Footloose and Free

Damaged currency note from Bank ATM?

2011-11-01T19:00:00.004+05:30

The Reserve Bank of India says that you can walk into any bank irrespective of your having an account in it and demand that the damaged or torn or mutilated currency note you have unfortunately come to possess during one of the several monetary transactions in daily life be exchanged for a good one. But that does not seem to be applicable to damaged notes spit out by the ATM machine. At least, that is what the bank in which I have a Savings Bank account has told me.

Recently, I withdrew some cash from the ATM machine nearest to my residence. For the first time in over three years, there was a torn note among the several notes. Had the torn note been of a lower denomination, I would have pasted a cello- tape on it to cover the torn portion and given it in some shop while buying some goods. Even the shop keeper would have ignored the cut and paste job. But this note happened to be a thousand rupee note. No shop keeper accepts a thousand rupee note without examining it thoroughly. Since there have been news reports of counterfeit currency in circulation, particularly in 500 and 1000 denominations, every one is very careful. Naturally so. I had no option other than to take it to my bank and ask for an exchange. The official at the cash counter asked me for the ATM slip which one gets from the machine while withdrawing money. Luckily, I had it with me and handed it to him. To my surprise, the official said that the particular ATM from which I withdrew money is maintained by a distant branch and not the one I have account in and to which I have come. So, he said, the solution is to travel 6 km to that branch and get the note exchanged. I could not agree to the impractical suggestion and I insisted that the note be exchanged at this very branch. The poor official had to go the branch manager, however reluctantly so and get his consent before issuing me a new thousand rupee note, as a one time exception. But he made it clear that in future, I should approach that branch whichever is responsible for maintaining the particular ATM , if I had a similar problem. Alternatively, I should choose that ATM which is just outside any bank branch so that one just walks into the branch and gets the job done if the note needs to be replaced. This, in effect, would mean that I should give up the luxury of using the ATM which is less than 100 metres from my residence and instead have to walk nearly a km to withdraw money from an ATM which is directly outside the bank. Sounds illogical, right? Though torn notes from ATM are not a regular occurrence, possibility does exist ; the fact that if you need to withdraw Rs.10000.-, the ATM coughs out 9 thousand rupee notes, 1 five hundred rupee note and 5 hundred rupee notes makes the probability, however small, of a thousand rupee note being torn rather than one of smaller dimension being so does make one a bit nervous.

Form16A.....find the devil in the fine print !

2011-09-01T19:28:00.004+05:30

When every year you calculate the income tax to be paid, you do take into consideration the interest income you have earned on your bank fixed deposits. Form 16A which is also called the TDS certificate is issued by the bank after the end of a financial year. The form mentions the interest paid/credited for the four quarters, and the TDS ( tax deducted at source) amounts for the four quarters. This information is an important input for your arriving at the total tax to be paid and balance tax to be paid after considering the TDS amounts.

Very few people pay attention to the other details mentioned ( or to be mentioned but not actually mentioned) in the form 16A. How would you know that the bank has deposited the TDS cut from your interest in the Govt. account? For this, you must check whether transfer challan/voucher number is given for every TDS amount mentioned in form 16A. The bank is supposed to file a quarterly TDS return to the Income Tax department for all the TDS amounts cut from each of its customers . These returns are now filed electronically. The returns are uploaded to NSDL/TIN . When the uploading is successful, TIN issues a receipt . So, form 16A which your bank has given you must contain the receipt number. This receipt number is an 8-digit alphabetical combination. If this number is not given in your form 16A, you must demand from the bank that they mention the receipt number. Receipt number is the only proof that the bank has filed the TDS returns. If they have not filed the returns, then you do not get tax credit in form 26AS. The income tax department goes by whatever is mentioned in form 26AS.

Another important thing to be checked is whether the bank has mentioned your PAN number in the form 16A. If they have mentioned it in ink while the rest of the details are printed, chances are that the bank did not mention your PAN number in their TDS returns. Without PAN number being there in the bank's TDS returns, the income tax department can not link the TDS amounts to your PAN number; so you do not get the tax credit for the TDS cut and deposited. Such TDS amounts will not appear in your form 26AS. You will soon get a letter from the income tax department raising questions on the TDS amounts you have mentioned in your IT returns.

Do not have blind faith in your bank. While their intentions may not necessarily be suspect, the bank employees' well-known negligence might land you in problems. So, go through your form 16A before you file your IT returns and ensure that mistakes in the form are corrected well in time.

Play of Money in Tamilnadu Elections

2011-03-19T21:03:00.003+05:30

In the Indian Elections, money has always played a role. Obviously, I am not referring to the genuine expenditure incurred by the candidates. Cost of posters and hoardings, expenses for organising public meetings and rallies, money spent for scores of vehicles hired and food for the volunteers and political workers. These are definitely expenses which are justifiable. But the unjustifiable and illegal expenditure namely money paid to the poorer sections of the electorate for voting in favour of a particular candidate has assumed alarming proportions.

Tamilnadu has been a pioneer even in this evil practice. Every election has seen more money flowing by way of bribe. The recently innovated 'Tirumangalam Formula' is an euphemism for buying votes by giving exhorbitant and unprecedented amounts to a large section of people irrespective of their financial status. The 'Scientist' (!) who invented this formula is none other than Alagiri, one of the sons of Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. It is an innovation in the sense that money was delivered to the voters of Tirumangalam where a by-election was held, in the early hours of the day and hidden between the pages of morning newspapers. Estimates of cash paid for a vote vary between Rs.500.- and Rs.5000.- There are reliable reports that if a family has 4 votes, it was paid Rs.20000.- That would mean that if there is a deficit of 10000 votes (assuming that money need not be paid for all the votes obtained by a candidate) , an expenditure of Rs.5 crores would be able deliver this number of votes. For a party which has earned thousands of crores through corruption while being in power, spending a total of Rs.500 crores in about 100 assembly constituencies is no big deal.

One genuine question needs to be asked in this context. Is it not imaginable that people accept money but do not necessarily vote for the candidate who bribed them? Observers of the political scene say that a promise is extracted from people who are being paid substantial bribe; the promise is that they will vote for the candidate who bribed them. This promise is demanded in the name of God. Tamilnadu rural folks being very religious and God-fearing, this method works perfectly; not many betray or go back on their promise. While people getting money along with their newspapers in the early mornings have no promises to keep, those voters who are personally handed over bulk amounts ( say Rs.5000.- per vote) for their entire family are asked to promise and they keep their word irrespective of their liking or otherwise for the candidate.

Tamilnadu has been leading the country in many fields and the people of the state are rightly proud of such feats. But it is a pity that the state has started pioneering novel methods of bribing voters. This is one innovation that the state will have to feel ashamed of.

Nira Radia Tapes and fall of a giant from the pedestal

2010-12-01T12:04:00.003+05:30

The most important fall-out of the leak of Radia Tapes is the fall of an important figure from the public pedestal. Ratan Tata. He has been no.1 in the list of the few industrialists and businessmen that the Indian public trusted. But the Radia Tapes have damaged that reputation. The fault is not with the people who leaked the tapes. The fault is not with the magazines which published them. The fault is with Ratan Tata. If you keenly listen to the tapes and digest the contents, it becomes clear that Tata dreaded the probable return of Dayanidhi Maran as Telecom Minister. He wanted some one, any one other than Maran. But Raja was good enough for him. Pliable, accommodating, approachable, practical. Seen in the context of Tata's telecom interests, the desire to see Raja as Telecom minister is not all that saintly. In fact, the efforts mounted to bring Raja as Telecom minister is very evident from the tapes. This effort made by Tata , besides of course others, has dented Tata's image, may be irretrievably and for ever. This is sad news for a man who will be retiring in a year or two.

Tamil Newspapers and their news priorities

2010-07-19T22:38:00.014+05:30

While I buy 'The Times of India' newspaper for national news, I buy a Tamil newspaper to get to know what is happening around me. The Tamil newspaper ' Daily Thanthi' costs more than the Times. However, it has less number of pages than the Times. The print quality is pretty good and a lot of colour is used. There are more advertisements than what Chennai edition of the Times manages to get. The most important thing to note is that Daily Thanthi is one of the highest circulated vernacular newspapers in the country. Now let us see what constitutes 'News' as far as this paper is concerned.

The front page news invariably is about the state of Tamilnadu. Right now, there is an investigation going on into the duplicate mark sheet scandal. On the 15th July, this was the main front page news. The only other news on the front page was the police firing in Andhra Pradesh and the consequent death of 4 agitating fishermen.The rest of the front page is dotted with colourful advertisements .

In the inner pages, considerable space was devoted on the above date to the following news items. 1. Life term punishment to the Bangalore woman who murdered her fiance with the help of her lover eight years ago. There is a large colour photo of the grim-looking woman published. 2.Arrest of the clever real estate owner who succeeded in selling Govt. lands to a Govt.-owned oil company. Photo of the clever man published. 3.Large photo of actor Sarath Kumar seeking the blessings of the chief minister of Tamilnadu on the former's birthday. In the photo, the actor is smiling broadly, his wife Radhika is smiling more broadly and the C.M. is almost laughing. 4.Half of page 5 is devoted to the speech given by the owner of the newspaper at the inaugural ceremony of a 3-star hotel at Tiruchendur in South Tamilnadu. 5.Suicide of a Kannada film actor after murdering his wife.Photo of the actor and his wife taken in better days published. 6.Arrest of more persons in the case involving corrupt chief engineer of Tamilnadu Electricity Board. (Photo, though not in colour, of the corrupt chief engineer and his corrupt deputy.) 6.Arrest of the married lover of a murdered woman on charges of homicide. (Photo of the married lover-boy turned murderer published).7. The editorial page has an editorial questioning the Govt.'s choice of the persons for Republic day awards. But three times the space given to the said editorial has been given to what the chief minister Mr.Karunanidhi has written in his party's newspaper 'Murasoli' attacking the opposition leader Ms.Jayalalitha in chaste Tamil.

If I have not listed any major national news ( not considering the judgement on Bangalore woman and the suicide of Kannada actor as neither national nor very major) among the seven items mentioned above, the fault is not mine. There is very little national news in this newspaper. There are three or four national news items ( BJP protest against Karnataka Governor, Manmohan Singh's speech on Naxalites etc.) but tucked in some corner of inner sheets. Of course, those readers hungry for national news can locate them with some effort. And some sports news, stock market news etc. too are found.

One should not forget that this newspaper has its fingers on the pulse of its readers who constitute a substantial percentage of the state's population. So, assuming that the paper gives what its readers want , people 's primary interest is what happens in the immediate surroundings of theirs. Say, within a radius of some 250 to 300kms from their home. This must be true about people in other states of the country as well; and about regional newspapers in other parts of the country too. Murders most foul, the police catching the murderers, the background of the murder, major thefts in the locality, film actors' real life affairs and other extra-curricular activities, Sex Sanyasis, their extra-religious but juicy escapades.......... these are what sustain people's interest and the readers get their 'paisa vasool' if the newspapers sprinkle such news liberally and make them well-spiced. Economy, GDP, Indo-Pak dialogue, Afghanistan, global warming, Maoists ....... these must be happening in another planet, a million kilometres away from where the readers live in flesh and blood. Are the English newspapers listening?

Paranormal Activity

2010-07-19T18:20:00.003+05:30

Recently I watched the English movie " Paranormal Activity". I understand that the movie has been shot with a shoe-string budget. No recognizable actors. No superb cinematography. But the effect the movie creates on the viewer is terrific. The fear that we all have, at least most of us have, for entities that are not human has been well-exploited. I do not remember to have seen any thriller or horror movie in which suggestion that something sinister is about to happen is used so effectively. There are two endings in the DVD. I do not know which ending the movie screened in cinema halls has. But the DVD gives you a choice. Though both the endings are tragic, one is more dramatic while the other is slightly less stomach-churning. I strongly recommend that you see the movie. But there is a strong possibility that if you see the movie late night, then the hours following the end of the movie will see you sleepless, avoiding looking directly at every shadow that appears on the window glass of your bed room .

Turkey- a slice of my experiences

2010-07-19T16:08:00.025+05:30

I had done quite a bit of research on the net prior to my trip to Istanbul. I had even identified an Indian restaurant in Istanbul, since finding a restaurant for vegetarian food is quite a task while travelling anywhere outside India. I had informed myself about how the taxi drivers in Istanbul used a novel method to cheat the tourists. I had noted carefully how Turkish Lira had undergone three changes in the last 5 years. But the real life experiences do not exactly go the way one had prepared oneself for. Well, not all surprises are unpleasant !

Actually, Turkey is well-known for its Mediterranean cuisine. It has plenty of vegetables and fruits in it, besides olive oil. But Mediterranean cuisine is more common in places like Antalya than Istanbul. Nevertheless, I identified a Turkish vegetarian restaurant in Istiklal Caddessi area of Istanbul. I could have gone to the Indian Restaurant Musafir easily. But I was more interested in eating vegetarian food in an authentic Turkish Restaurant. And I did find one small joint after some enquiries in that area. I was not in for disappointment. What the restaurant called Vegetarian Plate had tomato soup, rice( a bit sticky ), brinjhal , some green salad, a loaf of bread and a sweet. Finally Turkish coffee. Very satisfactory evening. While in Antalya, I had it much easier. Every lunch or dinner I had in the hotel had plenty of green salad, cooked vegetables , nuts, fruits etc. Besides, of course delicious Turkish sweets.

But the taxi drivers proved more cunning than what the Internet had informed me. I had read on certain travel websites that the taxi drivers used to cheat the tourists, taking advantage of the similarity in appearances between the 5 lira currency note and the 50 lira one. When the passenger gives the driver a 50 lira note, the latter instead of giving the balance claims that the passenger had given only a 5 lira note and shows a 5 lira note. The 50 lira note very quickly had vanished into the driver's pocket and equally quickly a 5 lira note appears in its place in the driver's hand.The tourists try to argue but finally get tired enough to shell out the taxi fare once more. There are dozens of complaints of this nature in the said travel websites. But what happened to me was something entirely different. Tired after a visit to the museums in the far-away Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, I decided to hire a taxi to reach my hotel which was in the Taksim Square. The driver at the very outset made it clear that he would not be switching on the meter and would be charging 25 Lira since the traffic, according to him, was heavy that day. I agreed and got into the taxi. The driver appeared friendly and even identified me correctly as Indian. He kept chatting about the chaotic traffic in Istanbul; it was another matter that I did not find the traffic in Istanbul half as chaotic as in Mumbai. Finally when the taxi reached Taksim , I paid him the agreed 25 Lira. He got furious and said that what we had agreed was 35 lira. I heard it as 45 lira and asked him " 45? no, we agreed on 25". He replied " I am not asking for 45, but just 35." He was pronouncing 25, 35 and 45 in an identical way. I think that it was deliberate on his part. Then he showed the meter which he earlier had said he had no intention of switching on ; the meter showed 40. I had no choice. Heads or tails, the driver wins. I paid 35 lira and got out red-faced. So, the drivers in Istanbul can beat you in the game of taxi fare whatever be your preparation.

Identity Politics, a Divisive Mantra

2010-06-27T13:54:00.002+05:30

Politics itself is divisive. It does not unite, but divides. However, democratic politics is unavoidable since no better system of governance that would have the stamp of approval by the governed has yet been invented.But identity politics is pure poison.

*Linguistic Identity Politics: Linguistic states were formed in India in 1956 with the good intention of encouraging preservation of sub-cultures. Culture of a society is very strongly bound with the language spoken by the people of a region. But look at the consequences of the formation of linguistic states. Biharis are beaten up in Maharashtra. Kannadigas do not want to share Cauvery water with the Tamils. Kannadigas and Maharashtrians are quarrelling over the district of Belgaum. Assamese resent Bengali immigrants. But what was most unexpected are the fissures within a linguistic state. U.P. a Hindi speaking state could not satisfy the aspirations of its Hindi speaking hill-inhabitants and Uttarakhand had to be formed. Bihar , another Hindi-speaking state had to agree to let Jharkhand region to have its own state since the tribal there felt being exploited by the mainstream people of the rest of Bihar. Telengana people can not stomach the dominance of their Telugu-speaking brothers in Andhra and Rayalseema areas of Andhra Pradesh. The people of Chattisgarh separated from the Hindi-speaking state of Madhya Pradesh though the people of both M.P. and Chattisgarh speak Hindi. Now, the people of western Uttar Pradesh want a separate state. The Marathi-speaking people of Vidharba region want a separate state carved out of the Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra. It is clear that concept of linguistic states has failed.Language alone can not unite.

Racial Identity Politics of Dravidian parties: This is much worse than linguistic politics and has the potential to split the nation. The British , for their own selfish reasons, propagated the theory of Aryan-Dravidian divide. In the early part of the last century, some organisations in the then-Madras Presidency started using this theory as a tool to beat the upper castes of the state with; it was widely perceived that the Brahmins of the South were originally from the North and by implication, they were not part of Dravidians. So, some of the educated non-Brahmin communities effectively deployed this perception to bring down the Brahmins from the latter's dominant position in the society and professions. When the country achieved independence, some new political parties were formed in South India and these parties in their efforts to defeat the Congress party used the weapon of ' Dravidians being different' to spread hatred against the North and by implication the all-India Congress party. This poisonous Aryan-Dravidian theory ( which has been rubbished of late by many historians as baseless) brought the Dravidian parties to power and gave the people a fictitious feeling of having men of their own feather in power. But the damage the Dravidian identity politics has caused to the sense of unity is considerable.

Religious Identity Politics: In the name of secularism, most of the political parties have been deceiving the minorities ; they talk of protecting them without doing any thing substantial to improve their living standards. But this very talk is seen by the Hindus as appeasement of minorities. This reaction by the majority community has enabled the more extreme sections of the Hindu population to practise politics based on religion. The issue of secularism has dominated politics for close to two decades, creating a set-back to efforts to tackle real issues like economy and governance.

Caste Identity Politics: South India started it ; the politicians connived among themselves to award the Backward community status to most of the castes. The so-called upper castes were systematically edged out of the Public sector and Government job market. In that process, they were driven out of the state; huge sections rendered helpless by the unjust reservation policy migrated to the North in search of higher education and employment. The politicians of the South especially Tamilnadu are gloating that they have solved the caste problem; what they have done is execution of a South Indian brand of ethnic cleansing. Bloodless, if it offers any consolation. The Northern states have just begun messing up with the caste issue. Mandal was the start. In the north, it is competitive backward politics. Mulayam - Laloo brand which recognizes only Yadavs as the backward community deserving help, Nitish brand which talks about the Most Backward Communities ( euphemism for all backward communities except Yadavs) etc. This fire which has been started by the politicians will not stop in a hurry. What gets burnt out and what escapes unscathed are things that are in a sealed container called Future.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy - A Witness

2010-06-23T14:32:00.003+05:30

I was a resident of Bhopal when the tragedy in the form of leakage of a deadly gas from a factory struck the beautiful city of Bhopal. The tragedy happened , I remember, around the time between midnight of the 2Nd December and the early morning of the 3rd December 1984. I was fast asleep and so perhaps was every one of my neighbours in the posh residential area Arera Colony . Arera Colony is situated some 10kms away from Union Carbide factory where the leakage of gas occurred. When I got up at 6.30 am on the 3rd of December, there was commotion in the street outside. People were looking scared, talking among themselves in small groups in fearful tones. The servant maid just then entered our home and gave us the piece of information. "Gas has leaked and several are dead". Gas? Which gas? LPG? She said, not domestic gas, but some factory gas. Those were not days of round the clock Television. We had to switch on the radio ( which was yet to become a museum object) to learn more about the gas leak. Soon it became clear that some poisonous gas had leaked out and killed thousands of people in the older section of the city.My neighbour suggested that we must drive away to the nearby town of Hoshangabad since there were rumours that the wind was pushing the gas towards our part of the city ( This was later found to be false). The main road was already chocking with cars and scooters and people were trying to get as far away from the affected part of the city as possible.We decided to stay put and wait for the Govt.'s advice. Soon it became clear that the lake, a prominent landmark of Bhopal, had acted as a shield and checkmated the spreading gas, confining it to a smaller area in the older part of the city. Unfortunately, the older part was also the more crowded part. That was why the casualty figures ran into thousands.

Bhopal was stunned into inaction for several days thereafter. There was hardly any one other than the rescue workers venturing into the affected localities. On the third or the fourth day, myself and a colleague of mine drove to the old city . There was eerie silence everywhere. Some dead bodies were still on the street corners. It was not the lovely Bhopal I had come to know in the previous two years since my shift from Bombay . Soon, the profiteers and bad elements took over the scene. Blankets and clothes donated freely to the suffering people started appearing dramatically in the evening market for sale. Social service organisations, some of them genuine but many of them out to make a fast buck out of the tragedy descended on the scene. There was even a cartoon in the Times of India ( by Lakshman) which showed a big-built suited-booted lawyer from the United States bending his huge body to meet the eyes of a roadside beggar and asking him " Hey, would u like to sue the Union Carbide? This is my business card. 50 percent would be my share".

25 years have passed. Who knows how many of those affected still live? Who knows how many of those claiming today to have been affected that day 25 years ago are really those whom the poisonous gas had harmed? The sudden swing into action by the Govt. of India and working out a relief package are laughable. 25 years for the court to deliver a judgement? Can any thing be more cynical than this? Would the world have condoned Union Carbide and Anderson if the disaster had happened in some Western country? Would the compensation amount given by Union Carbide have been so low? Human lives are cheaper here, right?

What has the country learnt from this industrial disaster? Is a disaster-management plan ready? Will it be far less damaging if a second Bhopal were to occur somewhere?

Low Interest Regime - Pensioners' Dilemma, Industries' Bonanza

2010-06-23T13:47:00.004+05:30

If the interests of any two groups are diametrically opposite, then they are Pensioners ( Retired people) and Industries.

The industries and the Business want lower lending interests from the banks. When they borrow at higher interests, their cost of production goes up. The demand as an inverse function of the price of products goes down. The Businesses make lower turnover and lower profits. So, whatever be the rate of inflation, the business lobbies with the Govt. and the Reserve Bank of India to retain the lower interest regime. In these days when every one watches the GDP rate , the Govt. certainly does not want the rate of growth to slip and get the blame for slowing down the economy. If inflation climbs up , the Govt. thinks that the growth in economy will put more money in the hands of the people and silence cries of protest on inflation. Well, to some extent, the Govt. is right. With pay-packets constantly on the rise, the public in the age group 25-60 is not as worried about inflation as used to be the case a decade or two ago.

But there is one group which is eyeing the double-digit inflation with tremors and low interest regime with annoyance. It is the pensioners. Those people whose survival depends on the pension they receive or the returns they get on their investments. This group gets hit on both the fronts. High inflation reduces the value and purchasing power of the money they have. Besides, the low interests offered by the banks on the deposits ( which depend on the RBI monetary policies) put less money in the hands of these people who do not earn a salary income any more. Many pensioners think and rightly so, that they can fight inflation through judicious expenditure of money and wise choice of goods to be bought. But they are helpless when the interest income on bank deposits keeps decreasing as keeping the cost of money low enough to benefit the industries becomes the guiding mantra of the Govt. This dilemma of the pensioners has no chance of a happy resolution since numerically the pensioners are a small minority in a country where the majority of the population is under 40.

The Hindi Movie Jism, a carbon copy !

2010-02-09T17:33:00.005+05:30

Recently, I saw two DVD-s one after another. It was purely coincidental that I had ordered on the DVD rental company Bigflix.com Jism, a Hindi movie released in the year 2000 and Double Indemnity, a Hollywood movie released in 1944. The two DVD-s were delivered to me on two successive days.

The English movie was delivered first. I enjoyed the movie very much though the movie had been released more than 65 years ago. It was a black and white movie. The director kept the tempo alive till the very last frame. It deals with an insurance salesman who falls for the charms of a scheming woman who wants her husband to be murdered and to pocket the money from a double indemnity insurance policy. The insurance man resists at first; but the fatal attraction that the woman holds for him makes him commit the murder. It is too late already when he discovers the true nature of the woman.

To my utter shock, I discovered that the Hindi movie Jism had the same story line. Since there was a time interval of 5 decades between the two movies, the producers of Jism perhaps thought that no one would notice; even if some film buffs do notice, they would not mind. But in my case, I saw the two movies back to back; on two successive nights. Without the prior knowledge that the Hindi movie was a carbon copy of the English one. I felt angry at the producers of Jism for such a blatant pilferage.

The Indian story unfolds in Pondicherry. John Abraham is a lawyer ; in the English movie Double Indemnity the fact that the hero is an insurance salesman lends enormous authenticity to the wily woman targeting him to be the tool of her wicked plan. After all, the main purpose was to get the insurance money and who better than an insurance salesman can be of help !The Hindi movie has kept the basic features of the plot such as the woman having been earlier the nurse who had murdered the rich man's first wife before marrying him, her pretending to be in love with the hero etc. But the hero being a lawyer and not an insurance man robs the movie of the cleverness of the plot to murder the woman's husband. In the English movie, the care the insurance salesman takes to create witnesses for the train journey the victim undertakes and the tension the eccentric and unpredictable but seasoned boss of the salesman causes to the salesman after the murder make the movie gripping. In the Hindi movie, murder is committed in a very amateurish way and even a child could demolish the alibi the hero creates to prove that he is not the murderer. In place of the insurance man's boss playing a vital role in the English movie, the Hindi movie creates a police inspector who is shown more emotional than rational. The songs and dances that are typical of any Indian movie drive away the edge-of-the-seat feeling a viewer could have been made to undergo in a suspense thriller.

Having twisted unsuccessfully the original plot in order to create an impression that this one is a different movie , the Hindi film carboncopies some scenes needlessly ; one such scene shows the tense hero trying to start the car( after the murder) , the woman watching his unsuccessful attempts and snatching the ignition key from his hand and starting the engine in a jiffy. In the English movie this scene adds to the suspense since the car is only a few metres away from the Railway track where the body of the woman's husband had been thrown by the lovers . In the Hindi film, since the corpse is thrown in a deserted factory ( without even a night watchman being present to guard the factory ) , the scene of the lovers trying to hurry away in a car that has starting trouble looks unconvincing and leaves the viewer cold.

My respect for the old Hollywood thrillers has increased after watching Double Indemnity and its unprofessional imitator Jism.

Portents for future of Indian Democracy

2010-02-08T18:54:00.003+05:30

The politics in India is churning. For the better. Look at the following straws in the wind.

*Shiv Sena is licking its wounds and has withdrawn its boycott call of Shah Rukh Khan's film " My name is Khan". The principal reason is that there is no enthusiasm from the Marathi Manush for the latest clownish act of the Sena.

*The BJP has come out against the parochial slogan of its long-time ally Shiv Sena "Mumbai for Marathis". The Sangh Parivar including the BJP would have nothing to do with such sectarian stands; they would rather have Mumbai for all Indians.

*Mr.Narendra Modi, the Gujarat CM has praised the Home Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram and the Home Secretary Mr.Pillai for the swiftness with which the two are proceeding on the various internal security matters.Good deeds deserve non-partisan praise ! One efficient administrator praising another efficient administrator !

*The Congress party has held its ally Mr.Sharad Pawar responsible for 'talking up' the prices of essential commodities. The Maratha strongman's irresponsible statements on prices fuelling speculation and hoarding have been condemned by all the parties except his own.

*Mr.Amar Singh has been sacked from the Samajwadi party . The party has decided to say 'Good Bye' to the policies of co-opting and doing the bidding of Corporate Honchos and Bollywood biggies. Now the party will return to its Socialist moorings.

*Mr.Rahul Gandhi, the 'crown prince' of the Congress party is talking of inner-party democracy and openly admitting that the doors to most of the political parties in India are closed to every one other than the relatives or friends of the leaders of the parties. He wants this to change and is willing to do his bit towards change in his own party.

So far so good ! At last some steps towards a more matured politics.

Indira was never India, India will never be Indira !

2009-11-08T14:00:00.007+05:30

It is 25 years since Ms.Indira Gandhi was assassinated by a Sikh guard. There were several programmes on TV last week to mark this occasion. If I were still a young man in his twenties, I would have believed all the lies the TV channels uttered. But I was already an engineering student when Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966. And I was in my late twenties when she imposed emergency on the country in 1975. I was in my mid-thirties when she was killed brutally. I watched with sadness the downward slide the country took under Indira Gandhi's leadership. Therefore, I can not agree with the TV channels on their description of Mrs.Indira Gandhi as the best Prime Minister the country has ever had.

Indira Gandhi was one of the most popular Prime Ministers. May be, even the most popular. But that can not blind us from making a fair judgement of her contribution . If this great divide of time namely 25 years does not enable us to look at her period of rule with clear hindsight , what else will? In my opinion, Indira Gandhi set the country back by two decades in terms of economic progress. She was not a natural believer in Socialism or Leftist policies. She used these as a tool to beat her inner-party opponents with. But that brought disaster to the country's economy. She wanted to discredit the old 'Syndicate' politicians of the sixties; so she nationalised the banks. She wanted to win the elections in 1971; so she coined the slogan 'Garibi Hatao'( Drive out the poverty). What is her contribution to removal of poverty other than mouthing such slogans? Did she lay any great policy foundations for the economy to take off? Like all the Socialist Politicians, she called for fair distribution of wealth. But when and where was the wealth created? There was only poverty to be equitably distributed. She supported the loss-making Public Sector companies and made it difficult for Private Sector to do honourable business without greasing the palms of the ruling party politicians. Corruption grew to monumental proportions during those times and that is eating into the vitals of the country till date.

Her dislike for equals or near-equals was legendary. She nipped in the bud career of any Congress politician who showed promise. She was highly insecure and so could tolerate only intellectual pygmies around her. She permitted or rather promoted the growth of a personality cult around her name. The slogan 'India is Indira, Indira is India' coined by one of her stooges Dev Kant Baruah had her tacit approval. She was a dictator by temperament.

Indira was no friend of the working class though she talked of socialism in bated breath. The brutal way she crushed the All India Railway Employee's strike in 1974 was a national shame.

Indira Gandhi wanted her arrogant son Sanjay Gandhi to succeed her as Prime Minister. She was never a true democrat. She was the one who firmly laid the roots for dynastic politics. She let him play the role of an unconstitutional authority . The lad assembled a lot of lumpen elements around him and ran a parallel Government. Imposing Emergency was probably more his idea than hers. But it suited her, so she played along and imprisoned several political leaders including the then-80 year old Morarji Desai. Her admirers even now proudly recollect that trains ran on time during emergency. They do not have any other grounds to defend the draconian emergency.

People in the know say that Indira Gandhi was solely responsible for the rise of Binderenwala which later led to the blood bath in the Golden Temple of Amritsar.

Popularity among the public is no yardstick to measure one's contribution. The Indian villagers have always blamed poverty on their fate and spared the rulers of any role in it. Politicians like Indira Gandhi reaped the benefits of such an innocent world-view of things. Indian people vote with their heart. I wish they voted with their mind or at least their stomach.

Indira Gandhi might have had several good traits as an individual. As a daughter, as a wife and as a mother. Even as a person interested in fine arts, literature and music. I do not know. But Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister was not a good thing that happened to India. People cite victory in Indo-Pak war of 1971 to praise her leadership qualities. Even granting it, a single achievement over a period of 18 years can not cloud all the overwhelming negatives.

Indira Gandhi's period throws up a lot of lessons to the people. Never hero-worship any leader. Never believe empty slogans. Never loosen the guard over democracy. Never vote for a politician because of his or her family background. Never trust a leader who thinks that Prime-ministership is God's gift to his or her family for all times to come.

A Layman's peek into foreign exchange matters

2009-11-07T19:04:00.005+05:30

When I boarded a KLM plane to Amsterdam in 1975, I had less than 20 British Pounds with me as foreign exchange. One Pound used to be equal to Rs.14 at that time. Why only 20 Pounds? Why not more? That was the limit imposed by the Indian Government for travellers from India. Those were the days when the country had very little foreign exchange and every dollar or pound the Govt. had in foreign exchange reserve was precious , mainly used for unavoidable imports. How would I have survived with that little foreign exchange in Europe and for how many days ! But then I was to get an advance payment as soon as I reached Munich , from the company I was going to work for. So, I had to manage on my own and with 20 Pounds only for two days. But, when I reached Amsterdam on a misty Sunday morning and was looking forward to board a connecting flight to Munich, I was told that due to weather conditions, the flight to Munich was cancelled. I should either wait overnight in Amsterdam and take the next morning flight to Munich or go to the Amsterdam Railway station and take a train to Munich. What a shock ! But then I managed ; got a transit visa to get out of the Airport, travelled to the Railway Station by the KLM bus, bought a second class ticket for 150 Dutch Guilder to Munich and slept my way to Munich. This could not have been possible with the 20 Pounds ; but then the intelligent travel agent back in India knew how to circumvent the rules and made sure that when I made that bus trip to Amsterdam Railway Station, my pocket had more foreign currency notes than when I landed at Amsterdam Airport. No need to go into the details ! All is well that ends well.

Nowadays, the Indian Govt. kitty is bulging with foreign exchange. A year ago, the Govt. brought some restrictions on the incoming foreign money so that Indian Rupee did not appreciate too much, inconveniencing Exporters. What a drastic change ! Any tourist can take up to 10000 USD out of the country for his travel expenses. For business purposes, it is 25000 USD.

Of course, restrictions, as the above amounts suggest, still exist. There is only current account convertibility, not capital account convertibility. One can travel abroad more comfortably, get educated in foreign universities, get treatment in hospitals abroad etc. But one can not invest abroad. Moreover, while in India, one can not keep financial assets in foreign currency ( may be, one could keep a very restricted amount). Unless full convertibility happens, this situation will not change. All developed countries have full currency convertibility. That is why Dollar or Euro is accepted everywhere in the world. Rupee is not accepted anywhere in the world except in Nepal and Bhutan. But experts say that India can not afford full convertibility at this stage since such a step is fraught with major risks. The East Asian crisis is still fresh in mind.

In 1975, one U.S.Dollar fetched Rs.8. Today, it is Rs.46.- Why did this happen? One major reason is that the annual inflation in India has, on a long-time average, been around 8% while in the U.S. it has been 2 to 2.5 %. So, over the years the divergence between a dollar's purchasing power in the U.S. and the Rupee's purchasing power in India has grown enormously. While the foreign exchange Pundits would not like to simply the matter so much and would suggest many other reasons for this change in exchange rate, this is the most believable explanation in my eyes.

Since this subject of foreign exchange has always fascinated me, I could share some more observations here.

1.Of all the currencies that have appreciated, nothing has appreciated more than Swiss Frank. In 1975/76, one dollar could buy two Swiss Franks. Today, one dollar just about manages to get exchanged for one Swiss Frank.

2.Deutsche Mark does not exist any more. But projecting its possible exchange rate on the basis of Euro's performance , a DM if it lived today would have been equivalent to 75 U.S.Cents. In 1976, one DM was 50 U.S.Cents.

3.The Canadian Dollar has appreciated considerably. A Canadian Dollar today fetches 92 U.S.Cents, whereas 30 years ago, it trailed far behind.

The 'benevolent' Nigerians !

2009-11-07T13:56:00.006+05:30

I keep getting e-mail messages from some strange people who happen to be Nigerians. The contents of the messages do not differ much from each other. They all say that there is a large fortune ( running into several hundred thousands of dollars) left behind by some one who has passed away or has been killed and there are no known inheritors. The senders of the mails who claim to have the said-fortune in their custody want to get it out of their country with my help (or your help if you too have received such mails). In return they are willing to pass on a hefty 30 % of the loot . They ask me for my bank account details. They ask me for my telephone number. Having come into this world several decades ago and having heard of the Nigerian racket many times, I junk such mails into the recycle bin immediately. But if you are a curious person who has never heard of this special brand of Nigerian scam, you will let them know your telephone number. Soon you will get a call and the caller would inform you about a small hitch in his pious plans of rewarding you. He has corrupt officials in his country to bribe off so that they do not play spoilers. So the caller would want you to pay some 4000 to 5000 dollars to him which he promises to return to you along with the 30% share of yours. Now there will be a battle between greed and commonsense before you decide to act. You will either laugh it away and forget all about it. Or, your greed will actually make you end up parting with your hard-earned money in expectation of the promised windfall. While it might appear too silly to think that any one could fall in this kind of deceivers' net, facts speak otherwise. There are several Indians who have fallen for this and ended up losing money. I read one such case every two months in newspapers. The people who get deceived are not uneducated men or innocent home-bound housewives. Many of them are in good jobs or run their own businesses. They do not question themselves what is so special about them that makes some foreigner decide to seek their help even if there really is some such fortune waiting to be claimed in a far-away land. The con men send hundreds of mails betting on the statistical average of the gullible and the greedy in the population. The police keep cautioning the public routinely; but the human greed for unearned wealth is so huge that the Nigerian tricksters will continue to thrive. Many of those Nigerians are students in Indian Universities. What puzzles me is why these Nigerians have such luck with Indians alone. Or. are they trying it successfully elsewhere too? Also, why do only Nigerians specialise in this particular brand of cheating? Why have the Kenyans or Tanzanians or Ugandans left this lucrative field free for the Nigerians? After all, there are a lot of students from these countries as well in the Indian Universities.

Public Sector Banks score over Private Banks

2009-10-11T19:24:00.009+05:30

Bank Nationalisation

There used to be a time, long long ago, say 40 years ago when except for one major bank, all the banks in India were in the hands of private groups. The State Bank of India was the only exception. Thereafter, in 1969, all the major banks, 14 to be exact, were nationalised at one stroke. This more or less wiped out the presence of private ownership in the banking sector. Initially, every one, except the poorest of the poor and the Socialist politicians , criticized bank nationalisation. There were doomsday predictions of politicians distributing loans to their vote banks with abandon, bank staff adopting the Govt. departments' notorious less-work-for-more-pay culture, wildcat strikes patronised by the irresponsible Workers' Unions, inefficient and inadequate service to the depositors etc. etc. Of course, the newly-nationalised banks functioned initially in the way that these pessimistic predictions were proving to be right. But to look at the picture 40 years later i.e. today it is a very different impression one gets.

Public Sector Banks

Today in 2009, the Public Sector Banks present a picture of stability. They have expanded their reach vastly and serve every nook and corner of this huge country. In the days prior to Bank Nationalisation, the Banks operated mostly in the urban areas and some well-connected rural areas. A very large part of the country was left out to be at the mercy of the money-lenders and Chit-fund operators. The initial fears of irresponsible use of the depositors' money by the Public Sector Banks to feed the vote-banks soon vanished. The work culture too is acceptably efficient. The staff of the PSU Banks still goes on strike once in a few years, but that is some thing one can live with. Contrary to earlier fears, there have been no frequent strikes.

Trustworthy and Depositor-friendly

Now , talking about the positive aspects, the Public Sector Banks enjoy the trust of the people. This is the biggest plus point any Bank can be proud of. This trust was more than evident when a year ago the banking system in different parts of the world collapsed and people were afraid to put money in the Private Sector Banks. In fact, the depositors started closing their accounts in and withdrawing money from the biggest Private Bank in India. But, not a paisa was withdrawn by any one from the PSU banks, since there was no fear of the Banks collapsing. The PSU Banks are depositor-friendly in many ways that the Private Banks are not. The minimum balance one has to maintain in a Savings account in HDFC Bank is Rs.10000.- If you do not have this balance , they charge you a hefty penalty ( say Rs.500-Rs.750.- per quarter) . The Standard Chartered Bank is far worse; they want you to maintain a Savings Bank account balance of Rs.25000.- The penalty they levy in case of the balance falling below this huge amount is heftier than what the HDFC Bank levies. Now contrast this with the PSU Banks. The minimum balance one has to maintain in a Savings Bank account is just Rs.1000.- All the PSU Banks give you a Pass Book for Savings Account which can be easily preserved. The Private banks send you a quarterly statement which can easily get lost unless you take care to file all the quarterly statements in a box file. I am convinced that the biggest PSU Bank State Bank of India has been more innovative in introducing new financial products than any of the Private Banks. SBI has more ATMS-s. They have more branches. When you go to a SBI branch to open a Fixed Deposit account, all that you have to do is to fill up a small pay-in slip ( if you have a savings account in the same branch) and within 20 minutes, you could walk out with the computerised Fixed Deposit Receipt in your hands. This is my personal experience. I have not seen such efficiency in any Private Bank. You have to fill in a large form and then they tell you that they will send you the FD receipt by post or through courier.

Private Banks serve only the Elites

Though I have been a long-time admirer of the Private Sector in several fields, I think that in the Banking Sector, the Public Sector scores heavily over their Private counterparts. Though in the recent years many private banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank etc. have come into being (besides the foreign banks such as Standard Chartered ) , they are being seen as shunning the middle class depositor and preferring only the HNI (high net worth individuals). They price their services , probably deliberately, to scare away the run-of-the-mill depositors. They want only the cream of the society to come to their doors. In the long run, the loss will be that of these private banks, not that of the average Joe.

The Banking Sector in India has demonstrated that the PSU Banks are closer to the common man and they understand his banking needs better than the Private Banks. The Private Sector Banks, willingly or unknowingly, are positioning themselves away from the mainstream, edged out to serve mainly the elitist minority.

Rat o' nine lives !

2009-08-29T12:32:00.003+05:30

Intelligent Rodents

There must be a good reason why rats, of all the animals, are subjected to all kinds of tests in laboratories. Be it discovering a new cure for an old disease, or testing the effectiveness of stem cells for hopeless cases, rats are considered ideal simulation for human beings. This must be because of the similarity of the response of their bodies to any chemical input with that of the human bodies. But even in matters requiring intelligence, rats can not be inferior to the humans. At least, that is what is the conclusion I have come to, after battling with the house rats for weeks.

Nightmare with the Rats

Initially, the rats used to enter the flat through a pipeline from outside which led to the wash basin in the courtyard. Since the discharge tube made of plastic was not tightly fitted into the bigger drainage pipe, the rats bit off the plastic tube easily and entered the courtyard. Since the door leading to the living room was always kept open, entering the living room in the twilit time of the evening was no big deal for the rats. Then the night became theirs and they had a free run in the kitchen after lights were switched off. The first indication of the nocturnal assault was the lid of a used Nestle condensed milk can which was taken out of the pipeline by the plumber who was attending to a routine complaint . Deciding to close the door to our uninvited rat guests, I asked the plumber to replace the frail plastic tube by a thick PVC pipe. Well, the joy of blocking the rats through their usual route was short-lived. After a week, I found the plastic cover for the drainage under the kitchen sink fully damaged and the discharge tube was hanging loose. And the droppings everywhere gave evidence of the return of the rats. I bought an Ultrasonic Rat Repellent and installed it in the kitchen. The manufacturer of this device claims that the high frequency sound waves emitted by the equipment scares the rats away. I believed it initially. Then one morning I found that the tender coconut I had left on the kitchen platform the previous night had now a giant-sized hole instead of the small 1 cm hole I had earlier made on the Coconut shell to empty the contents. There was absolutely no doubt. It was a Rat which must have feasted on the tender coconut during the night. So, the ultrasound device failed and the rat triumphed.

Now what does one do in such cases? To go in for a rat trap? To poison the poor creatures? Neither of these obvious and popular solutions was acceptable to me. I put up with the nuisance of the rats for some more time. But the nuisance was becoming a menace. Earlier, they used to restrict their free run to the kitchen platform and the open shelves underneath. In course of time, they found out that the dining table in the dining half of the living room offered occasional treats like some left-behind snacks. Also, they learnt to probe near the Puja corner and were rewarded with the remnants of oil in the lamps. One morning, I discovered that the cushion of the sofa set had been bitten and torn.

Now was the time to take the battle to the next level. I had the kitchen sink discharge cover closed with a perforated iron plate with stainless steel cups attached underneath. Rats are not known to have overcome iron or stainless steel barriers. The pleasure of having stopped the rats in their tracks lasted for 2 nights. During the third night, I heard some faint sounds and decided to check . I found the soap box and the coconut oil can in the bath room overturned. I took a torch light and started looking under and behind every possible hiding place. It did not take much time to notice the tail of a rat rushing for cover under a Godrej Almirah. The rat had entered the bed room through an open window the height of which posed no challenge to the rat to climb.

Round One goes to me

I had to think fast. What do I do to checkmate this intelligent creature? I decided to cover all the windows with stainless steel screens. Before doing that, I ensured that no rat is left hiding anywhere in the house. Behind the refrigerator, sofa set, TV trolley, Godrej Safes, Washing machine, Computer table etc. Having ensured that the rats had been mainly overnight guests and not permanent residents in the flat, I had the windows covered with the stainless steel mesh. It is now nearly 10 days and I am beginning to feel that the first phase of the war against the rats has been won. But I do not underestimate their intelligence which has been sharpened by their thousands of years of co-existence with the human beings; that is why I consider the present lull as a truce. I know that the truce and with it, the peace could be pierced any time. But let me enjoy the small mercy meanwhile.

Prices of goods always go up, right? Wrong !

2009-08-09T19:57:00.007+05:30

In India, we take for granted that price change is always in one direction . Up. Ever up. Higher and still higher. That is one thing which defies gravity, we joke. But there are exceptions. Electronics. Consumable durables. Have a glimpse of my observations made out of my personal experience of consumption.

*In January 1998, I had bought a Philips colour TV. It was a multimedia model. That meant that you could use it not only as a TV but also as a computer monitor, with some accessories. The price was Rs.22000.- That was a lot of money 11 years ago. Though I could have used it as a second computer monitor too, I used it mainly as a TV. I can not now explain why I paid for a feature which I did not use. Too late. But even the corresponding non-multimedia model of Philips used to cost close to Rs.16000.- Since the 11-year old unit started showing some fatigue in terms of fading colours ( the red became increasingly yellow), I decided to sell it and buy a new colour TV. Recently, I found a professional buyer and sold it for Rs.1500.- I bought a new colour TV of Samsung make. It cost me Rs. 7100.- A slim design ( a superior model of flat TV). Rs.7100.- today means about Rs.3500.- in 1998. So, in real terms, the colour TV price is 25% of what it was 10-12 years ago.

*In 1987, I had bought an Automatic Washing Machine. It cost me Rs.10000.- It had a dedicated chip for the automatic washing and drying cycle including heating ( heating is not a standard feature of the Automatic Washing Machines of today, except in an IFB model). It was one of the two makes available in India at that time. The unit was assembled in Faridabad, out of Japanese kits. Now the equivalent model ( IFB make ) costs Rs.17000.- Rs.17000.- of today must have been about Rs.3000 to Rs. 3200.- in 1987. So, in real terms, a washing machine costs less than one-third of what one paid for a similar machine 22 years ago.

*DVD , if I remember correctly, came to the Indian market in the second half of the nineties. May be late nineties. Till then it was VCP/VCR that dominated the market. I bought a National ( Japanese) VCR in 1989 for Rs.18000.- A VCP might have cost Rs.10000.- at that time. Iam not sure how long I used it; but after the cable TV came into being in early 90-s, one did not feel the need to use VCR or VCP for seeing any movie as the cable offered so many channels and hence enough choice of movies every day. Recently, I decided to buy a DVD. I bought a basic model of LG. I paid Rs.2200.- for it. Rs.2200.- in 2009 is the equivalent of Rs.500 to Rs.550.- of 1989. My conclusion is this. A superior technology in 2009 costs one-twentieth of what the price-tag of its more primitive predecessor in 1989 was.

*You might have other examples to brief me about. Mobile phone......PC.....Laptop.......and....and... the list could be longer than you think.

Now tell me, do prices always rise? Even if they do nominally, do they always rise in real terms? Not always. Thanks to constantly-evolving technology and free-market system. they could and they do come down in several sectors. Oh yes, also because of the Govt. of India's increasingly liberal import policy which has resulted in significant reduction of customs duties on components over the years. Let us give some credit to globalization which compelled the Indian Govt. to be market-savvy and not a tax-and-spend Socialist of the yesteryears.

Visiting Kerala while it rains.......

2009-08-02T21:35:00.006+05:30

My plan was to visit Aleppey when the world-famous boat race took place. That would have been the 2nd Saturday of August. It is really funny that an unintended error one commits changes the entire plan and one ends up doing some thing other than what one originally wished. But all is well that ends well.

Special Fare Air Tickets

In this case, I ended up skipping Aleppey but visiting Kochi and Aluva. I was to take advantage of the special monsoon air fares of Air India and Jet Airways. When I was booking the ticket online, I typed the departure date as 7th July instead of 7th August. It was a small mistake but it changed my entire tour plan . There was no change of date possible since it was a special-fare ticket. Also, one was not allowed to cancel and the entire money for the ticket would have been lost upon cancellation. Well, that was the string in small print attached to the special monsoon fare. There was no sense in losing so much money just because one wanted to see the boat race at Aleppey. So, I decided to visit Kerala on the wrong date but then there was no need to go to Aleppey any more since there would be no boat race in July. And there was nothing else to see in Aleppey . So I deleted Aleppey happily from the plan but kept Kochi and Aluva as planned. In hindsight, not a bad move.

Kochi Airport

The new airport at Kochi is actually not close to Kochi. It is at Kalamassery and is closer to Aluva. It is the first private sector-built/ private sector -managed Airport in India. Plenty of space ( as on date) and very clean ( very Kerala, I should say). The lady at the pre-paid taxi counter was polite enough to explain to me that though the hotel I was to check in was quite close , I had to pay the minimum taxi fare (Rs.235.-) which would have given me several more Kms of travel if only I had the need.

Stay & Food

I preferred to stay at Aluva rather than at Kochi. It is far cheaper. Since Kochi is not very far, one could travel to Kochi during the day and be back to spend the night at the hotel at Aluva. While the room was comfortable and clean, there was one problem. There was no kitchen in the hotel. The room attendant has to go out and fetch your food at some nearby restaurant. It was a disappointment that in spite of trying different restaurants on different dates, food was uniformly bad. I must hasten to add that I am a vegetarian and so the comment on the quality of food should be taken with a pinch of salt. Who knows, non-vegetarian food might be good at these restaurants. But when I went to Ernakulam ( Kochi-Ernakulam are twin-cities), I compensated for the bad dinners I have been having by eating my lunch at an Udipi restaurant and I thoroughly enjoyed the food.

Aluva

Aluva is a tourist place. There is plenty to see. Well-maintained temples. Elephant farm. Cherai beach. Kaladi Shankaracharya Ashram. It was a pleasant experience to watch all the paintings and read all the Puranic stories on the walls, as one climbed the steps of the Ashram tower.

Kochi

Kochi is the older of the twin-cities and Ernakulam is the more modern one. Kochi palace was under repairs when I visited. I had to be satisfied with taking a walk in the spacious palace grounds. Since it was raining, the cup of hot tea available from the small shop in the vicinity was very welcome.

The Jewish town was a bit of a let-down. I was expecting a lot of Jews moving around. Instead, I found a lot of Muslims (some looking like Arabs) roaming around. I am told that there are very few Jewish families left in that town. Most of the Jews have migrated to Israel over the decades. The Synagogue is still there.

Kochi Marine Drive is an excellent place to spend an evening. One could take a boat ride. The place is ideal for taking long walks.

The Dutch museum is one of the places a tourist is told to visit. One could learn the complete history of the Kochi monarchy. I still remember the excellent Dutch museum in Colombo which I visited five years ago. If I had not remembered it, I would have been more appreciative of this one at Kochi.

Take-aways

I bought plenty of Banana chips, some of them sweetened. I found them least oily and most tasty. After I boarded the flight back to Chennai, I thought that I should have bought some Jack Fruit chips too. It is OK; there is always a next time. I hope that next time I am more careful in typing the correct departure date in the online Air-ticket booking procedure. Oh oh, I almost forgot. I must mention the give-away too, not just the take-away. I had carried an old umbrella with me to Kerala. While returning, I brought a new umbrella. The old umbrella was stolen by a small-time thief when I had kept it on a table in a restaurant for less than two minutes and gone to the wash room. In Kerala, every one is smart. How could the thieves be otherwise ?

Will the NDA come to power in New Delhi?

2009-05-11T18:17:00.003+05:30

If the NDA has to have a chance of coming to power, the following outcome of the elections is a must.

*Win hugely in Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar, M.P., Chattisgarh, Assam , Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Contain losses in Rajasthan , Orissa and Punjab. Improve in Delhi, Haryana and U.P. Maintain at least the same number of seats in Maharashtra.

*AIADMK-led front should do well but not sweep the elections in Tamilnadu. If a clean sweep is the outcome, then Congress will snatch the AIADMK away, tempting it with the promise of pulling down the DMK Govt. in Tamilnadu. Otherwise, the AIADMK will align with the NDA.

*The BSP should do just moderately well in U.P. If it does very well, then it will put impossible conditions such as Prime Ministership for Mayawathi, which the NDA can not fulfill. If the BSP gets just about 35 seats, then it will be in a sober mood to do business with the NDA.

*The TDP should do well , but not very well in Andhra Pradesh. In the latter case, the aspirations of the third front and Chandrababu Naidu in particular will rise enormously , resulting in Naidu rebuffing NDA offer.

*The Trinamul Congress should do well in West Bengal and the Left should do badly there so that the Left has no option other than supporting the Congress Party's claim to power, thereby driving the Trinamul Congress to the lap of NDA.

Elections in India - the given and the puzzles

2009-05-11T17:59:00.004+05:30

Since the Election Commission has banned exit polls till the completion of voting in all the five phases, there is absolutely no idea regarding the performance of the various political alliances in the concluded phases of the election. . However, certain things are taken for granted and it will be a huge surprise if the results are not in line with these assumptions. These are as follows.

*The Congress Party will lose heavily in Andhra Pradesh and Assam. It will gain handsomely in Rajasthan and Orissa.

*The BJP and NDA will do badly in Delhi and Orissa, but win spectacularly in Bihar and Gujarat.

*The Left will lose seats both in Kerala and West Bengal.

*The RJD, LJP and DMK will lose considerable number of seats this time.

The uncertainty is the following.

*Will the two national parties i.e. Congress and BJP succeed this time in improving their score in the regional parties- dominated Uttar Pradesh?

*Which of the two alliances will do better in Maharashtra?

*Will it be a sweep for the AIADMK-led front in Tamilnadu or will it be just a win in the majority of seats?

*Will Naveen Patnaik's gamble in ditching its 11-year old alliance partner BJP and going it alone in Orissa pay off? Or, would it prove to be a blunder ?

The answer to the above will determine which of the two alliances will get to rule India in June.

Indian Economy - confusing scenario

2009-02-19T13:31:00.005+05:30

Every one knows that the U.S.economy is accelerating down the hill. That the European economy and the Japanese economy are already in recession is pretty clear. But, it is somewhat unclear whether the Indian economy will come out unscathed or it will go the western way.

*Unlike Europe and Japan, India does not depend much on exports. The contribution of exports to the GDP is less than 15%. So, howmuchever sectors like IT and Textiles are hit on the export front, they can at best slow down the Indian economy; they can not reverse the growth into a negative figure.

*The mess in the western economies owes itself to the gross mismanagement of awe-inspiring financial institutions. Simply put, the highly-paid bankers did not do the work they were hired for and were busy rewarding themselves with fat bonus cheques which they did not deserve one bit. While they were having a party at the expense of the genuine depositors and honest customers, another group too partied along. That group was the borrowers without the slightest eligibility to borrow in the first place. By the time the parties got over and the not-so-gentlemen woke up with a hang-over, the down slide of the financial institutions popularly called ' sub-prime crisis' had already begun in an irrevocable way. The group of ineligible borrowers easily washed their hands off the mortgaged properties and went back to partying. They had nothing to lose except the mortgaged properties; it was not their loss since this group had never repaid the capital borrowed or the interests accumulated. They dumped the properties on the banks and walked free, perhaps with a song on their lips. But the group of overpaid fatty bankers could not go back to partying since the dumped properties snowballed into a big slump in the real estate market. They were left to hold properties which fetched only a fraction of their original value. One thing led to another and since there is a series of banks and other financial institutions involved in holding bits and pieces of these securities irrespective of who lent money to the worthless borrowers to start with, the entire system started collapsing. The fall of the financial system started affecting the real economy and a full-blown recession resulted. If you want to know what happened to the fat bankers mentioned above, they are still fat because their bonuses are still fat. What a rotten system !

*China depends very heavily on the economy of the U.S. When I visited Walmart during my stay in the U.S. in 2007, I could not find a single product made in the U.S. More shocking was the fact that almost 60% of the products have been sourced from China. So, if the U.S. economy collapses, the Chinese economy goes for a nosedive.

*India is an exception. But we are talking too much about recession , loss of jobs etc.; it has the danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. No doubt, some jobs have been lost. But not on the scale of what has happened in the West. In fact, even in the last 6 months since recession began in the West, our lives have been better than what it was 10 years ago. Some 10 or 15 years ago, there were far less jobs created; so it might have appeared that there were no job losses then. But in the last few years, lakhs of new jobs have been created. So, even if a few thousands of them are lost, the rest is in tact. There is definitely a slow-down. Obviously, we can not grow at the same heady rate of 9% this year if the entire world outside India is suffering. But even 6% growth is good, looking at the minus growth in the West and Japan.

*The real reason for the down slide in the U.S. is the gross greed and arrogant indifference of the Wall Street whiz-kids who forgot or did not care to follow simple rules of management. But in India, the Public Sector banks being at the commanding heights, the managers were in eternal fear of taking their own decisions which would annoy the Govt. ; so they erred on the safer side and never took any decision which could have been termed as even slightly risky at all. This routine, docile behaviour suited the strange times we are in and saved the country's economy. It is a big irony. But true nevertheless.

Tamil Politicians are narrow-minded fanatics, not the Tamil People

2009-01-15T20:40:00.004+05:30

The Tamil Politicians

Take any Tamil Politician and look at his or her statements. You would think that he or she lives and dies for the Tamil language and the Tamil-speaking people. Only a few are exceptions, but they mostly are unelectable and belong to the national political parties who do not have much grass root support in the state of Tamilnadu. Any one capable of winning an election takes an extreme position on the twin-issues of primacy of Tamil language and priority for the Tamil people. The general impression outside the state of Tamilnadu is that the politicians , in doing so, represent the people's aspirations ; in other words, the Tamil people are narrow-minded and intolerant of other linguistic groups in India. Is this impression correct? No, it is totally incorrect.

The Tamil people are liberal by nature

Look at the following facts and infer your conclusions.

*Tamilnadu has had two Chief Ministers in the past, whose mother tongue was not Tamil. They were Omandhur Ramaswamy Reddy and M.G.Ramachandran. The former had Telugu as mother tongue. The latter, a Malayalee, was the most popular Chief Minister the state has ever had.

*The man who is being considered as a future Chief Minister, Vijayakanth speaks Telugu at home. His popular support is growing and worrying the two major Dravidian Parties.

*Vaiko, the firebrand pro-LTTE politician, is from a Telugu-speaking family settled in South Tamilnadu.

*The No. 1 Tamil movie star of the earlier era was MGR, a non-Tamil. Today's No.1 is Rajnikanth, a Maharashtrian by birth.

*90% of the Tamil film directors of the 1950-s and 1960-s were Telugu-speaking men. eg.: P.Pulliah, D.Yoganand, B.N.Reddy, Sridhar, K.S.Gopalakrishnan, Ch.Narayanamoorthy, L.V.Prasad, Madhavan, Y.V.Rao, K.S.Prakash Rao, T.Prakash Rao, Chanakya etc. Among the rest too , a good number was from other linguistic groups. eg. P.Shankar (Malayalam), Dada Mirasi (Marathi), Sundar Rao Nadkarni(Konkani), A.Bhim Singh (Hindi).

*95% of the Tamil Heroines from the 1950-s to till today are from linguistic groups other than Tamil. eg.: Savitri, Kannamba, Jamuna, Anjali Devi, Devika ( all yesteryear and all Telugu). Saroja Devi, Sowkar Janaki ( yesteryear and Kannada), Padmini, Ambika, Radha ( yesteryear and Malayalam), Nayanthara, Asin, Navya, Mira Jasmine (all Today's and Malayalam), Simran (Today's and Punjabi), Shreya Saran (Today's and Hindi). Even the top TV serial Heroine Devyani is non-Tamil ( Konkani).

I could give examples of the topmost Govt. officials who are non-Tamil but I have restricted the examples to Politics and Movies because no one can make it in these two fields without popular support.

I view this situation as unprecedented anywhere in India. While Hindi movies have people from all the states, their market too exists throughout India. But non-Hindi politicians can not make it in any of the Hindi-speaking states. Non-Marathi actors can not make it in Marathi movies. A person whose mother tongue is not Bengali can never aspire to be the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

I conclude that while the people of Tamilnadu are among the most liberal, cosmopolitan and nationalistic linguistic groups in the entire country , the Tamil politicians are an outdated and narrow-minded lot. This gives a wrong impression about the state in the rest of India.

The Indian TV News Channels, their irresponsible journalism

2008-12-14T16:42:00.003+05:30

The only thing that seems to count for the countless number of TV News channels in the countless number of languages in India is the countable number of eyeballs they capture. Nothing seems to matter to them in their quest to score points over rival channels. Look at the recent coverage of the Terror strike in Mumbai.

The Channels first started popularising a catchy phrase ' enough is enough'. That is ok since this is what people have been saying for a long time regarding the Govt.'s inept handling of the terror menace. But then, for the Channels that is simply not enough. They decided to spread hatred against politicians as a class. The common Indian is already of the view that politics means corruption, swindling public funds, playing one community against another, buying votes, vote bank politics etc. Nevertheless, the common man has not lost lost faith in the system of democracy since he feels that he can still vote out an incumbent Govt. even if it results in replacing one set of corrupt and incompetent politicians by another set of corrupt and incompetent politicians. This is where the mischief of the TV Channels is beginning to alter the perceptions of the common man. The channels have started casting doubts on democracy itself. The underlying message of every Channel was that it would be better to place the nation's administration in the hands of the Armed Forces rather than in the hands of the politicians. In the heat and dust of the aftermath of the terror attack , no politician picked up enough courage to condemn this anti-democratic not-so-whispering campaign . But now that the passions have cooled down, it is necessary to bring a halt to the mischief of the TV Channels. Not just the politicians, but the viewing public who are not just eyeballs but have tongue, voice and cell phones in their pockets should start cautioning the Sardesais and Goswamys, Burkha Dutts and Vikram Chandas " Enough is enough. Do not cross the thin line between hatred for politicians and booting out democracy".

President Obama ! Is old wine the change you promised?

2008-11-24T18:37:00.004+05:30

President-elect Obama's new cabinet is being hotly discussed. But it is a disappointment to read in the Newspapers that the man who promised change for the last two years is busy procuring old wine for bottling in the flashy new containers.

Who is tipped to be the new Secretary of State? Good old Clinton, the feminine one. Here is the lady who tirelessly questioned and ridiculed Obama's 'change' mantra in the run-up to the nomination. Is she going to be the agent of change under Obama? The bet is that Hillary will function as an autonomous Secretary of State. May be, she would consult the other Clinton who is even older wine than the lady herself. So, the entire foreign policy might turn out to be Clintonian, Part II.

Now look at the prospective Defence Secretary. Is he going to be some one who is in favour of reducing America's involvement in Iraq? Is he likely to be the one who has the credentials of belonging to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, like Obama himself? Oh no ! The new Defence Secretary is the old Defence Secretary. That means that Robert Gates, the current Defence Secretary under President Bush will be the brand new Defence Secretary under Obama who has been elected on a platform of change. Do we already see some eggs on the face of the electorate? This appointment is being justified on the grounds of continuity. My goodness ! If continuity is what the people of America had wanted, they would have elected good old McCain, not young untested Obama.

I do not know what other such ' changes' are in offing from Obama. One thing is pretty clear. You can not find another set of people who are as naive as the Americans. For all their child-like enthusiasm that almost brings tears in the eyes of the watching world, they are a very gullible people. They fall for slogans very easily. They fall for external appearances instantly. Catchy phrases and boyish charm are all that are required to fool the American voters. I might still reverse my views on this, if Obama's first few weeks hint at some really fundamental change in any important aspect of governance. The signs, so far, are not promising.

Myths blown away !

2008-10-13T11:18:00.005+05:30

*They used to say that the U.S. is invincible. Economically. 'They' are running for cover.

*They used to preach that the word 'Nationalisation' is in the dictionary of the inefficient and the unproductive. Today's newspapers hint at the real possibility of the U.S.Govt. nationalising some banks. So, who or which system has suddenly turned inefficient and unproductive?

*They glorified risk-taking. Not on their hard-earned money. But yours, mine and a million other hard-working citizens'. Where are those investment banks whose managers were millionaires solely because they had a license to gamble on your money? Buried and condemned to exist under the ground for the next several years.

*They used to advise that demand and supply determine every thing and that market is always wise. But then why this bailout of the casualties of the normal market process of the unfit biting dust?

*They used to talk convincingly that the Govt. should regulate as little as possible. People who argued for necessary regulations were dubbed ' Socialistic', a dirty word in the post-cold war era. But then, countries with regulated banks and regulated stock markets are surviving the financial crisis of 2008 better than the paradises of unlimited free- enterprise.

*They applauded when bank managers in the U.S. did not do their essential pre-lending duties. Duties to do which these wise chaps have been employed in the first place. Namely, check the credit-worthiness of the individuals who wanted to own homes but who had no capacity to repay the loan. Are those managers fit to be employed even in a roadside kiosk selling cigarettes?

*They nodded in agreement when the U.S.Govt. created Freddie and Fennie which in practice endorsed what the reckless home-loan bank managers had been doing to damage the economy through causing bad debts. Was that not the origin of the sub-prime crisis that ultimately is drowning the entire financial structure of the Western World?

Myths might have long lives. But they get exposed for what they are , in course of time. While they get blown away, they take with them even certain sound philosophies which worked well. Free Market Economy is not entirely bad. It has created wealth and stood the test of time. But when you recklessly extend the notion of ' freedom' and ridicule all ' regulations' and discipline per se , you end up with egg on your face. Sooner or later. Not later than 2008 in any case.

Changes

2008-09-24T12:51:00.005+05:30

The word 'Change' is used so casually these days that it does not draw serious attention to the quiet changes taking place in the world. Look at the following changes in different facets of life. They are path-breaking in every sense of the word.

*The Mecca of capitalism , the U.S.A. has done the hitherto unthinkable. The Govt. there is bailing out sinking ships; the financial entities that threaten to take the country's economic might down with them, thanks to the sub-prime (housing) crisis that started 18 months ago and has proved to be far more prosperity-threatening than was assumed at the start. Bail-out packages, that text-book Socialist medicine to cure the ills of managerial inefficiency, are being prepared by the blue-eyed children of original Capitalism, the Republicans.

*A Black man is pounding at the doors of the political Vatican of the White men's world. And the doors might just open to let the brave man in. If he fails to get in, it would still ring the bells of change because his failure would mean a woman from the other Political Party will reach within the breathing distance from the American Presidency. Whether Obama wins or McCain/Palin win, what will have happened is change of earth-shaking dimensions.

*Every month, nearly 10 million people get added to the list of owners of mobile phone connection in India. For a country where the waiting time for getting a (Land line) phone connection used to be several years not very long ago, this change is of Himalayan proportions.

*Indian Movies used to be ridiculed by the World for their songs-at-the-drop-of-a-hat and running-around-trees sequences. There are still several songs in every Indian Movie. Running around trees continues, may be in a more camouflaged way. But Bollywood Movies have found a market in the West. One could say that the vast NRI population in the U.S. constitute the bulk of the viewing public there. But what explains the brisk sale of DVD-s of Bollywood movies in Germany? I have a net friend from Germany, who lives in Hamburg and who chats with me mainly on the Bollywood stars.

*About 10-12 years ago, news meant only political news. The Newspapers were full of tiring details on political parties, their petty rivalry etc. Happenings in every other sphere were ignored or left to be dealt with by glossy specialty magazines that drove deep holes on the pockets. Even the national Newspapers were no exception to this. Today, a lot of importance is given to news on economics and human interest stories. Headlines on the first page are no more reserved only for politics. Developments in national economy and financial field are given pride of place in the limited space on the first page.The reading public need not hunt for pink newspapers to get a peek into money matters any more ; the daily all-purpose newspaper keeps the readers adequately informed, be it on oil prices, impact of the collapse of investment banks or merits of unit-linked insurance plans.

Matunga to Mambalam

2008-07-28T19:39:00.006+05:30

I have recently shifted to Chennai from Mumbai and I intend to stay here for about 18 months. The locality I have been living in Mumbai is Matunga. The place I have chosen to live in Chennai is West Mambalam. In some ways it is not a change. Culturally speaking. Except that Matunga is more cosmopolitan and has a huge Gujarati-speaking population besides South Indians.

Matunga in Mumbai is known as the South Indians' den.

In Mumbai, the term 'South Indians' has a peculiar connotation, atleast among the people who have migrated to Mumbai from the four southern states. It does not refer to all the people from the four southern states. It is an euphemism for people from Tamilnadu and those Tamils (Tambrahms) from Palghat and other towns in Kerala. If you go to a Udipi Restaurant in Mumbai and ask them whether one can get South Indian food there, they would guide you to a Tamilian or Palghat Tamilian Restaurant or Mess. Atleast in Matunga, I have seen them doing so. While geographically Udipi is very much in South India, Udipiwallas prefer Mangalorean identity to a South Indian one. The same is more or less true about those who have migrated from Kerala. For them, the term Malayalee is a more defining identity and gives them more psychological security.

In West Mambalam, a new immigrant gets the impression that he has done time-travel and reached a point of time which would be 30 years earlier than now. Cycle Rickshaws freely move around in the narrow lanes and one of them almost hit my hip on the second day after my arrival. Most of the roads do not have pavements. Matunga roads are wide and have convenient foot paths for pedestrians. Except of course that the foot paths in the Matunga Market area have been occupied by the vendors, leaving little space for pedestrians.

In Mambalam Restaurants, they still serve food on plantain leaves. Of course, the price is nothing less than what they charge in Matunga. Efficiency of serving too is less than what one takes for granted in Matunga. Quality too is inferior. In Matunga, one could see roadside vendors selling Pav Bhaji, Bhel Puri, Pani Puri etc. besides some South Indian dishes. In West Mambalam, one sees Poli shops in every major street. They call it Boli Stall, since the Tamil language does not distinguish "P" from "B". Nor 'T' and 'D'. It is left to the individual to choose either of the two pronunciations when it comes to non-Tamil words. That is how 'Vajpayee' becomes 'Vajboy' on the Tamilian tongue and POTA becomes PODA. The word Poli originates either from Marathi or Kannada ( both the languages have this word and the speakers of these languages pronounce it with a "P".) In fact, these Poli stalls of West Mambalam belong to or were originally started by Udipi Brahmins who can be found in good number in West Mambalam. The Polis are very sweet , made with Coconut or Lentil as the main ingredient. You must eat it with good quantity of Ghee thrown on.

West Mambalam is very hot and humid. Matunga is less so. But, contrary to what I had feared, the notorious ' Mambalam Mosquitoes' are missing from the scene. Have they too migrated?

More Cars - does it make sense for India?

2008-06-01T18:16:00.004+05:30

Crude oil price is hitting all-time highs in the international market. Except for the oil-producing countries, the news spells bad omen for every country. $ 30 per barrel to $ 130 per barrel within 5 years? ' Too much' is a mild expression to describe this gallop. This unprecedented price rise will affect the cost of living adversely in every major economy.

India will be one of the worst-hit countries. Most of its need for Petrol is met through import. The policy of the Indian Government has been to subsidise Petroleum products heavily . It is said that a litre of Kerosene at subsidised price costs less than a litre of mineral water. It might make some sense to protect the large population living below the poverty line , from a huge price rise which would be the result if one passes on the increase to the consumers without subsidies. But how much could one subsidise Petrol and Diesel? The oil manufacturing / refining companies ( mostly Govt.-owned) are reeling under huge losses and there is real danger of their going bankrupt.

Under these circumstances, is there any sense in putting more cars on the roads? Is there a need for the so-called People's Car such as Tata's proposed Nano? Leave alone the problems of congestion on the roads; what about the ballooning subsidies if the need for petrol goes on increasing at geometric proportions? Will it not affect the economy? After all, there is nothing like free lunch; some one has to foot the bill for the subsidies. Who else can it be except the tax-payers? Unless a cheaper alternative to Petrol is invented soon, the need for private transport should be voluntarily curtailed. Greater dependence on Public Transport should be encouraged. Any ' fall in living standards' as a result of this switch is more in the eyes of the beholders. Whether the remedy is applicable to the economies of the more prosperous West or not, it is certainly a good one for emerging economies like India which do not produce oil in adequate quantity.

Paulo Coelho's Witch of Portobello

2008-02-25T13:17:00.007+05:30

Paulo Coelho

This Brazilian writer is now well-known throughout the world. His spirituality-based fictions are translated into several languages and widely read. His first book The Pilgrimage and his second book The Alchemist received lukewarm response at first. When he got the same books published by a bigger Publishing House , they became best sellers. Some ten more books followed and most of them have received acclaim. The latest book written by Coelho is The Witch of Portobello.

The Story

Athena , the ' Witch', was born in the Gypsy community in Romania. Her mother was Gypsy based in Romania and father was probably a Romanian White( the author's hint is very indirect). Her mother leaves her in an Orphanage and goes back to her community. A rich Arab couple from Beirut ( not Muslim but Christian) adopts Athena, overruling the advice of a nurse of the orphanage based on the child's Gypsy lineage. The Khalils name the child as Sherine. A member of the extended family of the Khalils suggests that in view of the increasing prejudice against the Arab world internationally, it is better to change the name to Athena. Sherine likes the sound of the name and becomes Athena.

From the early age, Athena exhibits certain supernatural abilities. She is also very religious in the Christian sense. The family migrates to London. Athena joins an Engineering course, falls in love with fellow-student Petersen , marries him, leaves the University and becomes a mother. The couple develops difference of opinion and get divorced. The story starts galloping only from now on. Athena shifts to a rented accommodation with her child . There she comes in contact with a Polish refugee and gets introduced to a mystical dance form. The dance changes her life completely. In Athena's words, " When you dance, the spiritual world and the real world manage to coexist happily". Athena, now working in a Bank, introduces her colleagues to this particular dance which takes one to trance. There is a qualitative improvement in the functioning of the staff and Athena gets promoted to move to Dubai. At Dubai, she learns calligraphy from Nabil Alaihi as a means to discover new spiritual dimensions. Still restless, she decides to undertake a trip to Romania in search of her biological mother, finds her and gets reconciled. While in Romania, she has a chance meeting with Edda, a Scottish woman deeply interested in the Tradition of considering God as feminine and Mother. This meeting influences Athena tremendously and her spiritual search continues when she is back in England. Edda advises Athena to learn what she does not yet know, through teaching. While this advice is initially puzzling to Athena, she starts teaching Andrea McCain, an actress. Andrea is very suspicious of Athena since Andrea's journalistic boy-friend is attracted to Athena. It is love unrequited. Athena succeeds in getting the Divinity to manifest on herself; the manifestation calls herself Hagia Sofia. Athena becomes clairvoyant whenever this manifestation arrives. As Athena's following grows in number, the orthodox Christian establishment gets provoked . How could they tolerate a parallel religious movement that poses a challenge to their centuries-old hegemony? What happens thereafter is interesting and the end is as surprising as a Sheldon thriller. What happens to Athena in the end? Is she murdered by the fundamentalists? or some jealous lover? or left free to spend her life in anonymity? Is her claim that her lover is working for Scotland Yard just a protective shield from male attention? If you want to know the answers, please read the book. Of course, I do not sell books and so there is no vested interest involved in asking you to buy the book.

Why the title 'Witch'?

Witch is a label the Organised Religion gives to any one performing any spiritual rituals which it does not understand and which are not part of the approved rituals of the Establishment. Athena's spiritual path in which Mother is the supreme Divinity and her non-Christian beliefs and methods of worship earned her the title Witch from the Christian Establishment. Since Athena and her followers used to meet at a building in Portobello Road , she becomes the Witch of Portobello in the eyes of the Orthodox Church.

Spiritual Message

The world has been seeing God as masculine and demanding obedience. May be, it is time to break free from this fear of God and move to love of God; a feminine God, the Great Mother who does not control , but loves. In the worship of Mother, fear gives way to love. Authority is replaced by compassion. This is not new. Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism already say that every thing is one. Divinity is in every thing and every thing is part of the Divinity. They do not see God as domineering figure.

In order that one gets to come in contact with the Divinity, one needs to unlearn. One needs to cease to follow the beaten path of rules. Athena does it by getting herself freed from the stranglehold of rhythm in her dance, thus creating chaos momentarily making space for the NEW ( Divinity) to manifest itself. Her teacher Edda does it by knitting in a completely irrational way.

Migrants to Mumbai

2008-02-17T21:17:00.005+05:30

Where do they come from?

A new study which I have just gone through says that most of the new migrants are from Uttar Pradesh. A surprising figure is that of Bihar which is just 20 % of those from U.P. This is surprising since Biharis have been subjected to as much bashing as those from U.P. for migrating to Mumbai. Of course, the study confirms that most of the migrants to Mumbai are from North India. This is understandable since the North ( with the exception of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana) is the poorest in terms of all the economic indicators. Even the East is doing better while the West and the South are much better off , with their flourishing economies and more job creation.

Southerners' change of interest

In spite of the economy in the South doing very well, there are still people from South India who are leaving their states in search of better prospects. But Mumbai has ceased to attract them. Nor Delhi. They head towards Malaysia, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.A. They have the necessary education and skills to find good jobs in those countries. The northerners are currently doing what their southern fellow-Indians did three to four decades ago. Namely migrating to Mumbai to find employment. And of course become pawns in the political game of the sons of the soil.

Mumbai is not just Maharashtrian

If Mumbai generates so many jobs to cater to the local population and still accommodate outsiders, the credit does not go to the Maharashtra Government or Maharashtrians. Millions of migrants over the decades have created wealth for Mumbai. Besides, the Central Government has been very liberal towards developing Mumbai as the financial capital of the country. The Reserve Bank of India has its Head Office in Mumbai. So are so many other banks and insurance companies. Several entrepreneurs from all over the country have set up their Head Offices in Mumbai. Several Mutinational Companies have their Indian operations monitored through Central Offices in Mumbai. Naturally, these companies are listed as Mumbai-based companies and their gigantic turnover figures are considered to be arising from Mumbai. But this is absolutely a wrong conclusion. These companies have factories and sales offices throughout the country and every such establishment has contributed to the turnover fogures and profitability. Therefore, Mumbai's wealth is on account of the entire country.

Decentralisation the Solution?

In advanced economies such as U.S.A. or Germany, they do not focus on only one city and starve the rest of the cities. For example, in Germany it is not only Frankfurt which is well-developed. Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Koeln, Stuttgart etc. are also well-developed. So, it is necessary that our own Central Government should adopt policies to divert part of the investment to other cities and towns. Mumbai need not be the only beneficiary . Of course, private entrepreneurs will go wherever infrastructure is good. That is why a lot of recent investment has been in Chennai. Bangalore and Hyderabad etc., besides Mumbai. U.P. and Bihar are paying the price for having inefficient administrators and their lack of interest in developing infrastructure. But the Govt. of India could have a few of its important institutions in other cities as well. Today,R.B.I, National Stock Exchange, Western Railway, Central Railway and so many other important organisations have their Head Quarters in Mumbai. This must change without causing disruption to productivity and sound economics. Till then, Dadar-bound Varanasi Express will keep bringing thousands of Hindi-speaking people to crowd Mumbai more and more. They will watch Bhojpuri films and become an eye-sore to the Raj Thackerays of the political world.The fault does not lie with the migrants.

Municipal Patriotism

2008-02-10T18:38:00.001+05:30

Raj Thackeray wants North Indians out of Mumbai. His uncle Bal Thackeray had wanted the South Indians out of the then-Bombay in 1967. What will happen if this trend spreads? Sholapur would want the Kannadigas out. Nagpur would want the Hindi-speaking people out.

But there are Maharashtrians living in the other states of India. So, Indore and Gwalior would want the Maharashtrians to leave. Gulbarga and Hubli would show the door to the Maharashtrians. May be, even Belgaum. There are several thousand Maharashtrians who are well-settled in Uttarakhand. 'Quit Uttarankhand' notice might be served on those Maharashtrians.

If the other states start having a look at who the outsiders in their respective states are, then Tamilians will have to leave Bangalore. May be, also Palghat in Kerala. The Andhraites will have to leave Chennai. The Malayalees will have to leave Coimbatore and probably also Kanyakumari. Kannadigas will be driven out of Kasargode in Kerala. Tamilians will be pushed out of Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. Bengalis will have to say good-bye to Jamshedpur and Guwahati. May be, even Pondicherry. Gujaratis will have to quit Mumbai ; Marwaris Kolkata and so many other places. Punjabis will be unsettled from several places. Is this the shape of things to come? Does any one in his or her right frame of mind wish for such a massive cross-migration and the resultant refugee problems?

If the world at large copies this very Indian poison, what would happen? Indians and Pakistanis will be thrown out of U.K. and the Middle East. The Chinese will have to leave Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and several other countries. The Turks and Italians will be unwelcome to stay in Germany. The Algerians and Moroccans will be asked to go from France. The Indians of Goan origin will not be able to stay on in Portugal. The English will not be able to continue to live in Zimbabwe. The Germans in Namibia will have to pack their bags and return to their 'Vaterland'. Almost all the ethnic groups except those of European origin will leave the United States.

Of course, such a nightmarish situation has no chance of arising. Thackerays are still in a hopeless minotiry in the world including India. They are , in fact, a vanishing tribe in the global village that the world is fast becoming. Hopefully, their own followers will soon come to their senses and force the Thackerays to leave politics, if not Mumbai.

Advertisement Hype and Sad Reality

2008-02-05T20:37:00.001+05:30

Banks

There is an advertisement frequently aired by a big nationalised Bank on TV. A customer of the said Bank gets into a tram ( obviously in Kolkata since that is the only Indian city which still has Trams) and sits by the side of an officer of the Bank without recognizing him. The officer, noticing that the customer has not recognised him , starts a conversation with him, half humourously and half sarcastically, to tell the customer that the latter has forgotten him since he has taught the customer the nuances of internet banking and thus obviated the need for the customer to visit the bank at all; and now the customer does not even recognize the officer. The idea behind this advertisement is to tell the viewers that the bank is customer-friendly in the old-fashioned way , maintaining social contacts with them while simultaneously being modern enough to use tools such as internet for the benefit of the customers.

My personal experience with this particular Bank makes me wonder on which planet the officer portrayed in the advertisement lives and which utopian branch of the Bank he works in. In my experience with the branch of the said Bank in my locality, neither any officer nor any clerk of the bank is friendly even to regular customers;none of the staff exhibits any understanding of any modern tools of customer service. Whether it be updating the simple Savings Bank account Pass book or issuing a new cheque book or making available with a tolerable delay the ' Tax Deduction at Source' statements, the service is annoyingly poor. So, advertisements such as the one described above can not fool any one familiar with the said bank.

Soaps

While the claim made by so-called beauty soaps such Lux can be forgiven since the claim is decades-old and by-now totally unbelieved hype, what is more objectionable are the advertisement hypes by special soaps such as Aloe Vera soaps and Turmeric (Haldi or Manjal) soaps. Soaps are soaps and Chemists say that to maintain stabilty and durability, these soaps contain several chemical additives in the same way as any normal soap. The special 'health-adding' ingredients such as Aloe Vera or Turmeric are so little in quantity that they are not adequate to offer extra health benefits. So, why fool the gullible viewers and charge a premium?

Stain Remover

The advertisements on the various products that serve as remover of stains on clothes are the worst liars. The sales girl in one such advertisement demonstrates the effectiveness of a fast-selling brand and very effortlessly removes the stain on the clothes after deliberately staining a shirt of some one watching the demo and ironing the shirt to dry the stain, thus making it harder to remove. If you believe the advertisement and buy the product, you would soon know how invalid the claim is. I have tried the product and found it not half as effective as claimed.

Where is the accountability?

The above are just a few samples picked up from among the several advertisements which promise paradise and ever-lasting happiness in return for customers' money and blind faith. It is the same story whether the advertised product is soap or mutual fund or mobile phone.

Is there any non-profit organisation which is interested in exposing the hollow claims of so many such advertisers? I look around and find none. In the meantime, gullible people keep buying the false claims with their hard-earned money and wait patiently for the promised benefit to arrive.

Black President for the U.S.?

2008-01-27T21:04:00.001+05:30

Obama routes Hillary in South Carolina

Does it automatically follow that Obama will win in other state primaries and be nominated as the Democratic Presidential Candidate? Not at all. He might win a few more primaries. But as his challenge to Hillary grows more serious, the Democratic primary voters will ditch Obama and opt for Hillary. In the unlikely eventuality of Obama clinching the Democratic nomination, there will be cause for celebration in the Republican party. The defeat of the Democratic nominee would be certain if Obama is the nominee.

But America not ready for Black President

The blacks constitute only about 10-12% of the American population. But that is not the reason why the U.S. can not have a Black President. While there has been grudging acceptance of civil rights for the Black community, the American Whites are not ready to be led by a Black man , however erudite and capable he might be. The Whites nurture very deep distrust of the Blacks. Even those Whites who are friendly and sympathetic with the Blacks do not accept as equals; their attitude is more of a patronising type, if not outright condescending. The U.S. could , do and did have a Black as the Secretary of State. But that is the highest political position a Black can aspire for, for a long time to come.

Even a Woman President has not happened

If Hillary gets the Democratic nomination ( which appears a near certainty in spite of Obama's initial wins) , she will still have to win over the conservative White males of America before she has a reasonable chance of making it to the Oval Office. The U.S. has never so far had a woman as the Presidential nominee of either of the two parties. Two decades ago, there was a woman on the Democratic Ticket as Vice-Presidential nominee. Less developed countries like India, Sri Lanka, Israel , Pakistan and Argentina have had women as Head of State . Even European Countries have not shied away from having a woman as their Chancellor or Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher made it in U.K. 25 years back. Germany elected a woman as its Chancellor two years ago. France almost elected a woman as its President. But not the strongest Democracy in the world, the U.S.

No President of Southern European origin either

There have been several actors of Italian origin in Hollywood. But there has been no American president who was of Italian origin. For that matter, no Spanish, Portuguese or Greek either. Dukakis lost in 1988. His Greek origin did contribute to the defeat.

Catholics have seldom won

Except for Kennedy's name , no name comes to my mind when I think of a Catholic as American President. Leave alone people of Latin American or Italian or Spanish origin who are mostly Catholics; even Catholics of Irish or German or French origin have failed to occupy the Presidential Chair.

America is conservative

Contrary to the popular impression in the world, the United States does not take huge risks. Reforms on social issues ( as different from economic issues) , if undertaken, are more as aberrations. The country finds safety in sticking to time-tested positions on many issues. The politicians do not believe in tinkering with the deeply-embedded conditioning. So, it is doubtful that a woman will make it to the Presidential Office. It is impossible that a Black will ever become President. Only WASP, oh sorry, only WASPROM (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Male) will be accepted as the occupants of the White House.

Is the U.S. on the decline?

2008-01-20T21:14:00.001+05:30

Once-mighty Dollar

The U.S.Dollar replaced the British Pound as the most sought-after currency in the world long ago. Perhaps, soon after the second World war. Or latest by the mid-1960s by which time Britain had lost all its colonies and was no more the World Power it once was. So, the U.S.Dollar has remained as the queen currency for over 4 decades. It is only in the last couple of years that the U.S.Dollar is sliding. The slide may yet be only slight, but the slide is unmistakable. The Euro is growing in stature. In 2002, when Euro took the place of major European Currencies such as D-Mark, French Frank , Dutch Guilder and Italian Lira, one Euro fetched less than a Dollar. Now, one Dollar fetches less than 75 Euro Cents. It should not be a surprise if in another 10-15 years, Euro becomes the No.1 International Currency.

Once-invincible Economy

Some experts say that the U.S. economy is already in recession. Some others say not yet. But no one rules out that recession is round the corner. Banks are writing off bad debts. And such write-offs are huge. People are spending less on consumer goods. Houses offered for sale are fetching much less than the loan taken to finance them. Jobs are getting lost. The mood of the people is sullen. America's underbelly stands exposed. The sub-prime crisis may only be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The one consolation(?) that the Americans could have is that if the U.S. economy sinks, the economies of the rest of the world will sink too. The health of the world economy still depends on the American economy doing well.

Once-loved Democracy

Once upon a time, long long ago, people around the world loved America. The country offered hope. If there was one place on earth where any one could nurture an ambition of making it in life irrespective of one's background, colour, religion, gender etc., it was the U.S. No more. America lost respect by supporting dictatorships and fighting unjust wars. Within the country, successive Presidents have encouraged special-interest groups and let themselves be used against the greatest good of the largest number of people. Internationally, the U.S.Administration is no more seen as walking their talk of free enterprise. Free enterprise was good as long as it suited America's interests. When the balance started shifting in favour of the emerging nations, then it was time to bring about trade barriers as a way of protecting America's own producers. This hypocrisy in politics, democracy and economics undermined the credibility the U.S. used to enjoy.

But........

....the U.S. is still the leader. No single nation or a group of nations is as yet in a position to take over the world leadership from the U.S. Europe is too divided. China is seen as too self-absorbed and unreliable. Moreover, China does not respect human rights of an individual and so is unfit to graduate to global leadership. Japan is already a has-been. Any way, it is too small a country to think of leading the world. Russia is still licking its wounds inflicted on it by the demise of its world-power status. It is at best an emerging but cheap carbon copy of the west. So, for the foreseeable future, the U.S. will remain as the leader of the world. But, just a lame-duck leader counting its days before the day of ouster dawns upon it.

Kodai and Yercaud - a personal view of the two Hill Stations

2008-01-13T13:00:00.000+05:30

Location

The Kodai hill is nearly 7000' high. One could reach Kodai Road by train and then take a bus to Kodaikanal. There are a number of trains from Chennai to Kodai Road. There are regular flights from Chennai to Madurai. There is even a flight from Bangalore to Madurai. It takes four hours by road from Madurai to Kodaikanal.

Yercaud is situated very close to Salem in Tamil Nadu. The hill is 4500' high. There are several trains from Chennai to Salem. It takes just an hour form Salem to Yercaud. As yet, there are no flights to Salem from anywhere.

Stay and Food

Kodaikanal is a well-developed town. It has numerous Hotels and Restaurants. Hotels suiting different budgets are available. Hotel Carlton and Hotel Kodai International are five-star hotels. There are several medium priced Hotels. Hotel Astoria, Hotel Annapurna, Hotel Bala , Hotel Jaya. Hotel Tamil Nadu etc. have rooms in the price range of Rs. 600- Rs.800.- during off-season months and Rs.900 -Rs.1400 during the season months ( April-June). All these Hotels have good restaurants attached to them.

Yercaud does not have many good Hotels. Hotel Shevaroy is 3-star. Hotels in the normal price range of Rs.600- Rs.800 are very few. Hotel Tamil Nadu is worth mentioning here. But the service in Hotel Tamil Nadu is very poor. Of late, a few cottages have come up in the medium price range; but they do not have restaurants attached to them. There are not many tourists visiting Yercaud. So, not many hotels have come up. It can also be that tourists are not coming to Yercaud since there are not many good hotels. More than the shortage of hotels, the acute shortage of good restaurants would discourage day-time tourists.

Lake

The most important place for sight-seeing in any Hill Station is lake. While Kodai Lake is kept beautiful and the surrounding is clean, Yercaud Lake is an apology for lake. The surrounding is very unclean.

Shopping

A visitor to any Hill Station purchases oils such as Eucalyptus, Lemon Grass, Winter Green, Citriodora, Citronella etc, Aloe Vera Jell or Juice, Spices such as Cardamom and Pepper, Tea and Coffee. Kodai has several shops selling a variety of products and brands. Yercaud has very few shops and they are not even conveniently located.

Quiet and Peace

Yercaud scores over Kodai in this aspect. Kodai is heavily commercialised and one will find very few places where one can take quiet walks. Yercaud has an uncrowded atmosphere since there are very few tourists. If you want comfortable and economical hotel rooms and good food served in your room itself while enjoying the pleasant weather of the hill, then go to Kodai. You will like the shopping experience and lake-side walking too. If you dislike crowds and do not mind walking half a mile to a restaurant from your Hotel for food , then yercaud would not disappoint you.

Some Stray Thoughts about New Year

2008-01-06T13:49:00.002+05:30

"New" Year

There are very few people who do not rejoice at the birth of a new year. Even those who do not party the whole night to bring in the New Year wake up on the New Year day morning with a pleasant feeling. What is so " new" about a year? If it is a new business year, one could understand. The businesses need to review the performance over a definite period. Year is a long enough period to show some results and short enough to take corrective measures for the future if some thing has gone wrong. But then, business new years do not necessarily coincide with calendar new year. Same is the case with academics in many countries. In India, a new academic year begins in June and ends in April in the following calendar year. So, what is the significance of a New Year to us beyond business and academics?

Links in the Chain

In my opinion, the end of one year and the beginning of a new year are to Life what links are to a chain . It would be inconceivable to have a chain without links; even if it were possible, it would be monotonous just as a long road without turns. Human beings understand the passage of time better when time is divided into smaller units. Though one ages every moment , it is practical to have a unit called year. Once we have this unit called year, it has to begin at some point of time and end at some other point of time. Ending gives us either satisfaction or relief , depending on the individual experiences. But the beginning is always reassuring and promising. Another example is staircase ; one can not think of a staircase without intermittent landings. It is for rest and pause. The New Year forces us to ponder over whatever we have done or whatever happened to us over the previous one year. After all, milestones force us to introspect and possibly do some course correction.

Chance to be rid of old baggage

New Year gives us hope. It lifts one's spirits. Here is another chance to attempt. Another opportunity to achieve. Even if the past has been full of failures, one could now blame it on 'the unlucky last year' and move on with hope. Old baggage can be dumped and dead past can be shed. The sky is clear again and it would be some time before the clouds gather once more. The gap is for us to utilize.

New Year Resolutions

Oh yes, it is a good idea to make a few resolutions. But not the ones like moving the mountain. reaching the stars and emptying the ocean or even becoming the President of the United States. Leave such giant strides to super humans like Hillary and Obama. We are ordinary mortals. So,resolve to take small steps which would lead the way to measurable results. Defining the steps is an absolute must. Be it reduction of one's weight by 5 Kg in 8 weeks or saving 2o percent of one's earnings every month or any such possible goals. Vague resolutions and impossible goals will result in frustration and within two months into the new year , one will call it quits.

What if .....

...the new year turns out to be as wicked as the previous year? Do not lose heart. New Years are never in short supply. Come next January, one more chance will smile at you.

Inflation , a non-expert's view

2007-12-30T21:14:00.000+05:30

Wholesale inflation and Consumer inflation

The government has its own measure of inflation. There is Wholesale Price Index. And then there is Consumer Price Index. All the newspapers and TV channels talk loudly about only Wholesale Price Index. To know the Consumer Price Index for any month is pretty difficult since it is tucked somewhere deep in the inside pages of the newspapers, away from the screaming headlines and the business TV channels hardly make a mention of it, as if inflation in items of consumption by households has no relevance. But for the common man, Consumer Price Index is what really counts. An honest practice would be to talk about both the figures when some one boasts of having contained inflation. My suspicion is that in India , inflation as measured by CPI is a good 2% higher than WPI.

Inflation same for every one ?

People who are curious about the impact of inflation on their money and life should go for an independent assessment of annual rate of inflation. The items in the CPI bag, prices of which are tracked by the Government may not be relevant to you at all. They may include tea but not coffee. But you are a coffee drinker. You eat rice during every meal and make faces at the sight of wheat. But to the extent that both rice and wheat are in the CPI bag, the real inflation for you is either higher or lower than CPI, depending on the rise in cost of rice and wheat. You are an orthodox and religious man; you turn away your face from the heap of tempting onions in the vegetable vendor's shop. But onion is an important measure of food inflation since for a majority of Indians a meal without onions is unthinkable. You get free transport from the company for commuting to the office. Your inflation is less than that of your neighbour whose BP shoots up every time Petrol Prices shoot up. It is another matter that every item or almost every item you buy for your consumption has some element of cost impacted by price rise of Petrol.

Maintain a broad record of prices

Do you care to note down either in your memory or in a scrap book the prices of important items of expenditure at different points of time? It would be a very interesting exercise. Petrol used to cost Rs.4.50 per litre in 1982. Now it is more than 10 times that price. But the taxi fares in Mumbai have not gone up by 10 times. It is a modest figure, about 4 times. Only if you compare with 1973 figures, the taxi fares have gone up by 8 to 10 times.

A simple vegetarian meal (Thali) in middle -class localities of Mumbai used to cost Rs.2.- in 1971 and Rs.5.- in 1988. Today it is Rs.35.- So, food inflation for those who eat out has been steeper during the last 15 years than during the earlier period.

What goes up does not come down, right?

Wrong. Even nominal prices of some items have come down. For example, color TV. Mobile Phones. Computers. The real prices ( after accounting for normal inflation) have come down for ceiling fans, refrigerators etc. There is a pattern. Manufactured goods can beat inflationary trend and could cost less or proportionately less than before, if advancements in technology of production and improvement in productivity take place rapidly. Also, level of competition helps to keep a thumb on inflation. With market economy holding sway over the entire world, price movements can not be entirely in one direction.

24-Hour Nuisance Channels

2007-12-28T14:08:00.000+05:30

TV News Channels

In the last few years, several 24-hour news channels have made their appearance. Not only in English , but also in Hindi, Tamil and other languages. It is not necessary any more to wait till the next morning to get to know the latest happenings in the country and the world from the newspaper. Be it the detailed analysis of election results or the the bizarre shooting incident occurring in an University at the other end of the world, we get minute-by-minute coverage and expert commentaries. This is not only a faster way of being informed, but a passive mode of getting the news. If all that is required to do is to just switch on your TV before making yourself a potato in the couch, why be bothered to hold the bulky newspaper in hand and struggle to locate the continuation sheet of the first page head-line news?

Battle-ready 24-hours

The channels compete with each other fiercely. All the twenty four hours. Every one of the three hundred and sixty five days. They have to fly or reach the reporter to far-away places in the shortest possible time immediately after the news-worthy incident has occurred. They have to manage fast and suitable comments from at least two to three people who have some expertise on the subject that is making news. They must frame a relevant question around the subject and shoot off a sms poll.

Only convey or even create news?

Competition forces channels to cross the line of propriety. In order to make the news presentation spicier, some of them indulge in exaggeration. Presenting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Mody as the worst villain of communal peace was the dubious achievement of NDTV channel in 2002. Freezing that image in the people's mind was a contribution by CNN-IBN channel. Even when Mody was shying away from communal topics in his election campaign this year, the above channels ably joined by Times Now succeeded in bringing the old wounds like post-Godhra violence to the centre stage of the campaign. No doubt, all the above channels received a shock of their lives when the election results in Gujarat went in favour of Mody. Now they can not present such a result as vote by people for communalism. They are in a fix and fumble for words to explain the result. If these news channels had not overdone their 'hate Mody' stories, they would be enjoying much greater credibility today.

Hindi News Channels

While the English news channels distort political news and exaggerate things in their presentation, the Hindi news channels opt for triviality. Any thing that will appeal to the common minimum denominator among their viewers. Look at their favourite topics. Rakhi Sawant's problems with the Law that played spoilsport in some of her planned dance programmes. A 60-year old Professor of Patna University who fell in love with a 20-year old female student of his and the resultant physical fight between his wife and the student. Star News goes to more absurd levels. There was a news story about a village woman who is troubled by a snake every night , the snake being her dead husband according to the woman. While the intention behind choosing such a story seems to be to pander to and even fan the superstitious tastes of the viewing public, the channel covers it up by calling a Psychologist to analyse the woman's delusion.

Manufacture controversies?

Whatever problems have arisen between Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan have been due to the mischief by the 24-hour news channels. The news channel reporters carried tales and planted falsehood methodically. They twisted statements and quotes. They screamed in headlines what the stars said in murmur. In public perception, the two stars have become two childish adults quarrelling for the sake of quarrelling. About nothing in particular. The stars are either the innocent victims of the 24-hour cub-reporters' unhealthy desire to create some hot news that will sell , or are playing along knowing the game fully well in the interest of securing some cost-free publicity. After all, any publicity, even negative one, is preferable to no publicity.

Not enough news for 24 hours

The world is big. True. Events keep happening. Very right. And the public have a right to know. Agreed. But so many fresh news-worthy events are not happening to keep feeding the story-hungry channels for 24 hours. These channels should reinvent themselves so that they do not have to stoop to the point of creating news where nothing exists, exaggerating events to the detriment of public interest and misdirecting the course of history by false alarms.

Political Dynasties in India

2007-12-19T19:11:00.000+05:30

Gandhi-Nehru Dynasty

Years ago, when I was talking to an European friend of mine on the then imminent elections in India, I was surprised to discover that my friend thought Indira Gandhi , the then Prime Minister of India was related to Mahatma Gandhi. Later I learnt that he was not the only non-Indian to think so. Leave alone non-Indians, even a substantial number of rural Indians thought so. The benefit of such misunderstanding has been ample for the Nehru Family. Today the Nehru Family is known as Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, though the name 'Gandhi' in this case pertained to Indira Gandhi's husband Feroz Gandhi who had nothing to do with Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi-Nehru dynasty has given so far three Prime Ministers to India. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi , who controls today India's biggest Political Party, the Congress Party , almost became the Prime Minister in 2004. Her son Rahul Gandhi is being widely thought of as the next Prime Minister, if the Congress Party wins the coming 2009 elections.

Karunanidhi Dynasty

Karunanidhi, the four-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has founded a powerful political dynasty. Stalin, one of his sons, is being groomed to be the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Karunanidhi's another son Azagiri has been a DMK party strongman of the southern parts of the state. It should not be a great surprise, if he is soon given a vey senior position in the party, as a compensation for missing the chief minister's chair. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi is a member of the Indian Parliament and an announcement of her inclusion in the Central Cabinet is expected any time.

Deve Gowda Dynasty

Deve Gowda, Prime Minister for a year in the mid-nineties has been working hard to see that his sons get established in Karnataka politics. His son Kumaraswamy was chief Minister for 18 months. His other son Revanna, angry and unhappy about having lost a previous opportunity of becoming the Chief Minister to his younger brother, is Chief Minister-in-waiting. Deve Gowda does not think twice about toppling any Government that survives on his support, if it does not suit the political interests of his family.

Lalu Prasad Dynasty

When Lalu Prasad Yadav had to quit as Chief Minister of Bihar due to the corruption charges against him, he brought in his wife Rabri Devi, a housewife as his successor. Rabri Devi's brothers are already playing important roles in Lalu Yadav's RJD party. The latest buzz is that Lalu Yadav's son is entering politics to carry on the family's stranglehold over the party and possible positions in the Government.

Mulayam Singh Dynasty

Mulayam Singh Yadav was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India more than once. His brother has been occupying the second or third most important position in his party Samajwadhi party. Mulayam Yadav's son has been a Member of Parliament for a few years and is the likely future Chief Minister if the Samajwadhi Party comes to power ever again.

Gwalior Dynasty

The rulers of the former princely state of Gwalior, the Scindias have managed to carve out a powerful niche in Indian Politics. The Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundara Devi belongs to this clan. Her nephew is a member of Parliament and her sister is a member of a state Legistative Assembly. This dynasty has been intelligent enough to create roots in both the major Political Parties of the country, the Congress and the BJP.

Democracy or Dynocracy?

Besides the above dynasties, there are others in the making such as Sharad Pawar dynasty, Patnaik dynasty, Badal dynasty, Ramadass dynasty etc. While the Congress Party was the original innovator of this practice, the Regional Political Parties quickly caught on to this and have been the main spirit behind the spread of this quasi-feudal system. Well, however uncomfortable this development is to blue-blooded democrats, one can not dub this practice as totally undemocratic, since the succession from one generation to the next of these dynasties has the endorsement of the Indian people through voting in the elections. India has invented a new system of governance which is a hybrid of Democracy and Monarchy. India has always spiced its imports with indigenously-grown additives, be it the American Burger or the English Language. Democracy is no exception.

What is 'Communist' about China today?

2007-12-16T21:07:00.001+05:30

There was a time the People's Republic of China was fiercely Communist. There was no private ownership of any thing. The Government run by the Communist Party decided on every aspect of its citizens' life. There was centralized planning of the economy.There was only State-sector. Private citizens were not allowed to set up industries. Foreign Companies were not allowed to exist. There was no individual freedom. No political party other than the Communist Party was allowed to function.

China remained closed to the outside world for a long time. No one who was an adult in the sixties could forget what Cultural Revolution meant for the citizens of China. Intellectuals were jailed, if not murdered. Books were burnt. No idea other than Communism was allowed to take roots. The Chairman of the Communist Party wielded more power than the President or the Prime Minister of the country. So, China was really an arch Communist Country then.

But what about today? What is so 'Red' about it? Can one still call China Communist? If so, on what grounds? The country , of course, still does not allow any Political Party other than the Communist Party to operate. There is no Democracy. The freedom of speech is still very much restricted. The Govt.uses force to make its Citizens obey. But such conditions exist in some other countries too, though the ruling parties in those countries are not Communist. So, single-party dictatorship and absence of democracy and freedom of speech alone can not make a country Communist.

Today China follows its own version of Capitalism. Though big industries are still in the State sector, private initiative is allowed in several walks of life. There are opportunities to grow rich. Capital inflow from the outside world is encouraged. There is a Stock Market trading in Chinese company shares. Foreigners visit China in droves. Beauty contests which were once considered part of the 'Decadent Capitalism' are now a part of the Chinese social scene. Private ownership of houses, cars and other trappings of the Capitalist system has been accepted. China is no more insular. There is considerable disparity among its people in sharing the fruits of the economy. While in the old Communist China there was no economic disparity among its people ( except for the fact that the party functionaries were a privileged class), today's China is like any other country where there are rich, poor, and middle classes.

Yes, China has its right to pursue any economic policy which guarantees a better life for its citizens. When the whole world is under the spell of Market Economy , why should China be an exception? But why this Communist mask ?

If China still calls itself Communist, Karl Marx must be squirming in his grave. The Chinese have discarded his 'Das Kapital' once for all and embraced his class enemy, the Capitalists in a bear hug. Or Dragon hug. Marx, if he can make himself heard to the Chinese Rulers, must be pleading helplessly " Choose any name you like for your rule, but not Communism and any colour you like but not Red. Bitte nicht Rot."

Quebec is a state of mind

2007-12-13T14:39:00.000+05:30

Vive Le Quebec libre. Many would remember this phrase uttered by French President Charles De Gaulle. The people of Quebec, the French-speaking province in Canada have an identity distinct from the rest of Canada. Quebec , more than a geographical location , is a state of mind. Such Quebecs exist in several countries. For example Bavaria in Germany. India, which is of continental proportions, too has some Quebecs.

I have used the word Quebec here as an euphemism for sub-nationalism. Strong undercurrents that distinguish themselves from the mainstream. Undercurrents that assert their individual identities , mostly culturally but sometimes politically . Tamil Nadu is one such location where sub-nationalism is a strong emotional strand. For the benefit of those readers who are not familiar with the geography of India, let me add that Tamil Nadu is a state situated in the southernmost part of India. The state is mainly populated by people who speak the ancient but vibrantly living language of Tamil. Tamil is one of the two classical languages of India, the other being Sanskrit. It is said, with good justification, that if there is one Indian language which can live without words contributed by Sanskrit, it is Tamil. Sanskrit is dead as a spoken language. There are only a few hundreds of people who declare Sanskrit as their mother tongue. Of course, every major Indian language is said to be a derivative of Sanskrit and so Sanskrit in a way continues to live through other major Indian languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi etc. Not Tamil. Tamil is very much a living language and almost 70 million people declare Tamil as their mother tongue. Just as Sanskrit is the mother of the North Indian languages, Tamil is said to be the mother of the South Indian languages such as Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu.

Language is perhaps a principal reason why some kind of sub-nationalism exists in Tamil Nadu. While most of the Indian states had no objection to accepting Hindi ( spoken by one third of the Indian population) as the official language of India, Tamil Nadu put up a strong and successful fight to ensure that English continues to be an official language along with Hindi. The fear in the minds of the people of the state that with the removal of English as official language, job opportunities would dwindle was somewhat justified.

While Bollywood, which the Hindi Movies are called as, holds sway over the rest of India, it is the home-grown Tamil movies which rule the Cinema halls of Tamil Nadu. For every Shah Rukh Khan or Amir Khan that Bollywood flaunts, the Tamil movie land called Kollywood answers through its inimitable Rajnikanth and cinestar-turned-politician Vijaykanth.

The major Indian states vote for either of the major National Political Parties, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. Not Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, these two major national parties put together get less than 15 % of the total votes polled. Tamil Nadu elects either of the two Dravidian Parties, DMK and AIADMK. There are several political parties in Tamil Nadu who have the word Dravidian in their names. The word is a kind of assurance to the people that the said parties are 'us' , not 'them'.

Most of the Indians drink tea. The favourite beverage of the people of Tamil Nadu is Coffee. North Indian food has wheat-made Chappatti as the main item. The Tamil Food abhors wheat and opts for rice. In classical music, the Northern states enjoy Hindustani Music. The Tamils are mesmerised by Carnatic Music. The northerners wear Kurta and Salwar Kameez. The Tamils wear Dhoti and Saree. The difference spills over into religion as well. Among the various Hindu Gods, Ram and Krishna are the deities the Northerners worship most. Though Hindus constitute a majority in Tamil Nadu too, the predominant preference in Tamil Nadu is to worship Subrahmanya whose name has been suitably tamilized as Murugan. By the way, the puzzle is that Lord Subrahmanya is a bachelor God whereas Lord Murugan( the Tamils' Subrahmanya) is a married God.

Though the differences are very apparent, Tamil Nadu is as solidly Indian as any of the other states. Tamil Nadu has contributed great politicians and statesmen to the national leadership( C.Rajagopalachari, K. Kamaraj, C.Subramaniam, to name a few). Bollywood has had several Tamil-speaking stars dominating it (Vyjayantimala, Hemamalini, Rekha). Several people from Tamil Nadu have happily migrated to other Indian states for professional reasons and find themselves at home. Several important ministers in the Indian Government and several highly-placed civil servants in New Delhi belong to Tamil Nadu. So, the sub-nationalism or the Quebecian flavour has not , in practice , resulted in any alienation. It has only served as a safety valve to let off steam in certain circumstances that are peculiar to any heterogeneous country like India. While Quebec has been recognised as a distinct society within the united Canada, Tamil Nadu's aspirations do not travel beyond demanding recognition of Tamil language as a Classical Language by the Indian Government . The political parties which had earlier demanded autonomy are happily a part and parcel of the Indian Government in New Delhi. Their demand is not autonomy for the state of Tamil Nadu any more. All they want is more ministries for their elected representatives. The people of Tamil Nadu , in any case, have never been enthusiastic about autonomy espoused by these political parties. They are happy just celebrating their distinct cultural identity , while being equally happy within the political identity of India. A lot like Bavarians in Germany.

How to prepare for Overseas Holiday

2007-12-11T12:33:00.000+05:30

Travelling overseas gives every one great pleasure. Opportunities of exposure to a new culture, getting to know unusual local customs, tasting exotic food and bringing back scores of digital images that will form staple food for many future conversations with family and friends in the winter evenings are an irresistible temptation. But a lot of preparation is required before one actually undertakes the dream trip. Let us look at it in detail.

1.Choice of destination: This depends not only on one's interests but on the budget as well. You might like to travel to Scandinavia. But if you can not afford the expensive hotel accommodation in Stockholm , you will be forced to consider cheaper alternatives, say Spain or Malaysia or Egypt. Internet gives you more than enough information on the hotel room tariff.

2.Choice of package: There are group tour packages available from major tour operators such as Thomas Cook, Cox & Kings, Orbitz etc. These travel organizations offer individual packages as well. Both the packages have advantages as well as disadvantages. If you want to be in the midst of 'birds of the same feather' , then group tour is your cup of tea. But you should not mind the conflicting interests of the various members of the group. You might like to spend more time in a museum. But the majority might like to hang out in a theme park. A disgruntled minority might keep complaining about the insufficient time given for shopping. Individual packages do not have this problem. But you are on your own and every small detail is not meticulously taken care of, on your behalf. Another alternative is to do all the arrangements on one's own , either through the Internet or using your phone.

3.Choosing the Airline: When you do not go through any tour operator, you have the additional task of having to choose a good Airline. Almost all the Airlines offer a certain number of seats at concessional price. This could come with some strings attached, such as minimum or maximum number of days of stay, period of validity of ticket etc. But these conditions do not hurt the holiday-travellers. It is better to choose the Airline of the country one is travelling to. There are better chances of flying directly to the destination through such airlines . They will be cheaper too .

4.Applying for Visa: While the Citizens of the U.S. and some other countries are lucky to be exempted from Visa formalities by many destination countries, people who do not enjoy such exemption should act in time. Normally, besides an Application, Passport, Air Ticket, Hotel vouchers etc. must be submitted to the Consulate of the destination country. Citizens of developing countries have more headaches. They have to submit even a copy of their Bank Statement for the earlier 6 months to prove their financial well-being. While Consulates such as German Consulate are very efficient and give you the Visa in 24 hours , many Consulates take 3 to 7 days. Consulates of the former Communist Countries of Eastern Europe are much slower in issuing Visas. After Schengen Visa has been introduced, it is not necessary to apply separately to individual Consulates of Western European countries if your journey takes you to more than one country. Schengen Visa is valid for 14 countries and it is enough if you apply to the Consulate of the first country you visit.

5.Travel Insurance: It is advisable to buy travel insurance. In fact, Schengen Visa makes submission of Travel Insurance a pre-requisite to issue of Visa. Allianz, AIG and Lombard are some of the reputed insurance companies. There are suitable policies depending on the number of days of travel and age of the insured. All of them cover Hospitalisation, obviously. But some of them cover, in addition, loss of documents, travel delay, baggage loss , baggage delay etc.

6.Hotel Booking: There are various categories of hotels suiting different budgets. The travel agents may be more interested in promoting costlier hotels. You should put your foot down and stick to your specifications of overnight room rates. If you are booking through the Net, include Guesthouses in your search. You will get a wider choice and cheaper offers.

7.Packing: Remember the weight/dimension limits specified by the Airlines. Keep in mind the risk of losing some of the baggage and arrange to have part of the clothes packed in the cabin bags.

Annual Medical Check-Up

2007-12-10T16:34:00.000+05:30

As one ages, the human body starts wearing out. It develops complications. Years of neglect and misuse take a toll on the health. In today's fast -paced world , there are very few professionals who can claim that they eat at regular intervals and balanced meals. Many of them eat breakfast while dressing up to leave for work. For lunch it is sandwiches while still shuffling papers or making calls. Several cups of coffee are consumed during the working hours. Though smoking is fast going out of fashion and many of the large companies have banned smoking within the premises, the die hard smokers find ways of retaining their chain-smoking habit. If one sits late in the office in the evening to catch up on pending work to beat approaching deadlines, dinner means some fast food, not a balanced meal. Office work invariably means sedentary work and the executives do not have opportunity or time for any exercise for the body. Not even much of walking. How long would the body cope with this kind of assaults? The result is Acidity, Diabetes, Hypertension, Backache, Migraine, High Cholesterol etc. etc.

Preventive steps are obviously the best. But living in a big city , long commuting hours , mounting expectations from employees in these competitive times and associated mental tension do not allow one to implement all the preventive steps. So, the next best course is to go in for periodical medical check-ups to identify any potential problem while it is still in its infancy. Almost all the major hospitals have such packages at affordable cost. Depending on the age of the user, the packages vary in the tests offered.

All the packages have complete blood count , Blood Sugar, routine chest X-ray and urine test. ECG, Cardiac Profile, Renal Profile, Mammography etc. are modules that are added, depending on the need. Nowadays, the hospitals in big cities are well-equipped with all the latest diagnostic devices. High Frequency X-ray machines ( reducing radiation hazards) , Random Access Automatic Chemistry Analyser, Electronic Blood Cell Counter, Multichannel ECG, Ultrasound Scanners including Color Doppler, Mammography etc. have become a pre-requisite to run any good diagnostic centre these days. If in the routine check-up, any thing suspicious shows up, the patients are referred to other departments for further check-up and diagnosis. In order to facilitate this, the Hospitals have more sophisticated diagnostic equipment like CT scanner, MRI , Cathlab , Gamma Camera and PET Scanner.

It is very human to live in wishful thinking. What you have not heard does not exist. But future being full of surprises, one can never be sure of what is in store . By undergoing regular check-ups, at least once a year, one can take timely action on the health front. The fear that some underlying disease could be discovered during the check-up should not discourage one from opting for routine medical check-up. The momentary unpleasantness on learning the problem will soon be washed away as quick steps following the diagnosis are taken to put the health back in excellent shape.

American Democracy does not come cheap

2007-12-09T20:29:00.000+05:30

With just less than a year to go for the American Presidential elections, there is a lot of noise in the media about the likely candidates. Democrats have some three or four front runners. Republicans have more or less the same number. There is still time for dark horses on both the sides to emerge.

The first primary to be held in New Hampshire is just a few weeks away. That will set the tone for the subsequent primaries. Primary is a peculiar American invention. Who should be the official candidate of either of the two major parties is left not to the party leaders or selected luminaries of the parties, but to the general public. So whoever emerges finally as the official candidate of either party happens to have had endorsement from the grassroots, namely the voters in the Presidential election. Of course, the way it operates in practice is not very simple. Different states adopt different systems of primary. There are open primary, closed primary, semi-open primary, semi-closed primary , blanket primary etc.

Closed system permits only registered members of the parties to vote in the primary election. The registered members of the Democratic party vote in the Democratic Primary and the registered voters of the Republican Party vote in the Republican Primary election. This is very logical. States such as Florida, New York and Massachusetts follow this system of primary. More complicated is the Open system. In this system, any registered voter can vote. He does not need to be a registered member of any party. Worse, he can participate in the primary of either of the parties. It does not matter if he being a traditional Republican voter in the Presidential election participates in a Democratic Primary. Or, the other way about. The disadvantage of this open system is what the political pundits call as 'Raiding'. What does Raiding mean? If I , my uncle and my neighbour happen to be Republican party supporters and fear that no Republican candidate can beat Hillary Clinton in the Presidential election , we can try stopping Hillary's nomination by participating in the Democratic primary election and vote for a weaker candidate , say John Edwards. States like Texas and Tennessee have open primary. Then there is semi-open primary in some states and semi-closed primary in some others.

Primary as a tool to ensure that the candidates nominated by the two political parties must have some support from the grassroots is a noble ideal. Probably, it serves the purpose too. But at what cost? I read that millions of dollars are being collected for the war chests of the candidates. According to the newspapers, Hillary Clinton has collected the maximum. Obama is not far behind. Undoubtedly, money is required to fight Presidential election. Crisscrossing the country, TV campaigns, huge supporting staff. These do cost a bomb. But the candidates do the same in primaries too. In the Presidential election, only two candidates namely the official nominees of the parties spend big money. But in primaries, a dozen candidates spend big money. After all who donates this money? Not just the traditional voters and sympathisers of the two parties. The big business. Lobbying groups. Vested interests. Those who want policy changes made in their favour. With what confidence could one say that whoever becomes the President ultimately will choose to act in favour of the greatest good of the largest number of people? What if the greatest good of the largest number is in conflict with the interests and wishes of the special interests groups? So, what has one achieved by these primaries ? Juicy news bits for the media. Some entertainment for the general public. Heartbreaks for the losing candidates. How would it be less democratic if one does away with these primaries campaigning in which start a year in advance edging out more important issues from the national consciousness ? How would a candidate be less representative if a few thousands of the party's higher forums choose instead of several millions of people? Why have a costly dress rehearsal when the main event too is going to be a costly affair? Well, the answer is that nothing in the United States can be done on a small scale. Compactness is just not OK. Every thing has to be gigantic. Larger than life. That, I suppose, is the American way of life. So, primaries too will continue to be expensive and time-consuming.

My tryst with self-improvement books

2007-12-08T21:08:00.000+05:30

I was 25 years old when I stumbled upon a copy of the well-known book by Dale Carnegie " How to win friends and influence people". I had just started my career a couple of years earlier. So it was no big wonder that I was drawn to the title of the book. Of course, I wanted to win friends just as any other young person. But more importantly, I wanted to learn the secrets of influencing people. After all, in this competitive world of ours how could one make it on the basis of professional talent alone? Talent plus something else were required. So, here at last was a book which was going to teach me step by step how to influence people. More exactly, how to influence people into helping me. Into beating my peers in the game of climbing the career ladder.

As I began reading it, I became mesmerised with both the style and the contents of the book. Looking back today with the advantage of hindsight , I would say that whatever was written was plain common sense. But then common sense being so uncommon, a book was needed to teach remembering common sense. There were plenty of tips, all personally tried successfully by Dale Carnegie. So, several of them were workable. The only problem, even in those days, was that so many other youngsters too were learning Carnegie techniques of influencing people. The result could not be any thing other than creating a level playing field , one cancelling out the advantage of the other.

The next self-improvement book I read was also one by Carnegie. How to stop worrying and start living. This book was not very useful to me since at that age, I did not have too many worries. Whatever few worries I had were solvable without paying money to Dale Carnegie. But then , having bought the book and read it, I had to utilize the knowledge gained. So I started counselling a senior colleague of mine who , I was convinced, had thick lines of worry on his forehead and constantly so. With all the sincerity, I suggested that our friend Carnegie would have answers to let him stop worrying and start living, if only my colleague will let me know what was bothering him so much. Probably, my body language made him suspect that I was ridiculing him. Who was I , a man as much as 10 years younger than the worried man, to hint that the latter should start living? His reply, delivered with all the heat and passion that he could collect ,taught me a lesson of a life time; never mess with people with thick lines of worry on their foreheads.

Carnegie was fast becoming a liability to me. But I gave him one last chance. I bought his book on Public Speaking. The book was eminently readable. But Public Speaking is never learnt by reading a book. It is learnt by going up the stage , mustering up some courage and spitting out some murmurs. Nevertheless, I must concede that once I joined a Public Speaking course, many of the techniques Carnegie suggested came handy.

It was time to say good-bye to Carnegie and graduate to Napoleon Hill. Hill's book "Think and Grow rich" cited numerous examples to prove that growing rich was indeed within reach. I do not remember now very well what all the qualities he had listed to stand a chance of becoming rich. Determination was one. I remember this, since my Ophthalmologist friend who always carried this book while travelling, used to roar " Determination !" in the Public Speaking class. In fact, this Ophthalmologist friend has indeed become very rich over the years. I suspect that some credit should go to Napoleon Hill's book. I do not know whether he still carries the book with him while travelling because he does not use Public Transport any more. The Ophthalmologist drives what to my eyes looks like a BMW.

There was this book the title of which was " How to live 24 hours a day". I do not remember the name of the author. The book cautioned that one should not waste even a single minute of one's precious life. So,the author said, if you are travelling in a train, take a book with u , at least a dictionary and read. But not newspaper. Spending more than a few minutes on a newspaper is oriental lavishness, according to the book. The author permits you to do budgeting for your household during the travel. Or think of what you are going to do in the office that day. Any thing would do, but do not allow the mind to rest. In other words, do not let your mind be in peace. And when you return home from the office, there are other pieces of advice to follow.If you want to go to a music concert in the evening, you would get the author's permission only if you have already read a book on " How to listen to music" . Feeling the flow of music is just not enough. One of the craziest books I have ever read. The author perhaps thought that living meant continuous mental action and whacking the brain. Some living indeed !

During mid-seventies, I read ' I am OK, you are OK". The title itself is very reassuring. I did find the book useful. In an overall sense. One should take the gist and let it operate in the background of the mind. If one gets too much into the nitty-gritty and starts analysing which of your friends is conducting a child-parent conversation with you, you will surely lose that friend. If you always wanted to be an adult and speak or conduct yourself like one , you will soon miss the pleasure that certain childlike qualities such as looking at things with wonder or with open mind can bring to life.

I first thought that the book " Your erroneous Zones" was pure pornography. But the content was applied psychology. The title scared away several people who would have otherwise read the book and found it useful. I think that the name of the author is Dyer or some such short name. Not only the title of the book, this guy grinning broadly from the cover page did make people think that he was some modern day version of Vatsyayana, the author of Kama Sutra.

I have moved on. I do not read " How to..." books any more. Well, age is one important reason. Besides, the wise books of today advise you to accept the self as it is and watch how such acceptance becomes the trigger to let changes happen on their own. Sounds very Zen, no?

Celebrities of Yesteryear, where are they?

2007-12-08T14:07:00.000+05:30

Where is Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady now? She was the Prime Minister of U.K. for three terms. She made Britain turn right in its economic policy and away from soft Socialism which the British Labour Party was specializing in. But when did you hear about her last? The newspapers do not write about her any more. The TV cameras do not chase her any longer. She does deserve her retirement and rest after an aggressive pursuit of power in a man's world. But, along with the loss of power, her celebrity status too seems to have gone. We do not know whether she has taken this loss in her stride and moved on emotionally.

Thatcher is not the only celebrity who has lost that status. She is in the good company of so many other politicians and movie stars. Jimmy Carter, Senior Bush, Gorbachev, the residual Beatles, Walesa, Mandela, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor.....the list is long. In India where I live, there are several celebrities of yesteryear whom time has forgotten to carry with them forward. Rajesh Khanna, the first actor of Bolywood to earn the title 'Superstar' does not hit the newspaper headlines any more. If he does compete for space in the middle pages and that too occasionally, it is not for any worthy reason that can bring back his for-ever-lost celebrity status. If Vyjayanthimala, one of the most admired actresses of the Hindi movies of the sixties were to walk on the Mumbai roads today, she would not get a second look from the passers-by. Not because she has aged. But because she has lost her celebrity tag. No one wants to Google-search Rajesh Khanna and Vyjayanthimala. The new celebrities are Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. Why would any one be interested in the post-retirement phases of Khanna and Vyjayanthi? Sad. Is it not?

On second thoughts, one has reasons to be interested in knowing what these celebrities of the past are doing now. Have they come to terms with the loss of admirers? Countless fans hungry for every piece of news about them? The interviews, the Award functions, the controversies? In the case of politicians, the power of deciding the destiny of millions of commoners? The sands of time have buried all those perks that came to them with the celebrity status. I am convinced that their lives post-retirement are more difficult than yours and mine, psychologically speaking. Their identity has been taken away. The balloon has deflated. The one anchor on which they leaned has collapsed. The average Joe has less respect for the 'has-been' than for the 'yet-to-be' or even 'no-body'. This is what hurts the once-upon-a-time-celebrities most. They look for recognition in your eyes, if not admiration. They do not get it. You look through them. And that shatters the celebrity hearts. Dharmendra, a seasoned actor of Bollywood , who is past his prime was frank enough to pen a poem on this. The much-appreciated poem talks about his standing in front of a multiplex cinema hall in Mumbai recently and finding that not one pair of eyes in that huge crowd showed the mildest sign of recognizing him.

Well, that is life. Like every thing else in this world, fame too comes with an expiry tag. Any one who keeps this truth in mind constantly, while still being a celebrity, has more chances of surviving the death of the celebrity phase. Others will be emotional wrecks.

Making money through Mutual Funds

2007-12-07T16:29:00.000+05:30

I started investing in Mutual Funds about 10 years ago. Those were the days when there were only a few Mutual Fund Houses. Though Unit Trust of India is the oldest Mutual Fund Organization in the country, having been founded in 1964 no one ever associated UTI with mutual funds; nor were their schemes called MF schemes by UTI. The normal risk associated with mutual fund schemes was not considered applicable to UTI. It was not wise to think so. But because of the excellent reputation of UTI, the lines between a Nationalised Bank 's investment products and UTI's schemes were very blurred in the investors' minds. It was much later that UTI faced some problems of credibility and people's blind faith in UTI schemes was shaken a bit.

I started with Debt schemes. In the years following 1998 and up to 2002, the Debt schemes delivered high returns. 12%-14% annual returns were normal. These were far higher than the interest one received in Fixed Deposit schemes of the banks. Safety was not a big problem either. Reputed Mutual Fund Houses invested in highly-rated bond instruments of the Government, financial institutions and companies.. In 2003, the situation changed. The returns from the Debt schemes of the MF houses started dwindling. Monthly Investment Plans which invest about 10-15% of their funds in the stock market held on since the reurns from their investment in stocks in a rapidly-emerging bull market compensated for lower returns from their fixed income investments. It was clearly time for jumping on the bandwagon of the equity schemes of the Mutual Fund houses. HDFC, Zurich, Franklin Templeton, Reliance, SBI , ICICI Prudential , Birla Sunlife, Tata MF etc. had been introducing several new schemes. I must admit that my faith in these fund houses and their equity schemes has been fully justified. While I carefully avoided sector-based equity schemes. I had no doubts about diversified equity schemes. The above-mentioned Fund Houses have been employing excellent fund managers and most of them have delivered mouth-watering returns. Many of their schemes have been delivering above 40% annual return in the last 3 years. Direct investment in blue chip stocks may have also given similar returns since essentially the success of several MF schemes has been due to the long-term bull market which is currently on. But investment in a MF scheme makes life easier for us since experienced fund managers know about investing in stocks far better than us . They ride the ups and downs of the stock market with effortless ease; such ups and downs would have been far more difficult for the average investor to ride and come out unscathingly. Besides, there is a limit to the money which an average investor can invest in any particular stock. And the number of stocks in which one could invest.

One lesson I learnt the hard way has been about the Systematic Investment Plan. Though every piece of advertisement issued by the Mutual Funds or every article in investment magazines eulogises the SIP way as the optimum way, I do not think that it is good for a constantly-rising stock market such as ours in the last 4 years. SIP is more suited to matured markets where the rise and fall are not so steep. In the bull market we have been experiencing over the last 4 years, lump sum investment would be a wiser thing to do than the SIP route. Over a year of SIP investments, there are hardly 2 or 3 months when one has been able to obtain the MF units at a lower NAV than in the previous month.

Midcap schemes are a riskier proposition than large cap schemes. If one wants to avoid pure midcap schemes, there is the option of going in for multicap.

Any beginner in Mutual Fund investment who wants to play safe can consider the following equity schemes. HDFC Equity, Templeton Flexicap, SBI Magnum Global, SBI Magnum Contra, Reliance Growth, Reliance Vision, Birla Midacap, Sundaram Growth, Sundaram Midcap and DSPM Opportunities.

Nirvana through the Internet

2007-12-06T13:02:00.001+05:30

When I am talking about Nirvana here, I am not referring to any Rock Band known by this term. I have the Buddhist term Nirvana in mind; it means enlightenment , end of suffering etc.
Spiritual literature of the east suggest ways of attaining Nirvana, though the more abstract among them call it pathless. People serious about Nirvana try various methods. Zen Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga Gyana Yoga . These are eastern methods. Besides, there are western methods. Lifetime gets spent in pursuing one or the other of these paths. Also, when the search through one path does not bring about much progress, the seekers, more particularly the impatient ones, switch to some other path. After the initial euphoria, the new search too proves elusive. For the overwhelming majority.

How about using the Internet as a tool? I am serious. After all, what do the various systems or paths teach? That life is transient. That what we see as reality is not REAL. That every thing perishes and nothing is permanent. That the time-space dimensions blind us. Ok. Internet gives you more than a glimpse of all these. I do not mean the countless writings on the above subjects. But the experiential understanding that the net imparts. We all use e-mail. We adopt user names. Right? The older among us take names like Newyorker2005, Workaholic, Aries1 etc etc. The younger people call themselves Iam18tillIdie, Lifesucks, CoffeeTeaOrMe etc.etc. With time, we acquire more mail accounts with different websites or service-providers. We adopt different user names. In course of time, the old accounts are forgotten and we use the more recent accounts. We are not stuck with the old names. We move on. Is this not a teacher of 'Life is transient'? Not just the mail accounts or user names. We change our friends. But the process is seamless. We do not do it consciously. Suddenly one day we realize that 90% of the mail friends are not in touch with us. Nor we with them. No fights. No misunderstandings. No violent break-ups. We have just moved on. Effortlessly and without pain. This,sure, is some kind of detachment. People who chat more than mail realize this much faster. Life at the chat sites is lived on the fast lane. Striking a friendship, developing closeness , sharing snapshots, living through stagnation, and peacefully moving on ......all these happen with such rapidity that a few months later one feels that it had been another time, another place. One has reincarnated and is now experiencing another Avatar. If only we could develop in real life the same kind of detachment that we experience in virtual life on the net, we shall be a few steps closer to Nirvana.

The Postman never rings even once

2007-12-05T13:16:00.000+05:30

Where is the Postman these days? That friendly-looking guy in khaki uniform with a shoulder bag matching the dress in colour and age. When did you receive a hand-written letter addressed to you last? In my case, it has been ages since I received any such letter. I do still receive dividend cheques sent by post. I do receive junk mail sent through snail mail. But hand-written personal letters? No. Things were never this gloomy. Even as recently as ten years ago, we looked forward to the postman's arrival thrice a day. He would bring at least once or twice a month inland letters or at least postcards that have been posted by a grandmother living in a far-away village telling us about her recent hospital visit or a classmate remembering us after years and enquiring about the jumps or falls that we have experienced in our career or a poor cousin asking us to spare some money for the wedding of his youngest sister. Whatever the contents of the letter were or whoever had sent it, it gave us immense satisfaction to realize that someone had taken the trouble to remember us and spare a few moments to write a few intimate words with his own hands.

The advent of e-mail, with all its otherwise admirable qualities like speed, low cost and ease of despatch, has killed the snailmail. And with it, the intimacy we shared with the Postman. Even the Postman now feels guilty when he knocks at our doors at festive times once or twice a year and asks for Diwali or New year tips. The old bonds are no more intact. The e-mail has given us the confidence that life will go on with or without the Postman. It is not only the rise of e-mail culture which is responsible for the near-demise of Post Office. The mobile phone revolution too has contributed to this. Telegrams as a means of urgent communication ceased to survive when Fax was introduced in business establishments; personal telegrams stopped when telephone services expanded, first the landline and then the mobile.

Post offices wear a deserted look. They do every thing except handling mails.Well, almost. Last year, the Government of India used Post Offices to handle collection of Annual Income Tax Returns filed by the citizens. Recently, I saw the neighbourhood Post Office selling Aloe Vera Juice. It is not a joke. It is 100% true. Of course, Post Offices handle other tasks such as Public Provident Fund, National Savings Certificates, Monthly Income Scheme etc. But then, Banks are essentially meant to do these things. The primary purpose of the existence of Post Offices is to pick up mail posted in one town and deliver it to the addressee in another town. So, Post Offices have started suffering an identity crisis. To rub salt on the wounds , the private courier organizations that have mushroomed in India have ensured that Post Offices do not even get an honourable share of speed mails or handling of important documents meant for safe personal delivery .

One might say this. If horse-drawn coaches could give way to automobiles and steam engines could be dumped in museums after Diesel or Electric locomotion became the order of the day, what is wrong in Post Offices disappearing and Private Couriers taking over or Postcards being replaced by Hotmail and Yahoo mail? Nothing wrong. Except that I experience some pain somewhere deep in me. Perhaps some of you do too. One more familiar edifice associated with our childhood or boyhood has fallen. One more way of life hinting that meaningful life without complexities or hitech was still possible has been blown away. Should all progress be necessarily through destruction of familiarity? Is there no mid-way?

I do not laugh any more , I just lol now !

2007-12-04T22:38:00.000+05:30

The Internet has changed the way we write. Gone are the days when a lot of meticulous effort was invested in every sentence that one wrote. Care was taken in the choice of words and even in punctuation marks. The finished product made the writer proud and brought cheers to the recipient . Not any more. E-mail and Chat have created another version of the English language. Grammatically correct sentences are no more a must. People have started writing in a style that is slight refinement of the good old telegraphic language. No one mistakes the writer to be any less educated for doing so. Nor is such writing considered to be impolite or discourteous. These are times when one is perennially short of time. So, e-mail reflects this change. It is OK as long as the message is conveyed. Clothing does not matter; bare bones will do. No need to pay attention to the spellings, no need to write a complete sentence, no need to watch out for mistakes in propositions or verbs or any thing at all. Besides, abbreviations are aplenty. When it is enough to say 'lol' to convey the impression that one enjoyed the sense of humour found in the person at the receiving end, why should we waste words? To complement, emoticons are always available. There is an icon to convey that one is confused; there are icons to convey that one is belly-laughing or weeping copiously or blushing or yawning. Words can be misleading; can pictures be? If in the process the fine art of writing is vanishing, there are not going to be many tears shed. Even if a few tears do get shed, why spend words to record them? There is an emoticon readily available , which shows a sad face. Place it and forget it !

Indian Movies, Rajnikanth and Real Life

2007-12-03T18:37:00.000+05:30

That movies tend to influence real life is something proven beyond doubt. While the impact of movies on life in the rest of the world is something debatable, the influence movies have had on life in India is unquestionable. 30 years after the blockbuster Sholay was released, the dialogues spoken by Gabbar Singh, the villain in the film are still received with applause, when a mimic show is held. The songs of the sixties are still on the lips of the Indians. Remix albums are a tribute to songs which have defied mortality.

Among the many states of India, Tamilnadu stands out as a region that has been most heavily influenced by movies. Every Autorikshaw driver in the city of Chennai thinks that he is Rajnikanth , the reigning Tamil movie Megastar with his adolescent mannerisms and very peculiar bite-and-spit-out way of pronouncing Tamil words. While sociologists might conclude that Rajnikanth's role as an Autorikshaw driver has given the hitherto-lowly drivers some self-respect and professional pride, the passengers have a different tale to tell, which will not be very flattering to these Auto-men. Courtesy has been replaced by rudeness. It is not Rajnikanth who should be blamed. The entire film industry including script-writers who have created roles which glorify bad behaviour, uncultured words and disrespect to fellow-citizens is responsible for this degeneration. Autorikshaw drivers are not the only group which has taken to film-characterlike behaviour . Students of colleges and Universities are very prominent imitators of the negative heroes. Every other movie presents the hero as a lovable eve-teaser.

The movies of an earlier age ( up to sixties) had heroes who were epitomes of good behaviour. After the decade of seventies saw heroes who were essentially angry young men out to destroy the establishment and uproot old values, movies were never the same. What they did was to kick out the well-behaved heroes out of the frame and make the earlier villains the new heroes, with every uncouth behaviour given licence for exhibition. Tamil movies are not the sole propagators of this change. Hindi movies popularly called 'Bollywood' are no better. But the difference is that the Tamil people seem to take movies far more seriously. They do not think that once they come out of the cinema hall, the movie just watched should cease occupying their mind space. Tamil stars are larger than life. Several of them have a chance to ascend the political ladder. I wonder whether any sociologist can conclude that such a development augurs well for the society.

Monthly Budget and Miscellaneous Expenses

2007-12-03T11:05:00.000+05:30

I am fairly certain that a good number of people plan their monthly household expenses. Just as I have been doing. When one does that, one does get a reasonable idea of where the money is going, how much of it is being spent on essentials, how much on non-essentials but which brings us pleasure and satisfaction etc. Obviously, monthly budgeting and expense accounting are done under various heads. Food, Transport, Domestic help, Electricity/water bills, Entertainment, Telephone/Internet, medicines etc. etc. When certain expenses can not be put under any of these heads, one groups them under miscellaneous expenses. This is where the mystery lies. While the expenses under other heads are uniform month after month with some acceptable plus/ minus tolerances , the 'miscellaneous' does not subject itself to any such discipline. If one studies over a year, the fluctuations are found to be very wild. The individual items of expenditure under 'miscellaneous' are too many in number , they vary from month to month and by themselves do not qualify to earn a separate head .

Low-cost Air Travel in India. Will the party last?

2007-12-02T21:12:00.000+05:30

It was 32 years ago that I first saw the inside of an Aircraft, as a passenger. Those were the times when very few travelled by air and 95% of them on expense account. Snacks served were bad without exceptions and the crew used to be impolite. After all, the crew was in the employment of a major Public Sector organization and so considered the impolite behaviour as their privilege.

Even after allowing for the fact that 32 years mean a very long period, air-travel in India has changed substantially. The private Airline companies have brought about a remarkable change. The fares have dipped; even the premium Airlines keep a few tickets for selling at low fares. The staff is polite enough. Complaints are addressed with acceptable efficiency. Every time I board a low-cost Airline flight , I see faces, among the passengers, whose body language shows very clearly that they are first-time air travellers; their enthusiasm is very visible. Their children run from one end to another. The elders open their lunch boxes soon after the take-off since there is literally no 'free-lunch' in low-cost flights. Many of them prefer to address the air-hostesses as 'Sister' in the best tradition of small town India. They are mostly converts from train passengers. There are more families than individual travellers among them. It makes one really feel good to notice unassailable proof of more and more people sharing in the fruits of the economic growth.

There is one factor which can spoil the party. It is the relentless climbe of the crude oil prices in the international market. Being heavily dependent on imported oil, India will bear the brunt. And one reads in the newspapers every few weeks about a fresh increase in the price of aviation fuel. The airlines will pass on the cost to the passengers and in course of time, the value-for-money kind of passengers who form the bulk of low-cost air traffic will say ' Enough is enough' and switch back to the good old Indian Railways. By then, the now-first-time-flight- passengers will have collected enough boarding passes and so will have satisfied their earlier curiosity about air travel. They will carry with them enough stories about air travel, to tell their co-passengers in the train for time-pass.

Taxi Drivers in Prague

2007-12-01T19:32:00.000+05:30

When I was in Prague last April, I took a taxi to my hotel from the Railway station. It was a long drive to my Botel ( a hotel on a boat). The driver , a man in his fifties was talkative and friendly. Without even prodding, he kept giving his comments on the state of his country. He was absolutely disgusted with the way his country was being run. He said that his rented accommodation which used to cost him 400 Czech Crowns a month, in 1989, was now making him poorer by 10000 CK every month. And the accommodation was not palatial, but just fit for pigs. He thought that the switch from the communist system to a capitalistic one had not benefited people like him. In a sarcastic comment, he said that earlier the communists looted him and now the capitalists were doing the same job.

I had the opportunity of travelling by another taxi the very next day. This driver was younger and was in his early thirties. Unlike the older one on the first day( who was more comfortable with German language) , this man spoke better English . This young chap had totally different views on the new system. He said that freedom was more important than bread and so the freedom which he was enjoying under the new dispensation was far better with all its financial insecurities and mounting inflation , compared to the job security and stable prices which were taken for granted under the communist regime, but with individual freedom bartered away.

Two taxi drivers, but two diametrically opposite opinions. Perhaps, it is a divide on the basis of age. May be, even on the basis of formal education.

Pizza, my Saviour during my European Holiday!

2007-11-30T23:12:00.000+05:30

When I was travelling in Europe recently, I ate Pizza every day. Being a vegetarian is not so easy in Europe. Though every major city has Indian restaurants, it is a very expensive proposition to eat daily in the Indian restaurants. I settled for Italian Restaurants. A large -sized vegetarian Pizza and a mug of beer kept me going for the entire day. Though I am an Asian, Chinese restaurants do not appeal to me in spite of the fact that they have vegetarian dishes in their menu. Somehow, I find the taste unacceptable. I must be one of the few who do not prefer Chinese food. When I eat Pizza, I get the feeling that I am eating Indian food. Be it in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Prague, Vienna or Salzburg, Pizza kept the culinary company for me. For this, I thank the Italians.

Goethe Institute, Prien and my teacher Herr Ochs

2007-11-29T15:19:00.000+05:30

Flash back to 1975. I studied German language in Goethe Institute at Prien am Chiemsee, a beautiful resort town near Munich, the Bavarian Capital during Dec.1975-Jan.1976. Mr.Ochs(Ox) , a bearded Austrian bachelor was my teacher. At that time, I was 29 years old and Mr.Ochs was about 45 years old. He had mastery over the English language too. This made his teaching more effective. While teaching us German, he spoke to us on a wide variety of subjects. He was very international in his outlook. He even took us to restaurants in nearby villages and introduced us to authentic German cuisine, though as a vegetarian I chose to forgo opportunities of getting to taste much of the German food. Herr Ochs had become an indispensable part of our daily life at the end of the two months.

Cut to 2007 April. I was making a visit to Germany on my way to the United States. I took a train to Prien from Munich. Prien had changed a lot in the intervening 32 years. More shops. More crowded Railway station. I did not remember the way from the Railway station to the Goethe Institute any more. With some guidance from the passers-by, I managed to locate the institute. It was heart-breaking to learn that the Goethe Institute had closed down its Prien branch. All that remained was the building, uninhabited . And Herr Ochs who had retired long ago, was no more. Some thing sank in me. The old care-taker of the by-now empty Goethe Institute building was nostalgic and sad. His wife, he said, had worked in the kitchen of the institute for several years. She is no more. He lives alone. I said with a sigh , " Every thing seems to have changed in Prien". He shook his shoulders and countered, " Has not the entire world changed upside down?". True. To lighten the atmosphere, I said," But the German beer has not changed. It still schmeckt gut." The care-taker laughed and the heaviness on my heart eased a bit.

Have you any time wondered why we all suffer from pangs of nostalgia? Why that wistfulness? Why that tinge of regret for times gone by? As if a part of us has vanished for ever, never never to return? Is it because it reminds us of passage of precious time? Our mortality? That we are living on borrowed time ? Will we ever come to terms with the truth that we are living in a time-defined ephemeral world?