Mylapore Corporate Mama

Sri. T M Krishna, the maestro in Carnatic music and who pens columns in The Hindu, wrote about Mylapore mama - Which came first Music or Mylapore Mama. This was long enough to be published in Two week ends. The release of this article coincided with the December Carnatic Music Season ending.

The writing was lucid and the concept was closer to reality than I would have expected out of this columnist who typically believes in Hyperbole. Disclosure : I resemble the Mylapore Mama mostly but will not make the grade described in the column; but - yes a start has been made.

The commitment and the efforts these Mamas go to mostly out of sheer passion for the Music is astounding. There may be those who do this for a visit to the canteen outside or as T M Krishna would like us to believe, display the arrogance of their inheritance. But for me it is the sheer pristine music, defined in a code for connoisseurs to develop a deep understanding and the immense efforts being put by those artists to meet the code and never ever deviate once in a 3 hour performance which make us spend the better part of our December month for. Besides, the occasional visit to the canteen to taste those old dishes which have become rare today at home and the comradery are accompaniments, which just make the experience that much more enjoyable and live.

There are many sub sects of this Mylapore mama. You can see young lads and girls who carry a distinct accent discuss the concert with their Mylapore mama. These may be future artists or eventually turn to be a Mylapore Mama, Mami!

One more is the Mylapore corporate Mama. He is an aficionado listening to his music at any opportunity and is also the person today to bank roll some of the concerts. I have seen the Mylapore corporate Mamas to be amongst the best Mentors in the industry. Their easy going attitude, the comradery they extend and the efforts to appreciate class and put in a good word are their signatures. They are also passionate souls who pursue their goals seriously and who are punctual and regular - all excellent qualities for a corporate executive. The occasional outburst is quickly compensated by an appreciative word when the moment arrives and mostly they are emotional. Mostly they are ubiquitous as the Mylapore mama who was described very well in the column, as sitting in the back benches to listen to the artist whom he flagged years ago perform at the evening slot. These souls can be found across the oceans today and their numbers are growing. Just look at the steep hike in charges of the tickets which are still sold out in some venues.

The Mylapore Entrepreneur Mama is few and I bet this number will grow in this decade with so many aficionado being present in the start up scene.

Carnatic Music is ever green and grows on you. And listening it to live is a thing which the Mylapore Mamas are gifted and they are therefore in my opinion the blessed lot.  

Taminadu Politics - After the iconic Leader

Tamilians and in general South Indians are the dreamy type and so are easily influenced by the 'Filmdom', especially of the Kollywood variety. So no wonder, politicians who wanted to disrupt, used 'films and the business of making films' for usurping power. After Congress, it is the film fraternity that has held power in this state.

And for the first time it has moved away. But alas, it has gone to the person who practices, sycophancy. An unelected individual, who till recently was seen as always subservient to the iconic leader who died in Nov '16, has called herself as the Lioness and is taking vows in public. She is boldly challenging the status quo and is using the system to control. She is least bothered about conventions and rule books. Her dummies, are the appointed power centres today and have plans to operate that way.

Should she succeed, it would be a confirmation of the general belief, of the way in which power centres function. 

That would be a travesty on the entire effort to cleanse the system of convicted corrupt people and demoralising those who go after them.

I am disappointed and now angry. Yes. I do not like the way systems can be manipulated to one family's advantage. I would in my capacity resist and lend voice, to those sane forces which condemn this. 

AirBnB Services

Here is an incident that is happening in our society and my response to: 

Dear Owners / Residents,

In the last few days you may be looking at mails which has been initiated by ... expressing their anguish on not being allowed to use their apartment for Airbnb Short term Rentals with series of baseless allegations. The Board has met and discussed on the legalities, restrictions in the Bye-laws and have also carried out a Risk Assessment of Safety and Regulatory implications. All the concerned people like Security, Person holding keys of ... were called and asked to state the facts.

The fact revealed by all is that the Security had informed the person holding the house keys ..., that hereafter temporary and unknown guests would not be allowed in the complex.

The person confirmed that there was no incidence of guests waiting outside as stated in Anand/Pratibha’s mails. The same person informed that the guests were already occupying the Apartment. The information was passed to ... by the person holding house keys which lead to .. calling up the Secretary at odd hours and using unprofessional language, followed by emails to Owners and Residents.

Their mails have several inconsistencies - they called the Secretary at 9.30 pm (verifiable through phone records), and the subject of their mail mentions incident @ 9pm, yet they mentioned in their email their guest was left outside at midnight. All this while the guest (for whom NOC was NOT issued) was staying comfortably in the flat. It is not clear why .... did not stick to the facts when writing to all the members.  

In order to be a fair to both, the Owners and the Association, the Board has forwarded the matter with details to the Statutory and Legal Authorities/Bodies who will soon investigate the commercial activity carried out at .. and assess the situation as required by the law.

While, the process is on, it was a coincidence to find Statutory Notice in the Newspapers warning for all those carrying out Commercial Activities in Residential Areas/Buildings (a copy of which is attached herewith.) While the notice is regarding shops it brings into focus a key issue is what was the basis on which the project was sanctioned and the occupancy certificate issued. In our case the Occupancy Certificate has been given with the caveat that it should not be used for commercial rental activities - guest house etc. 

The Board’s intention is always to provide an amicable solution to any deviation, but at the same time is legally bound  by the Statutory laws and Regulations.

Also, if we were to look at making the apartment a commercial complex then we believe that commercial rates will apply to all residents in terms of electricity, gas and any other service/taxes which could become a burden on all the other Owners irrespective of renting or residing in .....

The other point worth noting by Owners residing here is that even if a few Nonresidential Owners want to look at benefiting from the shared economy - do other Owners as residents want a free flow of strangers in this space where our family is? While we use Ola & Uber we have seen/read of several cases of unprofessional/criminal behaviour. Every person who gets into an Ola/Uber knows that there are risks associated with it which they are willing to undergo for the convenience. Whether other residents want to give free access to the complex for the benefit of other Owners is a question for the residential owners.

Even if the guests are not criminals if they are pleasant characters do we want them around especially if we are going to have a heavy turnover of guests in these apartments? If we are talking of 15 guests a month for 5 flats we are talking of 75 strangers roaming around our premises every single month.    

We need the understanding of all Owners on following the Bye-laws and matters which has legal implications. We'd also like to state that for all the debate that we have over email this is not a matter that can be settled over email. It will require passing a resolution in the AGM, and prior notice if the bye laws are going to be amended and maybe further legal process if we should change the basis of the occupancy certificate. 

We may add that "Under the circumstances stated above, and as the said commercial activity does not conform to the Bye laws, the Board has not given any approval / NoC, and therefore cannot be responsible for any risks or consequences associated there with, including those of statutory/legal nature, and the same therefore vests with the apartment owner"

Answering 2 of the owners’ queries:

1.       Mr Balakrishnan V – The owners of Flat  did notify or take an NoC before letting out their flat on Airbnb services.

For Board

Communicator

AND MY REPLY:

To the Representative of the Board,

Let me start with the answer provided by you to the query raised by me:

"Answering 2 of the owners’ queries:

1.       Mr Balakrishnan V – The owners of Flat ... did notify or take an NoC before letting out their flat on Airbnb services.”

This is a serious violation by Ms. ... and she must tender an apology. Community leaving calls for certain tolerance to observance of guidelines, which I am sure a person living so far away from India may be accustomed to. 

Another important aspect which we would expect from the intelligent, more tech savvy person and above all a person who is fully abreast with the current happenings at some of the most advance societies of the world, is to take the time out and educate us ordinary mortals on the pros and cons, legal implications and definitions in advance. Or they could have deputed their local Tax consultant to brief us. Such a confirmation / briefing would have armed our volunteers who are the Board members of our Maintenance association to be prepared, if they are confronted with questions by local statutory authorities, which I am sure is just around the corner as I believe the business for Ms. Prathibha Anand is booming. 

AirBnB is a marketing platform and so is Uber and Ola. It facilitates the transaction between two parties. Absolutely correct. The transaction between AirBnB and the owner of the property takes place outside India, which is a transaction on the digital platform which we are not concerned about as nothing physical happens in the exchange. 

Let us now switch to the Uber analogy: You hire the car through Uber, pay Uber and walk out. Now the Owner of the car hires the car to you through Uber, collects the money and the deal is completed. Now the owner of the car says to our Commercial Tax department that the transaction, that is hiring the car to you through the digital platform of Uber is not taxable. Well tax pundits across the world are at it and still grappling with the problem. The view I subscribe to is - There is a physical transaction between two parties for which the recipient of the service must pay service tax and other local taxes - And the provider must collect and pay those taxes to the government. The income is again assessable under the Income tax laws of India. 

We can dispute my statement and seek remedy in our courts though. 

Coming back to our case - AirBnB is a facilitator who insists that the Owner of the provider of service indemnify them from local tax liabilities, and other implications in toto. So throwing AirBnB at the board is to expect all of us to be naive, which I wouldn’t find fault with as those who are living 10000 Km away still think that we are land of Kings with elephants. There is a clear onus on the part of the owner to seek compliance of the rules of the association and if not take the liability that may befall the association and Owners.

My views on discontinuing the AirBnB service as proposed by the Board is different. I do not agree. 

We must encourage use of the property and that is what the property is built for. As a first step Board may take a legal opinion on to whether they can permit this allowing “Guests” visiting and paying for it would not make the Century Celeste property a Hotel. ( In the land of Kings and Elephants, Guests don’t pay. They are treated like Gods). 

If this is legally tenable, we must then put in place sufficient restrictions to ensure that this is done smoothly. My suggestions are:

1. One local caretaker will be appointed by the Owner sharing their flat through AirBnB service, whom the Board members may contact should the need arise. 

2. The Board may insist that the Owners hire and pay for additional security service to coordinate the entry and exit of their Guests. 

3. The board may need to have access to the data of persons who arrive and leave should something amiss where to happen during the stay of the Guests at Century Celeste.

4. And finally the Owner must indemnify the association, co owners of any liability that may be caused by this action of theirs.  

And through this mail I appeal to Co-Owners of this wonderful property to be more tolerant and cooperate. Slowly the number of residents in this society moving to ‘Senior Citizens’ Category is increasing (me included) and we do not want trouble.

Demonetisation, De Notifying specific Currencies

We have crossed one third of the 50 day limit set by our PM to bring back to normality the disturbances caused by de-notifying the Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 Notes.

Before I delve into the pros and cons of this action as a sequel to my earlier blog, I have a declaration to make. I had no serious issues at business and personal. I am likely to be affected as I am planning to sell a flat and the real estate price as per some opinion may correct a tad lower.

It is clear to me now that this move is going to bring in a major transformative change in administration and banking as per governmental practice. Cash payments and handling is going to be a big challenge and it is clear that anyone who dare indulge in it must be prepared for severe punishment including spending time in Jail. How this will be done needs to be seen.

Another major development is the use of the receipts to the government exchequer. I tend to agree with the view that the liability cannot be extinguished as the 'Promise' by Governor is not time bound.

So technically, even after a couple of decades I can seek exchange and RBI cannot deny it. They may harass me and try to dissuade me - but they cannot say No to the exchange. That being the case the liability will remain in the books of RBI.

So the amount that will be available to the government is the punitive tax(50% last I heard of!) if it is announced and accepted by the persons who have deposited their excess cash and the withheld amount. Nothing more.

Banks in the meanwhile will make merry as they have huge deposits in savings account which is the cheapest form of borrowing. So rate cut is imminent and so is the lowering of interest costs on borrowings. Other than that we have to wait for the New Year and additional measures that may be taken by the government to react.

I still am hopeful that the move will turn out to be a big positive. Having observed politics for a while, though from a distance, I would like to be on the side of willy politicians like Nitishji. He is for Demonetisation and he has his ears to the ground where 23% persons of our country and mostly poor people reside!

Indian economy, was running too much on cash. The only tax payers, had to shell out much more because many didn't pay. How do we correct this? A major benefit, through demonetisation, should result in better tax compliance. Till Nov retail margins in most of the segments included a large portion of the evaded Sales Tax. When would this be corrected and how? The only methodology is to ensure better compliance. But to start you need to disrupt and send a shocker. And that is one of the missives in this act. I would hold my comment on demonetisation till the next year's budget, when the full impact and the follow through actions must start showing. To trash at this stage is premature. Changing course of the Tax compliance of India's size needs time and efforts. Some of these could be minor with disruptions at the core. GST and Demonetisation, I believe are together and I would wait for it to pan out.

Meetings and Discussions

In the course of a days work, it is but natural that we have meetings, where many diversified persons sit together brain storm to arrive at solutions and hand out decisions. Some use the opportunity to get appraised of themselves of the happenings. It is also a place some use to exhibit their authority and superiority.

After such sessions participants mind plays its own tricks as each perceive the exchanges during such sessions in their own way. For some it doesn't matter what others think; but others brood over it.

I belong to the latter category, especially if some one sounds condescending on the actions attributable to me and that too without a reason.

Condescending actions and words always get to me - yes they hurt me and affects my performance.

To overcome this, I am trying the latest trick advised by an expert - express your feelings in a Blog - write it down. Share it with friends and do not expect a feed back.

So how do I pay back. I don't. But will act to win back the confidence and then move on with life. I guess, I do not want to attend such sessions, with or with out putting in place the remedy.