Celebrate the Great Indian Marriage – a Different Perspective

When our state is busy preparing for an election season, when all the social groups, newspapers and TV channels are full of for and against discussions and turning every event in country in to politics, thought of giving a break to it and write something about another season in a different perspective – The Wedding Season.

Wedding Season!! Yes, the topic for this month blog is all about the great Indian Marriages and the economics behind it.

Our Indian culture gives a great importance to the marriage. It’s a celebrating moment, not only for groom and bride, but, it’s a festivity to their family, friends and extended circles too.  It’s months together planning, working for weeks and gathering for days in names of rituals, programs, and fun.

As Indian economy is growing, the celebration is also reaching different levels. Few years ago, if any marriage is happening in Palace Grounds (one of most prominent venue at Bengaluru), it used be talk of the town and if someone gets invite , it was a must attend program. However, now, it has become a common sight with many families able to spend crores for wedding of their daughter or son and there are regular invites for such grand events.

Nevertheless, whenever a grand wedding is happening, I have come across  debates among friends, relatives, even in Media about how and why the respective families are wasting money. There will be endless comments, mostly criticizing on food varieties, fireworks, musical events, richness etc.… however, it’s time to look at such programs in a different perspective and not be a critic.

If anyone is spending crores of money for such event, that means they can afford it and they are purposely conducting such marriage. Why should people be critical on it when the organizers are not anxious about it?  No one will spend exuberant if they don’t have money or can’t afford it.   

The most important note of such events is, how it helps in improving the Indian economy. Yes, the more such rich wedding happens, the more economy grows. How...?

When an affluent family spends more and more money for grand programs, the money accumulated in them will come out to market. They are removing money from their caskets and market will witness flow of cash.

Look at the economic impact. A grand event results in creating jobs to hundreds of people. Starting from security guards, housekeeping, entertainers, caterers etc. otherwise they would have ended up in unemployment, indirectly even their family is benefited.

It also helps numerous industries. Take any event for example and recall the elements it had. From paper cups to popcorns to garments, from photographers to drones, from tissues to cab services there is a direct demand created across manufacturing and service sectors. Don’t forget the grandiose silk sarees and jewelry business which runs mostly on such occasions.  Any such increased production & services also helps in overall growth of industry with back and front end chains getting activated for supplying raw materials , logistics etc. With all this, tax collection for Government will see steady increases.

It doesn’t end here.  The most important benefit will be for Farmers!! From humble banana leaves to hundreds of kilos of vegetables, pulses and grains, fruits, flowers for decorations there is a chain of demand created across sectors.

With so many benefits, no matter if we can’t afford for such grand celebration or not, next time, when you get an invite, don’t heed to the critics and their comments, instead, do attend, bless the couple, enjoy the ambiances, meet people, have royal food, feel proud of our heritage and at end, have gratitude that some more cash is out in market and you supported economy and employment..!!

Crackers, Cars and Celebrations ……

Bijili -  3 packets, Flower Pot – 1 , Parachute Rocket – 1 Box, Vishnu Chakra – 1 Box, Train – 1 , Lakshmi – 3 packets…………… the list goes on.

What is this list? This use to be prepared by me, during my school days, weeks before Deepavali. In other words, it was my demand list for the festival. I am sure, this was not only my nostalgic, but every kid of that age in those days used to do this.

This was not only about bursting crackers, it was celebrations, fun, get together with family and friends.

Infact, every Indian Festival, irrespective of religion, region, and languages – it has that basic essences which is required for human beings – care, fun, nature, family, friends, light, colour, water, culture, dance , songs etc. along with spirituality which is essential to keep the body and mind in good shape.

We in India celebrated every festival for thousands of years. We are known for it across the world. Every festivities feels like entire society is gearing up, irrespective of their connection with that particular festival.

 

Fast Forward – After Twenty years….

In recent years, suddenly there is inflow of messages in smart phones & Medias, on how every festival which was celebrated for centuries is creating pollution and endangering humans.  How water, air is getting destroyed by us in name of festivities. Take pledge and make children to take pledges, create awareness ….…..

Is it not irony that, most of these messages are created by same people, who were celebrating it when they were kids?! . When they wanted to enjoy they did so and now for the next generation they are preaching not to do so.

Well, if bursting crackers is worrying them, what measures they have taken to reduce air pollution caused by thousands of cars driven every day for commuting to office.  Is it not true, we see every day that most of this cars are single driven.

The major cause of air pollution this days is burning of fossil fuels, especially in Metros. It is also leading to huge traffic jams.  Hours together we sit in car, switch on AC, and curse the system but we don’t realise we are polluting air that time.

How many households have installed rain water harvesting to improve the water table, even after repeated appeal by various authorities? How many of us have seen lakes being destroyed by encroachers and keep our eyes closed.

Is it not we who cut down the trees in front of our sites, because it will spoil the look of the building?

Come to Bengaluru, we have public transport like BMTC, Metro, Taxis, Local Trains , car pool apps etc. in addition, many of the companies are giving cab services to its employees . How many of us make use of it?

If people are so much concerned about Deepavali pollution of three days , appreciated, however, it will be much better if they start using above system and protect world from pollution, traffic jams which will also save time , money and valuable foreign exchange to India ( by reducing fuel imports). There is one saying – the richness of a country is not measured by number of people travel by car, but how many use public transport.

In foreign countries when they do a massive firework show, we enjoy it in forwarded WhatsApp video, appreciate their enthusiasm in doing it, dreamt of going there one day, meanwhile back at home,  when an entire country of billion people gears up for such celebrations, criticisms will start to flow.

Well, this article is not about criticising the concerns people have about world, but also to highlight the hypocrisy we have in society where we don’t do - walk the talk.

Let us stop looking everything in lenses of negativity. We are having a rich heritage of celebration, let us continue it. Otherwise after few years, we will be celebrating everything in smart phones, a device which connects mobile numbers but not hearts and souls.

It may also happen one day, we will tell children – Once up on a time, in India we celebrated Deepavali... Festival of Light... We celebrated Holi... Festival of Colours which we stopped due to……….

Flying Kite and Lessons for Life

Those who have been in Bengaluru for 20+ years would remember the sight of sky full of kites in summer till July, august. While in rest of India, kite festivals are during Sankranti, for us, it use to be months together.

The huge trees near marthas hospital, mysore bank circle used to be dotted with hundreds of kites, most of them were those which were cut by rival kite flyers in far places like chickpet, akkipet, majestic areas and it had flown in wind to get stuck in trees, hanging..!!

I remember the days when blood oozed out from nose, thanks to standing under scotching sun for hours together, nevertheless, it was only a pause till going back to terrace next day.

Every building use to have residents flying and some were champions in cutting others kites through their glass powder embedded threads. In every street we had children looking at sky if any kites will drop nearby which are been cut by others.

This might look like a story and soon become a history, in this digital era. However when we look back this entire set of events, it had lot of lessons for us in life.

Yes, flying kite thought us some important lessons, without attending any classes. Some of them are relevant in our life, even today.

Here is a list of comparison it has:

Budget and Planning: those days, 2 rupees use to be luxury and if given, we sat and budgeted it – how many 50 ps. & 25 ps. kites we should buy. Should we buy 6 or 8 and how long we can use it?  We also use to budget for Manjaa (layering Glass powdered threads) and when we should have it. Who all will join, on whose terrace, how much time etc.

This is important even now. If we don’t budget properly on various investments, expenditures, we will not be able to meet the funds during exigency. If we do wrong planning, we will misuse resources and might lead to failure of projects.

Challenging the Opponents:  the most challenging part of flying, was to take on the opposite team’s kites and ensure it is cut but if any miscalculation, it will backfire. Sometimes, even if you don’t want, unanticipated and surprising attack use to happen by others and will take away yours.

It taught to be careful on whom you will take heads on. Before challenging them, know their strengths. If you think it’s not worth to fight a losing battle, just withdraw from the game or fly far away. To be careful of unknown, unanticipated enemies, be vigilant all the time. We don’t know who is planning against us!!

Be ready for Surprises:  life is full of surprises. We don’t know when we miss what or gain something. Similar to the unknown attack, wind, rain will spoil the game. Be ready for it and don’t lose heart

It can also be a pleasant surprise when unexpectedly you win the game against strong opponent which you thought will lose for sure or come across a kite which was cut far away and it fell near by… its Bonus!! I still remember that pleasant feeling when a kite is approaching, floating in wind, not sure if it will land in our hand and keep close look at thread to catch hold of it.

Team Work: nothing can be more joy than being with friends and celebrating. The game was never a one man army. It was always a bundle of people, joined together. Starting from preparing threads, buying kites and to fly and fight. If it was individual flying, it would be solo show, staring at sky.

 Nothing has changed now. If we need to work in a project, it’s always a team work. Most the projects done by individuals will have less success % vs. winning ratio of team work.

Direction:  you need to know which direction wind is and then plan to fly according to it.  Otherwise no matter how much efforts we put, it will not take off, rather might get torn. Nothing different in knowing our direction in life now.

Enhance Skills and Continuous Improvement:  when we first start flying, we didn’t know anything. Elders at home use to purchase, tie required sutras (threads) in particular order and allow use to enjoy it. As we start learning the game, we realised, we can’t depend on them every time. So start practicing the art of tying sutras, attacking opponent teams, checking weather condition, measuring the distance to fly etc.

In professional life, if we don’t enhance our skills, we might become redundant, younger generation will take over. We can’t depend on the earlier technology or skills. Its always continuous improvement - Kaizen.

Our ancestors had designed such ideal games, which made the next generations equipped with various skills required for life. Kite Flying is just an example. You can relate to any of the traditional games, this lessons will be found.

Tulasi Thota – a lost Malgudi in Bengaluru

After reading this blog “Tulasi Thota”, it will bring different feelings, depending on who you are. If you are one among those who grew up in old Bengaluru, it will pull you back by decades.  If you are a devotee visited the famous temple there, it will make you spiritual and if you are some one new to namma Bengaluru or who has not explored the original essence of our city, you will wonder if this was a true locality ever existed or just an imagination write-up . 

From many days this topic was lingering in mind and finally thought let me give shape to it and here you go.

Imagine a locality, which had a big, century old temple in center and in surrounding roads, old styled line houses, covered mostly with Mangalore red tiles as roof. Very few houses had 2-3 floors and rest with only ground floor.

A park, with plant nursery and music band stage  for performances.  It was also known as chick lalbagh due to its size and huge trees. There was also an ice cream factory near park which used to make local cones and candies.

A playground, better known as PT ground ( because of most the Physical Training class of schools were happening there) one of the biggest at that part of town and only place for all, with two huge trees giving shades to children playing. 

A big water tank between park and ground, which ensured we didn’t go thirsty with regular supply of drinking water. Even in wells, which most of the houses had those days, was having water with 5-10 feet to ground level. Yes, that’s true. Today even after going 300 feet we don’t have water in bore-well.

One govt. school – Poornaiah Chatra and one private school – Saraswati Tutorials was source of education for not only citizens of Tulasi Thota, but entire population from nearby areas.  Children used to play in the ground said above or on the roads, ranging from lock – key, hide & seek, lagori, during morning or even late evenings without fear of traffic (though close to majestic !!) .

It was next to chickpet, alankar plaza, KG Road etc., hence shopping was just a walk through, for whatever under sun we wanted to buy.

And for those who wanted to relish food, it was endless. Starting from the mouth-watering masala dosa of Malabar,  poori of Udupi Bhavan, Idli Vada of Megha darshini to the Chaats shops, catering all types of churmuri , snacks we wanted ( not able to find better than those, still )

Talking about the temple, due to which locality got this name, it was one of the biggest shrine in old Bangalore, rather a complex of multi deities. It had numerous programs, which also created a kind of bonding among the people who resided there, joining together to celebrate. Lakshadeepotsava (festival of Lighting Lamp), Procession of Chariots, Yearly Utsavas ensured good time and also gave opportunity to serve as volunteers.  It had plenty of mango trees along with a very huge jamun tree. It was the target practice place for us, to ensure fruits are down in very few stones.

It also had big pond with couple of tortoises. It used to be feast to eyes, to catch the rare glimpse of those creates venturing out sometimes. The Puliyogare and Sweet Pongal, served as Prasad in temple, was the best and might remain the best, forever.

People talk about safety in our city, now..!! However, every year during the annual Bengaluru Karaga, most of us, used to be awake entire night and walk to the nearby main roads, post mid-night or early morning for glimpse of the processions. Never heard any such nuisance being created or fear, what media speak about our city this days.

One of the favourite sport children (even elders) had was flying kites. Come summer, almost every family had representatives on whichever terraces available. It was not just flying kite , but it was battle,  by preparing threads,  embedded with  glass powder on it   (called maanjaa),calculate the budget and purchase of kites with different cost, to win the sport by cutting down other kites using our  powdered threads. When stock of kites got over, look at sky in far places hoping someone else cut down kites will reach us in wind.

We knew almost everyone in the locality. People used to share landline and happily inform neighbors whenever call was made (though rare and we still waited for post man in afternoons to deliver our cards and inland letters). There were multiple gang of children and youngsters, actively engaged.  I still remember, only one house had VCP those days, and used to be the only place where can watch home-alones to tom & jerry cassettes. The house used to be bustling with children, still no elders cribbed (or we didn’t bother). There were many days I used to have breakfast, or dinner at friend’s house, without even second thoughts.  

This was also an historic place. In 1892 - 93, Swami Vivekanand, on a visit to Karnataka, had stayed in here. It also had patronage from some of the kings who ruled.  

It was like a dream come true kind of situation, it was like the famous Malgudi Day stories, with so many positive aspects surrounding us.

You must have noticed, many places I have used past tense like was, had etc. wondered why?

Tulasi Thota was a small area in heart of the city. When I say, heart, it literally means it, because it was less than 1 km from Majestic Bus Stand compound and 2 kms from City Railway Station, yet, there lived a peaceful locality for many decades before the sea of changes which hit our city in late 90's and early decade of 2000.

When the so called change happened, though it bought some positive impact by providing jobs and economy, it also damaged the original charm we had in this city and same happened to Tulasi Thota.

Now, whenever I visit this place, it makes me driving through nostalgia lane. Thanks to the land prices, all old houses demolished and converted to shops. Water sources are gone, thanks to over exploitation of underground water. Park been reduced to half of its size, and those huge trees are chopped for metro line.

The roads, we used to play endlessly, has become too congested with shops and traffic occupying most of the time. Entire locality is covered in dust due to vehicles and constructions.

Many of our favorite eateries have given way for reasons and most of the residents vacated the locality.  Even the temple has undergone change!!

It is that conflicting feeling when you get while  visiting a familiar place close to the heart but not able to digest the truth which has happened nor able to recognize any one around. This is the place where I grew up for more than twenty five years before moving out, it has become a nostalgic part of my life along with others who shared similar time there. There is no turning back, it will never get the lost glory.

It’s the little Malgudi, we lived in, a story to tell.

Selfie & GPS and Elimination of Human Relations

Let me make it clear. I am not against any technology or trends. The intention of this is to retrospective ourselves on what this new technologies are doing to us in terms of people relations.  

Whichever place we go - mall, movie, restaurants, marriage stage or even in Zoo, in front of cages, we see people who so enthralled in taking selfies, either in small or very large groups. Wow, what a look it is… people - all gazing, with artificial looks, and doing circus to ensure they are part of it..!!

Just look at phone gallery, how many selfies we have stored, how many we actually revisit or remember it. It’s only a moment of glory we do it and forget it.

Same applies to GPS kind of technology. No doubt, it helps when you are lost in an unknown, unpopulous area. In the earlier days, we use to stop on the way and ask people the directions. I don’t remember any such incidents of people misguiding others.

However, we are currently depended so much on the GPS map, we will not ask any one, its more like, I know everything attitude. Just key in the details and zoooommmm….

In all this technologies one common factor which we are not observing is the diminishing human relations.

Remember, when we use to go out, we use to ask some unknown person to take a snap of ours. We stand in gang, he used to say smile please and we all smiling till he says done. The unnoticed in this event was, we use to speak to some unknown person, smiles and acknowledgement of the help he did. Many times the conservation used to extend to know each other, where they have headed, what they do... the natural human tendency to connect and socialise with others.

Same applies when we were lost. In Kannada we have a saying which roughly translates - to the unknown place, tongue is the route. Which means, if you are not aware, ask someone and get to know the directions.  That was the situation for hundreds of years. We never thought twice to stop and ask someone. Even that person use to try and help by giving all the input, including, directions, road conditions, precautions we should take, shortcuts, warnings etc. The one who asked and the one who is guiding are unknown, but still there was a bonding of care and satisfaction of helping.

Whenever I see this trends being used extensively, everywhere, every time, I feel the changing attitude of ours. It’s more of self-centric, egoistic and to an extend of not connecting with others for any help. It’s an attitude of knowing everything, and I will manage myself. Many may not agree with this, with different views, I respect it, however, at this moment this what I am feeling.

Organisation – Love it or Hate it?

Often, these days, we keep hearing, some XYZ Company is best, and some other DEF is bad. Some company employees love to work for it and few just hate in other. But, do we actually like or hate the company we work or is the system in which company is incorporated we judge.

Organizations are Neutral; they don’t behave bad or good for people working there. Than how do we judge it?  It’s based on the process and policies decided by the management of the organisation which governs it.

Just look back at any company we work or worked earlier. Brand name will remain in our mind; the company actually is standing still.  What comes in to us is the feeling what we got while working there.

In numerous exit interviews I have done till now, large number of people have left because of better prospects elsewhere. That doesn’t mean they didn’t like the company they worked for. It’s just that, they didn’t like the way system was working, the practices it was followed, the culture it had and opportunities it provided.

If we incorporate best practices, good working environment, responsibility of work along with authority of taking decision, the organisation becomes good, and we reverse with all this, it becomes bad. 

Organization is like a raw stone, it doesn’t have any feature, unless the required shape is carved out. 

Suppose any company has high volatility, doesn’t have long term project - assignments, the attrition rate will go up, the morale will be low and in the market, the talk about the company is negative. However, it’s not the organisation mistake.  What went wrong is the decision of people working there and the practices they follow. 

Similarly when there is high volume of business, more profit, better engagement programs, it’s not the organisation which has got it done. It’s the people, who work there , has better management skills, market condition will be in their favor, which also makes the work place great. 

So next time, when someone comments about a company, remember, it’s the decisions taken inside four walls of the office, which has got the name it has, either good or bad.