Reminiscences of a Ramanavami Long Ago

The events connected with Ramanavami, in Asansol, as reported in the media, reminded me of my first experience of Ramanavami in Eastern India. I thought I should share this with anyone interested.

I had gone to Ranchi, on my first job after my BE, in December 1978. Ranchi was then in Bihar as Jharkhand state was still decades away. It was a bitter winter and the spring of 1979 was exhilarating. The days were getting longer and the idea of an evening was creeping back. One evening, I went to Main Road with a friend. As the name suggests, there was one main road in Ranchi and it was named, appropriately, Main Road. Steel towers of about five meters height were being erected at various places, on both sides of the street. Each tower was separated from the other by about a hundred meters. They supported a platform with a railing around it and appeared capable of allowing four people to stand on it. They made me curious.

I asked the friend what it was all about. He said, “Ramnavami aa raha hai na?” (Ramanvami is coming, no?). I was not aware that Ramanavami was approaching and could not understand what connection the towers had with the festival. I asked. He pityingly explained to me that communal riots are to be expected during the festival and there will be guards on these towers, just in case. He said this as if it was as “natural” as people preparing paanaka and kosambari for the festival.

A few days later, foolishly - I now think, I went to Main Road again with the friend. Ramanavami was a day or two away. I saw two dapper army men, holding AK47s (I think, with hindsight) standing atop each tower. I gaped. It was the first time I was seeing a real machine gun. When the friend had told me earlier about the guards on the tower, I had visualized lathi-wielding policemen. That is when the gravity of the trouble expected hit me. When I mentioned this to the friend, he laughed at my backwardness and explained the situation to me.

The juloos (I think that was the word he used for procession) goes from one end of Main Road to the other, carrying an image of Rama. Main Road, being the main road, was broad enough for a stately, impressive procession. In front of the image would march many youths displaying their martial skills. They would twirl and swing lathis. Others would display their skill in swordsmanship and swing swords. An awe-inspiring sight, I could imagine.

Hailing from Mysore, Ramanavami meant; spring, paanaka and kosambari, good food at home, evenings of public music concerts, approaching examinations and the conflicting pulls of the need to study and reluctance to miss a concert by M D Ramanathan or Lalgudi. Lathis, swords and machine guns found no place in my mental picture of Ramanavami.

Still, I could not figure out where the fear of violence stemmed from. I asked the friend and he explained to me the tradition of Ramanavami in Ranchi, patiently. The procession proceeds from one end of the suitably broad Main Road to the other. At some point, it is overtaken by an irresistible urge to make a detour and enter a narrow lane. It just so happens that the lane goes through an area in which a majority of the families are from a minority community and the lane also has the community’s place of worship. (I wrote that sentence for nostalgic reasons. This was a supposed nicety till recently and now, with the advent of social media, fake sites and openly hostile groups, the euphemisms are gone.)

The friend told me that the idea was to show off the strength of the majority community. There would always be a possibility of miscreants or hot heads from either side creating trouble and a fight would ensue. I was told that on one Ramanavami day, a few years ago, someone threw raw pork at the place of worship and all hell broke loose. The news of this reached nearby Jamshedpur and all hell broke loose there too. (Because of this experience and the fear of rumour mongering leading to violence, the telephone connections to Ranchi and Jamshedpur would be cut off, in preparation for Ramanavami.)

Tens, if not hundreds, died by the time the army was called in to quell the riots. Another South Indian friend who was in Ranchi when that happened, told me that blood flowed, literally, in the small river, Hinoo, next to where he lived. He commented that once mixed there was no knowing which community’s blood it was. At the same time, he told me of heroic stories of people of either community hiding people from the other community in their houses and protecting them from the murderous mobs.

Almost anticlimactically, nothing happened that year. The procession ended peacefully. No fights, no bloodshed. My friend, who was always seemed to be in the know, told me the story. No one knows under whose leadership or initiative, the organisers of the procession and some influential members of the minority community met. And it was agreed that Rama might not like to leave the “chakkani raajamaargamu”, aka Main Road, and meander into the “sandula”*.

Whether the city and good sense heaved a sigh of relief or not, I did.

* I allude to a kriti of Tyagaraja. It goes, “cakkani rAja mArgamulunDaga sandula dUranela O manasA” meaning O mind! When the spacious royal path to salvation is available, why should you take to by-lanes? 

Corporatese

Long post warning!

The Urban dictionary defines corporatese as, “A manner of speaking that uses the most amount of words to give the least amount of information. Most often used by Upper Management when not wanting to, or be able to, give a direct answer. Very often used when put on the spot.”

The habit of corporatese goes so deep in corporate types that they slowly lose the ability to speak like normal human beings. This leads them to use phrases, terms, and idioms that baffle the uninitiated. These replace normal language and end up being clichés. Some of us, who refused to be the corporate types or hate clichés or both, refuse to use them and cringe, involuntarily, every time we hear them. I have found that looking for and noting down corporatese is a good way of keeping your sanity in many meetings.

When the corporate types use corporatese, the uninitiated - not yet the corporate types - are still intelligent and get the gist of what is said. The aspiring corporate types absorb corporatese like blotting paper and inflict it upon their unsuspecting underlings. For them, using corporatese signifies belonging to the upper echelons.

Some, resist corporatese and continue to retain their language and native intelligence. The aspirants succumb to it with dire consequences. The aspiring types, already in the process of losing their native intelligence, often hear unfamiliar corporatese wrong and use it wrongly, often with hilarious results. Suddenly, the symbol of power and belonging invites laughter and derision.

Here is a list of corporatese for the curious. As you may guess, this is only a small list. The list of corporatese can be quite long. You can imagine the size of the problem.

Statutory WARNING: Reading this may be injurious to your mental health.

                                   

No issues	No problem, it is of no concern, it is no trouble, don’t mention it  - as a reply to  an expression of thanks
Not an issue	No problem, it is of no concern, it is no trouble, don’t mention it  - as a reply to  an expression of thanks
Touch base	We will review We will compare notes (later) I will ask your or tell you before
Buzz me, ping me	Contact me Call me Message me
Pain points	Trouble Difficult things What someone does not like
Drop a mail, shoot a mail	Send an e-mail Perhaps "drop a mail" could be right sometimes because it is like "dropping a bomb"
Invite	Invitation, meeting request
Let’s do it	You do it
EOD (Can we touch base, EOD?)	By the end of the day or when you finish it, whichever is later.
Analytics	Numbers Statistics “Can we have some analytics on number of applicants through social media?” -  All that was required were two numbers!
Big data	Small data that you do not know how to analyse.
Low hanging fruits	Things we can do easily
Let us talk to him/her	Let us confuse or confound him/her
Ballpark figure	Estimate Quite often, just a guess
Guesstimate	Estimate without any basis. (Trying to give respectability to a blind guess)
Time frame	Approximate time or period. Even just one time. We will meet 6:30 time frame
Bandwidth (E.g., I don’t have the bandwidth)	Time or interest, usually the latter. In other words I can’t or don’t want to do it - usually the latter. (Non-technical people trying to gain the respect of technical people. Unsuccessfully)
Human resources are our biggest asset	If it was, you would call them people.
Bad apple	Someone you do not like
Resource	A human being
Data point	Data
Escalate	Talk to the manager of the person who is of no help
Shot in the arm	Often mistaken for Slap in the face
Connecting the dots	Damn Steve Jobs. He said that once and everyone is connecting dots now. How things are connected. What really happened. How the whole pattern was evident, in hindsight
Ah ha moment	When something mundane was realised
Paradigm, paradigm shift	Viewpoint. (We can blame Stephen Covey for this one) Ah ha moment above could also be a moment when the paradigm shifted
Where I am coming from	No, not your place of birth or where your home is. Just the way you looked at it. Your viewpoint. As you see it. Your opinion.
Based out of	Based in. One working in Bangalore says, “I am based out of Bangalore” Where you work, not the place you are NOT in.
Going south	Worsen, weaken
In lieu of	In view of
Meet up	Meet
Put your hands together	Clap, applaud
Absolutely!	I agree. It is quite often followed by a BUT, leaving you wondering what absolutely means.
Let’s park the question.	We will answer that later, which never comes.
Hold on to that thought	Same as above. It is damn inconvenient and I don’t want to talk about it.
That is a very good question	I have no clue what that means or what the answer is. Followed by, hold on to that thought or let’s park the question for now, meaning it will never be answered.
Motherhood statement	A statement of wish, not a concrete idea how to achieve it.
Elephant in the room	An obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss, or a condition of collective thinking no one wants to challenge.
Bio break	Time to use the loo!
Synergise	Work together (Stephen Covey may be blamed again. Corporate types did not learn the successful habit of synergy. Learned only the word)
Win-win	Both parties are equally unhappy  (Stephen Covey again)
Take home	Conclusion, gist
Going forward	In future, from now on, later
Perfect!	OK, will do, and also perfect!
Take it offline	Discuss something separately, not in this meeting.
Take it outside the meeting.	Same as above (As if meeting is a place)
Monkey on the shoulder	Problem Burden Not my/your problem.
Right?	To make a question out of a statement. You are joking. Right?
Tiger team	Task force of people with specialisations. Or a scapegoat team.
Put down one’s papers	To resign. Spin-off of another corporatese - “Put in one’s papers.”
On the same page	We have the same understanding of the situation
In sync	As above
I am/We are on it We are not top of it	We are working on the problem. Used mostly in times when we have no clue how to solve it.
Revert back	Respond, answer, report after an event.
Let’s connect	Let us talk/discuss
Sure	When one doesn’t know what to say but is somehow compelled to say something. Silence is anathema to the corporate types
Networking	Increase the number of people you know. Talk to people so that you can use them later
Leverage	Use. “We will leverage his skill” = “Let’s make him do this job”
Loop in someone	Add someone to an e-mail thread. (Like the hangman looping the noose around someone’s neck)
Basis	Based on. Basis Industry average, there is no pay hike this year.
Close the loop.	Conclude the discussion.
I was not in the loop.	I did not know I did not get a copy of the e-mail
I gave a shout	I organised this meeting. I actually heard someone say, “I gave you guys a shout so that going forward we are all on the same page.”
At this point At this point of time At this point in time	It is called “now”, you moron! A futile attempt to sound precise in something as nebulous as now!

I am an Inventor

I am an IP Consultant*. I help inventors patent their inventions. I enjoy working with imaginative people who have created something new. I explore with them what they have created. I help them understand a lot more about their own invention - its place in the world of patents, technology and business. Talking technology' with inventors invigorates me like almost nothing else does.

As an engineer I designed and developed products and I invented a few things. I did not think of them as inventions then, just something interesting. When a senior colleague learned of one such interesting thing, he told me, "you should patent this". I was busy getting the first few of the devices carrying the invention ready to be supplied to the customers. I put that suggestion on hold.

When I could finally work on the suggestion, a blank wall confronted me. A big one. No one in the company knew how to get a patent. After a few weeks of struggle, I gave up the idea. Little did I know then that I could not have possibly got a patent once the first device was out of the door!

It sounds ironical that I now assist people in applying for patents!

In an unexpected way, recently I applied for a patent on an invention. The idea dawned on me when I was sketching from a reference picture on my laptop. I proposed to a friend that we could develop an application to implement my idea. He suggested that I apply for a patent and here I am!

Let me assure you, this time it was a lot easier!

*

Cloverleaf IP Consultancy and Services is my company

I am also a Senior Consultant with LexOrbis

Oskar Kokoschka

I had been to The Netherlands on work. Pradipto who works for Philips in Hamburg had invited me to visit him and his family. I had a delightful stay at their place for a few days. His daughter, a girl of about three then, became an instant friend.

One evening, Pradipto took me out to see Hamburg by night. It was just wandering about without a clear plan. We went to the street where The Beatles performed before they became world famous. One of the surprises for me was the familiar logo of Der Spiegel visible in the night atop a building far away. I had been reading the online edition of the magazine for years by then and realised, sheepishly, that I never knew that it was published from Hamburg. The building we saw was its headquarters.

My friend took me to a sort of monument in the open. Just a set of walls and steps. On one of the walls was a picture that looked vaguely familiar. More by its style than by the painting itself. I walked closer to it and saw that it was by Oskar Kokoshcka!

Art Abroad VIII

At the Apex of the Glass Pyramid

A lifelong (about fifteen years, I guess) ambition fulfilled. Paris and The Louvre!

Let us get it out of the way. No, I was not disappointed by Mona Lisa - La Giaconda (pronounced something like la szhakOnda) as the French call it. I had already read so much about it, including people's disappointment when they saw it, ("It is so smaaaaaall!") that I had a fair idea of what to expect. Seeing it for real in the dim (to protect the treasure from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays) light was thrilling and satisfying. I had bought 1600 ASA (ISO) film at a hefty price just for the purpose and it paid off. Renting a radio device and headphones, walking into the area marked off by a metal strip embedded in the wooden floor around the niche where it is hung and listening over the headphones to the story and glory of la Giaconda was a pleasure!

The greater pleasure was actually to see Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks and the huge charcoal study he made for it, the huge canvasses of the Romanticists, Eugene Delacroix's Raft of the Medusa, for instance, and Venus de Milo and so on.

The Raft of the Medusa was an eye opener. Having seen it only in books, the sheer size of it and its impact were totally unexpected. I sat on the wooden bench in front of it and gaped at it for as long as I could without seriously compromising the time I had for the whole museum. That left me wondering. What is an adequate length of time to see the whole museum?

To have something of the Louvre with me apart from the memories and the photographs, I bought a mini guide to the museum. Once in a while, I take the book out and go through it to travel back in time and walk through my garden of memories.

Art Abroad VII