Trivandrum to be renamed as Trivand – without the RUM - BAR-barring by Kerala GOVT.

Yes – Trivandrum the capital city of Kerala will go under another name change yet again on tomorrow (12^th Sept 2014) due to removal of RUM from its name and will be called as Trivand hence forth. Kerala govt has announced that the BARs (Kerala version of Bangalore Pubs if you like to call it that way) will be closed down on 12^th sept onwards in the state. Foreign liquor will be available either in 5* hotels OR in government civil supplies outlets. This BAR-bar-i-an decision has been made by the Ooman Chandy  govt and will be implemented on 12^th.

Does this stop Chetta’s drinking?  Does Chalakkudy and Karunagapalli now renamed to Chalakudiyilla or Karuna. Will they be withdrawing from their ever famous traditional game of drinking in Onam/Christmas season. Will we get to see news that Chalakuddy has won in ‘Vadam vali(tug of war)’ OR ‘Chakkil Chattam (sack race)’in  this Onam season. Is this what we want?

Kerala, which comes second in per capita consumption of liquor after Punjab, gets a tax revenue of roughly Rs 8,500 crore annually — 22 per cent of the total tax revenue —from the sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor. The per capita consumption in Kerala is around seven litre per year while the national average is only 2.5 litre.

When we talk about call barring in telecom world, we do have another option called call divert. Once the BARs will be barred – where will the nature’s call for many of the ‘Ayyappa Baiju’s’ in Kerala will be diverted to? Yeah – toddy shops are still ON in the god’s own land. Not sure if Govt has done any capacity estimation here – will the toddy shops be able to consume all the Chetta’s who will left barless from 12^th. Can Chettas afford 5* liquor? Will all the Chettas OK to stand in queue in the civil supplies outlets? KSBC outlets will be available only 297 days in a year henceforth – what is govt answer for the remaining 68 days?  

After this announcement, Kerala matrimonial websites and agencies are observing a great demand of brides whose father are serving or retired from Defense.

Intension of the govt is reducing alcohol consumption in Kerala households to improve the social situation of the community; By this move, is it going to reduce? Yes – to some extend – yes; definitely yes.

Is it good to reduce alcohol consumption? Doctor’s practicing in Kerala claims ‘Nov/Dec/Jan’ is off season for them as patients count is less. Less of alcohol consumption during these months due to Sabarimala season – which is hinting that reducing consumption, is good.

This monk (old monk rum) has made lot of Chettas to sell their Maruthis, if not Ferraris. Some of the high class Chettas (but still cannot afford Le-meridian liquor) are asking their cousins coming from neighboring to state to bring a bottle – who otherwise would have been sitting in some BARs for their drinking needs. This class is hesitated to stand in the long queues of KSBC outlets. This way – yes it is reducing.

Punarjani-2030 is the program that govt is offering to support to the rehabilitation of employees in the bars and hotels. I have no clue why is it called 2030; are they going to start in 2030 OR are they going to finish it by 2030 – no idea. These employees are the ones who will get orphaned due to this change. Will they be really rehabilitated? Similar BAN on arrack was implemented by Antony govt and 1996 and there was a promise to rehabilitate the ‘arrack outlet’ employees.  The below story is of real life incident of a person very close to me, who got really affected by arrack ban 1996.

Saabu (name changed) was manager for one of the arrack outlet in Trivandrum during this time. He had a king like life when he was at that post. I can still remember the Sundays when he returns to home for his weekly offs. There is dialogue from ‘Mohanlal’ in Ravanaprabhu movie about Madhupal’s character in the movie. Karthikeyan has got him a job in one of his friend’s distillery and being around alcohol and seeing its manufacturing process Hari (Madhupal’s charactor) does not drink. I guess this is possible only in movies. In our case of Sabu Annan, being around alcohol all the time it is natural tendency to consume some and he was consuming in large quantities and hence shrinking his liver. 96 ban on arrack shattered him literally and brought him to the road. Govt has given some money as compensation after two years, using which he has started many business ventures, but none of them sustained. Those are all negativities about the change and some or many of the BAR employees that are going to face after 12^th. But there is a BIG gain for him and his family because of this change – he was alive for longer period of time on the mother earth. He could complete all the paternal duties. He could see his grandchildren before he passed away 2 year back. If was continuing in the arrack outlet for more time probably he would not have done all those. For me it is a BIG positivity that ‘this change’ can bring. If at least few of the BAR employees manage to see their grandchildren then it is a right move.

       Yours Truly,

       Aary 

Experiences with Appreciation

Experiences with Appreciation

‘Appreciation’ – dictionary.com meaning of this word is ‘the act of estimating the qualities of things and giving them their proper value’. In simple terms recognizing some ones effort. It starts with a simple ‘thank you’ and ends anywhere. When we overdo it can be called as pampering, which is dangerous. The ideal situation for the same to find the ‘median’ and this point differs in different contexts. It varies from person to person, situation to situation. I have jot down some situation where I had experienced ‘Appreciation’. I have not taken any names here – but many of you find yourself in one of the characters mentioned – it is not coincidence it is purely natural.

Keep it up.

Few months back incident, my 6 year old son got an appreciation from his drawing teacher. Apparently she told him ‘Very good and Keep it up’ and patted on his back. After that day his drawing book is kept on the top most slots in his book shelf. He is really keeping it up. Realizing the same I tried to explain him – but he never gets it. But it motivated him do more drawing so the purpose of appreciation is met.

It is my job.

It was my last day in Netherland office in one of my many site visits, my on-shore director was about to leave from office. He walked up to me and said ‘thank you’ and shook my hands. It was like a surprise to me and I asked ‘for what’? He said ‘I would like to thank you for all the good work that you have done here’. I said ‘fine, welcome – I have not done anything above my job description; you do not need to thank me for doing my job’. He then said ‘It is my job description – that says I have to thank you’. Later, I went back to HR portal and checked, if at all it is there in the job description of a person at his level. It was not there. Means as we grow and mature, we only add as ‘Job Description’ to appreciate people – such a nice thing.

Limassol wine festival.

It was one of those times, where I was preparing kids to perform ‘Ramayana’ on the stage which was part of Diwali celebrations at office. During the same time Cultural club has arranged some inter-platform sports events as well. It was like 0800PM in the evening when I returned to my desk after the rehearsal for the kids; then my colleague also arrived after his sport event. He was talking about how went ahead and won the one-minute performance. To our surprise, there appeared one of our directors from the delivery function; she hands over one wine bottles and a ‘thank you note’ to both of us. We both stood up to understand the situation. Then she shook hands with us and says ‘Thank you so much for putting lots of effort – I know that is it is little late now; you guys are still working late – this is token of appreciation for the hard work put’. We both did not utter a single word. It was meant for people working late, but since we both happened to be there - we became victim of that real gesture of appreciation.

The young man in the Old Madras Road.

I see one traffic cop every day morning, near to our office managing the traffic situation in the junction. This guy has not got a transfer or change of his location for past few years. I see him every day managing the traffic situation irrespective of the weather conditions. One bright summer day (it was really hot that day), I was walking towards a bank work near to this junction and realized how difficult is to be out there in sun in such a weather and pollution condition. This gentle man (traffic cop), he is still there managing the situation at ease. While returning back from bank, I walked to him and shook his hands and said ‘thank you so much, sir – you are doing a wonderful job by managing the traffic’. He looked at me as if I am not from this planet. I don’t even know if he understood what I am trying to say. I think he does a thankless job and none appreciates him. He gave me a blunt puzzled look without any expression and asked me move away as he has his work to do.

We all must learn to appreciate and make it habit, its true both in professional as well as personal life. Appreciation motivates people to do more than they can actually deliver. Now than you all for reading this till here – really appreciated.

Yours truly,

Aary