Another Bandh

This weekend I was away from Trivandrum visiting my hometown for my second daughter's chorunu ceremony when I heard that most likely there will be a bandh on Tuesday.

Yet another bandh, yet another massive loss of productivity for the nation, yet another occasion when the common man will be too scared to venture out, leading to a "successful" bandh.

Funny thing is - not many people will actually know what the bandh is for ! Does it matter ? As far as I am concerned, a bandh is an occasion when I dust out my rarely used but (still) faithful Hero Honda Passion! The only concession I give a bandh is that I swap four wheels for two for my daily commute!

Speaking of Bandhs/Strikes reminded me of a joke I heard on FM radio the other day. The compeer mentioned that one politician was unhappy that he was not properly invited for the inauguration of a coach factory. He went on to say, don't fear, this is Kerala. One month after the inauguration, there will be red flags outside the gate and the strike will be officially inaugurated. The compeer was sure that for the strike, the leader would be properly invited!!! Speak of sarcasm at its best ….

Passion for India

Last month I travelled to Bangalore for training. No, this post is not about the training I attended, but about the trainer and some thoughts triggered by what he said during the course of the training.


The trainer is an American who has been staying and working in Bangalore for the past decade or so. An out and out Indophile, he loves India – warts and all. One of his favourite hobbies is to hunt for Chola Bronzes - bronze sculptures built during the Chola period.

Now, I have been living in India all my life and yet I know very little of the Chola period, much less of the bronze sculptures made then!

However what interested (and impressed) me was the passion with which he spoke (about not just the bronzes).

He went on to speak of the history and heritage of India and where we could be if we put our minds to it. In the last sentence I stressed the word ‘we’ for that was the word he used. He was enthusiastic about the creative potential of India and its people. He genuinely believes in and identifies with India and was quite optimistic about where we are headed. How many of us Indians feel the same with the same amount of passion?

The gentleman also had an interesting perspective on the way we (folks in the software industry) perceive and deal with people. He was dead against the term ‘resources’ used while referring to software engineers. In his view, the word resources dehumanizes the work performed. For him resources refer to non human resources like coal, oil, computers etc. He advocates the usage of the word ‘people’ while referring to software engineers.

Does make sense, doesn’t it?!?