Fueling Thoughts

Okay, I know it looks and sounds FaceBookish, but it's been my guiding principle all my adult life, the same applies for professional relationships as well.  Nobody is perfect, and we all have to deal with difficult and demanding people or clients. Nonetheless, it takes a more than a certain amount of unreasonableness, malice or entitlement to make it toxic. I have seen time and time again that a 2nd chance never works out, in fact it fizzles out even faster than the first...  So to the rubbish bin of relations it is... And some people are sent there right after the first meeting...to hell with the potential business opportunity lost!!

I grew up during the last vestiges of the Cold War in a place the least affected by it in any way.  There it was Reader's Digest readers who "knew" that the US was the land of the free, and those who purchased Soviet books on everything from Russian folk tales to Marxism and Physics textbooks, sold at a price lower than the cost of transporting them.  At times the dividing lines merged.  I always detested the feel-good Reader's Digest, viewing it as covert American propaganda, which as an adult I learned that it in-fact was, same with Nat Geo and Popular Mechanics. But the key word here is "covert."  With no television, it was a battle of government radio stations on short wave. BBC was still held to be truthful, till they exposed themselves much later during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, lying even more than the US outlets. VOA and Radio Liberty for propaganda against the Soviet Union, and Radio Moscow for laughs.  However, none of the cold-war rhetoric c...

 "Ravi, do you have any relatives in Delhi? " No Sir!! "Not even friends, with whom you can stay for a few days?" No Sir!!! (More forcefully). Big Sigh !!"...well try to find an economical hotel !!"  It was 1996 and being the only person in the organization to know how to use computers and PowerPoint, I was selected to accompany the big Boss to the Auto Expo 96. My fellow young colleagues were all green in envy, especially as there was a rumour that I would be also getting a new business suit.  That was till the time the Boss's wife called me into their office and asked me to try on a decidedly worn coat which  beaming she old me that was the one her husband wore on their wedding. It did fit, albeit a bit loosely, and I was told to wear a sweater underneath as Delhi would be quite cold anyway.  So wear it I did, trudging a borrowed laptop, lodging in a common bathroom room in YMCA Delhi (which much to the relief of my Boss as it included complimentary ...

The story of "Pavlik Morozov" was compulsorily taught in soviet schools and his portrait hung in every classroom. He was a communist martyr, a boy who informed on his father to the authorities for some criminal activity (hoarding grains as per another version) and so was killed by his family. The moral was two-fold: A hero always places the state above his family and that it's perfectly all right to snitch on family members if they don't follow government dictates.  The western world always expressed horror on such leftist indoctrination, but are no strangers to such behaviour either. Right from the days of the Catholic inquisition in Europe to McCarthy's anti-communist witchunt in the 50s, to standing in long ques for signing-up to spy on terrorists (neighbours) after 9/11 in the US.  Now, in the era of Corona Karens, people are self-righteously spying and snitching on others for lockdown or mask-rule violations "all for the good of the State". So stop ...

Covid Censorship - Google is not showing the Great Barrington Declaration page in its searches. Though its facing flake in the news because a handful of its signatories are fake, the mass media conveniently ignores the long list of medical professionals and their expertise who signed the declaration. The declaration was authored by  Sunetra Gupta  of the  University of Oxford ,  Jay Bhattacharya  of  Stanford University , and  Martin Kulldorff  of  Harvard University . Cosignatories, across disciplines ranging from  epidemiology ,  biostatistics , and public health, through  psychiatry  and  self-harm , to finance and  human geography , include  Sucharit Bhakdi ,  David Livermore ,  Angus Dalgleish ,  Mike Hulme ,  Michael Levitt ,  Jonas Ludvigsson ,  Yaz Gülnur Muradoğlu ,  David L. Katz , and  Karol Sikora . https://gbdeclaration.org

  I really miss the days when spam email comprised of various ways to enhance my manhood, slimming pills, fabulous business opportunities from Nigeria or even correspondence from Ayesha,  Gaddafi's (one time) gorgeous  daughter who once solicited my help in transferring her father's millions.  As today, it's either legit Insurance companies offering to protect me or my 3-year unused car, Medical test labs trying to test my prostrates or check me for diabetes or Covid, but most of all it's the B-Schools both Indian and from overseas  offering me their fantastic and probably utterly diplomas to enhance my career or to avert a midlife crisis, for a hefty  fee of course, a student loan option included...

It is impossible to ignore the hottest topic of the Indian Automotive world which is the not-so-sudden exit of Harley Davidson from the Indian market.  I wouldn't poke a hornet's nest discussing the bikes; if people spend their money on a 2-wheeled jackhammer or vibrator is purely their choice, but the company has had it share of gross failings in the country.  From ignoring customer's grievances which led to a slew of lawsuits, to charging exorbitant price of spares and servicing to lacklustre overpriced entry models, it had been following a potholed path where brand image and fanboys weren't enough to make their Indian foray either stable or profitable.  And yet, one undeniable fact staring us in the face is that neighbouring Thailand continues being their assembly and export hub for the entire ASEAN region. Though not privy to their internal doings and with any real contact left in the automotive sector, one thing that I can say for sure am confident it will be vouch...

I was asked my opinion by a niche player in the renewable Energy sector about the viability of setting up a pilot unit with a Power Purchase Mode of operation in India.  My reply was swift :"Don't touch the power generation sector In India with a barge pole unless you want to lose your investment, irrespective of what a hustler may have pitched or a government officer promised. But you may come in as equipment vendors, that to after ensuring that costs and profits are covered in the 80 % of the quoted price."  Instead of wasting time on a long narrative describing the woes plaguing the sector from defaulting, corrupt DISCOMs( Power Distribution Companies) to how multi-million dollar investments are turning NPAs from the Mini and Micro Hydel Projects of the early 2000s to the Gas Turbine Thermal Stations from the Reliance Gas Bubble days, then the Wind Power generators who have lost their wind and now the solar industry on the threshold of folding like a house of cards: I ...

Been there, done that and got a T-Shirt!!  Nepal's iconic backpacker's souvenir is the "NO-T Shirt" which started off as an optimistic but ineffectual attempt at keeping tourist touts and hustlers at bay during the "Dum maro Dum" Hippie Era. There is even a rip-off Varanasi version with the same words only with Hashish replaced with Ganja and an additional line "No Boat." As to why I remembered this piece of nostalgia from my long-past wandering days of my misspent youth, is the number of times I am forced to say NO!! Only not to touts and panhandlers, but loud-mouthed freeloaders hustling free service posing as potential clients or future partners. In fact, I am seriously intending to print a similar message on the back of my Visiting Cards: NO-Free Consultancy, NO-Free Write-ups, NO-Free Concept Notes, NO-Free Market Overviews, NO-Free Service, NO-Free Visits, NO-Pun Intended!! Not that I have any illusions it will shame them into offering to pay...

For over a year, I have wasted a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to get development funds from various startup programs, incubators, NGOs, Overseas agencies with almost zero results.  I got at least 15 rejections for a development grant from India and overseas in one year.   Yes, my work is niche technology, but with no local or imported analogues, quite indispensable in defence sectors and tremendous social impact potential. So why the mass rejections??   At some point, I re-read all my applications to find out what's so wrong and  after thorough introspection and revision of my presentations, write-ups, strategy and my product offering, dawned the realisation that most of these programs are a charade with the dice loaded against most applicants.  They are like Facebook, which exists and profits only due to its users who are the free content providers. For almost all Startup funds and Incubators, their raison d'etre is to collect as many applic...