When the saints go marching..

If you happen to be in Chennai and come December you will see a huge multitude of people adorning black/ blue/ orange dhotis with sandal and Kumkum smeared on their foreheads and a beaded necklace gracing their necks. These are the devotees who have vowed to visit the Sabarimala temple and are in their preparation/ vrath for the same.

Every time I come across these people, the one month of transformation I see in them is just amazing. These are devotees who are from all walks of life and who are hence are no different from an average crowd when it comes to attitude/ behavior/ yielding to temptations. However, during this one month of preparation time, a vast majority of them put enormous efforts in staying good and maintain a very high level of personal hygiene. They bathe twice a day, pray at least twice a day, visit temples, stay clean, don’t use filthy language, avoid visits to TASMAC (Govt's liquor marketing agency in Tamilnadu) and try and speak the truth at all times. I have never been to Sabiramala.. But yet whenever I see these devotees, I am just very happy about the power of religion and faith and its transformational powers on its followers.

Winter (namely December - before my friends chide me that there is no winter in Chennai) is the best time to enjoy Chennai. The pleasant climate, the general perceived purity in the atmosphere (sabarimala season, marghazi  bhajans, religious discourses), the carnatic music festival (and the sumptuous sabha lunches) and the festive spirit that lingers on in the anticipation of Pongal and Thai masam, makes Chennai truly unique during this period. 

Can a lifetime of goodwork exempt one from an error of judgement made in a moment of weakness?

This sure is going to be a controversial post.

A New York court sentenced Mr. Rajat Gupta, former director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to two years in prison for leaking corporate secrets to Wall Street. The sentence comes months after Mr. Gupta was found guilty of passing confidential information about the bank to the hedge fund of Raj Rajaratnam, a friend and business associate.

Two disclaimers before I come to heart of the issue.

a. No denying the fact that Mr. RG's achievements were indeed one of the finest
b. This post is with all due respects to RG and his admirers. I don't intend hurting anyone's sentiments.

This post is however trying to address a larger issue. Can a lifetime of good work exempt one from an error of judgement made in a moment of weakness? I would put forth the five questions which are bothering me..

1. In someways and form isn't every crime an error of judgement made in a moment of weakness?

2. Aren't people who have done a lifetime of good work supposed to be more evolved and mature? In which case won't their level of judgement be naturally more evolved and well placed?

3. Speaking of "Moment of weakness", aren't these evolved folks prone to less "Moments of weakness" than an ordinary Joe on the street for whom a "moment of weakness" may mean choosing between life and death.

4. Next, assuming that it was indeed an "error of judgement" in a "moment of weakness", Shouldn't one come clean at least when one was caught? However, Mr. RG's reaction was "I am stunned and shocked by the proposed action.  Let me assure you, I have done nothing wrong.  The SEC's allegations are totally baseless" (based on a communication dated March 2011)

5. Summarizing my case, being less prone to "moments of weakness", being better placed in one's  "judgement" and having denied the whole issue as baseless, does one indeed deserve leniency?

Views, answers, comments and criticisms are welcome. However be considerate that you are dealing with an individual (yours humbly) whose view of the world in issues like these is largely binary.

The early start

In my walk this morning as I was walking down a flyover, I saw another person jogging up the flyover coming in the opposite direction. The person was quite obese and was huffing and puffing his way up the flyover. And there I was, just strolling down the flyover.

This post is not for propagating for or against jogging or walking or for comparing my fitness versus the other person. Nevertheless a few random thoughts occurred to me:

1. It’s easy to walk rather than jog and it’s easy to go down the flyover rather than going up.

2. Had the other person walked early on in life, he would probably not be forced to jog now.

3. Attending to early warning signals in life, in whatever sphere, is far better than fire fighting at a later stage.

4. In the same breath, when it comes to health prevention is better than cure.

5. If we indeed to adhere to early warning signals in our life well in time and change our diet/ lifestyle for the better, we wouldn't be painfully forced to do it at a later point (which more often than not could turn out futile).

I certainly meant no offence to the person who was jogging up today. In fact, it’s good that he has at least started now - Better late than never. However in life starting early, driving slowly and reaching safely could prove far more useful.

The art of begging

The world of mentally-challenged individuals is complicated. It is impossible for an outsider to understand what is the mind of such a person going through? Of what torments and travails he is put through. Is he in any physical pain? Does he know that he is in physical pain? When was the last time he ate? Does he know he is hungry? Does he know that if he eats food, his hunger would go away? ... and to top it all, does he know how to get food?

It was only over this weekend did i realize that most mentally-challenged individuals do not know the Art of begging. These are individuals who have lost their ways in life, abandoned by their families and are thrown into the realities of a harsh world. Most of these individuals do not know how to even beg. The result - Their life is a total mess. Not cared by anyone, not loved and are allowed to suffer painfully, as death slowly sinks its teeth in their lives. Most of us just walk past them if we ever encounter them on the streets, with probably an accelerated pace.

One man chose to be different. He is Mr. Rafi. Whenever he sees a mentally ill person walking on the streets, he gets them food and takes them to his centre - Anbagam. He provides them an environment of safety and comfort. Gives them psychiatric treatment and slowly helps them recover. Not just that, with the help of social workers he jots down every single thing which these mentally challenged individuals say (however incoherent it may be), tries to make meaning out of it and ultimately try and reunite them with their families.

He has been doing that for years now and has so far successfully reunited over 600 such individuals with their families. His centre presently accommodates about 120 individuals (100 males and 20 females). He was constrained by space to accommodate more females. You may well be able to appreciate that the challenges for a mentally ill women in our society (especially if they are young and abandoned) is exponential to that of a male. Hence the need to accommodate more of them cannot be over-emphasized.

Happy that our trust, Samarpan (formed by like minded friends and colleagues), got an opportunity to build a separate wing for the ladies and we successfully inaugurated it yesterday. 20 such women will have a roof over their heads when they sleep today.

Rafi's of the world are precious. They are blessed individuals who have taken upon such a mission on to themselves. I am not sure if most us have the framework to live even one day of Rafi's life. So be it. However, could we support a few of these inspirations?

Here is a scene at Anbagam..

Also pasting below the link to an article which recently appeared on this subject

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/chennai/mentally-ill-get-saviour-mohamed-rafi-682

Do you know what is 1 + 5?

This link appeared in Economic Times' website's homepage today

The poll question per-se, I am sure is not a surprise to anyone, as it is a question that keeps popping up in our country every now and then. However I was more drawn towards the simple mathematical question that appears at the bottom of the link. That is, only if you are able to answer what is 1+5, you are eligible to cast your vote for this electronic poll. This I understand is for apparently ensuring that the vote is actually cast by individuals and not by some automated programs.

However, what made me introspect a bit more is that, for casting one's vote in the actual polls of our country we do not have any such basic criteria. To be an Indian is the one and only eligibility norm. It doesn’t matter if one can read/ write or if one has behaved responsibly as a citizen or if one understands the power of his vote. In short, it doesn’t discriminate any citizen against any parameter.

While this is one of the great joys of democracy, it certainly has taken our country for a ride over the last several decades. A vast majority of our population continues to be driven by "election gifts", "familiarity" or "share-of-pie" approach to casting votes rather than relying on the candidate's capabilities/ fundamentals while exercising such an important decision.

This is definitely not to say that we do not have other shortcomings in our electoral/ democratic system. However, this particular concept of Equal voting rights for all has had one of the deepest negative impacts in our country. Given this scenario, will the concept of Differential Voting actually work better in a country like ours?

Consider the situation where votes are no longer equal in weight. Every citizen gets one vote as a right. However depending on the Citizen’s Age, Educational qualification, Awareness/ status in life, criminal record, tax payment track record etc..., his vote could actually get more weightage. The maximum weightage can be capped at lets say 5/ citizen and the exact number (between 1 and 5) is determined by a combination of the factors I had detailed above.

What this will help us achieve is that:

• Given the incentives at play, education and being a responsible citizen would be accorded greater priority and this will help us as a country to accelerate in achieving these goals
• Election results will no longer be determined by one’s ability to move masses but by his ability to make sense and perform. The political scenario could hence get cleaned up a bit as newer and more responsible politicians may enter the fray

 I know some of these parameters are quite subjective and may hence be difficult to implement. But does that outweigh its benefits?

A world without worries or expectations

If I was living in a world where I had no worries or expectations (of my own and others'), what would have been my career choices? I know it is a bizarre question, given its hypothetical nature…

However, the question did occur to me and here are four things that popped in my mind… 

The Goods Train Guard

I have always been a great admirer of the Indian goods train. It is a world in itself. I would have loved to serve as a guard in one of these amiable snails. It would certainly be a great joy to stand in the guard station at the very end of this train and watch the long set of compartments ahead gently discipline themselves and fall in line, as they dance to the tunes of a winding track. The train’s purposeless pace, the patience it savours in letting pass every passenger train it encounters and its ability to gently be a part of the myriad Indian villages without really touching any of them are great joys, I believe. Sitting on the guard’s seat while sipping coffee and slowly absorbing everything that passes by, waving flags to the world and taking things at their own pace, certainly appeals to me as a great career choice…

The Village Primary School Teacher

Every word in this job description is important. The school must be in a village (preferably as non-descript as possible), the class needs to be at a primary level and if I am the only one teacher in the school (as defined by “THE”), my idea of another perfect career choice could just be under way. The idea of serving at the grass root level of our country and shape thoughts and lives at that level truly appeals to me a lot. Well you may ask why “Primary” and why a “Village” only. That’s because I just would like to take life a little easy… idealism combined with a easy-chair attitude may not be a perfect recipe, but I will like it…

The Musician Performer

The perfect setting would be while performing in an event where I am not at the centre stage. Say, like performing in a live-concert at a party/ marriage. While I would certainly like to give a great performance, I would like to give the audience a choice of either being in their own world or be a part of mine or give them an option to just switch between the worlds. And a true musician (like the one I aspire to be), I believe,  wouldn’t care a damn what choice the individuals ultimately make. Because I would like to view each of these performances as another opportunity to live in my own world… rather than as a chance to please others and allow them in to mine…

A Student for Life

I will most happily embrace a chance to be a student for a life. However I wouldn’t like to be distracted with grades, exams, specializations, streams etc.. Would just like to go learn things which interest me, things that remain a mystery to me and things that I enjoy doing. The learning itself could be in any stream and I would not like it constrained either by the boundaries of academic learning or by worrying about their marketability… Just pure learning for the sake of learning..

Well.. the dreams could continue. But here is my present world knocking at my door and asking me to hastily return to its realities. And I humbly submit myself to her… as I am acutely aware that its after all my choice..

The iPad conundrum

The other day my 15 year niece and nephew (8 year old) were playing with my iPad. And my niece quipped to my nephew, "You must be lucky. I never had anything like this while I was like you".

And i thought, at least 4 generations in my family can get away with a statement like that. The exposure my son receives at 2.5 yrs is way beyond what I received even at thrice his age. The facilities,the gadgets and a whole host of other things that I enjoy now are way beyond what my father had and enjoyed at this age. The same holds true when I compare my father and grand mother.

All this sounds really progressive and great at one level. However at the other end, I feel, life was a lot less complicated in the earlier generations. A lot more simple, a lot more contented and enjoyable. People were happy waiting for a phone connection for 10 years and perfectly fine waiting 15 years for becoming a proud owner of a Bajaj scooter. Sticking to one employer for a lifetime and settling for a 2 BHK at the end of it was probably the norm and not an aberration.

Its not entirely about settling for a lesser quality of life, I think it has a lot more to do with carrying a better attitude. So, the moot question is, are we really progressing? I guess, like may things in life, the answer is neither simple nor universal. It is probably uniquely tied with ones attitude and approach to life itself.

Sending the right massage

This result was published in today's Business Line. Forget about company's performance or the lack of it, I was appalled by their gross negligence for attention to detail.

Some of the most important numbers (Incl profits) are not part of these published results and have a "#REF!" tag. This is a classic Microsoft Excel error when the formula is wrong or is not referenceable.

The point is how can a listed company not take this basic precaution before publishing their results in a national daily? If indeed this reflects their attitude/ capability, then why should any investor trust their hard earned money with this firm?

Dear Kerala Ayurveda, please get your massage right... (I hope you spotted what damage a misplaced alphabet is capable of creating..)