A Seed of Thought

I have developed a belief that communication of Ideas and Problems is beneficial for everybody. These should be scattered like seeds. Many of these seeds would fall on barren ground . However you may never know when one of these seeds would fall on a fertile ground with conducive surrounding to germinate and develop in to a Tree.

I started my entrepreneurial journey in 1996. The story is as under. The Central Railways had published a Corrigendum to a tender about Bird Repellent Gel. My father encouraged me (rather insisted me) to inquire what the matter was all about. When I met the concerned officer, he narrated a unique problem the Railways faced.
Every year during the pre-monsoon period ( April to June )  , birds especially crows start nesting. Due to lack of natural habitat in Big Cities like Mumbai , crows use OHE (Over Head Equipment) structures of Railways for nesting. They not only use twigs but often use waste material found in surrounding areas .  Especially in the suburbs such as Kurla which have lot of slums, these birds use pieces of electrical wires or electrically conducting material found in garbage for nesting. 

This is where the problem started . The conducting material in the nest was a cause of short circuit which lead to costly disruptions in the train schedules . Suburban trains being the life line of Mumbai these disruptions are a calamity.

The Railways sought solutions to avoid electrical failures due to bird nesting. One of the solutions was to avoid birds nesting on OHE structures. This was solved by applying Bird Repellent Gel which the Railways procured through Tenders . So when I understood this problem I started exploring other instances where bird were a pest .  Bird nesting was a menace to Electricity Boards . The investigation into the root cause of problem opened a broad sector of repellents business and comprised of customers such as The Airport, Ware Housing Corporations, Factory Sheds, Heritage Buildings, Hotels and Housing Complexes etc.
My job then was to understand the pain area faced by every customer segment. I realized that some of the customers like the Railways were Institutional Customers where the decision making was decentralized and often more than one department was involved in the Tendering process . This process involved The Consignee, The Accounts Department and The Stores Department. The criteria of each Department for awarding contract would vary . So even if one member objected to a particular product or a supplier the resultant was loosing of Sales Opportunity. In contrast if the customer was an individual flat owner the decision rested on one single individual.
During the passage of time I soon realized that the Repellent Gel was not the only solution which could solve the bird menace problem in the best possible manner. Alternative technologies posed a competitive threat. Besides ,  for application of the Gel a manufacturer had to heavily depend on external agencies for application. The entire success of the product rested on a combination of multiple points some of which were beyond the control of a Gel manufacturer.

Over all my entrepreneurial journey as a Gel manufacturer has been very enriching. It taught me to identify a problem, define this problem, validate that the issue is a problem for many other people, search for the technology to manufacture the product, rope in external agencies to apply the product and thus deliver the expected result . 

Today when I look back, I realise that this journey would not have started if this Railway Officer had not discussed his problem. I am indebted to him discussing his problem .
This "Seed of Thought" helped me embark on my entrepreneurial journey.
I invite you to share your thoughts by filling attached Feed Back

     

General Train Compartments Give Exceptional Memories

How often do we secure a corner seat of a bus or a metro or a local train while commuting ? Many a times we indulge in self conversation perhaps ignoring what the journey has to unfold in transit .

I recollect one such train journey . Some where in 1995 I happened to catch a mail train from Borivali to Ankaleshwar ( Gujarat ). The train was full . It was rush hour and most of the co passengers were returning home on the western suburban route on this mail train . 

As far as I was concerned it was a last minute travel plan . I did not have a reservation ticket so could not enter a decent reserved 2 tier compartment . I had no choice but to go for the General Compartment . While standing in queue at door , I was shoved inside by eager commuters standing behind me . The lucky ones who had already managed to alight earlier , resisted our entry and offered a counter force to abstain us from entering . Some how I managed to squeeze myself in and after about 45 minutes of persistent efforts , managed to slide myself in the pathway , standing on a foot . Now I understand why they call it a foot hold . Needless to say the journey seemed eternal and arduous .

The mail train periodically halted at suburban stations but hardly could any one alight the jam packed General compartment . This time I cooperated with my fellow passengers in offering resistance to aspiring travelers from getting an entry into our compartment . This is called a " Local Train Psychology " . Prior to alighting I was fighting against this resistance and now that I was inside the train , I cooperated to offer resistance .

There were variety of fellow commuters . From mothers carrying babies , to the aged . The compartment was filled with people of all age groups . People chatted along the way , babies howled on their mother's lap , while the solitary travelers like me , deeply engrossed in a monologue . Me in specific , cursed myself for choosing to board the General Compartment !

In all this commotion some where down the pathway I heard an anxious lady shouting "સુ સુ આવેચે (su su aweche or the baby is going to relieve himself )" ! Before I could compose myself , the person adjacent to me passed a toddler repeating impatiently " સુ  સુ આવેચે (su su aweche ) " . Without thought , I took the live parcel and passed the buck to the person next to me in the direction of the loo repeating the magic words . The whole chain was so spontaneous and synchronous that soon the toddler was thrust in to the loo . 

After some time we all passed the baby back in the same manner to the anxious mother . To every body's relief the baby did not sprinkle in transit . For all of us in the chain the parcel was like a water bomb which could have burst , had we not cooperated .

By the end of the event the mood in our compartment was more relaxed and jovial . For some of us it helped  to break the ice . No wonder after this incidence the journey though tedious , seemed to pass quickly and bearable . 

What amazed me was the confidence with which the mother started this chain . She could not carry the baby to the loo but imposed full faith in the spirit of cooperation . 

As far as the toddler was concerned , only God knows if it relieved himself inside the loo !

Long live Cooperative Movement ! 

Every journey has a story to tell .

More General the surrounding more Exceptional the story.

Have you ever experienced one ??? I am eager to know your story . 

Collective Consciousness

Consciousness is a characteristic of Living Being . A living being comprises of 2 sets i.e Mind and Body .

The body is  made up of various parts example: the heart , liver , kidney etc. Each in turn is made up of cells which are designed to perform a specific tasks . The cells are living beings and have a consciousness of their own . But do these cells know that they are performing individual tasks synchronous with other cells ? Do they have a consciousness that they are a part of a Living Being ( Some one which is much larger in comparison with their own size ) ?

Do these individual cells know that if they perform asynchronous they might jeopardize the existence of the Living Being of which they are a part of ? For example if the heart cells perform erratically or asynchronous it leads to a cardiac arrest for the Living Being .
To avoid this the Mind which is the master of the Collective Consciousness plays a vital role .  

This Collective Consciousness is fundamental to the existence of a living organism.

I find this has a lot of similarity in the world we live. We exist as Individual Living Beings. Each one of us has an individual consciousness. We feel the world around us with the 5 senses we develop our own likes and dislikes. This form the basis our individual consciousness . We as individuals have our own set of values , beliefs ...

We cannot exist as solitary islands in the ocean of life and so Human Beings are known as Social Beings . We often collectively form groups and these could be on the basis of so many factors. We could be part of a family or part of an alumni network or may be a business group etc ....

Take for example the group based on geographical location . Under this we are a part of a particular City or State or Nation . The society we live in is a network of individuals of which one is a part of . As a citizen we share similar likes , believe in similar faiths or in other words have a Collective Consciousness as a national of a particular Country.

How ever with the advent of Internet , groups or Networks are no longer limited by geographical location . It may be interesting to note that even such a group may then have Collective Consciousness .

So if you are reading this Blog on Linkedin or Blogger or Facebook it is probably because you and me are a part of some sort of a virtual network . 

Are we right now having a Collective Consciousness in this Virtual World ? 

I am eager to know the characteristics of this Network . I solicit your comments about the shared values and beliefs of this network . So let us explore what Collective Consciousness are we a part of  .......