To be content

Shivaji went to the bank today and the situation has become very grim and serious. The TOD we had taken for executing the Yashi project has become a gullitone around our neck. We have been given an ultimatum to clear it by September 10 else they will find ‘ways and means’ to recover it. I have no idea what that means as of now for nationalized banks but I am aware that private banks regularly use goons and muscle power to re-claim their money.So that is what it is. The nadir.

Now in desperation if we do take on the infrastructure clients’ project, it will be a repeat of the ‘Yashi’ experience which got us where we are. So what are the choices here. None I guess. ‘Beg,borrow,steal’ is not an option anymore.

There are tenders and RFPs’ but mostly all of them require a turnover of over 4 crores so by default, we cannot participate in the race at all. Also we do not have the necessary associations with the ‘powers to be’ in order to get the stringent requirements diluted. I do wonder about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of services being tendered. They are not ‘products’ with standard specifications. And the very tendering process which is designed to increase ‘transparency’ and ‘equal opportunity’, actually promotes a fertile ground for favouritism and corruption.
Abhi kaun si niti lag sakti hai? Even ‘Chanakya niti’ would fail here. Yet we are still here. I guess we are incorrigible stubborn mules. All of us at GC. Refuse to give up. ‘Anyone would suggest, chod do bhaiyya, tumarhe bas ki baat nahin hai. blog likhna alag baat hai, dhanda karna alag baat hai’. which is true. But till we lie flattened on the earth with our faces down, we will not give up.

Narendra has moved forward on the presentation. A lot of accuracy and calculations are required to be done and he has grasped the concepts very well. And he is being able to translate that to the GIS environment with dexterity. I am sure AAI will be happy to offer him a job at a very good salary (hopefully not now, we do not wish to lose him).

And Dimpy has created a beautiful map of Kolkata in ArcGIS. Very well digitized. Well done Dimpi. She is also working on the Cartosat maps from PACT (Will PACT ever end?). She is also the one to light the diya in the office every morning. Thanks Dimpi. And Shivaji ensures that prasad is served to the Gods ( to all his incarnations) every Tuesday.

Appu has been sending mails and looking for contacts on the net. She is a netizen (citizen of the net) and hence she is doing all the online marketing. Attended a PTA meeting in her school today. As I was waiting for my turn, I observed how the teachers were berating the students for not getting good marks and how ‘if they loved their parents they would get marks?’ This is hilarious. How can one equate marks with love? There was no focus on understanding, concepts, topics, ideas. Just marks, percentages, college main admission nahin milega. rat race se bahar ho jayoge. Achha hai. jo bhi nikal jayega ‘rat race’ se, shayyad bach jayega. Thsi formal education in our schools nauseates me.

‘Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content – Helen Keller’

To be content. Despite and Inspite of.