Warrier's Collage on Wednesday March 1, 2023

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Wednesday March 1, 2023 1) Forget words, follow figures and shapes : Dosas for kids https://youtu.be/nEjS0e2UatQ 2) Robotic elephant in Kerala Temple https://youtu.be/E9BCTY1NVmE 3) Dust, If You Must https://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_218.htm Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better To paint a picture, or write a letter, Bake a cake, or plant a seed; Ponder the difference between want and need? Dust if you must, but there's not much time, With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb; Music to hear, and books to read; Friends to cherish, and life to lead. Dust if you must, but the world's out there With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair; A flutter of snow, a shower of rain, This day will not come around again. Dust if you must, but bear in mind, Old age will come and it's not kind. And when you go (and go you must) You, yourself, will make more dust. (Poem shared by V T Panchapagesan) (Better to keep doing things you want to do and can do better than straining yourself doing things which doesn't do any good and can wait and doesn't make you feel better after doing. Prioritise and perform. Never ever waste time aiming at perfection. So far, nothing is perfect. Thinking you can make something perfect, to put it mildly, is being over-ambitious- 🙏 -Warrier ) Good Morning Having completed its purpose, the present "Avatar" of Warrier's Collage will have its last regular issue on March 8, 2023. There will be a 'residual issue' on Sunday, March 12, 2023 to share some late responses etc. My personal interaction via emails and WhatsApp will continue. The relief will be, your inboxes will not be crowded with compilation of links and articles, many of which can be accessed elsewhere. I'm aware, many of the recipients of Collage are not aware what the hell the Collage was all about! For their information, Warrier's Collage was an offshoot of the pandemic, meant to help out some of my friends who lost connection with the outside world because of mobility restrictions. Collage had its "closing bells" few months ago and has been around still as an 'Occasional Paper' for some reasons. Thanks 🙏 & Regards 🙏 Nice Day M G Warrier M 134 A Messages/Responses 1) K Ramasubramanian We may add to Sri Sitendrakumar the well known silver tongue Srinivasa Sastry* as one of the doyens recognised by Britishers for language skills *Know More : https://millennialmatriarchs.com/2021/04/13/silver-tongued-orator-of-the-british-empire/ 2) Dr A Vasudevan Regarding your piece, "Dissent is a positive sign", I generally agree with the drift of your statement. But when two of the three external members of MPC give dissent, it is a matter to be given close attention. And inflation as it is gauged needs to be also inputted with a more well researched materials, especially in the present context of disrupted or uncertain or hesitant supply chains. Most measures of inflation in India need a thorough overhaul, as you very well know. And inflation targeting in the present and potentially problematic geo-political situations itself requires one to revisit its relevance. This is my personal view. A.VASUDEVAN [MG Warrier's response : Respected Sir Really, nowadays, I am not reading much and so my own information is not updated. My responses are based on past experience and on the basis of media reports etc. More than a year ago I discontinued a monthly column I was writing in The Global Analyst. Thanks 🙏 for sharing your thoughts. Regards -Warrier 3) S Nallasivan Ref : Collage on Sunday February 26, 2023 It is good that Govind's companion in his early younger life, sharing life in the company of Lord Shiva, Rugmni Chechi is celebrating her 84th birthday today. An occasion to seek her blessings. Last time Warrier shared with us the grief of his eldest sister passing away at 92. After all, are we not a family and in a more fitting way we share good tidings and rejoice and even not that good events. Continued at H 4) R Jayakumar I Dear Shri Warrier Happy Birthday and good wishes for good health to all readers of the Collage and members of the Exrbites group who are celebrating their Birthdays during this week. Special greetings and prayers for the good health of your sister Rugmini Echi who is turning 84 this week. Also my good wishes and congratulations to Shri E Madhavan and the Edassery family for publishing a book of Collection of Poems by his brother Asoka kumar. Mr Madhavan was my boss for sometime in Secretary's Department of RBI. I have stopped reading books. All I read now is the daily newspaper and some forwards received online in social groups. Since you have received a copy of the book from Mr Madhavan I hope you can include some selected poems from the book in your biweekly Collage. Mr Madhavan could also help you. Collage debate - In Praise of Mistakes... The article 'How and Why of Errors and Mistakes' by Mr Kumar (TOI blog ) deserves a short reflection. It seems that there is no perfection anywhere in the universe. Everything that exists is made randomly and prone to major mistakes, anytime to happen. God who is perfect has not followed perfection in any of his creations. No one is made perfect and no one behaves perfect. There are errors and mistakes and blunders everywhere. The evolution of life itself is full of blunders. Look at the way so many children are born with deformities. Whose mistake is it anyway, parents or God? Recently there was a mention in the Collage that the sun which is super power and super magnetic lost a piece of itself to be lost in the space. We all are prone to commit errors and mistakes. The writer of the article defines well the meaning of Error, Mistake and Blunder that are committed by all as human beings. Perfection is impossible. So, are we free to commit mistakes and keep moving? The basic point is whether we commit mistakes by mistake or knowingly! Mistakes can be ignored if no one is hurt or if no one incurs a loss out of it. If someone is hurt by my mistake it becomes my responsibility to say sorry for hurting and if it caused a loss my duty is to compensate unless the person is ready to forego the loss. Then it will become easy to move on. It is not proper to someone else a scapegoat to own our mistakes. If I say something about a friend innocently and if that person is hurt because of what I said I should apologise lest the friendship is lost. The other person may or may not forgive and forget our mistake. We all know the proverb 'to err is human to forgive is divine'. Since we all commit mistakes we all need also to be ready to forgive. It must start from self. The Bible tells 'forgive and you will be forgiven, do not condemn and you will not be condemned'. Regards R Jayakumar II Dear Badri Sir Agreed that you err more and are glad to be on the side of human. Your heart is humble to accept this fact. But secretly, I know, you are on the side of divine because you do not hold any grudge against anyone, the other way to forgive and forget others' faults. Those who pretend to be divinely (I don't exclude myself) also err more like you but smart enough to find hundred excuses to justify the errors or simply ignore them as irrelevant. So we find everyone move happily on leaving behind the mistakes they committed and also not willing to forgive others. Regards R Jayakumar (And the context : We all know the proverb 'to err is human to forgive is divine '. R Jayakumar Yes Jayakumar Sir. I too know the proverb. As you know, I am more human as per the quote (as I err more) !! - Badrinarayanan) 5) C V Subbaraman A few things on the Collage contents of today(February 26, 2023) a) Using the private collection gold for public benefit : Similarly using the vast collection of private land for public purposes. The owners have to decide. Very often it is those who do not have such assets give this advice At least, this is the perception of those who hold such assets. Should only Thirupati and Thiruvananthapuram Lords be targeted? Besides, can those who use their gold assets for national good (where is the guarantee in present day politics of corruption that the gold or a part of it will not be diverted for filling the kitty of politicians?) promise that their gold will be returned to them after a specific number of years (out of the income generated from use of such gold?). b) Failures should not be dampeners. Very true. Robert Bruce learned as much from a spider in a cave where he was hiding after getting defeated by his enemies. We have much to learn from birds, animals, and insects. Some of us have the ability to learn like this. As John Stuart Mill said, "having eyes we may not see, having ears we may not hear....." Failures should not weaken but strengthen our will to survive and succeed. Suicide by those feeling failures is unfortunate; it is a momentary spontaneous reaction. More often than not, it is cowardice. c) Marriage as a modern industry. There is need for the haves who spend millions in pompous public celebration of a private union of two individuals (called marriage) to drastically control this lavish and nauseating display of their wealth and possessions. The famous Austrian writer Stefan Zweig wrote : A well ornamented wife is a public advertisement of the husband's possessions and wealth. Is there need for this except for a disgusting degree of ego and arrogance? The "civilised world" is a vibrant participant in this game. Subbaraman (Regarding : "Should only Thirupati and Thiruvananthapuram Lords be targeted? " There's no targetting any particular Lord. The theme is "Mainstreaming, accounting and putting to productive use of domestic resources including gold and land..." There can be difference in views. Rich and the powerful who drive governance world over from backseat have their own reasons to keep nation's wealth hidden. That's why mainstreaming is not happening🙏-Warrier) B Collage Books India in Search of Glory: Political Calculus and Economy By Ashok Lahiri https://amzn.eu/d/cnxkObK Excerpts : India and the Indians have made some progress in 75 years after Independence. The number of literates has gone up. The Indians have become healthier and their life expectancy at birth has gone up. The proportion of people below the poverty line has also halved. But the shine from the story fades when India is compared with that of the East Asian Tigers and China. It looks good but not good enough. India looks far away from the glory it seeks. This issue forms the core subject matter of this book. It tries to argue why India could not achieve more and what all it could have achieved. It paints a picture of its possible future and highlights the areas that need immediate attention. C Media Responses : 1) Silver lining Silver lining* This refers to the Business Line interview with Ashok Lahiri, author of "India in Search of Glory" (The Hindu Business Line, February 27). The attitude of Lahiri is positive which made me respond to his observations even before getting and reading the book under discussion. Richa Mishra's poser "Many of the UPA's proposals have been rechristened under the current NDA regime..." had an unintended negative tenor. But Lahiri, smartly responded even before the question was completed. The beautiful conclusion that "to abandon a good policy just because it was proposed by a previous government under a different political party would be preposterous" is a welcome caution which should be internalised by all political parties irrespective of the colour of the flag. M G Warrier Mumbai *Published in The Hindu Business Line on February 28, 2023 : https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/letters-to-editor/article66560991.ece D Current Affairs : 1) RBI lost 46 lives in COVID https://www.ptinews.com/news/business/rbi-lost-46-employees-to-covid-related-complications/522137.html Mumbai, Feb 27 (PTI) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said it lost 46 employees to Covid and related complications. The central bank mentioned about the deaths in the compendium on business continuity measures taken during the coronavirus pandemic. According to RBI, it introduced a Special Ex-gratia Package and a Special Scheme of Compassionate Appointment for dependents of employees dying in harness due to Covid or due to post-Covid complications happening within six months of last such infection since March 1, 2020. 2) Credit Cards & Gold Loans Soft credit This refers to the report "Credit card spends in January at over Rs1-lakh cr for 11th month in a row : RBI" (The Hindu Business Line, February 28). Accidentally, my thought got mixed up with the one page advertisement on page 7 about the auction of gold articles by a finance company. While banks and financial institutions do the business of resources mobilisation and lending, one wonders whether the clientele on the other side of the table get adequate information inputs to plan their finances judiciously. If they received appropriate guidance, a section of the credit card users would have shifted to debit cards and a large number of gold loan beneficiaries would have started selling and buying gold in the market, instead of pledging and redeeming their jewellery for management of temporary financial liquidity issues. M G Warrier Mumbai E Babusenan's Column A Difficult Situation The Boeing B-29 aircraft named 'Enola Gay' was getting ready to take-off in order to deliver a little boy to a destination about six flight hours away. Col. Paul Tibbets, sitting cheerfully in the pilot's seat, was an American. He did his job well. Visibility was okay at the landing place where he did not land but delivered the little boy from a height of31,000 feet and, having done his job, returned safely. 'The Little Boy' was the name of the atom bomb dropped in the crowded city of Japan's Hiroshima, killing and injuring around 1,35,000 people, mostly civilians, on the morning of the 6th August 1945. Many died an instant death 'mercifully' and the rest died slowly and grievously, affected by heavy radiation. Had he seen the way people died under the gigantic mushroom of radiation, the US President Harry. S. Truman, perhaps, would have modified his following threat issued shortly thereafter : "If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth. " A second bomb named' Fat Man',dropped three days later in Nagasaki, another crowded city , killed and injured around 64,000persons. Japan surrendered on 2nd September and the world War came to an end. Col. Tibbets, the pilot who dropped the bomb in Hiroshima, had no regrets at all. He was convinced that he was ,in fact, doing a great job, namely, stopping a world war. Otherwise, he would not have given his mother's name Enola Gay to the aircraft thereby making her a partner to that event. He was duly honored and in the Citation the nation thanked him for his 'outstanding, distinguished and valorous service.' Well over four years of frightfully costly(running to billions of dollars) and intensely arduous work by a selected number of brilliant engineers and nuclear scientists, called 'The Manhatten Project' produced at the end three atomic bombs- one uranium bomb and two plutonium bombs. As things stood, only the US could afford such a project. With all the pursuasions in the world, President Roosevelt would not have agreed to the project, but for the recommendation for its need by Dr. Einstein. In a letter to the President he wrote that nuclear fission could lead to making a bomb of enormous destructive potential and that the chances of Hitler making such bombs could not be ruled out. Thus, it so happened that a totally peace- loving person was responsible for the cruellest killing in human history. He was happy that he was kept away from the Project because of his Pacifist stand, but he regretted deeply having written that letter when the truth was revealed that Hitler had no intention to make a nuclear bomb. Einstein tried to make amends by most willingly cooperating with Russell in his anti-nuclear campaigns. Col. Tibbets was in Delhi for about a couple of years as America's military attache. In a dream interview I asked him: "Why did you drop the bomb in such a thickly populated city? You could have chosen a barren area to display the might of your bomb if your real intention was to compel the Japanese to surrender."He gave a funny reply:"If one wants to test the potency of a poison, one has to choose a healthy human body." He stopped for a moment and added with a wry smile. "You do not know the Japanese. They cannot be intimidated with a mere demonstration." "Don't you feel any regret in having been instrumental in brutally killing so many innocent people? " " Why should I? It was war and I was part of the effort to end it. Besides, there is no place for emotion in war. Your Gita tells the same thing. Haven't you heard that Dr. Oppenheimer quoted from The Gita when the test bomb exploded in Alamogordo? He was a great Sanskrit scholar." "You know, Col. Tibbets," said I, "August 15 is a very important day for us, Indians. It is our Independence Day. We are entitled to have unalloyed joy on that day. But, after feeling so sad on the 6th and the9th, because of your dropping the bombs, how can we fully enjoy on the 15th? " I saw a trace of derision on his face. He put back a question. "Don't you think that your August15 is on account of our timely action on the 6th and the 9th , a couple of years earlier? "I felt somewhat embarrassed from my own questions and opened my eyes. Col. Tibbets died in 2007. What I am going to say now happened in the 90s.A goods train carrying petrol to Thiruvananthapuram derailed near Kottayam town. Had this mishap happened in a residential area, it would have ended in a big catastrophe. Fortunately, the derailed wagons fell in a paddy field. But, for a few days, train movements were seriously affected. On one of those days, this writer happened to be in an express train bound to Chennai. When the train approached the affected area, it stopped and all the lights and fans were switched off. An announcement followed requesting passengers to stop using matches and cigarette lighters. The heated political discussion in my compartment by two party groups suddenly stopped and all sat quiet until the long train dragged itself outside the feared area. On the 24 th February, we were told that the Ukraine war had completed one year. It started as something like a military action by the the mighty Russia to teach Ukraine a lesson or two and the world wrongly hoped that it would be over in a few days. When the first world war started in1914, it was thought that it would be over in a short while as it was a small matter for the combined might of England and France to teach Germany to behave. But the'reprimand' took four years ! It does not need an awareness of the complexities of international relationships to know that the present situation in Ukraine is akin to the1962 Cuban Crisis and that the notorious Cold War has staged a come-back.Esteemed readers, please do not ridicule me when I say that the present world situation is like the train passing through the accident area, narrated above. We do not , unfortunately,have men of Bertrand Russell's stature now to passionately intervene for the sake of humanity,unlike in 1962.Yet ,let us fervently hope that all those who matter and who know very well that we have in our world's armory today such weapons as would make the atom bombs of the forties look like toys, would earnestly put their heads together. What is needed is talk, talk and talk, knowing well that, in this increasingly intolerant world, it is a difficult proposition. But, it has to be done as national prides have no relevance if our little earth is not there. F Blogs and links A short poem on Science* https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/nature-beauty/short-poem-on-science-50871/ Science, the realm of endless wonder, A quest for knowledge, a pursuit of truth. With facts and figures, we uncover The secrets of the universe, from old to youth. The laws of physics, the wonders of biology, Chemical reactions, astronomical astrology. All contribute to the vast knowledge we possess, As we continue to explore, to innovate, to progress. In laboratories filled with light, Where scientists toil day and night, There lies the heart of human thought, The essence of progress, science wrought. From simple cells to mighty stars, Science reaches to the farthest bars, It breaks the chains of ignorance and fear, And brings to us a future clear. From chemistry, physics, biology, And all the fields of technology, Science is the guiding star, The light that shows us who we are. So let us celebrate science’s ways, And honor those who seek its blaze, For science is the key that frees, The very heart of our humanity *By a tenth STD student. Posted online comments : ' nice poem. you have the imagination to convert your ideas into verse. of course, poetry is much more than describing the subject. you have the inherent ability to develop thoughts into ideas and giving life to those ideas. keep writing.' G https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/credit-card-quotes Like : "Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It's a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can't get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt, it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy." Noam Chomsky H Continued from A 4 We have found, of late, our learned friend Sitendrakumar has started posting his response his take on Warrier's Collage. That in a way, has become a boon of sorts for those lazy old among us to choose subjects of one's interest from the long and long collage of the previous day. It helps even those who missed the original post to have occasion to choose subjects from Collage after perusing Shri Sitendrakumar's condensed version. I still could not shed my guilt as one that religiously follow posts on personal, family affairs, missed this. Yes I missed the young energetic enterprising Vihaan's adventurous trek to the frozen Chadar reiver in Leh, and later went back to the Collage to enjoy the trek vicariously, thanks to Sitendrakumar, the following day singing his awe and admiration of Collage. After reading on errors and mistakes and the virtue of owning one's mistake I proclaim with all humility that I am the most virtuous person in the family. Yes the most responsible person in the family too.. Yes responsible for evry single thing that goes wayward and wary. They, be it my wife or son when something go wrong in the family easily find the innocent me, the ever present convenient fall guy, a scape goat to lay squarely the blame on my shoulders. Now a days I come to believe, after all they must be right and naturally carry a sad sense of guilt fearing that I am the one who never do things right. What ever little confidence I believed I had been lost in the melee and now reduced to as the ever doubtful man not sure whether the Sun raise in the East!. Now I regret and apologize first even to strangers for things I did or did not do at all. Now I am a man who firmly come to believe that I am a habitual offender, prone to commit errors, mistakes and blunders, a repository of mistakes.. Do you recall the day that catastrophe, yes the demon that struck as a bolt from the blue, played havoc on innocent people? Yes I vividly remember the 8th November 2016! My own birth day. The Apex Court in its wisdom took up the case to pronounce the legality after six years in 2022, and fierce arguments were going on to blame the entity behind the act of making RBI currency as not legal tender, I could not sleep. I did not sleep fearing some or other legal luminary blamed me as the one behind the cruel act that claimed 117 innocent lives. I feared the most as the Supreme Court in its anxiety to absolve the Government of its fault found the scape goat, the proverbial fall guy in me, yes the good old Nallasivan Yes the demonetisation and myself shared the same date of genesis, 8th November. S Nallasivan