Nothing Serious
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
The digital legacy
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
The gunshot
I reached Greater Noida around 910 pm. I stopped at Honey Money Top. It is a good grocery store [at least in my opinion till that fateful day]. There were large number of cars parked on the roadside. Busy day I thought. I kept on driving till I found a vacant spot to park my car. There was one more car after mine. It was a bit away from the market and there was less light on that spot. I walked down to the store. There was a Juice stall before the store. I felt like having a mango shake. I asked the guy if he could make a shake for me. But he was busy serving another customer. So I said, I would come back and went to the grocery store. I bought the necessary stuff. I loaded my PayTM account with necessary cash. I paid by PayTM on the store. I left couple of whatsapp messages. I came down. Went to the Juice stall again. He was free by then. I asked him to prepare a small Mango juice of 30 Rs. It was quite filling. I then started walking towards my car. The area was still quite populated with lots of cars on the road. I noticed two guys standing in front of the last car [The one next to me]. They were talking in themselves. I silently walked towards my car. I have this principled habit of avoiding any kind of small talk or engagement with people I don't know. As I was walking to the trunk of my car, I felt they looked at me. I ignored their attention. I opened the trunk. Put the grocery inside. Locked it. I went to the driving seat. Opened the door by pressing the button on the door handle. The door flung open. I sat down comfortably on the driving seat. The door was still open. And then it happened.
One guy came to me. Held the door. Showed me a gun. He said, see this, it is a gun. He indicated that he wanted the car. It seemed like a country made pistol. I think it was of black color and small size. I don't know why, but I didn't get afraid at all after seeing the gun. I got massively agitated. I stood up out of the car and pushed him back. I said something of the tone as to how dare he take my car from me. I am not sure why, but he immediately fired the gun. May be cause I was of larger frame than him and he felt I might overpower him. It could be anything, I would never know. The gunshot was quite noisy. I guess all the people in the market could hear it. This made them afraid. They just ran away immediately. They didn't get my car. They didn't take my phone (which was still in my hand). They didn't take my wallet which was in a hand bag I was wearing by my neck. They didn't get my laptop which was in the car's trunk. The laptop bag also contained my wife's and my passports along with all the documents for the VISA application. They didn't get anything. They just got afraid and ran away.
And then I realized, I had been shot. The blood was spilling out of my body. I felt like I was realizing one of the gory scenes of series like Game of Thrones. As the blood spilled, my body started weakening and I fell down on the road. Later, I got to know that the bullet went through my jaws and got stuck in neck. I also learned later that my right ankle also got multiple fractures possibly during the process of falling down. My voice got corrupted immediately [I can now realize it was because my left jaw was shattered]. With whatever voice I had, I started crying for help. I tried to search for my mobile, My body couldn't lift itself. So I was just using my hands around to search for it. I found it. I tried to use the fingers and attempt the fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. Due to dust, some fingers were not working.
The first person, who came within a minute [probably the owner of the car next to me], asked what happened. I explained, but he left with his car. After that nobody was noticing me for next few minutes.I started losing hope as well as consciousness. My cries for help stopped as I felt there is no point. I started feeling, it is the end of the world for me. I started thinking of all the plans I had for future and how they were all coming to end just at that time and that place in front of my eyes. I wondered, that I hadn't given all the details of my savings and other investments to my near and dear ones. They would have difficult time in locating all of them. I was still conscious though my senses were getting dimmer.
Fortunately, an angel came after a few minutes. He talked to me, understood the situation, brought in some more people, picked me up, got me placed in my car and drove me to the nearest hospital. He managed to access my phone and call my friend and my wife. They started immediately from Noida and Gurgaon. They brought along all the help. My brother in law came along. My wife's uncle joined. Some of her friends came along My Managing Director was informed. He came before midnight. I had started feeling I would get saved. I was still conscious and was talking. Police came along within half an hour I guess to the Yatharth hospital, Greater Noida. Since I was still talking, they took my statement. The hospital staff carefully took all my belongings and got them submitted at reception in order to save it from getting into Police custody unnecessarily. But Police did take the car along with them (including all the grocery and my laptop bag which was in the back of the car).
From there I was transferred to the bigger Yatharth hospital in Noida. My wife joined there. I was so so relieved to see her by my side at that time. At the same time, I was crying from inside so much after seeing her as I had ended up messing up all our plans so early in our marriage. She handled the situation that night with so much courage and conviction, and without any panic, that made all the difference on that fateful night. Dr Kapil Tyagi, MD of the hospital, personally took over the case. He called all the surgeons around and managed to get an army of six surgeons in place by midnight. I went through multiple X Rays and CT scans. I vividly remember passing through them. I had to wait a while before getting moved to OT. I was patiently waiting and talking little bit to the nursing staff present around me. Finally, they moved me to OT. I felt the anesthesia being administered to me. I guess a few minutes after that, I passed out.
A six hour surgery was conducted overnight. I got back into senses in the morning. I realized I was in ICU. It was not much pain at that time [I think I was on an overdose of pain killers], but my body was pretty much crippled. My right leg had a raw plaster. My neck had multiple stitches. My face was massively swelled. My neck couldn't move. I couldn't sit down. I couldn't turn around my body. I felt that I could move my left leg and my both hands. That was comforting.
Later the doctors came around 9 am. They explained to me how I was quite lucky to have survived a gunshot wound in face without any significant injury. The bullet had stayed just a few millimeters away from critical nerves. It would take months but I would recover.
As my family and friends started trickling in, I kept crying to see each face. I guess in last 10 years, I have never really shed tears by myself. On May 11, on seeing every face, my tears kept rolling down non stop.
I guess, this is long enough post already. Rest later.
Friday, October 28, 2016
A curious incident from online shopping experience
Here is the more complicated part. He (Let's call him A) stays in Noida. The delivery was possible only in Delhi. So he asked another friend of his (say person B) to order the phone (coz B has account in FlipKart and B had got the deal offer) with the product to be delivered to person C (who lives in Delhi). So C got the delivery, brought it to office. A opened it in office, saw the beautiful surprise that was waiting for him inside the box, and started wondering what next to do. When A called FlipKart support, he had to explain that the order was placed by B and delivered to C and received by him.We are still wondering, whether FlipKart will own up the mistake or not.
So, the topic of lunch discussion was, what should we do to have strong proof of misplaced product.The only viable idea was: when the product is delivered, open the product case at the same time in front of the delivery person, check it and then accept it. But, this is fraught with many issues. I for myself, stay alone. So, I am mostly absent from home. Therefore, I schedule deliveries at my office address. Even in that, I am mostly busy in meetings during office time, or it is weekend. So, I prefer the delivery guy to deliver the products at office security. I pick it up at the end of the day. For me, it's pretty difficult to spend time with the delivery guy for opening the product and verifying it. Moreover, the packing is usually so sophisticated, that it would easily take 5 to 10 minutes to unpack it. And if it is a big product, unpacking it would be highly inconvenient, as I have to drive back 35 kilometers later.Moreover, the delivery guy himself won't be willing to wait that long.
Life is complicated!
Thursday, October 29, 2015
One plus two first experiences
I have migrated to one plus two from an older Samsung Galaxy grand Quatro. Overall I am enjoying the new phone. But I did find some issues.
It doesn't ship with a headset. For now I am using the headset of my previous phone.
It doesn't have fm. I used to use my earlier phone to listen to fm while driving. I don't have this capability anymore.
When I connected the phone to laptop today it didn't start charging. Towards the end of the day I looked at the battery details page to realize that it is not charging. Disconnecting and reconnecting the cable didn't help. Finally I restarted the device. Then it started charging. I could not figure out why this happened. Probably it is a software bug which will get fixed later.
The phone comes with a single cable. Thus one has to keep carrying it around. My earlier phone came with two cables. One with a wall socket adapter and other for pc connection. Having two cables I think is useful. This seems to be a cost cutting exercise. However official USB type c cables from one plus are out of stock on amazon. So getting an official spare isn't easy at this time.
Btw the phone is really fast and worth the money.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
On the mirage of one rank one pension
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Hope for best or work for best?
What if we just replace "Hope" with "Work" and start thinking "Let us Work for the Best". A simple change in word has a major impact in our approach to governance. Rather than being a passive observer to the charade of governance, we become an active participant in the governance process.
There are many ways, we can keep ourselves involved with the governance process. The least we can do is to use the social media to provide constructive criticism towards the actions the government is taking or not taking. If something is not working, raise it. If government decisions are improper, cry hell. If the government is doing something right, appreciate it. If the government needs our support in making some decisions, help them. If you have new ideas to solve a problem, share it. If any member of BJP or affiliated organizations is trying to abuse his power or reach, make it known. But don't indulge in unnecessary rants. Don't complain about imaginary problems or apprehensions without any factual basis. Use twitter, facebook, whatsapp and other social media to the best of the ability. Know that people in this government do react to simmering anger in social media and take corrective actions quickly. An example is when Pramod Muthalik was inducted in BJP during the campaign, an aggressive twitter lashing led to he being thrown out of the party the same day. Know that Modi wants to be here for a long term and he will not do anything which would lead to erosion of his support base.
There are other avenues also for engaging with the modi government. At his website http://www.narendramodi.in/ you can directly write to him, or join him in his "Serve the Nation" campaign. I am sure many more initiatives will be launched by the government in upcoming months to have a greater involvement of young and capable people in the governance process.
Even if you don't like BJP ideology, or something that has happened in the past, the government is here to stay. So better engage with them rather than just saying "Hope for the best".
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Handling illegal migration from Bangladesh
A fundamental issue to understand is why migration happens. Essentially there are two reasons for migration: economics and politics. If people don't find job opportunities or other income sources in their native place, they tend to go to other more prosperous places in order to find jobs. The prosperous places are always in need for more blue collar workers or even general labor. So there is an economic benefit associated with them to allow illegal migration to happen.
The second reason is political. There are two sides of this. When a small group of people is harassed in one locality, it attempts to run away and find refuse in some other more friendly place. On the other hand, politicians sometimes allow illegal migration as long as they can cultivate their vote bank.
Of the two, majority of migration happens due to economical reasons and vote bank politics is just incidental to it. Thus, if the core reasons for migration due to economic reasons can be taken care of, then migration will automatically come down. Not many people really want to leave her home place and wander in foreign lands.
In order to solve this problem, it makes sense for India to help Bangladesh develop into an economically prosperous nation. If India can help develop infrastructure in the country, build ports, roads, and help grow labor intensive industries, then most of the Bangladeshis who have left the country, will naturally be motivated to go back to their home land and stay there. Further, with right kind of partnership between India and Bangladesh, this will also help India develop its north-east region much more effectively. As the roads through Bangladesh will help connect the north-east to the Bay of Bengal and excellent ports on the coastal line will help increase international trade, India will automatically benefit a lot. Such an excellent India-Bangladesh partnership will help solve so many problems in one go.
Now, it doesn't mean that the illegal immigrants problem will be solved completely through this master stroke. The political refugee problem will still remain and will have to be addressed differently. But, its good to solve the 80% of the problem first and then come out with more challenging approaches to solve more tricky problems.