Lock Down Part II : Stories that inspire and issues with privilege

The languid pace of life these days is helping in spacing out engagement optimally, having worked for long in 24 X 7 environments this has been a welcome change.  Over last few years as I started giving up multitasking, with some rigor the pace was already slackening and now the lockdown has put it on an exponential curve (These days words you should know to have a civilized conversation is exponential, on Log, linear, asymptotic). So, is this here to stay? Perhaps too early to say. Time will tell whether we will have this or worse in future.

I would like to thank all of you who reached out and sought update on next post. In colloquial Hindi (please no debates here about origin) we say, तहे दिल से शुक्रिया (In English it would be “from the bottom of my heart”, kind of non-rhyming and does not convey the depth).

We are now in midst of 2^nd Lock down and a sense of acquaintance with it is now in place. With a sense of acquaintance comes familiarity with it and as mostly as is the case, familiarity breeds contempt.  If in past we had contempt about 24 X 7 life, the pendulum will swing to extreme and verbosity will increase in favor of a life style globally despaired but now wanted back pronto. Pressure will mount on the Govt, across the world to abandon the lockdown and get back to opening up the businesses and eventually everything. How the Govt’s react to this pressure, would say more about the societies they represent then about the individuals who have been anointed (mark this word as this will become central to discussion in chatter class soon) as leaders. I would look to see how leaders convince their people about the course of action they will take. Hopefully these will be layered decision where what is said is smartly aided with what is required to be done for good of society. Onward of this weekend be prepared for very aggressive assault on your senses about opening up fast and how it will help everyone.

Meanwhile worldwide folks who never had voice are able to garner eyeballs and come out with their version of future. Tracks as varied as global finance, health services, agriculture supply chains and sexual behavior post Covid. Zoom conferencing software has made this possible on a mass scale, at least 2 conference where I am a member the organizer had to ditch other competing software and go for Zoom to handle scale. At the same time the noise about the security issues in Zoom refuses to die. More on this sometime in next few post.

I would suggest that one drops the nth Netflix movie about to be viewed and join these discussion, some of the young people are really scoring a ton days with their breadth of vision and the defense of it. This would also do some good to Whats App university graduate who are back to screaming doomsday (possibly will get Phd for it) about India, if we have any difference of opinion.

On other note few things continue to give me confidence on why our country will continue to improve (its common citizens) and at same time show  how the privileged have no concern for a larger section of us.

Take the example of Jena who drove (sorry rode) a bicycle for 1700 KMS from Sangli in Maharashtra to his village in Jaipur district in Orrisa. He took 7 days to cover this distance (avg 242 Km a day) across the most desolate and beautiful parts of India. Only in India would a poor person do this and only in India would a complete stranger provide food, correct directions and repair the punctures for him (https://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Home/ShareArticle?OrgId=f25c2d6b&imageview=0). And only in India would the bicycle model would be same as the one our grandfathers rode to their work or possibly their grand fathers rode to work (if that concept existed for privileged then). The basic model available in India (the one Jena rode) is still the same with minor here and there to reduce cost And not improve quality & experience of the rider. Reminds me of a reprimand my colleague got from a bank CEO ( we were doing a proposal defense for core banking project) for saying that why his poor customer needs new banking technology. Needless to say, we lost the bid from there on. But this was an exception, largely entitled class is busy with its PIZZA culture (I use this quite often in my discussions) and not worried about how poor eke out a living or live in our country.

While some of us will pass this as story of human endeavor and wash out any guilt about it, I would say we have let down the poor once again in this crisis and have no right to ask them adhere to our standards of sophistry & dedication to cause célèbre which we keep tagging on to in passing fancy. So, every time one sprouts the wisdom at NO cost to himself or his family IGNORE him. NO skin in the game for them.

Poor continue to walk across the country to reach their home or wait for food in lines. Here are few linkshttps://www.youtube.com/watchv=XO4MPOgSrAk ,  https://twitter.com/suhasiniraj/status/1252461623777701888 , https://twitter.com/scroll_in/status/1251524032911949826

Meanwhile our privileged representatives continue to bend the system to get their dear one home. One MP’s wife took a flight to Kolkatta and one had his child driven from Kota to Bihar with a special permit, one had his son married off with low key gathering (Hey how low-key is low key for these folks one can see from photographs of the ceremony). The party they belong to does not matter as the behavior is exhibited across party lines with few notable exceptions. While I don’t agree with some of these exceptional characters but I respect them for the stand they have taken. My wishes for them.

Reading continue to improve for me (only activity where I multi task by reading 3 at a time sometimes). Finished re-reading “The RSS by Nilanjan Mukhopadhay”, a good introduction to foundation of RSS and its pantheon of leaders, the chapter on Advani while is short in the book but captures the career & downfall of a stalwart with smart details. Started “Aghora -III The Law of Karma by Robert  Svoboda”. This one is dear to me as this is closest to my belief as Aghori. Will write more about this one in next month. For now, I know image one conjures of an Aghori is of one in Shamshan, yes right but then that’s a small part of being Aghori

Also In midst of reading about German genius by Peter Watson.

I will be back next week Friday evening. Namaskar. 

Day 21: Lock Down is over : Long live the Lock Down

14-04-20

First, I would like to thank all the folks who read, gave feedback and suggested changes. Two people who helped me tip in favor of sharing on blog are the real heroes for me.   I should also thank my editors who are 18 and 19 respectively. The editors have not minced words and have kept me on real, on what I write and factuality of it. Its refreshing to see how good the next generation is in questioning the elders. May my generation learn from them.

As this was a 21 day lock down blog which was to end today, I will keep my commitment & stop the series here. But before you heave a sigh of relief, I am letting you know that I will continue to write. Snarkier and biting as we move ahead. To make space for bread and butter (sorry on diet) issues I will move to publishing one a week. May be move to sustack which I am told is the future of publishing.

Now to the last day of lock down. as expected, we have an extension of lock down in the country. Now we have 30^th April Sorry 3^rd May (some brilliant move as per Twitterati about extending without saying, presumably another masterstroke of sorts whose benefits are lost to us simple minded folks.). On 20^th of this month more changes are expected with reference to easing up for agriculture & industry. Post these changes I believe we will enter into longish moderated opening up for others over an unpredictable period. Be prepared for not opening up at all also for this quarter at least.

Here is a summary of my lock down experience for your consideration

1.      It pays produce output, good bad or ugly it is important to produce an output. Folks may like it or be indifferent, it does not matter beyond a point as one stops worrying about external validation. So important thing is keep doing things and at same time listen to criticism of all kinds.

2.      Have faith, in your society and govt. None of them are suicidal and will do best to solve the problems. At the same time keep deleting  astrological forecast about Amanyasya  from your timeline on social media. It will be kind of embarrassing soon, as Covid is still with us as compared to nano chip (remember it being inside INR 2000  currency notes) exponents claims to contrary.

3.      Chattering classes are meant to chatter so unless one is profiting form them one is better of writing or better watching mind numbing series on Netflix.

4.      Talk to people outside your circle of competency and listen to them. It keeps you humble and aligned to reality

5.      India will do well, make your space in the changing environment. And stop listening to pundit about long term growth in equities (now some say it is 10 years, God know what it will be after next round of valuation meltdown)

Once again a big thank you to all of you. Do keep feedback loop on.

Long Live the Lock down

Day 19 & 20 : Trust

In day 15 post, I briefly touched upon a ground up effort to create trust in our Govt and system. To build trust, we need to first understand why it does not exist in our society. A story comes to mind which my friend shared on WhatsApp some time back. The same is reproduced here:

“In a village of yore when people were simplistic and more honest, a merchant started a practice of selling milk in a self-service format. He used to store milk in a large jar in the centre of the village market. At one cowrie (old currency unit) per seer (old weight measure), people could take the milk and put the money in a kullar (earthen container).  The practice was well accepted and had become a norm. The merchant was happy with his profits and the villagers used to get good milk at an affordable price. 

After some time, a smart person thought, 'How will the milkman know If I take more than one seer of milk or pay less than one cowrie? After all, many people buy the milk and it won’t make a difference.'  A couple of other people also followed suit. Over the next few days, the milkman found that he was not getting as many cowries and his expenses were not getting covered. So, he started diluting the milk with water, to factor in the pilferage. He also raised the price to compensate for the short payment.  Over the next few seasons, the milk price slowly rose to two cowries per seer and the quality was also not what it used to be.

The entire village, which was earlier a happy village used to good quality milk at reasonable price, now was an unhappy village which was getting low quality milk at a higher price. Over time, the village people forgot when and why the prices had started rising, and were left only with their feeling of dissatisfaction. The merchants blamed the villagers, and the villagers blamed the merchants.

This brings us to a pertinent question: who is responsible, the milkman or the person who started the practice of gaming the system? 

Furthermore, it reveals an important aspect of our present-day situation. Our society, which can have many aspects of its costs reduced to a lower level, is not able to reduce costs as someone somewhere is trying to game the system and get an undue advantage. The net result: the entire society ends up paying a price. 

That, my friends, is what a few corrupt people can do to a largely honest society. It raises cost and prices of everything because like it or not, Money follows the law of energy i.e. it’s never created or destroyed, it merely changes form and hands.  And corruption makes it costlier at each and every change of hands!"

As we see, a trust-based system works only when everyone adheres to the rules and does not cut corners for private profits. More importantly, while not explicitly said in the story, all of the villagers had access to milk, but herein lies the rub for our current status. With high disparity of incomes, means, and education, for historical reasons we are a work-in-progress society. Resultant of this disparity is that what’s sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander! So, all the while we were fretting about our inability to have smooth roads, like able politicians who meet our slick standards, and that damn smoke cloud over the city, the other half of the citizenry was scrounging for scraps to survive. In between our aspiration for click-button trust and reality is a chasm for everyone to cross from either side of it. In this, educated and arrived folks have a higher responsibility.

My suggestions for improving the trust at a personal level and within one’s influence circle:

1.      Communicate and don’t confuse it with pontification

I have worked with some brilliant supervisors & leaders in my 25 years of professional life. If I have to identify one common strand of behavior amongst all of them, it would be their ability to listen and break down difficult problems into easy to understand parables to help everyone align to the objective at challenging junctures. Communication must be a two-way radio which, as long as modulated right, will keep moving the society towards better trust levels. A one-way radio, a.k.a. 'pontification', is a sure recipe for disaster, leading to unmitigated confusion across strata of society.

2.      Volunteer

It does not matter if it's on the right or the left, one should spend some time on a weekly basis volunteering for a task/outcome for a segment of society that does not belong to. Work hard to create confidence among them about the benefits of the outcome being worked towards, and soon people will come around to accepting your vision.

3.      Unbiased thinking

Remove your fear and engage with people of different opinion, religion, color and region. Let’s reserve stereotypes for our commando comic new channels (do watch them for the fun of it), for let us open vistas of reaching out and observing things anew. For this, one has to engage with the forthrightness of doing it, instead of conniving and pretending to do it.

The above are simple to do things, none of which requires complex pieces of legislation, permission, or money. Just start doing it and see how the change happens.

Lock down folks is here to stay while we wait for a formal announcement from Govt. Focus will inexorably move to livelihoods & restart. Folks 35 years old and more (who lived early part of life in India) would remember the diesel engines which required an effort to start once they had gone cold. The owners of these diesel auto’s and pumps would start effort early morning to make them ready for work. Some would even light fire under these engines to heat up and consequently start & move. Hopefully we will not need to start fire under us, to kick start the system put off (and probably going cold) in next month.

Stay positive & stay engaged.

Day 18 ; Remote working AKA Work from home: Future of work?

11-04-20

Days these days start with a fit of activities & chores which need to be done before the work from home routine tie us all in. While I can only guess what others are going through (with work from home routines) for us these are onerous at time very stressing time. Time flies in these days of remote working.

 Let me explain India was and is a very auditory work environment, one needs to be in office on time, show his/her face to supervisors & also attend endless meeting to humor the culture of work place. The controls on the work (barring large & evolved orgn) are at most of time auditory in forms of discussions, emails followed by F2F meetings and at time large round ups to hammer some sense into intractable issues. Largely this happens as our significant supervisors (say average age of 35 plus) population has been bred on command & control format to deliver results. Our biggest employees are IT co’s which get paid basis T&M (Yes I know output is of some consequence for them), as for the informal sector routines we see only physical attendance as the barometer of performance. If you are absent you might as well not get paid is our central thinking.

Now covid make these controls of no use, folks are stuck at home & supervisory folks are scratching wishing cards to find solutions for how to control the worker. As is our wont we are moving gradually to new controls, we have a combination of controls which folks are adjusting to in lock down.

1.       Time sheets: Yes, that bane of IT projects is going main stream. People are clocking the time spent and module/work flow time spent on. These time sheets are being done on desktops, google sheets and collaboration tools which provide a sense of control to employers. Over a period of time better collaboration tools (in mainstream at startups) will take over the role and possible automate the reporting & ranking also.

2.       Conference calls for daily stats : As if the time sheets are not enough to provide a sense of control, the boss (emperor of call) speaks and the team meanders across the observable & important points. And if the calls are of video variety the stress is double for the participants. Not only they have to be attentive they also have to be looking good for the calls. This takes away all sense of being at home.

3.       More process-oriented folks are working the checklist mode to get over the day, especially when the skilled set doing this is either inaccessible or not able to perform task remotely. This is restricted to OLTP work flow & time bound processes. Banks being a prime example of the same (they are under emergency services and have people come to office as much as possible)

Consequence of all the remote working is that some of our smarter folks have realized it pays to keep remote work on as the time sheets, trackers on comp time & in due course cloud work flow will keep efficiency level to required. They can do away with the establishment cost, cafeteria cost and transit cost payable to employees in due course. It will also remove subjectivity in routine work flows and minimize the bias over a period of time. This may perhaps be the start of reducing an employee/worker especially the routine knowledge variety to a zombie number in the system. Press to start, crank up speed button and shut down/ discard when not required. So future of work probably is here for repeatable processes at least, what was coming gradually will hasten for reasons linked to current lock down. Creative, joining the dots and manipulators (sorry narrators & story teller for Orgn.) are not disturbed by this turn for now. In fact they have more importance now that post covid impression are to be done, where the opportunity canvas have to be bigger & hungrier for new prophesies.

As I write this the announcement of sort has been made that the Lock down will be extended to end of April. So we have more time to discipline ourselves, imbibe more popcorn thinking about changing habits in 21 days (you have 15 plus 3 available, some more coming after end of month as all of us not going back to work on same day). Try that elusive Yoga session or reading a book that you want to & never could. Best start doing things you like and forget about post covid possibilities.

Here are some of the movies/ songs and documentaries I am watching, listening or wanting to listen & watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoSVGd6EPLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrEIT66oPqU

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi2KNss4Yx73NG0JARSFe0A

https://www.youtube.com/user/PioneerProductionsUK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdhKfzABsEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FuW2ZcgOmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxglCFGVmGQ

https://theprint.in/features/anuradha-or-the-musical-genius-of-pandit-ravi-shankar-lata-mangeshkar-mohd-rafi-and-shailendra/399831/

https://theprint.in/features/reel-take/nutans-understated-yet-powerful-performance-in-bandini-is-a-masterclass-in-acting/368379/

https://scroll.in/reel/826109/between-music-composer-jaidev-and-the-big-league-stood-that-thing-called-fate

Lock Down day 17

10-04-20

It is getting near certain, that lock down will not be over on 15^th April. Depending on how the administration advices the politicos, the stringency of enforcement with either go up or down. The data must be scary for the politicos to wanting to continue the lockdown and not worry about the impending doom in industry.

More important at this time is to keep the supply chains open (sadly shutting down again) for perishable food & other consumables. In past we went from local decentralized to Govt mandated centralization and now wishing that we had a decentralized system. Its another case that centralized system never worked optimally in best of the time but made market intervention possible for our Statist apparatus. With decimation of local markets by various APMC acts, weakening of local financiers (Adatiya) and then at last delivery by Ecommerce model obsession weakening local shop keepers our bills are coming home now. A detailed study of our various acts of omission in this field can help anyone on what not do while scaling up distribution. Admittedly not everything we did was Bad, remember Amul which changed the milk business in country (the model got replicated with varied degree of success across the various states). So, while other things may not be available please be assured that milk will be available and so will be other stuff from dairy. And this is equally a story of die-hard entrepreneurs who complement these large efforts with their own enterprise. On twitter some folks are remembering Dr. Kurian (founder of Amul) and wishing we find one like him to do similar things for vegetables and other perishables. An effort as big as Amul or even bigger is required grounds up in short to medium term to solve this frequently haranguing supply chain and within the viability for participants. Other wise will continue to lurch from one shortage to another in localized or national levels.

Keeping the food chain humming will be in my view biggest challenge for the Govt for next few weeks to manage I.E other than Covid. Not getting food will turn even the normally acquiescent middle class also annoyed with system.

Similar disturbances in the supply chain are happening in other countries and they are also grappling to make these large complex systems run as nimble smart systems. This will take time but some adroit foot work from the farmers and local markets can sole the problem. But then some one needs to communicate with them, we are so used to talking down to them that this will also take time.

Lets hope for best and hope for the best.  Now that we are more or less assured of another 15 days of work from home, its time to move on things more interesting then lock down. Yes its central to our living these days but we can always broaden subjects to cover and ponder over.

Here are few urls which may be on interest to you in this lockdown.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/arts/design/thoreau-walden-coronavirus-quarantine.html

https://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/philosophy_sites/2018/05/john-kaag-on-david-henry-thoreau-and-walden-pond.html

https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/category-error-in-an-indian-high-rise-complex-residents-respond-to-a-world-they-no-longer-know-8233611.html

https://www.perell.com/blog/peter-thiel

https://www.chitrasfoodbook.com/2017/12/orange-peel-pachadi-recipe-orange-skin.html

Lock Down : Day 16

09-04-20

 It seems Mumbai will have a continuation of sorts (liquid oxygen sorts) with few things open and others closed. If we are lucky, specifics will emerge in due course, else we will be updated 4 hours before the decision becomes applicable.  Muddling continues to be our default behavior, I may be wrong someone definitely has the whole plan, If we connect dots of assertions, articles and ministers statement looks like rural India will open first followed last by dense urban centers like Mumbai & Delhi.

 Meanwhile in parallel, speculations continue about our becoming super power or a pauper (we just cannot decide you see) with Covid. Death knell has also been sounded by few about poor losing everything & at same time industry losing its shirt & pants. Hectic lobbying to influence the outcome is on amongst parties which as usual will produce a sub optimal outcome. To add to the noise an Indian author wrote in Financial Times of London about Covid being portal to new world with no drowning of patriarchy and caste etc. Best of luck to her, like most AAM(mango people) Indians I cannot afford to read FT article (its behind paywall folks) and can only guess what’s in article basis the headline and blurb. Maybe she wrote about us for her global audience or maybe she does not want us to read. Well we will find out in due course if this is a portal event or larger threat to mankind. Keeping fingers crossed.

Meanwhile my analyst friends tell me that most of FMCG Co’s and large format retail selling groceries are going to have a superb top line for lock down period. They have managed to sell stuff 2 to 3 X times the normal consumption. It seems middle class is arming itself for long shut down of supply lines. I went shopping yesterday and can confirm that my friends are indeed right. I have not seen so much stuff piled up in shops ever in past, hardly any place to walk inside the shops. In shortage though are items which make us look civilized (kindly note only makes us look & not actually make us civilized) Shampoo, shaving foam etc. Stocked to brim are snacks (Namkeen biscuits, chips & candies) which are selling like hot cakes now. One may have a very obese middle class by the time lockdown is over.  All of this stocking craze could have been avoided if we had proper communications & also a trust in the system to deliver in crunch situation. Something we all need to ponder and over next few years execute it grounds up.

I am reading two books now

1.      Things hidden since the foundation of the world” by Rene Girard

2.      The German Genius by Peter Watson

Thanks for your feedback, keep it coming.

Lock down day 15 : Liquid Oxygen

08-4-20

I wrote and discarded a version today. On review it was coming out as very tame. We need to be more expressive then be diplomats right now. So here we go

The heading of the days post will remind you of famous Hindi movie villain Ajit. Yes, he of those legendary Mona & Robert dialogues. The most famous attributed (more of why I use this word in this post) to his movies is liquid Oxygen. The one where he commands his flunkies to consign a person to a liquid oxygen chamber. He reasons that oxygen will not let the guy die, while liquid will not let him live. One would ask how is this even relevant to current Lock down & Covid pandemic? Well the connection is straight forward if one applies it to some wisdom and decision we have been hearing for last few days. Let’s take few of them (and if find this engaging as our ocean churners are, we will make it regular part of the post)

1.      All test should be free: How is this even possible in a country where small testing labs account for largest coverage of country? Yes, I know none of them can do the test (only bigger one’s have been authorized), but a in depth review will show that the major chains depend on these smaller guys to collect, service in critical areas. Now what about the bigger guys, can they afford to do test free? How, at one stroke the entire incentive alignment has been given a burial, and both Govt & people are left holding the can. So yes, test should be free but then no one will do it. One can breath oxygen only when it is natural form, not when it is artificially converted into liquid form. Now we have to wait for this to untangle, and how delicate it would be for authorities to do it as any thing they do and say can come back to haunt them for being anti poor.

2.      Money is needed only for food: Remove buying of food from the men’s responsibility and he needs nothing. Maybe yes in extreme cases (rarest of rare types fit for hanging after 100 appeals), but I am sure that visualization would help one see that this is not  the normal thing to do. If here the Govt money is liquid oxygen then a person other needs are natural requirements. Are poor people animals that all they need is food?

3.      One personal anecdote of similar type I remember was narrated by a colleague of mine.

Giving the year when it happened may reveal identity of person, hence keeping this anonymous.  On a bright sunny Saturday morning, I was on waiting at airport for my commute back to Mumbai from city X. Here I bumped into my colleague whose home town was X. Anything out of normal catches eyes of most IT professionals, so it went here also. Here is near verbatim conversation

Me: @#&* flying out on a weekend, leaving your family behind? So, what are you hiding? Or you still believe that numbers can be met by flying on weekends?

He: NO re, long story will explain in flight.

The frustration and dejection were written large on his face.

So here is what he told in the flight,

He was flying to Mumbai to meet all his cousins (around 20 of them) who also were also all flying into Mumbai over the weekend. They were gathering to sign off on a document to relinquish their claim over property they all have been bequeathed by an Uncle. The Uncle was a simpleton and lived with the family of one of the cousins, who had died few years back. BTW uncle never got married and was known to be a near perfect specimen of idealism at it best.

 The cousins window & kids supported uncle right up to his death. They lived in the property uncle left behind. Now this uncle was always advised, that he should leave his entire property and wealth to widow & her kids, but he was made of sterner stuff. He drew up a will according to which the property was to be inherited by all 20 cousins plus the window. He wanted to be fair to everyone and meet his maker with clear conscience of not favoring anyone.

Barring stray one like my colleague, all these folks live out of India and make a good living. With this will in force all the cousins for last few years were trying to relinquish their share so that the lady and her kid own the property. Nightmare for most of them to travel on weekends to Mumbai and then wait in the week for court/paper work to happen. Sheer logistics and wasteful expenditure for all of them is mind boggling.

Well similar simple decisions, expressions and viewpoints are being made today, for all these decisions our kids will spend a life time resolving and paying for them.

To be clear this is not against the socialist, communist. radicals, liberals, conservatives, statist or capitalist. This is for all obsessed folks amongst all of us, who are not willing to look beyond their salvation. We don’t need enemies once we have these folks taking decisions for us. We continue to pump liquid oxygen into society whereas, all folks asked was for natural oxygen.

Returning to the serious stuff about Ajit’s dialogue please note that this one was not part of any of his film. Here is a dependable reference link for everyone to review. https://www.thinkpragati.com/housefull-home/housefull/2075/put-liquid-oxygen/

 I may be wrong here, so please do provide feedback.

Lock Down day 13 &14

7-04-20

Laziness is an art understood only by its practitioners, so on day 13 of the lock down I chose to give rest to myself(another way of saying I was lazy). I let the productivity drop and did only what was absolutely required, and that is much these days including sharing home chores with my better self.

Day 14 had all alarms ringing including from deadlines set at start of the week, the day flew by like it had only few hours instead of normal 24 hours. With alarms also came a whiff of our lock down exit strategy being muddled across the system. Keep it on for ever (till all is normal) to our Cassandras of permanent loss of demand in economy, saying let’s go and open come rain, *&*%#. Everyone had a view in private & those who have a voice on social media also gave their version. We head into next few days eagerly trying to find out what happens next. Finally, our system will do needful and make a decision rooted in ground reality and not on abstract charts, models and opinions. We can and should wait for the system to speak. We need to understand that in these trying times our system is the only thing working for us. Radical solutions, hypothesis cannot work in a country with1.3 billion citizens and diversity that even a super computer cannot comprehend.

I keep coming across, why do the poor not listen to Govt and come out in lock down. To all of them I have a suggestion “Lock all your family in a room of 100 Square feet and stay in it for 8 hours I.E eat, sleep and work in that room (mind you most of families also cook, bath and wash clothes within this area. “ . After this experience put yourself in shoes of an average Mumbai shanti family and imagine doing this for 21 days. If even after understanding this one continues to sprout wisdom of privileged, then you sir have arrived in La La land. May the supreme being bless you with commonsense for your future as you already have wisdom in abundance.

I also came across another instance of privileged behavior of middle-class early morning, yes you are right our legions of ocean churners are getting stronger. But this time unfortunately they ran into a police patrol in our township. The exasperated police officers asked them why are they out? Do they understand the risk they are taking? Finally, the frustration took over and few ocean churners were made to sit in van, for onwards transfer to local beat/station. To add to police officers wonder, a youngster on scooter yelled at them for not letting him go. This being Mumbai police, they only locked his scooter and let him go( Imagine if this was Uttar Pradesh). Other churners were also asked to double up into their societies instead of being taken to station. Here is my take, instead of just lighting candles, which is easy to do, my suggestion for most of us would be observe the law of land. Practice what you preach or just keep your nonsense to yourself.

Keep safe and go out only when absolutely necessary.

Here are few articles I read and enjoyed

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/13/baking-bread-in-lyon?utm_source=twitter&utm_social-type=owned&mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_medium=social

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/world-2-0-there-are-decades-where-nothing-happens-and-weeks-where-decades-happen.html

https://epaper.livemint.com/Home/ShareArticle?OrgId=2a98b557&imageview=0

https://twitter.com/razibkhan/status/1247056536922230784

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time

Adding photos of cat being fed in our building &  of a tree in all its glory in Municipal garden in front of our flat

Lock Down day 12

05-04-20

9 minutes at 9 turned out to be a huge success, like everything else in our country this did not end & continues to play in assertions & rebuttals. Some accuse the PM of not being serious and others accuse the accusers not being serious. This will continue for few more days till we another news cycle take over.

Days are finally feeling like Mumbai summer and heat & humidity is making its presence known from early mornings now. Folks say heat will kill Covid, if that’s so then bring on the heat. Anything to solve this problem.

The empty roads and vistas have led to stunning photos of our city and even a drone video. Its kind of sad to see my city without its crowds and energy. Sooner this ends better it is for the city. Mumbaikars love it the way it is Crowded, bursting and growing.

The most interesting forward on social media was a video from Jallandhar where in the Himalaya’s (220 KM away from city) were visible due to clear skies in North. The record for most received what’s app message goes to BMC’s announcement of containment zones, before you could see one, the flood on the app was phenomenal. One has to trust humans to warn about dangers lurking in the containment zones. I am quite sure if one were to analyse the phone records post announcement then maximum calls would have landed in these zones. We are prone to call up disaster zones and seek update "Hey Man just saw your building is in zone", "how r you faring?" DO you need help? What can I do for you?  All the other person would be wishing is take my place guys. (OK most of us don’t say that)

On other account the twitter messages have sobered down (excluding our competing folks in pro & anti PM camp) and show a sense of understanding about others

Here are few examples

I welcome your disagreement Rathin. Let’s discuss👍

— Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) April 4, 2020

👏 Notes of Appreciation : 5 : Small, med & large businesses shake off blues to join hands with Govt to provide whatever is in their competencies : donations, protecting wages, mfging medical supplies/equipment/ sanitisers/testing kits + community kitchens, delivery logistics etc

— Vinayak Chatterjee (@Infra_VinayakCh) April 2, 2020

Tomorrow we start a new week and developments on how soon the lock down goes away.

Please do continue to share your feedback.

 

Lock Down day 11

04-04-20

Focus across chattering as well as working class is moving to post lock down possibilities, once it ends on 15^th April.  The opinions range from pessimistic to wildly optimistic. At the same time authorities are tampering the expectation about the post lock down possibilities by giving very measured and nuanced statement. While PM has asked the CMs to come up with their plan, they in turn have provided only small glimpses on what’s on anvil. Trial balloons fly every day and mostly shot down by day end. This is a good strategy, again showing that our systems are working (strained but managing nicely). I expect a very limited opening for trade and commerce to commence and find a rhythm to work within limitation which Govt expects will continue for a longer time. If the initial loosening of control works well, then we may have a distinct possibility for normalcy over a quarter. On 15^th, one will go out but how far one goes is to be seen and yes it will be dictated by authorities.

As is out wont intense debate for and against rage on Diya/candle initiative of PM, both sides are talking across each other (usual for both sides as they stopped communicating long back), silent majority is doing what it does best: observe and act as per their beliefs. I expect this to be a smashing success tomorrow

On an immediate note few things will possibly be DE rigor in our immediate behavior 1) We will be wearing mask in public places 2) And any one spitting on road is bound to get a verbal lash from people around him/her. Yes, hope floats that we will have no spitters on the roads soon.

Coming back to where I left yesterday on Post Covid world. While commentaries, blogs and Tv pundits are raging teenagish hormones about life changing drastically, in reality the next few months will just be spent examining the losses (classifying permanent and temporary variety), fighting the recurring surge of virus and keeping the powder dry for survival. The complex adaptive system that our civilization and economy are will transit slowly into new paradigm of ideation & execution. To say that it will change suddenly would be under appreciation of post 1945(last major war) modern world.  Exceptions will be sudden vacuum situations which would get filled fast with alternative structures and people.

Yes, as some people quoting Marx & Lenin point out, a lot can happen in a week. However, that was then where nations could go to war every ten years and fight long wars. The action has now shifted to the economy and how the cookie crumbles (markets & banks) here for major players will decide who wins and losses.  Rightly our Central bank (RBI) has secured the banks with cushion on multiple count and also has tried to ease the credit available through the banks in market. The winners and losers will emerge from this catharsis of credit reset, consumption slowdown and general aversion of risky endeavors.

One thing definitely we will see is more technology of intrusive type dominating the lives of majority. Other things may or may not happen but if till now technology was eating the world it will gobble up in a swift action. Some of it is already happening and some will become clearer as we go ahead.

While data, hypothesis and practices show us the way forward, most important is our ability to decipher risk and act accordingly. My wish is that in the post Covid world (whenever it happens) we are better than our current self.

Articles and tweets which kept me engaged

1.       https://twitter.com/BaldingsWorld/status/1239797415680475136

2.       https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/

3.       http://indiafa.org/2050-2/

4.       https://www.safalniveshak.com/becoming-an-investing-buddha/

5.       https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-disposability-is-a-new-and-noxious-fiction

6.       https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/excellence-what-how-recognize-measure-jim-sniechowski-phd/

Lock Down day 10

03-04-20

Day was won by our PM by his appeal to country man to light a candle/diya on Sunday 5^th April in solidarity of our fight against Covid-19. Have to give him that he understands his countrymen well and know how to make everyone align to a goal. Hopefully he will do similar things for other important things like economic revival post lock down. As Indians get ready to light diyas and candles,  the emergency services are gearing up  to manage the load fluctuations due to power off and then surge after 9 minutes of darkness. Experts are expecting rolling load shedding of power across country manage the fluctuations & surge in the period. Will be an experience for the engineers to manage the same.

Other then office calls, Stories of human endeavors and technology scaling kept me engaged in the day. From most modern to old endeavors shows how humans sidestep or overcome problems. Here is a summary of what I read, analyzed or plain observed.

1.       Zoom app has become a mainstream name in last one month, with amazing scaleup in the usage the app has taken central stage. With the usage has come deeper scrutiny where infosec gaps, privacy concerns are gaining news time. Company has done well to quell this noise by promising full focus on privacy & infosec with no new features. Here is some coverage for zoom in media

Zoom is revealing it has 200 million daily users, up from 10 million daily users in December. Zoom is now committing to freeze features and focus on privacy and security for 90 days. Full details here: https://theverge.com/2020/4/2/21204018/zoom-security-privacy-feature-freeze-200-million-daily-users…

Lot’s of backstories about company and its founder can be found in Net. Do browse to understand what can be done with right execution.

2.       An excerpt from “The Plague by Albert Camus”, shared by my friend

“"Indeed, even after Dr Rieux had admitted in his friend's company that a handful of persons, scattered about town, had without warning died of plague, the danger still remained fantastically unreal. ... Looking from his window at the town, outwardly quite unchanged, the doctor felt little more than a faint qualm for the future, a vague unease. He tried to recall what he had read about the disease. Figured floated across his memory, and he recalled that some thirty or so great plagues known to history had accounted for nearly a hundred million deaths. But what are a hundred million deaths... Since a dead man has no substance unless one has actually seen him dead, a hundred million corpses broadcast through history are no more than a puff of smoke in the imagination. ... Yes, that was how it should be done. You should collect the people at the exits of five picture houses, you should lead them to a city square and make them die in heaps if you wanted to get a clear notion of what it means. Then at least you could add some familiar faces to the annonymous mass. But naturally that was impossible to put into practice; moreover, what man knows ten thousand faces. ... the noises of a happy town, a tranquillity so casual and thoughtless seemed almost effortlessly to give the lie to those old pictures of the plague: Athens, a charnel house reeking to heaven and deserted even by birds; Chinese towns cluttered up with victims silent in their agony ... Nights and days filled always with the eternal cry of human pain. No, all those horrors were not near enough as yet even to ruffle the equanimity of that spring afternoon."

3.       Some bit of meditations by Marcus Aurelius  

Excerpt here

“If anyone can refute me — show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective — I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6:21 (translated by Gregory Hays, The Modern Library, New York)

And

4.       Stuff on network fragility, multiple academic paper on how and what of network may change and or destruct due to stress, behaviour change and or plain no capital available situations . This is part of my study for post Covid world.

Meanwhile the conversations are getting better and folks are opening up. To every one who called or gave time to speak a big thank you.

I start scraping for post Covid world in tomorrow’s write up.

Thank you for your patience and feedback