I shot the sheriff…

Periyar ‘shot at the sheriff’ [due apologies to Eric Clapton]. That’s his monumental blunder.
Irrelevance of an idol god is high level philosophy that only evolved souls can grasp. In that sense, one can argue that Shankara ‘shot the sheriff’ with advaita. Normal people need a working philosophy that allows for a god to be present at temples, and ready and willing to be pleased through ritualistic prayers.
Periyar sought to destroy ritualism without giving an alternative. That was indeed a tall ney an impossible calling for the feeble witted DK crowd. Only followers of a Shankara or a Ramana would even contemplate living without the support mechanism of rites and rituals.
After decades, Periyar has been reduced to a pitiable monument pointing his hand at Sri Ranganatha. ‘The moving finger writes and having writ’ has moved on to witness millions of Dravidians piercing the tongue with arrows and walking on fire in a never before frenzy.
Recently, there has been en effort to prop up this failed legacy of warped atheism through the cinema medium. If it succeeds, I forecast a decade of double digit CAGR for platform temples and job opportunities for priests.
Sporting a “kudumi’ may not be just fashion but also make sound business sense!

God as Sheriff

Religion does a remarkable job of policing the society.
India is still a relatively safe place only because a vast majority of the billion people have faith in God. Given the sparse and that too corrupt police, no self respecting Indian is enamored by the ‘majesty of law’.
‘Love of God’ went out of fashion after Meera’s era to be replaced by ‘Fear of God’.
God’s retribution, either in this life or the next [depending on one’s philosophical outlook], is what restrains the mainstream Indians from sinning.
That’s why I endorse Sharon Stone’s take on the China earthquake as ‘karma for Tibet’. I don’t think even a nuclear threat can have such a chastising effect.
Kushboo missed a quote op when the tsunami hit the TN shores!

A safe locality to live-2

Rocky, my neighbor’s son died in a car accident recently.
What a tragedy.
He had gone out with his friends for a celebration party. They had passed the third quiz of the second term in school. Befitting the academic achievement, they had partied- just a score of highballs- at a posh downtown pub. On the way back home, the new concrete road divider rammed into their car. Rocky died on the spot. A piece of the car debris spun across the road on to the pavement and killed a man sleeping on the pavement.
The civic administration should be impeached for this gross negligence. “Why weren’t there people on the divider on that fateful night?” we ask of the negligent bureaucracy. The scumbags are allowed to sleep on the pavements to cushion the swerving cars from the impact of the roadside walls. Now that a piece of concrete has been put up in the middle of the road, some of the wretched beggars ought to have been diverted to the new sleeping place. Because of this callousness, Rocky couldn’t slow down the car before hitting the divider.
But, Rocky’s father is an influential person. He spent a small fortune on the funeral rites to ensure that Rocky goes to heaven. Apparently heaven also has a judiciary and police that need to be fixed. So, he has also contracted with a well known ‘tanrtik’ to engage the best lawyer in heaven and diffuse the case with ‘evidence’ to get Rocky out of trouble.
The snag is that we can’t witness the proceedings from here and arrange for the news channels to live- telecast in ‘breaking news’. However, Rocky’s mother-with her ‘the impossible just takes a little longer for the Chopras’ attitude- is ready with the designer outfit, a well rehearsed speech on her son’s playful and innocent nature, and glycerin.
What a pity.

A safe locality to live-1

I live in a classy neighborhood. All the residents here boast of marque pedigree and, are wealthy and politically connected.
It is a safe place. We keep our delinquent flock protected inside our locality, away from the clutches of the draconian IPC. The IPC is meant to rein in the Indians living in the slums outside and not –us-the Chiefs.
However we are not that dumb. We know that the police can not be trusted to keep our deranged kin in the cooler to keep them out of mischief and so take adequate precaution. For instance, I politely decline the request from the actor in the next street when asks me to keep in safe custody a couple of rifles. I have also alerted the womenfolk in the family not to accept a car lift if offered by the grandson of the Industrialist who lives next door. My daughter of course, has already decided not to tempt fate with a dentist appointment.
It is kind of strange that the slums are safe because the police snare away the problem kids so that the rest of the folks can live in safety while we deftly work around the law and struggle with our own monsters inside our boundary walls.
The cost of self defense is pretty steep in the classy hamlets!!

Reference Groups and Jealousy-2

Srini’s reaction is not unique. Most of us create a reference group of people we know and engage in a zero sum game with them. So, on every occasion that any of them succeed, we feel deprived of our chance to gain, and are driven to impotent anger and jealousy. However our inner mind tells us that jealousy is a negative thought which should be eschewed. We therefore redeem ourselves by our positive reactions to people outwith the reference group.
Srini would hence be charitable in his countenance to both Bill Gates and a beggar.
In short, Bill Gates’s private jet doesn’t disturb our sleep as much as the neighbor’s new Santro! And a beggar’s misery doesn’t make us happy as much as the neighbor’s misfortune!!
There are two ways of tackling this negativity. The obvious way is to erase the reference group. But it is easier said than done. We need social coordinates to position our lives so as to define,measure and respond to our relative successes and failures.
I will share the second way that works for me.
A simple set of 2 posers with honest answers:
1] Would it be 'me' if not 'him'?
The answer exposes the fallacy of the zero sum hypothesis.
2] What should I do to achieve like he has?
The answer gives the recipe for success.

Reference Group and Jealousy-1

About 25 years back, I attained a rare insight sitting on a bar stool in the clubhouse next to my colleague Ram.
In the crowded lounge overlooking the bar, a game of Housie was on. By all visible and audible evidence, the punters were having a fun time.
Suddenly, Srini, the Chief Manager blew in thru the glass door and ordered loud for his pet poison. Visibly agitated, he didn’t need a ‘wassup’ to open his heart out. ‘Look at the grin on this Venkat’s face’, pointing out thru the glass, he whined ‘he won the prize –of 20 rupees-; has the devil’s luck’.
After few more drinks and many more explanations for Venkat’s good luck, Srini shuffled away.
Ram turned to me and said ‘This is life. Since Srini has Venkat in the reference group, he gets jealous and annoyed at Venkat's good fortune. Were it to be a mere beggar winning the national lottery, Srini would have been at his expansive best and held forth on how the providence chose to smile on the poor beggar; why such people deserve lucky breaks ..blah blah’

Thank Kollywood!

Thank the Tamil movie industry, for they will continue to glorify/institutionalize some enduring themes/working philosophies such as:
1] You go to college to make fun of teachers and indulge in rowdism [the tamilian variant of good, clean fun].
2] If you are a rowdy [not an engineer or a doctor], rich and beautiful girls will fall in love with you.
3] After initial resistance, the power of “love” will force your in-laws to accept the marriage and you will inherit their wealth.
4] Honour killing is acceptable, ney, the revered way of preserving the clan heritage.
5] All politicians and policemen are corrupt. [art imitates life !]
6] Faith in God [not the “who am I “variety but the spiritual/spirituous dance with wet clinging yellow saris!!]
“Suspension of disbelief” is an unknown concept to the tamil movie fans who see real life in reel life. Therefore, Kollywood will forever keep the cinema fed and led youth in a dreamy stupor [till they wake up in mid-life and for want of any other option become auto drivers!] and away from mainstream competition.
So, if you are able and willing, Tamil Nadu is the happening place, for Kollywood would spirit away much of the competition. Why worry about reservations and quotas?

Career in IT – the charm is gone

A lot of engineering graduates aspire to make their careers in the IT industry seeking to ride the gravy train.
Is the charm still there? A reality check.
IT’s adrenalin charged growth is already showing signs of plateauing. By 2015, it would be a fairly mature industry and would be subject to the business economics of volume, cost control, competitive margins etc. What would it mean for a software engineer joining now?
There are essentially three operational wings to an IT company.
1] low end maintenance: characterized by large numbers of employees and a near flat hierarchy [equivalent to workers to supervisor ratio in the shop floor]. So chances of promotion are limited. In any case, one really can’t grow into the top management levels through this route. And the acquired skills and experience will be of minimal value to other disciplines, thereby stifling any break out options.
2] customizing applications: with proliferation of vertical specific solutions, reusable components and machine generated code, this wing will go the same way as maintenance.
3] high end consulting led assignments: This wing will be the focus area of growth. The discriminating skills and background required are management education,a high level appreciation of IT and deep industry knowledge. At senior levels, there would also be lateral recruitments from the industry domains as well. Hence, the software engineers can’t easily aspire for senior management positions.[even a highly skilled mason will be hard put to become an architect!]
In summary, in a few years, the software engineers, who by then would be in their early thirties, would be stuck in a stagnant career path with only modest remuneration to boot.
Sensible long term options are careers in stable sectors such as manufacturing and infra structure or moderately risky emergent sectors such as bio/ nano technology. These are better options for sustained career growth leading upto senior management positions and higher cumulative remuneration over the working life span.

Periyar is God for Tambrahms !

The Tamil Brahmins today are financially better placed than they were in the early seventies. I grew up in an agraharam and have witnessed the dramatic rise in the prosperity of hundreds of families.
The biggest benefactor to the Brahmins has been the Periyar founded DK [the word is used to describe all the Dravidian parties] and its variants. To appease the OBCs during election campaigns, the party had to always choose short fixes and not proffer long term solutions. [giving fish and teaching to fish]
As a result, the reservations in education and jobs were ill timed and tremendously helped the Brahmins.
Let me elaborate.
1] In the early seventies, the Brahmins were financially weaker [even the few jamindar families had come to grief by then due to the land ceiling act]. The only dominance they had was in education and Govt. jobs.DK in their bid to capture power showed up the positions held by the Brahmins in the Govt. as a symbol of Brahmin hegemony that extended beyond the agraharams.And offered appeasement to the OBCs by way of job reservation in the Govt.
The best tactic against the Brahmins should have been to keep them in a state of sufficiency by not closing the door to the Govt. jobs.[ the most poorly paid and no real sense of power either; the only way to make money is to become corrupt which over a period of time eats into the moral fabric of the community ; how does one discipline the community into any moral framework with blatantly ill gotten wealth -which also needs to be invested in shady investments or investments thru illegal routes -which in turn ensures that one gets more and more tied to the criminals.]
DK should have encouraged the OBCs to compete better in academics. Instead it offered the “fish”, the job, by the reservation policy. This ensured two things:
1, the OBCs didn’t concentrate on studies
2, The state govt got to be increasingly staffed with mediocre people and the irony is that numerically the largest customer block for the state govt are the OBCs themselves.
As a result, Brahmins got into [right thru 70s,80s and 90s] the IITS, RECs IIMs and all the top colleges with little or no competition from the OBCs and went on to the private sector in droves resulting in large number of families transitioning into the middle /upper income class.
2] By late eighties, when the OBCs realized that the private sector is the better proposition and that there is no way of reserving jobs therein by a Govt fiat , the pressure was back on the DK for yet another quick fix.
DK seizing on this opportunity, painted a picture of Brahmin’s affluence as being due to the education system and the education reservation binge started.
Reservation in the few govt colleges could not help in a significant manner. Therefore, DK resorted to starting new engineering colleges [the irony being that these colleges are mostly owned by the OBCs , make money by selling the seats at a premium to the OBCs and admit the Brahmins under the merit category at Govt. fixed fees ! i.e the OBCs are paying for the education of deserving Brahmins !!!]. The small FC quota on a larger base was enough to take in the left out Brahmin candidates. Because of the value system that stressed on education, they excelled and continue to get the best of the private sector jobs. The IT industry for instance has become almost an extension of the agraharam.[ Today, there is hardly any Brahmin home with out a close relative in the US !.]
Ergo, Periyar’s photo deserves pride of place in the grateful Tamil Brahmin homes!!!