KAHIHI

One of the key areas in the banking sector, where banks have to give proper attention, is the human resource. As banking becomes more sophisticated, there is a need to improve the skill set of the bank employees.
The Government has set up a committee to look into the HR issues of state-owned banks with a view to improve HR policies.
Getting people with adequate skill and knowledge is the need of the hour.
The Indian Banks' Association has finalised a scheme for common recruitment of personnel for nationalised banks.
With the cooperation of Indian Banks' Association the Government had launched a Central Electronic Registry earlier this year for recording mortgages. It would help check frauds of multiple borrowing against the same property and help in the growth of the market and the banking industry.
These are some of the versions published in different newspapers of the speech given by the finance minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee recently.
But Baba I’ll miss my bus, I said to my father while he was withdrawing cash from a big branch of a big bank. A big counter divided the customers and the bankers. I couldn’t see anything beyond the counter.
Don’t worry. I’ll get the cash before your bus arrives or else as your school is nearby from here, I’ll reach you to the school.
He had a Lambretta scooter then.
A handsome man was working on the ledgers standing behind the ledger keepers making entries of debits and credits in red cover heavy ledgers, triple the size of laptops in width and double of height. I could see when my father lifted me to show how the work goes on.
Don’t worry young girl. You’ll get your school bus. A noise came from behind the ledger keepers. He was the branch manager. The branch was heavily loaded with customers, proving the popularity of the branch.
What do you like to have as a fun maker chew?
Peppermints. (Cadburys and Amuls had not been the craze then)
What flavour?
Orange, I answered.
Go into the cabin and collect as many as you want. They are on the table. It’s my table. Don’t worry.
The watchman loaded with gun having more-stiff-than British upper lip and hardnosed, though looking fearsome smiled and opened the cabin door with a fractional smile before the movie-hero like manager threw a look at him.
I looked at my father. He was smiling approvingly. They knew each other.
I collected three peppermints from a saucer on his table and came out chewing one.
This amazing man was handling how many things at a time!
He may prove to be a good father too, my father whispered to me when we were out of the premises after collecting the cash.
This is the story of around bank nationalization days i.e. 1969.
After 42 years and 10 months I recollected the incident after watching and reading the captioned quotes of the finance minister at a banking function in Mumbai.
Indira Gandhi nationalized the banks and brought them to the doors of the common man, a necessity then; thereby elevating the standard of the citizens at the lower strata, especially many of the engineers and engineering diploma holders who spent their parents’ already insufficient means and were about to face unemployment. They could own their initially small scale and then medium scale industries.
The credit undeniably goes to Indira Gandhi.
Globalisation trend knocked the door after that. Computerization became the necessity and as if to countermand it, bankers started behaving like babus in the government.
On the flashback of the above incidence a current topic:
Though not so as big as the one I quoted earlier, I now have an account in an air conditioned branch.
The bank now has its own rules along with a few permitted by government under a ticket of autonomy. The officer concerned was not even able to manage four or five customers he was facing, he struggled. As the counter dividing the customer and banker was removed and a simple table took its place, one has to face the eyes of the barking fellow. He didn’t know the fixed deposit interest rates that kept changing twice a month. Difficult, agreed. But neither was he having paper sheets handy nor was he able to save the chart on the screen. He was shuffling the papers and then getting up from his chair to whisper into his colleagues’ ears and coming back, for what reasons nobody could surmise.
(I remembered at this moment the Tony Curtis slapstick comedy of 1965, Boeing Boeing, hoodwinking with three air hostesses of three different airlines acting to be loving each of them to the extent of making them feel that they are at home but fumbling when state-of the-art aircrafts are put in the services thereby bringing all of them at the same time in Paris. And then Jerry Lewis carrying the burden taking his position!)
Fed up watching his shuffling with the FDRs, after half an hour I went to manager’s cabin. There wasn’t anybody else. Even so he looked uneasy. I told him my difficulty and to look into the matter. The man was deputed to London for five years and just back.
Lo and behold, the man didn’t know how to operate computer. That was the secret behind his getting uneasy. He needed a clerk to help him.
At least this office is ditto a replica of a government office where babus are provided with a platoon of helpers.
And this man according to their new pay revision is drawing about fifty thousand rupees a month plus, plus a clerk of say twenty five thousand.
So Mr. Mukherjee these people too have got their contribution to the profit and loss figures and NPAs you mentioned. The young generation may be efficient. Now root out this age old parasites that would be sucking the profit for a few more years of the banking tree.
Cosmetic changes like renaming a Human Resources Development (HRD) to a Human Resources Management (HRM) won’t improve things. Politicians are in the habit of presenting old schemes in new packing.
The bank heads are waiting for your orders obediently, Sir.

Kith and kin feel entering their hypothesized heaven

It was the Christmas time and Santa was bound to be around the corner. It was the time to go wishing for gifts from the white-bearded man. But we have to behave good for that.

Perhaps, the name at the bottom in Santa’s list might be that of Julian Assange, co-founder of the whistle-blower website Wikileaks. A man cursed upon right from the most powerful man on earth, the President of America, protested against by those fighting for privacy rights, branded as a terrorist by Sarah Palin, and still among the most admired men. He is a dark knight, the people’s choice for the Times Person of the Year, the messenger.

Standing for all that is good in the world, and hunted down by half the governments, he is a man we were waiting for, a man who stands up for the underdogs. Built on principles and ethics, an intriguing personality with a great philosophy behind his mottos, this man is courage personified.

A young Julian Assange was a part of a hacker group that had one of its mottos as share information. Perhaps a little inquisitiveness, personal experience and a strong sense of right and wrong has made this man we know today. Being one of the winners of Amnesty award and “one of the most influential person” he is still humble. A brain of unparalleled genius is transforming the now rotten field of journalism.

Greenday, the punk rock band asked the world, “Do you know your enemy?” and we didn’t till then. But today when the very basis of democracy is shattered by the bulk of secrets kept from the public we do realize who the enemy is. It is the regime, the very government that we elect and today Wikileaks has called for a change in this regime. The regime which wants to stay by covering their schemes, the wars they got into, the loss in those wars, is brought to open by these messengers. Julian Assange and his people revolted against the honor to obey, they brought down the silence which had been our enemy for so long. The new era for internet freedom has begun and this massive power of the internet is taming all those power-hungry politicos and bringing to the public all the dirty little secrets. 

This simple man, with very simple and straight philosophy, has showed to us the real face of the world’s most powerful democracy and the notorious secrets of other countries. A self-taught hacking expert and a computer-whiz, he is a revolution in the field of journalism, the press. The fourth pillar of democracy which sways public opinion in any direction, was till now a tool used by the governments to mould facts the way they want. We knew, the facts that we saw were not true, we knew there was also the “Other Side of the Story” but we stood silent. When incidents like 26/11 happened we thought we had enough of this silence. We rose up in violence and brought this government to senses that not always would we accept your facts. And this violence is the energy we seek now to bring reform. Wikileaks gave us channel to let this violence flow, a way to ask the government “what’s the truth?”

News supported with documents and material to prove the truth, is the new face of journalism. The sources are hidden but the documents echo the truth. The methods to acquire the documents are known yet “fool-proof”. And all this is the genius of one simple man. The power will now move in our hands when the foreman of control will be brought down, when his effigy will be burned.

But still one question lingers in the mind. Is it ethical?

Is it ok to steal the secrets of a government? And the answer lies in the fact, if we elect the people up there, we give them our trust votes then they should be entrust us about the annual spending, the wars and the losses suffered, the schemes carried out at international level. If not then the Heroes are waiting to spill the beans. It’s a choice upon the regime up there to decide. Either trust us with every step you take or acknowledge the fact that we do know who our enemy is.

Recently, I came across an outwardly fragile and ill man, an aam aadmi, with inherent mental guts.

Weather being comfortably cold, it is a touring time in south peninsula. Highways are jammed with thousands of public, private buses and vehicles – a good sign of financial progress the ruling party is boasting about.

It was a lavish seven-seater on highway number 17. Little after crossing Panvel, a dhaba appeared. It was 8.30 p.m. The vehicle driver got down for his dinner. He was atypical. Unlike other drivers, generally with an expected look of having it from the hirers of the vehicle, this driver took his seemingly usual corner. His confidence while marching towards the table made it apparent.

He ordered his pint and started his evening session with an added confidence.

Our aam aadmi who had hired the vehicle didn’t approve the act. What we do at such times? Keep quiet? Discard the behavior?

This bold aam aadmi took out the visiting card of the two-car-fleet owner and rang the office from his cell phone. He narrated the story and asked to order the overconfident and apparently victorious highway sarathi of the vehicle for a retreat. The Information Technology & Telecom revolution benefit.

The sarathi with his unyielding face was initially reluctant to accept the defeat. However, he finally succumbed to his master’s orders.

Further story in a nutshell is common. The liberalization has liberalized few people in strategic positions more than others. They earn money in excess and finding difficult to cope, invest in such adventures without thinking whether it’s worthwhile or not.

Such kind of miniscule transport business with no worries for the returns or carelessness about expansion is always leading to loss as one has to hand it over to the other man who can’t be under anyone’s control and vigil. There are several possibilities of parting your money by under filling of petrol, repairing costs, thefts, imaginary bribery amounts and toll. Forget the death toll in case of drunken driving. Highway laws are different than the written ones, one has to experience himself.

The tour operators of this kind may have sought all the permissions necessary. But how can one assure the behaviour of the driver on the highway? And who is responsible of the mishaps in such cases?

Or whether we have to spend this life like the kind of deers in the jungle scared of the tigers and lions every moment on these shoddy highways that our rulers have constructed?

This man has shown the courage. Everybody can’t do that. And why everybody should do it?

Such kind of careless behaviour has led to accidents causing deaths a few times of the worshippers visiting religious places with a faith in their minds that the deity would provide them a happy life ahead!

This is an irony.

Initially I was not much enthusiastic of the taxi services of two new fleets, Meru and Easy Cab, as being carried away by the above kind of impression. But recently they have changed my opinion. The taxis are present in your porch dot at time. Their preconditions are well defined. The drivers are well behaved and in between the fleet owners’ representatives keep on enquiring about the status of the travel and finally your feedback specifically about behaviour of the drivers and the time schedule.

I hope they keep up the spirit and their upcoming small followers also do the same, liberalizing us from that Stone Age fear of the deers.

Sunk into the scams the ruling party is patting itself for the financial achievements constantly; their two leaders’, party and executive, mouths shut and paralysed during the session time though! It’s the time they take a lesson or two from the of aam aadmi of the above kind and behave with firmness when the scam scum is visible everywhere else.

At such a time a little care and concern shown for common people if exhibited by the rulers may appease us like that of the fleet.

Hinjewadi, a large land mass made of farms, hillocks, mountains, and greenery all around, has witnessed staggering growth in last 6-7 years. The property prices have gone up 300 times. A farmer at one time who hailed his bullock cart as his pride, today drives Boleros, Scorpios, Fords – plurals because a single farmer owns and has the capacity to maintain multiple vehicles. The only greenery or the green shades you can see today are the green paints, if at all used, on the exteriors of the constructions that have sprouted like a swarm of locust on the same farmlands.

Jai Ho IT, Information Technology or simply said Software, Computers et al.

Hinjewadi and the surrounding areas are now thickly populated with IT professionals, an elite mass enjoying the pride that banking professionals enjoyed once upon a time. By elite I mean, one who doesn’t care how much is spent and being ignorant of the fact that they are the biggest contributors to the prevailing inflation, at least in Hinjewadi and surrounding areas – one kg of tomato in a near remote area costs Rs. X, the same will cost Rs. X+2 in an area where IT professionals reside; just because vendors think IT guys are rich, and also because IT guys don’t bargain, it’s against their pride to negotiate.

Yes, it does sound foolish.

While this habit of IT professionals does agitate me, I might still pardon them for negotiation is skill, and not everyone can master it. However, what stirs me up ecstatically is that these professionals who pledge to work “for the logic”, “by the logic”, many a times go “off the logic”.

Once a beautiful, peaceful pensioner’s paradise has now turned into a mess full of traffic, pollution. While the advent of IT in Pune has kept India shinning, the residents of are left whining. I have heard many lament about “amchya velela hey asa nhavta” (it wasn’t like this during our times). I will explain.

Reaching Hinjewadi IT Park requires you to cross a bridge, if you are coming from Wakad or Aundh. That the traffic chokes at the ends of the bridge requires no logic to understand. Also it is exciting and despicable of course to see that a bridge has been built perpendicular to the Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore highway, imagine there is a signal on a national highway. I don’t understand which engineer’s (again a class that takes pride in being logic and calculations maestro) analysis and implementation that is.

Now these IT guys flock to office in the morning and are rushing home in the evening. Everyone is in a hurry. Thus begins overtaking. Bikers are experts in this (Pune has also been known for its two wheeler population), they don’t leave a narrowest gap in which they don’t creep in, perhaps they can even ride their two wheelers on Shilpa Shetty’s curvy narrow waist. In the angst and the quest to find gaps, each one tries to get into the opposite lane thus blocking the traffic coming from opposite direction. A long serpentine queue progresses then on their side. It gets real chaotic on the middle of the bridge from where neither can you take a U turn nor can you jump off the bridge. In the haste to save few minutes, hours are wasted in that traffic congestion. But nobody understands this logic. No one wants to follow the traffic rules or the lane discipline. And all this by the same IT professionals who when in foreign countries (onsite) follow minutest of the rule. However, as soon as they land in India, discipline shreds off, logic is dumped in the trash bin, and hypocrisy creeps in.

“Oh it’s so pathetic in India. Go and see in that country, how everything is perfect, no traffic, no pollution,” they crib sitting in the car on the same bridge on which they had once tried to overtake and now are spitting out gargles of Bisleri water.

Chidambaram’s ‘saffron terror’ has scared him and the Congress too, though he is putting a show of bravery. He has thrown the weight of his difficult-to-shoulder phrase on others, as his wont is; presently on Digvijay Singh, saying that patent of the phrase is not with him. That’s sufficient to prove that he can neither create patentable products nor can he make a proper use if they exist.

Lawyers don’t make good “quotable-quoters”. Take the top five lawyers in India and you’d realize.
 
The reason is simple. The inborn arrogance, fused in or developed among them makes them feel that they are also the “lords of words”. They nurture a false secret ego that they could win the cases connected with words. It’s because they take any issue as the cause and fight for that.

Language and words that shape a language have to be handled with care, not rough hand (foul mouth in the context) but soft tongue.

Politicians have the history to make good quotes, like Winston Churchill, John Kennedy, Indira Gandhi and like. However, they were far away politicians from the present ones.

Nowadays, all similar thinking minds are making efforts to hone their word power. Small minds too, think alike! They however do not know that they require copywriters for that. Some semi-buddu politicians know that!

In case of ‘saffron terror’ they have lined up for the comments in the order of their weight.

Sharad Pawar, the weightiest of the politician threw the first colour. He is a politician connected with green the most. He moves with or makes them move with him the green revolutionists and the portfolio he is in charge of has mainly the colour green shade.

He may argue on that saying wheat, maze are not green but yellow and try to crush my claim as he did once asking Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of ShivSena in the time of his padyatras for the cause of suiciding farmers, bilking him whether he knew, the onion grows above or below the ground.

Congress has the habit of entering troubled water by employing ministers like PC, though they have a long list of good claimants for any portfolio. After his FMship magniloquence Congress is again in a mood to avoid PC. It’s obvious as the party general secretary and media department chairman, J. Dwivedi has indicated sundown signals by saying the colour of terrorism is black. How else the black colour could signify terrorism?

ShivSena and BJP have thrown the ruling party on the back foot for certain. But they don’t have the debaters who could send PC also along with. Bharat Kumar Raut MP (ShivSena) is consulting editor to Times Group as quoted at the bottom of his articles. However, he cannot face with tenacity any issue. He takes more pleasure in Marathi channels as obvious it is easy for him to be long-winded in Marathi than in English.

In my opinion Gopinath Munde, though unable to speak in English is witty enough to disarm Congress and PC. But it seems BJP doesn’t want to project him. It has happened in past too.

The national party in search of power to rule would have to give up this parochial set up of mind; sooner the better.

Bhagwa, Keshari, Kesaria or Haldi (in Kannada) is still lagging behind as far as the revolution is concerned in India. We’ve seen Green revolution (agricultural), White revolution (milk), but where is the Keshari revolution?

In Marathi Haldi means turmeric. It’s applied to heal wounds due to its medicinal quality.

Marathi MPs of opposition party are busy applying haldi to their wounds including those in the mouths from inside made by the likes of PC and by the Haldi co-walkers in Karnataka. They suffer in silence due to vocabulary lesions. Or like beautiful girls they can’t apply it to the outsides of their faces to add to the beauty.

The wounded civilization has lost the sense of colours that are meant for festivals and beautifying.

It is surprising at times, to come across people, who praise the Germans, and condemn India basking what were we doing at the time when Germans were building world class machinery during the 1800s or when US and Russia were marching ahead towards glory and developments.

It would be like an enlightenment for such dim-witted people to know that we were fighting for independence. Had we not spent the time struggling for freedom, our land, may not have looked the way it is today. Despite the colossal corruption that has plagued our country, we have done reasonably well in terms of development.

The day of our Independence was spent reasonably well, watching movies like Gandhi, Mountabatten - The Last Viceroy of India, Rang De Basanti, and listening to songs that echoed throughout the residential complex. The nasha just couldn't get enough and the heroics of freedom struggle kept resonating in my mind. It was certainly a constructive effort of all, who at that time fought for independence through their own means; everything looked justidied. However, as always it has been, Gandhiji still creates a lasting impression on my mind for the ways he adopted to get us freedom.

A compassionate being who, even at the peak of freedom struggle and amidst the conflicts of the national leaders then, firmly believed that "the British have stayed with us for long, we should part with them in a friendly manner with a smile", and hence denounced any kind of violence. His ideologies of non-cooperation and non-violence through the "Dandi March" and the "Quit India Movement", can be said to have triumphantly brought independence to us.

There are many who think that Gandhiji's principles were irrational and that he was the reason for partition, and that non-violence is a sign of spinelessness. However, for a moment, assume that, had we got our freedom through violence, bloodshed, and hatred; things would have been different today. Our beliefs in reaching the goal and achieveing what we want through fights and carnage would have become staunch - "fight for what you want and then kill if you don't get it". Had that been so, our nation today would have looked like the African countries and Afghanistan with even small children running around with guns and grenades instead of toys and cricket bats.

Somewhere, the Gandhian thought does leave a deep mark, if we rationally try to look at the happenings during our independence. Forget looking at God, or reading the Gita or Quran or the Bible. A sensible understanding about Gandhiji's view point will itself make one a peaceful human being, adept enough to choose between right and wrong.

Such was the greatness of that man, and we shall always remain grateful to that soul.

However, amidst such greatness, you sometimes need to taste the dust of regret and shame. For many, the freedom has come for free, and hence mostly, is taken for granted.

The CWG, mining scam, IPL frauds weren't enough, when one of our political leader made me fall flat on my face. The leaders who say, "we fight for the benefit of the nation", despite being in the opposition or in power, shamefully exhibit their knowledge about the same very country.

While rejoicing the movies and the songs, I happened to check my email and found this in my inbox.

Hareshwar Patil and gang, sadly do not know the difference between "Independence Day" and "Republic Day". And that too in the constituency of our dear (pun intended) Sanjay Nirupam, who ferociously brags on television channels about how he is so considerate about our nation. Which nation? May be a nation whose Republic Day coincides with our Independence Day.

And we shall always remain regretful to such souls.

- Amol Redij

One method of making Hyderabadi biryani is to cook the mutton and rice separately and mix them with skill on the dining table. This is not much palatable at least to Maharashtra as the Punjabi method has taken over that mixes every plant and flavour.

'Chandrababu Naidu is not a good political chef and hence he made a Khichdi of it. Birbal’s Khichdi, where he kept a fire at one place and the cooking pot at other, thereby the heat did not reach. Chandrababu exactly did the same by trying to cook khichdi of Telangana in the state of Maharashtra.

Logic and Chandrababu Naidu reside on North and South Pole respectively. Who instigated him to go to Babhli and protest against Maharashtra government is none of a thinking man concern.

Chandrababu himself should care for it. He has been sent to the political graveyard due to the suicides by the farmers of his state, Andhra Pradesh; nobody could deny. When they were committing suicides this chief minister was running to Delhi to welcome Bill Gates or Bill Clinton.

His enthusiasm over flew in doing so, more than Krishna water. He should have tried to block his ecstasy, more than the water Maharastra is trying, to according to him. The work is going on as per instructions of the Supreme Court. Already 200 crore are spent and no orders of the court are violated.

Chandrababu has never probably exhibited soft feelings towards Telangana. And suddenly this issue has been pierced into his head. The place where he wants to protest for the cause of Telangana is wide of the mark.He is not an expert in leading mass. He himself perhaps doesn’t understand what he talks. He whispers. He is a table-shrewd politician. He was successful in getting the special status to his state in NDA government by giving support from outside. He drew his pound of flesh by negotiating with them.

So now with a wrong cause he came to a wrong place at wrong time.

He forgot that rehabilitation of the farmers and people residing near water resources is never done or ever completed in the history of India. Many issues intermingle in the process that is beneficial to a very few. They are necessarily rulers and rich.

On the next day of the protest for the farmers of Andhra on the land of Maharashtra his supporters complained that they were not provided with food and water. As if they were guests of Maharashtra. I’d like to remind one incident here. When Lalkrishna Advani with his infamous Rathyatra was stopped by Laluprasad threatening him to put behind bars had he entered Bihar.

The home minister of Maharashtra is a gentleman. He won’t go to that extent.

However, to expect food from him in exchange of protest is too much. Food was provided by the people there. But Chandrababu wanted hyderabadi biryani perhaps! Why should they complain about water along with? It was plentifully available there in the river opposite. Or they wanted the oxi-rich mineral water?

Maharashtra has always been a soft target by all the states and the centre. It’s crushed under the North and South hating it due to the glorious history, the progress and the modernity.

There is nothing spectacular about Chandrababu. South states are progressing fast. He wanted to do that only through information technology. YSR knew this limit and concentrated on the poor and farmers that Chandrababu never envisioned. Unfortunately YSR is no more. A split of support to different parties is widening. Opportunist as he is Chandrababu is trying to make a place.