‘Kissa’ of my Car #1 (when I became a consumer)

I don’t own a car as yet. So this entry is not about ‘my car’ per se. The fact is that I am not even close to the final stages before the purchase.

These entries are about what I am going through currently – where I am trying to make up my mind and circumstances around – before taking the final leap. Not sure when that would happen. Till then, it would only be process talk. But I promise to omit boring details. That is not the intention here. Thinking about buying a car has turned me into a helpless irrational kid. These stories about how logic gave away. How I stopped being an advertiser and became a consumer with a heart that beats to the tunes of emotions. How I am going about convincing myself, each day, that I am not about to make a wrong decision.

The first question was – WHY?

Can I afford a car? No.

Do I really need a car? No.

Do I want a car? Yes.

I felt stuck at this third question every time.

Considering my current income (which is petty) and my current liabilities, I am not in a position to afford a car. Also, owning a car in a place like Mumbai can become a headache more than a matter of convenience. I don’t have a place to park the car at home. I will have to wait in traffic in the same way I do while when I am inside the bus. Also, the expenses do not stop once you buy a car. They barely begin. You get into an endless spiral of additional costs such as repayment of the loan, fuel costs (which thanks to our government increases at a lightning speed), maintenance costs, costs of a better lifestyle (which you become a part of once you own a car), etc. Then why is it that I behaved worse than a stuck record – telling myself I want a car anyhow?

On thinking over this, I realized that the reason for the desire to drive my own car has gone beyond reason. I become a kid every time I think about sitting on the wheel of my own car. I think of the days I spent as a small child with an enviable collection of Hot Wheels cars. I go through all those days when I would safely keep my cars inside a glass shelf which would be locked from outside every time my friends would come home. I always wanted to own a car as a child. I used to die every moment when I would see my friends sitting in the comfort of a car along with their parents. I hated myself when I would arrive somewhere all sweaty and dishevelled while others would look as if they had just walked out of the shower.

Mentally the target was set at that young age. I had decided this as one of my ambitions, though it is by no means a lofty one. For me it was always Them vs. Me in which Me could only become Them by owning a car.

Today the Them of those times have disappeared from my life. However, their shadows have remained. My memories of the struggles from those times have remained. My circumstances have improved vastly but my ambitions have remained the same.

I feel that once I own a car, I would win this little battle within myself. Maybe it would seem like meaningless waste once it is over. Maybe I will feel that it was not worth at all in the first place. Maybe I will realise that the battle was not about Them but only about Me. Maybe I win over Them in this battle but lose to Me. I don’t know what the future holds. But I am entering this battle for sure.

Also posted on:

http://srahula.tumblr.com/

Follow me on Twitter:

@srahula

I met a Donkey sitting on a Camel today

As most of you would be aware by now that I had taken a day away from the hustle-bustle of Mumbai (something I crave to do) to spend it in green hill top off Lonavala. This cliff is commonly known as Lions Point and it is a couple of minutes of drive from another point known as Tigers Point. I have no clue how the locals arrived at this nomenclature. But what I have realised over time is that Lions Point is marginally more scenic than Tigers Point. Not to mention that the only animals I encountered out there (apart from rowdy city folks hanging half their bodies outside the car) were dogs, buffaloes and the lonely CAMEL.

To justify the title of this piece, here is the little story.

I hate most of the typical tourists. The kinds who travel around a place with a checklist of things to see which in turn is usually derived from others who have already been there before or from the wisdom of the travel agents. Today, I got to see loads of them; in hordes I would say. But there was one gentleman who left an indelible mark on me.

He was with his family and did the usual. He got off the car and ran straight to the one end of this place to answer the nature’s call. Then he asked his driver to click pictures of his family infront of the car (though the face of the wife was completely draped under her Sari). Then, he turned around and took a picture with Lions Point board as the backdrop.

Then, he asked his wife to pose with him, which was followed by just the kids posing which was followed by the son and daughter with him and then the son and daughter with his wife. This was followed by a session of individual's photo-session in two to three angles. This entire exercise was carried out – not to mention – with the car and then the board as the backdrop.

The charade moved on: the permutation was carried out at the edge of the cliff, next to a BMW, holding a branch of a tree in one hand, sitting on the rock, next to the stream, etc. etc.

Watching this Circus from a distance, I had finished my Maggi, two cups of tea and two cigarettes. The drama continued.

The climax in the story was when this family discovered the lonely Camel and his master trying to take people for a ride. It costs forty bucks for a five minute ride. To me it seemed that this was the high point of the entire trip for them.

The family moved closer towards the disinterested Camel and his master. The man started his round of negotiations with the master and also instructed his driver to initiate the usual round of photography – in all combinations that is – around the camel. After what seemed like an endless discussion they arrived at a point of equilibrium with the master bearing a disgruntled look and the man looking back at his family as if he was Dhoni and had just won India the World Cup.

The ‘usual’ happened before he climbed on the camel's back. By now I hope my dear readers would understand what I am referring to when I refer to it as being 'usual' for this family.

He then climbed on the camel’s back and before usual could happen once again, the camel decided to stand. Suddenly his expression changed. It seemed like he did not want to be captured on the camera any more. However, his driver religiously followed his advice – which he must have issued moments back – and continued to click.

Click, click, click; as the camel made its first move. He was definitely not enjoying it anymore. His family followed behind him and the driver struggled to move ahead and along the beast.

As for me, I was wondering what a camel was doing in a rocky terrain 3500 meters above sea level in almost freezing cold temperatures whereas it is supposed to be on the smooth, hot desert sand.

The story continues.

Click, click, click; the camel was now moving in our direction. I was with another Bong friend of mine @Pallav Gupta smoking a cigarette and watching what more was in store for us from this Great Indian Family.

As he closed in further, I could see him holding on to his seat as if it was his life being snatched away from him. I wish I could have used a word better than constipated for the expression on his face. It was priceless.

Click, click, click; the camel came to a halt right infront of us. The man shouted at the master as the camel bent its long head to pick up something from the ground, “What’s the matter with this thing?” The master looked back lazily and saw that the camel had picked up a stalk of corn on the road. He replied that it was just a corn stalk that the camel is picking up and asked him not to bother. The man on the camel’s back gave an expression as if the camel had deliberately decided to unlock a landmine.

I told myself that what else would a hungry and bored camel with a stupid load on his back, pick up from this road apart from corn stalks disposed by animals like his load. After all the negotiation this load had done, the camel master would certainly not be making too much of money.

Click, click, click; the man shouted once again from the top, “Make sure there are no problems.” He half smiled at the camera. This smile soon vanished as the camel decided to take a bigger step over a rock. By now, his family was lagging behind, but the driver seemed to keep pace and click pictures lest he would lose his job.

The camel took a quick turn around our tea stall and went back from where it had started. The journey was as long as walking from my desk in the office to the loo and back. I wondered who the bigger fraud was.

The man now got off the camel’s back and took out the handkerchief from his pocket. He was panting while the camel was as cool as any animal burnt in desert heat could feel on the chilled and scenic hill top of Lonavala.

He haggled over the price and the distance once again and finally paid the master. Both looked disappointed. The camel was expressionless as usual.

The driver was in the scene of action once again. Click, click, click; the expression on the man’s face changed completely. He was the new Batman avatar infront of his family. They now started walking back to their car as he relayed his tales of adventure on the camel’s back. The kids looked like their role-model had just re-affirmed their faith once again. The wife's face was still hidden in the Sari to make out her expressions.

The camel looked even more bored and lowered its head to take a nap, till another donkey climbs its back.

Also posted on:

http://srahula.tumblr.com/

Follow me on Twitter:

@srahula

Two Issues We Face Today Which Call for Immediate Action

My journeys from home to office and back seem to be overflowing with interesting people and conversations. Today was no different.

On my way back home, I got a lift from Rahul Kulkarni who has been managing a dual existence for the last three years. And boy, he’s been doing it really well. His not so exciting side is that he heads the Creative function for a Shopper Marketing firm. The part which I found intriguing is the other half of him; the one that drags him on a 6 hour long journey every weekend to pay a visit to the farm in his native village.

This farm is not just another farm. It’s a farm with Mango trees interspersed with organic cultivation of vegetables and spices. His story becomes more and more interesting when he begins to describe the efforts he’s put into for the last three years and his vision for the future. When he first started, there was nothing apart from barren lands with occasional Mango trees. For the last three years, Rahul has put in every penny he and his wife have earned into it to get farm thriving. He has yet not earned a penny. Nor does he expect any returns in the near future. The intention is also not to build a commercially profitable organic food supply project out of it.

What he intends to do is to build a couple of cottages for himself and for occasional wanderers: to come and live with him, to plant and cultivate with him, to harvest and eat with him. This is his Retirement Plan in a land hidden in the lush green Monsoon loving valleys of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

Sounds interesting right?

Once our discussion progressed, I ended up asking him a couple of dumb questions which had been nagging me for a while. He cheered me up saying that these weren’t dumb questions and then went on to describe how it was one of the biggest issues facing the country. My first question to him was as follows:

I’ve been hearing a lot about these genetically modified seeds and excessive usage of fertilizers & pesticides. My assumption is that more farmers are getting converted into using these methods which lead to better looking varieties of produce. If this trend continues, does it mean that over a period of time, we will be left with no non-modified local varieties of seeds?

He took a deep breath and said that this is one of the biggest issues that the agro-industry is facing today. There are fewer and fewer varieties of local seeds that are available now. Genetically modified seeds produce crops which look better, weigh more, require less water, etc. They lead to a higher yield. But people are still turning a deaf ear to the quality of the yield and the impact it has on their body.

There are two aspects to this problem he feels: the soil and the seed. When fertilizers and pesticides are added to the soil, they destroy almost ‘everything’ in the soil. This includes the essential bacteria and other organisms which help in the process of making the soil alive with their ‘excreta’ and ‘what they breath out’ in the process of respiration. This gets completely lost. This is comparable to trying to grow these plants in concrete. Seeds and plants, in their natural form, develop certain adaptability qualities in their natural setting. When they are genetically modified, they tend to develop certain new qualities (higher yield and easy marketability) but they also suffer from certain defects. Defects include lower nutritional value, prone to diseases more easily.

He also spoke about the politics and the economic privileges which this entire process yields to certain stakeholders which I would not like to elaborate in this piece.

When I asked him more about the key issues facing this industry, he pointed at another trend: reduction of food supply.

With rapid urbanization, people are moving out of villages and moving towards cities in search of better opportunities and lifestyle. They are giving up on the traditional household farms (which used to be a key source for the consumption of the family) and even selling off their land while moving to cities. In some cases, the land continues to be used for agriculture. However, when the land is sold for industrial development and real estate it fetches the best prices. This is leading to a decrease in agricultural area.

This trend is coupled with another trend where the limited amount of agricultural land is being utilized for cash crops over essential food crops.

These two factors when working together point at scary food supply deficit for the future. There is a continuous increase in the size of the population and at this rate there would not be enough food for the ever-expanding population.

Our conversation was killed prematurely since I had reached my destination. I am looking forward to accepting his invitation to visit his farm over one of the weekends to learn more.