Are we better Indian Citizens after Marriage?

Its about two very young foreign tourists whom I saw cycling through the busy streets of Andheri, Mumbai; and one answer to a question that I had asked one of my married friends, who is also a father.

These two random incidences gave me a flash, explaining one of the factors why things happen the way they happen, in India. It gave me some answers to my curiosity about our over-arching corruption debate, the in-decisions in public life, the in-numerous pending court cases, the infinite delays in various infrastructure projects etc.

My married friend, who is a father of a very beautiful 4 years old daughter had said, "I want my daughter settled happily with a good husband" to my question, "what is your sole personal ambition?" My first reaction was, "That is really sweet, but what is your aim either for yourself or for the society at large?" That left him thinking... Then I realised that this is not a singular emotion.

This is the generic emotion of an Indian father (and mother). Indian parents feel responsible to provide for their children for their lifetime. Even though, the responsibility decreases after their children marry, yet it might be a tad too late in the day.

Lets compare this emotion to a father's agony and embarrassment in the United States of America, when his children are staying with him even after they have turned 18.  Children are supposed to fend for themselves by the time they are 18. Parents don't feel the blame, if their children are taking loans or doing a menial job for their further studies. Parents don't feel the blame if they are not settled and married to a respectable family. 

This is a paradigm difference in the way Americans (most of the west) therefore perceive responsibility after they marry and have children.

Those tourist kids cycling through Mumbai or that British girl (I once met in Diu) travelling India for the past 11 months are the bi-product of that culture. It breeds an independent attitude and an ability to take risk even among children, unlike India where both parents and children are dependent on each other.

Parents' life revolve around trying to provide the best education (donations and dowry included) and children's life revolve around seeking permission and grants from their parents. It is their birthright to be dependent on their parents in India.

If we juxtapose this argument to the fact that married men and women manage India, its infrastructure, its corruption, and all the related decisions, we would be able to visualize why we are so lenient in our public lives. All decisions that affect public life are politically sensitive, involve larger than life egos and have multiple and dangerous impacts. They require one to be brave and take risks. Our culture and family responsibilities restrict us to take these risks.

Adding to that is the scientific fact, as mentioned in one of the most intelligent book that I have come across - Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, that both risk detection and risk avoidance are not mediated in the thinking part of the brain, but largely in the emotional one. The consequences are therefore serious. It means that rational thinking has very little to do with risk avoidance.

Which doctor would setup his practice in a village when he knows that he may have to pay huge donations for his son's MBBS? Which bureaucrat would risk his responsibility towards his family by going against a corrupt politician? It may even be true vice versa. Who would act as a witness to a crime? How can one let go of huge sums of money when a higher price can fetch a better husband for his daughter?

Even the corporate world faces the symptoms of this lack of risk appetite. Who would want to lose a promotion by disclosing the truth, or by accepting one's mistake, or by taking responsibility.

We have anomalies to this fact such as Mr. Narendra Modi and Ms. Mayawati, that further proves my analysis right. They are individuals and therefore have greater appetite for risks in their own rights.

If we look at the effective and popular social activists, we would see the same argument taking shape. Medha Patkar is divorced. Anna Hazare never married. I don't think Vinoba Bhave was married.

Baba Amte was married, but his wife Sadhana Amte actively participated in her husband's social work with equal dedication. Importantly, he belonged to a very wealthy family with different and evolved values system as compared to that of the masses.

My POV is that the ability to take risks severely decreases with marriage and children. Marriage and children make us selfish to our family, thereby detaching us from the responsibilities as Indian citizens.  It is ingrained in our culture in the way we perceive responsibilities, risks and therefore take decisions in life.

Government policies, judiciary and other administrative functions should take note of this understanding and accordingly write policies, make regulations and enact laws.

Large scale corruption, fear of tough decisions etc can only be managed with this POV in perspective.

We Parents!

We are at a annual day function itching to take pictures of the beautiful performances. But quite a lot of parents are clicking pictures left, right, centre, top and bottom.

What would they say when their kids would find out that they took photographs?

Yesterday, Ruhi was very specific reading the circular given to her by her school. Dont click photographs, she said. She knows me to be the passionate photographer and her mom to be trigger happy on her iphone. So she was more particular with her instructions.

I am sure every kid knows that photography and videography are not allowed in this annual day function.

But we parents rarely are examples to our kids. Who cares?

Word of Mouth, then MMS and Now Word of the Mouse - Its all about ideas that went Viral !

Viral marketing, viral advertising or more pertinently the surprise of a 'million hits on facebook/youtube' basically refers to a creative output that spreads like wild fire and reaches millions of us in a very short period of time.

A creative output that encourages a certain set of the society having high social networking potential to share it.

A creative output that convinces the other certain set of the society having the curiosity to view or experience it.

With Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, viral marketing has become more pronounced in our day to day lives. Recently we saw the Flash Mob video at the CST Railway station, Mumbai. Please click here to experience the video if you haven't already. It has clocked 1,745,676 views as I write this blog.

Then we have seen Sonu Nigam taking advantage of the viral "Why This Kolaveri Di" to promote his son with a very methodically edited video of his son singing Kolaveri Di. The original video has clocked 21,839,944 views, not considering the other youtube edits of the same video. Even the Sonu Nigam engineered video has garnered 2,877,936 views.

A few generations back, viral ideas travelled through word of mouth, then I remember them travelling through MMSes, now they travel by the WORD OF MOUSE !

Speaking of word of mouth, the best example of an idea going viral, outside of the virtual world, is of course 'Harry Potter'. This series of books written by Ms. J. K. Rowling has been translated into 65 languages and has sold more than 325 million copies in more than 200 territories around the world. The Harry Potter films produced by Warner Bros. Pictures have grossed $3.5 billion worldwide at the box office.

MMSes as a medium for spreading virals also attained huge eyeballs and gossip. As we know, stories of two bollywood movies - DevD and LSD were based on the phenomena.

Do you remember the Ashmit Patel - Ria Sen MMS clip? It has again re-surfaced on youtube and is gaining popularity. You guys have to hunt for the link yourself on this. You can click here to hear an interesting news on it though... Hai Rabba, Ashmit! kuch to sharam karo..!

MMS virals were more of pornographic content, probably because MMS travelled from peer to peer and the mobile device is extremely personal. It was like how many men read a classic novel before going to bed alone!

Whatever said and done, pornography has limited scope in the society. MMS was soon bowled over by the social networking websites. Today is the generation of Youtube and FaceBook. And here comes the word of Mouse!
  
Some of the interesting epidemic that the mouse had spread:

1. Charlie bit my finger - again ! (395,738,061 views)
2. David After Dentist (103,648,602 views)
3. Talented Fat kid Dancing to Dhinka Chika (1,541,922 views)
4. A blog that has received over 2700 comments and over 1 million page-views - An open letter to a Delhi boy written by an amateur cum 'celebrity-now' blogger Shahana Nair Joshi

Going by these phenomena, it is obvious that the dream of every brand manager is to have at least one viral campaign in their careers. The biggest question still remains, how to create a viral campaign?

There are quite a few brand campaigns that have gone viral on youtube. Click on this line to sample a few.

The new Nokia Lumia - The Amazing Everyday video is going viral as we speak. It has clocked over a million page views already. 1,034,928 views to be precise. It has surpassed Samsung's "The Next Big Thing" Galaxy S II Commercial. Going by this, can I pressume that Microsoft has finally arrived into the mobile OS market? Perhaps, yes. Perhaps, no.

There is also hope for the old popular commercials to go viral today. If the brand has the ethos intact, why not re-popularise the old commercials.. The 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial is a case in point. It has received many millions of views. One of the many youtube uploads of the video has garnered 8,797,112 page views.

This world of viral marketing is the new challenge for every creative mind in the advertising and marketing industry. There are no easy answers or theory, just like there is no theory behind why Lady Gaga has the maximum number of followers on Twitter, followed by Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian (can you believe this?) and Britney Spears.... I cant name the line-up. It is gross. But it is a fact. Is beauty really skin-deep?

Honestly, designing a viral campaign would mean the final stamp on knowing not only consumer behaviour well, but also a generation to its bone marrow.


Till the time I can't create, let me just spread. 

What is my Nationality Proof !!

One fine day I receive an email from the HR department stating, "This is to bring to your urgent attention that your nationality details are not updated in our records. This is extremely important from a compliance perspective. Please provide one the following information urgently and not later than November 23, 2010". !!!

 

When I was scanning the list of the 'following information', it struck me, "Do we really have a nationality document?" We don't really have one document to validate our Indian nationality. The constitution is deficient in not have one citizenship document.

I also realised that we commonly hear questions like 'which are the citizenship proof documents that are required to apply for a passport?' Surprisely, there are hardly any national debates discussing the topic of having a mandatory piece of document to prove citizenship.

The most accepted definition (Marshall - 1965) of citizenship is that it comprises three elements - civil, political and social element. The civil element refers to the right of the individual - the freedom of speech and faith, the right to own property and to justice. The political element is portrayed as the right to directly or indirectly participate in the exercise of political power. The implementation of this right pertains to political representation. The social element covers the whole range from the right to economic welfare & security, to the right to live the life of a civilized being to the standards prevailing in the society.

A unique nationality proof would go a long way in ensuring a just implementation of all the three elements for the authorised citizens of the country.

Germany has the German ID card as the primary proof, apart from the German passport that presumes German nationality for assistance from German consular officials abroad. Same is with Sweden where the tangible proof of Swedish citizenship is the national passport or the national identification card.

As for the United States of America, the certificate of US citizenship is the only document issued by the US Government as proof of US citizenship.

British citizenship may be proved by a British passport, a Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode, a British consular birth certificate, a nationality status letter or a Certificate of Registration issued by the Home Office. It may seem 4 documents, but actually there are all related to various types of citizenship.

In Singapore, prior to 1965, even aliens could work there as long as there was someone employing them. However, they too introduced work permits and travel restrictions. Non-citizens could no longer work and had to apply for work permits.

Likewise, most developed countries have a clear policy on citizenship proof, which India seems to lack.

The information that I had to provide to prove my nationality was 'one of the following':

1. Voters ID Number
2. Passport number, Date of issue of passport and Date of Expiry
3. Copy of Domicile certificate

Voters ID card or Electors Photo Identity Card(EPIC) is an identification card issued by the Election Commission to all eligible voters, to enable voter identification on election day. However, the irony is that the voters ID card is NOT essential for voting. The only requirement is the presence of your name in the list of registered voters i.e., electoral rolls or voter list of your polling booth and an identity proof.

Passport is perceived to be document required if there is a need or capability to travel out of India. Penetration of passport in the rural areas therefore, is almost negligible.

A Domicile/Residence Certificate is generally issued to get college admissions and jobs in the Government services. It is a proof that the person bearing the Certificate is a Domicile/Resident of the State/Union Territory.

To add to the fluidity of the whole process, it was perfectly okay if I didn't have any of the above three documents. I was given a form that I could fill in. I had to put it onto a stamp paper with a sign from the magistrate. Thats it and I am a citizen of India to enjoy all rights of a citizen!

With these accepted procedures, do we really know our citizens? For a better understanding of its citizen, and optimum utilization of tax income for the citizenry in terms of education, employment, medical facilities, social security etc, it is absolutely essential to have an unique identification document or number for each of the citizens. This document should also be mandatory to avail of any citizenship rights.

This document can not only be used for identification but also for tracking every public service that one uses. It can also be used to make family trees and progression of a culture/community. It can act as a deterrent for foreigners to settle in India.

Today, the cultural fabric of Assam, for instance is endangered because of the continuous immigration of the poor Bangladeshi population. It is very easy for a Bangladeshi family to claim Indian citizenship by being in Assam for a few months. One of the various ways is to get caught in a minor theft cause. Once there is police history, voters ID card comes next. Voter ID as we can guess, is a political instrument, which can bring in political corruption. It can one of the cheapest tactics of vote-bank politics.

Logo of Aadhaar Project

The Aadhaar project of the Government of India seems to be the saviour, but it has many weaknesses. The pros are:

1. It intends to deliver unique identification numbers (12 digits) to every resident including the homeless and transgender. It is been interestingly popularized as ‘Aam Aadmi Ka Adhikaar’. 
2. Even if people do not have required documents, they can apply for Aadhaar card. Individuals who already have an Aadhaar card can introduce residents who do not have any documents to establish identity.
3. It aims to facilitate easy verification, availing of Government or Private services, help welfare programmes reach intended beneficiaries and for serving as basis for e-Governance.
4. There would be rare duplication, as it is linked to demographics and biometric information - photo, 10 fingerprints and iris.
5. It is free of cost and the Government of India is bearing the total cost.

However, the biggest loophole is that it is being promoted as a voluntary scheme. It is not mandatory to get yourself registered for the UID. Secondly, it is not a proof of citizenship but is meant for all residents of India. This brings our argument to square one.

It is high time that the Aadhar project is made mandatory so that India can plan for equitable distribution of wealth, education, employment, medical facilities and social security procedures.