Sid Rittenberg

It has been a while since blogged. I am in India to help expand our Indian operations. It is all exciting – work, people, and of course the auto rickshaws. Kind of cool to know that people haven’t forgotten me. The watchman still does the warm “salaam” and the corner pan waala still says “kaise who sahaab, bahut dino se najar nahi aye”. Even the building facilities manager who I didn't like much came up and said hello. That’s India. Polluted, noisy, indisciplined but people are “real”.

I finally have some quite time and decided to catch up on news in the US. Went to my favorite source – New York Times. As always, you find interesting stuff in the Times. Read this article titled “A Long March From Maoism to Microsoft” when you get a chance. It is about this guy Sid Rittenberg who spent 45 years in China and is now a corporate consultant. He spent time with Mao and was a revolutionary. Then he spent around 10 years in a Chinese jail. People in China still respect and love him for his contributions. He reminded of Che Guevera. But Sid is very different. He decided to cash in big time by advising corporations trying to do business in China. Does he see any contradictions in what he believed in and what he is doing now? This is what he had to say - "I don't think a lot in ideological terms of capitalism versus socialism, and neither does the leadership in China." Now, Sid is what I call a smart, pragmatic American.