Blog after death

Now that we are in the subject of death, let me warn you a thing or two about my death as well. Though many of you will be mighty relieved to know that there won't be any more of this musings non-sense, there will be one spooky thing.

As a person meticulously planning and organising all the things that are unimportant in life, I take care not to leave a big gap in my blog posts in Musings as well. So, I keep scheduling my blogs for at least two weeks in advance.

In other words, even after my death, I will continue to be a well-organised Ghost, I promise. So, after my official death, there will be two or three posts at least keeping all of you worried whether I continue to blog even after becoming spiritual. Don't worry, it is all just due to my 'organisation'. The blog posts will also die down soon - if you are lucky, within a week or so.

But, one thing I cannot guarantee. I am not aware of the technology prospects in the world-after; whether there will be internet connectivity in the heaven (I am sure of it, I will land up in heaven only) and if my blogger account can continue to be accessed from there.

Unfortunately for you, if the answer to the last two questions is YES, then you will continue to get spooky blog posts week after week after week .... Oh, no.

But, the computer addicts cannot live without typing things on the keyboard. Without air, Yes; but without internet connectivity, a big NO. We cannot live without computers even after death. See in the picture below, how some hardcore programmers had died painful deaths.

In case, you are not able to read the two tablets behind, the left one says, "performed an illegal operation and shut down". The right side one says, "the current version of oswald crumm has expired".

When I am a Grandfather

Now that I have mastered the art of being an irresponsible father, now it is time to set higher goals. How to be a similarly irresponsible (or even more irresponsible) grandfather. I have started preparing the materials required for the same. As all such researches these days seem to start with "literature survey", "study of secondary resources" or "internet search", I too did the same.

The first chapter is on "how to give important good advice that will help my grandkids". So, I am saving this from Pickles for future reference. Thought some of you will also be interested in this.




I wish my grandfather had also groomed me like this right from my childhood...

Guru - Dignified Death

Guru died.

Guru was my mother's dog in our village. Last month, when we had gone home, he died. He was not well and we don't know what was the reason. He didn't eat for three days; just walking around here and there. And, one afternoon, he went to the nearby garden and died. What a dignified death.

I thought, there is a lesson for me there. Do something useful till your last. But, when your time is up, take a couple of days to close the programmes and shut things down. And, quietly turn the machine off and lie down to sleep. No fuss, nothing. Terrific.

When I shared this thought with Premila, saying "Man has an important lesson to learn from dogs about 'Dignity in Death'", she retorted, "There are hundreds of lessons man can learn from dogs!"

How true. I wonder where crows and all those birds always circling around in the sky go to die.

Different perspectives

Children have quite different perspectives in life. Especially very different from their teachers.. not to mention parents! Even when they are ant kids...


When the teacher says "it is impossible to teach you anything" exasperatingly, who would have thought that it meant something like this! I know another interesting conversation as well. Between a boy coming back from his 1st day in the school.

Father : "How was it, son, your first day in the school?"
Son : "No good, Dad. This teacher is not good."
Father : "Why, what happened?"
Son : "She could not complete teaching me. She asked me to come to school again tomorrow...."

When do we lose all these perspectives while busy growing up?

Black is Beautiful

As mentioned in the last blog, the big cultural movement called 'Black is Beautiful' was an exciting one. Just to feed to your curiosity, here is an introduction straight from the wikipedia.

Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that began in the United States of America in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread to much of the black world, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. It aims to dispel the notion in many world cultures that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly.

John Sweat Rock was the first to coin the phrase "black is beautiful" during a speech in 1858. The movement also encouraged men and women to stop straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin. The prevailing idea in American culture, perpetuated by the media, was that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. This idea even existed in black communities and led to practices such as paper bag parties.
Paper bag parties were 20th century African-American social events at which only individuals with complexions at least as light as the color of a brown paper bag were admitted. The term also refers to larger issues of class and caste within the African-American community.

Among other achievements, the "black is beautiful" movement was largely responsible for the popularity of the Afro hairstyle.

Even now the movement has not fully taken hold. According to figures compiled by the Essence market research team, African Americans spend 25 percent more of their disposable income on personal care products than the general population. Natural hair styles are still considered "somewhat rebellious" or "unkempt" in parts of the United States.

The central purpose of the movement was "to make African Americans totally and irreversibly proud of their racial and cultural heritage." During this movement, there were a few other topics addressed besides that of having black pride. Art became increasingly important because of a newly appreciated relationship between art and politics. Political struggles bring about art that can later be used to explain things.

Kwame Brathwaite, president of the National Council of Artists (NCA) New York chapter stated,

We came together to deal with the arts, to tie them to what was going on in Africa. We had the idea; you can’t divorce art from the struggle. As a result, artists were no longer artists, but the organizers of a movement. We replaced the word "negro" with "African". Another topic or perspective is that of "black nationalism". This principle introduces the idea of blacks having a totally separate society from whites.

Politics around Identity and Groups is quite interesting to learn. Anita wrote about a book called "Tribes : We need you to lead us". Will write about it sometime later.

Coloured people

It seems, this poem was written by an African kid and was nominated by UN as the best poem in 2006. Very poignant ... and, true.

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you grey
And you calling me colored??

One of the fascinating things I have heard about the african americans has been their 'Black is Beautiful' campaign. Have you all heard about it?

Never Underestimate a Malayali

I have heard different versions of this story - including even one on our Tamil superstar, Rajinikanth. But, this Mallu version is the best, as this seems to have been writeen by a Mallu as well. So, enjoy!!

Kuttappan the Great

Kuttappan is a Malayali working for a multinational company in Mumbai. Not well educated and he is working as a peon. Whenever Kuttappan hears somebody talk, he will come in between saying that I know that very well, I know him very well, like that.

One day Kuttappan's Boss, a foreign educated person & a North Indian was talking something about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kuttappan was passing thru that way, suddenly he came in between saying that oh Arni he is my best friend. Kuttapan's boss laughed at him saying that how can u be a friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, you are only a peon living in India. Kuttappan said if u wont believe its your problem, I cant help you.

Ok, The Manager said I am going on a trip to US next week you come as my assistant and we will go to Arnold's house and see what happens. Kuttappan agreed with a smile. A week after they landed in US. First they went to NY. Arnold was there in NY. They went to meet Arnold. Seeing Kuttappan Arnold ran towards Kuttappan and hugged him asking that hey Kuttappan long time, no see, where were you man? Kuttappan went with Arnold to have some coffee.
Boss was stunned. When Kuttappan came back the boss told him that we will go to Clinton's place. Let's find out whether u know him or not. Kuttappan agreed with a smile. At Clinton's home Clinton also did the same as Schwarzenegger asking that where were you my friend for long time? Kuttappan went to have tea with Clinton while the boss was sitting out side the gate

When Kuttappan came back, boss said I have to go to Vatican to get blessings from Pope John Paul, so u come with me. At the Vatican crowd from all over the world is waiting to see Pope John Paul. Kuttappan and his boss are also there. Boss asked Kuttappan, do you know Pope John Paul. Kuttappan said y not? Boss told Kuttappan that he will not believe this.
Kuttappan asked boss to wait for some time and went inside the crowd. After 15 minutes Kuttappan came on the balcony along with Pope John Paul. Pope John Paul was holding Kuttappan's hand. Kuttappan's boss became unconscious and fell down.When Kuttappan came back his boss was on a stretcher by his side nurses and paramedics. Kuttappan asked Sir what happened.

Then boss told; Kuttappa u know Arnold I believe, u know Clinton I believe and u know Pope John Paul I believe that too but WHEN U CAME WITH POPE AT THE BALCONY THE CROWD WERE ASKING WHO IS THAT OLD MAN IN WHITE DRESS HOLDING THE HAND OF KUTTAPPAN. After hearing that I became unconscious.

LESSON FROM THIS STORY

NEVER EVER UNDER ESTIMATE A MALAYALI ....

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Please don't delete this after reading, You should atleast send this mail to:
10 Malayalis & you will receive coconut oil,
20 Malayalis and you will receive banana chips,
40 Malayalis you will receive appams,
100 Malayalis and you will get free land near the rice field behind the lungi factory with additional incentive of a whole month's supply of coconut oil and banana chips free.

Long live Kuttappans and other Malayalis!!

PS : I thought, I will select some typical Kerala photographs to accompany this blog. Hope you enjoyed them. But, the best is the one below called "Kerala Airlines".

Don't miss the Captain going to the cabin - folding his 'mundu' ...

Longevity

First a nice joke.

I am not keen on taking pills. So, when my doctor gave me a prescription to lower my blood pressure, I asked him if there were any side effects.

"Yes," he said, "Longevity".

Even though I wrote about keeping the worries to a minimum in the last blog, one of the things I am worried about seriously is longevity. One thing I don't want to do is to live longer. ("Anyone up there? do you hear me?")

Like in this joke, I don't want to do anything which will have a side effect of longevity. Though I like walking, people are threatening me that I will end up living longer this way. I am in a quandry now. Whether to walk or not?


There are many things like that. Even though I have carefully avoided doing any physical exercise, the low-key lifestyle and walking seem to have a negative fallout on longevity. What can I do to have a nice time now, but still end up dying early, I wonder. How to have the cake and eat it too? Any suggestions?

I tried to make a list of 'evils' - which are normally considered as joy for the present, but worry for the future. I thought, it may be helpful to pick up some bad habits, which may facilitate my eagerness to avoid longevity. But, I can't stand smoking. So, that is ruled out. Liquor etc. seem to result in we losing consciousness, which I am totally opposed to. Unfortunately, I have a very uncooperative palate - not liking things which are considered good to reduce longevity. I still like food with chillies and salt - so, there is some hope to contract blood pressure, I guess.

Many of the bad habits also seem to have an element of addiction and overdoing. So, I have decided to get addicted to some habits and overdo them, hoping that this will help in my aim. Now, I listened to music non-stop at home, we watch movies regularly - almost daily? - ranging from cartoon films to 'chick flicks', peppered with James Bond and slapstic comedy ones. Of course, trying to surround myself with people who can infect me with sick jokes!

Mianren, the chinese god/goddess of longevity

Let me see if I succeed in my attempt. If any of you have any other brighter ideas that can help my endeavour of reducing longevity, let me know. Give me a couple of tips to offend Mianren...

Keep worries to a minimum

This is one of the seminal philosphies snoopy has ever given, don't you think? I too have a theory very similar to this - Great, I have graduated to thinking almost like a dog now!

Man, for that matter woman too, being an 'intellectual' creature - unfortunately, I may add - wants to worry. S/he wants to face challenges, wants problems to solve and that seems to be the essence of life in the world. Most of the people are fighting for their very survival and are struggling to get their couple of square meals. But, whoever is assured of these basic needs are also equally anxious till they get their few square feet to get a house etc.

In Gudalur I see the school drop outs living blissfully without worrying about higher education; but the doctors who are probably the cream of academic excellence are always worried about doing their Post Graduation and wanting to learn more. As you open a door, you see more closed doors. Wisdom.

So, the technique is to be bothered only about small issues in life, get ourselves preoccupied with basic things. Which hopefully we will be able to resolve. Not completely but to some extent. Because if we can resolve the basic problems completely, our mind will wander about bigger and more difficult problems. This way, we are busy 'tackling' important problems and are engaged always. Till time runs out.

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...