Fueling Thoughts

  When I first dipped my toes into inland navigation, I once embarked on a few zig-zagging trips aboard the local country boat ferries, known as “Bhutbhuti,” on the Brahmaputra in Guwahati. After my earlier failed attempts to engage with country boat operators and nearly getting tossed out by hostile crews, I took a different approach. I played the role of a clueless NRI( Indian residing abroad), out on a nostalgia trip in my hometown. With a big, stupid grin, obsessively clicking everything with my mobile, I asked the most naive questions, looking every bit like a harmless tourist.     A new government subsidized marine engine in a Country Boat Ferry , but it still doesn't plug the leaks      What I saw on those trips wasn't eye-opening as I had seen it all before. The boats were all flooded up to the floorboards. Their propeller shafts, connected to old lorry engines serving as power plants, were so poorly sealed, that they practically poured ...

        My two cents on the Crow-Strike episode. Like a crow shit bombing your head, events of this magnitude rarely take place by fluke, but after meticulous planning. Compare it with the Stuxnet attack for perspective. Considering that a worldwide media hysteria has not been racked up for blaming Russians and Chinese, without any evidence of course, what are the alternative scenarios? Remember, it's the same company that claimed that Putin hacked the DNC servers, again without providing a shred of evidence. A claim weaponized by team Hillary and taken to a point of frenzy by the pro-Democrat US mass media. The current cybersecurity event is most likely a result of the infighting in the Democrat Camp and the US Deep State. Whether a coincidence or not, it took place just days after a Manchurian Candidate failed to assassinate Trump. While Biden withdrew his Presidential candidature the very next day. Whether as a show of strength or an-arm twisting maneuver, it cos...

   Someone wrote a long LinkedIn post about the importance of a good educational record for furthering a corporate career.   I won't delve into the pros and cons of that view, as I chose to respect the current results, competence and the ability to take a challenge headlong, and not for what someone mugged up a decade or more back or the grades received.   I have repaired, rectified and corrected  Fuck-Ups ( for lack of a more genteel expression) of enough pompous and incompetent professionals (from Structural and Combustion Engineers to Marine Engineers and Naval Architects) who never fail to remind others of their prestigious Alma Mater, to have any respect for alumni of high ranking educational institution. Nonetheless, experience has taught me that there is another side of the coin as well.   Recently, in a (nowadays) rare episode, I had a massive flare-up with a client whose IIT Rubber stamp Naval Architect conveniently overlooked drawing an...

    Jobless, I was in the garage working on my bikes, having quit my last profession as a travel and automotive writer in disgust after not being paid for my published work for over six months. A neighbourhood PCO owner (private phone booths that were everywhere in the '90s and early 2000s) called to say that two men claiming to be from the newly built IIT Guwahati were looking for me. He added that they were very disrespectful and advised me to send them packing. The duo turned out to be from India’s National Innovation Foundation—a government organization promoting grassroots innovators—looking for the “Bullet Innovator.” If they seemed rude, it was probably because a school classmate had referred them to me, saying, “Just ask anyone in that locality for the bike-mad fellow; they’ll show you his house.” The PCO owner was apparently not amused. They had come to see my twin-spark plug Bullet, which I had converted in the mid-’90s—about a decade before Bajaj Auto, and y...

Every week, I receive at least three emails from different Incubators and Accelerators, Indian and foreign regarding contests and programs, most of them paid, each invariably offering the same menu of mentoring, hand-holding and government and industry connections as a service. All have little appeal to us as most mentors I have come across or who were forced upon me, had zero idea or domain knowledge about what we are doing, with personalities ranging from simply inept to domineering know-alls. The same applies to hand-holding as it can be interpreted in any way one chooses as there is neither assurance of the quality of the help rendered nor accountability. The promise of government and industry connections is an equal farce because most decision-making level  Sarkari Babus   even  after granting a meeting, have little or no incentive to follow through on their commitments.  Industry connections are usually worse, as the best one can hope for is a m...