Employment, Employees, Labour laws

Lessons in business, employer-employee relationship etc are no exception to other operations i.e they must be ethical and humane and conducive for all to work. Read fully and bombard your comments.

All business is and must be run for profits but not with treatment to employees/staff/executives which are inhumane, ruthless and unethical. This is not a trade union slogan but a proper way of running business. 

SUN Group they address all employees of all cadres/position/post etc at least as for as I know for the past 20 years only using very vulgar expletives and when it comes to dealing with staff ,except perhaps the top techies and president Vice president etc they are awful. When it comes to payments Sun TV is the worst defaulter.

Sun group is run so professionally that they could silence an entire Government corporation for years together and ensure to lay few hundred huge optic fiber cables for a few kilometers and hide the terminals insides the houses and offices of the bosses/owners of SUN.

But these catering wallas of Spicejet why were they supplying all these years for free? why? same is the case with all service providers to kingfisher.

while I was associated with First Finishing School which was basically training and placing air hostesses in several airlines. One day we had very 3 good looking girls dropping into our office all of them had just then quit kingfisher , they wanted to know whether we can get them placement in some other airlines. they quit because any air hostess that Siddarth Malliya sees, likes and wants must go with him otherwise they will have to face charges of stealing and misbehaving with passengers etc

when the atmosphere is not conducive and friendly the first casualty is neither the employer nor the employee but the work for which both got together in the first place. 

Unfortunately, we Indians are not governed strictly by corporate laws, labour laws etc [ incidentally no other country has so many laws to protect the employer I am presenting the list below these are besides the local panchayaths and political pressures] but then despite all the tall talks , most of the big corporate houses still function as Sole proprietorship like model without any scientific or capability based recognition of anyone. There are of course exceptions to this. There is also the other side  to this issue wherein the employees seek only three things pay cheque, perks and privileges. This is a major problem in our country where work gets tossed up between trade union sponsored employees of the above category and the heartless owners/promoters of business who care two hoots to any rule/norms/ practices and least of all business ethics.

In US of A a person as influential and as respected as Rajath Bhatia can get imprisonment whereas in India Mallaya need not pay salary to anyone, including pilots and  GMs and still sit with a beer bottle and buy a resort for Chris Gayle or book suits for popular actresses in star hotels and spend a few crores for his models who poss nude for his calendars. M.A.M goes about appointing anybody he likes for any post in a big university and does not pay salaries to workers but gifts a house to Dhoni at chennai why?

I know personally about some of the most respected and prestigious big Government institutes in Chennai manipulating/maneuvering with the existing staff to hold various posts without appointing new hands.

Narayana murthy of infosys is in no way different from Karunanidhi when it comes to  anointing  his son to a big post or promoting the sick stories, which will put to shame the driveling dudes of middle ages, of his wife so much that her books not only fill the stalls in all air ports and railway stations and book shops , worse still they get prescribed as English lessons in  NCERT text books [ pure non sense, wrong and misplaced adulation of cultures that she portrays is depriving our children from knowing the great cultures of our land].

I prepared a big dossier on almost the inhumane work cultures in various sectors starting from masons without insurance or even the minimal protective gear, to the inhumane way of manhole cleaning to lack of track inspectors in Indian railways, to more than 12 hours of work that many software companies are extracting from their employees to ILO.

The list of laws which can prevent you from thinking of starting any proper business from the angle of dealing with employees alone are 

1] Trade Unions Act 1926

2] Industrial Employment[standing orders] Act 1946

3] Industrial Disputes Act  1947

4] Factories Act 1948

5] Minimum Wages Act 1948

6] Contract Labour [regulation and abolition ] Act 1970

7] Payment of wages Act 1936

8] Payment of Gratuity Act 1972

9] Employees'State Insurance Act 1948

10] Provident Funds Act 1952

11] Maternity Benefits Act 1961

12] Employees' Compensation Act 1952

If you can include other laws as per the business you do Customs, Commercial tax, sales tax, ECGC, Cyber Laws  etc

These have benefited the community of lawyers, wasted court hours, increased bribes of enforcing agencies, promoted Trade unions who in turn funded communist parties in India. Only in very few cases they have helped the two stake holders the employees to ensure that their rights are not deprived and the employer to run the corporation with a human angle and considering all those who work for a common cause /development as part of the extended family or team.

I have read at least parts of some of these laws and I strongly feel, thank God, our present Prime Minister too feels that there must be single, comprehensive law ensuring protection and benefits to the employees and their families too, this is part of his vision statement as proposed by the BJPs think tank at the same time promote healthy business environment. I know it is easy to give statement in very general terms but very difficult to address all the issues involving all the stake holders. After all we need to steer clear of these jargons like stake holders and address the brash realities that all the parties involved to get engaged in some activity and get money and benefits out of that.

If we go to the root cause of the malady many parameters are infected  and all of them need cure/remedy. Too much of disparity in wealth, too many qualified intelligent employable youth but not enough job, economy has adopted modes of operation which were not  generating enough employment, and above all the psyche/mentality  of the majority of the Indians that they can make a living only if they work under someone or in some organization, they never think of self employment, setting up manufacturing unit, doing individual business etc. Only a minority of people resort to this , though all of us can give thousands of justifications and reasons but the fact is that. so most educated persons starting from 10th std failed to IIT toppers seek employment as a result unemployment rate keeps soaring up .

STORIES FROM HITOPADESA

STORIES FROM HITOPADESA

1. The Tiger and The Traveller 2. The Deer, The Crow and The Jackal 3. The greedy Jackal 4. The Jackal and The Elephant King 5. The Donkey and The Dog 6. The Monkey and The Bell 7. The Crows and The Serpent 8. The Hare and The Lion 9. The Hermit and The Mouse 10.            The Camel, The Lion and His Servants 1. THE TIGER AND THE TRAVELLER Once upon a time there was an old tiger in a forest. Every day, after his bath in the river, he used to talk to the passers-by, saying:- "Ho! ho! travellers, take this gold bracelet." One day among the travellers there was a greedy man. He said to the tiger: "Where is your bracelet? Please let me look at it carefully." The tiger stretched out his paw and showed it to him. The traveller said: "How can I trust a cruel animal like you?" The tiger said: "Listen oh traveller. In my younger days I was indeed wicked; but now, I am all alone in the world, and so an old Sanyasin advised me to be kind to all men, women and animals, and to give them food everyday. Besides, consider my age. I have no teeth, and my claws are blunt. Trust me therefore, bathe in the river and take this gold bracelet." The greedy man trusted the wicked tiger. He ran to bathe in the river, but on his way there was much mud. What happened? He struck in the mud. He tried to come out of it, but he could not. Then he said to the tiger: "Please come and help me." The tiger ran to him, seized him and ate him. Greed never goes unpunished.   2. THE DEER, THE CROW AND THE JACKAL. In a big forest there once lived a deer and a crow. They were good friends. One day a jackal happened to see the deer and said to himself: "Deer flesh must very tasteful; let me first make friends with him." So, he went up to the deer and said: "Friend, how do you do?" The deer asked: "Who are you?" He replied: "I am a jackal. I live here all alone, and I have lost all my relations. Now, I have found a friend in you." The deer said: "Be it so." At sun-set the deer took his new friend to his home. The crow, an old friend of the deer, lived on a tree near his home. Seeing the two together, the crow said: "Friend, who is this?" The deer replied: "This is a jackal; he desires our friendship." The crow said: "Look before you leap." At this, the jackal became friends. One day, the jackal said to the deer: "Mr. Deer, in a corner of this wood, there is a field full of corn. I shall take you there and show it to you." The deer was very glad. He went there everyday and ate the corn. One day, the master of the field saw this and was angry. So, the next day he set a snare to catch the thief, and he caught the poor deer. Just at that time the jackal came up and saw his friend. Then he thought, now, the master will kill this deer and I will have plenty of food for some days. The deer called to his jackal friend for help, but the cunning jackal said: "I am very weak, and the net is very strong; however, I shall try." He then ran away and hid himself near the field. In the evening, the crow returned to his tree, but, under the tree he did not see his friend, the deer. He searched for him, and at last found him in the field. He felt very sorry for the deer. The deer saw the crow and said: "My friend, Mr. Crow, I disregarded your advice at first and now I suffer." The crow then said: "Mr. Deer, listen to what I say. In the morning, the owner of this field will come here. When he comes, lie down quietly; make your legs stiff and pretend to be dead. After some time I shall make a noise. Immediately, stand up and run away quickly." The owner of the field came the next morning and saw the deer seemingly dead. So he released him from the net. The crow who saw what was being done began to caw loudly. In a moment, the deer took to his heels and ran away. The owner got very angry and threw a stick at the deer. The deer escaped, but the stick hit the jackal and killed it.  Deceit is always punished. 3. THE GREEDY JACKAL Once upon a time there lived a hunter in a village. One day, he chanced to kill a deer. With the precious load on his shoulders, he went on his way. On the way he saw a boar and struck it with an arrow. The boar rushed at him, killed him. and then, fell down dead. At that time a serpent was crawling along the ground. The boar in falling crushed the serpent and killed it. The hunter, the deer, the boar, the serpent-- all these four were dead on the ground. A jackal passed that way and saw all these dead. He was very glad, thinking here is a grand feast for me, the food will last me for quite three months. The hunter will be enough for one month, the deer and boar will last me for more than two months, and the serpent for a day. But first, let me taste the bow-string. So, he begun to bite the string. The bow flew back as soon as the string was cut. It pierced the jackal and he fell down dead. The Greedy lose everything. 4. THE JACKAL AND THE ELEPHANT KING. There was once an elephant in a forest. One day all the jackals in the forest happened to see him. The jackals met in an assembly that evening. One of them said: "This elephant's flesh will last us for four months. Who will kill the mighty creature and give us a feast?" Another said: "I shall do it my own skill". The jackal at once went to the elephant, bowed respectfully before him and said: "My lord! favour me with a glance." The elephant looked at him and said in a loud voice: "Who are you, what is the matter with you?" The jackal replied: "Oh! my lord, all the jackals met in an assembly and chose your lordship as their sovereign. Be pleased to accept this honour. They have sent me here with this message and this is the auspicious moment for your lordship's coronation." The elephant was very pleased at the news. He followed the jackal, but got struck in the deep mud. The elephant called the jackal to help him, but the jackal smiled and said: "Because you believed what I told you, take hold of my tail rise up." The elephant met his death in the deep mud. Listen not to flattery. 5. THE DONKEY AND THE DOG. There was once a washerman in a village. He had a donkey and a dog. The donkey used to carry the clothes to and from the river. The dog would keep watch at night. Both of them slept in the yard. One night a thief got into the house. The dog did not bark. The donkey called the dog and said: "Friend, why don't you bark and awaken our master?" The dog replied: "Mind your own business. I know how to take care of my master; besides there have been no thieves before this, and he does not feed me properly, and he does not know of what use I am to him. The donkey got angry and said: "Oh! evil minded one, this is the gratitude you show your master. I will awaken my master and save him." So he brayed aloud and the thief ran away. But, the master awoke angrily and thrashed and donkey with a stick. Do you know why? It was not the donkey's business to awaken the master, and it brayed too loud and disturbed the master's sleep. Mind your own business.    6. THE MONKEY AND THE BELL. Once upon a time a thief stole a bell from a village. While he was running away a tiger attacked him and killed him. After some time a monkey passed that way. It found the bell and carried it home. Every night it would sit on the top of a hill in the forest and ring the bell. The people of the village were afraid of the noise. They thought that a giant was haunting their village. There was an old woman in that village. She knew the whole secret. So she went to the king and said: "Please give me some money and I shall kill the giant and bring gladness to your Majesty and the people. The king granted her request. The old woman received the money and bought some peas, groundnuts and plantains, and pretended to use them for worship. After this, she went to the forest and scattered these things on all sides. The monkey seeing this left the bell and ran to pick up the eatables. The old woman carried away the bell and hid it in a pot in her house. That night there was no noise. The people slept soundly and were happy. The king hearing the news sent for the old woman. The old woman came and received the thanks of all. The king gave her valuable presents. Do not be afraid of trifles.   7. THE CROWS AND THE SERPENT. Once upon a time father-crow, a mother-crow and their young ones were living on a tree. Under the tree there lived a serpent in its hole. One day the serpent crawled up the tree and ate the young crows. The mother-crow said to the father-crow: "Let us fly away from this tree; to-morrow the serpent may come and eat us." But the father-crow said: "Do not be afraid dear; do as I tell you. The prince will come here to-morrow to bathe in the river. Then he will leave his necklace on the bank. When he bathes, take hold of the necklace and put it into the serpent's hole." The mother-crow did what was told her. The servants saw the mother-crow with the necklace and followed it; but the mother-crow threw the necklace into the serpent's hole. The servants dug up the hole, killed the serpent and took hold of the necklace. Afterwards the father-crow and the mother-crow lived happily on the same tree.  Be diligent. 8. THE HARE AND THE LION Once there lived a lion on a mountain. Everyday he used to kill many beasts. One day all the beasts met in an assembly to discuss the killing of so many animals at one time. They went to the lion and said: "Great Sir, if it pleases your lordship, we ourselves shall send you one animal everyday." To this the lion agreed. It was a hare's turn one day to go to the lion. It was an aged one. On its way it thought, why not I go slowly. He is going to eat me any how. Let me make his dinner late. And so, it went very late to the lion. The lion was angry and he roared: "Why are you so late you silly creature?" At once the hare bowed to the lion and said very politely: "Pardon me, Oh my lord! While I was on my way to you I met another lion. He caught hold of me; but, with great difficulty I escaped him and now come to you. Pardon me, oh my lord!" The lion said in a great rage: "Take me at once to that lion." The hare took him to a deep well and asked him to look into the well. There, the lion saw his own shadow; but, he thought it was another lion, and being angry, he sprang into the well. But what happened?--- He was drowned. Wisdom is greater than strength. 9. THE HERMIT AND THE MOUSE. There was once a hermit who lived in a hut in a grove. One day a crow dropped a mouse near him. The hermit took great care of it. A few days after, a cat came into the grove, saw the mouse and chased it. The mouse ran to the hermit for help. He turned the mouse into a cat. After a few days, a dog came and chased the cat. The cat again went to the hermit for help. He now turned the cat into a dog. Some days after, a tiger came and sprang on the dog. The dog was afraid of the tiger. He ran to his master for help, and the master turned him into a tiger. But the hermit was not afraid of this tiger. He knew it to be only a mouse. All the people said: "The sage has turned a mouse into a tiger." But, the mouse tiger did not like this. He thought, all the people say I am only a mouse; the sage is not afraid of me; no one is afraid of me. Because the sage lives, all the people think me only a mouse. Now, I shall spring on the hermit and kill him. So, it sprang on its kind master. But, the hermit knew what was in its mind and immediately turned the tiger into a mouse again. Ingratitude gets no reward.   10. THE CAMEL, THE LION AND HIS SERVANTS. In a certain part of a forest there lived a lion and his servants. They were a crow, a jackal and a tiger. The servants one day met a camel and asked him: "Where do you come from?" The camel replied: "I lost my way and so I am roaming about." The servants then took the camel to their master. The lion said: "You may stay here safely." One day the lion and his servants did not get any food. The servants thought, we must find a way to kill the camel and eat its flesh. So they went to their master. The lion asked them: "Have you brought anything for my dinner?" The servants replied: " There is enough food at your door for you and for us too. We also are starving." "What food" asked the lion. "There is the camel" said the crow very softly. "Your lordship need not fear. You can accept the food if the offer comes of his own free will." The lion remained silent and the servants went away. After some time they returned with the camel. The crow came forward and said: "Our master has no food. He is starving and he looks very weak. Let him eat my flesh." But the lion said: "It is a great sin to kill a friend and eat him." The jackal and the tiger said the same thing and the lion replied in the same way. Then it was the camel's turn. He came forward and said: "Let the master eat my flesh." At once, the lion sprang on him killed him. Then all of them sat at a grand feast. Beware of false friends.

spirituality

Successful spiritual study is flowing and flexible. It is multi-dimensional. It utilizes all colors of the spiritual rainbow. However, if one's study devolves into just one color (the books for example) it can harden and render it more rigid. What is sacred and precious gets lost in the "I'm right and you're wrong" freezing cold attitude. But it is also true that spirituality is understood and grasped according to each individual's innate attributes which differ from person to person. Swami Chinmaya Nanda explains this very beautifully in a small book of some 70 pages titled ' THE LOGIC OF SPIRITUALITY"

why we Indians need to continue to promote carnatic music?

why we Indians need to continue to promote  carnatic music?

Because bharatha  the very word used to name our great country  mean 'bha' for bhakthi[dedication or devotion with sincerity ]- ra –for rakthi –emotional content that is bhava of the soul [doing with passion] and tha for thanmaythvam- aesthetc quality [ not a mere entertainment for pleasure but a mode of artistic experience  for peace and joy]

Dear brothers and sisters, we the members of a family, the family of classical music lovers either as performing artists, organizers or as rasikas. We all must realize the uniqueness of great classical carnatic compositions and therefore promote them.

They are unique because they are beyond different scales of observation and various modes of perception. Two concepts different scales of observation and various modes of perception require clarification.

As for as scales of observation is concerned there cannot be a better explanation than what  Lecomte du Nouy explains in his wonderful book HUMAN DESTINY
“from the standpoint of man it is the scale of observation which creates the phenomenon. Every time we change the scale of observation we encounter new phenomena. On our scale of human observation, as pointed out before, the edge of a razor blade, is a continuous line. On the microscopic scale, it is a broken but solid line. On the chemical scale we have atoms of iron and carbon. On the sub-atomic scale we have electrons in perpetual motion which travel at the rate of several thousand miles per second. All these phenomena are in reality the manifestations of the same basic phenomenon, the motions of the electrons. The only difference which exists between them is the scale of observation."



Then coming to various modes of perception.

We are all aware our perceptions are the result of our conditioning produced by the limited deposits of information, thoughts, experiences etc and the   circumstantially prompted conditioning communicated  through the neurotransmitters as assumptive perception called as transactionism
[ psychology of perception]. This is often explained by the simple example that while we are sitting inside a train waiting to proceed on a journey when the train in the adjacent track moves we feel for a moment as if our train is moving. This is because the message has been already sent to the brain that we are expecting to move and therefore the assumptive perception takes place instead of the factual perception that would have happened  if we were sitting in the station master’s room and viewing the same movement of the train.

Classical music appeals to all of us because as I said earlier that it is beyond different scales of observation and various modes of perception. What I mean by it is that it is beyond the realms of ordinary observations and perception as the compositions have  been handed over by divine souls and they bear the manifestation of spiritually charged bhakthi.

We the children of bharatha matha must promote these art forms because the very word bharatha mean bha for bhakthi- ra –for rakthi –emotional content that is bhava of the soul and tha for thanmaythvam- aesthetc quality.

Bhakthi is one of the best and easiest means to enlightenment when it is offered through music there is nothing better than that. Classical carnatic compositions have not been intellectually constructed  note by note with scientifically studied acoustic arrangement of  permutation of notes, scales etc. They are the results of the experiences  of the souls imbued with divine and spiritual vibrations. The compositions are imbued with bhakthi, lyrical splendor, intuitive luminosity with an underlying rhythm and note of the soul and divine spirit

As we are all endowed with a divine soul too they appeal to us and we feel their aesthetic beauty. As Helen Keller has said, “ the most beautiful and best things in the world cannot be seen or touched but must be felt”


Let us therefore promote in all possible ways by all possible means classical carnatic music with passion and enthusiasm, incidentally the word enthusiasm  is from the Greek word meaning ‘god within us’. What better way to realize the god within us than through divine music.

economic useful site

http://www.helsinki.fi/WebEc/journals.html

crisis, parenting, happiness quotes

The greater the crisis, it seems, the swifter the evolution-Elizabeth Gilbert

The keys to happiness are no longer in somebody else’s  pocket from the past. They’re in yours-Adyashanti 

When you parent, it’s crucial  you realize you aren’t raising a ‘mini me’ but a spirit throbbing with its own Signtaure- Dr. Shefali Tsabary

youth

Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a tempermental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals."
Samuel Ullman
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http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/04/in-name-of-almighty.html
http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/01/parenting-and-youth.html

Talent , Genius, Competence and Wisdom

Talent , Genius  and  Competence

T he potential and

A bility to create

L ot of

E xcellent

N ovel

T hings and thoughts.

G od given

E mergence of

N ice

I ntelligent

U nusual talent

S uperbly manifesting

C leverly

O perating with

M inimal

P ain or problem and

E xpertly

T ackling

E merging

N ew

C hallenges with

E xisting knowledge base

Attitude

Approach to appreciate, adopt, assimilate, accommodate or at least to adjust;

Befriend, being made of the same source;

Care to connect and stay connected with conviction;

Deal dearly to develop mutually;

Empathize and encourage;

Fulfill the needs; 

Gear up to give and take;

Help and highlight the need to help;

Intermingle to initiate intelligent interactions;

Join jovially;

keep up kindly to the expectations;

Link loyally and lovingly and loving the link;

Make meaningful moves to meet the needs;

Nullify narrow and negative notions;

Offer to cooperate in all good opportunities;

Participate proactively to promote progress and peace;

Quit quarrels; 

Reach out   to remind the roots to everyone;

Savor for the space between words and the silence between sounds;

Take a trip to the source and become more resourceful;

Understand the ubiquitous unity of the life force;

Value the intrinsic aspects;

Work for a worthy world of wisdom;

Yoke the light weighted heart;

Zoom into zealous raptures.

Mahela Jayawardene

Farewell to Mahela Jayawardene

Mahela Jayawardene is a unique and rare genius of the highest form of art of batting with the highest degree of natural flamboyance.

Anything that has an in built provision beyond prescribed rules [either comprehensive or curtailing or confining] to allow scope for the extremes of aesthetic exuberance as well the liberty for errant emotions and evolutions is much preferred, more adopted and most appreciated by the majority of human beings because such a thing allows the manifestations and expressions of myriads of human thoughts, aspirations, imaginations, emotions, feelings, psychological states and reactions etc.

The underlining factor is the recognition of boundless variety as an aspect of life and nature. It becomes more exciting and interesting when more elements of uncertainties and unpredictable factors get in to feed to human instincts of suspense and /or surprise leading to multiple changing kaleidoscopes of colorful patterns.  

This applies in almost all domains of life. For example it was precisely for this reason that language scores over art and music as a medium of communication though sometimes music appeals better and deeper to the soul but gets curtailed by the range of the voice/pitch or the permutation combinations of the sounds that the instrument can produce and art strikes an immediate and instinctive chord in a human beings but gets curtailed by the size of the canvass and shades of paints.

When we discuss any game, for example football, tennis, basket ball ,hockey, baseball etc no one can change the size of the playing arena nor can anyone change the number of coins in a chess board or a carom board, but when it comes to cricket there are grounds where the length of the field on square is under 60 ft and there are some where it is more than 80 ft, this coupled with many other variants like the pitch conditions, climatic conditions like windy , rainy etc make the game of cricket with all its formats as glorious, as popular, as pliant, as appealing , as inclusive, as open to change and therefore as expanding as the English language itself.

Sir Neville Cardus puts it aptly, “The laws of cricket tell of the English love of compromise between a particular freedom and a general orderliness, or legality.”

As no critic of English literature can afford to miss reading or quoting from Harold Bloom who sums up very briefly, "Literary criticism, as I attempt to practice it”, in The Anatomy of Influence, "is in the first place literary, that is to say, personal and passionate."

Similarly no critic of any aspect of cricket can afford to miss quoting from Sir Neville Cardus. So this write up will be spiced up with some quotes from him.

I have come to realize that any criticism if it all it has do justice must confine itself to the subject under discussion unmindful of whether it subscribes to the political correctness, societal and cultural acceptance, religious rectitude, prevailing mass mania and/or obsession and many other extraneous considerations.

A good criticism must prove its credentials while subjecting itself to dispassionate objective analysis but at the same time must also be imbued with the passion of romantic subjectivity that the critic savors while analyzing the subject. This is where I like Harold Bloom and Sir Neville Cardus and set my pen to paper to pen down my attempt at criticism.

Then I realized from these two great stalwarts that it was not mere conscious interplay of unloving criticism or uncritical love that made them come out with great works. It was all about critical unbiased analysis based on keen observation, intense love or involvement with passion, and placing the product observed with passion and dealing it with romantic passion and combining it all with aesthetic sensitivity.

Many souls have trod on this path and of those many such souls here I would like to refer to what Harold Bloom did it with literature, Sir Neville Cardus did it with cricket ,Guy Murchie did it with evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology etc and J.Krishnamurthy did it with explorations into the inner self. 

When we do something in this process like those great souls referred above serendipity unravels an atlas of natural beauty and bounty and not one of national boundaries or ideological prisons.

Inspired by these lofty role models I set forth to write about one of the greatest batsman in cricketing history. MAHELA JAYAWARDENE as he has announced his retirement from test cricket as the cliché goes all great things must come to end but how far or how much in depth have we enjoyed the greatness and enlightened ourselves with better appreciation.

Again to quotes Sir Neville Cardus, “We remember not the scores and the results in after years; it is the men who remain in our minds, in our imagination.”

Mahela Jayawardene is a unique and rare genius of the highest form of art of batting with the highest degree of natural flamboyance. Presented in acronym Mahela Jayawardene is

Most Athletic Highly Elegant Lovely Artist of cricket with his Jumping Jabs, Audacious  lofted shots, Yummy late cuts, Adroit placements, Whacking the loose balls coupled with Alacritous Running between the wickets, Deft drives Elegant flicks, Nudges nicely sliced Elegance personified batting bits farewell to test cricket.

In his retirement from test cricket we all will miss one of the greatest cricketer of all times, especially this Most Adroit Hooker Expert in Last minute Adjustments to Judiciously Approach even Yorkers And Wisely flick Around the legs to Run them just beyond the Diving  Extensively  stretched  gloves of  the wicket keeper and Nonchalantly  plays Elegantly and most importantly naturally with both hands with the same power, flamboyance, flexibility etc

Great souls in all spheres of human activity be they artists, saints, scientists, sports persons, philosophers, political leaders, warriors , film heroes etc are all remembered , revered and relished because of the impact, imprint and impression that they left on other souls, and not through statistical data and success factors based on different methods of evaluation, because the soul likes to savor spirit of artistry and it reverberates with its unique innate imprint and improvement  for posterity to remember the contribution such souls make to that particular sphere of activity for eternity.

The first paragraph I ended with an observation ‘plays Elegantly with both hands with the same power, flamboyance, flexibility etc’.

This perhaps is a very subtle technical aspect of cricket, which people with great experience as great batsmen cum observers cum coaches cum commentators like Sunil Gavaskar or Geoffrey Boycott alone can appreciate. Of course because of both excess and expertise in the field of cricket many coaches and cricketers are aware of it and also try to work hard on it [playing elegantly with both hands with the same power, flamboyance, flexibility etc] but for Mahela Jayawardene it was natural. The beauty of this aspect of batting is that it has to a very great extent come naturally and not through nurture.

What is so special about his batting that he must be ranked as one of the greatest unique and rare genius of the art of batting  when statistics  favors the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara etc;  brilliance and brutal attacking and taking the game away from opposition favors the likes of Vivian Richards, Virendra Shewag etc; technical perfection favors the likes of Sunil  Gavaskar, Geoffrey Boycott etc; dogged perseverance, solid defense and ability to stay on to save the game favors the likes Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh etc; when artistic wrist work favors the like of the great Gary Sobers, V.V.S. Lakshman etc; when turning the game with multiple tricks in batting favors the likes of  Javid Miandad, Michael Bevan etc; when taking  aggression as the mode under any condition favors the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Clive Lloyd etc; when brutal power hitting favors the likes of Chris Gayle, Kiren Pollard etc; when making the bowling side clueless and forced to adopt drastic measures favors the likes of the great Don Bradman; when flamboyance favors all-rounders who were also natural batsmen like Kapil Dev, Ian Botham etc; when new stroke introduction favors the likes of  the helicopter shot specialist Mahenra Singh Dhoni, Scoop shot specialist Dilshan, upper cut Shewag; When sheer elegance favors the likes of Rohan Kanhai, Kalicharan etc; when on drive  specialization favors the likes of Greg Chappell, Mark Waugh, Dilip Vengsarkar etc; when hook shot specialization favors the likes of Roy Fredricks, Gordon Greenidge etc; when square cut favors the likes of G.R. Vishwanath , David boon etc ; when reverse sweep favors the likes of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell etc; when walking down the wicket and attempting wild hits terrorizing the bowlers favors the likes of Krishnamachary Srikanth, Mathew Hyden etc, what is that which sets him apart and aloft from the rest?

It is his natural flexibility, firmness, finesse, flamboyance and a spontaneous ability to swiftly shift all these qualities from his right hand to left hand and vice versa along with quick reflex combined with a fluency to change naturally the required push and pull of his legs like the train engines, all the while balancing his body like a ballet dancer and keeping his head straight and with all this his ability to appropriately change gears, adopt to different formats, never getting struck on a single mode of playing, nor super imposing or overshadowing other batsmen to make the team to depend too much on him nor clamoring to emerge ever as the super hero of Srilankan cricket, nor attempting to show unwanted bravado even when on a song. There is always a serenity and touch of tender nicety about his batting befitting his name ‘ Mahela as mentioned in the link below [http://www.quickbabynames.com/meaning-of-Mahela.html]. Incidentally the word Mahela in Arabic I am given to understand through Google means tenderness and/or marrow. He represented the marrow of natural artistic batting.

He has been aptly very often compared to the Kelani river  of Srilanka in terms the multiple value and utility that he has provided to the Sri Lankan team , incidentally for those who may not know the kelani river  supplies major amount of the water used in many parts of Srilanka, used for other purposes like transportation, fishing, sewage disposal, sand mining , hydroelectricity etc

All mortals have some weakness, if there was any in  Mahela it was that sometimes he relied so much on his genius that he was casual to a fault in defending his wicket and at such times he reminded one of  the tennis star Miloslav Mečíř .

I would like to end with two interesting quotes one by Sir Neville Cardus, “Like the British constitution, cricket was not made: it has 'grown'”

There is a widely held and quite erroneously held belief that cricket is just another game.Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh   In Wisden: Cricketers'  Almanack,'The Pleasures of Cricket'.

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Women’s Freedom and feminism

Women’s Freedom

What is freedom for feminism? Why is it delayed and discussed very often but never delivered?

Can it be achieved if it is approached like a macroeconomic project or do we require the attitudinal changes to be effected at micro level?

The freedom gets delayed very often due to the very way and the terminological / the doctrinal cages within which we discuss and debate the issue.

Again the mistake is reducing one gender of human beings as only physical objects and discussing everything around that premise but unfortunately that is and has been the trend from time immemorial.

The malady is not confined to only casting women in the mold of certain shapes, sizes and figures, the insult goes beyond merely physical it goes on to psychological, social, cultural, religious etc biases based on various factors many of which are justified as aspects of tradition, as if all other aspects of tradition, involving men are carried on intact.

The role of women has been required to be the same whereas that of men have changed and enjoyed all the privileges, sometimes at the cost of women, from the time men were, at least some, hunting tribes to now haunting rapists.

This does not mean that I am pandering to some ultra revolutionist ideas to score some brownie points But this also does not mean that we must forsake or forget or view negatively à la certain professional feminist groups questioning the importance given to certain biologically determined superior roles  that the feminine gender is blessed with [like being a mother and giving birth to another life] as if it is a limiting factor , on the contrary what a great joy and privilege it is, to be a mother.

Two dangerous approaches which will never allow larger sections of human beings the actual plight/progress preventing aspects of womanhood are: - one scripting sensational stuffs, adrenal provoking preaching or leftists’ one sided sloganeering with a selective/narrow hidden agenda/propaganda of finding faults or provoking a sense of perennial victim hood only with particular social/religious systems and two producing sickening status quo promoting far rightists’ traditionalism.

Both these approaches prevent us from taking notice of /being aware of how the whole society inflicts pain, indoctrinates its predefined identities on womanhood and curtails their freedom in many areas of activities, and, in addition, these approaches also prevent us from gradually rectifying the mistake at every micro level within each family by creating atmospheres to ensure enough freedom to women as very often to deny freedom to them men have very handy  existing literature, prejudices, traditions etc to justify the stand.

Constant ideological indoctrination has also erased self love from the hearts of many women.

So, through these write ups I have tried my level best to portray my observations, reactions [ of  appreciation and empathy towards women]  and disgust at social perceptions and treatment and how they impact the lives of women in general. Some of these have been published in some magazines long back.

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/10/women.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/04/androcentric.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/12/life-or-product.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/04/women-of-india.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/02/times-of-indias-role-chetan-bhagat.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/03/periods-parents-and-society.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/07/prioritizing.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/12/whole.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/11/mothers-are-great.html

and every woman must use this small booklet

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/07/self-love-series-101-loving-yourself.html