Warrier's Collage April 2, 2022

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Saturday, April 2, 2022 Painkuni Festival : Sripadmanabha Temple Thiruvananthapuram https://youtu.be/9qcECSEyfDk (Link Courtesy : K P V Karunakaran Mumbai) Good Morning Nice Day M G Warrier A Select Responses 1) Dr Prabha & A P Ramadurai Wishing our friends and their family members a very Happy Yugadi and Gudi Padvaa. Ramadurais 2) Sitendra Kumar Your article* on the need of finishing school for the politicians is timely and deserves the attention of our policy makers although you wrote the same a decade back. But what could be the syllabus for that school? An elaborate course on parliamentary procedures, ethics and governance coupled with a peep on Indian history apart from familiarising them with rudiments of economics and various ongoing development projects. An exposure to the basics of our foreign policy is must. Can they be taught to eschew violence, dispense with regionalism, parochialism, religious bigotry etc; and taught the virtues of honesty, secularism and importance of the casteless society? A tall order indeed. Your write up was very good. Sitendra Kumar *Ref : https://www.moneylife.in/article/a-finishing-school-for-politicians/28234.html 3) S Thyagarajan Meena Kumari* Pakeezah : From Meena Kumari's failing health to separation from director Kamal Amrohi, what went wrong during making of this classic. On Meena Kumari's 50th death anniversary, here's recalling the making of one of her most popular films Pakeezah. Made by her husband, director Kamal Amrohi, the film's making went through many ups and downs over 14 years. Meena Kumari was only 39 when she passed away and even though her career was relatively short in comparison to her contemporaries, her legacy as the 'tragedy queen' lives on. While the great actor gave some heart-wrenching performances in films like Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Baiju Bawra, Sharada, it is Pakeezah, her swan song, that has become her most popular work in the years since. Please read the full story in the following link: https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/meena-kumari-pakeezah-separation-from-director-kamal-amrohi-everything-behind-the-scenes-making-of-the-film-7844115/?fbclid=IwAR1YPMTxznInJgZ_hBiOqVKaWCOLxD7fe_CBP12bF_YM9KgmFQBjDU66UhE S THYAGARAJAN *Being shared in continuation of F of Collage, April 1, 2022 4) Jyothilakshmi Anil Kumar Congratulations for your book release on April 2, 2022 5) T J Kurup Thiruvananthapuram Congratulations for book*-releasing function. Also wish you create more such occasions. *Formal release of my third book related to banking and finance : https://notionpress.com/read/restoring-trust-in-governance (Many Thanks for all encouraging words 🙏-Warrier) B A Writer's Progress : M G Warrier https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/a-writers-progress-10304/?source=app Excerpts : "The provocation for this piece is the doctor’s following response: “I very much like to publish but I just can’t find enough time… Thanks for the encouragement” Here, let me analyse my own progress in putting together my thoughts in black and white and getting them across my “target audience” In school, during our time (the 1950s), we used to have “Manuscript Magazines” in classes 7 to 11. In each class, the class teacher will coordinate the periodical “publication” of Class Magazine. The “Magazine” was a notebook in which articles, stories and poems by talented students will be artistically presented by the student whose handwriting and presentation skills were good. The Magazine used to remain in circulation for months and was read by scores of students and some teachers. I too got a chance to contribute to the magazine. For students, a higher level of publication was in a section dedicated for contribution from children in a popular Malayalam Weekly. I still remember when a Malayalam translation of a small Hindi story (from a text book) appeared in print in that section." A recently published article on Indian Pension Systems https://www.businessmanager.in/indian-pension-systems-an-overhaul-is-overdue/ Media Response April 1, 2022 Regulation, supervision and debt management This refers to the article "Microfinance sector poised for rural take off" (The Hindu Business Line, April 1). For historic reasons, since inception, Reserve Bank of India has been overburdened with responsibilities which do not form part of traditional central banking functions. The only effort made to consider corrective measures in this respect was appointment of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) few years ago. FSLRC misunderstood its own mandate and tried to reinvent RBI which attempt was resisted by GOI and RBI for different reasons. The positive outcome from FSLRC included constitution of the Monetary Policy Committee and a relook at some obsolete statutes impacting the smooth functioning of financial sector. GOI and RBI did play a proactive role in institution building in the financial sector to improve ground level operations. Same cannot be said about transfer/delegation of regulatory and supervisory responsibilities and functions like public debt management which continue to remain centralised in RBI. Perhaps time has come for RBI to think of designating new institutions to supervise and regulate NBFCs and Microfinance institutions and professionally manage Public Debt. M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram C Spirituality/Faith https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1509648689996120067?s=20&t=ONsYoAiZPf1dBNOy6mPVeg Unity in Diversity - 208 जनमे का फलु किआ गणी जां हरि भगति न भाउ .. नानक नामु सलाहि तू होरु हउमै आवउ जाउ The purpose of Life is to meditate All other activities are worthless And ego is cause of coming/going - cycle of birth/death Guru Nanak, 1411, SGGS D Non-Banking Articles by M G Warrier 1) Mindspace : New Indian Express https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/mindspace/2019/jan/28/our-failed-search-for-the-fallen-pupil-1930837.html 2) Open Page : The Hindu https://rajivrao.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/the-men-in-khaki-did-the-police-proud-by-m-g-warrier-source-the-hindu-newspaper/ 3) Water from ATMs? https://www.moneylife.in/article/dispensing-water-from-atms-or-water-dispensing-atms/39240.html#.VE-E6OAUeoY.blogger "Potable water will be sold on prepaid smart cards, which can be used at the ATMs. It (water provided) will be on-demand, in customer chosen quantities and at a price lower than alternatives, including household filtration. Access to clean water on demand will improve public health, livelihoods and school attendance," the proposal states. E Collage in Classroom History of Publishing https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing history of publishing, an account of the selection, preparation, and marketing of printed matter from its origins in ancient times to the present. The activity has grown from small beginnings into a vast and complex industry responsible for the dissemination of all manner of cultural material; its impact upon civilization is impossible to calculate. F Leisure 1) BUY ONE GET ONE FREE* 1. Buy anger, get blood pressure free 2. Buy jealousy, get headache free. 3. Buy animosity, get enmity free. Contrarily : 1. Buy trust, get friends free. 2. Buy exercise, get health free. 3. Buy peace, get happiness free. 4. Buy love, get all good things free. 5. Buy honesty, get sleep free. *Decide what you want free . 🙏 🙏 *Received from TKE Das Mumbai 2) Nepoleon's regret Don't underestimate Indian Media* Napoleon comes back to life and visits the USA, Israel and India After his visit to the USA, he tells the president: “If I had your military equipment and training, I wouldn’t have lost the battle of Waterloo!” He goes to the Israel and at the end of his visit, he tells the Israeli PM : “If I had your Mossad and espionage system, I wouldn’t have lost the battle of Waterloo!” He comes to India and, at the airport, before leaving, he tells... the PM: “If I had your press, television and media, no one in the world would have known I lost the battle of Waterloo!” *Received from R Jayakumar via Group mail G Nostalgia Collage Essay : Vathsala Jayaraman Busy Summer, Those Years Among the various activities on Sivarathri night, I remember the making of Vibhuthi for the whole year as an important ritual. On the days preceding Sivarathri, our maid would make small balls out of cow dung, called muttan. On the evening of Shivratri after bath we would clean a small area and we would make a small kolam there. We would then stack all the dried cow dung balls there and throw on some umi (chaff from paddy). My amma would then light the chaff and the cowdung balls would gradually smoulder and burn out completely over the next couple of days. The beauty of it is that once the fire is burnt out, the balls of dung could be extracted in its original shape, as balls of ash. This ash was then collected and stored to be used as Vibhuthi for the next year. Vibhuthi is the sacred ash smeared on the foreheads of Saivites. This reminds us of the all encompassing truth that ash is what remains after everything is burnt away and ash is imperishable. . The whole community was a large spiritual kendra where one learnt the simple truths on one's own or as advised to. Next activity was Karuvadaam making. Early morning at 4 a m Amma used to prepare vadaam batter a nice pasty substance with salt,chilies and asafoetida. The cooked batter will have a shiny surface when done. We spread a plastic sheet or clean cloth on a flat surface where there is good sunlight and press the cooked batter through a Muthucharam press. It is better to press the dough when it is still lukewarm so that the batter flows easily. Allow to dry till sunset. Remove the karuvadams from the sheet; sprinkling a little water over them eases the process. Dry them again for 2 more days until they are well dried. Store in a cool dry box. To serve, deep fry the karuvadams and enjoy! Thalir vadaam making was a project in itself.This could take in as many as were available on hand. The whole process had to follow a streamlined program to achieve optimum result. Accordingly 2 people would be wiping the leaves with a cloth dipped in a mixture of oil and water, the next people on the line would spread the batter on the leaves (writing the vadam it was called), the next would arrange them on the idli plate and hand them over to the person sitting near the large fire wood stove with a huge steamer (this would be a large utensil called arikanchatti on which huge idli plates would be kept). The arikanchatti would be half filled with water and some hay would be put in the water so that the idli plate would sit tight on the water. The whole thing was covered with a huge lid with the idli plate inside the steamer. After the vadams were cooked by steaming, they were taken out and the next batch would go in for steaming. Now another set of people would peel off the cooked vadams from the leaves and spread them on the back of a new bamboo sieve. Up to this point, the job needs skilled labour. Now comes the turn of little children, who would take the bamboo sieves with vadams to the next room and transfer these vadams onto mats. The leaves from which vadams were removed would again go to the first set of people to be cleaned and then written in and then steamed. After an hour or so the vadams would to go to courtyard to be dried in the sun. More people needed now to mind the crows as well. This process would go on for 3 -4 hours. At the end came the most interesting part. The last batch would be thickly written vadams which would be eaten raw with a smearing of raw coconut oil on them. This was a delicacy nobody wanted to miss. But most of the fun was in eating the semi dried maavu throwing blame on the absentee crows. Wow! What a taste! Such bliss is incomparable. Unfortunately, it is now unrecognizable. This also is the season of preparing kadugumanga or vadumanga (Tamil) which again is a time consuming process. This is also the time when tamarind is processed. This takes days and days. The tamarind had to be shelled and dried and the seeds removed and the dried tamarind preserved in earthenware pots or ceramic jars with a sprinkling of salt. Vadaam season is over.Now children make strips/thatches out of coconut leaves split into two halves. Appa taught us how to make thatches . Daily we used to make 5 keetrus each and all the 18 participants would complete a set of 1000 keetrus ready for rainy season. Actually this was a good rehearsal for making plastic baskets out of plasric thin ribbons some 30 years later. Now father took up the session after mid April. All daughters and cousins were asked to do an exercise daily from Wren and Martin. Alternate days it was mental sum exercise followed by essay writing for 30 lines on any subject chosen by Appa.The subjects varied from "my hobby, visit to temple, beauty of wedding/temple processions and thrill of hitting mangoes from others' groves" etc. It is this practice, though hated by us all, turned out to be a blessing later to train my children in writing good English. What a lovely vacation! Vathsala Jayaraman Bonus : Mango Season https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/mango-season-9044/ Excerpts : Mango season in Kerala those days almost coincided with school vacation from around end-March to onset of monsoon in June. Today’s children who find mangos in the supermarkets around the year or at least can smell and taste various forms of mango products, will not be able to imagine the joy we children shared those days under the shade of mango trees waiting for a breeze to help the huge mango trees drop ripe sweet mangos for us. Not only the breeze, crows, squirrels, parrots and other birds too unknowingly helped ripe mangos to fall. Some mangos fell, even while a squirrel or a bird was still enjoying the fruit.