Mysorean

I am sure you have come across this comparison in your email forwards. Some brilliant person compared the hurricane that hit New Orleans and the rains that lashed Mumbai. Here’s how it looks:

Inches of rain in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina … 18
Inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th)… 37.1

Population of New Orleans … 484,674
Population of Mumbai …12,622,500

Deaths in New Orleans within 48Hours of Katrina… 100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48Hours of Katrina… 37

Number of People to be evacuated in New orleans… Entire City… Wohhh
Number of People to be evacuated in Mumbai… 10,000

Cases of Shooting & Violence in New Orleans… Countless
Cases of Shooting & Violence in Mumbai… NONE

Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans… 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach Mumbai… 12hours

Status 48Hours later… New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army & electricity
Status 48Hours later… Mumbai is back on its feet and is business as usual

USA… World’s most developed nation
India… Third world country

Oopsss…Did I get the last fact wrong???

Someone wanted to make a comparison. Good thought. Go ahead. But getting the “India” perspective into the situation is out-of-context.

There’s so much of destruction in USA. If there’s nothing that we can do, we can atleast refrain from using the situation to mock at USA. I love India. I don’t particularly have any positive feelings about the USA, but still, it was insensitive.

As a person, I make the option of being sensitive or insensitive. I wouldn’t like to run down a country when there’s no case for doing so. It was in bad taste. We should pray for the well-being of those affected by the hurricane at this point of time. And not resort to forwarding such dumb emails.

The Hindu quotes in an article:

This time it’s not just the police; academicians too have joined the brigade and launched a campaign against tight clothes, jeans, skirts and T-shirts.

Banning cell-phones is one thing but asking students what to wear is another issue. It does seem fair to ask students to switch off their mobile phones during class hours as it does indeed disturb academics. Not many students seem to have an objection to this.

But enforcing a dress code on students is moral policing, students say.

“The ban on sleeveless tops, tight-fit outfits and jeans clearly seems to target girls,” says a postgraduate journalism student. “It is not only sexist but a completely old-fashioned male chauvinistic attitude resurfacing,” she adds, almost enraged.

During engineering, the dress code used to be a T-shirt, One pair of Blue jeans [Yes! Only blue! Why? Because sky is blue! I don't know yar!] & bathroom slippers. Only during the first year [that too because of ragging], would we ever wear formals [Yeah! With those open cuffs and slippers].

I absolutely cannot relate to this rule from Anna University. Considered to be one of the top 10 colleges in India (according to one the recent surveys by India Today) , and one of the top 30 in Asia.

Why can’t students be made to learn that they should not wear ‘indecent’ dresses? Why does the University feel that the students it has selected after so many entrance barriers don’t have the basic dressing etiquette? [Getting into Anna University is the toughest through TNPCEE]

In this age of MMSes coming out of schools, this move is a reverse gear. Instead of educating people on the right and wrong[What else are educational institutes for?], we are trying to implement more unimplementable rules. There’s an age-old saying, “Don’t judge the book by its cover”. By wearing formal clothes, you are not going to make students study and concentrate better. You ought to teach better. Somebody needs to give this funda to those authorities at Anna University.

Students, as a group, never bother anyone unless they are needled like this. Let them be the way they are. Help them realise what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. Don’t teach them by force. There are other methods too. Try them first. Students are the future of this country. Their energy must be harnessed towards positive things than distracting them with such dumb rules. [As if there weren't enough distractions already!]

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Guru Devo Maheswara;
Gurur Sakshat Para Brahma Thasmai Sri Gurave Namaha

Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Maheswara. Consider Guru as your everything. In this world, everything is a manifestation of Divinity. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma (verily all this is Brahman). All are the embodiments of Divinity. In fact, all that you see is nothing but the Divine Cosmic Form (Viswa Virat Swarupa). [From divine discourse]

Today is “Teachers’ Day”. Whatever is good in me, is because of my teachers. I have been privileged to have some great teachers teach me.

My teachers were remarkable simply because I was so unremarkable. Teaching me is not an easy job. I can ask so many stupid and arrogant questions that it would put off any self-respecting individual. But my teachers were not ordinary individuals. They had the ability to transform personalities.

Lets start with my school teachers: (We used to call them “aunty” and “uncle” as a mark of respect and intimacy. I consider CFTRI as my school because I remember very less of my earlier school “Srividya”. )

• Aunty Saramma was my first science teacher. If I ever managed to even familiarise myself with Biology it was because of her.
• Aunty Vijaya was my first kannada teacher. She had predicted, at a time when I had just started learning kannada, that I would be very good at it. It was her confidence that today the only language I am most comfortable with is “Kannada”.
• Aunty Rukmini was my Hindi teacher. That she did a splendid job of teaching me the fundamentals is evident in the way I am able to change dialects within our National language.
• Aunty Prabha was my most prominent Social studies teacher. Well, she excellently taught us Geography, History and Civics. But I loved her most for the way in which she treated us like her own kids.
• Aunty Raina was my first mathematics teacher. Today Mathematics is my favourite subject. Need I say more?
• Aunty Sujaya was the headmistress of the School for the entire length of my school-life. She was this exceptionally strong person who had the ability to spot talent in a person. And also, by far, I haven’t seen a better English teacher! [An interesting incident about Aunty Sujaya. When I had applied for admission into CFTRI school for my fourth standard, she had refused on certain grounds that we shall discuss later. And on the day when I went to receive my TC (Transfer Certificate), I clearly remember Aunty Sujaya telling my dad, "Aditya was among our best students. We will be losing a bright student". I never knew she thought so well of me till then.]
• Aunty Rajni Mary Mathew was my Mathematics teacher during my high school. She was an intelligent lady and knew how to get the right things into the student’s head! As a result, my scores in mathematics during high-school was always above 90%.
• Aunty Atmajyoti was my first sanskrit teacher. She was one person who had infinite patience. We tested it to the extent that she had shed tears one day in class. Today, when I feel the need to learn sanskrit from the roots, I miss her a lot!
• Aunty Veena Murthy was my tenth standard class teacher and I liked her a lot. She was very frank and to the point. I have always liked such people. She used to teach us Biology and English.

And last but not the least:

• Uncle Ranga was our Physical Education teacher. He is the “Grand Old Man of CFTRI School”. He could coach you on any game. And is a person of rare character and spirit. He has practically moulded generations of CFTRI students into the good human beings that we are today. He was loved by one and all. And you are sorely missed Sir!

I used to go for tuitons for mathematics and science (to get that state rank!) to one Mr. Pradeep. Great man! He used to teach with so much of patience and focussed so much on hardwork that I picked up the habit of revising mathematics by way of working out the exercises given in the text book over and over again. He had presented me with a “Hero Pen” with which I used to write my engineering exams. I passed my inter exam with the same Hero Pen Sir!

There were so many great teachers during my intermediate stint at Hyderabad. They were just so perfect with their subject that you would at times sit and wonder,”How on earth does he solve these problems in 5 lines of work?”. Physics problems from Irodov, Halliday & Resnick were all solved in a matter of minutes.

There was one Mr. Suryanarayan who was a Don in the World of Calculus. His style of teaching was so simple and clear that I became a fan of Calculus. He used to be called M1 at college. [It was a system to label teachers as M1, M2, so on in SRM Junior college/ Special Coaching Centre]

There are so many teachers who influenced me and my way of being during my engineering and MBA days. Here’s a snapshot of a few of them:

• Dr. T. R. Seetharam [TRS] taught us Thermodynamics for a single semester and I could sense the control he had over the subject. It was complete. [If I passed the subject effortlessly scoring 65, it was all his 'anugraha'] His control over students was much more. He commanded respect naturally. So much that one of my seniors annd close friend, went and fell at his feet before he left for the US to do his MS. That was something even I wanted to do, but never got a chance because TRS retired during my pre-final year.
• Mr. R. Dattakumar is our friend, philosopher and guide. Placement officer of NIE. Extremely cordial with the students. Demands respect when he enters class. A quality guru! Teaches with innovative methods. Doesn’t give grace marks [Like other lecturers, but still ranks among the favourite lecturers at NIE]. His internal tests are the toughest because they are practically oriented. He tests your understanding and not your ability to recall! That’s why I probably never scored well in his tests! ;-)
• Dr. T. V. Subramaniam [TVS] was our professor during MBA days. He was a king of subjects that were related to Supply Chain Management and Production! He was an expert on business strategy and was a consultant to various bigwigs of the corporate world. He once told us a story of how he was invited by Manpreet Brar to deliver a talk during Ranbaxy’s supplier meet. He had apparently introduced himself as a “student” of management in his letter to him. TVS is approx 80 years old and I am yet to meet a more learned man than him in the field of SCM. If he considers himself as a student, then the others can only claim to be teachers by designation!
• Mr. Ramanujam Sridhar was our professor for Advertising and Public Relations. His knowledge of the subject came from his tremendous experience of being in the industry for a long time. He runs a successful agency now. His concepts were clear. And without any doubt the best in the business. He maintains excellent relationships with his students and is still in touch with me! I like him for that!
• Mr. Tarun Kochhar taught me performance management in a way that, though it seems as if I cannot remember most of it, I am confident I can easily design the PMS of an organization based on his inputs. His fundas, as they call it in the B-school, were clear. And he made sure we enjoyed throughout the length of his session. He would sense when we were getting tired and would give us a break. An ability to switch professions is something that’s rarely found, but Tarun (as he prefers to be called) has switched from HR to Sales to Marketing to Brand Consulting with equal ease.

These are some of the teachers of mine who have touched my life in a way that it has changed for the better since then. I am grateful to each of them and also to those who I have not mentioned here for helping me learn. More important is the fact that all of you taught me “how to learn”. This thanksgiving note is long overdue and is written with every word meaning what is said. Thank you!

There was supposed to be a post on “Character building Religion” on September 2nd. But I was unable to do that. Reasons can be many. Lets not get into them. Apologies for the miss!

I am suffering from a severe attack of sinusitis for the past couple of days. No idea why it came back after so many years of hibernation. I didn’t touch anything cold or did anything that could give rise to sinusitis. Wierd disease this!

Nevertheless, I joined a Yoga class. It’s going to run daily morning from 6AM to 9AM upto September 17th. This will teach me ‘Shakti Chalana kriya’ and ‘Shoonya’ meditation.

On a natural state itself, It’s being really tough to wake up early in the mornings. And now, with this sinusitis, I just hope I manage to get to the class in time and get there daily!

I shall definitely update the blog everyday. I hope you will excuse me if I miss out on a couple of days owing to health problems. [That's called anticipatory bail!!]

The posts on the RK Math have not come up because we had an orientation session of the Yoga class yesterday from 6PM to 8PM. And that clashed with the timing of the discourse at RK Math. Let’s see if I can request my friend for some notes on the discourse and update all of us on it.

This sinusitis blocks everything off. You feel as if your face is inside a high-pressure chamber which could burst any minute! Let me recover from this. I am unable to understand how and from where I could catch this disease in Chennai! Wish me! [Good time to gather sympathy!]

Before we end, I should tell you that the Yoga teacher has promised to cure my Sinusitis through this class. I am hoping it happens. Watch this space for such miracles!

Sloka 19:
(Continued)

The knowledge of “Atman” is called “Paramartha”. If we desire to see God, we struggle to see God. How do we do it? The tremendous desire to know God should come into the mind. Once this comes in, desire for petty things go off.

Neither anything nor any person exists apart from the “Brahman”. It’s the truth of the “Brahman”. You must be able to see God in samadhi and outside world also. There are many in the outisde world shrouded under the cover of names and forms. What does it matter if a person is from a certain caste, certain religion, etc.? This is a higher state of mind. Hence Swami Vivekananda called Americans as “Brothers and Sisters” during a time when people from overseas were called “untouchables” or vaishyas!

You should be able to see God with both open and closed eyes. God is inside and outside as well. As long as we refuse to recognize the “Atman” of other people, we haven’t achieved a higher state of mind. Unless we have realized the highest truth we will keep coming back to this world. He that sees many in this world of one is still in ignorance.

(As told by Swami Gautamananda in the discourse on “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” Chapter 4, Section 4, on 28th August, Sunday at RK Math, Mylapore, Chennai)

We shall continue this discourse in the early part of next week.

Tomorrow: Character building Religion