welcome 2019 , I have returned to my first love and pray for a better world .will the God conspire to help the poor?

2017 and 2018 - the final years of  the decade of my 60's reminded me that I was getting old , feeling tired, and more sleepy during daytime,being  deprived of the good night sleep- a trend I wanted to reverse but without success..these closing years also saw  my life partner for more than 45 years to exit from earth  and dissolve into cosmos never to return back abandoning me  like an orphan...it took a lot of time  to internalize the fact that  my world even while  my   sweet  girl was alive revolved around academics  and there is no life beyond that -

No one could stop the ageing process and  the power and beauty of youth will never return but  the feeling of being young and energetic, one can always  internalize and cherish that pleasant thought ...It appears that  I cannot get back the memory  and the scale of energy  of the active period of academic life before retirement  but  I know full well that  I do not have any other world except  the academics  and my better half  will also desire that  i must go back to my first love  unmindful of  my age related general weaknesses..

That is the only express way  to escape from  the Accumulation of the academic debris, and get liberation ; In the final weeks of 2018,   I  felt that i must have a continual engagement  with my studies  not only to  come out of the shadows of   my better half  but also  to discharge my responsibility  to the academic community and  my own students....

I sincerely hope that  2019 will be the beginning   of  the end of  my laziness and tiredness   and sense of diffidence  and it will help inaugurate  a new phase of active and productive life .. with the birth  of the new year  let  a feverish enthusiasm will grip not just me  but many  to exploit their  comparative advantage  and march towards excellence and render all possible help to the fellow human..Fire crackers sound I hear now    we shall pray for a better world freed from famine and hunger, violence and vandalism and  all kinds of destructive nationalism in the global village 

The Dean Returns count down to 2019 wish you all good days ahead..

closing days of 2018..I had suggested to two of my childhood friends that atleast once in a month we must meet over a cup of coffee in the city of pondicherry and accordingly one evening we visited the newly found forest zone in the heart of the city..Thereafter we went to ICH for cutlet and coffee.My friends are the accomplished lawyer and the engineer who reached high positions in their respective fields, but deeply more religious than me and this kind of outing  with friends was rare..After warming up we went to the new segment of the beach opposite to secretariat building-  the annexure of which was built by my friend with less than 5 feet foundation during those days while the front main building was made of pile foundation of several feet swallowing more money..I recollected all these while walking to the shore.

with the cool breeze enveloping  and old memories captivating we took some snaps  and sat for a while and conversed more on the nuances of  the spiritual side.I impressed upon them that with all flexibility built into the  schedule we must meet and share our experiences..

Once I reached home my daughter had noticed  the happiness radiating my face and the way in which I had dressed reminding her of the university days ..she gently whispered  Daddy! The Dean returns..
A timely statement like Keynes returns in the wake of the global financial crisis..On the beach i could not escape from my wife and showed one video prepared by shakthi..capturing her final days- the serene and saintly smile holding her grandson.

I pray to the lord that the statement by my Lecturer daughter must  gain currency and the task at hand must be carried out slowly and steadily..I am able to see the bull run in academics now..but sustaining the the momentum is difficult...

I understand the value of time in opportunity sense and how the idea and thought of death actually propel me  to be little bit organised and disciplined..Will  Sam the disorderly orderly personality change for the better in 2019 and beyond and render professional ethics  though the world is not waiting for it now  but i know its relevance for posterity...An angry rebel is rare to find and I want to be a queer bird  different from the run of the mill specie..wish you all the good days ahead...

Are we the victims of fate, puppets in the drama,and God does not will it or provide for it and we are the authors of our joy and sorrow ?

A few more days to go for the year 2018 to dissolve into current history..In two months time if god wills I will complete the sweet sixties..how the time has moved so fast and how the ageing process is more real than what we can bargain for
I want to read more  but the time is invested in writing.. If only I had spent the time wisely in the last five decades .I will not have more regret and ease myself on an easy chair and read both Tamil and my subject..That was not destined to be ...It is all fate eventually..which is wise and benovolent sometimes and cruel and wicked at other times .Despite its all pervasive nature we survive and thrive.

Kural makes a lot of reference, how  the fate  leads the path and draws the road map..Is fate the culmination of the good and the bad we do and or have done in the previous birth? a kind of ripple effect or butterfly effect of chaos and complexity theory ?who gives authority to it ? Does the bad ruler and so many bads among various walk of life will ever get punished ..?

Its dynamics and rational will remain a mystery and only the exalted saintly souls will have an answer.Are we simply the puppets in the drama ? No free will ! what is the role of knowledge and our sense of discrimination ?

The author of kural gives some hope and consolation.. Blaming it all on fate all the time and remainig idle will not help...Earnest efforts and prolonged laboring and hard work- not just physical but also brain triggered  will at least give wages of labour and surmount all the adverse effects of destiny.. Will not God conspire to help to safeguard all those good and honest to g..et their due for the honestly expended energy..

The moral universe is shrinking; corruption is rampant. People without substance or scholarship, devoid of charector- absolutely useless shallow and sadistic creatures, not having any concern for the common man get elevated to power and they indulge in extravagant life style at the cost of exchequer..Destiny driven rogue elements take the countries to ransom and push themselves to the forefront , relegating the honest and good to the background...
 when asked about this Vallvar says, "I do not know the answer. It needs to be researched and investigated"

The cup in her hand was full with tea again..

Tea conversation poem translation continues Part 3

After one or two minutes I said,
"yes once that kind of dream came"
Oh that is a good sign, she responded
And saying this she turned the tea cup upside down
The last drop of tea trickled down.

After shaking her head she stood up
That was not the usual place for the bus to stop
The driver had not turned to see her
And yet
he had already stopped the bus
She got down in a relaxed way
and sat  on the side of the street.
I looked at her
She was all smiles and laughed ,
the teeth along with the gum was visible
And the cup in her hand
was full with tea..
(concluded)
Tamil poem by Vishnupuram saravanan
translation by Prof D sambandhan

The tablet given to her is blue in colour and snake poison too is blue/ have you ever dreamt walking naked in the street?

Poem tea conversation translation continued...Part 2

looking at the rain drops on the front mirror
And the way in which the viper was moving
the water like a series of waves,
she whispered: it's like snakes desperate for coitus

Do you know why the tablet given to me is in blue  colour ?
She asked  me ,waiting for my answer,
I said no by nodding my head..

Blue colour ... the colour of snakes' poison
By the way have you seen the snakes' poison ?
she quipped and when I said  NO
she also said, I have not seen and laughed.

She touched and massaged her earlobe
to absorb and assimilate  the acute cold
 of the winter rain

have you ever dreamt  walking naked in the street?
she asked ? and I quickly responded:
No No Never, I replied.
No hurry  take your time , think and try to recollect
She said and sipped the residual tea
at the bottom of the cup

(To be continued) poem  inTamil by Vishnupuram saravanan.
Translation by prof D sambandhan.../

The poem Tea conversation, translated part 1...The sky spoke through the slight drizzle and she plunged her tea cup into her mouth

 Vishnupuram Saravanan's poem entitled ...Tea conversation was translated on the christmas  when Nihar and his family was here from Bangalore...

With tea filled in full in a paper cup,
And introduced herself by saying that
she has come out of the mental hospital
 without informing anyone.
No sooner than she noticed the changes in
my facial expressions, she gently smiled.

The cold was penetrating through the wind
and yet she held her cup of tea,
very carefully without spilling over
 even a drop of it.

When the sky started to speak through slight drizzle
She plunged her tea cup more deeply into her lips,
and sipped with a sound and just then
In the centre of her eye- corena,
the yellow colured flower danced and floated.

As  one who had enjoyed  the art of  transporting
rain drops into the bus,
through the window she extended the cup outside
and filled it...Again she sipped. sipped..
sipped..

(To be continued )  courtesy: / Ananda vikatan /
dated 4-7 2018,,,

Translation from Tamil to English:
Prof  d sambandhan/

The residual academic greed continues to get liberation from the accumulated notes which weigh me down.

without setback and challenges there is no thrill or fun in life.I have had enough of it.I enjoyed and also suffered I was insulted and humiliated.i did not commit  suicide.
Like my parents I have lived a life of honesty, frugality and simplicity..unlike them-lustful desires and devilish and degrading thoughts  invaded me during the retirement days but by god's grace and silken touch with the subject I was saved; liberation in real sense means getting independence from sensual thoughts.

I have a satisfaction that foolishly and feverishly I  studied with passion and patience as a student through out my teaching career..I never had notes in my hand  nor looked into books while teaching,; this also meant that I had to keep them in memory in a particular lest i would not forget.

In a pre dinner talk at Hyderabad arranged in honour of Prof Nachane in the econometric conference, Prof Suresh Tendulkar   a senior economist came to me after the lecture was  finished,Hi Sambandhan , how are you managing without notes in hand?", I told him with much humility, Sir i will have problems only when I have notes..I am a disorderly orderly person and my delivery is a function of preparation and also the type of audience and I  get the flow and interpretation from cosmos( past reading ).

I was reading for teaching..It was only after going to university I started writing thanks to the Hindu Business Line support.I am basically a teacher than a researcher  and my students are the  hi tech PhDs each capable of independent thinking and practicing work ethics.

In my long journey of 50 years plus, i have  learned a little and slipped a little,never got bored with teaching even a single day and each class was taken with all seriousness and some fear..I have acquired the wisdom that I do not know many things in my subject;but the academic greed is there.I have resumed my lustful romance with my discipline and i talked to  two of my professors in Pune and Hyderabad today, telling them I am in it
I will be happy if I slowly get freedom from my accumulated academic debris and convert them into some good monograph which will help the motivated readers .

(From the Fallout of  Dsam's Adelaide diary , updated today ) 

MY emotive appeal to new Governor of RBI to listen to what Prof and Banker Y V Reddy told long ago...

I have some student friends who are bankers now , one is in the south and another is ni the north ..What do they think about the new governor Of  RBI , A bureaucrat from TN who worked under both Jayalaitha and Karunanidhi.I am not worried about his History degree or buy the argument that he has been chosen for some  ulterior motive or he will not confront the government which after all is going to be there for some months before the elections  but this period is important to manipulate  and how far the new gentleman will oblige and co operate with the government agenda..

Moving down the memory lane  , as a student of international finance  and as a member of Economics Enclave I shared platform with OUR  former governor Reddy and I was impressed with his credibility and sincerity of purpose ..I also listened to Prof Rajan when he talked on Micro credit  when I attended his pre dinner talk  arranged by the organizers of one econometric conference I would say Both Mr Y V Reddy and even Subbarao later for that matter did not dance to the tune of Mr Chidambaram when it came to the question of determining the interest rates..More particularly , Y V Reddy  did not yield to him when he was pressurized to give permission for foreign banks  to get bigger and also ues the foreign exchange for infrastructure .Regardless of what my banker friends would say about the Chicago Professor DR Rajan  I have my regard for them, and my admiration for him  shot up when he resisted demonetization..Urjit Patel another academician had Gokhale Institute background , I am not sure also did manage during the difficult times with all the alleged allegation that he was the Master's voice..

I know that India needs more liquidity not for parading them before the corporate frauds but to the entire people' economy , I am coining a new term  to which the banking system has paid a scant regard..writing off farmers credit is another issue which cannot be simply applauded as the beneficiaries largely happen to be rich farmers and not the real farmers who work on the farm as tenants..It is indeed a shame that in our country, the  farmers ' distress, drought  and floods become the vehicles for the crooks to earn money and the god alone knows what  really the Government does when a state is fully flooded and select states both in the south and North get bombarded by storms and heavy rain..I wonder sometimes whether the State exists ..In spending  there is no ethics and money making madness has gripped criminalized souls to exploit  the national disaster.
Going back to the theme, I would only  request the new governor to remember what Mr Reddy told once :

No central bank can ever be totally independent of its creator - the government.No government can afford to create a central bank that is nothing but accountable.. The question in real life is balancing between autonomy and accountability

The financial system in our country, like our political system is for the rich and affluent glass curtain economy, and a vast majority is outside its territory..Tall talk about financial inclusion  has limited meaning for many , but they have the pan card number, but no income to  show  but must file the income tax statement by paying a fee to the auditor and also pay tax to all the banks  especially the state bank  account holders must shell out for not maintain the minimum balance of few thousands..
what bloody service is there to be rendered when many poor people have  a nil balance or a few hundreds of rupees ?
It is time  that bankers and politicians, Professors and business men realized  that they have an obligation to do  something  not as a favour or charity  to help the financially excluded, but a duty to ensure liquidity for them  not for corporate frauds..we are not going to be here for 100 years  and all the sinned money will be a burden on the children and grand children neck for generation..

Will The new governor of RBI has the knowledge and the guts to manage both the economy and power seeking politicians under whom he has to work?

For the first time in the history of the country Governor of RBI resigns finding himself uncomfortable in the seat and  for the first time in the history of the nation a person who does not have a formal degree in Economics is elevated to this exalted position at a time when the country and the currency are not in good shape from the standpoint of jobs and all the concerns of the common man under the sun 

Is he going to protect the autonomy , credibility and  transparency of the RBI as if it has not been molested in the recent times especially after the  exit of Raghuram Rajan ? Is he a right choice to  be appointed as he happens to be  some one who played a larger role in enacting the drama of a monster called Demonetization with all mistaken assumptions and dancing to the tune of  the establishment soaked economic illiteracy and heightened stupidity in not understanding the stock flow confusion  in the literature on black money /wealth ?

Will it be helpful to the Market or Common man or the government which wants a yes man .while typing this I am also listening to  the statement of Former RBI governor currently the chief of Bank of England that how job crisis  needs the attention of the economy..It is shameful that a person who spends lakhs on dress and travel everyday and flaunts with colurful dresses and costly suit at tax payers benevolence or the corporate funds does not have the sensitivity and elementary responsibility in neogotiating the challenges of growth and job and not rushing to the zones of national disaster , thriving on hate politics..and irrelevant projects which do not help the country

The new governor  may maintain a cordial relation with government but will he promote common good and control  the levers which govern the currency, jobs and stability of growth  in the election  year surcharged atmosphere and the ruling party has been given a slap that it deserves?!

The time has come to focus on the economy and not on the corporate, on politics and not on individuals...The RBI governor has a larger role to play and  not develop any servility to the authorities..Let us hope that he will learn more economics  which is nothing but the common sense , made difficult by professors in the class room ..
RBI's excess reserves has policy implication  and what is important is that the financial system must  be well protected  from the politicians whose eyes are on short term and not always in line with good economics because they do not know that economics which helps the majority of the population

My Dad's life was an education for me..I wish I had spent more time with him..His frugality and simplicity define my personality

some one said, It is not what you  say  out of your mouth that determines your life , it is what you whisper to yourself that has the most power.
In my long journey of nearly 70 years i have thought more about my parents and  since Aug 23 2017, I have been whispering to my departed wife..It's all emotional touch and has nothing to with my academics.I have lived a life  without goal or target and i did not market myself or develop the connectivity to be more active during retirement days ..My power is drawn from my teachers, parents, family and ,of course students of diverse political ideology..

This brief is abut my dad who left me three decades ago when I was 35..He was a man of simplicity and frugality .His needs were few..He did not inherit any wealth..Being an eldest son , in the pleasant company of his wife - my mother , he did the minimum for the joint family..I was born  15 years after their marriage. my elder brother  whose name I do not know was born 8 years after the marriage , he was not lucky to survive  ;in a matter of few months he left my parents alone ..Earlier ,.when he was childless, my grandfather suggested to marry my mother's sister as second wife , but he did not yield. My sister was born when I was 8 or 9 years old .He was more focused on work and practiced more work ethics.
He was the first rice merchant in my village  , labouring for long hours ably assisted by his wife without much assistance from hired labour.They were deployed only to take the boiled and dried paddy to the rice mill and bring it back with the value addition..It was a kind of 24 x 7 work.

Till the end we lived in a thatched house ..He could have earned many lakhs and amassed a huge fortune. The greatest asset was my MA degree and  the plot he  purchased for me  when i was doing PhD at pune . I did help them near the fire place and I know how difficult their work was  .They did not press me into work and made me to study..When I  became college first and state first at Under-graduation level it was just a news to them as well as to me .. Now only I understand its significance.
That was a passport for me to get into the presidency college Madras.

He gave good education though he was not educated much..the greatest blessings in my life is my parents.He built the family lived respectfully, helped many families cutting across religion and caste .
Learning to live rightly, think and act rightly he enjoyed peace and stability by expanding his moral universe.His life was an education for me and I do have his core virtues of professional honesty and uncompromising attitude  to safeguard my self respect..I have not surrendered my identity to anyone and did not beg for any position  title or promotion...though God acted through some good souls to repair the damage done by a few crooks in the garb of academics.

My dad understood  the secrets of joy , discovered the meaning of the existence and mastered the art of living in his own way, in a simple way, A few hours before his death he visited the relations, talked to my village friend and told him that the next day he must visit me .I was in his thoughts and he and his wife will be in my prayers and thought till I breathe last...I am grateful to the supreme for this birth to understand my love and admiration of my parents and my better half who had all the suffering under the sun  but stoic enough to hold my hands and live with a smile , having no hatred to any one...and going away like a saint with all detached attachment