Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business: "
Life seems to be just this. If we achieve something, we are happy; well and good. If we are not able to bridge the gap between expectation and reality it indeed leaves a hole inside us. Then begins the difficult, frustrating and seemingly impossible task of filling that void. We try to pacify ourselves, talk ourselves out of it, settle for the next best thing, believe that what happened was for our best, degrading the value of our expectation, so on and so forth.

But can this void be ever erased from our memory and our whole personality per se? Or do we keep on accumulating such voids throughout our lives. Just try to imagine the sum of all such voids. It will indeed be a very heavy one. A whole bunch of memories standing for missed opportunities, chances, bad luck, regrets. So as we grow up, all these need to be discounted at the rate of “peaceful and boring” normal existence to get a net present value. Is it not really hard to have that, on ones shoulders, even more so as time goes by. The concept of compounding losses???

What is the solution then? Mathematically it should be:

NPV of Voids = ∑(The magnitude of Void)/(1+Normal happiness rate)t

Now this will turn to 0 , which we ideally want as Normal happiness rate tends to Infinity. Since we can’t really control the magnitude of void all the time (Yeah all of us have got a great illusion that we are in total control of our life , but are we really? ), the most obvious answer is to make our normal boring life so happy and content that such voids may come and go without having any effect on us .

The most obvious answers and solutions are the most difficult to implement.The above is what the Yogis and Swamis do. They do not live in the future (or the anticipation of it as sugested by Heiddeger ) like us, thus time variant voids do not matter.
To put it in another way revise your “Bhoole Bisre geet “--- Mein zindagi ka sath nibhata chala gaya …… “Gam aur khushi mein fark na mehsoos ho jaha”. And again we arrive at the same result .
Think !!! :)

"

Lunatic

swooning all over the place.. lungs charred and burning.. music soothes.. nothing else does that.. smoke swirls on and on.. feeling cold.. feeling burnt.. feeling lonely.. feeling depressed... have to stop myself from buying another packet of that slow poison.. let's stay focused this time.. no more... more... more...

What is the job of Indian Government?

India is a country which has so many problems that it's hard to decide where to start with. There are competing avenues of improvement each equally important, corruption, population, and illiteracy to name only a few of them. Such a multitude of choices can perplex anyone not least me who can't even decide what to eat from a menu. There are two easy alternatives in such a case - to give up or to randomly do the needful in different areas to show you are doing something. Life at IIM is a stark testimony to this fact. Well there are other equally inefficient alternatives such as to prioritize tasks according to vote banks. But I think I have hit something new this time and although it might not be new I would still hopefully be providing a new prospective to look at.

A capitalistic economy is said to lead to a fair distribution of wealth and reasonable growth rate of the economy as a whole. It is widely recognized that the job of the Government is to ensure that the economy stays efficient all the time. For example, it is the job of the environment ministry to ensure that environment is not compromised in the mad rush to jack growth rates up, which Mr. Ramesh has been doing pretty well I think. Similarly, it's the job of Government to punish malpractices such as those of Raju Ramalingam and Harshad Mehta. But these are all superficial aspects of the fundamental problems that lie deeper. The act of governance is not supposed to be a reactive one wherein it takes a wrong deed that comes into light in the media to set the wheels in the government turning. It is supposed to be a proactive role wherein the inefficiencies of the system are systematically analyzed. Wherein the risks arising from different trends are assessed and possible contingency plans be made. It is supposed to be an intellectual task which we can't accept the entire cabinet to indulge in but there are committees under all the ministries which see to it. I can not comment on the effectiveness of these committees owing to my limited knowledge but I think they are capable people under incapable puppeteers. I have still not come to the main point.

There is another job that the Government must do other than smoothening out the inefficiencies of the market. That is to ensure fairness. Preventing corruption, ensuring education, building roads, all these are merely manifestations of this one task. They however are not the focal problem. The focal problem remains one - inaccessibility of masses to the growing economy of India. One must look at the root causes of all the impediments to ensuring fairness to the poor masses. Government must prepare a check list of these impediments priority wise and set timelines to work on them and work fast. This I think is the most important task of the government that is faced with the task of ensuring inclusive growth. Inclusive growth is not the right word because it sometimes sounds like it's government's job to feed, provide medical aid, teach, and every other thing to our people. This is not the Government's job. Government's job is to ensure that no one can prevent access to such facilities by the poorest of the poor.

To me, the unfairness of losing your land to the companies which grow at the expense of these poor is the problem. To me, the unfairness of having to pay a bribe on par with what rich people have to pay is a problem. I think bribe is the single-most evil India faces. There should be a different ministry, a different judiciary, different police officials to check it. I think what I am saying is overly simplistic but all I mean to do is to do something.

Sikkim

Feels painful to remember those moments that my friends gave me (painful since I miss them). But happy memories should not be remembered.. they should be relived.... relived with friends forever.

Planning underway....

My friends think that I am much too obedient to my parents for my age. Or may be they think I act like one. Nevertheless it did take me some courage to seek permission for the Sikkim trip. And my father relied heavily on my friends for my safety and all. Well, I don't remember whose idea it was but what an idea Sirjee. It took us no time to hook onto it... no.. Baffna had his own plans (someone remind me what were they). Sippy was glued to his semi-functional PC (later he was to rely upon other people's PCs too) and Mahata was fully motivated to make Shayri proud by cracking IIMs. Hence he needed to stay back to watch more formula ones and IMDBs. Our beloved Marli was positively excited and even I borrowed with much pain someone's rucksack. My father dictated me a long list of items to take to Sikkim (well he has a heavy mountaineering experience). I would suggest others post their comments on their own preparations as well. I will continue. So it was on one eventful day that we got to Krishna Air travels (a small kiosk between Azad and Nehru which people mostly use for taxi bookings and railways tickets... we were also not planning to use airways). We had felt the need to keep a track of our expenditures very early on and it was Shashvat who took it upon himself to manage the accounts (I don't know how he is studying engineering and I am doing accountancy here). We made arrangements and couldn't wait to get going.

Resuming after 6 and a half years...

1. Shakkin - The bad luck charm

It was probably our first time travelling on our own - what else could explain the bad luck charm we seemed to carry right from the start. The charm accompanied us right from the start. It was there when Shashvat and Rahul got left on the platform and had to board on a different bogey. It was there when Marli couldn't contain it.

That was funny. I don't know which station it was - probably, Mecheda. Marli would later go on to take keen interest in risk management in his professional career. Well, that struggle with finding a toilet on that long platform might have been his first test in risk management as well. There were too many uncertainties involved - how long the train would halt, how far the toilet would be, which direction should he have gone to, would he get another train in time. We would never know what different thoughts crossed Marli's head. It wasn't a big deal though. We had to wait only 15-20 minutes for Marli to meet up with us at Howrah.

What really baked our noodles though was the Shakkin charm's particular effect on Paul da. Nothing seemed to be going right for him. Paul da might have thought it was not a big deal to smoke inside a railway cabin; at least not near the toilet. The policeman didn't think so. Paul da took a real test of Marli's persuasive skills and Shashvat's charming smile. I don't know what deal they struck with the policeman but Paul da seemed to be fine eventually. Well, not for long. A cool part and probably most memorable part of our Sikkim trip was our homestay in Lachung. There was a lot of snow and we would need special boots to walk in it. Unfortunately, there were no boots that would fit Paul da. There was a smaller pair, but either it was for inside the home or belonged to a different gender. Whatever it was, Paul da was in for a series of mis-steps, literally. We lost count of how many times Paul da slipped on snow that day. Well, we were there for him, that's what friends are for :)

It might seem that Avik da and I were particularly immune to this Shakkin charm. I seemed to be more than prepared for the trip compared to the rest of us. While others had to buy extras, I already had my gloves, extra socks, fur cap and what not; all packed neatly in the backpack I borrowed from Nagender. Halu macha raha hai, Chhuara and Marli remarked quite often on the trip.

As to the sincerity of those remarks; well, anybody's guess ;)

2. Noodle Soup

It was a nice cozy shop on the approach road towards Gangtok and the landlady seemed to know exactly what we needed - soupy noodles. Sikkimese like soupy noodles. I have seen this predilection in Southeast Asia as well. Our first experience was right after we had our first experience of river rafting. Or may be just before that. I absolutely liked that first encounter with those soupy noodles.

Over the course of next few days, we had it countless times I think. There were other firsts for me as well, pepperoni pizza for dinner, doughnuts for breakfast. I will always miss that nice combo of Gyathuk/Thenthuk and Bacardi Breezer in a cozy little restaurant on the main street of Gangtok, another first! And those Save Tibet posters everywhere!

3. Marli's fight

Every travel experience comes with its fair share of bittersweet memories. Our botched trip to Changu's lake was one such experience. Apparently, the travel company had known about closed roads; tourists had been returning from mid-way for quite sometime now. Yet, they charged us full amount, didn't inform us that we would have to return mid-way, and to make it worse, refused to refund our money. I was standing outside their shop, looking at the passersby, wondering how they were so fashionable, why this city was so beautiful and so on. I was more irked by the fact that while I was trying to make sense of why I couldn't live in this city, there was a non-Sikkimese person (probably, North Indian), speaking perfectly nice Sikkimese, very much a part of this city, good-looking as well, who also happened to be the owner of this little shop. That he had done us grave injustice somehow had slipped my mind. Probably, that's why I was a Halu.

Well, Marli was not going to let them get away with it. He found an able company in Shashvat; together they took the fight to the police station; who summoned the lady who was irking us. She refunded our money; yes sir, she did. Respect - complete respect was what I felt for the police system of Sikkim and how they seemed to care extra hard for their tourists. I could hear Arpit's and Shashvat's jubilant cries of triumph (or did I imagine that?) while I still contemplated the goodness of the police system.

4. Snow fight

Another fight that comes to my mind is our snow-throwing contest with the Sikkimese girls in Lachung. But, hey, you would be thinking, of course, everyone remembers events involving girls, and that too when you are a young lad wit raging hormones. Well, not to disappoint you, but this memory is not special because of the girls, though I still feel that was cool :) It was Avik da's "Le bahinchod" comment that was even funkier. I mean, you can call guys bahinchod when having a go at them. But girls? That too, sweet pretty Sikkimese girls, the nectar of the valley? Crazy, right? Yeah, that's what we all thought while laughing our hearts out then and then later. A little context for the innocent readers. It happened, when we were taking a nice cool stroll on a road. These girls thought it would be cool to hit us from the road above us, you know mountainous areas, roads can be above you. Thereafter, it becomes hazy, somehow we were facing each other and throwing snow at each other and those girls were bursting with mirth like pearls of ocean. And we were definitely grinning like fools... Well, the party came to an end, when the girls' mother - or aunt or both as I am sure all the girls weren't hers - chose to appear on the scene, looked at them sternly, then said something sternly at them, then stared at us, after that the girls disappeared. I know, raging hormones on the other side too, at least that's what I would believe. It would make me feel that we were cool hunky guys who looked adorable to those sweet pretty girls. We were not feeling sad though, we had Avik's "Le Bahinchod" to munch over :P

5. Small snippets
1. Taking a stroll in Gangtok on our first night - we were returning to our hotel, it had gotten really late, when we were suddenly approached by a shady guy (who still looked harmless) who offered to take us to some disc. "You know girls, you guys can have fun :)" I think, we bought the doughnuts after that. We declined of course.
2. First encounter with snow - when we had almost reached La Chung. We had been seeing it for sometime on distant trees and mountain top while approaching the place. But, here it was, lying right on the road, on the trees, waiting for us to pick it up and make it into a ball and try throwing it for the first time. That look of wonder that we all had, simply amazing.
3. Meeting small Sikkimese children - right before when we happened upon snow, well a couple hours back. There was a TV there, we took a loo break, India was playing some team. And there were these really cute children, small eyes, chubby cheeks :)
4. Marli's camera and Saaya songs - Our road trip was characteized by nice mountain views, Teesta on every turn, lush alpine forests, snow in the heights, waterfalls here and there. We shared the vehicle with another group who was apparently led by an over-enthusiastic guy who was coming for the second time. I was always scared that it would be me who would play that role when we ever repeat that trip? Anyways, our trip was characterized by two more things, Saaya songs, which were actually nice though, added to the feel - and Marli's digi-cam, Marli could be quite stingy or quite gracious about his camera depending on his mood. Depending on his mood, I could lay my fingers on it to snap some clicks of my own. Marli used to take a lot of snaps in the night mode, that was my first camera training, take pictures in night mode, at least till I got a camera of my own.

There are other things I would like you guys to contribute to, I am tired of writing so much.

1. Seeing Kanchenjunga with rising sun in the morning
2. Danny's beer - which I was made to drink 
3. No network connection
4. Hillary vs Obama debate
5. Not able to bathe or wash bum in the morning due to freezing cold water
6. Morning excursion with Shashvat - Yoga on snow in Lachung
7. Night excursion with Avik - meeting a family; sharing a nice time with them
8. Ears full of air when returning due to changing altitude - La Chung to Gangtok
9. Rafting experience
10. Nighttime stroll in Gangtok
11. Morning tea in Gangtok, near the busstop

And add any that I missed. I don't know how to enable sharing on this, but will figure out.