Hindi and me

At high school, I found Hindi impossible to learn. I was the class topper, but scored in Hindi only 3/50, making my Hindi teacher shout that I was a disgrace to India. I went to a charming young lady Hindi tutor next door, but my Hindi didn't improve. I did enjoy the Bollywood classics like Dosti, Guide, Sangam, etc. but it didn't alleviate my learning difficulties.

I went to IIT Madras, and found that I had another difficult language to deal with - Tamil. I first thought almost everyone was quarreling, but later discovered that is how Tamil sounds to aliens like me.

When I went to IIM Calcutta, I found Bengali rather quaint and elaborate, but felt no antipathy. After all they made stuff like rossa gulla, misti dohi, kheer kadam, luchi. The only things I now added to my hate list were a series of vegetables like Tinda, which were inedible. 

I took up a summer project in Nagercoil, in a fit of daredevilry and the spirit of exploring India. I was compelled there to converse with everyone only in Tamil, finding myself in many difficult circumstances, much to my friends' amusement and my chagrin. I saw a lot of Tamil movies likeThanga  Padakkam with Shivaji in the lead. Well, by compulsion, my Tamil improved by leaps and bounds.

I then took up a job in Delhi. I had to converse in Hindi, willy nilly. Then I had to enrol in a Hindi class being a public sector employee. I topped the class, and as a bonus, thanks to a good teacher Sharma-ji from UP, I found Hindi was so close to Sanskrit, my favourite after Kannada, and started speaking Hindi quite well.

In the past few decades I have made many friends among Hindi-speaking and Tamil-speaking people. When I went to Germany, I spoke German well enough to impress the locals. I had by now found out a simple rule. 

Which is the best language in the world?

The language of the listener. Master it, and you will communicate better. 

Adi Shankara's Vishnu Shatpadi

This is so beautifully sung that I had to share it with you. 

Here are the shlokas with meanings: 

Sextet on Vishnu

 O Vishnu! Leading away from arrogance, tranquilise my mind, and destroy the persistent greed for desires. Spread the feeling of kindness for living-beings, and take me across the cycle of rebirth.||1|| 

 I sing praises of the lotus-feet of Lord of Lakshmi, Which has juice like the river Ganga, Which is fragrant and full of pleasures eternally, and Which breaks the shackles of the cycle of rebirth.||2|| 

 O Lord! Even though there is no difference between us (I am a part of You), I belong to You and not vice-versa. Just like the ocean is made of waves but the waves are not made up of ocean.||3|| 

 O Krishna, Who lifted the Govardhan¹! O Upendra, Who is the younger brother of Indra², Who is the enemy of demons, Who has sun and moon as two eyes! After seeing you, isn't it true that we get dispassionate about the whole mortal world? (Or it says that indeed Your appearance to someone destroys his (her) passion for the mortal world).||4|| 

 O Supreme Lord, Who protects this earth by various incarnations like Matsya (fish)! I am feared by the cycle of life and death and therefore I am worthy of being saved by You.||5|| 

 O Damodar! O Govind, Who is the temple of qualities, Who has a lotus-like body, Who is like the Mandarachal mountain for churning the (Ksheersagar like) ocean of rebirth! You drive away the immense fear from my life.||6|| 

 O Narayan, Who is full of compassion! I am taking the refuge of Your lotus-feet. May this above-said sextet (six pada) which is like a bumble-bee resides in my lotus-like mouth.||7|| 

 Notes: ¹ During Lord's appearance as Krishna, He stopped Nand and others to do sacrifices to Indra for clouds. He instead asked for devotion towards Narayan. Indra thought Krishna as a simple boy and got annoyed by His teachings. He sent clouds as a precursor to an attack on Vraj and started preparing his army. Krishna lifted Govardhan as a large umbrella to save everyone. Later Indra asked for forgiveness. ² Indra's father and mother, Kashyap and Aditi, had a boon of getting Lord as a child for three times. During second time, Lord was born from Kashyap and Aditi as Upendra; more popularly He is known as Vaman. 

 Poet: Adi Shankaracharya 

 Source: Stotra Ratnavali — Gitapress © Stutimandal 2006, Mar 24. 

Vishnu Shatpadi – Sanskrit Script 

 रचन: आदि शङ्कराचार्य 

 अविनयमपनय विष्णो दमय मनः शमय विषयमृगतृष्णाम् । भूतदयां विस्तारय तारय संसारसागरतः ॥ 1 ॥ 

 दिव्यधुनीमकरन्दे परिमलपरिभोगसच्चिदानन्दे । श्रीपतिपदारविन्दे भवभयखेदच्छिदे वन्दे ॥ 2 ॥ 

 सत्यपि भेदापगमे नाथ तवाहं न मामकीनस्त्वम् । सामुद्रो हि तरङ्गः क्वचन समुद्रो न तारङ्गः ॥ 3 ॥ 

 उद्धृतनग नगभिदनुज दनुजकुलामित्र मित्रशशिदृष्टे । दृष्टे भवति प्रभवति न भवति किं भवतिरस्कारः ॥ 4 ॥ मत्स्यादिभिरवतारैरवतारवतावता सदा वसुधाम् । परमेश्वर परिपाल्यो भवता भवतापभीतोऽहम् ॥ 5 ॥ 

 दामोदर गुणमन्दिर सुन्दरवदनारविन्द गोविन्द । भवजलधिमथनमन्दर परमं दरमपनय त्वं मे ॥ 6 ॥ 

 नारायण करुणामय शरणं करवाणि तावकौ चरणौ । इति षट्पदी मदीये वदनसरोजे सदा वसतु ॥

Srirangagadyam of Ramanuja

Please play the audio linked below, as you watch the slides in fullscreen slide-show. The original text and translation are provided.

What a Lalbagh walk!

Mr Vijay Tiruvadi took us on a memorable Lalbagh walk on June 1. Rated on Lonely Planet within world's top seven nature walks. Vijay takes us through history, geography, botany and beauty of plants from world over meticulously gathered and flourishing in Lalbagh. Rs 600 including sumptuous MTR breakfast!

Check out Bangalorewalks.com

Ten things I didn't know before my Lalbagh walk y'day :
1. The Lalbagh rock is 300 million years old, and came from Gondwanaland, the super southern continent connecting Africa and India.
2. 95% plants IN Lalbagh are from outside India originally.
3. Tipu Sultan imported plants and seeds for Lalbagh on ships from as far as Brazil to Mangalore port.
4. Gin and tonic has quinine extracts the British took to fight malaria. Ronald Ross lived in Bangalore.
5. Mr Fortune of East India Company posed as a Chinese noble to steal tea seeds into India from China.
6. The tallest tree in Lalbagh is 165 feet tall, comes from Pacific Island and is named after Captain Cook.
7. The maluva Creeper grows like hell over trees and all.
8. Most of the flowers we call Champa aren't Indian or even Champak.
9. There are conifers from eight countries in a small area in Lalbagh.
10. The original banana from Turkey grew upward, like the flower too.

The Economist on Modi

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21602709-new-prime-minister-has-good-chance-resuscitating-countrys-underperforming

Reviving India’s economy

Modi’s mission

The new prime minister has a good chance of resuscitating the country’s underperforming economy

May 24th 2014 |MUMBAI | From the print edition

 Stopping the wheels coming off

INDIA, a giant economic mediocrity, is cursed by having too many economists. Its outgoing prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has a doctorate from Oxford, ran the central bank in the 1980s and led the liberalisation programme that India put in place in 1991 after a currency crisis. Yet as prime minister Mr Singh had little grip or public support, serving at the pleasure of Sonia Gandhi, the populist leader of the Congress party. By the end of his ten-year term he admitted he had failed. In August, as the rupee tumbled, he addressed a gathering of India’s policymaking elite at his house in Delhi. The economy faced “very difficult circumstances”, he whispered.

Mr Singh’s successor could not be more different. Narendra Modi’s economic views have been formed while running the business-friendly state of Gujarat for the past 12 years. Asked some time ago about his economic influences, he described his homespun framework, jotting diagrams on a pad as he spoke. He has studied Singapore and China, but thinks that “India is a democracy and has different requirements”. Striking a balance between farming, small firms and global companies is required, with limited but muscular administration and populist appeal: “Men, machines and money must work together.”

Having run Gujarat well, Mr Modi now faces the far harder task of running India. He has big advantages—administrative competence, control over his party and a majority in Parliament—that should ease decision-making. Unlike Mr Singh, he has also campaigned and won on a platform of aspiration and economic reform. India needs “less government and more governance”, he declared on the campaign trail.

The immediate situation is precarious, notwithstanding a post-election surge in the stockmarket. India suffers from stagflation. Growth is 4-5%, half the level at the peak, inflation is 9% and rising (see chart), industrial production is declining and the public finances are a mess. Although the current-account deficit has narrowed to below 2% of GDP, it is flattered by a de facto ban on gold imports and could yet blow out to scary levels again.

As The Economist went to press Mr Modi had not picked his finance minister. The front-runners are Arun Shourie, a journalist and ex-minister, and Arun Jaitley, an urbane stalwart of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Both are able. As well as dealing with the immediate mess, Mr Modi and his finance minister must grapple with India’s long-term trajectory. It is distinctly wobbly.

A decade ago the country seemed destined to rival China. Annual growth was heading towards 10%. India had the ingredients that had made East Asian countries richer: a growing population and rates of saving and investment of over 30% of GDP that would finance factories and roads, lifting the economy’s potential. Unlike most East Asian counties, India has never had a strong state, but instead, optimists argued, it had brilliant entrepreneurs who could wheel and deal the country to prosperity.

What went wrong? The raw inputs of growth—people and capital—have been deployed badly. The rates of savings and investment have dipped and their mix has deteriorated. High inflation has led households to buy gold, shifting money away from the banking system where it can be productively employed. And a mixture of bureaucracy, excessive leverage, incompetence and corruption has led private companies (whose spending tends to have the most bang per rupee) to halve their investments as a share of GDP. What has been invested has often been tangled in red tape and graft.

India’s improvised miracle has hit its limits. Energy and chaos only go so far. Although poverty has fallen and there are pockets of dazzling wealth, much of the economy is primitive. Infrastructure is decades behind China’s. Industries that are close to the state involve corruption on a grand scale, with bribes paid to politicians and officials over the past half decade of anywhere between $4 billion and $12 billion. Only 3% of Indians pay income tax, leaving a hole in government finances.

About 90% of jobs are informal, leading to widespread poverty. Agriculture is feudal and food shortages cause inflation. India is meant to be industrialising but manufacturing contributes only 15% of GDP and 11% of jobs, and its share has been falling. A majority of India’s 50m manufacturing workers toil in facilities without electricity. A droopy rupee means India has been running to stand still. At market exchange rates India’s GDP remains smaller than Italy’s and ranks tenth in the world, about the same as in the 1980s.

There may be no one better qualified than the forceful Mr Modi to kick-start the investment cycle and slay stagflation. In his first month Mr Modi will beef up the prime minister’s office and knock heads together to get stalled projects moving. Some are embroiled in legal disputes which he will not be able to override; others are a matter for state governments. But still others are easy pickings. Roads, rail, coal and gas are areas where a decisive central government will make a difference, says Sanjeev Prasad, of Kotak, a bank.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

In his first quarter in office he must tackle the bloated fiscal deficit, which has fuelled high inflation. Book-cooking by the outgoing government means that the true deficit is higher than official forecasts—at perhaps 7-8% of GDP (including the states). Mr Modi will trim spending on wasteful subsidies of fuel and food and defer the rolling out of welfare schemes passed by the last government in its dying days. A budget will offer a chance to reverse the previous government’s retroactive tax claim on Vodafone, India’s largest foreign investor. Doing so would soothe the nerves of foreign firms.

In his first year, Mr Modi must stabilise India’s rotten banks and tame inflation. Recapitalising state-run lenders will cost up to 5% of GDP and will involve taking on the bureaucracies that run them and the powerful industrialists who are sitting on bankrupt projects that need to be written off. It will be a test of Mr Modi’s resolve. Another test will be his stance on interest rates. The boss of the central bank, Raghuram Rajan, wants a tough new inflation-targeting regime. Mr Modi should back Mr Rajan, who is keen to stay in his job. After all, high inflation is partly why Congress lost.

A good first year will revive animal spirits. Ajay Piramal, a tycoon with a billion dollars in gross cash, is now looking to invest again. The election result is “a good sign of the maturing of the electorate,” he says. Within two years the economy could be growing at close to its potential rate. Chetan Ahya of Morgan Stanley, a bank, forecasts growth of 6.8% by the quarter ending in March 2016. If Mr Modi achieves all this, he will have done the easy part.

In the long term he must raise India’s growth rate towards 10% and ensure that expansion starts to generate decent jobs. You do not become a superpower by creating an ever bigger army of underemployed drivers, idle security guards and ragged peons. India’s median age is 26, and every year for the next decade 10m people will enter the workforce. That requires a new vision for India and deeper reforms.

Critics argue that this is a step Mr Modi will be unable to make, and that he offers only a limited form of crony capitalism, with chummy deals struck with tycoons. This is unfair: many firms in Gujarat say that the bureaucracy works well, that the courts are fast and that graft is non-existent. The state has some impressive bureaucrats, ministers and institutions.

In any case India’s new economic plan will have to be home-grown, because simple prescriptions do not work. Outsiders often argue that all India needs to do is open up its economy and shrink its public sector. But the state is too puny in many ways: it is unable to enforce contracts and cannot afford to spend enough on infrastructure. The big impediment to foreign investment is not legal restrictions (most sectors are already open) but the same nightmarish business conditions that annoy local firms.

What might Mr Modi’s long-term plan look like? Some things are obvious. The solution to India’s fiscal problem (it has not run a budget surplus since independence in 1947) is to expand the tax net. A proposed direct-tax code, and a goods-and-services tax (GST), should achieve this. With more revenue, the state can build more infrastructure: the experiment over the past decade of getting the private sector to do the heavy lifting has had mixed results. The GST also helps make India a single market by replacing a myriad of local levies. The bureaucracy needs to be reformed; Bimal Jalan, a former central-bank governor, says the number of ministries should be cut.

But the big question is whether Mr Modi can make India a global hub for labour-intensive manufacturing. Japan, South Korea and China got richer by employing unskilled farmers in factories. The timing is perfect for India. Labour costs are rising in China; Japanese firms are shifting production from China because of military tensions; and the rupee has fallen, making Indian workers more competitive.

Sadly, it is hard to find an Asian boss who is interested. William Fung of Li & Fung, the world’s biggest sourcer of clothes for Western retailers, says activity is shifting to Bangladesh, South-East Asia and Africa. Zhang Ruimin, of Haier, a big manufacturer of household appliances, says he wants to automate his factories in China. Fujio Mitarai, the boss of Canon, plans to tilt production back to Japan and also automate it. When India is mentioned he raises his eyebrows.

About half of China’s exports are made by foreign firms. India could try relying on indigenous manufacturers instead. But they usually prefer to use machines, not employ people. They are also subscale. Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s local car champion, has a research-and-development budget that is 1% of Volkswagen’s.

Some argue that India could rely on a “trickle-down” effect from its sophisticated IT, pharmaceutical and high-tech manufacturing industries. They employ only a few million people but generate exports worth 7% of GDP. As the owners and staff of these firms spend the value added they have earned, they might create jobs.

It may be possible on paper, but some are sceptical that trickle-down can deliver a widespread improvement in living standards quickly. Arvind Panagariya, an economist Mr Modi listens to, argues that such an approach will not transform India. “Manufacturing is of the highest priority…In ten or 15 years’ time India ought to be where China is today.”

Narendra the great mender

Can Mr Modi achieve this? In a technical sense he will have to transform the supply of the inputs of production. Most factories find it far too hard to get land, labour and energy. All three inputs are bound by a mesh of restrictive rules and bureaucracy, vested interests and corruption. One option would be to devolve power over these matters to the states, and hope that they compete among each other to raise standards, much as Gujarat has done. Another would be for Mr Modi to build momentum over several years for a wholesale recasting of the rules, driven by the centre. Either way, it will require nothing less than a complete change of outlook for a country that has forgotten how to do business simply.

Sitting at his desk in Gujarat, Mr Modi said that when he first took charge of the state’s economy, “I thought: the sky is the limit.” A similar ambition today would serve India well.

From the print edition: Briefing

My new Sony Xperia Z2 phone

A slick, shiny piece of glass,

A mirror to my soul,

A magical slate of endless fun

Z2 is my new goldfish bowl.

Of water, it's totally unafraid

Like a simmering silky mermaid.

I welcome traffic jams as fun

I can shoot and post on the run!

The new Xperia is my entire world-

At least for now, I'm sure,

Inside lies no serpent curled,

It's totally mindless play so pure!

2 States - Sarson Da Saag and Murungakai Sambar

We were determined to see this movie.. Lido screen 1 shut down after ten minutes and we went and bought tickets for the next show in screen 3 yesterday to watch this movie made on Chetan Bhagat's story. It is a delightful movie with many many interesting moments. I encourage you to see it, to understand today's Indian youth, especially educated ones. And more so what successful authors and moviemakers peddle.

In any case, it was once again a revelation to me how much we have stereotypes and myths about people and their ways in different parts of India, for example Madrassis. The myths that people who eat sarson da saag and swig Scotch have about Madrassis has been roundly blasted by Chetan Bhagat, Karan Johar and everyone else who have made this movie. BUT alas these moviemakers have added a lot of incongruities and fancy notions of their own. The kind of stuff you put into your movie when you don't ever overestimate the intelligence of your audience. 

#

I list only a few simple, very simple ones, and you can add more.

1. 95% Madrassis are dark or kaale=Nonsense. In fact a celluloid baby or a doll made of pure bone china called Alia comes from the heartland of Mylapore. In fact under floodlights, her face glows with a bloodless ivory colour. But she does have absolutely pink lips that would make a Paris and Milan fashionista jealous.
2. Madras has a water problem=Nonsense. The inner courtyard in your traditional home receives copious rain night and day in typical Kerala monsoon style.
3. Madras is hot, humid and dirty=Nonsense. You have only three types of places - treelined Pondy-like neoclassical avenues with teak and rose wood classic houses, or lovely lovely flower markets, or glitzy 20-storied corporate towers with curved large glass windows overlooking a Madeira-like coastal skyline.
4. A Madrassi IIMA Iyer girl entrant can't pronounce the word Sambhar to save her life.She eats simple food- tandoori chicken, rumali roti and beer at lunch time.
5. A lady who has won all the Tamil Sangam singing contests is rejected by a series of Carnatic music teachers (all well groomed with talcum powder and pot belly). She can't get past the Mohana varna Ninnu Kori but sings a song in a corporate get-together better than Sunidhi Chauhan.
6. Where do bank managers hold their daughter's wedding? A seashore rockcut temple that would shame Mahabalipuram.
7. Whiskey is as much a last resort of a poor bank manager in Madras who is learning Plugpoint, as it is the staple of an abusive Punjabi husband who was thrown out of the army, (The Punjabi ex-armyman runs a security agency called Securities, in a go-down like office full of carboard cartons.)
8. Madrassis are after USA MBA bridegrooms. Punjabis are after fatso UK-returned Dukes. 
9. All the tensions between 2 irreconcilable states vanish into thin air as you type out your dream best seller. Note that you do that on a portable typewriter, no matter that you prefer to use a laptop to draft letters for your dad and to make fancy powerpoint charts for your f-in-law who thinks it's called Plug point. Some humbling for Gates and now Nadella, to see the sentimental might of good old typewriters. 
10. You actually carry your twins back to back and cope, since your ivory queen of a wife is nowhere to be seen. How you pacify them, feed them, and what language you speak to them in, etc. are trifles. Because you are the new Indian youth, earning a salary 4 times that of your IIMA professors with your first campus hire job- which is by itself a  pittance compared to your best-seller royalties.
11. Last but not the least, if you feel suicidal, don't  panic. Seek out a therapist who sits in a lazy boy as you prance around on a sofa, ignoring the large glass windows at the back that cry out for you to go, crash through, and land some 30 stories below in a mess that ends your life. Unless Rajni the Robot comes and saves you.

Time management for the hopeless

I know many folks who are obsessed with deadlines and targets. Hopefully they are very few in my part of the world. But the GREATER problem is that there are the hopelessly disorganized folks who have spent an entire life time on procrastination. This piece is for those folks.

As a starter, although I do believe I am rather better than average on time management, I am not preaching here. I am simply trying to suggest some simple if radical ideas to those who create all sorts of trouble for themselves and others by poor time mangement. Hope this helps.

Definition: if you have at any time more than seven really important and urgent things you have been meaning to do but haven't done in the last seven days, then you are a hopeless time manager. Remember seven things, seven days.

Now make a list of all the things that you MEANT to do. Make in fact three lists, call them Red, Green and Yellow.

The Red List: list all the things that you meant to do FOR OTHERS - and they are hurting because you didn't do it for them. The Red List is what you owe to others because you committed to do it for them.

It could be a simple thing like a phone call or even a text message giving a phone number. It may be as big a thing as returning a borrowed book or keeping a date. The Red List shows you how you are failing as a member of society. This is hopeless because no religion, no politics, no career and no family  pressure should come in the way of doing the RED LIST. 

The Green List: this is all the things you promised to do for YOURSELF. you are shooting yourself in the foot by not doing it. It may be exercise, taking medicines, studying for tests, fixing your home or wardrobe or kitchen or whatever. By failing in the a green items, you are failing your own life. This will have long term and short term consequences.

The Yellow List: this is the most benign list. it lists simply all the things you would like to do, when time permits, like seeing a movie or going  to a temple or church. You agree this is not an important or urgent list, but by doing this you have a better life. This includes even important things like planning your finances and buying or remodeling your home.

Now that you have three lists, Red, Green and Yellow, take SEVEN to-do items. 

The first four are the TOP FOUR RED items.

The 5th and 6th are the TOP TWO GREEN items.

The last one is the ONE TOP YELLOW Item.

You now have a To-Do list of seven items, consisting of four you committed to do for others, two you must do for yourself, and one nice to do thing.

NOW DO THESE SEVEN THINGS TODAY.OR LATEST THIS WEEK.

Remember, those things that take longer to do, are tackled by just starting to do them and keeping them on the burner, front or back, but keeping track of them. I think most things don't take too much effort to complete but take a hell of a lot of effort to just start. That is the idea of To-Do lists anyway.

Keep striking off all done items from the three Red/Green/Yellow lists, and keep adding new To-Do items as they come up.

If you run through your lists well for seven weeks like this, I promise you that you will become a time management expert!!!!!

SEVEN-SEVEN-SEVEN formula of time management. For the no more hopeless folks!!!

Dupanahalli Mural

A small plot in the next lane that once belonged to someone in Dupanahalli village is now readying a multistorey apartment building. The owner wants to remember his roots. See the beautiful mural at the front!

Get an MBA, right in your kitchen.

I think you needn't go to a fancy business school and get an MBA. Let me show you how you can get an MBA right in your kitchen. I give a list of 10 points, nowhere near exhaustive. Happy to discuss this further.

1. Your kitchen exists only for your family,ie those who eat with you - your consumers or customers. If it doesn't serve their purpose, it is dead. 

2. What you give has to have value - cost and price are immaterial. Value is as perceived by the client or consumer or here, family. I may cook the meanest pasta this side of the Mediterranean but if my son wants Idli and Rasam, I need to give him THAT. And no bragging please about Virgin Olive oil for all my cooking or that I use Naati Badami and Spanish Kesar in the Halwa. The value perception overrules all brag about ingradients.

3. Want To learn about just-in-time inventory? No place better than the kitchen. The best run kitchen optimises everything, and no wasted bags of rice or tons of pickle. Everything fresh, everything now, everything flavoursome. But this just-in-time principle means one has to be extra-efficient and remember to get things at the right time, or you run out of what you need the most...

By the same token, woe be to the kitchens with deep-frozen vegetables and dishes excavated like mummies after months.

4. Every MBA learns how to be efficient in terms of time, energy and process. A streamlined kitchen has less noise and more aroma. Less shelf space and more inviting dishes on the table. Less show and more action.

5. Everyone has to have pride in their skill. Talk to a home-maker. She will tell you what her people love, and how she has preserved their love for her cooking. Innovation is to be measured in terms of longevity of your consumer base!

6. Want to experiment with new cuisine? With new TV recipes? Answer the key question: why? Do your people want novelty? Variety? Give them what they want. That way, you deliver value and avoid disasters.

7. How do you celebrate success? Simple. That's why you have festivals. When people all eat together and celebrate what the family has enjoyed thus far, that is celebration. 

8. Ecology begins in your kitchen. Anyone who understands the sustainability of resources in the kitchen will easily translate this to the outside world. Do you know how dishes can be made with jackfruit seeds, orange peels, leaves of vegetables which we tend to throw away...so many  dishes without wasting valuable resources.

Long ago, people were making natural manure with kitchen waste in their backyard. 

9. It's funny how many electrical gadgets we use today in the kitchen. If one works with the hand, and manages the preparations by close supervision, you can be sure of the results. It improves efficiency and reduces waste. Of course intelligent use of efficiency multipliers like cookers and grinders reduces manual work. But one always should strike a balance.

10. How many servants do you employ in your kitchen? Does your cooking top have an Italian finish? Do you have the world's largest fridge? Each of these is a valuable resource and has to do something to produce more value. Otherwise it is a waste and you will regret it later!

Postscript: how about cleaning up and doing the dishes? Glad you asked. That's the unglamorous part..just like EHS. If you don't do it, sooner than later, you will shut down:-)

A polyglot dog

My grandchildren have a boxer pup. He is growing up quite well and one day may look like this handsome model. More importantly, he is being trained to understand several languages. English, Kannada. Tamil, Hindi, and a variety of loud screams with a powerful but limited vocabulary to signifiy raw emotions.

Now, children are supposed to learn languages easily. Remember we had in Math separate classes for algebra (comes from an Arabic word!), arithmetic and geometry? We had separate lessons because each presents its own interesting points and challenges. Now suppose you had combined classes with all three thrown at you randomly, would you still pick it up as well!? Thankfully nobody has tried this experiment.

But if you are a Bangalorean with a diverse set of friends and relatives and neighbours and school mates, you learn languages in a vocabulary goulash. I often observe people (except oldies like me) answer a line in say Kannada with one in English. Switch to English and you get Hindi back. Or even Tamil. Then you decide to emigrate to Dahl-land and speak in rashtrabhasha, only to be yanked back with a bit of Kannada or English.

Nowadays someone sends me emails that I can learn and master English easily by taking their lessons. They guarantee a dramatic improvement in my poise, confidence and employability. I know that for decades this is a good business in Kerala, Punjab and such. Regions where people grow up speaking their mother tongue so well they don't really need to learn English, until they hit the career wall and want to emigrate to richer lands and lifestyles. 

Poor people who don't learn their mother tongue well are indeed the most deprived. They will discover that they are like plastic flowers, with no inner sap or nourishment as they grow up.

That brings me to the boxer. What is his mother tongue? Should we bring him up to be a polyglot? 

558 Rue Paradis - Thanks MGM for a lovely afternoon!

http://youtu.be/5ZaJ5oHADIY

Another autobiographical French film, with well-done English subtitles, that moved me enormously,

A lower middle class Armenian family works hard at making clothes in Marseilles to bring up their son Azad Zakar. He grows up and turns out to be a successful playwright and gets hooked by a Parisian socialite who decides to develop him as a celebrity. Over the next fifteen years, he loses his touch with his poor and ageing parents and hardly gets to see them. Of course he still has lots of childhood memories and feelings...He sends his parents money regularly, and instead of spending it on their needs, they secretly keep all that money in a box in their small apartment on the mantlepiece, like they always used to do with their little money when he grew up.

His father comes to visit him in Paris, and sees his new play. It's a great success, and its story revolves around Azad's childhood. After the premiere the old man sits alone in the theatre for Azad, whose celebrity name is Pierre, to come and fetch him as he had promised. Azad almost forgets his father in the hullabaloo after the play but remembers just when getting into his expensive limousine with his wife Carole. He goes back to his father, and apologizes. In that silent moment inside the empty theatre, he presents his father an antique flute, and they bond like in old times when the father used to play a refrain, to put a young Azad to sleep every night. Far into the night the parents themselves would continue to work at the embroidery and making clothes, to earn a bit more to get over their difficulties.

The entire move is here for you to see. it is so touching.

Finally Azad finds his Armenian roots and acknowledges the love and care of his noble parents, but by then his father is no more. However Azad is happy that he makes his mother Mayrig feel like a queen in the mansion with the rose garden down their old street, at 558 Rue Paradis, that he has bought and outfitted for her to live in comfort with servants. He promises to surprise her with visits accompanied by his two lovely children, not Carole who is now separated, but their young and delightful Armenian lady tutor.

What is secularism, is it difficult?

Secularism as defined by dictionary.com is -

—noun

1. secular spirit or tendency, especially a system of political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith and worship.
2. the view that public education and other matters of civil policy should be conducted without the introduction of a religious element.

—Related forms
sec·u·lar·ist, noun, adjective 
sec·u·lar·is·tic, adjective 

So it is clear that secularism is connected with civil policy, government and education. Do you find anything non secular in India? Only in some school prayers and cultural programmes. The government and civil discourse rarely connects with practised religions. The pure and simple fact is that people are too busy running their lives around here in India to bring in religion into matters of education and civil policy.

But why did secularism raise its head? Because in many countries and societies, religious heads started dictating governance and civil liberties and duties. In some countries, they bother how you pray, when you pray, where you pray etc. they also have people coming to your house and telling you to change your religion or ...I have heard arguments against my current belief and living state as 

- you will go to hell if you don't convert...

- you will get X Y Z if you convert...

Etc. So some people offer carrots and sticks in the name of religion.

But actually all religion is a problem only because we allow people to go and convert, why don't we let people be as they are!?

Now consider this. If a kid hears a new language, sees people with a different dress style, or appearance, sees different kinds of food being eaten, or people praying differently from what he is familiar with, what is his first reaction? Surprise, wonderment, maybe even fear, curiosity, lots of questions. How do you, as a parent or elder, deal with this is important. If you tell him people are different all over the world and there are many forms of dress, language, culture, music, prayer and social conventions, any kid will be willing to accept it and move on happily.

The problem arises only if you, as an elder or parent, start judging or condemning. Or persuading others to convert.

Equal respect for all religions begins with you. And ends with you. The government has NOTHING to do with it.

The Empty Feeling of Being a Man

Today is being celebrated as World Women's Day. From the movie Gulaab Gang featuring a tough woman fighting the injustice of the world, to a million other things including special restaurant menus and all women discounts, the whole world is a noisy celebration put up to put down man.

All I can say is Bah. Yes. Bah. Like in Mis'Bah ul Haq the Pakistani captain who roundly lost the Asia Cup to a better side. Similarly we men feel an utter emptiness and the cruel injustice of this world when women have these celebrations.

You see, history is a total conspiracy to malign man. I think the trouble started with Eve. When it was read out from the scripture that Eve caused Adam's downfall, the story-teller felt a big whack on his head. It was the nearest woman with a blackened cooking pan. That story-teller breathed his last even without as much as a Bah. Ever since then, women hold a grouse against mankind. Note that they call it mankind. When they could very well have called it womankind. Perhaps they felt woman and kind don't go together.

Now look at the 21st century man. He is comprehensively screwed by society.

1. He is blamed for all the economic ills.

2. He is blamed for all the wars.

3. He is blamed for the traffic jams, he is pulled up for coming home late after being stuck in jams.

4. He is measured and reported to be spending only 18 minutes a day on house work. When his boss, the woman has all the time to do it! Bah. Rather she wants to spend her time rankling that man is goofing off outside. When all that he is doing is some bumbling job and then starting and getting stuck in traffic jams.

In Bombay I was introduced to a series of bars that litter the commuter route home. I believe the men get so depressed about the thanklessness of it all that they go get drunk and then go home.

It's not only Bombay. Even in Tokyo, men (and even women, bless them) go to bars and drinking sessions every day after work. To forget the hopelessness of life before they reach their beds at night. So Japanese colleagues are always together, 6 days a week.

And the women? They fuss over their children. To make them strong, efficient men. Forget the girls. Nobody cares. Everyone knows they are privileged. It's the men who have to join the race and become rats.

I also don't understand this whole business of house work. If you psychoanalyse any man, you will find out that he is ALWAYS thinking about house work. He is full of ideas and alternatives. And so much so that it is a case of analysis paralysis.

And don't let the man come into the kitchen. He will burn the food, mess up everywhere, and leave the kitchen such a ruin that the woman will have all eternity to remind him of how he messed up the kitchen.

Talking of eternity, this famous Thinking Man by Rodin is a wonderful metaphor. I think it shows the quintessential feeling of emptiness that man is feeling, as he contemplates his condition. Dennis the Menace explains to Joey who asks, "what's the man thinking about?" "He's trying to remember where he left his clothes." 

I bet there will never be a sculpture of a woman who was wondering where she left her jewellery or fancy clothes or whatever. Because she will head to the nearest fancy store and get replacements. After all it's Women's Day!

Pure Sacred Smoke

Indian cricket has reached a new low in Bangladesh. After tasting big defeats repeatedly in SA and NZ, we thought they will be more at home in Bangladesh. But they have lost to Sri Lanka and Pakistan and struggled to beat Bangladesh. Today they are spinning a web around Afghanistan but we have to wait and see the result.

One end of the pitch in the Asia Cup games is called Cycle Agarbathis end. Not your Park end or Lord Bentinck end. Why this burning bathi end of a name? Because the prime sponsor of the tournament is Cycle Brand Agarbathis.

As Agarbathis go, it is the leading brand in India proudly hailing from Mysore. Since any product's success in India is measured by the number of its spurious copies out there, Cycle Agarbathis are definitely right up there.

But the connection between Agarbathis and cricket is not very obvious, until you see their ad. There, a boy, a mother and a soldier all say that it's because God is up there protecting us, that things are going alright. And the Agarbathis are merely your way of daily reminding God to protect you and your later saying thank you to God.

I believe BCCI was willing to sign up Cycle forever in place of Sahara provided the Agarbathis helped India win the Asia Cup. But holy smoke, no such luck!

I can already see someone accusing NaMo of tempting Hindu voters with free supply of Agarbathis, a sure way to bribe God.

Did you light your bathi today? GOD, No? You will surely choke on your luck.

Happy Shivaratri!

The Zombienet

This week's news :

1. Facebook buys Whatsapp for US $ 19 billion.

2. Google glass is now available for prescription wearers, along with a few etiquette tips.

3. The Mobile World Congress 2014 Barcelona has announced what is my next mobile phone.

There, you have it -my weekly headlines summary, which completely bypasses the world of humans, with its Modis, Paswans, and Lalus. We don't interact with or inhabit the same world as those people who want to now go and live in London since Amma is releasing them from life imprisonment in jails that they entered in 1991 or so, soon after having blown off the head of Indian politics at Sriperambadur ( where is it dear? Look up in Google Earth, lazy!)

 Yes, that was the prehistoric year when there was no Internet, no mobile phone, and no PC.

What!? You mean there was a time on earth when there were humans, that is those who were not robots hobbling around clutching little shiny lighted screens!? Yes. A different time. A different world. A different species.

So human history can be written briefly as the progression of creatures in this sequence: 

Worms

Dinosaurs

Humans

Viruses

Androids.

The last named is you and me, what the dictionary defines as an automaton in the form of a human being. Another name for android.

In the new language of the zombienet we all androids inhabit, there are surprising parallels to humans'. 

Let me list six most powerful words of them:

Breathe = Facebook

Smile = Emoji

Walk or stroll or travel = Browse

Speak = Whatsapp

Unburden your soul = Post on your FB timeline.

Sleep or wake up = Come online or go offline.

In the Zombienet, man's propensity to happiness, sadness, war, disease and death have all equivalents. The Android can suffer or experience an extremely wide range of unpredictable mental states. As recently reported, these vulnerabilities are best exemplified by the issues caused by a bug in the IOS 6.1.1 due to possibilities of rogue access to your devices using the encryption vulnerabilities in SSL. A fix is coming shortly as 7.0.6. Such issues don't always hurt us folks in Zombienet of course. Some of us use KitKat, you see. Even Nokia X uses a stripped version of this OS.

But the worst news?!?!? We may have to go backwards in time and technology, into a world of the spoken language that humans used. That's because some of the folks who shared in the 19 billion loot have decided to offer voice telephony for free on Whatsapp. Yes. Speech. 

Pamban Bridge

Pamban Bridge turns 100

"Death" in Bhagavadgita Chapter 2

The Chapter 2 of the Gita is titled Sankhya Yoga. It has 72 verses and condenses the entire teaching of the Gita.
It is interesting to see how Krishna answers Arjuna's pitiful cry for advice, caught as Arjuna is in the dilemma of fighting a bloody war to death with his own brethren, elders and teachers. Krishna first dismisses his despondency and confusion in the face of a war which had  been in the making all along, between the warrior cousins, on a matter of right and righteousness. He also cautions Arjuna that for a warrior, dereliction of duty in battle will incur ignominy and ridicule. He also says that this war has been inescapable and inevitable due to the build-up of issues. The epic is titled Mahabharata because it symbolises the war to end all wars in India's history.

Nevertheless, the following words of Krishna take the discussion to a different level altogether. It discusses the essential immortality of the soul and how birth, death and killing are superficial, transient events on the eternal canvas of creation. His words are vital to our understanding of the core of Indian philosophical belief.

I quote Sir Edwin Arnold's translation in verse form of the Bhagavad Gita:

KRISHNA
Thou grievest where no grief should be! thou speak'st
Words lacking wisdom! for the wise in heart
Mourn not for those that live, nor those that die.
Nor I, nor thou, nor any one of these,
Ever was not, nor ever will not be,
For ever and for ever afterwards.
All, that doth live, lives always! To man's frame
As there come infancy and youth and age,
So come there raisings-up and layings-down
Of other and of other life-abodes,
Which the wise know, and fear not. This that irks--
Thy sense-life, thrilling to the elements--
Bringing thee heat and cold, sorrows and joys,
'Tis brief and mutable! Bear with it, Prince!
As the wise bear. The soul which is not moved,
The soul that with a strong and constant calm
Takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently,
Lives in the life undying! 

That which is
Can never cease to be; that which is not
Will not exist. To see this truth of both
Is theirs who part essence from accident,
Substance from shadow. Indestructible,
Learn thou! the Life is, spreading life through all;
It cannot anywhere, by any means,
Be anywise diminished, stayed, or changed.
But for these fleeting frames which it informs
With spirit deathless, endless, infinite,
They perish. Let them perish, Prince! and fight!
He who shall say, "Lo! I have slain a man!"
He who shall think, "Lo! I am slain!" those both
Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;
Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;
Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!
Who knoweth it exhaustless, self-sustained,
Immortal, indestructible,--shall such
Say, "I have killed a man, or caused to kill?"
Nay, but as when one layeth
His worn-out robes away,
And taking new ones, sayeth,
"These will I wear to-day!"
So putteth by the spirit
Lightly its garb of flesh,
And passeth to inherit
A residence afresh.

I say to thee weapons reach not the Life;
Flame burns it not, waters cannot o'erwhelm,
Nor dry winds wither it. Impenetrable,
Unentered, unassailed, unharmed, untouched,
Immortal, all-arriving, stable, sure,
Invisible, ineffable, by word
And thought uncompassed, ever all itself,
Thus is the Soul declared! How wilt thou, then,--
Knowing it so,--grieve when thou shouldst not grieve?
How, if thou hearest that the man new-dead
Is, like the man new-born, still living man--
One same, existent Spirit--wilt thou weep?

The end of birth is death; the end of death
Is birth: this is ordained! and mournest thou,
Chief of the stalwart arm! for what befalls
Which could not otherwise befall? The birth
Of living things comes unperceived; the death
Comes unperceived; between them, beings perceive:
What is there sorrowful herein, dear Prince?

Wonderful, wistful, to contemplate!
Difficult, doubtful, to speak upon!
Strange and great for tongue to relate,
Mystical hearing for every one!
Nor wotteth man this, what a marvel it is,
When seeing, and saying, and hearing are done!
This Life within all living things, my Prince!
Hides beyond harm; scorn thou to suffer, then,
For that which cannot suffer. Do thy part!

These words describe all aspects of death. It is a transition. It is not touching the soul.  The key verses in Sanskrit are the ones which state how the embodied soul merely transitions at death. And that Arjuna has to do his duty at hand, recognising the inevitablity of death for all that is born.

This philosophical concept, as Krishna says, is hard to understand, and most only marvel at it. Therefore the goal is to shift one's focus from death and lead one's life in an aware manner. That means not that we have to do different things, but do things everyday differently. That attitude of awareness and equanimity is discussed in the last several verses of this chapter, from the description of a Sthitaprajna's attitude to life.

 (Photo: Oct. 2013 Pamban Bridge Rameshwaram.)

Decoding the Indian Headshake

Important for all aspirants wishing to max in

IAS IPS IFS IRS SAT JEE GMAT GRE TOEFL etc. etc. 

Click the picture below to watch the video lesson! 

Why Hinduism is never in danger

Wendy Doniger's book's "pulping" by Penguin, recent talks by Rajiv Malhotra on Indra's Net, and the various protestations in all media by big and small names about freedom of expression, all  raises a fundamental question.

Is Hinduism in danger? 

I don't think so at all. Let me list ten reasons for my thinking.

1. Hinduism is a broad expression applied to variegated beliefs and practices of >1 billion people, with millions of temples, hundred of rituals, thousands of years of monuments and temples, and several thousand-years old scriptures unparalleled in human history. Such a large living organism, for want of a better expression, can never be threatened by any time-bound or space-confined efforts of anyone. If mankind is wiped out by a nuclear holocaust, Hinduism will also perhaps disappear. Only to rise again if ever thinking life reappears.
2. Hinduism is not a doctrine. It is not a book. It is not a "Ten Commandments"or a "Quran". It works itself into your being from before your birth, through the most natural inputs of touch, sound, sight, song, food, language, social relationships, and is celebrated year-long everywhere. Hinduism works because it makes you feel alive and good. It cannot be threatened therefore even by death. In fact, birth, death, marriage, schooling, parents, children, everything around us is Hinduism's raw material. It derives strength from everything that happens!
3. Science supports Hinduism. We don't say God made the world in seven days, the sun goes round the earth, and if you pray five times a day, you go to a heaven with rivers of wine and erotica. Every scientific discovery and invention, be it bosons, black hole or in vitro fertilization, fits nicely with some Hindu legend or myth. Why? Because the Hindus have been intelligent men thinking over millennia about life and creation, and are the best natural scientists.
4. Ecology supports Hinduism. When doctors tell you to go vegetarian, or governments tell you to go easy on the gas pedal, they are simply emphasizing the virtues of "Sattvic" nature that is defined in Hinduism 5000 years ago. Period. Buddha called it the middle path.
5. What makes people happy? Music. Dance. Celebration. All this is intrinsic to HInduism's everyday life. This is a big deal in this world, where religions ban music and dance and women are in black purdah. men are told sex is the original sin. So you have weirdos who do crazy things out of confusion and frustration. No such problem for Hinduism.
6. Hinduism has humour. We have stories of great humour. Ganesha, Hanuman, Krishna, are all fun people. Shiva, Rama, and Karttikeya are brave, far-thinking, leaders. All our gods are simply the best role models.
7. Female emancipation is not a tough question in Hinduism. We call Earth our mother and along with Prosperity she makes up the two consorts of God=Vishnu. So we give a natural place for life in our religion, and raise it to motherhood. We also see a lot of evil of all kinds around. To cleanse it, we invoke the goddess Durga or Devi or Kali. There cannot be greater positivism in problem solving. In fact neo-management gurus routinely quote our legends and myths for illustration. 
8. There is no conflict in Hinduism between wealth and goodness. We have held out as our heroes prosperous and benevolent and extremely mature kings who treat their wealth as a trust for the development of all mankind.
9. There is no conflict in Hinduism between individualism and inclusiveness. Whereas we are extolled to seek our individual liberation or Moksha, we are told that the way for this is through doing socially good action ( =loka sangraha in Bhagavadgita). Bhagavadgita can be called the greatest book of human psychology!
10. We don't mind funny people or funny comments or crazy books about Hinduism. When Keshab Chandra Sen talked to Sri Ramakrishna for three days about why there is no God, Ramakrishna applauded him and said he was wonderful. Keshab asked, "so do you accept there is no God?" Ramakrishna laughed and said, "no, dear Keshab, in fact I am now more than convinced that only God could have made possible such a brilliant debater like you!" So for every Wendy Doniger, there will be a Rajiv Malhotra. You see, we believe in the hierarchy of evolution. From fish, boar and tortoise, incarnations evolve, and finally you have the greatest avatar. Similarly, you have animal/bestial thinkers, idol worshippers, Freudians, cruel and violent and confused people, and finally also a Mahatma Gandhi. When someone shot him point blank in his own prayer meeting, he said "Hey Ram"and died. 

Postscript: suppose I study Hinduism in its myriad forms, scriptures, legends and practices, and try to get a hang of the subject by trying to fit a theory to all that I see around me, especially using modern tools of psychology and yardsticks of other religions, I will end up with a fat book, but that goes nowhere. Because Hinduism is not obliged to fit nicely into a jig saw puzzle, you see, it evolved over >5000 years among now a billion people, all professing only what they loved about life. Yes, about life. 

Delhi smog

I took this photo from 11th floor hotel Fortune Excalibur Gurgaon at 7:07 am

The Black and White party

The political cauldron of India is boiling with possibilities and alliances left and right in the election year 2014. The Prince is worried that all poll surveys show his grand old party may as well raise its hands in defeat. The saffron superman is displaying a wrinkled forehead during his strident speeches claiming to be the future leader of India, the lines looking like the scattered sticks of a marauding broom. The topi-clad smiling assassin of Delhi brandishing the broom is hobnobbing with Aam Aadmis like there is no tomorrow. The so-called third-rate third front is bristling with a total lack of ideas.

What next?

No. 10 Janpath calls an emergency meeting. Whatever they seem to be doing seems to be triggering a pepper spray in its own face. What indeed can be done?

A creative out-of-the-box jack rabbit comes up with an idea. Why not scrap the old party and create a new one? And call it the Black and White party?

Look at the marketing possibility sirji!

The idea is simple. Make India into the world's very first pure black and white nation. That means everyone and everything sports only one or two colours, the favourite white or the even more favourite black.

This idea is so ideally matching the heritage and aspiration of our nation. Let me cite some examples.

Black is the loved colour of accountants. White is the ideal of every Indian mind. White complexion (Fair Prince is shining in white rolled-up sleeves), whitening creams for men and women from all walks of life.

The Indian bride wears black eyeliner (Kareena also promotes white now), black bead necklaces and white lac or shell chudia armlets.

The frugality of a Gandhian weave is in its white. 

A lot of Indian cuisine from black dal makhni to black gram halwa and black til laddus. Not to forget the white rivers and oceans of milk and curd.

The black hair that men and women sport late into wrinkled old age. Just as they in parts of India smear their faces with white powder.

The black money that backs every creative and competitive endeavour in industry and politics.

The shining black sinewy boatmen and fishermen and farmers and street layers and dock workers that can be spotted across the length and breadth of India.

The millions of outsourcing dollar earners who work every dark night to keep the white westerners happy and prosperous.

The frequent blackouts whenever we have power outage.

By eschewing the wasteful  rainbow of colours which are a sheer distraction for our essentially black and white nation, a back of the envelope calculation shows, India will save a trillion dollars.

That's white and not counting the black bigger lot: starting with the savings in paint, print, television and Internet bandwidth. A straight forward increase of GDP by 20 percent.

The cut and dried Indian almanac has the white fortnight and the black one too.

Kalki is the white knight on a white  horse coming as the last saviour for the masses, who comes and cleans up the sullied world.

The black Kali, Krishna and Rama already save the pious and pure souls every day.

The white Shiva sits with his Himalayan consort in the world's whitest longest stretch of mountains.

India, wake up to the future. It's black and white.

Welcome the Black and White party!