“Macha, I am keeping a tab on my watch”, said Arun.
“Aaram”, responded Sunil in his typical manner.
It was the start of winter in late 2003 and Sunil was in no mood to leave the sun soaked cafeteria area which was located on the terrace of our office at Koramangala (The IT corridor of India’s silicon valley, Bangalore). Few of us had taken a short cigarette break in between our daily moronic work of emailing (read spamming).
Arun gave a concerned look at all the 5 of us. Sunil, Sadath, Terrence & Debajyoti along with me and Arun were standing at one corner of the terrace which didn’t have a shed above it. Sunil, Debajyoti and yours truly were the only smokers whereas the other 3 had just come along for some tea. To understand why Arun was concerned has a back story.
A week ago
I and Sunil were about to settle down on our work space after coming back from one of our afternoon breaks as our TL called out. We walked up to her place, thinking she was about to discuss some work related matter. What followed? Read on to find out…
“Where were you two gone for so long?”, the TL asked, looking up towards us.
“Gone for a fag!”, Sunil answered immediately.
“Fagging for more than 15 minutes?” the TL retorted back.
“I don’t wear a watch”, Sunil replied sounding irritated.
With a smeared look, the TL asked Sunil, “Which cigarette do you smoke?”
Now, this question increased my predicament since Sunil smoked a different brand to me, so I was thinking should I jump in and answer the question! Sunil disturbed my thoughts by answering, “Gold Flake Kings”!
Since the conversation was primarily going on between Sunil and the TL, I was wondering the reason of my presence but rather than excusing myself, it was my duty to stand with my friend in this spat between a co-worker and a TL and so kept standing at Sunil’s side and watched the proceedings silently.
Once again my thoughts were broken by the shrill voice of our TL, “That shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes!”
Hearing that, I was laughing inside but couldn’t take the risk of showing any emotion outside. Sunil already had a wry smile on his face as he quickly chirped, “How do you know?”
Without answering his question directly, the TL said, “You guys can go now, but remember whenever you take a break, I need you back at your desk within 5-7 minutes. That’s more than enough time to finish a cigarette. I will keep a tab on your logsheets”.
But Sunil was in no mood to leave as he immediately answered back, “Both of us are already done with our daily target and most of the days we exceed the management expectation then why are you counting the minutes?”
Expectedly the TL just looked up but didn’t utter a word.
With silence taking over the place, I started stepping back to my work desk. Sunil followed.
As I logged back, I could see our TL leaving the floor. We had a very big marketing team and all the 70 of us used to sit together on the same floor. Generally we were a noisy team but now it was very quiet. 5 minutes would have passed and the whole floor burst out laughing, knowing very well that the TL is not ear bound.
Present day at the terrace
“Aaram Macha, the TL won’t call us over again!”, Sunil said with a twinkle in his eyes and added, “You know what, it does take 5 minutes to finish a Gold Flake King”.
“You seriously checked?” I asked bewildered.
Our handsome hunk, Sadath was already laughing out loud.
“Yes, man, yesterday after finishing my dinner, I went out wearing my watch and it did take me 5 minutes to complete my cigarette”, completed Sunil.
Hearing this the serious looking Arun also couldn’t control his laughter but he added quickly, “Macha, the others don’t smoke so if we are questioned about our absence will we get an analysis on how long it takes to finish a cup of tea?”
As all of us burst out laughing, Sadath, one of our GLs (Group Leads) quipped, “Enough guys, lets go!”
And there our evening sojourn ended for the day as we made our way to the lift to get back to work.
I still prefer to call the city of Bangalore as Bangalore not Bengaluru (the new name that the garden city got a few years back). Few of my best years in life has been spent in Bangalore. Stayed in the city for 12 years (1994-2006) and so Bangalore will always remain very close to my heart. Penning down my experiences at Bangalore is not possible in one single blog so I plan to write occasionally about my days in Bangalore in multiple blog posts. Here goes my first part.
The year was 1995 and we had just became seniors at our college. Which basically means we finished one year at our college. This is significant because those were the days when ragging was part of every college and finishing the first year meant that we could no longer be ragged, the seniors who ragged us will now become buddies and we will be at the forefront to rag the immediate juniors.
It was late October and many of our friends were yet to come back from their Diwali break. Only me and my room mate, Suranjan were in the hostel. Our closest group of seniors stayed in a rented flat at Hulimavu which was about 1.5 KMs from our college hostel. Fridays used to be half day at our college and after college got over, me and Suranjan decided to pay a visit to our beloved seniors flat and spend the evening there. After we reached our destination, we found a deserted looking flat. 6 of our seniors used to stay together in that flat. When we went, we found only one of them, Amitava Da sitting alone in the flat. He informed us that the rest of the flatmates have gone on a bike trip to Ooty & Kodaikanal. With only 3 of us around, playing cards was no longer an option so what best to do other than go for a movie? Shah Rukh Khan’s new movie, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) released a few days back and hence we decided to go to Swagath Theatre at Jayanagar to watch the movie. Those days there were no online booking so one needed to stand on a long queue to get movie tickets (more so for superstar’s movies). Also one needed to go quite early to get a ticket because all halls were going housefull for that particular movie. So there we were, 3 of us took a bus to go to Jayanagar 4th block and then walked down to the theatre. We reached there at around 4.30 PM because the ticket counter used to open at 5 PM for the evening show (6 PM). A huge queue greeted us as we entered the theatre complex. Standing in a queue to purchase movie tickets and that also for a SRK movie was part of the excitement which today’s generation won’t know with the advent of online booking. Nevertheless, the counter opened at 5 PM and by my rough count we were behind at least 100-120 people. Thankfully the tickets didn’t get over by the time we reached the counter. We purchased our tickets and immediately moved into the theatre because it was almost 6 PM. The next 3 hours passed like a breeze as the SRK-Kajol starrer made us glued to the screen. I have watched the movie multiple times thereafter but it still remains fresh. As DDLJ completes 23 years today, its befitting for a SRK fan to pen down how much I liked that movie which catapulted him to the next big thing in Bollywood.
After the movie got over, we went to Taj Durbar which is situated bang opposite the Swagath Theatre complex (which is now known as Garuda Swagath Mall). We had our usual dinner comprising of Ghee Rice & Kebab (still a favourite dish of mine). Amitava Da suggested that, me and Suranjan to stay back at his flat for the night which we duly agreed. After coming back, I remember we chatted (favourite past time of all Bongs) for quite some time. By the time we slept it was past midnight.
The bike gang was supposed to come back the next day afternoon. We were looking forward to their return so that we can hear their adventure story of riding through the hills and their experience of riding through the dreaded Bandipur forest. But we had to deal with a shocker first which we didn’t know when we slept for the night.
Next day morning I was woken up by known voices talking loudly across the room. I opened my eyes to see Debasish Da (another senior of ours) explaining something animatedly to Amitava Da. I saw Asif Da (One of my immediate seniors and currently my business partner) sitting gingerly at one corner of the bed with his right hand in a sling. My sleep vanished into thin air because I could very well understand that my adventurous seniors have had an accident. What I understood was that Asif Da was riding on a stretch of road near Erode which was pitch dark and in a moment of misjudgement, the bike (Yamaha RX 100 – what a bike it was) skid and as he fell, his right hand got stuck under the bike. It was a major misadventure for him because it was a multiple fracture and it was with a lot of difficulty that Debasish Da got him home (There was no direct bus from Erode so they had to change bus at Salem). They got his hand bandaged at a local clinic at Erode andthen took a bus back to Bangalore. Subsequently his hand was operated in a nursing home at Malleswaram few days later and he was fit and fine within a month.
BTW, did I tell you that he was back to the Swagath theatre to watch DDLJ on Saturday for the night show (the day they returned from the trip) with his broken hand in tow? And that was his second round of DDLJ within 1 week. That was the spirit we had during our Bangalore days. A time, an era well etched in all our memories for ever!
Marketing & Sales are independent departments in any organisation but it is always interlinked. There always existed a thin line between both these departments. Sales Teams in general have an aura around them because they are fronting the company and also because they are in direct access to the clients as well as the management. But can a sales professional drive in consistent sales and hit the sales target on a consistent basis without a good marketing team. Marketing team helps in generating interest for a company’s products or services which in turn generate leads for the sales team who then goes ahead and close the deal. This is how Sales & Marketing teams function generally across the spectrum.
Being a sales professional with close to 20 years of industry experience I can very well say that things are changing. With the advent of Digital Marketing & Social Media, the thin line between Sales & Marketing is quickly vanishing. A sales professional can no longer say that my duty is only to get sales and I can do it in the old fashioned way. Today one needs to do proper research on LinkedIn regarding a prospect before pitching. If any sales person is not doing it then I am very sure his sales performance must be heading southwards. You can be in B2B or B2C space but you need to connect with your potential customer to make the sale. This could be a good time to read back what I wrote about relationship building, few years back.
Today buyer preferences and decision making process has changed. With so much content available on the internet, a potential buyer does enough research before even showing his or her first interest on a company to enquire about a product or service. So its vital for a company to generate interesting articles/content/blogs to the targeted potential customers. Generating content is one thing but making it reach far and wide is another thing. Marketing team is responsible to generate and distribute the content but I think the distribution part should be a shared responsibility among all stake holders of the company more so by the sales team. Thats because a sales professional will always look to make a sale quickly. After all who won’t be happy to cross their designated targets before half the month is over? Now take for example, that a blog has been posted and one of your target potentials read it and shows interest in your company’s product or service by filling in the company’s contact form. From my experience, I can tell you that closing this deal will be far more easier than other leads which might come through PPC or other sources. That’s because, today buyers do research and show interest only on those companies which passes his or her conceived preferences. Hence, its important that the sales team take active participation in content distribution.
Content is the king and hence Sales Professionals should take active interest in content marketing, atleast in helping the marketing team to distribute content. Being active in Social Media is a way of life today. All of us these days, at an average spend 1-2 hours on social media platforms be it WhatsAPP, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. So sharing the content on these platforms can be done on the go and there is this additional benefit that you might end up making a good sale with this deed, for the company.
When a strategy is set by the marketing team its important to have a goal. Its important to monitor traffic and its equally important to check out the traction thats being received against each generated content. The sales team should always proactively give feedback to the marketing team about what they feel about potential customers. Based on the type of questions potential customers are coming up with, can be a good feeder for future content. This will help the marketing team to generate content which will ultimately in the long run help the company to get targeted customers whom they want to serve. This goal can only be achieved when sales and marketing teams work in sync. If they keep working independently then at today’s age of social selling & content marketing, will ultimately lead a company towards disaster.
As the saying goes, Change is the only constant so embrace the change and excel in your job role.
From 2013 onwards, every year, the 3 musketeers – as some of my friends call us (Asif, Mukesh & myself) have always gone on one road trip at the bare minimum. 2017 was a unique year when we had 3 trips. It was I guess a signal of things to come because quite strangely we didn’t go on any road trip in 2018. Other than unwinding ourselves, one of the major reasons why we take these trips is to reflect on our business with an uncluttered mind and come up with ideas for the future. With just a couple of months left to sign off the calendar year, we decided to at least go on a short trip the last weekend.
The trip was planned suddenly so the best place to go for 2 nights was Mandarmani. Mandarmani is a beach destination in West Bengal which lies about 180 KMs from Kolkata. In fact, its the same place where we went in 2013. We did like the resort where we stayed in 2013 (Anutri Beach Resort) and hence booked the same place this time as well. So it was decided to leave on 13th October 2018 and return on 15th October 2018.
Generally, when we go on long-distance trips, we leave very early in the morning. But here the distance was only 180 KMs, so we decided to leave a bit late. My 14-year-old son’s midterm exam results were supposed to be published on 13th October. The results are handed over to parents and the timing was 9 AM to 11 AM. I left early around 7.30 AM in the morning so that I can reach before time and collect the results before the rush in the school starts.
Unfortunately, Andul Road (the place where I stay) had traffic congestion because of CESC work on some portions of the road. After crossing Andul Road as I reached the Toll Tax of Vidyasagar Setu, I met with further traffic congestion. The entire bridge was filled with trucks and the traffic police were having a harrowing time to control the commotion. With the Durga Puja festival just around the corner, 13th October was the last date of the free-flowing of heavy vehicles in Kolkata. Because of excessive entry of trucks, the entire Vidyasagar Setu got jammed. The traffic was literally crawling and a distance of 13 Kms which generally takes 30 Mins on normal days took me 1 Hour 15 minutes to cover. Because of my decision to leave early, I was still able to reach the school before time and as per my prediction, I was the first parent to enter the class and collect the results. Another advantage of going early was that the class teachers were more than willing to give proper feedback of my son which wouldn’t have been possible in the rush.
Anyways after picking the results my next destination was Phears Lane, where Asif resides. I reached Phears Lane by 9.20 AM. Parked the car and informed Asif about my arrival. Thereafter I proceeded to the nearby Gupta Hotel to have my breakfast. I generally take my breakfast by 8.30 AM every morning and now I was famished. After finishing my breakfast which was rounded off with tea, we had the next decision to make.
Our next destination was to pick up Mukesh who stays in College Road, Howrah. The traffic congestion that I faced while coming from Howrah made me feel that it’s better to go via Howrah Bridge rather than taking the Vidyasagar Setu. Google Maps was showing that the bridge is now free of congestion so we decided to take the Vidyasagar Setu though we were not fully convinced. As we entered Vidyasagar Setu we could see that traffic on our part of the road was moving freely but as we went towards the toll tax we could see complete chaos with no movement of vehicles.
We wasted more than 1 hour in this traffic congestion. What we had planned was to hit Kona Expressway by 10.15 AM but by the time we finally hit the road we were well past 11 AM. Nevertheless, journeys are supposed to create memories and this starting trouble added to our many memories of the past.
Asif was in the wheel as we started our journey. Our planned break was at Kolaghat. You cannot take a journey through NH 6 without halting at the famous Sher-E-Punjab Dhaba situated on NH 6 at Kolaghat.
We are no different. We reached Kolaghat around 12.30 PM and ordered for our favourite Alu Paratha and Tea. This was a bit of an early lunch but when you are on the road, time early matters. After finishing our lunch we started from Kolaghat at around 1.30 PM. We had another 120 KMs to travel. We took only one more break on the way to Mandarmani to take diesel. Otherwise, it was a smooth journey with Mukesh on the wheels. As expected the roads narrowed in the last 50 KMs which reduced our speed but otherwise it was all as per plan. 5 years back when we went to Mandarmani, the approach road to the resort was in terrible condition, intact there was no road leading up to the resort but this time I found the roads have been built and though its a narrow entrance but it was a proper laid down road.
We reached Anutri Beach Resort around 4 PM. The service quality at Anutri Beach Resort is of top quality. The rooms are pretty OK and the food is also nice. These are the reasons why we booked the resort for the second time and needless to say we were not disappointed. After checking in and having a round of tea, we made our way to the beach. With the evening setting in it was a pleasant walk around the beach. We roamed around the beach for more than an hour.
It being the final pre-puja weekend, the crowd was sparse. As the sun went down, we made our way back to the resort. Asif & Mukesh went for a dip at the swimming pool later in the evening. We ordered dinner and had our food by 10 PM. After walking around the resort for a while post-dinner we went back to our room. Thereafter our chitchatting started with topics ranging from the current craze of #MeToo campaign in India, Politics and of course business. By the time we hit the bed the clock was past 2 AM.
A night of sound sleep was broken by the constant buzz of the calling bell. I looked at my watch and it was 7.30 AM. The butler came in with our bed tea. We finished our tea, freshened up, and then left towards the dining room to have our breakfast. After a sumptuous breakfast which included bread/Jam/Omelette/Alu Paratha/Medu Vada & Tea, we once again moved to the beach. The resort being right on the beach is a massive advantage for holidayers. After a casual walk around we moved into the shade where a local masseur provided full body massage to both my friends. We also had tea alongside. This local masseur service was significantly cheaper than the spa which was situated inside the resort. After coming back to the resort, Asif & Mukesh went for the next round of swimming which was followed by Lunch.
After lunch, we spent the next few hours at the resort lawn which oversees the beach discussing business plans. Our #ChintanSivir mainly hovered on points of Employee engagement plans, Customer Satisfaction, Marketing Plans for the next 2 quarters, New Product planning etc. Time passed in a jiffy and as the sunset we retired back to our room to continue the discussion over tea and beer. Indian cricket team crushed West Indies in the second test match so watched the highlights of the match and thereafter watched an old movie, Gupt. Had an early dinner and retired to bed early since we had to leave for Kolkata in the morning.
On Monday morning, got up early, finished our breakfast, and checked out of the resort by 9 AM. We planned to go non stop to Kolkata because had to join the office. The roads were a bit crowded specially the first 50 KMs otherwise it was a smooth journey back. We reached Kolkata by 1 PM and reached office by 1.30 PM.
So our first trip of 2018 ended with all 3 of us rejuvenated to take our company to the next level. As we take a break of 5 days for Durga Puja, let me wish you all happy holidays!
Fake news is a phenomenon which has taken the world by storm in the last couple of years. In the days of WhatsAPP forwards, circulating news in a jiffy is the order of the day. Today’s generation gets the thrill to forward a news article as quickly as possible before anyone else. No one verifies if the news is true or not and soon this news gets picked up by mainstream media. In many cases, the mainstream media falls for fake news as well and soon the whole country starts believing a false story. Claims that your phone will explode if you accept calls from certain numbers, fake breaking news that GPS chips have been installed in new currency notes and stories charting how Nostradamus predicted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to power. Recently an E-Commerce company, Infibeam felt the ire of fake news, when a fake news related to their accounting practices went viral and the company lost 70% of its market value within a day. These are some examples of fake news which spread far and wide without any validation. With no proper legislation on Data Privacy and Fake News, rumour mongers have a field day.
To make people understand what is fake news and how we are falling into the trap of this phenomenon, the West Bengal unit of All India Professionals’ Congress hosted a symposium on Fake News – Nemesis to Freedom of Expression, jointly organised by the AIPC chapters of Kolkata, Howrah & Barasat on 29th September at Tangerine Royale Banquets, Sector V, Salt Lake.
To execute any event of any size, needs a lot of planning and a lot of background activities. This event was also no different. The event title was finalised as Fake news – Nemesis to Freedom of expression and once we finalised the tentative date as 29th September, our next most important task was to get our panelists on board. We wanted some of the well known and feisty spokespersons of Indian National Congress to be part of our panel and hence approached, Mr. Pawan Khera and Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi. Ms. Szarita Laitphlang, our Regional Co-ordinator of AIPC – East Zone helped us in getting the confirmations from Mr. Khera & Ms. Chaturvedi. She also got young & dynamic media panelist of Indian National Congress, Mr. Jaiveer Shergill on board for the event. We as a team wanted a neutral face among our panelists as well, so that the audience get a diverse view about the topic. One of our AIPC – Kolkata fellow, Mr.Rajdeep Banerjee was very proactive in contacting a few authors and journalists for the programme. Fortunately for us, Mr. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (Journalist & Author) responded positively and agreed to be part of the event as a panelist in the Symposium. After getting the approval from our Regional Co-ordinator on all the panelists, we quickly got together to plan on how best we can organise the program.
First and foremost we got all the itinerary of our esteemed guests chalked out. But the biggest hurdle came in searching for a suitable venue for the programme. Few of our fellow members spent hours in the Kolkata traffic for a few days to visit multiple halls only to come back and inform that its either not available on that date or they won’t give for any political party event. Science City seminar hall was all set only to back out at the last moment citing that they can’t rent out the hall for any political programme. AIPC is a department of Indian National Congress but its actually a platform for professionals and discussing about fake news is not a political event as such but still they were not convinced. With the programme just 10 days away, we decided to hold it at a private banquet at Sector V, Salt Lake.
The Regional Co-ordinator, Ms. Szarita Laitphlang along with the ROO of East Zone, Mr. Arnab Dey flew in to Kolkata 1 day in advance to oversee everything related to the event. She also shared her ideas on making the venue look better and how we can promote the event live. It was no doubt a tiring one week but when I saw the picture of the venue on the 29th Morning it made me happy because it looked awesome. There was disappointment in store for us though. Mr. Pawan Khera had to cancel his plans of coming to Kolkata due to some urgent engagements that cropped up on the same day.
Nevertheless, we had rest of our panelists flying in on time and they were at the venue on the dot. The OBs and fellows of Kolkata, Howrah and Barasat chapters worked hand in hand to execute the event perfectly. The symposium was moderated by Ms. Saira Shah Halim, Human & Civil Rights Activist. AIPC Kolkata fellow member, Ms. Mita Chakraborty being a close friend of Saira, we could get such a good moderator for the programme without any hassle.
The event kicked off with a few video bytes that the panelists gave in the green room where Rajdeep played the anchor role. It was actually great of Mr.Paranjoy Guha Thakurta to give his byte in Bengali. The house was full by the time the panelists took the stage. The event was co-anchored by, Ms. Mita Chakraborty from AIPC Kolkata, Ms. Deepshikha Bhowmick, VP & Treasurer of AIPC Howrah, Mr. Pallab Bhattacharya from AIPC Kolkata, Mr. Rajdeep Banerjee from AIPC Kolkata & Mr. Arijit Mukherjee, Secretary of AIPC Kolkata. Welcome team at the venue were managed by senior fellow members, Mr. Ehasan Sheikh & Mr. Subrata Sarkar. The felicitation of the guests were done by the Chapter OBs who were present on the day of the programme along with some Chapter fellows, Mr. Parwez Alam along with senior fellows, Ms. Parvin Banu & Mr. Bimal Bagri. The press management was done by INC West Bengal, Social Media Co-Ordinator, Mr. Anupam Ghosh and the Social Media promotion was handled by, Mr. Mainak Chakravarty, President, AIPC Kolkata and Monirul Islam from AIPC Barasat. Welcome desk was handled by Mr. Ashutosh Satpathy, from Barasat Chapter. Treasurer for the event was Dr.Tapas Francis Biswas, VP & Treasurer of AIPC West Bengal. It was great to see the team working together to make the event a grand success.
The panel for the symposium on Fake News – Nemesis to Freedom of Expression, consisted of Ms. Szarita Laitphlang,Regional Co-Ordinator, AIPC – East Zone, Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi, Convenor AICC Communications & National Spokesperson, Indian National Congress, Mr. Jaiveer Shergill, National Media Panelist, Indian National Congress, Mr. Ritzu Ghosal, President, AIPC West Bengal & Mr. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist & Author. The Symposium was moderated by Ms. Saira Shah Halim, Human & Civil Rights activist.
We created a research team 1 week before the program to set the agenda and flow of the symposium. This team’s work was to do research on old fake news and hand it to the moderator along with the flow so that it can be then taken forward and established into a white paper. The brainchild behind this innovative thought was Rajdeep’s and our research team consisted of Mr. Kamruzzaman Chowdhury, Research Department Co-Ordinator of INC West Bengal, Mr. Monirul Islam of AIPC Barasat, Mr. Rajesh Mishra, AIPC fellow from Kharagpur and Mr. Rajesh De, AIPC fellow from Hooghly. This team met with Ms. Saira Halim, the moderator, two days before the event to handover the flow, explain to her our expectations and the research materials.
So what did the panelists discuss and what were their individual view points about Fake News? I have assembled some quotes that were gathered during their discussion and the same is given below:
Mr. Jaiveer Shergill: 3 Fs (Fear, Friction & Flooding) define fake news. To save our democracy, spreading misinformation to create fear, peddling lies to create friction in the society and flooding platforms to escalate propaganda, needs to be shut. Need of the hour is “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” on Social Media.
Mr. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: Fake News spread fast. If you have truth by your side then hold your head high. Media must shoulder a huge responsibility in saving our democracy. Media can be watchdogs & Journalists can be lapdogs. There is trust deficit in the main stream media. We need to raise awareness to tackle this mess.
Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi: Fake news has become the biggest bane in today’s politics & society. People using fake news as a tool to spread mis-information and fear needs to be challenged. History will judge us unkindly for our role if we allow fake narrative to become the norm. We must raise our voice against fake propaganda. Juicy fake news spread faster then truth. We need to curb it.
Ms. Szarita Laitphlang: Fake News is like chinese whisper. To save democracy, we need to stop spreading fake news.
Mr. Ritzu Ghosal: Fake propaganda kills freedom of expression. To counter fake news we need to know our country & history.
Once the panel discussion was over, there was a question & answer session with the audience. In any programme this section gives you an inkling how much your audience have liked or disliked your programme. The number of hands raised as soon as the session started, could make us all feel that the audience was totally engrossed with the proceedings and wanted to know more. Due to the paucity of time only 6-7 questions could be taken. Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi held a short press conference post the programme. The programme finished with the National Anthem. The audience dispersed after having high tea and our event on Fake News came to an end.
Ofcourse our work will only end after we successfully stop the menace called Fake News. We now look forward to the release of the white paper on Fake News – Nemesis to Freedom of Expression.
Till then take care and good bye!
I was only about 10 years old when I first watched the football world cup. The year was 1986 which will forever be known as Maradona’s world cup. We did not have TV at our home then, so whatever little I saw was at my neighbour’s place. I distinctly remember the matches that I saw in 1986 world cup.
Maradona became a house hold name thereafter and like many in our generation became Argentina fans just because of this great footballer. We have had 7 world cups after 1986 but unfortunately Argentina could not replicate the success of 1986. They did reach the finals in 1990 (Under Maradona) and in 2014 but couldn’t clinch the final glory. After Maradona retired in 1994, Argentina kept looking for inspiration. Talents kept coming but another Maradona didn’t happen.
Finally, when Lionel Messi started making waves at Barcelona, the Argentine fans hoped that World Cup will come back to Argentina again. Messi wears the Number 10 jersey and the great Maradona had called him his successor. But to be a successor of Maradona, you need to life the world cup and for Messi that is yet to happen. He came mighty close in 2014 when he lead Argentina to the finals but Germany came out triumphant. 2 successive Copa America failures got him frustrated and he retired from International football in disgust. Football is a team game, how great a player you may be but to win, you need the whole team to perform. Messi was persuaded out of retirement and he played a stellar role in getting Argentina through the World Cup qualifiers unscathed.
With the 2018 world cup just a few days away, can Messi replicate Maradona? Will the 2018 edition be remembered as Messi’s World Cup? Or will Argentina blow up at the world stage once again? They have a pretty easy group to start off but Messi needs to be at the top of his game. He is very determined to win it this time but will his team mates be equally determined? All these questions will be answered once the World Cup kicks off in Russia on 14th June 2018. Can’t Wait!
After days of brainstorming & planning, finally the D-Day was at our doorsteps. For months we have been planning to do an AIPC Interactive for the State of West Bengal. For starters, AIPC or All India Professionals’ Congress is India’s first political platform focused on the needs and aspirations of working professionals in the country. The fundamental purpose of AIPC’s existence is to build an ecosystem centred around connecting professionals to the political domain.
First thing that we needed to select was the topic. With Cambridge Analytica scandal rocking the Internet world we zeroed down on Data Privacy as the topic of discussion for West Bengal state’s first AIPC Interactive. After a couple of brainstorming sessions, we named the event, “Data Privacy & Legal Rights”. India as of now doesn’t have a law regarding data privacy and we felt this is something that policy makers should look into. We coined the tag: Our Data! Our Privacy! Our Rights!
Next we needed to finalise the date. We initially thought of doing the event on 28th April 2018. But as you know to make any event successful we needed well known speakers so that the audience gets attracted to come for the event. But with the Karnataka elections just 2 weeks away all the start speakers of Indian National Congress were busy hence we had to postpose the event and finally decided to have it on 26th May 2018. We finalised our Keynote Speaker as Mr. Sanjay Jha, Noted entrepreneur & National Spokesperson of Indian National Congress. He is a known face in all major English news channels and his past experience as a founder of an internet related venture gelled well with our topic. Another guest speaker was finalised and he was Mr. Aalim Javeri, COO of AIPC.
Venue for the event was our next topic of discussion. Thankfully, Mrs. Mita Chakraborty, Managing Director of MSR IT Solution Pvt. Ltd & fellow colleague of AIPC came forward to lend her office space for hosting the event. It was a great gesture because the expenditure to rent a venue was saved.
The day started quite early. I had to purchase the bouquets for the speakers first before going to the venue. Staying more than 35 Kms away from Rajarhat meant I had to leave from my house as early as possible. I reached salt lake GD market around 10.30 AM. I found one flower shop just as I entered the market area. Ordered 5 bouquets and hoped the guy can get those ready quickly. Though he gave an estimate of 40 minutes, he ended up taking more than 1 hour 40 minutes to get all the 5 bouquets ready. Once that was done, I made a move towards Novotel (A 5 star hotel near rajarhat) where Mr. Aalim Javeri was put up. Went there and saw that our AIPC West Bengal State Unit president has already arrived with Mr. Sanjay Jha. I exchanged pleasantries and quickly excused myself since I needed to go to the venue to ensure that all was set up perfectly. Thanks to Mita and her team of admin staff, the venue was all decked up and ready to host our first AIPC Interactive.
The event was scheduled to start officially at 2 PM though we knew that it will start at 2.30 PM. We kept this half an hour buffer so that the audience can settle in. We had a registration desk right at the entrance so that we can collection all information about the audience. The registration desk was managed by another AIPC fellow colleague, Mr. Ranjan Chakraborty & an Admin staff of MSR. Ranjan helped us in getting our moderator for the symposium as well. He pursued his college teacher, Dr. J. Pal Choudhury (Retired Professor & HOD, Department of IT, Kalyani Government Engineering College) to be part of the event and moderate the discussion among the panelist. As it turned out, this discussion among the panelist became the highlight of our event.
RJ Riya was the anchor for our Symposium on Data Privacy & Legal Rights. She took the stage at 2.30 PM and welcomed the audience and the dignitaries on the stage. One of our AIPC fellow colleague, Mrs. Promita Saha Ghosh felicitated the guests on stage. Once the felicitations were over, AIPC West Bengal State Unit President, Mr. Ritzu Ghosal took to the podium and addressed the audience. He addressed the legal aspects related to Data Privacy and how data theft can harm one’s reputation and make irreversible damage to one’s life. India doesn’t have a law on data privacy. We do have cyber cells where one can lodge complaints regarding data theft but with no legislation in place, these cases generally do not go far and get dropped at court. He informed the audience that having a strong law on data privacy needs to be looked into by the policy makers of the country. Our Chief guest for the afternoon was supposed to be Mr. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Honourable MP & WB PCC president but he was unable to come for the event due to sudden work in Delhi but he was kind enough to pass on a message for the audience through Mr. Ritzu Ghosal which he duly did.
Next up was Mr. Aalim Javeri. Aalim being an expert in parliamentary affairs talked at length regarding why a strong legislation is needed for Data Privacy. He told the audience that the policy makers should understand the constant threat that the citizens of the country have related to their personal data. But their needs to be a strong will. On 25th May the European Union rolled out GDPR and India can take cue from that. He also harped on the fact that we as professionals should drive this agenda and make the Government notice on the citizens’ concerns on this particular subject. For this to happen, more and more professionals should join the AIPC platform and make this a vibrant eco-system through which future Governments can understand the aspirations and ideas of the professionals in this country. He ended his speech by giving a small background about his family and how inter caste and inter religion marriages happened smoothly decades back but today our society cringe on such events. Its time that we step back and understand the Idea of India that our fore fathers dreamt of because that will ensure a better and an actual New India for the generations to come. It was a truly moving message that Aalim passed on to the audience.
After Aalim, it was our Keynote Speaker, Mr. Sanjay Jha’s turn to take the stage and address the audience. Sanjay, an articulate speaker engaged with the audience from the word go. He attacked the current incumbent regarding their agenda to bellttle the privacy matters of the Indian citizens. The Government deciding to hire professional companies to track social media posts of all citizens came under a scathing attack from Mr. Sanjay Jha. Today the young generation can’t live without Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. But these tools have their own problems. The companies, like Facebook, Google, Twitter etc are making billions of dollars as profit by using our data. A person can be tracked down by social re-engineering and can be harassed by unsocial elements and nothing can be done about that because there is no strong privacy laws in the country. Sanjay kept his speech short and sweet so that quality time can be spent on the panel discussion.
Thereafter the guest panel started the panel discussion on Data Privacy & Legal Rights which was moderated by Dr. J. Pal Choudhury. Dr. Choudhury started with the point why we need data privacy and what general public should do to ensure that they are protected. One important point that came out of this lively discussion was that with no strong legal framework available related to data privacy, its important that the public should know what to share and what not to share in Social Media. If a tweet is retweeted it means you are endorsing that tweet even if you mention in your profile that retweets are not endorsements. So its important that we tell our children and our known groups that post and share in social media which you are absolutely comfortable of. Don’t just share for the heck of it which can lead to future troubles. Yes, if you face problems, there is cyber cell to help you but it does not take away the pain that you may go through. Another case came to light when one of our esteemed member mentioned how easily one can enter the data centre of UIDAI and get access to millions of data without even prompting for root password. This is not data theft but actually data dacoity, so well put by one of our AIPC Kolkata Chapter colleague, Mr. Partha Mukherjie.
We had a charged up audience and the Q&A session amplified the same with legitimate and interesting questions coming up all related to why we don’t have a strong legal framework on data privacy and can the Indian National Congress create one framework and make it a part of the manifesto.
The audience and the speakers panel all enjoyed the symposium thoroughly and as we ended the program with our National Anthem, it filled us with pride to see a successful program seeing the day of light. The symposium was followed by a Networking High Tea and we could see groups of people discussing on what we should do about data privacy and how our country should get a legislation in place to help the citizens of the country.
Our brand AIPC Interactive will be back with another event soon. Till then remember, “If you are not paying for it, then you become the product”.
The quadrennial Cricket World Cup is just a year away to be held at England. Every 50 overs tournament or series from now on will be used by the teams to sharpen their skills and to iron out the problem areas. Its a good time to visit what is in store for India and how the team is shaping up.
When India won the world cup in 2011, India had a great top order, good spinners and a couple of good pacers ably lead by Captain Dhoni. But one of the most important things to note in that team was that 3-4 batsmen in the top order could easily roll over a few overs. Sachin, Sehwag, Pathan/Raina and Yuvi all bowled in that tournament. Infact Yuvraj was one of the top wicket takers of the tournament. This was great advantage for India because this allowed us to play 7 proper batsmen including the wicket keeper through out the tournament. And even if the 5th bowler went for runs or if one of the primary bowlers was being hit around, the captain could always fall back upon a Raina or Sehwag to bowl a few overs.
With the current Indian team this is a major drawback. We have highly accomplished batsmen but none in our top 6 can bowl. This means, India goes in with 5 specialist bowlers including an allrounder (Hardik Pandya) and if a bowler has an off day, you have no back up option. This can hurt India in such a big tournament like World Cup.
So what are our options?
Raina has been so inconsistent while facing short pitch deliveries that he is no longer in the team. Yuvraj is a pale shadow of the Yuvi of 2011. Ashwin and Jadeja (Bowling allrounders) have been out of favour due to their inconsistent performances in Limited Overs Cricket. India tried Kedar Jhadav for a while but his performance outside India is nothing to crave about. Ambati Rayudu has been chosen for the upcoming England series and he can roll in a few overs.
Among the youngsters, we have seen Nitish Rana who can bowl a few overs but is he good enough with the bat in foreign conditions? He is completely untested and selectors are yet to show any faith on him. There is Deepak Hooda who is an established allrounder in domestic circuit who should get a look in soon. Also there is Vijay Shankar who is a decent allrounder who can be given a long rope to test his mettle.
Now the big question is does the Indian selectors wish to try out these young guns and sacrifice a batting position for an allrounder or do they feel that 6+5 is the way to go for 2019? India has a superb top order in Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli with an established middle order in Dhoni, Rahul, Rayudu/Iyer. 2-3 plays well and India can build a big total. Among bowlers, we have good pace attack and good spinners topping that with an established all rounder in Hardik Pandya. This team is good enough to win the world cup but the question about the lack of batting allrounder makes me a bit sceptical. What is your take?
Adam Gilchirst changed people’s perceptions about Wicket Keepers. Before Gilchrist we had great wicket keepers who were equally good batsmen but Gilchrist was the first wicket keeper in that sense who could play purely as a batsman too. Jeff Dujon, Ian Healy, Ian Smith all were good batsmen but Gilchrist was in a different league all together. When Gilchrist made his debut in ODIs in late 1990s, Ian Healy was Australia’s No. 1 keeper. Gilchrist made an immediate impact in ODIs and being a top order hard hitting batsman, he took full advantage of the fielding restrictions. When he got his due opportunity he took it with full hands and made a great start to his test career by belting a match winning century against Pakistan when Australia lost half their side for almost nothing. Australia chased down 369 only because of Gilchirst’s awesome innings of 149. There was no looking back for Gilchrist thereafter. Gilchrist’s entry into world cricket made other cricket nations searching for Wicket Keepers who can significantly contribute with the bat. India was no different. With no such keeper in sight, India was forced to use Rahul Dravid as Wicket Keeper in 2003 World Cup. This helped India extend their batting order and it gave good dividends too as India reached the finals of the World Cup.
It was definitely taxing for Rahul Dravid to continue as a wicket keeper and the selectors zeroed in on a relatively unknown face called Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the Bangladesh series in 2004. He had a forgettable debut but India continued with him for the Pakistan series. That series was the turning point for Dhoni and there was no looking back and as the saying goes rest is history.
As Dhoni moves into the twilight of his career India’s search for the next Dhoni has intensified. Wriddhiman Saha is currently keeping for India in tests and no doubt he is India’s best wicket keeper but his batting has been a let down till date. So who can be India’s next Dhoni?
The last few seasons have shown us 2-3 options and all of these players keep wickets for their respective sides in Ranji Trophy.
Risabh Pant made a sensational start to his First Class career couple of years back. Though he had a flat season last year, he came back with a bang at this year’s IPL and is currently the Orange Cap Holder.
Ishan Kishan was the captain of the India Under 19 side that reached the finals couple of years back. He plays for Jharkhand and had a good first class season for the last 2 years. He has been a revelation at this year’s IPL for Mumbai Indians. His innings against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens made everyone sit up and watch. That his innings came one day after Risabh Pant’s whirlwind century made it even more satisfying for Indian cricket lovers.
Sanju Samson has been very consistent performer for the last few seasons but he seems to have taken a backseat after this initial start he got.
Add to these, you have Dinesh Karthick who is doing very well as a finisher these days and can’t count him out since he still has 4-5 years of cricket left in him and he is supremely fit.
All in all India has a great pool of good Wicket Keeper batsmen who are ready to take up the challenge once Dhoni hangs up his gloves which in all probability will happen after the 2019 World Cup. Interesting times for Indian cricket.
A couple of days back as I was entering my office, it felt awkward to see a bus driving along the wrong way. Its not that we should be surprised with such activities in India but to see that happen at Sector V, Salt Lake was pretty odd because here the roads are quite broad and not as narrow as in the Northern or Central parts of Kolkata. When I reached my destination, I realised that one part of the road was blocked with lots of people around. No, there was no accident or untoward incident, actually a film shooting was going on. Isn’t it amazing to see that a main road in a business district getting blocked by innumerable office going youngsters to watch a movie shooting? Well, that’s India and that’s the magic of Indian Cinema.
We all dream, we all have ambitions and Indian cinema fuels those dreams. Great locations (places where you dream to go for vacation – The Late Yash Chopra brought the beauty of Switzerland to every Indian movie goer), great costumes, the bad guy gets beaten up and at the end Truth and Love wins. No wonder we buy these dreams and even if, our personal lives are not following the dreamt out path, these movies make us believe that we are virtually there.
All this also leads to idolisation and stars are worshipped. So whenever a movie shooting is going on, people will surround the place not to see how shooting is done (who bothers with technicalities?), its only to see who is the hero/heroine (the lead actors) and catch a glimpse of the star. If the people realise that not a known star is there then very soon you will find the place empty.
After I entered office and settled down at my desk I had an urgent work with one of my colleagues. Hence I went on the lookout for him on the office floor. Since I could not find him, I came outside to the balcony which oversees the main road. I could see the shooting is still on but the crowd is running thin. I quickly realised that it must be a movie with new comers or unknown actors. But the bigger question that lurched me was, “where was my colleague?” – I had an important meeting with him. As I asked about the whereabouts to my other colleagues, someone pointed to the thinning crowd at the far side of the road and lo behold, I could see him along with another person of our office trying to peep into the happenings (shooting). Looking by his actions I could very well realise that he was trying to get a glimpse of the lead actors. After a couple of minutes I could see him walking back to the office with a straight face.
After he got back to work, probably someone told him that I was looking for him hence, he came to meet me. As he entered my room, I asked him what he was doing in the road during office hours. His answer was hilarious, “ I was told that Deepika Padukone was shooting”. I queried, “Really? He answered straight back, “No, it was just a rumour. Some unknown lady was shooting, hence I came back”.