| A Question begging an answer! |  |
| A Question begging an answer! |  |
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There is a widespread misconception about seniors not being taken care by their juniors. It is also time and again said that they are left to fend for themselves at their old age and some of them are abandoned to take asylum or shelter in old-age homes etc.
I beg to differ on the above. It is only in this country that you find septuagenarian and octogenarian citizens occupying the coveted elected seat of power - such as Prime Minister, President, Vice-President, Chief Minister etc. with only a few exceptions like in the case of our beloved Rajiv Gandhi, who, unfortunately, did not last long, leaving the space again to our grand old men. It is not given to us to see in the seat of power both in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre, a robust young and energetic family man in the prime of his age occupying the chair. Either a spinster or bachelor, widow or bigamist, a childless person or octogenarian alone could manage it. The point I am trying to make is that the people here have so much respect fpr their elders in their midst that our country is a paradise for seniors. They truly are a pampered lot.
It is not out of place to narrate the contributions made by the senior citizens in general to the society. No old man worth his salt keeps quiet taking rest at his old age. Every other senior has a life long project on hand (usually a self-imposed one!) like renovating temples, feeding people on important annual festivites, conducting hymns, Homams,celebrating goddess weddings like Radha Kalyanam, Sita Kalyanam every year, conducting medical aid camps for the needy and constructing buildings for doing last rites to the departed souls and whateverelse not, thus keeping himself very active even after retirement, of course with the donations he manages to collect from youngsters (note: not with his own money!) It is a never-ending process and it goes on as long as he is mobile. He accomplishes such things only with the generous financial support of youngsters for such a collection spree. The tools of the trade being a printed receipt book and some pamphlets extolling the cause. They never get tired lecturing about the greatness of their pet projects.
Being myself a honorable member of this tribe, viz., "senior citizen", I am deadly opposed to such kinds of do-good at others cost. Why rob Peter to pay Paul? If anyone wants to do charity, it should be out of his own funds and efforts. By doling out freebies, you kill the concept of one working his way for his share of bread. You make people lazy and in due course he looks up to others for all his needs , eventually losing his self-esteem and respect.
My wife's take to the whole issue is very interesting and worth mentioning. In our Hindu mythology we idolize characters like Karna and our revered God Krishna Himself was a recipient of largesse from the hands of Karna at the battlefield of Kurukshetra, symbolically taking all his good deeds in order to conquer him! So also, Lord Vishnu taking the Vamana Avathara, disgusing himself as a poor Brahmin, had to beg Mahabali (a demon) for three feet of land only to destroy him, instantly taking the form of the Thrivikrama Avathara. Even Ravana (again a demon) assuming the form of a poor Brahmin had to beg from Sita for a morsel of food in order to abduct her. During Upanayanam, (thread wearing ceremony) of a Brahmin boy, one of the rituals is to beg for rice (Bavathi Bikshaam Dehi). As a matter of fact, what Sanaathana Dharma ordained of a Brahmin is to do penance for the welfare of the entire world and accept for his sustenance only the alms willingly offered by others. He should not seek or amass wealth through any other vocational effort! Even today, we see some rich people taking alms for conducting marriages of their offsprings in fulfillment of a sacred vow (Madi Pichai). So, it is all in the ethos of the Hindus to take alms and therefore no stigma can be attached to elders in their act.
Trust a good wife to confuse the living daylights out of you! | The many "Faces" of corruption! | |
| The many "Faces" of corruption! | |
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Life is getting harder by the day for aged people like me who don't know the deft art of pulling strings or have no godfather benefactors.. The poor work culture and almost non-existent ethics, the arrogant bureaucracy, only add to our woes. Sometimes, I am left wondering, what's in store for my grandkids! Are we heading towards another Stone Age? Is the jungle law of "Might is Right" prevailing? Don't dismiss this as an old man's ranting tale, but, treat this as his deep concern, something that might even come to haunt you personally!
In my view, the institutions one cannot avoid, like Banks, Post Offices, and a host of other Government and Semi-Government organisations, have deteriorated beyond redemption and the only rule now seems to be a 'free for all' brawl.
My cheque to my out-station brother remained unpaid to him at his end in the first instance for the reason that my signature did not tally with the specimen. There was no notice or intimation either to me or to my brother about not honoring the cheque. On a probe after a couple of months, my brother retrieved the uncleared cheque and sent it back to me. This time, I got a banker's cheque and sent it to him. He presented it in his bank for encashment, but, alas, this time the banker's cheque was lot by his bank's people, thus putting both of us to a lot of hassles before we saw the color of money. One could say, we saw RED before we saw green!
Next come to the Post Office! I personally presented a postal certificate whose maturity time is as much as eight long years. After a purported verification of their records, I was informed by the clerk at the counter to my utter shock and dismay that their system (computer) showed that the certificate had been already discharged. I protested and after a couple of days and many anxious visits and some serious threats from my side later, I was at last given the maturity value of cash.
It was no better at another branch. The clerk had automatically debited my Savings Bank Account with certain amounts towards my Recurring Depost Account which had already been closed and was not even existing then. It is clear that they have no parallel records maintained about the transactions in spite of computerization and all the hype about the powers bestowed by technology.
To cap it all, the Speed Post delivery man without taking any trouble to come and deliver a letter addressed to me by my bankers, returned it to the sender saying there was no such person in the address given (without a verification at all). I was waiting for that important letter and after sometime, I found from my bankers that the letter was returned to them. I got them to post it again. In the meantime, I pulled up the postman concerned and fearing further action, this time he promptly delivered the mail to me in the same address as given earlier by the bank.
The Electricity Board has become rotten and a specimen of how not to run an organization. My service wire (one that connects my house with the electric post) was burnt in the recent rain one late evening. Several phone calls to the E.B.office evoked no response. So, I personally went to the office as the wire was dangerously and precariously dangling. None attended to it in spite of that. Only the next morning, a lineman appeared on the scene and he simply restored the connection to my house from another service connection nearby as a temporary measure. He promised to change the service wire once the rain stopped. It is more than a fortnight since that promise was made. In the meantime, I have made several sojourns without fruitful results. Every time a promise has been made only to be broken.
These are only samples of what is going on around me. When the whole block is stinking why blame a chip out of it viz., Satyam. You cannot expect an angel to emerge out of this rusted rotten system.
I can say without any hesitation in the strongest language at my command that it looks like the evil of indiscipline, dishonesty, lack of integrity, lethargy and what not, have extended its tentacles to all walks of life without exception.
As usual, my wife nagged me that I lack what is called a good face, for, even for successfully banging one's head against a wall, one should have a good face. (In Tamil, the proverb goes like this. Muttikka Ponalum, Mukarasi Vendum)"
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| India versus America - Earn Marks versus Learn Stuff! | |
| India versus America - Earn Marks versus Learn Stuff! | |
These are random thoughts of an assorted group of people on "Education in India and U.S."
Recently, when I was in the U.S., I met one Mrs.Viji Sethuraman, a friend of my daughter-in-law, Premila. Mrs.Viji has two cute brilliant daughters. Both are learning music from Premila and maths from Pramila's dad. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Mr.Sethuraman is none other than the nephew of my friend from long time ago, Vasu from Nagapattinam. Viji has a Ph.D. and has a good knowledge on a wide range of subjects, that lets her engage anyone in an enlightening, absorbing lovely conversation.
One day our conversation centered around the subject of "Education as prevailing in India and the U.S.". The gist of her point was that in India the education in primary level stresses more on rote learning and the student is tested for his memory power than for his analytical skill. The teaching is focused and trains the student to face his annual Government Examinations successfully with good grades, rather than making him to understand the intrinsic principles and develop his creativity.
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I buttressed her point saying that although in my house there were half-a-dozen engineering graduates from prestigious insitutions coming from various streams of engineering, such as, mechanical, electrical and electronics, even a small problem or defect I encounter with my domestic gadgets like T.V. Fridge, Washing Machine or electrical motor etc.cannot be fixed by them and I have had to call the street corner mechanic or electrician to fix them. On the other hand, a rustic agriculturist in my village is able to dismantle a 5-H.P. motor, fix the problem and reassemble the same effortlessly. He does not run after the electrician for fixing small electrical problems. This is not an isolated case, but almost every agriculturist out of necessity has learnt the art of fixing small defects in his tractor, 2-Wheeler, pump-set motor etc. He is not only good at his day-to-day agricultural operations like seeding, trasplanting, watering, manuring, harvesting etc. but also good at forecasting weather, marketing the produce and rearing of cattle etc. In short, he is a jack of all trades.
Mrs.Viji has a valid point that in India Guru Bhakthi is ingrained in the students in that they do not address their teachers by their names unlike in U.S. where even the elementary grade students address their teachers by their names.
My son Sridhar, being a shrewd businessman, observed that in the U.S. the kids of primary class, grades 4 and 5, get together during holidays, make some soft drinks or simple sweets, sell them at street corners for a small price among the passers-by, thus learning the tricks of the trade like, making saleable goods, marketing, accounting, concept of profit making etc. even as a kid, which will go a long way in boosting their self-confidence.
He would go ahead and add, in his characteristic style, that like a cattle or cow swallowing grass fast from the grazing field and then sitting leisurely, bringing up the grass back from its stomach in bits for proper digesting, a serious student must cultivate the habit of spending time to recall whatever he read and mull over the same, chewing the cud, so to speak, so that the subject matter sinks well or gets absorbed in his mind. Better read deeply rather than widely.
Even as a school kid, he not only successfully practised this mantra, in that he would be in a deep trance after his reading session, but also motivated his brothers and sister to practice that.
He would go ahead and add, in his characteristic style, that like a cattle or cow swallowing grass fast from the grazing field and then sitting leisurely, bringing up the grass back from its stomach in bits for proper digesting, a serious student must cultivate the habit of spending time to recall whatever he read and mull over the same, chewing the cud, so to speak, so that the subject matter sinks well or gets absorbed in his mind. Better read deeply rather than widely.
Even as a school kid, he not only successfully practised this mantra, in that he would be in a deep trance after his reading session, but also motivated his brothers and sister to practice that.
My son-in-law, Raj, feels that in modern days education focused on training them with correct spelling skills and laying stress on calculating additions, subtractions, multiplying etc. need not be given much importance, as those areas will be taken care of by computers and calculators and the time spent for building expertise on these skills may usefully be spent to learn other subjects that transcend rote memory and demand a higher order of intelligence and effort from the student.
Not to be left behind in this melee, my wife came up with her own opinion that education without character is no education at all and any education should aim at character-building and teaching good ethics for which yoga and meditation should form an important part of the curriculum. Crudely put, characterless education is like a honey comb on a dog's bum!! (a Tamil proverb to say it is useless to anybody).
Everyone agreed that there is something terribly lacking with the present day education scenario and there is an urgent need to reform the whole gamut of education. It is for the experts and educationists to take this up before it is too late.
What is your idea on this subject? Please share them here!| "Channel"ing my energies elsewhere! | |
| "Channel"ing my energies elsewhere! | |
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"Wish you all a very Happy New Year. Let me forget the turbulent 2008 as a bad dream, not only for the worst ever terrorism the world saw, but also for the economic turmoil unheard of in recent history.
Hope and pray THE YEAR 2009 will dawn bringing with it all prosperity and all of us will see light at the end of the tunnel!
Now, coming to the new year resolution, I am taking a VRADDH or vow to abstain myself from T.V.totally hereafter. Why I am making this public is because any good or virtuous promise of vow should be made public because by letting everyone know, I will be forced to stick to my vow steadfastly and any deviation will render me a laughing stock.
Then the question is, why T.V. of all things?!
When I advice my grand-kids and others to keep off T.V. I feel guilty and I want to acquire a moral high and practice what I preach.
Of course, by any means, I was not an avid T.V.animal even till now. I may have, at worst, spent an hour or so before the idiot box mostly on news channels. But, that itself was enough to affect my equilibrium and moods. I am not sure whether T.V. is a boon or bane, but, one thing is certain that even within the family, that is, between wife and husband, mother and kids, they hardly find time to leisurely interact with each other. Again too much T.V. blunts one's thought process.
Thanks to the advent of cell phone and given its spread and reach, the picture is complete. My generation is witness to the whole culture undergoing a sea-change within a short span of time. I am not sitting in judgment whether it is the result of evolution of prosperity or evil of the prosperity.
What I attempt now is to subject myself to a test on my will power and whether I can live without it.
I am not exaggerating when I say that things have deteriorated to such a sorry state that even a member of the household has to wait for an opportune moment to share his/her joy or sorrow without annoying the other member, though all of them live under the same roof all the twenty-four hours.
Sorry, I cannot help it if my wife feels snubbed or that she is targeted indirectly.
Please pray for the success of my new year resolution.
Why, you may wonder, the seven-day-delay in posting about it.....
Well, before I posted about New Year Resolutions, I wanted to "walk the talk". Hence the delay in this post. I wanted to see how things went, for a week, before writing about it!! I am so glad to say that, now, I have successfully weaned myself off the TV.
On the other hand, I am also left wondering if John Logie Baird, the bloke who invented the TV was a clairvoyant philosopher and not just the great scientist we know him to be.
For, I suddenly realize now, that the TV was also playing an important role, in its own hidden, passive way, for which I need to now find alternatives!
- It helped me ignore my wife when she switched on her daily gossip. I was able to act "busy".
- It helped me shut off nosy neighbors when they came in, by asking them to view the same junk news I was viewing too!
- It helped me gulp down mindlessly, even the not-so-tasty stuff that was sometimes ladled out from the kitchen.
- It even dictated my daily morning wakeup and night-sleep off schedules (now, I have nothing to get up promptly to!)
- And finally, what about the little exercise for my thumb and forefinger! What will I do from now on!!!
P.S:- Our techie friends at gizmodo, seem to have found an even better (though extreme!) way to solve the problem!
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| An open letter to Mr. Manmohan Singh! | |
| An open letter to Mr. Manmohan Singh! | |
My Dear Prime Minister Dr.Singhji,
Or, you leave it as it is and with the passage of time people will tend to forget it, as time is the best cure.
You have done the right thing in giving the Home Ministry portfolio to our beloved P.Chidambaram. He will convincingly put forth that India is much safer than Iraq and a few other African countries, deftly offering some supporting statistics. You have followed the well-known mantra in Government offices in choosing your new Home Minister - If one is good at work, give him more work. If one does not work, give him salary and promotion.
If you want to take a clue from T.N.Police, why risk all your sophisticated and dedicated special commandos' life - simply allow the terrorist to complete all their acts, make them tired and allow them to escape in the full view of the police and then form special squads to nab them.
If you ask your Left friends, they will tell you that there is an American angle to this episode as it is now clear the FBI has come to India under the guise of investigation and all that.
So, with so many things to cheer about, and so many friends to help you and give you counsel, Mr.Prime Minister, cheer up, don't lose heart and look forward.
Jai Hind, Bharath Mata ki Jai, Vande Matharam!
Vembu Iyer.
A Good Samaritan, always interested in your welfare.
Don't lose sleep over the act of terrorism. What cannot be cured must be endured. Hindu philosophy teaches us to take all adversities in a positive manner. Our Tamil Nadu politicians are good at it and you can take a leaf or two from them. You can take counsel from your good friend Dr.Kalaignar Karunanidhi, for instance. He will come up with a solution that you can supply to all citizens, a bullet-proof jacket to protect themselves from such an assault. There is a side benefit also occuring, viz., a cut from the contractors , and (in this time of slow down), not to mention the employment opportunities for many. By offering such freebies, it will help win the upcoming elections.
Or, you leave it as it is and with the passage of time people will tend to forget it, as time is the best cure.
If such an act of terrorism refuses to die by itself, but instead becomes a frequent occurrence, do not worry. It will lose news value and T.V.channels and newspapers will push such things to the last pages, away from prime time.
Or you can offer one bottle of IMFL along with free T.V.sets, so that people will be glued to the T.V.forgetting all their worries.
You have done the right thing in giving the Home Ministry portfolio to our beloved P.Chidambaram. He will convincingly put forth that India is much safer than Iraq and a few other African countries, deftly offering some supporting statistics. You have followed the well-known mantra in Government offices in choosing your new Home Minister - If one is good at work, give him more work. If one does not work, give him salary and promotion.
If you want to take a clue from T.N.Police, why risk all your sophisticated and dedicated special commandos' life - simply allow the terrorist to complete all their acts, make them tired and allow them to escape in the full view of the police and then form special squads to nab them.
If you ask your Left friends, they will tell you that there is an American angle to this episode as it is now clear the FBI has come to India under the guise of investigation and all that.
So, with so many things to cheer about, and so many friends to help you and give you counsel, Mr.Prime Minister, cheer up, don't lose heart and look forward.
Jai Hind, Bharath Mata ki Jai, Vande Matharam!
Vembu Iyer.
A Good Samaritan, always interested in your welfare.
| Anu's Woes, Swathi's Delight! | |
| Anu's Woes, Swathi's Delight! | |
How true the saying that troubles will come thick and fast, when they come!
Like they say, "When it rains, it POURS!"
Last summer, we (myself, my wife, my daughter-in-law Anu and her kids Swathi and Sneha) were holidaying in the U.S, having gone there from Chennai. The first landing point happened to be Phoenix, where Anu's cousin Kiran resides. Incidentally that was the maiden trip for Anu and her kids. It was a marvelous sight and a feast to the eyes to see the city by night and the rich and eye-catching illumination all around. We felt we were all in a different planet altogether!
This blog-post, though, is not to highlight the splendour and beauty of Las Vegas but to tell about the extraordinary creative skill exhibited by my grand-daughter Swathi, an energetic eight-year-old girl.
Kiran took us to Las Vegas in a family-size car for our outings. We reached Las Vegas very late in the evening and he took us around the city in the car. We finally reached a hotel room to spend the night. It had already been booked on-line. Though we had booked a room with kitchen facilities, on reaching the room we found that the room had no kitchen facility. We called the receptionist and demanded a room with an attached kitchen. The hotel was situated in a vast area. We were asked to shift to another room a mile away at the dead of night. After checking-in and settling down, Anu realised that she had misplaced her camera somewhere. Though she had an expensive new camera, she had borrowed a very handy digital camera from her another cousin in Chennai for easy handling on tour. She naturally had to
spend a sleepless night over the missing borrowed camera.
The next morning, the first thing she did was to call the receptionist and enquire about the camera to find out whether she has left behind the camera in the original room. Fortunately for her, the camera was traced there. Relieved on the discovery, we all started to go out on our merry trip around the city. Before that, Anu checked the camera and found that it was not in a working condition. She and her cousin spent an hour or so to fix it up. They finally found out that the batteries were fixed wrongly in the socket and rectified it at last. We then visited the world's best and renowned theme hotels and casinos one by one and Anu had a field day clicking all the exquisite and beautiful sights in her camera. After a full day's travel, tired as we were, we returned to our hotel room. Anu checked up whether the pictures had all come out well. Alas, none of the pictures she took were recorded in the camera. She realised that the memory card in the camera was already exhausted and that was the reason none of the photos had been recorded. She felt very bad and went to a shop and replaced the memory card in the camera. She took her cousin and her kids to the same places once over again and captured them in her camera all over again from the beginning.
The camera was haunting Anu all through her trip to Las Vegas.
You may wonder as to how Swathi comes into the picture in the above episode. Read ahead, and you'll know!
On our return to Phoenix, Swathi wrote down about her trip to Las Vegas and about the places she saw and enjoyed chronologically with my help. At the end of the narration, she felt that she has not mentioned about the camera episode and asked me to suggest the appropriate place in the write-up where she could mention about it. I was just thinking about it and I had no clue as to where it could be fit in appropriately in the write-up.
Swathi, brilliantly, came up with the idea that it could be included at the end of the essay as the most interesting part of the trip was the camera episode as it gave a series of problems to my mom etc. etc...."
I really admired her writing skill and wondered about her creativity. As though that weren't enough, she again asked me that she had not included the dancing fountain that she had seen, and wanted my suggestion as to where it could be placed. But, then, she herself came out with a solution saying that it could again be included as a concluding paragraph as 'The most beautiful part of the trip was the dancing fountain I saw etc., etc......."
Borrowing Swathi's style, I conclude:- "The wonderful part of the trip is that Swathi has made a deep impression and stolen the limelight with her uncanny talent as a writer more than anything I saw in Las Vegas. The surpising part of the story is that my wife did not dispute my claim that it is MY GENE that Swathi had inherited, though she believes that Swathi is like her.
Like they say, "When it rains, it POURS!"
Last summer, we (myself, my wife, my daughter-in-law Anu and her kids Swathi and Sneha) were holidaying in the U.S, having gone there from Chennai. The first landing point happened to be Phoenix, where Anu's cousin Kiran resides. Incidentally that was the maiden trip for Anu and her kids. It was a marvelous sight and a feast to the eyes to see the city by night and the rich and eye-catching illumination all around. We felt we were all in a different planet altogether!
This blog-post, though, is not to highlight the splendour and beauty of Las Vegas but to tell about the extraordinary creative skill exhibited by my grand-daughter Swathi, an energetic eight-year-old girl.
Kiran took us to Las Vegas in a family-size car for our outings. We reached Las Vegas very late in the evening and he took us around the city in the car. We finally reached a hotel room to spend the night. It had already been booked on-line. Though we had booked a room with kitchen facilities, on reaching the room we found that the room had no kitchen facility. We called the receptionist and demanded a room with an attached kitchen. The hotel was situated in a vast area. We were asked to shift to another room a mile away at the dead of night. After checking-in and settling down, Anu realised that she had misplaced her camera somewhere. Though she had an expensive new camera, she had borrowed a very handy digital camera from her another cousin in Chennai for easy handling on tour. She naturally had to
spend a sleepless night over the missing borrowed camera.
The next morning, the first thing she did was to call the receptionist and enquire about the camera to find out whether she has left behind the camera in the original room. Fortunately for her, the camera was traced there. Relieved on the discovery, we all started to go out on our merry trip around the city. Before that, Anu checked the camera and found that it was not in a working condition. She and her cousin spent an hour or so to fix it up. They finally found out that the batteries were fixed wrongly in the socket and rectified it at last. We then visited the world's best and renowned theme hotels and casinos one by one and Anu had a field day clicking all the exquisite and beautiful sights in her camera. After a full day's travel, tired as we were, we returned to our hotel room. Anu checked up whether the pictures had all come out well. Alas, none of the pictures she took were recorded in the camera. She realised that the memory card in the camera was already exhausted and that was the reason none of the photos had been recorded. She felt very bad and went to a shop and replaced the memory card in the camera. She took her cousin and her kids to the same places once over again and captured them in her camera all over again from the beginning.
The camera was haunting Anu all through her trip to Las Vegas.
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You may wonder as to how Swathi comes into the picture in the above episode. Read ahead, and you'll know!
On our return to Phoenix, Swathi wrote down about her trip to Las Vegas and about the places she saw and enjoyed chronologically with my help. At the end of the narration, she felt that she has not mentioned about the camera episode and asked me to suggest the appropriate place in the write-up where she could mention about it. I was just thinking about it and I had no clue as to where it could be fit in appropriately in the write-up.
Swathi, brilliantly, came up with the idea that it could be included at the end of the essay as the most interesting part of the trip was the camera episode as it gave a series of problems to my mom etc. etc...."
I really admired her writing skill and wondered about her creativity. As though that weren't enough, she again asked me that she had not included the dancing fountain that she had seen, and wanted my suggestion as to where it could be placed. But, then, she herself came out with a solution saying that it could again be included as a concluding paragraph as 'The most beautiful part of the trip was the dancing fountain I saw etc., etc......."
Borrowing Swathi's style, I conclude:- "The wonderful part of the trip is that Swathi has made a deep impression and stolen the limelight with her uncanny talent as a writer more than anything I saw in Las Vegas. The surpising part of the story is that my wife did not dispute my claim that it is MY GENE that Swathi had inherited, though she believes that Swathi is like her.
| Swathi's Krishna Leela! | |
| Swathi's Krishna Leela! | |
A sort of get-together was arranged by the apartment dwellers where my son Kumar is living, the excuse being the Second Anniversary of the Apartment's Day, to give vent to the unfulfilled desire or ambition of some of the amateurs to show-case their skills, which, they could not otherwise have had an occasion to exhibit. 
In a way, such occasions afford, in sidelines, an opportunity to socialize and get to know each other in close quarters, as, in this urban-centric mechanical life-style, the folks in such apartments hardly find time to interact with each other..
Swathi, my 9 year-old grand-daughter, was one of the enthusiastic participants in this extravaganza called 'Culturals', among other elders and senior citizens. She took part in three events
(i) Fashion Show: Swathi in a Western attire, walked in deliberately putting each foot-step on an imaginary straight line in a jerking style having her hands on her hips as in Fashion Parades. In that event, a number of kids took part and each one was given just a few seconds to showcase their talents. In fact, Swathi was practising many more styles which she could not perform on the stage!
(ii) Solo Dance: Swathi was called to the dais for a solo dance for a Bharathiyaar's song which was pre-recorded into a CD in Swathi's own voice. She appeared on the stage and was standing in a frozen "start-mode" to kickstart the dance as soon as the music was switched on. But, the C.D. in which the song was recorded could not be traced by the organizers as they seemed to have misplaced it. After ten minutes, Swathi was asked to get out by the moderators and instead the next programme in the agenda was taken up. Poor Swathi was left standing all the while on the dais in the very same start-mode motionless, to the amusement of the audience.
After the next number got over, Swathi was once again called to perform the dance. This time the music in the C.D. was turned on, but, the song was not coming out well as the C.D. appeared to have developed some scratches! What played out was anything but the well-rendered song that it was originally! Somehow, Swathi managed to finish her part, listlessly having suffered double jeopardy or humiliation for no fault on her part.
(iii) As her dance programme thus ended chaotically, not in the original order in the agenda, but a little later, her turn for the next programme in the agenda, disguising as Lord Krishna, ended up being the one immediately after! She was asked to change to Krishna's costume in a hurry. Swathi's mom Anu, my daughter Radha and I helped Swathi with the make-up. Radha combed her hair, tied a lock of hair into a bun up front, and inserted a peacock feather in it. A flute was given to her to keep it over her lips. I helped her to wear a dhothi in a panchakatcham style and put on some special jewels. In the meantime, the moderators called out her name on the loudspeaker and asked her to appear on the dais. In the melee, I forgot to put the most important mark of NAMAM in the forehead to complete the Krishna disguise! My son Manikandan rushed up to the dressing room and physically lifted Krishna (Swathi) in his arms and ran to the dais and left her there. We followed her a little later after collecting the leftovers and waited in the venue to witness our Swathi as Krishna to appear on the dais to the full throated and thunderous applause of the august audience. But that was not to be. To our great dismay and disappointment we learnt that Swathi had made a very brief appearance on the dais for a few seconds and had been asked to leave the stage to give way to the next programme in the agenda, even before we could reach the venue. We could only see some old ladies in a chorus singing or rather reciting bhajans from a pre-written script in their hands, thus taking precedence over the young budding artist in Swathi.
I felt that the organizers had not bestowed sufficient thought to the feelings of young kids. Such treatments meted out to young kids may even kill their enthusiasm and be counter-productive When the elders and grown-ups took all the time in the world to showcase their so-called talent with little regard for the time-factor or to the fact whether it was well-received or not, should they not show some concern to the feelings of young kids?
Once the organizers thought it fit to vary or change or deviate the order in their agenda, to suit their convenience for the dance programme of Swathi, why could they not change the Krishna item also to a later-on slot to give her enough time to get ready with the Krishna attire?
Is it not proper to draw the agenda in such a way that young kids perform first and elders at the end, so that young kids do not get worn-out or tired waiting for their turn?
Swathi was trained for more than one month for the programme and she had put in a lot of efforts, but all were in vain at last.
I shared my concern with my wife. She retorted with a tinge of criticism coupled with a word of caution. 'If you are not able to organise such a thing, do not blame the one who organizes, for, it is easier said than done! She also warned "If you write a blog post about such a thing, you are only doing harm to her and not a favour, for , she will be isolated or left out from the future programmes, which will be more painful than this"
My son, Sridhar Vembu, often uses a favourite phrase of his - "Logically Undecidable" - You can see examples here and here! So, I am not going to wait and see if she is right in her concern, I am going to play the experiment and check it out for myself!
In a way, such occasions afford, in sidelines, an opportunity to socialize and get to know each other in close quarters, as, in this urban-centric mechanical life-style, the folks in such apartments hardly find time to interact with each other..Swathi, my 9 year-old grand-daughter, was one of the enthusiastic participants in this extravaganza called 'Culturals', among other elders and senior citizens. She took part in three events
- Fashion Show
- Solo Dance
- Dressing up as Lord Krishna
(i) Fashion Show: Swathi in a Western attire, walked in deliberately putting each foot-step on an imaginary straight line in a jerking style having her hands on her hips as in Fashion Parades. In that event, a number of kids took part and each one was given just a few seconds to showcase their talents. In fact, Swathi was practising many more styles which she could not perform on the stage!
(ii) Solo Dance: Swathi was called to the dais for a solo dance for a Bharathiyaar's song which was pre-recorded into a CD in Swathi's own voice. She appeared on the stage and was standing in a frozen "start-mode" to kickstart the dance as soon as the music was switched on. But, the C.D. in which the song was recorded could not be traced by the organizers as they seemed to have misplaced it. After ten minutes, Swathi was asked to get out by the moderators and instead the next programme in the agenda was taken up. Poor Swathi was left standing all the while on the dais in the very same start-mode motionless, to the amusement of the audience.
After the next number got over, Swathi was once again called to perform the dance. This time the music in the C.D. was turned on, but, the song was not coming out well as the C.D. appeared to have developed some scratches! What played out was anything but the well-rendered song that it was originally! Somehow, Swathi managed to finish her part, listlessly having suffered double jeopardy or humiliation for no fault on her part.
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(iii) As her dance programme thus ended chaotically, not in the original order in the agenda, but a little later, her turn for the next programme in the agenda, disguising as Lord Krishna, ended up being the one immediately after! She was asked to change to Krishna's costume in a hurry. Swathi's mom Anu, my daughter Radha and I helped Swathi with the make-up. Radha combed her hair, tied a lock of hair into a bun up front, and inserted a peacock feather in it. A flute was given to her to keep it over her lips. I helped her to wear a dhothi in a panchakatcham style and put on some special jewels. In the meantime, the moderators called out her name on the loudspeaker and asked her to appear on the dais. In the melee, I forgot to put the most important mark of NAMAM in the forehead to complete the Krishna disguise! My son Manikandan rushed up to the dressing room and physically lifted Krishna (Swathi) in his arms and ran to the dais and left her there. We followed her a little later after collecting the leftovers and waited in the venue to witness our Swathi as Krishna to appear on the dais to the full throated and thunderous applause of the august audience. But that was not to be. To our great dismay and disappointment we learnt that Swathi had made a very brief appearance on the dais for a few seconds and had been asked to leave the stage to give way to the next programme in the agenda, even before we could reach the venue. We could only see some old ladies in a chorus singing or rather reciting bhajans from a pre-written script in their hands, thus taking precedence over the young budding artist in Swathi.
I felt that the organizers had not bestowed sufficient thought to the feelings of young kids. Such treatments meted out to young kids may even kill their enthusiasm and be counter-productive When the elders and grown-ups took all the time in the world to showcase their so-called talent with little regard for the time-factor or to the fact whether it was well-received or not, should they not show some concern to the feelings of young kids?
Once the organizers thought it fit to vary or change or deviate the order in their agenda, to suit their convenience for the dance programme of Swathi, why could they not change the Krishna item also to a later-on slot to give her enough time to get ready with the Krishna attire?
Is it not proper to draw the agenda in such a way that young kids perform first and elders at the end, so that young kids do not get worn-out or tired waiting for their turn?
Swathi was trained for more than one month for the programme and she had put in a lot of efforts, but all were in vain at last.
I shared my concern with my wife. She retorted with a tinge of criticism coupled with a word of caution. 'If you are not able to organise such a thing, do not blame the one who organizes, for, it is easier said than done! She also warned "If you write a blog post about such a thing, you are only doing harm to her and not a favour, for , she will be isolated or left out from the future programmes, which will be more painful than this"
My son, Sridhar Vembu, often uses a favourite phrase of his - "Logically Undecidable" - You can see examples here and here! So, I am not going to wait and see if she is right in her concern, I am going to play the experiment and check it out for myself!
| Demoralized about Moralities.. | |
| Demoralized about Moralities.. | |
In an earlier blog-post, I was mentioning about deterioration of moral standards in general. I was not just being pessimistic, or quoting myths from out of thin air. But, I cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening around me which leads to the irresistible and irrefutable conclusion that everything is not alright.
A little distance away, one would find a cab driver engaged in petrol theft from the tourist taxi in his custody, with the help of a hose pipe, emptying the petrol from the tank in the car to a container without the knowledge of the owner of the cab. He thus makes some bucks by cheating the owner of the cab.
If you go further down, you will come across the driver of a milk van committing theft of milk in a bottle. After supplying milk to the self-vending milk booth from the tanker, whatever little remaining in the hose pipe is collected in a bottle and sold by the driver to gain some extra bucks.
Let us ignore all the above and proceed further, though. And what do you see? You would find theft of bricks! The loaders while loading bricks from the kiln, deliberately load some extra bricks discreetly. After delivery at the consumer's site, the extra available bricks will be sold to a firewood depot for half of its price, unduly benefiting both the loaders and the firewood depot owner in that process, at a direct loss to the kiln owner and consumer. The resultant spoils are shared between the loaders and the driver.
The above are almost an everyday early morning spectacle. They will set any right-thinking man to ponder where our society is headed! There is of course a minuscule minority who are die-hard honest among these unscrupulous. My friend and I were, busy at our office with our work and hence unable to stir out, requested a rustic gardener to fetch some snacks and tea from a nearby restaurant, as our own attendant was not readily available. He complied with our request. We offered him some tips. He flatly refused to receive it saying that it is his duty to go on an errand and he cannot accept tips for that; though it was not part of his job at all! He stood tall in the crowd in our estimation.
Mr.Narayanamurthy of Infosys has recalled an incident in the course of an interview to the press wherein he said that in a village in Tanjore District (where he was attending a function) he saw a poor, fragile and aged person. On independent enquiry he found out that he had nobody to support him at his advanced age and he was eking out his livelihood by conducting religious rites in the houses of Brahmins. Taking pity, Mr.Murthy offered financial help to him to alleviate his poverty. He gently refused to accept it saying that he is happy with what he has and he needs no more than what he earns. Mr.Murthy, a kind-hearted man, was touched and appreciated his self-pride and had all admiration for his simplicity and contentment.
For my wife, the panacea for all ills is to write Ramajayam mantra. (That would not come as any news to you, if you had been reading my blog, particularly the last two posts!) She has been writing this mantra right from her childhood. She has a suitcase full of note books with the mantra written by her. Before her marriage, her prayer was to get a good husband. I only hope what she got fits her bill! After marriage, she continued to write for the welfare of our children and for the betterment of my official career, everyday for nearly six hours a day. Nowadays, she stopped it, probably because she thinks she has accomplished all her aspirations or because she has no time for it, as she spends almost six hours a day before the T.V. worrying about the characters in the serials as to what is going to happen to them in the next episode etc!
If this is not a degradation, then what else?
If this is not a degradation, then what else?
If at all you attribute this fall in value to any one cause, I would say it is the effect or result of clamping of Emergency on our country by Prime Minister Mrs. Indra Gandhi to save herself from being unseated in the wake of adverse judgment by Allahabad High Court in the Election Petition filed by Mr.Raj Narayan. That, in my opinion, set the tone for the downfall of values.
In Tamil Nadu, we find poor people literally dying for the freebies handed out by our Government. Is it not good economics to teach the poor how to fish rather than giving them fish, free of cost? Besides, this amounts to insulting the self-respect of the individuals.
In the olden days, the common belief was:- In Tamil Nadu, we find poor people literally dying for the freebies handed out by our Government. Is it not good economics to teach the poor how to fish rather than giving them fish, free of cost? Besides, this amounts to insulting the self-respect of the individuals.
"If wealth is lost, nothing is lost;
If health is lost, something is lost: and
If character is lost, everything is lost."
It was said "All is fair in love and war". This dictum appears to have engulfed all spheres of activities these days... :-(
Looking for images to decorate this blogpost with, I found this one, that seemed so appropriate, though from a different religion from mine.
That, exactly, is the problem with the current generation. They know the rules, but they want exceptions to each of them too! :-(
| Shri Ram's Messenger - Hanuman! | |
| Shri Ram's Messenger - Hanuman! | |
In my previous post, I had tried some inane wordplay on the words "Shram" (hard work, in Sanskrit) and "Shriram" (Ramayana's hero). The turn of events soon after the blogpost happened, makes me want to write more on that same subject. So, read on for some strange and interesting coincidences!
After I prepared the draft for the blog about my getting a memento on my son"s behalf from his school, news came that my son's company Zoho was adjudged to receive "The Best Enterprise Start-up of the year" Award instituted by The Crunchies about which I mentioned at the end of the post, as an update. The graphic image at the end of that post, was a photograph of Sridhar with the Award.
The monolithic statue (trophy) was created using very hard very heavy cast plastic of an ape with a bone in its hand, symbolizing that the ape was beating old technology with a bone in prehistoric days, to convey the message that new technocrats come up with new technologies to conquer the existing ones.
In the photograph of Sridhar with the Award, under the platform supporting the ape, the Sri Ramajayam Mantra in Sanskrit was included by Raj, as I referred in that blog about my wife writing that mantra for the sake of Sridhar's success in his scholastic career.
Thus, each one of the above acts were unconnected and done by different individuals. But, in hindsight, I am inclined to interpret it in my own way. My wife was invoking Ram for Sridhar's success. I am an ardent Rama Baktha, in that I have been reciting the Sundara Kandam in Ramayana every day for the last 30 years or more. The Sundara Kanda signifies Anjeneya's (a monkey-faced God) good and valiant deeds. The most central character in Ramayana is Anjeneya and he is widely worshipped by Hindus all over the world.
To my mind, my prayer to Rama has been answered symbolically. My son getting the monolith with ape and Raj's inclusion of a Ramajayam in Sanskrit though altogether in a different context, is a great benevolent act of grace bestowed on my son in answer to my prayers. If the creator of the monolith wanted to convey a message symbolically, I want to interpret it symbolically in my own way conforming to my beliefs! I firmly believe that my Lord Ram through his Chief and first-ever devotee Anjeneya came to bless my son in all his endeavours. If the creator of the monolith included the bone in the hands of the ape as a tool or weapon, I would like to see it as the Gadhai (mace) in the hands of Anjeneya. For me, the monolith is not a mere Award but God Anjeneya Himself.
Anjeneya is considered by Hindus as the God of Knowledge. Software being a knowledge-based industry, the trophy given is appropriate in that perspective as well.
I may sound irrational, but being one who believes in the maxim that God helps his devotees through living beings, I would like to have it as above.
Mr.Michal Arrington would not have thought of this angle when he conceived the design for his Award. Many many thanks to him, for his design most aptly fits into my belief.
Curiousity made me dig further into the true origins of the ape in the award. Seems, it is based on a heartstopping moment in a very famous movie of yesteryears, called 2001 - A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the book of the same name by Arthur Clarke. Enjoy the very scene from the movie where this scene happens. See below.
| Shriram or Shram? You decide!! | |
| Shriram or Shram? You decide!! | |
This time, the thing that caught his attention was a memento recently received (on l3th Jan. to be precise) It was given in honour of my son Sridhar by his school on the occasion of the Inaugural Function and Alumni Day. I explained that to him, thinking that would suffice. He continued his interrogation though, and asked me why of all the alumni ,Sridhar uncle had been chosen. I told him that he was the star student of the school and in his school days (25 years ago) he was a State Rank Holder too. On those days, the critics used to opine that such top-performing creme-de-la-creme, in an unexplainable herd mentality, after schooling and after graduating from prestigious institutions like the I.I.Ts, would go to the U.S, do a Ph.D. from well-known Universities, and settle down as Professors there, thus causing what was then called the "Brain Drain". It was also alleged that they felt shy to venture taking risks in life and build sterling enterprises of their own. I told Aditya that Sridhar, defying such widely-held notions, started his own venture after his brilliant academic career in I.I.T and then at Princeton University, generating immense job opportunities to the local community and thus while rising his stock in life was and is helping many others to make a mark too and that the memento was in recognition of these achievements of his.
Sometimes I think, these kids don't listen to us when talking. They are just busy framing their next question. For, no sooner did I finish, pat came the next question:- "Why then was it given to you and not to Sridhar uncle?"I told him that as Sridhar could not make it to the function since he had some pressing work in the U.S. and the organizers could not postpone the function that had already been arranged, I was invited and given the memento in his absence, though in the invitation card it was Sridhar's name that was printed.
I took all these pains to tell all the above details to him, in order to motivate him to perform well in his scholastic career just like his illustrious uncle.
We are sometimes guilty of not letting know the kids about some important things in our life keeping them ignorant, though not intentionally but out of a careless attitude. Thanks to the Parenting Blogs at Jambav - it affords space to record some such worthwhile matters for the benefit of our progeny!
One thing I want to make clear in this regard is that, in my considered opinion, there is nothing wrong in the best brains taking up the teaching assignments. I do welcome such trends, since it is only such best brains that can bring out the best from aspiring youngsters and mould them to suitably serve our nation. I do not dispute at the same time that entrepreneurs also contribute to the society in their own way.
Moreover, I felt somewhat embarrassed to be at the function on my son's behalf and be a recipient of showers of praises as an "illustrious father of an illustrious son", as though I was responsible for all his attainments! No doubt, I feel very proud of him. But, to be frank, I played no part at all in his achievements. If at all he has achieved anything, and has risen in society, it is all of his own making and his own efforts and I contributed very little towards his progress. To give me credit for something I did not deserve is quite an embarrassment for me and I felt guilty to be praised on that count.
But then, my wife, on the other hand, can lay claim for some praise! She used to write "Sri Ramajayam Mantra" while my sons were writing their examinations praying for their outstanding performance! Sridhar would remark on her efforts that "if not for anything else, atleast for you and for your toil, I will achieve!". I told Aditya also about this!
The mischievous fellow silenced me saying: "Thatha, the greatest help you did him was that you did not put a spoke in the wheel and deter him in his attempts or say nay for all his efforts. So you also deserve the praise".
UPDATE:- As I finished typing this blog post, news sweet as honey reaches me, that Sridhar"s company Zoho, an offshoot of AdventNet, has been adjudged as the "Best Enterprise Start-up" of the year 2007 and Sridhar was honoured with an Award at San Francisco instituted by The TechCrunch Group, a Tech-Blog that tracks the fortunes of New Age Corporations. Way to go, sonny boy!
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