My (not so) new ride -Jawa

The reincarnation of the iconic Jawa brand in 2018 thanks to Mahindra’s licensing agreement with Jawa Moto created a buzz amongst vintage bike fans in India. The new Jawa bikes have a good mix of new technology with classic good looks. Though slow to get off the blocks, sales and deliveries picked up pace towards the end of 2019.

After researching a bit, I decide to go in for the Jawa 42 a couple of months ahead of the Covid pandemic. Thanks to the lockdown, I have not been able to go on any long rides yet but am enjoying short rides when I can.

A couple of weekends back I rode around for an hour in the outskirts of Trivandrum. As I was taking a break near the beach, some early morning joggers stopped to admire the good looks of the galactic green ’42. One person in particular, started reviewing the bike up close. He started chatting me up and asked a lot of questions – price, mileage, comfort etc. Then he revealed the reason – he owned a Jawa way back in the 80s – it was the first bike he ever owned. His point was that the looks of the new Jawa was very similar to the old. After spending a few minutes reminiscing about the good times he had with Jawa, he reluctantly brought himself to walk away.

Pictured here is my impression of the Jawa. These days I am taking lessons from my artistically talented children Nandu and Niya. Nandu in particular is no longer an amateur and is well versed with advanced art techniques she has learnt on her own. Niya is following in her footsteps and her art is way ahead of her age as well.

Farewell Diego!

Last week Diego Maradona, one of the greatest to have ever played the ‘beautiful game’ passed away.

Maradona was the quintessential tragic hero. Rising from a very humble background, he reached the heights of football super stardom in the mid-eighties. The peak was of course the 1986 world cup which Argentina won mainly due to the genius of the short stocky superstar.

Who can forget the quarterfinal vs England? That match saw the best and the worst of Diego within a span of five minutes. He opened the scoresheet with the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal but a few minutes later we also saw the ‘Goal of the century’.  

With his drug issues and multiple bans, his career as a player ended on a sad note in the 90s. He was to make a comeback as a coach in later years whilst struggling with his health issues.

But none of that will take away the joy he has given to millions across the world with his football magic.

At a personal level, I was fortunate to watch the 1986 World cup with my cousins. We were teenagers then and we spent the sleepless summer nights of ’86 watching the matches on Doordarshan.

Here is a post from 10 years back that I penned ahead of the 2010 World cup

http://chellakilli.blogspot.com/2010/06/gooooooaaaal.html

Fond memories!

Thank you and farewell Diego. You will live on in the hearts of the millions who enjoyed your magical performances.

Technology adoption at home

The Covid-19 outbreak has changed almost every aspect of the way we go about our lives. One major enabler in helping humans adapt to the new realities or to the new ‘normal’ has been technology.

Those businesses that were already to an extent location agnostic could easily transition their workers to a ‘work from home’ mode. Others adapted their services or the way the services were delivered to factor in Governmental restrictions and of course increased use of tech.

Because I work in the technology industry, for me personally there was no disruption of work. But it has been interesting how the situation has changed the way my immediate family members were impacted and how they adapted.

My wife’s transition from a face to face to alternate modes (including online) for her counselling sessions was relatively smooth. Technology adoption was never a factor as she has been tech savvy right from the start.

After two months of summer break locked up at home, the kids went back to virtual school. And they both took to it like fish to water. ‘Microsoft Teams’ was the tool of choice selected by the school and both kids became experts at handling it within hours of getting acquainted with it!

My father – though officially retired for several years now – has always been used to being busy since he never retired from his passion. I expected the lock down to be hard on him since he would no longer be able to meet his associates / students and conduct classes anymore. But he adapted fast – he switched to writing a book and as you will read below started ‘teaching tech to a newbie’. His new booklet incidentally was typed out entirely by him in less than a month!

But the person who has had to take a giant leap on the technology front has been my mother.  She had never used a smart phone till now.  

A few weeks into the lock down, her spiritual classes (which had stopped since mid March) went online. WhatsApp groups were created and Google Duo group calls scheduled.  With the help of her tech gurus – my father and me, she was able to chat with others and attend group calls within a week. While this might seem simple to others, for her it was a huge leap forward.   What really helped fast track this was when the kids came back from their vacation. Now she had two patient little ones guiding her to bridge the learning curve!   

These days it is not uncommon to see all six of us glued to our respective IT devices at the same time – going about our ‘work’.

We have seen how a humble microscopic virus has brought humanity to its knees. But if the scenes at my home are anything to go by, humans learnt to adapt fast!

Polarization

Over the past couple of years, one would have observed an increasing polarization across the board in India. With the general elections in 2019, this was to be expected in the political space. But it has been interesting to see that permeate across various mediums. I was kind of hoping that once we were done with the elections and the dust settled down, things would go back to normal.

Let us talk politics first and how it has changed. Earlier, around election time, the public discourse would be vitriolic with those in the running calling out the mistakes (perceived or real) of their opponents – with the stray ‘below the belt’ comment. This time around it has been an endless stream of abuses hurled against each other and the level of discussion during the campaigning stooped to new lows.

Well, you might say that is to be expected – after all they are politicians and the stakes are very high. But you switch on any of the news channels and you get the same thing. The recipe does not vary much across national or regional channels. During prime time you can see various people in small boxes (at least six boxes to start with but more little boxes the merrier) shouting over each other (and the anchor) to make their point. After 20 minutes of this fun, the anchor would presumably activate the mute button and go off on a rant with his/her ‘views’ on the topic. There just does not seem to be any ‘news’ anymore on news channels – just ‘views’.

The most interesting thing about television channels is that how polarized they have become. There just aren’t any shades of grey. Its all black and white. The government of the day is either the best thing that has happened since sliced bread and can do no wrong – or – they are the most despicable lot whose every decision /action is wrong and must be criticized.  Of course, when it came to the Prime Minister, the TV channels took it to a level that was beyond absurd. They either deified him or demonized him to extreme levels.

We tried to reason earlier that politicians need to do what they need to do. You could extend that argument to television too. You could argue that they were either showing their editorial biases or were trying to sensationalize their content to get more eyeballs and sell more advert space. Maybe maybe…but wait there’s more.

Coming to a space that’s entirely non-commercial and private  – WhatsApp groups. They not have been immune to this either. I am part of a residential group where most of the active members are pro-Government and pro-PM. Every decision / news event is a means to glorify the PM. He can do no wrong. On the other hand, I am also part of an alumni group where the majority of the active members are anti-PM. Every decision / event is dissected, and a negative spin attached to it.

As I said earlier, I was hoping that once the elections were done and dusted, things would go back to normal. Well, neither the television channels nor the WhatsApp groups have settled down.

I have a new formula for getting my daily dose of news. I depend on news aggregator apps as my primary source of news. During the rare occasion that I do watch TV news channels or read WhatsApp messages, I treat them as a means of entertainment! I do not depend on them for neither news nor views.

As for the Government and its doings, I like what Sadhguru said a few years back on this topic. Every five years we have a chance to decide on their fate. Let’s debate on their rights and wrongs in the last six months of their stint. For the rest four and half years, let them get on with the job of governance. Common sense, eh?

Fifa Fever

The most popular sporting event is here again after four years. Thirty two teams will vie for the beautiful game's most coveted trophy. Even though India is nowhere near qualifying for the tournament, once can't help being infected by the football fever spreading like wild fire.


As always the pundits have come out with their favorites. Brazil, Germany, France and Spain are being touted as the four front runners followed by Argentina close behind. Belgium are being tipped as the dark horses. The list of countries that have won the cup is a small one. One cannot help feeling that it would be good for the sport if Belgium or anyone outside of the top 5 end up as winners. It would be a fairy tale story.


Around this time there are lots of side stories and this year they include a celebrity cat whose 'predictions' for each match are being widely followed. Credit to it, the prediction for the first match was spot on. Russia defeated Saudi Arabia last night and the cat got it right!


I do not propose to make predictions of my own but will list my favorite teams. Brazil followed by Spain are the two teams I will follow closely. Brazil is always wonderful to watch and except during 1986, I have supported them everytime. 1986 of course was Maradona's World cup and because of his presence, Argentina was the team of choice back then.


One advantage of India being no where in the picture is that one can sit back and enjoy the football as a neutral :)


All the best to the 32 teams and hope we will get a goal filled exciting set of matches in next month. And at the end of it we will hopefully have a worthy winner.

Jaipur – Mixing business with pleasure

Late last year I got a chance to make a short trip to Jaipur with a few of my office colleagues for an offsite conference. On the sidelines of the official event, we managed a quick tour of the city and I thought I would write a brief account of the sights we managed to see.

The hotel was quite hospitable and one evening dinner was served out in the open in a private space. They had decked up the place with diyas, scented candles and flowers. We wined and dined like royalty !

In the evenings, we managed a few quick trips to the city to see the sights. A unique mode of transport was the electric rickshaw (not commonly seen in Indore). In the late evenings, the open rickshaw was comfortable, silent and a good mount to watch the sights of the city and soak in the atmosphere.

The Hawa mahal is bang in the middle of the city and is quite imposing yet pleasing to the eye.

The hotel we stayed at was close to the Jal Mahal. We spent a couple of evenings by the lake admiring the mahal and snacking on the spicy kulcha chole and sweet kulfi sold by the road side vendors.

Come Saturday, it was time to pack up and return – but not before a visit to the amazing Amer fort. I will let the pictures do the talking.

A short trip it might have been, but it left all of us thirsting for more. Surely Jaipur is now high up on the list of spots to visit for the next holiday.

Revisionist History

Malcolm Gladwell has been one of my favorite authors for a few years now. A couple of years back he started broadcasting a podcast series called Revisionist History http://revisionisthistory.com/. Somehow it skipped my radar. Last month I chanced upon it and was mighty impressed. Hence thought I would share this with you.

As the name hints, revisionist history is a series of 30-40 minute podcasts on topics that deserve a second look. Gladwell picks up one seemingly innocuous or straight forward topic each week and goes in depth brining us insights into a different side of the same story.

For instance one episode covers the topic of french fries – and why he is cross with McDonalds for changing their formula! A slightly more disturbing episode dealt with the Bengal famine of 1942-43 and how 3 million lives were sacrificed on the altar of stockpiling for the war effort. Incidentally the stock of grain and flour diverted elsewhere was never used/required.

Gladwell presents the podcasts in an engaging and crisp manner interspersing his editorial insights with interviews.

I would highly recommend this podcast. I for one am hooked!