The Irish Debt Story

This was circulated on the ISB Alumni list, and I thought it was a pretty cool way to explain the much talked about bailout packages!

“It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. “On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. “The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. “The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him ‘services’ on credit. “The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. “At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. “No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. “And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works."

TMI TMI TMI

Yes.. this is a post addressed to my dear women friends. There is something called TMI and the latest viral campaign of "Breast Cancer awareness by announcing bra colours on FB Status message" DEFINITELY falls in the TMI category! (TMI = Too much information!). Post a fact about breast cancer.. not your bra colour! :-P

To those of you who're going to say "It's a fun way to promote awareness. I don't think it's offensive.", get this right. I'm all for freedom of speech and creativity and all that.. but it was just plain gross to watch my Facebook Friends News feed filling up with all possible colours from people I know.

I was complaining about this campaign to one of my women friends and all she had to say was "Oh grow up! Don't blame us if your imagination is hyper active"

One of the messages from someone on facebook read
My mom's facebook status is: Hot pink and leopard skin.
I'm officially scarred for life!


er....!!! Maybe that will give you an idea of what are the possible messages we could be seeing?

Another friend goes.. "Oh.. you guys are just too insecure and jealous that we girls are having fun".

Maybe we guys should start a campaign to promote awareness on prostrate cancer prevalent in men.
And the more controversial, the better.. right? The more awareness it will create.. right?
Hmm.. maybe all the guys should start posting their.. hmm.. sizes, as their status message as part of this campaign to promote awareness on Prostrate cancer?

What? Let me guess! you're going to say "but we only posted our colours, not sizes". Well, we do get your attention by mentioning sizes didn't we? I'm sure you won't bother as much if we put up colours like the girls' campaign!
Awareness quotient achieved with sizes?
End result achieved?

And if you tell me that it won't trigger any imagination in you, and you're not affected by it.. think again! I'm SURE your life will never be the same again after a colleague posts a 2" on his status message or your kid cousin brother posts a 11" on his :-P. Every time you walk by that colleague at office I'm sure your imagination will scar you with that thought! No matter how hard you try not to!

I'm willing to bet that 90% of the women who "participated" in the campaign didn't spend a minute reading up about breast cancer!
Ladies.. Get a life. Donate something towards Breast Cancer if you want to. But please spare your platonic friends, family and co-workers!

TMI TMI TMI

PS: I'm always a big fan of the fairer sex :-). But, there is still a line somewhere out there..

Value of money

Recently one of the Ultimate players posted the following video on FB.




Pretty interesting video. And, it brought back memories of an old post I'd read on an Alumni's blog. It took me a while to find the link again (I'd forgotten the Alumni's name and the blog name). I read it again. Same emotions as when I'd read it for the first time 3 years ago when I'd just moved back to India.

http://gyaan.blogspot.com/2004/11/150-rupees-year.html

Now, I don't know if the boy in the blog-post was faking or was really genuine. But, the reason I put it up here is to show that the you-tube video wasn't really just some Ad gimmick.

Once again, I'm reminded of my social responsibilities.

Pudiyador

One of our expat Ultimate Frisbee players, Manickam (mostly known as Manix), and his dad run an NGO in Chennai called Pudiyador.

This evening I had a chance to go and visit their Besant Nagar center to see what they do. The intent is amazing.

Pudiyador adopts a community at each of its 3 centers and works with kids and uninitiated adults to enhance learning for the kids. The slum around this Besant Nagar center has people who are primarily dhobis, construction workers, street hawkers, and similar low skilled workers. The low skill jobs necesitate that most folks (both parents) work for long hours. Hence, there isn't much time for their kids typically. The good thing about this slum is that most of the kids here go to school which is typically till about 4.00pm. But, between 4.00pm and 9.00pm till their parents come back, these kids basically just loiter around. They don't do homework, or work on improving skills. It's not a question of incapability, but more a question of motivation and exposure. The school system encourages mugging / rote learning, which isn't the most motivating factor to study. Besides, the quality of teaching is quite poor, and hence these kids don't understand even what they're taught. Their homes are typically a single room with a TV.. (thanks to our Tamil Nadu Government and the free colour TV scheme), and hence offers a lot of distraction.

These kids when passing out of school find it very hard to survive in the real world... where they have to compete against kids who have had exposure to a lot more things. Eg. Art, craft, sports, etc. Hence, they come out with an inferiority complex in some cases, or lack of confidence, or lack of leadership qualities, etc. This is where Pudiyador fits in.

Pudiyador steps in between 5.00 and 8.30 in the evening and facilitates enhanced learning opportunities to the kids of the slum.

You can read more about it in the link below

http://www.pudiyador.org/pudiyador/mission.shtml

If any of you want to volunteer to teach a bunch of underprivilidged kids once a week for an hour, please let me know. I can put you in touch with the right person. It can be anything from art to dance to theater to craft, etc. Deepam has already stepped in and is helping these kids learn and use computers. They could definitely use a lot more help. Just 1 hour of your time in a week?

Chennai Ultimate will be hoping to step in soon to teach the kids some Ultimate Frisbee. This will be a program that we will run just like we do at Olcott Memorial School. Teach the kids to play Ultimate and more importantly, the Spirit of The Game (SOTG). This helps in their hand eye coordination, as well as makes them better human beings. The background from which these kids come from.. they are used to breaking / bending rules to get ahead of the next guy. We will hope to teach them to respect fellow human beings, and respect the rules, and get rid of the "Win at all costs" attitude that pervades all around us.