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Last weekend was the 2009 edition of the Mumbai Marathon. For the 3rd time I participated in the Mumbai half marathon (13.1 miles, 21.1km). I ran the half  in 2:07:14 which is a personal best for me, the previous 2 Mumbai half marathons I completed the run in 2:16. I ran over 200 miles practicing for the half marathon and expected to shave maybe 5 minutes off my time, but to shave over 9 minutes off my time felt pretty damn good.

Business Week has a pretty good story on how the Mumbai terror attacks might affect business in India.  I’ve said for the past one year that India has a window of 12-24 months to get it’s act together to show the world it has arrived, my comments were more along the lines of corporate governance and the financial arena. But now, I think India has a very long road ahead and must address many things. The biggest issue on it’s plate is low expectations. People have no or low expectations of their government, hospitals, police, etc…people need to change their mindset.  I’ve outlined some of the bigger issues that need to be addressed, these are not 6 month blue ribbon committee type things, but structural changes in the mindset of Indians.

• Pakistan – This issue is front and center right now and will need to be addressed before anything else can really happen.  Based on the media reports it seems Pakistan bares some blame. Whether it’s going in for surgical strikes or all out war, something needs to be done. 
• Politics – Honest governance is required and this requires more people getting involved in the process and not just sitting back and watching.
• Corruption – Let’s be honest this is India’s cancer.  I’ve heard that 50-80% of all money is lost to “leakage” – aka corruption. Accountability and transparency can help bring this number down.
• Economy – The so called USD 5 billion stimulus package announced over the weekend is a joke. Spain is talking USD 150 billion, China is talking USD 586 billion and the US is looking at something approaching USD 1 trillion.

Who would have thought after 60 hours of terror in Bombay we would be laughing so soon.  One of the most popular Indian TV shows is The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, however that show is nothing compared to the statements being made by our caring and affectionate government leaders.  The laughter you hear is because most people are laughing in pain at the mockery these elected officials are making of this massacre.  Anyway, let’s go through some of their sound bites:

“If it had not been Sandeep’s (slain NSG commando) house, not even a dog would have glanced that way”

V.S. Achuthanandan, Chief Minister of Kerala (pic shown), was quoted after the father of the slain NSG commando told the minister to take a hike. This would be the equivalent of California Governor Schwarzenegger telling a firefighter’s father to get lost.

“I was on an official visit to find out for myself the damage caused to the hotel. It was a sheer coincidence that producer Ram Gopal Verma was also present”

V. Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was quoted after protests over his actor son Ritesh and director Ram Gopal Verma toured the Taj Palace with him. Imagine if George Bush had Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg visit ground zero within hours of the 9/11 attack.

“The odd incident does happen in a big city like Mumbai”

R.R. Patil, Home Minister of Maharashtra, was quoted as the attack was occurring. Maybe, but these “odd incidents” don’t usually last 60 frikken’ hours due to government stupidity.

“These are just a few women wearing lipstick and powder taking to the streets”

M.A. Naqvi, BJP Leader, was quoted as saying when talking about citizens protesting. Fair enough, maybe this guy REALLY doesn’t like lipstick and powder.

The larger issue is that most of them are still sticking by their quotes because they don’t see anything wrong with their statements. In fact, many have said their words were incorrectly translated from their mother tongue to English. This is India baby!…where the world knows about “India Shining” but internally we are “India Crying.”

There are some people that are slowly getting back to their routine after the massacre and thinking there is not much they can change. But, many people are shocked and horrified at how the government has addressed the massacre during and after the attacks and want to do something. For me lighting a candle is something you should do when there is a power outage, instead I rather focus on actionable items and have the government get out of their comfort zone. Their comfort zone is a 20 car entourage on Marine Drive and everyone gets out of the way, so if you light candles and have a sit-in on Marine Drive and Mantralaya that would be a much better idea because you are now forcing them to take notice.

Me personally, I’ve been busy putting my thoughts together and will soon approach several large media houses – traditional print media and digital content providers. The overall theme is that we need to have a daily status report front and center on what is happening on a day to day basis in regards to the massacre. But that is only half of it, the other piece is having people such as yourself able to share information and keeping the government honest via collaborative technology. One of the tools we’ll be using is the government’s own Right To Information (RTI) website. Once we get the green light and the basics are in place, I’ll let you know via my blog how you can affect change.

Do I think it will work? Only time will tell, my only fear is that people in South Bombay have always had some what of an elitist attitude and this might be just another example – “MY friends got affected thus the entire nation should give a damn.” Let’s pray people all over India feel violated like the victims in the massacre and want change.

P.S. You might have noticed a new tag/label I’ve been using – WTF. It’s because every time I think of the Mumbai Massacre, I think to myself “What The Fu!@#$.”

The Indian economic situation is so bad that even Chief Ministers are losing their jobs. Vilasrao Deshmukh is rumored to be getting his pink slip from the central government any moment. Between going to every film award ceremony and giving hotel tours to movie directors, it became painfully clear to the central government that his hectic social calendar was getting in the way.  The government is looking at several candidates to replace him, I hope they use a new vetting process to select these most critical positions.  Here is my list of required questions I would ask and every media person should demand be answered:

1. Name
2. Education (If you mention Harvard it better be a 2 or 4 year degree, none of those lame-ass 3 week programs. Bonus points for an IIT/IIM grad)
3. Previous Job
4. What is your cell phone number/e-mail address
5. How much did you earn last year?
6. What is your attitude towards bribery and corruption
7. Have you ever committed a crime, if so describe
8. What will your first 100 days look like (since sh@#$ is slow in India, I’ll give you 200 days)
9. What are your top 5 areas you will focus on
10. What has been your biggest accomplishment?
11. What has been your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?
12. How large of a car entourage/security detail will you require and why?  (Most US Governors have 2 cars or is India so unsafe you need more)

I know many of you were hoping that this blog entry would talk about what I’m planning on doing for change, but I had to put together a list of questions when I heard CM Deshmukh might resign. I promise the next blog entry will be about what I’m planning to do.

Boston.com has a section called the Big Picture and they have some amazing pics from the Massacre: Set 1 | Set 2