Once Upon a Time in Thapar

"Madam, we promise we will return the rucksacks and the tent, with no damage, in time. It is just 4 days trip madam. No, madam, we don't have the money to keep as security, please please take our watches as collateral". That did the trick, it always worked. (Those were the times, when people still wore watches). We got the basic stuff from Thapar's Hiking and Mountaineering club. It helped that the teacher responsible for the club was our Psychology prof and we had decent image. We had to collect some more items, gloves, jackets and if possible, hiking shoes. We had a lot of friends in the hostel!

This was first of the three trips that we would eventually make on the same trek - Kandaghat to Chail. Patiala to Solan is 2.5 to 3 hours, by bus. By the time we reached Solan it was dinner time. Had stomach full at one of the dhabhas close to the bus stand. Took a local bus to kandaghat. A few hundred meters from the Kandaghat bus stop, a narrow track slopes down to the Ashwani Khad. To get to Chail, one has to go down, cross the Ashwani khad gorge and then back up the mountains on the other side. We waded thru' shoulder tall grass, with candle in a steel glass acting as a make shift torch. We got to the bottom of the gorge and tried to pitch the tent. After multiple failed attempts, we decided to spread it on the ground itself. Mulay and I went around to collect fire wood, while Mahajan got ready to make tea. Mahajan  lit the fire and put the pot to boil. I found some mint smelling shrubs in the dark.Yeah! Mint flavored black tea! Mahajan tended to the chai while Mulay and I lit the left over cigar. Lying down on the spread out tent, watching the stars in the clear sky, it never felt so good. Chai got ready. Mahajan picked the pot from the fire to pour, spilled most of it. What the .... next few minutes, it was free for all, choicest expletives got exchanged. We drank what was left. It was cold, we slept in the spoon position, with blankets on. We were still cold, we took out all clothes, one by one, from shirt, towel to our underwear, from the rucksack and put on top of us.
Morning was crisp, white and bright. It was the sound of mule hoofs that woke us. Mules around us were drinking water from the stream close to where we are sleeping. The guy tending to the mules came over, asked us what we were doing. We sweet talked. We were always good at that! The guy offered us to come to his place for breakfast. We brushed, washed, packed, got ready for the breakfast. We went up the hill on a narrow track, reach a thatched roof house. We sat in the verandha, ate thick chappatis, took some pictures with the host, got directions for Chail, thanked the host and got on the way.

There was a stream to cross. Thankfully, we picked the right spot to cross over, remembering the proverb "still water runs deep". From here on it was climb up the hill.  Mahajan in front, I in the middle and Mulay bringing up the rear. Frequently Mulay and I caught ourselves catching our breath and looking at Mahajan, climbing effortlessly in front of us. "Sala motor". It must have been close to 1pm, we were dead tired.  We must have been walking for 4 hours. We rested under a tree, an almond tree, laden with fruit. Couple kids came and stood on the otherside of the track looking curiously at us. They were shy. We picked some almonds from the tree, gave to the kids. Kids took them and disappeared. A few minutes later kids returned. They had Khira in their hand, for us. The most delicious khira I ever had, juicy. We picked more almonds and gave to them. They again disappeared. A few minutes later kids came back, this time with a man in tow, their father. The guy gave us more Khiras. We chatted for a bit. We learned that the almond tree was also his! Oops! The man invited us for lunch. We politely declined.  He insisted. Never to let go of the 2nd chance, we followed him down the hill. He had a thatched roof house, a veranda in front and stepped farm beyond that. One lady came out of the house, we bowed to her. The man told her to make some chapatis for us. She disappeared in the house. The man took us to his farm. Showed us what was growing, maze and turmeric. He insisted that we take some with us. We talked him out of it. Did not want to carry more weight. What would we have done with turmeric. Chappatis were ready. Muuuuah! Pure nectar. We gobbled 2 each in less time than it takes to say "chappati". With a remaining appetite for atleast 2 more each, I looked at Mulay, ah! ok,  remaining appetite for 4 more, we told the host to stop. Our civility forced us to decline more. Before hunger could get better of the civility, we took some pictures, thanked profusely and left.

Up and down, up and down a  few hills and we weren't sure if we were headed in the right direction. The track did not have mule shit! "Shit! not the right track". We spotted some huts down the narrow path. It was a 30 minute detour to get to those huts. It was getting dark. Before we reached the huts, we ran into this guy, who was leading a pack of mules out of the hutments. He offered to put us back on the right track to Chail. We could see the lights on the hill. A few more kilometers perhaps. Rucksack was feeling heavier, legs were wobbly. It felt as if the last few kilometers are going to kill me. Mulay was almost dead. Mahajan, sala motor! Finally, we could see the road. We got there and sat. Lit the left over of the left over cigar.

Walk on the road was not too steep. We were near the town now. Stopped this guy and asked him for the direction to the Gurudwara. Reached the Gurudwara, payed our respects and asked for shelter. Gurudwaras never refuse. We were allowed to stay in the main hall, on the first floor. We dumped our stuff and came out. Spotted this dhaba. Everything else became a blurr. Rajma, aloo gobhi and tandoori roti. The bestest ever Rajma and the crispest ever tandoori roti that I ever had. In an otherwise very focused event, where nothing came between us and the food in front of us, we only had one interruption when we exchanged expletives on Mulay dipping his finger in Rajma, every time he scooped it up with his roti. We lit remains of the cigar, Mahajan watched the smoke, too tired to talk. We went to the Gurudwara, spread our ground sheet and the tent on the floor. The moment we rested our head on the floor, we were asleep.

The guy must have yelled for a while before we woke up. Its was morning. We had our shoes inside the main Gurudwara hall. Shoot! We collected our stuff and were out in less than 5. On the side of the road was a hand-pump. Ladies filling water at the pump were curiously looking at us as we brushed, washed, and packed. A new day had started and we had to get to Shimla by evening...

A pile of rat shit!

53%  of India ‘s land is arable, as per 2011 world bank report.  In hectares, we have 2^nd largest land area, under cultivation, after US. That is huge. No wonder, this region nurtured an ancient civilization that found it perfect to settle and grow. It was a sought after land for many intruders, who wanted to conquer it and then settle down here to enjoy its riches. However, we in the present are wasting the natural bounty. Infact we have made this huge fertile land our bane.

India is the 2^nd largest producer of rice - 23% of entire worlds output; 2^nd largest producer of wheat - 18% of worlds production, 2^nd largest producer of fresh vegetables – 10% of world production.

What do we do with this bounty? We let it rot! Why, because we want the food to be available for our own countrymen. So, the government buys the food and stocks it. Does not matter if we do not have storage space, we just stock it in open. Does not matter if the food spoils, we still have a pile to look at from a distance and feel happy that we have a pile, even if it most of it has turned into rat shit!

In financial terms this is how it translates – Farmers spend money to grow the agriculture produce, farmers use fertilizers, subsidized by the government to the tune of INR65,000 cr. Farmers get free electricity, in most parts of the country, to pump ground water for irrigation, this translates to approx. INR30,000 to 35,000 Cr. Then there is subsidy on diesel, subsidy on seeds and other miscellaneous schemes that keep getting announced from time to time. Add to this the cost of the effort put in by 50% of our population, which is engaged in agriculture, approximately 600million people.  You are looking at a staggering bill! However, this is just the cost of production. 

Now, comes the procurement time. Government again spends money to buy the produce and stock it. Government has administrative machinery to organize buying and purchasing of the agriculture produce. Government machinery costs money.  For stocking, government creates storage spaces, though grossly inadequate and substandard, these storage spaces consume a lot of money to maintain (at least on paper). Government has many organizations to manage this infrastructure, and logistics of movement of farm produce from one region to another, like FCI. These organizations are overstaffed, inefficient and corrupt to the core, these eat more money.

Then what we do? We wait. We wait for the food pile to turn into a pile of rat shit, so that the cycle can start again!

Am I making case for no food buffer?  Absolutely not. We most definitely need some. But, typical of us, when we do, we overdo. There is a reasonable limit for actual food buffer and there is a way to manage that buffer. Beyond a certain level of actual food buffer, we need to create a financial buffer for food.  We can sell excess food in the world market, pocket that money, invest that money in safe securities, which will earn interest as well, and use it when we have to, during the rainy days, when our buffers run low or when the production in lower.

Ask the Right Questions!

I will ask a few questions and I guess the problem will become self evident. The context of all the questions below is present.

Question 1 - Name the person responsible to ensure Industrial growth in India?

Question 2 - Name the person responsible to ensure Industrial growth in your State? 

Question 3 - Name the person responsible to ensure Social Development - Health, Education - in India?

Question 4 - Name the person responsible to ensure Social Development in your state?

I bet most of you can't answer the above questions. Well, I was not trying to test your GK. I am pointing to a problem of ambiguous responsibility in our government setup. There is no single Ministry responsible for the above. More over, the responsibility between Center and State is ambiguous. How can I hold someone responsible for not doing a job, when I do not know who that person is! 

Our government is not structured it is fractured. Let me illustrate this more vividly -

We have a Ministry of Coal, a Ministry of Petroleum, a Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. If you ask the question, who is responsible for the irritating power cuts even after 67 years of independence, you wont get "a" name. Is it the Coal Minister? Is it the Power Minister? Is it the Petroleum Minister? Or, should by now the Minister of New and Renewable energy be held responsible? Well, to make the matters worse, the responsibility gets fractured even further, if you add the State's power minister in the mix.

So many jokers, but no answer to a simple question, "why do we have power cuts"? Because, Power Ministry can not generate enough power, because Coal Ministry can not produce enough coal, despite having worlds largest coal reserves,  because the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry is not able to sort out the natural gas rates, because the New and Renewable Energy is under funded, because the power distribution companies owned by states are under water and can not afford to purchase power, even if it were available. It goes on and on. We have so many links in the chain that are owned, operated and driven by different people, sometimes with varying objectives, that it defeats the purpose of the whole.

Would it not be a more efficient government structure, if we had only one Energy Ministry, anything and everything related to energy would fall under it, be it the raw material - coal, petroleum, natural gas or the way to extract the energy or the way to distribute it. Then we can hold that Minister responsible, who in turn can hold someone under him/her responsible. It will be a more cleaner, clearer setup.

The point I made above with energy sector is not to say that the problem is only with the energy sector, the problem is widespread.

How do we fix it? First, ask right questions. Answers to those questions will throw up a new structure. 

It is funny and sad to see the small parts working at cross purpose, pulling the whole down!

Born a few thousand years too soon!

Finished reading Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, mind stimulating concepts. I am sharing one here. Types of Civilizations - Type I, Type II and Type III. We are not talking about different social groups here on earth. We are talking about universe wide civilizations. What are these civilization types and how are they different? Let's start with ourselves. We just arrived on the scene, in last 100 years or so we developed some rudimentary scientific capability, we are not even Type I civilization, we are Type 0 and we don't count. The essential difference between these civilizations is determined in terms of their ability to harness more and more energy, as higher energy is the key to unlocking universe’s many mysteries. However, by no means does it mean that there won’t be yet more mysteries to unravel once what are known are unraveled. Type I civilization is what controls energy resources of an entire planet. It can control the weather, prevent earthquakes, manage and channelize volcanoes, harvest the energy of oceans and has explored the solar system. Type II civilization is that controls the power of the sun itself. It does not mean passively harnessing solar power; it means actively mining the sun for its energy, being able to divert it for a specific purpose, to energize massive machines, which cannot be energized by any other planetary energy source. This civilization will begin colonizing the local star systems. Type III civilization is the one that controls the energy of an entire galaxy. It has the ability to harness the power of billions of star systems. It has mastered Einstein’s equations and can manipulate space and time. They probably have also unraveled the mystery of multiple dimensions.

Michio Kaku reckons, that a civilization like ours, Type 0, given our rate of growth, may reach Type I status in a few centuries, from where we are at this point in our development. Thing to keep in mind, life on earth began3.5 billion years ago, we have been in Type 0 status for approximately 3.5 billion years! Given the exponential growth of civilization, a Type I civilization has the potential to transition to Type II in approximately 1000 years. That is when it gets the ability to create Federation of Planets, like in Star Trek. It has mastered the art of manipulating gravitational force by wrapping space-time and hence can reach nearby stars.

Advancing to Type III may take a few more thousand years. Type III civilization will be able to harness the power of entire galaxy, wrapping space-time will be routine way of commuting and doing trade. It will perhaps be able to harness the galactic center, which has millions of super massive Blackholes with virtually unlimited energy. Leveraging that energy, Type III civilization may be able to unravel the higher dimensions and throw some light on why the Big Bang happened.

Given what may lie ahead, I guess I was born a little too soon. I had like to believe that there is rebirth, so that I can come back again in future, to learn and know more about us and things around us!B

Women - How frustrating it must be!

How frustrating it must be, when one realizes that most of your decisions are not yours to make, that most of your life choices are picked by someone else, that you have a voice, but someone else speaks for you. That, in short, is life of a woman in India.

It starts right from birth - whether a female foetus will ever see the light of the day, to growing old respectably - whether she will be taken good care of or not, and everything that happens in between.

The birth of girl child is dependent on the sex of other children the parents may have, the beliefs of in-laws and the society that she is taking birth in. The chances go down considerably, if parents already have girl child and the in-laws are overbearing.

Once born, whether she will get good food or good education depends on whether there is enough left after male sibling's needs have been taken care.

Nearing marriage age, whether she gets a compatible partner or not is all about chance. In our arranged marriage system, it is true for the boy as well, but in case of girl, it is more so. She has to really count on her good luck to land into a good, considerate and loving family. She does not marry a man, she marries an entire family. Hence forth, it is not just the husband who makes the decisions for her, but his extended family members consider their right to do so too. Whether she is able to pursue her ambitions, interest or professional carrier, as she desires, is dependent on how others in the family feel about it. When to have children, when to go to her parents house, when to relax during the day, what day to wash clothes and hair, what to cook, how to cook, what to wear and countless other items, are handed down to her as advice, that "must" be followed. If she dares to not follow the advice and the so called "culture" of the family she married into, she opens herself to cold stares and barbs, at the least, and unspeakable consequences, at the worst.

The most frustrating, I guess, is the time and stage when the oppressed takes on the role of an oppressor. This happens at middle age in life of a woman. During world war II, Nazis had appointed Jews as guards at the concentration camps, these Jew guards were many time more ruthless on their fellow Jews than the Nazis. Something similar plays out here. The executioner however can never be at peace, can one?

Later stage in life, the roles reverse one more time, now the oppressor is again weak and meek. There is new lady master in the house, and the cycle goes on!

 

Tackling Poverty

Key is agriculture reforms. However, there is very little that has been done in this area. Huge workforce is engaged in agriculture, but they are under employed. Too many people keeping themselves busy, doing too little. Not that they are lazy, just that there are not many opportunities. Govt must create an environment where the percentage of population involved in agriculture comes down considerably, allowing consolidation of farms, enabling mechanisation and adoption of efficient farming techniques, resulting in improved productivity.

It is a waste of time and effort to make small farms productive beyond a point. By throwing small handouts to them from time to time, their misery is only being prolonged. Suicides will continue, even with Minimum Support Price regime, free electricity, no tax and waiver of loans from time to time.

Effort should be made to move people out of agriculture into other sectors of economy. Migration of population to urban economic hubs should be encouraged and facilitated. Government on the other hand has been trying to just do the opposite, with schemes like NREGA. Government pays to keep the people poor!

Government should set a growth target of 5% for the agriculture sector, up from dismal 1.5 - 2%. This can not be achieved by throwing money and some crumbs at an inefficient system. The system must be overhauled. It starts with putting someone in-charge, who has the zeal to fix it. Not someone like Pawar, for who agriculture is one of the many things that he does on the side, while he gets some time from Indian politics and International cricket politics.

Till the time that Indian agriculture does not pull its own weight, it will remain a drag on the overall Indian economy, keeping people in perpetual poverty. I wonder what is government's long term vision, if there is one.

Indian Economic Revival - Another Chance Squandered?

Under the political stewardship of the father of India's economic reforms, it is surprising that this government has violated some of the very basic good economic governance principals.  Or is it that this government became so delusional about the amount of wealth or the consistency of maintaining the growth of the heady days of 2006 and 2007 that it took gamble with its finance, which are now coming back to haunt it. Or is it that the people who pushed for some of these economic programs (Sonia Gandhi and Coterie) came from non economic backgrounds and with no leadership vision to see what is right for the nation over next many decades vs. the here and now. Have we again squandered our chance of providing decent living to our people that is not based on grants, but rather on providing people the opportunities to earn it themselves?

Government came up with a bill NREGA - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act - 2005, that guarantees 100 days employment to any adult in the Rural area. However, it is missing one crucial component, guarantee of commensurate output from the States/ Municipalities that execute this program. For all practical purposes, central government just provides wages to people, if they show up for work, even if there is no work.

On one side, people get paid for doing mostly nothing productive, on the other side, the productive part of economy is being starved of labour. People from the farmlands of Punjab and Haryana can testify this. No labourers for the sowing and harvesting seasons.Whosoever is available asks for wages that are many times over what was normal. Labour intensive construction industry is hit equally bad.

It is a double whammy, while the govt is spending tax payer's money on unproductive work, that too something that is locked down for years to come, it is creating supply side constraint for productive part of economy that depends on flow of labour. In a labour surplus country the government policies are creating labour shortage. We are squandering our only competitive advantage in the world, large pool of cheap labour. It is not surprising that we see high inflation in these areas.


Another bad economic decision - Petro products price regulation - When UPA came to power in 2004, under Manmohan Singh, it brought the petro product priving under government control. Contrary to what one would have expected from an economist of Manmohan Singh's stature, he turned the economic logic on its head and killed the open market that was created by the previous NDA regime for the petro products. Many private companies lost their investment and many foreign companies that wanted to enter India, in petro retailing, just pulled their investments out. Now, for last few years, the government is trying to undo its doings by deregulating the petro prices. Once step forward, one step back and a decade lost.

There are so many such instances of economic blindness that it is not funny. 

Tet

Lunar new year is the biggest festival in Vietnam. Locally it is called Tet, short for Tet Nguyen Dan. This year it was on 10th Feb, holidays extend from 8th till 18th. The festivities are comparable to Diwali in India. Markets get decked up, frantic buying happens. Entire population it seems comes on the road on their two wheelers, zipping in all directions. If you want to see a kamikaze in action, this is the place and time! Folks on two wheelers driving on the wrong side of the road, not even on the sides, but middle of the road, ploughing right into the incoming traffic!

Pictures of Old Quarter streets. I found shops laden with different kind of lamps and shinny decorative material.

One site, that you probably wont see anywhere, people transport fully grown Marumi Kumquat trees, laden with fruit, on their bikes! Huge pots are tied to back seat of the bikes that zig-zag their way thru' heavy traffic, that seems to come from all directions at you! Another tree that people buy, for prosperity and happiness during Tet is Peach Flower.

The one below is Marumi Kumquat. In the background, you can probably see a barber. There are a plenty "Barber under a Neem Tree" in Vietnam.

The bushes with pink flowers are the Peach Flower trees.

Government agencies beautify the gardens and roads with flower beds and decorative lights. Hoan Kiem Lake, near Old Quarters, in Ha Noi, is a popular tourist attraction place. The garden along the lakeside is beautiful. Tons of people descend on the garden and click their way to happiness and joy!

Happy New Year!
 

Courage

Courage is often described with reference to someone doing something heroic, under some very stressful, risky or threatening situation. But that is hardly a true measure of courage. Even the most docile of the creatures may exhibit courage, if faced with life threatening situation and left with no option. Courage, in my opinion, is the ability to walk the path that one believes in, when other easier alternatives exist. Courage is displayed by seemingly very ordinary people doing very ordinary tasks. Courage is to do the right thing, when you know the right thing.

Chandni Chowk of Vietnam

Old Quarters in downtown Hanoi is the Chandni Chowk of Vietnam. A must visit place for foreigners. Narrow streets, people on foot, on two wheelers, whatever cars you see are taxis ferrying foreigners in and out of the place, small shops, smaller shops, hole in wall shops, street vendors. Then there is more, people who only own stools, small stools placed on the sidewalks. Stools so small that your knees almost touch your chin when you sit on them. The owner gets you what you want from nearby restaurants and shops, while you sip your beer, watching the world go by before your eyes. Beer is cheap, the one on tap, not sure about the hygiene, costs less than USD25cents. Bottled one, safer, costs USD75 cents.

One popular street intersection is called International corner. This is where you find folks from allover the world, sipping there beers and talking loud.  Weekends have the night market going. Some streets get closed to the vehicular traffic, temporary stalls come up, you can move up and down and get good bargain on lots of stuff.

One word of caution, just because beer is cheap don't drink yourself silly! :)


 

What is there to rejoice?

Stop rejoicing! Stop rejoicing killings, irrespective whether it is killing of a Pakistani soldier or one of our own. 

As much as we are saddened by the killing of the Indian soldiers and the brutality of it, remember the Pakistani soldier that got killed, most definitely is NOT one of those who killed the Indian soldiers. Remember, the dead Pakistani soldier, like our Indian soldiers, probably has a family back in some improvised Pakistani village. The family that has old parents, a wife and may be two or three small kids. A wife, so dependent on her husband that she probably does not even know how to withdraw money from the bank account on her own. A wife, who after her husband is dead, probably will never get to live a normal life, no chance of ever getting married, probably an object of desire for everyone around. Parents who looked forward to their sons yearly leave from service, so he could come and fix things that needed attention - that old roof that required repair, a small patch of land that increasingly yields less crop. Kids, who used to wear their best dress on the day papa comes home for his vactaion. Kids, who now have to suddenly grow up, not put too many demands on their mother, not behave like kids any more! It probably is same on this side of the border as well.

For the two nations, the count is - 2 of own soldiers lost, 2 of the other's soldiers killed, it is even, zero sum. For humanity it is 4 negative. What is there to rejoice?