AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week falling in the old age trap. For a Saturday following the week when age is not a limiting factor for achievement. For a Saturday following the week discovering an increase in the incidence of gastro-intestinal cancers. For a Saturday following the week when Goa is a victim of its own prosperity. For a Saturday following the week of integration of migrants with the local population. For a Saturday following the week tracing the inspiration story of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.
OLD AGE TRAP
AND a few stray thoughts on the old age trap. If you think you are going to be privileged enough to live a long life you have to plan for it. Being a senior citizen or a super senior citizen is no fun if you do not have enough investments to bring in the moolah of money. As you grow older you will find yourself more and more isolated. This is partly because your friends like you have also grown older and dependent on various family members. Indeed, the longer you live, you will find that you have fewer friends as many of them have made their exit from the world. And if you have not made yourself somewhat wealthy with planning you will find yourself hopelessly dependent and you may not depend on family or friends to come to your help all the time. Not because they do not want to, but because your sons and daughters have their own lives to live and lead.
Increasingly, we live in a world where everyone is so busy living their own lives that they have no time for the super senior citizens of the family. In more youthful times you may have helped a lot of people climb up the ladder of success and they may all be grateful but you cannot expect them to be grateful forever. There is an expiry date even on gratitude. It is worse if you are old and afflicted with serious health problems.
If you have not be been farsighted enough to provide for your senior years do not even your family to endlessly support you. This is because caring for disabled senior citizens can be very exhausting. In the Western world, there is good infrastructure for the care of senior citizens. There are affordable old age homes to retire to so that one may not be a burden on anyone in the family. But everything depends on having enough financial resources if you do not want to be carted off to a home for destitute. So much so we now think parents must do their best for your children and for their siblings, give them the best education, but be selfish enough to invest and put aside funds to see you through your senior years.
Unfortunately, insurance policies do not exist for the many problems seniors find themselves facing. There is no substitute for money in the bank, money you have earned yourself. Don’t depend on legacies from your parents which may never come or have been taken away by other siblings. The single most important role is to save, save and save if you want to live a long and happy life.
NO AGE FOR ACHIEVEMENT
AND a few stray thoughts on age not being a limiting factor for achievement. This is dramatized by the 71-year-old Chandrika Krishamoorthy Tandon, who has just received the Grammy award for best album of chants. The Grammy awards are the world’s most prestigious awards for music. So far only a few Indians like AR Rahman have won any Grammy awards. Chandrika is a millionaire financial expert. She is the first person of Indian origin, a partner in the investment firm McKinsey. She happens to be the sister of the former CEO of Pepsi, Indra Nooyi. Chandrika’s album titled “Triveni” has won the Grammy award for being the Best New Age Chant album. Chandrika like her sister was born in Chennai in 1954. She studied at a Madras Christian College and went on to join the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmadabad. Her first job was at City Bank. Her next job was at McKinsey, a management consultancy company in New York.
The name of her album “Triveni” refers to the confluence of three rivers. The three rivers in this case are different musical forms. Chandrika goes into her chanting accompanied by flautist Wouter Kellerman and cellist Eru Matsumoto representing diverse cultures. Accepting the award Chandrika remarked “Music is love. Music is light and music is laughter, let us be surrounded by love, light and laughter.” The story of Chandrika only demonstrates that if you follow your passion you will be rewarded.
GASTRO CANCERS
AND a few stray thoughts on the increasing incidence of gastro-intestinal cancers. Among the biggest killers in the country are pancreatic cancers. The late chief minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar was a victim of pancreatic cancer. Doctors have raised an alarm over the increasing incidence of gastrointestinal cancers. This includes cancer of the stomach, liver cancer, anal cancer, gallbladder cancer.
Naturally, most of these cancers of the gastrointestinal tract are caused because we don’t pay attention to what we eat and drink or we don’t recognise real food from fake food. Part of the problem with gut cancers is that they are inevitably diagnosed very late. The debilitating gastro cancers affect senior and super-senior citizens the most. Dr Jose Filipe Alvares of Victor Hospital, Goa’s seniormost eminent and best gastroenterologist (endoscopist, herpetologist) warns that senior citizens should not neglect issues of anaemia and falling haemoglobin.
Other symptoms of GI cancers are loss of appetite, weight loss, and loss of blood. These cancers are easily treatable and can be cured if they are detected at an early stage. This requires that if there are symptoms such as prolonged indigestion lasting more than two weeks or severe constipation, you should get an ultrasound done immediately. The best way of detecting GI cancer is a colonoscopy. This is a simple and non-invasive test where a tube is passed through the rectum to check on any growths in the GI tract. This is not visible in an MRI or scan but only by colonoscopy. The best infrastructure for colonoscopy is available at the Victor Hospital in Margao. The gastroenterology unit has been built up and refined by Dr Jose Filipe Alvares. Unfortunately, the GMC and other public hospitals do not have facilities for doing fine gastro cancer diagnostics such as colonoscopies.
GOA’S PROSPERITY
AND a few stray thoughts on Goa being the victim of its own prosperity. As it happens every year Goa has received nothing special in the current year’s budget. Not surprisingly the largest allocation has been for the partners of the BJP and chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar and chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu. The biggest budgetary allocations have been for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. The basic principle in the budget is that poorer states get the biggest support. The budget allocation is not proportionate to the contribution of various states to the national budget. The greater per capita income of the state, the less the funds it gets from the Central government. It does not matter whether Goa is a double-engine state or a single-engine state.
Goa has the highest per capita income in the country. Goa contributes the largest amount of foreign exchange from tourism. In the past, Goa used to supply the largest amount of foreign exchange in mining exports. It is not widely known that Goa is also responsible for providing the largest skilled working force with half-a-dozen top engineering colleges. Unfortunately, Goa is not important from a political point of view. It has only two members of parliament in the Lok Sabha and a single Rajya Sabha member. Goa does not have a lobby in Delhi for getting funds for development. The bitter reality is that there are no jobs for the young highly qualified people of Goa. Goans are forced to migrate to other states in the country or to the Gulf countries or to the UK for decent jobs.
We think part of the budget for Bihar should be diverted to Goa as Goa provides job opportunities to the people of Bihar and every other poor state in the country. So much so Goa should get much more funds to support both Goans and migrants coming from the rest of India.
INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE
AND a few stray thoughts on the integration of migrants with the local population. Goa can learn a lesson from Kerala which faces a similar problem. Like in Goa, a large number of residents of Kerala have migrated abroad for better job opportunities. So much so the Kerala economy is totally dependent on migrants from North and East India. As in the case of Goa all the carpenters, plumbers and electricians and construction workers in Goa are from outside the state. As in the case of Goa even the fishermen employed on trawlers are outsiders. Interestingly, a lot of migrants are also employed in the agricultural sector in the villages of Kerala. Kerala is a preferred destination for migrants because a skilled migrant can earn up to Rs25,000 per month. Unlike in Goa, Kerala has accepted the migrant workers and treats them very well. The state government has special classes where the migrants may learn Malayalam. Migrants are encouraged to marry local girls. So much so that there are many second and third-generation migrants married to local girls whose children have been educated in Malayalam and these families are fully integrated with the local population.
BILL GATES INSPIRATION
AND a last stray thought on the inspirational story of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, the most prestigious university in the United States. Along with his partner Paul Allen. They set up Microsoft at their 20s. In his autobiography, Bill Gates speaks about his life and his love, of getting rejected on his first date. Subsequently, Bill Gates married one of his colleagues, Melinda French Gates. Bill Gates is one of the biggest philanthropists in the world. Unlike Indian industrialists, he has refused to hand over either his company or his wealth to his children, preferring to offer it to charity.
The polio program in India was entirely funded by the Bill Gates Foundation. It was Bill Gates who started the tradition of the technologist entrepreneur. Significantly, all the biggest businesses in the world are developed by first-generation, super-smart individuals like Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, and Larry Page who founded Google. Elon Musk, who is now considered the richest man in the world, is a migrant from South Africa who built his empire of electric cars and space rockets from scratch.