Moral Police

Tamil Nadu can boast and take pride in saying that it has the maximum Engineering colleges which are recognised by the AICTE, the statutory authority. Students throng this centre in quest for higher education that will represent quality in terms of wisdom and knowledge. one of my friend's daughter got admission in one of the faculties in a popular engineering college on the much talked about OMR road in chennai. This is also supposed to be the IT corridor and is expected to develop as a very posh southern colony in south Chennai city with numerous multi-storey ed buildings, posh Malls, theatres etc.. The young girl was in for a rude shock when the students were handed over a printed pamphlet of dos and don ts and warnings if adherence was not up to the desired levels!! one such don ts was that the girls should not wear Jeans pants or a T-shirt as it would probably provoke boys to indulge in wrong doings!! another point was that the hair should not be let loose and instead tied up neatly as a phony-tail preferably with flowers in true sense and letters of our life style! Probably by doing this, the authorities might feel that the girls are disciplined and bound by culture? Another major warning was that no girl or a boy can talk to each other and if any one found guilty of talking can be punished and even dismissed from the college!!! Besides prohibition of cellular phones, the college also allows the girls to go our only on one weekend from the college. The guardian or the parents have to send a fax to the college authorities if they want their daughter to be allowed to go out on any other weekend!! Now, what do you call this?? doesn't it sound like whats going on in Afghanistan?? Why such strict morale policing and is there any law which empowers the college management to frame their own strict rules and regulations?? The girls who joined the college were asked to wear only salwar-kameez and the dupatta pinned on either side of the shoulders for making a photo-id !

Like my friend's daughter, many of those who joined the college were seen repenting about their choice of institution and seen sulking imagining the tough time that they will be forced to withstand for the next 4 years at least?

According to me, college is not only as institution for learning but also a place for exchange of culture, equality and confidence building so as to brave the future. Most of the colleges in Tamil Nadu practices this trend by separating boys from the girls and vice-verse whereby they are forced into a situation of celibacy. This could lead to great mis-understandings specially after the marriage as neither would know how to talk or deal with their respective spouses!! The boy or the girl may try and avoid coming face to face because of their college back ground and this could lead to serious post marital complications leading to increase in number of divorces amongst the newly married?

Its time that our Education Ministry takes a note of this and issue suitable directives to all the institutions in the country not to drive a divide in the gender which may lead to Homo-sexuality or Lesbianism, if not dealt with properly. I reckon college is a place where both the boys and the girls should be allowed to mix freely, exchange views and knowledge. The college should also address a situation when the man gets a job with an MNC bossed by a capable woman to whom he has to report on daily basis. Can the college management prevent such a situation??

Let us accept the reality and realise that co-education leads to absolute confidence in both the boy and the girl alike,helps them to stand up to any situation and to face the challenges of future. This will also lead to better understanding of a person or should I say Human-being??

Sound of Music

I am a Musical man and Music is been my alternate source of Life in its perspective!I hum music all through the day and keep myself oxygenated with this magic!! One negative point that I should also tell in me is that I do not follow the exact set pattern of a song and like to deviate or stray here and there within the ambit of raga or the composition. I like experimenting and this is the reason I hate to sit through a concert unless its a classical recital or Hindustani shastriya Sangeeth. Its only sonu Nigam who has impressed me the most after Kishore Kumar whose concerts I have attended a couple of times at Ravindra rang shala, New Delhi, years back. Of late, Sonu has also started singing differently and has lost his melody. Probably, that's what the youth of today wants, keeping in time?

yesterday, I had been to Land mark, a famous store in Chennai where you get almost everything barring provisions! I thought of devoting some time to see if any new collections of Music have arrived in the classical/devotional section.

In our childhood, Our parents have told us about a few reigning deities and have taught us hymns and slokas worshipping a few deities which were traditional and popularly sung by one and all. I was in for a pleasant surprise when I noticed singers who have sung prayers and hymns on virtually everything that you see on earth besides several renderings on various gods and goddesses. We were warned by our household priests and elders not to recite Gayathri Mantra aloud but to chant it within ourselves with only the lips in motion and here I find gayathri Mantra recited aloud by famous and infamous musicians brought out in C D format for all ears!! I saw a CD on Tulasi mahima, one on river Ganges, one on sun God and all other planets, and several others on different incarnations of Devi, Lord shiva, Lord Vishnu and other gods alike.As it is each and every day of ours is ruled by a particular planet and there are many volumes of Cds in praise of these planets, available in the racks.
There was a CD on Mrityunjaya Mantra and several Cds on all the four Vedas!! We were told that for reciting Vedas, Rudram (Hymn on Lord shiva) etc one has to be very clean in his habits and thoughts and this inculcated a sense of fear in us as children and we never ventured anywhere near these godly things. I remember, as a kid, Devi Mahatmyam used to be read in our house by a priest on last Friday of every month. strict rules were observed on that day which included a compulsory second bath, apply the sacred ash on the forehead etc.. and sit through the proceedings. The only interest which kept me awake was serving of Chakkarai Pongal and vadai at the end of the Pooja!! So much so that all these mantras and shlokas were recited only by authorised priests for specific purpose in the household. These days, its all there in the music shop for a price and one can put it on in the systems at home and not only listen but also make the neighbours listen through increased decibel levels!! Amavasai Tarpanam can be done with the help of a Cd specially made for this purpose.
In short, the necessity of inviting a Brahmin Purohit or a priest for performing these religious rites is greatly reduced ?? The priest or a Brahmin is essentially required for such occassions for giving phala-dhanam in order to reap the benefits of the pooja so conducted and for having guided the religious program.

Very soon in the coming years, one can find Cd's on mantras for walking, jogging, sleeping and who knows, may be to stop you from snoring too?? Expect the unexpected is the undercurrent of this label. Who knows, may be for the ever sincere dog of yours, there could be a Cd on Dog-mantra or the Cat-mantra which can be recited for the well being of the dog or the cat!! Mantra for sitting and Mantra for standing, mantra for friendship mantrta for getting into a college of your choice, Vashiya mantra for the girl or the boy you like etc etc.. and to ward off confusion from all these mantras, there could be a Cd on Mind clarity and so on.....

Even as I enter my Pooja room I stand confused as to which Mantra and slokam should I recite and more confused about the deity to be chosen not to speak of volumes of books printed in Tamil and Sanskrit on various gods!

The Hindu religious heads should throw some light on this subject and make it a lighter study for people like me so that the focus remains intact and there are only a few gods/goddesses on whom these praises can be showered!

This will make praying easier and welcome everyone for more prayers!!

Forum 33

The dilution of article 377 and the nod from the high court not to criminalise those who get attracted to the same sex and indulge in sexual activities with consent has raised many eyebrows beyond imagination and equally welcomed by many enthusiasts who no longer feel the embarrassment to call themselves as belonging to forum 33 as I have christened it!!

This freedom, in a way, may help in bringing down the population of our country which is very much the need of the hour? Years back, during the emergency period, the Late Mr sanjay gandhi advocated Nas Bandhi or the forced vasectomy performed on many young and old alike for which incentives were given! The net result was the Congress (I) lost the elections very badly. Probably, the rejuvenated Congress(I) has found this new way of controlling the population without hurting the sentiments of any community? only time will tell if this scheme or freedom helps in plugging the ever escalating population growth of our great country in order to reap the fruits of economic development?

For the ever loving parents, this is an additional problem of finding a suitable partner for their kith and kins!! Imagine the plight of the parents in finding a suitable match for their wards and what would they say if they had to advertise in the matrimonial columns??!!

The problems do not stop here if the vamsham or the family has to be taken forward or expanded. There will have to be adoptions in case the family needs a Heir. For the heir, whom will he address as father and whom the mother and what will the order when he enrolls in a school?

For the Conservative families, it will be hard to think of welcoming a son-in-law or a son-ET-loss!! The complexity of problems surrounding this mighty freedom to allow Forum 33 will be many and mind-boggling!

Soon parents may find themselves in a quandary if they have to hunt a match for their children and more of problems when they face a situation of seeing the same gender walking hand-in-hand into their house announcing love for each other!!

The world is changing in rocket speed and so are the virtues and Morales! It is better for all those parents to keep themselves physically healthy and mentally tough should they meet any such eventualities in their life so that the shocks are absorbed within- Zor ka jatka Dheere se!!

Expect the unexpected!!

M.P ( mehenga- Pada!)

The recent slapping of a Grameen Bank Manager by an elected Member of Parliament has drawn much criticism and condemnation by one and all. This unruly behaviour of the elected MP is nothing new to our democracy. this has been happening ever since the period of nationalisation of Banks by the then Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi who in her enthusiasm to uplift the poor started this gimmick of loan Mela, celebrated with equal enthusiasm by all the 19 nationalised banks in chorus! There used to be one Janardhan Poojary who was a minister in her cabinet and it was his direcive to the chief executives of the nationalised banks to disburse a loan amount of Rs 5000/- to all those applicants who had to buy the application forms from the local/district political head of the particular political party. This form was not printed by the banks. The application forms used to be forwarded by the social welfare board to respective branches and this used to be voulumnous as the manager used to struggle with his deputy or the concerned clerk to expedite the loans as he was answerable to his boss who was, in turn, answerable to his higher ups and ultimately the chairman and the M D of the bank had to face the wrath of Mr Poojary who will pull up the chairman of any bank in front of all the other heads of banks, if they had not met the target set for them in such disbursements! The heads of banks, in order to avoid such embarassments used to push those working down the line to disburse the Poojary Loans(as it came to be known)even without verifying the bonafide and other details about the applicant. The pressure was s much on each and every manager of the branch that he had to disburse as many as 5000 loans within a specified period failing which he will earn the wrath and face transfers to those remote hilly, tribal areas which will be something short of near Death!! The local panchayat heads or the political heads will also knock on your doors early in the morning as soon as the bank opens and hand over a bunch of applications to be disbursed immediately and would often flex his muscles and threaten a transfer if the bank manager asked any queries relatng to the loans. The local political secretary would often comment that the money was the nation's property and why make a fuss giving it to those who did not have any means to earn money! We as bank managers used to insist there would be no cash disbursals and the loan could be disbursed only by way of banker's cheque for which a pro-forma invoice was required. The compliance was immediate and the loans disbursed and people vanished!! It was learnt that out of the total loan of Rs 5000/- disbursed, the beneficiary got only a mere Rs 500/- and the rest was all cornered by the local heads of the political party!! and thus, the loans were never recovered and got written off! In one of the meetings of Poojary held at Bangalore, my colleague chief manager raised his hands to say that his branch has only one loan officer and disbursing 5000 applications within a fortnight may not be possible. This invited the minister's ire and he immediatly asked for the name of the bank and the branch in-charge and told him to look for his transfer orders to a remote place from Bangalore!! within minutes, frantic calls were made from our head office and the poor manager had to earn the wrath of all our executives, left and right. The next day saw about a dozen officers descending on the branch from different parts of the country to process and disburse those 5000 applications within the stipulated time fixed by Mr Poojary, the minister. Poor Manager was transferred to a remote place and made to repent for venting out his honest feelings. The interference of politicians in day to day working of the bank and its branches is not welcome and instead allow the banks to function on its own independently. Let me ask one question to the politicians or the finance ministry as to how many people below the poverty line were uplifted with the Poojary loans given by the nationalised banks in the mid 80s? The answer may not be encouraging as the fruits of the loans never reached the needy. These sort of loans were also given to farmers for agriculture and to various others but the essence is that the loans never reached the deserving poor due to interference by he politicians. The nation should condemn such behaviour of politicians who go to the extent of using muscle power to enrich themselves depriving the poor of their legitimate rights to earn and live. The congress high command should pull up this MP and even ask for his resignation. Let people live with honour and dignity and not fall a prey to the hungry and greedy politicians who are a scar to this society. Being an Ex- Banker, i am unable to digest this inhuman treatment meted out to a fellow Grameen bank manager who is subject to so much of humilation??