Saturday 21 September 2019

Hemantha Kalam - 58 "Educated or Skilled?"


Two independent happenings triggered this blog.

The first one was a seemingly innocuous query by one of our relatives on my daughter seeking her education overseas. Recently when my daughter went overseas for doing her Masters in a subject of social sciences, the relative wanted to check what connection is there between the UG (under-graduation in Chemical Engineering) that she did and the proposed PG (post-graduation) she has planned for herself now and whether doing this course could fetch her a better paying job and quickly too! We politely responded that this is her aspiration as a part of her education plans.

The second one was where one of the Indian ministers from the central government who apparently said that there are ‘jobs aplenty but companies say North Indians lack skill..’ (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jobs-aplenty-but-companies-say-north-indians-lack-skill-santosh-gangwar/articleshow/71142317.cms).

The poor minister is being taken to task for stating a fact. I fully agree with the minister on this. My only disagreement could be on the geography. May be the rest of Indians, especially from south of India, could be a tad better, but, generally, the skills of most of the new generation of Indians can be safely said as susceptible. Between two ear plugs and crap in their hands, most of them are shutting out their brain and whiling away their precious resources – time and common sense and thus the ability to develop skills.

I know that immediately all those genuine and pseudo patriots (the later would make more noise and louder too) would take cudgels against my statement, but as a parent and also as a serious teacher, I am concerned with this development in the country. India, presently, is bestowed with the greatest wealth in the world – youth; and if that youth is going awry and directionless, shouldn’t it be a concern of any parent or a government?

Having said that let me relate an anecdote I had recently experienced.

I have been requested to undertake a teaching programme for students pursuing under-graduation as well as post graduation in social services. Their apparent final aspiration / destination is to plonk themselves in some Human Resources (HR) related job. And, all of them want the best of the companies to hire their services, well nothing wrong about that. But what was wrong is the casual approach they had for the learning.

My classes were for 24 hours, spread across 3 days with intermittent breaks once every session that could range between 1.5 to 2.0 hours each. There were about 60 students. Hardly 20% of them were attentive and maybe 25% (totally) were listening. For the rest of the 75%, it was a free way. Despite the clear announcement by me that I would welcome only those attentive and participative, all students used to come and turn to be a nuisance for the rest of the class. Their only need is the certificate they would be receiving from the institute for participating in the programme which perhaps they intend touting to wangle a good job. Caveat recruiters! Don’t get fooled by certificates! Evaluate before deciding!

I was agog that this institute caters to the need of people in the HR and social sector and if this is the attitude of the students, what development can be expected in either of these crucial sectors in the country, is anyone’s guess. If I am sitting in any of the evaluating interview panels, I, perhaps, would not be impressed by any of this ‘riff-raff’ in getting a job!

Very recently some interview with a western gentleman was doing the rounds on the social media where he was expostulating that the present educational institutions are redundant as new systems like Siri, Alexa and what else will do all work for you.

Perhaps our educational institutions already know that that during 2019-20 not a single Indian Institution is listed among the top 300 educational institutions in the world (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2019/world-ranking#survey-answer / https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2020/world-ranking#!/page/3/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats).          

So much to be said our systems and quality! The worst is lack of research inclination and a suitable atmosphere for the same in the country. It is so sad to note that the most of the research (yes, I cannot generalise, I know) is suspected not to be original. And one of the deterrents is mostly the lack of timely and competent guidance and the favours expected for the same, depending on the gender of the research scholar!

Even if we have artificial intelligence (AI) and robots for doing everything, someone needs the skill to create the AI and the robots that are needed to be evolved with times and needs. And for that, how does one get the learning and skill temperament? Or are we expecting a time like that depicted in the Magnus comics half a century ago where robots create themselves and only to eventually destroy themselves.

And if the institutions are not creating such conducive atmosphere, students continue to be disoriented and end up misguided.

Anyway I am digressing and returning to the point on hand, we should understand clearly what education is and what skills are.

Education is inculcating attitude of giving to society, helping, moral values and positive thinking, which could be formal, informal and non-formal, so that a person refines and re-defines herself/himself as a worthy human being. Education goes beyond earning degrees.

This is the most important factor about education that all Indians, who think that a degree is a passport for a job should learn, bear it in mind and acquire skills. In my professional life of over four decades I came across innumerable occasions when a person who cannot even express herself/himself demanding a job just because s/he has a degree.

Every human being should learn as many skills as s/he can. It is said that Emperor Aurangzeb used to support his family by making hats so that he will not take any money for himself or for his family from the government’s coffers (I have never seen Aurangzeb and so have to rely on hearsay for this)! Will our political leaders acquire this skill of avoiding taking money from the government and will the people understand the need to acquire some skill?

Skill is the ability to complete a task well and in time. Expertise is to do the task with finesse and so that there cannot be questions on the finished product.

While there are any number of job skills, there are at least eight major life skills that all human beings should either possess or acquire.

1)    Ability to work under pressure
2)    Adaptability
3)    Communication
4)    Conflict resolution
5)    Decision making
6)    Leadership
7)    Self motivation and
8)    Time Management

Honestly, if we take stock among the evolving generation of India, how many of them do you think would be having all or more of the above seven life skills? A puny size. If not, why do you think there is so much of conflicts at work place, among couples, more often resulting in suicides?

Both education and skills could be manifested in a person as a combination but need not necessarily be together. An ‘educated person’ (in Indian parlance) could be without any skills. We see them by millions. Skilled people might not be educated. Many of the Barbers, Cobblers, Potters and Weavers in India are exceptionally skilled but might or might not have been educated. Bargaining and negotiating are skills but being educated helps in there. There are any number of skills that are required for livelihoods and living, but most of the new generation seems to be piggy backing more on automation – both by doing and by brains. And systematically the political system, through populist approach is creating more and more lazy citizens making them useless over a period of time.

The biggest psychological block we, in India, have is that we expect a piece of paper called a degree to become a passport to a job. I have heard the lamenting of many saying that s/he is ‘qualified’ but not getting a job. Then they blame on reservations etc., etc. True, reservations are indeed playing havoc with the education system in the country where a certain section of people could be lulled into false hopes and not realizing the ground realities.

So this brings us to the question; ‘Educated or Skilled or both’?

We have to address this on a war footing and re-calibrate the entire education system in the country towards it while also factoring the current trends and future requirements. Coaches, Mentors, Teachers and Trainers need to be re-oriented. If not,  it could be too late to suddenly realise that the people in the country are so lazy and skill-less that they cannot defend themselves, the country on its frontiers or on its policies. To what use would such youth be, then?

Pray tell me!

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai),Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish),Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea).

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy
Chennai, India

Thursday 12 September 2019

Hemantha Kalam - 57 'The Time Stealers'


Have you ever come across a ‘time stealer’? No? Well, think again! I would venture out saying that 95% of our people are ‘time stealers’. Not convinced? OK follow me for the next few minutes.

The other day I was waiting my turn at the bank's counter patiently. After about some 10 minutes of waiting, my turn came in and I was explaining my issue to the bank’s lady staff member. Even when I am just about half way, a gentleman, well he has to be a gentleman, for he is wearing a safari dress, interrupted, no intercepted our business.

In India, if someone wears a Safari suit, he should either be a Police official, the secret type or the high echelon body guard type, or a person trying to appear as a gentleman. Interestingly most of the hunters do not seem to be wearing safaris in India, not that I encountered any hunter. I had always been the hunted type but psst.., please don’t tell my wife about me, being hunted. This is just between the two of us.

Anyway, this ‘gentleman’ (because he is wearing a safari suit) butted into my conversation waving an account passbook before the staff. Apparently the lady staff member found the figures in his passbook more interesting and started attending to him confirming very clearly that I am now past the age of being hunted any more. Their conversation took no less than 15 minutes, all the time while I was waiting, huffing and puffing and making protesting noises. The ‘gentleman’ in the safari suit just stole 15 minutes from me. When I pointed that out to both the staff member and the ‘gentleman’ (because he is wearing a safari suit) neither of them were apologetic at all and said just one word, ‘can’t you adjust’? Worst, the lady staff supported him. In fact they didn’t steal my time alone but also that of those waiting their turn behind me. The gentleman walked out nonchalantly and in fact, I suspect, triumphantly.

There are times, when you are standing in a long queue to buy your platform ticket at the railway station and have already unwound in the queue for about 15 minutes and the guy/gal at the counter closes the counter, just when you reach it, to run to the loo. After s/he returns you have noticed it was after about a 20 minute gap. S/he just stole your 20 minutes.

There are also possibilities of others putting their hands into the same counter by swarming around you in the queue and stealing all your waiting time. This used to happen in cinema theatres of yore but after online bookings came, this has significantly reduced. Only in India, our excellent discipline enables us form any number of queues in any whichever way, out of just one queue.

You go to the ATM and the person before you in the ATM doesn’t come out in a jiffy. One wonders what ever these guys ponder in front of those machines. There were a couple of times I had to tell the guys that these are ATMs and not fortune telling machines. You lose time.

You would see this happening in lifts in public areas. When you are law abiding or disciplined and are standing in the long queues in front of a bank of lifts in large complexes, people pushing you back and getting into the lifts is a common practice.

You are not spared even in the airports. When you are trying to organise your mobile, phone, belt, watch, laptop etc into the trays, suddenly someone snatches away the tray in front of you and gives you a nasty sheepish smile showing his one up-manship. Then if there is no stock of those trays, you need to wait till some are brought as replenishment. This means the guy with the sheepish smile has just stolen your time.

The worst thing and time to happen is when you park your vehicle and by the time you finish your work and return you see that your vehicle is surrounded by indiscriminately parked and locked vehicles when you need to rush out. This could happen to you in parking spaces, in front of your gate or even in your apartment / condo complex. Like the Murphy’s law, only when the security guard ducks his head, the expert ‘time stealer’ parks his/her vehicle haphazardly and vanish into one of the myriad apartments. After that a hunt is to be mounted to find the ‘thief’.


Some people casually park in slots allotted to others and walk away. In our own apartment there were people not at all belonging to our apartments parking in our spots. Especially those idiots parking in front of gates don’t even appear to be thinking that there could be a medical emergency and vehicles need access to the roads. Regretfully, most of the new generation kids do not even seem to be applying their minds as their mind is ‘viced’ in between two earplugs almost all the time.

One of these weekends, try to figure out how much time has been stolen from you by these undisciplined, unabashed wretches of ‘time stealers’ and calculate the same with your average earnings so that you would know how much you have lost in life so far. And also try to estimate the total ‘time stolen’ from all citizens in the country for a day. You will go bonkers, I promise without hesitation.

You would note that for a change I have not mentioned the havoc brought in by and time lost due to activities on the FAWNG (Facebook, Amazon, WhatsApp, Netflix and Google) out of which Facebook and WhatsApp could steal other’s time but the rest only their own time which anyway is their own business. I am sure that some smart alec would say that even tormenting with blogs is stealing time! While I have to reluctantly agree, one always has a choice of ignoring and saving one’s own time and senses so to say! J

These ‘time stealers’ are more dangerous to our country than the most hard-core economic offenders as due to this endemic, the time of the entire country’s citizens is lost. There are times when people missed their buses, trains, flights and lost their opportunities in a fraction due to such characters.Now tell me, have you ever come across such ‘time stealers’?

There should be stringent laws, I wouldn’t hesitate suggesting caning as well, against such indiscipline. Discipline, has never been an average Indian’s forte. It’s about time the scenario changes and people start identifying the value of their time first and the other’s time next.

My vote would be for such a party who not only promises but shall take action against such ‘time stealers’.

Well, what about yours? Pray tell me!

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai),Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish),Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea).

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy
Chennai, India

Sunday 1 September 2019

Hemantha Kalam - 56 'Bucking the Wastage'


Of late, I note, that every other time I fly out of or fly into Chennai Airport, the airport ground darsan time seems to be as much as the flying time in itself.

And so was the case again on the 28th August, 2019 when I was flying out of Chennai. The airplane was parked really ‘yonder’ from the main buildings of the airport and the bus ride from the airport’s buildings to the flight took literally over 22 minutes.

But then, hold it! My cribbing now is not about this airport darsan. I liked it, I have to say, because, there is no other way you would be able to see the airport so much in its vastness. I may like it for some time to come; till it becomes a habit and then the ‘diminishing marginal utility’ would be setting in.

No siree, my cribbing is not at all about this, but the wasting away of so many grounded airplanes. During this particular ‘conducted tour’ of ours, the other passengers and I could see at least 7 airplanes belonging to the ‘Kingfisher Airlines’ of various makes, steadily rotting away (at least they did look so) because of disuse and due to nature’s vagaries. A bit far away and tucked away into an almost ‘un-seeable’ corner of the airport, sat as many more flights huddled in disuse. Though I cannot swear, the insignia on these airplanes did look like to be that of ‘NEPC Airlines’ which breathed its last in 1997. They could also be of ‘Paramount Airways’ which ceased its operations in 2010.

And I am talking of just one airport. If we have to put together such airplanes jettisoned across all the airports in the country, imagine the amount of ‘non-productive assets’ (I am consciously mentioning them not as non-performing assets, though that phrase also should be adept in this case).

The point I wish to make out is that these airplanes cost a bomb and instead of laying them waste, can’t the government find a way to put them into use and thus save precious property and also foreign exchange?

For instance, if the government could bring in some sort of a legislation which could find a path between the promoters, new buyers and legalities so that assets would not rot and nobody has to suffer much in the process. A win-win-win situation is just waiting to be created.

In fact, we note that not only airplanes, but also several other types of vehicles seized on criminal cases etc., are found to rot on the roads, most of the times so badly vandalized that they cannot shed an iota of evidence for which they are seized and ‘preserved’ near the government establishments.

Is it not time to seriously sit, ponder and decide a way forward in such cases to buck the wastage?

Pray tell me! I have to confess that I am quite naïve in this type of matters!  

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai),Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish),Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea).

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy
Chennai, India

PS: On 4th February, 2023, I came across a news item that the Airports Authority has decided to auction three ATRs (planes) belonging to Kingfisher Airlines and now grounded in the Chennai Airport. I have no idea as to how I should be reacting to this news! Here's the link to the news, for those who are interested! https://m.timesofindia.com/city/chennai/chennai-international-airport-authority-to-auction-three-atr-72-planes/articleshow/98375679.cms