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@5>USA Contact the American Center Library closest to youfor more information.

American Center Library 38-A Jawaharlal Nehru Marg Calcutta 700071 (033)245-1211

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American Center Library Mount Road (Near Gemini Circle) Madras 600006 (044)827-3040

American Center Library 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi 110001 (011)331-4251

American Center Library 'Sandeep,' 4 New Marine Lines Mumbai 400020 (022) 262-4590

A LETTER

FROM

ver the last few months you may have noticed a new business orientation in this magazinemore businessmen on the covers, a higher percentage of articles devoted to Indo-U.S. joint ventures, management, economics and business in general.

We're doing this because investment and trade interactions between the United States and India are drawing our two countries closer than possibly anything ever has. The new orientation is also a part of SPAN's attempt to draw more advertisements into its pages, eventually to become self-supporting.

In an era of budget cuts in governments worldwide, in an era when privatization of publicsector ventures is fashionable in much of the world, it is not surprising that SPAN should have a dream of eventually being self-supporting.

To achieve this goal, we have created the new position of business manager and filled it with Avinash Pasricha (left), who has been our ace photographer and photo editor for decades (and for the last eight years production manager as well). As business manager, Pasricha will work to persuade more companies to advertise in this publication.

"I don't want to beg people to advertise in SPAN," the business manager said to me, "but to convince them that

O

it's goodfor them!"

Here are some reasons why it's "good" to advertise in SPAN. Almost 30,000 copies of SPAN's 36,000 print run are sent to a carefully selected mailing list. This list is a niche audience to anyone who wants to reach the Indian elites in business, government, the media, academe, the professions, the arts and sciences.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of our mailing list.

• The government elite. The President, Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, ministers, Supreme Court and high court judges, governors, chief ministers, selected IAS and other officers.

• The media elite. Editors, deputy editors and assistant editors of all major English and vernacular publications, and prominent columnists, radio and TV producers and news-

THE

EDITOR

casters and administrators.

• The academic elite. Vice-chancellors, deans and department heads of all major Indian universities, plus "think tank" intellectuals and scientists.

• The professional elite. Many of the nation's leading lawyers, doctors, economists, engineers and publishers.

• The creative intelligentsia. Artists, writers, filmmakers.

• Leaders in community development and the labor movement.

• The business elite. This part of the list we've been increasing in the last few months-in tandem with increasing the business content of the magazine. Since January '96 we've added about 1,000 managing directors and chairpersons of Indian companies involved in joint ventures with American firms. Our business list reads like the Who's Who of the Indian economic world.

In addition we send SPAN to multiple readership points which include libraries of all kinds-at universities, chambers of commerce and industry, bar associations, management associations, ete.

Some may think?f SPAN as a "government handout" but it's handed out to people who count: decision-makers, movers and shakers, people who are making things happen in this country.

SPAN's mailing list is constantly updated to ensure that it reaches influential people.

There are two other arguments for advertising in SPAN. Every copy gets high readership. A MODE survey of India's urban elite revealed that each copy of SPAN is read by, on average, five persons. That's an impressive total of 180,000 per issue.

Secondly, every copy has a long life. The same MODE survey found that 80 percent of SPAN's recipients save their copies for research, reference, or simply because they're too elegant to throwaway.

The same is true of the National Geographic.

Both magazines look good on the coffee table of your home or office. This long-term visibility-a high "opportunity to see" rate-says a great deal about the quality of paper, printing, graphics and contents of both magazines .

SPAN is a bargain for advertisers. Its rates are still low and you get more than value for your money-a niche audience of VIPs. To make inquiries, contact Business Manager Avinash Pasricha, SPAN Magazine, American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 11000 I. Telephone: 011-3316841.

Fax: 011-3327328.

-S.E.

WHAT EXACTLY IS

It is hard to define. But you know it whenyou see it.

So, hotshot, you've got a sheepskin from a high-class business school. You've nailed the vision thing. You learned all those leadership bromides. You're tough but sensitive. And you've empowered everyone from your personal assistant to the company mascot.

You think you're on the fast track, right? Wait a minute. See that fellow moving into the corner office down the hall?

He attended some middling college.

Doesn't have an MBA. But he has an aura. He persuades people-subordinates, peers, customers, even the S.O.B. you both work for-to do things they'd rather not. People charge over the hill for him. Run through fire. Walk barefoot on broken glass. He doesn't demand attention, he commands it.

What's he got that you don't? In a word, charisma.

You don't hear much about charisma in business school. And you've probably never read about it in a business magazine. To most people, it's the inscrutable X factor-a mystical, almost magical career booster. Not many people have charisma. But when you talk to those who do, you discover that it isn't such a mysReprinted rromFortune.

All rights reserved.

CopyrightO

1995 Time Inc.

tery after all. Yes, it's charm and personal magnetism, but-more important-it's the remarkable ability to get others to endorse your vision and promote it passionately. Charisma makes you a leader.

One guy who sure has it is Michael Jordan-and he knows precisely how to use it to advance his career. You probably think Jordan's magic derives from his transcendent talent on the basketball court or his $45-million-a-year celebrity.

Jim Barksdale, CEO of Nets cape Communications. is considered a genius at motivating people. "He has this great ability to convey confidence and give comfort ...

•

Orit Gadiesh. chairperson of the management consultancy Bain & Co., "makes you feel you're the most important person in the room. She bleeds your blood. "

"Shareholders love me, " says Al Dunlap, CEO of Scott Paper.

"My contemporaries don ~ because I challenge the status quo and I don ~give a damn. "

Wrong. Here is a man who cleverly deploys his charisma-and not just when he's in front of a crowd or a camera.

Jordan, a cocaptain of the Chicago Bulls, says he cares much more about being a leaderthan being liked. "I can inspire people to do things I believe in," Jordan says, "especially when I see someone with ability who isn't trying his hardest." He rankles, sometimes infuriates, his teammates. But he uses charisma the way all successful leaders do: to lift the whole team's level of play.

Think of General Electric, where Jack Welch's kinetic zeal zaps employees like 2,000 volts. Or Ted Turner using his brash

be impetuous, unpredictable and exasperating to work for, like Turner. Trump.

Steve Jobs. Ross Perot. Lee Iacocca.

"Often what begins as a mission becomes an obsession," says John Thompson, president of Human Factors, a leadership consulting service in San Rafael, California.

"Leaders can cut corners on values and become driven by self-interest. Then they may abuse anyone who makes a mistake."

Like pornography, charisma is hard to define. But you know it when you see it.

And you don't see much of it in the FORTUNE500. As Al Dunlap, the pugnacious renegade who rejuvenated Scott Paper, says, "Corporate America, what a

Charismatic people have a remarkable ability to distill complex ideas into simple messages. personality to attrac't luminous talentthen diffusing the wattage. "A full moon blanks out all the stars around it," says Captain Outrageous about himself. And the air reeks of charisma in the 26th-floor corner suite in Manhattan's Trump Tower.

"I know more about charisma than anyone," says Donald Trump. "I think my charisma now is higher than ever. As I get more successful, I feel more energy around myself." Love him orhate him, the Trump is back from the financial dead, getting the highest condo prices in New York City. Asked by a Fortune reporter how she, too, might become charismatic, Trump replies, "Take over Fortune. Then go forTime Warner!"

Charisma is a tricky thing. Jack Kennedy oozed it-but so did Hitler and Charles Manson. Con artists, charlatans and megalomaniacs can make it their instrument as effectively as the best CEOs, entertainers and Presidents. Used wisely, it's a blessing. Indulged, it can be a curse.

Charismatic visionaries lead people ahead-and sometimes astray. They can

bunch of boring guys!" Look at the men heading the largest U.S. companies: Jack Smith at General Motors, David Glass at Wal-Mart, Robert Allen at AT&T, Robert Eaton at Chrysler. Eaton, like many charismatically impaired chiefs, has an inspiring lieutenant beneath him: Bob Lutz is Chrysler's magnetic, hard-driving No.2. And most good CEOs compensate with other strengths-brains, toughness, vision, ambition. But those are commodities compared with charisma.

Why does it matter? Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who chairs Emory University's Center for Leadership and Career Studies, says that when a CEO is perceived to have charisma, his business performs better.

Direct reports feel inspired. Excitement cascades through the organization. Even so, says Sonnenfeld, "most leadership courses focus on followership and compliance and consensus management instead of leadership. The result is a sort of guerri lla war against charisma."

Charisma matters more or less, depending on the business. Says Gerard Roche,

the effusive chairman of the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles: "There are professions where charisma bubbles and boils and leads to success, and others where it doesn't make much difference."

Such as? "Dentists, CPAs, morticians, engineers, architects and bankers, for the most part, don't need charisma," reckons Roche, who has placed CEOs of both varieties. (Larry Bossidy at AlIiedSignal has it; Harvey Golub at American Express doesn't.) By contrast, charisma matters enormously in startups, turnarounds, or whenever a business is ripping through rapid, unpredictable change. Aren't most companies these days? Robert House, a Wharton School professor who has studied charisma for 20 years, says that when conditions are uncertain, charismatic bosses spur subordinates to work above and beyond the call of duty.

Consider that combustible little Internet software company Netscape Communications.

CEO Jim Barksdale used to be the No.2 executive at Federal Express and then at McCaw Cellular. At both places he was considered a genius at motivating people. Barksdale, 52, has no MBA. His college degree is from the University of Mississippi.

Barksdale's most valuable asset is his self-effacing, Jimmy Stewart-style affability. Frank and funny, he instantly charmed the two moneybags behind Netscape: Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Clark and John Doerr, high-tech's Uber-venture capitalist. "You gotta take the job, Jim," Clark yammered the day he first met Barksdale. "You can have my chairman's title and be CEO. We'll move this whole damn company up here to Seattle if you want."

As Clark tells it, "A huge portion of what Netscape is worth is Jim Barksdale telling investors it's going to work. He has this great ability to convey confidence and give comfort." Adds Clark, who also founded Silicon Graphics: "To me, charisma is almost the definition of leadership." And he's willing to pay plenty for it; he and Doerr gave Barksdale an almost unheard-of 11 percent stake in Netscape.

The stock has quintupled since its public offering in August, making Barksdale's

holdings worth $500 million.

The irony is that, like a lot of people with charisma, Barksdale isn't sure he wants it. Blushing and burying his head in his hands, he says, "Charisma, to me, is almost a phony thing. It's what those TV evangelists have."

Finding people with charisma for this story was a vexing mission. Fortune scrutinized many candidates, rejected most and identified four who seem to have been born with it: Barksdale, Jordan, new Sears CEO Arthur Martinez and Bain & Co. Chairman Orit Gadiesh. Martinez, in particular, feels a passion about the subject.

"Charisma matters more than it used to," he says. "When you had command-andcontrol environments, everyone knew his role and almost automatically executed the boss's program. Today, if you're unable to galvanize people into action, all the thinking, the analysis, the strategic prioritizing doesn't matter at all."

Acquiring charisma isn't easy, and a lot of leaders shouldn't even bother. Who hasn't cringed at the sight of an awkward guy trying to be a live wire? Or remember Richard Nixon schmoozing with Elvis?

Still, there are aspects of charisma that are very useful-and easily attainable. Says Jay Conger, a professor at the University of Southern California who has written books on the subject: "Understanding the traits of charismatic people can help anyone become a better leader."

Simplify and Exaggerate. Charismatic people have a remarkable ability to distill complex ideas into simple messages.

What's their secret? They communicate by using symbols, analogies, metaphors and stories. If they're really charismatic, the guys on the factory floor, even the janitors, understand their pitch. Remember Jack Welch redirecting GE-going on the road to tirelessly preach his "No.1 or No. 2" strategy requiring managers to "fix, close or sell" any business that wasn't first or second in worldwide market share.

Recall Ronald Reagan, unwavering on his two core bel iefs: a strong defense and less government.

Barksdale uses the same technique.

"Jim views his mission in life as boiling

everything down to a few basic principles that motivate people," says Craig McCaw, who was Barksdale's boss at McCaw Cellular. McCaw, not a detail man, says, "Jim is like the World War II general, you know, in the movie Patton. The one played by the guy in the American Express commercial."

Karl Malden, Craig. He played Omar Bradley, the mild-mannered "soldier's soldier." Unlike the brilliant Patton, who often terrified his troops, Bradley was an amiable teacher who turned a million

"Miss Harrison, gel in here and make some decisions for me. " Drawing by Eric & BillŠ 1995 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

undisciplined boys into great fighters.

In January 1995, when Barksdale arrived in Silicon Valley, Netscape was a chaotic corps of 100 employees, some younger than his own kids. Engineers were panicked about product-delivery deadlines.

Managers were bewildered about strategy. Jim Clark so feared Netscape would run out of money that he had imposed a hiring freeze. Says Marc Andreesen, 24, the engineer who developed the predecessor to Netscape's software with his pals at college: "We were spinning like a tornado. We were desperate for leadership."

Barksdale, who calls himself"the president of doin' stuff' and Andreesen "the vice president of thinkin' stuff up," says his first reaction was "to put the pedal to the metal. Let 'er rip." He lifted N etscape 's hiring freeze, ramped up

R&D, opened foreign 'offices, broadened the target market and cut prices. His message to employees: Netscape is like a rocket. If it fails to reach escape velocity, it will crash back to Earth. "We've gotta go full speed," he says. "We've got low barriers to entry and incredible competitors. If we can't establish presence and a brand name, we'll die." Inside Netscape, Barksdale promotes the strategy in two words: "Netscape everywhere."

He describes the fight with the enemy (Microsoft) this way: "We're like an ant climbin' up the elephant's leg, with rape on its mind."

Many people figured Barksdale was cracked when he set a goal for Netscape to become the fastest-growing software company in history, based on first-year revenues. Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker says that judging by recent financial results-including an unexpected profit in the third quarter-Netscape should hit its target and beat Lotus Development's record.

Roma.nticize Risk. Charismatic leaders relish risk. They feel empty without it.

"Fear offailure," says Barksdale. "That's the thrill. It's what gets your heart rate up." Great optimists, charismatic people long to do things that haven't been done before. Whether they succeed or not, a remarkable thing often happens: Their audacity enhances their charisma. Take the case of Michael Jordan, baseball player.

He hit .202, with only three home runs, for the Birmingham Barons two seasons ago.

But he didn't strike out in the charisma game. Quaker Oats, which pays Jordan to promote Gatorade, surveyed consumers daily as Jordan floundered on his field of dreams-and found that his appeal never waned. Most people, in fact, related even more personally to Jordan the baseball player, in part because he seemed less superhuman-and more like one of them. Jordan, a master of modesty and swagger, understands this: "The picture painted of Michael Jordan always is, Whatever he does, he's great at it. A lot of people thought I wasn't successful at baseball because I didn't make it to the major leagues. Baseball gave me

a more humanistic side."

Charismatic people speak emotionally about putting themselves on the line.

They work on hearts as well as on minds.

Arthur Martinez, the former vice chairman of Saks Fifth Avenue, knew he had big problems when he joined Sears in 1992 to rescue its sinking retail unit. "The old joke about the Titanic was not too far off the mark," says Martinez, 56, a polished Irishman (with a trace of Spanish blood). He was intent on luring top talent to Sears. "So I felt I had to be an evangelist. I needed disciples. I really was enrolling people in a mission."

Martinez met with almost all applicants

seem idiosyncratic, but their oddball image augments their charisma.

Defiance isn't easy for an insider. So Orit Gadiesh's success is particularly surprising.

She is a high-decibel firecracker chairing one of the most secretive firms (Bain & Co.) in one of the lowestkey industries (management consulting) in an old-line city (Boston). Meeting Gadiesh, you first notice her skirt; it starts about 20 centimeters above her knee. Then her hair; viewed from the side and back, it's magenta. Then her long red fingernails. She is complex, intense, driven, painfully direct, sometimes ribald and a lot of fun. Bain was rebounding

Charisma is a tricl9Jthing. Jack I(ennedy oozed it-but so did Hitler. Used wise!y, it's a blessing. Indulged, it can be a curse. who visited headquarters for jobs at the level of vice president or higher. "I started by explaining why I took the job," he says.

Then he told them: "This is one of the greatest adventures in business history.

Retailers don't turn around. A major retailer never has. There's no model for what we're gonna do. It's very risky. You have to be courageous, filled with self-confidence.

If we do it, we'll be wealthier, yes. But more than that, we'll have incredible psychic gratification. I low can you not do it?"

Martinez became CEO last August. He has assembled one of the best teams in retailing. Sears is gaining market share and is solidly profitable again. Says senior executive vice president of marketing John Costello, formerly president of Nielsen Marketing Research USA: "I had no interest in switching jobs. Arthur changed my mind. He convinced me that Sears could be transformed, that I'd have a major impact."

Defy the Status Quo. Charismatics are rebels who fight convention. They may

from dire financial problems when the partners elected her chairman in 1993: Largely because of her inspiring leadership, observers say, Bain has expanded to 1,400 employees, from 990. Revenues are increasing 25 percent a year.

The "Orit mystique" is well known around Boston and the consulting industry, as is her history: how this daughter of an Israeli army commander served two years in army intell igence, enrolled in Harvard business school knowing little English and graduated in the top five percent of her class. When Gadiesh joined Bain in 1977, straight out of Harvard, she was one of the firm's first female consultants. Founder Bill Bain recalls her job interview: "The way she listened made my energy level go up. She asked the most thoughtful, original questions. There was nothing boilerplate about her."

Business, to Gadiesh, is not systematic.

Success comes from pulling emotional levers. If you're a pinstriped stiff, she'll loosen you up-fast.

"In a serious meet-

ing,H wouldn't be out of character for Orit to sit down and put her feet on the table, high heels and all," says Bain Managing Director Tom Tierney, who has known Gadiesh since 1979. "The client might say, 'Don't you think we oughta be growing this business?'

Everyone will nod.

It'll be Orit who says, 'Wait. I disagree.' " Adds Tierney: "Her style comes from this intense passion about being true to herself and the client."

Like Barksdale and Martinez, Gadiesh abhors bureaucratic doubles peak-and the unthinking conservatism it usually reflects. She flashes her wit to kill it. A story she prefers that you not know: A few years ago she was trying to help Chrysler executives reduce options on cars, thereby lowering costs. The auto execs were leaning on market research to avoid tough decisions. "We can't cut that option because our average customer wants it," they s'aid again and again. Exasperated, Gadiesh shot back, "Well, the average customer has one tit and one ball." The boys from Detroit got it.

Step into Another's Shoes. Not everybody "gets" Gadiesh. But clients, colleagues and ex-Bainies have a remarkably consistent view of her: She is a brilliant consultant. While her looks and nervy style get her noticed, it is her empathy, they say, that makes her so successful.

Charismatic people are able to see things from another person's perspective.

Gadiesh, who spends 70 percent of her time working with clients, says, "I constantly try to think, 'If I were the client, how would I feel about this?' That's step No. I if you're going to find common ground."

Says James Morgan, CEO of Philip Morris USA, one ofBain's clients: "Orit has that talent for making you feel you're the most important person in the room.

She bleeds your blood." One way she makes clients feel important is by never looking at her watch. Inside Bain, Gadiesh has long been regarded as a junior consultant's most generous mentor.

"Orit defies expectations because she really is not a boisterous, intimidating woman," says ex-Bainie Dan Quinn, who

HAVE YOU GOT IT? Are you charismatically

impaired?

Tofind

out your charisma quotient, answer the questions below. Fortl!.ne magazine devised this quiz with the help of Jay Conger, a leadership expert at the University California business school.

of

Southern

s

1. I WORRY MOST ABOUT a) my current competitors b) my future competitors 2.I'M MOST AT EASE THINKING IN a) generalities b) specifics 3.1 TEND TO FOCUS ON a) our missed opportunities b) opportunities we've seized 4.1 PREFER TO a) promote traditions that made us great b) create new traditions 5. I LIKE TO COMMUNICATEAN IDEA VIA a) a written report b) a one-page chart 6.ITENDTOASK a) "How can we do this better?" b)"Whyare wedoingthis?"

7.1 BELIEVE a) there's alwaysa way to minimize risk b) some risks are too high 8. WHEN J DISAGREE WITH MY BOSS, I TYPICALLY a)coax him nicely to alter his view b) bluntly tell him, "You're wrong."

9. ITEND TO SWAY PEOPLE BY USING a)emotion b) logic 10.1 THINK THIS QUIZ IS a) ridiculous b) fascinating If you responded this way tofour orjewer questions. you probably don ~ have much charisma.

Seven or more?

You ooze it!

heads Rath & Strong, a rival consultancy.

She's like a Jewish mother figure to many of the people at Bain."

Studies show that women tend to be better than men at stepping into another's shoes. But Barksdale proved himself to be fairly nimble recently when hackers cracked a security code in Netscape's software. What to do? Barksdale quickly assembled his 'key people. He let everyone toss out idea about how to fix the problem and assure customers that the company's software is safe for navigating the Net. Then he made an odd suggestion: Give cash rewards to anyone who finds security flaws. What? That's like paying a burglar to break into your home to test the alarm system.

Perhaps, but as Barksdale explained, "These hackers can work in our favor. They're experts on the Net. We'll tell 'em, 'Come on, crack our code!' " And so began Netscape's Bugs Bounty program.

Hackers receive rewardsranging from $12 coffee mugs to $1,000 in cash-for reporting flaws. Thus far, two signi ficant new bugs have been detected, and $2,000 in cash bounties have been paid. Simply by offering to pony up for its mistakes, Netscape won admirers.

"If you admit you made a mistake," says' Barksdale, "the customer will always cut you slack."

Spar and Rile. Charismatic leaders goad and challenge, prod and poke. They test your courage and intellectual mettle.

Jack Welch or Arthur Martinez will lose interest in you quickly ifyou don't play at their level-or at least try to.

Michael Jordan is the same way. In the Bull's closed-door practices, he is always the loudest man on court. If you play against him and don't give 110 percent, he riles, he trash talks, he dunks the ball on you. Says Jordan: "That's just a way of being inspirational."

His teammates often beg to differ. On court and off, they say, he never stops competing. But as Jordan explains, "Success isn't something you chase. It's something you have to put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come when you 'least expect it. Most people don't understand that."

Scott Paper's Al Dunlap also succeeds by riling and trash talking. In one year, Dunlap created $6.4 billion in market value at Scott by slashing 11,000 jobs.

Asked whether he has more enemies or friends, he laughs: "Shareholders love me! A lot of my contemporaries don't because I challenge the status quo and I don't give a damn." Now that Scott is being acquired by Kimberly-Clark, Dunlap is hunting for another corporate dinosaur.

Says he: "1 have zero problems with your calling me an egomaniac."

Spencer Stuart President Thomas Neff, the headhunter who recruited Dunlap for Scott, says he's cautioned his man to cool it.

"1 've told AI, 'Don't be so outrageous.'

He sort oflistens. But he's enjoying himselfso much."

So how do you manage charisma, this wonderful, terrible thing? Gadiesh suggests using an internal compass. She got the idea from her husband, Grenville Byford, an offbeat British entrepreneur who in the late 1980s spent two years sailing around the world by himself. When he returned, Byford talked with Gadiesh about the importance of "true north." An ordinary compass, he explained, points to magnetic north, which is fickle and unreliable. A gyrocompass, on the other hand, works on its own internal mechanical system and always points to true north.

Gadiesh loved the image. She adopted true north as her personal guideline and as Bain's core value.

"The most important thing a leader can have is true north," Gadiesh says. "It's a set of principles that directs him or her to what's virtuous and right. Charisma can be a positive or negative force. It all depends on whether it's anchored by true north."

Learning charisma from people who are loaded with it is a bit like studying acting with Robert De Niro or playing basketball with Michael Jordan. Regardless of how hard you try, you may never win an Oscar or make it to the pros. But you'll certainly improve your technique-a crucial advantage no matter what your career.

0 About the Author: Patricia Sellers writesfor Fortune magazine.

Taking Pride in a Pluralistic Society The author uses "universalism" in the films ofSatyajit Ray as a metaphor to discuss one ofthe most contentious issues in the world-the conflict between advocates of a narrow pure homogeneous culture and proponents of a pluralistic multicultural society.

T

he work ofSatyajit Ray presents a remarkably insightful understanding of the relations between cultures, and his ideas remain pertinent to the great cultural debates in the contemporary world, not least in India. I would like to pursue these ideas. In Ray's films and in his writings, we find explorations of at least three general themes on cultures and their interrelations: the importance of distinctions between different local cultures and their respective individualities; the necessity of understanding the heterogeneous character of each local culture (even the culture of a community, not to mention a region or a country); and the great need for intercultural communication, attended by a recognition of the barriers that make intercultural communication a hard task.

A deep respect for distinctiveness is combined, in Ray's vision, with a recognition of internal diversity and an appreciation of the need for genuine communication. Impetuous cosmopolitans have something to learn from his focus on distinctiveness, but it is the growing army of communitarian and cultural "separatists"-increasingly fashionable-that most needs to take note of the persistence of heterogeneity at the local level and the creative role of intercultural and intercommunal communication and learning.

In emphasizing the need to honor the individuality of each culture, Ray saw no reason for closing the doors to the outside world.

Indeed, opening doors was an important priority of Ray's work. In this respect, Ray's attitude contrasts sharply with the increasing tendency to see Indian culture (or cultures) in highly conservative terms, to preserve it (or them) from the "pollution" of Western ideas and thought. He was always willing to enjoy and to learn from ideas, art forms and styles oflife from anywhere, in India or abroad.

Ray appreciated the importance of heterogeneity within local communities. The great filmmaker's eagerness to seek the larger unit-to talk to the whole world-went well with his enthusiasm for understanding the smallest of the small-the individuality, ultimately, of each person. From such a vision, I believe, we have much to learn right now.

There can be little doubt about the importance that Ray attached to

the distinctiveness of cultures. He also discussed the problems that these divisions create in the possibil ity of communication across cultural boundaries. In Our Films. Their Films. he noted the important fact that films acquire "colour from all manner of indigenous factors such as habits of speech and behaviour, deep-seated social practices, past traditions, present influences and so on." He went on to ask: "How much of this can a foreigner-with no more than a cursory knowledge of the factors involved-feel and respond to?" He observed also that "there are certain basic similarities in human behaviourall overthe world" (such as "expressions of joy and sorrow, love and hate, anger, surprise and fear"), but "even they can exhibit minute local varia~ions which can only puzzle and perturb--and consequently warp the judgment of-the uninitiated foreigner."

The presence of such cultural differences raises many interestmg problems. The possibility of communication is only one of them.

There is also the more basic issue of the individuality of each culture. How might this individuality be respected and valued, even as the world grows steadily smaller and more uniform? We live in a time in which many things are increasingly common, and the possibility that something important is being lost in this process of integration has aroused understandable concern.

The individuality of cultures is a big subject now, and the tendency toward the homogenization of cultures, particularly in some uniformly Western mode, or in the deceptive form of "modernity," has been sharply challenged. Anxieties of this kind have been expressed in different forms in recent cultural studies, which flourish today in Western literary and intellectual circles. There is an irony, perhaps, in the fact that so much of the critique of "Western modernity" has come straight from the West to the Third World; but these questions are being plentifully asked in contemporary India as well.

Engaging arguments in this direction have been presented by, among others, Partha Chatterjee, in The Nation and Its Fragments (1993) and elsewhere, and in the literary, sociological and anthropological writings of such diverse and forceful authors as Ashis Nandy, Homi K. Bhaba and Yeena Das, to name a few.

41~b~ These approaches share, to varying extents, a well-articulated "anti-modernism," rejecting, in particular, "Western" forms of modemization, which Chatterjee contrasts with the preferred form of what he calls "our modernity." Sometimes the defiance of Western cultural modes is expressed in India through enunciations of the unique importance oflndian culture and the traditions of its communities.

At the broader level of "Asia" rather than India, the separateness of "Asian values," and their distinction from Western norms, has often been asserted, particularly in East Asia. The invoking of Asian values has sometimes occurred in rather dubious political

circumstances. It has been used to justi fy authoritarianism (and harsh penalties for alleged transgressions) in some East Asian countries. The championing of "Asian values" has typically come from governmental spokesmen and not from individuals opposed to the established regimes. Still, the general issue is important enough to deserve our attention; and so, in examining the implications of cultural diversity, I must also take up this question.

Even though he emphasized the difficulties of intercultural communication, Ray did not take cross-cultural comprehension to be impossible. He saw the difficulties as challenges to be surmounted rather than as strict boundaries that could not be breached. I-Ie did not propound a thesis of"incommunicabi lity" across cultural boundaries; he argued instead that we need to recognize the difficulties that may arise. And on the larger subject of preserving traditions against foreign influence, Ray was not a cultural conservative.

I find no evidence in Ray's films or in his writings that the fear of being too influenced by outsiders disturbed his equilibrium as an "Indian" artist. He wanted to take full note of the importance of a particular cultural background without denying what there is to learn from elsewhere. There is much wisdom, I think, in this "eritical openness," including the prizing of a dynamic, adaptable world over a world that is constantly "policing" external influenccsand fearing"invasion" of ideas from elsewhere.

The difficulties of understanding each other across the boundaries of culture are undoubtedly great. This applies to the cinema, but also to other art fonns, especially literature.

The problem is perhaps less extreme in films, insofar as film is less dependent on language. People can be informed by gestures and ac-

tions. Still, our day-to-day experiences generate certain patterns of There is no reason why we should not cash in on the foreigners' curiosity about the Orient. But this must not mean pandering to their love of the reaction and non-reaction that can be mystifying for foreign viewers false-exotic. A great many notions about our country and our people have who have not had those experiences. The gestures-and the nonto be dispelled, even though it may be easier and-from a film point of gestures-that are quite standard, and "perfectly ordinary," in India view-more paying to sustain the existing myths than to demolish them. may appear altogether remarkable when they are seen by others.

Also, words have a function that goes well beyond the information Ray was not alone, of course, in pursuing such an approach. that they directly convey. Much is communicated by the sound of the There have been several other eminent directors from India who language, and the special choice of words conveys a particular meanhave essentially followed the same route as Ray. As an old resident ing or creates a particular effect. As Ray observed, "in a sound film, of Calcutta, I am proud of the fact that some of the particularly diswords are expected to perform not only a narrative but a plastic functinguished ones have come-like Ray-from this very city. (I thinkof tion," and "much will be missed unless one knows the language, and Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen and others.) But what Ray knows itwell." calls pandering to the "love of the false-exotic" has clearly tempted Even the narrative may be inescapably transformed by lanmany other directors. Many Indian films that can fairly be called guage barriers, owing to nuances that "entertainment movies" have achieved are missed in translations.

I was regreat success abroad, including in the minded of Ray's remark the other day Middle East and Africa, and Bombay has when I saw Teen Kanya again, in been a big influence on the cinematic A basic issue is how to maintain Cambridge, Massachusetts, at a recent world in many countries. the individuality of each culture, festival of Ray's fi lms (in their wonderIt is not obvious whether the imaginary even as the world grows steadily ful reissues by Merchant-Ivory).

When scenes of archaic splendor shown in such smaller and more uniform. the obdurate Paglee at last decides to "entertainment movies" should be seen as mis-descriptions of the India in which write a letter to her spurned husband, she conveys her new sense of intimacy they are allegedly set or as an excelient by addressing him with the familiar portrayal of some nonexistent "nevernever land" that is not to be confuscd with any real country. As Ray form lumi, rather than the formal apni. This could not be caught in the English subtitle. The translation had to show her sign the notes in another context, quite a few of these traditional Indian films, which attract large audiences, "do away wholly with [the] letter as "your wife," to convey this new sense of intimacy; but bothersome aspect of social identification" and "present a synthe Bengali original form in which she signs as "Paglee" but addresses him as lumi, is infinitely more subtle. thetic, nonexistent society, and one can speak of credibility only Such difficulties cannot be altogether escaped. Ray did not within the norms ofthis make-belief world." Ray suggests that this design his movies for a foreign audience, and the Ray fans feature "accounts for their countrywide acceptance." This is true; abroad who rush to see his films know that they are, in a sense, but this quality ofmake-believe also contributes greatly to the apeavesdropping.

This relationship between the artist and the peal of these films to some foreign audiences, which are happy to eavesdropper is by now very well established among the milsee lavish entertainment in an imagined land. This is an easily unlions of Ray's admirers around the world. There is no expectaderstandable "success" story: acceptance abroad brings both repution that his films are anything other than those of an Indian tation and revenue. (In contemporary India, where "export promotion" is becoming a supreme value, who can deny such an director--and a Bengali director-made for a local audience, and the attempt to see what is going on in these films is a deciachievement?) sion to engage in a self-consciously "receptive" activity.

In fact, the exploitation of the biases and the vulnerabi Iities of the In this sense, Ray has triumphed-and on his own terms. This foreign audience need not be concerned speei fically with the "love vindication of his belief that he will be understood, all the barriers of the false-exotic." Exploitation can take other forms-not necesnotwithstanding, tells us something about the possibility of undersarily false, nor especially exotic. There is nothing false about standing across cultural boundaries. It may be hard, but it can be Indian poverty, nor about the fact-remarkable to others-that done; and the eagerness with which viewers with much experience Indians have learned to live normal lives in the midstofthis poverty, of Western cinema flock to see Ray's films indicates what may be taking little notice of the surrounding misery. accomplished when there is a willingness to go beyond the bounds The graphic portrayal of extreme wretchedness, and of heart lessness toward the downtrodden, can itself be exploited, especially of one's own culture. when supplemented by a goodly supply ofvicious villains.

Satyajit Ray makes an important distinction between what is By contrast, even when Ray's films deal with problems that arejust or is not sensible when one tries to speak across a cultural divide, as intense (such as the coming of the Bengal famine inAshani Sanket), especially across the divide between the West and India. In 1958, the comfort of a ready explanation through the presence of villains is two years after Pather Panchali won the Special Award in avoided. In Ray's films, villians are remarkably rare, almost absent.

Cannes, and one year after he won the Grand Prix at Venice for When terrible things happen, there may be nobody clearly responsiAparajilo, Ray wrote the following, in an essay called ble. And even when someone is clearly responsible, as Dayamoyee's "Problems ofa Bengali Film Maker":

father-in-law most definitely is responsible for her predicament, and Ray's willingness to enjoy and to learn from things happening ultimately for her suicide, in Devi, he, too, is a victim, and by no means elsewhere-in India or abroad-is plentifully clear in how he chose devoid of humane features. If Salaam Bombay! and City of Joy ultito live and what he chose to do. When Ray describes what he learned mately belong in the "cops and robbers" tradition (except that there as a student at Santiniketan, where he studied fine arts at Tagore's are no "good cops" in Salaam Bombay!), the Ray films which portray distinguished center of education, the elements from home and tragedies haveneithercops nor robbers. Ray chooses to convey someabroad are well mixed together. He learned a great deal about thing of the complexity of social situations that makes such tragedies India's "artistic and musical heritage" (he got involved in Indian classical music, aside from being trained to paint in traditional hard to avoid, rather than to supply easy explanations in the greed, the Indian ways) and "far-eastern calligraphy" (particularly the use of cupidity and the cruelty of "bad " people. "minimum brush strokes applied with maximum discipline").

While Satyajit Ray insists on retaining the real cultural features Ray does not hesitate to indicate how strongly Pather Pancha/iof the society that he portrays, his view of India--even his view of the profound film that immediately made him a filmmaker of interBengal-recognizes a complex reality, with immense heterogeneity at every level. It is not the picture of a styl ized East meeting a national distinction-was influenced by Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief He saw The Bicycle Thief stereotypical West, which has been the within three days of arriving in London for stock-in-trade of so many recent wri tings a brief stay, and noted: "I knew immedicritical of "Westernization" and "moderately that if I ever made Pather nity." Ray emphasized that the people In emphasizing the need to honor Pancha/i-and the idea had been at the who "inhabit" his films are complicated the individuality of each culture, Ray back of my mind for some time-I would and extremely diverse: saw no reason for closing make it in the same way, using natural 10Take a single province: Bengal. Or, better cations and unknown actors." Despite this the doors to the outside world. still, take the city of Calcutta where Ilive and influence, Pather Panchali, of course, is a work. Accents here vary between one neighquintessentially Indian film, in subject bourhood and another. Every educated matter and in style, and yet a major inspiraBengali peppers his native speech with a tion for it came from an Italian film. The Italian influence did not sprinkling of English words and phrases. Dress is not standardized. make Pather Panchali anything other than an Indian film; it simply Although women generally preferthe sari, men wearclothes which reflect helped to make it a great Indian film. the style of the 13th century or conform to the directives of the latest The growing tendency in contemporary India to champion the Esquire. The contrast between the rich and the poor is proverbial. need for an indigenous culture that has "resisted" external influTeenagers do the twist and drink Coke, while the devout Brahmin takes a ences and borrowings lacks credibility as well as cogency. It has bedip in the Ganges and chants his mantras to the rising sun. come quite common to cite the foreign origin of an idea or a tradition as an argument against its use, and this has been linked to an antiIt is important to note that the native culture which Ray stresses is modernist priority. not some pure vision ofa tradition-bound society, but the heterogeIndian culture, as it has evolved, has always been prepared to abneous lives and commitments of contemporary India. The Indian sorb materials and ideas from elsewhere. SatyajitRay's heterodoxy is who does the twist is as much there as the one who chants his not out ofline with our tradition. Even in matters of day-to-day livmantras by the Ganges. ing: the fact that the chili, a basic ingredient of traditional Indian The recognition of this heterogeneity makes it immediately clear why Ray's focus on local culture cannot be readily seen as an "anticooking, was brought to India by the Portuguese from the "New World" does not make Indian cooking any less Indian. Indeed, chili modem" move. "Our culture" can draw on "their culture" and "their culture" can draw on "our culture." The emphasis on the culture of has now become an "Indian" spice. Of course, cultural influences are a two-way process: India may have acquired the chili from. the people who inhabit Ray's films is in no way adenial ofthe legitiabroad, but we have also given the world the benefits of our culinary macy of the interest in things originating elsewhere. traditions. While tandoori came from the Middle East to India, it is This interest in things from elsewhere had begun earlier in his in its Indian form that tandoori has become a staple British diet. In life. Ray's engagement with Western classical music goes back to London last summer I heard something described as being "as his youth, and his fascination with films preceded his involvement English as daffodils or chicken tikka masala." with music. In his posthumously published book, My Years with The mixture of traditions that underlie the major intellectual deApu: A Memoir; Ray recollects: velopments in the world dictates strongly against taking a "naI became a film fan while still at school. I avidly read Picturegoer and tional" (or "regional" or "local" or "community-based") view of Photoplay, neglected my studies and gorged myself on Hollywood gossip these developments. The role of mixed heritage in a subject such as purveyed by Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. Deanna Durbin became mathematics, for example, is well-known. The interlinkage bea favourite not only because of her looks and her obvious gifts as an actween Indian, Arabic and European mathematics has been particutress, but because of her lovely soprano voice. Also firm favourites were larly significant in the development of what is now called Western Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, all of whose films I saw several times just to learn the Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern tunes by heart.

(Continued on page 22)

The commercial success of Toy Story, the first feature film generated entirely by computers and recently shown in India, will change the business of animation forever.

By DAVIDA.

IU II

ollywood may be full of big babies, but 38-year-old John Lasseter takes pride in being a kid. The animation genius behind Toy Story knows more about Bugs, Daffy, Crayolas and Hot Wheels than any preschooler. And his office proves it. A prize possession resting on the computer: the Godzilla that topped his wedding cake, with the miniature bride and groom hanging out of its mouth.

Lasseter's Sonoma County home isn't for grown-ups, either. On the mantelpiece rests his 1989 Oscar for the animated short Tin Toy. Next to it is a Mrs. Butterworth's bottle, spray-painted gold.

Lasseter thought Oscar needed a companion. "We have four boys," he says. "My wife thinks it's five."

Little else is child's play about Lasseter's latest film, which opened in the U.S. late last year. [It premiered in India recently.]

Toy StOlY is a technical wonder and a box-office rocket. It's the first feature ever generated entirely by computers, and its 3-D tale-of a boy's favorite toys who come to life when he's not around-may change the look of animation to come. According to industry sources, Toy Story cost about $30 million to make. The film took in that amount in its first week alone; Toy Story s total gross put it among 1995 's leaders, and could ultimately rival the biggest toon takes of all time.

Toy Story is the product of a four-and-a-half-year collaboration between Walt Disney Pictures, which put up the bucks, and Pixar Animation, a northern California computer-graphics shop that did the pioneering work under Lasseter's direction. Disney is no Mickey Mouse when it comes to cartoons. It's been the leader in traditional hand-painted eel animation ever since Steamboat Willie in 1928; that flat, 2-D art led to classics like Snow White and the 1994 film Lion King. But computer-drawn animation has been Pixar's franchise, leading it to high-tech TV ads for products like Listerine and Life Savers, as well as short films like the five-minute Tin Toy. Disney wasn't looking for a partner, and initially just wanted to hire Lasseter, who had been an animator there. Lasseter preferred to stay with his burgeoning Pixar team.

Pixar was founded in 1979 by George Lucas, overlord of the Star Wars empire, to develop computer hardware. But he eventu-

In

Left above and below: Toy Story is the buddy tale of Woody (left), the pull-string cowboy, and Buzz Lightyear, the superhero space ranger.

Together they lead a toy box full of walking, talkingJeeling characters.

with ANNE

KAPLAN UNDERWOOD

ally sold the company for $1 0 million to Steve Jobs, the wonderboy-turned-flameout of Apple Computer. Hoping to marry the firepower of Silicon Valley and glitz of Hollywood, Jobs changed Pixar's focus. He wanted his own studio-a digital back lot that was solely the pigment of a computer's imagination. Even as his after-A pple computer venture, N eXT, got the business-page headlines, Jobs reportedly poured tens of millions of dollars into his own cyberhood. The payoff: Toy Story. Now Pixar is no longer known as Jobs's "other company." A truly independent studio, though, is years away. The I 50-employee Pixar must do its next two pictures with Disney. Expect Bugs to be released by the end of the decade (think spiders, not wabbits).

Toy Story is the buddy tale of Woody, the pull-string cowboy (with the voice of Tom Hanks), and Buzz Light year, the plastic superhero space ranger (Tim Allen). Together, they lead a toy box full of walking, talking, feeling characters who come to life whenever their humanoid master, Andy, leaves the room. The story could have been executed with eel animation, and the result would've been a regular 2-D cartoon like Aladdin.

But Lasseter, who has devoted himself to bringing lamps, unicycles and other inanimate objects to life in other films, wanted the more realistic look of3-D animation that's become his trademark.

He could have tried to create characters as totally believable as the T. rex that ate Jurassic Park ( 1993) orthejungle beasts ofJumanji.

Instead, Lasseter was after what he calls a "caricatured, more sty 1ized world." It's sort of a cross between Aladdin and Jurassic.

While no one would ever believe they're real, Woody and Buzz, Mr. Potato Head and Bo Peep have subtle texture and detail unlike anything that exists in a cartoon.

It's still less work for computers to create a Woody than a T. rex.

But what makes Toy Story s achievement so impressive is its sheer scale. Digital dinosaurs in Jurassic Park got only six-and-a-half minutes on screen; in Casper last year, the computer-generated stars were on for 40 minutes. The all-computerized Toy Story runs 77 minutes. Each 1/24th ofa second requires five megabytes of memory. In geek-speak, that adds up to 550 billion bytes-enough floppy discs to bury Bill Gates in his new house. Kids, don't try this athome. High-resolution animation is done on millionsofdollars of Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems computers, aided by proprietary software developed by Pixarians. Rendering the full, final images took more than 800,000 computer hours. The geometry and the detail is that fine.

As fast and powerful as all that digital eq uipment is, the 30 Toy Story animators still had lots of work to do. Animation doesn't mean automation. Each second has to be programmed manually.

To be believable, when Buzz says "To infinity and beyond," each syllable has to be matched not just to his mouth, but all other facial muscles-a bit like manipulating a cyber-marionette. Woody's body has 712 different mathematical points that an animator must control, including 212 in Woody's face alone. The animator must

A New Wave of Films From the Toy Story istoday's dazzling digital imagery. Compared with what's coming, it's merely another blip in the revolution of cyber cinema.

A decade ago, Young Sherlock Holmes represented the state of the art. In it, a stained-glass knightanimated by Toy Story's John Lasseter-became the first-ever computer-generated "synthespian." Then came the slithering pseudopod of The Abyss (1989), the metal cyborg of Terminator 2 (1991), Meryl Streep's twisted head in Death Becomes Her (1992), the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park (1993), Forrest Gump's meeting with JFK and LBJ in the eponymous film (1994) and Casper (1995). Unlike the totally artificial universe of Toy Story, all'these images were inserted into movies using real actors and sets. That made the tricks all the more difficult to execute seamlessly.

The next wave of movies will push the virtual envelope even further. None represents the breathtaking Thespecial-effects team of the 1993 film Jurassic Park at work.

visual delights of Jurassic Park. But in Jumanji, all ofthc: jungle animals are computer inventions. The lion has a mane that digital artisans worked for years to create.

Human faces will always be the elusive grail, given their complexity. But hair presents a special challenge. It's very fine, it defies the order computers like and it's impossible to light. "You don't want the hair to look like plastic dreadlocks on a Barbie," says Carl Frederick of Marin County's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who served as digital coiffeur.

ILM is also working on tests for several films due out soon. Twister will star a synthetic tornado that would bring tears to Dorothy's and Toto's eyes. Dragonheart

also keep the proper lighting, shading and camera perspective.

Shiny objects like Buzz's spacesuit are quite easy to render.

Natural fibers, softer surfaces-wrinkles, creases, dirt, clothing, bumps-are harder. One second of screen time typically took a computer animator 90 minutes to create, far more than in 2-D cel animation. But the digital mechanics aren't the only consideration. Woody has to be taught to be a stage ham. "We hire animators based on their acting ability, not their computer skills," says 27year-old Pete Docter, the supervising animator who also got part of the Cybercrowd story credit. "Because at the keyboard they're going to have tv make features a lifelike reptile that the movie characters act." has the vOIce of Sean The bean counters in Hollywood Connery (and presumably his -who like to think tcchnology persona, too). The beast, means cheaper movies-wonder if named Draco, gets as much Toy StolY will eventually make aniscreen time as costar Dennis mation more efficient. In theory, Quaid-and better lines. "It's high tech could do that iffeature anithe most complicated, intrimation doesn't keep developing. cate thing we've ever built," But artists like Lasseter and Docter says Judith Weaver, a won't be satisfied the next time Dragonheart producer. "At around to repeat the relatively simone point, when we were ple shots of Toy StOlY. Scenes will loading all the data into the contain more characters and take computer, we thought it place in trickier outdoor settings. would come to a screeching That will demand bigger, more exhalt." Sometime this year, pensive computers, which won't go work will begin on the sequcl any faster because of all the data beto Jurassic Park and the new ing tGssed into them. "Give me betStar Wars trilogy. Given ,what tcr equipment and I'll keep pushing audiences have come to exit to do better tricks," says Bill pect, they'd better come up Reeves, supervising technical diwith something spectacular. rector for Toy Story.

Old dinosaurs and Edsel Lasseter hates all the talk of bits spaceships just won't do and bytes. He just wants to talk anymore.

-D.A.K. about his Toy Story characters and the good yarn they spin. "I think of them as Pixar employees, not computer creations." Lucky thing they don't compete for stock options. The company went public in December 1995, adding many of thc Pixarians to the nouveau riche of Silicon Valley.

Lasseter alone is worth at least $30 million on his virtual spreadsheet.

Sometimes it pays to be a kid.

0 About the Authors: David A. Kaplan is a senior writer and Anne Underwood is a senior editorial assistant for Newsweek magazine.

The Visible Persuaders An Overview of Advertising in India and the U.S.

tising what GDP is to economics. ome 20 years ago I bought a copy of David Ogilvy's Ogilvy, Hopkins and Reeves would dominate any advertising Confessions of an Advertising Man and ecstatically rechall offame. "But America doesn't seem to have produced anyone ommended the book to friends. One of them borrowed of the same stature in recent years," Ayer says. Experts believe my copy and failed to return it. Undaunted I bought another copy. that despite the accumulation of knowledge and the awesome Itmeta similar fate. I guess I wasn't destined to own an Ogilvy. power of new technology, great creative ads today are far fewer Ogilvy's books get stolen. His ideas and concepts are adopted than before, in Indiaas well as in the U.S. wherever advertising is practiced on this planet. "At 60 miles an Advertising is a much-maligned force. Vance Packard, in his hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the best-selling book of the 1950s, charged thatthe public is being maelectric clock" is by expert consent one of the greatest ads ever nipulated by admen. They use expertise from psychiatry and the written; it has inspired clones ever since. social sciences to "channel our habits, our purchasing decisions Indian admen recall with fondness their meetings with Ogilvy. and our thought processes."

S.R. Ayer, former chairman of Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) in Advertising has also been a victim of John Kenneth Galbraith's Bombay, says Ogilvy "has a great knack for picking your brains caustic wit. In his celebrated book The Ajjluent Society the without your knowing it. He is very observant, a great listener, a Harvard professor and former U.S. Ambassador to India charged strong believer in research. He has one of the most disciplined that advertising induces people to buy products they do not need creative minds." V.S. Chandrasekhar, another ex-O&M executive, and perhaps cannot afford. says he learnt more about the business of advertising from a single But admen are unfazed by such brickbats. They believe that in night's Delhi-Madras trainjourney with Ogilvy than from an entire the 21 st century, it will be advertising, not love, that makes the 30-year career. "Ogilvy is an intensely curious man and peppers world go round. They are clear about the power and potency of you with questions. He is also a warm, sensitive, generous man." advertising.

Ogilvy himself regards Claude Hopkins, author of the book • It's advertising that keeps media independence alive. Ad Scientific Advertising, as his guru. "Nobody should be allowed to money pumps life into newspapers, have anything to do with advertising magazines, radio and television stauntil he has read Scientific Advertising tions. Without this money, the media' seven times," says Ogilvy. "It changed. would depend on government or on the course of my life." vested interests for survival, and would Hopkins made $100,000 a year as lose their freedom. copywriter during the lnOs. "But what • Advertising spurs economic dereally matters are the advertising prinvelopment. It engineers sales. It helps ciples he enunciated, which are valid people and organizations find each for all time," says Ayer. other. It creates or sustains thousands Another American ad celebrity of jobs-in advertising agencies, in much respected in India is Rosser ~ various promotion and exhibition Reeves, author of Reality in industries.

Advertising.

In this book, Reeves ~ "Words on paper, Ted. Just give us words on paper. • Governments everywhere are coined the expression USP, or unique Our advertising people will do the rest. " major advertisers. They depend on adselling proposition, which is to adver-

S

vertisements to lure foreign investors and tourists. Governments advertise within the country too-to recruit young men into the army, navy and air force; to advise citizens about traffic, tax and drug laws or about voting rights. • Advertising gives the public the right to choose between many options, many brands. It enables consumers to opt for the best quality or the lowest price or the best mix of quality and price. In the absence of advertising, the publ ic would be at the mercy of a few high-priced or low-quality brands.

Veteran Indian adman R.K. Swamy says that advertising helped America become the world's No.1 economic power. He recalls economist W.W. Rostow's classification of the five stages of economic growth-tradition, transition, take-off, maturity, high-consumption.

America reached the high-consumption stage in 1920, whi Ie Europe did so only after 1945. America was the first to reach the final stage, because advertising and attention to the consumer created the¡ mass markets needed for high consumption.

There's nothing "hidden" about today's persuaders. Newspapers and magazines carry more buy-me appeals than read-me stories.

The television set promotes products from endless channels. Radio, cinema, signboards, billboards and neon signs, kiosks, buses, vans, even bullock carts fitted with loudspeakers-a plethora of media, a barrage of messages.

No wonder the public opts to wield its tremendous weapon-the power to ignore. "Half of my advertising money is wasted. I don't know which half," is an old lament. Today's advertiser may believe that two-thirds of his money goes down the drain. His lovingly produced press ads are not noticed; his television ads are lost in the multichannel clutter.

Advertising in India Advertisers in India spent a total of more than Rs. 30 billion last year on advertising. (In the U.S., it's about $1 75 billion-some 200 times as much.)

Ads compete for attention not merely with other ads but with reams of news. "Because of the incredible noise level in today's media, a great ad has to first and foremost attract your attention," says Alyque Padamsee, veteran Bombay ad and theater star.

"Advertising in India reflects the social, political, economic and cultural environments in which the ads were created," says Ayer.

Satellite TV has ushered in epochal changes in entertainment, in awareness 0 ftrends and Iifesty les abroad. It has also drami,!tically expanded media options, and influenced the style and substance of advertising, which is now richer and stronger in imagery and emotional appeal. CNN's live coverage of the 1991 Gulf War triggered a boom in the satellite TV and cable industry. There are now some 40 TV /cable/satellite channels, and 60 are predicted by year-end. But the industry seems to have grown too fast too soon. Result: satellite shortage, cable wars, software crunch, fragmentation of advertising revenue, viewer fatigue. Though spending on TV ads may go up, the pie in the sky isn't enough for all. TV companies find that wooing both viewers and advertisers is an uphill task. "The TV bubble is about to burst," experts say.

Thanks to the proli feration of media and of promotional choices, the backroom boy of yesterday's agency, the media planner, is today's prized specialist. "If the early eighties belonged to account servicing and the latter half to creative guys, the nineties are the decade of the media planners," Sandeep Goyal of Red iffus ion says.

The big question an advertiser has to ask isn't "What will be my message?" but "How will I catch my audience? How will I reach out to consumers in this media-saturated environment?"

The economic liberalization of the past five years has created challenges and opportunities for advertising. Indian products and services face fierce competition nationally and from foreign and multinational brands.

Alliances are being forged between American and Indian companies. R.K. Swamy has teamed up with BBDO; Chaitra with Leo Burnet; Trikaya with Grey; Mudra with Doyle, Dane & Bernbach.

In fact, some Indian agencies are hiring expatriate ad professionals. R.K. Swamy/BBDO, for example, has three, all of them creative experts.

The phenomenon has stirred up a bit of a controversy, and Business India discussed it recently. "Advertising must be ethnocentric," says Alyque Padamsee. Rick Lane of BBDO counters: "Advertising is a communication business and a global business.

I'm an Englishman but haveworked effectively in Canada, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Russia." Chintamani Rao ofO&M says expatriates help in two ways: They upgrade standards in areas like film production; they ensure that agency practices are in line with international standards.

Piyush Pande ofO&M says that a foreigner's lack of knowledge of India is sometimes an advantage. "He has fewer misconcep.tions and sees things from a fresh angle." Nancy Horowitz of Madison DMC&B is amazed at all the services an Indian ad agency provides its client. "It blew my mind that we did packaging. In the U.S. that's always a specialist's job. Yet, being forced to do it has improved my skills in that area. Just working over here I have had to learn so much more."RickLane says: "We believe that some day India will be recognized as a force in international advertising. We'll be able to look back and say we were there, and in some small way we helped to make it happen."

International brand wars are now being played out on Indian turf. During the recent cricket World Cup, the television image of giant Coke bottles being wheeled on to the pitch to serve cricketers "the official drink" was obliterated by that of cricket celebrities swilling Pepsi and wisecracking the Pepsi slogan "Nothing official about it."

Market research has made rapid strides, Ayer says. I-lindustan Lever, the biggest consumer goods conglomerate in India, pioneered market research, particularly in rural India. Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA) and Lintas perhaps lead the country in market research competence. Specialist market agencies such as MARG and MODE have come up. If you want to explore the market before launching a new product, or assess market potential before that multimillion expansion of your company, or if you want to know which wayan election will go, such agencies offer their expertise.

Measuring the relative popularity of television programs is now a

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100 YEARS OF AUTO ADVERTISING he auto industry in the U.S. and the advertising business were both toddlers a century ago. The two have grown up together. While advertising fueled the auto boom, the automobile injected money (scores of billions of dollars) and spurred creativity in the ad industry. The auto is in fact the product around which American advertising grew.

The auto industry officially began in the U.S. in 18'96when two brothers, Charles and Frank, Duryea, built 13 motor wagons from the same set of plans. The first illustrated auto ad appeared in 1896 in the journal Horseless Age. Early car manufacturers had to persuade a skeptical public that "horseless carriages" would last. The first auto ad to appear in a national journal was headlined "Dispense with a horse." It appeared in the July 30, 1898, issue of Scientific American. The vehic!e was priced at $1,000.

Some newspapers branded the automobile as an extravagance. The Chicago Tribune said it would not write about any motor car in its news columns. Local dealers promptly withdrew their automobile ads, and the paper quickly did an about-turn. An ad in the Saturday Evening Post then refuted the idea that the car was an expensive toy of the rich; it said that 30 percent of the automobiles were used by doctors and businessmen.

The first ad ofFord Motor Co. headlined "boss of the road" appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The car was described as "so simple that a boy ofl5 can run it." "Watch the

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Fords go by" was a famous ad slogan first used in 1907.

Another famous ad headlined "Somewhere west of Laramie" appeared on June 23, 1923. It was written by Edward Jordan who romanticized auto advertising with ads for his own car Jordan Playboy. "When all the other manufacturers were thinking about what makes a car go, we were proving what makes a man go. It is a woman," said Jordan later.

During the 1920s, luscious four-color ads advertised sleek, glamorous cars. A 1935 ad described the Cadillac V8 as "the perfect car for women."

When Ford launched the Mustang, it also unleashed a publicity blitz that included a 36-page ad in Reader :sDigest. Lee Iacocca, chief executive of Ford, said this ad helped sell many thousand cars. Thanks to the promotional hype, both Time and Newsweek featured the Mustang on their covers. Iacocca says this helped sell I 00,000 cars.

World War II stopped car production; Detroit switched to tanks, jeeps and trucks.

Auto companies ran ads with patriotic themes. A Dodge ad focusing on an ambulance it had built was headlined "Dependable vehicles of mercy." Car sales boomed after the war. America's ascendance as a global power was reflected in enormous-sized cars.

The Rolls-Royce ad of 1963 written by David Ogilvy ("At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock") made advertising history. A classic example of lengthy fact-

routine exercise, though the methodology used seems fallible.

Two massive exercises-the Indian Readership Survey and the National Readership Survey-have provided critical data on media habits and reach, on demographics, and on the Indian consumer, enabling ad agencies to plan media buying more effectively.

Interesting facts: TV is the No. I medium, in both rural and urban India. The total reach of TV in India is 269 million. Satellite TV reaches nine million homes. Nearly 74 percent ofIndian households are nuclear. The typical family-across urban and rural Indiaconsists 00.9 individuals. The top ten daily newspapers in India are all in the vernacular, Malayala Manorama leading the pack with 6.5 million. As far as magazines go, only one English magazine (India

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packed copy, it has spurred imitations by the dozen.

One campaign stood out in the flamboyant sixties: Volkswagen. The agency Doyle, Dane & Bernbach made the concept of "think small" a huge success. The factual, slightly self-deprecatory copy had a light touch of humor. It talked of the advantages of the small car: "small parking spot, small insurance, small repair bill." A television commercial on the Volkswagen showed the funeral procession ofamultimillionaire. The one who gets his fortune is his sensible nephew-he drives a Beetle while all other relatives drive limousines.

During the late sixties, American cars were put on the defensive. Critics lampooned their size and gas-guzzling propensity. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 which made gasoline scarce and the Japanese auto invasion beginning with Datsun and Toyota aggravated the pressure on American cars.

"Datsun saves" and "You asked for it, you got it-Toyota" were winners.

Conspicuous consumption came back in the 1980s. Sales of European luxury cars soared. The German BMW made a mark as "the ultimate driving machine." In 1990, Toyota's luxury car Lexus laid claim to "the relentless pursuit of perfection." General Motors promoted the Saturn, whose understated ads won laurels.

The symbiotic relationship between the automobile and advertising industries continues to this day. The auto industry spent nearly$IObilliononthemediain 1995.

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Today, readership 4.5 million) figures among the top ten. Radio is the second most popular medium in rural areas.

Technology is changing the way ad agencies function. Many of them are splurging on the latest gizmos (notebooks, digital studios, media-planning software). Computers and computer graphics have brought new power, versatility, speed and value to advertisement production. The potential of Internet is gradually being tapped.

Several Indian companies are using Internet to market their products and services. Video editing is smarter, slicker and swifter than ever before, thanks to computerized gadgets from the U.S. "The technology juggernaut is relentless," says N. Murali, general manager of the Hindu. "Admen should learn to leverage technology in-

telligently and sensitively."

"Brand equity" or brand strength, "the commercial karma between consumers and products," is the buzzword of the ad industry.

Ad professionals agonize, plan, plot, discuss and review how to nurture brand strength.

Has America, the world's No. I advertising nation, influenced Indian advertising? There is the obvious inspiration mentioned earlier, provided by the books of Ogilvy, Reeves and Hopkins.

Advertising art literature from America is on every agency's shopping list. Indian admen visiting the U.S. observe and absorb: the experience comes in handy back home.

"American influence? Have we exhausted domestic sources of inspiration, our own resources?" asks N.V. Ramanan, who runs Ram's Creative Chamber in Madras. Ramanan recalls Ramakrishna Paramahansa's saying "Truth is never new." It's always there, waiting to be discovered. Creativity, Ramanan remarks, is"seeing a door where others see a wall." If your mind penetrates the wall, doors will open.

Ranjan Kapur, managing director ofO&M, says that the biggest strength of American advertising lies in its technological sophistication, especially in camera technology. This is also a disadvantage-ads in the U.S. have become prohibitively expensive; they have to look offshore for centers of excellence.

Kapur says the urban bias of Indian advertising reflects the Raj hangover rather than the Manhattan shadow. Advertising art in India reveals a British rather than an American influence. On the other hand, American slapstick appeals more readily to Indians than subtle British humor. He opines that Indians "absorb everything."

They "chew other cultures and produce an Indian version of it."

Products like Coke and Kelloggs have an American image, but their Bombay ads are Indian in character.

Arvind Sharma, managing director ofChaitra-Leo Burnett, says that since the U.S. is the world's most competitive market, there is a strong American impact on marketing techniques in India.

"Marketing may not have been born in America but it graduated there, so a lotofus look to the U.S. for fundamental concepts such as positioning, niche marketing, etc."

Advertising mirrors society, says Sharma. Some of the young in India equate America with fun and wealth and success; advertising targeted at India's urban young would therefore be American-oriented. But America would be irrelevant to rural communication.

"But any fears of the Indian identity in advertising being swamped by American MNCs are quite misplaced," Sharma says.

"Whenever we adopt a so-called Western idea, there is a great deal of debate between the clients and the agency."

Saurav Mistry, president and CEO of McCann Erikson (the worlcVs biggest agency), says that the British were closer to India on the ad front than the Americans until liberalization and the opening up of the economy. "But society has since moved straight from the British Raj to the MTV generation .... Advertisinghas followed suit, especially with the arrival ofMNCs and oflarge New York-based agencies."

Mistry cautions, however, that admen in India should be selective in adapting from the American experience. "We are making the un-

fortunate mistake of repeating American mistakes. Every time history repeats itself, the price ofthe lesson goes up."

Indian admen should adopt the technology of the West and the soul of India, but "sometimes we seem to be doing the reverse," Mistry remarks. "The American sophistication in tools and techniques is instructive but we must remember that in the Indian context, lifestyles have changed but not the values. The creative should respect the cultural context it exists in."

The strengths of American advertising, he says, are attention to detail, professional integrity and a strong balance between concept and execution. Another virtue Indian adpersons should learn from American counterparts is time management.

Advertising in America How does the marketing scenario in America differ from that in India? Ayer says that brand-building is the name of the game in India; in the U.S., brand loyalty has got eroded. A public that religiously brushed teeth with Colgate, washed with Ivory soap and showered with Dove is now looking for the best deals and the lowest prices.

Another difference is the aging of America. In India, 70 percent of the population is below 40; in America the plus-40 category outnumbers the young. American MNCs are quite fascinated by the large populations and young markets of China and India.

American advertising has come a long way since the newspaper ads of the 18th century which were announcements rather than efforts at persuasion.

The first advertising agencies merely organized space selling.

By the later part of the 19th century, however, agencies began offering other services to advertisers.

In 1871, George Rowell, who started one of the first agencies, published a book on Forty Years in the Advertising Business. His advice on advertisements: "Come right down with the factsboldly, firmly, unflinchingly. Say directly what it is, what it will do. Leave out all ifs. Say flatly 'the best' or nothing. Do not refer to rivals, ignore every person, place or thing, except yourself, your address and your article."

Patent medicines played an important role in early American advertising. Before the Civil War, half of the advertising was about medicines. But the increasingly ambitious claims of patent medicine companies led to federal and state laws for drug inspection and control. Patent medicines also led to the birth of the' American magazine.

After the Civil War, advertising expanded. Brand names made their appearance. Campbell's soup, Levi Strauss' overalls, Ivory soap, Goodyear rubber galoshes. During this time, the phonograph, the telephone, the electric light bulb and the radio were invented. Eastman Kodak and Daimler Benz were born.

Magazine advertising came into its own during the 19th century. Harper s Monthly, Atlantic Monthly, Ladies Home Journal, were launched. By the turn of the Cosmopolitan and McClue century, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Direct Mail Advertising Association, the Outdoor Advertising

s

(Continued on page 39)

ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER

SUDHIR RAMCHANDRAN Text and Photographs by AVINASH PASRICHA

dvertising photography has come of age in India. You pick up any newspaper or magazine and the striking visuals of the ads catch your attention. Today, image fights image for a share in the marketplace. The challenge of the advertising photographer is to create an unforgettable image that grabs the viewer's attention and "sells" the product.

Not many people have heard of photographer Sudhir Rarrichandran. And yet most everybody who reads newspapers and magazines has seen his photographs-but not his name. He is the advertising photographer who works behind the scenes. Sudhir has shot many a successful advertising campaign, for MARUTI CARS,HMTWATCHES,TITANTANISHQJEWELLERY,BPLSYSTEMS,MRFTYRES,WEARHOUSEGARMENTs-and many more memorable campaigns with exciting visuals.

Sudhir Ramchandran today is one of the topmost advertising photographers in the country.

Recently, I spent an interesting two hours watching and clicking Sudhir at work in his studio in Bangalore as he was shooting model Vidisha Pavate for a fashion campaign. I have photographed a variety of subjects in my long career with SPAN-including fashion and advertising-but it was a truly interesting and a

A

"learning experience" to see the maestro at work. Not only does he pay attention to every little detail of the garment, the makeup, the hairstyle, the pose, the location, the props, the angle and the setting of each light, but he communicates often with the model to get the perfect picture.

"In fashion photography," says Sudhir, "the mood, the moment are importantsometimes, even more important than the clothes themselves." How true. I also got a chance to look at some of his other work, including product and tabletop photography, which also shows the same meticulous attention to detail to produce an attention-grabbing visual.

Sudhir did not plan to be a photographer. Trained in microbiology, he became a lecturer in zoology at the University of

This adfor Maruti cars is an example of the strong visuals that Sudhir Ramchandran

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1974, the university sponsored him for a course in microphotography. This exposure kindled his interest in the subject.

In 1976, his meeting with Mitter Bedi, the doyen of industrial and advertising photography in India, led him to a new career. Starting out in Madras, Sudhir with his academic bent of mind used his earnings to attend photography workshops and salons in the U.K., the United States and Switzerland. He also trained at Kodak in Rochester, New York. He moved up the ladder fast. Today Sudhir is president of the Advertising & Industrial Photographers Association ofIndia.

Keeping his interest in learning and teaching alive, Sudhir was instrumental in organizing photography workshops called Newschool in Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay where well-known industrial, advertising and fashion photographers from Britain, America and Japan came to share their experiences with Indian photographers. These workshops did much to enhance the quality of advertising photography in this country.

One thing we all learned at the Newschool photography workshops was that many of the great advertising and commercial¡ photographers also pursue their "personal" photography projects which not only give them a break from the monotony of doing just one kind of work, but also provide better insights into their commercial work. Occasionally the personal work is so good that art directors use it to produce great ad campaigns. Sudhir, too, has a separate studio for his personal work where he can work till late at night without disturbance. He also travels widely and is currently working on another personal project-a book on Kerala. "There's never a dull moment in my life," he declares. 0

Taking Pride in a Pluralistic Society

continued/rompage 11

influence of the colonial metropolis; but there is no contradiction mathematics. These connections are beautifully illustrated by the here. This dual role does suggest, however, that the mere identificaorigin ofthe term "sine" in Western trigonometry. tion of the Western connections of an idea cannot be enough to damn That modem term came to India through the British, and yet in its it. The critics of "modernism" often share with the advocates of genesis there is a remarkable Indian component. Aryabhata, an Indian mathematician and astronomer who lived in the fifth and "modernism" the belief that being "modem" is a well-defined conearly sixth centuries, discussed the concept of "sine," and called it cept-they are for "it" and are against "it." But this type ofidentifijya-ardha, or "half-chord," in Sanskrit. cation is not at all easy, given the historical roots-the long and Given the cultural and intellectual interconnections, the question tangled roots-of recent intellectual developments, and given the of what is "Western" and what is "Eastern" (or "Indian") is often hard mixture of origins in the genesis of the ideas and the methods that are to decide, and the issue can be discussed only in dialectical terms. typically taken to characterize modernism.

The point is not that all modem things The characterization of an idea as "purely are good, or that there are no reasons to Western" or "purely Indian" can be very doubt the wisdom of many developments illusory. The origin of ideas is notthe kind One of the things that goes that are justified in the name of modernity. ofthing to which "purity" happens easily. deeply wrong with grand contrasts There is an important aspect of antiRather, the point is that there is no escape between "our culture" and from the critical scrutiny of ideas, norms modernism, which tends to question, ex"their culture" is the neglect ofthe plicitly or implicitly, the emphasis to be and proposals, no matter whether they are tremendous variety seen as pro-modern or anti-modem. When placed on what is called "Western sciwithin each ofthese cultures. we come to decide what policies to support ence." If the challenges from traditional . in education, health care, or social secuconservatism grow, this can become quite a rity, the modernity orthe non-modernity of threat to scientific education in India, affecting what young Indians are encouraged to learn, and how much a proposal is neither here nor there. The relevant question is how emphasis is put on science in the general curriculum. these policies would actually affect the lives of people. Modernity The reasoning behind this "anti-foreign" attitude is flawed in is not only a bewildering notion, it is also largely irrelevant as a measeveral ways. First, so-called "Western science" is not the special sure of merit or demerit in assessing contemporary priorities. possession of Europe and America. It is true that, since the What about the specialness of "Asian values," about which so much is now being said by the authorities in a number of East Asian Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment, most scientific progress has occurred in the West; but these sciencountries? These arguments appeal to the differences between "Asian values" and "Western values" to dispute the importance of tific developments drew substantially on earlier work in mathematics human rights and press freedoms in Asian countries. The resistance to and science done by the Arabs, the Chinese, the Indians and others.

Western hegemony-a perfectly respectable cause in itself-takes The term "Western science" is misleading in this respect, and misguided in its tendericy to establish a distance between non- Western the form, under this interpretation, of justifying the suppression of people and the pursuit of mathematics and science. Second, irrejournalistic freedoms and the violations of elementary political and civil rights on the grounds ofthe alleged unimportance of these freespcdive of the location of the discoveries and the inventions, the doms in the hierarchy of what are claimed to be "Asian values." methods of reasoning used in science and mathematics give them There are two problems with this mode of reasoning. First, even if some independence oflocal geography and cultural history. it were shown that freedoms ofthis kind have had less importance in Third, our decisions about the future need not be parasitic on the past we have experienced. Even if there were no Asian or Indian Asian thought and tradition than in the West, this would still be an unconvincing way of justifying the violation of these freedoms in component in the evolution of contemporary mathematics and sciAsia. To see the conflict over human rights as a battle between ence-this is not the case, but even if it were the case-their imporWestern liberalism and Asian authenticity is to cast the debate in a tance in contemporary India need not be deeply undermined for that form that distracts attention from the central question: What is right, reason. Rabindranath Tagore nicely illustrated the tyranny of being bound to the past in his amusing but profoundly serious short story what makes sense, in contemporary Asia? The history of ideas, in Asia and in the West, cannot decide this issue.

"Kartar Bhoot" ("The Ghost of the Leader"), in which the wishes of the respected but dead leader make the lives of others impossibly Second, it is by no means clear that historically there has been systematically greater importance attached to freedom and tolerance in constrained.

There is a similar issue, to which I referred earlier, about the role the Westthan inAsia. Individual liberty, in its contemporary form, is a relatively new notion both in Asia and in the West; and while the of "modernity" in contemporary India. The recent attacks on West did get to these ideas earlier (through developments such as the modernity (especially on a "modernity" that is seen as coming to Renaissance, the European Enlightenment, the Industrial India from the West) draw greatly on the literature of "post- modRevolution and so on), the divergence between the cultures is relaernism" and on similar approaches that have been quite influential tively recent. In answer to the question, "at what date, in what cir-' in Western literary and cultural circles, and in India, too. There is cumstances, the notion ofindividualliberty ...first became explicit in something interesting in this dual role of the West, the colonial methe West," Isaiah Berlin has remarked that "I have found no convinctropolis supplying ideas to post-colonial intellectuals to attack the

ing evidence of any clear formulation of it in the ancient world." some immense opposition between, say, the West and India, with relative homogeneity inside each.

This view has been disputed by Orlando Patterson in Freedom, Volume I: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. His historical The problem is even greater, of course, when there are atarguments are interesting and forceful; but his thesis of a freedomtempts at generalizations about "Asian values." Asia is where centered tradition in the West in contrast with what happened elseabout 60 percent of the world's entire population live. There are where seems to depend on attaching significance to particular no quintessential values that apply to this immensely large and elements of Western thought without looking adequately for comheterogeneous population, which separate them out as a group parable elements in non- Western intel1ectual traditions-for examfrom the rest of the world. Those who have written on the imporpie, in the fairly extensive literatures on politics and governance in tance of cultural divisions have been right to point to them, and Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Arabic and other languages. yet the attempt to see these divisions in the over-aggregated form In the reading of the Western tradition of a dichotomy between East and West that sees it as the natural habitat of indiconceals more than it reveals. vidual freedom and political democracy, The difficulties of communication It is by no means clear across cultures are real, as are the normathere is a tendency to extrapolate backthat historically there bas been ward from the present. Values that the tive issues raised by the importance of systematically greater European enlightenment and other relacultural di.fferences; but these difficulties importance attached to freedom do not require us to accept the standard tively recent developments have made and tolerance divisions between "our culture" and common and widespread can scarcely be "their culture." Nor do they give us reaseen as part of the long-run Western herin the West than in Asia. itage, as if they were experienced in the son to overlook the demands of practical reason, and of political and social releWest over mil1ennia. In specific contexts vance, in favor of faithfulness to some al1eged historical contrasts. . in the Western classical tradition, of course, there have been chamWhich brings us back to Satyajit Ray. His delicate portrayal of the pionings offreedom and tolerance, but much the same can be said of very different types that make us what we are cannot be matched. many parts of the Asian tradition as wel1-not least in India, with Reflecting on what to include in his films, he posed the problem the articulations associated with Ashoka's inscriptions, Shudraka's beautifully: drama, Akbar's pronouncements, or Kabir's poetry, to name just a few examples.

What should you put in your films? What can you leave out? Would you It is true that tolerance has not been advocated by all in the Asian leave the city behind and go to the village where cows graze in the endtraditions. Nor has that tolerance typically covered everyone less fields and the shepherd plays the flute? You can make a film here (though some, such as Ashoka, in the third century BC, did insist on that would be pure and fresh and have the delicate rhythm ofa boatman's completely universal tolerance, without any exception). But much song. Or would you rather go back in time-way back to the epics, where the same can be said about Western traditions as well. There is little the gods and the demons took sides in the .great battle where brother killed brother and Lord Krishna revivified a desolate prince with the evidence that Plato or Augustine were more tolerant or less authoriwords of the Gita? One could do exciting things here, using the great tarian than Confucius. Aristotle certainly did write on the impormimetic tradition of the Kathakali, as the Japanese use their Noh and tance of freedom, but women and slaves wcre excluded from the Kabuki. Or would you rather stay where you are, right in the present, domain of his concern. The allegedly sharp contrast between in the heart of this monstrous, teeming, bewildering city, and try to Western and Asian traditions on the subject of freedom and tolerorchestrate its dizzying contrasts of sight and sound and milieu? ance is based on very poor history. And the authoritarian argument based on the special nature of Asian values is particularly dubious.

The celebration of these differences-the "dizzying contrasts"-is far from what can be found in labored generalizations Further, even ifit were the case that "Asian values" are more authorabout the unique and fragile purity of "our culture," and in the vigoritarian, this would not have been grounds enough to reject tolerance ous pleas to keep "our culture," "our modernity," immune from and liberties in contemporary Asia. "their culture," "their modernity." In our heterogeneity, and in our The debate about "Asian values" draws attention to an important openness, lies our pride, not our disgrace. Satyajit Ray taught us issue underlying attempts at generalizations about East and West, this, and the lesson is profoundly important for India. And for about Europe and India, and so on. There are many sharp contrasts Asia, and for the world.

0 between Europe and India, but there are many sharp contrasts within India itself. And there are great differences between various parts of Indian intellectual and historical traditions. One of the About the Author: Amartya Sen is professor of economics and philosthings that goes deeply wrong with grand contrasts between "our ophyat Harvard University. Educated at Calcutta s Presidency College culture" and "their culture" is the neglect ofthe tremendous variety and Trinity College of Cambridge University, he has taught at Jadavpur within each of these cultures. Joan Robinson, the Cambridge econoUniversity in Calcutta, Delhi University, Oxford, University of mist, used to say that whatever you can rightly say about India, the California at Berkeley and Cornell University. An earlier version of this essay was given as the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture in Calcutta in opposite is also true. It is not that cultural differences are of no imDecember 1995. portance; but the contrasts do not come in the tailor-made form of

A Conversation with Ambassador Naresh Chandra

CONNlEHOWARD: Whatwasyourfirst reaction when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao asked you to serve as Ambassador to the U.S.A. ?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: Well, it was a surprise naturally. Not because I had not thought about it but because I was governor in Gujarat and I had been there only eight months. And, the surprise was that there were still a few months to go for Ambassador Ray and, at that time, I did not know he was wanting to return.

What were some of the responsibilities you had as governor in Gujarat you feel were good experiences that will help you serve asAmbassador?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: Well, as civil servants we really keep a low profile.

We take part in many functions as the chief guest or make a lot of speeches. All that the governor does is good practice. Making speeches in public, at universities, museums, social organizations and whatever gives you a certain opportunity for interacting with people. We are also required to take a hand in the managing ofuniversities, certain societies like the Red Cross or societies concerned with socially important subjects such as eradication of cancer, literacy campaigns, development and so on. In all, I think if the governor makes good use of his time he can find out a lot about the problems of people even in the remote,

Ambassador Naresh Chandra presented his credentials to President Bill Clinton at the White House on April 30, 1996.

backward or tribal areas. If you are so inclined, you can be very well informed.

You have presented your credentials to President Bill Clinton. What wasyour first impression of the President?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: Well, as it happened, my first impression preceded the presentation of the Letter of Credence.

The Clinton Administration was good enough to invite me to the annual reception for the ambassadors early so I was able to meet him and the First Lady one week in ad-

vance of the presentation of the credentials.

And, I must say, both were very gracious.

We had a chance to exchange words and he asked me if I was settling down comfortably and how I liked Washington and the former [gubernatorial] occupation we had shared. He surprised me. The President was aware of my background and he referred to a previous conversation with Prime Minister Rao and repeated the assurance he had given him of taking me in hand and assuring that I have access to all levels of the U.S. Government.

So, I was very much impressed by such thoughtful words from him. With this kind of approach he will make itvery easy forme to discharge the duties of my office.

Have.you had a chance to set any goals for yourself yet as to what you'd like to accomplish as Ambassador?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: I cannot help but notice similarities in the type of people we are in both countries in that we value strong sense of family, practice of religion and yet tolerance and respect for each other's religion, the commitment to democracy and the desire to modernize and get ahead.

Our goals are so common and the permanent and enduring factors which would make us move toward improved IndiaU.S. relations are so many and so strong that all that is required to be done is to allow these facts to speak for themselves. I view my task mainly as one to see we don't waste time in going astray or take too much time in removing such obstacles or hurdles as interrupt this process of improvement. It has happened that sometimes at critical times events have forced us to go our different ways.

But after the liberalization of the Indian economy and the opening up of our markets, American and Indian economies have responded. Even in the days when we were a bit restrictive on foreign investment, of the number of requests for collaborations or foreign imports, we received a large numberofapplications from U.S. entities. What is happening now shows that not only is the United States the leading trading partner of

India but it is also the largest foreign investor. Even in the last four months, I am told, despite the talk about political uncertainty, foreign institutions have put about 1.4 billion dollars in the Indian market and much of it is from the United States.

That shows me not only the strong interest but the faith that American businesses and industrialists have in the Indian economy and the growth of that market.

India will be celebrating its 50th anniversary ofindependence in 1997. If you could envision what India will be like-or what you would like it to be like-when it celebrates its 100th anniversary, how wouldyou like to see India at that point?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: I think all of us would like to see that by thattime it has caught up with most nations of the world. I do not mean that only in the material sense, but what I would like to see is that we recapture the time when the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent contributed so much to the richness of human life in terms of philosophy, the way ofliving, the way of social organizations, art, poetry that was written, the sculpture and construction of the temples and other buildings.

What we would like to see is that India becomes a responsible, useful player in not only maintaining the world order but also in contributing, as in the old days, to the richness oflife.

As someone who has fallen in love with India and isfascinated with Asia, I guess one of my concerns is that the rich culture of India could be lost to modernization. Do you think they can exist side by side?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: Well, there is no question that it will change.

Industrialization in India is inevitable. It is a need. There is no other way. Either the people work or the animals work or the machines work. There is no fourth way.

I think the work that people-especially the women-have to put in in the villages takes away muchjoy ofliving. So whatever can be provided to them by industrialization is an essential need. But, what is the problem is the urbanization. The traditions

are so strong in India that there is always the connection with the village. Industry workers send money home. They come out for jobs in factories oron farms in times oftrouble. The village is now able to hold more.

There was a time when the village offered no employment and there were hardly any services-medical, educational or drinking water. But now that has changed.

There are still many villages where the basic amenities are in short supply and in a few cases nonexistent. It will always be so in such a large country. But, the number of villages and small towns that have been upgraded over the years is quite substantial.

For example, I toured U.P. and Rajasthan in the 1950s. I travel the same areas today and they are unrecognizable.

Still there are pockets of poverty and backwardness but the amount of advance in the rural areas is quite substantial.

I have a feeling that India, which has absorbed so many changes, will survive the advent of industrialization.

I read an article in India Abroad recently that as Ambassador-designate you were meeting with businessmen in India to see what could be done to improve business relations between India and the United States. Have you come up with some new ideas?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: That w~s part of an ongoing thing. I have been involved for quite a few years. I spent a lot of time in the department of heavy industry and international cooperation in industry.

I was adviser on export industrialization to the Government of Sri Lanka. I have moved around as an expert in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and other countries besides my own states like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. So I have been active for quite a few years and most of the industrialists and chambers of commerce and industry and other such organizations are known to me. In the late I970s I was chairman from the Indian side and there was a chairman from the American side for the technology transfer group. I was on the India-U.S. Economic Subcommission as leader of the delegation here in 1992 for investment pro-

motion and I came for lectures in 1994 and 1995 to business promotion conferences. It is part of the process.

But this time, since I was away for a while, I felt that I should reacquaint myself not only with Indian industry but also with representatives of American companies that are operating in India. So I attended a lot of discussion meetings in New Delhi and Bombay to be up-to-date and get ideas from them. The main thing is we must facilitate more communication between Indian companies and entities and American companies and entities.

Our experience has been that India-U.S. collaborations seem to work well. And largely it is due to the fact that we speak the same language and there is no language problem as there might be in the case of China, Thailand or Indonesia. That plus the fact that a number of Indians are already working in American companies. That also helps because the chief executives or director-level people can always pick up on a man who will take less time to familiarize himselfwith the inside of the operation.

So, the learning curve for the American entity is less.

My idea was I kept talking to both sides and at regular intervals so that I could not only pick up on the problems and suggestions each side had but also discuss them with the other side and then with the government. That helps to solve issues as they come up. I've been here only a few weeks but in many cases the files thatcometo me, I have already dealt with them in Delhi.

Is there anything specialyou would like to say?

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: Well, one thing I would like to say is that one very remarkable thing was the calls I got from the officials at the U.S. Embassy, the people working in USIA and USAID [in New Delhi]. All came to me as if we are all members of the same team. Very heartening and encouraging. They gave me a lot of useful information and very frankly they told me the issues they were pursuing. They also gave me advance information about life in Washington and organization in the various

departments. It was a very heartwarming experience and very useful. I would like to acknowledge the help Frank Wisner and the others gave me.

The other point ofinterest is that the vigorous Indian community here [in the U.S.], which is professionally highly qualified with their achievements and interactions with other communities, is in a position to help. Anyone who is engaged in improving India-U.S. relations in any field-social, cultural, business-will find that the relationship between them and the Indian Embassy is very good. The relationship between our officers and them is part of an extended family. We do note and see that the lines are not crossed. They are U.S. citizens subject to their duties and responsibilities to the country of their adoption, but there is a role they can play to help us in our mission and it is mutually beneficial. We look to them for help and are grateful to them for thathelp.

Another aspect is that the number of visits to Indiaof senators, congressmen and officials has increased appreciably. We see them coming with big delegations. Besides the business they drum up, the amount of the traveling, is very, very significant. The. relationship is not only getting more broadbased but it is acquiring greater depth now and I think this is one area that we will concentrate on more. See if the governments of the states of your union here and the governments of our states there can have more interaction.

The exchange of high judicial officeholders and the justices of the Supreme Court has been very helpful in improving understanding and removing certain doubts. I have heard very nice statements from justices of the Supreme Court here when they meet our justices and they find what is the power of the justice in India. It is really something.

And the relationship between the press in the two countries is increasing the awareness that the Indian press is fiercely independent.

Overall, I would think that the scene is very optimistic. The only thing we have to be careful of is not to get sidetracked on

some issues which continue to create differences of opinion between our democracies. There is no way we will have an issueless slate for discussion. We are not only managing our differences but are focusing on areas where there are no disagreements.

I agree that all these trips and people getting to know people makes a real difference. In fact, with my university background I have come to believe that study-abroad programs are one of the best initiatives higher education has ever come up with.

AMBASSADOR CHANDRA: That is true. What we want is more exchanges not only at the educational level but at the service level. You take the case of the USAID or CARE in India. There is not only the money part of it but a tremendous amount of spin-off from it. Because along with USAID very good dedicated workers from the United States come to India.

In fact, right from 1965 when I was deputy secretary in charge of agriculture programs and I interacted with USAID, 1 realized that it gives workers in the U.S. Administration the experience of seeing India at the grassroots level and it gives our people the awareness that not everything in America is Hollywood. We see American movies with someone shooting off a gun or going off in a big car, dancing or something like that. America is much more than that and these programs put a human face on America for our people.

In balancing the budget somebody will talk critically about this point or that point but absolutely forget the benefits that reach into even some of the most backward sections. Those benefits include the image of America that gets spread when our people see these dedicated American workers working for and with them, often trudging through dust and mud in their effort to help.

This is something very valuable and it should not just be dismissed.

0 About the Author:

Connie Howard is direc-

tor, Office of Special Projects, Universi ty of Pennsylvania.

at the Indiana

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE "I can't understand how I got to be over the hill without ever being on top of the hill. "

"You deserve a candidate with insight, dedication and leadership ability-Find that person and I'll votefor him too!"

Drawing by Eric & Bill Š 1995 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Drawing by Eric & Bill Š 1996 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

"Miss Finch, my attorney has advised me that I'm not obligated to address the question of what I did on my summer vacation. Nonetheless, I would like to respond. "

Cultural Portraits of India A preview of the highly acclaimed exhibition ofphotographs by American photographer Lindsay Hebberd is now touring India.

Next year it will tour the United States to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence and Indo-U.S. relations.

"I made these pictures to counterbalance the stereotypes of India-the poverty, the problems, the negative perceptions," says Lindsay Hebberd. "India is perhaps the most misrepresented country in the world. Very little ofits beauty, its culture, its contributions to civilization is projected to the outside world. I want to highlight the rich history, diversity of cultures, and the warmth of its people. I want to capture a feeling of the continuity of tradition. What I really want to project is the incredible diversity, the spirit, the essence, the underlying unity of this vast nation."

We were having coffee with Lindsay at the India International Centre where she waS staying while her exhibition, "Cultural Portraits of India" (CPI), was at Delhi's Lalit Kala Akademi. The exhibit isjointly presented by the East-West Center of the United States and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation oflndia.

The exhibition is slated to begin a three-year tour of the U.S. in mid1997, says Lindsay. "CPI is much more than a photo exhibit: It is a nonprofit, interactive, educational celebration oflndia which, we hope, will galvanize the Indian community in the U.S. to share their knowledge and talent through interactive

involvement with this project. We are hopeful that corporations in India and the United States will lend financial support. This will ensure that we can tour CPI to most of the United States free of charge."

The exhibition will be shown in large and small museums and university campuses all over America, in big cities and

Lindsay Hebberdat her exhibition, which was cosponsored by the Lalit KalaAkademi in New Delhi :s RabindraBhawan.

N. Maniyan Pillaigestures, struts and sways on stilts as he does the Peacock Dance; Alleppey, Kerala.

Mutiyettu, an ancient ritual dance-drama, being performed late at night as an oblation to the Goddess Kali; Central Kerala.

A Vaishnavite boy with a sandalwood prayer painted on his forehead holds a lotus blossom, a symbol of purity; Imphal, Manipur.

"Buddha

s Great Departure"

is depicted in this six-meter-long bas-relief, Ajanta Cave No. 26; Maharashtra.

Ayoung Parsi initiate repeats prayers during her Navjote, the tying of the sacred thread ceremony; Mumbai, Maharashtra.

A Muslim man and grandson; Sonamarg, Jammu & Kashmir.

A Sanamahi priestess greets a visitor to the temple with an endearing smile and an offering ofFuit; Imphal, Manipur.

small towns, especially places where there are large IndianAmerican communities. "I have two aims," says Hebberd.

"One is to introduce Americans to 'positive' aspects of this country; the other is to have the Indian community participate in the 50th anniversary ofIndian Independence through this exhibit-by using it as a platform to showcase their own culture with the American community at large."

CPI will be different from most commercially driven exhibitions that tour the U.S.-performing artists and collections-which the venues pay to receive and charge the public. "Basically, by providing the exhibit free of charge, the venues will allocate their funds-museums and universities have varying budgets-to the educational and interactive programs."

To produce this exhibition, Lindsay Hebberd has traveled to and within each state of India over the past decade, making literally hundrcds of thousands of images. The final selection of photographs that will form the core exhibit will be made by a panel of experts chosen by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the East-West Center. "A respected Indian authority on culture, most probably Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, will be writing extensive captions to provide the content and context to the photographs. Also, a large map, keyed to each image, will provide the viewer with geographic perspective."

A CPI tour director will facilitate contact between Indian associations, venue directors and independent school districts at each locale. Some of the programs will include school field trips to the gallery combined with suggested educational studies-in classrooms and libraries and on the Internet-for students to learn about India. "If even one photograph inspires the viewer to pursue further study of India, whatever subject is of interest to them, my labor of love wi II have been more than compensated."

Hebberd has, for almost two decades, photographed culture around the world. She first visited India in 1987 and has come back almost every year for extended periods of extensive travels to create this photographic collection. "I love India very much.

I have many friends here. India is such a complex and fascinating country--,--there's no limit to what it offers. My friendship with India is forever. Iwill always come back."

As an Indophile myselfwho has lived in India for some 15 years, I ask her why she wi IIalways come back.

"It offers so much," she says. "Indians are so warm, hospitable and friendly. There is such diversity of experience and so much to be learned from the great history, tradition and vitality of the people. Photography focuses on the external manifestations-subject, light, composition.

However, I believe that a good photograph transcends 'the physical elements,' to include and impart the essence, the spirit of the person or the subj ect."

Lindsay Hebberd, 38, holds a B.S. degree in communications from the University of Texas. As one of 40 professional photographers from all over the world, she con-

tributed to Thailand: Seven Days in the Kingdom, a commemorative book celebrating the king's 60th birthday, and the Day in the Life of Thailand. Her work has appeared in many books, magazines, calendars and posters, and is included in the CORBIS digital photo archives on the Intcrnet.

Lindsay also produced "Cultural Portraits ofindonesia," an extensive photo exhibit of that country, which toured the U.S. in I 991-92. But "Cultural Portraits of India" is by far her most ambitious work.

Lindsay says that when the exhibition tours the United States it may be criticized for depicting only a positive picture of the country. But her focus is on the cultures and the traditions as they still can be found today: It is not meant to be a comprehensive survey of "modern India." It doesn't show the immense changes and developments taking place throughout the country. "What I find remarkable about India is that centuries of history and tradition are 'Iayered'-they coexist. Another remarkable fact is that while the nation rapidly develops it has been able to retain its rich cultural heritage. I hope this will always remain so."

After the March '96 preview of "Cultural Portraits of India" in Washington, D.C., the Charge d'Affaires at the Embassy of India, St}yamala Cowsik, wrote to Lindsay: "I must compliment you not just on the technical brilliance of your photographs-though that would be achievement enough-but on something much more, which is the depth offeeling that you have for this many-hued and diverse land of ours and which, through some miracle, you have been able to breathe into the photographs themselves."

Walking with Lindsay through the Lalit Kala Akademi looking at her pictur~s, I feel the influence of the famous book of photography of many decades ago, Edward Steichen's Family of Man. This feeling of humanity as a family is the aura surrounding the exhibit. The feeling is echoed in the exhibit's brochure which quotes the Dalai Lama: "We have all been born as part of one great human family." And it is echoed in these lines of a poem Lindsay wrote on India: Each of us isjust one thread contri buting a unique and hum ble role; part of an interwoven and interdependent of humanity.

fabric

This feeling of The One lurking behind the maya of many has been said by some to be the essence of Indian thought. She is trying to capture it in pictures.

We talk about this.

"Yes," Lindsay says. "One of my favorite quotations on India are the words of Rabindranath Tagore: 'There is a divine purpose in the diversity of languages, religions and cultures which are found in Indian life. India's salvation lies in the unity not the uniformity of her diverse -S.E. peoples.' "

SEEKING A SIMPLER SOCIETY Plagued by stress and the competition of the workplace, a growing number of Americans are discovering ways to improve the quality of life.

ehind the locked door of the emergency-ward bathroom of Sinai Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Cynthia Shelby-Lane desperately seeks to withdraw. It is past midnight; she has been soaring on adrenaline for hours, dealing with gun wounds and bloodied bodies from car accidents, and now she craves silence, an ounce of space to meditate and unwind.

But the staff knows about her refuge. An ECG scan slides under the bathroom door.

"What are you doing?" Shelby-Lane sputters. "You know this is my quiet time!"

Her cry defines an era. Five years before the end of what has been called the American Century, Americans say they have become worn down. But the exhaustion represents a paradox. They are extraordinarily stressed out even though they make more money, have more leisure time, spend more on recreation and enjoy more timesaving and efficient technology than adults did a generation ortwo ago. The reasons underlying this paradox are varied. Many Americans, especially married women, are working longer at their jobs now than they were then~although they have cut back on the amount of work they do around their homes. The anxieties wrought by the increasingly competitive global economy also have put many on edge, not to mention the factthat work-related intrusions via fax,

B

E-mail or cellular phones can take place dramatic as moving to communities with a anywhere, from a living room to the family less hectic way of life, cutting back their minIvan. hours at work, lowering their commitments or expectations and declining promotions.

In addition, analysts have found that the "People say they are pretty satisfied with proliferation oflabor-saving devices in the their jobs but are searching for new simplichome makes it easier for folks to fret more ity," says pollster Ed Goeas, who, with about how to spend their free time~an option they largely lacked as recently as 50 Celinda Lake, consulted on the survey. years ago. Moreover, some of the stress . "They are uneasy about the time they're spending on the job, and some are already arises from consumers' burgeoning sense trying to act on it. For others, it's a looming of entitlement and expectations about what conflict." Fully 51 percent of those surlife ought to provide them. Finally, there's veyed in the poll say they would rather have the thesis of economist Steffan Linder, who more time for themselves, even if it means argued in a book called The Harried Leisure less money.

Class that affluence itself engendered "an increasing scarcity of time." His argument: Signs of stress and retreat are everywhere. Jeffrey Stiefler, the president of Productivity increases the "value" of time American Express, quit his job to "work a spent at work, and folks who want to maxiless intense pace and spend more time with mize their worth then feel they should work my family." William Galston, a key adviser more.

Now, though, a growing number of citito President Clinton, walked away from his zens have begun to unplug their lives from a White House job last year after his tensystem they feel leaves little or no time to year-old son wrote him a letter: "Baseball's recharge. They have begun to retreat, like not fun when there's no one there to applaud Shelby-Lane, into their private corners and you." Anna Quindlen, a high-profile demand at least some quiet time. In a comcolumnist, quit her post to be home with her prehensive new quality-of-life poll conelementary-school-age children and write ducted recently by News & World novels.

And a growing legion of female execuReport and the advertising agency Bozell Worldwide Inc., half of all Americans say tives are leaving their corporate jobs. After 15 years climbing the ladder at DuPont, they have taken steps in the past five years that could simplify their lives~steps as Stephanie Hood, 38, went from full-time to

u.s.

part-time work-30 hours a week. company downsizing, two district repreAccording to a recent study conducted by sentatives were fired, and he had to pick up the corporation, in the past ten years, 21 the slack. Meanwhile, Beth delivers newspapers at around 6:30 a.m., one of the few percent of DuPont employees have refused overtime or a job with more pressure; 24 moments in the day she gets time by herself.

Some mornings, she'll switch on a percent refused jobs that require increased travel. Before Hood cut back, she passed up Christian radio station and listen to people chat. It's not much, but it is solitude. Adds ajob that would have involved trips to Asia Scott: "The real world isn't simplified at and, inevitably, long hours away from home. "We wanted a better balance in our all. If the man went to work, and what he made was sufficient for the family, and the lives," she says of herself and her husband. wife would stay at home, that would be an In Seattle, an entire social infrastructure has evolved out of the desire of many to ideal world." make their lives less complicated (see acA physical malady. Whatever its source, there is no doubt that a pervasive force in companying story). The movement, known as voluntary simplicity, boasts scores of this culture is stress, a derivation of the Latin word that means "to be drawn tight." newsletters and a growing number of devoNo corner of society is safe because virtutees around the country who exchange ally anything can cause stress. For instance, ideas about consuming less, slowing down, saying no and getting out. Indeed, 28 perrun-down consumers can buy stress maps, cent of respondents told pollsters for the Merck Family Fund they had voluntarily made changes in their lives that resulted in their Americans were asked how close they making less money in the past are to meeting their ideal goals on a scale five years. where 1means the goal has not been Those who are taking steps to simplify represent a decidedly met and 10 means the goal has been upscale group. According to the reached. Analysts at KRC Research used poll, which was done by KRC the answers to develop measures of Research, the higher the income, happiness called "quality quotients. " the greater the likelihood that a Answers above 8 denote general happiness; respondent would place a prebelow 7 denotes relative unhappiness. mium on time and the more likely the chance that a respondent had moved to a less hectic stress audits and diminutive stress cards place or declined a more stressful job. For that show, with the touch of a finger, instance, computer specialist Henry Hill, 48, was offered a post as sales director for a whether a person is mellow or overbig software firm, but the job entailed his whelmed. Knowledge itself can cause trouble. "Twenty-five years ago, the random moving from Texas to California and would doctor in the random town thought he could cut deeply into his time with his children, do a fair amount of good and not much especially daughter Hayley, eight. "These harm," explains John-Henry Pfifferling, jobs are man-eaters," he acknowledged and who has been studying and treating burnedthen turned itdown. out physicians for over two decades. "Now, Yet, for vast swaths of the middle class as a doctor, I am more aware not only of and working class, any thoughts about findlawsuits but all the things in the health care ing more free time are secondary to their anxious quest to make ends meet. In Troy, system that can do potent harm."

And that stress literally racks the body.

Ohio, Scott and Beth Lavy, both 46, show As pressures mount-the physician's the stresses that money worries bring into those families. They have three sons, ages knowledge of the harm his medicine might 14, 16 and 22, and Scott is a troubleshooter do, long working hours, family needs or body for the Dayton DailyNews. In 1994, due to a guilt over the death of a patient-the

and mind rise to meet the occasion. Energy burns at a higher rate. Respiration, heart rate and blood pressure increase. Body temperature rises. Metabolism shoots up. The immune system braces for an onslaught.

On a short-term basis, this extra energy can work to advantage. If one has control of the various strands of his or her life, stress can be a kind oflabor aphrodisiac, says Paul Rosch, professor of medicine at the American Institute of Stress. "It's a question of setting goals that are appropriate," he says, "beyond your grasp but within reach."

But if a person feels overwhelmed rather than challenged, stress becomes a burden.

It causes depression and insomnia, strains the heart and nervous system and, over time, poses a danger to the entire body.

PERCENT WHO RANK ISSUE AS ONE OF THE TOP THREE PRIORITIES IN LIFE

Family life Spiritual life Health Financial situation Their jobs Romantic life Leisure time Their homes

68% 46% 44% 25% 23% 18% 14% 11%

QUALITY QUOTIENT

8.18

8.25 7.68 5.98 6.82 7.71 6.14 8.12

Acute and chronic stress can lead to migraine headaches, hypertension, chest pains, ulcers and, ultimately, heart disease.

The malady, though hardly specific to the modern moment, is a national one. Seven out of ten respondents told the survey that they feel stress at some point during a typical weekday-30 percent say they experience a lot of stress; 40 percent say they feel some stress. Forty-three percent of all adults suffer noticeable physical and emotional symptoms from burnout.

Somewhere between 75 percent and 90 percent of all visits to the doctor's office stem from it. By one account, America loses $7,500 per worker per year to stress, either through absenteeism, decreases in productivity or workers' compensation benefits.

No wonder those who suffer its worst effects are ready for a change. Michael Grossman is a case in point. After a bad day at work three years ago, the 55-year-old Hollywood movie executive returned home complaining of chestpains and wound up in an emergency room on the brink of a heart attack. He was treated quickly enough, but his values permanently chaIlged. Within months of quitting the job in movies, Grossman hired on at a fishing tackle store.

"I went from $200,000 a year to $5 an hour," he says. "What I wanted out of life changed. The race was no longer worth the candle."

Hindi Greenberg, founder of an organization called Lawyers in Transition, lfelps attorneys like Grossman find alternative uses for their degrees. When Greenberg held the group's first meeting in the mid1980s, 25 lawyers showed up. Now, more than 70 regularly attend her seminars, most of them looking for a way out of a profession they feel has become too adversarial and time consuming.

Others throttle back when they feel their spirits getting sick. Fifteen years ago, Nancy Castleman quit her job with a New York City foundation, and her companion and business partner, Marc Eisenson, quit his contracting firm in the suburbs; they then fled for country life in upstate New York. There, they publish a newsletter called The Pocket Change Investor, which advises readers how to save more. They rent a farmhouse and live on $15,000 a year.

"People are much more responsive to our message than they were a decade ago," says Castleman. "Everybody can voluntarily cut back a little. You don't have to give up your day jobor grow your own food."

Not everyone can afford to climb out of a former life. Instead, people make the smaller changes they can. Esther Thompson is like many who juggle their schedules and only fleetingly find guiltfree time for themselves. She works the assembly line at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. To make her morning shift, from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Thompson rises at 5 a.m. and gets her daughter, Darias, to company-run day care by 5:30 a.m. In the afternoons and evenings, Darias goes to

Stressless in Seattle eattle is known, for good reasons, as a high-pressure, high-energy kind of place. The area houses the headquarters of leading-edge Microsoft; downtown bustles with corporate types in power suits. Per capita consumption of caffeine might be higher here than anywhere in the U.S., with coffee bars and espresso carts every few feet.

But Seattle is also the heart of the growing voluntary simplicity movement that encourages frugality and spiritual fulfillment. It is the home of gurus of the movement like Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, authors of Your Money or Your Life, a guidebook to achieving financial independence. More newsletters and pamphlets about the joys of simple living seem to be pumped out here than anywhere else. And the area nurtures countless study groups and social circles devoted to the cause. The quest to be stressless in Seattle has created a unique synergy here.

Many involved say it is purely coincidental that so many like-minded people ended up on the same area code. They didn't try consciously to congregate. But they also agree that something big happened about 1992, when Your Money or Your Life was published and the work sheets in the book galvanized people to reevaluate their lives. Dominguez left Wall Street in 1969 at age 31 after developing a plan to live offhis savings for the rest ofhis life. His savings program later inspired Robin, who formerly worked in New York theater, and they decided to devote their lives to helping others apply the same principles to their lives. Now, they represent one end of the simplicity spectrum as they live off $7,000 each a year. They draw no salaries from lecturing, writing and working for their New Road Map Foundation, dedicated to "teaching people the joys of lowering consumption and increasing the savings rate," Dominguez says.

One of the first indications they had

S

struck a nerve with the book came from Cecile Andrews. The 53-year-old ex-community-college administrator says she tried to form a study circle on simplicity through North Seattle Community College in 1979, but only four people came. She tried again in 1992, and 175 people showed up. Since then, study groups have become her work. Moreover, scores of them have grown up around the country, fed by the work done in Seattle.

Lying low. It was a talk by Andrews that inspired lawyer Jonathan Schachter, 35, to use some enforced time off to re-evaluate his life. His work for his sole client ended a few months ago. Now, he and his wife, who works as a fund-raiser at a private high school, live on $15,000, a fraction of the $90,000 they used to pull in. He's looking for more meaningful work and belongs to study circles on voluntary simplicity and ecology. "I was stuck in all these boxesan employed, middle-class, white male," he says. "There is another way."

Sensing increasing interest among people in the community, Janet Luhrs decided in 1992 to start publishing the Simple Living newsletter. It now has 2,500 subscribers nationwide. She had gravitated to the ideas of the movement out of necessity.

She quit her job as a lawyer nine years ago because it took her only two weeks to realize she hated leaving her baby daughter with a nanny. Now, she says, her daughter and her son, seven, are coming around to her principles, mostly through osmosis.

"They understand I can spend more time with them, or work more so we can buy more stuff," says Luhrs. "My daughter thinks it's cool to buy clothes in thrift stores like I do." Community plays a huge role in their family life. Luhrs has organized Scout troops, volunteers in her children's classrooms and belongs to a "barn raising" group whose members clean, paint and repair one another's houses.

Other converts to the simple life have traded lucrative corporate careers for less lucrative home-based businesses. After a 12-year rise up the ladder at Paccar Inc., a conglomerate based in nearby Bellevue, Washington, Jeanne Muir quit her $65,000a-year job in 1992 rather than accept a promotion that would have meant moving to Chicago. Now she runs her own public relations firm doing some of the work for Simple Living and other like-minded enterprises. "I intend to make lots of money by working hard and building my business," she says unapologetically. Gone are the $3,500-ayear clothing budget, 23 magazine subscriptions and marble and leather furniture. In their place, she says, is something more valuable---control of her life.

But there's room under the simplicity tent, too, for avid capitalists like Aleta Thompson, a senior account executive with a software firm in Huntington Beach, California. Two years ago, Thompson, 45, persuaded her bosses to allow her to telecommute from Seattle, because she wanted to move back to the city she had lived in three times before. "The peace and beauty of this area attracts people who are looking for a better quality oflife," she notes. "Now I walk everywhere-to the grocery store, dental appointments, restaurants. I'm more focused and use my time better. I'm making more money than ever."

Folks like these don't seem likely to turn back. Still, there are local skeptics like Gary Tucker, chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Washington in Seattle, who question how potent the movement really is. "It's a myth people move here to relax," he says. "Like any other major city, you have to make a living."

But Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, forecasts that by the year 2000, about 15percent of America's baby boom population will be attracted to voluntary simplicity, and the trend will show strength throughout the 21st century. If that's true, Seattle will be a mecca for those seeking new answers.

D Top: Vicki Robin (left) and Joe Dominguez helped launch the simplicity movement with their 1992 book, Your Money or Your Life. Above: Janet Luhrs quit her job as a lawyer to start publishing a newsletter called Simple Living that has 2,500 subscribers.

About the Author: Beth Brophy is a senior editor for U.S. News & World Report.

ballet and gymnastics, and her bedtime is 8 p.m. Her mother's bedtime is 9 p.m.

Respite. It's hard to find gaps in the schedule. But recently, her shift ended early, and she was fac~~ with that unimaginable rarity-two full, unplanned hours.

She considered picking Darias up early from day care, then had a change of heart: "In my mind, I said, 'You deserve a couple of hours free.' So I stopped by my favorite Chinese place, went home, jumped into bed for a rest, then picked up Darias at the regulartime."

Another kind of simplifying involves managing stuff rather than time. Bette GallVaughn, 61, worked full time until three years ago, when a spinal-related disability began to slow her down. She and her husband, Ric, moved out of a 250-square-meter house into a 65-square-meter mobile home on Discovery Bay in the Seattle area.

In spring 1994, their belongings went into storage---exercise equipment, bikes, a chaise longue, a washer and dryer and a dining room set with four chairs, among other items-and to this day she says she hasn't missed them. The storage space is only oneand-a-halfkilometers away from her home, but she isn't interested. She now figures she had too much stuffin the first place.

Frugality. Gall-Vaughn is not alone, says Bob Lilienfeld, founder of Use Less Stuff, an organization devoted to the efficient reduction of waste in America. Two years ago, inspiration hit Lilienfeld when

QUALITY-Of-LIfE

he helped a plastics company conduct a recycling campaign that was a big success.

He started to publish a newsletter and last November announced the first Use Less Stuff Day to encourage folks to conserve over the holidays. For instance, he says that in New York City, one less grocery bag per person per week would save more than 2,000 tons of waste per year and $250,000 in disposal costs.

His suggestions echo those of Simple Living magazine and the Tightwad Gazette, a Maine-based publication that advocates frugality. His holiday decorating recommendations: "Use collected pine cones, dried flowers and other natural materials to decorate wreaths and make centerpieces.

Use clove-studded oranges for room fresheners, or make homemade potpourri." This is quintessential1990s simplicity.

Generation X has its own version. Its flannel-covered simplicity influences every aspect of today's youth culture. It tends to be antimaterialistic, like its older cousin, but contains a bit more anger and irony. Gen X simplicity can be heard in the new passion for acoustic, or "unplugged," music, pioneered by MTV in the early 1990s and now ubiquitous. Simplicity can also be seen in a multitude of sitcoms from Seinfeld to the current smash, Friends. In these shows, young people lead ridiculously uncomplicated existences. Their attentions are focused on minutiae: on watching a video, a trip to the dentist or

body odor. It is life at a microcosmic level, simplicity for people not ready to settle down.

Kahane Com, 33, shares many of these sentiments. A freelance filmmaker who lives in California, she has spent most of her postcollegiate life with an empty bank account and an idealistic sense of what she wanted outoflife. She has struggled to get her own films made and produced her own documentaries, a genre with few lucrative prospects. She has enjoyed the simplicities ofthe unattached, single life. But as she gets older, Com says, she thinks increasingly about making money. and settling down.

"I'm much more willing to make a compromise now," she says.

The evolution of her sensibility raises a problematic aspect of the simplicity trend.

Not everyone is convinced that a genuine national movement is gelling. Skeptics say changes in the lives of the baby boomers account for the high numbers of people who said in the poll they had taken steps that could simplify their lives. Any generation at midlife will start focusing less on work and more on family, notes psychologist and stress expert Georgia Witkin. And people undergoing big changes like moving because of economic difficulties or scaling down grandiose career aspirations often rationalize those events. They say they are trying to simplify their lives when in fact other forces have propelled their decisions, notes sociology professor John Robinson,

ENHANCERS

Asked to name the three things that most contribute to their quality of life, Americans cited these factors: WOMEN 1. Job/career satisfaction

32%

1.

Relationship with family

33%

2.

Relationship with family

28%

2-. Job/career satisfaction

28%

3.

Money I earn from job/financial independence

18%

3.

Good health

19%

4.

Good health

12%

4.

Religion/spirituality

18%

5.

Where I live (city/state/urban/suburban/rural)

11%

5.

Money I earn from job

17%

6.

Religion/spirituality

11%

6.

Relationship with children

14%

7.

Relationship with spouse/significant other

10%

7.

Relationship with friends

12%

8.

Relationship with friends

10%

8.

Where I live (city/state/urban/suburban/rural)

10%

9.

Education level

8%

9.

Relationship with spouse/significant other

9%

7%

10.

My home

8%

10. My home

director of the Americans' Use of Time Project at the University of Maryland.

Perceptions. Another problem with making judgments about the relationship between work and stress, say experts like Robinson, has to do with perception. People rarely give an accurate account of the time they spend at work. Usually, they feel they are working far longer hours than is actually the case. People actually have more free time than they realize. How they use that time is another story.

But Fran Rodgers, CEO of WorkFamily Directions, a prominent workplace consulting firm, believes something is going on.

"There's an incredibly increased desire to have more control over one's life," Rodgers says, "to have more control over what is controllable, to spend more time with family." In the poll, about half the respondents said they'd come pretty close to meeting their goals for controlling the way they spend their time; the other half expressed qualms. In all, Rodgers does not believe many people are actually putting their desire into effect. On the contrary,. she says, men have not made many changes at all. If anything, women have begun to leave the workplace to spend more time with children, and men are working harder than ever.

Maybe Shelby-Lane can teach them a thing ortwo back iri Detroit. Last August, after falling asleep at the wheel of her car, she went to her superiors, and they quickly granted her request for mixed daytime and night shi fts. She has learned how to say no to commitments that would bog her down, even ifshe wants to do them. Most important, she has tapped into her own sense of humor as a source of release-she's a stand-up comedian on the side.

But until leisure becomes a synonym for health rather than guilt, until companies uniformly encourage employees to spend as much time at home as they can, few people will see a need to slow down. Stress, for the time being, remains an American constant; simplification a tantalizing possibility for the truly daring.

0 About the Author: John Marks is a New Yorkbased correspondent for u.s. News & World Report.

CopyrightŠ 1995 U.S. News& World Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Visible Persuaders

continued/rompage

19

Association and other bodies had come into existence. The foundation was laid for advertising as it's known today.

Aspirin and the automobile have had a profound effect on advertising. Aspirin signified the end of the patent medicine craze.

But the automobile, within months of its birth, began to dominate national and local advertising (see page 18).11sti IIdoes so.

The classic American ads have promoted not just automobiles, but a number of products, ideas, lifestyles, institutions.

Avis rent-a-car company was promoted by what Ogilvy calls "one of the most powerful campaigns in the history of advertising." Avis ranked below Hertz in the business. "When you're only No.2, you try harder" was the heading in Avis ads. The copy talked about how hard Avis tries to please customers. "We can't afford to take you for granted. Go with us next time. The line at our counter is shorter." The No. I position almost became a liability for Hertz.

"Does she ...or doesn't she?" one of advertising's famous headlines, was created for Miss .Clairol shampoo. A subhead said: "Hair Color so natural only her hairdresser knows for sure!" The ad illustration showed a black woman with a glowing head of hair. Life magazine turned down the ad (in 1955) because of what was perceived as a naughty innuendo in the heading. But the ad went on to become a classic.

There have been some excellent ads promoting social causes.

"Smoking spoils your looks" was the headline above a striking picture of Brooke Shields with a cigarette stuck into each ear.

"Not everyone who drives drunk dies" is the powerful headline belowthe picture ofa person with visible scars on his face.

The year 1996 is expected to be a great year for American advertising, thanks"to two mega events-the U.S. presidential elections and the Olympics to be held in Atlanta. Total ad spending worldwide in 1996 may be $377 billion, including about $174.1 billion in the U.S. How will advertising change in the future? Ogilvy had predicted 13 changes many years ago. Some samples: "More foreign tortoises will overtake the American hare. Advertising wi II playa part in bringing the population explosion under control.

Advertising will contain more information and less hot air. The clutter of commercials on television and radio will be brought under control. Several foreign agencies will open offices in the United States, and will prosper."

Bill Bernbach, another famous American ad guru, made a different kind offorecast: "Human nature hasn't changed for a billion years. Only the superficial things have changed. One thing is unchangingly sure. The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, wi II succeed. Without them, he wi II fai I." 0 About the Author:

S.R. Madhu is a Madras-basedfreelance

write/:

Formerly assistant managing editor of SPAN. he also worked as a writer/editor for many years with the Food and Agriculture Organization

in Madras and Zimbabwe.

too

'dissi

w;

Left: Sharon Lowen strikes a dancing Shiva pose at the famous Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. Above: Pandit Ravi Shankar lights the traditional lamp before Lowen's performance at the India International Centre (IlC), New Delhi, early this year.

.

en Sharon Lowen dances, audiences forget that she is an American who practices not one but three Indian classical dance formsOdissi, Manipuri and Chhau. In a more than two-decade-Iong career she has won the admiration of audiences in both India and the United States. She is a recipient of several prestigious honors and aw,ards that include the Acharya Narendra Dev Sarokar Samajic Samman in 1991 and the Delhi Sahitya Kala Parishad's Samman in 1992.

Lowen, who has made India her second home ever since she first came in 1973, recently returned from a highly successful seven-week-Iong Odissi tour of the United States. She gave performances in 15 cities, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City. She also gave lecture-demonstrations

at several universities: "Quite simply, a divine dancer," wrote dance critic Jennifer Fisher in the L.A. Times of her performance at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

"Lowen can mesmerize with hands that drift and carve the air like rising smoke .... But the strongest weapon in her arsenal is her eyes, which mirror the soul with convincing depth and grace." Following her performance in Austin, Texas, the Austin-American Statesman described how Lowen "creates a temple around her" with her perfect movements.

"This was one of the best concert series I've done so far," says Lowen.

"Everything was perfect. The arrangements were perfect, the audiences' reception was perfect, with standing ovations in virtually every city I visited."

There is a devoted audience for Indian dance in the United States, says Lowen, partly because for years top Indian artists have been performing regularly there.

"You know, Uday Shankar first performed in America in the twenties and Balasaraswati lived and taught on the West Coast for many decades. While Americans may not understand all the cultural details and nuances, they can follow the dramatic expression, the abhinaya. After all, emotions are essentially the same everywhere.

The inner world is the same, and that is what I try to portray.

"What was particularly satisfying to me during this tour," says Lowen, "was noting how deeply audiences appreciate and want dance with a spiritual content."

She recalled the night in Los Angeles during the middle of her last tour when, following her performance, "an attractive young girl accompanied by her mother approached me. The girl had trained professionally in ballet but now was inspired to learn Odissi. Her mother said that when her daughter turned 15 and was ready to go on professional ballet stage, she decided to quit, saying, 'This dance is not divine, I want to dance for God.' She began studying Bharatanatyam and even came to India during summers whenever she could. But that night when she saw me

doing Odissi she said, 'That's it. That is the dance for me. ' " Lowen, however, is not resting on her laurels. Since her return from the United States, she has performed at the ceremonies to mark the 200th anniversary of the first Jewish synagogue in Mumbai, recorded four ashtapadis from Geeta Govinda for Doordarshan, followed by three concerts in Malaysia. She is now back in the United States for two months, "not to perform, but on an adventure trip to southeastern Utah with my family."

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Lowen trained for years in Western classical ballet and modern dance before immersing herself in the Indian classical dance forms.

When she joined the. University of Michigan in 1967, she was allowed to create her own program that enabled her to take all the available courses on India, including history, sociology, arts and ethnomusicology. Soon Lowen took the first steps toward becoming an Indian classical dancer when she began taking Manipuri lessons from Minati Roy, an experienced Bengali teacher on the university campus.

"In my case," she says, "I came from a cosmopolitan family background. I always grew up familiar with Indian dance, among other world dance traditions."

In 1973 Lowen got a Fulbright fellow-

ship to learn Indian classical dance in India. Since then she has lived in New Delhi, but has traveled all over the country learning, practicing-and giving recitals-Manipuri, Odissi and Chhau dance forms. Although Lowen studied Manipuri for more than ten years and considers it as her main style, it is Odissi, which she learned under the tutelage of the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, that has come to occupy center stage in her life.

"He was a very generous teacher," says Lowen. "When he first taught me I wasn't planning to perform Odissi.

I wanted to attend a workshop and know about it as an American academic. He convinced me to take up Odissi professionally. " The first time Lowen performed in an Indian temple she actually thought that she might be struck by lightning.

She now laughs at the memory. "Being brought up as a Jew I remember those words from the Torah: 'I am the only God. There is no God before me.' As I bowed my head before the idols of Radha and Krishna in that Manipur temple, all those warnings of severe punishment to those who disobey the holy commandments came to my mind. Well, nothing happened.

Then the realization flashed in my mind: God is one. One can worship Him in whatever way and form one pleases."

In her career Lowen has broken many cultural barriers and established herself among the leading contemporary classical dancers in India. "At this stage I can .say that I'm very grateful to the audiences for allowing me to share my art with them," she says. "What is particularly satisfying is that whatever I've achieved, coming from outside the tradition, I've done on the merit of my dance alone."

So, does she feel like a path breaker?

Lowen replies: "I think what I've been able to do is to break down the prejudices of many people concerning the unive'rsalily of Indian dance. It was not intentional.

Now it is easier for others. And if any young American now decides to come to India and study dance, I hope it will be a lot easier for him or her because I've traveled that path before."

0

what you use. So you don't have the expense and hassle

~

Corporate Club Raheja Chambers. 213.

Nariman Point, Bombay -400021

Company's Name Address

Many interesting parallels other than improvisation exist injazz and Indian classical music. ver the years, several leading American jazzmen have come to India: Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Cherry, Woody Shaw, Abdullah Ibrahim, Henry Threadgill-the list goes on. But the recent visit of Herbert (Herbie) Jeffrey Hancock was a Very Special Otherworldly Phenomenon (only the most dedicated jazz buff will catch that in-joke alluding to Herbie Hancock's famous VSOP band). For me, it was as if a guru had descended from the Himalayas to the sphere of ordinary mortals. I followed him about like a puppy, its tail wagging in friendly greeting which, considering my age, profession and greying hair, may not have presented a particularly dignified sight.

Most other people would have behaved that way if Michael Jackson, or Phil Donahue, or Demi Moore had come instead. Why Herbie Hancock? Well, I owe my love of jazz to him. During my school and college days in the late sixties and early seventies my father often went on lecture tours as a visiting professor to American universities. Steeped in sixties' rock music, I would give him lists of albums unavailable in India to bring back for me. Above and beyond the call of paternal duty, he would not only procure those LPs but ask some of his more far-out American students to tape their favorite records for my collection.

That is how I first heard legends like the late Jerry Garcia and Frank Zappa (may their souls rock on in peace), long before my peers in Calcutta had even heard of them. I jealously protected all those cassettes like someone would guard gold and-though the ferric oxide is wearing out now and the plastic hubs are snapping away in rhythm-they still survi ve.

Worse for wear, they have grown old with me.

In that eclectic hoard one year, arrived a TDK C-90 cassette with Stevie Wonder's groovy Fulfillingness' First Finale on one side and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters on the other. "Herbie who? Who are the Headhunters?" I remember thinking at that time. The typical American scrawl on the cassette label did not distinguish between title and band. Naturally, I heard Stevie Wonder first, loved the music and heard it again and again. But one day I decided to give the B-side a listen. I never recovered from the impact.

Since then, I have listened to Headhunters so often and initiated so many friends into.it that the treble response on the tape has dimmed and one channel has gone out of balance.

Never mind, I still love it.

I had never faced anything like the massive bass riff in "Chameleon" before-pounding away like a single-file convoy of elephants, slightly inebriated on mahua and smashing through the jungle in step. Herbie, of course,

O

,

could not have even imagined these associations: he had never been to India, never seen a wild Indian elephant, let alone tasted mahua wine. On the other hand, for many years I, too, never knew the titles of the numbers or the musicians featured on this 1973 best-seller album because the American undergrad who had taped it must have been too freaked out to list these little details on the inlay card. I got hold of the names much later.

The music, I recaii noting then, was instrumental (I was deep into rock songs in those days), yet it did not sound like jazz. I had heard jazz before, on All India Radio, and I had not liked the brassy, somewhat discordant effect. But this I liked.

(It figures: Herbie used hip newfangled gizmos including a Fender Rhodes, a clavinet and two Arp synthesizers on Headhunters. Nevertheless, there was something vibrant and sensual in it-not the artificial sound you hear from electronic instruments now. That is probably why Herbie is still rated the top musician on synthesizer by the readers of Downbeat, the most prestigious jazz magazine.)

A recent interview with jazz prodigy, trumpeter-thinker Wynton Marsalis in American Heritage magazine confirms my view. Marsalis argues that electronic instrumentation produces pure sound, whereas jazz specializes in "expressive" sound. Observing that jazz is "soul" and "earth music," he advocates acoustic instruments exclusively, because electronic ones "aren't bound to the earth." There I disagree, and can cite Hancock's plugged-in work as "earthy" and "electric" in the best sense of both words. Of course, Marsalis's antipathy for the kind of jazz Hancock popularized lies elsewhere, to which I will turn later.

Anyway, I wanted to hear more of Hancock after that. His next few releases belonged to what he calls his "soul funk" phase; in his words, he was "incorporating jazz and funk into a very happy marriage .... It gives the music a character that is broad, vast, yet in touch with the people." I could appreciate that: it was how he had appealed to me in the first place.

But these LPs did not create the magic for me that Headhunters had. I did not care much for pure funk; I found its beat synthetic and monotonous, whereas the rhythm-andblues influence on "Chameleon" or the snaky meandering on "Watermelon Man" (so reminiscent of Indian street hawkers' cries) were far more subtle.

Meanwhile, I had begun tuning in to the soloing on Headhunters (whatever little there was, according to purists). I found the concept of improvisation intriguing, since I had started listening seriously to Indian classical music too, where the emphasis also falls on the fundamental principle of improvisation upon ragas. There was something

physically adventurous and intellectually challenging in the idea that every performance of the same composition could be quite different from the last. Marsalis, in that same interview, considers musical improvisation a feature of modernity; but then India had codified it millennia before! Maybe we were more modern then.

I keep digressing. To return to 1974: I was hooked. My quest for jazz commenced. With a couple of fellow enthusiasts whose musical tastes were moving in the same direction, Ijoined Calcutta's only jazz club, established underthe aegis of the American University Center of the USIS in 1972.

Guided by that unfailing process known as self-education, I started reading voraciously on the subject and seeking recommended records by jazz masters. To my surprise, I learnt very quickly that many interesting parallels, other than improvization, existed injazz and Indian classical, about which very few people had written anything.

There was the whole question of notes. I realized that the regular use of "blue notes" (flats) in jazz-going back to its roots in the blues sung by black American slaves in the 19th century, and probably even to African sources lost in antiquity-corresponds exactly to the use of kamal (soft) notes in Indian classical. Not just that, the typical blues scale (with flattened thirds and sevenths) is identical to the Raga Kafi, which employs kama! ga and komal ni, and evokes feelings of sadness; the counterpart of Kafi in south India is Raga Kharaharapriya. Had different cultures separated by geography and history independently discovered the same method to express similar emotions?

A related factor in my response to jazz was that by the seventies, jazz musicians had begun to adopt modes (raga-like scales, instead of the conventional chord-based patterns) much more frequently, inspired by the innovations wrought by pioneers like Miles Davis and John Coltrane (who had even composed a piece titled "India"). In fact, Herbie played one of the key roles in the band led by the late Miles during the mid-sixties, regarded as the finest jazz combo ever by many critics. Herbie accompanied Miles on several revolutionary modal experiments. No wonder it had been so easy for me to get attuned to jazz!

Then there was the business of rhythm. We all know the maxim attributed to Duke Ellington: "It don't mean a thing ifit ain't got that swing." It is absolutely right. Swing, in jazz, is a synonym for the complex beat underpinning the music. Now, rhythm is one thing that Western classical does not lay great stress on; a drummer or percussionist can do his bit in a Beethoven symphony, go offstage, take a snooze and return in time for his next two-second part, if at all he has one left.

Undoubtedly, the rhythmic core of jazz came from Africa, where the varieties of meters, measures and time signatures can only be matched by the incredible diversity of ralas in India. Both Africa and India use melodic, not just percussive, approaches to rhythm: the tabla can "sing," just as African talking drums can "talk" through tonal variation.

Which brings up another resemblance between jazz and Indian classical music. Both techniques place a premium on vocalization, the ability of an instrumentalist to emulate the human voice on an instrument. In the European tradition of music, the central position of the piano has established the well-tempered scale with its fixed intervals between notes and suppressed, for centuries, the human vocal capacity to glide and swoop all over the scale without such rigid intervals. When a sax squawks or a guitar-string is held down and pulled continuously from one fret to the next, we may say that the "unmusicality" created is an aspect of modern art, but actually it is not all that different from an Indian singer applying a meend to slide up and down (an ancient practice) a scale, or an Indian sitarist imitating such a voice in the style of gayaki ang (vocalist's manner).

I read with delight that Marsalis enumerates improvisation, the blues, swing and vocalization among the essential ingredients of jazz in his American Heritage interview. He also mentions syncopation, secularism and spirituality which, too, form common bonds with Indian music. The first may seem obscure, but I interpret its intellectual side, what he calls "playing with ideas," as the same as the sense of humor when, say, a sarodist and a tabla player playoff each other in a spirit of fun. He points out that "Jazz is a music of conversation, and that's what you need in a democracy ...in democracy and injazz, you have freedom with restraint."

The same applies to Indian classical musicians, who have to respect their partners' individuality and religions. But jazz must "present itself with some soul" as well. I instantly recall the relationship with God, which European arts lost after the Renaissance, but which non-Western arts preserved.

All these elements have made it easier for Indian, African and Latin American musicians to connect and jam with jazz players, setting up that new incarnation of jazz known as World Music.

H is not that I agree wholesale with Marsalis's views on jazz. He does sound dogmatic occasionally. By focusing on jazz as group music, he neglects the enormous influence of one-man performance in the hands of Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner or Keith Jarrett (all pianists, coincidentally). He scorns fusion and jazz-rock as popular modes (obviously I cannot buy that since Headhunrers introduced me to jazz via fusion, and therefore has its own value). Yet he dismisses free jazz as "chaos" because it ignored public tastes (he also accuses it of assaulting listeners, but I think there is a rationale for such assaults in modern art forms). He places jazz high on the sophistication index compared to folk, country or rock, tending to forget that sophistication takes art away from common folk, from democracy. So he contradicts himself sometimes, overlooking the fact that jazz has splintered into many different jazzes already, and therein lies its beauty and its future.

Despite all the theoretical and technical convergences, however, Indians have never formed a significant percentage

I hope my music is a positive inspiration to listeners.

Music is medicinal in the broadest sense.

ofthe worldwide audience for jazz. Japan can boastof a much more committed fandom. Perhaps the situation will change with greater exposure to the music, but how can that occur?

Foreign jazzmen don't often tour India. Most frustrating of all is the virtual absence of jazz from Indian recording-company catalogs. Since demand is nonexistent, these companies rarely issue jazz albums here, flooding the market with pop and rock instead. In the past five years, only four important new jazz cassettes have appeared in Indian music shops, and those too in limited quantities. It is a vicious circle, really: If the product is not available to the general consumer, how can demand for it ever arise?

Converts like me, therefore, find it impossibly difficult to build personal libraries of jazz. One has to culti vate a network of like-minded people who can pool resources, perhaps get them together into a jazz club like we have in Calcutta or, at worst, request friends traveling abroad to buy specific titles.

It is a lucky jazzophile, indeed, who can spend some time in foreign climes and stock up on music. I was fortunate enough to do just that for five years during the eighties, when my wife and I were at the University of Illinois pursuing higher studies. As welcome relief from the pressures of working on a doctorate, I would haunt the used-record stores spending my hard-earned, humble teaching assistant's salary on bargains and rarities, while my baby daughter looked up at me skeptically from her stroller. Record Swap in Urbana (where we lived) or Ray's Jazz Shop in London were heaven on earth for the jazz collector. The major chunk of my collection dates from our stay on the University of Illinois campus, including Hancock's Crossings, the 1972 record on which he first experimented with electronics.

These thoughts crossed my mind as I sat awestruck next to the 55-year-young Herbie Hancock in Calcutta, watching him autograph my copy of Crossings, and silently cursing the numskull named Yancky who had disfigured the album cover by emblazoning his moniker on it with a felt pen before selling it off for a lousy greenback (the price sticker stared Herbie in the face: $2.99). I tried to sidetrack him from recognizing that I had bought it secondhand (thereby denying him royalties). What could I ask him?

Brainwave: What does "Mwandishi," the African name he adopted on Crossings, mean? "It means 'composer' in Swahili. The percussionist Mtume gave it to me. As supporters of the Black Power movement, we were all into searching for an Afro-American identity." Why does he not use it any longer? "It's not that. I don't put it on my discs, but

I'll still respond if you call me Mwandishi!"

But at the same time he converted to Nicherin Shoshu Buddhism. "Yes. One night I was tremendously moved, spiritually inspired, by a set that (bassist) Buster Williams played. I told him, whatever makes you play like that, man, I want to know about it. He introduced me to this Japanese Buddhist sect, which is now called Soka Gakkai. It clicked with my personal beliefs. Other religions gave me more questions than answers. This has taught me that life is eternal, that strength comes from within, that you create your own life through karma and need not just be a victim of external circumstances."

Does he still practice it? "Sure. I believe, I meditate; we chant a Japanese version of lines from the Lotus Sutra." How does it influence his music? "I hope my music is a positive inspiration to listeners. You see, music is medicinal in the broadest sense."

I began to understand where Herbie's humility, good humor and openness came from-not necessari Iy from Japan or Buddhism specifically, but from an attitude to life. Unlike many a star, he has no ego or hassles whatsoever. Although beset by a tight schedule, he virtually had to be dragged away to lunch, otherwise he might have gone on talking.

I also understood that while Wynton Marsalis may not approve of what he no doubt perceives as Herbie's selling-out to commercial considerations, at a very basic level their approaches to jazz remain identical. Marsalis termed jazz a "healing music"; Herbie calls it "medicinal." Both agree that jazz must contain "soul," that spiritually upliftingeven devotional-quality which blues, gospel, Indian classical and many other forms all share, making their musical values truly international, justifying Marsalis's labeling of jazz as "world music" which incorporates "a fundamental human experience."

At the Herbie Hancock concert in Calcutta's Oberoi Grand Hotel, a classmate of mine who now teaches in St. Xavier's School reminded me that I had taped Headhunters for him 20 years ago. That, in the nutshell of one mundane exchange, is how jazz has circulated round the world, and become a world music.

Thank you, Mwandishi Herbie, for the music and for helping our generation to cross over into jazz.

0 About the Author: Ananda Lal teaches English at Jadavpur University. Calcutta. Although his academic specializations are theater, translation and Tagore. he has written and lectured on Western musicfor nearly 20 years.

"India Will Move Forward" On May 31, Ambassador Frank Wisner gave a speech sponsored by the Confederation ofIndian Industry (CII) in Jaipur. The following are excerpts from his address (as prepared for delivery), in which he emphasized America's commitment "to India's long-term growth and stability."

ist a pleasure to be in Jaipur, a city that reflects the grandeur and elegance of Rajasthan itself, and the timeless vision of its founder, Sawai Jai Singh. Because of its location, Jaipur has historically served as a crossroads, a city that has thrived by embracing other peoples and other ideas, making them a part of its own vibrant culture. That tradition of hospitality persists today, and it is most appreciated by visitors like myself.

It seems that no matter where I go these days, the Confederation of Indian Industry is there to greet me. In some ways, one can measure the growth of India's economic engagement with the world by the activities ofCIL Just a week or so ago, cn sent its first delegation to Pakistan to look into opportunities for trade and investment. Given CII's impressive track record, who knows what might happen if it puts its mind to solving some of the problems that bedevi I Indo- Pak relations.

I am equally pleased to note that a large delegation, led by ClI's current and former presidents, will leave for the United States in the next day or so. CII has treated the United States as a pri vileged partner; we are proud of that distinction and will work hard to maintain it.

I

Recognizing Rajasthan's Importance The state government here has put up a welcome sign to industry, which has responded enthusiastically to the invitation.

Investment is being cleared, joint ventures are being formed, manufacturing plants are being opened and jobs are being created. It is a record that compares favorably with that of almost any state in this country. It is a record that I am confident will continue.

I, for one, remain confident that India will move forward, and my government shares this view. This confidence is also shared by the representatives of American businesses who have joined me today.

Each of the companies represented here today already is doing business in India. Each of these companies has made a commit-

. menttO this country, a commitment they would like to consider extending to this state. These people have discovered during their time in India, as I have, that the attributes India and the United States share as democracies and market-based economies enable our business communities to work together with considerable ease and con fidence.

My view is borne out by the fact that, today, American companies are India's largest investors, accounting for some 40 percent of direct foreign investment in electronics manufacturing, software development, power, consumer products and telecommunications. As India's economy continues to grow and as barriers to investment fall away, sotoo will American investment grow in India.

Certainly, India has made great progress since its economic liberalization program began some five years. But this process is not complete.

Before this nation lie great challenges: freeing its trade, addressing the budget deficit, meeting infrastructure needs and liberalizing the financial sector in order to attract the capital India needs to feed growth.

No need is more pressing for India's future prosperity than infrastructure development. In the years to come, India will need hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign capital to provide the improvements in power, telecommunications, roads and ports needed if this nation is to continue to experience the kind of economic growth we have seen in recent years. The United States' participation in these areas is already substantial and, as India continues to turn its attention to future reforms, I fully expect U.S. involvement to increase.

Foreign investors can provide the infusion of capital India requires, but will do so only if they are persuaded that your government is clearing away the substantial roadblocks to investment,

On his arrival in Jaipur, Ambassador Wisner was welcomed with the traditional Rajasthani turban.

providing simple, straightforward and transparent rules. They need to be assured of a reasonable expectation of return on their investment. They also need reliable Indian partners.

The economic ties we have forged with India in recent years have made it possible for our two nations to develop other facets of our relationship. In the political realm, as the world moves from the East-West confrontation of the Cold War to an as-yet-undefined political order that will carry us into¡ the next century, a

strong partnership between India and the United States will enable both our nations to emerge from this period stronger and more secure than when we entered.

Indeed, given our interest in promoting global and regional security and stability, and our obvious stake in a prosperous and progressive India, it becomes clear why the United States sets so much stock in the development of its partnership with India. Given that, I am frequently puzzled to read or hear the arguments of those who suggest that the U.S. would prefer to see a weakened India. To these people I simply ask: What American interest could possibly be served by an India that is anything but strong or prosperous?

The answer clearly is none whatsoever. The U.S. needs partners that are stable, secure and self-assured, and who command the re. spect of the community of nations.

The search for global and regional stability requires the participation of all nations, and none are more important in this regard than democratic nations such as Jndia.

It will come as a surprise to no one, therefore, that the issues that figure most prominently in our conversations with the leaders of your government-investment opportunities, economic development, regional and global security-also figure prominently in our agenda with our principal partners around the world.

Nor, I suspect, will it surprise anyone if 1 were to say that, with everyone of our global partners, we have moments when our views on these subjects diverge. That is to be expected between nations that bring to the table a strong sense of national purpose, frequently sharpened by the prodding of an energetic and

effective body politic, including special-interest groups, and the media.

With India, as with our other global partners, the United States wishes to maintain a candid and regular dialogue. Not one that takes place on the front pages or in the editorial columns of American or Indian newspapers, but quietly, away from the glare of the media spotlight. This, in our judgment, is the way nations like ours should conduct their affairs.

It is also, in our judgment, the most effective way to explore those areas where our views diverge, and to narrow these differences so that, together, we can find solutions that will benefit our own peoples and those of other nations around the world.

American Engagement: More Than Business Which brings me to the final area of special importance to the Indo-U.S. partnership: issues of broad international concern, such as environmental protection and population growth.

Health issues-a resurgence of tuberculosis, new strains of malaria, or HIV/AIDS-cut freely across borders. So do greenhouse gas emissions, the loss of valuable and irreplaceable biodiversity, acid rain and other environmental concerns. Population growth, of course, is inextricably intertwined with these issues, and with the potential for improved living conditions for people all over the world.

I have spoken today of India's need for investment in infrastructure critical to support its economic development. But there is another type of infrastructure often overlooked, and investment here is even more critical-and ultimately, it may even be more profitable. The experience of the Southeast Asian tigers has shown that the greatest contributor to their growth has been investment in human resources to create and sustain economic growth.

Rajasthan's economic future, no less than that of India itself, will depend on its ability and willingness to invest in its people, in education, health and social services. The United States wants to participate in this investment in India's social sector-just as we wish to participate in India's commercial growth. The economicreform process opened the way for foreign investment and a growing role for private companies in a liberalized market. Similarly, changes in India are opening the way for increased participation by the private sector-corporate and voluntary organizations-in social infrastructure.

This kind of support is essential if governments-whether union, state or local-are to meet the challenge of human-resource development.

Just to offer an example, the 2.5 percent per year population growth that Rajasthan is experiencing, particularly when coupled with migration to cities such as Jaipur, places an overwhelming burden on the social services your government is called upon to provide.

Whatl am suggesting is a partnership, a compact, if you will, between India's private sector, its foreign partners and India's people.

I do not presume to tell you that there are easy answers to these questions of human resources, or how they are best addressed,

but I do believe that India's movement toward prosperity will continue only as long as it tackles these difficult issues. The way India chooses to approach these issues is of critical importance, not only to this country, but to the entire community of nations.

As the second largest country in the world and as a leader of developing nations, the decisions India makes as it moves to solve the problems of population and the environment will have an impact far beyond its own borders.

These issues must remain very high on India's public agenda in the future. I believe India would benefit greatly from a broad public dialogue on how to manage growth and how to finance the infrastructure and social services this nation requires.

To be successful, this dialogue will have to count on the participation of all sectors of this society, but especially that of corporate India, which alone has the capability of marshaling the new technologies, capital and the systems needed to address these complex issues. And it is in the interest of business to participate. You will need a healthy and educated workforce to support >India's economic growth.

Education, especially primary education, is crucial to creating the kind of infrastructure that we are talking about.

I believe, for example, that industry-based programs, where corporations take an active role in protecting the health and welfare of their workers, are essential for the economic health ofa nation.

Technology at the Service of Society The United States wants to provide continuing support for your efforts. Many of the advances we have made in working on problems relating to health and the environment have come from new technologies developed by private companies; many are now available commercially. Bringing them to India through joint ventures between American and Indian companies is in the interests of both our countries.

We have projects to do just that-promoting new energy and environmental technologies that can clean coal, cut emissions, increase energy conservation, encourage alternative energy sources and develop new health products.

Corporations can help in other ways, as well. Clearly, donations in kind are always needed and welcome. In addition, corporations can provide financing and, perhaps most importantly, they can provide expertise. Be assured that the American firms in India will join in this effort, demonstrating the commitment to India's long-term growth and stability that is fundamental to their decision to do business in this country, and in this state.

This is the nature of the partnership the United States seeks to build with India-one that serves the broad national interests of each nation.

The success of this partnership will, in many ways, be determined by the extent to which we establish a positive presence, a presence that recognizes and addresses potential, not simply in economic terms, but in human terms as well.

0

"The

Excitement Is]ust Beginning" ell Director General Tarun Das says that liberalization in India "has opened up new opportunities that are waiting to be seized.

There's no looking back; economic reforms are irreversible."

Less than a hundred meters from the Sri Sai Memorial temple in the Institutional Area on Lodi Road in New Delhi stands another venerated edifice. This is the office of the Confederation oflndian Industry (Cll).

An influential body oflndian private and public-sector companies of all sizes and descriptions, the Cll has acquired a certain halo ever since India took its first hesitant but unmistakable steps toward economic reforms and liberalization in 1991. Each day, scores of entrepreneurs and executives of Indian and foreign companies visit this mecca of modem India, seeking assistance, guidance and tips in setting up industrial units or exploring the possibility of joint ventures.

To advance the cause of Indian industry, the Cll also has a presence overseas; it has eight offices around the world, including Washington, D.C., and soon it will have two more-in Japan and Italy. It also periodically organizes international trade fairs as well as trade delegations abroad. Only recently, inMay, a large group ofCH members, led by JamshydN. Godrej, visited the United States, which is the biggest foreign investor in India, with a view to attracting more American companies to invest in India.

"Although the Cll has been much more visible and written about since 1991, we have always been active in promoting the cause of Indian industry, both inside the country and overseas," says the suave, bespectacled CIl Director General Tarun Das, who 'looks the quintessential business exec-

utive. "We have always pleaded with the government that it is through opening up of our economy, through infusion of foreign capital and technology into the country that we can upgrade the quality of our products, bring down the prices, compete in the global marketplace :md increase our exports."

For 33 years now, the world of business has been Tarun Das's major-perhaps only-professional occupation. A native of Calcutta, the 57-year-old Das began his career with the Bengal Chamber of Commerce soon after he recei ved his bachelor's degree from Manchester University in England in 1963.

"Even in the days when India was a closed economy, we put a lot of emphasis on our international work," Das continues. "The Cll organized its first international trade fair in

February 1975 in Delhi, and soon after we began organizing trade delegations abroad.

In the '80s, when no one was interested in India, we took a delegation that included Ratan Tata, Jamshyd Godrej and Rajive Kaul to the United States. We went door to door, corporation to corporation, to get American companies interested in India.

"We spend almost 60 percent of our Rs. 350 million annual budget on our international operations. All these efforts are dedicated to promoting trade and investment into India."

Das does not seem a very intense man; he is cool, talks in an even-keel, undulating voice. Confidently, he holds forth on his forte-the world of] ndian industry-offering insights on the basis of his professional knowledge and experience, convictions and circumstances. Even whenhe isasked: If the Cll is committed to "promoting investment into India," how does he explain his recent paper in which he had criticized the multinationals, Das remains calm and composed -the result perhaps of his training in industrial sociology and industrial relations at Manchester.

"There's no question of any change in CII's policy," Das says. "Far from it. In fact, we are very, very proactive and aggressive on reforms, privatization. It's a strong principle of Cll that we must have an open economy, that we must have competition.

We want more and more foreign companies to invest in our country."

Having said that, he defends and elabo-

Above: Cll headquarters at the Lodi Road Institutional Area in New Delhi. Below: American pavilion at the 1995 Indian Engineering Trade Fair in New Delhi organized by the Cll.

rates on his paper, and it seems that what Mark Twain said of Wagner's music"Wagner's music is better than it sounds"is also true ofDas's paper.

"As I noted earlier," he says, "we want more joint ventures, we want more foreign capital, more technology. We have had 5,000 joint ventures overthe past five years.

In the next five years we want ten times that many-50,000.

We're already working toward that goal-to get 50 bil1ion dol1ars worth offoreign investment in India before the close of the century.

"But, we want better JVs, we want longlasting partnerships. It's not at al1 true that the paper criticizes MNCs per se. There are, however, certain irritants from the point of view of both Indian companies and foreign companies. And it is on these that the paper focuses on, and we want them solved so joint ventures can operate in a healthy, productive atmosphere."

Das elaborates: "Over the years we have been getting feedback from some of the Indian companies, especial1y the medium-

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scale companies, of the difficulties, of the discomforts, they are facing with their jointventure partners. We have built up a database on the kind of difficulties they are facing which we consolidated and summarized in the paper. One area of discomfort, for example, is that foreign companies tend to change the terms of a~reement after it has been signed by the parties. So, the paper's objective was to sensitize foreign companies to the concerns of their Indian partners.

"Similarly, we have criticized Indian companies for not having been able to comprehend how wide and open and complicated joint ventures are and how they need to be sensitive and transparent in their dealings with their foreign partners.

Multinationals face several problems when they come to India: Which Indian company to have as a partner? Does it have managerial resources, marketing resources, financial resources? In which state to locate? We need to help them in this process of selecting Indian partners, we need to tel1 them of the kind of problems they'l1 likely face here, because we don't want them to leave India, to give a bad name' to India. We want them to feel comfortable, at home in India. That's why we impress upon on them to be cautious, to take time, before they make up their mind to enter India.

Then only can joint ventures be long-lasting and mutually beneficial."

Yetthe fear aboutthe .

MNCs still lingersthat they're here to make a quick buck, repatriate their profits to their home country and sooner or later take over Indian compameso Das doesn't agree.

"The fear is unfounded," he says."Repatriation is a smal1 issue. Many MNCs, in

fact, are plowing most of their profits back into India. They are expanding, they are creating more employment. That is, in fact, the point I make in my paper. If you readjust the first page, it says that MNCs are building assets for India.

"Of course, there'll always be some companies who don't play by the book, but they are an exception. By and large, companies get together to form JV s because they are mutually beneficial; both prosper. So, if there's transparency, if there are no irritants, if there's no unilaterally changing of the terms of agreement, partnerships will be long-lasting, and be profitable for everyone."

Alluding to the fast-changing world, Das makes bold the point that soon "every Indian company, for that matter even a multinational company, that wants to go forward, will have to look at JVs as a way of expanding, as a way of going global.

It's going to be a very important business strategy."

Das also doesn't think that foreign companies will take over Indian companies.

"Our companies are now coming of age," he says. "Some of them have, in fact, become global players-multinationals.

Apart from the big companies like Birlas and Tatas, who have had an overseas presence for decades, there are new Indian names that have become global: Companies like Dabur and Ranbaxy, which has eight companies abroad, including in China, Russia, Indonesia and the U.S. Then there are software companies that are setting up operations overseas.

"As we liberalize our investment policy," Das continues, "as we go forward into a more and more relaxed exchange control policy so that people can bring in money, or take it out much more freely than now, you will see more and more Indian companies stepping out and going multinational."

Even the fear that foreign companies are here primarily to make a quick buck and then get out is misplaced. It is not borne by India's past experience with the multinational companies, some of which have been here for a century or about. Most of them have acted responsibly, as good corporate citizens, and many, in fact, have become so Indianized over the years that we hardly

think of them as foreign companies. Look at Hindustan Lever, Johnson & Johnson, GEC, ICI, Philips, lTC, Lipton, Ashok Leyland ...the list is long.

"Do you know what the economic reforms have done for us?" Das asks.

"Just five years ago, we used to joke that India has a great potential, that India will always have a great potential, but India will never achieve anything," he says. "We as a people didn't have confidence. Look at what's happened now.

There's a great change, a sea change in our mind-set. Today we are a confident people, and we're feeling good.

"We have been given freedom, we have

'O..:t ~ 13Lf1 "Remembe/; if you can't say anythivg nice about someone, put it in writing. " Drawing by Eric & Bill <OJ995 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

been given choices, we have been given space through the economic reforms. That perhaps is the greatest contribution of the government, of people like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram. They deregulated, they liberalized the economy."

The greatest thing that India has today is the world-class human resources, Das says. "We are discovering that many ofthe boys and girls who are doing so very well in Silicon Valley, in fact, all over America and other countries, are from India. Now, if they can do it there, we can do it herethat's the kind of new confidence the nation has today. There's buoyancy all around, and this in itself is a big step forward."

In spite of the liquidity crunch, he says, "this has been a great year for the Indian economy. We estimate a GDP growth of6.5 percent over 6.2 growth last year, and industrial growth is expected to be 11 percent in

1995-96. Looking at '96-97, we are expectinga 7 percentGDP growth, and we are confident that we can maintain this growth year after year. Demand is very strong-across all sectors-consumer goods, capital goods, infrastructure."

Tarun Das says all this with such conviction that itis hard to question the received wisdom. There are, of course, indicators all around. Gone are the days when India had to pledge gold to foreign agencies, or look to the IMF to bail it out of its occasional foreign exchange crunches. Today, foreign exchange reserves stand at $20 billion compared with $1 billion in 1991. Industrial growth rate has jumped from just 1 percent to 11 percent. Inflation is down to less than 5 percent, growth in expOlts has been25 percent and import growth 30 percent-all in a space offive years.

There's still another indicator on a popular level: the conspicuous absence of long lines at the airports of Indians returning from foreign trips, loaded with "Made in Japan," "Made in U.S.A.," "Made in Germany" goods: Most of these goods are now available within the country-whether they be automobiles, audio systems, apparel, computers, perfumes, or white goods.

Summing up, Tarun Das says: "Liberalization has opened up new opportunities that are waiting to be seized. From 1996 to 2020, it's going to be growth, growth, growth.

"What we need to do right away is to upgrade, modernize our infrastructure, which is antiquated, obsolete. We must modernize our power sector. We must improve our ports, airports, roads, telecommunications. And all these need massive doses of capital, technology. Our internal resources are limited and we must seek them from foreign sources. So, we must push through with greater vigor privatization, further liberalization of the economy. There's no other way, there's no looking back; economic reforms are irreversible.

"We are confidentthat in another 25 years we will be the world's third or fourth most powerful economic nation. Of course, there will be many hurdles, many hiccups on the way. This is a democracy. The excitement is 0 just beginning."

Foreign Capital Brings Together Countries and Cultures Known as a hard core liberalizerand one of the movers and shakers of the US. -India Commercial Alliance (USICA), Amit Mitra has traversed a long way from a collegiate thinker and debater to the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the apex business organization of India. An incisive economist and a gifted public speaker, Mitra has been a visiting professor at the University of Virginia (1994Âť professor of economics and director of the Center for Asian, African and Latin American Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania (/983-1990) and lec-

JOSEPH THACHIL: After five years of economic reforms, India is caught in the crosscurrent of polemics and debates on success of reforms, role of MNCs, etc. What do you think of the future of the reform process in India?

AMIT KUMAR MITRA: Let me answer the second part of your question first. The reforms in India are irreversible and India will soon enter the second phase of its reforms with strong fundamentals in place. In a multiparty democratic set up, where intra-party democracy is the hallmark, opinions of differing hues and perceptions do surface. This does not negate the purpose and intent of the reforms. In fact, none of the political parties including the extreme left has ever rejected the reforms. Certain apprehensions have been expressed about the sequencing, pace and direction of reforms particularly on the entry of MNCs. Deluge of reports and body of arguments for and against are quite normal in a democratic system.

Coming specifically on the role ofMNCs, is there a vertical split on the stand of political parties and Indian business? What is your view on this subject?

MITRA: Perhaps, we have to go beyond the veil of the political rhetoric to discern the viewpoints of businesses and political parties. One of the national political partiesthe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-is as

turer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (/970-1973). A strong pro-market theorist equipped with a litany of innovative reasonings to prove the efficacy of the market economy, Mitra has a number of publications and research works to his credit. He took his doctorate in economics from Duke University, North Carolina (1978), and specialized in economic development, demography and econometrics.

Mitra spoke at length about his perceptions on the Indian economy, future growth dimensions of India and the US., theoretical underpinnings of the Indo-US. Commercial A lliance and a host of other issues.

supportive of liberalization as is the Congress(I). BJP is by and large backing the reforms. Their differences appear to be only in semantics. They assign MNCs a crucial role for bringing "much needed foreign investment, technology, know-how, new ideas and concepts." Even the CPI(M), which is the ruling party in West Bengal, is solidly in favor of foreign direct investment (FDI).

Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu, a much respected senior political leader of the country, has toured the U.S. and other destinations to invite foreign investors to his state. Prime Minister Deve Gowda, a leader of the Janata Dal, is known for his proactive position on seeking foreign investment.

When he was chief minister of Karnataka he worked to clear the ground for Cogentrix to make their presence in the power sector in his state. Above all, some of the regional parties like Shiv Sena, AIADMK, DMK, TDP, etc. have expressed, in candid terms, the role to be played by foreign capital to supplement the domestic investment. The way in which the public opinion has shifted in the cases of Enron, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Cargill, etc. are cases in point. Whatever occasional outbursts that surface in the country, should not be construed as being hostile or anti-MNC, but perhaps a manifestation of apprehensions.

No political party has totally rejected the need for foreign capital. They have, in fact,

welcomed foreign capital in core sectors.

Of course, there are some differing approaches toward opening up sectors such as consumer nondurables. One need not read too much into the manifestos which often remain nebulous. The seat of power often makes parties take a more pragmatic and statesmanlike posture.

Now let us examine the recent positioning taken by the apex chambers. The CII's paper expressing apprehensions about MNCs created a deluge of arguments and counter arguments. But they too have ultimately agreed that India requires $50 billion FDI in a span of a few years [see page 51]. FlCCI has been consistently taking the stand that MNCs have a pivotal role to play in meeting the investment requirements of India particularly in sectors such as ports, airports, power and telecommunications.

Another apex or~anization, ASSOCHAM, has also recognized the role ofFDI. As a policy tool, do you think that the approach towardforeign capital is going to be a sustained one?

MITRA: No country can take a position against the spirit of globalization in the 1990s. Take the erstwhile hard-core command economies-China, the Soviet Union, Cuba and the like. Although the legal framework of these countries has still to be toned up to conform to those of the market

economies, they began wooing foreign investors a decade ago. China now attracts about $30 billion of foreign investment per year. There are more than 10,000 foreign companies operating in Russia. Cuba too is welcoming FOr. Market economy with global connectivity, therefore, is not a mere philosophical dogma, but a paradigm that has steadily taken root across the world since the late 1970s.

Let me now turn to foreign capital.

Flow of foreign capital in the late 20th century signifies many things apart from its relevance from the economic point of view. It brings together countries and cultures and it broadens the horizon and liberalizes the thought processes of the people. People become more cosmopolitan and accommodative in their disposition, hopefully without losing their innate ethnic rootings. Foreign capital also leads to cross-fertilization of ideas and visions.

While conflict of interest may arise in specific cases of FOI flows, optimum policy choices can produce non-zero sum game (win-win) solutions.

Let us now examine how important is foreign capital to the Indian context. To ensure a near full employment by, say, the year20 I0, our economy has to grow at the rate of six-seven percent. This requires an investment of 35-40 percent of our GOP. Our savings rate is hardly 24 percent. Therefore, on our own we can fund only a part of the investment requirements.

The rest has to come from abroad from foreign investors-corporations, multilateral organizations and the like. No government in power can take a different view on this.

How can, for example, the huge investment required in the power sector to the tune of $250 billion come from within? For that matter, from where could we mobilize the huge resources required fortelecom?

You are perceived to be a hard core votary of market economy and pluralistic democracy. Does this have something to do with you I' backg round and education?

MITRA: I really do not know whether I owe this to my upbringing or education. But right from childhood, I had been encouraged to think independently and be tolerant of the

contrary views of others. My parents were deeply involved in the freedom movement and they represented a new generation of Indians who were totally comfortable in the Western idiom and yet deeply rooted in Indian ethnic rootings. From childhood days, I was allowed to explore alternative traditions, growing up as I did in a Methodist boarding school. Ideas had become a passion for many of us. Also, my association with

Presidency College, Calcutta, and the Delhi School of Economics gave me an opportunity to interact with the leading luminaries of economic thinking in India, including Manmohan Singh and Amartya Sen [see page 8]. My exposure to a range of opinions at Duke University in the U.S. had helped me to think critically and blend my own roots with classical liberalism.

What are your views on the Indo-U.S. Commercial Alliance? How does it differ from other bilateral business organizations such as the loint Business Council (lBC)?

MITRA: The Joint Business Council and the Alliance are different institutional instruments for bringing about enhanced economic relationship between our two countries. JBC is a forum created and driven by the private sectors of the two nations to discuss and strengthen bilateral trade ;:Indinvestment relations. The Alliance was created by our two governments to play the role of facilitator while yielding the driving seat to the private sectors. The Alliance seeks to

synchronize the views of the private sector and that of the governm.ent, working in tandem to the degree possible. Therefore, the Alliance has a broader policy sweep while the JBC gets down to hard-core business deals. Of course, these two setups are not mutually exclusive. Rather they reinforce each other. JBC can refer the issues that require direct governmental inputs and policy interventions to the Alliance. And, if the policy issues get too intractable, they get referred to the Joint Indo-U.S. Commission which is a purely intergovernmental body.

You are actively involved with the Alliance. What are the philosophical underpinningsforcreating this setup?

MITRA: The U.S. has been the largest trading partner of India for a long time. However, the economic relationship between the two largest democracies was not picking up to the desirable level. The JBC on one hand and the Joint Commission on the other hand were meeting but adequate results were not forthcoming due to one reason or the other. FICer analysis indicated that there ought to be a forum where the industry and the government could sit together and debate on a common strategy for promoting trade and investment. Fortunately, both the U.S. and the Indian administrations were thinking in the same direction from their own vantage point. Thus, the Alliance was born, nurtured by the late Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and the determination of then Commerce Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

These two statesmen along with P. Chidambaram were the pillars of the Alliance and elegantly crafted the basics for an economic relationship based on equity and reciprocity. The contributions of A.K. Rungta, cochairman from the Indian side, and Jack A. Shaw, cochairman from the U.S. side, were also enormous. I was honored to play the role of a foot soldier, tooling the implementation of the project along with my colleagues in the CII and ASSOCHAM. It was a remarkable experience for all of us.

Bereft of the rhetoric and bonhomie, what has the Alliance achieved?

Amit Mitra meets with a USAID delegation to discuss bilateral cooperation on environmental issues at FICCI House in New Delhi.

MITRA: In a short span of little more than one year, several important things have taken place in the framework of the Alliance.

First of all, we have identified four thrust areas-agribusiness, information technology, financial sector and transport sector. Now, you can see that an unprecedented momentumis taking place in these sectors. There are many important U.S. companies coming forward to invest in India in these sectors.

More than that, the Alliance is the nodal point for small and medium enterprises from both the countries to come together and to set upjoint ventures. To back up the institutional arrangement, FlCCI has set up the Foreign Investment Trade Promotion Organization, which has helped match-make over 150joint ventures in the recent past of which a sizeable number is from the U.S. The networking among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is bound to go up in the coming years, which would bring an unprecedented momentum in the industrial landscape of India. Here we have to remember that SMEs are the backbone of the Indian and the U.S. economy. But when it comes to the question of international networking, SMEs have been relegated to the background because they do not have the wherewithal to go for an elaborate arrangement which the multinationals can easily afford to. The Alliance would give a critical push to the joint ventures of SMEs from both the countries.

Does the Alliance focus only on the four thrust sectors?

MITRA: As a first step, we have formed sectoral alliance in these four areas. However, the Indian side has now proposed that a sectoral alliance be formed in textiles. A position paper has been prepared and forwarded to the joint board for consideration. That is the type of arrangement which we have agreed upon, that is, the Alliance partners desirous of setting up a new sectoral alliance must submit a position paper to the board which will jointly take a view on that issue.

Will the tragic death of Ron Brown, who exhibited a lot of enthusiasm for forging a dynamic economic partnership in India, have any effect on the functioning of the Alliance?

MITRA: Well, the Alliance now has a well-founded institutional framework and will function with the same vigor and determination. It already has gathered momentum and itcan stand on its own; I must, however, add here that Ron Brown was one of the architects of the Alliance and his contributions are exemplary. He had taken personal interest in the work of the Alliance.

Let me add a personal tribute to the late Ron Brown. We have lost a brilliant statesman and a friend oflndia. His visit to India in early 1995 and the interest he took in the day-to-day functioning ofUSICA bore testimony to his deep commitment to the furtherance of the spirit of the Alliance. Only the other day, at the time of the first board meeting of the Alliance, we had the opportunity t9 listen to Brown over the telephone. His inspiring words helped us to rededicate ourselves to the work of the Alliance. We also had the opportunity to participate in a video conference with Brown and Jack A. Shaw at NASSCOM '96 in February in Mumbai, where we had discussed the challenges before the Alliance. Just a few days before his tragic end, we received a letter from Brown expressing his appreciation about the successful interactions at the first board meeting of the USICA wherein he promised to visit India in June 1996. So immaculate were his ways that he cared to write a few lines to me personally, encouraging me to promote the cause ofthe businesses and the peoples ofthe two nations.

Despite the strong democratic institutions, the Indo-U.S. relationship does not seem to be strong and people-to-people contacts are lacking? What are the reasons forthis?

MITRA: Yes, I often feel that despite our similarities, use of English, democratic traditions, etc., we have to understand each other more intimately. Middle-class India is more tradition-bound than America and our sensitivities and interpersonal responses greatly differ from the U.S. Our response profiles follow a rhythm deeply based on our culture and tradition. We are emotional in many respects and a minor rub on our sensitivities can trigger off a multitude of reactions. Naturally, we are unduly concerned if the U.S. takes (what is perceived as) an anti-India stand on some issues. It deeply touches our inner chord of emotions. On the other hand, the U.S. is a melting pot with contractual norms as the motive force.

Different culture and ethnic origins melt into a commqn core oftotally transparent and obvious methods of articulation, eyeball-toeyeball. The older tradition of constant "face saving" is replaced by what Indians perceive as "shooting from the hip," and Americans view this as a simple contractual clarity and forthrightness. Our "body language" often differs while we speak with ease in the same tongue. Unlike us, Americans are not emotional (at least not visibly) and they reverberate a different body language which often tempts us to feel that Americans are casual in addressing the issues. This understandable yet covert gap can be bridged through more candid and intense interaction. After all, German scholars became Indologists over a hundred years ago producing such luminaries as Max Mueller. It.is time that cultural interchange be intensified hand in hand with business and commerce to lend a holistic dimension to the Indo-U.S. alliance.

We have to strive to bring together the peoples of both the countries in a more. friendly ambience. This could be achieved only through greater degree of interaction among the people. We should arrange for more scholars/poets/journalists/students to travel between the two countries. They should write and talk about each country.

This only can bring about more affinity and fellowship between the peoples of both the countries.

0 About the Interviewer: editor of Skyflier economic write!:

Joseph Thachil is the

magazine

and a freelance

MODI XEROX

Modi Xerox Chairman and President B.K. Modi

A STAR IN THE XEROX UNIVERSE The flagship of ModiCorp, Modi Xerox is one of India's most successful joint ventures. bout 20 kilometers from Rampur, a medium-sized U.P. town with milling crowds and narrow lanes, sits a gleaming, modern building. Surrounded by lush green trees and flowers, the edifice would glorify anyplace anywhere.

This is the plant of Modi Xerox, which manufactures some of the world's most sophisticated copiers, faxes, laser printers and a host of other products. But in its remote rural setting, which possibly offers no economies ofJocation, the sprawling factory seems out of place.

Is it, one wonders, the right site for this high-tech plant?

The answer is provided by Chairman and President Bhupendra Kumar(B.K. to his friends) Modi: "We have always believed that for any economic development to be meaningful, the gains ofindustrialization must trickle down to the backward regions of the country."

A soft-spoken but fiercely determined industrialist, Modi continues: "The plant has provided employment opportunities for local people. We have also initiated several social and educational schemes forthe uplift of the town and its environs."

Modi Xerox is ajoint venture between Rank Xerox of UK, a part of Xerox Corporation of USA, and ModiCorp, until recently known as the B.K. Modi Group of Companies. ModiCorp is a conglomerate of joint ventures with leading global business leaders: Modi Xerox; Modi GBC (with GBC, USA); Modi Rubber/Modistone (Continental AG, Germany); Modi Olivetti (Olivetti, Italy); Alcatel Modi Network Systems (Alcatel C.LT., France); and startups Modi Federal (Federal, USA); IESTL (Michigan Gas, USA, North East Utilities); Modi Telstra (Telstra, Australia) and Modicom (Motorola, USA and Distacom, Hong Kong).

Although each of these joint ventures except the new ones has been nurtured over the years and all are well known for their products and processes (their total turnover: Rs. 18,500 million), it is Modi Xerox that is B.K. 's favorite. His face lights up at the mention of Modi Xerox, because it is testimony to his uncanny vision. Or is it testimony to the entrepreneurial genes he inherited from his father,

A

Gujar Mal Modi, one ofIndia 's pioneering industrialists?

The genesis of Modi Xerox lay in California. As a student at the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of California in Los Angeles in the seventies, B.K. discovered the simple joy of copying reference material at the touch of a button. Every time he went to the machine he relied on so much, he resolved that "one day I will bring Xerox copiers to India."

Modi was perhaps not the first Indian to see a Xerox machine work. He was merely the first to grasp its business potential in India-the hallmark of true entrepreneurs, which is notto invent butto see the hidden value of an idea or product.

On his return to India, Modi studied the copier market, which was until then dominated by the old, slow, inefficient stencil duplicators.

He was convinced that there was a burgeoning market for Xerox machines. He approached Xerox Corporation for joint collaboration.

But there was skepticism at Xerox, a FORTUNE500 company.

There were too many hassles and hurdles for foreign companies to enter and operate in India then: license raj, bureaucracy, red tape.

Xerox wondered: Will it work? Is it worth our while? Their hesitation also stemmed from the fact that while Modi contemplated a small beginning, the global giant was used to operating in millions of machines with a turnover in billions of dollars.

"But luckily for us," says Modi, "Paul Allaire, who is now the chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation but who was then head of the Rank Xerox operations in Great Britain, had faith in India and its market. He came to India, and it did not take much etTort on our part to persuade him of the country's capability to support an organization forthe manufacture of copiers."

On his return to headquarters in America, Allaire convinced the company's top brass that things could succeed in India. "I would even say that he was instrumental in the creation of Modi Xerox," B.K. says. "On our part we have not betrayed his trust in us. We have lived up to his credo which is: 'The Xerox management model is a continuation of our unparalleled dedication to quality ...and reaffirms our total involvement with our customers.' I'm also proud to say that when Paul Allaire visited India in 1993 on the occasion of our tenth-anniversary celebrations he described Modi Xerox as 'a star in the Xerox universe.'"

Modi continues: "In fact we have performed beyond their expectations and have come a long way-from merely absorbing the world's most advanced copier technology, to contributing our own expertise and ideas, from just meeting Xerox standards to occasionally even beating them, from just emulating the Xerox culture to

evolving innovative quality improvement ideas. For example, Xerox USA complimented us when it told us that our photoreceptor performs 'better than or equal to Fuji Xerox controls in all copy quality aspects.' One of our proudest moments was when Rank Xerox asked us a few years ago to help Xerox of Shanghai and

1. Chairman and President B.K. Modi in discussion with Vic;ePresident (Finance) B. Romeril of Xerox COIporation USA and Deputy Group Managing Director (Xerox Business) HN. Nanani (standing).

2. Modi Xerox:S Self Managed Work Group helped the Election Commission churn out millions of copies of its documents.

3. The Rampur plant has opened up new employment opportunities for local people; seen here are women workers at the wire harnessing operation.

4. Employees wear special masks in the phot(lreceptor facility, afully dust-free area.

5. An employee works on a shaft. All products made at Rampllr co'?form to stringent Xerox quality standards and are exported to several Xerox manufacturingfacilities worldwide.

6. Modi Xerox is constantly upgrading and adapting technology to meet local needs.

This team designed two of the company:S most popular copiers in India.

Xerox Egypt in designing, engineering and fabricating their manufacturing facilities. Of course, the credit for all this goes to our people, from top management to the worker on the shop floor."

Modi Xerox has, indeed, come a long way since it was set up 13 years ago. Today, it is a market leader in office automated document systems, controlling more than 50 percent oflndia's copier market and emerging as the single largest supplier of fax machines in the country. Its revenues have more than doubled in the pastthree years, to touch Rs. 4,650 million; it achieved an annualized revenue growth of 38 percent last year. Profits after tax have grown from Rs. 149 million in 1994, to Rs. 210 million in 1995.

In addition, this flagship of Modi Corp has done remarkably well on the export front. Over the years, the company has exported some 3,500 mid-volume copiers to the European Logistics Center of Rank Xerox, as well as photoreceptors, toners, PWBAs (printed wire board assemblies), wire harnesses and plastic parts to other companies of the global Xerox family.

Last year, Modi Xerox earned foreign exchange worth Rs. 96 mi Ilion. Even the company's Xerox Software Services, a new division set up in New Delhi last year, has already netted more than Rs. 10 million through exports. (An important indicator of the trust that Modi Xerox enjoys is the fact that the parent company has entrusted Modi Xerox's software division with the task of developing software for the high-end printing systems as well as for the entire business applications for 105 of Rank Xerox locations worldwide.)

"Our company has not only saved the country foreign exchange worth crores of rupees through import substitution, but we have earned foreign exchange worth crores of rupees by way of exports," B.K. says.

But doesn't Modi Xerox remit dollar dividends to its parent company and doesn't this cancel out any foreign exchange gains from exports?

"Yes, we do remit dividends to Rank Xerox," says B.K., choosing his words carefully. "But it is an insignificant fraction of what we would have ifwe were to keep importing these high-tech copiers and other products that we make. Moreover, we are broad-basing our operations and they're plowing back their profits in this expansion."

But the more important thing, according to B.K., is that "they are partners in the company. They have invested their money in it as we have, as our other shareholders have. As partners, they are, therefore, as much entitled to the dividend as we are. Look at it this way: Supposing we were in the red, won't they bear the losses as we would? IfIosses are theirs, so are the profits."

The reasons for B.K. 's pride also lie beyond the mundane realm of profits and losses-in his ModiCorp's corporate philosophy and commitmentto set apart at leasttwo percentofits profits forcommunity welfare. In addition to providing employment to local people, Modi Xerox, for example, has undertaken several projects to help the underprivileged in and around Rampur. They include: allotting shops to the unemployed youth; awarding scholarships to students; offering financial support to social organizations; donating blankets to the poor; organizing medical and immunization camps as well as supporting the district administration in its campaign for a poliofree society. Modi Xerox has also adopted a village, Durgnangla,

and has developed plans to make it a model vi llage.

In addition, Modi Xerox, like every other company in the Xerox world, takes its environmental responsibilities as seriously as it does its business challenges. This year, it achieved complete waste-free factory status-I 00 percent reuse and recycling rate for all the waste generated at its plant in Rampur.

"The raison d 'etre for any business is profits," says Modi. "So our basic concern naturally revolves around the balance sheet, quality of the products, service to the customer, wel fare of the employees. But," he adds, "sooner or later one realizes that making money is not--or should not be-the sole purpose of the corporate sector. It is also importantto share yourselfwith your community, with your country.

"We don't lookupon Rampur, for example, merely as a site for another of our plants. We don't want to be predators; we want to share our good fortune with them. We want to be a good corporate citizen."

As partofits policy to earmark two percentofits profits forthe welfare of the community, every time ModiCorp negotiates ajoint venture, it makes this two-percent setting as part of the agreement. And, as B.K. says, "we have had no problem in making our foreign partners agree to this condition; in fact, they have been quite supportive and enthusiastic. We have the Modi Foundation forthis purpose."

B.K. looks with great hope and expectation to India's future.

"These are exciting times for the country," he says. "By aligning with the world economy, we have sent a clear signal that we have the confidence to take on global competition."

With the country on the fast track, he envisions a bright future for his group of companies, and he has already drawn ambitious plans for growth. "ModiCorp is now a Rs. 20,000-million conglomerate, but our target by the turn of the century, what we call Vision 2000, is Rs. 200,000 mi Ilion."

That's tenfold in,crease in a space of less than five years. To the layman it sounds grandiose. But not to 47-year-old B.K. Modi.

Modi's vision, his entrepreneurial zeal and resolve are as strong as they were when he dreamed the dream in California to bring Xerox to India. With years of experience behind him now, he is more confident of himself and his group of companies. "True, we have set a very difficult target for ourselves, butthe important thing is that our foreign collaborators have trust in us, in our abi Iity, and they are keen to invest more," he says. "Each day, you see so many new foreign companies coming to India to invest, and our JV partners also want to expand their operations here. So they are coaxing us to expand our. present capacities, to get into new sun-rise industries-infrastructure, power, telecommunications, office automation technology."

He illustrates his conviction through the example of Modi Xerox.

"Today we market less than ten percent of Xerox products and services," B.K. says. "We have drawn an ambitious timetable to introduce the complete range of Xerox offerings. Xerox, as I said earlier, wants not only to plow back its 'Profits here, but it is keen to invest additional mill ions of dollars.

"As the Indian economy picks up the momentum, and it is already showing strong signs of it, it'll be a breakthrough growth.

That's what we contemplate for ModiCorp." To sum up, B.K. Modi says: "1 firmly believe that if you have the will to succeed, if you're ready to work, there's no stopping."

0

Your documents are our business.

Much more than mere paper or an image on the screen, a document is a valuable piece of communication, created through the considerable efforts of your people and technology. And it is the document that is at the very heart of every business.

Documents account for 95% of the information we receive. And 60% of an executive's time. On an average, every organisation spends 8% of its revenue on producing documents. Consider then, how effectively you can enhance business productivity by streamlining document management.

At Modi Xerox, everything we do is designed to make our customers more productive. From the smallest offices to global corporations, we are helping people

recognise the power of the document, and providing solutions to make it work harder.

Our concern for customer needs has led to our evolution from being India's No.1 Copier Company to becoming The Document Company. Our new corporate signage indicates our commitment to offer you the most comprehensive range of document solutions to help you print, fax and colour in addition to photocopying. Not just through superior technology, but by a firm commitment to quality, customer service and support.

Through all these years of change and evolution, what remains constant is our focus on our customers. Customer Satisfaction remains our No.1 business priority.

THE DOCUMENT COMPANY MODI XEROX Xerox, The Document Company Xerox/Rank Xerox and the stylised X are the registered trademarks of Xerox Corporation, U.S.A.and Rank Xerox Ltd., U.K.

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