Rayil payanangalil

Some of our most memorable events occur during chance happenings. Prior to 30s I always used to prefer buses even for long journeys - I have covered Mumbai to Chennai by bus during student days. Of late however, due to covid largely I have reduced travels. Recently, I decided to try out a train journey and it turned out to be quite fascinating.

It was an intra-state travel for about 8 hours and I experimented with a Shatabdi (well, there's a lot of buzz about Shatabdi, Vande Bharat and the likes, so why not give it a shot when the opportunity comes!) for the return journey to Chennai. I booked the Executive coach though it wasn't really required - I was pretty much gathering proof for what I heard. (Pro-tip: Stay in touch with 2k kids - they are well-versed with latest happenings than you think! Before booking the tickets, I had a casual conversation with my office colleague who turns out to be a 2k kid. When I mentioned the word 'Shatabdi' his eyes lit up - he went on and on about how good the FOOD in the train is and the way soup and tea are served in cutlery! SOLD!)

Prior to boarding, I was expecting something like, for lack of a better expression, flight-like seating. But I was wrong. The moment I entered, I realized the seats were wayyy more comfortable than flights. Thanks to state / central government or whoever is maintaining these trains! Being an evening to night journey, the passengers were served snacks and coffee first. More than the food, it's the experience that matters - you actually FEEL like sitting in a restaurant that moves! And what's more - I was in the window seat with great views of the countryside.

And in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by...

You do not get this experience in flights - a combination of good views + good food (I am not saying food on flights is bad - it doesn't need to be told). Okay, the coffee wasn't great, but the snack was good. There was also a sweet which was quite delicious. After gulping the goods, I was slowly losing myself to the beautiful views on the right side provided by the window seat.

To my left, the seat was empty. In the seats behind me, there was a couple, likely senior citizens, and the lady was watching mega-serials with headphones (I respect people who wear headphones, because these citizens do not disturb the general public!). To my front, there was a couple with a small boy who was rather quiet and ahead of them were the middle seats. The middle area in the compartment had four seats where people can sit facing each other and the seats are separated by a table (like a typical 4 seater table in restaurants) - I do not know who designed this but this makes lives interesting. There were five ladies, aged between 40-60 (these are my guesses) seated in these 4 seats - they were beginning to play Cards! And I am reasonably confident that these four got to know each other only during the journey NOT before! They started with a game which everyone knew (probably Rummy) and got bored after a while. Then, the senior lady who looked like she's from Kerala, gave them KT about a new game (I don't know the name) which they started playing. It is hard to guess whether it was the game or their nature in general, but as the game progressed, their voices became really really loud - there was a time when I began to dislike the journey.

Soup was served, which lifted my mood for a while. I must say the soup was brilliant, and yes, it was served in good cutlery. It was a Knorr soup packet which had to be mixed with hot water and consumed. Probably it was the AC, or the view, or the ambience overall, hard to say, but this soup at that moment was bliss. There's a distinct feeling of luxury about traveling in Shatabdi which is hard to describe in words. On seeing the lush green grass and mountains in fading sunlight, your heart feels lighter. The point where sunlight passes through the train's glass window and falls on you inside an AC compartment while travelling around 80-90 KMPH... a level of warmth that multiple attempts at adjusting your room's AC temperature at night armed with bedsheets cannot equal. For a city-dweller like me, this was quite refreshing! I added some salt to the soup.

But you see, not everyone consumes soup. The cards gang continued their entertainment with progressively increasing decibel levels through the evening without taking any breaks. I was expecting some member in the compartment to lose his/her patience and shout at them but no, nothing of that sort happened. Suddenly, one uncle seated near them looked like he was going to talk to the crowd and he did. But guess what, it was a normal conversation - no complaints! The Kerala lady moved back to her seat after a while, the now four-member gang continued to play, unhindered by the exit of one player. The chatter continued without any loss of volume. I thought of telling them to lower the noise, but couldn't gather enough courage to do so. Besides, I do not like to spoil anyone's party so I let it go.

There's always a silver lining - it was time for dinner and the next set of delicacies arrived... Piping hot rotis with curry, rice and dal, all served in a perfectly packed manner. I have travelled in AC compartments in the past, but this level of quality was something I was not used to! The pure sight of the dinner in front of me reduced the volume of the ladies - there is something about food that alters your senses and focus areas! With noise fading in the background, I treated myself to the Rotis first, followed by Dal with rice. And yes, there was Curd, thick! When I thought this was all, we were finally served ice-creams! Long live Shatabdi.

Post dinner, we were fairly close to Chennai Central. This was the time the Cards games were finally beginning to end. Once they ended, the conversations should have also ended but no - they continued talking about life in general and started exchanging phone numbers. The nearby uncle also started giving his views about life and YOLO! True, that.

Back to Chennai, office, traffic.

One big learning for me from this trip is to travel more in trains whenever the opportunity arises!

Until next time, Incredible India!

Who's the Greatest?

 A few months ago, there was a lot of debate on who is the GOAT (Greatest of all time) in Tennis. The debate was largely between Federer and Nadal, and some people brought in Djokovic as well (somehow) into this discussions. When you are reading this, if you are able to recollect some of these discussions, it is time to take a deep breath.

Context is important in any discussion, so let's take a bird's eye view first.

These three gentlemen have won a total of 57 grand slams. (For those who contribute to these discussions without knowing what a slam is, this one is for you - there are 4 championships that happen every year in the beautiful sport - Tennis- the Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open).

For these slams to happen in the first place, it takes a minimum of 15 years even if taken continuously without any gap (of course, they did not win ALL slams every year in the last 15 years but am intentionally not even getting there). If you are someone who follows any sport, let alone Tennis, you will understand that 15 years is a really long time. 

For people who were born in the late 80s and early 90s, this is the entire childhood gone in watching these gentlemen play. That is enough fortune to watch them play. Let that sink in. Have you ever seen any individual sport dominated by three players for such a long time? I doubt. Some might compare, but it's a futile discussion. Frankly, it's hard to imagine any other trio dominate the same sport in the near future. 

Coming to the point, apart from the journalists and others in the know of the matter who write for a purpose, for common people, discussions like these are absolutely meaningless. Information is available to all, thanks to the availability of social media, memes and what not, the comparisons are endless - Federer/Nadal/Djokovic, Kohli/Smith, Kohli/Tendulkar...

This got me thinking...

They (Federer and all) won so many Grand Slams, did I win at least one? Okay, not a great question to start with... Let me try again.

I assume they get up in the morning and play Tennis.

Do I play any outdoor sport at all? No.
Do I think of playing outdoor sport? No.
Do I at least get up early in the morning? No.
Okay, do I think of getting up early in the morning? No.

What qualification do I have to talk about these people.

Hmmm...

Observations in Rural India

It was one of those rare difficult days in office after which I returned home to read something and face the next day with extra enthusiasm. I stumbled upon one of my favorite topics from B-School life - the 3 box solution. An interesting interview of Prof VG on this topic can be found here. His closing comments had a lasting impression on me "It (The Three Box Solution) applies everywhere. Not just business, it applies to churches, universities, non-profits, countries/governments, and to personal life. The central idea in the 3 box solution is that the future is now. The future is not about what you need to do in the future; it’s about what you need to do today to create the future."
Those thoughts enjoyed a good rest in my mind for quite sometime. A little later, I had to visit my hometown for a few days due to personal reasons. A walk around the town, and there were telltale signs of a beautiful, idle town that could become unlivable in the near future:

• The town has a population of around 70,000 as per 2011 census. One could expect it to be around 100,000 in 2017.
• The area of the district is 55 sq. km. according to government records. For the sake of discussion, the entire city is about 5 KM from the centre on both sides if we plot X and Y axis.
• Let's get to the point. At least 800 to 1000 two wheelers could be spotted in the town quite easily, which left me wondering - where is my town heading?

To put things into perspective, you can walk through the city in 45 minutes to 1 hour. How did so many vehicles come on roads? One can always argue that the purchasing power of citizens has increased over the years and folks are buying stuff. Nevertheless, a town as small as this was never built to carry so many vehicles.

In a city like Chennai or Mumbai, the roads were built to handle the traffic to a great extent. In towns like this, the streets are largely small, agraharam-type with no parking spaces. And four-wheelers are not yet taken into count. Add some 200-250 four-wheelers and you can already hear the town breathing with life-support. It can be stated with some level of certainty that many tier 3 / tier 4 cities in India are in this state right now so far as transportation infrastructure is concerned. Is there a way to improve here?

Let's try applying VG's strategem!
What's in box 1? Managing the present. The current state of 'stuffing in' automobiles into the town must reduce. The conditions of roads must improve to better suit free flow of traffic. This needs government will.
Box 2 is critical. It is never easy. The baby boomers' culture of "Get a job, get a bike, get a house" must go. Alternately, they can look at a bicycle-led lifestyle for office commute. And see how beautiful life is! And some other habits like, you know, following road rules would do the town a world of good!
The biggest difficulty with box 2 is that, there will be people in power who would have grown up this way. For them to challenge their own beliefs and get to work is not going to be easy!

Box 3 needs a visionary at the helm. Probably the easier way to make smart cities would be to target tier 2 / tier 3 towns since they are a whole lot smaller than the metros. Moreover, it is simpler to get buy-in from small town folks. Get some inspiration from cities like Amsterdam which have moved towards bicycle-led lifestyles! Once it is started, there will be no stopping.

The forces of Vishnu (box 1), Shiva (box 2) and Brahma (box 3) need to come together to make India a better place. If India lives in her hundred thousand villages, it definitely retires in these towns!

Not all rook endings are drawn;
Not all strategies are gas!

Until next time,
Adios!

Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal.

Morning scenes at the airport

This happened in February 2017.
It was one of those days when I had to catch an early morning flight (Read: Indigo) to Mumbai from Chennai on a business trip. Needless to say, it is hard to pay attention at such times, well I woke up early at midnight to reach the airport. Due to some reasons unknown to me, I suddenly became wide awake. "Let me try and look around", I told myself. The result was an enriching experience!
The scenes are hard to describe, however, I will make an attempt.

- The rush was pretty much IN. At least 80% of the population were hooked to their mobile phones and walking fast to the destination. Whether the flight will take off as soon as they reach their gates is something only they can answer.
- A contemporary woman in saree calmly walking towards security check, with what looked like an iPhone on her left hand and a branded handbag on the right. One could guess that she is quite successful in her field, going by the sophisticated appearance
- Paatis (Accomplished grandmothers of Tamil Nadu) with their extended family finding a way through the queue before the entrance, Tam Brahm uncles carrying color printouts of the tickets and speaking in English and Tamil intermittently about their young ones in the Bay Area. Their veshti + viboothi combination deserves a special mention! Somehow a good-looking Sardar was in-between this Hum Aapke Hain Kaun family, appearing totally lost.
- Not all white and whites are nice. There is always a white and white guy who is a nadamaadum nagai kadai (Walking jewellery shop), whom I will not make jokes about for obvious reasons.
- You can never miss the random foreign tourists with that native language-speaking 'dude' who acts as an ISO certified guide, knowing everything about Tamil Nadu, more than Google.
- The random girl (who might fit as a candidate in Roadies) with T Shirt + Jeans + Overcoat combination whom some people always hope will sit next to them but will always end up in the next row
- The bald businessman with a frowning face answering heated calls on his Blackberry, the smiling business traveller in suits who smiles at everything (just like yours truly)

- To top it all, the big Indian Flag showing us all how we are possibly the only nation that is made of differences rather than similarities!

From that day onwards, I have paid more attention to things around me. Life, as it is, offers us a lot of joy - it is an intoxicating experience!

The next time you are boarding an early morning Indigo, stay awake at the airport!

Until next time,
Have fun!

An eye-opening lesson on sub-cultures!

"Traveling. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story-teller" - Ibn Battuta

One such official visit made me stumble upon a totally different culture that existed in a small part of a large organization, and how! Of course, I had come across traces of this culture in my IT days, but seeing it in real is a different experience!