NANOWRIMO PAGES 8 TO 11

YOURS TRULY, SOMEONE


The introduction starts with a blogger who is a live character.

Born in 1958, this blogger is still carrying a wonderment about life and his longevity, whatever it is, seems to be full of life, that gets richer by – to borrow his poetic expression – that every drop of the rain of now. In a way, most of the characters in the story have got something or other to do with him.



This witty, emotionally charged character, very grateful to the Almighty for that every drop of the rain of now, himself a huge reservoir of energy that he is – calls himself, Srushti which in Sanskrit, means creation. Srushti is almost always in the joy of Now. He is highly inspired by the Power of Now and is now engaged in his endeavours to Practice the Power of Now.



Usually vulnerable to inspiration by anyone with good vibes, Srushti indulges in blogging and tweeting. A blog of Srushti is a revelation of how much he cares for the common man, wherever on earth.



Every character is given space in the novel with intent to glimpse the purpose of her life, more than the events in her life. As we trot along, you will have met a few people whose purpose of life was understood by them through their hardships. It is the purpose of life that made them live for values that far outweighed their life.



Readers, you may not be liking this experience in case you had expected the flavour of a usual experience of fiction. But if you expected something novel, there is a fair chance that you may pick up liking it.



The author is not a novelist by any standard. He was crazy enough to be a googler, yahooer, hotmailer, blogger and tweeter, like many are across the globe. His heart, over the years, has grown to beat for the common man, wherever on earth. A death anywhere in the world causes him agony. There is a story in that every drop of the rain of now. There is a melancholy in that every drop, when one expands to his universe beyond his family, friends and neighbours. It is just not possible for any socially conscious person today to be impervious to the agony mankind is putting itself to one way or other. There is so much of fiction happening around us.



But anyone can trace human agony through one's own family tree. One can examine whether the agony was avoidable and if avoidable, who was responsible or what was responsible by containing whom or which, the human agony could have been reduced to an extent. Every family with lesser burden of agony, is going to be lighter for the earth and humanity. Every individual counts. Every moment of every individual is so precious, so inevitable, as a source of joy and as a mitigator of agony. The individual like any other entity in the society can ill afford to waste a single moment, a single opportunity, a single truth and means of happiness. If an individual misses that opportunity, there is a huge social cost attached to it. Is he aware of it? Was he aware of it? Which generation was aware of it? Or no generation was aware of it? Was life always complicated by people, family, relatives, friends, society and the world? Or is it a new phenomenon?



There are hundreds of questions that pour like torrent on the head of a poor novelist like me. At the same time, there are quite a few characters asking to come forward, share their experience and perceptions, in high decibels and in hissing voices, from near and from far, from now and from then, from past, present and even future.



It is a most complex situation in my life, as I start allocating time and attention to the characters. If I allow all of them to come at the same time, there is going to be a stampede. Everyone is having the pent up feelings to ventilate and the bottling has been there for centuries.



If I allow them to come one by one, there may be a huge cost in terms of time, the novel or whatever name that can be given to this crazy concept, will not be over even in a dozen Novembers.



I do not want to mislead the characters. I do not want to mislead the readers. I cannot handle excesses of expectations. While I need some expectations to motivate all of us, I am just unequal to all expectations put together.



I invented a solution to the problem.



I will tell you that tomorrow. In the meantime, why don’t you take a flavour of the mind of this one character introduced to you today, the blogger, Srushti. This was one of his recent blogs.











MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2009

YOURS TRULY, SOMEONE

I heard this story during my childhood - if you grew up in a similar geography,

I am sure you would have heard it many a time too.



A community decided to contribute to a Temple in so many ways on the occasion of

the sanctification and inauguration ceremony which is known in native parlance as

'Kumbhabishekam' which literally means 'immersing the pyramid of the temple in holy water and auspicious substances such as milk etc'.



The community divided itself into various groups one of which was to contribute milk. This group was extraordinary in its collective years of experience and wisdom in handling all such events. Each member exactly knew as to what to do. So after great deliberations about the milk, where to source it from, quantity and quality etc, the members were unanimous that each family will contribute 10 litres of milk. And there were 10 families to contribute a total quantity of 100 litres which was thought to be adequate for the Kumbhabhishekam.



As this group was extraordinary at the level of individual member, each member by telepathy thought the same way about the logic of the contribution. The members thought that if it is going to be 90 litres of milk from the remaining 9 members, 10 litres of water should not make any difference for the proposed immersions, after all, when the liquid reaches the repositories for distribution to the devotees, it is better the milk is lighter and that much better for consumption. A noble thought in deed.



The story ends with the Kumbhabhishekam happening in absolute water free from any

contamination of milk as such! This happens with intellectuals of equal ability, experience and wisdom.



I would liken the current intellectualisation of the great recession in various economies to this story. This is a great event to carefully cope with for improving the economy. The whole community of intellectuals has to set about various priorities and see that the event goes through without hurt to anybody and the economy steers through the exercise. Everyone knows exactly what to talk on business channels, how to speculate and theorise.



And everyone believes that the contribution is going to happen from someone else!



I have a pet theory for the intellectuals, arm chair philosophers and the overarching tribe of the fortunate employed as such.



My theory, to put it simply is, be yours truly someone!



Be that someone who can help the economy turn around by being more alert to the grave situation and doing your bit - forget the 90% of others and care to belong to the 10% of someones.



What does yours truly someone do and how does it help?



Let me explain this in terms of choices that yours truly someone can make:



i. If there is a small technical maintenance kind of job that can be done by hiring someone or by yourself, please hire someone and pay him up. Do not try to save that money.



ii. When you are hiring auto or taxi, avoid a hard bargain. Remember, in the current situation, there is an impact on the topline for these people too. Try and accommodate them so that they can absorb their costs. Most of them do not own the vehicles and without a reasonable passing on the cost they cannot survive.



iii. If you usually shop once in a month, try to do shopping more often. One visit tires you, try and distribute your shopping into fortnightly or weekly visits. There may be decent bargains and improvements to be done at home. It is worth your while.



iv. If you are a movie buff try and watch more movies in cinema halls, rather than economising with the help of pirated CDs.



v. You wanted to upgrade yourself by way of a good two wheeler - go for a car which is fuel efficient.



vi. If you are not fully engaged in your job due to lower business confidence and lesser travel, try and invest yourself either in professional education or in tourism, depending upon which propels you better.



vii. In case, your servant or driver hailing from village needs an advance from you for helping their dependents suffering from the ill effects of a bad monsoon, be liberal and deduct the loan through easy instalments. This may be a contribution to mitigate against the increased risk of suicide.



viii. If a vegetable vendor or a fruit vendor or a flower vendor is after you for

buying the fresh arrivals, try and see how much you can buy. They are not asking for charity, they are just seeing how they can survive the onslaught of bad time in the economy - they do not have a roof over them for their shop - they are just at the mercy of your attention for a fraction of a second. It makes a difference to their lives.



ix. If your children want something outside the curriculum like art or game or whatever, please be liberal. Every shopping by them is an incremental benefit to some cottage industry somewhere in the country.



x. Avoid a hard bargain with street vendors - assuming they are exploiting you, think that that is the only way you can help them carry on their life, without becoming a naxalite or terrorist or a criminal. Compared to the exploitations you have gladly accepted from various forces, these are too trivial to react to.



xi. See the brighter side of life during bad times - get connected to nature. Go places. Take the long postponed holiday and

NANOWRIMO PAGES 4 to 7

Who are they? Where are they from?




As I keep struggling to choose the story to tell, a number of characters are queuing up in a kind of competition between them. I feel overwhelmed. I am telling them that I cannot afford to have all of them into one story and I do not even know whether I would eventually be a story teller, the world would be interested in.



The characters are very smart. They argue with me that it does not matter, whether the world would recognize the story. It is very important that I would recognize them. They want that assurance that the truth which they want to convey is not diluted by me in the

role of an author. In essence, they say they want to tell the story,

as it is.



These moments have been most difficult in my memory. I shared my anxiety with the characters that were upon me that I let them speak out. My anxiety is about the fact that as these characters speak out they should not be resembling any characters whom I am not representing through the novel. It is not enough for me to put a disclosure statement and get away. I am an ordinary white collar wage earner, I cannot afford the sophistications in facing claims upon someone's life being told without her permission.



An even more difficult part of the story of writing story is the fact that the characters are stronger than the poor author. Their contention in response to my anxiety is that as they are going to be speaking the truth in their lives, it is just not possible, they will be resembling anybody, as most resemblences start resulting from untruth. It is untruth that can hurt. Truth can never hurt.



I am just not equal to face these arguments from my characters.

But I told them one thing. I would have the freedom when to tell them start and when to tell them stop. And I would not be assigning any reason whatsoever. At last, some of the documents I have scrutinized in my life as banker came to my rescue. None of my characters has worked in a bank. Most of them had little reason to go to a bank as a customer as well. Although the few who had reason had very little to become obsessed with banking. This, for once, gave me some authority. I could structure the covenants for the deal.



I will accommodate as many characters as possible. They would convey truth and nothing else. I will decide when they should start and when they should end. Perhaps, when they should resume as well. Another important freedom I got from them was to introduce them. Even if there are any errors in my introduction they would not mind. They would expect me to introduce them from the period they lived in. I can change the place for narration. They would like to stick to the period with minimal inaccuracy.



As I was facing the characters from my past life, there was a miraculous rendezvous of some characters are engaged in my present life. They would love to dabble in their past as well as present. But they agreed that if I prefer a particular period, I can

intervene to tell them. They would try and accommodate my request as far as possible.



As a person who strongly believes in meticulous planning as the most fundamental step leading to successful execution, I did not mind the slow progress in the maiden novel and devoted a good deal of time in understanding the characters who have chosen to be in the novel.



By the time I was heaving a huge sigh of relief in my peaceful negotiation of a decent deal with various characters, I had the most pleasant surprise in my life. Young boys and girls were in a circle standing like an enclosure to the characters and myself, with their eyes and ears tuned to our conversations. They were intermittently whispering in each other's ears and smiling. I called them to my side and asked, "O my dear children! What are you upto?" These guys with mobiles in hands and ears, asked me in an unbelievable sweet chorus: "Uncle, can we join?".



I said "Join what?"



"Join you guys in writing or telling the novel."



"What do you want to tell?"



"We do not know as yet, we are eager to participate"



"Look, you guys are not going to tell the truth, like others"



"Does it mean we will tell lies?"



















"Oh, No. What I meant is you will not talk the reality. If you want to talk you will talk the dreams and passions. May be fears and concerns. But not what happened. That has been assigned to these characters. Not even what is happening. You need to speak what you think can happen. What you are concerned as a possibility impacting your future. Or what you see happening in future that will change our lives. Neither the Past nor the Present. Is that Ok with you guys?"



There was a deafening silence. I was for a moment wondering about my new skills as I embark upon the tasks for which I am relatively unskilled.



Is it possible when I step out of my comfort zone, I tend to imagine what I can do as a means of stepping into what I can and thus expand through realizing some of such possibilities?



Is it possible when these young boys and girls join me all they are doing is to step out of their comfort zone and they want to venture into something which is not an extension of their reality today but a quantum jump from all that is known about them and all that is potent but yet to be known about them?



If that is the case, I have probably done the right thing by laying down conditions of engagement with them in this novel. They will learn from past but not talk about it. They will realize what is happening but will not talk about it. They will catapult their and collective thinking of all of us in to that tomorrow which is not yet known and for the same reason remains potent with scope for realizing the promise and hope of life. We need some characters to go there and tell us, even as we get busy taking into our comprehension what happened years ago in our lives and what is happening right now without our even taking note of it.



Slowly I realized as I gave the freedom to the characters, we were all together expanding on the basis of a Tripod. The tripod had clear delineations for the past, present and future through various characters and their freedom to express themselves. All I am free to do is to introduce them, request them to start and stop and resume, as we go along.



The characters are human and have a fundamental right to err. And I have a fundamental value to forgive in case of error, but I would love to point out the error for non recurrence.



So much for the rules of the game.



The participative process and spirit of playing the game are more important for the sustainability and joy of the game.



I welcome all the characters to this wonderful experience of writing a novel out of their lives. God bless them with immortality. Even if I succeed in reaching a few scores of readers, I would plead with my characters to accept that as my role successfully played.



Truth often has fewer takers. Truth often is not that juicy. My characters are insisting on speaking the truth, where as I need a good fiction out of the truth.



I only keep my fingers crossed and pray for a readable result.



By the way, who are these characters? Where do they come from? Do they belong to a past or future? Who belong to the present?



An introduction is overdue.

MY MAIDEN NOVEL THROUGH NANOWRIMO - FIRST 3 PAGES

THE UNIVERSAL PROBLEMS: WHO AM I TO SOLVE THESE?




Where to start is always a problem in narrating a story. Be it the smallest incident on the way home, or the story heard during lunch at office or the story one read in a magazine just about the day before.



More than solving this problem it is very important for me to remember that this is not a problem so unique to me. It is a universal problem.



But there can be problems so specific to myself, I will not be able to search for this 'universal' label and fix it on them. (Is this what they mean when they say 'Fix it!'? In a way, it is good to have certain problems unique to oneself; as such problems have a decent chance of becoming the 'Plot'! And the 'Plot' is what a very vital element of a novel is.



In case, just in case, you read a full novel and narrate the story, you would in all probably say this is somewhat the plot. You will start telling the plot, remembering certain characters that impressed you and perhaps you will take a pause, reflecting on the experience you had while reading the novel, which would make you wonder as to how to express to a person who has not read it. Between the reader and the listener who has not read, there is an experience that defies expression. In case the listener wants to complete his experience of the novel, listening to the same in the words of another person would not suffice. He needs to read the novel and experience herself. For all you know, from the same novel, she is going to get an experience so unique to herself.



Have you ever wondered how this is possible? A novel more or less carved in stone by the author, evokes different emotional responses in its readers and perhaps even different emotional responses in the same readers in different occasions of reading.



Even the author is no exception to the phenomenon, as and when he becomes his own reader. He is certain to undergo different emotional responses, at different points of time or at different stages in his life.



Have you ever wondered why this happens?













I have always wondered. Not just at this phenomenon about novels. About life itself, I carry this wonderment. Same events and truths of life evoke different emotional responses in me. I am sure when I read novels which I read in the past – and of course, there is a big 'if I read', I am going to experience a different stream of thoughts and emotions. I keep evolving. And even the minutest change in the evolution gives me a different perspective of life, values, circumstances and what happens to people in different situations.



The paradox is at each stage of evolution, it appears everything has assumed finality about itself, as though there is nothing more to evolve. At each stage of evolution, the creation is so complete in itself. This is the greatness of the creator. There is nothing incomplete in His creation. There is nothing imperfect. And at the same time, everything evolves into a new creation. Everything gets novel and there is no dawn comparable to a previous one, no two sunsets are same and no two moments, reflections, expressions and stories can ever be same. Therefore, I believe deep in my heart, what I write down through this great Nanowrimo vehicle will be novel. It is bound to be. In case, I complete this and you happen to read – even if you did not find it novel, please read again, when you read again, certainly it will evoke a different emotional response from you. I swear I am writing this for You. Who else?



Where to start is a universal problem. Therefore, there is no anxiety about it. What to tell and what not to tell is another universal problem. There is absolutely no perfect blend for this. As the right judgement is always in hindsight, even if there were a solution to this universal problem, the practice would have been to ignore it and pick up the solution at the end of the story. Therefore, I will not indulge in being wiser. I am going to be indiscreet in telling you what ought not to have been told as well. I am sure indiscreet authors are read better. There is no guarantee of my becoming an author, but there is a fair chance that I can achieve the 'indiscreet' label handsomely by writing, or rather, telling a story in detail, by failing to exclude the 'ought not to have been told' stuff as well.



Now we have an exceptional understanding and our expectations are well set, sort of. – I would profoundly thank you before you change your mind on this. This is the right time to tell the story. I am going to take you all to a different decade perhaps when internet was not there, phones were not every home at least in a country like India and mobiles were not even imagined. It is a time when people used to be connected by meeting in person. And if they did not meet frequently enough, they used to miss each other a lot and make a big issue about it. Families, friends and relatives were all expected to meet during festivals, marriages, births and deaths in the family. Celebrations and condolences were equally important. Being there with your near and dear was a value with which compromise was just not done. People were not conditioned by a tweet of 140 characters. They were supposed to be - generally were up to that supposition – generous not in just their laughters but their tears. In fact, condolences used to be in high decibel, to an extent that where need be, people could be employed for the purpose. Feasts used to be not just sumptuous but on the back of compelling hospitality, a bit hard on one's stomach. Feasts used to be prepared and served by the hosts themselves, rather than contractors. The abundance in all these was superb. There was a prosperity even in poor countries like India which is no longer within the capacity of your imagination. There was abundance in the life of everyone. Perhaps, there was a lesser longevity, but much more life residing in that longevity. Today, my friend, the longevity is more, but life is less.



In a sense, I am going to tell through this month long endeavour in novel writing, the story of a nation. A nation whose generation to generation movement has a great story, neither relished nor forgotten, but often ignored in her quest for development. The story of a nation who progressed but perhaps lost her grip over the purpose of progress of a nation and her people.



Is it my story? May be. Is it the story of my parents? Possible. Is it the story of my brothers and sister? Quite possible. Is it the story of the common man? That of the lower middle class of India? That of villages and small towns of India? I cannot say or vouchsafe exactly what is this story about and who exactly are the characters in it. Perhaps I do not have to. As I start recollecting the truth that my life has been through, the people about whom I need to write will visit the story. In a sense, they will write the story. Not me.



With this another universal problem is getting resolved: who can tell the story best? And about whom the story should be told? The characters themselves will tell the story. And they will tell about themselves or more. I leave it to them. This is a highly democratic novel. The characters will decide what to tell, when to tell and what not to tell too. Do not blame me. I am not the author. Every character is an author.



And with plenty of freedom to speak out.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz, and Ada Yonath win 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2009/10/venkatraman_ramakrishnan_thoma.php

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5097626.cms?flstry=1

yuga ratna: the symbol of emerging youth power

http://www.ndtv.com/news/blogs/climate_change/13-year-olds_message_at_the_un.php

A most humbling moment.

Reflecting on the wonderful 23 years of marriage.

A great journey with a great friend.

An overwhelming partnership.

A most humbling moment.

The Spiritual and Health Benefits of Ramadan Fasting

The Spiritual and Health Benefits of Ramadan Fasting

By Shahid Athar M.D.

At the onset of Ramadan Muslims all over the world start fasting from dawn to dusk daily for 30 days as ordained in Quran.

"O you who believe fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you so that you can learn Taqwa" (Quran 2:183)

The Arabic word Taqwa is translated in many ways including God consciousness, God fearing, piety, and self restraining. Thus we are asked to fast daily for one month from dawn to dusk and avoid food, water, sex and vulgar talk during that period.

But why do we need to fast? It is our experience that temptations and ways of the world tend to spoil our purity and austerity. Thus we indulge in food all of the time, snacking and nibbling the whole day, heading to obesity. We drink too much coffee, or tea, or carbonated drinks. Some sexaholics can not stay away from sex unless they do it at least once or more a day. When we argue, we leave our decency aside and resort to vulgar talk and even physical fighting.
Now when one is fasting, he or she cannot do all of that. When he looks at the mouth watering food, he cannot even taste it and he has to give up snacking and nibbling as well as smoking cigarettes if he does. No constant coffee, tea or Coke drinking either. Sexual passions have to be curtailed and when he is provoked to fight, he says " I am fasting that I cannot respond to your provocation". To achieve God consciousness or God nearness, a better word, we are advised to do additional prayer and read the Quran.

Medical benefits of RamadanMuslims do not fast because of medical benefits which are of a secondary nature. Fasting has been used by patients for weight management, to rest the digestive tract and for lowering lipids. There are many adverse effects of total fasting as well as of crash diets. Islamic fasting is different from such diet plans because in Ramadan fasting, there is no malnutrition or inadequate calorie intake. The calorie intake of Muslims during Ramadan is at or slightly below the nutritional requirement guidelines. In addition, the fasting in Ramadan is voluntarily taken and is not a prescribed imposition from the physician.

Ramadan is a month of self-regulation and self training, with the hope that this training will last beyond the end of Ramadan. If the lessons learned during Ramadan, whether in terms of dietary intake or righteousness, are carried on after Ramadan, there effects will be long lasting. Moreover, the type of food taken during Ramadan does not have any selective criteria of crash diets such as those which are protein only or fruit only type diets. Everything that is permissible is taken in moderate quantities.

The difference between Ramadan and total fasting is the timing of the food; during Ramadan, we basically miss lunch and take an early breakfast and do not eat until dusk. Abstinence from water for 8 to 10 hours is not necessarily bad for health and in fact, it causes concentration of all fluids within the body, producing slight dehydration. The body has its own water conservation mechanism; in fact, it has been shown that slight dehydration and water conservation, at least in plant life, improve their longevity.

The physiological effect of fasting includes lowering of blood sugar, lowering of cholesterol and lowering of the systolic blood pressure. In fact, Ramadan fasting would be an ideal recommendation for the treatment of mild to moderate, stable, non-insulin diabetes, obesity, and essential hypertension. In 1994 the first International Congress on "Health and Ramadan", held in Casablanca, entered 50 extensive studies on the medical ethics of fasting. While improvement in many medical conditions was noted; however, in no way did fasting worsen any patients' health or their baseline medical condition. On the other hand, patients who are suffering from sever diseases, whether type I diabetes or coronary artery disease, kidney stones, etc., are exempt from fasting and should not be allowed to fast.

There are psychological effects of fasting as well. There is a peace and tranquility for those who fast during the month of Ramadan. Personal hostility is at a minimum, and the crime rate decreases. Muslims take advice from the Prophet who said, "If one slanders you or aggresses against you, say I am fasting."

This psychological improvement could be related to better stabilization of blood glucose during fasting as hypoglycemia after eating, aggravates behavior changes. There is a beneficial effect of extra prayer at night. This not only helps with better utilization of food but also helps in energy output. There are 10 extra calories output for each unit of the prayer. Again, we do not do prayers for exercise, but a mild movement of the joints with extra calorie utilization is a better form of exercise. Similarly, recitation of the Quran not only produces a tranquility of heart and mind, but improves the memory.

One of the odd nights in the last 10 days of Ramadan is called the night of power when angels descend down, and take the prayer of worship to God for acceptance.
Fasting is a special act of worship which is only between humans and God since no one else knows for sure if this person is actually fasting. Thus God says in a hadith qudsi that "Fasting is for Me and I only will reward it". In another hadith, the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) has said "If one does not give up falsehoods in words and actions, God has no need of him giving up food and drink".

Happy Ramadan to all Muslims.

Shahid Athar M.D. is Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana, and a writer on Islam.

YOURS TRULY, SOMEONE

I heard this story during my childhood - if you grew up in a similar geography,
I am sure you would have heard it many a time too.

A community decided to contribute to a Temple in so many ways on the occasion of
the sanctification and inauguration ceremony which is known in native parlance as
'Kumbhabishekam' which literally means 'immersing the pyramid of the temple in holy water and auspicious substances such as milk etc'.

The community divided itself into various groups one of which was to contribute milk. This group was extraordinary in its collective years of experience and wisdom in handling all such events. Each member exactly knew as to what to do. So after great deliberations about the milk, where to source it from, quantity and quality etc, the members were unanimous that each family will contribute 10 litres of milk. And there were 10 families to contribute a total quantity of 100 litres which was thought to be adequate for the Kumbhabhishekam.

As this group was extraordinary at the level of individual member, each member by telepathy thought the same way about the logic of the contribution. The members thought that if it is going to be 90 litres of milk from the remaining 9 members, 10 litres of water should not make any difference for the proposed immersions, after all, when the liquid reaches the repositories for distribution to the devotees, it is better the milk is lighter and that much better for consumption. A noble thought in deed.

The story ends with the Kumbhabhishekam happening in absolute water free from any
contamination of milk as such! This happens with intellectuals of equal ability, experience and wisdom.

I would liken the current intellectualisation of the great recession in various economies to this story. This is a great event to carefully cope with for improving the economy. The whole community of intellectuals has to set about various priorities and see that the event goes through without hurt to anybody and the economy steers through the exercise. Everyone knows exactly what to talk on business channels, how to speculate and theorise.

And everyone believes that the contribution is going to happen from someone else!

I have a pet theory for the intellectuals, arm chair philosophers and the overarching tribe of the fortunate employed as such.

My theory, to put it simply is, be yours truly someone!

Be that someone who can help the economy turn around by being more alert to the grave situation and doing your bit - forget the 90% of others and care to belong to the 10% of someones.

What does yours truly someone do and how does it help?

Let me explain this in terms of choices that yours truly someone can make:

i. If there is a small technical maintenance kind of job that can be done by hiring someone or by yourself, please hire someone and pay him up. Do not try to save that money.

ii. When you are hiring auto or taxi, avoid a hard bargain. Remember, in the current situation, there is an impact on the topline for these people too. Try and accommodate them so that they can absorb their costs. Most of them do not own the vehicles and without a reasonable passing on the cost they cannot survive.

iii. If you usually shop once in a month, try to do shopping more often. One visit tires you, try and distribute your shopping into fortnightly or weekly visits. There may be decent bargains and improvements to be done at home. It is worth your while.

iv. If you are a movie buff try and watch more movies in cinema halls, rather than economising with the help of pirated CDs.

v. You wanted to upgrade yourself by way of a good two wheeler - go for a car which is fuel efficient.

vi. If you are not fully engaged in your job due to lower business confidence and lesser travel, try and invest yourself either in professional education or in tourism, depending upon which propels you better.

vii. In case, your servant or driver hailing from village needs an advance from you for helping their dependents suffering from the ill effects of a bad monsoon, be liberal and deduct the loan through easy instalments. This may be a contribution to mitigate against the increased risk of suicide.

viii. If a vegetable vendor or a fruit vendor or a flower vendor is after you for
buying the fresh arrivals, try and see how much you can buy. They are not asking for charity, they are just seeing how they can survive the onslaught of bad time in the economy - they do not have a roof over them for their shop - they are just at the mercy of your attention for a fraction of a second. It makes a difference to their lives.

ix. If your children want something outside the curriculum like art or game or whatever, please be liberal. Every shopping by them is an incremental benefit to some cottage industry somewhere in the country.

x. Avoid a hard bargain with street vendors - assuming they are exploiting you, think that that is the only way you can help them carry on their life, without becoming a naxalite or terrorist or a criminal. Compared to the exploitations you have gladly accepted from various forces, these are too trivial to react to.

xi. See the brighter side of life during bad times - get connected to nature. Go places. Take the long postponed holiday and travel. Every time you break your routine, you would have lit up a lamp in somebody's family. You would have been yours truly someone, who has been kind and helpful to genuine individuals whose endeavours are so ethical, that they do not stretch arms before you without offering a value for you in terms of products or services. That is the greatness of your society from where you have grown. Be that some one. Be yours truly, someone.

The Qatar Experience..

I had a very pleasant Qatar experience. The flight from Riyadh to Doha, the short transition in Doha and the flight from Doha to Chennai were all, overall, a pleasant experience.

More or less for the first time in middle east, I got the special meal request, responded to. Kudos to Travelocity. These guys operating from US have a good customer service team (reads US location, I don't know whether this team is Bangalored or not!).

They picked up my request, registered with Qatar Airways and did make the pleasant difference to my intra Middle East leg.

The Qatar experience was good, I may repeat some journeys through Qatar Airways. Lately, I am looking at alternatives to Air Arabia which is an airline I like in its ideas and execution. But Sharjah transition does not give you a feel good, which perhaps Qatar gave me this time.

Customer experience does demand efficiency as the bed rock but variables like courteous behaviour and ease in environments like airports does get a combined branding of promise for airlines and airports, I believe.

Now Travelocity and Qatar Airways have both increased their share in my mindspace as a traveller. Not for extraordinary things, but for basic things well done in a friendly manner.

There is a lot to learn, when one is satisfied as a customer in any services.

A Mixed Feeling..

I will be breaking my daily posting
for the first time tomorrow.

It is a mixed feeling.

The break is one way due to
traveling which may be routine
in the life of a person living away
from family.

But the mixed feeling is not because of travel.

It is because of the destination.

My destination is my voting booth.

Yeah, I am traveling for
casting my vote.

A couple of weeks before
I had resigned to not going to India.
There were obstacles.
There was a sprain in the left knee
which scared me traveling to and
fro without much rest.

As such I am prone to
knee pains during air travel.
And if the travelling is both ways
in a matter of 2 to 3 days,
I was not sure - I was saying No
to myself!

To make matters worse,
my on line reservation failed.

I was snappy and called up
my wife to say I am not coming.
She also added a note:
it is too hot here, you did the correct thing.

I also consoled myself
that NRIs are so far away,
not every one could go to India and vote.
There has to be another solution.
The Election Commission should
do something about it.
There must be a way to enable
votes, may be votes on line.
What is not possible with today's
technology, that too, for India?

Then came an email
campaigning against wasting vote
for the politicians who do not deserve our
vote in the first place.

this forcefully presented
argument, what with
the perks that MPs enjoy,
the costs that go from
the tax payers,
so on and so forth -
was a bolt from the blue.

i was as such
persuading people one way or other
to cast their vote.
this email against voting
was heavy for me.
i made a passionate appeal
to the associates from whom
the appeal not to vote had come.
i do not know what happened to
my appeal.

but i was very emotional about this appeal.

i thought only casting the vote
is the true tribute to
the sacrifices our
forefathers made,
through their sufferings
and sacrifices.

this vote has not come that easily to us.
there are a very few countries
which went for an adult franchise
for everyone without
any discrimination in terms of
caste, religion and gender.

by not casting the vote
because we do not agree with the way
the politicians conduct themselves,
we only strengthen
vote bank politics which encourages
voters to elect politicians who
divide India.

India needs very badly
those votes which are cast
without caste, religion or any
sub national interest in mind.
Those votes are with us,
who can think independently
and trust the best among the
candidates with our vote and
demand our rights from the
representative we elect.
By absenting from this process,
we weaken democracy.

An eerie silence befell upon me
after my hard and impassioned
persuasion with voters who were
unlikely to vote..

What was I doing after all?
I felt invited.
It was as if India was beckoning me.
It was as if my motherland valued
that single vote I could cast.

I did not take much time to rethink.

When I called up my mother,
she said something to me,
that summed up my mixed feelings:
"so this trip you are making as
citizen of India"

Tomorrow, this blog hour,
I will be mentally in Creatiwe!

In the midst of clouds,
my thoughts will be
around what I could write in
Creatiwe!

It is a mixed feeling,
not because I am traveling and
taking a break from my blog,
but because my
destination is for my voting booth,
thousands of miles away and
still close to my heart,
as close as my motherland!

THE FIRST EXPERIENCES AS A BLOGGER

Ever since I created the blogs in Tamil and English, I have kept my postings going. There was, no doubt, an intial euphoria, communicating to the people who are important to me as friends, associates, relatives and colleagues.

My first posting was done very passionately. Each day, I am trying to touch a different subject and reflect on it. Choice of a subject has never posed a problem. In fact now when I read, when I think or reflect on what an interviewee is talking aboout, often, a question pops up in mind: is it a good idea to blog about this?

Often, these pop ups come and go very fast. No deliberate blocking. No unblocking either.
And almost to an assurance of 100% none of the pop ups comes to be written.

Nonetheless, there is a sense of being bugged by several ideas, impressions, observations, thought processes and what have you, for being blogged. It is as if thoughts are competing with themselves and ideas are trying to be forceful on me with a strong intent to be blogged about.

This is a strange, yet highly energizing feeling. And I see myself doing many a thing fast and in time, with my subconscious driving me to save those minutes for settling down in sofa to blog today.

While NDTV is always in the background like a base tone at home, like a thamboora in a concert, the fingers that were flip flopping channels with the TV remote are now busy typing.

There are several changes in me, a rather addicted netizen, post initiation into blogging, that two in two languages. One important change is I come out of mail box (frequency of getting in hasnt come down). I bye pass my inbox now after a peep. I know there is some serious thing by the evening I need to complete before going to bed and that is much more valuable to me.

I think this is a pleasant experience. But this no way implies the experience is complete. There is a longing for readership or followership to use the Google expression. My netizenship quotient being higher than my circle of friends, relatives, well wishers and associates, this is going to be a challenge.

Then what has been achieved in real real terms? Oh, it is plenty. I am in touch with my roots. I am reflective about my most distant past. I am reminiscing a lot. It is as if, I am reliving the seasons of my life, all over again. This is a unique experience. There is a concentration of nostalgia and there is a flight into whatever out of my life, I would love to be brought into my showcase.

If I had taken a notebook and started writing every day a bit, I may not have achieved this much. While who is going to read this and how much are going to remain challenges, if there is a friend who would not mind reading and discussing this, I have something to share with that friend of mine. Quite something. This gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Am I nervous as a blogger about what I write and what reactions could be?

The only that makes me nervous is no one reading and no one reacting! The first experiences as a blogger are remarkable. I would love to carry on. Let the show go on. Some day, there will be spectators, that is what I can tell myself through my blog!

THE NEED OF THE HOUR IS A BIT OF IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE!

What happens when speculators are hurt? Everyone else starts speculating. Because when times are good, it is the irrational exuberance (some times, an excess dose of it) brings the valuations which breach the boundaries of fundamentals, which, in a way, catalyses the market and makes it liquid for several asset classes. Of course, the communities of analysts, rating agencies and regulators are to keep a watch and let the ordinary investor know their perceptions, some of them directly and some of them through the Government and public fora.

So what is new about this? When recession has not slipped into depression, the rational investor with a low appetite for risk is unable to reduce cash levels much and is still on the horns of dilemma. The reasons are two fold: an assured bottoming out is better for him than making the right timing, a little later he can pick up assets, even if slightly higher valuations than in the bottom, as direction would be clearly established. Secondly, when things are hazy for an investor with low risk appetite, it is difficult to decide time horizons for investments. Out of bottom, time horizons come clear, because there are more investors getting in along with whom, one can enter. Without them, it is too much of a traders' market and such a company may go against the grain of the genuine long term investor.

A bit of irrational exuberance may be the right answer for this situation. Just a bit. You need a small section of investors who can hold on with their investments by entering the market now using the attractive valuations and hastening a view of bottoming out and revival of growth in sectors helpful to lift the economy out of the gloom.

Who can be this investor? There was a time when these investors came dime a dozen to the market because of easy and abundant credit - quantitatively as well qualitatively, thanks to the greed of bankers, insurers, analysts and a whole lot of players who could not resist the bubbles that were inevitable with a lower interest regime running longer and longer and with more or less vocal support of Alan Greenspan and the Government who missed the evolving story.

Now, even if Govt pumps in money after money into banks, insurance companies and corporates, these investors are not returning to the market. There is resistance to exuberance. A lot of rationality has now suddenly taken over the sentiment.

Government can just spare a fraction of the money it is dumping in to buy controls into banks and the like, and invest it in the market, with an exuberance that reflects its confidence in the changing economy - whether rational one or irrational one hardly matters.

The money sunk into balance sheets with bottomless pits is not really producing an impact. Government should also be an investor. So, perhaps the regulator. These should enter the arena, not as a trader, but an investor who wants to enter ahead of the institutional and individual investors. An investor who will dare money and time it now and help market bottom out, rather than let people keep speculating about the bottoming out.

This is one contrary view I would love my blog readers to react to. Earlier Governments and Regulators acted pro cyclical and landed where they are. It will take quite some time for a strategy to transition out of the pro cyclical measures into long term counter cyclical measures. During that transition, certain amount of irrational exuberance within dosage permitted and with fiscal and monetary controls synchronizing to gain control over such exuberance, ahead of any new damages to the system start kicking in, does not appear to be a bad idea.

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES ARE LIKE COINCIDENCES

Independent Candidates are like coincidences. You cannot ignore them. You cannot read too much into them either. In the Indian elections this time around, there are a number of pleasant coincidences, I mean, independent candidates.

While Capt Gopinath and Meera Sanyal, both come from very impressive and successful corporate and banking backgrounds, I found Meera Sanyal much more confident, a pointer to the fact that South Mumbai has a clear politically conscious and politically neutral electoral constituency, relative to South Bangalore.

While South Bangalore had the main candidate in Ananth Kumar, whose campaigns by email were, a breath of fresh air for me, the main candidate of South Mumbai is undoubtedly Milind Deorah. Milind's campaign was largely positive, except for the irritability shown towards Meera Sanyal, which in long and short is: how can one come to politics with sabbatical leave and go back to banking profession in case of non election? This is not the way political profession is pursued.

I, for one, strongly disagree with Milind Deorah. This goes against the very philosophy of what educated, sucessful and socially committed individuals can do for the nation. In case the proposals placed before public by Meera Sanyal are accepted by the voters, she is going to quit her regular job and go to Parliament with no assurance she can get back to her work, in case she is not reelected in the next election. That is sufficient investment of oneself for the social cause.
In case her proposals are not approved by the voters and their mandate to her is not to go to Parliament, how can that mandate become one for not going back to work?

Assuming what Milind proposes is the right thing, no professional can ever think of bringing new arguments and proposals before voters. How does that improve the choices for the voters? And with the repeated mandates what have the political parties really achieved - which is what an independent candidate wants to question and bring about change in the way we look at political power.

It is not at all important whether independent candidates get elected. They do amplify voices that go unheard in the cacophony of psychopants of party leadership. They bring new arguments and they bring in new focus on their constituency. They are needed to oxygenize Indian polity and they can point to changes as may be badly needed in our politics, ahead of others. They do not have to worship anyone and for that reason withhold any view.

The presence of Independent candidates like Meera Sanyal makes Indian elections and political processes more acceptable. They are most needed pleasant coincidences: you may not read much into them but they are catalysts we can ill afford to ignore them.

THE NANOCADE!

The decade that is at our doorsteps is a Nanocade!

There are several evidences that suggest this:

Micro finance is going places: Grameen Bank is expanding in US and has already started operations in New York!

We all have seen how disruptive Nano is for the global four wheeler market. While Nano is
going to take time for delivering a full measure to the aspiring middle class and first time
four wheeler buyers in India, the likes of Nano like Reva and all are very well accepted in Europe.

Smaller nations like Afghanisthan are at the centre of foreign policy of US!

Smaller parties are planning to rule the nation through new fronts.

The small is daring the big in this election. Meera Sanyal, Capt Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai are daring to compete with bigger candidates.

IPod relatively smaller than its cousins in electronics, is ruling the roost.

The Nano thinking is all pervasive: even Tatas have not stopped with Nano in the motors; TATA housing has big plans in the affordable segment of sub 10 lacs category: they are raising 1000 units in Thane and are tying up with SBI for distribution of application forms. Of course, TATAs earlier also entered budget hotels segment.

Budget airlines buck the trend and flourish when bigger airlines struggle.

Bharti Airtel talks big about the small customers from the rural areas. FMCG is growing through the small villages and towns. Tier II is expected to overtake the metros and big towns in regard to consumption of durables.

The whole business world is afraid of the small Swine virus!

Slumdog Millionaire won most nominations upsetting major contenders. The theme was around success of the underdogs from slums.

Child artistes are making big waves both in cinema and endorsements. Even child directors are on the horizon, right?

Smallest food delicacies like Idli, Vada Paav and all become big industry. Even an IIM graduate makes it big with Idli Shops!

Saches beat products with larger packaging!

The smaller players in the erstwhile economic order like Brazil, Russia, India and China are overtaking the rest of the globe changing the order.

The small corporate world of Asia is producing the largest number of billionaires.

Laptops are competing with each other for becoming slimmer, lighter and smaller.

Smaller alternative sources of energy are gaining ground.

Bloggers are flourishing as the most read writers. No longer they are marginalized.

Marginalized sections of society are aspiring to share power in every sphere of activity.

The small groups of activists are daring and challenging bigger lobbies and institutions successfully.

Smaller nations are able to halt imposition of one sided rules of trade and investments by the bigger nations like never before!

Twenty twenty has changed the rules of the game and has created a whole new global market. Who would have thought earlier Cricket will reach even US?

If all these are not signalling the inevitable arrival of Nanocade, perhaps a lot more are!

Consider the nanoisation producing new jargons:

large cap, midcap, small cap and nano cap (to represent the sub small cap stocks)
sensex, nifty, nanex (to represent the tiny stocks)
nano syllables (less than a mono syllable)
maximum, minimum, nanimum (breaking known minima)
micro finance, nano finance (smaller credit than usual micro credit)
top line, bottom line, nano line (profit at the bottom of pyramid)

Small is not just beautiful, small is powerful. The Nanocade has arrived!

BANGALORE AND BUFFALO

President Obama is essentially taking his election campaign into tangible action and in the process, does use the campaign language for iterations and policy making. Bangalore is an
expected reference when it comes to any discussion on outsourcing. In fact, Bangalore is a verb today. If your job is Bangalored, it signifies the job is outsourced to any country which is not yours, not necessarily India.

Should Indians and Indian techies at that react to Obama's tax proposals? Is Obama not entitled to carry forward the mandate of people? And aren't democrats, leave alone Obama, known for anti-outsourcing stances? And inspite of the political lobbying against outsourcing, hasn't India become a global destination for outsourcing? And is Bangalore not a brand that stands tall on its promise and delivery?

The questions are worth pondering over. We all, including Indians, need to see the unique context in which the electoral rhetoric against outsourcing is extending itself into tangible action against tax incentives for companies who have been blamed to create jobs outside USA.

No doubt it is protectionism back in its original elements. No doubt it is a reversal of liberalization in trade and services.

Now the questions that will eventually arise - which I am sure, over long term, Obama will pursue for a resolution, would be about the sustainability of enterprises that look inward and try to produce with supply constraints on talent both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Having said that, I would like to add, this will be an area of opportunity for disruptive IT Companies of India to think through new business models which seek to protect jobs in US with a goal of making tax effective solutions that seek to achieve a higher component of on shore collobaration and a dominant share of business transformation projects at the higher end of the value chain,
rather than, focusing on the labour arbitrage model. It is quite possible that these companies may use the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual resource base in US for setting up on shore, near shore and off shore units where Americans are employed in all these zones - a prospect which leads to creation of more jobs for US citizens and a prospect that can lead to fresh tax incentives from Obama.

While the emerging markets do hope to decouple from the US and Europe and do emit such signals off and on, a US which takes longer for recovery is the worst that can happen to, among others, emerging markets like India. We need US to revitalize its economy, boost its business and consumer confidence and boost its trade and investment with the rest of the world, particularly the new engines of the world which have mitigated the risk of a deeper and longer recession than the world has experienced earlier.

Does this mean India should remain silent? I think India should hasten all those possibilities where there is a generation of US jobs through its Corporates eager to increase global foot prints. Obama or US or anyone has not said anything against Indian employers in their land or Indian Investments in their markets. With valuations being what they are now, the Indian corporates with global aspirations should enter US in a big way, create jobs in US as well as in India. There are Indian Corporates like Bharti Airtel who are known to outsource processes from outside India, perhaps US or at least the developed world. This potential needs to be further unlocked.

Secondly, India should take up with US the double taxation treaty for a review and negotiate for right terms and conditions in the changing scenario.

Thirdly, India should explore the low hanging fruits of collaborating with US for establishing nuclear plants making use of the Indo US nuclear deal. I read during the height of deliberations on the nuclear deal in India, that each nuclear plant creates at least 5000 jobs in USA.

Fourthly, Obama administration is keen to boost investments in alternate energy. India has a great potential to do Indo US joint ventures in wind energy and solar energy. India can become a potential investor in such projects both in US and India. The green agenda of Obama is good not for just US but for countries like India whose economic well being is, often, dominated by high oil prices.

Fifthly, as US Corporates will need the Indian talent anyway, India should lobby with their help for easing of Visas as a barter for the Obama agenda of protecting jobs. The Corporates will need to either outsource or immigrate a certain component of the talent. This will be inevitable and this should be institutionalized.

Sixthly, there may be scope for employing Americans in key positions in the Indian BPOs and KPOs - even if this will not boost numbers to a high US count, the rhetoric will be dented and the sentiment can ease a bit, which is also important, if not all important.

As a Bangalorean, I am glad Obama needed Bangalore as a powerful expession of his push on the tax incentives to US Corporates outsourcing from rest of the world. As an Indian, I am confident that sooner than later, the lobby for outsourcing will only get strengthened and excesses of the day will get corrected. Then it will no longer be Bangalore Versus Buffalo. It will be Bangalore and Buffalo - generating a value that exceed the sum of the two.

Challenges of an interconnected world

In an individual's life, there are 3 phases of maturity, namely dependence, independence and interdependence. In the pre-internet world, more or less the larger groups of individuals also evolved into these phases of maturity in socio-cultural, political and economic contexts.

Post-internet, there is a much faster pace about the evolution of individuals, families, societies, nations, regional groupings with the result, the world is at once shrunk and complex. In all these evolutions, there is a key element: choice. Choices individuals make. Choices families, societies and various political and economic groups make. Choices that suit value systems and choices that undermine value systems.

The internet age has led to a kind of interconnectivity which overrides the phenomena of interdependence that was evolving in a slow pace through various socio economic groups.

This interconnectivity challenges the choices of yesterday as also the values of yesterday. This brings in a barrage of choices that defy almost all known contours of the games as they were played and controlled in the erstwhile divided interdependent world.

The unified interconnected world is at once simple, small and inclusive by way of connect and complex,too huge and exclusive by way of choices.

Today's interconnected world has made the individual life very complex. On the one hand, the interconnectedness is opening flood gate of opportunities to a knowledge world that knows no borders; on the other hand, the disconnect for the knowledge-individual from the traditional umblical chord with the smaller, compact groups like family, neighbourhood, native town or village community, sub national and national groupings is phenomenal.

The disconnect is, without doubt, perilous for social good to be realized within manageable turfs. Due to this disconnect, one does get lost out of the original purpose that was keeping the rhythm of day to day existence and harmony of life in tact.

As the mindspace of the individual keeps expanding tuned to an ever changing cyber environ, there is a huge threat of an information-fatigue and obfuscation of purpose of life.

A fanatic netizen is prone to hyper act and loose the valuable, stable and natural defences that lie in her own roots and in the course of getting interconnected to the virtual world, can very well be disconnected from the real world.

At a higher level of social plane, the challenges are palpable. Identities are getting destroyed. New identities are getting created, but there is no value system to cling on to, any more, as every value system is perceived to live shorter and shorter.

Each knowledge individual is evolving into multiple identities that keep questioning the fundamentals of the hitherto accepted social, political and economic philosophies -, there is now, as it were, a new equation in which all values are to die and no values matter that strong as these appeared to be in a world which was less interconnected but more interdependent.

While the destruction of old order is so much assured, there is no light that leads to a new path that can elevate the human life, in the perception of various sections of the society.

The ripples that keep circling in the net are far too many to ignore in the context of individuals and are at the same time far too weak to transform the humanity, as these often seek to.

How does, then, an individual who is part of the system take care of herself? What does a family do, if it is faced with an impact on the individual who is unable to settle and stabilize? At each level of impact, the questions that arise can keep echoing the dilemmas of the interconnected world, without an answer.

I think, at the end of the day, it is a journey for all social groupings - not individuals alone. The families that care for the individual need to connect to her through the same universe of choices, adapt to the same tools and techniques. This may perhaps help the interested entities find new ways of bonding with and sharing identity with the individual. This may help the disturbed entities find a foothold in a world to which the individual has been transported, apparently without his family or social roots.

Let us face certain realities without remorse: if I can chat, blog and community-group with my children, I am in better touch with them. I continue to be around in their mind space through the web space.

A parent, a teacher, a friend, a boss or an Institution is in better touch with respective target groups and constituencies to be engaged with through the medium and means of today's interconnected world.

The other day, I was insisting with my sister about installing Googletalk , who is, given a choice, inimical to these tools. The trouble is regardless of phone and mobile being around, the way i navigate into the channels of the day, I do not navigate through the tools of yesterday, I do not want to loose my people because of this and would rather persuade them to be part of the shift.

Suddenly through the last decade or so, there is an abundance in all our lives which we are not able to cope with. Today one needs to achieve more, but also has to read more, write more, see more and share more. Today's communications can be continuous with no measure of the conventional time limiting its continuity. Time has lost its definitions in the perennial flow of the world wide web.

Even if one counters the abundance theory with joblessness, look at what the jobless would have done a decade ago and what they do now. There is an abundance of activity for everyone.

Do families need to care at all for the lost individual, as usual? I would say they need to care even more, but they need to become part of the shrunk globe and be in the virtual neighbourhood of their wards. Being physically around is by no means being in touch with them. The world is interconnected. Families cannot afford not to be.