More the Corners, More the Cobwebs

Diwali is around the corner. The biggest celebration of the season - the festival of lights, crackers, sweets, and savories. But before the main event comes its precursor - the Diwali cleaning!

Apart from being a health & hygiene activity, Diwali cleaning is also a practical demo in the subjects of archaeology, history, and mining.

You might not spot a single spider in the house the whole year but there is a cobweb, in every possible place, the corners, the beams, the pillars, the doors, the window ledge, curtains, wall hangings and showpieces. In fact, any place with a corner, there is a cobweb! How it got there is a mystery unresolved, but it is there.

The house itself seems to be generating dust – under the beds, behind and on top of the almirah, the table, on top of the shelfs, everywhere there is a thick accumulation of dust hiding, just beyond the reach of the daily jhaadu. Only excavated during deep cleaning.

There is an old English saying – “a rolling stone gather no moss”. Might be true for a stone but a rotating fan gathers dust, lots of it. The thickness of the layer of dust on its blades is the best indicator of the usage of a particular fan!

From the deepest recesses of the drawers, come out the chronicles of our shopping history - the bills. Many with the ink completely faded and some whose products may have been used and disposed of, but the bill has been retained, for what purpose, no one can say!

Of course, add to this our tendency of squirrelling away stuff for a later day. And that’s how we end up with lots of disposable cutlery (courtesy Swiggy & Zomato), a big plastic bag filled with smaller bags, old clothes which have lived their full life but still hoarded away as they await nirvana by becoming a pochhaa! Our deep entrenched habit of not wasting/reusing/recycling just ends with lot of unwanted stuff occupying all sorts of nooks and crannies in the house!

Diwali cleaning – the only time in the year when your apartment starts giving the vibes of being a bungalow in size. And during the course of it, we also decide to do the clearing more often, but as is wont with such pledges, doesn’t really happen. It is back breaking stuff, especially when at times you take a pause to catch your breath, look around and realize that somehow the house seems messier than before you started. But at the end of the day, also an oddly satisfying one!

Wishing all readers, a Very Happy Diwali! 

P.S. Expect to see a lot of LinkedIn gyaan on the subject of cleaning in the coming days!

BookMarks #106: My Journey

Title: My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions

Author: APJ Abdul Kalam

Genre: Non-fiction, Autobiography

Published: 2013

BookMarks

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s life story in his own words, covering key moments/incidents in his life from his childhood in Rameswaram, to his scientific work and onto becoming the President of India. In simple words he has narrated his life experiences, his influences and the lessons which we as readers could draw from them.

Here are the passages which I bookmarked from his journey

• On Dreams - Dreams are not those that we see in our sleep; they should be the ones that never let us sleep.
• A summary of his life - love poured to the child…struggle…more struggle…bitter tears… then sweet tears…and finally a life as beautiful and fulfilling as seeing the birth of the full moon.'
• On basic human nature - Whenever human beings find themselves alone, as a natural reaction, they start looking for company. Whenever they are in trouble, they look for someone to help them… Every recurrent anguish, longing and desire finds it own special helper.
• The survival instinct - the only way to survive is to face your troubles and rebuild your life.
• On happiness - Joy is fleeting, whereas true happiness and calm can come to us only after intense pain, when we have confronted ourselves in the mirror of our souls and understood the self.
• On success - The best way to win is not to cover a win but to keep a calm and open mind to new challenges
• On the importance of space studies in a developing country like India - on the relevance of such a programme when a vast majority in the country was battling the demons of hunger and poverty….India could only play a meaningful role in the affairs of the world if the country was self-reliant in every manner, and should be able to apply advanced technologies to alleviate real-life problems. Thus our space programme was never simply a desire to be one among an elite group of nations, neither was it a matter of playing catch-up with other countries. Rather, it was an expression of the need for developing indigenous capabilities in telecommunications, meteorology and education.
• On what brings out the best in people - People like me, who are intrinsically shy, with the added quality of coming from a different background than my city-bred colleagues, tend to remain hidden in the shadows unless something or someone pushes us centre stage.
• On things beyond our control - often there are powers greater than yours who dictate the consequences of your work.
• On success & failure - we don't just build on successes, we also build on failures.
• On Work Ethics - Total commitment is not just hard work, it is total involvement. It is also about setting a goal. It is having a goal in front of you that makes a difference to the final outcome of your hard work.
• Life Mantra - That humaneness, generosity and understanding can never let you down.

Fairly simple but thoughts worth their weight in gold from a fascinating human being! Really liked the simplicity of words, the preciseness in thought and the flow of the narrative. This book is great example of the adage "Write to express and not to impress"

Previously on BookMarks: The Great Gatsby 

Engineer's Day

September 15 - celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India as a tribute to Bharat Ratna Sir M Viswesvaraya – India’s first ever civil engineer and instrumental in developing many projects across the country.

From one in 1884 to more than 15 Lakh engineering graduates every year, it has been quite a journey for the Indian engineering education. However, that has also given rise to another facet - more and more students are acquiring an engineering degree and then deciding their vocation – be it Marketing, Finance, HR, Software, Various Arts fields, Politics – almost every sphere has people with engineering backgrounds in it.

Now on Engineer’s Day, floated in on WhatsApp, a few greetings, and a question about best engineering solutions to problems. While detailed solutions and SOPs are plenty and specific to the instrument/system, there are two basic steps which are almost universal (and they work, most times)

1. Restart/Reset – Off karke On karo, a favorite of the IT world. There may also be an added step off letting the device rest for a while!
2. Percussive Maintenance – any malfunctioning machine can be fixed by smacking it a few times. Often also followed by a restart.

And lo and behold the device is no longer malfunctioning!

Happy Engineer’s Day to all engineers!

P.S. A post on the subject from 2010

BookMarks #105: The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F Scott Fitzgerald

Genre: Fiction, American

Published: 1925

BookMarks

Had heard about this book a lot, thanks to the eponymous movie which had come out a few years earlier. While I had started, but could never finish the movie, the book got better treatment. Managing to finish it entirely although the start was slow, but the pace picked up later.

The Great Gatsby is considered a classic and one of the “Great American Novels”. Showcasing the life in post-World War I New York. It has the glitz and glamour of super-rich parties contrasted with the more ordinary working-class people. And yet in essence it is just a love story with a tragic ending!

There are lots of references in the book, but the author never gets to detailing them out – the flourishing bond trading (probably a precursor to the Great Depression); the class divide between neighbourhoods; fortunes made during the Great War, Prohibition & bootlegging, fixing of the World Series. The readers get barely a glimpse of the events, although all these may or may not have played a role in building Jay Gatsby’s fortune.

Here are a few lines which stood out for me from the book.

• Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had – a point to be kept in mind in this social-media triggered world
• There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired – a simple classification for all human beings
• Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead – what a simple yet profound statement.

And there were some “General Resolves” in the end. 

“No wasting time…. No more smokeing or chewing….. Bath every other day…. Read one improving book or magazine per week… Save $ 3.00 per week… Be better to parents”

If one follows these simple tips, our lives would certainly be much better!

How usage of words change – holocaust is used to describe the ending tragedy. Yet how its use has evolved post the second World War into a much bigger tragedy!

Previously on BookMarks: Mendelevski’s Box 

Road To Paris: Episode 3

Time for the belated third episode in the Road To Paris series.

Since the last Episode, we have seen quite a bit of activity in the Indian Olympics Sports front with the action not limited just to the field of play.

Starting with the on-field action

We had the Commonwealth Games, where India learnt about a new sport – Lawn Bowls. Unfortunately, its not part of the Olympics roster yet! Here is a short sport-by-sport review of Indian performances in the Olympics disciplines.

1. Athletics: 8 medals, a significant increase from 3 in 2018. Avinash Sable’s steeplechase run was the highlight as he broke open the Kenyan dominance with a stunning 2nd place finish, denying Kenya a clean sweep of the event for the first time in decades! The racewalkers after a decade of promise have now started delivering the medals as well. There was an India 1-2 in Triple Jump, as well as medals in Long Jump, High Jump and women’s Javelin. Things are looking up especially in the field events. Although there are doping cases also coming up. Thankfully all caught before they could make the tournament!
2. Badminton: The Thomas Cup success was carried forward with Golds for Sindhu, Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag, and Bronze medals for Srikkanth and Terasa-Gayatri. Losing the Team Gold to Malaysia would have hurt a bit though.
3. Boxing: Amit Panghal is back after the disappointment at Tokyo. Nikhat Zareen continues to carry the flag for women’s Boxing and there was an impressive start for Nitu Ghanghas. While not the toughest of fields, overall, it was a decent show by the Indian boxers.
4. Cycling: David Beckham and Ronaldo being in the squad created quite a flutter. However, the performances on track did not live up to the names
5. Gymnastics: there was nothing to write home about. The brief spotlight from Dipa Karmakar’s Rio performance has now dimmed.
6. Hockey: Silver for men & Bronze for women – both teams back amongst medals. However, the manner of loss in the Men’s Final to Australia would have certainly hurt. And when will our teams get rid of this habit of conceding last minute goals. Lot of unnecessary heartache for the fans!
7. Judo: 2 silvers & a bronze on Judo’s return to the Commonwealth fold with Sushila Devi replicating her 2014 silver medal.
8. Swimming: Once again no medals, but there was an increase in the number of finals appearances by the Indian swimmers with Srihari Nataraj making two finals.
9. Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal at the age of 40, just confirmed his status as the greatest Indian TT player. Playing multiple matches daily, he ended the tournament with 3 Golds & a Silver. While the men’s side had great returns, there was disappointment in the women’s side especially for Manika Batra who had been the breakout star of the 2018 edition. Sreeja Akula finished a creditable 4th in Singles and helped Sharath Kamal to his first-ever Mixed Doubles Gold.
10. Triathalon: We are not in the picture yet.
11. Weightlifting: India continued their dominant show at the event 3 Golds, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. As expected, Mirabai Chanu dominated her category, while the likes of Jeremy & Achinta Sheuli got their first international success.
12. Wrestling: 12 entries, 12 medals (like 2018) including 6 Golds – another dominant show by India. Not much to be read in the performances, but 2 players – Vinesh Phogat and Sakhsee Malik made quite a comeback to the national ranks.

Outside the Commonwealth Games also there was a lot of action

1. Neeraj Chopra recovered from injury to win his first ever Diamond League event and qualify for the Diamond League Finals.
2. At the Badminton World Championships, the Satwik-Chirag duo became the first Indian pair to win a Men’s doubles medal and continue the trend of a medal for India at every major event (World Championships/Olympics) since 2011. The others could not reach the medal rounds though.
3. Linthoi Chanmabham became the first Indian judoka to win a World Championships gold (senior or junior) at the Cadets Championships.

And now for some off-the-field action (or rather mess)

1. The Anti-Doping Law has been passed by the Indian parliament. There have been too many doping cases, especially in Athletics & Weightlifting with some leading names also involved. To be honest, the number of doping cases involving Indians is a national embarrassment. This is certainly a step towards cleaning up their act.
2. Meanwhile the All India Football Federation got suspended by FIFA. Although the suspension was lifted, it doesn’t show our federations in good light. And there are administrative troubles in various other associations as well. Wonder how these will be cleaned up given the number of political figures involved in all these sports.
3. And its not good to see Courts getting involved in matters of team selections – Tejaswin Shankar and members of TT teams were involved in multiple court battles to ensure their participation at the Commonwealth Games! As it is our Courts have a huge case backlog, no point in adding to them!

That’s it for this episode. More qualifying action is set to commence in the coming weeks.

Till next time!

Links:

• Road To Paris – Episode 2 
• India at Commonwealth Games 2022 
• NADA Bill - Firstpost 

India @ 75

15th August – our Independence Day. Also, time for the annual blog post on all things India, a tradition which now enters its 15th edition. So, before we head into this one, here is the link for the 2021 edition.

75 years since independence – it has been a remarkable journey. The Government decided to mark the occasion as #AzaadiKaAmritMahotsav and launched the #GharGharTiranga campaign. A campaign which also resonated with the citizens. And the result - tricolours displayed everywhere, on buildings, individual houses and vehicles presented a beautiful sight (or a vihangam drishya, to borrow a phrase from Doordarshan’s Republic Day commentary).

After the travails of 2020-21, we finally seem to have got a grip on the pandemic (though still not completely over it). The covid waves are still coming, although its impact has reduced. The roll-out of vaccines, an arduous task specially in a country of our size, certainly seems to have had an effect in controlling the damage. Although we still don’t know the long-term impacts yet, but life is slowly coming back to normal.

I always believe in reading the newspaper from back to front. Because the sports pages (which come last) are filled with the stories of human achievements, unlike most of the other pages! In a non-Olympic and non-World Cup year, it would have been difficult to match the highs of Neeraj Chopra’s Olympics Gold. But our men’s Badminton team provided it by winning the Thomas Cup. Chopra himself followed it up becoming the first Indian athlete to win a World Championships Silver medal. And finally, we had the sports fans cheering the Lawn Bowls team at the Commonwealth Games, while simultaneously trying to learn the rules of this novel sport they had come across. Meanwhile the Football federation gets banned by FIFA, putting in jeopardy the upcoming Women's U-17 World Cup. Somehow, finding a cloud for a silver lining!

Where sports exist, so does betting. Although illegal, there are now a multitude of apps and sites providing a chance to win cash based on fantasy leagues! Most of them exploiting the grey area between a game of chance and a game of skill. However, some enterprising folks took this to a whole new level. They organized an entire fake IPL, streamed it, and made money off Russian punters! The sheer chutzpah of the scam is simply unbelievable! This is one story filled with lots of audacious elements – but finding people in Russia willing to bet on cricket matches takes the cake.

Whilst on the subject of online scams, there has been a surfeit of them. The mobile phone has become a minefield to be treaded through carefully. Fake job offers, fake tenants, changing numbers of legitimate businesses, sending links for payment, threatening to cut electricity supply, fake calls, hacking people’s social media accounts. Just how many traps can you avoid daily?

The initial lockdown days of Covid brought to light, how clean our environment could be with reduced human activity. While a lockdown is not the solution, it did show that the climate emergency could still be managed. In this regard, we have made a major commitment towards Net Zero by 2070. The economic costs of this transition will be quite high but something which needs to be done.

Which brings us to the economy. While we are not the worst performing, there are dark clouds looming all over the horizon. The collateral effects of Ukraine crisis, soaring energy prices and a looming food shortage are all potentially leading to a global economic recession. It will take significant political will to navigate through these VUCA times. Credit to the government for taking a stand and getting cheaper Russian crude.

On the political front, we had a change of leadership at the top. Meanwhile, in various states, the state governments keep changing not through elections but via backroom political manipulations and resort management. Certainly not a sign of a healthy democracy.

Meanwhile the social media discussions and debates continue to become more and more toxic. The balance is completely gone and replaced by a “with us or against us” mentality. Wonder what vaccine will help in resolving this.

Overall, it has been a year of coming out of chaos but there are threats looming everywhere. Let’s see what the next one holds.

On that note, Happy Birthday India! Jai Hind!

BookMarks #104: Mendelevski’s Box

Title: Mendelevski’s Box

Author: Roger Swindells

Genre: Fiction, Historical

Published: 2019

BookMarks

Mendelevski’s Box is the tale of a Holocaust survivor after his return from Auschwitz to Amsterdam and how he rebuilds his life picking up the pieces of his erstwhile life with help from some old and many new acquaintances.

Overall, an engaging read, although it is a bit difficult in the beginning to read through the not so familiar Dutch names. The story is not about the holocaust itself but how survivors emerge from it. We still get to learn about the horrors. Yet, it is also a tale of humanity. How different people tried to help and support the cause against the Nazis and then post the war how they helped each other in rebuilding their lives. It also depicts the chaos in the immediate aftermath of the war – shortages of almost everything, the currencies becoming invalid, trying to figure out the genuine cases when all paperwork has gone missing, the insurance money and property disputes etc. And there is the backdrop of punishing both the war criminals and those who profited from it.

There is also a tiny twist in the tale! Overall, a good story of humanity rising from one of its worst sufferings. 

Previously on BookMarks: Life Is Short And So Is This Book 

Road To Paris: Episode 2

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have been declared wide open. The events calendar is also out now. The qualifying processes have also commenced with the first qualifiers also identified in a couple of sports.

It has been almost a year since the Tokyo Games were held. The Indian contingent while still in celebratory mood from their best Games ever is also slowly getting back to action after the euphoria of the Games. A combination of felicitation ceremonies and the pandemic ensured that most top athletes were out of action for quite a while. Sometimes, looking at all the felicitators, one wonders what success India could have got if there was similar support during the preparations!

Meanwhile here is a selection of some key Indian performances with an eye on Paris.

• Badminton: The biggest success in the past year with the men’s team clinching the Thomas Cup for the first time ever showcasing the tremendous depth of the side. And prior to that Lakshya Sen & Kidambi Srikkanth had both won a medal at the World Championships. Add to this a resurgent HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Satwik-Chirag, and a still impressive PV Sindhu Indian Badminton is in safe hands.
• Athletics: Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic Champion, continues to break new ground becoming the first Indian to win a silver at the World Championships and also improving his own National record multiple time. The past few months have also seen quite a few long-standing national records being broken (multiple times) with Avinash Sable adding the 5,000m record to his record-breaking streak in the steeplechase. Hopefully it’s the dawn of a something good for Indian athletics. On the flip side, there have been high profile doping cases including members of last year’s Olympics contingent. The doping menace needs to be seriously nipped in the bud.
• Hockey: Both men’s & women’ teams finished 3rd in the Pro League campaign, proving that performances at Tokyo were not just a flash in the pan. However, the women’s team did not have a good World Cup finishing 9th and unfortunately, they are not part of the next Pro league cycle.
• Boxing: Nikhat Zareen is now a world champion but has to follow up the success of the legendary Mary Kom. So not much pressure there!
• Shooting: After the disappointment at Tokyo, the Indian team is back to winning medals at the World Cup stages. Given the uncertainties in this sport, can’t really say what will happen in Paris. But another performance in lines with Rio & Tokyo will certainly lower the sport’s reputation for the Indian fans. Similar to the state of Indian Archery.

That was a short summary of the goings on at Indian Olympics sports.

The Asian Games which would have served as some of the Qualifiers has now been pushed back by a year due to Covid. So next stop for some of the contingent will be the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting 28th July, 2022. While not exactly the most competitive of events, performances here will an inkling of the things to come over the course of the next two years!

A review of the CWG performances will be part of next Episode!

Wishing the best for the Indian contingent at Birmingham.

Links:

• Road To Paris: Episode 1 
• Games Wide Open - IOC 
• Paris 2024 Schedule 

BookMarks #103: Life Is Short And So Is This Book

Title: Life Is Short And So Is This Book: Brief Thoughts On Making The Most Of Your Life

Author: Peter Atkins

Genre: Non-fiction, Self-help

Published: 2011

BookMarks

“If I’d had more time I would have written a shorter letter”- said Winston Churchill once. And that is the brief of this book, keeping things short and simple and not meandering towards unnecessary examples/anecdotes and taking inspiration from them. It is a very short volume, easy to read and gives general guidelines on what is to be done with life and not how one should go about doing it. It is not something which people do not know, but it is always good to keep revisiting.

Here are the nuggets which I liked best from the book.

“If I wanted to do my best work, I needed to do fewer things, and really focus on what mattered.” Very well put, the author also does his bit to shatter the myth of multi-tasking. “A number of people I know claim to be great multi-taskers. The brain, however, doesn’t work that way; instead it focuses on one activity at a time. If you switch back and forth between multiple tasks, your brain works more slowly than it would if you focused on each activity for a period of time.” And yet, everyone I know claims to have varying degrees of proficiency in multi-tasking!

These are terrible times. The last couple of years have been an especially harrowing one, with no one sure if the worst is over or not! Then comes this bit of advise – “you can focus on something going well, or something beautiful, or something interesting -- even amidst terrible times.” There are things one can do something about and others where one can’t. So focus attention and energies where something can be done. Quite a simple advise and yet very difficult to follow.

The easiest way to success or avoiding failures/mishaps is not doing dumb things. Proceeding when there are obvious issues is a dumb thing to do. Even if it’s inconvenient or painful it is better doing nothing when the only available choice has glaring issues.

On character - Do what you think is right. Don't follow other people blindly. Be honest and keep your word. Admit your mistakes.

On dealing with success and failures which everyone encounters We learn more from our failures than from our successes.

On how to work towards success - You may delay but time will not. There is no overnight success but a series of continuous efforts. Progress depends on action, taking small steps which work. Over time, small steps add up, and you end up in a different place.

On being happy - To be happy, you need to pay attention to who you are, what you want, and how you feel. And most importantly Life has to be lived forwards and not backwards.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Another Churchill quote to round up this post.

Overall, a good read with actionable, implementable advise.

Previously on BookMarks: The Tattooist of Auschwitz 

The Perfect Jinx

Started reading (once again), Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus. And on the second page came across this passage.

One line stood out “…. in the last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, plague and war”.

This book was written in 2015. The existing diseases were being managed; the new ones (SARS, Ebola etc.) were being controlled before they acquired pandemic proportions. The world’s political boundaries had been more or less stable for years except for few localized hotspots. Meanwhile, technological innovations were ensuring that global hunger was reducing despite an increasing population. In fact, obesity was becoming a bigger issue than hunger. And the efficient global supply chains ensured that men and material could be moved fast to the place of need in the event of any natural disaster.

Fast Forward to 2022. We have the “plague” - It’s been two and a half years since Covid 19 pandemic struck and upended the world as we knew it. We have “war” - the Russian invasion of Ukraine gave the western world its biggest war since 1945 with the added threat of nuclear weapons. And we are also staring at a global famine – the pandemic and the war disrupted the global supply chains, which combined with climate change has created the beginning of a global food shortage.

All of a sudden, the future is not looking so rosy for the homo sapiens!

As any sports fan can relate, this line is the perfect epitome of the “commentator’s curse” or simply “the jinx”.

Yet, jokes aside, the human beings have become more and more resilient and have better control over such matters. Fast-tracked global development of vaccines certainly helped in curbing the covid19 pandemic (although a lot of damage has already been done, but things could have been much worse). The Russia-Ukraine stand-off has not spiraled beyond the region (yet!). And steps are being taken to manage the food crisis. So overall, while not a rosy picture, history is replete with examples of things having gone much, much worse. 

So, in essence, Harari is right, we as a species, certainly have matters in our own control. How we handle it is also a decision totally in our hands and we have only ourselves to blame if do not evolve for the better!