Podcast!

Podcast 

Ep-1

In my coming podcast i would be sharing a few of these points, taking the liberty of sharing my thinking with as large an audience as possible. 

You can also enjoy listening to my podcast in the links listed below :

https://open.spotify.com/show/75HSZePfjjeElyA0GMtbbS

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/86f4f94a-4e98-43cb-83f7-107afb96951f

In one sense my journalism career was the longest though much if it was away from the public eye.

let me give a quick rundown.

in my first year at deccan herald i was witness to a great event.

china's incursion.

as suddenly as it started it ceased .

behind that ceasefire was a force which at that time was irresistible.

The U.S and John.f.kennedy.

in 1965 war with Pakistan we were at the point when a canal, just a canal, separated us from Lahore.

The Topbrass needed the political go ahead which never came.

The scene shifted to Tashkent , the accord and then the sudden death of Lal bahadur Shastri.

The 1971 war preceded by the great influx from the then East Pakistan ,

India found itself almost isolated from western powers and their sympathy.

The US then was known  for its tilt towards Pakistan.

The Top brass of the services were summoned for a conference and the opinion was that any day we could take on Pakistan but if china were to open a front we would be lost.

This paved the way for the 20 year friendship treaty with Russia.

The surrender of more than 90,000 prisoners in Dacca was an event unprecedented in recent history.

Did India Utilise it as a leverage for political ends, more especially a workable solution on Kashmir ?

No, sire. we do not believe in revenge politics.

as a journalist and as a humanist the Janata party formed after the internal emergency was the offshoot of several politicians who felt it was time providence gave them a chance to govern.

and it did.

what happened next was obvious.

witch hunting.

Infighting.

The inevitable occurred.

By a clever strategem Charan Singh became Prime minister.

and went down in the history of India as the only Prime minister who did not face parliament.

Then Chandrasekhar.

the political fish, whatever its origins, reached out for the bait and get caught.!!

I am skipping the most recent developments for a purpose.

but let me mention the son of soil , our soil, who adorned the premier's chair.

he claims credit for Upper Krishna ,granted.

but what about cauvery, where every summer our farmers face scarcity of water even while the grand  anicut near Thanjavur has enough water and to spare.

Karnataka has ever been the melting pot , Bangalore included.

this is a theme which i propose to bring out in a book in a few months.

to sum up,

 I would say 

Karnataka has been shortchanged.

by every party , every politician .

come one, come all was the clarion call of the statue of liberty which stands near New york Harbour.

having never visited new york i do not know whether it still stands.

On a Mini scale Karnataka has also donned that role ,

without the enormous resources of that great country

#podcast #Blogs #Socialmedia #episode #googlepodcast #amazonusic #hubhopper 

A Small story-what a fall!

 

My countrymen and women !

ere long air travel was a luxury enjoyed by a few.

cabin crew, from what i hear , then called air hostesses caught the eye of some business magnates and became part of their family.

the hostesses would usher us in to the seats.

we had our cuppa , our breakfast or whatever at airlines' cost .

and they were so helpful .

imagine a situation when the crew protests because they have to shove the baggage into the rack above or respond to some unusual situations.

and who is a captain of the plane !

I remember Nelson Mandela travelling first class while many of his followers were travelling economy.

when the captain came to pay his respects , Madela asked him for a favour.

that his followers be accommodated in first class. fortunately there were enough seats .

but i mention this as an example of the captain's powers to do or undo anything on the plane.

i am told the virgin airlines boss checks in as an ordinary person to find out how the crew is handling the passengers.

in our greed for money we have holiday crowds spilling on to the streets at checkin time.

there is a turnaround in values to such an extent that airline passengers be aware of their rights.

i am not blaming the crew alone.

there are other factors too.

i asked a former crew member about how she could stand long hours without her vericose veins being affected.

she admitted that she was on medication.

and the girl was in her thirties.

so many jobs demand this kind of posturing .

i am surprised no doctor, no organisation has raised this issue.

no wonder the front line workers in the hospitality sector, at the counters in banks and other institutions are grumpy.

is there any special training for them ?

relaxation techniques and the like.

i am familiar  with the kind of pressures and strains the media is exposed.

are they protected?

many of them, they say, are under contract.

and as everyone knows, contracts get terminated at the whims and fancies of bosses.

not the boss.

this applies to all group activity.

the leader wins both ways whether he deserves it or not.

coming back to airlines it is time the crew Realise we keep them going , not the managements of airlines.

Brahmin-The Hatred

 I would not know for certain why i was born a brahmin.

If i had the power to be otherwise before birth perhaps i would have altered it.

the super brahmins these days , call them by any name, have a fine , cushy life.

some of them do not work , they need not.

some of them deserve not their promotion.

but they get it.

For the sins of my ancestors 40 or 50 generations ago i am suffering.

and more than all, pl remember brahmins do not jell with each other.

they have their divisions, subdivisions and sub-subdivisions.

and most of them are incapable of violence.

so their vulnerability is yet more.

in the beginning the non-brahmins would scoff at them and leave it at that.

later they were victims of violence or worse.

from madras presidency as it was known then waves of hatred reached the present day karnataka .

then the reservation bug hit us.

the bug became a bear and was on the point of swallowing everything.

the courts had to step in.

reservation, i understand, was never meant to last for ever.

now there is no hope of this shadow on merit as perceived by the intelligentsia receding.

yet you find brahmins occupying key positions everywhere , some of them in leading corporate entities here and abroad.

i do not hold a brief for brahmins , they have their weak points. one of them is that they get satiated easily.

in my limited way i am doing some research.

there is never enough land or wealth for non-brahmins.

For a  brahmin who is one both by birth and inclination material possessions matter for the sole reason that they could promote societal causes.

kumaraswamy's diatribe against brahmins is in bad taste.

for the simple reason that it is more a political ploy .

caste based politics is the name of the game now.

there is a scramble to please the backward segments and the backward in the forward segment.

i am praying for the day when the beneficiary or the intended beneficiary spurns these freebies ,

as the parsis did .

Will that day ever dawn!

The new chat device-ChatGPT

 The latest device a AI is the chat.

It is Rumoured to supplant scribes, teachers and misguide the seekers of  real knowledge.

while the fake and the real debate has many shades, what is of concern is education.

the higher powers are all worked up and search is on for effective responses.

one of them is to make the students face the test or examination and award grades on their performance.

good enough but in this season of paper leaks how does one guarantee the results ?

a colleague of mine who is no more brought in his expertise and caught the students using sophisticated devices in the exam hall.

he was a professor of communications and had the edge over the cheats.

then he was framed in a case from which he extricated himself with difficulty .

what happened next was even more appalling.

after his retirement in the university he was serving as  principal of a college.

the unfortunate aspect was that he was politically connected also.

someone planted the idea that such a one as he deserved to be vice chancellor , no less.

now it is common knowledge that such posts carry a premium.

and perhaps the premium was arranged at great cost.

when the list was out his name was missing.

because of his age he had also forfeited his chance for ever.

his last moments were spent with his wife . 

they had a long conversation, it is said, and he went into his room.

next day he was discovered dead.

harking back to glory days we had an editor who could, at a glance, decipher the motive behind a letter writer.

i have also met a few gentlemen who could read your minds effortlessly.

perhaps technology has made these skills redundant.

here comes the challenge.

how to distinguish between the real and the fake ?

in my experience no spellcheck could differentiate between there and their, or hear and here.

if the technology has improved i would not know.

spellcheck threw the tribe of proofreaders out of the newsrooms.

god knows how many would be losing their jobs due to this device.

let me round this off with an amusing anecdote.

a manuscript from an aspiring writer landed on George Bernard Shaw's table.

after perusing it, shaw sent this response.

your novel is both good and original.

where it is good , it is not original and where it is original, it is not good.

reminds me of another incident.

an author walks into a publisher's den and offers his ms.

after scrutinising it, the publisher queries whether it is his own writing.

the author says yes.

the publisher stands up, and with due reverence shakes hands with the author and greets him warmly :

i am honoured to meet you , william shakespeare.!

The Budget

 

The union budget presented by nirmala seetharaman, at the outset, is a middle class budget.

Her comment s day or two earlier earlier hinted at this. variations are any of what the middle class stands for.

in one definition it is that they have neither the benefit of rich legacy nor privilege.

they slog their way to recognition and generally choose to forget their roots if it suits their purpose, or so say the critics.

not for them the luxuries of the born wealthy.

not for them the right to adopt their own lifestyle.

like the lower classes.

torn between respectability and show they choose the latter and suffer silently.

if one were to conduct a survey most suicides occur in this category.

catching up with the joneses is the name of the game. one slip and heaven knows where they land!

in any case let us take a good look at the budget  now.

some steps are taken to bring down the cost of electric vehicles.

as an ordinary man i often wonder why tech wise india did not wake up in time.

well before covid compelled us to take a hard look.

it is good that the defence sector gets more funds.

one does not know much about the competition commission and its work in india but one does see several neighbour rivals converge for a common cause , and the most effective way is to arm them to the hilt .

like taliban gaining chinese support.

e-courts is a fine step to ease the load on the judiciary.

fast track courts and family courts and consumer courts were set up to expedite justice.

how far they have succeeded ,one does not know.

our planners in the early days were visionaries.

skill development was fostered by industrial training institutes and the like.

self-employment needs easy funding and if this is ensured the employment situation will improve.

ah, the millets!

the poor man's favourite at one time is gaining prominence for a different reason

we are happy that the son of the soil prime minister's preferred food is finding its way to the elite's table.

Saptarshi , Amrit kal  have found their way into the budget , perhaps for the first time.

let us hope what is promised is realised and our nation regains its glory.

one word of caution those.

not all the credit belongs to one party or one leader.

Mahatma Gandhi !!

 Mahatma Gandhi is Mahatma to many and a despicable character to several others who blame him for our ills.

the latter have elevated Nathuram Godse to the level of a patriot.

both schools of thought have forgotten the historical currents at play then as now.

it was my good fortune to have met and conversed with a responsible person who was heading a defence establishment at the time.

we walked together for a few kilometers because his house was adjacent to my office.

it was a cool night and the topic veered round to his early days in Lahore.

he revealed to me how mindsets change, how people respond to emotions and instantly change from friends to foes.

all that it took for his neighbours was a few hours.

and he was a school going kid then.

partition was never intended to be , by both parties .

egos come into play , opportunists take centrestage and the good ones become stooges of the vile elements.

so it was in the case of Mahatma.

further down the line appeasement advocates call the shots and what we get is what we deserve.

it is good tentative steps are being taken to restore to us the glory that was.

again , at what cost?

in defeat defiance, in victory magnanimity thundered the British bull.

was it so when partition was effected ?

two things are buried in this ongoing drama.

Jinnah had not many months to live.

a fact which might have been known to the British.

Bapu , they knew , would play to set rules.

that is why Mountbatten sent him to the hottest trouble spot . still peace reigned there.

godse could be forgiven to think that Bapu was favouring the others more than our own folks.

this does not mean the riots and the mayhem that followed should be ignored.

there is a lesson hidden somewhere.

our differences serve as the meat for someone's dish.

a wag said Britain and the usa are two nations divided by a common language. so are we.

in addition , the Ppectre of reservation , reservation within reservation etc

divide us further.

as for the foreign scenario less said the better.

Tibet was a British protectorate.

our leniency towards Chinese cost us dear.

the united nations was and still is the monopoly of superpowers.

who signed the un charter on our behalf ?

a civil servant.

for we were still a slave nation.

does not matter whether the present players were active in the freedom struggle or not.

it is a thing of the past.

the more pressing question is ..... is the present dispensation living upto the preamble in the constitution .

we are what we are today because of the sacrifices made by sung and unsung patriots.

the past is ever bitter, whether it  is the Moghul past or the imperial legacy.

yes, we have glorious future ahead of us .

for that, we have to work hard.

and form a phalanx cutting across barriers .

only then jai hind will get transformed into jai jai hind.

Republic Day -A Small Note !!

 

Happy Republic Day!

It is good that some notable figures from karnataka have got fair due by way of awards.

SM Krishna's award is well  earned. he does not belong to his community alone.

he has done well by the state and would have done even better if nature 

and Raj kumar did not create hurdles.

he had vision, he had state interests at heart but perhaps lacked a perspective of long range.

so it is with most state leaders. 

Bangalore was, is their success as well as failure.

come, come all was the call and they came in droves.

a bit of Bombay was implanted here.

Kadugodi was Whitefield.

now it is a minefield of opportunists.

rarely is any thought given to the groundwater levels of the city, especially the extended city.

why extend the city at all , one wonders.

they had their setups and their local colours.

well, the name of the game is power , first, middle and last.

and all parties are equally guilty.

the other awardees, Sudha Murthy and Dr Bhyrappa are known to me by reputation.

one respects those who swim against the tide.

the lady has to be appreciated for chalking out her own course from student days.

born in a family of doctors, she deliberately chose engineering.

when the Tata firm telco put up a notice at the Indian institute of science 

inviting candidates with the codicil , women need not apply, she wrote to JRD TATA.

and the condition was waived .

still later she pledged her jewellery to raise cash for the fledgling company she founded along with her husband and a few others .

Infosys was one of a kind and still is .

as chairperson of the charities she is quite active.

she does remember that the college where she studied had no rest rooms for fair sex.

she constructed a few.

her deceptively simple attire has put off a few prima donnas who go more by show than content.

DR Bhyrappa has thrown fresh insights on Mahabharata.

they may not go down well with the orthodox but that is precisely the point.

the yardstick of originality.

the awards have also brought to wider notice the contribution of some artisans and artistes.

i am happy for another reason also.

the fourth guru in our Parampara, Sri Kamalesh Patel, has been awarded the Padma Bhushan.

for his excellent work in rejuvenating human values thru his Sahaj Marg meditation network.

we have perhaps the biggest meditation centre in the world at Kanha, near Hyderabad .

anyone interested in this training is welcome, and the training both online and offline is free.

to me personally the just concluded republic day has been one of good cheer.

may this cheerful phase benefit all of us , we, the people of india who have given ourselves this constitution.

 

Sankranti is celebrated in many states and in different ways.

In the south it is essentially a harvest festival.

In our traditional way cattle have a honoured place. so it is common to see decorated cows and bulls being taken out in processions.

We also have a native version of barbecue when families gather in their fields and have a feast. in some states it is celebrated over three days.

“Bhogi” as it is called, in Andhra Pradesh gives prime importance to fire.

Fire is always a cleansing agent .It is our way of saying that the past be buried and a fresh beginning made !

That beginning again is symbolised by sesame seeds though polished for the occasion. accompanied by jaggery or some sweet figurines they are shared with friends and relatives.

Is it another way of stregthening bonds?

Or our way of thanksgiving to the almighty who is marching forward by changing the course from south to north.

That is also the start of auspicious period, an event looked forward to by Bhisma Pitamaha resting on his bed of thorns.

So it is generally believed that the people who pass away during this period reach higher realms.

This is all about beginnings.

In yet another ritual the sesame seeds play a prominent part.

That is when we bid goodbye to our dear and near ones.

Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam as the saying goes is the underlying message , or so I understand.

It is not advisable to club the auspicious and the Inauspicious together

But the awareness of the greater truth perhaps will resore us equanimity.

The poise to treat both success and failure in life alike because in  one  sense they are imposters.

It also enables us to live aright.

As a wag once remarked , life is a passing show.

So enjoy what comes to our lot but with the feeling that it may or may not last.

Better still, ponder over the goal of life , Yours as well as others , so that proper relationships are established.

Happy Sankranti and may this season Herald a Happy new year for all of us, that is my prayer.

#bhogi #sankranti #newyear #festive #festivities

 

 

 

The statue of unity

 

Sardar patel & The statue of unity

 

 

 We were privileged to see the tallest statue in the world.

It is impressive, stands on a lofty platform and its vision encompasses the area around for several kilometers.

The holiday crowds and the short time at our disposal made our experience shortlived.

Online bookings deprived us of a chance to see the countryside and the Narmada dam from high on.

Yet it is a moment we cherish.

We found more statues of Sardar Patel than of the Father of the Nation or are we mistaken ?

Junagadh which is famous for its lion sanctuary has had a chequered history.

It was almost on the point of acceding to pakistan.

The Sardar’s contribution in mergence of states was highly commendable.

Contrast this with kashmir which remains a thorn in india’s flesh to this day.

Nehru’s trust in the united nations was misplaced.

The dithering by Hari singh , The kashmir king, cost him and us dear.

We are helpless to undo historical wrongs .

But Nehru’s remark that not a blade of grass grows there, meaning Siachin was born of shallow understanding.

Borders are meant to be safeguarded , in whatever condition and his faith in chinese friendship, counsel of wrong kind and his  fondness for krishna menon deepened the crisis.

India was meant to be a contiguous nation.

By distorting this truth thru partition the rulers then and the ones who succeeded them fared worse in the people’s eyes.

Was partition inevitable?

Yes, because the imperial power desired it so.

Or so I feel.!!

#statueofunity #sardarpatel #gujurat #Nehru

 

 

The Gujurat

 

What is special  about Gujarat?

Not just politics but everything else.

their enterprise is to be seen to be believed.

Their love for language and identity is without any parallel .

Just imagine even restaurant menus are in Guajarati.

Of course the majestic lion is more symbolic .

We did get a glimpse of its majesty and its gaiety.

It chooses its own pace and just does not tolerate any prodding .

Utter self-confidence , if such an expression may be used for the royal animal.

Baroda or vadodara as it is called now reminds one of Mysore and The wadiyars.

Somewhere something went wrong and the period of transition in the case of mysore saw the decline of the ruling family.

Though sri Jayachamaraja wadiyar was extremely friendly with both Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

There is no Ahmedabad without Sabarmati and there is the ashram which was the cradle of the independence movement or almost.

Gandhiji’s wish to return there as free man was perhaps not fulfilled.

But here was his launching pad for the salt Satyagraha.

Still later he spent some years at wardha and experimented with naturopathy and the like.

The work was entrusted to Vinobha Bhave when he moved over to Delhi.

His love for khadi may be traced to the textile centre that was Ahmedabad .

They do talk of Gujarat model of development but I feel they are right if one considers National Expressways and Expressways as the acme of development.

Dwarka retains its ancient character with modern touch.

Somnath , restored, oozes ancient values.

Everywhere we go we see the imprint of Swami Narayan.

The Guajarati’s were entrepreneurs of high order then as now and  the

Remittances have certainly helped the state’s growth.

There was not much evidence of Swatch Bharath in the state though my judgment may be hasty.

The chinese supremo had visited the city when Modiji was Chief Minister.

As destiny would have it, both of them might have been power centres but not the centre.

In recent days when they meet on the sidelines of International conferences or on other occasions they speak for the country.

As for the  border dispute , the question on everyone’s lips is …..

Who blinks first .

#gujurat #modi #swatchbharath #Nationak xpressway #sabhramathiashram #vallabhaipatel

 

 

Happy New Year!!

 New year !!

Life is an opportunity bestowed on us to make good. To make for happiness , of others as well ourselves.

The biggest stakeholders in this business are ourselves, none others.

it follows that a measure of responsibility be displayed by us while living it and while forfeiting the right to it.

i am not intending to be cruel when i say far too people are giving up easily,too easily the sacred gift earned over several centuries of living in various forms.

Saint or sinner it matters not, we are here and we have to make most of it.

As the saying goes , a saint has a past and a sinner has a future.

meaning , at any point of time there may occur a turnaround.

that is why patience is so much commended .

we live in the world of dualities.

health, disease, prosperity, poverty, success, failure, friendship, betrayal, love, neglect , hatred are all facets of this phenomenal world.

it is as real as we think, as unreal as we may make it.

the first line is adopted by people who think this world is everything, the second line by people who think beyond this apparent world.

unfortunately there is  no school which teaches us these basic truths.

comparisons ruin us.

comparisons with others as well as juxtaposing our present with the glorious past we may have gone thru.

or stupidly thinking that the night of despair we are going thru will last and last for ever.

What after death is a question not for theologians alone. It is for all of us.

Our past was the base for our present and our present will shape the future.

Commonsense suggests the action is in the present, the results in the future.

Again, if we were to focus on  results  our work style alters and we put a brake on nature’s flow.

Stripped of rhetoric this is what Nishkamakarma , propounded by lord krishna , means.

Ours to work, HIS to reward.

A simple truth twisted out of shape.

It pains me to see so many lives lost thru suicides, and worse.

Life is a continuum , so is death.

Many mistakenly think that by ending their present lives their suffering would end.

The wise say the effects would be carried forward into whatever future form we may have.

There is evidence to support this. Theists or atheists or agnostics, we have to face this truth, that we are in large part responsible for our present condition.

It follows that we do have the time and the opportunity to reshape it and rebuild it.

This is optimism at its basest. This is positivity in action.

This is the path of happiness, of ourselves as well as others.

What we have not created , in the physical sense, we have no right to terminate.

It pertains to our families  also.

What right have the adults who are parents to destroy the offspring ?

And who gave  them the right .

It is time the civil society wakes up to this threat as a threat to extinction .

#newyear #life #philosophy #responsibility #karma #2023

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Ramamurthy