Thursday 13 December 2012

Waters, Airs, Bells & Professor Fox

The caste system which infuriated Swami Vivekananda to call Kerala (GOC) a cluster of lunatic asylums a hundred years back does not exist today, but he will be glad to know that his definition still holds good. "It continues to be a sociological madhouse of unparalleled dimensions. For example, perhaps this is the only society in India where ideology has got so intertwined with culture that people have ceased to understand the difference" according to Paul Zacharia (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main27.asp?filename=op170307Culture_vulture.asp).

Surely Swami Vivekananda was not aware of the traces of Naranathu Branthan's blood in our veins. Naranathu Branthan ( The mad man of Naranathu, whose main activity was to push heavy stones up the hill just to let it roll down from the summit) was one of the twelve sons of Vararuchi, the famous astrologer of the court of King Vikramadithya, in a Parayi (a maiden of one of the lowest classes of the society in those days). According to the legends the entire population of Kerala descended from those twelve. 

Varunny was among the descendants who had a slightly higher ppm of the said Naranathu Bhranthan's blood in his veins.

Sunday 9 December 2012

The Swiss Bank Of Kerala.

Mommen the Banker decided to expand his money business all over the country .

Yes, money business. As advertisements inviting deposits are banned by the government along with that of liquor and cigarettes, the surrogate advertisements described his business as gold loans. That is lending on the security of gold ornaments, more than the value of the gold and that too at an interest lower than that paid on deposits. A bit confusing? Don't bother our regulatory authorities are also with you. (it is similar to selling a thing at a price lower than its cost, and give you more than what you pay for.)
A recent advertisement claimed his gold holdings exceeded that at Fort Knox in the US. The recent visit of high ranking officials to Switzerland to study the extend of unaccounted Indian money in swiss banks and to find ways to attract it to India, had convinced him that there is nothing much there. It is just stories by the economists in opposition. After all economics is a study of comics. He had realized it long back at the college when the Central Bank decided a 005% raise in interest to arrest inflation just like a squirrel on the elephant in a dirty story circulated among students.
It was simple. Retired, managers of large commercial banks and senior Government officers familiar with the sources of money were in plenty all over the country. Only the way to park the money was the problem. (In large commercial banks mostly owned by Government the scrutiny of ownership and source of income was a deterrent that prevented them from taking such business).