Happy Birthday Gayathri!

The opportunity of adversity

"The only true  disability is a crushed spirit"

Tips for a better life!

The following is not my advice. But I think they are lovely. Read it. Take what is sensible to you and discard the rest!

 1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day & while you walk, SMILE. It is the ultimate antidepressant.

 2. Sit in silence for atleast 10 minutes each day.

 3. When you wake up in the morning, Pray to ask God's guidance for your purpose today.

 4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

 5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, broccoli, and almonds.

 6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

 7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.

Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

 8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

 9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

 10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Forgive them for everything.

 11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

 12.You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

 13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

 14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

 15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

 16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

 17. Help the needy, Be Generous ! Be a 'Giver' not a 'Taker'

 18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

 19. Time heals everything.

 20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

 21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

 22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

 23. Each night before you go to bed ,Pray to God and Be thankful for what you've accomplished today.

 24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

Swing away Sahana!

Bad news

One of the the traits I have failed to develop so far is to deliver a bad news to a stranger without feeling bad about it. The bad feeling that I have from the time conception to delivery of the news, sometimes counted in days, causes low levels of prolonged stress. Often my discomfort shows up on my face and the receiver takes advantage of my sensitivity. I wish to develop a thick skin. But how do I know if it crosses the limit to become insensitivity? Or should I even care?

Reading tell me why!

Making the most of infancy

IPL - Aren't we pushing it?

I love cricket. Not as much now as I used to earlier. But I still love it. But the upcoming IPL fills me up with mixed feelings. Multiple rounds between around 10 teams for about two months in all-day-night events during the summer when power cuts are more prevalent than mosquito-bites. This year there are already places where there are 10 hours of power cut per day (Trichy for example). Entertainment is necessary. Aren't we pushing it?

Accountability in water usage

In urban bangalore, where water is getting scarcer by the day, seeing someone cleaning the the road in front of his house with a water hose connected to a tap sends a chill through your spine. I think the fact that one pays with currency for a natural resource shouldn't give one the right to waste it. Not so obviously anyway. Its about time some sort of accountability is built into water usage. I only hope it isn't too late.

Special dedication to Sharmi

First week of March 2011 was a week with a unique feeling of insecurity, that I would never like to experience again. This week last year, Sharmila was unconscious, fighting the bacterial meningitis to which she succumbed on March 6th. I promised to myself that I will continue the good work I did in the social sector, in which she took an active interest during her days of well-being. After about a year marked by struggle with work, family-related developments and not to forget the plain laziness that is ingrained in me, I finally organized a short, but sweet science demo in which I took a friend's help in demonstrating the working of a simple DC motor to a bunch of school kids supported by the company I work for. I write this post to officially dedicate this to my departed friend, albeit with a sense of embarrassment for not having done this earlier. A special thanks to the dude who took to the stage and help me bridge the language barrier, and not to forget Arvind Gupta who had shared the know-how in arvindguptatoys.com.

Starring down the barrel.

For once l don't mind starring down the barrel :-)

Colloquy in Media is disconcerting

The fact that the media is including colloquy in its content is disconcerting! I wouldn't bother if it appears in Times of India's Page 3 section (That is assuming that they have any other page at all!) But that is not the case. Why would someone like P.Sainath say "...largest producer of rice for some years" rather than "...a few years"? Why would a newspaper as serious about its purpose as Mint say "China accounts for something like 30-60% of the global demand for most commodities". 

It is a recognized fact that the general quality of English usage has gone down over the last couple of decades. This is only supported by the fact that competitive exams like CAT and GRE use this as an effective tool of elimination. Media plays an important role in ensuring that the general standard doesn't deteriorate if not improve. But I feel that this role is fast being forgotten!

SAD!

"Dengue that doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"

My brother was hospitalized because of Dengue last week and he was there for about 4 days. That was the first time when I had a first hand experience of having a member of my family's "first circle" to be hospitalized for some condition other than the likes of pregnancy or a cataract... for something life threatening. There was a twenty minute window when the possibility of losing my brother was clear and present. I can spend the next one hour walking through it second by second. But that is neither the point of this post, nor would that be rewarding emotionally or intellectually. I would rather use this space and the rarely available time to write a blog post to analyze what lessons I can learn and remember to use going forward.

1. Dengue is one of the many diseases caused by virus. With whatever I have seen so far, a viral gives us one good head start with its classic symptom that should be perceivable without a degree in medicine. Fever and body ache. When we have this symptom, I think it would be a good idea to directly go to a diagnostic centre first and get all the diagnostic test done, and then go the doctor for consultations. I don't think we need to wait for the doctor's advice on this since his/her advice is not a prerequisite. And we are advised to be taking such tests on an annual basis.
2. Dengue is going to decrease the platelet and WBC count. Platelets work to clot blood while WBC, as we all know, provide immunity. Once detected for dengue, doctor would advice platelet count checks on a daily basis through blood tests.At least in India, it take about two hours for the results to come in. For a healthy person the count should 2.5lakhs though, I have seen normal people with counts as low as 1.5Lakhs. Dengue has no vaccine and don't have a direct medicine for cure. 
3. The way to combat dengue is to ensure that the platelet counts don't decrease to a dangerous level while simultaneously addressing the fever by taking paracetamol advised by the doctor. To keep the platelet count from decreasing, one has to have a lot of fluid intake like fruit juice (esp. those rich in vitamin C that improves immunity) and eating well. But eating well was a problem at least in my brother's case since there was a fluid accumulation in his abdomen that messed with his appetite. Papaya fruit and leaves is widely spoken-of for being very good at helping in platelet count increase since papaya has a lot of vitamin C and other anti-microbial properties that purges the microbes from the body. 
4. Just to put the above discussions in context using my brother as an example, he was hospitalized with a platelet count as low as 11,000. He had to take about 6 "packets" of blood platelets. He took two teaspoons of papaya leaves crushed in a mixer, twice a day. He emptied about 300ml of papaya juice once. In addition he emptied about three litres of water. His diet usually contained a bowl of tomato soup, Spinach, dahl and mixed fruits. All this with the IV of saline solution dripping into his blood stream almost 24 hours a day, he took about three days to recover from 11,000 to 1.15 lakhs in terms of platelets. 
5. The hospital is going to puncture the patient with needles for a twice a day platelet checks. It is usually a progressively painful routine. But an increase of  8000 to 10000 in platelet count is a very good sign. The worry is when it is decreasing and goes back to 20000 or lesser.
6. After discharge he is at home taking rest for at least one more week, taking normal diet and medicine prescribed by the doctor.  It would be a good idea to do another platelet check after may be a week to be sure that the count isn't going down

The experience was traumatic at least for the 20 minutes, and it was one of those rare "it can happen to me too" moments. But, bitter as it may be, I should acknowledge the fact that it was a very valuable experience during which we have lost nothing more than a few tens of thousands of money, a few tear drops, but gained a lot of knowledge, more strength to take on an unexpected emergency, and last but not least, the realization that when you or your loved one is down, there are a lot of friends, relatives and colleagues who would respond to your call for help with urgency. I have heard of a saying "Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger". At least in this case, it sure was true.

Lessons from cooking

My wife has been gone for her maternity and is not due to return until early next year. As a result I had an opportunity to cook for myself. Here are what I learnt from the experience

• Cooking has always been a source of fun. It is a great stress-buster especially when combined with good music, but only if you start early to have enough time. Me being me, I think of cooking only when I start feeling hungry. Till then, how Jake Sully saves Pandora from the dream walkers and wins back Neytiri's love this time around in Star Movies seems more important.
• Once you start cooking, it is important to list and line-up the raw-materials first. I have been cooking on and off for about 10 years now, with about a gap of a year or so between two bursts of cooking. But even now, I first put the vessel and light the burner before I think of the vegetable oil!
• A little less salt and spice is always better than a little too much. But the problem is less and more are relative. As long as you are cooking for yourself, less or more doesn't matter, of course. You screw up, you eat and don't tell anyone. Or your throw it out, have the ever-reliable bread-butter-jam combo.. and shut-up again. But the problem comes when you cook for others. A few people can take when the salt is a bit too high, but not when it is a bit too low. For a few dishes, adding the salt later works, but for a few, it doesn't. But from my experience, if salt is way to low, adding some salt helps to a certain extent. But if the salt is way too high, you can do nothing but feel bad about it!

So  far I find that there are four big challenges in cooking

• Finding the difference between toor dhal, moong dhal, urad dhal and when to use what. 
• Finding the difference between, gingeli oil and ground nut oil

Again, after over 10 years of part-time cooking, I am not able to sleep-walk through this

• Judging the correct quantity of rice and vegetables to use to achieve the correct quantity of the dish by the time cooking is done. Sometimes, I choose to prepare a dish that I plan to use for over a couple of days (like tomato chutney). I take four tomatoes and come up with a real tasty one after about 45 minutes. But I find  that it wouldn't last after the first meal. I wonder "Wasn't four enough?". Then it strikes. "Not when the tomatoes are as small as lemons!"
• Maintaining consistency in taste. All the challenges I have mentioned earlier, I have got over at some point of time or the other. But consistency is still too high a bar for me to jump over. I remember that, as a kid, during family occasions my mom and aunts come together and cook for the extended family. I used to have each dish and by their taste, I would be able to say who cooked what with a fair degree of accuracy. THAT is consistency! 

Cooking is easy if you think of it as an isolated task on just one particular day. But if you consider cooking as churning out multiple dishes in correct proportions each day, maintaining consistency in taste over multiple days and maintaining variety over any given week. Then you really see how tough it is and how easy your parents have made it look for you.

Choice between currency and coin

When I was in high school, it dawned on me that money with higher denominations are all currencies (made of paper) and the one with lower denominations are all coins (made of metal). I had time and again wondered the reasoning behind the counter intuitive choice of transitioning from the higher valued metal to the lower valued paper as the denomination goes up.

Recently my uncle gave me an explanation for that. The choice of using metal or paper to represent a particular denomination is made based on the frequency of transaction as cash. One rupee denomination pass hands more often than say a hundred rupee denomination. So, if we make the one rupee denomination as a currency, it would soil faster and would significantly increase the recycling effort. So, it is made as a coin thus increasing its life. Since a hundred rupee denomination is likely to be transacted with lesser frequency, it would soil slower. So, a currency would suffice. After listening to the explanation, I suppose it isn't so counter-intuitive after all. But with the inflation shooting up, I think it is about time to consider a hundred rupee coin :)

What I make out of the Lokpal issue

Anna Hazare led protest against the introduction of the Lokpal Bill and the corruption in general seems, at least to me, to have gathered the largest number of supporters to one single cause across the nation than any other non-political or non-religious cause. Emotions run high, as the government struggles to handle the juggernaut of India Against Corruption's (IAC) protest. But as any mass movement, the fundamental questions seem to be left unanswered in the most clear terms.

The most important question I find unanswered among the mayhem, of such emotion and hyper-reporting is "What specifically Anna Hazare fasting for (or against)? Is it to withdraw the government's draft from the parliament so that discussion for the consensus should continue? Is it to table the Jan Lokpal for discussion in the parliament's houses? Or is it to pass it?" Sometimes, I hear IAC say that ultimately they want a "strong" Lokpal Bill to be passed and sometimes, to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill by Aug 31. The fasting, protests and the mayhem has yielded the obvious result. Confusion and lack of clarity

I am clearly against, the present version of the government's Lokpal Bill which excludes the prime minister's office and thousands of other politicians from the Lokpal's reach. So, I am clearly against the passage of the government's version of the Lokpal. On the other hand, Jan Lokpal as explained in this slideshare seems to be pretty sound. For example, contrary to the popular allegation that the Jan Lokpal as proposed by the IAC would be an unelected entity, there is a chance to propose names for Jan Lokpal membership at least for the educated masses and those with access to the medium of electronic communication. I think it is better than the current scenario where the common man has no means to propose names for the vigilance departments like CBI or CVC. Similarly, I also welcome the proposal to empower the Loklpal to file FIR against High Court and Supreme Court judges without the permission of Chief Justice of India.

However these are just parts of the Jan Lokpal Bill, and despite spending some time searching on the Internet, I couldn't find either a draft of the Government's Lokpal Bill or a comparison of the bill with that of the Jan Lokpal bill by a neutral party (neither IAC nor government). So, (against all my gut feelings), I have to allow for the government's draft version to contain at least some element that is worth discussing to be part of the final "strong" lokpal that should be passed. So, I would support Anna's fast fully only if he does so to stop government's version of the bill from being passed thus keeping the Jan Lokpal alive and up for further discussions to take the best out of both versions. But if he wants the Jan Lokpal to be passed thus killing the Government's bill, I must conclude that Anna's (and the IAC's) intentions are "equal but opposite" to that of the government's intentions

National Anthem and Patriotism

Its The Indian Independence day. Today I witnessed the usual. A lot of Indian flags fluttering around, the chanting of the National Anthem (not always as it is supposed to be, but as was taught in school), distribution of sweets and inspired patriotic speeches amid local politicians. During the flag hoisting ceremony I asked a little girl, probably in her second or third grade, what language is our national anthem written and she promptly answered "Hindi". Now I can start judging things about her and her school, but I tried not to, because I am sure I wouldn't have known the answer to that myself at that tender age. And the schools (accepting the fact that they are business houses and are getting more professional about it with every passing day) would care more about her academic scores and extra-curricular activities than clarifying this particular detail.

But then I suppose we should know certain basics about our own national anthem. Like what language it is written in, and its meaning. The first one seemed easy. Written by Tagore, it has to be Bengali. But why guess, when we have Wikipedia! I looked up and it was indeed Sanskrit, but heavily sanskritized. As of the meaning, I must admit, this is the first time I cared to look it up despite conspiracy theories that the National Anthem praised King George V instead of God. Neverthless, here is what I found in Wikipedia

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,

Dispenser of India's destiny.

Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindhu,

Gujarat and Maratha,

Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;

It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,

mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is

chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.

They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.

The saving of all people waits in thy hand,

Thou dispenser of India's destiny.

Victory, victory, victory to thee.

But there is one question in my mind. Does the fact that a lot of us don't know about our own National Anthem or the details around it make us unpatriotic? I will struggle to answer this question all my life. I suppose we think about patriotism very less on a daily basis. But Independence Day is a good opportunity to think about it. The way I see it, National Anthem is an important tool to instill a sense of patriotism and however, wrongly we pronounce the words or how many ever times we sing the anthem without stopping to think about the language the Anthem originates from, the fact that we stand up, stay still, look at the flag and salute it should be testimony enough for the fact that we have some sense patriotism to the idea of India. But getting it right and knowing about the National Anthem better definitely shows that one is at least curious to be more educated and rational about her or her patriotism, which otherwise merely be an unexplainable psychological feeling.

Any piece of writing on India and patriotism wouldn't be complete without thinking of Mahatma Gandhi. But I don't want to use this space to praise him. But instead remember a piece of dialogue that Ben Kingsley delivers as he played Gandhi. The piece struck me because of its contemporary relevance.

Nehru: "But I thought you were against fighting"

Gandhi: "Where there is injustice, I always believed in fighting. The question is, do you fight to change things or do you fight to punish? I've found that we are all such sinners, we should leave punishment to God. And if we really want to change things, there are better ways than derailing trains and slashing someone with a sword"

"I keep reading your blogs!"

For the second time I hear within one week I hear from a friend "I keep reading your blogs Badhri", and I go blank, wondering "Did I even write a post?" The question should have been written all over my face. So they go on to provide highlight of my blog post. Apparently they show more interest in my blog than I do. I keep promising them to write more. I hope in its own self-referential manner, this does some justice! :)

The India Story summarized!

I have my LPG at subsidized rate, while my servant maid pays more for the same since she takes a private connection. Solving her problem is tricky since she doesn't have a proper photo ID or a residence proof! She pays more for being poor, ignorant and migrant.

"Nothing gets done in a goverment office without a bribe"

When I think about government offices, what comes to my mind is an old building painted yellow or pale green with corners stained by chewed paan, unmarked corridors and doors that confuse one to the point of giving up, a lingering "What is the procedure?" question hanging over head that lead us right at the feet of blood-sucking middlemen who get the job done at a non-negotiable and usurious charges and a job that never gets done without bribe. In short, corruption and painfully long waiting time characterizes my perception of any government office that common man deals. No exceptions..

Or so I thought till today. Last Monday, I had to go to the Regional Transport Office at Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore to get what is called a "B-Extract". In short, it can be considered as a "duplicate" of the Registration Certificate. You can't show it as an RC to the traffic policeman when he leans over your window and asks in a stylish accent, "License and Registration please". But it sure can be used by your bank as a proof that it has provided loan towards the purchase of your car.

When I went to the RTO, a familiar scene greeted me. Pale green building. Middlemen chewing pan sizing you up as you approach the building. Even as I approached the building, one guy approached and within no time made me cough up my purpose at the RTO. He said, "Oh B-extract? It won't be available today. I will take a couple of days! But if you want to get it today, I can arrange it for you.". I politely declined the offer and proceeded inside the RTO. But as I went over to an unmarked counter, I couldn't help but wonder if just closed the only possible way to the B-extract that I am after. But the guy behind the counter, directed me to another guy who I should contact. That guy asked me to write a request letter and give it to another guy who looked like an officer. The "officer" held out his hand for the letter, but didn't even care to look at me. When I handed the letter, he considered it, wrote "B-extract. Rs. 10" and gave it back to me and told "Cash counter. Ground floor. Pay Rs. 10/- and register with that lady in yellow colour saree over there" and held out his hand for the next letter from the guy standing behind me. This is the tricky part. When a guy sitting behind the counter starts taking of money, he won't say "Actual charge Rs. 10, Bribe Rs. 50, totals to 60. Pay Rs.10 at the cash counter and give the 50 to the peon standing over there". Instead, there would be subtle gestures and I have to be smart enough put together the pieces and solve the puzzle. Or so I have heard from those who have got things done. But I couldn't see anything here.

I started picturing in my mind, going to the cash counter, holding out a 10 rupee note and this letter. I was certain that he would put a pissed off expression and hand the letter back saying "Come back 10 days later, the printer isn't working. So I can't give the receipt for this TEN rupees you have paid". With visible hesitation I approached the cash counter and held out the letter and the ten rupees and braced for the response I didn't want to hear. He printed out the receipt and handed it throwing a weird look at me in the eye. I didn't know if I am supposed to read something from his looks or not. But I just collected the receipt and walked to the "lady in the yellow saree".

She took my letter and reluctantly entered my car number and "B-extract" in a bulky register and said "Please come back on Wednesday after 4:00 PM" and held her hand out for the next letter to the guy standing next to me. No gestures here too! I asked "Can't I have it today?" trying to keep her attention with me. But she said. "It will take two days. Come back on Wednesday and just tell us your car number and we will give you the B-extract." She looked away and yelled "Next!"

I turned and walked back confused. Did miss any gesture suggesting "Pay extra and we can arrange the document right away"? May be they would hold the document to ransom when I come back on Wednesday. But when I went back today (Wednesday), she asked for the number and within minutes a clerk walked up to me shoved the B-extract into my hands and disappeared before I could even register his face. The document was on a poor quality paper and printed poorly. But what the hell! I pay ten rupees and walked away with what I wanted!

I must say, I have a new respect for at least this RTO in KR puram. I do realize that there is some falsehood in our perception that "All government offices are corrupt" and "Nothing gets done in a government office if you don't pay under the table". I write this post as a token of appreciation and expression of my thankfulness to the "officer" who didn't care, the "guy who gave me a weird look" behind the cash counter, the "lady in yellow saree" (today she was wearing rose, but...) and the "clerk" whose face I couldn't register for a job done without expecting a bribe.