Non Sensex

We have something called SENSEX in India, which is supposed to be the barometer of the health of Indian economy. It is a collective weighted average of the share price index of some top corporates that are listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange.

I have always felt that it should be called Non sensex, rather than sensex!

In my humble view, it is hundred percent gambling, profit-making and highly insensitive, jittery and short-sighted sentiment driven index. Nothing more. People try to fool you saying there is some science behind it and all that, but don't fall for it. It is pure nonsense.


Take the journey of the sensex during the last month or so. Opinion polls predict a hung parliament, sensex falls. Congress wins, sensex rises the next day. Economic survey predicts sweeping economic reforms, sensex zooms. Pranab presents a 'pro-poor' budget, sensex nose dives. Pranab assures the market that reforms are on, sensex recovers again. Poor monsoon predicted, sensex falls. Heavy downpoor in Mumbai, sensex rallies up. Rains continue for two more days, sensex in a pregnant pause. Mumbai flooded, sensex drops...


What sort of index is this of the economic health of the country? If daily trading is banned in BSE or at least, if their 'sentiments' are not taken into account, then probably I can consider this as an index. Even better, tell all the shareholders that anybody investing in a share cannot offload it for next 3 years, then it will really show what the shareholders feel and they will look at the industry and the particular company, estimate its growth prospects, rather than buying and selling based on the sneezes of the prime minister, moods of the finance minister, rumours of rains and droughts!

Till then, let us just call it non-sensex.

I am a Cheese... Or, possibly wine?

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.

Some cove called Luis Bunuel seemed to have made this wise crack. As Age seems to be playing in the mind for the last couple of years, this quote also attracted my attention.


I would prefer to consider myself a wine, rather than cheese. I think, I am quite maturing as years go by and am becoming more 'valuable'! I was telling Abirami recently that probably, this is the best phase of my life. Not that I did not enjoy the school days in Pattukottai or the college days in Coimbatore or later in Anand. Of course, the Boithili village days in Andhra Pradesh were terrific and probably the best till then.

But, the last few years are going quite well as far as the professional and personal lives go. If you consider how much useful I have been to others around me, the general consensus will be that the last six years are the best in that aspect.

Probably, it is also because I am mellow and mature now, and not trying to prove any point. May be because, I have finally found the exact groove that will suit my strengths and does not show up my weaknesses. May be I am maturing like a good red wine.

The downward slide probably is around the corner. Hope, I will have the wisdom to realise that phase and adjust to that, rather than try to assert myself on some poor friends and colleagues around me then. But, such worries can wait. Let me enjoy life when the going is good.

PS : There is a nice idea for another blog. "Manoharan, the bacteria". Wait for some more time.

Babu - the face of Protest

This is Babu, an adivasi youth belonging to Paniya community near Gudalur. This photo was taken in a protest demonstration held in Gudalur town last month, against the demolision of two adivasi houses in a remote village by a private tea estate staff. (You can read more about it in our official newsletter here.) More than 800 people from different villages came to Gudalur, walked in a long procession, shouted slogans and sat on a demonstration outside the Government office for more than 2 hours and ensured that the issue was heard and made public.

Thanks to their fight for justice, the police have finally filed a case against the estate staff under the strong law 'SC / ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act'. Filing a case itself is considered a major victory - given the state of affairs in our country. In all probability, the police will not conduct the investigation properly and will let the culprits out. But, the point I was curious about is the case of people like Babu.

He is a wage labourer and works in the construction site near our office. His team was working in a feverish pace to complete things before monsoon. But, when the date for this public protest was decided, he announced that he "won't come for work tomorrow. Of course, we will be in the protest march". I was just thinking, "He will be losing a day's work and hence, more than Rs.150 by going there. Why does he do this?""This injustice has happened to one of our fellow adivasi famiy. The same thing can happen to our village also tomorrow and we will need the support of everyone. So, it is my duty to participate in the procession." Just because I asked this question to him the previous evening, he was "extra active" in the procession, I thought. Whether they win or not, people like Babu keep the spirit of justice in our world.

Last time, when did I feel an injustice has been meted out to me personally? And, when did I need the solidarity and support of everyone around? Or, when did I feel obliged to protest publicly some injustice done to someone? I have to search long and hard for an incident like that. Babu belongs to a community. I am a free-floater...

Vijayakumar

Narayanamurthy of Infosys is officially designated as the Chief Mentor of the organisation. I wonder, if it is possible to have mentoring as an official role. But, personally, it is one of the nicest roles in any organisation, I feel. I have also benefited from mentoring by a few people. Right from school days, there are some people who have helped shape my thinking(not much!) and general outlook to life.

One such person is Mr.T.Vijay Kumar, the CEO of the Society for Eradication of Rural Poverty in Andhra Pradesh. He was the Managing Director of Girijan Cooperative Corporation, when he recruited young professionals to work in adivasi areas in 1991. I was one of them. (I was young then. Professional? Hmm...)
Our late night meetings in his office describing our experience in those remote adivasi villages and dealing with the government machinery were the highlight of those three years. In spite of difficulties and frustrations from the work in the villages, we come out of all those meetings full of optimism and energy. He was a great mentor.

Read an interview with him recently in a magazine called "Transforming India". I liked the following sentence very much, more because it is quite applicable to our work in Gudalur as well. So, here it is for everyone to muse.

"Poverty eradication requires building strong institutions of the poor. It is necessary to know how to build these institutions and also understand the fact that these institutions are dynamic and as they evolve with the kind of issues that arise, the kind of hand-holding support they require also changes.

Prior to us, there were institutions promoted by NGOs, but our approach shows the tremendous potential that the poor have. Initially, we had a more direct role through our dedicated staff, a somewhat retail role, whereas now the responsibility for supporting the SHGs and federation is slowly being taken over by the Federations themselves. It is something which is professed by everybody, whether NGOs or the government, everybody says that this has to be done, but nobody has done it on this scale."

'Trust the Poor' is his slogan in his current assignment. I am sure, he is mentoring many more people in SERP as well now.

Miracle of Aggregation

The just concluded general elections in India was one of my happiest moments in the recent past.
First of all, this massive exercise covering such a big country over a period of a month itself is something that we can feel proud of. Administration of a volatile democratic event like this in such a big scale is terrific and to announce the results in just a few hours, isn't this astounding?

Now, to the results. The right wing hindu religion-oriented party's roller-coaster ride seemed to be making head-way and everyone thought that they are going to form the next government. Or worse, all the predictions were for a hung-parliament, without any party having a clear majority. The scenario which everyone predicted in the last few days (the worst outcome in my view) was that a group of small parties led by Left will form the government, supported unwillingly by congress from outside. Fortunately, all these predictions were proved wrong and the UPA alliance won a majority on its own. I was quite happy with the outcome, though I am personally not a big fan of congress culture! Possibly, the best outcome that could have been.

As usual, TV channels and 'experts' started announcing their wisdom on the election results. Why this happened, why that did not happen, statewise calculations, castewise arithmetic and all that. The final conclusion everyone is pronouncing in the last one month is like this : "People have voted for good governance. They are not for mixing religion and politics. They are not for fringe parties pressurising the national parties like Congress. State parties should take a back seat is the view of the people. Performance of the Government will be rewarded" etc. etc.

I was quite amused with all these analysis, because the same people were predicting a hung parliament a couple of days ago. Didn't they know this psychology of the voter then? If so, they could have predicted the outcome properly? In fact, the entire media was complaining that money power is rampant; people are being offered sops; voters are going to vote whoever gives money; freebies are the deciding factor and what not!

And, the most bewildering issue for me was : Out of the 600 million or so of voters, each voter is just one individual. And, how can we interpret his or her choice to a particular candidate in a local village and relate it to the final mandate which is on a national scale; parties coming together to form government etc.

But, just a few days ago, came across an article which analyses this issue a bit. It seems it is called 'miracle of aggregation'. Quite interesting.

Any doubt on the collective wisdom of the Indian voter has been put to rest in the current elections. Indian democracy is in safe hands - the Indian voter!

The 'Miracle of Aggregation' - an idea formalised in a mathematical demonstration by the social theorist Marquis de Condorcet - seems to work in Indian democracy. He showed that a group trying to reach a decision by a majority vote (and in which each individual is making an independent judgement) is very likely to reach a correct decision even if each individual is only slightly more likely to reach the correct conclusion than he would simply by flipping a coin. Applied to electorate, Condorcet's logis suggests that the electorate as a whole may be much wiser than any individual voter.

Do you agree with it?

Anyway, the new government is making all the right kind of noises till now - with its '100 days plan' and all that. Let us hope that it continues.

Cute one

Of the different cartoon strips, Herb and Jamaal is another of my favourites. There are a quite few nice ones, but this one is terrific.


So, don't feel happy when someone tells you, "I will never forget that the first Dosa you made" or "the first dress you bought for me" or "the first time I heard you singing" etc. Wait for the second punch line!

How to name a village?

All of us are familiar with naming children. Some creative blokes have the chance to name their plays, films, paintings, stories and books. But, have we ever named our city, town, country or village?

Adivasis have this excellent habit / opportunity to name their villages. As they live in small settlements and some families keep moving their houses based on land available, they form villages. And, when set up houses in the new settlement, they give a wonderful name for the village. It is always based on some landmark around. No, no, not that 'tall blue building' or 'congested road juction' etc., but something nice and natural like 'big jack fruit tree' or 'the valley with a view' or 'flat land full of banana trees' or something like that.

ADAM naming Animals

Even in our villages, many of the old people are called கருப்பாயி or வெள்ளையன் or மூக்கன் etc. (meaning, girl with dark skin, boy with a fair skin, one with a big nose). But, these days we have very modern names without any meaning whatsoever. The only criterion is that it should be hard to pronounce!

Anyway, here is a list of some names that we find in our place and the rough translations of these names:
முறம்பிலாவு - Murampilavu - A winnow-shaped land with a jack tree

கோழிக்கொல்லி - Kozhikolli - Valley where a tree called Kozhi is available

சக்கரக்குளம் - Chakkarakulam - Near a pond with sweet water

வாழவயல் - Vazhavayal - Wet land with banana trees

மாங்ஙம்வயல் - Mangamvayal - Wet land with Mango trees

காட்டிமட்டம் - Kaattimattam - a Flat land where bisons roam

புத்தூர் வயல் - Puthurvayal - A new village in flat land

அம்பலபாடி - Ambalapadi - Village near the temple

நரிவளப்பு - Narivalappu - Land where leopards can be circled

புலியாளம் - Puliyalam - Village where tigers stay

கல்கடவு - Kalkadavu - Stream with lot of stones

புளியம்வயல் - Puliyamvayal - Flat land with Tamarind trees

புளியம்பாறா - Puliyampara - Big stone near Tamarind tree

கருத்தங்குணி - Karuthankuni - Flat land with black soil

செம்பகத்தரா - Chembakathara - Valley with chembaka trees

மணல்வயல் - Manalvayal - Flat land with sandy soil

மணல்கொல்லி - Manalkolli - Valley with sandy soil

Factory மட்டம் - A flat land near the 'Tea Factory' (A modern settlement)

நெல்லிப்பிறா - Nellipira - Village near Amla trees

எருமைக் குளம் - Yerumaikulam - Near a pond where buffaloes swim

Aren't they lovely?