Slumdog Brothers
As I was reading an excerpt from Gurcharan Das's new book, "The Difficulty Of Being Good" about the epic battle between two brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, it reminded me not only of the battle between Pandavas and Kauravas as written in the article but also two brothers I met during my trip to India. My cousin from US was also visiting and we were looking for a coffee shop in Noida after dinner. As we were wandering around, two kids tried selling us roses maybe assuming we were a couple with the usual punchline, "Bhaiya, Didi ke liye gulab le lo". Instead we went to the MacDonald's, got couple of burgers and called the two of them. I gave the bag of burgers to one of the kid and said, "Yeh tum dono ke liye hain".
As soon as I left the bag, I grabbed it again and told the kid holding the bag that I will take one of the burgers out right now and give it to the younger one, obviously realizing what-if the older one runs away after we are gone leaving the younger one hungry. As I was taking the burger out, the older kid said, "Yeh mera bhai hain, main isee hee doonga". Realizing my dog-eats-dog-world hypothesis, I gave the bag back to the older one but still told him to give the burger infront of me.
Battle of the Kauravas and Pandavas (pic courtesy: www.harekrsna.com)
There is a very good chance that the older kid would have given the burger to the younger one even if I had not insisted on it but if the mother of Mukesh and Anil had not intervened, would Mukesh had given Anil's share to him?
Yes, its the dog eats dog world out there but the dogs may not be from the slums every time.
As soon as I left the bag, I grabbed it again and told the kid holding the bag that I will take one of the burgers out right now and give it to the younger one, obviously realizing what-if the older one runs away after we are gone leaving the younger one hungry. As I was taking the burger out, the older kid said, "Yeh mera bhai hain, main isee hee doonga". Realizing my dog-eats-dog-world hypothesis, I gave the bag back to the older one but still told him to give the burger infront of me.
Battle of the Kauravas and Pandavas (pic courtesy: www.harekrsna.com)There is a very good chance that the older kid would have given the burger to the younger one even if I had not insisted on it but if the mother of Mukesh and Anil had not intervened, would Mukesh had given Anil's share to him?
Yes, its the dog eats dog world out there but the dogs may not be from the slums every time.
posted by fursat at 6:37 AM
18 Comments:
I have a conspiracy theory that they are faking it... after 5 years, the brotherly bond appears again and they unite... by that time they become extremely powerful... what say?
@ anks - A lot of people are speculating that but they have already become very powerful. My theory is that the day middleman, Amar Singh, goes away...they unite ;-)
yes, its quite sickening the way Mukesh and Anil Ambani fight it out like slumdogs !! :) but Anks theory could also be true but then yes, HOW much more powerful?? No end of greed.
Moonie
Most of the time people share when they have little, and get greedier and selfish when they accumulate more....
@ Moonie - We are too small fish to speculate the power games these people are playing
@ Sum - I agree :-)
aah thoughtful post bhai! Glad 2 see you updating the space after a break
Good to see you here and this was just an impulse write-up :-)
Ahh
infact i was about to post it on my space askin if anybdy had read dat buk.hws d buk?
abt ur post i hav seen bros havin competitn bt dey stil care of each othr,bt ambanis they havnt earnd or build this empire nd i gues dats d reasn of dem fightin.may b as bajaj patchd up after years even they do
I haven't read the book as it is not available in my part of the world at the moment. I think brothers fighting with each other is not a big news but yea it will be interesting to see some stats on whether with more money involved does the fights increase proportionally too ;-)
I agree with Sum...money and power brings greed and selfishness too..but you never know what goes on in the minds of rich and powerful people..
Yea, its hard to call a spade a spade in today's world :-)
talking about the Ambani brothers battle, i bumped on to this.. thought i share it with u guys..
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) is reluctant to share information about its books of accounts for an audit of the Krishna-Godavari (KG) gas fields according to India’s official auditor. The auditor has also asked for access for complete clarity on the issue
In a letter to the petroleum ministry, dated August 26, Principal Director of Audit K R Sriram also goes on to say that the minutes of the meeting August 17 pertaining to the audit of the Krishna-Godavari and the Panna-Mukta-Tapti fields were issued without his office's consent.
In the letter the Principal Director says "We are, therefore, indicating our remarks on these minutes, which may please be incorporated, and the revised minutes sent to us for our record," said the two-page letter to D N Narasimha Raju, joint secretary (exploration) in the oil ministry. The understanding of our audit team was that during the meeting, the contractor's representative expressed considerable reluctance to provide access to records for the previous years till 2006-07,"
It concludes by stating "While we are fine with the week starting September 21 for the meeting, such a conference will have full purpose only when we have documented clarity about our exact audit access," said the letter pertaining to the meeting on Krishna-Godavari gas.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which is fighting a legal battle for gas from these fields, has always maintained Reliance deliberately inflated the capital expenditure that will result in losses worth billions of dollars to the government.
According to the ADAG, the original estimate of the gas output of 40 million units a day, when the fields were handed over to Reliance Industries, the capital expenditure was pegged at around $2.5 billion.
The group now questions on how can this more than triple to nearly $9 billion when the output is envisaged to only double to 80 million units, the group queried, even as Reliance and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons sought to justify the same.
Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey, meanwhile, said an official audit will be conducted on the capital capital expenditure of all major oil and gas discoveries, including the Krishna-Godavari basin and the Panna-Mukta-Tapti fields.
Well, the world is like that... The big fish eat small fish concept prevails everywhr.Sometimes, Blood seems thicker than water. But, sometimes blind greed just makes every other consideration vanish.
Rickss.. i wrote i wrote...take a lookie
lol nice blog buddy. I cannot comment to much on how the brothers would behave but speaking of Anil Ambani, have you heard about the new alliance with Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Productions. It seems that Spielberg will also be directing some of his (Reliance Big Entertainment) movies. you can read the article at http://dreamworks-reliance-big-entertainment.blogspot.com/2009/09/spielberg-to-direct-film-for-anil.html
You have been awarded!
Check out my blog.......
It definitely is a dog-eats-dog world out there. The word 'trust' shouldn't really be in the dictionary anymore!
Yes, I agree ricky, no need to find hell and heaven anywhere else. They both are there around us only.
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