Two Obituaries

Six is a small number, and thus the rule of six degrees of separation  suggests that no one is too far removed from another person in this world. Yet, when Covid struck last year we knew few victims that were separated from us by two or three degrees or less.

This year it has menacingly closed in on us.  It has struck some near and dear ones, and some fatally too.

On 16th I lost my Bhabhi, elder cousin's wife, to this terrible contagion.  Both Bhaiya and Bhabhi had taken their first dose of Covishield and were staying confined to home.  They had fever a few days later but tested -ve for Covid.  Even as the fever was subsiding a little, their oxygen level dipped a little and then some more.  It took major efforts by her daughter and son-in-law, both doctors, to find them beds with oxygen in a Covid facility.  Despite all these valiant efforts and the best medical care, Bhabhi succumbed to the disease.

Bhabhi's son, my nephew, working with Intel in Bangalore, had flown down to Lucknow soon after getting the news of their affliction.  He is deeply attached to his mother and it is difficult to fathom the shock that he experienced.

Added to this loss was the inability to conduct a normal dignified funeral because of the regulations and crowded cremation facilities.  No family member could be in attendance at the funeral except her son and son-in-law.  The subsequent rituals were also shortened to a Shanti Path at an Arya Samaj facility.

Bhabhi was a simple woman of my generation, always smiling and caring.  She loved light reading and afternoon siestas.  She was rooted in tradition, always dressed in a saree, and never took to the salwar suit that other ladies in the family had adopted.  She was very fond of Dahi and sometimes we joked that it was because she hailed from the village Chakdahi.  It is so difficult to believe that this dreaded disease snatched her away from us in one fell swoop!

She will be fondly remembered and missed, always.

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Two weeks have passed since we lost Bhabhi, while Bhaiya remained hospitalised.  Extreme care was taken not to break the news to him and fend off his queries about her with concocted responses.

His condition kept fluctuating and he had to be shifted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital four days ago as the facilities at Vivekanand Hospital came under pressure because of large addition of Covid patients.  He succumbed today.

Even as the memories of our shared childhood in the joint family of my father and his brother keep flooding my mind, the cruel fact of his death at the hands of this dreaded disease keeps jolting me into this dreadful present.

We studied at the same Government school in Faizabad.  He was a bit of a star there as he was a good cricketer and had played at the district level.  However our middle class compulsions to focus on studies to the exclusion of everything else, weaned him away from cricket.  He had an athletic build and was the tallest person in the family and stopped just shy of six feet.  I am sure that had he followed his interest, he would have gone a long way.

We were all science students, and I vividly remember an incident when he happened to bring a small chunk of sodium and put it in water as I watched from the side.  It erupted and some debris reached his eyes.  Fortunately it didn't cause any damage.

He started his career in the Intelligence Bureau and later, like many others in government jobs, moved to Central Bank of India as a Vigilance Officer.  He was an absolutely upright and straightforward person.  After retirement sometimes he used to share with us his encounters with top management and union leaders.  He never yielded to pressures and was both respected and feared.

Like my father and chacha, Bhaiya too lived in a joint family with his elder brother.  The eldest one, Bade Bhaiya, had passed away four years ago after fighting a resurgent metastasised cancer.  He had been a bit lonely since then.  He also developed a severe problem in his knees which kept worsening as he kept delaying the knee replacement.  This made him sedentary and his fitness level had dropped too.

He had planned and managed a tour for the whole family in March 2020 to Dudhwa National Park.  The entire family had a good time and enjoyed the trip.  No more than a month ago, we were planning a trip to some place in MP.   As we struggle to come to terms with his death, I recall this memory and it fills me with a sense of disbelief.

It is a deep shock for me, and I can only imagine the pain that my nephew and niece must be experiencing having lost both parents in a fortnight!  We are dumbfounded at two from our immediate family being cruelly snatched away by a disease that we had been mocking only a month ago and believed that it had gone away!  My niece and her husband, both doctors, did their absolute best to get him all medical facilities that he needed.  But doctors can only fight illness, not death.  We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr Virendra Sharma, my niece's husband.

Do say a prayer for the departed souls and also a prayer for us whom this bereavement has left heartbroken.

Born As A Diaper

At times I feel that we are all born as diapers.  I do not use that word in any derogatory sense but because of the properties that make a diaper useful, properties that a sponge or plain cotton wool obviously don't have.

A lot comes our way after we are born, in the form of language, culture, traditions et al.  If we were like a sponge or cotton wool, we could easily wring out whatever we didn't want after we grew up.  But being like a diaper, we internalise and solidify it; it becomes an inalienable part of us.

Not only this, we human diapers have an additional property.  Those with the same absorbed contents tend to stick together while showing no such affinity to other diapers with different absorbed contents.  This is a feature that the inanimate diapers don't have.

There are those, both amongst scientists and artists, who feel a sense of deep alienation because they somehow have been able to rid themselves, in varying degrees, of the absorbed contents and hence the ability to stick to others too.  This could be viewed as a defect or an evolution depending on one's inclinations.

Do you think it would be better if we were born like cotton wool, with an ability to wring out the bulk and hopefully the spots too?  Only then we could come somewhat close to saying with Kabir, "Daas Kabir jatan se odhi, jyon ki tyon dhar deeni chadariya."

Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve

 Continued from my earlier post.

Our visit to Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve was planned on the next day after our arrival at Parsili.

The resort had arranged for the vehicle and requisite permits from the forest department and requested us to be ready to depart at 6 am.

As it had rained during the night and was raining again in the morning, we had doubts about our proposed safari materialising thinking that the tracks must have become muddy and slippery.  However, we found the jeeps waiting for us at the appointed time and the driver allayed our apprehension.  We had hired two jeeps each having seating for 6 visitors plus a guide and the driver.

The entrance to the reserve is 15 kilometres from the resort and the place is called Chamradol.  The area near the resort is called Baradol.  The nomenclature has distinct casteist connotations.  The road goes through farmlands and you find some small villages alongside as you approach the entrance.

At the entrance formalities were completed and each jeep was assigned a guide.  Thus the final cost per vehicle comes to ₹4480, comprising of permit cost ₹1500 plus jeep hire cost of ₹2500 and guide fee of ₹480.

The guide talked of a peripheral and a core zone as we entered the park and the jeeps entered the shallow stream of Banaas and crossed over.  I think the two zones perhaps refer to the Sanjay National Park and Sanjay-Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was early morning and pretty cold and a little windy in the jungle area.  We were not carrying woollens but face masks took the sting away by protecting the nose and most of our faces.  As the sun gradually rose and shone, it became very pleasant.  The air was very fresh and invigorating.  We didn't find any mud on the tracks despite the rains in the preceding night.

The guide pointed out to large number of Sal and Tendu trees around us.  The Tendu leaves are used in beedis and the Sal or Sakhu is considered valuable as a building material and for furniture.

The jungle abounded with deer of various variety, Neelgai and langoors.  The guides also drew our attention to certain birds here and there.

Everyone was filled with anticipation as the guide pointed out that we were in the core zone and there was a possibility of sighting a lion.  He showed us some pugmarks and also a heap of tiger poop but the search for the tiger kept proving futile.

On the way we met some security people and learnt that a tigress had laid a litter and was hiding with the cubs somewhere.

We kept moving on with the dry leaves on the track pressed by the vehicles shining with a metallic glint in the sunshine.  The guide ultimately blamed our failure to see a tiger on the rains last night and drove us to one of the watch towers.  We climbed to the top of the tower and had an aerial view of the forest all around us.  The guide pointed out that part of it extended into the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh.

We roamed around for some more time and decided to call it quits when it was almost 10:30 in the morning.  The vehicles took us back to the resort where we had a hearty breakfast which the resort was considerate enough to serve despite the timing being over.

We took note of the fact that we were only 100 kilometres away from Bandhavgarh National Park, but decided not to overshoot our plans and kept it as our next destination whenever the time came.

A Visit To Parsili Resort And Sanjay Dubri National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary

It was a large family group that planned to visit the Sanjay National Park and Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary in MP, commonly known as Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve.  One subgroup resides at Shaktinagar, the place famous for two of the mega thermal power projects of NTPC, and so we all decided to converge at this place because of its proximity with the destination.  From there we departed by cars to Parsili Resort which is about 15 kms from the Tiger Reserve and is run by MP Tourism.  The distance between the resort and Shaktinager is approximately 160 kms which translates to four hours of drive from Shaktinagar.  Both the ends, except a small initial portion, lie in the District of Sidhi.  

The large unpopulated stretches of land along the drive with greenery, trees and hillocks was a view that we often miss in our populous state of Uttar Pradesh.  Though we passed through quite a few small towns, we could get tea only at a point almost midway at a place called Sarai.  The tea was served in paper cups so small that it reminded one of a small tequila shot and one had to take two or more cups to satisfy the craving.

Parsili Resort is a wonderful and professionally run place.  The main building consists of the reception area and a dining hall separated by an atrium that houses a small lounge.  The first floor has a few rooms for guests.  Then there is an adjoining area having a dozen or so 'huts.'  You may think of each hut as a set of two independent rooms, each for two persons with an attached bath and a balcony / dressing room.  The huts are clean and modestly but tastefully furnished.  The resort is surrounded by trees forming a small forest like patch on the sides and you have the Banaas river flowing right behind the boundary at the back of the resort.  There are stairs leading to the river and the river was only a little more than ankle deep at most places.  The kids had much fun wading through the river to the other bank and back.  I may add that occasionally a group of monkeys may descend upon the hut complex and it is advisable to keep the balcony door and window closed.

In the afternoon all of us gathered in one of our rooms and a round of Tambola.  Tea and pakoras were ordered and we found the room service good.

The river is towards west of the resort and sunset makes for a breathtaking view and some nice photographs.  The resort had also organized a song and dance performance by a small group of tribals near the entrance on the eastern side.

The food was good and homely, and the only complaint was dysfunctional WiFi promised by the resort.  The technician was to come from Bhopal and there was no chance of it getting repaired before our departure.

If you are visiting Parsili, don't forget to carry at least one phone with a Jio SIM.  No other network, including BSNL, works in the area!  Though, if the WiFi were working, you could make and receive a normal non-WhatsApp call from the hotel compound using a phone that has WiFi calling feature which is currently supported by Airtel and  perhaps VI too.  One person in our group, having an Airtel connection could do so when he was connected to a hotspot activated on a phone with Jio connection.

Several power outages came as a surprise as MP is a power surplus state.  It wasn't too hot so we didn't mind the AC switching off.  Only light and fan were on power backup.  I decided to switch on the geyser in the bathroom to ensure availability of hot water in the morning even if there was another outage at that time.

As night descended, it started raining.  It made a pattering sound on the trees surrounding the campus.  We had a good night's sleep and when we got up early in the morning for the Safari, it was still or perhaps again raining.

The next post will be about the Safari.

For some pictures, you may visit here Pictures.

I Got My First Dose of Covishield Today

 Like most of us I failed to register on the Cowin site in the morning today.  The problem that I and most of us faced, was non-delivery of the verification code through SMS.  So I gave up and took my car, that had been serviced yesterday, for a test drive.  I drove up to a nearby hospital, Shekhar Hospital, and walked in to enquire about the vaccination.  Enquiry revealed that Shekhar was offering Covaxin.  I was further told that all slots for the day were taken up and that I could register for a slot on 4th March.  It seems there will be a two day break for taking stock and fine-tuning the processes.  I drove back home without registering.

Then I got a phone call from my nephew, who is a journalist and was doing a story on vaccination at Ram Manohar Lohia Institute, now renamed Atal Bihari Bajpayee University of Medicine.  He said that the queue there wasn't too long and things seemed to be proceeding smoothly.  He advised us to visit the place before they ran out of vaccine stock.  I drove down to the University with my wife and sister, all three of us armed with our Aadhaar cards.

There were several booths set up there and the process was like this: 

a) Get a token from the reception desk giving you the booth number and serial number, 

b) Go to the booth, fill out a card giving your name and contact details, 

c) Present the card and your Aadhaar to a person who will register you, 

d) After successful registration enter the booth and get the jab, check that the nurse has entered the date for the second jab on the card,

e) On exit get your particulars entered in a manual register maintained by another person, 

f) Wait for half an hour, and if there are no adverse effects, sign the manual register and depart.

To ensure that you don't face any hiccups, keep these things in mind:

• The jab is given in the shoulder muscle, so men should wear a half-sleeved or sleeveless T and women should have a sleeveless top.  Else, you may be asked to take off the shirt or the blouse.
• While filling out the card take care to mention the same phone number that is registered with your Aadhaar card, else the registration may fail.  I may add that no biometric or SMS based authentication was carried out.

A very interesting observation was that a couple of people who had successfully registered through website or the app, were sent away by the person doing the registration.  They were told to wait for a message from the system telling them the date and venue for their vaccination.  One gentleman was very upset at this, kept arguing and holding up the queue, and finally left saying that he will never set foot there again!  Same was the case with an important looking lady who was escorted by two policemen.  It seems she could seek some intervention and get the jab.  There was just one more case of jumping the queue assisted by someone who seemed to be a staff.

But for the general aversion to forming orderly queues, things went well and it seems that the walk-in is a better alternative to pre-registration.  The person who carries out the registration hardly takes two minutes per person.

Before I close, I must mention a very strange issue in the systems.  Today the system was rejecting all those born in the year 1960!  It seems the programmer has used greater than 60 as a condition instead of greater than or equal to.  If so, this is too silly a mistake to be made by a programmer.

I have already received an SMS saying that I have been successfully vaccinated and also giving a link to view the certificate on the site.  The certificate is fine except that it mentions my year of birth as 31 making me 90 years old!  It is incorrect in the case of my wife and my sister too.  This is puzzling as our DOBs are correctly registered in the Aadhaar database.

And finally, it is nearly 5 hours after I got the jab and I am feeling fit and fine.  The only regret is that I could not go for the same vaccine as our PM, but then I now have a tinge of Oxford within me. :)

Wishing you happy inoculation.

Trade Unions and Politics

They say that the Universe is fractal.  It means that the parts forming it are miniaturised versions of the whole that they form.  This makes drawing inferences for larger systems possible by watching  smaller sub-systems.  Though, there must be a limit at which this recursion breaks down; the extreme example being going down to a single point.  

Now, what is happening in the economic and political spheres at the country level may be difficult to observe in its totality because of its sheer size that can't fit into our frame of observation as also a lack of complete data and soft information.  But one can always draw inferences by observing smaller structures within the industry or organization one works in.

Recently a friend and colleague posted in FB about how the trade unions in banking industry have systematically cheated their members and benefitted at their cost.  When I expressed surprise in a comment at the fact that these unions continue to represent bank employees despite a majority of members despising them, another friend made important observations.  He said that the unions are able to retain their stranglehold by vigorously defending errant members facing disciplinary actions, and by siding with the management when it comes to demanding extra efforts for the organization (even though the benefits from it may not flow to them or may disproportionately benefit the top.)

Now take a look at the political sphere.  In our system of first-past-the-poll, and not proportionate representation, any ruling party is, almost as a rule, despised by more people than liked.  A 30% vote share may be more than adequate to ensure complete and even overwhelming majority, and a swing of a few percentage points to lose it.  So how does a party, in power on the basis of such minority support, strengthen its hold?  First by defending or protecting errant members (read criminals) of the society, and second by exhorting the populace in the name of patriotism and nationalism for greater, even slave like, efforts and sacrifices, the benefits of which hardly ever trickle down to them and are mostly reaped by the crony capitalists who always cosy up to the party in power!

Do you agree that the world indeed is fractal?

Musings On The Current Farmers' Agitation

Many columnists are writing in favour of the three Agriculture Acts that farmers are vehemently opposing.  They feel that these are steps in the right directions.  The Acts allow private players to purchase from the farmers so the competition can ensure better prices for the farmer.  These also remove ceilings on stocks of essential commodities, earlier put in place to discourage hoarding. These steps, in the opinion of the protagonists,  would eliminate wastages, ensure efficiency and get the farmer better remuneration for his produce in an open and competitive market not limited to their geographical location.

However, the farmers are apprehensive that there may not be enough competition amongst procurers, logistics providers, processors and marketers to ensure that the farmers get a good enough price.  Recent news about Adani Agri Logistics emerging as a measure player in most aspects of Agri Logistics adds fuel to their apprehensions.  Such apprehensions about lack of competition lie at the core of the present agitation and the farmers' demand for a guaranteed minimum price.

The corporate sector has always been wary of free competition and has tried to erect and enhance barriers.  When the economy started opening up in 1990s, a so called Bombay Club had come up to oppose it.  The government at that time didn't succumb totally to pressures and in about two decades time, everyone was upbeat about how Indian businesses were becoming world class and could confidently meet international competition.

However things seem to be headed for an U-turn now.  We are again afraid of competition as seen by India's refusal to join RCEP and reversion to 'Aatmnirbharata.'

It would seem that the aversion to competition is not limited merely to one's own sphere of enterprise but generally to new upstarts trying to break into their economic strata and enjoy privileges that come with it.  How else can we justify the fact that the few Indian unicorns that have come up have been able to do so only with the support of venture capital from abroad, including a neighbour country that is not so friendly?  That a financial system that has lost lakhs of crores to scamsters and bad debts, could not provide venture capital to budding entrepreneurs even to the tune of a few hundred crores?

All this seems to be the fallout of a system of crony capitalism that has evolved over the years through a nexus between businessmen and politicians.  This system has raised entry barriers in both the spheres, business as well as politics, and it works to the detriment of the public at large.  Public has become increasingly wise to the machinations of this closed group and is absolutely unwilling to take any proclamations by these two powerful groups at face value.

The difference between bonafide capitalism and crony capitalism is competition.  In the absence of competition, capitalism turns toxic. It is for this reason that competition is something that Governments are supposed to enforce.  But for governments to honestly do that it is important that role of money in elections be brought down to minimise politicians' dependence on business, and that is where the crux of the problem lies.

Congress too practised Crony Capitalism and it fell because it could not cover it up with a façade of nationalism.

And farmers are not willing to trust the markets being opened for them precisely because of a suspicion whether competition will truly be there or not. And hence the demand for a guaranteed minimum price.