Sad Old Year or just evergreen physics ?

 As everyone bids good riddance to 2020, i instinctively harked back to the same time last year.  The first week of 2020 was filled with messages of hope and wishes of prosperity and safety - all in start contrast to how the year eventually ended up for most of the world. There were messages admiring the symmetrical beauty of the numbers - something that would occur only once in 101 years - as a divine intervention which will bring only good things. If only we knew it was, in truth, a foreboding ! Normally, i dont linger much on the past, but with all these thoughts swirling in my mind, i decided to pursue this to see where it leads to. And in doing so, i ended up with the three laws of motion. While i keep emphasising on 'unlearning' and 'relearning' often in every day life, this Newtonian epiphany was something even i hadn't expected. So partly in mirth, and partly in pensive mood, here goes my take on 2020.

 

If a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.  For long, it felt like the force was the disruption driven by the coronavirus. The body was me. And i must say, it was challenging to adapt to a work from home, school from home, and then the circuit breaker-lockdown period where everything was at home. Zoom became ubiquitous, calls and virtual meetings became the order of the day and the inertia drove most of us to continue working quite late into the day. It wasn't much after the lockdowns etc were lifted that i realised that the force, really was my own desire and motivation - which was often, partly driven by fear. Now, i will not go on and quote the Joker about the "unstoppable force - immovable object" paradox, but honestly, how many times did i reach out to friends, colleagues and family to try to find out alternatives of keeping up ? How often did i put ingenuity to use to find create newer solutions within the operating constraints ? This was one of the rare occasions when one is a spectator in her/his own life but being a spectator doesn't mean you have to be passive. It is easy for me to say now, but the hard truth i learnt is nothing changes until one forces things to - through the sheer desire for change, and the belief in the reasons for change.

 

For an object with constant mass, that the net force on an object is equal to the mass of that object multiplied by the acceleration. Well, you couldn't have asked for a body with bigger mass ! but If the mass was external, the acceleration was all internal, and let me explain. If the first law was about the individual, this one is all about the organisational changes that we witnessed. Never before has the adage about the whole being more than the sum of its parts came to the fore, like this year. The individual behavior and habits were, and still are, evolving and so evolved everything around it - from the multi-billion MNCs to start-ups, from the mammoth Government and Judicial machinery to self-help groups. I guess when the fear of survival looms large, fear of failure fades to the back, if not entirely banished from the minds. Nothing else i could think of fully explained why and how things moved so quickly now when everyone else and everything else still remained the same, if not, more constrained than before. And this truly is the internal acceleration i wish to see going forward as well.

 

For every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction  Of all that this year threw up, in the long run, this will probably be the most consequential. As panic spread, we saw fear mongering and post truths being peddled to exploit society and humanity at its most fragile moment in recent times. But what wasn't probably anticipated was the blowback it would generate. And while it was heartening to note the growing voice of fact checkers and myth slayers and people standing up to bigotry and forces that be, it has left the world deeply polarised. (the recent US prez elections are a prime example). 

 

Oh and there is a bonus learning as well - the Fleming's Left Hand Thumb Rule ! While i am too tempted to say this is the balancing of the three divergent directions of service, cost and cash (fundamental to any supply chain decision and very closely related to my area of work) this is not what i have in mind here. Its about my long time hero - ACP Pradyuman - perhaps saying there are more twists in the tale expected in 2021.

 

My Chamku Valentine

i've never been a big fan of all the "i'll-buy-you-a-card-and-forget-you-for-the-rest-of-the-year" days but this one was special in its being extraordinarily ordinary. too many oxymorons in that one eh ? but probably mixing chamku with valentine is probably the biggest one! Probably i wouldnt have imagined it this way till about a week or so back ... imagining myself to be in Mumbai on a Saturday, probably spending some lazy time on Carter Rd (which used to be my fav place back then in 2009, having just moved to the city of dreams). But, here i was, in Raipur, having completed a discussion with a truck fleet owner over freight tariffs, and having called my household after a realllly looong time from the godown phoneline, (all thanks to Idea, who disconnected my old Gujarat no sometime on Wednesday morning even though i was well within my credit limit and had not exceeded the pay-by date) heading back after having spent a week in the Chhattisgarh capital. The cab came just about in time, the hotel staff (who apparently had been running this hotel for the last couple of years without any capital infusion as the owner was one of the prime accused in the Jessica Lal murder case)  took just that little bit longer to settle the bills and i think there was even a delay at a level railway crossing in between. My anxiousness was a little eased when we completed the remaining city stretch quickly and headed onto the highway. And shortly after we turned right into the final stretch of the tree (and there were lots and lots of those ... and looked like the kind of trees that would yield furniture grade timber) lined road which led to the airport. You could tell CG is a naxal infested state as there were bunkers by CRPF at several junctions on that road. Anyhow, i reached the airport, checked in at the counter decked up with heart shaped balloons, was denied security check by a rude female CISF constable, and made to wait as Rajnath Singh was also boarding a flight with his cronies. Imagine watching the powerless president of a political party on the decline, whose entire campaign for the upcoming elections was built around one man, (something that they borrowed from their main rivals i guess) moving around with an air of self importance fuelled by his entourage, as you are held up. This was, after all, Raman Singh's turf and finally i got through security and made to wait as they were boarding only the first 10 rows. I should have understood what that would mean but alas i was too busy reading Gladwell. It was a frigging turbo prop with the luggage compartment so small that i had a hard time stuffing my bag into the bin and fending off the air hostess who was trying to convince me to put that in the cargo hold. (Normally i wouldn't cross a lovely looking lady but this was a Calcutta-Raipur-Indore-Ahmedabad hopper flight and i had to change at Indore in a very short period) Now my travel agent also has a sense of humuor. I had arrived in an Indian Airlines flight, and was leaving on Valentine's day in a Kingfisher airline, but very shortly afterward would switch planes and board a Kingfisher Red, the erstwhile Deccan :X  Even by my pathetic standards, i felt i had lowered my chances of getting struck by Cupid ... or for that matter, anything good coming out of the day. And my fears started to come true as the portly man clad in a knit driving cap and refusing to switch off his cell phone even after repeated requests by the stewards, (the kind of people you are likely to encounter in NCR golf courses speaking their version of Punjabi-ised English. This one though was a Gult which i deciphered because the airline's policy of addressing passengers by their last name instead of sir.) started feeling unwell shortly after take off.
But somethings happen when least expected and leave a strong impression on us. This was one such moment where instead of getting frustrated or annoyed, the lead cabin crew, Ms Shefa (yep, i still remember her name) actually pulled out no stops to ensure this man felt better. Pillows, special fruit salad and juices, even an offer to switch seats. I mean she would have had to bear grumpy passengers, misfit hand baggages, delayed take-offs, possibly traffic jams as well and yet she had so much willingness to do whatever possible to help an absolute stranger. Wouldnt she too have wished to be somewhere with her beau ? (i know there would have been one because of the huge rock i saw on her ring finger). And in the shame of realising my selfishness, i turned to look outside the window and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever ! High above the dusty city was a sky so blue with a slight cloud lining which only served the purpose of adding a deeper tinge of rouge to the red horizon by reflecting the dying sun's rays. And whatever annoyance i was feeling and would have felt at Indore when i was asked to go out of the airport and re-enter from the departures gate as the connecting passage for transit travellers was closed because of renovation work, vanished. If anything, it only made me see the funny side of getting in with a hard printed boarding pass instead of a ticket :) There are few things worse than self pity .. but sadly, sometimes, that is the best cure for some wounds that have been reopened ... few places as disturbing as an abode you cannot call your home, yet sometimes those are the best places to find and redefine yourself .... few days that will taunt you of things past and future, and yet bring out your best in the days in between. And yet, there are days when you take away the reason for those taunts, places that are home away from home, and feelings that let you indulge yourself and indulge with the world at the same time. And in my case, all six, and probably more, came together on 14.02.2009.
A day when i was dressed up the way Bobby Deol did for most of the part in his movie Chamku - black shirt, blue jeans.

you'll never know

you'll never know what is unsaid ... you'll never know what it means when it is said ... you'll never know why it was supposed to be what it meant ... i guess i'll never know what that look implied ... never know what went on when i sat there watching it all happen .... i guess i'll never know what that smile meant ... guess i'll never know why the page is still blank ... probably i'll never ask and if asked, will never be told.
and guess what, i'll never say things that should have been said ... will never probably be asked things that are only seen and guess i'll never smile again. so waddya get to know ?

kyun ....

why do i write this blog now when i should be reading the newspaper ... why do i still have the cricket on the tube instead of the daily dos of gana-bajana ..... why am i doing something i have done so many times before .. why am i still not in bed ... why am i paining myself ? kyun mera man .... like a lot of other questions, this too will probably not have an answer. some of the earlier ones would. to justify things for a shortwhile only though. and i thought i had reached this stage where i had curbed impulsive behaviour. if nostlagia didnt bring that familiar feeling, it wouldnt be of any use. maybe i do it only to assure myself that i am familiar with the surroundings .. sometimes through assimilation and reflection on what was taken in without due attention, sometimes by shutting out the queries. the search for familiarity, in more avenues than one remains the only familiar thing. what you dont try, you dont learn. what i have learnt is that some things are not meant to be. what those things are, i may not know just yet. did you say why ? you gotta be kidding me

Veri-Car

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

now in all humility, let me acknowledge that this will at best be a partial review, and in all probability, not the only one. There are reasons for that. The review and it being the way it is.

i have not availed of the services of the company, and whatever i know about the company is from the website and what one of the founders told me. which is where i get the small bit of authority on writing this review from. Having known Jayesh, aka Jaggu for roughly the last 3 years, i can add my opinions with some legitimacy.

Now as a concept, this sounds good, and unlike good sounding concepts, makes a lot of practical sense. I mean, when it comes to used car deals, one can never be sure. after all, are you going to trust the garagewallah you barely know ? or some good friend of your neighbour who can get you a good deal ? The only pitfall though is that whicle this service exists, there will still be people who will be naive enough to get duped. (truth be told, i have no great records of deals myself and any thought of negotiating a house rent still gives me cold sweat).
So while the self congratulatory notes of having bagged the best deal may be a lil short in coming, the comforting pat on the back for not having been duped will be a plenty.

As a sustainable business model (just like every indian has a view on cricket and on politics, every MBA and her ilk of PGDxxxMs has a view on sustainability, no matter how removed she/he maybe from running a business ... and hence, like a slightly bigger cog in the wheel i must express mine) thereis a slight hitch. Every car will have to be physically inspected by experts which puts physical constraints in terms of the availability etc. The other thing will be to maintain consistency and to ensure there is no dilution in the quality of service as they expand. Believe me, since the whole issue of evaluating a fair price is subjective, there will always be a lot of questions. The buyer needs some comforting and reassurance that the price evaluated by vericar is indeed close to the fair price. (statistically, the error could be x type or y type and the validity of the assumptions would again be subject to the t-test etc for a foolproof analysis, but lets leave that to the PGP-1 kids for the time being)

and having known Jayesh, i am sure that with his expertise and knowledge of cars, his judgement is bound to be as close it gets for mortals. and having known Jayesh, i am sure, that withi his sense of fairplay, the assessment is bound to be as close to impartial as it gets for immortals. And since Krthikeya is a well known face from TV, i think the guys hwoudltn have too much of a problem convincing about their credentials.

The one problem that i foresee is reaching out to their target audience. since this is a relatively new territory, this could be a bit of a challenge. Vericar does have its "inventory" of second hand cars but again that is an area where these guys willbe up against the Maruti true value type dealerships. The one advantage that these guys will have is that there is nothing the seller stands to gain when her/his car is added to the inventory.

Finally coming to the website, its basic and simple. it tells all that these guys do and all they dont. (mind you thats just as equally important) perhaps a lil more on advisory services on which model to buy could be highlighted. One gets the feel of a simpe, transparent and no-compromise team which is very essential since the typical second hand car sale is about "mandvali" and "vyavahaar". (Note the bit on washing utensils) Though there is also a subtle hint that this might not be for all and sundry.

Having known Jayesh, this is not gonna stop here. and while i wait for them to grog big and really big, i hope my contributions in the form of the primary IM interview i gave him before he went on to get a fullscale online survey will be acknowledged in the form of a coupon that i can auction :D To take lines from Jaggu's mail, i think the weird ideas that keep these guys going will ensure that in the midst of child birth and nurture, the courtship does not get lost ;)

Here is four stars for doing something different and useful at the same time !
http://www.vericar.in

Duuurrrr ...

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

what journeys to lesser known places would bring is probably the one thing that has kept mankind going for ages.
what drove me there was sheer headonism. and without the least bit of guilt this narrative begins on Christmas day, 2006. Jerin Raja left for his hometown Coimbatore leaving behind the keys to Pushkar's bike and with a plan in place for catching a movie at Crown, Vijay, Ashley, Srinidhi, Madhu, and after a certain while Rajesh paaji and urs truly set off towards Calicut city. The intention was to catch a movie, check out the Taj mahotsav and wind up the day with a nice dinner. After stopping for a while at the local Church we finally reached our destination - the city hall where a singing competition was in progress. Though most of the songs were in Malayalam, they were still very likable because of the distinct style lent by influences of Carnatic music. You dont get to hear tht quite often in the north, just like you dont get to hear a participant singing Md Rafi's "Ehsaan tera hoga dil pe" :) Oh, i forgot to mention, the next screening of "Kabul Express" was to take place nearly 30 min after we arrived and hence we changed course to the city hall right next to Crown. The seating arrangement was quite vasic with he wooden and iron benches that reminded me of seventh standard classroom benches but then in a communist state where the public transport is still ridiculously cheap and the 25p coin is still v much in circulation this was quite a luxury. The hall had photographs of well known people from Kozhikode hanging from the walls and veryone seemed quite happy in those B&W photographs. Did the oldies know something abot staying happy that we didnt know ?
Well, the show must go on and so must the audience ... so we proceded to have some authentic Sharjah shake, window shopping books and watching kids tumble accross the nearby ground ina giant ball. This apparently was a part of the Malabar Mahotsavam, which was a North Kerala tourism promotion carnival. The movie was also quite nice.. with some parts being very touching. Wonder when would someone make a sensitive movie about Kashmir or North East like this. I also unearthed a hidden talent for directing movies with a perfect prediction of the last scene .. some platonic relationship this :DD
The giant tumble-roll ride apart, the main draw was the bungee jump being organised at the beach with the rest of the attractions. I do not know whether in my lifetime, time travel will be possible but what i do know is that long walk along the beach from the parking lot to the bungee jumping stall transformed me into a 5 yr old who knocked down almost half the enclosure wall when got a chance to drive his first toy car, who gaped wide mouthed an yr later watching the giant columbus ride at Appu Ghar. (those were the pre-Essel world days remember !). I do not know if i clutched on to Rajesh paaji's finger just to make sure i didnt get lost. Anyways, got a medical chekc up done, signed up papers saying the organisers wouldnt be held responsible for anything that happened to me and got all strapped up waiting to be taken to the vantage point. And thats when they sent up a promo joker (or was it someone dressed like Santa Claus ?) and then they sent up a non-promo joker. The bloke who had been before me in the queue was the all too macho stud, who kept cribbing why the height had been set at 120 ft instead of the max 120 possible and why the chords were so adjusted as to ensure that the distance between the jumper and the ground didnt go less than 15 ft. and when he went up there, he stalled for 5 times. Finally the half hour hooter went off signalling that if he didnt jump then, he would have to come down and forego his chance completely ! bugger jumped with his eyes closed !! And finally it was me :)) Yyyyiiippppeeee :))
i wonder if it adds to the sense of excitement if you do something that has been forbidden by your parents :D I would still have been just as excited had they been watching me take that lift. The view from the top was absolutely stunning. The whole city on one side, the vast expanse of the sea on the other, a wonderful breeze blowing, and the komrades cheering from somewhere within the crowd. My friend Ram Bux once told me a touching story of how the taste of a particular Halwa stayed with him for an entire lifetime. It was a similar kind of an expereince i had that day. While memories fade away with time, this one just got sharper. The subconscious mind kind of edited and enhanced the images formed without my glasses :) And then came the big leap. It was 1...2....3..Jump ! the whole world that looked so small suddenly kept getting larger. the fear that suddenly clouded my senses and almost overpowered my will to jump was beginning to disappear. It sort of drew back to mind the deliberations i had had a few days back ... you know you are secured by a chord but then what if the chord breaks. and as i was jumping, the ground semed to be getting closer, and then the doubts resurfaced, did i place too much trust on the chord ? and the chord kicked in. the next few seconds were something that i had never expreienced before and have not experienced since. When they talkin about living for the moment, they probably talk about a bungee jumper. Each milli,micro,nano,pico, atto-second was unique in itself. There are very few moemnts in life when you forget who yo are, where you are, what you are doing. your senses shutdown. your voluntary muscles become involuntary. all the neurons in the body are only focussed on taking in as much of that feeling as possible. this was one of those. weclome back to earth could have been, what the guy who finally caught me as my mid air swinging drew to a close, said. i was finally liberated. its like this - winning your independence is a big thing but then the day you become a sovereign socialist democratic republic is just as big if not bigger. for me this was my realisation of my independence. i was liberated.
On we went to Paragon, a pucca malabari food joint where Puttus with fish moily felt like ambrosia. a very spicy ambrosia. I had been there once with Vishal Bondwal and Atul Nair. and i had decided that i would be back one day. and here we were. luck by chance ? maybe :) Unfortunately i would never have any photographs to remember that day by. But what i do remember, will be more than a camera can ever expect to capture. my memories may not remain as consistent through the days, but then, no living thing ever does !
.....

that umbilical chord you can never part with ..

life is like an old song ... you dont often remember what it was but you know you liked it and no matter what you are today, you will still like it ... sometimes you try too hard to recall the notes, try to hum along and get the words right ... sometimes you simply continue to relish as layer after layer of dust hiding the memory is brushed off .... sometimes the song will remind you of others of its creed, maybe giving rise to an occassional confusion or comparison even ... at other times, it creates a void, and fills it the very next moment with its glory ... sometimes you rush into it ... you do want to listen to it again, but its best heard when it stops you in your tracks ... you are able to appreciate the wholeness of it, and yet pay every attention to the minute details ...
whichever way, it does take you on its own course, ... perhaps this is why they say "on a song", floating, drifting through the air like the musical notes ... rises and falls, begins with words ends with sounds but for those 5 minutes when it does hit you, its all that matters, its all you need to know.