Unseen yet Known: Prague & Its Narratives

What strikes you most about the eastern part of the Europe is that it somehow makes you feel at home; makes you go slow and yet attach an unknown melancholy to it unknowingly. The unknown is perhaps the best word we ever invented; it is a perfect metaphor for itself. We learn things, we see them and then we forget; we learn again somehow. The process: unknown still. My gratefulness ledger should actually have tons of writings of Prague. It has been beautiful, solitude, melancholic and happy at the same time. There have been exhausting times, exciting times, excruciating ones too but never dull and boring ones. Coming back to the tangible city you find the ruins of the baggage of history, being changed, being evolved and yet being very intrinsic. We learn cultures and history through narratives and narratives are those of people and indeed people have perceptions: that's the most beautiful part of it. History is indeed a very strong narrative of what it has to offer and shape the future of a place, a group, a nation and the individual in general. Yet, these narratives are so diverse, different and at most times, conflicting. You see Prague, you observe it. And once you do that keenly and attentively, you find something beneath the palimpsest of the current city. It is the desire to stand, to survive and an eagerness to see a different future: exciting, exhausting, excruciating yet never dull and boring. That's what narratives do to you as a society. They give birth to Faith. And faith is something that makes you move forward; the paradigm being Prague. A native once said, “Happy are those nations that have a boring history, yet happier will be those nations that have faith even in any history they have”. 

P.S Czechia, in fact, Prague, has been a playing ground and a place of acquisitions and re-acquisitions during the war and communist era. Very evident in the architecture of the country and the way society narrates its history, are its pains, pleasures and perceptions of the past decades. The write-up was written while sipping hot coffee in central Prague after a long morning walk under the shining sun and is a personal expression of the air felt. 

Reflections on Indonesia: The Semantic Synthesis

Travelling to places, unknown and unexplored has always been a source of immense learning and exposure. The mere fact of encountering something and unique is exciting. So, do when you travel to a country where the language and customs are so indifferent to what have been brought up. 

Indonesia indeed took me out of my comfort zone, bringing new challenges in terms of living conditions, food habits, logistics support and socio-cultural differences as I progressed with my project in social innovation assessment. It was indeed a great learning experience on a personal front as we tried adjusting and integrating ourselves into the local fabric. Moving into far off villages helped me realize the differences and the gap that exists between villages and cities. But, it was also a humbling experience when the villagers with meagre income sources and low resources would offer us various products out of gratitude and love. It was indeed their generosity which helped us cope with one of the most disconnected areas and do a two-day survey in one of the worst weather conditions while we were in Donomulyo (South-East Java). It was also a profound and overwhelming experience to see women being empowered through small micro-interventions done by Nazava Filters.

It was also an eye opener in terms of diversity of culture that exists in Indonesia, as I travelled to different parts during weekends. And taking about languages, dialects and how they shape thoughts. I always had the image of Indonesia being a Muslim country and thus, a conservative one (a semantically induced affect of selective adjectives in speech). Yet, this assumption was proved wrong when I moved across various villages and specially to east Indonesia, which was more liberal than many democracies I have visited. Also, while having good discussions I was confronted with a unique and constructive question “Why do you call Indonesia a Muslim country; it is a republic where majority of people happen to be Muslim just like America where majority of people happen to be Christian”. This was a short yet profound thought for me as it made me think how our preconceptions selectively take adjectives in accordance to justify what we think the reality should be. It is not that the real situations govern our chosen adjectives but our chosen adjectives that do shape our perception of reality. (A conservative Muslim nation, or a Muslim majority republic; and yes, there is a huge difference between two and how the image is formed once we use any of these). 

One of the other personal learnings that I could observe is how I started associating languages with thought process and cultural development of a place. (I am not sure, if I will be able to explain that in this write up but trying is never a bad idea). Having learned English as native, and Hindi, Urdu and Magahi (while living in India), I understand how the different languages limit the mind when you think in one of them. This is because while these languages were developing different speakers lived in very different realities and had very different cultural formulations and social structures. A typical example comes in the case of Chinese and Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, every word develops from a verb root always. This is centric to the notion and philosophy of constant motion (eternal flow) in Sanskrit Literature. It focusses on action and action-related words unlike Hindi or English, which have exclusive nouns as well. When I tried to understand Indonesian people and their language (Bahasa) and compare it to the exposure I had with Indo-Germanic and Latin languages (mainly French, Spanish and Portuguese), I was taken aback by the differential that existed. To my surprise, the concept of being in the present and simplifying expression is so central to Indonesian culture (or say, East Indonesian Culture, Java) that it is blatantly reflected in Bahasa, which does not have tenses or conjugation for that matter. Also, the simplicity makes it so poetic at times that just by placement of the words you can transform an action to a noun. (Ex. Anda makan means you eat, whereas makan anda means your food). This is quite unique in terms of linguistics (as nothing ever conjugates; like Chinese yet different because of the grammar and being a non-pictographic language) and I was so excited to compare it with my prior knowledge of languages and linguistics. I am not sure whether it was a personal learning, but this reflection surely made me observe languages and cultural habits and their associations in greater detail. I think I would carry this reflection for a long time while understating people, their languages and their cultural roots.

This also made me think about the contrast and contradictory implication this can have on "Universal Grammar" of Noam Chomsky. Although, I am no expert on linguistics or semantics, yet I think using the same palimpsest to gauge every language might lead to over-simplification, undermining the complexity which is so inherent to language development. Not to sound overwhelmingly conclusive, I just think it is better to understand languages under the layers of socio-cultural fabric rather than something abstract; it makes you connect with people, places and perspectives deeply and constructively. 

Terima Kasih!

P.S. Research Background

This article has been taken from "Reflection and Analysis on Nazava Water Filter" paper submitted for the fulfilment of FACT Impact elective taken at HEC Paris in 2016-2017. The entire study involved studying the concepts of Social Impact Assessment as a part of the course for six months and then, spending six weeks on the field conducting surveys and collecting data to analyze the impact of a social enterprise, in accordance to the Impact Map and Indicators.

Disclaimer: Any quantitative analysis has been avoided due to the small sample size under consideration; which might have led to wrong inconclusive statements. The views expressed in this paper are completely personal and open to constructive criticism. It is more of an introspective article than an intention to provide any academic research on or an analysis of the social enterprise or society under consideration. 

The Last Little Dot (Back Home)

The world is a strange place and strange are so its ways. But, somehow amidst all the disruptions, distractions, and disillusions; one can find the very essence of all this; the strange flow of diversity. Emerging and subsiding at places unknown and unthought, there are small interventions of this strangeness, leading to diversity. 

Who would have thought that you take a flight from Porto to Amsterdam and suddenly amidst no Indian roots, you find a stranger in the front watching those documentaries on India. And, suddenly your heart is delighted at that glimpse. Strange it is indeed. That too to hear your own language in a far off land, yet giving someone who is so different a person, a kind of joy. This joy and the search for it is nothing less than the mere result of the perennial process of increasing diversity. Of finding something you don’t have and of something you think you can't have. And then, you are writing your original stuff in a foreign yet your very own language, listening to something as traditional as Indian Classical Music and siping a cup of coffee in the pure medieval styled Europe. Strange in itself stranger than we can conceive it. You are delighted at seeing something yet you are listening the song which has so much pensiveness and poise to it. Strange, the mind is too. Two senses having completely different experiences yet the mind chooses to stay and focus more on the surreal one, that gives more joy. Is that a calculated tradeoff or is it just another strange way that the mind works in ? May be, who knows. What is more delightful at the moment is nothing more than the moment of these different contrary realisations. Strange, diverse yet completely beautiful.  

The Baggage of History | Time to Move from "The Thinker" to "The Doer"

We as a country were and still are great think thanks. No doubts, we thought and conceived the inventions and discoveries of modern science, about 1000s of years ago. We discovered the zero, the calculus, made aeroplanes, thought of the colours of sunlight (the seven horses of Sun), the theory of constant motion (the Brownian motion), the musical notes, yet we were left. We discovered the distance between celestial bodies; being masters of astrology and astrophysics. We discovered the essence of earth and its organism form (the Gaia theory), the concept of universal connectedness, the Heisenberg uncertainty, the circular articulation concept and the concept of "flow". Yet, again we were left. We were great observers, experimenters, thinkers and philosophers. Yet we were left; again and again. But were we? We as people left again. What did we do; we became "abstract"; a complete abstraction of our own developed thought process. And, abstraction as "mathematics"; requires an outside perspective to transform it into applicability. The whole applicability leads to the teleological aspect of thoughts and great philosophies; thereby defining the parameters of credits and discredits. Thus, plays in the impact model and the measure of impact so as to where goes the credit. Proof becomes a dominant part; since applicability leads to scalability; and so, does the abstraction become more tangible and perceptible. Yet, the creative thoughtful mind creates in "abstraction"; like a "mathematician" - an "artist"; because this is what it is meant for. When you try applying the parameters of credits to your abstraction; you get a contradiction; between the intrinsic value of a thought and a thing; what matters more. Once lost in this; you become neither. Let's make a choice; let's be abstract again or maybe its time to be more "applicable". 

Diversity, Gender & Intersectionality

Diversity, Gender or Intersectionality

It has indeed been a source of insight to observe the evolution of Gender Diversity & Inclusion on most of the company boards in Luxury Industry. Some quick remarks that one observes are the high female representation (as compared to other industry benchmarks) and the recently introduced gender inclusion policies and programs2; which are clearly indicative of some big shifts in terms of inclusion, representation and diversity on the boards in luxury industry. Some supporting key figures have been an increase in the number of women on Board (mainly due to the increase in the number of independent women directors). Although in our case, there was just one executive women director and the number of executive directors in total has been decreasing. As per some interviews conducted3, we can guess that the higher authorities want to appoint executive directors mainly based on merit and not just to fulfil a gender diversity criteria or superimposing law which undermining talent. There is also a strict demarcation between executive board and other director nominations. There is a growing trend of appointing more women on committees (namely, remuneration, ethics and nomination). A great number of research studies tend to link women on board with the performance of various companies. These studies focus on financial performance, board reflexivity and stakeholder view of the organisation against gender and ethnic diversity on corporate boards, based on two interrelated, propositions. The first viewpoint holds that those competent women and ethnic minorities with the human capital, external networks, information, and other characteristics of importance to the corporation deserve opportunities to serve on corporate boards and in upper management. The second proposition suggests that gender and ethnic diversity of the directors result in better governance which causes the business to be more profitable (David A. Carter, Frank D’Souza, Betty J. Simkins, and W. Gary Simpson; 2010). Yet, there is no direct trend association or causation that can be drawn from an increase in women on board versus the improved financial performance of the company.

Under the current study, in terms of other overlapping factors and parameters, there is an evident case that shows that male board members are relatively older in age, most board members are GRANDE ECOLE graduates, almost all women board members are right in their political affiliation and none of them reports a gross income above €70,0005. These differences seem to be indicative of the “talent-identity-representation” bias (in contrast to Human Capital Theory: Becker,1964) still prevalent in the industry, raising important questions of mere implementation versus inclusion. Quantitatively, 63% (males) and 83% (females) of the board members are French and there is hardly any comparable non-EU representation on the board4&5. This indeed is a classic case where quotas and gender equality policies did bring in more representation in terms of gender but significantly failed in holistic inclusion. With respect to laws, there is a significant resistance seen against Cop -Zimmermann French law, as it disregards the meritocracy principle; and is applied lopsidedly to only corporate boards and not to trade unions or political organisations. Are these initiatives serving as channels of diversity representation and inclusion, or are they merely promoting the cross-sectionalist view of a bigger problem in corporate boards (in particular) and the corporate world (in general): Representation. And if in affirmative, then, these further essentialist notions of identity, as there is an assumption that women are better equipped to represent women and that black representatives better represent black people. Thus, fostering essentialist notions of identity, rather than principles of inclusive diversity: Identity versus Idea.

A closer look at these observations shows that there is a significant overlap of various parameters in terms of diversity inclusion, while biasedness prevails. On quote from one of the interviews conducted “I do not think that gender equality in the Board of Directors is crucial for firm performance, although I am very pleased with the recent nominations two new women on the company board. Miss. XX (name undisclosed) [French economist] for instance, is a remarkable woman, but she stands out for her knowledge and decisions, not because she is a woman.” Yet, this “knowledge and decisions” is hardly reciprocated in the stated gross income. The case of EU versus non-EU representation is another pivot; there is just one non-EU member on board under consideration, and going by the cross-sectionalist principle, is ought to be a woman. So, is the case. This does ring a bell and indeed, may force us to rethink about the utilitarian business justification of the diversity quotas, that reflects its conservative origins. Thus, creating leverages of factional demographic faultlines to improve board reflexivity via gender quotas, might lead to tokenism (Kanter, 1977).
Being conscious of the fact that the data is limited and the research is non-exhaustive, this is not an attempt to establish a correlation or causation between performance, quotas, diversity or women representation but the sole purpose is to highlight the inherent loopholes in the “quota-implied system” of promoting diversity and inclusion. The way forward might be a new perspective on representation in terms of ideas rather than binary identity based on functionalism. The answer might lie in addressing this problem as intersectionality rather than a cross-sectionalist view of representation. Intersectionality in diversity and inclusion is fairly a new paradigm, whose waters are still to be tested. But, why not pursue something new and fail rather affix oneself to an institution of binary quotas, which apparently is not so inclusive. The fundamental question in the debate is how we define representation: through intersectional diversity or binary expressions of essentialism.




REFERENCES:

Research Background
Disclaimer: Since there are only 17 Board Members1 and only 6 of them being women, any quantitative analysis has been avoided due to the small sample size under consideration; which might have led to wrong inconclusive statements. However, a representative fraction has been used to demonstrate key points and any reference of external concepts have been kept minimum, if not completely avoided. The views expressed in this article are completely personal and open to constructive criticisms. For the qualitative analysis, all data and documents available have been considered, including public information, financial statements of the company and the personal interview.

1. LVMH has been taking a lot of efforts to increase gender diversity on board and is proposing a top-down approach for better inclusion and representation of women in the company. We conducted an in –depth analysis of the company’s board (against various parameters such as gender, academic background, marital status, citizenship, political inclination etc.) and interviewed top executives to get a deeper insight of how things are at the ground level. The aim of this article is not to analyse all the parameters in detail (which is beyond the scope) but to give key insights obtained through this group project. LVMH currently has a one-tier board structure with 17 board members, 6 of which are women (35%). The female presence has been gradually increasing from 1 woman in 2007 to 6 in 2017.
   
2. LVMH has started a new program called – ‘EllesVMH Connect’ which focuses on addressing gender equality in the workplace. In 2013, the LVMH group and 32 of its Houses signed the United Nations’ global agreement on “Women’s Empowerment Principles” (WEP), and in doing so, committed to making every possible effort to offer women and men the same opportunities to exercise their full potential. In the fall of 2014, directors of Houses in the LVMH group based in the United States also signed the agreement, bringing the total number of signatories from the Group’ s Houses to 41.
   
3. An interview has been conducted with a top executive as mentioned in the detailed company analysis report (submitted along with other materials).
   
4. Current Board Distribution Analysis
   
5. FEMALE BOARD MEMBERS (Political Affiliation + Gross Income)
   

	Relevant Criteria Absolute Numbers		Percentage		Relevant CriteriaAbsolute Numbers		Percentage		Relevant Criteria	Absolute Numbers	Percentage
MALE Age 65 or older 55 to 64 years 35 to 44 years 45 to 55 years 7 0,636363636 3 0,272727273 1 0,090909091 0 0 French EU - non-French Non-EU, Other 7 4 0 0,636363636 0,363636364 0 Master's degree (Grande Ecole) 5 0,454545455 Ph.D 1 0,090909091 Bachelor's degree 2 0,181818182 MBA 1 0,090909091 Master's degree (non GE) 0 0 No college degree 2 0,181818182
	Relevant Criteria	Absolute Numbers	Percentage		Relevant Criteria	Absolute Numbers	Percentage		Relevant Criteria	Absolute Numbers	Percentage
FEMALE Age 65 or older 55 to 64 years 35 to 44 years 45 to 55 years 2 0,333333333 1 0,166666667 2 0,333333333 1 0,166666667 French EU - non-French Non-EU, Other 5 0,833333333 0 0 1 0,166666667 Master's degree (Grande Ecole) 2 0,333333333 Ph.D 1 0,166666667 Bachelor's degree 0 0 MBA 0 0 Master's degree (non GE) 3 0,5 No college degree 0 0

Random Thoughts & Essays on Continuum and Continuity.( As written during traveling amid thoughts and places.)

The following write ups contain random people, their peculiar behaviour, the innate structures, the subtle air, austerity & aroma of places. This is to follow the intricate continuum to be; & that is between organic and inorganic, the movement and stillness, the space and sound & other similar Ying and Yang concepts.

The blurred vision between the two is considered always good in terms of floating continuity. Thus, the very structure of these pages would be a logical and literal continuum.

Although, this should have started earlier,; the exact documentation of human relative response; yet better late than never.

P.S. While starting, I humbly believe that writing in its personified versions must have left me , the same ruthless way I did it years ago. So, sorry if I sound like an obsolete observation at times; obsolete because the noun "observe" is in itself obsolete these days.  But perhaps, No . There is something strange.The words have not left me yet; the words still overflow the jar of mind. Perhaps, that's the beauty of a language; it never leaves you.