Norms for posting on WhatsApp groups

We have been having arguments in our family group on forwards. Incidentally it is the younger lot which is objecting to forwards on WhatsApp.

I have argued that Problems with forwards are:

1. They are random.
2. Mostly they are pieces of trivia.
3. The video forwards take too much time.
4. I get same forward from multiple groups.
5. They clog the phone by hogging a lot of memory space.
6. People send forwards for making others happy, invoking fear (like fear of Muslims etc) , for making you deshbhakt, and influencing you to vote for XYZ. None of this works.


Karan Sharma added

To add to that forwards make people form opinions on unverified information. It also promotes a deliberate attempt of political outfits in their divisive agenda.

Social media is not only confined to the less privileged but also adversely impacts logic & rationale amongst the educated lot. (evident in US and India as well).

Lastly I would like to add that we were better off when knowledge and information was derived and / or deduced from Books, journals and quality newspapers.

And I hope you spare me on this one. Forwards have made a bunch of so called godmen (fools) to create a fan base / fan following.

——- my take is not person specific. I just meant to share my thoughts on the general state of affairs on the social media & misinformation and to add something Kaushal Mamu precisely summarised. Don’t take this the wrong way. Not targeting anyone per se.

The Pain of Dalits in India (R)

I was working in a PSU. GC joined the company a little later. He had an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur. His first job was with Government of India. While he was from Scheduled Caste, he did not declare it while taking the first job. He competed with general candidates and got the job as Class A officer. He did quite well in his first job. 

However when he joined the PSU, it was on a post which was reserved for SC category. The main attraction for him was that this position was near his home town.  He applied and selection was a foregone conclusion. His capability was way above the competition. 

He did not know what was lying ahead /in store for him. I witnessed how he faced silent non cooperation. The greatest challenge was the label. He is from "Reserved category". This label was the biggest block. It resulted in highly reduced expectations of performance. This meant that he got weaker assignments. This is how the bias worked. 

This is essentially Self Fulfilling Prophecy working in negative manner.  If you have seen the movie My Fair Lady, you can recognise the phenomenon.

I had extended my cooperation as much as I could. But, I being junior, my help had limited impact. I saw firsthand the silent discrimination. Nobody will insult him. However, they will be formal with him. Spontaneity was usually absent. The conversation were sporadic in his presence.

While this happened three decades ago, I find this type of discrimination of the reserved category students and employees still continues. However it is more subtle now as nobody wants to appear as being unfair and biased. Masking of true feelings is now a more developed art. 

(Note: Author belongs to Brahmin caste, highly religious but has shed the Brahminical attitude and adopted Gandhian philosophy in both thoughts and practice.)

Tribute to Mother Teresa

It was during summer of 1984. I was doing my internship in Kolkata. As a student, I was staying in the hostel of St. Xavier's College on Park Street. Donald who was from XLRI was my constant companion during that period.

During one weekend, we walked over to The Mother House and met her. She was a short woman. She was 74 year old then. Wrinkles were visible on her face. What was more visible on the face was an easy smile and love. For me, she looked like a grandmother. We had a short conversation. She enquired about us. Donald asked her what can young persons like us do. She said, "You look around yourself. You would find so much to do, to help the people around. You do not have to go in search of the opportunities." While departing, I touched her feet. Her feet were short and fingers of the feet were bit irregular.

Enablers India pays homage to Mother Teresa who dedicated herself to "enabling" the sick, old and poor people. She is an inspiration to us and her life and work will continue to inspire and guide us.

4 September 2016.    

The pain of Dalits in India

I was working in a PSU. GC joined the company a little later. He had an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur. His first job was with Government of India. While he was from Scheduled Caste, he did not declare it while taking the first job. He competed with general candidates and got the job as Class A officer. He did quite well in his first job. 

However when he joined the PSU, it was on a post which was reserved for SC category. The main attraction for him was that this position was near his home town.  He applied and selection was a foregone conclusion. His capability was way above the competition. 

He did not know what was lying ahead /in store for him. I witnessed how he faced silent non cooperation. The greatest challenge was the label. He is from "Reserved category". This label was the biggest block. It resulted in highly reduced expectations of performance. This meant that he got weaker assignments. This is how the bias worked. 

This is essentially Self Fulfilling Prophecy working in negative manner.  If you have seen the movie My Fair Lady, you can recognise the phenomenon.

I had extended my cooperation as much as I could. But, I being junior, my help had limited impact. I saw firsthand the silent discrimination. Nobody will insult him. However, they will be formal with him. Spontaneity was usually absent. The conversation were sporadic in his presence.

While this happened three decades ago, I find this type of discrimination of the reserved category students and employees still continues. However it is more subtle now as nobody wants to appear as being unfair and biased. Masking of true feelings is now a more developed art. 

(Note: Author belongs to Brahmin caste, highly religious but has shed the Brahminical attitude and adopted Gandhian philosophy in both thoughts and practice.)

Ensuring Quality of food

The news of children dying in Bihar because of poisoned food brings to my mind my experience of supervising a canteen. I was working in Hindustan Aeronautics at Lucknow. During my stint at Training Department which was housed in ITI Aliganj, I had an overall responsibility of canteen. We had a contractor who was providing tea, snacks and lunch. The rates were fixed by HAL. Cost of items was higher than the rates. So there was a subsidy element. Being a public sector, the contract was awarded to the L1 vendor. For those who may not be aware of this terminology, L1 means the vendor who has quoted the least rate.

Being a bachelor and at times, being alone, I also ate at the lunch from canteen. Being relatively senior, I used to get my food in my office. 

At some time I started getting complaints about the poor quality of foods from the trainees. As I inquired from other people I found substance in the complaints. Hence we went into action. Some of our actions were following:

1. I and my colleagues begun eating in the canteen so that there was no possibility of differential quality of food. We ate the same food which others ate. Contractor was careful and improved the quality. 

2. We periodically went into the store and checked the quality of raw material. Particularly the rice quality can be always suspect. Difference in rates of various categories of rice is usually quite substantial. We had prescribed Basmati rice but the contractor would try to save money by giving lower quality rice.

3. Quality did improve. Next was the turn of contractor to complain. There were two elements of revenue - sale and subsidy. He said the his costs are going beyond the revenues that he is getting. I listened to him and asked him to give the details. What had happened that inflation during that year was quite high. After an analysis I felt an increase in subsidy was warranted. Usually PSU Officers refrain from such a move as they are risk averse and imagine that they may be accused of favouring the contarctor. I sent the note for approval. It was examined by my superiors and finally the subsidy was increased.

During my stint there was no other problem on this count.