The Electric Franklin

Sourced from www.ushistory.org

According to many people, The Independent is the best newspaper published in England. In its issue of December 30, 1998, kindly sent to me by my friend Suzy Bittker, there appears an unsigned editorial entitled "A Search for a hero who helps us to define ourselves."

A poll, it seems, has been conducted by the program TODAY of Radio 4 for the nomination of such a person, man or woman, native of the British Isles or not. Many votes, of course, were cast for Winston Churchill. The first of the few women on the list is Queen Elizabeth I who defied imperial Spain with Britain's scanty resources. Gandhi and Mandela gathered a number of voices, as did Gutenberg, Galileo, Luther, Shakespeare, Mozart, Chekhov, Darwin, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft and many others.

"But," says the writer of the editorial, "the man who combines all that we are looking for is often overlooked. His name is Benjamin Franklin. As a scientist, he tamed lightning: the lightning conductor was his brainchild, allowing man to build unafraid of the elements. Thunder and lightning had belonged to God: now they belonged to man. Technological advance since Franklin's time, from computers to space travel, has relied on the electricity he harnessed.

"His confidence was remarkable. He became on of the most fervent of the Americans once the British connection was irretrievable. As a letter-writer, his erudition is legendary. The first of the "natural men" whose bourgeois mores were to come to dominate the globe, he declined to wear a wig while ambassador in Paris. He was self-made, a printer and publisher, the first of a new breed.

"He was a master of the modern political art of compromise, striving to avoid the breach with the mother country. He conceived the compromise between the rights of states and the popular vote, and the two-chamber Congress containing both a Senate and House of Representatives, that made the U.S. possible.

"Franklin replaced religious absolutes with what was practical, an American injunction that has since become world orthodoxy. And by happy coincidence, he was born a loyal colonist — a Briton through and through. The next millennium will probably uncover as its hero a woman born in Lagos, Sao Paulo, or Nanking. But it is Franklin we humbly submit as person of this millennium."

Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American in his day. Wherever he went, crowds formed. People worldwide pictured Franklin when anyone said, "American."
The diversity that is the Internet may be epitomized by only one person in history - Benjamin Franklin - someone commercially successful, ever concerned and involved with the public good, a great communicator, and a remarkable man of science and technology, finding practical effective solutions to real problems.
Trying to comprehend Benjamin Franklin's life and legacy is like trying to grab a shadow. Each time one tries to get a fix on the reflection, it darts away and grows even larger.

"Who and what was Benjamin Franklin?" was the question we asked at the outset of this project. By turns pamphleteer, apprentice, printer, balladeer, inventor, philosopher, politician, soldier, firefighter, ambassador, family man, sage, delegate, signer, shopkeeper, bookseller, cartoonist, grandfather, anti-slavery agitator, Mason, and deist - he was all of the above and none of the above. His great biographer Carl Van Doren called Franklin "a harmonious human multitude." As Franklin was an "electrician" also, we kept looking for a common current that defined him. From the time he was a teenager thinking about ways of education to the time he was an 83-year-old man agitating for abolition, the mainspring of the "human multitude" may well have been public service.
The remarkable Benjamin Franklin, a printer by trade, a scientist by fame, and a man of action by all accounts, continues to shape American thinking and action. The Independence Hall Association, owners of ushistory.org, has commissioned and assembled resources for you to explore the diversity that was Benjamin Franklin.

Each generation produces people who reshape their world. Benjamin Franklin was one such man.

For his popular quotes one of which is the legendary "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise", visit the following link:

http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/index.htm

Mrs. Sudha Murthy and Compassion

Usually speeches in my school are mostly about business and speakers are all successful business people we read about in newspapers and magazines. But day before yesterday's speaker was a lot different. She is successful, her success measured by her happiness and what she wanted to achieve. She is none other than Mrs. Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, an organisation that is doing wonders for the country through philanthrophy.

Since I will not be able to do justice on a wonderful speech lasting almost an hour, I urge you to read Sudha Murthy- Woman of Destiny. It has most of what she said today. For a story on how Infosys was born, read How Infosys was born.

Summarising, her major points were

1. Be very ambitious and work very very hard at this age.
2. Have compassion and give back to society what you get from it.
3. Philanthrophy is different from charity in that it is
a. In doing favours to society without expecting anything back
b. In doing favours without any preference to particular communities, religion etc: who needs most should get first
4. Too much money must not be kept as it will otherwise ruin the family and children. Dont spend too much, as the more you spend, the more you will find to buy. Either give it to your alma mater, your parents, guru or to philanthrophy.
5. Staying in a small growing company is better than joining a very large company as you might never be able to reach top positions in a very big company and responsibilities will be slower in coming to you.
6. Never do anything that is against your value system or that undermines your integrity.

Last year Narayana Murthy had come to campus and left us with a mesmerising speech, that was simple and humble. This too was matching it in every way.

The many business speeches that we hear clearly come from the mind but these two came from the heart, and that creates the huge difference that sets the Murthys way apart.

A prof called Sanjay Bakshi

Certainly one of the best profs who teach in MDI. Its not just his expertise and succesful experience in value investing (in stock market) that makes him so, its also his ability to share them so well with us. It is undoubtedly the most popular course here. The course is called "Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation" and now, he is teaching us social psychology as a foundation.

He is CEO of Tactica Capital Management Private Limited. The articles he gives us to read, the books he recommends and above all, his presentations, the videos and the movies he shows us as part of the course are simply amazing. I look forward to becoming a value investor when I have earned enough money.

Following is his reply to a mail of an alumnus of MDI a few years before. His story is certainly inspiring and I find it very worthy that I have put it here.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sanjay [mailto:(####)]
Sent: Thu 11/18/2004 12:41 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: My Own Story
Some time ago, Kumar Saurabh sent me a mail in which he asked me some personal questions that got me to reflect on my life. I then wrote a long mail to KS in which I tried to give answers to his questions. Subsequently, with KS's permission, our mail exchanges were posted on my yahoo group.

I am now posting the same exchange between KS and me over here. Read KS' mail first which is at the bottom and then my reply.

Some minor mistakes relating to dates were subsequently found but I have chosen not to make any changes.

SB



From: Sanjay
Date: 10/04/04 00:12:20
To: [####]
Subject: Re: Not Urgent

Hi Kumar:

I wonder if you know about feedback theory? In a negative feedback loop, like a thermostat geyser, suppose the maximum level of temperature is set to 90 degrees. Assume that the geyser is on and the water is getting heated. Soon enough the temperature will rise to 90 degrees and the sensor in the thermostat will sense this and will act by cutting off the circuit. The water will now stop getting heated and will slowly but surely cool. Sooner or later it will reach the minimum level of set temperature, say 60 degrees - whereupon the sensor in the thermostat will sense this and will re-connect the circuit and the process will start all over again. Negative feedbacks loops like this one are stable i.e. they restore stability. A whole lot of things around inside us are negative feedback loops - stuff like our own body temperatures, our digestive system, our, respiratory systems. In fact negative feedback loops are visible all around in nature as well.

Now think of a positive feedback loop. Suppose that the sensor instead of stopping the heat from getting hotter, when the temperature reaches 90% starts to send even more heat energy in the water. This will ensure that the process of heating accelerates. Of course, in this case, the heating cannot accelerate indefinitely because it will break some laws of physics if it did but there are many other feedback loops which can last for a long long time.

Your reference to the profit multiplier model reminded me of this theory. If you really think about it, all business successes have an element of positive feedback loop in them. My own success has followed a positive feedback loop. But I didn't design it like that. I just worked out that way. Its only now that I am recognizing these patterns in success that you are also recognising and given that you are much younger than me, you are way ahead of me in thinking along the right track . . .

I'd like to tell you my story which is quite fascinating. I was not very good in my studies in school. The only subject I really liked was math and even there I had terrible teachers. So school (DPS, Mathura Road) was a disappointment. In 1983, I entered Kirori Mal college to do my B.Com and started liking the subjects I was studying - accounting, economics, law etc. My interest in academics started to increase. I also got myself a girlfriend, who was also my first student (she studied accounting from me in college) so you can understand why I got attracted to teaching! After we finished college, in which did I extremely well, I joined Price Waterhouse as an articled clerk in 1986 and my girlfriend joined some other local CA firm to pursue the same profession as me but she found she hated it, so she moved on to do a Masters in Finance and Control in University of Delhi. I started to love accounting and auditing and learned a lot about how businesses perform, or d o not perform, by going to audit many clients over the three years I spent at PW.

Because my love of the subject like accounting, economics, law, finance, auditing had grown quite a bit by then, I did well. I passed both my CA exams - the intermediate and the final in the first attempt (which is quite a feat) and in the minimum possible time. Even before I completed my statutory article period of 3 years, I got a job offer from American Express. At that time Amex was the place to get work for CAs. Giving into social proof, I took the plunge and joined Amex sometime in June 1999. By December I had quit my job with no other job in hand. Obviously, this will give you an idea of my nature. Whenever I have made the big decisions in my life by deciding to do something or to run away from something, I have never really had a plan B. In case of Amex, I just knew I had to quit (Big decision # 1). The job was quite rotten, and I came out of it swearing that I will never work for anyone ever again. So, in a sense, I have much to thank Amex fo r!

I went back to my favourite partner at PW and told her that I'd like to go abroad to study and until I got a chance could I come back to PW? She said, sure, why not. And so I found myself back in PW as an audit officer. By then, of course, I had been applying to many colleges including the LSE. Also, by then, seven years had gone since I had got this girlfriend towards whom I was much devoted, and since I had a job, we now decided to get married. That's when all hell broke loose as often happens with young couples who want to get married without the consent of their parents. In our case, the problem was with my parents. Well, again I knew I was taking the right decision. (Big Decision # 2).

After a lot of agony, I finally got married in Feb 1990. For a while I thought my troubles were now over, but little did I know that they had just begun! My house became an Ekta Kapoor TV serial. Soon, I moved out of my parents' house with my wife and took an apartment on rent in the far end of east Delhi. We had no money. We slept on the floor. No bed, no chair, no furniture, no fridge, no TV, no AC but plenty of love to share. Life was still hell, though.With both of us working hard, often reaching home at 10:30 PM- the stress of family tension, poverty, and a whole lot of factors made life pretty miserable.

Then, one fine day, I got a letter from the LSE telling me that not only had I got admission for an MSc course in Information systems, but also had I been granted a scholarship to pay for my fee. There was no scholarship offered for living expenses. By now, you can probably guess as to what decision I would take. I just knew I had to go to London - living expenses or no living expenses. (Big Decision # 3)

So, in September of 1990, a few months after I was married, with no money, I arrived in cold London with my wife and plunged into my studies. But what about my living expenses, you should now ask? My scholarship only paid for my fee and I had to pay rent and we also had to eat. We had no savings.

My wife took up a job as a tiller girl in a grocery store. A Masters in Finance from University of Delhi found herself scanning groceries for customers and packing their shopping for them. If she ever complained, I never heard it.

Both of us also took part time jobs working in Burger King. Yes, I and my wife made burgers earning the minimum wage of 4 pounds an hour less deductions. And, oh, the burger making part was the best part. There was the other part like cleaning the toilets, sweeping floors, clearing tables, listening patiently to screaming customers and many similar activities which made making burgers seem like heaven!

One year went by and I finished my course at LSE. Incidentally, I never actually studied much of Information systems. I went and sat in the finance classes where I encountered, unsurprisingly the efficient market theory. Then on one of the most important days of my life, although I do not now remember what day it was, I read in the Financial Times, an article about a strange fellow called Warren Buffett who made money in the stock market by keeping away from the market. The positive feedback loop had just begun.

Within a few days of reading about Buffett, I knew that I had found a meaning in my life. (Big decision # 4). I simply knew that his ideas were learnable and that they would work in India. But I also knew that I hardly knew anything about investing using Buffett's philosophy. And so, I went berserk about learning everything I could about this fellow. I read and read and read. I wrote to him asking him to send me his annual reports (there was no Berkshire website in those days). His reports arrived in four days. It was as if he was waiting for my request. He could, perhaps, almost hear me shout, "Teach me, what you know" and he responded by sending me those reports. I still have them with me, of course, and if you see them you'll find every page has been underlined, highlighted, with extensive notes questions etc written pencilled in the columns. And the more I read about Buffett, the more sense he made to me. Of course, when you read Buffett, you eventually discover Graham and once you discover Graham, he can keep you busy for a couple of years. I now knew my education was woefully incomplete so I decided to stay back in London to learn everything I could about value investing. I took up a part-time job as a research assistant with an academic publishing company. This job came with certain privileges - such as a photocopying machine with unlimited paper, and toner, and access to the best libraries in London. I furiously copied all the books on value investing that I could get my hands on. The money I earned was sufficient to keep us alive and that was all I wanted anyway at that time. We stayed in London for a total of three and a half years. Then, suddenly, one fine day, I told my wife that we're going back to India. She was shocked. How did I decide to come back? I just knew I was now ready to come back to India. (Big decision # 5).

And so about 10 years ago, we returned to India, with Rs 3 lacs as our total savings, lots of wisdom, and a daughter. And what did I do when I returned? Take up a job? No, the pain from the Amex experience will take many decades to go away, so a job was out of the question. So, despite the advice from parents and my best friends, I decided to float a company. I approached my closest friends and relatives and asked them to invest in it. I think they invested more out of pity than for having any confidence in me. Remember, I had no track record. I didn't surprise them. By 1996, the money had shrunk by 40%. And that of course is the most wonderful thing to happen to someone who wants to make a career out of value investing - losing your friends' and your relatives' money. Believe me, its the best lesson in getting a risk averse nature. I had to start all over again. I corrected my mistakes and remade the portfolio following Graham's advice. And I have never looked back since t hen.

As mentioned earlier, when I returned to India 10 years ago, my total savings were Rs 3 lacs. Today, I can say with confidence that I am financially independent. To use Robert Kayosaki's (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad) words I no longer work for money. Rather, I find myself in a position where money works for me. I have given up all my clients. The money I get from MDI is not even 1% of what I now earn in a year.

It wasn't like this a few years ago. In 1996 when I went to IMI, I needed to find some way to feed my family while I was practicing value investing. Teaching was the last thing on my mind. I had already started writing columns for the Investor's Guide in the Economic Times. One day, one reader of my column, who was teaching at IMI made the effort of calling ET, got my phone number, and called me up. He asked me to come and see him. I went to see this person and he convinced me to come teach one class. I must confess here that till then I had never spoken a word in my life while standing on a stage - not in school, not in college, not in PW or LSE or anywhere. I am by nature an introvert. I hate going to parties. I probably go to less than 3 parties in a year. The whole idea of doing public speaking was so scary that I don't know how I said yes to this person. He must have used some weapon of influence - I don't remember anymore. Incredibly, I also don't remem ber who this person was. His memory has faded away.

Anyway, I prepared many days for that one lecture, and went and delivered it in a total state of panic. In those days we had to use transparencies instead of powerpoint, and that was useful because one could actually talk without having the need to look at the audience, which to me was less preferable than to go alone in a graveyard at night. The lecture was well-received, and I was now on my way to becoming a part academic, part value investor - following the footsteps of Graham. So, after all this, Kumar, I have now provided you with the answer to your first question.

Over the next few years I taught at IMI, Fore School, and ICFAI Business School. There were days when I would teach 3 hours in Chattarpur branch of ICFAI and then go to Kirti Nagar branch and deliver the same lecture another 3 hours. Talking for six hours and driving 120 kms in June in Delhi in a car which had no AC, and doing it twice a week was some feat, I guess. When you have to find a way to feed your family and you don't want to compromise your cherished ideas (in this case of not working for anyone but myself), life makes you hard enough to endure pretty much anything.

So, my decision to teach was driven by the need to feed my family. Of course, once I started to teach, I started to really enjoy it. Remember my experience of teaching back in Kirori Mal College. I guess I was cut out to be a teacher, after all. Over the years, I found that there was a great deal of synergy in what I was teaching and what I was practicing. Teaching makes me focus better on my work and my work provides me with cases to discuss in class. In other words, a positive feedback loop is in operation.

How did I shift to MDI? Well over the years I became better and more confident, and one day a friend told me that he knows a professor at MDI (now retired). I had heard about MDI, and I knew that it has a lovely campus, and I enjoyed driving. Now I know this sounds silly, but the desire to drive to MDI was one important reason for my approaching it in the first place! I love cars. And since I work from home, I hardly get a chance to drive long distances. So, incredibly as it may sound Kumar, its is true that you and I met probably because of my desire to drive!

Of course, my experience of teaching at MDI was great from the very beginning. But, over the years, as I look at the course outlines and the slides I displayed, I can see how I have become better and better. There's nothing unusual here. One should get better and better over time in any activity that requires brain power. I found that my professional experience grew, I could use them as cases in my class and the process of preparing for my classes forced me to study which generated more ideas. The positive feedback at work again. Indeed, some ideas started coming from the students themselves. In 2001, one student, using the ideas of identifying cheap stocks taught by me, submitted a project report on Trent as a cash bargain. I instantly recognised the value of the idea and implemented it by buying the stock. What was I to do? I teach the subject. I teach how to recognise opportunities. If someone brought one to me, should I ignore it? Does the fact that its a student project report make it worthless? And if I ignore it, am I being smart or foolish? Well, I decided not to ignore it. I went and bought 1.5% of the company at Rs 65 per share. And, of course, I made a killing.

The Trent experience made me realise two things: (1) security analysis is learnable; (2) there are huge synergies in teaching it well and and practicing it. The experience, however, made me a bit uncomfortable. Was I using my students to generate ideas for personal gain? It was a problem which was difficult to solve. There were only two solutions: (1) ignore good ideas generated in class but talk about good ideas generated out of class, which to me looked rather foolish; or (2) give public recognition to the person who floated the idea with the effect that he/she will get confidence about his/her own abilities and can also be used as a role model for other students. I chose (2) and it seems to have worked. There are several ex-students, including you, who feel that my approach of practicing security analysis is workable and learnable. Indeed my adoption of (2) has, in my view, accelerated the positive feedback loop.

And then, Lollapalooza happened. As you may know, the idea was not mine at all. It was all Sumit Khanna's idea. After passing out from MDI, he sent me a mail in which he said that he had created a yahoo group in which all the SABV students of last year were members and he wanted me to be a member. Instantly recognising the value of Sumit's idea, I agreed. But, within two days, I felt, why are we limiting to only those who just passed out? And why are we limiting to only MDI? If I was the common thing in the group, then surely the presence of many other people who were my ex-students, and who, by now had valuable experience, might be interested in becoming part of Sumit's group. They may have something to offer. I wrote a mail to Sumit telling him what I felt. In that mail I suggested that we create a new yahoo group in which we invite only my students including past students from MDI and other places. Because the group was to include non-MDI students, I suggested we have a diffe rent name (the earlier group was called wowmdi). Sumit readily agreed and suggested a list which, of course, had the name, Lollapalooza. So, this is how Lollapalooza was born. It wasn't planned by me or anything. It just happened, pretty much like everything else in my life happened, as described above.

I want to mention here the role of a very dear friend and colleague of mine in my ability to instantly recognise the potential of Lollapalooza. This friend is a deep value investor like me and is probably the smartest man I ever met. Incidentally he's a school dropout and has learnt to survive and prosper pretty much as I have. In 1998, this friend, who was then unknown to me approached me after reading some of my articles. He came and met me and gave me the annual reports of three companies - Kirloskar Oil Engines, Unichem Labs, and IVR Infrastructure (the name of this company was different then). He owned stocks in all the three companies and he wanted my advice on his investments. He also wanted to know what I found attractive in my own portfolio. When he went away I thought along the following lines:

"This fellow is a school drop out. What the hell does he know. I am a CA, a MSc from LSE and I am an expert on investing as my ET articles vouch. Investment ideas are intellectual property. They are extremely valuable. Why the hell should I share my ideas with him? And if I am not sharing my ideas with him, I also see no point in looking at these annual reports." Well, that mistake cost me tons of money because each of those stocks became multi-baggers.

But I didn't know this fellow well enough. He kept on calling me. Then he started to advice me. He told me in 2000 to keep away from IT sector. After the great crash I realised that I had made a terrible mistake by ignoring him and I apologised to him, and he forgave me. He told me one sentence that I'll never forget: He said:

"Bakshi, always remember, that knowledge grows through sharing."

By now I has also learnt how utterly simple this friend is. He's now probably worth more than Rs 50 cr. He lives in a middle-class apartment in Chennai. He drives a Honda City. I can continue writing about him for hours, but maybe on another day. Right now, I just want you to know the most important thing that he patiently taught me was that knowledge grows through sharing. I now spend at least an hour a day with him sharing ideas.

It really changed my view of the world and my view of myself. I realised that I had been a total fool in thinking that I was the master of the universe. I changed. I started talking about my investment ideas with other like-minded people. The process continued until I reached a stage in my life when I was creating like-minded people in the classroom. So, when Lollapalooza arrived, I instantly knew that knowledge shared selflessly will increase. And, in my view, it has.

I learnt one more lesson from my friend. He taught me that if you do good things, you get them back with interest. And if you do bad things, you get them back with interest too. God had, in effect, an yield curve with an interest rate implied from deeds we do and the rewards/punishments we get. And that advice has worked for me in life. I have found this over and over again that some people who only want to take but never give suffer while those who give, also receive, and with interest. And that pretty much explains part of the reason as to why I go and teach security analysis. I am often asked by friends who have seen my track record as to why am I telling others how to do it? Well, I guess, you got my reason now. The other reason, of course, is that I simply love it and I feel obligated to give back to society from which I have taken so much.

As of now, I don't know whether Lollapalooza was my big idea # 6. (In fact, it wasn't even my idea.) Time will tell, but it has the common elements that was present in all of the previous ideas - it was not deliberately planned by me. But when it arrived, I instantly knew I had to do it. I am reminded of a wonderful passage in the autobiography of Herb Simon, which I reproduce below:

"I have encountered many branches in the maze of life's path, where I have followed now the left fork, now the right. . . .In describing my life as mazelike, I do not mean that I have a large number of deliberate, wrenching decisions to go off in one direction or another. On the contrary, I have made very few. Obvious responses to opportunities and circumstances, rather than studied decisions, have put me on the particular roads I have followed"

So, as you can see, Kumar (if you are still awake that is), my life has largely followed the above Simon quote. So that was my story so far, You can seek answers to your questions from what I have written above, or you can look elsewhere, or both. It's obviously, up to you.

Regards

Sanjay Bakshi
http://www.sanjbak.com/

-------Original Message-------
From: Kumar Saurabh
Date: 10/01/04 12:49:01
To: [####]
Subject: Not Urgent

Sir,

I was recently reading a book on profit models and I found one that fit your profile. It talks about using one skill to make it big, its called the profit multiplier. I realized that it roughly fits you, you make money for yourself by investing your own savings, also manage other people's money which yields fees, teach at MDI, which would net you some more money.

Finally, you have pieced together a research unit with ZERO cost (or minimal). This essentially means that now you have a skill, which you can use in decreasing quantities since now you have a larger body of
similar thinking individuals. I assume at least 10% of the ideas generated from the e-groups would be worthwhile for you. So now you earn even more with the added advantage of having the option to work
less (very Bertrand Russell like) or the chance to increase your gains further by maintaining your work schedule.

I truly see the mastery in what you do. Now I have a few questions. Please do not be offended, that is not my intent, I am simply evaluating a few aspects of a professional life, which will form the very core of my philosophy for life.

Q1. Was the decision to teach at IMI taken with the consideration of multiplying your profit or for the sheer exhilaration that comes with teaching? If neither what was the factor that drove you to teach first at IMI then at MDI?

Q2. How did you get an idea to start the business you run now and what were some of the things that formed the basis of your decision?

The second question will probably take a little time to answer, let me explain why I'm asking this particular question.

Recently a friend, who works at Wipro, informed me that their head, a Vivek Paul or somesuch earns Rs 5 crore annually. This really got me thinking, if the man who understands business better than most, is
exceptionally intelligent, a great people person among many other qualities he would have to possess to be at such a position was paid what seems like not all that great a sum. Is it really worthwhile to
stay in a job knowing that I will perhaps never be as good as him and hence would never earn even a fraction of that amount of money?

In this case does it not make sense finding out what I'm good at or finding out what people are good at and using their skills to multiply my profits through a business run by me?

This is not a very urgent query; please take your time in answering them. I also understand that you may not want to answer some questions, so please feel free to strike either or both of them off the list.

Inquisitively,
Kumar S.

PS: The Russell reference is to an essay, 'in praise of idleness', a must read if you haven't come across it.

Helen Keller Quoted

Helen Adams Keller (27 June 1880 – 1 June 1968) American writer and social activist; illness (possibly scarlet fever) at the age of 19 months left her deaf, blind, and mute.

"The two greatest characters in the 19th century are Napoleon and Helen Keller. Napoleon tried to conquer the world by physical force and failed. Helen tried to conquer the world by power of mind — and succeeded!" ~ Mark Twain

Helen Keller Says..

Pessimism

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

Optimism

"Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and material possession. Could they win some visible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy they could be! Lacking this gift or that circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep. If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life, —if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing."

The Simplest Way to be Happy

"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships."

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

The Greatest Salesman's "Ten Commandments"

Small and concise has for a long time attracted me very much. So much so that while browsing the marketing section in my library I picked a small book called "The Greatest Salesman In The World" and immediately decided to read it. Its sheer simplicity and straightforwardness attracted me to it. The following text is about what could be gained from the author's message. I call it the Ten Commandments.

I am just unable to call it a book review, as some of it has been culled from other sources, most importantly my father's counsel and few other books. There are few drawbacks in the text I wrote that I must mention: It's mostly preaching, abrupt in the form of notes and written with emphasis on "I".

Still, here we go...

The Greatest Salesman In The World
by OG Mandino

I. Today, I begin a new life filled with good habits and principles

I don't have so much time, still patience is required. To create the olive tree, the king of all trees, a hundred years is required.

Experience vs principles:

It's a funny thing that I notice. Many experienced people are wise, but they have gained it over a very long period and it might be now late for them to achieve their goals with their experience gained. This is the irony that nature has designed.

But principles aren't that way. They can be formed now and atleast help us avoid failure. Success is only a state of mind but every one defines failure in the same way as "Man's inability to achieve his goals in life". Hence forming great principles now is my bet to avoid failure. The takeaway from this is that forming good habits and becoming a slave to them is better than any other strategy to attain goals in life.

II. Today, I will fill my heart with love

It's said that people can counter your reasoning, disapprove of your looks and apparel, suspect your intentions, but the genuine love for people will surpass all this and win people. So fill the heart full of love for all you see and all you meet.

If you can shout from the roofs when there is something to be praised, and bite your tongue when you are tempted to outrightly criticize, you will then speak love.

More important is to love thyself: If you can inspect what you let in and out of you, you would have known to love you. Moderation in eating and drinking, cleanliness, repulsion to evil thoughts happen when you love yourself and take care of all that is made of you: your body and mind.

III. I will persist till I succeed

In the Orient, the best bulls are considered the ones that still attempt to attack after repeated stings. The same should be the case with me. I will persist till I am the best.

The prizes of life are at the end of the journey, and it is not given to me how far is the end. Even if I fail at the thousandth step, success might be at the next bend and never will I know how far I am from my goal until I turn that one corner. Always, I can take one more step as one step at a time will never be difficult. I will persist. I will suceed.

IV. I am a miracle

I might have a lot of similarities, but it is the differences and uniqueness I will accentuate to realise my strengths. I should learn to play my strengths well. Like any other, I have unlimited potential and after all, I employ only a small amount of brain and I flex only a paltry amount of muscles. To realise this potential, I need to understand mankind better to position myself better among men and also learn manners and graces which are the sugar to which most are attracted.

Similarly, there cannot be room for my family in the workplace, nor for work in my family. I have to learn to divorce them from each other, yet remain wedded to both.

V. I will live this day as if it is my last

Today's so precious that I now can't afford to think of yesterday's miseries. After all, why throw good for bad? I will also not make the mistake in thinking about tomorrow all the time, forgetting the present. We keep dreaming, and every time we achieve one dream, immediately another turns up leaving no time for content on today's achievements. Is life just a relentless goal of achieving more and more? May be, but certainly not at the cost of today's happiness for what is life other than a collection of a day like today?

Equally important is to fulfill today's duties today. I will help a friend in need today as tomorrow, he may not be in need, or may be I won't be there to hear him cry. An offshoot of this is to avoid the indulgement of procastrination, for what control you have of tomorrow to assign today's deeds to tomorrow?

VI. I will learn to master my emotions

I need to learn this secret of ages: Weak is one who lets his actions controlled by thoughts; strong is one who forces his actions to control his thoughts. I need to learn to control my mood with which I wake up every day. When complacent, I think of competition. When overly proud, I think of a moment of weakness. When rich, I think of a unfed mouth. When overconfident, I think of a failure. I will master my moods through such positive action and will thus control my destiny.

VII. I will laugh at the world

Man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. I will laugh at the world, and most importantly at myself. Laughter helps digestion, improves health, makes you feel happy and thus help enjoy the success that I will attain.

Everyday, lots of petty things that happen might threaten to take laughter away. Still, if I can laugh, that misery too will pass. In fact, if I believe that this misery or success too will pass, I can laugh at my successes and my failures and these ups and downs will then shrink to their right size.

However powerful I become, however wise I may become, if I cannot laugh at myself, I will still be poor. I will be happy and I will laugh. I will then be successful.

VIII. I will multiple my value a thousandfold

I will keep my goals high, and not make the mistake of aiming too low. I will set my goals for the day, week and month and aim to better the best performance I have done. I will also announce my goals to the world. They may laugh at my dreams, but I will strive to achieve them lest I lose face. Still, I will never proclaim my achievements and learn to recieve any praise in all humility.

I will keep my reach out of my grasp. Will aim higher than what I did. I will multiple my value throughout the day.

IX. I will act now

My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust and goals are worthless unless I act now. I will wake up from the bed and work while the failure sleeps another hour. Tomorrow, the failure might become strong, but I am not a failure. I will act now.

Only action fetches me value and I will learn to work when the failure rests, talk when the failure is silent, will say it's done before the failure says it is too late.

Success will not wait. This is the place. This is the time. I am the man. I will act.

X. I will pray and seek His Guidance.

I wish not to pray for material things, not even to get opportunities that match my abilities. Instead I choose to pray to help me find the way to achieve these things. Only for guidance, I will pray.

Let me become all that you planned for me when my seed was planted and selected by to sprout in the vineyard of the world. Help me by guiding me.


All said and done, great ideas and practices are always easy to know and toughest to implement. Join me in this arduous but fruitful struggle of trying to implement few of the good lessons that experience has taught many a successful person. Goodbye, till my next post.

Lady Luck visits me again

For a long time, I have had this feeling that I am a lucky person. Yesterday I lost my books and notes in a very strange way. Having opted to study in the library, I left my material in the mess-table (the norm) before dinner only to find it disappear after food.

Losing something I can't buy/get back worries me too much, often unnecessarily. My notes which contained a gist of everything I read and attended last month was the most precious thing for me, which is of very less value to others. Thus losing my one month's effort not only worried me, but surprised me.

I did the "Sherlock Holmes" work. After receiving no response from two batch mails and many random enquiries, I decided to visit every room in the hostel in a bid to locate my books. Dissapointed with the negative result, I decided to drop the whole matter and continue studying.

Time for Lady's visit: I was playing around with a tennis ball in my floor, and the ball did the inevitable. It fell to the ground floor and when I went around to pick it up, I met a friend who led me to the books!!!

Though nothing great, it certainly means a lot to me. Luck and me, going strong for the moment!!

My "belated bday" at MDI

(As typed on 20 June, 2005)

Easily my best day in MDI so far. These guys proved that having a birthday during summers cannot be an excuse for not celebrating. My room-mate, Shubham has been plotting this for quite some time now and today was the day as all of us wanted a break and at around 8:30, we headed to Solitaire, a restaurant near MDI for my "belated birthday" treat.

The team had many of my good friends here.

Animesh, oldest of all of us is an extremely lovable chap, a die-hard movie fan is from Bihar. Nick: Bhudda

Arpan, a Rajastani who knows tamil very well, is an avid reader and a ardent critic. Nick:Arpan

(Arpan on the left and Himanshu on the right)

Himanshu, an IITian who loves food and food only is from Delhi. Nick: "Golu"

Kedar, my neighbour is the soft, nice and very popular guy among girls and comes from Bombay. Nick: Kedu, King

Tamanna, known for her hysterical and uncontrollable laughter is from Jammu. Nick: Queen

Mohit, a CA, is our class representative known for his secret outings with batch-mates. Nick: Mo-Ja

Rahul, the dancer from Assam, is our studious and food-loving guy, known for his dirty dancing expertise. Nick: Partner

Shubhi, our chubby little friend, known for her geared laughter is from Delhi. Nick: Scuby Doo

Shubham, my roomie, a brilliant engineer (read gold medalist) is from Haryana. Nick: Lamba

(above picture taken in our room)

Sowmya, a BITS engineer is the best singer we have here in campus and is from Hyderabad. Nick: Sowmya

After a fabulous time at the restaurant, which included birthday song singing, teasing, and photo-clicking, we had a good walk back to reach our campus at 11:40. Shubham and others had planned a birthday party, which usually starts by sending a batch mail informing of the event. Following was the trigger puller by Kedar:

Subject:Don't be late for this belated birthday

He's learnt Hindi

Be it

"Sarkailo Khatiya jada lage"

Or

"Dhoom kala kala kala kala kala Hu ha hu ha"

The Madrasi has charmed us all for one year

Let's be there to show our warmth and strength and how fond are we of him

And of course

His beloved roomie - Lambu dada


Belated Happy Birthday Arvind T (May 4)
tonite i.e 20th june and time ofcourse 12 midnight

And Kedar did the good job of personally calling as many people as possible to hit me. The rest too must have done this conspiracy without my knowledge. Had a beating of my lifetime, the hardest one being my room-mate Shubham's. The best part of birthday parties, as I now realize, is that their roomies are also hit on their back. Seizing the opportunity of a "friendly" return of pleasantries, I kicked him my best. The rest too joined and it looked like he got lot more heavy foots on his back than me.

We proceeded to the traditional cake-smacking and believe me, one full cake on the face and head didn't feel very good. Though I put back the cake on the people around me, I still was beyond easy recognition. Then the cake for eating arrived and as usual it was snatched from all quarters before even the bday song managed to finish.

Rahul had to give us a lot of entertainment today. He was late for the party by about 15 minutes and the reason was that he was on the rounds with a good friend who is Rahul's dance partner on all discos held here. We kicked him enough for the same. As we were posing for a group photo, we found Rahul trying to force some cake on another good friend of mine who just arrived there. People, seeing this went crazy laughing, esp when Animesh aired a timely comment, "Birthday kiska hai?"

After all the commotion and a bath, we settled on my room and we were waiting for Rahul who said he will come to the room to offer us an "explanation" for his absence during midnight. Poor guy, he had to face so much of comment which actually entertained the group here. The fun went to extremes when Shubham and Kedar imitated Rahul's favourite dancing moves with his dance partner in my room. I fell laughing, so did others. Animesh made the heroic entry with his handicam and got all of us on video. Bowing is an act of respect for people who make significant advances in life, invented by Animesh. The day ended at 2am by bowing to mark our respects to Rahul, the hero for the day and then we were back to square one thinking of our immediate problems:
1. What to do regarding the numerous pre-readings and an assignment due for tomorrow?
2. How to sleep amidst terrible heat wave conditions here (max of 46 C)

And then the days went on, as usual...

Smoke Free Zone

May 31 is marked in calendars across the world as World No Tobacco Day. Tobacco, one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide, is more harmful than one can imagine. Join me in spreading the awareness and saying no to tobacco.

Following are comments by Dr Thimmappa Hegde and Dr Arvind Bhateja, Consultant Neurosurgeons, HOSMAT Hospital, Bangalore.

Hard to quit?
Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times."
Maybe you've tried to quit too. Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine. Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It is highly addictive - as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Over time, the body becomes physically and psychologically dependent on nicotine. Nicotine produces pleasurable feelings that make the smoker want to smoke more. It also acts as a depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. After a while, the smoker develops a tolerance to the drug, which leads to an increase in smoking over time. When smokers try to cut back or quit, the absence of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and psychological. Physically, the body is reacting to the absence of nicotine. Psychologically, the smoker is faced with giving up a habit, which is a major change in behavior. Both must be dealt with if quitting is to be successful.

Why Quit?

Your health: Smoking increases the risk of lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smokers are twice as likely to die from heart attacks as are nonsmokers.

Cost: Smoking is expensive. The economic costs of smoking are estimated to be about Rs 200,000 per smoker per year.

Social acceptance and health of others

Setting an example for others and children

How to Quit?

..By Setting a 'Quit' date and deciding on a plan Once you've made a decision to quit, you're ready to pick a quit date. This is a very important step. Pick a specific day within the next month as your 'Quit Day'. Picking a date too far in the future allows you time to rationalize and change your mind. But do give yourself enough time to prepare and come up with a plan. You might choose a date that has a special meaning like a birthday or anniversary, or simply pick a random date. Circle the date on your calendar. Make a strong, personal commitment to quit on that day.There is no one right way to quit. Most tobacco users prefer to quit "cold turkey" - that is, abruptly and totally. They use tobacco until their Quit Day and then stop all at once, or they may cut down on tobacco for a week or 2 before their Quit Day. Another way involves cutting down on the number of times tobacco is used each day. With this method, you gradually reduce the amount of nicotine in your body.

While it sounds logical to cut down in order to quit gradually, in practice this method is difficult. Quitting tobacco is a lot like losing weight; it takes a strong commitment over a long period of time. Users may wish there was a magic bullet - a pill or method that would make quitting painless and easy. But that is not the case. Nicotine substitutes can help reduce withdrawal, but they are most effective when used as part of a stop tobacco use plan that addresses both the physical and psychological components of quitting.

(Information Sourced from Wipro's Intranet Site)

Kudos to the Govt. for having made mandatory today (under the Tobacco Control Act) the display of a scroll with a health warning when programmes containing smoking scenes or showing use of other forms of tobacco are aired in cinema. Certainly goes a step ahead in plugging one of the many loopholes.

A Day in Pondicherry

The trip again by the ECR road evoked fond memories of college days. Though I was there for a day only, I had a great time. Few memorable events

@ the farm house:
The swimming and walking races between the five of us: me, vram, nil, vjku and siva were too good. VRam showed us new stunts of floating like a log, Siva taught us the physics behind walking in water and Nilava/Vijaykumar taught us all to swim professionally.

@ Met with old friends' :
Right back from a hour long swim we started meeting at all our old friends' places and I had a wonderful time meeting them and their families. I also made a trip to the hostel to meet up with the junior hostelers. They brought back memories of the grand hostel life @ PEC. But was sad to know hardly anything has changed in the place, not even the toilets!!

@ Siva's house:
Started off with watching "The ShawShank Redemption" with Nil, Vj and Siva and had a long discussion about our career and future in the terrace before we happily dozed off under the open sky.

In short, 24 hours well spent in the place I like so much!!

It's all in the day

If after graduating from b-school, there is one learning that I would want to be constantly reminded of, is the preciousness and perishability of time.

Describing a day in a b-school is probably the most easiest of all as you just have to pick almost any day and the situation remains just the same. One of the taxing days in recent times was the last Friday and I choose to describe it in today's blog.

0.00 am: In the Tennis court with Kedar, a close friend from Bombay. The set position is tied at 2-2 and both of us were enjoying the game under flood lights. In another 30 mins, I had won the set 6-4 and we decided to stop and get back to "routine".

1.00 am: Refreshed by the game, I decided to read (called pre-reading) for the next day's Operations Management session and read for an hour.

2.00 am: The day's evening class is Prof. T.P. Ghosh's Corporate Finance and that is one of the subjects that I love here. The teacher is a visiting professor, a very experienced practical genius, who is also the Chairman of Indian Chartered Accounts Institute. I prepared for his class for another 90 minutes before I decided to sleep early to be fresh for the 8:30 lecture.

3:30 am-8:00 am: Managed to find sleep amidst huge uproar and laughter outside the room, thanks to a few girls who were supposedly "studying".

8:00-8:30 am: Cramped up brushing, shaving, bathing and also breakfast and running to the class to reach on time.

8:30-10:00 am: "Research Methods of Business" class was taken by two professors. Nothing much to comment here.

10:00-12:00 am: Operations Management, one of my favourites this term.

12:00 noon: Time for some bad news. Just the moment I thought there is a huge opportunity to sleep for 2 hours, I found the notice that we need to be in the classes again at 2:00pm for an Economics Quiz.

12:30-2:00pm: The time to sleep had to be given to preparing for the quiz and I did just that, missing my lunch in the process (which by the way rarely happens). We also had to report at the auditorium at 2:30 pm for a guest lecture by a General Manager from Ranbaxy.

2:00pm-2:15pm: The Quiz went well thanks to my "Just in Time" preparation and dressed in a new navy suit, I dashed to the auditorium to save the fine of Rs 200 in case you are a minute late for a guest lecture.

2:15pm: The session was initially planned for a duration of 2 hours, but the session almost went till 5:45 pm before a professor handed in a chit to the General Manager, requesting him to end the class as students had a regular lecture (of TP Ghosh) at 6:00 pm in the academic block.

5:55pm: Jha-Ji, the snack store, adjacent to the classes has many a time been my life-saver. I had two paneer patties, as a consolation for the missed lunch and a coffee to keep me awake for my favourite class. And as always, the coffee served its purpose and one and a half hours later, I happily came out, happy for having learnt something substantial in the class.

7:30pm: The choice would have been to sleep, but the adrenaline is all pumped up as the week-end approaches and this week-end was no different. I played few online computer games and then listened to a huge list of tamil songs, all the while typing few mails.

9:00pm: Working after good food is a pain best avoided and hence socialised around for another hour, before playing another game in a friend's comp in a failed attempt to break the best record.

10:00pm: The mood to study is still not there and in such a moment, the offer to play tennis is the most welcome thing on earth and soon I was out there in the court.

11:30pm: The day was a rotten one, but the classes next day morning would still be held and I needed to prepare for an hour, which I reluctantly did.

00:45am: I would have slept for sure had not somebody reminded me that a case study(analysis of a story of a business situation with facts) has been planned by the Strategy Prof. Amit Kapoor. I started reading the Harvard Business Review case and finised the forty odd pages in around two hours and was then was off to sleep at 3:00am.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday that followed was extremely relaxing this time with a lot less work to do and I made the best use of the time by either chatting or sleeping. I also watched "Behind Enemy Lines" and had dinner outside with friends.

Today: It's almost 3am now and I better sleep or I would have to put a fight to stay awake in tomorrow's class. And before I end, my first blog at last is up and I am excited about it. Now time to hit the bed.