Face of Poverty?

The Hindu had published this picture and had asked readers to send in their thoughts. What does this picture evoke in you? Tell us what you think in 100 words. The best responses will be published in these columns. And win prizes. Write in to nextgen@gmail.com

Here is my response....

• In life you can choose your schools and teachers, but not your lessons.
• Don’t they ask you to leave a mark on every surface you write on?
• May be is that what Darwin meant when he said “Survival of the fittest”.
• Isn’t poverty colorful and innocent? I am re-drawing the lines in my palm, may be the palmist will predict a better future this time?
• Archeologist and paleontologists make a career out of ruins, so why not me? The story of rags to riches is in the make….
  

Eulogy - Raghuvaran

Success can be as lethal as failure sometimes.
This was the last line from the eulogy that was published on March 19, 2008 edition of the evening daily, News Today. Connect the dots, from Hollywood star Heath Ledger to Raghuvaran in Kollywood don’t you see a pattern and price they pay as a result of success?

Both these actors had solid performances, mass appeal, brand value, highly successful careers, wonderful families, doted wife, yet they dug their grave very early. Why did this happen? Is it because of the loneliness at the top? Is it the pressure from sustaining success? It is due to the adrenalin rush from maintaining the “Cool image” in the industry? Is success is a sweet poison?

Two words that come to my mind when I think of movie industry are glitter and guilt. Glitter is easy to handle but guilt is ticking time bomb. Is movie industry a great industry to be in though it looks grand and glamorous? Let us introspect. So many people enter the industry and it takes more than hard work and luck to hold on to stardom. Not everyone who enters is guaranteed of success nor they become Rajnikanth, Amitabh, Kamalhassan or Manorama, Shabana Azmi. Men usually step out and take up off screen roles such as producers when star value wanes. May be the reality is even more gross and horrid if you are a women? What happened to silk Smitha, Fadafat, Parvin Bhabhi, Madhubala? All of them were glamour dolls and reigning queens when tragedy struck them.

Addiction to drugs, tobacco, alcohol, meat trade, etc is not new in the glamour industry, to some it is a stepping stone to success and to some becomes the tombstone. Some people have been lucky like Sanjay Dutt, Nagesh and life has given them a second chance to live, but not everyone as is lucky as them. It is sad to see brilliant lives wither in bud. I hope people in the movie industry more importantly than other professions will realize the value of life and lethal side of success.

Where will these artist who entertain the world go when it comes to forgetting their worries? Drugs, alcohol, meat can be a temporary relief for pain in the heart and mind, and often takes them into a bigger spiral without any return. Spiritually is often the last resort for people who have tried out all other options early on in life. I have personally seen Raghuvaran, at times with his mother and son at the both the temples (daily 7 pm at Sai Baba temple Mylapore and Saturdays 6 PM at Hanuman temple, Alwarpet). The lanky bespectacled man walks in the temple with a lugubrious face and usually walks out with a tilak on his forehead and a relaxed smile. May be that was his Prozac for the day? Nobody knows and sometimes nobody will ever understand the language of the heart and the mind. One could see the struggle on his face while he folds his palms and surrenders to the almighty asking for clemency. I thought he had everything in life that every man in the movie industry dreams to have – successful career, a doted wife, a charming son, access to money. What more would one ask for? A struggle for what? May be a piece of mind to handle worries, success, foibles?

Next time when I am at the temple my eyes will wander and mind will look for the lanky man. This time I will grapple to understand the true meaning success, the transient nature life, and happiness. I will ask God if death was clemency in his kingdom.

News Today Article:
NT Bureau Wed, 19 Mar, 2008,03:01 PM
The quintessential psychopathic baddie of Tamil cinema, the man who gave villainy on screen a good name, Raghuvaran died here at a private hospital after battling personal demons and a few other debilitating physical problems. He was 49.
Raghuvaran is survived by his former wife actress Rohini (the couple had divorced) and their son, Nanda.
Raghuvaran had been unwell for the last few years and had taken a sabbatical from active films for some time. Sivapathigaram, released some time last year, marked his comeback. After that he was a regular figure acting in big films including Rajnikanth’s Sivaji. His last release was however Sila Nerangalil and Bheema (which had been made some time back).
The life of lanky Raghuvaran, who made his debut as a brooding Commie hero in Ezhavathu Manithan under the direction of Hariharan, eventually turned out to be bitter-sweet as he had to constantly fight his tendency to embrace the easier pleasures that were easily available to impressionable youngsters in Kollywood.
Unable to handle the success and fame that came his way early, Raghuvaran fell into bad habits, from which he never really came out till his untimely death today.
But even as he was living life on the edge with women, wine and many other seductive things, Raghuvaran also managed to win a name for himself as someone whose acting ability was refreshingly sans the usual Kollywood cliches. After playing hero roles not with egregious success, Raghuvaran was quick to switch over to the archetypal middle-class character roles. Films like Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, Aaha, Mugavari, Amarkkalam, Run, and many others with Rajnikanth including Muthu, Arunachalam, Siva, Sivaji, Raja Chinna Roja proved his versatility.
But it was as a villain, with shades of deep black and a touch of enigmatic and over-the-top eccentricity, that Raghuvaran’s eventual screen image came to be defined. The scene in which he completely lets himself loose, mouthing ‘I know’ for heaven knows how many times, in the film Puriyatha Puthir, became so popular that his real-life image was almost suspected to be something similar. It was one of the myths that he could never really shake off.
But even as he was fighting what eventually turned out to be a losing battle with the bottle, a spiritual and an ersatz philosophical side to his persona also opened up. He also became a devotee of Sai Baba. It was during this phase he struck a romantic chord with actress Rohini and married her.
The marriage, as it happened, like his film career promised a lot, but ended up mighty short. The couple had a son Nanda, on whom Raghuvaran was doting. When the marriage ended up in the courts, Raghuvaran became an even more broken man and reportedly fell into his self-created abyss. Though well-meaning individuals, who thought highly of his acting skills, tried to shore him up with some film offers all through last year, Raghuvaran was for all practical purposes had called it quits — on films and life too.
In the event, his end, though surprising in its immediate aftermath, was something that was foretold the moment he courted early success. Raghuvaran’s life, like some of his movies including the almost biographical Idhu Oru Manidhanin Kadhai, was something of a cautionary morality play. A noir show of how success could be as lethal as a failure, sometimes.

Addiction to Devices

Addiction to devices seems to be a bigger problem than drugs, alcohol, pornography and tobacco. Barrage of e-trash invade our computers and hand held devices and being connected spells DISASTER!

Ask yourself if you ever had a day without your laptop or mobiles. If not then you are in for a serious trouble. Knowledge is power, but staying connected 24 by 7 means complete mental discharge and exhaustion.

Today the e-human is a walking gadget museum embedded with PDA, blue tooth headset, ipod, etc. We live in a neurotic world with quick turn-around time and software industry demands decision making in micro seconds. What does all this mean? It means be available and connected 24 by 7. The moment you reach a key position in an organization you are bequeathed with a laptop, data card and hand held. Does it mean you are given a shield and a sword, or recognition for your performance, pride and ego, No, in hindsight it only means slavery and addiction.

I have seen many of my friends at work meddle and fiddle with their PDA’s every few minutes. I find them extremely disturbed and mentally occupied. They are physically present but mentally disconnected from the conversation. There is never a moment of silence, and it looked both funny and dangerous to me. These guys also take their devices to bed, which is more annoying than their partners. There was a time when these guys reached out to check on their partner at night, but now they reach out for their devices and read messages at wee hours. Sounds crazy and obsessive huh? Yes it is OCD of a different kind.

Sometimes I wonder if we are creating a new species prone to insomnia and device addiction. May be we will soon have rehab centers and groups such as Alcohol anonymous for Techno addicts.

Sleep is the biggest blessing given to mankind and I thank god I don’t have working weekends and I don’t carry the addictive Blackberry. If I did then I would go insane and extinct. I don’t take any electronic gadgets into my bedroom – be it mobile phone, laptops or other kinds. They for sure are No no!

Stop here and now invest few minutes to read an article from NY TIMES on Gadget Addiction


I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really.
By MARK BITTMAN For NY Times
Published: March 2, 2008
I TOOK a real day off this weekend: computers shut down, cellphone left in my work bag, land-line ringer off. I was fully disconnected for 24 hours.
The reason for this change was a natural and predictable back-breaking straw. Flying home from Europe a few months ago, I swiped a credit card through the slot of the in-seat phone, checked my e-mail and robbed myself of one of my two last sanctuaries.

At that point, the only other place I could escape was in my sleep. Yet I had developed the habit of leaving a laptop next to my bed so I could check my e-mail, last thing and first thing. I had learned how to turn my P.D.A. into a modem, the better to access the Web from my laptop when on a train. Of course I also used that P.D.A. in conventional ways, attending to it when it buzzed me.

In short, my name is Mark, and I'm a techno-addict. But after my airplane experience, I decided to do something about it. Thus began my "secular Sabbath" — a term I found floating around on blogs — a day a week where I would be free of screens, bells and beeps. An old-fashioned day not only of rest but of relief.

Like many, though, I wondered whether breaking my habit would be entirely beneficial. I worried about the colleagues, friends, daughters, parents and so on who relied on me, the people who knew that whether I was home or away I would get back to them, if not instantly then certainly before the end of the day. What if something important was happening, something that couldn't wait 24 hours?

Or was I just one of those Americans who've developed the latest in American problems, Internet addiction disorder?

As a baby boomer, I knew mine was no unique thought; we've always been part of some trend or other. And sure enough, as soon as I started looking I found others who felt the need to turn off, to take a stab at reconnecting to things real rather than virtual, a moderate but carefully observed vacation from ubiquitous marketing and the awesome burden of staying in touch.
Nor is this surprising, said David Levy, a professor in the information school at the University of Washington. "What's going on now is insane," he said, assuring me that he used the term intentionally. "Living a good life requires a kind of balance, a bit of quiet. There are questions about the limits of the brain and the body, and there are parallels here to the environmental movement." (Dr. Levy coined the term "information environmentalism.")
"Who," he then asked, "would say you don't need time to think, to reflect, to be successful and productive?"

THIS movement to unplug appears to be gaining traction everywhere, from the blogosphere, where wired types like Ariel Meadow Stallings (http://electrolicious.com/unplugged) brag about turning off the screen one day a week (and how many books they've read so far this year), to the corporate world.

For example, Nathan Zeldes, a principal engineer at Intel (employees there read or send three million e-mail messages daily), is running a couple of experiments, one in which people spend a morning a week at work but offline, another in which people consciously reduce their e-mail output. Though he's not reporting results, he's encouraged and he says people are participating.
"Even many corporate leaders now believe you need time to hear the voice of the new inside," said Anne Dilenschneider, a spirituality consultant in Montara, Calif., a coastal town 17 miles south of San Francisco. "And this time need not be a day, or even a specific period, activity or lack of one. It doesn't necessarily mean a Zen sit, just some time of solitude."

Even without a Zen sit (enough to scare me away from anything) or a phrase like "the voice of the new," I found that the secular Sabbath was not all that easy to maintain. Something as simple as turning off the electronics is easy, but try to make a habit of it.

On my first weekend last fall, I eagerly shut it all down on Friday night, then went to bed to read. (I chose Saturday because my rules include no television, and I had to watch the Giants on Sunday). I woke up nervous, eager for my laptop. That forbidden, I reached for the phone. No, not that either. Send a text message? No. I quickly realized that I was feeling the same way I do when the electricity goes out and, finding one appliance nonfunctional, I go immediately to the next. I was jumpy, twitchy, uneven.

I managed. I read the whole paper, without hyperlinks. I tried to let myself do nothing, which led to a long, MP3-free walk, a nap and some more reading, an actual novel. I drank herb tea (caffeine was not helpful) and stared out the window. I tried to allow myself to be less purposeful, not to care what was piling up in my personal cyberspace, and not to think about how busy I was going to be the next morning. I cooked, then went to bed, and read some more.
GRADUALLY, over this and the next couple of weekends — one of which stretched from Friday night until Monday morning, like the old days — I adapted.

But recidivism quickly followed; there were important things to do — deadlines, urgent communications. You know how it is. I called Andrea Bauer, an executive and career development coach in San Carlos, Calif. She assured me that, oddly enough, it takes work to stop working. "It takes different formats for different people, and you have to build up to it; you can't run five miles if you've never run at all." Increasingly, I realized that there is more to the secular Sabbath than an impulse, or even a day off from e-mail. And there are reasons that nonsecular Sabbaths — the holy days of Christians, Jews and Muslims — have rules that require discipline. Even for the nonreligious, those rules were once imposed: You need not be elderly to remember when we had no choice but to reduce activity on Sundays; stores and offices — even restaurants — were closed, there were certainly no electronics, and we were largely occupied by ourselves or our families.

Now it's up to us, and, as Dr. Levy says, there's little encouragement. "One of the problems with needing to slow down is that within the climate of our primary culture it sounds wishy-washy," he said.

But what's wishy-washy about taking time off? It didn't seem to me that I had to collect Social Security before I realized that a 70-hour week was nearly as productive as an 80-hour one, and if I couldn't get it all done in either, it certainly wasn't because I was taking too much time off.
I went back to nonwork, diligently following my rules to do less one day a week. The walks, naps and reading became routine, and all as enjoyable as they were before I had to force myself into doing them. It's been more than six months, and while I'm hardly a new man — no one has yet called me mellow — this achievement is unlike any other in my life. And nothing bad has happened while I've been offline; the e-mail and phone messages, RSS feeds, are all there waiting for me when I return to them.

I would no more make a new-agey call to find inner peace than I would encourage a return to the mimeograph. But I do believe that there has to be a way to regularly impose some thoughtfulness, or at least calm, into modern life — or at least my version. Once I moved beyond the fear of being unavailable and what it might cost me, I experienced what, if I wasn't such a skeptic, I would call a lightness of being. I felt connected to myself rather than my computer. I had time to think, and distance from normal demands. I got to stop.

Will Madras Mamis’ accept this Rose?

The entire Madras is awating to see Rose on television now. Will she make it big or will she be gagged by moral police in Madras? Chennai is a very conservative and hypocritical and famous for slapping women on the wrist when it comes to candid talks and opinions on public platforms. We saw this take an ugly shape with Kushboo for her remarks on pre-martial sex, Shirya and Namitha for their revealing costume at public gathering.

After Narthaki Natraj, a transvestite danseuse, Rose alias Ramesh Venkatesan will be the next one to take the lime light. In her soon to be aired talkshow “Ippadikku Rose” she will discuss on issues pertaining to transvestite and other lifestyles with the hope of bringing reprieve to alternate genders and lifestyle in the state. With the present CM launching a slew of scheme for transvestites, are we on our way to be a liberated society? Is Chennai ready for its first Transvestive talk show hostess? I am cautiously optimistic.

Enjoy Rose’s fragrance from NY Times

Chennai Journal
Tackling a Society’s Boundaries, on TV and in a Family
Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

Rose Venkatesan, India’s first trans-gender TV host, sits on set during the production of the television series ‘Ippudikku Rose’ (Yours, Rose), at Prasad Studios in Chennai, India, on Saturday, February 16, 2008.

By AMELIA GENTLEMAN
Published: February 20, 2008
CHENNAI, India — India’s newest talk show host, billed as the local Oprah Winfrey, hitched up her sari and looked for her stylist’s approval. “Very feminine. You look gorgeous, like a goddess,” he said, smiling reassuringly, as he braided a garland of fresh jasmine into her hair.

Rose, host of a new Tamil-language show, was once known as Ramesh Venkatesan.
“The sari is the most flattering garment,” he added, as he touched up her makeup minutes before the cameras started rolling. “It disguises manly shoulders, takes attention away from a masculine neck.”

A complex procedure even for experienced hands, the process of tying a sari is particularly hard for Rose, who was raised as a boy, and used to be known as Ramesh Venkatesan. Her mother never taught her the skill and refuses to see her wear one. Even so, the outcome was flawless.

When it is broadcast on Vijay television to an audience of up to 64 million people in the southern state of Tamil Nadu later this month, “Ippadikku Rose” (“Yours, Rose”) is expected to cause a sensation, introducing India’s first transgender celebrity to television.

The show’s director, Anthony Thirunelveli, said the half-hour talk show had been conceived as a program suitable for family viewing but would discuss issues of sex and sexuality, confronting “hush, hush, under the carpet subjects.” The first nine episodes will tackle, among other things, divorce, sex and relationships among the mostly young employees in India’s call centers, and sexual harassment.

The main attraction will be Rose herself, who now goes by only one name. A poised, 28-year-old, American-educated former Web site designer with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, she started wearing women’s clothes full time four years ago and is still waiting for acceptance from her family and society at large.

If nothing else, the show will start to propel downtrodden groups of transsexuals, or hijras, into the mainstream. Known as the third sex, most are born male but see themselves as women.

Hijras appear in positive roles in Indian mythology, but modern society has tended to be less tolerant. A majority are shunned by their families. Many find it impossible to obtain conventional jobs and turn instead to begging and sex work for a living.

“Transgenders in India are seen as immoral and evil,” Rose said, calmly leafing through the script of her first show — an interview with a prostitute about her recently published autobiography. “I will break that image by being articulate, intelligent and a bit like the girl next door.”

“This is a radical development,” she added. “There have been transsexuals in Indian movies, but always as the object of ridicule or as villains. This is the first time in the history of Indian television that a transgender person has been featured as a television anchor.”

Pradeep Milroy Peter, who leads programming at Vijay, a Tamil-language channel owned by Rupert Murdoch, acknowledged that he was nervous about how the show would be received.

“We don’t know how much acceptance there will be,” he said, straining to make himself heard as builders, electricians and lighting technicians hurried to finish the set. “We are crossing our fingers. The market has a craving for talk shows, but this one comes with a difference. It’s very experimental.”

His anxieties are understandable in a country where the boundaries of sexual tolerance are shifting daily, with much uncertainty and unpredictability. Fashion TV was briefly banned for showing too much flesh; a film star’s career was threatened after comments that appeared to condone premarital sex; and fringe political groups like nothing better than to stir noisy (and often spurious) paroxysms of moral outrage.

The channel was not searching for controversy, but executives were so impressed by Rose’s screen presence and determination to fight prejudice that they agreed instantly to give her a show despite her lack of experience.

“People here will not openly let transsexuals into their homes,” Rose said, disclosing that she had deliberately isolated herself from college friends and neighbors to avoid rejection. Her middle-class parents threw her out when she announced to a group of 40 family members, gathered to agree on a suitable bride for her arranged marriage, that she was not interested in women.

“I’d already grown my hair long and had laser treatment for my facial hair, but they were still hoping I’d act like a boy,” she said. “There was utter silence when I told them.” For a while, she supported herself by working in a call center, but her contract was not renewed after she started dressing as a woman. In the hustling streets of Chennai, she is always stared at and sometimes abused.

Recently, she has returned to live with her parents, but the pressure to conform to societal expectations remains strong. “They are like, ‘O.K., you are a transsexual, but don’t dress like that at home, and please get married.’ ” There is quiet hostility to the talk show project from her mother, who still hides Rose’s dresses and jewelry whenever she gets a chance. Only her grandmother has given her blessings for the show.

Rose said attitudes were no less hostile in parts of the United States, where she had spent three years studying at Louisiana Tech University. “There, people were aggressively homophobic,” she said. “America is very hypocritical when it comes to its stand on sexual minorities. Historically, India was very progressive about this until the British came and imposed a Victorian sense of morality, which still remains.”

Editing the program will be a delicate dance around invisible frontiers.

“The show will be groundbreaking, but we have to think about our audience,” said Mr. Peter, the Vijay television executive. “South Indians are very reserved, very conservative.” Sex before marriage might be discussed, but only in the context of college graduates, not anyone younger. Gay rights would be tackled in the abstract, but not gay relationships.
Rose said she had no desire to shock, but just hoped that she would be watched.

“As a person, I am very open, but this is a big television channel which goes out to millions of people,” she said. “We don’t want any bad reaction.”

She said she felt it would be fine to talk about hormone therapy and her coming sex change operation. But discussing her true feelings about marriage, for example, would still be too much of a taboo.

“If you were to ask me, I would say that marriage is unnatural and causes most of the problems in married people’s lives,” she said. “But marriage is such an established concept in Indian life, I won’t be able to question it. I don’t want to frighten people away. I want to reach out to them.”

Having fun at work!!!

We all know how blood drives can be – it is eerie and bloody everywhere and at time felt like a mortuary. We had one such drive at work today and trust me there was no life in the room. All the doctors and their helpers were looking like blood thirsty vampires. People queue up to fill the questionnaire at one end, some middle fingers (not funny dude!!) being pricked to test hemoglobin levels and some arms being primed and pumped on the sphygmomanometer. My pressure was already shooting up seeing the decorum and I wanted immediately bring in missing element in the room – humor!!

I was looking around for my bakra, and there was Salini all ready and to go on the table. They asked her to get on the table and covered her with a blanket and she was looking like a perfect mummy now, and was even better than her Egyptian cousins. I seriously didn’t understand the blanket business here. Then they slipped in needle in her mighty arm and stuck in a stress ball to play with. She was somber and quiet all the while, but the mood suddenly changed when the ball got between her fingers. She was like a kid in the candy store going full throttle with it. I noticed this could the ice-breaker for the eerie room devoid of humor.

Me: Salini how are you liking it?Salini: it is no funny Chandra!!

Me: I mean squeezing the ball? (It took her a few seconds and then her blub went “bling”)

Salini: (She screamed on top of her voice ) You shut up now!!!

Me: Yeah yeah… you are never good at hiding your emotions and I know you love to squeeze balls and you are enjoying it.

Salini was so annoyed and hissing like a snake (preferably Anaconda). If give a chance she would have loved to exchange the stress ball with mine. Though people felt I was loud and obnoxious, but they seem to open up with smiles and surprise. Oh boy!! Where did this species come from? I caught a few silently enjoying vitriolic humor. In the meantime I changed the focus to my other colleague Lakshman giving a stiff competition for Salini (Lekshman is in the background in the above picture). My abhorrent self was back at Lekshman.

Me: So Lekshman, for a change you are not squeezing your own.

Lekshman’s face was painted with embarrassment and shame. Now there was lot more noise in the room and people were talking and the atmosphere was all charged up.
If you thought this was it, No no no…. Every dog has it day and so did I…

Salini was hoping to find an opportunity to get even with me.

Salini: Chandra! Your blood is beetroot red in color. Did you have beet root last night?

Chandra: how dumb Salini! This is blood and not shit.

The entire team on the floor was cackling and showing all 32. It looked more like a Dental camp than a blood drive. Enjoy every moment of life without any regret!! Now get back to work buddies…

Slavery in Indian Software Industry

Surprised looking at the picture above? This was newspaper clipping was taken when Slave trade was prevalent in Africa. Don't be surprised to learn that Indian software industry in the name of software exports is exactly doing the same. What will we record in the annals of history? Can we use our figment of imagination and change a few lines in the above clipping to perfectly describe the trade today?

It has been 5 decades since we got Independence from British, but what remains unchanged is subservient Indian mentality. Today we are Global leaders in the Software Industry, but translate into happy employees and contented life? If Chinese manufacturing industry can be called sweatshop, Indian software industry is not far behind. It is more of slave trade that is happening in the industry today. The treatment meted towards employees by Indian corporate is lugubrious.

Long commute on congested, bad roads to an office outside the city, canteens with unappetizing food, grueling days that usually end late at night with frequent calls with clients and onsite team, this is the typical day in an IT industry. Our butterflies have turned into ugly moths. Constantly ringing mobile phones and unrelenting back and forth SMS, there is no reprieve from this on the weekends too. Managers have an uncanny knack of throw few extra carrots such as onsite opportunity and perks. Employers are unapologetic to call their employees on the weekends, a gross invasion of privacy, all in the name of their service level agreements and unrealistic project deadlines.

The cumulative result of all this has taken toll over their health, mind, body and relationships. Increase in stress, diabetes and heart ailments on the top list in young people, alarming increase in divorce rates. The young crowd caught in the net of EMI and their never ending desire list, is in a state of delirium. How to get out of the chakravyuham?

In western countries people clearly demarcate personal and professional life and religiously spend their weekends with their family. Work week means strictly 40 hrs of hard work and no play. Money is important in life, but not to this extent where one loses his/her personal space and family time. With this kind of uncompromising work schedule the software junta has metamorphosed into night owls and if this continues they certain to get burnt out very soon. Think about it....What is the use of wax without wick?

There is nothing wrong in fighting for work life balance. Indian corporate should not forget their social responsibility starts in their own work place and with their own employees. It is time bodies like Nasscom bring regulation in the software industry. Labor unions should be created in the software industry to bring back our good night sleep and family time. Bollywood must start making movies on this subject to bring out the hardships in the industry, rather than coming up with frivolous movies such as KANK.

Read this article that appeared in “The Hindu” dated Jan 20, 2007.

http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/01/20/stories/2008012052271400.htm

Work-life balance - Hema Subramaniam

This article is yet another outcry against the outrageous hours that Corporate India seems to demand. I have personally interacted with several HR managers on this subject and can appreciate that quite a few are grappling with initiatives to find a solution. One HR head of an MNC IT&ITES giant took my question on this subject with a rueful laugh and was honest enough to admit that there was no real solution to this.

I have lived and worked in both the U.S. and India. While I have seen “thought leadership” and “key executives” of several corporates work hard there, they have strictly maintained 40-hour weeks and sacrosanct weekends. While I concede there are exceptions here, I also believe that they have become more effective and productive because they are allowed to re-charge, pursue other interests and generally have a life.

I interact with zillions of middle and senior management executives in India. Here, it seems to have been reversed. Forty-hour weeks? Work-free weekends? That’s a joke in our “knowledge economy” bubble. Client calls will usually start when we should be winding down, because our clients are in a different part of the world, and they do not really give a damn that they are eroding into our private time. The crude logic being, the one who pays the piper calls the tune.
But should Corporate India meekly accept that? Could they not firmly and collectively send the message out that their executives are their wealth and should be better taken care of? Initiatives like “work from home,” flexi-work, etc., have not been successful. People who choose that option have become marginalised and subtly excluded, with their career clearly nose-diving.
This has forced most of them to give in and get back to the mainstream career force or make a tough priority decision. I have come across several “power women” who chose the work from home option. In a few months, they had to admit that it was killing their growth in the company.
We are a nation currently riding the knowledge economy wave. We have huge intellectual assets. We are using these assets to peddle knowledge. Should we not have the intelligence to realise that a relaxed and happy workforce would be more productive? Should we not realise that these “sweatshops” cannot endure?

Social implications
What are the social implications here? We have been gravitating towards nuclear families. Nearly every family I know of have a mortgage hanging over their head. Managing mortgages ensures that both the husband and wife have to work. Corporate India ensures that they go home late. In this situation, our children are trying to survive and grow up. Have they been given a choice? Would I prefer to have a parent around or a swanky car to go to school?
In one seminar, an HR head contested that work-life balance is about effective time management. I stoutly disagree. I can be an effective employee, but if my company has an unstated culture that rewards those who keep long hours (no link to productivity or merit) and frowns upon “clock-watchers,” then my goose is well and truly cooked.

Logically, “work-life balance” will remain a mere concept (useful for debates and workshops) unless there is a collective change in Corporate India. There has to be serious management buy-in and it has to be a wave that should ripple across all levels, and all domains.

Managers should be made accountable every time they request an employee to stay back. Clients should be embarrassed to consistently demand service at crazy hours. Employees should be less passive and question the need to work extra hours except in a crisis. Employers should create a culture across the company that puts all this in place and then shout from their rooftops if they have achieved this.

Pirivom Sandhipom

When you read the title of the movie, gawk at the stills and star cast one gets the impression that it should be a plain vanilla love story painted on a college canvas with a romantic meeting and a poignant separation. Was this all or is there more to this movie? Title and stills can sometimes convey more than the movie. Read more to find out the real pirivu and sandhippu.

Pirivom Sandhippom is a story about a semi urban college educated girl, Visalakshi getting married into a big traditional family (20+ members). Her longing to stay surrounded with people in a big joint family set up was short-lived when her husband, Natesan gets transferred to a remote hill-top. Sudden separation and loneliness pushes her into depression and at the end when her husband learns her condition he brings her back to the big family. Now go back to line 3.

It is important to set the canvas and coordinates before building the story, but the director Karu. Palaniappan gets completely entangled educating people on Chettinadu customs and tradition. Director sir, do you know the difference between a movie and a documentary. May be you would have been more successful doing a documentary titled “Chettinadu 101” rather than calling it “Pirivom Sandhippom”.

If not for Vidyasagar’s seductive melodies and beauty of Chettinadu homes people would have left the theatres well before the intermission. Lyricist and cameraman also need to be included in the above list. Great locations and perfect shots was a definite treat for the concrete coated urbane eyes.

We were hoping that the battalion of actors will bring reprieve to the weak story line but for Pattabhi and Devadarshini there was no room for the rest to shine. Cheran’s character was the clichéd male character stuck to career and neglecting wife. He didn’t have much scope in the script except for his weird smirk and the brand value he brings. Sneha needs a special mention for her role transformation from a college butterfly to a love soaked family character and finally to a pupa enshrined in a solitary cocoon. Jayaram’s character in the movie was like the rain on a humid summer night, but it failed to quench the heat and thirst.

Predictable climax and lack of effervescence in the script makes the second half of the movie tiresome to watch. If this was a movie about mental depression then tamil film industry has seen brilliant movies with fizzy script like Badrakali, Agnisatchi and if it was a movie about joint family and preaching family values then Director Visu’s movies like Samsaram athu minsaram have set the unachievable standards. But this movie miserably failed to narrate the gravity of neither Eeremophobia nor family values.

The only consolation when you leave the theatres is Vidyasagar’s lilting melodies, camera angles and Sneha’s breathe taking beauty. Karu. Palaniappan needs to work on the Karu again.

Pirivom meendum Sandhippom…..