Snow hope left

Who would have thought that a few inches of snow could paralyze an entire nation, and become the topic of every single news channel for several days? The current state of the UK, with headlines such as "Big Freeze" and talk of "extreme weather" with up to 6" of snow makes one wonder if this is really an advanced society that has a developed infrastructure to accommodate crises of this nature. Particularly when this is the third year in a row when winter weather has been unexpected and a formal "Winter resilience review" was conducted to examine how all sectors of transport can effectively respond to and cope with such conditions. The Minister for transport has made sweeping statements about the tradeoffs that need to be made if winter spending has to increase (I'm sure the public would be willing to give up some less favorable conveniences if it meant not getting stuck on the highway!) And there is a continuous reminder that severe winter weather is not so common. Well, three times in a row should be enough for anyone to say "let's be prepared - even if the worst doesn't happen". In that regard, the government's response to the severe weather is in start contrast to their general position on global warming - namely, to adopt the precautionary principle that lack of evidence is not an excuse for inaction. In this case, lack of proof that next  year's weather will be severe is not a reason to not plan for it.

The first step in being prepared for severe weather is to know with a high degree of certainty that snow and ice are indeed expected and the magnitude of the precipitation. Unfortunately, the science of weather forecasting still appears to be in its infancy in the UK, with very little use of doppler radar and continuous tracking of severe weather. This is when you really value something like the Weather channel, with its 24 hr coverage of any severe weather, in particular winter storms and hurricanes. Having radar maps made available to the public will provide greater awareness of weather conditions. At the same time, forecasters need to improve their ability to distinguish between a 2" and a 10" snowfall.

Next, the plans to clear the roadways should be well defined. When snow is expected, plows need to be moved to regions that are expecting heavy accumulations. Given that this is not such a huge country, it should be relatively straightforward to move say a 100 snow plows from the London area to Manchester within a half day in anticipation of snow. This is why #1 above is so important - a snow plow sitting in an area that is receiving no snow at all is useless.

In addition, if the government is not willing to invest in additional snow plows, it should contract with private companies that can fit snow plows to the front of 4x4's or other heavy vehicles and provide services to smaller roads. Fitting a salt spreader to the back of a truck is not rocket science and the private companies can be paid based on the amount of snow that they clear out. Or smaller, remote towns can contract with these private companies to take care of their needs and not divert resources from major roadways.

When it comes to removal of the snow, the material of choice is rock salt - not calcium chloride that has a far superior melting power and can keep the water from re-freezing down to about -20 C. The salt suppliers are also limited, and apparently lack the ability to meet the needs for even a mild winter. The winter review has recommended imports of salt from other countries - maybe the US or China? Either way, this should be the least of the issues - the only question is how much ice melt is bought and where it is stored. The UK cannot be running out of space to store salt. If it is, then ice melt should be sold in stores and individuals should be able to buy bags to use for their own neighborhoods.

Removal of snow is best done with a shovel. But news reports are showing snow removal personnel at HEATHROW AIRPORT of all places using a broom!!!! This is the most shocking part of the entire saga - not using the most basic of tools means that people prefer to just stay indoors and wait for the snow to melt rather than going out and cleaning things up. Further, the winter review has just proposed a "snow code" to protect persons who are keen on getting rid of the snow from being sued by other lazy asses who would prefer to just frolick around in the snow and then slip and break their legs. One wonders whether there is any desire for people to take responsibility for cleaning up the snow or they view it as another of the services that the government should do for them!

The greatest story often forgotten

Unlike the "other" greatest story, which is repeated every year on Christmas to the joy of a billion Christians worldwide, the tale of family jealousy, trickery and scheming that is the Mahabharat has never really been represented well on the big screen - until now. There was the elaborate small screen version by BR Chopra , that featured endless arrows flying at one another, and the artsy version for stage by Peter Brooks with (gasp!) a black actor. The move "Rajneeti" has taken the best of the Mahabharat, added in a dash of the Godfather, and linked it beautifully to politics as practiced in modern day India to deliver a gripping tale that is devoid of an item number or a great selection of songs.
The Mahabharat connection is fairly obvious in the movie, but it is not simply inserted where convenient - rather, one realizes how easily the story of the Mahabharat can fit on top of 21st century politics. The movie starts with a baby boy being abandoned by a mother, who then goes onto marry one of the two brothers of a political dynasty. The two brothers both have children who don't get along, each one vying for a chance to take over the entire party and rule it according to their diktat. By now, you've figured out that the two brothers are clearly modeled on Dhritrashtra and Pandu, more so when one (Pandu) gets killed and the other is paralyzed (an easier one to work than being blind). The sons of these two are fighting it out and constantly trying to outsmart the other - Prithvi and Samar (a modern day Yudhishtir and Arjun, or could it be Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi?) on one side, Veerendra on the other (a good Duryodhan). Of course, the Pandavas are nice and clean shaven, while Veerendra sports a thick moustache and generally tends to wear black.

While fighting over seats for the upcoming elections, enter Sooraj, who turns out to be the baby abandoned at birth, and hits it off with Veerendra, who gives him a place in the party, thereby representing the moment when Karna was accepted by Duryodhan but rejected by the Pandavas for not being of "high birth" (fittingly, Sooraj, played by Ajay Devgan, is a Dalit. The name "Sooraj" is also apt, since Karna was the sun's son). The modern day exile of the Pandavas is represented by ejecting them from the party, whereby they form another one, under the watchful eye of Brij Gopal (wonderfully played by Nana Patekar) - more on him later.

Veerendra tries everything within his power to prevent Prithvi and Samar from winning the election, including starving them of funds. In order to be assured of funding, Brij Gopal takes a proposal to the businessman Sakseria to marry off his daughter Indu (played by Katrina Kaif) to Samar. She is clearly fond of him, but he is apparently in love with an American woman, having met her while at college in the US. Anyway, Sakseria is more than happy to get his daughter married off, but instead proposes that she marry Prithvi, who is in line to become the CM. At this point, Samar, who is starting to take behave increasingly like Michael Corleone, begins to take the lead as the more dominant sibling. He tells his brother to go ahead with the marriage, because it will help him win the election. This is akin to Arjun, who won Draupadi's hand using his archery skills, then turning around and offering her to the other brothers (in this case, just the one). So we end up with Indu marrying Prithvi but perhaps still secretly in love with Samar. By this time, his US girlfriend has landed up in India, all concerned about the news she's been reading (apparently she has access to a TV channel that cares about politics in MP!)

I mentioned earlier that there are some distinct Godfather moments in the movie. The first is when Samar discovers an act of betrayal by Babulal, a loyal party servant, who was apparently responsible for his father's death. Babulal realizes that his number is up and begs forgiveness, falling at Samar's feet at exactly the time that his girlfriend opens the door to the room. She is dumbfounded, Samar stared blankly at her but doesn't move - Brij Gopal saves the day and closes the door. This is very similar to the last scene in the Godfather, where Michael is anointed the Don and has people kissing his hand, while Kay (Diane Keaton) watches from outside, only to have the door slowly swing shut (a beautiful scene, worth watching a hundred times!)

Once Babulal has confessed his sins, he is let off and Samar promises to protect him, but instead gives him a cell phone wired to explode when receiving an incoming call (gives a new meaning to "dhamakedaar" savings on your mobile plan!) Babulal drives off, Samar gives him a call and that's the end of that. This is the equivalent of when Michael Corleone finds out that Connie's husband was responsible for the death of his brother Sonny, and then has him strangled in the car outside (the flailing legs crashing through the windscreen).

Another very obvious Godfather analogy is when Veerendra is lured to the location where Samar is supposedly trying to rig the election using lots of computers. He dashes out of the house and drives without his bodyguards, only to realize that its a trap and Samar and his henchmen are waiting to finish him off there. Luckily Sooraj follows him and manages to drag him out of there. Think Sonny Corleone getting gunned down at the tollbooth. There are some others as well, such as the part where Brij Gopal frames someone by having his gay lover killed in the same bed, and he wakes up to find the sheets soaked in blood (this is a mix of the famous horse's head scene from Godfather I and also the senator in Godfather II who is framed with a hooker).

The classic scene in the movie, which is also the essence of the Mahabharat, is when Samar and Brij Gopal are chasing Sooraj and Veerendra who are both badly injured. Their car overturns and Sooraj is trying to get Veerendra to the hospital - he asks Samar to let them go. Samar hesitates, perhaps out of a sense of honor to not kill someone who is defenceless, but also recognizing that the two people facing him are his close relatives (the very same dilemma that faced Arjun on the battlefield). So who is the Parthasarathy here? None other than Brij Gopal (of course, what other name would suit Krishna?) He is watching all of this drama unfold, and while Samar is in two minds about what to do, tells him very plainly that if he wants to achieve his goal of taking the reins of power, then he has to finish off his opponents - regardless of the situation. So the Gitopdesh is played out in the 21st century with a young man pulling his gun and shooting down his opponents. Some might call this brutal and lament at the state of politics in the country, but the manner in which it is shown in the movie is quite elegant. You realize that sometimes the only way forward is through means that might otherwise be regarded as underhanded. Or that all fair's in love and war - and politics is just war by another name.

So that's the summary of this tale, which I would strongly recommend watching not just once but several times, and even worth getting on DVD. While it provides you with a dose of reality on the state of politics in the country, it also reminds us that the roots of this are age-old and perhaps not confined just to India, but a problem that every country has had to grapple with in its history.

Gateway to (a new) India

When George V visited what was then the jewel of his empire back in 1911, a stone archway was built at the landing dock in (then) Bombay for him to pass through and receive a welcome from his 250 million loyal subjects. Fast forward about a hundred years, and the new T3 at Delhi airport is fast on its way to becoming a powerful symbol of a nation that continues to push forward to its rightful place in the world - with the occasional hiccup or stumble, but no longer looking backwards. Airports have long touted themselves as the gateway to the region that they serve - T3 can perhaps look to make itself the Dubai or Singapore of South Asia, with ever growing numbers of tourists and business people.

When I arrived at Delhi back in 1982 after 3 years in Nigeria, the airport at that time was nothing more than a small building with no walkways, just buses that brought passengers in from the tarmac. Of course, back then, it was still called Palam airport, after the village near which it had been built (interestingly, the Brussels airport is referred to as "Zaventem", which is apparently also the name of the village close by!) This was at a time when 707s were still ruling the skies, with the odd 747 thrown in for long haul flights. Air India was actually regarded as one of the better airlines in the world, especially for unaccompanied minors, which is how I had been despatched from Lagos via Nairobi.

Move ahead about a decade, and work finally began on a new terminal at the airport, which had since been named Indira Gandhi International (IGI). The  new terminal 2 actually had fingers to take you on board the plane, seating area for passengers and a whopping 12 gates! Since it catered only to international flights, however, the terminal was rarely used during the day, as most flights left between the hours of 10 pm - 4 am. Domestic flights still left out of Terminal 1, and by this time, Indian Airlines had started getting some competition in the form of Jet, Sahara, Damania, ModiLuft, Jagson and East-west airlines. The big attraction of Terminal 2 was the giant departures board with the moving letters and numbers that created a staccato of sound every time a flight left and the whole board updated itself. It also had the flashing green lights that indicated when it was time to go to the gate for boarding.

As air traffic grew, however, Terminal 2 began to show signs that it would not be able to handle the needs of the 21st century. Even a half hearted attempt to put in a duty free shop or coffee/tea stands could not prevent the inevitable - that something had to change. By now, Air India was but a ghost of its former self, a sad state of affairs for what is still the flag carrier for the nation (a comparison with British Airways and Singapore Airlines is too far fetched to even contemplate) - it had also "merged" with Indian Airlines, perhaps the first example of two state entities doing so anywhere in the world. The plethora of carriers that existed in the mid 1990s gave way to just two dominant players - Jet and Kingfisher, with a few low cost carriers thrown in to provide some more choices to the flying public, which was getting increasingly sophisticated in terms of what it wanted from an airline. Unlike the US, where vast distances assure the airlines of passengers, so that customer service is practically unheard of, airlines in India (and most of Asia for that matter) place a high premium on good customer service. Move over, Singapore girl - enter, Kingfisher kudi!

The Commonwealth games were a good enough reason to embark on building T3, and certainly its inauguration was planned to ensure that athletes and tourists arriving for the games got to see this shining example of Indian greatness - but, in reality, T3 is just another brick in the wall of  India's development, that includes the national highways and the Delhi metro amongst others. It would have happened anyway, and the fact that it has happened is cause enough to cheer.

My first reaction in getting into the terminal building at T3 was "Wow". The terminal seemed to stretch to infinity and was totally empty, so the sense of space was tremendous. The walk to the immigration counter took almost 15 minutes, and subsequently I read that this was causing a lot of problems as people were just not used to walking that much. This can either lead to a healthier population in general, or an increase in wheelchair requests. The immigration area itself was huge, but somehow we can never seem to grasp the idea of having people queue up in one long line and then go to a counter in succession. Instead, there are separate lines for each of the 30 or more counters, so you're bound to have some amount of swapping that can lead to disruptions. There was a separate line for PIO/OCI, but I regretted joining it, as you had families with kids who were pulling out one passport at a time and showing it to the officer, who was taking his own time stamping the passports.

The immigration counter is where you find the "giant hands" - wall mountings of 10 ft high hands in various poses presumably taken from Bharatnatyam mudras. I'm sure there is some hidden funda here, but it looks a little odd if you stare at it for a while. Past the immigration, you go through a duty free shop (a little odd, as you typically buy duty free when *leaving* a country vs when entering!), and then into the vast baggage claim area. The environment is clean and spacious, and that itself is the biggest improvement from the past - T3 is truly bigger than the current capacity thrown at it, so it will be useful for some years to come, instead of being outdated as soon as it opened. There are 27 gates, more than double that of Terminal 2.

Negatives - carpeting in the gate area - that too somewhat plush. It is unimaginable how someone could allow this to happen, as you can bet that this is going to fray and fade in a few years, and become a replacement nightmare. Somehow we have this belief that carpeting is "western" and so should be used - but that's true of houses, not a public building like an airport. Good quality tile/marble would have been more than enough, in fact that's what every other airport around the world uses.

Another ding is on the airport layout - shaped like a V, with the immigration/customs at the vertex, the transit time within the airport can be substantial if you happen to arrive at either of the top ends of the V. In the security screening, there are two lines for men and only one for women, which (similar to restrooms) results in a long line of women waiting to be screened. A swap is all that's required - have two women's lines.

Of course, the T3 story is still evolving - at some point in the not too distant future, the Metro service will whisk passengers straight to Connaught place from where they can travel around the rest of the city. The roads to and from the airport are still being sorted out, and some of the paint work isn't quite complete as yet. But the airport is still standing, which hopefully means it is in for the long haul. The problem with infrastructure in India has typically been the lack of long term planning - facilities are not designed with longevity in mind, as labor is cheap and repairing something is often easier than putting the extra effort upfront. In the case of T3, one hopes that it is in good shape for at least 10-20 years. Who knows - by that time, people might actually want to start

In search of a cure

Let's start with a quiz. You're sitting in a chair watching TV when you feel the urge to want to get up and go for a walk. Its cold outside, so your common sense tells you that its easier to just stay indoors. But you just have to go somewhere. You

a) Continue watching TV and hope that with time, the feeling will go away
b) Put on a coat and brave the elements
c) Just walk around indoors
d) Make an appointment to see your doctor to see if you have "Restless Legs Syndrome"

If you answered d), then the medical establishment has succeeded in its goal of advertising every conceivable ailment and making you want to buy their product to rid yourself of it. When I say establishment, I mean not just the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the pill, but also doctors, who are too scared of getting sued for using their common sense; the insurance companies, who are just looking at their balance sheets anyway; and the all powerful FDA, which is essential a dictatorial wing of the government that believes it has the right to tell you how to live your life.

The above example is just one of many that are changing the face of an industry that once was hailed as the savior of mankind.The roots of medicine go back several thousands of years, with ancient Egyptians and Greeks investigating cures for every disorder they could come across. Knowledge of the human body was quite primitive in those days - its possible that some form of autopsy was done to understand the organs, but for the most part, the ancients were content with philosophizing about the function of the brain, heart, liver etc. Even into medieval times, there were theories regarding the four humers that controlled the body (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile), and the liver was regarded as the most important organ rather than the brain or heart.

At the same time, understanding the root cause of diseases as the result of infection by bacteria or viruses was starting to become the mainstay of medical theory. This was a time when a disease did not kill just a few people, but wiped out entire regions - think the Black Death of Europe, which took out perhaps half the existing population. You had smallpox, malaria, cholera, polio, typhoid, TB - all of which conspired to keep infant mortality high and also afflicted a good number of adults through their lives.

From the mid 19th century onwards, rapid advances in the field of medicine started to give those fighting these diseases an upper hand. Vaccinations, starting with Edward Jenner's famous one for small pox, resulted in better resistance at a young age - so much so that in 1978, the WHO regarded small pox as having been "eradicated" (of course, we know today that its likely that a small pox virus exists somewhere in the world, mutating itself into a form that might not be curable by known medicines). The basic elements of personal hygiene, such as washing hands and boiling water, also improved things a great deal. And then there were medicines (drugs) - penicillin being the best known example, and which has spawned perhaps thousands of pills that are consumed every second across the world.

Ah - but why are these pills being consumed? Not to cure a life threatening disease in most cases  - no, a vast majority of what people are taking these days is to manage "supposed" ailments, some that have been invented by the medical establishment when they found themselves running out of truly deadly diseases to cure. After all, what good is a pharmaceutical company if there are no problems left in the world? Why would you go to a doctor if you were guaranteed a healthy life?

Enter the age of restless legs and irritable bowels - this is what we have been reduced to in the 21st century! The mother of all these has to be ED - what 50 years ago would have been regarded as "getting too old for strenuous physical activity" has today become the most popular drug sold with a prescription (and if you see the ads on the internet, perhaps double that number without a prescription). I'm sure there is a department within each drug company that exists solely to dream up new conditions for which they can then turn around and charge you $5 per pill. They probably walk around in shopping malls and eavesdrop on conversations between elderly people (an especially vulnerable demographic) or groups of women (who tend to share more information on medical matters than men). Maybe they are even part of local civic organizations and use that as their insight into your specific problem.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the collaboration of the FDA - the all powerful government body what was setup primarily to ensure that no one could peddle snake oil remedies and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting population. And I'm sure that's how it worked in the early days - but now, the FDA seems to have been reduced to a rubber stamp for the most part. How else would you explain such amazing screw ups like approval given to Vioxx? Or the fact that E. Coli seems to turn up in everything from spinach to broccoli to beef? There has to be someone with common sense sitting at the FDA who concludes that PMDD is really the same thing as PMS, and therefore does not need its own name! Or that acid reflux disease can be managed by not eating 5 burgers in quick succession!

Natural cures/remedies exist for almost all known ailments, but the FDA chooses to ignore or, in some cases, actively oppose them. The famous lines "These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to cure, diagnose, treat or prevent any disease" are tantamount, at least in the US, to shutting the door on anything but the most sophisticated drug developed by one of the big 5 manufacturers.

Take the case of Activia, sold by Dannon, which is intended to help regularity. What the FDA is not convinced of, but perhaps 2 billion people worldwide know through experience, is that yogurt with active cultures has been used for centuries to help with digestive ailments. You don't need a billion dollar research program to tell you that! The same thing goes for diets with leafy green vegetables or with lots of fruits. Of course, try suggesting to the average person that they give up McDonald's in favor of a trip to Whole Foods, and you risk a backlash similar to the one that resulted in Louis XVI losing his head.

Anyway, enough of this rant - I think you get the point. Use common sense and live healthy, and don't get suckered into believing that you have a problem when you don't. Take a walk outside, plan a meeting with friends - instead of sitting in front of a computer living your life through Facebook (a subject of an upcoming post!) Speaking of which, I feel my legs getting a bit restless.

2 green thumbs

Passing the time digging up the dirt, removing weeds and trimming plants may not be your first choice for spending a cool Saturday afternoon, but the rewards of doing so are immense. I have enjoyed gardening ever since the first time I had my own house in New Jersey, and decided to improve its appearance by planting some flowers in the small patch of ground in front of the deck. The first attempt ended up in  a return trip to Home Depot, as the plants I had picked up were meant for shade, whereas it was apparent that the front of the house received full sun for most of the day. I checked the second batch to make sure they were the right type, and after getting the necessary tools and some gloves, promptly dug up the ground, took the plants out of their plastic containers and steadied them into the soil. 15 minutes later, I was looking at a colorful melange of yellows, blues and reds and patting myself on the back for a job well done.

A few weeks later, the plants seemed to be wilting despite my adhering to a strict watering schedule and helpfully adding some plant food that I had also picked up. It seemed that the soil itself wasn't very good, so the plants had run out of nutrients and couldn't get their roots deep enough. I promptly went back to Home Depot, got a few big bags of soil with nutrients and proceeded to replace the top 2 ft of earth!

Since winter was fast approaching, I couldn't really consider planting anything that would die in the frost. That's when I discovered the world of bulbs - truly nature's gift to gardeners who want results, but aren't prepared to do it the old fashioned way through seeds. For about $5, you got 20 odd daffodils, tulips, crocuses or other similar flowers that were big enough to place in a specific location, and that lasted year after year! So I bought 10 yellow and 10 red tulips, dug the required 6" into the earth, placed them carefully at the bottom of the hole and covered them back up.  They would remain there for another 5 months, with no oversight on my part required to ensure their survival.

Come March of the following year, and I was eager to see how the bulbs were doing. Most of the snow had melted, and you could see the earth again. So one day I decided to take a closer look at my patch of flowers - I bent down close to the ground and lo and behold - I spotted one, no two, no five little green shoots sticking bravely out, no more than a half inch, pushing their way through the soil to liberate the beautiful flower that lay inside. Thrilled would be an understatement - I was ecstatic! I had given life to this beautiful thing, or so I felt. That's the joy you get from gardening.

Over the course of the next month, the tulips all grew to full size and put on quite a show for a few weeks before they bent over and collapsed. But of course, I was assured that they would be back the following year, and not just the same number - no, these things actually multiplied under ground, so you would get increasing numbers as time went on! With the success of the tulips, I branched out into daffodils and was rewarded with a golden carpet not unlike the one that Wordsworth probably saw, and hyacinths which had the most heavenly smell at night. The colors of all these were unbelievable - the shades would put any artist to shame.

I was still keen on growing plants from seeds, however, as I felt this represented the ultimate in gardening nirvana. So I went out and bought a bunch of assorted flower pack and some little containers in which to grow them. At first, I figured I would put one seed in each container, but I quickly got lazy and started to toss  a few in at a time. The problem with seeds is that they are so tiny, it is hard to place them in a specific location and instead you just hope that they end up in the right place. Watering is also a challenge, as you can't drown them in water, but have to put a few drops in at a time.

To cut a long story short, the flowers that took root and did a good job that first year were the marigolds - and now I am starting to master this art as well. I didn't realize that the marigold seeds were located inside the bud at the base of the flower - pop it open and there are about 30-40 small flakes about a centimeter long - extremely fragile, but very hardy! I took a few dozen and then planted them the following year, and again most of them took root and did well - till I went out to the front yard and found a few of them growing wild out of the ground! It turns out that some seeds from the prior year had fallen in and stayed dormant, with 4 feet of snow on top, till the time was right!

That's the other thing gardening teaches you - humility. You realize very quickly that nature, with 4 billion years behind it, can easily outdo anything that man can conceive. The fact that these seeds can just lie around and then sprout when the time is right is an example of the awesome power of nature. The other great thing is you begin to understand what value creation really is - its not what Wall street does, but what you get from the soil. Consider the marigold example - one seed gives rise to a plant that produces anywhere from 10-30 flowers. Let's say its 20 for the sake of discussion. Now each of these 20 flowers have about 20 seeds in them. So that means one marigold seed can in theory produce 400 (20 x 20) plants in the next generation. Even if only 10% survive, you still have 40 plants. The multiplicative power is so enormous that if you're not careful, you could be drowning in marigolds before you know it!

So if you're ever looking to try something new, give gardening a shot. You don't need a green thumb, but just a curiosity as to how nature works its magic. The learnings will be well worth the time spent.

Let the games begin!

The Commonwealth games are over - and despite all the concern in the lead up to the games, they appear to have gone off fairly well. After all, the headline "India comes second in medals tally" is a much better outcome than what many might have expected, such as "Stadium floodlights collapse killing athletes lined up for 100m final". Of course, you did have the odd case of Delhi Belly but that was perhaps to be expected - I'm sure the athletes from Jamaica and Fiji were fine with the food and water.

The loser in all of this has to be Suresh Kalmadi. Or should it be Sureshhhhhhhhh? If there was one thing he should have done from the start, it would have been to talk less and do more. But then, that is the trademark of every Indian politician, starting with Rajiv Gandhi's famous "Humne dekha, hum dekh rahe hain, hum dekhenge" - the idea that words can somehow magically correct a situation without any hope of recovery. Perhaps they were imitating Churchill who promised to give "blood, sweat, toil and tears" - except that had he not delivered on those words, the capital of the UK would likely be Londonburg or Londdorf. Instead, Kalmadi not only continued to say that everything was ok, he even had the temerity to suggest that the next host city, Glasgow, would not be able to host the games on the scale of Delhi. I guess if he means that they would not be able to marshal 1 lakh workers to clean up everything in a matter of days, then he's probably right. They would probably have everything ready 6 months ahead of time.

But, then again, the "just in time" philosophy, that the Japanese have utilized with much success in manufacturing, has found its true home in India, where there appears to be this rush of excitement for doing everything in a hurry. Promises and commitments are made, and when they are found to be slipping, the default solution is to utilize the mammoth workforce within the country. The famous quote by Nehru that India's population would be its strength, as opposed to its weakness, is never more alive today, now that we have more than four times the population we did at Independence. With the ability to bring so many people together to get a job done, there is almost no value to be gained from executing a task to a plan -after all, if that were done, we would soon realize that you don't need so many people in the first place! As a socialist country, dedicated to providing work opportunities to every single able bodied man and woman (and child), the idea of not needing to use labor would be unthinkable!

The slipshod approach to development contrasts starkly with that seen in China, although there is evidence that our friends to the north of the border can occasionally get it wrong as well (see for example an email chain going around with pictures of a 13 storey building lying on its end because the foundation was barely a few feet deep!) At least in China, the penalty for getting something wrong is severe - you don't see to many builders or architects getting a second chance. In India, it would almost be expected that a major project ends up with several glitches that need to be patched up for years to come.

So now that we are past CWG XIX, let the real games begin - the blame game! That's one where Indians come out far and ahead the winners!

Mine Kampf

The rescue of the 33 people from deep within the bowels of a mine in Chile will have to go down as the heroic story of the year. One can only imagine what ordeal the men must have faced in the dark, hot cave where they had huddled together to escape the tons of rock and dirt that came crashing down. Those of us used to a hectic pace of life, who cannot even sit still for a few minutes without checking a Blackberry, would probably have gone mad within a day. But these brave souls not only conquered their physical challenges but also the mental demons that no doubt plagued them from very early on. One can only hope that their return to the surface is the end of their trauma, and that being away from human contact for almost 10 weeks does not leave them with life long scars that never heal.

The disaster in Chile is just one of several that have taken place over the past few years across the world, notably those in the US and China. While perhaps greater numbers of people die every year from falls in the house, the thought of a mine accident usually evokes a strong response from just about everyone - the horror of being buried alive is not just confined to the claustrophobic amongst us. And yet people continue to engage in mining as a profession, some as a legacy, others driven by lucrative persuasions, while for many it is simply the only choice they have to eke out a living.

Why does mining exist? For the same reason that agriculture exists - to feed the needs of mankind. The "food" in question are the raw materials for modern societies, the iron, aluminium, coal, copper etc that find their way into thousands of products. Even the hybrid cars of today ultimately rely on mining of lithium to power the batteries. Entire empires have been based on mining, the prime example being that of the Belgian rule in the Congo, whose prime export of copper continues to fuel tensions to this day.

So, as the website of Vale, one of the largest mining groups in the world, states "There is no future without mining", we are well and truly dependent on this source of materials. But what about recycling of those materials? Surely there is a point at which we have all the raw materials we need, and can continue to re-form them into new products? At that stage, you would only need a small amount of new material to augment what is already in use. Of course, then you have to contend with finding employment for a large sector of society - but that is surely a good problem to have, versus trying to figure out how to get 33 miners out of the ground?

The next clean fuel

The great race to find a clean energy source that will end the dependence on foreign oil has thrown up several candidates - hybrids, electric-only, fuel cell, even hydrogen. While each of these has its own challenges in terms of safety, cost, reliability etc, the biggest hurdle in each case is on the demand side. Consider that the car market worldwide is about a 500 million vehicles. If you wanted to embrace a new form of energy, you would need to convince car manufacturers and energy companies alike that there was a big enough market to make it worth their while to make a different type of car and provide a different type of fuel.

How big would that market need to be? Probably more than a million, which is about how many hybrids are on the roads nowadays. Let's say its 5 million, or 1% of the total car market. So now you need to bring together 5 million people who would be willing to commit upfront to a new car/fuel combination, and perhaps even put down some money to back up their commitment. Then you have to get the car companies and the energy companies to agree that they will start making these cars in large enough numbers that it provides them a good return on investment and hopefully also leads to additional demand. By now, you have anti-trust lawyers all over this idea and it would be squashed before you can even say so long OPEC!

There is another way to bridge to the future, though, using a fuel that is already available and compatible with the existing transportation infrastructure - diesel (the other clean fuel!) While it is the fuel of choice for most heavy vehicles, diesel has suffered from the belief that it is dirty and noisy and has problems starting under cold conditions, which has made it a non-starter for passenger cars in the US. That might have been the case 30 yrs ago (most fuels were dirty back then!) but today's diesel is probably as clean as you can get (< 10 ppm sulfur in most of Europe and the US, and slowly but inevitably getting there in the rest of the world). And the technology exists to get diesel fuel that flows at even -20F, so unless you are living in the high latitudes (in which case you might consider the need to even drive), you should not really have any problems with diesel

So how do you make the shift from gasoline (petrol) to diesel? To start with, you first need to make sure that the demand for diesel is really there. How do you do that? Not by asking people for their choice. No, that won't work. The only way to really ensure a demand for diesel is to CREATE it. Yes, folks, this has to be a good old fashioned sales job, something that most American companies are good at doing. Savvy marketing has been the driver for most products sold in the US, from humble toothbrushes to fancy electronics. Marketing creates a need even if there was none to begin with - and in this case, there is clearly a need for fuel. So why not put the best minds from Madison Avenue to come up with a marketing campaign for diesel cars and allow Americans to almost overnight boost their fuel economy to levels mandated for 2020?

Of course, once the demand is created, you have to ensure that the supply is also keeping pace. That's a challenge for the 150+ refineries in the country, but once the pricing indicates that diesel is here to stay, every single one of them will start to swing over to make more diesel, as they usually do in the winter. That could mean a glut in the short term and huge drops in price, which would result in even more people switching to diesel.

Car companies have to be part of this too, and not just one or two, but en masse. It would be a win-win for them as well, since they could continue to sell cars with IC engines and not have to change over to an entirely manufacturing process for the drivetrain etc. The smarter ones will make the cars smaller, like they do in Europe, and get even better mileage. The dumb ones like GM will just change what's under the hood but leave everything else the same - but at least they will get a 10% or more boost in fuel economy.

This really is the easiest solution that satisfies everyone from energy and auto companies to politicians to environmentalists (think of all the biodiesel manufacturers suddenly having a huge outlet for their products?). And that's precisely why it will be overlooked. Unfortunately, we seem to believe that the way to the future is about being complicated and trying to engineer a hydrogen powered vehicle or squashing bugs to secrete oil. That maybe the case in a hundred years, but if we want to demonstrate that society can wean itself off one energy source and move to another, how about we try it with something simple?

Peepli [Live and Let Die]

Just watched Peepli live, which I would highly recommend. I get the distinct feeling that I have seen a movie like this before, the part about the media camping outside someone's house and watching his every move is very familiar (the "Truman show" perhaps?). The movie itself is a natural successor to that other great satire of yesteryear namely "Jaane Bhi do yaaron" (its only fitting, therefore, that Naseeruddin Shah makes an appearance in this one as well!)

The manner in which the topic of farmer suicides has been treated is certainly unusual - the characters could just as easily have been portrayed as complete basket cases, but instead the element of humor make the film captivating - you *want* to see what's going to happen next.

The characters are also cast into two easily believable camps. On the one hand, the media are portrayed as always on the lookout for the next big story, which is sadly what most of the Indian TV channels have become (like their western brethren). The politicians and bureaucrats as usual try to exploit the situation to their advantage, living up to the very low expectations set for them.

On the flip side, you have the reporter whose conscience gets to him, when he asks that the media also cover the case of the farmer who died digging an earth pit. The young civil servant who earnestly believes that some sort of intervention is necessary to remedy the situation.

The "funny" portion of the movie is part slapstick, with reporters falling over each other and chasing the farmer who is busy taking care of the call of nature in the fields. Once the tamasha is over, however, the farmer who is toying with the idea of suicide ends up at a construction site in the ever growing metropolis around Delhi. His family does not get the money they had expected from the government (due to another glitch in the paperwork) even though, for all practical purposes, he is "dead" to them.

The closing credits indicate that between 1991 and 2001, 8 million farmers gave up agriculture (presumably to take up other manual labor such as contruction). Either way, it highlights the tragedy of an occupation that still accounts for over 2/3rd of the workforce in the country. While developed nations such as the US and Europe also had to contend with changes in farming as they industrialized, the fact that they had much smaller populations at least made the change less drastic.

Reference is also made in the movie to a multinational corporation "Sonmanto" (duh!) that is apparently being given a contract by the agriculture ministry. While giant seed and fertilizer companies are certainly part of the problem facing farming in India, the bottomline is that the accelerated development of the country into the information age has made taking care of those left behind, namely farmers, a lower priority. They are expected to adjust to the new age, as opposed to being given the tools and help that they need to survive.

Is this just a matter of perception? Instead of being called farmers, suppose we referred to them as "Agricultural engineers", which would not be far off from the truth? For the act of sowing a seed and harvesting a crop is no less challenging than designing a computer chip or going into space. We almost take it for granted because the food always ends up on the table every single day - but try it for yourself and see how hard it really is. I've been an occasional gardener for the past few years, and other than the most simple of plants, I have not yet been able to sustainably grow anything that could provide nourishment. Farming is not just about tossing seeds into the ground and waiting a while for them to sprout.

I was disappointed that nowhere in the film was there a reference to population. This continues to be the 800 pound gorilla that no one chooses to discuss, either because its considered politically incorrect, or because we have given up trying to come up with a solution to the crisis. Maybe someone can make a film about a laborer trying to get a vasectomy to make enough money to send his kids to school?