Ashwin Upadhyaya’s Blog

The rockrider 5.2 I bought has now crossed 415 kms on road.

Highlights: Manchanabele reservoir, a place about 45 kms from Bangalore was explored by 5 of us. We started at 5.30AM and reached the place at about 10AM. Kengeri is the last place where you can find some decent breakfast. Once you reach the place, village folks and sign posts will forewarn you about the potential dangers of getting into water. So, we stayed at respectful distance from the deeps. The lake is about 4 kms long and 0.5 kms wide (according to google maps). One end is a concrete dam while another end is the hill, Savandurga. On all sides of the lake, shrub forests provide a scenic backdrop. The road to the dam is pretty free of vehicles (except for the Mysore road and Magadi road sections) and is well suited for cycling. The terrain has a few inclines but these are easily manageable with a good bike. There is some scope for off-roading at the dam site too. Among us, the majority were first timers in such long distance trips but they finished the trip in pretty good shape. Apart from my rockrider, the Venu, Sandeep, Avik and Ashish had firefox. Two were rented from RR international, Madiwala, Bangalore for Rs.350 a day.

Another beautiful place we went to is Kunti betta / French rocks. This place is about 35 kms from Mysore. I had taken my rockrider in the luggage carrier of a Volvo bus to Mysore so that I could do some cycling there. Along with Suraj, Anil, Preetisagar and Venu, we started on a cool and cloudy sunday morning along the Mysore-Bangalore road towards the spot. A small lake between two small hills, a temple by the side of the lake, shrub forests covering the hills, lots of rocks to climb around, and a road along the periphery of the small like make this an ideal place for cycling, trekking, rock climbing etc. We started at 5.15 AM and reached back home at 2.15 PM.

Chamundi hills is another location for enjoyable cycling. I seriously envy the guys who cycle here every day. My rockrider had its first fall on this hill. It toppled over twice while trying to attempt some stunts but no noticeable damage has been done.

Bicycling to work everyday has been more of a deeper experience. I think I can understand now how it feels to be a minority. I now am trying to learn patience. The traffic is pretty tiring; more mentally rather than physically. But since I first rode my bike till now, I think I have improved and am a better rider than before.

Cycling log:

His reason was unseated by the blind yearning of the flesh to exist and move, at all hazards to move, to continue to move, for movement was the expression of its existence.

-Jack London, White Fang

I like to watch the power of human action. The plucking of a string can produce music. That is beautiful. And I like it when the action is directly visible. A Bicycle for example. The effort you put is directly translated into speed. Every time the wheel turns, it proves that I am still living.

Cycling doesn’t require any deliberations. You think, you pedal, you move. No one stops you. If someone tries, you just find another way.

The cyclist belongs to both the road as well as off it. It is also true that, here in Bangalore, the cyclist is desired off both too.

The cyclist is the ultimate symbol of rebellion to some. He dresses different. His attitude is different, the attitude of finding his own way. And he revels in spite of the fact that he is a minority. This might as well be the reason for his being tormented on the roads.

The cyclist is patient. If he isn’t, he has to learn to be. Since he is the weaker among the road species, the only virtue that will allow him to survive is patience.

And with these thoughts do I move on my rockrider now.

* THIS POST IS JUST ABOUT ME.

*ENLEN, THE COMPANY I CO-STARTED IS RUNNING WELL AND I STILL GET UPDATES FROM THE OTHER 2 FOUNDERS OF THE COMPANY. ONLY I AM NOT PART OF IT ANYMORE.

109 days is the time since I last blogged. I started blogging when I took the entrepreneurial path but it was not deliberate. I needed an outlet to talk about the difference in life outside the cubicle and blogging served me well. The pride of walking through uncharted territory, the childhood like freedom, the slow realization that money and status are over-valued, admiration from a few and equal disapproval from a few others, the small mistakes and the joy of learning from them, learning to live with little money and still getting things done, being optimistic in spite of all odds; everything was something I needed to share with the world.

And now, all of that is past. I am back where I was before I started. I no more plant trees. I no more work towards bettering the state of our planet. I no more talk business. I am no more a change agent. I no more am an entrepreneur.

Why did I quit? Typical pressures that most startuppers face. Societal, parental, monetary pressures. My best friends didn’t think I would break under pressure. But I did break. More than everything else, somewhere along the line, I lost sight of the purpose for which I really had started out. Now, I  am just looking for a little bit of peace. I don’t want to think about money, I don’t want any more of the ‘where are you headed?’ question. Working for someone else seemed a good option now.

Working for others has a unique character. I can now work for 12 hours straight with full dedication, come back home and forget the office entirely until the next morning. I can just do one thing at a time. Sometimes, monotonicity feels better. It is just a change in perspective that is required. In my earlier avatar as employee, I used to think about salary hikes, leaves, working hours and office politics. Now, all I think is whether I am doing a good job or not. Instead of thinking about tomorrow, I am just trying to live in the present. To just do my job and do it well.

Most of my friends ask me; whether I’ll start something again? Ever? My answer is; I’ll fix myself first. Then I’ll think about fixing the world. I don’t feel ready yet.

One of my entrepreneur friends, Vinay once told me “Earlier, your boss used to screw you. Now when you are an entrepreneur, the whole world wants to screw you.”

The customer wants to buy at a cheaper price than you can manufacture. The government wants to stack all its policies against you. The investor wants all the returns in the world. So what do you do?

Right now, all I know is to just stay on course and see through the journey.

World war II. Events that changed our history. In many ways, it changed the course of humanity itself. Surviving the war required huge amounts of effort from all the participating countries. Now replace the B26, FW200, T60, M2 etc of the world war with CO2, NOx, CH4, SOx etc and you have a new war called climate change. Surviving this requires a greater effort than anything humanity has ever done. If you think I am just exaggerating things here, have a look at the following slideshow (97 slides):

Building one windmill every five minutes for the next 25 years! Adding a swimming pool size of algae biofuels every second for the next 25 years! Seems like an intimidating task and I am not sure yet, what will drive people to achieve such targets. Fear and greed supposedly drive the world. The world war effort was probably driven by the former while another massive effort like industrialization was driven primarily by the latter. The climate change issue unfortunately does not considerably create both of those factors (yet).

I am doubtful whether fear will ever play a role in finding solutions for climate change. The Himalayan rivers might slowly decrease in volume over a few decades but that would just mean that people will migrate from one area to another. A few decades is enough time for demographic changes to happen and if not for statisticians, we would barely notice the changes. Almost all the consequences of climate change, be it increase in the number of diseases, melting of summer ice in polar regions or rise in sea levels happen over a few decades and some of them over a century or two. At the best, we would find solutions that cure the symptoms; probably walls to protect our seaside cities.

So, we remain with the other major driver of human behavior which is greed. How do we make it work  in such a way that the climate change challenge will be solved? What kind of incentives do we provide to people and governments so that they start working toward a solution for climate change? Many of the incentives currently devised to solve climate change such as subsidies, carbon credits, tax breaks and so on haven’t always worked satisfactorily.

Then, what would be an incentive? Technology might be one. A radical new low cost solar panel might possibly become so attractive that everyone automatically wants to make money out of it and as a result, man-made emissions might be reduced. A new economic instrument might be another one; Corporations, stock markets were all invented at some point of time and something radical might be born yet again. God and religion have served as pollution control measures in many parts of the world but I doubt whether they could be used in this new world where science is the real religion. Anything that might save us from the consequences of man-made climate change is probably not yet invented.

Does that mean that we wait for a miracle to happen? I don’t think so. I believe instead in probabilities. Increase the number of college courses and thereby people who specialize in technology related to renewable energy and you increase the possibility of an outcome. Increase funding for research in climate change and you increase the possibility of an outcome. Introduce primary school students to climate change and increase the possibility of an outcome. Short term incentives like subsidies and tax-breaks would not solve a problem such as this. Only a long term investment in education would probably solve this issue.