Pawan's Pill

Ramesh Kumar from New Delhi


Courtesy Jehaan Kotwal, I know Pawan Sharma Asopa from Navi Mumbai. Interesting character with interest in multiple things. Our common connect is driver welfare and fighting corruption on highways.

Recently  we travelled Mumbai-Nasik-Mumbai on road and that's when his interest in meditation become apparent. Actually he took me to the Vipasanna centre at Igatpuri. He did a short course there and since then exploring to teach truck drivers "meditation".

According to him, it is the best medicine-free stress buster. 

Truck drivers and meditation? Possible. Meditation is nothing but trying to keep the mind and body at peace. Very challenging. Mental turbulence does not differentiate between the educated and uneducated. It attacks or engulfs both.

More the educated, more the disturbance is my conviction. Don't know about you.

Truck drivers and mental stress go together. Inseparable. For a variety of reasons.

Truck drivers, away from home and alone on the empty and sparsely populated highways at day or night, with or without driver assist, music blaring from their cheap sound system, need greater concentration for safe driving.

Distractions come in various forms; phone calls from family or friends or colleagues mostly. Or from office supervisors keeping track of their movement. GPS? Forget it. Even if it is functional, nothing like the conventional one on one talk. Right?

Distracted driving is a pain area from the safety perspective. Added to these tangible turbulance is the fear factor. Drivers worry a lot about what lies ahead on the road ahead. Not from naxalites or anti-social elements. But corrupt, rent-seeking highway officials working for the state transport departments who hang around on the edges of highways  at multiple locations - district wise in each state - to bounce on the gullible drivers to extort illegal money.

Drivers desire to avoid such elements. Purely out of self interest. How and why?

Fleet owners pay peanuts to drivers in India. Most of the time, a four digit amount just on paper. But give good amount of money to bribe highway vultures grudgingly - running into thousands of rupees per trip - to ensure timely delivery. Again self interest of fleet owners.

Drivers look at this as a bonanza that can be usurped if they can avoid the corrupt vultures. No bribery translates into their pockets bulging.  Hence the worry, which affects their mental balance.

Tension, tension, tension from trip start to trip finish. 

Hence, Pawan Asopa's prescription for meditation to achieve mental equilibrium under all circumstances makes sense. A fortnight ago, the tall Rajasthani do-gooder noticed Linde trucks  parked on the road side and during interaction with drivers learnt the placement of cameras inside cabins from safety perspective and drivers' disenchantment with such "big brother watch" always.

Following a quick conversation with some  multinational company's logistics  officials, he is  selling the concept of meditation - not medication - to truck drivers. Worth trying. His choice of approaching MNCs is spot on. Because only these foreign companies give adequate importance to road safety and willing to invest. Yes, invest is the key word. It is not an expenditure but an investment to ensure just not safe delivery of their consignment but equally saving several valuable human lives. Desi companies, however big or small, are found wanting in this sphere. Shame.

Will fleet owners pay for such services? Pawan's services are not free. Marginal fee, he charges. Secondly, will drivers be interested in learning 'meditation?. Worth trying, again.

Good luck, Pawan!

Pawan Sharma Asopa is reachable at +91 9324024111

The Painter Babu

 Ramesh Kumar from New Delhi

Noticing Saheb Kumar Paswan ambling across the spacious open workshop area with his multi-colored folding walker  brought back memories of my late mother.

Way back in 1990, she had fallen in the washroom and broken her thigh bones in Mumbai. Post surgery with a steel bone as a replacement she needed the folding walker to move around.

Paswan-cum-folding-walker popped up mother on my mindscreen for a few seconds. Memories.

The sprightly Paswan was all smiles as we exchanged "namastes".

How did he break his haddi (bones)?

"Not planned," replies he sportingly. Great sense of humor. Yes, accidents don't send Short Message Service or SMS to the victim prior to their arrival!

He walks me to the accident spot at the workshop where his colleagues are busy "brown"ing the exteriors of a truck - part of annual ritual when peeled off paints are not eye-candy and clients - read, automotive giants whom these trucks serve - are getting more brand conscious and therefore insist of carriers of their precious vehicles also be spick and span. 

How about these OEMs showing same kind of enthusiasm to make the drivers of these vehicles also "brand ambassadors" by making their working conditions better outside their factory gates and en route by promoting on their own or in collaboration with other stakeholders the American style pitshops? For everything else, these OEMs blabbering, "Look at USA/Europe." Why not in these areas as well? These thoughts flash through my mind.

The "tak-tak" noise with the hammer kissing iron sheets somewhere in the vicinity of where are grouped. A pair of mechanics ferrying an empty fuel tanker, repaired and painted, to another safe location at the workshop. Their leather gloves remind me of a discussion I had with a CEO of another MNC-owned, fleet owning car carrier business enterprise a few hours ago on the "Personal Protection Equipment" (PPE) issue.

He, again, owning a workshop where his tractor trailers has safety concerns. Similar to what I am noticing at the Manesar workshop where I am conversing with Paswan.

Repaint work in full swing.  High steel stools and bamboo ladders used to reach heights. During a similar chore two months back, this painter from Luckysarai in Bihar, slipped. Rest, as they say,  is history.

He had spent time in a private hospital and then rested at home more than a month and now back at work.

The June heat coupled with the severity of his medicinal intake had taken a toll: there are boils on his upper lip.

Still Paswan is not fit to resume full fledged work. That does not bother him.

Sitting at home, says he, is   more painful than the injury.

"Requested (my seniors) to  allow me come to work. Whatever suits you, they told me. Am here," adds he.

His enthusiasm amazes me. Be more cautious in future at work, I advise. His job profile won't change, post accident. He nods. Those around him also shake their heads collectively.

"Want to see (the stitches)?" asks he innocently.

Why not?

He unzips his pant, draws down the left side of the trouser. There it is. The stitch marks. Almost a foot long vertical scar runs through with mini marks horizontally where the needle and  thread sew the slit open thigh flesh for surgery and subsequently bound them together for healing.

Several pairs of eyes watch the scar closely. Each one of us, mentally thanking our respective Gods that this did not happen to us! Natural human instinct.

Someone asks him: "When will they remove the iron part fitted into this thigh?" Valid question.

Paswan: "When it heals fully."

Really so?

My experience - rather my mother's experience was different.

A day after my mother's death, I revisit the Lodi  Road Crematorium in Delhi (June 26, 1996) to pick the bones and ashes for immersion at the Ganges later. Noticing the gleaming steel bone replica lying ash-covered, I bend down to pick it up gingerly and get my fingers singed in the process. It was hot still.

While the fire consumed mother's flesh, it could not do much to the steel bone that was part of her torso. I did bring that part of my mother home as part of her memory. Sure, must be lying somewhere at home with other memorabilia.

Memories again, linking Paswan's predicament with my mother's.  Experience and observation are the best teacher, I believe.

About the foreign element in Paswan's thigh, I have no idea. Will it be removed as he believes? Or will it remain permanently like my mother's? Clueless absolutely.

Paswan's cup of joy is full. He is able to amble with some support today. He is confident of getting 100% fit quickly.

"Malik spent so much on my medical," confesses the temporarily handicapped painter. Though he has no risk coverage in the form of accident insurance, his motor malik was his risk bearer. Lucky, he was to enjoy such a benevolent malik. Such bosses are rare in the Indian transport ecosystem.

With a color bandana tied around his head,  another  painter climbs the tall iron bench top to resume painting the top portion of the truck parked nearby.  It wobbles a week bit.  It does not matter.  He knows his Malik is there to take care of him and his family in case of any accident. Paswan watches him closely from the ground level, with one hand holding the folding walker and another clutching the tall iron bench. Safety got into Paswan's DNA and etched permanently perhaps. Good. 📌

  

The Strike That Wasn't

Ramesh Kumar from New Delhi 

It's over. Yes, it's over. 

Am talking about the indefinite strike call given by All India Confederation of Goods Vehicle Owners' Association or  ACOGOA.. The angst of fleet owners was against the incessant diesel price hike and daily revision, higher third party insurance premium and continuous increake toll fees.

ACOGOA has actually called off the strike, but prefers to phrase it diplomatically as "postponed".  General Secretary Rajendra Singh and President Channa Reddy in their joint statement on 21 June (on  the fourth day of strike) say: "As we have received telephone call from central ministry, that since the minister is not in the station till 27.6.2018 to call off the strike and come to discussion after 27.06.2018. In view of this and in the public interest, we have postpone (sic) the truckers strike." 

One phone call from the Ministry of Road Transport & HIghways on the fourth day did the trick. Why did the caller wait for four days is not a mystery at all for those who understand the nuances of government working.

In the run upto any strike, the government machinery - read the Intelligence Bureau - gets into play with  them conversing with  strikers informally. One, try to gauge the seriousness of  the strikers'intent and secondly, to find ways and means to avert any such activities that can cause public distress in howsoever small measure.Damage control, yes.

Simultaneously, the strikers also keen to know the government stance. Will it accede to our demand, however genuine the laundry list maybe? Put it differently, every striking party is keen on one thing: an exit path. Indefinite does not mean infinity!

Something similar to the private equity players. Even  before they actually put in money, they work out an exit path: when, where and how.

In a similar fashion, every striking party works out an exit path - call it, a face saving formula - even before the launch date. That is when to call off and go back to routine work. Strike is huge risk and a big gamble. It may work. May not. No lobby group or trade unions want egg on their face.

It is a different matter altogether whether transport lobby groups are of businessmen or workers? If the former, it is unheard of businessmen going on a work stoppage. They sit across the table and negotiate. Convince or  get convinced. In fact, this dichotomy is glaring and mandarins in the government always wonder about the character of the transport lobbies. 

Am scratching my grey cells to  figure out whether the industry lobby groups (Assocham, CII, FICCI at the apex level) has ever called for an industrial shutdown to get their concerns addressed ever. Certainly, the industry has their own massive laundry list. They do meet with the respective ministries at regular intervals with no photo ops to convey their viewpoint and get the bureaucrats to modify their previous stance. 

Yes, the tension builds up- mostly on the striking party. Particularly if the  striking organisation does not have total control over its constituent members. Leave aside the multiplicity of associations in the same segment who are not in friendly terms and have their own agenda. Why only in transportation segment? The case is same in every  industry. Disputes are not uncommon among siblings.

All said and done, ACOGOA is one of the three transport lobby groups,  representing  the interests of fleet owners with more focus, unlike its rivals whose reach and constituents encompass every single segment of transport ecosystem including fleet owners.

By the way, All India Motor Transport Congress or AIMTC, the biggest lobby group, is gearing up for its own indefinite strike from July 20. Their mobilisation drive is in full bloom. Its laundry list of course also covers the concerns of ACOGOA and beyond.

Big boys have big laundry list. 

Let us examine what was the response of indefinite strike called by ACOGOA? A day after the strike launch, says:

"North East has completely gone on a standstill as it is the only gateway from West Bengal. About 30,000 vehicles moving in and out from north east are therefore stopped. In Maharashtra, the markets  have reported prices  of vegetables like onion undergoing sharp increases. Even Delhi today has reported stoppage of 4,000 vehicles at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Terminal." 

Well, that's not the end. Hearken this:

"Taking off from yesterday, West Bengal continues under complete chakka jam allover the state. In Karnataka also, the situation continues to be encouraging with vehicle movement continuing to be stopped  all over. Mr R Sugumar, President, TNLOF informed that out of about 5 lakh vehicles 3 lakh vehicles are stopped," says ACOGOAspokesperson.

In totality, Ganesh claims that "there are now above 50 lakh estimated vehicles that have stopped which will mean a loss of about more than Rs.1,000 crore to the lorry owners."

Total shutdown of West Bengal is unsurprising, given the state's high agitation quotient. Was the  three lakh vehicles going off the highways in Tamilnadu noticed? Doubtful. Forget about rival bodies, even general public living on the fringes of state and national highways passing  through  the entire state did not see  highways devoid of trucks.

Forget that. These are all hearsay.

I was travelling from Gandhidham to  Ahmedabad (325 km) by road on 18 June - the day the strike commenced -  and watched normal truck movement on the entire stretch. Again, in NCR, I did not see commercial vehicles going off the busiest National Highway 8 linking  Delhi with  Jaipur on 19 and 20 June.

All India strike by transport strikes can be effective only if all the three bodies come together with a clear agenda and a token strike for a day or two. Certainly not  an "indefinite strike". No fleet owner will be interested for long duration agitation. None of them have  the financial muscle to withstand losses. Stopping the movement of truck means mainly loss of business for that day plus other commitments such as EMI for vehicle purchase, driver salary. Work stoppage does not automatically lead to financiers offering a "moratorium" till the work resumes. Nor drivers can be allowed to  park vehicles and go home because none has an iota of idea when the "indefinite" strike will be called off.

Barring a few states, none of the lobby groups have invested or groomed leadership at the grassroot level. A typical Indian National Congress syndrome. Top heavy, bottom hollow.

What about their demands? Certainly genuine.

Let  me take you  back to 1979 in the United States when truckers went on a nationwide strike. Exactly, 40 years ago (22 June 1979), President Jimmy Carter said: "The truckers have many legitimate concerns... The key problems that face the truckers are the same as those that face all of  us: too little fuel at too high price."

The word 'indefinite' can be interpreted anyway one likes. It can be one day to one week to one month to whatever one's holidng capacity to stay from earning money in any business.

It took almost three months for the Carter administration to restore normalcy through various policy initiatives including Special Rule #9 roll out to ensure fuel for the farmers(!) primarily keeping food security in mind. Transporters came only after that at the the Iranian Revolution and the OPEC price hike at that time.

Did  the four day stirke impact the industry, basically the end users or the public? Nope. Any strike to succeed needs a strong leadership coupled with grassroot support.  None of  the lobby groups can claim that credit, notwithstanding the "All India" tag in their  names.

No, am not sarcastic. It's a ground reality. 

Interacting with long haul truck drivers at multiple points in India during these four days, we found the sadak sepoys have no  clue about the "indefinite strike".  Basically, their motor maliks never asked them to  stop loading and moving.

Generals can sketch grandiose plans. Ultimately, the foot soldiers have to execute.That connect is found missing in  ACOGOA case. Will AIMTC gearing up for  July 20 indefinite chakka jam make it a success? Worth watching.

By the way, ACOGOAmanaged to get an "exit" pass. For the time being that is. Because, they said,  the indefinite strike is not called off, but "postponed".

Will NItin Gadkari on his  return from foreign trip apply balm to the wounded transporters next week?

Let's wait and watch.📌