Giving Back

It’s been 22 years since my parents inducted me into trekking in the Indian Himalayas. On each of my annual sojourns I have passed through scarcely inhabited remote settlements. As a child, my attitude to these was of indifference but as I grew older, the hardships of these mountain people began to disturb me. When the sun goes down, darkness, made more eerie by the looming mountains engulfs the whole place. These small Himalayan hamlets lack the very basic amenities of a 21st century civilized world like electricity and easy access to water. Now that I am a trained Mechanical Engineer, I want to use the knowledge I have acquired, to create some means of helping these poor people lead a less arduous life. I have read and realized myself after spending twenty five years of my life in India that this country has an enormous surplus of energy in the form of non-conventional energy sources like solar. I wish to use my knowledge and understanding of core mechanical engineering principles to develop cheap and efficient devices that are able to convert solar energy into a usable form.

I did my entire pre college education from a school which gave higher priority to moral pursuits than to scholastic endeavors. Every morning all the students of our school got together in a mass congregation, which we aptly called the ‘morning assembly’, to sing spiritual hymns praising the almighty. The hymns were followed by ‘student recitations’. Several students would come up to the dais to recite poems and excerpts from writings of great thinkers and philosophers. This was our daily dose of morality. One line from one of those recitals stuck with me after hearing it time and again, and I quote, "You will go abroad to foreign lands that you may bring back knowledge with which you may do service to her". It was from an address delivered to students and teachers of the Bengal National College on 23rd August, 1907, by a freedom fighter, philosopher and poet Sri Aurobindo. The aim of the address was to motivate the students to be patriotic and devote their lives for the betterment of their country, India. This one line always inspired me while I studying in England and United States, and eventually after spending six years in the west I returned back home to India. The reader may think that I am being too idealistic. Yes, I did have my personal reasons, like being with my family and friends, living in my childhood house again etc., but, I always had a strong desire to ‘give back’ to my motherland for what she had given me in all those years that I grew up here.


There is a famous quote, by Paul Coelho in his book The Alchemist ,” When you really want something to happen, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it.” What is the probability of a person studying in the United States to find a job in an American company based in India? It seems that my desire to come back was so strong that all the circumstances worked in my favor. After completing my masters I eventually landed in a job in an American start-up company manufacturing milk chilling machines for rural India with erratic electricity. The phrase ‘give back’ acquired a whole new meaning since I started working here. If someone who does not even belong to India is spending all their time and energy in solving a widespread problem, then why can’t I? It’s been almost two years since I’ve been working here and trying to fill the gap in an inefficient cold chain between the source and consumer. We are now adapting our technology to work on solar energy, so that we can provide sustainable cooling solutions for agricultural produce. Life seems to have come a full circle for me. I’ve always wanted to harness solar energy to create something that could serve as a self-sustainable and economically viable power generation source, and I am doing just that. I may not be lighting a lamp just yet – but then who said that it’s the end of the road? The journey has only just begun...

Clocking Miles

Bombay, its time to bid adieu, Delhi, its time to say, "how do you do ?"

The tire pressure is perfect, the fuel tank is full, the engine has been retuned - we are all set for the 1600 km long journey from Bombay to Delhi.

Zooming past villagers dotting NH8 - the main highway connecting Delhi and Bombay, I develop a newfound respect for Japanese engineering. Wait a sec Japanese ? Well after all I am driving in my Honda City that has already clocked 1.3 lakh kms. In the scorching heat of the summer sun, this beauty glides on these brilliantly paved black serpentine roads at 100 km/hr like a blob of butter on a hot frying pan !
I think I got a bit carried away while appreciating my car, but it definitely deserves to be applauded.

I drive on the highway, with the unrelenting heat of the summer sun. Thanks to the powerful Honda engine I am able to keep the interior of the car at a cool 25 C, while its sweltering outside at 45 C.

I look at the pretty faces of village women passing by, they smile back or giggle at times. Ah! Such innocence is truly captivating. Once in a while I pass a group carrying earthen pots to the nearby well, seen from afar, their brilliantly colored vibrant dresses give the impression of walking rainbows.

We make three overnight halts enroute, one at a 150 year old haveli in Champaner which has now been converted into a heritage hotel, another at a remote tented resort in the Aravallis at a place called Kumbhalgarh and lastly at the grand Neemrana Fort Palace 130 kms short of Delhi. Each of our night halts has an aura of it own. If the Champaner haveli had its mango orchards with trees laden wth ripe 'Kesar' mangoes, Kumbhalgarh had its amazing weather and pristine beauty, Neemrana on the other hand was a nice little way to indulge ourselves to some pampering in the ample luxuries of the hotel.

As I look out from the car window, I see Maharashtra passes by, Gujarat arrives, Rajasthan passes by and finally Delhi arrives !

While penning down this memoir of the beautiful road trip " Yeh Suhana Safar aur Yeh Mausam Haseen" keeps playing on in my head again and again !!

The hinterlands of Punjab…

The rustling of the leaves, the chirping of the birds, the rumbling of engines of vehicles zooming past, the distant sound of a mooing cow – the sounds around me, as I relax under the shade of a neem tree with a gentle breeze blowing around. As far as the eye can see, there are the lush emerald green expanses of the paddy fields which meet the clear sapphire blue skies at the horizon. These are the sights and sounds from the hinterlands of Punjab. I am reminded of the following lines from a song titled “What a Wonderful World”, sung by Louis Armstrong in 1967.

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

This was my first every visit to a village in rural Punjab. Each of our earlier installations has been at village level collection centers, but this installation for Nestle was at a milk farm. I got the opportunity to witness cows being milked using automatic milking machines. It’s an amazing experience to see how well trained the bovines are as they are aware exactly when and where to go during the milking sessions without being told to do so. The love and care with which the farmers take care of their cattle creates a bond between the two. It’s a relationship in which both creations of god (the animal and the human) have a sense of respect for each other.  The human – animal interaction I observed reminded me of a few lines I read in a book by James Herriot :

All things bright and beautiful

All creatures great and small

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all

Each of my sojourns into rural India never ceases to amaze me. Such experiences always teach me to appreciate life’s simple pleasures. As I finish writing another memoir, the state of my mind can be summed up in three words, cheers to life!    

Vibrant Bengal 

I've left Tochigarh in UP now  ,spent a good 36 hrs in Delhi,  taken a flight to Calcutta and reached the beautiful paddy field expanses of Memari! Tochigarh was a "great experience"- the flies, the mosquitoes, the buffaloes, the the haldi laden food , and the list goes on!  These green paddy fields of rural West Bengal have mesmerized me ! I am in love with it or as they say in bengali " ami tumake bhalo bhashi"- literally it means I love you - so this is my heart telling the West Bengal hinterlands just that !

In the little time here, I've noticed how cultured the people are. This culture spreads across the entire economic strata of society ! The people seem happier than elsewhere in India ! Little boys catch fish form the numerous little ponds along the countryside that are teeming with life in the monsoons as the water from the rivers flows into them ! I meet a couple of lads on the road side carrying a fresh catch in a small plastic bag with a simple home made fishing rod on the shoulder ! I ask them " maach khabe ?" they nod shyly ! 

While in West Bengal I got the opportunity to go around the city where the British opened started their East India Company- Calcutta . The architecture reminds one of the colonial era when the 'Gora Sahibs' used to roam the streets of this vibrant city. The buildings are very old , in a delapitated condition. All the roads have English names - Elgin road, Camak Street, Park Street to name a few. When you go around in this city you feel you are on the set of some 21st century film based on the life in the 19th century. The city is modern yet it manages to keep alive the days  before Eastman Color arrived ! There are these rickshaws that are pulled manually by people - something unheard off now-a-days. A restaurant by the name of Mocambo on Park Street has waiters dressed in pure white with the fan pathani turban and canvas shoes ! You wonder whether it is intentional or the owners are just too attached with this to let go off it! 

Yeh jo desh hai mera
                                              Hare Krishna Hare Krishna , 
                                              Krishna Krishna Hare Hare , 
                                              Hare Rama Hare Rama, 
                                              Rama Rama Hare Hare ! 

The ISKON mantra to cleanse souls and provide salvation  - comes to mind as I arrive at Shri Krishna's birth place Mathura this cloudy morning of 13 th August 2012 as I step into a new phase of my life - my first job ! I reach the Mathura Junction station at 7:30 am and am welcomed by a very fine misty rain shower - Krishna's blessings as he wishes me luck on my sojourn into rural India ! I get out of the station and head for an auto stand. A guy approaches me " bhai sahab kya auto chahiye ?". After a brief dialogue lasting little under 30s , I sit inside an auto to be taken to the Old Bus Station at Mathura to board a bus to Aligarh- I am supposed to get off enroute at Iglas. The bus takes a longer than usual route through Gokul as the bridge on the traditional route is getting too old for safe passage of vehicles. The bus driver says " bus kudti hai !" . Gokul - a town I think is where Lord Krishna was brought up by his foster parents Mata Yashoda and Nand Baba. The almighty has his ways of blessings us unconditioned souls ! Who knew this stupid immature boy who got came in touch with spritual gurus Mataji-Prabhuji would be starting his first job in the land of their all supreme Lord Krishna himself ! Well these are the fantasies life is made up of! Excitement runs through my body as I sit in the rickety over crowded UP Transport bus - the motto of the people in the bus " bhai thoda adjust karo :)!" I feel like I am Mohan Bhargava the protagonist in the cult film Swades ! 

A perfect Sunday evening ...

Today is the 9th of March 2014. To quote some statistics, today I turned 25 1/4 years old. I sat in the balcony of my home today enjoying the perfect sunset and felt very romantic and totally philosophical - I am growing old, to say the least.
I sat with a plate full of fruit of every imaginable colour - red, orange, green, purple and white while enjoying a breathtaking view of the sun setting over the horizon. The colours in my plate mimicked the colours around me- the reddish orange glow of the setting sun, the purple hue of the clouds, the green expanse of the mangrove forest and the whitish pink colour of the flamingoes in the lake. The almighty is an artist ! The selection of colours on his palette sure did satisfy my palate !
There was a gentle breeze blowing around making the wind chimes create a very divine symphony - god's a musician as well ! Relaxed, rejuvenated ,determined - these are a few words that describe the state of my mind as I pen down this paragraph ... Bring on the challenges of life :) !