The recent earthquake in Haiti has destroyed the country significantly. A lot of international aid has poured in and at the same time there have been views that Haiti should not get any money, since it is a corrupt nation and the money will not end up where it should.

Nicholas D. Kristof  of the New York Times sets things straight in Some Frank Talk About Haiti.

Haiti isn’t impoverished because the devil got his due; it’s impoverished partly because of debts due. France imposed a huge debt that strangled Haiti. And when foreigners weren’t looting Haiti, its own rulers were.

Do read that article and then come right back to help the Haiti cause by donating to the Doctors Without Borders.

If you happen to be in Ahmedabad, do make it a point to visit two nondescript but absolutely marvelous museums called the N.C.Mehta Museum and Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum of Art and Archeology. The former houses rare gems of miniature paintings while the latter has a spellbinding collection of sculptures dating all the way back to a couple of years BC!

Housed in the Gujarat University campus, the museums are not very well-known, especially by local auto drivers. But the effort to find them will be well rewarded. The N.C Mehta museum displays some of the finest examples of the lost art of painting miniatures, especially from the regions of Gujarat and Rajasthan where it was most prevalant. There are also a lot of samples of “Pahari” art which would be from the hilly regions of Himachal extending up to Kashmir. The south however never took much to the art form and the furthest reach was up to Belgaum.

While many of the miniatures depict religious scenes, some of the most beautiful and intricate among them following Krishna and his various travails with Radha and other Gopikas, there are also a lot that focus on the lives of the Kings of those times. It is a very informative and at times shocking portrayal of the manners and demeanours (or perhaps misdemeanours, depending on how you look at it) of those Kings and their courtesans. In one instance, a Mughal king of the era is shown “fondling young boys” as the English caption bluntly states, while the Hindi caption makes no such claim, though the scene is plain to see. Lovemaking seems to be quite a passion of the times, from what a lot of paintings seem to convey. However, every subject has been handled with utmost perfection and attention to detail, with amazing interplay of colour and intricacy. It is also interesting to note the subtle differences in styles between all the various ages and various regions from where the collection has been amassed.

In contrast is the L.D.Museum next door, where the art form is large and imposing, but just as intricate. Available on display are sculptures in stone, bronze and wood, seventy five thousand manuscripts on palm leaf and paper, paintings on cloth and and ancient coins. The statues date back several centuries BC and include several images of Hindu Gods, Buddha and Jain Tirthankaras from all over the country (rather, the various empires that existed back then). Of particular note are the large head of Buddha from around 3rd century BC, a rare small figure of Ganga from Mathura dating back to 4th century AD and a Vijnaptipatra which is a ‘letter of invitation’ painted as a scroll on cloth which refers to the Mughal emperor Jehangir’s lost firman prohibiting the killing of animals in his kingdom during the Jain festival of Paryusana.

Unfortunately we do not have any pictures to show as photography is not allowed inside the premises. However, take our word that the two museums are a treasure chest of historical fact and knowledge in a well-kept and well-displayed form and one of the best-kept secrets of Ahmedabad. We hope that the museum authorities are able to keep up the good work they are doing and encourage all of you to definitely pay a visit when you find yourself in that part of the world. It will be time well spent.

Excerpts from Matthew Stewart’s book The Management Myth: Management Consulting Past, Present and Largely Bogus have been adapted in this article at the Independent: Masters of illusion, The great management consultancy swindle.

He talks about management consultancy and makes for really funny reading (perhaps funny for the non-consultants alone?). Excerpts:

On how he got his first break

I landed the job by providing a credible response to this question: How many pubs are there in Great Britain? The purpose of that question, I realised after the interview, was to see how easily I could talk about a subject of which I knew almost nothing, on the basis of facts that were almost entirely fictional. It was an excellent introduction to management consulting.

On his inspirations and ‘tools’

“The Whale” is a graph. Its official title is “Cumulative Customer Profitability” and it also goes by the generic name “skew chart”. The Whale is my madeleine. One glance at its distinctive curves and in my mind I’m back, cutting and pasting charts and text, running through airports, hovering over a transparency projector in front of sceptical men in suits, and trading boozy stories with team-mates in an overpriced hotel restaurant.

I learned the art of whale-hunting – as we called the art of landing a big client – from a partner I will call Roland. He was a jolly, well-rounded figure, with a face like a pink bowling ball. He had a thick French accent and drew heavily on a limited stockpile of American colloquialisms, cheerfully painting the world in the bold strokes and primary colours, in a style typical of those who live their lives in a foreign language.

In the firm, Roland was the harpooner. His specialty was sinking the barbed hook of our services deep within the flesh of unsuspecting clients. Roland would say: “I asked Joe (or whoever the client was) ‘Joe, can your people tell you, right now, which of your customers are profitable?’” (It always sounded like he was calling them “profiteroles”.) Joe would have had no idea how his profiteroles were doing.

In fact the entire piece is hilarious, so I will stop pasting excerpts. Go ahead and read the complete article.

John Elliott, who I believe is a fabulous correspondent when it comes to talking about South Asia, has this article put up on Jyoti Basu. It starts very aptly:

India desperately needs charismatic and respected political leaders who can lead coherent policy-based opposition to the Congress Party and its coalition governments. Only two men have qualified for this statesman role in recent years. One is Jyoti Basu of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who died yesterday aged 95. The other is Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 85, a former prime minister and leader of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), who is in ill health and is no longer politically active.

The article explains why Jyoti Basu should have been the Prime Minister when opportunity had arrived once. (It was the time when Deve Gowda, instead, became the PM).
Read the complete article here.

Our good friend in Ahmedabad, Ekta Hattangady and her sister Shraddha, have been featured in the Ahmedabad Mirror for their “Care for Caregivers” initiative.

Ekta is also the person to whom we are grateful for all our wonderful dining experiences in Ahmedabad. Her recommendations included Agashiye, La Feasta and Tomatos. While the former is a par-excellence restaurant for fine Gujju food, the other two are famous for their western cuisine. All three are highly recommended!

Getting back to the point, do read Ekta and her sister Shraddha’s story of coping with life’s uncertainties. One thing not to be missed is the poem written by them in the article.

The Better India, as many of you might know already, is an initiative started by us (the Mrs. and I) over a year ago. It has been slowly, but surely, making its presence felt – as is evident from its  steadily growing readership.

Now, we’ve been invited to speak at the entrepreneurship summit of IIM-A. We will be talking on the influence of media on social change and of course about The Better India. Catch our talk at IIM-A’s campus post noon on the 12th of January.

The entrepreneurship summit is on the 12th and 13th of January. Here is the complete list of speakers http://www.iima-dbi.com/speakers.html and we are privileged to be a part of such a distinguished panel.

So, if you are in Ahmedabad around that time, do drop-by. It would be nice to chat over some dhoklas and chaa.

A few days ago I wrote about my meeting with Dilip at the launch of his book, Roadrunner. Now, Dilip has also put up a nice post about the event and this blogger.

Read it here: Bloggers About Roadrunner.

To top it all, he has recommended my book. Now that makes up for the fact that I did not let him pay for my book.

The Aman ki Asha initiative by the Times of India and the Jang group has created a fabulous advertisement. I really loved this one:

If you are unable to see the embed above, click on this link to watch the advertisement.

Inclusive Planet, formerly called BookBole, is a platform that enables visually impaired readers from across the world to connect and share accessible content. We had covered BookBole in this article at The Better India.

I am happy to inform that my book is now available on Inclusive Planet and many of its visually and print impaired readers will get to read it.

Personally, I think Inclusive Planet is a wonderful initiative and in case you want to know more or contribute to their cause, you can visit their blog or just mail them at founders[at]inclusiveplanet[dot]com.