language problem ... not humans this time !!!

There are thousands of languages – Our Nation has hundreds of languages with Hindi in Devanagari script  being the principal official language.  Indian languages belong to several linguistic families – Dravidian being an important one.   The Dravidian family includes 85 languages approx and is spoken by millions of people, predominantly in Southern India and parts of Sri Lanka and some other countries.  Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada are the prominent ones.  The antiquity of the language is studied through epigraphs which is study of inscriptions on stones and on others forms dating back to centuries.  .. .. .. and there can be language problem in not understanding !!

Most references to it are derogatory – the animals are often remarked to be slow and non-caring;’ non-responsive whether it hot Sun or raining heavily  – they also say ‘it does not wander from the marsh where it was born’ … in Olden days, when students were faring poorly, the parents would derisively say ‘fit only for rearing them’ !! – The color is jet black. Rarely white markings on face and leg extremities may be there, but are not preferred. It has short, characteristic tightly curled horns, turning backward and upward and finally spirally curving inward. Eyes are black, active and prominent in females; Udders are fully developed, drooping with equally distributed teats over the udder. Teats are long, and places uniformly wide apart but hind teats are longer than fore teats.  .. … in Triplicane, as you come out early morning, you are sure to find cattle ~ cows and buffaloes roaming on the street.  The buffaloes are considered lazy and carefree animals…….they occupy the centre of the road and do not care to move … the buffalo that we see on road is commonly known as ‘water buffalo’ - (Bubalusbubalis) suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than of the dairy cow. 

A few days back - Telangana Chief Minister said the government will soon launch a comprehensive scheme for the development of dairy sector in the state to bring in a ‘KsheeraViplavam’ (Milk Revolution). The chief minister announced that the government through dairy development societies would provide 50 per cent subsidy for buying a buffalo by the farmer and the subsidy would be 75 per cent if the dairy farmers happen to be from the SC/ST community. In return, the CM has asked for a favour that every farmer in his household should plant six saplings and name each sapling after one of their family members and take care of the plants by watering it regularly, said a release.

The neighbouring Andhra Pradesh too has similar plans of supporting and increasing teh  cattle population.  The state government introduced rules to purchase buffaloes from other states for increasing the number of buffaloes in the state under government aid scheme.  .. .. but this has created a rather piquant situation ~ the language problem.

Following the decision, a number of beneficiaries brought buffaloes from Haryana and Tamil Nadu. But most of these imported buffaloes were not giving milk, said Pithapuram MLA S V S N Varma Raising the topic in the AP Assembly.  The MLA said that beneficiaries were ready to corner the MLAs if the government does not change the rules for purchasing buffaloes within the state.  The MLA also made interesting comments raising the topic during the Question Hour. Much to the amusement of the House, he said that the buffaloes which are being imported from Tamil Nadu and Haryana do not understand the language of Telugu people and are not giving milk.

The buffaloes are being transported from other states on trucks packed like sardines, he said, and added that was also one of the reasons for their falling sick,  if not injured. Women generate income from dairy products, he said,  and added that the rules framed by the state government turned a big problem to them. He requested the government to make necessary changes facilitating purchase of buffaloes from the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Labour minister Atchannaidu  said that the rules were framed to improve the strength of buffaloes in the state. However, he assured them that the government would pursue the issue.

In another interesting news, nearly  2.5 lakh cattle, out of around 90 lakh in Madhya Pradesh, have been stamped with unique identities, similar to the 12-digit Aadhaar number, to enhance their safety as well as increase milk production, officials said. The ears of these bovines are being tagged with UID numbers as part of an ambitious scheme of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).  An official said that cows and buffaloes are being tagged in this manner to create a nationwide recording mechanism called the Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH).  The plan, it is stated, was to complete the tagging of all the 90 lakh cattle in MP in the second phase.

"A cattle dossier, comprising the animal's age, breed and other characteristics, will be created which would be uploaded onto the INAPH's Information Technology Application so that each cow or buffalo's unique identity is available on gadgets," the official  explained. The cattle UID would then be linked to the Aadhaar number of its owner which in turn would check the illegal sale and purchase, smuggling and abandoning of cattle, he added.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

28^th Mar 2018.

law of triviality ~ difference between big and small crime !!

Punjab National Bank (PNB) was at  the centre of a $1.8 billion fraud - one of the largest to be detected across the Indian banking sector. The statement that it had detected some “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages)”,  might sound  innocuous – but the quantum is disclosed to be several crores.  We have heard of many scams, speak, debate on them, till next one gets unearthed and slowly forget them………. How many of us still remember Bofors, and Fairfax…. !!  ~ one has lost track and wonders how many cases have been taken to logical end and how many got convicted ?  Perhaps, in the present regime, we have not heard of any such scams ~ though there have been so many during the dynasty rule !! 

For those of you born later, here are some, which you may not have heard of !!  ~ in 1948 there was the ‘Jeep scandal’  the then Indian high commissioner to Britain, ignored protocols and signed a Rs 80 lakh contract for the purchase of army jeeps with a foreign firm.  A decade and half later, came the Mundhra scandal that exposed the nexus between the Bureaucracy, stock market speculators and small rogue businessmen. It also brought to light rifts between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his son-in-law Feroze Gandhi, and also led to the resignation of India's then finance minister T. T. Krishnamachari.  In 1971 it was ‘Nagarwala scandal’ in which a person convinced a banker withdrawal of 60 lakhs from the branch of the State Bank of India. Nagarwala called Malhotra at the State Bank of India, imitating voice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stating that he  immediately needed Rs 60 lakhs reportedly for a secret mission for Bangladesh.  ~ all those are buried and forgotten !!

Anniyan [literally Stranger] had a great theme – conceptually it was the guilty being punished… through the character of an innocent and honest lawyer.  One powerful dialogue penned by the Great Sujatha became an instant hit – but remembered more of a comedy… it was - “Anju paisa thiruduna thappaa? (Is stealing of five paise is wrong)” ~ it is not that 5 paise but the act of stealing and the impact is not that of that single act – but that of attitude – when lakhs of people all steal 5 paise – the effect is manifold and corruption is the biggest disease that afflicts the Nation. 

So does ‘triviality’ matter indeed ??  ~ the noun would mean something that is not important:  the state of not being important.  It would also mean : lack of seriousness or importance; insignificance; an insignificant detail; a trifle.

"an over-concentration on trivialities" – was reported in Civil Appeal no. 18799/2017 in Union of India &Ors. Vs. Amit Singh before the Apex Court of India.  The respondent was terminated from service on the basis of information gathered, on verification of the antecedents. Though it was done after three years of entering service, it was found that the respondent had been involved in a criminal case.   According to the learned counsel for the respondent, it was a trivial issue between the friends in a cricket match and hence the same was compounded by the learned Magistrate.  The contention was that information given to the employer by a candidate as to conviction, acquittal or arrest, or pendency of a criminal case, whether before or after entering into service must be true and there should be no suppression or false mention of required information.

Parkinson's law of triviality contends that  members of an organisation give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.  The  example cited was that  of a fictional committee whose job was to approve the plans for a nuclear power plant spending the majority of its time on discussions about relatively minor but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bike shed, while neglecting the proposed design of the plant itself, which is far more important and a far more difficult and complex task. The law has been applied to software development and other activities. The term bike-shed effect or bike-shedding was coined as a metaphor to illuminate the law of triviality. 

Now read this newsitem that appeared in Times of India – Chennai edition - Departmental action was  initiated against a government bus conductor in Chennai after a checking squad found a difference of ₹1 between the value of tickets sold by him and the amount collected. K Siva, a conductor from Aynavaram depot, said he had mistakenly given a new ₹2 coin instead of ₹1to a passenger in a crowded MTC bus.

Siva on that evening, was issuing tickets to passengers on a bus to Pudur from Villivakkam, when a ticket checking squad boarded the vehicle near Madhanakuppam. The team found a woman passenger travelling without ticket worth ₹7. When asked, she told the checking inspectors she had handed over the fare to Siva, but he did not issue her the ticket. Inspectors checked the Traffic Record (TR), which carries details about the number of tickets sold and collection made. “If their claims were right, the amount collected through sale of tickets should have exceed the value of tickets sold. But it fell short by just one rupee,” said Siva. “I gave a two rupee coin to one of the passengers instead of one rupee coin by mistake. It is difficult to differentiate it by size in a crowded bus in which a conductor is expected to issue tickets within a few seconds,” he added.

Authorities, however, handed him a memo  for not issuing a ticket to a passenger and for the collection falling short. The conductor was instructed not to report to work until the inquiry was over. In a separate incident, a MTC driver from Kundrathur depot was suspended for using mobile phone while driving based on a passenger’s complaint.

Does that sound too trivial or a right and justified action ?

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

19^th Mar 2018

pitiful end to the escaped animals of Tbilis Zoo ~ white Tiger shot at and killed

The white tiger is a pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger. Rewa was a Princely State, famous for its white tigers, the first one, nicknamed Mohan, was caught in Rewa. In contrast to what some believe, the White Tiger is neither a subspecies in its own right, nor an albino form of a ‘normal’ tiger. Rather, it is simply a rare form of Bengal Tiger that possesses a specific gene, giving it a lighter appearance. This variation is truly exquisite, giving the White Tiger an undeniable sense of mystery and beauty. The scientific name of the White Tiger is Pantheratigris, and some say it is a result of inbreeding.

Photo credit :www.tigers.org.za

I have recently posted on animals escapade following flash floods in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.  Heavy rains and wind hit Tbilisi  turning a normally small stream that runs through the hilly city into a surging river. The flooding damaged houses.  Cars and debris were seen floating along the once busy streets – and wild animals reportedly were roaming on the streets, having escaped from the Zoo.

Not any happy ending but a pitiful one for – those escaped  Bears, tigers and wolves were seen dead with carcasses littering on the filthy streets of Tbilisi.  Only the darted hippo made it safe.  Burials had to be hastily prepared  for bears, tigers and wolves that all lay in the mud of the Georgian capital.  Flash flooding in the Georgian capital had destroyed the animal's enclosures at Tbilisi zoo and turned it into a 'hellish whirlpool', leaving them free to roam the streets in scenes reminiscent of a Hollywood disaster movie.  Later when the clean-up operations  began – they had only  to clear the carcasses of bears, tigers and wolves that all lay in a heap in the murky sludge of the capital city's streets. Animals lying in the sludge was a ghastly sight. 

Residents had been warned to stay indoors and particularly away from the area next to the zoo as a number of wild beasts werel unaccounted for, with fears they could be wandering the hills of the Georgian capital.  The Zoo was trying to determine what had happened to four lions, three tigers and one jaguar and host of other animals that escaped.  Helicopters continued to circle the city hunting for big game to track down the hungry and dangerous animals.  The flooding also killed about 60 of 300 homeless dogs at a private shelter near the zoo, shelter staff said.

A hippopotamus was seen on the roads – it was tranquilized, cornered and later taken to its confines.  Other animals were not so lucky.  The Zoo authorities also requested public not to resort to shooting of animals when sighted, unless the predators were seen attacking people.  A spokesperson of the Zoo said 20 wolves, eight lions and an unspecified number of tigers, jackals, bears and jaguars had been shot dead or were still missing from the zoo. 'Only three out of our 17 penguins were saved,' she added.Six wolves were shot dead at a children's hospital, as a bear was seen clinging on for life on an air conditioning unit of a second floor building above a flooded street. 

The heavy rain that lashed the city turned the Vereriver that flows through the hilly city into a surging river that swept away cars and buildings, flooded squares and damaged power lines.Several main roads were destroyed and half a dozen coffins in a city cemetery were washed out of the ground.  Rescue workers were searching submerged buildings to check for trapped residents and the clean-up operation resumed with people working together to dig out cars wedged in the mud and clear the carcasses of the fallen beasts. It is estimated the floods have caused £6.5million worth of damage. 

Prague Zoo, which suffered from the devastating flooding that hit the Czech capital in 2002 and again in 2013,  reportedlysent a team to Tbilisi volunteering help.  To add to the chaos, oneof the tigers that escaped during devastating floods, killed a man in front of horrified passers-by after four days on the loose.News of the death followed claims  that all the big cats from the city’s zoo had been found dead.The Interior Ministry said police shot the tiger dead after it attacked a group of men earlier today, killing one and injuring another.

It was a white tiger, a big one. It attacked a man, it seized him by the throat,” a witness told Georgia's Imedi channel.  The white tiger had escaped detection by hiding at an abandoned factory,a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said.  The animal was initially reported to be a lion.  The victim, named locally as OtarTsukhishvili, was mauled to death when he entered a warehouse where the animal had hidden for 3 days.   Another victim, who survived, was bitten on his arm as other people ran from the warehouse in a panic.  More panic was to follow after Rustavi-2 TV channel reported calls from locals that a hyena was on the loose in the city.

It was a distressing sight of the killed animal, and municipal workers dragging out of mud many other animals which had died and were in mud inundated waters. Meanwhile, an African penguin that escaped from the zoo is believed to have been found in neighbouring Azerbaijan after swimming 30 miles along the river from Tbilisi.  A large crocodile found under a pile of wood and debris was hauled to safety.

Zookeepers say that of the roughly 600 animals in their care, more than half had perished in a 'hellish whirlpool' or died at the hands of the authorities.It remains unclear how many were shot dead by police and in some cases by general public, but they include lions, tigers and wolves; and in some cases, there was no real need for killing them. This hippo survived though !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

18^th June 2015.

the button-less lifts of South Glasgow Univ Hospital

The South Glasgow University Hospital is one of the biggest critical care complexes in Europe.  It is nicknamed the "Death Star" by locals because of its imposing 14-storey star-shaped design, topped by a landing pad for aircraft.  The hospital cost £842m but the medical equipment inside has brought the final total closer to £1bn. The project was funded by the Scottish government.  The new campus is built on the site of the old Southern General in Govan in the south west of the city.  It will house a new 1,109-bed adult hospital and a 256-bed children's hospital.  Every patient in the general wards in the 14-floor hospital will have their own single room with an en-suite and views out across the campus. Demolition of the old Southern General surgical block will begin in the summer and be completed by the middle of 2016.

It is stated that patients from the old Victoria Infirmary and the nearby Mansionhouse Unit will begin the move to the new hospital in May.  The good point is that  leaflets are proposed to be delivered to every household affected, outlining the changes to A&E provision.   The hospital features interactive displays for children developed in collaboration with the Glasgow Science Centre, along with a cinema and roof garden in the children's wing. Patients enter the main hospital through a dramatic atrium which stretches up the entire height of the building. There are self-service check-in machines, and nearly all of the 1,100 beds have their own room, with an en-suite bathroom and views out over the city. A  fleet of robots deliver linen and other goods via a network of underground tunnels.  The new hospital has not been without its problems.  Staff say there are not enough car parking spaces and there have been claims that there are not enough beds, despite its huge size.

The first outpatients  are tobe treated sooner – there has been also news that the new hospital ran out of water just days after admitting its first patients.  Reports state that Inpatients, who were only transferred at the weekend, were left without hot or cold water in the new South Glasgow University Hospital.   Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jenny Mara insisted that the issues should have been resolved before doors opened to the public.  A Scottish Government spokesman added: “We have been assured by the health board that temporary measures were put in place and that the storage tanks have been filled and normal supplies resumed.”

More interesting is this report in MailOnline which states that -  “visitors to £1billion Glasgow super-hospital get stuck in the lifts... because they have no buttons inside”- sounds strange for a state-of- the-art building that cinema, robots and ....button-less lifts !!!!

Visitors to a £1billion new super-hospital keep getting trapped in the lifts - because they have no buttons inside. The futuristic new 14-storey South Glasgow University Hospital opened to patients last month featuring robots, a children's cinema and lifts without buttons to try and bring 'healthcare into the 21st century.'  But it appears the ultra-modern facility appears to be ultra-confusing for many staff and patients who claim they have spent 'what seems like days' trapped in the speeding elevators.  One hospital worker said: 'It's an amazing building but I've spent the majority of my time in the lift so far - as have a lot of people.

Finding one’s way up appears confusing.   'I had to go just one floor up, not long after arriving. I jumped into the lift without pressing the button and was lost for nearly half an hour!  'The staff will get used to it, but it catches newcomers to the building out time and time again.'  The issue arises from the fact that the new modern new lifts which will only travel to pre-selected floors. Anyone jumping in without pressing a floor number first may be stuck for quite some time.

It has become such an issue that NHS bosses have now enlisted staff and volunteers to explain how to use them properly.  There are even animated films to help people figure out how to negotiate the new building. Nicknamed the 'Death Star' by locals because of its giant 14-storey star-shaped design, the £1 billion hospital was funded by the Scottish Government.

The lifts are just one aspect of a futuristic design that also sees the hospital boast self-service check-in machines, a children's cinema and a fleet of robots delivering linen and other goods via a network of tunnels.  A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde defended the new lifts, but acknowledged it may take time for people to get used to them. She said: 'These lifts have been chosen because they offer the best way to get our patients to their chosen floor as quickly as possible.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon claimed the state-of-the-art South Glasgow University Hospital –featuring a fleet of robots delivering linen, a children's cinema and helicopter landing pad – proved the SNP's commitment to the NHS when it opened last month.  It also comes amid growing pressure on English hospitals' finances, amid warnings of a financial 'black hole'. 

It sounds amazing concept and technology to have buttonless lifts !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

11^th May 2015.