Bike

I fall down

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It was a Wednesday morning. Sep 7th. I took Standup from home. Then was on call with Tata AIG Insurance – I had paid for renewal but did not get policy documents. It was expiring on 10th. What if basement gets flooded and insurance is not there. They put me on hold forever and finally I get the document by email. I have an interview at 11:30 AM. Shucks, it was 11:10 already.

I take my trusty Adventure 390. Forget to wear the riding wind cheater I typically wear.

At the SAP Labs turn I spot this MG SUV coming on the wrong side. This is a usual – nothing out of the ordinary. To save petrol many do this – else they have to go a long distance to take U turn to join the road towards Hoodi. That was the direction I was going.

I had just got out of the signal and was at a nice 50/60 or more. I take a split second decision to overtake him on the right, instead of slowing and following or going to the left.

I go quite close to the right of the car.

And suddenly the car is swerving into my line. Damn – he was taking a U turn.

And it happens in a split milli second. I feel my bike hitting the driver door.

My first thought was – something was going to run me over. Thankfully nothing like that happened. The car guy stopped. And no bus/lorry was behind. My lucky day.

The bike had fallen on my left leg and I was pinned. I was shouting – Help lift the bike.

Few people came and lifted the bike. I wiggled out and just lay on the road stunned. It all happened so fast.

Someone tried to hold my shoulder to lift me up, I refused and sat up by myself.

Second thought – hope I have not got a fracture. My left hand where I put on the road while falling was hurting. My left leg was hurting like crazy at lot of places.

Now someone was trying to lift me up. Again I refused and I got up. Meanwhile someone moved the bike to the side of the road. I gingerly walked to the side and sat down.

My Apple Watch was buzzing – I saw that a count down was going on. It had picked up that I had fallen and was about to send an Emergency SOS to San.

She was minutes away from speaking in a conference in Mumbai. It would have spooked her if she had got the message.

I cancel it. Again the watch was asking – Are you sure and gave me few options – It was a wrong alarm, I fell, but I am ok etc.

I spoke with the car guy then. Took photo of his license.Got his number and gave him a missed call – and made him show the phone. Gave him Gyan at the same time. I hope nothing serious has happened – I will not bother you. But please do not ever go on the wrong side again in your life.

He was apologizing but surprisingly I was not angry – either on him or on myself. Yes I was stupid for having gone fast. And without any riding gear.

I see another car just go on the wrong side. I sigh.

The crowd around me was asking the car guy to take me to a hospital. I refuse.

I was observing my legs and hand. Yes it was hurting and burning but I felt it was fine. No Fracture.

I check the bike – it was intact. Nothing broke. Not even the rear view mirror – which typically breaks in such impacts.

I could move my left hand fingers – so knew I could ride back home. It was only 4/5 kms away. Better recuperating at home than sitting in a hospital.

I check for phone, bike key, laptop bag, water bottle. I thank all the kind souls who were there helping me out. Then I get up on the bike.

My left hand was hurting releasing the clutch. Luckily Adventure 390 has quick shifter – to change gears I need not hold the clutch – just change gears with my left leg and gear shifts. Whenever I had to slow I had to use clutch – on U turns and inside AECS Layout.

Knew my left hand was not right. Stopped at a medical shop and got Savlon, Cotton and Volini spray.

Got Home. Cleaned the cuts and bruises. Quite a few were there – mainly on the left leg – knee till ankle. Left elbow. Right elbow. Right knee. There was a deep puncture wound – and bleeding was not stopping. Put cotton and plastered it.

I stopped using my left hand. Turned on Dictation on Mac and was sending messages using it. Quite effective. Attended meetings as usual and a few escalations. Otherwise was seeing Carlsen-Niemann drama. And was reading the flood tweets.

I think I was lying on the puddle. My pant was fully drenched.

Day 2 – today

There was swelling on my left hand. I was worrying if this is a fracture. Kept putting volini, under warm water periodically. Did not give any work to the left hand.

If this does not improve by evening – decided to go see a doctor and get an X-Ray + plaster etc.

Luckily by evening I could move my fingers – grasp and hold things without pain. Could also type a bit.

Now its 10:24PM – typing fluently. Swelling is there – but I am confident left hand will be alright.

1.There are idiots on the road.

Idiots who drive on the wrong side.

Idiots like me who go fast – without any armour protection.

I typically wear a riding jacket, riding pants and boots and gloves on my long rides. A fall like this would have not scratched me even.

But I cannot wear this to office.

Resolution : Never cross 40. With Armour – perhaps 70/80 – but that’s it. I just realised that there was absolutely no time to react. I could not even hit the brake – forget counter steering to go away from the car. Nothing came to my mind. I saw the car swerve into my path and next moment I am lying on the road praying nothing should run me over.

2. Life is so fragile. So unpredictable

I was lucky yesterday. It could have turned fatal. What if I had went under the car. I had absolutely no armour protection – except for the helmet.

Riding a bike is very dangerous. I know it very well – but I have to be extra careful.

Actually I was a bit fatigued. The previous day I woke up at 4 AM – we were in Bahrain to catch a flight to Dubai, stop over there and then to Bangalore and finally got back home around 10PM.

I typically do not drink coffee till mid-day but asked Amma for coffee while attending standup. I was feeling a bit woozy.

Resolution : Never ever ride or drive if I am fatigued. It is just not worth it. Putting my life and others in danger.

That’s me with all my armour – yet to wear gloves – just before embarking on a 6 hour solo trip to Bettamugilaalam and back.This was shot just 2 weeks back by Prithvi, when I dropped him at his Saturday coaching class before I went on the ride.

To all the people who love me. I will be extra careful. I will slow down. Promise.

spirituality

Alai Alai

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Miracles are happening all around us.

A tiny droplet of water, a ray of sunshine, a green chemical – all these are combined and a beautiful flower sprouts out – all over the world on farms to gardens to road side bushes.

Well is this not a miracle?

What about the miracle of life itself – which is inside the tiny grass leaf to a mammoth whale.

Anyway – that is science you will say.

Let me tell you the miracle we witnessed on March 1, 2022.

Here is the timeline.

Feb 2017 – My Sister, Brother in law, my aunt and I go to see Adiyogi being unveiled in Isha Ashram Coimbatore on a free ticket – on the day of Maha Shivratri. We saw the massive crowd, the energy.

We witnessed the Isha band sing Alai Alai and the crowd went berserk.

This is like the anthem for Isha. Go ahead and relish this. There is translation.

This was our first trip to Mahashivratri in Isha. Prior to that Akka and I used to stay up all night watching Isha Mahashivratri celebrations on Youtube – she in Coimbatore, I in Bangalore.

Around mid 2017 – My Sister gets diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer. It shook us up. We did not have much time with her on earth.

Akka got solace from Isha. Whenever we got a chance we went to Isha Ashram.

Rounds of chemo and radio therapy continued – she was still walking around and enthusiastically mingled with us – but will get tired.

On 4th March, 2019 we go to Isha – to attend Maha Shivratri.

Akka danced for Alai Alai for one last time – the only song she ever danced for.

Things went downhill fast. By Sep 2019 she was no more.

Charu, my niece had completed her 12th Std and took her NEET exam – the entrance exam one has to take to become a doctor. But with all the turmoil at home and losing her mom – she didn’t score well.

Then she started preparing once again. Her 2nd NEET attempt in 2020 again came short.

We all thought Charu would give up. But she was determined to give one more attempt – to become a doctor.

It was her 3rd attempt and took NEET in 2021.

Then the wait began.This time she scored good – and had a good shot at bagging a seat. There were court cases, stay orders against NEET and the allotments never began.

It was a frustrating wait.

Meanwhile I booked tickets to Isha for Mahashivratri – for 1st March 2022.

Charu’s name did not come in the first admission list. Our only hope was her name to show up on the waiting list.

The Tamil Nadu council said, they will put out the list on March 1st, 2022.

It turned March 1st, 2022.

Charu,Prithvi,San and I started towards Isha. There was huge traffic jams in the approach to Isha. Till 5PM there was no sign of the list. We had data till then.

We parked our car, went through the check in counters and settled in our section. Because of the crowd, or they had kept cell phone jammers – we dont know – but our cellphone data was not working.

It was around 6:43 PM, Charu gets a call from her friend – the waiting list is out – login and check. But we couldn’t.

Charu called her dad / my brother in law who was at home. He immediately logged in and checked and there it was – Charu’s name had made it to the list. Finally!

I could not hear his voice properly – and I asked my Brother in law to repeat multiple times.

As the crowd was going berserk at that very moment.

Because Alai Alai was being sung at that very moment.

San was crying and dancing like crazy. Charu is standing there with tears flowing in her eyes.

If this is not a miracle – what else is.

You can say this is just coincidence.

But for so many things to line up so precisely – to the exact same date, to the exact same window when Alai Alai was playing – this cannot be a coincidence.

My Akka has sent a message to all of us through Alai Alai.

Musings

What’s happening with Startups – early 2022

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First PayTM bites dust. Listed at 2000, and now hovering around 950.

I was really disappointed seeing such loss making startups being celebrated. Something in me doesn’t allow me to accept these loss makers.

The founders have to sell their soul to the investors. Dance to their tunes. Take the wrong unethical moves.

This brings me to Facebook. Initially to gain traction Facebook did all the wrong moves.

You upload a photo – by default it is on to the world – thereby getting more people to login to snoop on others.

Once they got the critical mass they started selling the users data to Advertisers – and over night ( ok over a period of years ) – FB became one of the key go to places for advertisers to grab attention.

Then FB started selling to the politicians – to peddle their philosophies. Donald Trump is one – who rode the Social Network wave – encouraging conspiracy theories and other nonsense.

FB kept minting money all along.

FB swooped and took over all competitors – Whatsapp, Instagram.

Data. Data. Data.

Was it ethical. Questionable. But they built a trillion dollar business on this idea.

And now FB bit dust – their stock has tanked. Partly because of Apple turning in the privacy screws, partly because of their growth tanking – thanks to TikTok and also might be Social media fatigue.

I hope the investment thesis of these rich PEs change. Can they not use their investment money for good causes.

Instead of funding more and more not so essential ideas – like 10 minute grocery delivery for instance.

Instead can’t the investors fund startups which is making the world a happy cleaner place to live in.

Are there enough problems? Yes.

Are there enough problems that when solved can give good returns? Yes.

Are there enough problems where humans are willing to spend their entire lifetime? Yes.

Are investors to be blamed? Yes and No.

Are consumers to be blamed? Yes and No. When consumers do not have a good alternative, yes they will go for the evil startup – So in this case I will say no. But if there is a better alternative – and still they chose to go with the evil one ( because it is free ) – yes consumers are to be blamed.

This brings me to another question. How much money is enough?

1 Crore?

An open heart surgery will cost some 10Lakhs lets say.

A stomach cancer treatment + care etc. will cost – 20 Lakhs?

A vacation in Japan lets say – 10Lakhs?

Still there is enough money to spare. Of course you should buy a 3BHK – there should be a permanent address where no one can evict you.

A car – yes. A bike – yes.

Beyond all this – amassing crores of rupees is really not necessary. Unless the crores are spent on worthy startups and causes.

Am I pissed off seeing the kind of advises doled out in Shark Tank India – yes. Am I pissed off seeing the kind of drama that is happening in BharatPe kind of startups – yes.

It distracts us from the real goal of creating a better loving world.

Enough I tell. Enough of startups which are there to just push Ads – and not create any value.

Amazon – yes. Like the convenience of ordering stuff I dont find in the neighbourhood.

Zomato/Swiggy – not so much. I can always walk and order stuff from my neighbourhood.

BBInstant – yes. When we are short of stuff I can go and pick from our Apartment Entrance.

Here is the life story of a speck

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