Warrier's Collage November 20, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On Saturday November 20, 2021 Re-arming Indian History : Anand Narayanan https://youtu.be/LEYV7dJaunY Battle of Colachel : Where history comes alive : https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/chennai-sees-battle-of-colachel-re-enactment/article24689975.ece Good Morning As you are observing, Collage has no pre-decided format these days. Many readers have discontinued opening Collage, many more have started reading now. I'm happy with the feedback I'm getting. Nice Day M G Warrier Spirituality/Faith charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted: Unity in Diversity - 75 रसना रमत सुनत सुखु स्रवना चित चेते सुखु होई कहु भीखन दुई नैन संतोखे जह देखां तह सोई Tongue, ear, mind, find peace/comfort, while speaking, hearing, contemplating Eyes are blessed to see God everywhere Bhikhan, Rag Sorath, 659, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1461433987964891139?s=20 A Response 1) S K Gupta Panchkula "A message from an Indian" to Vir Das by Dr TV Surendran was timely which also served as the much needed tight slap on the face of this so called stand-up artist. While what truly made Das to speak so whimsically and irrationally too against his own motherland remains shrouded in some deep mystery but, for sure, his such act deserves strongest condemnation from all nation loving people of India. ***. *** B Current Affairs 1) RBI Monetary Policy Report October 2021 "Reserve Bank of India - Publications" https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=20647 Conclusion The multi-speed economic recovery across countries is becoming increasingly susceptible to renewed bouts of rapid spread of infections. There has been a perceptible slowdown of economic activity across the globe in recent months, particularly in Asia. Inflation remains high across the world, with supply disruptions becoming more widespread. There is a risk that above target inflation may persist longer than anticipated in several economies. The pervading threat of the delta variant has led monetary authorities – that had earlier signalled unwinding – to be on hold, while incremental inflationary pressures have made others signal a sooner unwinding. 2) Reserve Bank of India Medical Scheme Letter* to Editor, RBI Newsletter Dear Editor, OPD Scheme, 2022 for the Reserve Bank's Retirees While appreciating the Reserve Bank's goodwill gesture by introducing highly innovative OPD Scheme aimed at addressing various health related issues of the Ex-RBItes, it is most humbly requested that a holistic view thereof may please be taken at the time of finalisation of its 2022 edition, as much water has flown down the drain till date. First of all, the Reserve Bank may kindly consider opening the doors of this scheme for all retired staff members by 'waiving off' the extant minimum age restriction of 70 years since the medical ailments hold no age bar. Secondly, in view of not so happy experiences with the present external service provider/s, the Reserve Bank may wish to take upon itself the implementation of the aforesaid scheme on a 'real time' basis. Last but not the least, its present category-wise monetary ceiling may be suitably upgraded too. S.K.Gupta, Ex-AM (PP) , RBI, Chandigarh *Source : RBI Newsletter, November 15, 2021 3) Media Response The Editor The Hindu Business Line Letters November 19, 2021 Decentralisation and professionalisation This refers to the article "Promise of 'one district, one product' (November 19). When he announced from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2014 that Planning Commission was a house in disrepair awaiting rebuilding, people expected much more than discontinuing Five Year Plans. Lot of innovation has been infused in the concepts of resources mobilization and utilisation of nation's resources for economic development. But regrettably, due to different reasons, mapping of the country's wealth and its optimum exploitation for common good still do not get the priority they deserve. The focus on exploitation of local talent and natural resources keeping district as a unit was an idea whose time had come. Viewed from this angle the initiatives "One District, One Product" from Uttar Pradesh is worth emulation across the country. Success of the initiative, however, will depend on the backward and forward infrastructure support together with budgetary allocation provided by State and Central governments for the ventures identified at district level. High time we professionalised and decentralised planning involving all district level functionaries and local people. M G Warrier Mumbai C From here and there 1) 21st Century Poetry "The Best Twenty-First-Century Poems Everyone Should Read – Interesting Literature" https://interestingliterature.com/2020/02/twenty-first-century-poems-contemporary/amp/ Like : Poems A century later The school-bell is a call to battle, every step to class, a step into the firing-line. Here is the target, fine skin at the temple, cheek still rounded from being fifteen. Surrendered, surrounded, she takes the bullet in the head and walks on. The missile cuts a pathway in her mind, to an orchard in full bloom, a field humming under the sun, its lap open and full of poppies. This girl has won the right to be ordinary, wear bangles to a wedding, paint her fingernails, go to school. Bullet, she says, you are stupid. You have failed. You cannot kill a book or the buzzing in it. A murmur, a swarm. Behind her, one by one, the schoolgirls are standing up to take their places on the front line. 2) Diamonds of Deccan The Curious Connection Between The Diamonds Of Deccan & Greek Mythology | Madras Courier https://madrascourier.com/insight/the-curious-connection-between-the-diamonds-of-deccan-greek-mythology/ For centuries, the Deccan was the diamond capital of the world. Most of the world’s diamonds were mined in Golconda, located in the heart of the Deccan (present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). Some of the world’s most prolific diamond mines were along the Pennar, Krishna and Godavari rivers, primarily along Cuddapah, Anantapur, Bellary, Kurnool, Guntur, Mahbubnagar, Kollur, Golapilly, Eluru and Nandyala. From the Greeks to the French, many a traveller and warrior alike, marvelled at these stones and ascribed mythical characteristics to them. In the mid-seventeenth century, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweller and journalist who travelled to India six times between 1631 and 1668, provided a detailed and well-chronicled account of Indian diamond fields. Tavernier, who traded most of the world’s most well-known diamonds. In the Gani Coulour (Kollur Mine), he writes, was found a 25-Carat stone, which was painstakingly polished by as many as 60,000 people. Indeed, some of the world’s most precious diamonds–the Koh-i-noor, Great Mogul and Hope Diamond–have been found in the Kollur mine along the Krishna river. Diamonds, the crystal-white stones, have, for centuries, played a notable role in signifying a ruler’s power, prestige and wealth. And, unsurprisingly, for over 4000 years, the world’s royalty have owned and adorned these precious stones. For instance, one of the world’s most famous diamonds, the Koh-i-noor, now owned by the British Royal family, was once owned by the Kakatiyas who ruled Telangana almost a thousand years ago. Under royal patronage of the Kakatiyas, the Koh-i-noor, which was dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Bhadrakali, was placed in the Bhadrakali temple. But as the ebb and flow of political conquests and power-play made its imprints on the sands of time, the Koh-i-noor, found a way out of India. D Readers' Contributions 1) Nostalgia : M G Warrier Remembering an Exit Interview M G Warrier Those days (1960's), Trade Union activists were "punished" in different ways by the establishment. Many Trade Union activists in government departments have lost jobs and were denied promotions for their Trade Union background. And employees lived in perennial threat to job security. Establishment used all tricks to keep away employees from joining organised protests against victimization or what they perceived as injustice. Selection for departmental examinations/promotion, posting in important divisions, forwarding applications for better jobs elsewhere, permission to join classes outside office hours etc were used as tools to discipline employees. During the year 1967, while working in AG's Office Thiruvanantapuram I was selected as Clerk Grade II in Reserve Bank Of India (RBI). RBI needed a relieving letter from AG's Office. Though I had applied for the job with office permission and submitted my resignation well in time, the relieving letter was not coming. A friend helped to push up my resignation file to Deputy Accountant General (Admin). DAG called me for an "Exit Interview". After half an hour of advice and instructions not to continue trade union work in RBI, boss asked me why employees keep shouting slogans at the gate almost everyday, "What enjoyment you people get by shouting in the hot sun?" was the question. I said, "Sublimation... Sublimation of emotions and feelings, I think, Sir!" Immediately he signed the file relating to my relieving from AG's Office and placed it in the "OUT" tray. He said, "Okay Warrier, remember what I told you. Best of Luck" I received the relieving letter on the same day armed with which I could report to Reserve Bank next day. Even after 50 plus years, I am remembering every word he spoke to me that day. But even today I am wondering what I meant by the word "Sublimation" in that context or what the boss made out from my answer. **** ****. *** E Collage Kitchen Kerala's Traditional Parippu Pradhaman : Recipe "Parippu Pradhaman -Kerala Style Parippu Payasam - Kothiyavunu.com" https://www.kothiyavunu.com/2012/09/parippu-pradhaman/#recipe Yet another traditional dessert Parippu Pradhaman-Payasam from God's Own Country, Kerala. This classic dessert is made of lentils, coconut milk and jaggery. F Leisure 1) Funny dessert jokes for food lovers : https://www.foodjokes.one/meal/dessert What does a camel do on a pudding? Answer: Walks through the dessert. 2)‘No Laughing Matter' : The Ambedkar Cartoons, 1932-1956 : Babasaheb and the banality of injustice : https://www.thehindu.com/books/no-laughing-matter-the-ambedkar-cartoons-1932-1956-babasaheb-and-the-banality-of-injustice/article27619812.ece G Career Quotes 21 Inspirational Career Quotes For Professionals - Work It Daily https://www.workitdaily.com/inspirational-career-quotes/4-find-out-what-you-like-doing-best-and-get-someone-to-pay-you-for-doing-it-katherine-whitehorn Like : "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." —General George Patton (George Smith Patton Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944) H Aasanam (Seat) Recently I listened to a Vedantic lecture. When every life is given a free will, it is also gifted with the tools such as body, bundle of thoughts called mind, intellect which discriminates and emotions and feelings that are felt by our heart and senses respectively. The best way to make our life easier is to receive all that happens around us and let any thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. go as quickly as possible. How nice it would be for us to become a receiver of signal and emit it immediately out without retaining anything. In a way, what we encounter as threat in our life is in fact an opportunity towards a purification process letting the blocked energy to be eliminated letting fresh energy to flow in and out freely. We need to be SEATED in a centered position and keep observing the dances conducted by our thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. Even if we enter, we need to constantly attempt to get out of it to move quickly to the peaceful and blissful original seat. The idea of 'SEAT" made me contemplate. We can understand the theoretical implications of what is stated above. But is it practically possible to get rid of emotions and fear and threatenings caused by certain events? Some of the terrific accidents have a very long lasting impact. You cannot get away from fear. Not that we are nurturing fear or want to be afraid but the situations cause concern. Doctors advise us to tell the relatives concerned. There is a cause to fear. There is a cause to take responsibility to do our best to save the patient, spouse or child. My parents used to say that concern or worry is a good sign of responsibility. Unless we have that urge or fear, one is likely to take things casually or lightly and not concentrate on the absolute emergency. God has given that fear or threat to make us more responsible to face events arising in future too. Nobody can be as philosophical to leave the incidents as lightning and allow them to disperse. Many of the social activities at home or in office are continuous processes and projects causing concern and stand in Q to be solved one after the other. That is how life is made. In this situation when we are running from pillar to post to solve problems one after the other, where is the chance to think of a 'SEAT' to occupy calmly and watch the happenings as observer. Though 'seat' is only metaphorical, I can't even think of such a seat and sitting there calmly to watch our thoughts and happenings one after another. The word 'shraddha', in my view, consists of responsibility arising out of favourable essentials like bringing up children, conducting of weddings or marathon efforts to save a person/relative from a serious malady. True, we are neither the experience nor the experienced. Unless we are into the problem, we may not find any solution. Many problems require our personal physical or mental efforts to get solved. This feeling has not arisen out of ego that'I can solve the problem' but out of a pragmatic approach. Reg the seat, where is that wonderful seat? Seat is a powerful word in life and people work day and night to occupy seat which is not a calm surrounding but is full of lust and power. Everyone wants to have a high chair or status in life. ''What are you?" is a question which every person wants to answer with raised collar. The 'seat' is not as philosophical a symbol in reality but a symbol of great pride. When we talk of seat I am reminded of a statement made by an upanyasak. He asked the audience 'Who is partha sarathi? 'Everyone shouted 'Krishna. Why?' Because he was charioteer ( sarathi) to Partha or Arjuna. The Upanyasak continued 'Krishna does not deserve that term. Because there was another Partha Sarathi earlier before Mahabharatha war began.During Agnathavasa, Arjuna was in the disguise of Bruhannala. In Virata Parva of mahabharath, Arjuna takes the weapons from Vanni tree and Virata Kumara becomes the first Partha sarathi.. In this fight Arjuna wins but all the credit goes to Virata Kumara, who is actually afraid of facing kaurava retinue. Virata Kumara feels that he does not deserve all the encomia paid to him. The Upanyasak continued that Virat Kumara got all the fame because of the mahima of the 'seat' occupied by him. This was the seat to be occupied by Lord Krishna in due course by Shri Krishna and from the same seat 'the great precious Bhagvatgita' is going to emerge to the world. As the sound of the bell arrives well early before arrival of the elephant" (Yanai varum pinne, Mani osai varum munne')the mahima of Krishna's seat came to be known to the world earlier by the success and appreciations heaped on Virata Kumara for insignificant efforts taken by him. A mythological story about 'Chair love' comes to my mind. Very few in this world are free from lust, that too lust from position and chair. This was not uncommon in those days too. Lord Shiva had gifted a chair to Sage Vasishta. The significance of the chair was that it knew all the schedules and programmes of the sage. If there was any prasang or upanyas the chair will go in advance and get seated in a place worthy of the status of the sage. After a few hrs, Vasishta without waiting for anybody directing him to any seat, would go automatically and sit on the chair gifted by Shiva. This created fury and envy among all the sages. "We have also done lot of penance just like Vasishta; and why he is given predominance over others?" The sages directly went to Shiva and presented a memorandum seeking reasons for the partial treatment shown to Vasishta. Shiva said,"Wait. I shall answer your question.But you have to accomplish a task." The sages were ready. Shiva said.' each of you go out separately, find out a person whom you consider superior to you , do him all the Athithi Satkar and bring him to me within 48 days. All of them started towards their mission. Shiva then called for Vasishta and told him," Find out a person whom you consider inferior to you, do him Athithi Satkar and bring the person to me." Within the stipulated time all the sages returned. Nobody brought any person. Uniformly they said, We searched in all the places;we could not find even a single soul superior to us." Vasishta also returned empty handed . He said," Lord;everyone in the world is superior to me; I thought of bringing my wife here. But after some introspection I felt that I am nothing compared to her chastity. ( Pathi vrata Dharma). Hearing Vasishta's reply all sages felt ashamed. It is this humility that earned him the highest status among sages and that is why vasishta's word was considered final. Today also people cling to the chairs, not due to simplicity but due to ................. Vathsala Jayaraman