Bad Planning or an Indifference to People?

 I have had to travel through Porvorim more often than I would have liked. Each time I am struck by the chaos and wondering does it have to be this way.

Do we plan for the fastest completion time or as fast as possible while minimizing the inconvenience during construction? 

Do we even consider the inconvenience and implicit costs caused by the chaos during construction?

Does the planning even include the impact on the people who need to use these roads and have no alternate option during the construction? I think we are invisible to the planners. Just a group to be tolerated while a great and bright future opens up to us.

I am certain that after the flyover is completed, I will again be able to reach the Dabolim airport from Mapusa in 50 minutes, like I used to do when I moved to Goa 25 years ago.

Meanwhile I crave for a future paradise where I can walk without fear or looking over my shoulder keeping track of traffic behind me. Travel by  public transport and not have to worry about where to park.

Oh, well. If I had money, I could have moved to Europe.... 

 

The Age of Sanyas, the trivial hope of fixing an issue with EPS and how to live a worthwhile life after rejecting Sanyas

 I certainly have no plans for a sanyas or leaving for the Himalayas! 

Yet a couple of days before the d-day, I could sense a heaviness in the head which lasts even a day after. Since I am indifferent to religion, it has to be the social importance of turning 75.

I have no plans to change the course my life but a fogginess in the head persists.

I wanted to have a cozy house in a quiet area - started just before Covid, which delayed it. But we are now in it for the last two years. I am finally installing solar panels - not for economic reasons and not even to save the planet as we continue to consume and pollute more. 

It is more for the selfish reason of being off-grid in case of grid collapses. If California can now experience them, Goa is of course an easy and likely victim. Hence, it again doesn't give me happiness of doing something useful.

We also were able to dispose parental property on our terms of no cash, in spite of advice that we are losing money and paying more tax. Again it was for the selfish motive of peace of mind. I have no expectation that it will make any dent in the economics of sale of properties.

My investments are passive and not requiring much effort except occasional reorganisation of funds to minimize risk. A necessity in light of the absurd pension I get for Employee Pension Scheme.

I do need to continue to fight the EPFO - not for my pension but in the hope to help others less literate facing the same issue. In shifting my pension from Chandigarh to Goa, my date of birth has been incorrectly entered. The digital life certificate is rejected as the date of birth on the Aadhaar card does not match the record of the employee pension scheme. Their solution defies reasonableness - provide a certificate from the bank each year as they inform me verbally that they can't change the date in their records. I wonder how they will deal with my death certificate! I keep hoping that my occasional pestering will result in some internal escalation and fixing my birthdate. 

I can recommend to them that if they can't change the field, create another field the database 'Legal Birth Date' and use that instead. I doubt if they will listen. Even if I succeed, I can at best feel a tiny and momentary sense of achievement even after the age of sanyas.

The satisfaction from this achievement, if at all it happens, is hardly enough to clear the mental fog.

Grandchildren are also too old to be needing or wanting our advice or input. 

I am trying to convince myself that it is not being 75 years old, but I need to find something to work on which keeps me occupied and in principle could be useful even if it is never actually used.

So, time to meditate on what next!

 

Why I wish I could be Superman

 As I started to cross the road, I noticed that a car had speeded up. I wished I had been Superman. I would have fearlessly crossed the road and enjoyed watching the car get crushed.

Instead, I waited  and waited. And waited but lived to tell the tale.

Tremendous Expenditure and Progress in Infrastructure and We are even Slower

 I drove for 50 minutes from Mapusa and just reached Bambolim. It would have taken another 20 min to reach the Dabolim airport.

When I had moved to Goa 30 years ago, it would take me 50 minutes to reach the airport.

To be fair, a year ago, I had again reached the airport in 50 minutes with the new bridges over Mandovi and Zuari rivers and the new expressway from Bambolim to Zuari bridge.

I am also pretty certain that once the elevated highway is completed in Porvorim in a year or two, I will again be able to drive to the airport in 50 minutes.

I suppose that is progress. Here is an example of a regular experience for me and this is 2 and half years AFTER the report and - “We have written to the NHAI about the issues at the junction and steps to be taken to rectify the problem”. 

Probably the designers did not include or talk to anyone who stayed in Mapusa or was familiar with it.

Suppose instead, we spent a part of the money spent on improving highway and bridges on public transport, could it have been any worse?

First objection that comes to mind is from the categorization of the expenditure:

• Building roads and bridges is spent on infrastructure - A GOOD thing as it is an investment for the  future
• Spending money on public transport is a subsidy - Obviously a BAD thing. 
• Why can't we categorize it as a SAVING of money we do not need to spend on infrastructure to have an even better quality of life in the future?

 

An ideal example for a negative vote when facing a good, a bad and an ugly option

 As I was reflecting on the dilemma facing the uncommitted movement, the current US election seems to be a perfect example for the need for an option to vote against a candidate as well. 

If we are faced with the choice of a good, a bad and an ugly, we can vote for the good candidate, fully expecting him or her to lose. Our negative vote can be against the ugly in case, as we expect, the good candidate is the last one.

 If we do not  have the option for a good candidate, we can ignore our positive vote and still vote only against the ugly. We should not have to choose a lesser evil even if the result of the election would not be any different.

Would the victor of such a system celebrate and brag about his success, when the voting data would clearly  show that it is the ugly candidate who lost?

Goa is a small state. I wish the  election commission would experiment here.

" Tamil Nadu CM Stalin Wants Education Shifted from Concurrent to State List"  triggered the old memory of "question out of syllabus" experience. 

It is now over 20 years since the complaint of a faculty member Mr. X and students of another college that the Vice Chancellor had called a meeting and agreed with Mr. X. The VC said that we raise the marks of the students. This was done without even looking at the results. 

Mr. X had a  problem as raising the marks increase some students' marks to over 100%. He somehow managed. In my view, the process was unfair to students who had understood the concepts. But why does this incident still pain me like a simmering wound, a permanent damage with no hope of healing?

The real cause of pain comes down to the implicit and explicit remarks that I had told our faculty member to teach these examples in our college. The thought had never even crossed my mind that anyone could interpret it as such. Or the belief that "The correct answer must be written in the text book" ; hence, I must have cheated.

Making education a state only subject does not guarantee improvement. However, it does give me hope that may be one of  the states may do better. At least there is a possibility that somewhere over the horizon,  learning may become a focus point for the future generations.

Courteous Driving Resolution - will the effort last even till the new year?

Traffic rules in India seem to be against our social norms. My grandsons make me acutely aware of the cultural difference between the west and our environment. They do not let me even start the car till every person has tied his/her seat belt!

A couple of days ago, the 3 year old was complaining after I used the horn a couple of times - "Mommy never uses the horn". I explained to him that the people were driving in the wrong direction on a one way street and I was upset by them. Yesterday also I used the horn on the same road, which is narrow and very steep.

Today, he and his 5 year old brother were playing and I heard them blow horns and say, "What are you doing? You are on the wrong side!".

I decided that I must start practicing courteous driving, whenever it is "safe" :)

I let people merge or turn at least half a dozen times today. The only minor fear occurred when I let some pedestrians cross. Just as I started, a man ran in front of me. Fortunately, I could stop in time but it gave me a scare.

The courteous driving did not delay me at all as the brief delay hardly mattered given the flow of the traffic.

I, though, still have to retain my composure when a two lane road merging into a single lane for a bridge turns into a 3 lane road. I become a bit aggressive and try to prevent the 3rd lane from merging.

It seems obvious that the optimum solution is that alternate vehicles from the two lanes move into the single lane. Yet we don't do it. Each person from the, now three lanes, tries to squeeze in. Why - even I find myself doing it for fear that I will be stuck and people behind me will blow the horn :(

Need to practice meditation at least on such occasions :(

Why I look forward to robots as waiters

I am somewhat guilt ridden. Should I have tipped more? It has been quite some time since a person seemed to be so desperate and pleading for more tip. It wouldn't have mattered to me but may have made a difference to him. But it brings up the same dilemma of giving to a beggar. I may help a person and feel good about it; but I may actually be contributing to the preservation of a bad and unjust social setup.

It was the last leg of our trip to Kerala. We took the Trivandrum Rajdhani from Ernakulam to Margao. It was painful to watch 3 attendants sleeping in the corridor outside the compartment - one on the proper berth and the remaining two on the floor.

I wondered why was there a need for three attendants and whether they were actually employed by the contractors.

• Was it just the easy option of hiring extra people at a very low cost in order to 'improve' service? 
• Could it be that railways insist on the extra staff to make sure that one person is not overworked for the long journey? 
• Wouldn't it be desirable and better to have the staff change midway?
• Or does the actual employee outsource his job to desperate youngsters for no wage but tips?

Since I can do little about it, I would rather not have to think about whether to tip and how much to tip. That would be easy if the server were a robot.

Wealth, Quality of LIfe and Paradise Lost

I was pretty sure that I would retire in Goa. I loved the place. I like the greenery and the beaches. I like the small towns and villages with the comfort of a modern life.

Now somehow Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed resonates. The road in front of my flat now hums with traffic and it is bound to get worse. Taxi services are aimed at tourists who have no other options. With such conflicts, there is little chance of Ola or Uber like services.

If one way taxis from home to point of destination were easily available at reasonable costs, I for example would be happy to use them and not own a car. Who wants to search for a parking place near a beach or in the town?

I can't imagine roads being cleared of parked vehicles anytime soon. We don't need more roads but using the roads more effectively. That too is not going to happen.

I don't see any efforts on changing the mindset of the people. We should expect polite and courteous behaviour on the roads. Discourtesy should be the exception and not the other way around. Try showing courtesy to pedestrians and observe their nervousness!

I don't see any chance of cars being stopped and parked outside the coastal villages. We should move around the beach area by walking or using small electric vehicles like golf carts.

I can expect that we will widen the roads, create new roads. We will not create a society where people do not need to move around so much or need personal vehicles.  We will not be able to manage well with what we have. Growth is the modern mantra :(

In short, Goa is no longer an obvious choice for retirement. The cold and the heat of Chandigarh no longer seems so bad. I can walk to rose garden.

Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja

I made the 4th and still not the final trip to get my mom's money transferred to me. I am the nominee so this is supposed to have been easy! Unfortunately, I could come up with an answer like, "Don't they teach 'Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja' anymore?" when the manager told me that the process must be the same whether a few thousand rupees or a crore!

It is a painful reminder that the bank did not allow me to use the money when she was alive and now will give it to me after I submit enough papers for them to be able to create a thick file. Meanwhile, a fixed sum was transferred each month until the balance left was minimal.

I heard this story yesterday -

A pensioner returned after two years abroad and submitted his life certificate. The clerk said that but you have not submitted one for the previous year!

Harassed life - the problems of paying by cheque

My car insurance may be cancelled because the cheque was returned for 'Signatures not matching'. I have spent the last hour trying to overcome and prevent any complication.

I regret my mistake of having signed the cheque. My hand involuntarily shakes at times and the banks have a problem with tallying my signatures. Normally, I ask my wife to sign if I cannot pay by card or online.

I have had problems with my telephone bill some years ago - bsnl would not accept a cheque payment from me after that! Mobile phone company charged me a absurd penalty for cheque bouncing. In each of these cases, I had a hard time finding a problem in my signature. For all I know, the clerk may have been looking at the wrong record.

Does it have to be so? Is there any risk in payment of bills? What could possibly go wrong, which cannot be corrected?

Should we not assume that a cheque is valid unless it has been reported as stolen or there are some serious problems with it?

I think our society has complicated our rules and, hence, our lives just because the correction process is a problem. For example,

.Justice T S Thakur ... blamed “lack of governance” and “officials’ inability to take decisions” as prime reasons behind the deluge of cases choking the justice delivery system

... the top court of the country was compelled to spend a lot of time on cases involving bounced cheques ...

In the early days at the branch level, sometimes a helpful staff member would call and check before rejecting a cheque. However, now the clearing is happening in the back office in Mumbai and the branch staff is helpless.

I am hoping that soon either mobile payments will make cheques obsolete or robots will make the verifying clerks obsolete. The robots can easily send an sms or call us to confirm whether the cheque is valid and bring back a degree of personalization in an increasingly impersonal world.

Who is really harassing the pensioners?

It is really painful when I come across news like this:

Don't Harass Pensioners: Government Tells Bank

Even a moment's reflection makes it obvious that the only person who CAN be held accountable in this whole process is the bank officer who signs off. If the bank official is fearful and excessively cautious, it is hard to blame him/her.

We as a society are so absorbed by the process of submitting forms that we never think of them as being redundant, pointless, wasteful, etc. etc.

Obviously, far fewer pensioner die each year than not. So, efficiency would suggest that the government get certificates from the people who are dead. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy has not found a way to do that. So, the rest of us have to prove that we are alive.

Even searching for a pensioner's record on a supercomputer and entering a 'y' in one field takes time. However, in our process, it is far worse as the bank has to collect the papers. Very likely the bank catalogs them to make sure that they have proof of having sent them. Recipient clerk will need to make an entry for having received them and forwarded them to the correct department, which in turn, ... (I have to find out where did my life certificate disappear or just give another and hope that it doesn't get lost again.)

Trust the pensioners and their families instead. I can't imagine any person(other than brain-dead) waking up enthusiastically every morning to work on life certificates! Focus the effort and energies of the bank officials and government staff freed from this dumb work to detect frauds. As this example illustrates, such frauds can only exist only because the staff is too busy doing dumb work to notice. If it is corruption and collusion, how on earth do life certificates help?

Google - please collect caller id's of fraudulent callers because the banks won't

The cumulative time  I must have spent even on blindly clicking that I know that the bank does not ever ask for pin numbers or passwords must have crossed a working day. Yesterday, I got an idiotic call from my 'bank' regarding my 'atm' card. I wanted to report the number for further action by 'someone' and didn't after recalling my previous experiences.

I had received a call offering me a 'bonus' for an insurance policy as the company had made an excessive profit. I decided to send the details to the insurance company. I got a prompt response that as I knew, these were fraudulent calls and not to give them any information.

But that was not the reason I had informed the insurance company. I was hoping that the insurance company could initiate action against the crooks using the phone number. After all, what is purpose for all the documentation the government insists on before a telephone number can be allotted and used.

Since the insurance company was not interested, I located the service provider to whom the phone belonged but they were not interested either as my number was not from their company. On second thought, such calls may even contribute a significant sum to their revenues.

Google makes it so easy to report phishing attempts on emails. For calls,  the only data that is needed is the caller id and whether spam or phishing. No one need look at this data. A monitoring program can raise alerts as and when a statistically significant event occurs.

So, I can't understand that while the banks make so much effort to tell their account holders not to respond to phishing attempts, they are yet to make any effort to collect the caller id data and then use the data to stop the fraudsters before they can cause any damage.

May be Google will find a way to collect this data and monetize it and I can have the satisfaction of doing my neighbourly duty of reporting a phishing attempt. 

Getting Lost on the Highway

After a 2400 Km drive spread over 8 days, I can say that the road travel in India has become far simpler and safer with divided highways.

On the highways (NOT in the towns we passed through), driving shows greater discipline and courtesy than I would have expected. But one has to accept that it is perfectly safe, or even safer, to overtake from the wrong side:) The driver should just accept it and not feel any guilt for violating the road laws - no policeman in India is likely to give a ticket for it.

I got lost once but it was my own stupidity. After Jaipur, the next convenient halt was Bhilwara. I got on the road to Ajmer. I was pretty sure I was on the right route - it was going to Udaipur and the route I had selected, thanks to Google maps, was the shortest/best route to Udaipur from Jaipur. After a while, I noticed signs indicating the distance to Beawar - it seemed a little nearer than I had expected Bhilwara to be.

My mind had made a discovery - given the fondness of our politicians to change names, Bhilwara's name must have been changed to Beawar. I was so convinced about this discovery that I did not think it worthwhile to stop and confirm it. I had not noticed any major turning, so this route had to be right.

On reaching Beawar, I tried to find the hotel, only to discover to my embarrassment that I was a 100Km from where I was supposed to be. A state highway connected the two - it was narrow, often very rough road, occupied frequently by goats.

I had missed a turning - there was a sign for going to Shrinager. But how was I to know that it was not an exit to a small town but a exit to a highway?

A lesson learnt!

City Beautiful - Today's Needs not the Glorious Vision of the Past

Last month, I needed to go to sector 34 (Chandigarh) twice. On the first occasion, it had rained and the muddy paths and chaotic parking did not help.

I was reminded of the visits by ‘High-rise buildings against edict of Chandigarh’:

 The UT submitted, “According to the edict of Chandigarh as envisaged by Le Corbusier, ‘no construction should take place in the area north of the Capitol Complex’.

I am more concerned by our own views and vision of  today than by what Le Corbusier thought half a century ago.

Back to sector 34 visits.

The second time, it hadn't rained. So, the open areas were dry and very uneven. Parking was as chaotic as before.

Once I was inside the service centre of a multi-national, it was very comfortable. However, the entrances to buildings were even uglier than sector 17 without the open pathways and exotic show rooms on ground floor to compensate.

Ugliness is inevitable. Given the cost of land, the stairways are as narrow as possible. Interiors are often dark and dingy. Many offices are cubby-holes without being snug with adults occupying spaces more suitable for children.

I had to visit more buildings than I wanted as the office had shifted and it took me effort to find the right place :(

Today's issues -

How does the city reduce the dependence on cars?
How does the city make working and living spaces affordable (even for people who are not a part of the government)?

No power, all the fault of the 93% consumers

I read such news and get depressed(though depression may have its advantages). Not because people not reporting the connected load is the cause of not getting stable, continuous power.

Flipkart, Amazon, Google, Facebook - I could go on and on - do not ask for anything about what equipment or resources we have which can use their services. And the scale at which they operate is a bit larger than the electricity department.

I feel depressed because I expect the electricity department to be giving me information about my consumption and not the other way around. It is a critical need for energy conservation, e.g.

Building technologies and smart meters can allow energy users, business and residential, to see graphically the impact their energy use can have in their workplace or homes. Advanced real-time energy metering is able to help people save energy by their actions.

The collection of papers which state all the equipment one has is a waste of the trees and money. The cost of processing those papers, if ever done, would also be high. Even filing the papers costs! I was amused to read a letter to the editor requesting help from the electricity department to fill the forms!

If the department really needs the connected load, let people fill that ONE value online though it would amaze me if it leads to any better planning of the load.

Here's an example or two they could examine.

About time first premium of lapsed insurance policies is surrendered to the insurance regulator

The following statistic in Hiking FDI limit in insurance is remarkably illustrative of  morality of companies:

It is quite disquieting that some major companies have a very high rate of policy lapses like Birla Sun Life 51 per cent, Future Generali 49 per cent, ICICI Prudential 42, Reliance 38 and Bharathi Axa 36 per cent.

It explains that my effort to help a retired person scammed by insurance agents was hopeless.

I can't imagine profitability being any higher than on policies which lapse after a single premium.

Given the above statistics, it would be great if, at the very least, the premium of policies which lapse after the payment of just one premium is confiscated by the insurance regulator.

Furthermore, cancellation of policies should hurt the bottom line. Hence, the insurance companies should not be allowed to deduct any cancellation or service charges when refunding the policies which have been cancelled during the "free look" period.

Still no access to mother's pension - bureaucracy and rules supreme

There must be a reason for results like "The more people are exposed to socialism, the worse they behave".

I was thinking of my own experiences, including not being successful in getting access to the full pension of my disabled mother.  I can easily imagine persisting and finding a "solution"(more like a work-around) to this problem if I had monetary problems.

The complaint to RBI resulted in a response -  contact the bank or  its head office. The complaint to the bank resulted in a response with the mail being forwarded to another department. And nothing after that.

The complaint to the Central Pension Accounts Office resulted in a reply  asking for some details and silence after that.

I am certain that had I persisted, the operational staff at the bank, in addition to being sympathetic, would have offered a way out. I am also certain that the way out would have required lying at the very least.

Why do societies which have welfare of the people as the primary goal create rules which assume that the person seeking help cannot be trusted :(

Accidents and Compensation - Losing the moral issues

I recall seeing a show as a young boy which deeply moved me.  A person had just been acquitted of causing a death in an accident. The accident resulted from a medical problem(blackout?) the car driver had but without being aware of it. However, this person is not able to come to terms with his own role and commits suicide.

This story is refreshed in my mind whenever I read news of accidents and compensation. It seems as if the moral culpability seems to be getting lost in the financial compensation conflict. I doubt if higher compensation causes the drivers to be more cautious - e.g. "people in that car may be very well off so I had better be careful".

The compensation was awarded now for an accident four years ago. So, wouldn't it be better if there was a very fast, unambiguous payment to the victims without any need for courts or tribunals and without having to determine the status and potential worth of the victims in society.

Each individual should have his or her own life/accident insurance  to ensure that his/her family is not financially hurt by an accident, whether in traffic or roof falling down or gas cylinder exploding or ...

There has to be a better way to minimize the number of accidents and ensure that the victims do not suffer or have to fight for their rights.

Interesting perspective about medical malpractice suits in the US. It seems to reflect that the malpractice suits are not a financial burden but rather a significant cost to the society in non-monetary terms.

But medical malpractice is a business driven almost purely by profit through tragedy. Decisions often hinge on the theatrical performance of two competing teams to an audience selected specifically for their lack of knowledge regarding the issue they're judging. There has to be a better way.

A change in the attitude of the doctors may have reduced the malpractice suits. E.g. the following which still holds for India

It seems hard to believe now that there was a time when medicine was such a paternalistic profession that we were never expected to consult with a patient about any treatment plan or procedure (I'm the doctor, you're the patient was the expected answer to any question). It was once considered unethical even to inform a patient of a bad prognosis (we felt it would be detrimental to their health if they knew they were dying).

Who should compensate

From the news report:

The accident occurred because the taxi was being driven at a high speed and the Canter driver suddenly applied brakes in the middle of the road.

 ... Gurdev and Uday Shankar to pay the family a compensation of Rs 1.19 crore, including costs. However, in the interest of justice, the court ordered that Bharti Axa General Insurance Company Limited, the insurer of the Canter, would make the payment of Reena’s share of Rs 60 lakh and then recover it from the two accused.

I would have guessed that the taxi was unambiguously at fault for not keeping a safe distance - no matter what the driver in front does. Canter driver may be fined and penalised if the brake lights were not functioning.

Justice? Wasn't the taxi insured? Isn't it a legal requirement to have 3rd party insurance? Who monitors it?

Little things - from Rickshaws to Hyderabad Blues

1. From my  childhood, I have been reading about improving the lot of the rickshaw pullers by improving the rickshaws. And now this hi-tek version :) Not have driven a rickshaw, I am not sure if there has been any significant improvement; however, I doubt if any of them is made using lightweight composite materials or even aluminium. We are probably too poor to use such technology.
   
2. Then there was this news of insistence on loudspeakers which reminded me of the last scene of Hyderabad Blues! I suppose most people implicitly realise that its the neighbours who matter as god probably does not exist or doesn't really care.
   
3. Then there was the bank official who said that there was no connectivity. The passbooks printed so I went back to him and said that it has now come. Then, he said that it will take time, come back in the afternoon. Why can't I just get a pdf online :( But then I would not have any sense of achievement - so, thanks, bank officer.
   
4. I improved my mood by stopping at a pedestrian crossing and letting the people pass. It is amusing to see the bewildered faces of people when I indicate to them to continue crossing :) By the way, I had made sure that there was no vehicle behind me before stopping.