Note to Friends in Banking Industry.

Dear friends,

Thank you for your understanding in accepting a very small hike in your wages.  Unfortunately our own government employees do not have the same grace and understanding and will insist on their pound of flesh in the seventh pay commission.  So please continue to pay income tax as you have been paying so that we can meet the demands from these stubborn bargainers. Though it took lot of efforts, we have totally desisted from increasing the tax rates and since your income is not increasing in any significant way, the impact on you will be minimal.  Only fellows like Chanda Kochhar who have grossly inflated salaries beyond 1 cr p.a. will feel a little pinch.

Enjoy the good days that are already upon you.  And thank you again for your understanding.

FM, GOI

PS - You know how utterly boisterous are these big guns who own companies.  I had no option but to grant them some concession. Don't mind it too much please.

Pity Promotes Trafficking

I received an advisory through Whatsapp.  It is meant for women.  It says that if you come across a child in distress who has an address tag in his hands or pocket or is wearing it around his neck, DO NOT take it to that address; take the child to the nearest police station instead!  You can easily figure out what might happen if the unfortunate woman were to take the child to the  address planted on it.

There is nothing that brings out the altruist in us so spontaneously and forcefully as the sight of a child in distress.  This has long been exploited by criminals who kidnap children and force them into begging.  I recall an event that took place a few decades ago when I was quite young and which is deeply imprinted on my mind.  At that time I had started working and was posted in an office in Hazaratganj, Lucknow.  When I came out from my office in the evening I saw a child with a crippled hand sitting alone on the pavement on the other side of the road and begging.  He somehow had the look of a well behaved child from a middle income family.  I crossed the road and inquired with the child if he would like to go to someplace and whether he could give me his home address.  I could see fear in his eyes as he vehemently declined my suggestion.  Almost immediately a well built man appeared from nowhere, picked up the child and walked away at a fast pace.  To date I have not been able to forgive myself for not having raised an alarm or having tried to stop the man.

Whether to give alms or not is a rather ticklish issue in a place where poor abound.  But I have made a rule for myself.  Never, never, give alms to anybody who is asking for it in the name of a child.  Sometimes I have seen beggar women carrying infants who are limp and look so helpless that your first impulse is to reach for your wallet and help.  But I always remind myself that this child may not really be her own; and if she succeeds in 'using' this child in making money, she and her team will surely kidnap more.  It is a very cruel decision but to be humane will bring untold cruelty upon many more hapless children.

Trafficking in children is as heinous a crime as rape, if not more.  However we don't hear many voices against it or notice any action being taken to prevent it.  The least that each one of us can do is to steel our hearts and not to give alms to children or to beggars asking in the name of infants.

And, of course, if you find a lonely child  with an address tag, take both the child and the address tag to the nearest police station as advised.

Terminal Bill

Apart from the small change donations that go into the kitty of godmen, a major source is the lifelong savings of aged devotees.  The devotees are told to lead a spartan life that doesn't dent their lifelong savings.  And then they are persuaded to trade it with the godman for a guaranteed place in the heaven.

But Babadom is not alone in this business of cornering the savings of old and aged.  The medical profession follows close in their footsteps. Of those who do not surrender to a Guru and also those who do, not all are lucky enough to have an uneventful kind of death.  For most it will be preceded by an illness long or short and many will find their way to the dreaded ICU.  There the hapless fellow and his family are purged of their savings, more often than not to be finally told that that is all that the medical science could do.

Medical science has made much progress and it stands to reason to press all their life saving skills into service if a child or a productive young man falls sick.  But does it make sense to prolong an old and dying man's life by a few miserable months or days at huge cost and through insufferable procedures?  Instead of focusing on expensive diagnosis and treatments, will it not be okay just to manage the pain and suffering and help the person die with dignity?  Why should medical science and society place so much store by the 'quantity' of life instead of quality?  And why should we fight with death when it comes knocking and is expected too?

Part of the problem lies with the family and society as well.  The society prods the family to go for as expensive a treatment as they can afford even when the outcome is known with near certainty.  The family seldom has the courage to resort to logic and ward off sadistic pressures from society.

The family can be empowered only by the person concerned himself.  And he must do so while he is still healthy and in full possession of his faculties.  And thus it will be good if a person deals with this aspect clearly in his will and gives unambiguous instructions regarding the kind of treatment to be given or not to be given to him if things go wrong, and the kind of rites to be performed after his demise.

Can we also trust the medical community to rise above commercial consideration and advise people properly and rationally in terminal situations?

Free Phone Calls to USA

This is not about Viber, Skype, Line or the FB messenger.  The trouble with the apps is that they require both the parties to have an active data connection to make a call.  Also both the parties must have the same application installed and running on their phones or tabs.  Some apps allow you to call a phone number directly but then you have to pay for it.

Now we have an app which can call a telephone number, mobile or landline, in USA (and some other countries too) directly and for free!  Of course, you need to have the app on your phone and also an active data connection.  But these requirements do not apply to the receiver in USA.

If you have not already discovered the app, it is Hangouts Dialer, an added component to Google Hangouts.  Do try it.  Now you can have long and leisurely talks with your family and friends in USA for free.

Good that Google does not subscribe to the conventional wisdom cherished by governments that says that freebies are not good for your constituents! ;)

I reviewed Passport Seva Kendra at Lucknow.

My review as appearing at their site is reproduced below:

The center is able to handle very large number of applicants efficiently and the processes are quite well defined. Though a person here and a person there may not be an epitome of courtesy, as a team they are able to perform efficiently. Some of my observations are listed below:

Appreciated:

•            Paid parking is available.

•            IT enabled processes are quite efficient.

•            The staff seems to be a mix from TCS and MEA. The service executives (from TCS?) are courteous and efficient.

•            The waiting hall is clean and has a tea and coffee kiosk and also a kiosk for photocopying.

•            Toilets provided are clean.

•            APO (Additional / Assistant Passport Officer) is very considerate and helpful in case you are required to approach him.

•            Queue management is efficient and displays are updated in real time.

Need Attention:

•            Placards should be placed directing first time visitors to the parking area for applicants. I entered the basement parking. That too was through the exit as no signage is posted on the two slopes for indicating which one is for Entry and which one for Exit. I was asked to leave as the basement parking is not for applicants.

•            An elderly lady at the entrance of the waiting hall was found to be rather rude to the visitors. This detracts from good work done by other staff.

•            The waiting halls, especially the one inside the processing area, are too small looking to the number of applicants handled by the center.

•            Exception handling in the system is not very graceful. You may read my blog post http://anil-upadhyaya.blogspot.in/2015/02/passport-for-psu-retirees.html.

Passport for PSU Retirees

If you have retired from a Public Sector Undertaking and intend to get a new passport or renew your existing passport, you will do well to read this post.

I have retired from a Public Sector Bank and proceeded to renew my passport which would be expiring within one year.  So I set out to fill out the online application form.  One of the items in the form is 'Employment'.  Options include PSB, Government Service and Retired Government servant.  However there is no option for Retired PSB employees.  First I thought of ticking the option 'Others.'  But thinking that it will not be entirely correct to do so, I ticked 'PSB'.  In the details column I wrote 'Retired from Bank ......"

At the counter for obtaining a token at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), I was told that since I have chosen employment type as 'PSB', I must produce a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the employer.  I pointed out that I am retired and hence this requirement does not apply to me.  I was asked to write an application and get APO's permission to change the employment type.  APO was quite considerate and okayed my application.  I proceeded to the processing area.  I explained the situation to the official.  He said that he did not have the power to change my occupation.  And with the existing PSB entry the document would not move ahead until a NOC was uploaded in the system.  So he scanned my application that was okayed by the APO and uploaded it as the NOC.  Then he put some remarks on the file and asked me to explain the situation to the person at level 2 who was to handle my file next.  The next person told me that he has enabled the option to change my occupation and I was to go back to a level one functionary.

Back at level one, I was asked if I would prefer Retired Government Servant as my occupation:  after all PSU and government are not very different!  I asked a counter question, "Will any documents be required if I do so?"  The answer was in the affirmative.  A copy of the PPO would be required.  So I requested the person at the counter to change it to Other.  She did so and I went back to level 2.  level 2 official confirmed the change and asked me to proceed to level 3 where the change was to be authenticated and the processing completed.  At level three I was told that somehow the system was not accepting the authentication.  I ran back and forth between the levels and was ultimately directed to a person who was considered an expert.

The reason system was misbehaving was elementary!  Though the employment type had been changed to Other, the NOC upload had not been deleted!  He helped the level 2 person to delete it and the change could finally be effected in the system at level 3.

The final receipt given to me still says that NOC is required!  However I have been assured that it will go through.  I checked the status of my passport online and it confirms that the matter is moving ahead.

The morale of the story is that as far as Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is concerned there is nothing like a retired PSU employee, you are just one of the 'others.'

Incidentally, my wife, who is a housewife and hence had mentioned her occupation as 'Other', sailed through the three levels without any hurdles.

Endangered Spaces in My City - New Meaning of B2B

I had purchased my house in Indira Nagar, Lucknow, quarter of a century ago.  My sector in the huge residential colony has three types of houses - High Income Group (HIG), MIG and LIG.  All houses used to have a front yard, a backyard, parking for 3, 2 or 1 cars, and a side setback along the entire depth of the plot on one side.  The houses have a common wall on the other side along the depth.  The open spaces are quite adequate and provide lots of natural lighting and ventilation and keep you from feeling claustrophobic.

At the time these houses were built, false ceilings providing diffused lighting in the rooms and airconditioning that positively discourages ventilation, were not very common.  Thus these open spaces and the windows opening into those spaces were a necessity too.  To be fair, even at that time there was a group that felt that open spaces were sheer waste and attempted to minimize them by expanding out the structure using ingenious architectural tricks.

25 years is a long period.  Children have grown up and moved out of Lucknow and some the original occupants too are migrating to live with their sons and daughters or in flats.  The houses are being sold off.  When a sale takes place this is what typically happens.  The old structure is pulled down and a new house built with the maximum number of floors permitted in the area.  Currently rules permit three floors.  This would be considered a normal development but for what I am going to narrate now.

The new structures blatantly do away with all requirements of open spaces in the form of a side setback on one side, back and front yards, and parking withing the plot.  These structures are almost B2B (boundary to boundary!)  Backyard, if there is one, is just an air shaft for ventilating the kitchen and toilets.  I understand that the building bylaws have not changed in any significant way and yet these violation are either not noticed by the local development authority or deliberately overlooked (for a consideration?)  Rooms are liberally airconditioned and windows are merely decorative and seldom opened.

A major problem arises for the neighbor who still has a side setback.  The new structure next door, as described above, extends right up to the boundary.  These new kids on the block then cleverly have a opening into the side setback of the poor old neighbor.  They use the neighbor's setback for lighting and ventilation while they use all their space in the B2B manner.

Complaining to authorities can have one and only one result, that is, dangerously inimical neighbor relations for all times to come.  If you choose to have a level headed talk, you get just one response.  It goes like this - you may also construct B2B if you wish!  And if you do that out of desperation what is the result?  Both the neighbor and you have houses that extend into each other and / or total darkness and lack of ventilation for both.

Now that everybody is convinced that the neighbor will go for B2B in any case, those who have the advantage of constructing first try to preempt the neighbor by going B2B without even waiting to talk to the neighbor in the matter.

In the meantime authorities are planning a tax on vehicles which are parked alongside streets overnight.  Thus B2B has become a revenue earner for both the authorities and their officials.

B2B has become the new architectural norm in my city.  How about yours?

The Unsung Heroes of the White Collar NRI Phenomenon.

This post is dedicated to Sureshbhai Patel, a visiting Indian grandparent in Alabama, who suffered a most unfortunate injury at the hands of the local police in Alabama when a neighbor reported him as a suspicious person.  You can listen to an account of the incident from Mr. Patel's son by clicking here.

The Silicone Valley area in California and some other areas in the USA are not only home to many of the giants of the IT industry but have also become a unique hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in the whole of the world.  These are also home to a large number of immigrants from India whose contributions to the valley phenomenon as also in other industries elsewhere are widely acknowledged.  Many of these are first generation immigrants.  These brave souls left India with lots of hope, excitement and, perhaps, a wee bit of anxiety at going to a distant and alien land:  emotions shared by parents who bid them goodbye at a time when communication channels had not yet become so pervasive.  Many of these parents did hope that their wards will finally make it back to India for good.

It was a very different world indeed.  And yet these young boys and girls had to explore and figure out this world quickly for they were there to make a living.  They could hardly afford to continue as star-struck tourists:  All the more so as their talent and location got them good spouses and they readied to settle down.  The role of the star-struck tourist would be later played by their parents.  Their children wanted them to take a look at this world where many of the irritants that people continually faced back home were conspicuously missing.

Most parents with no firsthand experience of the western world must have found their first visit bewildering.  Remember that this started over a decade ago.  Today, as a friend pointed out, USA has many outposts in India where you can experience the same lingo and culture that you would in USA.  But such outposts are few and visitors from smaller towns and villages must still be experiencing the bewilderment we talked about.

These first time visiting parents experienced an emotional turmoil that is difficult to describe to those who have not experienced it.  Just when you thought you had matured enough with a grownup son or daughter, you find the roles reversed.  The sudden dependence on your offspring for everything including mobility, spending, figuring out the world around you, is overwhelming.  It must be equally stressful and awkward for the children to have their parents, authority figures for them, so lean on them.

The bewilderment comes from being in a place that looks different, where majority of inhabitants are from the white race that ruled us for a long time.  But more than that it comes from very different social mores.  You cannot casually walk on a road, it is an offence.  You cannot set foot on private property that is marked so not by a fence but just a placard.  Houses don't have boundaries and yet one has to know where the private property begins.  A casual touch may be taken as an offense.  Personal space and privacy are taken a bit too seriously.  Nobody jumps a queue.  Manual workers may not have a different look or a supplicating attitude.  There is no indignity in doing your own chores. Littering and spitting are an absolute no.  And, taking a cue from Mr. Patel's case, there is a definite protocol to be observed when you are stopped by the police.  The list is pretty long.

It takes several of the short encounters before the mist in the touristy eyes begins to wear off and a visiting parent is able to see the new world for what it really is.  The differences lose their starkness and one begins to see the similarities with things back home.  One also learns to differentiate between things and situations that all looked equally foreign and remote.

Like all learning this too exacts its price.  It is in terms of emotional stress and awkward moments.  And if you are unlucky like Mr. Patel it could be physical. 

News Through Private Radio Channel!!

In the beginning there was the radio.  Its output engaged only your auditory senses.  Next TV appeared on the scene.  It engaged both your eyes and ears.

The cinema, of course, was there all along but it did not have the same ease of access as radio and TV.  It has always been an uphill task to book your seats, dress up, drive down to the multiplex, find a proper parking and then finally locate your seats in the theater.  And then you have to pray to the Lord that the fellow audience keeps its mobiles silent and behaves.

That last requirement applies to us too and is too restrictive.  You can walk around your radio or even carry it with you.  You can flit in and out of the room where your TV is installed.  With all the repeat telecasts you can also choose to watch it later.  Of course, you can't carry your TV around with you.  Even if you could, you would hardly be able to watch it while carrying it.

Today we have the magic device, mobile phone, which can play both audios and videos and is always carried around.  There are internet radios and online TV channels.  Yet watching a video while on the move is not very practicable.  But using your mobile phone to listen to live broadcast on an online radio station is truly enjoyable.

A problem here relates to the government guidelines that allow broadcasting of news by private TV channels but not by private radio channels.  Sarkari radio channels are hardly available on the internet.

Thus it is very heartening to find that the NDTV app on mobile devices allows the user not only to watch their channels on the mobile but also to discard the video and listen only to the audio.  This is available as the option "Radio" in the menu.

I love it.  Now I can listen to India news through internet almost anywhere.

Delhi Poll Outcome

It is a deja vu moment.  The victory of AAP has many parallels with the BJP victory at the center in May last year.  It is a decisive mandate.  The mandate has been given on the basis of clear-cut issues rather than caste, region and identity.  It is a mandate that leaves little excuse for not delivering on the promises.  I would like to think that it also shows what happens when a decisive mandate is not fully honored, and hence it embodies a warning too for the beneficiaries of the mandate.  It says in very clear words that petty corruption and crony capitalism have reached a level that the public will revolt against at every available opportunity.  And it shows its disapproval for narcissism at any level.

The electorate in India seems to be maturing fast.  The old tricks deployed for dividing the electorate ad infinitum on the lines of caste and creed are now giving ever diminishing returns.  The electorate seems to be sending out a message that it is a taskmaster and will not put up with non-performance.

The electorate is essentially telling the politicians, "We are giving you responsibilities and tasks and NOT a seat of power and pelf.  And please do not use identity management to distract us from any non-performance."

AAP supporters are celebrating the victory in traditional ways.  They will do well to keep celebrations at a minimum and get down to brass tacks. AAP must not forget the warning very clearly implicit in this victory.  Deliver or perish!

Goodbye dear Chrome (and CM!)

I have two nexus devices, Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 7 tablet (first version.)  Both have been upgraded to Lollipop.  While Nexus 4 has been working very well, Nexus 7 has been experiencing terrible problems.  I experimented a lot and concluded that Chrome, the Google browser, is at the root of the problem.  No fiddling with settings seemed to provide any relief.  I started relying more on my I-pad and Nexus 7 started getting discarded for most uses.

Today I disabled Chrome on Nexus 7.  I have installed UC browser in its place.  It is a fantastic experience.  Life and vigor have returned to the Nexus 7 tablet.  Browser freezing and crashing, becoming unresponsive to scrolling motions are all things of the past!

I was so impressed with UC browser that I decided to replace Clean Master too with the cleaner offered by the developer of UC browser.  It is called UClean and has none of the clutter and overload of Clean Master.

I hope the good user experience will last.  In the meantime I do hope that Google will take notice and do something to rectify the situation instead of turning a blind eye to poor Nexus 7.