News

Bad News…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Until it happens to us, we don’t realise the importance of it or in some cases, the pain of it!

This week was bad. Lots of unnerving news. The biggest shock for me was though the passing away of a school mate. Someone who I had known to be a decent fellow, always smiling and being friendly to all.

He left the world at an age when you just start shaping up your plans and look to the future positively. With a family in tow. Young children growing up and learning the nuances of the world. Finances in a comfortable position to do some of those things that you couldn’t do earlier.

Then something like this happens. And the air around just deflates. The world seems a dreary place. Dreams get shattered. Families are left behind. All plans burned in ashes. Hopes buried in the ground for the near and dear ones.

All one can do then, is remember. Think of the good in the person and the times spent together, however insignificant. And to think hard about what life means and how to prepare yourself better for such a mishap.

As I wasn’t keeping too well (not Covid thankfully after all tests) and not working to 100% of my abilities, I had some time to think about this loss and the ramifications of how things don’t happen to us until they happen…

We often don’t take things seriously or pay attention to them. Specially when they are in the form of bad news. We always believe others will be affected more than we will be.

Most of the times it is true also. Jobs get lost but often for other people. People die in random situations but mostly we hear it from someone else. Unpleasant things happen but that too to others.

Or if it happens to us, it is devoid of any connections. We may lose a job or a loved one or something unpleasant may happen but that mostly happens in another time and space, something which is very personal and disjointed with others.

Rarely are there events where we get affected enmass.

This pandemic second wave is one such event. Last time, while India was badly affected in the later part of the year, there were not many cases in the vicinity. The fatality rate was lower and at least for me there weren’t many such instances in the known circles.

This time has however been different. There have been so many people I know who have been affected by the disease or have had some mishap in their families. And it’s forced me to rethink…

When something hits you regularly with such magnitude, you are forced to take a pause and pay attention to the severity of it. Rework on your plans, rethink your beliefs, remap your priorities.

It is like high waves crashing and destroying a shack near the ocean. You would have built it painstakingly over a few days but all it takes to be destroyed is a single night.

And so, you rescan and redo your thoughts and then try and make sense of the new world. You try and remain positive to rebuild and grow again but with some wisdom of how not to ignore the leading signs. To take care in the future. And to never believe that it won’t happen to you…

Ready for the best while being prepared for the worst! Hopefully for the worst to never happen.

Common Culture & Depictions

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

I was startled by a dream I had the other day about I not being able to innovate and getting stuck in work due to being too focused on discipline and order. As the fog subsided in the morning and I kept brooding on this subject through the week, quite a few perspectives emerged…

As a person who has seen most ends of this spectrum, being in the Army, as an entrepreneur, and in the corporate world, I thought through the question from these different angles and their intersection.

Naturally, someone whose initial years were shaped by the Army, I am a stickler for discipline and order. I prefer being in control and like to minimise uncertainty. So my first thought was that creativity and innovation didn’t gel well with us types. But as I delved deeper, I realised that the stereotype isn’t true – our training taught us to innovate and improvise all the way. It prepared us to be creative in our thought process so that we don’t get boxed in and get killed. And there are enough examples of creative and innovative leadership across the board.

I next turned my attention to the start-up and entrepreneur crowd. People who are expected to be creative and innovative most of their time. Places filled with those who hustle and do everything to make things happen. Where the focus is more on innovation and creativity and chaos reigns. But as I thought through my own experience as well as looked at other successful instances, I figured there’s method to successful madness. Ideas that are gaining traction and startups that are winning have done so on the back of being disciplined about execution and orderly about scaling up.

So lastly, I looked at the corporate world and whether there’s truth about the saying that corporate offices are the least innovative and creative places. While that may certainly be true for some, the ones who are able to grow and where people enjoy working are not just focused on discipline and order about the existing revenue streams but also nurture creativity and innovation to progress on new tracks. And this blend is what allows them to win the marketplace again and again.

I was surprised at the analysis. Some of the thoughts I had heard or read about on these topics weren’t entirely true. And certainly cannot be classified as general statements. But then, the internet and media is full of these stereotypes. Our literature, films, etc. regularly portray them likewise.

As someone who has been in these roles, it was easier for me to connect the dots and look through the prism. But for other topics where I am a newbie or on which I don’t have any insight, I may be led by the depiction in common culture.

Common culture may be commonly available and commonly consumed but may not be always right…

Well Informed or Well Read???

~ Rishi

The newspaper guy knocked on the door. Bill time, I said. My wife made a mild protest – why buy a newspaper when you can read things online or use phone apps. Valid argument. But then, there are pros and cons to everything.

As I paid the newspaper bill, I muttered why it feels better to read a newspaper. But there’s been something else that’s been behind my urge to continue with a newspaper in this digital era.

And no, it’s not the idea that I need to hold a paper and read it as part of my morning routine – I ain’t the paper types – have switched to Kindle instead of stocking books long back.

There was a time in between when I had moved to online/apps to get my daily dose of news and views. Twitter was exciting and fun with instant views and counter-views. And of course, there were the numerous apps from all news channels and publications that I read on a daily basis.

But as I spent time on those news apps and on social media to get my fix in the intervening years, it slowly dawned upon me that I was also wasting a lot of time being led astray or just being consumed in the news world. Using these apps a couple of hours a day was fanning an addiction within me to stay connected and up to date on what’s happening across everything in the world, just because it felt good. And it was taking me away from reading meaningful stuff and instead cluttering my mind with things that weren’t really required to be there.

So, after those years in digital news Lala-land, last year I decided to reduce my screen time on these apps. I deleted all but one of those news apps from my phone. I looked at all the sites that I visited often and chose a handful that offered me real, meaningful stuff and subscribed to their newsletters. And I absolutely cut down on reading news on social media.

Now I login to the news app for reading about once or twice a week. I still login to social media everyday but to wish birthdays, look at what my connections are up to, and to connect in a real sense. But my dose of news now comes from the newspaper – concise and once a day. It keeps my perspective fresh without urging me to know everything that’s happening instantly.

The benefit – I have started reading much more of the meaningful stuff. From the newsletters/digests I get. From platforms like Wired and Inc42 and Medium. I have gone back to reading books on diverse subjects and broadening my horizons.

This has perhaps made me aloof from the social media and the incessant views and opinions on almost everything. But it has definitely brought back some semblance into my life.

Well, the reason for this rant is two-fold – I was today running through Twitter and felt the urge to hop into those views and counter-views but remembering my decision, stopped short and was forced to think on the subject. On a different note, I met someone yesterday who reads 100 books a year and as I was reflecting on the conversation with him, it occurred to me that how the number of people who are reading have increased but it’s got more to do with the urge to be informed than being knowledgeable.

And I had to write about how I escaped that spiral. About how the switchover has been a real life changer for me by decluttering my mind space. And in today’s fast world of numerous commitments and stress, that’s definitely been a relief.

As I close this piece, I hope that we all read and learn better and grow in our chosen paths to become well-read and not just well-informed.

Probity in News…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Surfing through news today, I hit upon a report of Pranoy Roy seeking accountability and transparency from the Indian media and wanting a strong defamation law to handle spurious news and wrong accusations. Kudos to him to rake up this issue at a time when the current news channels create nuisance, unnecessarily at times!

I still remember how I started watching news early on in my life, specially ‘The World This Week’ and the DD National news in the evening. It gave me a strong footing to understand and appreciate world-wide happenings and improve my idea of the world. And all of it was cultured, sedate reporting and talks/debates to put forth the complete view-point, most of it thoroughly researched.

But today’s media in India has sadly been reduced to a caricature of its previous self of high standards and professional, authentic viewpoints. What we are witnessing these days are shenanigans of channels and anchors turning news into soap-operas to garner more eyeballs and prolong their life…

Talking about television media particularly, these intelligentsia claim that they are the true champions of democracy and are responsible for everything that’s right, bringing out everything’s that wrong! However, most of the news items seem biased and planted to favour one or the other party and the ensuing debate is cacophonous at best! And even God cannot help their ‘targets’, who is/are portrayed as a criminal or wrong-doer just by the way they are dealt with… 🙂

I am no judge of who is right or wrong but I do hope that television media becomes as sensitive to the veracity of what they are showing, and more importantly empathy towards their viewers (not repeating the same thing all day, multiple times) and participants (who look like sitting ducks most of the times)!

Otherwise they risk losing out on audience who are as such moving to the internet and other sources of getting their news rather than watching the news channels. And it’s happening not only because of changing tastes, but also because people like me value a fair and free opinion/reporting above everything else.

Hopefully that day comes soon!