Grab with both hands

Life is full of work, pleasure, projects and everyday things. In some cases, everything is straightforward, but in many, that is not so. Sometimes we think that the situation is going out of hand. There are options; we give up, or we accept fait accompli. But there is an option to think out of the box and observe the current situation. We can learn from the errors. We need to think and rethink.

There is a famous story of shoe salesmen. A salesman is sent to a large island to sell shoes. After one week, he sends a message to the headquarters. Nobody wears shoes; please do not send any containers. He is called back to the head office immediately. Another salesperson was sent to that island without any details about the first salesperson. Within one week, he sent a message back to headquarters. Nobody wears shoes here; please rush at least three container loads.

The situation was precisely the same for both the salespeople, but their response was diagonally opposite. The first person accepted the fait accompli! But the second person looked at the situation as a great opportunity. He converted the chance he got and was a great success in life.

There is a tendency for people always to talk about problems at home, at work, with family. Life is full of problems and issues. Life is not something that happens according to a planned schedule. It is a procession of unexpected opportunities.

Why do people think negatively? How to change our mindset into a positive attitude? Consider the current Indian cricket team. One thing they have definitely understood in sports, there is always a possibility that you may lose a game or two. But that is part of life. You win some, and you lose some is the attitude that one should take in life. The Indian team was touring Australia last year. In the first game, they were all out for 36 in the second innings. They promptly lost the game. Experts said that India will be thrashed 4-0 in the series. But nobody told the Indian team that they were not supposed to win the series! They did, despite Kohli being away after that match and other senior Bowlers being injured. How did this happen? The new and young players got an opportunity of a lifetime, and they grabbed it with both hands.

There is a story of a couple which is a real-life example of how positive thinking can transform your life. One of the first things the wife noticed about her husband was his positivity – the “kick in his step.” The husband was practising gratitude daily and cultivating other positive emotions thanks to her husband’s philosophies. He shared those philosophies with his wife, and both attended the “Unleash the Power Within” course, where the wife learned vital strategies she could use to change her mindset and start living the life of her dreams.

From helping you to stay connected with your partner by assisting you in developing an excellent organisational culture, positive thinking takes your life to the next level. Like the wife, thinking optimistic may not come naturally to some, but you will see results when you take the time to apply these strategies to your everyday life.

How to think positive? The first step is realising it’s all up to you. When you become the master of your emotions, you can always determine your mindset regardless of outside influences. Taking responsibility for how you think, act and feel, allow everything in your life to fall into place. Sometimes you can’t control life’s events – but you can control how you react to them. Once you empower yourself to change what is in your control – you – then you are ready for various ways to embrace the power of positive thinking.

Have you noticed that when you’re having a bad day, your body language shows it? You slump over in your chair, have a hard time making eye contact with others and do things like cross your arms when you feel uncomfortable. You stop being mindful and allow your environment and circumstances to control you. This is not a powerful stance; it tells those around you that you are uneasy, angry or sad and want to be left alone. This creates a feedback loop as your own poor posture reinforces your poor mindset.

Positive thinking is as much about your body as it is about your brain. Take control of your physiology by taking pride in how you present yourself, and project positive thinking. Work on your posture to give those around you non verbal cues to feel solid and cheerful and that you are ready to listen to them. Try to nip nervous habits, like fidgeting or twirling your hair, in the bud. This technique requires you to observe yourself; as soon as you catch yourself giving in to a nervous tic or starting to slump, straighten up. As you hold your body in a power pose, positive thinking will be able to flow more freely.

Adjusting your physiology is only one part of the puzzle; it’s critical to catch the other negativity trigger in its opening stages as well. Your mindset governs what thoughts flow through your head and how you feel and react to each one. If your attitude is poor, everything around you is going to seem all the worse.

For example, you are at the airport and are unnecessarily delayed while going through security. Then the airline attendant checking you in is rude to you. Another airline worker overhears, apologises and offers to upgrade your ticket up to business class.

Once you are in the air, are you fixated on the hassles you faced in the airport, or are you full of gratitude for your spacious seat and a complimentary cocktail? Do you think of the delay as wasted time or as a way to take time and reconnect with yourself? Do you automatically revert to the power of positive thinking, or do negative thoughts take over?

Think of someone who’s had a profound impact on your life. It can be a close friend, family member or someone you have never met, like a celebrity, professional athlete or renowned entrepreneur. Or maybe a para Olympics Gold Medal winner! What motto does that person live by? Have they been able to unlock extraordinary lives due to their positive thinking habits?

Chances are that they use the power of positive thinking to find the success they seek – and you can, too. When you feel yourself falling into harmful habits and can’t quite seem to figure out how to think positively, pull up a quote from someone you respect. Read it and determine how you can best embody it. You can even write it down and post it somewhere you will see it often, such as on the refrigerator or on the side of your computer screen. If the person you admire is someone you know and think of as a mentor, even better. Get on the phone and ask them to share some positive thoughts.

In most cases, you can do it! Your motto should be everything is doable! See the image at the beginning of the blog; it will drag you out from a sad way of looking at life! Did I see a smile on your face?

 

Brass Tacks of the EV (Electric Vehicle) revolution

That Electric Vehicle revolution is round the corner is a given! Now it is not going to be if, but it is about when. I am going to write about different angles that will come into the picture. A few years ago, many people were not sure about the revolution and thought that EV’s will be fancy vehicles produced in much larger numbers than Mercs and BMW’s. I feel that the Indian model of this revolution will be quite different compared to the US, the EU and the China model. China, of course, is leading the pack!

Though India’s GDP is reasonably significant, per capita income lags behind in the pecking order. India produces many IC engine vehicles, about 80-85% of which are two-wheelers and three-wheelers. For the point of inflexion to take place, the revolution has to take place in this segment.

An inflexion point takes us to a smooth plane curve in differential calculus and differential geometry at which the curvature changes sign. In particular, in the case of the graph of a function, it is a point where the function changes from being concave (concave downward) to convex (concave upward) or vice versa. No more complex definitions ahead!

In English, it means a point where the momentum reaches a stage where the numbers gallop! Production will go up very fast.

How is it going to affect the current market? Who are the stakeholders? The stakeholders are the government, the manufacturers and the customers like you and me. The EV is going to create a better environment. So will you and I buy the EV’s for this reason? The answer is a simple NO! It will be easy to use, charge and gives a decent mileage. Will you buy it? Again it is NO! So for a consumer, affordability is the main criterion. For manufacturers, profitability is the most critical aspect. The tricky part is when they should start reducing investments in the IC Engine products. If they do it too early, they will lose out on current profitability! The government has different issues. They have to make policies considering the environmental improvement- the carbon footprint. It is a global commitment by India to the world. To encourage EV introduction in all sectors, they need to give subsidies. They need to invest in charging infrastructure- at least they should encourage the industry to do it. It may not be profitable in remote areas, so the government will have to create the infrastructure.

It is said that the current cost per Kilowatt hour for EV’s is US $ 200/. The experts say that there will be commercial viability when this figure comes down to dollars 120/. Till then, it will have to follow the subsidy route. But there are many different ways to make EV’s affordable. Today the vehicle specifications are the same irrespective of the daily running of the vehicle. Consider two-wheelers. Some people use it for ten km per day, and others use it for 60 km per day. Since the cost of the batteries is 40 to 50% of the vehicle cost, it will make sense to sell and buy vehicles as per the users’ needs- by change of specifications as in horses for courses. The running cost of the EV’s is less than IC engine vehicles. So once the buying costs of EV’s are comparable or slightly more than IC engine vehicles, people will start buying EV’s in large numbers in the two-wheeler segment. Then, of course, there will be high performance, high-cost two-wheelers. The buyers of these vehicles will not be bothered by the price of the vehicle. But these numbers are going to be small.

In the case of three-wheelers, these vehicles are used for commercial usage. In the commercial vehicle sector, the cost sensitivity is going to be the highest. Volumes are going to bring the costs down. In addition to that, value engineering needs to be done to bring down the cost of non-drive train parts- this can be achieved by design changes and thinking out of the box.

An option can be created where the batteries are replaced instead of charging. A different ecosystem will have to be made, where instead of battery charging by the user, they will get readily charged battery set as a replacement- it can be like filling up petrol or diesel. This business model can bring down CAPEX, and OPEX will go up.

Definition of CAPEX and OPEX:

CAPEX is an expense that a company makes towards purchasing new equipment or improving its long-term assets. OPEX is the operational cost.

This model will help in encouraging the buying in the heavy segment like Trucks and buses. Trucks and buses are generally used by organisations that will have the infrastructure for charging batteries. But again, the better charging method and speed of charging are going to encourage people to buy. For buses, there could be flash charging or high-speed charging. Don’t forget that the charging will be compared with filling up diesel or CNG- at least as far as time is concerned. Particular bus stops on the routes can have a flash charging facility. This will enable the buses to be charged, say 10/20%, while the bus stops there. This will increase its range instead of having a large number of costly batteries that will increase CAPEX. But I feel that this is one segment where large government subsidies should be given to begin with. Larger volumes and reduced battery costs will help the government reduce subsidies over several years.

What will happen in the car segment? There will be price sensitivity in smaller cars, but in costlier cars, the main thing that will matter is the charging infrastructure and the range per charge. I will give you an example. A friend of Sachin’s came to meet us in Seattle from San Fransisco. The distance is 820 miles (about 1300 km); he came in his Tesla. The range per charge for this Tesla model was 275 miles. He had to take a coffee/washroom break after every 250 miles anyway. But charging infrastructure was readily available for him. So he could drive with the same peace of mind with this knowledge as if he was driving an IC engine car.

But in general, it is going to need out of box thinking in various segments. If we consider the school bus segment, these buses typically do 50 to 60 km in a day. Out of their 8 hours duty, they are parked at a place for at least five hours. A system should be designed to give some of the electricity back to the grid from bus batteries during parking time.

Established companies are thinking differently. They have the advantage of running their businesses profitably for decades.

Bajaj Auto EV subsidiary: Bajaj Auto to set up a separate subsidiary for electric vehicles, Auto News, ET Auto (indiatimes.com)

As usual, I am short of space to write about a subject that will improve our environment. In India, it is said that even around 2040, 50% of the people will be using shared mobility. In bigger cities, Metros are helping this movement by using electric power. But the buses will have to support mass mobility. Many startups are pushing to gain traction in two-wheelers and three-wheelers, competing with already established firms like Hero, TVS, and Bajaj. It is El Dorado time. By 2040 who will exist? Only HE can predict.

Freedom- what does it really mean?

In any language, we use different words, but the terms have different meanings based on the context. Similarly, the actions of people are also defined differently. The same action can mean opposite things depending on which side of the fence you are standing on. A freedom fighter becomes a terrorist when viewed from a different angle. When Britishers ruled India, there was no such distinction, as the British were clear aggressors. But when we discuss a problem like Kashmir, complexities arise.

In the olden days, the people with daring would go in boats and would find unknown lands. They took over the territories from local people and took over the countries. The US, New Zealand and Australia are classic examples of crusaders taking over the lands from the people who originally lived there. This was done by using sheer force and sometimes being brutal! This was done centuries ago, and people have forgotten these acts.

Now because of advances in technological means, there are no more hidden lands. But in the current century, we have new crusaders- the multinational companies, the Internet-based business to be specific. In the first decade of this century, these crusaders were tottering. We were enjoying the fruits of this technology. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and social media, in general, took us to the moon. But in all this hoopla, the people had missed certain things. Online news websites, search engines, Amazons of this world were slowly sneaking in. There was then a discussion that local businesses that might be suffering should adapt to the new technology. They should not become cry babies.

The world was full of competition from different directions. In all this commotion and discussions, society forgot that humans will have to do certain things in the world irrespective of the technology available to us. There are sovereign nations, and there are customers- especially in a country like India, there is a huge customer base.

This is where the conflict began. In the initial euphoria, these companies came up with business models that were suitable to them commercially. Under the garb of providing search engines, Google was running a business. For you and me, the fruits were free- the search engine results. FB and WA helped to locate friends and, in many cases long lost friends. We were thrilled as we had our group of “Friends” at the tip of our fingers on whatever screen we used. In India, any chocolate is known as Cadbury- the chocolate name was replaced by Cadbury, on similar lines everybody is a friend on social media!

Similarly, searching for something on the internet became Googling! So far, so good! Everything looked hunky-dory! The companies or their managements started thinking in their mind that they are Rajahs of the new world. Countries like India are only incidental. We are giving them freedom. But we got freedom from what?

Mr Pichai, the Google boss, said that while his company respected the legislative processes in different countries, it would do so when it needed to push back. “It’s a balance we have struck around the world,” he said. Well said, Sir! The world forgot that social media companies own the world. But look at their gumption. The nations like India, the EU and many others started grumbling. The “free and open internet is under attack in several countries”, Google boss Sundar Pichai told the BBC. Mr Pichai said many countries were restricting or trying to restrict the flow of information and that the idea of a “free and open internet” was being taken for granted.

He further said, ” It is more a step back. I think a free and open internet is a tremendous force for good.” When he was asked about “different internets”, – he felt that the countries had increasingly disparate laws about online content and are kind of  “offensive”.

“In each country now there is a debate what speech is OK and what should be allowed… in some ways I think we pull back from the bigger picture (which is that) many countries around the world are restricting the flow of information and drawing much more rigid boundaries,” he said.

The Google chief urged “countries with strong democratic traditions and values” to stand up against the potential fragmenting of the internet.

Mr Pichai’s comment comes as social media platforms, news publishers, OTT websites and search engines (like Google) grapple with new laws introduced by the Indian government.

But Mr Pichai has forgotten that some companies gather news and stories by going to high seas and dense jungles. He seems to forget that everything does not happen at the click of the mouse. In case he has forgotten, I would like to remind him that the world other than the US exists! There are many countries out there, and hence there are many customers out there. The “charge per click” model adopted by these companies will work when someone clicks. When these customers live in different countries, and there are people like you and me who go are required to go to jungles and mountains to gather the news, the rules of that land will apply. The US is NOT the world! When the Senate committee calls them for discussions in the US, Pichai’s and Zukerberg’s rush to meet them. But in India, their boss goes to court to avoid meeting authorities. Twitter was claiming that it will take eight weeks to appoint a person.

Freedom is not absolute. In times of the Pandemic, individuals cannot say they have the freedom not to take vaccines- public health is more important. Similarly, the companies cannot say that their rules are more important than the rules formed by the nations!

The word freedom is interpreted by these companies to suit them. In this world, there is no absolute freedom. I read a news in today’s newspapers that the MasterCard company has been told that they can not add more customers from next year onwards. They were told by the Indian government that all the customer data should be stored on servers in India. MasterCard did not do it- their freedom for business is curtailed.

Google was asked to negotiate terms with a French company as their search engine “used” news gathered by the French company. Now they have been fined heavily and are given another two months to settle. If not, Google will have to pay a one million dollars fine every day!

Tim Berners Lee invented the WWW intending to make life easy and efficient for scientific purposes, to begin with. But humanity adapted it to do fantastic things using technology. But some crusaders forgot that the world is ultimately run by the rule of law. Definition of freedom can not be decided by these companies, nor will the American definition be accepted by all nations. We know how much freedom African American people have in the US! The equivalent of the “conform or Quit India” movement or its equivalent has begun worldwide!

Once these companies realise that they have nowhere else to go, better senses will prevail!

New Epidemic?

Don’t worry! I am not discussing the real epidemics! We have had enough of Covid, and we do not even know when it will go away. Epidemics like Covid are not so frequent. The last one we had was a hundred years ago! In Europe, they had the Spanish Flu! It lasted for three years. In those days, medical science was not advanced as we have it today. But in those days, people did not travel the way we travel today. Hence it could go away in three years.

So what epidemic I am talking about? Well, it is the epidemic of ideas! Ideas take time to be accepted the world over, but it spread like an epidemic when it gets accepted. In cricket, T20 games started as a fun thing! The “real” matches are Test matches and One-day matches, as per the experts. They are correct, and I also think so. But the general population does not think so. On 13^th June 2003, the first official T 20 match took place in the English county circuit. India played the first T 20 international in December 2006. In India, there was hardly any interest in this format. The first world cup tournament was held in South Africa in the year 2007. Sachin, Ganguly and Dravid decided to NOT play the world cup. India shocked everyone by winning the World Cup and the rest, as they say, is history! IPL helped this idea like an epidemic! But still, Michael Holding does not come for IPL commentary because T 20 is not cricket!

There is a story of Suede shoes by Hush Puppies in the US. In the ’90s of the last century, their sale went up from 30000 to 430000 in one year because some hipsters started wearing them. Then the year after, millions were sold per year! It had nothing to do with the company. The trend simply caught like wildfire.

Social epidemics share the same recurring characteristics as viral infections. Subtle external changes can strongly affect transmissibility. It is like the spread of viral infections in winter times, when our immunity is the lowest. In Covid, the transmissibility is affected by new strains and by not following the norms of social distancing.

We have spring break every year in cold countries. This year, Jaya and I were taking a flight from Seattle to SFO on the first day of the break. People must have come up with the idea that after Covid Lockup, they must travel. There were literally thousands of people at the because this idea spread like a virus.

A similar thing happened in the case of an affordable Fax machine brought out by Sharp in 1984. In 1984 they sold about 80000, and by 1987 the sales were steadily going up. From then on, the sales skyrocketed, and almost every office and many homes had a Fax machine. The funny thing is that people started thinking that offices cannot be run without the fax machine. When the email established after a decade, the sale of Fax machines went down fast, and people stopped buying them. Instead, people started buying printers cum scanners! Technological obsolescence is also equally viral. We can say that when the tipping point is reached, these infections spread rapidly, either upwards or downwards!

There is a rule called 80:20! It describes the sociological phenomenon of the spread of the virus.

In most societies

• 20% people do 80% of the work
  
• 20% of criminals make 80% of crimes
  
• 20% of drives make 80% of accidents
  
• 20% of beer drinkers drink 80% of beer
  

Virus epidemics are spread by a tiny number of people. The spread of AIDS in the United States was caused by a flight attendant who had sexual relationships with 2500 females. In South Korea, recently, COVID spread became rapid because of a woman (later named Patient number 31) affected by COVID and then “met” 1400 plus people, leading to a rapid spread of COVID!

Some people are born Salesmen! They always think positively, have a lot of energy and enthusiasm- the qualities that help them persuade others. There is a famous story of a shoe salesman. He is sent to an island to sell shoes. After three days, he sends a message to the head office, ” People here do not wear shoes. Do not send any shoes.” He is called back. Then his colleague is sent. After three days, the colleague sends a message. ” People here do not wear shoes. Please send three full containers of shoes.” It is the positive attitude that changes the approach of persons to the same situation! Usage of shoes spread on the island spread like a pandemic!

Another type of personality that spreads ideas fast is called Maven. It means a connoisseur! Mavens have good knowledge of many things in the world. They keep on accumulating more and more information and knowledge of many subjects. They also like to pass on their treasure to others. Others trust Mavens because they have deep knowledge of many things. Mavens are highly motivated and have excellent communication skills. If they are confident about a product or a service, they will recommend the same to others. Another spread?

For an idea to stick, sometimes you need to make a minor tweak in the statement about the concept. In the US, in the year 1954, a cigarette company called Winston advertised with a tweak! Their cigarette with a new filter was advertised as “Winston tastes good “like” a cigarette should!” The word “like” was a grammatical mistake; it should have been “as”. But they wanted people to “like” the cigarette, hence the tweak! The advertisement became a great hit, and Winston became the largest selling brand in the US!

Why such external epidemics spread? The outside world has a significant influence on what we do! There was an experiment. Two groups of students were to give a speech at a university. One group was told to reach on time, and the other was not. Their arrival times were noted. They were all exposed to a man who appeared to be injured and lying on the road. From the group of students who were told to come on time, only ten per cent were late. But from the other group, 63% were late; they had stopped to see what had gone wrong with that man.

Viruses and Bacteria cause epidemics that we do not need. But the epidemic of ideas is what the world needs! Go and spread the epidemic!

Is the government going overboard?

For the last month or so, Social Media discussions in the newspapers, TV, and Social media have surpassed even Covid discussions. Why is that so? There are many reasons. Was the government asleep all these years? Mostly No! Social Media came into real use since the 2014 elections in India. Messages began being sent on WhatsApp, Facebook, and videos on Youtube! I am taking a review of what the Social Media discussion is all about? What does the government want? What do Social Media companies wish? There is the third party, you and me, the general public.

I have chosen the year 2014 because till then, Social Media usage for political purposes was minimal. But, once anything gets politicised, then all different hues of politics will come into the picture. Before the new acts by the government became effective, Social Media was not responsible for whatever was published on the platform. Social Media companies had formed their own rules to be followed. I am not going into details about the rules and the laws. I am not going to even discuss the correctness of the same. The word politics here is incidental- it kicked off a lot of discussions.

Over a period, the governments, the world over, realised the need to control these companies because the matters started becoming more and more complex. The congress kit became a test case about the fight between Twitter and the government. The fundamental question is, who has jurisdiction? Twitters of this world or the government. Other commercial battles are also going on between the two. Just because company A is an internet-based company, does it become a borderless company? Does the company follow only their own rules? If I tweet while I reside in India, can Tweeter get away by saying, “Pramod can say whatever he wants to say as long as he follows my rules?”

First and foremost, these organisations are commercial organisations making money doing business- there is absolutely nothing wrong with running a commercial set-up. Like any other set-up, it could be brick & mortar or an internet set-up. It has to follow the local laws.

The Indian government made a set of laws like having local staff to handle certain situations. Despite that, internet companies, especially Twitter, behave arrogantly. You can not be a faceless set-up where for any small query, one has to access their headquarters in Timbaktu! Tweeter still thinks that they can get away with whatever they want to do! Since India has the second largest population globally, there is a chance that all these companies will have a large customer base in India. I used to be a marketing professional in my time, and the dictum I have been hearing was “Customer is the King”! China being a dictatorship, does not bother about niceties and declares its own laws. But democracies like India follow the democratic procedures. These companies are being questioned in the US, the UK and the EU and Australia. So India is not doing anything unique.

Let us see what really happened after 2014 in India. The Indian economy was doing good after the recession of 2008. Sell and usage of smartphones went up exponentially. People could afford them, and the prices of smartphones started coming down. The definition of basic human needs changed from Roti, Kapda Aur Makan (Food, Clothing and home) to Roti, Kapda Aur Makan- and the Internet. With this, the universal communication platform became WhatsApp and Facebook. Twitter and Instagram came next. Their usage proliferated during the first few years, then it grew albeit slowly.

As usually happens, people started finding out new ways of using these platforms. The government of India’s simple requirement was that in case of usage of these platforms for terrorism, hate-mongering and all such activities causing the disturbance in social harmony, the source of such acts should be tracked and shared by these platforms. In short, the platform should track the usage. These companies, especially Twitter, raised a bogey of individual privacy. The battle lines were drawn. Most of the other companies like Google, Facebook etc., discussed and fine-tuned the discussions and complied as per the government requirements, but not Twitter.

There came up the case of a doctored video from Uttar Pradesh. Due to personal hostility, there was a fight where five to six people thrashed an old man. His beard was cut off; some people doctored this video and gave it a religious angle. This was shown on Twitter. Since Twitter has not fully complied with the legal requirement, a police case is registered against them. They are held responsible, and the due course law has begun. The FIR says that Twitter is responsible for the spread the religious enmity.

Would any government be interested in going after a platform? Twitter could easily have acquired indemnity had they followed the local law, but maybe they think they control the Internet waves and could get away with anything. Why do commercial organisations behave this way? Some billions of dollars of earnings do not offer them indemnity. They must follow the local law.

When Google started going ahead in the search space, people started following their advertising model and paid them per click basis for the adverts. At one stage, their domination became absolute, and people stopped/reduced giving advertisements to TV channels and newspapers. The organisations like TV channels, newspapers, newsgathering companies like Reuters slowly started feeling the pinch, and their business viability was being challenged. The Australian government was the first to challenge Google. They suggested to Google that Google should start sharing the advertising revenue with “land-based” companies. Google refused, at first, and said that they will stop the search engine availability for Australia. In the end, Google had to relent.

With this background, all the globally operating internet-based companies must learn the obvious lesson. Will they? What is that lesson? The days of behaving in a particular way are over. They will have to run their business like any regular business and will not get any special treatment. Another important aspect will be that they will have to follow the rules of every country in the end. They cannot threaten sovereign nations. A tricky part would be each nation may have slight variations in the laws; companies will have to negotiate. If they can not negotiate successfully, they have to follow the rules in letter and spirit! Twitter knows it well! Currently, they are banned in Nigeria!

Medical Apartheid- the Lancet report

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is among the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals. It was founded in 1823 by Thomas Wakley, an English surgeon who named it after the surgical instrument called a lancet (scalpel). The journal publishes original research articles, review articles (“seminars” and “reviews”), editorials, book reviews, correspondence, as well as news features and case reports. The Lancet has been owned by Elsevier since 1991, and its editor-in-chief since 1995 is Richard Horton. The journal has editorial offices in London, New York, and Beijing.

The journal is supposed to write informed articles about medical happenings globally -and they wrote an article about India’s COVID situation, a supposedly balanced writing. India has made many mistakes in managing the situation, which includes election rallies and Kumbh Mela. Then there have been errors in exporting vaccine which was misjudged by the authorities. There are no doubts that the government did not visualise the second wave correctly.

While going through the global data, I found certain information. I have considered four countries for the data-India, the USA, Brazil, Italy. The first three countries are selected because of their large populations, and Italy because it was the first country hit badly outside of China when COVID was in the initial phase. One crore is equal to ten million, and other figures are regular.

	Population		Total cases		Deaths	Vaccinated
India	140 crore		22321229		242000	16.94
	1400 million		1.59		1.09
	—
USA	32 crores		32861204		586000	25.47
	320 million		10.25		1.79
	—
Italy	6 crores		4102921		122000	2.31
	60 million		6.83		2.98
	—
Brazil	21 crores		15150628		421000	4.68
	210 million		7.19		2.79

I read the Lancet article blaming India and the Indian government for Lackadaisical approach and performance, I started thinking. The article title was

PM Modi’s Actions “Inexcusable”, Government Needs To Own Up Covid Mistakes: Lancet

“[PM] Modi’s actions in attempting to stifle criticism and open discussion during the crisis are inexcusable,” it said.

There is no question that the blame has to be taken by the government- there is no dispute about it. I have taken the figures above from the Bing Covid tracker in the table as of 7 pm, May 9 2021.

In the second column, the second row of each record shows the total cases as a percentage of the population and death as a percentage of total cases. India is the lowest in both ratios. The total cases ratio is the highest for the US, and the death ratio is the highest for Italy! Both these ratios in the case of India are the lowest.

But since Lancet is a western magazine, India and Modi must be blamed. This is what I mean by Medical Apartheid!

A COVID-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and maybe dodging vaccine protections, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Saturday.

In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”.

India’s numbers have grown before you could bat your eyelid! It has happened within a short span of 30 to 45 days. I have nothing against criticism but are today’s times suitable for criticising? Lancet is an international journal, but it has not said anything about the number of cases in the US. Ten per cent of the US population is affected as against India’s 1.59 per cent. 2.98 per cent of affected patients lost their lives in Italy as against 1.09 per cent in India. Brazil is high on both counts. But I have not read any article about these three nations from Lancet. Do you understand what I mean by Apartheid?

Apartheid is a former policy of segregation and political, social, and economic discrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South Africa. The world over, this method may not be an official policy of governments, but it is always discretely followed socially. If you have never observed it during international travel, you are travelling with your eyes and ears closed. Once I was travelling back from the US. We landed in Paris and were waiting on the tarmac for the bus to pick us up. Three older ladies (I was much younger then) were looking at me and animatedly discussed something. One of them came to me and spoke in a language I did not understand. I said, “I speak English.” Another lady came and said, “We were discussing if you are Portuguese, Spanish or Italian.” I said, “I am an Indian. Do you want see my passport?” The expressions on their faces rapidly switched!

Why do such things happen? It has been historical. Gods always have a fair complexion in our mythology, and demons are always dark with big moustaches! Even in India, for Punjabis or North Indians, all the people from Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra are Madrasis- a derogatory term used for anyone with dark skin. This is how the world has been thinking from the beginning. This thinking has unnecessarily given superiority complex to fair-skinned people. With international migrations and people switching nationalities, the “fairer” nations have many intelligent and dark-skinned people. White population finds this difficult to fathom!

Coming back to the COVID situation in India, the whole world is supporting India because no country in the world can handle such rapid growth in the number of patients. The delivery of medical oxygen has almost doubled to 8,900 metric tonnes (MT) on May 8 from around 4,800 MT on April 15. This has been achieved by Industry, the railways, the Indian Air force and some other nations who have donated plants. There are small but essential things that need to be handled. The drivers ferrying liquid oxygen are getting fatigued due to continuous trips- more drivers have been trained. People writing the Lancet do not probably know the size of the Indian peninsula. They may not understand the difficulties of taking the liquid oxygen tankers on an eight-day round trip! In the UK or Italy, they might make six return trips in eight days!

Before signing off, let me share a couple of essential things. Those who want to criticise, come what may, use numbers when it is suitable; otherwise, they use percentages. The perennial critics will use the numbers and say India is getting four lacs (four hundred thousand) new patients every day. India has the lowest percentage of affected people based on the total population. But the table above shows that India is behind the US in the number of people vaccinated- but here, they will use percentage and say only two per cent of people have been vaccinated.

If you want to understand how the government functions, please read this interview of Mr Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of BMC. He has cleared various myths about “centre-state disputes” and government “goof ups”. Lancets of this world should read these interviews first before writing articles blaming the Indian government!

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/iqbal-singh-chahal-maharashtra-covid-cases-bmc-oxygen-vaccine-shortage-second-wave-7308663/

How do we handle such advice from “experts” like Lancet guys? Take the right things from the article and neglect ninety per cent of the rant! We have better things to do here! After all, we are getting four hundred thousand new patients every day!

Open your purses- let the flood GATES open

More than three years ago, I had written a blog, “Let us all become Bill Gates”.

https://panvalkarpramod.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/let-us-all-become-bill-gates/

In the blog, I had said that we should all try to adopt a culture of giving. Whatever I had written has not changed. The need for individuals to become givers still remains equally important, if not more. On one of our WhatsApp groups, a friend, Hemant, had written about how his company decided to erect five oxygen generation plants in the five districts of Rajasthan. The Oxygen situation is grim in India because of an aggressive attack by the COVID virus affecting many people; yesterday, the number of new patients was more than four hundred thousand. Many countries are rushing various supplies to India to make it easy to tackle the pandemic.

After reading Hemant’s note, many friends congratulated him for a job well done by his company. It was great to know that our friend Hemant was involved in this vital project. A thought came to my mind why individuals can not do such things to suit their pockets. I wrote a note on the group the as below.

Taking thoughts from this, I have a suggestion and want your opinion. All of us individually can donate some equipment. It may not be an O2 plant, like Hemant’s company. But we can contribute ventilators, oxygen concentrators, beds, PPE’s or whatever. I am sure many of us can easily do it. This idea came to me as a friend donated a ventilator to Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune. It can cost three to ten lacs. We also can do it. So why not share your views.

Looking at the critical situation in India, I had expected many comments and suggestions. There were three or four comments, one of which was tangential. One valid point raised was about deductions available for Income Tax. It was a good point. I had expected at least fifteen to twenty messages from a group that has 150 people. I was disappointed, to say the least.

My grey cells started whirring, and I wondered what makes us respond. All friends are obviously in the golden phase of life. We have some fit friends, and a few are not keeping well for some time. Some are still active doing professional work. Others have been travelling and pursuing hobbies. As is to be expected, a few of our friends have passed too!

I wrote the message above to get some feedback about what my friends’ thinking about donating things for the fight against Corona! I have written about their response (or the lack of it) and wondered how people feel when they respond.

There can be many reasons for the response- I will consider no response also as a response. First and foremost is that only 15 to 20 % of people respond to anything in such groups. Others rarely respond. Why is that so? These people are in the group for more than five years now. I wonder why these people remain in the group when they never respond- they could be silently enjoying the banter. Or does age make you ignore the banter that happens in the group? Or is it simply apathy? Or is it that some never had a connection with the group? COVID has brought many activities to a standstill. We used to meet for dinners, lunches a few times a year. We had breakfast meets in Pune every month. We had breakfast meets once in a few months in Mumbai. Dinners were also arranged in Mumbai almost every year. People did come in reasonable numbers. Later we started meeting with spouses- this led some spouses to become close to each other.

Later we found out that some people started having health issues. In some instances, the families informed the group about this, but we would get information through other sources in most other cases. The group showed behaviour pattern which represented the same pattern as in any society. Some were gung ho initially but quietened down over a period.

I had explained my thoughts about donations in details in the Bill Gates blog I have mentioned above. But I am writing about the most complex organ (which does not even exist) of the human body- the mind! How does the mind work? At one moment, it is praising a great philanthropic work by an organisation; the next moment, when I ask an opinion about philanthropy by an individual, it appears as if the question was not even asked. There are hardly any opinions. Maybe they do not like to respond to me? Or they are already doing what I was checking about. Hence they felt that there is no need to express themselves.

Then the next day, there was a message from a friend on the group, saying that he was committing a certain amount and suggested that I coordinate with others to do some philanthropic work for the group. This message certainly boosted my spirits, but apparently, it made no difference to the thinking of others in the group. The disinterest continues.

I may be wrong, but I am slowly coming to some conclusions. My first conclusion is that ALL are already doing some charity work, so it is not worth giving an opinion about what more could be done. It is a positive conclusion. There is a possibility that people generally lose interest in doing something themselves. It is easy to applaud something already done by large organisations. It is easy to clap for the Tatas of this world as they are importing cryogenic tankers for transporting liquid oxygen. Why not? They are doing a fantastic job. It may not be a great idea to clap for someone who donates five beds to a hospital or maybe ten testing kits! It is not sexy to talk about such small donations. But lest we forget, one hundred people donating five beds each makes five hundred beds! It is a big deal though not as big as donating the cryogenic tanks.

Are my friends losing interest in things? Enjoying life is also a collection of small things. Similarly, hundreds of small donations are equal to large donations—these small donations matter. Open your purses; those may be small! I have made a similar statement in my Bill Gates blog. Let the Flood GATES open! India needs it. It will keep you interested in life!

Seasons in Life

“We are in the habit of imagining our lives to be linear, a long march from birth to death in which we amass our powers, only to surrender them again, all the while slowly losing our youthful beauty. This is a brutal untruth. Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”

This is what author Katherine May said about the seasons of life. Our life is a cycle like that of seasons. In some cases, it has three seasons like we have in countries like India. Summer, Monsoon and Winter. Whereas in some peoples lives, the seasons are similar to those in the temperate countries- Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

 

There are three graphs shown- the first one is what we hope our life will be, the linear graph, and the second graph is what life is, typically some ups and some downs! But if you ask my opinion, the third one depicts real-life! There are complicated up-downs. Forget what type of graphs these are. They show us the reality of life.

If we take the Indian seasons, the summer is the season that represents the heat that we face in life. The heat can be in the form of deaths, illnesses, career issues, and maybe even fights with close friends. In summer, certain parts of India have a manageable temperature while others have extreme heat. Some areas have a combination of humidity and heat which makes things unbearable. People travel to cold climates of hill station to get relief from the summer heat! But can we get such relief in our life? An event can bring extreme heat to our lives, but there are no hill stations to go to! Sometimes there is no relief from cold Matka water and some cold drinks! Only time can take away the heat created by a situation! Some of us get tempered due to this heat, and others simply give up. I read in today’s newspapers that a lady contracted COVID. She and her husband found it difficult to get a bed in hospitals. In desperation, they just gave up and committed suicide!

The couple forgot that there is monsoon season after the summer heat. If they had borne the pressure with patience, they would have probably got a bed, and maybe she would have got cured. The summer heat from their life would have been fixed by the monsoon of getting the relief from COVID.

Monsoon is a season of relief from the heat but can also be a season of very heavy rains, floods, crop damages. These are, of course, the bad sides of the monsoons. But it also brings lovely showers, greenery, hide and seek played by the sun and the clouds in the month of Shravan. During this phase, HE, the ultimate painter, shows his display of colours in the sky. Does it give us relief from the distress caused by summer? But like summer, it has its own misery creating events. It is a season for mild health issues regarding the nasal region and the stomach area. Monsoon also brings the misty climate and gives us the pleasure of driving on the mountain roads. There is a danger of landslides always lurking around. The theory of ups and downs is proven in this seasons too!

Winter in our area is mild compared to the one in cold regions. It is time for a festival like Diwali and Christmas. But we never see the beautiful white Christmas as it is seen in the cold climates. Winter is a season where health issues are much less compared to the other two seasons. But do we wish to have winter all the time? I do not think so. Sweet and Sour, Joy and Sorrow are two extremes in our lives. But we enjoy one after feeling the other. Can you imagine a life that is always full of joy? It is not possible, there are the cycles of life, and there are the ups and downs. We consider Joy as the upside of life and sorrow as the downside of life! Always having joy or sadness in life is like a straight line graph that never exists.

Since we do not live in the cold regions on the earth, we do not know what people have to face. Modern technology makes things manageable in such climates. In my opinion, these regions show us the real meaning of life to us. Life for all is never like a temperate climate; it has extremes- that are far in between the peaceful life. By peaceful, I do not mean that everything happens the way we want, but the ups and downs are manageable. Highs and troughs are within a reasonable range. It is these extremes that cause all the difficulties in our lives.

In the cold region, the atmospheric changes are extreme. Most trees shade all the leaves; that is natures way of preparing the trees to survive. The snow looks beautiful in the pictures, but living life in those times is not easy. Once we live in these extreme cold regions, we understand the importance of spring. As the spring arrives, suddenly, everything turns from stark to green. Depending on the area, the flowers with beautiful colours start sprouting out. In some locations, bushes are full of berries.

There is a word मिथ्या- ‘Mithya’ actually originated from Sanskrit, and its meaning fairly corresponds to ‘Illusion”, an appearance superimposed on actuality, or different from actuality. Mithya means an illusion that seems to exist but does not exist in a real sense! It is a philosophical meaning rather than an actual meaning.

The winter in the cold regions takes away everything from nature. Snowstorms and cold weather take their toll on the soul of nature. In our lives, we get such feelings due to specific events. We feel as if everything is Mithya! It is dead winter in our lives. But spring in these regions brings new life into the world, and with that, we also realise that everything is not ‘Mithya’! After all, there is life after the winter!

We who live in the tropical region will never understand the importance of spring and hence the poem!

The US, India or Australia-things do not change

My friend Nandu and I were speaking the other day! Nandu lives in Sydney, Australia, since the late ’70s of the last century. We were discussing the turmoil in our home and came down to the practicalities of life. We are both seventy-plus, and the phase of life can be described as the Golden Period. Both of us were in COEP, and when we chat on the phone, time simply flies. We talk of every subject on the earth.

Over a period, what we found was that our contemporaries handled life. Some took things in stride; others strived to be successful. Some did succeed, and others did not. It brings the usual question of what is a success. Each individuals’ “achievement” is different. Doing great work in the chosen field is a success, or making a lot of money is success? But I am not discussing the “success” today. At the end of our careers, most of us are past the home responsibility phase. Life enters the so-called retirement phase. Some continue to do work, as they did before, during the active phase of life. But most really retire. They try to be passionate about things they could not do during the active phase. It could be travel, photography, poems, blogging, social work and so on!

People create assets, both liquid and fixed, during their productive phase. How much money do we need to live and die comfortably? It is a difficult question that will never have an answer. But one thing all of us can and must do is to keep things simple! What is the meaning of keeping things? Well, it is complicated.

At the end of the day ( that is, when both spouses pass), assets are left behind. How to handle this? During our lifetime, we can save money, buy homes. We may get sudden lump sum money which will help us do things that we always wanted to. Our life begins with our parents; we start in an inner circle with them. As we grow, we finish school, further complete our education, and then we start working. The lifecycle goes on; we marry and then have kids. Our parents become older. At some stage, the parents pass away. When I went through this cycle, my parents were from a middle-class family. My father passed away; he did not own a home. All his savings were in the form of bank deposits. My mothers’ name was the second name on the FD. It was a simple matter. My father’s CA asked me, “Any disputes?” I said, “None.” He said, Create a list with your mother’s name first. Put second names as per her choice.” I did that, and the same was “declared” as WILL! Later on, when my mother passed away, the transition was simple. But is life so simple these days? No, not at all!

Now there is an issue when I say that we should keep things simple! Today, the families have dispersed the world over. Even close family members meet only for intimate functions; otherwise, they pass. I had known of a case where the son could not come when his father passed away. The reason was the visa problem; if the son had come, he would not have been able to go back to the US- the choice was a tough one. Job/visa security against emotion; he chose security! This is how life becomes complicated.

Consider today’s professional! The person has done well in life, and there are bungalows, a holiday home in Goa. Multiple investments in shares, mutual funds and bank FDs. Then there are life insurance policies. I have not considered the landholdings! Then, of course, there is holding in bonds. There are short term gains and long term gains. Share dividends are tax-free; money received from a property sale recently is taxable unless reinvested or kept in a specific bank.

Do you see the complication? Now, most of the things are online or in Demat format. This maze of paperwork is seen to be believed. That is the situation when you are just retiring. You were so busy that there was no time to organise the stuff- for the professional it was just a few clicks away. In a few documents, the beneficiary is not mentioned- in such cases, probate becomes mandatory.

I feel that life should be made simple in two phases- START NOW. Make individual WILL for both spouses. The WILL will be simple. “Everything should be given to the spouse if I die.” Make the same WILL for both spouses. The WILL starts the simplification process. I am NOT going to go into any details, but I will write about the principles.

In the WILL, write about how you want assets to be distributed after passing of both husband and wife.  The liquid asset distribution should be mentioned in percentages, to A xx %, to B yy % and Charity zz %. It will be a good idea to mention all the names in BOLD with current addresses and ages. Has this become simpler? Is there any ambiguity left? There are many- why do we need so many fixed assets now! Just liquidate them except maybe home where you live. That too is not essential, but I will discuss that at some other time.

“There are bungalows, holiday home in Goa. Multiple investments in shares, mutual funds and bank FDs. Then there are life insurance policies. I have not considered the landholdings! Then, of course, there is holding in bonds. There are short term gains and long term gains. Share dividends are tax-free; money received from a property sale recently is taxable unless reinvested or kept in a specific bank.”

This famous statement has not changed at all. Decide at some stage in life (this is the most complex thing to do) when you want to make these changes. You must be having a question in mind about what is Pramod trying to say! Here is what I suggest! Does it make sense? (Oh, I have picked up the lingo from the US of A- got it!

It is simple to handle the cash. Try and simplify cash investments in some simple instruments like bonds or bank FDs.

Here is the most non-conventional thing I am going to suggest. You plan to make sure that all your money is in banks as FD after a spouse’s death- if possible online FD’s. It could be something equivalent but easy to liquidate. I am again saying that this arrangement will be suitable for those who have enough income to live till the end. Withdrawing from your bank accounts is good enough- income generation should not be the necessity, ease of handling should be.  Purists will be upset with this statement and will say that money must always “work” (and generate income) as it did all our life. As against this, imagine your children’s sigh of relief after we are gone.

“Thank god there is nothing to sell! Leena has come from Aucjland and managed eight days leave. Ron  has come from Vancouver- with barely five days of leave!”

Thank God! Our parents have been wise. They knew that we would not find time to sell that bungalow in Chinchwad. I was anxious that they would sell the holiday home in Goa, too- I would go to Hawaii instead! What am I going to do with two hundred thousand dollars left by them? We have no time!

Now, have you understood the meaning of simplicity?

Black, White or Grey

9 as 9 and M as M

You must be wondering what I have written above! You will understand it later!

Black, White or Grey is a question that we always have in our mind! Because nothing in life can be defined in Black and White! Everything has a grey shade- look at the spelling of grey- we can spell it as GRAY too! It means that there are two sides to everything or maybe even more, except, of course, Birth and Death. These two events are clearly defined, and there is nothing grey about them.

Why things are grey? Whatever we are thinking or discussing can “Look” different depending on our mood at that time. Your small kid is playing around and enjoying herself. You have time on your hand- then you will, of course, enjoy the laughter, frolic and fun! But you have no time, you need to create a presentation for an important meeting at the office. You are struggling to develop it; you do not enjoy the laughter, frolic and fun! How can this happen? It is the circumstances and surroundings that define the Black and White- but it is mainly grey!

There are many shades of grey- there is a well-known book, Fifty Shades of Grey (film) – Wikipedia. You are mixing things. A movie trilogy was made based on the book; it is about the sexapades of a woman with a young billionaire. It had nothing to do with the Black and White we are discussing.

Many things are defined similarly in our lives, like Good and Evil, Heaven and Hell, Gods and Demons! Freedom fighter and a terrorist are two sides of the same coin. The group of people trying to liberate themselves or separate from a nation is defined as terrorists. But if they succeed, then the new nation calls them freedom fighters. In the year 1971, in December, Bangla Desh won freedom from Pakistan. If we read the newspapers or articles from India and Bangla Desh, Muktibahini, a Bengali group, fought valiantly against the Pakistani army with support from the Indian armed forces. See, I am an Indian, so I write about Mukti Bahini in glorious terms. But Pakistani newspapers would describe Mukti Bahini as Bengali terrorists! It is a point of view from the other side!

The same would be true about India’s freedom struggle from the British Raj! Books after books are written about the Indian freedom fighters, Gandhiji, Nehru and others. But the British historians must have written the opposite about the freedom fighters. These are examples of people with diametrically opposing views. There was never a chance of their views merging at any stage. But life is not so clearly defined. When we live in the same society, the same building or the same house, there could be different views where both may be right from their point of view. These things lead to avoidable conflicts.

In housing societies, sometimes there are minor disputes about parking space, loud music, and many such things. We have the freedom to do what we want to do, but others also have the same privilege. You want to listen to your favourite singer, loud and clear. But what about your neighbour who wants to sleep peacefully after a tiring day? Someone has parked her car, due to which a second car can not be parked! You have the freedom to park, but you cannot trade on someone else’s space to park! All such minor issues are grey but can be and should be easy to resolve if you look at it from others point of view!

I read a poem by a friend, where a lover is looking at his beloved from a distance. There was a tiff between the two, the usual lover’s spat, the couple is being pulled back to each other. The lover is worried to see the tears in the eyes of his beloved. When they meet and hug, he tries to help her and lovingly tells her, “Do not you worry, my beloved, now that I am here. No tears, please!” The beloved smiles and still has copious tears in her eyes. She says,” Darling, these were never tears of sorrow, but were tears of joy! When you were away from me, I always saw your face in front of my eyes, and I could not stop my tears of joy!” The same tears were seen by two sides in the diametrically opposite way.

The above caricature is interesting. Why do two persons look at the same thing differently? The example of six and nine explains this different outlook perfectly. What could be the possible reasons for this different outlook? Ego? Superiority complex? Narrow thought process? Not able to grasp the situation? A poet writes about similar things differently when his moods are different. The same Sun looks golden to him, and at other times he feels that it is harsh!

In today’s COVID times, the Vaccine is available to us. The Vaccine is going to help us avoid COVID in future, or it will definitely reduce the intensity of the symptoms, is the scientific view. But some people are not taking the shots because Johnson and Johnson Vaccine supposedly contains a substance not allowed by their religion. Some people are treating themselves with alternate medicinal treatment. Some alternate treatments suggest that there is no need to get the Vaccine! But is that the right thing to do? It is society’s right to obtain a Vaccine shot, and some individuals cannot claim personal choice not to take it.

In life, in politics, in business, most of the things are negotiable. Nobody should take a hardened stand; sometimes, principles are involved, e. g. quality at any cost! Such decisions are not negotiable! Someone may ask, “What is negotiable?” The principles are always non-negotiable, but I will always get drunk can not be a principle!

Avoid situations where 6 or 9 and M or W are involved. But if you run into such problems, do not forget that there two or more sides! Negotiate, and do not forget that you win some and you lose some!

Always write 6 like 6 or 9 as 9 and M like M or W as W; this will ensure that there will be no confusions!