The Money Trap!

There used to be a tradition followed by children in many families in India during the 90s where kids tend to follow similar career as their parents. This was either due to lack of opportunities in the region where they lived or reduced awareness about what the world had to offer, often backed by limited financial support parents could offer those days.

Things were not too different for me. As soon as I was in my tenth-grade, questions started popping up about what my plans for future was. Those were the days when we finished with grade ten at school, we moved on to a college campus where we did a course called pre-degree for the next two years preparing ourselves for future courses, such as three-year graduation in streams such as Science, Arts or Commerce or four-year Engineering or even longer Medical courses. The options were limited to these.

My elder brother had opted for Commerce, and my dad was a graduate in Economics. So naturally, I ended up with these choices and finally decided on Commerce assuming that job opportunities were better with that stream.

Soon, I joined the pre-degree course in Commerce at St Berchmans (SB) College, one of the most prestigious institutions for higher education in Changanacherry, my hometown in Kerala. After two years, I continued with the graduation stream in Commerce. Before even I knew, three more years went by, and I was in my final year of Commerce. The same year, I got elected as the Commerce Association Secretary of SB College, an assignment I deeply cherished since that was the beginning of many such responsibilities that came my way in future.

One of the key events I was responsible as Association Secretary was to organise an inter-collegiate event named Commerce Causerie. We formed a good team from our final year class along with a few of our juniors to drive the event. A considerable amount had to be raised in sponsorship from institutions in and around our small town. Invitations were sent to multiple colleges and universities across the state. All preparations were done. With the support of the team, we raised enough funds to conduct the event.

The money raised was utilized for various needs including prizes for event winners, facilities including renting of acoustics, travel expenses for invited dignitaries, printing of flyers, posters, banners for sponsors, setting up stalls and many more. Togy, one of my classmates was responsible for the funds as official treasurer of the event. I was equally required to oversee the expenses in the capacity of Association Secretary.

Finally, the big day arrived. All events were picture perfect. As the day progressed, Togy and I started settling the bills with various suppliers. Everyone except the acoustics provider was cleared. His bill was Rs 2000 and I looked at Togy, but all what happened was that we exchanged blank stares. To put it simple, we were broke! There was no money left in the purse to settle the last guy.

Commerce Causerie was an event completely conceived, planned, and executed by the student body of Commerce Department, and hence it was not prudent to reach out to our faculty for help. 25 years later when I look back, moments like these defined true leaders in us. Good leaders are always around. Great leaders are born when a crisis stared down on them.

For a moment we wondered what really went wrong. We were quite sure that we had raised enough money through sponsorship and even after the planned expenses we were even expecting certain surplus. Those were the days we rarely carried extra cash with us, and credit cards were even unheard of. The acoustics guy started to get uneasy. We had to do something before he decided to head to the Commerce Department and complained to our faculty.

That was when we realized something. A few weeks back, as part of the sponsorship trips I did along with a few of my classmates, we had visited the branch of IDBI bank at a nearby town and met the manager. After a few minutes of convincing he agreed to sponsor us with Rs 2000, but with a caveat. He said he would release the cheque for the amount only after showing him the photographs of the event where the banner of IDBI was prominently displayed. Never knew angels came in the form of bank managers!

Since there was no way to get the liquid cash required at that moment to pay the acoustics guy, we were still stuck. That was the exact moment, the proverbial idea bulb showed up above my head. My dad used to work in a branch of Dhanalakshmi bank near our college. I had a savings account in the same branch which I knew had more than Rs 2000 in it. I rushed to the bank, filled the cash withdrawal form for Rs 2000, and waited for my turn for the teller to call out my token number to receive the money. Imagine a world without ATMs!

My dad saw me coming in and he obviously asked me what the urgency was to withdraw the money. I gave him a quick update about the situation and as soon as the teller handed over the money from my account, I rushed back to college. The acoustics guy was finally silent.

A few days later, as I handed over the cheque for Rs 2000 from IDBI bank to the teller at Dhanalakshmi bank to deposit the amount back to my account, he could not help noticing a smile on my face. It was the smile that appeared from reliving the experiences of an occasion that turned out to be one of the greatest learning in terms of not just organizing a large-scale event but helped me with lessons in money management that remain etched in my mind forever.

നാർമടിപ്പുടവ

 ഒറ്റ ഇരിപ്പിന് ഒരു പുസ്തകം വായിച്ചു തീര്‍ക്കുന്ന സവിശേഷ കാഴ്ച ഞാന്‍ കണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നത് എന്റെ നല്ല പാതിയിലും മകളിലും മാത്രമാണ്. എന്റെ ഓർമ്മയിൽ ഈ അടുത്തകാലത്ത് എങ്ങും തന്നെ അങ്ങനെയൊരു വായനാ അനുഭവം എനിക്കുണ്ടായിട്ടില്ല. അങ്ങനെയിരിക്കെ കഴിഞ്ഞ ആഴ്ച മാത്രം വായിക്കാനായി എടുത്ത ഒരു പുസ്തകം ഇന്ന് വായിച്ചു തീർത്തു എന്ന് ഞാൻ പറയുമ്പോൾ അതിലെ അതിശയോക്തി നിങ്ങൾക്ക് മനസ്സിലാകും എന്ന് ഞാൻ കരുതുന്നു.

പലതവണ പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ കണ്ടിട്ടുണ്ടെങ്കിലും ഒരിക്കൽപോലും വായനയിലൂടെ പരിചയപ്പെടാൻ ശ്രമിക്കാതിരുന്ന ഒരു എഴുത്തുകാരിയായിരുന്നു സാറാ തോമസ്. നാർമടിപ്പുടവ എന്ന കൃതി ഇതുപോലെ ഒരു അസാമാന്യ അനുഭവം പ്രദാനം ചെയ്യുന്നതായിരുന്നു എന്ന് അറിഞ്ഞിരുന്നെങ്കിൽ പണ്ടേ ഞാൻ അതിന് ശ്രമിച്ചേനേ!

ഒരു പുസ്തകത്തിന്റെ തുടക്കം മുതൽ ഒടുക്കം വരെ അതിതീവ്രമായ വികാരങ്ങൾ അതേ തീവ്രതയോടെ വായനക്കാരുടെ ചേതനയിൽ ഉണർത്തുക എന്നുള്ളത് ഒരു അസാമാന്യ എഴുത്തുകാരിക്കു മാത്രം സാധിക്കുന്ന ഒന്നാണ്.

തമിഴ് ബ്രാഹ്മണ സമുദായത്തിലെ കാലഹരണപ്പെട്ട ചില ആചാരങ്ങൾക്കെതിരെ പിടിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കണ്ണാടിയാണ് ഈ കൃതി. പക്ഷേ എന്നെ ഏറ്റവും അതിശയപ്പെടുത്തിയ കാര്യം 1978ൽ എഴുതിയ ഈ പുസ്തകത്തിലെ പല അവസ്ഥകളും വിവിധ രൂപങ്ങളിൽ ഇന്നും നിലനിൽപ്പുണ്ട് എന്നുള്ള യാഥാർത്ഥ്യമാണ്. അതിന് മതത്തിന്റെയോ, സമുദായത്തിന്റെയോ വ്യത്യാസമില്ല എന്നുള്ളതും ഒരു സങ്കടകരമായ വസ്തുതയാണ്.

ഇന്നും വായനയെ സ്നേഹിക്കുന്ന ആരെങ്കിലും ഈ കുറിപ്പ് കാണുകയാണെങ്കിൽ സാധിക്കുന്ന ഏറ്റവും അടുത്ത സാഹചര്യത്തിൽ ഈ പുസ്തകം വാങ്ങണമെന്നും വായിക്കണമെന്നും ഞാൻ അതിയായി ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു. ഇല്ലെങ്കിൽ അതൊരു തീരാനഷ്ടം തന്നെയായിരിക്കും.

സാറാ തോമസ് നിങ്ങൾക്ക് എന്റെ ഹൃദയം നിറഞ്ഞ കൂപ്പുകൈ 

When Yesudas failed to impress me!

K J Yesudas is one of the most celebrated singers India has ever produced. He is estimated to have recorded an overwhelming 50000 songs in more than a dozen Indian and foreign languages.

He was already a living legend by the time I reached my middle school. This was year 1993. That was when one day, dad came home with a breaking news that Yesudas was to perform at a musical concert in Assumption college, one of the most famous colleges in Changanacherry, my hometown in Kerala. Naturally, everyone got excited because you were getting an opportunity of a lifetime to listen to a musical icon in the country performing live!

For me personally, that was not the real excitement. It was also the first year after my dad opened Adens, an ice cream parlour and restaurant, in our hometown. After breaking the news about Yesudas, dad also mentioned that we were going to have a food stall inside the college where people could walk in and buy ice creams and snacks. Yay! We were going to run a shop inside one of the biggest colleges in our small hometown.

Dad also offered to pick me up from school in the evening which was a rare occurrence since I used to commute daily to school on an auto rickshaw. I felt happy that my dad was coming to pick me up from school that day! Small happinesses in life.

By the time I reached the age of middle school, dad used to give me a small amount as pocket money. Nothing fancy, it was about Rupees 2 a month. But the value of that was so high those days, that you will not believe me if I said, I was able to buy twenty candies for just one Rupee! So, on the day of the concert I ensured that I bought a handful of those candies from a tiny shop behind our school where I waited for my dad to pick me up.

Soon we reached the college where the musical concert of Yesudas was about to begin. As soon as I stepped into the campus, what greeted me was a large make-shift frame which connected two of the main buildings of the college. The frame looked as though it was painted in pure white and there were images of bright red apples placed at equal distance from each other across which the word Adens was engraved. It was the beautiful logo of our business. Everyone who walked through the gates of the college that day, stood and took notice of the shop and the brand Adens. 

It was a pure marketing genius of dad to secure a stall there in college for the event, which was the only food stall available in the campus that day. Not only did the day end up as exceptionally good for the business but also gained much needed publicity for a new brand in town.

Meanwhile, the concert was an equally big hit and soon after the event, Yesudas headed back home. So did I, with tummy filled with candies and mind brimming with business ideas.

Thanks again to dad for instilling such brilliant marketing lessons right from our childhood in my brother and me. I am sure his soul must be rejoicing up in Heaven for a life well lived!

Secret of Ramses

Tom and Maria were living their dream vacation in Egypt. After a lot of persuasion, they finally convinced their parents to plan a trip to the land of pharaohs. They were at the tomb of Ramses II, the greatest and the most powerful pharaohs in the recorded history of Egypt.

They were looking at hieroglyphics carved on stone and were having lots of fun, imagining the meaning of each one of them. 'Oh my God! Look at this Tom!' Maria screamed! Tom literally jumped, hearing his sister yelling. He rushed to her side to check what excited her so much. Maria was pointing to a specific hieroglyphic square which depicted a bedecked Egyptian figure holding what looked like a movie camera! Tom was equally surprised to see this in a tomb that was more than 3000 years old. What was even more alarming was that a few feet later he found another square where he saw an equally decorated Egyptian figure holding what looked like a mobile phone! Tom and Maria were thrilled at what they discovered. They decided to put their brains together to figure out the meaning of those unusual findings.

Meanwhile, 3000 years back, an incredible scene was unfurling at the great palace of Ramses II. Commander Neb-Re was presenting to the pharaoh, the working of 'alet el-zaman', a time machine invented by a group of supremely brilliant scientists in ancient Egypt. This was meant to be the greatest of all innovations during the reign of any Egyptian ruler ever!

The commander just returned from a trip to future where he first arrived at a unique setting which strikingly reflected a pharaoh's palace, except that the pharaoh looked quite different and even spoke a language that was alien to Neb-Re. There were certain devices placed all around the palace with large lights flooding the area. He heard someone shouting words that sounded like 'Action' and 'Cut'. In fact, one of the folks even pushed him into a scene where he was asked to accompany the pharaoh as he was heading out of the palace. He also heard someone speaking the words 'movie' and 'The Mummy Returns'.

After 'acting' in the movie, Commander Neb-Re landed in Dubai and it was the day when the new iPhone 16 was getting launched in the Apple Store in Dubai Mall. Never in his life had he seen a crowd that big, that he felt so intimidated, something he did not even experience in the battles he led as the commander of armies of great Ramses II.

After listening to all the wonderful stories from future, Ramses II asked Neb-Re about the understanding people have about ancient Egypt. Neb-Re told him about all the looting of pyramids and the famous museums where mummies of pharaohs are kept, including Ramses II.

The pharaoh looked disturbed listening to the stories of the loot. But having remembered something important, he quickly asked, 'Did they take away everything Neb-Re?'

'Not really, your Highness. They could only find gold and other things in the main burial chamber. Our special treasures and jewels are still safe. On my way back I did a quick stop to check at the Valley of the Kings and made sure that everything is still intact even after 3000 years. Those smart humans of future are yet to discover our well-kept secrets. There is nothing to worry your Highness.'

As Ramses II smiled, three levels below the palace, artisans were etching images of a movie camera and a mobile phone to the many hieroglyphic squares that were kept ready. Those and many others had a tiny opening at the rear end which when opened unveiled bright and beautiful precious gems laid inside them, each one of them valued enough to buy even a whole country, 3000 years later!

As Ramses headed to his chamber to rest after a long day, Commander Neb-Re was seen moving the 'alet el-zaman' to a secret location which only pharaoh and his most trusted commander knew, one the world will probably never know!

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction. Please do not try to find these hidden treasures when you visit Egypt.

The Dilbert Future - Book Review

'Dilbert', that name alone was more than enough for me to pick up this book by Scott Adams, the legendary cartoonist who gave life to one of the most sought after cartoons in corporate world! The concepts he discuss in this book are, as thought provoking as his usual Dilbert cartoons.

What makes it even more exciting are the predictions he made throughout the book, about 21st century way of life. When you realize that the book was first published in 1997 and many predictions turned out to be prophetic in nature, will make you admire Scott Adams even more.

One of his predictions for example was that, in future everyone will become a reporter themselves who will report on everything that goes around them. Isn't this exactly what we see today with social media? Am sure when the book was written, social media was only at its nascency and the primitive form of the social media then, was quite inferior compared to its current abilities to even attempt a prediction such as this.

Having said that there are a few predictions where Scott Adams went totally wrong. For instance, he predicted that airlines' will never change their ways of working and in fact will degrade their new aircrafts to match their older versions to give a uniform experience to the customers. Clearly he didn't anticipate the game changing strategies airlines such as Emirates executed, which completely thwarted his prediction.

Overall, I will give this book a 5/10 rating. For me, the comic strip of Dilbert any day wins, than this form of writing by Scott Adams.

Whale Watching

മെയ് മാസത്തെ കനത്ത ചൂടിൽ ദുബായിലെ വീട്ടിലിരുന്ന് വെറുതെ ഒരു പുസ്തകം വായിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു ഞാൻ. വായിച്ച താളുകൾക്കിടയിൽ എവിടെയോ തിമിംഗലങ്ങളെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള ഒരു പരാമർശം വന്നപ്പോൾ പെട്ടെന്നുണ്ടായ ഒരു ചിന്തയിൽ ഞാൻ എന്റെ പ്രിയതമയോട് പറഞ്ഞു, 'നമുക്ക് എന്നെങ്കിലും യൂറോപ്പിലോ അമേരിക്കയിലോ Whale Watching trip പോണം. ഒന്നുമില്ലെങ്കിലും ലോകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ജീവിയെ നേരിട്ട് കാണാനുള്ള ഒരു ഭാഗ്യമല്ലേ ഉണ്ടാവുക?'

കേട്ടപാടെ ഉത്തരം വന്നു. 'വെയില് കാണാനാണെങ്കിൽ ആ ബാൽക്കണി ഡോർ തുറന്നു വെറുതെ ഒന്ന് പുറത്തേക്കിറങ്ങിയാൽ പോരെ? അതിനിനി യൂറോപ്പിലോ അമേരിക്കയിലോ പോകേണ്ട വല്ല കാര്യമുണ്ടോ?'

എന്താണ് പറയേണ്ടത് എന്ന് ഒരു നിമിഷനേരത്തേക്ക് ഞാൻ അന്തിച്ചു നിന്നു. പിന്നെ ഈ മരുഭൂമിയിൽ കത്തിക്കാളുന്ന വെയിലിന്റെ സ്പോൺസറായ സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ ഒന്നു വണങ്ങി, ഞാനെന്റെ വെയിൽ വാച്ചിംഗ് സ്വപ്നങ്ങൾ പൂവണിഞ്ഞതായി സ്വയം പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ച് ആത്മനിർവൃതി അടഞ്ഞു.

Sleep

After a long and tiring day, my sweetheart and I finally hit the bed. It was past midnight already. As soon as my head touched the pillow, I could feel the Angel of Sleep staring to flutter her wings that worked its charm just like a lullaby.

Somewhere in between the flutter I heard a deeply familiar voice asking me a question which was equally familiar for the frequency with which I encountered that on a daily basis. It sounded something like this, 'So, what are you doing for losing the weight? Any plans?'

Before I replied to the query, which seemed to have come from the other side of the bed, and not the Angel in the room, I must have dived deeper into my sleep. I do not recollect answering that question.

The next day morning, as I was getting my coffee ready, my significant other walked into the kitchen with an even more significant frown on her face. I was wondering what did I do? I had a sound sleep whereas my darling wife clearly did not seem to have enjoyed one.

After a few moments of cajoling, she finally spoke. Here was what really happened, apparently. As soon as the question on my plan on losing weight was asked, I responded and that ticked her off.

The conversation went like this, allegedly:

Her: 'So, what are you doing for losing the weight? Any plans?'

Me: 'I have reported it to Lost & Found section. As soon as they find it, they will return it safely.'

Moral of the story: Drinking and driving is dangerous. But there are far more life-threatening combinations like sleeping & talking! Please avoid, if possible. Else...