ExpertDabbler

So how to get the best experience out of temple visits? The following are some don’ts based on my personal experience.

I don’t recommend going to temples on auspicious days, particularly the more famous ones. Maybe its just me. During those days, I don’t see any difference between the temple and the movie theatre which screens a Rajini film. Only that we do not hear whistles.

Please don’t go to temples to sign a deal with God. ‘Perumaalai sevicha paisa varum’. Oh no, please don’t see Perumal as a Sowcarpet Sait. He may not like it.

You may be a master in time management, but never practice all those tricks in a temple. I’ve seen people hurry up and down the prahaarams, as if some dog is chasing them from behind. If you have some important work to do, its better you leave the temple to attend that.

Our Gods may be depicted as romantics in our epics, but that does not mean you need to romance around with your girlfriend in the temple. I think Marina, Valluvar Kottam, Adyar Childrens Park are much better alternatives. In my opinion, the experience of temple is best felt when you are alone.

Never, never associate fear with God. Then there is no difference between God and Devil.

Dont think you are smart when you manage to avoid a Q by bribing someone. Unfortunately, people do this all the time. You are defeating the very purpose of temple visit.

I don’t believe in the theory that if you ask God, you shall be given. If only that were true, every soul in this country would’ve been a millionaire, lived a healthy life forever and would have their enemies killed under myserious circumstances just like its in those bhakthi movies. I know many people go to temples just because of this. If God expects you to ask, then what kind of God is (s)he??. Is (s)he not supposed to know the bhakthan’s needs and provide accordingly?? I think some of our puranams went overboard and distorted things to ridiculous extent.

I don’t think it’s such a direct relationship.

A more logical theory is that when you follow certain practices, your mind is peaceful and clear, when your mind is clear, you can think better and when you can think better, you solve your problems or learn to manage your problems. God and religion are merely tools, but it’s you who handle your problems. Anyway this theory is what i believe in:)

Take care of these things, visit temples in a relaxed mood, maintain silence as much as possible and I’m sure visiting temples will be a very positive experience, at least it was to me
[While i’ve written about some shortcomings in Hindusim earlier which i feel is still valid, i also thought i need to highlight the positive aspects and its psychological relevance even today i observed in our places of worship. Nevertheless these are just my 2 cents :)]

Last weekend, I was on a mini pilgrimage trip. I visited Singaperumal Kovil and Kanchipuram (Kanchi Kamakshi and Varadaraja Perumal temple) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not often that I enjoy temple visits. Invariably, I find myself dragged to temples on New Year and Diwali by my mom. So what is that I enjoyed last week, which I missed out during earlier temple visits? Nothing except that last week I had my eyes, ears and mind open.

Our temples, if one looks closely, is beautifully designed. When I say design, I don’t simply refer to the Gopurams and Sirpakkalai that people generally refer to. I think it’s actually designed to induce an experience, if only we have our eyes and mind open to it. When I mean experience, I do not necessarily mean the “divine” or “godly” experience. Rather, I mean the psychological state which makes us feel good during a particular point. I think there are some interesting psychological insights and patterns common to practical life in our temples.

Praharams and Padhayathra

Many see walking as an exercise. Some see it as a needless activity. But walking is more importantly, a great stress reliever. Cardiologists ask patients to walk not only because it’s a safe exercise but also for its magical ability to relieve stress. The bottom line is, we need an optimum physical activity to feel good about ourselves.

People nowadays go for trekking during weekends to beat stress. Just imagine how different it is from taking a trip to Sabarimala for instance. It’s a different matter that a Sabari Mala Maalai nowadays implies the alcohol be served in a separate glass in bars. It’s just that its Iyyappan’s bad time that he has to tolerate such people.

Art work, paintings, bhajans and literature in the temple.

Involvement in art, craft, work, music are all attempts by man to create order in his consciousness while living in a chaotic world. For the sake of pointer, there are more poets per capita in Iceland than in any other country. The reason being that reciting the sagas was a way for Icelanders to keep their consciousness ordered in an environment which is hostile to human existence. Music, art and craft are the means by which man strives to master his consciousness and enhance the quality of his life. Our temples blend these with religion beautifully.

Alangaarams

I think it takes a great sense of imagination to bathe a statue, dress it in various costumes, and treat it like a living human form. How different it is from children who bathe, dress and talk to their favorite dolls? Or a young mother dressing up her kid? This symbolizes the affection one has for the object of his/her love and affection. And conversely, the very act of doing such a ritual may expand the love and affection, be it a doll,kid or God.

Deeparadhanai

There is a huge difference in the attention span of the masses. So to attract our people and make all of them think about none but one thing (in this case, God) at least for a short while, our forefathers have devised a technique which is used till date in all the films.

What is that? Make people wait with bated breath and then give a grand intro.

It struck me as I was standing in the Kamakshi Amman temple. It was around 5.30PM. In the main sannidhi, the veil was on, obviously alangaaram was go on. I went to the dhyana mandapam which is slightly at an elevated level. Because of this, I could get a clear view of the deity whenever the veil would go. We were waiting, and waiting. After about 15 minutes, the nadaswaram and thavil vidwan begin their music, the temple bell swings into action and immediately there is heightened anticipation, and even as we were looking, off went the veil and voila!, a beautifully decorated Amman, the deeparadhanai makes her look as if she’s glowing. The alangaaram, the melam, the bell and the deeparadhanai added to the effect magnificently. I could definitely feel an electrifying atmosphere. I’m sure in at that split second everybody was thinking about Amman.

I think this Deeparadhanai is the world’s original and till date, the best visual presentation ever.

I am sure the above mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. I think by sheer observation, one can decipher a whole lot of reasons and meanings in our temples.

But the real tragedy is, people emphasize the mechanics, keep adding the fear component while completely omitting the logic and the reasoning part. Certain things should never stop changing while certain other things should never change. But we, like stupid programmers, treat variables as constant and vice versa. But then, that’s what happens if you treat God as one govt. official and try to bribe the peons to get darshan.

I was looking for this Sirkazhi masterpiece far longer than i remember. And thanks to my friend and colleague maduraigirl, i got hold of it here

And you had thoughtfully saved the mobile’s IMEI number in your mail box(like me). Thanks to N number of email fwds that propogated the myth that if you hold the IMEI number, you key to the phone and can (b)lock it anytime by calling the cell manufacturer. Hehehe. Wake up mate!

Read about a first hand experience here (i promised her to write about this the day she lost her phone and forgot, sorry Fathi)

And if you are still not convinced, read the following excerpts from Nokia’s FAQ.

5. I lost my phone. How do I block the phone to prevent unauthorised use?

Nokia does not have a system to block the phone. However if you were to provide us the phone’s IMEI number, we can alert the Authorised Service Centres about the lost phone. You are also advised to make a police report.

Now, thats a FAQ way of saying, “Lost your phone?, we could not care less!!”

And dont be in a hurry to blame the e-mail forwards you get for free.

Ankit Fadia has come up with a book “An ethical guide to hacking mobile phones“. He has done his best to propogate this IMEI myth atleast with regard to Nokia.

Chapter 3, Page 152 of his book clearly states “When a particular mobile phone device is stolen or lost, then the IMEI number is used to block it to prevent ilegal usage”

I think i’m better of reading e-mail forwards, atleast thats a free, harmless timepass rather than crap from some of these self-proclaimed hacking experts who make truckloads of money in the process!

Here is what I have in terms of suggestions and solutions. Of course all or any of this can be dabated, discussed and ridiculed.

I think no political or legal measures will make the life better for the common man. Such has been the law enforcement –criminal-political nexus that I’ve lost all hope on these types. I feel, things should work on a much smaller scale. Afterall individual honesty should be much easier than corporate honesty. But unfortunately in a country like India where citizens have a huge gap between what they preach and and what they practice, the market is the only way effective judge. The only way to hit ruthlessly and effectively is through economic measures.

So here we go.

Make a law which empowers the government to award running this whole auto rickshaw transport business to some corporates. The government should only try to administer at a very high level by fixing minimum, maximum rates, specifying training etc( yes training, I’ll come to it later). The government can collect license fees too. I’m not an MBA but entry by corporates who may have the funding to operate on a mega scale may bring the prices down and make it affordable for the common man.

But how about our labour force? After all auto drivers are not MBAs from IIMs but more similar to workers who sweat it out. How will they behave?

Well that’s precisely one of the reasons why I advocate corporates running this whole auto business.

I don’t know if it’s a desi thing. But Indian labour can function very well within a given set of rules, a hierarch to supervise, a performance based incentive system and a stable organisational structure. They basically want someone to take care of them. But our labour is pathetic when it comes to managing things on their own without any supervision.

For example, I think the auto drivers would be happy to work for a base salary, with performance bonus on every extra mile driven above the target or revenue generated. But leave it to them to govern themselves and all hell breaks lose. They’d rather sit with an old Dhinathanthi and tea glass in each hands whilst looking to make enough money for the day in a single savari. The bottomline, enough skill but lack of self-discipline.

The Businessworld dated Aug 21 has an interesting article on the changing face of the blue collar workers in our country. The article talks about ITI graduates, who toil for 12-16 hours, who have their own pack of credit cards and some even own cars as well. That was real gladdening news but it also pointed out another aspect - how many would’ve done as much or even half as much if they were running their own Small scale units? Not many, in my opinion.

In India, whenever the services sector has let in the corporates and whenever the government stayed away from day to day administrations, the system has worked very well indeed for the customer.

From the government front they should provide directions like what sort of training the driver should need to take and setup certifying exams as applicable for auto drivers. This may sound funny, but I think clean habits(at least on duty), courtesy, and knowledge of the city are mandatory for an auto driver. I’ve faced situations where the auto driver’s knowledge of the city was pathetic. One guy asked me once ”Anna arivalayama, adhu enga irukku?” The assumption right now, that auto drivers know the city well is just that, our assumption.

To summarise, follow the lessons learnt in all other areas and open this out to some corporate who has deep pockets. Let the business fuel its autos with petrol,diesel,LPG, water or whatever.

The corporate may soon be filthy rich at the expense of auto drivers, but I don’t see a way out for the common man.

Update:
Link updated, thanks to Srikanth.

Buy five fatwas, get one free

Shit! too bad they had no such offers during the month of Aadi!!

I was reading Guru’s post here on autos and had a few things to say. It eventually turned out longer than his post, so thought I’d rather post it in my blog.

While I completely agree with Guru on fleecing by Chennai auto drivers, I do think there is another side to it. This is not to say I justify the pagal kollai most of the auto drivers resort to. What I am trying to suggest is that, there should be more thought put into the problem.

The following are some info I collected during my chit-chats with auto drivers every now and then. I’ve checked this info for consistency. Either they are true or all the auto drivers I talked to are pretty consistent in their lies. I hope it’s the former.

Petrol rates per litre is Rs.54 (including oil)

Autos, on an average, give a mileage of 20 km/litre. so, per km, his fuel charges alone would be about 2.50-3.00 Rs.

From Velachery to Teynampet, i usually pay 70 bucks for 10 km ride whenever I take an auto. Which works to 7 Rs. per km. Here, the fuel component alone works out to 25-30 Rs approximately. Add the drivers labour and the fixed overhead component(daily rent of 120-150 rupees per auto)

There is no limits/restrictions on the number of autos plying in Chennai. So it’s not realistic to expect autos to be occupied all day. I dont even think the RTO have an exact measure of the number of autos plying.

Coming to think of it, its more like a vicious cycle. People don’t take autos because it’s not viable and auto drivers don’t bring down rates because they think they can’t afford if they ply for low rates. Greed pays a part too. The average auto driver thinks he has to make the minimum target amount as soon as possible which is stupid. The fact that most of the fellows are uneducated does not help in seeing the better picture (that theirs is a dying breed).

Guru also mentions that a share auto driver runs from Triplicane to Thiruvanmiyur for 10 bucks per person. That maybe true, but I don’t think the share auto runs with 5 people. Usually there are more. And also it’s not like the share auto runs the entire distance with the same set of 5 people. People get down and get in at various stops.

So the capacity maybe 5(even assuming he is right), but the share auto would’ve had 10-15 passengers by the time he covers the distance. Add to it, most of the share autos runs in diesel.

So how come Kerala is able to run autos so cheap and so well?

The cost of living in a Kerala city is much lesser than Chennai.
I think this whole concept of policemen/MLAs/Dadas owning autos and making 150 rs per day is just insane. I don’t think this culture exists in Kerala.
Malluland has something called dignity of labour (sometimes excessively so in other spheres of life, but it helps in keeping their autos in the good books of the public)

Due to their efficient service, there is good patronage too which is not the case in Chennai/Coimbatore/Madurai. The lack of patronage makes the auto driver to fleece whoever comes his way which antagonizes the layman even more and he vows to avoid autos.

Maybe, just maybe, auto drivers in Kerala are more educated and consequently aware of the importance of making a good turnover with cheap fare than Chennai auto drivers.

An auto driver in chennai typically makes 500-600 per day as revenue and his net income per day would be about 250 Rs. (600 minus 200 for petrol and 150 for daily rent, not to mention mamool if and when that happens). Ofcourse this is not guranteed everyday. He may make more. He may make less.

Let’s face it. Auto drivers in Chennai are not MBAs who would analyse why demand is falling with each passing day.

So whats the way out?

More on that tomorrow.

I happened to read the success story of Office tiger and its co-founders Joseph ‘Joe’ Sigelman and Randolph ‘Randy’ Altschuler here.

One thing had me thinking. If only I was born in the US and had been educated in Princeton and Harvard. Would i still have the mind to venture out of the comforts of the wealthiest nation in the world and, of all places on planet earth, come to India to setup a BPO company?

I doubt.

Actually, it’s precisely this ‘I doubt’ which is the difference between a coolie in an MNC and someone who has laughed all the way to the bank to count USD 250 millions!

More than the talent, the key differentiator between the successfuls and the ‘also- lived’ is self-belief.

I just dont have words to describe this piece. I’ve been searching for this particular song for almost a year and and today i was destined to listen to this..

Powered by Castpost

Blessed are those who can identify the song!

Note:
people who are not able to listen here may download it from here

Hmm. Let’s call her X. She decides she wants a perfume of some particular fragrance.
(I swear she told me but I forgot ;p)

She goes to the nearby Health and Glow.

Anga poi, andha sales person kitta…

She: “I want a perfume of XXX fragrance ”

He: “Adhu illai ma’am”

She: “Ooh!” *disappointed expression that girls are pretty good at*

But she decides to loiter around and after a few minutes..

Voila! She’s got what she wanted.

She picks the container from the shelf.

She catches the sales guy who told that was told and gives a ‘Poda vennai ‘ look that girls have patented perfectly!

The guy watches her keenly.

Our lady goes near the bill counter and at that precise moment, the sales guy rushes around and asks “Madam, neenga perfume dhaaney keteenga?”

She: “Ama. Enna ippo??”

He: “Illa, unga kayile irukaradhu room freshner!!!”

(background effect - a hundred bulbs bursting)

:))

If this was not enough, the way she narrated this to me was just awesome
And to top it all she signed off with this classic one liner
“Container a edukumbodhe nenachen, ennada 70Rs, ku evlo perfume kudukaraaney nu!!. Aprom edho thallubadi sales pola nu vittuten”
:))))

To her credit, it takes a certain spirit and character to laugh at oneself, she has that admirable quality!