Ramayana Masam

The month of 'Karkidakam' as per Malayalam calendar ( July 15th to August 15th) is called 'Ramayana masam''(Ramayana month).

As per traditions, Ramayana is read during this month every day in the evening when the lamp is lit. The Karkidakam month is the last month in the Malayalam calendar. The monsoon is at its peak in this month; and during olden days majority of the people in Kerala depended on agriculture. Due to heavy rain, the Karkidakam month is referred as ‘panja masam’ or the month of scarcity for people were dependant on agricultural income and the was months away. There were no grain in the house and no money to boot.

With the paddy fields flooded, there used to be no work and the economy used to come to a stand still. People used to solely depend on what grains they had stored during the previous harvest season. There used be such heavy rains that it was even hard to go outside the house or village and earn a living. As per Malayalam Panchangam, new ventures and auspicious functions are not held during this month.

There is no religious reason for not holding auspicious functions as is made out to be. It is just that functions need money and cash flow was the lowest during this month. Also, the incessant rains makes it impossible to have functions held in thatched temporary halls. Those days there were no marriage halls or other auditioriums.

The reason why Ramayana was read has its roots in a philosophy. 'Dhramachyuthi' happens when people dont have money. When people starve or are short of cash, they tend to think of evil ways to get food and money. Ramayana exhorts one to uphold the right and lead the path of Dharma. Raman's story is full of doing the right thing. He renounced the crown to uphold his fathers words, fought Ravana fair and square to win back his captive wife, he left Sita in the forest when people started casting aspersions on her character, for he believed that the King should lead by example and was above suspicion. Ramayana tells us how to lead a dharmic life, never wavering from the path of right. It was felt that people reading Ramayana will never succumb to the temptations of evil.

Times have changed. Society has moved away from an agrarian economy. The reading of Ramayana in the houses in Kerala is a rarity these days. Instead of houses, the Ramayanam is now read in temples and in programs conducted by organizations, if at all.

The temptation to succumb to wrong ways is now throughout the year. When such tempation arises, let us take Ramayana and read it.

Go for GOLD

Inflation is 12% plus (officially that is. unofficially it is much more)

So where do you invest?

Bank Fixed deposits are not attractive since the inflation is higher than the Bank Interest rates. This means erosion of your capital in the medium term in real terms.

Share Market has followed the global financial market meltdown and have lost nearly one third of its capitalization. Maybe a good time to buy. But you need to buy wisely, in companies that have shown a sustained performance even during bad times. Also means invest in those companies who has a sound management and strategic perspective. In short, buy blue chips when they are traded at a low. They are likely to bounce faster than midcaps. But buy keeping in mind the long term returns. Do not aim for quick returns. You have to be patient. Dont invest in mutual funds, but invest directly.

Real Estate is a strict no no. Interest rates are higher. Property is over priced. Building materials are expensive. Rental income has not risen in line with the property price. The market may have peaked or is on the verge of a downturn. Be careful.

That leaves my trustworthy friend - Gold. It is always a safe bet to buy Gold during the times of high inflation. But never buy ornament gold. Always buy 24 carat Gold biscuits that are sealed and numbered. You get swiss gold under the brand name Pampa in Kuwait. You can buy either 10gm, 20 gm, 50 gm biscuits. Or alternatively take the route of Gold bonds. Since it is easy for a layman to buy the gold biscuits, go for it.

It is Olympics time. Let us follow the motto of the atheletes......

GO FOR GOLD

Of iddly, vada and inflation

The first sign of rising prices and how serious it is, is visible.

No I am not talking about you having to pay more to get one kilogram of rice, provided you can get it.

You know prices are going to rise for magazines, when they go on a diet. The magazines start attending a good fitness centre and becomes thinner. The number of pages/ contents are reduced by 30% while holding the price. The magazine starts getting a leaner and meaner look. The justification being, our customers wont pay the increased price, not realizing that price is relative to the benefits.

Once you are through with the reading, you go out for a breakfast in a Udupi hotel. Here the inflation hits you square in the eye, oops!! in the stomach. It is a killer punch.

Not that this happened overnight. I have been watching the transformation for a while. The waiter came and asked me for the order.

"Give me a plate of Curd Hole", I said

"What?", he asked flabbergasted.

"My friend. you used to give Curd Vadas long time back. Then it used to be big vadas with a small hole. Now all i can see is a big hole with a small vada dough like an onion ring around it. Since the hole is bigger relatively, should we not be calling it Curd Hole?"

He walked away furious. I thought that the poor guy has been getting it from all the customers for a while now.

I got my Curd Hole. He asked me whether I required anything else.

"Give me iddly", thinking it is a safe bet

When the iddly came, I looked at it and queried,

"I didnt ask for mini iddlys. I asked for normal iddlys"

"But sir this is the normal iddly now"

Silently, I ate. What used to be good solid food has now become an appetizer. I wanted more,

"Ummm.........give me a A4 Dosa"

"Sir.............................", he was still polite.

"You normally give Ghee Dosa the size of a A3 paper. Of late, you have reduced it to the size of a A4 paper which is half the size", I patiently explained

He was getting really upset as other customers started nodding their head in agreement and it was bad for his business.

"Sir , dosa is not available. Only meals"

Having no choice, I ordered one.

When the south indian thali was served, I got up and went to the landphone and started dialling the number of the Police Station.

"What the hell are you doing?", screamed the Cashier

"I am calling the Police"

"But why"

"I want to file a missing person report"

"But who is missing"

"Couple of side dishes, sweet which used to be in the Thali are missing"

All hell broke loose.

I am afraid I am personna non grata in Udupi Hotels these days. So, don't ask me to take you there for a spot of lunch or tiffen

Weakness can be leveraged

"There was a boy who was born without a right arm. On his ninth birthday he asked his parents if he could join a karate club. They were delighted by the idea and the boy quickly became a regular at the local dojo. The boy wanted to compete in a tournament and asked his master if this was possible. The master said he could but only if he listened carefully to his master and trusted him.

The master taught the boy one move and one move only. The boy practised it diligently but after a while he was worried that the other boys were learning a range of moves and he only had one. He asked the master to teach him other moves but the master said no. The master just urged the boy to keep practising that one move.

The boy won the first round of the tournament and then the next round and the one after that until he found himself winning the entire tournament. The boy was baffled. How did he do it? He asked the master how a boy with only one arm and only one move could win a karate tournament against these other boys. The master smiled and told the boy that there is only one defence against the move the boy learned and that defence involves grabbing the attacker by the right arm."

I remember a film from my early days where a blind woman switches off the light in the house to ward off an intruder who is out to kill her. When lights are off both cannot see, but she being blind is in her comfort zone and has a territorial advantage over the intruder.

Know your limitations and leverage it to the maximum. A classic case of WT strategy in TOWS matrix?
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Olympic memories

Olympics is just a few days away.

As a youngster, Olympics was the greatest sporting event for me.

In 1984, I travelled all the way from Kerala to New Delhi to watch Olympic games being telecast on TV (TV came to Palghat in 1985).

My brother, who was a batchelor then, had promised to buy a colour TV by the time I reached there. Typical of him, he had not planned in advance. Both of us went to a local dealer of Beltek TV to buy one. But couldn't as the demand for TV was so high that he couldnt accede to our request. But he was good enough to give us a small 14 inch colour TV just for the opening ceremony. Then it was back to the dreary black and white. But for a teenager, the scale of Olympics being visually beamed was beyond imagination.

So many wonderful performers over the time. The genius of Carl Lewis going for 4 golds. The explosive power of Ben Johnson much later and then the disgust one felt when it came to be known that he had cheated. Who can forget the flowing grace of Florence Griffith Joyner and the shock on hearing Flo Jos untimely death. Was it drug induced?

I lived the dream of a perfect 10 with Nadia Comenici, the little gymnast and cheered. Ed Moses in 400 m hurdles was a true champion as was Sergie Bubka in Pole Vault.

Somehow the track and field have always held the charm for me. The first week is a bore with endless Swimming competitions followed by Diving and the stupidest of all, the synchronised swimming.

But today I am skeptical. Drugs have become a reality. I can't look at one athlete without thinking how clean he or she is. Hardly any one is. Win at all costs have spoiled and soiled the great event.

However, the games live on promoting the motto of 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' or 'Swifter, Higher, Stronger'

Another advantage of watching Olympics is that we have no stake in it. One doesn't have to worry about Indians competing for medals, as we never did. Hockey was on the wane after 1980 and there was little else to show for, despite the hype. What can you expect from a country who sends more officials than participants and believes in the motto 'Winning is not important, participating is'. What a crying shame!. And the same guys, Suresh Kalmadi and his cronies, have been heading Indian Olympics for donkeys years with absolutely no accountability. The story of athletes being given the short shrift at the expense of officials and sundries hold good even this Olympics. Certain things never change.

If my memory serves me correct, Rajiv Gandhi once asked his sports minister the size of the Asiad contingent. When she told him 392, he asked her how many Medals will India win. She replied deadpan that P T Usha will win a couple. To which he quipped 'Then why are you sending these 392. Just sent P T Usha and her coach Nambiar. At least tax payers will be saved of the expense'.

3674 lives lost in India in 39 months due to terrorism!!!

Normally I am not one to reproduce contemporary articles from web. But today's editorial on oday's Indian Express by Shekhar Gupta is a must read. Here are some excerpts,

Last week, Somini Sengupta of The New York Times quoted a stunning fact from a report of the Washington-based National Counter-Terrorism Centre. It said, between January 2004 and March 2007, India had lost 3,674 lives to terrorism, second only to Iraq. And we can’t even claim that this is happening because some imperialist occupation army is running amok here. In fact that number, by now, must have crossed 5,000. If this notion spreads globally, it would do more to damage India’s image as an oasis of democratic stability, pacifism and economic growth than any twists in its politics, or even a half-decade reform holiday.

So far the UPA government has had one standard response: compare this with the record under the NDA: Kandahar hijack, Parliament attack, Akshardham. But there is a short use-by date on these arguments. You cannot take them into your next election campaign. Soon enough, the memory of those incidents would have faded, been replaced by new ones: Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kabul, Mumbai trains, Samjhauta Express and so on. And then the unchecked Naxalite attacks.

Most amazing is the sense of cool with which this government, particularly its home ministry, has responded to these losses. ................................................... The two most striking things here have been the equanimity — frankly, cynical and sometimes sanctimonious indifference — with which this security establishment has treated it.

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Internal security has been communalised. It began with the last election campaign and the composition of this alliance. There may have been a sound case against POTA because it was misused, but both in public discourse and political action its repeal was made to look like a favour to the Muslims. Then, the same “communalised” politics interfered in police investigations following the serial blasts in Mumbai trains and Hyderabad. Ask senior police officers there — even Congress chief ministers if they’d dare to speak the truth — and they will tell you how they pulled away in fright, under pressure from the Centre for targeting and upsetting Muslims (voters) in their investigations. This proceeded neatly alongside the utterly communalised discourse on the Afzal Guru hanging issue. Each time this government and its intellectual storm-troopers proffered the minority argument in support of this soft policy, it emboldened the terrorists. They figured they were dealing with a political leadership which had already committed a self-goal by equating counter-terror with Muslim alienation and which had, in the process, totally demoralised its intelligence agencies and police forces. And if it is not guilty of communalising our internal security policy, how does it explain sitting on special anti-terror laws in all BJP-run states when exactly similar ones have been passed for the Congress states? Now you can say special laws are good or bad, but they must be equally so for all citizens in all states. If these laws are good, or necessary, then citizens in BJP-run states have as much need — and right — to get their protection as those in the Congress states. Unless the message is: you want protection, you better vote for us. You vote for others, you are on your own.

It is not going to work. It is morally wrong and politically suicidal. Protecting the citizens’ life is the first responsibility of any government. Surely no government can ensure no terror attack would ever happen. But it has to be seen to be trying, fighting, and being even-handed. This government fails on all three counts so far...............................................................................

Virus' KISS

There is something surreal about Virendra Sehwag's batting. He follows the age old dictum of 'KISS'- Keep it Short and Simple (or the more popular 'Keep is Simple Stupid').

His philosophy is simple. Batsmen's job is to hit the ball and score runs. Not for him the complexity of technical analysis and virtuosity. Maybe Dravid and Sachin should take a leaf out of Viru's book and bat with gay abandon. I remember Sunil Gavaskar play with much more freedom in the latter part of his career with remarkable success.

When the fab four (with the exception of VVS Laxman) about how to handle Ajantha Mendis and Murali , Sehwag went about the task with an amused look as to why others are struggling while he was at absolute ease. That is his genius. And it is not about hand eye co ordination or sheer luck. He was spot on in shot selection and very very tight in defence. Also he was reading both the spinners from their hand unlike others who were playing off the wicket.

It was a classic case of sticking to the basics, playing straight, sure in picking the length and despatching the loose balls promptly. Batsmanship at its best. It is not easy to carry ones bat in a test innings. Only SMG has done it before. And scoring 5 double hundreds and above has placed Sehwag in an elite company.

But what endeared him most to me was the third ball of the second last over. He was on 199, with Ishant Sharma at the other end. He pushed the ball to point and could have had an easy single to reach his double hundred, but refused. He waited till the last ball to get that single and retain the strike. Not many in contemporary cricket will do that. That alone puts him, in my eye, at a very high pedestial.

In Management too, what works best is that which is simple. Complex processes, policies tend to reduce the efficiency. Remember to keep things simple. A casual call to explain a point of view is better than a long winded memo.