Warrier's Collage on Monday January 1, 2024

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Monday, January 1, 2024 Collage Music 🎶 https://youtu.be/2rTZ9UndNeI?feature=shared It's a small world after all... Friends New Year... New Beginning Many have expressed happiness about the recent changes in Collage. Efforts to trim the size of Collage will continue through 2024. Suggestions are welcome🙏 Thanks 🙏 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024 M G Warrier A Welcome 2024 https://poets.org/poem/memoriam-ring-out-wild-bells Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Let's start the New Year with some confusion, hoping to move towards light in the course of the journey. Can you distinguish Right from Left? Not ideology. In real life. If you can, you are lucky. Read on : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230112-why-some-people-cant-tell-left-from-right B Responses 1) TNC Rangarajan Thank you very much for sharing a very nice interview* which makes us know you better Warm regards Rangarajan *Dignity Dialogue Interview January 2024 issue (M G Warrier interviewed by Editor) 2) P P Ramachandran Mumbai I have watched with admiration Shri Warrier grow from strength to strength and become a cynosure of all eyes. His articles are well researched and cogently written. I had the pleasure and privilege of reviewing two of his books and am happy to learn of the arrival of his third intellectual offspring. My best wishes go to him and his family in abundance. May I wish him a Happy 2024. PPR Warrier's response: Respected PPR Sir Many Thanks 🙏 for the kind words of blessings and encouragement. Since the time we knew each other sometime earlier to my moving to Mumbai on transfer, we have been in contact. And that's fairly long period of time, 1980's to 2020's. Though we had no opportunity to work together, at different times, we have visited same libraries (like the British Council Library in Thiruvananthapuram), had same colleagues, had many mutual friends... Though I was not a member, I have been watching your enthusiasm in running circulation library of sorts, came across your repeated assertion that your first attachment was to books and was impressed by your disarming smile with which you welcome even strangers. For the friendly smile you had only one competition in RBI and that is K Ramasubramanian. Both of you shared the helping attitude also. I still remember the tips survival in Mumbai just before my leaving Thiruvananthapuram. Love and Regards M G Warrier 3) Chittanandam Dear Shri Warrier, Your mail took me to those days when Shri Ramasubramanian was in RBSC. As you rightly said, he always adorned himself with a disarming smile. I liked interacting with him very much. I wish great success to the launching of your third Book. Regards, Chittanandam 4) C V Subbaraman Responding to "A Teenage Adventure" (Pages 69/70, Open Book of Happy Memories ") Interesting. It is said that after the serpent bit Parikshit Maharaja to death according to the curse he received his son Janamejaya came to the throne. He arranged a big yagna seeking the annihilation of all snakes in the universe. It is stated that snakes and serpents in large numbers fell in the Yagna Kund and one snake or serpent was holding on to the cot of Indra. At this stage Sage Agasthya came upon the scene and persuaded Janamejaya to abandon his mission of destroying all snakes. Well, we all have fear of any snake: whether poisonous or non ones. And our first effort is to kill them. The only incident in which a cobra was not killed but allowed to be bottled and taken away by a snake catcher is one which occured outside our residential complex afew months ago. This cost our Association Rs.300 and the cobra got its life. One does not know what the snake catcher did with the cobra. Subbaraman 5) Vathsala Jayaraman Responding to "A Teenage Adventure" (Pages 69/70, Open Book of Happy Memories ") Very interesting snake story. I too had a similar experience. I was doing my B Ed degree from Alagappa college of education in Karaikudi in 1962. We were walking along a narrow dark street at 8 pm towards dining hall. I felt that t stamped on an innocent snake and it angrily bit me on my right big toe and.just ran away. Blood started.oozing out. We didn't.know what type of snake it was. It was pitch dark. The snake got.hidden in some other place. Doctor came. He cut.open a few inches away from the toe and placed a tight bandage on the foot to prevent spread of poison. He advised me not to sleep for the next Ten hrs. I was surrounded by friends who were narrating stories of snake bites some leading to death. Next morning again doctor visited and declared me cured of snake bite. The interesting thing was that one Visha Raja Venkataraman was called from the adjacent village. .He chanted some mantras and applied vibhuthi on my leg. The doctor who came immediately brought a sastri with him. He on his part chanted some mantras to change my gotra into kasyapa gotra as my gotra was Kauntinya. I was advised to get married to non kasyapa bride-groom. That was a horrible sleepless night listening to so many snake stories from friends, Visha Raja and others. I was observing the Visha Raja's treatment. I didn't know what mantra he recited. But he had a small bottle of spirit in his hands in which small dead snakes were immersed. He just applied some small quantity of snake oil on my foot. That was great idea. We started keeping a bottle of spirit at home with dead scorpions and snakes. Whenever anybody complained of some such bites I became a Visha Rani or snake queen. Vathsala Jayaraman 6) M G Warrier : Amazon review Imprisoned for Life https://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/review/B0CL4NQLB4/RCXAAUF5TKIAV?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dprv_C44ZS48X182MKS1PQ8HE&language=en-IN C Current Affairs Media Responses 1) Celebrity joke on productivity* This refers to the piece "Not 70-Hr Week, But 7-Day Weekend" (ET, December 27). The serious observations about the relationship between working hours and productivity made by Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy are getting submerged in comparisons and jokes not directly related to the concern Murthy raised. Elders' anxiety for fast forwarding economic development is understandable. Impatience and a temptation to oversee and guide GenNext on the part of Ex-Executives should be welcomed because they are sharing the wealth of wisdom they have pooled by a lifetime of hard work for the society's benefit. We should avoid hurting them. However, when comparisons are off the mark, they should be open to debate. In the instant case, there's an attempt to compare working hours in developed countries with the position in India. Add the time spent in commuting to and from workplace to the punched hours of work by staff in government offices and private sector organisations in India. Down to Tier 3 cities, the weekly average will be much higher than the 70 plus hours mentioned by NRN. The relationship between remuneration and productivity also deserves attention. M G WARRIER Mumbai *Not published 2) Strengthen the regulator This refers to the report "Banks, NBFCs on sound footing; their close links need watch : RBI"(Business Line, December 28). Perhaps RBI is unique in having maintained two dedicated departments for Research and Statistics with expert staff for several decades now. Governments and analysts depend heavily on the periodical reports RBI publish. One gets a doubt whether other In-house departments are getting the same kind of nurturing from the central bank. The initiative taken by appointing a Financial Section Legislative Reforms Committee didn't bring out the desired results as the Committee's attention got diverted midway. Perhaps time is ripe to think in terms of a review of the structure and HR-related issues weakening the performance of RBI in its core functions. At the present stage of economic development India deserves a strong central bank. Especially in the context of changes in technology and expansion of the Financial Sector. M G Warrier Mumbai D Vathsala Jayaraman's Column Whether the trinity goddesses occupy different portions of our hand, or our finger tips are always aiming at keybord or mobile key-we don't consider hand as a mere part of human body or animal. The word 'hand' has ample significance in our life : 1 A HAND is a unit of length measuring 4 inches. 2 A HAND in a clock is a pointer to time. 3 Shaking HANDS is a sign of appreciation. 4 Giving a HAND denotes helping others. 5 In cards/bridge, HANDS refer to players. 6 A labourer in a factory is spoken of as a 'FACTORY HAND'. 7 'IN HAND'-denotes proud possession of something in one's own jurisdiction. Sometimes other's tuft will be in our hands. 8 Police suspects the HAND of a terrorist in the bombing incident. 9 Similarly there may be a "HAND" of a genius in some projects. 10 Similarly there is 'HAND TOUCH' in cooking, tailoring and fine tuning of songs, or choreography. 11 Placing HANDS on a religious text or on the head of a child refers to oath or commitment. 12 Still we love 'HANDICRAFTS' 13 We 'HAND OVER' responsibility to others and 'HAND DOWN' or bequeath our properties to legal heirs. Our HANDS have unlimited powers. Though 'ON THE ONE HAND' situations seem to be discouraging and going 'OUT OF HANDS', ON THE OTHER HAND, there is brightness on the otherside of the tunnel. Nothing has gone 'OUT OF HAND'. We need not 'THROW UP OUR HANDS' in despair or totally evade our responsibility by "WASHING OUR HANDS". We need neither go after Lakshmi, Saraswathi or Parvathi said to dwell in our 'HANDS', nor is there any compulsion to go after the 'HAND' symbol of Rahulji. We need not have our 'HANDS TIED' to anyone. We fervently hope that there will be change of mind, change of 'HANDS' that too' CLEAN HANDS' If we engage our mind in activities, our 'HANDS' will be always full and there is no other better delight. We can rest assured that we will be 'IN SAFE HANDS'. A 'HAND OUT' from VATHSALA JAYARAMAN Bonus Orginal sloka and lol. Old Shloka: Karaagre vasate Lakshmi Karamadhye Saraswati Karamoole stitha Gowri Mangalam Karadarshanam कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मी करमध्ये सरस्वती करमूले स्थिता गौरी मंगलं करदर्शनम् New Shloka: Karaagre vasate Android Karamadhye Whatsapp Karamoole stitha Facebook Mangalam Mobile Darshanam. कराग्रे वसते Android करमध्ये Whatsapp करमूले तू Facebook मंगलं मोबाइल दर्शनम Vathsala Jayaraman E 2023, the year that was... A Year in Reading: Policymakers, diplomats, writers, artistes, economists and doctors tell us their favourite reads of the year https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/reads-of-the-year-2023-9079442/?utm_medium=echobox&utm_source=Facebook&utm_channel=echoboxfb&fbclid=IwAR2VKlhfwDNAyKhLuIZgq9LD64yhrnj8HyxqBmO4KQ8rwmDeJpI_ZIOJxSc_aem_AebTlp6ZcFB-TvrmMLidCI3fzXwQdqlMBhZRB-1LyTG_5RoO99QYuXqOaknigRrG0EA#Echobox=1703400295 Link shared by S Thyagarajan F Book on my table : Breaking the MOULD By Raghuram Rajan I'm a Rajan-watcher of sorts. After publishing my first article about him in September 2013 issue of the Global Analyst, I have been writing about him off and on as his views and activities have something to do with India since then. Let's see, where he stands now. Dr Rajan has been keeping an eye on the political and economic developments back in India ever since his return to US in 2016. Post-RBI governorship his intelligent interventions in the economic and political intercourse in India has been beneficial to the country. Actually, India should welcome him back offering a befitting position, sooner than later to make amends for the controversial exit he had to make in 2016. Anyone who goes through this interview at The Hindu website can feel Rajan's deep interest in Indianomics and perhaps he is not hiding his willingness to return to India at the right time, on his terms. G Collage Cover Story By Vathsala Jayaraman The opening remarks of Rajaji in Bhaja Govindam has an impact on me. "When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes Bhakthi. Knowledge, when it becomes fully mature, is Bhakthi. If it does not get transformed into Bhakthi, such knowledge is useless tinsel". The Carol "Silent Night, Holy Night" has an equally soothing effect. When we went to Vatican in 2007, we had the same thrill of entering Balaji Temple in Thirumala. I was amazed at the close resemblance of some of the Sufi songs to the chanting of vedas. Khalil Gibran's writings fascinated me a lot. "Let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone. Stand together, yet not too near together. For the pillars of the temple stand apart. The oak and cypress grow not in each other's shadow." Can there be a better lesson than this for senior citizens for giving enough space to our children, the greatest lesson of 'live and let live'? Dalai Lama's words "Remember that sometimes, not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck" have helped us to take failures in our stride. Paramacharya of Kanchi and Ramana Maharishi were the quintessence of spiritualism. The great thing was that there was such universality in their teachings that even westerners became their followers. The world belongs as much to non-believers as to believers. Highly eminent persons have been non-believers. Karl Marx, Betrand Russel, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking have been non-believers. Their contribution to human advancement is really great. Tolerance for counter views is the most essential quality that needs to be cultivated early in life. We are not here in this world to prove any point or teach anybody a lesson, but to live our own honest life. This is the season to remember all these great men and other creatures, both human and non human and feel grateful to everyone for their contribution to what we are today. In Shrimat Bhagavatham, Dattathreya speaks of 24 Gurus inclusive of a wasp, hunter, a courtesan and many others. Another New Year is here. My warm Greetings to all of you for a wonderful, fun-filled HAPPY NEW YEAR. Vathsala Jayaraman