Bible says, “Love thy neighbour”. There’s a Punjabi saying that says, ” An obnoxious neighbour and a untrusting husband are the worst realities a person could face.”

While residential neighbours can still be a matter of choice (you can shift residence or hope your obnoxious neighbour will shift), unfortunately geographical neighbours can neither be chosen nor changed. India has highly dominating and super power China towards its North East, a country that desires to control the economies of the entire world, especially in South East Asia. It has scant regard for history and claims almost the entire North East India as its own domain. India’s asylum to Dalai Lama and support to autonomy of Tibet and Taiwan are super sore points with China and it seldom leaves an opportunity to sabotage India’s interest.

We have Nepal, a landlocked neighbour and one of the most friendly countries. Also, till recently it was the only Hindu country in the world, before going secular a few years ago. It was totally dependent on India for all its trade and commerce, till its Northern neighbour, China, took great infrastructural initiatives by building some remarkable roads and bridges. The increasing proximity of this erstwhile Hindu kingdom to China is palpable when you visit Kathmandu. It’s porous borders with India are also being used by terrorists to perpetrate terror in India.

Srilanka shares a common heritage with India, especially South India and Indian forces made great sacrifices in helping the island nation quell Tamil Eelam, a movement by separatists for an independent Tamil nation. It also lost its much beloved PM, Rajiv Gandhi as a backlash by Tamil terrorists. Yet, China’s increasing influence, including its evil design to build a military naval base on Lankan shores is a distinct reality.

Bangladesh owes its existence to India as Indian forces during 1971 war helped Mukti Bahini fought off Pakistani forces to win liberation. Its culture is almost aligned to Indian Eastern state of West Bengal. However, Bangladesh is facing increased Islamisation and we see Hindu minority there facing attacks and emigrating to India. The gory deeds of Bangladesh Rifles perpetrated on BSF personnel during border skirmishes are no secrets.

Burma is indifferent and with Bhutan its so far so good. That leaves us with the most dangerous neighbour that till 1947 was part of India (so was Bangladesh) , Pakistan. Under the disguise of support to Kashmiri cause, this neighbour of ours seems to be the God’s biggest curse on our great country. It’s hate for our country knows no bounds. While it has fought many major wars with us, it is now flaunting it’s nuclear arsenal to inflict irreversible damage on our nation. It’s proxy war by supporting terrorists is an ongoing event that causes several of young brave officers attaining martyrdom each year. It’s unholy nexus with China is mainly directed at neutralising India’s increasing military and economic might.

With such an enviable galaxy of neighbours around us, God that tells us to love our neighbours, should only tell us how we cope with such dreaded, actually dreadful will be more appropriate, neighbours? Long live Indian armed forces that face challenges on so many fronts at the same time!

Some of the adages that we have grown up listening to from our elders are no longer gospel truths. Changed lifestyles, exposure to the worldwide happenings (thanks to the media and internet) and change in values have rendered these old adages merely of academic interest.

One of the oldest and most popular saying that we have all been exposed to is ” An apple a day, keeps doctor away”. Today it’s no longer humble apple that’s panacea for good health. The new wonder stuff are blue berries, black berries, avocados, aloe Vera, kiwis etc. Apple is poor man’s fruit , full of pesticides with hardly any nutritional value.

We were all told that “After lunch rest a while, after dinner walk a mile”. Lunch is at office and there’s need to resume work immediately after lunch, so the rest is ruled out. Walk a mile was relevant when the dinner used to be the main meal! Today people prefer very light dinner of salad and soup or skip dinner altogether so where’s the question of walking a mile? For good health people would rather walk on treadmill in a gym rather than walk on the road after dinner!

Another popular folklore is “better late than never”, which has become irrelevant in today’s milieu. Today everyone is in hurry to reach to the top in no time. By the time one is 35 years old, he is deemed to be successful if he already is a senior executive in blue chip company with 6 figures salary, having BMW, children going to top international school and a well appointed flat in upmarket locale. Unless you are CEO before you turn 50, it’s too late and better to attain nirvana! The aforesaid adage was relevant for the patient lot that was used to the grind of attaining success with lots of hard work and efforts.

There are a few more that I shall endeavour to cover in future blogs.

Today’s age is the age of skilled specialists. While we all along had people skilled in their trades- carpenter, plumber, fitter, electrician, nurse, doctor, architect etc are all examples of trades that require specialised skill- the reference is more appropriate for jobs requiring multiple skills such as civil services or banking. Earlier, a graduate civil servant would be a revenue secretary or planning commission deputy chairman or in stray cases even RBI Governor towards the end of his career. Similarly a graduate banker, mostly joining as a teller or clerk would rise in the cadre to Head credit, treasury or risk functions. We used to call him a General Banker- a jack of all ( I would refrain from using second part of this saying as some of them proved to be pioneers having written reference books on their domains) , who would provide flexibility to the top management to be used anywhere from admin to treasury! However, increasingly the last of the bastions of the generalists are falling to skilled specialists, more noticeably civil services and banking. We recently read about the Government contemplating lateral recruitment of professionals into civil services. Banking in any case is today more about IT rather than pure banking and with robotics and artificial intelligence next big disruptions, I see general bankers becoming redundant over the next decade or so! It’s not only heads of IT and Law, but several other domains such as HR, Marketing, Product development etc that have industry professionals heading them rather than traditional bankers. Is no specialised skill also a skill? Is there any importance or value assignable to practical knowledge, experience or first hand exposure to a domain or subject? Actually, the idea of writing this blog struck me while reading my favourite cartoon strip “Blondie” in today’s newspaper. Bumstead is appearing specially cheerful while going to office and his wife Blondie asks him the reason. He replies, “whenever anyone in office makes a real dumb move, the boss says they’ve pulled a Bumstead!” Blondie tells him that this isn’t exactly a compliment to which he remarks, ” May not be in the traditional sense, but it’s the first time I’ve ever had a skill named for me.” Sometimes even innocuous cartoon humour can have such underlying meaning that it can hit you hard!

I got the first feel of the community based festivals during my posting at Kolkata. Our first Durga Puja at Kolkata was a memorable experience. Five days of holidays on a trot, life coming to complete halt during the daytime on these 5 days, the city sleeping in the morning and completely vibrant during the nights, public transport, including the tube railway plying whole night and hordes and hordes of people doing pandal hopping, standing in serpentine queues outside some of the more famous pujas of Mohammad Ali Park, College Square etc. Of course, some of the Durga Puja Committees experimented with newer themes year on year ( eco friendly, Kargil war, space journey etc) that attracted crowds to their pandals. Food available at the stalls was to die for and Mother Teresa was treated almost with same awe, respect and devotion as the divine Ma herself. Delhi had Ramlilas, but such community based festival was a big novelty for a Delhiite.

Fast forward to our arrival in Mumbai and we were exposed to Ganpati festival for the first time. I had some idea of this festival thanks to Bollywood, but first hand experience of how this elephant God had captured the imagination of Mumbaikars was exhilarating to say the least. It was actually a divine experience . Also, unlike Durga Puja, which was largely community based with very few households having private puja at home, Ganpati festival had both – communities as well as households celebrating this festival with big and small idols of various hues, moods and materials. Seeing the devotion and gaiety, we decided to bring home a Ganesha every year for 1.5 days, a tradition that has continued over the last 16 years.

We bring home Ganesha on the festival day morning, welcome him like a house guest, treat him well, invite friends and acquaintances for Prasadam and take him to the sea beach the next day evening for immersion. It is said that immersion of the Lord is symbolic of his reunion with his mother, a happy event but tinged with sadness on having to see off a guest, who changed our lives by being our guest for 1.5 days.

This is the 17th year of our celebration and what makes this event even more special is the presence of our grandson, whom we lovingly address as Maghi Ganesh (he was born during that period).

As I always admit, festivals represent our culture and ethos, but with each passing year the gaiety and enthusiasm are waning. Diwali is quieter and less sweet, Holi is dryer and less boisterous, Rakshabandhan is lonelier with none or one sibling (sometimes of the same sex like only two brothers or only two sisters), but the community based festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi play an important role in keeping our tradition alive, bringing the communities together and conveying the larger purpose of these festivals in our lives that goes beyond eating , dancing or fasting!

Ganpati Bappa Moriya to everyone! May the lord shower his choicest blessings on everyone irrespective of sex, caste, creed, religion, nationality or economic status!!!!

Why only Petrol, Diesel and Dollar? Why not kerosene, gas and Euro? Because kerosene is now outmoded, replaced by gas and the segment that used kerosene earlier and now gas is mostly subsidised segment in whose accounts Government deposits cash subsidy and so this segment is relatively less impacted. And Euro? Who knows Euro? Everyone loves Greenback only!

Rise in the price of petrol and diesel has the incremental effect as these are fuels and rise in fuels prices fuels price rise across the board – our vegetables, fruits, daily ration, conveyance- everything becomes more expensive. And dollar? Not quite the reason mentioned above i.e. not that we love it, but because we pay for everything that we import, including petrol and diesel using it! Due to US embargo on one of the major oil sellers, Iran, and the decision of other OPEC nations to restrict supplies the price of oil has increased to $ 80 a barrel and due to worldwide strengthening of greenback, we are now paying 73 Rupees for a dollar, oil has become very expensive and the nation is left with no option but to silently bear the brunt!

What can we do? Ideally speaking, we can conserve petrol and diesel by using public transport system or sharing/pooling conveyance. But in Mumbai , boarding local trains in the peak morning hours is no mean task and BEST buses are no longer the best in the country. There are fewer BEST buses on the roads, fleet is not best maintained and road travel in Mumbai for longer distances is simply not viable! Pooling or sharing requires lots of prerequisites, sacrifices and adjustments and is rarely feasible. Work from home is another option, but we are still long way off from that.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t do a thing other than being mute witnesses and silent sufferers! We can definitely help the country in lowering the fuel bill by :

(1) Driving more sensibly on the roads and by not contributing to traffic jams by indulging in reckless practices;

(2) Adopting better traffic management practices so that jams are avoided on crossings, which burn huge quantities of oil in a wasteful manner

(3) Conserving electricity and gas at home as the larger ramifications of all this are exhaustion of natural resources and their ever increasing demand!

(4) Driving more fuel efficient vehicles, switching off ignition at traffic signals, switching off AC when not required and avoiding peak hours.

(5) Keeping our vehicles in top shape, tyre pressures at the recommended levels and regularly taking our vehicles for servicing and check ups.

When the phenomenon is world wide and control on the situation minimalist, populist measures like bandhs and dharnas are not the panacea. Let’s hope for resolution of Iran imbroglio, strengthening of our humble Rupee and more disciplined road habits leading to lower imports of oil, which can moderate the demand and hence the price. Let’s simultaneously hope that Government holds hand by making some sacrifice at least so that common people survive this difficult phase and not resort to what draught / flood affected farmers of this country have been doing in the recent past – commit suicide!!!!!

My office is located in Lower Parel area of Mumbai city, which was earlier mill area. All the spinning mills of the yore- Century, Phoenix, Bombay Dyeing, Ruby etc- had their works in and around this area. Most of the erstwhile mill lands have been redeveloped as commercial complexes and swanky malls and several posh and high rise residential projects, including the iconic Trump Tower, are coming up in this area. However, the last vestiges of the now closed mills can still be found here. If the mills were there, mill workers also required accommodation. So we still have several chawls and other low cost community residential structures still in existence.

Enroute Office, I just noticed a death notice on the community black board ( kept outside every such residential area to announce any event of common interest) grieving the death of a community elder. This spirit of oneness by co-existing in the same area for generations is unique not only to Mumbai but to this country called India! The names could be different – mohalla in Delhi and north, pada in Kolkata and East and Chawls in Mumbai, it’s all the same where communities stay together, share joys and sorrows, lend help to each other and are bereft of ego and selfishness! It’s the marriage of not my daughter or your daughter, but our daughter; when an elder dies, he is not only individual’s father but everyone’s chacha, mama, Kaku or dada! Festivals are celebrated together, it’s always community’s Durga Puja or Ganpati or Jagrata; leisure hours are for reading newspapers together, playing carrom board with neighbours or simply gossiping! There’s a great sense of security and comfort in being together!

Not too long ago, this feeling was all pervasive in even middle class residential societies. After finishing daily chores, ladies would sit together, children played outdoor games, men would meet on holidays and sweets exchanged on occasions such as Diwali.

Fast forward it to today, for 6.5 years, we had same neighbours on the same floor with entrances facing each other. Ladies must have exchanged pleasantries not more than 6 times ( that makes it an average of 1 hi per year), while men chose to look through each other in the rarest of the rare circumstances of bumping into each other. Whether they went through any problems, difficulties or sorrows, we were totally unaware and ditto on their side! I guess they had very good culinary skills because aromas from their home were very tempting and I would frequently lament about drab food repeatedly eaten by us! But never received even a morsel of yummy dishes made by them!

Communities shrunk into large families and progressively further into joint families and finally into nuclear families! These nuclear families of 2-3 members neither know any of their neighbours nor any traditions or customs. On Diwali days, scared of the noise and air pollutions, they take a quick getaway to Dubai or Thailand. I am not sure how long these community events like Durga Puja, Ganpati or Ram Lila are going to survive! If man is a social animal why is he avoiding society and becoming asocial?

Today is Teachers Day. We all have old memories of our school and college days and the teachers that taught us, etched in our minds- some fond others not so fond. There were teachers who were loving, kind, affectionate, taking personal interest in our growth and development. Such teachers were our ideals and we not only adored them but aspired to be like them. Others were strict (though not always a negative attribute and in fact, sometimes required), temperamental, distant and not quite helpful in the sense we expect our teachers to be.

As we move ahead in life, while we have no teachers in the sense we understand teachers in the parlance of school and college, we come across teachers of different kind, because learning does not stop once we are out of school and college, but is a life long process. I was a science student, who didn’t understand the B of Banking, but the first counter clerk who taught me how to post debits and credits, the Head Clerk who told me about the double entry book keeping and need to daily tally clean cash book and General Ledger, the Special Assistant who guided me about how to apply interest, the Field Officer who painfully took me through the nuances of CMS (as CMA firm was earlier known), my Regional Manager who exhorted me to finish my rural stint as my daughter was very young, a senior who gave me an opportunity to work in the Bank’s credit department that proved to be the game changer- the list is endless, but each one was a teacher in his/her own right. These are all silent invisible influences in one’s life whose contribution we realise only much later, by which, the time to convey our thanks to them is already lapsed. They may no longer be around us or in some cases in this world.

While these special days are important as they draw our focus to a particular aspect that is signified by that special day, for certain things, we should not wait for any special day or occasion. One such thing is expressing gratitude to those around us who add to our personality ( personal as well as professional), at times rather subtly, but it can all mean so much in medium to long term. Thanksgiving to parents, elders, seniors, mentors, teachers, guides and the almighty should not be slave to any particular day or occasion but a daily chore before going to the bed. On this teachers day I pay my obeisance to all those who helped me reach where I am and become a person that I am.

If you have an ailment, why go to a Doctor? You can google your ailment and find out everything about it, including its cure! However, you may not fully trust an advice from a faceless intangible virtual doctor! But you will definitely trust when your Face Book friend or one amongst several hundred (may be thousand or more depending on your proficiency of usage) WhatsApp contacts shares such kind of information with you. Moreover, most of the suggested remedies are touted to be “Ramban”, a famous colloquial word used for “Wonder cure”! (As per the folklore, Lord Rama was a perfect shooter and his arrows seldom missed the target). So, for my knee pain, I have at least 100 cures, almost all of them being Rambans! I started with a mix of turmeric, coriander and ginger powders, a spoonful to be consumed every morning with lukewarm lemon water. Then I moved on to Fenugreek seeds to be soaked in water over night to be had first thing in the morning. Then it was bottle gourd juice and aloe Vera. Then somebody forwarded a sure shot remedy ( Knowing this contact too well over the years, I was confident that this acquaintance must have had first hand experience and wouldn’t have just forwarded message received from elsewhere) – to put three drops of castor oil into belly button every night! This really looked promising as in our childhood, our elders advocated the virtues of putting a drop of oil, albeit a different oil, mustard, inside nose and belly button for general good! I have since finished a few kgs of powder mix, fenugreek seeds, a few litres each of bottle gourd and aloe Vera juices and several bottles of castor oil, but my knee pain has refused to budge even an inch! If it all, it has only worsened. And this is not limited to knee pain or me! My wife has tried concoctions guaranteeing weight loss in a fortnight and my friends have tried suggested cures for almost every conceivable ailment – BP, constipation, height gain, eyesight, grey hair, muscle formation and what not! They are all like they were before, if not worse.

Not everything on social media is truth and especially in the matters of our body and health, we should not get carried away by false, untested and tall claims, but follow the old fashioned time tested way of seeing the doctor next door. The larger message here, however, is that far too much disruption and polarisation are being caused by sensational unconfirmed rumours doing rounds on social media. Like we have to be careful with our body, let’s also exercise care and caution with our heart and mind instead of blindly believing and getting carried over by this stuff on social media!

Writing about the changing perspectives of our major festivals is one of my favourite subjects. My childhood was spent in Delhi and Janmashtami was celebrated with great gusto and fervour there. A matter of special attraction was the painstaking efforts by households to recreate the scenes of Lord Krishna’s birth in Mathura prison, where Lord’s uncle Kamsa had held Krishna’s parents in captivity as there was a forecast that the baby born to his sister Devaki would be the cause of his death. He in fact killed several children born to Vasudeva and Devaki till the birth of Lord himself when all the guards fell asleep and the gates of the prison opened automatically facilitating escape of Vasudeva with new born Krishna, whom he dropped at the place of Nanda and Yashodhara, the foster parents of Krishna. This story was created with much fanfare, devotion and dedication by the households using simple materials and decorative stuff. Temples would see huge queues for Lord’s darshanam on this auspicious day.

Of course, Janmashtami was celebrated with fervour in all parts of the country albeit in different styles. While Janmashtami at Krishna’s birth place Mathura and where he spent his childhood, Vrindavan, was understandably grand, Mumbai was famous for its Dahi Handi festival, popularised even more by the Bollywood. “Govind aala re ” and “Mach gaya shor ” with iconic stars Shammi Kapoor and Amitabh reprising the role of Govinda are unforgettable.

Like any religious festival, while the devotion, especially amongst the seniors may not have come down, fasting and queues outside temples are still common sights and Mumbai may still be loving its Govindas, somehow our tight schedules, plethora of problems, tensions, competition, ambition and the new world obsession with gadgetry, have resulted in the spirit of the festival waning considerably. We feel by forwarding received WhatsApp messages to our acquaintances, we have played our part in remembering them and greeting them on the festival day. This makes this pure, significant and sprightly festival like any other special day (friendship, teacher’s, parent’s, valentine’s etc.), which we love to take cognisance of in the today’s world ruled by social media. For me, Janmashtami is not merely about Krishna’s birth, but it’s deep rooted philosophy of victory of good over evil and spreading the message of happiness and goodwill amongst the citizenry of this country.

Happy Janmashtami and Jai Shri Krishna to all the readers of my blog.

We Indians crave for foreign destinations. Hitherto, one of the most sought after destinations was US, but thanks to Trump and his idiosyncrasies, the land of dreams no longer retains its numero uno position. Geographies such as Canada and Australia are new places of choice (unless you are Nirav Modi or Mehul Choksi, opting for safer havens like one of the Caribbean nations or tax friendly nations). Of course, places like Singapore, Dubai and much of Gulf house millions of Indians, though these countries have become much more stringent in giving work permits or permanent resident ships.

When we go abroad as tourists, we lament about the lack of cleanliness, discipline, hygiene, road manners and general orderliness lacking in India, but are the hallmarks of almost all developed countries. But when we go there either for long term or permanently, we start missing certain luxuries that are unique to India. No these luxuries are not coffee book cliches such as Indian cuisine, Taj Mahal, Folk Music and Dances, Culture, Mysticism, Varanasi, Moksha etc. Guess what are these luxuries? I have tried to list a few, without which my wife, a foreign travel freak and aspirant to migrate to one of the developed countries, cannot imagine to survive! These are:

(1) Maid, the poor impoverished lady who comes every morning to sweep our homes clean, do our dishes and wash our clothes. For what we pay to her for making our lives so comfortable, she’s is an irreplaceable luxury.

(2) Driver, the Man Friday who drives you to wherever you want, manages your vehicle as you shop around, drops your kids to school and brings them back, opens the car doors for you and do several other odd jobs. I am told valets and drivers are meant for blue blood top elite in western world and the likes of us, the middle class types, either handle our own wheels or take public transport! Our driver, our man Friday has been with us for last 20 years and once he reports in the morning, it’s the end of all our troubles and problems. Where do you get such loyal, hardworking drivers at such unimaginable cost?

(3) How about your local ironman, who takes your washed clothes and returns them duly ironed with immaculate crease? Even most affluent of the people in developed countries have an iron table and a handy iron home to do self ironing!

(4) Many Indian households with both the working members, have Maharaj coming home everyday and cooking most delicious meals! It’s said that meals so cooked are not mere delicacies but is like God’s own gift in the form of Prasadam!

(5) Then there are newspaper boy, milkman, grocery delivery person, kabadiwala, paan wala and a host of such fellows who are there for you unassumingly, but whom you miss when they are not around!

My wife is right! If some organisation wants to hire me abroad, salary is negotiable but absolutely non negotiable requirements are – a maid, a driver, a Maharaj, newspaper and milk delivered every morning at the doorstep and a masseur, who gives full body massage every Sunday morning for 2 dollars an hour!