SHARED THOUGHTS…… 14.11.2014
===============================
BE TOO BIG TO FAIL.
The story of the weaver and chariot maker is one of the Panchatantra stories
that usually doesn't make it to primary school textbooks or Amar Chitra
Katha, mostly because it's full of sex, war, and moral hazard.
Since you probably haven't read it, here's a quick summary.
A weaver sees a princess during a festival and falls in love with her. As a
weaver, he has no chance of marrying her, so he sinks into depression. His
friend, a chariot maker decides to help him out. He designs a flying chariot
in the shape of Garuda, dresses the weaver up as Lord Vishnu, and tells him
to fly the chariot into the princess's room, tell her that he is Lord Vishnu
and wants to marry her... That is, the wedding is kept a secret from
everyone except the princess and the faux-Vishnu. The princess agrees, and
the weaver comes back every night to consummate the marriage.
Eventually, the maids notice that the princess is spending her days in total
bliss, suspect that she's in love, and tell the King. The King asks her
what's going on, and she tells him that she's married to Vishnu himself. The
King is absolutely delighted, and decides that there's no point in paying
tribute to the Chakravarthi (Emperor) now that Lord Vishnu himself is on the
kingdom's side. The next night, he catches the weaver as he enters the
princess's room and asks him to fight the Chakravarthi’s army.
The weaver is horrified. Pretending to be Lord Vishnu was fine when it
allowed him to make sweet, sweet love to the princess, but taking on the
role of Lord Vishnu to face an imperial army single-handed is another thing
altogether. On the other hand, if he confesses to the King that he is not
actually Lord Vishnu and has been bonking the princess under false pretences
for the past month, he will have his head chopped off. So he decides to get
on to the battlefield and do the best job he can, while the King is whipping
up enthusiasm in the population by telling them that Lord Vishnu himself is
going to do all the fighting.
By this time, Garuda (the real one, not the mechanical one) has tipped off
the real Lord Vishnu about what's going on, and warned Him that if the fake
Vishnu doesn't win the battle, the people of the kingdom will lose all faith
in Him.
Lord Vishnu doesn't want to see this happen, so on the battlefield He enters
the weaver's body and annihilates the Chakravarthi’s army. The entire army.
Every single soldier. After this, the weaver marries the princess, everyone
goes on worshipping Vishnu, and the king becomes the new Chakravarthi.
The moral is that you should conduct your affairs in such a way that if you
fail, it will lead to someone or something even bigger or more powerful
failing too.
The financial world is rocked by the news of a hefty fine of $3.4 bln, on 5
well known banks for their role between 2008 to 2014, in rigging interest
rates, attempt to manipulate foreign exchange markets and their role in
triggering the Global Financial crisis.
This is reminiscent of a bail-out of 3 major banks few years back… what this
means is that the culprit institutions are too big to fail..
Columnist Aadisht Khanna, used this story in an article on Too Big to Fail,
pointing out as to how the world puts up with individuals or institutions
who are too big to fail, as they pull something bigger with them when they
fall. Hence have to be tolerated.
He writes - Everyone knows that we Indians invented the zero. Without zero
and the decimal number system, writing and calculating really large numbers
would be very difficult.
This would be awful for people in the financial industry, whose work depends
on having really big salaries. Another thing which is crucial to the
financial services industry is the concept of being too big to fail, which
has been put to good use by Citigroup, Bear Stearns, and Goldman Sachs over
the past few years in sucking money from American taxpayers.
This beautiful concept was also invented by an Indian - Vishnu Sharma, the
author of the Panchatantra, in the story of the Weaver and the Chariot
Maker..
This lets you get away with anything. The weaver got away with having sex
with the princess on false pretences (this is rape, a punishable offence in
any country ), pretending to be a god (awesomely enough, this too is a
criminal offence for impersonation ), and annihilating an entire army that
was fighting a just war - after all, it was the king who broke the treaty (
you could make a case for this being genocide under Article 2 of the UN
Convention ).
American banks and financial institutions were very good at absorbing this
lesson, and leveraged themselves up to such an extent that if they failed
they would take the global economy down with them………….And just as the weaver
lived happily ever after with the princess, banks have lived happily ever
after with taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Footnote:
But no matter how hard American investment banks try, Indians still remain
the masters of this art. If the whole truth surrounding many scams in India
are revealed, big politicians might be trapped… if they are sacked, then
that would lead to the government collapsing…. A consolation though is that
this is the manner in which some Indians are in touch with their ancient and
glorious culture.
( with some editing to suit Shared Thoughts ).
==============================================================
<http://www.pravsworld.com/content/inspiration/445/the-real-failure> The
Real Failure
The only real failure is failing to learn from failure.
There is a story of a young reporter who was commissioned to interview an
old and successful businessman.
`Sir,' he asked politely, `what has been the secret of your success?'
The older man leaned back on his leather swivel chair, behind his shining
mahogany desk, and replied, `Two words, son, two words: right decisions.'
The reporter wrote it down. Then he asked another question. `And how do you
learn how to make right decisions, sir?' he asked.
The successful business man leaned back further and replied, `One word, son,
one word: experience.'
The reporter wrote this down, too, and then asked, `Well, sir, how do you
acquire experience?'
The older man leaned forward over his desk and whispered conspiratorially,
`Two words, son, two words: wrong decisions!'
The only real failure is failing to learn from failure.
=================================================\
Have a peaceful week ahead all of you,
MOHANDAS. KP.
http://mohandas-sharedthoughts.blogspot.com/
===============================
BE TOO BIG TO FAIL.
The story of the weaver and chariot maker is one of the Panchatantra stories
that usually doesn't make it to primary school textbooks or Amar Chitra
Katha, mostly because it's full of sex, war, and moral hazard.
Since you probably haven't read it, here's a quick summary.
A weaver sees a princess during a festival and falls in love with her. As a
weaver, he has no chance of marrying her, so he sinks into depression. His
friend, a chariot maker decides to help him out. He designs a flying chariot
in the shape of Garuda, dresses the weaver up as Lord Vishnu, and tells him
to fly the chariot into the princess's room, tell her that he is Lord Vishnu
and wants to marry her... That is, the wedding is kept a secret from
everyone except the princess and the faux-Vishnu. The princess agrees, and
the weaver comes back every night to consummate the marriage.
Eventually, the maids notice that the princess is spending her days in total
bliss, suspect that she's in love, and tell the King. The King asks her
what's going on, and she tells him that she's married to Vishnu himself. The
King is absolutely delighted, and decides that there's no point in paying
tribute to the Chakravarthi (Emperor) now that Lord Vishnu himself is on the
kingdom's side. The next night, he catches the weaver as he enters the
princess's room and asks him to fight the Chakravarthi’s army.
The weaver is horrified. Pretending to be Lord Vishnu was fine when it
allowed him to make sweet, sweet love to the princess, but taking on the
role of Lord Vishnu to face an imperial army single-handed is another thing
altogether. On the other hand, if he confesses to the King that he is not
actually Lord Vishnu and has been bonking the princess under false pretences
for the past month, he will have his head chopped off. So he decides to get
on to the battlefield and do the best job he can, while the King is whipping
up enthusiasm in the population by telling them that Lord Vishnu himself is
going to do all the fighting.
By this time, Garuda (the real one, not the mechanical one) has tipped off
the real Lord Vishnu about what's going on, and warned Him that if the fake
Vishnu doesn't win the battle, the people of the kingdom will lose all faith
in Him.
Lord Vishnu doesn't want to see this happen, so on the battlefield He enters
the weaver's body and annihilates the Chakravarthi’s army. The entire army.
Every single soldier. After this, the weaver marries the princess, everyone
goes on worshipping Vishnu, and the king becomes the new Chakravarthi.
The moral is that you should conduct your affairs in such a way that if you
fail, it will lead to someone or something even bigger or more powerful
failing too.
The financial world is rocked by the news of a hefty fine of $3.4 bln, on 5
well known banks for their role between 2008 to 2014, in rigging interest
rates, attempt to manipulate foreign exchange markets and their role in
triggering the Global Financial crisis.
This is reminiscent of a bail-out of 3 major banks few years back… what this
means is that the culprit institutions are too big to fail..
Columnist Aadisht Khanna, used this story in an article on Too Big to Fail,
pointing out as to how the world puts up with individuals or institutions
who are too big to fail, as they pull something bigger with them when they
fall. Hence have to be tolerated.
He writes - Everyone knows that we Indians invented the zero. Without zero
and the decimal number system, writing and calculating really large numbers
would be very difficult.
This would be awful for people in the financial industry, whose work depends
on having really big salaries. Another thing which is crucial to the
financial services industry is the concept of being too big to fail, which
has been put to good use by Citigroup, Bear Stearns, and Goldman Sachs over
the past few years in sucking money from American taxpayers.
This beautiful concept was also invented by an Indian - Vishnu Sharma, the
author of the Panchatantra, in the story of the Weaver and the Chariot
Maker..
This lets you get away with anything. The weaver got away with having sex
with the princess on false pretences (this is rape, a punishable offence in
any country ), pretending to be a god (awesomely enough, this too is a
criminal offence for impersonation ), and annihilating an entire army that
was fighting a just war - after all, it was the king who broke the treaty (
you could make a case for this being genocide under Article 2 of the UN
Convention ).
American banks and financial institutions were very good at absorbing this
lesson, and leveraged themselves up to such an extent that if they failed
they would take the global economy down with them………….And just as the weaver
lived happily ever after with the princess, banks have lived happily ever
after with taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Footnote:
But no matter how hard American investment banks try, Indians still remain
the masters of this art. If the whole truth surrounding many scams in India
are revealed, big politicians might be trapped… if they are sacked, then
that would lead to the government collapsing…. A consolation though is that
this is the manner in which some Indians are in touch with their ancient and
glorious culture.
( with some editing to suit Shared Thoughts ).
==============================================================
<http://www.pravsworld.com/content/inspiration/445/the-real-failure> The
Real Failure
The only real failure is failing to learn from failure.
There is a story of a young reporter who was commissioned to interview an
old and successful businessman.
`Sir,' he asked politely, `what has been the secret of your success?'
The older man leaned back on his leather swivel chair, behind his shining
mahogany desk, and replied, `Two words, son, two words: right decisions.'
The reporter wrote it down. Then he asked another question. `And how do you
learn how to make right decisions, sir?' he asked.
The successful business man leaned back further and replied, `One word, son,
one word: experience.'
The reporter wrote this down, too, and then asked, `Well, sir, how do you
acquire experience?'
The older man leaned forward over his desk and whispered conspiratorially,
`Two words, son, two words: wrong decisions!'
The only real failure is failing to learn from failure.
=================================================\
Have a peaceful week ahead all of you,
MOHANDAS. KP.
http://mohandas-sharedthoughts.blogspot.com/
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