Greeshma (BH:D 263)

April 23, 2012

According to the Greeshma chapter in Kalidasa's Ritusamhara, while the Indian summer is undoubtedly about merciless heat and lethargy, it is also a time of strange friendships. He sings about the peacock that allows the snake to rest in the grand shadow cast by its magnificent tail fan. A little later we are told about the cobra's hood providing solace to the tired frog whose home has dried to a trickle.

It's quite revealing that one of the greatest cities in ancient India, Ujjain, where the poet lived and wrote, retained so much wild nature for him to witness. 

Amma dropped me at the entrance of the steep slope that descends to Panavila junction this morning, on her way to the bank. By the time, I had walked the couple of hundred meters to the local office of a famous mutual funds, profuse sweating gave me a blotched light blue Dalmatian appearance. Neither the airconditioning nor the cold welcome at the office were any help. I had to come home and change before heading out to couple of other offices on the other side of the city.

In the small, cozy, wood-paneled office of an international fund, I wait for 10 minutes for the Monday morning conference call to get over. The top management in India speaks just as vaguely as they do in the rest of the world. And they too finish with a flourish of generic powerwords. I think that is a mandatory course in MBA across the globe. 

Much more topical, sensible and data-oriented discussion later.

"RBI cut the rates a little too much. They have given themselves room to raise it back up in the next quarter when inflation will climb."

I head bob in agreement. 

I had read through the RBI governor's monetary policy statement this weekend. It is a pretty good example of "adjectivising" data to fit decisions by clever, selective placement of words 'high', 'low', 'good', 'manageable' etc in front of numbers. Sort of like the pro-Kudankulam "scientific" article Dr. Abdul Kalam wrote. It is even more glaring in this case because Wholesale Price Index and Consumer Price Index are showing diverging trends.

Since the time of epics, India is a land of literally 'fantastic' numbers and an incorrigible obsession with them. That makes it a cakewalk to drown a premeditated interest rate decision primarily targeting inflation under an avalanche of irrelevant fiscal data.

"Italy has a few billion dollar payment due soon. We'll have more restructuring. Spain is in trouble and it is a much much bigger economy. Equity markets don't have happy times ahead. Debt is safer," the young, smartly dressed adviser continued.

"Hmm..."

"NRIs should be looking at MIPs instead of equity exposure at least for the rest of this year."

"I see"

While walking back from the bus stop, a barely out of his teens dude in formal trousers, full sleeve shirt and a fat blue tie was setting up a table under a parasol to lure folks into a new brand of water purifying system. His uniform was the worse thing for the season. Besides, in the last decade, the formal Western wear has become such a signature of low-paying sales jobs in India that youngsters have begun to show a visible sense of shame about it. The "cool" dress code that the Silicon Valley billionaires have promoted in the mean time has also contributed to it.

With neither the nonchalance nor the lethargy of Kalidasa's peacock and cobra shade providers , an old mother, easily in her 70s, holding an umbrella over her middle-aged, physically and mentally challenged son who kept staggering away from its shade.

She continued having a conversation with him and his responses, mostly animated grunts and laughs, seemed to make complete sense to her. 

I followed them for some distance, forgetting the blazing sun in the invisible shade that radiated from their sight.