(Dark) Green Initiatives

I have never been a real fan of the green agenda or the green initiatives which most companies in India are hurrying towards. No, it’s nothing to do with my personal likes and dislikes of the companies, but rather the DARK green agenda of the companies as I see it, which puts me off. Colloquially a company is an entity which survives by making profits. So everything a company does is to make profit. Any other objective is mostly secondary unless it’s a NGO or a government company. [[Any referral to a company in this blog will be a profit making company and not a NGO or a government company]]

Every time I hear or read about a green initiative taken up by a company, I get these questions - What is the real motive behind this initiative? Why is the company trying to do this? Is it really green or is there a dark green layer beneath this? If you have noticed, the number of such initiatives have increased manifold in the last 1–2 years. No global catastrophe has occurred (fortunately) in this timeframe. It has been known for decades that human activities have lead to adverse effects on the environment. When no impressively visible action was taken by any major company in the last many decades, it’s a little surprising that companies are suddenly swarming with green initiatives.

The reason as I see it is the global recession which is shrinking the profits of most companies. In the face of shrinking profits the thought is, - a rupee saved is a rupee earned. If savings can be achieved by cutting down the amount of water flow in the taps, limiting the number of printouts taken or limiting toilet rolls and tissue in the rest rooms; every company will dive for it. They just have to paint it green; green with a darker shade. This is precisely what most companies seem to be doing.

Most companies build big campuses by converting agricultural land or cutting down forests, miles away from the city. Roads are built by destroying the vegetation further. Glass buildings dot these campuses and these buildings are cooled by using huge coolers as majority of southern India reels under severe heat for most days of the year. Thousands of people travel every day burning fossil fuels affecting the environment further. Why don’t companies think of green initiatives while building these campuses? The answer is actually another question – why should companies think of all these? If they start thinking about these things they will not be able to make profits. If companies don’t build huge campuses with glass buildings how will they be able to attract their customers? So going green is never on the agenda until the company wants to cut costs.

The most disheartening part is the agenda of these green initiatives. Instead of pulling down the glass structures and changing the outer walls of the building to suit the hot climate, companies go for cost effective options like installing efficient AC’s or replacing incandescent bulbs by CFL’s. It’s a known fact that solar and wind heating and lightning units need 6-10 years after the initial heavy investment to show a return on investment. So a majority of companies turn a blind eye towards these solutions. If limiting printing paper or toilet rolls can be a go green option, so does stopping newspaper, magazines, company brochures etc. Switching to E-Books and closing the library and recycling all the books in the library can be a good option. But how many companies have you seen or heard which has done this? If you shut down the library what will you show to a prospective client? Aren’t the annual performance reports which public listed companies send to their share holders, an environmental hazard? Voluminous books are printed and sent to every share holder which can be replaced by e-books. Has any company taken proactive steps towards this?

It’s a marvelous world we humans live in. If a company is not making good profits it will attract the wrath of the share holder. To prevent this, the chairman or the CEO who represents the company must make sure that his/her subordinate is working and this chain continues till the lowest level in the company. In most cases the people at the lower levels might also be the share holders of the company i.e. the same person is both at the start and end of this chain. So it’s we people who are to be blamed for the evil. We are painting our past green, as we inch closer towards a dark future.

~Narendra V Joshi

The very thought of death…..

... scares us to death, sometimes. I returned to Bangalore by train on Sunday morning. The overwhelming station looked like a gathering of veiled people. Everyone had covered their nose and mouth with surgical masks, handkerchiefs, small towels and what not. Some were using their hands to cover in absence of any piece of cloth. The entire station looked like a sea of people running for cover from a calamity. Though unsure of its usefulness I too used my handkerchief to protect myself.

Such is the effect of the prevailing H1N1 epidemic which has already claimed many lives. A cough or a sneeze is enough to make all eyes focus on you. A deep cough will make you an untouchable. Masks are selling like hot cakes. A chemist I know was proudly telling me that customers are ready to pay 4 or 5 times the value for the masks. He procures a stock of 100 masks everyday which gets sold in an hour or two. He continued saying that these masks are of no real use as they are ineffective in filtering the virus. The ones which actually do are more expensive and are not available at the moment. So effectively wearing these masks is more like a fashion statement than anything else.

H1N1 is not an incurable disease. There are drugs and treatment available for it. Also I heard that many people who died due to H1N1 had other previously existing complications like Asthma, diabetics etc. So I was wondering; Is all these hue and cry over the H1N1 really warranted? Or is it just a hype created by the media and people who are benefitted (companies which makes masks, sellers etc) by this flu scare? There is an article in today’s newspaper which says, on an average 13 people die every hour due to road accidents in India. You read it right; its 13 people every hour, which make it more than 300 people dying every day. But how many times do we see people following discipline on road? Thousands of people die every year due to cancer from cigarette smoking or alcohol abuse. In spite of knowing the ill effects of these carcinogens, people continue to use them and the user base is growing. Do we see the authorities banning cigarettes or containing the sale of alcohol?

There are actually many such killers out there which are steadily taking lives of people; in many cases innocent people such as in the case of passive smoking. But the similar hype and cry surrounding H1N1 seems to be missing in these cases. Maybe as smoking and alcohol abuse do not cause imminent death as in case of H1N1, the worry does not seem much. If only we start giving as much importance to these other killers also as we have given to H1N1, we can save a number of lives. Or probably since H1N1 is still new, it is attracting all attention!! The hype will be all over and people will treat it as yet another “common” killer after it has completely set in and the cure is commonly available.

It was raining all night and it was still raining when I stepped out of our house this morning. It was umbrellas and raincoats all around. One thing that was visibly missing, for a change, were the H1N1 masks!!

~Narendra V Joshi

Will this amount to violation of rights?

I feel I am becoming irritatingly inquisitive about data/information these days. It’s probably the frequent bombardment of sensitive data handling tips and insights which have lead to these adverse affects. I got into the office bus this morning and occupied my favorite aisle seat. My neighbor was engrossed in the morning newspaper and I happened to read the headlines as I occupied my seat. It was not like I made a conscious attempt to read; the bold lines just flew through my eyes. This made me think.

Is reading a newspaper not bought by me, an act of violation of the publisher’s or the new owner’s right?

Though it might not be like an illegal copy/download of songs and videos; it might still amount to use of printed information in part or whole without the prior consent of the author or the publishers as you are not paying for it. In short it might be some form of piracy, and piracy hurts. You might argue that the contents of a newspaper are actually generic and there cannot be any copyright on news; the fact that newspapers also carry editorials and articles will force a rethink. The authors or owners in this case will be the newspaper publication group who stand to lose. Given the short life span of a daily newspaper, every unsold copy is a loss (let’s discount the salvage value of paper from the scope of this blog). Another point is that, it’s mostly the headlines and pictures that most go through, unless the news bit is of interest. Considering that the headlines and pictures are more prominent and visible from a distance, there is little need for an extra effort to gather them. Also, there are people who are only interested in the sports or in the crime beat section, who would satisfy themselves with a quick peep and will not bother to buy a newspaper. So I think, reading a newspaper not bought by me, might actually be a violation of either the publishers or the new owners (person who bought the newspaper) right.

But again, a newspaper is actually available on the public domain. Until an author or a company is awarded the rights on their asset, the asset on a public domain can be used by anybody. Maybe it is the design and layout of the newspaper which the company will hold rights on and not the actual content. If at all some proprietary material is published, the owners will have to take enough precautions by providing a legal box or a copyright symbol or something. They cannot put words highlighted in bold and display it in public and expect nobody other than the buyer to read it. If they are doing that, it might be really to attract customers because a strong customer base will in turn help them augment their revenues by attracting advertisers. The buyer of the newspaper on his part has to keep it out of public view or should take precautions to make sure that no one else reads the newspaper he has bought. He cannot expect privacy while displaying/reading it in public. So maybe reading a newspaper not bought by me, might not be a violation of either the publishers or the new owners (person who bought the newspaper) right.

Even though I could think of an “against” argument for every “for” argument, I am still not very convinced. Probably it’s my lack of knowledge on information security, which is to be blamed.

~Narendra V Joshi

A Friday evening

It was more than 20 minutes since the bus had moved an inch. Friday evenings were always bad and today was no different. It had been a hot afternoon and the inside of the (filled) bus was warmer than outside. He was in a habit of coming and leaving early on Fridays. But today, he was in the evening bus though he was early in office. Everyone in the bus; his colleagues and coworkers appeared to be in their own world. A few were chatting while the majority were engrossed in the evening newspaper or had their ear phones with FM radio on. A few were motionless and gazing outside the window and he was one among them.

A tiny drop of sweat rolled down his forehead and slowly disappeared in his eyebrows. He was deep in thought and continued gazing outside the window. He showed no intent to wipe his moist forehead. Every now and then he would unlock his cell phone and check if he had missed a call or a message.

Things had been rather bad in his company in the earlier two quarters. Profits were shrinking and new work orders were becoming far and few. Like most other businesses his company was also cutting costs and most measures seemed trivial except for a few which had drawn criticism from the employees. None of the exercises had really made an impact. Then, there were rumors of layoffs and the most wide spread among them was that the layoffs were happening only on Friday evenings. The chosen employees were called and were asked never to return. Though he had never himself come across anybody who was sent home, a Friday evening telephone meeting request from his manager had been enough to send shivers down his spine.

The sudden flashing lights of the ambulance, struck in the traffic next to his bus, shook him alert. The siren of the ambulance was not on but the flashing lights had been turned on. “Poor guy”, he said to himself, as he looked at the ambulance, even though he could not see anyone inside. His thoughts had changed direction and he was now thinking about the unseen patient inside the ambulance. He tried to look around to check if there was a way the ambulance could be steered into the opposite lane; but all the lanes were jammed. “Really unfortunate”, he said to himself as he slid back in his seat closing his eyes.

The sounds in the bus suddenly seemed incoherent. He could see people around confused. They were all saying something. He looked around and was in a totally different place. It was dark everywhere except for some flashing lights next to him. He could feel the pull at his shirt and looked down to see his manager struggling on the floor. He wasn’t sure what had happened but could see people trying to lift his manager towards the flashing lights. There were too many people around……….

A vigorous shake suddenly shook him awake. It was actually his cell phone vibrating with an incoming message. He unlocked his cell phone to read the message. It was a message from his manager. The message read “Meeting has been postponed to Tuesday morning. Happy weekend!”. He looked around and could see that his bus was in the same place where it was when he dozed off. The flashing lights of the ambulance showed the smile on his face; A smile, first time since afternoon.


~ Narendra V Joshi

The lady in the bus

My company bus starts at Deepanjali Nagar and goes via Banashankari, BTM layout and silk board before reaching the office. I get in at Banashankari and normally it will take close to about one and half hours to reach my office in the morning and close to 2 hours in the evening to reach back home. Since I get in close to the starting point of the bus I have an advantage to choose the choicest seat in the bus. And having travelled in the same bus from some months now, I usually occupy a window seat in the second row which keeps my journey uninterrupted. The movement of the people who get in at later stops disturbs the people who have occupied the aisle seat. Once I am in the bus I sleep for most part of the journey.

It was no different this morning except that when I got into the bus I found my usual place already occupied. I did not want to move to the rear of the bus and so occupied the aisle seat in the second row and as usual dozed off. Every now and then I could sense the movement of people towards the rear seats and by the time the bus reached silk board I was again fully awake. The bus was full by that point when a lady got into the bus and started searching for a seat. Normally, people who get into the bus at that stop and do not find a seat, will get down and wait for another bus as most of our company buses have to ply via that stop to reach the office. But this lady did not get down from the bus and stood in between the first and the second row. It takes about 15 minutes to reach the office from that point.

I wondered if I have to give up my seat for the lady. It will not be courteous of me to sit while a lady stands. I looked and saw most men seated around were either sleeping or were busy with the morning newspaper. So as long as you are ignorant that a lady is standing there is no need to feel bad about it. Pretend to be asleep and the gentlemanly world will not blame you. Moreover in a big city like Bangalore with a population of close to 8 million, you cannot expect everybody to behave in a true gentlemanly manner at all times. So in the true spirit of a daily long distance commuter I closed my eyes and pretended to be blissfully asleep upholding the values of an ignorant gentleman.

My eyes were closed but my mind was full of thoughts if I have to make way for the lady – ““What happened to those lessons of chivalry I have learnt? Have I forgotten them so soon? But I have to think of myself too. I commute close to three and half hours everyday. This lady might be spending hardly 30 to 45 minutes in the entire day. My need to be seated is more than hers. But would have I thought in the same way if my mother or my wife were standing? Wouldn’t have I offered the seat to them? If my mother or my wife were standing, yes, I would have, but here the scenario is different. Moreover I occupied this seat before her. I have all rights to sit. There is no rule which asks me to forgo my precious place. This is all true. If a guy was standing these thoughts would have been probably ok, unless he really needed to sit. But here, it’s a lady who is standing, and I should be giving up my place. Why should I give up? Aren’t there any other gentlemen sitting around? Guys who might have got into the bus one stop earlier to this lady, why can’t they give up? Also, many of them look senior than me. If seniors don't understand, it’s ok for me not to worry about it. Just because some guys around me are neglecting, is it correct on my part to think its ok? Don’t I have some basic courtesy? I understand the basic courtesy. Sometimes I have travelled standing till this very point, in the evening due to non availability of seats. Did anyone ever give up their seat for me? Just because no body ever offered me their seat, should I act in the same way? Can’t I take the first step and show the people around how a gentleman behaves? Ok I will offer my seat but let the lady not come to a conclusion that, she can get into a bus and somebody will offer her a seat. She has to check if a place is available and should also try to take another bus if one bus is full. But for today I will offer her my place. But let her stand till half way””

Once I had come to a conclusion that I will offer my seat, to the lady, half way, I waited to be very sure that it was 7.5 minutes since she had stepped into the bus. I did not want to open my eyes and check my watch as it would put me on the same stage as the other so called gentlemen sitting around me. When I was sure it was 7.5 minutes I opened my eyes and pretended to have been sleeping all the while. I looked around and to my dismay we were very close to the office, a minute or 2 away. It will be foolish of me to get up now and offer the seat to the lady. I had wasted close to 15 minutes thinking, only to realize that the entire exercise had turned futile. I looked around at the other gentlemen who had at least used the last 15 minutes fruitfully, sleeping or reading the newspaper. As we reached the office I got down the bus and decided never to think about this entire episode.


~Narendra V Joshi

Random thoughts

After going through the long winding queue into the packed theater I finally watched the bond movie which is about everything except bond. If you have noticed, since the previous installment the movies seem to be “unbonding” the legendry hero, Bond, James Bond. The producers might have a thousand reasons but for the mature audience it’s like showing the superman who can’t fly. The bond is shown all but unsophisticated. If, not watching a bond movie evolves a kind of guilt, watching these “unbond” movies is a different guilt. It would have been soothing if these movies were for a different hero and not bond. Calling it bond destroys everything.

There is a totally different kind of guilt you feel when you do exercise/not exercise your fundamental right of voting. If you do not cast vote, you feel guilty for not exercising your right and if you do cast your vote, you feel guilty for having voted a hopeless politician to power. It’s a sort of a double whammy. Either way you are helpless. And the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai proved it right. The only thing most politicians did was to give the attack a political twist blaming different parties over it.

Even the insurance companies distanced themselves saying people killed in terrorist attacks are not covered by the insurance. Victims who are rich and well off can at least move on financially but the lower income section of the society suffer. It just reiterates the importance of asset creation for any family.

Have you noticed? The word asset can be broken into ASSET = ASS + E(a)T (pronounce as eat {past tense of eat}. Eat (pronounce as past tense of eat) means slap or beat in Kannada. So unless a person gets an “eat” on his behind, asset is not created. And in unfortunate cases when the insurance company distances and with no asset to bank on, the lower income section of the society have nothing to depend on.

I was watching a TV program on oral hygiene last week. I am not sure if there is any reason behind it or if it was just a coincidence but I noticed that majority of dentistry problems were for the teeth on the lower jaw. Maybe the germs and bacteria are pulled down to the lower jaw due to gravity or maybe its some kind of a fashion which affects teeth of lower jaw.

Actually taking GMAT and TOEFL exams were a sort of fashion statement during my college days. Talking of the GMAT score, 1100, 1250 etc was some sort of conversation starters those days. But college days were good. Bunking classes, going to movies and restaurants, scrambling for notes during the exam time were all simple memorable.

It’s getting late. Have to leave for work now. Looking ahead for yet another eventful day at work!

~Narendra V Joshi

And life goes on...

If some scientists are to be believed, I should not have been alive to write this blog nor should you be, to read this! The world was supposed to end this very day according to some scientists; September 10, 2008.

For the benefit of the late comers, a group of scientists in Europe have built a “Large Hadron Collider” (LHC) which was scheduled to be fired today. A beam of particles was to be circulated through this LHC which is housed in a 27 kms long underground tunnel. I first read about the protests from some scientists regarding this experiment before I actually read about this experiment. It’s like the driver realizing that the breaks of the car have failed after the accident! Per my understanding, as a part of the experiment, proton beams travelling in opposite directions at the speed of light are made to collide against each other. And this, as per the scientists conducting the experiment, will create the exact conditions after the Big-Bang (theory which explains the birth of our universe). The protests to this experiment was that it might create a huge black hole and will ultimately destroy the earth. (end of the world theory)

As I understand everything here we are talking about is just a theory. Universe was created after Big Bang, is a theory; so are the, 2 protons colliding at high speed to explain “mass”. Amidst all these theories is yet another theory of the world ending just around lunch today (the experiment was to be conducted around 12:30 PM IST). But a striking similarity between all these theories is, all these theories have been in vogue since a long time. I don’t want to deprive a scientist of his job by deciphering and explaining the birth of universe (!!), so I will stick with the comments, of world coming to an end theory, in this blog.

This is not the first time that the world was supposed to come to an end. The world was supposed to come to an end on 31st December, 1999 night. I was in my 4th semester engineering and was delighted that the world will come to an end before I have to take my Machine Drawing exam. My grandfather used to tell me of stories he had heard of the world coming to an end around 31st December, 1900 from his father. Since the world had survived that 1900 scare, he, to my sheer dismay was least bothered about this world coming to an end theory. Nevertheless, so popular was this world coming to an end on 31st December, 1999, that, at that time I remember all local newsletters and magazines had carried this as their first page article. But unfortunately after all this hype the world did not end and I had to study for my exams. This world coming to an end theory became popular yet again when the Tsunami struck some parts of the eastern coast of India in December 2004. Even this time people thronged the temples and prayer halls praying for salvation. Some stanch end of the world theory believers, withdrew all their savings from the banks to buy and enjoy desirables before they were to die. But the world survived the scare yet again.

As in most cases, there are people who actually benefit from such theories. For them, their world will really end on the predicted day (world of opportunities - at least for the time being). The soothsayers and astrologers who suggest prayers and methods to appease God, charging an inflated visitation rate and the retailers and marketers who make use of this God sent opportunity to fill their coffers by selling unwanted products to the clueless customers. And there are scientists and critics who thwart these same clueless customers for falling prey to such stupid theories with the media making fast bucks covering all this. Its back to square one the next morning with the world still alive and kicking the common man, and the benefactors looking forward for the next end of the world theory.

If the world was to really end today, I did not want to die on an empty stomach. So, though I wanted to write and post the blog before the end time, I actually got a chance to write after the lapse of the supposed end time. So, first, let us congratulate ourselves for having made it through and look forward to brace ourselves for the next end of the world day.

~Narendra V Joshi