A Piece of Wisdom

Husband asks his newly employed wife, "It is time for you too to save some money instead of spending all your salary on worthless things".

The wife retorts, "Why I should save money? You do the saving and I only need to save enough to hire a good lawyer!"

Star-Rise at RBI

Raghuram Govind Rajan

Remember the height of public expectation when Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam assumed office as the President of India? Though everybody knew that Kalam was being called upon to perform something that was not in the direct line of his professional expertise, we the ordinary Indians rejoiced that an intellectual of international repute was about to assume a public office of such immense clout. In the end what did Kalam give back to the people? The inspiration and moral exemplar he provided to the impressionable minds of the land is undeniable. What else could we expect from an aeronautical engineer assuming the presidency of a parliamentary democracy whose topmost seat is mostly titular?

                                                                                        

A similar scenario is brewing now, though for a lesser position, but which tend to assume great significance in light of the country’s present economic hardships. Dr. Raghuram Govind Rajan is set to step in as the youngest governor of the Reserve Bank of India on the 4^th of September, when D Subba Rao vacates the post on superannuation.  Rajan is noted for many astonishing things about him. He has no academic background in Economics. He was born in a Tamil family and had his schooling in India and abroad. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Delhi in 1985 with a gold medal and took PGDBA from IIM, Ahmadabad. He was awarded PhD in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and employed as professor at Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Dr Rajan has served as the visiting Professor of the World Bank, Federal Reserve Board and was the Chief Economist at IMF. He was invited back to India as an honorary economic adviser in 2008 to the prime minister and as the Chief Economic Adviser in 2012. His reputation came when correctly predicted the American economic meltdown of 2008 in 2005 itself. He began his series of critiques against the prevailing Federal Reserve Policy in 2005 at a function honoring Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of Federal Reserve who was about to retire from service. Though widely ridiculed at that time, the world eagerly listened to his words when it came true in exactly the same way he feared. He is also a member of the group of 30 (G30) an international body of leading Financiers and academics. Rajan is the author of a few books, of which I happened to read Fault Lines – How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, two years back and was greatly impressed by the clarity of thought and required action envisioned in it. A review may be found in my book review blog.

However Rajan may not find the Governor’s chair a bed of roses. The economic scenario of the country is bound to cause some loss of sleep to policy makers before it starts to deny sleep to ordinary shareholders like us in India’s downward-going share markets. The exodus of Foreign Institutional Investors are causing bloodbath in the markets on most days. The currency itself is in dire straits, which have plunged to its historically lowest levels. Unless the Reserve Bank intervenes in an effective way, our rupee is going to be a worthless currency. The widening Current Account Deficit is perplexing financial administrators in the government and statutory bodies alike. And the common man is biting his nails at the woeful inadequacy of sustaining measures. Their hope is in Rajan who needs to show his mettle as an economist. Being basically an engineer, the nation expects quite a few unconventional but effective initiative from him.

There are some interesting policy decisions to watch for in the coming months. Raghuram Rajan was instrumental in proposing an overarching Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) was meant to supervise RBI itself. Bureaucrats at RBI exerted their utmost pressure on the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukharjee to dilute the provisions of the idea. We need to see what Rajan does to his own pet idea. Also, it was Rajan’s suggestion that RBI should confine itself to inflation rate targeting and let other authorities to do the task of regulating banks and the spectrum of activities in which it involves energetically at present. Again, RBI officials were successful in maintaining the status quo. This demands a curious watch on how Rajan will go about to implement his own proposal which would curtail his own powers in the new position.

Once again, we come back to the original idea. A renowned intellectual is about to ascend to a very responsible job in the country. The comparison of Rajan with Kalam is natural and hardly to be missed. Both are Tamils, engineers and men of international renown. Let us wish Rajan a lot of good luck. He needs it badly now! Really!

Rediff blog

I started blogging on Rediff. Today, I just visited that site and it showed June 9, 2006 as the date when my first blog post was created. When Google started providing the facility to its account holders, I switched over to it. I found a post in Rediff written in Oct 2006 against the government's proposed decision to effect strict measures on the functioning of cyber cafes, which is attached below. This was in the aftermath of a guy sending threatening letters to the President of India to implicate his lover who deserted him.

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Kerala proposes law against cyber cafes

The Government of Kerala plans to introduce a new law curbing the operating freedom of internet cafes in the state, as reported by The Hindu on Oct 28, 2006. The finer details are being worked out, but the salient provisions are

1. The browsers have to produce a photo identity card or be willing to be video-graphed.

2. Children should be accompanied by an adult

3. A register containing the details of customers should be maintained by the establishment

4. An operating license from the City Police Commissioner to be mandatory

5. The Commissioner will have the right to impose any condition on the cafe owner, subject to changing circumstances and development of technology.

6. The cubicles to customers should not be more than 4 feet high

7. The computer screen should face the common area inside the cafe

8. No cyber cafe would be allowed within 500 metres of an educational institution

9. Customers would not be allowed to attach any device brought from outside (such as pen drives)

One might wonder if these provisions will safeguard the country from seditious and anti-national elements! The provisions are ridiculous in the least, if not outright lunatic. How can a democratic government impose restrictions on its free citizens in sending and receiving data? What purpose would it serve to demand photo ID cards just for sending e-mail? Under the pretext of a prankster sending threatening mails to the heads of state and government, the bureaucracy is trying to stifle the freedom of thought and expression as enshrined in the Constitution of India. Consider the scenario for example, that this prankster, instead of sending e-mails, decided to send threatening letters. Will the government then bring in a law which would make it mandatory to show photo ID cards to post a letter at the post office? The post office, in fact provides far greater anonymity than the cafe! The post boxes are located in an outside public place and the postal staff have no clue about the customers, where as in an internet cafe, you are likely to be remembered and identified later by the staff. 

Thinking about mail warnings and threats, how many of it would prove to be harbingers of actual events? As far as I know, there were no warnings about the attack on parliament, the Mumbai bombings, Rajiv Gandhi assassination, 9/11 attacks, 7/7 attacks etc etc. Actually, the investigating agencies can glean valuable information from anonymous e-mails claiming moral responsibility about events afterwards. In internet, you can't be anonymous and most of the people don't realize this fact. Why the Police should fear e-mails when they can easily go through ISP logs, traces of IP numbers and home in on the cafe in a matter of hours, if not minutes? 

The attempt to impose restrictions on the usage of internet is a clear attack against freedom of expression and thought. The internet has been a head ache to authoritarian governments world wide. Now the government of Kerala is also going the same way. There are some more options it can contemplate to eliminate such nuisance, such as

1. The postal mail boxes would be placed in the clear view of the postal staff and all outside boxes would be removed

2. Photo ID cards would be required to post a letter

3. The postal staff shall maintain a register of the customers buying stamps and posting letter

4. In order to post a letter to a government official, a sanction from the police commissioner is necessary

5. The people would not be allowed to write mail in public. All mails should be certified by the notary. If notary is too busy, giving 500 bucks to his office staff will not harm you.

6. The police commissioner has the right to open any letter and peruse its contents

Think it over, political fools and bureaucratic rogues! You can at last curtail those freedoms which constitute the other nuisance that is overarching above your stubborn heads - Democracy!!!

Reply to Anti-Reservationists

The following is the reply I gave to a friend's comments in Facebook opposing caste-based reservations.

First of all, a friendly reminder to Mr. P not to take anything I am going to say on a personal level. What we are discussing here is a matter of general interest only.

The comment from Mr. P is shocking and needs to be countered. Even though I had suspicions that this is exactly the kind of thinking nurtured by many upper castes, this was the first time I saw it crystal clear. The essence of the argument is that even in this 21^st century, people should follow their hereditary vocation adjusted to modern requirements. As you say, “a blacksmith’s son should become a mechanical engineer and a carpenter’s son should be a civil engineer because that is in their genes”. If everybody followed this ‘nugget of wisdom’, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam would have been a fisherman, Dr. C V Raman would have a become a priest in the local temple and Gandhiji would be nothing more than a market trader. And no, the Germans are not crazy enough to follow this system. This attitude is simply racist and far from the truth. Albert Einstein’s father was a businessman, Max Planck’s father was a lawyer and though not a German, Isaac Newton’s father was a farmer! Caste is not in the genes. It was this same argument that squeezed the majority of Indian people dry in its vice-like grip for centuries.

And what profession should the sons of Brahmins follow? Teaching and priestcraft are prescribed for them and they are not allowed to cross the seas. Does it mean that those Brahmins who excelled in management, administration or commerce are incompatible with the ideas of good behaviour? And what vocation should the Dalits follow?

Once again, caste does not run in the genes. What good were the Kshatriyas in battles that raged for a thousand years? They lost their land and wealth in battles. The Rajputs proudly guarded the entrances of Mughal forts where their women were shared as slaves. Do you want those Kshatriyas to run the army now? It may be remembered that the first major war won by India was in 1971, after a gap of nearly 1500 years. The victory came only because the Kshatriyas’ share in the army came down greatly.

Caste does not run in the genes. Any downtrodden person, with sufficient talent and attitude can attain any position he seeks – with a little support from the society. You can’t expect an illiterate farm hand’s son to excel on the same level as the son of an educated government official. That’s where the need of reservation arises. It is not for all eternity. After 3-4 generations, the downtrodden people will be absorbed into the main stream and reservations may be revoked, but not till that great dawn arrives!

In the meantime, let no false notions of dharma stifle the nascent talent in children. I am reminded of a famous song by Vayalar Ramavarma, penned in 1973.

പ്രപഞ്ചസത്യം ചിതയിൽ കരിയും ബ്രഹ്മസ്വങ്ങൾക്കുള്ളിൽ
ദ്രവിച്ച പൂണൂൽ ചുറ്റി മരിക്കും ധർമാധർമങ്ങൾ
ചിറകു മുറിച്ചൊരു ഭാരതജീവിതമുണരാൻ
പ്രകൃതിച്ചുമരുകളോളം സർഗപ്രതിഭ പറന്നു നടക്കാൻ
പദ്മതീർഥമേ ഉണരൂ, മാനസപദ്മതീർഥമേ ഉണരൂ .....

Suggestion to William Dalrymple

Dalrymple should choose Tipu Sultan for his next book

Reading William Dalrymple is a delightful experience. As a writer who has mastered the rhythm of Indian social life and felt the heartbeats of the country, his extraordinary faculty for historical narration with the right amount of pot-pourri ensures wholehearted acceptance of his works in any corner of the subcontinent, not just India alone. I’ve just completed his ‘Return of a King’ which details the First Afghan War (1839 – 42) and the disastrous British effort to hoist a puppet king, Shah Shuja on the throne in Kabul. The author gives a vivid account of life, for the royals and camp followers in India in the first half of 19^th century as the management of the war was handled from the newly built hill station of Shimla, the East India Company’s summer capital.

I felt really sad after completing this book. Not that it was disappointing – on the contrary, it is an enchanting work, as usual. But what dampened my spirits was the realization that I had gone through all of Dalrymple’s books by now. It was an eye opener to read ‘The Last Mughal’, the first book I read a few years back and instantly became his fan. Then came White Mughals, another influential work. After that, The City of Djinns, The Age of Kali, From the Holy Mountain, Nine Lives and In Xanadu came one by one. Of these, only Nine Lives was a disappointment and those who cherish Dalrymple’s syle need not look further to see where it flopped. Return of a King came out last, in 2013 and I was on the lookout for it from the day I saw it announced. When the book presented itself quite unexpectedly in the Public Library, I jumped on it and it provided a few days of very happy reading.

Return of a King took nearly three years of research and publishing chores to see the light of day. It does mean that for at least two more years to come, no new book might be coming out of the author’s deft pen. And what will he write about next? The author had made India his home for most of the year, staying near Delhi – understandably, he spends the summer back home in Scotland – and prefers the Islamic tradition which forms a main stream of the country’s historical past to pick his subjects from. Indian heritage is really like an occasionally malfunctioning zipper where the slider sometimes fail to properly align the Hindu and Muslim teeth.

I would suggest Tipu Sultan, also called the Tiger of Mysore, to Dalrymple as the focus for his next work. Tipu, and his father Hyder Ali were two great rulers of Mysore in the 18^th century. Tipu was the last of Indian kings who could dictate terms to the British. He still evokes currents of hatred or admiration in the populace, whose opinion is divided on religious lines. He defied the British and hence sometimes termed a freedom fighter. But he strived hard for an alliance with Napoleon and the French as a junior partner, but that power couldn’t save him from disaster in the end. He is sometimes called a secularist, pointing out the temples in his fort complex and the peaceful lives of his subjects of which Hindus formed the majority, as also many of his military leaders who were Hindus. But there is no denying that he attacked temples and employed forced conversions on his invasion of Kerala. People behave like the scars have still not healed completely which is conceivable as South India had not witnessed massacre, plunder and rape in the scale it accompanied wars in the North waged over differences in religion of the concerned parties. As a consequence people love to hate him to the core – still many a house dog in Kerala is named after him. Others find in him attributes worthy of adulation like his drive for social reforms, aversion to foreign intervention and adoption of new technologies in warfare like rockets. To add colour to the already vivid picture, the full implications of the issue could be comprehended only when it is examined in the backdrop of the rivalry between the French and English back home and in their colonies in the second half of 18^th century. South India was the battleground to stage the war between two foreign powers and its rulers were often caught in the diplomatic crossfire. So, Tipu Sultan would be a fitting subject for Dalrymple’s deep and profound research which will end up in a fine historical narrative.

Swarna Praashana – A Prescription to Disaster

Swarna praashana - Keep your baby away from it

A few days before, I observed a notice inserted along with the morning newspaper, about a nearby Ayurveda clinic offering Swarna Praashana, an age old remedy which has the potential to develop medha (intellect), agni (digestive power), bala (strength), aayu vardhana (long life) and so on. Briefly, it is effective for everything short of waking up the dead. It was touted as Ayurvedic vaccination and is offered to a wide range of clientele – from newborn babies to adolescents till the age of 16. Referred to in Kashyapa Samhita, the concoction is said to contain swarna (gold), vacha, shankh pushpi, brahmi, ashwagandha, madhu (honey) and cow’s ghee etc. And one more curious point was observed. There should be a minimum of thirty monthly doses to be given on pushya nakshatra. On no other day the medicine will be effective because according to the Theory of Radiation, ‘the medicinal potency is more in gold formulations on the day of pushya nakshatra – a snake-oil formulation hitchhiking on astrological quackery, what else?

But, before dismissing the concept of swarna praashana as another Ayurvedic gimmick at self-aggrandizement, I wanted to check the veracity of the arguments. The most frequently raised concern cited by Ayurvedics is that its potions have no side effects, as if each and every drug offered by modern medicine is riddled with life-threatening side effects! However, in the case of swarna praashana, I became suspicious as it involved eating gold which is a heavy metal. Besides, some websites on Ayurveda claimed that ‘gold has ability to interfere with genetics’! Yes, interfere with genetics! What an ignoramus this person must be, to ask others with impunity to consume a substance that can interfere with genetics? But on researching further, it was found that gold is mostly inert and one of the least reactive chemical elements that won’t provide any calories. Gold was administered as medicine from ancient times by shamanic practitioners. Only salts and radio isotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, as metallic gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body. Also, some people are allergic to gold. Otherwise, the precious metal you consume through the mouth simply goes out at the other end of the digestive tract. So much for its ability to interfere with genetics! But there is a serious side effect overlooked by Ayurvedics. Most of the gold we come across is not pure, or 100 per cent or 24 carats. Usually it contains additional elements like silver, copper or cadmium. Though pure gold and silver is harmless, that is not the case with copper or cadmium, which are highly toxic. Adults should consume no more than 10 mg of copper per day and copper toxicity is the reason for Indian childhood cirrhosis of the lever. I hope the quacks do take this fact into account.

What surprised me most was that honey is not so innocuous as it seemed at first! Do you know that honey is not at all recommended for infants below 12 months of age due to the risk of botulism poisoning? Botulism is a rare but sometimes fatal paralytic illness caused by food contaminated with botulinum toxin. In infants, it takes up to 12 months after birth for protective intestinal bacteria to develop, which will fight the botulinum infection. However, the Ayurvedic practitioners don’t seem to be concerned at all with administering swarna praashana of which honey is a prominent ingredient to newborn babies.

We should not feel ill against or assign malicious intent on Ayurvedics. Their knowledge is very limited and every field of study goes forward with the collected wisdom over the ages. Modern medicine, or for that matter, any branch of science is continuously updated, even on a daily or hourly basis, with new facts and data which helps to keep them always one step ahead of new diseases which also have spread in its range and lethality. But Ayurveda maintains its false pride on samhitas and sutras compiled thousands of years ago and jealously kept unchanged like sacred texts. In this aspect, it bears the hallmarks of religion than a branch of science. Absence of clinical trials of any kind and the freedom which the term ‘herbal’ confers on it, has resulted in extravagant claims by charlatans wanting to make a quick buck. Ayurveda claims to cure modern diseases (again, without side effects – the magical word!). But take a backward look at history. India was long afflicted with four deadly diseases – malaria, leprosy, small pox and polio – against which Ayurveda miserably failed. All four of them were eradicated when modern medicine came along. Even a hundred years back, Ayurvedic practitioners were ascribing divine displeasure to the emergence of small pox in a person. The concept of microbes and pathogens simply do not exist there!

So, this is a humble request to Ayurvedics. If you can’t do good to a sick person, at least don’t harm him. Delaying or denying proper medicine is also hurting your patient. Your concoctions also have side effects, as any chemical does. Any object we consume is toxic to a certain extent, the dosage being the clincher. And finally, remember what St. Matthew said, “You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye, and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye” (Matt 7:5).

Brisk Walking Exercises – Are They Useful?

Brisk walking - beneficial or just a fad?

First of all, No, No, No…..This is not to imply that walking as an exercise is not useful. It definitely is, and perhaps is the only option for keeping fit in an urban and office-going setup. Now, look at the title again. What I am asking is whether brisk walking, which is advised by medical practitioners and exercise gurus, is useful. Or, to put it differently, what are the advantages conferred by brisk walking over the relaxed one? I fail to understand how walking in a faster pace would burn more fat in an appreciable way. May be I am wrong, then I would be extremely grateful is somebody could clarify the position.

Basically, the trouble arises when I remember some of the fundamentals of school physics, like work, energy and power. If you want to move a body having some weight over a distance, you have to perform work. Energy is the capacity to do work and numerically the same and have same units (joule or calorie). Power is the rate of doing work. If you want to move the same object in half the time it took in the first case, you have to double the applied power.

Now, come back to the walking exercise. Suppose your body weight is 80 kg (at least I don’t need to suppose it as it is painfully evident!) and you want to walk a distance of 1 km. The work and hence energy needed to transport a body of 80 kg over a distance of 1 km is the same whether you do it in ten minutes or one hour (by definition, work = force x distance. Time is not factored in). Fat burning is expressed in calories which is a measure of energy consumed. So, if fat is burned in direct proportion to energy, what difference it would make if you walked slowly?

On the other hand, we must be aware that doing the same work in less time need more power. Using more power in the same volume would mean additional heat losses in the muscles. If you run a machine at full throttle, it would warm up to a higher degree than the idling state. Brisk walking needs more power and more heat loss. Heat is a form of energy, but I think the fraction that is lost as heat is very small as compared to the energy expended in the act of walking itself. Otherwise, sweating would not be enough to cool you and you might be in need of a radiator!

So, why the pundits ask people to walk fast when it does not provide for more fat burning than slow walking, which is much more enjoyable?

Or, am I wrong?