looking back to Oriental days !!

 

"Some meetings remind us that careers are built not only on efforts, experience, age,  knowledge,  but also on the people who shape us. 

Today, after   decades, I had the joy of meeting the gentleman to whom I first reported when I joined the insurance industry on 9 January 1985 – Mr Sundararaman at Oriental Insurance, DO3 VDS House.

 

Time has moved on, but gratitude has not."

22.7.2026

colleague Anantha Padmanabhan retires !!

 After almost 4 decades of service in Insurance industry, Mr N Ananthapadmanabhan retired from FG today. 

He joined insurance industry in 1984 at Oriental Insurance, DO I, later joined Royal Sundaram in  2007, worked in SBI Genl, Universal Sompo, HDI Magma and then joined Future Generali in 2015. 

We worked together in Oriental (in different offices); then in RSIL and in FG since 2015. 

A grand function was organized on his retirement.  Happy retired life Ananthu !

with regards - S.Sampathkumar
31.3.2023

planning a happy retirement - TN Govt enhances age limit !

During lockdown almost all the Sales Force are unhappy – vehicles have not been sold, there are so many things which people have not been able to market – some like masks, sanitizers, hand-wash, and the like are selling hot .. and State Govt has added one more to the list with roaring success !!  Remember with tinge of sadness that ODI 931 at   Nahar Singh Stadium, Faridabad o Oct 17 1994 - Stuart Williams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul & Cameron Cuffy made their debuts.  Windies scored 273/5 and India chasing made only 177, losing the match by 96 runs.

The first price of popularity is that one is hounded quite often of ‘retirement’……… the great genius writer Sujatha in his heydays was confronted in a student’s forum with the Q  : Sir, when will you stop writing ? Pat came the reply – ‘in the night ~ when I feel too sleepy’………… ~ one need not be guided by the Q and can have one’s own way !! The Genius Little Master  SAchin Tendulkar was haunted with the Q of his retirement .. .. and so many critics were speaking of the retirement of the mercurial Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The mercurial MSD surprised everyone on 30.12.2014 – the boxing test had just been drawn and Dhoni was 24* - 4 overs left with 4 wickets in hand – MSD made no mention during the customary Captain’s press conference at the end of the match.  Then a BCCI release stated that MSD had resigned citing the strain of playing all formats. We thought that 2020 will see MSD striking it rich in IPL and turn for India in T20 WC 2020 – but Covid-19 has changed lives.

No.  ‘199’ gained so much of attraction – it was a test match at Eden Gardens – Rohit Sharma fresh from the euphoria of a double ton in ODI got his Test cap from Sachin, after having played 108 ODIs – getting the nod over Ajinkya Rahana.  Alongside also debuted Mohammed Shami preferred over Ishant.  No. 199 :  is an Odd Number;  it is a deficient no. as 1 is less than 199; it is a prime number; it is the sum of 3 consecutive primes 61 + 67 + 71; it is also the sum of 5 consecutive primes …… 31+  37 + 41 + 43 + 47  ~ no point in trying to attach some more values ….. the badshah of Cricket – Sachin Tendulkar decided to retire – the swansong was to be  at Wankhede and the  one at Eden Gardens, Kolkatta – the penultimate was  his 199th Test……. He has been a marketing icon – a premium product and Commercials are trying to exploit this number and mint more money, and there were talks that the Series itself was to allow him select his retirement at his home ground.

Sachin Tendulkar announced his decision via a BCCI statement, like he had done when he retired from ODIs in Dec 2012. "All my life, I have had a dream of playing cricket for India. I have been living this dream every day for the last 24 years," Tendulkar said in a statement. "It's hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it's all I have ever done since I was 11 years old. It's been a huge honour to have represented my country and played all over the world. I look forward to playing my 200th Test match on home soil, as I call it a day. .. ..  the bowler  off spinner Narsingh Deonarine walked himself to Quiz questions though he has taken only 24 wickets in his Tests career, in the same way Eric Hollies is part of cricket folklore as the man who is remembered mainly for dismissing Bradman in his last Test innings.

After a six week-long ‘dry period’, liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu, barring Chennai, opened on Thursday and thirsty men and women bought about 20 lakh litres worth Rs 170 crore. The liquor consumed across the state in a single day was just four lakh litres less that the 24 lakh litres of milk supplied by state-owned Aavin across the state.

Official sources said 3,700 of the 5,300 outlets of Tasmac, the liquor monopoly in the state, sold approximately two lakh cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) (each containing 48 bottles of 180 ml) and about 50,000 cases of beer (each containing 12 full [650 ml] bottles). This translates into tipplers collectively buying more than two million litres of IMFL and beer on a single day. On a normal day, about 1.6 lakh cases of IMFL and beer are bought in a day in the state including Chennai.

“The beer sale was relatively less as there was a cap on selling only bottle to one customer,” an official said.  The state government requested the Madras high court to relax stringent conditions imposed for retail liquor sale, saying insisting Aadhaar for sale of liquor goes against privacy of customers. “Many customers have complained that insisting Aadhaar is adversely affecting their privacy. Moreover, the conditions imposed by the court for sale of liquor are onerous to follow. Therefore, we request the court to relax some of the conditions,” government pleader said in a memo filed on behalf of the Tasmac on Thursday.

When crowd surged in front of a Tasmac outlet in a village in Salem district on Thursday, the official machinery thought it fit to shift token distribution for the tipplers to a government school about 500 metres away. The tipplers were asked to queue up inside the panchayat union primary school at Kamalapuram near Omalur, where Tasmac staff issued them tokens. The official apathy, which resulted in the school being put to such use, irked the residents of Kamalapuram. A group of agitated villagers took up the issue with police and Tasmac staff, who stopped after issuing tokens to about 300 people.

The post started about retirement .. .. .. a peaceful happy retirement is what most office-goers would yearn .. this simple act which would occur to every living person in Govt / PSU is not all that easy in Private sector, is what experience has shown. Call it Covid-19 effect, a cash-strapped TN government on Thursday increased the retirement age of its staff from 58 years to 59 years to defer an outgo of ₹5,000 crore towards retirement benefits for the current fiscal. More than 25,000 government employees were set to superannuate this financial year.

The order has come into immediate effect and will be applicable to all government employees, teaching and nonteaching staff in government and aided educational institutions, and employees of constitutional statutory bodies, PSUs, corporations, local bodies, boards, commissions and societies. Those who are due for retirement on May 31 this year will now retire on May 31, 2021. The move is also aimed at appeasing the 12 lakh-odd government employees and teachers, whose DA increase and leave surrender facility have been frozen for a year.

Though some Unions have welcomed this, some others like Joint action council of Tamil Nadu teachers’ organisations and government employees’ organisations strongly condemned the move, saying it would adversely affect job opportunity of youngsters and delay promotions of senior employees. “It is an indirect attempt to ban recruitment for a year, akin to the fiveyear ban on direct recruitment enforced in 2001,” Jactto-Geo state coordinator  said.  The Tamil Nadu government employees’ association has announced a state-wide protest on Friday in front of government offices seeking withdrawal of the order.

The MGR government raised the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 years in Tamil Nadu in April 1979. “We needed to cut expenditure drastically. By freezing dearness allowance and leave surrender facility and lowering PF interest rate (to 8%), we saved ₹7,850 crore annually, which is roughly 12% of the total salary bill of ₹64,208 crore for the current fiscal. As regards ₹5,000 crore retirement benefits (₹2,764 crore towards gratuity and ₹2,221 crore for leave surrender), of 25,000 people who were expected to retire this year, we are only deferring payment by a year. It gives us some breathing time. It is not savings,” said a senior official in the finance department.

Kapil, the greatest all-rounder for India played  131 Test matches,  scored 5248 runs in 184 innings at an average of 31.05 with 8 hundreds and 27 half-centuries. In 131 tests, he took 434 wickets at 29.64 with 23 five-wicket hauls and best bowling figures of 9 for 83 against the West Indies.  In One dayers (always remember WC 1983) he scored 3783 runs (175* highest) and took 253 wickets in 221 innings. 

On that day at Faridabad – Kapil Dev was not given the new ball – Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble and Rajesh Chauhan bowled 10 overs each – while Sachin bowled 5.  It was sad and sickening and even made me cry when Kapil walked from deep square leg was unceremoniously sent back by the Captain Azharuddin.  Kapil in his normal self having completed 5 overs walked towards the Umpire, but the ball was sort of snatched by the Captain. For me in someways, Cricket was never the same thereafter ! – exceptional wrong treatment of a Senior on his retirement. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8.5.2020

Social distancing - Chinese advice on how to sit in Office when you are back to work !

The bowling attack may be good –  be it bowlers swinging wild or spinners turning crazy – you need a good slip cordon – slip fielding is an art.    Fielding in the slips is quite strenuous. Bending at the knees when the bowler starts his run up and staying still in the process needs a lot of strength and muscle endurance to withstand fatigue. For the slip fielder, standing in the slips for 90 overs – 540 deliveries – in a day can be quite tiresome and the fielder may lose concentration due to fatigue, which can prove costly for his team. Hence a relaxed stance that puts less strain on mind and body is required.  .. .. .. more importantly, the fielder should not be standing too close to the other ie., both should not be diving for the same catch !

Our childhood offered myriad opportunities of bliss and friendships – if you were the fortunate one to study in the same school, the bonding perhaps could be more. Do your remember your classmates and friends who were intimate to you say 30 or 40 years ago !

At Hindu High School when I studied +2 (we have a WA group of this classmates) – each bench would sit 5 – it was N Ravichandran, S Vijayaraghavan (unfortunately no more), Myself, MVR Raman & SP Soundararajan.  At DG Vaishnav – one had no opportunity of selecting bench-mates, but had to sit according to their Roll Nos – mine was 1247 – so I sat with 45, 46, 47 & 48. 

One could develop friendship at so many places – it was the street that one lived, the street or friend’s home(s) most visited, beach cricket, Hindi class, Divyaprabandha class, Typewriting, Shorthand classes, the institutions that one worked.  My first employment was with R Subbaraman & Co (Sole Agents of Cutfast Bonded Abrasives) – a small office cum godown [I learnt what was coated and bonded abrasive !) – then when you work in bigger Organisation, it is more fragmented of Kamala Arcade Branch, DO 3, Do2 @ Lotus Court, DO Kakinada and its branches, Ro and ,.. .. .. then 2 private Insurance Company experiences have made me richer with lot of friends (that some trusted friends could misbehave is a different painful chapter altogether)

My previous Company provided lunch and people would mostly frequent in groups for lunch and occupy tables together – again lunch would provide a good opportunity to dine and speak to colleagues with whom you have greater bonding. Life had been beautifully spent with people whom we knew, we liked and for whom the liking kept growing as there were more and more time of togetherness. 

Forget playing Cricket or slip-catching – Covid-19 has turned the World upside down – no more the friendly handshakes or tight hugs – people are advised to keep distance, say Namasthe with folded hands.  Social distancing, also called “physical distancing,” means keeping space between yourself and other people outside – best advice is to stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) from other people; not to gather in groups and keep away from crowded places, avoid mass gatherings !   In addition to everyday steps to prevent COVID-19, keeping space between you and others is one of the best tools.  This is because, COVID-19 spreads mainly among people who are in close contact (within about 6 feet) for a prolonged period. Spread happens when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, and droplets from their mouth or nose are launched into the air and land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The droplets can also be inhaled into the lungs.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal asked the Deputy Commissioners to constitute monitoring cells which will be exclusively mandated to inspect the social distancing norms including health and hygiene protocols of the workers engaged in the tea gardens.  Considering the importance of tea in the economic health of the state as well as in the country, though some tea gardens were allowed to resume their functioning with minimum work force, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal stressed on  adequate social distancing norms for the tea gardens in the changing socio-economic landscape emanated in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the state.

Unless a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is found, social distancing measures may continue for a year in Australia, the country's premier said on Friday. Scott Morrison underlined that there was no guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine will be developed, the daily Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A new study by Harvard University suggests some form of social distancing may be needed intermittently well into 2022, in the absence of vaccines, to prevent frequent coronavirus outbreaks.  After looking at computer simulations of how the virus may spread over the next five years, based on data of two beta-coronaviruses in US, the researchers concluded that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19 in humans, is unlikely to behave like its closest cousin, SARS-CoV-1, and won’t be eradicated by intensive public health measures after causing a brief pandemic.

With all this read this interesting ! report in MailOnline which states that employees should sit next to a colleague,   'they dislike the most' to keep social distancing when they return to work after the coronavirus lockdown, a medical expert has suggested.

Zhang Wenhong, head of the COVID-19 expert team in Shanghai, said on Wednesday that office workers should sit next to people they don't get along with to avoid chatting as a way to prevent the spread of the virus.  It comes as people in China have slowly returned to work and their normal lives after cities across the country eased travel restrictions. The former epicentre Wuhan, where the outbreak began, lifted its 76-day lockdown on April 8. But officials fear that the spike of 'imported cases' from inbound travellers and regional outbreaks could spoil the country's progress to post-virus recovery.

Zhang Wenhong, head of the COVID-19 expert team in Shanghai,  made the remarks while attending a video conference with Europe-based Chinese companies and overseas students on Wednesday. The meeting was held to discuss the current epidemic in Europe and answer questions about personal protection against the bug, according to the press. Mr Zhang said that the pandemic, which has infected over two million people globally, is unlikely to end within a short period of time. It would become a common practice for people to keep social distancing after they return to work. He advised office workers to 'listen more and talk less' during work meetings to reduce the risk of spreading the contagion.

The chief medic from the Huashan Hospital, Zhang Wenhong, also recommended people to ‘avoid doing mediocre work so that the boss wouldn’t talk to you’.  'Or you can find people you dislike the most to sit with,' Mr Zhang added. 'You would only chat with people you're friendly with, you know what I mean? 'You see this person that you've never spoken to since you came into the company, try to sit next to them. 'You leave straight after the meeting, run as fast as you can,' said the doctor. Mr Zhang continued: 'When you do an amazing job, the boss would think 'there is no point talking to you since you've finished all of the work'.  The 51-year-old medic has gained tens of millions of followers on social media for his down-to-earth style of speech during the coronavirus outbreak, according to the press. Chinese web users even dubbed him as 'Dad Zhang'.

It sounds more comical than any sound medical advice though ! - Officials in China in affected Province said many fatal cases were 'mistakenly reported' or missed entirely in an admission that comes amid growing global doubts about Chinese transparency.  Covid has for sure changed the way people have been living and socializing !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

17.4.2020.

working overtime and Japanese idea of blasting with drone !

Drones have come to stay ~  :  an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board. Its flight is either controlled autonomously by computers in the vehicle, or under the remote control of a navigator on the ground or in another vehicle.

A brilliant photo of Madurai taken from a drone (from FB of Manivannan of Madurai)

A couple of decades ago, in life and in Cinema, hardworking people would become by doing extra work in Office, getting Overtime pay.  OT simply is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Most nations have overtime labour laws designed to dissuade or prevent employers from forcing their employees to work excessively long hours. These laws may take into account other considerations than the humanitarian, such as preserving the health of workers so that they may continue to be productive, or increasing the overall level of employment in the economy. In the modern World, people do work hard, spending extra hours in Office and even at home doing official work – how much they climb or how high they are placed may not be directly proportional to the hours or work put though.

 

Then there are situational demands – of natural disasters.  Out there in US - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel have been stretched that in the  past three months,  some of its field personnel had  been home just once, for a two-week stretch.  The team has spent  the other dozen weeks amidst calamity.  Some had been  deployed to Texas on Aug. 24, as Hurricane Harvey pummeled Houston. Six weeks later, they flew straight to Puerto Rico, the island struggling to cope with widespread devastation following back-to-back hurricanes, Irma and then Maria. With much of the commonwealth still without power, they had to sleep alongside hundreds of other workers inside a convention center, taking cold showers and bunching up spare clothing to use as a pillow.

Now, FEMA says hundreds of  FEMA employees who pulled double-digit days during this year's massive storms may be forced to pay back some of their overtime pay. Under federal law, government staffer's annual earnings are capped — and following a record-breaking hurricane season, "several hundred" staffers have butted up against their maximums, FEMA confirms to ABC News.  Strange are the rules !

Elsewhere in Singapore, a couple of years back, drones buzzed up to high-rises under construction in Singapore and dropped off cans of Coke to the migrant workers building the towers. Tucked into the care packages were 2,734 messages from Singaporeans thanking the tradesmen for their hard work.  The idea was to link two communities that don't often come into contact - Singaporean nationals and the migrant workers who travel far from their countries to build the city-state's apartment buildings, offices and schools.  Some agencies dubbed it "Happiness From the Skies" that was part of Coke's international campaign called "Where Will Happiness Strike Next?", bringing the brand theme of happiness to places that could use some cheer.  Coke planned to utilize the drone technology to a newer height.  It was strategized to reach out to  migrant workers at building sites, cooming from places including India, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar, who did all that hard work but remained isolated otherwise.   

Hundreds of volunteers from the Singapore Kindness Movement asked ordinary Singaporeans to write messages of support to the migrant workers, then snapped photos of them holding the notes. The photos were tied to Coke cans and delivered to more than 2,500 workers using several drones. When the crafts landed, people weren't always sure how to react.

Anything on work may not be  complete without reference to Japan that  has a culture which encourages overtime out of a sense of loyalty, and that's a serious problem. It not only cuts into family and social life, it leads to entirely avoidable deaths. Taisei (the company behind the main Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium) aims to fix that in an unusual way: having a drone nag you into going home. Its newly unveiled T-Frend is ostensibly a security drone that surveils the office with its camera, but its specialty is blasting workers with "Auld Lang Syne" (commonly used in Japan to indicate closing time) to force them out of the office. In theory, the music and the drone's own buzzing make it impossible to concentrate.

The drone is autonomous, and doesn't need GPS to find its position. It'll be available in Japan in April as a ¥50,000 ($443) per month service, which largely limits it to mid- and large-sized businesses that can easily justify the cost through improved worker health.  Whether or not T-Frend is effective remains to be seen -- we could see stubborn workers donning noise-cancelling headphones. However, it could contribute to a national effort to create more balanced lifestyles. And it might even be more effective than existing strategies. Right now, overseers at companies frequently find themselves working overtime as they urge staff to avoid those extra hours -- the drone might let everyone punch out on time.

~ and what is happening in your workplace ? do you stay long hours ?? – and do you really take care of your team’s work-life balance.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8^th Dec 2017.