Saturday, January 20, 2024

The Return of the King

    It was just another lazy weekend and I was busy browsing OTTs, with an indecisive dilemma running an infinite loop on what to watch. Sudhindra ji’s call brought me back to senses and I realized I’d have, as usual, wasted at least 30 min trying to find something to watch that would interest me!

“What are you doing right now?”

“Nothing important. Watching something interesting” **duh**

“Tej, I need a help. Lakshman ji is injured and we need a known old face in the colony to accompany our folks to distribute Sri Rama’s Phala Mantrakshate that has arrived from Ayodhya.”

With zero determination, I said Okay”. Sudhindra ji described the Do’s and Don’ts for a few minutes and disconnected. With a subtle cry of confusion, I met the other RSS Karyakarta in my locality, who was assigned to distribute the Mantrakshate that has arrived from Ayodhya, to all the houses in the colony. I thought it would just be another “visiting my homies” event. But what happened over the next four hours was a boomerang of emotions! At the end of it, I was feeling totally elated with all the varied emotions people displayed. All the insightful interactions, the stories, their belief, betrayal they experienced back in 92 and how people have been waiting for the return of Sri Rama in Ayodhya; It gave me a real picture of how big and collectively congenial this event is for Indian Hindus! One thing was very evident - Bhaarata is witnessing its first mega divine event since 1947. Read on.

An uncle, on hearing why we are there, got fully teary eyed, wiped his tears and recalled the story of how he, in his mid-30s, dared collect funds in the Muslim majority neighborhood to buy 50 bricks and sent it to Ayodhya for the reconstruction of Sri Rama Mandira. He took us to his Pooja room to show us “how he has been reciting Rama taaraka mantra” every day for the last 32 years. I, for once, thought, I may not have not seen the pious disposition of humility of Shabari from Ramayana, but this uncle’s faith is no less. Faith can indeed move mountains!

Another entrepreneur that we visited enthusiastically said that he has declared 22nd Jan, Monday, a holiday for his enterprise and wants all his employees to celebrate the return of Sri Ram Lalla to Ayodhya. He urged us to bunk offices that day and do a grand Pooja at home. He also said that a Live telecast of the Prana Pratishtapana event has been arranged in the temple’s hall and we can gather together to celebrate there in large numbers!

I could feel the restlessness in the old lady, who said, my sister in Chennai phoned that she has already received the mantrakashate and I was waiting for you guys since yesterday. The Old lady’s husband lauded our efforts of doing this and called it a divine work. We could see him feeling fetter when he expressed his inability of not being able to join us due to a knee surgery that he had undergone recently.

Another doctor couple explained how the estrangement in the neighborhood grew with other faiths post the babri masjid demolition incident and how their love thy neighbors failed to look at things beyond the lens of religion. He further said “It has been 32 years now, I don’t care anymore and will happily celebrate on 22nd Jan, welcoming Sri Rama, come what may!” He said “A meteoric rise is inevitable after a fateful loss and we all will witness that rise now in our country”.

Some offered monetary help assuming we are going to Ayodhya on 22nd for the Prana Pratishtapana event, which we casually declined, while others happily agreed to at least lamp a few diyas on the day of consecration of Sri Rama. Some also showed us the stock of firecrackers to be burnt on the consecration day. Of course, there were some Haider Hindus, who shooed us away without even being courteous, but it is not even worth talking about them here.

While it was not surprising to hear many showering laurels on the man who made it happen – Our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, I was indeed very surprised to see families taking selfies with us, clicking pictures of us handing over the phala mantrakshate to them, offering sweets, coffee, fruits and displaying all forms of sweet hospitality. I couldn’t recall when was the last time people waited, took selfies and lauded strangers visiting their houses. I was glad to read similar stories on Social media as well. I could clearly see that this Return of the king event is re-igniting the penultimate dreams of billions of Indians; restoring the Rama Rajya in Bhaarata!

Indulgence in this activity is something I was glad I did not miss and will definitely remember for the rest of my life!  I came back home with a sheer satisfaction of happily exclaiming #JaiSriRam more than 1000 times.

And the old lady’s words are still abuzz in my mind - Raama Banda... Rama Rajya noo baratte (Translates to “The king has returned. The core ideals of virtue, morality and justice will also return to India).

Cant stop recalling Tolkein’s Poem from the Return of the King

 "From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

Sunday, December 18, 2022

A mindful conversation

For a long time now, I have always evaded paying a visit to my sister’s home by giving the weirdest and very unreasonable excuses, purely because of traffic chaos that I have had to endure to reach Nelamangala. But circumstances this year were totally different, thanks to the unprecedented times in the family and I am a regular visitor now. My nephew who is now a student of a residential school, 400 km away from home, is studying eleventh grade. He had come home for a week for holidays. This time, my sister had asked me to come home and specifically talk to him because ever since he has gone away from home, it has become hard for her to connect with him and that he is behaving weird. This was making her very anxious. 

I've seen my nephew growing in front of my eyes. From his super mischievous deeds like him painting my bike with a weird colored enamel paint, to both of us doing Harry Potter and other superhero quizzes online, we have always been on good jovial terms. We never discussed academia or had intellectual conversations together in the past. The conversation that I had with him this time was so different, that I took some time to come to terms with it. It made me see remarkable changes in his attitude and thought process, and I realized quite a few things have changed for good. This blogpost is all about the conversational epiphany that I experienced. 


The conversation started with me inquiring about his hostel life. He said he is enjoying this life. He started talking about how his life has changed. From waking up at leisure 8AM in the past to 530AM, doing the laundry himself; how the absence of luxuries of zomato and swiggy is controlling his hunger pangs; how he has been accustomed to the meditation that he is forced to perform everyday for 15 min and in spite of being able to sense that he is sleep deprived, how the meditation is actually helping him concentrate better with his academia; I could feel a drastic change in his tone. 


He was then saying that it took him a lot of time to get used to this hostel life without gadgets and gaming. He said he has made very good friends and they all spend quality time; he explained the non-academia things they do to rewind after a busy day at college. To my surprise, he was appreciative of the conducive environment within the campus due to non-availability of mobile phones. I recalled all the games he played on the mobile phone in the past and told myself “not bad”.


And then came the most important thing, his future plans: He said he was confused about his future plans. He said he is unable to decide yet whether to go for both JEE-Mains and Advanced or just prepare for JEE-Mains so that it would help him prepare for K-CET and Comed-K in parallel. He spoke at length on why he thinks getting into an IIT would be difficult for him. He said he doesn't know if it is just insecurity with all that has happened recently or fear or both, that is stopping him from knocking the doors of IIT. Then he spoke of his hatred for chemistry. He took a pause to recall his dad’s love for chemistry and then went on talking about how he finds Chemistry so boring and difficult to even balance simple chemical equations; how he thinks those IUPAC names are just crazy and how chemistry alone has pulled his GPA down by significant margin. He was sad that he was still a seven point someone :). 


At that moment, I took a pause. For someone who has always discussed movies, super heroes, gaming and fantasy novels with me, such serious conversations were a little hard for me to absorb. My nonchalant nephew that I saw just six months ago was having such a mature conversation with me. 

I did not express any emotion, but I realized that he sensed that disconcerting look on my face too. This entire conversation lasted for about an hour and a half. At the end of it, the realization that I am in my late thirties already was hard to come by *winks*.


I just nodded happily and gave a subtle reply “Well, that is youth for you. It sets its own boundaries without even asking whether the body & mind can take it or not”. I advised him to start preparations for K-CET, COMED-K and JEE Mains, with a vision to get into a good NIT. When I said “As a fallback, we always have very good engg colleges in Karnataka too” he looked somewhat convinced and the conversation ended. I went inside and just told my sister “Don’t worry about his behavior. He is in the process of defining himself”. 


Until now, I was not a proponent of the belief that adolescence is a stage in life. But I am convinced that it is changed now. The saying "Chronological age is not a biological marker" is more evident than ever; even more so with the millennials. This entire episode felt like reading a Paulo Coelho’s novel. Phew; the fingers of time played a heavy chord selection on the emotional strings of my guitar!


Saturday, April 23, 2022

The rising concern of virtue signaling in the Indian courtrooms

 Scene-1

An assailant, who has committed a heinous crime of raping and murdering a 4-year-old girl child is standing within the balustrade. He is pretty convinced of his fate that is awaiting him. Naturally, death is inevitable for him and is going to be a reality very soon. And why not! The most unpardonable, utterly disgusting and wicked sin that he has committed deserves nothing less than death.

The reading of the final judgement begins. The judge starts off calling the act barbaric and monstrous. The judgement also reads “A tiny, bud-like girl was smothered by the appellant before she could blossom in this world. The monstrous act of the appellant suffocated the victim to such an extent that she had no option but to leave this world.”

Scene-2

But the milords gave the most unprecedented twist to this case. The three judge bench declares that the crime committed cannot be termed as the rarest of the rare to award a death sentence.

** Audience and the victim’s family is flabbergasted** W.H.A.T?

Wait, it doesn’t end there. In what appears to be a Bollywood mimicked woke gathering where the judge who penned the judgement quotes Oscar Wilde “Every Saint has a past and every Sinner has a future” and reduces the death sentence to 20 years of imprisonment.

I’m sure the above scene puts even the most intriguing courtroom comedy scenes like Legally Blonde or even namma CSP to shame! But, this is no Netflix series. This happened in real, three days ago in the Supreme court of India. I frankly do not have enough imagination to recall the drama that would have unfolded in this court hearing! The bench refers to the principles of restorative justice and believes that the victim deserves an opportunity to become a socially useful person and repair the damages caused. On this grounds, milords reduce the death sentence awarded to a child rapist to 20 years’ imprisonment. Yeah! True story, this one!

I am not even going to the intricate details of what Oscar Wilde meant in his above quote. You can read it here. But of late, repeatedly, the Supreme court of India, through its judgement, has proven that it is more inclined on virtue signaling than sending a strong message to the offenders. In this case, I truly fail to understand the need to uphold the sentiments intended to demonstrate a rapist’s good character in a courtroom! It is truly shameful that a three judge bench, of which one is a woman, shows concern for a child rapist. And in the name of justice, all that victim’s family received was cliché! Oh dear lord; I cannot imagine the victim family’s plight.

Of late, such folly by milords of India has become a mainstream concern for the justice seekers of our country. There have been more and more judgements in which judges have their own ideas of what constitutes as justice as opposed to what is right circumstantially (Sabarimala case), giving weightage to their own views in deciding the judgements (Freeing Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins), unnecessary levels of virtue signaling (Sallu Bhai case), citing examples of the legal luminaries of west instead of our own (Chief Justice DY Chandrachud). I can go on and on!

Whenever someone spoke ill of judiciary in my informal debates with friends and family, I have always asked them not to throw rotten tomatoes at the judiciary. I always argued that when justice fails, it is the dawn of new bad beginnings. I am not sure If I myself have this opinion anymore. I am no legal expert, so I discussed this case with a lawyer in the family who practices in the supreme court. This is what he opined “there was a time when our judges were capable of identifying virtue signaling attempts by lawyers. They were capable of seeing through the façade and recognize the hidden motivations of such virtue signaling. Now, our judges need lessons on why it is not a good idea to base judgements in heinous crimes on restorative justice”. He said that the judges of yesteryears based judgements on mature jurisprudence than the contemporary judges

With such repeated woke liberal behaviors in the courtroom, justice is going to be far-fetched. It concerns me even more when I see that executive and legislature are seeing improvements (Yes, I have my reasons to say so), but judiciary is slowly becoming implausible. I sincerely pray to god that such irrational behaviors by milords will write its own death sentence, for the greater good! Let dharma prevail.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Digital Detox? Now is the time

The digital extravaganza has been an overkill of late. It looked like it is an opportunity, during the lockdown, to fill the gap with whatever you were doing when you could go out. During office, end of day meant 530pm, or even if we pushed it by an hour, I would surely unplug at 630 or 7pm, considering the traffic shenanigans. The luxury of work from home did not impose that restriction, so I was on my own in completing everyday tasks. I was starting an hour late, thanks to Ramayan, I was taking Mahabharat break every day for an hour and when I was not in any meeting, I would sit with my laptop in front of television and continue working. Initial few months of lockdown felt so good, that I started imagining televisions in office so that work is not stressful at all. But gradually, Mahabharat and Ramayan on television ended and my own Ramayan started. I got bored being inside four walls. Series binging with dad also came to an end. I had no time to read amidst the work. I started dedicating some time for my religious observances. Even though this was rewarding, this didn’t last either.

Uninstall Facebook, WhatsApp Instagram
Uninstall Facebook WhatsApp Instagram

Even though life was slowly getting back to normal, with every new thing I was trying to do, I was spending more time with electronics and mobile phone. By the end of Oct, I realized that I was addicted to Twitter, WhatsApp, Insta, FB, Netflix, HOTSTAR and all other OTTs I had access to. With no walk/run/gym and lunch and dinner served to me on my laptop table, an unexplained lethargy had kicked in. I added screen-time for the apps. But even after the limit was reached, I was craving to turn it off and spending more time on SM. This was an indicator that I had to get out of it. I was struggling to find a window of time that feels right for you to unplug and do a digital detox, because I was in front of laptop for better part of the day. WhatsApp web was a possibility now. And twitter tab was always open! For almost a month, although it did not affect my day to day office work, with SM and office work together, I ended up sitting in front of laptop for a good 12 hours a day. At the back of my mind, I always knew, I can’t do this for long and I was sure I can spend “that” time constructively, doing something better. The motivation that ‘reading more, writing more, spending gala time with family’ – are all better options than spending time on SM - was always there. But when I tried chalking out a plan to get out of it, I didn’t know where to start, how to proceed, which ones to keep and what to delete. It was all muddled and I was caught in the SM web. Trust me, Digital detox isn’t so easy, unless you plan it and more importantly, prepare your mind!

Mark Zuckerberg stating "The future is private"

While I was almost on the verge of dropping the idea of Digital Detox, Mr. Zuckerberg has come to my rescue, like a blessing in disguise. His new privacy policy and updated terms & conditions, which has created outrage globally, has in fact motivated me to take a digital detox!. Adding fuel to the fire, the new terms by Zuki, is shocking! Come on, using your financial transaction data, monitoring your approximate location 24/7 in-spite of location services turned OFF, selling your data to all FB companies; outrageous and I would call it despicable too! If he really did think this is the only way to do justice to his 21 billion $ WhatsApp deal and generate revenue, I don’t trust any of his products at all. Besides, the targeted ad is just the beginning. This is going to open a pandora’s box of the shadier possibilities of what could be done to the world with data.
Digital Detox
Also, imagine the benefits of deleting your FB-Insta-WhatsApp accounts. With all your friend’s friend, who is not even your common friend or acquaintance’s whereabouts and his/her information popping up on your wall, your FB timeline is just a bunch of suggested videos with ads and twitter snapshots. Arghh! It has long lost its good old sheen! Honestly, Facebook has become so irksome. I am keeping FB active only because it is a perfect platform to share my blog posts to 500+ people at once. Nothing more!

While WhatsApp forwards can save a few tens of gigs of data and a couple of hours, WhatsApp Status can save you remaining 22 hours. My uncle, who in his entire life has not watched a half time of a football match, updates his status with the hashtags #RipMaradona #SoccerLegend. I’ll not have to tolerate such nauseating sycophancy anymore. Although Instagram wasn’t this painful for long, the reels, are really waste of time. [Confession: I’ll really miss Dr. Richa Negi’s refreshing dancing groove videos on Instagram.**winks**]

I believe the best way to beat the quintessential social establishment and protect our privacy is to stop invading other’s privacy. And above all, the true evaluation of whether any privacy expectations are reasonable or not can never be assessed on any Social Media application. This is exactly why I am happy to be getting rid of FaceBook, Insta and WhatsApp.

Data Wars

Whether Zuki takes it back owing to public outcry or not, whether my friends like it or not, whether my cousins miss me on SM or not, I have decided to delete my FB-WA-Insta accounts permanently. I’ll keep twitter for my rants and Signal for my instant messaging needs. PERIOD. I can totally live without the rest. And I strongly believe it is the need of the hour too! When wrong people without morals and ethics; without concerns; without the sense of what’s fair and what’s not, get access to our data, they will always gain an advantage over the rest of us, until we decide to put an end to it. So, the onus is on every one of us!

Well, what do you think of my decision? WhatsApp… errrr… Call me! Let’s start to socialize the real, good old way!

Image credits: Google

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Is your LinkedIn another FaceBook Profile?

In Indian job market, job portals like Naukri and Monster have played a big role since long, leaving very less market share for other players like LinkedIn. There are no second thoughts about LinkedIn’s potential. But somehow, for long, it was etched in job seeker’s mind that when someone started preparing for a job change, the first conversation began with “Update Naukri everyday bro, otherwise you won’t get calls”. I’m sure many in the entry and mid-career level can connect to this. But this seems to have changed in the recent times. There were a few recruiters asking me with an awe of surprise “You don’t have a LinkedIn profile”? Well, I always had it. But I never bothered to update it because I never expected job opportunities coming my way from LinkedIn. The possibility was too feeble. But looks like things have changed. Nowadays, a lot of recruiters use LinkedIn because of its robust networking capabilities, seamless cross-border connections with over 600 million user base and feature rich platform not just for employees, but for employers too. So I realized that it is important to have mine updated and started looking into it often. I installed the app too. This is when the surprise unfolded.

Funny updates on LinkedIn
A video of a grandpa dancing (Left) and a MP updating distribution of ration kit (Right) on LinkedIn

What a mess LinkedIn really is! It is nothing more than just another facebook. From work-out and Yoga videos, ration distribution pics by certain MP, people posting Salsa videos of their grandparents begging their followers to like the video, content writers writing poems to scenic photograph posts with 3000+ likes which made absolutely ZERO SENSE. In other words, I was browsing through another social media profile of mine. With all such godforsaken updates, I was dreading to see the updates that made sense to me. I sat for more than two hours to remove unwanted connections, un follow/hide spammers. Despite my best efforts, after the clean-up, my LinkedIn feed just feels better, but still far from what I expect from a Professional networking website. I realized this is a big problem because people perceive LinkedIn as another social networking site. Here are a few things that you DON”T do on LinkedIn so that it remains a job and professional networking platform.

Profile picture

Your profile picture is undoubtedly the most important element of any networking site, be it professional or social platforms. Research has established psychological evidences that without a display picture, the accounts are perceived to be dormant. But if you have added a picture of John Snow, Ronaldo or your favorite god Hanuman as a profile picture to give an impression of being creative, you’re on self damage mode.  And yeah, the professor from Money Heist as your DP on LinkedIn does not make you a genius. Don’t get overboard with your creativity. Keep it simple, silly!

Funny profile pictures on LinkedIn
Whacky Profile Pictures n Linkedin-1
John Snow on LinkedIn
Whacky LinkedIn Profile Picture-2
Funny DP on Instagram
Whacky LinkedIn Profile Picture-3

Adding connections

Adding qualified connections increase your job prospects. Yes of course. But you need not add every goddamn person you know and hype it. I was thinking twice to send a connection request to a good friend from my previous organization, because even though we connected over lot of cultural initiatives, we never worked together on any products/services. But here I am, getting connection request from a stranger car service guy who is my friend’s connection. Arggh! 

Updating the pic of The Atlantic Road, Norway (Left) and Writing Poems on LinkedIn (Right)

Your house maid’s husband’s distant relative who has completed his engineering and is now seeking job, your wife’s retired PSU uncle’s daughter who is a nutritionist, your college crush whose designation is Home maker, your primary school friend who is doing  research on zombies from Sudan University of Science and Technology need not be your professional connects. DON’T YOU GET IT? They neither belong to your domain/organization/technology/services nor can be of any professional value addition. If they really have known connections, ask them to introduce you to them. Accepting connections from every Tom Dick and Harry you’ve met in life perpetually is useless.  Go back to your profile, browse through your connections to check how many amongst your connection can really have a potential impact on your careers. Remember, connections are just numbers. 1000+ random connections from acquaintances do not; I repeat, DO NOT add any weight to your digital resume. For god sake, please stop adding the entire world’s populace to your connection list, morons!

Pro-tip: Create separate email-IDs for your professional needs and social media requirements. This will avoid a lot of your personal contacts sending you requests and it also give you more power to manage professional profiles.

Posting updates

Posting significant professional updates are indeed good way to let everyone know of your achievements. But majority of the updates from my connections did not seem deserved to be even there. A software engineer in my connection had posted her pics of distributing food packets during Covid-19 lockdown.  Why why why? Had her profession been Social Work groups, it would be worth an update. But in IT Industry, It will not give her any professional edge over others who have not done it. Another friend had copied leadership quotes from Google and pasted it. Will it help his followers inculcate leadership habits? I also found people posting the certificates of their organization’s mandatory trainings like EHS and Data Privacy. For heavens’ sake, stop this! A funny video with caption “Don’t give up” made some sense. But after seeing screenshots of a newspaper article on Happy Iftaar and a meme on Yamaha RX-100 to describe the Japanese engineering, alas! I lost my mind.

 
An Iftaar party cooking update (Left) Personal updates about Daughter on LinkedIn

In the midst of all these unwanted junk, many important updates go unnoticed. And even bigger problem is that unlike FaceBook, we cannot even delete the profile. It has to be there, up and running. You never know when you’ll have to make real use of your connections. So please don’t be willful and a pain in someone’s professional life. Be responsible and have social conscience. If LinkedIn becomes another FaceBook, destinies of many professionals may become undeniably enmeshed.  As we prepare for another economic depression, this gibberish will not take us anywhere. Go and act now. Because if you don’t, sooner or later we’ll be victims of our own complacency.

No; I am not posting this blog on my LinkedIn.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Lessons from Covid-19 lock-down


While driving back home on the 11th of Mar, little did I expect that I would be locked inside my house for the next 30+ days. Since then, a month has gone by and it already seems like eternity. The worrying trends from across the globe, those horrifying videos from Italy and NYC has forced many armchair thinkers to change the way they look at life. Aam junta like me are no exception. I too have a few experiences from this lock-down. This COVID-19 lock-down has not just exposed my own inabilities and not possessing (m)any of the basic survival skills, it has also changed a few perceptions that I believed to be true for long time.

When lock-down started, I thought it is a good opportunity to catch up with all my pending reading. This lock-down forced me to do a few things by self and I miserably failed in doing simple tasks. Firstly, my sincere efforts to make a cup of coffee even after reading the instructions on Nescafe sachet went haywire. Secondly, since house maid was also in lock-down, we decided to share chores amongst ourselves and do our own dishes. And I was getting into a brawl with even smallest of the utensils while doing the dishes. I did some temporary arrangement for the wasted RO water to be collected and use it to wipe the floor. But my wife put the task on me *sobs uncontrollably*. I took hours to wipe the floor with a mop which my maid did in 10 min without it. I realized I couldn’t do even the simplest of the chores at home. I started feeling like a civilized Neanderthal. I have not taken a shave since a month; so, I also look like one *adding to the effects*.

On one hand, COVID-19 deaths increased exponentially which led to the extension of lock-down period and on the other, I was feeling ashamed at my own incompetence of not being able to make even a cup of coffee for myself. I decided to catch up on the pending reading later. I realized I must up the ante and get better at stewardship at home, for my own good. I am at it now and in the past 20+ days, I’m still at square one, but the intriguing lessons learnt are worth sharing.


Household chores are easy is a myth
I always had this perception that household chores are easy as they neither require brains nor a great physical effort and that they are routine and mundane tasks. Only when I saw my mother and wife doing the dishes so flawlessly and effortlessly, I realized I was wrong. It is certainly not a mundane task. It is a three-dimensional art with time, accuracy and water conservation as its dimensions. The same goes with doing the dishes/ mopping/cleaning. I realized that all household chores can be mastered only with practice. Household chores is easy is a presumption of stupidity.

You can survive with just Doordarshan
The re-telecast of Mahabharata and Ramayana are truly blessing in disguise for me. While it is preposterous that few of my friends have branded me swamiji for watching the great epics *tears rolling down my cheeks*, I was like “Hey vats, keep calm”. Mythology was one quizzing topic which I wanted to improve on since a very long time. So, the timing was just perfect. I also started watching a few episodes of Chanakya, Jungle Book, Buniyaad; they all had one thing in common; they were so brilliantly made with major focus on content. Prasar Bharti has so many classics in its kitty. But is it worth with contemporary programs also? I’m pretty sure that DD entertainment would surely be finer than all our private channels combined. Any sane person cannot stand private channels’ camera overplay on a woman protagonist’s cleavages for 10 min in every episode. DD National, DD-Bharati and DD-Retro are more than ample necessities for our entertainment needs.

More importantly and  surprisingly, by Indian standards, DD News has remained a news channel. They are ethical, news readers put forth the actual news without any exaggeration and let the viewers decide. On DD News, dolts do not read tarot cards, there are no resentment filled debates, they do not run Homeopathy helpline and Asian sky shop programs. More importantly, dimwits and lamebrains do not predict the future of this country. So, I have decided to stick to DD news for news and watch private news channels for entertainment.

Watch DD News for a week. Trust me; you’ll concur.

Home cooked food can do wonders
After I entered corporate world, there was never a time I did not suffer from GERD. With my office canteen food, my burps are so strong that I’m sure if converted to energy, it would work wonders; thanks to the adulteration levels even in simple Idly and sambar. Eno and Digene are always on my travel checklist and are always stocked up. Even though Ayurveda helped me keep it at bay for some days, my coffee addiction has always made burps an integral part of my life.

But since last 30+ days of lock-down, we’re washing veggies more carefully than ever, thanks to the disturbing behavior of single source event attendees. I am eating healthy, home cooked food and zero junk food because the junk food in supermarkets are selling like hotcakes. I would be lying if I say stopped eating junk food. After seeing the panipuri pics all over the SM as if people are celebrating April as National Panipuri month, I was tempted too. But even that is homemade. *winks*. This has worked wonders for me. To my own surprise, my acidity, burps, GERD induced chest pain and every other symptom of hyper acidity is gone. Thanks to COVID-19 lock-down for instilling in me, the amazing benefits of eating freshly cooked food. Not just eat healthy, eat fresh is a very big lesson for me, that I’ll try to stick to.

There are other pleasant changes that this lock-down has made possible. Our entire family is spending quality time together. We are watching TV and dining together after ages. Dad and I are watching Roger Moore’s bond movies together, with him recalling his good old days. I am reminding my mom to monitor her blood glucose levels regularly. My credit card statements are at its lowest, which has also made me think of spending carefully on unwanted luxuries. Whataybaby is happy that “appa corona no aapees”. In other words, covid-19 has made a lot of things possible, which were even otherwise possible, but, meddled in the mediocrity of our own lives, we just didn't find it necessary. Especially us, Bangaloreans, have that one reason for all our hopeless time management skills, "Traffic jam". It's time we learn to manage time, prioritize what is important, draw a line between professional and personal urgency and start giving importance to spending quality time with family, at least occasionally.

When I read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”, I couldn’t connect on an emotional level with his 27 years in Prison. But now, I cannot even fathom his struggle. Imagine being locked up inside a jail on a remote island for so long! Here I am, locked in for 30 days and every day seems like another race to be won. I am still trying to cling to some form of normalcy hoping all this ends soon and we can get out, buy stuff, get back to office, hit gym, go on long drives and to be ourselves. But looking at the increasing numbers, it is still a dream.  

I like this dream; dream of freedom. Hope it becomes a reality soon!
               

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Of my mothers chit funds and my first world problems - Life lessons in a nutshell


For a change, I was home. I was glancing my personal task planner cum diary to see the pending story edits and proof reading to be completed for the day when the phone rang. Sudha aunty, a well-wisher and a relative (potential oxymoron) had called me to remind me about the pending payment for the chit fund. I never keep track of this fund, purely because it is managed by Sudha aunty. There is that element of trust on which this chit fund operates. Other than the pending payment reminder, she also said that this month’s payment is the end of this chit fund and that she was about to start a new chit fund from Jan. I agreed to be part of the new chit fund also and disconnected the call. My mom heard the conversation and inquired about the chit fund. The word "chit fund" took her back to her professional days as a teacher. We spoke about it for more than an hour. When we were done, I wanted to get back to work, but my mind was roaming around the realms of how my mom spearheaded an entire family’s offbeat expenses with the chit funds for years together. And in general, those chit funds’ with a purpose and its role in chasing the dreams of Indian middle class.

If you are wondering what a chit fund, a.k.a Cheeti as it is called in vernacular language is, it is a simple rotating savings and credit system practiced since times immemorial. There is no defined legal framework. An organizer is usually a trusted relative, a neighbor, friend or someone who you know at least as an acquaintance, so that there is an element of trust for the money you invest. People who invest in the chit funds often have specific goals/dreams that they realize using the returns from it. The fund starts at an announced date and continues for the number of months predefined by the organizer. Word of mouth is the only means of marketing and getting people to invest. When it starts, every month, a fixed amount is collected from all the subscribers. An open auction is conducted every month to determine the lowest sum one of the subscribers is willing to withdraw that month. It is also a credit system because subscribers are allowed to take the entire sum via the auction even before making full payment. Again, trust is paramount here.

Unlike the post liberalization and digital era, banking was not accessible to the lower income group as their savings was not distinct and continuous. If you are an early or mid 80s kids, you’ll know this. But savings was still required for obvious reasons. Cheeti was a boon for all those who had this situation. And unlike today, middle class dealt with currencies in mere tens, hundreds and thousands. Lakhs and crores were not part of even their wildest dreams.

My mom, being a school teacher, like any other middle-class Indian woman, was a “penny in pocket, dreams worth million” woman. With whatever she earned, she managed her finances and savings so meticulously that it puzzles me on how our era's middle class parents managed our upbringing. I personally know two of her affinities she chased for long, never gave up and succeeded. Thanks to Cheeti. One was her collection of sarees and the other was her collection of tools/equipment/apparatus that reduced her efforts in the kitchen.

Both her affinities were something that my father neither supported nor cared because of two reasons: One: that they were very feminine in nature and he did not understand much of it. And secondly, because they were not one-time investments. In her own words with utensils and sarees, when the usual “WHY DO YOU NEED SO MANY” paradigm come up by husbands for discussion, women do not have answers. So, mom had to somehow manage them on her own, even financially.

This is exactly where the chit fund, a.k.a. Cheeti helped my mother. In the early-80s she earned 800 Rs a month. Since she was a teacher, it was sort of necessary for to have her wardrobe full of sarees. It so happened that a seller from Surat used to visit her school and all the teachers collectively insisted him to start a Cheeti, exclusively for sarees. The monthly amount for the Cheeti was 70 INR which they paid for 12 months and got a new saree worth 800 Rs. Remaining 40 Rs was a commission of sorts for the saree seller. She always tells me that back in 80s, 800 Rs had a lot of value. It is true. I just did some math to prorate the inflation rate of 7.2% at 1985 for 34 years; it turns out, 800 Rs in 1985 is worth 9330 Rs as on today.

I keep chiding my mother for having so many sarees that we can sell and pre-close a part of India’s world bank loan. But she laughs it off. More than the prized possession, she is proud of how she succeeded in filling her wardrobe with sarees on her own, without a single penny from my father. She is all thanks to this wonder investment scheme called Cheeti.

By early 90s, utensils with copper bottom was a next gen thing, she tells me. When the copper bottom utensils were launched in the market, they were declared hit and received widespread fame among the Indian mothers. Not just fame, it apparently was also a measure of sophistication and even a social privilege to an extent. My mom was particularly interested in it because she believed that copper bottom kadais would help cook faster, thanks to copper’s good conductance of heat.  But it also came with a heavy price tag that she could not buy them in one go. Again, the same Cheeti came to my mother’s rescue. There was a steel vendor near the house, where she started investing 50 Rs a month and in the end, she could choose utensils worth of 600 Rs. There is this one copper bottom kadai, which is her favorite. Not because of its quality or durability, but because she simply succeeded in buying it on her own. It was the same practical scheme of Cheeti that enabled her to buy a “RAMA” water filter, a hot box and a few other utensils made of copper.

Her proud possessions after nearly three decades of her professional career are her Surat Saris, a copper bottom kadai, a RAMA water filter and a few other kitchen paraphernalia, procured through chit funds. If I look at it today, it does not seem like a big deal at all! I can buy her all of them at one go! I cannot help but see her goals mostly revolved around maintaining normalcy and ensuring the family chores run smooth. Nothing beyond! I think only mothers are the creatures on this planet who can do such insurmountable sacrifices for the well-being of their families and yet find solace in those sacrifices.

Here I am, totally delved in the first world problems and not being able to manage my finances even after earning a 6-digit salary. When my mom narrates such episodes to me, I can easily realize the perceived absence of any such pressing concerns that she had as an adult, as a parent or even as a professional. With real life experiences like chit funds, she beats my argument and proves that my problems are not actually problems, they are just fallacies of the relative privation.

 I too have invested in many chit-funds. But if I try to recall If I have bought anything until now, which has helped facilitate anything at home or brought about changes in running chores at home, nothing comes to my mind. This has made me realize one thing: Whatever they did, they had a purpose. And they were bold enough, courageous enough not to take solace in fallacies, like we all do.

Whoever said “The purpose of life is a life of purpose” is simply a genius who understood the essentials of life perfectly. Having a purpose can not only buy you saris, water filters and copper bottom utensils, it can guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals and offer a sense of direction. Now it doesn’t surprise me that even to this day, chit funds, without a legal framework, are very instrumental in realizing the dreams of millions of people out there, because their investments have a purpose. This chit fund episode has taught me a very important lesson:

To really reap the returns of your investment, it should first have a purpose.