Save our Sports!

·      Beena was the eldest of the four daughters of a rubber tapping labourer from a hilly district of Kerala. Mr Thomas, the physical educational instructor of St George School spotted the athletic talent in this poor, slender girl, while she was in Class 7. The dedication that she made to athletics that day continued for several years. When she won her district, state, and country many gold medals, no one knew that she ran on empty stomach and that her family lived under thatched roof. When an opportunity came to showcase her talent in a prestigious international meet, the selection team and the sports authorities quietly replaced her with another less competent girl who had political backing. Beena’s talent remained in her remote village and is now living as a plantation worker.

This is just a representative case to show how patronage from the powerful can decide one’s future in sports.

·     Indian Hockey team arrived jubilantly after defeating a strong opponent. But they were reportedly ridiculed and humiliated by offering a paltry twenty five thousand rupees per player whereas each cricket team member received rewards in lakhs for a similar victory.

                                                                                                     

Why this discrimination? Critics say, cricket is big money, honey!

·       India won more than 100 medals in the in the recent Commonwealth Games, held at New  Delhi. Apart from this, the final tally included 45 cases of corruption and more than a dozen arrests.  It was alleged that there is misappropriation and mismanagement of thousands of crores.

Dick Ritger had said: ‘All sports are games of inches’. But we can correct this to, ‘All sports are games of riches’!

The above three are just representative samples of thousands of instances of dishonest, unfair and unscrupulous actions by the powers that controlled the sports in India. The first one is an illustration of how millions of meritorious sports persons are unjustly pushed out of the courts to make way for those who wield power. The second one is a clear indication of how business interests make or break a game. And the third points towards a deeper malaise that increasingly gripped the Indian society. The cancer of corruption has spread far and wide to every institution of society. And field of sports is the latest casualty.

What is common in all the above cases? Power and Money. It doesn’t matter whether there is a politician, bureaucrat, businessman, sports person or a social activist at the helm of the affairs. What matters is their driving force. Either the source or the destination or both could be either money or power or both. Let us analyse this in detail. Before we analyse this in detail, let us try to answer the following controversial question.

Should we make sports leadership out of bounds for politicians?

My instinctive answer is a big NO. But, if many politicians are corrupt, we have as many corrupt bureaucrats, sports persons, activists and religious leaders. There is no sector of the population which is untouched by the evil of dishonesty, nepotism and corruption. We need to rank which profession is corrupt based on the opportunity to be corrupt. Politicians and bureaucrats are at a comparatively vulnerable position to use and abuse money and power. But when the right opportunity knocks at their doors, our sportsmen, activists or the spiritual gurus also quietly tread into dishonest paths for personal gains. We have innumerable examples of unethical practices by persons from each of these professions. Thus the persons don’t matter; but an environment that facilitates corruption and inefficiency matters. What is needed is the creation of a system that insulates corrupt practices in sports. Before I conclude this topic, let me discuss once again if we should ban politicians from heading sports bodies.

  (courtsey)

Probably there may not be any other professional label in English language that instantly evokes a suspicious response than the word ‘Politician’.  The negativity triggers such an intense feeling that people started using this noun to anyone who is manipulative, shrewd and deceptive. Even politicians do not like them to be addressed as such, but prefers nomenclature like civic leader, social worker etc.

In a democratic polity, the politicians, whether actually a part of the ruling power structure or not, represents a cross section of society. They are assigned the roles of presenting and solving the issues faced by people. In a representative governance system, ideally, the political leaders decide about the generation and utilization of resources for the common good. Thus by having a politician as one of the decision makers in a sports body would prove to be beneficial for the prospects of sports which should be done within a systemic frame work explained at the end of this article.

Can the leadership of the sports bodies be entrusted exclusively with sportsmen? ….And if they are having political or commercial interest?

Konrad Lawrence wrote: ‘A specialist knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything but nothing.’

This is true in the area of sports as well. The roles, functions, powers, vision and mission of a large sports body are wide, exhaustive and comprehensive. There are technical, managerial, supervisory, and inspirational skills needed to lead such an organization. Expertise in sports or a particular game is only one of the many attributes to step into the shoes. While a sportsman can assess the needs and priorities through his technical expertise, he also needs professional competence, ethical standing, managerial effectiveness, wider outlook and leadership traits that ensure cohesion and solidarity. If these are present, a sportsman would be the most suitable person to head a sports body.

Unfortunately, as in any other field, sports are also marred by allegations of dishonesty, unethical practices, and nepotism by sportsmen, former sportsmen and sports officials like coaches, umpires etc. That does not mean that there is a dearth for honest, disciplined and visionary individuals among the sports persons. As any other person of similar integrity and competence, sports persons are also eligible for selection to the top leadership of sports bodies. In fact, other things being equal, they would be at an advantageous position as compared to others due to their core competence.

 It is a fact that major sports events are not just a platform to showcase healthy competition, but avenues to provide mass entertainment, to make huge profits, for wide reaching advertisements, and to derive opportunities to wield power, and become points of strategic convergence of all of these. Therefore, there are conflicts of interests, promotion of particular interests and suppression of public interest. Being an important party in the events sportspersons do play a crucial role in all of these. This is more conspicuous when the sportspersons either directly or indirectly, manage or control marginally or substantially an event. Though many instances of such unholy nexus between sportsmen and various interests have come to light and available in the public domain, specific references are avoided here as some of these are continued to be disputed legally.

It is clear from the aforesaid discussion that sportsmen with commercial and political interest, latent or manifest, or direct or indirect cannot be a fit candidate for occupying any decisive role in any sports body.

The solution

What is imperative today is to create a system in place that formulates clear rules and guidelines regarding the eligibility and fair selection of office bearers of sports body and detailing a clear code of conduct.

Here are some suggestions:

•  It is immaterial who the person is; be it a politician or bureaucrat or businessman or sportsperson, or an activist. The eligibility should be restricted to persons of proven integrity, exemplary conduct in public life and higher levels of competence to manage and lead the team and reasonable expertise in the area of sports.
•  There should be a fixed tenure and should not be eligible for re-appointment.
•  In case of any allegation of conflict of interest, the onus should be shifted to the functionary to disprove the allegations with clear evidence.
•  The body should consist of representatives who satisfy above criteria and should necessarily have sufficient representation from important categories of sports.
•  The National Sports Bill, which is yet to be passed by the Parliament, should be reformulated.
•  Politicians who are saddled with  ministerial responsibilities should not be permitted to head the body.
•  Sportspersons and others who are selected for the post should give a declaration that they or their close relatives or associates do not have any  pecuniary interest that has any remote connection with the performance of roles and functions associated.
•  There should be a comprehensive cost and system audit and the report should be tabled in Parliament. The auditors should not be eligible for reappointment.

Concluding note

Thus, I would like to conclude my discussion stressing that, the posts of heads of sports bodies, instead of reserving only to the sportspersons, can be given to any person who has proved his integrity, core competence, administrative efficiency, and inspirational leadership traits.

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This post has been published by me as a part of IBL; the Battle of Blogs

The permission

All She Needs is Love

PART-III

Dear Grandma

    I showed my last letter to you, to a few of my friends. They were amused by the way you lived your life confidently, courageously and royally. And they would love to hear more about you.

    I remember you telling me once. “Write a story about your Grandpa and me. Or, you can better write a screenplay for a beautiful movie. People would really wonder whether such a ‘story’ could ever happen in real life!’

      So, I am continuing your story, thanking you for giving me permission.

 Read Part-IV  Broken slate and a lovely dream  

    
(Part-I)    (Part-II)

Hot rice in an emotional bowl

Serial fiction inspired from a life queen size

If you have missed  All She Needs is Love Part-1 (A Letter to Grandma) 

 Click here (Part-1)

Part-2

Hot rice in an emotional bowl

“Who knows for sure when he would come! Do you think your grandpa converses and shares with his wife, like other husbands?”

Indeed, a difficult question to be answered by a 12 year old.

You continued:

‘Don’t you know how much I suffer? No other woman would have tolerated a husband like this. Life goes on because of Ammachi’s patience and tolerance beyond limits of the earth.’

‘Grandma, why do you say that? Grandpa is really a very loving person!’ I used to retort.

‘Mon, what do you know about your Grandpa? He is such an actor! He calls for sympathy from all his children and siblings. He likes to portray me as a horrible lady before everyone. Who brought up all his children and took care of their needs? Who saved money and took charge of the children’s education and maintenance of the house? He never appreciates my wise and frugal home management. My brothers support my family because of their love, affection and sympathy for their sister, who is unfortunately destined to live with an indolent man.’

‘But Ammachi, I see Grandpa bringing lots of goodies home. He buys the biggest fish in the market and brings unniyappam and bonda (sweets from the tea shop) for us. He gets us oranges and black grapes when he goes to Kottayam (nearest town).’

‘Do you think that these are great things? Does he ever buy groceries promptly without me yelling at him and after several reminders?

‘And the big fish that you talk about! Don’t you know what time he brings that fish full of flakes and bones? At 11 O’clock, at night. And this poor Ammachi has to spend the whole night to clean it up!’

‘Only Grandpa does that for you, no? I have seen him cleaning and cutting the fish so meticulously?’

‘Not always, my dear. Even then, who cooks it? He wants both fish curry and fish fry for his dinner, the very night itself. And you said about him bringing oranges and grapes from Kottayam. That is another joke which I will tell you later. Let me check if the rice is ready or not’. 

You looked at the sun’s rays on the veranda and said  it is 12 noon now. And you rushed to the kitchen.

On the way you murmured, ‘He will come hungry, now. Let me prepare his favourite chutney with the raw mangoes he brought yesterday’

Grandma, your grievances against your husband were never ending. As your children refused to hear the oft repeated grumblings and complaints, you found a new breed of patient listeners, in your grand children. You felt really relieved after sharing the stories of your difficult life with your husband. You didn’t mind the age of the grand children who listened. You believed that anybody above 8 years can very well appreciate your genuine grievances and your efficiency and that they can be clearly convinced about your husband’s irresponsible behaviour in the family. 

(Thus, it was not only me who was happy to skip school, but also my grandma who enjoyed my presence at home, as the representative of the grand children could be appropriately indoctrinated about the comparative merits between two grand-parents.)

Grandma, you continued medicines for cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes, for more than four decades. You identified each tablet by their colours and never missed even a single dose of medicine in your life. As in case of your favourite brands of soap, talcum powder, body oil, hair oil and face cream, you stocked medicines for the next two months, in your custody. 

You used to remind your husband to buy you medicine, then your children and in the later years, also your daughters-in-law. Stocks are ordered to be delivered at different timing so that one person will not get a chance to know that another one has already supplied the same set of medicines. That was your way of ensuring uninterrupted supply of medicines. Same was the case of Asanaviluadi oil (for hair), Dhanyantwaram kuzhambu (body oil), Cuticura talcum powder, Nivea face cream and Pears transparent soap. I wonder if this practice was a result of your apprehension after reading about the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. 

I truly wondered how scrupulous you were in selecting the right brand of rice for meals. You used to ask grandpa to bring rice samples home, before buying a sack of rice. You would look at and feel each grain on your palm and then would give a nod if that brand had to be brought. Sometimes you would cook it, to see if it takes a long time to get cooked. (This meant consumption of more firewood). I remember occasions where grandpa violated your directions, resulting in you sending back the entire sack of rice to the grocery shop.

How did you transform Grandpa into a quiet cat at home? A man who served the Indian Army, who had a large network of friends and clients while practising as a freelance law assistant, preferred a low profile at home. You were a towering personality and had made lasting impressions with your unique attitudes and perceptions about life. 

I would like to write more about you. 

Would you mind others knowing you?

All she needs is love

Serial fiction inspired from a life queen size

A Letter to Grandma

My dearest Grandma,

       I am extremely sorry to call you Grandma. You never let your grand children or great grand children to address you as ‘Valyammachi’ (Grandma, in Malayalam), because you feared that such an address will be an assertion that you have become an old lady. Fearing your reprimand, all your children, grand children, great grand children, and servants called you Ammachi (mother). And you wanted all your friends, neighbours and relatives to call you by name (Mariamma) unless they were several years younger to you. You used to declare that most of them were elder to you.

     Today, when my daughter insisted on buying a Pears transparent soap during our Sunday shopping at Spar, I suddenly remembered you, because that was your favourite brand for several decades. You had the habit of stocking at least a dozen of them in your wooden almirah.

      I remember your almirah which was customized as per your directions by the carpenter with three locks, fixed equidistant from top to bottom. You always ensured that none of us peeks through while you open it, and in case anyone tried to, you would position your tall hefty body to hide the view. But from what we, youngsters could get a glimpse at different points of time, we almost prepared an inventory of goodies inside it along with their location and shared with your inquisitive children who never dared to come near your almirah.

     They were prohibited from attempting to come near to the almirah from their childhood as you were sure that they would leak the information about the contents to your husband (our grandpa). Most of these Almost everything inside the almirah were ‘undisclosed assets’. And you used to declare that these contents were unaccountable before your husband. You proudly maintained the position that the entire source is from your benevolent brothers and nothing for your husband to take credit of.


         Not only the contents of the almirah, but also its keys were kept safe in your ‘madikuthu’ (the tucking of the cloth at the waist, while wearing it around the waist). We wonder where you hid them whenever you were moved to surgery tables. You might have reposed more trust in those lovely nurses than your own children. While you were on the surgery table, your children must have prayed and worried not only about your health but also about the whereabouts of the bunch of keys. But you always repossessed your keys from undisclosed recipients immediately after each surgery, in the post-operative ward itself.

   You liked medicines, hospital visits and long chats with your favourite physician, Dr Ravichandran. You even faced the surgery table with a smile. When one had to wait patiently for a word to come out of his mouth and lend his ears completely and place it in proximity to his mouth, and watch closely his lip movements to decipher what he says, how could you spend such a long time with him who was known for his irritating silence and expression-free face? Your unstinted faith in the doctor and in Allopathic medicines made you feel better, from rheumatic arthritis to hair loss.

     I used to see you popping several tablets of different colours into your mouth since your early forties. That is my earliest memory which I can recall of me as a nine year old boy, when I used to spend my days in your house, skipping my school due to frequent head aches.

      The reason for my frequent headaches was more of diagnostic in nature than of physiological. One needs a lot of personal experience to detect the existence and intensity of this most favoured disease among children as well as attention seeking adults.

      Not knowing my prize winning talent in Mono Acting practice, my mother used to be very sympathetic towards my plight. When evening ends up in unfinished home work, I start my head ache project first, asking permission to hit my bed earlier than usual. (There was a fixed bed time fixed unilaterally by my mother for me and my sister). While ‘mono acting practise would go on under my red blanket, my mother used to apply ‘Vicks Vapo Rub’ on my forehead. (That was her ‘ottamooli’, something like quick fix, for almost all the pains under the sun) Morning, when my mother and sister send their calls to me, my practiced dialogue flows back.

“Severe headache, amma..Can’t open my eyes”. 

     Finally, to my sister’s utter disappointment, my mother would declare, “Okay, let him stay in Valyammachi’s house”
  

    Winning the game, I would get up and quickly pack my small bag with my favourite books. My mother would bring me and my bag to your house which was a kilometre away. Explaining my severe headache condition, mother would hand me over to you. You would check if I have fever by placing your right palm on my forehead. I would act a tired look to convince both of you the gravity of my head ache. Both, you and mother were scared of that severe head ache as only both of you know how my Chachan (Dad) suffered before leaving us for ever!

     While my mother quickly had a bite of tapioca and chilly chutney, you placed a big spoonful of gooseberry pickle which you had prepared, for her to share it with her friends at school.

     As my mother departs to school, I used to come back to my true self. I enjoyed being alone in the house, most of the time I spent on day dreaming. Imaginations galore: becoming a writer, a priest, a saint, a bus conductor, bus owner, a singer, and many more. But your long conversations used to interrupt my dreams.

     After a very late, extensive tooth brushing, with a unique mixture of powdered salt and ummikkari (roasted husk of rice), you used to have your breakfast around 10 30 am. Then you would sit and read the daily news paper “Malayala Manorama”, rather loudly, not only the regional, but also the national and international news. You would plan the lunch only around noon as you wanted to serve grandpa, a hot steamy meal.

    As I lie down on the cot, bubbling with colourful imaginations and fascinated by the funny figures on the wall caused by withered paint and funny movements of ants, you used to bring me a glass of kanji vellam. (red rice soup).

 “When will grandpa come for lunch?” My innocent question would trigger an unending emotional narration from you.

                                               Will Grandma allow me to continue publishing the rest of this letter?

Click here for Part-2 'Hot rice in an emotional bowl'

Who trusts the Auditors?

Sibichen K Mathew

                                                

                      How many of you evaluate the past performance and future prospects of a company before investing in its shares? We go by the popular perception, public profile of that company, or the ‘hype’ created by the company itself! The media, the consultants, the specialists and the advisors suggest the best deals to the potential investors. All of them give their views on the basis of the financial statements and audit reports of the company. That means, investors trust the audit reports. To put it simply, ‘people trust the auditors’!

                 Contracts are entered, money is lent, job offers are accepted, tax incentives are given, and above all ‘social recognition’ is bestowed on many corporates on the basis of a beautiful (well-dressed) balance sheet amply certified by auditors. 

                 Yes, we - the government, the investors, the lenders, the purchasers, the sellers, the service providers, the taxmen, the employees, the public - means, the entire society, repose faith in the auditors! And the auditors are supposed to vouch, examine, evaluate and certify the correctness or otherwise of the transactions of the company and its orientation. 

               Yet,  we hear well-established companies bursting like bubbles, share prices reaching rock bottom, promoters fleeing the scene, top management going behind the bars, and all stake holders watching everything helplessly!

What was wrong? Why these happenings?

                Audit, all over the world, is a powerful instrument to ensure accountability and financial regularity in all types of institutions and organizations. Though millions of investors rely on corporate audits, the recent corporate scandals all over the world have raised serious questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of corporate audit regulations and enforcement. The audit report is a powerful indicator of a company’s financial stability, accounting consistency and reliability. However, everything depends on how efficiently the audit was done and how clearly the transactions are reported in the audit report.

                   The Lehman BankruptcyExaminer’s Report  has come down heavily on the failure of Ernst & Young in preventing one of the biggest failures in the Wall Street that triggered global recession. Audit and accounting failures were also evident in the cases of BAE Systems , Olympus , Enron , World Com , Lucent Technologies , Sun Beam Corporation , Waste Management , Boston Chicken  etc. India has also witnessed a series of financial scams in the last decade especially during the liberalization period, most of which are rooted at accounting frauds. However, the responsibility of the auditors in these scams and their role in frauds are never viewed seriously.  Reserve Bank of India has a long list of companies who have been guilty of unethical accounting practices and diverted public funds. A number of companies vanished with crores of rupees immediately after the public issue. Financial statements of several companies became unreliable and depicted wrong state of affairs.Satyam scam is the best example.

The Problem areas

                The corporate scams and scandals happened in the world in the last few years are clear indications of the collusion between auditors and management in accounting frauds. They have happened either through active suggestions and consultancy to commit frauds or through deliberate omissions in the job. Inefficiency and technical incompetence of the auditors have resulted in some of the corporate debacles. It is foolish if one refuses to learn any lesson from the above scandals, thinking that these are just aberrations and will not recur.

                      In many cases it is seen that the audit firm is unduly dependent on the client financially. It may be due to the fact that the audit firm provides bulk of its resources for that client or it receives substantial amount of its earnings from that particular client. Thus it is a question of survival for the firm. It results in subjectivity in the performance and reporting of the auditor. In spite of strict codes of conduct, many auditors enter into financial transactions in the names of relatives with the client or the client’s associated concerns. There are also beneficial interest in trusts of the clients, and in shares and investments in associated concerns and also employment of close relatives in connected concerns and re-employment by the auditors in the clients’ concerns. Most of the audit firms involve in the non-audit work of their clients and they receive substantial portion of their earnings from such non-audit activities. The share of management consultancy in the total revenues of the top five chartered accountant firms in US, has gone up from 13% in 1981 to more than 50% by 2010.

Responses of the regulators and intra-disciplinary bodies

                     Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act , is the US authorities’ response to political outrage in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and other equally shocking failures of law, standards, governance and audit. SOX Act is considered as the legislation, which brought most sweeping changes to securities law, corporate governance, and the regulation of auditors since the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 . The SOX Act has international implications since the auditors of overseas subsidiaries or associates of US listed companies are obliged to sign up to it if they wish to retain the work. SOX Act laid down an array of strictures on company directors, especially CEOs and CFOs. Failure to comply could mean prison terms of upto 25 years.  The creation of the self regulatory board of Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)  by the US Congress through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, was meant to give powers to the Board over the external auditors in order to guide them in auditing the public led companies. Though there are enough laws, the institutional mechanisms in India and many countries are marred by weak enforcement.

Need for a global policy 

                    In this era of globalization and transnational character of businesses, it is necessary to have effective global standards in accounting and auditing. The guidelines need to be uniform. However, the procedures can be flexible based on the particular country’s requirement, without compromising the fundamental principles. 

                 What is imperative today is the establishment of an International Quality Assurance Body that formulates universalistic principles and guidelines for all accounting, auditing and consulting firms all over the world. The body should suggest an appropriate mechanism that ensures quality, reliability and objectivity among audit firms. It is also necessary to have concerted action to prohibit direct or indirect monopoly in the area of auditing and consulting by a few firms. Proper auditor rotation, disciplinary mechanism, and an environment that ensures auditor independence can bring back public trust on the auditors.

You may also like to read following related articles:

Satyam: A case of worst audit failure

Frauds, Scams and a Corporate Lokpal

 

 

For inspiration, don’t always look up. Look down too!

We often hear the speakers and life-style gurus talking of gaining inspiration from people who have reached top echelons. We have great leaders, saints, spiritual masters, achievers-who are dead or alive- to be our role models. But, occasionally one would find such popular reference models too idealistic, impractical and out of context.

There is a possibility that one would no longer get any excitement on repeatedly hearing about the great achievements of these role models. We tend to judge these great people as endowed with unique virtues, brought up in unusual circumstances and blessed with infinite potential to succeed. And we conclude that either they are not ordinary human beings, or the eulogy that they succeeded against many odds is too embellished and hard to believe.

This judgment results in making us believe that they are not people one can easily emulate. And we tend to justify our attitude that certain things are impossible for us and then satisfy ourselves with our achievements and limited goals.

That is why, the sermons, speeches, inspirational stories and biographies of great persons do not motivate people to an expected extent.

But, there are several ‘ordinary’ persons around us and most often 'below' us from whom we can draw inspiration. It could be our children, employee, servant, or any other person. When we directly see, certain achievements or unique traits in others around us, we get convinced that such thing is possible for us also.

I have come across several such ordinary persons during my daily interactions, whose actions, habits or lifestyles have influenced me.

Manjunath is one such person. This young man, who is in his twenty’s started a pharmacy in a small room in the residential colony where I stay. That was when two shops in the same line of business closed down in succession because of poor turnover. I was amazed at the way Manjunath single-handedly ran his shop, with just one part-time assistant. He stacked all types of medicines, dietary supplements, toiletries, cosmetics systematically in that room. He could cater to the need of every person, unlike many other pharmacies where we don’t get some of the medicines mentioned in the prescription, instantly. Though there are several other medical stores within the colony, one can see people thronging only in Manjunth’s shop. This is the only shop in the area that functions continuously for about 14 hours, from 8.30 AM to 10.30 PM. It is very inspiring to see how he responds simultaneously to several customers, checks the medicines in his sleek system, gives medicines from the neatly arranged boxes, collects the amount, swipes the card, gives the change, records the orders for home delivery in a book etc. Apart from this, he also recharges the simcards of the customers of various mobile operators and also books tickets, online.

What I found unique in him was his alertness, enthusiastic response to everyone, swift action, numerical skills, and awareness of customer needs. And I saw the results: how such hard work, awareness of the requirements of people, intelligent application of resources, positive attitude and enthusiasm improve not only one’s social and economic status, but also physical and mental well being. I am sure; every visitor in his premises gets inspired by him.

Our part-time maid, Kalpana, who comes to sweep and swab in our house teaches us the need for punctuality. We always had the experience of house maids who were not always on time. Usually, it used to be like this. If it was agreed to come at 7 AM in the morning on all the six days of the week, on the first day the maid will come at 7.05 AM. Next day, it will be 7.15 AM.  The third day, 7.30 AM, and so on. After a few weeks, the arrival time will be around 8 AM and there will be several days of absence in a month. We got used to this schedule with most of the maids. But Kalpana surprised us with her punctuality. She works in several houses. The agreed time to work in our house is from 2 PM to 5 PM. She came on the first day at 2 PM sharp. We thought she would delay her arrival in due course. Her discipline in her job is inspirational. She continued to come at 2 PM, almost every day. In exceptional circumstances, if there is delay, even if it is just 15 minutes, she would call us in advance and inform about the delay. She gets into the assigned work systematically every day. We don’t require any Management Gurus to teach us Time Management. Kalpana, this part-time house maid teaches us through her life. Are we, the so called ‘educated elites’, punctual like Kalpana, in our respective workplaces?

Vijayakumar, the man who irons my dress, also has something unique to teach. He works in a School as Lab Assistant. He leaves home at 7 AM and reaches back at 7 PM. His salary was not sufficient for maintaining his family. He decided to do some odd job to get an extra income. With just an investment of less than Rs 500, he started his ironing business. He comes to our residential colony every day around 8 PM to collect clothes for ironing. In the late night, he irons all the clothes and delivers them to the respective houses next evening. He is very well-mannered, fluent in English, and prompt in his work.

Vijayakumar has proved that every job has dignity, and there should be professionalism in every job. He says, “Instead of wasting my time watching Television at home, I use it for this productive work. My wife helps me in this and we derive extra income for making our life a little easier”

There are many such ordinary people we come across everyday who can teach us important lessons in living. A successful person is one who absorbs the positive traits of others. Like a magnet that attracts all metal objects towards it, one needs to draw all the positive traits around towards oneself. And repel all negative vibes around!

Sometimes, we learn even from our kids. I was not much inclined towards outdoor games during my childhood. It was my son who inspired me to get into the swimming pool. And it was my daughter who pushed me to the tennis court. And I enjoy both and am thankful to them for removing my inertia.

Motivation comes from all around. We may not know sometimes who influenced us. But we should realize that bulk of the credit for the virtues we have, goes to some ordinary individuals with extra ordinary lives. They are not 'below' us. I feel, they are much above us!

Sibichen K Mathew

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Dancing with Maharaja: An Inspirational Novel for the Civil Services Aspirants

2625, Kerala Express from Kottayam to New Delhi, used to carry not only my bag full of cut-mango pickles, dry coconut chutney and banana chips, but also a lot of dreams. For any young man or woman, the period immediately after graduation is an important stage in life. Realization that one should come out of the comfort zone and try to secure a meaningful career disturbs the entire routine. On the one side the urge to enjoy life without taking any responsibility, and on the other side the sudden awareness about the need for getting into a role that would give sufficient social recognition and livelihood. At the same time one is also disturbed by the high expectations from the parents and relatives and hundreds of suggestions, benchmarks, advice, warnings, and reprimands showered liberally by all and sundry. The youth is really confused and agitated and sometimes loses his morale and creativity. 

   Following words were neatly scribbled on a yellow sheet on the wall in front of the study table in the Room No. 123 E, Brahmaputra Hostel, JNU. 

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm’ (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

‘Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes,

the swing in your gait,

The grip in your hand,

the irresistible surge of will,

and the energy to execute your ideas’ (HenryFord).

   Those words on the wall of my room used to inspire me during my times of loneliness and anxiety, and propel me forward to achieve my dreams. Getting into the top echelons of Indian Civil Services was one of them.  For many young persons, the inspiration would come from far away parents through their long-distance calls or from their friends and relatives. Cracking one of the toughest examinations of the country require much more than hard work and perseverance. One needs to be sufficiently motivated.  

Dancing with Maharaja

   Above memories and thoughts vividly reappeared within me while I got to read ‘Dancing With Maharaja’, an exciting fiction written by Sundar. The book is a story of a young man from a small town in Southern India who was forced to undertake a journey to a much disliked destination. He was forced to pursue his businessman father’s dream to make his son an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. 

   His father, a rich liquor shop owner wanted his son to be respected, be on the front pages of newspapers and television, have control over many people, have a lot of power and succeed in life. For all these ambitions, he found only one way: Make him an IAS officer. But the son was a lazy, naughty, aggressive, undisciplined, and disobedient student all throughout his school and college days. He never liked to be in the Civil Services. He enjoyed the company of his school dropout friends with bottles of Kalyani beer, scrambled eggs, lots of cigarettes and wild thoughts. Satish, the young man struggled amidst conflicting aspirations, and took the train to New Delhi to satisfy his father, though he himself was not convinced a bit about his mission. 

   Satish disliked the life in and around Old Rajinder Nagar, ‘the mecca of IAS preparation’ where thousands of ‘mad’ civil service aspirants flocked, slogged and discussed about everything under the sun. Entire life of those young men and women were centred around Civil Services Chronicle, Yojana, Coaching Centres, Dholpur House, and book stalls that carry tons of materials to satisfy their hunger for current affairs. He didn’t want to shed his rustic personality and throw his own unique dreams and aspirations for the stupid and crazy UPSC examinations. He continued to live like the son of a liquor shop owner from Madurai, who is more interested in settling the street disputes. His blood boiled seeing injustice around. And he was convinced that to help others in their dire needs, one need not possess a position in the Civil Services.

    But his father continued to send letters to him:

 ‘ Try to be at least one per cent sincere with your preparation, I will be happy’.

‘ My dear Satish, best of luck. I am really proud to be your father. Love, father’.  

    And Satish, a student with a below average performance all throughout, dreamt to own and manage a one-of-its-kind high class bar-cum-discotheque in Madurai city. The author continues his story creating excitements all along as he introduces many characters and their lifestyles. 

    The book very simplistically unravels the sociology of a youth from a semi-urban background, his aspirations, and experiments in life. Entire novel is spiced up with unadulterated humour linked to real life incidents the readers could easily link. This can be a motivational sourcebook for any person who aspire success against all odds. I am sure, all readers, especially the youth would not close the book till they reach the last page. And all civil services aspirants should necessarily read this book to derive the much needed inspiration as they prepare themselves to be the leaders of the society.

     Author, Shri Sundar has done his Engineering degree and MBA and currently in the Indian Revenue Service. The book is published by Srishti Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. The book is priced at just Rs 100 so that anyone can afford. (So students, please use your pocket money!). Book is also available online at Flipcart. 

Sibichen K Mathew

See below a few other book reviews by Sibichen K Mathew

Julian Assange: A Criminal or a Champion of Open Society? 

Aleph, Paulo Coelho and my Friend: The Journey Within

 

Knowing History through Great Speeches

Choose the book and start living

 

Julian Assange: A Criminal or a Champion of Open Society?

An analytical review of ‘Julian Assange: The Unauthorized Autobiography’

Sibichen K Mathew

Sociologists and Psychologists say that a person’s early childhood experiences have a bearing on his personality as he grows up as an adult. This is found to be very true in the case of Julian Assange, an organized full-time hacker who has institutionalized ‘hacking’ and ‘leaking’ classified and confidential information of individuals, entities and states. He calls it ‘ethical’ and considers it as truthful and in the interest of public.

Unlike other children who uttered 'pa' or 'ma' as his first word, baby Julian cried 'why?'. And the parents (the mother, father and the stepfathers in his life) weren’t shy of his ‘why?’ He preferred books to toys.  Had to stay in more than fifty towns in Australia and studied in more than thirty schools, mostly in the suburbs. So he was always labelled as a ‘new boy’ in every school. He found the school to be an agony of boredom and a place of slow learning. He was subjected to corporal punishment by one of the school principals based on a false accusation. He hated the school system.

Was he deviant in his teenage years? May be, if we compare his lifestyles with others', of the same age, of the same time. He started keeping his hair very long in spite of injunctions not to. He was often been ridiculed or judged on account of his hair. He defied the instructions of both teachers and his mother and the stepfather. He refused to tie his shoelaces in the normal way and devised an elaborate system of wrapping the laces round the ankle and tying a knot rather than a bow, and began to teach the method to other kids. Later he dispensed with shoes altogether. 

Young Assange keenly observed how his activist mother participated in the protests against war, uranium mining, harmful fishing practices, logging in rainforests. He thus gained firm education in the arts of political persuasion. But the life of the mother and son were like fugitives, as the mother experienced the trauma of repeated marital break down. All these childhood experiences have very deeply influenced the personality of Assange.

Influence of the invisible father

Many Sociologists (Nature-Nature debate)   are of the opinion that about 80% of one’s personality is influenced by the ‘environment’ and just 20% is attributed to Heredity. In the case of Assange, though the childhood experiences and the family background have greatly influenced his personality, there is a clear genetic influence. That is what Assange also believes. The book speaks about Assange’s discovery that he, in fact, was following his father’s footsteps as far his literary interests were concerned, without knowing him and his interests. He was amazed to find out on his father’s book shelves, the same set of books he had purchased and read. He says with pain: ‘I suddenly realised I had started from the bottom of myself, on the first rung, and built myself up via many trials and tribulations, when, all the time, if I had only known him, I might just have picked his books down from the shelf.’ He regretted that if he had known him, he would have built faster.

 

The hacking adventures of Cypherpunks

  A man from a socially marginal family grew tall to be a well-known person across the globe through the most unexpected route. The Commodore 64 computer which he saw in a shop window transformed him to the world of cyberspace.  While Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were acclaimed for their creativity in Information Technology, Assange became popular (or infamous) for finding holes in the systems created by them. His team, comprised of either eccentric persons or persons with anxiety disorders and mostly from dysfunctional families, started their hacking adventures with the computer network through which most of the countries ran their classified computer sites. These ‘cypherpunks’ thought that information derived from these locations, just for the sake of fun, can be a major tool in the fight for social change. They wandered through the corridors of US Air Force in the Pentagon, tramped through Motorola, padded through Xerox, and swam down into the US Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station.

Tax evasion and money laundering by global financial institutions

Assange believed that his treasure hunting projects are a synthesis of a mathematical truth and a moral necessity. And he claimed that they can nip corruption scientifically rather than through street riots, human rights struggles or electoral reforms. He investigated the international money laundering and tax evasion rackets. Information gathered on perusal of a confidential report prepared by a company commissioned by Kibaki regime to find out what happened to the money embezzled by formerpresident Moi, indicated that many globally reported financial institutions were involved  in maintaining or laundering stolen, dirty money. It showed exactly how much money had been routed through other jurisdictions, wearing a new disguise at each stage, often ending up in tax havens. They found how these institutions based at tax havens facilitated asset-hiding and tax minimization (tax avoidance), and they believed that for public interest, they should reveal what these people were doing and to what extent they were doing it.

From Guantanamo Bay to Bhopal

Wikileaks released over half million US National text pager intercepts relating to September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. It used anonymous sources of information and leaked details related to Guantanamo Bay, US Military equipment in Iraq, Confidential Congressional Reports, Confidential Climate Change Agreements, Frauds within Multi-National Corporations, Internet Censorships in countries etc.  Wikileaks released a database of hundreds of documents from as many as 160 ‘intelligence contractors’ in the ‘mass surveillance industry’. On February 27, 2012 wikileaks published what they called ‘Global Intelligence Files’ which are about 500 million e-mails (of the period from 2004 to 2011). It was claimed that these e-mails revealed confidential communications of various companies, indicating the dubious role played by the Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Company. 

Act in public interest or sheer crime?

How can a person who claims to be the champion of freedom of information thwart the privacy of individuals and institutions? How can a person who claims to be engaged in ethical mission commit the crime of unauthorized snooping and stealing secret information? How can a person disseminate information that seriously damages the security, peace and reputation of states and global institutions? These are some of the questions that emerge in this context.

Assange and his team believe that they are spearheading a movement that is just, equitable and  ethical. Though started for fun, their activities, they feel have exposed the abuse of power by authorities, corruption by the mighty, and opened up the truth to the world. Assange team preferred to leave it to history to judge what was in the ‘public interest’ and what was not.  They proved that a few individuals can wield power through knowledge (‘clever mathematics’) to threaten even the most powerful state.

Assange said in an interview:   

 ‘….so if you and I agree on a particular encryption code, and it is mathematically strong, then the forces of every superpower brought to bear on that code still cannot crack it. So a state can desire to do something to an individual, yet it is simply not possible for the state to do it – and in this sense, Mathematics and individuals are stronger than Superpowers”

        

An incomplete book

The biography is an unauthorized one. Obviously, it has to be incomplete and marred by errors. The ‘subject’ can justly accuse the ‘author’ for every damn thing in the book, and escape any possible defamation suit or any criminal case on the basis of what is written or and about whom. Do you smell any conspiracy in this?

This could be the first ‘unauthorized autobiography’ (strange combination of words indeed) in history, though Assange could pay off his lawyers with the help of the advance from the publisher. Assange clearly stated in his interviews: “I am not the writer of this book’. The ‘ghost writer’ Andrew O’ Hagan prepared his first draft after conversing many days with Julian Assange. And Canongate did not have the patience to get it ‘corrected’ or ‘fact checked’. They shipped the books to stores all over the world in haste, and the critics (of wikileaks or Canongate?) laughed declaring that only less than 500 copies sold in the first few days! He wrote in the wikileaks website: ‘The entire book was to be heavily modified, extended and revised in particular, to take into account the privacy of the individuals mentioned in the book’. Certainly, money would pour in even if this is an incomplete work. But as the accounts of Assange are under attachment and monitoring, Canongate is ‘justified’ (any wise publisher in similar circumstances would) in deciding to declare the book as unauthorized. 

Though the book is a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between O’Hagan and Assange, it could be seen that it is a ‘work-in-progress’. The story of Julian Assange is incomplete on two accounts. First, the book itself has not captured him and his life in its entirety. Second, his agenda and mission are still incomplete and unfinished. Probably, we may have to wait for an authorized autobiography in the near future.

In spite of all its defects and incompleteness, this ‘part-memoir, part-manifesto’  clearly and interestingly unfolds the journey of Julian Assange and the Wikileaks. Julian Assange , undoubtedly, has become an icon of the century. An icon of what one would call the ‘open society’.

Some interesting excerpts from the book are given below:

“No longer a case simply of Big Brother watching you, but of Big Brother controlling your fingers, the movement of your mind, and keeping you from finding the world and its information on your own terms. Big Brother is home. He is installed in the item you just dragged home from the apple store.” (p.97)

“In order to examine the way that information moves around the world you would have to be interested in the whole pipeline: who makes the pipeline, who pays for it, who maintains it, and whether it is blocked anywhere or whether the flow is hindered.” (p.113)

“We cannot trust newspapers alone, as they have proved again and again to be both censors and partisans. We cannot trust broadcasters, who show, in most cases, that the value of advertising is more compelling to them than news values. … We work with them because we do not wish to be rivals: we wish to pool resources, but they, …struggle with the notion of their own legitimacy in the computer age, and with the machinations of their own egos” (p.120)

“Vanity in a newspaper man is like perfume on a whore: they use it to fend off a dark whiff of themselves”

    [Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography (2011), Great Britain, Canongate]

(Above review and analysis are purely academic in nature. The author does not necessarily subscribe to any of the views mentioned in the above book or in the links given in this article. The authenticity of the data in the links cited is not verified. ) [Thanks to Sajjive for the caricature]

Click below to see following articles on the related area

Right to Privacy in a Snooping World

No Privacy anymore? A critical look at Google's new privacy policy 

Truth shall set us free