Bonalu

Holiday on a monday is indeed a blessing. No hangover of the weekend to bother you. So much so that you start looking forward to activity on a tuesday. Since the holiday was for Bonalu ,We decided why not? Let us go around the city and start chronicling what the festival was about.Traditional fervour and gaiety marked the two-day Bonalu festival in the old city on Sunday. Celebrations began in the early hours of the day with special pujas at all major temples as devotees thronged to offer ‘bonam’.

Women make the offering of rice, jaggery and curd carried in steel and clay pots. Serpentine queues were witnessed at the historic Akkanna Madanna Mahankali temple at Shahalibanda and Simhavahini Mahankali temple in Lal Darwaza. Various other temples in Uppuguda, Aliabad, Gowlipura and Puranapul saw a huge rush of devotees.

The day was also marked by the appearance of ‘Potarajus’ who performed to the ever-present ‘teen maar’ beats.

Scores of people from various parts of the city descended on old city to take part in the celebrations. A small number of foreigners also joined the festivities.Tradition places the festival at around 1831 when there was supposedly a plague in the city . Locals had gone to Ujjain Mahankali temple to propitiate the goddess saying that they would place the idol of the goddess if the disease was eradicated. And so started the festival of bonalu. People dance and sing and make merry

On this special occasion women dress up in the traditional Sari combining it with jewels and other accessories. Teenage Girls wear Half-Sarees/Lehenga Choli combining it with jewels in order to bring out the traditional grace of the attire.

Some Tranced women dance with balancing pots (Bonam), to the rhythmic beats of drums in honour of the local Goddess. To ward off evil spirits, in olden days, people used to sacrifice a male buffalo in front of the temple, but now, roosters are sometimes sacrificed.

Women carrying Bonalu are believed to possess the spirit of Mother Goddess, and when they go towards the temple, people pour water on their feet to pacify the spirit, who, by nature, is believed to be aggressive.

Pothuraju is the brother of Mother Goddess, is represented in the procession by a well-built, bare-bodied man, wearing a small tightly drapedred dhoti and bells on his ankles, and anointed with turmeric on his body and vermilion on his forehead. He dances to resounding drums.

In addition most of the people  I met were high on spirits and absolutely in the mood for dancing and cavorting around. Believe it or not there was even a village fair not far from the city with the giant wheel and merry go round in full swing. Kids were screaming on the top of their voices and the adults were doing their best to keep them under control

The Procession finally ends at the temple which is gaily decorated with lights and the mood is festive all round. While we were standing there drinking in the scenes of this rustic festival we heard the sounds of siren and the policemen jumped to activity pushing all the people to a side. It was the time for the VIP to make an appearance and put on a show of whole hearted participation in the ongoing festivities. Being taller than most I got a glimse of the VIP. He had a hunted look on his face. Allmost like he was saying to himself-" Right let us get over with it.

And then he was swept away in the mass of humanity . It was clear that he was out of his depth and feared for his safety as he desperately looked around for the police who were allegedly there for his protection and nothing else...

By tomorrow many people will wake up to a giant hangover and again pick up the threads of the life which they had let loose on friday evening in anticipation of an extended weekend. My Feeling is one of awe and wonder . If we can harness this religious fervour into building a better nation we would be very well off...

SAYANORA

Activity in the Class

AUG 07

     The formalities were nearing completion. The day started with the class congregating for one last time in CRIII. Yesterday I mentioned how we were on the day previous to the last we finally started mixing with each other. The final day dawned bright and sunny. If there was a blot on the horizon, it was that Jaggu Dada was missing in the first half attending to aspects of life which are beyond our control. Prof Mubeen Rafat came to the class and quite uncharacteristically she was quite -waiting for us to complete reading the fiasco that was about the metro line between the New Delhi Railway station and the airport and how it was set up on the Public - Private - Partnership and how this model failed to live up to its expectations. After reading the case and analysing it ( Prof Mubeen was in her element by his time) We concluded that while it was okay for the private parties to be in the partnership for profit , it also was clear that like the rats deserting the drowning ship they left DMRC holding the baby at the first sign of trouble.

Some More Activity in the Class

 An interesting case study which can easily be converted into a Block Buster - Keep a tight story line, add a few songs like ' Saathi Haath Badhaana , Main tera hero and a song about Maa thrown in for a good measure, a few emotional scenes for the sentimental among the audience , And of course a few fights with a lot of blood and gore - You had a huge block Buster on Hand ... If you could Rope in Amitabh for the role of Sreedharan - who knows - the box office earnings could go through the roof. Not to talk about Priyanka Chopra talking about cost over runs and girders and standard gauge... I mean - the mind boggles about the possibilities. ..

      All along there was an underlying pathos in the class . The bankers and Government officials after a week of travails at the new campus and pleasant memories of the majestic Main campus equally fresh in their minds were proceeding back to their places of routine and (Probably ) unexciting -I hope not- existence. It was time to say good bye . This was fast forwarded by Prof Mahadik holding that it was better to conclude the proceedings by carrying out the presentations earlier than planned . The presentations in themselves were quite interesting , in that they dealt with the daily dealings of our friends while doing their jobs. One presentation by the group lead by Mr Mayur Somani dealt with the solar generation of electricity at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh - a well compiled and lucidly enumerated presentation which was well received by all; The second presentation was by  Ms Kirti shettygar also from the union Bank which dealt with converting a road from solapur to Dhule from two lane to four lane . The only drawback being that they did not cater for the alternate routes for the clientele while the road was under conversion. The girl is a bright spark and we shall certainly watch her future progress with interest...

    The last presentation was about how to prevent a mosquito from making a eunuch of a man - Remember that dialogue by Nana Patekar where he says " Ek Machhar aadmi ko >>>>bana deta hai? It was precisely to prevent such a happenstance that the innovation by the group led by Mr Nitish talked about. It was a cost effective and easy way to prevent neutering the male gender and ensuring that cows gave more milk . The presentation was laced with humour and actual facts and was well received by all of us. In too short a while it was time for the feedback and other formalities. Having spent time here at ASCI there was a running joke among the ARMSASCI officers that food was best (not that it was bad on other days) on Mondays - when the new course came in and on fridays - when it was time for feed back....

Prof Sachindra

     A few take aways for the departing officials would be I suppose the Lecture by Prof Sachindra , prof Rabat and the ever present Prof Mahadik of course we hope that they learnt camaraderie and friendship from us . We for our part learnt efficiency and that it is good to interact with people once in a while to break the monotony of our existence.

Gp Capt Rao Mr SAnoop Mr Sreekumar Mr Ashok Kumar Mr Nitish Kumar Col Ravindra MsKIrti Col Jagpal Prof Mahadik MrVinay Kumar Lt Cdr Himanshu Col Sivaram Sqn Ldr Sandhya Mr Mayur  Mr Aggarwal Col Banerjee

Formalities Concluded - Preparing to Leave

     SAYANORA Mr Nitish Mr Vinay Mr Kumhar Mr Mayur Mr Anoop Mr Sreekumar and our indomitable Mr Aggarwal and Ms Kirti - we hope you carry pleasant memories of Hyderabad and tell your children how you spent a week with the irascible people from the services..   

The Tornado

From left to Right Mr Kumhar Mr S Anoop  Mr Sreekumar Mr Aggarwal Mr Vinay Kumar

Aug 06

Interaction with our civillian friends from various walks of life was drawing to a close . Five days of intense interaction from morning to evening - more precisely from 0900h to 1730h almost 40 hours was ending. Today was the penulmitate day of our togetherness -enough to develop lifelong relationships.We had milked this intense interaction for what it was worth. All that was going to remain tomorrow was images of what had happened during this period. For what it was worth we learnt more from the bankers and government officials than they did from us. It was an eye opener for us . Contrary to our expectations the meeting of diverse personalities was very pleasant. It started in the new campus and was going to conclude in the main campus. Banjo got time to be a part of this today. It was a pleasant feeling to be back in the familiar surroundings of the main campus after a four day hiatus. The day started off with a guest lecture by Sowjanya Bonda who spoke to us about the projects and the risks involved therein . But what touched us was her prefacing the class saying that she was proud to be associated with the services personnel.

All this was but a prelude to the storm that was brewing in the wings. If you remember in one of the past blogs we had interviewed a Fijian Police woman who said that her favourite lecturer was Prof Sachendra - and Ms Salinieta was right - we could see why ; Prof Sachendra walked into the class a few minutes late because the previous class had got delayed. He nevertheless apologised for this intransigence . That set the tone for the class. It was one of the most tempestuous classes ever. Prof Sachendra's constant refrain was " Can I continue like this ?" By now the class was caught up in his enthusiasm and in one voice roared its approval "YES" He was not a man who stood for mute assent and insisted in the class vocally agreeing (Or Disagreeing) to his questions. The topic for his discussion was 'learning from project failures'. The best thing was he took it as a personal challenge to ensure our comprehension lacing his lecture with lot of quotes like " Success thrills you because you haven't failed enough" and - also "Failure depresses you because you have not succeeded enough". That one class made our day. I could go on and on about the class but I would not be doing justice to the superlative teaching abilities of Prof Sachindra. Suffice it to say that with collective  agreement the class proceeded well into the lunch break.

The lunch itself was a muted affair as ASCI was having a lean period - for whatever reasons. Post lunch was devoted to preserving the memories of the one week interaction and the day ended again with a class on Project Structuring And Institutional Finance ably tackled by Mr D Shalem who is a PPP expert

Comfort Zone

Aug 05
A few days back I was speaking to a friend of mine . the conversation took place when I was heading home from work. Our conversation was desultory and followed the familiar lazy pattern of friends who know each other for a long time. I knew this person since we were in fifth class together. We have been meeting when I was on leave and otherwise kept in contact over the telephone, where ever I was posted .First by land line and l later by by mobile... While we were conversing I casually happened to mention that he should stop smoking and lead a healthy life. Imagine my surprise and shock when I came to know the next day that he was admitted to the hospital. When I recalled  that only the previous evening we were talking about health I felt bad .The upshot of this small episode was that people don't realise when they are having it good and refuse to step out of their comfort zone to do something differently. It is a situation when one has the strong urge to say " I told you so"- but one desists from such unnecessary theatrics....

Today was the second day with our banker and governmental agencies friends. The week was half over and we have just three days to know them better, AND who knows? Maybe establish a lasting relationship with them in times to come. One such person was MrNitish who was from IIFCO and the other  was Mr Kumhar who was from MP government. Both are nice enough people who by default me and Gurrapppu Jagdeshwar Rao came to know better by the simple fact that we were in the same group working on the presentation of Hyderabad Metro . While Mr Nitish had this capability of getting to the nub of the problem with minimum delay, Mr Kumhar was clear in his thought process and what to look for to establish a workable solution to the problem at hand - helped us to present our case to the class at the earliest.

Earlier in the morning we started off the proceedings with Mrs Usha Ramachandra, who was of the same pedigree as all other instructors in ASCI. Her thought process translated itself into an enlightening class on assessing projects and how we can analyse them to carry out mid course correction to a project ,if need be...The class was aimed at the bankers but we were also willing and enthusiastic participants. As is usual , when there is a lot to teach and there is a paucity of time the class had a time overrun resulting in delay for our lunch. Not that anyone was complaining considering the excellence of the teaching content...

Post lunch was devoted to a question and answer session or rather an interactive session with Mr Ramachandran - one among the long line of distinguished guest speakers an alumni of IIT Madras. He had a wealth of experience behind him , which was evident from the manner he handled the class for one and a half hours. The question and answer session extended into the tea break . By the time the speaker left we were still asking questions and he was still answering - or should we say counter questioning. I don't remember - we lost the plot somewhere along the way...

The Day ended with the heartening news that we would be back at the main campus from the next morning. Obviously some sort of solution was worked out between all the groups concerned. The beneficiaries were us students. Now that we were going back to the main campus we would surely miss the bracing air the Banjara hills campus. Oh how fickle the human mind is - but that is what life is all about - stepping out of your comfort zone  to achieve your goals...

Project Appraisal

Aug 04

The players: ARMSASCI Business mgt course and Ms Kirti shettigar (manager Union Bank), Mr Mayur Vijay Somani ( Union Bank Mumbai) Mr S Anoop ( Kerala State Planning Board ) Mr B Sree Kumar (Kerala State Planning Board ) Dr Ashok Kumar Kumhar ( Directorate Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Bhopal MP) Mr Nitish Kumar (Strategic Management group IFFCO Delhi) Mr Vijay Aggarwal (Power Finance Corporation Delhi) and Mr Vinay Kumar (PNB Lucknow)

ACT I 

Scene1

Class Before the Start

Monday started as all other mondays did . Dull and boring. Then things started looking up. We were having a change of location whereby we moved to the new location of ASCI at Banjara hills. The new location also brought new classmates in form of bankers and government officials from MP,Kerala and Delhi. Prior to that we had an interesting class on Human resources where we analysed the company of matt and Jack. Matt proved to be intelligent , when he did not leave the company inspite of Jack having been chosen the CEO, until he found a new job. Prior to leaving he shared his angst with jack about the way the company was being run. For three years he kept quite before telling Jack that he was doing it all wrong. The way he went about it proved Jack to be the villain of the piece...It was quite dramatic .

Scene 2

In the morning on Monday on arrival we knew that we were to be clubbed with the new class. It was a break in monotony of having spent our entire time in a single classroom in the main campus. On arrival at the new campus we were warily eyeing the new arrivals who had arrived for being educated on project appraisal. Knowing our wild and unpredictable ways they were kept isolated from us in the first two sessions , which were tackled expertly by Prof Harsh. After being suitably softened up by HR the classes were amalgamated. Many of us had not suitably recovered from the excesses of the weekend and hence the class post lunch passed away in somnolence. 

ACT II

Scene1

Tuesday morning saw the whole class in a much alert state. Gradually our eyes opened up to the latest incumbents of the class. There was a lot of experience and expertise in the new lot of students . The instructors were primed to take the method of instruction to the next level. Prof Rafat was her usual affable self - which did not deter her from her agenda - which was to teach us about the weighted average cost of capital. For her we were the equity and the bankers were the debt and together we formed the weighted average cost of capital. AND since we were going to be around for the longer period of time and were more ignorant about the ways of the financial world she had to walk the tight rope to ensure that the experts and us ignoramuses understood what she was teaching, She managed the class admirably. Prof Mahadik then took an inspired class on the tools for project analysis. It dawned on us that the classes were for the bankers and we were merely listening in...

INTERVAL 

Scene2

The Scene was now set for the expert of them all to come in and lecture us on the Issues and Challenges in project Finance . Mr BNV Parthasarathy was more than qualified to give us an insight into the bankers' perspective as he held us enthralled for the next three and a half hours . His educative and practical lecture was replete with examples both personal and of other construction companies as he skilfully guided us through the rather complicated process of project finance. It also became clear to us that the one week course was rather well structured as it progressed from one stage to another through the day. At the end of the day our battered mnds deserved the rest we were looking for from the long session in the class...Promises to be an interesting week...

Back To The Future II

Aug 02

Sivaram

How does one quantify success? Does one say a person is successful when he is making money hand over fist? If that be so then lot of people who are making a good packet are successful. For such people I ask what's the point of money if one has made it by questionable methods? Would he have the respect of the world? I'm so sure not... And what about quality time with family? Not only will he not have peace of mind but also his mindset would be one of suspicion and unhealthy atmosphere will be all round. His thoughts would be poisonous. The consequences would be borne by all the people around him. People by association would reap negative benefits. People would suffer... The person I am sure will have bad health or other psychosomatic infirmities due to his irregular and unholy hours. So how will we do in future - will we be good people or efficient and ambitious people or ruthless and money minded ?

Two years down the line some will do well. Some through sheer hardwork will be successful. Some would take conscious decision to follow the beaten path.And maybe the bug of ambition will ingrain itself into the psyche of some. And then there was Sivaram.... At the end of the course he was one of the most sought after persons. With his background of engineering honed to perfection with the variety of jobs in the army combined with experience of 30 years or so made him the prime candidate for recruitment by the headhunters of Hyderabad . His maturity and no nonsense attitude were added qualifications. But.... But,,, There is always that but which keeps butting in. But the only problem was that he had a passion - and that was of cycling. Even at that age , on saturdays and sundays during the course he used to go for weekend cycling for about 300kms and attend monday's class showing little or no ill effect of this grueling sport. He was also the first to retire in the october month during the course, making him immediately available for picking up a position after the course.

In the last week of the course , a reputed company which received our brochure ( it finally got completed by the second week of Aug 2015) invited him for the interview. At this point of time he was still ambivalent about the job in the civil stream. In any case he went for the interview and the feedback was favourable. We were jealous of the fact that it was a cake walk for him - while many among us were not sanguine about our chances. While travelling back home together he was quite humble about the whole thing. " it is nothing really," he said; " they asked a few questions which were right up my alley and a few which were stupid", he said with a grimace. " I had no compunction in telling them off - I was  quite sure that it would not sit well with them - to my surprise the MD called me later and said " we are impressed with your forthrightness and candour;  in this company there are too many YES MEN; we require someone who is knowledgeable and can speak with confidence. I am sure we can work out something". Sivaram said " then we worked out the modalities of pay -" " How much are they offering ?" - I interjected. " None of your business " said Sivaram. " Give us a ballpark figure  " pleaded someone else, Sivaram said that it was in six figures and we had to be satisfied with that...

He resumed his narrative " It was on timings of the job that we got stuck. They are booking me for the complete week - and sometimes I may have to work on weekends also.....

Anyways to cut short a long story , on the day of appointment Sivaram did not report for the job. If it meant that he would not be able to devote time to his passion,irrespective of the monetary gain being offered , the job was not worth picking up. Instead he opted for the four year extension in the army where he had plenty of time for cycling . The jump of pay in the 7th pay commission coupled with the fact that his only son relocated to Chicago where I believe he is raking in moolah has helped a lot.

Two years down the road he was offered a job as the Director in the cycling association of India ,where he I am given to understand that he is training young boys and girls for the 2022 Olympics...A success story on all counts...

Weekend Masti

Jul 31
While I volunteered to go to Agartala my wife was stuck with the task of shifting home . It is quite a tiresome job and I was least interested in doing it . Ergo my wife was nominated for this onerous job . She is quite a veteran considering the countless number of times she has done it in my absence . This was due to the exigencies of service . This will also be my place of residence in the times to come . Hence the need for a feminine touch.

The furniture was in place , the people were in place , food was being cooked and all it required was friends to come and visit us to bless the place . Who better than all my course mates to help us carry out this rather pleasant task . Most of them graciously Consented to be present . I take this opportunity to thank them ...We all met at the weekend. General bonhomie pervaded in the atmosphere .

Earlier in the day we regretfully bid farewell to the rather excellent teachers of economics . The economics capsule ended on Friday . We are yet to meet such committed and excellent teachers who took so much pride in their subject . Combined with the knowledge of the subject was their desire to see that we understood the subject thoroughly . BOP, GDP, demand and supply curves and their propensity to shift left or right, RBI and it's functions and need for its independence for the health of the economy are now very clear to us . Laws of economics etc are not beyond our comprehension . Economic Times is no longer a paper which made little sense.We rounded off the classes with the knowledge that we are prisoners of our own devices and our dilemmas are of our own making . We take this opportunity to thank Professor  (s) Dasgupta, Allamraju and Sutanuka Dev Roy for their superlative performance in ensuring that we are not ignoramuses on the economic front ...

Back to the party . It went off well with the better halves getting along like a house on fire .We missed prasad perumal sandhya himanshu -perhaps next time .,.....
Monday on to the new campus....-at Banjara Hills