Vagabond

That was another tough day for all of us in the hostel; the examinations would start the next day. Unusually, all the hostelers were in their room, glued to their text books and notes at 6:30 pm in the evening.

Myself and Chandru braved out of the hostel as if there was nothing unusual to happen the next day, unmindful of the exams, to the nearby Lioness Club that was in a lane just behind our hostel in Eranakulam.

At the Lioness club, there was a presentation by those team members who had returned from their Expedition to Antarctica recently. The delegates included Scientists from National Institute of Oceanography, two Naval Officers and one Geophysicist from Geophysical Institute.

The lights were off and the documentary film show started. It showed the Ice filled terrains of Antarctica. The team which camped in Antarctica gave a name to their camp site as 'Dakshin Gangotri'.

Whilst the show was on, a member of the delegation was narrating their experience of Antarctica as to how difficult it was to manage the cold climate during their stay and what was their routine and the diet they had, etc,. Also they showed their only neighbors with whom they could be friendly with, showing those Penguins on the screen, which merrily flapped their wings and jumped about here and there.

I learnt, for the first time, that the penguins cannot fly and they had enjoyed our southern delicacy, "upma", the method of preparation was researched and prepared by The Food Research Institute, Mysore, specially for this Antarctic Expedition!

As we were engrossed in the meeting, somebody from behind vigorously patted my shoulder saying, 'hey subu... onga appa vandhirukaardaa' meaning, my father has arrived at the hostel... Which I couldn't just believe and so I ‘phooed’ him away by saying, "kathai vidathe da"... meaning 'don't lie'!

"Promise! Your father is sitting in my room and swore that he will declare you as a vagabond, if you don’t turn up within 15 minutes!"

This response from him made me immediately realize that my father was indeed around there, as he is the only person in this world that I know who would use the word ‘vagabond’!

Excusing with Chandru, I left the venue immediately and reached the hostel to see my father sitting in my study chair, giving a suspicious look as to why I went to Ladies Club and that too at night!

I have just returned after my emergency trip to Chennai and during my stay, my friend called me up after seeing ‘The Hindu’, “Hey Vagabond, sorry to hear about your Dad!”

Yes, the inevitable had happened; my father peacefully passed away on 3rd November, 2011.

Growth issues

Every day, in the morning, the first thing I would do is to see my weight in the weighing scale. Well, the day when I think I have reduced my weight, the scale would show higher reading than expected! I wanted to reach below the 80 kgs mark. To achieve that, I started on a regime of fast walking and also bought an 'abs reduction' special exercise chair from a mall from Dubai.

Now, with a renewed confidence of controlling my weight at my will, I decided to do an experiment. I went for 45 minutes fast walking and, thereafter, I had a lighter dinner than usual, thinking that the next day I would reach below 80 kg mark. But to my utter disappointment, after all the exercises, the scale read 83 kg as against the previous reading of 81 kg!

Recently, I was going through the exchange rate of Indian Rupee against Dhiram. Strangely I found a correlation to my weight! I found 1000 rupees equaling 83dhs! I was biding time to see that Rupee value would become weaker against Dhiram, so that I can transfer some money. I kept a benchmark level of INR1000 to go below 80dhs, so that I can transfer some money back home. I waited and waited for this to happen, like I was craving for my weight reduction.

Believe me; both my weight as well as the exchange rate never met my expectations for the past several months.

Well, I am planning to have a sumptuous dinner tonight and to head for the bank tomorrow, skipping the weighing machine and ignoring the growth issues!

Impromptu....

Impromptu is an attempt to render a song or a speech without any preparation or referring to any text or written script.

Thesaurus explains the word impromptu as something Spoken, performed, or composed with little or no preparation or forethought: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, extempore, improvised, offhand, snap, spur-of-the-moment, unrehearsed. Informal, off-the-cuff.

Most of us would get in to a situation when you are asked to say a few words in front of a gathering, a formal or informal group.

I observe that in earlier days, i.e. prior to the invasion of internet and computers, impromptu speeches were quite common and people were not uncomfortable doing it. But now with social networking sites making people glued to their seats in front of lap tops/computers, the changes in life style have almost made them recluse and not ready for such adventures like addressing a gathering. Even if pushed to make a speech, they make awkward attempt and fail to impress the crowd.

Impromptu is also a wonderful word as it can be used as an adjective, adverb or even noun! Impromptu means improvisation. Therefore, a person attempting it should have creativity. But to say that creativity can be only with a select few and not with all is simply wrong. Every one can make an impromptu, with a little bit of effort.

We have heard lot of folklores which are nothing but impromptus! Something which happens on its own without any special preparation, pre-meditation or prodding can be termed as impromptu. In a way, the revolution that happened in Egypt is also an impromptu!

My own attempts at impromptus have been fairly good but there were occasions when I could not make a free flowing speech as well. I have now learned to use a technique whereby if the topic is not really a comfortable one, dwell around it by frankly admitting my lack of knowledge, in a self-deprecating way, to make it interesting!

Well, the topic I chose to write was not prompted by anybody or pre-planned but popped up simply like the word itself, an "Impromptu"!

Onions and Tomatoes

Never gave much attention to Onions and Tomatoes although they are the most important ingredients in every day diet. There was a politician in Tamil Nadu who would use the word 'Vengayam', meaning Onion, as a cliche in his speaches. This word is also used to tease or to be-little anyone or any matter, including Onion!

On the other hand, tomatoes are used to show public anger if the speaker goes astray in his speaches! There is a famous tomatoe festival celebrated in Spain every year,in which public make merry by taking bath in 'tomato slurry' and throwing tomatoes all over the town!

Tomatoes and onions are popular crops found in most of the kitchen gardens. Whilst the desi variety of tomatoes are almost extinct nowadays, the desi variety of onions have taken a prestigious place in the hearts of connoiseurs and culinary experts!

Why suddenly the prices of these vegetables have shot the roof in India is a raging debate and a hot media attention now. Maharashtra is the major Onion producer in India. There is a small town on the way to Goa, which is the capital of Onion wholesale trade. I hope readers would identify and respond about this onion capital in their comments. Sometime back, I had an opportunity to visit this town on a business visit(not for wholesale purchase of Onions!).

At that time I came to know from a local that the richest in town are those Onion wholesale traders. They procure onions directly from farmers and hoard it until it is'right time' to sell. They control onion prices and make unbelievable profits!

When I hear the news about the soaring prices of Onions, I am convinced that the households will switch over to 'Jain' preparations,i.e total ban of Onions from their every day menu!


Needless to mention that Onions have become highly potent now, in that one can get tears from the mere feel or thought of it rather than from the peel of it!

Please adjust your seat to upright position!

Whilst on board an aircraft, you are asked to remain seated with your seat belt fastened in upright position, during takeoff and landing. Once the warning light is switched to green, passengers can take off their seat belts, though it is safer to remain seated with seat belts fastened all through the journey.

Very few people continue to travel with the seat belts on and in upright position.

In our day to day life, there is no such messages but a small section of society are always found to be in upright position. There is an old saying that rains shower in order to please that one person who is upright and in the process entire society gets benefited!

Why is it that we find honesty and integrity is becoming a rare commodity? what should we do to make honesty and integrity a way of life? People tend to follow the paths frequently used by others. Even children follow by observing their environment. We need to have cleaner environment for healthy society.

Day in and day out we are seeing new campaigns introduced to protect the planet and the interests of the world like, poverty alleviation,Sustained development, green and clean campaign, campaigns against pollution of air,water and earth, Food adulteration, protection of animal species and numerous campaigns to control various deseases.


We need to have campaign with educational interventions that will become a movement and eventually lead to clean society. Although the path to achieving this will be a long one like the poverty alleviation campaign, considering its huge impact it will have on our society and the world at large, this campaign for clean society should be kick-started.

Well it is too old fashioned to write about such utopian thoughts! Let me lighten the mood by giving an excerpt from a haiku poem, translated from Tamil, which goes like this:

'I watched my young maid clean up my house with her swift and lovely movements. She made the hall spick and span but my mind corrupted!'

Let us adjust our seats to upright positions!

Summary on Seminar

Just attended a seminar at the Atlantis, Conference Hall. For a change, the registration formaility was done away with. Since the attendance was by invitation only, cards for invitees were ready to be picked up from the alphabetical arrangement. The delegates had good time in searching their tags and absolutely thrilled when they traced their cards!

Although, the seminar started 10 minutes behind the schedule, like an aircraft, it picked up speed during the journey and finished in time!

The gathering was very impressive, so much so that if some one goes out to attend the call of nature,well, by that I mean attending a call on handset, somebody else would come and occupy his place! It happened to my guest who had to settle at the backside row when he came back after attending his call.

The seminar was on a topic called 'STRATA MANAGEMENT' which is about the recent introduction of Strata Law in UAE. Strata law is concerned with Realty sector and its purpose is to manage, regulate, control and govern various aspects of property related issues including transfer of property besides defining the rights and responsibilities of various stake holders.

The seminar was organised by Oman Insurance Company. Speakers were from companies that are into Strata management, valuation, Law firms specialising in Strata and, not but not the least, from the insurance industry. Of course, the aim was to finally drive the point to the audience about the importance of availing a special insurance cover developed for the Property Owners Association.

The seminar ended with a luncheon at the Ballroom. A scottish couple from Australia, who were part of the delegates, shared the same table with me. Ms M quipped, if the Strata law was clear to me after attending the seminar. I sort of mumbled to the effect that 'everything was absolutely clear'! The conversation continued by recollecting some valid questions raised by the audience during the Q & A session, and then moved on to recent cricket matches between India & Australia, in which, for a change, India white-washed Australia.

We exchanged contact details promising to be in touch. I told Mrs M about my weekly contribution to short take and urged her to read one, if she can and give her comments. This piece is dedicated to the serendipitious friendship of scottish couple.

The question Mrs M asked me is still bothering me into thinking if I have this problem of attention deficiency? I then comfort myself by reasoning out that mere attending seminars would never give detailed insight, but only kindle your inquisitive mind into making further probe on the subject.

Well, to summarise, seminars do desseminate information!

RISK MANAGEMENT NEWS LETTER

During times of financial difficulty, we often try to find ways to reduce our costs wherever possible. Whilst it will be a prudent measure not just during the financial difficulty, but during normal times as well, caution to be exercised to see that we are not taking things a bit too far in curtailing our essential expenses.


During difficult economic times, one would find difficult to find funds for working capital requirements let alone manage sudden and unforeseen expenses. God forbid, if some loss or damage happens to our assets due to act of god or other perils, there should be a proper risk financing plan to meet additional expenses to rebuild or rehabilitate the affected items.


It is always an unwritten rule that if some one considers things won’t go wrong, certainly things would go wrong! Therefore, it is necessary for one to expect the unexpected.

For this simple reason, it would be always advisable to review our insurance coverage or enhance the cover already availed, during difficult economic times. This step will go a long way in ensuring proper business continuity mechanism for any organisation.


We, as insurance advisors, have several case studies to prove the above point, therefore, we advise our clients and potential clients to ensure proper insurance program for their organisation as a business strategy.

We not only just provide insurance covers but also engage our customers so as to give fit and proper insurance solutions for their organisation thereby participate in their Risk Management concerns.


Should you feel the same way and want to ensure a safe, secure and well thought out insurance program for your organisation, please feel free to contact us for a discussion and exploratory meeting at your office.


subu

Note: The drop in business enquiries made me think of reaching out to potential customers. Instead of a simple introductory letter, I thought that I can make a news letter!(Although I have an underlying concern for the insuring public, this news letter is the result of a selfish motive to improve the business enquiries- will it work?)