Me: Let me send you an email confirming this event.
On November 8th. 2022, Lord Mark Zukerberg lost his Facebook account. It was disabled.
https://www.ilounge.com/news/mark-zuckerbergs-facebook-profile-gets-disabled
Facebook restored the account a day later, but there was no explanation of what happened and how the account was restored. Also, there are no posts after 4th November, which is strange, given that the FB founder did make a very public apology about the layoffs on November 9th. Today, more than a fortnight later, there isn't a single post on the Zuck profile page.
There are Youtube videos to help!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydp-nRmxG4Q
"I did not know that India is so much like Pakistan."
"I did not know that Pakistan is so much like India."
"This looks like cream in a bun, but it's a very important dish in Sweden."
"This is a kurta. It's like a long T shirt that is worn with a pyjama or trousers."
"In my country, the New Year Day, when everyone is happy and celebrating, is the biggest festival."
"In my country, we greet each other by saying 'May good things happen to you.' "
I am from Pakistan, and I am going to talk about food in Indonesia.
I stayed up till midnight to check if I had been selected. I was so keen on getting into this program.
The proverb in my land says, "The sun, the moon, and the truth, cannot be concealed for long."
- These were some of the things we heard as the International Cultural Exchange came to an end.
And one of the jury members said,
"I did not get a chance to do this during my childhood. But you have. Cherish these friends from all over the world. If possible, visit them one day. You will love it."
Over 50 children - from Philippines to Argentina, from Nigeria to Sweden, came together to understand each other's cultures through interaction. They shared details about their food, clothes, festivals, proverbs, and other small things that define culture.
The presentations over the last eight weeks were phenomenal, to say the least. But if they'd set a high bar, today's creative presentations raised it even further.
One team took a food item - bread, and presented it as a starter, main course, and dessert in their own cultures. They all made that food item today! Another team dressed up in their traditional finery and after a greeting in their language, they spoke about their traditional dresses, and shared a proverb from their language. A third team made games about fun facts, monuments, food, and festivals of all their countries. The winning team had team members talk about each other's food.
All through this, their mentors - who were masters students themselves, nudged, guided, pushed, and then beamed with pride as team after team completed its stupendous performance.
One cannot describe what happens in a room like that. One can only see the sparkle in those eyes and know that these lives have been touched. That we have created a few citizens of the world. Drop in the ocean, but a ripple that might spread, no?
Only an organisation like Rotary could have pulled off something like this. The way Rotarians from all over the world came together to participate, take the message to children in their countries, become SPOCs for these participants, and ensure that the participants overcome issues like access to computers, school clashes, etc. to participate. Nine Weeks of frenzied activity, and as we picked up the phone one last time to congratulate each other, we were, I think, left with a sense of deep void.
The image I have picked is of a Pakistani girl in her traditional attire. Why did I pick this one?
The motifs on the dress and the jewelry worn by her are both Indian and Pakistani.
Culture, like water, seeps through the cracks of our prejudices.
In the next 2-3 years, I feel that within cybersecurity, a new branch will emerge. This specialist branch will focus on security and AI.
In plainspeak, this branch will focus on frauds that are executed through AI. Some examples are:
A. Deepfakes
B. Hacking enterprise chatbot programs to get the user to share PII
C. Carhacking (a little more dangerous than carjacking)
D. Crimes using IoT (as simple as hacking into a home security system, as complex as electrocuting a user)
E. Mental Health and IoT - where IoT devices are hacked to alter a user's perception of reality and mistakenly have them believe that they need mental health help, or, worse still, are mentally unsound.
Any other use cases that come to mind?
Every family is unhappy in its own way, but the ones that are happy have some things in common.
You might have read this or heard it from your seniors.
It is true in business too.
Some common threads run through the business communities that I have studied.
The BIGGEST common factor in successful business communities is that they all support each other, especially the ones who are starting out.
They provide introductions, orders, opportunities. Even simple logistical support like a place to stay or eat inexpensively.
It's not done at an individual level. There are community structures in place. For instance, there is a dharamshala in a city. That dharamshala is funded by the commerce association of a community.
Therefore, integrity at the workplace is enforced by ensuring that everyone knows everyone's families and the reward (and punishment) of good/bad work extends to the family and the extended family.
The communities I have studied are: Marwadis, Baniyas, Gujaratis, Punjabi trading communities.
The communities I want to study - Shroffs, Shettys, Chettiars, and others from the South, Ahmediyas and Bohras, and the North East.
People don't become rich. Communities do.
Some of you might know that I have been trying to understand the business and wealth practices of Indian communities. Then one day, someone forwarded a video where a person speaks about the wealth and business practices of the Jews.
And that is what got me thinking. In all the Indian business communities, while there is diversity of belief system, one common thread runs - the community works actively to uplift those who are just starting out. This is one of the 2-3 parallel threads that run across all financially aware communities of India.
The video on Jewish practices said the same thing.
And that is when I realised - Most rich people stand on the foundation of other people who helped them in early days - a loan, an introduction, an order, even something as simple as a place to stay, which used to be the norm amongst Marwadis traveling for work to other areas.
People rarely become rich. Communities do. That is why, even self-made people immediately seek the friendship of other fabulously rich people. Success is a team sport. We need the network to help us.
If you are looking to get successful, seek a community that will help you. It could be your family, your college alumni, or even the local networking chapter of some business association that you are a part of. This is why organisations like BNI are successful.
If you ARE successful, invest time in BEING such a pillar of support to someone who needs it now.
The sense of community is vital to all aspects of our well-being - spiritual pursuit, though an individual affair, is helped immensely by being a part of a likeminded group. Everything from parenting to professional excellence needs a sense of community.
The trick, I think, is in finding that sweet spot between community support and its Whack-a-mole impact on innovation.
More on that later.
