'Legal' Quotes - to make this immemorial

As we all know, our Law classes this trimester were happening – in their own sense. I thought to share some ‘dialogues’ from the classes here. The objective is just a few chuckles by recollecting these :)

When I asked whether definition of criminal offense etc in different countries may be different, reply was: “How dare you say that?”

This was when some one asked whether the fixed deadline of 3 months for appeal may be extended: “If you have to marry or your wife is pregnant, you may apply for extension of the period of appeal. The appellate body will study your case and give verdict”.

This one was in the penultimate class, targeted at Rohit: “If you become too bulky, the court may cut you into pieces, and make you slim.”

His favorite: "... No one can poke his nose into the matter or any part of his body...."

(PS: posted in a future date)

Propaganda of Retail

A government ‘study’ has come up, proving that organised big retail is harming the unorganised small retail shops’ business. [Link] This survey (and they call it a study) was started on the directive of UPA chairperson. The survey involved around 1000 small retailers in four Indian cities, including 800 who were within a 2.5 km radius of new organised retailers. The methodology of the survey involved asking small unorganised retailers whether their sales have been affected by the emergence of big retailers or not. The result? 50% of small retailers reported lower sales, and 61% of surveyed retailers pointed to competition from organised retail for their declining financial health.

In my small town, my neighbourhood kirana store gave me some discount even over the maximum retail price (MRP), at lease for some items like Chyavanpras, Horlicks, and some local made products. Here in Mumbai, the neighbour mom-n-pop store takes not a penny less than whatever is printed over the packet, even if the item is an agarbatti. On the other hand, they will keep complaining of the Big Bazars and the big malls. The point is, in absence of an option, I will have to buy from the small shop, at higher price and some times bad service. But if I get an option and go to a Big Bazar or Hyper City, the small store wallahs would complain.

I don’t understand why either the government or the industry should take note of this survey. This is common psychology that a small shop owner would always complain of losses due to the presence of a big retail outlet. If we had to remain small, whole India would remain nothing but a Sabji Mandi! I believe organised retail is a thing whose time has come.

How many small unorganised retailers give you proper receipts and pay income taxes to government? How many of them cover their employees with insurance? How many of them give dignity to the employees they take help of? How many never employ child labour? It is sad that while the governments worldwide would like the unorganised sectors to migrate into organised ones, the politics of numbers would make the governments in India try to keep up the status quo. India should remain a nation of snake charmers, you know. Pappu paas kab hoga?

Mass-customization: the Ice-cream wallah way

There is a small but big word in marketing: “Mass-customization”. This means that the products being offered are customised for the masses, not only for some selected few customers. Examples? The Dell laptops; you can visit the Dell website; configure your laptop as per your requirements and then order. You will be able to decide on the price based on exactly what you want. Some level of mass customization are also offered by the automobile firms where you can chose what colour, accessories, and components to get your car with. But for me, the biggest business doing the mass customization is my neighbourhood Mewad Ice-cream wallah.

You want a cone for Rs 5, or 6, or 10? You want fruit salad or faluda of Rs 5, 10, or 15? Do you love a particular flavour? The boy won’t ask any question, he will give you exactly what you want and for how much. This is unlike the ice creams from big firms and dairies where you get fixed stuff and pay fix amount…

Inspired by my operations professor who always give indigenous examples instead of straight-from-the-books stuff...

Book Review: The Goal by Edi Goldratt

I read the book "The Goal" by Edi Goldratt some days back. It was made compulsory for our operations management class. If you haven't read the book yet, I would recommend it to you. It is a novel which is called "Love story of manufacturing" and is based on the theme of Theory of Constraints (TOC). 

I have worked in the manufacturing industry. Though the process described in the book is different from that industry in terms of (batch) manufacturing, still there are methods and insights which can be replicated. Immediate recall would be like importance of and how to reduce inventories, how to handle bottlenecks and exploit them, and culture change by promoting ideas from workers.

I remember when our works manager asked them to prepare a make-shift bridge to reach the inside of the kiln, one which could be removed and inserted much faster, he was actually practicing the right way to treat the "bottleneck". Kiln is our bottleneck most of the time. As the book says, an hour lost on the "bottleneck" is an hour lost for the entire system.

I came to know that many companies overseas which have made reading "The Goal" compulsory for their entire staff. I recommend this book to all in the manufacturing sector.

Title: The Goal

Author: Edi Goldratt

Publisher: Productivity and Quality Publishing, Chennai

Rs: 395

ISBN: 81-85984-13-1

Book Review: 11 Minutes by Paulo Coelho

I have read Paulo Coelho, through three of his other masterpieces: The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, and Like the flowing river. How was 11 minutes? At times frightening, at times shocking, at times interesting and most of the time daring. It is the story of Maria, a young Brazilian girl who doesn't believe in any boundaries, bindings, standards or societal norms. She believes in going to the extreme, and taking all her decisions herself. A boy she liked in her school tried to talk to her and she refused. And then she never saw her love again. Life taught and she commanded her life, her personal diary was a witness to all. She loved each slice of adventure, and then she chose to become a prostitute in a country far from her own, and gets to understand the psyche of men, women, sex, suffering and the truths of life. In the end, a painter falls in her love and she makes a decision to go with him. I love the happy ending stories. The book covers her moments of truth very well. The book has gone lengths on the how-to stuff, but that is not something that we would remember about it minutes after we finish it.

Some parts that I underlined:

On women:

Beauty, my dear, doesn't last.

Original sin was not the apple that Eve ate, it was her belief that Adam needed to share precisely the thing she tasted.

On men:

The most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit; that is the only way we learn, because it requires all our courage.

She began to put clients into three categories: the Examiners, the Pretty Women type, and the Godfathers.

On relations:

I made my first mistake when I was eleven years old, when that boy asked me if I could lend him a pencil; since then, I have realised that some times you get no second chance and that it's best to accept the gifts that world offers you.

If I must be faithful to someone or something, then I have, first of all, to be faithful to myself.

Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.

On her profession:

She discovered, to her surprise that one in every five clients didn't want her in order to have sex, but simply to talk a little.

When she realised that releasing tension in the soul could be as lucrative as releasing tension in the body, if not more lucrative, she started going to the library again.

For a prostitute, the kiss was sacred. Nyah (her colleague) had taught her to keep her kisses for the love of her life, just like the story of sleeping beauty.

On history of prostitution:

Prostitutes appear in classical texts, in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in Sumerian writings, in the Old and New Testament. But the profession only started to become organised in the sixth century BC, when a Greek legislator, Solon, set up state controlled brothels and began imposing taxes on the skin trade.

The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote of Babylonia: "They have a strange custom here, by which every woman born in Sumaria is obliged, at least once in her lifetime, to go to the temple of the goddess Ishtar and give her body to a stranger, as a symbol of hospitality and for a symbolic price."

On loneliness:

Human beings can withstand a week without water, two weeks without food, many years of homelessness, but not loneliness. It is the worst of all tortures, the worst of all sufferings. Like her, these men, and the many others who sought her company, were all tormented by the same destructive feeling, the sense that no one else on the planet cared about them.

Art of gift giving:

She placed the pen gently in his hand. Instead of buying something that you would like to have, I am giving you something that is mine, a gift. A sign of respect for the person before me, asking him to understand how important it is to be by his side. Now he has a small part of me with him, which I gave him with my free, spontaneous will.

When she decides to leave her profession:

I don't care whether it was once sacred or not, I HATE WHAT I DO. Its destroying my soul, making me lose touch with myself, teaching me that pain is a reward, that money buys everything and justifies everything.

No one around me is happy; the clients know they are paying for something that should be free, and that is depressing. The women know that they have to they have to sell something they would like to give out of pleasure and affection, and that is destructive.

Pain for pleasure or peace..

You experienced pain yesterday and you discovered that it led to pleasure. You experienced it today and found peace. That's why I am feeling you get used to it, because it is very easy to become habituated: it is very powerful drug. Pain is frightening when it shows its real face, but it is seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self denial. Or cowardice. However we may reject it, we human beings always fid a way of being with pain, of flirting with it and making it part of our lives.

Does a soldier go to war in order to kill the enemy? No, he goes in order to die for his country. Does a wife want to show her husband how she is? No, she wants him to see how devoted she is, how she suffers in order to make him happy. Does the husband go to work thinking he will find personal fulfilment there? No, he is giving his sweet and tears for the good of the family. And so it goes on: sons give up their dreams to please their parents, parents give up their lives in order to please their children; pain and suffering are used to justify the one thing that should bring only joy: love.

Innovative Indian Companies - HCL Technologies:

1. ‘Employee first, customer second’: Because of its shock value, this initiative invited world wide interest.

2. ‘U’and ‘I’ approach: Employees could directly approach and query President Mr. Vineet Nayar.

3. Trust Pay: 85% of the salary of employees were made fixed, including bonus, along with a trust in them to deliver results.

4. 360o feedback: This was made compulsory, and open for all to see. The President of HCL was the first one to put his own form on the intranet for all to review. Others followed suit.

As a result, HCL Technologies saw its attrition rates dropping, employees better engaged in delivering, and deals getting better and multi-functional.

Ref: When corporates change track, J. Mulraj, HT, Mumbai, 18 Oct. 07

Movies: Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag

I watched Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag two weeks after it was released. I wanted to understand why did the movie failed to make a mark. I got to realise a very wrong trend among the present directors like Ram Gopal Verma: 

This is an adaptation of Sholey. In order not to avoid the blame that RGV has copied an idea, he just went on to ‘reverse’ almost all the scenes. This results in failure of the "effect".

I think RGV thinks he has perfectly decoded the formula of making a hit Bollywood movie. Following is his checklist:

a. Take most popular actors

b. Mix several irrelevant song and dance sequences.

c. Decorate with one or two hot item numbers. Here also the offering is standardised. There are some standard poses and moves by actresses, which are very typical of RGV’s productions.

d. Make use of camera angles well, very often scenes are taken from looking upwards.

e. Very often some very uncommon sounds like chair moving, water dropping, etc are mixed to create an effect.

After watching the movie, I am not surprised that it failed. Because:

- The ultimate realisation should be that we can copy the moves but can’t recreate the "magic".

- The movie has excellent performances by Susmita Sen in the roleof the widow daughter in law. But the movie lacks equal performance from others, except Ajay Devgan who tired his best. 

- One very popular character in Sholey was Dharmendra and everyone just loved him for his role. In Aag, the role is acted by a new face, a model looking guy, who fails to create the magic, and is just average.

- The chemistry between the characters of Sholey, e.g. Jay and Veeru, Gabbar and Thakur, Veeru and Basanti, etc have not been developed enough.

In a nutshell, this movie is another example of the situation when talented people think they have perfected the "art" of being successful, while in reality there is no such art. Movies have been successful not only it has been acted and directed well but because ‘public’ or ‘viewers’ have liked them. Recreating the older movies creates a very different impression in the minds of the viewers, and there is always a fear that the viewer will recall the old movie’s scenes corresponding to each of the new one’s scenes. I have seen Umrao Jaan, and I liked it perhaps only because I have not watched the original one; otherwise the movie failed on the box office. Though I liked Don, it was because the charisma of Shahrukh Khan is of comparable standard to that of Amitabh. And in the Bollywood's formula or masala movies, it is the charisma that pulls the movie through. Producers wanting to recreate old movies should select the ones whom the present generation has not watched or with whom the present generation has not been able to connect with. Otherwise I can say that the probability of failure of recreated movies is >80%.

Innovative Indian Companies - Marico

Marico Industries

Recently, Mr. Harsha Mariwala, MD, Marico Industries was on our campus to deliver his lecture on ‘Marico’s Journey”. He spoke on his and his company’s journey, right from the day of inception to today. Here are some innovative practices that Marico has implemented:

o Only two grades: Company realised that the expectation of being promoted every year makes many a disgruntled managers. So the company made its organisation structure having only two grades, called Managers and Partners. A young MBA joining, for example, would start from the Manager level. This has resulted in curbing the attrition in the company.

o House Concept: Company realised that many of the manufacturing plants were situated in remote places where no adequate facilities were available for employees’ engagement. So the company implemented a house concept, where the plant was divided into several houses, and attempt was made to install a sense of belonging among the employees. Through out the year, cultural events and sports are carried out among the houses. This has resulted in less idle time, and hence more balanced life among workers.

o Ex-Employees Association: This association doesn’t stop at the get-together functions. The company keeps track of all its ex-managers. And whenever there is a vacancy in the future, first it gives the offer to an ex-employee who is most suitable for the position. Even in the meetings and strategic discussions, it invites its ex-employees. This much of trust on its ex-employees is something that many companies can’t believe in.

o Kaya Health Clinics: It has got into this as extension to its products. Now it offers complete wellness solutions. This is a shift from a product driven company to a ‘solutions company’.

o Product innovations: (Coconut Oil)
o Plastic bottles, that rats won’t be able to cut
o Cap which works in both winter and summer. Coconut oil in sachets for the masses

Hinduism: The Devi who lived here

Reproducing an excellent article published in HT (Mumbai, Oct 20)

Sarada Devi (1853-1920) was the wife of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. They had an unusual relationship: a celibate marriage that sublimated into a deep spiritual connection. Sri Ramakrishna saw the Devi in her and actually worshiped his wife as such. During his lifetime, Sarada Devi kept a very low profile, taking great care of his husband. After his death, she suffered at the hands of some of her own relatives, but bore it all with patient faith. Her gentle personality began to attract many devotees and she became a widely loved and respected spiritual persona in her own right.

Once, the birth mother of Swami Vivekananda, who was Sri Ramakrishna's prime disciple, came to the Belur Math. This was the head quarters of the Ramakrishna movement, of modern, seva-based reformist Hinduism. She took her friend around the fine buildings and beautiful complex and remarked proudly, "My son Naren has done all this." Swami Vivekananda and Sarada Devi were nearby. Vivekananda was deeply attached to his mother and loved her very much. But he jumped to correct her, "Not your son but hers (pointing to Sarada Devi). Your Naren was not capable of doing anything much."

When Sarada Devi passed away in July 1920 and was cremated at the Belur Math, there were more than 7,000 wellwishers at her funeral, who came of their own accord.

A modern Indian, especially a woman, may find Sarada Devi's living martyrdom frightening and unappealingly submissive. But two solid qualities in her that will never be oldfashioned seem worth acquiring for everybody, man or woman, as civilizational strengths: her patience and her emotional generosity.

Both seem essential to move our national life forward (and thereby ours), especially I these stressed-out times: virtues embodied in the Mother of the Universe that we can activate in ourselves. If not to Sarada Devi's extent, at least in terms of considerate behaviour on the phone, in the lift, in queues and definitely on the road!

Where is the Divide?

Do Indians believe in their tribe more than they think themselves as Indians? We had a discussion in the class. I still remember what a colleague said: “All communities have a sense of superiority that they want to impose on others. Honour killings are a proof of that.” And one friend said that most of the Indians are not educated enough to see the big picture.

To me, the old statement “Anekta mein Ekta” (Unity in diversity) still holds valid for India. The willingness of Indians to be associated with their caste or credo is nothing wrong per se, until it comes in the way of others. India is a multi cultural country, there is no denying that. It is needless to write the aspects of diversity that exist in India. But above all what matters is: Indians invariably are tolerant and revere others’ religious or cultural beliefs. That is why we have made it so far!. That is why we as a nation have not fallen apart while many other former British colonies fell preys to religious fundamentalism and tyranny. That is why we are still by large a peace loving junta, except when political powers make us vulnerable. Tell me a country where religious riots, racism or hate crimes have not happened.

Problem exists not in India or the Indians. Problem exists when we indulge in narrow wishful thinking. Problem comes when we are far from the ground realities, and try and compare India with other countries, which are homogeneous because of their size which in many cases is less than an Indian city or state. I hope we are wise enough not to fall in this trap of wishful thinking of having a ‘homogeneous’ country.

For me, extremely diverse cultures having completely different practices and beliefs are just fine; until they don’t impose their superiority over others. In India, we have never done that. But petty politicians want us to believe that ‘we are the best’ and ‘our God is better than theirs’. In almost all states of India, there are regional political parties, which try to enrage a regional sense of pride and exploit that for political benefits. It is sad that many of us fell into such traps many a times. These traps only make us think, research and debate the North-South divide, the Hindu-Muslim divide or the caste divide.

When I moved to Mumbai and knocked at the door of my neighbour, he asked my surname and whether I was a Maharastrian. It was up to me, either to believe that people in Mumbai are racist, or to neglect this as an exception. I chose the latter. And I hope you too see the larger picture.

Integration – the Engineering Way

It was our first semester at REC Durgapur. Regional Engineering Colleges, as you know, had seats reserved for each state of India, in proportion to their populations. So we had students from each part of India, with their different languages and cultures. Many of them had never come out of their states before. That was the place where they got a national identity. Everyone spoke Hindi and English; every one wore the similar clothes, ate the same food, shared the same hostel, and sat side by side: like brothers.

I remember it was a maths class. The professor was a Bengali (in fact all professors in our college were Bengalis, except one from Kerala). The professors always felt good while taking classes of first year students. He seemed to be in a mood. I still remember what he said:

“This concept of RECs is foolish. They think if students from all parts of India come and learn together, there would be a national integration! How stupid. In fact when students from different parts of India come and live together, there would only be hatred and dislike of each others. They have all passed different entrance exams; they are not all equally talented. Then they have got educated in completely different environments. When each state has an REC, why don’t they reserve all seats for the students of that domicile? If you think there would be any integration, you are foolish.”

We all giggled together.

Four years in our college gave us many more occasions to laugh. There were times when the professors told many nons (that is how non-Bengalis were called) in public that they were not welcome. There were times when there were secret meetings of Bengali students – over the growing ‘menace’ of nons! But in the end, we know – Satyameva Jayate!

Four years at REC Durgapur changed a lot of things. Slightest feelings of differentiation were erased from our memories. It all started from the ragging days. When one junior used the word ‘reserved category’ in front of one of the seniors, he was thrashed, by all 16 seniors, one by one. Then and there, that word was erased from our minds. During the ragging days, we ate together, suffered together and sang and danced together – how can any feeling of caste or religion survive! And those feelings couldn’t get up ever after. Hindu-Muslim divide – no trace. We had Muslims whom you couldn’t distinguish from amongst the class. North-South divides? No way, we had so many best friends, where one was from the north and the other from the south. For us, Rajnikant and Saurav Ganguli were both equally revered heroes. And even Bongs and Nons partied together; fought together and survived together.

Engineering is not only about studies; studies are just a part of it. I say four years in an Engineering College is like acquiring a complete way of life. A vision where everyone one is equal. We have already come across this many times: that engineers are logical. Don’t you think that when we ‘logically’ think, all are equal – and a ‘divide’ of Maharastra, Gujarat, Bengal, or Kerala exist only on geography and NOT in our minds?

The Kite Runner / Drinking – a sin? / Fathers' desires?

About the Book:

The Kite Runner is a beautiful yet scary novel by Khaled Hosseini. It is the story of Afghanistan. It covers the good and the tough times of the country; right from when it was independent, then under the Russians and finally when under Taliban. It is the story of a young boy and his servant who ran as a kite runner. It is a tale of how reality bites, how relationships change, and how sometimes, we don't change at all. The most touching part of the novel are the horrifying experiences which the characters go through. The biggest causality in Afghanistan was the lost childhood. Message is clear: the level of destruction that wars and the religious fundamentalism can bring to us is scary.

One warning: don't go after the title. The novel has excessive violence, sex and politics, the things that childhood should remain untouched with. I would recommend this book for adults only.

Is drinking a sin? Baba answers.

Amir asks his father whether drinking is a sin, as taught to him in the class by his religious teacher Mullah Fatiullah Khan. Baba says: (text abridged)

Baba: "First understand this and understand it now, Amir: You never learn anything of value form those bearded idiots."

Amir: "You mean Mullah Fatiullah Khan?"

Baba: "I mean all of them. Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys. They do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don't even understand. God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands."

Amir: "But Mullah Fatiullah Khan seems nice"

Baba: "So did Genghis Khan; but enough about that. You asked about sin and I want to tell you."

"I mean to speak to you man to man. No matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?

Amir: "No, Baba jan"

Baba: "When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?"

"There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir. A man who takes what is not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan; I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him."

"If there is a God out there, then I would hope he has more important things to attend to than my drinking scotch."

That is the bottom line: God has more important things to attend to than your drinking scotch. Quite a realisation for me. (Though I still won't go for it.)

Can you explain? 

At one point in the book, it is described that the kite-runner liked a particular story: the story about a father who killed a young man, only to realise later that he was his own son. But Amir didn't sympathise and said:

"After all, didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbour a desire to kill their sons?"

Do you have any idea, what does the author mean by this? Why do all father, "in their secret hearts' harbour", desire to kill their sons? 

I have come across this idea for the first time, and am not able to understand. The most I can guess is that fathers may think that because of their sons, their "male dominance" in the family would get challenged. But I am not sure. What do you think?

What’s up?

French: I am learning French. The 3 months course has ended, and on this Monday there was the last exam. I hope I passed. I had learnt German while I was in engineering. I found German to be far easier in pronunciation than the French. Still I am filled with doubts regarding pronunciation. French is regarded as the most refined of the languages, and now I understand how!

Yoga: Thanks to our institute, that Yoga classes have been arranged, twice a week, 7:30 to 8:30 in the morning. Three batches of around 100 students each had registered, but I am not able to find them in double digits on any day. I too missed one session out of the three that have passed. (You know, boys don’t get up early). I like the experience very much.

Marico: The MD of Marico came to our institute to deliver his speech on “Marico’s journey”. He spoke on how he built up his business empire. I shall dedicate a separate post for this. A lot of guys were inspired/

Books: Finished reading Angles and Demons by Dan Brown. So far, my record was around 3 in the morning, when I finished Da Vici Code. This time, I was reading the book for some days, and then one day, I read throughout the night to finish the novel at 6:45 AM! Then I took a 3 hours sleep and was ready to move again. Also finished “The Kite Runner”. I shall write about this separately.

Wednesday, 17 Oct. 07

Newspapers of Tomorrow

Marcus Brauchli, Managing Editor, Wall Street Journal was in India recently to participate in HT leadership Summit. He is said to occupy the most powerful position in business journalism. Here are some excerpts from his interview with HT:

- Indian newspapers are among the truly independent newspapers of the world.

- I think newspaper industry in India is heading towards a consolidation. It will have to be more of a shake-out than mergers or buyouts. You are already feeling pressure from the internet, so the redundant newspapers will have to go.

- TV and internet would leave very little time for newspapers everywhere.

- I have a half baked theory that only one major newspaper will survive and people in influential positions will choose to read fewer papers. In most countries, including the US, there is room for one national paper. It will be like an island of clarity and authority in the vast and undifferentiated ocean of information.

- The dividing line between the business and general interest newspaper is also blurring. Our goal at WSJ is to provide the one newspaper you need to read.

Ref: HT Mumbai, 15 Oct. 07, P10

The views and insights of Mr. Brauchli are interesting and thoughtful. But his theory that there is space for only one national newspaper is questionable. Saying that there would be fewer newspapers is ok, but I don't agree that there would be only one newspaper. This condition would pose more risks than the gains. Competition is good for even the newspaper business. At present there are a great number of players, several of them survive only because they know and serve local readers very well. But as newspapers are going professional, like HT Media Ltd, and Jagran Group expanding, it would be difficult for smaller players to survive. Consolidation is a natural phenomenon in the life cycle of an industry, and then I think market would moves towards oligopoly (having few players). Having one national newspaper is having monopoly. Most of the times, governments don't allow any monopoly to form in critical industries. Though in the case of newspapers the government might like a monopoly, for political reasons, it is highly unlikely that it would actually promote or allow a monopoly newspaper to take shape. As a matter of fact, few monopolies are able to survive the competition unless the governments protect them. And Samuelson says, "In the long run, no monopolist is completely secure from attack by competitors." I think that the newspaper industry will have oligopoly, and not a single player monopoly. Even inside oligopoly, I believe in India we shall have collusive oligopoly, where the few firms in the market actively cooperate with each other.

Behind every successful woman, there is another woman

Nations like India to generate numerous success stories, because of the overlooked failures that the previous generations encountered and still secretly lament

On Sep 29, Mint came with an interview of Zia Mody (By Rana Rosen). At one place, Zia said: "My mother always thought she lost out on a higher education and was convinced she would have ended up far better than my father. So, she very often lived her ambitions and aspirations through her children. Always guiding us to be independent, self sustaining, honest to the value structure that we were brought up with, not to compromise our principles, and try to achieve more than what other people have achieved. Alpha mother."

You must agree that this is the case in most of the Indian households today, at least middle class households. The mothers didn't achieve their career ambitions due to family, societal, or marriage related limitations. Therefore, they live their ambitions and aspirations through their children. Although this is true for the fathers also, this is more common a pattern among the women in India. We had this very famous slogan, "teach a man and you teach an individual, teach a woman and you teach a family."

We can expect a revolutionary change in the education and professional scenes some years from now, when these kids, who were guided by the aspirations of their mothers, go and ask their share in the world!

What do you say?

Smile is a curve that can make a lot of things straight

They were waiting for their turn in the doctor's clinic. Atmosphere was gloomy, and no one was talking to anyone else. An old man came in, and sat down. He was looking very anxious and tense. Besides him, a lady was sitting with a 10 months baby in her arms. Next moment, the baby just looked up at him with that great big smile that is so characteristic of babies. The gentleman smiled back at the baby. Soon he struck up in a conversation with the lady about her baby and his grandchildren. And soon, the entire reception room joined in, and the boredom and tension was converted into a pleasant and enjoyable experience. (Incident taken from a book)

How often do we, adults, smile for others, like what the baby did in this incident?

My sister's baby boy is growing very fast. Now he is enjoying his broken speech, and has picked up a habit of talking over mobile phones. The next day I called up, my sis gave him the phone to 'talk'. He picked it up, started with maaaa and kept speaking In between he broke into laughter. Then again he would talk, and again another laughter. This continued for a long time, and now he was not ready to give the handset back! But why did the baby laugh? Because he was happy that he had got an opportunity to talk over the mobile phone, and his laughter was a very natural and humane way to express that delight.

How often do we, adults, express our delight in the form of a natural laughter, like what the baby did?

Faithfulness

One of my friends told me this real story. His father was posted in a small forest town at that time. One day, while he was passing through a stretch adjacent to the forest, 5-6 wild dangerous looking dogs surrounded him. There was no one else around. Suddenly, a small local dog arrived nearby and invited attention of the dangerous dogs. Then he started running away in a particular direction. My friend's father too ran behind that dog. The wild dogs, because of some strange reason, didn't chase him! He was safe. He then took that dog to his home and domesticated him. After a long association, one day, there was something wrong with the dog, may be he had eaten something wrong. He was eagerly waiting in the house, for his master to return from office. As soon as my friend's father came, the dog ran towards him, lovingly hugged him, played with him, and then moved away. He went to the bathroom, vomited blood, and after some time, he was dead.

I know many of us have stories like this. I remember the story of Sona, the female deer of poetess Subhadra Kumari Chowhan, which she described in her story. Also, I remember one story I read on some of your blogs, where the authoress described how she found and lost her faithful pet.

On the other hand, we as humans are faithful often not even to us; right? There are scientists who try to justifiably explain why men by nature are not faithful to their partners. And there are people who justify unfaithfulness to one's organisation by saying: everything is right until you get caught up. There have been numerous stories of rags-to-riches individuals, who were unfaithful to their masters. Faithfulness to one's country, motherland, family, parents, spouse, friends… ideally the wish list is long. I think the human tendency to justify things pulls us too low… In the changing times, will the pets be the only ones who will retain this basic quality?

Perseverance

A wild butterfly has entered my room. It is flying towards the tube light, hitting it and then coming back. It keeps doing this until it falls into some dark and congested place. While she was sitting on a book, I pulled the book and threw her out of the window. After some time, she has come back, and keeps moving towards the light. I know she will keep doing this till her last breath.

A long time back, when I used to prepare for engineering entrance exams, sometimes I went past 2 in the morning. I needed to get out of my room, in order to enter the main building. In those chilly winter nights, under the electric bulb, I used to see a procession of ants, moving, one before the other, night after night. They used to carry something with them, without any attempt of stopping and taking a breath. I knew they would keep doing that till their last breaths.

Why don't we humans have a comparable perseverance as that of a butterfly or an ant? Though scientists are famous for their disciplined life, and of course Yogis and monks "have it" in them, even they take several years of practice to reach that state. What about others? Have you ever seen an insect that won't run towards the light? Or a single ant who decides that from today onwards, she will not travel in a queue, but take a break in between, take a nap, or a peg or two? Or a papaya tree that decides to generate sour fruits? Why is that we humans, despite being the wisest of all, are the stupidest of all too? Why can't perseverance come naturally to all of us too? Our scientists are able to create a Dolly from a cell, but will they ever be able to selectively develop some natural characteristics in the human beings, such as perseverance? Why should humans learn that in a hard way, but the butterfly should inherit it?

Rahul Tiwary

Business: Forbes Asian Fabulous 50 List – 2007

Great news. A total of 12 Indian companies made it to the third annual Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List.

The 12 Indian companies in alphabetical order are:

• Bharat Heavy Electricals
• Bharti Airtel
• Grasim Industries
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Infosys Technologies
• Larsen & Toubro
• Reliance Industries
• Satyam Computer Services
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Tata Steel
• Wipro

And, China got only 7 on this list!

References: [Forbes List] [Rediff]

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow’s theory contended that as humans meet ‘basic needs’, they seek to satisfy successively ‘higher needs’ that occupy a set hierarchy. Maslow’s theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of personality and motivation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs.

Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied. Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized. However, if a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs – dropping down to that level until the lower needs are reasonably satisfied again

The five levels are self explanatory and are explained in the attached picture also, therfore I am not describing them.

It is very interesting to understand the needs of humans, structured in this manner. Though someone can debate on the hierarchy, the fact remains that this model explains why a child cries, why a boy in your locality behaves in that manner, and why the subordinate of Hari Sadhu is frustrated….

Creative Destruction and Destructive Creativity

These days, I have observed that some young people are very proud of their creativity, which is destructive; in fact one of my friends claimed it as one of his strengths!

I remember this scene from in one B&W Hindi movie:

Johnny Walker and his son used to sell windowpanes. One bad day on streets, their sales were nil, and then they discovered an ingenious way to turn their fortunes. First, his son throws a stone and breaks the window of a decent apartment and runs away. Then the Johnny appears and is immediately hired to repair the broken window. By this way, they use their destructive creativity to open new avenues for their income.

I tried to understand creative destruction and destructive creativity, and was amazed to find out that in fact, these two terms are opposite to each other. Let us see some examples to understand this.

The example of Johnny Walker may immaturely conclude that it is the people like them who do this. But the phenomenon is too widespread. Destruction of colonies created markets for the European nations. If the farmers of Champaran didn't plant indigo in their lands and thereby their soil losing fertility, the cotton mills of Britain wouldn't have made that much profits. Of course, this is imperialism more than destructive creativity, but think about the first man in whose mind this idea came, that pure business (which East India Company started with), was not enough and colonization is the best thing to do. Recent example is the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq; there are credible reports of how much American companies earned out of contracts to rebuild the destroyed cities. This phenomenon of destructive creativity even spreads to modern companies and businesses. They have found that selling their new products is difficult, but success lies in moulding an entire generation into their target consumers: first they want you to grow obese, and then they will do weight loss therapy to cure that! And the creative destruction while firms compete is also well known. The monopolies destroy any new entrants into the market, which is one reason governments have been hostile to the big M&As (remember derailed GE-Honeywell merger?). In market though, there is some destruction that is inevitable; e.g. music CDs and VCDs destroyed cassettes and VCPs/VCRs. These are naturally happening creative destructions.

I can put the availability of foetus sex determination machines under this category. And the invention of Atom Bomb? These were all creative, but they destroyed many a things also in the way… A live example is the Setu Samudram Project, where government of India is willing to spend Rs 2600 Crore of taxpayers money (80% Hindus) to destroy a mythical bridge between India and Srilanka, in order to make some ships pass though and save some travel time. What overwhelms the protagonists is nothing other than the joy of Destructive Creativity!

In the way, I have mixed up the two terms: Destructive Creativity and Creative Destruction. Creative Destruction is defined as the process of 'transformation' that accompanies 'radical innovation'. This may be positive. For example, when competing companies and competing technologies destroy others, it is called creative destruction. Like digital MP3 players are destroying MP3 CD players. But, Destructive Creativity is the process involving generation of ideas and behaviours focused on 'harmful goals'. Examples, we can easily think of. But companies some times utilize this method to find the loopholes within their own systems, before some one finds it and use it to his/her advantage. E.g. in software companies, one of the desired skills of a s/w testing engineer is destructive creativity. 

The harms due to these tendencies are many. Things like ethical hacking may seem cool, but in general, destructive forces will never achieve for mankind, a minuscule of what pure creativity does. Getting broken glass replaced may not be a big deal, but the broken hearts and souls may never get their due. In the name of ethical destruction, or spreading civilizations, destructive creativity has already done substantial damage. Let us not idolise the destructive creativities. It takes years for a tree to grow, but our creative lots may take a few minutes to turn the clock back. There will be two alternative solutions, for example, for India-Pakistan conflict: diplomacy or a war. First is constructive and second is destructive. And hence, the biggest question in front of mankind is: how to ensure that creativity remains constructive and not destructive?

Business: Toothpaste Market in India

Toothpaste market in India is worth Rs 2200 Crore (2006).

In India, per capita toothpaste consumption stood at 74g in 2005, which is amongst the lowest in the world, compared to 350g and 300g in Malaysia and Vietnam respectively.

Toothpaste enjoys a country wide penetration level of 50%.

Rural: 39%
Urban: 75%

Oral hygiene continues to be under aggressive competition, with sales increasing by a modest 3% in current value terms in 2006 to Rs. 2,400 crs. Toothpaste accounted for a whopping 83% of value sales.

HLL's market share in the dental care market has grown from a mere five per cent in 1979 to an impressive 36 per cent today, whereas Colgate-Palmolive has been seen its market share decline from a dominating 75 per cent to a struggling 56 per cent.

Segments:

Popular Segment - Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent - Declining

Low Price Packs - Cibaca, Babool - Growing

Niche Products - Ayurvedic and Sensitive toothpastes - Stagnant

Freshness Segment - Colgate MaxFresh,Close Up,Anchor Gel - Growing

Price-based Segments:

Regular Segment: 100 gm: Rs 25-30

Low Price Segment: 100 gm: Rs 14-20

The Lower Price Point segment accounts for around 25% of total category volumes. Small and regional brands from the low priced segment are expected to perform well because they are often close to the market, respond faster to changes and are willing to learn from mistakes.

Colgate

Colgate has been present in the domestic oral care market (of India) for the last 70 years.

A dominant position in the toothpaste segment with a 48% market share in the domestic market.

1.5 times the second largest player.

Cibaca was acquired by Colgate in 1994 from Ciba Geigy.

The company today has two main brands in the toothpaste segment � Colgate and Colgate Cibaca.

Colgate Cibaca has risen to become the 4th largest paste brand in the country in volume terms after Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent and Close-Up

Pepsondent

Brand of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, erstwhile HLL)

In a declining toothpaste market, HLL has managed to grow its brands and this has been attributed to Pepsodent’s value proposition being redefined.

Pepsodent’s share has been climbing steadily from 15.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2002 to 16.3 per cent in the quarter ending June 2006.

HLL's Dental insurance scheme, being launched through a partnership with the New India Assurance, offered a dental insurance of Rs 1,000 on purchase of any pack of Pepsodent.

Anchor

Anchor belongs to Anchor Health and Beauty Care (AHBC), a part of the Anchor Group (makers of Anchor Electrical switches).

Anchor White Toothpaste was positioned as India‘s first British Dental Health Society certified 100 per cent vegetarian toothpaste, in 1997.

Anchor and Ajanta price their offerings at more than 40% discount, giving the market leaders a run for their money. These low priced competitors accounted for more than 80 per cent of the growing "discount segment".

Top 5 Brands – Market Share (2006)

1. Colgate Dental Cream: 34%

2. Close-Up: 14%

3. Pepsodent Complete: 10-11%

4. Colgate Cibaca Top: 5.7%

5. Colgate Fresh Energy Gel: 3%

6. Other Brands: 32.3%

a. Anchor, Babool, Ajanta, etc

Company - Market Share (Value), 2006

1. Colgate Palmolive Ltd: 47.3%

2. HLL: 30%

3. Dabur: 7.2%

Source (Market share): AC Nielsen Market Information Digest India, 2006

Know how the names of your favourite companies came into being

Apple Computers: Apple was founder Steve Jobs' favourite fruit. He was three months late in filing a name for his business. So he threatened to name the company "Apple" if other colleagues don't come up with a better name. And the rest is history.

Google: It was originally called Googol, a word that represents 1 followed 100 zeroes. After founders Seargey Brin and Larry Page presented their projects to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to Google.

Hotmail: Sabeer Bhatia tried all types of names ending with mail, and fixed it as Hotmail, as it contained all 4 letters of HTML. Earlier it was referred to as HoTMaiL.

Hewlett-Packard: Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel: Acronym for of Integrated Electronics.

Microsoft: Bill Gates thought the name was devoted to micro computer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the hyphen was taken off later on.

Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for motor cars.

Sony: Comes from Latin word Sonus meaning sound.

Red Hat: Founder Marc Ewing lost his favourite red hat, which he had got from his grandfather. He searched for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return the red hat if found by anyone.

To my teacher Mrs. Seema Khanvilkar

Dear Madam,

That our last class in business communications is over, the Mondays without your classes would be strange. Today, while going through the newspaper, I got to read an article which made me remember you. Asked if he found captaining Indian cricket team a burden in such a scenario, Rahul Dravid said, “Burden is too strong a word and people say that because of how I look. I’m not naturally a cheery-looking soul on the field.”

Rahul Dravid's self awareness made me recall what you always say: "You should feel comfortable in your own skin. No matter how you are, this is most important." And you prickle the skin of one of your hands with the other, while you say so! Incidentally Rahul Dravid is credited of being one of the most cool-headed guys in Indian cricket team, again making me recall your saying: "Thinking on your feet is very important. Not everyone is able to do that." This episode connects with me very well also because I always get a similar feedback - of carrying a serious face most of the time!

Our classes started from you making us speak on "love", and after the speech, you and the class gave us the feedback. The classes afterwards included lectures on non-verbal communication and body language, a class-feedback on one-another, knowing yourself self-evaluation exercise, telephone etiquette, interview basics, dining etiquette, etc. You were so nice to take us to a restaurant and teach us how to handle a continental cuisine. And in the last class, you showed us an English movie in the class, and we had to analyse the oral and non-verbal communication in the movie.

Despite being a corporate trainer in the field of communications, you take pain to take classes in our university. You boast of the fact that you enjoy teaching, and it shows in your attitude And what a greater testimony than the words of your own students? Listening, giving feedbacks, and correcting others seem easier than what it really is. Coping up with some boring students, some freak ones; listening to the non-sense of some others is too much of a job at the end of the day. But you seem to be made for your job.

You remember, in the final extempore, some of the students didn't do well. In fact, some turned red faced and stopped midway. I was really ashamed that we fared so poorly in your final class. What would have been a better gift from us to you than a brilliant performance in front of you? There is one area in my opinion where you can do better. The fact remains that the guys and girls that fumbled were predictable. In the class exercises, they saved themselves from the trouble, while the strongest ones outsmarted and outshined in front of all. And remember the guys who volunteered themselves for taking the interviews; they were all with above average communication skills. I think in future, you should make an extra effort in raising the level of the bottom of the pyramid!

Personally, I didn't have the opportunity of having met many sensible and perfectionist teachers as you are. You are the one who taught me how to pronounce "righteous". From deepest of my heart, I wish to thank you for your efforts put in for the benefit of ours. May you have very happy fruitful days ahead. May you always enjoy a sound health and great successes in your professional life.

With best regards,

Yours truly,

Rahul

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine – XI - A Square Cross

A square cross, with four arms of equal length, predated Christianity by fifteen hundred (1500) years. This kind of cross carried none of the Christian connotations of crucifixion associated with the longer-stemmed Latin Cross, originated by Romans as a torture device. People are always surprised how few Christians who gazed upon “the crucifix” realized their symbol’s violent history was reflected in its very name: “cross” and “crucifix” came from the Latin verb cruciare to torture.

Equal-armed crosses like this one are considered peaceful crosses. Their square configurations make them impractical for use in crucifixion, and their balanced vertical and horizontal elements convey a natural union of male and female.

The equal-armed cruciform was symbolic of balance and harmony but also of the Knights Templar. Everyone had seen the paintings of Knights Templar wearing white tunics emblazoned with red equal-armed crosses. Granted, the arms of the Templar cross were slightly flared at the ends, but they were still of equal length.

[The Series continues]

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine – X - Priory of Sion

They call themselves the Prieur de Sion – the Priory of Sion. They are based here in France and attract powerful members from all over Europe. In fact, they are one of the oldest surviving secret societies on earth.

Membership

The Priory’s membership has included some of history’s most cultured individuals: men like Botticelli, Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo and Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci presided over the Priory between 1510 and 1519 as the brotherhood’s Grand Master.

Sacred feminine

The Priory has a well-documented history of reverence for the sacred feminine. They are known as the guardians of an ancient secret. One that made them immeasurably powerful. The identities of living Priory members are kept extremely secret.

The Priory’s tradition of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a belief that powerful men in the early Christian church ‘conned’ the world by propagating lies that devalued the female and tipped the scales in favour of the masculine.

The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever.

History of Priory and Secret Documents

The brotherhood’s history spanned more than a millennium… an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, and even brutal torture at the hands of an angry Pope.

The Priory of Sion was founded in Jerusalem in 1099 by a French king named Godefroi de Bouillon, immediately after he had conquered the city. King Godefroi was allegedly the possessor of a powerful secret a secret that had been in his family since the time of Christ. Fearing his secret might be lost when he died, he founded a secret brotherhood the Priory of Sion and charged them with protecting his secret by quietly passing it on from generation to generation. During their years in Jerusalem, the Priory learned of a stash of hidden documents buried beneath the ruins of Herod’s temple, which had been built atop the earlier ruins of Solomon’s Temple. These documents, they believed, corroborated Godefroi’s powerful secret and were so explosive in nature that the Church would stop at nothing to get them.

The Priory vowed that no matter how long it took, these documents must be recovered from the rubble beneath the temple and protected forever, so the truth would never die. In order to retrieve the documents from within the ruins, the Priory created a military arm a group of nine knights called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar. Almost everyone on earth had heard of them, at least abstractedly. For academics, the Templars’ history was a precarious world where fact, lore, and misinformation had become so intertwined that extracting a pristine truth was almost impossible. Nowadays, Langdon hesitated even to mention the Knights Templar while lecturing because it invariably led to a barrage of convoluted inquiries into assorted conspiracy theories.

The idea of protection of pilgrims was the guise under which the Templars ran their mission. Their true goal in the Holy Land was to retrieve the documents from beneath the ruins of the temple.

Nobody knows for sure whether they found them or not, but the one thing on which all academics agree is this: The Knights discovered something down there in the ruins… something that made them wealthy and powerful beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

Knights were in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade and told King Baldwin II that they were there to protect Christian pilgrims on the roadways. Although unpaid and sworn to poverty, the Knights told the king they required basic shelter and requested his permission to take up residence in the stables under the ruins of the temple. King Baldwin granted the soldiers’ request, and the Knights took up their meager residence inside the devastated shrine. The odd choice of lodging had been anything but random. The Knights believed the documents the Priory sought were buried deep under the ruins beneath the Holy of Holies, a sacred chamber where God Himself was believed to reside. Literally, the very center of the Jewish faith. For almost a decade, the nine Knights lived in the ruins, excavating in total secrecy through solid rock.

Did they find something? They certainly did. It had taken nine years, but the Knights had finally found what they had been searching for. They took the treasure from the temple and travelled to Europe, where their influence seemed to solidify overnight.

Nobody was certain whether the Knights had blackmailed the Vatican or whether the Church simply tried to buy the Knights’ silence, but Pope Innocent II immediately issued an unprecedented papal bull that afforded the Knights Templar limitless power and declared them “a law unto themselves” an autonomous army independent of all interference from kings and prelates, both religious and political.

With their new carte blanche from the Vatican, the Knights Templar expanded at a staggering rate, both in numbers and political force, amassing vast estates in over a dozen countries. They began extending credit to bankrupt royals and charging interest in return, thereby establishing modern banking and broadening their wealth and influence still further.

Tragedy

By the 1300s, the Vatican sanction had helped the Knights amass so much power that Pope Clement V decided that something had to be done. Working in concert with France‘s King Philippe IV, the Pope devised an ingeniously planned sting operation to quash the Templars and seize their treasure, thus taking control of the secrets held over the Vatican. In a military maneuver worthy of the CIA, Pope Clement issued secret sealed orders to be opened simultaneously by his soldiers all across Europe on Friday, October 13 of 1307.

At dawn on the thirteenth, the documents were unsealed and their appalling contents revealed. Clement’s letter claimed that God had visited him in a vision and warned him that the Knights Templar were heretics guilty of devil worship, homosexuality, defiling the cross, sodomy, and other blasphemous behavior. Pope Clement had been asked by God to cleanse the earth by rounding up all the Knights and torturing them until they confessed their crimes against God. Clement’s Machiavellian operation came off with clockwork precision. On that day, countless Knights were captured, tortured mercilessly, and finally burned at the stake as heretics. Echoes of the tragedy still resonated in modern culture; to this day, Friday the thirteenth was considered unlucky.

Survival

Fraternities of Templars do still exist today, under a variety of names. Despite Clement’s false charges and best efforts to eradicate them, the Knights had powerful allies, and some managed to escape the Vatican purges. The Templars’ potent treasure trove of documents, which had apparently been their source of power, was Clement’s true objective, but it slipped through his fingers. The documents had long since been entrusted to the Templars’ shadowy architects, the Priory of Sion, whose veil of secrecy had kept them safely out of range of the Vatican‘s onslaught. As the Vatican closed in, the Priory smuggled their documents from a Paris preceptory by night onto Templar ships in La Rochelle.

Where did the documents go?

That mystery’s answer is known only to the Priory of Sion. Because the documents remain the source of constant investigation and speculation even today, they are believed to have been moved and rehidden several times. Current speculation places the documents somewhere in the United Kingdom.

For a thousand years, legends of this secret have been passed on. The entire collection of documents, its power, and the secret it reveals have become known by a single name Sangreal. Hundreds of books have been written about it, and few mysteries have caused as much interest among historians as the Sangreal.

Does the word have anything to do with the French word sang or Spanish sangre meaning ‘blood’? Blood was the backbone of the Sangreal. The legend is complicated, but the important thing to remember is that the Priory guards the proof, and is purportedly awaiting the right moment in history to reveal the truth.

The word Sangreal is an ancient word. It has evolved over the years into another term… a more modern name.” He paused. “When I tell you its modern name, you’ll realize you already know a lot about it. In fact, almost everyone on earth has heard the story of the Sangreal.

Holy Grail

Holy Grail is the literal meaning of Sangreal. The phrase derives from the French Sangraal, which evolved to Sangreal, and was eventually split into two words, San Greal. Holy Grail.

The Sangreal documents are only half of the Holy Grail treasure. They are buried with the Grail itself… and reveal its true meaning. The documents gave the Knights Templar so much power because the pages revealed the true nature of the Grail.

The true nature of the Grail? The Holy Grail, people had thought, was the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper and with which Joseph of Arimathea later caught His blood at the crucifixion.

According to the Priory of Sion, the Holy Grail is not a cup at all. They claim the Grail legend that of a chalice is actually an ingeniously conceived allegory. That is, that the Grail story uses the chalice as a metaphor for something else, something far more powerful.

The Holy Grail is arguably the most sought-after treasure in human history. The Grail has spawned legends, wars, and lifelong quests. Does it make sense that it is merely a cup? If so, then certainly other relics should generate similar or greater interest the Crown of Thorns, the True Cross of the Crucifixion, the Titulus and yet, they do not. Throughout history, the Holy Grail has been the most special.

[The Series continues]

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine - IX - Mary Magdalene

As seen in the Last Supper

Da Vinci lays it all out in the open in The Last Supper. The one seated in the place of honor, at the right hand of the Lord is an individual with flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom. It was, without a doubt… female. The woman to Jesus’ right was young and pious-looking, with a demure face. This is the woman who single-handedly could crumble the Church? Who is she? That, my dear, is Mary Magdalene.

The Last Supper tells us that the Holy Grail was a person. And not just any person: A woman who carried with her a secret so powerful that, if revealed, it threatened to devastate the very foundation of Christianity!

Who was Mary Magdalene?

The unfortunate misconception that she was a prostitute is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret - her role as the Holy Grail.

The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene. More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.

Married?

It’s a matter of historical record and Da Vinci was certainly aware of that fact. The Last Supper practically shouts at the viewer that Jesus and Magdalene were a pair.

Notice that Jesus and Magdalene are clothed as mirror images of one another. Sure enough, their clothes were inverse colors. Jesus wore a red robe and blue cloak; Mary Magdalene wore a blue robe and red cloak. Yin and yang.

Venturing into the more bizarre, note that Jesus and His bride appear to be joined at the hip and are leaning away from one another as if to create this clearly delineated negative space between them.

Symbol of M

In the painting, if you view Jesus and Magdalene as compositional elements rather than as people, you will see another obvious shape leap out at you – A letter of the alphabet.

Glaring in the center of the painting was the unquestionable outline of an enormous, flawlessly formed letter M.

Why is it there?

Conspiracy theorists will tell you it stands for Matrimonio or Mary Magdalene. To be honest, nobody is certain. The only certainty is that the hidden M is no mistake. Countless Grail-related works contain the hidden letter M - whether as watermarks, underpaintings, or compositional allusions. The most blatant M, of course, is emblazoned on the altar at Our Lady of Paris in London, which was designed by a former Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, Jean Cocteau.

The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record. Moreover, Jesus as a married man makes infinitely more sense than our standard biblical view of Jesus as a bachelor.

Why?

Because Jesus was a Jew and the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood.

What the Gospels tell?

The Gnostic Gospels, the Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea scrolls are the earliest Christian records. Troublingly, they do not match up with the gospels in the Bible. Flipping toward the middle of the book, we find a passage:

And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?

As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion, in those days, literally meant spouse.

Read the first line again. And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene.

The book clearly suggested Magdalene and Jesus had a romantic relationship.

This is from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene:

And Peter said, “Did the Saviour really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?”

And Levi answered, “Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.

The woman they are speaking of, is Mary Magdalene.

Whom to carry on His Church?

Peter is jealous of her. Not only because Jesus preferred Mary, the stakes were far greater than mere affection. At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So He gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. We daresay Peter was something of a sexist.

According to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.

Jesus - the original feminist!

That was the plan. Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.

And Peter had a problem with that. See Peter in the Last Supper. You can see that Da Vinci was well aware of how Peter felt about Mary Magdalene.

In the painting, Peter was leaning menacingly toward Mary Magdalene and slicing his blade-like hand across her neck. The same threatening gesture as in Madonna of the Rocks!

Royal Blood

Few people realize that Mary Magdalene, in addition to being Christ’s right hand, was a powerful woman already. Mary Magdalene was of royal descent. Magdalene was recast as a whore in order to erase evidence of her powerful family ties. I it was not Mary Magdalene’s royal blood that concerned the Church so much as it was her consorting with Christ, who also had royal blood. As you know, the Book of Matthew tells us that Jesus was of the House of David. A descendant of King Solomon - King of the Jews. By marrying into the powerful House of Benjamin, Jesus fused two royal bloodlines, creating a potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne and restoring the line of kings as it was under Solomon.

The legend of the Holy Grail is a legend about royal blood. When Grail legend speaks of ‘the chalice that held the blood of Christ’… it speaks, in fact, of Mary Magdalene - the female womb that carried Jesus’ royal bloodline.

A Father too?

The greatest cover-up in human history: Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage, and the vine from which the sacred fruit sprang forth!

The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ is the source of the most enduring legend of all time - the Holy Grail. Magdalene’s story has been shouted from the rooftops for centuries in all kinds of metaphors and languages. Her story is everywhere once you open your eyes.

The word Sangreal derives from San Greal - or Holy Grail. But in its most ancient form, the word Sangreal was divided in a different spot.

Sang Real literally meant Royal Blood.

Sangreal… Sang Real… San Greal… Royal Blood… Holy Grail.

It was all intertwined.

The Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene… the mother of the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ.

Leonardo da Vinci is not the only one who has been trying to tell the world the truth about the Holy Grail. The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ has been chronicled in exhaustive detail by scores of historians.

See some titles:

THE TEMPLAR REVELATION:

Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ

THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR:

Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail

THE GODDESS IN THE GOSPELS

Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine

This is perhaps the most famous tome:

HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL

The Acclaimed International Bestseller 

This caused quite a stir back in the nineteen eighties. To my taste, the authors made some dubious leaps of faith in their analysis, but their fundamental premise is sound, and to their credit, they finally brought the idea of Christ’s bloodline into the mainstream.

The Church’s reaction to the book was outrage, of course. But that was to be expected. After all, this was a secret the Vatican had tried to bury in the fourth century. That’s part of what the Crusades were about. Gathering and destroying information.

Surviving bloodline

The threat Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early Church was potentially ruinous. Not only was she the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the Church, but she also had physical proof that the Church’s newly proclaimed deity had spawned a mortal bloodline. The Church, in order to defend itself against the Magdalene’s power, perpetuated her image as a whore and buried evidence of Christ’s marriage to her, thereby defusing any potential claims that Christ had a surviving bloodline and was a mortal prophet.

[The Series continues]