An Epitaph

 

A TRIBUTE TO MY LOVELY BROTHER VIJAYA VENKATA RAMA SUBBA RAO ALIAS TAMBU

 

Tambu breathed last on the 21^st April 2024 morning hours. The second sibling in the large twelve members’ family, was named by my parents after my Mother’s father. He is an embodiment of love and affection and a devout person, fully self-made. He was the first earning member of the family after completing the Pre-University Course in the pre-sixties from the Sri Venkateswara University. Well-versed in shorthand, at the behest of my father, he joined the Lederle Company (latter known as Cyanamid ) as a stenographer. While serving the Company, he graduated himself through self-learning. Post-retirement from the Cyanamid, he preferred to dedicate his life to service to humanity through yoga. He was an ardent follower of Ramana Maharshi’s writings and philosophy. He pursued his yoga learning under Yoga Acharya Raparti Rama Rao of the Centre for International Yoga Consciousness, Eizinigiri, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh.

A Karma Yogi

Annually or at such intervals less than a year, he used to seek the blessing of his Yoga Guru. He did post-graduation in Yoga Sastra. Apart from teaching Yoga both at his home and at the houses of the students in the early hours and evening hours of every day, he delivered lectures on Yoga and its importance. He gave discourses on the All India Radio, Chennai on the International Yoga Day. 

He always believed that without himself being happy he would not make others happy. Whenever we brothers and sisters ring him and ask him, ‘how are you’, his response was always, I am happy. Even he was affected by Cancer and had intense suffering, he gave the same response that kept the kith and kin, near and dear, that all was well with him. This delusion distanced from early cure though all of us latter knew that the disease is by nature terminal.

The Palate:

He created a roof-garden where one can find beautiful flowers, vegetables for everyday use and built a small Yoga Room. It was only after he became less mobile and weak, did he shift to the ground floor at his lovely home in Chennai.

He treasures reading philosophical books and loves Cricket. He started admiring Hardrik Pandey for his versatility in batting and bowling. He used to give a call to me whether I was watching his test game or T-20.

The Bondage

Up to the Pre-Covid, he never missed a year to perform the customary annual ceremonies of my parents along with me, coming all the way from Chennai. He was my yoga Guru too. We used to reminisce into the past the way we moved when our parents were alive, going back six to seven decades, year after year. Unbound in affection, he never also missed to visit our sisters when he was at Hyderabad and his brother-in-law Ch. Rama Rao, a scholar, and a scientist in NGRI.

When he visited the US, he made it a point to visit Toronto to stay with my daughters and teach some basics of yoga too.

Enjoys Good Food

My Mother knew from the day he had the taste of food, he loved food and cleared the leaf. He also knew like a couple of my other brothers, cooking tasty vegetarian cuisine. His love for pickles – Avakaya, Menthikaya, and Magaya – all made of mango during the season and stored for the year, is immense. Many a time, he used to cook his own food at home as well. He loves cooking as much as his food.

Love for Music

He had very good friends of repute in the Karnataka music world. His love for Karnataka Music – vocal or instrumental, no matter, Thyagaraja Krithis, Annamaya Sankirthanas has no boundaries of region, language, and instrument,  His love for other fine arts is no less. Whenever our sisters gave music concerts, he always sent the video clippings to me to listen and enjoy. We inherited this love for music from our legendary and affectionate parents.

I had a small privilege of editing his AIR talks. A year back, I visited him at Chennai, after he got the unfortunate disease.

Etched in my memory great moments I enjoyed, I miss him, miss him a lot. He chose to go to my parents’ heavenly abode. God bless him.

B. Yerram Raju, the elder brother.

2021 and Beyond

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...” This is how Charles Dickens begins his novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

Bottom of Form

Vision and Strategies Change

 This is an apt description of this age. We are at a maddening speed in technologies. Industry 4.0 has entered. Artificial intelligence, block chain technologies, man machine learning, robotics are the decisive forces of change in most organisations. Digital applications are replacing the traditional gurus (teachers). Tick boxes define the success of persons, whether in schools or office selections. People would like to travel, if possible, at the speed of light. Several corporates are rewriting their vision and strategy documents.   

 Conflicting Contours

 If those characteristics define the age of wisdom, street fights, large family divorces, abandoned children in larger numbers than before, failures in inter-country relationships redefining trade rules, ignoring climate warnings, several persons yearning to cross the boundaries aiming high only to know that ‘distant hills look green’, reflect the age of foolishness. 

 Mobocracy Vs Democracy

 With Joe Biden taking over the reins of the largest democracy, democracy would appear to be on the path of restoration. But, on the other hand, in India, with the unrelenting farmers’ agitation, mobocracy seem to be asserting itself, mainly because of the failure in following the Constitutional process for a well-thought-out reform in the sector. With 123 amendments, Indian Constitution seems to be under attack off and on and begs for a comprehensive overhaul, so as to keep the Fundamental Rights enshrined there intact.

 Financial Sector 

 In the financial sector, Covid-19 shook the world while in India, the scenario is much worse as frauds and cybercrimes are surging, threatening financial stability. Reforms in this sector should move strategies ahead of structures. Two World Bank economists in a recent blog commenting on asset purchases in emerging markets and developing economies, say that unconventional policies and unconventional times had set in. “History is a reminder to central bank’s credibility if asset purchase programs are used for prolonged monetary financing of fiscal deficits.”

 Investments in water, environment, natural resources, education, health and hygiene, and emerging technologies would be the defining features of sustainability.

 Ethics in Governance and Yoga

 Ethics in governance and transformation processes seem to be of criticality. Albert Einstein had said, “We should be men of values rather than men of success, ” Winston Churchill had said “We should extend values beyond our homes.” The corporate executives are selling their professional skills and not their conscience. It is the attitude to life and the value system one has to cherish and live with. Values are not like a sensex graph varying every day or with every person. Values are universal in character. It is the application of values that has been undergoing a change. Clean minds are as important as clean physics and dharmic yoga makes more sense than mere physical yoga embraced by people in different parts of the world, with PM Modi’s clarion call to the nation since 2014. 

 Post Covid, the stars surface

 During this third millennium, with sputnik science reaching for livable space even on Jupiter and the moon, India would be moving ahead of other nations and prove its leadership in space technologies. She has already proved herself as a leader in pharmaceuticals and software and would move its best foot forward in the transformational world. No wonder McKinsey in its most recent article has put Asia as the leader of the future and generations will define the future in terms of pre-Covid and post Covid. 

 The year 2021 and beyond will see the world transiting to a different horizon. The wisdom of the aged will fall behind the expectations of youth and it is this youth that are going to redefine the age ahead. I am not a soothsayer but the writings on the wall are clear.

 (The writer, an economist and risk management specialist, is author of “Roots to Fruits – The Journey of A Development Banker.” The views are personal.) 

   https://www.moneylife.in/article/2021-and-beyond/62745.html