No Yom Kippur for the Jews of India

Sabbath is on a sabbatical or so it would seem for India's Jews, or rather their monied namesakes- the Gujarati and Marwari communities in India. Have great respect and admiration for Marus and Gujjus who cut their teeth in business on the brink of hitting their pubes. Coming from a risk averse community myself, I am in awe of their risk taking capacity and their penchant for putting their nose to the grindstone all day long. It is perhaps, this innate sense of going for the kill- winner takes it all; the loser standing small philosophy that drives them to attain  higher and higher heights of success and excellence, no matter what their chosen domains. Mostly they like being their own boss. Of course, there's now a sense of brazen optimism among Gujju and Maru millenials, given that of the thirty richest individuals in the world today, at least two belong to their ethnicity. Guess, this all goes pretty close to the bone. Like it or not, they must be better than most of the rest of us in ways that are tangible for success behind working the tills. Small wonder then, that people when they are means tested; it is almost always people of Gujarati/ Marwari descent in India that come out on top in start-ups, managing businesses and/or generally improving their lot. Hard work, common sense(and loads of it) and networking pay. To my mind, it is 'THE' mantra for their seemingly facile entrepreneuralship: they are such naturals at what they do best (which if you ask me today is practically everything), leaving the rest of the nation looking laggard by a long shot. The only other community that can rain down their parade and beat them hollow in the fairness stakes is the Zorastrian community, which although has seamlessly integrated with India and Hindutva, is originally from Iran and therefore, more Persian than Indian; genetically speaking. That said, many Parsis are among the most nationalists of citizens we have today. To be fair, Gujju and Maru businesses were never case studies in fair play and work ethic to begin with. Somewhere I read they owe their success in trade and commerce partly, to their finesse in micro-management skills and being au fait with the minutiae of their operations and inventory which brings us to an inflection point: can you truly become a good generalist without first becoming a specialist? The corollary of that is, if you stay a specialist too long, can you ever truly morph into someone or something generally more whole and even?? Quite how they've come along getting their act together is the stuff of B-school case studies. Have come to admire them especially for their unrelenting pursuit of self improvisation; so heavily invested they now are in getting an IB and Ivy (League) education for their children and in their committment to working hard for enterprise wide value creation, you could be forgiven for thinking they are all transplants from the Hamptons.

Let me STOP! right there lest I am accused of cosying up to them and sucking Marwari cock. I can plainly state, for the most part they are thick skinned individuals- not big on philanthropy which is bit of an understatement, really. Perhaps this could stem from their belief: 'Why give someone fish on their plate when you can easily teach them how to fish?!'  Then again, they are vegans, I told you so.

 

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist posting pics out of context. Somehow, I believe I have 

this Viking sense of entitlement to Him.

XOXOXO!