GAURAVSIKKA.COM

It’s been a week into the new year and I’ve been seeing numerous “resolution” posts on the blogosphere without feeling the urge to post one myself. What would I say, I wondered—that I need to write or maybe go to the gym more often this year? Would anyone really care? Or maybe it would it be a nice way to create a record that I can reflect on next year?

But that’s when John Mayer’s Vultures started playing on my trusty last.fm stream and the first line of the song struck me.

Some of us, we’re hardly ever here. The rest of us, we’re born to disappear.

It made me realize that it’s not about what I do this year but how I do it; with pride, conviction and the will to make it a success, I hope. So regardless of your resolutions this year, I hope you’re able to remain focused for 365 days and achieve your dreams.

That said, I do want to write and direct at least one film this year and launch a nonprofit organization. So good luck and best wishes for a happy and peaceful 2009. See you on the other side!

Some of us, We’re hardly ever here
The rest of us, we’re born to disappear
How do I stop myself from
Being just a number
How will I hold my head
To keep from going under

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me

How did they find me here
What do they want from me
All of these vultures hiding
Right outside my door
I hear them whisperin
They’re tryin to ride it out
They’ve never gone this long
Without a kill before

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me

Wheels up
I got to leave this evening
Can’t seem to shake these vultures
Off of my trail
Power is made, by power being taken
So I keep on running
To protect my situation

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me

Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it

Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up
Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up

WHAT: Mumbai Screenwriters is a writing group for aspiring and established screenwriters. Through weekly meetings and online collaboration, the group will brainstorm ideas and support each other in developing concepts into finished pieces for short films or features.

WHEN: Every Sunday, start date TBA

WHERE: TBA

WHY: I’ve been getting many ideas for short stories and screenplays recently but finding it hard to make time to write and develop them further. I’m looking to start a small writing group that can meet once a week to improve writing through workshops, storytelling exercises and critiques. The group can also setup a collaborative space at www.mumbaiscreenwriters.com to engage in free writing and blogging.

JOIN: Leave a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or join the facebook group.

Photo Credit: Zen

Here’s a quick update on the Rise Up India initiative. I pitched the idea of a social platform to promote civic and political action to both the Professionals Party of India and Ashoka. PPI sent me an “Awareness Release” (attached below), which I urge you to go through and send to your family and friends.

I await further contact from PPI’s General Secretary and Head of Election Strategy about possibly meeting with their core group at their next gathering in Mumbai. I also spoke with the Ashoka team in Delhi which seemed receptive to the idea but still await feedback from the Mumbai office.

Professionals Party of India: Awareness Release (Post 26/11)

A few days back I seeded the idea of “Rise Up India” (RUI) in response to the Mumbai terror attacks. After evaluating the reactions of people, I believe the site needs to focus on 3 key areas: idea forming, education and action.

There is a massive outpouring of ideas, emotions, and a will to contribute, but there will be a big drop-off on how much of this will convert to action. Therefore it is critical to collect these ideas while the sentiments are fresh and riseupindia.com can first launch as a social platform to share and rate ideas in a Digg format.

The educational aspect of the site will include community outreach sessions. A learning forum where people can learn from experts of crisis management, and those who have gone through attacks, whether they come from NYC, Palestine, Jerusalem, Spain, London, Bali or Sri Lanka. And then in the long term, there needs to be learning cells/democratic two-way dialogues set up in universities and colleges across India, so that everyday youth begin to learn the basics of citizen-driven governance: how to start a non profit, what public administration means, how to handle a disaster/attack, what it takes for a democracy to work in the 21st century, etc. We’ve learnt the hard way about the consequences of not having such systems in place.

The reason for our government failing in its response to the terror attack is a lack of leadership, probably stemming from the fact that Shivraj Patil had no experience in crisis-management. This meant that the NSG, MARCOS, QRT, ATS, and Mumbai Police didn’t have an overriding commander to direct operations and combine resources. Don’t even get me started on our “commander-in-chief”, PPP.

Simply put, I want to create an action-oriented social platform to breed young and able politicians who can bring a change in governance. Most people want to participate in politics and contribute to change but don’t necessarily know where to begin. I want to use the power of social media and the Internet to usher in a new wave of politics. Barack Obama is a true new media politician and fascinating lessons can be learnt from his campaign about grassroots action.

We will create a social platform through which “citizens” and “candidates” can register based on their constituencies. They will be urged to post issues and grievances that are being ignored by their local authorities—infrastructure, security, legal, social, disasters and the like. These issues will be seen by our “potential candidates”, either recruited or from the community at large. They will accept “open” issues and embark on the challenge to solve this issue facing the community.

The candidates will be responsible for building a swat team, marketing, PR, and raising funds. They will also be assigned experienced mentors from the site who will guide them through the campaign. Each detail of the campaign will be highlighted and documented by the candidate’s staff as well as citizen journalists using social media tools such as YouTube, flickr, wikis, twitter, and blogs. Once the issue is “closed”, the constituency and a special panel will vote on the candidate’s performance and assign them points based on a specialized rating system.

Where do we go from here? Social action is not enough, we need erudite leaders who can use tempered judgment and political theory to implement effective public policy. There is no doubt about the caliber and success of Harvard University graduates and the like. I’d like the same opportunity for the site’s candidates if they are to lead the world’s largest democracy. The first phase of community service can be seen as the vetting process, similar to Obama’s time on the ground in Chicago. Two years after creating positive change in their communities, I hope these candidates can get the best education possible by setting up foundations/scholarships with premier universities such as Harvard. Education is THE ONLY way we can eradicate poverty and the hatred that fuels terrorism.

Requirements and next steps for the project:

• My twitter pal Palam has agreed to help build the architecture of the site but we’d need 2-3 more programmers to help with the framework.
• If multiple people work on the project, we’d need to use a tool like Subversion to share, update and track all code changes. It would be very beneficial if we can find someone with experience in managing projects using this software or the like.
• Designers who can create an inspiring brand identity that will resonate across the country and transcend all mediums.
• Online and offline volunteers to launch and promote a pilot project (possibly for a Mumbai constituency).
• Leaders/fellows who can inspire teams in these key categories as a massive offline operation will be required to fuel our online activity.
• If you’d like to contribute in ANY way please email me at blog AT gauravsikka.com, leave a comment below or find me on twitter.
• Once we have some volunteers in place we can setup a wiki to begin formalizing the site framework and figure out how it will interact with our offline agents.
• There are many such forums and groups cropping up but we’d need to combine and operate under one banner because there is only one vision for New India. Someone suggested that we provide this social media support to an existing party like the Professionals Party of India. I like the idea. What are your thoughts?

RISE UP INDIA: Bring Change to Governance

Disclaimer: Many thanks to Priyanka Joseph for her ideas on education and community outreach, which I have shared in this post.

I’m at a South Bombay location as i type this. It’s been 16 hrs since Mumbai was attacked in most unprecedented fashion, yet the city remains under siege by a terrorist group. Nonetheless, away from Colaba—the epicenter of the attacks—there is light activity on the streets and most stores are open for regular business.

The audacity of the terrorists is alarming and there is no way to comprehend their motives or the negative impact it will have on the sub-continent’s stability and geopolitical relations.

Finally given a chance to get away from the sensational news reporting and endless #mumbai twitter stream, I have a moment to reflect, meditate, and pray. My thoughts immediately go to the innocent lives that have been lost to this atrocity and I pray for their families to find strength to persevere through these testing times. Setting aside all political malaise, I salute the brave men and women of the Mumbai police, NSG commandos, Naval marines, Anti-terror squads, and soldiers of the Indian Army who are risking their lives and going on the offensive to protect the people of India. Despite numerous terror attacks on India in the recent past, the government seems to lack adequate anti-terror strategies and infrastructure. But that hasn’t stopped these brave men to step in the line of fire to save Mumbai from total anarchy—no matter how primitive their support and protective gear.

Sitting at home last night I heard two loud blasts at 22:20, which was around the time I read @kapilb’s tweets about similar noises he was hearing. I tweeted about it and a flurry of tweets followed about a firing at Leopold’s Cafe. I put on the TV and watched in horror as the despicable events began to  unravel. The western world awoke unawares to the situation and turned to twitter for an up to the second update steam. I too was up all night live tweeting the developments as they broke on local news channels like Times Now, NDTV, and CNN-IBN. Various sites picked up my tweets for reporting purposes, CNN.com and Mahalo.com being the most notable. In fact, I was even called through the night for updates on the standoff by radio stations in Edmonton and San Franciso.

I’ve always been a huge Twitter fanboy but am still marveling at its worldwide adoption over the past several hours as an instant communication and event tracking tool! Tipping point for twitter? I think so. Here’s a CNN article that also heralds today as “the day social media appeared to come of age and signaled itself as a news gathering force to be reckoned with.” See for instance the way @Vinu risked his life while gunfire was being exchanged to bring us these photographs no sooner than the news broke.

Shockingly, the terrorists, all between the age of 20 and 25, exposed themselves completely while carrying out their heinous crimes. It’s discouraging to see young citizens getting disenfranchised by the system and rebeling so vehemently, especially in a country whose promising future lies in the hands of her 500 million youths. It doesn’t apply directly in this case, as most leads are not pointing to home-grown terror but its rise in India is a known fact. So what can we do about it? How can we include the youth by allowing them to express their emotions positively and make them feel like they’re making a difference or being heard. We often complain that the politics in India is outmoded, so how do we inject verve into our politics by making the youth feel like they have a duty to fulfill? After all, didn’t Gandhi say “Be the change you wish to see in the world?” I think that time has come for India. Barack Obama did it in the US and I’m certain that out of a population of 1 billion, someone can challenge the status quo and lead us towards real growth—socially, politically, and economically.

I recently purchased the domain riseupindia.com to build a social network to galvanize the large youth population in India and harness its diverse talents. I hadn’t thought through it, but now seems an opportune time as any to seed a discussion to build this idea in a collaborative format since many people are uninspired by the politics and leadership, or lack thereof, in India.

How can we build a social platform that will help increase transparency in our politics and give youth a real chance to lead our country in the forseeable future? I’d love to hear ideas and find folks to collaborate with. For how long can we have 81-year olds as leading candidates for our head of state position?

It’s 5pm. I look out of my airplane window to see Manhattan’s breathtaking skyline against the impending sunset. Far into the horizon I notice luscious hues of orange, yellow, and red. We’ve just taken off and and the plane feels like it’s floating towards this paradise. Time stands still… It’s a new beginning. Within minutes the colors begin to melt away and the sky is engulfed in darkness. The journey begins. The journey from New York to Mumbai. The journey from America back to India after seven years. The journey to find my new life adventure. The journey to fulfillment.

I had decided over the summer that Mumbai with a teeming population of some 15 million, its expanding financial and entertainment industries, and enigmatic promise would be my next stop after Bangalore, Ann Arbor, Prague, and New York. The city whose essence NY Times writer Anand Giridharadas captures so wonderfully:

Here the highest social boast is that you “just got back” from abroad; the loftiest praise for a restaurant is, “It’s like you’re not in India.” Mumbai’s globalized class hungers for it to be a world city, and its leaders pledge to make it Shanghai-like by 2020; the plan is, to put it gently, behind schedule. (full article)

Similarly, my decision was met with much cynicism amongst my friends back home: “Why leave America?”, “Enjoy one of the worst cities of the world. It’ll destroy your soul. Have fun!” So why am I doing it? What am I looking to get out of it? I can’t foresee the future but as I was deliberating these thoughts, I chanced upon Tony Robbins’ provoking TED talk, “Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better.” Littered with nuggets of wisdom, it gave me perspective and a chance to reflect on what I was doing and where the motivation was coming from.

Over the past few years especially, I haven’t taken conventional paths when presented with a decision. When most of my friends were clamoring to business school, I opted for film school. When the same friends were headed to Wall Street internships, I moved to Prague to shoot a film and then finally ended up at a comic book company after graduating. Being a startup, we were hit by the financial crisis this year and I decided to move on.

Evaluating the decision through Tony Robbins’ six basic human needs, I’m definitely looking for more uncertainty at this formative stage in my career. Life in New York was getting predictable and I missed the chaos of India. Chaos breeds creativity but on the flip side, getting things done can be draining.

As Giridharadas goes on to say:

Mumbaikars, as they are known, cannot resist one another, cannot resist Mumbai. Those who crave departure could depart if they wanted. They are still here. The newly arrived could have stayed in the villages, basking in their certainties. They too, choose to invest themselves here.

Neither investment is total, unreserved. But Mumbai works on the agglomeration of these hopes: Because so many cast their lots here, it becomes a place worth casting lots. The longer you remain, the less you notice what Mumbai looks, smells, sounds like. You think instead of what it could be. You become addicted to the companionship of 19 million other beings. Surrounded by hells, you glimpse paradise.

Then there is the need for achievement, which will lead to significance and fame. That said, I strongly believe that given appropriate educational and cultural backgrounds, there is a window of opportunity for faster rates of professional growth in emerging markets like India. Finally, when one can take the need for connection and love beyond the familial context—by embracing cultural and geopolitical roots—contribution beyond ourselves (to society) will begin to emerge. Call me an idealist but Barack Obama’s recent exploits have really shaken me up from the inside to take part in pro-social activities and get involved in the political landscape of my country.

I’m on the journey to discover my destiny but somewhere in between I see those glimpses of paradise. Maybe that is the final destination!

As I stood in Mercury Lounge, New York for potentially my final concert experience in the city for a while, I realized just how passionate I am about the independent and experimental music subculture. Over the past two and a half years, going to indie rock concerts has become habitual and the prospect of losing out on that completely when I move to Mumbai (more on that soon) is depressing.

I recently carried out a survey on mainstream Indian pop culture influences, which suggested that there is an emerging independent rock scene (primarily Hindi for now) led by Farhan Akhtar for making films like Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai and Rock On!!. Local rock bands are also gaining prominence through performances at Blue Frog and Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai. Last week a friend introduced me to SHAAIR + FUNC, describing them as “an uber-electronic Bjork meets new Britney”. For me, they represent New India—globalized and reconnecting with their roots in new and exciting ways to provide diverse forms of expression.

Though her roots can be traced back to Kashmir, Monica Dogra (of SHAAIR + FUNC) was raised in Maryland on a steady diet of Ani DiFranco CDs. She went on to attend New York University, dabbling in musical theater along the way. Her parents divorced when she was 11, greatly influencing her journey towards the arts.”In a lot of ways the divorce was very freeing, because I was forced into a situation where as it was, I was already different,” she says. “I feel like had my parents stayed together, I would have had this pressure on me to be this perfect Indian girl.” (via Nirali Magazine)

Even though Bollywood and its music dominates mainstream popular culture in India, I strongly believe there is an opportunity to create a sustainable independent music movement in the country. With that intention I’d like to launch SAFFRON NOTE, a grassroots operation that not only promotes Indian independent music but also American and European independent bands in India. And I don’t mean The Killers independent but rather dive bar, abrasive lyrics, cheap beer independent.

If this interests you and you’d like to help in any way please leave a comment on this post and I’ll keep you posted as the idea evolves. In the meanwhile I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts and suggestions as I’ve been away from India for a while.

Can this be successful? Will enough people be interested? What will it take? Setting up a bar in Mumbai dedicated to live shows and/or a music festival à la Woodstock? Would brands be excited by it? Would a company like Jet Airways see benfits in sponsoring artists to fly for free or alternately, would state departments provide subsisdies to promote tourism? Would foreign artsits be excited to travel to India if combined with tourism and promoted as a spiritual journey (similar to The Beatles’)?