This is Lakshman ...

Here is the photograph of Lakshman.

I have been trying to get a photo with his trademark smile but could not obtain. You can still see a smile in his eyes. Please read these posts, to find out a bit more about Lakshman and his tragic end, written by Guru, Abi, and Shencottah.

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Laa. Sa. Raa Writings

Thinnai has few Laa. Sa. Raa pieces (in Tamil).

1. அம்முலு (ammulu)
2. கண்ணன் (kannan)
3. நெற்றிக்கண் (netrikkan)
4. வரிகள் (varigal)
5. இவளோ? (ivalo)

Frontline published the english translation of his story in 2001 - Mud

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Laa. Sa. Raa ---- Melted, Vanished, and Now Flows Forever

Laalgudi Saptarishi Ramamirtham (Laa. Sa. Raa.) is no more. No more in the form which we always like him to be. He chooses the form which he always likes to present himself - abstract, simple, mysterious, magical, esoteric, loving, affectionate, strong, supple, beautiful, orphic, silent and invisible.

He passed away on October 30, 2007 at the age of 91 (on his 92nd birthday). I came to know about this from Thinnai. It is a shame that I came to know after so many days. I do not know if I have to blame myself for not reading the news with enough attention or the present state of media. It is a personal literary loss to me. I always wanted to meet him. I even called up his home few years back and checked with one of his family members if it was possible to meet him. I was told about his fragile health and asked if it would become an interview. I said it could never become an interview. It might rather become a visit with not even one question asked or one sentence exchanged. But.. But.. the visit never materialised. Meeting Laa. Sa. Raa has joined the list of things-not-done-and-cannot-do-anymore.

But wait!!!

Meeting Laa. Sa. Raa is meeting his words!!

No!

Meeting Laa. Sa. Raa is meeting his words and going beyond them to see what he conveys.

Going beyond them to see what he communicates.

Going beyond them to meet ourselves finally.

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1. Dhalavai Sundaram's interview with Laa. Sa. Raa in 2002 (in Tamil)
2. Photo courtesy: Thinnai and Dhalavai Sundaram's Blog

British Petroleum Fined

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that BP's (British Petroleum) US subsidiaries has agreed to pay $303 million in fines to settle charges that it manipulated propane markets. Moreover, the other US subsidiaries of the multinational company will pay a record $50 million in criminal fines to settle Clean Air Act requirement (passed in 1990 following the explosion at Union Carbide's chemical plant in Bhopal) charges stemming from fire and explosion at its Texas refinery, and $20 million in criminal fines and restitution for violation of the Clean Water Act relating to oil pipeline leaks in Alaska.

Robert A. Malone, BP America chairman and president, said,

"If our approach to process safety and risk management had been more disciplined and comprehensive, this tragedy could have been prevented. We did not provide our people with systems and processes that would have enabled them to appreciate the risk of a catastrophic release from the F20 blowdown stack and understand the danger of placing occupied trailers so close to it. We deeply regret the loss of life, the injuries, and the community disruption caused by the explosion."

Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said,

"Let's hope these criminal fines wake up BP's management and force the company to clean up its refineries. BP spends a lot of money advertising itself as a 'green' corporation. Some of that money would be better spent protecting BP's workers and neighbors from the company's own pollution,"

Why should Indian regulators and environmental agencies take note of these?

BP holds 71% holdings in Castrol India Limited. It has a 51% joint venture with Tata Group to participate in the Indian solar energy market. It also trades crude oil, bulk chemicals, and petroleum products in India.

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The Rationalist

M. Karunanidhi, the present Tamil Nadu Chief-Minister, has always claimed to be the rationalist. An example from his recent interview with Shekhar Gupta might be very enlightening.

He says,

"Jawaharlal Nehru did not accept Ram (as a divine being); he calls him a hero, not a god. C. Rajagopalachari wrote a book called Chakravarthi Thirumagan (The Emperor’s Blessed Son) that says Ram is a prince, not a god. It is not as if only the DMK is saying it."

C. Rajagopalachari did not believe Ram as a God. Why? Because he wrote a book on Ram titled The Emperor's Blessed Son.

Now what is Tirukkural? Please do not say following our rationalist's approach that the rationalist believes that it is a type of painting as he has written a book on Tirukkural titled Kural Oviyam (Kural: A class of couplet, Oviyam: Painting, drawing, art).

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Padams

Aruna Chandaraju wonders why padams are not heard often?

From The Hindu article:

Chitravina Ravikiran holds:

“Most artistes are daunted by its demands — a super-slow tempo which calls for great breath control, a platinum-like voice which doesn’t lose intensity even when modulated to the thinnest, and a mind capable of grasping its microscopic details.”

Sakuntala Narasimhan:

“Brinda took nearly one year to teach us the famous Sahana padam because it was so difficult.”

Sripada Pinakapani:

“Vilambalaya rendition keeping tautness intact is the vital requirement in padams. And in this age when unnecessarily speedy renditions by performers are common and accepted, where pyrotechnic displays draw applause, and where many students are in a hurry to ascend concert-platforms without acquiring perfect breath-control, where is the atmosphere for padams to flourish?”

(Thanks Manu for bringing this article to my attention - Shencottah.)

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Serve with a Smile from Heart

Sincere smile in itself is heart-transforming. When people serve food with hearty smile, there are only few other things that can match it in its strength, intensity, and power to transform.

Lakshman is one of them. He works in A-Mess at Indian Institute of Science. His smile is not a customary smile you get to see in some restaurants. He really smiles. If you are not in a hurry, you can feel that his smile is not on his face. It is from his heart.

When he serves from the buffet place, I am sure everyone eats more happily. If you tell him, "enough". He says, "Crispy Dosa, Sir. Take two more." You cannot refuse. You take at least one.

When your turn comes, you see only two idlies on the plate. Two cold idlies. You have to tell some people to bring the new batch of hot idlies. But with Lakshman, even if you are about to take those two idlies because you have to keep up your appointment with someone, he does not allow you to take those. He rather tells, "Just a minute, Sir. Hot idlies are coming." He goes inside to serve us with hot idlies.

Thanks Lakshman for those smiling servings. Lakshman is no more. Mogadalai's tribute is here. He died in a van accident. His wife and daughter died too.

Why did not I write about his smile-and-serve when he was alive? Why did the loss of that initiate this blog-post? Is it because we will know the value of some only when we lose them?

Death is a powerful heart-transformer just like the smile of Lakshman.

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Cough and spit anywhere

Few months back, our media flashed photos and video clipping of Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav's paan-expectoration when he attended a function where hygiene was supposed to be the main theme. We all must have laughed and once again reinforced our beliefs and biases about persons. The following incident happened two days back inside the Kabini Canteen, Indian Institute of Science.

There was a "research-scholar" sitting in the next table. I was having my Rice+Rasam with my friend. The hot rasam of Kabini was very good especially when you were recovering from fever. Since they keep the rasam and sambar vessels outside, you do not have to ask anyone. Just go and fill the tumbler with rasam. Drink slowly. That seemed to be a very good recipe for recovery. I was relishing my rasam when I was shocked to see our "research-scholar" spitting down. Oops!! This was inside the Kabini Canteen. There are chairs outside too. It is okay if you spit sitting outside as it is on the ground you are spitting. But inside where flooring is done? I was really stunned. He did again. I did not know if I had to go and tell him. We finished our lunch and were about to leave. I showed my friend the deeds of our "scholarly" friend. Then we decided to go and inform him not to spit inside.

I told him,"Please do not spit inside"

He looked at me as if I was curtailing his civic rights.

He said,"Cough comes."

"You could then go out and spit."

"It comes frequently."

"You could still take your food and sit outside."

He just nodded his head but still stayed there. I could not say anything more. I then left the place.
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Derivatives

When I saw a book on "Derivative Pricing" way back in 1999, it caught my attention immediately. I knew then derivative as limit of certain ratio of infinitesimals, rate of change of something, local property, etc. But what was derivative pricing? I knew certain pricing was based on intersection of demand and supply curves. I wondered if derivatives were used to find the intersection where one could achieve maximum pricing, and hence the name "derivative pricing". Better sense prevailed. I opened the book and read few pages. It opened the door to the world of modern quantitative finance.

But what are derivatives? Derivatives are financial instruments whose worth depends on the value of an underlying asset. You will soon read lots about derivatives in the context of Indian markets.

Here is a book Derivatives: The tools that changed finance by Phelim Boyle and Feidhlim Boyle, written in plain english to make concepts clear. You will not be able to solve Black-Scholes equations after reading this book. But you may appreciate why we have to solve them. The book is available for free download.

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Man Booker Prize 2007 - Announced

Anne Enright was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel The Gathering. For more details, read this page.
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