The Transition Person

In one of my flights back from Kuala lumpur, I met a person, whose story made me feel some pain.  He was sitting next to me and he seemed so excited and so impatient about when he would reach Trichy airport.

With a little curiosity over his anxiety, I initiated a casual conversation with him. He told me that he is a native of a village near Madurai and that he is now working as a labour in an OIL PALM plantation in Malaysia. He is coming home for a holiday after 3 years, to see his family.  I asked him, what made him to seek a job in Malaysia, leaving his family and children in India. His reply was what I expected.  He said,” I earn good money here. I earn about 900 Ringgits a month”. Converted to Indian money, it is around Rs.12,500/-. He added, “I spend just about 1/4^th of my salary for my personal needs and the balance money, I send it to my family in India. I have 3 sons and I want all of them to study well and go to some nice jobs. I don’t want them to suffer like me.” I enquired about his job and he said that, from morning to evening they work in the plantation. They are allotted labour quarters which is shared by 4 to 5 workers. In the evening they come to their quarters, prepare food, wash their clothes, have dinner, watch TV for some time and go to rest. Their life is monotonous, every day except for Friday, when it is a holiday.  On Friday, when they go out they call their family and talk to them. Other than that there is no entertainment. Their life is confined to work and taking care of their personal chores. 

Of what he said, something touched me a lot. He said, if the next generation has to live a comfortable life, one generation has to suffer.

When we talk about the life style of Indians who have migrated abroad, we tend to think only of the doctors, engineers and IT professionals who have made it big in life. But the vast majority of the people who have migrated have taken the less aspired path. They are into  jobs, like road construction, carrying heavy loads, mechanics, nursing and cleaning jobs. No matter how uncomfortable it is for them, they have decided to take the brunt, keeping in mind the needs of their family.

Don’t we see similar sort of factory workers migrating to Tamilnadu, from Orissa & Bihar in search of such odd jobs. It is because of the extreme level of poverty in the other parts of the country that they have decided to find a source of living elsewhere to support their family.

One of the recent tamil movies, “Angadi theru” was a emotionally powerful portrayal of the hardships of labour who migrate from rural parts of the country to fend their family.  Not being judgmental of the extent of truth, as shown in the movie, what we undoubtedly know is, it is an echo of a crying voice, somewhere.

All these people have one thing in common. They have decided to be the “positive transition person” in their family.  They are trying to get their family out of deep doldrums. They have taken personal responsibility to uplift their future generation, by providing them with the best education and making available the best opportunities to come up in life.

If we look behind our own story, we will find someone in our family, who was a positive transition person. It may be our father, mother, grandfather, grandmother or great grandparents.  If not for their hard work and sacrifice we would not be where we are today.

We too will be the transition person to our future generation, to whom we are morally accountable. We have a huge responsibility to our future generation.  We can be the transition person, who is able to raise the level of our family, our society and our world, one step ahead.

It is not about saving big amounts of money so that our children can inherit, lead a lavish lifestyle and get recklessly spoiled. It is about being the transition person, who makes sure that you give your children the best education he/ she aspires for, give them a good exposure to the world, impart them good values by being a living role model of good virtues and lead an exemplary lifestyle, so  that they can follow path.

Talk to doctors and they would say that most of our diseases, behavioral patterns, temperaments are genetic in nature. And the good news, in many cases, you can act as shield between your past generation and future generation, if you make a conscious change in your lifestyle.

 A Native American proverb says, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”.  Each of us has a responsibility to keep ‘Our World Green’ for the future generations and this is possible only if each individual contribute our little efforts. You can be a transition person in leaving this earth a little greener.  As a positive transition person, you can leave the world a much better place, for the future generation to live in.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated July 2010

My visit to an ancient world

Egypt, being one of the most ancient civilizations of the world has captured the imaginations of many. The ancient wonder of the world – the Great Pyramids of Giza, the world’s longest river Nile and the recent archaeological findings of innumerable treasures of the Tut Ankh Amun’s Tomb has triggered the interest of tourist across the globe. I and my family were no exception. We had been dreaming for quiet some years of going to this mysterious land and this summer, our dream became a reality. We went on a 10 day full scale trip of Egypt. We cruised the Nile, railed the tracks and wheeled the roads, along the Nile to cover the stretch of over 1800kms, right from the Southern tip, called Abu Simbel (A UNESCO Heritage site) which is just 50kms away from the Sudan border, upto the Northern tip, of  Alexandria, which is the coastline of the  Mediterranean sea.

The journey helped us discover many new things about Egypt, which made our trip even more interesting. In Egyptian language, ‘Nile’ means ‘River’ and ‘Sahara’ means desert, which stands as the meaning by itself, though we have learnt to call it as Nile River and Sahara Desert. We got so engrossed in understanding the Egyptian history which dates back to 4000BC. Great pyramids, hieroglyphs, elaborately decorated underground burial chambers, mummies, sprawling temple complexes, and statues combining human and animal forms are only a few of the many remains that survive from ancient Egypt. These relics of an extinct world raised numerous questions during the centuries after the civilization died out. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the early 19th century, by a young French scholar, Jean Champollion was a major milestone. It helped him to decipher the hieroglyphs and reconstruct the ancient Egyptian language, which breathed a new leash of life to the Egyptian History.

The Great Pyramid which has been built as early as 2500BC is undoubtedly the world’s biggest marvel of human labour. The great pyramid of Giza, has been built with 2.3 million, large blocks of granite stones, lime stone, sand stone, weighing an average of 2.5MT each.

The work of quarrying, sculpting, transporting the rocks through Nile and moving them on the land surface by forming long stretches of sandy slopes to build the Great Pyramid which touches a height of about 480ft, was accomplished by thousands of  skilled and unskilled workers. It is estimated that 1 lakh workers took 20 years to complete this herculean task. And there are 3 of such, close to each other. Even to imagine of such a human feat is mind boggling. Though it is the pyramids that is commonly known, there are other noteworthy spectaculars like the Abu Simbel,  Philae Temple, Karnak Temple, Kom Omdo Temple and Luxor Temple, which are mighty works of the Egyptians.

Egypt shares a lot of similarities with India. The ancient Egyptian religion is very much similar to Hindu religion, where we have many Gods and many mythological stories. They too believed in the concept of life after death. The mummification process which is popular in Egypt is a result of this belief. Egypt too has been invaded by many foreign rulers, like India.  If we were to ask ourselves, what an invasion can do, we as Indians, have some answers from our own experience.  A visit to Egypt, could open up more shocking realities. What was striking to me, more than the political invasion, was the cultural invasion.  An invasion can kill a culture. It can kill a religion. The religion of the Ancient Egyptians is dead and gone. There are no more spiritual practices in the Egyptian temples.  The culture of ancient Egypt has been lost. With invaders from different nations, Egypt has lost its true identity. Luckily, in India Hinduism is still a living religion. The invasions have not uprooted our religion or our culture.   

If not for these huge stone monuments, which serves as a testimony of the age old Egyptian civilization that existed and if not for the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which helped archeologist decipher the ancient Egyptian language, Egypt would have lost all its glorious history.

This trip helped me realize, that taking a few steps backward in time, can give us a better clarity and understanding of the human evolution.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated June 2010

Driving re-orientation for the Indian Drivers

One of the appreciable developments this country is witnessing in the recent years, is the changing face of the Indian Roads. We see long stretches of  4 track and 6 track highways being laid, throughout the length and breadth of the country, facilitating a lot of road traffic.

With every boon, comes a curse. Similarly, the curse behind the boon of good roads is rash and speed driving. No doubts great roads are built for the sake of enhancing commuting speed, but what we cannot afford to ignore is the safety aspect. As the highways are getting constructed, the unclear ‘take diversion’ boards and uncompleted roads, by itself pose a threat to the traveller’s safety. The highways are not yet insulated from pedestrians, cyclist and cattle’s. At the type of speeds you can do on these roads, the probability of someone surviving a road accident is minimal. While bye-pass flyovers have been built over many towns, there is still a lot of areas we see human intrusion. 

Another frightening reality of the highways is the pilgrims who go on “Paadha yatra” to temples, walking on the highways. Especially in night, they are almost invisible owing to heavy lights penetrating our eyes from the opposite direction.  Though it can hurt the religious sentiments, of a few, I think a strict rule should be enforced not permitting pedestrians to use the highway. This is in view of their own safety. Just like a rule of wearing helmet and seat belt is introduced for the traveller’s safety, if a rule like this is introduced, it can take care of the pedestrian safety.

One of the strange signals, I often notice is that the drivers put on the right indicator, as a sign of allowing the vehicle behind to overtake. This is in total contrast to what we have been taught - use your right indicator, when you are going to turn right and use your left indicator when you are going to turn left. I don’t know from where these drivers learnt this wrong signaling. Somehow it has got messed up and what is more disheartening is as days go by, more and more people are following the same trend. If these mistakes are not corrected, people will tend to assume it is the right behavior and continue to do so. And at some point of time, this may become the default rule.

My friend Prabu, told me that there is a simple thumb rule to using indicators, while driving and that is, as a driver you are expected to just indicate what you are going to do, and not indicate what you want others to do. If people can remember this thumb rule, I think a lot of confusion could be saved.

In short, the roads look like a jungle, where every encounter is threatening. There is absolutely no peace of mind, for the traveller.  Every moment on the highway, looks risky. So how do we get over this dangerous phase of transition? Well, I guess the only way could be by re-educating the road users, i.e the drivers.

When computers were introduced in India 15 years back, it was totally new and not many people knew how to operate it. The government had to take great effort in educating people, as to how computers should be used to enhance work efficiency.  Similarly, now that the new multi track highways are constructed, there is need to educate the drivers how to use these roads. The Indian driver is not used to these types of roads, and it is obvious that he does not know how to use it. So, I think it is the duty of the Government, to educate the people, how to drive in these highways, through the many RTO’s located in each city.

The drivers need to be educated that, on a four track road, you need to always keep left and overtake in the right.  On a six track or a futuristic eight track road, every track  becomes a different speed lane and you need to stick to the lane based on the speed at which you are driving.  Now that the drivers are not aware, they seem to be happily using the plenty of available road space, as they wish. There is no system followed in maintaining lanes or overtaking, which could be dangerous and prove fatal.

In my opinion, I think the RTO should call for a revalidation of all existing driving licenses. In the process of revalidating the license, the license holder/driver has to be taught how to use the new type of roads, for his safety and for the safety of fellow road users. They not only need to be updated on these information, but also taught to develop a caring and friendly attitude towards fellow road users.

Let us not pray, but work, for road safety.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated May 2010

The Ovarian Lottery

Recently, I attended a programme organized by the CII titled the Global Partnership Summit, which was held in Chennai.  A number of reputed persons were part of the elite panel of speakers.  One such speaker, Mr. Tarun Khanna, a professor of the Harvard Business School, used an unpopular terminology “Ovarian Lottery” while he was addressing the issue of skill gap existing in this country. What he meant by that terminology was that some people are born lucky or in an advantageous position as compared to others.  It’s the idea that fate plays a part in your success, because being born in a certain place makes a huge difference in the outcome of your life.

To explain this further, imagine there are two identical children born, both equally bright and energetic, but one of them is born in the USA, and the other in Zimbabwe. The probability of the one born in USA, climbing up his life ladder is much easier as compared to the one born in Zimbabwe.  Though the person born in Zimbabwe has inherent strengths, like his counterpart who is born in USA, the country he is born has inherent weaknesses. In order for him, to tide over these limitations, a huge amount of his time and energy is lost. He has to first survive the problems of his living, such as food, water and shelter. It is after this he has to aspire for education and primary health care. If he has been lucky enough to manage these, then comes the question of employability. He then encounters the curse of every developing country, such as corruption, bribery, quota systems, red tapism, and what not. In the course of time, his aspiration suffers a premature death. The probability of these people rising above all these limitations, are very rare and exceptional.

The country factor, could be just one such variable. Many other variables such as  the economic status of parents, the literacy level of parents, the social conditions in which one is brought up, etc contribute to the ‘Ovarian Lottery’ as a whole.

Why compare two different countries? Let us for instance, take the life of an Indian living in the Urban India Vs a person living in Rural India. Is not the challenges of people living in the rural part of this country, far much greater than that of a Urban Indian? . Starting from basic infrastructure such as road, rail, water availability, electricity, health care, education, etc; aren’t we facing a huge imbalance?

Gandhi said, ‘India lives in its villages’. How much has this been a concern amidst the decision makers in the country. The migration of labour from the rural part of the country to the urban part is a clear indication, that not much developments are happening in rural india and therefore the limited opportunities, compel people to migrate. While many trade bodies and organizations are voicing out their complaints and in reciprocal every politician is selling a hope for a better tomorrow, in practice the pace of rural developments is very slow. The inability of the government, to cater to the employment needs of the rural  people, shows in form of offering free food, free TV, 100days guaranteed employment schemes, all aimed at keeping the rural masses happy and content in life, while no real progress is happening in their lives.

The real life stories of successful people who had a humble beginning, inspires most of us. It is the ‘rags to riches’ stories we see in the movies, that emotionally overwhelms the masses. Undoubtedly, there are many such people, who have a high aspiration, but could not make it to the top owing to the many inadequacies they have faced as a result of their ‘ovarian lottery’.  When we are in contact with such people, let us not condemn them for their incapacities, but have a heart to look, where they come from. Let us give them the benefit of extra care and concern; they failed to receive in their childhood. There may be many bright stars hidden behind the dark clouds. Let us strive to give equal opportunity for everyone, and make the stars shine.

The question is, “Does our country have a better story to tell for the future generations or are we going to continue depending on our ovarian lottery.”

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated April 2010 

Bless the people around you

We are conditioned to think that ‘Blessing’ is a big word and that it is often connected to God or the elderly people. But in fact blessing is a very common thing that we keep giving to others in our daily life, either intentionally or unintentionally. 

Don’t you agree that every genuine act of love is a blessing? In this way, the love of your mother is a blessing, the care of your spouse is a blessing, the smile of your children is a blessing, the appreciation of your friend is a blessing, the motivation of your peers is a blessing; and the list is endless. So are they all not blessing you in some way?  But the irony is we never take time to appreciate it. We take it for granted.

It is the same thing with God. We wake up every morning, but don’t feel blessed that God has given us one new day to live. We have more than enough food to eat, but never realize that we are blessed so much as compared to a millions of people who are starving. But every morning, we make it a ritual to go to the prayer room and pray God to bless us abundantly, while he has already blessed us with abundance.  This is a beautiful line that justifies the above, “When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives, but are grateful for the abundance that is present… we experience heaven on earth.”  With the abundance God has given us, it is our duty to impart his blessing to the people around us.

Even if we should assume that blessing is an act of God, then we need to realize that God cannot come and bless each one of us individually. He blesses us through some human form.  There is a belief that as it is difficult for God to do favours to every human being individually, He sends an invisible guardian angel along with every human being who is born on this earth. That angel is always there with you, listening to your problems and trying to find ways to help you.  At the appropriate moment, she will bring someone in your life to come and help you. The person may be someone close to you or someone who you have never met in your life before. If you ponder a while, you will be able to relate some event in your own life, when you felt blessed by an unknown person.

When somebody needs help and you are there for them at the time of their need, are you not blessing them? Let us say your friend, is in a financial crisis and you go and lend him some money and tell him “I know that you are in need of some money now. I have some savings, which I don’t need at the moment. I am not in a hurry; you can pay it back when you are comfortable”, will he not find it as a blessing. A blessing is a way of answering someone’s prayer.

It need not be that only elders deserve to bless the young ones. Anyone can bless anyone. The age is not important, but it is the genuineness of the wish that is important. For example: When you give alms to a beggar, he or she says, “May you live happily”. Do you ever question, whether the beggar deserves to bless you. You just take it as a positive statement. Is it not? When somebody helps us, we feel so thankful to them that we say some nice words, which is a blessing to them. So blessing is reciprocal. When you bless someone with your kind deeds, you are blessed back with their kind words. So when we keep doing good things to people around us they will keep blessing us, with good words and genuine smiles. The more blessings we receive, the more our day will be happy and good, because of the positive vibration that comes with it

What we need to understand is that, every genuine wish is a blessing. Every noble help is a blessing. Donating blood is a blessing. Helping someone in a road accident is a blessing.  Caring for the elderly is a blessing. Saying ‘Good morning’ to someone is a blessing.  Wishing someone, ‘All the best’ is a blessing. When someone conveys good news, and you congratulate them and wish them well, it is a blessing.

Start blessing the people around you and see the positive change it brings in your life.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated Mar'10

Let us be Humane to Human Beings

A few days back, as I was returning home in my car, I saw a poor old lady lying on a road like a dump of rag. I thought, she had probably fainted and fallen on the road. This was just a few yards away from my house.  The public seemed indifferent to the situation, so I was a little puzzled. However, my heart did not allow me to ignore the situation. It was about 5.30pm. I was unaware of how I could help her, so I dialed ‘100’ and informed the police that there was a person lying fainted on the road and to arrange for some help. The answering policeman said OK and kept the receiver down. I was thinking that they may arrange for some help, but till 8.30pm no action has been taken. I called the police station again and told them. The policeman said, that they cannot attend to every case and that I should take some self initiative rather than calling the police. His answer was disappointing. It was disheartening to know that, in spite of my good intentions and initiative to inform the police, there was no remedy coming from their end. It is only on them, a common man can rely on for his social security needs, but when they decide to be indifferent, we are really clueless of how to go about.

I then called my good friend, Sugumar, briefed him about the situation and asked him how I should go about. He suggested that I call “108” which is the statewide emergency number. I called “108” and the call reached the Chennai Control room. The person, who answered the call, took all the details and said she will arrange an ambulance. In a few minutes, I got a call from the Ambulance person, who had by then identified the old lady lying on the road. He said that the woman lying on the road is a beggar and unless someone accompanies her to the hospital and signs the relevant papers she cannot be admitted in GH. As I did not know who that person was, I was afraid to take personal responsibility and therefore said it will not be possible for me to come. He said in that case, nothing can be done, as this was the procedure.  I told him that as it was late hours of the night, the lady may get hit accidentally, by some by passing vehicles and therefore asked him, even if he cannot admit her in the GH, at least to leave her in some other safe place. He said, he will just lift and place the lady off the road. This was a little comfort to me, though it did not solve the problem. I saw the lady in the same situation for the next two consecutive days. I understood that she was insane. She could not understand her own plight.  Every time, I saw her I felt guilty, for not being able to help her. Then somehow, with the help of the local ward councilor we managed to get her admitted in GH. I am not aware of what happened to her after that. But what comforted me is, I did not have to continue seeing this soar sight of a poor woman lying on the road like a stray dog, totally neglected and uncared for.

What I have shared here, is just one of the thousands of cases that we spot every day. We all wish that some help will come to them, but we are afraid to take action.

There are essentially three types of people in the world –  the FEELERS, the THINKERS and the DOERS. While all of us are a combination of all the three types, there is one type that dominates us.

For example, in a typical road accident a ‘Feeler’, will either faint on seeing the blood stains or cry out or get emotionally upset on seeing the scene. A ‘Thinker’, would be thinking, how did it happen? Whose fault was it? How could this be avoided? How to tackle the crisis. A ‘Doer’ on the other hand would have by then pulled up his sleeves and got into the job of rescuing the person. He would lift the person, put him on a vehicle and carry him to the hospital. He will not be afraid of the consequences, but be only concerned with the emergency.

At most times, we are good feelers and good thinkers, but not good doers. In this specific incident, I have narrated, I ‘felt’ for the old lady. My feelings made me ‘think’ of a way to save her, but there was a lot of initial self resistance in the ‘doing’. Even after I found a way of how I can help her, it took a long time for me to get into the doing.

I think of great people like Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, who came across similar incidents. The young advocate, Gandhi was ill-treated by the British. He felt the pain of humiliation and he thought of ways to gain freedom for his countrymen. The little sister, Teresa, saw so much diseased people suffering in the streets of Kolkata. Her feelings for them made her to think in the directions of setting up a home for them to live. Today, they are recognized as a Mahatma or Mother, for exhibiting great courage in transforming their feelings into thinking and the thinking into doing. All major changes in this world has followed the same transformation pattern of “Feeling - Thinking – Doing”  by  someone, whom we today recognize as a Leader or a Scientist.

There is poverty all around. There is misery all around. Not everyone can be a Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi, but when there is a call, we need to be responsive to it, in order to prove we are human beings.

In the evolving self centered modern culture, no one seems to care about what is happening around them. Everyone is so glued to their own priorities that they just keep running behind to achieve them. It is OK to run the rat race, but let us not get so engrossed in our rat race that we forget that in reality we are not rats but human beings.

Let us be humane to human beings.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

 Article dated Feb'10

My Key Learnings

It has been my practice, that at the end of every year, I sit in silent contemplation and think of the major happenings in my life. I go through the track of events that happened in my life from the start of the year till the end, without any judgment whether the event was good or bad. Some events would have made us stronger, while some would have made as weaker. Some events would have influenced us in a positive way and some in a negative way. But more than just the events, what I sincerely try to figure out from this exercise is what are my key learnings for the year. As I did the same this year and my mind could deliver me three key learnings that I would like to share with you.

To brief:

·         Learning 1: I don’t have to reply to every question asked.

·         Learning 2: I don’t have to prove the world, what I am capable of.

·         Learning 3: I cannot satisfy everyone at the same time.

Learning 1: We have always been conditioned to the thought, that whenever someone asks us a question, we need to give them an instant reply. It is probably due to the subconscious fear that, if we don’t reply, people will consider us immodest or incapable.  What I have realized recently is that we need not answer every question that has been asked to us. It is no more a school, and it is no more a teacher – student relationship, where every question carries a mark. There are times, when we don’t want to or don’t feel like answering a question. Many times a question can be asked, with an intention to trigger our response, which further leads to an unworthy argument. Sometimes, it is so disgusting that people keep asking us questions, with an intention to dig out, some of our close guarded secrets. In these situations, most often what we tend to do is give an answer with a sense of embarrassment or tell a lie to escape from the question.

I have now learnt that I need not succumb to such annoying questioning. I think there is a third and better alternative, and that is to return a smile, as an answer to the questioner without telling a word. By doing so, most often, the questioner understands that we are not interested in answering the question and leave it there. But if he persists, you can just change the topic to something else.

Learning 2:  We all share a common feeling and that is the feeling to prove the world, what we are capable of. We believe that the whole world is looking up at us with so much of anticipation and we need to prove them what we are capable of and if we  don’t prove them, they may think we are a  failure in life. But, if you look at it closely, you will realize that what you  call the “whole world” is hardly nothing more than a 100 people, who are your family members, your friends, your relatives, your colleagues and your business associates.

Now, I have a new perceptive. The people, who I like to be called as my world, should be the ones who know what I am capable of and not those who need me to demonstrate my capabilities time and again to prove myself. I am matured enough to decide what to do and when to do. I don’t have to anymore do things, for the sake of proving my capability. I know my own capabilities and incapabilities. I know my strengths and weakness and because I know it, I try to spend more time focusing on how to overcome my limitations, rather than keep proving my strengths.

Learning 3:  Our priorities in life keep changing. At different point of time, different things and different people become important to us. Life is expansive by nature and we need to be open to accommodate new events and new people in our life. When this happens, we need to accomodate the interest of more people, and therefore sharing our valuable resources such as our time, our efforts with everyone equally becomes very difficult. Ultimately, we end up not being able to satisfy everyone at the same time.  This leads us to feel guilty.

What I now realize is that this desire to satisfy everyone at the same time is extremely stressful on me. Therefore the best alternative, is to choose the right thing to do at the right time for the right person and not worry about others. I trust that the people who know me, will understand me. They will know that I will be there for them, when they truly need me.  I allow them to trust me at their own will.  I believe that, I have a positive balance in the emotional bank accounts of the people I have been close with. A little withdrawal, then and there will not cause much harm. After all, what is more important in today’s world  is quality time and quantity time.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan
Article dated Jan'10