Warrier's Collage on Sunday November 5, 2023

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, November 5, 2023 Chat with RBI Governor at Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2023* https://www.youtube.com/live/FyJlKX_X2Lo?feature=shared *Source : Internet A Friends Good Morning Friends 🌅 Happy Birthday to all friends having Birthday during the week ending Saturday November 11, 2023. Ayurarogyasoukhyam 🙏 and Best Wishes. My friend Nallasivan who has been keeping a watch on me for the last few years has his Birthday on Wednesday November 8, 2023. Please join me to wish him Ayurarogyasoukhyam 🙏 and many happy returns of the day. His is a familiar name in Collage. M G Warrier B Cover Story : Vathsala Jayaraman Bargaining to win : Those days... Bargains start right at home, as offering candy or others gifts to children as a compromise. My sister was a “bargain queen”. With her enormous argumentative skills, she could get things priced at ₹3 for just three annas even in 1950. She felt she could not thrive otherwise in a city like Chennai. For the past 50 years, not even a single day of mine had passed without bargaining for something or the other. My head starts swirling when I think of bargaining. With great difficulties, I make it a point not to let the seller fall into a comfort zone of tricking me. In spite of my urgency, I have to take extra efforts to make him spend more time and energy in showing more and more items so that he may be forced to offer some discount. The traders don’t fall behind. They are aware of the ruthless customers and fix a price at a much higher level giving sufficient room for negotiation. ADVERTISEMENT The ego of the customer does not allow him to digest the fact that someone else got a better bargain, even if it is just ₹2. It is this comparison that leads to a chain of bargaining events spreading to all the products.Education, cab hire, hotels, textiles, jewels, everywhere there is bargain. The same bargain takes fresh avatars of “deal” in cars and real estate; “negotiations” in business circles; “talks” by trade unions; freebies during elections; “discount sales” and so on. All puranas and mythologies abound in such bargains won in the form of boons in exchange for penance for years. But these cannot be quoted as contributory factors for Indians being branded as cheap bargainers. Bargaining is a global phenomenon to be marked as a human trait in general irrespective of religion, caste, creed and community. Bargain starts right at home, whether it relates to offering candy as a compromise or promising a gift of mobile/laptop to the children for top performance in Board examinations. Well known is the bargain with flower, vegetable and fruit vendors on the roadside even if one knows full well that they are earning their livelihood. Not to talk of daily tussles with auto drivers in Chennai. Even great scholars who preach about Nishkama Karma (duty without expecting rewards) never fail to market their commercial products, calendars or pilgrimage tours during lecture hours. Spiritual leaders undertake the same thing under the guise of personality development of business managers. vathsalaj@yahoo.com *Published in The Hindu Open Page (Website) Bonus : A Prayer 🙏 shared by Vathsala Jayaraman Almighty God you know that I am growing older. Keep me from becoming too talkative, from repeating all my jokes and anecdotes, and particularly keep me from falling into the tiresome habit of expressing an opinion on every subject. Release me from craving to straighten out everyone's affairs. Keep my mind free from recital of endless details. Give me wings to get to the point. Give me the grace, dear GOD, to listen to others as they describe their aches and pains. Help me endure the boredom with patience and keep my lips sealed, for my own aches and pains are increasing in number and intensity, and the pleasure of discussing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally, I might be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not wish to be a saint (Saints are so hard to live with), but a sour old person is the work of the devil. Make me thoughtful, but not moody, helpful, but not pushy, independent, yet able to accept with graciousness favors that others wish to bestow on me. Free me of the notion that simply because I have lived a long time, I am wiser than those who have not lived so long. I am older, but not necessarily wiser! If I do not approve of some of the changes that have taken place in recent years, give me the wisdom to keep my mouth shut. GOD knows that when the end comes, I would like to have a friend or two left. Vathsala Jayaraman C Collage Tips : Personal Finance Keep some cash in hand : Shared by R Jayakumar CASH IN HAND is a MUST... Perils of a "Cashless Economy" Imagine if disaster hits your country & power supply is cut & If you do not have cash in hand & rely totally on electronic payment,then you are finished Interesting viewpoint Worth pondering over! "The cashless society is difficult to face during war & disaster!" Japan's strong earthquake in Hokkaido triggered a large-scale power outage & Sapporo City instantly became the dark capital. During this period,1.95 million residents flocked to supermarkets & convenience stores to buy life supplies. However, some of the victims who usually only use mobile phones have lost their ability to pay & can't buy what they need. On September 6th, an anonymous discussion on the anonymous forum of the Japan Forum showed an article about crazy electronic payment. "In Sapporo those who only use electronic payment are finished!" The article said : I usually use Apple Pay (Pingguo pay) & go out without a wallet & very little cash. In the early hours of the morning, after the strong earthquake, Sapporo suffered a large power outage. He checked the refrigerator in his home & found that only milk & mayonnaise remained. He rushed to the supermarket to buy living materials. When he arrived at the supermarket, he found that he had no cash at all. He took the iPhone with only 62% of the battery & looked at the Apple Pay screen on his mobile phone. He felt uneasy! When the queue came around, the clerk told him that he could not use electronic paying. He can't use it anywhere else. At seven o'clock that night, he sat alone at home, hungry. Since cash cannot be taken as the power has not yet recovered, there is a feeling that everything is finished. In February of this year, the Swedish Central Bank Governor Stefan Ingves warned. He said that the cashless society is unrestrained in the face of war or natural disasters & the huge social & financial system will collapse in an instant. “Payment function” is one of the four functions that money needs to have. Cashless payment is just a supplement to the “payment function” because it can not be replaced by specific basic conditions (electricity, network, base station, etc.) Sapporo is still fortunate.The earthquake gave everyone a lesson & they can correctly understand cash payments & cashless payments. If a large-scale war breaks out & there is a long-term disconnection or power outage, the encounter will be even more serious. Imagine if disaster hits your country & power supply is cut & If We do not have cash in hand & rely totally on electronic payment, then we are finished. Always have some ready cash in our house to face such situations. Shared by R Jayakumar (Post-retirement, when I had a doubt about the trust kiranawala and vegetable vendor will have in me, I arrived at the following optimum levels : 1) Cash in hand : A week's average expenditure* 2) SB Account Balance : Average monthly expenses × 3 3) Liquid Assets : Same as 2) *In addition to the cash deposit hospitals expect on admission. And... Imagine, a "World Without Money"* : M G Warrier https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/a-world-without-money Excerpts: "Day by day, my belief that money has done more harm to the world than, perhaps, the invention of the worst possible instrument of destruction in the history of mankind gets more and more engraved in my mind. I claim to have qualified to make this statement as I have completed a somewhat successful career in a bank, have a bank account and have gained the status of a senior citizen a couple of years back." *Article written in 2006. D Media Response : M G Warrier The Hindu Business Line* November 1, 2023 Possible, a new Kerala Model Kerala formation day (Keralappiravi) Celebration lasting for few days from November 1, is an occasion to begin some longlasting reforms. In Mumbai, the world's largest Slum area, Dharavi is being rehabilitated using adjacent Railway land (about 45 acres) and encashing the rebuilding prospects in the area now occupied by Dharavi. If the principles applied for the proposed rehabilitation of Dharavi are adapted for redevelopment of Kerala's Coastal areas as also hills and tribal areas the thickly populated strip of land can become the first developed state in India. Steps like shifting people from certain areas and rehabilitating them in nearby areas, providing adequate transport arrangements for their travel to work place and other necessary infrastructure should be part of the rehabilitation plan. M G Warrier Mumbai *Not published E Collage Books Children's Books https://www.bribooks.com/bookstore/the-sinclair-sisters Sinclair Sisters By Lyann Anna Oommen* This book tells you about the Adventures of The Sinclair Sisters, 'Maya and Ruby' with an Ouija Board. Read to find out what happens to their cousin,'Annabeth' as they set out to investigate about her... *Lyann Anna Oommen (10 years) is my friend Mathew's granddaughter. Best Wishes 🙏 to her. M G Warrier @ Notion Press https://notionpress.com/author/m_g_warrier M G Warrier is a retired central banker who worked as a general manager in the Reserve Bank of India office in Mumbai. Post-retirement, he has been regularly writing articles for The Global ANALYST, a monthly business and finance magazine. In 2014, he published his first book, Banking, Reforms & Corruption: Development Issues in 21st Century India. Before joining RBI, Warrier worked in the Employees Provident Fund Organization in Kerala. Open the link to know more F Leisure 1) Counter-Joke : Shared by S Venugopal Hiccups Bank Joke!! While waiting in line at the bank, a co-worker developed a very loud case of hiccups. By the time he reached the teller's window, the hiccups seemed to have worsened. The teller took my friend's check and proceeded to run a computer verification of his account. After a minute she looked up from her terminal with a frown and said that she would be unable to cash his check. "Why not?" my friend asked incredulously. "I'm sorry, sir," she replied, "but our computer indicates that you do not have sufficient funds to cover this amount. As a matter of fact," she continued, "our records show your account overdrawn in excess of $5000." "It can't be!" he cried. "You have to be kidding!" "Yes, I am," she answered with a smile, counting out his cash. "But you will notice that your hiccups are gone." 2) Lawyer with commonsense A lawyer defending a man in New York accused of burglary tried this creative defence: "My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offence committed by his limb." "Well put," the judge replied. "Using your logic, I sentence the defendant's arm to 5 year's imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses." The defendant smiled. With his lawyer's assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out. ...Don't mess with Lawyers.....manipulation is their game ! G Collage Connect : Reconnect The recent pandemic disconnected many contacts and there were number of new ones that cropped up. Some of us gave up in frustration and for various other reasons. Some others could press the restart button and reconnect sometime later. Why I'm saying all these late in the day? I know you are wondering. On Friday, November 3, 2023, I tried to get in touch with A for some work after a gap of 4 years. A responded saying that he was unwell and will get back as soon as he recovered. Same day I received a message my friend B was visiting a mutual friend C in another city. I had maintained contact with C for about 15 years post-retirement. Now talked to him. He too has health issues. Will call again next week. Messaged E X Joseph (now in the US, almost 6 decades old friendship...). He promptly responded. Why listing all these here? Do contact someone, may be me, with whom you have not been in touch and ask "How are you?" today.