Redefining Horizons

accessible at  https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/08/21/flood-heroes-kerala.html While everything is sinister about adversity, it has this uncanny knack of bringing forth the least expected. Having received copious rains, dams, rivers, lakes, ponds and every possible water body, in the state were filled beyond their brims. In no time, waters spilled over and flooded every piece of land, dry or wet, high or low.   Mountains came crashing down and torrents took along everything in its path, man, animal, houses, trees, everything.   It looked like, that the floods would overwhelm and consume the state. Overwhelm, it did.   But an effective Chief Minister and his efficient administration fought back with a well calibrated response that ratcheted up to contain the crisis. Consume it could not, because, against the disaster’s diabolic advance, stood a resilient people and a resolute band of heroes and superheroes. Some of ...

access the article also at onmanorama  https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/05/28/kashmir-solution-is-in-re-imagining-the-peace-process-.html An unusual conversation between a Kashmiri father and son, recently hogged prime time. The father was heard encouraging his son, trapped in a firefight with Army, to die fighting and not surrender . The father, despite his act lives a free man, a law-abiding citizen, while the so n, a dead terrorist, now, is statistics and a locally celebrated martyr. Dissected frame-by-frame and discussed ad nauseam, most “experts”, advocated military retributions, while a minuscule few sounded genuinely concerned. Panellists, irrespective of individual socio-political compulsions, agreed that glorification and ground swell for “home-grown terror” is luring local youth to terrorism like never before and that one man’s “terror” could well be another man’s “movement of resistance”. The peace process ...

also accessible  at onmanorama. follow the link below https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/05/05/indian-army-critical-tailfaces-axe.html A predator’s tail helps it, balance itself, in its chase to get meat between its teeth. S kyscrapers stand tall on foundations, that lie deep within, unseen and unsung. Marketing departments can script success, only if back-offices exist. Organizations likewise, thrive on unglamorous yet inevitable tails. Indian Army, plans to enhance its “ Teeth to Tail Ratio ” ( T3R ), by redeploying” 57,000 personnel in accordance with “Shekatkar Committee Recommendations”. This "redeployment", does NOT envisage moving soldiers from its “ tail ” to the “ teeth ”, but by winding up organisations, which the committee feels are dispensable. Inability to execute “obsolescence replacements” and the penchant to suspect anything related to procurements, has already made Army logistics extremely complex, sensiti...

also published in onmanorama and accessed at https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/06/11/dichotomy-being-literate-uneducated-kerala.html In matters of literacy, Kerala has been at the forefront of growth. We wear our pride, as the first to achieve hundred percent literacy, on our sleeves. Human Development Indices of the state, is linked to the level of awareness inherent to literacy. Literacy, according to UNESCO, is the " ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts ” . It enables individuals to achieve their goals and enables them to participate in development of their community and society. National Literacy Mission, considers literacy as “ acquiring skills of reading writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day to day life ”, the professed end-state of which, is an individual, who, self-reliant in the 3R...

Can be accessed at onmanorama https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/04/11/well-below-forty-strong-indian-army.html The halo around Army, limits citizens to discuss army only for its valour and glory but annual budget allocations reflect the truth of how, governments treat army. The last budget, made the Vice-Chief, lament to the parliamentary committee. Fiscal inadequacy for defence is likely to continue, since governments consider war, a distant reality. Interior economy, if pursued, can help the Army out of this situation. Re-engineering munitions management is one gateway to large savings. Scales of munitions for weapons are, divided into “ first line ” , “ second line ” and “ war reserves ” . While units based on its weaponry and warehousing facilities hold its entitlement, war reserves at “ Intense rates ” for forty days ( 40 - I ) are held by Ordnance echelons . These scales, in vogue for many years now , decide the stockpile. The c...

It was late in the afternoon and the day was pretty tough on me. As head of the logistics organisation handling a complex down-stream supply chain at the line of control, I had enough and more to handle. Very short on human resources and consequent exhausting and extended work schedules, every man on the team was stretched and stressed. Adverse effects of high altitude and extreme weather were writ large on every human face. The day was particularly bad, as “clearance” of unexploded explosives had gone awry. Though the mishap did not claim any lives, it shook us up. With morale in our boots, I ordered my men back to the barracks for the day. While they boarded the trucks, I decided to walk to my room. I send my driver off. Catharsis is best, when alone. Cross country walk, in the high-altitude is all about “ups and downs”. Weather can be unpredictable and winds can be nasty. With temperatures below freezing, cross country walk in snow is testing. Little into my climb the winds...

First February 2003, would never be forgotten by NASA, Americans and all those who watched Space Shuttle Columbia’s re-entry.   As the world watched in disbelief, a beautiful morning turned tragic when “Columbia” on its earthbound journey, unable to withstand the heat of re-entry, fragmented into many fire balls shooting through the sky . The 27 previous successful missions under its wings, couldn’t prevent Colombia from its burning disintegration. The seven crew members who should have returned to celebrity status didn't make it home alive. The catastrophic failure precipitated by damage to its left wing was initiated by "foam strike” “during the launch. The “problem with foam ”, is believed to have been “known for many years ”. It is also known that Department of Defence (DoD) had capabilities   to get a closer look at the breached left-wing, but NASA officials   had “ declined the offer” .   Post-incident investigations by Columbia Accident Investigati...

There is a surfeit of corporate trainers, each claiming rights to a niche. Professional and social platforms “ runneth over ” with their claims and success stories. Besides process related training and those aimed at technical and technological upgrades, organisations conduct a variety of programmes that are steered by trainers with expertise in “niche” fields that can range from, straight forward aspects like "Soft Skills and Personality Development", "Public Speaking", "Teambuilding", to the more contemporary and "in" stuff like "Hypnosis", "Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)" etc. (the list goes on…) Good Trainers .     Organisations “with a name”, normally opt for “ good ” trainers who have a name, fame and brand image. Mostly these are individuals, who are considered to have “arrived”, by virtue of their omnipresence in training “circuits” . They are likely to have successfully executed one or more projects a...