Hemantha Kalam - 34 'Educating Education'

I was a topper in school or at least one among the top three, till I was in my 8^th Standard / Grade. Later, I was more interested in reading anything and anything, thus eclipsing my interest in the class books and work. And within 3 years, by the time I reached my Secondary School Leaving Certificate level (SSLC-11^th Standard / Grade) , I fell down to the ranks of the just about average student. As I continued with my college education, my interests expanded into NCC and learning music and I fell down to abysmal depths in the college studies and it was, indeed, a struggle for me to complete my college education.

So much so, that after coming out of college, I confided with my father that I no longer wished to waste his money (with whose support I was continuing my education) and my time, in pursuing something which has, time and again, proved to be elusive for me. That later I did management courses on my own and did quite well is another story.

In retrospect, I think I did not do very badly in life though my foundation has been quite weak. Today, people, at least some of them, consider me knowledgeable if not educated – a small gratification.

All this was possible because I was given a chance, more than once, in fact. My failures were tolerated. But today, the educational scenario in the country seems to have so drastically changed that there is neither tolerance nor a chance seems to be given to those who cannot make it – by the standards set in (most absurd levels, in my opinion) by the schools, which are now more identical to factories.

So why am I talking about this today, several decades after I had completed my educational odyssey? A report in yesterday’s Telugu newspaper ‘Eenaadu’ (http://epaper.eenadu.net/svww_index1.php) triggered my thoughts and culminated into this lament that it is.

The news item says that many schools, especially those in the private sector, in Tamil Nadu, a state of south India, are not permitting the lesser bright and not so bright students to take their qualifying examinations by forcefully evicting them out of schools, at the 9^th Standard / Grade for not performing up to ‘their expectations’. The rationale - the schools have taken up on themselves the onus to guarantee a 100% pass percentage.

The figures for the year 2013-14, provided by the news item, are that 1,169,110 students were admitted into the 9^th Standard / Grade but out of them only 1,072,691 have been promoted to 10^th Standard / Grade. If readers think that the balance 96,419 (8.25%) students have failed to make the mark in their 9^th Standard / Grade examinations, they would be in for a surprise. The news item says that these students have been cajoled, coaxed or forcefully evicted from the school by giving them a Transfer Certificate even before they could face the 9^th Standard / Grade examinations. No records show that these evicted students got admitted in any other school; as no school would be touching them with a barge pole.

Now, the saga continues. That among the 1,072,691 who entered into the 10^th Standard / Grade, only 1,060,940 students were permitted to face the qualifying examinations leaving behind a further 11,751 students not permitted to take the examinations. So totally out of the 1,169,110 students, finally only 1,060,940 students took the examinations leaving behind 108,170 (9.25%) students to face their own fate.

The alarming point is that now the malicious disease seems to be spreading to the government schools as well.

As it is, with even the educated youth of the country facing lack of employability skills, leaving about 10% behind every year, just because they are unable to reach the ‘expected’ grade / efficiency levels, are not the educational institutions doing gross injustice to the children and also to the future of the country?

Is the government taking necessary actions to provide alternate education to these ‘deprived’ and evicted students? How efficient is that system. If that system is working, how come there is a genuine scarcity for skilled workers in various trades such as Electrical, Plumbing, Masonry and so on….?

All this reminds me of a fabled task I used to listen from elders to think out of box. The task is simple. Make a vertical straight line smaller than what it appears now, without erasing or painting or covering over it, blah blah blah. Many people fail and one smart alec simply draws another vertical line a tad longer than the one already there making the first one look smaller in comparison.

To me somehow the present education system looks a bit similar. You want to show only success so decimate the failures! What nonsense?

Again, what is the purpose of education?

Writing in the Campus Newspaper ‘Maroon tiger’ Martin Luther King (Jan-Feb 1947 ‘The purpose of Education’ Atlanta, Ga) said;

“Education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society:

the one is utility and the other is culture…………….

…The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.”

In the recent years, running behind the so called ‘efficiency’ which anyway seems to be quite questionable, as our education system seems to be based more on the rote system, aren’t the citizens losing their right to education and a proper one at that?

What will happen to the 10% who are denied of their education year after year? If they cannot get admission in any other educational institution, as almost all schools follow the same method of elimination, and they cannot get any life skills, is not the education system and the department concerned responsible for turning them to abject poverty or into wannabe / forced criminals?

After all, every man having come into the world has to live and when they are denied / deprived of using their available mental resources in the name of pseudo-efficiency how do they make a living? Is not the government and other sections of the society concerned, giving a license to poverty / crime this way?

We work to give some succour to the differently abled. Now these students who cannot make the grade also are differently abled. What efforts are taken to find out their aspirations and choices? Why should the system be so blindly driven and people are made / forced to follow?

As the children are put into schools at such a tender age of 1 ½ years and 2 years they are already deprived of their childhood. If they are also deprived of schooling opportunities because they do not meet the school requirements, what is their fate? It is a clear case of lost childhood in the face of an imaginary oasis which ultimately turns to a mere mirage.

Who is responsible for botching up their lives? Has any worthwhile study been undertaken to prove that such tender children should not be sent into schools? I am sure that there would be any number of studies to the contrary.

In my humble and considered opinion there appears to be a case to urgently ‘Educate the Education’ departments in the country. The later we do this, the more the country could lose. As it is, excepting among a handful of citizens, we have questionable civic sense, common belongingness or common responsibility. It is more by the grace of the omnipresence or by providence that things seem to be happening.

There is a dire need to bring in civic sense, moral sense and common responsibility among the people and if schools do not do that, who are the better agents for that?  

Pray, tell me, if you can! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 33 'Easing the Easing'

Well, the newly laid out Chennai Metro runs parallel to my apartment. It has not yet been officially launched, but in the name of trial runs over the past year or so, all or most of the trains in stock have become much used, even before they could be officially flagged.

Every time I see the passing cars of the composite Metro train, I wonder what I can witness in future. With the doors closed, what will happen to all my brethren who love to hang on at the entrances / exits? Where will they spit and…………?

I need not have had to look much into the future. After all, it apparently has already happened in our capital – very much inside the Delhi Metro on the night before the International Yoga Day-our man must have thought easing in a metro also could be a precursor to one of the Yoga Mudras. “Man caught Urinating in Delhi Metro” and a disturbed passenger grabs a video and uploads it.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Man-Caught-Urinating-in-Delhi-Metro-Disturbed-Passenger-Uploads-Video-in-Social-Media/2015/06/21/article2878562.ece 

Before we go into what action has been taken or is going to be taken etc., in this case, let us wonder what makes us so shameless in unzipping our fly so nonchalantly. I trawled a bit on the net, quickly, to seek out any justification for easing ourselves in public; to support my theory but could really find very little in that way.

The sense of hygiene among the ancient Indians, which may not necessarily be in line with the modern theories or realities, must have been totally different. Any excretion by humans was considered unhygienic and hence was expected to be kept as much away from the dwelling quarters as possible. This could be in a bid to keep the diseases away. So in days of yore, all used to go much away into the ‘bahir bhumi’ (open land) fields or forests to do their business. Probably it helped ‘from earth to earth and from worms to worms’ in a direct way, albeit in a different meaning.

This could have gone well, if the population could be contained. As that did not happen and there was an unconditional and uncontrolled population growth, especially in the fast growing urban India, need for changing thoughts and practices arise. And that is where the mismatch started taking place for multifarious - Economic, Social and Traditional - reasons.

People might not have wanted to change from traditions, yet were finding social pressures to change but did not have economic means and so on. The issue became complicated as the reasons started being intertwined rather than being just islands of issues.

So we see contradicting aspects in sanitation. In many villages across, we see even affluent people spending hundreds of thousands of rupees on good buildings but still consciously not having a toilet constructed in the compound, as they still prefer to go into the fields or any space available, for the purpose, following the age old tradition. In urban areas, as living spaces are becoming scarce and expensive, and slums are mushrooming, public conveniences, even though are badly maintained are still much in demand and are being used by ‘beyond the capacity’ crowds. Yet, the usage of open places for defecation, for the sake of tradition, lack of facilities, ignorance or simple nonchalance goes on.

And we also see that toilets and urinals that are constructed with government subsidy support or by Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) or as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) lie in waste or terrible disrepair as, many people use them conveniently as kitchens, lumber rooms, or goat sheds and what not? There are also reports that a few poor people live in them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhb770iolkU 

As a person working in the Development Sector, with Water and Sanitation being major components, I know personally that the challenge is not as much in providing toilets as in making the people to use them. Incentives like the ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar’ (Clean Village Award) might inspire the Village Heads but also adds up to their work burden in wooing, coaxing and goading the people to really use the toilets. 

There are NGOs who tried to form responsible villagers into ‘water and sanitation committees’ whose job, hold your breath, is only to monitor, on a daily basis, whether the people are using the toilets properly and for the purpose meant for and that water is being used judiciously.

All these are required because, people by and large are reluctant to lose the freedom of defecating wherever it pleases them to and many a time in ‘air-conditioned comfort’ (sic) too.

While records estimate that about 53% of Indian households may not be having access to toilets, in the absence of current research figures I venture saying that about 97-98% of Indians should be guilty of having eased themselves in public at one or more times in their life.

There is a need for Capacity Building of not only the trainers but the people at the grass root level on the need of changing their attitude and outlook on open/public defecation and urinating. People also need to be taught in using the toilet systems and the need to flush them and keep the toilets clean and dry.

Because we do not care to keep toilets clean as a habit, all the public conveniences, however modern they may be, are stinking and unusable by a cleanliness conscious person on the road. New type of bio digester modelled toilets and ultra-modern e-toilets are all fine. But people need to be taught to appreciate these conveniences and in up keeping them properly.

There is a much more necessity of re/introducing civic sense and civic responsibilities in our school curriculum, on a war footing, to arrest the growth of the menace at least from the growing generations.

Most importantly a sense of shame or guilt needs to be desperately developed among people preferring to or using open defecation. I would even advocate penalizing, but after ensuring that proper infrastructure is in place.

In this context, I appreciate the recent experiment undertaken by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to Pay Rs.1 (one) for each of the person using public toilets. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/public-toilet-users-to-be-paid-re-1-in-ahmedabad/article7300169.ece 

Notwithstanding that the scheme may have to encounter several possible ‘mines’ in future, like nepotism, minor scams etc., I still think this scheme of ‘easing the way to easing’ oneself, may work too. All we need to do is watch the news; for further updates and to learn from.

Isn’t it? You tell me! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino) and Tack (Swedish)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 32 'Extinction or Resurrection'

Well, I could not believe my eyes and truly rubbed them in disbelief when I saw an advertisement recently.

A leading Jewellery shop advertised, among other requirements, for the services of Secretary to its Managing Director. That in itself is not weird. But one look at the advertisement copy made me very curious and I am surely dying to know the result of the quest.

The copy said that there were two positions – one each of either sex (the headline said ‘Secretary’ in singular and certainly not in ‘plural’) and that the preferred age for the Lady Secretary was 30 years and for that of the Gent was 35 years. Now what difference the age is going to be? In India, maybe elsewhere also, it is firmly believed that the women are sharper at a young age than men and so even when marriages take place, in India, the bride is normally quite younger than the groom. So the advertisement could have made much sense if the age preferences were vice versa?

Sorry for digressing but here’s the next and most amazing requirement:

‘Graduate with 5 years (of) experience in relevant field (in secretarial field or jewellery field?). Should possess excellent communication skills (write, read and speak) and pleasing personality. Should be computer literate & pro-active. (But now comes the real googly) Fluency in English, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu is a must. Exposure in Typewriting and shorthand is desirable’

The problem is in a city like Chennai, finding a polyglot who is fluent in the languages desired would be tougher than getting Manna from heavens onto the earth, to feed the two million people of Sinai. And the desire for the combination of typewriting and shorthand skills makes the ‘Mission Impossible’ look paler.

Some three decades ago, the Typewriting and Shorthand institutes were available, in India, almost one in every street with thousands of aspirants learning and appearing for the technical examinations. But in the past two decades, as the electronic technology brought in many innovations, aspirants steadily dwindled and trickled down to such abysmal numbers of about a few hundreds, that the typewriting institutes mostly have either closed shop or reinvented themselves in allied courses of skill training.

When I started my career, I found that stenographers and secretaries were better paid in the company where I worked as a mere ‘clerk’. That was the importance given to their time, skill and perseverance.

While the Pitman’s Shorthand really requires dedication, concentration, good memory power and most importantly rigorous and continuous practice, the new found electronic gadgets make life simpler. When even mobile phones can take videos and record sounds and voices, many, including journalists who were once excellent ‘stenographers’, prefer to use these gadgets than waste precious time in learning the art.

I excelled in typing (though now I suffer from ‘typing dyslexia’) which I find very useful while using my keyboard of the computer. But then I was a total dud as far as shorthand was concerned. My learning of shorthand never crossed the ‘pee’ / ‘bee’/ ‘tee’ / ‘dee’s. Yes, I am a polyglot, but as I am nearing sixty, I cannot qualify, even if I wish to aspire.

And that is the issue. The qualities expected by the advertiser, in this case, would most probably be available in people who are nearing retirement age and thus there is a mismatch in the age factor and the relative attractiveness. Moreover, many of these Stenographers would have climbed the ladder of growth and must be holding very senior positions with very good pay packets. Those who could not make it big may not be practicing their skills enough.

The new generation employees are what I call the ‘factory graduates’ with almost 50% of them not having any employable skills. Most of the rest, find jobs through campus placements. And those who are not lucky enough to do well in education, may learn some secretarial skills like typewriting and ‘Newrite’ (a new system of shorthand originally invented as ‘Steno’ by Walter P. Kistler). But chances are that they may not be polyglots and maybe could speak no more than two languages and that too not fluently.

As a person who is keen in watching changes, I am certainly curious to know the results of the permutation and combinations, as also the sacrifices the advertiser will have to do in obtaining the intended goals of recruiting secretaries in the preferred age group and with the qualifications sought for.

For future, though, there is one hope. With several vital systems and servers being hacked methodically, across the globe, already a serious thought is going with the powers that be, to ‘resurrect’ the typewriters and stenographers to go to basics of making hard copies ‘for the eyes of…only’ and destroying the carbons and extra copies where not needed.

That and the once in a way advertisements like the present one, could kindle hopes of ‘resurrecting’ the ‘extinction’ of stenographic skills and equipment.   

So, what is your guess? Is it going to be ‘extinction’ or ‘resurrection’? You tell me! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 31 'Tell the Advisers'

We are an interesting people; to say the least. One of our quaint traits is our being bound by ‘Free’dom. We ‘want’ free ration of food material, free education, free travel, free clothes, free houses, free income (devoid of any taxes), free products, free Wi-Fi and ‘free’dom to ease ourselves – verbally and physically too – anytime and anywhere. After all, ours is a ‘free’ country. We want to speak ‘freely’ and puke ‘freely. We want to pee ‘freely’ and we want to pooh ‘freely’

Nobody seems to understand this penchant for ‘free’dom of ours any better, than the politicians and the marketers.

During elections, you are given ‘free’ food, ‘free’ liquor, ‘free’ clothes and sometimes ‘free’ money too, albeit by taking away the ‘free’dom to vote for a candidate of your choice! After elections, you are bestowed with white goods like ‘free’ televisions, ‘free’ electric fans, ‘free’ bicycles / tricycles, ‘free’ food processors and so on.

The marketers give you ‘free’ of this or ‘free’ of that every day in and day out. If you buy toothpaste you either get 20% extra paste or a tooth brush – ‘free’. If you buy three soaps, you get an extra soap – ‘free’. And, if you buy just one soap, you get a pen – ‘free’ which quite often is ‘free’ from writing. You buy a dish washing powder you get a scrubber – ‘free’.

I always wondered why we do not get a ‘free’ and extra spouse, when we get married. Very often with the marriage ‘vows’ we only get the ‘free woes’ - of our in-laws.

So, while we allow ourselves to be ‘freely’ taken away in the flow towards a ‘free’ market, we seldom like to give anything free to anybody. Well, anything except advice, that all of us are quite ‘free’ to give it for ‘free’, whether sought for or not.

Maybe, because of my upbringing where, despite a fierce temper, my father allowed quite a good amount of freedom (at least to me), I abhor anybody trying to give me any unsolicited advice.

There is a wonderful adage in Tamil saying ‘Yaam pettra inbam peruga ivvayagam’ which, ‘free’ly, translated into English is ‘May the whole world get the same pleasure that I got’.

All the free advisers seem to be following this adage – knowingly or unknowingly. If they do it knowingly, then only those who know Tamil should be doling advices by the dozen. But we see, anybody and everybody, even not knowing of this adage, pitchforking advices, by a heap, from any corner of our country.

Very often these advices are evangelical. The advices are pumped in, followed up on and become repetitively rhetoric, thus literally changing the adage to ‘Yaam pettra tunbam peruga ivvayagam’ which, again ‘free’ly translated into English is ‘May the whole world get the same pain that I got’.

There is an accident on the road. While a few would be attending to the injured or the dead, depending on the intensity of the accident, there would be half a dozen of people going around giving out advices based on their ‘free’ reminiscences of earlier such occasions, coming into the way of relief work. If there is a theft somewhere, out are many advices and a few admonishments.

Most popular advices come for curing Diabetes and Jaundice. You meet an acquaintance after a gap of some years. During this time, you would have changed physically - positively or negatively - but certainly horizontally. If you have put on weight, out comes the ‘free’ advice on the ill effects of obesity and any number of methods to control it. If you are thin and haggard, you will immediately be advised to consult a physician. Don’t be surprised, if you are advised to check whether you are suffering from HIV positive or Avian flu or Swine flu etc.

It is ‘freely’ believed, by the common folk, that except Liv-52 there does not appear to be any other effective medicine for treating / containing Jaundice. Once you share the information that either you are suspected to be suffering or actually suffering from Jaundice, the amount of treatments that are advised would put any pharmacist or a scientist in the world to shame and also out of business. Half of the herbals suggested in these ‘free’ advices would not be known to many; under the sun.

While talking about ‘free’ advice regarding physical ailments, there is another dimension to it. In any gathering or a meeting or while travelling, if a physician as much announces that he is a physician, several of the surrounding people ‘free’ly converse with him proclaiming all their ailments and seeking, naturally, ‘free’ advice of treatment. Quite often, it is the same case with Lawyers too.

Another area of ‘free’ advising is matrimony related. Despite knowing that those who want to get married will in anyway do that, despite or in spite of the ‘free’ advices, advices pour in with hurricane speed. No wonder, several matrimony decisions taken under such confusion result in disastrous effects.

Now with the new playground called ‘Facebook’ there is no limit for these ‘free’ advices and postulations that are played er, shared on it. It can range from teaching er, sharing morals to virtues to religious discourses. I know at least a couple of fellows who keep on posting this nonsense day in and day out while they themselves are culprits of much mischief in their lives. And so they qualify as excellent preachers because they simply never practiced the virtues that they so ‘freely’ propagate, without an amount of remorse.

Maybe the advices are always given with some good intention. But, in my humble opinion, any time a free advice is given, a lesson is sought to be taught or any evangelical effort is made out, however good natured the effort may be made out to be, such an effort smacks of a clear one up-manship or plainly arrogance, where the adviser appears to be under-estimating the capabilities and thinking process and prowess of the receiver to be much inferior. Who or what gives them this authority?

There is a saying in Telugu; ‘Cheppe vaadiki vine vaadu lokuva’ which ‘freely’ means ‘those who receive are inferior to those who give/talk’. What the heck!?

I had, to a large extent, allowed my children to grow as they wished to be (I ‘free’ly give them the choice of differing on this, though). As a result, apart from me, even my children are showing signs of impatience towards and more often, started disliking these ‘free’ advices, I guess. We are of the firm opinion that we have a right to live our lives the way we want to and to experiment with, face the consequences if need be, as much as and as long as it is not a trouble for the others.

Like one man’s food can be another man’s poison, one advice for a particular problem may not be appropriately suitable for another problem, however seemingly similar the other problem may appear to be.

These ‘free’ advices could be from neighbours, from colleagues, from passersby, from relatives or co passengers and so on. You can fill any vocation that comes into your mind ‘free’ly and lo, there is a ‘free’ advice coming up!

As a professional adviser and also as a teacher, the only ‘free’ advice I can give, to all the ‘free’ advisers, is to stop giving advises and start living their own lives and also allow others to live their lives, as they are destined to or at least as they desire to. Don’t disturb and don’t be disturbed!

In fact, as a professional adviser, charging a fee for my advices, I am certainly worried about all these ‘free’ advices, floating ‘free’ly around, posing a threat of eroding into my income earning potential. J

So, to safeguard myself and people who think like me, there is a great need in our country to ‘tell the free advisers’ that anything given ‘free’ has no value, and the sooner the ‘free advisers’ realise that, the better that would be!

What do you think? You can tell me ‘freely’! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 30 'What Change am I talking about!?'

It has been a few months since I had posted my blog! My last blog was on Change and this blog of mine is also on Change. Only that this time, I am making a somersault and taking a volte-face!:-)

There are changes and there are changes.

Some of the changes are positive and some of them not so positive and some changes do the exact opposite. Now consider these.

When I was a child, I had to cover some 13 kms both ways everyday, 6 days a week, for going to school, excepting on holidays when I need not go to school. Normally I used to take a bus to go. The bus terminus from my house was about a kilometer of walking and the bus fare from the terminus to my school cost me 22 paise. If I got down one stop earlier and walked up to school, it cost me a fare of 18 paise. So most of the times, I used to get down one stop earlier and save 4 paise. In the evenings, most of the times, I used to walk home from the school and save the 22 paise too.

My father used to give me 50 paise everyday (in today’s value it is about Less than one US Cent – about 0.80 US cent) on the school going days and this way I could save about 32 paise every day. On the pavement I then used to buy a second-hand (already read) comic for about 25 to 30 paise depending on the quality - Phantom, Tarzan, Classic Illustrated, Magnus, Mandrake, Little Lotta, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Ripley’s Believe it or Not comics and many more. Western and Battle field comics were my eternal favourites. Tex Willer my hero. 

After picking up the books, I used to read them while walking, lugging my box of books and a hamper of emptied food containers and for sure, by the time I reached my house I would have completed the comic. I became almost an authority on Texas, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Mexico though, till date, I never visited these places. (Interestingly, more than a thousand of all these hard earned comics are still with me and I am aware that these could fetch me a fortune).

Of course all this was on the sly, as my father’s temper those days was something to watch out for and I used to be pretty scared of him and his belt. Had he known, that I was walking home from school every day, I could not hazard a guess on what could have happened to me. One thing I was sure was that I would have lost my dear pocket money of 50 paise for a day and might have ended up getting just 25 paise.

Those were the days that I used to dream of having a racing bicycle; a dream that I could, till date, not fulfill and later as I was growing up, the dream graduated into acquiring a ‘Yezdi Motorcycle’ - another wish I could not fulfill to date and further later, dreamt of a car. This dream I could fulfill and I am now going on my third car - so far.

Those were the times that I used to take some 50 minutes to walk home with gay abundance. A week ago, I was driving home in my car from my school area and it took me over an hour to reach - thanks to bad roads and undisciplined traffic on overcrowded roads.

While walking, I used to save money, health and even time. Now I spend through my nose for the gas, taxes and maintenance of my car but am obese, suffer from diabetes, cholesterol and related ailments, and worse, still spend more time while going in my car. And gone are any more dreams.

So what change am I talking about?

Today, after keeping the car at house, as I normally cannot find a parking place at my destination and always run the risk of getting my car towed off by the traffic police, I more often travel by the bus again.

So what change am I talking about?

When I was a child I used to do most of my homework sitting in the bus, while riding to school. Now, the other day, when I was travelling in the bus there were more than a dozen passengers speaking loudly over their mobile phones - nonchalantly letting all other passengers very much into their personal affairs and lives. The din in my ears kept ringing till I walked all the way from the bus stand to my house. And as a child, I could walk almost in my dreams while reading my comic book all the way home traversing some 6kms odd.

So what change am I talking about?

I have a relative who started almost with nothing in his life, excepting confidence and an understanding wife who also struggled much along with him. In their earlier days they used to get poor quality of wheat which was given in the ration shops at a much cheaper price than rice and used to bake ‘Phulka’ (Indian dry bread without any fats like butter or oil) and eat the meagre ‘Phulkas’ along with onion and green chilies, as side dishes. Chilies add up to thirst and so with little solid food and a lot of water people could somehow manage their hunger and lives. Later these relatives of mine steadily grew wealthy by their work and could acquire quite a good amount of property etc., could provide well for all their children.

One day he had a heart attack and the diet given to him by the physicians was the same old ‘Phulka’ with as much vegetables as possible without any fats or oil content. I was present at the hospital as a visitor when this diet was being doled out to him and I thought ‘what the heck’

So what change am I talking about?

This is not only about individuals. It is also about governments in a democratic country like ours. If one government rules and tries to do some good (among many bad things), the next government formed by a different party laboriously tries to undo all good things of the earlier government and start some new programmes. In the process, there is always a static reality hanging around while everybody will be braying of developmental, positive changes!

So what change are we talking about?

I was visiting Laos, a favourite destination of mine for visiting often. The Vientiane Times (national daily of the country) of 21^st January, 2015 announced that the vehicle registrations slowed down. It went on to explain by giving a string of statistics to prove the point. But Vientiane, the capital city is increasingly facing congestion and traffic jams at peak hours and parking place is becoming premium stuff in the country. Most shocking is the steady increase of fatalities on the roads of Laos and especially Vientiane, now.    

I am sure that readers can find million such contradictions in change, in their own lives, experiences and countries.

So what change are you talking about, anyway? You tell me! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 29 'Change is only Constant'

In many ways 2014 had been a year of surprises – sullen and sweet.

On the sullen side, there were several losses that included an indifferent career with equally indifferent income but escalating expenses.

On the personal front I had lost a few persons whose loss would always leave an unfulfilled void.

Dear Narasimhan maama passed away after a brief illness. Will I ever come across another fan of my writings and ‘English’, who always had a sparkle in his eyes and who always was not only fond of my daughters, who were ‘Tittu’ and Tittutoo’, for him, but also my parents and especially my dear dad who to him was a replica of ‘Malcolm Adiseshaiah’ the erstwhile Vice Chancellor of University of Madras?

Then the untimely (is it a time to die?) demise of the young international celebrity Mandolin U Shreenivas (http://www.mandolinshrinivas.org/), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U._Srinivas),  who apparently succumbed to a liver ailment with which he was battling for some time. How much physical and psychological pain he must have been enduring behind that docile smile and eternal humility of his?

Mandolin U Shreenivas and his father were known to me personally and to my family, since he was about 10 years of age or so. I have seen him diligently practicing on his mandolin. I shall always cherish the time when his father asked me to tutor his son in English but which I could not take up for fear of my own fallible inconsistencies in the language.

Though he reached many summits in his career, his much written and spoken about humility was experienced by me every time I met him. Wherever and whenever I met him he used to pay obeisance with both hands with that unforgettable smile on his face. What did I ever do to him to deserve that respect, will always be an unanswered question.

The Ganesa Temple in our colony will miss his daily circumambulations and his devoted concerts during the Ganesa Festival. Maybe, he has been recalled by Lord Ganesa to be nearer to him in the heavenly abode than being merely present in his temple? His family stays just a couple of lanes away from our place but I am yet to find courage in visiting his family and condole / console the bereavement, as also has been the case with several other cases including the demise of Narasimhan maama and Ramanathan Iyer.

I, especially, owe one to Ramanathan Iyer who was briefly ill and succumbed. He was the one who had confidence in my photography (more than I myself had, I should say) and gave me an opportunity, the first one, to do industrial photography when he was associated with Goodlass Nerolac Paints in Chennai. They needed some photographs and transparencies (photo-slides) in a jiffy and I stood up to the challenge.

After submitting my bill for the services, he took one look at it and said without mincing words, that I was unfit to do any business on my own. I did, indeed, try once to do business after that advice, but as predicted, really did not make it up. And henceforth, I faithfully followed Mr. Iyer’s advice and kept away from any business ventures of my own. He was not much of a talker, but I was sure that he liked me.

Balu Mahendra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balu_Mahendra), who passed away in February, was not only residing close to my residence but was also close to my heart through his visual work. Many a time, I thought of approaching him to seek apprenticeship under his tutelage. But every time I made up my mind, he used to get involved in some legal case / issue and I used to be put away as I did not savour getting entangled in any of his problems or issues. But just a couple of years before his demise I did have occasion to meet him in person and talk to him. But by that time, my interest in the subject was no longer kindling. 

Another person whom I admired much but never met, though he too was residing quite nearer to our place, was ‘Meesai Murugesan’ originally known as Dr. I. S. Murugesan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meesai_Murugesan), (http://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=jQOsVNmyGarV8gfs1IGwCw#q=meesai+murugesan+photo). The bereavement by his demise was almost unsung. Here was a great person who invented so many music instruments from everyday materials like coconut shells etc., and ran a one-man band called ‘Apoorva Thala Vathiyangal’ (Never before rhythmic instruments). He also acted in over 100 Indian films. Popular for his huge handle-bar moustache, Meesai Murugesan’s was a persona nonpareil.

‘Koothapiran’ known as ‘Vanoli Anna’ (Brother on the Radio) (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/vanoli-anna-voice-that-made-waves-on-air-fades/article6720149.ece), was a person I sort of grew with. He was a dramatist and a master story teller and in his demise at an age of 83, the future children have lost an understanding and empathising ‘brother’

'Bapu' the doyen of the Telugu arts and film industry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bapu_(film_director) ), passed away to join his all time friend Mullapudi Venkataramana.

On the personal front I had lost my aunt, married to my maternal uncle for over 6 decades.

My favourtie city of ‘Visakhapatnam’ or ‘Vizag’ and “the city of destiny” was battered beyond recognition by the ‘Hudhud’ cyclone putting a spanner into the spokes of my plans of my life in the city.

While these have been some irreparable losses, all was not bad.

The sweeter side of the year was that my children kept doing reasonably well. My first daughter seems to be bent on filling her passport with a collection of Entry and Exit seals from different countries. My second daughter could get about three job offers even while in college. My parents and siblings are doing well.

There were friends so many and a few relatives who stood by me whenever and wherever I needed them, with trust and tolerance.

The indifferent jobs kept me rooted to home mostly and to spend more time with my wife so much in trying to ‘understand’ each other; after a married life of 26 years.

My car of over 11 years vintage is still carrying me and my family members to any destination, near and far, without much ado, though it suffers from ‘age related health issues’.

I could pursue my favourite work of researching and reading anything and everything.

I had gifted my daughters with slates when they were young and my first daughter repaid the debt by gifting me a Microsoft ‘Surface’ tablet which, I am sure unintentionally (?), was indeed of the  same size of a writing slate. I became a child again to play games and read books on it. She also had graciously left her ‘Kindle Fire’ at home and I could put quite a lot of free downloadable books onto it and could read them.

My faithful mobile phone of about 6 years died after frequent ailments, leaving me stranded without the knowledge of several contacts. But Facebook gave me several new contacts though various groups and I have been hitting off well on that score. I also could keep my overseas connections in good order.

But the biggest and gratifying fact is that I have fairly succeeded in ‘hunting’ and ‘re-locating’ several of my ‘lost’ school-time classmates. Guys like V. Someswara Rao and V. Umakanth (who notched his own points as a renowned Kannada film director) (http://paaru.in/directors/v-umakanth), and gals like Varalakshmi Devi Koilaada were discovered almost after a gap of 42 years. While the hunt will continue in 2015 also, I have to say that 2014 had been very kind where I could connect with some three lost guys in one single day! The pleasure I derived out of it cannot be expressed in words and so I am not even attempting it. And we did have a couple of social meetings among some of our school friends who could make it.

I also could re-connect with some of my colleagues from earlier assignments.

I could continue writing this blog and as occasion provided, I could teach a bit here and there. And, I was recognised in the Photographic Society.

2014 taught me one interesting lesson though; I was always looking out to retire early from my professional life. But I have discovered that it is very difficult to laze around and kill time despite getting involved in quite a few multi-various activities.

Borrowing Robert Frost’s poem and tinkering with it a bit, I should say that

“The ‘hols’ were lovely and restful to sleep

But there are so many promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep”

Being 'Static' in life is not as interesting as 'Dynamism' or 'Change' is.

After all ‘Change is the only Constant’

Now, what do you think? You tell me! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Thanks (English), Dhonyabaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

Hemantha Kalam - 28 'Gender Bender'

It’s been four months since I posted my last spiel, er blog! Every time I post my blog, I send the link to an approximate 2,500 contacts. And in these four months hardly four persons mentioned of missing my blogs. The first came within a month of my pausing – from an unusual place – Nizamabad in the Telangana State, India. B. Umamaheswara Rao took the trouble of calling me over phone to find out why there are no more blogs from me. And then a couple of enquiries came from my fellow members in the Photographic Society of Madras (1857), in Chennai, on similar lines.

Now this gives me scope for several inferences. 

The first is - that nobody cares, really. 

The second is - that everybody is so busy that they must have heaved a sigh of relief and muttered ‘Good riddance, bad rubbish.’ 

The third is - neither of these. These are people, who, never opened the links to ‘miss’ anything anyway! 

And 

The last one is - really the matter of concern – readers must have been feeling that my writings are insipid, lack lustre or you name it - in your own choicest words.

So I thought ‘let me keep off till I can’. 

But then those four odd persons who cared to enquire on the absence of my blogs, some faithful followers who always read my blogs and sent their comments, observations, opinions and solidarity, some more faithful who read quietly and mused with amusement or annoyance but were gracious enough not to say or write a word and then, a recent column that I read in ‘The Hindu’ issue dated the 10^th December, 2014 titled 'Conversations with a Lady Taxi Driver' http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/conversations-with-a-lady-taxi-driver/article6676889.ece  stirred the juices and here is another short and quick one. Please do take note that I am not talking of those ever faithful who read and comment or do not comment. :-)

The column by Omar Rashid made me reminisce on my own thoughts in this matter.

Sometime during 2002, my boss Mr. SB, a devout Bohra, asked me to work on the copy for a classified advertisement to be released for a Chauffeur and I started with the usual ‘Require an experienced Driver, Male, patient and with good experience…….’

My boss who normally is a very serious person guffawed on seeing this ‘masterpiece’ and observed ‘GM (General Manager) saab, since when did you get ideas that you can get Lady Chauffeurs in India and that too in conservative Chennai, that you are specifying the gender in the ad copy? If available, don’t you think I would love to hire them to take care of my family driving needs?’

Only then did I realise how automated my thoughts were and that I really did not apply my mind while writing the ad copy, but went in a routine. Though mellowing, still the MCP that I was must have been working sub consciously.

But, ever since this incident, the idea dwelled in my mind and I was wondering why not? And that I would not be averse to the idea of hiring a woman chauffeur to take my family, especially, my lovely growing daughters around, with a little more comfort in mind.

We see several auto-rickshaws in the city being driven by women with confidence and I do hear or read of some achievement by a woman truck driver or a woman bus conductor. I have seen women driving buses in London with confident nonchalance. And every time I was flown in by a Lady pilot, safely, my conviction increased, with much more confidence.

Now the latest column, under reference, from ‘The Hindu’ does give rise to hope that we are in for seeing and getting things in differently; in India too.

Only we need to hope that relevant laws and systems would be put in place and more importantly that they are implemented with certainty to the dot, thus providing security to the driver and the driven equally, irrespective of the place or time or most importantly the gender.

Now, what do you think? You tell me! 

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Thanks (English), Dhonyabaad (Bangla), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai) and Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India