Warrier's Collage January 26, 2022

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Republic Day, 2022 https://youtu.be/uIc7wqMmiSU Annadurai from Chennai* https://youtu.be/P_94f7Grkp8 (Let's listen to something positive this Republic Day : https://youtu.be/NpxWCvwD8lk) *Links Courtesy : Yashodhan Mujumdar and K Balasubramanian Good Morning Happy Republic Day to all readers : https://youtu.be/0B-t1Lqkisk Nice Day (Considering preoccupations of contributors and readers, Collage is coming out only twice a week now. Next issue of Collage, hopefully, will be on Sunday January 30, 2022. 🙏-Warrier) M G Warrier A Messages 1) K Ramasubramanian Dear Sundaresan Nice to recall Trivandrum days and Belhaven where I was sitting in Nalukettu from 1971 to 1982. The central office forgot about my transfer despite the Association preparing a list of officers who are not transferred for more than 5 years with my name respectfully at the top of the list. My stay was so interesting that I built a house in Kudappanakkunnu along with my colleague Shri Damodar Shenoy. I acquired a habit of putting sandal paste in my forehead from Trivandrum Thanks to Shri RS and his brother Hariharan whose generous supply of the sandal paste Kalabam from Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, the habit still continues and has so to say become an identification mark for KRS. The office provided me with various opportunities to travel from Trivandrum at the Southern end to Kasaragode in the North with a sprinkling of stay at Dollar Centres like Ernakulam and Calicut which carried higher Halting allowances. I also learned of the art of preparing Travelling Bill for tours with a week having 8 days only with the teaching of Mr John Chandy with administration passing all the bills as it was in compliance with the official rules. The center wise inspection a tool to inspect all branches in a center gave the opportunity to most of the officers on tour and camaraderie grew with minute details of family and friends A nostalgic recall you have triggered in me. With thanks yours sincerely KRS 2) Vishnu Kelkar Anumantha (See article by Vathsala Jayaraman at H) Good analysis on Anumantha. Many of us strive to achieve perfection in our lives. We aim for perfect job, family, physique, house and so on. In aiming for perfection we feel we will be happier and others will like us. But in the pursuit of perfection we add a great deal of anxiety and pressure to our lives. In learning to accept imperfections we can can take some of the pressure off ourselves and enjoy where we are in our life. VNKelkar B Spirituality/Yoga charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted: Unity in Diversity - 140 गोपाल तेरा आरता जो जन तुमरी भगति करंते तिन के काज सवारता धंना O sustainer of Universe, I am distressed (I have heard) Those devotees who meditate/worship, you accomplish their tasks, resolve their problems Dhanna, Dhanasri, 695, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1484996567853834240?s=20 charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted: Unity in Diversity - 141 नाराइण निंदसि काइ भूली गवारी दुक्रितु सुक्रितु थारो करमु री भगत त्रिलोचन, धनासरी, ६९५, गुरु ग्रंथ साहिब Why blame God, oh ignorant mind Your good & bad situations are results of your own deeds Trilochan, Dhanasri, 695, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1485222691833806852?s=20 charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted: Unity in Diversity - 142 गोबिंद गोबिंदेति जपि नर सकल सिधि पदं जैदेव आइउ तस सफुटं भव भूत सरब गतं जैदेव, गूजरी Meditate on 1 God who is source of all spiritual powers Seek sanctuary of God who grants salvation to all - past, present & future Jaidev, 526, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1485628298046877696?s=20 2) Yoga : Standing Exercises for Seniors* https://youtu.be/q_nsKip_VLw *Uploaded by Reshmy Warrier Mumbai a year ago. C Constitution of India : M G Warrier https://www.moneylife.in/article/how-much-of-indian-constitution-is-for-we-the-people/29687.html#:~:text=Article%2021%2D%20No%20person%20shall,to%20procedure%20established%20by%20law.&text=Article%2021A%2D%20The%20State%20shall,may%2C%20by%20law%2C%20determine. Most of us are aware of our rights. Still, it will be interesting to look at them in the context of what the authors of our Constitution had to say about them. The Indian Constitution specifically protects rights—such as right to life, right to education, right to work, right to property and right against exploitation. D Media Letters January 24, 2022 Review housing policy* This refers to your editorial "Roof for all" (Hindu Business Line, January 24) with focus on PMAY. Post-Independence, though we started off with several Surveys and Studies and an ambitious Five Year Plan integrating best of both the worlds- Capitalism and Socialism- somewhere on the way our priorities got distorted. Primary needs, including food, shelter, healthcare and education, thus remain a distant dream for millions of Indians. Coming back to PMAY, the scheme needs a comprehensive review to integrate : 1) Environment protection 2) Permanent rehabilitation of people whose residences are affected by natural calamities more often (like those staying close to seashore or flood-affected regions, those who have to live in fear of landslides etc). 3) Where 2 affect livelihood, affordable transportation arrangement should be made available for workers. If funding is an issue, postponement of future projects of high-cost highways, metros etc should be considered. M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram *Published in The Hindu Business Line on January 25, 2022. E Books Netaji shortlisted to read in 1936* : E Madhavan Thrissur shared a link : https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/1485305128974708736 *And requested Nehru to share! F Leisure 1) Meaning of Dreams* The Valentine's Day Gift It was a few days before Valentine's Day and a young woman was taking an afternoon nap. After she woke up, she told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine's day! What do you think it means?" Her husband smiled. "Oh, I have a feeling you'll know later tonight." he said with a wink. His wife squealed with joy. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it... only to find a book titled "The meaning of dreams." *Received from A P Ramadurai 2) Nostalgia : Old Typewriters https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/nostalgia-is-typed-in-bold-letters-here/article38319268.ece (Link Courtesy : P R R Nayar Thiruvananthapuram) Old Typewriters https://youtu.be/aecKqYpduTc G Remembering Netaji : https://madrascourier.com/biography/remembering-netaji/ H Story time with Vathsala Jayaraman Anumantha The title is no way connected with Lord Hanuman but definitely associated with 'Self confidence' that Anchaneya possessed. Very often we are advised that it is an obsession to expect perfection in every field. As human beings are not totally perfect, it is desirable to accept imperfection in 'as is where is' condition and 'endure what cannot be cured'. This may give peace of mind and relieve us of mental tension and anxiety. This leads to another question.As we go on compromising, no job will be at a desired level and may result in inaccuracy and negative results. There are three types of people. There are cowards, who never start the work,being afraid to face the upcoming trouble. There are people who start but give up in the middle. Only the third type continue amidst difficulties and march towards the path of success. The legendary story of Bhageeratha is a concrete example. Our scriptures repeatedly point out to the role of self belief and self esteem. An important contributor to strengthen self belief is to aim at perfection in whatever one does. Once a visitor saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the top of a tower with perfect accuracy. The visitor was puzzled and said "after all the bird will be at top of the tower and nobody would notice if there is any flaw from such a long distance." The artist replied' My conscience sees and God sees,". This urge to set the highest personal standards is the essential key to self growth and achieving what is known as 'Kausalam' in every single action we attempt. Even today, we see scientists in 'Space' do aim at 100% perfection to attain safety, security and success at a time It is evident with some of the film makers It is high time that success is not that we run into by accident, but the harder you work, luckier you become. More often we tend to ignore our 'inner voice' and listening to negative voices echoed by others unconnected with the event. Bhagavat Gita provides a supreme narration to overcome the 'external voice' syndrome. In Chapter 13, Gita speaks about the internal spectator 'Upadrashta' who is also the permitter'Anumanta'.It is for us to hone our skills to be in alignment with the Spectator-cum-approver' entity present in every one of us. It is important, Social Psychologists say, to ignore collection of different negative voices and concentrate on your own critical voice. The only person that will pull you down is yourself and you cannot be let down by anyone else. On many occasions we feel that rejection kills our confidence. But it has a positive side too.It can help to steel your resolve and redouble your efforts. India's Metroman Mr. E. Sreedharan is the star example of perfection, efficiency and consistency. He had seen many rejection and road blocks while executing the projects. I happened to listen to him once.Strangely enough he brought a spiritual dimension to the metro rail project. Punctuality, integrity, professional competence and social accountability were the cardinal principles on which the project was built. He said that the principles laid down in Bhagavat Gita were taught to the employees and every individual connected with the project was handed over a copy of Gita and was asked to get at the spirit behind. I was amazed when he said" Gita is not a spiritual text, but an administrative gospel" Many strongly believe that a man is not distinguished by his perfections as much as by his imperfections. Bible says that 'perfection is not given to man, it is given only to God'. There is nothing wrong being imperfect provided we are aware of it. My agony is if every one starts saying'this will suffice and what we are going to gain by being 100 % correct, there will no effort towards 'flawless' transactions. After all, life is gifted to achieve a flawless state. This can be achieved only when our mind is completely subordinated to our consciousness. The western quality management Gurus say that "satisfaction with what we have achieved is the end of quality improvement". In quality management, they talk about Product Quality, Process Quality and Service Quality. Similarly in real life, the way we execute our work (Process), what we aim to achieve (Product) and what benefit we expect the user to achieve (Service) are all important. When an Examiner sets up a paper that is hard for students to perform and score better grades, everyone blames the Examiner. In such situation, his product quality and process quality were great but he failed to look at the view point of the end user (i.e.Students) whose objective is not to become an expert in the subject but to qualify for the next level. I think being contended of what we get is entirely different from the perfection we want to achieve. It is true that no one can be a paragon of perfection. Yet the efforts in attaining perfection should never stop on account of fear for crisis and challenges. At all levels there is difference between a lazy guy who never lifts his little finger and the person who takes all efforts and fails. Though financially and status wise they may stand in the same place, without any doubt the latter stands tall. In space technology they have failed on so many occasions. had they left off at that stage we would not have been in top position in space technolgy. We are surprised to know that there are perfectionists even among criminals.Some thieves both National and International were very perfect. Even judges lauded them for their perfect work. A life time prisoner hatched a perfect plan and had been on it for over twenty years and finally escaped. He was using only pencil shavings and red pigments (nitro cellulose) scraped from playing cards to make a bomb. We may sometimes feel that hardwork is not giving sufficient returns. But ultimately during the time of 'grand finale' at the event of success, everyone realises that small small efforts are adding on in invisible ways to the success of the project and that is the power of 'anumantha',the spectator-approver' the driving force behind our self confidence. Vathsala Jayaraman