PGR’s blog

Yesterday, on 3^rd March, an Indian Navy trainer aircraft crashed into a two-storied building in a congested locality during an air show, killing Commander S.K. Maurya and Lt Commander Rahul Nair . The incident happened when the HJT-16 Kiran MK2 trainer aircraft, built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, crashed in Bowenpally locality near the old Begumpet Airport in the city.

The crash of a naval aircraft has been termed as ‘unfortunate’ by our honorable Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Wednesday and he promptly declared that the tragedy wouldn’t affect the event in any way.

‘These kinds of mishaps have happened during such events in the past the world over. It is very unfortunate but I don’t think this (aircraft crash) will any way hamper or affect the event. The show will go on’- this was the disgracefully casual and insensitive declaration by the minster on the death of two naval pilots in the prime of their life.

According to a civil aviation ministry official, there were five such crashes during air shows in the world last year. Similarly there were four such crashes during air shows in 2008 and seven in 2007. In their viewpoint, sacrifice of these naval acrobats is a tolerable episode to trumpet the synthetic glory of our Navy.

I  wonder why the prestigious Indian naval air cadets should work like circus artists. May I know from the minister what is the objective in showcasing this stunt show before public other than trumpeting the vanity of our vanguards in defense? As far as I know, air attack during war is not a colorful parade but a calculative blitzkrieg done under stealth. Practices required for the same are different and are performed in aircrafts designed for it. I wish such air shows were conducted using unmanned aircrafts so that human life is not at stake. I could have understood if such air shows were the events undertaken by sports clubs, like Formula 1 car race conducted by FIA or other similar adventure sports agencies. There the participants are aware of the risk; they often choose the very best vehicles with superlative safety features and above all they voluntarily choose that profession . How many naval cadets have the option to voluntarily choose the aircraft they need for such acrobatics? What avionics do these flying coffins have? They may often get an economy model of indigenous make or a third-rate Russian trainer aircraft. I am sure at least a few officers are pushed into this aerial extravaganza by the stern command of their superiors .
 

Our defense top brass should have the responsibility to the men and women under their command and to the nation as a whole. They cannot keep on shedding the blood of innocent men and women in their hands and such shows give a wrong picture to the nation and to the bureaucracy about our state of military preparedness when we are still dealing with 2nd World War vintage equipment. Our dear naval pilots do not have a death wish and are not adrenaline junkies like Michael Schumacher or late Ayrton Senna.

Above all, I am shocked at the decision of the Navy to continue the air show despite this traumatic tragedy. I am numbed at the willingness and mindset of our politicians,  the colleagues of the killed and the elite class in Hyderabad  who  sat there drinking Pepsi to watch the rest of the air show while the beloveds of the killed wrenched in agony back in Delhi. Will the honor of the Navy collapse if we call off this year’s air shows as a mark of honor to the brave lads who died in the sky for a mere diversion  than a mission?

I am reminded of a historical incident told by the famous journalist P Sainath in a speech. After the ruin of Rome in the great fire, the atmosphere was one of depression. The time was also one of rebellion. To deflect the attention from the incident, Emperor Nero hosted a lavish dinner party. The guest list was a virtual “who’s who” of Rome. The elite, the learned, the artists… everyone was invited. However, there was a problem of illumination. The torches were running short of oil. Nero ordered for his captive prisoners to be tied to the torches so that they could be the fuel for the torches.

Sainath informed that though Nero’s action was barbaric, it was in keeping with his royal attitude of insensitivity. But, Nero’s guests who devoured the feast, insensitive to the horrendous screams of prisoners being burnt at stake, were the greater culprits. Not one of them raised a voice of protest. They just gleefully gorged! Now, you may ask who the guests of Nero were.

Nero’s guests were educated men of arts. They were people who took pride in describing themselves as cultured persons. They were people who lived in comforts like some of us. They get entry into the social circles of the powerful elite of politicians and businessmen, they visit fun clubs, attend parties and while away time attending events like air shows. They are insensitive to the whimper of ordinary people like the pilots who are put at stake .
 

Indifference is said to be a greater crime than hatred. No matter what we do to enlarge our lives, it is of no consequence if we kill our conscience. To be better as a human being is to connect better with our humanism. To be better, we must be sensitive as well as responsive to what is happening around us. If we were sensitive to the life of each and every personnel in our Navy, we wouldn’t allow this kind of gory spectacle to unfold in the air and yet relish it.

Why don’t we ban such pompous naval air shows if they don’t serve any purpose other than entertainment - especially when we know we aren’t equipped sophisticatedly for such freak sports? Will the minister Praful Patel and his coterie of defence brass listen to my meek voice?

MUSINGS ON MUMBAI MAYHEM

You may call this as the first political blog of PGR.

We have reached a stage in history where words have become weedy to fight the menace of terrorism. The tragedy is that terrorism seldom offers any option and has bloomed like a black lotus to become the devil in display. Scary scenes broadcasted in the media since yesterday show our mass in a state of siege, powerless and mute, reconciling to the events unfolding with trepidation. Are terrorists the devilish smoke we churn out from the factory of democracy? I begin to doubt.

 People in this century are in a mad scramble to swallow more beliefs than they can digest. Like cripples we cling to our beliefs desperately like dear possessions.   Chekhov's prophesy seems more true now than ever- "Man is what he believes".  Animals have fought for food, for territory and for mates, but never before have animals engaged in deadly battles to preserve one set of beliefs over another. The stronger the belief, the greater the intolerance.

Nothing is easier as to delude oneself. When are we going to remove our    blindfold of beliefs? What we need is well said by Betrand Russell '"What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite".

The blog below, posted last year around the same time, is a speech I gave at the end of last millennium. My myriad anxieties in this blog have not diminished even a wee bit. Pessimism prevails. I am scared whether sanity is soon going to be a silly slogan. Whither our salvation?

http://pgr.rediffiland.com/blogs/2007/12/14/Musings-On-The.html

Vishu is a festival of nostalgic memories  and they are invariably associated with my childhood . It reminds me of the sights, sounds and smells of my soil. It renews my roots and identity. Those memories are as golden as the 'Kani Konna flower' (flower of cassia fistula tree) . ’Vishu’  is one triumphant occasion when children's aspirations to become rich are richly rewarded.  The 'Vishukaineettom" (Handsel or  token money given as a blessing  by elders to all younger ones in the family) literally portrays prosperity that this festival rightly proclaims. Children feel honored everywhere and  for once , in money matters, the elders are at the giving end on this day.

 STAY IN TOUCH

(I delivered this speech in December 1999, on the eve of the new Millennium,  in a special meeting of  Jubail Toastmasters Club. My concerns in this rambling still holds good and I thought  of posting it as a New year message. I am on vacation till 03^rd  January. Happy New Year to all my Buddies in the iland)

 MUSINGS ON THE MILLENNIUM

Turning and Turning in the widening gyre.

The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst  are full of passionate intensity.

(WB Yeates- The second coming)

These prophetical lines of poet William Butler Yeates reverberate in my ears as I start my Millenium musings.  Who can tell us how we began this millenium?  Was it in thunder, storm or lightning? May be only the sun can tell us about it, who for sure, has seen all the days and its spectacles.  History will teach us the rise, decline and fall of many empires, discovery of unfounded lands, inventions of machines and materials.  It will sing the saga of progress of humanity from scratch to satellites.  One thing is certain.  History has been getting thicker and thicker as it approached the modern times and perhaps this century has been the thickest.  We had enough wars to play with ' the first, second and many third world wars, kept superbly alive by superpowers.  In between, we had peace kept in suspended animation. 

The grim tales of holocausts of this century proved once again that there is no limit to the crimes that man can commit on himself.  The incessant blood letting goes on without any respite.  Everyday events of naked horror and barbarity has made my heart beat irregular, our icy indifference and increasing tolerance to these crimes dazes my senses.  I sometimes wake up in terror and cold sweat trickles down my body.  The recent Kosova war and the ethenic cleansing reiterates once again that the best lack conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.  As cities die, men hole up deeper and deeper.We see heads falling like hailstorm . I have stopped counting the millions that have passed to premature graves.  The earth is now more redolent of death than birth.

The words of Eliot suddenly rings true.  ' This is the way the world ends : Not with a bang, but a whimper'.

On the science and technology front, the century saw man's evolution into supertech human beings.  We conquered the moon though our romantic imagination about moon suffered a set back. We created life by cloning and that may take the romance from our life as well. Production scaled new heights each year, so also the number of beggars.  Smokestacks continue to grime the sky and the ink of the sky is now blue black.  Man has cured many incurable diseases, but he still aids in creating new ones.  We are now more worried about virus of machines than men.  As we approach the end of this millenium, I find more anxiety than expectation.  A millenium bug is now chasing the millenium man.

All happenings around the world make me wonder whether all the best efforts of mankind have become futile.  I am in a moral dilemma.  Has each year made man more impudent. What is the essence of this millenium.  I am afraid to press it too hard, for then pus may come out.

We see a generation glued to TV and computers and loosing their sensitivity to finer sentiments in life.  We live in a world of images and build our hollow dreams on it.  Each day we end up creating worser imitations of ourselves.We see even blood knots  breaking into smitherens. Are we entering an emotional ice age.   Morality is not a practice but a gesture.  As Hemingway once remarked, ' What is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after'.  Merits are meekly trounced and mediocrity wins medals.  Instant pleasure and instant wealth have become our motto.  Like the man in Aesop fable, we run with rapiers in our hands to cut all the geese to find the golden eggs. In a consumer society, we have become prisoners of addiction and prisoners of envy. We flout our barren spirituality in the most shameless manner.  I open all the shrines to find my elusive god and I see the gleam of gold rush everywhere. My night of anxiety is well portrayed in the words of the American philosopher George Santayana, ' We are sailing ever deeper into the dark, uncharted  waters.  The  lights in the lighthouses are beginning to go out.  Is there anything to guide us?  Is there anyone worth listening to?'

Well, no sudden flash of insight presents a quickfix solution to our problems.  We should make our own modest efforts to make our lives more meaningful.  We should discriminate our wants and needs to ensure that the oil of luxury is not staining us.  Remember, nations have died only in affluence and never in poverty. Nations and its natives must drop their veil of vanity and don the shining face of humility, simplicity and mutual respect.  Mad rush men should learn to tackle their success with a pinch of salt.  As a writer mentioned humorously ' Success is a rat poison ' few escape it'.  Let us not make this world a valley of tears; let us build mountains of joy in it. May we make happiness the god within and lead a principle centered life.  Finally, let our heart be our lamp in darkness.  As the trumpet call of the next millenium is sounded, let these wisdom words of  'Brihadaranyaka Upanishad' ' 'Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata' (Give, Sympathise, Control) resonate in our  ears

The world may still be governable with just a few stories.  But they would have to be the right ones.

Something cathartic happened in my life a day before Diwali in the year 1996. I was then working as a project Manager in FEDO, a public sector Organization, in Cochin. On the eve of Diwali, Mr. Sridhar, the Sales manager of a reputed insulation company came to my house with a box as a Diwali gift. I politely received it and gave it to my wife. I later realized that it was a beautiful tie, a leather wallet and some sweets. I then had a brief chat with Sridhar and exchanged pleasantries and Diwali wishes.

A few minutes after his departure, a team of inquisitors started questioning my integrity. They included my wife, Father-in-law and Mother-in-law. My mother-in-law was the first to start the interrogation. She said she could not believe that her dear son-in-law could accept such gifts without any pang of conscience, without showing any hesitation. I suddenly became a suspect under their eyes. They started questioning me about other favors that I might have received earlier. Suddenly my character was shrouded in shadows on the eve of that festival of lights. I pacified them that what I received was only sweets and nuts and I did not receive it as a bribe for any favors. My vigilant father-in-law cautioned me that Diwali festival time is used by many corporates as the best occasion to sop their big clients or to woo new customers.

The incident was an eye opener as it alerted me to have a second look at the moral values that I held close to my heart. It also made me to ponder on the way many of my friends have behaved over a period of time on the bank of the moral river. Many a time I have stood shell shocked when some of my friends who I thought were principle centered, value based and uncorrupt in their social interaction have shown tendencies opposite to my conviction. A friend of mine who was a staunch communist during college days set up a factory after he became an engineer. When the factory went into doldrums due to labor problems, he changed the political party and migrated to a different state to set up another factory. An environmentalist I knew became less vociferous about water pollution when he was made Senior Environmental Engineer of a State pollution control board. I have then felt like singing the words of WB Yeats in Easter 1916 -

"He, too, has been changed in his turn;
Transformed utterly;
A terrible beauty is born".

My point is that there is a slow moral contamination taking place in all of us as we grow up and fight for our survival. Our strong defense complex often justifies our action. The current corporate culture teaches that we no longer have to define a moral issue other than our own self-interest. A classmate of mine who was a staunch opponent of nuclear pollution later joined the Atomic energy department as a nuclear scientist to start his career. He vehemently opposed me when I had pointed out the higher radiation levels prevailing in nuclear installations in India. He argued it that way, as the institution was now his breadwinner. For him the permissible level of radiation may mean the number of people he is willing to see die so that he can retain his job. Success is an easy task in today's business world if we succumb to the sirens of incompetence, duplicity and conformism. We often dilute our ethical and moral standards to suit our circumstances and needs.

This stain in our soul can spread and become a patch unless we put a conscious halt to it. Without our knowledge, without our explicit intention, this patch can otherwise become cancerous, numb our feelings and blacken our heart like a lump of coal. We have to guard against this pollution of our soul to elevate and ennoble the quality of our life. If we do not stand for one principle, we may fall for everything. We have to be fearless and upright in drawing our moral line clearly and sensibly. The intention is to enjoy and live a responsible life and mirror our moral standards by our actions.

In a way we all pay for the choices we make in life. There really is a palpable moral contamination in every profession, every sphere of our activity. The degree to which we succumb ourselves to this is a variant of our conscience and moral discipline.

Moral contamination never announces itself. It is always a very small, seemingly silent, inconsequential event, but like radiation, it accumulates and there are no permissible safe levels.

Let zillion lights suffuse your soul and dispel the darkness on this Diwali dawn.

Elephants Are Different to Different People

Before I came to Saudi Arabia, I worked as the Dy Chief Project Manager in a public sector design and detailed engineering organization called FEDO. From 1993 to 1997 I was handling the project of a grass root Ammonia plant. I used to prepare the minutes of meeting for all progress review meetings and sundry vendor meetings such as for compressors, Boilers, Utility plants, DCS etc. One day my Chief project Manager called me and warned- 'Look , you are only a chemical Engineer. I don't want you to prepare any minutes of meeting that does not pertain to your area. Let the concerned coordinators from each department prepare the minutes of the engineering packages they handle'. I was happy and felt relieved. The following week we had a discussion with BHEL for a boiler plant. The people who came from Trichy requested me that they wanted to return by evening and wished to carry the MOM with them latest by 5 PM. I conveyed the matter to the new group coordinator of Static equipment dept who was branded as a tough nut to crack. He looked at me skeptically but did not say anything. At 5 PM, I went to him to get the minutes. He told me that he had not started writing yet. I was damn upset and I told him that we failed to meet a commitment because of his lax attitude. An argument started and gained momentum very fast. Since both of us had thunder tucked in our mouths, the whole hall of the department reverberated with our alternating arguments. Well, many arguments are sound and only sound. Even people from other departments came to witness our verbal warfare.

The following day I went to our General Manager (Project) and explained what had happened. He conceded with my viewpoint. However, a friend of me who had considerable experience in Project department called me aside and advised me-'PGR, if you want any progress as a project Manager, you should not fall into an argument trap.' He reminded me that as a project Manager, I had to please all coordinators at all times as I needed their help everyday. He was right. I lifted up the phone and apologized to the coordinator. Believe me, we had excellent relationship after that inciting incident.

Do you know what issue causes the greatest number of arguments leading to conflicts in households in USA?  According to a “USA Today” report, people argue most often about which TV show to watch! Would any couple or family have believed that the selection of television  programs would become the major cause of their unhappiness? Well, it could be happening in many households in India as well, not to speak of mine. They often forget what is important! They forget that relationships are built of such things as love, respect, consideration, kindness, and understanding. They forget all those compelling and wonderful reasons that brought them together in the first place. Instead, they let minor inconveniences trumpet as major issues ripping their relationships.

Dear friends, an argument is like a country road; you never know where it is going to lead. The truth is that often it does not lead us anywhere. When an arguer argues dispassionately, he thinks only of the argument. In the process, it produces plenty of heat but not much light. It is often a collision in which two trains of thought are simply derailed. It is very true that the more arguments you win the fewer the friends you will have. Sometimes, silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

An argument is question with two sides and no end. More homes and families are destroyed by fusses than funerals. More nations are at war to win their argument than work out an answer.

I will conclude my rambling with a poem by the great American poet Carl Sandburg that prompted me to write on this topic of argument.

 Elephants Are Different to Different People

Wilson and Pilcer and Snack stood before the zoo elephant.

Wilson said, “What is its name? Is it from Asia or Africa? Who feeds it? Is it a he or a she? How old is it? Do they have twins? How much does it cost to feed? How much does it weigh? If it dies, how much will another one cost? If it dies, what will they use the bones, the fat, and the hide for? What use is it besides to look at?”

 Pilcer didn’t have any questions; he was murmuring to himself, “It’s a house by itself, walls and windows, the ears came from tall cornfields, by God; the architect of those legs was a workman, by God; he stands like a bridge out across the deep water; the face is sad and the eyes are kind;I know elephants are good to babies.”

 Snack looked up and down and at last said to himself, “He’s a tough son-of-a-gun outside and I’ll bet he’s got a strong heart, I’ll bet he’s strong as a copper-riveted boiler inside.”

      They didn’t put up any arguments.
      They didn’t throw anything in each other’s faces.
      Three men saw the elephant three ways
      And let it go at that.
      They didn’t spoil a sunny Sunday afternoon;

“Sunday comes only once a week,” they told each other.

 This is the way the world should be! Here are three men who are not blind!. They don't  fight out their differences and spoil the day. We are all different with our different  perspectives. When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

  Let us not spoil this Sunday in arguments . After all, Sunday comes only once in a week.

'

The Nazi death camp survivor Viktor Frankl has made an observation akin to Zen philosophy 'Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In that response lies our growth and our happiness'.

This wonderful idea popularized by Stephen Covey teaches us that we have the freedom to choose our response in any situation and the consequence, happiness or hopelessness, is determined by how we respond in each situation. There are many occasions in our lives when we wish 'Oh! If only I had acted differently, if only I had been more patient, understanding and considerate.' The problem is that often we get sucked into the emotion of a situation, which seems so overpowering and consuming that we are simply blinded from what we really ought to do. In effect we are just reactive in such situations. It is very easy to be reactive and later repent it.

A proactive individual acts based on principles and positive values rather than reacting based on emotions and circumstances. He has the initiative and ability to choose response to make things happen. If a reactive individual says 'There is nothing I can do to help Tsunami victims', a proactive individual may ask 'How can I serve the cause for Tsunami Victims' . Reactive people are driven by feelings and emotions, whereas proactive people are driven by values, carefully selected and internalized.

The irony is that most of us are proactive by nature and it is often our living conditions, circumstances or our nurture that make us reactive in life. We tend to be often a mix of both proactivity and reactivity. Sometimes we are extremely proactive in one area, while letting other parts of our life slip into unconscious autopilot. For example , some hard-working professionals are seen to ignore their health to become obese by their sedentary life style and they may even invite a heart attack. Proactive professionals make it a point to exercise regularly despite their erratic work schedule. They navigate their life better and create their own destiny by their core values and conscious choices.

Some years ago I happened to see a wonderful movie called 'Ikiru' which means 'To live'. directed by the great Japanese film director Akira Kurasowa. The story of this movie is about a petty bureaucrat called Watanabe working in Tokyo City hall in Japan. He had served the corporation for more than thirty years years as an ordinary clark engaged in the mundane exercise of numbly thumbing through papers. Nobody even took serious notice of his presence in the office. One day this clark gets a stomach pain and he is admitted to a hospital. After detailed examination and medical tests it is diagnosed that he is suffering from stomach cancer. This sudden collision with stark reality of life benumbs and frightens him. His face assumes a drab intensity that scares people. His eyes are like two translucent cups holding tears that never fall on his cheek.

Gradually, the man starts reconciling himself with the immensity of his tragedy and the doom awaiting him. He starts meditating the life he had lived so far and everything unveils in a flash back. He realizes horrendously that the life he had lived so far was sterile, absurd and devoid of any fulfillment. As the illness ripens, we recognize an attitudinal change taking place within him. Despite his illness, we see him emerging stronger with the deep rooted conviction to make the rest of his life meaningful. He takes initiative to build of a children's park which was the dream of the citizens of his town. The sheer enthusiasm, determination, dedication and almost superhuman efforts put in by Watanabe at the fag end of his life helps to transform a mosquito ridden cesspool into a spectacular park for children. Finally as the dream comes true, the man vanishes from the scene forever.

The last scene is the funeral wake where his coworkers pay eulogies and express astonishment at the transformation of Watanabe from a lifeless clark into a living legend. They vow to work with the same passion and will like Watanabe.
I have come across many such individuals in every day life. They may be people in difficult circumstances, perhaps with a terminal disease or suffering from certain handicaps. But they exhibit magnificent emotional strength and integrity as if they have transcended their suffering. They stand out as persons of high intrinsic worth and such men embody a value that inspires, ennobles and exalts life. As Watanabe eloquently says in the movie 'To live is to love, the rest is cancer'. My cousin Satish Nair who twice underwent kidney transplant and has been living on dialysis for the last ten years exemplifies this indomitable spirit. He not only took initiative in establishing the first cadaver Kidney bank in India but wrestled in his profession to emerge as as one of the top ten Service Tax consultants in Mumbai.

I believe that this is what true proactivity means. Socrates said 'The unexamined life is not worth living'. It is the shattering discovery of cancer that provoked Watanabe to reexamine his life and make it worth living by his proactive action. If a reactive man in such a situation succumbs to the philosophy that life is meaningless, a proactive man like Watanabe may say 'The meaning of my life is what I commit the meaning of my life to be. There is nothing else'. We can strive to cultivate this proactive attitude in any situation by exercising our independent will and facing our life with more courage, optimism and self-awareness.

As the great American thinker Thoreau said, 'There is no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor'.''''''''

THE HEART OF WATERMELON

If I had only '"
Forgotten my future greatness
And took a pause from this mad race
And looked at the green things and buildings
And reached out to those around me
And smelled the fresh air 
And heard the rain on the roof
And put my arms around my wife
'" And it is not too late