Twisty Tale of Technology

Rohan: Grandpa my mobile phone fell and the screen has cracked. I just bought it last year.

Grandpa: Ok so repair it

Rohan:  Hell, I have to spend Rs 6000 to repair it as those guys say the screen is connected to the touch screen, whatever all that means.

Grandpa: So, spend it.

Rohan:  Ahh, feeling like throwing away the phone.

Grandpa: So, throw it.

Rohan: Grandpa! How do I then connect to my school friends, college friends, work colleagues, yoga friends, ex-work colleagues, my UK university guys, Zumba dance friends. Grandpa, seriously man tell me how did you guys live in your times. You’ll must have lived in such isolation.

Grandpa: Child, we also connected with each other through this landline phone which is sitting in this very location for the last 30 years and still works. I can’t even count how many times you pulled the wired and dropped the phone when you were a child. I called your grandma from my office landline to this home landline, from the home landline to my friends and uncles and aunties and with the International Subscriber Dialling or ISD, I connected with my friends abroad. I must have spent less than Rs 5,000 over the last 30 years on repairs, largely to pay the MTNL workers when the line is not working.

Rohan: Well, this is my 8^th phone over the last 10 years. Man, I must have spent …. Never mind Grandpa, you might get a heart attack.

Grandpa: Don’t worry, my heart is not as weak as your mobile phone but it is as strong as my landline.

Rohan:  When troubles come, they come together…

Grandpa: Yes, that is so true. There was a time when there was no money in the house and your grandma felt sick and….

Rohan: Grandpa I am not talking of those troubles. All through last week my laptop has been giving me problems. Grandpa why does all this happen when my earnings are low?  My laptop battery is not working and I have to get a new power charger. An original power charger will cost me Rs 2000 plus. Even my computer mouse is giving me problems. In any case, my laptop is already 5 years old. I may just need to buy a new one. But I can’t afford Rs 50,000 plus at this point. My God, what will I do if the laptop conks off? Oh my gosh, all my writing work that I have to do. Besides my online classes, YouTube, my editing apps, Instagram, google, word, photoshop. Grandpa seriously how boring life would have been for you without all of these.

Grandpa: Here see this is my typewriter. This is 50 years old.  It has never let me down. 

Our television was our YouTube, our local library was our google, our photoshop was our local photo studio. No, we didn’t miss anything. We did everything in style my dear grandson without having to spend so much of our earnings and so much stress to have what you call enjoyment.  

Rohan: Grandpa, you are ‘Old’ fashioned

Grandpa: Yes child, you are ‘New’ fashioned  

ECONOMICS OR NOT ECONOMICS

I often end up having heated debates with friends on the performance of India’s economic or GDP growth. These debates got more heated up when India recorded its worst decline in GDP of 23.9% in the first quarter of 2020 post COVID and the subsequent lockdown as compared to a growth of 5.2% in Q1 of 2019. The government has forgotten the economy, most say.

These debates began much before the lockdown. That was when our GDP fell to 6% rates as compared to the 8-9% we were so accustomed to before the current government came into power.

My question is do high GDP figures mean we are rocking? For me it is like this man who sells beautiful flowery plants on the streets in his cart. Red Roses, Marigold, Hibiscus and many more exotic plants with flowers in full bloom. I am always tempted to buy them and I am already dreaming of a home filled with plants blooming with flowers. I have bought them a couple of times and planted them at home. The flowers soon die, never to come again. The plant too withers away. I rarely face this situation when I tell my local gardener to get me plants. Moral: I see a blooming plant till he holds it, the weak roots are not apparent to me. 

The earlier government had shown 8-9% GDP growth and everyone believed that we were rocking. Not always were we booming. A lot of the growth come from black money and the real estate market which then had positive ripple effects on the economy. If you go back and look at GDP contributors, real estate forms a major chunk.

Many of these thoughts brewing in my head for a long time came back to me when I traveled by the newly introduced RoRo ferry from Mumbai to Alibaug. It is a private ferry. A ferry that has made its presence in the COMMERCIAL capital of India in the country’s 73th year of Independence when smaller countries like Sri Lanka had such a service years and years ago. Never mind that we are showing 9% GDP growth.

The government has to now look at making toilets for women in the rural areas. Women would not venture out in the night with no toilets inside their home. Reminding you we are in our 73th year of Independence! Never mind that, look at the GDP growth rate.

A dirty Ganga river, a dirty India, the land of Gods, which should have been the tourism superpower by now, has heritage structures neglected and falling apart. Never mind we have 9% GDP growth.

Villages don’t have power and water, they don’t have connectivity, they lack infrastructure, our inland waterways/ water transport is neglected, we have ignored solar power for the last many decades in a sun-filled country, our commercial capital lacked a metro over all these years. Never mind all that, we are showing 9% GDP growth.

I am not a fanatic supporter of any government but we need to open our eyes to understand what true development is and how it will impact us and the future generation.

It is important to focus on making our roots healthy and strong so that flowers will be in full bloom naturally and with ease.

 

Banning Chinese Products

Yesterday my young niece from Chennai called me up and said that she wanted to buy a smartphone and asked me for suggestions. I gave her options like Nokia, Samsung and she said but her budget is Rs 12 to 15,000. I laughed and said then you can only get a Chinese phone. So be it she said.

She already has the phone Honor which her brother bought for her in 2018. Honor I asked, never heard of it. I googled and checked it was a Huawei brand. She said it works very well till date. She only wants another phone as this one was not accepting the Jio sim for some reason.

That got me thinking. Here we Indians are chest-thumping, saying we will ban all Chinese products. There is obvious anger on China for giving the world a virus that has killed so many people. But can we link the two?

I am imagining a daughter or son with a Chinese phone in hand in the hospital looking after a parent with COVID. Is he really going to have anger that he has a Chinese phone in hand? I don’t think so.

Here is when I think that the Chinese have worked hard to give us reasonable quality technological products at cheaper rates. One saw a smartphone boom in India thanks to their phones. Even the middle-class and lower middle-class could opt for a smartphone. And what has India done during this time? We don’t even have one Indian mobile brand as an option if we ban Chinese phones.

This perhaps is true for many other sectors including the medical field where a lot of the diagnostic systems come from China.

We talk of level-playing field, we crib that the government should support entrepreneurship, we talk that duties must be reduced. Honestly, is that the problem or we have not got something right that the Chinese have. Reasonable quality at reasonable price?

I used to get angry when I would see Chinese lanterns and lights flooding the Indian market during the Indian festival Deepawali. I was why the hell should I buy a Chinese lantern? (even before COVID). But then where is the option? The Chinese ones had unique designs, fairly good quality and a very good price and I don’t see any Indian seller giving me those designs at a good price.

This monsoon, I was searching for a good windcheater for myself. I looked through many at amazon and they were all the common designs, not very good colour and then I spotted one which was really stylish and a good price. I clicked buy. When it was delivered, it was really good but unfortunately, I had chosen a smaller size and so had to exchange it. I looked at the tag, it was Made in China. For a moment, I thought whether I should return or exchange. I did return it but didn’t find a good one post that.

I also recall how about 7 years back my colleagues were all shopping at Alibaba. They were delighted to buy fancy kids toys and other stuff at such cheap rates. Everyone was glued to alibaba.com. No wonder then today Alibaba is the world's largest retailer and e-commerce company, and on the list of largest Internet companies. In 2020, it was also rated as the fifth-largest artificial intelligence company.

Leave out technology and retail products, come to think of it when a student in India goes to buy his first violin, it is Chinese! Because they are the cheapest and good for a beginner to start with.

Let’s get our act together before we make those tall claims of banning Chinese products.

Potato Wafers

 

This packet of potato wafers takes my mind from the body to nostalgic times. I have kept away from this sinful delight for over many years now. And soon I had lost the taste for it. And so I thought so.

Till two days back when a handicapped man came to the door selling these small wafer packets made at his home. Rs 15 per packet. Its hard to say no, especially in these times. We decided to buy 10 packets to help him do business. I would distribute it later to my neighbour, househelp, etc.

Immediately we consumed one packet to taste it before we buy. I asked him what oil he uses. He said a branded groundnut oil. The chips were very tasty.

I waited for the day to pass to know if I am feeling wrong in the stomach or the head. I felt good.

Next day I keep all those 9 wafer packets safely in a proper airtight box. Do I really need to distribute I thought? I did distribute a few, that is 2 packets. Who actually wants to eat unhealthy wafers these days?

And in the evening yesterday at 6 pm, I am having it with my tea. I said I will have half the packet but I didn’t realise when I had consumed the full packet. Really are potato wafers unhealthy I ask?

These chips are the ones we used to have in our childhood days. Unbranded, made locally. I have tried the Lay’s wafer and others only a couple of times in my life. Those are so salty and so dehydrating I thought so, never to have them again. Machine made ones. But these…..

It brings back memories of the childhood birthday parties. We dress up in our beautiful frocks. The cake is cut. We are waiting to hold those paper plates. When the birthday girl or boy's family starts distributing the wafers and the cake in the small paper plates, the patience we need to build into ourselves. Our hands already out to receive the plate even before it has come. That sets the mood of the birthday party. The fun and the joy of eating chips and cakes. It surely must be doing something to the spirits. It must be made to add joy to our bodies. Unhealthy? Not so in those times because we didn’t have the money to consume it frequently. We had it only in those rare parties. So scarcity played a role there to keep us healthy. Today constant supply plays a role to keep us unhealthy. Then the heavenly delight in a slightly upper class home where samosas were added to the chips and the cake. Sheer joy.

Food surely has a role to play in bonhomie and friendship. At that point the unhealthy graph may take a big dip. I think so.

 

 

Twisty Tale of Corona

Rohan: Stay 1 metre away from me. It is called Social Distancing.

Reena: How do they practice that in the Mumbai slums whose area is less than 1 metre?

Rohan: I don’t know.

Reena: But anyways so many people dying of the virus Tuberculosis in India. What’s the big thing about coronavirus?

Rohan: Shut all this nonsense up. Can’t you see that COVID-19 spreads very fast. If I have it, I can infect 14 people who I come in touch with.

Reena: Ok but what are the death rates from COVID-19 in India?

Rohan: As of now, that is May 27, 83004 active cases, and dead 4,337. So the death rate now is 5% of the total active cases.

Reena :10 million people had TB in India in 2018. 1.5 million die each year and if we average it out 12 months, around 1 lakh people die each month. As per WHO, COVID-19 has killed 3,18, 935 world over. This figure we cross in just 3 months in case of TB every year.

Rohan: Seriously, I beg of you to stop this nonsense. Do you know if the world had not shutdown, everyone in the world would have contracted COVID-19. Don’t be stupid to compare the two.

Reena : Yes everyone would have got the virus, but not everyone would die. Maybe 5% of the world’s population? I am trying to understand, what is the big fuss about COVID-19?

Rohan: Gosh the whole of last month we have been having this same debate everyday. Now listen carefully for the final time. If I become COVID positive, I will have to be admitted.....eh, oh, eh....maybe, I don’t know. They say the virus affects your lungs and breathing......maybe, I don’t know. I will need a ventilator......maybe I don’t know. There is a dearth of hospital beds and ventilators worldwide..... maybe, I don’t know. Imagine the situation in India. There is no cure yet for COVID-19......that's what Bill Gates says, so you must believe him. Nobody knows how it will spread and how one can get affected. It could be mild or serious..... maybe, I don’t know.

Reena: You sound so confused. Be confident when you talk of a subject. What is this stammering all the time. I was informed that I just need to focus on strengthening my immune system. I need to take care by drinking hot water, turmeric milk, Vitamin C, Zinc, take necessary homeopathy medicines and I will be fine, if God willing I get COVID.

Rohan: Brainless people like you believe tumeric milk will cure COVID. They have termed people like you COVIDIOTS

Reena: But there is proof that not many are dying.

Rohan: Yes my dear, they are not dead because they went to the hospital and got some cure.

Reena: But it is a fact that most also recovered by themselves at home.

Rohan: Yes, yes but it affects different people differently.

Reena: Whatever. I am locked up at home in Mumbai since March 23rd in India, that is two months. When is it going to get over? In Mumbai and Maharashtra, it seems like it is pouring COVID. Maharashtra alone has currently 36,012 active cases of the total 83,004 in India. 

Rohan: This Chinese virus as it has come to be named because it is ‘speculated’ to have originated in China, took China nearly 3-4 months to get it down to zero. Its still not over there or will not be completely over anywhere so soon. Until the vaccine.

Reena: So the moment the vaccine comes to the market, we all need to be vaccinated? 

Rohan: Yes that is what Bill Gates says.

Reena: At least finally the migrants are going back to their homes. Imagine them cooped up whole day in their small houses, without their families, with nothing to do while you are enjoying your 45th movie on Netflix.

Rohan: Err…. Err… but I didn’t know that there are so many migrants all over the country.

Reena: Yes because you thought the robots are building your home and roads. There are few COVIDIOTS but many idiots like you. Open your eyes next time you take a walk. When the migrants collected at the train stations to go back home after 2 months, only then many realised of their existence. Even after that, the only thing media and others could question is how come they broke the lockdown rules. When they were cooped up in their homes nobody was interested in their plight. When pictures appeared on social media of FEW of them walking home, which journalist P Sainath says is quite normal for them to do, with the difference that in normal times, they can stop over at Dhabas to have food and tea. These Dhabas are now closed. After seeing these pictures, the media and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went beserk over the migrants walking. They could not control their tears. I was worried their tears would cause a flood.

Rohan: Oh please don’t talk of floods. Mumbai will soon see another lockdown due to rains.

Reena: Yes better then that everyone continues work-from-home during the monsoons. That’s when the real lockdown should begin.

Rohan: Now relax, you are getting all worked up over this COVID-19. Lets not have any emotional breakdown at these times. It will affect our immune system. What’s for lunch?

COVID-19 LESSONS

Today it seems like the COVID lockdown has accentuated the divide between the rich and poor more than ever in India. The leadership has failed to address the large population of our mass, that today are not worried at all about the virus killing them but about their lives and livelihood.

We must be frank here that the poor living in slums in the cities and in the rural areas can hardly practice social distancing. So they will be more susceptible to the virus and many other viruses any which ways. So the lockdown is more to keep us, the more well-to-do safe rather than them.

When the PM announced the lockdown on March 25^th to begin from midnight for 21 days till April 14, no one was prepared. Perhaps the Prime Minister was worried that there will be a rush to hoard stocks and there will be panic and frenzy. So he locked down the whole country one fine day. Lets assume this reasoning to be fair. But he left the migrant and the poor to decide for themselves what they should do. Besides leaving many stranded Indians abroad, who may have gone on holiday or work, and could not come back.

When America announced a shutdown, Indian students had the time to rush back to their homes instead of being cooped up in hostels or university rooms or other places. Why did they take that risk to travel that 24 hours by flight? Why did we not stop them considering the risk? They wanted to come back to their homes and be with their family. Ditto for migrants. But nobody bothered to make any arrangements for the migrants.

Maharashtra government claims it had made the request right at the beginning of the lockdown but other states did not yield. Could then the Center not take the lead and make arrangements and insist that the states must welcome their rightful residents in a systematic and proper manner? On April 14, the government again extends the lockdown with absolutely no regard for the migrant workers across India. Imagine the migrants twiddling their thumbs, cooped up in those small homes for a month, with nothing to entertain themselves with. Finally they took the risk and started walking miles to go back home. Imagine their plight.

PM Cares fund, the name itself sucks. Is there any website or any other link I can go to, to understand how the funds were utilised? Doling out rupees (and if they were doled out) is not the answer.

Did we use the funds to maybe give the poor and the migrant workers vegetables, fruits, bread, dry fruits for free or at low rates? Did we or their employers make arrangements of food for them? Cannot the money have been used for such simple things to build their immunity? Maybe given them Vitamin C tablets or other multivitamin tablets? Migrant workers and even those staying in slums such as Dharavi are not beggars. They work and they cook their own food in normal times. They are not people wanting to stand in long lines for food. Honestly what did we really do for them other than some emotional speeches and some apps.

Apart from action, the need all round is also for communication – good communication, right communication, useful communication.

Did we really have serious communication going on in understanding what happens in the first few days when someone contracts COVID? What precautions should be taken? How to build immunity? Were all these communicated to the poor or did we tell them we have installed some app for you!!!  

When somebody sent me the video above, which is so useful and has such great information, I felt this is the kind of information we need to have relayed to the poor and help them too to build their immunity, indirectly curtailing the spread of COVID. 

Media plays an important role in such times to highlight useful information rather than senseless debates that really are of no use to anybody.

Action with good communication, right communication and useful communication in nationwide emergencies which reaches every citizen can reflect some sense of equality in a society.

Government is busy now with a revival package for Mutual Funds! Hope there are revival packages for those who need it the most.

The Revelations

Today when everyone is ‘locked’ up in their own homes, we all I presume realise the need for the ‘pause’ button to be pressed on our lives. To pause and think foremost on how we endanger our environment, to pause and think of the value of money, to pause and think of the need for community life, to pause and think of family values, to pause and think of career and ambition and more importantly to pause and think of how we take care of our health.

I began reading this book ‘Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, before the Corona virus hit us here in India. I was so inspired by many of his thoughts:

“Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism”.

“The so-called Hinduism is a creation of the West; the Indian speaks only of “the eternal law” sanatana dharma which he knows is not an Indian monopoly but belongs as much to Muslims, Negroes, Christians and Anabaptists too.”

And last but not the least

“We have isolated bacteria and viruses, but we have not understood that they are only agents and that the disease is not the virus but the force that uses the virus. If we are clear, there is nothing all the viruses in the world can do, because our inner force is stronger that that force or, to put it differently, because our being vibrates with an intensity too high for that lower vibration. Only like can enter like. That is why even if we succeed in eradicating cancer, for instance, the way other medieval diseases have been eradicated, we will not have eradicated the forces of illness, which will use something else, another agent, another virus, once their present instrument has been detected. Our medical science touches only the surface of things, not the source. There is only one disease – lack of consciousness.”

This may sound confusing or weird or stupid too when we are battling a virus that can affect the most spiritual human being and that which needs science more than spirituality at this stage. But it is not one for the other. Both must go hand in hand. 

It is time then to try and cure our consciousness as much as possible, as much as it is difficult in this new fast paced technological world. But we can try. It is time to open ourselves up to the rich teachings of Indian gurus and philosophers, to understand and embrace Hinduism way of life and not think it is something unsecular to talk of or to do, to bring back the many healthy ways of eating that our grandparents followed, to believe in the Indian meaning of nuclear family. In short to get back to the many ways of living that is good for our health.

We really don’t need the plethora of advice out there, it is all here in our books, in our teachings, in our Yoga, in our food.

Learn to be proud of our Indian culture and tap into it fully and completely before we have to import it from China!!!