Women to the fore !

It was a cold December evening and the officials at that software development organization were waiting with bated breath for the development team to release their latest code to clients.  The software testing team of around 30 mostly comprised of new recruits and a mix of men and women were also anxious.  The whole crowd was anxious for different reasons - some for quality of deliverable, some for the timeline to be maintained and amongst them were also some ladies who were tense watching the clock. Though not regular clock watchers, they were anxious about those at home- some waiting for their food, some waiting to be relieved by their daughters in law to take care of the child and some children themselves waiting for their moms, whom they have not seen for the past 12 hours.

This is a common scenario developing in the IT industry, fortunately more accepted by the women themselves, a hallmark of the current day ladies having shown the inclination to play also equal not resting with just their claims of equality. On occasions, where I could, I had relieved the women folk due to late hours and the look in their eyes were full of gratefulness, for they were already torn between the dilemma of work and family.

I have often wondered, rather sympathised with the ladies working in such industry, which demanded uncertain working hours. While I drove home to have my dinner and retire to bed with mind still full of official thoughts, I used to think as to how these ladies could relax. The moment they hit the door bell, there will be more issues at home than at office- children not doing home work, some dishes to be made for dinner, to look after the ailing in law, in addition to their own health issues. Are they really the stronger sex, managing both at home and at work, while the men folk tend to relax the moment they are out of the office and also take on at home, what they could not manage at office!

If this is the life of junior executives, for those who have aspirations and climb the ladders, getting out of the office is no relief. For they have to cope up with the innumerable issues from the team which is still working, escalations from the clients, conference calls at odd hours, which are not odd for the callers will be from different geographical locations….. the list is endless. While wondering at their zeal to handle these issues stemming from their ambitions, one cannot but appreciate the management of their energy in doing this day after day.

It’s not just confined to the IT industry alone. I have seen female nurses sporting enthusiastic smiles even at odd hours at night attending to terminally ill patients at ICUs. 

Young girls (wo) manning counters at malls, knocking at the doors selling encyclopaedias, filling petrol at petrol bunks and even deftly threading through the narrow bi-lanes and traffic in gleaming auto rickshaws, which were for so long the vehicles of men!

Compare it with the late 1970s, when the young boys surreptitiously sneaked into that department which was rumoured to have got a new entrant transferred from Gujarat and the girl was sporting a salwar kameez, a rarity in those days of saree everywhere!

At the job interviews too, one could notice the trend of as many female candidates as males, the counters at the Railway and other organizations more crowded with them- braking the myth of the women being considered suitable only for the nursing profession !  Come on, the emancipation of women, if not complete but is truly on its course.  It is also to their credit, they have announced that they are no pushovers despite some shortcomings but more importantly, it appears they have come to stay, at these places where it matter.

One cannot be but happy at the emergence of these Bharat mathas and it is for the guys to support the distaff part of their family, to make their life complete.

Enjoy your day, dear friends!

Training- not Technology

Experiences at different places with different service providers and customer-oriented professionals over the week prompted me to dwell on this subject.

I was hunting for an electronic goods over the past few days and when I entered a fancied showroom, the sales person just heard me for a moment and said “I have only this model and if you are OK you can take this”. His own reply made me realize that there are other options available in the market but not in this showroom and helped me make a hasty exit.

In a leading Insurance corporation supporting life related policies, I was greeted with the words “The computer is down”. The person must have felt bad that he need not have revealed this, as the purpose of my visit was to hand over some physical documents which did not require a computer.

Few weeks back, I approached a Nationalised Bank to update my customer profile in their system, as I wanted a statement with the updated profile urgently. After a day, when I called up to confirm the completion, I was told that the Manager has gone to court to attend to some case and only after his return this could be done. I was also informed that even if he comes after few days only he could do it as the password is not shared with others!

I was at another bank today and while I was talking to the official, an agitated customer barged in to report that the bank’s ATM debited his account twice though he has withdrawn the money only once. The customer was obviously worried that his money was unduly debited and was also in urgent need of the amount wrongly debited. The official coolly told him first that it can be attended only by the Branch Manager who is on leave today and any action could be taken only on his return tomorrow (hopefully). He also asked him to write the whole incident in a letter and approach the bank after a week!!

As of my query as to why a cheque that was debited 3 days back is still not reflecting in my account, a junior official of the bank said that “For inter city branches it will take 5 days for a cheque to clear”. When I reminded him that it is NOT an inter city cheque as both the banks are separated only by few streets in the same Chennai city, he silenced me arrogantly and parroted the same reason! Realising that he does not have any other answer, I went to the senior official. The official, who was standing in his senior’s absence was clearly not cut up for the job; said initially that there is no staff and hence the delay. When I refused to accept this, he requested me to come later in the day and then virtually pleaded to help him!

All the above-mentioned front office people were doing more harm to the business, leave alone serving the customers. The hallmark of a front office person is to first understand the customer’s requirement and serve accordingly. Also, it requires some tact to ‘handle’ the situation to the customer’s satisfaction, without unnecessarily revealing information that are neither relevant nor for the customer interest. But, here are people who are trying to sell a Geyser when all the customer wanted was an electrical switch!

Even when a Branch Manager who is omnipotent but unfortunately not filling up his expectations of being omnipresent, is there any need for the staff to expose the process lapse to customer? When a customer comes in with a problem, he cannot be expected to hear yours!

The bankers would also do well not to cite the problems of staff shortage and computer software issues any more to cover for their deficiency in service. When the customers handover their money to the banks, they also expect them to put on the thinking caps and be prepared for exigencies. When few banks went down with the WTC in 2001, the banks rose back in lightening speed within days to resume services, due to the banks’ preparedness and this is precisely what differentiates the wheat from the chaff, in the present competitive market.

Instead of revealing the dependencies on individuals, the front office staff could have handled the customers better so that the internal fissures does not permeate to the public who are blissfully unaware of the shortcomings of the organization and continue to repose their faith. In a Bank, the Cashier and the Dispatch staff were considered to be the most important part of the bank as they interact directly with the customers and any deficiency on their part would impact the performance and image of the bank. The front office staff, who ‘IS’ the (mouth piece of the) organization should be better trained in handling customers under different scenarios, as their behaviour will decide on the customer continuity or otherwise.

The organisations while spending millions on technologies would do well to spend a small part on training their staff in soft skills to retain the existing clientele, when the Branch Manager is away - busy hunting for new clients!

Organizations have invested enough in technology and it's time they train their staff in optimally utilising them lest it will be like putting the cart ahead of the horse and expect miracles in customer satisfaction.

Training, not Technology seems to be the need of the hour.

Books - Fair and Fare

I thought a visit to the book fair will make me richer with my book collections, richer in knowledge with exposure to a variety of authors and topics, richer in enthusiasm with the added knowledge on the improvements over the year and the resulting opportunities. I had reasons to entertain these thoughts, as these have been happening since 1977 when I started visiting this annual event. But, the experiences seemed to be different this year for the Chennai Book Fair, 2013

In fact I started counting the chickens from way back in Oct'13, when the social networks opened up pages to dwell on book fair. I carefully chose a day and time when you are not likely to be hampered by the jostling crowd and they all fell into their places as planned. Being aware of the need to invest with prudence and also being reminded constantly by the books of previous years of fair visit, I had conservatively budgeted for the purchase of books. But, the book fair made me appear like a pauper.

The prices of almost all the books were sky high for a common man, except for few a handful of publications which kept them at moderate and affordable levels. Every book I touched bordered on a minimum of Rupees 200 and forced me to drop the book and the idea immediately. Even common Tamil fiction novels have been divided into multiple parts, each costing Rs 150 to 200 ! In my opinion, a normal reading enthusiast cannot but shell less than two thousand rupees, if he/she were to reasonably cover the ambitions carefully accumulated over a year !

It may appear that I am complaining though the books are in the range of Rs 200. But, my plight was I had planned and desired for many books and am sure am not alone in this! Work out the cost please.

There was a discussion in popular TV channel that the sales in book fair is falling and that not many are inclined to buy books. This is no surprise after this year's price range. I am well aware of or at least read about the increasing cost of making a book but despite all these, I am afraid, the anxiety of the visitors will fizzle out in the years to come, unless the publishers think completely different to tackle the issue.

For instance, a 150 page book hard bound and colored beautifully was priced at Rs 300, while a soft bound copy of the autobiography of Gandhi was priced at Rs 54/- !! Where is the need to have attractive hard bound editions which could obviously involve more costs? Perhaps they will be preferred by libraries for longevity but other than them, who will prefer or preserve such hard bound editions. These are the days, when people have little time to read, leave alone a second read and so the question of preserving should not cloud the pricing vision.

I saw D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's lover at Rs 200+, whereas an advertisement in Internet offers it for a legal download FREE of cost !! Can you still spot a buyer for such books?

Most of Sujatha's books have also been priced above Rs 200/- where eBook of the the same is being sold officially for USD 3 which roughly works to Rs 180/-. I leave the advantages or otherwise of the eBook version over the hard copy to the readers !!

Sadly, the publishers are not aware of the happening around or not gauging the pulse and needs of the readers properly. I also happened to read some interesting links on the social networking sites:

http://danariely.com/2012/11/03/how-to-stop-illegal-downloads/  - says that the author found 20000 copies of his book being downloaded illegally as soft copies within days of his releasing the book and the sad part is his not getting a single paise out of this.

Yes, every book is made available on the web in no time after its official release and readers download them for different interesting reasons. One had the cheek to say that he used to "download soft copies just to find out whether it is worth spending the money on the hard copy" !!

Whatever be the reason, it has come to stay and it is difficult to ward it off. Everyone is well aware of the plunge the film industry has taken after the electronic invasion and the industry is still grappling for possible solutions. While all these efforts are on, the DVD of the latest movie is sold openly on main road of every place for a paltry forty rupees. I for one would never like to be in the shoes of that poor producer and I wish some solution satisfying every one's need is arrived at early, which seems to be a wishful thinking as of now.

The good or bad news is that more and more are taking to soft copy versions for various reasons such as mobility, portability, share-ability and other similar (dis)abilities.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2014/01/16/more-americans-reading-ebooks-led-by-younger-and-wealthier/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social says more Americans have started resorting to reading ebooks ! Will the Indians lag behind?

So, what is the way out of this literary disaster waiting to happen? Its time for the stake holders to think differently and bring in some unimaginable but pleasant jolt to the readers. They have the unenviable task of satisfying the hard core book enthusiasts who will not be satisfied anything but a hard copy and those who would like to read somehow, but cannot afford this fancy price.

One idea will be to slash the price, say by 60%, and make it available only for the first two days. This will take care of the volume sales when people will hasten to beat the short deadline.

After it spends considerable time on the stands, bring the price to rock bottom and make the book available say for 20% of the original cost. I feel this is what is happening to the books like Gandhi's autobiography, which unfortunately is still looking for buyers at Rs 50 !!

Instead of the readers going in for illegal soft copies, the book makers can bring out their own version of eBooks - I guess they would soon be compelled to do this at least for the cash turnover.

Yesterday I happened to attend a lecture of a leading and respected cardiologist of Chennai. His book on taking care of your heart is very popular but unfortunately it was not easily available. At the end of the lecture, he announced that the eVersion of his book was available for Rs 100/- against the paper back price of Rs 180 and it is no wonder the DVDs too vanished in no time.

It does pay to move with the time. Authors and book publishers who will be focusing on bringing out books should entrust the market research and innovative methods to the identified professionals, so that you are not left behind, despite the release of a good book. I am reminded of the saying "Ships are safer in harbor but they are not built to be there". Modifying it a bit, "Books are supposed to be in the hands of book lovers and not in the publisher stands"

Unless some such drastic steps are taken to woe the book lovers, I am afraid, there will be foot falls at the book fairs but they will be more for window shopping. The ones who would do more business from such fairs will be the fringe players like parking licensees and food stalls. After all, there is still a joy in browsing through the books without buying it, as we used to do in the 70s, just to kill time.

I feel this book business is moving towards ICU and badly in need of emergency measures to resuscitate lest it will lose itself into a slumber accompanying Rip Van Winkle.

Obsession and Possession

I was in my first year PG when on a visit to my friend's house, I was stunned to see his collection of audio cassettes. Through my return journey, I dreamt of owning one such collection and hearing any song I wished at any time.

Some years later, it was the CDs, DVDs and pen drives filled with MP3 songs and the collection ended up with thousands of songs , at the last count.

On a stroll during a overnight stay in Madurai I was excited to find a shop selling collection of old songs kindling years of memory which ended up with my baggage swelling up.

When I saw the soft copy version of my favorite author I was so excited and wished to possess all that he had written. A focused search in the web filled the available storage space to capacity not only of my favorite author but some others in other languages too.

Despite the huge collection I have, I was touched by a song sung on the television, which drove me to revisit my archive and unearth the same song there.

It was then that I realized that how little I use the collection, on which I spent so much time and effort in building !

A news item few days back ' Are Indians in the habit of accumulating more than they need.." kept this topic alive in me.

In our desire to have the best of everything, at times we indulge in getting everything on the subject be it books, electronic gadgets, dresses to name some. But many a times, we never use them fully as desired and dreamt. The very fact of their possession itself seem to have satiated the desire to have such a collection and there we seemed to have quenched that thirst.

Even on small matters such as travel, at the last minute I have the habit of stuffing in more - all for just in case of necessity.

I am very sure many of us will have a corner of the wardrobe containing a pack of clothes that are yet to be opened including pairs of Sox and Ties!

I now realize the wisdom of those who could use a meagre sum for self and contribute the rest of the salary for the national cause during pre-independence era. Their wisdom and foresight are the ones that make them a cut above the rest, as they could think beyond.

On the humorous side, I have heard of people who will read only that much, which is just enough to help them clear the exam. I really envy them !

On the subject and context, I am also reminded of these lines which never fail to appeal to me:

வீட்டைச் சுற்றி தோட்டம் போட்டேன்
தோட்டத்தைச் சுற்றி வேலி போட்டேன்
வேலியைச் சுற்றி காவல் போட்டேன்
காவலைப் பற்றிக் கவலைப் பட்டேன்

I only wish this is a timely reminder for me when I am planning to visit the Chennai Book Fair !

Are we being served?

Few days back there was a news report that "investment in gold" is no more worthy or lucrative? I was slightly shocked and read further only to be pushed into a deluge of market statistics and the vision of some of the pundits who predicted that it would be better to invest even in stocks and shares rather than gold.

On a deeper thinking and dwelling more on the subject, I realized that there are many facets to this argument. One needs to understand as to what is meant by 'Investment' which is being freely defined by everyone, as it suits them. Exactly, that is the point. The definition and term of the word 'investment' varies with every individual or more simply the 'investor' as per his likes, capacity and expectations. It would be unwise to simply follow the arm chair pundits' advice without analyzing as to how close your and his definitions of the word are.

For instance, a youth just stepping into the earning bracket would love to burn some money just for the heck of it - here, he/she may be willing to even lose in trying to understand 'Investment'. A middle aged, deeply into the family may like to make an 'investment' for using the returns towards his son's education or daughter's marriage down the years. One with some grown up children  may be setting his eyes on a return post his retirement which is round the corner!

When I wanted to buy a single bedroom flat in 1985 in a particular area of Chennai, people who 'knew' things advised me against it as my purchase price of Rs 275 per sq feet was way above the then rate of Rs 200/- and that the builder was trying to take me for  a ride. Similar advise poured in when i went for a 3000/- per sq ft flat in 2004 and both times, fortunately , the pundits were proved wrong. The 275/- per sq ft was sold at Rs 1500/- per sq ft 20 years later, ! The 3000 per sq ft purchase turned to be a tip of the iceberg in that had I left that deal I would have rued the decision for ever, as it soon climbed astronomically and now it is somewhere around 15000/- per sq feet - in a span of a decade. Leave alone the profit part of it, now it is not even within the purchasable limit - how can a monthly earner buy an apartment for Rs 1.5 crores !!!

When my friend was about to buy a plot of land in 1990 for a lakh, people looked down upon him. Egged on by our experiences , he went ahead and built a house there in 1998 which is now being asked for a price of over a crore.

In my own experience, I could use the bullion bought at prices varying from Rs 600/ per gram in early 1990s for my daughter's wedding when the prevailing rate hovered around 3000 per gram.

What does these imply? Am I being or have I been wiser ???

 No, the issue I am trying to underline is one must go by the need of the day or in the years to come. In my opinion, these vary from person to person and so no accurate economic prophesies could be closer enough for you  to dip your hand into that proverbial pot of  gold. Its worthwhile to define your own economic policies based on your need, your capacity and your strength to hold on to your investment.

In the light of the above experiences, I am of the considered opinion that generic market predictions and investment guidance are of no use unless tailored to your requirements and capabilities. With such a clear view in mind, one should be able to analyze and enjoy the predictions of these soothsayers but be weary of investing and indulging based on such  irrelevant advises. I only pity those who still believe could make millions in short time and risk even their retirement benefits into those high sounding  'mid-cap" and  'blue chip' investments and pray for them, neigh, their family.

I firmly believe that we have an economist in us and let us pay heed to that inner voice rather than for things written for ratings and other market inducing values.

Are we being served or mislead?

பாரீஸுக்குப் போனேன்

ரொம்ப நாளாக பாரீஸில் ஒரு வேலை - நம்ப சென்னை பாரீஸ் கார்னர் தான்.

 போலாமென்று முடிவெடுத்தப்போ பார்க்கிங்கை நினைத்தாலே அங்கு காரில் போவதற்க்கு  பயமாக இருந்தது. ஆட்டோக்காரர்கள் புது மீட்டர் பொருத்தலமா  வேண்டாமா, பொருத்திய மீட்டரை மடக்குவதா வேண்டாமா போன்ற பல குழப்பங்களிலிருந்து இன்னும் மீளாததால் அதையும் ஒதுக்கியாயிற்று. பஸ்ஸில் போனாலென்ன என்ற அந்த விபரீத (?) ஆசை வலுவெடுத்து, பல வருஷங்களுக்குப் பிறகு நேற்று 21ம் நம்பர் பஸ்ஸில் ஏறி உட்கார்ந்தே விட்டேன். பாரிசுக்கு  நாலு  ரூபாய் டிக்கெட் எடுத்து ஒவ்வொரு முறை கியர் மாற்றும் பொழுதும் ஒரு உதறு உதறிய பஸ் உற்சாகமாகத்தான் ஓடியது.

ப்ரபல எழுத்தாளர் சொன்னது போல் காரில் இருந்து பார்த்தால் ஒரு சதுரத்துக்குள்ளேயே தெரிந்த தெருக்கள், பஸ் ஜன்னலும் சதுரமாய்த்தான் இருந்தாலும், உயரத்திலிருந்து வேறாகத்தான் இருந்தது. ஒரு காலத்தில் சந்தாக இருந்தவைகளெல்லாம் இன்று ஒன் வேயாக மாறி இருந்தது.  மெட்ரோவுக்காக வளைந்து கொடுத்திருந்த அண்ணா சாலையில் பஸ் அந்தக் கால கண்ணாடிக்குள் போட்டு விளையாடும் குண்டு போல் ஓடியது.  பிலால் ஓட்டலும் பாட்டாவும் காணாமல் போய் சரவண பவனும் வஸந்த பவனும் போட்டி போட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்தது. இரவு நேர ரிச்சித் தெரு ரங்கனாதன் தெரு போல் ஜக ஜோதியாக இருந்தது. புதிய தலைமைச் செயலகம் புது தில்லியிலுள்ள புராணக் கட்டிடம் போல் களையிழந்து போயிருந்தது. சிந்தாதிரிபேட்டை தாண்டியவுடன் ஹட்சன் போல் ஒடிய நதி கருணையுடன் கொஞ்சம் துர் நாற்றமில்லாமல் இருந்தது - இதை யாரும் கவனிக்கக் கூடாதா?ஜெயில் அருகில் உள்ள பாலம் மட்டும், புது ரோட்டுடன் பள பளப்பாக இருந்தது - அடிக்கடி பல பெரிய மனிதர்கள் புழங்கும் இடம் என்பதாலோ??

நடந்த சில நல்ல காரியங்களில் பஸ்கள் சென்ட்ரல் ஸ்டேஷனுக்குள்ளே போவது எவ்வளவு உபயோகமானது என்று அங்கு இறங்கி ஏறும் கும்பலில் தெரிந்தது.

பாரீஸ் மட்டும் மாறவே இல்லை. அதே கும்பல், அதே குப்பை, அதே துர் நாற்றம். அதெப்படி இங்கு மட்டும் சாலையில் அவ்வளவு குப்பை? அகற்றுவதே இல்லையா அல்லது அது போதவில்லையா? ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மக்கள் புழங்கும் இந்த சந்திப்பை ஒரு பொது நலத்துக்காகவாவது இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் சுத்தமாக வைத்திருக்கலாம்.

அந்த ராணி சிலையின் பக்கத்தில் உள்ள கார் பார்க் நிரம்பி வழிந்தது- சில கார்களை எடுப்பதே இல்லையோ என்ற சந்தேகத்தை அதன் மேல் உள்ள தூசியில் எழுதியுள்ள "ரஜினி" என்ற எழுத்து ஆமோதித்தது.

இதற்க்கெல்லாம் நடுவில் அந்த பெரிய பஸ்ஸை லாவகமாக ஒடித்து ஓட்டும் ஓட்டுனரைப் பாராட்டியே ஆகவேண்டும். நமக்குத்தான் அப்பப்ப படபடத்து கண்ணை மூடி தெருவைக் கடக்கும் பூக்காரக் கிழவிக்காகவும், தலையை ஒரு பக்கம் சைடு வாங்கி போன் பேசியபடியே குறுக்கே பாயும் மோட்டார் சைக்கிள் காரரின்  உயிருக்காகவும் ப்ரார்த்திக்க வேண்டி இருந்தது.

பஸ் திரும்பும் பிஸி திருப்பத்தில் நட்ட நடுவில் ஒரு பெரிய குட்டை போல் சாக்கடைத் தண்ணீர் கொசுக்களுடன் பள பளத்தது. இதெல்லாம் எங்களுக்கு சகஜம் என்பது போல் யாரும் அதைக் கண்டு கொள்ளவே இல்லை.  அருகே பப்பாளிப் பழத்தை துண்டாக நறுக்கி விற்பனை மும்முறமாக நடந்தது. பிரம்புக் கடை தெரு என்ற  ரட்டன் பஸார் , ஈவனிங் பசார் தெருக்களெல்லாம் புதிய பேரை நீலக் கலர் போர்டில் மாற்றி இருந்தாலும், வியாபாரம் என்னவோ அதே தான்.

 போலிஸ் ஸ்டேஷன் எதிரிலியே தொடங்கி வரிசையாக குறுந்தகடுகள் விற்பனை - 120 பாடல்கள் கொண்ட தகடு 25 ருபாய்தான். அடிமைபெண்ணிலுருந்து விஸ்வரூபம் வரை (ஒரிஜினல் ப்ரிண்ட் ஸார்) எதெடுத்தாலும் இருபதிலுருந்து முப்பது வரை தான். அப்பப்ப ஒருத்தர் பக்கத்தில் வந்து "வேறு ஏதாவது புதுப் படம் தேட்ரீங்களா சார் ' என்று உபசரிப்பு வேற.

மான் மார்க் குடை விற்க்கும் கடை, ரமணனின் பேச்சை நம்பி வரவிருக்கும் மழையை எதிர்நோக்கிக் கதவை விரித்துக் காத்திருந்தார்கள்.

செல் போன் வந்தாலும் வந்தது, மக்கள் இடம் பொருள் ஏவல் பார்க்காமல் பஸ்ஸிலும் சகஜமாகப் பேசுகிறார்கள். "அடுப்புல பால வை, தோ வந்துண்டே இருக்கேன்",  "கூடுவாஞ்சேரியில் நாலு செண்டுக்கு இது சீப்புத்தான், உடனே வளைச்சுடு:, "நாளைக்கி கண்டிப்பா கொடுத்துடறேன் சார்" - இப்படிப் பல.

மந்தைவெளியிலிருந்து போக வர பத்து ரூபாய்தான். உட்கார்ந்து போகலாம். நல்லா வேடிக்கை பார்க்கலாம். ஆனால் இதெல்லாம் காலை ஆபீஸுக்குப் போகும்போது கிடைக்குமா- சந்தேகம்தான்

Its that time of the year for Gandhi

My early memory of Gandhi stem from reading much about him. In my first year college , I was exposed to a lesson "Some Reminiscences of the Bar", which impressed me to a large extent. I read that chapter so many times , the main narrative text of which I could recall verbatim even now- "...Is it not sharp practice Mr Gandhi.... I boiled within...". In fact, I searched Google with these key words to locate the full name of the chapter ! (http://www.mkgandhi.org/autobio/chap122.htm )

During my student vacation days, I used to take chapters from his autobiography to practice my hand writing daily. The reading of  books like "Freedom at Midnight" gave me deeper insight of  this great personality. Though I do not subscribe to hero worship, I regard this old man of India as one whose qualities are worthy of emulation.

In the pre-independence days, it was stalwarts like Gandhi, who led so many struggles, who went under the British baton, who languished under the unbearable heat and humidity of prisons of those days, which lacked even the basic amenities unlike the current day facilities. This was the one man army which held the then Calcutta peaceful, while the rest of India burned. This was the one who travelled in the ordinary second class train compartments and mingled with the common man unlike the later day 'leaders'.  This was one of those who created , chiseled and worked with such personalities as Dr P.C.Ray who took forty rupees of his Eight hundred rupees salary and gave the rest for the freedom struggle;  Was able to change the perception and style of personalities Vallabhai Patel, who was popularly remembered for his focus to continue his peroration in court, even after  he was informed of his wife's demise. This was one man who did not need AK-47s to rock the empire but did it with a pinch of salt!

Compare this Bapu with some of  today's leaders who swindle at the drop of a hat be it purchase of helicopter or fodder or cemetery or footwear or midday meals ....anything on earth where from currency could be milked.

After this 'Gandhi' Indian polity is replete with so many Gandhis, but none of these could match the stature and sacrifice of this 'half naked fakir', who troubled the Crown so much that Churchill was repeatedly questioning as to why he did not die yet !

This bapu drank goat's milk, ate nuts, adopted nature therapy, cleaned his own toilet, gave new dimensions to celibacy and starved for months for the welfare of the common man.

Later day Gandhis and Bapus never drank anything less than apple juice and mineral water; ate at five star luxury hotels with specially ordered items from a la carte menus; could not sleep without conditioned air even while the common man was suffocating under the cruel Indian summers without power for greater part of the day; could travel only in AC coaches and special airplanes; ignoring the natural wealth of medical professionals in the country who are well respected outside, rush to foreign soil more  to 'gaurd' information about their state of health than for 'better' treatment.

There are people who love to hate the Gandhis and the likes of yesteryear and I have no quarrel with them, for they are entitled to their opinion as I am to mine. But, let us ponder whether the current 'bapus' could have survived in those conditions whereas the original 'Bapu' would have  lived with ease even at the current state of affairs. For the "Bapu" had no 'expectations' while those who 'followed' him could not live without them.

It is a matter of satisfaction that we allocate at least a day yearly to reminisce and savor the thoughts of such great sons of this land!