Saturday, June 18, 2016
Makarasan undone by the Raunchy ride
Makarasan vs. Road- it's a tie
Now we've started this practice, this team of ours at Jamshedpur, of doing group yoga in the evenings. I'm a regular on Mondays and Tuesdays - they say front-load your work, and whether I'm doing that with work or not, I sure do it with fitness pursuits. Wednesdays and Thursdays I slack off, and Friday I'm on the 120 km car ride from Jameshedpur to Ranchi- the Raunchy ride.
I call it that because it is a hell of a rough ride. While the first and last quarter hours are a 6-lane breeze- kudos to Gadkari and co - the mid section is quite an ordeal - it's a bumpy 2 lane ride.
After the yoga, especially this position called Makarasan, my lower back feels stiff as an oak. However, all the good work is undone by the Raunchy ride, after which the stiff oak is reduced to jelly. I can actually feel the springs in my back doing their cushioning work (and groaning while at it!) when i bounce up and down on the seat. There is a need for a vertical-restrainer seat belt on cars traversing certain roads in India- so that the car springs are able to do their job. At the end of the ride, the back turning to jelly feeling is absolutely real, I tell you. Just as real as the oaky feeling is, after some rounds of Makarasan. By the way, if you take to this road in the night, I suggest to blast on car speakers, as an appropriate theme song and also as a way to ease the pain, AC-DC's Shook me all night long . (That song, such explicit lyrics always makes me smile)
Note: Above ain't me, it's a spiritually-connected gentleman by the name of Jack Cuneo.
Clogged arteries of the economy
As observed in separate discussions with AM and AJ, these are the biggest cities in Jharkhand we are talking about. And add to that- it's the biggest mining belt of the country, and that too by a mile. As evidence, we see trailers upon trailers bouncing along slowly, laden with coal and rolled steel and what not. And so many of these trailers are parked helplessly in a damaged state by the road- undone by its vagaries. This is not a good situation because the coal and the steel these lines of trailers carry are the life giving force of the Indian economy. One's gotto fix the roads here. Just saw an article yesterday that bad roads are costing the Indian economy $21 Bn per year - a staggering 1.3% of GDP! Two sources of damage- the slow movement speed and all the damage to the vehiles. This bad road situation in this heavy freight corridor is akin to an ERP engineer at Infosys Bangalore unable to even chat with the onshore client in the US because Infosys uses a dial up connection - in 2016.
Lifting the gloom
However, seeing the wagons upon wagons of freight trains and all the trailers on the Raunchy road gives one the feelers for the pulsing heart of the Indian economy- the coal that powers and the steel that holds it up. And the road is getting better and better- it took 5 hours earlier, it takes 2.5 hours now. While there may have been Naxal issues earlier, and we can stop and have great masala tea and onion pakodas at Hotel Panchavati on the way.
Now we've started this practice, this team of ours at Jamshedpur, of doing group yoga in the evenings. I'm a regular on Mondays and Tuesdays - they say front-load your work, and whether I'm doing that with work or not, I sure do it with fitness pursuits. Wednesdays and Thursdays I slack off, and Friday I'm on the 120 km car ride from Jameshedpur to Ranchi- the Raunchy ride.
I call it that because it is a hell of a rough ride. While the first and last quarter hours are a 6-lane breeze- kudos to Gadkari and co - the mid section is quite an ordeal - it's a bumpy 2 lane ride.
After the yoga, especially this position called Makarasan, my lower back feels stiff as an oak. However, all the good work is undone by the Raunchy ride, after which the stiff oak is reduced to jelly. I can actually feel the springs in my back doing their cushioning work (and groaning while at it!) when i bounce up and down on the seat. There is a need for a vertical-restrainer seat belt on cars traversing certain roads in India- so that the car springs are able to do their job. At the end of the ride, the back turning to jelly feeling is absolutely real, I tell you. Just as real as the oaky feeling is, after some rounds of Makarasan. By the way, if you take to this road in the night, I suggest to blast on car speakers, as an appropriate theme song and also as a way to ease the pain, AC-DC's Shook me all night long . (That song, such explicit lyrics always makes me smile)
Makarasan vs. Raunchy road (the truck is damaged- see the uplifted front portion- and blocks 50% of the road)
Note: Above ain't me, it's a spiritually-connected gentleman by the name of Jack Cuneo.
Clogged arteries of the economy
As observed in separate discussions with AM and AJ, these are the biggest cities in Jharkhand we are talking about. And add to that- it's the biggest mining belt of the country, and that too by a mile. As evidence, we see trailers upon trailers bouncing along slowly, laden with coal and rolled steel and what not. And so many of these trailers are parked helplessly in a damaged state by the road- undone by its vagaries. This is not a good situation because the coal and the steel these lines of trailers carry are the life giving force of the Indian economy. One's gotto fix the roads here. Just saw an article yesterday that bad roads are costing the Indian economy $21 Bn per year - a staggering 1.3% of GDP! Two sources of damage- the slow movement speed and all the damage to the vehiles. This bad road situation in this heavy freight corridor is akin to an ERP engineer at Infosys Bangalore unable to even chat with the onshore client in the US because Infosys uses a dial up connection - in 2016.
Lifting the gloom
However, seeing the wagons upon wagons of freight trains and all the trailers on the Raunchy road gives one the feelers for the pulsing heart of the Indian economy- the coal that powers and the steel that holds it up. And the road is getting better and better- it took 5 hours earlier, it takes 2.5 hours now. While there may have been Naxal issues earlier, and we can stop and have great masala tea and onion pakodas at Hotel Panchavati on the way.
Labels: Random Ramblings
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