Electric Auto

 Electric Vehicle

Just got down from the metro station and  decided to go home on an auto.In era of transport as service this phase of the travel is called as last mile connectivity. For last some years Electric autos have been regular on Bangalore roads.But this was the first time I got an opportunity to take a ride on an electric auto.On the way my impression was the interior was decent, vehicle made less noise and hardly any vibration. But the price charged was same as that for an petrol auto.

I started a conversation with the driver about the vehicle. To my surprise he was not happy with the vehicle. He informed me that, "He had a heart attack before covid and had no source of income during the lock down.Due to financial stress he suffered a stroke paralyzing left side of his body. Luckily he recovered but due to lack of strength in his arms he is not in a position to drive a geared vehicle.He sold his petrol auto and brought an electric auto which is easier to drive as there is no need to shift gears.An electric auto costed him around Rs 4 lac compared to Rs 3 lac for a Petrol Auto.At home the battery takes 4 hours to charge and costs around Rs 60.Same would cost around Rs 200 at a charging station".

 The vehicle manufacturer had promised a range of 120 km per charge but in actual the range is only 80 km. The problem with lower range is he is not able to go on long trips which would fetch him more money. Due to lower range he is not able to work longer.He is barley able to pay back a monthly EMI of Rs 9000 and buy some medicines with his meagre earnings.Now his only hope is to buy new electric autos with a range of 200 km which may take some years to actualize. He feels cheated by the manufacturer who claimed a higher range per charge. But what was remarkable for me was he wanted to work and earn and didn't complain about his bad health. I wonder what action can be taken against such manufactures? Can customers be compensated for the loss? Why would multi national manufacturer sell a product which doesnt meet specifications?

Healing with Ear Coning

                     Ear Coning

Recently we have heard people claiming that Homeopathy can cure COVID19. There are both categories of people,one the believer and other the skeptic.In the Bible one can read Jesus saying "As per your faith be it done on to you."Jesus is believed to have healed many people just by touching them.Even though I like to have a scientific approach but there are certain things which science still can't explain. I believe for any medicine to work we first need to have faith that it can work.Scientific research shows Placebo works in many cases which is nothing but faith healing.Here I would like to share one such experience I had curing my Hepatitis (jaundice).

It was year 2003-04 I was unwell and was diagnosed with Hepatitis. It started with high fever,body pain and weakness. I could not walk much due to weakness. So I was admitted to HAL hospital in Nasik.My whole body had become yellow. Everyday doctor would come and check my medical report. The Hepatitis count would keep on increasing steadily and my Bilirubin count went above 9 mg/dl.For a healthy person Bilirubin count should be less than 1mg/dl.It was depressing and I knew very well there was no effective treatment for Hepatitis in Allopathy.Finally after 10 days there was not much improvement in my conditions so we decided to try out alternative therapy.

Next day early morning secretly me and and brother went to a person renowned for curing Hepatitis. When we reached his place he made a paper cone and put it into my ears. Then he burned those paper cones and chanted a mantra.After sometime yellow substance came out of my ears. The healer told me that I was cured.After that the healer asked us to donate what ever we wished to at the nearby Shiva temple.We returned to the hospital. Next day morning for the first time my Bilirubin count started declining and within a couple of days my Bilirubin levels went back to acceptable levels. It was a miracle for me. It had worked for both me and my brother. I don't know if it was placebo or healing.I would like to believe it was an alternate method of healing.As per me it is ok to try out any method be it Allopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda or some other methods till they give good results.

Calicut Halwa

I was born in Kerala but I was brought up in Maharashtra. So I never had an extended stay in my ancestral land Kerala. Only opportunity we had was some visits to Kerala during summer vacation. My parents came from Central Kerala so my experience in Kerala was limited to Central Kerala.I like spending time in nature and wanted to visit Silent Valley Wildlife Scantuary which is in Northern part of Kerala. It is called Silent Valley because one can experience pin drop silence in the forest due to absence of crickets(insect). I made a plan to visit Kozhikode with my cousin who was staying at NIT Calicut.I have fond memories of Kozhikode due two experiences I had over there.

I took a bus from Bangalore to Kozhikode.Around 1 am I was dropped by the bus 3 km away from NIT Calicut. This was my first visit to Kozhikode.There was no one on the streets. I was waiting for an auto to go to the college. After sometime an auto came and we went to the college.After reaching the college the auto driver didn't go back but kept on waiting there. I asked the auto driver why he was waiting outside. He told me that he would wait till someone came from inside the college to pick me up. This was a wonderful gesture on his part. The auto driver knew very well it was not safe at night and if someone didn't come to pick me up I would be left stranded there. After some time my cousin came to the gate to receive me and then the auto driver left.

Kozhikode is famous for its many varieties of Halwa. So while coming back I thought of purchasing small quantity of each variety of Halwa. I visited most famous Halwa shop in Kozhikode. At the shop I was shown and provided sample of all the varieties of Halwa available at the shop.I asked the shop owner to pack some Halwa for me. But the shop owner refused to sell one particular variety of Halwa to me.When I asked for the reason he told me that particular Halwa was old and he didn't want to cheat me. I was amazed at the honesty and lack of greed shown by the shop owner. So just like the Kozhikode Halwa my experience with people in Kozhikode was also a sweet one too.Finally I will end the blog with a quote, "Two things never go out of fashion good manners and honesty".

Road Safety

Recent amendement to motor vehicle act means one can land up with fines which are more that the value of the vehicle. I consider this law as a regressive and something which is not well thought out.Better thing to do would be to consult safety experts and work on measures suggested by them. Punishment should always be proportionate to the violation commited.We don't hand out capital punishment for petty crimes.Road accidents are very tragic events and few of my friends have died in road accidents.Last one week I witnessed three accidents on the road.So I very well understand the importance and consequences of road safety.

More than 1.5 lac people die per year due to road accidents in India.That is around 12% of total accident deaths in the world.In many cases people dying are in age group of 20-35 who are sole bread winners of their families.The loss to national GDP due to road accidents is around 2%.So it is very important for India to improve road safety and reduce the number of deaths.The new motor vehicle act may slightly reduce number of accidents but it will not serve the objective of reducing the number of accidents. To solve the problem one needs to tackle the problem at the source.Be preventive than being Regressive. More people die in India due to pot holes than in acts of terrorism. So first task is to divert attention and resources to real problem at hand.To reduce accidents one needs to have scientific approach to solving this problem. Few things which came to my mind are

1.Educating people and children about traffic rules and the damage caused to country due to traffic rule violation.

2.Improve the quality of roads, street lights and make infrastructure of international standards.Make government officials accountable for accidents due to bad road conditions.

3.Remove all the illegal speed breakers and lay them in accordance with regulations.

4.Applying data science and machine learning to find out highest accident prone areas and put up safety measures to reduce accidents at those spots.

5.Prevent stray animals from entering roads. Make underpass for animals to cross roads. Make underpass or foot bridge at every village where there is a highway and people have to cross roads.

6.Mandatory crash worthiness for all vehicles sold in the country

7.Air bags mandatory for all vehicle

8.ABS braking and Power steering mandatory for all four wheelers and load carrier's

9.Punishment for traffic violation should be mandatory contribution towards social activities like tree plantation, teaching, cleaning roads and public place.Heavy fines will only increase corruption and harrasement of common man by the traffic police.

10.Have sensors in vehicles to sense seat belt locking. Vehicle should start only if seat belts are locked.

11.With present level of machine learning it's possible to detect if a driver is drunk.In such an event vehicle engine should stop. Make this mandatory for all vehicles being sold.

12.Have good footpaths,dedicated lanes for cycles and for two wheelers.

13.Improve public transport so that people quit using personal means of transport.A developed country is not where everyone has cars but a developed country is where everyone uses public transport.

14.Mount cameras on all highways.Based on capture of camera hand out automated challans for overspeeding.

15.Have a robust old vehicles scrapage and recycling policy. Being preventive is always better than being regressive.

Eyes don't lie

Some years ago I attended a corporate training. To make the mood light the trainer told us that she would be starting the training with a game. We were twenty people and everyone was asked to tell three thing about themselves. Condition was two things which they told about themselves should be true and one must be false. It was the task of others to find out which was the false statement uttered by a person.Out of twenty instances I was able to identify lie on more than fifteen occasions. The trainer was amazed as to how I managed to identify lie correctly. She asked me the reason and my answer was the eyes don't lie. When people where telling three things about themselves I was not listening to what they were saying but I was always observing their eyes. When one tells a lie the eyes clearly gives away that it was a lie. Eye is the only part of the brain visible from outside the body and they don't lie.

As humans we instinctively have this capability to judge people. Research shows we judge people based on two thing. One their intelligence and two how trust worthy a person is. We value trustworthiness more than intelligence.An intelligent person who is not trustworthy is a very dangerous.Trustworthiness is very important from point of view of our survival. I wrote this blog because while I am travelling in train I observed two people greeting each other. One had a genuine smile and other had a fake smile.

Once a old man sitting next to a road asked for a lift from a horse cart which was passing by. The charioteer offered lift to the old man. On the way the the charioteer asked the old man,"I know before me six chariots have passed from here. Why did you not ask for a lift from the six other people who came before me?. To this the old man replied I looked in the eyes of all the six people who came before you. But it was only in your eyes I saw that you would help me. So don't be surprised or annoyed if people approach you for help.They are approaching you because they have already seen it in your eyes,you are trustworthy and helpful.

A train to Krakow

                                                      It was year 2013 I was in Germany for an official visit. We had a long weekend and the plan was to visit Czech Republic and Poland. We had planned a road trip to city of Prague in Czech Republic.Prague is arguably the most beautiful city in Europe. Prague was not destroyed in World War II as it was handed over to the Nazis without a fight.It was done to avoid possibility of breakout of another World War in Europe. After roaming around the beautiful city of Prague we were to visit Krakow a city in Poland. I was wondering why Krakow was in the plan. Then one of my friend told me the biggest concentration camp was located in Auschwitz which is in Krakow. History being one of my favorite subjects this trip got me interested. 

Interesting thing about travel was the train from Prague to Krakow was very similar to one's in India.After World War II all these places were part of the Soviet Union.I am assuming the technology for Indian train boogies have a link to USSR.In a cabin there are six seat.We were five people and the sixth guy was a young man from Canada. I started a conversion with him and asked him where was he going? He told me that he was travelling to Auschwitz concentration camp.Most of his ancestors where killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp.Nazi's tried to take away his father to the camp.But his grand mother lied to the Nazis that his father was only 13 years old. He was spared as only people above age of 14 were put in the concentration camps. At the camp all the other people from his family were asked to dig pits.After that they were buried alive in those pits.They were made to dig their own graves.When I heard this I was shaken to the core.His father after World War II migrated to Canada in search of a safer place to live.American Philosopher Jim Rohn used to say "One should study both Gandhi and Hitler. One will teach you how high a human being can reach and other will teach you how low a human being can go."

The journey from Krakow to Auschwitz was very silent and sad. I could feel the presence of negative vibe and sadness. After all 1.1 crore people were killed at Auschwitz. Initially Jews were made the target of hatred, racism and fanatic nationalism. No one bothered to object the killings as Jews were religious minorities in Europe. But later on the hatred and violence ended up killing 7-8.5 crore people in World War II, most of them were non Jews. When we reached the concentration camp the first thing on display was a quote "If you don't know your history then you will end up reliving your history".During World War II people were brought in trains to the camp. The weak among them were immediately segregated and killed. The healthy were made to labor in the camps, tortured and all human rights were violated.I saw detailed engineering drawing of plans of the gas chambers.Many people were killed by poisonous gas in the gas chambers. First time I felt ashamed of being an engineer. Intricate engineering plans were made to kill innocent people. My take away from the visit was hate, intolerance and racism can lead humanity only to a concentration camp.It is very important for sane people to raise their voices when they see signs of hatred, intolerance and racism to keep humanity alive.

Sports Psychology

                                     Verbal Tussle between Ambrose and Waugh 

Curtley Ambrose and Steve Waugh were my favorite cricketers. Steve Waugh was known for his grit and never say attitude. Ambrose was fast bowler whom most batsmen dreaded facing. Steve Waugh was not a very talented cricketer but he ended up being one of most successful cricketer of his era.He was picked in the Australian team as an all rounder who could do a bit batting and bowling.After a bad start to his career he was replaced by Mark Waugh in the Australian test team.It took Steve Waugh a comeback and more than 25 test matches to score his first test match hundered. But after that there was no looking back for him. 

Steve Waugh was the only batsmen who had the daring to look Ambrose in the eye and then sledge him.The gentle giant Ambrose lost his cool and Australia went on to beat West Indies in a test series on their own soil.1994 Aus WI test series ended dominance of West Indies and started emergence of Australia.Steve Waugh was at forefront of it.Some years back I read the autobiography of Steve Waugh. It is a wonderful book on sports psychology and mental toughness.In this book he mentions about his battle with Allen Donald.During a test match at Sydney Allen Donald was bowling very well. He managed to hit Steve Waugh five times on his body. But Steve Waugh's psychology was he can hit me anywhere on the body but I won't get out on his bowling. https://youtu.be/CGBS-HwG55s

After getting hit five time on the body Steve Waugh looked Donald in the eye. Steve Waugh mentions he saw fear in the eyes of Donald. His eyes gave an impression that he could not get Steve Waugh out. Allen Donald had lost mental battle with Steve Waugh. Being South Africa's best cricketer his loss of confidence meant entire South African team conceded defeated. As per Steve Waugh mental toughness was the reason why Australia managed to beat SA many times even though on paper SA had a better team than Australia. Steve Waugh says first the battle has to be won in the mind then only the actual battle can be won on the field. This is champion's mindset and very important for success in any aspect of life.