My nest away from the cage

One day you let me free, from my cage
and I flew away to a far, far away land
I made a nest all by myself.
I know you are missing me and
to be honest I miss you too
But what I need is a nest
From which I can fly away
and be back, as I wish.

I know one day you will cage me again
With all your love and with all your care
But until that day , until my wings are tired
Let me be me, let me fly high and low.

One day I will come back to our cage
Come back to heal your aching heart
I know you are missing me
and you are searching for my love.

Somedays I feel cold in my nest
Longing for your warm feathers
I weep until I am warm
But I know deep in my heart
What I need is a nest
And not a cage

Radicalising Rational Hindus

History will record the recent incidents as not a second bout of renaissance but as radicalising a section of rationally thinking citizen. The radicalising process of a large section of Islam in Afghanistan and India can be studied for reference. The efforts towards destroying a belief of wide section of people has united believers who were hitherto either not bothered to unite or didn't have a common cause for uniting. It has as well as radicalised people . Just like mosquito bite creates irritation and itching on your skin, the guerilla war by non believers against the believers for breaking the order of society and for  appeasing a section of society who will be happy when they see
people of a different cult  getting hurt has disrupted the peace in the society. Random interview of women who built the wall has shown that they do not even understand the cause for which they stood there. National media reported these women we're standing in queue requesting entry of women to Sabarimala. Clearly people are disoriented and media is helping in the hallucination. While I am not against entry of women into the temple, I don't believe in menstrual taboo, born and brought up in an Iyer family my parents have never asked my sister or me to sit in a separate corner during the five days of bleeding. I am not a daily temple goer so it didn't matter to me in any way that I cannot get on this one temple until I am 50. I am sure I will not be the only Hindu lady to whom it didn't matter or make a difference until there was a planned effort to attack that belief. Just like the irritation and swelling on skin after a bug bite, my mind is swollen, my emotions have been hurt and I have lost peace. I can now completely relate with lakhs of Muslim women who suddenly started wearing hijab after Babri Masjid incident. Many ladies who in their late thirties were ready to be pregnant and give birth again only to increase their number so that they are no more a minority. If a passive believer like I have been hurt, that I want to protest against this how would an active practising Hindu would be feeling. This is not renaissance this is radicalising a society

India Inc. Demonetisation 2016 – An impeccable vision executed haphazardly.

Nearly a week after the high denomination notes ceased to be a legal tender, there is enough ambiguity amongst the public and bureaucracy alike.

Take the case of exchange of (Old High Denomination )OHD notes, our honorable Prime Minister mentioned that PAN and Aadhar could be used for such exchange, but the communication lacked clarity whether the exchange limit of Rs.4000 was per account holder per day and can be done for each bank account he or she holds, or per PAN once a day or per PAN only once. There are instances where people have exchanged the OHD notes at bank with even their driving license. 

For drawing an analogy, let us consider Rs.500 and Rs. 1000 as two high profile most sought after corporate employees who have been fired by the management with little or no notice. Before any layoff the higher management brainstorms and come up with a transition and backup plan. A committee or change control board evaluates the pros and cons of the action. A risk mitigation plan is well documented and finally the pink slip is given. Unfortunately India Inc. introduced the pink note and fired Mr.500 and Mr.1000 without enough thought to such processes. Either it was hurriedly done since the stakeholders found that grapevines has percolated the news to the lower rings and they could not contain or control it or it is that the bureaucrats did not do a good job of creating a process and executing as per plan. There is no doubt that a change of this magnitude in the economic system will cause inconvenience to good and bad elements in the society. But the scope and planning of the change should have taken all attributes and parameters to enable such a change with little discomfort to the good elements in the society.

Was this process of exchange of OHD notes documented before execution? Was such a document issued as a circular by the RBI to notify all the banks and their branches? If at all it was documented, was there enough effort from a committee who prepared the draft, reviewed the same and finally approved it in order to ensure that loopholes are plugged and ambiguity in such notification does not conveniently allow each individual to interpret it according to his / her whims and fancies?

There are people who interpreted that Rs.4000 was a limit per PAN per day and there are others who thought it is per bank account that they hold. To circumvent each of these limits, people hopped from one bank to another and got their notes exchanged. The panic button has been hit and many started hoarding the lower denomination currency. It took only two days for a person who has an above average income of Rs.40000 per month to go from one bank to another with PAN and exchange the currency and hoard 400 numbers of  Rs.100 notes. It is his / her hard earned money and has all right to do so too, but what this caused is inconvenience to probably 40 people who did not get their ration of Rs.100 notes.

A revised circular stated that exchange of Rs.4500 was once in a lifetime opportunity for an individual. It is not clear how RBI will keep track of such an exchange. Is there a software system in place which links post offices and all banks where each exchange is tracked on real time basis on Aadhar and PAN? How many of urban tech savvy population has the PAN and Aadhar linked? How many Indians have atleast one of these ID proof?

Next let’s consider the freezing of all transactions of Co-operative banks. Though enough time, drive and effort to mobilize and educate citizens were imparted for starting JAN DHAN accounts, it was not enough to break the trust that people had on parallel banking institutions for generations together. What is worse is that even RTGS and NEFT from these accouts has also been put on hold which left many bewildered. The higher rate of interest, the familiarity with the older system of visiting a branch and depositing and withdrawing cash or may be the simple fact that the convenience and trust that such institutions have managed to build among their customers have all been shattered  and rendered worthless overnight.

The first step here should have been mandating a cap or threshold beyond which an individual or corporate have to mandatory transfer fund to a nationalized bank and withdraw cash from such linked nationalised bank accounts. This would have saved many a common man or cattle class ;) (Courtesy Mr.Tharoor) from the trauma of demonetisation. Many who barely have less than Rs.10000 in his co-operative bank accounts will not be impacted when the taxmen set sail to catch the big fish. 

To conclude I am of the opinion that the visionary keen on policy making is not to be blamed but the executioners of the policy are the cause for creating the confusion. Blaming the PM and FM for the present situation in the country is synonymous to blaming Pierre and Marie Curie for the sufferings of Hiroshima-Nagasaki .

Like the kite in the sky

I can fly high and
I can fly low
I can fly to the tunes of the wind
Many a pair of tiny eyes
Follow me with awe

But if only I could I wish
If only I had life
I could fly even when there is no wind

If only I had wings
I could fly where my wings could carry me
not where tiny hands guide me
not where a lil boy's dream takes me

If only I had a pair of eyes
I could see far and high

They call me a kite
have fun with me, love me and
follow me with awe

But if only I could I wish
If only I had life and wings

I could fly like the Kite in the sky
free with no strings attached

I could fly like the Kite in the sky
whose dreams,hopes and wings carry it

കർണാ അങ്ങ് എവിടെ ?

കർണാ അങ്ങ് എവിടെ

ശിവാജി സാവന്തിന്റെ മൃത്യുന്ജയ്‌ മലയാളത്തിൽ തർജ്ജിമ എഴുതിയത് വായിച്ചു . ഇത്രയേറെ എന്നെ വേദനപ്പിച്ച ഒരു നോവൽ വേറെ ഇല്ല. ആദ്യം മുതൽ തന്നെ ഒരു ആരാധന തോന്നി . വായിച്ചു തീർന്നു എന്നായപ്പോൾ ഒരു സംശയം ഈ ആരാധന ആരോടാണ് കർണനോടോ   ശിവാജിയോടോ, തർജ്ജിമ എഴുതിയവരോടോ ? 
ആ സംശയം ഒരു ചോദ്യ ചിഹ്നമായ് അവിടെ നില്കട്ടെ

തുടർന്ന് എം ടി യുടെ രണ്ടാം ഊഴം വായിച്ചു അതിലെ ഭീമനിലൂടെ ഭീമന്റെ ചിന്തകളിലും വാക്കുകളിലും കർണനോട് പ്രകടിപ്പിക്കുന്ന അവജ്ഞ എന്നെ ഏറെ കുപിത ആക്കി . എന്ന് മാത്രമല്ല ഏറെ പുകൾ കൊണ്ടാകൃതി തന്നെ എനിക്ക് അപ്രിയമായി തോന്നി .

അപ്പോൾ ഞാൻ തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞു എന്റെ മനസ്സിലെ സംശയത്തിന്റെ ഉത്തരം മറ്റൊന്നല്ല
 കർണനോടു തന്നെ എന്ന് വ്യക്തമായി . എന്റെ ആരാധന പുരുഷനായ കർണനെ അവഹേളിക്കുന്ന ഭീമനെയും ആ അവഹേളനം ലോകത്തിന്റെ മുന്നിൽ തുറന്നു കാഴ്ച വെച്ച  രണ്ടാം ഊഴം  എന്ന കൃതിയും മറ്റൊരു ആശയ കുഴപ്പത്തിൽ എന്നെ എത്തിച്ചു . എന്റെ ഈ ആരാധന ഞാൻ എങ്ങനെ കർണനെ അറിയിക്കും ഫേസ് ബുക്കിൽ ഒരു ലൈക്‌ അടിക്കാനോ ട്വിട്ടെരിൽ ഫോളോ ചെയ്തിട്ടോ ഒന്നും അർത്ഥമില്ല കർണൻ ഇതൊന്നും അറിയാതെ അനേക ലക്ഷം ആരാധകരുടെ ഇഷ്ട നായകനായി എങ്ങെന്നില്ലതെ മറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു .
 

What was I thinking when I published my blogs as a book

My first book Titchy stories for you honey pumpkin has been published.

Rewind to the past and there lies  "Publishing a book" which has been my dream since childhood. As a student of Holy Angels' Convent I have troubled my language teachers Mrs.Krishnakumari and Sister Rosy with so many of my 4 liner poems and stories. I was indeed lucky to get them as my teachers never once have they discouraged me or told me to stop bugging them. Looking back now I realize most of my works had originality but were never works which were of great or exceptional quality. Krishnakumari teacher always used to encourage me to read more, write more and that had for couple of years(6th and 7th Std) made me play less in the afternoon recess and spend more time in the library. Though such sessions hardly used to be 15 or 20 minutes still those moments were dearer to me than the 45 minute class room sessions.
Pause and fast forward to the time my daughter started talking, "Amma, Kadha cholli tharaya?" ("Mother, Can you tell me story?")  This has been the most uttered words of my daughter when she was 2 and 3. Being a full time mother since she turned 2andhalf telling stories to Nandu has been the major task for me as a mother. There have been so many days I got tired and my jaws ached with non-stop reading.Krishna stories, Mahabharatha, Ramayana, Ganesha stories, Panchatantra all got over in very little time. I still remember one trip to Landmark store at Pheonix, Pune where I bought a dozen books and was satisfied that it would be enough to keep my daughter's quench for stories satisfied for years to come but soon realized that they got over in just under an year. I did not know of other stories that could keep a 2 or 3 year old like her engaged. She soon started telling me I don't want you to read me a book, tell me a story just like that! All activities brushing, breakfast, lunch, dinner, bathing, sleeping just about anything had to be accompanied with stories. To keep these sessions more interesting I started asking her to come up with characters in the story. This gave wings to her imagination and reduced my work, for she would not just tell the characters, she would decide who is the good guy, who is the bad guy and it's up to me to start and end the story meeting her spec. requirements. Anybody in the software industry would know how easy it is to write the test plan once requirement specification and expected result is clear, close to 10 years of software industry experience really helped me here! Thanks to her more school time and more play time with friends, her demand for stories has reduced from whooping 10 hours a day to barely half an hour a day now. Also with my mother taking over the feeding and bathing sessions Nandu's question has been "Ammamma innakku ungallta kadha stock irukka?" (Grandmother, Today do you have stock of new stories).

Some stories that I could come up with during such sessions, turned out to be nice ones and I found that it also amused her friends who come home to play. So I thought I would blog them. After a while, through linkedin I got to know that one of my ex-colleagues has published a technical book. I was so happy for him and at the same time that rekindled the spark to my childhood dream "Publish a book". I approached many publishers but being a first time writer I realized to get the book from a renowned publisher would be financially challenging my dream. Thanks to pothi,com I self published my book. But! blogging is one thing and make it a book is another game altogether. Many things starting from title, copyright, foreword, about the author, price information all were question marks for me.
I decided to take them one at a time.
For the title, I wanted a synonym for small which is not widely used, something that sounds cute and sounds like something that tiny tots jabber. some online search and analyzing and repeatedly pronouncing each word many times finally found the word "Titchy" which matched my specification impeccably. Nandu likes the idea ad song "you are my honey bunny .." and when she sings it she only says the words "pumpkin pumpkin honey honey" and thus I coined the quaint title "Titchy stories for you honey pumpkin" after pondering for about 3 or 4 days.
The part that really mattered to me settled other formalities for the book were easier to handle.
I thought and thought and finally concluded that I do not bother about copyright, infact I would be more than happy if somebody finds my work too good to claim theirs or may be get inspired or pirate or whatever! I agree with PauloCoelho here, reach out to more readers and that is the reason he is a pirate lover. but his works are definitely worth pirating; how about mine? I am not yet sure. Only time can say that!
Next was Foreword, I do not remember a single book that I read myself as a child or read out to my daughter where I bothered to read the Foreword, so I skipped that too.
About the author- Well I wanted to put something really nice here. But as much as I wanted to write nice great things about me similar to what other authors have in their books, I realized I still do not have anything so great to claim so with great regret I had to skip that too!
That left me with nothing but the stories to print, and there comes my book just the stories that is of interest to children. After all I first made them for a child who cared little for copyright, foreword and about the author. The book purely intended for toddlers and pre-teens I decided that can be kept simple. JUST THE STORIES!
It lacked pictures and I came up with an idea for that. I hope to organise a pencil sketch event shortly, let children who listen to the story read it and make pencil sketch of the most interesting part that they heard in the story. What interests one child might not be the one that interests another. Let children come up with sketches. The best ones or may be even a collection of sketches could go on to the next edition of the book. Tiny tots can proudly display that edition of book and claim these sketches have been done by them. I would be happy if it also inspires them to also write stories on their own. I could not give anything in return to my dear teachers who inspired me, but if I could create a spark in tiny creative minds and let them submit their work without any inhibitions, if I could keep them engrossed for an hour with my stories, the saying one good deed creates another would be proved once again.


 

Memory Beads

Able hands enabled me an awesome childhood,

My youth was at ease with ideal ideas,

I saved my adulthood from all adultery.

Picking up all those marvelous memory beads,

I decked a necklace.

Geriatric frailty failed me,

With shivering hands I struggled a second time-

to deck those beads that I deem dearer than diamonds.

Mere memory loss they muttered and sent me to the mountains

So that they could reach high peaks in their life.

In delirium I dearly extended my digital extremity,

My dear ones failed to hold it,

Death did not fail to clasp it!