Is history repeating itself ?

I am writing this from terminal 3, Singapore Changi Airport. I met a few Singaporeans during my visit to Singapore. They are Singaporeans by nationality; many are Chinese by ethnicity. I have met many such Chinese in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines and India in the past. No doubt they belonged to their nation of birth or domicile; but at the sametime they are proud to be Chinese. Their being Chinese bind them together. They all belong to the same gene stock.

I have also met a few Indians in Singapore; they are no doubt Singaporeans by natinality but are proud to be Indians by ethnicity. I have met Indians in Malaysia and Hong Kong too. They are also proud to be Indians by ethnicity. There are Indians in England, Holland, Austria, the USA etc.; they are also proud, barring a few fringe groups, to be Indians. But what about Pakistani, Bangladeshi and SriLankan nationals who are Indians by ethnicity. Why don't they call themselves Indians ? After all their features do show that they belong to the Indian stock. After all all of them (i.e. their forefathers) belonged to the undivided India. But their refusing to accept this natural fact is the reason for conflict, I believe. Of course, religion adds to the divisive agenda.

Even among the chinese, there are differences among the main-land Chinese and the Taiwanese or Hong Kong Chinese; but that is more political than cultural or social. Otherwise mainland China could have wiped off both Taiwan and Hong Kong in no time for not towing their line; but mainland China is tolerant towards them because of their ethnicity - they belong to the same gene stock!!!! (am I too simplistic in my assessment ??)

When will similar realization come to our fellow Indians in Kashmir, Pakistan, Bangladesh, SriLanka, Maldives etc. I am looking for the day when this truth dawns on the misguided !!! That is the day when peace will return to this culturally rich region. Why do you want to kill your brothers and sisters ? Of course India is full of stories(Ramayana & Mahabharata) and history (e.g. Aurangazeeb) where brothers fight and kill each other !!!!. Is history repeating now?

It happened to me...It can happen to you too

Yesterday, 01 December, 2008, I received a SMS at about 12.16 hrs that I made a transaction for Rs.2020.18 on my credit card. I was under the impression that it was the charge for my Singapore Visa charged by American Express. Later in the evening I received an invoice from American Express for Rs.1270/=. I thought immediately that there was something odd. This morning I called the ICICI Bank and checked about my credit card transactions; to my surprise there was one more transaction for Rs.1515.01. When I checked, there was more surprise - both the transactions were in US $ and both were from the same merchant. Immediately I gave instruction to freeze/cancel my card. Now I have taken this up with ICICI Bank for diputing the charges. The learning for me is that I should not neglect any of the SMS messages from my Credit Card company. If this can happen to me this can happen to anyone. Happy birthday!!!! (by the way, my laptop also gave way....again, is it a birthday effect/)

Bombay under attack

It is all over now. From the time Indhu called me to inform me about the terrorist attack in Bombay on Thursday morning till now many things have happened - all captured live on TV; the brutal acts of the terrorists, the heroic acts of the NSG commandos and the not so heroic act of the police (don't blame them, they cannot face an AK-47 or AK-56 with a lathi!!). More than 200 are dead and more than 300 are wounded in this madness. Properties worth many crores have been damaged; safety and security in 5 star luxury hotels are now questioned. The NSG Commandos had taken three days to flush out and kill the terrorists, numbering about 15. All Commado actions had taken place in buildings, not in the open. I have a simple question. Could the commandos have used a chemical stunner (like for example chrloroform or a similar chemical, like the one that comes in the not so intelligent advertisement that uses laughing gas to make the thieves laugh and forget their mission) to make all the people in the building unconscious and to act quickly to identify and catch the terrorists among the occupants of the building ? This could have been done in a fraction of the time taken for the conventional firing and bombing operations. We could have got the terrorists live which would have helped to provide solid evidence on the mission. What is your opinion? Is such a chemical available ? Has anyone used such a technique earlier to rescue the innocent hostages ? Should we ask this question to specialists ? Think.

Am I right ?

An incident that took place this morning upset me a little. I reached the Mumbai airport well before the flight...Ajit Saraf was so fast this morning that he brought me to the airport in less than two and half hours from Pune. I was waiting at the Lounge. Probably I was one of the very few to have arrived at the lounge.

An youngster came in, speaking loudly on his mobile; he took a seat in front of me. Apart from us there were the attendant girls. He called one them and asked her to serve him breakfast. She politely told him that it is a buffet and he could take whatever he wanted. This guy insisted that she should serve him the breakfast. There was some exchange and the girl left the table. The guy, still speaking over the mobile, walked around and picked up his plate of breakfast. Time passed, this fellow was still speaking loudly on the mobile. The attendant girl went to his table to clear the plates...again this guy asked her to serve him some specific item. She replied that being buffet he should be able to take whatever he wanted. Again there was some exchange of words. This guy was walking around, still speaking, on and off going near the cookies, taking one or two pieces of cookies eating them while walking. This was going on for over an hour. The attendant girl again cleared the plates on his table. Suddenly I heard a shouting; this guy was accusing her of removing the plate without his permission and that he was only half-way through. She politely told him sorry and asked him to take more if his breakfast had been interrupted by her. On this, the guy started shouting...probably his ego was hurt - an attendant girl was not taking his orders. Apparently he was a JP Platinum member. He threatened her that he would complain about her to higher authorities for her behaviour. He was probably waiting for a senior person to come and was waiting at the Manager's table. As no one was available he moved to the next section and complained to the Jet Airways employee. In the meanwhile, her immediate seniors came to her and tried to tell her what she could have done to avoid the complaint by the guy. She was visibly upset; probably she was also called by someone senior and reprimanded...

I was watching all these ..going on for over an hour. I felt bad for the girl. Probably I would have done the same thing if I had met with such a situation. She was at a hopeless situation, especially with job cuts around; and the guy was trying to exploit the situation. He was crude and rude.

When she came near me with one of her seniors, I called the senior and told her that the girl's behaviour was quite decent and she should not be penalized for the incident. Her immediate response was that the guy was sitting behind me. I said that it did not matter to me; I was ready to give it in writing that this girl behaved properly as anyone in the right senses would have done and she should not be penalized for any complaint which was frivolous. I could see the brightness and happiness on her face !!! She thanked for my offer and left the place. I also left the lounge to catch the flight. On the way I went to the toilet.

While coming out of the toilet this girl was waiting for me; she requested me if I could write my views on the incident and give that to her. I immediately wrote about the behaviour of the guy and how the girl managed the situation well. She profusely thanked for the letter; I left the place with a satisfaction that it might help her to face her superiors in case that came up for discussion/hearing.

Am I right writing such a note to help her?

My Father..........

After writing the last blog evaluating me as a father in comparison to Subramanian of “Santosh Subramanian”, I thought I should also write about my father (a sort of 360 degree evaluation) and his relationship with me. At the outset let me tell you I had a GEM of a father; I am proud of my father and will be proud of him ever. By the way I am not comparable to him; he is unique. Coming to those points:

1) There was no special way in which our parents brought us up. Of course father wanted us to study well; so he had arranged tuitions, from class 3 onwards !!! This continued till the 8th Standard, i.e. till I left the Srirangam High School. We just grew …there was no special attention. The hostel life had taught us some discipline, of getting up early, studying regularly, taking care of belongings etc. We could, however, feel the love and affection of our parents.

2) Of course, our dresses used to be at least one or two sizes bigger than the right size, because we were supposed to be growing !!! But not many dresses were there anyway. We hardly had a couple of dresses apart from the Uniform (Khaki and White) and of course per year we used to get two new sets, one for Deepavali and another for the birthday. So there was no choice; Appa used to bring the cloth and give that to the tailor. We had to wear whatever was given to us. We did it with joy !!!

3) Appa never gave me any specific assignment; only after coming to Kuppiah Chetty Street, it was my duty to get the vegetables almost every evening, which I did with enthusiasm.

4) Appa never played with me any game. He used play Tennis, Bridge etc., when we were in Pettavaithalai. But I was only a spectator.

5) Appa, it appears to me, had no time to plan our future and probably did not have any high dreams for me…at least I could not get any evidence that he guided me in my selection of courses or career. Of course, he was available to me whenever I wanted, be it the admission to Hindu High School, or admission to Presidency College or my struggle to get into Medical College or any such effort. But not even once did he tell me what to choose or what to go for. Probably, his experience with my older brothers would have made him to let the destiny take its own course in my case.
One specific instance where his advice changed the course of my life was application to IISc. I was not eligible to apply for Ph.D. in Chemistry in IISc as I had taken Biology in my graduation. He advised me to apply for IISc. I was called for interview; on the same day I had another interview at IIT, Mumbai. Appa spoke to one of his close friends, who happened to be the uncle of Prof. Soundararajan, and asked me to go to IISc. It was a good decision. Even though I was not eligible I was selected…the rest is another story. I still believe that it was a bold advice.

6) By the time I went to college Appa had already retired; I did not want to burden him with heavy college fee. My highest college fee till M.Sc. was Rs.600/= per year. For Ph.D. I lived on my Scholarship and did not ask a single paisa from Appa. In fact I used to save on what Appa used to give me for the bus and lunch (about Rs.30 per month) and used the money for my clothes. Of course as usual Deepavali and Birthday used to bring two sets of clothes every year.

7) As for the marriage, it was left to Appa to select a bride. But I was clear that I would marry the first girl I would see. By the way, I had a few who were interested in me at this stage of my life. But I wanted my father & mother to decide.

8) I don’t think Appa had any plan for each one of us; things happened as they had to happen that way. He lived his life simple and wanted the same for his children perhaps.

9) I hardly spoke to Appa when we were in Nellikuppam and Pettavaithalai; he never had time as his time was occupied in his factory job. The maximum was his patting our back with a “adi Chokka” comment. Of course Amma was there for any needs and Patti and Athai and samayal Mami were all there for stories and gossip. Anyway the friends circle was so big that I did not miss anything by not speaking to Appa often during those days. The day I was bed-ridden, when I was in the 9th Standard, my relationship with Appa became cemented. I cannot forget the way he took care of me; he used to give me sponge bath, used to clean my bed pan, used to feed me and to give medicines in time. He was already retired and I could see the self-less service of Appa. I had also seen him doing these to my Paatti…taking care of her with love ..without any inhibition of cleaning her. In fact we came to know of the REAL appa only after his retirement – A GEM of a PERSON.

10) Even though he used to worry about things, he never put a spoke in our views and moves. I learnt quite a few things from him during this phase (after retirement) of his life.

11) He never questioned about my friends; he used to entertain any of my friends visiting me. He knew Balaswaminthan, Rajendran et al and used to speak to them without much of a worry about the age difference.

12) He never asked for my advice on any matter; I used to ask him for his advice.

Looking back that was a different era….needs were different…ideas were different…. opportunities were different. There are many things that I have to thank Appa for; he is responsible for what I am. The one thing that I have to thank APPA for is that he showed us that Character and Values are important in life. He showed us the way to treat people, whether rich or poor, young or old, intelligent or not so intelligent etc. No doubt he is one of my IDOLS.

It is absurd to compare him with Subramanian!!!!

Am I another Subramanian....

While flying back from Bangkok to Mumbai I happened to watch the movie "Santosh Subrmanian"...I could not watch the final scenes of the movie as the Public Address system interfered with the scene and by the time the Public Address announcement was over, the movie also ended. But overall I believe that I understood the message of the movie. The movie is about a father who wants his children to be the best and he tries to give them the best, as he sees it. The story goes on to say that the father perhaps erred in his treatment of his children, even though he had their well being in mind, by forcing his views on them.

This triggered off some thoughts in my mind too. Am I another Subramanian ?We brought up our children without any external guidance. We believed that whatever we did was for the best of our children. It is possible that I was rude, crude or simply bad; but the intentions were always good. I do not know how my children have taken my interactions with them.

Just to compare, I did not force them to wear what they did not like; of course I might have bought some dresses (in their absence) which may not be of their liking. But I did not question them as to why they never wore those clothes. Most of the times, it was their choice and not mine.

I never asked them to do something and interfered with their way of accomplishing that. My aim was to make them as independent as possible and so there was no way I would interfere with their work, whether it was for me or for them.

I had probably played carrom once or twice with them - but they were too young to even remember that. I never told them as to how to play their part in a game. I believe that full freedom was given to them as to the execution of any such activity. As parents our responsibility was to enable them to do the best the way they like.

As parents we also had our dreams about our children. So I took them for music classes; after an enthusiastic start, not so interesting continuation, it ended absurptly - the decision to end was theirs not mine. The decision to throw away Iqbal classes was theirs not mine.

I did express that they should become engineers (anyway they did not like biology and did not want to become doctors), as my experience showed that it was the minimum (like the SSLC of the early 20th century) that was required to build a career. I am not sure if they liked it; but as a parent it was my duty to show the way. I have (am) shown (showing) interest in their continuing beyond the Bachelor's degree. The decision to go forward is (was) theirs.

As for their life partners, they are their choice, not mine. My job was only to find someone suitable and ask them to interact and decide. The final decision was theirs, not mine. Of course, as a father, I am interested in their life even after their marriage. At times I express my dreams of them; that does not mean I am forcing my views on them.

All my actions, with all its short-comings, were focussed on the best of everything for my children. At times I may not be in synchronization with their thinking... I am sure one day they will realize the reason for my thinking at that particular time.

I had always strived for an environment where my children could express themselves without any fear; at times they talk to me subjects that they don't even speak to their close friends. I like it that way...that means they don't have fear in me. I believe that they treat me as a good friend. But at the same time they have some respect for my age and experience. I believe that they are also proud of me as their father. The impression I get is that they love me, respect me and expect me to be with them (to share their joys and problems etc.) always.

Now that my children are grown, with their own families, I look to them for views and advice when needed. Most of the times their views are more apt for the situation than mine. They tell me as to when to cut my hair; what type of shirt I should wear; how to respond to some people; how to use my computer etc.

Am I then Subramanian ? No way....my children are smarter than his sons and they had seen Freedom and had been Independent much before they learnt the letter F. By the way, my children have the best set of friends and do not have any bad habbits - they do not have anything to hide behind their parents. I am proud of them.

The worst experience of my life or How to lose 5 Kgs in a week

There are many things in life that one would like to forget; there are some things that one would not like to experience again. I have enough of both the categories in my life. Among these one (extended) episode stands out...it should not happen to anyone... but unfortunately it is likely to happen more often than not.


It was in the year 1997, I had just passed a five day Environmental Auditors' course approved by the Environmental Auditors Registration Association (EARA, UK). I had become eligible to register myself as an environmental auditor. When I submitted my application for the registration as an environmental auditor, EARA called back to inform me that my experience and qualification would allow EARA to register me as a Principal Environmental Auditor, the highest level of professional environmental auditors. I had to write a thesis and appear for a viva-voce at EARA's headquarters at London, to be registered as a Principal Environmental Auditor. I checked with my colleagues in Holland if they could help me to travel to London to attend the viva-voce. I got a positive reply - I could spend a couple of days in Eindhoven and then proceed to London for the viva-voce. My colleagues informed that this time they would like to take me around Holland as in my previous visits I was confined to Eindhoven because of the tight schedules. I was quite happy with this arrangement.



When I was planning the visit, KR informed me that I should try the railway between Amsterdam and Eindhoven, as it was more convenient than flights. On all my earlier trips I used to reach Eindhoven by flight. I thought it was a good idea to go to Eindhoven from Amsterdam by train and planned accordingly.


On a November Saturday I left for Amsterdam from Bombay. After reaching Amsterdam and clearing the immigration, I removed my passport, ticket, money-purse (containing my local credit card among other things) and some money from my blazer and kept them "safe" in my brief case. I got a train ticket to Eindhoven from Schipol. I had to get down at the Central Station to catch a train to Eindhoven. When the train arrived I rushed into the train with my brief case and suitcase, little realizing that I was entering a first class compartment. Once I realized that it was a first class compartment I thought I should stand near the door so that I could get down at the next station and change the compartment. The compartment was not full; a few seats were vacant, a few people were standing holding on to the support rods. Since I had to hold the rods with one hand, I had kept my brief case between my legs and the suitcase in front of me. I was watching people...some were reading books, some news papers, some were chatting, some were looking out through the glass windows....there were two weird guys who were sitting for sometime, then they started moving up and down the compartment. I was wondering if these guys were mad....suddenly one of them started speaking to me in Dutch. I told the guy that I did not know Dutch and asked him to speak to me in English. He went on speaking to me in Dutch till we reached the next station...the doors opened..still he was speaking...as the doors were about to close he jumped out....only then I realized that my brief case which was kept between my legs was missing. I could see in a fraction of a second that the second fellow outside on the platform with my brief case. I tried to shout and it was too late. The doors had already closed and the train started moving. I could see both the guys carrying my brief case with a lot of glee....I was stunned and helpless. I had all my documents, passport, air ticket, American Express Travellers Cheques, addresses and contact phone numbers, papers for EARA viva-voce etc., in the brief case....The world, for me, suddenly caved in...


I got down at the next station...a good hearted lady showed me the way to the Police Station. I wanted to explain to the Police as to what happened..even before I could tell them, they described the event as if they had seen that personally. While registering the FIR, they informed me that this was a normal thing that happened to visitors and that the guys involved in these were drug addicts. It dawned on me that I was fooled by a common trick about which no one had told me before the visit. What was the next step for me ? I had lost all the contact details of my friends in Holland and being a Saturday, the Philips office was closed. It was a hopeless situation; if I reach Eindhoven (the train ticket was with me), how could I check in at the Holiday Inn. I did not have any identity (Passport) or money (travellers cheques)...


Suddenly it struck me that I might have the telephone number of Dr. Jacques van der Vliet in my suitcase. Jacques was the Head of the Occupational Health department and he had to leave when Cor Boonstra decided to cut down on many departments. Since this happened only a few days ago, Jacques had sent me a letter with his house telephone number to me for contacting him after I reach Eindhoven. As his letter came to me a day before I left for Amsterdam, I scribbled his number on a chit and thrown the paper in my suitcase. Luckily for me this paper was there in my suitcase and that had come in handy at that moment.

I gave a call from the Police Station (yes..they did allow me to use their phone!!!) to Jacques....I was lucky, he was at home. I explained to him all that happened. He listened to all that I said patiently and sympathized with me. He asked me to come to Eindhoven straight and said that he would make the other arrangements. Before I reached Eindhoven he contacted Dr. Herman Meinders, my dear colleague and friend, arranged with Holiday Inn to allow me to check-in without identity papers and advance (in those days in India we did not have International Credit Cards), and waited for me at Eindhoven Station along with Herman. It was very kind of both these gentlemen to come to my rescue on a Saturday.

After checking in at the Holiday Inn, we had a quick lunch and before leaving me alone in the hotel both of them assured me that all possible help will be given to me to make my stay comfortable and to reach London in time.

Before they left we informed American Express of the theft of the Travellers' cheques and I contacted Sheila to inform her of what happened. Even though I tried to downplay the consequences, she was worried if I were physically hurt in the whole process. Thank God, I was not physically hurt. I had to contact Freddie Soares of our travel department at Bombay asking him for copies of the air tickets and passport pages. Being a Sunday, Freddie could not help me immediately; he said he would go to the office on Monday and the first thing he would do was to fax the details to me at Holiday Inn. Sheila in the meanwhile faxed my passport pages from the GPO, Pune.

I could not sleep the whole night...I was really going through a nightmare. What would I do without a passport ? How would I get a new passport ? Would I get back my money ? Would I be able to pay Holiday Inn ? Would I be able to travel to London to take the viva-voce ? What happens if the Police asked for my passport? Would they arrest me for staying in Holland without a passport ? The only silver lining among this scary thoughts was that I was a Philips employee and Philips would take care !!! But that was not enough for me to get a sleep.

Jacques visited me on Sunday for breakfast...it was really nice of him to have come to meet me and give me some moral strength on a Sunday... I did not take any lunch....in the meanwhile I contacted Renu (my niece) and her husband Nagaraj to inform them of what happened at Amsterdam and my present situation. I was to go and stay with Renu and Nagaraj for one night; they were living at a place about an hour from London. By Sunday evening Herman informed me that he had organized for visits to the airlines and the Indian Embassy at the Hague to get new tickets and passport on Monday. He also gave me list of documents that I should carry to the Indian Embassy.

Monday started with my receiving the fax from Freddie; he had sent copies of my passport, tickets and the travellers cheques. Armed with these documents I met Herman at about 9.00 hrs at his office on Monday. From there we went to Henk de Bruin's office...Henk was (and is) the Head of the Corporate Environmental & Energy office (now called Corporate Sustainability Office) and he was my official host. Henk promised me all the help and said that he could be called anytime for any assistance and that Herman would be with me throughout to help me to come out the present problem. He said that he would bear all the expenses for the visits to various places to get the documents, tickets, money, visa etc.

Herman and I started on our day long journey at about 10.00 hrs. Our first stop was the Eindhoven Airport, where we gave a complaint to the KLM office about the theft of my air tickets. KLM promised to issue duplicate tickets by the next day (Tuesday). From there we proceeded to the Hague, to the Indian Embassy. It was a long 2 hour journey...we had to reach the embassy before 14.00 hrs by which the counters closed. We were there in time and as we had all the documents (including the FIR), the embassy promised to issue a duplicate passport by the next day (14.00 hrs), i.e. Tuesday. I was a little upset as I was to be in London on Thursday for the viva-voce; I was not sure if enough time was available to approach the British Embassy to get a visa to UK. While in the Indian embassy I came across a gentleman whose passport and the boarding pass for the onward journey were stolen inside Schipol when he was doing some shopping....I realized that was rampant in Amsterdam.

After the visit to the Indian embassy, Herman suggested that we should go to the American Express office in the Hague to get replacement Travellers Cheques. We had a quick Lunch and landed at the American Express office. I approached the counter for lost travellers cheques and explained the story and referred to the complaint number that we registered on Saturday. The teller asked me for my passport as an identity. I explained to her that I had lost almost all documents that would confirm my identity and showed her the FIR copy. She was not convinced that she should entertain me further. She said that she would be able to give me the replacement travellers cheques after I get the passport; I argued that without money I could not get the passport and that I needed money to travel to the Hague to collect the passport. This was going on for sometime and at last she relented and asked me if anyone had come with me. I said yes, showing Herman. She said if Herman could confirm his identity by showing his photo-driving licence she would consider my request. I went to Herman and informed him about the dialogue with the teller. Herman was a little taken aback; no doubt he had a driver's licence, but it had expired a few months ago and he had not renewed it, which is an offence. He was not sure if he could show such an expired licence to the teller. Normally no one would like to expose himself and get got for the violation of law. I do not know what happened, Herman said he would try...he gave the licence to the teller...the teller stared at it for a few minutes and then looked at Herman, and coolly gave that back to Herman. She called me and said that I would get the cheques in a few minutes. Indeed, I got the cheques in five minutes and I could not but thank Herman for his act of unstinted support to a friend.

It was already 6.00 pm by the time we left the Hague for Eindhoven. On the way we had our dinner (it was already late for Herman to take his dinner); Herman was kind enough to take me to a place where "some" vegetarian food was available. We reached Eindhoven by about 08.30 pm. We agreed to meet at the Lobby of the Holiday Inn at 11.00 am the next day.

The next day (Wednesday), Herman and I started at 11.00 am and directly went to the KLM office at the Eindhoven airport to collect the duplicate air tickets. From there we proceeded directly to the Hague; before going to the embassy we had our Lunch at the Hague. We could collect the duplicate passport by about 2.15 pm. While we were on our visit to the Hague, his office checked with the British Embassy in Amsterdam for its timings; it appeared to me that we could make it to the British Embassy just in time. We went from the Indian Embassy in the Hague to the British Embassy in Amsterdam. It took almost about one and half hours and by the time we reached there already the embassy had stopped allowing visitors to enter. Herman spoke to the guard there in Dutch and luckily for me they allowed us in. But at the reception the embassy officer did not want to listen to us. Again Herman's convincing arguments prevailed and at last one officer agreed to speak to me. On hearing my story he said that he could not issue a visa to me as the permission had to come from Bombay and that it would take a week. I pleaded with him that I had a visa and that I lost my passport and hence the visa. But the officer said that he could not confirm if I had a visa as the Bombay office had been already closed. I had shown him the letter from EARA asking me to be present for the viva-voce on Thursday and told him that by not issuing a visa to me he was only preventing me from qualifying for a professional registration of UK. At this point I don't know what happened, the officer asked Herman if they could get a request from the Corporate office of Philips to issue a UK visa for me through fax. For the first time I could see the advantage of technology!!! Herman spoke to Henk through his mobile phone (mobile phones had just come into the market) and in a minute the UK Embassy received a fax from Henk's office requesting a visa for me. The officer of the UK Embassy was kind enough to issue me the visa within about five minutes and we were out of the embassy by about 5 pm.

We returned to Eindhoven by about 7 pm and I had a peaceful sleep after four days of ordeal. Before going to sleep I informed Sheila of the situation and confirmed to Renu about my arrival details.

The next day I caught the flight for London from Eindhoven; the flight was delayed a little and was circling over the Heathrew airport for sometime before landing....it took almost about an hour before I could come out of the immigration. Something told me that I should confirm my ticket from London to Amsterdam with the KLM desk before leaving the airport. When I went to the KLM desk, the assistant there asked me if I have a Visa to enter Schipol. I said that I had a Schengen visa; but because of what happened I didn't have any visa for Holland at present. She said that without a visa for entering Schipol (a transit visa) I will not be able to get a boarding pass at London for Amsterdam. .....a new headache...where would I go for this visa...I have my viva-voce the next day and my ticket is for the evening flight the next day....how would I manage. I was terribly upset...why should this happen to me. Thinking about the problems ahead I came out of the exit gate when I saw Nagaraj about to leave the arrival hall. Luckily for me I could spot him (I had met him last around 1977) because of his unique hair-style (almost like Satya Sai Baba). I shouted his name and luckily he could respond. I told him all that happened, with the latest demand for a transit visa to enter Schipol.

The original plan of Nagaraj was to drop me at EARA for the viva-voce and from there I was to take a metro train to Heathrew. On the way to his home we munched some of the old memories; but I could not concentrate on any of the discussions as the thought of the visa was scarring me. How could I get the visa before 12.00 noon as I had to attend the viva-voce at 1 pm...

By the time we reached his place, it was about 5 pm. Renu was there waiting for me at the gate...theirs was a beautiful bungalow, perhaps one of the biggest in the neighbourhood, indicating their professional success. Both of them are doctors practicing there for over thirty years now...they have a good social status because of their profession. In 1997, when I visited them I could see they were both simple and neat. They were (and still are) ardent devotees of Satya Sai Baba. An air-conditioned Pooja room had been separately kept for Satya Sai Baba. They had given me a bedroom with a bath attached for stay. After a quick wash I joined them at their living room....we recalled old incidents...Renu's Loyd's road house days....Hamilton (Ambattan) Bridge house days etc. I used to visit Ambi Athan (Renu's father) and his wife often at Loyd's road house and after they moved to a place near Barbers Bridge. I used to love Manni's more-keerai and thayir sadam; I felt that she had a soft corner for me. Of course Anand and Arun were there to play...but during all these pleasant recollection of the past events, at the back of my mind, I was full of tension as to what to do the next day.

Renu and Nagarajan advised me to catch an early morning train to London and go to the Dutch embassy as early as possible. The Dutch embassy would give tokens to seekers of visa and the number of tokens given on a day was fixed. I could not afford to miss being called in for the visa; hence I had to be there in the line as early as possible. I had to carry my suitcase along with me as I was to go to EARA and then to the airport directly. Since I did not have a money-purse or a brief-case, Renu/Nagarajan were kind enough to give me a handbag and a purse to carry money and papers.

I got up early morning at about 4.00 O'clock and was ready for the train by 5.00 O'clock. Nagarajan dropped me at the railway station. I got the 6.00 O'clock train and reached London (I forgot the station name) and the Dutch embassy by about 7.00 O'clock. It was a winter morning and I was without any winter clothing except a blazer. There were about 10 people standing in line in front of the main door of the embassy office, inside the embassy gates. Even though I was shivering because of the cold, I told myself that I would definitely get the token for visa that day...as the time passed the line lengthened beyond gates of the embassy....I was calculating the time ..as I was the 11 th person, probably it would take about half an hour to reach the visa officer and then I would be getting the visa in another half an hour....mentally I was comfortable....I could take some breakfast and go to EARA's office in time....it was about 10.00 O'clock...I could hear some sounds behind...the line which was till then disciplined, suddenly started disintegrating with many people pushing themselves forward (almost like an Indian Queue)...and as soon as the door of the office opened, there was a chaos...people rushed in to reserve their places in the line inside....I was pushed to almost 100th position...all the guys (probably travel agents) who knew where to stand for the visa got the first twenty to thirty positions and those who could run fast occupied positions behind them...an unfortunate guy like me with a suitcase on one hand and a handbag on the other could not run fast enough to get the early positions. I was not sure if I would get a chance to be interviewed for visa in time for me to reach the EARA office for the viva-voce examination.

I was standing in the line for visa praying God to show me the way. Each minute was like a yuga... I was restless...time was going.... 50 people before me....30 people before me.... 10 people before me...but I had only one hour to reach EARA office. At last my turn came and a transit visa was granted...but I had to go to the embassy by about 4.00 pm to collect the visa. I still had half an hour to reach EARA office. I came out of the Dutch Embassy and searched for the famous London Cab...finally got one. I explained to the cab driver my position and requested him to take me to the EARA address before 1.00 pm. He said that it was difficult as the traffic was heavy and that he would try his best to reach me in time....I sat quietly in the cab, praying God, that the event for which I undertook this trip should take place without any failure...I almost slept...the driver woke me up...informing me that we had come to the address. I looked at my watch it was 12.55 pm. I have to salute this cab driver...once the objective was known he accomplished that objective in time....I went up to the EARA office and registered my presence in time. It was indeed a pain to carry the luggage where ever I was going.

The viva-voce examination started 15 minutes behind schedule as one of the examiners could not reach EARA in time. The viva-voce (basically a peer assessment) started with a general introductions...when they asked me about my visit, I explained to them the ordeal I had undergone so far. Of course there was lot of discussion on various aspects of environmental management and audits....the chief examiner informed me that in their assessment I was eligible to register as a Principal Environmental Auditor...but I would be informed by the Council of EARA after they take an official decision. Aha!!! at last at least this one went on smoothly!!!

From EARA I went back to the Dutch Embassy, collected my visa, had my lunch (!!) in an Indian restarant and proceeded to Heathrow airport. As I wanted to take rest at Amsterdam before catching my flight to Bombay the next morning, I got the Boarding card for the London- Amsterdam flight and the luggage was checked in up to Amsterdam. The flight landed at Amsterdam and I was to go through the immigration...I was stopped by the immigration officer. I protested..I had a transit visa for Holland....he said, no ..."you have a transit visa for Schipol...this side is Schipol and the other side is Holland". I could not cross him. I was taken aback..I told him that the whole ordeal I had gone through was because of his country..had I not lost my passport at Amsterdam my whole trip would have been pleasant...now he was adding more fuel to the already raging fire. His expression was - "how does it matter to me". I began pleading with him to allow me to go to the luggage belt at least so that I could collect my luggage... after about half an hour of stalling my requests he finally relented to accompany me to the luggage belt to collect my suitcase and bring that back to SCHIPOL. When I went to the luggage belt, my suitcase was the only one on the belt, like an orphan with no company...no one was waiting to pick up their luggage there. Anyway at the last moment I took possession of the only property which I did not lose till that time in this trip.

Coming back into Schipol, I checked with the airport hotel (which is inside Schipol) for accommodation....no accommodation was available. With the fate of spending the whole night sitting on a chair inside Schipol looming on me, I thought at least I would check in my suitcase at the check in counter. I was informed that the counter would open only at 6.00 O'clock in the morning and that I could check in at that time. I could not sleep the whole night for fear of losing my suitcase. As soon as the Check-in counter opened in the morning at 6.00 O'clock I rushed to the counter with my suitcase and gave my tickets and passport for checking in. After a minute or two, the check-in assistant told me that she could not check me in as my ticket had been cancelled. I could not take this shock....I had some giddiness....was this a dream? No it wasn't. I protested... said that the ticket was issued only three days ago and that it could not be cancelled. She said someone from Bombay had cancelled it....I did not know what had happened to put me in such a hopeless situation. I asked her as to what to do to get the boarding pass for the flight ? She said that I should stand in the queue for the ticket once the ticket counter opened and get a new ticket issued. I stood in the ticket counter line without realizing that I should take a token to be called by the assistant. By the time I came to know the procedure already I lost my first position and I was pushed to the seventh position....every minute of waiting was like living in hell. I was only praying that all the six people in front of me should be summarily disposed off and my turn should come immediately. I was also praying GOD...why should he test me till the last moment...I was not sure if I would reach Bombay as planned or there would be a delay. When my turn came the ticketing assistant told me that there was no seat in the flight and she could not issue any ticket for the flight. I asked her if she could issue a ticket for Delhi...again the answer was no...all the flights to India were full. I was devastated....helpless...in my anger I started shouting that all this is because of this country which made me suffer..and people did not care for an employee of one of the foremost companies of Holland. If this was the treatment to a guy from PHILIPS what would happen to others without any such tag. Let KLM not forget that PHILIPS was one of their prestigeous customers.....bla ...bla..bla.This went on for about half an hour; the ticketing assistant called me again and said that I was lucky to get a ticket for the Bombay flight. I was relieved....even though I felt ashamed of my behaviour...probably that was the reason for the offer of the ticket. I don't know.

An assistant took me along with my suitcase to the check-in counter outside the immigration area; no immigration officer objected as I was accompanied by a KLM staff. While I was checking in , the staffer labelled my suitcase...it read "Executive Class". I politely told her that I travelled by the Economy Class ...she said that I had been given an Executive Class ticket at the Economy class price as there was one seat which fell vacant in the Executive Class. For the first time (and perhaps the last time) I travelled by the Executive Class in KLM and reached Bombay as planned.

I stayed at the Philips Guest House at Mistry Court (which no more exists as a Philips Guest House) that night, relaxed a little and started for Pune by the evening Deccan Queen. While I was waiting for the train, two of my seniors, Karambelkar and Tambe, came up and asked me: " Ram, how did you manage to lose weight? We thought even a week ago you were a little fat".... I don't mind losing weight...but not this way.

After returning to office I narrated the whole episode to Dasgupta; I had narrated this story to many people visiting Holland. Dasgupta told me later after he moved to Hong Kong that one of his colleagues had experienced the same in the train at Amsterdam. I told this story to Dr Ashok Joshi before he left for USA through Europe. He did lose his bag containing passport and tickets at Amsterdam in a restaurant. Tambe, who was working for Luminaires, lost his lap top in the train between Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the modus operandi was similar to what I experienced. Raghu lost his laptop when he was shifting from the Hotel to his apartment. Jhala narrated a story to me of his losing every thing in Rome...where he was literally robbed....the list goes on.....But I would not like even my worst enemy (if at all there is one) to experience this. My colleagues in Holland confirm that these things happen to them too...but obviously the impact is less as it does not involve their passport and tickets!!!!

Can someone help me to undersand ......

There are many things that I don't understand in spite of my best efforts...here are two such examples.
Yesterday I was in a seminar on Green Production and Consumption. One of the speakers questioned the "greenness" of giving plants in plastics pots as mementos....his contention was that the plants ought to have been given in fired-clay (terracota ??) pots rather than in plastics, as plastics are injurious to environment. I am tired of such arguments, not based on any LCA...the plastic in question is recyclable and its life as a pot is quite long (at least 5 years), whereas the fired-clay pot had consumed quite a lot of energy in terms of the firing process, obviously letting out quite a lot of gaseous emissions in the open and has a short life, say about two years/three years. It can also break in case of impact or stress. It appears that the life-cycle environmental impact of the fired-clay pot is much higher than the plastics pot. People say that plastics are not biodegaradable; so are the mud pots, fired-mud pots etc. Children are taught that plastics are not good for environment....can anyone live in this world without plastics now? Everything from the umbrella you hold over your head to the sole of your shoe is made of plastics. I am not able to understand this mindless campaign against plastics, which is often carried out by "uneducated" activists.
Another thing I cannot understand with my best efforts is the greenness of the battery powered car. Common sense tells me that the direct use of primary energy souce (e.g. petrol) leads to high efficiency; instead of petrol if I use a battery, it means that I use a secondary energy, i.e. electricity, store it and then use it for running the car..how can this be an efficient car ? If one considers the transmission and distribution losses (which are very high in countries like India, to the extent of about 40 %) of electricity, I cannot imagine how a battery powered car is considered a green car (if the battery is a lead-acid battery, then issues of lead weigh against the car being called green)..Of course if the battery is charged by solar or wind power, the car indeed can be considered as green. I would be happy to learn from anyone the argument for battery powered car as a green car.

The Skeptical Environmentalist.....

This is a copy of my post in Elsmar Cove Blogs today (21 June 2008).

The Skeptical Environmentalist....
Posted 21st June 2008 at 01:57 AM by Dr. L. Ramakrishnan

At last I could finish studying "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg. My first reaction to this book - "amazing".

Throghout the "reading" of the book, I felt that some of my experiences as a Research Scientist (methods, selective use of data, discussions, conclusions etc.) are being confirmed again and again and Prof. Lomborg has done a great job bringing these out without being rude and crude. His thesis is simple: "Environental issues do exist; many times the (potential) effects of these issues get exaggerated. Our resources to address global issues are limited. We have to prioritize the spending of resources based on the short term and long term benefits to the world". For example, you decide if you would like to save a Polar bear by spending billions of dollars on Climate Change research or save 100s of polar bears by simply banning hunting of Polar bears. Or would you spend trillions of dollars on reducing GHG emissions to reduced global warming by a fraction of a degree in fifty years or spend a few million dollars in conducting research on solar cells to make them economically attractive so that they can eventually replace the carbon based energy solutions. Prof. Lomborg's analysis is "fantastic" to say the least.

I have been an "environmentalist" for more than twenty two years; I often thought of some of the claims of my colleagues as "dogmatic". Now I have someone who, through scientific analysis of data, proves that my thoughts were valid. I think Prof. Lomborg provides us a way of balancing our concern for real issues with those emotionally loaded rhetorics.

What are, then, the real issues ? I would refer you to Prof. Lomborg's "Copenhagen Consensus", identifying top ten priority issues that the world has to address (http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=788).

I am quite happy to see someone thinking differently, not joining the popular bandwagon; "thinking differently" is Environmental Management about. While praising the effort of Prof. Lomborg, we cannot forget thousands who struggled to bring "environment" to the discussion table and the world agenda.

Finally what is the effect of "Skeptical Environmentalist" on me; I am now an "informed" environmentalist...hope I am right!!!

Options ....

Today I had a lot of time...free time.... and started again on one of my pet themes....what to do after retirment.... two things that deserve to be discussed through this blog are (a) Senior Citizen Apartment and (b) Reverse Mortgage.

I have been toying with the idea of shifting to a Senior Citizen Apartment after retirement; I have seen the information on "Classic Kudumbam" near Chennai. This appears to be an interesting proposition. You pay about Rs.10 lakhs for a Studio Apartment and a monthly amount of Rs.5600 (with escalation clause) for food and other expenses per person (i.e. Rs.11200 for Sheila and me)..... we then need not worry about servant maid.... security... driver...grocery.... vegetables etc. We can live relaxed... in a timeframe suitbale for us... We may have some extra expenditure for medicine, hospital, transport, electricity, clothing and other personal expenses....we can manage them admirably with the savings we have.... I thougt that it is a good option, given the headache I have with the Society affairs. Such facilities are available in Pune too (Golden Nest... of Vascon and Athashree by Paranjape Builders)... I think we should look at these options seriously... especially if we decide to stay at our home only for a few months in a year. The reviews about Classic Kudumbam are great. LIC Housing Finance is coming out with a scheme is Pune for Senior Citizens through their LIC Care Homes.... they already have a scheme operating in Bangaluru... another option to see. What it means is that we can live happily with about Rs.15000 per month, if we invest about Rs.1000000 now..... I love this option.

Chandra spoke to me about the Reverse Mortgage last week... that Mani is thinking of taking Reverse Mortgage for the house, 76, Venkatesa Nagar. I think it is a good option.... this allows the owner of a flat or a house to mortgage the property with a financial institution (like PNB) and get either a bulk amount or monthly payments regularly till the death of the person and his/her spouse. That means the family occupies the flat/house till their death; they also get money based on the value of the house till their death....the amount being revisited at intervels to adjust to the new value of the property (i.e. there is an inflation correction to the amount received). I think this process can give enough money to have a comfortable life... enough to pay for the Society, car, driver etc. Why not try this? This is available only for Senior Citizens. Let me wait and watch.

I think the time has come to decide on such things as security in the future... and the above trigger off further discussion.

What is your view on the above ?

Blogs for MBAs and future MBAs

Maya complained that I have not been blogging for sometime; but I had shown her my new blogs in the Elsmar Cove site. My blogs are bores ...I have some blogs for MBAs and would be MBAs....Look at these:
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/index_dl.php
I look forward to your comments... also see if you can locate my posting in the green areas (http://hbrgreen.org/?cm_mmc=npv-_-sitead-_-JAN-2008-_-hbrgreen).
Love
Appa

Karuveppilai (II)

Sheila and I just returned from Malaysia after a "hectic" holiday; the first thing I did after entering our flat was to check if my dear "Karuveppilai" was indeed in good shape. To my surprise, it was the plant which withstood our absence well; probably the way it was placed in another vessel with water and cocoanut fibre could have helped.


But I am at a loss to understand how two "Dumb Canes" broke from the base and fell off. Was it due to heavy winds ? Was it because of the pigeons ? Was it because of someone jumping over ? I don't know; but I know I can grow more "Dumb Canes" from the stem of the fallen plants.

In life too, things happen when we do not anticipate....our worst fears do not come true....we have to look for opportunities in both the situations....can I become a better human being...if yes, I am in for an exciting time.

I am sure Sheila will have fresh Karuveppilai for Sambhar from next week...from our Karuveppilai plant...now I have bought two more sisters to the original Karuveppilai plant....they give aroma to our food...while sacrificing themselves....(rather we made them sacrifice for us).....there are such people in our lives too ..

Thank God for this mercy !!!!

Karuveppilai.....

When we had been to Ashwin's home at Munnirpallam during October, 2007, just after Maya's wedding, I collected a few plants from Sri Ramasamy's garden. Out of the three plants that I collected two have survived the Pune weather so far.

I am really impessed with the Karuveppilai plant. It has grown from about 2 inches to about 10 inches now...I am attached to this plant...I see this plant every day...I water it every day...I have already added cow dung fertilizer which may come for another two or three months. I am worried if the stem takes a turn towards Sun...I am trying to see that it is vertical, not with a bend...of course it is difficult, given that all my plants have to bend to "see" the SUN.

Now I am a worried man.....Sheila and I are going on holidays for six days...who will take care of the Karuveppilai plant?...it needs water everyday...without water, it may die..I don't want to leave my Karuveppilai plant with the watchman...he had killed a few of my plants (by not watering properly) last time when we were off for Maya's wedding for a long period. I cannot give the plant to my neighbours in the building...it is likely that they are also planning their holidays during the week. I checked with Chandra for help...he has advised some methods to keep the soil wet till we come back. I have now decided to flood the pot with water and cover the soil with a plastic sheet to avoid excess evaporation....let me see if this works...

What is so great about the above...why does this subject need a blog post ? To me it is about a relationship...between me and the Karuveppilai plant...I have taken the task of tending the plant till it is on its own...am I doing the right thing ? I will be definitely sad if something bad happens to MY Karuveppilai plant...the subtle relationship warrants that I take all the necessary precautions to ensure that MY Karuveppilai plant does not "feel" bad that it has not been taken care of during my absence.

If I care for the Karuveppilai so much, would I not have cared for my people all these days??? At times questions / doubts are raised if I cared at all or cared when needed ....I know about me and my feelings....but can I ever change perceptions ???...I do my job..and leave the rest to GOD. I would like to "see" a large Karuveppilai tree when I am gone....hope it will remember me at that time.

When are we going to change ?

This morning I was terribly upset. For the last ten days I have been following with the Insurance fellow for filing my claim for the TV repair. He would say that he would come at 11.30 or 4.30 and would never come. Yesterday when I checked with him he said that he was busy with a major fire in a sub-urban factory. This morning when I called him he said that he was busy with some major claim. He was testing my patience clearly; for a pittance I had to call him ten times and wait indefinitely for his response !!! This is not the only experience for me in the recent past.

My car met with an accident; the insurance took more than 3 months. I had called my insurance officer more than 40 times, sent e:mails many times. The excuse was that the period was "annual closure" period and it was taking time. I got the money finally, but with some cut. Now I am following with the same guy for the rest...every day I get a new excuse.

I have been calling the lawyer for the Housing Society for the last one year, regarding our case against one of our members...now a days she does not pick up my phone...sends an SMS once in a while that things are going as per expectation. But what remains is "countless calls" unanswered.

We have to take Insurance for our building...one of the members suggested a cheaper insurance. I have been following up with him to get a quotation and start the insurance cover....after many follow up calls, I have given up....because he stopped taking my calls.

My experience with the bank officers is the same...they are sweet to you when they need something from you or to trap you in a bad investment. But when you need them...no way you can get them. They are always busy...no call is taken or answered later. No email is acknowledged !!! I see a great future......for the communication industry (more calls means more money to Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone....)

The same is the case with the travel agent...I am at their mercy....here the technique is different. Your call is taken and the sweet voice concurs with you...but nothing happens till you call again.....

There is something wrong somewhere....the caller ID has given some power to people to avoid inconvenient situations....people have become arrogant and inefficient. I am thinking of a good project on the cost of inefficiency, especially the "follow up" cost. India can be far better than what it is today if only we have the decency of immediate response to business calls (and social calls too).....but everyone is busy...that is what they would like us to believe. There does not seem to be any urgency to move....inertia provides people with a "lot of work".....to end up as a "busy bee".

Probably I am unfit for this society....I should not get impatient...(six months is nothing in your life of say 80 years)...things will happen ...don't waste your energy....that is what I am telling myself now.

I am sure this situation will change, when........the Sun rises in the WEST.

Responsible......Father / husband ????

I am a poor guy with simple ideas about life....but it appears that I have been "irresponsible" throughout, especially as a father and husband.




There are many meanings for "responsible"...here I refer to "chargeable with being the author, cause or occasion of something".




Yes. I am charged, I was charged and will be charged in the future too for being the cause of something......



Even though my father was in a decent position professionally and economically, when I started my professional life I hardly had any money in the bank.... I started my professional life late...because of the years spent on education.



Looking at the present day children, who are excellent in the planning, probably I did not give the kind of life a new wife would have loved to have... probably the life in Prentice was not the one my new wife expected in the US. My resources being meagre, I could not take her around US ... at least when the whole experience of marriage was new... may be I had failed in providing a decent house and life to her after returning to India... I do agree we three (Sheila, Indhu and I) lived along with many dozens of mice in Bhoiguda.... I could not provide her a Gas Stove to cook (it was difficult to get a Gas connection in those days and I did not have the required influence).... I was always poor in money management... so I did not offer many of the luxuries that a young wife would expect from her husband... I have been an "irresponsible" husband..... but I have always been truthful, loving and caring...may be I did not understand certain nuances of early days of marriage. After coming to Pune, our life had changed... I had long hours at the office, including Saturdays.... I longed for rest...so I did not take my wife and children out for sight seeing....instead I liked sleeping on Saturday afternoons and carrying out routines on Sundays...the earnings were just enough to have a decent life and not for luxury.

Since we lived away from our parents, all the LTA went for visiting Chennai, year after year....we did not see many places of interest in India.

Thodarum.....
(This will continue.....I will edit later.... I would like to publish it even though it is not complete as this is something I wrote in June and it may be appropriate alongside the Subrmanian blog)

Costliest slap

Harbajan Singh slapped Sreesanth at Mohali; and that became a great news. Sreesanth made sure that the news had some more value by crying in the public. The result: IPL has slapped a ban on Harbajan for 11 matches; Harbajan is likely to lose Rs.30000000. This has been described as the costliest slap on earth - is it so ?

Can someone assign a value for the loving slap of the baby with her unsteady hand on her mother's cheek ?

What is the value of your "how sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet" type of slap (or is it a pat) on your young daughter's/son's cheek ? ("Ada Chokka" type)

How much is the "Great Work" type of slap that the teacher gives to a young student ?

What is the value of the slap that your son gives you sitting on your lap to divert your attention to him ?

What would you say the value of the gentle slap that your husband gives to say bye....(or that you give to your husband whenever you feel like) ?

So.....a slap is invaluable....don't assess it.

Amitabh's blog

For a long time I did not write a blog....because there was no special reason to write a blog.....I convinced myself that there was no need to write a blog all these days as there was nothing worth writing about that occurred to me. But suddenly I found the word "blog" floating around everywhere in the media ....CNNIBN, Times Now, NDTV27,Times of India...to name a few. Amitabh Bachchan has made the "blog" more known outside the geeks...everyone is talking about Amitabh's blog. Amitabh comes out as a simple person with his own grouses about the society, people around and the media, which distort his image as a person with integrity and honesty. Of course what he writes has some news value and the news papers pick them up; for example, his answer to Shatrugun Sinha found a prominent space in Times of India and CNNIBN. His blogs get high response...three to four hundred comments on a day !!!! Would he have time to read and respond to the comments ? I am sure he would not have enough time for that...but the fact that he has been blogging every day from the day he started shows that he is determined to go ahead expressing himself in the cyberworld which gives him an opportunity to present his part of the story. Today's topic on gender bias was interesting; all of us go through such situations when one is accused of something which one has not done (or thought of)....Amitabh has also helped me to revive my almost dead blog. Thank you Mr. Bachchan.

A visit to Matrimandir

It was indeed a privilege to visit the Matrimandir, Auroville, where people from all religions come together to meditate. Thanks to Margarita we were treated like VIPs and were allowed to sit at the inner chamber for more than 30 minutes. The picture shows the Mandir from a distance.

Preparing for the retirement.....

So soon ? you may ask.


But I think the question should be why so late ?


When I see the literature on "preparing for retirement", it appears that I am late by at least thirty years.....one article says "Are you thirty? Start saving now Rs.2000/= per month; by the time you retire you will have Rs. one crore"...Aha...I cannot go back in age...what an opportunity did I miss.


Another one says that budgeting is important...you should know how much money you need per month...accordingly you should have savings so that the amount could be "invested" in low risk, medium risk and high risk instruments that would give enough money to run the show.....but it is too late for me to "amass" the amount required for investment.


An interesting suggestion was to "volunteer" to kill time, which is supposed to be available to you after retirment ....yes..do some work for the social cause...it is going to be "satisfying"....I am not sure. The other suggestion was to look for a suitable job...perhaps someone will offer a CEO's job !!!! (for one tenth of the salary that I get now perhaps !!!! after all, the designation matters).


Suddenly the world is in front of me with various options ...opportunities indeed. Are we going to be happy "baby sitting" (one of the generally accepted vocation for retired people) or "visiting children" ? After all this is a short term option...babies grow in no time and you don't need baby sitters for ever....and children start visiting you ...because they need to go somewhere too !!!!


OK. What about the option of teaching ? For the subject I teach, hardly about 10 % of the students attend the class...others have better things to do !!!! This goes down further to 5 % in the second part of the lecture (after the bio-break)....should I endure such a humiliation for ever ???

What about research ??? It is scary....research with the type of students I have !!! (by the way, only those who do not have jobs through campus interview will opt for research...and you know the quality).

What is your suggestion ??? What should I do to keep me economically and mentally healthy after retirement ?

Moral dilemma

Now a days I am teaching "Corporate Social Responsibility" to MMS, DBM, Corporate Internship students of Indsearch; I teach on Saturdays between 18.00 hrs and 21.00 hrs. This will go on for another 10 weeks, excluding holidays. One of the subjects to be taught is "dilemmas". I was searching for good cases of such dilemmas...got quite a few. I never thought I would face one.

Zubeda dropped in, with appointment, to tell me about new investment opportunities. She was doing her job. Was I ? How could I entertain her during the office hours for my personal work ? Is this unethical ? But I said to myself: "as far as I do my job within the time period agreed, what I do otherwise is immaterial, provided what I do is not one of those NOs". I am a 24 hrs employee of the company. I should find some time for my personal work too and at the same time should be available to the company at any time. Do I meet this requirement ? Or was it wrong on my part to have called Zubeda for a discussion during the office hours ?

What is your view?

Slaves of Gadgets

As usual I started the day in the office by connecting my laptop to the "lan" chord. I waited for a few minutes....there was no connection. I prayed that the wireless connection worked...neither did the Wifi connection work....I was restless. I tried the usual trick...put off the laptop and started it again...praying that it would work (many times we do this...without understanding the problem, we presume that something would happen by any "solution" that we have on hand)...the result, however, was the same. My laptop refused to get connected to the LAN. I called the service engineer...he tried his best and told me to replace the laptop...that is easier said than done. Of course, I used IRAS to get connected to our server at Mumbai...but that means that I could not use the landline telephone when I am connected to IRAS...that introduced another stress. ....this is another example of how we have become slaves to gadgets...once the gadget does not work, you are stressed...be it a washing machine, refrigerator, TV, Radio, mobile, microwave, iron, AC, fan...once it is out of order, you can see the effect....the intensity of the discomfort differs from gadget to gadget...but to my understanding the maximum discomfort is seen when the TV is out of order....we spend a lot of time in front of the TV...if the TV is not working what do we do...how do we kill the time ?...the result is restlessness, frustration, anger....all symptoms of an addict ....when not allowed to use the "addictant". Hats off to the marketing guys for creating a generation of slaves !!!!!

Pongal "o" Pongal

As children we used to look forward to festivals like Pongal; we used to have four days holidays for Pongal, for Bhogi, Pongal, Mattu Pongal and Kanum Pongal. In these days of high speed internet, four days is like a month or more. Children are given hardly a day's holiday and people like me do not get any holiday (...or every day is a holiday if one is tuned to think that way). In these days for everything we look for "speedy" solutions. Instead of "Kolam", we have "Kolam Sticker". Instead of "oil and Sihaikai", we have "Shampoo", instead of "Paanai" we have "Cooker"...things move fast, instead of "Mattu Vandi" we have "car"...that explains why we have only one day holiday instead of four days. Cooking Pongal on a LPG stove increases the speed...imagine using a "veragu" aduppu for cooking Pongal the traditional way...it will take at least two hours or more...now it is almost one fourth of that time (it is possible that someone has come out with instant Pongal pack, including one for the diabetics, ...look for this from Annapoorna, Al Kabeer etc.).....by the way, is it safe to cook Pongal in a bronze vessel ? Is it safe to cook it in an Aluminium vessel (cooker) ? Which pongal did you take today, pongal with ...ppm copper or pongal with ....ppm aluminium ? I must admit "IGNORANCE IS BLISS"...I would then not bother about all these....and Pongal will bring in joy and prosperity not fear and helplessness....you belong to which category, the ignorant ? or the well informed ? Enjoy anyway, even if you are well informed......that helps us to move fast !!!!!

The old and the new

Today is Bhogi...the day for disposing off the old and receiving the new. If only we do this religiously...our house will be a heaven. I have been struggling for the last 15 days to dispose off old papers..always there is a lingering fear that I might dispose off some important papers in the process...of course I have not touched these papers for at least ten years...still the fear lingers. What do I do ? Simply "postpone" the decision. Whenever we cannot take a decision (or we have to take a decision) the simple solution is to Postpone....I wish I am ruthless as we were when we moved to Magnolia Annex from Malhar. We had "thrown" even a refrigerator !!!! OK....I may take sometime disposing off the unwanted junk from our house...but should I bring something new today. NO...unless there is a compelling reason for buying anything new, I would not like to go for it now....I am not going to sell my car and buy a new one either, even though the child in me tells me that I should still go for a Honda City...I should now start preparing for my "retirement", keep less luggage with me. The child in me tells me that I should buy a LCD TV at least..should I ? Why not invest that money in Reliance Power ? Aha !!! I am also talking about investments, about which I did not know anything a few months ago....everyone tells me that I should first throw my cell phone (Philips !!!) and buy a new one...should I do that on this Bhogi day. Probably I should throw my laptop too ....get a light weight laptop (is this responsible for my tennis elbow??)...At the end of the day, I did not throw anything and did not buy anything....the bonding with the old is so much that I decided to keep them for some more time....I did not CELEBRATE Bhogi!!!! My house is still a heaven...with old.........(fill up the blanks)

The Simplicity Challenge

I am appalled at the quality of the winning entry at the Philips Simplicity Challenge....broadcast by CNBC last Saturday and Sunday. It appears that either Indians, that is those who participated in this competition, are content with less than ordinary or the competition has not attracted real talent. The guy from NSD talked about some plastics attachment to syringes, explained that that would keep away fear from children about to be injected, and that there was a great market....all bullshit....and I cannot imagine that such a guy gets Rs.1500000 as prize money....I think (and stongly believe too) slowly substance is substituted by sound...people believe that having such shows of mediocrity can bring them the past glory, without really doing something pathbreaking at the operations level. A company known for its innovations could have said that none of the entries deserved a prize. Is this really a good trend ? I keep my fingures crossed; but I am quite upset....is this the quality you get out of 8000 entries !!!!!

Racist....

What is this controversy about the Racist comments by Harbajan Singh ? He called someone a "monkey"....I cannot understand how this is a Racist comment....all of us have, anyway, come from Monkeys.....



But we should accept the fact that differentiation based on colour, language, religion, wealth, features etc., is going to be there, whether one likes it or not, till the world exists. Are we not talking about "aravadu" and "golti"?, are we not differentiating the "north" Indian from the "south" Indian?. Many people have told me that I looked like a north Indian (that is, I am not dark skinned !!!)...I have faced racial discrimination when I was looking for an apartment in Detroit...."no apartment for rent" was a standard answer if the apartment owner was a "white". I was questioned for selling my flat to a muslim - how could I do that ? I was asked a question when I was in class 3 - how could I go to a class taught by a Parian ? All these because we belong to the Animal Kingdom...one of the characteristics of the Animal Kingdom is "dominance"...we try to dominate or try to show our dominance in our actions and thoughts. Racism, therefore, is natural...why do we make such a fuss...even jeopardizing the cricket tour of Australia (Advice to Harbajan: You should have called him "Kangaroo" instead of "Monkey"....for us a monkey is GOD....not a Kangaroo!!!)