For NRIs and their Indian Attorneys

My son gave me a General Power of Attorney (GPOA) before he left for a job in USA.  That was a little over a decade ago.  Later on my daughter-in-law too gave me a GPOA.  I could register a property in my son's name in Pune on the basis of GPOA without any hassles.  However I had yet to have an encounter with the redoubtable LDA (Lucknow Development Authority.)

My son and daughter-in-law booked a flat with LDA in 2010, the year of my retirement.  The idea was that it may be a better option for my wife and me to live in a flat rather than an independent house.  We waited four long years and paid for serious cost escalations before the letter of allotment finally came through.

Undeterred by the scary stories I had heard, I marched into LDA's office armed with the letter of allotment and the two GPOAs .  I approached the concerned clerk and asked for the formats of the affidavit and declaration etc. that were to be furnished by the allottee.  I was told that these can be had from the notary who sits outside the building.  I got the affidavit etcetera made and appeared before the clerk.  He expressed doubts about how could the registration be done on the basis of GPOAs.  Several observation were made about the age of the documents, the two GPOAs being registered at different places, lack of the phrase "registration of property" in the the documents and so on.

I called on the concerned officer who sought the opinion of a retired supervisor on whom he relies.  This person came through as a very practical man and opined straight away that it would be perfectly in order for me to sign the deed conveying the property to my son and daughter-in-law.

I made inquiries with the clerk a week later.  I was told that notwithstanding the retired person's advice, the matter had been referred to CLA (Chief Legal Adviser) who in his wisdom had opined that the GPOAs were too old and hence it may not be proper to register the property on the basis of these!  A remarkable observation indeed considering the fact that GPOAs never get time barred.  As regards any revocation, the POA holder has to sign an affidavit affirming that the POA is still valid and I had done that.

I called upon the CLA who showed me an order by the Supreme Court questioning sale of a property through a POA.  When it was pointed out that this was a case of purchase through POA, he retorted, "Oh, so you would like to have an argument!"  He suggested that I call the applicants to Lucknow for executing the documents!  He also wondered if delays might affect the validity of the stamps that had already been purchased.  When told that the parties could not appear in person and that was the reason for giving GPOAs, with much reluctance he suggested that I get a special power of attorney from them and added that getting it from overseas may be a rather difficult task and he could not assure me beforehand that it would serve the purpose.

You must have noted that while he quoted a certain SC order orally, he did not quote it in his written remarks.  In the remarks he merely mentioned that the instruments were old.

I wondered if I should fight back on the ground that a POA doesn't get time barred.  But later thought that probably it would be faster and less expensive to get a special POA from my son and daughter-in-law.

What happened afterwards will appear in a subsequent post.

A visit to Gandhinagar, Gujarat

I have already written about my visit to Ahmedabad for participating in a felicitation of ex staff of Baroda Academy at Ahmedabad.  I was to leave the day after the ceremony.  However as my flight was in the afternoon, I decided to visit the office (Bank of Baroda Institute of Information Technology - BOBIIT) in Gandhinagar from where I had retired in 2010.  Mr. Lakhmani who is currently heading the Institute was also present at the ceremony at Ahmedabad and was kind enough to extend an invitation to me to visit the place.

The visit was quite nostalgic.  As you take the highway to Gandhinagar, you can already feel the city within you and around you.  It is a serene place with lots of greenery, wide roads, and a population density that is remarkably lower than most other state capitals.  There is none of the hustle-bustle, traffic congestion or the rush that you would expect and experience in most other capitals.  I savored the familiar sights as we approached BOBIIT.  The roads were being resurfaced at quite a few places.

This was the place which helped me slowly decelerate and come to a smooth halt in my working life.  Had I continued at the Corporate Office of the Bank at Mumbai, it would have probably been a screeching and grinding halt given the pace of life there.

My old friends Hari Singh and Manishaben Tripathi were waiting right at the entrance of the building and we greeted each other heartily.  They escorted me to the second floor housing the TC.

The building at Gandhinagar belongs to the Bank itself and houses a branch and a zonal Training Center apart from BOBIIT.  The building is under renovation and being remodeled.  Luckily the Training Center did not have any training running on that particular day and this afforded me a chance to chit chat with my friends.  My young friend Rambhai who now works in a different department also called upon me there and it was a great pleasure to meet him in person after a long long time.

Haribhai and Manishaben showed my around the building and the changes that were being implemented.  Later Mr. Lakhmani at BOBIIT invited me to meet a group of young officers who were undergoing training there.  It was a real pleasure meeting the young and bright officers.  I felt that my pension was in safe hands and shared the thought with them.

Soon it was time to leave for the airport.   The flight back to Lucknow was eventless.

Brief Reconnect - Part II

This is in continuation of my last post.

All the invited ex faculty members from outside, retired as well as working, converged at the designated hotel in Ahmedabad on the evening preceding the reunion day.  Great bonhomie was in the air as friends and colleagues met after a long time, hugged and complimented each other on their still-so-youthful looks.  Most of us must have been wondering whether this was more out of love or the result of age induced hypermetropia.  Kamleshbhai who is heading the college, now called Baroda Academy, was there with a few faculty members and greeted the invitees.

A little later the group settled down to a long chatty dinner in the dining hall.  After dinner people broke up in smaller groups for some more chat before retiring to their rooms.  Next morning we all assembled at the college at the appointed time, 9:30 in the morning.  There we had the pleasure of meeting some more colleagues who have settled in Ahmedabad itself or Baroda which is nearby.  One of these was Mr Trivedi who is now 84 years of age and going great.  He maintains that the secret of his longevity lies in 100 blood donations he made over years and the social work that he is doing now.

The day started with a prayer followed by a welcome to and an address by the chief guest of the day.  It was very refreshing to find that the chief guest was Swami Brahm Bihari Das, chief priest at the Akshardham temple at Gandhinagar.  It was very thoughtful of our hosts to have spared us drab shop talk by an executive of the bank.  Swamiji looked rather young.  We were told that he was educated abroad and is a renowned speaker in many international fora.  Swamiji spoke impeccable English though you could detect a very faint touch of Gujarati accent occasionally.  After intros and welcome there was the lamp lighting ceremony and Swamiji started his speech with a prayer and an invocation to Akshar Brahm and Bhagwan Swaminarayan.

Swamiji turned out to be a speaker par excellence, a speaker who can capture and hold your attention with ease and grace.  He emphasized the importance of starting out with being happy rather than slogging your way to it as a distant goal.  And the best way of being happy according to him was to make others happy.  He urged upon the General Manager sharing the dais to ensure that all his employees always stayed happy thereby making the bank not only a great bank but a happy bank.  I wonder if I smiled too widely as this invoked the memory of a Dilbert cartoon.  In the cartoon a manager's boss is scolding him.  The manager has been practicing theory Y.  The boss is pointing a finger towards blissful staff, and is shown scowling and saying, "Look at them!  They are too happy to work!!"  I also recalled a standing joke in the organization which maintained that the HR had a simple task - maximizing staff unhappiness!  May be this too is a way of enhancing happiness.  After all a hard won goal always gives more pleasure than one that comes your way too easily.

Swamiji also underscored the cathartic effects of forgiving and asked those who had any grudges for not getting that promotion or this posting to put it behind them.  I wonder if this touched a raw nerve in some.  Later he presented expensive mementos to each one on behalf of the college.  Also the college has taken a wonderful step of replacing bouquets with books which ware presented alongside the memento.

This was followed by a tea break and then a session where people were invited to share their memories.  There was no list to be followed.  People came forward on their own and it was closing time before everyone could do so.  The first speaker happened to be a trainer who had conducted induction programs for quite a few of the others present there.  He started out with a joke about a patient preferring a banker's heart for a transplant.  The reason was simple - it is never used and hence must be good as new!  And then he marveled at the generous gesture that this ceremony was, far removed from what you would expect from a heartless community relying on cold reason alone.

This speaker talked of near-death experiences in which people claim to experience a panorama of all the events of their life.  Emotions welled up when he said that he was certain that when his time comes this event will surely be there in the forefront with all its magnanimity and its emotive impact. This thought was shared by a couple of other speakers who spoke after him.  It was wonderful listening to people talking of their memories and their current passions.

Ex administrative staff was also present at this meet.  Anandbhai, ex electrician and a very talented and sincere person shared his memories and experiences in a wonderful manner.  So did the ex librarian, Mr. Dave, who was instrumental in implementation of extended library hours.

Last two speakers were SureshKumar and Rakesh Sharma.  Wonderful speakers indeed!  The ease with which they communicated their emotions was superb.  College faculty and principal remained present throughout, listening intently.

This part of the event was concluded at around 4:30 in the evening and thereafter the group broke up to return later for a cultural evening and dinner.

It was a gala musical evening and the performing group had a target of presenting a bouquet of 50 old and new songs: the number matching the age of the academy.  The compere Ranjeet Gautam, who did a terrific job, said that the list had been chosen by Kamleshbhai himself who is a connoisseur of music.  A guru-vandana was also recited and at that time all the existing faculty members came forward and bowed to the ex faculty members:  Another gesture that touched the hearts of the invitees.

The celebrations concluded late in the evening with a sumptuous dinner.  During dinner an old timer proposed a very simple and hilarious career long performance evaluation test.  He said that the best measure of how hard you have worked in your career is the number of tablets that have been prescribed for you post retirement.

There was complete agreement on the crucial role that the unassuming Kamleshbhai must have played to bring about this event.

People said their goodbyes and returned to the hotel.  I was to visit Bank's IT Institute at Gandhinagar next day.  I propose to write about this visit later.

A hilarious contrast to this meeting where there was not a single person who felt a stranger, was provided by hotel El-Dorado where invitees were staying.  It is a nice hotel with very friendly and hospitable staff.  However it chooses to describe itself as a place for strangers.  All its cars bear the inscription - "Receiving Strangers" and so does the reception.  A few photographs below will help you appreciate the "strangeness" of the place.

A Brief Reconnect

I retired from a bank a little more than 4 years ago.  Most groups can be subdivided into two on many counts.  One count on which retirees can be formed into two groups is whether or not they have achieved a disconnect from the corporate network. 

The corporation, of course, pulls the plug on your e-mail and intranet accounts.  But human connections extend beyond corporate electronic networks.

So there are those who transcend the corporate electronic networks and stay connected and there are those who let go and disconnect.

I happen to belong to the second category and believe that it is okay to be out of sight and out of mind.  I also suspect that most of my groupmates are like me, not really cut out for the aspirational corporate world.

Organizations do occasionally remember their ex-employees but mostly in a tag along manner on ceremonial occasions.

Thus it came as a pleasant surprise when the apex college of the bank where I was a faculty for a few years, decided to felicitate all ex- trainers, working and retired, as part of its golden jubilee celebrations.  Proper invitations were extended and also personally followed up.  The college also informed that travel and stay expenses were on the bank.  A rare gesture indeed!

What happened on the day of celebrations was extraordinary, emotive and touched the invitees' hearts.  It will form the subject matter of my next post.

ProModis and AntiModis (प्रोमोदी और अंतिमोदी)

Today's world is divided into two camps.  One belongs to ProModis and the other to AntiModis.  You are either for NaMo or against him.  There is a minuscule third group which is probably shunned by both.  Today I am camping in this Neither For Nor Against Modi (NeFnAMo) group and writing this post from there.

Modi deserves credit for ridding this country of Congress which had turned moribund, arrogant and corrupt to the core.  He deserves credit for conclusively demonstrating that a person from the so called OBCs can indeed make a better leader than many from the so called upper castes.  This would not be the case had one of the other OBC leaders somehow made it to the top post.  He deserves credit for lifting the country from collective gloom and desperation.  He deserves credit for demonstrating that you need not be an English speaking elite to rise to the top.  He deserves credit for demonstrating to Indians that we can be assertive and decisive.  And I am sure that ProModis can make many additions to this list.

And yet let us not forget what agitated the collective Indian conscience most before the last parliamentary elections.  People felt thoroughly disgusted with the stubborn corruption, a rotten bureaucracy that is not only corrupt and devoid of all sensitivity but also heavily protected against any action.  People were fed up with rampant criminalization of politics.  They wanted changes in the electoral process so that high entry barriers were removed and the stranglehold of existing coterie of politicians broken.  They wanted changes in the Representation of People's Act to ensure that vile and undeserving candidates could not make it to the Parliament by garnering less than 20% of the votes.

Have things changed on any of these fronts?  Modi touched his forehead to the steps of the Parliament to show that it was at par with a temple.  People thought here is a person who wouldn't let this temple be desecrated by allowing tainted people inside.  The hopes have been belied.  Just look at the number of tainted ministers in his cabinet.  Has Modi even once spoken on the need to make changes in the Representation of Peoples Act to ensure that people facing criminal charges are not allowed to contest election.  And I would like to add this - to hell with the argument that even innocent people well get debarred as clever opponents trap them into false charges.  I hate saying so but Rajiv Gandhi performed better on this front when he tore up the bill defending parliamentarians facing criminal charges.

It cannot be gainsaid that Modi with all the extravaganza of his poll campaign has raised the entry barriers to politics to an all time high.  He is not even talking of electoral reforms.

Bureaucracy in this country is worse than Kafkaesque.  They have literally covered the administrative landscape with shit.  Modi does not have a word of caution for them; only praises!  He would rather have the suffering public clean the shit.  Modi is absolutely silent on the issue of LokPal.  Was it not one of the burning issues when the election was fought.  Again I hate to say this but Congress was more responsive to public sentiments when they got the LokPal bill passed.

Modi kept silent on the issue of black money and spoke up only he sensed the public outrage welling up again.  He is now making appropriate noises but his sincerity is no more beyond doubt.

Did anyone of us expect a government under Modi to play games that the Yadav regime plays in UP?  We are talking of providing Z security and other paraphernalia that make its recipient a VIP.  Why does Ramdeo require Z security?  Doesn't he have more than adequate resources to arrange his own security?

Was Modi being sincere when he bowed down to a protest by a handful of students in UP for excluding English from civil services examination?  He almost reopened the Pandora's box of lingual conflicts that were thought to be a thing of the past.  Is it okay to weaken institutions and the framework of good rules to bring in an officer of his choice?  Shouldn't judiciary's voice be heard when making changes to a system of selection of judges?  Does this not remind one of how Indira Gandhi weakened the institutional framework of the country?

All the issues that agitated the collective mind of Indian people immediately before elections have been cold shouldered.  And yet Modi persists in his efforts to generate euphoria by making grand appearances before NRI crowds abroad.

Inflation continues to rage.  If fuel prices have come down it is only fortuitous and not the result of any conscious efforts by the government.  One doubts whether data is being manipulated to show a lower inflation.  We are all aware of how a regulatory body in Delhi recently admitted to calculation mistake (read manipulation) in recommending higher electricity prices.

I will stop here lest the post becomes too long to read.

I am already feeling a little disappointed.  AntiModis may be feeling more so.

Trade Unions and Wages in Public Sector Banks in India

Trade unions in the banking industry in India are like living fossils from an age long past.  They have internalized a few moves which probably helped them survive in the past and are utterly unable to learn new responses to today's world that has outevolved them.

The same pattern of slogan raising followed by strikes and a show of fighting it out has been going on for decades.  This rowdyism had alienated bankers from the public at large.  The public thought that bankers were callous and too well paid for what they were doing.  Even though the pay scales have since then plummeted to the bottom most rung, the impression in public mind persists, probably as a reaction to persistence of the fossilized behavior of unions from a distant past.

Everyone wonders, except the wise old union leaders, about the purpose served by one day strikes indulged in by them and stretching the negotiations over years.  This does help the industry as it saves funds on wages for the days of strike and interest on deferred payouts because of protracted negotiations.  It used to hurt other stakeholders like the workers and the public.  They often wondered if there was something going on behind the curtains that somehow benefited the unions and encouraged them to behave the way they did and still do.  Today it doesn't hurt the public much thanks to vast strides in banking technology.  The workers are the sole sufferers.

It would be far better if the workers pooled their salaries for a few days instead of going on strike.  This fund could then be used to insert advertisements in prominent newspapers.  The objective should be to educate the public and the political class about the far higher risks in their job profile and a far lower pay than many others in far easier jobs.

When banks were nationalized, bankers used to draw salaries which exceeded their counterparts in state and central governments.  Naturally this could not go on and soon a committee said that these should be at par with those drawn by counterparts in government.  And once the parity was achieved, they ruthlessly pushed down the wages in the industry which today are the lowest in government and public sector.  This was done all too quietly.  Even the political masters of these scheming and plotting bureaucrats still think that bankers are too well paid.  They hardly have the time to go through the facts.  The same applies to the public at large.  Hence the need for education through massive advertising.

It is a common sense principle that those who deal in money must be paid reasonably well.  Once the public is convinced that those whom they trust with their money are not paid well enough, their sympathy may help swing the outcome of negotiations.

I would further suggest that the trade unions should give up their addiction to negotiations.  The disastrous results are there for all to see.  It will be a far superior option to just ask for total parity with central government employees.  After all isn't this what the bureaucrats wanted in the beginning?  Once you have the parity, you will have no reason or need to negotiate.

But before this can happen, bank employees must educate and enlighten the customers, public and politicians on their current plight.  Striking work is no way to do that.

My petition on Avaaz.org

Dear Prime Minister,

Sub: Income Tax exemption limit and delineation of creamy layers.

You will agree that an income which is considered barely sufficient to support a family but inadequate to allow one to reach out for better facilities and opportunities, must not be taxed. Income Tax should be levied only on incomes exceeding this figure.

A good indicator of such tax exemption point is the limit prescribed for determining the creamy layer among OBCs. Only those whose income exceeds this limit are considered to be adequately financially endowed to take care of their ward's education on their own.

You must be aware that the UP government recently raised this limit to Rupees Eight Lakhs per annum.

Thus it stands to reason that the exemption limit for Income Tax should also be raised to the same figure, that is, Rupees Eight Lakhs per annum. This figure indeed is an honest assessment of costs of living by none other than the political establishment itself.

If you foresee difficulties in immediately raising the exemption limit to this figure for the general population, we suggest that you do so for the senior citizens to start with. Senior citizens not only have to pay for many additional services because of their physical debility, they also tend to have much higher medical expenses. Many of them are not provided with any medical cover by their ex-employers.

We look forward to your sympathetic consideration in the next budget.

Yours faithfully

Senior Citizens of India

CC to the Finance Minister, Government of India.

To sign the petition visit this link: Click Here

भाजप भजन

प्रभुजी तुम मोदी हम मंत्री.

तुम चुनाव हमको जितवाए,
नहीं तो हम होते बस संत्री,
तुम मोदी हम मंत्री .....

बहुत दिनों बिन कुर्सी थे हम,
चिंता मन में रहती हरदम,
तुम संकटमोचन बन आये,
राजनीति के पटल पर छाये,
तुम ही असली तंत्री,
तुम मोदी हम मंत्री .....

सब चुनाव हमको जितवावो,
सबकी नैया पार लगाओ,
जन मानस पर दिन-दिन छाओ,
काला धन लाओ न लाओ,
भक्त पुरुष और स्त्री,
तुम मोदी हम मंत्री .... प्रभुजी ....

Strange Effects of Power and an Immune Bureaucracy

Most people these days relish and are even inspired by the sight of the high and mighty wielding brooms and cleaning up dirt and grime.  Some have done so with a mask and a pair of gloves while others have used their bare hands.  All these people are elites who live in complete aseptic environments and probably would not condescend even to wipe the dirt on their own shoes.  Not only this they are NOT the people who litter and pee in the public.  Heck, they hardly move around in open spaces occupied by the hoi-polloi.  But, then, who doesn't do a NaMo to authority and power?

Looking back it would seem more appropriate to have chosen the Navratnas from the hoi-polloi.  They should have been administered an oath not to litter, pee or defecate in the open and then asked to rope in more people in the manner of a Ponzi scheme.  Though the hoi-polloi might have asked, "If not in the open then where?"

Surprisingly while high and mighty responded well to the call, those who are responsible for keeping the public spaces clean, remained more or less immune.  Employees of various municipal corporations, their supervisors and corporators, even those from BJP, remained unmoved.  For them it won't be ceremonial but mean an honest day's work each day!  You certainly cannot be that harsh upon them!  They also vote, don't they?  And to be honest, the call was never addressed to them.  In the Indian politics there is only one man fool enough to proclaim loudly and clearly that public servants must perform.  We all know what has befallen him.

Ultimately it was this immune proletariat that had to take a firm stand against all this swachchhata drive.  After our Pradhan Sevak wielded spade at Assi Ghat to clean up accumulated soil and dirt, authorities moved in some heavy machinery to give finishing touches to the job.  They have now been asked by Forest department to put a stop to all this nonsense.  They have been told that it is a turtle preserve and should be left untouched.

These Forest department people must be very wise and farsighted.  They probably know where all this concern for cleanliness is leading to.  Today it is threatening the peaceful proliferation of the slow moving turtles.  Tomorrow it might be them and people like them.  Nip it in the bud as the wise men say.

A Picgrimage.

Yes that typo is deliberate.  Went on a pilgrimage but the intention was to picnic.  The place is Naimisharanya and lies about 90 kilometers away from Lucknow.  Mythology says that long long ago sages requested Brahma to provide them a peaceful and quiet place where they could meditate and also write the scriptures.  Brahma created a Chakra (a roundel) and threw it at the earth.  It landed at Naimisharanya.  There is a circular pond where this roundel is said to have landed.  The pond is known as ChakraTirth and people take a holy dip in it.  Though the name suggests that this place was a forest, there is no trace of a forest now.  There is a small township and there are villages and fields all around it.

As you enter the ChakraTirth you are accosted by priests.  Someone offers to tie a sacred thread around your wrist.  Another would like to put a tilak mark on your forehead.  Someone would ask you to do a sankalp - a ritual that ends up with paying some money to the priest.

There is a Hanuman temple (Hanumangarhi), a temple devoted to Lalita Devi, and one devoted to Sage Vyas.  There is also a temple like place where you find statues of Pandavas who are said to have had a fort there.  A priest sits there holding a microphone exhorting people to visit and donate for construction of a temple.

We parked our cars a little away from Hanumangarhi and walked towards it.  We passed by a spacious and well furnished hut where we saw a Mahant (senior priest) holding court with several gentlemen who appeared to be influential officials.  This was borne out by the vehicles outside with beacons indicating their official status.  Someone tells us that the Mahant is also the local MLA.

My brother-in-law was accompanying us.  He is a government official who has been provided with an Ambassador with a red beacon.  But he had consciously chosen to visit in a private car.  He wondered if it would have been better to use his official car.  That would have saved the ladies with knee problems a lot of walking.  And who knows, we would have also been accorded a proper and warm welcome.

On our way back we also visited a temple devoted to Chandrika devi.  A narrow road from Bakshi Taalaab leads to the temple.  On the way we find several colleges and institutes that seem to have sprung up from the fields all around them.  Some examination was being held in one of the colleges and there were vehicles parked on both sides of the road.  This lead to a jam.  But our drivers had the grit to manoeuver their way through it.

Chandrika Devi Temple campus was clean and not too crowded.  On one side there is a large pond and a pedestal in the center with a huge idol of Lord Shiva.

The temple has a entrance on one side for VVIPs.  Most temples do.  On our way back we debate the chances of equality before law in a country where people resist equaliy even before God!