An Irish toast in this new year eve.. Till we meet again.

What is the one quality God has given us, in order to not only endure & survive all the troubles of this current world(Terror, Stock market crash, Madoff, recession, global warming etc), but also thrive and enjoy our life ?

Is it our capacity to hope?  Is it our ability to put the entire burden on God thru prayers?

I think it is the sense of humor. If you care to notice, all the races which has undergone persecution at the hand of fellow human beings in history (Jews, Sikhs or Irish) seemed have developed this quality in abundance. Ability to laugh at them and at the world and then move on enjoy life.

 

On this new year eve, I wish to raise this Irish Toast to each one of you, whose paths may have crisscrossed mine during 2008..( or may again in coming years J )

 

May you live as long as you want and

Never want as long as you live.

May you be in heaven a full hour
before the devil knows you are dead.

 

May your heart be light and happy,
May your smile be big and wide,
and may your pockets always have
a coin or two inside!

 

Always remember to forget
the troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
the blessings that come each day.

 

May you always have a clean shirt, a clear conscience,

and enough coins in your pocket to buy a pint!

 

May neighbors respect you, Trouble neglect you,
the angels protect you, And heaven accept you.

 

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,

the foresight to know where you are going,
and the insight to know when you have gone too far.

 

May misfortune follow you the rest of your life,

and never catch up.

 

May your mornings bring joy
and your evenings bring peace...
May your troubles grow less
as your blessings increase!

 

May you get all your wishes but one,
so that you will always have something to strive for.

Till we meet again, Godspeed … 

Footnote: Probably my liking of Irish is a direct result of knowing Dr. Richard McHugh. I consider quite fortunate to be a student of this venerable NLP guru. His attitude to life, fortitude & dignified bearing was really striking.  He seemed to have more Indianess than many of us.  A man of incredible energy even in his late 70s, which he attributes to disciplined living and awareness, he is also Jesuit Priest (Infact someone who spoke about Buddha, Vipassana and Demello with equal élan.) It was quite amazing that he could hold the interest of motley crowd for more than 4 weeks.   While he taught NLP techniques, subconsciously he directed many of us towards Demello, Vipassana and Spirituality. He travels around the world teaching NLP and lives out of two small suitcases. And absolutely carry no other baggage including saint hood. (Literally!). May he spend many more years in this wonderful world spreading goodness. 

On Corporate (mis)governance.

This   corporate news bulletin which was quite overlooked 3 months ago suddenly became very significant in the present context.

“Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE: SAY), a leading global consulting and information technology services provider, has won the coveted Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for 2008. ……..

"It is a real honor for Satyam to receive such a prestigious award,” said Srinivas Vadlamani, Satyam CFO. “It is a testament to our efforts to continually innovate and advance corporate governance best practices in our industry and around the world."

http://www.satyam.com/media/pr6Sep08.asp

I remember one of the recipients of Malcom Baldridge award filed for Bankruptsy immediate after they won the award. J.  Some of these awards seem to be jinxed.

Present woes of Satyam are well documented and do not deserve any more space. So   this post is not about Satyam’s present state of affairs.

There was an interesting monologue from Suhel Seth on Governance or lack of it in India during the many debates in our 24 * 7 TV studios after the Mumbai Terror attack.   Suhel Seth was seething.   (Very rightly so.).  . The Business community (the booted and suited ones) & the Anchors were all over the political class.  They had diagnosed what ails our govt. and political class and had clear prescriptive solutions.

It was reported in NDTV, that Maytas   real value is Rs. 21 crore. How can someone with 8 % of shares utilize $ 1? 6 Billion to buy highly overrated companies promoted by their own family. It is interesting to note that Satyam board comprises four academicians, a former Union Cabinet Secretary and one of the founders of Intel’s Pentium chip. Probably the slick marketing of the resumes of   these worthies had won for Satyam the Golden Peacock award for corporate governance this year

One of them Prof. Krishna Palepu’s bio data in HBS website   reads “In the area of corporate governance, Professor Palepu’s work focuses on how to make corporate boards more effective, and on improving corporate disclosure. Professor Palepu teaches these topics in several HBS executive education programmes aimed at members of corporate boards: Making Corporate Boards More Effective, Audit Committees in a New Era of Governance. He also co-led Harvard Business School’s Corporate Governance, Leadership, and Values initiative, launched in response to the recent wave of corporate scandals and governance failures.”  It was a different matter, that Mr. Palepu was a longtime advisor to Satyam. 

Some time back Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram stated in the floor of Parliament that “the big industrial companies/borrowers have been the top defaulters."  The amount owed by Indian Business houses was a staggering Rs. 50,000 crores.  It was quite amusing to read “Responding to members' demand that the names of big defaulters be published, he said there was a provision in the Reserve Bank of India Act that mandated confidentiality.”   One should see this in contrast to the ways and means Banks adopt against poor peasants of this country driving them to Suicides.

 How come the Indian Public don’t get to hear any condemnation from the likes of   CIIs / ASSOCHAMs /   Tavleen Singh’s and Suhel Seths ? 

We Indians do deserve better Governance, Government and certainly better political leaders. Also don’t   we deserve better Business persons?   Sadly the voices that keep harping on Politicians and Govt are never raised against their own ilk, even when they are caught with their pants down.

  Why can’t they start the changes they want to see in others with themselves?

I wonder how many of the present day Business houses, have  the moral right to preach to a pick pocket.  (Leave alone other sections of the society).