Disappointing…… 11 January 2008

The 95 th Indian Science Congress was held between 3 and 7 January 2008 at Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The theme of the conference “Knowledge Based Society Using Environmentally Sustainable Science And Technology” was most apt.

Performance was just not equal to promise. Top scientists, scientific advisers to the government of India, and heads of the major research institutions did not attend the meet. Defence laboratories of the country, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institutes of Technology, Space and Nuclear establishments were hardly represented.

No major scientific results or theories were announced. Nothing path-breaking happened.

Many people, like me, interested in general Science have been left disappointed. A country which is looking for a place under the Sun and wanting to become a super power should have done better.

The ministry in charge of Science and Technology needs to wake up. China is charging ahead in Science and we are falling behind. Not a good feeling.

S .Gopal
….Keying in is better than idling

Army Day…Reforms Required….. 15 January 2008

Today is Army Day. It is celebrated every year on 15 January in recognition of an Indian becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.The person was Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa and the year was 1948.

Should the Indian Army really celebrate? Far from it. It is time for them to introspect and improve. They have fallen from grace. Every day we hear about scandals in the Army: wide spread and large scale corruption among the top generals in the purchase of equipment, faking of battles to win awards, fudging of results of equipment trials, diverting of food and other items meant for troops for monetary gains, harassing and commiting violence on civilains (including women), nepotism and non-military considerations during promotions and transfers, trying to cover up their misdeeds etc.

Knowledgeable common citizens are disillusioned. So far they have been proud of our Army (as also the other arms of defence namely Air force and the Navy) for their integrity, honesty, foresight and valour. Not any more.

S. Gopal
…Keying in is better than idling

Blessing in Disguise.. 26 December 2007

(more than 300 words..)

I do not know if there is an expression in Hindi or Tamizh which can adequately convey the emotion of the English term `Blessing in Disguise’. But I have seen it in action many times. One happened yesterday.

It was good that I sprained my ankle. The doctor advised me to keep indoors and not to strain my leg. So the proposal to go out and have lunch at a restaurant was dropped.

I was spared of

• eating that same old naan, paneer ka sabzi, daal makhani, mixed vegetable curry, aaloo-matar rasedhar and the like
• paying a hefty bill for that
• spending some indecisive minutes to work out what amount of tip will not make us look like some ghatees (uncultured village folks)
• having to `look’ for a parking lot and stll having to walk around a kilometer or more
• popping a Digene tablet after returning home

Instead, our taste buds were lovingly delighted with

· Dahi-vada (the real ones, not the soaked-in-water types)

· Bhel Poori

· Gaajar ka halwa (the red variety)

· Mini poories, one and half inches in diameter

· Aaloo khara curry (not the very spicy type)

· Mixed vegetable rice

· Rasam Saadam (Ready-to-eat) *

· Curd rice (Ready-to-eat) *

· Freshly fried papads

· Pickles

* to suit lazy people like me who don’t like wasting energy and hand-movements to mix rice with other ingredients.

Super tasty food. Cooked at home. No waiting at the table. Served on time. Items appetisingly laid out on the table. All crockery in place. The three-in-one chef-cook-butler goading you to have one more helping of the dish you like. No payment to be made. No tips, either.

Sorry, folks. You missed it. If there is one reason why you should relocate to Bangalore, here it is!

Thank you, Radha.

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Building Bridges….. 21 December 2007

Recently somebody forwarded to me pictures of a dozen complicated and neat road bridge clusters from different cities of Europe and the Gulf region and contrasted the same with our own Indian roads.

On yet another day an Indian immigrant from the US, who was on a visit to Bangalore, remarked that India can never even dream of building in next fifty years, such good roads and bridges as in the US.

Let me emphasise that I am not against urban roads and bridges. I am concerned with the fixation of the rich with such structures and equating the same with development. We must understand that there is a larger country beyond our limited urban vision.

The need of the times is to build bridges of the other kind, many small ones that remove the urban-rural disconnect. These have to be physical structures as well as emotional ones. Let’s not forget the Indian rural underprivileged and the disadvantaged, who form the majority and who feed the nation. The earlier we realise this, the better it is!

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Bitter Medicines… 19 December 2007

Recently the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted an international conference. Two independent pharma experts from India attended the same. They have summarised what other speakers had to say about the quality of medicines manufactured in India. Please read on.

· First the good news: Pharma company CIPLA scored 100 percent quality success.

· More than 50 percent of Indian medicines were accepted. Others failed to qualify.

· Another pharma company Ranbaxy qualified in around 54 percent of the applications it submitted. Rest failed.

· One of the Indian medicines did not show any efficacy at all. It was useless.

· Some of the Indian medicines including anti retroviral drugs used for treatment of AIDS sold in African countries were of poor quality.

· In quality, China was ahead of India (and we doubt the Chinese quality!)

Medicines which were rejected by WHO, were approved earlier by the Indian drug authorities. Why they failed to qualify at the international level? What are we hiding? Who is responsible? It is time the country did something about it. Wake up, please.

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Negative Role Models… 18 December 2007

(about 280 words..)

They are perceived to be next only to God, because they save lives. I agree. Hence, they are role models. Everybody watches them closely, as I did when I was admitted to a hospital.

Several actions of some doctors are, however, not worth emulating. Here we go.

· A notice fixed near the door of a lift said: `only for patients’. I found doctors using this lift even though there was another working lift designated for the exclusive use of medical personnel.

· Doctors do not need a microbiologist to tell them not to roam around canteens and other places in their white coat – the attire, which they are seen with while examining patients.

· `No footwear inside’ warns a signboard at the entry to the Radiology room; you will find doctors entering the room with their shoes on, and mind you they are not special hospital slippers.

· `Keep Silence. Hospital Zone’, says the writing on the wall. White coated ones would stand and talk loudly just below the notice. Some would zoom in their vehicles.

· Once I was in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital for a night as a patient. The doctor interns gossiped and joked all through the night while I was lying in discomfort.

· Doctors say that smoking is bad for health, but they themselves smoke in public; in my own case, a doctor who examined me in the Casualty department was reeking of nicotine and I had to inhale the passive smoke.

Who will advise those who are supposed to advise us?

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Can Man know what God thinks?…. 15 December 2007

A couple of months ago, the authorities in the Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayoor, Kerala decided to allow women dressed in churidhar-pyjama inside the temple. Since people from all parts of India visit that temple and since such attire has now become an all-India one, the news was widely welcomed. Till then only sari-clad women were allowed to enter the temple.

As for me, I hold the opinion that a proper churidhar-pyjama (unlike the filmy ones) is more `modest’ than a sari.

Then some pundits in the temple got together to do a `devaprasnam’ (an astrological exercise) and `found out’ that presiding deity was `angry’ with the decision to relax the dress-code.

My comments:

· Hindus believe that God is present everywhere and knows everything. However, some Hindus seem to know what God knows; a case of a mere mortal able to perceive what an immortal thinks!

· God is known as `karuna sagara’ – all compassionate. How can somebody attribute a negative emotion of anger to Him?

Think it over….

S .Gopal
….Keying in is better than idling

Holy or Unholy ?….. 12 December 2007

When there was a hue and cry about thousands of acres of government land in Bangalore having been grabbed by influential citizens, the government instituted a joint legislature committee to probe the matter.

The committee has finalised its report.

As was expected, the list contains names of politicians and their relatives, film producers and stars, real estate developers etc. However, it also includes some names that I did not expect to be there, namely corporates like IBM, L and T.

What is worrisome is that religious institutions revered by the man on the street find a place in the list. The report says that the Adichunchangiri Mutt has encroached upon about 18 acres and the Art of Living Foundation has grabbed about 13 acres. I wonder:

· What signals do these institutions send to the public?

· Are such acts sanctioned by the religious texts?

· Should the common man follow the preachings of the religious leaders or imitate their institutions in real life?

· Should we turn a blind eye to this?

S. Gopal

… keying in is better than idling

Moment of Truth…MNCs and I…. 3 November 2007

(more than 300 words)… Part 2 of 2 parts

I don’t wait to make a call at 830 am to confirm my appointment half-an-hour later. It does not make any sense as the driving time from my office to their premises is about two hours.

First hurdle is the Security. `Sorry, visitors are allowed inside only after 10 am’. I explain that I have specifically been called by the Big Man at 9 am sharp. After a long telephonic conversation with his boss, the guard finally relents.

After completing all the Security formalities, I reach the Reception Desk at 845 am and make telephonic contact with my man. He promises to `come soon’. And he does arrive `soon’ to meet me at 11 am with both hands full – one is holding a cup of coffee and the other a cellphone.

He is courteous enough to ask me help myself with a cup of coffee from the free vending machine nearby and some biscuits while he shouts some instructions on his cellphone.

He makes himself comfortable in the sofa and sits cross-legged to show his authority.

`For what item have you quoted ? Show me the quotation’. He does not have with him the quotation submitted by me. He casually looks at it. `Have you discussed this with Ramesh?’. `Which Ramesh’, I ask.

`Oh, you don’t know Ramesh? He is the head of our laboratory. First meet him and come to me.,Okay? So saying, he vanishes.

`Ramesh has gone to US (or Japan). He will be back next week’, this is Reception lady informing me.

I am tired and hungry. I leave the premises.

On my way back I meet the owners of two small scale industries and collect some purchase orders and advance money.

When the moments of truth arrived, these MNCs, to me, became the Most Nuisance Companies.

Now that I have left my business, I am keenly looking forward to meeting those Big Men somewhere so that I can give them my piece a mind and square up with them.

S. Gopal …keying in is better than idling

Moment of Truth…MNCs and I…. 2 November 2007

(more than 500 words) – Part 1 of 2 parts

Having run a marketing business for about 18 years, I have interacted with more than a thousand companies, in and around Bangalore. My most pleasant dealings have been with small industries and the worst ones with the Multi National Companies (MNCs).

While these MNCs were owned by the Japanese or the Americans, my contacts there were always with persons with native skin (like mine). These would typically be middle-level managers in their late twenties or early thirties with an MTech or an MBA degree. They would either be working in the purchasing department or be the `end-users’ (those who would be using the products offered by us).

While I have had occasions to meet some good people (more as an exception rather than as a rule), most of them would fit in the descriptions and situations described below.

• First and foremost is their arrogance ( as different from self-confidence): `Do you know whom you are talking to? We are a Fortune 500 company with an annual turnover of US Dollar XXXX billion’.
• `Just listen to what I am saying. Don’t tell me about your product. I want an item exactly like the one I have seen in Kobe (or Detroit)’.
• `I want the quotation in the next half-an-hour’.
• If queried about when they would decide the purchase: `Just submit the offer and leave the rest to us’`
• After six months: `Don’t keep on following up. We have so many things to do. Your item is not our priority. I have sent your quotation to Tokyo (or Los Angeles)’.
• Suddenly one day after a year: `Come to my office in the next half-an-hour for negotiations. No, I don’t care that you are 30 kilometers away; I don’t want to listen to your traffic problem. If you don’t come now, I will place order on your competitor’.
• The scene when I somehow reach their premises:
  • Writing the name in the register, explaining where I have come from (and the reasons for my visit) to the un-friendly (some times even intimidating) security guards (after all they are protecting foreign property!), collecting the visitor’s pass, and in some cases adorning the safety helmet and safety goggles, takes a cool (?) half-an-hour.
  • Walking inside and contacting the Receptionist takes another half-an-hour.
  • `What is purpose of your visit? Do you have an appointment?’ this is from the Receptionist.
  • `Please wait. He is in a meeting. I can’t say when he will be free’. In some companies the sofas are comfortable, air-conditioning perfect, and the magazines the latest editions. In certain others, you have to just keep standing under `normal temperature and pressure’.
    
  • After one hour: `I can’t remind him. He will get annoyed’
  • After three hours: `You are waiting for me? Oh. yeah, yeah, I called you isn’t?. Now I am going to Customs department. Come and meet me sharp 9 am tomorrow. Call me at 830 am to confirm the appointment’

….continued in the next edition of Penumbra

S. .Gopal
…keying in is better than idling