‘This Earth’

It is quite a job. To be a woman. To be constantly aware of the fact that at any moment, anyone can trespass our boundaries. Emotional or Physical. It is quite a scary thought and to constantly live with it can be very tiring and exhausting. Just behind the thin veneer of liberty, equality and freedom for women is this stark, brutal reality of being inferior to men. The moment we step out of the defined boundaries , there is hell to pay. In the family, in the society, in our professional lives and in the world at large. I guess that is why we are struggling with the bank so much. I am a woman and I have no land. There cannot be a worse combination. Add to it the lack of a ‘man’ behind me. pathetic. It is very difficult for the bankers to trust me with large amounts of money. Even though we have been paying the installments consistently. Even though our performance has been consistent, if not mind blowing or path breaking.

I do not know what the Higher Power has in mind for me. The HP’s intentions are not very clear to me as of now. To give in or to stand up. I was recently able to attend an NA meeting and a member shared how his daughters had no toilet to go to. How they did not dare to venture out in the night for relieving themselves as they could be molested or raped in the fields. So they have to wait the entire night until dawn breaks for going to the fields.  One of his daughters is now living with us and I have no idea how we could make her life better and if at all such a possibility exists. This is the development of our country if you may please. This is the reality behind the malls, the glitz and glamour of high technology gizmos. sachhai dekh lo yaar. Before it is too late. Maybe it already is too late.

We need to invest in the technology of ‘Photogrammetry’. So we are looking at the universe to open up sources for the funds and energy required. The stereo satellite images ordered for a specific project have not yet arrived. We are a unique country. Everything takes time. Even time takes time.

We continue to look for leaders. As I mentioned earlier, we are constantly in recruitment mode now. There is nothing much to say. There is fear. Constantly lurking behind as a backdrop in the mind and heart. Need large doses of faith here.

Choose between faith and money. Well?

I mean what about both. Or is there a guarantee that faith could lead to money and vice versa?

Just go to hell. But we are already in hell. I mean we are on this earth which is like hell.

‘This Earth’.

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Hello GISians and everyone else! We have our very own facebook page now, but it needs your support! Please visit the page and like. Your support is highly appreciated!

Global Coordinates

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‘Keep in touch’

Kuch pal. A few moments. Between the house and the office. Between the house and the client site. Between the origin and the destination. Between losing and winning. Between life and death. Moments of aloneness. Moments of oneness with a Higher Power. Moments where we are just travellers. Just ‘musafirs’.

Appu participated in a dance performance in the annual fest of her college today. It was a choregraphy depicting the seven qualities of a woman and it was breathtakingly beautiful. It was awesome to see Appu who was a tiny bundle at some point in space, grow up and dance so gracefully on stage. Thank you Appu. You made me feel so proud of you. You made me want to believe, that there is still some beauty left. Still some humanity somewhere. Still something to live for, to hope for. And that, despite the fact that the world is run mostly by men, all that is beautiful and graceful and colorful is feminine.

Talking of feminity, we have two lovely girls with us. Geeta is taking care of the front desk while Anita is taking care of the administration. So the office is definitely more cleaner and better managed. The pantry issues have dropped off from my head on to Anita’s shoulders and that has been quite a relief. The house is also running better than before. We have a maid who stays from morning to evening. The water supply is normal. And Appu is not feeling so alone. The major hurdle in front of us now are the building of a good team and the closing of some good projects. And of course increasing the turnover. Easier said than done.

One of our clients has agreed to believe in the technology of photogrammetry and in us. I guess that is a huge step forward. (zyada mat kudo. If you remember, he also mentioned that he could see no other choice to take his case forward with AAI). Ok. I mean we always wanted to do this to put forth our case on a stronger technical footing. So it does not matter whether the client is believing in us out of choice or desperation.

Of course kaam aur chahiye. I mean a single project cannot sustain even half of the bare bread we need. Faith. Keep the faith ( for how long buddy? I am getting old you know!). Ok so there is fear. Aha. Fear. Panic. Not good for the soul.

KIT policy. Keep in touch with HP.

Just ‘Keep in Touch’.



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‘Back to the basics’

We are planning to bid in a tender (Oh no!) once again. With most of the projects stuck in AAI for lack of clarity, we will need to do something about our bread and butter (forget about the butter, just focus on the bread for now). Also thinking of tying up with the Trafficpeople.net guys for providing traffic updates on our online map shop. Anything to get the traffic on our site. If not for buying, then at least for viewing. Traffic is everything you know. It seems we are always in recruitment mode now. Constantly looking for people who wish to work and are down to earth with no air (hawabaji). A lot of people are just huge gas filled ballons. It is difficult to assess their true worth. It is like inflation. The net worth of an individual does not increase but the expectations do. ‘Aur, Aur’ ki bimari (sickness). More money,more package, more everything without being able to deliver anything of value.

Have transferred the responsibility of buying the weekly rations for the office to Anita, an admin executive. For once ‘Sunday’ is more peaceful with no running around to get the ‘atta,dal,chawal’. The AC’s in the office have already been serviced. The reparing of the woodwork has also been done. And the guards are behaving. What a sigh of relief. The trainee from Afghanistan is satisfied with the training and that is an achievement as he has ten years of GIS experience behind him. We were wondering as to what we could possibly teach him. The banks are ok with us. I mean they are not exactly happy. But when were they ever happy with us. They expect better turnovers (even if it means that we turn over completely and start getting into scams). Just like my family I guess. My family constantly expected me to do better. I could never meet their expectations.

Most of us are wanting to be slaves to huge MNC’s, or large corporate houses in exchange for high amounts of money. The difference is that we are looking for leaders. For people who love their freedom. Kahan milte hain? Where are the free spirits, the intelligent thinking minds, the unfetterd souls?

Ji lo yaar. Kyun itna jhamela karna hai? All this thinking, freedom, equality, democracy bit is intellecutual stuff. Will not pay the bills.

‘Roti, kapda,makan’

Back to the basics.


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‘Away from the chaos’

Schedule, Planning, Numbers, Events, rate of hits, rate of success, money made and lost. All boils down to one word, one event. ‘Survival’. Of the fittest maybe. The rest is a story. To cover the brutality of all that is ‘real’. Just to make it ‘surreal’.

The satellite images have not yet been received. If the deadlines are crossed, we will also be dead. I mean we are not fully alive even now but are breathing.
We are still trying to understand the requirements of the trainee ( who is actually a professional) from Afghanistan. He is here for a month and we are hoping that we can add some value to his learning while he is here.
The software development has stopped. The online shop is still chugging along with the support of Rajesh. Pradip is trying his best to build a good team. It is quite an impossible job. First to have a ‘team’ and then to have a ‘good team’ is like asking for too much.

Need to understand the PAN-OPS criteria. Very tough to understand. Looking for a ‘guru’ again. More than half of our lives are spent in looking for ‘gurus’, ‘teachers’. Wonder when the actual learning will happen. A client from Mumbai is coming down to Delhi to meet the chairman of AAI. We will need to be a part of the discussions (on the strategy to be followed) that follow after the meeting. I mean there cannot be a clear cut strategy but talking somehow creates an illusion of a solution. And it is good to live in illusions. They help us feel safe, even if temporarily. They help us to form a safe cocoon from which we do not really wish to emerge.

If the genie from the magic lamp were to ask, ‘aur kya chahiye’?
What next?

Just some peace and quiet.

‘Just some solitude.’

‘Away from the chaos’


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‘The monkey of responsibility’

Pradip Patel has inducted a GIS executive who is a woman in the technical department. Can you beat that? I mean ‘men’ run away from this office. How will a woman survive? I am of course seen as a ‘man’ by most so I am no longer in the category of ‘women’. She has been given a decent time schedule (9:30am-7:00pm, an unheard of schedule in our office). So there is gender bias here, of course in a positive direction. OK, we are trying to be decent here. Nothing wrong with that.
All my batchmates have contributed a small fund as the much needed oxygen for our continued survival. It is a small yet very significant support and we are very grateful to each one of them.

Appu continues to be upset. Still figuring out a way to be able to connect with her. It seems the happiness has left our house and hearts.

Vikram and Rahul mis-behaved with the guard and have been asked to leave. It is just very sad. The payment gateway for the shop is operational and the SSL certificate has also been installed. So the transactions on the site are also secure (if and when they happen). Rajesh, our cartographer has further slashed the rates of the India and state maps (kya kar rahe ho Rajesh? what about the kharcha?). Anyway, we are taking risks with the pricing ( aur kar bhi kya sakte ho?). Let us see.

The stereo pair of satellite images to cover a site in Mumbai have been ordered (that was a very long time ago sweetheart. Anything new?). We are waiting for its arrival (‘waiting’ is a good art to be learnt in India). And presumbaly the client is getting impatient.
The ‘jhagda’ between AAI and MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) continues. With no one wishing to take complete responsibility for the decisions to be made. Who will carry the monkey on its back? That is the million dollar question. Everywhere.

Who will be blamed if something were to go wrong? Who will carry the responsibility on his/her back?

‘The monkey of responsibility’


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‘Repairing of the soul’

Hariom has left. Got a ‘sarkari’ job. Never mind that we invested in him for three months and put everything at stake. Never mind that we got no output from him. Not even one module. He only took from the company. Maybe that is what he was good at. Just taking and taking. He had nothing to give. And he is the best example of a typically educated and completely self centered man of our times. Gagan has left. He joined when he had no job offer. After two months, he suddenly realized that the online shop was not his cup of tea. That the online shop was just about uploading and downloading of maps. He could not make it work. And in place of doing a SWOT analysis, he dumped the project as useless. This is the current educated Generation X we have created. Its all about me,me,me,mine,my life, my money. There is no ‘us’ in their dictionary. The ‘selfishness’ is just very tiring. Very irritating. Re-start the computer. Re-start the project. Again and again. Talk about trust.

The news of a gangrape disturbs me. Why do we ban drugs of all kinds and yet promote addiction to sex? What are night pubs for anyway? Why is it not possible to ban them? Pubs are where girls and alcohol are used to boost and satisfy the male ego. What kind of entertainment can they provide? We are connecting sex with money. Then why ban prostitution? Why was the girl employed in the pub? Mainly to entice and accompany single men. At a cut. At a cost. My guess is that she refused the advances of a few men who took revenge by gangraping her. A man knows no other way of taking revenge from a woman, specially if his male ego has been compromised. And yet we claim that we live in a civilized world. Let us face it. We live in a jungle where mostly men rule. A woman must know her place, must behave else she will have hell to pay. Just like the girl who has been gangraped in Gurgaon. She was raped and slapped around. So it was not just about sexual violation. It was also proving to her as to who the boss was. No, I do not think I would like to be born as a woman again. No. Its too damn tough.

The bad: A single project in hand. Cash flows which are next to nil. The accountant wants to go home.
The good: Pradip patel has joined us in a senior position. Another trainee is arriving from Afghanistan for a months’ training. The IIT batchmates have committed to providing support.
The ugly: Appu is not talking to me. She is fed up of my unavailability. The pump in the house conked off and it took a lot of money to get it repaired.

The weekend, weekly rations, calls, homework for a project.
The repairing of things.

Leaving no time for the repairing of the soul. The most neglected task of the lot.

‘Repairing of the soul’.



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‘Live to die’

Hate visiting the lawyers. The bankers cannot give us any window of time to retaliate the revoking of the BG by PACT, Lucknow. Le lo yaar. It is money after all. We were more concerned about the self respect that would be damaged if this act was condoned. But maybe the chief engineer or chairman PACT will lose self respect, not us. We have done the work, at a loss and as directed by PACT to the best of our ability, in fact even beyond it. We have to surrender the rest to the universe. Money will go and come. Hopefully. And we are not on the roads, as yet.

Gujiyas. My mother is very good at making them. I thought of calling her to ask for the recipe like any daughter would do under normal circumstances. But I do not know if she will talk to me. She has thrown me out of her life. I am not welcome in her life or home anymore. When the doors of your own home are closed, which other doors can open for you.

I drive back from the office very late in the night and the stark naked roads seem more real, more truthful than the hustling bustling roads of daytime. raat mein zyada sachhai dikhti hai. din se raat zyada schhi hai. It is like there is no mask in the night. There is no fakeness. No need too look good. To make money. To cover up.

Team nahin hai. All of us have different histories, different backgrounds and different limitations. We are using different survival tactics and feel more attacked than protected. So we are threatened by each other. Kya karen? We hurt each other to be able to survive. At any cost.

Blabbering as usual. Have we been able to change even one person? Then let us just shut up and go about our business.

Living is a preparation for dying.

And dying every moment is a preparation for living the next.

‘live to die’


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Just be

Chief Engineer PACT, Lucknow has sent another letter to the bank asking for money against the bank guarantee submitted by us in 2009. Pray, what were you guys doing between 2009 and now? Did you answer any of our letters? Did you communicate with us in anyway? Did we ever refuse to do any additional work or rectification even after our final submission? We completed the project at the cost of incurring huge losses and yet PACT has withheld 5% of our payment for no reason. And this after we wrote to them again and again for returning our original bank guarantee and offering to do more rectification of the work already submitted, if required. But I guess it is not about work. Somewhere in our communications their lack of work ethics has been challenged. And someone’s ego (male of course) has been bruised. And hence we need to be damaged in whichever way possible. Be it the encashing of the BG. Be it the withholding of our payment or be it refusing to provide us with a completion certificate. It is like a group of impotent men trying to rape a woman.
Maybe the funding of the world bank is over. Maybe by the end of the elections in UP, many of the key people will lose their chairs, hence this last minute drama. To take revenge before quitting. The BG submitted expired on Jan 3, 2012. And the letter was apparently dispatched on Jan 2, 2012 without any intimation or communication with us for over two years. Gross misuse of power, of authority. But what is new? It happens all the time. First the bankers were unhappy with us because we were incurring losses in the execution of the project. Now the client is damaging us by mis-using the BG submitted. And we say we live in a democratic country with equal rights and freedom. Bullshit.

We are going to protect ourselves now. We will file a legal notice to protect ourselves and our hard earned money. Even if we have no money to fight, we are getting ready to retaliate.

We need work. And we need to feel more inspired. And we need lawyers, bouncers, politicians to really get going. All the people that are currently not with us. But the big question is whether they will want to be with us. We have no name, fame, big money. Nothing to offer. To charity karne koi kyun aayega?

Holi time. gujiya, chutti, madness. celebrating festivals. our only chance to be happy. fake it to make it. something to cover the pain. the cracks in our relationships. Anything to forget reality. be it opium or drugs or festivals or religion or work or money or power. Any escape route will do.

lecture dene se to hum winner nahin ban jayenge. Keep it for next time. focus.
focus on what? just this moment, just now.

just be.



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‘Nothing’

Appu has left to be with her father and grandparents on Holi. Good for her. She is mostly on her own here and being with an important part of her family will perhaps take away some loneliness. Taking decisions, taking a stand, what a toll it has taken.
Enough I guess.
No more fighting what is. what could be. God is in charge. Definitely not me. A lot of people have problems with me because I am a woman. I cannot change that. I have a lot of problems with people because they do not speak what is in their hearts. They shy away from the truth. The truth could shatter a lot of myths. So by keeping quiet we manage to get by. To survive.
I have shared the truth of my life with my batchmates of IITK, 1988 batch. I have also asked them to support us in whatever way they can. Almost all of them have responded. And some of them are planning to visit the office soon. I had thought of doing this once. A long time ago. When myself and Appu were on the roads. And when my parents refused to support me. But I did not have the guts. I wanted no one to know that I was in deep shit. So the thought came and left. I sold everything I could, except myself. I have to keep reminding myself that it is over. We are not on the roads. Not anymore. That we are safe. And taken care of.

I have been shouting and screaming a lot lately. Appu says I need a soundproof room. In the house and in the office. My mind says: what would be the cost sweetheart? The cost. There is a cost to everything. I have learnt that the hard way. There is a cost for being honest. There is cost for not pleasing people. There is cost to just living on this planet, apart from the bills of course.
I do not think we are after money or power. Its just that life becomes very easy on many fronts if there is excess money and power. It is as if with money, we can move from the Newtonian frame of reference to the Non newtonian frame of reference. Many laws,rules and regulations which are applicable in the Newtonian frame do not apply in the Non newtonian frame of reference. And then it is easier to make even more money (and mayhem). Nobody wants to know how that money has been earned (until it is too late in the day to hide a scam or the deeper politics behind it). We bow to money, to power and to a portrait of Gandhi. makes us look good you know. If we could just respect ‘time’ more than ‘money’, we would not have to deal with corruption and bribes.

We have finished the first phase of calculations for the site in Mumbai. We are also very close to testing the software module for the Santa Cruz airport. And Gagan is struggling with the kind of maps to be launched in the online shop. The basis are in place for the online shop. We just need to keep adding different and good quality maps.
We are in the process of re-structuring the team (please have one first!). I mean we are trying. More interviews (Oh God! Not again).

Dear God, please bless us.
What do you want my child, time or money?

we don’t know. What will we do with time and no money?
And what will we do with money and no time?
I mean what about a negotiation here?
A combination you know. A deal.
Wait wait God. do not just walk away like that. Let us think.
can we talk?

No, my child we cannot talk. We cannot do a deal here. You have to choose.
Keep thinking. maybe clarity will dawn when you reach Nigambodh ghat.

Nigambodh ghat?

Yes, the final destination.
When nothing else matters. The houses built, the name and the fame earned or unearned. The matches, won and lost. Nothing matters.

‘Nothing’.



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