Smooth sea never makes a skillful sailor

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Most of us -- if we’re lucky -- chug along more or less contentedly in an uneventful day-by-day routine . . a little like the opening of a recent chamber work by the American composer John Howell Morrison.

But sometimes, in some lives, something happens that suddenly disrupts the uneventful, comfortable routine, something that knocks all routine and normality straight out of the ballpark: perhaps it's the loss of a job, or the loss of a loved one, and suddenly routine physical or mental health is so shaken that the soundtrack of life shifts to something uncomfortably similar to that of a bad horror film.

Most of us -- if we're lucky -- somehow survive, and are perhaps even grow a bit stronger from the experience.

As the old saying goes: "Hard Weather Makes Good Wood" -- and that's the title Morrison gave his piece, scored for string quartet and electronic tape, recorded in 2002 as the title track on an innova CD collection of his chamber works.

And, yes, Morrison confesses that "Hard Weather Makes Good Wood" was, in fact, composed during a period of intense personal struggle in his own life.

We're not sure if he feels stronger for surviving that experience, but at least it resulted in striking new piece of chamber music.
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Aiswarya the 8 yr old girl with a black belt

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I have been observing a writing about people who hover in the lower half of India's socio economic pyramid. This morning I watched this confident girl, Aiswarya, in her third standard being interviewed. I was impressed by this girls confidence. Her father owns a tea shop and his friend is a Karate Master (Sensei) so when Aiswarya was 3 1/2 years of age she started her training. Now she is in the 3rd standard and she is a black belt (first dan) she studies well and goes for dance classes 3 days a week in the evening.

The saddest part is I was trying to google her name with various combinations to get some information about her...and I get to see the plasticine and gorgeous Aiswarya Rai..
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The Electrician who sang......

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It was not a great night
Warm and mosquitoes infested one
The fire in the fuse box
Plunged the home into darkness

Pressing the panic button
We ran helter skelter
For an electrician,
The most valuable man

Promptly after 3 hours
A team arrived
Tired and insensitive,a quick look
They said "Its gone"

The night presented its worst
The first task of the morn
Was clearly writ
To find the man who can fix it.

My trip to the office was a tired trek
I found 3 sleeping in a shack
My door number I mumbled
From his sleep Govindasamy stumbled

A cup of tea I bought for him
On his bicycle he peddled
His eyes still dim

The complex mix of wires puzzled him
His morning meditation began
As all his minds cortices woke up
His chants captivated me

Attentional focus at its best
The man rummaged through the wires
With a song with no script
The lyrics composed on the spot

This song that he sang to himself
Gave him the clue
His estimate of the cost and time
Were precise too.

I saw his deep involvement in what he did
He enjoyed his time with wires
Green, blue and Red

In 3 hours he fixed it clean
I lit up, as the lights came back

The next day I met him to pay him off
He shared with me his life and and his job
His economy, his needs were stretched he said
But his joy came from lighting homes instead.

He spoke of those less fortunate than him
Those who struggle through life
Sleeping on the roads
Eating from the bin

His parting words surprised me no end
He said 'The Good God gives strength and grace
For those who struggle
The plagues will never get the better of them
In weakness they find strength

Value as the core

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Sudhir Kumar(officer special duty of Indian Railways)
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The common man believes that it was Lallu Prasad Yadav who turned around the Indian Railways, well why then did he not get the Railway Ministers slot once again? That aside what is to be learnt from Indian Railways and its success is its focus on compassion as the core. As we move towards the bio tech era, the core of any enterprise or corporation, perforce need to be values and compassion. That will be the driving force.

I was reading the article written by Jaspal Singh Sabharwal (MD Future Capital) and I was quite taken aback when the name of Mr Sudhir Kumar (office special duty of Indian Railways)came up.

Jaspal Singh takes two huge corporations - Indian Railways and General Motors and takes a look at their Environment, Mission and Core Competencies (Responsible Leadership) GM apparently fumbled in misreading the environment . According to Jaspal "Leadership is all about focus and compassion - its not about efficiency in a cost sense, its about don't get distracted get-all-the-wood-behind-one-arrow sense".

I like this part " Traditionally we have searced for the miracle worker with a magic want to tun an ailing organization around. To establish maintain and restore the three survival assumptions (Enviro - Mission - Core competencies) does not require a Robin Hood or Leornardo da vinci in the executive room. It is not genius; its hard work. It is not being clever, its being conscientious. The responsible leaders do not dismiss unexpected failure, they accept that the three assumptions are dynamic in nature and to be successful, one has to operate with heads-up"

“Bankruptcy to Billions”, book by Sudhir Kumar

Leadership is about focus & compassion Jaspal Singh Sabharwal.
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Zero Baggage for energy savings???

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Canadian entrepreneur Catharine MacIntosh is planning to launch the Zero Baggage concept simultaneously on the Gold Coast and her hometown, Toronto, late next year.
She claims that the new service will not only be more energy-efficient, but it will also save time wasted waiting in queues with bags and the worry about your bag being lost or stolen.

She says that travelers will be able to choose between new and pre-worn clothes. Catharine has vowed to keep costs

The idea is to enable people to book the clothes they want online before beginning a trip. The items will be waiting in their hotel room when they arrive.

According to Catherine " You remove almost half the weight from a plane when you get rid of passenger luggage iuts quite a sustainable action in terms of energy."
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Randy Shilts

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Randy Shilts, born in Davenport, Iowa (1951). He was one of the first mainstream journalists to cover the gay community and the early spread of AIDS. Randy Shilts said, "I view my role in life as writing stories that wouldn't get written unless I [write] them."
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Does capitalism promote greed? Can a person follow Jesus's call to love others and also support capitalism? Was our recent economic crisis caused by flaws inherent to our free market system? Jay Richards presents a new approach to capitalism, revealing how it's fully consistent with Jesus's teachings and the Christian tradition, while also showing why this system is our best bet for renewed economic vigor.
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Ji Xianlin - The Linguist and Scholar.

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I went a little red in my face after all the crazy news on MJ's death.. not because I don't consider MJ to be great musician (?) but the 'being carried away' euphoria of the mass. Its become a fashion statement to write a line or two about such celebrities in FB or Orkut and get some recognition. That's what gets me...

Ji Xianlin, (1911-2009)was a venerated Chinese Scholar who had "secretly translated the Sanskrit-Hindu text of Ramayana into Chinese during the Cultural Revolution.

He was a living symbol of ideal Chinese Scholar, and as such of a type of person who it is ever more difficult to find in today's fast paced, money crazed Chinese society. He was a man who had been born and raised in the "old society who knew the classics, who had attained great fame and yet did not attempt to convert his glory intopower, wealth or status...

I pay homage to this man...

courtesy: The Hindu (Jaswant Singh)

Hyper Capitalism and Commodification

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The Pope (John Paul II) was right. The World Council of Churches was right. The preacher down the block was right. The “moderate evangelicals” were right. The first had a perfect record against collectivization; the second had a mixed record, but was positive on this; the third reached a hundred or half a thousand per week preaching “You cannot serve God and Mammon;” the fourth were buffeted in response by evangelical kin who preached “the prosperity gospel” or the “gospel that God blessed only ‘free enterprise.’” In their own ways their criticisms and warnings were directed against “commodification”, whether of labor, leisure, or life. They were not whiners or grumps or exempt from the need for self-criticism, but they were serious, and therefore usually unheard and unheeded.

They do not lack platforms or pulpits today. We see illustrations and confirmations of the problems that occurred when devotion to commodities ruled and commodification set the terms for most of life. Colleague Jean Bethke Elshtain, in my aged and crumbling printout from the 2002 edition of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, celebrated the late Pope’s Laborum Exercens, his “social encyclical” which “shares the basic assumption of Catholic social thought that God created human beings as brothers and sisters, not as enemies…” John Paul II demonstrated his difference from Hobbes and Machiavelli and Marx who “assume worlds of enmity, treachery, manipulation, and conflict.” With the mortal struggle against Communism behind him, he took on orders called “Capitalist” and its cognates, and warned against the trend to measure everything as commodity, as hyper-ability to amass and worship wealth, et cetera.

Today Sightings has bulging files which document where “enmity, treachery, manipulation, and conflict” were consuming us. Documents now come not just from papal and conciliar warnings but in news reporting in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and your daily paper—if yours has survived. My breakfast encyclical on February 21st included a story by Tom Hundley in the Chicago Tribune. His account shows how pride, not long ago, focused on what luxuries one could buy and own. He quotes one Cecelia Dames, “an expat Midwesterner” who came back from Europe to a changed world. She observes: “Conspicuous consumption is out…Conspicuous frugality is in.” Hundley reports on “the new braggers” who boast of their success in getting bargains at thrift shops, and are now scaling down the goodies they offer friends at parties.

Hundley offers new terms—new to me, at least—such as “frugalista” and “luxury shame” (“a sense that even if you can still afford it, it’s best not to make a show of it”). Dames: “Maybe [those who adjust, and brag] seem ostentatious about [frugality] because they have to embrace it.” Paul Harris in Britain’s Guardian: “For three decades, American culture has celebrated the glories of unabashed capitalism and the ideals of the rich. No longer. Frugalism is taking hold.” What remains to be seen is whether the collapse of everything—of global markets, shopaholicism, et cetera—are replaced by culture-wide adjustments to a changed world, to fresh thought that can inspire more than bragging.

Speaking of Faith LINK
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My clothes Mender

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This man sits in the corner of the road,near the place I stay (opp to Sundaram Medical Foundation, Annanagar). I have never seen him talk to anybody, speaks in monosylabble with his customers. Continuously working, no drinking tear, smoking... fantastic work ethic... I have tried him for small repair work. He is prompt and he is good

On Randy Pausch

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"The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something."
~Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch was 47 years old when he died from pancreatic cancer. He was, as the Independent of London put it, "the dying man who taught America how to live." His book, The Last Lecture, is an international best-seller and it offers many wonderful lessons about life.

Randy Pausch's "last lecture" was delivered in September 2007, at Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught computer science. The lecture began with him standing before a screen beaming down chilling CT images of tumors in his liver, under the title...The Elephant in the Room. He then said to a stunned audience, "I have about 6 months to live." He said, "I'm really in good shape, probably better shape than most of you," ... dropping to the floor to do push-ups.

He went on to say, "I'm dying and I'm having fun, and I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left." He talked about his childhood dreams and what they had taught him about life. He said, "If you live your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself...your dreams will come to you."

Randy Pausch really was a dying man who has taught America how to live.

He died on July 25, 2008, but his wisdom, his passion, and his attitude are lasting sources of inspiration for all of us.

I love stories that can engage our hearts and our souls! This is one of many that I share in Charging the Human Battery...50 Ways to Motivate Yourself. My goal with this little book is to create many "a-ha moments" that can inspire, encourage and motivate you when you need it most!

LGBT rights

From ‘perversion’ to right to life with dignity
courtesy The Hindu

Kalpana Kannabiran

The Delhi High Court judgment makes the articulation of LGBT rights a torchbearer for a more general understanding of discrimination, oppression, social exclusion and the denial of liberty, on the one hand, and the meaning of freedom and dignity, on the other.

“Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it.” — B.R. Ambedkar quoted in para 79 of the Naz Foundation judgment.

The recent judgment of the Delhi High Court in the Naz Foundation versus Government of NCT of Delhi and Others is a milestone in the jurisprudence on diversity and pluralism in India. Importantly, it also inaugurates intersectional jurisprudence that examines questions of constitutionalism in relational terms that underscore inclusiveness. By this token then, it is not merely a judgment that bears significance for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender peoples (LGBT). It makes the articulation of LGBT rights a torchbearer for a more general understanding of discrimination, oppression, social exclusion and the denial of liberty, on the one hand, and the meaning of freedom and dignity, on the other.

The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity launched on March 26, 2007 were drafted by experts from 25 countries representative of all regions of the world. These principles delineate in painstaking detail the obligation of states to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all persons regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. On December 18, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly was presented with a statement endorsed by 66 states from around the world reaffirming in substance the Yogyakarta principles. It is these international efforts along with the movement for LGBT rights within India that provided the context and arguments for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Drawing on Dr. Ambedkar, the court rejected the argument that homosexuality was contrary to public and popular morality in India, upholding constitutional morality instead, the diffusion of which was contingent on Dr. Ambedkar’s ideas of notional change, as evident in the lines quoted above. To quote from the judgment: “The Constitution of India recognises, protects and celebrates diversity. To stigmatise or to criminalise homosexuals only on account of their sexual orientation would be against the constitutional morality” (para 80). Linked to this is the observation of the Court on the question of the horizontal application of rights, with specific reference to Article 15(2), a barely remembered but critical part of Article 15: No citizen shall obstruct another from access to public places on grounds of caste, sex and other specified grounds (para 104). This purposive and intersectional reading of Article 15(2), hitherto restricted largely to practices of untouchability vis-À-vis Dalits, opens out an important strategy in constitutional interpretation.

Applying the U.N. Human Rights framework to an understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity, the judgment sets out three categories: (a) non-discrimination; (b) protection of private rights; and (c) the ensuring of special general human rights protection to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Perhaps the most important issue the judgment addresses is the meaning of “sex” in Article 15(1) of the Constitution of India: “The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.” Does the term “sex” in this context refer to attribute or performance? Is sex to be applied in a restricted fashion to gender or can the multiple resonances of its common usage be taken into account, so that sex is both gender (attribute) and sexual orientation (performance)? This is particularly significant because, as the judgment demonstrates through an extensive review of case law and principles from different parts of the world, gender and sexual orientation are an intrinsic and inalienable part of every human being; they are constituents of a person’s identity. In the words of Justice Sachs of South Africa, the constitution “acknowledges that people live in their bodies, their communities, their cultures, their places and their times” (Sachs J. in The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v. The Minister of Justice). It is this composite identity of every person that is affirmed through a nuanced reading of “sex” in Article 15(1): “We hold that sexual orientation is a ground analogous to sex and that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not permitted by Article 15 (Para 104).”

Justice P.N. Bhagwati’s delineation of the right to dignity in Francis Coralie Mullin v. Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi and others, that “the right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessaries of life, … expressing oneself in diverse forms, freely moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow human beings,” provides the starting point for the discussion on the importance of self-respect, self-worth and privacy to human social life, recognised nationally and internationally. And privacy is particularly important in the area of sexual relationship where the thumb rule is simply that “[i]f, in expressing our sexuality, we act consensually and without harming one another, invasion of that precinct will be a breach of our privacy (Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, (413 US 49 (1973), page 63).”

The criminalisation of homosexuality, the judgment says, by condemning in perpetuity an entire class of people, forcing them to “live their lives in the shadow of harassment, exploitation, humiliation, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the law enforcement machinery” denies them “moral full citizenship (para 52).” Because Section 377 is aimed at criminalising private conduct of consenting adults, the court held that it comes within the meaning of discrimination, which “severely affects the rights and interests of homosexuals and deeply impairs their dignity(para 93).” It is “unfair and unreasonable and, therefore, in breach of Article 14 of the Constitution of India (para 98).”

The right to public health is another aspect of human rights that is seriously undermined through the criminalisation of same sex behaviour. There are two parts to this right, both of which lead back to the fundamental right to life under Article 21. The first is the right to be healthy. In this context, the concerns of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) are pertinent. Fear of the law-enforcement agencies obstructs disclosure, which in turn impedes HIV/AIDS prevention programmes and increases the risk of infection in high-risk groups.

The second part of the right to health is more expansive and includes the right to control one’s health and body, the right to sexual and reproductive freedom, the right against forced medical treatment and the right to a system of health that offers equality of opportunity in attaining the highest standard of health. While several documented testimonies of LGBT persons speak of the treatment of their sexual orientation as a psychiatric/mental disorder, the judgment importantly affirms the findings worldwide that sexual orientation is an expression of human sexuality — whether homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. “Compelling state interest,” instead of focussing on public morality, the judgment says, “demands that public health measures are strengthened by de-criminalisation of such activity, so that they can be identified and better focused upon (para 86).”

Asserting that there is no presumption of constitutionality where a colonial legislation is concerned, the judgment holds that Section 377 fails the test of “strict scrutiny” which would require proportionality between the means used and the aim pursued. And when it is a question of “matters of ‘high constitutional importance’” like the rights of LGBT persons, the courts are obliged to discharge their sovereign jurisdiction, in this case, reading Section 377 down to apply only to child sexual abuse.

It is pertinent to point out here that the Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Areas) Eunuchs Act specifically targets Eunuchs and Hijras in far more direct ways than Section 377 does. We hope that the momentum of the movement for LGBT rights will turn its full force on obsolete legislation like this as well, so that transgender communities in areas where such laws are in force begin to enjoy the fullest freedoms and life with dignity.

(Kalpana Kannabiran is a sociologist based in Secunderabad.)

MOVIDS BLOG

YOGYAKARTA PRINCIIPLES

Truth is absolute

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Watch this video. A red balloon that a lady holds is seen as green, blue, black.. and some even say there is no balloon... some think they should pick what colour they want to give to the balloon.. and the funny thing about truth is its true weather you believe it or not. Watch this interesting video. Link to Red Baloon video
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India and China (Jallianwala Bagh & Tiananmen Square)

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Give below are excerpts from Mr Gurcharan Das' blog link on why the future belongs to India

Democracy comes easily to us because India has historically 'accumulated' its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has 'assimilated' its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity.

China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state-a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a business corporation today. Each mayor and party secretary has objectives relating to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied interest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system 'democracy'. It slows us down--we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on Google on 'human rights abuses in China' yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve-it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

This brings us to the discussion on the power of weak humanism. Now read this and you will know why China is treading a dangerous path. Read the what Xavier Le Pichon (Collège de France, Aix-en-Provence) Ecce Homo To welcome the suffering is the sign of our humanity

The same thing is true for all systems that need to evolve. Contrarily to what is often assumed, the weak and imperfect parts are often those that allow the evolution to occur without any revolution. This is true for the evolution of life, which is in great part based on the occurrence of coding errors during the duplication of the genetic information. One can ask whether it is not also true of our societies. We tend to dissociate the individuals who are well adapted to our social life from those that have difficulties to follow the pace that is imposed on them by our life style. Yet a society that separates the producers from the others considered as dead weight, even as marginal or excluded individuals, is a hard society, characterized by conflicts and often by complete rejection of minorities. It is sad and pessimistic. On the contrary a society where all are well integrated has a much more adaptable structure, with a different, easier and more conciliatory mode of life. It is often happier and more optimistic.
One probably needs to go farther. A society, which is composed exclusively of uniform individuals, without any heterogeneity, is a more rigid, harder society. I have experienced such communities when living on oceanographic vessels, which I have done for a good part of my life. Most of the time, we only had young and middle aged men on board: the crew then formed a community, which was rather rough. The presence of a single woman oceanographer was often sufficient to completely change the atmosphere.

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The New Currency - Attention

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We live in an age of Information overload.We both enjoy and drown in news, blogs, podcasts, photos, videos and cool MySpace pages. We no longer read, we skim. The rapid growth of information causes scarcity of attention.

Read more Link

Buyer behaviour is changing

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Traditionally, marketers' view of the purchase process has been based on a "funnel" with five successive stages: "awareness," "familiarity," "consideration," "purchase" and finally, "loyalty"
Shoppers no longer start with a long list of brands which they slowly cancel down to their product of choice. Rather, and based on an examination of the purchase decisions of nearly 20,000 people on three continents, behaviour is "changing dramatically."
The first of these is "ongoing exposure", during which time "people see and hear about brands."
This is largely due to the fact that there has been an "increase in consumer empowerment." This means people are "much more actively reaching out to friends and family, to the internet, to blog sites to understand their options."
Moreover, the purchase process is becoming "more circular", and can be divided into four stages that occur on a cyclical basis.

The first of these is "ongoing exposure", during which time "people see and hear about brands. This is followed by a "trigger" that causes consumers to "move towards purchase", a process that starts with the "initial consideration" of what is often a "relatively narrow list" of brands.

The "bombardment of media" and busy lives experienced by many consumers means it is particularly difficult for brands to establish themselves on the "initial consideration set."

Once shoppers have decided they are going to buy a product, they move into the "active evaluation stage" where the number of brands they evaluate increases, a broadening of the old "funnel."

Here they investigate various products and their options for where to make a purchase, as well as paying more attention to ads.

The third stage is "the moment of purchase", which is "critical" for many products in a retail setting, as most consumers "still have not decided which brand they are going to buy; they make that decision in the store."

The last part of the process is the "loyalty loop", where some shoppers become "actively loyal" to a particular property, and don't consider other brands when making future purchases in the category.

More often, however, shoppers demonstrate "passive loyalty", meaning they are open to buying the same brand as before, but are also willing to consider other options.

see original article link

Weak Humanism

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Is Saul among the prophets? this is what cropped up in my mind as I was invited to participate in a discussion group in a venue 20 kms away. The room had some wonderful minds, doctors, professors and some wonderful social thinkers who have devoted their lives for social cause.

The fact that life and living needs to be understood in social terms and by encompassing the society at large seems to resonate in my so very often. Which also means the futility of inward focused existence bordering around selfishness is probably the biggest threat to civilisation.


Prof Ananta Kumar Giri of the Madras Institute of Development Studies spoke about the 'Weak Humanism '. This was an eye opener for me. Weak Humanism? this needs more thought. What I understood was that as a society it is the strong who are celebrated and exalted little do we realize that through history it is the strong who have been behind aggression and violence. Weak Humanism is to celebrate the weak and learn from the weak. No wonder that we hear Jesus Christ saying "Let the weak say Iam strong" This can probably interpreted as not the weak becoming strong but the weak in their weakness stay strong.

It was late into the night as I was dozing off to sleep that I decided to light read and Philip Yancy seemed very inviting. The church and the family is supposed to uphold the weak, he says. That is christian teaching. But then the market mentality has over taken the church as well as homes that performance is exalted the weak are marginalized and shunned. If a nation were to do this, Hitler tried it with promoting Aryan supremacy and tried destroying the weak, it is destined to perish. Its the same that is bound to happen on an individual level too.
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Golden Apartments. Man of Steel and the Ironing man.

Sometimes they all fall in place, the most discerning and the wise take the message out of it. Nay, I dare not blow my own whistle but that which I had observed and understood I share. For mortals delve on the physical realm trying find meaning and value on a limited dimension. Seldom do they take the effort to see and glean from the unseen. Forever foraging the market to find security in the bullion and the bulls and what comes of it is what sounds like bell - 'dung' - that slides down warmly, from the west side of the east facing cow.

Once upon a time in a quite residential locality lived a very kindhearted man who after retiring from the civil services got himself a sizable plot of land, planted trees and built himself as small modest house. He had three sons and they all lived in peace. Now the seeds that he had sowed and the plants that he had planted rejoiced with the harmony of this small home, their conversation and their music nourished the air and that they all began to grow at a good clip. The plants grew and flowered every day some began to grow as good trees and the birds came and dwelt in them, chirping with joy. Some even say that whenever the kind man stepped out the trees and the plants shook and clapped their hands. But then you know how good people talk about other good people.

One day a poor man with his wife with all his belongings, rolled up in a mat, holding a few vessels to carry his food and water sat under the shade of the tree. The man and the wife conversed for a while in monosyllables and they both decided to lay down and sleep. They slept and they slept as their tired limbs demanded some rest. Some naughty urchins who were passing by decided to play a cruel joke as they deftly took away the mat and all their belongings, and after accomplishing their mission they hid in a nearby bush and ran away. The ubiquitous rag picker within a few minutes rummaged through the bush picked up the mat along with all its contents and walked away.

Now when this tired man and his wife, woke up and found themselves with nothing left, wept their hearts out. It was evening, while the road stood deserted and as the stillness set in, their sobbing fell on the ears of the kindhearted man in the house. Taking pity on them, he invited this poor couple inside, gave them food and room to spend the night, good man as he was. Early the next morn when the man of the house walked his garden he found it watered, the fallen leaves had been picked and the pathways were swept clean. With much delight he saw the man and his wife, for whom he had provided shelter, sitting in a corner as a church mouse, wondering their next move that did not seem to be there.

The kindhearted took pity on the couple, employed the lady for house work and for the man he provided him with a small investment to set up a small shack and some tools. And thus was sowed the seeds of a small self employment program - Rajan puncher shop. The puncher shop was a great relief for the cycles and the cycle rickshaws that often got stranded on the rough roads with a burst Tyre or a faulty valve.

This went on for years then two important events literally rattled the business, one was the demise of the kindhearted man and other was an economic downturn. The cycle rickshaws suddenly vanished and then the cycles vanished too. The trees had grown taller and they provided a effective canopy for Rajan Tyre shop but there were simply no customers. It was at this moment that this idea of starting a 'ironing unit' came to his mind. He drew out his business plan after a quick survey of the area he repositioned his business - Rajan Ironing

The three sons of the kind man had grown to become smart young lads and two of them migrated to Australia leaving one brother behind who took up employment in a soft drink factory 20 km away. Rajan Ironing was abuzz now, his wife joined him full time and they even managed to buy themselves a small house nearby

In the year 1992, a leading real estate developer was seen making frequent trips to the house and then one day the house was brought down, most of the trees were cut but for the huge tree that provided the shade for Rajan Ironing. Within 10 months the entire project was complete and the new apartment complex called "Golden Glade" accommodated nearly 28 families and Rajan Ironing saw an upturn in business.

Now Golden Glade Residents Association (GGRA) met one Sunday morning and deliberated on a host of proposals, including upkeep of the apartments, disposal of garbage and beautification. In order to beautify the apartments they decided to have some plants along the wall. GGRA, assigned a grouchy old man, as the head of the beautification committee. Now this grouchy old man took up the task with full gusto. Rajan Ironing must be thrown out; was his single point agenda. He went about his task rather methodically and what started out as a pebble in the shoe for Rajan Ironing soon became a pain in the neck. But Rajan Ironing stood still weathering all the storms.

Now the Grouchy old man became so obsessed that he refused to even listen to his grand daughter who pleaded the case of Rajan Ironing, one day he literally pushed her off as she fell screaming to the floor.

Rajan Ironing, by now had garnered a huge sympathy wave from even some GGRA committee members and this angered the grouchy old man who one morning after a hot altercation cut off three large branches of the tree that provided the canopy for Rajan Ironing. Now this was the last straw - Rajan Ironing had no choice but to move.

The Grouchy old man, after his successful mission, went to his apartment had a hot shower, and had his lunch. The air in his apartment was heavy, even his wife refused to talk to him, his grand daughter shut herself in her room. The conqueror, as a unrepentant man of steel, lay down on his pillow to sleep and he slept as log,and then turned cold as ice. He died of a heart attack in his sleep.

The GGRA, sent out a circular to all the 27 residents informing the sudden demise of their - 'beloved' and active committee member. People sauntered in, some carried flowers and some carried a sad face. They all saw and left. And no one cried, not even his very own.

A servant carried the funeral tidings to Rajan Ironing couple.

Rajan Ironing by now had found another small place nearby. On hearing of this sad news the ironing couple rushed to the house, and they literally barged into the quite house crying. As they wept in a loud voice they said "Aiiiiyaaa, you were so angry with us this morning and you even chased us away by cutting the tree... and now you are gone" they wailed and wept.. the others had a difficult time consoling them but they cried their hearts out.

The residents of Golden Glade marveled at this and some ladies whispered to one another "Truly the Ironing Man and his wife have a heart of Gold" so saying they went back to their lodgings. They nearly saw but could not see.

A man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his. William James 1890

The Times of India, true to its banality, gave these crude statistics of the Ramalinga Raju's material possesions.
Roosevelt loved hunting the way that Imelda loves shopping. He loved the kick of the gun and the smell of the powder. He loved the antlers. The same sportive hormones may be active in Imelda. Nature is filled with wild waste, unthinkable redundancies. Why does nature toss off a billion sperm when only one of them is necessary to fertilize a human egg? Imelda's shoes, ecologically baffling, are part of the mystery of life.

At the height of her fame, the deposed Filipino dictator’s wife Imelda Marcos had more than a thousand pairs of shoes, 888 handbags and 508 gowns. As it turns out, had ex-Satyam Computer boss B Ramalinga Raju not been locked up and his fraud exposed, he may have given Imelda a run for her money in the next few fashion seasons.
Raju’s penchant for high fashion had led him to collect more than a thousand designer suits, if sources in the Enforcement Directorate are to be believed. According to documents prepared by Andhra Pradesh police and given to ED, the disgraced IT czar had 321 pairs of shoes and 310 belts.
Apart from leading a lavish lifestyle, Ramalinga Raju visited various big temples in Andhra Pradesh regularly and donated huge amounts of gold, which collated would approximate about two tonnes. His stargazing pursuits led him to buy a telescope, which valued at more than Rs 1 crore would be the most expensive in any Indian home.
Like many other multi-billionaires, Raju too liked to collect trophy properties around the world. Sources said he had “palatial mansions and villas” in 63 countries.
source: The Times of India

Divisions work

This morning was a pleasant surprise, the front page of The Hindu carried a picture of the the CEC and the two Election Commissioners sitting together, all smiles. On the back end the political parties have apparently urged them to sink their differences and get on with their jobs. Iam glad that the differences surfaced and got blow over. The rancor may linger but the fact that the people are aware may make these respectable gentlemen behave differently.


I like this set up, two high strung individuals apparently with covert political affiliations and one stable balancing but dormant Commissionaire in Mr Quereshi. We need them all in different hues and shades to run a complex society such as ours and a challenging system like the democracy.
Contrast this with the Satyam fiasco when the the promoters and the directors cuddled together in apparent unity to rip the corporate system to shreds.