KKP KKP TVM

Let me abbreviate my blog heading "KKP KKP TVM" - கண்ணால் காண்பதும் பொய், காதால் கேட்பதும் பொய், தீர விசாரிப்பதே மெய்! This is such a lovely proverb that our ancestors have come up with and only during the course of life you are able to relate to the true meaning to this proverb. I am going to come up with two examples to illustrate this proverb and examples are taken from real life incidents with little bit of fictional elements but the core content is ORIGINAL. 

Example One - Anti-social elements role in Politics

    Assume DMK is holding a mega protest against the ruling BJP government citing the hike of prices for Petrol, Diesel, LPG Gas etc., Not all protests are bad in fact I would recommend protesting for your basic rights. Protests is planned in all major districts and DMK's district administrators plan the protest. They come up with a plan where to protest, timing of the protest, agenda for the meetings, any traffic diversions needed, permission from local bodies like consent from collector office, help from Police, Traffic police etc., Obviously DMK may protest against BJP since BJP is the government coming up with the new prices. Now ADMK is the principal opponent party of DMK in the state and alliances of ADMK may also be against the ruling DMK since they come under ADMK. The so called anti social elements who may neither belong to ADMK, ADMK alliances, BJP may form a group and disrupt the protest thereby causing damage of public property and injury to public. Chaotic atmosphere may prevail and innocent public become victims to these protests and DMK may complain it was BJP/ADMK who disrupted the peaceful protests whereas BJP/ADMK may complain DMK has to take the blame as a ruling party for the law and order mess in the state. But the ugly secret is there could be some inside forces within DMK who could initiate the protests or it could be a ploy from a neighboring state who wanted to tarnish the image of the ruling party for political mileage. It could even be people outside the scope of politics who may sponsor the whole protests thereby quenching the thirst of taking revenge due to some personal feud in the past. You never know who is the culprit unless there is a full time investigation of the whole matter. Meanwhile SUN News /JAYA News/ NDTV come up with FLASH NEWS blaming one another ....This is where proverb comes into picture. 

Example Two - Bride & Groom match making

Match making is a big challenging task for parents in current generation. There are N number of factors to be accounted before a final decision can be made. Now consider there is a marriage proposal for a boy and a girl ......It is natural for both the sides to enquire about the bride and the groom respectively .....Let me summarize some of the findings 

(a) Girl's side looks into Boy's biodata in Social media and finds Boy has lot of girl friends 

(b) Boy's side look into Girl's biodata in Social media and finds Girl is bold as far as dressing sense

(c) Girl's side upon enquiring Boy's parents comes to know that they have lots of liabilities 

(d) Boy's side upon enquiring Girl's parents comes to know that they are against couple settling abroad

Now if you look into the facts for each of these:

(a) Girl's side looks into Boy's biodata in Social media and finds Boy has lot of girl friends  - Nowadays every IT company engages its employees on team bonding and on one such occasion it so happened that boy happened to be trapped on a particular fun game and team took a group pic with the boy surrounded by all girls ...since one of his friends tagged that pic this caught attention of the girl's side

(b) Boy's side look into Girl's biodata in Social media and finds Girl is bold as far as dressing sense - Though we talk about Biotechnology on one side there is still mega serials running successfully in TV ....Girl just happened to visit Miami,FL on a vacation and you cannot expect girl to wear Nalli Samudrika Silk saree in Miami beach ....Unfortunately the mega serial aunty mistook the sleaveless shirt and shorts as 'Bold' ...BTW India is the only country where you can gauge boldness of a person through your attire

(c) Girl's side upon enquiring Boy's parents comes to know that they have lots of liabilities - One thing I realized is though many people have funds to purchase an asset they still finance and prefer loan payments ....Unfortunately one loan assignment is tongue twisted as liabilities since the intermediate whom people made enquiry passed what he heard ...just like how passing the secret game goes on info is completely fabricated ...

(d) Boy's side upon enquiring Girl's parents comes to know that they are against couple settling abroad - Sometimes when people have one daughter they prefer daughter to be geographically closer and this may just be a preference. Once again the so called intermediates fabricate the info and portray in such a way as if girl's parents are completely against couple settling abroad. 

As you can see information is Fabricated/twisted/misinterpreted and just shows importance of the proverb. Some Naysayers deliberately want to pull some families down hence kind of politely spread false information something similar to poking needle into a Banana. It is becoming even more important to make your enquiries right since what we see and what we hear may no longer hold true. 

Next Blog: T & C

Vasanth & Co

People who hail from Tamilnadu are very well versed with the brand name "Vasanth & CO" since the brand occupies some part of your home in the form of an appliance. When you hear the term two things come to your mind - a pleasant smile of the owner Mr. Vasanta Kumar and his loyalism to Congress party by having a towel symbolizing Congress party on his shoulders. Interesting thing is firm is a trader and still they were able to build a brand which breaks the conventional formula that you have to be a Manufacturer to build your brand. Vasanth & co generates over 500 crores and has close to 3000 employees spread across the country in as many as one hundred stores (approximately). Beyond numbers they have touched lives of many especially the economically backward through their business model. They are pioneers in coming up with EMI model for Home appliances and what was a dream for many turned into reality through Vasanth & Co; One can easily say to control one's desires especially materialistic fantasies but some things such as Television, Fridge, Grinder and mixie has fallen into ordinary category from luxury category; What is wrong in owning a television and wanting to see your favorite programme after a hard day's work for a Carpenter/Mason ..What is wrong for a Bank clerk who gets pay of 10 K/month in owning a fridge to safeguard her food ? This is where Vasanth & Co stepped in and revolutionized the entire Home appliances industry. They buy in huge volumes from Manufacturer (multiple brands) and translate the same to the end user on top of offering payments in installments. For example they allowed people to pay 50% upfront and setup monthly payments for the rest of the amount and take the goods with them. "After sales service" is one phenomenon which is given great importance nowadays but then in the past it was one area which was overlooked and Vasanth & co established centralized after sales support through their network thereby being a liaison between the manufacturer and the end customer. They won not just the customer but also the market. 

Apart from the points mentioned above there are few other reasons that I love about the man Mr.Vasantha kumar and want to list them below (personal point of view)

1) Loyalty to your affiliation: As an Entrepreneur he always has a suit and as a politician he wears white and white with a towel representing congress party; He has never been shy portraying him as a member of Congress party and he is rightly called as Mr.clean for his ethics in political journey. Now let us assume we have an interview and it is natural for us to have a vibudhi in our forehead but our mind tends to think like 'what if the interviewer is a christian/Muslim so better go with plain forehead' ...This is all very natural since we just don't want to take any chances. Just look at Mr.Vasanthakumar sir ....running a Business there is every reason for him to believe business may be affected if he leans towards one major political party rather be neutral in your appearance. Just imagine do you think hard core BJP folks would patronize his business especially in a country like India where politics is interlinked with anything and everything ? This is where his loyalty comes into picture and he endorsed congress party no matter what consequences he had to face. He was MLA from Nanguneri constituency and then later went on to become MP of Kanyakumarai lok sabha constituency. 

2)  Relation with his Staff: His staff calls him 'Annachi' and he has a wonderful relationship with his employees. Firing employees is considered to be a shortcut to bring back the company's financial fortunes but many do not realize that practice kills the goodwill that is built between employer and employee thereby causing a dent in their relationship. Mr.Vasantha kumar never fires his employees and always made sure he protects their livelihood. He mingles with them so freely that at times you can even see his hand over a shoulder of an autorickshaw driver. His employees wept for his demise and 

3)Competitors paying their condolences: One thing which tempted me to come up with this blog is a Newspaper ad from all of his competitors informing about his death and paying their condolences ..wow ....when your competitors mourn for your death and speak high regards about you after you left this world that talks about your character. I was moved and recently happened to have a chat with an Entrepreneur who is doing big time business in Home appliances in Trichy area and the moment I said Mr.Vasantha kumar, he started pouring accolades and said he is a legend and helped the entire industry scale great heights. Right from PM Modi ji, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, CM of TN, opposition leader of TN, political bigwigs in both Congress and BJP conveyed their condolence to the bereaved family. I would rate myself as a good reader than a listener but few days back happened to listen to a gentleman's wonderful speech about Death. He said birth certificate and death certificate are pretty much the same with the death certificate holding an extra green signature (from an government official) and no matter how many titles you hold in your personal/professional/social life nothing is going to appear on your death certificate. Good deeds will be remembered by people and when you have touched many people's lives they are going to remember you. In that sense Mr.VasanthaKumar has lived a great life touching many lives thereby earning a rich legacy and reserving a place in Heaven. I have paid my tribute to this gentleman through my blog. 

Next Blog: KPP KKP TVM

Mistakes made in buying Medications !!

  Being part of the Health care sector, I am seeing the end to end cycle of a medical drug; I have learnt quite a bit of this supply chain from close quarters since we are one of the leading Distributor for many MNC based pharma companies primarily focusing in and around Trichy area. I see quite a lot of mishaps happening in the supply chain and would like to point out some major flaws that is happening and this can be useful information for kids who are away from their parents. 

   First and foremost let us know the common practice followed in India. "Health Checkup" is considered a bad omen and many skip this fearing that it will open can of worms. People normally has a family doctor and preference is always given to doctors who speak friendly. If a doctor whose qualification and education may be far superior compared to his counterparts still people has a soft corner for doctors with 'Friendly' nature. Once medications are prescribed patients take that medicine and have a practice of keeping one or two month stock in hand. Once they have consumed the medications they have a habit of giving the used strip to either their driver/maid or a care taker to buy medicines on their behalf in case they are not able to go themselves. Some people who are Tech savvy use apps to order online and in some cases kids do the purchase on behalf of their parents. These are some of the common practices followed in India. 

   Let us try to understand how Retail medical shops work. Normally a retail shop may have license to sell quite a large pool of medicines which includes but may not be limited to Oral drugs, syrups, capsules, sachets, Diapers, Consumables like paste, powder, creams, soaps etc., Based on the location they open from 9 am or 10 am in the morning and work as late as 9 or 10 pm in the night. They may have two shift of workers to cover their schedule and overlap of workers to cover up peak hours. Ideally hiring a Pharmacist would be the best and this is what followed in all western countries but this is where I see a major blunder happening in India where most of the workforce have very little knowledge on pharma industry. Obviously you may see experienced folks but that is merely to inject some knowledge to new folks but guys are hired and fired as and when needed. The problem is these guys wear Doctor's hat and disrupt the whole efficacy in the process. Companies promote their brands in popular retail outlets and representatives take a commission based on sales and these representatives canvass retail stores to sell their product and meet the target. 

  High Blood pressure in India is as common as a stunt sequence in a mass masala movie; Diabetes is even more common and can be compared to number of people visiting Renganathan street on a particular day. When people start taking medications they just have to continue for a long time. When doctor prescribes a medicine they usually buy it from the same store. Problem happens when they switch medicines which can happen either due to miscommunication or carelessness from people who buy the medicines. Let us assume you take Aspirin regularly which lowers chance of heart attacks as it works by preventing platelets from sticking together which decreases formation of harmful blood clots. Acetaminophen is a medical composition which is used relieve pain from headache, muscle ache, tooth ache etc., Normally people who take Aspirin should not take drugs containing Acetaminophen since combination of both can sometimes lead to fatal events. But unless you have an educated Pharmacist how do you expect an employee to know information regarding medications. Some medications are restricted to take aftyer intake of Alcohol, pregnancy women should avoid certain medication, lactating mothers should avoid some, if people take steriods then some medications are restricted. There are several Ifs and But's and only a Doctor (who has a reason why he/she got a degree) should be consulted before you take medications. 

   Now coming to the second mistake people make while taking medications - Wrong strength of the dose. People forget to miss dose for one day or one course (AM/PM) and then decide to take double dose which may not go well with the body. Let us see an example ...Alprazolam is a common medical composition which many people take to treat anxiety which relaxes nerves, calms brain activity giving way to good night's sleep. But excessive dose of alprazolam can cause coma, respiratory depression and death. Similarly people take over dose of medications for Chronic diseases like Diabetes, Blood Pressure etc., without realizing consequences of their actions. Once again it is always advisable to consult a physician before making any small decision regarding your medications. 

  Now coming to the next mistake people make in taking medications - Take medicines which are contradictory to each other thereby making the overall process ineffective. For example if a young lady takes contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancy but at the same time takes anti-seizure drug phenytoin which stimulates excessive production of  an enzyme that metabolizes estradiol which is nothing but a component of low dose contraceptives. Contraceptives are cleared more rapidly in women taking phenytoin thereby increasing risk of unplanned pregnancy. 

Let me conclude some key takeaways:

1) Change of a brand and change of a composition are two different things 

2) Be cautious when you have someone procure medicines on your behalf

3) Never go by friend's advice on medications since every case is different - what works for ABC may not work for XYZ

4) Don't get carried away seeing the flash offers in retail outlets which may prompt you to change medications

5) Do not decide on the strength of the dose by yourself

6) Be informed on contradictory medications 

7) It is high time you start trusting your physician before making any small decision on medications. 

Next Blog: Vasanth & Co