Krishna Kiran's

Today India celebrates Sri Rama Navami. On this occasion it is important that we understand what Rama stands for as a human being. Rama is an embodiment of dharma which means that he fulfilled his duties and responsibilities irrespective of the troubles and turmoil he had to undergo in the process. He never reneged on his word and is also known as "poorva bhashi" . Normally, we find these days that people placed in high positions of power and money do not wish first those whom they think are lower in stature to them. But, Rama was always the first to say hello to whom he came across. He never distinguished between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless that is the reason he is known as "poorva bhashi". He was very brave right from childhood and very obedient with elders which we find lacking these days in most children who are learning to be so from their parents. He respected his teachers though he himself was their savior at times of crisis. ...

This is a comment that I made on an article in Mint "The Narendra Modi joke you have never heard" on 18th April 2013. Is it a crime to be humorless? In any case, what does a democracy want? Jokes? We need leaders who are serious about their job. What if this writer worked in the office he is employed as humorous person without doing his job of writing( for which he has been hired by this newspaper), will the editor say" oh! we have a wonderfully humorous reporter among us, there is no need for him to contribute".? What the Indians need is jobs, food, health care, education for all and security. Humor comes only when the stomach is full, not when you are hungry. When so many people are still below the poverty line, there is no proper drinking water for millions, no roads, no power, what do you want, humor? Come on, give us a break. We need leaders who will deliver first. Humor and jokes can take a back seat till then. We have been reading since our childhood that...

Almost all humans want two things for sure: one is happiness and the other is health or beauty. Whether it is the rich living in princely mansions or the poor living on the footpaths of busy roads, all want to look beautiful and be happy. I travel daily from my home in Chembur to my office in Mahalakshmi which is almost a 14 km journey. I pass by a station called Chinchpokli. It is not uncommon to find several families making the footpaths as their homes in Mumbai but what is interesting is the way they eke their lives on these footpaths. At this footpath outside the Chinchpokli station, I see this family everyday. The woman of this 'house', probably in her 40s,has a burnt body as is evident from her burnt neck and face. She has set up a nice pedestal with proper shelter on a wooden box adjacent to the parapet wall for pooja on which are seated the photos of a few Hindu Gods,prominent of them being Lord Ganesha. The iron railings separating the main road and the footpath act ...

24-05-2006 (Wednesday) On this day we started off to go to Collegio Rio Branco at 7.45 am. Incidentally this college/school is the best managed in Brazil and the Director is one Mr.Gunter who looked like a professor out of the novels that we read. He is quite a serious man and he gave us the information about the college. This college was started in 1946 by 20 like-minded Rotarians and now has 5000 students on the rolls and operates from two places namely Granjavienna and Higienopolis. The college offers from KG to High School and also runs ITAE( Institute for Advanced Technical Education) in addition to running a special school for the deaf children. Mr.Gunter whose name sounds like the place Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, India has been in marketing since 1953 and has a keen eye for details. We were informed that the school gets around 1000 titles of magazines for the school library and Estado de Sao Paulo carries two pages of children related articles on every Monday. The contents al...

23-05-2006 (Tuesday) On this day,we were taken to the SETESP which is a 70 year old transporters union with 6000 companies and 40000 employees in the Sao Paulo state. The number of vehicles managed are a stunning 3,00,000. This is the second biggest such union in the world with the biggest being in LA,USA. The main vehicle being the truck. It was learnt that 8 per cent of the goods are transported by trucks in Brazil. The union works to ensure that the system is in place. In Brazil, there are several restrictions and the trucks are not allowed to go off the main road and enter the city limits. The entry tax is also a huge 55 per cent. The union spends 12 per cent of their income on satellite tracking of the vehicles, sending armed escorts and GSM technology. The number one tyre brand in Brazil is Goodyear followed by Michelin, Firestone and Continental. There was a big and gigantic personality here with whom I had a photo just to show how big he is. From here we proceeded to th...

22-05-2006 (Monday) On this day I was picked up by the driver of a taxi engaged for our travel Mr.Benedito. What I noticed was the moment someone meets another on a morning they ask “Did you sleep well last night?” I have experienced this almost with all Brazilians I met and Mr.Benedito was no exception. I felt that it was a good way to start the day in so many ways. We visited Cobram which is a marketing agency for several big multinational brands like Petrobras, Ford and Abor. We were introduced to Mr.Mario who is the Director-Corporate Communications of the company. His job description included Event Management, and TV/Radio productions that promote brands. One of the major achievements of their company was the Sigabem program of Petrobras. Sigabem means "have a nice trip” and the program is aimed at the drivers. The company has been dealing with Petrobras for the last 14 years and there was good synergy between the two. The Sigabem program was advertised in 212 radio stati...

21-05-2006 (Sunday) We started our journey back to the hosts from the place of conference. We passed through the city called Ourofino which is named after a musician. As I mentioned earlier the city had a church at the centre whose dome looked magnificent from the main road. There was the giant statue of Ourofino at the entrance of the city on the main road and we had some pictures with that backdrop. All en route I could notice that there is greenery everywhere, the roads are well laid and most part is hilly terrain. There were plenty of cattle and horses and they looked great with the mix of red soil and the green grass. I could spot a few black vultures flying in the sky. Their flight style showed that they had abundant food in the greenery on the earth below them. Every house in the rural area is tiled and dish antenna is part of the paraphernalia. Thick bamboo is used as electric poles. We stopped at the house of a Rotarian who has 300 hectares of land under coffee plantat...