The professor with a human heart

In the last few months ,I hardly blogged any article,partly on account of my arrival into the city called Delhi,where you hardly have any time,and partly due to lack of any refreshing realization in the mechanical set up metro life style.but today,it was different.i had an opportunity to meet Professor Debdas Bhattacharjee,a visiting professor with about half a dozen prestigious management institutions in Delhi.It's not that I had planned to meet him,but it was a chance meeting,when I had gone to see my old colleague and a dear personal friend Atul Kumar at Dwarka today.He was supposed to take over posession of the house and it's keys from his tenant,Prof. Debdas.I was feeling a bit uneasy to barge into this situation,where Atul was sitting in the drawing room of the professor,who had shifted into a house opposite to Atul's after vacating the previous house.I was waiting outside when a warm voice greeted me from Atul's back requesting me to come inside.

I am a person in public life and keep on meeting scores of people daily but people like prof. Debdas come as pleasant and welcome surprise.I own flat myself in Delhi and had opportunity to meet many tenants in the course of activities related to renting.But I never have come across anyone as affectionate and affable human being as him.Much beyond the reasonable courtesies,he is a warm hearted gentleman with sharp with and analytical mind.Externally like any other academician,he too appears aloof and self-contained personality,but deep within he is an enthusiastic and compassionate person with such sweet realizations about life.During the small chit-chat in the course of necessary paper work being done on the occasion ,he was so genial and generous that despite my cold and cough,I could not sy no to his "freeze cooled" sandesh and other "chhanna misti".I was born and brought up in Kolkata,so I have Bangla language and culture has very deep impression on my mind.In fact,I have more familiarity with Bangla than Maithili-my original mother tongue.So whenever I get an opportunity to converse ,I feel very happy and relish it to the core.

one of the very poignant observations,which demanded my attention ,was his power to observe things around him. Actually,if you dig deeper inside your self,you will realize that in this fast paced life w hardly have time to observe things.So much so that even the most basic aspects of our own life remain unnoticed tour conscious mind till they are pointed out by others.reflecting upon his past life in general,and his first US tour in particular,he recalled how the citizens over there made it a point to greet other enthusiastically,even if they were unfamiliar with each other.Even if it was a broad smile,that was fine,but they never forgot to give a cheerful acknowledgement of the other person's presence.

His second observation was about the contradictory nature of rising GDP claims and increasing number of beggars on the street.He said that the two things were in opposition yet the men in responsible chairs seem least bothered about this incongruence and are happy singing to the tunes of self-satisfying charts and graphs.This reminded me of the childhood in the streets of Kolkata,where despite the troubles of daily life,an average citizen was so much alive to the world around him and would make it a point to carry an informed opinion about the happenings beyond their immediate periphery.If you look around,you will find that either out of insensitivity or sheer self-centered lifestyle,such things not given any value by our contemporaries.

And the third thing that he mentioned that despite the down slide in the value system in the world around us on account of institutional onslaught on the values and individuals trying to uphold them,we have to keep trying within our sphere of activity.That,he averred,was the only hope for future.Finally he added with a broad smile,we have to remain optimistic and give our best.

Well,It was very enlivening experience to meet him and hope that we keep on communicating in future too.Indeed, professor,it's the people like you,whom the society looks up to in these trying times .And your great thoughts reminded me of the legenderay film song-jot se jot jalate chalo...prem ki ganga bahate chalo...

This can't be called correct business

Today I was witness to a bizarre happening .I saw how a group of individuals ready to bleed the resources of their own country to feed their insatiable greed.I am talking of a group of dealerships of a public sector oil marketing company joining hands with corruptible government officials to bully the company to allow them to take away more product than they are entitled for in lieu of their payments.Before I describe the details,its necessary to detail the process of oil distribution mechanism at the oil company storage locations.Petroleum oils like petrol and diesel are received either thru pipelines or rail or road supplies.The oil thus received at storage locations on the basis of stock transfer within an oil company or purchased from other oil marketing companies for distribution to retail outlets or petrol pumps,as they are popularly called.The product from installation to retail outlets are supplied in tank lorries ,which are calibrated by the weights and measures department of the state government.The calibration is done by first calibrating a smaller measure,say of 50 litre or 100 litre at weights and measure (W&M) depertment office and then calibrating the measures higher capacity,say 1000 litres or 2000 litres of oil storage locations with the smaller measures calibrated at W&M office earlier.You must be aware of the craze among all the high and mighty citizens of this country ,including politicians,business persons and all those who matter.The reason is quite simple.This business allows you scope to make quick bucks through various shortcuts.Delivering short in measure to the customer, adulterating the products with kerosene and other similar chemicals,taking advantage of frequent pre-announced price hikes are few of the routes to make fast bucks.The game is so wide spread and well established that all those who are entrusted with the job of thwarting these evil practices have abandoned their respective roles and decided to become willing partners to fill their own coffers of greed.The scale of distribution petroleum products is so large and extent of rot is so deep that it's humanly impossible for the corporations to stem the rot with the archaic and undependable technology, partners in crime goverment agencies and sheer lack of will of goverment to do anything to help the situation.The officials posted to man these locations are people from different regions of country generally not residents of the place of their postings.As these PSUs come under indirect intervention thru parliamentary committees and the concerned oil ministries,every official in the organization including the top role holders are under immense pressure to bow to the commands from those in power.Thus although all of the officials in the system are aware of the rot ,but they are unwilling to take cognizance of the issue because it may then force them to take a stand and face the wrath of powerful lobbies ,at times making them victims like Late Manjunath.So for them,the best course is to first ignore,if not them push it under carpet and if that doesnt suffice,make the weak among their collegues a scapegoat and move ahead.They keep looking for a new posting either thru promotion or transfer to avoid the situation.That too,if they themselves have not become willing partners in the rot.The culture is very simple-don't bring any problem to me which may make my position undefendable or you would be fixed by making a sacrificial scapegoat.So strong is this unsaid rule that anyone even thining of the contrary is hurriedly dubbed as insane or inefficient shirking responsibility.I am sure that there is nothing new in this case and many such tactics are in place elsewhere too.That's why even the Prime Mininster of the nation is forced to admit that a large chunk of developmental fund is being gobbled up by the middlemen.But so sever is the crisis that even he doesn't go beyond this rhetoric.

So whatever be the case,let us see how a corporation,a navaratna PSU of Govt. of India is being forced to bear the loss on account of the unfathomable greed of some mean individuals.For some years now one of the corporations took an agressive stand in the market by promising correct quality and quantity (Q&Q) to the customers.They followed their promise with specific initiatives to check frequent unperformance by their dealerships at retail outlet (RO) level.Earlier the game of adulteration & delivering short was very easy for the dealerships because of the archaic dispensing machines and quality monitoring devices.But of late,smart ones in the corpoation decided to go for ultra modern gadgets both at the RO level as well as at their laboratories to restrict the menace.The delivery mechanism at the storage location level more or less the same as earlier.Thus manipulations at RO level in Q&Q became rather difficult and to that extant the monitoring became easy with the increase in agencies checking the Q&Q norms at the RO including the consumers.The government introduced the system of marking the Public Distribution System Kerosene with chemicals ,which could be traced in the aduleterated fuels,even if the level of adulteration was abysmal.All this put too much of pressure on dealers' margin,who are in this bussiness not to work hard to earn their margins,but to make fast bucks.After all most of them have bribed their way thru the system to get their prized money making machine-a petrol pump.There a huge price difference between the price of PDS kerosene and petrol or diesel and adulterating the fuel with kerosene was time tested method to make quick bucks.But this marker system was hampering it badly.In fact,a few ROs were pulled up heavily on this account.The dealerships ganged up and put pressure on politicians,who were RO dealers themselves or were recipient of huge election funds from these dealers.It had its immediate effect.During a very short period,the whole scheme of marking kerosene was abandoned without ant explanation from anyone.The dealers thought that the battle is won,but they forgot that in the meantime the corporations had invested huge funds in upgrading their infrastructure at RO and laboratories.So the corporations were in position to detect their nefarious acts even now to a large extent.This was making them impatient as most of them are habituated of big margins in their business to support their luxurious lifestyles.The easier way was to attack the oil storage installations,where technology was still medieval and largely dependent on the accredit ion by state agencies.They made the W&M department their partners and got them to excess calibrate the vessels of their tank lorries so that they can carry more product than they pay for .Suppose a tank lorry is to be calibrated for carrying 20000 litres of product.Now thru manipulation of master measure and measures at storage locations which are used to calibrate the tank lorries ,they got the W&M people to mark the dip sticks used to check these tank lorries in such a way that even if they are being marked and certified to fill just 20000 litres,in actuality they would be carrying product in excess of 20000 litres.Thus the dealer will pay for just 20000 litres,but will take more than 20000 litres from the corporation.In short, fraudulently the tank lorries were excess calibrated.Now every litre of petrol roughly costs about 50+ rupees and Diesel costs 40+ rupees.So if a dealer is able to get his tank lorry excess calibrated by 100 litre (I have heard of cases of over-calibration by 200 litres),the gain is roughly 4000-5000 rupees.If the dealer is lifting 20 loads in a month,he is earning about 80000-100000 rupees just like that by cheating the corporation in league with the obliging govt. agency.It's easy to observe the discrepancy in calibration of the tank lorry by observing the filling pattern on the filling bays at storage location.Also,when the same TLs are calibrated at other oil terminals they are found excess calibrated.When they are sent to western region bridging locations for filling,they are reported over-calibrated there.Still,the companies are in no position either to stop this malpractice or to punish the guilty dealers as they are being backed to hilt by the obliging govt. agencies.The situation has become so farcical that the same W&M has calibrated the calibration towers differently thrice in a short span of six months,yet they say that all fault lies with the oil companies' facilities.This gives a much sought handle to the evil minded gang of dealerships.They are not only able to get away with the excess product,but they bring the whole distribution setup to its knees.Thus the corporation officials are pressurized and demoralized and the dealerships ride roughshod over them even in other matters.The willing media is brought in by the vested interests to rub the insult further.The seniors get away by putting up the blame upon the subordinates.The subordinates try to save their skin by writing long winding explanations for the product losses observed at the storage locations.The dealerships enjoy their ill gotten money and keep bullying the corporation even further.The malaise is so deep rooted and the dealerships are so powerful that leave apart any effort to punish the erring dealerships,the corporations are in the habit of recognizing such erring dealerships at the end of each financial year because these dealerships also become highest volume uplifters by then.Such is the state of affairs in oil companies and no body wants to take it up to a conclusive solution.Those who are idealist are looking for another Manjunath to highlight the case.But even the modus operandi of goons highlighted by Manjunath still continues.So there is no end in sight.Countries' resources are being looted by rapacious bunch of individuals.And the coporation officials are left scampering to save their loin cloth. And we all hope to become the world leaders by 2020 with such termites eating away at the roots of our nation!!!Nah yeh sahi business nahi hai yaar!!Nah nah,yeh toh business nahi kaha ja sakta hai bhai!!!

Human Life dwarfed by uncontrolled greed and disrespect for values in life

It was a very unfortunate day for Jodhpurites.They woke upto two shocking headlines-a leading property dealer found dead on railway tracks and the body of a newly married girl in twenties thrown near a highway.In the first case,the man was known so I delved a little longer this case.The man was a fairly successful bussinessman dealing in scores of bussiness including real estate,petrol pump,commercial vehicle dealership etc.Overall a man having billions of rupees bussiness empire.As the evidences are emerging,the possibilities of his having committed are getting stronger.And that is a very sad thing.He was man consumed by his passion to make money and that superseded all his concerns.I remember talking to him on many occassions on spirituality and purpose of his life.Everytime I found him tensed and losing his cool,I used to advise him a stronger dose of spirituality.But he was so busy in his bussiness that even though he appreciated my efforts to infuse spirituality in lives of people of Jodhpur,he always warded off my offer to him to take a step in spiritual direction.I really feel that I failed in endeavour to save one person.Had he taken to some basic learnings about life on the basis of the divine books of philosophy ,perhaps he would have desisted from taking this unthinkable step..

In the second case,a young life was wasted probably out of vengeance.A colssal loss of precious human life.But that makes me even more concerned and sensitive about taking my endeavour further to make human lives more enriched and valuable.Good Bye friend!God bless you despite the one ignoble chapter in the end.

The lady cop with a difference

I recently went to the famous shopping mall in the Kalptaru theatre area in Shastri Nagar at Jodhpur.I was there to do some quick purchase of groceries and vegetables.As I was segregating pieces of potatoes to be purchased a gentle and motherly voice whispered " no beta,don't segregate such potatoes as they are not good to cook.Then I looked up to see the source of that voice and I was up for a surprise.A lady police cop donning her uniform was volunteering these tips to me with a smile.Most of us think that police personnel are generally harsh and insensitive in their attitude.But here I saw some one ready to connect and empathize with general public.As I glanced at her,I was greeted with genuine motherly warmth and empathy.I was very pleasantly surprised to meet her and wished her all the best.I was so overcome with surprise that I couldn't remember to request for a snap with her,note the name from the lapel on her uniform or greet her formally.Next time I would be more careful.To the best of my memory,she perhaps was from RSAF and her name was Jyoti Bhatt.If any of you happen to meet her,please do congratulate her on her exemplary manners.

The good samaritan

I went to IIT Roorkie recently to meet my students spreading the message of thoughtful living in the campus through their seminars,workshops and interactive sessions among the inmates of the campus.And yes they are pursuing their own M.Tech from the same college.They were eager to see me there.I have been promising the visit since quite long yet it was still pending.So I decided to encourage them by being there personally and infuse myself with energy by spending some time among students.Everything went on fine about my visit except one thing,the return train was around 05.00 AM and in the name of public transport only cycle rickshaws were at hand in the campus.Station is about 25-30 minutes ride from there and a rickshaw was arranged to drop me off at the appointed time of departure.Somehow we got delayed in leaving the hostel and so very little time was left to reach the station in time.

While sending me off the rickshawallah was told about paucity of time and need to reach faster.Roorkie is a small place with all the important landmarks and buildings of the town in close proximity.So I was enjoying the serene , natural and ethnic ambiance of the city at that glorious hour on my way to the station.Suddenly,I realized that my rickshaw is moving unusually fast and the gentleman driving it was paddling feverishly taking swift turns in the lanes,at times even dark.I had certain suspicions about his whole behaviour.Ever since we were together,he hasn't exchanged even one word with me.His whole face and body was covered with a thick blanket.He was not taking the main roads exactly during the journey.He seemed in unusual hurry to reach some where.I decided to make him take notice of my presence by posing a question to him, "what's your name bhai?" He didn't pay attention to my words.I reiterated ," Aapka naam kya hai bhai?".This time he chose to reply me ," Nooruddin Khan". "Yahan kitne dino se rickshaw chalate ho?" . He maintained his speed of paddling the rickshaw ,yet replied after a pause for a while "four years".I was about to shoot my third question,but he reached me to the station by that time.I was still unable to see his face,but impressed with the speed at which he drove me to the station.But I couldn't stop myself from shooting my volley of questions before parting from him.He was amused to see some unknown person showing so much interest in him.He replied to my all queries so shyly, his eyes avoiding my curious eyes,"Saab,if I hadn't paddled so fast,you wouldn't have been here in 10 minutes.I chose to take the bylanes because they saved time.Train chhut jati toh hostel wale bhaiya ko mein kya jawab deta?phir aap unke guest hain toh mere bhi guest huye na?" I was hit with his plain and uncomplicated way of stating the facts and his emotional commitment to my objective in reaching there in time.Being born and brought up in metros,we often have experience of being taken for a ride by the auto or the taxiwallah,but here was a man who made my objective as his own goal, even at the cost of great personal discomfort.I was washed off my feet by his genteel demeanour,geniality and sincerity.I face to face with genuine, humane and compassionate facet of life after a long time.And last but not the least,here too was a person ,who was a khan ,but not a terrorist.When I requested him for a photograph,he felt a bit shy,but obliged to make me happy.I felt great with this simple but powerful experience of my life.

Shahrukh Khan laments the state of Hockey in India

There was a media outcry about the state of hockey players in India and so called "revolt" of Indian hockey players against the authorities.A lot of people including film stars,politicians,bureaucrats,authorities,coach and media were seen taking moral high grounds while commenting on this topic.It's not that the situation of Indian hockey is very healthy and the image is suffering because of irresponsible comments of these people.The situation indeed is deplorable,but the people responsible for this condition are the people , seen to sympathise with the cause of our hockey players.That makes it ludicrous.How insensitive can we grow?Don't we know why there is so much of dearth of funds in hockey today.One thing is that the wages and bonuses of players are pending and the second thing is that there is hardly any money in any other sport apart from cricket,tennis or car racing.

Why is it so?But before we discuss on that lets give credit to Movie Actor Shahrukh Khan for having voiced his concern in favour of players.So have ex-bureaucrats like KPS gill.The moot point is that why is the inflow of money so low in these games.Hold on!Don't start shooting at the TV channels for all the problems.It hardly helps when politicians usurp the administration of these sports for power,money and prestige without letting the professionals use their skills in this department.India has become a peculiar democracy,where in the name of democracy ,a bunch of about 5000 people are dictating the terms for more than 130 million.It hardly helps when media keeps on highlighting only a particular sport.The reason they say is because India generally is a winner in that particular sport only.But I don't remember anyone highlighting any other sport even when there were wins in those sports too.It's as if market decides to highlight any particular theme and everyone starts aligning with that theme.Thus the agenda is being set by the market and not the fact that hockey is our national game.It also doesn't help when film stars and businessmen queue up to prop up a particular sport too.Thus you can see that all those who are responsible for the state of hockey in India today are busy giving opinion about it.Had Mr. Khan really felt concerned,he would have put his money behind a national hockey team and not a city based cricket team.When a common man laments for a cause,he does because of an inherent incapability.Given the resources and capabilities, that common man would have stood for the cause unhesitatingly.But the authorities,businessmen,film stars and politicians have made a show of this lamentation even while they are busy making money whatever way they can.This is wrong.If the politician is concerned he should make way for ex-players.If the businessmen and stars are concerned,they should put their money in the game.If the media is concerned it should focus on other sports like hockey too.And lets stop playing this blame game trying to befool the aspirations of innocent public.

Ardh kukutti nyaya......(the half hen logic..)

Yesterday,I came across an interesting kind of news item in the press.An 85 years old political leader with eminent stature was being accused of having fathered an illegitimate child ,who was now in the court to seek his legal status as a legitimate son and to sound a warning to all such future wrong doers.The interview was on with the mother and the alleged son only as the the accused politician refused to talk to the press on this matter.So far it was routine.
The most interesting aspect of this interview was the complete agreement among the interviewer,the interviewee mother-son duo on the reason for this wholly unwanted mess.All of them thought that this was an outcome of the immoral activity of the politician.I can pity with the grown up son ,who might have faced several embarrassing moments in his life due to this unsavoury aspect of his life.Even though ,he had no role in making himself illegitimate,he was the worst sufferer in the given circumstances.The politician was hiding away from public,as any one who was party to such scandal would do.Moreover,he has hardly been through with the sex scandal during his last tenure as governor.The mother was singing the song of being innocent in the whole episode and trying to sound dignified by standing by her son in the name of truth.The media was busy increasing the TRPs by asking tantalizing questions and sitting on judgement on these three characters.None of them were serious about the real issues behind the case beyond their immediate concern.Thus they also were as much guilty to a similar degree as the a accused politician.Now let us analyze the happening in little more detail.
It wasn't a forcible act by the politician.So,it will mean that both the politician and the female were as guilty of an illegitimate liaison.The child was an outcome of an illegitimate liaison,so whatever incongruities evident now are on account of irresponsible conduct of both of them.The son is being foolishly made to believe that all this was due to the mistake of the politician.The women has done one courageous act and that is to take care of the child so far.But that doesn't absolve her of her sordid ill-conceived deeds.The politicians acts are certainly irresponsible and reprehensible.Those ,who can not keep their wayward senses in check, have no right to be in a leadership role.But ,who makes them the leader..the public.This fight for justice is on since last 15 years and the leader had been holding a host of important posts as chief minister,central minister and governor in the interim period.So when people of this repute get a chance to be shown the door by the public during polls,why does the public become so generous towards them.So long as the public would be ready to accommodate citizens of these murky values ,the political parties would be under compulsion to accommodate them.And till then such illegitimate children would be order of the day.

So,where shall we move from here?It doesn't help to go by the half hen logic,where we accept the part of the hen giving egg, because we like receiving eggs,but refuse to take care of part having the mouth of the hen because then we have to take responsibility to feed it.But can the egg be produced without feeding the mouth?All of us want a society free of illegitimate children,but can we achieve the goal by avoiding the real issue of illegitimate association between opposite sex?The boy may think that mother is goddess and the father is Satan,the mother may think that she is an angel and the politician is a devil,the media may keep raking moolah by selling the sensational news ,but none of them are going the help the cause of the society at large.Each of them have to be sincere and objective and responsible towards the socity in whatever they pursue.That's what I think.What do you say???

Where shall I begin again

Many a times ,in our lives, we are caught in this same confusion that the heading suggests.But much more important than where and when,is the fact that we must make a begining.So long as we are willing to make a fresh start,we can be sure to be counted as evolving human being.There is nothing like end of the road,if we choose to take the right road in our life.The reason for starting this blog was to give my thoughts a platform to share with others.So long as the human beings exist,society exists and so long as the society exists, the desire to share,imbibe and disseminate will be there in the realm of thoughts.The relevance of this blog is as strong even today as it used to be in the past.After all,our thoughts today would be the foundation of the future society.Can we deny our fur future society the very foundation??No??
So come on .Why shall we spend another moment debating on where shall we make a begining.The better thing would be to make the begining right away!and here I go with the first post of this year.Keep sharing the goodness all of us have with us.

Happy New Year 2010

It has been many weeks since I wrote in my blog.Almost a year and half has gone by.And that has brought me to another startling realization that blogging relevantly on regular basis is a serious business and not just a good timepass as I tend to view it generally.Lots of things have happened in between.i really wanted to share all that with all of you,but a sudden swing in my schedule in office made all that impossible.You guessed it right!Seniors changed in office and the new set of people holding these chairs are a product of current breed.Dying to move ahead in life even at the cost of life.And no,this is no overstatement at all.What would you think of your office,when you are made to spend 14 hours a day on regular basis week after week.

Anyway,I don't want to spoil the mood of celebration of welcoming the new year along with you.Although,I really don't see anything new about 2010,I still will wish you a very healthy,blissful and successful new year.Please be very sensitive about your health because that alone lets you be what really.Everything and everyone is able to relate to you meaningfully just because you are healthy.The day you are not healthy,you will understand the value of these golden set of letters "HEALTH".

Do spend lots of time,even at the cost of remaining a little less successful,with your family especially with your elders and children.Your spouse is able to get your attention by virtue of the proximity he or she enjoys being your spouse.The children are our future and are new entrants to this complex world,who need your care,understanding and support at every step to develop to their full potential.And elders are the bricks upon which we have built our castle of future,so how can we afford to undermine the love,strength and support they have been giving us unconditionally all these years even at the cost of great personal sacrifices.We simply are incapable of reciprocating that degree of commitment.At least we can recognize their monumental contribution in our lives by at least sharing some good and supportive moments with us.We, at times, are in hurry to achieve whatever we are aiming for in life postpning rest of the things ,for say tomorrow.But ,we often forget that the elders are in their farewell stage of life,so they may not be around in life ,when we do get some time finally,if we get at all.Strange no!you always thought that you were trying to make it big in life to make your parents feel proud,least realizing that in the process you got so carried away that you simply didn't have time to look back even when they needed you most.And the same is true for our children too.You tend to belive that you are working so hard to make sure that your children lived a happy and contented life later when you aren't around them.But have you ever pondered on the fact that you aren't giving them any time at all to start living a life enriched with human values, emotion,confidence,support.So if they are being the chance to develop into a strong human beings now when you are around,what is the guarantee that they would understand the meaning of life at all,leave apart happy or unhappy..contented of frustrated.So life has provided you with another opportunity to review your life and make good on all the lost opportunities.



This and all..and with lots of good wishes...I wish you and your family ,all the very best for the year 2010.