Rant about my pastor talking about Money and Rich during his Sunday Sermon

Who said Church sermons are boring and uninspiring? Sometimes they have the desired effect - disturb us, keep us awake, make us think, and deliberate as we decipher the message. Sometime the outcome is a change for good, other times it could lead to a rant. This post is the latter.

 

<Rant>

Last Sunday the Pastor gave a sermon that I had the misfortune of giving close attention and it blew a fuse in me. The message was based on the Parable of Talents ( Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-27). The problem for me was that the Pastor interpreted the Parable as talking about money and not the talents the people or the congregation possess.

 

Parables by their very nature are to be interpreted, it was Jesus' way of explaining complex things to people in a simple way. The holy books were not within the reach of the common man those days (it wasn't until Martin Luther and Gutenberg made Bible really public in the 1500s post the protestant reformation), and it made sense to speak in parables. But I doubt if Jesus would approve of it today considering the kind of misinterpretation his parables are subjected to by the Clergy and their naïve Congregations.

 

I will list down why the fuse went off in me and it was not a one-off comment or an interpretation. It was a series of claims the pastor did and the timing of it didn't help either.

 

First - the pastor said the talents was about money. He said Jesus spoke the parable and is advising us about the need to save, invest and grow wealth. JESUS WASN'T, the Pastor is wrong and worse misleading! This cannot be further from truth. The very first link in a cursory Google search will tell this was not just about money but all talents but the pastor had to make this all about money and not about other talents.

 

Second - the pastor said that God was the source of the money. This opens up a lot of questions, if God was the source of money why isn't God offering it to the poor? God is merciful, compassionate and full of Grace providing us with the holy spirit while we are undeserving and still sinners. If God was the source then nothing is stopping God from providing for the poor and the homeless and needy. Jesus said this when asked about money and taxes,

Mark 12:17 

New Century Version (NCV) 

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and give to God the things that are God's.”

Going by this, money or the version of what we have as Fiat currencies and wealth is not from God but merely a construct of the greedy human.

 

Third - the pastor, trying to make it an interactive session, asked the congregation and told the 'rich' to raise hands. The funny albeit sad part was the gullible and ignorant congregation did! I had the shock of my life! I sincerely hoped that the pastor would at least say he meant rich in love, rich in peace and just metaphorically alluded to the rich part. But no he was really talking about the monetarily rich people. Let's see what Jesus said about the rich,

Matthew 19:24

New International Version

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Going by this, God really doesn't favor the rich and I am clueless and agitated that an ordained pastor would want us to be rich.

 

Fourth - the pastor 'advised' the congregation to keep track of their finances, maintain a ledger, meticulously record expenses. For a minute I thought I was in a personal finance session listening to a financial advisor. Apparently, the pastor was concerned for the financial well-being of the congregation. Yet what did Jesus tell about being concerned,

Matthew 6:31-34

New International Version

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

As a theologian shouldn't he be advising people to seek God rather than take care of their finances?

 

The timing of the message also multiplied my angst. While the global economy is making a K-shaped recovery post COVID and a right-majority SCOTUS appointed in the Trump era struck down Affirmative Action in Harvard , the pastor chose to deliver a message that would talk about getting rich, making investments but not about the inequality and unfairness that seems to be becoming the norm in the world. 

In a year when Thomas Piketty's seminal work on inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, will celebrate its 10 year anniversary, who will talk about what God would want Christians to do to alleviate inequality? 

Oh wait, the pastor will talk about it one day. Oh the hypocrisy!! 

 

</Rant>

 

Who said Church sermons are boring and uninspiring? It made me write a long post on it after almost a week. It made me revive a hobby I almost neglected for a decade. If this isn't inspiration, I don't know what is. : )

Will perennial water availability quench the Indian farmer's needs?

So I watched the Tamil movie, Kaththi, the other day. It was a decent movie if one excuses the heroics of the typical Tamil hero and villainous of the typical Tamil baddie. The main plot of the movie is the unavailability of water owing to the over exploitation of water resources by big corporate companies.

While there is some truth to the story, I don't agree that just ensuring water alone can alleviate the problems faced by the farmers, though it could be a start. However, for farming to sustain itself as an income generating profession, a lot of lessons are to be learnt from the way corporate companies function.

The very mention of farmers adopting corporate practices can be equated from stupidity to blasphemy depending on who one speaks to. Generally, no one has a positive view on this. However, I strongly believe this needs to be the case because going forward the average Indian farmer's produce competes not with a similarly produced product from small farmers but products that are imported from other countries using superior technologies or produced/procured by local companies with strict standards defined about quality, quantity and pricing.

Adopt / Innovate new hardware

Farming has been continuously evolving from being a manual labored industry to an automated industry just like most other industries from manufacturing to software. However, the average farmer in the country side is still largely using obsolete technology which probably is prohibitively priced and doesn't bring much value to the table. Technologies like Farmbot are a reality and the fact that they are open source means people can adopt and adapt it to local conditions better. Considering we are experts in jugaad, I think we have the capacity to bring newer tools and gadgets that work well in conditions prevalent in the country and this is very important. There are a lot of local factors that affects farming in our country ranging from natural factors such as climate, rainfall, soil, geography to social factors such as availability of labor, political patronage for crops which are better understood by locals and hence the need for technology that is developed locally.

Do not fear GM varieties / Blindly trust Organic farming

As the farmer upgrades the hardware, he or she cannot be left behind in getting the crop varieties right. Today a lot of discussion goes on about the benefits and ill effects of the Genetically Modified crop varieties and the need to take the Organic way of farming. The simplest thing to identify here is that both varieties come with its own set of problems and value. The GM crops can yield better quantity, use lesser resources while creating health issues for the consumers and bring down soil fertility. The Organic farming way yields lesser quantity and might use more resources in form of water and manure but is largely healthy and is more sustainable.

Understanding the problems and deciding for themselves can be left to the producer and consumer and all the government can ensure is proper communication of the good and evil in each crop. Later on the market forces would decide the demand, supply and pricing.

Financial Engineering

So where would the capital come in from, one might ask, to upgrade the hardware and the working capital to procure seeds and fertilizers. Well a corporate company would never use its own money to get into such business, they would put in a margin amount and raise debt from banks or markets or both. They call it leverage. A farmer needs to make sure he or she also follows the same route. However, he or she must float a private company or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and hedge risks through futures and insurance so that his or her personal wealth is shielded from the prying eyes of the banker. The fact is that the same routes available for industrialist to borrow heavily while transferring risks of failure to banks is available to everyone.

Play the Market - Marketing and Hedging

Most companies sell products that people don't really need. Steve Jobs of Apple computers once famously quipped that people don't know what they want and it was Apple's job to give it to them. Farming goods are more easily marketable than gadgets as the former is a need while the latter just a want. However, that is not the case. That has to change, especially in case of niche food crops raised through Organic farming. The industry needs to unite and come together to form new standards. Such standards must be adhered to and marketed.

Playing the market also involves proper planning and having strategies to handle failures. Agriculture could fail because of umpteen reasons and it is imperative that there are fallbacks to lean on during a crop failure. Corporate companies have risks too such as currency risk, interest rate risk, et cetera. They handle such risks through a process called hedging. Farmers too can use products such as futures to lock their profit and stop the losses.

Lobby the Government

Manufactured goods and raw materials entering India sometimes face taxation and pricing to prevent dumping. This is to save domestic players from predatory pricing by foreign countries like China who can produce products at a much cheaper price. They have something called a 'Minimum import price' which sets the bar high for foreign imports letting domestic players survive. And what do we have for poor farmers? The government sets something called a 'Minimum export price' to ensure the farmer has no where to sell except in the domestic market where the asking prices are way too low.

The only way for governments to change this is to lobby them. Ask and it shalt be given and farmers are too small, too poor and too disunited to make a representation to the government. Forming an association like big industries, SIAM for automobile manufacturers, COAI for telecom players, etc ensures such lobbying effort are effectively carried out.

HR practices

Farming in India is predominantly family run. Families, generation after generation, get involved in farming and carry it out in lands they own. However, this might need to change. The farming landscape must evolve and it would call for experts in the field to be recruited and deployed along with better hardware and modern varities. Better data collection needs to be done and can be mined to study soil fertility, crop diseases, pests. Data also helps in identifying monsoon patterns, preparing for demand and supply surges, etc.

Procurement and Sales

Just like any industry that buys raw material and sells finished goods, farming too buys raw materials (seeds, manure, fertilizer) and sells finished goods (rice, pulses, vegetables, fruits). It involves a lot of money and the government plays a big role in subsidizing raw materials. They also support sale price by using Minimum support prices for certain produces. However, government being government is inefficient and corrupt and the small farmer can't get the big corporate companies to provide raw materials at a competitive price nor can ensure big retail brands/industries procure goods from them at a fair price. This is where a big corporate like farm company comes in handy. It can ensure large volumes bringing industries to procure in large numbers from them and can command premiums. It can also procure raw materials through a competitive process involving multiple suppliers.

Horizontal and Vertical integration

And like any other industry, farming must look at horizontal and vertical integration. In horizontal integration, they must look at consolidation of farm lands in different geography to diversify risks that might affect a particular locality such as failure of monsoons, pests.

Farm produce being a perishable commodity, it is imperative that the produce is quickly sold/used. Vertical integration would involve food parks that uses farm produce to make end products that can be preserved over a longer period. This opens up new markets and reduces wastage. Products such as ketchup, pickles are better sold than the underlying these days. This would also provide employment and empowerment to rural areas.

Social changes

Finally, a lot of social changes are needed in rural areas where most of the farming is carried out. Considering the literacy levels, it can be safely said that a lot of people are being misled and divided along caste, religion, etc. This would not help the cause of farming and would only serve political interests. This has to change too and would change when democracy and meritocracy is allowed to flourish in our villages.

For all these to happen, a corporate entity by the farmers, for the farmers and of the farmers is needed. This would lead to the democratization and empowerment of the farmers. This could be modeled around the co-operative system already prevalent across the country for milk and milk products.

Water is indeed a necessity, but, water ain't the only necessity.

I hope the Indian farmer doesn't become an extinct species and rather evolve to understand and implement a successful business model along these lines.

Musings on Election Results - 2016

The results of the recently concluded Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are out and it has thrown up a result which may look to the average voter out there surprising yet not so surprising. Surprising, since it is the first time in as many decades that an incumbent government, successfully fought and prevailed over a perceived anti-incumbency wave. Not so surprising because it is again one of those Dravidian majors that has retained power alternatively for close to half century. I thought I will post my musings as an open letter to the Election Commission of India.

Dear Election Commission,

You went on a campaign to educate and create an awareness to get citizens to vote. The slated aim was to ensure one hundred percent turnout on election date at the polling booths. The campaign at times exceeded other political parties campaigns both in grandiose and reach though it failed to achieve the desired results. But I feel the whole campaign was an exercise in absurdity. Before you throw the brick bats let me explain why I feel so.

A very popular industrialist, marketeer, pioneer and messiah, also known as Steve Jobs, who managed the company called Apple, which for many years remained and still counted as the greatest company by market capitalization and brand, once famously quipped, "people don't know what they want until you show it to them". Though it might seem rude and offensive it is a true fact which no one can deny. The sheer number of sales records, devices from Apple still breaks, stand testimony to this fact.

Forget Jobs, even the 'permanent' Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha, who is popularly called Amma (mother), keeps telling, "A mother knows what her children needs" likening the electorate to children, possibly stupid, unruly, tantrum throwing ones. And the election result kinda proves that she might be right. The hard fact is - People don't know what they want, period. Not everyone out there is a political analyst who spends hours reading newspapers and analyzing news, decoding business and policy decisions and making informed opinions all the time keeping their own prejudices and biases at bay. So stop treating them as one and stop begging them to vote. Mere participation will not change things, meaningful participation of informed, literate electorate would make the difference. An informed, literate electorate doesn't need the campaign, they vote on their own will.

Please concentrate on quality and not quantity.

The next big useless effort seems to be preventing cash for votes. While it was a noble effort it was clearly failing. It is and was an open secret that cash or gifts or both were given in exchange for votes and you, the commission, couldn't prevent it. When you can't regulate it, open it up to the market. The market has its own unique way to bring about an equilibrium between the demand and supply. Afterall that's the cornerstone of Capitalism and being the largest capitalist democracy we must embrace the free markets. Auction and bidding of votes over an ecommerce platform would have ensured both the seller and the buyer got maximum value out of the transaction. It also helps in the price discovery for whoever is curious and helps in transparency. How? Well those bidders who are desperate outbid others and those constituencies with exploitable resources - land, water, flora and fauna including humans usually command a premium.

How about spending the money you did on '100% vote' on rewarding cash to those who would turn in people who try to bribe voters? Just keep their identity anonymous and gift them more than political parties offer them.

Politicians are by far the most efficient and possibly pioneers in the field of data sciences all without having very good understanding of mathematics or statistics. They know numbers that allow a government to stand and the numbers that they need to win. They know the numbers that are to be given a good governance and the number that needs to be bribed. They calculate the cost to deliver good governance and the cost to bribe and can choose the efficient amongst the two, which always seems to be the latter. They know the numbers of vote banks and how effectively to consolidate them.

While big data can open up new avenues in industries, help in social programs such as preventive medicine and healthcare, in politics it could open a can of worms. The very fact that there are Naxals and Terrorists in a democracy proves that a significant population has no trust in the democratic system. And this deficit of trust is because of the lack of concern for the marginalized in the society. A politician can get away by just serving the interest of a community - religious, caste, gender or anything under which a group of people can identify themselves - and still win every time. All he or she has to do is deliver goodies to the community, consolidate their votes, buy some for a price and make sure the rest of the vote share is fragmented enough to not pose a significant threat and voila, we have what is come to be known as the vote bank.

Can you prevent the formation of such vote banks? You can possibly follow your sibling, Competition Commission of India's ideas in preventing such cartelizations.

And finally, some old ideas of mine. Why don't you ban parties and party memberships? Parties and membership affect rational decision making and bias free opinion making. Instead people can form issue based groupings. These kind of groups would be better placed to address challenges and would work more transparently. With parties these days, even honest leaders and members are forced to toe the party line even in issues they have deeply divergent views.

Thanks for NOTA,
A Voter.

Me, the Polling Officer

(An account of how I realized the hard work by those men and women who help the Election Commission of India uphold the Democratic rights of the Indian Citizen)

I am trying to drift into a sleep, a much deserved sleep, even if I say so myself, after a day or two of non-stop activity, combined with reckless travelling and back breaking workload not to mention the minimalistic resources and the awful planning by higher officials, having been part of the Election to the Kerala’s Legislative Assembly 2011. I wish I open the eyes and there was a group of smart, cute, smiling kingfisher air stewardesses in their eye-catching red outfit in all their eye-popping splendor offering me a drink from the king of good times to slow down my heartbeat of anxiety, remove that fatigue from every joint and help me get into a deeper slumber rather than keep running the same old incidents in my mind. Anyway, I am on the Duranto Express, which very much was heaven on wheels compared to what I had been through the past 48 hours or so and am not complaining as my mind races again through the events with sleep clearly evading me.

Objective 1: Sneak into Kerala somehow

April 11th 2011

The deputy Collector’s assurances sounded rock solid and I had remained at home in Chennai hoping my election duty will be cancelled at the last moment ‘at all costs’ which as you can see didn’t happen and I was watching a nightmare unfold in front of me after he tendered his ‘apologies’. Kudos to the election commission for planning Election Day (April 13th 2011) before a long weekend with Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday, Vishu – Malayalam New Year, celebrated with a fervent zeal by Keralites and Mahaveer Jayanthi, everything from Bullock carts to Aircrafts running across the border to Kerala were literally overflowing with people. Driving the car would turn out to be a rather expensive affair and it all looked pretty hopeless. Finally it was decided I take a train to Coimbatore and then proceed with whatever transportation available – Train, Bus, Foot across the border into Kerala at whatever time possible. The non AC compartments in day time trains ran quite empty though they get filled somehow with desperate people like me at the last minute and I managed to secure a seat. There started one of my toughest journeys in the hot, humid, sultry heats amidst the cries of babies, laughs of huge families whose Idea of a picnic seemed to be inside this hot tin can of a compartment and relentless hawkers and vendors in my quest to be part of the election rather than court arrest!

The train reached Coimbatore junction and I rushed to get tickets to give a shot in travelling by the general compartment to cover the 90 minutes or so journey that same night rather than staying at friend’s place and taking the first bus out in the morning as initially planned. The queue was almost non-existent that it was a breeze getting the ticket but the storm was waiting for me at the Platform, the train arrives and people rush from everywhere as if they were a swarm of bees attacking with a vengeance the General Compartments as I stand there taking the scene inside slowly difficult to digest it seeing my idea of travelling by general compartment disintegrate until the train started leaving the platform. I decided it is futile to wait for the next train and boarded the reserved compartment without a valid ticket.

Quite expectedly there were a couple of dozen of people like me all over the train and the Ticket Examiner was already out sniffing for us. He came to me and asked for ticket and I showed and he was quite visibly irritated, a female foreign tourist (probably French) comes into view, book in hand, and matters take turn for the worse. The examiner started flexing his muscles on me and proving to her who was really in charge there. After all attempts of pacifying him with soft, carefully framed, phrased, polite words fail as a last ditch effort I pull my wallet, take out the SBT ID card and Election duty order and flash it explaining I am on my way for conducting election duty in a scream to be heard over the noise of train and the examiner’s voice and the situation beautifully takes a turn for the better. He examines it and allows me to stay there repeating that I should get down at Palakkad and leaves. Heaving a sigh of relief I lean on to the wall, though I was curious to find what book she was reading leaning on the other side and secretly wished to find if she really was French as I guessed (as I love many things French!) but the tiredness got the better of me and I rather played statue.

A friendly Autorickshaw finally helped me reach my objective for the day as I lay flat on my bed at my home in Palakkad in the State of Kerala.

Objective 2: Reach Government High School, Mannarkad – Constituency make-shift Polling HQ – ALIVE

April 12th 2011

The most difficult part of staying alone was not food, not clothing and definitely not shelter rather waking up in the morning. Mom used to call me up a dozen times to wake me up for Office even at 0800 hrs and today I was supposed to report at a place called Mannarkad about 35 kms from Palakkad enroute Kozhikode. The buses plying between despite being some of the fastest I have travelled in any part of the world takes more than an hour to make it there thanks to the curvy roads and a couple of hair pin bends. So if I were to report by 0900 hrs there as per order I will have to board by at least 0800 hrs and I wasn’t up until 0700 hrs!

Somehow I managed to get my act together and made a dash to KSRTC stand (Kerala State Run Transport Corporation) where they park those red color painted buses which we recognize from movies and media. It has become almost part of the Kerala tradition. Finding the bus wasn’t a problem, most buses had boards written in Malayalam, English and Tamil too, even without them it was easy to find, the ‘ka’ in Malayalam is similar to Tamil and the ‘de’ in Kozhikode is similar to ‘da’ in Hindi/Sanskrit so I never confused it with Kollam or Kottayam, other popular Kerala locations starting with the ‘ka’ syllable.

So some few kilometers into the journey and there is a deafening sound from the wheels and my worst fears that I harbored right from the time the sound was feeble came true and very soon the bus was parked and declared broken down. And there I was stranded with a heavy bag slinging on my shoulder waiting for any mode of transport that would take me to Mannarkad.

Few minutes later another one of those red buses appear in the horizon and everybody gets into position like the same swarm of bees and I was merely looking at them without the slightest idea of how to be part of the attack. Before I realized the bus was full, almost tilting to one side with weight and ready to start and I was still on the road. While the conductor was trying to close the door I frantically ran flashing my card again crying election. The word caught a mob that was busy getting refunds and came to my rescue, they literally carried me and my bag and dumped me into the bus and locked the door without the slightest regard to the fact that I ended up almost sitting on the latch of the door inside.

The bus started slowly with the engine struggling to pull and the body of the bus creaked and tweaked under heavy weight. I didn’t realize the significance of being seated in the latch with my back to the door and my hands in front flying mid air with nothing significant to hold to, literally throwing my whole weight on the door, until the bus took one of the sharper curves. It was not just me but another four passengers like me with nothing to hold on to and every time the bus took a right curve, the latch was operated under my weight automatically, I realized should the latch open the effect would be catastrophic to me above all which sent a chill down my spine. I threw my left hand outside and grabbed the outer latch in position so that it doesn’t open. I had pinned my life to God and a communist state’s worker’s workmanship on a bus door latch.

What an Irony! Comrades of the Marxist revolution in Soviet Union were not allowed to profess their faith and they were pampered by the Unions so their work was shabby and lacked quality as far as I remember from History. It was more or less similar here in Kerala. But finally my belief and determination saw me through Objective 2 Alive only to be bothered by more objectives!

Objective 3: Reach Poll Booth with all equipments, life and body parts intact

The huge school premises housing a number of buildings which on any normal day would harbor many young, mischievous boys and girls and teachers was teeming with old men and women, proud of their contribution to the country in setting the election machinery ticking. I ran to meet my Presiding Officer (the immediate reporting authority for us Polling Officers) and found much to my happiness that he wasn’t expecting me to turn up earlier. We teamed up with the other two polling officers and were marching to collect our assigned Booth’s machine, voter’s list, register and the stuff with which elections these days are carried out with. Later we were assigned a mini-bus (the ones that looks like a cross between a Bus and a Van with their all powerful engine and short turning radius) along with three other teams to three other booths all up a small hill en route a tourist destination called Silent Valley! A colleague literally said ‘an eerie silence prevails like everything was dead’ and hence the name and I was already wishing I was only dreaming.

We were assigned with one armed police officer who carried a self loading rifle from the Colonial era I suppose, another officer called the Route Officer who showed us the route and held keys of the ‘sanitized’ Polling Booths and the driver. Everyone were discussing animatedly in Malayalam about the local population. I was told that most are tribal people but I was assured there were no Maoists and most of them were educated. I was assured no ambush would happen only after seeing the police officer dozing off midway.

I had made one serious miscalculation though. The real risk was not a Maoist ambush rather the road itself, which simply didn’t exist. Many Kerala friends would dispute this telling Kerala is one state where road connects almost every village, well that’s because a dictionary definition of a road differs from their definition. The driver was riding on small boulders at highways speeds, quite literally, either he was reimbursed quite handsomely by the government or he didn’t own the bus or both. The shake was so hard that I visualized everything from the steering wheel come off to the police officer’s rifle fire accidentally by the shake. Thankfully nothing untoward happened and our objective was achieved in a no nonsense way. A line of appreciation to the Election Commission of India though, none of the equipments were at any risk at any point in the journey, they were so thoughtfully designed anticipating Indian Conditions!

Objective 4: Get the Polling booth and ourselves in shape!

Now the makeshift polling booth was originally a Village Office. The Padavayal Village Office, as it was known, had two office rooms, a store room for files and UPS and a toilet. There was a well outside to draw water from and some trees in a neatly laid out compound. The overall structure was nowhere near to what can be described as a voter-friendly-booth, so we had to set out on making it one. There was a Police Constable posted there already prior to our arrival and we were told a female clerk would join us in the morning to help identify women wearing Burqas. So we started off with rearranging the desks in various positions barricading the flow of the voter’s queue, positioned the ballot unit enclosed and hidden from plain view and separate places for the Officers and the agents to be seated. The notices, entry/exit signboards, the polling/presiding officer’s name boards and ID cards, etc were also readied. And by the time we finished it was already dusk.

All work on a summer day makes anyone a Sweaty guy! So we were thinking on how to bathe. There was a well but the water was kind of deep since it was a small hill and we were already exhausted that no one was prepared to haul water from it. That is when we heard about the river running just behind our building from a rather brave kid who definitely knew swimming; the news sure sent my stomach churning! Water bodies always invoked that despite trying to getting used to it.

Keralites no matter where they were born and brought up, whether from the hilly terrains of Munnar or the backwaters of Alappuzha or the coastal cities of Thiruvanathapuram or the Urban landscape of Ernakulam, took a strong liking to water bodies. And before I know everyone had equipped themselves to wade into the river. And I had no option but to follow suit. The water was cool and clear, currents were low and depths knee high at most parts so I also took to the fun at close to 2000 hrs into the evening. After a refreshing bath we treated ourselves to a sumptuous dinner of Parathas and Egg curry and it was time to retire for the night.

The households in and around the village office were kind enough to share some mats and sheets and we also had equipped ourselves rather well having been instructed to that effect earlier. Only then we realized that the arrangements we had so painstakingly done were to be undone for us to sleep and we did exactly the same. Anticipating the big Election Day we retired for a quiet night sleep on borrowed mats. Objective reached.

Objective 5: Conduct Election!

April 13th 2011

The presiding officer was an early riser; he was up by 0400 hrs and was bathed and ready by 0500 hrs when he woke us up. We lazily took to the same river.  With no daylight we switched to our lights from mobile phones which glistened in many of the frogs’ and tadpoles’ eyes. The grass leading up to the river were covered with the morning dew and before we took the feet to the water it was dripping wet. The super cool water and the chilled up morning air sans pollution were great refreshers. By the time we were back at the booth the police company that were to do security patrol along the hill were there, including the uniformed little female constable, now we all know women go gaga over uniformed men just realized same can be said about men! :) Shortly the Polling agents from various political parties were there to witness the Mock poll and sealing of the control unit.

The election started off smoothly, though I was first polling officer I was assigned the job of resetting the ballot unit and applying indelible ink because of my incognizance of the vernacular language. The crowd wasn’t anything huge, the population density was controllable and we even had time in between for snacks, breakfast and lunch as the election progressed. I had to help few elderly people and other first time voters; the latter enjoyed more enthusiastic responses especially the fairer gender for obvious reasons! :)

Around 1500 hrs some 2 hours to end time we get a shocker! The register in which we had collected the voter signature/thumb impression we ought to have filled the voter ID card number. We hadn’t been informed and now it was too late. But still since it was conveyed from no less than the Returning Officer we decided to finish it off, I already had this guilty feeling of not being able to play polling officer 1 in here so I took up the task head on. The others offered to read it to me and I wrote and we were able to complete in under an hour or two, well before end time.

Finally it was time to seal everything. Wax and a small wooden seal with a brass tip bearing a symbol of the presiding officer were used. There were about thirty or so covers with various headings into which went in different registers, unused ballot papers, etc and the control unit and ballot unit were themselves locked in the box they came with and tagged shut and the ends of the tag sealed on a cardboard bearing the name of the booth and the constituency. It was fascinating to watch how the election across such a huge geographical area is being conducted so very orderly.

After making sure that the equipments are all accounted for we pack our own bags and wait for the mini bus to arrive to take us to the HQ at Mannarkad. A LDF and UDF volunteer stood with us to see us off to make sure the machines are not tampered with by the other. A short time later the bus arrived packed with people and equipments from the other three booths and we didn’t get the option to choose our seats and had to take whichever was available to survive the return journey over boulders. The police jeep gave us a brief escort until the start of the Ghat road and waved us off.

The descent was worse than the ascent the previous day as I was sitting on the very last bench with nothing to hold. Sitting in the middle of the whole bench I had a panoramic view of the road through the windshield. That was until the hairpin bends arrived. Seated at the very end I didn’t get a view of the fence and every time the bus took a turn I was left staring at the blank open some hundreds of meters above mean sea level. It was as if the bus was taking a plunge into the abyss for those few minutes it undertook the turn and the fact that I was not in control of it made my stomach churn again. The only seat that was empty was near the police officer and I took it after much persuasion by my mind.

We reach the head quarters and the situation was not anywhere near pleasant. There were no clear instructions available and the crowd was getting really irritated when turned away from the collection centre for want of something. Thankfully our presiding officer was an experienced hand and he handled it exceptionally well and we deposited all the stuff in the first attempt though he had to suffer a ‘lost-and-found’ drama with his shoes in the sea of a crowd.

Finally we boarded a bus to take us back to Palakkad and this time an unfriendly autorickshaw took me to my home and demanded higher wages. With no strength left to fight I give in and reach home. The ground floor tenant’s wife who happens to be some official in the Government’s Health department also returned from polling duty and after a brief, excited talk about the election (she did all the talking!) I go upstairs and lie down dead tired without even locking the door.

Objective 6: Reach Home in Chennai.

April 14th 2011

The next day I wake up quite leisurely. Board a bus to Coimbatore as every direct transport from Palakkad to Chennai starts only from evening. Had to stand all the way till Coimbatore and get down at Ukkadam. Then I board a city bus which was comfortable, thanks to Senthamizhil Maanadu @ Kovai, the roads and public properties went in for a makeover. After reaching the station I waited patiently in the queue for the ticket only to be turned away to another counter. Cursing the person who very confidently directed me there and lack of any notice board I take my place in the next queue. As soon as I reach the counter the lady there promptly closed saying lunch time. I either had to wait there for her to finish the lunch or lose my position. I decided to wait and finally was rewarded with the ticket which I used to board the train with and now am day dreaming the whole nightmare.

Now the government compensated us for the service rendered. I was given INR 500 for doing this which incidentally was INR 100 lesser than Duranto’s ticket cost. Not much of a deal to me given that I have a history of spending more than what I earn or to phrase it better earn lesser than what I intend to spend. But what strikes me is how people go on doing this despite the low wages, high responsibility and other difficulties associated with it. Why wouldn’t they protest and do a civil disobedience thingy? Maybe fear of an Iron fist, lack of unity or maybe it was A SHEER PLEASURE IN SERVING THE COUNTRY. I think it’s the pleasure. Will I do it another time? YES given a chance for we are not called to serve the country often!

Democracy, often taken for granted, is a commodity that is in severe shortage in many parts of the globe as is evident from the Arab Spring revolution and years of Chinese Oppression. I am allowed to write this, I am allowed to speak, criticize even those who rule me and be myself. We should realize all this is a gift and not a mere service that is being rendered for paying taxes!

Jai Hind!

Internationalism - the need of the hour?

Wikipedia defines Internationalism thus

Internationalism is a political principle which advocates a greater political or economic cooperation among nations and peoples, and whose ideological roots can be traced to both socialism and liberalism.

While I have subscribed to many -isms, Internationalism is fairly new and quite at its nascent form. It has grown on me increasingly in recent years as I saw governments and citizens become more Nationalistic. Nationalism, per-se, is a noble quality that helps in uniting a Nation, propelling it to greater heights, through a healthy competition, with peer Nations. But the current, right wing, almost militaristic Nationalism which shoves down ideas down throats and labels anyone who protests the shoving as an anti-national is something I have grown to detest and Internationalism seems to be a viable alternate on many fronts.

I have a Dream...

...And this dream sums up an ideal world based on Internationalism. The dream is about the United Federal States of Earth (UFSE), a fantasy country-planet (modeled around city-state) maybe a reality in an Alternate Universe.

UFSE has no Central Government. Only a Supreme Council with elected representatives from every federal state. Monetary policy is managed by a committee of bankers with representation of the federal states and the economy left to the individual states. The federal states are partitioned based on language, race or whichever way the people want themselves to be identified. The Supreme Council vets applications requesting for statehood to create such states and helps in creating new federal states when the demand arise. A constitution guarantees the basic rights to all citizens and gives legality to the committees, councils and a Supreme Court helps in upholding the constitution and laws.

The federal states are free to have their own system of governance and bureaucracy. However, law and order are not the state's subject. Since there are no defense personnel and other associated military expenditures, the police force is strong and well organized. They are constrained by law and report to the Supreme Council. Given the diversity in race, language and ethnicity among the police force there are no biases in dealing with law and order. The Supreme committee headed by representatives operate in an open and transparent manner and given the lack of incentives in capturing power ensures that the police is not misused to bring down the federal setup. The federal setup together has a representative committee called the Federal committee with nominated members.

The Federal committee, Supreme Council and the Supreme Court act as the pillars of the union with the fourth pillar provided by an open and enthusiastic media with greater social participation leveraging the Information and Communication technologies.

Such a world would be more at peace with itself, the environment and the universe. And this is not that difficult to bring to fruition. Even the worst of the enemies have come together to form unions (European Union) and even nuclear neighbors (India and Pakistan) still have a lot in common between themselves than differences. People to people contact helps healing wounds and the all powerful police force can bring under control the worst of the riots given their abilities. Education can be unbiased and development would be to the benefit of humanity. Religion would be constrained to personal beliefs and while religion could still be the basis for a federal state, the fanaticism based on religion will be dealt with by the strong arm of the global police. Economic equality, equality in opportunities and a true, free market would be a reality.

Are we prepared for a Robotic Armageddon?

This post is not about

• The predicted doom because of Artificial Intelligence (AI) vying for world domination.
• A war with the Decepticons on one side and Earthlings and Autobots on the other.
• The havoc to be unleashed by the 'Jarvis' that Mark Zuckerberg is going to build which may take control of FaceBook and dictate 'free basics' terms to the poor.

This post is about (well sort of) the emergence of Automation, AI, Advanced robots and 3D printing and what it means to the world and its workforce which has an effect on the social, political and economical landscape of the countries, especially India.

This, I believe, would be the biggest 'Disruptor' (if I may borrow the jargon that most of the business world is looking up to these days!) of the century if not the decade. It has implications to disrupt both manufacturing and services and lives up to the name by creating and unlocking huge value. However, we have one huge problem. They don't disrupt other not-so-efficient, middlemen-infested, traditional, change-averse, brick-and-mortar-based and not-agile businesses. But rather disrupt and replace humans from their jobs and in turn their lives, social structure and the world as we know it. After all, humans are, err, just humans!

Companies today evidently are moving away from human resources to robotic, machine-based resources. This was necessitated by many factors including quality, quantity, stagnation of technical innovation, financial innovation and rising costs and even demography. Robots were able to deliver the best quality consistently unlike humans, the machines could run 24x7 to meet sudden surge in demand and except for regular maintenance, overhaul and the other overheads associated with the robots there was no significant costs unlike humans where labor costs go up as the standard of living improves. And when demand falls they can be just switched off unlike humans who can't be fired and had to be paid.

This is not a fad associated with manufacturing alone. When someone says services industry in India what immediately comes to mind is the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to attend to customer calls from across the world. However, Artificial Intelligence is making huge strides that this industry could be completely taken over by them. One need not look far to be convinced for this. Our AI assistants in today's smartphones - Google Now in Android, Siri in iOS and Cortana in Microsoft could do many things with just voice commands. Going forward programs like Eugene Goostman would better their Turing test scores and start vying for the BPO jobs that helped bring many out of poverty in Asia.

Neither manufacturing nor service industry is immune to this phenomena. However, this won't happen overnight and that is the consoling part - that humans would evolve to face it. But will it be slow enough for countries with huge population like China and India is the hard question. In India alone it is said that there are millions of new graduates graduating every year and government promote policies -  #MakeInIndia, #SkillIndia, #StartUpIndia, #StandUpIndia, labor policy overhauls, et cetera - to absorb them into the workforce. However, this may be too late, too little. 

Today India and the rest of the world is not able to compete with China on price. This is because they are able to keep their currency low and pay their workers even lower in sweat shops where they toil like animals. Tomorrow if they replace their workers with machines, their costs would go down further and we wouldn't be able to compete with the best and cheapest workforce. What we need is a highly skilled and competitive workforce which we may not be building.

An idle brain is a devil's workshop is an age old proverb. When livelihoods are lost, the societal and political structures may be challenged. Inequality would rear its ugly head. The World as a whole cannot afford such a situation. The solution, as I see it, would hinge on greater collaboration, technology sharing, knowledge transfer and the likes. Hope humanity wakes up to the challenges and comes out with an apt solution.

Putin - Savior or Tyrant?

I and an uncle of mine, who has varied interests and great knowledge on middle east, had a discussion on Russia's action in the middle east, especially Syria, where the Russians under Putin had taken the fight to ISIS and the Syrian rebels in support of President Bashar al-Assad. While I agree with his assessment that what Russia does is noble and good, I didn't necessarily subscribe to his view that Russia would emerge the next super power from the ashes of World War 3.

It is rather ironic (not that much, this Wired article claims it is common at this time of the year and gives tips on how to win) that the discussion happened on Christmas when the whole world celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, prince of peace (Oops, not the whole world, many Russian Orthodox churches celebrate it in January). So is Putin a Savior who would restore Russia to former glory or a tyrant who would run Russia to the ground. I have my own reasons, which I discuss below, as to why the latter is more likely to happen though I would love the possibility of the former happening. Who doesn't like a triumphant, underdog story?

Economy

Russia is no longer the heavy weight it used to be among the BRICS nations. In fact most nations including Brazil and China are fighting high inflation and severe slowdown in their economies. The sanctions imposed by the European Union and the USA after the Crimean annexation and subsequent play in Ukraine is also having a negative effect on the Russian economy.

The fall in oil prices, whether it is being orchestrated by Washington, Riyadh or Moscow itself, the fact remains that Russia is suffering along with the other oil economies. Saudi Arabia is likely to raise debt which would help them fill in the void left behind by the plunging oil in their treasuries. Alaska is also proposing to bring in higher income tax rates after nearly three decades to plug dwindling oil revenues. Saudi Arabia (AA-) is better placed than Russia (BB+) in ratings by S&P and hence would have a clear advantage here.

The allies also play an important role here. On Russia's side we have got Syria, Iran and Iraq for now. Syria is still battling ISIS and have conceded large swathes of land to the self proclaimed Caliphate. Iran recently won a diplomatic victory in getting the West remove crippling sanctions against it by agreeing to go slow on its nuclear weapons program and is unlikely to antagonize them again. Iraq is still rebuilding itself from the invasion by the United States and subsequent IS menace. There are other countries such as China on the fence, which is battling its own financial crisis at home and also concerned about USA's involvement with its regional rivals. The other countries are too small or economically weak to bring anything substantial to the table.

Against Russia we have Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two of the most powerful countries in the middle east. Israel can also be counted in as also Pakistan. The United Arab Emirates can bankroll the fight for long. Though these countries are economically sound if push comes to the shove they can be backed by the Americans and the Europeans with their large purses miffed by age old Soviet adversity and recent Russian action in Ukraine and Syria.

Advantage: Anti-Russia coalition

Military

The Soviet Union was a formidable military power but the same cannot be said about the Russians. When the Russians battled Georgia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia their performance was assessed and found to be lacking by both International and Domestic experts. Though their performance had significantly improved during the Ukraine and Syrian conflicts, it is still not the kind that would upset the Anti-Russian coalition. Russia's allies are also not in a very strong position. Iran has dated weaponry and is dependent on Russia for its' supplies. So is Syria and most of their weapons fell into rebel hands when Syrian soldiers defected to join the rebel ranks.

China, who is sitting on the fence on Syria, if it decides to join would be a game changer. China has weapons that are either imported or copies of some of the world's most renowned. However, the question is whether they will enter the war. Chinese economy is already in a slowdown and being a trade economy heavily dependent on exports of finished goods, war is bad news. A slowing economy doesn't augur well for domestic politics either. But if they were to enter despite these they might be aggressively engaged more locally in the South China Sea, Tibet and India. Also entering the middle east in support of the Russians and the Shias against the Sunnis may lead to loss of relationship with the Pakistanis. Moreover, the Uighur problem in Xinjiang may peak considering the fact that Uighurs adhere to Sunni practices.

Contrast this with the Anti-Russia coalition. In the middle east we have Turkey, Saudi and Israel ready to defend against Russian action. The United States and its allies would be ready with arms and ammunition to back them up. Considering that Turkey is a NATO member, any attack on them would invite NATO ire which might affect Russia closer to home than in Syria. Probably the reason why Turkey downing a Russian fighter has more or less received muted response.

While Russian performance have significantly improved since 2008 it still doesn't match its opponent and allies.

Advantage: Anti-Russia coalition

Domestic Politics

A country need stability internally to project power externally. This is important, especially in this age, when the enemy actively uses internal disturbances as a policy to attack. Russia in this front has many active instability factors - separatists, drugs, demographics, corruption, mafia and oligarchs. The fact that Russia lacks any credible opposition to highlight excesses by the Government and most of the fourth estate being owned by the Government or state run companies doesn't help either. Divergent views aren't tolerated, be it from a Journalist, physicist or from that of a Chess Grand master, they are silenced either by assassination or intimidation. In a full scale war these can be put to maximum use to divert  Kremlin's attention from the battle field.

Iran too faced protests soon after elections in 2009 like Russia did after Putin came to power in 2012. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, is still a central figure and a force to be reckoned with, known for his fierce anti-west tirade. Though the current Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is a moderate, who was able to strike the deal with the west on Nuclear energy, he still is very much influenced by the Ayatollah is an open secret. There is a civil war going on in Syria and Iraq isn't exactly peaceful either.

China has a more complicated problem at hand. The bond that holds the Chinese people together is that the economy has been growing, providing opportunities, keeping them busy. So busy that they have never felt the need to fight for government services, labor incentives and freedom. The unraveling economy can have a cascading effect on the cheap labor which might make the local population to raise against the state in protest. Apart from this there is the restive province of Xinjiang with the muslim Uighurs who are fighting against the Han Chinese for autonomy. Tibetans too are protesting the presence of Chinese in their land. All this flash points could be activated if China decides to side with Russia in the war.

On the other side we have dictatorships too - UAE, Saudi Arabia, et cetera. However, these don't have an imminent threat of losing power. Turkey has a vibrant democracy so does Israel and Pakistan, at least on paper. The other American and European powers have a strong mature democracy and institutions to take care of internal issues freeing their leaders to concentrate on the war, should the need arise.

Advantage: Anti-Russia coalition

It is simple to dismiss all the above as western propaganda. But a propaganda targeting whom would be a valid question. If it is to shape public discourse to prepare them for a war then it is not happening. People today are more connected and war averse than before. And in this age of Wikileaks, Snowden, Anonymous and a free press, a propaganda of this scale, if it was one, would have been easily called out as one. Contrarily it is countries like Russia and Iran which have a press high on propaganda.

So is a great war in the offing then? I would say, NO!

Russia, Europe and America are too smart for it. The great powers have more or less understood that war creates more problems than it solves. We have seen Europe, once the world's hot spot for conflicts, kick out all misunderstandings and merging together for good. Russia went ahead and created a trade union combining Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia into an Eurasian Customs Union. USA is consolidating its friendship with Mexico and Canada and is extending a hand of friendship to even former enemies such as Cuba.

So Putin - a savior or tyrant? A savior to his people thanks to the propaganda that is going on in Russia and among the Russian people. A tyrant to the west and all who view Russia as a threat including Ukraine, Georgia, et cetera. What Putin actually is a smart negotiator, a shrewd businessman and a sly fox. His negotiation skills came to the fore when Syria was to be punished by the policeman of the world. He means business when he says he would protect Russian interests (which include ethnic Russian population in other countries) under threat using force. When the heat is on him he turns around, withdraws to negotiate and concludes his business - the French saw it during Georgia, Germany and Europe in Ukraine and the United States probably would see it in Syria.

Disclosures:

• I am a big fan of Russia, the country that demonstrated how Communism (me a fanboi) can work (albeit for a short time with all the inefficiencies).
• I also like spies (have read most works of Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and watched most Bond movies) and hence Putin, the KGB agent, naturally commands my admiration.
• I understand that no one can be without bias but I am working on containing mine.