PROF. (DR.) C G RAMACHANDRAN NAIR

My first meeting of Prof. Dr. C G Ramachandran Nair was when I went to have a ‘dekho’ of Shaleena, my wife later, who was his niece (His sister’s daughter as well as his wife’s brother’s daughter). The two families lived next to each other. He was then the Director of Kerala State Encyclopaedic Publications, a position that came to him while he was the Dean - Faculty of Science at Kerala University. Later my wife told me that her ammavan was impressed by my intellect, a reason perhaps that made others interested to proceed with our marriage.

Though settled in Thycaud Trivandrum, Prof. CGR, as he was commonly called as, was born and brought up in a hamlet near Aluva, by name Kuttipuzha, nestled beside the Periyar river with its picturesque surrounding of the vast river, many gurgling rivulets, paddy fields, Mango groves, coconut farms, multiple temples and inhabited by very hardworking people. His mother The indomitable Chandrathil Gowri Amma had nicknamed him as ശാസ്ത്രജ്ഞൻ (scientist), he truly was a researcher and scientist; highly learned, inquisitive and always seen among books. Having done his Ph.D in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, and having been awarded global science fellowship, he could work and teach in Algeria, Germany, England etc. and that made him adept in German & French languages, other than English.

Though a voracious reader, many books came out of his thought too. He wrote both in Malayalam and in English, most of them revolved around science. Sit with him and listen, for which I have had plenty of opportunities, I found him having immense depth in every subject under the Sun. Every moment spent with him was time well spent. A true believer of Krishna, the deity of his family temple, he wrote several poems in praise of the Lord. However, I must state that I had never seen a finest secular person as Prof. CGR.

Unlike these days where even meritorious people indulge in self promotion, Prof. CGR never indulged even in an iota of it. His merit, maturity and knowledge prompted Chief Minister Karunakaran to appoint him at the very responsible position of Vice Chairman of Science, Technology & Environment Council, Kerala as also as the Secretary of the department, where he could contribute immensely to the development of many scientific research institutions in Kerala, some of them of global standard.

A calm and composed person, I had never seen him angry. There was a professorial gaite in his every action. He was both inclusive and equanimous. The attention he gave even to a young child was as focused as he gave to any other person.

I am deeply indebted to him for the company he gave me for several occasions and for the conversations that I had with him, of high intellectual order which I enjoyed thoroughly. When I wrote my first book “Shubhayatra”, he wrote a lovely preface for it, after reading the book thoroughly and even quoting from it for which I am everlastingly grateful to him.

Though he had told to me many times in our conversation that there is no point in living after 75 years of age, life took him to 93 years. He had undergone the deep pain of the departure of his dearest wife and most loving daughter, in the while. During the last days of his life, he had geriatric challenges too. In the late afternoon of 21st August 2025, he left us all for his heavenly abode.

I consider him as one of the persons who was responsible for the positive transformations in my life. My dear wife always felt privileged to have Prof. CGR as her ammavan.

May his noble soul rest in eternal peace 

Goodbye Ammavn

THE UNION BUDGET 2025 & KERALA STARTUPS

Towards startup promotion and growth, in her budget speech for the year, on  01/02/2025, the Union Finance Minister had announced the setting up of a new ‘Fund of Funds’ with fresh contribution of Rs 10,000 crore. This is in addition to already existing contribution of Rs 10,000 crore. Being a ‘fund of fund’ this will go into as contribution to alternate investment funds (AIF) across the country, towards specific startup funding purposes. This is a good move as the union Government’s contribution, executed through SIDBI, will combine with equivalent or more contributions from other funding bodies and thus the overall funds available for startups in India could be much larger. 

Considering the fact that Startup funding in India had come down drastically in the last 2 years, this could boost up the funding possibilities for startups.  This is good news for many startups who are in startup to standup & standup to scaleup phase of their existence. 

With specific reference to Kerala, we see is reduced commitment of SIDBI towards the state. The SIDBI’s setup in Kerala had been scaled down to a great extent which reflects much lesser commitment of SIDBI to the state. On the other hand, hard pressed for capital, GoK and its institutions such as KSUM, KSIDC etc are not in a position to avail such union government schemes due the sheer incapability of offering matching funds. Therefore how much of the union budget announcement will help Kerala startups, is a mute question. Just see the fact below: 

In the earlier announced Fund of Fund scheme worth INR 10,000 Crores, 144 VC Funds that got sanction from SIDBI.These VCs committed INR 86000 Crores of which Fund of Funds contribution is only 11147 cr. Active private sector VCF is the reason for such huge participation. How ever, there was not even a single VC in the above list  from Kerala. In  Kerala, nobody, neither government  nor private sector, is interested for such initiatives.

In the freshly announced Funds of Funds worth INR 10,000 Crores, I am not sure how many governmental & private funds from Kerala would participate. When the government had done well in Startup ecosystem building in Kerala for the last 10 plus years, if they do not avail such union budget benefits, it would not only be a big opportunity loss but also a gross disservice to the startups that it helped create. 

With such (lack of) nurturing, what would the plight of Kerala Startups?

രണ്ടാമൂഴമില്ലാതെ, ഒരു കാലം കഴിഞ്ഞു

 എം.ടി യുടെ ഏകദേശം എല്ലാ  ബുക്കുകളും ഞാൻ ചെറുപ്പത്തിലെ വായിച്ചിരുന്നു. അദ്ദേഹം കഥ പറയുന്നതിൽ വിരുതുള്ള ആളാണെന്നതിൽ (master storyteller) ഒരു സംശയുവുമില്ലായിരുന്നു എങ്കിലും എനിക്കദ്ദേഹത്തെ അത്രക്കും ഇഷ്ടമില്ലായിരുന്നു. അതിനു കാരണം അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ വായിച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞാൽ വല്ലാത്ത ഒരു മരവിപ്പനുഭവപ്പെടുമായിരുന്നു എന്നതു തന്നെ. അത്രയ്ക്കും വിഷാദവും ഏകാന്തതയും ദുഃഖവും ആ പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ എന്നിൽ ഉളവാക്കിയിരുന്നു. എന്റെ ടീനേജ് പ്രായത്തിൽ അത്രയ്ക്കും അനുസ്വനം വേണ്ടിയിരുന്നില്ല എന്നതായിരിക്കും, ഒരു പക്ഷേ, ശരി.

നിർമാല്യം സിനിമ ഇറങ്ങിയപ്പോൾ കാണാൻ സാധിച്ചില്ല. അന്നെനിക്ക് 14 വയസായിരുന്നു. ഏതാണ്ടു 10 വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് ശേഷം ജോലിയൊക്കെ ആയതിനു ശേഷം TV-യിലാണത് കണ്ടെതെന്നു തോന്നുന്നു. അനുഭവ ദുഃഖങ്ങളുടെ മോഹാലസ്യത്തിൽ (trance) ദൈവത്തിന്റെ കഴുത്തു വെട്ടിയിടുന്ന വെളിച്ചപ്പാടിനെ അവതരിപ്പിക്കാൻ ഇന്നല്ല, അന്നും ആർക്കും ധൈര്യം വരില്ല, എം.ടിക്കല്ലാതെ. കാരണം, അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ ഒരു ചെയ്തിയിലും ഒരു മലയാളിയും ഒരിക്കലും കുറ്റം കണ്ടിരുന്നില്ല എന്നതു തന്നെ.

1987-ൽ ആണെന്നു തോന്നുന്നു, കമ്പനിയുടെ സെയിൽസ് റിവ്യൂ ചെന്നൈ റീജിനൽ ഓഫീസിൽ കഴിഞ്ഞു സഹപ്രവർത്തകനോടൊപ്പം എറണാകുളത്തേക്ക് മടങ്ങുമ്പോൾ ട്രിവാൻഡ്രം മെയിലിൽ മൂന്നു പേർക്കുളള എ.സി കുപ്പെയിൽ മൂന്നാമൻ എം.ടി ആയിരുന്നു. ആദ്യം ഒരു പരിഭ്രമമാണു തോന്നിയെങ്കിലും പരിചയപ്പെടുകയും പിന്നീട് കുറെ നേരം സംസാരിച്ചിരിക്കാനും സാധിച്ചു.  സമയമെടുത്ത് അളന്നുകുറിച്ച വാക്കുകളിൽ ഉത്തരം തന്നും പലപ്പോഴും ഉത്തരം തരാതെ മിണ്ടാതിരുന്നും അദ്ദേഹം സംസാരത്തിൽ ഭാഗഭാക്കായി. തടസ്സമില്ലാതെ സാധാരണ നിലയിൽ അദ്ദേഹത്തോട് സസാരിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞു എന്നതു ഒരു വലിയ കാര്യമായി ഇന്ന് ഇപ്പോൾ തോന്നുന്നു. ഏതോ സിനിമയുടെ കാര്യത്തിന് വന്നിട്ട് ചെന്നൈയിൽ നിന്നും ആലുവയിലേക്ക് സഞ്ചരിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹം.

കൂടെയുണ്ടായിരുന്ന ഏന്റെ സഹപ്രവർത്തകനായ അനിൽ പാലത്തിങ്കലും നല്ല ഒരു വയനക്കാരനായിരുന്നു. വി.കെ.എൻ, സക്കറിയ തുടങ്ങിയവരെപ്പറ്റിയാണ് അനിൽ അദ്ദേഹത്തോട് സംസാരിച്ചത്.

അദ്ദേഹം പണ്ടെങ്ങോ എഴുതിയ ഒരു യാത്രാവിവരണത്തിൽ ഹാൻഡ്ലഗേജിൽ ദിനേശ്ബീഡിയുടെ കെട്ടുകൾ കണ്ടു അമേരിക്കൻ എയർപോർട്ടിൽ കസ്റ്റംസ് ഓഫീഷ്യൽസ് അദ്ദേഹത്തെ ചോദ്യം ചെയ്തയിനെപ്പറ്റി ഞാൻ വായിച്ചിരുന്നു. അതെങ്ങനെ കൈകാര്യം ചെയ്തു എന്ന് ചോദിച്ചപ്പോൾ ബീഡി വലിച്ചു കാണിച്ചുകൊടുത്തു എന്ന് മറുപടി തന്നു.

കൂടുതൽ ബട്ടണുകൾ അദ്ദേഹമിടാത്ത ഷർട്ടിനുള്ളിൽ ശരീരത്തിൽ നെടുനീളത്തിനു diagonal ആയി ഒരു തടിപ്പുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ഞാനതിനെപറ്റി ചോദിച്ചപ്പോൾ കുറച്ച് വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് മുൻപു വയറു കീറി ഒരു മേജർ ശസ്ത്രക്രിയ ചെയ്യേണ്ടി വന്നുവെന്നും അതിന്റെ തയ്യൽപാടാണെന്നും പറഞ്ഞു.

വി.എസ്. ഖണ്ഡേക്കർ എഴുതിയ ‘യയാതി’ കൃതിയുടെ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ്  പരിഭാഷ മുമ്പേ വായിച്ചിരുന്ന ഞാൻ പിൽക്കാലത്ത് എം. ടി യുടെ ‘രണ്ടാമൂഴം’ നോവലും വായിച്ചിരുന്നു. അന്നു മുതൽ എന്റെ മനസ്സിൽ തോന്നിയിരുന്നത് എം.ടി, യയാതി എന്ന കൃതിയിൽ നിന്നും ഒരു ‘inspiration’ രണ്ടാമൂഴം എഴുതാൻ എടുത്തിട്ടുണ്ടാകും എന്നാണ്. ഈ ചോദ്യം ഒരു മുഖവുരയോടു കൂടി ഞാൻ അദ്ദേഹത്തോട് കുറച്ച് പേടിയോടെ തന്നെ ചോദിച്ചു. കുറെ നേരം ഒന്നും മിണ്ടാതെ അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു, “യയാതി വായിച്ചപ്പോൾ ഇന്ത്യൻ പുരാണങ്ങളിലെ പല കഥാപാത്രങ്ങൾക്കും പലതും പറയാനുണ്ടാകും എന്ന് തോന്നിയിരുന്നു.”

Yes എന്നോ No എന്നോ അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞില്ല. പക്ഷേ മറുപടി അർദ്ധഗർഭമായിരുന്നു.

അതിനാലാവാം എല്ലാവരും പൊണ്ണത്തടിയൻ പൊട്ടൻ എന്ന് കരുതിയിരുന്ന ഭീമസേനനെ ഒരു ചിന്തിക്കുന്ന വികാരജീവിയായി അദ്ദേഹം രണ്ടാമൂഴത്തിലൂടെ മാറ്റിയെടുത്തത്. അത് തന്നെയല്ലേ മലബാറുകാർ ചതിയൻ എന്ന് വെറുപ്പോടെ വിളിച്ചിരുന്ന ചന്തുവിന്റെ പരിവേഷം പാടേ അദ്ദേഹം മാറ്റി എഴുതിയത്?

അസാമാന്യമായ സർഗശക്തിയുള്ള ഒരു കഥാകാരനു മാത്രമേ ഇങ്ങനെയൊരു ഒരു വീക്ഷണം സാധ്യാമാകൂ, തീർച്ച.

ഒരു കഥ ഉള്ളിൽ കിടന്നു മഥിക്കുമ്പോൾ ആരോടും ഒന്നും മിണ്ടാതെ, അതിനെ പേനതുമ്പിലുടെ പുസ്തക രൂപത്തിലാക്കി വായനക്കാരുടെ മനസ്സിളക്കിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ഇതിവൃത്തമാക്കി മാറ്റാനുള്ള എം.ടിയുടെ കഴിവിനെ നമിക്കുന്നു. ആ നോവലുകളിലൂടെ, തിരക്കഥകളിലൂടെ, എഴുത്തുകളിലുടെ, സിനിമ സംവിധാനത്തിലൂടെ മലയാള ഭാഷ ഉള്ളടത്തോളം കാലം, അതിൽ എം.ടി. വാസുദേവൻ നായരുടെ കാൽപ്പാടുകൾ ഉണ്ടാകും.

OH MAN!

At the beginning, he was in foetal position, in the cool comfort of the womb of his mother. He was regularly getting the food and water thru the umbilical cord.

Staying within, he started hearing sounds from outside and he would quietly listen to the noises. He then understood that there is a world outside from where he is currently now. And the noises tempted him to get out and reach that world.

In his desire to see the world, he started kicking the wall of the womb. Little did he realise that to his mother, that was the moment of physical pain and positive pleasure.

Days passed and he succeeded in getting out. He was born to the world.

As he opened his eyes, he saw lots of faces looking at him and he cried loud out of fear. Soon he would hear a lovely lullaby, would immerse himself in that and would sleep off peacefully.

He started growing and started learning many things. He learnt from many; first being the mother, also from other connected human beings and of course, from the nature that was around.

Mother helped him a lot. He started crawling, thereafter, trying to walk and fall, then again, walk straight without help ……..

He learnt many things from people and other creatures around. He learnt about the unity of ants and the ability of each ant to carry bodies having hundred times its weight. He understood the saving habit of storing grains by the ants.

He saw the mother hen protecting its chicks, fighting multitude of crows trying to attack them.

The nature taught him the wind, the rain, the heat, the cold and the weather changes.

For someone who started out on pure milk of the mother, he progressed into solid food and then into junk foods that were adultered. His body, mind and thoughts also started getting adultered. As he grew, his hubris also grew along.

As the body grew, he also developed feelings such as love & lust along side.

From boyhood, through student-ship, he advanced into a youth, learning many things in the process. Looking at the world, he understood that money is the single most important thing in life. And, slowly he forgot all the values taught by his mother and the nature. He married and celebrated parenthood.

As he became rich, he realised that his parents are distasteful in comparison with his new friends and relatives he had acquired. He developed a high ‘status’ for himself.

Though in his childhood he loved the hills and backwater, now he destroyed them to make houses, shopping malls & resorts. He illegally annexed land from the poor and shooed away those who approached him with hunger.

Time passed. Standing in front of his imported Belgium mirror, he saw his crumbled face and fast graying hairs and he didn’t feel good. One day, he fainted and collapsed. People brought him to the hospital.

For weeks together his languid body, strapped with equipments, was laid on the ICU bed. Hazily but, he could hear his children around fighting for the wealth created by him. He sadly realised that every one of them wanted him to die.

Then the angel approached him with the coldness to fill his body. He cried out to them to spare him. His begging for extending his life fell on dead ears, for the angel was strictly doing its assigned duty.

As the angel carried him, he tried to shake himself off from its grip. He thought that like he did in the womb, he could jump out to life again. But with no energy, he really felt fatigued and humbled.

His children buried his body and went away. Slowly, it decomposed and the worms started feeding  on it. The seeds that were thrown over his grave germinated into plants and absorbed the manure that his body had become.  

That has been the nature’s course, to give his body away to the plants and the trees that he destroyed while being alive! 

Oh man, the way  the cycle of Karma works

WHEN EDUCATION BOOMERANGS

Education is universally accepted as the means to progress, improved living conditions and better culture. It begets knowledge, skills, better behaviour and social upliftment. 

Any proper investment done in education has always yielded good returns. Can anyone think of the planet without educational infrastructure and services? 

Progress in technology brought about a virtual world where people could meet and communicate without moving. Online delivered content almost as if being offline. Covid 19 and the closure of the world consolidated the online presence, particularly in education. In fact being online helped to ensure that no one lost out their educational years during the pandemic. 

Byju’s (the company is officially known as Think and Learn Private Limited) was in existence even before Covid 19. Byju Ravindran, the promoter, has been an excellent tuition master when it came to entrance coaching for professional courses. He has cashed this reputation to scale up his venture with assistance from technology and that was the formation of Byju’s, the online educational platform. 

Due to his reputation as an excellent entrance coach, Byju was always in news. The success of Khan’s Academy, a pioneer in online classes, motivated venture funds to invest heavily in Byju’s. With such funding, Byju, in his round T shirt & Jeans ( a la Zackerburg), became a poster boy in Indian Start-up scene. 

With the large mass of K12 student in India, the funders thought that Byju’s would succeed. The company recruited from IITs and IIMs and formed a huge workforce, both in content production and marketing. Venture funds received were burned in  marketing blitzkriegs including sponsoring Indian cricket teams for years. Leading actors became Byju’s brand ambassadors. Covid was a blessing in disguise for the company where online education boomed and the pundits predicted the online makeover of education from offline. In all, Byju’s got funded to the tune of USD 8 Billion! The company went into a dizzying market cap of USD 25 Billion. 

Alas, Byju’s aggressive and unethical marketing strategies bombed. It ended up with huge litigations from customers across India. It could never reach its revenue targets. Scandels emerged. To compensate that, the company went into acquiring spree and ended up in buying about 20 companies in online & offline education space. Even that did not help the company improve its revenue expectations. Most of its investments went into black hole. Challenges with its auditing firm came out. Funders started blaming Byju and went after him personally. Good talent jumped out of the company and others got sacked. The protagonist wasn’t seen being in India lately. 

The news appeared on 14/01/24, shows Byju’s market cap being brought down to USD 1 billion by BlackRock. It is really not the end of the news. We could be hearing about Byju’s more, but not positively. It looks as if even a miracle may not be able to save Byju’s. At best, it could end up as a case study in B. Schools.

CONNECTING THE DOTS & TRYING TO MAKE SENSE FROM IT

Let us start with science, about the creation and existence of our universe. 

The Big Bang theory explains how the universe got created from a single point by high density and temperature. The whole thing is believed to have exploded from the single point and thereafter it started expanding ever since. The expansion continues, still. 

NASA describes black hole as a space with such intense gravity that it even it pulls in the light into it. In the black hole, everything is squeezed into such a tiny space, into a single dot. 

The quantum Physics hypothesizes that ALL elementary particles of matter are closed loops of waveform, with intense energy residing in it. By this hypothesis, matter & energy are identified to be two forms of one itself. This is now getting promulgated as ‘unified theory’. The latest experiments on this at CERN & other labs had generated excitement to all science lovers, world over. 

Let us now dwell a while on the Indian spiritual explanation of the situation before the creation: 

Nasadiya Sukta explains the origin of universe (verse 19:129 of Rig Ved). It says;

“There was neither non-existence nor existence then. Neither the realm of space nor the sky beyond. There was neither death nor immortality, neither night nor day, none breathed, for it was windless, and there was absolutely nothing beyond. In to the void, the force of heat came into being”

It then asks, “what stirred, where, in whose protection?”

It doesn’t ascribe the stirring to the Gods, as it says elsewhere that even Gods came after the creation. 

The puranic Hindu cosmology view asserts that the universe is created, destroyed, and re-created in an eternally repetitive series of cycles.

The repeated (cyclic) creation, destruction & re-creation of universes is not asserted by science, yet. How do we explain the big bang theory and the black hole in the context of Hindu cosmology view? Or is it all an illusion (maya) of the mind and the sense organs? 

Isn’t creation, destruction & re-creation similar to birth, death and re-birth?  

Does it help connecting the dots? Aren’t we also part of the cycle? 

Does it confuse us? Or, does it endorses Heinrich Heins, when he says, “sleep is good, death is better of course, the best thing would have been never born at all?

YEAR END MUSING

The year 2023 is about to close. In many ways, it had been a critical year of the century for the Planet so far. 

By late 2019, Wuhan reported an extraordinary respiratory illness akin to SARS and China went about on a war footing to address it but without telling the world.  Spread it did, and took every nation unaware, as we watched how the governments combated it. It came to be legally known as Covid 19 (short form of Corona Virus Disease 2019) & the pandemic did have ‘thandav’ across the planet.  

As per World Health Organisation (WHO), as of date, globally, there have been 77,28,38,745 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 69,88,679 deaths. As I write this,  a total of 13,59,57,21,080 vaccine doses have been administered on the people. This had been one hell of an anti-pandemic endeavour for the world. The way vaccines got formulated underwent sea change, to the extent that the scientists who developed the Covid vaccine unconventionally, are declared as the Nobel Prize winners for the year 2023. 

As I write this, in this part of the world, another variant of Covid, JN.1, is now playing tricks. How far & how destructive this be, will be known only by the beginning quarter of the new year. 

Yes, the year 2020 & 2021 fully belonged to the Pandemic. The year 2022 went this way, that way and only by 2023 that the world relaxed. The new normals of life slowly started receding back but with abundant caution, and now, hybrid life is a gift of Covid 19 to mankind.

Personally, the year 2023 was a year of transition for me. It is when I decided to end my deep association with the  professional and social bodies that I was actively part of. Thus, my TiE Kerala, KMA & Rotary activities fully came to a standstill. What is now left is ISTD where again, my intense involvement had well reduced. Being in the thick of it all for more than a quarter century, I was afraid that I would display ‘withdrawal’ tendencies but the impact wasn’t as heavy and today one is very comfortable with the current state of affairs. My routine acts like teaching at CUSAT, keynote deliveries, mentoring, blogging etc. continued without any hitch in 2023. 

I may want to concentrate on two main things for me for the future; travel and writing. In the year 2023, my reading got doubled and so did my travelling; Hong Kong, Andamans Island, Kolkotta, Jaipur travels figured in the year. The disappointment was not visiting Chola/Pandya edifices in Tamil Nadu, though it was very well in the plans for 2023. One hopes, it should fructify in the year 2024.  

I am also hopeful to finish 2 books during the coming year, first one in English is 99 percent ready and the other already well formed in the mind. Procrastination being what it is, still keeping the fingers crossed 😌

I would like to hear from you about the year that was for you and your plans for the year in the anvil. 

Here is wishing you the very best of the season! You take care.

VRISCHIKOLSAVAM @ POORNATHRAYEESA TEMPLE, TRIPUNITHURA, COCHIN

By late November, each year, festival in temples of Kerala begins, mostly with the Guruvayur temple Ekadashi fest. And for close to 4 months thereafter, thousands of Hindu temples across in the state of Kerala will celebrate the festivities independently.

Tripunuthura Poornathrayeesa temple fest falls in December month of each year. This year, it began on the 9th of December and it will go on till 16th December, for 8 long days. Poornathrayeesa temple festival is one of major temple festivals in Kerala, something which goes on from the morning to the wee hours of the night every day.

On each day, by morning, evening and night; plethora of art, dance and musicals are performed here, Ottan Thullal, Kathakali, Dance, Musical concerts and of course, the Melams. Different types of Melams are performed for long hours within the temple precincts, Panchari melam, Thayamabaka, Nadaswaram and the like.

Poornathrayeesa temple’s main deity is Maha Vishnu, in the form of ‘Santana Gopala Murthy’ and it is one of the patron Gods of the erstwhile Kochi kings. Monarchy is long gone but the reverence and enthusiasm with which people of Tripunuthura conducts the festivities of this temple, even to this day, is something very noteworthy. Tens of thousands of people throng to the temple each day and they stay on the premises for long duration, enjoying firstly the melam, and then, the other art forms performed around.

On the first day itself, my wife and I made our visit to the temple to enjoy the morning ‘Panchari melam’. It was played by the renowned Artist, Padmasri Peruvanam Kuttan Marar and his team. It started at 7.30 hours and went on till noon, such a nonstop performance! All this happens in front of 10 plus caparisoned elephants. It was an enchanting visual. It was reverberating and overwhelming.

We are living in the Internet era with technology playing a huge role on the life of people. It has shrunk the time on planet and its beings. However, the how people had preserved their culture and carry it on, could be well experienced from festivals such as this

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ENTREPRENEURS

On 27/10/2013, I had an opportunity to moderate a conversation with Prof. Stephen Zhang, professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy of Adelaide Business School, Australia, involving invited local entrepreneurs at Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Kalamassery, Kochi.

Prof. Zhang, an electronic engineer and a doctorate in management, is a simple human being, otherwise a brilliant thought leader, who has been adjudged as the top Research Professor of the year by his University for consecutive terms, in addition to being chosen among the top 2% Scientist of the world by Stanford University. He had done deep research in the psychology of entrepreneurs, uncertainty in entrepreneurship, psycho physics and gender balance in entrepreneurship

Speaking about the psychology of entrepreneurs, he said that research had proven that entrepreneurs have more self efficacy to transform increasing perception of uncertainty into exploration & opportunity identification.

He terms psycho physics as an area of significance future research to study the entrepreneurial bias and distortion of perception such as underestimating high probables end overestimating low probables.

In a significant study, his team’s research could identify that gender inclusivity is not just an equity issue but a business case. The finding is that a gender balanced team has much more chances of entrepreneurial success. It is not that one gender scores over the the other but gender balance definitely delivers better entrepreneurial outcomes.

The conversation took place in the presence of invited entrepreneurs from different fields such as technology, skill development, alternate learning, medical devices, forex etc. The audience also included the senior professors of XIME as well as student members of XIME Entrepreneurship club. The entrepreneurs had exchanged their views and shared their experiences with the professor some of which did coincide with the professor’s research findings.

It was a forenoon well spent, high in intellectual content, going deeper into understanding of the entrepreneurial psyche, all that happened in the calm and amiable institutional surrounding of XIME.

POLITICAL LEADERS BLOWING THE TRUMPET

Very often we see full page advertisements published by governments of States in newspapers across the nation, including even the vernacular dailies. The States of Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Telangana & Punjab are most prominent among them. Staying in Kerala, one doesn’t know if our government publish such ads in newspapers outside Kerala?

It is a clear fact that a genuine reader hates advertisements in the newspaper. In fact he looks at it negatively. At worst, he would give it just a cursory glance, period. Even if some readers have a look at it, she wouldn’t bother. And it is also a fact is that no one reads the advertisement. Surely, an average newspaper reader is not bothered about the tall claims advertised by a State in the country with which he is simply not having any connection with.

All in all, the purpose of the advertisement is never served. Knowing this fully, the States waste so much of money on huge periodic advertisements on newspapers of other States whose readers never find a relevance in it.

The money saved by not blowing the trumpet in other State’s print media could be better utilised for the real welfare of the people of the State. For example, it could have saved a patient from death, it could have helped a family marry off its daughter, it would have helped build a home for homeless, it could have helped fill the empty stomach of the poverty-ridden, it could have helped many geriatrics to live better in old age homes……..

Who is bothered here? Remember, each of these States is spending additionally huge money (and machinery) in a big way in social media campaigns too. What do these political leaders of the State want? Sheer PUBLICITY, nothing else.

And most of the claims in the advertisement would have been just pronouncements with no further actions taken on it. Claims having no substance in it is being advertised by fame seeking political leaders in this ‘post truth’ world. The world had changed a lot, isn’t it ?

Other than helping the news baron’s financial status, these ads do not help any purpose.

10 COMMANDMENTS ON CREATING AN ECOSYSTEM TO CLOSE DEALS FAST & EFFICIENTLY

1. Train the sales team on attitude, responses, telephone / email / messaging etiquette and customer centricity

2. Slowly, steadily and continually indoctrinate a *winners mindset* in them

3. Create high learning quotient in your agents. Conduct product quiz regularly & incentivise product learning.

4. Automating your sales processes (CRM, SFA, Call centre software, Customer care solution etc) is a must BUT please do not complicate it for sales guys while entering it. Sales people enjoy winning cases than documenting them.

5. When an executive joins, she must be properly oriented through her JD, KRA and KPIs. W.r.t. KPIs, encourage her to do self reviews.

6. Do not fill up you customer / prospect database with incoherent, unintelligent data. Data must be accurate, continually updated and relevant, so that your agents are able to touch base the right contact at the right time.

7. Clean your customer data from time to time (people leave companies often) and add current data (name & coordinates of contacts) so that it is fresh and accurate

8. Feed the agent with appropriate domain based case studies and customer endorsements / references to help her close the deals.

9. Get your HR manager to come up with programs that create curiosity, excitement and positivity in your agents. Create a calendar of activities in advance for training & fun sessions. Have monthly colourful award / reward function for them.

10. The reviewing mentors & superiors must have continuous ‘one on one’ session with the agents periodically. Do reviews decently and positively. Keep negativity and criticisms out. Never hurt the self esteem of executives. Objective of the mentors must be to create a winner’s mindset in them.

KALPATHY RATHOLSAVAM 2023

All these years, one was only hearing and reading about Kalpathy Chariot Festival (Ratholsavam) but the urge to see it and experience it finally materialised this year. So, my wife & I, off we went to Kalpathy on the 16th November which was the crescendo day of the festivities. A good friend, Prof. (Dr) Rajeswari who is a resident of Kalpathy ‘Agraharam’ (the Tamil name of a traditional Brahmin village) played the role of a perfect host,

The Ratholsavam is similar to the famous Rathayatra, the annual chariot festival carrying the ‘vigraha’ of Lord Jagannath of Puri, Odisha (which gave rise to the English word, “Juggernaut”, meaning an overwhelming force). This is a unique festival, conducted in pure Vedic tradition by the migrant Tamil Brahmins (locally called, Bhattar / Pattar - പട്ടർ) who settled on the banks of Kalpathy river, a tributary of the river Nila or Bharathapuzha, during 14th century CE. The temple of Lord Shiva with consort Parvathy (addressed here as Viswanatha & Visalakshi) was consecrated sometime during 1425 CE. The progenies of migrant Brahmins from Thanjavur, Kumbakonam & Madurai, settled in 4 adjoining villages of Chathapuram, Govindarajapuram, Kalpathy & New Kalpathy; all come together in these days, carrying the Gods of their own village along with them, in hugely decorated wooden chariots. Thus the Lords; Siva with consort Parvathy, Ganesha, Vishnu & Subramanya move around Kalpathy and finally have their confluence in front of the Viswanatha temple on the last day. This, we experienced in its awesome beauty, milling with huge crowd (it is said that over a 100,000 people visit here on the last day)

It is a real sight watching the devotees pull the HUGE chariots. Men, women, children, old & young; all partake in it, singing devotional songs. The force required to pull the chariot is tremendous and while on move, the stability of the chariot needs to be keep, which can be managed only by experienced hands. All these happening with hundreds of thousand people moving around, with no untoward mishap all through these days, is a humongous task by itself.

Festivals like Kalpathy Ratholsavam manifests the legacy of the rich tradition and culture of the country and the state. Something that started 7 centuries ago, is still enacted in its pristine glory by the descendants who had significantly partaken in the progress of the country! Being there at the historic Ratholsavam, observing it with the underlying knowledge of our glorious past, was an experience in itself

A DAY @ STATE BANK INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP (SBIL), KOLKOTA.

Based on the invitation of the Dean of SBIL, Prof. Dr. N. Krishna Kumar to deliver a session on “Higher Leadership for Organisational Excellence” at this institute on the forenoon of 4th December, 2023 and also to partake in the Panel discussion with Dr Anil K Khandelwal, former CMD of Bank of Baroda & Shri. Arun K Jain, Sr. Vice President of SBI Capital, moderated by Dr KK by the same evening on the theme, ‘Leading in the age of disruption & transformation’.

The institute is located in the Fintech Zone of fast developing Newtown of Kolkata. In style, substance and size, SBIL is a huge edifice having all modern infrastructure to conduct multiple concurrent residential leadership programs not only for the senior managers of State Bank of India (SBI) but also for senior officers of other banks within and outside India.

The one that I lectured was an International Leadership Development Program for senior managers of multiple banks located in 5 different nations (Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Indonesia & India), a cohort of 30 officers attending it for a week. In fact the program started with my session. I had enjoyed delivering it and I hope the participants have had some good take-aways.

The panel discussion had a larger audience, in addition to the above cohorts, it was also physically attended by the close to 70 Dy. General Managers of SBI who were undergoing training here, plus close to 200 alumnus of SBIL attending in online mode from different parts of the world. The panel discussion was truly enriching with Dr Khandelwal leading it in his inimical style.

Having lectured in many similar institutions in the past, I observed SBIL to be far ahead of others, in terms of both content and delivery. Its top class infrastructure surely aids the knowledge dissemination in a big way. For me too, it was a new but pleasant experience.

Learning and development must be the key to growth and sustenance of any corporate. While this is a global understanding, it is not the way Indian corporates look at L&D. We see regular cuts being effected on L&D budgets of many companies. It is indeed heartening to see SBI standing as an exception to this.

I am very impressed by the care given to us by the multitasking Dean, Prof. N Krishna Kumar and the efficient, unassuming Director of the Institute, Shri. K.V Bangarraju, who is also a General Manager of SBI. With such committed professionals in the top, it is no wonder that SBIL is delivering world-class L&D programs to its stakeholders.

NAVARA RICE - A SUCCESS STORY

Narayanan Unny hails from a traditional farming family in Chittoor, Palakkad District of Kerala.

I had known him since mid-80’s, that was when he approached me seeking business partnership from Hindustan Computers Limited that I headed in Kerala at that time, which he set up at Calicut & Palakkad and ran fairly well for many years.

His father’s death was a turning point in his life.  He decided to go back to rice farming that his dad was following. For more than 150 years, the family owned 15+ acre paddy field. Rather than being a  ‘Palakkadan Matta Rice’ cultivator, he thought radically to revive the Navara rice cultivation, that was endemic to the place, but has been practically extinct.

Navara rice has this enormous medicinal properties and traditional Ayurveda greatly depends on it for the treatment of cervical spondylosis, low backache, paralysis, rheumatoid arthritis & neuromuscular disorders.

The book, ‘Navara Rice - A success Story’ published by ‘Trust for Advancement in Agricultural Science’, New Delhi headed by Dr. RS Paroda, briefs his struggle and endeavour of more than 2 decades. While a normal farmer would have given up, Unny, with great efforts and with the goodwill and assistance from family, friends, scientists, policy makers and industry bodies; revived Navara rice and established its supply chain as a true organic food.

Unny & I have always been in touch and are good family friends. Though fully aware of his acts, I had not considered the true value of Unny’s endeavor until I read this book and then for the next half an hour I let my mind go through his trials to establish Navara Eco Farm. It was indeed a committed but tough act.

Narayanan Unny, the one man army’s determination, patience, perseverance and toil to revive a practically extinct rice variety and the successful outcome of establishing the most valued Navara rice back in to the shelves, for people & ayurvedics to use it,  for deriving immense health benefits from it; is an epic story by itself.  

There is a Tamil novel by Jayakanthan, titled, ‘Sila nerangalil sila manithargal’. Loosely translated, it says, ‘some persona in some moments’. To me, Narayanan Unny is the really the man of the moment.

May the planet beget more Narayan Unny’s!

TRICKS PLAYED BY THE E - COMMERCE SITES ON THE ONLINE CUSTOMERS

 In order to entice/retain customers (even if they are a dissatisfied lot), and continue to increase the yield per client, ecommerce companies resort to many tactics that many a time, are identified as unethical (at times, illegal). Some of them are: 

1. Subscription Trap 

When you want to unsubscribe, the site will redirect you through a series of pages, thereby tiring you and making it technically impossible for you to unsubscribe 

2. False Urgency 

Creating, of course falsely, a sense of the urgency in your mind. E.g: while booking hotel room, message popping out saying, “ only 1 room left”

3. Basket Sneaking 

While checking out, including additional items in your shopping cart without you knowing and/or without your consent  

4. Confirm Shaming

Using an audio or video response to create a sense of shame / fear / guilt in the buyer. For e.g: when you drop a product from the cart, a video response coming from the screen making you feel cringe feeling guilty or shame 

5. Forced Action 

Forcing the user to buy additional items. For e.g: auto check mark for flight insurance while booking an online air ticket. 

6. Privacy Zuckering 

When ticking ‘terms & conditions’ during an online purchase, the same term sheet would have included a line taking your your consent for sharing your data, without your realising it. Many terms & conditions are laborious and come in fine print and buyers don’t actually read while buying online ! 

7. Interface Interference 

The design of the site that manipulates user interface, depending on the system’s buyer knowledge E.g: a) highlights certain specific information; and (b) obscures other relevant information 

8. Bait & Switch 

Advertising a particular outcome based on user’s action such as luring customers into using a product under attractive terms, then change the conditions once engaged, forcing them to accept the outcome, usually a paid service. 

9. Drip Pricing

The pricing elements are not revealed upfront. Minimal pricing information is available but when you click to buy, other pricing elements are loaded to it. 

10. Disguised Advertisement

Hiding additional inputs from buyers until they are committed to making a purchase. E.g: disguised advt. on the software download page to boost ad revenue, such as, displaying advertisements with a prominent download button that closely resembles the actual download button for the desired software.

These are called dark patterns, and these tactics are employed  by e-commerce sites when you reach out to it for buying. Many Governments, now also India, are enacting regulations against it including punitive measures. 

NARCISSISTIC GASLIGHTERS

Long ago, while employed, a colleague of mine in product marketing used to mock at me regularly, telling me that many sales managers with whom I am communicating, feel that I am not in touch with reality, whenever I send them new campaign directions. Funnily, I never heard this from any sales personnel directly within the company. 

A Marwari entrepreneur friend in the same business vertical as I was, whenever we used to meet, told me me that he genuinely feel for me and my company but my way of handing a particular principal vendor was incorrect. (It was another thing that he also had this vendor as his supplier)

A young and enthusiastic auditor friend with a good background, an associate in the movement that we are part of, used to shower me all the respect on one-on-one basis, whenever got an opportunity in a crowd with me, cut jokes at my expenses

An advocate member of the club that I had chartered, used to listen to my speeches in the club intently but once it is over, will publicly remark in the end, “what else is expected of you, as usual, you did that long winding speech”

In my professional, personal and social life, I had come across enough of such associates/friends (?) trying to upset me or ridicule me with such comments, assessing me incorrectly, trying to manipulate the reality around me, I used to wonder, ‘why they do so’? 

Upon my reading and research over the period, I had realised that these are the envious narcissistic gaslighters, doing it to upset my self esteem, thus trying to off balance me, making me think that something is wrong with me. 

Gaslighting is defined as a manipulative tactic employed by someone to gain power & control over the other, planting seeds of uncertainty thus affecting other’s self esteem through the process of self-doubt. When it is done to you by egoistic people who are jealous of your abilities, they turn out to be Narcissistic Gaslighters. 

Through outright lying, manipulating reality, scapegoating and coercion, the gaslighter tries to intentionally distort your reality, making you feel that what you are  seeing or feeling isn't real. This could even affect your mental wellness. 

The gaslighters try to show that they love / respect you but their intent is to serve themselves, whether it is to gain more power or control or to feel that they are better than others.

How do you handle the envious, narcissistic, gaslighter? 

When you recognise one, as much as possible, be away from him. You consciously stand firm in your truth even if he is trying to use communication to make you self doubt. Do not indulge him or try to outsmart him, that is what he is waiting to pile on you further. By increasing the support system around you and sharing the truth with them you can help yourself retain sanity.

Beware of the gaslighters, they are toxic!

EXCUSE PLEASE, WE ARE INDIANS

In every domestic travel (be it bus, train or plane) that I do, I get deeply perturbed by the haste, hurry and disorderliness displayed by the passengers. They hurry into the vehicle as if others are going to take away their reserved seats. Even before the end of the journey, and before the vehicle comes to halt, they jump up, pick up their luggage and stand, showing big urgency in getting out! 

The domestic transports are always noisy with people talking to each other in high decibels, passengers listening to loud music/video in their mobile phones without earphones and the like. One aways notice lack of calmness & patience and the body language, that of perpetual restlessness! 

Even outside, in driving, in the usage of public facilities &  conveniences, the lack of civility is tremendously visible. The hustle and din prevails completely on the Indian in whatever he does. We behave as if the world is going to end imminently before which we must complete the act! 

In many parts of the developed world that I had travelled, I always found a sense of orderliness in the behaviour of its citizens, be it travelling in public transports, driving vehicles, shopping, eating in restaurants, walking & crossing roads  etc. They strictly adhere to the system, rules and the policy framework. All these are built with very high level of precautions that give assurance to the denizens of highest levels of safety & security to their life and properties. And they calmly go about with their life in orderliness. 

I used to wonder, why we are built the way we are. A majority of Indians live in misery and the demography is so huge for a country of India’s size. It is like too little for too many people wanting things, and that insecurity creeps into all our acts which results in all these wanton behaviour. Though large percentage of population had progressed out of poverty, the ‘poverty in the mind’ continues to haunt everyone.

And the irritation grows more when we hear the myopic leaders tell us how good we are, what ‘sanskriti’ we had and why we should not ape the developed world. Mired in superstitions and pseudoscience, they tell us how we ‘contributed’ to the progress of the world. They intricately mix up religion & caste with the polity, to keep us tied in as parochial clans, despising others. 

It is clear that unless we free our mind, consciously get out the sense of misery and allowing to see others with empathy & positivity, we shall  continue with our clannish hooligan behaviour.

REMEMBERING GORDON MOORE

“The number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years” - Gordon Moore, 1965

Gordon E Moore was one of those few technocrats who shaped the modern world. His company, Intel Inc, which he set up with former colleague Robert Noyce in the year 1968, had played a major role in the growth of the semiconductor technology, the real heart of computing and ICT.

The prediction that he made in 1965, now called Moore’s Law, an observational hypothesis, is holding good even today (though they say now about it giving way to Neven’s law of quantum computing). Today a 15 core Intel Xeon Server chip holds about 4.3 billion transistors inside it and anyone could guess the processing power the computer that holds it.

Gordon Moore is an alumnus of San Jose University, University of California & Caltech where he completed his PhD. He then joined Nobel laureate William Shockley in Shockley Semiconductor division of Beckman Instruments to build semiconductors. Later, he became part of the ‘traitorous eight’, 8 senior engineers leaving Shockley Semiconductor to start Fairchild Semiconductor.

In the year 1968, along with one of the ‘traitorous eight’, Robert Noyce; Moore set up Intel Inc. While the company had its ups and downs, with the joining of Andre Grove & Craig Barrette, Intel never looked back and became the de-facto CPU of personal computers. By holding close to 90 % monopoly in CPU business of PCs, intel grew ever so fast in the past 5 decades, and is still at the centre of computing inspite of many pretenders, copycats and alternative technology co’s such as Google.

About Moore’s law he said, “Rather than becoming something that chronicled the progress of industry, it became something that drove it”. The law of the founder motivated the company to stay in course with initially the X86 series of microprocessors and then Pentium, Pentium Quadcore, Pentium i3 and now huge Xeon server processors!

Personally I had some experience with Intel Pentium processors as the product manager of HCL Hewlett Packard in the early 1990s. I remember our team being presented by the architect of the processor, Mr Vinod Dham at our labs at NOIDA. Also had the opportunity to work with the Intel India team in releasing our ‘Infiniti’ PCs based on Pentium processor for the India market. And I proudly wore the Intel Pentium T shirt that they gifted to me, with the successful bywords in it, “Intel Inside”!

About the growth of microprocessors Moore said this, “this powerful technology has allowed us to make more and more complex high performance circuits. They are the basis of everything electronics we have, unprecedented in human history”!

This self made billionaire (net worth of 7 billion USD as on Feb. 2023), passed away peacefully on March 24, 2023, at the age of 94 years, surrounded by family at his home in Hawaii.

The colossus of modern technology has called it a day. May his Soul rest in eternal peace!

Adios Gordon Moore

END OF THE DUTCH SUPREMACY IN INDIA.

By 17th century, the Dutch (Holland) had taken over the control of the sea trade with India. This they achieved through Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or simply, the Dutch East India Company. In fact the Company, established in 1602, was the first multinational corporation of the Planet.

Well funded & militarily mighty, VOC held monopoly of the global spice trade in most of the 17 & 18th century. For 2 centuries, it paid avg. 20% dividend to its share holders. Adjusted to inflation, in today’s money, it had a market capitalisation of USD 7 Trillion!

By the early 18th century, the Dutch economic and political power in southern India was at its peak. It threw the Portuguese out, defeated Zamorin of Calicut and even converted the kingdom of Kochi into a vassal state.

In spite of its might, the Dutch Company was brought down to its knees, thanks to the valour of the Travancore King of that time.

in 1739, the Dutch Governor Gustaaf Van Imhoff, during negotiations with Marthanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore, on the Dutch interests in Malabar, threatened the king that if he doesn’t heed, Dutch forces would destroy Travancore.

In his reply, the king quipped: "With all due respect to you sir, in that case, I will certainly invade Holland".

Miffed, the Governor walked off, determined to teach the king of a small kingdom, a lesson. Soon, a large contingent of Dutch forces landed in Colachel port (15 KM away from Padmanabhapuram, the then capital of Travancore) led by Captain Eustachius De Lannoy with intention to make a quick dash & capture the capital.

When the armies met, (‘Battle of Colachel’), the Dutch could not match the fighting spirit of the bare bodied Travancore army & suffered crushing defeat. Lannoy & his deputy got captured. The King forced the Dutch to sign a peace treaty, taking over most of the Dutch assets & spice trade .

Varma made Lannoy a trainer of his forces, to modernise the Army, which went on to be part of ‘Madras Regiment’ of Independent India.

Marthanda Varma indeed had his life moment in world history. But the latter day colonial & Indian historians didn’t think of his feat important enough to give a mention in the country’s history books.

It is often said that history is the biography of the victors. In the case of Marthana Varma, it wasn’t so. In fact same was the case of the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Chalukyas, Rastrakutas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagara & similar South Indian Kingdoms of yore. How many of you know that by 11th century CE, the Cholas were world’s first & largest thalassocracy (marine empire), expanding deep into far east?

The Indian history books have a definite north Indian taste. In my Social studies classes, I could only learn about the Maurya’s, Gupta’s, Khushana’s, the Turkish rulers (Lodhi etc.) & the Mughals.

What do you call it - conditioned learning?