The sweet elixir of Tamil Nadu

Germans love their beer; Irish, their Guinness. Spain is obsessed with gin tonic and Russians take their vodka seriously. None of these national love affair with drinks can compete against Indians obsession with milk. While this love for milk pervades the entire country, it is particularly strong in the south, peaks in the state of Tamil Nadu and is off the charts with TamBrahms (Tamil Brahmins). So much so that when the state and its capital, Chennai was reeling under the wrath of the heaviest rains in a century, milk topped the list of essential commodity the hapless Tamils wanted. Even good drinking water took a second place to milk.

Milk packets

To understand this intriguing phenomenon, one must look deep into how milk controls everyday life on an average Tamil. Each morning, well before dawn, fresh, refrigerated milk will make its way from Aavin (Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation) warehouses to the innumerable distribution centers around the city. From there, individual vendors distribute the milk packets to homes. When people wake up at the crack of dawn and open the house door, their supply of milk will await them in the bag they had hung on the door knob the previous night.

Typically, the milk packet makes its way to the kitchen, receives a quick wash before an edge is snipped and the milk poured into a container for boiling. A packet or two is stashed away in the refrigerator for use later in the day. When the milk is getting boiled, something equally important happens in parallel. That mornings requirement of decoction is brewed afresh from the perfect degree blend of coffee the family has settled on... somewhere between 55% coffee and 45% chicory to 70% coffee and 30% chicory. 

Tumbler-Dabara & filter

This decoction is nothing like the brewing coffee in the west. No sir! The dark black elixir is lovingly brewed with the perfect coffee grind and hot water in a coffee filter first thing in the morning and as many times as needed during the day.  And that days first kaapi is readied mixing the boiled milk with the right amount of decoction to suit everyone's caffeine needs. Think 90% or more of milk and about 10% of decoction. The health conscious avoid sugar these days, but this milk-decoction combination, served in a stainless steel tumbler-dabara is something every Tamil enjoys vicariously. Staking claim for the best of the best is Kumbakonam Degree Kaapi, a trademark in its own right.

Should a visitor show up unannounced, they are offered kaapi even before they are offered a place to sit. As they nod yes to the offer, a packet of milk from the fridge goes to the kitchen and in no time, the visitor has a steaming cup of kaapi served traditionally in a tumbler-dabara!

Some families go the extra mile to procure their milk right from the source. By source, I mean a cow or a buffalo. Freshly milked milk from a cow's udder is distributed to those discerning few who are fortunate enough to get it, especially in a city. In rural places, it is easier to find the non-homogenized, un-pasteurized fresh milk than the refrigerated, homogenized, pasteurized ones from Aavin or another local milk aggregator. 

No matter which milk is used, the kaapi ritual stays the same and is repeated as often as needed during the day to get everyone in the family their caffeine fix. This is a ritual that also cuts across economic and social boundaries that may otherwise divide the society.

In a typical TamBrahm family, the story has yet another twist. Boiled milk is cooled slightly and used for making fresh curd. Perhaps not as intense as kaapi, but these folks are proud of their homemade fresh curd without which any meal is considered incomplete. 

Should a day start with the milk packets missing in the bag, frantic calls are made to the vendor while alternate arrangements are made to procure milk from a nearby store. Out of coffee powder? No worries! A quick walk to the neighbor with a request for some coffee powder just to tide over the morning and an unsaid IOU typically takes care of the emergency.


While it is kaapi that Tamils drink, remember, it is made with 90% milk. Every home has its stock of degree blend coffee powder, but milk... To enjoy the caffeine rich sweet elixir, fresh milk is needed every day. So that the aforementioned rituals can go on without interruption. 

Beer, vodka and guinness may qualify as a national drink in their respective countries. None of them have the same involvement that each and every home has in brewing their favorite drink in Tamil Nadu. 

And it is made possible by milk... it does a kaapi good!

Regulated Monopolies for Profit - A Flawed System.

We are in the midst of a four-year drought in California. No one knows if next winter will produce enough rains and snow to break out of it or not. Water usage and conservation have become heavily debated topics, with opinions ranging far and wide. The Governor of California has mandated a 25% reduction in water usage statewide. In this backdrop, our local water supplier, San Jose Water Company, is imposing quotas for residential customers, restrictions on how they can use water and penalties for not complying.

This post is not about the drought and water conservation. I am fully appreciative of the seriousness of the drought. My family has reduced our water consumption by 38% in 2014 (compared to 2013) and we will make every effort to reduce our consumption even more in 2015.

This post is about regulated monopolies in general and San Jose Water Company in particular. Regulated monopolies like PG&E and SJWC serve large customer bases with crucial resources they cannot live without. PG&E supplies electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers – residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural. In California, SJWC supplies water to nearly 230,000 metered connections, serving about a million people. It’s Hobson’s choice for customers who need electricity, natural gas and water in their home or office.

Monopolies like these have their customers by their balls. PG&E and SJWC know it. They probably smile all the way to the bank every month, every quarter, every year, raking in guaranteed revenues.  Consumers supposedly have the Public Utility Commission protecting their interests and regulating rate increases by these monopolies… hence the category regulated monopolies.

I believe regulated monopolies that are for profit is a flawed idea.

AN INEFFICIENT SYSTEM THAT DOESN’T WORK

Let us understand PG&E’s and SJWC’s business. Both businesses involve two key aspects:

1.   Procuring and/or producing the resource: water, electricity or natural gas

2.   Distributing it

PG&E either procures or produces electricity and natural gas; SJWC is a water retailer that procures water from Santa Clara Valley Water District. It would not make sense for multiple companies to run power, water and gas lines to homes and businesses. Because of a need for efficiency, the second aspect of the business, distribution, tends to be a monopoly. The good news is that once the lines are laid, the cost of distribution is relatively flat and fixed over long periods of time.

Procuring and/or producing the resource being distributed have an associated market. For instance, wind, solar or fossil fuel may be used to produce electricity and the cost of electricity produced would be different from each source. Any fluctuation in rates should solely be due to the actual cost of resource being acquired.

Is that indeed the case? I am hard pressed to believe it. Let’s analyze the water retailer, SJWC. For the past five years I’ve been a customer of SJWC, and I’ve seen the water rate go up by 31% on the low end and 46% on the high end. In the same period, SJW’s market cap has gone up by 30%. Between 2012 and 2014 alone, SJW’s revenues have gone up 22% and net income has gone up 132%. All of this happened under CPUC’s watch. For 2015 and beyond, SJWC has proposed three rate increases with CPUC that I am aware of – a surcharge of 3.42% in 2015 (Advice Letter 468), a proposal to increase the rates by 12.22% in 2016, 3.11% in 2017, 5.36% in 2018. A true believer in making hay while the sun shines, SJWC is also proposing drought surcharges of 100% and 200% over and above all these rate increases (Advice Letter 473). CPUC ruling on these rate increases and surcharges is yet to happen as of this writing.

Why do I feel the concept of for profit regulated monopolies is flawed? Not only it is an inefficient system, I also believe it does not work. Let me illustrate by analyzing two applications from SJWC to CPUC.

Per Advice Letter 468, “The CPUC authorized SJWC to establish MCRAMA to track the revenue impact of mandatory conservation upon SJWC’s quantity revenue resulting from mandatory conservation instituted by the State of California and Santa Clara Valley Water District. As directed by the CPUC’s Water Division, the increase will be recovered via a surcharge on the existing quantity rate for a period of 12-months from the date of the CPUC approval.” In this example, CPUC asked SJWC to institute a surcharge; SJWC filed an application with CPUC for authorization to do so. I don’t see any reason for CPUC to refuse this, so this whole process was inefficient if customers were going to be charged a surcharge anyways! Why do we need two organizations to go through this charade?

Let us analyze the General Rate Case increase application 15-01-002. This is the proposal to increase rates in 2016, 2017 and 2018 mentioned earlier. This rate increase is due to the systems and facilities being used by SJWC reaching end of their life. “SJWC is proposing this rate increase due to escalating operating expenses related to water quality and safety requirements, as well as significant system infrastructure replacement requirements as the water system ages over the next several years.” I will again point out that SJW’s net income has gone up from $22m to $51m or by 132% between 2012 and 2014. As a responsible customer, I do not have issues paying for required rate increases. What I fail to understand is how much of this will become SJW’s profits and how much will go to fix the issues mentioned. For that matter, why can the operating margins not be lowered to fix the issues mentioned without passing the buck to the customer? If SJWC were not for profit, the operating margins would be low and a rate increase request such as this would never be viewed with suspicion.

What incentive does a company like SJWC have to provide good service? Absolutely none! Do read the reviews of SJWC on Yelp to get a feel for the kind of customer service you get from them. I attended a meeting with the SJWC’s officials on May 28^th in San Jose. This was supposed to be a meeting with the public to discuss the drought surcharges. SJWC conducted it simply as a per-functionary meeting just to go through the CPUC process. The three representatives took no notes, there was no recording done and no transcript produced, and no consideration was given to the public opinion. To even suggest 100% and 200% surcharges simply indicates to me that SJWC’s interest is not water conservation, but revenue generation.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Any problem can be fixed if we put our minds to it. Let me explore a couple of ways by which we can improve this specific situation.

Do we really need two sets of organizations, one that is for profit, publicly traded and answerable to Wall Street and another that is a government entity overseeing such a company with the primary interest of fairness and protecting consumers? Can’t we have just one organization that is run in a fully transparent manner setting their rates based on the actual cost of procuring the resource, distributing it and operating costs? It is likely that such an outfit may turn out to be a government entity. A segment of the population will shoot down this idea as yet another way of promoting big government and the inefficiencies that come with it.

On the flip side, why can’t we give customers true choice? After all, with fixed distribution costs, one can argue that customers should have the choice to play in the free market of producing and procuring the resource. The other segment of the population will shoot down this proposal, arguing that water, natural gas and electricity are core resources that cannot be given over to complete privatization.

I am sure there are other ways to skin this cat. It would require strong political will to fix this issue, though.

For now, we are stuck with the flawed system of regulated monopolies that are for profit.

One foot here, another foot there… on a road to nowhere. 

A Bird's Eye View of Bay Area

Climbing an 800 year old redwood tree was not in my bucket list. Still, to pass up on an opportunity to climb one and experience an elevated perspective of the world seemed a foolish thing to do. And so, here I was, 8:30 am on a beautiful spring day in the Santa Cruz mountains with 3 other climbers who thought the same way. 

Tim Kovar, the tree climbing expert and his team were there to help us in the venture. Tim and his team educated us on the equipment used for climbing along with all the safety considerations. Fully geared up, we made our way to the base of the tree.

In retrospect, if I had been 10~15 lbs lighter and/or had regularly done strength training, the act of pulling my own weight would’ve been that much easier. The first 5 feet up was the hardest. I had to focus on the new technique that we’d just learned – adjust lower ascender, stand, pull your-self up, adjust upper ascender, sit in the harness – and repeat. After doing it barely a handful of times, I realized that I was not in a good shape, notwithstanding the regular hiking and all. Like I said, strength training and few pounds lighter would’ve been ideal today! Taking more breathers than warranted, I steadily made my way up.

It was great that after every 10 feet or so, the views gently change and at the same time, the ground keeps pulling away from you. I am glad that I don’t have fear of heights; I could enjoy the scenery unfolding as well as feel a sense of accomplishment as things below became smaller and smaller.

The tree was 200 feet tall, with the climb allowing you for reaching up 180 feet. One member in our group made it all the way up 180 feet. I probably managed 100 feet or so before stopping and taking some photographs. My good friend Reed took a video and photo of me, giving me proof that I actually did the climb! Our instructor Tim took some fancy photos with his GPRO camera – and I will add it to the album once he shares it with us.

Where we stopped, Tim showed me the damage a lightning had done to two redwood trees in our vision. It was interesting that the lightning scar stopped abruptly on one tree as the lightning jumped over its neighbor and blew out the top and capping the growth there!

For my rock climbing friends, no, the ascending motions are quite different from those used in rock climbing.  However, descending uses nearly identical techniques. In a short order of few minutes, I found myself back on the ground while the climb up took 90% of the time we spent by the tree.

Our instructor, Tim is an arborist and is the founder of Tree ClimbingPlanet. We were also joined by Cameron, a guru caliber person on redwoods and trees in general. All in on, a wonderful experience, well worth every minute of the time I spent on this. 

Not in bucket list doesn't mean that once completed, you can’t add an entry and check it off... :)

Here are more pictures from the climb, including the short video of the climb from a good friend who also did the climb!

Search for your larger belongingness

Human beings have the compelling need to belong and identify themselves with a group. What is surprising is that even the well-educated, well-traveled , worldly aware and wise  fall prey to the biases of their early upbringing little too easily. I recently read a FB post that was prompted by the Andhra-Telangana split and the possibility that Hyderabad airport may not get named “N.T.R. Airport”. The writer identified himself as a Telugu, seemed to dislike being banded together with south Indians or Tamils and felt comfort in the fact that NTR upped the game for Telugus throughout his career and life. This prompted me to think about belongingness, the benefits of it being a larger group and our own limitations that cause us to default to a smaller group most of time.  Through a subtle shift in our thinking, I bet we can have more success in being more inclusive.

Let me try to explain with an analogy that is not perfect, but may help drive home the point. Talking of home, what exactly is ‘home’ in one’s mind? It could be the house one lives in, the neighborhood where they spend most of the time, the city, the state, the country or even the planet or our galaxy. It all depends on how we view ‘home’ under a specific context. When I pick up my daughter from school some 5 miles away and reach our front driveway, I feel I’ve reached home; when I’m driving back from southern California, entering the outskirts of San Jose or even Gilroy feels ‘home’; when I was on my 48 state road trip, entering California from Nevada felt ‘home’, even though I still had a day’s driving to do; flying back from an international trip, entering the US airspace feels ‘home’. Someday in the near future, seeing Earth from above and entering its atmosphere would feel ‘home’ when completing an interstellar travel. If home could be so many things depending upon our mindset and thinking, why can’t we strive to be more inclusive when it comes to human beings and belongingness? 

Many problems in the world will dissipate if we are able to do that. Before brushing this thought aside as impractical, I urge you explore a way to feel  pride in our nation or language or religion or caste or ethnicity or gender without excluding those who don’t belong in that group. 

Imagine!

When your mind is preoccupied, you don’t see a big red car!

And when you back out your Tesla Model S with your mind preoccupied and don’t see the big red Honda CR-V, you bump into it. It may be a very slow speed impact, but the ding in the Model S tail gate has the potential to give you grief.

Well, that’s what happened to me this morning. To my mind (damn you, limbic system), the red car wasn't even there… it was parked in the car port and not in the driveway.

I have resolved to not let this small bump turn my life upside down. I’m not going to sulk and be irritable; I’m not going to feel miserable by reliving the incident over and over, thinking, “if only…” 

In the larger scheme of things, it doesn't matter.

The ding can stay until I choose to fix it; it’s only a car!

Apollo – sorry I kept you off the Model S until now. You are welcome to take rides in it from now on. What was I thinking…. It’s only a car!

Responsible Capitalism

I attended the People’s Climate Rally at Oakland on Sep 21^st. I wasn’t sure what to expect, after all, it was the first rally I’ve ever attended and the topic itself draws lukewarm response from people, even from those who appear socially responsible.  One could claim the march itself was a tremendous success in NYC where it drew some 400,000 onto the road. Worldwide, it looks like nearly 700,000 people took to the road and participated in regional events. That, however, is a very small percentage of the 7 billion world population.

At Oakland, the rally held in conjunction with the broader event drew a much smaller set; I’d hazard to guess some 1000 people were there. What was interesting to me is that more than half of them were there with a subtly modified agenda. These folks believe the mess we have with the climate change to be a symptom of capitalist excesses and that the fix lays in moving to a socialist alternative.  There were multiple organizations pushing for a “system change, not climate change”. And system change invariably implied embracing socialism instead of capitalism.

Studies have determined that to provide water and sanitation for all in the world, it would take $9B per year. Basic health and nutrition would set one back by $13B per year. And basic education comes with a $6B per year price tag. Without debating about these numbers, let’s for a moment take these studies at face value. In contrast, two of the most profitable oil companies in the USA, Exxon Mobil and Chevron raked in profits of $32B and $21B respectively in 2013. When you look at the basic needs of the large population and contrast it with the profits of a few, you can’t help but wonder if the “system change, not climate change” has something to it. When you consider that profits from just one of oil rich companies could solve all of world’s water, sanitation, health, nutrition & education with $4b to spare, you are forced to step back and reconsider what’s happening around you.  $4b is not chump change in profits, mind you! Some of the most profitable companies in the US,  Exxon, Chevron, Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft and others like them can wipe out lots of world’s woes and yet sport a handsome profit for their shareholders.

If solving big problems were that straight forward, why hasn’t it happened? I’ve often reflected that it is so because we do not have system that promotes responsible capitalism. And what exactly is “responsible capitalism”? Since that is not a well-accepted phrase, I will attempt to outline what I believe it means.

Responsible capitalism is one where we don’t have corporations and individuals fight tooth and nail to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Worse, they don’t resort to exploiting loop holes in tax structures and off shoring profits to avoid paying taxes. 

I know I am opening myself to sharp criticism when I use phrases like “fair share of taxes”.  What is fair share, you ask? Well, ours is a country where laws are laid out based on behavior of “reasonable person”. That’s precisely how a judge explains to a jury how to review a situation at hand. Not how a democrat would behave… or a republican… or a libertarian; not how a rich person would behave… or a poor person; Not how a Christian would behave… or a Hindu… or a Muslim… When defining a reasonable person, we do not worry about their political affiliation, or their economic status, or their religious belief or any of the hundred ways we can categorize, box and stereotype human beings. We simply are expected to understand a “reasonable person”. I implore you to be reasonable as we continue to explore this difficult topic of responsible capitalism.

It is not responsible capitalism when a successful electric car making company negotiates $1.3 billion in tax credits in order to build a battery manufacturing plant in Nevada when the CEO of the company is worth $12 billion himself.

In 1914, when HenryFord doubled the salary of his workers to $5 a day and reduced their work hours to 8 from 9 a day, he practiced responsible capitalism. To put this in perspective, a worker could make $100 a month and the price of a Model T then was about $300.

When we have a system where we do not argue to bitter end about raising the minimum wages to $15 an hour while CEOs make multi-million dollars, we have responsible capitalism. Interestingly a worker would make about $2500 per month if the minimum wage were $15/hour while the price of a small car will set them back by 10 grand, a ratio that is close enough to what existed in 1914.

Responsible capitalism is when an average employee gets an opportunity to partake in the profits and stock appreciation of a company. It certainly is not responsible capitalism if the CEO is awarded 7 million stock options while it is impossible to award 500 stock options to a new employee in the same company.

Responsible capitalism is demonstrating a willingness to be inclusive of others less fortunate than you and providing them an opportunity to get ahead by sharing your good fortune, whether it is knowledge, money or unique skills.

Responsible capitalism is not a cry for socialism. When we are able to put people above politics and profits, we have responsible capitalism.

Fantasy Boarding Announcement

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Welcome to Jet Stream flight JS 678. Your flight will be ready for boarding in few minutes. Please listen to this announcement in its entirety before crowding the boarding area.  I have been told to personally assure you that all of you in the gate area have an assigned seat and no one else is going to usurp it from you; most importantly, the flight isn’t leaving without you.

We will be boarding by many categories. Some have been identified as appropriate by our airlines operations staff; others, we have introduced in keeping with times. Please be assured that each of you will find yourself in one of the categories - do board only when your category is called.

First, we will board families with infants and young children, as well as elderly passengers and others who need special assistance. Right after them, we will welcome families with adorable but not so young children whose parents pretend to have the need for special assistance for them.  Alongside, we will accept somewhat elderly looking but perfectly able people who try to masquerade as disabled passengers.

Next, we will welcome our first class and Titanium class members of our frequent flyer program. Please give room for the Titanium frequent flyers, they demand their well-earned privilege and will rip us apart if something were not to happen to their satisfaction.  By us, I mean not just us airlines staff, but potentially you as well. For your own safety, if not for ours, please, stay away from them.

Business class passengers and Zirconium class frequent flyers will board next. Everything I said about Titanium class frequent flyers is applicable for this group too. Let’s give them their space, shall we?

Helium class members will be invited to board next. If I told you to be scared of our elite Zirconium and ultra-elite Titanium class frequent flyers, I’d say be terrified of the Helium class folks. They are Zirconium and Titanium wannabes, but at this time,  just a lot of hot gas. Consequently, they tend to be explosive. As a rule of thumb, just stay away from our road warriors. You don’t think earned the title of warriors for no reason, did you?

We will board by zones following these elite members. We do believe the zones are a good way to efficiently board. When Zone 1 passengers are called, we also will accept Zones 2, 3, 4 & 5 passengers who ignore everything around them by pretending to listen to music and sneak past us. Likewise, when we call Zone 2, we will accept Zones 3, 4 & 5 passengers as well, this time employing alternate tricks such as being engrossed in the book they are reading.  Zones 3, 4 & 5 will follow them. But who cares, right? The boarding area typically is near empty by this time. It’s as though a significant portion of our passengers have a sudden loss of comprehension of English language.

When I call Zone 5, if anyone is actually left in the boarding area, I’ll be damned! Do you realize you are the true elite? You haven’t lost your ability to understand English; you have infinite patience that will come in handy every day of your life. I bet you are truly satisfied and happy with life and take things in your stride with a smile in your face.  I will personally ensure your hand luggage finds place inside the cabin – our airline has an area by the first class cabin earmarked for your luggage! Tell you what, we will give a free round trip ticket in our airline to anywhere we fly.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jet Stream flight JS 678 is now ready to board.