A Mad Man

 

Picture source

While going for morning walk, I saw a man by the side of the road. He was trying to pull out a long steel bar which was perhaps leftover from some nearby construction work. I did not pay much attention to him and kept going. After half an hour when I was returning, I saw him once again at the same spot from a distance. I tried to understand what he was doing, and here is what I got:

First, he was sitting on the road side, on the ground, in a “palthi” position (squatting). He had a gunny bag besides him. He rose and again tried to handle the steel bar and then it became clear what he was trying to do. Since the steel bar was too long, as the steel bars at construction sites are, he was trying to bend the steel bar into multiple bends in order to put it in that gunny bag! Perhaps in order to carry it to somewhere like his home or to some shop to sell it. Now I took a closer look at him to understand if he was mad. I saw that he had got all his clothes right. But the manner in which he was shaking and moving gave an impression that he was “drunk”! So, in a drunken state, he was trying to bend a long steel bar with his bare hands, in order to put it inside a gunny bag! I was sure that he would never be able to do it no matter how much he tried.

I don’t know what happened to him after I passed by. I don’t know for how many hours he tried to do it or if he fainted or got hit by a passing vehicle, since he was not in his senses. I definitely do not expect to see him tomorrow at the same spot. Whatever happens to him, I wish he gets back to his home safe and stays sober at least in the mornings.

- Rahul Tiwary

How to Avoid Corona Dialer Tune While Calling On Mobile

 

Ever since Corona virus outbreak happened, government enforced a special “Corona dialer tune” which callers have to listen to when they dial anyone's mobile number. It is an annoying monotone which goes on for too long while the person is just waiting helplessly to be able to talk to the person he called. At the time of any urgent need, this caller tune feels really painful. This is why so many people just hate it. We can’t say for sure which is worse: Corona virus of the Corona dialer tune! But, a few days back, I have found a workaround to avoid this painful experience of forced-listening to this dialer tune. And it is very simple!

All we have to do is summarized below:

1.       Dial the number

2.      As soon as Corona dial tune starts sounding, cut the call

3.      Dial immediately again

4.     This second time, there will be no Corona dial tune and call will ring normally.

I wonder why I could not find this method earlier. This is working for my Airtel network and you can try to validate if it works with other service providers networks too. Hope you will like this workaround. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Two Hugging Goats

 

On the way to my morning walk place, there is a ‘mutton shop’ by the side of the road. It is a usual scene to see goats lined up there for obvious purpose. The shop owner would be brining 8-10 goats in one lot; gradually their numbers would fall and before there would be none left, he would bring in the next lot. So, on that day I just made a casual look at the goats and noticed two interesting goats.

All goats were standing there, tied very close to each other, and facing the shop. But one goat on the extreme left was bending its neck and looking at the traffic! I wondered what it was thinking! And then I noticed that the goat next to it was even more curious. That goat was resting its neck over the neck of earlier goat, as if it was hugging the other goat, and was also looking towards the traffic! Rest all goats were facing the shop. It was a weird scene. The goats may not be knowing their fate, but only these two goats decided to have some distraction by watching the traffic (watching the traffic is a stress buster). And one decided to "hug" the other goat, which allowed it to do so, in almost a friendly manner.  

The only lesson I got out of this was that perhaps humor does not leave us no matter which circumstances we are in.

- Rahul Tiwary

Why I Stopped Using UPI for Small Payments

 

Recently, two things happened. First, I stopped making payments of small amounts using UPI (Unified Payment Interface). This may sound strange, but my reasoning was simple. Each time I made payment of a few rupees using UPI, the transaction got recorded in my bank account statement. If I download my bank account statement, it would run over a lot of pages. It would make it more difficult for me to find or track any important transaction, if such a need arises. Even if there is no need to read bank statement, I found it totally useless to have 100 pages of yearly bank statement comprising of thousands of small amount transactions of Rs 10, 20, 30 and so on. Did the designers of UPI never think about it? 

Once I stopped using UPI, I started using (digital) 'Wallet' for making such small payment. I would load my Wallet with a bigger amount, a couple of times every month using debit card or UPI, and then make use of the Wallet for small payments. It made sense, since the small payment records remained in the Wallet app and did not inflate my bank account statement with unnecessary data.

Now, what is the second thing that happened. I read a news that data showed that customers were using UPI for small payments in a big way and the trend would continue! The huge growth in UPI payments had led to average cash withdrawals from ATMs to increase, since people made small payments using UPI and extracted cash only when bigger payments were necessary.

Given my experience, it seemed as if I was going against the national trend. The national trend is towards UPI, while I have given up on UPI already. Does this mean that I, as an early adopter, have shown an early trend of quitting and other people are going to follow me too? Only time can tell.

I have also been thing about how technology is being called up for very simple activities, which is leading to harmful impact on the environment. I find it pretty useless to make computers, supercomputers, satellites, banking software and communication channels – all being called upon duty merely because I want to make a payment of Rs 10 using UPI to my neighboring tea stall. How about climate change and caring a bit about the environment? Why do we need sophisticated technologies (which all result in carbon emissions) for such a simple thing like making a payment of Rs 5 or 10?

It is to be seen which way the trend will go, but my current mood is clear – I have given up on UPI. UPI feels like a cold soulless capitalist machinery to me, which does harm to our environment and does no good to anyone except the companies running the show.

- Rahul Tiwary 

Bhuri Bai - Tribal Artist

 

I happened to see above painting in a newspaper yesterday and got intrigued to know more about the artist Bhuri Bai. I found that Bhuri Bai is a Bhil artist. She was born in Bhil (tribal) community in Madhya Pradesh. Initially she created art on the walls of her home and moved on to to start using acrylic colors and paper to make paintings. She has won many awards including the highest state honour accorded to artists by the Madhya Pradesh government, the Shikhar Samman.

You can read about her here on Asian Age website also:

A few of her other paintings are displayed here on Saffron Art website:

It is really great to see her paintings. I hope you liked those too.

- Rahul Tiwary 

Planning to Live Alone is a Bad Idea Any Day

A news item popped up while I was onto something. It was about some actress who was dead. Actors dying young these days does not shock us anymore, due to the excessive exposure to media and particularly related to Sushant death case. Anyways. Her name was Arya Banerjee.

I checked out the news. Found that she was an actress of only 33, She was the daughter of late sitarist Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. She had a master’s degree in classical music and she worked as a model before moving on to acting. She had done a few movies and she was currently living alone in her apartment in Kolkata.  

According to news reports, she was suffering from an ailment. But she lived alone along with her pet. She ordered food from restaurants daily. Last night, she had some food delivered to her flat, she ate it and fell on the floor and died due to her health problem. She only had her pet (perhaps dog) at home and hence no one knew about her situation. Only next morning when the housemaid came, she realized that the flat was locked from the inside and hence alerted neighbors and this led to the discovery of this tragedy.

I started typing the title of this blog post on Google and was shocked to see that after I typed “Planning to live”, it showed “alone” as the top ranked item. 

If it is not due to some cookies on my browser, it is an alarming trend. It tells that a lot of people are planning to live alone. And perhaps they do not realize the risks in their plan.

It is possible that Arya Banerjee’s unfortunate death could have been prevented if there was any other person in her house. Human beings are very fragile. Life may appear very easy, but in the words of a philosopher, given its fragility, life is a "miracle". Living alone is taking a huge risk. May be in the good days, everything will be fine. But if one is sick or in case of an accident, a small problem can snowball into a life threatening situation.

Let Arya Banerjee’s death serve as a warning to all those who are planning or thinking about living alone. Humans are social animals and we are best fitted for living along with our family, for our own safety and wellbeing. 

Om Shanti.  

- Rahul Tiwary

Cosmetic Tampering With Nature to Develop Pet Dog Breeds

If you notice pet dogs, most belong to certain breeds which have been developed through selective breeding over the time. If we look at different breeds of dogs, some have small legs, some are polite, while some others are dangerous. Humans wanted certain “traits” in their pet dogs, and hence they made them like that through selective breeding. For example, humans “made” some dog-breeds best fit for hunting and some others for companionship. All this has been done through selective breeding, i.e. not through any sophisticated scientific or medical process. But is it “fair” to do so?

When I notice some pet dogs, they have such tiny legs that they struggle to walk. Won’t they feel uncomfortable and if given a choice, won’t they choose to be taller? Some are so small in size, even smaller than cats. Perhaps they would fear even cats. What right humans have to make such small dogs, just because they looked cute, and make their whole life filled with “fear” (from other animals)? This is just a thought.

I tried to search the internet for articles and came across this one:

Any dog lover knows that Labrador retrievers are friendly, Dalmatians are hyper, and Australian shepherds are smart. Some dog lovers also know that Labradors are susceptible to hip dysplasia, while deafness and kidney stones run in Dalmatians. 

Breeding dogs for particular characteristics, or phenotypes, has been going on for centuries. Dogs are companions and workers, in service to humans, and they have thus been bred to accentuate desired traits. For instance, Dalmatians have long been coach dogs, in part because of their striking looks and their comfort around horses. Bred for endurance, they can run alongside horse-drawn carriages all day. When kept as a housebound family pet, however, a Dalmatian's excess of energy can make the dog seem wired and can lead to less desirable behaviors, such as gnawing on furniture.

"These restrictive breeding practices reduce effective population size and increase overall genetic drift among domestic dogs, resulting in the loss of genetic diversity within breeds and greater divergence among them," writes Ostrander, who participated in a landmark study of the genomic relationship of 85 different dog breeds.

I think that selective breeding of dogs just to make them be like something we can play with, is in a way their “exploitation”. If given freedom, dogs would naturally evolve to be stronger, better fitted for survival, and would have better health and wellbeing. But through selective breeding process, humans have reduced their natural evolution cycle and forced them to be like something static. It may not be good for the dogs as species. As we read above, some dog breeds are susceptible to certain health issues. And who is responsible for that?

Humans have been exploiting other species in so many ways, that this form of exploitation won’t be so visible. But just start thinking about it and you would open a Pandora box. For example, do you remember some people who claim to be “animal lovers” but keep pet dogs of breeds developed through selective breeding process? Is it “alright”?

- Rahul Tiwary 

What I learnt from Covid Crisis

 

Ever since Covid crisis unfolded, people have been writing about the ways in which it changed our world and its ways of working. Also, about the changes it did in the minds of people, its impacts on families, the elderly, children and married couples too. If I had to pick one key learning I had due to this crisis, then it is “awareness of our mortality”.

Covid reminded us that all that we thought about life was not "all". No matter how much science and technology progresses, it will keep getting defeated in the hands of certain natural or unnatural forces. There are scenarios which are beyond our comprehension. We cannot be sure about things anymore. We are vulnerable, and it is better if we are aware of that, so that we do not behave like immortals.

Being aware of this fact, I have been working on things which would make better sense. We cannot take things for granted. We cannot assume that we are in control of our life. Uncertainty is real. We have to go about life factoring it.

We also have to be clear on our priorities. There is no infinite time left to us to make patches and adjustments in order to keep going. We have to have a path on which we need to move. And that path we have to make after factoring it that we are not immortals and that things can go wrong anytime.

The Covid crisis and its uncertainties should not mean that we should abandon all long-term planning. It just means that we need to factor in the risks on the way. The crisis did not mean that our value system should change. It just means that we have to be watching ourselves better. We may not assume that we shall live till old age and we have plenty of time to get back on course of life. We need to be on the course from day-1 and we cannot afford tipping.

The way we think impacts our work life, our relationships, our finances, our health and every other aspect of our life. As Covid crisis has made us feel more vulnerable and it is a human trait, it is going to impact our course of life too. I hope it makes me more human, and hence a better human: better than I could be otherwise.

- Rahul Tiwary

Life Story: Stale Food Syndrome

 

Although he does not try to remember the past moments from his marital life, sometimes a few incidents naturally popup in his mind. For example, an incident suddenly flashed in his mind today.

He and his wife were traveling on a short vacation to another city. Since journey plans were made on a short notice and it was just over-night journey, they had booked bus tickets in AC Sleeper category. While making the plan, it never came into their mind that she suffered from a tendency to vomit while traveling on road. Sometime after the journey began, she mentioned that she was feeling a bit uneasy, so he suggested her to carry a polybag in her hand so that it could come handy any moment. But she ignored the advice and said that she would be fine. Just 5 minutes past that conversation, she suddenly vomited directly on his trousers! He was disgusted and furious! He was not furious just because she vomited on him, He was furious because she had ignored his advice and then vomited on him. She managed to bring things in order and did not say anything, after all it was her mistake. But what happened next day was an epic act.

Next day, while they were having lunch, she offered last evening’s vegetable dish to him and asked if he would like to have a bit of that in order to help finish it. He took it readily. And that dish was stale! He ended up with a very bad case of diarrhea immediately after lunch. She had good talent and knowledge of food, so she would know that it was stale. After a few days he had wondered if she did it on purpose. There was no means to know for sure; and he did not say anything about it later. But another time and place, it was not so subtle.

Once at home, she took out some sweets from the refrigerator and started to eat. But as soon as she took it in her mouth, she threw it saying that the sweet had gone stale. He heard that. Then she went to the other room. But she returned soon. She took out some of the same sweet from the refrigerator, came up to him and asked if he would like to have some sweets! He was shocked! He told her calmly that he had heard her saying that the sweet had become stale, so was she trying to make him sick again by asking him to eat it? She did not respond and just left the scene. 

At that time, he had wondered why his wife hated him so much. What kind of wife would purposefully give stale food to her husband to cause him food-poisoning? What did he do to deserve this? But these were questions to ponder only once. Now he knows about things for sure. His wife did not need a reason to hate him. And he did not do anything to deserve this. Not all wives are meant to love their husbands and not all husbands get to get a good wife. It is as simple as that. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Ways in Which Tradespersons Like Plumbers, Carpenters, Masons, Contractors, etc. Can Cheat You

 

Tradespersons like plumbers, carpenters, masons, contractors, etc. work in the ‘unorganized sector’. They do not work under any structured law; they do not always give you money receipts and they do not give any income taxes to the government too. Most of such unorganized worker class come under a shadow economy leading to “black money” circulations (No wonder such workers were most impacted by Indian government’s ‘demonetization of a few currency notes in the year 2016). But there is a worst problem while dealing with them – they can cheat you!

There are several ways such workmen can cheat you because they do not work for you under any written terms or a contract. There is no law guiding their working hours or the wages. They can simply go back on their words and turn your plans upside down. And believe me, when it comes to arguing, or fighting, you will never be able to match them. So, in a way, you should be fully prepared for a “messy situation” if you start any such work.

So, what are the ways in which vendors like plumbers, carpenters, masons, contractors can cheat home owners?

1. Quote high: They can simply quote a higher price from you in case they sense that you are giving work to them based on trust or because of a personal reference. Basically, if they sense that they are under “monopoly” situation, they would charge you more. Therefore, it is always necessary to consult multiple vendors before giving work to anyone,
2. Revising the quote: They can give you a lower quote to get the work and later on near the end of the work, they can claim some cost-over runs or some increase in scope of work and insist that you must pay them higher. This is a trick which allows them win the work contract, because their quote would appear cheapest at the stage where you would be comparing the quote with other vendors. And they can inflate the bill later on, citing n number of reasons.
3. Over-promise and under deliver: They can make high promises about work to get to start the work and later on they can cite many excuses why the promises can not be met. To avoid this scenario, you need to go into details before awarding the work to them, to judge if they are making false promises. This will of course be a hassle especially if you are not experienced with such kind of work.
4. Delay the work due to picking up other work: They can promise a timeline and later breach it because they would have grabbed some other work in between. They may do the other work by making breaks into your work, or they can even work simultaneously by cutting your working hours.
5. Inflate material cost: If you are giving them the responsibility to bring material too apart from execution of the work, they may inflate the bill with a huge margin by either plain cheating, or by buying materials of higher prices/margins from their preferred suppliers.
6. Slow work under daily wage: If you hire the workmen on daily wages, they may start the work fine so that your initial impression is good and gradually they can just choose to reduce the pace of work in order to do the same work in longer duration and hence earn more wages at your expense.
7. Stop the work: They can simply stop working especially near the end of the work if you have already given large part of their wages to them in advance and they may come back to finish the work as per their convenience after a break. They would have taken up some other work or personal things in between while keeping you in dark.
8. Quarrel game: They can simply go back on their promises and pick up a fight with you with aggressive gestures if they get to feel that you won’t be able to fight back or if they feel they can get away bullying you. Although it would feel that this scenario is unlikely, but if you think, there would many such instances; e.g. rickshaw-wallahs pick up even physical fights with passengers very often.

Due to all these hassles, getting work done through such vendors may be a too risky job, unless you are a ‘tough nut’ yourself.

Due to such hassles, a demand has arisen for professional services providers who do the work under written terms and conditions. They have a website, written policies, would work under written terms and they run a registered company. But, as of now such companies are few and far between. Plus, they charge almost the double for the same work. It is still cheapest and simplest option to directly call the workmen and get the job done. But all you need is someone you can “trust”. If you have found such workmen you can “trust”, you are lucky. Personally, I have come across several such workmen who work under strict work ethics and they never try to cheat you. Perhaps for such people the phrase “work is worship” was coined.

Until the time professional service providers match the expectations of customers, home owners will remain at the mercy of the tribesmen like carpenters and masons. And we can be sure that there will be plenty of breaches of trust and conflict situations under the carpet of our national economy for a long time to come. All we can do is to avoid some and fight some. There is no other way.

- Rahul Tiwary

Lesson from ATM Experience: Follow the Herd

 

In India, we mostly use ATM (automatic teller machine) to withdraw cash from our bank accounts. We often need to know where the ATMs are installed where we live so that at the time of need we save the hassle. This incident I am going to describe is from yesterday.

I was at an unfamiliar place using that ATM station for the first time. It had three ATMs inside a room, out of which one was just in front of the entrance door and two were on its left side. While approaching it, I noticed that two men before me went to the third ATM which was farthest from the entrance. I wondered why they left the nearest ATM and went to the farthest. I thought that maybe they did it to ensure privacy, since people from outside the ATM station would be able to see how much cash they withdrew if they did it from the machine near the door. Or maybe they did it because the nearest two machines were not in working condition. But I was ready for any adventure and hence I did not “follow the herd”. I went to the first machine right in front of the door.

I had to withdraw Rs 20,000 and when we are using a machine of any other bank apart from our own bank, we have to withdraw in installments of Rs 10,000 at one go. So, I provided all inputs to withdrew Rs 10K from the machine and waited. Its cash slot opened, it made some unexpected noise, and then it abruptly ‘threw’ currency notes outside with a force! In a few moments, it stopped still. Worried, I picked up some fallen notes and wondered if those were really “all”. I tried to pull out my debit card, but the machine won’t let it go! Now I counted the currency notes and those were less than Rs 10K! But after a few moments, the cash slot opened again and once again it ‘threw’ a few other currency notes and closed abruptly. It also released my debit card for me to collect. Now that the ordeal was over, I counted the amount and it was alright.

Since I had to withdraw another 10K, I decided not to trust the same faulty machine again. So, I moved to the next machine, still avoiding the third machine which the ‘herd wisdom’ was asking me to go to. I withdrew 10K and the second machine which I was using released 10 currency notes of Rs 100! New machine, new adventure! I was not sure if it was my fingers which slipped or the buttons of the machine which did not obey me well. Anyways, now tired of my adventures, I went to the third ATM which was the one where herd wisdom had asked me to go in the first place.

As soon as I started pressing buttons for withdrawing from the third machine, I noticed the difference. The screen was working perfectly, the buttons were working very smooth. Since the ATMs are used by the masses, we are all used to expecting not-so-smooth experiences. But this third machine was working like a machine from heaven! It gave me exactly what I asked it for, and did not attach any adventure along with the “package” (of experience).

After coming out of the ATM station, I felt relieved. What was interesting in this ordeal is that I disobeyed the ‘herd wisdom’ purposefully and I was punished for my decision very promptly. I went in with brave face, ready to face the unexpected and I was served well! I can’t complain.

Perhaps this is how society learns to avoid taking risks and does not buy ‘adventures’. An inefficient and faulty system creates more ripples in the minds of the society than we can see. It changes our behavior and forces us to think and plan in a certain pattern. Technology is supposed to be a great leveler. But, combine it with an inefficient system and a society which does not seek perfection, and you have a series of ‘adventures’ to look forward to.

- Rahul Tiwary