The Hindu Business Line : They're already following Luca Pacioli

DO you know that for more than five centuries, accountants have adored an Italian? He was the father of double-entry bookkeeping, Luca Pacioli. As a monk he wrote a book titled Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry, and Proportions) where he described a method used by merchants in Venice during the Italian Renaissance period. Thus, when the air is suddenly filled with a sudden interest in anything Italian, for some odd reason, one should remember that your neighbourhood CA has Italian brain running in his ledger and journal.

Already, Atalji is ready to herd his flock to the Opposition benches, and train them to listen to Sonia's speeches. At the grassroot level, however, there are doubts whether it would be appropriate to list pizzas along with parathas in the canteen menu. Kids, as usual, are eager to say salve, rather than namasthe, and buongiorno, instead of good morning. To the defeated, they hail arrivederci, and that means, `good bye', as their targets manage to guess.

There are rumours that Laloo is picking up a few useful phrases to deploy when engaged in crucial meetings at Janpath, more because his accented Hindi could be tough on suave listeners. "Si, ji," tells his tutor for yes, but he shouts, "I don't know" only to elicit from his mentor, "Io non lo so." That could sound appropriate enough in Tamil Nadu as a dejected wail, "I-O naan loosu."

Bargaining is inevitable in politics, and so is some coaching unavoidable on the other side too. "How much is this?" would translate to "ye kitne ka hai," and if you were to find it too expensive, you may say, "ye bahut mehenga hai," and ask for less, "Bhaav kam karo."

Don't form your impressions based on Al Pacino movies because these are days when Italy's Mafia has become subject matter of light-hearted discussion as in a recent edition of The Economist. Titled "A capo's annual report," it is about how the `Boss of Bosses' might report the Mafia's revival: "But the biggest test of all is to maintain our brand's reputation. Most people know that Sicily's Mafia is the real Mafia. But our low profile could yet lull potential customers into thinking we are harmless."

Well, before you become too afraid, let me revert to the idol of accountants, Luca. After the publication of his book, which was one of the first to emerge from Guttenberg press, Luca was invited to Milan to teach mathematics there. As an example how a student may be more famous than the teacher, one of Luca's pupils was Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, da Vinci illustrated Luca's second book De Divina Proportione (Of Divine Proportions). Using what Luca taught him about perspective and proportionality, da Vinci created a masterpiece, a mural on the north wall of the Santa Maria de Gracia Dominican cloister: "The Last Supper."

Luca laid down rules of debit and credit that travel right up to annual reports, but if he were to account for electoral gains and losses, what would have been his advice? He might as well apply the first rule: "Debit the receiver, and credit the giver."

That's something for our new netas to remember, because for any government that's formed in the days to come, it would be the electorate that deserves the credit, not powerbrokers.

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in