Come November- Pensioners’ Nightmare[1]

First, a story.

In a village,  almost every household  was keeping  a cat as their pet.  Once, there was a spiritual leader who was giving discourses on various topics of interest. One day, after  he started his discourse, he found a cat criss crossing the hall disturbing the thought process of the spiritual leader.  So, he ordered one of his disciple to take it away. But, it returned almost immediately.  Then,  he ordered his disciple to tie it in a pillar in the hall till the discourse was completed.  Next time when the spiritual leader commenced  his discourse, the cat reappeared and disturbed the tranquillity of the place. This time, the disciple proceeded to tie the cat and enabled the spiritual leader to continue with his discourse.   Almost every time when the spiritual leader commenced his discourse, a cat started  coming in and disturbing the discourse proceedings. So, his disciple also in all reverence to the leader used to tie the cat  in a pillar and enabled the leader to continue with his discourse. After some time, the spiritual leader attained mokhsha and  one of his senior disciples was asked to continue the discourses. 

The new spiritual leader chose to move to another village for giving his discourses so that more people would benefit from them.  On the first day of his discourse, at the appointed time, the spiritual leader was sitting silently and the audience and the disciples were also sitting patiently for the leader to commence his discourse. Time rolled and no discourse was in sight for the audience.  The audience did not know the reason and one of them asked a disciple  the reason for the delay. The disciple reasoned out to the person  that it was customary for the spiritual leader to get a cat tied in a pillar before commencing his discourse. Since no cat was found coming in on its own, a disciple has been despatched to fetch one cat for completing the ritual.  Moral: Over time, we cling on to the process forgetting the rationale behind it.

Now, move on to read my real life story.

A few days back, I got an e- mail from my  former employer that a meeting of pensioners has been organised  at the Regional Office to get the formality of submission of ‘Life Certificates’  completed so that pension from  November onwards will continue without any interruption.   I replied saying that I was away from the station and I would be returning home after a couple of months. Bang! I got the response  almost instantaneously  that my pension will be resumed after my return to the station and submission of the ‘life certificate’ to the office.  

Another situation in the life of a pensioner.  Mr  Sundaram  appeared to be pretty desperate  when he asked his son Ramu to get him and his wife a train ticket in A/c Two tier or Three tier under  the Tatkal Scheme to travel  to Pune.  The conversation between them proceeded something like this.

‘Ramu, I have forgotton about my pension payment. I am required to give the ‘Life Certificate’ to the bank before the end of November to ensure continuity of getting my pension. So, I will go to Pune where my pension account is maintained in a bank  and return to Chennai after submission of the ‘Life Certificate’ to it.  On hearing this, Ramu just laughed and virtually ignored the request of his father.  Sundaram does not seem to give up and pushed his son to get him a ticket under the Tatkal scheme.

‘Dad, you get a monthly pension of Rs.7500/-. For you and Amma to go to Pune and return to Chennai by train using Tatkal Scheme for both ways would mean an expenditure of about Rs.5000/. So, it is not worthy to go now spending so much on travel cost of both of you.’

Another conversation between a pensioner and his family members went like this.

‘Somehow, I will have to go to the pension payment office in  Teynampet before the end of this month (November) to submit my ‘Life Certificate’. My health does not permit me to travel by a public transport system. But, to  go from my home  at Oragadam and come back  using  an auto-rickshaw or a taxi  would mean a minimum expenditure of  Rs. 2000/-  and with my pension of  only Rs.5000/-, it is going to be a  big drain on my resources.’

Come November every year, Pensioners (both Central Government and State Governments) all over India are becoming more nervous in complying with the requirement of this peculiar pension rule of presenting oneself physically at the pension payment offices for submission of ‘Life Certificate’ to them.  It is compulsory for a pensioner to furnish a Life Certificate in November. This practice, it appears has been adopted by the Government of India from the British system of payment of Pension to their retired personnel.

According to the 6^th Central Pay Commission Report, there were as many as 3.84 million  pensioners covered under the Central Government Scheme in 2006-07 which would have gone up to 5.0 million pensioners now.   It is estimated that out of 1.1 million strong army, there is  a larger force of about 2 million pensioners or retired soldiers for every serving soldier. Each year, about 55,000 defence personnel retire from their services add up to this growing number.  Besides this, there are those pensioners of various state governments, those covered under various pension schemes such as i National Old Age Pension Scheme (one estimate indicates that there are about 4.26 lakh such pensioners in Karnataka alone), National Widow Pension Scheme, Disability Pension Scheme etc.  The State Bank of India, the largest bank in the country indicates that there are over 1.20 lakh pensioners on their rolls covering the retired employees of the then Imperial Bank of India and the present SBI.  In addition,  a large number of public sector undertakings like the LIC, the General Insurance Companies, the PSBs, oil companies, those in steel and mining, institutions like the RBI, the NABARD and a host of various other organisations covered under the Centre and the States have their huge stock of pensioners.  On the back envelope calculation would put the figure of about 30 million pensioners in the country . All these people would be required to submit their Life Certificates to prevent the ‘Life Threatening stoppage of Pension’ if the certificate is not submitted.  Most of them would have crossed the age of 70+ years and having one or more age related health issues making it difficult for them to move physically to their pension payment offices (including bank branches wherever payment is routed through bank branches).

It involves a huge movement of people – from a shortest distance of a few hundreds of metres to  thousands of kilometres from their home to the pension payment office . It involves crores and crores of paper work for all those concerned (as many Life Certificates as the living number of pensioners), filing and verifying these records for auditing and other purposes. It involves a huge drain of financial resources in terms of  travel cost, opportunity cost by way of income foregone as at least a day will be lost in physical travel to and from the pension payment office,  for those pensioners whose pension amount is pretty small and employed.   Is there any thought to reduce the rigour of these pensioners to make their lives more comfortable?  Here are a few suggestions.

(1)    Why at all a pensioner to submit Life Certificate? What is the rationale in asking every pensioner to submit life certificate every November?

With information technology in place in the banking system, the Government of India may revisit the extant  guidelines on submission of Life Certificates and dispense with the practice wherever needed (like those having bank accounts) and / or modify them to be more user-friendly.    The system  was introduced during the British days.  Then, submission of Life Certificates was considered necessary  as  the payments were made to the pensioners in cash through money-orders of Post Offices  or through  government treasuries.  With the banking system in place and virtually 100% of pension payments are made through banks,  where is the need for submission of life certificates by the pensioners as the pensioners are otherwise also required to visit branches of banks from time to time to draw pension and do other banking transactions?  In the last few years, the country has witnessed tremendous advancement of information technology in banking with Core Banking Solutions (CBS) introduced in all banks.  This has enabled the people to access their bank accounts sitting in the comforts of their home.  Less privileged can access by visiting nearest bank branches of the same bank where they can do their banking services.  If a  customer has a bank account, he/she is not asked to furnish the life certificate every year.   Then, why should a pensioner be asked to furnish it every year though he/she also has a bank account through which his/her pension is received every month? 

Is the fear that the families of pensioners would misuse the system? Else, what? There is no  study or empirical evidence to prove that  in the absence of submission of life certificates, the families of pensioners  (in the event of the death of the pensioner) would  misuse the system and continue to draw the pension fradulantly.  If this logic is applied, then hypothetically, if a pensioner dies immediately after submitting the life certificate during November, the family of the pensioner can misuse it for another one year.  So, such situations are not likely to happen as deliberate. The risk of misuse of this system may be far and few between which can be addressed through use of similar  guidelines available for such mal-practices for bank customers and others.  

It is understood that in the USA  where pension/ social security payments are made, the entire system is programmed to provide information on-line and thus they have virtually dispensed with  the use of paper work and calling for life certificates from the pensioners. 

(2)    In case, the Pension Authority still feels that submission of life certificates by the pensioners  serves some purpose, following modifications can be considered in the existing guidelines for submission of life certificates.

i.         The Central Pension Authority has issued a notification which provides exemption from personal appearance of the pensioner to the bank for submission of Life Certificates.  It has listed 11 categories of persons who can issue such a  certificate.  Besides, in the case of a pensioner drawing his/ her pension through a Public Sector Bank, the Life Certificate may be signed by an officer of  a PSB and not by the same branch of the bank which disburses the pension.  But, in practice this is observed more in breach and not followed.  So, the first step toward this would be  to create awareness among the officials of bank branches and more particularly the pensioners of their right to use this facility. This can be achieved by inserting advertisements in leading newspapers  during October-November by the concerned Ministry at the GoI level,  the Indian Bank Association on behalf of all the PSBs, concerned State Governments etc. 

ii.       Why not stagger submission of life certificates over a period of 3 months instead of mandatory in November only? One should see the crowd of pensioners in branches of SBI  jostling for space in submission of life certificates. It is sometimes pathetic to see them waiting for hours to comply with the requirement.

iii.      In addition, the penetration of mobile phones in the country with an estimated users of over 886 million is phenomenal.  For transfer of funds  and payment of bills through online mode, banks follow a system of  providing a ‘One-Time Password’ (OTP)  to their customers. On similar lines, when a pensioner wants to submit his / her Life Certificate through on-line mode (submission of Life Certificate does not require the signature of the pensioner and it requires only the signature of the person authorised to issue it),  such OTP may be provided to those pension account holders having mobile phone facility and registered the same with the bank concerned.    On receipt of the OTP in their registered mobile phone, the pensioner  concerned should be allowed to submit the form online without the need for  submission of a signed Life Certificate.

iv.     In addition, for those pensioners having some form of fixed deposit accounts with the bank which also disburses the pension, it can automatically record the life certificate on behalf of that particular pensioner and continue to release the pension without any stoppage for want of a life certificate. This logic is based on the practice of allowing an  account holder to make deposits in any branch and accepting it for credit of his/her account in another branch without any need for  visiting the branch concerned and without insisting on a life certificate every time when such deposits are made.

v.       Another revolution taking place in the country is  introduction of Aadhhar  numbers to its citizens. The RBI has directed the banks to allow use of Aadhhar number as compliance of Know Your Customer (KYC) norm required for opening any bank accounts. With about 700 million  Aadhhar enrolments so far, it should be possible to track the person concerned without much difficulty.  Aadhhar portal may introduce such facility to the number holders and register the life certificates of such holders and it can pass on these life certificates to various pension agencies for their on-line record.

vi.     Now issuing of death certificate has become mandatory and computerised in almost in all the states.  So, the application for death certificate may include a couple of columns to include information whether the deceased was a pensioner and if so the details of bank account or if linked with Aadhaar then the Aadhaar number may be provided. Aadhaar agency may advise about the death of the individual to the bank if its number linked  and pension stopped.

vii.    RBI / NABARD has provided medical insurance to all the pensioners. So, virtually there is no scope for any pensioner dying without the information reaching the RBI/NABARD.

We must   work towards compliance of submission of life certificates  through on-line system and save the trees  from the jaws of death.

So, to start with, the RBI may issue instructions to all the pensioners that  in the event of their death, their dependent(s) should inform the RBI about it within a month. If not done, then RBI may recover the excess amount with penal interest from the family pension paid thereafter and in case of family pensioners the same may be collected from the dependents. Such situations may be far and few between. Meanwhile, the RBI/ NABARD may not insist upon giving life certificates by the pensioners.

These measures  would also  make the  life certificate submission process a Greener Compliance one and  the Government(s) may get Carbon Credits for such measures from which they can gain popularity and become environment friendly too. Will they bring smile on the faces of Pensioners and make Novembers  a  quiet  month to spend?

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[1] Dr S Santhanam, PhD(Eco), CAIIB, General Manager, NABARD (Retd) and Consultant (Development Finance), Flat No.311, SIS Danube, Jayachandran Nagar, Jaladampet, Pallikkaranai, Chennai 600100. Mobile: +919850839776.

An Open Letter on Election Process in the country[1]

Dear  Chief Election Commissioner

India is in the grip of election fever since 5^th March 2014 when the Election Commission(EC) announced the schedule for the General Election 2014.  According to the Press Note  of the EC  dated 05 March 2014, the 16^th Lok Sabha election for 534 Parliament Constituencies (PCs), Assembly  election for three states viz., Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim and By-election  to a number of Assembly  constituencies  which have fallen vacant in other states will be held.  The election to all the above constituencies will be held in nine stages beginning from 7 April 2014 and  which go up to 12 May 2014. After witnessing the way the election campaigns are being carried on by various political parties, the  media (visual and print), the complaints against candidates on violation of code of conduct, etc.,  as a citizen of this great country I would like to share my thoughts and make certain specific suggestions for consideration of the Election Commission.  Of course,  I know that none of these suggestions would be implementable during the present course of the election  as just a couple of stages of polling are scheduled to be held .  But, I am sure, they will merit consideration for the next election.

I have attempted to do an environment analysis and look at five  major aspects viz., Overall preparedness, Time for candidates for filling nomination, Campaign duration allowed for candidates,Multi-scheduling of polling dates,  Missing Millions, and  Number of Political Parties in the country.  Under each of these, I have examined the extant guidelines of the EC and given my observations.  Surely, my first observation is to compliment the EC  for the  humongous task  on its hand in ensuring fair and free election in the country. 

i.                     Overall preparedness:

a.       Extant guidelines of the EC: The EC is aware that the 15^th Lok Sabha would be ending its present term by 31 May 2014. The first meeting on the plan of conducting the 16^th Lok Sabha election was kick-started on 4 Feb 2014 when the EC convened its meeting with all the recognized National and State Political Parties.  The first date of election was 07 April 2014.

b.      Observations:   It meant that the EC has considered that just two months as sufficient for gearing up  the entire  machinery and ensure their preparedness in taking up various responsibilities envisaged by the EC in its Press Note of 5^th March.  The EC may claim that almost all the political parties are aware that the elections would be held in April-May 2014. So, they have commenced their preparations, strategies, selection of candidates etc., much before the official announcement of schedule of election by the EC. But, a number of political parties would have got very little time- hardly a month  to organize themselves and do all that is needed for facing the election. The time given by the EC appears to be inadequate to provide level playing field for all the political parties.  Of course, the EC can take steps only if it is assured that the present ruling party/ies would complete its term  as in the present case of UPA II.  Hypothetically,  when a ruling  team  is voted out in the Parliament that forces President’s Rule on the country, then the EC would get a clear six months[2]  to conduct the next election. In the present case of UPA II, the EC could have announced its plan to hold the present election as early as December 2013 instead of March 2014. If we look at the way the election preparations are handled in USA more than a year the actual date of election, perhaps a few lessons can be learnt.  Of course, unlike in USA where  the dates of election to the post of the President are pre-determined and fixed, in India there is no certainty about the date of the General Elections.  Never the less, the EC has a clear six months to announce its schedule of election dates in India which would have been used in the present case. Perhaps, this may be followed in the next (17^th Lok Sabha / Assembly) elections. 

ii.                   Time for candidates:

a.       Extant Guidelines: Each candidate is given one week for filing his / her nomination from the date of notification by the EC for a specific Parliament Constituency /Assembly Constituency. For example, if the date of notification by the EC is 14 March 2014, the last date for filing nomination is 21 March 2014 and withdrawal is 24^th March 2014.

b.      Observations:  In continuation of my observations made above, if the announcement of schedule is made by the EC in December 2013, then most of the candidates would have got their nominations  accepted and would have given time for them to start the election preparedness. In addition, the EC should  make  the last date for  filling nomination of candidates uniform for all the constituencies in the country  irrespective of the date of election for a particular constituency. In the present case, say for instance, for Varnasi constituency, speculation about the names of candidates was in the air for a long time after the actual elections for various constituencies in the country have been completed. The General election to Lok Sabha should be taken as a single event and not separate events and the pre-poll events  should be freezed uniformly across the country. For example, in the present case, the last date for filling nominations might have been uniformly fixed as 21 March 2014 for all the constituencies in the country. This would save the work and resources of the EC across the country and concentrate on the election process which are more resource crunching. 

iii.                  Campaign duration:

a.       Extant Guidelines: Campaign for any constituency to end two days before the date of election.

b.      Observations: We are in a world where technology has annihilated time and distance.  For example, Political parties are making their presence in the TV channels almost every day.  They use the internet, twitter and other systems to be in touch with their potential candidates and continue to market their parties.  Say for instance, the visual media provides space for the leaders of political parties to come and make their points heard even though they may not refer to a particular constituency. So, the extant guidelines of the EC are observed more in breach and it may need to be reviewed and if needed be dispensed with as it does not seem to serve any purpose.

iv.                 Multi-scheduling of polling dates:

a.       Extant Guidelines: In the present case of elections to the 16^th Lok Sabha, the EC has announced nine stages of polling covering  534 Lok Sabha seats, three state elections and some of the bi-elections to assembly segments. 

b.      Observations: I am not sure of any specific guidelines to have the elections spread over a period of time. But, given the intensity of campaigning, the quality of campaigning is reaching a new low with each passing day. It has been becoming more personal ignoring larger issues affecting the country and the people at large.  With technology in full blaze, the proceedings of election campaign give a sick feeling and there is a sense of fatigue among the citizens watching the proceedings going on.  Almost every State Election Commission offices are inundated with more than 1000 complaints about violation of code of conduct which mainly on inappropriate / false allegations against the party candidates etc.  It is also practically impossible for the EC/ State offices of EC to examine all these complaints and take  actions  and  pronounce punishments wherever needed.  Moreover, the enormous responsibility rests with  the state machinery in various states to keep constant vigil  in guarding  the election machines (EVMs) from being tampered with, stolen, destroyed till the 16 May 2014 when the results are scheduled to be announced.  For the election held on 7^th April 2014, the responsibility will be very over-bearing for the security forces to hold these EVMs for over a month .  In fact, the election to these remote areas could have been held in the last stage as it would have reduced the risk  of the safety of EVMs as these areas are more vulnerable than other places.   So, if the time for duration of election schedule is reduced to the minimum, it would have avoided  the enormous energy and cost on.  Suggestion is to divide the election constituencies into  four  broad categories: i. very safe locations; ii. Safe locations; iii. Difficult access/ risky locations; iv. Very difficult/ very risky locations.  Elections should be held to each of the four locations on a particular date across the country in the above order.  This would reduce the number of dates of elections to four dates for the whole country. With technology in place, EVMs under use, this is a feasible one. This will reduce the enormous resources needed to mobilize the police/security forces to keep them on toes which is  about one and a half month (40 days ) in the present election schedule.  I also do not see any country where elections are held for such a long period of about one and a half month.  I reiterate that with technology in place, it is feasible to make the elections held in a shorter span of time than the present nine stages scheduled.

v.                   Missing Millions:

a.       Electorates:  There will be 814.5 million electorates who would exercise their voting rights in the 16^th Lok Sabha elections.

b.      Observations:  There were huge number of eligible voters not finding their names in the voters list (Mr Parek of HDFC fame is one who does not find his name). I am also one of those unfortunates who did not find my name in the voters’ list though I am a permanent resident of Pune for about eight years.  Besides, iI also understand that  certain category of  defense personnel    do not get their voting exercised. So too,  huge number of NRIs who may not be able to use the services of Indian Missions abroad for casting their votes in the election. Another significant category is those whose names are in the list but out of station on  the date of polling due to variety of compelling circumstances (marriage, death, hospitalization, official engagements etc). These otherwise eligible voters also miss out from exercising their right to vote.  Such of these eligible voters and those who are missed out of the voters’ list,  provision should be made to exercise their votes in a separately designed machine (with technology this is a feasible one)  in the nearest polling booth provided they are able to show anyone of the listed documents (EC may follow KYC norms of banks) to the polling officials as proof of identity and address.

vi.                 Number of Political Parties:

a.       Extant Guidelines: It appears that no specific guidelines available to limit the number of political parties can function in the country.

b.      Observations:  It is an open statement that there are  a very  large number of parties fighting the present election . According to the EC website (10 March 2014), there are  six  National Parties,  about 50 State Parties and 1593 registered and unregistered parties[3] in the country. The list is increasing with more parties registered with the EC since the last reference date mentioned above.  Dr Abdul Kalam, Former President of the country had expressed that ‘Every general election has shown the results that people are selecting leaders who focus on economic development in the state and at the centre. The ensuing general election is all the more important as there will be a dynamic change in peoples’ choice of the right type of leadership. I want a two-party system. Even though there are a number of parties in the system, but within a decade or two, India will also move towards a two- or three-party system. That is an ideal system which will have convergence and decision making will be faster.’  It is high time, this issue is addressed squarely and steps taken by the EC  to bring norms for registering a political party, at national level and state level in the country. In any case, community / caste based parties should be denied to get registration as a political party.

Since the dates for next general election are  pretty far away, the EC may work on the technology based solution to make it possible for all eligible voters to exercise their votes irrespective of their presence in the area of polling of booth.   

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[1] By Dr S Santhanam PhD(Eco), General Manager (Retd), NABARD, Pune. Residence: D 9 Amrapalishree CHS Ltd, Near Aga Khan Palace, Yerawada, Pune 411006. M: +91 9850839776.

[2] 85. "Sessions of Parliament, prorogation and dissolution.- (1) The President shall from time to time summon each House of Parliament to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its sitting in the next session.

(2) The President may from time to time -

(a) prorogue the Houses or either House;

(b) dissolve the House of the People."

http://lawyersupdate.co.in/LU/4/951.asp

[3] http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/OrdersNotifications/year2014/EnglishNotification_12032014.pdf

The moral of the following story is still relevant in the Indian context, particularly when politicians expose themselves badly to the outside world by their greed sown wealth. Pl read.

Society and Freedom of the Individual

Question posed to Osho : Can you explain what kind of relationship exists between individuals and society and how they can help each other to evolve?

Osho narrates the following story.

It happened in China, twenty-five centuries ago:

Lao Tzu became very famous, a wise man, and he was without doubt one of the wisest men ever. The emperor of China asked him very humbly to become his chief of the supreme court, because nobody could guide the country’s  laws better than he could. He tried to persuade the emperor, “ I am not the right man,” but the emperor was insistent.

Lao Tzu said, “If you don’t listen to me… just one day in the court and you will be convinced that I am not the right man. Out of humbleness, I was not saying the truth to you. Either I can exist or your law and your orders and your society can exist. So…. Let us try it.”

The first day a thief who had stolen almost half the treasures of the richest man in the capital was brought into the court. Lao Tzu listened to the case and then he said that the thief and the richest man should both go to jail for six months.

The rich man said, ‘What are you saying? I have been stolen from, I have been robbed….what kind of justice is this, that you are sending me to jail for the same amount of time as the thief?”

Lao Tzu said, “I am certainly being unfair to the thief. Your need to be in jail is greater, because you have collected so much money to yourself, deprived so many people of money…. Thousands of people are downtrodden and you are collecting and collecting money. For what? Your very greed in creating these thieves. You are responsible. The first crime is yours.”

Lao Tzu’s logic is absolutely clear. If there are going to be too many poor people and only a few rich people you cannot stop thieves, you cannot stop stealing. The only way to stop it is to have a society where everybody has enough to fulfill his needs, and nobody has unnecessary accumulation just of out greed.

The rich man said, ‘Before you send me to jail, I want to see the emperor, because this is not according to the constitution; this is not according to the law of the country.”

Lao Tzu said, “That is the fault of the constitution and the fault of the law of the country. I am not responsible for it. Go and see the emperor.”

The rich man said to the emperor, “Listen, this man should be immediately deposed from his post; he is dangerous. Today, I am going into  jail, tomorrow you will be in jail. If you want to save yourself, this man has to be thrown out; he is absolutely dangerous. And he is very rational. What he is saying is right. I can understand it—but he will destroy us!!”

The emperor understood it perfectly well. ‘If this rich is a criminal, then I am the greatest criminal in the country. Lao Tzu will not hesitate to send me to jail.”

Lao Tzu was relieved of his post. He said, “I tried to tell you before; you are unnecessarily wasting my time. I told you I am not the right man. The reality is that your society, your law, and your constitution are not right. You need wrong people to run this whole wrong system.”

(From Osho’s book ‘Freedom’ –pages 2-5)

Holi, Lord Krishna and Supandi

Supandi  Stories – My version

Story: 1  Holi,  Lord Krishna and Supandi

Every night  at our daughter Archana’s family in Kharghar, it will be my turn to tell  Supandi stories to my grandson  Daksh(fondly called Dakku), a small fellow who has just completed his fifth birthday.    Any story I fabricate and narrate with a character Supandi  will be taken as original Supandi story by my grand son, because I just know that Supandi stories interest children but I do not know many of  Supandi stories myself.  So,  I thought of making my own  stories to make him relax and put him to sleep. Here is the one  told on the night of Holi.

 Me:  Today being Holi, I am going to tell you a story on Holi  attended by Supandi.

Dakku: Yes, Komacha(that is how he fondly calls me),  tell me.

Me:  Holi festival is part of Lord Krishna’s  life.  On this day, Lord Krishna used to play various types of games with his friends. One such game was ‘Hide and Seek’.

Dakku:  Ya, I know Komacha. We also play this game---after counting numbers 1 to 10, we hide ourselves  in bushes and other places  and one of our friends will search and find us.

Me: Do you know, Dakku  as to why  on Holi we apply colours and sprinkle coloured water on others?

Dakku: No. But, I only know we play with Pitchkaris (water-pump) and splash coloured water on our friends. Why don’t you tell me?

Me:   Ok. Now, I will tell the story of  Holi as played by Krishna as a young boy.  On the Holi day, Krishna was playing with his friends  the hide and seek game.  It was the turn of Krishna to find his friends.  As per rule of the game,  whenever  Krishna  finds a friend and catches him/her  Krishna will apply a colour powder on the face so that he/she will not hide again.  This will continue until all the friends are found and colours applied on the face on each of them.  

That day, Krishna has to find and catch  15 friends. It was a large garden and his friends had spread   and hid themselves in the bushes and trees.   He looked for his friends moving from one bush to another. It went on for about half an hour. Krishna could not find anyone.  

Then, he saw  Supandi  watching Krishna struggling to find his friends.  So, Krishna approached Supandi, an intelligent boy, to suggest to  him some idea to catch his friends.  Supandi  thought  for a while and whispered  in the ears of Krishna to use a Pitchkari with coloured water to find his friends hiding in bushes.

 Krishna was very happy and he ran into his house and brought out a  large pitchkari and filled it with coloured water.  Then he started  spraying coloured water liberally  in every bush and tree he moved and searched.  This trick worked as the sprinkled water  from pitchkari when fell on the face or some part of the body of his friend hiding in a bush, he/she   tried  to clear it by  shaking  his/her  body. This helped  Krishna  to know that someone was hiding in that bush and he  jumped  and caught   the friend and smeared  his/her  face with coloured powder.  Thus, he was able to catch all his friends.  He thanked Supandi for his brilliance.

(Sensing that Dakku  was just half asleep and  not fully ready to go to sleep yet,  I continued it with further contraption).  Here it goes.

Krishna, though found out all his friends, was not sure he had found them all.  So, he asked  his friends to line up and started counting them. He found that there were 15 of them.  Krishna was a bit confused. He felt that there were in all 16 of them.  Since he counted  only 15, he sought the help of  Supandi again.  Supandi came to his help.

Krishna: Supandi, we were 16 of us when we started playing. But, now, I find that there are only 15 here whom I have found and caught and smeared with colour.  That means I have not found the 16^th person. Kindly help me.

Supandi: OK. Krishna, you count once again.

Krishna: Counting his friends once again – only 15. Where is the 16^th person?

Supandi: Krishna, now I will count.  Before that, I want you  to  stand  at the end of the  line with your friends.

Krishna: Ok.  I will do that. He  joined his friends.

Supandi: Now, each one of you should  count  1,2,3…… beginning from the first person.  

Friends:  Started saying 1,2,3,4…….. and Krishna standing last said 16.

Supandi. Krishna, are you happy that you yourself have said 16 and all of you are here.

Krishna: Great, Supandi, I admire your wisdom and deep knowledge of mathematics.  You  have all my blessings.

Supandi smiled and  went  away.  

Dakku: Thank you, Komacha. Now, I know why we are using Pitchkaris and colour powders in Holi. I also know counting of numbers correctly.

Saying  ‘Good Night, Komacha’ and  stamping  a kiss on the cheek of Komacha, his friend grandpa, Dakku  turned to his side and started sleeping.