Photograph by Igor Ovsyannykov
It is with deep regret that I have to let you know
I have to say it ‘n I hope its not too snide
It breaks my heart as its about something I hold dear
I am sad to say our Washing Machine died.
Part 1
My name is Rohit, and I am a runner. I came to running late in life. I am not the fastest runner I know (by far), and will never be as fast as many of the people I run with. The fastest I have come to running a marathon under 2 hours and 30 minutes is running near Galen Rupp and Peter Bromka. But I have come to love running even when I’m cheering and chafing at the people passing me effortlessly on the road.
November – December, 2017
This month, we’re unleashing the ‘fun’ element in Fundamatics. Life at IITB has always been enlivened with oodles of cultural activity and sporting events, with young students making the most of every opportunity. With alumni now scattered across all corners of the globe, an e-zine is a perfect vehicle to re-ignite that spark. So here’s the fun n’ games issue with plenty of activity for you – so shake off the passive reader avatar to reclaim and rediscover your enthu self.
June 2003
Day 0
Here in Taluka. Cool, windy, drizzly. The forest rest house is spacious, musty, British.
Let’s trace the path up to here… From Delhi took a bus to Dehra Dun. Overnight journey… slept most of the way. Reached Purola. Small town. Boasts of Monica Beauty Parlour! Stayed there overnight. Stuffed ourselves on decent Jain food. Said our farewells to electricity, phones, tap-water and other such necessities of life. Took a couple of jeeps that lugged the thirteen of us here.
Came via Sankri… a good journey. Had a glimpse of the snow capped peaks. The vegetation got steadily denser and richer. Purola and Sankri presented a rather homogeneous look. Only tall pines. No undergrowth. The ground was carpeted with the brown, soft yet prickly pine needles.
There is a brick wall between careers in the corporate and government worlds in India. Besides the IAS bridge, my peer group did not think of crossing thiswall. It raised a few eyebrows when I joined the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) as a consultant for Renewable Energy (RE) in May 2015. Reactions from friends varied from disbelief to wonderment. Here I was with family, moving from Berkeley to New Delhi to help lay the foundation of a sector with the audacious goal to reach ‘175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022’.
“Why is it so hard for our government to move the needle?” was a big question that drove me to the ‘other side’. I was particularly intrigued by the power sector. Even after 65+ years of independence and decades of government programs, ~300 million Indians did not have access to electricity in 2014 [1]. In fact, India saw the largest grid failure in the history of mankind in 2012 [2]. Is it sheer lack of capacity or willingness, is it corruption or is there more? In this article, I share the answers that I have found so far.