Reflections of a riverside walker

On Success, death and Steve Jobs

2011-12-02T00:56:00.012+05:30

A friend's post on Facebook drew my attention to an article about the posthumous tribute-wave for Steve Jobs. For a quickie without following the conversation elsewhere, the article says 'Steve Jobs wasn't great, he wasn't even close' . Among other things, it draws a comparison in terms of greatness, to Jonas Salk, who invented the polio vaccine and gave it free, deciding not to patent it. In other words, who is greater and, mummy, why is Steve Jobs getting all the attention ? I wouldn't have noticed if Ramnath didn't mention it, but after he did, I noticed that it was a 'sad essay, with weak arguments and too many fallacies'.

Great is a generic adjective that spans many fields. For example, a great musician, a great emperor, a great surgeon and so on. You cannot exactly compare greatness in one field with another and often, greatness in certain times, with other times.

In the field of, say, technology business, and in his times he was greater than many of his contemporaries. He did things differently. Many clicked, some didn't, some clicked later. He was thrown out of his company and staged a comeback and then staged a turnaround and rebuilt the fascination full circle. He might have been heavy-headed, but lot of creative/successful people are that. In the field that he chose as his passion, he manifested that passion into results that satisfied him and those he sought to impact. Such success was also acknowledged by others. That, in itself, is what only a small percentage, get to do.

He chose expensive style for his products, and was convinced there was a market for it. In all possibility he could have flopped, thats what the gurus would have got to say. But he defied tradition, the current market gyaan, and clicked, not once, but time and again. To have an intrinsic sense for a niche market, spot it and pursue it, entails the risk of stepping out of your comfort zone and being ready to sink in the process. You need to be grounded in your security with your own self, to be able to confront and conquer the insecurity in the world. It's the stuff true entrepreneurs are made of, or seek to be. We can't think like them and they can't think like us. They better not.

The article questions people's assumptions, success = greatness. But the article also assumes, charity > commerce. Coming from the charity bastion, I should have jumped to agree with the latter, but, sadly, not yet. Even if it were true, I guess we are too far away from that . Those beautiful times are yet to come. It requires our entire civilization, or huge parts of it, to think differently, on complexly intertwined issues: regarding our motivation, our money, our work ethic and our duty as a human on earth. And it will take lots of births for all of us to get there. Call it the critical mass for compassion or the escape velocity for enlightenment. Like in climate change, we have a reputation for refusing to learn until we get whacked thoroughly by Mamma Earth. Inner climate change is not going to be any simpler and Pappa God is going to have a tough time handling us. Hearts, take a lot more time to melt than glaciers. Questions like these are important to contemplate, but the answers need to be well-written.

Finally, think of the praises that arrived as like people attending a e-funeral. A life gone unnoticed or less noticed (say, Salk) is not any different from a life gone well-noticed, after it has gone, that is. In the former case, lives were impacted, sure, but most people may not have related to the individual, so they didn't write. In Steve's case, he too impacted and, it so happens, many people seem to relate to the individual, because the device was such. Interestingly, I noticed a billboard at the Kundarapalli Gate signal in Bangalore, a huge billboard ad by a real estate developer, saying just 'RIP Steve'. It's still an ad, but it shows people who used the devices fell head over heels for the brand. To connect two obituaries and compare their impact, would be like comparing the tears of two funerals, one with 10 people and another with 1000 people. Sorrow is the same for everyone. Death is a great equalizer in that sense.

Of course, great is different from good. To evaluate goodness is a larger call, you need to be able to evaluate the interplay of motives, constraints, values etc and in the light of the operating environment. Goodness is all-inclusive, includes personal life, relationships and even preservation of monuments :) :) , which Steve Jobs wasn't particular about . Greatness, on the other hand, is more explicit, can be segmented into streams, and therefore gets evaluated quickly and easily. You can't evaluate your goodness, because that'll be biased. Others can't, because they have incomplete information. Only God can, but He doesn't publish the papers. What to do ? :) :)

Yes, there was a good Steve and the bad Steve in the same person. Even in judgement, it's sad that someone with such business acumen, had to fall for a fatal over-belief in alternative medicine. People who praise the good Steve may choose to ignore the bad Steve. But, isn't it true that all of us suffer from the good-bad dichotomy ?

That is why the scriptural prayers say : Lead us from darkness to light, falsehood to truth. Lead us from proprietary software to open source. Trap us not into Apple, but deliver us from Microsoft. Give us our daily bread and butter, Facebook and Twitter. But don't lead us to immortality, it gets boring. Life without an end, will be like watching a terrible movie in a dirty theatre, all the time you are wondering, when will the movie end and the mosquitoes stop, and the lead jodi is still dancing around the trees and rolling on the hills , on the screen. Death, disease and dumping are part of the grand game. Sing a kolaveri song to release your stress, and move on to make your life colorful, cheerful and creative. Like a Mac.

Oops, for fair disclosure, like the author, even I don't own an Apple device or share. :) . And probably, that's why I am like this !

An Ethereal Evening - A R Rahman Live in Concert at Bangalore

2011-06-02T04:46:00.004+05:30

I was there for the A R Rahman Live in Concert, in Bengaluru Palace Grounds on 29th May 2011, Sunday. It was a wonderful event. Here are some thoughts from soon after. (Red links go to YouTube).

If you are one of those 'balanced', 'cat-on-the-wall' types, who wants to consider multiple perspectives in any discussion and arrive at a conclusion after many rounds of diplomacy, this post is too early for you. You should read my earlier post on Rahman's Top 10, follow each of those 30 text links to the music pieces, listen to all of them, attend the next Rahman Live event, and then come back and read this post. This is all about unabashed, extremely biased, praise of Rahman's music, so you may need to check if you are a worthy disciple of it. :) :) I have an eccentricity to overdo these things and I have no intention to correct course. :)

There is a generation who grew up with Rahman's music. If you were a teenager or a college-goer when one of the movies were released, Roja , Rangeela, Rhythm, Rang De Basanti or Robot, you can't miss the music's charm. Even though all those were released at different years in the last two decades, if you had listened to one of them, you would want to go back or forth and listen to the others. In the history of Indian filmy music, it is as if, there is a pre-Roja and a post-Roja era. Thank you Mani Ratnam for that path-breaking offer, for the risk you took with a then upcoming composer, it was well worth it and more. May be, it was a time that people were looking for a different kind of music, a type of music that wasn't entirely western and not entirely Carnatic or Hindustani either. May be, there was a segment of youth, who went to the Music Sabhas because their parents went, but, in addition to that taste, were ready to take to a different type of rich music, if it was given to them. And then Rahman came like a fragrant breeze into the musical scene. He took the music world by storm through his charm. Depending on what you were thinking, there was a music for the mood. It can be pleasant or peppy, fast-track or melodious, melancholic or romantic, patriotic, punjabi or pettai rap, you have all kinds in his discography of two decades. Wherever you were, one song looped endlessly, only to be interrupted with another which will then take over.

Rahman's music is global material. It's just that world took time to catch up. That's also why I like it when he collaborates with foreign artists. To be honest, I am not too fascinated by those collaborative numbers, I think Just The Rahman has got enough potential to take the entire cake, on his own, but from a different angle, thats the way to go. Rahman is excellent at bringing different types of music together to create a piece, that will keep it attractive to all those respective audiences and yet introduce to them something new. This cross-cultural symphony in music requires him to encounter different kinds of music from the different regions and he would get global, today, tomorrow or some day soon. Let's release him from the small boundaries of this Chennai and this Bollywood and this India, let him conquer the world. :) The world is his next stop and there is no stopping him. Which is one of the reasons I wanted to attend the concert in Bangalore. If he goes to Hollywood, I am not sure whether they will give him back to us. :) :)

At the Palace Grounds in Bangalore that day, the musical evening turned out to be ethereal. I have a sluggish tendency to go slow and take it cool on the show host's buildup intros. 'How are youuuu, Bengalurooo, Are y'all ready to rock the grounds... Put your hands together' and the 'Yaaaa-Hooooo' response from the audience n all, Hmmm. But, Dil Se, one of my favorites, which arrived second, changed all that, made me sit up and warm up to the treat that was to follow. I had loved 'Poraley Ponnuthayee' from Karuthamma and therefore, it's peppy sibling Chanda Sooraj Lakhon Taarey became familiar but equally lovable in due course. 'What are you waiting for, another sign, another call, someway we have to find a new way to peace', were my favorite looping lines from the 'Gurus of Peace' number from Vande Mataram.

Ye Jo Des He Tera can stop the traffic, wherever you hear it. Rahman's rendering was as fantastic and flawless as it was in Swades. When Jaaney Tu Ya Jaaney Na released, it was an instant heart-throb of the youth, so you could see the audience in the Palace Grounds, connect to it so quickly as soon the song started. Rahman's working together with Gautam Menon had to produce a masterpiece, there was no other way and so Hosanna from VTV, kept the entire crowd, gently swaying, right from the beginning to end, as the music filled the air through the loudspeakers. If you didn't sway for it, okay, grow up atleast now.

I also discovered, that I am not as full-fledged a fan of Rahman as I claim to be. There were real, hardcore, extraordinary fans who kept the Rahman's song lists in their fingertips and rolled out at the least hint or hum. I might have failed to keep track some of the recent pieces, and might have been sticking on to the old glory, I thought. I noticed that the Enthiran song threw the crowd to sheer raptures, the reason was the same as, why the Rangeela song had the same effect on me.

Every song had a different digital video backdrop, that was excellent, carefully chosen and of high quality. The songs,Khwaja Mere Khwaja and Maula Maula, had a very soothing rendition with Rahman, in a befitting costume playing the harmonium and a digital backdrop of a richly engraved mosque architecture. It was very thoughtfully and tastefully done.

There are some songs that are the solid defining runaway hits at these concerts. They are the real Oscar or even-higher award winners in the minds of the masses of listeners. The actual flag-hoisters of Rahman's success story. They are so impactful, they are welcomed even if someone else sings it at some other concert, and so much occupy your mindspace that the hum doesn't spare you whether you are in the bathroom or in the bedroom. When these songs began, or even before they began, when there was a buildup to it, the crowd begins to get into a frenzy. You know it is getting into a madness, a craze, (Okay, an Aware Madness, if you are also aware of it). It is as if a spirit has possessed the entire ground and wants to release itself by dancing, shouting and joining in the chorus and singing along. The Humma Song from Bombay, the Muqabla Song from Kadhalan, the Chikku Bukku Rayiley from Gentleman were chartbusters then and they are still the same now, after a decade. Oh, how they clapped and swayed and jumped and danced for those !! For the tamilians in the multicultural, metropolitan Bengaluru, the Pettai Rap song was alone enough to make their day, it sent them into a tizzy. They savoured every one of those words, whether or not the sentences had any meanings, who needed them anyway ? :) :)

We all know that Shivamani unleashed is difficult to contain, and apart from taking the blockbuster songs to their original glory, his musical mischief this time was the drums effect with two rods tapping on the ground combined with foot-tapping. It was good. It was entirely appropriate that they got Lataji to sing 'Lukka Chuppi' over a video recording in a digital background with Rahman chipping in for his part live. Their original partnership for the Rang De Basanti song is irreplaceable and it was an absolutely soulful rendering. The award-winning Jai Ho was there too.

Roobaroo was definitely a wonderful fitting finale for the event. The song that marked Naresh Iyer's hindi debut with Rahman, won him the National Award and shot him to fame. Of course, nowadays, it has become fashionable to mention youth and anti-corruption in the same sentence for every event, like pickle in any meal. So the buildup on 'will you raise your voice against corruption' was a bit ordinary. But, allowing that, what better movie than Rang De Basanti to catch the fervour, patriotism and dynamism of the youth ? Oh, How many times I have watched and re-watched the discussion scenes for the screenplay... The amazing rendition of the song, to the gentle sway of the audience, merged smoothly into a snippet of the Vande Mataram piece, with a tricolour digital background. What a way to end the day !! Ethereal, Enthralling and Extraordinary.

I had my little share of petty disappointments, though. How-many-ever blockbuster songs they sing, and they can't sing all of them at every concert, you always look forward to your personal favorite list and want to hear them being sung. I badly wanted Vellai Pookal from Kannathil Muthamittal to be sung, really. What a calming effect the song has... I totally love the Rahman Live in Los Angeles DVD, so I should admit these observations are strongly influenced by that liking. I know there may be so many parameters involved in the selection, the dates etc, but then, we have our sighs, no ? I missed, Chaiya chaiya, Jiya jaley, Chinna chinna asai and Patchai niramey. I definitely missed Shankar Mahadevan ( for the energy in Kay Sera Sera and the turns in Sandhana Thendralai ) , SPB (for that fantastic delivery of Oruvan oruvan mudhalali ) , Sadhana Sargam, Sujatha and Kavitha Subramaniam. I would have really loved to listen to Maduraikku Pogatheydee, the recent looping favorite I have discovered. I wanted Barso Re by Shreya Ghoshal, only by her and by none else. Okay, let me admit this is too much greed, I can't want all the best of two decades of musical genius together in a 3-hour live programme, thats unfair about me.

Earlier in the afternoon, some of the Rahman fans got together at an orphanage in Bangalore, at Anatha Shishu Sevashrama, for some service activity, which I had joined in, too. Food Distribution was arranged. They had some games for the kids. Agam, a band from Bangalore, sang a few songs for the kids. Yes, they did begin very appropriately with Vellai Pookal, which I was waiting for. The orphanage visit was a very satisfying experience. "We like 'Jai Ho' and 'Kadhal Anukkal' from Rahman Sir's songs very much", they said. Kannada songs sprouted quickly during the Anthakshari. One boy rocked the stage with his dance moves as the band played. Another, rather unassuming boy, went on to win a concentration game that they played. It was nice to see their fascination for the cameras which some of the fans carried and it was so gracious of the fans to share them with the kids and teach them how to take the pictures. After they had had the meal, when they asked, 'When are you coming next again ?', I didn't have an answer. But then they said, 'Some akkas from the Rahman fans group have told us they will come again after few days and spend time with us again'. I am sure there will be some follow-up action.

Now this post has got me all excited, I have to watch Rang De Basanti, one last 976-th time. :)

வீட்டுக்கு வீடு ஒரு கதை உண்டு

2011-04-30T17:35:00.003+05:30

A Tamil version of my earlier blog post ... A story from every home...

அவர் நம் ஒவ்வொருவர் வாழ்வையும் தொட்டார் . சின்ன சின்ன விதங்களில். நம் ஒவ்வொருவரிடமும் அவரைப் பற்றிச் சொல்ல ஒரு கதை இருக்கிறது. அவரைப் பற்றி . அவர் அன்பைப் பற்றி. அவர் வாழ்வும் நம் வாழ்வும் இணைந்த வைபவத்தைப் பற்றி, நம் மனங்களில் அவர் நிறைந்து நம்மை வழிகாட்டிய கதைகளைப் பற்றி. இவை சாயி சுயசரிதைக் கதைகள்.

சில கதைகள் எங்கும் எப்போதும் எழுதப்படாத கதைகள். சில கதைகள் நம் இதயத்தில் மட்டும் நிறைத்து வைத்து போற்றப்படும் கதைகள், அவை இனிமேலும் எழுதப் படாது. சில கதைகள், மற்றவர்களிடம் நாம் சொல்ல வேண்டிய கதைகள். நம் வாழ்வில் அவர் அன்பை எப்படி அன்பை நிறைத்தார் என்பதை உலகத்துக்குச் சொல்லி ஆனந்தப்படவேண்டிய கதைகள். சிலவற்றை கதை என்று சொல்ல முடியாது, சின்ன நிகழ்ச்சிகள் , நகைச்சுவையான வாக்கியங்கள், ஏதோ ஒரு நாள் இங்கே இந்த மண்டபத்தில் நாம் அமர்ந்திருந்த போது நடந்த சம்பவங்கள், நம் நினைவில் நிற்கின்றன. நாம் அமைதியாக ஓரிடத்தில் அமர்ந்து யோசிக்கும் போது நம் உள்ளிருந்து அவை நீர்க்குமிழிகள் போல் நம் மன ஏரியிலிருந்து எழும்பி மேலே வருகின்றன.

சில கதைகளில் வசனம் இருக்காது. நாம் அங்கே அமர்ந்திருந்த போது, அவர் நம்மைத் தாண்டி போகும்போது, நம் கண்களில் கூர்ந்து கவனித்த அந்தப் பார்வை. நமக்காக, நாம் மட்டும் புரிந்து கொள்ளுவது போன்ற பார்வை. அவர் பேசவில்லை ஆனால் அர்த்தம் புரிந்துவிடும். நாம் கேட்க வேண்டும் என்று நினைத்தோம், கேட்கவில்லை, ஆனால் அந்த கேள்விக்கு விடை கிடைத்துவிட்டது.

சில கதைகளின் முக்கியத்துவம் நாம் பல நாட்குளுக்குப் பிறகு தான் உணர்ந்தோம். அறிய முடியாத இறை மனதை நம் சிறு மனத்தால் அறிய முயன்று, அது கொடுத்த விடையை வைத்து அவரது விந்தையை கணக்கு போட முயன்றிருப்போம்.

சில சமயங்களில் நமக்கு தோன்றிய ஒரு எண்ணம் , அது அவரிடமிருந்து வந்தது என்பதை நாம் உணர்வோம். அந்த எண்ண அனுபவம் கூட ஒரு கதையே.

இது உங்கள் அனுபவம் , அல்லது என் அனுபவம் மட்டும் அல்ல. வீட்டுக்கு வீடு இந்த சாய் கதைகள் உண்டு. சில கதைகள் பிறருக்கு சின்னதாக இருக்கலாம். ஆனால் , நமக்கு அது இனிமையான கதை, முக்கியமான கதை. ஏனென்றால், அது அவர்கள் வாழ்க்கையில் நடந்த கதை அல்ல, நம் வாழ்வில் நடந்த கதை. 'Dunnapotha' என்று செல்லமாக திட்டி இருப்பார். 'Good Boy' என்று புகழ்ந்திருப்பார். அதுவும் ஒரு இனிமையான கதை தான்.

மற்றவர்களின் அனுபவத்தைப் பற்றி நாம் கேள்வி கேட்கலாம், விவாதம் செய்யலாம், மறுக்கலாம். ஆனால் , நம் உள்ளுணர்வை நம்மால் மறுக்க முடியுமா ? நமது உள்ளுணர்வுகளுக்கு நாமே முக்கியத்துவம் கொடுக்கவில்லையெனில் , நாம் எதை ஆதாரமாக வைத்து வாழ்க்கையை வாழ்கிறோம் ? நம் கதை, நம் உள்ளுணர்வுகள் , நமக்கு ஆழமானவை . 'Personal'-ஆக முக்கியமானவை. அதனால் தான், அவர் உலகத்துக்கே போதகராக இருந்திருக்கலாம் , ஆனால் நமக்கு 'Personal God'- ஆக இருந்தார். அந்த நாள், அவரவர்கள் எங்கெங்கோ இருந்தாலும், அங்கிருந்தே, நன்றி உணர்வுடன் , அவருக்காக ஒரு துளி கண்ணீர் சிந்திய , அந்த லக்ஷோபலக்ஷம் மக்கள் அனைவருக்கும் அவர், தனி தனியாக , 'Personal God'- ஆக இருந்தார். அவர் இந்த வீட்டின் தலைவர், ஒவ்வொரு உரையாடலையும் அமைதியாக கேட்பவர், ஒவ்வொரு உணவு வேளையின் போதும் கண்ணுக்குத் தெரியாத விருந்தாளி. ஒவ்வொருவர் வீட்டிலும், இன்று , அவரவர்கள் 'Dinner Table '-இல் , இந்த சாய் கதைகளை தான் , ஒருவருக்கு ஒருவர் பகிர்ந்து கொண்டு இருக்கிறார்கள். இவை எல்லாம் சிறிய, ஆழ்ந்த , 'Personal' கதைகள் , நம் வாழ்வில் அவர் வந்த கதை, நம் உள்ளுணர்வின் கதை, நம்மை அந்த திருச்சிற்றம்பலம் தடுத்தாட்கொண்ட கதை.

கதை இருக்கிறதோ இல்லையோ, அதை சொல்லுகிறோமோ இல்லையோ, நாம் மீண்டும் மீண்டும் இங்கே வந்தோம். ஒவ்வொரு 'New Year'-உம் , சிவராத்திரியும் , நவம்பரிலும் வந்தோம். இங்கே வந்தால் நிம்மதி என்று நாடி வந்தோம். அப்படி வருவோருக்கெல்லாம் அன்பு தரும் ஆல மரமாக அவர் இந்த ஆஸ்ரமத்தை அமைத்தார். இந்த அன்பு நிழலின் குளிர்ச்சியில் நிம்மதியை தேடி வந்தவருக்கெல்லாம் அது கிடைத்தது .

இந்த அன்பு உணர்வுகள், கண்ணுக்கு தெரியாதவை , ஆனால் , 'இது சத்தியம் என்று எனக்கு தெரியும்', என்று அழுத்தமாக எழும் உள்ளுணர்வுகள். இந்த உணர்வுகளை வைத்து தான் , சுவாமியைப் பற்றிய ஒரு வடிவத்தை நாம் நமது மனங்களில் உருவாக்கி இருக்கிறோம். அந்த வடிவம், லோகாயதமான வடிவம் அல்ல. அது உணர்வுகளின் வடிவம். வருடக்கணக்கில் , மிக மெதுவாக, ஒரு எறும்பு தானியம் சேகரிப்பதுபோல , சேர்த்து வைத்த, வடிவம். நாம் அவரிடம் கேட்ட கோரிக்கைகள் , இந்த உலகம் சம்பந்தப்பட்டதாக இருக்கலாம். அவர் நமக்கு கொடுத்த பரிசுகள் காலப்போக்கில் ஒளி குறையலாம். ஆனால் , நாம் அவரது கண்ணோடு கண் நோக்கிய போது , அவரை பிரார்த்தனையில் நினைத்த போது , நம் இதயம் என்னும் 'Camera'வில் , அவரது வடிவத்தை செதுக்கிய , அந்தக் கண நேரம், அது இந்த உலகத்தியது அல்ல. அது காலம் கடந்தது, லோகாயதத்துக்கு அப்பாற்பட்டது. கிருஷ்ணர் , ஆயிரக்கணக்கான கோபிகைகளுக்கு , ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் ஒரு கிருஷ்ணராக வடிவெடுத்தது போல, நாம் ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் அவர் நமது இதயங்களில் ஒரு வடிவத்தை வரைந்திருக்கிறார். விதம் விதமாக, வித்தியாசமான அழகுடன், உணர்வுகளின் வடிவம் ஒன்றை அளித்திருக்கிறார்.

கல்வி, மருத்துவ வசதி, குடிதண்ணீர் - இவை மூன்றும் கட்டாயம் இலவசமாக தரப்பட வேண்டும் - என்று அவர் நம்பினார். நமக்கு ஒரு நம்பிக்கை இருந்தால், அந்த நம்பிக்கையை எப்படி செயலாக்க வேண்டும், பல்லோர் போற்றும் உதாரணமாக , ஊக்கமளிக்கும் வகையில் , எப்படி நம் நம்பிக்கையை வெளிப்படுத்த வேண்டும் , என்பதை அவர் உலகத்துக்கு செய்து காட்டினார். எனக்கு 'rights' இருக்கிறது , உரிமை இருக்கிறது என்று போராடுகிறோம். ஆனால், அதுவே , 'responsibility' என்று வரும் போது, பொறுப்பாக நடந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும் என்றால், பயந்து ஓடுகிறோம். அதை, மற்றவர் பெயருக்கு மாற்றி, அவரை எப்படி குறை சொல்லலாம் என்று யோசிக்கிறோம். அப்படிப்பட்ட இந்த உலகத்திலே, சுற்றி இருப்போரின் பிரச்சினைகளுக்கு, சமுதாயத்தில் உள்ள பிரச்சினைகளுக்கு, ஒரு தனி மனிதன் எப்படி பொறுப்பு எடுத்துக்கொண்டு , அந்த பிரச்சினையை தீர்க்க முடியும் என்பதை நிரூபித்தார். அவர்களுடைய கஷ்டத்தை, தனது கஷ்டமாக , அவர் நினைத்தார்.

'1980 'இல் , ஒரு இலவச பல்கலைக் கழகம் வரும் என்றும், அதில் மனித குண மேம்பாடுகளையும், 'Character Building ' -உம் இணைந்ந்து போதிப்போம் என்று அவர் சொன்ன போது, அவர்கள் எல்லாம் கை கொட்டிச் சிரித்தார்கள். இன்றைக்கெல்லாம் அந்த பல்கலைக்கழகம் 30 ஆண்டுகள் முடித்துவிட்டு இன்னும் வெற்றி நடை போடுகிறது. அதன் மூலம் பல ஆயிரம் பேர் வாழ்க்கையைத் தொட்டார். '1990'-இல் , ஒரு உயர்தர மருத்துவ மனை உருவாக்கி , ஏழை மக்களுக்கு அறுவை சிகிச்சைகள் முற்றிலும் இலவசமாக செய்வோம் என்று அவர் சொன்ன போது, அவர்கள், எள்ளி நகையாடினார்கள். இன்றைக்கு அந்த மருத்துவ மனை 20 வருடங்கள் முடித்தாகி விட்டது. பற்றாக்குறைக்கு , அந்த மருத்துவ மனை 10 வருடங்கள் முடித்த போது, அதே அளவில் , இரண்டாவது மருத்துவ மனையையும், கட்டினார். இன்னும் பல ஆயிரம் பேர் வாழ்க்கையைத் தொட்டார். '1995'-இல் , வறண்ட பூமியாக இருந்த, ஒரு மாவட்டம் முழுவதற்கும் , பல நூறு மைல் தொலைவிலிருந்து தண்ணீர் கொண்டு வருவேன் என்றார். அதற்காக அவர் கடன் வாங்க நேரிட்டது. அப்போது அவர் சொன்னார் : ' நல்ல எண்ணத்தோடு நல்ல காரியம் செய். உதவி தானாக வரும். ' அதற்கு பிறகு, இன்னும் 4 மாவட்டங்களுக்கு குடிதண்ணீர் திட்டத்தை அமுல்படுத்தும் அளவுக்கு அது விரிந்தது. அதோ, இன்னும் பல ஆயிரம் பேர் வாழ்க்கையைத் தொட்டார்.

அவரை எல்லாரும் 'Personal God ' என்று நம்பாமல் இருக்கலாம், பரவாயில்லை. ஆனால், சேவை காரியங்கள் மூலம், கண்காணாத அந்த பல ஆயிரம் அந்நிய மனிதர்களின் வாழ்க்கையில் அவர் விளக்கேற்றி வைத்தார். அந்த பல்லாயிரம் மக்களுக்கு அவர் அன்னியர் அல்லர். அவர்களுக்கு , அவர், வீட்டை வாழ வைத்த வள்ளல். எங்கிருந்தோ, பல ஆயிரம் மைல் தூரத்திலிருந்து வந்த நோயாளியைப் பொறுத்தவரை, அவர் ஒரு வள்ளல். ஒரு average middle class வர்க்கத்தைச் சேர்ந்த இளைஞன் , டிகிரி படிப்பு படிக்க கஷ்டப்பட்ட இளைஞனுக்கு , அவர் ஒரு வள்ளல். ஒரு மலை நாட்டு கிராமத்தின் வறண்ட தொண்டையைப் பொறுத்த வரை , அவர் ஒரு வள்ளல். இவை எல்லாவற்றிலும் , அவரிடம் வாங்கி கொண்டவர்கள் , கல்வி, வைத்தியம், குடிதண்ணீர் ஆகியவற்றை வாங்கி கொண்டு, நன்றியை செலுத்தினார்கள். ஆனால், அவர் கொடுத்தது, அதுவல்ல. அவர் கொடுத்தது அன்பு மட்டும் தான். அவர் எப்போதும், எல்லோருக்கும், அன்பை மட்டும் தான் கொடுத்தார், மற்றவை எல்லாம் அன்பை வெளிப்படுத்த , ஒரு கருவி தான். இந்த சேவைக் காரியங்களை செய்த சேவகர்களுக்கும், பக்தர்களுக்கும், அவர் அதோடு நிறுத்தவில்லை, அவர்கள் சேவையின் தரத்தை உயர்த்த விரும்பினார் . வெறுமனே வேலை செய்தால் போதாது, அதில் அன்பும் , சரியான மனோபாவமும் இருந்தால் தான் பிரயோஜனம் என்று போதித்தார். உன்னுடைய, உண்மையான தெய்வீக இயல்பை உணர்வாயாக , பிறகு நீ எது செய்தாலும், நன்மையாக தான் இருக்கும், என்றார்.

நாம் சொல்கிறோம் : அவர் ஒரு ஹிந்துவை 'Better' ஹிந்துவாக மாற்ற வந்தார் என்றும், ஒரு முஸ்லிமை 'Better' முஸ்லிமாக மாற்ற வந்தார் என்றும், ஒரு கிறித்தவனை 'Better' கிறித்தவனாக மாற்ற வந்தார் என்றும் சொல்கிறோம். ஆனால், எல்லாவற்றுக்கும் மேலாக , அவர் ஒவ்வொரு மனிதனையும், 'Better' மனிதனாக , மாற்ற வந்தார் என்று சொல்லலாம். மனிதனுக்கு, அன்பு என்றால் என்னவென்று தெரிய வேண்டும், அது மற்றவர் மனதை எப்படி மாற்றும் என்பது புரிய வேண்டும். நம்மை சுற்றி உள்ளவர்களின், சமுதாயத்தின் கஷ்டங்களை புரிந்து கொண்டு, அதை தீர்க்கும் பொறுப்பை நாம் ஏற்றுக்கொண்டு , மனிதனோடு மனிதன் நேசமாக வாழ வேண்டும். ஒருவர் கேட்பதற்கு முன்பே அவர்களுக்கு, நாம் நன்மையை பகிர்ந்து அளித்து, அவர் என்றாவது ஒரு நாள், வேறு ஒருவருக்கு நன்மை செய்வார் என்று நம்பி , நன்மையை சுற்றி வரச் செய்ய வேண்டும். அன்பின் மூலமும், சேவையின் மூலமும், தனக்கு உள்ளிருக்கும் தெய்வத் தன்மையை அவன் உணர வேண்டும். பிறகு, அதே தெய்வத்வம் தான் அங்கிங்கெனாதபடி , எங்கும் நிறைந்திருக்கிறது என்பதை உணர வேண்டும். இதை சொல்லத்தான், இதை செய்து காட்டத்தான் இந்த தெய்வம் வந்தது.

என்றாவது ஒரு நாள், பல ஜன்மங்கள் கழித்து, நமது பிறவி பயணத்தில், நாம் ஒரு நாள், இந்த உண்மையை உணரத் தான் போகிறோம். நமது 'Personal God '-க்கும் , நமக்கும், அதிகம் வித்தியாசம் இல்லை, நாமும் தெய்வம் தான், என்பதை உணரத் தான் போகிறோம். அதைத் தானே அவர் முதலிலேயே சொன்னார், நமக்குத் தான் , இது புரிபடுவதற்கு நிறைய 'time' ஆகிவிட்டது, என்று நினைப்போம்.

நம் உடம்பு, நம் மனம், நம் வினை, நம் விதி, நமது வாழ்வின் குறிக்கோள் , நம் வாழ்வின் கம்யம் , நம் உண்மை இயல்பு, - இதெல்லாமே நமக்கு புரியவில்லை. இந்த லக்ஷணத்தில், நாம் , அவரையும், அவர் உடம்பையும், அவர் அவதார நோக்கத்தையும் , புரிந்து கொள்ள முடியுமா என்ன ?

அவரை ஏன் நாம் நேசிக்கிறோம் தெரியுமா ? அவருடைய புகழை அளவிட முடியாது, அவரை புரிந்து கொள்ள முடியாது. அவரை புரிந்து கொண்டு அப்புறமாக அவரை நேசிக்க முடியுமா என்ன ?

அவர் முன்னிலையில், நாம் யார் , என்பதை அவர் நமக்கு காட்டுகிறார். அவருடைய திருவுருவப் படத்தின் தீபத்தின் முன்பு, நமது மனம் என்ற ஏரியில் தோன்றும் பிம்பத்தில், நம்மை நாம் காண்கிறோம். வேறு எங்கெங்கோ தேடி கிடைக்காத, நம்மை பற்றி, நாமே அறிந்து கொள்ள வேண்டிய உண்மைகளை , அவர் முன்னால் நாம் உணர்கிறோம். அந்த உள்ளுனர்வுகளுக்காக தான் நாம் அவரை நேசிக்கிறோம். நீங்கள் இந்த நிலையை அடைந்திருந்தால் , இந்த பிரசாந்தி நிலையத்தை, அடைந்திருந்தால், இது உண்மை என்பதை நீங்கள் உணர்வீர்கள்.

A story from every home

2011-04-25T17:15:00.005+05:30

HE touched each one of our lives in little little ways at different points in time. Each one of us has a story to tell, about His Love, about how our lives have mingled with His, about His impact on us, our minds.

Sometimes they are stories told never before. Some are stories that are cherished deeply in the heart and might never be told. Some are stories that we enjoy telling, because the Love that we received, we want to share with the entire world. Some may be just little quips, short incidents, quotable quotes that happened some sunny morning in the Mandir here, but have been etched in our memories and bubble up from time to time, during our moments of reflection.

Some may be just silent moments, when He passed by us, He had this customized twinkle in His eye, apparently no word was spoken, but we got the message nevertheless. Some may be moments whose importance we realized only later, for, at that time, we let our narrow mind interpret the million mysterious ways of God. Sometimes it might have been as small as a thought that occurred to us, which we knew came from Him.

It's not just the story of you and me, it's ghar ghar kee kahani, a story from each home. Some may be stories that for others may be trivial, but for us, so sweet and so important, because they happened in our lives, not theirs. Even a light chiding as 'Dunnapotha' or a pleasant reference as 'Good Boy'. We can deny, question or argue somone else's experience, but can we deny a feeling when it occurs within us ? After all, if we aren't true to our feelings, what else would life be worth living for ? Our feelings and our stories are always deep, important and very personal to us. That is why, even though He was a Universal Teacher, He was a 'Personal' God. A personal God individually to all those millions, who shed a tear or two today in fond gratitude from wherever they are. He was the Head of this House, a silent listener in every conversation, an unseen guest at every meal. Every home must be narrating these stories at their dinner table today to others in the family and friends, and they are all little, but deeply personal stories of how He came into "my life" and what we felt about Him.

Whether story or not, whether told or not, each one of us was here, flocking here from time to time, for every Christmas, every Shivarathri and every November, because it was so wonderful to be here. He had made it so wonderful for us to be here, it’s so cool to bask in the shadow of this large banyan tree of Love.

It's these little but sure acts of love, invisible but 'I-know-it-is-true' kind of feelings, that have built our picture of how we relate to him. That picture is not of the material kind. It's a picture of feelings, built slowly like an ant builds its granary. The wishes we asked Him, might have been of this world and gifts that we received may fade with time. But the feeling we cherished when we prayed to him, that Moment of capture in the camera of our heart, it is not of this world and is timeless. Like Krishna who made a copy of Himself to each of the thousand Gopikas, the Master has made a picture of Himself in each of our hearts, each picture unique in its streaks and differently beautiful.

Education, Healthcare and Drinking water SHOULD be given free, He believed. And He set out to show the world how to manifest your belief into an example and an inspiration for others. In an age, where people are particularly insistent about their rights and cleverly transfer the responsibility to others at the quickest possible opportunity, He showed how an individual can take a personal sense of responsbility for the problems of the community. He felt for their problems, as really and as strongly as if it was His own problem.

When He said, in 1980, that a University would be completely free, and would combine modern education with character-building and human values, they mocked at him. It just completed 30 years and a few thousand lives were touched. When He said, in 1990, that a world class hospital would do surgeries for free for the poor, they jeered at him. That one just completed 20 years. Even better, 10 years into the first, for a bonus, He added one more hospital of the same scale and a few more thousand lives were touched, literally. When He announced in 1995, to supply drinking water to an entire arid district drawing water from hundreds of kilometers away, and He had to borrow to finish it, He said, 'Do good work with a good intention. Help will come.' And then He went on to add 4 more districts to the list and few thousand hearts.

He may not have been a personal God to everyone, but for those few thousand stranger lives that He touched by His Service, He was no more a stranger. For an unknown patient coming from a distant land, He was a giver. For that average, middle class young lad in his teens looking for a degree and can't afford it, He was a giver. For a parched throat in a uphill tribal village, He was a giver. In all these, the ones who received, got their cure, education and water and are grateful. But He was a giver of Love, above all, that was what He always gave, the rest were just the specifics. And for volunteers and the followers who participated in these works, He raised the bar for them further, beyond the work they did. Work wasn't an end in itself, He said, it was Love and the Attitude that accompanied it. Know your own reality, and every work that you do will be good.

It is said that He came to make a Hindu a better Hindu, a Muslim into a better Muslim, a Christian into a better Christian. But, above all, He came to make every Man, a better Man. So that Man may believe in Love and its cascading power of transformation. That Man may believe in Selfless Service and the proactive responsibility to care and share with fellowmen, to pay it forward with goodness. That Man may, one day, by the power of Love and Service, inquire into His own true nature and find Divinity within. And then find it pervading all over the place, in everyone. Some day, in a journey across lives, we may discover that we weren't any less godly than our personal God. Which is what He always said in the first place. We just took our time to get the point.

We are not able to figure out our own body, our mind, our destiny, our Gamyam and our real nature. What would we know of Him, His body and His Mission ?

As some famous quote goes, we love him, perhaps not for what He is, for we know not His Glory in its entirety. We love him, for what we are, when we are in His presence. For what we reflect in the light of His altar. For what we find out about ourselves that we didn't find otherwise. If you've been there, you'll know it to be true.

And you thought you had your backup...

2011-04-10T17:49:00.003+05:30

A guest post of mine at Hari's techstuff blog :

http://hnsws.blogspot.com/2011/04/adventures-with-ping.html

See how much jargon I have had to suppress in my other "normal" writings :) :)

21 Brahmachari Eccentricities

2010-11-28T03:15:00.004+05:30

I have an untested, home-grown, humorous hypothesis : That is, Brahmacharis develop eccentricities over a long period of time. They exhibit some or other kind of eccentric behaviour or mannerism. This is not true, of course, it’s just a story. This blog post itself is eccentric. Still, I went on to collect some data. I had to use my phone to record notes over a few weeks at all times, because when the Brahmacharis pass by and eccentricities appear, you have to note them down when you spot them. I compiled a few Brahmachari eccentricities that I observed in the Brahmachari world around me, then imagined a few more, mixed some of this and that, so that people don’t make out which is which. Arundhati Roy style.

Before I get into the light-hearted list, here is some serious gyaan.

Why does this happen ? Why might Brahmacharis develop eccentricities ?

See, simply put, this is what happens if you are not steadfast in your Sadhana and not regular at your midnight meditation.

However, the main reason it happens is a misleading interpretation of the word “independence”. When you are unmarried and staying alone, you are free to do whatever you wish and you indeed go about doing just that. If you are married, Ah, this possibility shrinks quite a bit. On every decision, you might have to consult at least one more person, who has equal veto-power and can bring in additional voting candidates like your parents or in-laws. You want to buy Sony or Samsung ? You want to paint Blue or Brown ? You want to wear White or Black and you want me to wear Blue or Green ? It so happens that God puts the opposites together, so that one may complement the other and learn from the other, so every decision is a parliamentary procedure. You can’t do strange eccentric things, you may get whacked, chided or advised by your spouse, depending on what is your acceptable form of instruction. You will be gently requested to live according to the world around you and if you don’t listen, first ‘gently’ will go and then ‘requested’ will go. A person, more cool-headed, balanced and smarter than you, is walking with you and you have to be aware of the presence.You will constantly be called upon to rise up to expectations.

Neways, what do I know of the married world, except for those surmises ? Don’t ask a monk how he knows the things he knows. If you are not married, you think you have none of these boundaries. So you take your independence to the extreme and end up doing all eccentric things, because there is nobody at the peer level to ask.

Then, there is this conviction called : ‘I will do whatever I feel is right’. While this is a good thing, you take it to the very extreme, and you end up doing things that feels good only for you. You think you are following your conscience, which is a very serious matter and a wonderful thing. May be you are. But you may refuse to consider the possibility, that other people around you may be following their respective consciences with as much earnest. May be, two consciences can be in conflict. If that’s not possible, one of you may not be following the conscience after all, you may be following some other buffalo (like your mind). Whatever, taking this to the extreme, causes you to disregard what others think as an acceptable behaviour. It creates a self-centered approach to choices, partly calling it joy of independence, partly calling it conscience and what turns out is an eccentricity that I can blog about.

As the 7 habits book says, interdependence is a greater value than independence. We loosely talk of terms like financial independence, professional independence, creative independence and so on. But, at the end of the day, we are Prema Pipasis, we hanker for love, both of the mundane human kind and of the higher spiritual kind. If everyone were to be independent, there would be no one at the dinner table to share stories. Interdependence creates a better environment of togetherness and promotes love rather than independence.

Oh oh, enough of the analysis paralysis. This post was intended to be an attempt at humour. Let’s get into some lively worldview.

So here, in one of the largest ever research on Brahmachari eccentricities… 21 of them, in no particular order.

1. You put a “STAFF” board on your bicycle, in huge saffron letters. As if it is proactive compliance with RTO and thieves will check out the informative board and then keep away. You know the cycle repair guy tells some story every time and robs you of a lot of money, but you think you are helping the local economic ecosystem by providing him business opportunities and the cascading effect will benefit the whole town. You call it Gullibility with Full Awareness. What a concept !

2. You are stationary, but your parts are mobile. You keep twiddling, turning, clasping your fingers, biting your lips, scratching your head, shaking your legs (horizontally and vertically, alternatively). As if all the wood-boring Beetles in the Mummy movie have entered your body through all the holes. Drawing your tongue deep inside as if you are sipping a cool drink and releasing it as if it wasn’t tasty enough. Rubbing the chair’s handle so much that after a while, you have reached the wood after wearing out the cushion. You do all of this at the same time, so seamlessly that you don’t know where one process ends and the next one begins. Your motor nerves have a tough time handling data. You generate so much kinetic energy enough to power a household. When someone mentions this, you give the analogy of the ocean : waves on the surface, but deeep calm within, you say. Aha!

3. You think, the ladies mess up things. Always. Everything. You also think, they are emotional, they are difficult to deal with, they have more politics than the men. And loads of other such MCP opinions. You don’t know what that abbreviation means, You think they are all Maturely Considered Perspectives. You had to click on that link and look it up to know it is Male Chauvinistic Dot-dot-dot. You direct your ire particularly at nuns and spinsters.

4. You are more comfortable working with machines than with men. That’s because machines don’t have perspectives. You don’t have to be courteous to them. They are glad to get booted by you and they don’t complain ‘I got booted by my boss today’. They don’t lie and tell different answers to different people. They don’t mask hypocrisy with diplomacy. Those blue screen error messages are better than some confusing expressions put up by real people. Of course, there may be such things as Windows perspective and Linux perspective, but you can always keep them under dual boot or virtual machines, providing private space differently. A space that people hardly provide for you.

5. Apart from talking to real people, you do other kinds of talking. You talk to yourself. Sometimes, without a mirror. Pouring out, accusing people, that you can’t do for real. You talk in dreams and chase away Greek warriors in battle. You talk to your dog more than you talk to your friends. You even speak to the dog about your bank accounts and mutual fund investments. You blog as a therapy. You say the same thing again and again in conversation.'Did I tell you about my musician aunt in Thanjavur who fell from a tractor ?', you begin, not realizing that the poor listener has gone through the torture already. Some jobless listeners, they hear you out completely and even ask newer questions to elicit additional information. And then, they drop a last line, ‘Yeah, you mentioned this last week’. Huh !!

6. You never get angry. You are Sant No.1. In fact, you spend considerable amount of time sublimating your anger instincts, but you are not sure whether you are sublimating or suppressing. One fine morning, when you do get angry, the ceiling comes down, and even the sublimated impressions re-crystallize, liquefy in the heat and pour out as lava. This is a split personality disorder that manifests once in six months.

7. Nothing is useless to you. You keep collecting every single nut and bolt, pin and paper. Pamphlets and empty diaries are your favorites. You take pride that archaeologists 2000 years down the line will be able to reconstruct lost history of an entire civilization by excavating just the room where you lived. They are going to connect the dots in cuneiform script by matching the pictures in the pamphlets to the dates in the dairies. You have empty diaries, that SBI had gifted to Dadabhai Naoroji , which he passed on to your great grand mother’s servant maid. Every year, you think you will use the diary for “time management”, to keep a log of, when you got up, when you had noodles etc. Personal Growth, you think. You haven’t used the rotting, rusting stuff in years, but you always want to use all of them tomorrow. ‘Just in case I require’, you know. The only good thing out of this unlimited inventory is the polythene bags you keep. At least, they save the environment. Although you are incapable of such a noble intention, it’s just an incidental benefit to mankind, apart from the archaeological ones.

8. When you see a boy and a girl talking to each other in the post office, you think, they are upto something. Upto what ? You wish in all the world, that they broke all the societal shackles and told you what they are upto, but sadly, that doesn’t happen. You don’t want to consider the straightforward naive possibility that a girl might just be borrowing a pen from the boy. Things can’t be that simple, a pen can lead to anything, you know. Curious, you come to post office the next day at the same time, because you watched a Maniratnam movie and you are expecting something to happen. Oh sad, it’s some other boy, some other girl and some other pen this time. You deliberately left your pen at home and came, but you feel shy to ask. You are hoping someone will come and ask you, ‘Do you need a pen ?’ and then compliment you by saying ‘Nice T-shirt there’. But, it doesn’t happen, you buy a new pen and write the address and go home. You spend entire lifetimes in such misplaced wishful thinking and unanswered curiosity at every post office, ATM and bus stand. Phew.

9. You are so desperate for good food that you go to the canteen with ghee (or Amul butter cubes), 2 types of pickle in bottles, Podi(2 types again) and Chips, all of them as side-dishes to your meal. You ask for more chutney and sambar than the total mass of the idlis, maximizing value for money. The board ‘Outside food not allowed’ seems so intimidating to your kind of eating habits. The good part is you share it with everyone around. This food urge can take other forms. You are waiting for your indirect aunty, three levels away in the family tree (or any aunty for that matter) to invite you for a home lunch. As they say in Dil Chahta Hai, ‘we go anywhere for a piece of cake’. On festival days like Deepavali, you even schedule your lunch/dinner offers and space them out at regular intervals, getting choosy at which item is best at which home, putting up a reasonable performance at each location.

10. Someone sends a wedding invitation over email, and you are thinking whether to wish him or not. Where does the question arise? Even for wishing over email, you go through three levels of complicated algorithms to arrive at that dilemma. Finally, you go to the reception. You are talking to people, but you are feeling lonely. You wanted to go for the wedding, but after reaching you wonder why you came. You have been collecting sayings like :

Marriage is like a besieged fortress where people who are inside, want to get out and people are outside, want to get in.
Married people have one set of problems and the unmarried ones, well, have another set. Problems still.

You are waiting for the every little opportunity to use these sayings. You want to make married people feel guilty and unmarried people feel confused. You finish your food before the couple arrive on stage. Got to save on time, you see.. Food is good, but you when you reach the couple to wish them, you finally say, Happy Birthday. Hmm. You are uncomfortable being photographed, and more uncomfortable standing on the bride’s side, even though you are standing three people away outside the camera’s range.

11. You carry a great feeling of brotherly oneness, but only when you are using things that belong to someone else. ‘Ah, our brother only na, he wont mind ya’ is your local delivery of Vasudaiva Kudumbakam. Someone has given chocolates to your room-mate for safekeeping in the fridge and you have already nationalized it without the slightest hesitation or ethical dilemma. The thumb rule is : If it can be used by you, it can be used by me.

12. In the school, in the Indian Pledge, they taught you ‘All Indians are my brothers and sisters’. You believed it, took it seriously and now you don’t know how to provide for exceptions. You haven’t grown up since. In fact, you don’t want to grow up, because, there is this sweet feeling of not growing up. After all, grown-ups have problems, don’t they ? You don’t realize that modern young women working in multinational banks hate to be called ‘Akka’ by their male colleagues, because it makes them sound so old. It looks outrageous to you that you can call them by their name and they would prefer that indeed. You still want to add a ‘ji’ to their name, just in case. After all this conservative build-up, you finally end up treating foreigners as exceptions to the Indian pledge and get ready for a cross-cultural revolution.

13. You think fluorescent orange, fluorescent green are good colours. You wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t agree with your aesthetic tastes. . Saree choices: you get confused so much, you give up and buy whatever the sales girl suggests, as if the sales girl thinks exactly like your niece. You don’t know that there are things like male colors and female colours. You also wonder how gender differences can be attributed to non-living things, like gents watches and ladies watches, gents footwear and ladies footwear, gents purse and ladies purse. They are just functional instruments, right ?, why do they complicate choices ? Why not have gents cars and ladies cars, gents keyboard and ladies keyboard, gents mosquito repellent and ladies mosquito repellent ? Thus goes your orrriginal thinking.

14. You are so much established in Vedanta, you have mastered the art of detachment so much that you can right-click and choose attachment or detachment. You come up with complicated phrases, like, attachable detachment and detachable attachment, which only the Brahmachari community understands. At a given point of time, you can be emotionally connected but spiritually disconnected. This can baffle people at times, because they are trying to find out what mode you are operating in, are you interested or not interested ? It’s like the loose contact of the network cable to your laptop. Every time before you press Enter, you have to check whether it is connected or not.

15. You have no clue how to handle kids, particularly infants. If someone gives a baby to you for a few minutes for caretaking, you start sweating. You think they are going to scream anytime. And just when you thought that, it does scream. Their cheeks get red and you think it needs medical attention. You are always wondering whether it is going to do the zing thing on your lap-top, causing you to rinse your clothes. You have strange concepts from nowhere, like, ‘if you spend lot of time with kids, you may convert to making some of your own’. You are waiting for the Mummy or Daddy to come and get the baby back from you.

16. You go to a 5-star hotel with friends and have just curd rice. The waiter looks at you, as if your Mommy never fed you anything else for upbringing. You look at him back, brimming with pride that it’s indeed true. You shoot off into a speech to your friends on the wonderful effects it has. You recall with nostalgia, how, in your school days, you ate previous day’s rice soaked in water with curds and how it was instrumental in acquiring the vast intelligence you have now. Not knowing, that’s precisely, what the waiter will be bringing in a few minutes. And then you crib, ‘How can curd rice be so costly ?’. ‘Exclusive cow for you, Sir’, he explains.

17. When you want to describe a corporate scenario where two parties are fighting, you use the husband-wife analogy. When more parties join the fight, you start extending it by upto third wife, fourth husband and so on. If it’s software projects, it even extends to, my kid and your kid are fighting with our kids. You don’t realize that the project manager on the other end of the conference call, may be married and he may be raising his eye-brows at the way you are making his professional discussion more lively.

18. You do not know the difference between normal jokes and adult jokes. You think they are all the same. You even think, every normal joke has an adult significance. You don’t know which to use, when and where, to whom. Therefore, you draw twitches from people who listen to your jokes, instead of laughter. You wonder why the women in the gathering are not laughing but staring at you with a confused look like “what’s happened to this bloke”. Then you realize that you have told the wrong joke at the wrong place. But you repeat the mistake all over again at the next gathering with a different joke.

19. What is meant to be taken seriously, you take it as a joke.What is meant to be taken as a joke, you take it seriously. Like this post. You are an enigma.

20. You think, you don’t suffer from any eccentricity. It’s the rest of the world that is way off the orbit, particularly the married folks. The world revolves around you and it’s not doing it properly. You also use phrases like ‘Cha, married peepal, they are like that only no?’ or ‘Once you get married na, that’s all raa, gone case, booked forever, Govindaaa only’ and so on. To think you don’t have any eccentricity, may itself be one. Also, even a normal eccentricity found in normal people, you wrongly assume only Brahmacharis suffer from these eccentricities. It could be anyone. This misunderstanding can itself be an eccentricity.

21. And finally, some tidbits, all bunched into one item.

You are scared to death, of dogs.You feel all the dogs in the world are out to get you and afraid even of sleeping dogs. Let the dogmatic dogs lie as they are.

You think that a girl’s mind is programmed and re-programmable. By you.

You think the whole world is there to listen to your bathroom singing and you distort the lyrics of sweet devotional songs with Mexican tribal drum sounds produced by you, because you think tunes transcend the lyrics.

You carry a wide green sitting mat that looks like a flying magic carpet, occupying area worth three kadapa slabs. And yet you jostle for space.

You have tea at the middle of the road at midnight, after a drama practice session, and want to call it Brahmachari independence.

If someone names his book as Jyoti Rupa Sandhya Vandana and Gayatri Mahima, the title doesn’t look spiritual to you.

So, Which one of these, do you think, I suffer from ? Let me know in the comments.

Not that I’ll eliminate them. I’ll even out those eccentricities, get back into orbit and replace them with newer eccentricities, as part of personal growth. Different people have different eccentricities, and there as many eccentricities as there are people. So if yours is not on the list, put that in the comments and let others know.

I have no idea how the Brahmacharinees operate in this terrain. So if you feel this post has a gender bias or a chauvinistic angle, please know that it is not intended. Indeed, both genders are equally capable of going off the orbit. Do a simple find-replace and tweak the context a bit, you will get their side of the story. My guess is, it’s as complicated as it is on this side. But don’t break your rules and go to verify it, in Mohabbatein style.

If you think the eccentricity I am mentioning here refers to someone whom you know, keep quiet. Don’t put that in the comments and get me sued. We can giggle on that over a cup of coffee. I don’t know you, I disown all my readers regularly. Read Ram Gopal Varma’s disclaimer on Raktha Charithra. It’s all fiction and faction blurring into fact, occasionally. The rest is just accidental coincidence.

Can our movies influence our morality ?

2010-10-18T01:16:00.007+05:30

A blog piece on New York Times discusses Vengeance movies and faintly mentions their ability to raise the questions of morality and violence to the viewers. A blogger friend buzzed it in, which set me thinking on how much our movies can influence us. Who ever took movies seriously anyway ? Or should you ? Whatever, at least it made me come back to my (now) haunted blog on its third anniversary Vijayadasami and see if I can still ruffle some dry leaves that have fallen on the floor.

I wonder if the visual media have that strong an impact when it comes to making our daily decisions that we act upon. It might happen in the case of someone who watches them all day, repeatedly the same kind, confined in a closed room and then sets out to imagine the world as what he has seen in an image. In which case, he might need a different kind of help. But for most average viewers, it's just a use-and-throw batch of inputs. Even during the watching act, we might be involved in our chores, chatting with someone, doling out our gyan, knitting a sweater or doing one's job. Like my barber does, dangerously, :) . He keeps me in trepidation as to whether all the Rayalaseema violence that he is watching on the screen while I am on the operating table, will it translate into action on my neck ? :) .

We also meet a lot of good people in the day. We do a lot of good things and some trivial things. The set of inputs from a particular sensory stream has to fight its way with those streaks of goodness and love. What we say of good things : Capture, Contemplation and Conduct (Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyasana) will also be true of the bad things, I mean, they would need as much effort to get there, no ? Or does Evil travel faster and impinge deeper ? (maybe).

When we speak of the good teachings, we all know how much we read, out of which how much we are convinced to be true, and how (little) we practise :). Ask the teen reader of Ayn Rand and the fortywala who read her in his teens. You will know the Top 10 reasons why we don't act all that we read. Welcome to the world of linear programming. Given a set of constraints, we find the optimal solution. That old creaky furniture, we don't move them around too much, we don't turn the problem on its head and re-examine its boundaries. That job is left to the creative few. I hope we bring the same proportion of inadequacy :) and lethargy when it comes to the bad things. :) :) . For all the build-up that RGV gives on his blog to his upcoming pic on factional violence, how many of us would sympathise with the protagonist any more than we do at the popcorn vendor's oily shirt ?

This is not to condone Evil or a gatepass to be lenient at the Mind's checkpost. You still need your sense control (Or sense of control, if you want to look at it that way). If you are a sadhaka, you are reading the wrong post on the right blog, you should switch to a slightly more complicated post like this . This is just to mock at Satan's inability :) to conquer Man and to glorify man's inherent ability to figure out things which he should act upon and those that which he can ignore. After all , are we, as a Society, Goodness personified, who occasionally stray away into the dark bushes or Darkness personified, randomly remembering a faint Divinity ? Reminds me of Ramnath's blog post, once upon a time, asking Is Man inherently evil ? , after he watched Schindler's List. (See, I remembered my blogmentor on the anniversary post).

I loved Rang De Basanti for its vivid screenplay, well-chiselled expressions and upbeat BGM. I had watched it many times over at that time. But I am not sure if it has influenced me enough to even endorse the climax, let alone taking it seriously. Whether it has influenced me or not, is something others have to comment on!

Will Humble Joe become a Violent Tom, if he watches all that is listed in NYT article ? ( Phew! I haven't watched even one of those.... ) I think it takes a lot more than that to rewire minds. And only if you skip your protective armour of midnight meditation :) . Or will it seep into your roots like slow poison and displace your moral tectonic plates in the long run ? Aren't we made of sterner stuff ? Can Vengeance movies, that portray it misleadingly as righteous anger, create a long-term persistent impact on the average adult viewer ? He paid a certain amount of money to be away from his humdrum world and he won't carry tough lessons back to that world of drudgery from which he wanted an escape to entertainment. The kids' minds and their vulnerability are another thing altogether, but I think adults can differentiate rama from drama and dharma from karma. Do we live in that bad a world ? What say ? And what would you say to your kid ?

What's your Personal Work Ethic ?

2010-08-19T01:17:00.011+05:30

The personal work ethic is a topic I always wanted to write about. Ramnath triggered this piece, by posting a short review of the book, The 4-hour Workweek at the Sai Students Portal. The book is mainly about how you can manage to work only 4 hours a week and amongst others, suggests outsourcing personal tasks. Some discussion ensued and here are my comments at that blog, made out into a post (with a few edits ) here :

I havent read the book, I find the title and theme of the book as described, quite interesting. But I find that the "methods" that he suggests are a bit cliched, just a e-Yuga rehash of the old school lessons of time management, personal efficiency, goal setting stuff talked by a lot of other books.

That apart, the ability to contemplate on why we do what we do and the conflict between what we want (at our ideal level of aspiration) and what we do, is something we lack in our times. What Dritharashtra said in the context of Dharma is also applicable to goals, Jaanami Dharmam Nacha Me Pravritti, Jaanami Adharmam Nacha Me Nivritti..., the gap between knowing what to do and doing it in-deed.

The personal work ethic that each of us bring to the workplace is something that I have always found interesting to observe. How much of what we do is because of the control system that pushes us and how much of it would we do in its absence ? How many hours of work is "right" or "optimal", assuming you want to be just loyal to the contract, not any less or more ? Peter Drucker once said, that the best motivated employee is a volunteer. What is the substantially differentiating basic attitude towards work, between, say a waiter whose opportunity to bring originality to the work is limited, and say, a Google employee who gets to spend 20% on it ?

Why work ? Well, that can be a dangerous question :) . If you deconstruct this too much from the Advaitic angle, you might end up with a fallacious conclusion : Don't work. Which we knew already and we are good at. :) To avoid that, you should start from Gita's premise, that work is inevitable. You can't not work, dude, the software doesnt provide that feature. Given that, and all of us have the same 24 hours, a deep thought on 'Why do I work ? ' can provide custom answers to what satisfies you. It can differentiate achiever from a non-starter, a poet from a mechanic, a saint from a sinner. It can be a basis for the development (or lack thereof) of other qualities like loyalty, dedication, team spirit and ambition. You can find some of these qualities and an amazing work ethic in some workers and simple people, so it may not actually be a function of the money you get. It's probably just a function of what custom answers you form in your mind, after you solve the equation for yourself.

Of course, there are major implications when you institutionalize the optimal work ethic of an individual, because, "market" forces like competition, cost, performance pressure, peer presence etc chip in to make it complex. But probably, the large scale orientation towards metrics and efficiency in modern management, is pushing the individual more and more away from his or her optimal band of work-life balance. As a race, we have moved from success in survival to success in war to success in trade. The common element in those phases has been competition. What's the next dimension of success we will move towards ? And what will that revolve around ?

I also wonder whether people doing one kind of work (say intellectually challenging strategy work ) are any more "busy" than, say, a construction worker who carries bricks all day. We usually think the former kind to be much more "busy" and perhaps "better contributive", "better value-adding" than the latter, but, in terms of the time spent, they both spend the same amount of time (give or take a few hours) on something that they have chosen (or say forced to have chosen) to do. And in most cases as part of a contract. When someone says, I am more busy than you, it's most often untrue, it just means, what I am busy with, has more visibility than what you are busy with. Or, I may have all the time in the world, but that time is not for you. :)

One type of work may be more satisfying than another, depending on what satisfies you. But is one type of work, intrinsically superior/good than another ? Is a painter better off than a conductor, because his work is creative ? If it is, what parameters contribute to its superiority ? Say, "to create a better world", is one such. The person who is at the top of such a company identifies directly with it and probably closer to that vision whereas for the person who is involved three levels down the work hierarchy, it would just be, being a waiter, a job to do for the pay he takes. The reverse is also possible in their attitudes, someone takes to it as carrying a stone (or pushing numbers), and someone else takes to it as building a cathedral. We once spent a whole night loading trucks with rice, clothes and relief material for the victims of the Gujarat earthquake. Oh, we found it very satisfying when the series of trucks were leaving the campus. Why was that ?

I think there are actually very few templates in which majority of us fall in. Very few actually get to do something that is substantially different, creating a new template altogether. Although we often want to claim and feel what we do is somehow "unique", and say so in our marketing brochures and interviews, most of the time it's the same cycle and the same pursuits, with minor variants/derivatives of what we call in programming design as an Abstract Class. Brings me to the thought: how much of programming work is different from plumbing ? You fix one valve and there goes the next, phut. What, we actually use the words like architecture, platform, address, tunnelling and named pipes... :) If you push us a little more, we'll start coming out with software equivalent terms for concrete, steel, emulsion paint, waterproofing and so on.

In every area of work, there is the exciting part, the boring part and the hated part. That exciting, boring and hated tasks come as a package in any vocation is something you may have to live with. Like doing the dishes after the party. For this reason, I have always failed to resolve one of the usual guidelines that personal effectiveness books suggest : Prioritize and ensure you give your time to high value-adding tasks. The fallout of this is that you are forced to categorize a certain set of tasks as low priority, with the effect that they are first ones to get rescheduled or postponed. Over a period of time, these tasks will build up to become critical or requiring immediate attention and graduate to become high priority and then you run to it. Whereas the very buildup should have been averted in the first place if you paid due attention to those seemingly low priority items on a more distributed basis. Cleaning, maintenance, fixing things that dont work, backing up your computer, stitching that button in time and a hundred other little things would be called low priority in a "Value-Time-Matrix" that these books would draw for you. Of course, the rationale is to avoid getting lost in a ocean of little things, but too much focus on high value items only results in escalation purely born out of negligence. At the workplace, everyone tending to high value prioritization can cause defects that are not noticed and people finding their own little ways to cut corners even as they continue to present a nice greeny picture on the high value items.

To be able to give every task its due entails the acceptance of a certain amount of boredom that comes as a package with enjoyable work. Tenacity, thoroughness, exhaustive level of detailing can all turn to boredom, but one may have to go beyond that attitudinal fatigue to be able to deliver good work.

On a personal level, outsourcing comes at a more pinching cost than it does for orgs. In the hostel, there were always two sets of guys, who always washed and pressed their clothes even if they could afford and the ones who outsourced them. I used to find it strange when someone said "I love doing this myself". My favorite outsourcing question used to be : why dont you grow your own paddy ? :) . Hmmm, that explains the success of Farmville ! (and my failure therein).

The famous quote "enjoy what you do and you don't have to work a day in your life" is so cliche now. That also entails a certain amount of re-orienting our attitude towards work, if not opting out of the entire work stream that one may be currently involved in. I think it's a flowery way to encourage those who find that boring and hated components of the package are greater than the exciting part. Either find work that you enjoy or learn to "book" something as enjoyable :) :)

This shouldn't be depressing, however. The point is that, what we think about the work we do and want to do, has a lot to do with how happy we are. Happiness, in a mundane sense, is a function of what we do, why we do and how we do but it's like an ice cream. As long as you get the flavour A you like, you are as averagely happy as another person who liked and got his flavour B.

The ideal personal work ethic would probably be a cross-product of buddhist, protestant and the Gita approaches to work, with collectivist lessons drawn from communism and the achievement orientation drawn from capitalism. Well, that would be NextGen Sociology !!

The Hunger Strike at Kasi Vinayaga Mess

2009-12-12T22:41:00.004+05:30

When I was in Chennai, the Kasi Vinayaga Mess, a bachelors paradise in Triplicane, hiked their meal prices. Some regulars approached me to ask whether I will participate in a hunger strike in protest. We skipped lunch on a Sunday and spent the whole afternoon in the tea shop in front of the mess. The guy lost his revenue, but didnt give up and went on a return fast. Soon the mess-runners association joined him and cancelled dinner. His wife, annoyed that he didnt bring home that day's collections, went on a hunger strike. Her mahila sangam joined treating it as a twin offence of violation of human rights and economic harassment.

As you naturally expect in argumentative hero-worshipping democracies anywhere in the world, more restaurants and mahila sangams joined and there was food (or lack thereof) crisis in Triplicane. Food prices plummeted and was offered free along with the second-hand books sold on Triplicane platforms, but people would only satisfy their intellectual hunger and use it to hold on to their protest with determination. The Parthasarathy Swamy, overlooking the Bay of Bengal, suddenly discovered to His helplessness, that the Madapalli (temple kitchen) was closed without prior notice and his daily dose of Chakkey Pongey and Iyengar Puliyodharai had been withdrawn. The priests, who ran many Braahmanaal Messes as part-time, treated the Divine Temple Kitchen as an extension of their mess, and for all their namams built up with devotion, put a bigger one to the Lord that day. The Madisar Maamis quickly used the opportunity to declare 'mess-closed' for their agrharam kitchens too and happily settled down to watch the Malini Iyer serial, starring Sri Devi as a Tambram bride in a hindi-speaking household, so that they can take a dig at their Mylapore counterparts. As if a Manjula Iyengar would have made a better bride and a better serial. Being without a mess, people realised, became a big mess.

And then hunger struck. I mean, it STRUCK us. In chronological order. First, it struck me, actually. That is real hunger strike, when hunger strikes you. How long can you stand in front of a mess and not have food, particularly, food being a primary component of happiness index for Brahmacharis, what other earthly pleasure did they seek in life, after all ? Are we not the ones who treat the payasam given by the neighbourhood aunty after Satynarayana Pooja with maximum reverence and effortlessly devour it as if it was a glass of buttermilk ? We gave up all the principles that we held dear to our heart since the afternoon and stomached a cardinal teaching that was right in front of our dangling eyes in broad daylight waiting to be acknowledged.

That was this: Right there, somewhere near the Ice House Bus Stand, Swami Vivekananda had declared, after the Darshan of Lord Parthasarathy, Vedanta was definitely not for empty stomachs. No, not for you Madrasees, in particular. I think, he might have actually insisted you have atleast one sambar idly in Ratna Cafe before you picked up Ashtavakra Gita. A session of Ashtavakra Gita can be so strenuous, it can consume a lot more idlies. This part must have been edited by his translators to avoid the ethnic reference to a regional cuisine and to avoid sounding as if he was promoting a particular brand of Idlis. So much intensity there was in the speech to his disciple Azhasinga Perumal that they named the bus stand as Vivekananda House. Not knowing a Kannaki Statue will come up nearby on the beach and there will be nomenclature clashes about Kannaki and Vivekananda. (But why do they still call it Ice House ? I mean neither of them stand to benefit).

'I like Vedanta', I thought, 'I don't want to give up Vedanta', but that would also mean, I shouldn't remain with an empty stomach. Isn't Vedanta the crowning jewel of all the principles in the world, before which all other principles fade into oblivion, my mind and stomach justified, in partnership. That knowledge, when known, you dont need to know anything else. That sambar idli, when eaten, you don't need to eat anything else. Clearly, I was beginning to see the similarities between the ephemeral and the eternal and how to put Vedanta into daily life, sincerely taught by Ashtavakra and sumptuously sponsored by Rathna Cafe. It's amazing, if you deter the metabolism and deny oxygen to the brain for a few hours, how it constructs an equally beautiful, alternate logical structure mixing up gods, swamijis and their disciples, treating letters as speeches and quoting the right sentence from the wrong source, dotting all 'i's in the idlis and dashing all the 't's in Vedanta. And justifies with a simple conclusion, whatever needs to be done, just do it. I was a new man, with new logic, new metabolism and a newly washed old tumbler in my hand.

I entered the mess and force fed the owner first with a 'single tea' and pleaded with him to force feed all of us at the tables.

You know what, the snowballing effect of what would have turned into a public movement led by a Naishtika brahmachari, surpassing the ahimsa movement led by a not-so-naisthika brahmachari, was averted and the cascading reversed. He force fed his wife, who in turn, force fed him back in reciprocation of affection. Ooooooo, it was a sight for all the hungry Gods of Triplicane to see. Both of them started force feeding the mess owners and mahila sangams on either side of the gender divide. They also force fed the second hand book sellers, who were already fed, since they had not yet joined, but were fed up to see the spoilt food causing the books to smell. Though the books had their worn-out paper smell that resembled the fragrance that emanates from the beach sands after a mild shower, the additional ingredient to the odour had sent wrong signals to the intellectually hungry elite and their book sales had been suffering. The F & B industry and the Publishing Industry in India, both got the lesson in a single session: 'Dont mess up with a bachelors mess, they are already a pre-fabricated mess by design, otherwise it will take a messrs of all messes and their mrs-es to clear up the mess'.

The KVM owner still calls me up every Saturday night to assure me the prices are the same. When he called today, however, he sounded worried. It seems the PMK party in Tamil Nadu wants the state to be divided. 'Thambeeee ,', he said, 'will they go on a hunger strike like your folks in Teloongana ?' he enquired with his eye brows already drawn like the borders of bifurcation. He didnt know that I no more lived in such a nice place called Samaikhya Andhra Pradesh, which Bharathiar praised as Sundara Telunginil Paatisaithu, but in a newly carved state called Greater Rayalaseema. The greater name sounds a bit like Navi Mumbai or Burj Dubai. Why don't they just call it Royal Seema or something rhyming and poetic like Rathnalaseema. Why don't I go on a hunger strike on this issue and feel off as if I am some Prakasam Panthulu ?

He insisted that I intervene, lest the Pandya Kingdom south of Dindigul is split off as a separate state. Now that really touched me, it immediately transported me on Rani Mangammal Transport Corporation to the rock fort and 'Aranmanai Kulam' (Palace Pond) of that sleepy tobacco town. If you touch such a sentimental, emotional, territorial chord, how can I refuse ? Further, he extended his imagination richly to surmise that, if I allowed the split to happen, the new territory upto Rameswaram, may, in due course, quit India and float off on Sethu Samudram, to become a state under Sri Lankan sovereignty. Given their recent modus operandi of establishing sovereignty, the word wont mean much anyway, I told him, they might just send them all back as refugees to Triplicane and you would have a roaring business. May be you should start a Kandi Kadhirgaamak Kandhaa Mess.

However, to allay his secession fears, I asked him if there was any tea shop in front of the PMK office. 'Alone-aaa Thambeee ?', he asked, thinking I might borrow a few volunteers from KCR and use it for a similar cause. 'Don't worry Anney', I told him, 'there will be surely some college nearby, that will do for additional troops'. Just provoke some students, and show them how their entire green pastures and futures lie in just foregoing a lunch and crowding at the tea shop and drooling at the girls. Nay, first provoke the teachers, our students respectfully follow the illustrious teachers on all the wrong things precisely, and then they will all do a repeat performance of Kasi Vinayaga Mess. What more do bachelors want to start a hunger strike ? And for what else do you want to use all the youth and passion and intensity ? After all, were we not told, they are clay and they can be moulded. Just use the clay part in their heads. Any volunteers ? I promise you, we'll be back for dinner, we've dunnit before.

What to do with Twitter ....

2009-07-08T02:32:00.002+05:30

Just joined Twitter, but wondering what to do with it ? :)

Will it mitigate my tendency to write 10 words where one is enough ?

Or will it provide a window of expression for the short quips and gyan bubbles that don't make it to my blog ?

Who wants to blog and who wants to read ??

2009-05-02T00:34:00.005+05:30

Few years ago, one day, a point about online writing was brought up during a discussion. This was much before I started blogging and was more in the context of writing at forums and the like, a bit extending to discussion-type writing. The point was :

Online writing suits only people who have lot of time in their hands. People who have important things to say or do will not be frequenting online forums and blogs, they will be busy doing such good work on the field, dirtying their hands to transform the world !! Even in the case of some well-known forums or blogs, interest wanes with time in spite of a initial spurt. In short, It is the jobless people who are creative !!.

The last phrase wasn't exactly voiced, but you should know by now, how much in this blog is fact and how much is my own spicy sauce, particularly since I updated the disclaimer just yesterday.

I think certain parts of this are quite true. How many blogs or websites, will survive, say 15 years ? Like SlashDot, whose interface pre-dates even the word blog, but is still quite famous in its segment. Whether blog as a medium will survive itself is a different question. How many now-famous websites will stand the test of a decade ? And if around, would they just continue to be famous or continue to just exist or, worse, go through a series of takeovers to be merged into one of the biggies, like AltaVista ?

I find it interesting that, for many bloggers, interest in blogging does wane after a while, may be goes through a lull and then strikes back or takes a different form (or most often dies). I often wonder what kind of frame of mind, may be a periodic wave, pushes you to blog and at other times, pushes you away from it ? Is it that, you are at a particular level of seeking intellectual stimulation or creative expression but later graduate to something higher or degenerate to something lower ? Or life just gets busy ? Would you still blog at 60 as much you did at 30 ? Gazing at the moon from the riverside bench, a friend recently asked me : You went to Orkut, you went to blogging, you went to StumbleUpon, now you want Facebook and Twitter, what do you seek and when will you stop, having found what you sought ? I was suddenly struck by the question, he was right, and I had to put up my patented heheheheh face and change the topic to elections. May be he was just adapting Bhartrihari's Vairagya Satakam to the internet audience. There are not many blogs in the Vedanta segment, so he could start one.

Before I took to blogging, my own views about this may not have been so well-formed , since I was more of a devouring consumer of online writing than of a contributor. As if all my views got formed just last night :) :). But they were on these lines, during that on online writing :

There is always a section of people who are creative and have the urge to write. These are folks who will find time to write, no matter how busy they are or whichever high position they may be. For them, it's not like 'do it if you have the time'. Since they enjoy doing it, they will find the time anyway. Like some people have a natural inclination towards gardening. The Net gives more impetus for people with even the faint urge to write (though they may do it in SMS lang) . Authenticity, relevance and good-evil-mix-up of Internet phenomena like blogs and citizen journalism are still being disputed heavily but most agree that it has indeed thrown open the doors of creative writing to far more people than who used to write only to newspapers and magazines and then wait for Mr.Editor to garland them. The Net is also a place, where someone can start writing though he is diffident or ruffian in his approach, but hope to refine on the way by learning and improvising. The not-yet-edited entries in h2g2 that need editing help are examples of these.

The Net also provides for bi-directional feedback and a far more lively discussion than other media provide, including the radio and television where interactions are limited by air-time. Can you have a television debate, that is open-ended until settled ? Not that anyone asked for it. There is also this view that, instant writing, does not necessarily result in thoughtful writing, but then that can be said about newspaper writing too. Editors from the traditional print media, hold that Internet writing is not so authentic, reliable etc. I agree on this, but then traditional print media isn't bidirectional either. If I am allowed a strong opinion, I feel, the reluctance of traditional media to accept the Internet as a far more powerful medium with its unique benefits, is parochial, as time, tide and technology (and markets) wait for none. As I have said before here, Technology denied, just means, Technology delayed, You can't deny it for long. How many newspapers have websites that allow discussions, how many of them are able to exploit even just the commercial potential, even if you forget the crowdsourcing and ideas-potential for a moment ? How many have helpful, in-line text links, even to their own earlier news pages or to non-competitive pages like government websites, which even an average blogger will explore to provide ? Some of them don't have advanced search and certain others, it seems, do not want to do any more extra work than convert the print paper into the e-Paper. For all the rightful glory of The Hindu Classifieds pages in print, the online presence is offered as a freebee, so a search on Classifieds across, say a few months, either has an extremely poor interface or disallows searching the archived classifieds. Such indifference towards the Net as a medium, as if it would cost that much more or the bride found her groom after the first ad :) . From their perspective, I think not all of these may be commercially viable, with margins in the print business not that attractive any more, but I think that should only encourage them to explore the usage of the medium even better. If there are other news aggregating websites who are able to make money without getting news from the field themselves, the news gatherers should try it themselves and beat the algorithm of the techie aggregators.

As for visitors, I think spending time to visit a forum or news site, is similar to (and takes away) the time spent in reading a newspaper or a book. The time spent and thinking process remains the same, only the medium has changed. The flip side, however, imho, will be not, "who wants to visit these blogs and sites", but about the fact that, the Internet is open only for english-literate + net-friendly + writing-urge type of people, though the language insistence has begun to change in a small way. There are, I am sure, hundreds more of potential bloggers, who still have plenty of ideas, like the vernacular-medium students who are masters at trigonometry, and do a good job of sharing these ideas in face to face in their gatherings, but still far away from the Internet, because they arent net-write-qualified. Well, that is the nature of the Internet, so we have to live with the limitation. Imagination and interactive zeal, I think, is far more bigger than what technology can capture and the distance can reduce but may never be eliminated. And who knows, may be they are better off in the brick-and-mortar world than in the click-and-mouse world !!

Will the Nano click ?

2009-04-29T23:52:00.004+05:30

My only concern is: I hope there are no quality issues in an effort to cost-cutting, since the Tatas are under cost-pressure nowadays from all sides. Political decisions, Costly acquisitions, Industry downturn, Expectations from dealers and vendors [and even bankers :) ]. If the first few batches hit the roads and then turn out with some defects, that will be terrible. But if they are able to deliver the quality they promise for that price (which the Tatas have always been good at), then, I think it's going to be a huge hit, both in India and very soon, abroad.

As to going global, they may have a tough time fulfilling local demand, but when they do, their timing might just be right. People would just be emerging from bad times and the need to look for cost-effective products with comparable utility will be one of their top-of-mind concerns. At last, some engineering-based Indian product will arrive in the global scene !! If it clicks, I really hope and expect it to rock !! It would make US and European carmakers sit up and get worried, (if they are still around), although, actually, from their perspective it would be just another, age-old-concept, cheap car, except for the price shock they get. (I can't say the same thing about Japanese, however). It might be no match to the premium range excellence and finesse of the Germans, gadgetry of the Japanese or the lavish feature-kill of the Americans, but, the starting line for the race is not in that segment. Unlike the Chinese electronic goods, it would be a world-class, yet frills-free utility car, at the Indian prices (!) which India has so far been able to deliver in service sectors and some manufacturing sectors like textiles. We should really appreciate Tata's daring to attempt that. I often wish something like that happens for India in the products market in software, unlike the ITES and BPO where all the focus (and the tax sops) seem to be. As to environ and cars-per-road issues, they are industry-wide regulation issues and a single brand can't be isolated to be responsible for the flooding the roads in its sincere and determined attempt to create value for money.

Is Maruti listening ?

Chardham 2005

2009-04-24T01:42:00.003+05:30

From my Travel Diary, here is an account of a trip to the Chardham shrines, Badri, Kedar, Yamunotri and Gangotri in the Himalayas. This happened in 2005 and these are excerpts from a letter to a friend.

It was the call of the Himalayas. Six of us went to what is popularly called the Chardham Shrines, i.e., Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. We had hired a Sumo from Haridwar through these shrines back to Haridwar and Rs.5300 per head for the 12 days. It was a mix of Adventure, Nature, Fun and Pilgrimage. This belt involves lot of trekking. The best part is throughout the trip, you travel right along the Ganga and its tributaries like Bhagirathi, Alakananda and Mandakini. Sometimes the river is at a stone's throw while in other places it is few hundred feet away vertically. All the other members trekked wherever trekking was required. I didn't trek much, I took ponies or human carriers in all places for a charge. It was a total of 80 km trek in the 12 days. We took dips in the many prayags on the way, thanks to some guys in our group, who used to gently suggest that may we please stop at this prayag and that, for a dip and darshan at the riverside shrine. We stayed in the GMVNL chain of Government Tourist Bungalows in middle-level accommodation with moderate facilities.

Vasudhara Falls

Let me tell you, if you are one who loves nature, Himalayas is the place to go. I feel it's heavily undermarketed when compared to other foreign destinations (though this may be a skewed opinion, since I haven't been abroad). Add to it the sanctity which the Indian cultural psyche attaches to the Ganges. (Forget about the lower ganges which brings up the image of pollution). This is about the Higher Ganges, beyond Haridwar, where we can actually take the water from the stream and directly drink and it would be absolutely pure. In fact, we actually drank from the stream during our trek to one Vasudhara Falls. This is a rarely visited place beyond the Mana Village which is the last village in India before the Tibetan Border. Vasudhara Falls is 5 km beyond Mana and I also had to trek because no ponies were available, since it isn't a popular destination. Our stay in Badri extended one more day because we went to Vasudhara Falls. Though the trek itself was fascinating to me, the Falls Proper turned out to be a anti-climax, since during the time we went, the Falls was a faint shower contrary to the fierce downpour it is in winter. But since that was only the stretch I trekked, it was a wonderful experience for me.

Gangotri

Beyond Gangotri, there is the Gaumukh peak where Bhagirati actually originates. It is a 19 km trek up from Gangotri. All the others went for the trek. I started too, but within 5 minutes, I just changed my mind instinctively and asked other members to go ahead and I would pick a room in Gangotri and stay till they are back the next day. Unfortunately, they were able to make it only upto 16 km upto a place called Bhojbasa and they had to return as there was a hailstorm. They had to actually walk when it was snowing to reach the Bhojbasa camp before the evening, since otherwise they would be stuck in the dark. The next morning the Uttarkashi Central School kids who had gone to Gaumukh told that it might be dangerous, so they returned from Bhojbasa. This was the most picturesque stretch with snow-capped peaks on all sides, streams to be crossed on logs put across and you can actually jump around in the snow. Looking back, I feel may be I should have made it, but all the friends say, it was a perfect decision for me to stay back since I would not have been able to make the 32 km trek without gasping, collapsing and downed by the fatigue. Everyone, particularly me, was very much worried about one of our friends who was frail, whether he will be able to make it. I was calling the Bhojbasa Camp by the wireless in my hotel to find out if our boys have reached, since even in Gangotri there was a mini hailstorm and there was this talk about it being more fierce in higher places. The temperature was around -3 degrees. But contrary to my worries, this friend was able to make it in fine condition. In fact, throughout the trip, while all of us used to be worried about him, he would always make it in good stead. He would exert and stretch himself for difficult situations, no doubt, but he would invariably make it well, no matter how difficult it would be for others. Well, some are stronger than what they appear to be.

While my brethren were up there battling the snow, I had a nice time in Gangotri. The Ganga had always fascinated me since childhood. So I felt really egggzzzzzeeeee to be on the Ganges. The hailstorm had just calmed down and there was not a soul to be seen by the Ganges, except for a stray sadhu here and there who were on their evening walk. I put on my jerkin and went for a long walk along the Ganges. In fact, I even ventured a dip at Gangotri immediately after hailstorm, but there was a Mouna Sadhu who gestured me to keep away since there was a hailstorm up there and ice cubes would be coming down the Bhagirathi. I had to postpone the dips to the next morning. I visited the Ashrams around, met a few sadhus and sages, was chatting with them about life in winter at Gangotri. All these shrines close down in winter to re-open only in mid-April. But there are sages and sadhus who have stayed for decades, summer and winter, at Gangotri, being brought provisions by someone in summer. I must have appeared to them as a very unlikely candidate for sadhana, what with my jerkin, goggles, sports shoes, track pant, hand-gloves and monkey cap with every part of my body covered with some kind of winter clothing. But once I break ice for a conversation, I would make it mutually enjoyable, well, you know about that part of me....so let me skip the trumpeting....

Badrinath and Kedarnath

While Gangotri and Yamunotri are not frequented very much by people, Badri and Kedar are popular destinations and have more facilities. Badri is the most popular since it does not involve trekking. So there are many facilities and a strong South Indian presence, including the south-indian delicacy Masala Dosa, for which we were hankering after ten days of only north-indian dishes, Aloo Parota and its equally monotonous sister, Gobi Parota in the other places. Kedar involves a 14-km trek, it's actually walking up the slopes and is not trekking in the sense of adventure sport. But even elderly people walk slowly chanting 'Hara Hara Mahadev', 'Hara Hara Gange', 'Jai Boley Nath' etc. Ponies are available for elders (like me ! haha). Also available are woodden palanquins carried by four people, which are more comforatble, and naturally more expensive. The 5 km trek to Yamunotri is the steepest of all, though it is a short one compared to Kedar.

River-rafting at Kaudiyala

If you have wondered what was the fun part of the trip, except for the bounty of Nature, here it is. Near Rishikesh, we went for what is called the White Water River Rafting on the Ganges. You row your own boat, wearing life-jackets and being taught safety instructions for danger and damage, through the whirls of the fierce Ganga, with rowing commands given by a Guide who is in the boat and gives instructions. We saw the boys and girls from Kendriya Vidyalaya start the rafting, so we thought it shouldn't be too difficult. After a few minutes, comes the exciting rowing, that you just jump into the Ganges Proper with your life-jacket on. I had heard about this from one of our friends who had gone the previous on the same stretch. So in the beginning of the rafting, I was the first one to ask the guide, 'Are you not going to allow us to jump ? '. 'Well, ' he said, 'every one of you is going to do that'. The Guide had rafted in 25 rivers across the world and said Brahmaputra is the toughest of all. when the Guide gave the go-ahead, we went for the plunge and let go of the boat. First we held on to the rope tied to the boat, but then, we let go of that and were freely floating in water. Of course, you have to be a bit cautious with danger lurking in the whirls and the rocks that may be on the banks and you may know about them after you hit your head. But then, the mix of caution, a bit of nagging fear and the bubbling excitement is what makes it an adventure. The previous night we had stayed in tents that were put up, right next to the Ganges in Kaudiyala near Rishikesh for the rafters of the next morning.

We completed our Chardham with the famous 'Har-ki-Pauri' Ganga Arati at Haridwar, when all the ancient temples in Haridwar on the banks of Ganga offer Arati simultaneously at around 7.p.m. So do the hundreds of pilgrims who leave small lamps on leaves in the Ganga co-inciding with the Arati, which makes it a sight for the Gods to see.

So much for the Chardham. Apart from these we also had included Amritsar, Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan and Delhi in our itinerary. From Haridwar we went to Amritsar. Of course, we were in Delhi only for a day, but each of us had some kind of individual agenda like visiting friends and relatives. So we got back together after we finished our respective works and we did a bit of shopping at Palika Bazar.

Amritsar

In Amritsar, we went to the Golden Temple, Jalianwala Bagh Memorial and to the Wagah Border with Pakistan. The Golden Temple was really wonderful, with the huge water tank surrounding the temple. They give free food as prasad for all visitors ( and so it is, I believe, at all gurudwaras in the world). The voluntarism there also impressed me a lot, what with volunteers involved in all the activities like cleaning shoes, canteen works, cleaning the shrine etc. Of course, you have to wear this scarf on your head. Scarves are available for free at the entrance.

At the Wagah Border in Amritsar, which we included after hearing that the Indian Cricket team had gone there, the specialty is the Change of Guard Parade which takes place at 6.30 in the evening. This side is full of Indian Visitors and the other is full of Pakistanis. The parade takes place everyday at the same time amidst heavy shouting by visitors on both sides. While fellows and fellis on this side shout 'Vande Mataram', 'Hindustan Zindabad', 'Bharat Matha Ki Jai' etc the other side matches the pitch with 'Pakistan Zindabad' and the like. There is also a commentary by the armies on both sides as the the parade progresses.

We had to dash through Mathura and Vrindavan quickly since we had only one day for Mathura, Vrindavan and Agra. At Mathura, Right next to the temple sharing a wall with it, is the mosque built by Aurangazeb. The temple itself was destroyed and re-built 6 times during the various muslim invasions. The jail where Lord Krishna was born has been made into a shrine. A very serene place. Vrindavan is just a few km away. While the pestering guides and money-minded priests make it a bit funny, the shrines are very good. The thick and delicious Lassi sold in earthen pots needs a special mention.

The Taj Mahal

We had only a couple of hours spend at Agra. But I was amazed. The Taj is indeed imposing just as you step into the premises, with huge domes touching the sky and sight of sheer marble everywhere leaving you stunned. The dash of Mughal Architecture is evident on every inch, though the Yamuna was not as impressive as I expected. That may be because, we had seen the Original Yamuna in all its splendour, gushing and galloping down the rocks, so anything on the plains looks so mean. Thankfully there are no constructions behind the Taj, so the Taj with the backdrop of greenery looks like a giant lonely lover reaching out to the skies as the manifestation of the anguish that once haunted a rich and a melancholic king.There is high security. Video cameras are not allowed beyond a point. Even our portable hard disk in which we used to dump all the high-res digital photos, was not allowed. Tourists throng the place, particularly young couples and lovers, probably with the million-dollar question 'Kya Hamara Prem Bhee Aisa Amar Rahega ?'. But if you are going ( I mean if someone wants to go), I would suggest you go with your wife or fiancee. Of course, if you are a guy who enjoys different kinds of architecture, then it is a must-see case study in Architecture. And that it is one of the 7 wonders is not without reason. Someone remarked that after all it is a tomb or mausoleum and should be of little interest to spiritually-inclined half-monks, but I would say it is a parochial view. You should appreciate good work where you see it and this piece is undoubtedly among the finest of art.

From Agra, we dashed back in Tamilnadu Express to down south, moving from cold temperatures to our good old temperatures in the South. In all the trip costed around Rs.10000 per head including all expenses. If you include the shopping for the sake of and during the trip, it would be Rs.15000 per head.

The price is not right.... For whom ?

2009-04-08T07:14:00.005+05:30

In this piece by Thomas L Friedman before the G-20 summit, he compares the mispricing of risk between financial systems and the environment...

My comments :

Firstly, he discusses more of market and less of environment and the line seems to be to draw parallels between two deteriorating systems, though one system does not have operational similarities with another, except for the generic "risk underpricing" phrase.

If it's a straight carbon tax, it's feasible.

If it's a regulation that directs the companies to include environ costs as part of their costing, it will be complex to get implemented. It would be difficult to fix which is which in costing, particularly when you leave it to the companies.

Either way, something on similar lines is much required and will have some benefits. Among other things, at least, it will enable environ friendly technologies to sound at comparable costs, not because their costs have come down but the environ-hostile energy options would become costly. Which eventually, by rise in volumes, might bring down the costs of environ friendly technologies.

Assuming it gets implemented perfectly, which might require a cost overhaul, may be in some cases, bloat the costs by a few times, it will push up the costs of goods and services. Should be fine for developed countries or even emerging economies like BRIC , who anyway are resource guzzlers. But, I think, the Third World countries will be at an undue disadvantage.

That is the reality anyway, might as well face it, we might say. True, but we want everyone to raise up and face the reality to which we have suddenly woken up to, and we want it to happen with the same suddenness. Most often in practice, people put survival before nice things like environ care, those who are struggling for survival that is. Survival as an individual is a more basic instinct than the more philanthropic priority of survival of the race.

Every infrastructure plan to reach the last mile in those countries will present before us, the "green" version of the costs, which are high, and therefore, both the pace and quantum of benefits will become inversely proportional to such high costs, making it slower to reach those miles.

It will be like the grown-up daddies, expecting their kids to learn all that they didn't learn in their childhood, plus what they learnt as they grew up plus all the great things all kids should know, ignoring that the such persuasion itself can affect growth !!! Only till the kid asks the grandma, 'what did papa do when he was like me' ?

My Top 10 favorite A R Rahman songs

2009-04-01T01:54:00.016+05:30

On the day A R Rahman received the Golden Globe Award, I decided that, if Rahman went on to win the Oscars, I would blog about My Top 10 Favorite A R Rahman tracks. So here they are.

The first comment I received from most of my friends, is that, Top 10 is too small a thing to contain the full Rahman. Even the Oscars had to catch up so late, so what can you say about an upstart blogger's ad-hoc listings ? So so true, I knew it before I listed them. When I pulled a piece of paper and went on to scribble 'top-of-mind-recall' tracks, the list came to 35, in the first two minutes. Yet, there are so many Top 10 lists, let me just add one more. Not that my list matters, particularly since my music sense is well-documented on this blog before. But after all, as Munnabhai put it, apun public hai public, kya ?

If you don't like Rahman, simple, I don't like you. :) :) . But, since the world is so vast and has unnecessary room for all of us, and I also want to pride about balanced perspectives even when they are irrelvant, I still have stuff for people who don't like his music: I'll make a mention of the few things that I don't like about ARR's music, towards the end. It so happens, some of my favorites in this list are from Tamil, because I also relate to the lyrics. But, I am sure, most of these are equally enjoyable in their Hindi and Telugu or even Swahili equivalents.

Most links point to : Wikipedia/Youtube/Dhingana

10. Kannum kannum kollai adithal... The Artham Song from Thiruda Thiruda....

I can only start from the time I started listening to A R Rahman's music. Unlike so many others who proudly mention today that they knew him from the good old days when he was known as Dileep, like this movie director I had dinner with. I arrived rather late into that world. Life had been busy, juggling between college, part-time/summer jobs, service activities and competitive exams. I hadn't watched movies for the previus 7 years. The comfort of touching a 4-digit salary for the first time (particularly when you started with 2-digits) allows you certain indulgences. Roja, in all its glory, had come and gone, taking the music world by storm while I was busy in chinna chinna velai. I would catch up with it later.

I was staying at my friend's place, who was preparing for PG Medical Entrance and I was surprised to see that, about once in two hours or so, he would, take a break, play a couple of songs, jump around and get back to serious study. One of them was, Kannum kannum kollai adithal. It's exam time, try it out, may be with companion track, Putham pudhu bhoomi vendum. When I last heard, my friend had made it big, both in medicine and in music. :) :) If you try it with some other song, I am not responsible. (As if otherwise I am).

9. Radha Kaise Na jaley.. from Lagaan...

There are some tunes which infect you and infect all others who come in contact with you all through the day. Because, you began your day singing it when you came out of the bathroom, having taken your cool time, insensitive to the subtle needs of the waiting roommates. It used to be Hariharan's 'Pachai Niramey' for one of my friends, and the hum for him and haunt for the others used to be so much that, others would cry out and plead for change of track or change of bathroom ... 'hey.. please da.....' . For me, it is Radha Kaise na Jaley.. Oh, how many times, I have looped and looped and listened to this....

8. Nilaa Kaaykiradhu... from Indira

If you are still under the myth that Rahman is all about Shivamani's drums and western-sounding music, you should hear this kiddu song from Indira, almost carnatic piece. So melodious, so soothing, so relaxing, you won't read the rest of this post because you will fall asleep. If you are the fast-track type, replace this rank with Kannodu Kaanbhathellam from Jeans.

7. Pachai Kiligal Tholodu... from Indian...
There was a time, for 10 months, when I was (literally) jobless, and if carrom board can be considered keeping busy, one of my hobbies (?!) was to re-write the lyrics of my favorite Rahman tracks to my favorite devotional themes and share it with friends. One from that time, is this, rendered by Yesudas, who, well, actually knew ARR from the time when he was Dileep. I would love to give this remix-friendly slot to Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali, which even the Japanese liked, but, no, this is not about Kamal vs. Rajni or about SPB vs. Yesudas, its ARR vs. ARR.

6. Bharat humko jaan se bhee pyara hai.... from Roja

It's now well-known that Patriotism is Rahman's best and favorite forte. No cultural event or a programme on patriotism would be complete without this piece from Roja. For a change, I like the Hindi version much better, because it sounds much more unifying. I have heard it being used and re-used again and again in patriotic plays and everytime it sounds as inspiring as it did the first time.

5. Bombay - Theme Tune - Instrumental :

There are some tunes for which you don't need lyrics. It's as if the tune can convey the context and the sentiments of the moment. The theme tune instrumental of Bombay is one such. Less luck for Kadri Gopalnath's saxophone, because I had to push out Mettu Podu from Duet and make way for this popular choice for the instrumental slot.

4. Yeh Tara Woh Tara... from Swades...

If there can be a very simple-sounding tune, as if straight out of a school annual day programme, yet one that flows gentle and cool like a river into your ears and make you forget those 7 minutes and 53 seconds, and bring with it a message for change, you need a track like this.

3. Maa Tujhe Salaam from Vande Mataram :

If someone could re-ignite the interest of youth in patriotism through modern music, ARR would be sure on the list. The rendering of Vande Mataram, should make you join the crowd and hum or sing out aloud. If it doesn't, you could have been born anywhere, not necessarily in India. :) :) Even the halls in Los Angeles do it, when ARR performs it live, though he mostly does it as Maa Tujhe Salaam instead of Thai Manney Vanakkam which has equally inspiring lyrics.

2. Iswar Allah Tere Jahan mein.... from 1947 Earth...

This is one song that mesmerized me when I heard it the first time, introduced by a friend. It was much before I saw the movie, even before I knew it was composed by A R Rahman. It still has the same effect on me.

And the Nams-car award goes to... :)

1. Pray for me, Brother

The best track, gets the least number of words in tribute, because, when you listen to good music, you don't talk about it, you don't blog about it, you don't go gaga about it and jump about it. You just listen. If you have done all that, you come back and listen once again. And may be pray thereafter. Silence can bring out the music in you, and, such music, can bring about a silence in you. This is one such piece.

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Irony, no ? Jai Ho is not among the Top 10. I think, far greater music has been composed by A R Rahman, and the worldwide recognition was long due. It had to happen through Jai Ho, and it did, because of the movie's Englishwala visibility or whatever. I do like the track a lot, however. I agree once again with the many-faced blogger, who is attributed to have said, that if ARR gets the Oscar for Jai Ho, it would be like Einstien getting the Nobel Prize for explaining Photo-Electric effect.

Even for my own favorites, the list is grossly incomplete. There is no Sapnay, no Rhythm, no Taal, no Water, no Jeans, no Guru, no Yuva, not even Alai Payudhey? What kind of a funny list is this, without Chikku Bukku Railey, Muqabla and Masti-ki-Pathshala ?

Change the topic....

Jaane Tu is not there, because I was put off by the accidental, but obvious, resembling in the first few seconds of the song had with 'Appudo Eppudo' from Bommarillu. That the rest of the song follows a totally different tune should, of course, be mentioned in the same beat.

I don't like when the excellence of lyrics in one language gets diminished when it's re-written in another language. Vennilave Vennilave's is way better than Chanda Rey
, but no other language could match Rangeela Re in Hindi, with which Rahman made his Hindi debut. I also don't like it when Rahman, re-uses one of his earlier tunes in a different context, for the sake of adapting it to Hindi or English, particularly when the earlier version was so wonderful. 'Poraley Ponnu thaayi' in Karuthamma was so beautiful, demonstrating ARR's music for a rural setting. Gurus of Peace in Vande Mataram is good, but I think the Karuthamma song was better though it may not have had the same reach as Vande Mataram. Taal's famous Ishq Bina ,reworked for "Love isn't so easy" in Bombay Dreams, made it only worse...

I also like it better when old friend Shivamani is felt but contained, like in Roja jaaneman, though the roaring success of a lot of songs including Azeem-o-shan-shahenshah and Chaiyya chaiyya, is precisely because of the domination and flawless delivery of drums.

Put your agreements and disagreements, your choices that were left out, and my choices that look like eccentricities.... May be we should have a commenters' (or dissenters' ??) Top 10....

Layoffs and Scams...

2009-03-31T23:55:00.004+05:30

Hate as I do to post forwards on my blog, here is a "value-added" exception :) :)

Someone sent me a funny story as forwarded email, and I kinda continued the story....

(Part 1 is the forwarded story on Layoffs, Part 2 is my addition....)

Part 1 :

Once upon a time the government with Ruling Party XYZ.. had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Ruling Party XYZ Said..
- "Someone may steal from it at night."

So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Ruling Party XYZ Said..
- "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"

So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Ruling Party XYZ Said..
- "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"

So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports. Then Ruling Party XYZ Said..
- "How are these people going to get paid?"

So they created the following positions, a time keeper, and a payroll officer, then hired two people. Then Ruling Party XYZ Said..,
- "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary. Then Ruling Party XYZ Said..
- "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost."

So ....

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

They lay off the night watchman.

Part 2 :

Irritated, the night watchman stole things from scrap yard and vanished.

So, the CEO sacked all the rest of the staff for dereliction of duty.

The shareholders were happy that the CEO has taken stringent action. Share prices went up.

The company had excess cash and wanted to diversify into "security agency" business to de-risk the "scrap" business and also to find a good watchman, because HR companies were having a bull run.

The insitutional investors found out that the security agency was owned by the night-watchman and they raised serious corporate governance objections and stalled the deal. Share prices tanked.

Within a week, the CEO resigned, admitting deliberate fraud to the extent of 7000 nuts and bolts in the scrapyard.

The government arrested the CEO and put him behind steel bars (recycled from scrap) and directed the Economic Offences Wing to investigate the matter.

By the time they discovered the whole truth, the scrapyard had vanished, no, actually the desert had vanished, i mean rivers flowed, civilisations flourished and apartments were built.

However, for the record, let us state the truth they discovered : that the scrap yard never belonged to the CEO and he stole it from the night watchman in the first place.

What they didn't discover was : the CEO and night-watchman partnered once again and started a real-estate business and software companies, which were now flourising in the now-green-but-once-barren desert.

And then, it all started once again.... Jai Ho !!!

The value of Tenacity in Youth

2009-03-12T01:52:00.009+05:30

Recently, I had attended a Music Programme by the University Brass Band of my alma mater. The programme, I think, might have been, part of the farewell season. The stadium stage was very elegantly decorated. Lemon juice was being served optionally, to riverside walkers like me who insist that music, cool winds, gang chat and late evening moonlight should always be accompanied by a glass of drink. I thought of insisting on pop-corn, but I dropped the idea, thinking that they may be forced to put a footer in the email invitation next time, saying attendees may please bring their own pop-corn. The performance was electrifying and included a couple of spiritual remixes of my favorite Rahman tracks, and was probably one of the biggest in the few years. In the end, they invited one of the veteran singers in the community, to speak a few words. I think, he must have been invited ad-hoc from the stage after the performers spotted him in the audience. He was full of praise for the way in which the Band has consistently grown over the years saying 'We may not participate in the inter-collegiate competitions which is held elsewhere, but the talent we have at the Hostel is one of the best.' However, this post is not about how great a particular band is and some other is not. It's about the connection between music and college education in our times.

Many of these students hadn't had a formal training in music before they were picked up to train for the band, that's the beauty of the event and a demonstration of the value of tenacity in a right learning environment. There is usually a little test of music sense held a couple of weeks after you join the degree course. If you clear the test, you would be picked up for being groomed for the brass band or other music groups. I remember very well how I flopped terribly at this test, for all the music I thought I always had in my heavy head. While I had conjured up non-existent questions like the difference between Ada Taalam and Adi Taalam, the test turned out to be a simple but effective one, just to quickly check whether you had a music sense, not whether you were a musician. The examiner asked me to sing or hum the first few lines of a popular Ganesh Bhajan, which he confirmed from me that I was familiar with. I messed up the beat right in the opening word. The next flop was even stupid. He asked me if I can hum a tune that is played by a band during March Past. As I raked my brain to recollect that tune which was just below my throat but refusing to bubble up, he probably thought I didn't know what a March Past was, and helpfully hinted "you know, the music they play when they march left-right". Hehehehe, I had heard it, but again hehehehe, I sheepishly gave up. He didn't have to comment regarding the result. That day, I also understood the inner significance of why my violin teacher, eight years earlier, had told me that I will flourish well in tabla instead of violin. Ahaaa, why did he have to be so diplomatic to a teenager ? May be, he didn't want to hurt the sentiments of someone who purchased a second-hand cycle and a second-hand violin and travelled 3 km each way for 3 months to find out that certain areas of interest should be earmarked for future births. However, this post is not about the ones who failed, but about the ones who succeeded by their tenacity.

I remember my room-mate and classmate during my MBA, who went through the same test. No one even faintly guessed he had a musical streak in him but he was selected to train for the band, on cymbals. I am not sure if he still continues his interest in music while working with SAP. I used to admire the way in which these guys would apply themselves regularly and consistently, starting almost from nothing. Most of the time, the 'teacher' would be mostly a college senior, a member of the band who plays the same instrument and may be in his final year. Other times, you were your own teacher. They would be found practicing in groups or repeating and perfecting what they have learnt earlier, sometimes near the library, sometimes at the stadium, sometimes on the Hanuman Hill and all the time humming at their cupboards. Their public performances would have to be of impeccable quality and they would leave no stone unturned to see to it that it was. Not that the hostel schedule was any lighter, they would have to go through what we called "life is an interval between two bells". Starting from nowhere, from a hum test, by the time their stay for 3, 5 or 7 years in the Hostel gets over, they would have mastered the instrument, become adept at performing as a band and given quite a few public performances in glory. Quite often, at the farewell functions, both the artists who performed for a jugalbandhi would be introduced as "both learnt the instrument on their own after joining the first year".

Youth is clay. It gets moulded the way you shape it. It applies itself to what you point to it. It succeeds in whichever skill you inspire it to learn. Our small towns have lots of it and waiting for the proper direction and bringing together. If the best of our institutes can incubate the start-ups seeded by their management graduates, in the small towns, all the hidden potential talent in music, sports and literature can and should be incubated and groomed in those three years, the best prime time of our youth. I know students who joined as dwarfs, literally, but would apply themselves at sports so rigorously and regularly, finding time between Yoga and learning Vedam and few other varied skills, and would finish by captaining Basketball and the Volleyball teams in their final year. Application, Focus, Tenacity, the mantras of success, are sown, learnt, tested and demonstrated, best when you are in college. This is true, not just about music, but about any area which you choose for yourself. Like in this post from Randezvous Perceptions which mentions decoration.

I remember the small town college in which I had done my UG. For a sleepy little tobacco town, we had all kinds of extra-curricular associations, the Toastmasters Club, a Tamil literature club called Thamarai Vattam, a Personality Development course all of which I would juggle with. There were many after-college courses, in addition to the village camps of NSS, the Adult Education campaigns and the free eye camps organised by Arvind Hospitals with volunteering from students. Some colleges had courses on Arabic, Gandhian Economics and Agarbatti making. I remember explaining about a computer and taking Rs.100/- from my mother for a WordStar course, for this "new computer cheej", 100 rupees for 10 days-10 classes, everyday one hour. It might have been glorified typing at the time, but it led me to the next Rs.100/- course in the Basic language, a field that would catch my fascination and I would settle in. In contrast, however, the band wasn't a great place. It would mostly consist of people who already knew how to perform, played a few jumping numbers and the only occasion I remember they played seriously was after the college union elections. That I failed at the music test even there is something you should not ask about. If you conduct a test now, I would fail, but I would show up again at the next test, until you notify Security to disallow losers. Even then, since I wouldn't call myself one, I might take a printout of this post and try to convince the gatekeeper.. May be I believe, if I fail all tests in this birth, success will be instantaneous in the next birth and my opening cry will be a Thyagarja Kirtan ??

It's not just about extra-curricular interest and development of a versatile personality, it's also about the direction at which these talents are directed and the shapes they take after the skill is mastered. The value of tenacity invested at that time of life, is invaluable in the later years. Ironically, as life would have it, those who skipped it would realise it only in the later years and those who apply themselves in concerted self-development will fondly remember those days as the most productive as well as enriching phase of their lives. The excellence streak in Youth is ready to proliferate if we can create a culture that promotes positive action and a formal or informal reward environment that recognises positive application of such effort. This YouthCurry blog post makes a passing reference on how bands in colleges have a short, rocky existence and interest wanes after a while. May be there is nothing much we can do, is it ? No. Band or not, one of the things that a college or university, should do, is to create an environment or culture that promotes versatility, tenacity and recognising the value of higher inspiring goals for application of such effort, whatever you define such noble goals to be. If our colleges continue to just exploit the energy and passionate zeal of the youth to the benefit of frivolous areas, waste them into controversies and be chaltha-hai about irresponsibility, instead of focussing on developing richness in their thinking patterns and preparing them to be responsible citizens, desh ka band bajega.

P.S. As to those millions of readers who are pining to know the answer to why I haven't blogged for long... I won't feel off as if I was Stephen King and attribute it to Writer's Block. I would instead take refuge in this many-faced fellow blogger's succinct reference to a famous punch dialogue : Sneeze, Cough, Hiccup, Yawn, blah blah blah and Blogging Ideas do not come when we demand it. We cannot stop it when they come and we cannot hold them back when they leave.

how to buy a mutual fund and how to tell when to sell

2008-10-06T04:21:00.004+05:30

If you need to know what you are putting your head into, you must have read Parts 1 and 2 of this 3-part series on investing in Indian Mutual funds. This is Part 3, and quite consolingly, the last part.

How to buy ?

There are 3 ways to do this :

1. Download the application form online, take a print out, attach a draft as specified and courier it across to the address mentioned.

(Note: You are going to have an advantage in this option. Mutual funds usually have something called an Entry Load, usually 2.25%. Means, if you invest Rs.5000/- you may get units worth only Rs.4887/- the rest goes as some kind of "handling charges/commission". If you send your application directly to the company and not through a broker/distributor, you will be exempted from this and you will get units for all of Rs.5000/-). Many agents do not, naturally, mention this to their customers. Also, don't think that a downloaded applicable is not good enough, because it does not have a pre-printed application no. like the one from the broker. Application no. is good, but not mandatory. Broker is good too :), but not mandatory.

2. You can approach the nearest mutual fund distributor and ask for a form, attach a draft and submit it to him. No Cash. Ensure you fill the form yourself or is filled in your presence and verified by you.

3. If you have an online account in which mutual fund investments are enabled (like ICICI Bank 3-in-1 account or HDFC bank), you can invest online. This is the easiest and hassle-free method, involving little paperwork and felling fewer trees. :) :) But, note that, in methods 2 and 3, you are not exempt from entry loads.

I have tried all three a bit, and of late, settled for the third option. You call it laziness, I call it concern for the environment.

SIP : Systematic Investment Plan : This is similar to the Recurring Deposits in banks. You can opt to invest a smaller amount every month on a given date. Works for small-time salaried guys whom the FM regularly targets, you know. You have to issue post-dated cheques for the specified amount and it will be collected from your bank account and the units will be bought in the scheme. Monthly instalments mostly start from Rs.1000/- per month, there are couple of funds where the monthly instalment is Rs.500/- . This is considered, an easier and a healthy option to invest. While you should also know that a SIP does not mean better returns, it may sometimes have some merits like Cost Averaging. Also, it brings some discipline to your investing and puts it on autopilot. Someone has even come up with a Daily SIP !!

How long should I stay invested in a scheme ?

No one knows, actually. But they say (who?), a minimum 3-5 years is a good period to leave your investments untouched. If your fund is doing reasonably well and is well-placed among its peers, one should leave it at that, even if it's not right on top. It's good to review your schemes once in 6 months, and if they are dismally lagging, then probably consider a switch to another fund. No, I won't go on more on this, I don't know how the machine works. I will get back on this after 7 years :) :) . I do hope this blog will be around, and you, the loyal reader will be around too, but I can't assure whether your money will still be around.

How to Sell :

Why to sell ? :) :) Okay, you've decided to sell or redeem. If you've invested online, click-click-click. If you polluted the environment by investing in paper form, then you would have received your account statement with a portfolio number on it. Somewhat like an account number. That statement copy will also have a tearable portion below where you can place instructions of sale or change of address or whatever and sign. If you haven't stayed with the same bank account, you can specify the new bank account. And send it across to the MF company or give it to the broker. Your money should reach in less than a couple of weeks, since there is a nice stipulation that mutual fund service requests be fulfilled within a few business days of receipt. Also, know that dividends from all mutual fund investments are exempt from tax in the hands of the investor. Only because they are already sufficienty (t)axed. Sale within one year will attract short-term capital gains tax.

Also, contrary to insistence by some dealers, the form is not sacrosanct. Photocopy will do. Or even a signed letter on plain paper giving all information will do. If they are denying your request (for example, a nomination request), they will also send you the appropriate form.

What if you are disorganized like me and lost the account statement ? I hope you will also be partially organised like me and noted the folio number and scheme name somewhere. That should do. Also, remember to enter your email address while applying. There will be "Save Trees" checkbox, by which you can opt to receive account statements by email. :) If you do that, and if the scheme is one of those serviced by CamsOnline.com, then you don't even need to remember the folio no. (Why am I giving tips to become more disorganized ?). If you just mention your email, they can send you statements for all your investments in MF companies on their service list. The site doesn't require registration, yes it's all legit, they are the guys servicing many mutual fund companies on paper work, and, of course, you will be asked to specify a password of your choice, with which they will encrypt the PDF and send it to your mailbox. Cool !!

My picks ? :

Oh, why should it always lead to this ? I have just advocated data impersonalisation and now, this ? Okay, here it goes, but only if you promise me that you won't listen to me:
HDFC Equity, SBI Magnum Contra, SBI Magnum Balanced, Sundaram Select Midcap, Sundaram India Leadership, Reliance Vision, Franklin India Prima Plus and Birla Sunlife Index.

You must have guessed it right by now, a beginner's guide often means, that the writer is a beginner, not the reader. And if you haven't figured that out, you are probably a beginner in figuring out things for what they are worth.

Happy interesting investing.

How to choose a mutual fund lazily and hazily

2008-10-06T04:05:00.008+05:30

Didn't they teach you at school that you shouldn't be lazy ? Anyway, it's your decision to be lazy and, entirely your decision to invest in a mutual fund, but if you want to do both together, then you are not alone and you have come to the right blog.

This is the 2nd part of a 3-part guide to investing in Indian Mutual funds. The other parts are linked from here.

Time period of investment :

Unlike bank deposits, you don't "contract" a mutual fund investment for a particular pre-defined period. (Except in cases where there is a lock-in period like 3 years). You put money whenever you want, this is called "buying a certain number of units in a mutual fund scheme". You can take your money out whenever you want. That is called "Redemption of units" or "Selling of units of a mutual fund scheme". Usually speaking, the longer you stay invested in a scheme, the better it would be for you. (That is, assuming, the scheme is doing reasonably well than its peers). Because the main returns potential of equity lies in the long term.

The Million Dollar Question:
Is my money safe, will I atleast get back the principal ?

No, It's gone forever to charity. Jus kidding. :) :) Yes, it's pretty safe, as safe as it can get these days in these parts of the universe. There is an element of risk on how a scheme will perform and there is this usual disclaimer of "past performance not indicative of future returns, consult the offer document and don't consult a blog before investing". But there is nothing phoney or hush-hush about it, nor is there guarantee promises of sky-high returns. But if you are an average-risk-taking youngster with an eye on long-term, reasonable wealth creation, then it's meant for you. Also, no one will deny the money due to you except in case of national financial calamities (Just threw that word, I don't even know what it is). At the least, whatever is the current market value of your investment will be given to you. Of course, the basic assumption is that everything is dependent on the stock markets and more specifically, on the stocks that your scheme has bought. The market value of your fund on any given day, is derived from the market value of the stocks that it has invested in. Heheheh, the stock market is itself dependent on a million parameters, including the flap of a butterfly in Timbuktu. :) It's not much different, for example, from investing in gold or in real estate as an investment option.

How to choose a mutual fund :

There are many ways ranging from a lot of work to a lazy click. Since laziness is relative and changes behaviour according to the observer, It's better I'll explain what I usually do at my level of laziness. I like to keep choices simple, without going into detailed statistical analysis. And as far as possible, I want to keep it "impersonal", that is I would rather look at data than fall for someone's marketing speech. If a distributor tries to talk me into a new fund offering, why do I get that faint suspicion :) :) that he has no clue how the scheme is going to perform and his eye is on the 6% commission. How so mean of me! Aren't they humans too and don't they have families to support ?

I usually go to Value Research Online, they have rated the funds as 5-star, 4-star, 3-star and so on. Have a look at the 5-star or 4-star funds. In fact, keep looking at it from time to time, to spot and register names in memory over a period of time. I usually go in only for the equity funds. So I just pick one of them and invest. And try to pick a different fund house or a different scheme every time. Of course, this is anything but time-tested, since I am pretty young in the investing arena, just 3 years. And this is put right in the middle, because it applies to the whole article. This is not professional financial advice and if by any stroke of imagination, you thought it is, then you need professional counselling, psychiatric. If you haven't read the save-skin disclaimer, you haven't read anything at all. :) :) And hello, I am in no way connected to the owners of any of the links, except for the fact that we all share the same vast, wide, internet.

But, you don't have to go by that one site. There are other sites, which my friends find useful. Like PersonalFn , MyIris and mutualfunds.moneycontrol.com. I am also a fan of CRISIL's Quarterly ranking of mutual funds. Rediff Money , Yahoo Finance India and LiveMint also seem to do a good job in data presentation and tutorials on the various aspects but they do a simple ranking based purely on returns. The one good thing that attracted me to ValueResearch and CRISIL, is that their rating is based on risk-adjusted return, means, they prick the returns generated with the risk it has taken and then rank them. You should also know that such a rating methodology might itself be a subject of criticism. There is also this Association of Mutual Funds website, more of an official kind.

Net Asset Value :
It shows the value of your money on a given day. It's declared every day for most schemes. If you had bought some scheme for Rs.200 per unit, last year same day and it's net asset value today is Rs.230 then your investment has grown at 15% p.a. This calculation applies only for the Growth Option, we'll skip other options for later.

What's about this Growth option or Dividend option :

There are three options when you are buying any scheme. In dividend option, the you get dividends on your investment, from time to time, as and when dividends are declared. Growth option, is somewhat like a Cumulative Interest Fixed Deposit, when you choose to sell, you get your "grown-up-value" of your investment. There is a third option called "Reinvest Dividends", that means, dividends will be declared, but for that amount, units of the same scheme will automatically be bought at that day's rate. Usually, dividends suit elders who are dependent on periodic income. Youngsters are better off with the Growth option.

Can anyone invest in mutual funds ? What will I need ?

If you want to invest more than Rs.50000 in a single go, you need a PAN. In fact, even otherwise, you are better off having a PAN, because I think they might make it mandatory for a lot of other things shortly, like sneezing in front of a bank :) or marrying a banker. You would also need to mention your bank account number and probably attach a copy of a cancelled blank cheque leaf bearing your account number. When you sell, they'll give you a cheque for the proceeds and you will be allowed to deposit that cheque only in this bank account. Of course, in the meanwhile, if you change your bank, you can intimate them.

Investments above Rs.50000 also require you to get something called a "KYC Clearance for Mutual Funds". (Know Your Client). It's a one-time thing like PAN and it's pretty simple procedure.

Every scheme has a minimum investment amount. Most equity funds require you to invest a minimum of Rs.5000/-. Some funds also have something called an Exit Load (something like handling charges for exit). Means, if your units are worth Rs.5000 and the exit load is 1% , you get only units worth Rs.4950/-

You won't need a proof of address. For investments below Rs.50000/- Id proof is not required. (Please note that this rule may change after this web page is published)

What range of returns can one expect ?

God knows. But if you want some information from lesser beings, some of the best diversified equity funds fetched between 13-18% p.a. if you look at the last 3 years and between 30-35% if you look at the last five years. Obviously, I have a way of presenting whichever data is presentable and giving a limited picture of the unlimited chaos. Also, depending on where you stand, this might be the wrong time or the right time to look at how the market has performed. As someone put it, the sensex is back to where it all began, at 13000. You should have seen my face when it touched 21000. Anyway, look at data for the last 5 years, impersonally, here.

No, you want to quit, without reading Part 3. Because you may not emerge with your wallet intact. Thats okay, looking at that much data makes me dizzy too, but, by now you must have realized, the whole point of this guide is the wry humour and poor jokes that are embedded here and there.

Look for those in Part 3, that explains : How to buy and how to sell.

A beginner's guide to Investing in Indian Mutual Funds - Part 1

2008-10-06T03:52:00.010+05:30

This is the first part of a 3-part guide to investing in Indian Mutual Funds. The other parts are linked at the bottom of this post.

Let's assume you already know about what a mutual fund is. Let's also assume I don't know much :) , and, in fact, I mix up things a lot, but yet I might want to share whatever I mix up. Let's also assume you read disclaimers diligently, even if they are not there and fully understand the implications of asking the half-baked guys about your hard-baked money. Now if thats some average behaviour you come across in life and average information is quite okay with you, join hands, let's get in.

Mutual Fund companies (also called Asset Management Companies or AMC) run different schemes. Investors invest money in one or more of these schemes belonging to the AMC. Ex: HDFC Mutual Fund is an AMC that has schemes like HDFC Top 200, HDFC Tax Saver and so on. Sundaram Mutual Fund, for example, has its own tax-saving scheme called Sundaram Tax Saver.

There are many kinds of Mutual Fund schemes. Let's focus on a few major categories, assuming we intend to generate a substantially higher return, in the long run, than we do from, say, bank deposits.

Equity funds - that invest all of their money in stocks of companies - considered relatively higher risk than the other two.
Debt funds - that invest in other types of investment instruments, for example, in bonds and fixed income instruments. Considered relatively lower risk among the three. Of course, return potential will accordingly be lower.
Balanced funds - A kind of hybrid, investing a portion of the money in equity and the rest in debt. The proportion varies from scheme to scheme. Considered medium risk compared to the other two.

There are such organisms called gilt funds, liquid funds, monthly income plans etc. We'll skip those and reserve for a later lesson.

Among the three, we'll mainly handle equity funds of different subcategories. Why only equity funds, are they not high risk ? Okay, thats relative to the other types of funds. Also, among the three, equity funds are the only ones capable of generating higher returns in the long run, than all other forms of investment. As this rediff page says:

If you look at the market over 25-30 years, the average annual return would be around 15-18 per cent. Data on global markets will indicate that equity will deliver around 12 per cent.

These categories are based on the objectives, restrictions and approach of the scheme as stated in the scheme's prospectus. For example, we have this Banking Sector Fund, which announces that it would be investing only in bank stocks. Are you someone, who believes that the financial services is poised for a growth run in the next 3 to 5 years ? Then thats for you.

Equity Funds

1a. Sectoral Funds : Funds that proclaim to invest in companies in a particular sector, for example, the power sector, the financial services sector or the Oil-Gas-Petrol sector. Among the subcategories of equity funds, considered high risk. Why ? Because, it seeks to put all eggs in a single basket, that is from a single sector. If that sector goes phut, you know what. Of course, if that sector booms, it can outperform other categories. High risk, high potential for return. You have to be like Mark Twain, keep all your eggs in one basket, but keep a watch on it.

1b. Diversified Equity Funds : These are 'Go Anywhere' funds. Means their prospectus doesn't restrict them from buying or selling X or Y types of companies of A or B size. They can buy the stocks of small companies or blue-chip companies or somewhere in the middle. They can buy stocks from different sectors in whichever proportion they want. Discretion is left to the fund manager. Relatively low risk. Why ? Because the investment is spread across different sectors and different companies. Some may do well at some times and others at different times. So the risk is said to be "diversified".

BTW, Diversification would indeed be one of the basic lessons in Personal Finance. Even within a person's money bag of investments, ideally, one should have, some in Fixed Deposits, some in property, some in gold, some in debt funds, some in equity funds and so on.

1c. Size-based funds : You typically come across names like Midcap funds, Smallcap funds, Blue-chip or Large-cap funds and so on. Cap here means market capitalisation, not as in 'Topi Daalna' :). It roughly indicates the size of the company. You can see the exact definition here. So companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Airtel and considered huge, some like Lakshmi Machine Works and Balaram Chini Mills are considered Mid-cap and Bachcha companies like Balaji Telefilms and Gitanjali Gems are considered small-cap.

Again, large-cap companies are considered low-risk, mid-cap companies are of slightly higher risk and small-cap companies are considered high-risk. Why ? Because of a word called "Liquidity". Liquidity roughly means 'en-cash-ability' : If you suddenly want cash and want to sell a company's stock, will many people be available to bid and buy ? Large-cap company stocks are traded all the time, there are more buyers and sellers, so their liquidity is higher. We'll leave it at that for the moment. If we have the knack to spot that potential small-cap company of today, which has got the performance drive to become the giant large-cap company of tomorrow, you have just spotted the next Google or the next Infosys. If you had invested just Rs.10000 in Infosys in the year 1994, that Rs.10000 would have been worth Rs.1.5 crore in 2007. Juicy, no ? Have some pickle to contrast the fascination , mitigate the enthusiasm and understand the risk and patience involved.

1d. Lifesytle-based or Thematic Funds : Some like Sundaram Rural India Fund, Kotak LIfestyle fund etc. come up with unique differentiating objectives and seek to find good performance in such investing styles.

1e. Index funds : My latest fad. These are funds that invest according to a particular index. For example, Birla Sunlife Index fund, invests, in all the X number of stocks comprising the sensex, in the same proportion in which they comprise the sensex. So sensex goes up, your money goes up that much, sensex comes down, it comes down as much. Considered low-risk for three reasons : 1. Unlikely a fund manager will mess it up for you, because his is a passive role. Also the fund management fees are lower. 2. These indices usually comprise of large-cap or liquid stocks and are automatically diversified across sectors. 3. For a small investor, if you put Rs.5000, you get to invest in all those big companies (somewhat like that) and mirror their collective performance.

1f. Tax-saving funds: These are funds that are similar to diversified equity funds in terms of investing style. But they have a 3-year lock-in period. Means, you can't take your money out for three years. The merit is, if you are looking to save tax, this is one of the avenues to do so.

Balanced Funds:

For a beginner, these are a nice place to start. They invest only a portion of funds in equity and the rest in debt instruments, so they have a mix of low risk and slightly higher risk. Their returns are also slightly reduced than that of equity, but as a beginner, if you want to start small with something, you can choose one of these. My first investment was for Rs.1000 in SBI Magnum Balanced Fund in December 2005. It has given an average annual return of 12% till now. Even 1000 rupees can cause a lot of pride, you see. I don't want to take it out for atleast 10 years, just want to see what on earth would happen. It can't go into minus and they can't fine me for investing, right ? :)

Do you get similar ideas ? Then read on for the next part, Part 2 that covers :
How to choose a mutual fund without having to revise your lessons on standard deviation.

If you still haven't given up on me and decided to part with your dough, I won't stop you from going on to Part 3 : on How to buy and how to sell.

Munnabhai goes to the market

2008-09-24T18:38:00.014+05:30

There are certain topics you should not discuss during a riverside walk.
Like office work, unless you have an office that overlooks the river.
Bomb blasts, unless you are patrolling on the riverside, not just strolling. Otherwise, you will be patrolled upon.
Windows vs. Linux, because the river can change course and wreak havoc.
And Stock markets, never, even if you work for... err..had till recently worked for... Merill Lynch.

But Bablu is not sensitive to these things. Munna bumps into Bablu on the riverside often, but they come from opposite directions for opposite kinds of reflections. Munna comes to reflect and discuss with himself, because all day he spends discussing with others. Bablu comes because he spends all day discussing with himself and Munna is the only guy who is ready to discuss anything at all with him.

Whatever, Bablu brought it up. Why does he do it all in reverse ? When the whole world is pessimistic, he brings up an optimistic 'thinko' assertion, When the whole world is optimistic, he sees through it all and reflects on their transcience. The sub-prime crisis has just worsened, well, it worsens freshly everyday. The market sentiments are on a low. Aha, what a phrase to denote about being sentimental about the market. And somehow Bablu thought of asking Munna about investing in stock markets. Not that Munna is all wisdom, though he often gives such a picture, unintentionally. Not that Bablu is all naive, but he puts up a show of naivety, intentionally, whenever someone puts up a show of wisdom. Munna had just stepped into the market in a small way, but you know Munna, he thinks he is a deep thinker. On what ? Well, pretty much on anything you ask him to think.

'I just want to beat the Post Office Returns Rate by 5%', began Bablu, 'Say 20% p.a. returns in the long term, of 7 to 10 years. I am not a trader, I want to be a long-term investor'. 'Munna noticed the data mismatch, but he knew that Poet Bablu was never good at quants, so he let it go. A professional financial advisor would ask you about your financial objectives and then about your risk profile or capability. Now that Bablu had spelt out the former, Munna asked him about the latter. 'Oh, I don't rebalance my portfolio according to my risk, I rebalance my risk according to the portfolio', replied Bablu. Munna never understood what that meant, but he knew this must be one of Bablu's eccentricities of doing things in reverse. 'I should learn this way of thinking from Bablu', he thought, 'it might help me become more creative'.

Neways, Munna went on to explain how he went about investing in the markets. 'I have pretty much the same expectation, I would bet on 12% instead, based on international data for the last 30 years', he began. 'Wow, everything about Munna is international, except the river', thought Bablu.

Munna always wanted to minimize research or studying companies or regular monitoring. This trait comes from his school days, where he always crammed on the day before the exam. We carry the same traits wherever we run. You carry your Shani, even if you run to Kashi.

Munna is also slightly inclined against timing the market. Spend time in the market instead of timing the market was his central belief. Besides, He knew Bablu falls for such puns. Also, if Munna advised Bablu to buy low and sell high, you know what Bablu will do.

Munna preferred investing little amounts regularly. Ironic, since he used to be inclined against this some time ago. But did he require permission, even to contradict himself ?

There is a slight paradox here, though. Don't want to study the companies, don't want to time the market, in other words, don't want to move your muscle, this goes against "standard" practices. But it best fits a lazy investor. Munna has a faint thought that investing without studying the companies will take a toll sometime or other, but he expected to reap some merits purely by diversification and more merits by investing in the long term. Moreover, he was always at a loss to understand Profit and Loss statements, Balance Sheets imbalanced him and his dismal performance at the Accounts courses had been meticulously documented at his university. Diversification is one good practice he happened to believe in. Thank God, he agreed atleast on one thing with the society.

Munna also avoided a few other common practices :

1. Asking Bablu where to put his money. He was sure Bablu will go reverse on this. Bablu felt like jumping into the river, but his Guru Bhakthi prevented him from responding to such humiliation in his very presence. Besides, this genre of rivers were suitable for jogging or blogging but not for drowning.

2. Asking a broker. You would have to first establish evidence enough that he is better informed, not just more informed. If you are smart enough to figure that out, you wont need one anyway.

3. Buy low and sell off high. When it comes to timing the market, Munna often remembers this old joke where a car driver asks a village kid to look out for hitting the wall, while he reverses the vehicle. The kid keeps saying ok, ok as the driver reverses and finally when the car hits the wall, he says, 'Yeah sir, now it has hit the wall'. Trying to time the market is like that. You know it after it has just gone past you.

4. Believing about some "inside" information which is not published and we think are unique in having. Munna believes that market efficiency beats insider wisdom.

5. Keep a target profit and sell. Bablu raised eyebrows, after all, what are we here for ? But Munna explained that he still had a target loss, err... a Stop Loss price, at which he would sell to minimize damage. May be Minus 25% in a year ? Whatever, but don't hug a sick donkey forever.

6. General opinion like XYZ stock is "good", or, now is the time, go go, buy that horse.

7. Reading, reacting and getting worried about everyday information about the stocks you have invested. Munna liked to look only at the "strategic" type of news. Somewhat like Lehman falls, Merrill sold and AIG totters.

Munna thinks that pretty much no one, repeat no one, has actually figured out how the machine works. We can always use hindsight to say that worked or this worked, but he didn't think someone figured it out before the machine worked, atleast at the level of the individual investor. He even asked a question on this at The Simple Dollar blog, but the answer seemed to confirm his own opinion. People who study trends and spot potential winners, like the ones who made it rich just by investing, were a different kind though. They worked like people who own a company while buying, not like people who trade a company. When it's time to sell, they work like they never owned the company and they were here just to trade it. But, we were just Post-Office-Plus-5-percent guys.

Since Munna defied some common practices and seemed pretty heavy-headed, there was quite a probability that he might get into a soup. And he knew it. If he failed, he wanted to go down in history, as the one who fully documented the soup and then went into it. He also wanted to make sure he goes into a soup based on his own decisions, good or for bad, instead of blaming some Bablu, Bujji or Broker. If he succeeded, of course, there would be enough people around to document someone's success.

Moreover, the money he put in stocks was a small percentage of his total savings, so he thought he was stoically prepared for consequences. Whether he will have same preparedness when the consequences actually reach, well, he hoped so. As they say in Karma theory, you don't have to be prepared specially, the consequences will anyway reach you. :) :) , prepared or not. It wouldn't be the first time that he leaned on Vedanta to understand his misery, he had done that before. He always fantasised himself to be like King Janaka and can invest in stocks online with the Artham Anartham verse playing in the background. Why does he always bring up that Verse 30 of Bhaja Govindam, every time he discussed stock markets ?

Munna also avoids all blue-chip stocks, since he preferred to invest in them through a diversified mutual fund. Being a fan of The Simple Dollar blog, he always preferred an index mutual fund to invest in index stocks. In countries like the US, they had funds that mirrored a 500 index and diversify across all companies forming it, but in India, you have a similar index, but not a similar fund that diversifies across all those companies. Our funds usually mirror a smaller index or draw a few stocks from the index and churn within the superset, like the HDFC Top 200. Whatever, Munna believed in his principles, but he can't shift to the US for that sake. So he chose whatever diversification the indian index funds offered.

In all, Munna did a quick one-hour "research" from the Economic Times indices. Went to their ET indices page, onwards to the page listing each of the indexes, saved the page as html, took the data to excel and onwards into Access. Then ran a couple of queries to know which are those companies that fall in most indices. With a sort by market-cap, for liquidity. Some like Nestle and Hero Honda came right on top. Then he went about picking up some stocks which he "felt" like, avoiding all Sensex stocks. Partly random, partly brand recall and partly hunch. To start with, he picked just these 12 stocks, one each from a different sector for an identical investment (small) amount in each. And he hoped to repeat the same buy, periodically. May be he'll add 2/3 more stocks to the master kitty later, like steel/cement which he had left out in the initial round. No smallcaps. Most of his picks came either from the ET 100 Growth, ET Midcap Growth or ET Midcap Value indices, but he believed, some day, 'Saara Desh isko Munna Index bulayega'.

If you thought, Munna handpicked his nuts analytically, then here is more disclosure on his sentiments:

Nestle and Airtel, though part of Sensex, still find a place, because Munna loves chocolates and hates BSNL.
Munna feels off about himself as a responsible global cooling netizen, so he wanted to have a green stock. Hence Suzlon.
Bank of Baroda is there because he vowed to buy it someday, after he wrote this blog post.
He is also reluctant to buy too many stocks from the same business group, like all of Reliance or all of Tatas. One each would do.

Munna decided that he will not spend any more extra time on research but he was ready to share the fruits of his one-hour work to Bablu and give the file to him.

'See you after 7 years', said Bablu, 'I mean, we can have a discussion on the same topic only after 7 years, right? Only then we will know whether Munna was right or wrong. '. And shot off across the bridge into his rustic village.
'How about 30 years', shouted back Munna, 'it takes that long for a big recession procession to pass by!!'. And went back to the Blogger's Bench by the riverside.

Why do most discussions abruptly finish with the conclusion "It depends", "Wait and watch" or "Only time can tell" ? . Next time, why don't you begin the discussion with the same phrase, so that you can save time by not discussing at all ? :)

Munna wasn't sure about what Bablu will do with the file, let alone what he is going to do with his money. Who knows, Bablu might even share it (the file, not the money) to people who email Bablu at his blog. And he was sure, Bablu is going to find a way to use the database in some odd eccentric reverse way. He only hoped, he would share it before spoiling it by reversing the sort. At the least, Munna was relieved that Bablu won't bother him on this particular topic, of all things, during a riverside walk.

Happy Investing.

Pranks on the sands of time

2008-08-27T03:32:00.006+05:30

In this Part 3 of a series, I think about God and suffering (in the context of killings) and the dichotomy of good and evil in the human mind. These aren't clear answers but just my 2 cents. I wrote these at this Orkut discussion thread. You can find the other parts linked from here.

Creation: Pattern or arbitrary ?

The ancient question is still being researched heavily and quite controversially.
But my take is, Yes, for the pattern part. The advocates of both sides, Intelligent Design and Natural Selection, both agree there is a pattern. One says there is a pattern by design and the other says there is a pattern in the process, in acquisition of traits. The difference, is only about, who put the pattern in ? Or was there one ?

Is God just a fabrication of the human mind in a world of random possibilities?

:) :) Well, some schools say, the world itself is a fabrication of God's Mind. Or Man's Mind, meaning Man is God.

Is God a temporary diversion from the madness of suffering ?

I don't think such a diversion would work anyway. God or not, when the madness (to mean suffering) hits you, it would no more let you bury your head in the sand nor would it spare you even if your head is in. Lot of people, choose God to cope up in times of suffering, because, well, it works for them and effectively so. If it didn't work, God wouldn't have been operating in that segment any more. There are things in life that truly help you in times of suffering. Like love and care, faith can do it to a great deal, if you have it, that is. Even if all other aspects of Faith are debatable, the therapeutic value of faith needs to be given atleast as much credit as that of love and care.

If not,then where are the answers to this dance of death, to this depletion of hope,to these hungry flaming fires of hell,to this downward spiral?

Reminds me of a quip that Ramana Maharishi used to give his disciples, when confronted with the question of how do I find out the cause of the world's suffering and alleviate it. He often said, first find out the cause of your suffering, we'll catch up with the world later.

What meaning to make of suffering...

The questions assume, to a large extent, the reality of suffering and the value of life. I sometimes think, what are catastrophies or achievements for us, are just childish pranks for God. Consider a kid, playing on the sands of the shore, building castles in the sand. He would build for a while, then he would demolish a section of it and build again. Or his friend would demolish it and they would fight about it. Or build one more together after a little while. And when it's time for lunch, they would move away to play another game, the fights fading away. Even if they fought and cried, their parents would know not to take them too seriously and would tell them so too, indicating the transience of both the castle and its demolition and the fun value behind it.

I myself find this ridiculous at times, because how can suffering be unreal ? Someone slaps you, you immediately know whether it's real or unreal. Your arthritis or asthma is quite sufficient to tell you whether it's real or unreal, you don't require news of massacres in the papers to tell. But there seems to be a school or a section of humanity, that want to question that experience and get to its deeper reality.

The whole problem is that, to understand this in actuality, we have to consider the possibility that suffering may be unreal. Or real only from a relative perspective of the kid. That's a colossal problem for us mortals, because, it requires a different plane of thinking and training. But if the Truth lies there (just in case) and if Truth is what we seek, is there an option but to look in ? Reminds me of Einstien’s quote : The problems that we face today cannot be resolved at the same level we created them.

Is that why the Goddess of the Three Worlds is also called "The Playful One" ?

Spiritual, but not religious

2008-08-27T03:20:00.002+05:30

This is Part 2 of a series that handles : good effects of religion, religious distortions and the modern phrase "Spiritual but not religious". The contents are drawn from what I wrote at this discussion thread. You can find the other parts linked from here.

There is someone above...

Just to flip the coin around and bring a balance in perspective, how about violence, hatred and killings that have been avoided because of religion ? Perhaps no one conducts a survey to find this, because the good things that happen silently are not the ones that get the eyeball attention. Yet, these are indeed among the kind of people you meet day to day, commonplace. People who want to abstain from certain acts that harm others, because they believe in a higher order governed by God, never mind what name. If you don't want to hear the word God-fearing, call it a general respect for 'Dharma-Nyayam'. This is not to say they are perfect, always make the best choices, but they keep God at the back of their mind while choosing an action. This is not in the context of fear, guilt or hypocrisy (each a different thread) but a general abstention from a decidedly wrong action with a simple thought of 'Devudu Unnadu'. This is something you find in the grocer, the tailor and the street vendor. Isn't there a certain amount of religious thinking behind their goodness ? Between this huge collection formed by little drops of water, from the very people around you and from the selective portrayal of graphic images and numbers found in the newspapers, which one will you believe in ? And which one outnumbers the other ? Whether it outnumbers the other or not, why is the goodness due to religion, not attributed to it, as much as the evil so attributed ?
Religious Distortions and disillusionment...

One can understand that phenomena like casteism can be a major putoff in a quick glance of a certain religion. But using that to debunk the primary need for religion, is like the proverbial baby and the bathwater. How about other oppressive phenomena like slavery and racial discrimination which didn't have anything to do with religion ? Where did Man get those from ? The source of these don't lie in religion, but in men who use religion as a vehicle, to further the evil which they would anyway further. Distortions, but not, 'religious distortions' as in 'arising out of religion', but as in 'distortion of religion' by men. Which system that men found and evolved is not distorted by other men ? Distortion is found in every system: science, language, history, governance and the arts. And just like any other system of thought, religion finds its own rejuvenation from time to time: cleansing, re-understanding of the Code, accommodation of evolving ideas, reflection of learnings from the positive ideas that mankind has collectively benefited from and purging of the demerits.

Spiritual, Sir, but not religious ?

If one is an agnostic and doesn't feel a need for God, thats a different thread. But if one believes in spirituality, but not in religion, then, in my view, such a positioning arises because of the following (not that such a stance is 'bad') :

1. Needless over-differentiation between the two, whereas one is a means towards the end in the other. Still better, some believe the differentiation is unncecessary.

2. An inability to use the positive understandings in one's religion to further one's spiritual development and highlighting the misfits rather than the matches.

3. A general disillusionment (from the other perspective, call, unattractiveness) about all things religious, caused by a maze of factors, that lie partly in approach to study, life events, unanswered questions, environment etc.

What got you here will not get you there....

Assume, you were ‘spiritual, but not religious’. You would carry the spirituality 'in the head', and then, what ? Probably you would believe in a principle, like, for example, 'be a good person' or 'reflect on your own reality'. If you ask me, you are already being religious, because you believe in a set of principles, and by design, you don't believe (or believe less) in another set of principles that goes straight contrary to yours. Having believed in whatever principles, you would then step out to 'do' or 'not do' certain actions based on those. (By now, you are totally religious). Why would you do that ? Because, given your current state, you have a picture of what you want to be, and you want to follow your idea of the map that takes you there and abstain from those that don't. This is what religion is all about, a set of principles and a set of actions and abstentions, directed towards a set of outcomes. Just that, a lot of like-minded people have got together to believe in the same sets, instead of individually carrying it in their heads, and the subject, in this case happens to be 'Man and His Relationship with God'. You are free to update your principles, actions and expectations as you walk along, and those represent the various schools/levels in a religion. Some would like to argue that this is what spirituality is all about, yeah, those are the ones that would agree that religion and spirituality are closer or identical, if they have a positive inclination towards religion that is. Those that don't for some reason, would like to maintain that one is the problem and the other is the solution.

Is religion the root cause of all evil ?

2008-08-26T17:43:00.009+05:30

Here is a series of posts on Religion and Spirituality. Most of it comes from what I wrote at an Orkut discussion forum. If you have an Orkut id, i urge you to read the complete thread here, offering many more perspectives, I just mention here a simplified version of the questions to indicate the context for the replies.

Part 1 : Is religion the root cause of all suffering ?
Part 2: Spiritual but not religious
Part 3: God and the nature of suffering

In Part 1, I handle the question:

Is religion the root cause of all violence/evil ?

Oh No, I don't think so. Why single out religion ? Language ? Land ? It's quite fashionable and simplistic to attribute all violence to organised religion and can be reflected in more youth marking 'spiritual but not religious' on the Orkut profile, but I think it's not the case. (I hope to cover this in my review of 'The God Delusion' some day, but here is a primer).

People fight among themselves for all kinds of things. Yes, religion is one of them, but if you assume to take religion out for a moment, people would still fight. People can fight because they feel 'something is being snatched away from them' or 'another somehow calls himself as superior and dominate them'. In history, people have fought solely on the basis of color or race. Solely for the occupation of wealth or land. For certain sections not allowing a certain freedom for certain other sections, it could be any freedom, freedom to grow and prosper, to speak or express or freedom to choose a taste. Whether one is on the south or north of an imaginary line. The snatchaway or the superiority can also arise from religion, but, that is, only as much as it can arise from anything else.

Just as we hold the color/race/wealth/land as dear to ourselves and we feel jittery about any threat to that preference, so also religion is one preference and a threat to it unsettles man. The tribals usually worship an agreed family of gods, (in a homogeneous tribe), but they still fight for things like the prey they shot or the herb they pluck. It's quite possible people primarily fight on one count, the root cause for the resentment is some other snatchaway or domination, but later bring in religion also as one more count ,where possible, to fight even more. Using religion to enlist more people for the fight. The tendency to fight or kill does not arise out of religion, it's inherent in the unevolved Man as a basic tendency and he would anyway fight, religion or not.

Whats about religion thats not about other systems ?

All is not well with any religion. The demerits in each religion arise from the collective demerits of the people who are attempting to codify it or practise it. Their own personal flaws plus the flaws in the institutionalising attempts. This is true about any system or doctrine that seeks to benefit a collective.

To show that religion is not alone as a flawed system, lets take another unrelated field: Economics. Have we been able to arrive a single economic theory that benefits all of mankind the most ? And if we have, have we succeeded in making most of Mankind agree that it's the one ? God wasn't involved, but still we couldn't decide on a school, we are still looking. I am sure, divergent schools exist in every pursuit of knowledge, in science and in poetry. If you ask each school in isolation, they would like to believe that theirs is the best and has the most merits and sure they will promise that their school would lead to the much-sought 'liberation', whatever that might mean in that branch of knowledge. What flaws are so differently found in religion that are not found in other systems of knowledge or human behaviour ?

Just as Economics pursues the question of money, Religion pursues the question of Man and God. It arises out of a need, in Man, to connect with a possible higher power. Why is that need planted or whether it's a delusion is debatable, but it can't be wished away as non-existent, it's as much real as the question of money and economics.

Why is philosophy insufficient ? Because it handles theory. When you reach the lab, however, you need to know, which action to perform, X or X-dash and which one to abstain from. Not that one action is inherently right or wrong, one chemical is superior or sinful than the other, but given the objective that you are trying to achieve, there is a most optimal action that offers to get that outcome. Religion codifies these objectives and preferred actions that lead to those outcomes, assuming you chose to study God, just like if you chose to study money.

Find your own religion, if you can:

Rub off all religion for a moment. Fine, have we found answers to all the questions we have ? Forget the world...have we found answers to the questions of our own disease and death, of separation and suffering, that seem so real to us, yet baffle us without knowing their cause ? If we can, fine, you won't need religion any more, or what you find will become a religion. There is a precedent, this guy did it, devoting his entire life in the study of this subject. You might happily brush away this need but that doesnt mean it wont get to you, right ?Might as well spend some time knowing its nature.

Oh, is religion providing me all the answers then, you might ask ? No, religion is the training academy for a spiritual objective. Everyone is entitled to join the IPS, but it requires enormous amount of focused training, dos and donts to achieve that. If you don't have the fire, then it isn't for you. If you wish to experience that which Philosophy tells you, in your own lab of Life, that takes a certain amount of training. Religion prescribes the set of actions to achieve the reality that philosophy outlines before us. The rest of the masala in religion, hoaxes, oppression and all, well, is the outcome of the inherent masala in Man, the demerits of the codifiers and practitioners.

The final objective is always spiritually pristine, it probably doesn't depend on which religion or which ritual, which route you took to reach the peak. But you have to choose one and take that uphill route consistently and do things prescribed on that route. And this is true about every route, it will take you there, provided you take it well. All routes have a few basic things in common and a few specifics different. Need to connect regularly with a higher power for inspiration, care for the community and cultivating a good character are some basics that take different forms. I think, probably, the consistency of application, matters more than which route you choose.

Free Will and the Video Game called Life

2008-06-24T02:32:00.004+05:30

A friend made me sit and watch this Ted Talks video on the human brain last night and it turned out to be a worthwhile session. It gave a fillip to an idea that has been brewing for the past couple of days. Though the video itself has nothing in common with this post. At least, it fired my brain and kicked me out of the blogger's block, that has lasted over two months now.

About how much freewill does a man have ? Oh, the question, I know, is atleast as old as my great-grandmother and probably even hers. But there is a modern phenomenon that resembles the handling of the questions of Life and Free Will. Gaming.

We have heard before about 'Life is a game; Play it'. I am thinking of narrowing it down further. Life is like a video game. Role-play it. I haven't played many video games, so my tech knowledge is not much, just what I have observed, heard and outlined in a broad way. I like the hint from this book, that, as Man evolves, lot of things today he does for War, like flying advanced aircraft, he would do it in a spirit of Games, without the killing.

In the beginning of a video game, you get to choose a lot of things, your profile, your level of difficulty/speed, the cool looks of the bike, probably the colour of the cap of the prince, number and type of bombshells and life-chances/energy chances and so on. But once you choose these and the word 'GO'-es, you have pretty much only the steering wheel. There is hardly anything you can choose after you start off. How much free will ? But it will be fun, though. The events in your life, the twists and turns, the preset or random obstacles that come your way, the preset or random credits you get on the way to bolster your confidence, are they determined by your actions ? Yes, they are determined by the way you handle the steering wheel of your life. So much for Karma and the ability in your hands to make choices enroute.

But that isn't much. You have free will enough, alright, but only as much you can do at the steering wheel. That much, Oh, and Man thinks he has all the power and free will in the world. Why isn't that free will not much ? Because the complete exhaustive set of objects, events and methods have been programmed already into the video game. Gosh, is that why they use these very terms in object-oriented programming ? You get to choose five or ten or fifteen parameters from a hundred or a thousand that have been programmed for. But do you get to do more than that ?

This design of Life covers only the most basic of video games. However, in the next level, there are also MMORPGs where the players get to choose lot more complex things, like characters with roles. The abbreviation might as well have referred to Life in general, Massively Multi-player, Online, Role-playing Games!!. They can not only play games by choosing roles for themselves, but also with hundreds of players. Let me quote here briefly from the wiki page:

In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player's character (as in role) is a primary goal....there is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate....

They might have as well put the same text on the wiki page on Life.

Now that's certainly an improvement on the level of free will in Life, we do get to play it with hundreds of others and improve our character and become better day by day. Take it to the next level of Meta. What if someone wrote a meta-game-writing software, that is a software that allows you to build your own games by choosing a hundred parameters. Remember, not just choosing roles, but building entire games, out of raw material stuff that the software will set out before you. Wouldn't that be the next level of free will ? Life does seem to provide such chances, in that sense, Life is probably the most meta-level-ised, most genericised, video games of all kinds. Today you could be a master violinist, tomorrow you could choose to try out mountaineering and in a said amount to time and a said amount of effort, assuming you have a average startup qualifications, you can probably acquire as much mastery with your foot, as you did with your finger. That definitely is a relief and makes us feel better, doesn't it ? Your life is in your hands, Choose the reality that you want to manifest and there...Booom..... there does it bubble and bloom, dive and dance before you. Your choice made, at time X, and your results, here it is Monsieur, your custom suit, delivered to you at time X + N. I have also wondered that why most video games are modelled on gaining points through combat ? Don't the characters perform good deeds like, patting someone for their good work or give a food packet in charity and get a smile in credit for that ? Or combat the evil within and gain points ?

Now that you have taken video game to the next level of abstraction, shouldn't the question of Free Will be taken too ? How much Free Will, do we have, even at the this level of choice ? Still, not much, buddy. Why ? Because you didn't get to do the programming. Thats what drives, whatever it is you are driving. Sure there are open-source video games, you get to read the code, learn from it, fix bugs and contribute to newer branches and features and probably work with others together to take the game as a whole to the next level. Life allows that too. People who reach a certain level of awareness, not only have their lives in order, they endeavour to raise the lives of those around them, making better steering wheels, showing others how to handle them in those lower level games. Showing how to play our roles better and improve our character (this time, it means a set of principles) and how to perform better even while playing with a lot of other people at same or different levels.

So, is that all, have we achieved free will ? (Oh, finish this, and say yes, please). No. Because we still have to work within the game, within that game we started. You can start a new game yourself, all of it open-source. You can start tens of them, a bike game, a market game, a combat game, a music game, whatever. You seem to have the free will to do that, but wait a minute, that is, as they say, a different ball game. It would no more remain the game, with the same name, which you played in the first place. In Life, do we have such a choice ? If you didn't like earth and its Life, do you get to shift to say, Saturn for a while, and get back after the riots have cooled off ? Oh, don't bother, Sometimes, Saturn seems to control our lives here, instead !!. Even if a geographical location shift were possible, it would still be the same game called Life. The same programmer. The same program, everyday extended with new features and a million parameters, out of which you get to choose very few. May be a few more bonus ones on a sunny day. And hope to have Saturn on your side.

Thats not much of free will. But I should qualify this conclusion, because, thats how it looks from where I stand and see, and only to the level of Meta I can handle. Because I am going to go above my own head in the next paragraph. I tend to subscribe to what Sri Ramakrishna, used to say often about Free Will. That our free will, is "like that of a cow that is tied to a pole and gets to graze the grass around it". It might think, in all its cow-level meta, that it has quite a lot of free-will. But you and I, who are at slightly better Meta than the cow, know the length of the rope and its circumference. The cow, though not meta enough to work out the formula, will surely come to terms with its limitations and pet ideas of free will, once the grass (or the meta) is grazed enough and exhausted. Then, it looks up to the Master, and he releases it from its pole and allows it to graze further beyond. [Don't mention to the cow, that it will be tied to another pole, :) :) , thats part of the original game. ]

There, however, seems to be an even higher possibility, That we are 24x7, co-creators of all of world and Life, just that we forgot, and such Illusion seems part of the design. [Don't say you didn't put that into the design, stupid, you put it and forgot]. Uf! Suddenly, you are promoted to the Board of Directors! Even higher is the school that, 'we' is wrong usage, and all of it is actually ONE single stuff and the dream and waking states are just parameters in a combo box, and one is as real (or as unreal) as the other. Well, there is only one Director, and Thou Art That ! Now, don't ask me, which video game most maps that level of abstraction ? As I said, Life is a meta-kaa-baap-kaa-meta, when it comes to gaming. It seems the Matrix game has characters that are aware that they are under simulation, and they even have a rare one, that has self-substantiated itself out of the game. (What the hell is that supposed to mean in Life ?)

The higher truths about Life and Free Will, we may not be able to comprehend now, we dismiss it in sarcasm and quips, but there may be few die-hard game programmers out there who have seen the software design of the Game called Life and come back. If their experience is anything to go by, we just have to increase our meta and re-meta it until we experience those very truths we find as abstract. It won't be meta anymore, it would just give us the feeling of having designed an amazing game for billions of species to play. Till the end of Time. And start all over again with a different profile. Happy Gaming!

Don't die for a Cause, Live for it.....

2008-04-12T01:04:00.010+05:30

After my earlier writings on Bhagat Singh, a friend of mine sent in a link to a recent article on Periyar's stance on Bhagat Singh in those days. The article is based on a recently published book on Bhagat Singh. I should have discussed it after reading the book but I think the contents of the article, even when taken alone, has stuff enough for a blog post, particularly since it mentions an essay written by Bhagat Singh "Why I am an atheist".

I wouldn't ask someone to give up his life by engaging in violent action in the cause of something that is dear to his heart, even against an oppressor. Not that I value Life more than the Cause, but because I think it is better to use Life to further that cause, rather than to give it away on a quick-fix route. Don't say "I'll die for this cause", but say, "I'll live to show how to live for this cause". I called Bhagat Singh a martyr in comparison with Nathuram, because Bhagat Singh gave up his life in acting against an external 200-year-old oppressor, not on a skirmish of money transfer. It's how a spouse or a kid who is oppressively abused at his/her home wanting to break away from the family is different from the kid who thinks of running away because his Dad scolded him. But after Bhagat Singh chose to offer his life (which I think is not always the best thing to do), I would always differentiate such an offering as martyrdom given the context, zeal, selflessness, external oppressor and the awareness wave it created , as against other flimsier reasons for murder of oneself or others. This is not to say that such martyrdom should be replicated (as if it's that easy), but the zeal behind, selflessness and singlepointedness should be replicated towards a cause that is as noble and supreme as the ideal was to the martyr.

There are probably a couple of points in the article where I agree, where Periyar laments that nobody, no leader even condoled the hanging of Bhagat Singh and many senior leaders didn't try to take up the matter with the British in any way. That was real bad, how thankless !

I also agree on Bhagat Singh's general exhortation that exploitation of man by man and nation by nation should end.

That said, would I agree with Bhagat Singh's other views or beliefs ? Oh hardly, which is why I put the agreement first. Here are those where I disagree and most of these disagreements are in the outdated utility of his views in the current times, not on their backdated relevance.

Belief in socialism and communism as a panacea for all the evils of the society was a belief wave of those times, not because of their proven intrinsic healing properties, but more because of the frustrations of imperial colonialism. This would soon get proven by time with, if not the crumbling of such institutions, atleast with the wane in the fascination for these schools and increasing disillusionment about their healing properties. They were definitely worth the try, though.

Among the governance schools that mankind has tried out, Democracy seems to be the one that is working out the best in the current phase of civilization and Man's search for happiness in society. While I personally have a fascination of benevolent autocracy at times, I think, democracy, with all its demerits, will hold the fort as Mankind moves towards better and better forms of this school, hopefully plugging its loopholes on the way. So is the case with free markets, with whatever little freedom it might mean in the actual sense of practice, under democratic intervention through regulation.

"Till people live without unequal status, our struggle will continue. It cannot be brought to an end by killing us..." Oh come on, flip this argument around, will inequality come to an end by killing yourself or others ? How do you define inequality ? How do you define a Utopian possibility of a single equal society where everyone is somehow equally endowed and happy ? Or should we endeavour for the equality of opportunity to make choices and rise ? How about people using the same equality of opportunity to make choices and fall ? Or befall others ? Assuming you define equality successfully, is it something you can achieve ? Even if you were to achieve all equality of the material (which by itself, is an infinitely complex problem), Man would still be unhappy about inequalities in his mind. This is not to say we should glorify the absurd inequalities, but we should pursue the endeavour to remove the absurdity acknowledging the fact that such a pursuit can span civilizations and no single hammer can quickly rest the hall to peace forever.

"only Bhagat Singh’s principle is needed in India" ? That's just Periyar's political wand. Just ignore. We are anyway discussing here why it may not be as fascinating. Among others, He justifies the "use of force in terrible necessity" and non-violence as an indispensable policy for mass movements. I think while it might have had some relevance in relation to abuse by an external oppressor, but it might create utter chaos if individual citizens subscribe to this idea and use force depending on their view of terrible necessity. Leave it to the law enforcers, please.

While some responses to the article have praised his humanism, other online responses the article have handled the fallacious comparison between caste system and economics, untouchability and povery, so I won't go into it. I also won't go into the possible "political" reasons for Periyar to vociferously align with Bhagat Singh or even Bhagat Singh to align with atheism. I would rather look at the reasons for their value and not for their motive.

The other reasons of Bhagat Singh to align with atheism are mentioned in his essay, "Why I am an Atheist", referred to in the article in the context of religion being a tool of exploitation. For one, the essay is definitely a great stirring read, but the meat isn't new, it's as old as God, just the dialogues are different. I wanted to discuss this after I read The God Delusion, but let's have a primer.

If you cut out the part where Bhagat Singh explains that vanity, upbringing etc are not among the reasons, the other main reasons are :

1. He studied a lot on the subject and then found his atheism. He doesn't mention what his studies revealed, I think probably the other reasons mentioned here are the ones. Moreover, Bhagat Singh himself admits that he did a detailed study of the "negative" side, that is, how to deconstruct the God concept, he didn't study much on the "positive" side. Oh, thats bad study, but I will credit him for his open admission.

2. Some of the stuff is rhetoric, hey look at this, hey look at that, don't you know this, aren't you looking and so on. So cut that out too, but I should say, even after cutting, he does go on to some core reasons.

3. "Religion is the cause of a lot of evils and therefore, I don't believe in God": The earlier misconceptions about communism would get disproven by time, but this one still persists. What about other things that cause evil, is that a good reason to say their underlying substratum doesn't exist ? Cobwebs are a good reason to clean the house, but is that a good, (apparaently analytical) reason to deny that the house exists or not to have a house anymore ? Why can't we all stop using petrol and go back to stone age because it causes pollution ? Okay, if religion caused inequalities by caste, which religion caused inequalities by colour in some other part of the earth ? What about inequalities in skill sets, in food, in lotteries and a hundred other variants of inequality. Religion is a major force, and oh we have inequality all over, so we think all inequality must have been caused by religion. People wearing yellow t-shirts eat more apples than those wearing blue ones so there is something about yellow.

We shouldn't admit the evil offshoots of religion, and there are many, but thats a reason we should practise better religion if we believe in God, and even if we don't believe in God, we should find out what causes evil/suffering irrespective of whether God existed or not. As to my take on what's the root cause of all evil, I would turn to one religion that studied this as one of its tenets. Turns out, it has nothing much to do with God.

4. "The God concept was created because of human weakness" : Even if this were true, it hardly gives a reason to prove or disprove the existence of God or otherwise. Since you are the one claiming to be on the side of reason, you got to come up with a better one.

5. "Why did God create the world ? " : If this question was discussed at length, it would have been a different angle, but Bhagat Singh seems to focus on the "Suffering" aspect of creation. He asks the creation question in the context of "Why did God create a world that has so much suffering in it ?". The question presupposes that God should keep the world happy, otherwise he is no God. Look around the world, you won't require God to cause suffering, Man himself is more than capable of it. Moreover, you should first prove God caused it in the first place. Or may be find out, who causes any suffering to whom. And after you find out, you can say, so-and-so is causing it. There are some schools that ask the question "Is there suffering ?" from a particular plane, and, to be fair to the study of the subject, you should ask the question too and find the answer. In fact, if you answer that, quite possible you may not have much questions left.

6. "Who created the world ?": The "Ask Darwin" and "Chemical Accident" arguments aren't new. But if you have to use them effectively as a persuasive argument for atheism, these alternatives should first provide a complete explanation of creation. You might go on pointing out that School A is incomplete and foolish, but to get the point across, you should have School B in your hand and say, here it is, this one answers all your questions. It's well known even in scientific circles that the various disciplines delve most on the How of creation and science, as a discipline by itself, will not be able to provide a complete explanation on the why and who, atleast for a lot of time to come. We are still very far away even from asking these questions in our labs, so come up with something concrete and complete, I'll wait.

I liked the part towards the end of the essay, where Bhagat Singh stays an atheist till the end. Tough job. "You have enough fires, you find God..." - Ladder 49. But I have a faint thought : did he stay so just because he didn't want to roll back ? What if, just what if he was wrong, particularly since he had not found complete correct answers to the God questions he was asking. I am just speculating here, I am sure you can speculate about my being wrong too.

Does that make you curious on what are my arguments in favour of theism ? Thats another thread some day. Frankly, I don't know God well enough to qualify to comment on Him. I like Him though :) . I thought atheists are the ones who knew everything !!

Mobile Panchangam

2008-04-08T04:19:00.004+05:30

Today is Ugadi and I received one of those little gifts which banks sometimes give away to customers, a little pocket annual calendar from State Bank of Hyderabad. It has essential information for any given day according to the religious calendar. These are quite common and many calendars in which you can tear away the date every date, often give useful info according to the calendars of many religions, including for example, the month according to the Hijri Calendar and include even a thought for the day. I was wondering why some mobile service provider can't give the same information on SMS for a given day. Panchangam for the day, by SMS, on demand, SMS charges apply. We get all kinds of info on SMS, cricket scores, thought for the day, reservation status, stock quotes and oh yes, coming closest is even astrology for the day. While these services may have something in common with similar operators in other countries, the Panchangam SMS will be a very india-specific service. Setting aside questions of belief or otherwise in the Panchangam, I was wondering if the service will have a market. In my view, yes. If you allow me excitement, quite a big one, in a vast country of believers, where people subscribe to things like virtual pooja. At the minimum, it might have as much reason to be present as a service, as is the astrology option present now. The Panchangam SMS can contain things like Thithi, Star, Good and Bad timings, Rahu Kalam and name of the festival, if any. Who might find it useful ? Anyone who believes in these things, and sometimes keeps track of these in his mind by quickly looking it up in an almanac, somehow can't reach one but has a cellphone. Maybe he is discussing a business transaction. Or planning an investment. Or going on an adventure trip. It will be great if the user can specify which calendar, like Hindu or Hijri.

I was discussing this idea with a friend during my riverside walk and I came to know that, to be technically precise, things like thithi are dependent on the local sunrise time and might actually differ from place to place. This might make things a little more difficult, though user can also the SMS the PINcode of his location!!. The mobile service providers now do give a lot of local content, but I think the categories of content might be similar to those that are offered in other advanced countries. Whereas this one would be a new idea, totally relevant to India. As to users who might find such content useless, Oh yes, lot of people might feel the same way about the other services mentioned above. Also, even when provided, it might not accurately fulfil the needs of some hardcore panchangamites who follow specific panchangams even within the Hindu Calendar, like the Srirangam Kutti Sastrigal Panchangam. But I think, overall, the service might attract a lot of users and also benefit both the customer and the service provider. Particularly, since, in India, localized services like JustDial.Com, which are entirely free to the individual customer, still have found a successful revenue model while giving useful advice, even for free. These days, it looks like in India and China, there would be a volumes market for almost anything, given their vast population. I would also love it, if Google can integrate Panchangam into their Google Calendar, as part of their efforts in offering localized content. Thats a little too much ? Google SMS is already in India and they have started SMS alerts in India for events in the user's Google Calendar. Hehehe, they just have to add a feature, "Subscribe to Daily Panchangam", with Hindu or Hijri, PINcode etc as default settings. At the rate of feature addition of Google, I am sure they'll take it further, and even notify you on upcoming special days like Akshaya Tritihiya and generate ad revenue from jewellery shops. Google Panchangam, how does it sound ?

Your Smile means I am fine...

2008-03-22T22:32:00.021+05:30

Similar to the incident where I met the 100-year old man, I happened to meet another elderly person. I was in the hospital to meet a friend and someone mentioned about this person and said he was also admitted in the same hospital for some ailment. I never knew him, I hadn't talked to him anytime before, but I knew he was a resident of the community. A couple of other friends also thought let's go and visit him although none of us knew him well. So we went to his ward. He knew only one among our group but he understood we are a gang. He must have been in his late eighties (or may be in early nineties). As we could see, his ailment had taken a heavy toll. The first thing that happens, I think, to some people who are otherwise healthy, well-built for a long time and suddenly fall sick in their old age is that, they lose their cheeky build and drastically reduce to a thin frame. He had great difficulty having food on his own and his wife was feeding him a semi-liquid from a cup. We thought it wouldn't be good manners to step in but they said its okay and moreover, it was already getting dark and we thought he might wish to take rest later. His wife was also in her eighties and still does voluntary work.

I felt that though his frame had reduced, the shine in his eyes had not. He mentioned about my friend's father and recollected how they went back a long time, though they had branched out into different workplaces. He was happy that we were visiting him although he actually knew only one of us. He said: I am not so sure about the ailment and the pain that has inflicted me, but when I see the (well-wishing) smile on your faces, then I know I am getting well. Your smile is a sign of my wellbeing. I had mentioned in an earlier post, that elderly couples, after a threshold age, go on to become good old buddies, with the bonding turning almost as a spiritual friendship. I felt the same way when I saw the old lady feeding her husband. Seldom do young couples pause to think that the test of true bonding lies far ahead later in life, that the best of fun times are only the beginning part of the wedding promises and keeping them up till the end is the proof of the pudding.

They both probably had come to the plain realisation that the ailment may be terminal. She mentioned, that the God they believed in, whatever He did would be good to them. Wow, I thought. It's easy to debunk or theorise about a belief in God, but it's tough to turn that faith, whatever God you may have, into a positive strength when it matters the most and when all our devices are shutting out in non-co-operation. You know that your most possessive possession so far, your own body, is giving way and you have to use the strength of something that is not made of body stuff. You don't even want to think of trying that, and even tougher to try it at 80+.

His strength was even better. Similar to the earlier incident, his mental strength was amazing. His voice was blurred so I couldn't get it verbatim, words came with breaks, but let me capture the main idea. He said : Suffering is a great test of your spirituality. For a long time, we have been 'knowing' the whats and hows of being spiritual, but in such a situation, it is a test to have the faith that My God is always with me. And I firmly believe He is with me. That the condition of the body is this or that doesn't matter, but in my mind I know, whatever happens we have His Blessings. This is the time to remember, and actually practise what we have always known all these years.

It set me thinking on suffering. Suffering, I agree with him, is really a great test of spirituality. Other times, you probably "apply" your spirituality "on others", to third party situations, but the acid test of your spirituality is when a real suffering touches you directly. Dhoodh kaa dhoodh, Paani kaa paani Ho Jayega. Buddha devoted his entire life in finding the answer for this one question. We live off our lives not bothering about it, as if it were out of syllabus, but dude, thats one sure question thats going to be on exam paper. For, old age and its accompaniments are a certainty and more often, such a certainty that we will most likely be all alone to handle the actual stuff. If at all you want to have an Either-Or choice, now is the time make that choice between becoming a Budda or a Buddha. The others can rally around you in support, speak nice words and may be even help you out, but there is no proxy for living out your pain. You have to do it, yeah scary it is, all by yourself, bit by bit. This requires a lifetime's preparation of your mind, brick by brick, to keep it strong in old age. When the body is strong, the mind may fritter away, but if such a frittering can be streamlined and built to be strong, then such a strength would come in handy when the body is on its withering way.

I and one of my friends are opposites in our lifestyles. There are many unhealthy elements in my lifestyle, I blog after midnight and I sleep late, I have a lot of junk food and less of healthy food, I live like a sin(e) curve, don't keep a standard schedule etc. Whereas he lives his life as if a clock decided to become a human being and bless the earth, and lives in a very simple straight line, while a few others run around in circles. :) . I often joke that he is like The Wall, stay and play, ball by ball and hit a slow century. Another friend of mine jokes that he spends the first 60 years in disciplined suffering so that he may live the next 20 happily, whereas others spend first 60 merrily and suffer the last 20. While I often quip away the flexi lifestyle to be the ultimate exercise of Brahamachari independence, I have to sheepishly agree when well-meaning friends often insist, will rolling eyes, that body will soon show its signs. Come to think of it, the jokes apart, my friend does have a healthier lifestyle than mine, and the compliment is not only about the body. The health of the mind that you acquire across years is going to be a major support when you have crossed most of your years. This recent quote about paradoxes on Prasanna's blog puts it well.

When we moved away from that hospital bed that night, after holding his hand reassuringly for a moment, wishing him the best and praying for his good health, we didn't know he would be no more within two weeks. But those two minutes of interaction with him had set us all thinking on why it is important to live a life in a particular way and not just in any way, anyway.

Being a part of a rising Nation

2008-03-02T17:35:00.004+05:30

Continuing my earlier post on Gandhi, here is more discussion on the same thread : discussing whether Bhagat Singh and Nathuram were the same, and whether Nathuram didn't have any choice, and reply to some feedback on my response:

Bhagat Singh .vs. Nathuram
I think I have already mentioned what I think is the difference and I can't think of anything more to add. As to your saying, that the actions are the same, only the words are different, I would say: Which is why there are different words to refer to different kinds of actions, and the meanings often include the context, motive and the implication it would have on the listener. There are different words to refer to the actions of cutting paper, cutting trees, cutting carrots, cutting goats and cutting necks.

The inappropriateness of comparing murder and martyrdom can be seen, if you try to extend the example under comparison. What if someone had a problem with Nathruam for killing Gandhi and he wanted to finish off Nathuram's family or friends ? Does it appear ridiculous ? One might ask: why bring in family and friends here? I would say it's a valid question. A person arguing from the killer's side would say, from my viewpoint it's a passion for me, i am ready to surrender and how else will I handle the fanaticism of people like Nathuram ? Extend this kind of responses from either side and what we have would be a series of violent retaliations and there wouldn't be discussing any more, there would just be dying.

Nation building was still left...
Moreover, Bhagat Singh and Nathuram didn't operate on same terrains. I'll also use this to answer Surya's question: What alternatives did Nathuram have ? India had its teething problems but it was a free nation. It had plenty of nation-building work to do. Nathuram was just 40 when he killed Gandhi. He had a lot of years left in his life. He could have joined the national mainstream, either in politics or in whichever field of work he thought would contribute to nation-building, even the Hindutva school which he subscribed to. He did have a great passion for his country and age in his favour, he could have used it to,let's say, start his movement, even explicitly against Gandhi and take him headon at his game. Sure, it would have taken a very long time to achieve what he dreamt of as a good nation, but Gandhi himself took plenty of time to build a stature and gather momentum for his movement. Every leader, unless gifted with the hereditary couch, has to build his fort by taking his movement to the people.

Did the trees help those who came later...
For all its demerits, India did turn out to be a great democracy in the 50 years that followed. Anything would be debated, one doesn't have to go by a populist school, one indeed can start a new one. Even the populist leaders did have a couple of other senior leaders to contest their supreme hold. Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Rajaji, Patel all of them had serious differences with Nehru or Indira, but they collectively showed what democracy can do. Amartya Sen compliments this Indian spirit to allow diversity in discussions which India very much allowed, atleast relatively better than all of its neighbours. Nathuram could have been a part of all that, a part of India that was rising, instead of the earlier India that was :) fasting unto death. Okay, he killed Gandhi, did he achieve whatever he thought of, as nation-building dreams ? Okay he died before he achieved, did he atleast give a strong fillip to his brethren or followers to take up the daunting task of building the nation ? Whom did the killing benefit in a long-term nation-building way? This is a difference between Bhagat Singh and Nathuram. What Bhagat Singh did, gave a boost to the people who were to follow soon and take the freedom struggle seriously. It did give a jolt to the British, that we got to take Indians a helluva lot seriously, we can't kill them in a closed garden and get away with it. That there is young blood, stuff out there that takes freedom seriously.

@ the view that the rebuttal was out of context :

I did notice the direction or context the discussion was taking and had read the full thread many times over before formulating my response. May be my response didnt cover the other points raised by other members and was primarily directed at a particular post by Surya, which is why it looks like the primary issue hasnt been handled. Moreover, I would like to think that the rebuttal is as much in context or (as much out of) context as the bashing in the first place. Discussions like this do have a tendency to stray off into lanes and bylanes that might have never been thought of !!

I do have my reservations about Gandhi's life and writings, but I found that those that were mentioned here were not the ones. That's another thread, lest this thread goes out of context !

On the other points mentioned :
Agree that we should attempt to take a 360-degree view, though it's quite possible one has formed one's views, after such an attempt.
Agree that there is nothing wrong in analysing Gandhi, he was one man worth analysing over and over.
Also agree that analysis is better than idolization, particularly in the Indian context.

@ the remark by Surya that it's an Emotional Response :

I agree partially on this, though I would have loved to have heard the phrase "there are certain emotional elements in the response", instead of categorising the entire response as emotional. There are, for example, mentions about institutionalising solutions experimented at the individual level and appropriateness of using political tact in democratic choices, which are purely issue discussions.

Also, I would like to think my responses are as emotional (or as intellectual/objective) as the average of the quality of the posts on this thread, including me and everyone for the averages. On the flip side of my approach, is my tendency to write in the "I and You" style, which often gives the impression that I am "pointing out and outpouring", whereas 'You' refers to the World and 'I' refers to any average thinker (both sometimes looping back to me). I try my best to say "One does this, One does that" and so on, but sometimes, it builds up to too many ones :) . I hope to improve on this. Reading too much of Arundhati Roy is injurious to my writing style.

These two links, from Rang De Basanti, might be interesting in the discussion:
Go Ahead and Transform your Country
Violence is not the solution

Why the world doesn't need Gandhi Bashing....

2008-02-29T06:28:00.008+05:30

There was some Gandhi-bashing going on in the one of the Orkut Forums, so I thought I will give a rebuttal from the Gandhigramite point of view......

The bash, first :

gandhiji was no secular human being. and nathuram godse was no fanatic. gandhiji was a spent idea and his time for rest had come. because he never wanted to rest peacefully he was laid to rest in peace for ever. had gandhi been alive for another 5 years, india would have travelled 30 years back. he was gainst industrialization and he was killed for he wanted to donate another some lakhs to pakistan. hindu muslim unity was not feasible at that time for the nation was in war over kashmir. you dont run a nation with gita's quotes. gita is for personal growth. gandhi would have done well to read up arthashastra or the bhishma parva of mahabharata to advise nehru. he was a confused human being. agreed that he had contributed immensely to the national struggle but he overdid it. he indeed played politics when he preffered nehru rather than bose to be the president of INC. gandhi wanted only those who believed in his ideology. i will define him as a "non-violent hitler". he did the damage indirectly. he was not a democrat at all!!

My rebuttal :

People often confuse Gandhiji's personal belief in Hinduism with a wrong understanding of the word Secularism. A Hindu, however pious, ritualistic and religious, can still be secular, by allowing other people to have similarly strong beliefs in their respective religions. This is exactly what Gandhiji often sought to explain. He was among the first to use the word Secularism in the Indian context, to say that, while every person is entitled to his personal belief in X or Y religion, the state has no business to align itself to any one particular religion more or less and people should keep their religious belief as a personal pursuit. He admitted his liking for Hinduism and its traditions as openly as he advocated respect for all religions. He even dissuaded the State from spending government funds to renovate the Somnath Temple.

I wanted to handle this one first. I'll come to whether Nathuram was a fanatic or not, but, he was, imho, definitely a murderer. Just in case, people confuse this with the word martyr. I consider Bhagat Singh and others of his calibre as martyrs and Bose and Bal-Pal-Lal to be brave leaders, but I consider Nathuram a weakling. He didn't know how else to fight Gandhi's ideology, he thought let's just remove him from the face of the earth. What did Nathuram do ? He killed someone for differing with him on what's good for the nation. Thats not reason enough to kill someone. If you differ from someone and if you think he is capable of a widespread influence, you should be able to take on his ideology by attempting to start an influential movement yourself, build it brick by brick out of your personal strength and leadership skills and show people what you think is true. Instead of that, you just settle scores with the gun, I wouldn't think that to be a mature mind. I might give him some points for passion, he didn't do it for a selfish reason, he had the courage to surrender, but if the underlying approach is flawed and lacks maturity, all passion and courage turn out to be grayed with tension and rage.

This is what Gandhi himself demonstrated. No one had even thought of a non-violent approach before. When he stepped into the political scene, the previous wave had entirely been about extremism. The idea of non-violence was not his original idea, but he was the one who institutioinalised it as an idea for the Indian freedom struggle. You might differ on whether or nor it was more efficacious, lot of people believe Bose's approach would have been better. But even if someone doubts its efficacy, you have to credit Gandhi for his capacity to institutionalise an entirely new approach to the question and gather millions of countrymen in support. And the response he got from the public was truly sweeping at the time, though there were always some differing groups in pockets. Even if you disagree with Gandhi's insitutionalising skills, look at what Bose did. He too demonstrated how to differ with someone, in a great healthy way. He differed with Gandhi, he set out to start his movement to tell people about what he thought was right and did succeed in gathering a large momentum against the British. That's a great way to differ with someone. The point I am trying to make here is: Nathuram did NONE of this. He was looking at the teleprinter giving out the news about Gandhi's fast unto death, and he was frustrated, all his pent up hatred flowed and he took up the task. He had his own and only point of view on Hinduism and if someone didn't listen to him a few times nicely... booooom.... He was largely influenced by Savarkar's writings alright, but even Bhagat Singh and Bose were influenced by Savarkar's writings, it's not what one reads that matters but having read, how to apply one's mind and what one sets out to do. There is a difference between fighting the British for the freedom of a nation and killing your countryman for a political question of transferring money. If Nathuram had to take on Gandhi at his game, he had to demonstrate an equal amount of personal strength and leadership, which comes by the thinking of a rich mind and long term application of effort. He couldn't do any of this and just went for a short term finish Now you tell me, need I discuss whether he was a fanatic or not ? In my view, there is no difference between this and naxalite violence.

It might be pertinent to cover here the point regarding transfer of money to Pakistan here, since the event is one of the ascribed motives of Nathuram. For the record, the deal was part of the Partition Agreeement. India didn't want to fulfil it because of events that happened after the partition (rebel occupation of Kashmir by Pakistan). So it was purely a political problem between India and Pakistan that, by design, was a complex one to solve and it remains to this day. Gandhiji had his views on the matter and he expressed it and, typical of him, wanted to fast unto death. Medha Patkar goes on a fast unto death and let's say, the government decides to reduce the height of the dam or appoint a panel to study rehabilitation, and one of the construction partners gets irked by the fast-unto-death strategy working in her favour, can he set out to kill someone for that ? I can understand if the procession becomes a law and order situation and the state intervening to handle it by exercising its powers, but can individuals settle violent scores on a issue under debate ?

India would have travelled back ? Gandhi had his views on industrialization and the models village-centric rural development. I would even agree that his was one of the areas where he did not succeed much in getting support or widespread institutional acceptance. But to say that if he had continued to live, India would have gone back is not true. He was not at the helm of affairs of industrialization anyway. Nehru was incharge, it was well-known even at that time that Nehru and Gandhi had differences on a lot of issues and industrialization was one of them. Nehru had plenty of other friends in the science, engineering and policymaking circles and was also influenced by his study of the economies of other countries like Russia and Japan. Nehru had already firmed up his mind on the industrialization route and Gandhi had let him to differ and work in that route. Gandhi, on the other hand, still believed on a village-centric development working inside out, and thought, after freedom, he would "spend his ideas" working on changing the society at the grassroots level and leave the national policy to Nehru. So Gandhi or not, Nehru's industrialization agenda would have anyway prevailed. There are a section of people who now look back and review whether or not Nehru's approach was okay or not okay, but that's stuff enough for another thread. Gandhi, might have, probably gone on a few more fasts-unto-death to reverse any labour-hostile moves or any other moves by Nehru which affected people in a large way, but, in spite of differences, he believed in Nehru and had handed over the macrodirection of the nation-building to Nehru. Gandhi's model of village-centric development inside out still has its relevance in certain areas where it has been tried on a smaller scale, like in The Gandhigram Rural Institute, where I studied.

Confused man ? Every leader who wants to think deeply about the society in which he lives in, will have contrarian schools of thought conflicting in his mind at one point of time or another. Many of the basic problems that afflict society are easy to think about and solve at the individual level but extremely complex when it comes to institutionalising these solutions as a national policy. Gandhi was a well-read man, he wrote on almost every aspect of the individual and the society, he thought deeply and originally on many issues. The areas where he failed to make an impact, in my view, are those where he tried to institutionalise solutions that worked well at the individual level but may not work as a state policy. I can give a coin to the beggar, I might even give food to the same beggar all through the year, but to magnify those noble motives into a national policy on hunger is a different ball game. There were indeed some areas where he succeeded in doing this, (freedom struggle and untouchability) and some where he did not make such a great impact, like the Charkha and Khadi. He probably had a small set of basic beliefs and thought to resolve all the complex issues by deciding based on those beliefs, which he thought as "first principles". ( I might be wrong on this). Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Just because a leader of his stature failed in certain areas, to say that he was a "confused human being" is a sweeping over-generalisation. And the good thing about Gandhi, is he laid down, in writing, for public feedback, his conflicts and his own confusions if any, on issues that impacted the society.

Sidelining Bose : I don't think it's possible to run any political organisation, without sidelining someone or the other by political tact. Often, in politics, you have to choose between two equally vibrant minds. You have to choose one, because, both minds, though vibrant, work in totally different directions. Gandhi had approach A and Bose had approach B. It would have torn the Congress apart to have attempted to run one organisation with almost conflicting ideologies. Nehru, with all his differences, was more aligned to Gandhi. And Gandhi did not shoot Bose, like Nathuram did to Gandhi. He just said, if you want me at the helm, you know where I'll throw my hat. It so happened that at that point of time in history, Gandhi had an extremely strong following and backing in the party and in the country and large, and Bose had to move out. In fact, Bose went on to rise much much more in stature after he parted ways with Gandhi. Had he been stuck, he would have had to moderate all his vibrance in the service of something which he never believed and would have caused more frustration to himself and more trouble to the party. That Gandhi chose Nehru instead of Bose, is entirely within democracratic choice. People choose X against Y and align themselves all the time and quite often even part ways and succeed or fail. It so happened in history, that Gandhi's influence was so widespread and had greater following by numbers than the other schools of thought, so whatever Gandhi said, lot of people came on his side. You can't blame someone for his popularity, It's a numbers and ideology game, pitch your tent and count how many people listen to you, if it's more you win, if it's less try again next time. That's how politics works.

non-violent hitler who damaged indirectly ?: The phrase attributes an explicitly sinister motive to Gandhi's decisions. This is not true. Statements made by many current-day politicians make veiled references to taking things in "their own hands" and indirectly predict that they may have no option if the situation goes out of control etc. Gandhi never did any such thing. He announced his strategies against the British from time to time, all his announcements were clearly of the non-violent nature. In incidents like the Chauri Chaura, or in the case of partition violence, much damage might have been caused by how individuals interpreted and impulsively reacted to his declarations, but there was nothing in what Gandhi said that directly or indirectly hinted violence. Damage might have occurred as a cascading effect of various levels of interpretation by other individuals, but you can't place the responsibility for such acts on what strategy he announced, particularly when he openly exhorted all his followers to be strong but non-violent. Hindu Muslim Unity was not feasible at the time, agreed, so if someone espouses, is he wrong?, just because it wasn't feasible?. Producing environ-friendly cars or renewable energy in a cost-effective way was considered infeasible at one time, does it mean people who tried to explain to us were wrong ? In fact, I would like to think that they were forerunners in raising these to the people and telling them that if they wanted a good life, they have to choose their actions differently.

As to the statement that Gandhiji never wanted to rest, so he was laid to rest, I can appreciate only the pun. Let me take some rest now.

If you have the Will, you can serve the Pill

2008-02-14T02:54:00.004+05:30

Last month I was chatting with one of my batchmates, who organises volunteer medical camps every month, in Bangalore. He works for one of the top 10 companies in the world, so I thought his schedule must be quite demanding. I was prodding him about the kind of people who volunteer for these camps. He mentioned about two kinds. The first kind, try and make an occasional appearance from time to time and do their best. What might be the reasons for their not being more regular? They usually say, weekends are the only times we get to spend with families, after our busy office schedules during the week. Though the camps are a noble thing, one also needs to spend time with the family. So they try and make it whenever they can. Also, travelling from one end of the city to another is a nightmare in daylight.

The other kind are a handful who attend every month no matter what. Some doctors, it seems, drop into Bangalore, from Kerala or Mangalore travelling overnight, at their expense, just for the sake of this camp, carrying medicines that can be used at the camp. They reach the camp after freshening up at the bus-stand hotels and grabbing a quick breakfast. They plan out their trips to the medical camp with the same anticipation as if they were planning for a campfire resort. They find it fulfilling to use their skills and services in the noble venture, in addition to the same kind of work they do during the week at their respective hospitals. Come on, everyone doesn't have this luxury, you might say. Luxury? Probably only the bus is luxury category, but the travel wouldn't be. One might think, they are singles or their families aren't demanding etc., but it isn't the case. Lot of people do that for a living. It's quite common to find people who work in one city the whole week, take the weekend bus to go home, spend the weekend and hop back to office on Monday. The weekend crowds on routes like Bangalore-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai-Madurai comprise a lot of these people and some of them even hop-stop-jump when the direct buses are full. These doctors might often be one of those non-descript commuters, just that they do it for a different motive. They could do the same kind of good work wherever they live, right?, but it seems they find these camps more fulfilling and want to be a part of it. These are matters of the heart, and as they say, your heart is in the right place when you vibe well with a community.

How do you manage, I asked him. This guy was a newlywed and I found his enthusiasm in bringing the camp together was as much the same before his marriage. He said, I have the same issues as the first kind. But I plan it out well in advance. I make sure the other weekends in the month are spent with the family and in great fun. Since I have a 5-day week, I spend the Saturday at home, fixing things, taking care of household stuff and taking the family out etc. So they actually don't mind when I shoot off to the camp one Sunday a month, he said. And I motivate myself by looking at these doctors. It's purely a question how you balance your different needs, give a certain amount of time to each of them. Although it may not be the same pattern, if on an average, each one is given its rough due, then there is no problem catering to all the needs. It's not easy, in the beginning you have to stick it out, but if you are juggling balls anyway, might as well catch one of those that might help you feel good at the end of the day. One might ask: what about life after kids are born? Or will the same motivation remain 5 years later? While these are hypothetical questions, I think that once someone learns this art of balancing all the needs and recognize nourishment of the soul as one of the basic needs, then the specific situations wouldn't matter, because you know how to will, and swim your way through.

Indians of the year

2008-02-02T16:52:00.000+05:30

I had never thought of Former President Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam as an attractive speaker, but he mentioned some nice points, in his usual simplistic style, while giving away the CNN IBN Indian of the Year 2007 awards. All those who were nominees and winners of these awards in the various categories have certain things in common, he said.

1. While still young, they had an aim in life.
2. They went on acquiring knowledge in their fields.
3. They worked hard, sweated it out for whatever they set out to do.
4. They were never cowed down by problems. They conquered their problems and went ahead.

The main winner, Mr.E Sreedharan, who headed the Delhi Metro and Konkan Railway projects, said :

1. The most important thing is to have personal integrity and honesty.
2. Achieve Professional Competence in whatever you do.
3. Finish work in time, time is money.

Mr.Arun Sarin of Vodafone was the winner in the Global Indian category and Shilpaji was one of the nominees. She was asked by the host "What it means to be a global indian". I thought she is going to say "Yoga", given her recent ventures. But she said, youknowwwwwat, "For me, it's Indian Values". Uf! Not that she sounded unconvincing, but the host made it a bit worse. While closing the question and moving on to the next nominee, he said "Values is what she says it means to be a global indian". Depending on where you give the emphasis, he sounded as if "Thats what she says, but I really don't know, Anyway let's move on." Is that why they say it's become fashionable to speak of values nowadays ?

Spade and the Rose, Buddy and the Boss

2008-01-28T01:14:00.000+05:30

Bablu had a lot of buddies at his workplace. He and his friends were a great gang who always used to hang out together. They worked for one of the 30 companies that comprise the Sensex, so life was a poor-fit sine curve of hectic days at the workplace and chilling out at parties and vacations. All of them had been recruited on campus in the same batch and now it was almost three years since. One fine morning, Bablu was called by their boss and asked to "mentor" the others in the gang and review parts of their work from time to time, as part of these leadership grooming exercises they have from time to time, percolating succession planning right upto the grassroots level. He suddenly found there were plenty of issues to be sorted out and needed review. Efficiency needed improvement, he had "discovered". Till recently he had been one of those who needed to be "sorted out" by his boss, but now he had to sort things out. Bablu was what they call the "soft-type" guy and often wondered how to tell the guys about the areas about their work. Hey we all grew up in the same farm, man, we had our meal from the same plate, that kind of feeling. During a riverside walk, He meekly put this question to another friend of his, Munna.

Munna is a one-man university. He always answers questions at any forum he comes across. He jumps with glee to hear the phrase "to anyone who has a point of view", even though he may not have any. When he sees "to whomsoever it may concern" on an invoice envelope meant for the checkpost, he naively thinks it's for him. He uses a customized version of an old adage and believes: Preach today what you want to practise some day. The riverside dust rose to give a hazy halo to Munna as he started doling out advice by the dozen, as if Gabriel had just deliberated with him inside the cave on this very topic and the whole duniya had gathered on the sands to listen to his gyaan. It was the Republic Day, and though the chat had nothing to do with patriotism, he used a red bench on the riverside as a pedestal to get a feeling of addressing the multitudes from Red Fort.
Excerpts:

It's usually tough, but only in the beginning. After a while, the "dog eats dog" world teaches the goodie softie folks the lessons in aggression and they, after having learnt them, have to "moderate" it with the goodness they have learnt before in their "pure" times. First of all, these buddies come in 2 types. One is a set of buddies whom we start out by occasional nice interactions but later graduate to a well-formed friendship. The other is a set of buddies who have come together "just like that", here to stay only for a short while with us and go their way after the temporary phases get over. And you can try the same way of interaction with both types, though the output will be different, I'll come to that later. In these situations, they say, it's better to be the natural YOU, however good or bad that might be. And grow as a person, over a period of time. If you are irritated because others are being unfair to you, there is nothing wrong in letting people know. A certain amount of anger, well-expressed, might actually be good for the body, the mind and even for the profession, the longterm health of the workplace and quality of work. You shouldn't rock the boat, of course, but that doesn't mean you have to suppress all your feelings to the level of indignation and compromise on basic objectives at the workplace. If you are uncomfortable, you should let people know about it. If you are uncomfortable doing even that, then, well, you shouldn't and probably wait for patience to wear out a little more, (not fully tear out), so you are better off expressing it. Others may be worse off by your expressing it, but thats fine, because you would have already decided that you have reached a threshold level. If at that time, still some part of you wants to be nice and not direct, (God help !)then you can try to minimize the embarrassment by hinting or sarcasm or trying to tell in a nice way.

The only problem might be : If we straightaway mention whatever comes to our mind aggressively and harshly, it's quite possible we get wrong and we are expressing our impulses without thinking like a brakeless bell-less bicycle. Not recommended. But if there is a pattern that is repeatedly happening and if you have thought about it coolly and fair to all parties, true to your basic objective and quality of work, then you should communicate your displeasure. There is nothing wrong with this. ( I have told you this before, but again, because removing guilt requires repeated scrubbing). Don't get "worked up" and "get mean" when you are communicating, although others might react in that way. Remember, if something has started to build up that recurs and haunts you, and if you know you are being fair to both sides, then it has to be expressed. In fact, if you don't express, you might be contributing to the inefficiency in the system and if you express, you will be acting true to your basic objectives although you may not please individuals. It's good that small mistakes have to be corrected immediately, sometimes, even with big punishments so that those small mistakes do not proliferate to become big mistakes one day. Like the robber in prison who blamed his mother because she never chided him for stealing a pencil as a kid in school.

The harsh extreme stance is that, each one is there to move their muscle and do a decent amount of work for the plump pay they receive. Managers who are ruthless are usually more efficient and well-defined but not without demerits. They either get "worked up" with impulsive anger and lose out on the personal touch (care a damn even if someone is sick or mourning). They will actually be a boon in handling "real thugs" or "junk idlers" by whipping them up a bit with their outbursts and threats, but if they try the same with another employee who has average motivation already, they might be harming the existing morale. Why are you always looking over my shoulder and breathing down my neck ?. And more often than not, their ruthlessness usually works only with their subordinates, and when it comes to interacting with their superiors, they will be forced to "moderate" their aggression. Or made to learn !! After all, they can't be ruthless with their boss, they would say ! Also, these are usually good at "technical" areas of work where things are usually well-defined as X or Y. They can, for example, demonstrate and snub their superior, by showing, that other things remaining the same, an X query, written by A runs thrice as fast as a poorly written Y query written by B. And to be fair and promote better quality work, you have to agree with that. But when it comes to people-driven work like team projects and management skills, a balance between how you speak and how you get work done, matters a lot for getting further work done :) !! There may be situations, when you call spade a spade, it might fall on your neck, next time you see it, you will start calling it a rose !! :)

That said, the actual methods may vary based on the circumstances. Assume, you want to mention to your buddies that quality of work is suffering. You can do that over a cup of tea. Or mention it in the office cubicle when all are present. You can even mention it when some are present, anyway it will reach the other intended recipients !! You can mention it to whomever you think is "closest" among the lot and whom you expect to be more understanding. You can say, "Hey, Of late, these things are happening, ya. It's not proper, no?. I mean, we can chill out all the time, but work is suffering.". Or you can make a logical appeal of the consequences of inefficiency. "see folks,if we keep on postponing carelessly then issues will unnecessarily build up, and later we only have to sit and sort out each of them painfully. Suddenly one fine morning, boss will wake up from hibernation :) there will be plenty of pressure and that time not a single soul will help us. So why not, finish off then are there. Not only that, we will also get some satisfaction that some parts of work are already finished, tied up and kept aside, right ?". In higher levels of management, they do this efficiency review talk at team meetings, they have to do the harsh talk at the office and attempt to make it up at parties and get-togethers. :) But it may be, that at your junta level, your office cubicle or the coffee machine is the maximum you can think of !.

Another approach is, to act like a pukka team lead or manager while in office and be a friend or a buddy outside. This is not to say, you should lose out on all the fun in the workplace. But along with all the fun in between, you can also (do some work) make and present the task list, give instructions, review things. In the beginning, your behaviour may be confusing, people wonder are you a buddy or are you a boss. But over a period of time, people know you for "work is work and fun is fun".

Either ways, be prepared for different types of reactions (in the short term) from different kinds of people. Might quite happen, some buddies start buzzing that "you have begun to show off" or "you have started to boss around" or "the power thing has gotten to your head" or "you want to impress your boss about your leadership". It is said, Power corrupts, Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. One can actually add here, "So say the powerless !! ". And probably the anyway corrupt. Hopefully, these should be a smaller segment. "Ignore them" would have been the easier thing to say, but in reality, it's tough to ignore an entire lot of people. Ignore their meanness, is a better way to put it. Be fair to them, whenever possible be kind and fish out their good suggestions from mean behaviour and show them you value those. That day I differed from you, that was different, but today you have a valid point. Even if it's about me. Who knows, they might even graduate upwards, depending on how you handle them and how you react to their mix of meanness and goodness.

The second kind often realise that you have become a boss and therefore, can no more be a buddy, and start interacting formally. They do their work properly and make sure work doesn't suffer but they may not chill out with you anymore and go on to find other buddies. Let go, no silly feelings, dont bid them farewell as buddies but they have a human reason to act in the way they do. Understandable, because it's actually tough to have someone as both buddy and boss. If one can achieve this, it will be great. Thats the third kind, people who know you are fair, you are friendly, but work is important so you might act in a particular unpleasant way for the sake of work and you don't keep things to heart, you don't carry emotional baggage. This produces the maximum team results along with maximum personal relationships, though it's rare to find, takes long time to build and usually involves a continuous personal growth of the manager himself.

When we are fair, and don't mean to be harsh, it's quite possible, people still find us harsh. We are not harsh, but strangely, we sound harsh to them. No one wants to be "told", so if someone "points out", the fairness fades behind and harshness hops in the front.
Remember, when you are straightforward, Good friends usually understand. Or rather, those that understand go on to become good friends. Sometimes, we also have to allow for friends to be "not understanding", if we believe they are good friends anyway, and probably their "not understanding" is one-time or short-term behaviour. Probably he got up on the wrong side of the bed which led to a fight with his wife which led to his driving on the wrong side of the road which led to... and so on.. You think you are straightforward, they might return the favour in the same straightforward currency and as good friends, we will end up being understanding!!.

Along with fairness, allowing traffic from the opposite side helps. When someone points out your inefficiencies, bring the same fairness and "technical" detachment to the table and take it by the merit of the argument. Laugh at yourself. Instead of empty defence, blame game or "you-rub-me-wrong-side-now its-my-turn", you might actually move on with a plain realisation "Oh yeah man, thats a goofup" or "my battery is down today" or "I am a joker" or "I better be careful next time" even if you don't want to "profusely" apologize. You can quip/joke by saying things like "It seems software companies give away t-shirts to people who find the best bugs, in my case, I have to buy an entire showroom". "Do unto others...." , the old adage, still has its value.

Some say, "Stop worrying about what others think of you. It's impossible to please everyone all the time". True, but it's better to keep this on the back of your mind and "moderate" it in practice to allow for team work and feedback. Because it allows you to correct yourself in case you are wrong. If you entirely stop worrying about what others think, then you never know when things "get onto your head" and will be the proverbial emperor in new clothes. You might spend crores to shoot a movie entirely on brilliant sets, have a great music score, but seriously believe the audience would surely appreciate the hero's new towel, only to lose the audience out in the first 15 minutes.

It's important to differentiate between long-term response to your leadership style and short-term response from smaller segments. Also to differentiate between responses from mature minds and responses from mean minds. And to allow the possibility for someone who is mean today to grow up and become mature tomorrow and hence the label is not for the person but for the response. That will train you to give value to a valid point from a mature mind and not fret too much about the outpourings of a mean mind. Long-term responses are a result of your effort to practise whatever you think are long-term values and your continuous effort to grow as a person and as a manager . By the time you grow up, you may not have the same team that sulked earlier to appreciate your growth now, but you would now make better teams and thereby, a better world. Amen !!

T-ogether E-veryone A-chieves M-ore.....

2008-01-16T04:03:00.000+05:30

Excerpts from a discussion with a friend:

Team members usually want to see things from their own perspective, with their fears and uncertainties, their confusions about new paths they may have to take, their tastes swinging arbitrarily with every new event. If team leaders also do the same thing, there wouldn't be much difference between the two. Also, one probable mistake which team leads may make to expect their team members in exactly the same mould as the leads, (" come on, be like me", "I like this, so it's good for you") rather than find out the innate inclinations of the team member and find ways to promote those even as you get the job done. Let the team member come up with their major preferences before the leads indicate or persuade theirs. Give some cool-off time between discussion and decision instead of insisting on making decisions right now and here. It's unreasonable to expect clarity from the team members, if they had it they can lead teams themselves, so it's upto the team lead to bring clarity to the table from time to time amidst confused preferences and constraints. When they have done it all, give the credit back to the team members since the raw inputs usually come from them from the floor-level and the team lead does only a support and sort out role. [Without doing any actual work themselves :) :) ]. Avoid haunting the team member lifetime with the "I told you so" syndrome if the task turns out to be a failure for some reason having to do with a team member. When the dust has settled, collect your cool, recollect the events and fish out the lessons to be learnt from the larger picture that has emerged out of the small stuff.

This ancient Sanskrit mantra highlights the spirit of learning and the value of team work.

Fresh Upma and Old Bindi Fry

2008-01-04T23:58:00.001+05:30

Let me serve some old cold bindi fry from the refridgerator as promised in the opening post. Here are links to stuff I have written before.

Before I landed with Blogger, I used to linger in BBC's H2G2 for a while and these are links from that phase. (Note: You won't require a h2g2 id to access these links, so you can click on.)

On Leadership and Management
On Micro-Finance
On Open-Source and Healthcare. This is admittedly an emotional-type article, but it isn't entirely off-track since Economic Times mentions this as a development that is brewing in this debate a few days ago.

Quite interesting, that my first movie review is not on a movie in English, Hindi or even Tamil but a Telugu one. Coming of age as son-of-soil of Rayalaseema, Uh ? A kind of content and theme review of Bommarillu on MouthShut, after I saw it at a friend's place. For the type of person I used to be, it might even come as a surprise to many, that I am writing, of all things in the world, a movie review!! But riverside walks and talks may range from pin to plane, so you never know, I might even write about Hindustani Music tomorrow !!

If you have an Orkut Id, you can read up on how I had answered someone's question on:

Why did Jesus Christ and Mohammed not explicitly restrain the consumption of meat and alcohol among their followers?

If you don't have an Orkut Id, please wait till an edited version of that is put up here. Or as they say, watch this space for updates.

Each of the above are longwinding and verbose posts, so typical of a whirling mind and so untypical in this age of SMS-slang blogging. So reserve them for a Sunday afternoon. I always wanted to have a diverse topic cloud on my blog, I guess this post comes close. Life goes on in phases and patterns, so I hope the day doesn't come when I have to post this blog's links on some other website after a few years. :) :) For those who have already read all these before, please wait till fresh upma is served. :)

The Life Carnival

2007-12-30T22:33:00.000+05:30

It's not often that you get to meet and greet someone on his 100th Birthday. So when the opportunity came by recently, I gladly did. We were going for a walk, when one of my friends said, "Hey, it is Sri.Gopal Rao garu's 100th birthday, shall we drop in to greet him ?". I hadn't interacted with the person before, though I roughly knew he had been the Chairman of Andhra Bank many decades ago and was now approaching 100. Nevertheless, I thought let's just drop in to have a quick word. Or, to put it formally, to seek his blessings and mention our prayers to the Lord for his good health and long(er) life.

Two things I liked about him: his liveliness and his sense of humour. He didn't know who I am, so he asked, "where do you work ?", and when I mentioned, he quickly recollected a couple of related incidents. "An old man like me lives by his memories, and fortunately in my case, they are all sweet memories", he said. He had a free-flowing chatty style and always had a quip, a remark or a slight touch of sarcasm that brought a giggle in you every once in a while. He had problems of the body but he wasn't sulking about them. "I sometimes recollect my memories aloud in the night", he said, "but then I realize that there is someone sleeping in the next room, then I become quiet. Poor fellow, his sleep must be getting disturbed". It seemed to me that he had learnt to live with the body's problems, put the mind in charge and also to divert his attention to other lively things like interacting with people, listening to the radio and so on. The experience and wisdom of 100 years is definitely something to celebrate. There was a felicitation function and he gave a talk the next day and his sharp wit created waves of laughter in the audience. Wow, what humour at this age man, was the talk of the town.

It set me thinking on aging. I think, after an age, lively old people become more like kids. Both like storytelling. Both feel good when someone talks to them and feel terribly bored if there is no one to talk to. Both don't want to stay in one place, if they are able enough to move around. Both are attached to their toys, albeit different ones. Both hum to themselves when they are alone. Both speak the truth, the kids until the world corrupts them and the elderly since they have seen it all, the futility of falsehood. Both remember the gifts they have received from others almost with date and time.

Ironically, the same instructions and caring advice that a parent gives to his kid, returns to him/her in his old age in a slightly different flavour. Some of these instructions, you can slightly flip and see that it can apply both in a father-young-kid conversation and in a son-old-father conversation.

1. Look at either side of the road before you cross. Be careful not to bump into old people / Be careful kids don't bump into you.
2. Don't move around too much and tire yourself.
3. Not too many chocolates, not too many ice creams. Eat healthy.
4. If you are not well, don't hesitate, let me know early so we could take early action.
5. Follow doctor's instructions verbatim.
6. Go for walks in the morning/evening (Don't miss your games).
7. Plan your travel well in advance.
8. Don't try to lift weights that are heavier than you can, you are going to hurt your back.
9. Don't read in poor light, it harms your eyes.
10. Wear your sweater and monkey cap when you go out in the winter.
11. Don't climb the stairs too fast, you might slip and fall.
12. And remember, I am telling all this for your own good.

The other day, someone asked me to frame a greeting message, for writing on a greeting card to give to his uncle and aunt on their 50th wedding anniversary. I knew nothing about how one might feel on such an occasion, but I tried to write up something in general about Life as a celebration. Because it takes a lot to hit a century or to partner for a 50 each together. These folks acquire a kind of learning from life that can be acquired only by living life. Having seen so many ups and downs, they acquire a certain balanced, yet positive, approach to life that is tinted with the equanimity that rests in the understanding of "even this will pass away". They raise above petty fights, jealousy and hatred that people engage in, in their middle years. Which is why, the ripening of the fruit should as much be a cause for celebration as is the blooming of a flower or the germination of the seed.

Customer Service - Tonty Pour By Cheven

2007-12-23T04:32:00.000+05:30

After my younger brother passed away last summer, I had to deal with the financials of his estate. If you think I haven't seen much of the world in 30 years, I had to see quite a specimen of it in those 30 days. Among the names I had to deal with, mostly in the BFSI segment: Citi Cards, ABN Amro Cards, Kotak Mutual Fund, LIC, New India Assurance, Medi Assist, ICICI Lombard, TTK Healthcare, United India Insurance, Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank (including Cards, Loans and ICICI Direct), Royal Sundaram Insurance, TVS, Airtel etc. Add to this, a suite of government / PSU institutions, like RTO, BSNL, Government Medical College Hospital, BharatGas, BPCL Office, Income Tax Office, Office of the Superintendent of Police etc. The list is somewhat like that of a diversified equity fund and it was interesting to handle all kinds of customer service responses and to meet the procedural abracadabra face to face.

Years ago, I had done a project work on the role of front-line employees in customer service, but travelling to all the four directions of the city almost everyday is no match to a spiral-bound booklet you write after some literature survey and a stretch of imagination. I can't write about the frustrations here, because, my blogging guidelines prohibit ranting. (I did make a list of my own blogging guidelines before I started the blog which I want to post only if the blog survives 25 posts). Perhaps, I should convert some of those experiences into more generic issues and present them in a non-rant fashion some day.

I was mentioning to my friend about the variety of service personnel I had to interact with, in this array of companies and offices and he asked, "Hey, why don't you blog about the good part of the show ?". I thought, yeah, it's a good idea, I had always thought the media often under-reports the good news and doesn't give the beauty of the world its due. Needless to say, it's a very subjective opinion and wouldn't mean much in terms of organized research and the rating I give in the end are entirely the riverside walker's indigenous service ratings, so please read this post sitting next to a salt godown so you can pinch it whenever you want.

One thing I found common in every place is, unless you follow up, nothing, nothing ever happens. I used to have a bengali boss, an operations guy, who did nothing but make a list and follow up all the time at regular intervals. Many times, he won't even know the specific detail of what exactly he is following up, he just knows it's a follow up issue for him. For example, someone says to him "Sir, we need an Exchange Server to be set up so people can send emails to each other". He would sometimes get only half the words and would often say, "Did you set up the Exchange ? I want to have email." He would put it in his organizer as "Exchange" with a particular deadline and priority. Someone used to jovially mention, "for all you know, he must be thinking it's a piece of equipment like Telephone Exchange". But he would indeed follow it up and get it done because you can't escape his follow-up claws.

Among the private players, Kotak Mutual Fund stands out. There was an investment with Kotak MF that had to be transmitted to the legal heir and this one also had attached accident insurance cover. There were other companies with whom I had to interact under a similar scenario with heavy follow-up, but Kotak was different. They would follow it up with you, actually. Isn't that nice ? I had been to the Kotak MF office in Coimbatore. Their ambience was good, their notice board was full of internal team contests, performance targets, winner of the month and so on. Hey cool, looks good, I thought, let's see if they are worth their display. Ironicaly, the officer didn't know the exact procedure to be followed in the case, although he had a hazy idea that there is a procedure somewhere regarding this. In fact, I knew what is likely to be the procedure, so I said, we are ready to present an application from the legal heir, along with whatever documents you may require, so you let me know the list of what you want. And we also wanted to send it by courier since we were moving out of Coimbatore shortly. He offered me a seat and a glass of water since I was sweating in the May heat. He made a series of phone calls, probably to his head office, made notes, asked the officer, to send an email immediately detailing the requirements. As he was explaining it to me, the email arrived, he fired the print and gave it to me, took my email address and also forwarded a copy. And yes, you can send the bunch to the specified address by courier, he said. He gladly gave his contact information and asked me to inform him after I send the application so he can follow it up. I told him we are moving out of Coimbatore, he said he would make a note and facilitate any follow-up accordingly. We sent the application and someone from the head office called to acknowledge it. Later they called to say, while the insurance documents were in order, one more document was required for the transmission of the investment and he would e-mail the format. We sent that too, and within 10 days, we received the insurance claim as well as transfer of the investment. With a nice letter saying, we are sad to know about this, we can't help you in any other way, your documents are in order and we are admitting your claim. We replied acknowledging receipt and thanking their quick service.

Among the banks, Bank of Baroda stands out, No, Citi or ICICI bank don't even come a close second. We had to close the PPF account at BoB. As usual, we had all the docs ready on day one and we were worried that, since the amount was high, there will be much delay because of a series of signatures. We submitted the docs. Here too there was a little training issue. The officer said, he is not exactly clear about how to input this kind of transaction in the Core Banking software to which he was only introduced recently. He said he will find out the next day from the manager and try to get it processed. Nowadays, it doesn't take much time, he assured us all the docs were in order. We mentioned that since my dad had undergone surgery recently, he has authorized me to collect the payment on his behalf and we also had the attested authorizations and the IDs ready. He said, that shouldn't be a problem since they will be issuing an a/c payee cheque, asked us for our alternate bank account details and gave me a specific date and time by when it will be available. I went at the stipulated time and he was ready with the cheque. He apologized for the bit of delay on the first day and quipped, "now that I have learnt it, I will be able to serve someone else better next time.". Frankly, I never had experienced or expected such a nice response from a nationalised bank, which was probably cynical of me, but I guess the running around wears down your positive thinking capacity. They didn't have the leadership contests on the notice boards or neck ties for the officers but they had a kind of simple devotion and sincere interest in the work they do.

More than the frustrations, I learnt, from people who served me well, how to do so carefully and courteously and from those who made me suffer, how not to do it myself in a similar situation. It was humbling when people yelled at you and soothing in contrast soon after when someone else spoke better in the office you climbed next. In both cases, it's not that they had all the required skills. But they took pains to find out. It's not that they flouted accounting controls to give premium customer service, but they communicated the procedure firmly and gently, gave an exhaustive list of requirements in one go, not requiring the customer to come up and down a hundred times and releasing the documents one by one in stages as if it were some assembly line, understood specific situations that needed attention, gave a date and kept it. And were courteous all throughout. Both offices were so different in externalities, but had the same kind of impact on the customer. Both had technology to help in efficiency but retained the value addition of human interaction. One spoke in posh English and the other didn't, but you can study in tamil medium and be equally good at trignometry. One was 10 years old and another was 100 years but both knew what really matters at the end of the day. That it is as much important to make a goodwill impact on someone who stepped into your premises as it is to spend millions in advertising to get someone there.

A third experience was even more interesting. And that had to come from the "unorganized" sector. The day before we left, I spotted a household scrap dealer in the colony nearby. Hey, I said, we are vacating and we might have something to sell away as scrap, would you come to my house sometime ? The young lad was a real excited fundoo guy, he immediately gave his cell number and said, call up any time, and he added: Tonty Pour By Cheven, Anna. I was surprised and complimented him for his attempt in English and found that he had discontinued education after the fourth class, many years ago. We didn't have much time, I said, and I will reach home only by 7.pm. after work in the city. He took driving directions and later he was there at 7 sharp. He made a quick assessment, called up his assistant to bring an appropriate cart, weighed it then and there, gave a category-wise quotation and made an offer. He also gave insights into how the industry works and the various levels of scrap retailing, which understandably, was to talk us into the rates he was offering. After the deal was struck, he made his assistant load the stuff and reached, you know what!, to the nearest ICICI Bank ATM and withdrew money to pay us. Quite filmy, I thought, and now I knew where he picks up these cute English phrases on customer service. My prediction is the guy will go places, what say ? Glory to the great indian middle-class entrepreneur!

Till the blogging guidelines are relaxed, here is a quantitative rating of the various servicewallahs, to avoid verbose ranting. It's not fair to compare private and public institutions so I will give a percentage ranking keeping Kotak MF and BoB as benchmarks.

Kotak Mutual Fund 100%
ICICI Direct 95%
ABN Amro Cards 90%
Standard Chartered Bank 90%
Airtel 90%
ICICI Bank 85%
ICICI Cards 80%
TVS Dealer Lotus 75%
United India Insurance 65%
ICICI Loans 65%
Citi Cards 60%
Royal Sundaram Insurance 60%
TTK Healthcare 60%
New India Assurance 60%
ICICI Lombard 55%
Medi Assist 50%

Bank of Baroda 100%
Indian Overseas Bank 95%
Office of the Superintendent of Police 90%
LIC 90%
Central Bank of India 85%
Bharat Gas Agency 80%
BPCL Office 75%
Income Tax Office 60%
RTO 50%
BSNL 50%
Police station 35%
Government Medical College Hospital 5%

The 24 x 7 Scrap Dealer 100%

Defragmenting the Mind

2007-12-13T05:07:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered what regular clean-up and maintenance activities are required to keep up this big, complex, mulithreaded, multitasking, operating system called the Mind ? If your mind is like a strong, stable and secure OS like Linux, then probably you would need to do very little to maintain it or you might already be doing it by design. But if yours is an old, average commonplace mind like Windows 2000 Professional, then, after a while of using your mind for all kinds of activities, you might actually find, things have become slower from that first day when you had this freshly installed OS. You have been installing and uninstalling all kinds of software left, right and center. You never knew that there are these hundreds of little files with extension .tmp. You have been browsing the Net, with cookies planted three years ago still crawling in some deep non-descript local settings folder, like cockroaches in your kitchen proliferating until the Annual Cleaning Mela. If you have been acting really irresponsible, not updating your antivirus software and clicking on any link anyone presents to you, opening attachments indiscriminately and enjoying a false pride of administrative access while doing these things, then even the Cleaning Mela might not be of much help. You might be better off with an overhaul of your operating system.

Our minds too have these issues. We interact with all kinds of people everyday and sometimes, invite good and bad events and sometimes are bombarded with them. Sometimes a situation presents itself from which we can actually walk if we act like a responsible administrator, but we still don't. We know the thought cookies which others plant in us can be both good and bad, sometimes they enhance our experience by being there, and sometimes they proliferate even after their due validity. We should be knowing that we should give temporary phases in life, like temporary files, their limited value and delete them regularly, if our minds should start nifty and fast. We know opening untrusted attachments in life can have malignant effects on our mind and even worse, when someone is going to exe-cute something on us without our conscious knowledge. We seem to be enjoying administrative access but we have actually given it to away to the other person who tries to use that very pride of ours to piggyback on us and crash our mind. Keeping your mind's health often involves updating your definitions of defence against evil, regularly, so that the bad ones are knocked off by a real time protection scan even as they try to enter us.. Some thoughts are like worms, they self-replicate themselves at a furious pace and consume all your bandwidth. Some thoughts are like trojans that mask their sinister motive, look like performing one action while performing right the contrary. Some thoughts are like viruses causing visible damage to your mind and might even require an exclusive removal tool session to restore order. Even then normalcy cannot be fully restored. We run around like cats and rats from pillar to post, that even by plain regular usage of all kinds of compartments, the average commonplace mind that it is, it gets fragmented with thought pieces not lying in contiguous stretches. You wonder often why your mind sometimes is just lazing out, sometimes is so busy doing "its own" work and not your work, then you know that some unhealthy background processes are taking all the energy. You have just been on auto-pilot for a while and dozed away in a state of suspended animation causing the much-dreaded blue screen.

To keep this complex operating system nimble, use a tool regularly like Meditation or Social Work or Music or whichever tool that suits your regular maintenance schedule. Just as you might use Ccleaner to clean your computer or Lizol to clean your kitchen tiles and Mortein to kill those domestic nocturnal pests. Defragment your mind. Remove temporary baggage that has been accumulated out of age-old bitterness. Attach yourself only to trustworthy friends. Give thought cookies which others plant in you their due validity only as long as they enhance your experience of interacting with them. And most important, remember, there is nothing greater than keeping yourself alert for a real-time protection scan of your thoughts, when they are just about to enter you. For this, connect online to God from time to time and download your defences against unhealthy entrants. Be a responsible administrator of your mind. If you can't do all this (or if you can be diligent enough to do all of this), overhaul your mind and develop a strong, secure, stable mind.

Welcome to Andhra Pradesh

2007-11-06T03:03:00.000+05:30

You have just seen this milestone go by, welcoming you into the State of Andhra Pradesh. Suswagatam. There are a few interesting things that happen when you move from one language zone to another in India. If you know a bit of semi-common languages like English or Hindi, and if the locals also know it, life is plain. But it’s more interesting to watch people interact when it’s not the case. If you are the type not to be inhibited by language barriers, you would freely roll out in your mother tongue, implicitly believing in national integration and assuming that the party in conversation will perfectly understand, not just the essence, but even the minute details of what your are saying. And if the local is also a similarly enthusiastic conversationist, you lose track of time irrespective of the fact that you are in a different land. Except that you should take care not to use a few select word-warps, words that are found in both languages, but have A meaning in one and B meaning in another. Particularly, if you have moved in from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh. Here are a few pointers.

1. Let’s start with a simple one. Nalla means Good in Tamil and Black in Telugu. So you can praise the goodness in a person by calling him Nallavan, make sure there is no problem of discrimination by color.

2. Asuya is used in the context of ‘disgust’ in Tamil, and I think, in Telugu, it means jealousy. An unclean toilet, for example, is disgusting and definitely not the neighbour’s envy.

3. Two phrases you are bound to come across quite commonly : Avasaram Ledhu and Akkara Ledhu. Usually, Akkara Ledhu is pronounced shortly as Akkarla. Avasaram Ledhu in Telugu means Not Necessary, where as Avasaram in Tamil means you are in a real hurry. In telugu too, I think it can mean hurry, but more often used in the context of necessity or occasion.

Akkarai in Tamil means Care and Attention. You might courteously ask someone “Innum konjam sambar venuma ?” (Would you like one more helping of sambar ?) and if he says Akkarledhu, don’t get worried he is accusing you of carelessness in your hospitality. It just means, wonderful that the sambar was, he has had enough (of the sambar). And in case he indeed wants to have more and replies in the affirmative, saying “kavali”, wait a moment, he is not referring to you as a street rowdy.

4. I had an experience with this one in my early days. I was fixing the printer in a hurry, and an elderly colleague asked me, “Ippudu Adavadi yenthuku ?”. What arrogance did I display here, I wondered. In fact, he was the one being arrogant accusing me of arrogance when I was quickly and quietly doing my work. But I just looked up and saw that there was a harmless factual inquiry look on his face, so I knew there is a goofup somewhere. It turned out that while adavadi means arrogance in Tamil, it means hurry in Telugu. So if someone cautions you “Adavadi voddhu”, he is warning you about your pace not about your politeness.

5. This one is a tricky swap. In telugu, Adavaallu means Women and Mogavallu means Men. In Tamil, Aadavar means Men and Magalir means Women. In the beginning, when you hear the phrase referring to Men and Women, you would naively think it should somehow mean the same in both languages. So if you are organizing a distribution and wish to say “Women on the Left Side, Men on the right side”, make sure your audience understands it in the same orientation. Or change the direction of distribution. The colloquial usage in Tamil is actually Aambalai (Man) and Pombalai (Woman), Aadavar and Magalir is bit of a pure usage, found in Pallavan bus seating instructions. But when you suddenly hear the phrase Adavallu and Mogavallu you are bound to be confused for a moment about which is which. So better remember one of them clearly and “derive” the other . Like I did while writing this paragraph.

6. You might invite a mischievous giggle when you say where you hail from. Careful, it might even become your nick name for life. Kumbakonam, the Temple Town in Tamil Nadu, is famous for the Mahamaham festival celebrated every 12 years, but the word, in Telugu means, scam or corruption.

There are some words in Telugu, which have their origins in pure tamil, I mean, Tamil of real good olden days, so much so that they are not even in daily use in Tamil nowadays and found only in literature, but are of daily use in Telugu. Gnamali (or nemali), referring to peacock, is one. That’s another thread.

It will also be interesting to know what are the phrases to be careful about when someone is moving from Andhra Pradesh into Tamil Nadu. Btw, It turns out, word-warps between English and French can be even more funny.

What goes up, up and further up..... has to be suspended for one hour when it comes down....

2007-10-27T01:49:00.000+05:30

I have always thought, a certain amount of stoicism about the markets is a healthy habit to develop. Recently, when the Indian Sensex fell intra-day around 1700 points hitting what they call a 10% lower-circuit, SEBI suspended trading for an hour, probably to cool it off. (For novices like me, I think the phrase 10% lower circuit roughly means that Sensex fell 10% in a single session). I wonder why they didn't do such a restrictive thing when the markets went up, up and up too ? Going up is okay, coming down is not, is it ? Or they should have allowed the free fall under gravity, come what may, so that the market finds its own realistic evaluation bottoms, whatever that might be and rest comfortably on the sofa. If indeed it is overvalued, then a prick of the balloon might actually have been helpful in knowing the solid stuff within. Looks like: It's somehow okay for the market to pick a large number of points spread over a week or so, although such pace is far different from earlier acceleration levels and not reflect fundamental strengths .... but it's somehow not okay when it falls. :). It's okay to make unusual gains when they are spread over a week but not okay to lose such gains on a single day however unusual the gains may have been.

I wonder how the free market enthusiasts would like to look at this : Is this financial systems regulation or interfering with free markets ? Another blog of Ramnath, Free Markets India, tries to keep a log of the various forces pulling and pushing, for or against the pursuit of free markets. I can understand corporate or political lobbying for exclusive economic privileges can be categorised as a pull or a push, but i think it's difficult to categorize regulatory actions. It's tough to draw a line between what is healthy regulation, developing robust financial systems, putting market infrastructure in place etc and what is just ad-hoc damage control. That day, even FM intervened to make a statement, which I thought was a little extra. Of course, I haven't researched to write this post, but I wonder if there is such a thing called breaking a 10% higher circuit, in the SEBI regulations, just like the 10% lower circuit. Asked an economics friend about whether such a thing is of importance to the free markets discussion. He said, in real life, there are a lot of constraints to free markets and these constraints are to be handled first in the pursuit of free markets. I might have to read up Raghuram Rajan to understand what these are.

I tend to subscribe more to the long term value addition approach. I think if one can:
park and wait in good (intrisically value adding) stocks/funds, stoically,
remember a bit of Shankara's references to Economics in Verse 30 of Bhaja Govindam, :) :) ,
be not worried about the everyday ups and downs,
keep cool without looking for reassurance from the FM to heave a sigh of relief,
sit on the eggs and wait for them to hatch for five or ten years,
then equity has the scope to fetch far better returns than other forms of investment in an equivalent period. Of course, this doesnt apply if one is sitting on a donkey fund or a dead stock or special disasters. Otherwise, A little peep, now and then, to just see the eggs are fine should do.

Quite possible, I am over-simplifying here what the Finance guys read across a few semesters. I have seen the non-tech guys trying to figure out a simplistic understanding of the tech abracadabra, and succeed in achieving a functional understanding and the non-finance guys try to do the same thing to finance subjects. When I was first unsuspectingly "exposed" to the verbal weapons called Debit and Credit, when the duo mockingly stared at me from the blackboard, Drawing a T-shaped organism to tally numbers used to cause nightmares and make me sit up and draw the Holy Cross on my chest. I used to cheer myself up with the Lakshmi Ashtothram, try to ignore those two words as mere hallucinations and think of it as just Inflow and Outflow. As if water flowing into a tank would be Debit and water flowing out of the tap, then, must be certainly Credit. Or is it the reverse ? :) . Well, depends on whether we are talking about the tank or about the bucket. Closing the tap and measuring the water must be.... wait, is it Balance Sheet ?. Whateva. Something is better than nothing. Of course, Everything is even better, if you can handle it. There is no powerful substitute to in-depth research into a subject.

Seeking the Source

2007-10-23T00:17:00.000+05:30

I have a fascination for rivers. One reason is my early impressions of Cauvery in full flow at Srirangam in my childhood days. Nowadays, it's more often dry due to "known issues" but the images of the river in all its majesty have stayed. Okay, if you want, etched in my memory. It used to be mentioned in our textbooks that while in some places it can get as narrow as "aadu thaandum kaviri" (so narrow as a goat can cross it in a jump) , it also becomes "Akanda Kaveri" (so vast that you see water till where your eyes can reach). Krishna @ Kanakadurgam is very good, it's tough to be in flow all year round in the south and it's Andhra Pradesh's good fortune that it is blessed with two of them, Krishna and Godavari.

Best so far and almost matchless are Ganges and the other further north rivers that drive in to the Ganga. Mandakini @ Kedar, tops them all. Heard Brahmaputra is among the most ferocious rivers and makes it extremely tough for river-rafting. Our raft coach, whom i believe has rafted in 11 countries, rated Brahmaputra as the toughest and the most exciting raft destination. A friend who visited Beas @ Kulu, Himachal Pradesh was full of praise for it.

Two rivers I want to visit some day : Godavari and Narmada. Godavari for comparing it with Krishna, particularly, Godavari @ Bhadrachalam. Seems there is a two-day trip on boat that ends at Bhadrachalam. Narmada, for the fanciful images I have about its grandeur and also about its enormity as discussed by the NBA. Walking all the way from Kerala, Adi Shankara is said to have met his guru Gowdapada on the banks of the River Narmada. Why mention this here, well, he is one of my icons, so I have to bring in my icons and all their fascinations into my posts. Someday, I should post nice pictures from our Chardham trip, taking the blog to the next level, photo blogging. Even as I write, Ramnath has already beat me to it by posting pictures of the Bhagirathi Mountain, hopefully I will supplement that by posting pictures of the Bhagirathi River.

Chitravathi is rarely in good flow, but when it recently indeed was, we all made a beeline to the river especially to watch it flow. There was even some news/rumour that some bund/dam upstream was broken due to heavy rains and chitravathi would flood, that was not to be. Or as in local slang, antha scenu ledhu. But it was in pretty good flow. And that was good scenery. A friend of friend of somebody offered Chilli Bajjis, it aptly fitted the occasion, so we put a heheheh face and gladly accepted, munched and shot off and dedicated that day's group discussion entirely to the Chitravathi river, its origin, its problems, it's floods in the earlier years and to the responsible policemen who were warning the folks not to venture into the river. Now there is a also a nice road that runs parallel to the river, so makes it a very good stretch for walkers, thinkers, poets and meditators (as long as you are not on the road). And hey yes, more recently, for bloggers too. One of my friends mentioned it's particularly wonderful on cool early mornings. Hmm.. to confirm that personally, I will have to change my schedule and check out some day.

As kids, we were trained to chant a sloka when we are just about to finish our bath, invoking the sacred rivers. My sanskrit is poor and even worse when I put it in English, but here it is:

Gangecha Yamunechaiva Godavari Saraswathi
Narmadey Sindhu Kaveri Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru

(The meaning is here. )

I think rivers have something ethereal about them. For one, they have a calming effect on your mind. After a brief calm, they can ignite your imagination. They make you reflect on your imaginations and prod you to seek their source, i mean the river's source, and when you reach their source, they inspire you to find the source of your imaginations. And once you are done, they make you blog about what they have done to you.

Blogmentor Parampara

2007-10-22T23:22:00.000+05:30

So... Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here, finally. Been thinking of starting a blog for the past two years but it never materialised for the usual reasons. One of these Web 2.0 sites should study what inhibits people like me with an initial inclination to blog/interact on the web and makes them put it off for later. And probably also why interest wanes after a while.

Among others, the two things that helped it happen are :

(a) Inspiration from a friend whom I should call my "blogmentor" Ramnath
(http://ramz.blogspot.com/ ) and
(b) a laptop, broadband connection in my room.

I was never comfortable about the idea of blogging from office and I am too lazy to walk down all the way to a cyber cafe for the noble cause of creative writing.

Two things to create when you need to make people buy a product/service:
1. Interest and
2. Access. (Aaha, what gyaan !!) .

There should be something like the blogmentor parampara like the guru-shishya parampara, who inspired whom to start blogging.

Started the blog on the Vijayadasami day, but quite funny that I didn't know what to write after I created the blog. So today I thought I will push myself to write something up. To call it a writer's block will be too hi-fi a term to describe the starting trouble. Nor can I say my mind went blank, you might think I have attained too high a spiritual state too quickly. Probably I should start by providing links to stuff I have written earlier but that would be like serving cold bindi fry from the refridgerator, the majaa is lost, not on Day 1, so will reserve that for a gloomy day. Hopefully, I will pick up some momentum and write without pushing.

In the meanwhile, you are welcome to push me. And thanks Ramnath for the first.