Keynote address - IIM Bangalore - Shah Rukh Khan

My favorite movie star , Shah Rukh Khan, was at my alma mater , IIM Bangalore, delivering the keynote address for a leadership summit the day before.

I am putting it here on my blog for two reasons -

1) It is 'Straight from the heart'
2) The previous post on my blog is about a keynote address at IIM - by me !   Its good to be in Shah Rukh Khan's company on my blog pages.

Here is what he had to say -

Thank you to Saif and team to put all this together. Good evening to the Alumni of IIM, the faculties, students and distinguished guests.

I was so pleased with myself when Mrs. Shaw requested me to give the keynote lecture for this alumni conclave until I saw the alumni list. My mind suddenly froze up like the icebergs in Iceland where I have just shot my latest song, and I thought, “What will I say to all these wonderfully wise people?”

For a second I contemplated sending a stunt double but then I read a joke about the wisdom of all you amazing achievers from IIM. The joke made it clear to me that all of you are extremely wise, but your wisdom is of a different kind from us lesser mortals. It went something like this….it was about a kid who claimed he was too good for the standard 1 that he was in and should be promoted to the fourth standard. He was marched to the principal’s office and for gender equality reasons; obviously the principal was a lady. She thought the kid should be given a fair chance, as ladies are always fair and said she would ask him a few questions and if he will answer them right…he will be promoted to the fourth standard. Her first question to him was…what does a cow have four of that I have only two of? Boy after a moment…Legs.
What is in your pants that you have but I do not have. Boy…pockets.
What does a lady do sitting down a man does standing up and a dog does with his one leg raised. Boy…shake hands.
What starts with F and ends with K is a four letter word and if you don’t get it, you have to use your hand….boy confidently…A Fork.
The principal looks at the teacher and tells him, send him to the IIM…he will fit in there just perfect.
That gave me some confidence to stand before you all. Maybe in your quest for knowledge, you all might have overlooked some very basic and simple truths…so here I am…to widen your sphere on how normal mortals would have answered those questions.
I am no guru in creative leadership so please bear me with some compassion and patience and do excuse my humour.
The essence of creativity is the ability to channelize imagination into expression and build from it something new and possibly ingenious. Whether it is an art form or a scientific invention or discovering a new way of doing the same old thing…it begins in the mind. A mind that does not function within the framework of boundaries but constantly searches beyond them is a mind that is able to create anew. The cornerstone of leadership, I believe, is nothing more than cultivating the discipline and courage to nurture and sustain such a mind while constantly calling the bluff of the illusory limits imposed by life.
See I am fifty. An age where you most likely are making retirement plans not romantic plans. But here I am still coochie cooing girls my children’s age. And no they don’t look up to me, actually they can’t because they are all taller than me, they treat me as their age/equal having been put in the position of someone who is a romantic hero, I have cultivated a belief that I can love them back as beautifully as any man can age notwithstanding. With respect dignity and put in my own experiences of life, which younger heroes won’t have. Though I must admit girls having a bit of a father fixation, comes in handy with my endeavors.
Leaders are able to assimilate experience in order to reframe the world around themselves on their own terms. They use the very structure of life to dismantle it. They are not afraid to question, to imagine, to dream and to believe. They are also not afraid to act even if their actions might not result in success.
There is an old song I always turn to, when I am faced with adversity. Being a public figure most of my actions and intentions are questioned, reviewed and sometimes loved and sometimes even distorted. Ranging from praising my sexiness to questioning my sexuality, I get it all. But whenever I feel thwarted I think of this song…Hum to ACT karega. Duniya se nahi darega. Chahye ye zamaana kahe humko deewana kahe hum toh ACT karega.
Many books have been written on leadership skills, on methods and models for it but in my view, it really isn’t all that complicated. To be able to dream unencumbered, to imagine and hang on to a boundless mind filled with ideas so that you never stop renewing yourself and the world around you whether it is your inner world, your consciousness or your outer world that encompasses your profession and your relationships is essential to leadership. But dreaming is not enough, its also important to be able to dismantle the old, the frameworks that are laid out before you, the ideas that you yourself cling to, the ones that hold you back and prevent you from growing. It is by disassembling your fears of failing, of losing (not just things, but people and positions), and most of all- of change that you can be truly creative not just in the things you choose to do, but in the way you view your part in the world you inhabit.
I meet many successful people in the world of business and I often find that while their ideas are very clear, the way they speak of them is oddly dispassionate. The madness and passion are missing. I get the sad impression that business often becomes numerical: about millions and targets or it ends up being so goal driven that there is a stark loss of inspiration from it. I think the emphasis on organizational goals and efficiency has clouded the poetry of creating. Perhaps because of the artistic basis of the work I do, it is difficult for me to relate to this starkness. I feel it lacks life. Creation cannot be a managerial concept/notion, no matter how good the idea is, it has to be an “imaginerial” conception. To lead means to inspire, and you cannot inspire people mechanically or through numerical (with all due respect…unless they are stock brokers or bankers!!). Inspiration is an emotional construct. To make people believe in anything, whether it is a product, a story, an idea, or you: you need to connect their ability to imagine and dream with your own.
You can’t create within a box with unbending walls. It is an open process, one that is welcoming and wild. To abandon that inclusive wildness for a narrowly defined goal is illusory. I have never set one- truly. I have never set out to earn a particular amount, to count the crores at the box office or to compare my worth with anyone else’s. In fact I would go as far as saying that quantifiable goals are indeed illusions. The only reality is hard work.
Diligence is imperative to both creativity and leadership. Making the mistake of thinking that your dreams will take flight without you having to flap madly at those wings to get up into the sky is plain silly. In my experience, its great to delegate, but there’s no short cut to working hard. To know and to understand what you are doing, to be open to learning about it and from it, every single moment requires diligence. It requires work. If you want to excel at something there shouldn’t be a single person around you who can claim to be more familiar with its mechanics than you are. Its non negotiable to strive and to be familiar with your trade. Life remains ordinary if you are unable to sustain the capacity to work hard on your dreams. If you aren’t determined to get there- you won’t. And this is a paradoxical thing because I’ve heard many people say that you need to know where you’re going to be determined about reaching there but it hasn’t been the case with me. I never knew my destination, I can’t even claim to know it today…Now that I am on the cover of Forbes India, is that where I wanted to be as a businessman.
My IPL team has won the championship and its profitable, is that the dream I had for a sporting franchise venture. I have a film running in a cinema hall for the last twenty years…should that be the attempt in terms of achievement for my next film. No I don’t think so. I believe goals actually limit our ambitions and desire. I don’t mean that don’t have goals, but call them milestones…think of them as a passing moment of excellence and keep on striving harder for a place which can’t be defined or confined by names or numbers. I have never set goals but I have truly never done a single thing that I wasn’t determined to do the best. I had no idea where it would take me for the most part of it, but I had the idea that I would do whatever it was with a determination that would scare everyone else away.
No matter how hard we work, however, leadership implies being prepared for disaster. And it will come. If it doesn’t hit you like a tsunami washing away your house and home…it’ll show up some other way, as failure maybe, or then by taking away something (or someone) you loved and believed in… so what are you going to do about it? You can cry and wallow. I do that often and I am not ashamed to admit it. I do that in a special corner reserved for tears in my huge golden bathroom. Somewhere between the Jacuzzi and the steam room, I sit on the floor and shed huge tears of self pity, persecution and how the world doesn’t understand my genius and effort….but then I take a hot and cold shower and walk out wearing my limited edition cologne… ready to embrace disaster. So a bit of wallowing and crying is ok… but the thing to understand is that if you learn how to welcome disaster you overcome it. So what if everything gets turned on its head, change your perspective- do a hand stand- don’t sit there staring at the ruins, start getting bits of you together and rebuilding yourself. That’s what leadership is about after all. Besides a “perfect life” is a farce. God isn’t making utopian ad films and screening them on the clouds to sell it’s USP to you. It’s a man made idea and we’re buying into it all the time. Actually, there is nothing more beautiful than the imperfection of life. Creativity is about taking this imperfection and translating into something beauteous. In my trade, life serves as a fertile ground for innovation and ideas. We use its imperfection every moment. In fact there is really nothing that allows us to create better or to live better than trouble so why not embrace it and embrace ourselves too in the bargain. And while we are embracing, lets embrace destiny too ( in my case I will embrace Kajol, Madhuri and Alia also, which unfortunately doesn’t come in your perks package whichever company you join or create…ha ha) because Destiny isn’t what it’s rolled out to be either. Accidents happen (I am a living proof of an accidental movie star/entrepreneur/speaker at an IIM gathering. I wanted to be a sportsman. Represent India hopefully as a hockey or a cricket player. Suddenly I hurt my back. Didn’t have the resources to get the best treatment. Joined a theater group to fill in time and overcome my sadness of not being able to play at a professional level. Father died and we were evicted from our rented house. Mother went looking for a smaller place and the dealer’s father in law was making a series, called Fauji. My mother sent me to him and he cast me as Abhimanyu Rai in the serial. Things went ballistic from there. I got film offers and one thing led to another, and I became a movie star. By the way we never took the house from the dealer, Mr. Dhawan who actually got me on the road to stardom. And my mother didn’t live long enough to see my work either). I realize now that hurting my back wasn’t an accident, being here speaking to you all is the larger happier accident. So destiny plays a part for sure and no one can teach us either how to find it or how to chase it. Just like disaster, it will come your way but if you don’t have the courage to ride its wave when it does, it’ll toss you right back on the beach and all you’ll get to see is the sunset of a tired and weary life (plus your backside will be sore!). So I would advise keeping your eyes open for life’s magic and not turning away from it citing practicality and good reason. There isn’t one. Be brave enough to face your destiny, to sacrifice for it and compromise for it if you have to. It will always be worth it. To imagine that you know better than life is the silliest (and possibly the most costly) mistake one can ever make.
To conclude, I’d like to borrow from my latest endeavour of creativity- Dilwale and say that unless you live by the heart, unless you are Dilwale, none of this will truly translate into the splendour that life is capable of unfolding before you. The mind is the seed of creativity but the heart is the soil. That seed cannot grow without an open heart. To be able to love, to give, to share, to nurture, to take others along on your journey with as much goodwill for them as you have for yourself is the basis of all creative endeavour, of all real success, of all happiness and of true leadership. If you close up your heart to the world, if you choose to live your life on parameters that let you forget how to love, you will dishonor life and disallow it from honouring you. There is no greater creativity in life or leadership than the ability to touch each moment that you are living with the beauty of living it by your heart, to give back to life the fullness that it has had the generosity to give to you.
And that joke I cracked about the little kid…giving all abnormal answers to basic questions….was just a joke. I really think all of you from IIM are very sexy and cool. Actually I must admit it’s really next to impossible to find such a combination of smart and sexy in so many people together. It’s an honour to be amidst you, and talk with you, for it does get lonely just talking to myself in the corner of my golden bathroom.

Thank you.

Keynote address - IIM-Vizag - Deepak Sapra

I was among the three IIM-Bangalore alumni invited to deliver the keynote address to the students of IIM-Visakhapatnam (IIM-V) today,

The institution was inaugurated this week and got its first batch of students, becoming the newest IIM in the country. I had a great time sharing my thoughts with the incoming students.
 Appended below -

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Fifteen years ago, I was sitting at the inauguration of our batch at IIM Bangalore, listening to a keynote speaker. When the speaker finished, the forum was opened up for questions.
One of the boys in the row in front of me asked – “For those who are on the fast track, how long will it take to become a CEO” ? The speaker mumbled an answer, his answer no match for the sharpness of the question.

After some time, the dust began to settle and people embarked on their journey. I will spend the next few minutes talking about these journeys- of some of the people who journeyed through IIM Bangalore with me. I would have loved to share many more stories, but owing to the time constraints, I will have to stick to just a few. All of these are stories of my batch mates at IIM Bangalore, and will give you a sense of what I want to be the essence of this talk.

Let me start with the first story.

It is about the tiny Rashmi Toshniwal- who was also one of the youngest in our batch. She went through IIMB, got into a corporate career and somewhere along the way discovered her love for the sketchbook. She took to pencil and charcoal sketching and started posting her sketches on facebook. Her proficiency grew by the post, and so did her expertise and eye for capturing the right kind of expression on the sketch. Recently, she had an exhibition titled ‘Strokes of Black’ at a restaurant called Chez moi in Bombay. Today, there is no looking back, and her talent in this area keeps blossoming by the sketch.

My next story is about Yashodhara Lal, another of my Section A classmates. ‘Author. Mother. Marketer.’ Is how she describes herself. After IIMB,  she went to HLL. Got married. Had a child. And then had twins. Went through some very difficult experiences. As she raised her children, she started blogging. Parts of the blog morphed into what became her first book, ''Just Married, Please Excuse”. "After 3 children, she came up with 3 novels in 3 years" is how she sums this up her life over the last few years.

The third story is about Nisheeta Bajaj. Post IIMB, she got into consulting with the BCG group. And then joined another consulting firm, the Hay group. Somewhere along the way, she seemed to have found her calling. In the art of living. Today, when she speaks about the secret of the breath and the way breathing can change your life , she is talking straight from the heart about something she sees as a way of life.

Next, lets hear the story of Rahul verma- While at IIMB , people called him Mr. International. He would be the heart throb of every exchange student on campus. Or so he claimed. Those days, he used to spend hours chatting on yahoo messenger (that was a primitive pre historic messenger ) to all kinds of strangers trying to work his charm through emoticons and the IIM brand. On one such random chat, he met Daniela. One chat lead to another. To cut to the chase, the yahoo messenger chat led to them meeting up in person, and subsequently getting married. A near first for something like that accomplished more than a decade and a half ago.

Ajay Singh’s story is next. Before joining IIM, he was a tourist guide in Delhi.  He went through the IIM course, and joined Dr. Reddy’s Labs. Several Impressive achievements during the decade he spent at Dr reddy’s, the last few years being in the USA office . Then one day, I saw his facebook post- it was just after the movie English Vinglish was released. In the movie, Sridevi enrols at a  New York English learning school and takes sweets for her classmates.  Ajay’s post said- “Sridevi makes ladoos. We make complex medicines. I have become an entrepreneur”. He started Slayback Pharma, which he says, was founded on the principle of “connecting the dots and connecting one idea with another to develop complex drugs. Through this process of drug development, he aims at reducing the cost of therapy by bringing expensive branded medicines within the reach of patients. It is so thrilling to know that he is well on his way, and has started filing products with the United States FDA for examination and approval.

We continue to stay on  in the US east coast, for my next story – that of Karan Bajaj.  After IIMB, P&G and BCG happened, he kept flowing. Somewhere along the way, backpacking and mountaineering got firmly established as key interests, and he converted his experience of travelling into three published books.   Today, he is a bestselling novelist and likes to describe himself as a striving Yogi. He lives and works in New York and some months ago, took a one year sabbatical to become a Hatha Yoga teacher in a South Indian Ashram, meditating in the Himalayas and living as a Buddhist Monk in a Scottish monastery. He has since returned to his corporate job in New York and keeps sharing his learning from living a Yogic life in the heart of the material world

When people speak of the material world, very few places have the kind of materialistic stuff on display as a big fat Indian wedding. That was the subject of one of her photo essays, and is also the subject of my next story, the story of Shilpi Choudhury. She converted her post IIM, post first job situation into a passion and depth for photography.  She recently wrote about people gifting themselves with something that could be with them for years  -  the skill of photography. She runs photography workshops, specializing in food and people photography. A break from the corporate world made her look at photography in a different 'light' and it became a form of expression and a career path.

My next story is about Aditya Mishra- he joined IIM Bangalore from a modest background with modest educational credentials. That  did not deter him from keeping the spark of doing something worthwhile burning inside. After going through the drill at TCS, he became  the founder CEO of switchme,in , a platform that allows people like you and me to compare and save on their existing home loans by switching them to those banks of financial institutions that best suit a lender’s situation. His customized solution to switch lenders has so far helped home owners save more than 225 crores. Yes, you got that number right.  225 Crore Rupees, almost 35 Million dollars.

From switchme, I switch to the story of Abhishek Sanghvi. He completed his IIM and did the usual stuff- JP Morgan Chase, Capital One. He also relocated to the US. A few years later, he moved back to his hometown Indore to take a shot at running a management institute, which he did quite successfully. He founded a group called iLead, which ran initiatives in education and consulting. He later founded  Crinis Power, a turnkey solution provider for setting up Solar power projects. Such impressive accomplishments do not come without focus. Yes, he was the guy who asked the question on fast track at our inauguration, fifteen years ago, which I spoke about at the beginning of this talk. Given his range of accomplishments, he was justified in asking that question.

I will quickly go through a few more stories – that of Ayer Prakash Hamabhai. He came into IIM from a very modest background. Through sheer perseverance, he worked his way up and joined the IT sector. He continues steadily, and his break from the past has spurred his immediate and extended family make a lot of difference. I have personally seen him not bat an eyelid wherever any charity is required or asked for. His accomplishments have also spurred many more from his family and community to feel encouraged to invest in education.

Having taken you through these small little stories of my batchmates, I want to share a little bit about the choices I made while at the IIM.  In the second year, all subjects were electives and the general consideration in choosing them was interest / placement / flair. I chose my electives not on any of these criteria; rather, on the TIME TABLE. The reason to choose electives on the basis of the time table was ensure that all my classes got over on two days of the week (Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 Am to 8 PM, flat out)  and I could have a 5 day weekend.

In doing so, I could experience many of the other things that IIMB had to offer – most importantly, chatting up with my friends in G-Block.  The time table principle also enabled me to have an eclectic mix of subjects- from POPS (patterns of problem solving) to STIA (Self transformation Indian approaches) to MM (Multinational Management) to MBFI (managing banks and financial institutions).

The only downside was that it made me miss out on the flagship course run by Prof Ram-C - Corp strat. The reason was that his classes were not on the days my time table was fitting in. That choice led me tp miss out on his outstanding ways of looking at strategy and keeping the class enthralled.

However, I can look back with a great deal of satisfaction that I did manage to experience in full the Late Prof  Thiru’s outstanding take on all things marketing (with some of his immortal punchlines on Tata and Bata, on Customer and Kasht-Mar) and Prof Vijay Kumar’s ability to marry multinational management with economics and an in-your-face, socio-political analysis from India to Pakistan to Washington to China.

The other big gain for me in making the time table choice was that it gave me a wide variety of perspectives, especially with the exchange students. It enabled me to appreciate and understand them and their context from a socio-economic standpoint – a skill that is put to test every day in my current job at Dr Reddy’s Labs, a healthcare firm that tries to democratize health by promoting access and affordability to innovative medicines. The learning through the interactions with these exchange students also encouraged me to become an early adaptor of sharing economy, through things like the hospitality club and couchsurfing.

In sharing all the above stories, the point I want to make is essentially one- MAXIMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE, in whichever way you deem fit. There will be no better place to build the repertoire of your experience than HERE and no better time than NOW. As we keep building on the portfolio of experience, we see new possibilities emerge.  So reach out, connect, talk, walk, do all those things that you might not have not done before. This place will give you access to a host of outstanding individuals- I encourage you to share a slice of your life with them, and keep moving on this journey into the world of possibility.

The second point I want to make is about something that is unique to you as a group. You are the ones who are starting the journey for IIM Visakhapatnam. This places you at a point where very few have the privilege of being. Not just in terms of the obvious, but also in terms of BUILDING A CULTURE for the institution.

I will  talk to you for a couple of minutes about a place I was very fortunate to have spent four memorable years of my life as part of my undergraduate course.

It was a place called Jamalpur Gymkhana, the hostel for the Indian Railways Institute of mechanical and electrical engineering, where I trained as an engineer, as part of a program called the SCRA. The Special Class Railway Apprentices' (SCRA) scheme was started in 1927 to meet the demand for engineers on the EIR (East Indian Railway) and on the GIP (Great Indian Peninsular) Railway. The SCRAs are selected by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on the basis of an all- India competitive examination, and, on completion of the course, get absorbed into the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers.

A total of about 1200 SCRAs have been selected from 1927 to now,  making an average of about 14 recruits per year.  Many left the IITs to join SCRA, not just for the attractive career it offered as part of the Indian Railways service, but also because of the of the feeling of awe. The feeling of awe was driven by the culture. A culture, which, right from the first batch, has been characterized by an extraordinary sense of esprit de corps and camaraderie, a culture which gives me full rights to walk into any alumni’s home or workplace unannounced, with full privileges. Today, I know each and every one of the 748 alumnus who are alive, and they know me. This is not just by name, but in full detail. This is not a result of any app on the smartphone, but an outcome of an extraordinary culture that got built up through the years, starting with the batch that pioneered it all.

Today, as you embark on your journey at IIM V, the culture of the future is there for the shaping. And the role that you will play, as the first batch, will be far more pivotal than any other official activity that can ever be performed. You are entitled to an irrational belief in your abilities to make it happen.

In closing, I will reiterate two simple things-

Maximize the repertoire of your experience. By doing so, you will see a world of infinite possibilities emerge, some of which I narrated from the bio sketches of some of my batch mates who were sitting in a room like this fifteen years ago. One good way to check the worth of the two years you will spend here will be the score on experience (and not on a placement salary)

And the other, which is unique to your situation, is to be the creators of a new culture, a culture that IIM V ‘s future generations will look up to, and which you look back upon with a great deal of pride and fondness.

Enjoy the journey.
Bon voyage. 

The world's best maintenance manager

Which is the most complex piece of machinery in the world?
Without an iota of doubt, the human body. Like all machines, this one too needs maintenance.

Periodic, Preventive. And breakdown. And to do that, it needs a maintenance manager, who knows the machinery inside out, and also knows how it works under different conditions.

This is about my maintenance manager.

My mom !

It’s been more than two decades since i left home for studies and then for work. I and my parents live in different cities, a thousand miles apart. Nowadays, I see them every few months, when i visit them, or when they visit me.

Whenever we meet, my mother would bring to the fore the best engineering skills that can be mustered- in spite of the fact that she has no formal training in engineering. She will very quickly get into the thick of things better than the best trained engineer in the world.

Her standard operating procedure involves checking on my nails, the dandruff in my hair, and dryness on my feet. Each of these 'known' and 'recurrent' maintenance issues have established mechanisms through which they are evaluated and subsequently addressed. The 'special' Japanese nail cutter will come out from the closet to ensure my nails are not only cut but also neatly shaped. I will be given special instructions for my dandruff. She will then oil my hair. And comb them.
A while later, she will get a bucket of hot water in which i have to dip my feet and stay like that for fifteen minutes so that the dryness goes away. She will then apply coconut oil on my feet to keep them going around in a nicely oiled condition.

She then commences her food and nutrition session - she will get mangoes, bananas, apples, papayas and whatever fruits are available to make a fruit salad out of those. She would cut them and decorate them in a nice salad bowl and keep running after me to feed them. I often fuss around complaining about the excess quantity she always feeds me. She knows that i have a particular liking for the Dahi Vadas and Nimbu pani she makes- these are ready whenever we meet. For protein intake, the maintenance manager has Rajma (red kidney beans) ready. The Periodic overhaul procedure works on the premise that between one trip to the home shed and the next, there should be adequate maintenance done to keep the machinery going.

Most of the time, this food and nutrition session results in a dose of over maintenance, with much more than necessary being fed. I fuss. She says it doesn’t matter. She runs after me trying to feed me.
Every morning, she gets me tea on the bed. And while i am having it, she would put her hand to my back, lest i fall down like an unbalanced six month old baby. I am still a toy for her. No more, or no less than what i was when i was born. We enjoy this sport.

It’s been more than two decades since we have been doing this. Many of my friends comment that i still continue to look very similar to what i used to when i was finishing school.

I think I know the reason. The periodic, preventive maintenance schedule, which is clear about the parameters to check, keeps a periodic track and takes actions to ensure the machine is running regular monitoring through data loggers. Plus that one additional ingredient whih has made my maintenance manager the best in the world; an ingredient that makes all the difference to all the things in this world. It’s called LOVE.

Coffee with a world champion

If you were to invite Usain Bolt for coffee (or Roger Federer or Sachin Tendulkar) and he were to accept the invitation at 'your' time and convenience, how would you feel?

Pretty much the same as I did when Feliks Zemmdegs accepted my (more accurately, my son Jaadoo's) invitation for a meeting over coffee.

Who is Feliks, you might ask?

He is the world's fastest 3 X 3 Rubik's cube solver, holds the world record for the fastest average time to solve the cube. He is someone who does it faster than you can count 10, consistently, every time and has been doing it for many years now. To put it in perspective, it is like running a 100m sprint every time in less than 9.6s, or consistently pole vaulting around 6.15 meters.

The Rubik's cube has long been one of the most popular puzzle games in the world, invented by Prof Erno Rubik from Hungary in 1974. Soon, the (magic) cube's popularity spread worldwide, and it achieved cult status in the 80s. Legend has it that offices banned employees from getting the cube with them to work because it was distracting them from their jobs. When i started doing the cube, as a child in the 80s, i had a small blue book which had solving instructions. Midway through the book was an instruction which said- "congratulations on getting this far. You can now put the cube in your office drawer and go to lunch, and resume when you are back"

Feliks started solving the cube at the age of 12, about seven years ago. In one year's time, he was able to solve it about 15 seconds. From then on, he has been steadily improving, and in the last six years, has improved his average by about 6 seconds, on an average an improvement of 1 second every year.  He still keeps practicing it, and while the world record he holds is for 6.54 seconds, there are times he has done the cube in less than 4 seconds while solving at home.

I ask him what goes through his mind when he gets a cube in hand. He says, "You look at the cube for a few seconds, decide what to do and get going. This planning helps in the first two steps or so, and the rest of it, you have to observe, plan and execute as you move along".

To me, this is more remarkable than, say, a sprint or a jump, in which the broad plan is to run as fast or jump as far as you can once you have seen the conditions. Here, you might need to do one set of moves, or another, during the course of play, depending on how one of the multiple combinations stack up, and thus, improvise and plan for the next steps along the way, while simultaneously executing the previous steps.

I am curious as to how far this can go. I ask Feliks, "Now that you are at this level, how much better can the timing get ? Can it keep improving ad infinitum ? Is there is a physical threshold to  solving a cube, and whether a 1 second solution could ever be possible.

He smiles gently and believes it is very unlikely.  But he keeps practicing every day. Every single day. About 45 minutes to an hour every day. And that helps him shave off a few fractions of a second every year.

What else, other than the 3 X 3, I ask him.

Feliks says that more challenging the 3 X 3 is the 4 X 4 cube. And then the 5 X 5. He believes that beyond a 5 X 5 cube, no matter how many more the squares keep increasing, the broad  principles remain the same. There is also some more stuff with the 3 X 3 cube, like blindfold solving and one handed solving. He is a brand ambassador for speed cubing and makes a few trips a year to popularize speed cubing. He also participates in 8-10 championships every year.

I ask him of life beyond the cube. There is a clear well thought out plan that Feliks has. He's taken up a commerce course at the university in Melbourne, and is keen to do engineering next. Feliks' achievements are stupendous.

But there is something more stupendous than that which strikes me.

It is his ability to be a soft, humble, smiling and friendly young man, at the wonderful age of 19. To be someone who explained a number of things to a child like Jaadoo with patience and respect, and treat him like a peer even though Jaadoo is currently at an average of 1 minute plus. Then, like a buddy, he spoke to Jaadoo about his school in India and whether children bring cubes to the class and stuff like that. He demonstrated a few things which he thought were important moves and which could help Jaadoo get better at solving the cube.

Feliks also spoke of other world level speed-cubers (and in a way his competitors) with a great degree of respect and admiration, for example Mats Valk of the Netherlands and Bhargava Narisamhan of India. He gave an autograph for Jaadoo on an Australian flag, and drew a Rubik's cube just below his signature.

To me, that is the stuff of champions. Be the best at your game, keep practicing consistently to get better, respect and admire your peers, and share your insights with youngsters who admire you and want to learn from you.

All the very best, Feliks !

From Eden Gardens to Eden Park, the joy of sport

It is not the incredible shots, it is not the crazy goals, it is not the improbable smashes. 

Sport moves us because it shows the humane side of sportspersons. People like you and me. Because for every big hit that it provides, there is a equally frail, equally human vulnerability that it exposes. 

None so much than yesterday, New Zealand vs South Africa, Cricket World Cup Semi Finals at Auckland in New Zealand. Sitting in the midst of 45,000 rapturous fans, one could sense the energy, earnestness, unpredictability and vulnerability of the men on the field. It was an intense occasion, one of the most intense I have seen. I have experienced the emotions of many a traditional rivalry, like an India-Pakistan, Botafogo-Flamingo, Germany-France, Boca Juniors – San Lorenzo, England-Australia. But here, it was the occasion. The fact that neither team had ever managed to reach the finals of the the world cup hung in the air. 

Predictably, it started off sedately, with people in the stands saying "why do they even have the 50 over matches". It came to life when the bail lights got activated on Hashim Amla's stumps. It moved along, and seemingly, South Africa were stealing the thunder and running away with it all when rain intervened. A drizzle became a downpour and halted the momentum, else it could have well been a 370 score with David Miller and AB D playing beautiful cricket shots to leave NZ clueless. 

The crowd enjoyed the break and the reprieve for NZ, and spent time eating and drinking, more of the latter. SA managed a good score at the end of their innings and the feeling was that this match would be theirs to lose, as they had made quite a handful. 

Start of the NZ innings and only someone as fearless and as nonchalant about the situation ( and about the opposition)  as Brendon McCullum could tear into one of the best attacks in the world. In fifteen minutes, it was mayhem and the crowd had gone absolutely crazy. You don't smack the fastest bowlers in the world on the front foot for six, that too when they are bowling their first over. Had we continued like this for another half an hour, the match could have been over and done with. The fearlessness of McCullum was more powerful than those of iconic fearless teams, like the Dutch football team of 1974, or the Sri Lankan cricket team of 1996. Yet, all along while he was doing this, there was a feeling in the crowd that something had to give way. It was too crazy to continue.  

Something did give way. He fell, doing the same thing. Human, after all. And a hush descended on Eden Park. I could correlate it to the scene at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta when Shoaib Akhtar yorked Sachin Tendulkar first ball, many years ago. Brendon walked back. He stopped for a fleeting second. Had he just crossed the line of fearlessness and recklessness and missed out on a once in a lifetime chance to take his country to sporting glory. 

From then on, it was always percentage play, and the tentativeness of the NZ team was in dramatic contrast to their captain's lack of it. A run-out, struggle against spin. It was trudging along. But was not likely to be good enough. 

Until, a South African born Kiwi, a doubtful selection for the team in the first place, came in and started quitely building his innings. Elliott got that one boundary every few overs which still kept everything in reachable range, but it seemed they were done for. It would be one more of the sad sagas, so near yet so far, for the black caps. AB led from the front. Diving and running after every ball as if life depended on it. Putting more than 100 percent into every bit of it. And the team too. Every throw had not one , but often two players backing up. Players flung themselves at teh ball every few minutes. Every run had to be earned through the brow of Kiwi sweat. Giving more 100% on the field. 

it was then that the crowd decided to make things lively. And started bucking the team up. It bucked up the home team, kept their spirits alive, cheered not just good singles, but also nicely played dot balls. As things got to the business end, Mexican waves started going through the Eden Park. It went once. twice. thrice... five times. A six halted the wave's progression. But took the applause to a crescendo. 

And so, we got to the fateful last over. Game still on. Elliott, playing against the country of his birth and Professor Daniel Vettorri, an unlikely pair for New Zealand. When Vettorri cut Steyn for four, there was a surge of expectancy in the crowd. The superstitious ones stopped moving. Then a single to the professor. And five to win from two. Steyn against Elliott. A moment would make or mar the fortunes of both countries. For a lifetime of pride. Or regret. A hit here, or a miss there would make all the difference. 

Steyn charged in. Elliott smacked it away. A few tiers into the stands. Six. Dear o Dear. Mayhem, madness. NZ in the finals. And what does Elliott do ? He goes up to Dale Steyn and comforts him. In his moment of greatest glory. The two teams bundle together. McCullum has a long chat with AB. They gave it their all. It was a game, after all. But it was a spectacle. Not because of any theatrics or tantrums or sledging from either side. But because of both sides giving it everything they had, in a manner that would be a supreme tribute to not just cricket, but to joy of sport. And at the end of it, tears, hugs, pats. All the very vulnerable human emotions. Out in the open. On display by some of the greatest players in the world. Making for one of the most intense, and poignant cricket matches of all times. 

Thank you, South Africa. Thank you, New Zealand.

Who doesn't want to be a billionaire

Forbes magazine has just come out with its annual ritual- a list of the world's richest persons. I read this Billionaire issue for the first time ever.

Here are my top 10 observations from it.

1) You don't have to be born a billionaire to become one. A good proportion (28 of the top 50) are self-made billionaires. No inheritance. No silver spoon.  Whether it is someone like Bill Gates who everybody has heard of, or someone like Dilip Sanghvi who nobody outside of his industry in his country (pharma in India) has heard of, they represent the majority of the billionaires; those who came into the club through the dint of their own effort and enterprise.

2) Billionaires come from everywhere in the world. Not just the United States, Western Europe, China, India and Brazil. Even countries like Nepal, Guatemala, Guernsey have their billionaires. They come from megapolises, they come from the mid sized cities, they come from small towns.

3) You could be doing anything, as long as you are doing it well. You could be making software, offering financial advice, running a social network website, making medicines, creating video games, retailing, making chocolates, making chocolate spreads, brewing beer, dabbling in real estate, designing clothes, offering internet search services, running a casino, selling shoes. All of this can make you a billionaire.

4) There are some in their 20s, and some in their 90s. And everywhere in between. Age is indeed, just a number. Just like a number with nine zeroes is.

5) There are those who studied hard, those who dropped out of college. All kinds find a mention. Notable absentees- academicians and scientists. To a large extent, even sportspersons (save for a few exceptions like Michael Jordan ).

6) While there are largely natives, there are several immigrants as well. And children of immigrants ? Plentiful.

7) There are the flashy ones, the ones who everyone knows about and writes about. Holding their own are also those who go about making their dollars quietly. How many in France know Mohed Altrad ? Has anyone in India heard of Vivek Chaan Sehgal ? Or PNC Menon ? Altrad, an Arab of Syrian origin, runs his construction business in France. Sehgal is Australia's #9, through his auto parts business. Menon is #2 in Oman through his real estate business.

8) Billionaires have lots of problems which many can not even imagine. For one of them, writing the settlement cheque for his wife with whom he was getting divorced became a challenge, as the space on the cheque to write the amount proved insufficient. Parking problems for private jets at Davos are routinely encountered by many of our friends.

9) Billionaires spend money in different ways. Some donate billions to charity, like Warren Buffet. Some buy the most expensive house in Beverly hills  like Markus Persson. Some build a billion dollar house for the spouse.

10) The key insight for me is that no self-made billionaire started with an objective to become one. Rather, there has been a disproportionate amount of time and effort spent on doing things well, whatever they have been doing. And almost every one has believed in and had faith in whatever they were doing. So, doesn't matter where you are. Where you came from. How old you are. It would be worthwhile to do what you believe in, to do what you like to do. You might still not become a billionaire. But then, you might just. If you are doing what you love doing, it will not matter.
Go ahead.