A Note on Tenth Annual Get together of Ex-Idl 2019

A Note on Ex-IDL Tenth Annual Get together held on 27^th Jan 2019

From Dr P Vyasamoorthy sent on the same day

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As everything, good and bad must come to an end, today's much awaited wonderful get together went off very well. Nearly 80, including a dozen ladies, participated. When I reached chirran fort club around 10:30 am SVC, Ramana, TSP, Nandu, Sreenath, Janardhan and a couple of others were already there to greet everyone as they came by. Som created a flutter among a few of us by sending an SMS of not participation by Ajay Ghosh without indicating it was a forward. All of us thought that SOM wouldn't come. When Pacha made a quick call to SOM and confirmed the facts we were relieved. People trickled and fun began. Interactions, handshakes, inquiries, brief catching up, camera clicks, broad surprises, laughter, flashbacks filled the hall. Some participants were seen inquiring discretely, pointing to others and asking "who is he?". I also learnt a little about new / forgotten faces  by similar methods, just enough to remember till I leave the hall. Forgetfulness is catching up far faster than bullet train. Many friends took the chance to speak a few words posing for short video clips, this time a new feature. 

The lunch [included non-veg for the first time] was great, the weather was chilly, the hall was large, large enough to accommodate all providing for easy movement of people with glasses - I mean holding it in hand, not upon eyes. Some kind souls inquired if I have someone to take me back home and when I said PNP is there, and then they said, looking at my glass, have another peg! 

Among the senior most, Dr EGM, Sri Chadda, DR Vittal Rajan, Sri PKD were there. As I risk the fear of missing out some I am not mentioning names of others. Lots of photos or links will get posted and you may ascertain your presence and that of others through them! If you cannot figure who someone is, imagine him with head full of hair or not so fat or not so thin or without spectacles. The one with a sling on right hand is Nandakumar - he has proved that simply walking in the road can invite accidents. https://photos.app.goo.gl/HL44ScrKHkwe5QKj6

Click the link for photos taken by me. There is also a long video send courtesy Sri KGK as usual.  https://youtu.be/aSJDoqS0Alk

I wish to record my personal thanks to Pacha, SOM, KGK, JV and Sreenath but for whose initiative, co-operation and involvement we would not enjoyed such a memorable day. And for participants who pooled in sufficient money by way of voluntary contribution to make it a success.  And thanks also to EVERYONE, for having come and made it a great day.

All participants collected a memento - a nicely designed Silver Coin - carrying with them loads of sweet memories again to be rekindled until we meet again on 26th January 2020

School Children and Sankranti

Gandhian School near my house in Lakshmi nagar SEcundrabad encorages their children in painting and arts. On every festive occasion children draw, sketch or paint  anything and everything related to that festival. The school authorities display such work of art on flannel board for public view and appreciation outside the school facing the road. I always make it a point to enjoy watching such drawings. One such display  during Sankranti 2019 is given below

You may see that all items associated with Sankranti are included: Sun, pot, kite etc. I thought sugar cane is missing - but I observed carefully, it was 'stolen' perhaps by some child who was hungry!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HVE8Jybvzu8gcQfj8

Empowerji App teaches a lot in a short time

Empowerji has come up with Empowerji App for senior citizens to learn technology using just a smart phone in their own homes at their own pace. Hundreds of useful "how to" type of videos - short ones - just 2 to 5 minutes each - are provided. Whether it is WhatsApp, OLA booking, locating train timings in mumbai, sharing your work - stories, poems, pictures etc with the community, shopping, booking cinema tickets - anything you can do with a smartphone -- you can find help on all of them in one place. See what the CEO has to say about empowering seniors through technology in this interview.



Wonder what topics are covered? Here is an unsorted list of sample topics

A peep into topics you may learn from Empowerji videos

Swiggy	Buying from Netmed	Truecaller
Zomato	Buying from Medisafe	Picsart
Ola	Google Duo	Shareit
Uber	WhatsApp SEND	Photogrid
Local trains Mumbai	WhatsApp Groups	FaceBook
Air ticket booking	WhatsApp profile change	Netflix
Booking Hotel room Expedia	WhatsApp Videocall	Amazon Prime
Booking Car Expedia	Mobile basics	Hotstar
Airtel TV App	Instagram	Google Home
Candy Crush	Twitter	Urbanclap
Lumosity	Snapchat	Practo
Flow tree	Amazon Echo	Google Drive
Roll the Ball	Saregama Carvaan	Youtube
Yoga	Bitcoin	Utility payments
Fitness	Artificial Intelligence	Block Chain
Interviews with inspirers	Add your stories, poems	Saavn

Do you want more? Send suggestions!!!

Rangoli Competition in Gruhalakshmi Colony

Rangoli  Competition  in Gruhalakshmi Colony

Serve the Needy is an NOGO that runs a children’s home, sort of shelter for girls and boys who have none to take care. They provide food, accommodation, schooling and parental care for 36 children. With the involvement of Gruhalakshmi Colony Welfare Association, Serve the Needy organized a Rangoli Competition for the children of this home, on the occasion of Sankranti.

One is wonderstruck at the imagination running wild, what with themes and content including: the sun, sugarcane, milk pot, peacocks, flowers, heart, kite etc. One even used a stencil skillfully to add precision in a way. It was very colorful – a rainbow of all colors available in the market.

Sri GK Nayak, Smt Jyothi Nayak, Sri Surendra kumar, Sri CV Reddy, Sri Sharatchander, Sri Suryanarayana, Mrs Malini, Sri Vyasamoorthy and couple of friends of Nayak took active part in  clicking photographs, appreciating and encouraging children while they were deeply engrossed in their creative work, ‘judging’ the entries,  giving away prizes thus making it a proud moment for the colony.

Nine teams of boys and girls took enthusiastic part in the competition. Mrs Jyothi Nayak, Secretary of Saraswat Samaj and Sri Surendra Kumar Malla sponsored the prizes. Apart from first second and third prizes, no team was left to leave disappointed as consolation prizes were also given. Pictures of all the nine ‘entries’ in the competition and a group photo of children, giving away prizes for winners, runners are given in the link below:

Photos Rangoli Competition Serve the Needy Sankranti 2019

https://www.facebook.com/vyasamoorthy/posts/10157285599883606

How to improve participation in SCA meetings

How to improve participation in SCA meetings

I am a member in Senior Citizens Forum, Secunderabad (SCF); Association of Senior citizens of Hyderabad (AOSC) and LOLA7817SCA. I am a regular participant in most of the meetings for a number of years.   I am alarmed to observe that participation in meetings by members in all these associations is dwindling year after year. If the trend is allowed to go on unchecked, one day we may have to close down the show. Let me attempt offering a few tips to improve attendance.

Members may stop away attending meetings if they shift their residence to a far off place,  fall ill and become immobile , meet with an accident and are bed ridden, go on foreign trips visiting their children etc. Reasons like cost of attending the meetings (transport, conveyance etc), non-availability of a companion who normally accompany them, inclement weather etc also have a say.

Venue, parking facility, traffic, pollution, non-availability of lift and similar factors also determine whether a member will attend or absent himself. SCAs do not have much control over these factors.

Members may cease to participate in meetings for certain reasons that are within our control:

o   Routine & highly predictable lectures or activities (boredom)

o   too many talks on same (depressive ?) topics;  (say health & disease)

o   same persons on and off the dais dominating the mike (same topic too)

o   stale programs – too officious, formal, business like

o   members being ignored, mistreated or shown indifference

o   change of executive committee after elections leading to factions / warring groups

o   poor / scaling down of snacks or refreshments

o   gap in communication – no info on meeting agenda (not reaching all)

o   insisting on donation on birthdays

Having seen reasons for thinning of attendance let us think of ways to overcome some of these.

o   Introduce variety in program Ex: tambola, anthakshari, musical chair, pass the pillow

o   Combine many items for shorter durations of say ten minutes each

o   Give opportunities to all who want to participate without belittling / condescending

o   Encourage silent and shy members to come out their shell

o   Find out reasons to celebrate and appreciate members’ achievements

o   After taking photos circulate them on website, FB etc ; send it to member concerned

o   Get to know members – ask them to talk about their achievements

o   Acknowledge donations; help rendered in kind, participation in activities etc

o   Conduct simple competitions and give prizes – photography, culture art games skills

o   Celebrate birthdays making it lively and not just formal prosaic affair

           

           

Apart from the above, try to have an element of pleasant surprise thrown in most meetings, by giving a token gift towards the end of the meeting.  Some probable typical reasons are:

o   Gift a member with serial number in attendance register matches a random number

o   Pick up the member with shortest surname for a token gift

o   Find out who has a fountain pen in his pocket & gift him

o   Gift a member who has a yellow five rupee coin in his wallet

o   Gift the member whose spouse’s name starts with a randomly chosen letter

o   Among those present who is the oldest

o   Among those present who is youngest

o   Find out who attended maximum number of meetings till then for the year

o   Gift that person who signed the register first or last for the day

o   Give a prize monthly or so  for a contributor to newsletter (poem story joke photo)

The gift need not be big, costly or fantastic. Just a token. Members could be asked to bring gifts they have received but unused and look fresh and new. Used books in good condition. Shawls.    It is not the value that is important but the gesture of showing somebody to be lucky for some reason or the other.

Bringing out minutes of each and every meeting, mentioning as many names as possible, and reaching it to every member is a sure way of maintaining interest of members. TRY & you won’t fail.

Investment Tips for Senior Citizens

Investment Tips for Senior Citizens

For everyone, decisions on financial investments are becoming a nightmare, at times confusing, scary, fraught with uneasiness. Especially so for retirees where inflow is decreasing year after year and the need to save increases. Here are some practical tips, especially in understanding the broad principles behind parking your funds, from Justice TNC Rangarajan, based on his experience,  as a quote, if I may say so:

I cannot say I have mastered it. I have also lost in mutual fund. I don't think anyone can time the market.I think I have understood the principles underlying investment. The basics are

• Keeping the money at home is loss of interest income.

• So keep some cash for immediate needs and keep the rest in the bank account.

• Now that phone banking with UPI is available, even an emergency fund can be kept in Fixed Deposit linked with zero balance savings account.

• NPS is a must for salaried people.

• PPF is a must for others to generate and accumulate as tax free capital fund. 

• After putting an amount equal to 3 or 6 months expenditure in FD, invest the rest in Equities

• Those who don't mind risk, can open a d'mat a/c and buy shares. It is rewarding, if done regularly.

• Those not into direct investment in shares should try mutual funds. They are easy to invest and easy to take out also. You can get tax free income of 1 lakh per year if you invest in growth option and take out after a year. Those who don't have pension and want a regular monthly income can also use the systematic withdrawal method. The added advantage is that it is easy take out in emergencies within a few days at the price of loss of value depending on the nav. 

• While investing in mutual funds we have various avenues and combinations. Debt funds are less risky with lesser yield while equity funds are more volatile but with better yield than FD rates. Balanced funds are a mix of both. You can create your own balance by investing half your surplus in equity and half in debt funds. But we must remember that mutual funds are riskier than bank FD. However we should not see the nav every day and become moody with the paper loss or profit. Best is to review after each fund has crossed the lock in period and change if required. Tax impact also dictates the way to choose the options to ensure maximum return possible under the circumstances.  

• If you want to be super safe, you can invest in government bonds, where the interest may be a little better than FD rates. Of course, seniors should not miss the Senior Citizen Savings scheme which gives the best interest rates as FD at present but has a lock in period. 

• One thing I have noticed in seniors is that they are often concerned about the facility of taking out the money at any time. I don't know why they always ask about it. One of my friends has two children and bought two houses presumably to bequeath to them. He is living in one and renting the other. Both of them have gone abroad for good and do not intend to come back. The tenant too vacated and he sold that house and told me that he will buy two flats instead. I suggested that he put the money in mutual funds with systematic withdrawal plan as he has no pension. But he said that if he has the money, he will not be able to resist the demands of his brothers and sisters etc and will have the tendency to spend the capital, as he realises that he has no financial discipline. So he believes in only houses and flats as good investment. What to say about this?

• My take on immovable property is that it is not a good investment, unless you are going to live in it. 

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I thank him for allowing me to share with you in this blog.

Egosurfing and where it led me to

Egosurfing and where it led me to

Egosurfing is searching for your own name in search engines like Google. As Google by far is the most popular search engine Googling yourself, egogoogling, autogoogling, self-googling are all synonymous with egosurfing. Vanitysearching is also used at times.

Like most people on the net, I also occasionally do egosurfing. If I type in my full name I get about 2700 results. Only my surname yields 6300 results. Accepting that others would have mis-spelt my name as Vyasa Murthy, then I get 16000. However I am Vyasamoorthy in my own right, na? But Google keeps suggesting “Are you searching for Vyasa Murthy Katti”. That gentleman, my namesake, is a famous musician in Karnataka. There are others with my name in very senior position in business / industry. Reading just a little bit I can easily pose and pass of as a big shot. There is one in Vishakapatnam with my name who performs free of cost death-related rituals for abandoned corpses.

It is worthwhile remembering that egosurfing search results are almost always tailor made for you based on secret profile about yourself compiled by Google. You can surprise or shock yourself to any length when you come to know how much google knows about you. If you keep location turned on in your mobile google even knows where you went to pee.

The earliest reference to me on the web proves that I was alive in 1966 as my name is listed as a staff member in the Annual Report of Highways Research Station, Guindy Madras; that came up when I was egosurfing for books mentioning me.  Although I was searching the net from 1993 itself I cannot say I did egosurfing then – because the term Egosurfing came up in 1995 only!!

I don’t know why others do egosurfing. But I do often to locate articles I wrote but could not locate a copy in my hard disk. I am surprised where all I am mentioned by others – in discussions, forums, directories, books, acknowledgements, comments etc. As long as I don’t land up on my own obituary,  it is fine.