Traces of Present in the Past - 1

Discoursers on various scriptures come up with wonderful interpretations, depending on the audience. A la 'Nostradamus' interpretation. The Nostradamus prophesies  can be attributed to many events that happened subsequently, and be still valid. Ditto for the interpretation of the scriptures. This is not, by any way, discounting the treasure of wisdom buried in our Scriptures. The Upanishads and the Vedas were not the thought process of a single person, but rather a collection of thoughts of many over centuries. Perhaps, someone shall do a similar compilation of the material in the World Wide Web for posterity.

What I am posting in this blog is nothing new. It has been said before.

Stenography is an art that is almost dead with the advent of Word Processors. But I am of the generation who had the fortune to watch a top quality stenographer at work and how they take down notations, and reproduce the content in a letter format with hardly any error. Till late 1990s, top quality stenographers were much sought after. Many Palghat Brahmins from poor family, migrated to the then Bombay during mid 1990s, learned typing and shorthand, worked their way up the corporate ladder, and created the foundation for future generations, who are all in top positions in India and abroad now. Palghat Brahmins fondness for Lord Ganapathy is well known. No function starts without invoking Lord Vigneswara. Is it because Ganapathy is the first known Stenographer? The story goes that Veda Vyasa asked Ganapathy to write down the Mahabharatha to be dictated by Vyasa. Ganapathy wanted to get out of it, but had to agree with a proviso that Vyasa should not stop the recitation at any point of time, doing so will result in Ganapathy being released from his obligations. Ganapathy knew it was impossible for Vyasa to conclude the recitation in one sitting. But Vyasa was one up on him. He put a counter proposal that Ganapathy should not take down any of his slokas, unless he understands the meaning of each verse. This led to an interesting battle of wits between the two, which resulted in the creation of the wonderful epic.

I don't know whether the later day Managers insisted their Stenographers understood the meaning of what was being dictated to him, but what I know for a certainty that most of these Stenographers were very close associates of the Top Management, privy to Company secrets, and were at times more knowledgable than even their bosses. The Top Managers come and go, but the Stenographer served these Companies for decades, and were virutually a Knowledge Repository, who did their duty diligently day in and day out, but hardly got rewarded for their efforts. They struggled to make both ends meet, but drilled sound values in their kids, gave them good education, and left this world content, that they had created the necessary infrastructure which took their family to greater heights.

All Ganapathy's, their presiding diety's blessings???  Perhaps. 

                                                                                                       to be continued.......................

Random thoughts

"Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has called himself a 'Brahmin' while he reviewing the party's poor show in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. According to Congress sources, Gandhi told a local UP leader "I am a Brahmin" and "general secretary in the party" while the worker cited upper caste arguments" - Now this clearly puzzles me. As far as I know, Rahul Gandhi's Grand Father was Feroze Gandhi, who was a Parsi. Admitted, his mother Indira Gandhi is a Brahmin. But in India, the kids take after the religion of the Father. As such, Rahul's Father Rajiv Gandhi has to be a Parsi, or at best half parsi/ half brahmin.  Rahul has a Catholic Mother and a Half Parsi/Half Brahmin lineage, which makes him only 25% Brahmin, even by the most charitable views. For him to claim he is a Brahmin, is a bit ridiculous.

An Italian Ship's sailors, in Indian Waters, fires indiscriminately at Indian Fishermen, off Kerala Coast. The Kerala Government and the Police, for once did a tremendous job, detained the ship, arrested the accused, despite tremendous pressure from Italy, and won accolades even from Italians for the spotless police work done. What would you expect the Central Government to do? In any other Country, that has an iota of self respect, it would have moved heaven and earth to bring the culprit to justice, as two citizens were murdered. But not our UPA Government led by Sonia and MMS. They filed an affidavit and argued in the Court that, hold your breath, 'Kerala Government has no locus standi in the case and as such should not have done a damn when two of its fishermen were murdered'. Thank God, the Supreme Court Judges are not stupid. They gave a fitting comment from the Bench virtually trashing the Centre's point of view. It is a known secret that the Vatican tried to influence the case through a local Cardinal. One would have thought that with Sonia's italian connection, the Government would have been more than careful in taking a stand favouring Italy. Or is it that the italian connection is working overtime?

Chennai Super Kings may carry on in denial mode, but their skipper M S Dhoni is an injured man. He is struggling to run a few yards across the field with a pulled hamstring, but such is the situation that he has to keep on playing without taking a break - Now, now. 'such is the situation'!!!!. What situation? This is just IPL, and not Cricket World Cup. MSD, who cribs about over cricket while representing India, has not uttered a word about his workload in IPL, while carrying an injury. Where are the Board officials and the Chairman of Selectors? But then N Srinivasan and K Srikkanth, are stakeholders in CSK. Everything is fair in IPL!!!

Let there be PEACE this VISHU and the YEAR AHEAD

Om dyow shaanti antariksha gwum:

Shaantihi Prithwee:
Shaantiraapah:
Shaantiroshadhayah:
Shaantir-vanaspatayah:
Shaantir-vishveydevaah:
Shaantir-Brahma:
Sarva Gwam shaantihi:
Shaantir-eva shaantihi:
Saa maa shaantir-edhi:

(May peace reign on the horizon, May peace be on Earth, May peace be in water, May peace be in medicinal plants, May peace reign in all forms of vegetation, May peace be with Guardian Angelic Beings,

May peace be with the non-form of God(Brahm), May peace reign in each and everything. May peace be to peace itself. May that peace be with Me)

LET ME WISH ALL MY READERS

A VERY HAPPY

VISHU

AND A PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS

NEW YEAR

Couple of Decent Men caught in the murky politics of Defence Procurement

It is interesting to note that no one is talking about the person culpable for leaking the Confidential Memo sent by Army Chief General V K Singh to the PM regarding India's Defence Preparedness, or rather the lack of it.

An initial attempt was made to discredit the Army Chief by insinuating that he was responsible for the leak, but when he strongly refuted the allegation and indicated that the person responsible for the leak should be tried for treason, the whole issue died down.

And it pays to find out why the issue (in fact the letter leak is the lesser of the two issues, the main one being the contents of the letter - as to how unprepared Indian Army is!!) was brushed under the carpet.

Coming from Kerala, and having watched our Defence Minister A K Antony over the past 35 years, I can vouch for his personal probity. You can hardly see a politician who lives such a spartan life as Antony, and that includes Manmohan Singh. He is personally clean, possess assets that would shame even a lower middle class government employee. But make no mistake. Antony is street smart. He has come up the hard way through the students wing of Congress- KSU, in an era when KSU was not the mess it is today. He also had to fight a pitched battle with the other giant of Kerala politics K Karunakaran, for a space in the Congress political arena. And taking on the Leader, as K Karunakaran is fondly called, is no mean task.  But Antony survived and grew. And no one has been able to even think of throwing the corruption muck on Antony, a significant achievement in our tainted political scenario.

Many have accused Antony of indecisiveness. Antony is a careful decision maker by nature. He likes to err on the safer side. While there are many analysts who go to the town about how weak he is as a Defence Minister, they forget that he has been making an effort to crack down on the nefarious business dealings in Defence procurement. But since the first family is involved in most of the Deals, which is an open secret, Antony's hands are tied.

Antony respects the current Chief, and his honesty. And to be fair to him, he took the right decision to deny the Chief his request to revise his DOB. Even the Supreme Court upheld his decision. But throught the period when the Media was going gaga over the fight of V K Singh on his DOB issue, Antony maintained his decorum and never spoke out against the Chief or commented on the matter. For that matter, neither did the Chief. Even after the Supreme Court verdict, Antony kept his counsel and did not gloat over his decision being vindicated, but respected both the Court and the Chief's right to approach the Court for Grievance Redressal. The low profile maintained by Antony went a long way in diffusing the situation.

But Antony was indeed decisive. In the Cabinet meeting, post the letter leak, when everyone was baying for the Chief's blood, Antony stood his ground, backed his Chief, and virtually single handedly took the decision to not take any action against the Chief, thus showing his leadership. He also backed the Chief and the Army on the stupid Coup story, and made the PM issue a statement denying the story.

In fact, both the Defence Minister A K Antony and the Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh has behaved in exemplary manner during the last few months, while pursuing what both felt was right. They had a professional disagreement which went through the necessary redress channel and was resolved. Both maintained high degree of level headedness and propriety.

We should be thankful to them for that.

But the unanswered question remains - Who are the real culprits who created the DOB, Coup and the leaked letter Controversies?

The finger of suspicion points to people close to the First Family and to couple of powerful Cabinet Ministers, who are on the take with respect to Defence Kick Backs. This is evident from the brazenness with which these middle men work, their ability to manipulate the media and the public discourse, and finally the lack of progress on the investigation (if any!) to find the real culprits.

Sober Thought

Rupee's prospects do not look bright. With deepening fault lines in the economy, mainly due to mounting fiscal deficit, backed by an insipid budget, Rupee continues to slide and is expected to touch Rs 53 to US Dollar soon. While this is good news for NRIs like me, and for exporters, it is bound to increase the inflationary pressure.

Another major cause for concern is the mounting Non Performing Assets with Indian Banks. With interest rates rising, most of the Banks are seeing an alarming rise in their NPA. This is bound to have serious implications. The credit rating agencies have already started downgrading Indian Banks, making it dearer for them to get credit in the open market. With hardly any takers for loans, due to high interest rates, the play-cautious attitude of the Banks towards new loans, which is likely under the current scenario, will further slowdown investment in the economy. What is alarming is the total ineffectiveness of the Banks to initiate recovery proceedings against the defaulting Industrial Houses.

In the near term the interest rates will continue to rule high, banks will lend less and money supply will be curtailed. We are almost nearing the economic crisis point of the late 1980s. And that is a sober thought.

Larger issues pertaining to the Indian Army

Much has been written about the transgression of the Army Chief General V K Singh.

Let us take the issues on hand one by one.

First pertains to his fight over the Date of Birth. No one disputes that his actual DOB is in 1951, and the Army records depicting it as 1950 was a mistake. Irrespective of whether he should have had it corrected within 2 years of joining (what the heck, it was so long ago, when he was junior officer who never thought this will affect him at a later stage, and in an establishment that do not encourage people to question superiors!!), or that he accepted the DOB as 1950 twice, the fact remains that he was born in 1951, and not 1950. He had a valid case and approached the Army and the Defence Ministry to sort it out. When he did not get justice, he approached the Supreme Court, which he has a right, as a citizen of India. What is wrong in that? Everyone has the right to redress the grievance and escalate the grievance to the highest authority. When the SC gave a decision against him, he accepted it gracefully and carried on with his work. The argument that he taking the case to the SC tarnished the Army is specious, to say the least.

The second issue is his letter to PM, telling him how much the Army is  under-prepared. PM is the leader of the Nation, and what is wrong with the Army Chief writing a Confidential note to him? Wasn't he doing his duty? There is no evidence that he leaked the letter. If there had been a shred of evidence, he would have been hauled up by now. Since the Government is keeping a low profile, it is fairly certain, the leak came from PMO or Defence Ministry. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the General did indeed leak the letter. Again what is wrong with that? His detractors claim that it has given the enemies of India information that they dont know. This is crap. The enemy spies know exactly what our weaknesses are, more than us, with or without the letter. Also, the Chief, and many Chiefs before him, have written to PM and Defence Minister in past, but nothing has happened. The files have been put to pasture. Who elects the PM and the Defence Minister? The Public. What is wrong in bringing it to Public - the ultimate authority's- notice. None. A good Percentage of our annual allotment goes for Defence procurement. Why shouldnt we know how the proceeds are used in reality?

The third issue pertains to the alleged bribe offer made to him a year and a half back. He brought it to the Defence Ministers notice, who did not give him the right signals to proceed. Instead, he was asked to give in writing, which he should have. But, when your Minister, who is known to be honest, dont show the interest in tackling the issue head on,  dont give you the right cues, but rather give a bureaucratic answer, you tend to think twice. Perhaps he thought it fit to retreat a bit to win the war later. An error of judgement, which is understandable.

We are missing the bigger issue here. By attacking the General, we are forgetting the bigger issues that need attention - lack of flexibility in the army which makes it difficult for an aggrieved person to get justice, the corruption in defence procurements, the army totally unprepared to defend our country and the control the civilians have over the army, to the detriment of the same. If some of our top officers will compromise the quality of the equipments for a few lakhs, what commitment will they have to defending our country? And by setting a bad example, they are compromising their subordinates too.

And the politicians? Have you heard one solid action from any one in the Government as to how to tackle corruption in defence procurement? The answer is an emphatic NO.

And therein lies the tragedy.

Of Snakes and Rascals

I am scared of Snakes. There is no specific reason for this. Maybe it is the fear of being bitten by a snake, or the mere revulsion I get when I see the slithery creatures, or it could be the numerous stories I read as a child, where the snakes were depicted as undesirable creatures (with the exception of a few like Ananthan, Vasuki).

But what about the Snakes in the Human form? The damage that a snake can do pales in comparison to what some human beings can do, like our politicians who loot us to such an extend that we are being slowly poisoned to death as individuals and as a country.

No wonder Chanakya wrote about this in Arthasasthra long long ago,

"Of a RASCAL and a SERPENT, the serpent is the better of the two, for he strikes only at the time he is destined to kill, while the former at every step"

Promise to be regular from now on

I know I have been quiet for a while. Was immersed in work, and just did not have the frame of mind to blog.

I shall be regular from now on.

And thank you for bearing with me