The Speed of Time

I am currently going through a phase where there is absolutely nothing happening in my life other than work. The sad thing is that this is not because there is too much work. There is work, but it is a very 9 to 7 variety.

Should my managers be happy? Yes and No I guess. They should be because there is nothing to distract me and that I can only but work. No because not having a distraction can soon become the biggest distraction of all.

Hence this post. How quickly does time pass? A perfectly correct but completely useless answer could be "At the rate of one second every second." It does, but that is just a definition, a measurement of something we feel and count. Even if we did not have a definition, it would still pass. The answer I am looking for has more to do with how does a person register time and its passage. Is it the same for every one? It does seem to pass faster and slower depending on all kinds of things - but does it pass or feel to pass at the same speed, ceteris paribus? Also, if humans could not sense the passage of time, would it matter if time passed? And, do humans sense the passage of time only because we are mortal? In other words, if humans were immortal, would the passage of time be immaterial?

I have realised that I think about strange things when I am not happy. I am not happy. In fact, I want to share exactly why I am not happy, but can not. So I try to think up of other things to write about – and strange things are pulled out from the attic upstairs.

I was watching a documentary about the last days of Birtish rule in India. I realised how I had been neglecting my reading and have been devoting time and energy to the Playstation! Anyway, more on my playstation prowess (or the lack of it) later.

PS: I dont even know if ever anyone reads any of my blogs, simply because there are no comments. Please leave some if you can, just so I know whether I need to shift all this to my hard drive instead of blogger.

Possible ventures and adventures

After a long stint of reaching out and sending birthday wishes to the specialest person, I am going to move back to more mundane things - my humdrum existence.

I had an exciting conversation with angel-boy*. As always, it is great fun talking to him and
there is never a dull moment. It is about the coming of the organised retail sector in India.

I have always felt that I missed the Y2K excitement because I was still in college. In a more direct manner, I missed out on an entry into the online travel circus which has started in India about a year back. I have always felt that there have been great many waves and I have never ridden one.
The next big one, actually an ongoing one - especially in India - Biotech - and I do not think anyone here would give me the time of day in this field.

So the next big thing - Organised retail in India.

Here is my version of what we think will happen -

- Immediate talent shortage in an already heated market will mean that people in sectors like hospitality, retail finance and FMCG sales will have the world of jobs and salaries to chose from. So many of my friends in these sectors - rejoice!

- Retail will not work in a vaccuum. All kinds of support and peripheral industries will rise and take shape. Cold storage chains, food processing units, RFID providers, SCM specialists, procurement companies - anyone already existing in such fields will grow about 2000 fold in the next 2-3 years.
(Much similar to the way auto component manufacturing is now well established in India - It all started more than two decades ago, when Maruti was set up. Back in those days, even the keyring sold with the car was imported!)

All these are going to be rich pickings for entrepreneurs - old and new. However, in my mind, the truer and larger opportunity exists elsewhere. The thing is that with organised retail, the market is growing, but at the hindu rate of growth. There are x million people who buy food. Five years from now, the same people and their children will be buying food, it is just that more and more of them will be buying it in an airconditioned shop with labelled prices and not from Guptaji.

I think that the real opportunity lies in the fact that with organised retail, the villages will become more integrated with the cities. Farmers will (I hope) have access to prices which will be closer to market prices. This is where the opportunity actually exists. Like for example, setting up "e-choupals" right next to where farmers get money. Selling crop insurance, commodity futures, even farm produce from elsewhere (farming regions will become more specialised) - this is a market which has not existed (Ever) in this country.

This is the opportunity I want to ride on.

Let us see when.

(* - His name actually tranlates to Angel. The day was also brilliant - Big breakfast, followed by three hours of rest, then a giant burger and beer followed by an excellent dinner after a few hours of sleep. I love Sundays)

Happy Birthday to You

Today is someone special's birthday and I am using this medium to record it for a bit longer. I hope this year brings all the joys and happiness you have been waiting for and that you find contentment! And the sunny skies above - also for you..

I started reading the Catch again... the Catch, in my world, is Catch-22. For some unknown reason, I have lost count of the number of times I have read this book. I sometimes worry about why I like this book. the main character - he cannot be called the 'hero', because he is far from 'heroic' - John Yossarian is quite cool, slightly mad and subversive, very very rational and full of nonsense. I am not sure if the fact that I like this person, worse, identify with him is a good thing. He thinks a lot, he does not want to die a meaningless death, he could not care less abot his country or the war.. he does stand up for his friends and helps people and falls in love (or only lust?) but he is also egotistical* and impatient.

The book itself does not lend itself very well to chronological ordering. Each chapter is about a person and spans any length of time. Overall the story is about 2 years long and is told with 42 characters (chapters). In fact, the flow of time is stretched in numerous sentences itself, when the sentence starts in the present, and jumps into the past and then stays there for the rest of the chapter!

I read this about the Catch somewhere and it makes sense - You will either love it or hate it.

* thanks Shahid!

The Maths of loneliness

1. On an average, how many times do you reminisce about past events in a day?

a. Less than once a day
b. Once to twice a day
c. Very often
d. Almost all the time

I just got back from a short holiday with my friends. All through the trip, there were inane number of things which kept reminding me of things in my past....
Got me thinking about whether things were reminding me of stuff or that stuff was always there in the back of my head and things happening now just attached themselves to something or the other in the past.