensured that we do not implement an impractical Uniform Civil Code. What we have on the other side of the border, is continuous honorification of the Muslim Sharia law (In the 21st Century??!!). Sorry about it, but most of us in India, find that a tardy bit repulsive!!
---> It is very increasingly and obviously getting clear that full-fledged embracement of globalisation is the way forward for any nation, economy, or society. Given this, it is sad to see people on the other side of the border (i)still largely being non-English speaking, (ii)overtly obsessed with non-significant matters related to orthodoxy like what dress should an individual wear etc!!
---> Any nation aspiring to be a developed country, should ensure that it creates an environment where the bedrock of talent is what comprises the majority of the population i.e. civil society. India has managed to successfully maintain that balance between our talented defence forces and our immensely gifted civil society. The fact that the same has repeatedly been failed to be achieved in Pakistan, is an indication that something very basic needs to be fixed in their very structure.
---> Last but not the least is the overall mindset in Pakistan (at least what is very clearly portrayed to us), which is perplexing and non-impressive to people in India (especially the current generation). Improvement in one's conditions can happen only and only if, one accepts that there are internal flaws and that they need to be fixed. Ascribing everything to be due to India, is really funny!! Even we have had (and still have) our share of systemic challenges in the form of corruption etc in India, but as is clearly seen to the world, we are at least moving with decent speed on the path to development (Yes we are not yet there with the USAs and UKs of the world, but at least we are on the path!). It was appalling for me to see a panel discussion focussed on the Pakistani economy , where a group of well-educated Pakistani economists haughtily refused to acknowledge the business achievements of India, and quite amusingly patted their own backs for the huge contribution in the form of remittances from Pakistani expatriates to the GDP!!!
Political and Military Reasons:
--> Given the "far from comfortable" military relationship between the 2 countries, I don't think we can even begin to imagine the acutely painful efforts required to combine the defence forces and intelligence agenecies from both sides of the border into one. (Also an important side effect of this attempt: What would happen to the top honchos in the Pakistani defence establishment, who would have very rightly carried aspirations of ruling their nation in the future? When you couple the broken dreams of a military man, who is being forced to shake hands with someone who he has been trained to see as an enemy, you can never predict the possible disastrous results.)
-->What about the terrorists? Who do they see as enemy now and attack? What new and even more dangerous agendas would they come up with, to keep their "careers" alive?
-->Other than the terrorists, we have so many politicians on both sides of the border whose careers hinge on India-Pak animosity. Don't you think they would resort to the "do anything it takes to protect my existence" technique??
-->The kind of evil forces which fomented the killer post-partition 1947 riots, are still alive in both the countries in some form or the other. Do you think this unification of countries is so important and relevant enough, to result in the inevitable shedding of blood of millions of innocents??!!
--> For India: A unification would mean, sharing a border with an unstable Afghanistan. It would mean having lawless tribal areas in Pakistan under our jurisdiction. Do we really want to take all this on to our plate? I do not think so.
Now for some insignificant "reasons" for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
--> There is this thought that India would become a super-power in cricket and hockey, if both nations unite :-). Well I have 2 views listed below on why this is thought is far-fetched
(a)Indian cricket team is currently well-positioned in Test, ODIs and 20-20, without the unification of nations. The state of Indian hockey is what it is due to internal systemic issues, and cannot get resolved with an unification of nations
(b)By unifying the nations - The cricketing world will see only 11 good cricketers, instead of the 22 that they get to see now :-)
--> This is perhaps the most insignificant one. There is a statement which is constantly made that we (Indians and Pakistanis) are the same people, and hence the nations should unite. Yes it is true we are the "same people", in the sense that we are both of South Asian ethnicity. However, many people forget that in terms of similarities in food habits, language etc, the commonality is limited to just the people residing in few of the North Indian states. I do not think that the natives of states in Southern and Eastern India, have that much in common with Pakistanis as far as food habits etc are concerned.
--> The "adverse" impacts in terms of what each side is missing out, when it comes to the music and movies being produced on the other side of the border, is pure "overplay". Firstly, Indians have their entertainment needs more than met by the huge volumes churned out by Bolloywood and the plethora of indigineous bands (To top it all Indians also have free access to content from Hollywood etc). Besides, in today's internet world, "clamping down cross-border interactions" can no longer prevent us from enjoying what is produced by Pakistani artistes and moviemakers. To think of it, when Pakistanis managed to smuggle video cassettes of banned Hindi movies into their country in the pre-Internet era, no one can stop us in today's world of webcasts, Youtube, global launches etc.
To conclude, let me reiterate that peace between India and Pakistan is very important. In fact, it is the starting point to ensure that every citizen of both countries gets his/her rightful chance to be part of the development wave sweeping across countries like India and China. The only thing is that a realistic way of achieving this peace, is for both countries to stay out of each other's path, instead of being unified. As a fitting analogy, two brothers of a family who have proven themselves incapable of living together without feuding, need to live separately minding their own businesses in the interest of the peace of mind of the overall family :-). So, India and Pakistan should remain separate countries, with each focussing on their own business of uplifting the standard of living of their citizens (without wasting resources in harming each other).
So, that is all folks:-). Shall be back with a blog post on something closer to my field of work - The usage(or is it misuse?) of business terms and "jargons". I am sure many of you would relate to the same in some way or the other. :-)
This blog post is covering a topic which is closely related to the aspect highlighted in the opening paragraph above. A few weeks back I also jumped on to the Twitter-ing bandwagon, and became part of the burgeoning "tweeple" population. As soon as I joined the micro-blogging site, I promptly became a follower on Twitter to a number of celebrities including a renowned Indian model and actress. The actress tweeted an idea on Indo-Pak relationships to her followers that, India and Pakistan should unite and become one sovereign nation. I strongly believe this idea is quaint, but purely idealistic and impractical when it comes to actual implementation (and more importantly, not needed at all to be considered)
Listed further below are some points from an Indian perspective (and some generic, overall points), as to why there is no need to unite both countries as a single sovereign entity. I am sure that there would be many of our friends in Pakistan, who would support my view on this topic, with points to add from their perspective. I request readers of this blog from both sides of the Indo-Pak border, to read this blog post and the subsequent comments from others with an open mind. If you find my views to be offensive in any manner, I apologise in advance.
Also sorry for the blog post to be long. Sorry, still working on the aspect of keeping my posts short and crisp, while still interesting enough :-). I tend to get a bit carried away by the subject of the blog post and by my tendency to make the language flowery:-).
Anyways, coming back to the topic, let us first go for the significant reasons for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
1> Economic Reasons:
India is zooming ahead economically, and is being recognized globally as a leading supplier of high end services in information technology etc. This is good, as it is inline with the views of all leading macro-economists that any country is truly developing when its economy moves from being primarily agrarian, to one which is more based on industries (including a keen focus on high-end services). Furthermore, this economic growth is buoyed by a young, well-educated, and English speaking Indian workforce. In this context, do we see any gains by uniting with Pakistan? My answer to this question is an unfortunate (but emphatic) "No". Why? I have jotted down a few points below as an answer.
--> Pakistan has an unstable democracy, and a highly disturbing law and order scenario. Especially, the reach and effects of terrorism are deep-rooted across Pakistan (unlike the same effecting only parts of India, while the business nerve centres are pretty much insulated from the same). If we bring in Pakistan into our fold, all of these things would scare away the foreign companies and investors (We cannot afford it!!)
--> Pakistan's GDP heavily hinges on foreign aid and on remittances by their citizens who have re-patriated to other countries. The Indian economy (especially since 1991), has seen growth purely fuelled by internal efforts. How many companies or business powerhouses of the calibre of an Infosys, the Tata empire, the Reliance empire etc, can Pakistan boast of? So, as is obvious, what would be the attraction to the Indian side to partner with Pakistan in this context?
--> Most of the future needs of Indian economic growth, requires a well-educated, English-speaking workforce. With the educational institutions in Pakistan not being anywhere close to the Indian ones in terms of quality (and an over-supply in this context within India), India cannot see any advantanges coming from the Pak side on this front.
--> Pakistan does not have much of an industry to speak of, with most of the economy still being primarily agrarian in nature. We have a pretty decent agricultural sector (even though it might not be the best in the world) of our own in India. Given this, Pakistan's economy does not paint a lucrative picture to the Indian side.
--> The Pakistani market is not really big, lucrative,or even relevant in many cases, to Indian businesses. So their go the export prospects, right out of the window. As the above points hint at, there is really no big business case for imports from Pakistan. So with this being the sad view from the Indian side on the export-import front, what viable bilateral trade are we really hinting at??? This coupled with the bitter ground realities in terms of the security situation, paints a very stark picture of things unfortunately - Which self-respecting business concern on either side of the border would put to risk their existence, by investing hard-earned money into any cross-border venture???
2> Social and Cultural Reasons
We in India see the following things which we value and enjoy a lot, being promptly endangered, if at all India and Pakistan get united:-
--> We are a truely secular nation. Our constitution itself says that. On the other hand, Pakistan is an officially stated Islamic state. I am more than sure that, we in India love to maintain our society's status quo in this respect. An unification of countries with this background, would cause major mutual adjustment issues. It is a "merger" destined for disaster.
(a)We have Muslims and Christians captaining national cricketing sides, being cherished film heroes, being Presidents of the country. All of us in India, have seen through school and at work, that ours is a truly equal opportunity culture when it comes to employment options (If you have the skills and means, you get an equal shot at becoming whatever you want to). I would like my friends in Pakistan to look into their hearts and tell us, if they really foresee a non-Muslim ever becoming the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan?! I am not denying that we have had our share of non-secular organizations and communal riots. However when viewed in the context of our huge population and long history, these are very few in number and purely outliers!
(b)Our society allows each religion to freely practice their cultures. To that effect (unlike what some countries in developed Europe are doing now), we have prudently ensured that we do not implement an impractical Uniform Civil Code. What we have on the other side of the border, is continuous honorification of the Muslim Sharia law (In the 21st Century??!!). Sorry about it, but most of us in India, find that a tardy bit repulsive!!
---> It is very increasingly and obviously getting clear that full-fledged embracement of globalisation is the way forward for any nation, economy, or society. Given this, it is sad to see people on the other side of the border (i)still largely being non-English speaking, (ii)overtly obsessed with non-significant matters related to orthodoxy like what dress should an individual wear etc!!
---> Any nation aspiring to be a developed country, should ensure that it creates an environment where the bedrock of talent is what comprises the majority of the population i.e. civil society. India has managed to successfully maintain that balance between our talented defence forces and our immensely gifted civil society. The fact that the same has repeatedly been failed to be achieved in Pakistan, is an indication that something very basic needs to be fixed in their very structure.
---> Last but not the least is the overall mindset in Pakistan (at least what is very clearly portrayed to us), which is perplexing and non-impressive to people in India (especially the current generation). Improvement in one's conditions can happen only and only if, one accepts that there are internal flaws and that they need to be fixed. Ascribing everything to be due to India, is really funny!! Even we have had (and still have) our share of systemic challenges in the form of corruption etc in India, but as is clearly seen to the world, we are at least moving with decent speed on the path to development (Yes we are not yet there with the USAs and UKs of the world, but at least we are on the path!). It was appalling for me to see a panel discussion focussed on the Pakistani economy , where a group of well-educated Pakistani economists haughtily refused to acknowledge the business achievements of India, and quite amusingly patted their own backs for the huge contribution in the form of remittances from Pakistani expatriates to the GDP!!!
Political and Military Reasons:
--> Given the "far from comfortable" military relationship between the 2 countries, I don't think we can even begin to imagine the acutely painful efforts required to combine the defence forces and intelligence agenecies from both sides of the border into one. (Also an important side effect of this attempt: What would happen to the top honchos in the Pakistani defence establishment, who would have very rightly carried aspirations of ruling their nation in the future? When you couple the broken dreams of a military man, who is being forced to shake hands with someone who he has been trained to see as an enemy, you can never predict the possible disastrous results.)
-->What about the terrorists? Who do they see as enemy now and attack? What new and even more dangerous agendas would they come up with, to keep their "careers" alive?
-->Other than the terrorists, we have so many politicians on both sides of the border whose careers hinge on India-Pak animosity. Don't you think they would resort to the "do anything it takes to protect my existence" technique??
-->The kind of evil forces which fomented the killer post-partition 1947 riots, are still alive in both the countries in some form or the other. Do you think this unification of countries is so important and relevant enough, to result in the inevitable shedding of blood of millions of innocents??!!
--> For India: A unification would mean, sharing a border with an unstable Afghanistan. It would mean having lawless tribal areas in Pakistan under our jurisdiction. Do we really want to take all this on to our plate? I do not think so.
Now for some insignificant "reasons" for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
--> There is this thought that India would become a super-power in cricket and hockey, if both nations unite :-). Well I have 2 views listed below on why this is thought is far-fetched
(a)Indian cricket team is currently well-positioned in Test, ODIs and 20-20, without the unification of nations. The state of Indian hockey is what it is due to internal systemic issues, and cannot get resolved with an unification of nations
(b)By unifying the nations - The cricketing world will see only 11 good cricketers, instead of the 22 that they get to see now :-)
--> This is perhaps the most insignificant one. There is a statement which is constantly made that we (Indians and Pakistanis) are the same people, and hence the nations should unite. Yes it is true we are the "same people", in the sense that we are both of South Asian ethnicity. However, many people forget that in terms of similarities in food habits, language etc, the commonality is limited to just the people residing in few of the North Indian states. I do not think that the natives of states in Southern and Eastern India, have that much in common with Pakistanis as far as food habits etc are concerned.
--> The "adverse" impacts in terms of what each side is missing out, when it comes to the music and movies being produced on the other side of the border, is pure "overplay". Firstly, Indians have their entertainment needs more than met by the huge volumes churned out by Bolloywood and the plethora of indigineous bands (To top it all Indians also have free access to content from Hollywood etc). Besides, in today's internet world, "clamping down cross-border interactions" can no longer prevent us from enjoying what is produced by Pakistani artistes and moviemakers. To think of it, when Pakistanis managed to smuggle video cassettes of banned Hindi movies into their country in the pre-Internet era, no one can stop us in today's world of webcasts, Youtube, global launches etc.
To conclude, let me reiterate that peace between India and Pakistan is very important. In fact, it is the starting point to ensure that every citizen of both countries gets his/her rightful chance to be part of the development wave sweeping across countries like India and China. The only thing is that a realistic way of achieving this peace, is for both countries to stay out of each other's path, instead of being unified. As a fitting analogy, two brothers of a family who have proven themselves incapable of living together without feuding, need to live separately minding their own businesses in the interest of the peace of mind of the overall family :-). So, India and Pakistan should remain separate countries, with each focussing on their own business of uplifting the standard of living of their citizens (without wasting resources in harming each other).
So, that is all folks:-). Shall be back with a blog post on something closer to my field of work - The usage(or is it misuse?) of business terms and "jargons". I am sure many of you would relate to the same in some way or the other. :-)
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