Where's your Degree, Imposter ?

 

 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 and providing diagrams of the hydraulic steering assembly for which I had to stay up the whole night to make them. I already had to rectify about 8-9 serious design lapses, which including regulatory violations, an anchor 5-times the required weight and a power generation capacity, trice the load. 

 

The client meanwhile, without informing me, made a backup plan by hiring a hydraulic Mechanic - a semi-literate know-all who considered looking at my diagrams or the product installation manual a waste of time and immediately demonstrated that he had no clue how to do the job. The result was that the project, already having an impossible deadline, was further delayed by another 5–6 days, and I effectively washed my hands off from making any further attempts to expedite things.

The client and his employees got an earful when I reminded him that not only I had bailed out the whole project, but also saved their asses for over a year, rectifying design errors, sourcing equipment, supervising installation and placating the unhappy principals for the delays. And yet, I was consistently saddled with his mistrust at every stage, as he doubted and 2nd guessed my every piece of advice and argued at each step, but after significant delay, invariably did what I first suggested. At the same time, he swept all the faux pas of the Naval Architects and Engineers under the carpet, and the sole reason for such partiality was that they had a technical degree, and I didn't. Notwithstanding their proven and often costly incompetence,   anyone with a formal degree would always remain the real deal for him. And I, despite my knowledge and track record, would always remain an imposter.

To my final proclamation that he is free to finish the project with his IIT pass Naval Architects, Engineers and super-specialist mechanics, the client retorted, "You can't be serious, they can't solve any practical problems!"

I be damned...

Summits without a Peak

 Jobless, I was in the garage working on my bikes, having left my last profession as a travel and automotive writer in disgust after not being paid for my published works for over 6 months. A neighborhood PCO owner called, saying two men claiming to be from the then newly built IIT Guwahati were looking for me, further adding, they were very disrespectful and that I should send them packing. The duo were from India's  National Innovation Foundation, a government organization promoting grass-root innovators, looking for the Bullet Innovator. And if they seemed rude it was due to a school classmate who gave them my reference saying, "just ask anyone for the bike mad fellow, they will show you his house". The PCO owner was apparently not amused.

They came to look at my twin spark plug Bullet which I converted in the mid 90s, about a decade before Bajaj Auto and years before Royal Enfield adopted the technology. Upon seeing the bike and hearing how the compression was also raised, the clutch modified and so on, they wanted to nominate me for some award. I flatly refused, saying Triumph had the first twin-spark bike racer way back in 1911 and Afla Romeo was using twin plugs in their cars since the 70s. But, you are the first in India, they argued and pursued the matter for some time, but I never relented, saying I will be an imposter. 

This episode however elevated me from the level of a tinkerer, amateur mechanic and a "Bike Mad fellow" to the leagues of Innovators.

Recently, I was  invited to deliver a keynote address on Innovation, Sustainability and Green Tech,8th NE Green Summit at Itanagar, the Capital of the North-east Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, which China also claims as its own. There instead of vomiting data copied from the internet and using cryptic or cliché terms so preferred by Climate and Sustainability Gurus, and Jhola Wallas, I chose to delve into the meaning of these words and to suggest technologies that can effect positive change in the North-eastern region of India. 

However, while  attending the seminar I right way decided that i just wasted 3 days of my life,  I drew several other conclusions as well :

1. No matter how noble the idea behind the event, none of the discussions matter unless the policymakers and community leaders lend a patient ear to the domain experts, innovators and green tech entrepreneurs.

2. Cliché terms like attaining "Net Zero" or "Carbon Neutrality" are empty words unless providing definitive examples of technology or processes and their success stories along with the data.

3. Pickles and wine, no matter how good tasting, like cane baskets, no matter how intricately woven, are not examples of Innovation, Sustainability, Green-Tech or Circular Economy.

4. That some money has been raised by brick and mortar businesses masquerading as Startups, is neither an indicator of their success, the health of the ecosystem, nor commitment towards green tech or sustainability.

5. To the Pundits from Metropolises who love to "grace" such sessions as VIP Guests spouting drivel like "Oh, the North-east are the lungs of India," that we need to eat, sleep Bamboo and live in Bamboo Huts, or become completely organic, I will suggest they look around erstwhile lush hill stations like Shillong or Bomdila and decide which cancer has afflicted these lungs or to take a look at Sri Lanka and her organic experiment.

Regarding Bamboo, my team and I  design and build advance Bamboo Biocomposite vessels like Trimarans and Catamarans, along with ultra light-weight and low-cost fishing and rescue boats.However, none of those so-called deep impact investors seem to have even a fleeting interest in our work when we mention it to them

Lastly, gauging by the photographs of me speaking at the event, I am forced to admit that I seriously need to shed some weight.

 I think that is the most attainable short term sustainability goal I can strive for...

I wanna hold your Haaannd...

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 motivational speech by a CEO or a Chairman at a meeting, but mostly it's an interaction with a low to medium-level cog having neither authority nor any intent to risk his or her career by taking up the cause of a struggling Startup. In the worst case, your product or service idea can be pinched and touted to their bosses as their own work.

 

 Check out more great Startup related cartoons 

at https://freshspectrum.com

 

 I learned quickly enough that just like most so-called Startups are full of Bullshit and Buzzwords created  solely with the agenda of snaring investors money using the greater-fool template,  most Incubators and Accelerators also exist for their vested interests. First, it's their salaries, a number game as to how many they take under their wing and lastly, a percentage as service charges in case they are lucky enough to snare an investor for a Startup.

Lately, with the government-promised funds to develop the Startup economy drying up, getting stuck or simply vaporising and with the investors not forthcoming any longer, considering the abysmal track record of Indian Startups, including unicorns, many are starting to devise paid programs, the kind mentioned earlier. Peddling dreams of Investors and purported knowledge to the desperate and to make the programs seem more exclusive, they  claim to cap the numbers. 

As it is, Indian Incubators and Investors have both been playing safe all along, as evidenced by their preference for supporting only proven business models with a predictable business trajectory and revenue stream. Hence, the term Startup has been turned on its head and essential elements like innovation, the usage of technology to solve a problem and disruptive elements are forgotten, it is now used to define any new brick-and-mortar entrepreneurial venture. In the Indian context, a Jute Bag maker qualifies to be called a Startup, a Pickle maker is also a Startup, and so is the Tour operator, offering rustic nature trails and village home-cooked meals! All that is required is a DIPP number and to sign up for incubation with a government recognised Incubator.

“Oh you are cribbing again, so negative and frustrated” I hear a chorus of self-righteous chiding voices already!

Nope, I am just narrating from experience, and if you want to know what worked for us, it is working without intermediaries. We stumble, fall, pick ourselves up, learn from mistakes, knock on all doors, and sometimes open them ourselves. Nothing works like tenacity and confidence in the work that you are doing, moving one sure step at a time, going as lean as possible, crossing several milestones and attaining a certain critical mass to achieve a modicum of bargaining power.

Lastly, experience has taught me to dismiss right away all the big-mouthed, all-promising new people one meets at the exhibitions with shovel loads of salt, as well as with caution because that is where you meet all the  loudmouth and con-men, not to forget the bipolar, psychotic, narcissistic fruitcakes.

An Eulogy, a Well & Innovations

A noted intellectual from Assam, Dr Hiren Gohain, wrote a long glowing eulogy about my recently departed father, Dr Pranav Jyoti Deka. Though trained as a geologist and a teacher of the subject for most of his life, my father shall be remembered for his literary work, from compiling the largest, 40,000-word English-Assamese dictionary for 17 years, to becoming a Sahitya Akademi awardee for his short stories in his deathbed.

 

My father Dr. Pranav Jyoti Deka, at about the time 

when he decided to dig a well in Shillong.

 In his article, Dr Gohain mentioned a long-forgotten fact that my father dug the first well in the NE-Indian Hill Station Shillong, then the capital of Assam, now of Meghalaya. When he started this project, it was just a matter of calculation for him as a geologist, as our house was in a depression amidst two hills. For the rest of town, he was a laughingstock, with people gossiping, "Even British engineers couldn't do it," till he struck the water, that too, at a relatively shallow depth. Soon, wells were dug all over Shillong.

A deep-rooted skepticism towards any innovative or inventive capabilities of our fellow citizens is almost written in the Indian DNA. We proudly throw the word innovation around, mistakenly correlating it with the pan-Indian word "Juggad", which in its best translation means "make-do" if not "cobbling up," but rarely acknowledge or believe in an original design or breakthrough work done by a compatriot.

When I designed and built a virtually smokeless Biomass Stove with a rotating vortex flame without using electric fans or any forced air, people wanted to know from where I copied the design. After we built the first Bamboo Composite boat, some (knowing that I was a frequent visitor there)asked me if I got the technology from Russia, of all places. 

Recently, during an interaction with potential investors, explaining our next project of converting discarded Wind Turbine Blades into multi-hull vessels, a proposal earlier selected by the European Innovation Council, but unfortunately couldn't see the light of day, they too expressed skepticism about the idea's originality, and that nobody thought of it or done it before, which effectively sealed the matter for any further discussions from our side.

All the while, the IIT professors on various juries couldn't resist asking, but where is the innovation? But my best experience is still the grimacing Startup SuperGuru from an IIM down south, who demanded to know from me why boats should be built in Assam since they are already being built elsewhere! 

I am still disappointed that he didn't end with the word "Rascal"!

Millenials - A Rant

 Try as much as I like to stay away from social media, no matter how it's called except for the bare essentials, in order not to be engulfed by the forced positivity, political propaganda, or the desire to rant, but couldn't resit making a post ...the last type. A move prompted by a series of WhatsApp messages by a Butt Hurt millennial who lost a very small deal due to his competitor offering a better product at a lower price. Where instead of working on his prices and calling up or emailing a better offer, he decided to bombard me with WhatsApp messages trying to guilt-trip me about how disappointed he was. He screwed up my thought process and the work I was doing, and eventually got blocked and along with it lost a much larger order for another product which he was poised to receive.

 

 

Which brings me to making a list of things where I have serious issues with this generation:

1. Insane levels of entitlement.
2. Inability to hear a No.
3. Jumping to first names and acting as if the other person is their peer.
4. Having excuses for all occasions.
5. Inability to take a scolding, no matter how well deserved.
6. Confusing their Degrees, Excel sheets, Google and ChatGPT for real knowledge or experience.
7. Relying on Chat messengers instead of calling up or requesting a face to face meeting.
8. Expecting their failed attempt in getting anything done to be considered as a mission accomplished just for trying.
9. Not shying from offering suggestions while having only the most superficial knowledge and zero experience.
10. As for the women...well, we are living in a post #metoo environment...so no comments.

I can go on and on, and I know the above doesn't apply to everyone, as there are young people slugging it out in the real world with grit, determination and hard work. Yet, a millennial is as a millennial does, and there is no denying that, and they are all around.

Blocked from LinkedIn ( They can Shove It!!)

 Hi Leana (LinkedIn Executive), 

I will assume that you are a person and not a mindless (AI) bot, the same kind that had been flagging my posts as abusive. If you bothered to read through the three posts sent to me where apparently I didn't live up to your cryptic community standards, whatever they may be, then you would realize that the only thing I am guilty of is satire, quoting a famous song by John Lennon, and for stating a verifiable truth, which I agree was in an albeit flippant language. 

The first post parodied the recent mass hysteria over balloons created by the US media, where I shall assume my horrendous crime was writing that COVID was caused by Aliens, but, well the context was that it was a suggestion for making a sequel of the Sci-Fi serial "Dark Skies" which already shown that everything from John Kennedy's assassination to Charles Manson's cult was work of Aliens unless the Bot was offended about me referring to lesbian sex(or homosexuality which all modern TV serials make a point to proselytise) or Canada's arsenal of Spears and Arrow to fight UFOs. Or wait,  was it because along with this post, I shared the news item where Edward Snowden stated that the UFO hysteria was created by the US government to hoodwink the public to distract them from their involvement in the Nord Stream Gas pipeline?

My second flagged post again referred to  the western media's hysteria about the alleged killing of Iranian women, (now conveniently forgotten) drawing parallels with the BLM movement, where I just quoted John Lennon and Yoko Ono's song "woman is the nigger of the world!"  If your Bots get triggered by the "N" word, I suggest LinkedIn cancels John Lennon first and comes after me later. The last flagged post, which I agree could have been worded a little better, where I said that "the trannies were the love-child of the Feminists and the Wokies! It was a comment on a post where a lady lamented about the Feminist silence about Guys in Drag aka  Transvestites taking over women's sports. Well, the 3rd wave Feminist movement was the biggest cheerleader for transvestites, transwomen, trannies or whatever you call them and that's a verifiable fact, the same goes for the so-called Woke culture.

Now after first deceitfully taking my passport details, allegedly to ascertain my identity, which I have no idea why LinkedIn needs and with whom its details shall now be shared, most likely against my interest and without my consent, you want me to appeal my restriction with a "Mea Culpa" declaration that I will not abuse your shifting goal post "Community and Professional Guideline."  I have neither abused anyone in any way nor individual nor community, spread hate or misinformation in my posts or comments and so I am not planning to stand on my knees and beg virtual forgiveness, as it will be an admission of guilt where I don't see myself as guilty of wrongdoing. 

As I asked you in my earlier mail, I would appreciate it if you let me take a backup of my account, and you are free to close it for good. Eight years on LinkedIn has been an utter waste of time anyway, with neither a single job offer nor a single paying client. As I have been saying lately, all social media is a complete waste of time, "Not a single fuck from Facebook, nor a single client from LinkedIn!!" 

Okay, I admit I lied a bit about Facebook.

Regards,

Ravi Deka

PS: Now as to the real reason why LinkedIn removed my account altogether, it's most probably for sharing stories censored by the western mass media like Seymore Hersh's expose of the US Bombing of the Russo/German NORD Gas Pipeline Stream, or Edward Snowden claiming that the US Balloon UFO hunting is nothing but a disinformation campaign to take away people's attention from the same incident. And after first insidiously taking my passport details allegedly to ascertain my identity, they just closed down my account. Hi CIA or its it NSA!! It's Ravi here...

Hardly an action taken for quoting songs or offending Trannies and Wokies...

Slash, Burn, Earn - US Foreign Policy in a Nut Shell

 It has been a consistent trend in all US foreign interventions not to give a damn about what happens after they are gone, except for installing a puppet regime or dictator who gets deposed in no time. In the US occupation of Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussain as much as $ 9 billion of their gold reserve vanished, just like $6 billion of the Iraq reconstruction fund, all paid for by Iraqi oil. All under the watchful eye of the US Presidential envoy Paul Bremmer. The more far-reaching and deadlier consequence was the rise of Islamists in a hitherto secular country with armed and fanatical Shia and Sunni militias, culminating with the formation of Daesh or ISIS.

Laos, which had never been at war with the US is the most heavily bombed country in the world, again courtesy of the US Air Force, only due to being a neighbour of Vietnam where the latter was fighting a losing war. Cambodia is a close runner up, having the largest number of landmines, with even deadlier long-term consequences. Because not satisfied with bombing ricefields and villages of a poor defenceless country from a 1 km up, the US next orchestrated a coup removing the neutral, legitimate and popular ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk with a military junta led by General Lon Nol. This started a grizzly civil war that finally saw the China sponsored and US-supported Khmer Rouge or the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) regime, led by Pol Pot grab power.

They proceeded to kill and starve to death more than a million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. After the Vietnamese army ousted the genocidal regime in 1979, Pol Pot and the remnants of the Khmer Rouge got refuge in Northern Thailand, thanks to, you guessed it, the US. They continued funding them for no reason other than spite against the Vietnamese who were still occupying Cambodia, just because they kicked their butt in the Vietnam war. In 1981, US President Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, declared, "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. The US", he added, "winked publicly" as China sent arms to the Khmer Rouge(KR) through Thailand." Being of Polish origins and an avid Russia hater, Brzezinski was also instrumental in the ouster of the Shah of Iran to install Khomeini and an Islamic theocracy to be used as a springboard of Islamic militancy into the Soviet Union, but we all know how it ended. So he went along with Plan B which was arming and funding the Mujaheededn in Afghanistan, against the Soviets. We also know how it ended.

Coming back to the modern days, do you still think that the US is arming Ukrainians because they are a democratic freedom-loving country ?? What is the long term commitment of the US in helping to rebuild the country, provided Russia loses this war? Or is it going to go the same way as the Iraq reconstruction fund where 6 billion USD of Iraqi Petrodollars disappeared under the nose of the Emperial Viceroy Paul Bremer?