who cannot live in harmony with the world / Though learned, are fools indeed (kural 140)

Criticism against any government by the well informed and good intentioned ones are not sin and they are necessary like organic manure for nursing and nurturing democracy.

A fascist leader with the arrogance of power will not entertain it for fear of losing power.

Modi's India  was accused of censorship for blocking social media criticism amidst covid surge , wrote Wall Street Journal from the US.

Going into the root of the problem The Straits Times Singapore underlined that  the unfolding health disaster  is a hybrid of  natural  disaster compounded by complecency, misgovernance and power play.

This complacency has turned  a seeming success story  into one of the world's worst hit places , said Newyork Times from the US.

Yes..Modi told the world economic Forum : india had  defeated the virus.Arrogance and hyper nationalism have created the crisis with the crowd loving PM basking while citizens suffocate, to quote The Australian newspaper.

The Guardian from UK and Global Times China also reiterate that India dropped their guard because of the leader's overconfidence.

I have strained to give the details that the world is watching us and Modi can't play gimmicks and  fool the  people that everything is well and he has delivered while he completes seven long years without any substantial achievement to his credit.

Manipulating and distorting data with regard to covid deaths  is a great disgrace to the departed.Because ours is a civilization that treats death and dying with the same veneraion as the living.

self glorification and celebration and insensitivity and incompetence going hand in hand

The nation has been struggling to breathe .Death is visiting and snatching away the young and the old  just like that .

It's intimidating and paralysing our limbs and mind.As BJP stalwart opined ,corana virus has got its own right to live as we live ..perhaps he does not know it is only  a semi life virus  and gets  life only after entering into human body.

It tests our immune and makes inroads and chokes us to death..To keep pace with its capacity we also need to enhance our capabilities and immune capacity in the long run and in the immediate Keynesian short run vaccinations and state intervention matter most .Here the Modi's government has miserably failed and it has become a problem not only to its population but also to the entire world, as we live in an interdependent economy.As Washington Post rightly observed ,"India is not a far away problem.In pandemic  time  and distance  every place is nearby."

To strengthen this view consider the following from BBC , UK: "The higher the number of covid cases  a country has , the more likely it is that new variants will emerge .The situation in India is a bleak reminder that  none of us will be safe  until eveyone  is safe".

In the face of this scientific truth if multiple variants of the virus  and some  prefer to call it as Indian variant  we need not react with anger as if our presige and image has been lost.Instead it should make us  to have self introspection into ourseves  over our lapse and failures and I doubt whether the arrogant leader will have elementary wisdom to understand it .

It is   unfortunate that  no mainstream media is willing to question the " Modi made disaster".None of them is naming the PM  who is still to hold a single press conference, as was oberved by Democracy Now, USA.

In the same vein Le Monde from France emphatically argues :" More  inclined to self celebration than to protect population, Modi only aggravated the situation." 

politicking in the Driver's seat ,and preparedness for the second wave was not in the back seat?

There is consensus among the neutral observers and international media that  the complacency, lack of foresight, inadequate or virtually nil preparation to negotiate the second wave proved to be more determintal and suicidal as later events have shown.

It is strange that a government which used to derive a sadistic satisfaction on surgical strike  and did not bother at  all about the military expenditure on bombing Pakistan was at ease and quiet peace with itself basking in self glory when it came to strengthening the health spending on war footing.This caused unease and discomfort to begin with and later unleashed more death and destruction.During the turbulent stage of human trivial the leader did more politicking especially in WB.

It's more painful to revisit the terrifying epic crisis when people were dying on the street and people feverishly moving from pillar to the post to get oxygen bed and much worse the place to cremate..With spriling death toll bodies were  thrown in Ganga and it took some time for the authorities to do police surveillance and monitor and also announce that five thousand would be given to those who could not aford the cremation expenses.

There was no time to do mourning and dignity could not be guaranteed to human bodies.Many independent agencies and people's net work cutting across religion and political ideology came forward to help....but the health infrastructure was fractured and fragmented  for the majority of population.Just imagine the rich guy unable to get bed in Gujarat takes his jet and carries his family to Chennai to get admitted.It was a man made and self inflicted disaster like demonetization , the chaos being much worse and far reaching in terms of death and destruction.

Right leadership was lacking, and even Minimum strategy was missing

For nearly 18 months the  corana virus has been  with us .It was not keeping quiet but remained active mutating itself with all militancy and virulence.Indeed the virus found a fertile climate/ ground in the Indian soil to proliferate and multiply effortlessly as shall be explained shortly.

Close on the heels of the first wave  the rest of the world  went into a war mode and  started evolving a manifold strategies to combat the expected second wave  and were preparing themselves for they knew its ramifications-the shocks and disturbances that it would unleash on the people would be severe.

Modi's India lived in a world of illusion and delusion and self congratulating itself  that India had the rescilence and a social system to overcome the crisis and it proclaimed that the game of corana was  over  and it had been stamped out..They were seduced and blinded by the longest lockdown which gave a temporary relief with all its adverse permanent consequences on the livelihood issues.

This further means that the government of India did not bother about evolving any plan, a master plan or any coherent and comprehensive strategy to come to terms with it , tame it and take precautions by way of augmenting the supply of oxygen and other related medical infrastructure in  event of  the second wave arriving.

This time was not mvested to augment and strengthen the health infrastructure but consumed away by its habitual Hindthuva competeive politics of destabilisation of the opposition, altering the federal structure and winning election in fig States

The administrative machinery and particularly the  itinerary of the PM travel diary was more focused on flying and addressing a huge audience collected by money power.The  fire of  the crude and raw hatred  was blown.

To add more insult to the injury a huge gathering of kumbha Mela was allowed to respect and reflect the Hindu sentiments and it was withdrawn only after the damage had been done and the virus had entrenched itself fully and feverishly.It proved to be the super spreader and almost all the international media made a quick reference to it when the virus was causing havoc and creating an existential dilemma for the entire country.It was made known by the CM of a state in the North that the faith of the devotees will overcome the fear of corana.

Modi's government completes seven years in office amidst pandemic situation

When the Modi's government completes seven years of its misrule  amidst the pandemonium of the pandemic, the leader is self congratulating himself that everything is fine and he has delivered more to the people and they are happy.

How could a person who has been virtually chargesheeted by the international media for his bungling in mishandling the corana triggered crisis speak like this , telling lies and adding insult to the injury and wounding the sensibilities of the population facing deaths and destruction.

The level and content ,the degree and the magnitude of the misgovernance and lack of governance on both economic and social front is in naked form for all the people to see.The day of his assuming office was observed with black flag by the faming community in select pockets of India.

Every one including the activists of his party would concede that the day is not for celebration or any kind of jubilation for there's nothing to celebrate or rejoice over.

Even in the context of foreign policy the bungling is visible and China is surging ahead with all masterstrokes to humiliate and undermine us .

This is certainly an occassion for deep self introspection and rumination as  the way in which we have been handling the second wave is much to be desired.

While the loyalists of the brand ,now bearded to look like Tagore there or Periyar here , are still around here and looming large  least bothered about the pain and death faced by many for they are in the comfort zone, well informed critics at home and abroad are unwilling and unable to sing his  glory and be a party to the sin committed by the leader twice , first  while first launching misplaced demonetization and then ,now in not preparing well for the second wave  and more importantly playing politics with the process of  vaccinations.

Forget the performance or non performance,  what strikes more is his indifference to the life and livelihood issues and his inimical attitude to opposition ruled states in allocating relief materials and  more importantly building the city for the emperor violating all  architectural norms and morals is  disgusting and frustratingly irritating..(To be continued..1)

we don't mind if you go (7) as there is governance deficits

With the exception of the RSS loyalists and a few

Upper caste educated criminals living in the comfort zone 

Still glorifying and marketing the brand called Modi

Notwithstanding his cumulative failures on many fronts,

The majority of population is disgusted and disappointed

With his action on demonetization then

 and inaction on the health crisis now.

The level and content of his governance has not matched 

 the magnitude of the pandemic situation, the scale,

the spread and depth of the on going health crisis.

The intervening period between the first and second wave saw him focussed on winning election by hook or crook

With least concentration on the preparation for meeting

the impending disaster and calamity that could befall on

Hapless masses.

Instead of striving hard to draw the road map towards

Universal immunization, raising and augmenting oxygen

And  strengthening the fragile health infrastructure

He was desperate to form unprincipled alliances

By buying, bribing and threatening the strong men with dubious track record on corruption from others..

He was stealing virtually shamelessly

 outsourcing from the opposition as his brand and image 

Had outlived it's utility and no longer the 56 inches

Could lift the wall of distance between people and his party. 

While the rest of the world was busy and committed

to reduce the intensity of the corana virus he was 

Gloating over the massive crowd stage managed,

Therby creating a fertile ground for the virus to invade

Multiply and reincarnate ino different variant and now called as Indian variant causing havoc now and becoming

A threat to the world as a whole.

India's way sorry Modi's way of governance and his critical

incapacity and inability to take a holistic remedy in

Multiple direction to save India has invited ridicule and 

Trenchant criticism from the international media ...

The brand is now downgraded, degraded and devalued

As the devastating consequences of the surge in corana

Are manifest in infinite ways....

Ancient Tamil sacred text  Thirukkural (208) says:

" Destruction follows one who commits evil acts

Like the shadow following one's footsteps."

The nation cries for help and those who seek intervention

for curing their near and dear ones through social media

Are booked for tarnishing the image of the party and government

By the rascalised criminals adoring the seat of power

Especially in the  Hindi heartland ..

We don't mind if you go as your notional presence

And the recent act of shedding tears will be of 

No consequence or significance for the afflicted.

politics is your profession and you do it neatly right from assuming office 6

 politics is your profession and you do it neatly;

you tried all foul means to capture power in WB;

the wise and benovolent destiny saved bengali's from RSS virus.

yourdrama is on at french town pondicherry.

and in lakashadeep island you have started your michief,

harassing the soil sea and the muslim population there.

Amidst pandemonium of pandemic situation you celebrate your 

completion of seven year misrule this way for the entire solar system to see

having caused death and destruction to a massive number across the country 

you still live in self glory and delusion that you have given everything .

what a great joke  adding insult to the injury..

neutral observers,patriots, the true nationalists and the international media 

have assessed the level and magnitude of incompetence  be it post demonetization

or meeting the challenges of cvid 19 inclusive of misguided polices and muddled thinking 

in economics, it is futile to expect any benovolent intervention from the  centre especially 

the oppsition ruled states...

you are not made for governance but to do globe trotting  at the expense of tax payers money

the costy plane you have bought is rusting  and you are impatient to complete the 

emperor's city and enter home without your wife .

since you are afraid of travelling you are unable to change different costumes

and they might be also crying as they remain idle 

what a visionary ambition and concerted action for the nation.

in a pandemic situation without any sense of shame or conscience 

seeing your craziness to put your  photo on the vaccination certificate  the MP from WB

is teasing you, Mr PM  by the same logic will you allow your photo to be affixed on

corana related death certi ficates  too?

people are disappointed and disgusted and they don't mind if you go.

we don't mind if you go (5)

Right from the days of demonetization and 

Hasty implementation of savage GST agenda

And the subsequent bungling in not sharing with

The state governments, their legitimate due,

Their money and asking them shamelessly

To go to market and borrow and to the recnt inaction

In tackling the challenging pandemic situation

You have proved that you are not made for governing

Sensibly and responsibly

But travel merrily globally with multi coloured costumes

Like a circus Clown at as payer's money.

You have behave behaved like a discriminating monopolist.

With your misplaced priorities and no action plan in the intervening period between the first and second wave 

You had no vision or listen to experts to foresee

The impending calalmity and not at all committed to

Vaccine equality...

Earlier you were keen to centralise all the powers

 under the sun,appropriating health and education

Under your feet forgetting that they are state subjects

When situation became unmanageable you shifted responsibility to states forgetting the basic fact

Universal immunization is the responsibility of the State

The federal government must act manly and swiftly

Without any partisan politics.

You have shown your corporate face and the hand of 

RSS kind of vengence while unleashing vaccine supply more to the saffron states and also legitimized

 triple pricing for the same vaccine

What happened to your one India and one policy

Why there's no one India and one covid policy

You have presided over the failed state

By suppressing democracy,

Choking the voice of dissent and cry for oxygen

And blocking the free flow of information...

They don't mind if you go for the good of the country.

we don't mind if you go (4)

Politics is thy cup of tea always right from the start

Lies permeate your veins

Politicking has become your way of life

Your own MP a Harward University professor says,

You don't know economics and  shall we say

you  also don't  listen to well informed

People who know right and relevant economics.

Which means you want to grope in darkness and do 

not  bother to know anything like priority or the simple concept called 

Opportunity Cost in economics.

That is why you construct Central vista for 20000 cr

In a pandemic situation without any conscience or application of mind.

Even a chronically mad fellow will not dare to do

What you have been attempting to do

All in the name of nation, when the nation itself dies

Cries for oxygen and other medical facilities,

Without any sense of shame and not at all having

Any moral fibre to cloth your physical frame.

There's no moral dilemma for you

Nor do you bother about the existential dilemma

Of others.

The Hindu Editorial terms your self aggrandisment

Of power manifested in that gandeuor as

Artless and Heartless.

When everything goes well, first wave of corana 

You take credit 

When things go wrong by your inaction or lack of even minimum preparedness you cry with the help of medicine

Exposing thereby your incompetence to goven this

Vast subcontinent.

And the nation cries: we can't breathe for lack of oxygen beds, and the much needed medicine and vaccinations.

You don't mind if the nation stalls or 

the people starve  and fall...

Your spineless government, the authorities

Do not want to hear the people's grievances

Or complaints... They don't mind if you go

we don't mind if you go (3)

Your prime goal in life is power, not by earning it

But by grabbing it  by manipulating politics machine

By disobeying god, recreating and distorting history

Exploiting the innocence and ignorance of the masses steeped ito poverty and malnutrition with no proper

Health care, social and economic security worth mentioning.

I do not remember who gave the title to you

'The Merchant Of Death'   in the wake of Godhra massacre.

Being and becoming the debased and degraded satan

You destroyed the institutions and values and also

Molested the constitution enacted anti people laws

All  in the name of nationalism, restoring culture 

And your brand of Hindthuva religion which has started dividing and polarising the society which lived in 

Communal harmony....

The entire solar system knows your hate religion

Is a negation of true Hinduism which is more

Inclusive and accommodative with other religions

Excepting that it  denies space and freedom to 

the lesser privileged Dalits and the backward.

The Result: 

I quote..." Civility was the first casualty, replaced by communal prejudice and demonstrative religion." 

By exercising power unilaterally without any collective

responsibility and not taking opposition into confidence you have created a polarised society on the basis of 

Religion, creed and colour and pulled down the 

Fastest growing economy into the fastest slowing economy, all in the guise of  misplacd arrogance:

I am the king and I know everything

And anyone who opposes me is a traitor

And  an anti Indian .

Is this the way to govern the country?

In your smart india  digital India , the people especially

The poor, the marginalised, the informal and migrant labour are not the entities at all

You have never bothered at all

Whether they live or die, sink into poverty

Or swim through the muddled economic waters.

Small wonder then they say and 

We also say we don't mind if you go...

They don't mind if you go (2)

What was the trigger ,the proximate  factor for your elevation to the exalted August office of PM

Was it your infamous Gujarat model

Which has become a laughing stock now!?

in a pandemic situation when a moneyed fellow

Takes his private jet flys to Chennai to find a bed for treatment,

OR

LK Advani's ratha Yatra the fruits of which you have reaped,

Post kerseva violence, demolishing the Babri masjid and razing it to the ground ,

The shock and shame of communal riots

Orchestered mass violence and so on

God knows  everything ,we also know.

By molesting true Hinduism and completely distorting it 

And whipping up the passion of uncivilized,the barbarian crowd and also the meaner middle class segment/ the 

So called intellectuals and paid news,

You could effortlessly brainwash the clay heads

Soaked in blind faith over reason in the face of 

Divided, disgruntled, and chaotic opposition crowd

You could win the electoral battle

Not once, but twice  by our sheer karma

By selling stone soup to gullible public.

You could glorify your marketing skill and brand 

That brand ,that image is getting beating now

At home and abroad and for the first time 

We are receiving foreign aid from lesser and ordinary

Countries but they are great with compassion and tenderness , making you look

Small ,really small ,but your ego will hurt

And even now you are worried about your image

And not the agony and anger the nation is undergoing.

People don't mind if you go as you are yet to learn the art of governance with responsibility and sensitivity.

we don't mind if you go(1)

Right from sidelining and humiliating the seniors,

Preventing them from participating in the rat race

And declaring yourself as Prime ministerial candidate

Not withstanding the baggage of Godhra and the related court cases and wriggling out of them,

God alone knows ,how and why you were given this

Exalted status 

When there are more deserving people in the country

As a specialist in lies, naked lies 

 You threw away many promises:

I will bring back the Swiss money and put 

Fifteen lakhs in everyone's bank account

Create two crore jobs every year

Improve liquidity, enhance growth and so on, 

The promises which you were not going to fulfill

In your proposed Ramarajya.

Seven years after the assumption of office by sheer manipulative politics..and successfully thriving,

What remains now is :

The economy is crying for life and livelihood

Your indifference to pain of the people continues.

What worries and wounds the nation is not just 

Your unfulfilled promises but many misguided action

and policies that you have unleashed and 

They are countless and still they continue

You have cheated and disappointed the people 

 and wasted the unique chance, the 

God given opportunity to serve the nation.

 

Many sadistic actions and vindictive  policies

Insensitive attitude, misguided and short-sighted

Approaches,misplaced ego and heightened arrogance

Hurt the nation and now  choke the nation to death and despair..in pandemic times.

You have wrecked ruin on the 

Economy and the people.

We don't mind if you go

I loved a love once, fairest among women

In a few days our 49th marriage anniversary will come and it will go as it did come silently.

I am not willing to wait my dear

Fortunately my Adelaide Notebook presented itself

And invited me to embrace it

It is my treasure as I wrote more about you

When I was in the comforts of Adelaide  home

Chill weather but grandson made it warm

Being here but longing to be there

As all of us think is sheer madness.

My note books have the flavour of Nicholas sparks

Novel Notebook and movie and also the ever  lasting 

Notebook of Srinivas Ramunujam...

Now the poem written in 2020

When the time came for parting,

Did you carry any residual love towards me 

O my dear with all the love , locked into my heart

The lust ful love

I have had all through my life,

I could not convey

The crude reality now is I can never see you

Anymore but the memories,the ashes of memories

Will linger for ever and the fond hope is 

They will float in the molecules of brain

Until I disappear into air and get dissolved

Into cosmos and shake hands with the creator

All that my parents and you gave 

To enrich my life , especially the academic life 

In more than adequate measure

I can never return back in the same measure

In any birth..

One thing I am sure enough,

I will remember all of you and also the 

Infinite labour of many in turning this clay

Into a reading machine and writing organ 

Effortlessly, aimlessly and foolishly and more feverishly

The blessings which I could hardly receive

In the births to come and hence 

I will be grateful to the Lord with all

My anger and uneasiness towards to him.

Shall I conclude with a few lines from Charles Lamb

Poem, The Old Familiar Faces:

I loved a love once, fairest among women

Closed are her doors on me ,I must not see her-

All, all are gone ,the old familiar faces

................

How some of them have died and and some 

they have left me

And some are taken from me ;all are departed;

All ,all are gone ,the old familiar faces...

Postcript

This write up which began as a personal tribute to remember my better half

Ended up with the current contextual corana situation where many familiar faces are gone and life itself has become more fragile and like flickering in the wind.

She was neither the first nor was going to be the last....

She was neither the first nor going to be the last

Who was   hunted and chased by the vultures,

Crushed,molested and gang raped

Tongue cut, backbone broken, limbs paralysed,

The whole body and mind writhing in pain

Before she was finally massacred and murdered..

Buried in midnight in a forlorn place

By the State in a hurry with police honours?!

Denying the relatives to see her face

For the last time in this birth; 

The victim's relatives were confined at home 

Their mobiles were confiscated,

The entire village barricaded

Opposition leaders arrested, manhandled

And the daring journalists

Prevented from ntering the war zone 

With words of poison poured out by

The Drunken monkeys on the sordid event,

The script was complete...

It read like this :

The girl was not raped and the opposition

and the journalists were fomenting class tension

To tarnish the image of a well governed state

Others were instigating violence against the state.

Foreign hand  too was at work,

To destabilize the government and so on...

The indifference of police and Magistrate

The betryal of the state machinery

Frustrated and dominated by the State,

The silence of majority and distortion of truth

The denial to perform the last rites and mourn the death 

Continuing threats and intimidation of 

Victim's family .....enraged me, pained me 

I wrote to calm me down and prayed to 

The merciless God to rest her soul in peace.

It's the time to understand who we are and also love life as it's before us

While the poor are virtually thrown into vortex of unknown by the lock down and remain clueless and directionless about the future  , the affluent ones also have been afflicted with the fear of death.

With all material possessions and stock of wealth there is so much unhappiness and restlessness.. possessions have become burdens.

True there is destiny for each individual, but now the collective destiny of the nation engulfs both the haves and havenots, and hence this is the time to cultivate the community spirit and be of some help to fellow human.

This is the time to understand that noone  can live in an island and enjoy peace and happiness and it's dependent on the minimum peace and subsistent life to be guaranteed to others.

Poverty and inequality levels have deepened when desperate and dangerous disease has enveloped us like a Tsunami and we need desperate remedies .In the absence of effective government people have to step in.It is gratifying to note that in some pockets government has become more responsive and pro active to provide food  and other help....

The poverty of our country is so deep and it's unlike that of any other country. It has not arisen out of the natural scarcity but  rather accentuated by the misplaced priorities and the corporate centric governance as also the short sighted narrow political agenda.

It's widely acknowledged that the crisis of leadership has contributed to this man made disaster..one man's folly and ego, his blindness to values has made him the prisoner of himself and he is obsessed with only one thing:

Will my prestige be increased and with my own glory be augmented ?

It's time the stupid gaze, which is shallow and mute must give way to some tangible action.But we can't do much to alter his behaviour for he is one for whom everything in the world including central vista project becomes the occasion to serve his lust.The rest is accidental benefits that  the nation can hope to get with foreign aid and eventually it will be the states which will be delivering with all fiscal stress.

It appears the current pressure caused by the Indian variant of covid is unlikely to dissipate and give respite..what shall we do

We live in difficult times, indeed live in a  more turbulent period. Unless the governments act and people obey the laws of the road ,and co-operate with lockdown judiciously ,peace and quiet, job and growth, travel and merry making  will be a long drawn out process and we have to wait for the new new normal to arrive .

For the lesser privileged,for ages uncertainty about job and education ,have been haunting like ghosts and the main feature of life and now every step that they take dims their hope and disturb their determination and especially the migrant labour moves to their Home where there's nothing but love from nature and relations in village .

All of us are weighed down by the fear and just plain worn out unable to do anything.

It is not an easy moment for the economically impoverished  to get the necessary wherewithal.The mysterious disease has driven home that public health care system and universal vaccinations by the Government must be a norm independent of private sector network.

That is Amartya Sen matters and further means not Gujarat model and Jagdish Bhagawati will be just a matter of no consequence or significance.

It also underlines that the nation needs a leader who will not fool and behave like a baffoon but  can lead, set the pace,rectify the mistakes and plan for the rescue operation in both the short and medium run and take people and opposition into confidence .

We have seen the politicians of different shades waving their arm and shouting and more keen in winning election and they are scarcely visible now.

In this hour of crisis people have to help each other and quietly manauvre in learning lessons from survivors and educating fellow humans about the  impending danger of moving like a sheep in a herd mentality..

Let us hope that the semi virus which gets life only after entering into human body so to kill  the host will be cowed down by our tenacity and immunity...As it takes efforts to enhance its strength to cause havoc it goes without saying that  we too must augment our resistence and immune powers .It is a kind of war like situation.

Let us trust that the wheel of time will rotate with the grace of God deeply embodied  and we'll entrenched into health care workers, the frontline warriors and do the miracle and every cog in the administrative machine will  help the weak and the poor with all compassion and care.

Besides having faith  in the supreme ,the role of  science and rational attitude with heightened optimism when allowed  a free role  to play will go a long way in stamping out the cult of the devastating virus..

We can't be complacent and remain philosophical by saying it shall passe....if it is ...well and good .But the crude reality is already there is cry that Indian variant is  becoming strong and as someone wrote yesterday we will be lucky if it does not become Modi variant ..our inaction and bungling and our insensitivity in not taking care of the informal and migrant labour will have a serious consequences for the nation and huge spill over in the rest of the world inviting ridicule and retribution.

While the Director of PG centre Venkatasubramaniam was leaving ... after completing his tenure

Before joining the university I spent nearly a quarter century in the Pondicherry education al service and the newly established PG centre under the dynamic leadership of a chemistry professor imported from Chennai Vivekananda college embraced me in1989.Earlier I was at Bharathidasan from 1984 to 1989 

Those ten years were the golden days as I could operate in a congenial environment and teach.

This following extract is from my academic debris found yesterday, a simple text of the farwell speech to the Director.Usually I give an extempore address.This was an exception.

I stand before this august assembly to express our profound affection and regards to our Director who was chosen by the destiny to guide, nurse and nurture our infant centre  during the crucial formative periods and cement its foundation.Its continued existence and nourishment by the government depends on many its and buts.

When you came over here  as an outsider you had a definite comparitive advantage  in the sense that you could be least influenced by our actions and lobbying.

We were captivated by your scholarship, erudition, and right leadership and to me personally your command over language  and the free flow of thoughts and most important your fine rapport with the faculty.

Sir to put in my economics language  about your tenure, I would say that Adamsmith' s invisible hand and enlightened laissez-faire doctrine were at work during your regime and scarcely was there any surveillance over us  and we enjoyed the full degree of academic freedom given to us. Sir, may I tell you that we live d up to your expectations and the trust reposed in us.

Being academically strong and vibrant and administratively more demanding you ensured a healthy and competitive environment and you made the institution to grow from strength to strength.

When you leave , you can have a justifiable pride and satisfaction that you have done a neat job.

We will miss you and  pray  that God will shower upon you good health and peace.

A letter to the new Vice chairman of the corporate University seeking solace and comfort.

Dear Professor,

This is purely a personal letter not to be quoted for public consumption and nor  is to seek any kind of redressal of my academic grievances and injuries deeply into the layers of my heart and mind .Many things in life can wait.I am not in a hurry.

I am a faculty in the Pondicherry presidency college turned into a corporate University, a student of Madras presidency college and a product of Prestigious Gokhale institute of politics and Economics (M Phil and PhD,1978 to 1982).

Currently I am on sabbatical leave.

The ambitious target / agenda is to distill the essence of my reading and writing in the last three decades of my academic life .In the face of my stupidity in nt striking a responsible trade off between work and home ,I would like to take atleast first draft before joining my duty and do my teaching which I love most .

I must have written to you when you talked about academic corruption..

I have converted my anguished anger and irritations  with that subject you talked about by writing more than 100 to 150 poems under the title :

The wild Tigers can't be caged ..This publication can also wait

This letter is meant to share my joy over my lecture at RBI Chennai yesterday November 19 on the theme of " managing interest rate,inflation rate and exchange rate to top level RBI officials" from 11 am to 4 15 pm.

Absence of the title Professor was not a handicap.They addressed me as Professor..

Many a time I have had the fortune of enjoying  15 minutes of fame  but this was something special.

I do not want to die now 

Will you please give appoinment to meet you around the end of December.

Thanking you.

Professor Sam Sahayam

The reply did not come 

Sam also did not bother to see him after joining duty

It was a kind of love hate relationship.

Sam withdrew himself into a shell and kept aloof and got alienated from the system...

He is the best friend now to Sam.

Yes my text has been stained with tears

Long ago, not so long ago when my academic modesty was molested, virtually a gang rape by political animals 

Disguised in academic garb ,

Reading and writing came to my rescue

Wrote poems and that slim volume will appear later

Under the title :

A Silent Soliloquy on the Campus Politics:

The wild tigers can't be caged .

The opening para reads like this:

"Never again will a single story

be told as though it's the only one "

Says John Borger on whom

My literature daughter did MPhil dissertation.

Gentlemen of the jury,

There can never be a single story,

There are different ways of seeing,

When I look at the events gone by

It appears as if it's an incredibly a sad tale 

Of academic jealousy over my intensity in 

Teaching and the relevant writing on contemporary

National and international economic events...

The fear that it aroused 

The hatred it kindled

Culminating into the wicked acts of a 

Few stupid Heads at micro and macro level

Soaked in academic misery and drought

I did not commit suicide and instead

Embraced prof Paul Krugmans International economics

And taught with vengence...

My text is inevitably stained with tears.

This opening lines do capture th current crude reality of Modi's india unable to negotiate the covid storm

Transforming the nation into graveyard.

Following is my post Adelaide diary for perusal

By the true Indians to take stock of the situation

As the inept handling has more ramifications

For the future.

"Like tiny birds fallen, too soon from a nest"

The following lines were written when I was sitting in the comfort zone of Adelaide in 2020  freed from the stress of covid 19 but getting worried over the calamity in my home country.i am revisiing them now.

Conditions have become much worse now and life is just withering away just like that and corana is unleashing death in its own mysterious ways.

Samuel Becket comes to my rescue and console me :

One day we were born, one day we shall die,the same day the same second...

Birth astride of a grave, the light gleams as instant then it's night once more

A match flickers, but does not light.

Corana has taught what philosophy has laboured hard to convey:

Life is so fragile that it's merely an instant, it's in the moment right before you and just live .what about those who can't access economic wherewithal and sell their wares as inevitable lock down will put an understandable stress.

If treatment is given early after proper diagnosis and supplemented by doctor's help there is no problem.But the problem is neither the doctor nor the affected ones  do not know the impending dynamics in a world of uncertainty caused by scarcity of oxygen or vaccine or even food.Life has changed . confrontation with death is not at the appointed hour.The unbearable, unjust and unexpected presence of death just stare at us ..what possible sense could be made and what words I could use for their comfort.

Death of brother, classmate' s wife demise and the daily news of departure of known facesis just intimidating and paralysing the mind .

The existential dilemma of not just the poor but also the rich the super rich is real..

In a complicated and crisis situation like this ,corana kind of illness can either bring you together or it can tear you apart.All of us have to be there for each other.

Many do not think about death and assume that they will be here for ever...The isssue is not about living or death, but what kind of life is worth living and how are we going to live at margin...

Albert Einstein says:

There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle

The other is as though everything is 

We shall be grateful for the roof over our head and a job that assures food on the table.

We shall treat everyone with gratitude and render all possible help to those who are in need .

(Adelaide diary2020 revisited)