Art of living and 5 random acts of kindness

I had the privilege and honour of attending "Art of Living" sessions for 4 consecutive days.

the sessions were very informative, opening many doors for me even though known to me. There were exercises for the conscious, subconscious and superconscious levels.

One of the tasks given to us was to do 5 random acts of Kindness by each one of the participants. This was thought-provoking for me ,since I wanted to continue with it every day. Feeding a dog, crow, helping your wife in household chores(Is it an act of kindness!!), making a small donation, etc. But sustaining this on a day to day basis every day is highly demanding. So I have reduced it to at least 2 acts of kindness per day!!

There are a few important powerful messages I received:

1)Opposite values are complementary- day/night, ugly/beautiful, good/bad- one cannot exist without the other. Somebody said Opposites merge in Oneness like Seshnag and Garuda exist in one abode with Bhagwan. Thiruvalluvar said "
வேண்டுதல் வேண்டாமை இலான்அடி சேர்ந்தார்க்கு 
யாண்டும் இடும்பை இல 
(அதிகாரம்:கடவுள் வாழ்த்து குறள் எண்:4) "

(To those who meditate the feet of Him who is void of desire and/or aversion,evil shall never come)

இருள்சேர் இருவினையும் சேரா இறைவன்
பொருள்சேர் புகழ்புரிந்தார் மாட்டு 
(அதிகாரம்:கடவுள் வாழ்த்து குறள் எண்:5) "

(The twin-fold deeds that spring/lead, from/to darkness, shall not adhere to those who delight in the true praise of God)

In both the above kurals the emphasis is on opposites losing their values in front of God.

2)Pl. don't see intentions behind other peoples' mistakes/actions;i.e many a time we start jumping drawing diabolical evil intentions, purposes,motives behind others' actions. That is for Police and Judiciary to see and not for the common man who is in search of  harmony.

3)Pl. do not be a football for others; willingly you can be a football for some time but do not allow others to use you like a football. Even Lord Krishna ,when he went as Pandava Dhootha allowed the enemies to play him like a football but with the good intention of preventing a war. 

4)Accept people and situations as they are. Most of the time we react to others but not respond to others. Forgive and forget even those who have done the worst to you. This is being proactive in forgiving and forgetting for getting ahead with life.

5)Always live in the present and not brood over the past or worry about the future or the unknown. Give 100% to the present moment and action is important for peace of mind without any regrets in the future.

We are all energy microcosm and so since energy is neither made or destroyed in the Universe but only transformed,the rightful conclusion is that we have been in this Universe from time immemorial.

Am I counting my blessings or accounting for the missing, daily!!!

The Interactive Triangle -how do we lead a life!

Humans are students of life with the ability to help others in every possible way, however small may it be, day in and day out and go up in the ladder of evolvement of their individual souls. In this process they realise that they are preprogrammed machines with same set of Operating Systems  of mind and senses ,but with a discerning intellect guided by the Paramatman from deep inside.

Some may agree that the "inner voice" of conscience, as Gandhiji would put it,  is God speaking to you or through you and many may disagree with this. Let us not digress into that.Let us keep it aside as this is a black box about which discussion can go on endlessly.

But the elephant in the room is that we have limited cognition of both our external  universe i.e physical outer world as well as, of the inner mind space world. We are only tuned into certain frequencies or preset softwares, for the purpose of our existence in this earth.

We are daily shaped by our observations cum experiences , which form our memories of short run and long run based on our Cognitions or Perceptions. All these interact and reinforce each other continuously defining our path of life.
The Interactive Triangle can be presented this way: (Ego is Gross and Consciousness is subtle- but both exist)

The Interactive Triangle

Bacteriophages, Ganges and MIT on fasting.

In 1896, Ernest Hanbury Hankin, a British Bacteriologist, Chemist, came out with a finding that the Indian rivers, Ganges and Jamuna could actually restrict the outbreak of cholera and in fact the waters could destroy the Cholera bacteria. He was the first to detect the bacteriophage activity and its presence in the river waters of Ganges and Jamuna. A startling discovery when the whole world was saying the river waters of Ganges were the most polluted.link. In his own words
"It is seen that the unboiled water of the Ganges kills the cholera germ in less than 3 hours. The same water, when boiled, does not have the same effect. On the other hand, well water is a good medium for this microbe, whether boiled or filtered."

This was mentioned even by Mark Twain in his More Tramps Abroad.

Recently microbiology researchers from Chandigarh's Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), studied the healing properties of Ganges water at its upper reaches and found bacteriophage activity which destroys the disease causing bacteria. The bacteriophage is a type of virus that eats up bacteria.link.

Recently MIT came up with a study on fasting by humans and its beneficial impact on human health.link "Fasting boosts stem cell regenerative capacity"- the MIT article says,

"As people age, their intestinal stem cells begin to lose their ability to regenerate. These stem cells are the source for all new intestinal cells, so this decline can make it more difficult to recover from gastrointestinal infections or other conditions that affect the intestine.

This age-related loss of stem cell function can be reversed by a 24-hour fast, according to a new study from MIT biologists. The researchers found that fasting dramatically improves stem cells’ ability to regenerate, in both aged and young mice."

Indians practice this 24-hour fasting once in 15 days on the Ekadasi day from time immemorial.

The human body is an intelligent machine with recuperative and regenerative capacity and given the right metabolic switch , it can mend itself when disease strikes.

All the Siddhars of India emphasized that "உணவே மருந்து"(Food is medicine) when taken in the right quantity at the right time intervals. Thiruvalluvar has also emphasized this in his kural chapter "மருந்து". 

India is a land possessing all the keys to the world's problems, if only you explored.

Health welfare policies to dovetail into Economic Policy making and emerging New Normal

When coming out of a pandemic will the world view change?

I recently read that Ms.Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, has inducted more Virologists, Epidemiologists and Sociologists etc. into her team for the purpose of decision making in these challenging times of the pandemic.Of course there are Economists also in the policy making.

Leaders around the world either leading a country or leading a corporation have started listening to the Health Experts for formulating new Age policies across the continents. The Health policy to dovetail into Economic Policy of the country. So far countries have been juggling only with Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy but now the "New Normal" has emerged, where economic policy making is incumbent upon Health Policy direction, speed and spread.

The following graph will illustrate how Economic well being and growth of a country is going to hinge on its Health Policy and Infra in the coming years.

As Risk Management Experts view this pandemic  " Black Swan" event  Low probability but High impact event ; some calling it Grey Rhino event (high impact but known unknown)as the world neglected the repeated warnings of the pandemic outbreak for sometime now. May be only the timing and impact was not known.

But to come out of it we need to build bottom up with both robust Health Policy vectors intertwined with Economic policies that provide nudges for better health outcomes on a long term basis.

We need to appreciate that there may be many  windows through which the diverse view points will emerge and for formulating future policies either at Governmental level or at a Corporate House level , all these windows need to be opened and studied/listened to ,for a Sustainable Governance architecture.

Amid the pandemic, demands for social equality emerging out of George Floyd's death ,turning into demands for economic equality in a society of Haves and Havenots are deafening.

Welcome to the world of New Normal!!

Land is not manufactured anymore! Can we turn this on its head.

"Buy land, they're not making it anymore"-Mark Twain

Govt. is in the process of identifying land parcels for attracting industries moving out of China for want of safe haven. If big land parcels can be earmarked for setting up Industrial parks and industrial clusters, it will give a huge fillip for Make in India campaign.

As PM said India has the Intent, it paves way for Inclusion,  provides Infrastructure. attracts Investment and enables  Innovation. But what is stopping it from leap frogging. It is redtapism in land acquisition ,lackadaisical Court procedures and the greed of politicians that put paid to ambitions of growth in Make in India. Even smaller countries like Vietnam, Indonesia are able to attract industries moving out of China in a big way but the sleeping giant like India falters.

Despite improving the ranking in Ease of Doing Business has the economy really energised itself to become an aspiring industrial giant. There are green shoots here and there , but one swallow does not make a summer. We know of several projects that are languishing due to land acquisition hurdles like Chennai MRTS last leg of just 500 meters upto St Thomas Mount for more than a decade. Who pays for the time, cost over runs. Nothing is free in economics and only the poor taxpayer foots the additional bill and he gets empty rhetoric but gets no infra facility for decades.

Some out of the box solutions for land parcels will have to be found out. We know that land is not manufactured anymore.Is it really? Can we not flatten some of the mounds, hillocks around our cities and build industrial parks.

For example near Chennai airport there are few hillocks and if they are removed or flattened reasonably, many industries can be located. If these rocks removed from such hillocks are deposited near our Coastline can we build small islands to locate some industries over there?

Can we start manufacturing lands as part of Make in India initiative?

Change management, Covid and nation.

Kubler-Ross Change Curve

This Curve theory explains the process as to how people cope up with significant upheaval or life-changing or threatening situations.link

The process explains that people undergo five/six stages: the first stage is that of Shock, then going into Denial, then to Anger, moving into Depression. Up to this stage the performance of the individual or group of people will continue to deteriorate as time progresses. Once the inevitability of the Change dawns, then the people move to Acceptance and finally into Integration when the performance will again start regaining the original position or sometimes exceeding it if there are supporting enablers or incentives.

This is true for individuals as well as for a country or economy.

Since the nation received the pandemic shock in March middle, you may recount we have seen at least the first four stages. We start denying that this pandemic will affect us and once we realised that it is spreading we showed our Anger at China, TJ, and at all those epicentres. Now we are in the Depression stage slowly moving into Acceptance stage where we need to understand to live with this virus by being vigilant and exercising caution. We should not let our safety guard down .

One must also understand that when you are already in Depression stage, if there is another negative news the performance will again start sagging and another cycle /bout of Shock, Denial ,Anger and Depression will kick in .So, it is extremely important for the Govts and the people to navigate this phase without further unexpected shocks.

People are cautioned to listen to the TV news with a pinch of salt. They must look at the Covid nos as a percentage of tests made, active cases situation , infection per lac of population and death per lac. 

RBI consumer confidence survey of May 2020 and getting the common man's dreams back.

RBI consumer confidence survey was done in May 2020, which came out a few days back paints a dark picture of consumer confidence. It has hit rock bottom so far.link. Whether it will hit another bottom is a moot point.

According to RBI Consumer confidence collapsed in May with the Current Situation Index (CSI) touching a historic low of 63.7 dipping from 85.6 in March 20. One year ahead Future Expectations Index entered the zone of pessimism at 97.9 for the first time after Modi govt. took charge, falling from 115.2 just two months ago.

These are all negative news, but as expected. However these are lag news and therefore markets looking for lead indicators ignored this. We all now know that Covid 19 has wreaked havoc on our economic health more than what it could do to people health.

But there are several silver linings like not many people do not expect price levels to go up. If we discount the "recency bias" in their opinions and perceptions,I still find 14.4 % people saying in May 2020 that the economy has improved. We must also keep the date of survey and context in our minds. The survey date is between  May 5-17 and in the midst of Covid fear, with lakhs of migrant workers walking and shown endlessly 24x7 in TV news. Sometimes I wondered how come with so many trains and buses being stopped which were all running overcrowded, people are managing commuting and travelling. Our media has put a little spin and exaggeration to this by labelling every traveller on foot a migrant labourer leaving for his native place. Every reporter worth his salt with a mike on hand interviewed every single person on foot asking whether he was migrant labour and everyone being asked acknowledging it. Now I understand that all those trains and buses running daily are only for migrant labourers!! That is beside the point.

Coming back to my point that almost 14.4% of people still finding that the economy has improved is a testimony to the confidence of the people on the Govt. Govt has rightly acted with alacrity by announcing Rs.21 lac crore bundled package which will make  supply-side fire on all cylinders. All of us agree that it is the supply side which needs time to pick and put all its pieces together. But the confidence and speed with which Supply-side can get back on its feet, essentially depends on its perception of demand perking up. The demographic dividend is a major contributor to the demand but Future Expectations Index indicator is a proxy for this perception by the Supply-side. When FEI is weak, it is time for the Govt. to understand that income levels are falling and people are losing faith in the strength of the economy. This pessimism will damage the Supply-side booster shots going waste unless the perception is reversed quickly. Opening up of the economy after lockdown will itself augur optimism but sustaining it depends on Demand-side actions by the Govt. To kickstart a flagging economy, the man on the street who is the ultimate consumer must get his job back, his income back and basically his dreams about the future back.

Govt must work for getting his dreams back without losing time. Cut  Auto sector GST, for a start.