Committee and horses and camels

They say that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. I am part of a committee and unnecessarily active part at that. And I believe the saying should be reversed. We set out to make a camel and cannot reach the necessary heights and we have a donkey on our hands.

Every committee has two sets of people . Those who do and those who promise to do. And I will not even get into who takes credit for that Donkey.

Robert Copeland said that "To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of who are absent." We are all familiar with committees right from our school days. Sports/ Culture/ and many more. And there is an apparent glory attached to being members of committees which are meant to lead all those who are not members.


My son at a young age of 12 refused to be part of any committee whatsoever. His teachers complained that he did not want to take any responsibility. He in turn said that he did not want a position where he was mostly expected to do the teacher's bidding. That this line of thought has some merit was brought home gradually to me.

Milton Berle had the last laugh when he said that , "A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours."

A matter of time.

I was sitting comfortably with my son (just past teen) and I was telling him how I liked my new routine and felt very good about it. He listened carefully and then said,"Oh! So you have now got used to you new weight , is it?" That set me thinking. I thought about two little stories which I will now narrate in my clumsy fashion.

There were two men arguing vehemently, There was a Jesuit Priest dressed in his official outfit not far from them. He and another by stander were observing this fight. After a while one of the word warriors went to the priest and the priest took him aside and heard him. The priest said, You are right, my son..."This could only be seen by the by stander.

Next the other party came to the priest and the priest smiled and heard him. Again he said, You are right, my son." Both the parties involved in the arguement seemed calmer. This of course agitated the by stander. He now went to the priest and protested that there was no way that both the parties were right. The priest smiled and said, You are right, my son" and went away.

The other story also involves a parishioner and a priest. The priest heard out all the trials and despairs narrated to him patiently. He sympathised with the pain being endured. At the end of it, he sais, All will be well in two years time. The parishioner was happy and exclaimed, I will be better off and not have these troubles." The priest replied, "Not necessarily. The time will be enough for you to get used to your present state."
Sooner or later " All Izz well"

God S(h)ave India

There was a serious announcer with what seemed like breaking news. She talked about this movement to groom Indians (males presumably) by making them clean-shaven. I have not been to Punjab recently, but my guess is that the state may have far less people to target. Is India so jobless that their hirsute citizens do not shave or are advertisers really bereft of ideas.

I plan to write to a few of my favourite celebrities like Vir Sanghvi and Shekhar Kapur to stand up for their rights and protest this campaign. Closer home, my husband's uncle who is part and parcel of our family and is called Dadhi Thatta (.....loosely translated from Tamil, it means the bearded Grandpa) is quite a handsome chap even at 80 plus.

I have frowned at ads for fairness, bleaching etc. To be honest, a lot of people aspire to those standards and may find those ads useful knowledge. This kind of propaganda however is worse. I hope they figure out other creative ways to promote their grooming aids.

M S ( M Subramanian)... My HR Icon is no more

In my twenty plus years of confident strides, I have not been much in awe of many people. MS is one of those few people. I was very saddened when I saw a small obituary declaring that he passed away on November 10, 2009.
I did my very first assignment in Competency with him when he was with Madura Coats . He had the cleanest desk I had ever seen. Yet he could produce any document that he needed within a few minutes almost magically. He was extremely busy and I have had to chase him for appointments. he would give me an appointment four weeks away. And I would not have to confirm it . He would call me if there is any change. I did some designing work and then it did not take off. One fine day I got a call from MS. He asked me to raise an invoice for the work done since the actual workshops were getting delayed. Here was a person who was paying me even before I thought it fit to ask for any money. The workshops did happen and they were really great. It was the best learn while you earn assignment one could ever get. Through sheer association, I was shamed into being a bit more organised.

My association with him continued with work outside Coats under the EFSI banner.
MS was first diagnosed with Cancer more than a decade ago. Like all things, he took it in his stride. Even when the disease raged unabated , he continued his professional association in some form or the other. He was hoping to beat it and attend the graduation ceremony of his daughter Vidya in the US. He could not make it to US because of his ill health. He did grittily fight on to see his daughter married. That fight is now over. The cancer has won a very bitterly fought battle.

MS is well known in HR circles. He deserved to be a far bigger celebrity than what he was. He was extremely intelligent, was rooted and very generous. May his soul rest in peace.

Neither fair nor lovely

I was always put off by the concept of a fairness cream. There was nothing very fair about that whole idea. Not even the gender balancing act of a fairness cream for men could change my opinion. But it is a multi-billion rupee industry. That could now become a trillion one. This is how. I recently saw an advertisement by a brand which I trust a lot and which is to the best of my knowledge new to this category.

Now that one's self-esteem is boosted by this new skin tone, it is time to push it down once again. Your face is alright, but oh dear! What about the rest of the body. Even in deep winter some parts might show. Summer may be far away , but you have to prepare for it. So here is this fluid which can be poured all over your body to get it to that same brightness. The marketeers have now managed to get you to hold the tiger by its tail. There is perhaps a solution. If one stops using that skin deep fairness cream which got you into this mess, you have a cheap and natural remedy.

Nobel for Obama

The Nobel"peace Prize " has been awarded to Mr Obama. I am racking my brain and the newspapers to find that one bit of information which will convince me that he more than anyone else deserves this award in this year itself.

I admire Mr Obama greatly and was thrilled to bits when he won the Presidency. (Not being a US citizen, I could not vote...) Even now I support him in his efforts. If he manages to bring health care to all or makes progress in the Palestine-Israel cause, he would be a deserving candidate.

The Afghan war if anything shows no sign of stopping. Mr Obama politely refused to meet the Dalai Lama, the first US President in 20 years to do so. These factors are not a crime . However his eye is on the economics of the US and not on peace. I wish the Nobel Peace Prize committee or whoever decides such prizes gives us a break and finds substantial men, women or organisations dedicated to Peace for bestowing this wonderful award.

Considering George W Bush was on the shortened shortlist many times in the past few years, I guess the Committee has often just stopped short of embarrassing itself.

Be all that you can be... Not necessarily

I am on a diet for the first time in my life.... The Diet includes most things I like. It still cramps my style. That style in my native language is called "Sappadu Rami". A long standing friend of mine loosely translated it as "Piglet". I realised her affection for me in not shortening that lovely word. And all this came about since I took this term meant to maximise potential too literally. I am all I can be and more. The silver lining to this is that I am able to lose about a kilo a month.


The second area one should not maximise potential is credit card debt. I did not fall into that trap because shopping exhausts me. And I was born a decade too late to be comfortable enough with the Internet to merrily click and buy stuff. In the heart of my heart , I am suspicious about this whole thing. My laziness does propel me to use it for banking and trading.. but not much more. The same argument goes for taking loans beyond one's reach which mortgage all possible future earnings


The US Army has had the Slogan--"Be all that you can be" for a long time. The results of becoming part of that potential maximising exercise has not always been a happy experience. If being all you can be involves warfare, conquests etc..., you may want to pause and reflect.


\What one needs to do is to go back to old theories and be all that you can "Comfortably" be. Mr.Abraham Maslow called it self -actualisation. To reach it there are certain things you need to be able to check out as accomplished. they are:
This achievement is grounded in reality and not fleeting.
It lacks prejudice and does not depend on someone else' rise or fall. Wanting to be the best looking person in the Gym is asking for a lot of potential heartbreak.
It is motivated by growth and not deficiency.

I hope to get there someday . I am on the look out for goals which are worth striving for. Care to join ?