Development and Dependence

I think all of us agree that we as a community have evolved over time or in other words have made progress in technology and other spheres of life which makes our life easier. Man has landed on moon, we have made all kinds of gadgetry which make our day to day activities simpler. We as a community feel proud of these achievements, but then what get missed out is that all these developments have made us more dependent on external environment. We have become so much dependent on some many things that missing any one of them makes our day miserable.

In order to survive we of course need food and we also need emotions, which in my view cannot be done away with. There are other things which are not necessary for our survival per se but then we get an ‘addiction’ for it.

I was trying to figure out what are things which I am ‘addicted’ to apart from basic necessities of life. Here is the list such things in order of their priority (please note the list is not exhaustive, however I have made an earnest effort in this regard):

• Internet – Gmail, Orkut, Yahoo!, Blogger, Google
• My Cellphone
• Transportation system – Central Railways (Harbour Line), BEST and auto-rickshaws
• My radio
• My Computer at work
  

I don’t know whether the so called ‘development’ and ‘progress’ which has made us more dependent on external environment is for our good (or otherwise) and that its absence makes our life miserable. I don’t what to call it ‘development’ or ‘dependence’ or ‘decay’(!!).

Current Muzik: Abhi alvida mat kaho doston
Current Mood: Unstable

My First Newspaper Article

My first article was published on September 06, 2005 in DNA. It was about Sania Mirza’s loss in the US Open – 2005, I must admit I did not watch the match neither do I follow her progress too closely, but I was just testing my writing skills. I just wanted to write something and test whether it is good enough to be published in a newspaper. The article was written in a short time interval and is quite uncharacteristic of the way I write as also the topics on which I write but then it was just a trial piece. I promise to put a better one next time round and will try to update my this page more often.

Current Mood: Cheerful

Current Music: Ye Khabar chapwa do akhbar mein, poster lagwa do deewar mein

Aski “De DNA” De Casta”

Loosing is the name of the game

What do we have for loosers? Interesting question to dwell upon. How many winners have you ever seen in your life I am sure you can count them on your fingers. So the world is full of loosers, that means a handful of winners rule the rest of the loosers., hence Pareto’s analogy is perfectly valid.

It has been professed by many that winning is the name of the game, but then if we have so many loosers out here. Obviously there is an inherent fallacy in this argument, as only a handful can be winners and the rest are branded as loosers. So if we take a representative sample of the society then loosers outnumber winners. So not all people can be winners although everyone aspires to be (baring a few exceptions yours truly included). So winning is a dream and loosing is a reality, in other winning is a myth or a mirage.

Consider a hypothetical situation when we donot have success (read winners) then one can argue that life would become boring and mundane. This argument is again based on the “product-process” assumption of life and success would have more weightage for people who lay more emphasis on product. After all in this game there are winners who can be counted on fingers and even in their life success comes towards the end. The so-called (or shall we say self-proclaimed) winners also loose and interestingly they loose most of the time in their life, but attain the title of a ‘winner’ through their few successes.

Ramana Maharshi professes that “Success develops arrogance and the man’s spiritual progress is thus arrested. Failure on the other hand is beneficial, in as much as it opens the eyes of the man to his limitations”. Further he says Defeat is nothing but opportunity lost in disguise so it should be welcomed. I fully subscribe to his views. Although winning could be a driver however it would be detrimental to neglect losses.

The point being if we have so many loosers and very few winners who loose most of time then why cant be rename the game as “Loosing”. Lets change the paradigm to “Loosing is the name of the game”.

Aski “De Lusser” “De Casta”

Current Music : Jo Jeeta wahin sikandar aur jo hara woh hai bandar !!

Current Mood : Cranky

Turbulent Tuesday : Capsule version

Mumbai was experiencing an unusually dry period during its monsoon season, it seemed as if the rain gods were somewhat angry with Mumbaikars. But on 26/7 the adage ‘it never rains, it pours’ was once again proved true at Mumbai. Mumbaikars witnessed a record rainfall of 99cms, which is the highest downpour over the past 100 years. The drains in ‘city of dreams’ was unable to soak the amount of H2O which had rained on the fateful day.

The rains played havoc with transportation network of the city, Mumbai’s lifeline is its local railway network. The railways service was indefinitely suspended and millions of commuters were stranded in the island city. 60% of city’s taxis and a number of cars, buses had broken down, and most of them were abandoned in the middle of the roads which added to the mayhem. Water-logging and breakdown of vehicles resulted in a grid-lock situation and the city which is known to be on the move was deprived of its speed. All the cell phone networks were choked (with water !!) and ATMs were not working as well. People were on the roads for more than 24 hours, some without food or water, completely drenched in water.

But then remarkable aspect of the city and more importantly its citizens is its ability to counter adversity. That day I had witnessed the indomitable spirit of Mumbai, although stress and anxiety could be seen on their faces it did not loose its composure, it never pressed the ‘panic button’. Mumbaikars were going out of the way to help others, I was really moved when I saw a 70-year old man distributing water to the public and then providing guidance to people who were stuck in the grid-lock. Some were offering biscuits, food, water and helpful guidance to the stranded commuters, in fact such people had turned out in numbers. I cannot imagine if such a thing can happen in any other city of India. The reason for this behavior is both the geography as well as most residents at Mumbai are migrants from other parts of the country who share a common aspiration. A typical Mumbaikar is ambitious and bonds develop between strangers either in the compartments of trains or outside as most of them face similar problems and share common goals. This is the true colour of Mumbai which was highlighted on the Turbulent Tuesday.

As a result of the rains there were four water bodies which had formed between my workplace and home. I had named them as [Daddar water-body = Arabian Sea], [King Circle water body = Atlantic Ocean], [Chunnabhatti water body = Pacific Ocean] and [Chembur water body = Indian Ocean]. (Please the nomenclature has been made after careful assessment of the size and magnitude of such water bodies). It took 24hours for my voyage from the 20th floor office at Cuffe Parade to my sweet home at Vashi, whereas on a normal day I cover the same distance in 1.5hours.

It was an experience of a lifetime and I learnt a lot during this journey. I saw hope in everyone’s eye when I entered VT station, this hope was fatigued out to anxiety which transformed into agitation and protest. But at no point of time did Mumbaikars loose hope, I could see millions of people walking down their way to reach home and it was hope which was their driver, fuel and engine. I even saw some kids playing water-polo in the ocean, which was something they always missed during a routine day, it was amazing to see some people enjoying even at such hour of natural calamity. I witnessed the true Mumbai attitude of ‘never-say-die’, they were always bubbling and buzzing with activity, trying to help the commuters with whatever was possible for them.

I learnt that money cant buy everything (for anything else you have MasterCard), in such circumstances it does not matter how rich or how much money you have, as all are equal and everyone from the blue-collar employee of an MNC to a clerk at government department was walking down the streets at the same pace. It made me realize that patience is a great virtue and when something is inevitable enjoy it.

As I reached home I switched on my television set to follow the developments of the flood situation in the city. But I must admit what I saw over television was completely different picture from what I had experienced on the ground. All of the channels (expect one) were critical about the failure of the system to face such a situation. They were trying to sensationalize the news and some of the reporters also tried to victimize and single-out innocent workers. I must admit I saw a normal worker/citizen was extremely helpful, there may have been a lack of communication from system. What right does the television media have to criticize and victimize people, when it was not doing its own role of reporting facts and provide objective analysis properly. Moreover, in such hour of need they were trying to play for ratings which was really sickening. On the contrary the FM radio channels were extremely honest in their reporting of facts. They were providing insightful information about traffic situation and water levels in different parts of the city. They had also tried to bridge the communication gap between the people, who could not contact their relatives and loved ones. I think television media which has a much better coverage should be more responsible in its reporting of news and should provide due credit to heroes who deserved it . It should be more pragmatic in its approach and should portray both sides of picture, rather than always blaming it to the system. (I was wondering if the quote of JFK holds good for Indians and India "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country").


Current Mood : Damp
Current Music : ‘Lagi aaj sawan mein phir who ghadi hai’

I encourage readers to read the graphic version of my experience of the Turbulent Tuesday here.

Aski “De Damp” “De Casta”

Turbulent Tuesday : My Graphic Experience

My friends started pouring me with calls at about 4:15 pm informing that it has been raining heavily and Harbour line (one of the three lifelines of Mumbai on which I travel) trains have been suspended since 3:30 pm. Incidentally, my parents had planned their return trip the same day, and I had planned to start by about 5:45pm from my office at Cuffe Parade to reach Lokmanya Tilak Terminus reach by 7:00pm well in time for the train. But then rain gods had chalked a different course for my return back to home.

To rub salt to most of my colleagues our employer had put a group memo informing that there has been heavy rains and in view of this all employees can leave office by 5:15 pm (as against 5:45 pm, while most employers at Mumbai had advised their employees to leave by 3:30 pm). As a sincere employee following my employers advise and as per my original plan I started from my office at 5:15 pm. There were heavy showers welcoming me outside my twentieth floor office and all taxis refused to take me to VT, so I decided to take a bus, but then I got a pooled taxi for VT. Soon, we had realized that there was great traffic jam at VT and Churchgate (the hub railway stations for central and western railways respectively) stations and my taxi mates soon ditched me halfway to VT to walk it down to VT and our taxi guy got four more guys to take them to Borivali. So I decided to walk it down to VT, storming my way through the heavy downpour I reached VT.

On my way to VT, I was trying to imagine VT on the eventful day, to my surprise I saw some of the amazing scenes as I landed up at there. There was total chaos, all trains were suspended, the platforms were flooded with people along with some water as well. I could see the anxiety and desperation on the face of Mumbaikars, everyone was panicky which further added to the chaos. The sales of the teashops and chip-stores hit an all time high, it was big business for the taxi guys as well. Such people were trying to increase their personal wealth at the expense of the common man’s helplessness, economist may term this phenomena as “rent-seeking behavior”. However, when a buyer is willing to pay a higher price (than otherwise under normal conditions) for goods/services rendered to him/her, and as long as such a behavior is acceptable to both the buyers and sellers then such a deal should be okay with the market/society. Interestingly, it also shows that money cannot buy everything (for anything else you have Mastercard, what say!) and it should be the only driver in an individual’s life.

Moving on with my journey back home, as trains were suspended I decided to hang on at VT so that I could catch the first train back to see off my parents. I was expecting a delay of about two to three hours, but then I could never have imagined what happened eventually. I got a comfortable seat in the first class compartment I managed to a few hours of sleep in the train. I could feel the frustration building up in the people as there was a lack of communication from the railway authorities. This frustration was transformed into agitation and people were demonstrating in front station master’s office and police was trying to disburse the crowd, while some of the people were blowing horns of the trains to mark their protest. An expression of exhaustion was added to the people’s face as time passed through and everyone was eagerly looking at the indicator to show some signs of activity.

My latest gizmo (interested readers can read about my gizmo here) was my soul companion and was serving me well in this hour of need, the FM channels were serving generous doses of traffic updates and the expected time of resumption of railway services was quite handy. By now I had developed verbal communication channel with my co-travelers in the compartment and I even had a short debate with co-traveler who was critical on the railways about its efforts to restore railway service, which I refuted adamantly. In the meanwhile there was an announcement that trains may start after 10:00 pm and hopes of people were raised only to shatter it sometime later. I was running short of cash, so tried to withdraw money from the ATM but without any success as people had already withdrawn all the available cash in the ATMs (infact I realized later that all ATM networks were down). The cell phone networks were jammed till now as everyone was trying to call their near-ones to give their whereabouts and well being. To my surprise my service provider’s network was working well and I was able to receive and dial calls to convey my well being to my parents who now had decided to stay on at Mumbai.

There was hope among my co-travelers that the train would resume service by 4:00 am (of next day morning), but the clock was indicating 5:30 am and there was no signs of activity. My co-travelers were losing hope and they were discussing the possibility of taking a taxi to Vashi. Finally, four of us decided to take a taxi but then getting a taxi in this rains was also a tough ask. I was not too convinced about the idea of taking a taxi but then I went with the momentum of my co-travelers. There was a huge crowd outside at Times of India building to ‘grab’ a bus/taxi. Finally after half an hour (at 5:30 am) of struggle in the rains we got into a taxi, and zoomed through the abandoned streets of Mumbai.

Till now I was unable to gauge the gravity of the situation, but while we were on our way I could see some amazing scences on the road which made me realize that the road ahead was not going to be easy. There was knee-deep water at Matunga circle there were many cars stuck in the pond however our taxi driver drove astutely and we managed to cross the pond. There were cars, taxi, buses and two-wheelers lying in the middle of the street, which added to the road block. This was an indicator of the havoc which rains had ruled the previous night, there were broken trees on the roads. I now figured out why it was such a difficult task to get a taxi and that how lucky we were (my estimate was about 60% of the taxis were grounded on the roads and the balance were stuck in the traffic jam). In a record time of 30 minutes we reached Sion circle which made added excitement in the atmosphere and there was a talk about reaching Vashi in another hour or so, but then I was still in disbelief. After witnessing the carnage at Dadar and Matunga I could not subscribe to the ‘popular perception’ of reaching home early but was hoping that I would be proven wrong.

After reaching Sion circle all our joy had died very soon as we had crawled about 100m in the last one hour, it was now 9:00 am. Suddenly the taxi’s engine died and the driver tried hard to start it but without any success, I even pushed the taxi in the rains hoping that it would restart. We paid off the taxi and then started walking towards out home we were asking all taxi drivers on the way if they would drop us but then no-one was willing to drop us. We had only covered 200m and a great pond greeted us, the water was neck-deep and there were kids playing water polo and there were some people who were trying to cross the great ‘Atlantic Ocean’ of Mumbai. I was in no mood to get wet in this season and decided to wait in a BEST bus which was destined for Deonar which was on my way to Vashi. We got a comfortable seat in the bus and to our surprise the bus embarked on its expedition across the ‘Atlantic’, its engine was on full throttle and it was creating waves in the ‘Atlantic’, water entered the bus and reached the engine as well but then we managed to cross. I could see the fumes coming out of the engine but I must congratulate the designers of the engine who made it possible for us to cross the great ocean. Everyone in the bus and outside we cheering the driver in this great ride, I have doubts whether Schumacher could such pyrotechnics.

After this ride my hopes were on an all-time high, and I was thinking that now I could reach home by 12:00 pm, but then we had drove into a grid-lock and for the next three hours we would move 50m. It was 10:00 am now and I was hungry and thirsty, there was no toilet around so the situation was quite ‘desperate’. The rains had subsided and the only things which were moving were humans who relied on their foot, I of course did not have much faith on mine, so I was waiting in the bus. In order to diffuse my anxiety and tension I switched on my gizmo which gave me periodic updates on the situation as well as some ‘dhinchak’ remixes. I waited and waited, I even had a short naps, there was tea, biscuits and water served to us. People were volunteering to break the grid-lock of traffic. Some were offering guidance to people to find their way, while others gave their mobile phones so that people can convey their status to their relatives.

By now my cell phone was running out of battery and my co-travelers their patience. At 2:30pm they decided it was time to move on foot as the jam showed no signs of movement. I was quite reluctant to leave the bus, but then obliged to the other three. As soon I stepped out of the bus I lost track of my co-travelers I tried to find them but then they had disappeared suddenly in the sea. I decided to cover the rest of the journey on my own, walked about 2kms from Sion hospital to Chunnabhatti flyover and was greeted by several volunteers on the way who were offering water, bananas, food, help and guidance to the people trapped in the jam.

I thought that I had crossed the ‘Atlantic’ and there was no other ocean to be crossed I was mistaken I saw the ‘Pacific’ at Chunnabhatti although the depth of the water was same it was 5 times the length of ‘Atlantic’. I stood at the shores of the ‘Pacific’ devising strategies for crossing the ‘Pacific’ and finally after half an hour of vigorous debate I decided not to get myself wet. I was looking for a truck or bus to help me cross it but there were equally intelligent people like me, who were quicker and more aggressive in their approach. After missing two trucks and one bus I managed to board a truck filled with potatoes to cross the largest ocean of Mumbai. The truck was then packed with people who were equally intelligent but less aggressive in their approach than me. The ‘Pacific’ looked awesome although its grandeur was reduced over the period of last eight hours with water draining into Arabian Sea but still it managed to divide the city into two halves. With some fight I managed to deport from the truck and almost lost my spects on the way.

I walked towards Suman Nagar signal at Chembur and saw there was still ‘Indian Ocean’ to be crossed this time I was not too lucky to get a lift easily I had to wait for another hour to get a lift from BEST bus again to cross the ‘Indian Ocean’ which was of course not as ominous as ‘Pacific’ and ‘Atlantic’. After my voyage across all the three oceans of Mumbai I again started to walk towards my destination, it was 3:30pm now. I managed again to get an autoricksaw till Mankhurd (which was about 5kms from Vashi) who charged me a whopping Rs.100 for a ride of 5kms, but I was happy to give that 100 bucks. After this I again got a lift from a bike to finally reach Vashi at 4:15pm. I went straight to Center One and got myself three pair of socks as all my socks were wet, then tried to withdraw cash from ATM, I tried five different banks but was unsuccessful in all such attempts. Reached home at 5:15 after an adventure across three oceans and one pond over a distance of 35kms exactly 24 hours after I started from my office. On a normal Mumbai day this one-way journey takes me about 1.5 hours but then this voyage made me realize a lot of things which I could not have on any other day.

Current Mood : Wet

Current Music : "Abke Sawan Aise Barse"

Aski "De Wet" "De Casta"