R.I.P Balasaheb Thackaray

Balasahab Thackaray shares his surname with a famous English novelist (William M Thackeray) who in turn shares his first name with the world’s most famous playwright (William Shakespeare). I firmly believe that Balasaheb’s life is an interesting mixture of half a dozen Shakespearan plays and “Vanity Fair” written by the original Thackaray. He commanded a following that shames the twitter following of Dalai Lama or the facebook friends of Mark Zuckerberg and definitely commands more silent followership than the likes of Puttaparthi Sai Baba or any film celebrity. He has achieved a cult status that’s colossal and unassailable in many many years for now - because of his nationalistic fervor, unrivalled outspokenness and a Zionist love for India that’s at once messianic and heart-warming. Balasaheb was the final authority when it comes to anything that concerns Indian pride and self-respect and carefully used pulse-points that created euphoric waves of opprobrium whenever India’s masses were vulnerable to mass hysteria to do his bidding – whether it was playing a cricket series with Pakistan, Sania marrying a Pakistani, Sanjay Dutt’bail or Salman Khan’s behavior, Amitabh’s exit from politics after Bofors, or whether national security laws kept a vigil on terrorists. What Balasaheb bade was final, and woe betide anybody who went against. Balasaheb had achieved all this with a hysterical mass following outside the reaches of Sadgurus and Superstars and led an interesting life that had enough contradictions that can trigger a few hundred Bollywood films (infact many were inspired by him). There will be lot of questions that intrigued biographers and journalists always – Was he really a catnip? Were all the finest femme fatales deflowered at his bidding? Why did he favor Telugus over Tamils in the famous tirade against non-Marathas? Why was he such a mad fan of Hitler and how much of Zionism influenced his “anti-immigration policy”? What led to the parting of his nephew and the death of his son? If he was so strong, how did so many Satraps shoot up even at the peak of Shiv Sena’s meteoric rise like Sharad Pawar and Pramod Mahajan? Has Mumbai moved on during the last five years or so because of anachronistic anti-immigration stance adopted by the Shivsena? All said and done, it was a life more colorful than the most larger-than-life figures seldom seen in world history. Bal Thackeray commanded a premium right till his end and had he stuck to his calling of a caricaturist like RK Laxman who shared his desk at Free Press Journal or confined to writing “Burning Words” like Babu Rao Patel, Bal Thackaray wouldn’t have been a phenomenon as the world knows him today. We all aspire to live interesting lives. Bal Thackaray had a cracker of a life from the time he was out of the womb. Balasaheb has been the only voice outside of Congress who lent credence and vitality to every world view that mattered on foreign affairs, diginitaries visiting India across the fields, whether we should encourage multi-culturalism and what is good for our security. We should be thankful for Balasaheb that but for him and Sushma Swaraj, we would have had a foreign citizen Sonia Gandhi as a Prime Minister. History always had a place of honor for fierce patriots like Savarkar and Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Prithviraj Chauhan – Balasaheb built a business and political empire out of nationalist fervor and zeal that sometime bordered on the theatre of the absurd. May his soul R.I.P.

"How Will You Measure Your Life?" Book Review

"How Do You Measure Your Life?" is one of the most exciting self-help books I have come across in years. It starts off like a business book with a blurb that promises to help you find fulfilment using lessons from some of the world's greatest businesses. Deceptively alluring for a Senior Management book-reader, it draws you charmingly into the issues that keep us away from lasting happiness and sense of making a contribution to life.   We gather the book is a creative collaboration between three different folks who have differing views on God and Spirituality. The main author of the book is Clayton M Christensen, who wrote "The Innovator's Dilemma" which became a sensation in triggering a huge debate in what sustains market leadership.This book grew out of a speech Christensen used to give on finding a meaning and happiness in life at Harvard Business School. James Allworth, the second author, is a graduate of the same school where Christensen teaches. Karen Dillon was the editor of Harvard Business Review who helped chisel the thoughts of the duo into an immensely readable and lively commentary on what makes living worthwhile - sometimes bordering on spirituality, most times offering plenty of sage counsel on the right living without being preachy.

The book is neatly divided into ten chapters running to less than 207 pages. It seeks to answer primarily three questions that unlike the Innovator's dilemma, haunt every graduating student: 1. How can I be sure that  I will be successful and happy in my career? 2. How can my relationship with my family and close friends become an enduring source of happiness? 3. How can I live a life of integrity - and stay out of jail? Pretty simple, right? Yet we observe from Rajat Gupta to David Madoff, breaches of integrity abound, even if differing in degrees. Most folks have got a problem with atleast one of the three aspects inquired into by the authors. Christensen offers plenty of refreshed and relevant examples from the world of business, sports and celebrities to take us through a tour of how to answer these three questions so we may find if life's worth it.

Christensen divides the book into three sections each analysing the questions on finding respectively one's mojo in career, family and living a life of integrity without ending up in jail. The chapters on how to choose one's calling in life and the ones on bringing up children are brilliantly analysed with telling value and counter-intuitive evidence from business research. As the author says, " I don't have an opinion. The theory has an opinion." This is not a typical book that gives quick-fix solutions to perennial dilemmas. It gives the right paradigm-changing objective assessment of some of the simplest questions that we must really be asking ourselves in order to make our lives count. I recommend this book irresptive of how early or late you are in life. It sure tickles you to make those critical decisions that will deliver results in all the three areas of life - career, family and character.

"How Will You Measure Your life?" by Clayton M Christensen, James Allworth & Karen Dillon, pp.221, pub. Harper Collins