V K KRISHNA MENON

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Nearly  2,500 years ago an young lad from Greece from the province of macedon to be precise traveled some 6000 kilometers in conquest leaving modern day Greece and travelling Eastwards and is stopped on the banks of the river Jhelum  called Hydaspes by the Greeks by Puru Singh alias Porus who might be of Rajput  descent and ancestry. On his way back he is dead by poisoning in Babylon in modern day Iraq possibly after drinking poisoned wine apparently administered by some of his evil Generals who were more experienced in the mannerisms of life that a gullible lad would be worsted in the most devious of ways so that they could partake of the vast empire a good part of it later becoming the Roman Empire.

This is Alexander for you also called Sikander or Iskander ...most popularly known as ALEXANDER THE GREAT  for his single ability at twisting imminent defeat into victory and not having lost any war in the bargain.

Apparently  Alexander is the  son of Phillippe of  Macedon and his fourth wife Olympias. Alexander had a sharp mind at studying cause-effect which he depicts at a very young age. An Arabian trader brings a weird looking horse to Phillipe of Macedon and offers to sell it for ten talents..a talent being an equivalent of few coins of gold the trader having finished his work at the market place trading horses thought of selling his last spoil to the Emperor itself. Not many would want to buy the horse for there was something weird about its looks a head larger than most horses. However Phillipe volunteered to buy and tried to mount the horse but the horse would aleniate itself frightened of something. It was an embarassing moment snubbed bya horse. Phillipe calls for his Military generals and not many could do anything to embark the horse and the Arabian trader awry at the sight of things dcides to withdraw the horse...but the young lad Alexander barely eleven years of age notices the horse is uncomfortable with something..its own shadow and when someone comes to mout the horse the horse sees the shadow of both the man and itself and feels endangered. Understand the situation the morning sun hitting the back of the horse would leave a large shadow ahead and the horse was a witness of the shadow. Alexander pleads with his father that he be let to tame the horse. Alexander made th horse face the sun and within moments mounted the horse. Ever since this  horse formed a very important part of Alexander's life and brought him good fortune. he named it BUCEPHALUS  which in Greek would translate into OX-HEAD ..Bux  means OX   and Phalus means Head  in Greek.

His father Philippe is delighted at the skill of his son and exclaims....FIND MY SON A KINGDOM MUCH LARGER THAN MACEDON TO RULE FOR MACEDON  IS TOO SMALL FOR YOU....It appears to me that this exclamation from his father spurred Alexander to conquer the known world of that time and went about it in adulthood.

Murders were an important component of Greek life of these times. Phillipe of Macedon is murdered in cold blood by  one who dashes at him with a sword one evening when he on his way entering a large hall of those times for some happening....Philippe married many times and made many enemies including his own son for his wanton acts and the military generals decide to appoint Alexander the king after many parleys and Olympias has a very stern hand in supporting the cause of his son who was adored by the military of Macedon. Alexander barely out of his teens well trained and tutored for his times finds himself king..spirited in many ways and despicable in others the lad who had a weakness for drinks but respected women found himself forced into being the king of Macedon. Note that murders went on to become an important component of Roman life too..Ceasar was stabbed in similar fashion in Rome and many Roman kings escaped attempts on their lives.

The route that Alexander took must be 7000 kilometers in all ....largely subduing many kings and chieftains on his way to India chasing many marauders and ultimately reaching the river Indus and signalling Porus to surrender who on the contrary opted to fight..and thus the BATTLE OF HYDASPES..a very closely fought combat between an Indian ruler and Alexander largely forcing Alexander to call-off his adventures at this point. Alexander for the first time encounters war elephants which he had not seen before..each of these elephants well trained at goring enemy horses and infantry. The greek horses failed to advance out of fear at seeing these enormous beasts who menacingly stampeded everything that came on its way. Wars in those days were a day to day affair with the nights sensing calm and the combat resuming the following day and is an ultimate show of strength. Here comes the greatness of Alexander !  he pulled the cavalry back and made columns of soldiers called Phalanx  ...a rectangular array of soldiers of say 20 people arranged in rhythm to hurt the goring elephant with spears and shrapnel and the fate of the war change. At the same time in the secret of the night the cavalry is transferred downstream in the flow of the river and the cavalry attacking the enemy from the side and the strategy worked..Porus himself falling and hurting himself and the favourite horse of Alexander Bucephalus dead..Alexander neutralised the elephants and narrowly won the war and asked for Porus who was brought to him limping from a wound and the meeting was not among a victor and a vanquished as thought by many but was one among two people who respected each other for their skills. Alexander himself was taken aback by the loss of Bucephalus and asked Porus  how he would like to be treated..Porus said as a king ....Porus was given dominion over his territory but was made a vassal of the Greeks. On the banks of the river Jhelum Alexander made the city Alexandria Bucephalus in honour of the horse who well served him and was a joy of his childhood..the city of Phalia today in the Punjab province of Pakistan..Alexander makes his return journey partially by sea using the Arabian sea to touch Arabia and thereafter into Babylon where he is murdered.

The vast Greek empire of this time initiated the greed of his Generals who thought it wise to rule parts of them and they saw Alexander as a hindrance..and getting rid of the young Alexander would not be a difficult task as he treasured and trusted many..it would not be difficult to poison him using one of the moles who served the king..a slow acting one and with the physicians back at Macedon medical advice would be too late to arrive. There was a Greek general of this time Bacterius and the word Bacteria appears to surface from his name for some evil foreign particle.This is the Greeks and their affairs of the bygone era. Greed for power, land, wine and women all ran in their blood in that order.

Alexander was sick for many days. He had a passion for his forces and led from the front and had the lethal ability of creating a blend and bond with his soldiers..largely briefing them before a battle and that is what Alexander did during his last days..meet his soldiers one by one in Babylon sleeping on his couch and waving as the vast number of his soldiers walked past him. What was he poisoned with? possibly herbs in the drinks which he possibly took celebrating his adventures and victory.

Thus there was a large Greek empire along this stretch for many years and every one wanted to be the king and deceit and counter deceit was the order of the day and the empire shrinks into many reasonably sizable bits and possibly lasted for few decades.

Nuri Roel

This is NURI ROEL friend of mine in Peru and a civil engineer by profession.

P O SUBASH PHOTO (TWO OF MY PHOTOGRAPHS P O SUBASH)

The above as a student of Sathya Sai Arts Science and Commerce College...the sign on the photograph is of Shri D Narender who was the principal at that time and used to teach English very well.





The photograph below is the one when I graduated from REC Calicut.

Economies and their various Sources

There are various kinds of economies in this world...let me see if  I can identify ten    of them;

ECONOMIES OF SCALE

This is a very often spoken about Economy. As the scale increases the cost of manufacturing per product comes down.This is the essence of  Fordism where larger quantity mass manufactured resulted in lesser per capita costs. Economies of Scale appears to be one of the larger ethos on which the economies of countries operate.Larger the population the better for a country that can benefit from scale economies.

ECONOMIES OF SCOPE

This kind of an economy can be attributed to high capital involvements ...Instead of making capital investments any bulk equipment can be shared among few constituents.This creates economies.In my view point a family is an ideal setting where economies of scope can be seen in abundance. What is the meaning of Economy? it simply means you get in simple terms commercial benefits accruing due to certain specific environmental realities.

ECONOMIES OF SHAPE

Such Economies exist from shapes and sizes of equipment's that are largely transitory in nature or in a kinetic situation. For example fuel economy of a car comes r is dependent on the shape of the car. Design might involve more complex situations and technologies and the word shape would just refer to peripheral appearance  All economies have a very distinct characteristic in that they are marginal every day benefits that add into a large scale outcome over-time.

ECONOMIES OF RELATIONSHIPS

Economies of relationships are the economies that follow as a result of long standing and harmonious relationships. Relationships can be of very different kinds but largely commences as a  transactional  one and finally graduating into a strategic one there by giving economic advantages of various sorts in the bargain largely evolving from the rules of comparative advantage. In simple terms if the relations between two countries is one of harmony there will be various kinds of economies that emerge from Relationships.

ECONOMIES OF  ROUTE

Routing by itself will single handedly dictate Economies in the world of today and it will only intensify with time. Increasingly humanity is on a trail of exploring shorter routes between points on the globe. The principle of routing is that a shorter route and a better route always exists between any two points. The world of tomorrow depends largely on Economies of route. Good routing improves temporal  and spatial proximity.

ECONOMIES OF TECHNOLOGY

A  simple example of  Economies of Technology is the use of Deisel engine in a car as against petrol engine.Technologies and their research contributes to Economy..and technologies keep changing frequently.Appropriate Technology is a terminology coined to indicate any given technology that is apt under a given set of circumstances.

ECONOMIES OF METHODOLOGY

Methodology is a series of steps that are used in any process that involves "state" conversion. There can be many different methodologies for any given situation and some methodologies are more economical than the other given some environmental conditions at any point of time. the essence of "Economies of methodology" is that appropriate methodology must be utilized vis-a-vis the situation.

ECONOMIES OF  DESIGN

Design is a very important component of life and a logical activity and note that any design cn be improved and with that comes economies of various kinds like power saving and saving of space. Design requires ingenuity and is a formal branch of study and experience.

ECONOMIES OF GEOGRAPHY

Any activity conducted at different geographical locations have different economies and returns by the very nature of the location and would add up to what is called  Economies of Geography.Over a period of time operations must be activated at zones of highest geographical economies.

ECONOMIES OF PARTNERSHIP

Economies of Partnership is similar to a Doubles tennis match where the burden of executing some job is shared in some proportion between partners who work in unison and some understanding. Economics of Partnership is a symbiotic relationship and can exixt within organizations and among organizations.

ECONOMIES OF  INVESTMENT

Economies of Investments occur when the investments for a particular venture were created when the given conditions were not of high demand but demand picks up very quickly in a short period of time and the entry barrier for any new investor is very higher..there is Economies of Investment.There can be many examples of Economies of Investment.

ECONOMIES OF MATURITY

There are many ways to look at Economies of Maturity. Whenever a product becomes old and is still operational with some minimum investments into its maintenance we have economies of maturity. A forty year old car which is running has a market value which is the fraction of a new car but the very fact that the car does the work it should be doing the Economies of maturity is the difference between the price of a new car and the price of the old car which is phenomenal.

Seized Vehicles outside Police stations in Bangalore

There is a sad sight outside the various police stations of Bangalore city...an array of decaying cars and scooters all fastened to each other possibly seized by  the police for various kinds of violations. Many of these vehicles appear to have been here for a very long period of time.

Something has to be done about his large scale social wastage and some kind of legal policy must be created  so that many of these vehicles would be exited from this state within a certain period of time and not rot unprofitably at these locations.

Across the country there must be vehicles amounting to thousands of crores lying in such a pitiable state. For me I am concerned about the effort that went into manufacturing them and the various spare parts they personify and what a social waste it is to keep them idle.

On top priority some approach must be adopted to set them free dealing with the issue on a case-by-case basis and the concerned police stations given the onus of doing something logical with these vehicles so that they don't create economic waste in the manner in which they do today.

NIT Karnataka Suratkal REC Suratkal

NIT Suratkal has a spcial place in my heart..and it will always have a place. I still remember the corridors of this institute and the wait outside during the selection process and in a nail-biting finish I got an opportunity to enter the chamber of the selection committee and say i would go to Calicut REC to study Electrical Engineering..What a relief at having got a seat and the admission order from this place. Mr. Mahadevan was the principal at this time.I must specially register the courteous behavior I got from the administrative staff at this place.

Among all the NIT's in India it is said that this NIT stands out and is the best..may be I cannot vouch for it because I was never a formal student here..but the Campus stands out as a precious jewel vis-a-vis any campus in the country in its design and orientation and NIT K Suratkal please accept my appreciation for your meticulous efforts  at maintaining such a campus. Splendid in its design...immaculate in its disposition..authentic in its posture...and flawless in its maintenance.

If  I were to compare NIT Calicut and NIT Suratkal  there are many similarities. Both have a highway intersecting the institute; both are away from town; both have magnificient buildings but NIT Calicut has higher clustering. The differences would be that NIT Suratkal is on a sea shore..the hostels and the academic buildings are more displaced in NIT Suratkal and NIT Suratkal has well maintained and ordained gardens and to my observation NIT Calicut  might be marginally larger than NIT Suratkal.

When on visits to this place I take special pleasure at sipping tea watching the sea from the tea shop atop the main building of NIT Suratkal and also on entry to the main lobby I find some sayings of Nehru prominently written which adds to the posture of this college and may be NIT Calicut must follow suit to put such sayings at the entry point of the Main Building.....note that institutes of these kinds would not have come into existence had it not been for the vision of people like Nehru.The last time I was at this place atop the main building I happened to interact for quite some time with a professor of Applied Mechanics , a Keralite with a doctorate in Applied Mechanics. I don't recall his name fully well may be it was mr. Hari Kumar. 

NIT Calicut must put some efforts at creating gardens of the like seen in  Suratkal which would add to the aura and ambiance and such an effort is long overdue.

Any one who is reading this and would like to know how to reach NIT Suratkal then the following would be of use.

Suratkal is a village some 15 kilometers from the city of Mangalore on the Mangalore-Udupi highway. Mangalore is around 08 hours by bus from Bangalore and 24 hours by bus from Mumbai.When at Mangalore take buses that go to Udupi preferably from the private bus stand. NIT Suratkal is not exactly at Suratkal village but the next stop which is the hostel gate and the stop that follows this is the main gate stop. Once you are at this place do not forget to sip tea or have a cool drink atop the institute and take a quiet look at the sea and one would feel a combination of leisure and business at this place.