Almost all the belief systems having their source in the Indian sub Continent, whether acknowledging the supremacy of the Vedic tradition or not, contain statements that are Literal, Symbolic or Poetic.
It is an essentially human tendency to take symbolic statements literally and to defend to death the factual support or ostensible “proof” of such statements. It would be much more beneficial, on the other hand, to go beyond the statements themselves to the truly meaningful symbols they represent. The marvelous fact is that most practitioners of a belief system are well aware of the symbolism. Yet, they treat these statements as absolute truth and indulge in such atrocities as go against the very grain of the principles that these statements seek to uphold.
It is high time that the average Hindu breaks out of his shell of dogma. All of us should take a fresh look at the symbolism behind most of our practices; to go behind the icon to the symbol it represents. Beyond the idol to the ideal it illustrates.
The word tolerance has many meanings. It means “freedom from bigotry or from racial or religious prejudice”. It also means “the act of enduring or the capacity for endurance”. Tolerance is a technical term which indicates the measure of a substance to withstand fractionally higher weight, dimensions than the standard. The tolerance of steel, for example, is the measure of its capacity to bear greater weights than the design. In this sense, tolerance is actually a measure of strength and not merely a measure of flexibility. A tolerant person is a strong person in the same way that steel with higher degrees of tolerance can withstand greater weight and pressures than those for which it was originally designed.
Applying this principle to our belief systems, we should understand that tolerance in religion is a measure of strength and a willingness to permit other belief systems to co-exist with our own. Every religiously tolerant person is like a strong bar of steel uniting with other equally strong bars to form a mesh or matte which is the strong foundation of our large country and its long term prosperity.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Trip to Acan Kovil
Achan Kovil (22-12-2007)Visited Achan Kovil with my family on 22nd. The temple is in Kerala but very near the border of Tamilnadu. The nearest railhead is Thenkasi in Thirunelveli district. We reached Thenkasi early in the morning and motored to Achan Kovil.
The route is scenic as it winds through the ghat section. The lush green valleys and mountain are treat for tired eyes
.Enroute is Mekkarai dam and the small hamlet of Mekkarai. My good friend and the person who organised this visit, Mr. Ramachandran is doing a lot of CSR work in Mekkarai for the villagers who are quite far away from development and creature comforts as we know them. He has set up a Village Learning Centre with Computers and other equipment.
Nestled on a slope overlooking the green valley is a small shrine at Kottai Vasal dedicated to Karuppannasamy. This deity known as Valia Kadutha Samy in Keral is the guardian of every temple of Ayyappan or Saastha. The place marks the point where Ayyappan met Karuppan on his legendary journey to the Sabhari Hills. Ayyappan completes the purpose of his incarnation and later bids Valia Kadutha Samy to guard his shrine in Sabhari Malai. We can s
till see him there as we approach the Eighteen Sacred Steps, his sharp sickle raised, his huge eyes rolling in the eyeballs and his top knotch falling forward on to his forehead in his fervour. He is here with his consort Karuppayi.OM VALIYA KADUTHA SWAMIYE SARANAM AYYAPPA
As we climbed higher, we entered Kerala and the Rubber plantations area. Achan Kovil is in the midst of the rubber plantations.
Achan Kovil--A Background
Arguably more inaccesible than even Sabhari Malai, Achan Kovil is a unique Kshetram (Sacred Place). Parashurama, the Immortal created various temples for Gods like Shiva, Narayanan, Bhagavthi and Ayyappan. The most famous of these of course is Sabhari Malai. The other temples are at Ariyankavu, where Saastha is a venerable old man; Kulathu Puzha where he is a young boy; Sabhari Sannidhanam, where he is a Yogi; Erumeli, where he is Dharma Saastha, the Protector of the righteous.
At Achan Kovil, he is a householder and King. He is called Achan Kovil Arasan or The KIng of Achan Kovil. He is here amidst his two consorts Poorna and Pushkala. There is an explanation by learned men, that these consorts are not real women but rather symbols. Poorna indicates completeness. Swami is Complete in himself and he needs nothing. Completeness is internal and within Him.
Pushkala is the symbol of the external effulgence of his Aishwarya. He is complete and he has everything! That is why he is Arasan or King!
In fact, Krishnan Swami of Thuthukudi, remarked that it is here that we should place our prayers for worldly wealth as Swami has the capacity to grant any wish here and being a King is bound to accede to the wishes of his loyal subjects!
The Yogi on Sabhari has no worldly possesions to give. But he can give us the true knowledge that will make all worldly possesions meaningless and frivolous!
We spent the day at Achan Kovil, serving food to the people as part of the ten day long Ann
a Dhanam conducted every year at Acahan Kovil by ny Uncle Balu Swami, a senior Ayyappa
a Dhanam conducted every year at Acahan Kovil by ny Uncle Balu Swami, a senior Ayyappa Upasakar, Ramachandran Swami and Krishnan Swami.
Finally after an invigorating bath at Kuthalam Five Falls, we returned to Chennai.
OM SWAMIYE SARANAM AYYAPA!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Winning with Jack Welch
I am now in the process of reading two excellent books authored by Jack Welch, Ex-CEO of GE and his wife Suzy Welch. The first book is called "Winning". It documents Jack WElch's enormous experiential knowledge and wisdom. It is a treasure trove of practical and extraordinarily simple solutions for day to day managerial issues. Jack propounds a methodology that is hard to implement but a sure route to organizational growth.
The two basic threads that I found intertwined in Welch's book were "Differentiation" and "Candour".
Differentiation advocates treating employees differently. This means we reward and appreciate overachievers while we give clearly lower rewards to underperformers. This sounds cruel at worst and biased at the very best. Not really. The under achievers are usually those who do not like their job. They are better off sent out as they may discover their true avocation only then.
Welch says its better to send them out in a boom rather than during a depression when cost cutting would throw out exactly these people, but at a time when job's are scarce.
Sending them out earlier on with good severance benefits would be a WIN/WIN for both the firm as well as the underperformer. These people are usually 10% of the total. But they spoil the rest.
The great performers would be about 20%. The rest are above average. This 70% needs to be watched, trained and motivated. They form the backbone of the company and are the leadership pool for succesion planning.
Candour is simply the good old habit of calling a spade a spade. Candour should be encouraged and practiced across the board so that problems get identified and escalated faster.
The other book is Winning: The Answers. This book contains answers to various questions that
Jack and Suzy had to answer during their speaking tours all over the world. It builds on the Wisdom of "Winning" and takes it forward.
There is a lot of the Seven Habits methodology in Jack Welch's approach.
The two basic threads that I found intertwined in Welch's book were "Differentiation" and "Candour".
Differentiation advocates treating employees differently. This means we reward and appreciate overachievers while we give clearly lower rewards to underperformers. This sounds cruel at worst and biased at the very best. Not really. The under achievers are usually those who do not like their job. They are better off sent out as they may discover their true avocation only then.
Welch says its better to send them out in a boom rather than during a depression when cost cutting would throw out exactly these people, but at a time when job's are scarce.
Sending them out earlier on with good severance benefits would be a WIN/WIN for both the firm as well as the underperformer. These people are usually 10% of the total. But they spoil the rest.
The great performers would be about 20%. The rest are above average. This 70% needs to be watched, trained and motivated. They form the backbone of the company and are the leadership pool for succesion planning.
Candour is simply the good old habit of calling a spade a spade. Candour should be encouraged and practiced across the board so that problems get identified and escalated faster.
The other book is Winning: The Answers. This book contains answers to various questions that
Jack and Suzy had to answer during their speaking tours all over the world. It builds on the Wisdom of "Winning" and takes it forward.There is a lot of the Seven Habits methodology in Jack Welch's approach.
A Freemason Answers
08.09.2007
The world was engulfed in darkness.
People were very angry.
They began to curse the darkness.
Then, a man lit a candle.
He was a Freemason.
When we see all the sorrow in this world, we can only weep and ask, “What can we do?”
The Freemason answers, boldly, “Let’s make a difference.”
That’s all we can ever do.
That’s all we ever need to do.
The world was engulfed in darkness.
People were very angry.
They began to curse the darkness.
Then, a man lit a candle.
He was a Freemason.
When we see all the sorrow in this world, we can only weep and ask, “What can we do?”
The Freemason answers, boldly, “Let’s make a difference.”
That’s all we can ever do.
That’s all we ever need to do.
Verbal Diarrhea
This is not a record of my life. It is, merely, the outpouring of my tortured mind that craves release. Verbal diarrhea? So be it!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
(Ashok Leyland Programme - Group Photo)22.08.2007
Yesterday (Tuesday 21 August, 2007) and today (Wednesday 22, August 2007) were spent conducting a programme for the executives of Ashok Leyland Limited on “Financial Techniques for Managerial Decisions” We had a general discussion on various aspects of finance and costing and Management Accounting. There were lengthy deliberations on Economic Value Added and how it can be attained. I took them through the Balance sheets of TATA Motors and their own company and we compared the ratios and attempted to make meaning out of them.
(Ashok Leyland Programme Participants - Group Photo)Yesterday evening was spent at my Masonic Lodge. My Lodge, Lodge Asoka No 93 has taken up a project on supporting children suffering from a gruesome affliction called Muscular Dystopia. These children have a genetic disorder that results in a total paralysis of all their muscles by the time they are twenty five. The parents have formed a mutual support group. We are providing wheel chairs, hauls and orthopedic supports for these children through our lodge and the charity of our members.
(Father of boy from Kallakurichi receiving wheelchair)W. Bro. Capt. Seshadri, one of our senior members has recently published a book about Sunita Williams, which has hit the national best sellers list. Sunita Williams, on hearing about our project on Muscular Dystopia has contributed towards it! The wheelchair donated by her was given to the father of the boy from Kallakurichi who was to use it. In the evening Capt. Sesh, made a commitment to contribute more towards the project out of the sale proceeds of the book! A generous gesture indeed! He also auctioned a copy of the book after the formal toast was over and the amount realized was also contributed to the Lodge!
Today I spent the afternoon with Audit Trainees at the Prime Academy Smart Trainee program. We explored various aspects of Communication and other lifetime skills. There was active participation and involvement.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Modearation in Everything
On Friday, 17 August 2007, I was at Bangalore conducting a Finance for Non-finance programme for Management Study Centre. During the course of the programme there was a question about levels of debt. One of the participants felt that a company should not take debt at all. I explained how gearing can improve Profit After Tax (PAT) and consequently Earnings Per Share (EPS). I had to immediately shift gear and warn them about excessive debt and consequent solvency issues! In the resulting discussion and debate a lot was said about balancing debt and equity. I tried to end the discussion on the note that in everything there is a middle path that does not veer towards the extremes. To drive home my point, I mentioned that the Bhagwan in Chapter VI of the Gita speaks about moderation (I used the word mitham) in everything, including debt and diet! One of the participants Mr. Raghavendra Rao quoted the first words of the appropriate slokha:
“Yukthaahara Vihaarasya Yukthacheshtasya karmasu
Yukathaswapnaavabhodhasya yogo bhavathi dukhaha.”
(Yoga killeth out the pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.)
The translation is from “The Bhagavad Gita, The Lord’s Song, a translation of the verses of the Gita by Madame Annie Beasant and published by the Theosophical Publishing House in 1961.
In the evening as I sat down to eat a sumptuous dinner, I couldn’t help thinking that in eating at least I am not following this dictum. What do you think? Here’s what I had ordered for dinner!
“Yukthaahara Vihaarasya Yukthacheshtasya karmasu
Yukathaswapnaavabhodhasya yogo bhavathi dukhaha.”
(Yoga killeth out the pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.)
The translation is from “The Bhagavad Gita, The Lord’s Song, a translation of the verses of the Gita by Madame Annie Beasant and published by the Theosophical Publishing House in 1961.
In the evening as I sat down to eat a sumptuous dinner, I couldn’t help thinking that in eating at least I am not following this dictum. What do you think? Here’s what I had ordered for dinner!
Applied Transactional Analysis
Today (Sunday 19, August 2007) morning over brunch my wife reminded me about an incident that happened in 1995 when we were still newly married. She had learned how to drive and had taken the Maruti 800 that we owned at that time out for a practice drive. She had had a minor accident when she collided with one of the motorized three wheelers that were ubiquitous then. There was extensive damage to the bonnet and sides and I had lost my temper. I made her go with our driver and register the complaint with the police so that the insurance claim could be made. Apparently, this incident had traumatized her and she never picked up courage to drive again. But recently she wanted to do it. The post 1997 new improved version of me (shaped by the constant practice of the seven habits) is more tolerant and friendly and I’ve been telling her to start from where she left off by getting herself a Wagon R or an Alto. But she doesn’t want to do it. And she felt that if it weren’t for me she would be driving well by now.
I recognized this as one of the classic Games of Transactional Analysis. It is actually called If It Weren’t for You (IWFY)! Eric Berne, the founder of the Theory of Transactional Analysis describes this game in his book Games People Play as follows:
“Briefly, a woman marries a domineering man so that he will restrict her activities and thus keep her from getting into situations which frighten her…She takes advantage of the situation to complain about the restrictions, which makes her spouse feel uneasy and gives her all sorts of advantages. “
Once I read this out to my wife from the book, we both realized the futility of the game we were playing and decided not to look backwards. Acts done in the past, right or wrong, cannot be reversed. Nor should they be repeated. The best thing is to talk about the future without any coloring from the past.
In fact a corollary of IWFY is “If Only You Had” (IOYOH). IOYOH needs two players, say A and B who need not necessarily be a married couple. Both must share a series of incidents in the past when there have been “wrongs” committed by A against B as well as by B against A. Thus, every new issue or proposal for common action is looked at or takes color from the past “injuries” of the other. They argue circularly that the other “could have” done something or the other to prevent the current problem or situation. This game is endless and is the stuff out of which family, clan, religious and caste battles are regularly built.
The only solution is to accept that this game is being played, make a clean break from the past and decide to look at unconditional cooperation in future on a clear understanding of a common and mutually beneficial agenda.
The solution I have described is contained in Stephen Covey’s Habit 4 i.e. Think Win/Win! When we bring a high degree of consideration as well as courage to the table, we move towards WIN/WIN. The third alternative which is neither your way nor my way but a better way emerges out of a supportive dialogue and finally we reach the position that the Sixth Habit suggests, we synergize!
I recognized this as one of the classic Games of Transactional Analysis. It is actually called If It Weren’t for You (IWFY)! Eric Berne, the founder of the Theory of Transactional Analysis describes this game in his book Games People Play as follows:
“Briefly, a woman marries a domineering man so that he will restrict her activities and thus keep her from getting into situations which frighten her…She takes advantage of the situation to complain about the restrictions, which makes her spouse feel uneasy and gives her all sorts of advantages. “
Once I read this out to my wife from the book, we both realized the futility of the game we were playing and decided not to look backwards. Acts done in the past, right or wrong, cannot be reversed. Nor should they be repeated. The best thing is to talk about the future without any coloring from the past.
In fact a corollary of IWFY is “If Only You Had” (IOYOH). IOYOH needs two players, say A and B who need not necessarily be a married couple. Both must share a series of incidents in the past when there have been “wrongs” committed by A against B as well as by B against A. Thus, every new issue or proposal for common action is looked at or takes color from the past “injuries” of the other. They argue circularly that the other “could have” done something or the other to prevent the current problem or situation. This game is endless and is the stuff out of which family, clan, religious and caste battles are regularly built.
The only solution is to accept that this game is being played, make a clean break from the past and decide to look at unconditional cooperation in future on a clear understanding of a common and mutually beneficial agenda.
The solution I have described is contained in Stephen Covey’s Habit 4 i.e. Think Win/Win! When we bring a high degree of consideration as well as courage to the table, we move towards WIN/WIN. The third alternative which is neither your way nor my way but a better way emerges out of a supportive dialogue and finally we reach the position that the Sixth Habit suggests, we synergize!
Taboo Topics!
19.08.2007
To day is World Photography Day because the first announcement of a photograph was made on 19, August 1839, in France at a scientific demonstration. I celebrated World Photography day by selecting some of the best shots taken by me.
Presided over the meeting of the Chennai Toastmasters Club. The meeting was moderately well attended, with a few enthusiastic guests. As the meeting drew to a conclusion with nearly fifteen minutes to spare, I decided to exercise my prerogative as presiding officer and take up an issue for constructive discussion. Three topics viz. Sex, Religion and Politics are known as taboo topics and are to be avoided by all speakers at Toastmaster meetings. I raised the issue as to what was it that was to be avoided. For example, TM H L Ratan in his speech today about the pain of parking in Chennai, mentioned the names of two well known politicians and commented on how they had misused the “perquisites” (His word not mine!) to use traffic rules for their benefit. The question is whether this amounts to speaking about politics. Similarly, TM Aditya had earlier delivered an awesome speech on the essential unity of the male and female by giving examples from Hinduism (Ardhanareeshwar), Christianity (The Blade and the Chalice) and Chinese Buddhism (Yin and Yang). Is this Religion? I also gave the example of Guruvayoor temple where in the lower tiers of the pagoda in the sanctum sanctorum, various human figures engaged in the sexual act are depicted. Is this sex or sexuality. (By mentioning this I suppose I broke two rules, mentioning sex and religion!)
But that was what I wanted the members to explore. We had comments from TM Abraham Zacharia CC, TM Pattabhiraman CC, TM Aditya Maheswaran, TM H L Ratan, TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC and finally TM Akhil Lila a visitor. The sum and substance of their collective view was:
You can use quotations from religious texts and stories etc. but should judiciously avoid making fun of another religion or putting another religion down.
Talking in general about sexuality is OK so long as this is not misused to deliver jokes and innuendos that are in bad taste or extremely gender biased or chauvinistic.
(While on that, there are a certain variety of marital jokes that have no sexual innuendo but are extremely gender biased in as much as they paint married women (that’s wives!) as being always suspicious, nagging, overbearing or spendthrifts. TM Nina John ACB CL always reacts to these types of jokes and TM Abraham and I are always in her line of fire as we constantly indulge in such jokes at the expense of our respective wives. In fact TM Nina once remarked very perceptively that people like TM Abraham and I, who crack these misogynistic jokes have two wives, the imaginary woman that we describe in our speeches who nags and argues and commands us and our real wife, the poor innocent lady who takes care of us and our children at home! I think she is right. But, these jokes come out well in speeches and have almost become an idiom of life if not a cliché.)
Politics is best avoided as it will definitely lead to controversy.
The reasoning behind the taboo was clearly brought out by TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC, when he mentioned that these three topics are also banned at the officers’ mess in the Defense Services for exactly the same reason viz. they lead to avoidable controversy and ill feeling.
To day is World Photography Day because the first announcement of a photograph was made on 19, August 1839, in France at a scientific demonstration. I celebrated World Photography day by selecting some of the best shots taken by me.
Presided over the meeting of the Chennai Toastmasters Club. The meeting was moderately well attended, with a few enthusiastic guests. As the meeting drew to a conclusion with nearly fifteen minutes to spare, I decided to exercise my prerogative as presiding officer and take up an issue for constructive discussion. Three topics viz. Sex, Religion and Politics are known as taboo topics and are to be avoided by all speakers at Toastmaster meetings. I raised the issue as to what was it that was to be avoided. For example, TM H L Ratan in his speech today about the pain of parking in Chennai, mentioned the names of two well known politicians and commented on how they had misused the “perquisites” (His word not mine!) to use traffic rules for their benefit. The question is whether this amounts to speaking about politics. Similarly, TM Aditya had earlier delivered an awesome speech on the essential unity of the male and female by giving examples from Hinduism (Ardhanareeshwar), Christianity (The Blade and the Chalice) and Chinese Buddhism (Yin and Yang). Is this Religion? I also gave the example of Guruvayoor temple where in the lower tiers of the pagoda in the sanctum sanctorum, various human figures engaged in the sexual act are depicted. Is this sex or sexuality. (By mentioning this I suppose I broke two rules, mentioning sex and religion!)
But that was what I wanted the members to explore. We had comments from TM Abraham Zacharia CC, TM Pattabhiraman CC, TM Aditya Maheswaran, TM H L Ratan, TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC and finally TM Akhil Lila a visitor. The sum and substance of their collective view was:
You can use quotations from religious texts and stories etc. but should judiciously avoid making fun of another religion or putting another religion down.
Talking in general about sexuality is OK so long as this is not misused to deliver jokes and innuendos that are in bad taste or extremely gender biased or chauvinistic.
(While on that, there are a certain variety of marital jokes that have no sexual innuendo but are extremely gender biased in as much as they paint married women (that’s wives!) as being always suspicious, nagging, overbearing or spendthrifts. TM Nina John ACB CL always reacts to these types of jokes and TM Abraham and I are always in her line of fire as we constantly indulge in such jokes at the expense of our respective wives. In fact TM Nina once remarked very perceptively that people like TM Abraham and I, who crack these misogynistic jokes have two wives, the imaginary woman that we describe in our speeches who nags and argues and commands us and our real wife, the poor innocent lady who takes care of us and our children at home! I think she is right. But, these jokes come out well in speeches and have almost become an idiom of life if not a cliché.)
Politics is best avoided as it will definitely lead to controversy.
The reasoning behind the taboo was clearly brought out by TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC, when he mentioned that these three topics are also banned at the officers’ mess in the Defense Services for exactly the same reason viz. they lead to avoidable controversy and ill feeling.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Language of the Heart
Language
When Nature’s language we can discern,
The tongues of men are of no concern.
When heart to heart speaks swift and straight
Need we speak to communicate?
Transliterated from the lyric in the movie Mozhi (Language)
When Nature’s language we can discern,
The tongues of men are of no concern.
When heart to heart speaks swift and straight
Need we speak to communicate?
Transliterated from the lyric in the movie Mozhi (Language)
Be Religious not Religioncentric
A place of worship in order to serve its purpose should enable us to shed our arrogance born of a false sense of identification with the sense objects; to overcome our selfishness and extreme concerns about material objects; and lastly our hatred born out of ignorance.
Arrogance when gone leaves a vacuum which is filled with humility. Only the contemplation of the enormity of the Godhead and its omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence can lead us to true humility. This is attained through Bakthi Yoga. Selfishness is replaced by feelings of goodwill and charity towards all creatures irrespective of species, religion, Creed and nationality. This is attained through Karma Yoga. The source of all hatred is fear; the root of all fears is in ignorance; and the only cure for ignorance is in knowledge. This is attained through Jnana Yoga. A place of worship be it Mosque, Temple or Church or other abode of the supreme should provide opportunities for practicing all the three.
When you kneel and pray in church and sing the praises of the Lord, let humility fill your heart and let us be lightened and enlightened by the knowledge that He is the source of all wealth and power, we are but his instruments. When you feed the poor or educate the deserving, let Charity adorn your hand and help you to realize that giving is the true secret of becoming prosperous. When we listen to the sermon and realize the transient nature of the human condition let us truly appreciate the futility of hatred and the need to understand the other person and build bridges of friendship and love.
Arrogance when gone leaves a vacuum which is filled with humility. Only the contemplation of the enormity of the Godhead and its omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence can lead us to true humility. This is attained through Bakthi Yoga. Selfishness is replaced by feelings of goodwill and charity towards all creatures irrespective of species, religion, Creed and nationality. This is attained through Karma Yoga. The source of all hatred is fear; the root of all fears is in ignorance; and the only cure for ignorance is in knowledge. This is attained through Jnana Yoga. A place of worship be it Mosque, Temple or Church or other abode of the supreme should provide opportunities for practicing all the three.
When you kneel and pray in church and sing the praises of the Lord, let humility fill your heart and let us be lightened and enlightened by the knowledge that He is the source of all wealth and power, we are but his instruments. When you feed the poor or educate the deserving, let Charity adorn your hand and help you to realize that giving is the true secret of becoming prosperous. When we listen to the sermon and realize the transient nature of the human condition let us truly appreciate the futility of hatred and the need to understand the other person and build bridges of friendship and love.
Let us be Religious but not Religioncentric.
A Hectic Week
Sunset at Mettur Dam
Today we were shifting our office from T Nagar to Mahalingapuram. The entire activity is being planned and executed by the team. Empowerment at work!
Today (Saturday August 18, 2007) was spent monitoring the movement and also in addressing budding CAs who are doing articleship training. One of the participants was a vivacious young girl who is a fan of director Shankar. She did not agree with ny comments about Sivaji! Told her to read my Blog on this and react. Let us continue the debate on the Blog!
The afternoon was spent delivering a seminar on Information Systems Security for Management Study Centre to a mixed group of corporate executives. Had a nostalgic conversation with Ms. Sumathi from Turbo Energy about our experiences as Audit Managers with Price Waterhouse. (when it had no Coopers tagged on to it!)
The week was hectic. After a relaxing Sunday ( August 12, 2007) with my wife Kala and my children, I left for Mettur to conduct a programme on Personality Development through Transaction Analysis for the Madras Aluminium Company (MALCO) belonging to the Vedanta group.
I reached Mettur at 6:30 AM and after freshening up at a comfortable room in guestho
use no. 5, went to the training hall.There were about 25 participants. As MALCO was acquired by the Vedanta group, the employee demography has a wide range from people who have bee with company from the age of sixteen, to freshers who have just joined.
The participants were quite interactive and we discovereed different approaches to work related issues using the Transactional Analysis Paradigm.
In the evening I accompanied Mr. R
Kandasamy AGM (HR) of MALCO to the Mettur dam which was nearby. The Kaveri was in full flow and the water poured out in mad torrential rush from the dam.Mettur town could be seen in the distance. Westward, behind the dam, the setting sun made a glorious sight as it sank down behind the mountains.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
People and Systems
Conducted the programme on Managerial effectiveness for the executives of Aban Constructions. There were 29 participants including about eight Graduate Engineer Trainees. It was quite a challenge to pitch the programme as I was essentially addressing two groups. The senior engineers who had knowledge and experience and the GETs who thought they had the first and knew thay lacked the second!
A view of the participants at the one-day programme on Managerial Effectiveness for Aban ConstructionsI always look forward to the keynote address delivered by the President of the company Mr. S M Roy. He is a powerful yet subdued speaker who makes his point quite forcibly without going into theatricals! He speaks direct from the heart and his talks reflect the ocean of experience from which he draws his ideas and views.
Here are a couple of interesting things I've heard and enjoyed from his speeches to the participants of the two programmes I've done with Aban:
This is excerpted from a conversation between two senior level executives of the TATA group overheard by the speaker. The executives were K C Mahra and Ramesh Bahsin, both JMDs and aluminus of the prestigious TATA Administrative services training programme.
They were saying, there are two important things that make companies great: Good people and Good systems (i.e. processes). But, if the people are good and the systems are bad, the company cannot succeed. Conversely well designed systems will have no impact on performance if the people are not enthusiastic about them!
Mr. Roy takes this concept to its logical conclusion and suggests that good systems, to be effective should be people friendly while good people should be systems friendly! This would produce a great combination, which is the sure recipe for corporate success and growth.
(Standing)Mr. S M Roy, President Aban , Srikanth, Mr. Ajith Pannikkar, GM HR, AbanMr. Roy gave a brilliant and thought provoking explaination of the significance of the Buddhist prayer "Sangam Saranam Gachami, Dhammam Saranam Gachami, Buddham Saranam Gachami" to corporate management.
Sangam means commununty or people or team! The Team should have right thinking people with the correct attitude and aspirations. This makes a great team. We should be part of that team!
Dhammam means god practices or processes that have to be adopted consistently and with conviction.
Bhuddham (this is mind blowing!) refers to Buddha or the GOAL! We should be Goal focused. Our goals, as well as our organisational goals should be alligned thus leading to better performance.
Another great thing I liked about Aban was that they had had a detailed review session facilitated by Mr. Roy himself where the participants of my earlier programme have contemplated on the key learnings from it. They have identified nineteen related clusters. Out of this they have selected for implementation the following: Be Proactive, Time Management and Team Work. These are respectively the First, Third and Sixth habits from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. In fact, Mr. Ajith Pannikkar did inform me that many participants have bought the book after attending the programme!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
June Diary
07.06.2007Programme on Managerial Effectiveness for the executives of Aban Constructions Limited.
Inspired by Mr. Ajith Pannikkar the GM - HR of the company I created a small wallet sized cards containg the Old Lady/Young Lady Optical illustration on the one side and a set of one liners summarising the day's learning on the other.
08.06.2007
Programme on Executive Time Management for the executives of Gabriel India Limited, Hosur.
The Hosur plant is part of the Rs. 600 crore Gabriel India Ltd, which is itself a part of the Anand Group. This unit manufactures shock absorbers. Their major customers are TVS, Honda and Yamaha.
The plant is situated on seven and a half acres of land. The spic and span production unit is surrounded by a lush green landscaped lawn with a lot of tree cover. In fact the group policy is to create "sixty percent tree cover and forty percent production facility"!
Programme on Executive Time Management for the executives of Gabriel India Limited, Hosur.
The Hosur plant is part of the Rs. 600 crore Gabriel India Ltd, which is itself a part of the Anand Group. This unit manufactures shock absorbers. Their major customers are TVS, Honda and Yamaha.
The plant is situated on seven and a half acres of land. The spic and span production unit is surrounded by a lush green landscaped lawn with a lot of tree cover. In fact the group policy is to create "sixty percent tree cover and forty percent production facility"!
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There is a small shady bamboo thicket on the facility with seats in the middle. Executives retire here for "filter coffee" with the GM. The activity is a freewheeling brainstorming exercise where the GM documents suggestions for improvement made by employees. On the whole an enriching experience, hopefully mutual!
12.06.2007 and 13.06.2007
Programme on Budgeting, Costing and ERP Skills for the executives of the Vikrma Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Trivandrum. The two day long programme was quite interactive with participants raising various issues. But there was an alarming drop in attendance during the post-lunch session on the secong day. As I evaluate myself on this, I have to concede that my own rating of myself on a scale of 10 would be 5 for this programme.
This could possibly have been due to my being unable to relate commercial costing concepts to the "spend what you want so long as you've budgeted for it" approach prevalent in most government run institutions like VSSC. Many participants expressed the need for a VSSC based case study, especially on Activity Based Costing.
As VSSC is competing with China and US for international (Satelite Launch Vehicles) SLV contracts, costing becomes relevant. The basic cost unit for an SLV is the cost per kilogramme of the payload (i'e. the satelite).
On both the days I was received and escorted by Mr. Gopakumar of VSSC. He is a fund of knowledge on philosophy and life style related issues. Being a strng advocate of the back-to-basics culture he was very critical of the Pizza and mall culture slowly taking over the entire country and thus destroying the traditional and time tested life style which was conducive to the holistic development of the body, mind and soul.
Every time I visit VSSC, I feel proud that I am handling sessions at the institution where our President the great A P J Abdul Kalaam worked!
Coordinated the Management Study Centre programme on Arbitration on Contractual Disputes. The programme was facilitated by the Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre, Chennai. The speakers were four distiguished advocates, viz., Arvind P Datar, N L Rajah, V S Jayakumar and M S Krishnan. There 
were twenty two participants.
were twenty two participants.The programme was well received.
24.06.2007
Conducted the Management Study Centre programme on Managerial Effectiveness. I truly apprciated the enthisiastic and energetic participation of Mr. Hosmani from Bangalore. He has already attended my Team building workshop and is very much interested in personality development and the Seven Habits.
28.06.2007
Conducted the sesion on "People Skills" at the Two Day "Wealth Management" programme for the senior executives of State Bank of India.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Flame of the Forest
29.06.2007
Went to "Flame of the Forest" a play inspired by Kalki R Krishnamurthi's epic novel Sivakamiyin Sapatham. Took my children Srija(13) and Srivatsan(8) with me, as I thought they would benefit from the exposure to Kalki's works. As it turned out Srivatsan became ravenously hungry towards the end of the play and started whimpering and groaning!Srija sort of went to sleep around that time! I am sure they imbibed Kalki's great words at a subconscious level!
My first acquaintance with Kalki's works was when I was seven; Sivakamiyin Sapatham was serialzed in Kalki. My Tamil wasn't that good then and my mother used to read the words aloud to my sister Sreekala and me. This was a weekly ritual as we followed the adventures of the young Paranjyothi (Truly the D'artagnan of Tamil Novel genre!) and his mentor Mahendra Pallavar. We recoiled at the evil machinations of the bikshu Naganandhi;We laughed and cried with Sivakami; we were suitably amazedat the elephant bridge used to ford a river; we rejoiced when Mamalla and Paranjyothi finally conquered Vathapi; and finally as Sivakami sublimates here unfulfilled love for Mamalla in the effulgence of Lord Shiva as Nataraja we wept and smiled at the same time. What a story!
Ponniyin Selvan, is definitely more intricate. But Sapatham has stark character portrayals that are indelibly etched in our memory.
That was why I was eager to witness the play which would hopefully bring alive these unforgettable characters. This it did. The playwright cum director Gowri Ramnarayan appears to be clearly aware of the impossibility of telling the entire tale in one hour forty five minutes. So she has deliberately chosen to highlight certain characters and events. I think she has done this correctly. Mahendra Pallavar(Deesh Mariwala) walks tall and majestic. Paranjyothi (V Balakrishnan) is an exact portrayal of the brash young hero who becomes the mature Nayanmar Siruthondar later on. The two Sivakamis junior and senior are exquisite and bring out the pathos and determination of the eponymous heroine. The scenes where both are portrayed together are truly artistic. The young girl giving perfect and faster hand movements while the older woman goes through the motions gracefully yet slowly.
We can say a lot about what was not covered! But what was portrayed was true to the original and representative of the master's work. The divine songs of Appar and Kalki were the true bonus for the evening. Especially Appar's Namarkum Kudiyallom and Kalki's Maraven, maraven.
Including Bharavi's slokha extolling Kanchi as Nagareshu Kanchi is a device that added variety as well as humour to an otherwise serious play.
The grand finale where Sivakami surrender's to her Lord was exquisite. The words Thalai Pattal Nangai Thalaivan Thale! would ring in the ears of true Kalki fans for a long time.
I wish they had had a small interval. There was more narration than acting. This meant that the audience sometimes felt slightly bored listening to a long dialogue narrating important events which could have bben better portrayed on scene. The cast could have been slightly larger instead. While V Balakrishnan is to be congratulated on his thespian skills of combining Paranjyothi and Pulikeshi, this could have been avoided. Poor Mammalla gets a walk in part towards the end! It was Just Them and nobody else!
The language preferred was English. This is indicates an enormous social phenomenon. The generation which read Kalki in the 60s, 70s and 80s was typically upper middle class! This generation is now us! We are either abroad or totally convinced that Hindi is the route to success. So our children are growing up without becoming experts in literary Tamil. For example my I trained my daughter Srija on tamil myself. She can read the Daily Thanthi! She knows a few select Kurals. But can she read Sivakamiyin Sapatham in Tamil? I doubt it. Those of us who are abroad asre struggling to keep our Tamilian roots alive.While our children are experts in Carnatic Music and Bharatha Natyam, they cannot read Tamil fluently! English is the only vehicle for carryng the works of masters like Kalki to the next generation. So English it is friends! Yet hearing Kalki's immortal words in English gives the whole show a School Annual Day English Play feeling.
But let's congratulate the excellent attempt to bring Kalki's wonderful and lovable characters alive.
Went to "Flame of the Forest" a play inspired by Kalki R Krishnamurthi's epic novel Sivakamiyin Sapatham. Took my children Srija(13) and Srivatsan(8) with me, as I thought they would benefit from the exposure to Kalki's works. As it turned out Srivatsan became ravenously hungry towards the end of the play and started whimpering and groaning!Srija sort of went to sleep around that time! I am sure they imbibed Kalki's great words at a subconscious level!
My first acquaintance with Kalki's works was when I was seven; Sivakamiyin Sapatham was serialzed in Kalki. My Tamil wasn't that good then and my mother used to read the words aloud to my sister Sreekala and me. This was a weekly ritual as we followed the adventures of the young Paranjyothi (Truly the D'artagnan of Tamil Novel genre!) and his mentor Mahendra Pallavar. We recoiled at the evil machinations of the bikshu Naganandhi;We laughed and cried with Sivakami; we were suitably amazedat the elephant bridge used to ford a river; we rejoiced when Mamalla and Paranjyothi finally conquered Vathapi; and finally as Sivakami sublimates here unfulfilled love for Mamalla in the effulgence of Lord Shiva as Nataraja we wept and smiled at the same time. What a story!
Ponniyin Selvan, is definitely more intricate. But Sapatham has stark character portrayals that are indelibly etched in our memory.
That was why I was eager to witness the play which would hopefully bring alive these unforgettable characters. This it did. The playwright cum director Gowri Ramnarayan appears to be clearly aware of the impossibility of telling the entire tale in one hour forty five minutes. So she has deliberately chosen to highlight certain characters and events. I think she has done this correctly. Mahendra Pallavar(Deesh Mariwala) walks tall and majestic. Paranjyothi (V Balakrishnan) is an exact portrayal of the brash young hero who becomes the mature Nayanmar Siruthondar later on. The two Sivakamis junior and senior are exquisite and bring out the pathos and determination of the eponymous heroine. The scenes where both are portrayed together are truly artistic. The young girl giving perfect and faster hand movements while the older woman goes through the motions gracefully yet slowly.
We can say a lot about what was not covered! But what was portrayed was true to the original and representative of the master's work. The divine songs of Appar and Kalki were the true bonus for the evening. Especially Appar's Namarkum Kudiyallom and Kalki's Maraven, maraven.
Including Bharavi's slokha extolling Kanchi as Nagareshu Kanchi is a device that added variety as well as humour to an otherwise serious play.
The grand finale where Sivakami surrender's to her Lord was exquisite. The words Thalai Pattal Nangai Thalaivan Thale! would ring in the ears of true Kalki fans for a long time.
I wish they had had a small interval. There was more narration than acting. This meant that the audience sometimes felt slightly bored listening to a long dialogue narrating important events which could have bben better portrayed on scene. The cast could have been slightly larger instead. While V Balakrishnan is to be congratulated on his thespian skills of combining Paranjyothi and Pulikeshi, this could have been avoided. Poor Mammalla gets a walk in part towards the end! It was Just Them and nobody else!
The language preferred was English. This is indicates an enormous social phenomenon. The generation which read Kalki in the 60s, 70s and 80s was typically upper middle class! This generation is now us! We are either abroad or totally convinced that Hindi is the route to success. So our children are growing up without becoming experts in literary Tamil. For example my I trained my daughter Srija on tamil myself. She can read the Daily Thanthi! She knows a few select Kurals. But can she read Sivakamiyin Sapatham in Tamil? I doubt it. Those of us who are abroad asre struggling to keep our Tamilian roots alive.While our children are experts in Carnatic Music and Bharatha Natyam, they cannot read Tamil fluently! English is the only vehicle for carryng the works of masters like Kalki to the next generation. So English it is friends! Yet hearing Kalki's immortal words in English gives the whole show a School Annual Day English Play feeling.
But let's congratulate the excellent attempt to bring Kalki's wonderful and lovable characters alive.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Chinese Management
Attended the joint meeting of the Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD) and National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) at the Maple Hall, Hotel Savera. The speaker was A Natarajan. 
He spoke on "Chinese Management."
Having headed the Chinese operations of the TVS group for more than three years he brought with him a lot of insights into Chinese work culture and behavioral patterns. If some one had come to learn about the secrets of Chinese productivity, the event would have been a sad disappointment. But as an opportunity to learn how the chinese psyche works, it was a great learning experience.
A Natarajan had a disarming and self-mocking delivery methodology that kept the narrative flow going strong in spite of its extremely autobiographical content. But on the whole what was shared was one perspective of Chinese society from the point of view of a typical conservative, quality concsious Indiam manufacturing-centric group!
The mild mannered speaker did react a bit nvehemently to the last question (Or was it the lost question!) which insinuated that TVS had gone to China only to take advantage of the cheap and exploitable Chinese labour force. A Natarajan strongly disagreed to this and went on to show that TVS was actually paying more than double in manpower cost to operate in China. The reasoning was strategic. They wanted to be nearer to their European customers, like GM and othrers, most of whom had an IPO (International Purchasing Office) or production facility in China.
Some new information I got from this speech:
He spoke on "Chinese Management."Having headed the Chinese operations of the TVS group for more than three years he brought with him a lot of insights into Chinese work culture and behavioral patterns. If some one had come to learn about the secrets of Chinese productivity, the event would have been a sad disappointment. But as an opportunity to learn how the chinese psyche works, it was a great learning experience.
A Natarajan had a disarming and self-mocking delivery methodology that kept the narrative flow going strong in spite of its extremely autobiographical content. But on the whole what was shared was one perspective of Chinese society from the point of view of a typical conservative, quality concsious Indiam manufacturing-centric group!
The mild mannered speaker did react a bit nvehemently to the last question (Or was it the lost question!) which insinuated that TVS had gone to China only to take advantage of the cheap and exploitable Chinese labour force. A Natarajan strongly disagreed to this and went on to show that TVS was actually paying more than double in manpower cost to operate in China. The reasoning was strategic. They wanted to be nearer to their European customers, like GM and othrers, most of whom had an IPO (International Purchasing Office) or production facility in China.
Some new information I got from this speech:
- Most of the Chinese are single children! These single children are irresponsible and therefore genearlly attrition is high in China.
- The Chinese rarely lose their temper.
- The Chinese are sticklers on rules and regulations. If it is not told or written in their contract, it doesn't bind them.
- They are not intelligent and are poor in quality consciousness.
- They cannot multiskill. They are good only for routine mass production type of work. Difficult to retrain or redeploy.
A useful evening spent in understanding another country and its culture through the eyes of a man whose been there and done it!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Arbitration Program
A program on "Arbitration on Contratual Disputes" was conducted by the Management Study Centre today at the GRT Grand hotel, T Nagar, Chennai. As the Hon. Academic Co-ordinator for the Centre, I was present at the program. A cross section of about twenty managers from legal as well as other departments attended.
The content facilitation was done by four eminent lawyers from the Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre, Chennai.
Arvind P Datar, N L Rajah, V S Jayakumar and M S Krishnan were the resource persons.
The programme was well received and the participants expressed that there awareness about Arbitration issues had been enhanced by the programme. In fact, one of the participants Mr. C Vasanth Kumar, Manager - Legal from Bharti Airtel Limited, put it beautifully like this:
Normally everyone knows how to drive a car. They know the basics like how to hold the steering, clutch operation etc., etc.,. But they really appreciate learning how to control a skidding car on a slippery road in the rain! This is the type of knowledge that the expert faculty panel shared today on Arbitration issues and handling them, which added value to the participants.
Sivaji -- Message or Massage?
Is watching a movie Quadrant IV (That is a waste of timeand hence non value added) or Quadrant II (That is highly value added use of time)? The answer, as you've by now guessed, is "It depends!" Stephen Covey lists Recreation under QII. But the word recreation should be spelt Re-Creation. That is the activity should enable us to renew ourselves and gain new insights into life and living. Or it should prepare us physically and/or emotionally for better performance. Classic examples are Music, Aerobics and such. Now Movies cannot be wriitten off as a time waster as there are movies and movies.
For example two recently released Tamil movies were truly classics. They are "Mozhi" i.e. Language. This movie is a gentle comedy that makes us understand the futility of oral communication and the value of the "language of the Heart." As the song in the movie states, "When you have learnt the music of Nature, what is language? Where the language of the heart is heard, do we need language at all?" This is a great movie.
The other is "Paruthiveeran" a stark and realistic movie that portrays the life and behaviour in a remote village in interior Tamilnadu. The ending is not to my liking and the basic message of the movie and its possible impact on viewers is subject to argument, but the movie as such is a flawless portrayal and each frame is work of art in cinematography. Watching such movies makes us realise the value of having intellectual discernment and taste.
Now, we come to "Sivaji". If you have not seen it, you are unfit to live in Tamilnadu! Everyone is crazy about it. So I had to go through the compulsory agony of watching the movie in Abirami Mall.(The place stinks! My vote goes to the Sathyam Cineplex any day!) That was a truly QIV experience!
How many more times will Shankar rehash the "Lets Bring an End to Corruption" theme? How many more times will the Tamil movie-going public be duped into parting their hard earned money to see and listen to ideas for ending corruption that border on childishness and illogicality. Even to call Shankar's concepts Utopian would be to give that perfectly good word a bad reputation by association with the idiotic.
Okay, here's the grand plan for ending corruption once and for all and flushing out Rs.20,00,000 crores of untaxed money also known as Black Money:
You want to flush out black money? Hire a large hall with an annex "office room". Hire a gang of reformed Goondas and dress them up in ill-fitting suits and short ties to make them respectable.
Call all the auditors, accountants, drivers and cooks of rich people to this "secret" meeting and simply "request" them to spill the beans about the untaxed money belonging to their employers/clients! If they refuse send them into the "office Room" and beat them up. That's it.
How will you invite these people? Hey, this is a Shankar movie starring Super Star Rajinikanth! If you ask these stupid questions, they will ask you to "wait" in the "Office Room"!
And, of course, if somebody dies from electrocution all you have to do is give "CPR" or simply pass an electric current through them to bring them back to life!
Even a mentally retarded chimpanzee could have come up with a better story line. (My apolgies are due to the Chimpanzee, of course!)
What is truly pathetic is that with all this masala mania and pandering to the popular palette, Shankar is regarded as a director of repute. Big budgets should not make big directors. Good story, tight screen play and suspense should be the criteria!
Shankar wants to give a message through his movies. But his themes are so jaded and outworn that this has become a formula in itself! The really serious issues like corruption and reform become farcical and outworn! In fact in this movie the Hero actually decides to go the corruption route first. The choice whether it is Gentleman,Indian, Annian or Sivaji is always between Corruption or Violence. The point is both are wrong! He ultimately ends up providing a predictable high budget massage to the popular psyche and emotions with loud and unnecessary music numbers with underdressed starlets running around with an aged superstar who desperately wants to become fair! There is no intellectual finesse in the movie to warrant the popular acclaim it has received.
If Kids enjoy Sivaji, it is acceptable; If Rajini fans go crazy about it, it is understandable; If the mindless mob appreciates it, it is forgivable; but, when the educated intelligentia says it is a `great movie, there must be something seriously wrong with the discerning capacity of Tamil audiences.
Movies like "Mozhi" and "Paruthiveeran" were a welcome breath of fresh air for Tamil Cinema, and then we get "Sivaji"!
For example two recently released Tamil movies were truly classics. They are "Mozhi" i.e. Language. This movie is a gentle comedy that makes us understand the futility of oral communication and the value of the "language of the Heart." As the song in the movie states, "When you have learnt the music of Nature, what is language? Where the language of the heart is heard, do we need language at all?" This is a great movie.
The other is "Paruthiveeran" a stark and realistic movie that portrays the life and behaviour in a remote village in interior Tamilnadu. The ending is not to my liking and the basic message of the movie and its possible impact on viewers is subject to argument, but the movie as such is a flawless portrayal and each frame is work of art in cinematography. Watching such movies makes us realise the value of having intellectual discernment and taste.
Now, we come to "Sivaji". If you have not seen it, you are unfit to live in Tamilnadu! Everyone is crazy about it. So I had to go through the compulsory agony of watching the movie in Abirami Mall.(The place stinks! My vote goes to the Sathyam Cineplex any day!) That was a truly QIV experience!
How many more times will Shankar rehash the "Lets Bring an End to Corruption" theme? How many more times will the Tamil movie-going public be duped into parting their hard earned money to see and listen to ideas for ending corruption that border on childishness and illogicality. Even to call Shankar's concepts Utopian would be to give that perfectly good word a bad reputation by association with the idiotic.
Okay, here's the grand plan for ending corruption once and for all and flushing out Rs.20,00,000 crores of untaxed money also known as Black Money:
You want to flush out black money? Hire a large hall with an annex "office room". Hire a gang of reformed Goondas and dress them up in ill-fitting suits and short ties to make them respectable.
Call all the auditors, accountants, drivers and cooks of rich people to this "secret" meeting and simply "request" them to spill the beans about the untaxed money belonging to their employers/clients! If they refuse send them into the "office Room" and beat them up. That's it.
How will you invite these people? Hey, this is a Shankar movie starring Super Star Rajinikanth! If you ask these stupid questions, they will ask you to "wait" in the "Office Room"!
And, of course, if somebody dies from electrocution all you have to do is give "CPR" or simply pass an electric current through them to bring them back to life!
Even a mentally retarded chimpanzee could have come up with a better story line. (My apolgies are due to the Chimpanzee, of course!)
What is truly pathetic is that with all this masala mania and pandering to the popular palette, Shankar is regarded as a director of repute. Big budgets should not make big directors. Good story, tight screen play and suspense should be the criteria!
Shankar wants to give a message through his movies. But his themes are so jaded and outworn that this has become a formula in itself! The really serious issues like corruption and reform become farcical and outworn! In fact in this movie the Hero actually decides to go the corruption route first. The choice whether it is Gentleman,Indian, Annian or Sivaji is always between Corruption or Violence. The point is both are wrong! He ultimately ends up providing a predictable high budget massage to the popular psyche and emotions with loud and unnecessary music numbers with underdressed starlets running around with an aged superstar who desperately wants to become fair! There is no intellectual finesse in the movie to warrant the popular acclaim it has received.
If Kids enjoy Sivaji, it is acceptable; If Rajini fans go crazy about it, it is understandable; If the mindless mob appreciates it, it is forgivable; but, when the educated intelligentia says it is a `great movie, there must be something seriously wrong with the discerning capacity of Tamil audiences.
Movies like "Mozhi" and "Paruthiveeran" were a welcome breath of fresh air for Tamil Cinema, and then we get "Sivaji"!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Indo Latin American Relations
18.06.2007
Annual General Meeting of the Indo Latin American Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce is the brainchild of Dr. R Ravichandran who has travelled extensively in Latin America especially in the Mercosure and Carricom region. Dr. Ravichandran is a walking encyclopaedia on the region and the methodologies for doing trade with the region.
After the brief business session, which was ably handled by Mr. Swaminathan a highly talented Chartered Accountant another founder of the Chamber, the floor was thrown open and many senior executives from companies with presence in the region shared their examples.
Mr. V. Ganesh Ramnan, Senior Manager- Marketing, Shasun Chemicals and and Drugs Ltd who has travelled in Venezuela shared his experiences.
He felt language is not a barrier for doing business in Latin America. After all we Indians do business across a country with nearly thirty different languages! He felt that after Chinese, Spanish would become a major world Language. Most countries in the LAC region speak spanish. THe exception is Brazil where Portuguese is spoken.
He also said the opinion that there would be collection problems in the LAC region was wrong. Only those who travel in the region realise that if you choose the customers and insist on LC terms or advance, there is no default risk. Even otherwise there is no major default risk.
As in Japan, in LAC also relationship matters. But unlike Japan, in most LAC countries the people are friendly and easy going.
Annual General Meeting of the Indo Latin American Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce is the brainchild of Dr. R Ravichandran who has travelled extensively in Latin America especially in the Mercosure and Carricom region. Dr. Ravichandran is a walking encyclopaedia on the region and the methodologies for doing trade with the region.
After the brief business session, which was ably handled by Mr. Swaminathan a highly talented Chartered Accountant another founder of the Chamber, the floor was thrown open and many senior executives from companies with presence in the region shared their examples.
Mr. V. Ganesh Ramnan, Senior Manager- Marketing, Shasun Chemicals and and Drugs Ltd who has travelled in Venezuela shared his experiences.
He felt language is not a barrier for doing business in Latin America. After all we Indians do business across a country with nearly thirty different languages! He felt that after Chinese, Spanish would become a major world Language. Most countries in the LAC region speak spanish. THe exception is Brazil where Portuguese is spoken.
He also said the opinion that there would be collection problems in the LAC region was wrong. Only those who travel in the region realise that if you choose the customers and insist on LC terms or advance, there is no default risk. Even otherwise there is no major default risk.
As in Japan, in LAC also relationship matters. But unlike Japan, in most LAC countries the people are friendly and easy going.
Boats
River boats at the jetty near Dakshineshwar, HooglyBoats are safe when they are near the shore, but....
Riverboat on a rainy day on the Hoogly
That is not what they are meant to be doing!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
ICAI GMCS
Here is the group photo of the 27th batch of the General Management & Communications Skills Programme conducted for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at Chennai by IMS Learning Resources. I am a faculty on this programme.
Participants are budding CAs who have to go through this 15 day intervention to acquire much needed Communication Skills. 
Making Every MInute Count!
Did my usual Half-day Executive Time Management Workshop at the fifteen day MDP conducted by L&T ECC at MGM Resorts on ECR. It is a pleasant half-an-hour drive. The executives are extremely interactive and the learning is highly practical and experiential. Here is what I generally share with participants at my Executive Time Management Programmes:
What is Time Management?
If you were to ask me to define Time Management in a single phrase I would give you the phrase, “Making Every Minute Count.” All of us would agree with the statement, “Time is Money.” But, do we treat Time like money? Do we carefully record and allocate our time the way we handle money? Isn’t it a fact that most of the time the answer would be in the negative?
All of us know the metric value of two meters or two liters. But how long is two minutes? Try this experiment. You would need a stopwatch. If you are doing this on your own you need a buzzer to ring at the end of two minutes. Or you can ask someone to time you with the stopwatch. Set the stopwatch for exactly two minutes. Now close your eyes and keep them closed till you think the period of two minutes is over. Now look at the stopwatch. You would be surprised. Most people open their eyes around one and a half minutes. Of course there would be those who open at forty five seconds and others who cross the limit. Irrespective of when you opened your eyes, if you go through the entire duration of two minutes, you will discover that two minutes is a very long time. Go ahead, try this experiment and discover the ocean of time that you have at your disposal.
In fact you can squeeze in a lot of work into two minutes! But this needs an approach that I will now discuss.
Let us look at another metaphor now. You are leaving for Bangalore for a two-day business trip. You have a standard size suitcase that you normally use for this purpose. You have a small mountain of things that need to be packed.
The box is dimensionally limited. A day in our life is a 24X60 box i.e. it has exactly 1440 minutes. But the ‘luggage’ or the things we need to do are numerous. Time Management is a lot like packing this box. How do we go about packing a box?
Doing things for the Right Reason:
You are right! You will first sort the items on the basis of their link with your ultimate objective or reason for going to Bangalore. Time Management, too, begins with the objective or goal.
Eliyahu M. Goldrat, the author of the international best seller, “The Goal” says, “Productivity is the act of bringing us closer to our goal. Every action that brings us closer to our goal is productive. Every action that does not bring us closer to our goals is not productive.”
So we ask these questions before we do something:
How will this activity take me closer to my goal?
Will I move away from my goal if I do not do this activity.
At the end of the day we ask, “How many things did I do today that brought me closer to our goal?
Thus linking our daily schedule to a clear long term vision is important. So Time Management is not only about running faster. It is running faster in the right direction. Goal clarity and Clear Vision can provide the right direction.
Doing Things at the Right Time:
Continuing the metaphor of the box, what goes into the box would be based on its relative importance. Things that are important and/or absolutely necessary for the trip go in first. Relatively unimportant items go in last or not at all.
Similarly we need to rank tasks based on importance and urgency. This is called Prioritization. In fact, if you wanted me to define Time Management in one word I would say that word is “Prioritization”.
Good managers of Time have a clear plan for the day. Activities are scheduled based on their priority. When you do something important but not urgent, you are in the Second Quadrant. Second Quadrant activities focus on Prevention, Building Production Capability, Relationship Building, Recognizing new opportunities and Planning.
Here comes the catch! While planning our day, we sometimes lose focus and start doing things that appear to be urgent but that are not important. These are called Third Quadrant activities, which are urgent but not important. We become Reactive and focus on the short term.
The high pay-off activities are not those that give immediate result. They are long term focused and yield rich dividend later. The secret is to move away from things and time to relationships and results.
When the focus is on the Second Quadrant, there will be a slow disappearance of the First Quadrant activities like Crises in our life. Similarly, we would avoid time wasters which would take us into the Fourth Quadrant. When you have a clear daily plan with you, you are focused on doing the activities that you’ve planned. But, where there is no plan that is linked to long term vision it is quite possible that you will end up reacting to trivial issues. This is why Stephen Covey says, “Don’t just Prioritize your Schedule, Schedule your Priorities”.
Doing Things in the Right Way
I am now going to describe the Quadrant II approach to Time Management.
Identifying Roles
An average person has to perform on various roles in his daily life. Examples are practicing Chartered Accountant, Manager, Team Leader, spouse, child, parent, Rotarian, musician and so on. An effective person performs exceedingly well in all these roles. Therefore, it is necessary to have clear Goals for each role. These goals can pertain to the next one week.
Scheduling
Ideally you should do your weekly planning on Sunday. Identify the Important things you need to do in the coming week. Put these activities in first! This is the essence of the Third Habit, “Put First Things First”.
If you set a goal to become physically fit through exercise, you may want to set aside some time for this or possibly every day during that week, to accomplish that goal. When you do weekly planning, it is possible to fit everything in. Daily planning would only shuffle the urgent work around and we end up postponing the important.
Daily Review
Within the broad framework of the weekly plan, there is a daily review or “adapting.” Man proposes but God may dispose. So, Daily Planning becomes more a function of daily adapting, of prioritizing activities and responding to unanticipated events, relationships, and experiences in a meaningful way.
All of us have heard the popular adage, “If you want to get something done fast, ask someone who is busy to do it!” This is true of all Seven Habits Practitioners. The Quadrant II focus gives the flexibility to include an important activity in our daily schedule and as it were, take it in your stride.
Let me quote Stephen R. Covey on the efficacy of Quadrant II Time Management,
“Having experienced the power of principle-centered Quadrant II organizing in my own life and having seen it transform the lives of hundreds of other people, I am persuaded it makes a difference—a quantum positive difference. And the more completely weekly goals are tied into a wider framework of correct principles and into a personal mission statement, the greater the increase in effectiveness will be.”
When you have expectations about people and things, you become frustrated that there is no time to achieve everything. Frustration is a function of our expectations. When we let go of expectations and work with a set of higher values and long term goals, we can subordinate our schedule to those values with integrity. You can adapt; you can be flexible. You don’t feel guilty when you don’t meet your schedule or when you have to change it.
At the same time, we should have the courage and conviction in our goals to say “No!” gently and firmly when we are asked to do something which has no link with our value system or goals.
If you were to ask me to define Time Management in a single phrase I would give you the phrase, “Making Every Minute Count.” All of us would agree with the statement, “Time is Money.” But, do we treat Time like money? Do we carefully record and allocate our time the way we handle money? Isn’t it a fact that most of the time the answer would be in the negative?
All of us know the metric value of two meters or two liters. But how long is two minutes? Try this experiment. You would need a stopwatch. If you are doing this on your own you need a buzzer to ring at the end of two minutes. Or you can ask someone to time you with the stopwatch. Set the stopwatch for exactly two minutes. Now close your eyes and keep them closed till you think the period of two minutes is over. Now look at the stopwatch. You would be surprised. Most people open their eyes around one and a half minutes. Of course there would be those who open at forty five seconds and others who cross the limit. Irrespective of when you opened your eyes, if you go through the entire duration of two minutes, you will discover that two minutes is a very long time. Go ahead, try this experiment and discover the ocean of time that you have at your disposal.
In fact you can squeeze in a lot of work into two minutes! But this needs an approach that I will now discuss.
Let us look at another metaphor now. You are leaving for Bangalore for a two-day business trip. You have a standard size suitcase that you normally use for this purpose. You have a small mountain of things that need to be packed.
The box is dimensionally limited. A day in our life is a 24X60 box i.e. it has exactly 1440 minutes. But the ‘luggage’ or the things we need to do are numerous. Time Management is a lot like packing this box. How do we go about packing a box?
Doing things for the Right Reason:
You are right! You will first sort the items on the basis of their link with your ultimate objective or reason for going to Bangalore. Time Management, too, begins with the objective or goal.
Eliyahu M. Goldrat, the author of the international best seller, “The Goal” says, “Productivity is the act of bringing us closer to our goal. Every action that brings us closer to our goal is productive. Every action that does not bring us closer to our goals is not productive.”
So we ask these questions before we do something:
How will this activity take me closer to my goal?
Will I move away from my goal if I do not do this activity.
At the end of the day we ask, “How many things did I do today that brought me closer to our goal?
Thus linking our daily schedule to a clear long term vision is important. So Time Management is not only about running faster. It is running faster in the right direction. Goal clarity and Clear Vision can provide the right direction.
Doing Things at the Right Time:
Continuing the metaphor of the box, what goes into the box would be based on its relative importance. Things that are important and/or absolutely necessary for the trip go in first. Relatively unimportant items go in last or not at all.
Similarly we need to rank tasks based on importance and urgency. This is called Prioritization. In fact, if you wanted me to define Time Management in one word I would say that word is “Prioritization”.
Good managers of Time have a clear plan for the day. Activities are scheduled based on their priority. When you do something important but not urgent, you are in the Second Quadrant. Second Quadrant activities focus on Prevention, Building Production Capability, Relationship Building, Recognizing new opportunities and Planning.
Here comes the catch! While planning our day, we sometimes lose focus and start doing things that appear to be urgent but that are not important. These are called Third Quadrant activities, which are urgent but not important. We become Reactive and focus on the short term.
The high pay-off activities are not those that give immediate result. They are long term focused and yield rich dividend later. The secret is to move away from things and time to relationships and results.
When the focus is on the Second Quadrant, there will be a slow disappearance of the First Quadrant activities like Crises in our life. Similarly, we would avoid time wasters which would take us into the Fourth Quadrant. When you have a clear daily plan with you, you are focused on doing the activities that you’ve planned. But, where there is no plan that is linked to long term vision it is quite possible that you will end up reacting to trivial issues. This is why Stephen Covey says, “Don’t just Prioritize your Schedule, Schedule your Priorities”.
Doing Things in the Right Way
I am now going to describe the Quadrant II approach to Time Management.
Identifying Roles
An average person has to perform on various roles in his daily life. Examples are practicing Chartered Accountant, Manager, Team Leader, spouse, child, parent, Rotarian, musician and so on. An effective person performs exceedingly well in all these roles. Therefore, it is necessary to have clear Goals for each role. These goals can pertain to the next one week.
Scheduling
Ideally you should do your weekly planning on Sunday. Identify the Important things you need to do in the coming week. Put these activities in first! This is the essence of the Third Habit, “Put First Things First”.
If you set a goal to become physically fit through exercise, you may want to set aside some time for this or possibly every day during that week, to accomplish that goal. When you do weekly planning, it is possible to fit everything in. Daily planning would only shuffle the urgent work around and we end up postponing the important.
Daily Review
Within the broad framework of the weekly plan, there is a daily review or “adapting.” Man proposes but God may dispose. So, Daily Planning becomes more a function of daily adapting, of prioritizing activities and responding to unanticipated events, relationships, and experiences in a meaningful way.
All of us have heard the popular adage, “If you want to get something done fast, ask someone who is busy to do it!” This is true of all Seven Habits Practitioners. The Quadrant II focus gives the flexibility to include an important activity in our daily schedule and as it were, take it in your stride.
Let me quote Stephen R. Covey on the efficacy of Quadrant II Time Management,
“Having experienced the power of principle-centered Quadrant II organizing in my own life and having seen it transform the lives of hundreds of other people, I am persuaded it makes a difference—a quantum positive difference. And the more completely weekly goals are tied into a wider framework of correct principles and into a personal mission statement, the greater the increase in effectiveness will be.”
When you have expectations about people and things, you become frustrated that there is no time to achieve everything. Frustration is a function of our expectations. When we let go of expectations and work with a set of higher values and long term goals, we can subordinate our schedule to those values with integrity. You can adapt; you can be flexible. You don’t feel guilty when you don’t meet your schedule or when you have to change it.
At the same time, we should have the courage and conviction in our goals to say “No!” gently and firmly when we are asked to do something which has no link with our value system or goals.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Swamiye Saranam Ayappa
I went on a pilgrimmage to Sabari Malai with my son Srivatsan. The temple is opened for one day to commemorate the Installation Day i.e. the day on which the idol of Ayappan was first installed. It is usually somewhat less crowded durfing this day.
There are certain things in life that can be explained. There are other things that need to be experienced. The Yathra or Pilgrimmage to Sabhari Malai is an experiential process. 
It cannot be explained except to say that the divine experience begins with wearing the sacred maala which is made of Tulasi beads. The experience of oneness with the divine continues during the arduous climb up Neeli Malai and Appachi Medu. It is only as we climb and realize that our body has to be carried only by us that we feel its useless weight. We also realize, in flashes of inspiration, and sorrow the futility of worldly association. We may realise that we are alone and only GOD can help us. This saranagadhi bhaava or posture of surrender is symbolically expressed in the Sarana Gosham, "Swamiye Saranam! Ayyappa Saranam!" which rings all over the steep mountainside.
And finally as I reach the Sabhari Peedam, exhausted and physically weak, the mind whispers, "This is enough. This is the last time. No more next time!" But lo and behold as I approach the Sabhari Peedam once again after Dharshan I pause, look back and sincerely pray," Ayyappa! Let me come back one more time!" (This too is a symbolic representation of the inexplicable nature of the desire of the Jeevathma for the Paramaathma (OM)).
The Jeeva is flesh, weak and unable to control anything. Through surrender it realises its oneness with the Lord and its own insignificance in that magnificience. This is the truth that is boldly emblazoned on the gopuram of the sannidhanam: "Tattvamasi" meaning "That Thou Art." As the Jeeva crosses the 18 steps which are symbols of eighteen qualities that blind and bind the poor jeeva, it glimpses the lord in the Yogic position, the right hand showing Chin
mudra.
All this in a flash of realisation. Gone immediately to be replaced by mundane prayers for personal wealth, health, power etc.,
As I make the pilgrimmage year after year I hope to become purified and made subtle in he same way that flour becomes finer and finer when passed through a sieve.
As we were walking down to Pamaba someone asked me why they do not keep the temple open always. I think the reason is that Ayyappa is in a yogic meditation. He does not want to be disturbed. So he requested Panthala Raja to create a place where he could meditate in peace. But during the Mandala Pooja and Makara Jyothi period he is willing to see us. At other times he would not like to be disturbed. Would you like people to pester you when you want to be alone? Well, he needs to be alone.
There is so much symbolism surrounding the Sabhari Malai Yathra. No ritual is meaningless or barbarian. One who knows the symbolism grows. Others stay wherever they are. But all have tasted the great joy that is Divine Experience.
Every time I visit Sabhari Malai, I sharpen the saw on the Spiritual dimension and rediscover my own Principle Centre from which I cannot Err.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Cost Consciousness Programme at Hyundai
Conducted the "Cost Consciousness" programme for Hyundai Motors India Ltd. The programme was attended by Junior and senior engineers. Though there were only eleven of them the interaction was good.
I ran my usual simultion of a box manufacturing workshop and the learnings from the activity were slowly debriefed in consultation with the participants themselves.
Hyundai is currently running an initiative called CC34 (Change Challenge 3 4) One of the Changes is Cost Reduction. This programme has been conducted by me twice already.
I think I colud shake the participants out of a mindset of "we've done everything already" to an innovation oriented frame of mind. They also got inputs on elements of cost and BEP analysis.
The the size of the scribbling pad that is distributed to the participants has been reduced to almost a quarter of the size it was during my last visit. Sure sign of on going and effective cost management!
I ran my usual simultion of a box manufacturing workshop and the learnings from the activity were slowly debriefed in consultation with the participants themselves.
Hyundai is currently running an initiative called CC34 (Change Challenge 3 4) One of the Changes is Cost Reduction. This programme has been conducted by me twice already.
I think I colud shake the participants out of a mindset of "we've done everything already" to an innovation oriented frame of mind. They also got inputs on elements of cost and BEP analysis.
The the size of the scribbling pad that is distributed to the participants has been reduced to almost a quarter of the size it was during my last visit. Sure sign of on going and effective cost management!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Mr. Shiv Khera (Hullooo) You can Bore!
A more than 300 strong group of Toastmasters was eagerly waiting for Mr. Shiv Khera, the joint chief guest for the inaugural function of Ovation 2007 and the man comes late by half an hour. Kiran Bedi the other chief Guest and Magsaysay award winner, who has another important meeting on security issues comes on time and is waiting.
Finally the man arrives and the function starts. Kiran Bedi delivered a brief but effective address. She took the theme of the event which was Speak. Listen. Lead and gave us a brief address on her impressions and reactions to the theme.
Mr. Shiv Khera came on stage later. Though he began with Country First and a call for patriotism, suddenly he switched over to a lengthy presentation on AIDS awareness which ran on and on and on… Finally he came to a halt and as the audience were heaving a collective and silent sigh of relief he launched on another equally lenghthy presentation on “Evils of Smoking.” He violated every rule in the Communication manuals. He had obviously not prepared, timed or practiced the speech. He had a power point presentation which was not tailored to the audience or the occasion. He skipped slides. He wasted time on useless statistics that every one knew.
Why did he do this? Here was an audience of Toastmasters of whose number he claims to be one though he has never found the time or necessity to complete the manual. All of us were eager to learn something new. He gave us a disappointing performance.
His habit of repeating the words “hullooo” and “Folks” didn’t endear him to the audience either.
The greatest fun was the crowd which thronged around him after the speech to give their cards so he could send them copies of his presentations. Proves the point that in this country there would be a queue for phenyl if it is given free!
Finally the man arrives and the function starts. Kiran Bedi delivered a brief but effective address. She took the theme of the event which was Speak. Listen. Lead and gave us a brief address on her impressions and reactions to the theme.
Mr. Shiv Khera came on stage later. Though he began with Country First and a call for patriotism, suddenly he switched over to a lengthy presentation on AIDS awareness which ran on and on and on… Finally he came to a halt and as the audience were heaving a collective and silent sigh of relief he launched on another equally lenghthy presentation on “Evils of Smoking.” He violated every rule in the Communication manuals. He had obviously not prepared, timed or practiced the speech. He had a power point presentation which was not tailored to the audience or the occasion. He skipped slides. He wasted time on useless statistics that every one knew.
Why did he do this? Here was an audience of Toastmasters of whose number he claims to be one though he has never found the time or necessity to complete the manual. All of us were eager to learn something new. He gave us a disappointing performance.
His habit of repeating the words “hullooo” and “Folks” didn’t endear him to the audience either.
The greatest fun was the crowd which thronged around him after the speech to give their cards so he could send them copies of his presentations. Proves the point that in this country there would be a queue for phenyl if it is given free!
Ovation 2007
Ovation is the annual conference of District 82P of Toastmasters International. Ovations 2007 was held in New Delhi this year at the India Habitat Centre on 18,19 and 20 May.
What a great Ovation we had. At the outset “Wow!”
The entire event was a seamlessly organized learning experience right from the inaugural with two nationally acclaimed speakers to the speech competitions. (of course Shiv Kera could have given us a few tips on public speaking or even leadership instead of boring us to death about AIDS and Smoking. I am sure he had valid reasons for structuring his presentation in the way he did.)
Here are a few things I loved
(a) As a man who lives to eat, let me tell you the food was great!
(b) The party on Saturday Night was a smash hit. This is what TM is all about.
(c) Putting the agenda in the Name badge pouch is a stroke of genius.
(d) Putting the photos on display and allowing us to choose and buy copies was also a good idea.
(e) All the educational sessions were top class. The faculty were knowledgeable and down- to – earth. As in all TM events the educational sessions were punctual to the minute.
(f) The competitions were professional and flawless.
(Congrats to the Team that did it.)
(g) The special meeting of the District Council on Division Governor Election was an eye-opener to me. I could see democracy at work. Still may be we need to be more careful about advance notices and giving opportunity to vote in future.
What could have been done better?
(a) The buses to and fro venue / YMCA were unpredictable. I wish they had been clearly announced during the session so every one would know and plan accordingly.
(b) The email ID and other contact details of delegates could have been circulated. That way we could all stay in touch. We should, of course take their permission.(This can be consolidated on the second day and circulated on the third)
On the whole I carried back great memories and look forward to Ovation 2008!
What a great Ovation we had. At the outset “Wow!”
The entire event was a seamlessly organized learning experience right from the inaugural with two nationally acclaimed speakers to the speech competitions. (of course Shiv Kera could have given us a few tips on public speaking or even leadership instead of boring us to death about AIDS and Smoking. I am sure he had valid reasons for structuring his presentation in the way he did.)
Here are a few things I loved
(a) As a man who lives to eat, let me tell you the food was great!
(b) The party on Saturday Night was a smash hit. This is what TM is all about.
(c) Putting the agenda in the Name badge pouch is a stroke of genius.
(d) Putting the photos on display and allowing us to choose and buy copies was also a good idea.
(e) All the educational sessions were top class. The faculty were knowledgeable and down- to – earth. As in all TM events the educational sessions were punctual to the minute.
(f) The competitions were professional and flawless.
(Congrats to the Team that did it.)
(g) The special meeting of the District Council on Division Governor Election was an eye-opener to me. I could see democracy at work. Still may be we need to be more careful about advance notices and giving opportunity to vote in future.
What could have been done better?
(a) The buses to and fro venue / YMCA were unpredictable. I wish they had been clearly announced during the session so every one would know and plan accordingly.
(b) The email ID and other contact details of delegates could have been circulated. That way we could all stay in touch. We should, of course take their permission.(This can be consolidated on the second day and circulated on the third)
On the whole I carried back great memories and look forward to Ovation 2008!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Glimpses of Kolkata, Darjeeling and Gangtok
My Holiday trip to Darjeeling 27th April to 6th May
Here are a few things I thought may be of value.
27th AprilWe reached Kolkata on 27th. Did the usual Kolkata tour. Dakshineshwar, Belur Math, Victoria Memorial et al. It was pleasant and there were slight drizzles.
At dakshineshwar we had Paani Puri in Kolkatta style with matka plates.
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We went to Dakshineshwar through the Howrah bridge and returned through the new bridge. The usual bustle, noise and dirt of Kolkata is still there, but the traffic seems to have become somewhat more manageable.
28th April
After a relaxed breakfast, we left for the airport. En route we visited Science City. This is a science them
e park. There is a ropeway that takes us into the park. There are numerous science related displays. We saw a documentary on sharks in the (mercifully air conditioned) domed space theatre. The domed ceiling gave the feeling that we were underwater, looking up at the sharks.
e park. There is a ropeway that takes us into the park. There are numerous science related displays. We saw a documentary on sharks in the (mercifully air conditioned) domed space theatre. The domed ceiling gave the feeling that we were underwater, looking up at the sharks.Kolkata airport is dirty and litter is thrown all over the place. At Chennai Airport, the cleaning staff work continuously to keep the place spic and span. But at Kolkata, I could see food stains on the floor and discarded disp
osable cans overflowing the scanty dustbins. They need to spruce up and clean the place.
osable cans overflowing the scanty dustbins. They need to spruce up and clean the place.
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Murudeeshwar