Signs of recession

These are days of global recession. I don't think I have witnessed recession before in my life - This may mean two things : either I am quite young or had remained ignorant about economic issues for very long! You can guess yourself.

So, in the spirit of blogging, I thought of letting everyone know how to recognise that recession is setting in. What are the signs and symptoms of recession?

First and foremost, there will be more talk of bears and less of bulls. No, no, not in the National Geographic channel, but in all the business TV channels. The vocabulary in business circles will undergo some change. "Government should take their hands off from trade" will change to "Government should intervene". Flamboyant statements like "It is not Government's business to run business" will change to "It is Government's responsibility to bail out the sick units".

Words like "Morality of bonuses" will be discussed over and over again - but it is a different matter that the companies will continue to pay high bonuses even from the bail-out money given by the government. Frugality, cost cutting measures, caution, bench strength, extra work force, inefficienty will be acknolwedged as important issues to talk about.

The line dividing management and labour will also become unclear, I think. Even quite well-paid employees whom you would have considered normally as 'rich management guys' will claim themselves as poor employees and resort to strikes and protest demonstrations.

Another thing I noticed in the newspapers. There will be an Opportunities section in the print media, which gives details of job availability. There will be articles around career guidance and about work place situations. The focus of these articles will change from 'how to pick up bright employees' to 'how to lay off your staff humanely'. Or, from the days of 'multi tasking or doing two jobs efficiently at the same time', you will see more articles on 'how to protect your job in the face of competition' etc.

I wish these important issues continue to dominate our conversations even during boom times! Read this joke about a sarcastic dad recently.

Having landed a new job away from home, a young man wrote to his dad: "I have been made assistant manager, a feather in my cap."

Soon after came another piece of good news: "I am now general manager, another feather in my cap."

And, then the recession hit. "Have been laid off. Send money for train fare," read the telegram. The father wired back: "Use the feathers - fly home."

There are predictions that we have turned the corner and the recession is about to be overcome. But, again, history shows that the slowdown normally slows down very slowly. Wow!

Vegetable Ganapathi

I am ever fascinated by the Lord Ganapathi and the various forms he takes. More importantly, he seems to give an opportunity for his devotees to be creative too! Here is a nice photograph sent by Nambi. A Ganapthi made of only vegetables. Isn't He wonderful?


If you like this, probably, you may like my earlier post on Ganapathi also. Click here to read that.

Manoharan, the Bacteria

In the last post, I had written about the very tender and delicate nature of the Government servants. They seem to be very sensitive and can exist only in peculiar climates - almost like some exotic plants. So, am I.


Sometimes, people in Gudalur and even some friends outside appreciate me very much and are quite happy about what I am doing or not doing. The only thing I want to tell all these people is that I am also like those Government servants. Very tender and sensitive and all that. I can also exist only in certain environment. I am quite effective only in certain organisations, in the company of certain people.


I had been a miserable failure in certain commercial enterprises of my family, which I was duty bound to get involved. Being aggressive, demanding things from others and pushing hard for your personal benefits are important characteristics in most of the organisations, especially business oriented ones. Inspite of being a Management graduate, I will be a terrible failure if I have to get involved in some such organisations.

Thanks to the orientation to the NGO sector in Andhra, I ended up in this field where I fit in properly. Things which would have been handicaps in other organisations are indeed strengths here. So, with a little bit of hardwork, I could manage to cover up the handicaps and voila, you are a reasonably good, effective manager. So, give me the right environment, I flourish. If the surroundings get murkier, I am at a loss.


Though I would prefer to compare myself with an exotic archid or some such precious plant or flower, Abirami differed. Given her medical background, she said, "something like a bacteria. Only in certain temperatures it will survive..."

Fine, Manoharan the bacteria...

Make an Allowance...

Recently, I had the opportunity of getting involved in a nationwide survey done on Government health professionals and various hospitals in our country. The questionnaire covering the salary and incentive package available for our government doctors was a very amusing one.

The salary being paid to the doctors by the Government seems to be low compared to the money they can make by private practice. So, this survey tries to find out what are the incentives they get and what should be done to discourage private practice. I was totally tickled to read the kind of incentives Government is offering in some States for the Government doctors.

Apart from the salary, they get something called Dearness Allowance, which is supposed to take care of increased cost of living. Then, we have travel allowance, tour allowance and daily allowance. Some of the health staff get shoe allowance and some other people get only a coat allowance. Yet others get a Gloves Allowance and some lucky people get a Soap Allowance. Why soap allowance? Just to wash their hands off their patients?




Doctors are not willing to go and work in villages. So, the Government offers them Rural Area Allowance when they decide to work in small places. But, they are not too keen to work in big cities also. So, they are paid City Compensation Allowance. While normal people may be spending huge amounts of money to visit hilly regions, our government servants want some compensation to work in such places and so, they get Hill Area Allowance (This HRA is not to be confused with the House Rent Allowance, which they will get wherever they are!) Some States prefer to keep the door open by generally giving something called Difficult Area Allowance, without, of course, defining what is a difficult area. If rural areas are not possible and cities are difficult, hills are problematic and difficult areas are out of the question, where will these people work, I wonder.

Then, we have other interesting family allowances. For children's education, you have education allowance. (To improve your own knowledge, you can get Medical Journal Allowance). There isn't anything for getting married, but there is a Small Family Allowance, if you have only two children.

After going through this questionnaire, I thought our government doctors are really an exotic creatures - like some kind of archids - who can work only in a very small band of climatic conditions and social settings.



Given a chance, the only allowance I would like to ask will be something like:

Only Men Allowance : If certain days, I am surrounded only by men, then I would like a compensation for that.

Terrible Noise Allowance : If there is a visitor to the office who has a very high decibal level of speech, then an extra Rs.100 as an allowance will be fine.

Anger and Cry Special Allowance : One thing I can't stand is people shouting at someone else in anger, and worse, crying. So, if I am forced to attend one such session, probably, the thought that I will get this special allowance can be soothing.

Terrible Dress Allowance, Sick Joke Allowance ... I can go on like this.

Budgeting

Before I started working for NDDB some years ago, the idea of Budgeting was a fascinating one for me. The only budget I had known till then was the National Budget presented by the Finance Minister in Delhi. Those were the days of total Government control over economy and hence, many policy decisions were announced in the budget. I used to wonder how can one person or a small group of people plan the incomes and expenditures for the entire country's economy.

But, during the last 10 years, hardly a month passes by without me getting involved in budgeting for something. And, things have gone past lakhs and are frequently reaching the crore mark. Gone are the days of indecisiveness, 'how can we plan what will happen tomorrow?'. Why tomorrow, these days, I am involved in making plans for the next five years also!

Recently, made a plan on how many meetings will be held during August 2012 and in which village. Not only that, how many people will participate in that meeting, how many men and how many women, what will be travel cost to reach Gudalur that time (assuming a diesel charge and fuel efficiency of the Government vehicles), and the cost of one vada and three idlis (inherently assuming the cost of rice and dhal and oil). It is just child's play. The only thing to worry is whether we will get the money or not.


Budgeting is not at all a problem now. If, by chance, this budget gets sanctioned, then the actual problem starts. How to spend that money. More importantly, how to explain why it was not spent and what creative explanations can be given to convince the donors.

The donors are also becoming totally crazy. From six monthly reports, we have come down to even monthly reports. This leaves very little elbow room to manoeuvre and hence the explanations also need to be extra creative. "We budgeted to spend Rs.10000 on this meeting, but suddenly floods came and all the participants were swept away. So, we could not spend the money". Or, sometimes, "the children camp could not be held, as most of the children suddenly became adults and participated in a youth camp instead".

Churchill seems to have remarked once, "A good strategist is a person who takes into account all the eventualities, but more importantly, s/he should be able to explain why something did not happen the way it was planned". We need such strategists these days to run our organisations and answer the donors!

P.Sivakami

Recently read an interview with Ms.P.Sivakami in The Hindu. She is one of the pioneers of Dalit writing in Tamil. Has written 3 novels and numerous short stories. She was also a member of the IAS, having held important posts, including Secretary, SC & ST department. Edits a monthly magazine, contested elections as a member of BSP. And, currently an active member of Dalit Rights movement. Really a multi-facted personality.


Couple of things in her interview were really important and thought of sharing it through this blog.

Q : You were a senior bureaucrat, part of the government. Didn't that provide a viable medium for you to bring about changes?

A : "It is quite difficult actually....At first, I didn't want it... I had seen how much the previous Secretaries had struggled. And, if I call for a meeting, the rest of the IAS officers won't turn up. Knowing all these I didn't want the job. But, I still took up the job. I prepared a lot of schemes and when I asked for more funds, I was accused of being communal because I was a Dalit asking for more funds...

In Dalit and tribal areas, the government appoints nurses, teachers but they don't go there because the remote areas don't have the necessary infrastructure. So, I proposed setting up a training school so that at least basic teaching, midwifery and nursing skills could be taught to the tribals themselves and they will stay there and serve the people. But the cabinet turned it down. See, I don't understand, they don't even discuss it and I can guarantee that these issues will never be discussed. So, it is very difficult to bring about changes from within the government."

Imagine, the senior most officer of the Government in-charge of tribal development herself feeling helpless. Is it because she was a Dalit? We see some very energetic IAS officers making a whole lot of difference to tribal areas in terms of both policy and funds. But, Sivakami feels she was not able to do, in spite of her best efforts. Something to worry about.

Q: What was your experience of electoral politics like?

A: "Actually I needed this experience...I also found that working with a party is quite different from working with a movement. I could really understand the difference. With a movement, there is a vision, there are no extraneous expectations, you know that you are going to be invisible, yet you continue to work. But, in electoral party politics, you need visibility, you need victory and you need to be in power, people work with these expectations in mind."

I thought, this is a very good analysis. Even within our own organisation, when people tend to project their individual identities or have ego issues and tend to have problems on interpersonal relationships, it affects us much more seriously, than it would have, if we were just a political party.

Be Optimistic

Always try to be Optimistic ...
not that it will help much!

This is one of the quirky wisdom of Garfield, the cat. I agree. Completely.

It feels good to be optimistic. In fact, you need more optimism to continue to be optimistic even when we know that it may not help much!

Fortunately, I got into this development sector where one of the job requirements is optimism. Constantly, we are expected to look out for problems, make incremental progress, hope for the best and try whatever is possible within our means.

But, we have some ultra-optimists. They always look at the bright side of things and it comes naturally. I am now convinced that it is a habit and possible to be cultivated. I don't trust much in the motivation talks, Landmark forum, Laughing clubs and even in such camps that are being organised by corporates. But, what I do believe is that the atmosphere within the organisation, company of people and the issues which we handle in life can bring a sense of optimism in our general life as well.

And, of course, I am all for watching the 'feel-good' families, even though they may be described as 'chick-flicks' (in derogatory terms?). Some of them are really good and bring the nice side of peoplel; and we aspire like those nice chaps.



But, there is a theory that Optimism is a bit of hiding from reality. Some people argue that it is just day-dreaming and it is nothing to do with reality.That is precisely the point. If we get caught up in the reality, which is not to our liking, can we just accept that? Optimist is the person who feels that reality can be changed and works for it. If all of us are realists, no real positive change would have happened. Scientific inventions would not have happened; personal reforms will not materialise; human spirit would not have survived at the time of adversity etc. So, optimism is actually to work against reality.

It helps a lot in being in a profession where optimism is possible. Unfortunately, there are some professions where we are expected to always consider the worst case scenario and make our moves. Police for example.

But, one thing I agree. There are situations where we can have an opinion only either black or white. We can't stretch the motto of being optimistic too far ...

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?

'Special' Day

In the last post, I had written about some people getting excited by special numbers. Just to prove my point, here is another such incident. Excitement about a Special Day.

On August 7 , 2009

At 12hr 34 minutes and 56 seconds on the 7th of August this year, the time and date will be

12:34:56 07/08/09

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

This email was received a few days ago and ends with a very poignant question, "this will never happen again in our lifetime?"

It is not only numbers, people are excited strange behaviour of dates and days also. All of you mark in your diaries in any case : "Do something extraordinary on August 7th just half an hour after noon"

Divisions and Remainders

Q : What is the first number that leaves a remainder of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 0 respectively, when divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 ?

How the hell someone is expected to answer complicated questions like this? That too, it is so much annoying when this question has appeared in the 'Young World' magazine meant for small kids! And, on top of it, you will probably see a whole lot of today's children answering such questions as well.


That is not the point. What I am trying to say is, 'why would someone crunch numbers starting from zero upwards and find out what remainder it leaves when it is divided by a series of numbers? What was their motivation to do something like this?

I may think what is so exciting about finding out a number like this. But, I am sure, whoever first found out this, might have been thrilled to bits. The 'Young World' even had a title 'Fun Maths' and mentioned that it is an unique, special number! Special, ugh!!

Someone accidentally may stumble upon a fact like this, but will there be people who purposely work on issues like this and find out an answer?

OK, I guess, it makes all sorts to make the world. If I can exist, some freaks like this can also.

By the way, the answer for the question above is 119, it seems. I didn't bother to verify if it leaves all those remainders when divided by all those numbers...

Personality Test

Nambi sent a web link on Personality Test. He mentioned that this sort of test is used to see if people have the traits required to be corporate leaders. Or, he thought that people with Personality A characteristics only can become good corporate leaders. And, he also mentioned that he got a score of 52 and predicted that all of us will get between 45 and 55.

As I am not a corporate leader, I thought I am going to fail this personality test. But, still was curious to know how this website finds out about my personality when I myself have problems figuring out what is my personality. So, went to the website and filled all those questions. It hardly took 5 minutes. I was sure that my score will be 10 or 15, but was surprised to get 38.

Now, what does 38 mean? Have I just failed or am I a 'border case'? If someone has given the same responses as I gave, I would have described that fellow as "someone without taking any position in life; being wishy-washy; quite a laid back attitude in life; not matching ideals with the kind of hard-work required" etc. etc. But, do you know how was my personality described? Here it is:

"You have got 38. You seem to be in the middle between the Type A and Type B personality. In this case, the middle ground is good. Your attitude to life is more of the "smell the roses" kind and you know how and when to relax. Nonetheless, you realize that picking up a challenge and competing a little bit for your place in the sun can add some spice to your life. The equilibrium is important, so don't let your hostile, aggressive, and competitive alter ego take over too often. Generally, you are easy to be around, and people tend to feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence. Yours is a very healthy attitude towards life."

Till then I was cooking up reasons and arguments to rubbish this sort of web personlity tests. But, after reading this glowing tribute to my personality, I am going to even argue that this is scientific, what a terrific method to analyse people and what not. You can try out this website just for fun. Here is the link.

I wonder, what would have been the score for Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Ratan Tata or Mukesh Ambani ...

Dilbert's One Liners

By now, you would all have become sick with my admiration for Dilbert comics. But, I think, they are terrific. May be, that suits my sense of humour, I guess. Nothing looks at the animal called organisation, or issues like employees and employers and work culture and all that sort of rot, as interestingly as Dilbert Comics does. Take this mission statement of the Manager for instance.
Recently, Bala sent a series of one liners which Dilbert believes. Many of them are my motto in life too. So, here they are.

1. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.
2. In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.
3. Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.
4. Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.
5. When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.
6. The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train.
7. Born free, taxed to death.
8. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
9. Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.
10. Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.


11. If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.
12. It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.
13. I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.
14. A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.
15. The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.
16. The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.
17. In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
18. If you can't convince them, confuse them.
19. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.
20. Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
21. To Err is human; to forgive is not a Company policy.
22. The road to success - Is always under construction.
23. Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk.
24. All the desirable things in life are illegal, expensive, fattening or married to someone else.

Aren't they gems?

PS : In Cavincare, I wonder whether Bala is the pointy haired Boss or Dogbert, the CEO?

பிள்ளையார் (or) Lord Ganapathi

One of the nicest things about Hinduism, in my view, is the possibility of having numerous Gods - in all sorts of forms and shapes. Each has its own charm. And, of course, முருகன் or Lord Subramanya is our Tamil God and we grew up listening to wonderful stories about Him. But, my all time favourite god is பிள்ளையார் or, what North Indians call as Ganapathi.

He is the dream of every artist. Maximum experimentation of design and shapes has happened only in the case of this Lord, I think. Quite a few people are quite fascinated by this elephant god and the little mouse. Though stories about Ganapathi are not so enchanting as, say Shiva or Murugan, He makes it up with his appearances.

Here is a glimpse of the varieties of this God. Hope all of you enjoy this collection.










Don't you think, He is marvellous?

Alcoholism

According to various people, the reasons for India's problems are quite different. Some people consider corruption as the main reason; some others feel our discriminatory caste system as the culprit. Even others feel it is our inequality, while lack of education is another major stumbling block. But, according to me, Alcoholism is the biggest evil of India.

I don't know about other countries, but extrapolating the men of India, probably, it will be the biggest evil in any other under-developed country, I think.

The amount of money spent on alcohol by the village men is way too high, given the resources required to lead a better, healthy life for the family. If every man decides not to drink alcohol, that itself will make a huge change in the economy of our villages. Governments like Tamilnadu understand this weakness very well. They give rice at a very subsidised rate to the family, then the government sells alcohol to the men and collect the subsidy money back from the family... It is atrocious.

I guess, Musings is not the place to write about such issues. I wanted to write some light stuff about the 'social drinking' of urban upper class only. But, I forgot what it was. Some other time, probably.

Personally for me, to spend money to lose consciousness is not very much appealing. Want to enjoy every moment of this life - as I don't know how long it will last - with full consciousness. Why would someone drink and become unconscious, I never understood.

Rat Race

Everyone is talking about rat races these days. When we were young (long ago) and the only purpose of studying in school / college was to get a good, well-paying job, we did not know that there is something called a Rat Race. All we wanted was a secure job, a nice house, that is it. All other problems in life are considered as 'given's and taken for granted.

But, today, all the young people are talking about competition in the world, rat race and the need to move forward by overtaking others and what not. What is this rat race? Why not monkey race or donkey race? This is what wikipedia says about rat race.

A rat race is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to escape whilst running around a maze or in a wheel.

In an analogy to the modern city, many rats in a single maze run around making lots of noise bumping into each other, but ultimately achieve nothing (meaningful) either collectively or individually.

In these days of job loss and recession and lay-offs, I thought people may not be too worried about rat races - somehow, they would like to be in race, I thought. But, many people are quitting their jobs voluntarily - even now. They want to reassess their priorities in life, what they really want to do etc. This 'break' from job seems to have opened up many people's eyes that work is not everything. Here is a banker who quit the job recently:

In general I would recommend not to worry too much, money isn’t everything, a job is just that – a job and you can survive anywhere on this planet. People do that every day, with less and being happier. So why not overthink your current life and decide what can you change now for a better you?

Sounds nice and easy. But, it takes enormous courage to do that. I am normally considered by all my friends as someone who did not participate in the race at all - right from the beginning. Many of the insecurities associated with rat race have not affected any of my colleagues in Gudalur. I am thankful for their company, of course.

And, finally, a wise crack to the people who run around the maze wheel:

The winner of the rat race is still a rat.

Prayer at modern times

I would suggest to God that s/he should do an analysis of the changing tune of the prayers over the years (or centuries). As God is immortal, s/he would have listened to prayers from human beings - from the days of early primates to the people in modern times. Mari sent a nice email about one such prayer recently.



As a motherboard is as close and precious to each one of us as our mothers, this prayer will be universally appreciated by everyone, I thought. So, sharing it here...

Dear Lord,

Every single evening
As I'm lying here in bed,
This tiny little Prayer
Keeps running through my head.

God bless all my family
Wherever they may be,
Keep them warm and safe from harm
For they're so close to me.

And God, there is one more thing
I wish that you could do,
Hope you don't mind me asking
Please bless my computer too.

Now I know that it's unusual
To Bless a motherboard,
But listen just a second
While I explain it to you, Lord.

You see that little metal box
Holds more than odds and ends,
Inside those small compartments
Rest so many of my friends.

I know so much about them
By the kindness that they give,
And this little scrap of metal
Takes me in to where they live.

By faith is how I know them
Much the same as you,
We share in what life brings us
And from that our friendships grew.

Please take an extra minute
From your duties up above,
To bless those in my address book
That's filled with so much love.

Wherever else this prayer may reach
To each and every friend,
Bless each e-mail inbox
And each person who hits send.

When you update your Heavenly list
On your own CD-ROM,
Bless everyone who says this prayer
Sent up to GOD.com.

AMEN

I am sure, the generatioNext will be texting their prayers, rather than typing such a long (even if poetic) prayer! God better be techno-savvy...