Santhosh's ramblings

I hear the word “meltdown” quite a bit these days, at least in some of the circles I move in. For some of you, this might be a new term. When I was growing up, I knew of only three types of meltdowns.   The first was the wax of a candle melting down—something that happened daily in our house due to the frequent load shedding in those days. The second was the danger of a nuclear meltdown, a concern that arose as we grew up amidst the construction of many nuclear reactors and the arm flexing of nuclear powers. And lastly, we heard about snow melting down, which led to flash floods in the northern regions of the country.   Each of these has its own distinct character. The wax melting down is intentional; it was created to melt down and, in the process, to keep giving light. Eventually, when all the wax is gone, the light burns out, leaving behind only the burnt remnants of the wick. But this burnout happens only at the end of the candle's life—until then, it keeps burning on!...

A few events happened over the last two days, which give reason for these reflections.   Yesterday, in an online training forum, I was there early, and a friend from a remote nation was also present. As we waited for others to join, I asked the customary question left to us by the British, “How are you?” Before I could finish my question, he had returned the same question. I gave my regular answer: "Good." So, I asked again, "How are you?" His response was not what I expected. He said, "The week has been tough; some catastrophic events happened at work, and I am still recovering." He did not want to explain further, so I said sorry and left it.   This morning, I received a message from an old acquaintance from whom we had asked for some help on a work-related issue. The message started like this: "Things have piled up unexpectedly, and I am at my wit's end." An unusual message from such a senior person.   It is not often that either I or othe...