Bulwark of Constitutional Rights

In India, there is a constitutional  provision for affirmative action through  reservation in legislatures, government  jobs and  enrolment in higher educational institutions for  Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes , Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and also the economically backward classes. Though introduced for a limited period initially, this policy has been continued with more and more sections of society brought under reservation

In the recent few years, however, a debate is taking place on the desirability of continued of reservation .  As the demand - supply gap has widened in higher/ professional education  and government  jobs, the protagonists of  reservation  are agitating  for more and more sections of the society. The counter-  view  in the debate is reservation and lowering of  qualification standards  for seats and jobs promotes and perpetuates anti-meritocracy .

Caste/ community based reservation being not enough, there is also  growing demand for reservation in jobs  in some states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra  and Karnataka , accounting for about a third of the country’s geographical area,  for “ locals” i.e  those who have been living within the boundaries of these states respectively  for a certain period. This is in total negation of a basic tenet of our Constitution viz no discrimination based on place of birth or domicile. In his insightful article titled “One Nation, One Constitution?”  ( The Times of India Mumbai , 7/9/2019) , Robin David says “ In the end, it all boils down to populism versus Constitution. Will any political leader or party have courage to stand up for the Constitution against this popular move?”

Who then would protect constitutional rights of citizens?  “ If human beings have rights, is there a court which is duty bound to protect them the moment those rights are violated? Is this court the Supreme Court?” asks Dushyant in his Edit Page  article in Mumbai Times dated 6/9/2019

The Third "P" in Elections

With  General Elections  round the corner,  political parties have started the preliminaries like
combining and combating.  New alliances are formed not on ideological identities but on electoral objective of winning.

Voters are expected to indicate their preference intelligently using two "P"s i.e Performance and Promise of the contesting parties.  Such decision may  be difficult this time because of the gap between promise and performance on the part of the present ruling dispensation as alleged by the  the the opponents  and the  absence  of any programme /plan or even not naming  a leader for the  opposing combination of  parties as chided by the ruling party.

So Voters will most likely be guided by the third "P" i.e Prejudice. Once again, caste and  faith  will decide voting.

The world's largest democracy is still to mature

My Qualitative Balance Sheet

As accountant by training and qualification, I am prone to reckon everything numerically.  But my personal Balance Sheet of Assets and Liabilities in conventional terms of rupee is  dismal.  I therefore have thought of drawing the same in qualitative terms.  No date other than the last day of 2018, a year when I completed 80 years of an uneventful life, is better suited for this purpose.

For the uninitiated in accountancy, the Balance Sheet is an enigma listing, as it does, one’s assets and liabilities with the same total on each side.  If their totals do not tally, pity the accountant burning midnight oil finding the cause and eventually proving the totals to the satisfaction of the auditors.

To escape from this problem I have drawn my personal balance sheet in qualitative terms. There is   no question of proving the totals under this method.

Here how it goes.  I have not used the conventional “T” format of Balance Sheet.

                         My Balance Sheet as on completion of 80 years of age                                                 

Capital & Liabilities                                                                      

   A. Capital

Family upbringing and Values

Education

Organisations & Work culture gained

  B. Liabilities

    Long term:  Unmet life/career ambitions

   Short term: Prejudices /biases

                         Attitudinal shortcomings

                        

                                  Assets

A.  Fixed Assets     

Blessings of parents, gurus and God

Family Harmony

Goodwill of relations and friends

B. Current Assets

     Professional  recognition

     Community acceptance

A tool in strategic management is  the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats ( SWOT) Analysis . The usefulness of this analysis is to exploit one’s strengths, overcome weaknesses and  convert  the threats into opportunities.  The Qualitative Balance Sheet may also be seen as an analysis to enhance one’s non- monetisable assets and liquidate attitudinal  liabilities.

The Thumb Rule

In  my earlier blog titled “ Me – A Selfie “ ( 6^th October 2014),  I wrote about the nose as a unique human organ performing the life sustaining function of breathing in and out and yet   differing in shape, size and style from individual to individual. 

In this piece, I take the human Thumb – an organ our evolutionary ancestors, the chimpanzees had but not used for functions of the hand like throwing and clubbing. Our grip of objects would have been weak were it not for the thumb. Some infants are given to sucking the thumb and in some cases this habit grows even into their childhood. 

The Thumb comes as a single organ, one in each palm. It juts out from other fingers perhaps to show its indispensability and versatility in most functions of the hand. Even so sometimes we refer to an uncomfortable situation as like a sore thumb. Very rarely an extra thumb is seen in some persons, providing a matter of curiosity for the rest of us but not of any bother to the person.

 Palmistry attaches a lot of importance to the length, contour and the lines of the thumb as revealing the characteristics of the person like stubbornness, pliability etc.  A  palmist , after examining the shape and  stiffness  of my thumb  prophesised that I would be an unyielding husband which was totally disproved after my wedding  

 Even today after dramatic increase in literacy, there are persons who use the thumb impression as substitute for their signatures in all papers including legal documents.

The Aadhaar card scheme owes a great deal to the thumb as a biometric input.

   In the past when typewriters were in use, the thumb had no role in composing texts as the key board was operated with the four fingers of each hand. However in   modern times, the thumb has become indispensable in composing text messages in mobile / smart phones. The modern youth, male and female, have become equidexterous using both the right and left thumbs to write messages on their mobile phones.  I tried writing texts on my phone but my thumb being short and fat proved a handicap.

 Its functional use apart, the thumb has given rise to some meaningful literary expressions.

 Thumbs Up was a brand of cola in India introduced in 1977 to offset the withdrawal of Coca Cola. It then was bought by Coca Cola and relaunched to compete against Pepsi. The Thumbs Up sign is indication of “ All Clear “ “ OK Go Ahead “ and “ I agree/ endorse “ etc.

The Thumb Rule is an expression for easily learned and easily applied procedure or standard based on practical experience rather than theory. In some families this is used  for enforcing some family practices like” Early to bed and early to rise” as promoting discipline among children.

Another expression is the Thumbnail Sketch which is quick abbreviated drawings, usually done very rapidly and with no corrections.  The famous cartoonist R.K Laxman was a past master in this art form with his eponymous Common Man.

Readers are welcome to give the Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down grading for this blog.

[Bhaaten Bahraini

In the last two decades, I have visited Manama (Bahrain) thrice and I wish to share some of my impressions about the city and its people I met

First and foremost, I found that despite being the capital of an Islamic monarchy, there was good amount of tolerance of the faith and practice of other religious groups. Temples and churches function as normally as in other secular democracies. Second, institutions of governance comprising legislative houses, bureaucracy and judiciary are in place.  Third, my visit to the Grand Mosque in Juffair, when it opened its doors to visitors of all faiths and beliefs as part of Eid celebrations,   impressed me because of the smooth and systematic conduct of the tour with presentations on the history and teachings of Islam 

Let me also mention some other features I noticed.  The state of the highways and main roads in Manama   is indeed admirable. The roads are built to high standards of specifications, wide enough to take heavy traffic of thousands of vehicles and an efficient traffic control system with flyovers, multi lanes and   signaling. This facilitates free and speedy movement of a large number of motor cars and other heavy vehicles, what perhaps is available only in National Highways in India.

My acquaintance with persons in Manama was with a few middle-aged, white collar, professionally qualified South Indians and their families who have lived here/ Gulf region for about 15 to 20 years. The men are mostly employed in Banks and other financial companies in senior/middle level positions. With no income tax to pay and cheap fuel, they have prudently managed their finances to afford to live in large and well- furnished modern villas and flats with all amenities like air-conditioning, car park, garden sp ace, mini swimming pools, gym and owning high end automobiles.  They visit India almost every year during the oppressive Gulf summer season to meet their near and dear and carrying  the inevitable Bahraini goodies like almonds, dates and Arabian halwa as gifts,   They also go on holiday tours with family to many exotic destinations around the world in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, China, Africa and the Far East.

In my conversations I found them well informed about the current situation in India in all aspects like governance, economy, social dynamics and culture. However they seem to prefer to send their wards, after schooling locally, to western universities for higher education.  A possible reason for this, as I gathered in informal discussions, is the affirmative policy of caste based reservation at every level of education and employment and the frequent changes in the syllabi and examination systems in India.

About their social life. they represent a socially well knit community with smaller groups formed on the basis of mutual affinity. These groups meet often on the drop of a hat over sumptuous lunch/dinner regaled with funny anecdotes, Rajni jokes and Carnatic music. Besides, there are also get-togethers during Navratri, Deepavali, Pongal, wedding anniversaries, music recitals etc. Visits of parents and other senior relations from India are also utilized for organizing get togethers like the half a dozen invitations for lunch/dinner extended to my wife and myself.  Their affection, respect for the elders and the excellent fare they served on these occasions will be cherished by us for a long time.

On the eve of our departure from Bahrain, we wish them all a bright, healthy, happy and peaceful life.

---

 [r1]

The Unborn Genius

The Unborn Genius

There was once a king who commissioned some of his noblemen to identify the geniuses in the kingdom. The noblemen went around the kingdom and soon produced a list of a few such geniuses in the field of learning, art etc. Surprisingly, the list included the kingdom's richest merchant's yet to be born child. When asked about it, the noblemen said that  the child woud have to be a genius since the highly credible and influential rich merchant was fathering it.

The Lexicon Divide

Nearing 80, I am hard pressed to learn the new lexicon to converse with the younger generation,   Gen X and Millennials (Google it out to find their difference, if you wish!)

 A formal greeting like “How are you”, is replied with” I am good”, which is like the person giving him/herself a character certificate!  I would have expected the simple “Thank you, I am well. How are you”?

 

That we are not in sync with each other is now expressed by the phrase “we are not on the same page”. I ask, Are we as if reading a book together? Like what we used to call, Combined Study (a euphemism for jolly good time spent with a friend) during our school days?

Then there is this word “space” which I have understood   mainly in the context of interplanetary or galaxy. Today it is used in several other contexts like culture, heritage and even diplomacy. I would prefer the simple and elegant “place”, but then there is no place (or is it space) for the good old King’s /Queen’s English anymore!

The word “shut’ has almost replaced the word “close”. We used the word Shut only and very exclusively to stop a person from crapping, and said   Shut Up. Not close up perhaps to escape from his bad breath!  In our days markets and schools were closed rather than shut on holidays.

Your stand on an issue is now what your “Call” is and therefore when one says he will take a Call, don’t be confused thinking he is answering a phone call.

Now a days many youngsters work” out of” their homes, meaning their offices are their homes. The phrase “out of “if followed by a noun has different meanings. For instance, when you say out of place, you mean incongruence / non- conformity or like out of stock means unavailability.

 Offices are now “work stations” and one’s department there is a “vertical”. “Analytics” is the bug word for the good old data analysis.

There must be a lot more of such words/expressions used by the youngsters which I can learn if I talk with them.  But then many of them avoid meeting and talking with me as my conversational language is not on their page.