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A while ago I had been through a situation where I witnessed how a person who did not know the rules was appealing to a reasonably reasonable person in position of power to provide for a certain facility for which he would have been rightfully entitled. At the same time I was cognizant of a certain other case where such an allowance was made to another person. Uncomfortably, I was there, as I could not go away, and could not argue for as it was not solicited, but at the same time I just felt way strangely uncomfortable.

From what I have seen, there are two reasons why people in India dont typically firmly ask for what is rightfully theirs:

• They are ignorant
• The social conditioning seems to have taught most folks ‘Karmanye vadhikaraste‘

It was quite an engaging point in my mind that I spent most of the evening wondering how I would have responded if I were the authority to approve.

It is one thing to have something like RTI, but the cognizance that you can exercise RTI to get the required information is what I am talking about! And how about some RTI for non-governmental matters – Say a private establishment or a private practice?

The best leveller and best healer,

Ruthless and waits for none,

But at the same time seems to vanish quick in happy times and seems long drawn when sad, and sneaks unnoticed rest of the time as we passionately involve ourselves in ‘matters dear to us’ .

And once it is gone, there is no point regretting.

And after long or sometimes very long, matters that were dear to us lose significance, despite how we felt about those!

If I were amongst the ancestors, I would have perhaps included time in addition to the other elements tey worshipped.

And according to me if there is one thing that is true, it is time. The supreme truth. The sun, moon and the stars may come and go, but time will continue ticking. And time is one thing we cannot object, alter, see it altering, expect its behaviour to change, and stop feeling about!

A snippet from  Time  on wikipedia

There is an appointed time (zman) for everything. And there is a time (’êth) for every event under heaven–
A time (’êth) to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace. – Ecclesiastes 3:1–8

Perhaps one of the things that make one feel successful, I believe, is how happy they have been by their assessment of how they used their time.

tik … tik … tik … tik … Time

“All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about… We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.” Joseph Epstein

Heard this quote for the frst time today, like it quite a bit. Although we all know it, it is interesting that we actually have all been blessed with a body to think and act, and thats all we are … like the thinking man … I think, therefore I am, similarly, I dream, terefore I am.

Dream on!

I was tired, and headed to a coffee day for a cold coffee, on Brigade road, Bangalore.

On the pavement I saw a small child, perhaps aged 1.5-2 wrapped cozily and patted by her mother amidst the very buzy saturday evening crowd on the street. Her mother was looking destitute and I wonder if they both even ate something. It was already 9:15 pm.

As I was sipping my coffee, I saw two families with their children, perhaps aged between 3-6 savouring a paani puri on the same road a 20 ft away. A boy, rougly belonging to the same age group walked up to them, careful to beg the ladies (mothers of the children), while they ignored him totally and continued to eat and feed their children. He tried his luck with the vendor, and decided to move on when none of them sowed any consideration. I wonder if the children eating the paani puri were old enough to understand how that boy in their own age group was facing the world, already!

The question that still haunts me is ‘who is unfortunate’

a) These two poor chidren?

b) The parents of those children?

c) Us (the rest of the society)

d) The time?

that see(s) them through this?

The world seems to be full of pain and all that glitter and jazz, are they just a farce? a hog wash? while the world is truly suffering?

Have heard this term so many times, and decided to know it today I am glad I did, because it is so easy a concept, and according to me sounds very powerful and scholarly (when you mention it)

So when a change in a parameter we measure is from 5% to 6%, it would typically be a 20% increase in the normal sense. But using basis points, all arithmetic can be avoided to conveniently say 100 basis point = 1% percentage point.

1 basis point = (1/100)*(1%).

So 100 basis points = 100*(1/100)*(1%) = 1% percentage point

Neat!!

So if interest rates have been raised by 25 basis points = 0.25% percentage points => if the interest was 2.5%, now it will be 2.75%

Ah, finally I feel enlightened on this term.

Hey! I went to subscribe to The Economist and was excited to see them offer a complimentary copy of ‘The World in 2008′ and then I noticed I need to select the Delivery Country, so I selected India, and guess what! there is no complimentary copy AT ALL!! And I went on to randomly select United Kingdom and see they have a complimentary copy of ‘Pocket World in Figures’. I thought it was unfair subscribing from India gives no complimentary copy! Well, I expected our subscription should work out cheaper, but NO!!! Subscription to delivery country – India – costs Rs 5000 ($127.24) where as subscription to delivery country US with that complimentary copy for 51 editions (six of which are risk-free trial issues) costs just $98! So I just checked the price for delivery country UK and was surprised to know it was £83.00 ($163.82)! So wonder how the price is arrived at?

Further reading leads me to surmise it is probably because 54% of subscription of 1.2 million copies a week (as of summer 2007) is from the North America, 14% from UK, 19% from continental Europe. So just 13% is subscribed by the rest of the world. Maybe it is the volumes dictating the prices.

Let me ponder over this and decide if I, coming from a poorer country, want to pay that kind of money.

To know who is phenomenon, one needs to watch the gearing up by the fans of this star for the upcoming release – Sivaji The phenomenon is Rajni. I have always been amused by his antics on the screen, truly entertaining! Some tidbits from the upcoming movie Sivaji:

1. Director Shankar used 2500 junior artists for the introduction scene of Rajnikant.
2. A huge set of glass house was built to shoot Sahana song.
3. 4K DI (Digital Intermediate) digital camera is used for the first time in India for this film.
4. Helium Balloon light is used to shoot a song. The crew has to use 13 helium cylinders for the lighting.
5. The team of Shankar saw important footages of most of Rajnikant’s films since his debut in 1975. They found that Rajnikant looked best in Padikkadavan (1985) film. Then Shankar summoned the make-up artist to come up with a similar hairdo for Rajnikant 22 years later.
6. Rajnikant donned 15 different hair styles for this film. He also tonsured his head and shaven off his mustache for a get-up in this film. A make-up artist from France is flown in for this purpose.
7. A few songs of this film are shot in the US of A and Sapin.
8. Rajnikant’s daughter supervised the 600 scenes of Computer Graphics work that lasts for 50 minutes in this film. It took over an year to do this CG work.

I would any day be entertained watching a movie starring this 57 year old actor!

I thought it worthwhile to pay and see his show from the third row on 27th Feb, and it was fun! I particularly liked the imaginative Terminator 8 bit the American guy enacted before Russell took the stage. He was funny too!

I must admit however that the edited videos were funnier, but I guess this is how live stand-up comedies are!

I did notice some of the elder folks were quite uncomfortable when Russell Peters started talking explicit stuff! Surely the youngsters who brought them must have quite regretted it.

With slight apprehension if I was doing the right thing giving up the only day I had free last week, I decided to attend the First South India conference of the Toastmasters International – (District 82P Division B).

After a slightly boring cliche’ inaugural, it was time to hear Mr. Srinivasan (who assumed office as the DG and IG of Karnataka police). His speech was simple for a non-flambouyant person to understand, sometimes colloquial, but so full of humour while being sincere. I have never before admired the captive power of a pause in a speech.

The educational sessions revealed an interesting aspect of public speaking: You may be confident, immaculately dressed, your speech extensively researched and your English impeccable; but if you don’t connect to the audience, or listen (to the active feedback your audience gives) with your eyes, you can be sure you lost it. Like Ken Blanchard says – ‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions’, it is important for a champion speaker to absorb feedback!

The sumptuous lunch was followed by a competition, and some speeches were simply cool. The undisputed winner had me wipe my tears atleast 6 times; I could not control them as I laughed my heart out! It got me more tears than speeches that tried to apppeal to my empathetic self. Well, it was not just me, the whole hall was in splits on the harmless subject of a Home maker!

At the end of the day, I believe it was a Sunday well spent.

But it set me thinking, where the heck did I put in those Aaah’s and Ummm’s in my talk? Too much exposure to amatuer reporters on news channnels? Well, I have turned to reading news!

I have never experienced a silent morning in Bangalore where you hear nothing but just the birds chirp … no automobiles, no noises of domestic help at work, no honks, no hawkers … It was bliss. It was as if I was in my village. But the Bandh came at a cost!

A city with 8 million population comes to a halt
Incurs atleast 610 crores loss
Some losses can be made up by compesating to work on a subsequent weekend.

All this in addition to having recd. a share of Cauvery water considered lesser than acceptable after the cauvery tribunal passed the verdict after 16 years!

So what have we done? We have bled ourselves today for having known what is to come couple of months from now. Makes me wonder if Bandhs are suicidal!

Now there is a 3 month window for all stakeholders (including Karnataka govt) to file a petition. What happens after 3 months?

We need to fight our problems and strongly so, with facts and figures but no emotions in place. While all other stakeholder states have not lost their productivity and revenues for 12 hours, how can we do so for our state?!