Warrier's blog

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Friday August 15, 2025 Friends Happy Independence Day 2025. Only a few days back I said "Collage in this format is taking a short break". Of late, planning doesn't work the way it worked a decade ago. If I ask my grandson Vihaan why things are not in control, he may tell me, "Thum boodha ho gaya... Pahale jaisa mat socho!" He is right. No, I am not going to translate for you. Just for clarity, the immediate reason for this edition of Collage is the 20th Anniversary Celebrations of the Kochi RBI Retirees Association. See Cover Story Nice Day M G Warrier A Cover Story : https://www.youtube.com/live/YBJ22Wmjk54?feature=shared 👍🙏 Great initiative. Remembering the "Elder's Village" and KGK Pillai Sir's Prathyasa, which started as a manuscript monthly magazine 🙏 My writeup on Elder's Village copied below : ELDER'S VILLAGE* By M G Warrier Elders Village which is a residential colony (f...

This day(August 9), that year (1944) something special happened in a single room outhouse close to my ancestral house (Manakkal) located in a remote village called Onchiyam in the then Malabar District of Madras Province. Below is a link to my write up recalling the event published during the pandemic (2019-20) : My Journey So Far: Prologue https://share.google/bDPZyq47T9cxqhJZg Excerpts : I was born past midnight on Tuesday, August 8, 1944, to be exact at 0015 hrs on Wednesday, August 9, 1944. Place of birth was a small outhouse, adjacent to our maternal ancestral house in Malabar. After the birth of my 3 sisters between 1926 and 1939, the arrival of a male child was an occasion for celebration in the family. Frankly, last 81 years, for me it was a mixed bag of happy and not so happy experiences, the former more than compensating the latter. Select Happy Memories have been included in my 2023 book "Open Book Of Happy Memories" : Open Book of Happy Memories : ( and O...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Thursday July 31, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during August 2025. Collage in this format is taking a short break. Nice Day M G Warrier A Cover Story By Reshmy Warrier https://medium.com/@reshmywarrier/a-monk-and-a-prisoner-83f90133cb01 Excerpts : "A Monk and A Prisoner Reshmy Warrier Reshmy Warrier A reflection on freedom, constraint, and the choices that shape who we really are. Today, I chanced upon a strange thought. What really differentiates a monk and a prisoner? Mind you, this is not an attempt to invade religious sanctums or to trivialize the justice system. It’s simply a quiet reflection. What lies at the intersection of a monk and a prisoner’s lives? simple food, contained communal living, rules, routines, chores, limited freedom From an architectural or lifestyle perspective, the parallels are… almost eerily similar. But the key difference is Choice". B Collage Dance Mess...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday July 27, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during this week. Nice Day M G Warrier A Spirituality Many of us are confused about the relevance of philosophy, spirituality, religion and ethics in the WhatsApp/Google/DOLLAR dominated world. Some of us try to translate every thought into the scientific, religious or political language and attribute one or the other motive even before a debate is initiated. To take a diversion, this morning I picked up Isavasyopanishad and read the Sanskrit verses and the English meaning. For me the feeling was one of spending few minutes with a wise man. The Isha Upanishad's core message revolves around the interconnectedness of all things and the presence of the divine within and without. It emphasizes the unity of the individual self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman), urging practitioners to see the divine in all beings and all beings in the divine. The Upanisha...

Me and Number 27 Here are some stanzas @27 conveying similar meanings : Soundarya Lahari - Verse 27 https://share.google/6rsZVnTeghHtKs0qK Bhagavad Gita As It Is, 9.27: The Most Confidential Knowledge, Text 27. https://share.google/gniUs4oK05xeh96IA Stanza 27 of Shivanandalahari By Shankaracharya : Karasthe hemadrou Gireesha nikatasthe dhana pathou, Gruhasthe sarvabujamara surabhi chinthamanir gane, Shirasthe sheetamsau charana yugalsthe akhila shubha, Kamartha dasyoham bhavathu bhavadarthe mama mana. 27 In your hands is the Golden mountain, Near you is the Lord of Riches, In your house is the wish giving tree, The Cow which grants everything, The precious stone fulfilling , Any wish that enters your mind, And such many others, On your head is the moon with cool rays, And all the good in the world is always on your feet, And so what can slave offer you my Lord, Except my mind which can be given as the offering.

Speaking Tree (Economic Times, July 17, 2025) Solitude & Loneliness One need not agree with all the views aired in pieces like this. But, many of us skip such articles assuming that "this is not my cup of tea". Writers like Narayani Ganesh read and remember a lot, before putting together pieces like this. It's for us to take advantage of the balanced dish served on our table. In this column today (Speaking Tree, ET, July 17, 2025), the writer observes loneliness from different angles and digs out different perspectives of different people across time zones. When we read, what gets our attention will depend on our mood while reading and our journey so far. In my case, my thoughts wandered around my personal experience as a loner and spells of absolute loneliness I've experienced in crowds (to borrow the theme of the title of MT Vasudevan Nair's book "Aalkkoottathil Thaniye"(Alone in The Crowd). During my childhood, due to circumstances beyond our...

A piece of history* Rattanbai Petit, the wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Rattanbai Petit, the wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader behind the Pakistan Movement, was a Parsi from an aristocratic family in Bombay, with there being a 24-year age gap between the couple. She is buried in Mumbai and her descendants, the Wadias (through their daughter Dina) live in India. Rattanbai Petit (often informally called "Ruttie") was born on 20 February 1900 in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India, into the extremely affluent and well-connected Petit family that belonged to the Parsi community. She was the only daughter of the businessman Sir Dinshaw Petit, the second baronet Petit, and his wife Lady Dinabai Petit. Her paternal grandfather, Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, the first baronet, had built some of the earliest cotton mills in India. He was also a philanthropist who aided the Zoroastrians of Iran who were persecuted by the Qajars. Her brother, Fali, who later became Sir Dinshaw...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday July 6, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during this week. Nice Day M G Warrier A The XIV Dalai Lama The XIV Dalai Lama can be a case study in facing life's challenges. His is perhaps a miraculous survival story. Don't know what divine powers or spiritual ancestral background or his own will power helped him in travelling through the paths he created for himself bypassing several dead ends. He keeps smiling. He's able to tease bearded celebrities by pulling their beard in public and get away unhurt! Narayani Ganesh tells us* that Shanti Deva's "A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life" is his favourite book. I have today ordered a copy of the book which has just 100 plus pages. I loved Lama's assertion that "If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there's no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there's no help...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Tuesday June 24, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during this week. Nice Day M G Warrier Cover Story Origins digged out* Strange but True: 1. In the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule of thumb.' 2. Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only... Ladies Forbidden'... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. 3. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs -Alexander the Great, Diamonds - Julius Caesar 4. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.' 5. It was the accepted practice in ...

Takeover by TATA was the best thing that could have happened to Air India in a worst phase in the Airline's existence. It will take a long time for Air India to recover from the shock of the present tragedy. Tatas can and will come out of the crisis sooner than most of us think...🙏

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday June 15, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during this week. Nice Day M G Warrier A Cover Story : Silence, Please By Vathsala Jayaraman, Chennai "Guide : I welcome you all to the Niagara Falls.. These are the world's largest waterfalls, the sound intensity of the waterfall is so high, even 20 supersonic planes passing by can't be heard. Now I request the Indian ladies to keep quiet, so that we can hear the Niagara Falls...!!!" For the past two months all the Hindu temples have been celebrating their annual festivals, all noise and noise alone. AADI MONTH INTENDED FOR AMMAN FESTIVALS IS FAST APPROACHING. Our house is surrounded by 4 Amman temples on all the 4 sides. AADI WILL ARRIVE WITH NOISE nothing but NOISE. While the entire world is against noise pollution and the feasibility of low decibles, we wonder how the loud noisy tradition was being encouraged by elders and organisers o...

Surprise Gift 🎁 I participated in a Seven Days Art of Living Basic Course (Sri Sri Ravishankar) some 20 years ago. On the last day of the program, the Course Coordinator asked each participant to answer this question : "Where you will live, once you leave this planet?" Participants were not allowed to share ideas. My answer was : "In whatever remains of my work, good, bad or ugly and in the memories of those who interact with me when I walked here" Remembered this reading Dr Lakshmanan's response on receipt of my book "Open Book of Happy Memories". These are some moments when we forget our regrets about our overstay here. https://youtu.be/nNuLDuPA31E?si=5lsC8hlwtZNTq7F3 Copied below is the content page of my 2023 book. M G Warrier Contents Foreword Chapters 1. A 2021 Housewarming and Some Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2. The Missing Krishnamani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday June 8, 2025 Friends As you have rightly noticed, Collage has become irregular in its frequency and unpredictable in content. Still, believe me, there are a few who are looking forward to the next issue. That keeps the Collage going. Happy Birthday to all readers having birthday during this week. M G Warrier A Cover Story Newspaper : M G Warrier I belong to a generation which depended on newspapers for reliable news and the neighborhood gossips for news around. Went through a short period without newspapers during the pandemic. Newspapers are still around. They may survive till a mad man becomes greedy and starts imposing huge tariffs on newsprint foolishly believing that he can save the sinking ship by creating more revenue instead of producing something marketable at home. Once upon a time, the newspaper boy who came on cycle and the ringing of the bell on the cycle early in the morning was the morning alarm for some. Recently I...

"The Eight Spiritual Breaths" by Santhosh Sachdeva Book overview “It is good of you to have come to pay homage to your Master and be with him in his final hours. But what would have been even better is that you would have continued with your practice.” – The Buddha to his disciples When Padmasambhava, the renowned yogi and teacher at the University of Nalanda migrated to Tibet with a select group of disciples, he continued to share his knowledge with those he considered worthy to receive it. According to legend, among his teachings was a set of powerful Breathing Exercises designed to help human beings realise their highest potential. Centuries later, a spiritual seeker from the West journeyed to Tibet to learn this sacred knowledge. After returning, he formulated a course based on these Breathing Exercises that he taught to his students, and also offered through correspondence to spiritual aspirants everywhere. In 1977, this course of Breathing Exercises was taught by Swami ...

Narayaneeyam, Canto 54-56 : Kaliyamardhanam Narayaneeyam recited by Melpathur Narayanan Bhattathiripad before Guruvayoorappan is almost an abridged version of Bhagavatham. Each Canto generally describes a different episode in Krishna's life. The story of the serpent Kaliya takes 3 Cantos, 54-56. Canto 55 covers Kaliyamardhanam or "Dance Upon Kaliya" : https://youtu.be/bGASlG8zVk4?si=PLN5QopsnXsol7SK Malayalam Poet Sugathakumari has written a poem "Kaliyamardhanam". Listen : https://youtu.be/PC0v2_EJMSA?si=QGcI-z6Ehc9f67DT The poet integrates the destined human sufferings beautifully into the mythological symbol of Kaliya. The final thoughts of endurance and surrender accepting the results of one's Karma with humility is woven as a poem using her poetic skills and imagination in right proportion. The Deity of Krishna depicting the concept of the multi-purpose life of Krishna is exhibited in a variety of forms and decoration in different parts of the day ...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday June 1, 2025 Friends A reader wanted to know whether the Jalan Committee report was influenced politically. He asked the basis on which the upper limit for RBI reserves was fixed at 7,5% now and whether it was just an arbitrary figure. We open a discussion on the subject at A below. Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday this week 🎉 Regards M G Warrier A RBI Accounts RBI's Surplus Transfer to GOI for 2024-25 Last week, Reserve Bank of India published Bank's Annual Report and Balance Sheet. For the year 2024-25, RBI earned record income and as is customary and statutorily required, transferred the surplus income of Rs2.68 lakh crores to Government of India. The transfer was after usual appropriations including transfer of a substantial amount to Bank's Contingency Reserve Fund. Before and after the above transaction, there has been speculations, analysis and comments on the subject in the mainstream media. Th...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On May 27, 2025 Friends This brief midweek edition is to cover current issues. Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday this week 🎉 Regards M G Warrier A RBI surplus income transfer to GOI My response to The Hindu Business Line editorial on May 26, 2025 Balanced view This refers to your editorial "Fine balance"(HBL, May 26). This is the first balanced analysis about RBI's surplus income transfer to GOI for FY2024-25. While RBI is making efforts every year to be more transparent in its accounting practices, some quarters attribute motives to GOI expectations about receipts from financial institutions government owns to finalisation of income and expenditure statements by such institutions. Sometimes such gossips border irrelevant speculation. We need to appreciate RBI for gradually introducing more transparency in the appropriation of its surplus income. So far, inadvertently though, an impression was created in some q...

Good Morning May 2025 issue of Business Manager is a tribute to Dr Udai Pareek when his students and colleagues are remembering him in his Birth Centenary Year. Dr Pareek is known as the father of Human Resources Development/Management in India. About him, later. Here's a brief one page article on "The Present and Emerging Future" which appears on page 6 of the current issue of BM on my table. Ever wondered why people take interest in history and archaeology or Space Science and plans for periods much beyond their anticipated Life Span? For example Modiji talking about India in 2047! Read this article. Regards M G Warrier

Heart Lamp : Short stories by Banu Mushtaq WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2025 In Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it’s in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well India’s most prestigious lit...

Collage Poetry PARENT'S HOUSE* By Khalil Gibran It's the only house where you can go to dozens of times without an invitation. The only house where you can put the key in the door and enter directly. The house that has loving eyes that stare at the door until they see you. The house which reminds you of your carefree days, stability and your happiness during your childhood. The house in which your presence and look at your mother’s and father’s faces are for you a bliss and your conversation with them is a reward. The house that if you do not go, the hearts of its owners will shrink. The house in which two candles were burnt to light up the world and fill your life with happiness and joy. The house where the dining table is pure for you and has no hypocrisy. The house that if the food time arrives and you don't eat, the hearts of its owners will be broken and annoyed. The house that offers you all the laughs and happiness. Oh Children, find out the value of the...

Book on my table The book on my table brought out by The Hindu Group in March 2025, priced Rs99 is a compilation of articles by experts from multiple countries, including some who have worked with or for USAID, claims to bring readers a unique glimpse into the role of this development organisation and illuminates why the act of crippling USAID will potentially impact millions of vulnerable individuals worldwide. US has come a long way from Kennedy days (when USAID was established) to the present day. The brief 12 articles in 64 pages could become the background notes for future research of a nation which was led by Lincoln to Obama. Warning signals are seldom noticed.

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On May Day, 2025 Friends This brief midweek edition is to recognise the significance of May Day and also to honour those torchbearers who keep the memories of sacrifices that have gone into the evolution of several rights we are enjoying. With Greetings M G Warrier A May Day 2025 https://news24online.com/trending/labour-day-2025-surprising-facts-and-hidden-history-you-probably-didnt-know/546971/ International Labour Day, also called International Worker’s Day. It’s a day to thank and honour workers for their hard work in all kinds of jobs. B Miles to go https://news.wttw.com/2025/04/29/chicago-may-day-rally-planned-trump-ramps-attacks-immigrants-sanctuary-cities#:~:text=May%201%20has%20come%20to,for%20an%20eight%2Dhour%20workday. Report from US May 1 has come to be known as International Workers’ Day and has strong ties to Chicago, where the first-ever May Day event was held in 1886 with thousands of workers protesting for an eight-...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, April 27, 2025 UPODGHATHAM https://youtu.be/Fnr9gif5xXY?si=wjbKdvo6pjJrI6ur NO ONE Could STOP CRYING: 98 YEAR OLD HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS VIOLIN & PIANO DUET SHATTERS EVERYONE He thought she had died. She thought he was gone forever. But after nearly 75 years apart, two survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing — Takeshi Nakamura (94) and Yuriko Sato (93) — reunite to finish the song they wrote together as teenagers, moments before the world around them was torn apart. This is not just a musical performance. It is a living memory — a lullaby for the children who never grew up, a final note for the love that was silenced by war, and a powerful prayer for peace. Their hands may tremble, but their hearts still remember every note, every word left unspoken. A Collage Editorial Friends "There's an old saying* which roughly means : Before doing anything, consider the positive and negative impacts, if you go ahead and t...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, April 20, 2025 Friends Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during the week ending Saturday April 26, 2025. Social media sources are overflowing with advice and suggestions about how you should live your life ❤️. I'm aware of the futility of adding to that by sharing links like the one below at A. In a way, as I said recently, many of us keep our thoughts to ourselves 🙏. We need not research for text book solutions to all our problems. But there is a need to interact and share. We may not be able to follow scriptures the way earlier generations did. But, by sharing thoughts, some new doors may open. M G Warrier A Oprah Winfrey Let go & take rest https://youtu.be/E7i5wcfT9x8?si=-JRS2HnWwKVkj4Gb B https://api-esp.piano.io/-c/585/26078/416717/10445058/882581/dcfaea85924a6ed749fb3bb49583c048/5891/289801944?attrs=0&order=0 The Hindu Frontline shared the above link with me. Hope this opens for you. Rememb...

The Cross : A Powerful Symbol Of Forgiveness Good Friday today. Every Easter Season, we reinforce the memories of Jesus and remember his message. The Times of India article (Speaking Tree, April 18, 2025) focus on the relevance of forgiveness in life. My view is : We should forgive ourselves first. Yes, many of us carry a baggage of regrets and pains from the past, which are irrelevant today. Why not leave them in the first dustbin we see on the way? You will feel much lighter after that, even if you are overweight! Revenge and forgiveness are two sides of the same coin. Till my early seventies I was more revengeful in my thoughts. In some cases I was waiting for an opportunity. Opportunities came. By that time I realised that my target individuals had become frail and weak and no strength left in them to accept the punishment. M G Warrier

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, April 13, 2025 Friends I was in Kerala from April 2 to 9, 2025. Visited some relatives and friends in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur and attended a wedding on Sunday, April 6, 2025. Tried to meet maximum number of friends and relatives in the available time. At the wedding we attended, I interacted with 3 guests who were 92 plus. None of them were complaining about their own health issues or corruption in government. Their approach to life had changed. They were more practical and happy and contented. We need not wait to reach 90 plus for that changeover. The world outside is different from what we guess, reading WhatsApp messages and watching Media's "Vruthaakandhakshobham" (word borrowed from Shankaracharya). Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during this week. Nice Day M G Warrier A Hanuman Jayanti on April 12, 2025 Those who have time and patience, please read Swami Swaroopananda's write up @ Speak...

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Thursday, March 27, 2025 Friends As a child, I have watched my grandmother going to a page at random in her prized possession of "Bhagavatam" and reading two lines from the top of the left hand side page that opens, before going to the page where she has kept the marker. Today, before I took up my usual routine reading, I remembered her and opened the pocket edition of Bhagavad Gita and believe me, the right hand page I got was the beginning of Chapter 10 (VibhootiYogah). For the first time, I read the Chapter which has 42 Stanzas, in one sitting. No big deal, you may think. But, I have been always getting more and more impressed by the Jagad Guru's qualities as a teacher. For his Mom, he just opened his mouth to show the Universe, he made his devotee in Guruvayoor (Melpathur) recite "Agre Pashyami..." once he was able to feel His presence and the less intelligent Warrior and Comrade who happened to be related to ...