A vexing problem of an old debt

Recently my friend Baldev Singh came running to me excitedly and in deep shock over a lawyer's notice received from a family in his native town Bhatinda in the Punjab.

Infact this family who are distantly related to my friend allege that one of their ancestors had lent a rupee at 4 percent interest per annum to my friend's ancestor when he was particularly going through great financial difficulties.

By the way a rupee in the good old days went far.

This family had chanced upon the document - a copper plate with details of this loan engraved on it during a recent excavation conducted by the Geological Survey of India which unearthed many facts of a bygone era around the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The court finally passed orders that the loan with interest can be recovered from the descendants of the borrower.The court was satisfied that the copper foil document was authentic and it did indeed belong to my friend's ancestor conclusively proving that he (my friend's ancestor) had indeed borrowed that one rupee.

The interest was to be calculated from 25th Dec., 0000 AD to 19th April 2006 AD @ 4%pa on Rupee one - the amount of loan. So the court decided to avoid all ambiguity.

Well... he asked for my advice. I told him that he must pay and settle this issue once and and for all and maintain amicable relations with his community in Bathinda.

Do you think that what I had advised him was correct.Being a little weak in maths he asked me how much should he pay!? I had never passed maths beyond high school in my life. Can you please let me know how much it amounts to?

Please do not bother if you do not know as I do not want to embarass you.

I shall however keep you informed of further developments in the case..only if you are interested. In any case let me know.

My friend has a lot of antique gold coins valued at Rs 1000 per gram.He is willing to settle this debt in gold. How many gold coins should he give in payment?

My friend, Sardar Baldev Singh says he is willing to pay even if it costs the earth (in gold!!) to safeguard his and his family's honour and reputation.

I jokingly told him that the earth weighs 5.9742*10^24 kgs.

However my light hearted remark seemed to fall flat as he deeply engrossed himself on the next course of action i.e., the correct amount to be paid back.

Do you think he will succeed in repaying the amount? I look forward to your suggestions.

Well, Baldev was fortunate in that he had other good friends. And he was advised by a business friend ( who went to school with him) that it would amount to a few lakhs of rupees at the utmost. Baldev came back to me a little dazed after hearing this amount .

I immediately got in touch with a famous financial expert who advises top Govt of India Institutions on very complicated and sensitive financial issues.

After an hour's effort he was nowhere near solving this problem; but he was kind enough not only in honestly expressing his inability to help us in this matter but was also generous in giving us a recommendation letter to a distinguished mathematician.

When we reached him at his residence in a hill station he had just woken up from a leisurely siesta and relaxing on his easy chair. He looked perfectly fit and in good health for his 70 years.
He welcomed us heartily (his cheerfulness perhaps explained his good health) and after the usual preliminary enquiries and introductions we broached our problem to him.

He laughed at our "troubles" and made fun of us to get agitated over so simple a matter. He recounted some really serious problems he had encountered while in service. He was in no hurry to solve our problem. He assured us of his help while tea was being served and we let it at that while we listened with awe to some of his exploits that involved mind boggling maths.

He asked his maid to get the computer up and going. He proudly said that she was an MSc in maths. We were impressed.

The calculations followed briskly making us gasp. We could never imagine a genius lived in iur midst. What followed was terribly shocking. Baldev can never in his dream pay the debt of his ancestor. Why? the calculations below gives you the answer.

(((1.04)^2006.313569282)/1000000)/(5.9742*10^24) = 2500 globes ... the actual size of the earth in weight and made of gold.

The End

Education as it is today

"All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". Edmunde Burke

Everyone talks of education, how it is so important and so on for a developed society. But even though everyone talks so concernedly about it are we really furthering the cause of education? I think here we fail to make one important distinction, that is between literacy and education. Today the schools and colleges just turn out hundreds of literates most of them "uneducated".

The graduates from all these institutions are hardly equipped with any life skills. They can not cope with many of the situations life throws at them ... being more or less babes in the wood.

I feel that primary education must equip every individual with the skills of proper expression, thinking, drawing, calculating and writing. The curriculum must include speaking, singing, playing, dancing and acting. Infuse in the young minds a love for nature and the fine arts. Life can be made blooming beautiful, full of hope and promise only if we aspire for it. Children must be inculcated with faith and love for the truth.The young students must be imbued with ethical values and universal principles.... develop confidence and faith in themselves.

There should be no examinations of any kind other than informal ways to check whether the children are learning what they are taught. This way they do not miss out on their wonderful childhood and grow up into healthy human beings. The examinations must be administered only from the 9th std/class when children turn 14 years and serious studies must begin only at this age.

All these are missing in today's educational centres ... though there is no dearth of so called 'centres of excellence'. It is all about marks and certificates rather than knowledge and skills.

Our priorities seem to have gone horribly haywire ... and the worst part - the people who seem really worried about this seem to be in a helpless miniscule minority.

It is nothing strange for like in every other field of human activity education today has lost its meaning in its mad rush for the fleeting and insignificant things of life. The society and the teachers have failed each other.

I remember my teacher often said "the society creates the criminal and pays for the crime".

Let us be optimistic that the wheel of time will ensure that once again a time will come when all these disturbing trends shall be reversed for good.

Reservation in educational institutions:

Education or sophisticated literacy - whatever else you may call it - must be available to everyone irrespective of any considerations. Towards this end the Government must find solutions to meet the demand for quality education through opening of more such Instutions. Instead the politicians are taking the country for a ride along caste and communal lines. They keep endlessly reiterating their resolve to once-and-for-all end the retrograde caste system ... and promote a 'secular' state, while all the time they keep these divisions (along caste and communal lines) in our society alive ... with the tacit support of a very selfish people who are too willing to be taken for a ride (which is also free). Can we blame the politicians alone for all this?

The solution:
Let us be aware that these politicians are our servants. They have no right abrogate to themselves the role of masters... which the people out of laziness and selfishness have willingly conceded to them. It is time to wake up. Mere complaining will not do. NGO's must be formed to create awareness and take up public projects that further common public interests. Unless such leadership is forthcoming everything will be talk, talk and talk of which Indians are best known for and NO action. Let us start with opening really good schools for the poor. Poverty is the greatest enemy of mankind. It is mostly poverty that breeds all other vices in society.

Let us evolve as a first step NGO's that take up projects for training and employment. People from all walks of life, who are well-off and also skilled must contribute atleast 4 hrs of free selfless service every week (I have outlined a plan below) as a group and ameliorate our social conditions and endeavour to bring about a just society improving our "Gross National Happiness" as in Bhutan. Action must be our watch word.

The lessons from Goa elections

The counting of votes was completed yesterday after the elections were held on Sat. June 2nd.

As usual like in recent years it was a near hung assembly. With only 40 seats this seems to have become an endemic problem that cannot be solved unless the electoral system is reformed.

But what is the solution ... that will be acceptable to everyone?

I have been reading about 'single transferable vote' and working out hypothetical cases whether this will suit Indian conditions.
Ref: http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/es/esd/esd02/esd02d
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~rosenstiel/stvrules/index.htm
http://www.youthstart.org/STV/
My preliminary impressions are this system too fails to take into account the wishes of "ALL" people.

I often wonder how the electorate of any constituency can re-elect a person who is well known to be corrupt and unreliable. It really beats me!! Could this be due to faulty electoral system or is it that the people want to commit harakiri? I would rather believe it is the former and hence my efforts to devise a truly representative polling system.

The politicians are supposed to be the servants of the people and they serve the society particularly when elected to hold office. Instead it has become reversed ... people elect these politicians as their masters and have no say at all in running their lives.

May be as a first step we need to grade candidates on similar lines given in http://www.rd.com/gradethecandidates.do...

A Unique Community Betterment and Social Welfare Project

A Unique Community Betterment and Social Welfare Project through "Local Exchange Trading systems" with the following characteristics and rules.

And the motto: "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

1.Members join by paying a minimum amount which will be credited to their accounts with the NGO. This amount will enable them to trade to the extent of their credit in their accounts.

2.This amount can be increased with more contributions into their accounts by the members. No amounts so deposited are withdrawable by cash at any time till maturity period is completed.

3.The amounts are returnable without any interest after the end of a fixed or specified term or on the happenning of a specific event.

4.If so desired these amounts can also be in the form of donations or contributions to a specific or otherwise Corpus Fund of the NGO in which case the only difference is they are not returnable to the donor at any time.

5.A simple and appropriate private banking system may be devised to record all transactions between the members by the issue of cheques or local currency of specified denominations or a smart card or by any other means that is cost effective and efficient.

6.All members rendering service are credited with (say) "Volunteer Credits" which they can redeem by buying products marketed by the intended beneficiaries thus boosting their well-being. The beneficiaries may become members without any deposit or contribution.

7.These beneficiaries in turn can use their "Volunteer Credits" so earned by them (from the voluntary members in exchange for services and products) for transacting in services and products between themselves thereby leading to more creative employment amongst them.

8.Each such community shall endeavour to be holistic by having optimum number of members so as to represent all shades and categories of products and services. There can be several more of such separate economic communities so that each one of them develops self reliance and full employment potential. Trading between communities can also be facilitated at a later period.

9.This will develop a more co-operative spirit and goodwill among members of the community unlike today's conventional currency system which promotes stressful competition among the people with all its attendant evils.

10.The returns from investments of funds received through deposits and contributions (or donations) into the corpus will be credited to the NGO's account, (just like if it were any other individual member), for spending in ongoing community betterment activities. The actual amount of returns will be added to the corpus fund and reinvested.

Note: 1.For further information please look up "Community Currencies" and also 'LETS' or 'Local Exchange/Energy Trading Systems' using any search engine (say) Google or Yahoo or Clusty.

2. Each volunteer must be willing to contribute (say) atleast 4 hrs of selfless service per week on an average.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!! - Wayne Dyer

Vedanta - Ultimate in Spirituality

Vedanta talks only about the Self. It is beyond religions and occupies the vast higher space of spirituality. It discusses the Universal Consciousness and how to attain it. I particularly refer to Advaita Vedanta. This great Science of Spirituality is fascinating. One can get a very good understanding of the subject through a lot of reading and reflection .... and the latter is an absolute must to the serious spiritual seeker.

One can read the works of Adi Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and many other great souls like Swami Chinmayananda ... to just name a few great realized masters.

Remember that all religions are essentially the same. It is when some overzealous converts who fail in their over enthusiasm to recognize the obvious unity underlying all religions cause misunderstandings and problems to arise.

In this context it would be appropriate to add conversions of any kind related to one's faith arises when this essential understanding is missing. Also efforts made in this direction only shows the underlying level of ignorance in understanding their own religions. What we need to do now is to transcend to the higher realm of Spirituality from the narrow suffocating confines of religion.

Fanaticism and dogmatism are no longer viable in any sphere of thinking.... whether science, humanities or religion. Nothing is clearcut into black and and white. Between these two extremes lies a huge grey area. This grey area need not be disturbing as this provides the opportunity for limitless creativity.
Continued.....

Most preferred candidate system of voting in elections (Psd Voting System)

If interested please let me know.

Madikeri to Mangueshi - Incredible India

We started from Mysore by bus to Madikeri and in less than four hours we were in Madikeri (Coorg) looking for a good hotel to stay. Being a weekend all the hotels were full. Finally we did manage to get a good room. All the hotel rooms cost upwards of Rs.650/-. Finally we did manage to get a room in a newly opened hotel(and struggling to get known) close to the town's main centre.

We then went around the town after an hour's rest and refreshing ourselves. It was wonderfully chill. We went to the fort and the museum (which was closed). We also went to Raja's Seat and enjoyed the view of the mountains and valleys ... great!!

Then the next day we scheduled a visit to Bhagmandala and on to Talacauvery.
There was no regular transport from Bhagmandala to Talacauvery. So we hired an auto to and fro (8+8 kms) for Rs.100/-. Both these places are currently under major renovation. We returned to Madikeri town for lunch. The routes were wonderful ... very green ... full of trees and forests and plantations. A lot of stalls were there selling honey.... a popular forest product of that area.

We made it a point to visit the Namdorling Monastery near Kushalnagar (about 5 kms from this town) where the most beautiful temple is constructed by the Buddhists at Bylakuppe. We took an autorickshaw from the town. It was around 4pm after a 10 mins ride. The whole place was swarming with Tibetan buddhists of all ages all dressed uniformly in the same colours as the Dalai Lama. This place is really fascinating for its gardens and general Buddhist architectural beauty. Well maintained and very clean - we enjoyed our visit to this monastery - a great visual treat. We returned after a satisfying visit back to Madikeri.

At the Madikeri bus stand the timekeepers were not at all helpful even knowing that we are tourists. They were curt and rude. Also a big drawback was the locals did not converse in anything other than Kannada. All the name boards were mostly in Kannada barring a rare few. This was the situation till we reached Udupi a couple of days later.
Finally we took the morning bus next day to Sulya enroute to Subramanya. We then took the connecting bus to Kukke Subramanya after taking advantage of the short interval for a quick bite of idli-vada breakfast at a good hotel opposite the Sulya bus stand. The whole journey took about less than 4 hrs i.e., from Madikeri to Subramanya.

Finally we reached Subramanya at 10am. Immediately we got a room in one of the several guest houses maintained by the temple. There are three or four good hotels there where we had our food. The temple also provides lunch and dinner prasadams but this involves waiting in long queues.

Subramanya has a nice ambience with an ancient temple surrounded by hills. A km away there is a Ganapathy temple with a huge idol. Close by there is a cave temple dedicated to Vasuki - the serpent .. who is said to be living in hiding. There is a nice park being developed adjacent. Both these lie on the main road where several buildings stand providing lodgings for devotees and pilgrims.

We left for Dharmastal - a Jain pilgrim centre - the next morning reaching there around 10am- after a 2 hour bus ride. We were quickly allotted a simple small room which had no toilet attached. To visit the toilets one had to go to the next building a little away which proved difficult because you had to come down the stairs every time and walk a little distance. All the same this was very inconvenient. After a quick wash we were in line for dharshan of Lord Manjunath. The crowd was considerable but I was told it was much less compared to normal times. I saw another huge line where devotees were waiting in long winding queues for the lunch. Infact Dharmastal is famous for this free lunch offered to all devotees. We had a good dharshan

We however did not wait for the lunch and instead made enquiries for the bus to Udupi and received very curt and confusing replies. Incidentally I found the employees of the Government run bus company very unhelpful and oftentimes rude even to answer very simple questions from a tourist. However some of the bus conductors and drivers made up for this by being extremely helpful. Another big problem I noticed was that throughout (from Mysore - where I started this journey) people spoke nothing but Kannada and knew no other languages. Everything too was written in Kannada - on the whole a very tourist-unfriendly region. Infact it gave me the impression that they truly considered tourists as pests. So much for the Indian Government waxing eloquent on "Incredible India" campaigns. Its all hogwash and nobody who visits will believe this. And people generally believe first hand accounts of other people's experiences. They are not influenced by these grand advertisements on which crores of rupees are just wasted. Instead they could spend the money on training the government employees to be polite and extend basic courtesies.

I was not too impressed by Dharmastala and contrary to original plans took a 3pm bus for Udupi. I had really no intention to visit Udupi having visited the famous Sri Krishna temple there several times on short visits. My idea was to reduce continuous bus travel and avoid the fatigue by making these bus journeys short and manageable.

However to my surprise Udupi wore a positive ambience. Not only the town looked clean and prosperous ... one could interact with the locals in several languages (atlast!!). Our bus passed through Manipal town on the highway. This town is famous for its educational institutions and medical facilities and is just about 5 kms from Udupi. Udupi has several good eating places. After the customary visit to the temple and participating in the daily ritual of the chariot going round the streets around 8pm we retired for the day. The journey to reach Udupi was about 2hrs from Dharmastal. So it was not a very tiring journey. The weather too had become warmer from Subramanya onwards. But it was not quite as hot as in many other parts of India.

We also visited the Malpe beach in the morning. This beach is very clean and impressed me. A month earlier at home I had watched a programme called "foodie" on a TV channel "Times Now" which showed fish fry delicacies on the Malpe beach. However it being morning the stalls were yet to open. However we had a pleasant and quiet time playing with the waves.

After a 2 day stay (unplanned) we moved on to Kumta - about 4 hrs bus drive from Udupi.

At Kumta we were there only for about 6 hrs visiting an elderly relative whom I did not remember meeting anytime earlier.

There was a last minute change in our travel plans which I regretted later. I was to visit Gokarna, stay overnight and then move on to Madgaon after a brief halt at Karwar. Instead We took the bus to Karwar direct from Kumta.

By evening we were on our way to Karwar about which I had heard a lot about its 'unspoilt' beaches. I was eager to visit Karwar thinking that it would be a much beautiful place to enjoy a quiet day on its beaches.

Yes we reached Karwar but it in no remote way fitted to the description of a beautiful quiet little town. That night in that newly constructed hotel where we stayed we were inundated with hundreds of mosquitoes ... spoiling our entire night into a restless sleepless one. None of the hotel staff were available for any help. All the same ... the morning after we went to the beach ... yes the "TAGORE Beach". The great poet seems to have been inspired by this place and a grateful people have named this beach after him. Just like the town itself the beach was no different in giving the visitors a "dirty wink". Some advised us to visit the Devbagh beach but we felt enough was enough.

A quick breakfast and we were now on a bus to Madgaon enroute to Mangueshi via Ponda.

Goa was refreshing. There hardly seemed any crowds any place we visited in Goa. The climate was mild. It was not humid as I had expected as the monsoons were to set about 10 days later. Now and then we could see vehicles - decorated with all colourful banners - of political parties driving past. Otherwise we did not notice much of the excitement anywhere that is usually associated with election campaigns. But everywhere there were newspapers at their vituperative best ... painting some candidate or other in lurid colours. But the politicians seemed to take it 'cool' and they advertised in those very papers that ridiculed and criticised them short of expletives.

We camped in a good room (one of the 97) at the Mangueshi temple compound. This helped us to visit Panjim (40 mins at the most - 18 kms away) by the exceedingly good private transport buses (one mini bus every 2 mins). Ponda too is nearby via Farmagudi in the opposite direction. The road runs from Ponda to Panjim via Mangueshi.

We took the north and south Goa conducted tours by some private tour operator. There are hardly any differences between them! And they pool their resources depending on the number of tourists booking with them. I was told that they conduct atleast one tour a day each to north and south Goa through out the year without fail.

Goa is through-out green and beautifully quiet. We went to Farmagudi from Mangueshi on the way to Ponda to visit a Ganapathy temple. We then thought to walking to the Ramnathi temple - a good 40 minutes by walk. Incidentally this was a beautiful experience walking on very good tarred road surrounded on all sides by wooded forests and plantations. The last bus was at 630pm to Ponda or else we would be at the mercy of the autowallas. So we skipped the walk to Shanta Durga temple and took the minibus from Ramnathi to Ponda. However we visited this temple the next day which was part of the conducted tour. This is in a place called Kavle where on of the four religious Mutts (of the GSB's or Gauda Saraswath Brahmins) viz., the Kavle Mutt is situated - alittle away from the temple.

All the temples in Goa are different from their counterparts elsewhere in India. Their architectural designs are totally different.

The language spoken is Konkani. Konkani is spoken right along the coast from Goa to Mangalore. But the tone, accent and the vocabulary differ all along the coast. The script is devanagiri. There is a clamour for writing Konkani in the Roman script. In Karnataka Konkani is written in the Kannada script.

I would rate the Goa leg of the trip was the most satisfying in all respects and very enjoyable. The one sore point in Goa is the high prices which I feel is being charged only on the tourists. Even the bus fares were just half for the locals. Though rules were written boldly in the interiors of the bus no tickets were issued in most cases while the conductors just collected the cash and I think pocketed the money unless the minibus belonged to them which I fear was most unlikely.

The other means of transport was way beyond the normal in terms of cost though available in plenty and mostly for the benefit of tourists. The Goans justified the high prices everywhere saying that tourism was their mainstay and this period reached its peak only during the six months from Oct to Mar and the other six months they were forced to remain idle. Moreover as there are not many industries except for Cashew and Feni.

We had started from Mysore on the 12th May, 2007 and had reached Goa on friday the 19th May '07. We left Goa from Panjim for Bangalore on 22nd (monday) by Paulo Travels by the 1830 hrs bus which was half hour late. My agent had booked a 'Super Luxury' seat which really made me rethink and meditate on the word 'luxury'. The seats were cramped and anything but luxurious from the dictionary meaning I knew. There were strangely only 14 such 'luxury' seats and the rest were 32 sleepers (which were anything but sleepers from a glance at their faces the next morning). All the same no one complained and these "travels' i.e., operators carry on merrily with their 'get rich quick' business. I had a sprained neck for the next three days.

They had specifically promised me that their final stop will be at the Majestic bus stand. Instead we reached much beyond our schedule at 11am and refused to go beyond Race Course road. Meanwhile as we got down several touts and auto-rickshaw drivers gathered around the tourists as they alighted from the bus demanding exorbitant fares to reach them to the Majestic bus stand about 2 kms away. Indeed 'incredible' and this is what we have seen throughout our travel that India is really "INCREDIBLE". There is hardly any concern or care for tourists. There are no proper toilets and if you did chance upon one there is a big queue and if you indeed did finally manage get to the toilet you would have beaten the record of the 4 minute mile.

Infact I found about 5 western tourists looking really helpless, bewildered and unhappy. I wondered what they would say to their family and friends back home. A local mistook the depressed looks on the faces of the tourists and in an aside commented to me that this was a reflection of an unhappy west in search of peace in a spiritual India. I replied that infact these western tourists have lost whatever joy they had after mistakenly believing that the India trip would help them in the discovery of their higher self but ended discovering their lower ones with lightening purses. So much for "Incredible India".

The Indian Government has a tourism minister who I think goes on her own tours (abroad ofcourse!) mistakenly believing perhaps that, that is her real job!! You cannot fault these ministers. They first study how tourism is conducted in foreign countries. Can you blame them if they find their 5 year tenure too short to implement anything! India is a great - world's biggest - democracy and it has its own compulsions - the minister knows this and we the citizens too know what "strain" they undergo travelling abroad only to make life better for all tourists visiting India.

Word-of-mouth is the greatest advertiser and 'incredible' indeed it is that India is nowhere on the world tourist map. The so called tourists to India, the figures which the Govrnment dishes out periodically (ofcourse after duly cooking them up ) , is less than one percent of the world tourist traffic. You will wonder how even this traffic comes to India. Actually India does not get many tourists - incredible you may say (perhaps the government hoardings are saying this very thing and invites the tourist to discover why!!) and the visitors are mostly on official government and business trips ... because they say India is booming (another item on the 'incredible' list) which is really a mirage. Come to India and discover why. I shall come to it later in a separate blog. Tell your friends that India is indeed "incredible" and do not worry, for you will be not be really telling them an untruth. Only leave it at that and don't explain. They will come and discover why. As a starter try this on your enemies ... and you will get even with them without doubt.