Homo Stupidus

There are a few among us who stand erect yet by some quirky fate of evolution carry the same stuff in their cranial bones as that of the Neanderthal man. In my opinion they can be easily classified in a new sub genus called Homo Stupidus in the world of Anthrpology. 

I thought Sushil kumar Shinde was the front runner to take the coveted prize of Homo Stupidus man of the year for his late flurry of gaffe'ose utterances. 

That is until I read the ET of March 6 . Like Usain Bolt just waltzing past his fellow-sprinting erectus competitors, this guy, a Washington state lawmaker beat him with enough and more to spare to amble past the finishing line. And to do some after jig also before Shinde or others could actually touch the finishing line. 

His scorching run on the dumbing-down-circuit goes like this; 

“ If I am not mistaken, a cyclist has an increased Heart rate and respiration…since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride” - Ed Orcutt, a member of the house of representatives.

This wins the trophy, atleast in my mind, not for the sheer audacity of the intellectual chasm but for the string of words and the pearl of a thought which flies in the face of all logic and comprehension.

Its now apparent that Mr.Orcutt was arguing for a fee on bicycles to help pay for street infrastructure but went scurrying for cover after the ensuing public outrage his utterances created.

Following closely on the heels of Ed Orcutt for the coveted post was another US politician Richard Mourdoch’s with his famous “ rape babies are what God intended”

A Tale of Two Scams: Why Sahara Got the Rap While Kirloskar Walked Free

Big Corporate names swindling ordinary investors is not everyday News. Getting penalized by the regulators and pilloried by the courts is even rarer news.

The Flimsy Promise: Luring Ordinary Investors with High Returns and Deceptive Security

Seeing Sahara getting a rap on its knuckles gives a flickering hope that the wheels of justice in this country are finally moving.

Scores of ordinary investors, lured by the high rate of Interests and the deceptive sense of security in investing in big Corporate names would have been left in the lurch had the Supreme Court followed by SEBI not intervened.

The newspaper advt put by Sahara in its defense was nothing but bizarre. With a picture of ‘Bharat Mata’ it claimed that it had nothing to pay & rather eligible for a refund from SEBI !

I wonder when will the Kirloskar’s meet this fate? In the early 1990’s, KIFL (Kirloskar Investment & Finance Limited) sprung up and mopped up large amounts of money from Retail Investors .

Assuring of a 14% rate of Interest and additional 1-2% incentive offered by the Agent, several thousand retail investors of the conservative variety got lured into its Fixed deposits.

Reports came in later that the company had invested the proceeds into dubious real estate investments and financial transactions and was unable to meet the redemption's. Many senior citizen Investors like my late father are yet to recoup their investments.

 Unequal Justice: Comparing the Fate of Sahara's Assets to the Kirloskars' Free Pass

Kirloskar Investment & Finance Ltd followed a similar trail as Sahara and was charged by regulatory bodies like RBI, SEBI, BSE, & CLB on various counts 

• Non compliance with RBI Laws
• Non compliance with SEBI listing guidelines
• Collecting money from public in money circulation schemes by making tall promises of high returns

Despite the winding up process in this case, no action has been taken against the Kirloskar family, its group companies or any of its promoters. In this context, singling of Sahara by freezing its accounts including group firms and attachment of properties seems particularly harsh.

Meanwhile the Kirloskar's who disowned this completely  celebrated 100 years of existence in 2010 as a proud Kirloskarwadi .Can somebody hand me a rotten egg or slipper or something?

Cast Away

"When a big tree falls, the earth shakes" so commented a politician after the death of a former prime minister in 1984. Worst still he was using this phrase to explain the situation of violence against the Sikhs that ensued. Cut the scene 30 years later and nothing much has changed, except that new phrases have come in popular lexicon. Something like ‘Mango people in Banana republic’. Politicians however have remained the same, some morphing into rabid regional chieftains in this period.

So when these local trees, with public profiles as large as General Sherman tree fall, you can be assured of only one thing. The ground rattles, the dust rises and the surroundings cower in fear. It doesn’t matter whether the tree fell due to a natural death or someone sawed it. That’s the law of Nature, they say.

Last week I was in Mumbai and went through a harrowing time because one such large tree fell. The large metropolis that throbs with life 24/7 simply folded up like a Venus flytrap . All the hotels & business establishments downed shutters and the hawkers and roadside vendors simply vanished as the news of death flashed.

Many thoughts and emotions crossed my mind, for once I felt like Chuck Noland in Cast away i.e., marooned in a lonely island with the prospect of living on only air & water for the next 2 days. Staying with a good old friend (who was away) in his bachelor apartment on the Jogeshwari link road proved a costly proposition. It was cozily close to my area of work but the timing of visit seemed to have boomeranged.

A few hours into this piquant situation, I made a recce of the surrounding few blocks to see & salvage whatever was available. Empty streets with stray dogs & cattle greeted me, the tension & fear in the air was palpable. And my stomach was already growling at the prospect of a cold night on an empty stomach.

Just as I was returning to the flat dejected, the watchman at the entrance of the Building asked  “Kuchh nahin mila kya ”? As I nodded in despair, this 50 something person took some mercy on me & whipped out his pocket book. The guy had a decent demeanor and looked like someone who was doing odd jobs after retirement. He asked me to dial out a number and then picked my mobile and spoke in chaste Marathi to check whether the ‘Dabba’ services was still available.

To my relief it was still on. Some enterprising lady in a neighboring apartment, who worked in a bank I was told, was still continuing with her services. The nature of her service & the fact that I was almost next door helped. Sure enough the carrier arrived an hour later with 4 chapatis, 2 Sabzis, Rice & Dal, all at an economical Fifty rupees.

After the watchman placed the order I thanked him in Marathi and gave him a tip. He accepted my offer but continued the conversation in Hindi. After a pause I asked his whereabouts & learnt that he was a Gujarati. The true spirit of Mumbai once again overwhelmed me.

City Bang Bang

Consider the activity that characterizes a Big city at any moment. Apartment clusters hum with life, large Malls & Shopping Complexes churn, small businesses ship products, people are eating at every conceivable outlet even on makeshift pavement, large open sewer lines direct waste. All across a 25 Km radius, police chase criminals, handshakes secure deals, lovers rendezvous, teachers profess, patients await treatment in Hospitals and children attend schools ; all this while a huge pileup of the byproduct happens - huge mounds of Garbage!

And when the city is unable to dispose it off, the result is akin to a patient in ICU on dialysis. Bangalore city is going through the throes of such a crisis at the moment. It badly needs a dialysis and its nowhere in sight. Yesterday it rained copiously throughout the day, thanks to cyclone Nilam and the traffic also piled up like the garbage on its roads. A perfectly miserable day of outing for its commuters.

Yet as this happens nothing seems to suggest this is going to change soon; a slumbering civic body, indifferent masses, a Govt squabbling within itself . Nobody seems to care how much of Garbage is being produced & packed away; that of course until it ends up in their backyard.

As though this is not enough another thing occupies the mind space at the moment. I would certainly want to know the details of the food supply chain to the city - how the Chickens around the city especially Hesarghatta area are eating & how many are being eaten (by the Bird flu).