It’s a sight to behold. It was incomprehensible how a road that was just about fine just the previous night now had a trench cut right through the middle like we are prepared for a bombing raid by an enemy air force. It is like all of us are only waiting for the sirens to go off before jumping into the safety of the trenches.

I had heard stories of people having to jump into the trenches, first hand, from a teacher who had to do just that during the Indo-Pak war of 1971.
All the while, we only hope it will not rain heavily. But, rain gods have their way. It drizzled a little heavily. We got to see some slush, but not enough to stop us.

If a European, who lived through World War I horrors, and lived through the trench warfare woke up from the graves today and walked on the road where the office is, and voila… I am sure he would find nothing amiss. The trenches were practically of the same dimensions as they were in 1915. The difference he would find would be the concrete and glass buildings all around, and of course taller buildings.

I wonder how are the well-heeled denizens in the locality managing their lives. Do they stay cooped up or go out leaving their airconditioned cars behind and fell the petrichor (the smell of rain on dry ground) perhaps?

But, it is many a times better and definitely healthier than what I have had to see and smell… the pure sewage that flows on the very same road when it rained. I remember at the start of the career, in 1999, it was a story of the raw sewage and the story is repeated every time on the road when it rains in Bangalore… that is twice a year — during the monsoons and again during the retreating monsoons.

At night the excavators continue to hum and haw, sounding perhaps like the advancing tanks that often sent a shiver down the spine of the soldier hiding in the trenches. Now, when the trenches will be filled we may need caterpillar tracks for the vehicles knowing the skillful work done by the civic authorities.

I may also need to buy some gum boots to deal with the freshly dug earth having played with by the rain gods and the civic gods. As I walk on the road I ensure that I as at atleast 4 of my colleagues are with me as we all walk hand-in-hand. At least even if one loses his/her foot, the others can hold the person up and prevent him/her from falling onto the road which could leave looking like a person working in a paddy field.
Or, perhaps an easier option would be for me to go on a week’s vacation while the trenches are filled up, and come later to answer questions of the superiors.

The silk industry in India has been complaining of dumping by the Chinese. There are press conferences every now and then by either the industry or the reelers or some other aggrieved party to complain about the cheaper Chinese silk imports.

The Chinese have also been facing flak from across the world for their ability to sell cheap products abroad. Indians are not far behind. The Indian businesses are having to deal with products being imported from China that are cheaper.

While the consumer is happy with cheaper products, the businesses are definitely not. The same is the case of consumers and producers of silk.

Those who are directly competing with the Chinese imports in the domestic market are hurt. On the other hand, those who want to reduce their input costs are happy to import from China.

With the Chinese pegging the Yuan to the dollar is helping to drive down the yuan as the dollar falls as the US’s influence. But, the Chinese influence is not falling though. The cheaper Yuan helps one import cheaper from China.

But, not even the China baiters can keep their hands off the Chinese goods it seems. The silk industry which keeps complaining of cheaper imports from China, itself now has to turn to the Chinese to help them cut costs.

At a press conference while complaining of the problems faced by the industry, one complaint was that of the rising input costs. But, how does the industry intend to cut the input costs of Indian silk products.

Looks like the industry wants to use one Chinese to fight another. Some members of the industry said: “We will import Chinese machines as they are the cheapest in the market. Only then can we bring down our input costs.”

Some twisted logic this. But, it makes sense though.

Those with a cell phone connection are well aware of the numerous calls from many a firm wanting to sell you products and services.

The number of calls from banks and other firms wanting to sell you financial products and services are dime a dozen.
It’s often a big challenge to shake them off. Most of the call centre agents are trained to absorb any extant of abuse it may seem.

If I, as a working professional, gets a call it’s not easy to shake them off. After some adverse reactions and after they were stopped with a ‘Laxman Rekha’ by the government, they had become less persistent. I hoped to get some relief only after I registered my name with the ‘Do Not Call’ directory. What prompted me to do so was a call centre agent who made my skin creep with his over-persistence.

There is no such problem with my father though. He refuses to register his name on the ‘Do Not Call Directory’. Despite this, he doesn’t seem to be getting too many calls lately. I was surprised till I heard him speak to a call centre agent when he called regarding a financial product he wanted to sell him. The bank wanted provide him a depository services.

“I am a retired person.” Bingo! Now I got it. It were these five words that put all those people off, who wanted to dip their hands into pockets of people. A retired person’s pocket as he explains to a salesman is “always empty. And, I have no pension.”

So, now no insurance firm or any bank or investment consultant or an investment adviser wants to waste time speaking to a retired person. Now I wanted to try the ploy while I wait for my ‘do-not-call’ registration to be activated.

But, the first time I tried, the agent seemed shocked. “Are you sure you are the person? Or, are you impersonating the person?” Now, I seemed to be in a spot! Impersonation is not a nice thing to be accused of. The agent seemed to have all details about me on his computer screen.

So, instead of do-not-disturb, I hope to have as much fun with the call centre executives as possible as I shall soon be off the list of people who are not on do-not-call directory.

The HR department of a multi-national corporation which is into developing embedded software, decided to get their employees involved in some CSR activity.

The employees were also told they would get credit for participating in the CSR activities. They took time to work on the right kind of CSR activity as they had to first of all get the right approvals from the agencies concerned. They also could not spend too much time on getting the approvals necessary.

Finally, they opted for a lake that near their office. All these days they had seen the degradation around the lake. It had a lot of visitors and when people came, they defintely came with their eatables packed in plastic bags, or carton boxes. After taking in the scenic beauty of the lake, the visitors or picnickers would dump their empty sachets and, plastic covers and bags after refreshing themselves. 

Since the road that necklaced the lake was the only way to reach the office, there is no escape for anyone passing it twice a day from noticing the degradation.

So, finally over 50 of the staff of the firm set out for the lake. In their orange attires provided by the firm which alone had held up the noble work by over a week.

Come the D-day and all landed up at the lake in their ‘uniforms’ with gusto they set out clearing the surroundings of the lake of the plastic covers, and other plastic wastes. Also, there were the discarded paper and plastic plates left there by visitors to the lake.

Within about 3 hours, they were finished with their work and patted themselves for the good work done. But, they were all dead tired from the hard labour. Now was the time for refreshments. Well, out came the plastic cups and tumblers, and plastic and paper plates. After they were finished, they just discarded the garbage on a side of the lake, just from where they had cleaned the garbage.

So, did they clean up the mess they created.

NO! They were too tired and were preparing to go home after a hard day’s labour!

“Some other firm will do that with their employees. We did our job,” said a participant.

Leaders, both business leaders and political leaders, are often seen patting themselves for taking India perilously close to being a super power.

But, not in political terms or economic terms. But, as a super power for providing IT services for businesses around the world. Wealth creation is what the leaders speak of when they speak of their achievement. Buts, has it translated into proportional rise in welfare?
Just as in achieving anything, there are sacrifices of many, maybe in their thousands or even lakhs, on the way to being a great nation or economy. On the path to becoming an IT services super power, there are tears and curses of a million young hearts.

The onsite-offshore model was fine when you had to manage the show with bachelors and bachelorettes. But, over time, they have grown up.
“My husband’s away,” said a melancholic friend. “He will be away for two months.”

Only a couple of months ago he had returned from a nine-month stint onsite. Then, she had been with him. But, this time he was asked to pitch in for a colleague whose visa had fallen victim to fickle-minded foreign relations.

How much longer are we going to play deaf to the cries of the thousands? Perhaps, till the tears start to wash away the cash piles of the industry.

Maybe a 3D hologram of the individual who is away if it can be transmitted over the several time zones in realt time, or perhaps 3D fax???

An army of unhappy citizens is not what a country needs. Alexander could not go on with his conquests and was forced to return to Macedonia because of an army of imhappy, homesick soldiers.

In a village near Mavelikera, not very far from Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, a village is slowly coming to terms with a few changes in the labour market. The concept of wage is being revolutionised there. In a state already reeling from serious labour shortages, people who don’t mind physical labour are the ‘lucky’ ones.
For someone wanting to till his land or get his harvest reaped, you have no one but six ‘farm workers’ (not labourers) to choose from. You can’t choose them, they choose you. If you get into a tiff with any of them, be prepared to do the job on your own as no one else will come.

A farm worker’s life may be considered one filled with drudgery. But, not these gentlemen. They are the special citizens of the village. How did they come to occupy such a hallowed status? Since they were not very qualified… academically, they did not think twice before taking up the odd jobs that demanded physical labour.
Now, they are all the most-wanted people in the village. They are now in a position to just ask for what they want and you have people ever-ready to meet their demands.
In economics, a wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by a worker in exchange for their labour. Compensation in terms of wages is given to a worker and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees.

Here, the most wanted men have gone to another stage in compensation. Besides their Rs 300 per day wage they need to be given their mandatory lunch and an evening tea/coffee. The six have to be given a bottle of brandy after winding up for the day. If you fail to give them their favourite drink, you can be sure you will not have any more farm help for a season at least. Who know, maybe one day, brandy could become mandatory while hiring a worker is what you get to hear.
No amount of influence or wealth can help you if the six make up their mind. All youth of the village are ‘educated’, and prefer more respectable jobs. The lesser qualified prefer to become carpenters, electricians. But, no one in the village wants a job that entails physical labour and that’s the blessing for the six lucky men.

Ashok Kumara Bhatta, a pujari by profession, is now well-versed with the H1N1 virus. Not that he is a part-time doctor or that he has contracted it. But, its fear has hit him where it hurts the most. His income has fallen drastically, to put it mildly. He is finding it difficult to make both ends meet now.

Being a pujary at a small temple in a corner of the city, he mainly depended on the people calling him home to perform pujas. Most of his clientele are IT professionals as that part of city had a significant number of people working with IT firms. They also made offerings when they stopped by the temple on their way to work every day.

Bhatta has hence had to increase his knowledge about the virus that has created so much tension in the hearts and minds of Indians, mostly the urban well-heeled Indians, today. He has learnt that the N95 mask manufactured by an MNC can help him. But, he can’t afford it. It cost about Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 in the black market today in many parts of Bangalore today.

The pujary, fortunately has been working to hone his marketing skills ever since the global slowdown hit Indian shores and had affected the offerings being made to the temple.

Mohan, who had to perform some rites for his father who passed away a year ago, came face-to-face with the marketing skills of Bhatta. Bhatta offered to perform some rites for free. In addition to that, he is also ready to give a discount on his rates. He told Mohan: “I can perform rites to your specifications and make it shorter if you want me to.”

While there is talk of a recovery, Bhatta is yet to feel the benefits of any trickle down effect.

Seems, not even God is spared the impact of the credit crisis brought on by the greed of a few in the US or the H1N1 virus.

I sit down to write a blog. Spend some time on it. I do a spell check, check the blog for errors, and then I click on the upload button. Voila! I get logged out.

I log in again, after the server goes up, to check if the blog has been uploaded. Alas, it was not to be. The server had gone down I am told. My spirits too went down with it. It is not the first time though technology has betrayed me. Well, actually I am frustrated by my dependence on technology.

It not only has allowed me to indulge in the pleasures of writing nonsense (what I call random thoughts), it also sends me through an emotional roller coaster as I am also thinking so many times before posting the blog if there will be a negative comment from a kind-hearted reader who took time to read the blog posting.

Oh, I forget. When writing the blog another worry (only at home though) is if the power supply will stay. The fear of power cuts, often forces me to cut short whatever this man with no powers wants to say.

I am not sure now about the UPS’ capacity too. I had bought one that will stay for half an hour. But, its capacity is down now to about five minutes. Its elementary Mr Bose, the now-friendly electrician of the ‘reformed’ electricity supply company seemed to say. “It is normal ’saar’ for the UPS to behave so.” The quality of power is responsible for reducing my UPS to just a not so useful accoutrement with the PC is what I have come to understand.
I feel I am only complicating my life with my pretensions of being tech-savvy. I feel it would be better for me to be be back with pen and paper. Wish I could find an easy and cheaper way to write with a pen instead of typing on the keyboard and exposing myself to the possiblity of developing the ‘carpel tunnel syndrome’ too.

Well, I am indeed a worried man.

All my life I have known Onam as the harvest festival of Kerala, and a day I can throw dietary cautions to the winds. Most often friends and most acquaintances may even have know that it is Onam.

Hey, but this year seems a little different. All over the airwaves, in many languages you have ads reminding one that it is Onam… and it is time to buy new stuff. There are very many business outlets saying it is festival time and so… BUY!!!

What the slowdown has done to Onam has probably never been achieved earlier in history. Its cut across borders… and Mahabali has jumped out of the comic books and mythological narratives into the drawing rooms of people of all languages and cultures.

While earlier Mahabali has had to only visit the Kerala homes, now he will probably have to visit homes across many more states. While it would probably test his energy, it would also be a test of his linguistic abilities.

Indeed, while over time, Onam has tended to be a relatively more secular festival, the crass commercialisation has ensured that it’s whole philosophy is lost amidst the marketing din.

So, there we go. A harvest festival becomes an opportunity to harvest money of those ready to spend.

It’s been ten days. And, I still can’t get over the fact that the restaurant next door is no more. The floor where the restaurant operated is now just an empty, blank space.

The exorbitant rent was too much for the operator to swallow. The land-lord had been trying to evict the restaurant operator for over an year, and where he did not succeed, the market forces did.

While, earlier, many of the staff working in some of the firms in the neighbourhood would order something to be delivered in their offices, the downturn and the salary cuts had an indirect impact on the business of Shezan. A plain case of the trickle down effect. Here, it was a trickling down of the impact of the salary cuts.

Shezan had been seeing a steady fall in the number of people coming for dine-ins ever since the global slowdown began. When many businesses in and around the restaurant began to down their shutters, the signs looked ominous. But, Shezan seemed to weather the slowdown with dignity if you went by the number of orders they were receiving for food to be delivered.

The restaurant operator (he was a contemporary of mine in college) had once lamented to me, “Now the orders of of much lesser value. It end up making the same efforts to deliver it, but make much lesser money.”
While, a couple of  months ago, a high-end Italian restaurant went down, Shezan seemed to be able to keep its head above water. Alas, while the news reports of the slowdown easing trickles in, the result has not been a proportional trickling down of the wealth creation, if any.
The real estate slump too had a huge impact. Many of the regulars to Shezan were those who made money in the real estate boom. The real estate bust has had a major impact on its revenues.

Bravo! I say to the landlord who managed to speed up the demise of a restaurant. Perhaps it was “mercy killing”.