045. The Emerging World Society. Dr. S Radhakrishnan Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

045.

The Emerging World Society. Dr. S  Radhakrishnan Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

First published: 11th Feb 2012
 

A few recent leaders of India, who are neither writers nor philosophers, are fast bringing about laws to curb the use of international social media by the people of India. They are furious over the speed and completeness with which their clandestine favouritism and corruption are brought to daylight each day. It is really the Internet which brought the world people together. It is time these fools read what the famous philosopher and former President of India wrote on The Emerging World Society. 

At one time the national leaders of India were noted writers, poets and philosophers.

India once had great philosophers, scholars and writers functioning as her national leaders. During those times no one betrayed the nation for money, personal gains or prosperity. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a great visionary and a great writer whose Letters To A Daughter, Glimpses Of World History and The Discovery Of India still remain classics in the world literature. He was the first person who started great industries under government ownership and wished to make them remain so forever as state possessions. President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan also was a great writer, academician and philosopher who was the first academician in the world who boldly said, ‘we are faced with the paradoxical fact that educators have become one of the obstacles to education.’ The famous poets Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu remained as pillars of national conscience and active participants in politics. India’s Father of the Nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a very truthful and frank person, the follies and wantonness of whom we came to know not from other people’s writings but from his own books. His famous autobiography ‘My Experiments With Truth’ remains unparalleled in world literature.

Top most authorities now shamelessly sell prestigious national institutions, industries and other properties to the private sector, and bark about principles of democracy and socialism.
 

Now things have changed unbelievably. Many among the national leaders, parliamentarians and ministers of India are jailed for corruption. Top most authorities shamelessly sell prestigious national institutions, enterprises, industries and other properties to private sector, and bark about principles of democracy and socialism. National reserves of even petroleum and gas are allocated to rich privates at throw-away prices and the huge commissions amassed from these deals are stashed away by them in foreign banks for their future enjoyment, just as the many presidents and prime ministers in the African continent and elsewhere do. The people of the world have begun to think that all Indian leaders have always been such cut-throats, cheaters and mother-sellers. That is why the philosophic writings of the former President of India Dr. S. Radhakrishnan are reintroduced here, just to show that many ingredients go into the making of a decent national leader, literary loftiness, social commitment and perfect education being just a few of them.

 
The gravity and pungency of his remarks on the state of affairs in the field of education and administration in India made his name conveniently not remembered.
 

Dr. Sarveppally Radhakrishnan was a great scholar, philosopher and statesman of India. He served as a Professor of Philosophy at the Mysore, Calcutta and Oxford Universities. He also was the Vice President and the President of India. Recovery of Faith, Our Heritage, The Present Crisis and Towards a New World are a few of his famous books. The Emerging World Society is an essay from his book The Emerging World in which he discusses how a world society is being born out of world’s unity and oneness. He shows how narrow our feelings of nationalism are and how dangerous militarism is to the world. Contributions of this great philosopher in the field of education are such admirable that his birth day is celebrated as the National Teachers’ Day in India. Because of the gravity and pungency of his remarks on the state of affairs in the field of education and administration in India, when authorities sometimes have to think about the world’s philosophers, his name is conveniently not remembered. In the content and style of his writings, he is in line with such great writers as H.G.Wells, George Orwell, Arnold Toynbee and Aldous Huxley. But many prefer him to be compared with Bertrand Russell.
 

There is no isolated existence of a single human group. Nations are interconnected by the world economy.

A world society grows in the hearts and minds of men. The present excitement, anger and violence are just the birth-pains of a new world order. The world already is one. The oneness of humanity is a historic fact. Man’s physical structure and mental-make up are the same all over the world. Birth, growth, old age, sickness and death are felt by all. We share a common origin and a common destiny. Thus the human race is already one. The world has already become a unit. We are standing on the door step of a single society. There is no isolated existence of a single human group. Nations are interconnected by the world economy. Industrialization and modernization are common practices. The language of science and the tools of industrial development are the same everywhere. Art, culture and science are common possessions. As a result of radio, television and the press, the most distant nations have become near neighbours and a world community has become possible.

 
Militarism is outdated in the modern world. Either we live together or we die together. It is either one society or no society.
 

Narrow nationalism and dangerous militarism do not fit a modern world outlook. They are oppositions to an emerging world society. The ancient Greeks spoke of war as the father of all changes but, in truth, war has only wiped out whole civilizations and destroyed entire peoples. That was the only change war brought. And new weapons have completely changed the nature of warfare. Each nation wants to become the world’s strongest military power. So they build nuclear weapons and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. They may some day wipe out the whole human race from the face of this Earth. No one will survive a nuclear war. Those who use them too would be destroyed. It is a dangerous illusion to think that those who possess them will win a war. There is no such thing as military invincibility. Either we live together or we die together. It is either one society or no society.

 
Nationalism has no relevance. Nation States are too narrow for the modern world where we have conquered space and move faster than sound.
 

Narrow nationalism is an old-fashioned thing. In India no one can admire publicly the fine music and literature of Pakistan. In Pakistan people cannot admire publicly the fine literature and cinema of India. If someone utters a word about the ancientness of Tibet or the independence of Burma, the Chinese government will put them in prison and silence them one way or the other. The British citizens who speak of Ireland’s rights for freedom are considered as traitors and put under surveillance. Everywhere nationalistic feelings are narrow and are obstacles to a progressive world outlook. Nationalism is a collective form of selfishness. Each race and nation thinks that they are the chosen people of God and the elect of the future. So the Greeks and the Spartans, the French and the Spaniards and the English and the French fought each other and just ruined themselves. Like Gandhi said, ‘it is in self-surrender that we fortify ourselves.’ Let the world society emerge and come into being. Nation States are too narrow for the modern world where we have conquered space and move faster than sound.
 

 
[First Prepared in 1995]

Dear Reader,
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Meet the author
 
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Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.

044. Knowledge And Wisdom. Bertrand Russell Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

044.

Knowledge And Wisdom. Bertrand Russell Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran 

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum 

 
First published: 10th Feb 2012

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Roads To Freedom, Principia Mathematica, Marriage And Morals, The Conquest Of Happiness, etc, are a few of his famous writings. Here he distinguishes between and defines knowledge and wisdom. Life experiences of a person process his knowledge into wisdom. Knowledge, comprehensive vision, pursuit of purpose, emancipation or freedom and impartiality in opinions and views are what constitute wisdom. 

Wisdom evolves from comprehensive vision and sense of proportion. Knowledge may sometimes lead to unwisdom.

Knowledge and wisdom are different things. Wisdom does not come immediately with knowledge. As Tennyson observed, ‘Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.’ Knowledge may sometimes even lead to unwisdom to illustrate which Russell cites two excellent examples. When man attained enough knowledge to lower the death rate among infants, population increased, food supplies became short and standard of living declined. Thus lowering the death rate of children, in his opinion, was a mistake on the part of medical specialists. Military specialists also have landed in many such follies. When man invented the technique of splitting atom, everyone began to think that mountains could now be moved and the course of rivers and that of history could be changed. But instead of using this new gained knowledge for useful and beneficial purposes, man began to manufacture nuclear weapons. Even after witnessing the horrible mass genocides caused by them, even the advanced as well as the barbarian countries of the world still go on manufacturing them. One day they will wipe out the human race from the face of the earth. Wisdom does not come with knowledge. These are the evil effects of specialization in singular subjects. It is from a comprehensive vision and sense of proportion that wisdom evolves. 

It is a distorted history that tells nothing about Mao’s deflowering dozens of girls each week and termination of revolutionaries in Lenin’s time.

A proper knowledge of human history also is needed to gain wisdom. Some history writings we see are distorted ones, fabricated with a view to inculcate some particular feelings or passions among people. People who wrote about Lenin were totally blind to the cruel political assassinations of his times, which gave rise to the ‘theory of revolutions eating out its own children’ evidenced by the death of Trotsky. Worshippers of Mao Tse Tung remained silent about the innocent peasant girls the chairman deflowered each week, as was revealed by the repentant personal physician. Had these acts also were recorded accurately by his historians along with the bold and unending marches of this revolutionary through the incessant rains, we sometimes may have even respected the man, out of the knowledge that he was not a god but only a man. It should be noted here that the greatest sins committed by Gandhi came to the world’s attention not by his opponents mentioning them but from his own autobiography which was rightly titled My Experiments With Truth. Gandhi never hesitated to tell the story of his stealing the gold bangle of his house servant to purchase liquor in his boyhood years. We only respect this people’s leader for the frankness and truthfulness with which he recorded his own follies. That is his greatness and India’s example. That is how and why it came to be written in India’s official seal ‘Truth Alone Will Triumph’ when India became independent. Great men were always truthful in recording their follies. Along with English economics and French socialism, German philosophy served as one of the three origins of Marxism. Hegel was the most followed in the field of German philosophy. Hegel wrote history to prove that the Germans were a master race from the time memorable. Such distorted recordings of history lead to unwisdom and destruction. 

To set apart two quarrelling friends would be an act of wisdom. Fill your private life with such small acts of wisdom.

Wisdom has a key role to play in the private life of a man. Man except on rare occasions fails to see his future in advance. He seldom knows what the future has in store for him. He has to live beneficial to the world. Since mankind is a collective reality, animosity among its members cannot help it achieve the benefits of living. By practicing universal brotherhood alone can man gain wisdom and live beneficial to the world and its inhabitants. So, to set apart two quarrelling friends would be an act of wisdom. ‘If you can do this, you will have instilled some fragment of wisdom’, writes Russell. Our private life should be filled with such little acts of wisdom. But millions of men, instead of going after this well defined objective in their lives, have searched for the philosophers’ stone and wasted their lives. No doubt, if they could have found them they would have conferred great benefits on mankind, but it was their lives that were wasted. Russell warns us that we should not waste our lives on such impossible philosophical feats; we should instead fill it with small acts of wisdom. As we grow older we will gain more impartiality. Our horizon will widen. Our thoughts and feelings will become less personal and more detached from our own physical state. It is that stage in human life, which Shakespeare in his poem The Seven Stages Of Man’s Life described as the stage in which man begins to think and act like a judge. Thus we gradually become freed of all selfish motives but begin to think more for the society than for ourselves. According to Russell, this emancipation or freedom from selfishness is the essence of wisdom. 

Sunday schools cannot supply wisdom. They can only supplement wisdom if we already have some.

Wisdom can be taught like any other virtue. Even though we are born unwise which we cannot help, we can cultivate wisdom. Sunday schools are not supposed to supply wisdom; they can only supplement wisdom if we already have some. They can only make wise men wiser. Thus, moral instruction and the teaching of wisdom differ much. Wisdom should be planted and nursed in one’s own mind. We are living in a war-stricken world which needs wisdom as it never has needed before. Therefore wisdom should be taught by any means. We cannot al be good Samaritans to our neighbours, but we can certainly reduce our hatred to others. It should be noted here that even nations are now unable to reduce their hatred to other nations. The Russian communists find they are unable to remain good Samaritans to the American anti-communists. But in the midst of all this mayhem and national hatred, a single man can remain wise when the whole world goes unwise. 

It is the music lovers and film goers that keep the nations going and standing, not short-living intolerant governments.

So, ‘Hate Hatred’ should be our slogan. It is indecent for a government to show hatred to other nations or to its people because this world and the humanity in it is built up based on the principles and forces of harmony. But the short-sighted puny little minds that are the governments in many countries cannot understand this as they are nowhere near the much dreamt about concept of Plato’s Philosopher Kings. In many sister nations, even if the people like each other in their hearts, their governments cultivate animosity and hatred. We can point out dozens of modern day examples. The governments of India and Pakistan shout at each other and conduct war rehearsals but the Indian music lovers worship Habib Wali Muhammed, Mirza Ghalib, Fareeda Khanum, Gul Bahar Bano, Iqbal Bano, Munni Begum, Roshan Ara Begum and Salman Alvi who are the luminaries among the Pakistani Ghazal singers, many of them the stars of the undivided India. And Indian film stars like Devanand, Sunil Dutt, Narghese, Raj Kapoor and Amitab Batchan are the favourites of Pakistani film goers. Both governments view these admirers and fans suspiciously, but in the long run, it is not these short-living governments but these admirers and fans of music, literature and films who keep these nations going and standing. That is the importance and relevance of a single man’s stand in the midst of national lunacy. It is when such singular wisdom happened to fuse uniquely with vigour of action that the world was saved several times from near peril. 

Powerful personalities in history who combined vigour of action and wisdom and saved the world.

In history we see many examples of active vigour in fusion with wisdom, forming powerful personalities, saving the world. We see Moses in The Bible, professing the Ten Commandments before a people too seduced to be saved. Queen Elizabeth the First in England, King Henry the Fourth in France and Abraham Lincoln in America were very impressive personalities who fused vigour with wisdom and fought the evil. The world has had the luck to have many such personalities in among her people. Abraham Lincoln even conducted a civil war without ever departing from wisdom. It was his vigour of action and wisdom which helped him abolish slavery and prevent the Northern and the Southern states of America from separating in that civil war. 

[Prepared in 1995]



Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
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For more articles of this kind, visit SAHYADRI BOOKS here or BLOOM BOOKS, TRIVANDRUM.

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Meet the author
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Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

 

043. What Computerization Without Electricity In Kerala? Essay By P S Remesh Chandran

043.
  

What Computerization Without Electricity In Kerala? Essay By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum 
 

 
First published: 25th Oct 2011
   

When we hear that computerization without electricity has been undertaken in some part of the world, we will normally think some innovation has been made possible there. Really it is one of the many recent follies of Kerala people. Even though many well educated and talented Keralites have migrated to many countries and are engaged there in prestigious firms in the computer hardware and software industry, their local rulers and political leaders are clay heads, still in the bullock cart age.

Plenty of mountains, rivers, dams and rains, but begging for electricity all over India.
 

Banasura Sagar in Wayanadu. By Foto Kannan.

Kerala produces enough electricity to light her homes, run her industries and render other basic services but not enough to light the millions and millions of display boards, dazzling shop displays and opulent building and street illuminations. What electricity Kerala produces in its many hydro-electric projects is just enough to meet the basic essentials. This means, the normal domestic, social and industrial life can be continued without depending on electricity purchased from outside. If someone says that Kerala has a shortage of electricity, anyone who has seen the plentiness of rivers and water bodies in Kerala and the number of dams that have been built across them through the years will wonder how this shortage can happen and who is to be held responsible for this foolish situation. The fact is, neither the government nor the Kerala State Electricity Board which does the production and distribution of electricity throughout the state, have done anything sensible to ensure conservation of electricity, without which Kerala will plunge into total darkness and stillness of industries for the next 20 years.

Selling imported electricity and pocketing the profits is far more lucrative a state business than producing from water.

Anchuruli Tunnel at Idukki. By Jayesh. J.

After allowing the foolish spending electricity for unnecessary illuminations by the state establishments, private citizens and other organizations, and after ensuring that power is short and people are shouting, electricity is bought and brought from as far regions as Himachal Pradesh and from private sector, paying exorbitant price as a result of which electricity charges in the state soars. The ordinary citizens have no role in bringing about this havoc because the electricity needed for their houses, shops and industries is already produced from their rivers. And they consume much less electricity. They light only one or two lights in their homes and cannot afford air-conditioning. The burden of the higher cost of electricity purchased from the outside should have been shouldered by those who squander electricity by lighting a hundred lights in their homes and operating multi air-conditioners day and night and those who allowed it without imposing restrictions. You walk along the main city streets of Trivandrum, Trichur, Cochin and Calicut at night and you can see who are spending electricity opulently. It is they to whom the cost of imported electricity should have been charged solely. An ordinary shop needs five or six bulbs to run it but not thousands and thousands as we see on these thoroughfare sides. An electricity-short Kerala cannot afford it. If they want that much electricity for their special needs, they can import it at their cost but shall not eat into Kerala’s reserves. Just watch the State Ministers’ buildings and the mansions of top level bureaucrats, elected people’s representatives and senior politicians in Trivandrum at night and you will see who squanders electricity as they please at people’s expense. The power they burn are not paid for by them but by the government and the burden finally falls on the shoulders of the poor people.

Adamantly insisting on computerization after visiting foreign countries where electricity never fails. 
 

Kerala Eco Zones map. By Saravask.

Before imported electricity arrived in Kerala, there was sufficient strength and voltage to the current but now due to loss during transmission, power is lost considerably. Fans won’t move, fridges won’t work and computers won’t function. The people of Kerala loose millions and millions of rupees due to the burning out of such instruments. There are countries in this world where electricity never fails and voltage never fluctuates. Such countries have turned to computerization of government departments. Some government minister who went to some such countries for treatment of some unspeakable disease saw this and wondered, and when he returned to Kerala adamantly began insisting that the government here also should be completely computerized. Learned Administrative Service Officers and Power Engineers of the state may have tried to teach him the effects of a possible administrative paralysis that would result from his act as the state had already begun to show proof of moving fast towards load shedding, power cuts, brown outs and total black outs, but within the hierarchical power structure in administration they might not have been bold enough and successful to raise them as objections. But that fool won’t listen. What those officers did not know about then was the millions that were coming the way of that politician as commissions from the computer industry.

Never thought about removing silt from reservoirs during the past 40 years; now complaining dams have no capacity.

Idukki reservoir in River Periyar. By Shaji 0508.

Kerala is a region of hills and mountains and rivers. All rivers reach the sea before they run even a hundred miles. Due to the proximity to mountains the dams constructed across these rivers are filled with soil, silt, sand and debris in a very short time. With the rain of two or three days the dams are filled and overflowing but two or three weeks later the authorities tell people that there is not enough water in the dams to make electricity. During the past twenty five years there has not been a single instance of silt removal from a single dam in Kerala. Deepening the catchment areas of dams ensuring maximum catchment of water, making bare minimum electricity for the day to day needs or producing maximum electricity to be sold and bought back in needy times: that is what sensible governments and bureaucracies would do. But the Kerala State Electricity Board sat on its ass for a quarter of a century, and waking up now, tells that Kerala is short of electricity. The chairmen and the technical committee members of the board were being paid millions as salaries for foreseeing things and situations in advance and taking precautionary steps. Their failure in fulfilling their duties warrants immediate dismissal but being part of a state wide commission racket they are allowed to continue and bring more money to their godfathers. When generators in power stations blow away due to poor maintenance, they sit on the thing for years without resolving to repair them and start new files to buy electricity from the outside.

Building small dams called Sediment Retention Structures many miles upriver is the method adopted the world over for retaining the water storage capacity of reservoirs.

Kallada check dam. By Kumar Mullackal.

Small silt trap dams can be built on the streams feeding a large reservoir, to settle out silt and thus reduce the rate at which the main reservoir silts up. The dam and electricity authorities in Kerala during the past decades totally neglected this task of cleaning the reservoirs and now there is only a small amount of water contained in the dams. Now no reservoir in Kerala serves the practical purposes. Constructing small dams called Sediment Retention Structures many miles upriver is the common and wise method adopted the world over for retaining the water storage capacity of reservoirs. Every electricity production engineer and organization in the world knows this. It is common knowledge. Dam bed coating consists of mud and sand mainly. Also there would be remains of whatever got into the river flow, including plastic bottles and even vehicles. Measuring the depth of water after siltation is something to be done on a regular basis. Neither measuring water depth after siltation, building of sediment retention structures nor removal of mud and sand from reservoir bottoms has been done in Kerala for the past fifty years. Mining river sand for construction works is recently banned and restricted in Kerala, resulting in stillness in home building. Workers engaged in this field are now jobless. Removal of river sand from dams would have not only eased this explodable situation but would also have recovered the storage capacity of dams. Senior administrators in the state are in constant fear of when people will begin to ask the most dreaded question of why they are not cleaning the dams. Not one person in Kerala administration is interested in this matter. They are only interested in purchasing electricity from outside and selling it at far higher rates, pocketing huge amounts as commissions in the process. Every sensible person in the state knows that the future of electricity is dark in Kerala for the next twenty five years. Tapping solar power for electricity will need thousands and thousands of acres of land which Kerala cannot afford. Building nuclear reactors, the people of this small state will not permit. Restoring the storage capacity of dams the fools in the administration won’t do. That is why it is here alleged that total computerization of government departments in Kerala is a farce and folly, aimed just at securing commissions from purchases.

‘Our computers are down, there is no electricity; we do not know which year they will be up again.’  
 

Athirappalli falls in Trichur. By Pranchiyettan.

There are countries in this world where electricity never fails, voltage never fluctuates and even if electricity fails it would be for two or three seconds. Even if voltage fluctuates there, it would be by a maximum of two or three volts. Some great political figure head that went to those countries for treatment of some unspeakable disease saw the computerization there, wondered, and on return insisted that every government department should be fully computerized in Kerala and everything go online. No ruler was sensible enough to point out to him that in such electricity-short states like Kerala it would lead to administrative paralysis and eventually make people’s life miserable. Now when people go to some government office for a birth certificate they are told that the system is down and that they don’t know when the certificates could be issued. The good and reliable old manual system was deemlessly dismantled and the staff deployed elsewhere or dismissed; therefore the certificates cannot be handwritten and issued as before.

We will think there is someone there to attend. Actually there is no one there. E-governance is a farce.
 

Factual evidence for the fallacy of a government going online can be examined here by an example. Citizens can submit their complaints and grievances to the government of Kerala by online. As a test case, a complaint on specific easement violations, i.e. destruction of ancient homes in Kerala through rogue bulldozer activity by gangsters, was submitted online on 12th November 2011 to the following online addresses advertised by the government in their website.

1. The Joint Secretary, Chief Minister’s Grievance Redressal Cell, Government Secretariate, Trivandrum-1. cm-grccell@kerala.gov.in 2.Minister forPanchayats. minister-panchayat@kerala.gov.in 3. Minister for Revenue. minister-revenue@kerala.gov.in 4. TheDistrictCollector,Trivandrum.dctvm@kerala.nic.in. 

Even after months they were never acknowledged which even a poorly maintained, single man website will do. The addresses are here. They are government and public anyway and anyone can try. This is exactly what happens in the thousands and thousands of complaints submitted online to government each day. We will think that there is some one there to attend. Actually there is no one there. E-governance is a farce. The only aim of government computerization is pocketing the huge profits from computerization. Every electronics firm gives commissions when products and services are sold, irrespective of whether it is a government firm or non-government firm at the receiving end, and even senior union cabinet ministers in India are undergoing prison terms for accepting commissions. Therefore there is no use denying the ultimate aim of obtaining commissions.

‘Your ATM money went down the drain due to some computer glitch, it often happens when voltage drips; we cannot do anything.’

Peechi dam reservoir. By Aruna.

The governments had a very efficient treasury system which the private banks and the nationalized banks envied. Because treasuries do not have share owners but banks do, government’s money payment was de-linked from treasuries and shifted to banks, ordered by greedy politicians who themselves or whose dependents had shares and interests in those banks. One political party while in administration demanded that when this scheme is implemented, one particular bank shall write-off their loan of 100 Crore rupees they availed for starting a television channel. Banks would get millions of new accounts anyway without paying commissions and huge amounts will remain with them as unwithdrawn balances. Then why shan’t they pay and please political parties for taking the decision for payment of salaries through banks? But then what are treasuries for? Then treasuries and banks began to get computerized and payments to people began to be made through A.T.M. Counters. Now payment of salaries also is going online. There is no electricity and therefore no ATMs working. Voltage fluctuations also still the ATMs. One day when you go to draw money from the ATM or the bank it will be informed that ‘your money went down the drain due to a computer glitch; it sometimes happens when voltage drips, we cannot do anything’. We will think that bureaucrats and politicians in the administration were not brain-sharp enough to see these things in advance. They did see everything in advance but simply could not resist the temptation for securing commissions from the purchase of thousands and thousands of computers for every government office, making every office going online, and the future income from maintaining, servicing and replacing these systems. One needn’t think there was any intension of improving the efficacy of the administration in the state behind this decision and motivation for computerizing everything governmental. The horrible news of bribery and corruption printed everyday in newspapers in India reveals the real motivation. They will sell even their mothers if the right commission is got.

The last typewriter factory in the world, owned by Godrej India, was closed in 2011. So purchase available typewriters in advance at whatever price they come by.
 

Malampuzha dam gardens. By Lallji.

This article which was first written on the 24th of October 2011 was auto saved by computer six times before it was even five paragraphs long. It was at a place one kilometer from Trivandrum District Administration and three kilometers from Kerala Government Secretariate. They still boast a fully computerized government! Just as the good old manual typewriters were thrown away when computers came along and shamelessly called back into service when electricity began to frequently fail, the good old scribes and their quill pens would again be needed soon. But remember, in the wake of the computer wave, not being able to sell one single typewriter manufactured by them, the last typewriter factory in the world owned by Messers. Godrej India Private Limited was closed in the year 2011. So take the advice and purchase available typewriters in advance at whatever prices they come by.

___________________________
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
___________________________

Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
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To read about the life and people and their follies of the author's native land Kerala, read Kerala Commentary here.

Tags

Administrative Paralysis From Computerization, Commissions From Computerization, Computerization In Kerala, Computerization Without Electricity In Kerala, Computerizing Treasuries, Electricity, Electricity In Kerala, Foolish Burning Of Electricity, Governments Going Online, Kerala Commentary, P S Remesh Chandran, Recent Follies Of Kerala, Restoring Storage Capacity Of Dams, Sahyadri Books Bloom Books Trivandrum, Salary Payment Through Atms, Silting Of Dams And Reservoirs
 

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

042. Darlings Of The Department. The Story Of Harry Vinoir. By P S Remesh Chandran

042.
  

Darlings Of The Department. The Story Of Harry Vinoir. By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
  
First published: 6th Jan 2012

When someone steals 3.2 millions from government treasury, causes the death of one woman, two children and three men in this adventure and escapes into the safety of a promotion post of a very senior officer in that government, a few will admire him but the majority of the people in the world will wonder who is ruling Kerala and if there is any law and policing there. Any sensible person will ask who that rogue is. Read here the true story.

A Story from the The Hospital Window Series- True stories of what one sees through hospital windows from the inside and from the outside.
 

This story is from the archives of the imaginary investigative organization ‘Kerala Peoplez Vigilenze’, included in their forthcoming book 'The Hospital Window'. 'The Hospital Window Series' contains true stories of what one sees through hospital windows from the inside and from the outside. Many people have the notion that educational qualifications, ability and skill are the determinants for selection and promotion in government services. This notion is held by more and more people nowadays, following the American government’s decision to recruit persons into their services more through telephone interviews than through face to face interviews so that the colour and beauty of applicants shall not be a consideration. The American government's decision is admirable in that selecting only the beautiful, fleshy and protein-rich ladies into the services can be avoided and coloured people too, if with enough abilities, could get their rightful chances. It is an action which several nations and states in the world, some of them claiming to have achieved complete socialism and some claiming even to be God's Own Native Land have not been bold enough to take. But wait till you read this story which I tell you here, before deciding who will eventually become the darlings of government departments.

Doctors never commit suicide because they have enough patients there to kill through their blunders.
 

Many years back, when it was a time of no mobile phones, internet or television, the newspapers in Kerala celebrated a story. An employee in the District Surgeon’s Office in Trivandrum organized large scale monetary crimes following which a doctor and his family, including his wife and two children, were found dead in a hotel room in the capital city, with burned currency notes of higher denominations scattered everywhere around them in the hotel room. It should be noted here that doctors rarely take their own lives when there are enough poor patients for them there to kill silently and deliberatively through their greed and blunders. It should also be considered that whatever complexities they themselves have got into, they would be having highly placed persons in their contact to get them out of any kind of problem and that theirs is a profession they are licensed to practice till the end of their days unlike those of the other senior civil servants of their rank and genre. That is why the world seldom hears about doctors committing suicide anywhere. So naturally the revelations following this multiple suicide, if it was suicide, became exceptionally sensational in Kerala and remained bold frontline headlines for months to come in all major and minor newspapers in the state. Since old dated copies of these papers are available in the State Public Library in Trivandrum for the reference of anyone who is interested and also since it is not the right thing to give undue publicity to these papers, we shall avoid mentioning their names here.

  

Where did all those bundles of currency notes to burn in a hotel room come from?

   

Now since it was a multiple suicide by a reputed doctor and his family in a hotel room, with currency notes scattered everywhere which in itself was rare, it became great news. The social, political and civil service life of this doctor was scrutinized into and in the investigation which followed it was revealed that this doctor was a very generous person whenever money came his way. It was reported that he was generous in presenting rich sarees and gold ornaments to his subordinates, especially ladies, frequently. It mostly happened when bills for the special expenses of his hospital were cashed from the government treasury. He was an Assistant Surgeon in charge of a rural Primary Health Centre in a very remote hamlet called Vellappil. It is now relevant here to note how funds for a small hospital are received encashed and accounted for. The money to be paid as salaries to the staff would be provided in advance in the budget plan of the department for the year, for the encashment of which no allotments of funds are needed. Medicines and other stores for the hospital would be issued from the government stores according to requirement and indents. All other inevitable expenses will have to be got approved by the District Surgeon’s Office and allotment of funds will have to be received both in the institution and in the concerned treasury before presenting the bills.  

Simply put a zero on the right side of 10,000 in a government communication and 1, 00,000 will come your way.
 

How does an allotment for a certain amount reach a remote hospital? Newspapers also brought out how it is done, every single stage explained in detail, for a column is a column, a page is a page and here the news is anyway free. Suppose an amount of Ten Thousand rupees has to be allotted to Vellappil Hospital for purchasing stationary, sanitation materials for field services or for securing local services such as loading and unloading of materials or coolie labour. A triplicate allotment letter would be prepared in the District Surgeon’s Office. A Yellow copy will go to the concerned government treasury to enable them to set aside sufficient amount to pay when the bill is presented. A Blue copy will go to the concerned institution. A White copy will remain in the District Office as office copy. Then there will be the ledgers and registers in the office wherein notings will be made. The clerk will write 10000 toward the left of the column, leaving space for a single digit on the right edge of the entry in the paper. The higher officers will compare the figure with the ledgers and registers, approve and sign the allotment and return the file to the clerk’s table. The clerk will then put an additional Zero on the right, making the figure 100000 and send the allotment letters to the Vellappil Hospital and the Treasury there. The additional Zero will be put only in the Yellow and Blue copies and the White copy will remain unchanged in the original file. Thus the officials in the District Surgeon’s Office normally will not know about this cheating until one of them becomes suspicious or it is caught in the next audit by the internal wing of the department or by the Accountant General, provided none other is involved in this racket. Thus the doctor will mix original vouchers for 10000 with bogus vouchers for 90000, present a bill for 100000 rupees in the treasury and encash the amount. It was later revealed that the actual 10000 indeed was utilized in the hospital against original vouchers, another 10000 was spent on silencing a few, 30000 became the doctor’s lavish money to be spent at his will and the rest 50000 straight went to the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office. A very lucrative deal indeed, until caught.

Perpetrators of a crime taking their own lives, one, two, three, except the original plotter.
 

Burning currency is a serious crime. Those officers who went after the burned, semi burned and unburned bundles of notes in the hotel room eventually found out that the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office was the original planner and founder of this racket, that he was simply captivating a convenient doctor from a peripheral institution to execute his agenda and that they had already stolen 32 Lakhs rupees within a period of one year. It was also found out that the treasury officials could easily have detected this theft when inconceivably high bills began to be presented from a minor institution while annual such expenditure from other similar lower hospitals remained below just two lakhs rupees during those decades, and that not less than two treasury officials were receiving their share of the loot. The peon of the hospital who was assigned the duty of going to treasury for cashing the bills was satisfied with just his liquor money. When investigations progressed and the vigilance net came closer and closer, this person took his life, leaving his family orphans. Then there was the clerk of the institution who actually prepared the ballooned up bills. The next mysterious death was his, which also was supposed to be suicide. The death toll now has reached six. The stealing of 32 lakhs rupees from government coffers took the lives of three men, one woman and two innocent children. Now, of the four perpetrators of the crime, only one person is alive - the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office, the original plotter of the crime. Newspapers happily brought out how many cars he bought, how many bungalows he bought and how many acres of land he bought in Trivandrum city. A heinous crime committed by a greedy government official resulted in leaving behind it a trail of suicides, the unwanted death of six persons, including two infants. Any alert administration and people will shake the world with news of apt immediate punishment, but not civilized Kerala. When faced with such sinful a situation, some will suicide, some will confess and go to the confines and solitude of prison and some others will repent, but not our man. The greatest wonder in Kerala is that even the loss of six human lives and 32 lakhs rupees from government treasury caused no prosecution, conviction and jail terms. This was an incident which seriously raised the question, whether any real laws are really existing there in Kerala or is Kerala simply boasting about civilization.

Steal 32 lakhs from government, join ranks of caste zealots, escape punishment, and get promoted as officer.
 

Now we come to our character, Harry Vinoir, the original plotter and designer of the scheme. He is now the only alive perpetrator of the crime which took the toll of six human lives. Everything regarding his past and present have been brought out by the newspapers. His two bungalows, three cars, five bank deposits and four stretches of purchased land in the city are now public knowledge. The department could do only one thing decent-promote him. He deserves it, considering the department standards. But due to public pressure and wide media attention they reluctantly had to suspend him from service, ordering a departmental enquiry the order for which was issued not by the reluctant department but by the government in the face of public accusation and considering the gravity of the situation after six deaths. Been recruited into service following the death of a relative in service, this employee had strong family supporters in the department. Moreover, he belonged to the forward Vinoir community of Kerala, the rotten caste system of which land is famous all over the world for its notoriety and unjust favouritism. He did not hesitate to join their ranks and make his way to the upper leadership of the caste organization. The Vinoir community in Trivandrum did not find it an abomination and shame to elect him a leader in the Vazhuthanakkadu branch of their organization which assured him impunity from punishment for his crimes. They simply became bound to help him in spite of the notoriety of his crimes.

If one is skilled enough to steal millions from government, generous enough to share it and belongs to some upper caste, Kerala is God’s Own Country for him.
 

We will think that the person, our Harry Vinoir, is now spending his life in jail or he is engaged in some other employment after serving his jail term. Actually his protectors in the department, the community figure heads, by stalling the enquiry, gave him enough time and lee way to argue that the enquiry is belated, he is already punished psychologically, there is no evidence against him and that he should be retaken into service. With lightning speed, they sent him to some remote institution where it was some fouled up doctor’s duty to re-enter him in service by simply writing in his service book ‘reinstated in service and rejoined duty’ without mention of number or date of a reinstatement order or even affixing a copy of the suspension and reinstatement orders in the book. In fact, the government that suspended him later revealed that it never issued an order reinstating him. Neither the department did, for that matter. It was another trick employed by devious minded government officials. Wait for one or two years till the uproar over the issue silences, simply fabricate orders, simply sent the favourite to some distant institution and simply write that some he has rejoined duty. It is that simple in Kerala, provided one is a member of the crooks’ clan. Now there is no hindrance to promoting him and the machinery moved on, well oiled up. The fact that the top authorities who reviewed his requests for these many promotions failed to note that copies of suspension and reinstatement orders and number and date of reinstatement order were absent in his service book serves as proof for how wide and omnipotent the hold of the crook’s clan and caste zealots is in the administration in the state. Within a few years Harry Vinoir was first promoted as an Upper Division Clerk, then as a Head Clerk, then as a Junior Superintendent and now he is on the brink of promotion to the post of a Superintendent. If one is skilled enough to steal millions from government, generous enough to share it and belongs to some upper caste, anything is possible in Kerala: Kerala is God’s Own Country for him. It is the benefit of being a darling of the department. Not one government official from the top most to the bottom ever asked that most feared question: “Why was the money stolen from government not ever recovered?”

Some sinners, when they reach the tranquil abodes of saints and holy people will repent deeply and redeem part of what humanity was lost from them.
 

Sin is something that creates in some of us the false notions of religion. When we know that everyone knows we are crooked thieves who did unspeakable crimes, some of us will decide it is time to make a show of religion and piety. So Harry Vinoir decided to lean on some respected man of miracles so that the blood of half a dozen human lives could be somewhat washed from his hands. Now we are entering a part of our story which never should have happened. Who served hundred thousands of acres of parched fields and villages in dry Andhra Pradesh with water? Who inspired thousands and thousands of writers, singers and dancers with sweet melodious songs in the bygone era? Who solaced desolate millions, sitting in a bamboo hut in the midst of a vast yellow mustard field in his rustic native hamlet? Who founded and directed the biggest free hospital in Asia? Our animal which is Harry Vinoir selected the learned Satya Sai Baba to lean on. What can Baba do against such sinners and hypocrites joining and maligning his sacred organizations? Vinoir made it a great show, sang bhajans and went pilgrimages. Some sinners, when they reach the tranquil abodes of saints and holy people will repent deeply and transform their minds into other configurations without knowing, redeeming a part of humanity that was lost from them, but not our man! He is in his heart and blood a beast that wallows deep in the wormy pits of fleshly pleasures. One will wonder if this creation has a family of his own and why his wife and children did not enter anywhere in our story. Let us not further pain them, those pining human souls who on their way to eternity, though for a very short time, got entangled in the clutches of this wretched god-abandoned thing.

He, in his heart and blood, is a beast which wallows deep in the wormy pits of fleshly pleasures.
 

Flesh is something important and influential in government services. When a fleshy, protein-rich lady with sufficient curves and projections comes to work in an office, several changes in seating arrangements and sections would be made there to sit her as lightly and cozily as the sex-starving officers of that office could do. In a particular government office, the clerks were previously sitting in two rows facing each other. One saw the face of the other and communicated well. With the arrival of one such lady, the junior superintendent of that office ordered the seats to be placed one behind the other, all facing him so that he can feast on the face and curves of the new arrival. Now all see another’s back, which is taboo in the East and now there is no communication between anyone but discord. The officer looked up some book, coined a new phrase and said it was Ahmadabad- Model Administrative Change! When the new arrival did not like one particular section since it involved actual work, another rearrangement in sections was made to suit her disturbing all others and when she did not like the second one too, a third rearrangement was ordered. One senior and reliable officer of that institution commented that the girl had to learn to do actual work, not show curves. Curvaceous flesh can move officers but not office files. It needs learned work and dedication to move them. Then one day the husband of this lady came to that office shouting that his wife has been going out with that junior superintendent, their family is on the brink of ruin and that this cannot go on. Following advice from her new lover, she filed law suit for divorce and her two little children thus lost a father. It needn’t be specially told here that this junior superintendent was our Harry Vinoir. So now we know that a born sinner will never repent and that heaven will not touch the devil. A mad dog will not cure and that is why the world kills it. A person who is left at liberty and freedom to destroy human lives everywhere will continue to do it without remorse or hesitance. He leaves a trail of destruction behind him, his intolerance for having been exposed once brutally expressing itself in causing him to destruct whatever solid human creations and relations he comes across. Learning about this incident of the birth of two new orphans and the prospect of two more suicides, many wondered how long he will continue this destruction of human lives. A few say, till he also takes his own life.

Dear Reader,
 
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Tags
 
Caste Zealots And Criminals , Crimes That Went Unpunished, Darlings Of The Department, Escapees From Crimes, Hospital Crimes, Kerala, Kerala Commentary, Kerala Life, P S Remesh Chandran, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Fiction, Short Stories, The Hospital Window Series Stories, The Story Of Harry Vinoir, True Stories
  

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.