Bhoot Bangla - A live story!

Nelson Mandela had said somewhere that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it and the brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nice quote. Gives me courage to say that fear is nearly almost present in all of us! May be to a varying degree, perhaps. I think it is the human gene that is the culprit! ‘Fear’ gene (or whatever technical name the scientists would have given this gene) may have been passed on to us right from our evolution days (either as homo sapiens or homo erectus or some other earlier species even). Who knows? What I am trying to do here is to justify that we all fear something or the other, especially the unknown. 

The word fear is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as something or someone to be afraid of; to expect or worry about something bad or unpleasant. Basically, it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm. Fear drives people to do many things. Both good and bad. Though most of our fears are irrational and unfounded. 

It takes me back to the time when I was young, may be 9 or 10 years old. I had this terrible fear of unknown. Let’s call it fear of ghosts, because that was the nomenclature commonly used those days! I used to stay with my parents on a quiet street in a lonely area of Jayanagar (Those days Jayanagar was lonely and dimly lit with yellow bulbs during night times). There was this empty house on our street. During our stay of 7 years on this particular street, I never saw this house ever tenanted. This house wore a dilapidated look because of lack of maintenance. Shrubs and creepers had grown all around the house which gave it a decrepit appearance. In the mind of 10-year-old, this house had an eerie look! Whenever I used to pass this house during day times I had this habit of staring at the house looking for signs of any activity in the windows, though I clearly knew in my mind that no one resided there. However, during the evening times (around 7 PM or so just when the Sun had set and darkness was creeping upon) the house used to acquire a sinister look (in the mind of a 10-year-old). While passing the house one evening, on an errand, I kept staring at the house. I paused just slightly before the house as I could see some dim lights coming through the front bedroom window and I had this feeling that some shadows were moving behind the windows. I felt a creepy shudder pass over me slowly. My pause turned into a short run. I reached the end of the street. The blood in my veins kept pounding as I kept looking back towards the house while on run. Just at the end of the street, there were two corner stores located, quite brightly lit. It was here that I was headed to for buying few things (I don’t remember exactly what I wanted to buy from corner stores). After completing my purchase, on my way back, I didn’t have the nerve to cross the empty house once again. I thought of taking the long route from the other end of the street by crossing over to the adjacent street. This again had its pitfalls as there was another empty house across that street too! This kept playing on my mind and I decided to take my chances and take the short route home. I closed my eyes and sprinted across the street (crossing the empty house) as fast as my young legs could carry me. I opened my eyes only after reaching the safe environs of my home. This sprint was the fastest blind run in my life. I could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money for the fastest 100 metres dash! My heart kept pounding and the blood gushed through my veins. I kept this incident to myself. I was ashamed to admit to my parents that I was scared. The next morning it was again the time to pass the empty house on my way to the shop. As was my habit, my eyes kept darting towards the empty house. I looked at the house through the corner of my eye. I couldn’t dare to look at the house directly as shivers were running through me. I didn’t see any activity happening in the house. The house stood empty as always! Nobody had occupied that house. I still don’t know if the play of lights and shadows that appeared behind the front bedroom window of the empty house that night were just the wild imagination or hallucination of 10-year-old boy or something else! 

Continuing on this incident, I had connected this “haunted house” phenomenon to the Hindi movie titled ‘Gumnaam’ which I remember watching in the late sixties or so with my parents. After watching this movie, I was quite convinced that ghosts did exist, after all, (though the movie plot said that it was the female character who was carrying out this charade to deceive somebody or the other). I don’t exactly remember the plot of this movie now. This movie with its haunting melodies preyed on my mind for quite a number of years. I was scared of going out alone on the streets late in the evenings. I used to come home before nightfall (after play) as I was scared of late evenings. This was the time when shadows creep due to interplay of light and darkness; I always avoided staying late outside the house after 7 PM. This timing of 7 PM was sacrosanct due to my irrational fears. The fears that I had developed as a young boy age had persisted into my late teens and even during my youth.

This thought leads me to another incident that left an indelible impression on my mind. I was posted to work in a village branch during my first stint after joining a nationalized Bank. That was my first exposure away from my close-knit family. This was a remote village in the rain-fed area of Malnad region in interior Karnataka. The village was notorious for its rains and coffee estates. There was hardly any accommodation available for rent in the village. On the very first day a colleague of mine who was also from Bangalore offered to share a huge old bungalow with me for our residence. The problem with this bungalow was that this was situated outside of the village limits, though hardly a 5 minutes-walking distance from the Bank branch. This was the last building in the village environs. There were no houses on either side of the building. The house was located on a very lonely stretch. Thick shrubbery had grown on either sides of the house. My colleague and I used to keep all the rooms in the entire bungalow locked up except for one room which we used as sleeping quarters. We didn’t have any cots to sleep. Just our basic rolling beds were placed at the opposite corners of one room, which we had occupied. Rest of the house was just left unused. The house had a tiled roof. As the house was quite old, we had got it at a very cheap rental bargain. My colleague who stayed with me was a courageous and smart person. I could see that from day one. He was staying there alone before I joined him in a sharing arrangement. Within a month or so after my joining the Bank Branch, this colleague of mine had to go on leave for a week to Bangalore. I was left all alone in this huge bungalow. It was the rainy season. Rains were copious that year. The night after my colleague left for Bangalore, I went back to my bungalow with a stout heart, mentally determined. I stepped in the house, heartily singing, wanting to mask the fear of what was in store for me during the night. The rains had commenced and were very heavy that night as if the skies had opened up. Water was dripping here and there inside the house, in the crevices between the tiles. The owners didn’t want to spend on repairs as the rent was too low. Rains drops were lashing at the windows which was making an eerie sound. I had finished my night dinner at a nearby village restaurant before retiring for the evening. The long night had begun! I could hear the hooting of night owls somewhere in a distance amid the rain sounds. My mind was in a twirl. I sat on my bed opening a book to read. I couldn’t concentrate. I could feel the blood rush across my spine to my head. My imagination had gone wild and was playing all sorts of tricks inside. I had kept the lights on through the night. There were power cuts in between. I lit some candles. The flames were casting long shadows and dancing to the movement of the wind from the gaps between windows panes. I could feel the shivers running along my spine. All the thoughts of ghosts and whatnot rushed through my mind! I could hear the slight creaking of doors as winds kept howling outside. This experience was like a scene straight out of a horror movie! The fear was so intense that I thought I would not last the night! I was fighting with all my strength and tried to keep up my spirits by singing loudly; I was trying to be as rational as possible. I couldn’t sleep the entire night and was totally awake with fear! What a night that was, I could still feel the shivers creep up my spine even now, as I write this! There was no TV or Radio or anything which I could switch on to spend the night. I kept looking at my watch every now and then hoping the morning would arrive soon which would end my nightmare! That was the longest night of my lifetime! When I went back to the Bank the following day after surviving the horrid night, my colleagues at the Bank were waiting to know my fate, if I had survived! They asked me how was my night at the “Booth Bangla”! That was the first I heard of the bungalow being called that. I was kept in the dark. All the colleagues at the Bank were very young and full of spirits. In fact, all of them knew about the bungalow and told me stories of how this “Booth Bangla” had been vacant for a number of years and nobody had dared to occupy for fear of isolation and its sheer size coupled with the poor maintenance of the house! I also later learnt that how a colleague who was earlier staying in that bungalow vacated the place within a week totally numb with fear! It appears my Bangalore colleague was the only one who had the gumption to move into this bungalow and continue to live there for some time. He had taken this up as a challenge and he had won the challenge. Coming back to my story, I did spend the entire week alone in this huge old “Booth Bangla”, I don’t know how I survived. Each night was a terror and nightmare! The toughest week of my life! But here I am, after so many years, still very much alive and kicking to relate the story! Despite surviving the ordeal, I wouldn’t dare call myself a courageous or a brave person! I didn’t stay long in the house after that particular horrendous week. One more colleague of mine offered to share his house which was bang in the middle of the village, where I later shifted and happily spent the rest of my stay in the village. My hero colleague who had stayed in that big old bungalow for may be 6 months or so shifted shortly thereafter. 

The only thing we have to fear is the fear itself!  Doesn't this explanation sound reassuring.   Psychologists have long hypothesized that the fear response have honed human survival skills by generating appropriate behavioural responses. Again evolution. How nice! 

A trip down memory lane

I strive hard to be useful and supportive to my family's wants and requirements, on a daily basis. I was happy to chip in for the daily household chores which includes all and sundry shopping, kitchen help, driver duty and more.  Else, you know the consequences cannot be exactly nice for retired home-bodies like me.  All my senior citizen friends desert me after the morning walking ritual. Perhaps, all of them have their responsibilities cut-out for them.  You see, I was not assigned any key responsibilities within my home.  Other than loitering around, within the confines of the home, I see to it that all things are kept in its assigned spot.  I have this OCD issue, you see.  So, what else anyone expects me to do, is beyond me.  After all, I am a senior citizen with limited capabilities.

Coming to the point, it was decided by the power-wielders that my important responsibility would be to bring my grandson from the School everyday.  3.30 PM on the dot, I had to be at the school doorstep.  I had agreed happily with alacrity and enthusiasm.  Little did I anticipate the pitfalls involved in this activity. 

While on the job of fetching my grandson from the School, it was a daily ritual with my grandson to gently guide me to a nearby stationery shop (FYI, the shop also stores children's goodies) for all the delectable goodies he desired for.  Yes, the very same chocolates, chips, lolly pops, ice cream and many other items that are all, generally, very harmful to the child's health and well-being.  My indulgent nature (please do tell me, which grandparent would not want to pamper his grandson), along with my penchant for being called a 'cool' granddad landed me in trouble.  My grandson developed tooth problems, digestion issues and other immunity health issues.  As is the case with daughters, I was deemed the culprit and an utterly useless grandfather.  I was almost banished from the only activity, I loved and cherished.  Nevertheless, I have a dogged personality.  I can put up a pointless fight sometimes, for equal rights between men and women! This created a huge ruckus, as the other senior lady of the house, joined in, for a strong triangular fight.  That's it.  I was done for.  Anyway, coming to the point, I was told to continue with the job, till a suitable replacement was found.  I am happy to report that I am still on the job with no worthwhile replacement found till the date of this writing.  But, mind you, the condition was, I had to desist from the mandatory attendance at the stationery shop.  The shop owner looks at me longingly with disappointment largely writ all over his face, as if I am a spineless character.  I feel sorry for him, as does he!

On account of my spinal surgery, I had to take a long break from my duties including the School job.  After the mandatory recuperation period, I was back at the School job.  On my first day post resumption of my duties, when I went to the School, with a 'walking stick' swinging in my hand and a spring in my step, the class teacher standing at the School gate challenged me to prove that I am the grandfather of my ward before the handover could happen.  I was taken aback, shocked at this affront by the beautiful School lady standing in front of me, looking at me with skepticism and suspicion as if I were a malevolent child  kidnapper!  What more could I do, here I was, pleading with this visibly angry lady informing her in my most polite tone that I was, indeed,  the grandfather of my grandson!  The lady was unmoved.  She demanded that I produce the identity card of the child.  Suddenly, the light bulb switched on and with a flourish, I produced the identity card, from the recesses of my trousers. I showed it to her with a triumphant smile baring all my remaining teeth. She appeared crestfallen.  I locked my eyes with hers, mustering as much courage as I could, given the circumstances, and asked her to handover the child to my care   I was beaming with triumph very much like the David in the 'David and Goliath' story! I had defeated the beautiful School lady.  What a great day, I thought.  Does this not require a celebration.  You bet!  On our way home, this time I gently guided my grandson to the goodies' shop and both of us enjoyed a huge bar of the most wonderful Cadbury chocolates. I was literally, floating in the seventh heaven, the entire remainder of the day!

Retirement blues'!

I had read the following lines somewhere on the internet and it had stayed with me, for its erudite lucidity in defining Retirement.

"Retirement is the reward after decades of hard work and an opportunity to spend more time with family, to travel, and to do all the things on your bucket list you wanted, but were too busy to do when you are working".

I do not know, if this is an acceptable definition to the common retired person.  It would probably vary from individual to individual. By and large, I think this exactly fits into my idea of retirement. 

During the working-phase of my life, I had never given a thought, as to, what would life be or what I would do, after retirement; always assuming that my life, as I knew then, would go on in an uninterrupted manner.   Little did I know that someday I would get old and bald; the little remaining hairs would get grey; the gaps between the teeth, widening despite the dental fillings; and above all, being not in real control of my own bladder.  Oh dear,  please hold on to your smile/smirk, there is more to come; beguiling and embarrassing physical health concerns coming soon to a theatre "(sic)" hospital near you.  The days of everything in life being hunky-dory would be long gone.  The most disappointing thing would be that the Company that employed you would no longer require your services; skillsets would age; technologies would change, or there would be a fixed retirement age (which is 60 years in India, now for most of the government and public sector enterprises including banks). After reality kicked in, and retirement was almost upon me, I realized, that on the day i submitted my resignation (I am using Resignation and Retirement interchangeably as my Resignation soon turned out to be my Retirement!) my name would just be a closed entry on the Company’s records. I would be merely acknowledged, as an ex-employee, on exit from the company. The Company which had, until the day prior to my last day at office, commended my work ethics and quality of work delivered; bestowing me with fancy titles, had overnight deleted my ID out of the systems and blocked out my physical access to all of their facilities. As I happened to visit my then beloved office the next day after my resignation, I had to request my ex-colleagues to log me in, using their ID and escort me to the department, which I had casually wanted to visit to bid my final goodbyes. All the admiration and respect I had commanded the day prior, amongst my colleagues, had vanished overnight into thin air. It was literally like, I had become a pariah or even more to the point, a persona-non-grata, with the Company that I had so cherished in my heart; for it had provided me with my bread and butter. 

During my working heydays, weekends and other public holidays were great fun, to go out with the family on social visits or reading or simply enjoying a lazy day at home. ‘Me-time’ and ‘sleep-time’ were always at a premium during those hectic working days. Mondays used to be drudgery, due to heavy traffic on the streets and workloads left over from the past week at office. Surprise was that the Immediate bosses and superiors used to reach office early on Mondays brimming with fresh ideas, displaying high energy and vigour; waiting to pick on and browbeat their subordinates with their new ideas.  Basing on my experience, work life, indeed was a real pain sometimes, especially as I was stuck in the middle management; sandwiched between demanding superiors and indifferent subordinates.

After years of waking up early in the day to an alarm clock, it was splendid in the first few days, post-retirement, to over-sleep for some time and wake up leisurely, with no particular place to go and above all, freedom from routine obligations. Life was great, no motoring to the office in the terrible traffic conditions, no bosses to get shouted at, no subordinates to deal with. Once the initial euphoria of the post-retirement life passes on, new challenges, arise. Many, new unforeseen factors come into play.

The biggest challenge would be on the home-front.  You heard at right!  Here goes.  People around you, resent your presence at home; especially the women folk (you guessed it!) because you are staying at home, like them, with them, in their hitherto unchallenged domain. Women folk, generally, do not like or want your presence, day in and day out, around the home space, that they have created, cherished and nurtured, over the years. I can understand their animosity; You see, it is, but, natural when someone who has not been home during the daytimes for years and decades together, suddenly comes alive and tries to mark his presence at home and edge/trip you over in the Kitchen, of all places.  Kitchen, is the sanctum sanctorum for women folk. How dare you, come in and spoil my dish, says the Lady of the house.  Ladies should surely have the rights to guard their fiefdoms. Please forgive me, I should not have had the temerity to say these things; just a slip of the tongue disguised as tongue-in-cheek humour?

After the initial challenges, as detailed above, on the home-front wane (you see, the famous Charlie Chaplin quote comes to mind, "Nothing is permanent in this world, including our troubles or worries or even irritations or fights"), then comes the new challenge of what to do with the rest of your life. People with extraordinary passion or energy continue with their life/career pursuits in line with their passions even after their formal retirement; however, for people with no particular skillsets, like me, the daily lazy routine bites. It is my considered opinion, that nature counter balances this state, generally, by inducing adverse health conditions such as diabetes, or high blood pressure or heart condition or/and something similar, to keep the retiree, busy in daily life e.g., counting colourfully packeted tablets, admiring bottled tonics of different types and sizes for time-pass, etc.  The retiree would have some new health challenges on hand to discuss and mope about with his retired group of friends in the neighbourhood parks; exchanging health related advice and discussing ad nausea, the present Indian political scene and current affairs. As the popular quote goes, ‘Time and tide wait for no man’, time swiftly marches on, relentlessly. It is soon time to say goodbye to the World, as we know it!  

Coming to my post-retirement plans, it had always been my dream that I would travel around the world and visit interesting places.  Come retirement, many of the post-retirement plans remain only on paper. Our travel plans kept on postponing due to one reason or the other; there was Covid; and then, some other work like marriages or engagements of near and dear ones, etc.  Despite all the impediments that came our way, we still managed to cover some places and a few countries on our bucket list.  Funnily enough, the bucket list is getting long and endless on a regular basis.  I am not sure, how things will pan out in my future. For now, let the contents of the bucket list remain a mystery.

The upside of this, however, is money to that extent has been saved, which would come in handy for a rainy day, especially if you are living off a Government Bank Pension, like me!

Ancient Indian Civilization - A mere conondrum or lost civilization

When I read about the human advances in various fields happening all around us, my thoughts go to the achievements/advances that had happened/occurred in India so long ago.  I believe, we have lost much of those memories in continuity as there were not much knowledge/interest in record keeping.  We have always been a civilization that did not believe in publishing or putting out our achievements in the public domain.  This is very much par for the course, based on how we think about ourselves as a civilization.  Haven’t we all wondered, at some point in time, about the ancient Indian civilization that was? How was the ancient Indian civilization really like? How far back does the ancient Indian civilization really date? What was it like to be living during those times/period? We keep hearing about the advances that had been made by the great Indian astronomers, political administrators, philosophers, composers, poets,  religious gurus who propounded various theories and doctrines during the ancient times; Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Kautilya, Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali, Kalidasa and many other sages and wise men; the list is endless. There were many more extraordinary personalities and luminaries who had existed in the centuries gone by, of whose existence we have probably not heard and/or have never come to light. We are told that philosophy, science and spirituality/religions and many other disciplines like Yoga, evolved in India very much before the World knew anything about it.

All this is in the realm of our cultural heritage, we should be really proud of our accomplishments/achievements.  But then, how do we know all of this, the existence of these extraordinary people and their respective accomplishments, that it really happened? Most of it gleaned from texts/manuscripts on dried palm leaves (also known as Talapatra) and some verses and poetry by various other authors that were available to us after the Christian Era or as now it is commonly referred to as, Common Era (CE).   Some of this ancient history has been obtained by deciphering the inscriptions from various heritage sites, excavation sites, temples, caves, rocks, edifices, coins etc. Some of the ancient history is also obtained from published works of foreign travellers who had visited India during the centuries gone by. Two main travellers come to mind. Megasthenes the Greek historian whose work ‘Indika’ contained a brief history of India (around 298 BCE); and Huen Tsang the Chinese scholar who visited India in the 7th century. There may have been more. We have been told that the World outside of India were always in envy of India; they considered this to be the magic land and a land of plenty; they were in search of routes to reach this wonderful place.

I am amazed at the depth of knowledge and understanding of the universe the ancient Indians had mastered. Just look at the Vedas and Puranas. The Rig Veda had shaken the entire World. The Rig Veda itself is a profound literary work in Sanskrit consisting of thousands of hymns composed by different seers over different periods in time. The World has been in awe of this literary composition which dates back to thousands of years. Whilst the Indian scholars say that the Vedas may be around 6000-7000 years, the Western scholars tend to date it around 1500 BC i.e., 3500 years (was it purely for political reasons?). Makes me wonder why none of the seers who composed the Vedas did not feel prudent enough to affix a date on their compositions.  All the controversies could have been avoided!  Probably, they did not feel the need to preserve them for posterity as they did not consider their works to outlive their lifetimes.  It is also in the realm of politics that Aryan migration theory was propounded by Max Muller to appropriate the Rig Veda as the work of ancient Eastern Europeans (or some part of Europe or Southern Russia or wherever the Aryans were originally supposed to have come from as propounded by the European academics) who had migrated to India (as Aryans) and assimilated among the then prevailing indigenous native population before composing the Rig Veda.

Even Mahabharata and Ramayana which are the greatest epics that India has produced does not have a clear time and date. Encyclopaedia Britannica ascribes Mahabharata to the period 400 BCE to 200 CE. As per Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BCE by the poet Valmiki.

We are told that Sanskrit is a very old language probably some 4000 or 5000 years old depending on which version you subscribe, whether Indian scholars or Western scholars. Western scholars further subscribe to the theory that the origin of Sanskrit is rooted in some common European language, as it has so many similarities with Latin or Greek. It is not clear when Sanskrit language came into existence. We are told that the Sanskrit language has always been used for the purpose of religious and learned discourse in ancient India, in contrast to the language spoken by the common people which was Prakrit. If this is indeed the case, prior to the period of Sanskrit was there no other language or script that existed in ancient India for recording literary compositions, manuscripts, or any other communication? Was it probable that all literary work or compositions were passed on from generation to generation merely by word of mouth? The Indus Valley Civilization, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations of which considerable number of sites have been found through excavations do not have a definite timeline either. These civilizations were not discovered until the 1920’s CE, and much of this civilization still remains a mystery. One reason the Indus Valley civilization is so mysterious is because historians have not been able to decipher their complicated written language called Indus Script. There are thousands of artefacts with 400-600 different written symbols. Most of these symbols were pressed into soft clay with seals. Indus Script symbols have been discovered in Mesopotamia, which suggests they maintained a regular trade with these civilizations. It makes me wonder why the Indian academicians or historians did not continue the research work on deciphering these symbols. How come even after so many years none of them have been able to understand or decipher it. It reflects poorly on our research work. We are totally dependent on Westerners, academicians or scholars or historians.

There are various theories on the demise or fall of the Indus valley and Harappan civilizations. There is nothing conclusive. While some theorists say that the drying up of the Saraswati river  (or did it really exist?) could be the cause of mass exodus and demise or fall of the civilizations, there are some theorists who say that the environmental factors such as changing climatic conditions, tectonic activity or flooding could have led to demise or fall of the civilizations. In a recent article, it is pointed out that though there exists evidence of climate changes during that epoch, but these climate changes may not be the cause of destruction of the Indus valley and Harappan civilizations.

If the ancient people of India had lived only in the Northern and North-West regions that included modern day Pakistan and Afghanistan (as many excavation sites are found in these regions), what about the rest of the Indian sub-continent. South India, East India, West India for example. Were there no ancient civilizations that existed in these regions? Archaeologists now claim that they have found an ancient habitation site near Madurai, which may have been an important settlement of Pandian era dating from 3rd BCE to 3 CE. Is it possible that similar ancient habitation sites existed in all the other regions of India, probably still buried underneath and yet to be discovered. If there were pockets of civilizations that existed in the different parts of India, there should have been some way they were all connected to each other. Otherwise, how else would one explain that the Vedas and Puranas are known to all the peoples of India, residing in various regions, South, East and West of India. All this remains a big mystery. Sanskrit should have been the common thread running through all the regions of ancient India. How else would one have learnt the Vedas and Puranas which were mostly composed in Sanskrit? There are also so many other classical languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu that exist today, having an ancient history of thousands of years. Scholars say that many of these languages have some percentage of Sanskrit words in them. Be that as it may, there are so many questions that comes to one’s mind. For example: As per recent archaeological evidence, the Harappan civilization existed between 7000 BC and 1900 BC, and further that it declined completely by 1300 BC. What happened after 1300 BC? There exists a clear discontinuity between Harappan civilization and later Indian civilisation (due to lack of written records); There is no clarity on the manner of rise, stabilisation and eventual fall of the Harappan civilization; We are told that, at its peak, the Harappan civilization covered more than 30 per cent of the present landmass of the Indian Subcontinent (probably this included Pakistan and Afghanistan). If this is indeed so, does that mean that the 70 per cent of the rest of Indian Subcontinent landmass was uninhabited? Further, if we are to consider the Indus valley and Harappan civilizations as the forerunners to the later Indian civilization, how come the Rig Veda and other Puranas are not written in the Indus script. Where and when did Sanskrit come into existence. What is the link between Indus script and Sanskrit? Were the ancient Indian civilization with Sanskrit as their language disconnected from the Indus valley and Harappan civilizations. Were their different civilizations both running parallel and unknown to each other. Another conundrum.

Proscribing a date to the events and happenings that occurred in the ancient past (by scholars and archaeologists) is a difficult exercise prone to errors of judgment, prejudice and racial discrimination. Even the scientific dating technologies that exist keeps on undergoing advances and the estimated dates keep on getting revised. A new article published in Nature states that the earliest Harappan sites in India dates back to the 7th millennium BCE based on radiocarbon dating.

From all of the above, it appears that ancient India was a lost World (except for certain bits and pieces gathered through the archaeological excavations) as no decipherable records existed (or nothing has been found as yet) on the lives and times of people living in those centuries and beyond. Was it that the ancient Indian people of that period did not bother about posterity? This is a rather unfortunate commentary on the people of ancient India and does not truly reflect the advancement of society in the fields of science, technology, philosophy, religious discourse, etc.

The 'boss' man

Well, this blog piece is not about thrashing supercilious bosses, who seemingly undermine their subordinates by ‘bossy’ behaviour and what they deem to represent. I would rather give them the benefit of doubt as there is a section of staff members who do not stand up to the high integrity/expectations of Corporate’s standards nor do these people understand the need to do so. I have come across staff members having inflated egos with a ‘know-all’ attitude. Being ‘bossy’ in these situations is definitely on, else how would one make the subordinate listen to the big 'boss' man!  However, knowing when to put a stop to ‘bossiness’ and make efforts in enlisting the services of subordinates for the general welfare of the Organization is the key to being a ‘good’ boss. This I find lacking in some bosses who make a habit of being on their ‘bossy’ best behaviour at all times throughout their careers!

In saying so, I do not condone the behaviour of such ‘bossy’ superiors who go on harassing and admonishing their subordinates, ad-nausea, sometimes with little or no justification. I was the victim of one such ‘bossy’ superior who throughout my tenure in this particular organization had established a pattern of high handedness by constantly squeezing me out of promotions and salary raises. Perhaps, his whole attitude stemmed from a low self-esteem (including his personality which was short of average height!) that constantly kept him on tenterhooks, once the victim (that’s me!) came under his vice-like grip.

Right through my tenure in the Organization, it remained my constant endeavour to please my boss and be in his ‘good’ books! The pattern was clearly established from the very first day of my joining in this particular Organization. He used to keep a constant watch over me ensuring that I do not go over his head complaining about his behaviour to 'higher-up in hierarchy' bosses. It was clearly a lot of pressure on him too! This kept me amused sometimes seeing his discomfiture when I had the opportunity to meet senior executives in the organization. My boss had to keep a tight leash on me and dissuade me from attending senior level meetings so that I did not spill the beans! I enjoyed these meetings much to the chagrin of my ‘bossy’ superior, as there was a constant demand from senior level executives to depute me to these meetings for dissemination of first hand level of knowledge/skillset that was more useful for the discussions at hand.

There were all other kinds of amusements too being bandied about at work place from one staff member to another, the common ‘enemy’ and centre of discussion being, of course, the boss! There was constant back-stabbing scenarios being played out, rightly or sometimes without justification attributable directly to the boss! The fun was in dishing out stories (exaggerated, of course, to an extent!) to other members of the staff or even outside the Department. Sometimes the stories were carried over with added ‘spice’ to different 'peer' companies in the area. Thus, the common denominator was always the boss which made him a study in curiosity by 'peer' company bosses. This also gave him a reputation of being a ‘toughie’ among 'peer' companies, thereby enhancing his image (much to his advantage) and largely disappointment and chagrin writ on the faces of our staff members.

There was another level of comfort and satisfaction to me when my boss would hand out his terribly ‘bossy’ behaviour to other colleagues at work! There was a competition amongst us as to who is the number ‘one’ victim of ‘bossy’ behaviour from the boss during a given period! There was a general discussion that took place (of course when the boss was absent or he had closed his office doors for meetings!) within the work place to give out the victim number ‘one’ award along with deep ‘empathy’ and promises to provide voice support if there were to be a next encounter for victimhood. However, these situations never arose as the boss was smart enough to gauge the gist of discussions and carefully avoided to face the victim in the next few days much to general disappointment all around. There were many interesting encounters that took place quite often as years rolled by due to large turnover of staff members. One such interesting encounter baffles me to this day. The following episode proves my point that at heart the boss was really a timid person (or more of a coward?).

The episode in question happened on a bright day very early on a spring morning. A staff meeting had been scheduled for the day at 8 AM. All staff members had assembled in the meeting room with lot of enthusiasm as staff ‘bonus’ matters were to be discussed per the agenda. One staff member, when it was his turn to speak, boldly suggested an :out of the box' idea; this was seconded and supported by all other staff members in unison.  The idea was that the bonus amount allocated to the department should be equally distributed to all the staff members of the same cadre.  No distinction should be made on doling out the bonus based on the performance of the person, which according to our understanding was mere hogwash. There was complete unanimity and enthusiasm for the idea. This particular idea was against the boss’s grain and did not go well with him. He felt cornered out and his face had gone ashen white, as all colour had drained out from his face. Though in essence it was not an outrageous idea, as such, but the boss took it as an insult to him and he felt that there was revolt directed at him. Seeing him cornered all staff members were more enthused and pushed him to accept the idea, which he reluctantly agreed to implement. After the meeting, the boss locked his office door and was closeted with his immediate assistant for the entire day. He kept on ruminating over his defeat (he considered this as the worst day in his entire life!) and shooting out emails to all staff on various other matters. There was a very rare staff unanimity and all of them were in their best element. There was beaming all around staff tables, the unity of strength in numbers was clearly visible that day which had made the boss take a back seat and he felt defeated. This incident is still recollected by all the staff of the Office who were present on the day in question. It was a landmark day in the history of the Department!

I daresay that I am able to recant the above incidents without fear of reprisal, as I no longer work in the particular Company and even for that matter I am farther away from the country in question for a while now.

Three cheers to ‘bossy’ bosses! Looking back, I think there was so much fun and excitement, albeit a tough one, amidst such an extraordinary adventure.  It taught me some deep life lessons which, otherwise, I would not have had the opportunity to learn and grow. The biggest lesson I learnt during this period was letting go of the petty differences and apologising upfront for the mistakes that occurred advertently or inadvertently in the course of doing my job.  It just goes to prove the point that there is a silver lining in every cloud.   

The love affair with cars

My love affair with cars goes a long way back, right into my childhood.  Some of the old-timers in my family, a few of my surviving uncles and aunts, swear to a rather, funny story that when I was a young boy, perhaps, 6 or 7 years old, fervently pleading with my dad to drive home the cars that were parked on the road-side, when the owners of these cars were not around!  I was told that my dad had slyly remarked that since we do not have a garage at home, where do we park those cars.  Lucky for me that, in later years, I didn’t end up being a car thief and locked away for good!  Another of the family secret is out.

It was the early eighties.  We had no inkling that a car revolution was just around the corner.  The Ambassadors and Fiats (later Premier Padmini) were on the verge of disappearing into oblivion.  As a fresh recruit at the Head Office of our Bank, we young employees were awe-struck to watch the spectacle of the Bank’s senior management (or executives as they were commonly referred in my Bank), arrive in their Ambassador or Fiat cars and walk up the few steps at the entrance of the Head Office to reach their respective Offices or Departments on different floors of the Head Office building wherever it is they worked.  These senior gentlemen started arriving, one after the other, as if on cue, in a space of few minutes just before the clock struck 10’o clock (the Bank’s start time). The liveried drivers opened the rear door of their cars for these gentlemen and carried an assortment of files, hurrying after them.  This parade of the senior management arriving in their Ambassador or Fiat cars was a great spectacle to us young employees (we were in our early twenties then); we stood aside respectfully near the stairs or the entrance of the elevator mutely watching after them with some sort of reverence.  A few of the fresh recruits, who were slightly brazen enough, threw in a smile and Good Morning salute at them, while some of the timid ones like me, hurried furtively behind the top executives, avoiding their eye.   After the executive had vanished inside the building,  some of us looked pensively at the cars in which they had just arrived.  The cars, freshly washed and cleaned, gleamed in the sunlight; would be parallel parked and lined up as if in a fashion show, in the ample parking space by their respective drivers.

The executive cadre was considered a creamy layer in the Bank hierarchy because each position carried with it many perks and powers.  The allotment of a car was the foremost perk that attracted us, the younger Bank recruits.  The highest aspirations of the younger lot of us recruits those days were measured in terms of being provided a car by the Bank along with a liveried driver.   The lure of the Ambassador or Fiat car as a perk drove some of my colleagues to seriously think of taking up the tough promotion tests for getting promotions to higher cadres.  There was also a mad rush (considered premium posting) for getting a transfer to such of those branches which had a Bank car attached to it.   These cars were considered branch property and the senior most Manager or Senior/Chief  Manager was most likely to use it as his personal vehicle!

I remember a time, when the Bank’s Chairman & Managing Director had been provided with a Contessa sedan for his personal use.  Some of us youngsters, had rushed out in the middle of our office work with other like minded crazy colleagues from our work places, just to look at this car and feast our eyes on the new offering from Hindustan Motors. We were just used to watching with wide-eyed wonder, a Rolls Royce or some fancy, glitzy Italian sports car in glossy magazines or newspaper posters.  Not in real life, mind you!  The sight of a Contessa sedan in real life, right in front of us, was considered, indeed, our good fortune.  Anyway, for Hindustan Motors, the Contessa sedan was not a success, and it bombed badly at the car box-office!

Alas, my biggest aspiration of those days, to drive a Bank car, remain unfulfilled!  I was never promoted to the Bank Executive position.  That's a story for a different context and, perhaps, a different timeline.  Nevertheless, my love affair with the cars had ended, rather sadly, not unlike our story of Contessa from Hindustan Motors!

Even if, perchance, some dumb-minded benevolent philanthropist was to offer me a Ferrari or a Porsche now, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near it!  I am writing this piece, read posthumously, as my love affair with cars has long ended, rather prematurely, don't you think! I am still very much alive and kicking.

P.S:  Tell me, who in his right mind, would like to drive a car in this crazy Bengaluru traffic?

Circa 2030, Bengaluru!

Circa 2030, Bengaluru!

There were numerous successful tests conducted by big tech companies on ‘Driverless Cars’ in US, that set of my imagination! Fast forward to Circa 2030, Bengaluru.  Population of Bengaluru has reached a cool 2 Crores; with the number of vehicles plying on city roads having crossed a Crore mark. Google, Apple and Volvo have come out with beautiful models of gleaming driverless cars; with several on-board computers and guided by satellite and GPS systems; each basic car costs a couple of Crores or more depending on the accessories; However, as India is recording a double digit economic growth every year for the past few years, the expanding middle class population is able to afford any number of such fancy cars. Not a far-fetched idea, is it? Would be an extremely likely scenario.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, would the pace of development and infrastructure in Bengaluru have kept pace with the technological innovations of 21st century? I hardly think so.  The parties in power would have taken turns in ruining the State; further taking back Bengaluru to the brink of disaster. Roads would be more pathetic, covered with potholes; garbage and stink strewn everywhere; banners and posters of political leaders and their cohorts staring from every wall and pole, wishing and greeting each other; trees would have been replaced with huge concrete and glass structures dotting the city; existing few lakes would have given way to industrial waste and garbage dumps; stray dogs and cattle could be seen everywhere; summer temperatures would be seen hovering around 45-47 degrees centigrade, due to global warming, no doubt.

Tech engineers and specialist doctors would be back in India from US with the hopes of a good quality life in their home-country; no doubt impressed by the invitation given by the young Prime Minister of India!   Our Techie (let's just call him that, the hero of this piece) could be seen driving (or ghost-driven!) to his office in a silver gleaming driverless Apple car, from JP Nagar to White Field. The entire BTM layout Road stretch up to Silk Board is dug up on either side (for construction of Metro or widening of the roads or some such activity); the traffic is inching across every few meters and coming to a halt at every traffic signal. Our Techie’s driverless car with numerous built-in ‘sensors’ and computers on board is hardly moving; coming to a stop after moving every inch; no doubt ‘sensing’ some obstruction by way of pedestrians crossing the road, two wheelers criss-crossing his car, stray cattle and dogs strolling on the roads, mud-strewn dug-up roads; potholes coming up now and then. Our Techie sitting inside his AC driverless car is pretty ‘cool’ glued to the music playing on his headphone and the large TV screens in front of him; occasionally he is seen dozing off having woken up in the very early hours of the morning (8 AM) by his over-indulgent parents! The regular drivers in ‘driver’ driven cars that are following this Techie’s driverless car could be seen honking and gesticulating, urging him to move forward at a faster pace; no doubt not realising that this is a high-tech ‘sensor-driven’ driverless car! The car has a mind of its own with built-in intelligence; it doesn’t respond to any kind of pressure tactics including honking, gesticulating or shouting; whatever the external provocation or road rage, the car doesn’t respond! Cool car!

Our Techie’s driverless car weaves its way through heavy density traffic along the way, stopping for nearly 30 minutes at each traffic signal at various places on the entire stretch of its way towards White Field. Countless obstructions as already narrated above is encountered on the way, but our Techie’s expensive driverless car, being extremely smart and intelligent, navigates safely and reaches its final destination, White Field (no doubt, name of the destination has been tapped into the on-board computer by our Techie). Once the destination is reached, a voice-activated system (very much like Siri, Alexa) announces arrival of the destination. The doors automatically open; our Techie exits from the car and hurries into the office; the doors of the car get auto-locked! Beautiful. The car then moves on to park itself into the allotted parking slot inside the office parking garage.

No doubt, our Techie reaches his office very late; almost evening, the office closing hours of most offices in Bengaluru, India! But very much right on time to service his clientele in the US! It is still early morning in the US. No doubt, the cars were designed and built by US Companies based on their UTC time format! Fantastic!

The following day morning, our Techie is ready to leave his office (after servicing his US clientele) heading towards his home in JP Nagar. He taps the related app in his smartphone; commands his driverless car to pick him up from the office entrance. The car no doubt, activates itself, moves out from the garage and slides into the office front entrance. Our Techie is ready to embark on his journey back home. He has already tapped the destination in his smartphone app. The door automatically opens. He slides into the comfortable seats. The journey back home begins. The driverless car weaves through the wonderful Bengaluru traffic and safely delivers him home in the evening. After a wonderful rest and deep sleep in the comfort of his driverless car, our Techie feels nicely rested and happy! What a car! Technology is wonderful, isn’t it? Life is beautiful!