Paddy's Inkpad

Setting right precedence...?!

2020-12-15T09:13:00.000+05:30

As we all know, we're going through a tumultuous political time, which is putting Indian democracy into a highly inflammable litmus test, which is inevitable and lot of myths should be broken, mercilessly...!

One such myth is called 'precedence' and we've been vocal about such precedences, every where including in our law making houses.

I'm not getting into the debate on the sanctity of these houses at all. That's a separate subject and we would definitely engage about it at a different occasion.

Coming back to our subject, I am forced to write about this, as I happened to read an article in a Malayalam vernacular daily called Mathrubhumi (remember, this is one daily which fought tooth & nail and supported many struggles against conglomerates like coca cola and its Draconian attitude against the local farmers and people in a small village called Plachimada in Perumatti Gram Panchayat in Palakkad), which in detail explained about the need for not withdrawing these one sided farm fills in the wake of huge protests happening at the National Capital....!! Very ironic, isn't it? The same daily, once vigorously wrote (its founder chairman Late Sri. M P Virendra Kumar was a champion of farmer's cause) about the need to amend laws to compensate affected farming community of Plachimada during their historic resistance in the beginning years of this millennium...?!

Now, let's examine this conventional argument of protecting the sanctity of the democratic institutions by setting right precedence. Yes! We, as responsible citizens and its representatives and its servants, have a huge responsibility to behave ourselves and create right precedence?!

Now, the question is what's right? As mentioned in the article (and it was heard earlier also, when there was civil society struggle happening for Janlokpal Bill, as well!), the laws cannot be made on the streets and the govts should not bow down to these people who are striking (or struggling/ suffering for their livelihood rights?) on the roads...? By doing that, govt will set wrong precedence and more such strikes would happen, everytime a new law is introduced. That's a crazy argument..?!

First of all, how is an 'andolan' or movement against govt happens? This happens everytime, when the govt doesn't engage themselves its stakeholders who happened to give them the mandate to make laws. Here, in the farmers' case, what caused govt to draft a law with all bureaucratic excellence of complexities and rush it through parliament in haste and nervousness? Or is it nervousness or arrogance in passing a bill like this? Now, who's demanding the withdrawal and redrafting of laws considering their inputs in reforming the system...? The demand is from the stakeholders and not from the onlookers?! That's the strength of democracy. Now, accepting mistake and correcting the course would help the nation thrive unitedly and would enhance the democratic values of this country.

Moreover, if it's a wrong precedence in accepting the demands and withdrawing the bills, which will pave way to perennial strikes and demands for each laws, then after the Janlokpal Bill, there should have been numerous strikes and movements for every other law passed in the parliament. Did that happen? Even for non implementation of Jan Lokpal for almost half a decade, there were no stir other than an occasional judicial comment from the SC...?! So, it's absurd to think that withdrawal of books under pressure would invite more troubles and strikes like this?!

A democratic govts' strength is to not to push its people to this extent to come on roads. This struggle could have been avoided, had the govt engaged with those hapless farmers who have multiple indications of what is brewing?! No govt should underestimate the citizens at any point of time. That's the lesson of this struggle.

Now, if the govt withdraws bills and engage with farmers in redrafting the bills, taking into their confidence and eliminating their insecurities, the same govt emerge champions for sure.

Let's create precedences of democratic values rather than arrogance and bureaucratic egos...?!

Dovetailing Coconut farmers in Palakkad

2015-10-26T19:36:00.000+05:30

(This is the excerpt of an article published in the Indian Coconut Journal, published by Coconut Development Board in the Month of August, 2015, written by Padmanabhan Bhaskaran on behalf of Palakkad Coconut Producer Company Limited. Hence, request the readers to read the the data and dates which are based on the context of August, 2015)

The Palakkad Coconut Producer Company(PCPCL) formed by federating 24 Coconut producer federations with a farmer strength of 24000 is well ahead in initiating multiple programme in various fields with an urge to pioneer the best technology in association with some of the premium institutes of the country. PCPCL is having an authorized share capital of Rs 5 Cr. and member farmers have mobilized share of Rs 2.6 Cr. as on 12th August 2015. Lets have a brief look into the various developmental programmes taken up by PCPCL for the overall growth of coconut farmers.

Research & Development

Having no established model in this industrial vertical, PCPCL had experimented, tested and adapted technologies from Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasargode for the extraction of high quality neera (with pH value of 6.5 to 7.0) and establish a no preservative, nutritious, virgin health drink under the brand name ‘Pam Dew’.

PCPCL had created history by establishing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for research for processing Neera, with one of India’s state of the art technological marvel called Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) on a unique revenue sharing model. This seems to be a rare model with a public sector institute. In the latest review meeting held on 20th July, 2015, CFTRI has informed that they are in the last leg of their trials of the proposed first product research with two remarkable breakthroughs, ready to be submitted for approval of PCPCL by end of August, 2015. The Team PCPCL and the Team CFTRI are happy to note that the outcome of this research would bring out better products to the world, which will leapfrog India ahead in the segment.

Neera Processing Plant

The processing plant construction is progressing. A honey making unit using vacuum evaporator technology is expected to commence in a month with a honey processing capacity of 500 litres/ hour.

On the special occasion of Onam, PCPCL offered all its member farmers a 'Farmer's Corner' in its

'COCONUT POINTS' to showcase their products! The chemical free farm produces and its value additions can be sold in the PCPCL Retail Chain. Palakkad, being the rice bowl of Kerala, PCPCL introduce varieties of rice, rice flakes, rice powder and value added product blends of rice and coconut, which are sourced directly from member farmers. Farmers are liberated to celebrate Onam. Product Bouquet include, 'Aval Vilayichathu', exotic range of 'Chammanthipodi', mouth watering 'Pazham Paani (Roasted Banana in Coconut Honey), Dosa Batter, Turmeric Powder, Natural Black Pepper, etc.

Currently PCPCL is in an advance stage of entering into a marketing agreement of PamHoney and PamSugar for entire western and northern region with an experienced trading group, apart from the overseas markets. As the PCPCL had already initiated processing through traditional method, it is expected to deliver the first off-take by 1st week of August, 2015. After the sampling done by this proposed associate of PCPCL, the response they have been receiving seems to be overwhelming and they themselves are excited over this response.

Drip Irrigation

Under the farmer welfare programme, PCPCL negotiated hard with M/s. Jain Irrigation Systems Limited for an approximate 1000 acres drip programme and are able to offer approximately 20% discount on the MRP of such high quality pipes and accessories. This programme became slow as it begun to rain again! However, still the material is moving out as the intensity of monsoon is fading out.

Micro Enterprises

As of now, PCPCL has 25000+ shareholding farmers, which is ever increasing and approximately 50000+ farmers are in the ambit of this three tier structure. PCPCL envisages processing at least 20% of the nuts produced by these farmers by establishing at least two micro enterprises in each CPS over a period of two years. The first 12 units among such enterprises are expected to start production soon with the help of financial assistance from Kerala Finance Corporation (KFC). They had already undergone two levels of ‘Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP)’ trainings on building capacity and a final exposure visit to identified institutes would make them freeze the projects, technologies and machinery. In order to strengthen the activities of federations and societies, PCPCL is also undertaking capacity building and skill development programmes. FoCT new batches are about to get started and the Neera Technician Training programme is going on as part of the skill development. PCPCL’s Human Capital Management (HCM) Division started formally functioning and initiated Communication Skill Enhancement Programme for batches of employees for improving their communication. This division has also initiated a process to identify and develop a management cadre selected from educated individuals, especially women, who would be keen to use their knowledge and skill. A key group is formed to work out modalities of conceiving and formulating training modules in affiliation with some of the premium institutes. The monitoring of activities are being done smoothly by the subcommittees organized by PCPCL.

Neera Subcommittee

Despite all the odds and investments, the neera production across the federations had significantly increased. Though this is a happy outcome, it was alarming as the sale was down due to the monsoons. The Neera subcommittee has been taking some tough decisions to sustain and move forward. Coconut points established by PCPCL is spread across three districts and is getting popular. As on date, 25 coconut points are selling neera, neera honey, syrup, sugar and other coconut products such as coconut oil, chips etc.

Coconut Procurement & Oil Production

The coconut procurement pilot was carried out by Nemmara Block Federation and procured approximately 1.1 Lakhs nuts and distributed approximately 15+ Lakhs to approximately 50+ farmers. This exercise provides key indicators in terms of expenses on wages and transportation costs etc. On further course, strategizing the procurement process with the minimum requirement of working capital in place and also with a clear goal set on the processing of the procured nuts for value additions. Though coconut oil was made of these procured nuts, we also had to partially force sell high quality copra which was prepared through the quality process with No Sulphur, No Chemicals and No Smoke, in the open market in competition with the normal abused copra to keep the cash flow intact! However, the coconut oil made out of this high quality copra is accepted and after initial lukewarm response, the sales graph of PamFresh Coconut Oil is ticking steadily up, thanks to marketing efforts to boost sales initially. Now, PCPCL had come up with one more variant of the PamFresh Coconut Oil by bringing out traditional chak processing and the variant is called ‘PamFresh Coconut Oil’ – ‘Thani Nadan’, which retains lot of virgin values of the original coconut oil. Two medicated oil variants are on trials and on completion of successful trials these medicated variants would be introduced in the market.

Equity Mobilization Committee

The equity mobilization committee has been working hard to conduct monthly meetings of CPSs of all federations, where they have been engaged in making the member farmers aware of the importance of building such a Farmer Producer Organization for sustenance. Though most of our farmers are not able to visualize the need and effect of such an organization, some of them get inspired and initiate participating in the process. This engagement keeps people active in the system. However, our subsidy culture makes our people bargain for petty benefits against the share payments and demand supply of manures for further payment of shares. However, with this committee’s outreach drives, the farmers are becoming more and more aware of the significance of the company. PCPCL knew much in advance, that we are fighting a battle with an undefined battlefield and we need to establish a farsighted strategy to win this and also realised the importance of accurate market data from international arena to evaluate the demand – supply proportions worldwide and also the market dynamics to position our products with added value propositions. Thanks to the support of Coconut Development Board (CDB) and its dynamic team lead by the most enterprising legend of our times, we were directed to committed young entrepreneurs who were as enthusiastic as us on being part of this revolution among farmers. The Sanjivani Naturals Team had done a wonderful job for PCPCL in the last six months by participating in two major organic fairs, one in Germany and another one in London, where they had showcased our flagship products, which received an overwhelming response. They also conducted a deep research in competitive products in the market and brought some valuable data along with few premium brands of honey and sugar available in the international market. PCPCL is proud to announce that our ‘Pam Honey’ and ‘Pam Sugar’ would win hands down, in competition with any of those best products available in the international market. PCPCL also did a study on various other hot moving coconut products including coconut chunks (which is similar to chips) and they are much above the products available in the Indian market. In exploration of technologies and experimenting through new horizons, PCPCL had engaged professionals as consultants for guiding the organization in the right direction. Since the beginning, Team PCPCL was consisting of management graduates from IRMA and Food Technologists from premier institutes like IIT, Kharagpur. There are multiple associations in exploring technologies with premium institutions and it had always been a learning curve with so many revelations and exploration of new horizons. PCPCL had taken weighted average of many such existing technologies before taking some concrete decisions. It was learning all the while and through this process PCPCL realized the merits and demerits of many such methodologies prevailing in the market. Having no model in this segment, it has been a tightrope walk for PCPCL on completely dark terrains of technology and thanks to various institutions, who walked along with support to explore this unknown path. The MoU with M/s. CFTRI is one among the unique propositions in research which made PCPCL’s life much easier, in terms of the time, investment and expertise. PCPCL hopes that this journey will be smoother in the coming days and will also ensure farmers fair, stable and reasonable price.

PCPCL - CFTRI research initiative is taking a positive turn after about 1+ years exhaustive struggle in the unknown terrains of Coconut Sap (Neera) research. The first ever such revenue sharing partnership in research since the inception is producing fanta-fabulous results in bringing out the most chemical free, nutrient rich, natural drink which would disrupt the existing know-how of the products available. PCPCL's belief in creating value for this 'blessing of the nature' (otherwise called 'God's Own Drink') finds positive results!

(Excerpts of the article Published in the Indian Coconut Journal, August 2015 - Page Nos: 17 & 18, written by Padmanabhan Bhaskaran)

ATM Robbery By Banks & A Constructive Alternative Model by ABAHU

2014-11-19T01:29:00.000+05:30

The ATM usage charges are introduced indiscriminately to harass the millions of common people of this country at this modern age of cost effective technology and services. We, common people (Aam Aadmi) of this country are fed up of the treatment meted out to all of us by various organizations/ institutions like banks?!

Going to such kind of places seems to be a herculean task for the common man as they lose a day's wages for no constructive purpose. More over, many a times, we are sent back with yet another list of things to be fulfilled before actually receiving the service from these institutions. The funniest part of this ATM story is that when RBI came up with strict security norms, the first bank to protest and suggest such a charge was not any private or multinational banks, instead it was SBI group of banks who did that??!! For the service they offer to their customers, it was always relieving for any customer to avoid going to this hell and they keep complaining about the work load and when it came to ATM services they want to squeeze their customers.

Now, let's think from bank's perspective. There's huge pressure from RBI and governing bodies for these banks to cut down their operating cost and increase the productivity. In addition, they were asked to modernize and introduce world class security as well! Caught in the act, what they wanted to achieve was to squeeze the customer and make up for new expenses. However, they don't bother to improve the quality of services as our country or country men neither enforce nor demand that quality, respectively. There are constructive models available and one of that was to build an independent ATM network operated by a third party with all the facilities as per the security norms prescribed by RBI. Thus the operating cost of these ATMs will be shared by all the banks based on the customer usage of these banks. This was successfully evolved in mobile tower network and similar logic is applicable here as well. This would increase the number of the ATMs to include every bank associated in this network. In this context the banks with existing ATMs can lease out their existing property to this external agency so that they can recover their investment over a period of time. Now, what I mean to say is instead of harassing the lives of millions of common people, if we create an "All Bank Account Holders' Unity - ABAHU" and join together to form a pressure group and make such constructive proposal to the government & RBI, it would be noticed/ listened. Remember, if few banks can come together and demand a change in RBI policy of free ATM usage, why can't millions of customers do the same muscle flexing in return?

Election 2014 – The Abusive Money Power!

2014-04-15T21:12:00.000+05:30

It is with a heavy heart I write this note?! This is written with fresh experience I had while campaigning myself in ‘Palakkad’ constituency.

When we decided to field our candidate in the last minute, we called for a campaign strategy meeting and worked out a minimum budget of 7.5 Lakhs, which may extend up to 10 Lakhs. We had appealed for 25 lakhs to common people as we had post – election plans. When we were evaluating our strategies, we found that there are patterns and precedents set by most of the mainstream political parties, which tend to make elections, a festival of flex boards, road shows and illuminated jugglery of statements and visits of leaders of regions and religions. After quite a bit of debates, we had taken a conscious call to omit this Flex-Mania and instead, opt for cloth banners with printed matters on it.

On the field, we had positive responses from every section of the society and the acceptance from the women folks, both rural & urban, and the youth gave energy to pull on despite the taxing heat…! Many of them were expecting us and responded with enthusiasm. We realized that we need not speak much as people are well aware of Aam Aadmi Party and its relevance. They cherished us with their hearts full of hope and joy and it gives us momentum and unconditional hope in the journey ahead.

The point I wanted to make here was on the abuse of money power spread by these mainstream parties on campaign. The money spent is estimated in crores and the reliable information is that all these parties had collected hefty sums from ‘Quarry & Sand Mafia’ to make their campaign rich and colourful. Remember, the money thus collected smells blood and vita-salts of each of us. My questions to the common people are as follows….

1) Have you ever thought where this lavishly spent money is sourced from?

2) Have you ever checked what did you get there in your region as development?

3) Have you ever checked about the growth in assets of these sitting representatives?

4) Did any of these parties or candidates reveal the receipts (Income) vs Payments (Expenditure)?

I know, like me in the past, none of you would have thought about this or even if you had thought about it, you would have conveniently ignored this thought justifying that it does not affect you. This attitude is exactly what prompting our political representatives to become arrogantly assertive in looting us and still face us for votes offering few freebies gimmickry. They had weighed us well and used us well consistently.

To fight this precedence, we need to react by choosing wisely the people with credentials and substance, who represent an idea of a noble political culture which resonates the common man’s aspirations. Encouraging such a trend is the responsibility of each one of us…

We Need Innovative, Effective & Smart Social Audits

2013-10-02T13:15:00.000+05:30

We discussed about Sensinomics earlier, in the context of petroleum price revision and its lack of sensibility in economics. I must be the nth person in the country to discuss this. However, our Governing super bureaucrats are not bothered about public or their inputs and they went on to constitute a committee to study about revision of pricing (or, was it a committee to find some digestible reasons to increase the price?). The results are obvious and pre-determined and in a nutshell, it recommends an increase of Rs. 100/- for domestic cooking gas and an increase of Rs.4/- for the diesel. This is apart from the already slotted Rs. 0.50 increase per month!

The committee to study about price revision was appointed by the ministry with consultation

and consent of these oil companies! How does this committee arrive at an unbiased conclusion? By arriving at a figure based on the financial data provided by the companies (Not by considering independently amalgamated data!) and how on the earth it becomes an independent revision exercise? On top of this, do you have any sampling done among the consumers from various strata? (No authentic information available despite multiple pleas under the provision of RTI Act). There were multiple finance wizards who came up with multi-level suggestions and none of their inputs are taken into consideration before arriving at the (il)logical conclusion.

All this adds cost to the consumer, as it gets funded by the tax payer. In fact, what’s happening in this country is that the tax payer appoints a committee with awesome fees and perks to find a reason to increase the prices of the commodities consumed by them?! Irony….! Is it not? How can we end it? In the current system we have no choice other than going to the court individually or collectively; which would take a long time to decide. In the meanwhile, the price can be increased unilaterally, unless we get a direction from the court or stay order on any price increase till the judgment is made on the matter.

In this context, we should seriously think about bringing in effective social audits in the sector, which should reflect the sensibilities of the ordinary people; among whom you come across excellent and practical ‘Sensible Economists’ or ‘Sensinomists’. How to bring this into effect needs detailed discussions. However touch points would be a multi-level approach….

First Level:

The online response platforms should be provided at each petroleum outlets which is going to be a large network. This would empower the end customer give their feedback direct and without any interference and delay.

This can also give responsive customers an opportunity to comment not just on the pricing, but on various services (or lack of those) offered by the franchisee or the companies.

Second Level:

Initiate social audits at ‘Panchayat’ level by independent people groups. This can be initiated at Gram Sabha and other social and governing bodies, where collective discussions are held to pass a resolution to be sent to the ministry with copy to companies. Akshaya Centers, JanSeva Kendras, e-Seva Kendras or such online kiosks at Panchayat levels can be utilized to send this referendum online.

Top Level:

Furthermore, it could be done by multiple Civil Society bodies at the top level. This level of participation is to bring in fresh thoughts and out of the box ideas without bereaving the essence of social justice to amicably find sustenance solutions in this energy craving globe.

This independent body with eminent economists with common sense should audit the financial data based on the international thumb rules and social data available. These interventions are expected to be transparent and consumer centric.

More would get evolved as this process progresses and it could be formalized later on to improvise every bit of this process.

To All My Brothers & Sisters of India...

2013-09-26T18:03:00.003+05:30

My Dear Brothers & Sisters of India,

Being 'apolitical' has been a fashion or a symbol of being civilized (so called 'decency') till recently among middle class. However, of late, many people from this species realized the importance of participation in the political process and also understood the hidden agenda of the current political system which had strategically sidelined and deliberately kept away the 25%+ population of India outside active political process. In fact, the very 'apolitical' stand by this middle class of India had provided in a platter to the political hood-winkers to share seats among the goons and the influential class. I request you to kindly look around you to understand this further. Kindly post your feedback after checking out your constituency position - be it a municipal Councilor, MLC, MLA or MP. By a thumb rule, every one among them would be either an infamous goon or some influential dynasty' kid??!! So, who's responsible for this? WE OURSELVES!

So, my dear brothers, sisters, uncles & aunties, kindly understand that it is high time to debate

and take a strong stand about the reforms required as it is a necessity of the hour and need to be welcomed. In this process of discussions and deliberations, one may come across many 'indigestible' views, but that should be taken in the best spirits and the end goal is to reach a common land/ approach which should pave way to a new beginning to eradicate criminals and dynasties from politics. Otherwise, we'll be electing criminals and goons and they would make laws to protect them (This is exactly what's happening in Parliament now). So, for heaven's sake, wake up and respond constructively as we have our last bus waiting in 2014.

There's a huge change happening across the country and a movement is brewing exactly like in our freedom struggle days; choice is ours to become part of it or refrain ourselves. The future generation would not forgive us if we remain 'apolitical' now. We have an inspiring history to follow where our ancestors have jumped enthusiastically into the bus of freedom struggle facing hardships of their lifetime and sacrificing their normal family life. We're lucky enough that we don't have to face such hardships now, but if we leave this opportunity, our future generation would definitely be forced to face such music from these goons.

JAI HIND!

Sensinomics – In a Banana Republic (Indian Version)

2013-09-25T11:43:00.001+05:30

This is absurd! On a fine morning, rumours were in the newspapers about the possible climb down of petrol price in the context of Rupee regaining its value graph and stability of crude oil price in the International market in the context of Syria war getting distanced; thanks to Russian intervention. However, in reality petrol price shot up overnight?! A common man with minimum economic sense would not able to comprehend the reasons cited by the ministry, as there is neither a major fall of rupee from its previous day’s position and nor that Syria situation had worsened. In fact, Syria’s position had improved with the introduction of Russia – US pact! Another important aspect is that the Rupee gained value in the context of proposed news about the control over imports. Despite all these, our petrol prices are going skywards….What’s this (black) magic?

Economic common sense or ‘Sensinomics’ does not allow me to understand/ comprehend any logic offered by the Petroleum Ministry and other concerned authorities in unison, consistently over a period of time. Their pseudo genuine reasoning against the expected price climb down is that the effect of the Rupee gain will come into reality only after one or two weeks?? But when it comes to effecting the Rupee devaluation, it happens overnight?? Moreover, in the context of stable international price and relatively stable Rupee, why there is an unprecedented price rise? Inexplicable….?!

In this scenario, the Sensinomics do not understand the reason for the absence of role of the State with firm action?! Is our Government afraid of someone to act tough or is it just the lackluster approach? The State is expected to assure the quality of life through timely interventions for the rights of the people and here is a republic where the State looks helpless at such junctures despite collecting multiple taxes and surcharges; ever increasing…! The taxes collected for petroleum products are much higher than the subsidy offered and there is a steady graph in the last few years, where subsidy is being cut down/ delayed and the price is made dearer & dearer….! In fact, it should have been in the reverse order. Sensinomics do not state that the subsidy should be increased; but I would definitely say the taxes and surcharges should have been kept at a steady level, at least for a financial year. These ‘Once-in-15 days’ price review brings these taxes and surcharges along with it which is not envisaged in our budget and this additional revenue is neither spent for the betterment of the people nor it is used to effectively bring down the price. In fact the tax envisaged during the budget is what is actually sanctioned and it should be kept as a fixed amount even in the scenario of ‘basic price’ increase. This will at least bring some relief to the common man.

A recent survey indicates that 62% of the total consumption of petrol amounts to two wheelers and that belongs to the massive middle class or common man of the country. Hence, the increase of petrol price to save diesel price hike does not benefit the common man; instead, it directly affect the common man by increasing his daily expenditure. Sensinomics recommend removal of the ‘uncouth gooses’ sitting for a long time at the helm of ‘(Un)Planning Commission’; who neither understand anything other than their vested interests. This is the modest word I could find in the dictionary to describe them!

If we do not respond to such atrocities, those concerned will take us for granted and keep taking us for such grand royal rides…!

Note: It is 10 days since I started writing this and this so called 'petrol price reduction' has not happened yet...?

All That Matters In Life!

2013-09-01T19:28:00.000+05:30

It is very tricky to talk about what matters in one’s life. Personally, I would say that it is quite relational and varies from individual to individual. However, I would like to narrate something which touched me and inspired me to run over my setbacks and define what matters in life!

It was a cold morning in Shillong. I was reluctant to come out of my blanket when a loud tea call came from my friend. But then, how would he leave me happy like that when he got up and made tea in this ice cold climate? Murmuring absurd sounds, I drew myself out of blanket and walked lazily towards the dining table. My friend John was sitting there sipping the ‘Lal-sa’ (Decoction) with his head plunged into the newspaper. He seemed to have finished his routine gym and looked fresh! Now, I wanted to enjoy the Sunday by just not moving out of bed. In fact, I wanted to finish ‘Three Mistakes of My Life’ of Chetan Bhagat, which I started yesterday late in the night. John was very quick to get ready to go to church and asked me to be ready to go out with him when he comes back. Though I asked several times about the destination, he told me that it was a surprise offering to me.

I got ready at my own pace and then waited for John for some time. On a Sunny Sunday, I felt it was too long by the time he reached, but then we got off quickly to the unknown (at least to me) destination. We had our breakfast at Shillong town and carried on to down under. I was zapped to realize that he had taken me to a missionary organization which ran a residential center for special children. He introduced me to Meghna, a volunteer who had the charge of managing the center and she welcomed us and took us around the facility to explain the challenges and excitements in running such an institution. Though the infrastructure was built by the missionary group, the unit was independent and considered as a separate cost center to sustain on its own! The children were waiting there to meet us! This was the moment that I realized that our man (John) had a clear plan and everything was discussed and fixed for my visit. Meghna discussed many things and among that she wanted me to suggest a micro enterprise for sustaining the center. The children seemed to love her a lot and were reluctant to listen to anyone else. We chalked out a plan to utilize the time of the parents and the teachers to start an enterprise and compensate them as well. We had our lunch there and by the time we left the place, this young lady had left quite an impressive mark on us!

While driving back, John explained me about the background of Meghna. She was the only daughter of a multi-millionaire of the region and after doing her masters in engineering; she pursued sociology and her passion for social work. However, her father wanted her to marry and settle down and that’s when she left her home and came off to this center and started working there. She stays there in an attached guest room and she had already changed the face of the center within few months. In this era of compromises of principles to accumulate wealth, here was one lady with a mission and unconditional love for those little ones who’re created special!

That evening was really haunting and I realized what matters in life to me and Meghna’s gesture had reiterated that all that matters in life to each individual is different and reaching there should be the mission of one’s life.

A Silent Invasion

2013-08-04T21:38:00.003+05:30

A few years back, one of my friends from Botswana told me about how African countries were economically invaded by Chinese! If you observe the incidents of recent past, one would amaze at the strategies they adopt to pursue their interests with precision planning and clinical execution. In most of the African countries, they had built infrastructure at free of cost and as a return of goodwill, flooded those markets with Chinese products (excessively produced to bring down cost of production) and they have the range of products to suit each strata of society. The usual trend is that a family would migrate and set up a small shop to sell the products and over years, they would establish a colony of shop keepers to spread their net. In the meanwhile, their Government supports them by bilateral agreements and other facilitations to cement the market forever.

In fact, in some other countries where high levels of social security measures are prevailing, the Chinese migrants’ master plans forced those countries to stop such privileges to all migrant communities! If I recall a meeting with a Chennai based investor, who was close to the TN power houses, it was Indians and that too Central Ministers from Tamil Nadu who were given the first right of refusal for building world class ITES infrastructure in Srilanka, just after the ethnic crisis was over. However, as usual we were over confident and our lethargy in decision making gifted a huge opportunity to impatiently waiting Chinese. This lapse in governance not only affected India’s business interests, but deflated strategically maintained position in a country which looked expectedly at India at each juncture of political crisis??!

China had worked hard in every industry sector and took giant leap forward in comparison with India. Though they have been vigorously trying to bridge the gap in IT industry with India, they could not achieve this according to their set targets. However, of late, what is observed is a course correction in their strategy to focus pragmatically on technologies which can be adopted fast. One among such areas of their interest is animation vertical. Close observation reveals that they had advanced well ahead and their marketing tactics is quite simple as usual. Mediocre Quality at low cost or Low Quality at lowest cost!

The global animation industry had grown fast and touched US $500 billion and in US it is now, one among the first ten industries. In Japan, it had already crossed its flagship automobile industry. China had grown faster in this sector and they are moving fast towards a silent coup like what they had done in other verticals & markets.

I had written this note after observing the content of various channels which telecast a range of animation serials. Like we watched Donald Duck, Mickey, Tom & Jerry in our childhood days, our children watch a large number of Chinese characters day-in and day-out, in every other channel which targets such young audience. I think our children are undergoing a cultural invasion through these alien characters to our culture and not surprisingly most of these animated characters come from China for obvious reasons. These channels opted for cheaper alternatives in comparison with standard Walt Disney animations. The characters and the nauseating dubbing make these animations sub-standard apart from their ugly looks. My predominant concern is the lack of logical stories for these contents and its wrong influence in these young minds, which are in their formative years. Recently I searched for one of the award winning animations, the ‘ek chidiya anek chidiya’ which was created by Films Division of India at animation center of NCERT, which was telecasted by Doordarshan and the link is as follows….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8DZUKQClvc

If the production houses, channels and their audience don’t put their act together and bring the change to the industry, there are multiple disasters waiting for us –

1) The slow cultural invasion which will create a Generation of morons.

2) The China’s dominance in yet another industry, where our country can heavily contribute with unlimited talents.

3) The absence of passing on the rich cultural heritage and those stories we heard from our Grand Parents, which asserted value system in each one of us.

4) Above all, there’s a huge but strategically silent financial drain, like in many other sectors.

Modern Drutharashtras & Suyodhanas….

2013-07-19T23:54:00.000+05:30

In the great epic Mahabharatha, there are some dramatic scenes at the courtyard of the blind King Drutharashtra at Hastinapuri. The King & his beloved son get disturbed at the news of Pandava’s come back as they did not want to share their Power and Kingdom at any cost. Unfortunately for them, despite their best efforts to expel Pandava from the Kingdom, they came back safe in clinical frequencies framed by destiny. At each opportunity, King Drutharashtra was advised to rehabilitate Pandava and give them their Kingdom! Despite the good advises of senior mentors and wise men, the King and his pampered son never accommodated them. And the kind of intolerance they had shown towards sharing their power is the classical example of shamelessness and it should be counted as one among the first ever examples of how much people can stoop low to satisfy their own greed for the power in a civilized society!

We’re in the age of modern Drutharashtras and Suyodhanas at every walk of life; or at every corridor of Power! When minority and majority play their influence in politics, the common man wonders that who are the real beneficiaries of these so called ‘benefits’?! The minority representatives might have bargained lot of favours for them, but it is distributed among the confidants of the ‘party kings’. Most of these common people of this ‘minority’ are just spectators and they run around hard to make both ends meet. So who benefited out of these huge bargains is ambiguous; rather clear. Similarly, it is the same or more apparent in the case of majority representatives. There were major institutions allocated to these community organizations for the progress of their respective communities. In fact, it was never useful for the poor people in the community. These institutions have become money spinning tools for these organizations and over a period of time they lost the mandate to speak on behalf of respective communities. Now, there’s a sudden realization that if they don’t put their act together, they would be nowhere. But, if both of them don’t change their ways and cut down their whims & fancies and qualitatively change to serve their respective communities, people would eventually realize the truth and at a particular juncture, they would express their anger and throw these unrealistic leaders out.

Another example is that of the current cricket governors in the country! A game of great significance in a country of die-hard fans made 'Gods' of the game. This, not only made them earn multi-billion contracts but more greedy too. Eventually, the cricket governing body in India became one of the most rich and powerful in the whole world. This had paved way for all the honey bees (or Money Bees) to get attracted to the organization and to abuse it to the core for their benefits! This beeline is not just from Sports alone, but from politics too, as many of them find these sports organizations as safe zones to hang on forever without trouble. However, arrogance pays its dividend very fast and the very people who were beside you while on the good times become the attacking enemies to save their own seats. One among them got expelled a few years back, thanks to a silly row with a minister on issuing visa to a former Brand Ambassador model from South Africa?! It is unbelievable to see an all-powerful glamour boy becomes a villain overnight and he’s in exile now, at London. In fact, this phenomenon should have given all these culprits a valuable lesson to curtail their greed or to gracefully quit. However, it does not happen so and they keep riding people till the next link gets exposed. I think that’s the very reason that these guys flex their muscles to stick on shamelessly even after they are semi-exposed as they would be wiped off from the post either by their own colleagues or they would get wiped off from this world by their unholy partners of underworld. You have classic examples like Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer.

If they don’t change, they’ll be forced to do so, by the millions of game lovers. If these politicians don’t change, millions would come out to change the system which would eventually throw them out forcibly?! History teaches us great lessons and the intelligent visionaries learn farsighted lessons to evolve and envisage a better system in advance!

Nomination for BlogAdda Award

2013-07-04T21:37:00.001+05:30

The Queen Bee and the Innocent Scapegoats

2013-05-12T21:35:00.001+05:30

All my readers should have seen Bee Houses and the behaviour of Queen Bee. If not, kindly observe it at the next possible opportunity. I had seen my farmer friend Mohanettan shifting a complete Bee House by just capturing the Queen Bee and putting it in an empty match box and transporting it in his bike. Along with him and his bike, the entire battalion of Bees travels to the new destination!

At last, after such a huge hue & cry, Bansal had submitted his resignation. He was asked to do so by the Prime Minister. And, the Prime Minister was asked to do so by Sonia! Now, if you take this Government’s track record you will see some of the wonderful ministers had either quit under scams or still facing charges.

The crooks in politics mostly get away with their corrupt practices because they know how to tackle an accusation and also to manage an enquiry well. This had been the tradition of Indian politics across party lines for years together. Of late, when Manmohan Singh and his colleagues took charge, it was inspiring to see that many of the ministers were falling in qualified class and they were having a clean back ground. Still there were some of the veteran corruption kings as well in the ministry from both coalition parties and congress. Surprisingly, if you see the number of ministers who had to face scam charges, most of them (Not all) have been these people with clean track records?! To people who look at the surface of it, it is quite natural to feel that these people have transformed themselves at the corridors of power. But, there are quite a few unanswered queries for anyone who would like to think beyond the shallow waters…

See the scam matrix and the names and correlate it with the following queries….

Congress	S.No.	Name	Scam Gate	Remarks
	1	A K Antony	Tatra, Augusta Westland and more to come.
	2	Pawan Kumar Bansal	Railway Board appointments
	3	Ashwini Kumar	Cover Up of Investigation on Coal Gate Scam.
	4	ShashI Tharoor	Acquiring sweat equity for his girlfriend before she became his wife.
	5	P Chidambaram	2G and more to come.
	6	P C Chacko	JPC Report Adulteration
	7	Sheila Dixit	Delhi CM – Scams from CWG and so on.
	8	Salman Khurshid	As Law Minister, Scam of the trust headed by his wife came up. Tried to cover up & justify Robert Vadra during DLF Scam came up. As Foreign Affairs Minister, multiple flip ups in the case of accused Italian Naval officers who killed fisher men in Kerala.
	9	Manmohan Singh	2G, Coal Gate, Cover up of Coal Gate enquiry report, etc.

How can people with clean images made over their life time forego it for corrupt money which they had never touched so far in their life-time owing to the principles they upheld through their political career?
It is unbelievable that people who had ditched their close colleagues for being corrupt and upheld their clean image had gone berserk after money at the peak of their political careers??!
Sheila Dixit, just after her first term was not in the good books of Sonia, but she was loved by the people for her development works. However, after she came back for the second term, overnight political drama made her favourite of the high command and then onwards her public image declined sharply, thanks to multiple scams including the Common Wealth Games. Remember, she was the one who received appreciation for Delhi Metro ‘on time’ commissioning and she had never intervened during Mr. Sreedharan’s clean execution of the project. Her transformation into a corrupt politician after she became blue eyed baby of the high command spins lots of questions to the common people of India, naturally. In fact, there was a period when she was not sharing dais with the party President (rather vice versa) and was rumoured to resign from the CM post!

All the above factors indicate to the involvement of the Party Leadership in successfully transforming some of the Country’s cleanest politicians into the most corrupt individuals?! We the AAM AADMI (Mango People as per Vadra’s definition) of this country should sense this as a wakeup call as British had looted India for centuries together after Moguls. Beware, now it is time for another to loot India, if we do not wake up and resist.

Induction of Culture – Limitless & Unconditional Methods

2013-02-25T16:22:00.000+05:30

After a long gap, I had the opportunity to be there for the temple festival at Pallassana, which was an integral part of our lives during our childhood. It was nostalgic to watch Sri. Chandrasekhara Varrier’s awesome performance with his natural ease! It was exciting to meet M/s. Unnikrishnan, Narayanan and Madhu after quite some time. Witnessing the stamps of time on each of them had inspired me to search for lost hair locks on my head as well!!

However, it was sad to notice that the number of days of Kathakali performance had been cut down to three instead of traditional five due to poor turnout of audience. Even for these three days, the audience presence was 1/4^th of its usual turnout?! When we discussed about it, there have been many reasons popping out for this deterioration (which has been gradual over last 3 – 4 years) and felt very sorry about the state of affairs.

The inspiration for writing this note was actually something very interesting and different. This is a reiteration of what I have been advocating earlier in my article regarding induction of culture; http://indpad.blogspot.in/2012/02/inducing-culture-in-young-minds.html . I wrote that post after watching an interview of Sri. Vellodi (The first Indian Ambassador to Tanzania) and I mentioned there that we Pallassanites are lucky to get such cultural induction through these temple festivities and performing arts, which is actually missing in the current system of education. In fact, Mr. Vellodi was very logically insisting on introduction of such a subject in the syllabus of the current education system.

Coming back to ‘Kalithattu’ (The stage where Kathakali is performed), I met Mr. Benedict ^*, (who’s at least 5+ years junior to me in school) at this temple ground watching Kathakali with his wife and children. I was meeting him after at least 5 years, though his parents lived quite nearby! But the most amazing fact was the revelation that he’s been quite a fan of ‘Kathakali Padhams’ (the verses) and I was awestruck at the knowledge he was having on the subject and my interaction became more interesting when he told that he had gone to Kottakkal and other places to watch Kathakali performances! It was all the more refreshing to see the entire family there and he told me that his wife insisted on seeing Kathakali as she had heard quite a lot from him and became curious to know more about it. I also realized that such classical folk arts have audience at various planes which, ordinary people like me would find very difficult to express, because in the midst of our interaction, he was getting impatient when artistes started performing ‘Manodharmam’ as he was keen to listen to the verses! Earlier, he even explained some of the verses for me as I couldn’t make out from the recital by Sri. Narayanan. Then I moved onto the front side of the stage, where the crowd was very less unlike my earlier experiences! Standing on the side, I was watching beautiful Manodharmam by Sri. Varrier and I met Kuttan, one of the connecting links of our generation with all these festivities. I was introduced to Sri. Kesavan Kundliar (Very famous for his ‘Parasurama’), who was offering a live explanation of the meaning of the Manodharmam performed on the stage, which made it more interesting. He had also discussed regarding various ‘Shlokas’ on which ‘Manodharmam’ is based. Now, I could feel the next plane of sensitivity which is more comprehensive and enjoyable.

These experiences enhanced my conviction about the cultural thread these festivities used to play in all our lives despite our diverse socio-economic-religious backgrounds. These festivities contributed a lot to induce and nurture culture inside each of us, unconditionally. Whether the organizers knew it or not, this played a pivotal role in moulding our characters!! I think it is time now for all of us to give back this limitless love to the society for the sake of our younger generation, unconditionally.

Every art form had undergone tremendous changes in order to sustain itself and to keep it updated and attractive to the changing pattern of interests and sensitivity planes of its audiences. While in Hyderabad, during some interstate cultural exchange programme, I had seen a lot of welcome experiments with effective use of technology in classical art forms like ‘Chakyar Koothu’ etc., where they introduced a side screen with the dialogues and live explanations of ‘Mudras’ performed on stage. It was very useful even for those who were watching it for the first time. We should also provide proper seating arrangements for the audience to encourage them to come to such public places. Let’s do our best to retain this intuitive fiber created by the legends of the past.

(^*The original names are changed in order to respect the privacy of the individuals.)

Growth Management in Hospitals

2013-02-21T21:50:00.001+05:30

Last few months have been ‘Hospital Season’ for me, thanks to health issues of own self and others, one after the other! This used to happen very often in my life since very young age and I have developed an expertise in hospital care & support services with some basic understanding of many do’s and don’ts, while in hospital. I don’t know how many people agree with me when I say that there are many skill sets required to effectively assist an in – patient of a hospital as a by-stander. I had developed some of those required skill – sets over a period of time and could use this expertise effectively to avoid many mishaps!

I shall give you some sample scenarios for you to understand the importance of above said requirement of skill – sets.

1) This was quite a long time back in a super specialty hospital in Coimbatore, where I was a by-stander for one of my close relatives, who was admitted there after a series of cardiac arrests, brought there after unnecessary complications created by some of the old time famous local hospitals of Palakkad (They don’t exist now). On the 3^rd day of admission, the patient was shifted to the room after some very critical moments in the ICU. The patient was found diabetic and asked to completely avoid sugar and I went out to fetch medicines from the nearby pharmacy after the Doctor’s visit. In the meanwhile, the dietician and a duty nurse visited the patient and for some odd reasons, they had a different patient profile with them. They asked to purchase baby food and lots of protein rich food for the patient along with another set of medicines. When I came back the patient handed over another list of item to be bought for him. I went through the diet chart (even the patient diet was to be administered by the duty nurse as per the hospital system) and the corresponding list of medicines and food supplements. Immediately I had a doubt and rushed to the doctor’s cabin and shown him the list. The doctor called both the nurse and the dietician and gave a piece of his mind for the blunder they had done. It would have been a disaster if it was not brought to Doctor’s notice as the patient who is already weak and whose heart was going through a recovery process, would have struggled further by sudden shoot up in the sugar levels in the blood. This hospital was in the initial stages of growth at that point of time. Now, they are one among the veterans in the industry.

2) Very recently, I had been in a leading hospital of Palakkad, again as by-stander. Even before my relative got admitted I had to accompany her regularly for various diagnosis processes. It was here my Mom underwent a minor surgery, years back and the quality of services and the cleanliness were appreciated very much on those days. However, the whole scenario is changed now, as years passed by….! It is overcrowded and the expansion (construction) is already on and it was quite difficult to get a room there and at last when we got a shared accommodation, we realized the pathetic state of its affairs. In fact, I was left alone at this room when my relative was undergoing a surgery and the other patient in the adjacent bed got discharged. When the housekeepers came to clean the room, I asked them to just dampen the cloth and wipe the partition and when they did that, all those basic stains vanished and it looked new. They themselves were appreciating each other for the new look of this wooden partition. It reflects that there’s a clear gap in supervision of the process.

3) Another funny incident was that when I requested for a room to one of the front office managers, he was expressing his helplessness and then carried on to mention that many a times, he had helped people and once the room is given, then there would be numerous complaints regarding the facilities. I understood his intolerance about the grievances and also it was sad to realize that the man who’s employed to resolve the issues thinks that he had done a favour by allotting a room to the client?! Above all, having received a favour of getting an accommodation, you are not supposed to demand quality of service…..? Are we living in ‘Banana Republic’?

4) Another incident is at a practicing local clinic of an integrated health scheme of defense forces, where the crowd is multifold than its optimum capacity. There are lots of systems and processes, but still it should be appreciated about the way it has been handled. There is a whole gamut of scope for improvement, but then with the current facilities and limited manpower, they are doing their best!

5) The best example was yet to come! I had to be at RCC, Thiruvananthapuram with my relative and then I realized what growth management is and I came across the effectiveness of one of the intuitive employee orientation programme! We keep boasting about various HCM (Human Capital Management) initiatives at corporate places and take pride in providing the best motivation to the manpower through most pampering methods! However, I witnessed more meaningful HCM initiatives at RCC, though it is a Govt. of India undertaking and most of the employees are permanent with assured salaries regardless of their performance! I don’t say that everything is perfect and flawless here and of course, there’s huge scope for re-engineering of certain processes with the modern perspectives. But then, given the volume and crowd they are handling, I have limited words to express my awe towards each one of them!! Once again, the most distinctive characteristic about this place is the soft words they utter to the people who visit here, despite the huge work pressure they carry and this quality is uniform across the staff right from the top to the bottom.

I have only one suggestion to all those corporate hospitals: Realize your growth and empower your employees to effectively manage that growth through consistent trainings. Otherwise, the growth will turn out to be negative!

The Business of Better Living

2012-11-25T08:27:00.000+05:30

In a remote village, recently I came across a 7 day camp of a well-known cult, who trains people to lead a better living. The venue was an auditorium owned by one of my relatives, who had given this place at no cost to the organizers as a token gesture towards the good will of the organization they represented. My inquisitiveness made me observe the characteristics of the people who attended the programme with utmost dedication and without any absenteeism. It was an insight to me that regardless of the social backdrops, there was quite a heterogeneous mix of people who attended the programme; that too despite paying a handsome fee for registration! First of all, I was surprised to see the huge number of people turn out, who religiously attended patiently till the end of the programme and also the excitement they carried all the way! I think for most of them who attended, it has been awesome to look at the minute points of life which they had experienced or tried never before in their lives and the very fact that they are able to look at life through somebody else’s populist lenses, which is well crafted or designed to suit the most common person’s lifestyle so that they can easily relate themselves with the programme and its standards.

I have been appreciating such organizations and their efforts to induce the thought process of refinement and the resource pool they generate to further expand their services in order to reach more people. I had personally witnessed transformation of many people, who never had any perspective of depth of life and its values, into a completely different, refined attitude towards life!

While these are the much appreciated works of such cults, the ugly parts are also gradually on the rise…?! The moment these cults become establishments, corruption creeps in and the intoxication of power (on people from every walk of life) makes it more vulnerable to unethical practices!

When I met some of the people who attended the above said programme, I realized the excitement they are undergoing and I sincerely hoped that they will all practice the refinement they had been taught in this programme. My skepticism about this is because I know some of the organizers of these camps of different cults, who are the synonyms of ‘ego’ and ‘negativity’…?! The question is not just about them, but if their long association with such cult does not change their attitude, I doubt how many of these participants would be the real ‘transformed souls’? This is the base of my skepticism about the dilution of values in such establishments and the amount of corruption which in turn lead to the deterioration of quality and class.

I do write about this with pain in the heart as I had been one of the admirers of such neighbourhood groups and cults which had contributed in improving the thought processes and thus the quality of many lives among the middle class, who once had strong values and in the verge of losing it gradually. In fact, it has been very easy to invoke such values among people from the middle class. These organizations had created amazingly excellent models of self – refinement and it had improved spiritual, mental and physical health of many ordinary people and for me, I looked at it as a hope for many millions of followers of such cults! Now, any dilutions in the quality will actually backfire and affect the entire species of cults and hopes of millions!

Chasing DMRC Out – The Undercurrents

2012-11-24T14:11:00.002+05:30

In the recent past, the media have been celebrating the controversy regarding Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) by reporting every bit of news and non-news about it – Left, Right and Centre! Being a close observer, I felt that we as a society need to respond to such issues more creatively rather than just political gimmicking and forgetting it forever, once media loses interest in it.

At the outset, let me introduce Mr. E. Sridharan and his background to put the thoughts in right perspective for the readers of this article.

What we Know/ told in the media time and again:

· Sreedharan is the man who took up the challenge of building Konkan Railway (which was discarded by British and later by international infra firms) and completed it on time, rather before time. To achieve this, as he told many times, he had to build a strong team for execution, who had steel nerves.

He is the man who built a dream, world – class metro rail (The first of its kind and class in the country) in Delhi, again on time with very minimum hindrance to an already messy Delhi Traffic. I had witnessed this personally during my frequent stays in Delhi during 2005 – 2006.

What many people Miss Out:

· He was the person behind Bombay Local Train to become operational on the third day after the serial blasts. This was considered impossible by any standards before and after it by Railways’ standards. Way back in an interview published in a daily, Sreedharan thanked the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for the free hand he had given for execution, which made all the difference.

DMRC was the consultant (Like for KMRL) for Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited and the day after finalization of the project concluded, Sreedharan called for a Press Meet and publicly announced his displeasure in continuing with the project as he accused HMRL of favouritism and foul play in nexus with Maytas Infra (A Satyam Group Company). The very next day he was given a defamatory notice by HMRL.

· However, very soon there was India’s largest corporate fraud exposed through Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju’s confession about riding a tiger and not able to climb down and along with that the dubious deals of Maytas also got exposed. Later the whole project was scrapped and as recently as in 2010, it was re-tendered and L & T has taken the contract. Two years down the line, the project is progressing in snail’s pace, thanks to lack of leadership from experts of Sreedharan’s class, with straight forward attitude.

Recently there was a claim by ‘Namma Metro’ of Bengaluru regarding their learnt expertize and they even claimed that instead of considering DMRC, KMRL should consider Bengaluru Metro for KMRL execution. The DMRC was the consultant there and during execution phase ‘Namma Metro’ had taken the execution job on their own, expelling DMRC citing that ‘Namma Metro’ wanted to build expertize within for future expansion and maintenance (The same reason being told in the case of KMRL, as well!). The fact of the matter is that there have been very vicious interventions and there have been 5000 trees cut for the project, which further dented the climatic equilibrium of Bengaluru (This was against the primary study and recommendations of DMRC) and in the process of building expertize, they could complete only 6.7 Kms (15% only) out of the total 42 Kms proposed. This is against the initial target of 14 Kms set based on the feasibility study for the phase – 1 (Three years).

Though people, who hear this theory of ‘Expertize Building’, would definitely fall in for the genuineness of it and nod their heads for it, they should also be made aware of the above facts. In fact, what makes these groups of unholy nexus to hate Mr. Sreedharan is the very facts mentioned above and there are lot of under currents which are flexing its muscles to drive Sreedharan & DMRC out by hiring few bureaucrats and some political black sheep.

The moment media drops this issue like a hot cake (which they had done on several issues with the interventions of powerful PR lobbies), it will become another Arushi case and another 2G or many such controversies?! So, it is we who can keep this cause alive and respond continuously till we achieve our right of getting a world – class transport system.

Tail Piece:

The latest development is that the DMRC had agreed to extend its support in technical guidance and supervision and Sreedharan would be part of this team. This seems to be well crafted strategy to eye-wash the public as there’s a suggestion to constitute a body to define, control and operate the roles and duties of Sreedharan and his team! The funniest point is that the constituted body would have people like Sudheer Krishna, Principal Secretary and other bureaucrats, who had taken clearly sabotaging stands on previous occasions.

Final Point:

Sreedharan would not be a part of the suggested controlling body, which decides the roles and duties of his team and this means that Sreedharan would not have any say in the committee. Obviously, if Sreedharan comes across any kind of restrictions in his operations, he would publicly react and drop it like a hot cake (as he had done on previous occasions) and all the conspirers would become happy as thorn in their flesh gets removed on its own! If he sticks on despite controls imposed and a reduced role by the above said committee, it would be suicidal for him, as he will become a scapegoat for any failures and delays due to the unholy alliances. In both the cases, the project would suffer multilevel setbacks.

Inducing Culture in the Young Minds!

2012-02-02T21:28:00.000+05:30

I recently bumped into DD Malayalam Channel at 11.30 in the night after I reached home after a brainstorming skype session with the client and got hooked on for a good one hour+, watching an interview with Tanzania’s first Indian Ambassador, respected Shree M.A. Vellodi, who’s living his retired life in Chennai. He is officially invited by the President of Tanzania as state guest for their Golden Jubilee celebrations of their National formation.

At first, it was his pure valluvanad diction, which pulled me in, and with the interviewer Dr. Nedungadi also speaking the same lingo, it was a treat to listen on! As he went on, he was passionately talking about the need for youngsters to understand the culture of our state through its history in the formative years so that it gives a better perspective throughout their life.

One more aspect I had noticed throughout the interview was his positive attitude and refinement. While he was critical about the cynicism of looking down upon the state by many of us who live outside Kerala, he was sad about it rather than being angry. The gracefully old man who travelled across the world was sad about people being cynical of the state rather than acknowledging many good achievements. He reiterated that it’s this lack of knowledge of the history and culture of the state which bereaves the pride of being Malayali from each one of us. He insisted to induct ‘Kerala History’ as a subject in the syllabus of 6^th or 7^th standard in our curriculum just for one year so that young minds adore it through rest of their lives. In fact, he even suggested a book for the same, Shree Krishna Iyer’s ‘Kerala Charithram’, which is a very lean book written in simplest of Malayalam.

At this juncture of the interview, it was a reconnect for me with Pallassana and I realized that even though the education system did not induce the culture in us, the village did! Pazhayakavu, Puthan Kavu, Vettakkaruman, Sabhamadam, Shiva – Vishnu temples of east – west villages respectively did the trick of inducing the culture, traditions and values in each one of us through festivals, when Kanyarkalis, Kathakalis and other folk art forms were performed. Even the remote influence of Iruppakkal, Vaamala, Maariyamma and Chudala Karuppan had a strong influence on all of us, which makes us proud of our small, quiet world within this large, busy World! Even the only mosque near my house was influential to open my eyes towards the sensibilities of other religious practices in a cohesive living environment. During my school days, we have been an integral part of their ‘Ramadan’ month celebrations and I used to get ‘Ramzan Pordridge’ every evening and it was tasty for me with its spicy flavour!

Shree Vellodi was correct in his views and our little Pallassana is a classic example of the his view point. As he said, it’s not just in Kerala, but in every state, there is a need to introduce this system of learning their own culture through their rich history, to re-induce the pride of being Indians.

Corporate Communications and Jargons

2012-01-30T16:31:00.012+05:30

I wanted to write this note for some time. My interactions with lot of teams who works with me triggered to take a determined effort to make this note for all those youngsters, who’re seeking jobs and also for those who’ve just landed at their first jobs.

I request all those who work in senior positions at various organizations to add more value through their comments to this collection of vocabulary of jargons used in corporate communications.

Jargons have been part of human culture since ages and of late, it became the order of the day in corporate communications as the conventional and conservative business practices withered away with new thrust of information technology and the work culture built around it. Many a times, in my professional journey, I came across shockers of such acronyms and found myself humiliated for lack of knowing it. Things are different now and anyone can google about anything and in the most likelihood, one will end up with many answers and sometimes, it becomes confusing to choose the right one.

However, there are lot of acronyms used in new era ‘SMS’ and ‘Chat’ communications, which I’m not touching at all, as it is not very important in the corporate communication at this point of time.

So…here we go….

S.No	Usage	Expansion	Context
1	PFA	Please Find Attached	Mail Attachments
2	ETA	Expected Time of Arrival	Flight schedules/ Project Scenario
3	ASAP	As Soon As Possible	Mails/ Correspondence
4	FYI	For Your Information	Forwarded mails/ Files
5	FYI & A	For Your Information and Action	Forwarded mails & files
6	TL	Team Lead	Projects
7	TL	Top Line	Finance projections (Gross Revenues/ Profits)
8	BL	Branch Lead	Sales & Marketing
9	BL	Bottom Line	Finance Projections (Nett Revenues/ Nett Profits)
10	FYP	For Your Perusal	Reporting/ Submissions
11	FYP & A	For Your Perusal & Action	Reporting/ Submissions
12	PFB	Please Find Below	Mails/ Correspondence
13	UP	Under Production	IT/ Film Industry (Very context specific)
14	UT	Unit Test	Education & Software Testing
15	UT	Union Territory	Geography & Politics
16	UAT	User Acceptability Test	Software Testing/ Quality Assurance
17	PPt	Power Point/ Paper Presentation	Corporate Presentations/ Seminars
18	JFM	Jan – Feb – Mar (Quarter)	Sales & Marketing/ Finance Projections
19	AMJ	Apr – May – Jun (Quarter)	Sales & Marketing/ Finance Projections
20	JAS	Jul – Aug – Sep (Quarter)	Sales & Marketing/ Finance Projections
21	OND	Oct – Nov – Dec (Quarter)	Sales & Marketing/ Finance Projections
22	PLC	Product Life Cycle	Product Management
23	TQM	Total Quality Management	Quality Policy
24	QA	Quality Assurance	Quality Management
25	CAP	Corrective Action Process/ Programme	Corporate Counseling & Rehabilitation pgm
26	Pgm	Programme	Programs/ Package etc.
27	Id/ ID	Identity	Identity Card/ Code
28	PR	Public Relations	Corporate Media Management
29	PR	Please Revert	Corporate Communications
30	KUG	Key User Group	Project Scenario
31	PM	Project Manager	Projects

Once again, I request all the readers to contribute more into this world of Jargons. If this was useful and interesting, kindly write your comments.

Wah! Ustad! Its Humility Personified!

2011-12-21T12:26:00.000+05:30

It was after 14 long years I was going for a live concert of Ustad Zakir Hussain, here in elegant Chowmahalla Palace at Hyderabad on 17^th December. Last time, it was in Palakkad at Rappadi Amphitheatre, when it was organized by The Rotary Club of Palakkad and Association of Chartered Accountants. I had the privilege of accompanying him to the hotel after the programme, along with Dr. Prabhakar of SRI (Society for Rural Improvement). Having hosted the Maestro in the USA, Dr. Prabhakar knew him personally and wanted to meet him to discuss about a charity concert for his organization. Though we had to cancel that programme later, the meeting was very positive and I was awestruck at the humility of this legend.

The whole programme was a huge learning curve in my life! The fusion of Tabla (Ustad Zakir Hussain), Violin (Dr. Kunnakkudy Vaidyanathan), Ghatam (Vikku Vinayaka Ram) and the Kanjira (Selva Ganesh) was literally an amazing experience! However, the most unforeseen (for me, till then) happened towards the end of the programme, when Ustad conversed with the most ordinary audience through the medium of Tabla! Later, when we met him, it was the unbelievably modest behaviour of this great man left a permanent yard stick forever in my mind to look for, in any such celebrities!

One more incident on the same day left another deep mark on my sensibilities. In the hotel lobby, we met Shree Mattannoor Sankarankutty (The famous ‘Chenda’ artist), who was there with his twin sons for just taking the blessings of the Maestro! Ustad blessed the kids and talked about Chenda in length & breadth! I believe that the depth of his knowledge on the various formats and technicalities of Chenda must have amazed Mattannoor as well! Years after, I witnessed the ‘Arangettam’ (Debut Performance) of these young kids in ‘Pallassana Pazhayakavu Temple’ and Shree Mattannoor was nostalgic about this meeting when I referred about it.

With these memories intact, I went to this concert on 17^th December, 2011 at the beautiful Chowmahalla Palace and as expected, Ustad was at his magical best! Though he played many new innovations and unique improvisations, there was a deliberate effort from him to play himself subtle to give importance to young Sabir Khan (Son of Late Ustad Sultan Khan), who with his Sarangi, shared the stage. In fact, Sabir Khan was performing for the first time after his father passed on, a month back. The usual ‘takeover and indulgence’ of Ustad Zakir Hussain was missing, though there were couple of glimpses of it as rare exceptions. He, often forgets momentarily that there are others around him and indulges himself in a seamless journey of Ragas! However, he used to come back to his composure recognizing others respectfully and pass the baton to them, who in turn indulge themselves in pursuit of outreaching the set standard bar! This was deliberately downplayed in this concert to accommodate this youngster and as an ardent fan of Ustad, it was little disappointing for me. The young Sabir Khan also had his moments of glory when he enthralled the audience with his variations in Sarangi.

At the end of the programme, pointing at the beautiful Chowmahalla Palace, Ustad reminded the audience to preserve our rich heritage and culture along with the T20s and IPLs. He told: “There are numerous young artists performing around you. Google them and encourage them too, not just me alone”.

With every individual who touched his feet for his blessings, he too bent down to show his respect and it kindled my sensibilities to learn the DNA of humility from this great soul!

The Legends are those who travel beyond the stricture & frame work of their profession into virgin lands of exploration with an open mind and correlate every new experience to the well learnt basics of their profession to evolve new practices and bring freshness to it and thus contributing in transcending the same warmth to their listeners.

Every youngster has tons of lessons to learn from this great human being, who is humility personified!

An ode to a Legend

2011-11-21T16:48:00.003+05:30

“Let me keep a petal of silent prayer

In front of his soul and legacy he left with us,

To follow and to practice,

Though, with broken hearts”

One of the most influential people in my life is my Dad. I know this may look like a cliché for many, but I can’t keep myself away from proclaiming it as I owe him so much for whatever I am, as a human being.

In Haridas Master, I lost the second most influential person of my life. He was Pallassana’s ‘Hari Mash’.

Haridas Master was my Mathematics Teacher in 8^th and 9^th Classes. These were my years of transformation as a Maths student since I hated Maths till then! He definitely had a magical wand to attract his pupils towards the most prejudiced subject. In fact, my Dad used to meet him every day during his evening walks and explained him about my perceived fear of Maths. I still don’t know what magical touch had transformed me, but the results were magnificent. I’m ever indebted to him along with all other lives, he had transformed in his life time.

As it is nostalgic to remember about those formative years of life, I can’t stop writing without mentioning about the unified efforts taken as a team by those self-less teachers with great dedication. During SSLC, it was like a very well conducted orchestra and I remember the Maths Team - Sudha Teacher and Sasidharan Master under the leadership of ‘Hari Mash’! From Santhiniketan (a Tuition Centre adjacent to School), there was Jayaprakash Master too, who contributed in introducing us to lots of innovative tools and methodologies. In fact, during those days we were given exposure to today’s work sheets by ‘JP Mash’. The most important point was that these new tools were immediately accepted and adapted by our formal teachers without any resistance as they found it was very useful for the students. I don’t know how many of such teachers exist today who adapt innovations, so quickly?! Predominantly we should thank the bold leadership of ‘Hari Mash’, who initiated and led this positive change in teaching.

Another factor was the inspiration to see and enjoy ‘Kathakali’ more seriously. Over a period of time, the ‘Kathakali’ in Pallassana and ‘Hari Mash’ became two inseparable entities. I remember the tiny ‘Krishnan’ along with him among the ‘Kathakali’ audience during the annual ‘Pazhayakavu Temple Festival’. Pallassana will definitely miss 'Hari Mash' a lot during next year's festival.

As a matter of fact, in this world of Public Over-Display of Affection (it is no more PDA, now it is PODA), we shared a subtle relationship with lots of affection. We had numerous constructive discussions on various issues and on devising new techniques to introduce applied Mathematics to the young minds to inculcate a Mathematical culture and make them aware of its pragmatic applications in life.

Thanks Hari Mash…

Thanks from a million minds!

Inspiring mortals was your destiny

You will keep doing it in your absence too.

Through me and all of them, forever!

The disaster of political hoodwinking

2011-11-12T10:53:00.000+05:30

Whether most of our politicians lack education or not, they have arrogance in abundance with little wisdom! However, to understand the pulse of the nation, you don’t need rocket science expertise, but sheer common sense. Many a times, in the eagerness to oppose the change, our ‘Netas’ tend to forget it or deliberately ignore it.

In fact, post Anna’s movement; there has been a polarization of political class across the party lines against it and against anyone who supports it. Though this is a natural phenomenon and response, well expected from this species, what I fail to understand is the height of their foolishness like any other frog in a small well! I apologize to my readers for these harsh words as I am helpless to find any lesser word from my vocabulary. If they carefully observe the political turmoil across the world and the bloody end of those dictators who were far more powerful and influential than our stalwarts of democracy, it is vivid and clear that neither these movements can be ignored nor that the relevance and the lessons it provided can be sidelined.

Every reference of these global movements by most of our political analysts and other scholars during the Anna’s Movement on a comparison note, was repeatedly thwarted by our political class who came on discussions across the party lines and their reasoning for their stand was that the political scenario in India is completely different from those countries and they went ‘gaga’ over the greatness of our democracy! Post 26/11 attack, as I have been repeatedly stating through various articles, the ire of the marginalized middle class was ever growing and culminated as the evident support to the Anna’s movement and thanks to Anna and his team mates who could channelize it in the most peaceful manner unlike in most of the other countries. To the people who refer to Anna’s movement as a threat to the democracy of the country, I have only one appeal and that is to understand the world around you more practically and not through those yellow spectacles of a politician who wants to cover his assets and his lost face. The fact of the matter is that this ire towards the political species is going to remain here as long as they don't change their ways and if you resist and try to bamboozle the people, by harassing and/ or dividing the team, which only reminds people of the British tactics of ‘divide and rule’, it will boomerang with added momentum.

Yes! They are correct that it is a threat to the democratic system of our country as our current system is built on the fragile framework of regionalism and religionist sentiments and the most influential middle class have been so far kept out of our electoral political process through deliberately clever and strategic marginalization, which is of late, losing grounds drastically. The system has consistently failed our people over all these years of independence and by shying away from each opportunity to mend their ways, our politicians are shutting doors to the enormous opportunities to avert the end of the road disaster, which is not too far! Moreover, the very agitating middle class are very much aware that no one is sacrosanct in this current system which has been on a sharp climbing curve of corruption for over 60 years and nobody is an exceptionally perfect role model! So, what they look forward is only a gesture of hope to keep their spirits up and they are all aware that one ‘Jan Lokpal’ is not going to end corruption overnight in this country. If our politicians fail to read these minds of the people and stop hoodwinking at them to divert their attention by attacking a few team members of the movement, the disastrous end to this glorified democracy and the politics of religious and regional divide, will come to a grinding halt.

It will be much easier to topple democracy in our country than those autocrats and monopolies of other countries as it is more delicate and internally displaced by any standards! If it took a much difficult blood shed to replace the authoritarian governments/ rulers outside, it will take no time in a factional, unrealistic and non – representative democracy like India. The only hope now is that there is still some breathing time left, to change and transform and if you don’t listen to these final calls, you are writing your destiny of disaster and in the end, whatever you wanted to cover – up and safeguard will be unveiled like in the cases of yester year corrupt world leaders.

End this Intolerance & Impatience…!

2011-10-31T16:17:00.001+05:30

When you go through the media, be it Television, Newspaper and/ or Micro – Macro Social Networking sites, you get a feeling that no one is happy and everyone is intolerant towards others and everyone is impatient to accept and analyse their failures. They all find some medium to vent their ire towards almost everything they deal with in their daily lives!

There’s an air of suspicion and hatred and more and more people are becoming unhappy and bombs explode in regular intervals across the globe. Where’s this universe heading? Is it reaffirming the 2012 theory? Recently, I met one of the spiritual gurus after the ‘Navaratri Pooja’ and talked for some time. During his discourse after pooja, he was urging the disciples to have a self-analysis and a course correction to lead a healthy and happy life. I don’t know how many of them understood it, among those who were assembled there, as many of them were in the last phase of their life. I was going there after a long gap and earlier I had seen youngsters who used to be there to organize such events and now I observed that the vibrant presence of the youth is missing there. Later the Swamiji confirmed that those who used to be there had either got transferred in their jobs or got absorbed in their work pressure and not able to find time at all…!

Now, with the ‘wall street capture’ movement gathering momentum, it is evident that people across the globe have been suppressing their insecurities and intolerant desperations all these while. Given a chance, this is erupting and gathering the imaginations of millions across the globe. Where do we go from here? This is ‘the’ big question we need to ask ourselves and the answer is simple and within our inner selves!

The tolerance is always a relative term or act as it could be quite different for different individuals in a constant situation and it could also be different for same individual in different situations. It may also depend hugely upon the ‘bio-rhythms’ of the individuals as well. So the reaction to a situation can vary on the basis of multiple reasons, logic and facts. Above all, intolerance can be kindled by the act of external forces’ brainless attitude or sometimes, it can be deliberately programmed to execute.

However, as I mentioned earlier in this article, the solution is very simple and this can be addressed by our own small acts! This applies to everyone from street side worker to the chair-persons/CEOs of large organizations. Understand the fact that the mother earth has resources to share to its children, but then we the children have a critical responsibility to use it with deep caution. Our needs, comforts and luxuries should not turn into greed and exploitation of these abundant resources, which is also meant for other cohabitants. Of late, what we witness is the thrust for more & more from every other corner and this is reflected in the agenda of the corporates and conglomerates as well! This agenda of corporate greed is well disguised in the name of ‘investor friendly’ approach and such beautiful vocabulary of jargons!

Whenever we forget those small recognitions of others’ needs, we are bound to face the music of the ultimate caretaker, who’s always watchful on all of us…! There are classic examples of this everywhere in the world and one such example is as follows…

Great Britain/ United Kingdom is one such country which was infamous for its successful invasions and also for looting wealth of the invaded countries. They successfully master minded and used technology to build systems to transport that wealth to their country. As I keep telling, the world is a full circle (easily told as ‘Duniya Gol Hei’ in Hindi) and to describe it more significantly, you start where you end! If you observe the current economic crisis, even after centuries of looting, they are not able to sustain the wealth they had looted from others and this is a pointer to the corporates to realize ‘Nature’s Justice’ and mend their ways to initiate partial distribution of this created wealth through well-conceived and genuinely executed social development programme. Then you become an idol in the minds of common people and in the process, refrain from marginalizing sizeable proportion of the population and thus keeping them under their tolerance levels.

This intolerance will vanish if each of us (individuals, organizations, establishments including governments) initiates a self-introspection and self-control to take course correction to recognize and empathize with others’ needs, thoughts and expressions.

My response to an email on Somnath Chaterjee's article on Jan Lokpal Movement...

2011-08-25T23:55:00.003+05:30

Dear All,

This is very typical call by anybody who's part of our political system and nothing surprising about it...!In fact, the same sentiment was expressed by A B Bardhan during a procession at Gateway of India post 26/11 Mumbai Terror attack. Then M A Naqvi of BJP criticized that protest march as an elite class lip service and nothing deeper than that. I'm not going to technicalities of constitution and the parliamentarian politics now, as the issue they are projecting to size down is much beyond those narrow technicalities.

Though I respect the impeccable public life of Somnath Chatterjee, he along with all other politicians need to understand the pulse of the people and need to admit the fact that people reached at this point after being marginalised and pushed over long painful years of suffering..! In fact, the political class of this country have of late, hid behind the vote banks (in the name of region, religion, caste, etc.) and a common middle class who were vibrant society in the initial stages of independent India slowly turned indifferent towards the electoral politics due to predominantly two reasons...1) They felt that nothing is going to change as every one who came as new hopes took them for grand royal rides. 2) when they felt that they had been taken for ride, they looked at a constitutional provision for rejecting the entire list of candidates and realized that no such provision does exist. However, the hope resurrected when T N Seshan became CEC and brought in the provisions of his position to bring in radical changes to a system which was actually put to a slow death in the minds of the people. Hence, T N Seshan deserves a very important and immortal position in the sustenance of our democracy, whether the politicians agree or not. Unfortunately, like our society, our politicians also look at every issue with a short term vision unlike the visionary politicians of the early independence days and they were comfortable at the middle class alienation from the normal electoral process as they had to focus on those sectarian issues and influencing an illiterate, social, economical lower class was quite easy and there are time tested formulae to handle them. So middle class indifference was a blessing in disguise for every politicians to handle the system and whenever there was an awakening among this class, they mocked at them on their right to speak out as they hardly participated in the process and eventually succeeded to shut their voices. When A B Bardhan responded that the kind of politician bashing happened after 26/11 incident was dangerous to the democracy, he was 100% right! But the fact of the matter is that every colleague of him should have interrogated to find the root cause of the issue instead of not just responding at the symptom of the problem...!

No one from this political species understood that they are sitting on a boiling volcano and it can erupt at any point of time...!They were all the more interested and indulged in looting at unimaginable folds and ignored various signals this society started giving. Above all, they never sensed that this middle class is the one who actually contributed the major chunk of the taxes as most of their taxes were deducted from the source even before their earnings are paid to them. The ire of these genuine or partially genuine tax payers were growing as each scam was meted out to them and Anna's movement had provided them a perfect platform to vent their feelings and that is the success of this movement. The beauty is that it is the only movement of the recent past with complete peace and non violence!!

So anybody (I mean the entire political class) who talks about the sanctity of the constitution and the parliamentary system, I have only one answer: Had they kept up this very sanctity of the system with utmost integrity, they would not have reached this situation at all! I have few more questions to ask: 1) In the name of regions & religions and reservations & anti-reservations, when people kills people and burns public/ private properties and affect the normal public life, then it is called protests in a democracy just because it is organized by a political outfit. What's your take on this? 2) When people go for a peaceful protest fast completely legal under the constitutional provisions, that too after engaging and negotiating for months together, how can you call it as blackmailing?

Regards,

Padmanabhan Bhaskaran

Skype ID: padmanabhan.bhaskaran

Save! Save! 108 Services….?!

2011-08-23T23:40:00.000+05:30

For some time now, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to ‘108 Services’ in Hyderabad for saving my life on 2^nd August, 2008 midnight when I had an unprecedented, severe asthma attack and their fully equipped ‘108 – Ambulance’ reached exactly in 15 minutes and gave me the first aid by connecting me to the oxygen cylinder and took me to the hospital along with my wife with no time wasted anywhere…! I was unconscious and it would have been fatal, if it was any later..! It was an eye opener for me to understand about the services and later I did lot of research on the services provided by both EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) and HMRI (Health Management and Research Institute) and found out the brilliance of our veteran health scientists and their pragmatic approach. In fact, later we could refer this model of their ‘Hospital on Wheels’ with a Mini Operation Theater to some of our clients in African Countries, where medical health care is still an oasis…!

I’m extremely sad that I had deferred writing my thanks giving article about the services only to find me writing almost an obituary of this fantastic concept which, by now, has been implemented in many of the states of India partially or completely…! When Former CEO of Satyam Conglomerate came up with his confession on the fraud he had committed, nobody had thought that his dream project initiated and supported by Satyam will ever go through this phase in its path forward…!

When Ramalinga Raju and team had conceptualized and created this institution with the support of then CM of Andhra Pradesh, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and pulled in lot of eminent scientists and advisors like A P J Abdul Kalam, it was a dream coming into life for the common man. The people were really relating it to the ‘911 Services’ of the USA and it was a sigh of relief and there was a touching story like mine for everyone who used these services. As planned by the institution, it was replicated across the country in a phased manner at different levels…!

Withdrawal of Rajus & Satyam in the aftermath of the scam, who actually envisaged the entire project and later, demise of YSR had actually orphaned this project and with lot of reluctance GVK group had taken up the operations with a more reluctant Kiran Kumar Ministry, who had been grappling with lack of funds put these services in the dock..! Now, the quality of these services is quite pathetic and not worth to talk about…! Moreover, there have been a lot of blame games by GVK Group and the Government on this issue and the GVK Group categorically blamed that for months together they had not received the promised funding from the Government…?!!

Whatever may be the reasons, the current status of the quality of the services and the quality of the employees of the EMRI indicates the lack of interest and the incapability of both GVK Group and the AP Government and it is really a serious concern for the public??! If a single private firm is not able to run this, why can’t we discuss about involving more corporate houses as part of their CSR Programme (Corporate Social Responsibility) and make it successful? Why can’t we have value added services at an additional cost and thus bridge the gap in funding? Now with the introduction of the UID, the income groups can be identified & defined and a fees structure can be arrived at, accordingly. The need of the hour is to take this forward with top priority to save one of the most beautiful & important social health care milestones of our country…!

Note: If this issue is not addressed, this deterioration in the quality of the services may seep through to other states as well, like an epidemic...!

The Politicians' Way Out....!!

2011-08-21T19:06:00.000+05:30

The ongoing protest fast by Anna Hazare and millions of people are clearly an outcome of the vacuum in our political system and the leadership, either naturally formed or deliberately created for a prince’s crowning ceremony scripted well and executed to perfection, if you closely observe these political developments of last few months. As I had written earlier in my articles, it’s unbelievably stupid for the senior leaders of Congress (Digvijay Singh, Kapil Sibal etc.) to conduct themselves in the way they had, during this crisis since the beginning and the way this whole protest was handled by the PM and the Govt. as such. Otherwise, how do you expect a more than willing Manmohan Singh to come under the purview of the Lokpal to retract on his own statement passing the buck to his cabinet colleagues…?! Another signal we should carefully read from the ‘Aug—16’ episode of arrest of Anna Hazare and then later his release after so called intervention of ‘Prince Charming’ is the subtle, but firm effort of the remote controls to paint a picture of how capable ‘Prine Charming’ is, with his pragmatic sense of reading the pulse of the people…?! So before coming to a conclusion, we should wait for the final scenes where the induction process is expected…!

This also points out at an opportunity presented in a platter for any other intelligent politician to fill this vacuum and carry these aspirations of the millions forward as well! Inside the Rajyasabha, Arun Jaitley had used it beautifully and much elegantly. However, outside the parliament, there seem to be a lot of apprehensions to take up the mantle full heartedly as this huge support comes with lots of responsibility to perform. This is exactly what Anna Hazare also going to face as well and in addition, as the civil society don’t present any political alternative, there will be this question that who is going to perform for them…?! All such movements in the history of our nation were presenting a political alternative unlike the current one which is apolitical so far. Whenever there was a political alternative presented, the people had taken it in their hearts linking it to their aspirations of better governance. Each time, they witnessed that they are taken for a grand royal ride and later forced to go back to the old one since they had no other options…! The so called ‘middle class’ who are being mocked at, for their indifference towards the system, with lots of unwarranted sarcasm by every politicians and the media in every possible platform should actually remember that they also had a past of active political participation and vigorous campaigns for the ideologies and parties they had kept close to their hearts and trusted them to guide towards a better future. However, the same people repeatedly abused their faith and failed them miserably in elections after elections with the inherent arrogance and over confidence on the short lived memory of these people, had gradually alienated them from the entire system and made them indifferent towards every other institution of the country. I would call it a methodical move by our beloved politicians to keep them away as this will eventually make it easy for all the political class to bargain with the grass root vote banks on the basis of caste, community religion and other incentives! They have become indifferent towards all sorts of elections as they don’t find a single candidate eligible or clean to vote for and they are not given any option to express ‘No Vote’ to anyone…! The political class was enjoying this dis-interest of middle class in the system and whenever encountered, used to escape by accusing them of their indifferent attitude towards the system and conveniently shut them up…!

Times have changed and people are at the threshold of their tolerance and Anna struck a chord with these sentiments of these people across the nation. But in the process, this protest had slowly seeped into a section of lower levels of the people as well! Every Government in this world who pretended to represent the people had tried to suppress such protests and tried to ignore the anger of the middle class as they are considered to be indifferent to the electoral politics and hence will not be a threat for them during next elections…! However, I request everyone in politics to remember that every revolution happened world over, were initiated by this so called indifferent ‘Middle Class’…!

To conclude, as I mentioned above, it’s going to be ‘Advantage Intelligent politician’, who takes the platter offered by Anna…!

Note: The congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh threatened to resign against the CBI raids in the offices of Jagan Mohan Reddy and his associates. When they do this, it is not blackmailing because they belong to political class, but when a simple man sits on a fast for a national cause with the support of millions of people, it is called blackmailing…??!!