WEEKEND LIGHTER: Postmortem

WEEKEND LIGHTER*: Postmortem

 (April 1 /2, 2017, No.13/2017)

Feel free to mail your views on this edition of WL to mgwarrier@gmail.com

*Weekend Lighter is posted every Saturday @mgwarrier.blogspot.in

Section III:Prayers, wishes, goals…

I

Cover Story

'Post mortem*'

The word' Post Mortem' is a Latin word for "after death". In English, postmortem refers to an examination, investigation, or process that takes place after death. A postmortem examination of a body (often simply called a postmortem) is often needed to determine the time and cause of death; the stiffening called rigor mortis is one postmortem change that doctors look at to determine when death occurred. Today we've come to use postmortem to refer to any examination or discussion that takes place after an event.
It is our thoughts, words and actions that define our lives and it is our discrimination of these three that determines our character. Our experiences are nothing but a set of circumstances that helps us to learn the purpose of our lives. All events that unfold in life are dress rehearsal for a better tomorrow. Failure and success are immeasurable to the human mind and they are nothing but loosely defined terms coined by the judgment by fellow beings. 
If we truly need to improve the quality of life, we need to conduct a postmortem of our mind to determine how it worked all day by sitting quietly in a place every evening. Let us find out when our character suffered from ill health during the day. Once this analysis results in pinpointing the root cause of the health issue, let us learn to fix it instantly so that it is never repeated. Most importantly, let us forgive ourselves for such an action after the remorseful session.

The journey about building character is lonely but if we build a great listening skills, we may have great resources around us to point it out making the introspection easier. The biggest obstacle for identification of root cause of health issues to our character is our own ego. The family, friends, colleagues, education, life skills, wealth, health, reputation, name, fame, etc. need not be meticulously accumulated if we learn to work on control of thoughts, words, deeds, senses and mind and development of the character. 

Once the expression was a taboo at home.

 But nearly 10 hours used to be allotted for the subject 'post mortem' in the study of 'psychology' in the college of Education.

Normally in middle class homes there will be post mortem session after weddings, small functions and even after death rituals. My grandma used to initiate discussions on the negatives, bad comments from guests, why they emanated, which went wrong-whether from our reception side or on the part of the chief cook or any other miscellaneous item. This used to be noted and avoided in future weddings.

After a surgery, whether success or failure, doctors conduct post mortem research as to how they should have avoided certain steps or how they should have been careful in certain areas. Now a days there are video clips of the actual surgery to avoid legal suits later.

In big missions like launching of satellites and failures, this postmortem is of very much use. Behind the real development in Android and I-phones, lies the postmortem of the earlier projects.
In real life situations when our harsh words and actions retort, we start doing this post mortem exam.

Normally human tendency is to do the analysis not on daily basis but on a massive failure of a mission. When the 13 floored newly constructed building collapsed in Chennai four years back, the entire public ,particularly, real estate tops started doing post mortem analysis.

After every election results and after every cricket match, after exam results, this postmortem is common.

  True,day today self assessment leads to refinement in character.

This postmortem analysis is already embedded in human character.Planning and post mortem are two essential aspects in every activity essential for step by step progress and help to avoid many a crisis.

Book reviews, vyakyanams and commentaries of great epics, reviews of fine Arts programmes, assessment meetings with District collectors after a development programme is launched, trial runs of metro trains and driverless cars, only a few to mention. The list is very long and encompasses 99 percent of human activities.

The only place we never do post mortem is with respect to'group mails'.Thank God!

Post mortem really helps.But normally this is avoided under the plea'don't cry over spilt milk'.It is not crying over spoilt milk but is a solution to ensure that no milk is spoilt in future and we can aim at near perfection in what we think, how we speak and how we act.It is more or less a 'self-consultancy'service which is more powerful than the most paid consulting services.

A valuable aspect of life which is very often neglected in day to day life but cared for essentially in corporates as 'post project analysis'.

Is it not true that our ego prevent us from doing 'post mortem' of our thoughts, words and actions since we think that we are always right.

*Source: Thoughts shared by Vathsala Jayaraman via email

My response:

Vathsala madam has done a detailed and informative analysis of postmortem. A postmortem of postmortem  It gives deep insight into the need for the process and its role and application in being in peace with one's own mind and in personality development. I first heard from Kiran Bedi (in her younger days) about Daily Audit of day's work and experiences before going to sleep. I found her views impressive, considering the responsibilities she was holding then. I shouldn't divert from the subject today, opened for discussion by Vathsala madam.

Two central government organizations are doing creative postmortem on an ongoing basis, one for its own better subsequent performance and another by constitutional mandate. These are ISRO and CAG. We have to learn a lot from both. I am envious about the silent professionalism of ISRO and the art of self development practised by CAG as an institution.

M G Warrier

II

Recent responses

Monologues in wilderness

Apropos “Economic policy failure, uninterrupted” (Book Extract, March 27), even after discounting the freedom historians and journalists have (TCA Srinivasa Raghavan is Two-in-One plus!) in timing their responses and the right they can exercise in being selective about subjects, one has to concede that the conclusions arrived at deserves to be accepted as a guidance for sorting out the relationship issues between GOI and RBI.

 Even before reading the book “Dialogue of the Deaf”, going by the abundance of the author’s experience as journalist fortified with his association with editing the RBI’s History,  we can have a feel of the rich content of the book which could become a source of reference for future historians.

It is always easier to be wiser after the event. While being judgmental about Dr Subbarao’s performance during the first half of his total 5 year term, one has to ponder over the circumstances in which he got selected for the top job at Mint Road by the then FM Chidambaram. Going by Subbarao’s own revelations in his memoirs and other circumstantial evidences, FM opted for an amenable RBI Governor. Most of the Governors and Deputy Governors who come to RBI from outside, some too soon and some after some time, undergo a metamorphosis and start talking RBI language is a blessing that keeps India’s central bank going despite all efforts, internal and external, to destabilize it.

Unless policy makers take time to read and understand the spirit of monologues like this, they will remain in the wilderness, again used only for reference purposes by scholars and historians.

M G Warrier, Mumbai   

Bad bank can be worse

Apropos “Good banks and a bad bank” (Business Standard, March 27), the urgency in reversing the rise in stressed assets with banks is universally admitted  without any reservation. When it comes to solutions, there can be, and there are, difference in perception of responsibilities and therefore methods to tackle the problem of bad assets with banks too differ widely. In any case, it is late in the day to think of a surgical approach isolating sectors like infrastructure or industries or farm loans and any solution will have to have the health of banks in view.

The bad bank idea, which was mooted last year didn’t find favour with the then RBI governor Raguram Rajan. The change of guard at Mint Road together with the compulsions arising from the severity of the bad loan problem plaguing the system, which has not so far been responding much to normal ‘treatment’, helped media and analysts to make a second attempt. A theoretical approach with some forceful arguments in favour of sucking out RBI’s reserves to fund institutionalization of bad debts, squeezed into Economic Survey 2016-17,  looked prima facie, too good.

Banks with huge amount of stressed assets are also big enough to do whatever a newly constituted institution can do to make the NPAs perform or close the accounts after recovery of whatever part is recoverable. With appropriate legislative and legal support from GOI in the same manner banks form consortiums to lend to large projects banks can make joint efforts to pool resources and make joint recovery efforts. Such joint efforts will reduce the chances of borrowers shifting from one bank to another for softer treatment in regard to financial discipline.

Like the disinclination to repay unleashed by agricultural loan waivers, the very concept of a GOI-owned “bad bank” does create the problem of moral hazard as it creates incentives for banks to be reckless. The responsibility to recover or ‘provide for’ loans disbursed going bad should remain with the lender. Shifting this responsibility to another institution and funding the losses from taxpayers’ money raises the more serious question of public perception and potential damage to the reputation of the financial system.

M G Warrier, Mumbai

Create a talent pool

This refers to your editorial “Reforming bureaucracy” (HBL, March 29). The urgency for a revamp of Human Resources Management across public and private sectors has been brought out with convincing rationale here. For historic reasons, which include ‘family focus’ in management of business and politics, the overdependence on bureaucracy for conduct of the business of governance (a British legacy which our political leadership found expedient to continue) and an unemployment situation which resulted in delaying the process of integrating skill-needs into the education system, skill development continues to be a neglected area from top to bottom in India.

The divide between government/public sector and private sector need to be demolished for the purpose of infusing efficiency and professionalism. An overhaul across the sectors, factoring in the leadership needs of governance will involve changes in educational system, recruitment/training/placement policies and remuneration practices. Inter-mobility at all levels, fresh induction at higher levels by drawing from the ‘talent pool’ outside and restrictions on tenures will have to become flexible without giving cause for panic from job security angle.

To reduce the present overdependence on bureaucracy, political leadership may have to increase intake of professionals to their cadres and make party work an acceptable and dignified career option.

M G Warrier, Mumbai

III

Spirituality, Leisure

Prayers, wishes, goals

Bloggers generally prefer to post quotes and comments which are in alignment with their own thinking. Till sometime back, when daily average page views of his Blog did not go to three digits, I had the comfort that those who open my Blog are aware of my thinking. Now, I find, some days over 300 times my Blog is accessed and the Google statistics show that the readers are from different parts of the world. Though I am consistently pursuing the broad norms included in my first Blog (Jyotirgamayah), some explanation as to the mix of subjects covered may be in order at this stage.

Human Rights

This Blog takes cognizance of current thinking on human rights, universal healthcare, literacy and social security issues.

Financial Sector

As the best years of my life was spent in Reserve Bank of India, I try to respond to current policy issues affecting financial sector. To be precise, a couple of letters published in/addressed to, in mainstream financial dailies will find a place here in addition to an article which I contribute to The Global ANALYST, a monthly Business & Finance Magazine published by Iupindia (a part of IFCAI, Hyderabad).

Workers’ problems

I was associated with trade unions in central government and banking industry during 1960’s and 70’s. So, my responses on HR issues including career progression, wages and retirement benefits will be pro-labour.

Faith, spirituality, leisure

As my mail-friends are elderly people, many of them my ex-colleagues, occasionally I include subjects like the one in this post.

Many thanks for the support and encouragement.

Warm regards

M G Warrier

Without expectations*

In Her Tiruppavai, while talking of flowers offered in worship, Andal uses the word ‘thoomalar.’ Here She wants to indicate that the flowers should be offered out of bhakti, and not expecting a quid pro quo, elaborated Kidambi Narayanan in a discourse.

Suppose a man owns some property. His son cannot demand that his father should give him a share in the property. Nor can he lay down the quantum to be given to him. It is for the parent to decide when and how much he should give to each of his children. In the same way, it is not for us to demand things of the Lord. It is the Lord who will decide what each of us should be given.

Kooratazhvan’s sons were not married and Kooratazhvan, immersed in service to Lord Ranganatha and to Ramanuja, did not give the marriage of his sons a thought. But his wife was worried about their sons remaining unmarried. She wondered why her husband did not take steps to get them married. She urged him to do something for the future of his sons, and to ask Lord Ranganatha to help in the matter. Kooratazhvan, however, was determined not to ask the Lord for anything. When he went to the Srirangam temple as he did everyday, the Lord asked him if anything was the matter. Kooratazhvan, said that people were talking about the unmarried state of his sons. But Kooratazhvan did not pray for their early marriage. He did not put forward any request before the Lord. But the Lord took it upon Himself to see that the sons of Kooratazhvan were married soon. The Lord knew what Kooratazhvan’s family needed and He ensured that the sons of His devotee were married.

The Lord knows what our problems are; and when the time is ripe, He offers us solutions. Sometimes the solutions may not be what we looked for, but we must learn to accept them as His will.

*Source: The Hindu, March 30, 2017, Faith