student defines the teacher

Its summer time and the water is warm. This is the time to start your swimming again. Jispa was telling me that you will now struggle with your water feel and you will not enjoy the swim if you restart swimming after a long time. She is right. Water feel is a real issue in swimming. You tend to get water feel after a few swims and you get a feel of the water as you glide past pushing it behind. It’s like timing in cricket, there is no way to get it by theory but when you do get it you realize you have the gift and then you keep going. After a layover many batsmen work on it in the nets to get the timing and then they struggle to retain it. The batsman who are called gifted are the ones who just have it in them from the start and seem to effortlessly get it at all times. They may not score runs but they always time the ball and hence we call them gifted. I think water feel is the swimming equivalent of being in form and timing the ball.

I have always struggled getting back into the water and getting back into top shape. Somehow the water doesn’t feel right and the body doesn’t respond well to it. I end up struggling to hit the level of work out performance that I was capable of before the break. It was very difficult for me to understand it but Jispa summed it up pretty amazingly for me and called it water feel.

I entered the water and swam with Jispa for a while. She is a joy to watch in the water that she makes her own. While I swim on the surface of the water she will dive and swim under me with her face to me and keep blowing bubbles while kicks and moves ahead. It’s a really funny sight. Then I told her to see me swim and help me correct my strokes. I was pretty impressed by her instant correction points. Among other things she told me not to fight water. “don’t fight water. Let it flow easily. Remember Finding Nemo movie which said – fish are friend not food. Similarly Water is your friend not your enemy. Don’t fight it. Be smooth. Get your motions to be smooth.” She was right. I was pushing water to get ahead. I was trying to hold water and get it behind me. Then I understood a bit about the legs movement and I found myself moving quite faster and more “fludically” than before. Nice.

The best part was not just being able to swim better but the fact that Jispa now could simply see me and correct me at a very, can I say philosophical level? Not just the techincals of pulling the hand through, kicking in a particular way or something, but moving while not fighting water. That was one of the best advice I have ever received while swimming. Don’t fight the water. Now every time I enter the water, I will swim knowing that I need fight water but work with it. Water is not my enemy, it is my friend; and that this was taught to me by my daughter. These learnings are worth their emotional and technical weight.

Then she showed me something she figured about doing in water. She went to the bottom of the pool and faced up, and then she blew bobbles in the form of rings. These rings would then float to the surface. It was awesome. I loved that she could do that. I too tried to do it and after a few tries I did a swell job as well. Jasmine, as the judge agreed, that my rings looked rounder than hers. That felt good.

As a teacher, I think the best thing is when your kids teach you more and help you understand more. You love a kid who questions you and then applies your learnings and pushes you to do better. And then you get the feedback that this learning was applied here and this was the result. Teaching without learning and learning without application is pretty much useless. You have to constantly apply and see the result of your actions. That is good learning. I have taught so many kids over the last 14 odd years. I remember that I first started teaching when Jasmine was pregnant with Jispa. Over the years, I have taught scores of kids and tried to explain various different concepts to them. I don’t know what all I have taught but I hope that some kids take away something interesting from all that. Some lesson that must have struck some bell at some point. God only knows where and what. I see teaching as a kind of social service or a social good. It is my way of giving back to society something in a meaningful way. I hate giving money away for anything. I prefer giving time and energy and knowledge. This true giving. Money seems to be the simplest way but it’s not what I want.

One kid who worked at my friends start up, got friendly with me as we worked professionally. AS she realized that I taught at schools, she wanted to accompany me there and learn from my lectures. I was happy to have her join the class. Looking at her even Jispa joined in.  This kid seemed different. She had a curiously strong urge to learn a lot and start applying. She listened made notes and then started discussing my lectures with her colleagues and started applying stuff at work. This was interesting and incredibly rewarding. She would tell me on how what I taught was applied by her and how it affected her work and her colleagues. How this enriched her environment and her job. That felt nice. Slowly an acquaintance became a student and now a friend. I am sure as she grows older and in stature the relationship will be grow more equal. Today one of my best buddies is one lady who worked with me around ten years ago – Sonal Shah. She too learnt a lot from me and I learnt a lot from her. We have been with each other many times and I have even rehired her when I moved to a new role.

These experiences helped shape me and give the joy from teaching. Some kids will remember me and some will forget me and some will curse me (hopefully few here). But at the end – if I can make a difference to at least one in a class who can then affect others in turn and start a possible chain reaction – that will be just so awesome.

Today in the morning while I was in the Gymkhana early after dropping Jispa, I realized that it was the birthday of this new kid who has been attending my lectures. I hate wishing happy birthday. It’s something stupid and highly impersonal. I like writing a note. And when you have had a groggy night thanks to the AC being switched off and then on again, with the fan being full (that’s a old grouse with my wife), one tends to get a little philosophical. And with that mood I wrote her a note.  A long one for whatsapp. But I thought it merited being reproduced here. It has enough lessons for me and for those who read it and for it to be passed on. Here, groggy mornings can produce philosophers. (I think I think best in my half dreams and in long showers. Really. Seriously)

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Hey kid. I am not the one who likes wishing on birthdays. I don't do that. I think it's stupid and a complete waste of time and energy. Too many jokers who don't mean anything to me catch me and wish me and appear to love me. Aaahhh.. but then don't let the cold of a damp 41 year old put water on the red enthusiasm of a young 28 year old. (Did I get the age right).

Enjoy your birthday and your life. You have been an amazingly great student for me. At some core level, I have found greatest joy in teaching and imparting my learnings to people around me, that I care about and those that care about me. In you I see someone who just wants to squeeze maximum possible from me. That encourages me a lot. And in teaching you, in talking to you, in discussion with you, I end up learning a whole lot myself. I learn about my thoughts and that of a young turk. These thoughts are invaluable as they are considered and honest. It's like a game I loved playing as a kid. I would fling a crazy ball against the wall in the house and try and catch it on the return. I would then impart spin to it and throw it and the catch it. It was tough and an amazing fun game to play. I hope u know what a crazy ball is and what happens when u fling it at a wall, with spin.

As you grow older you will realise that you have a debt to pay. If I were to listen to you then you have a debt to pay on my account. I seemed to have taught you a lot. My great guru, Dharen, never asked me for anything but I still want to give me my right thumb. So, I think the best way to pay him is to teach the world to be more considerate marketers, and through that change the world. I think he would appreciate that the most.

Funnily, as I pay my debt in this way, it gives me greater learning and greater Joy and the act of paying off the debt makes it paradoxically larger. So, I have to pay it more and more. Never did I realise that paying off an EMI on an usury would be so much rewarding.

Creating such a debt made my life rewarding. Very rewarding. It allowed me to connect to lovely people like you and some others as well as not so lovely people who turned out quite caustic in the end. But even a fire that signed the child left him a message.  But like we all know the reward of playing with fire more than compensates for the occasional burn.

I hope you find your debt and u find paying it rewarding.  I wish you many such debts of joy. To receive and to repay. Hopefully they add meaning to your life the way they added meaning to mine. And Dharen doesn't even know it that he can create an angulimal from my many thumbs.

I wish I could wished for everlasting happiness and live and everything that a fairy can offer. I am no fairy and you are no doe in front of headlights.

Birthdays are a good time to be philosophical, both from a receiver and a giver perspective. They have their uses afterall. A time to reflect and to ponder. But then, not too much. It's more a time to soak in all the unwanted, unrequited, unreal and unfelt love as well. There is perverse joy in that as well. Enjoy that while the optimism of youth is yet unscratched by the cynicism of grey.

So that's it. If u reading till here and you have reached here without a yawn drawing tears and making it blurry, I think I have possibly conveyed what I needed to. Not wisdom but experience.

There... Pass it on, no backs. (Did you girls play this game)?

Enjoy.

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You never know which lesson will come handy.

“May you live in interesting times”. Said to be (probably apocryphal) a Chinese curse. Times of peace and tranquility and boredom are possibly best for quality of life. Life without issues, innovation, pressure is a boring lovely simple life. Hah! That is a 41 year old talking. The same thing as a 14 year old would be a life with nothing new to look forward to. How is a life, sans pressure and change worth living is it? Wouldn’t we all want to live in interesting times. Where productivity is constantly increasing and change is helping us lead more meaningful and sweetly ripe lives. Ya, I for now like to live in interesting times as things change around me, as I understand this change and get a ring side view of the changes and their impact on people and interplay of the characters. I was lucky to have been born in 1975. Which meant I was the one who entered college when liberalization started and exited when its impact was in full flow. Today I am seeing the impact of internet and mobile penetration in the country and how its changing the landscape. It an era that looks like massive change is coming and it’s going to sweep everyone off.

Many years ago, I read a book by John Nasbitt called Mindset. It was quite an interesting book and it talks about predicting the future from current news, science and trends. I don’t remember most of the book (like always) but one lesson stuck tight in the head. Most of the trends that really matter to us over the long term are hidden in the inside pages of a newspaper and never on the front page. Yes, I agree. Change happens in small increments and over a long period of time. Suddenly the tipping point comes in and it looks like a rapid sudden change. The internet first wave came in the year 2000 and I rode that wave for some time and worked in a few start-ups. I saw that internet was changing the world and that crazy things would happen, but the advent of the mobile internet and apps put the dam thing on steroids. The most interesting disruption that affected a lot of our lives was the advent of App based taxi servces, especially Uber.

Every commuter, including me hailed Uber as the solution to all issues. This was the best thing ever. In Mumbai we were victims of the taxi mafia, that had a few things to do with regulation and a few thanks to lack of competition (of course both are interconnected). You wouldn’t be able to get a taxi when you wanted and whenever you got one, he would first ask where you wanted to go and then refuse to go in that direction. The cars were in horrible condition, the government refused to allow AC to be run in the taxis. For AC taxis they gave out separate permits. These were called cool cabs. These were the ultimate jokes. These taxis only plied from the airport and were stationed near the five star hotels. They also invariably refused small fares and were typically employed by either shopping seduced NRIS or foreign nationals. The meters of these were completely rigged and would show some random price, which was up to 3 x of the real rate. The humble black and yellow taxis also tended to have rigged meters and whenever I used to take one from the airport, I would get an inflated price after which I would fight and pay only the normal fare and walk away. Taxis were so broken down that they could be considered dilapidated. You could see the road down from a few holes in the floor of the cabs. Serious. They were that bad.

On the side lines, the government had given permission to launch AC call cab services. Here you could call and book your cab in advance. These cars were decent looking and maintained and theoretically they could be flagged down anywhere on the roads. Slowly these too gravitated towards airport pickups and drops and five star hotels. You could call for a cab and book in advance only to be told later that there was no cab to be found at your appointed hour. Even at the airport one had to wait in a line before one could book the cab. It was a great step forward but it still wasn’t enough.

So, when Uber launched in Mumbai, it was a crazy dream for the commuters. Good, new cars were on the road. You could load the wallet with money and then order a car from app. You could see that the pricing was competitive and that you could get the taxi confirmed without telling him in advance where you wanted to go. You simply booked and sat. The app became so good, that you could book your car on the phone and reach your destination without ever speaking to the driver. The location was prefixed and the wallet was loaded. No need to speak to anyone. You could see your taxi in real time and it was supposedly the safe and best way to ride.

It broke the back of the normal black and yellow cabs. Being subsidized (read predatory pricing), the rates were awesome and people rushed to download the app. Usage went through the roof. Airport pick up and drop was a breeze. People were happy and could show the middle finger to all normal taxis. I remember going to Hyderabad a year and a half ago and being completely independent of the completely fraudulent rickshaw drivers. I roamed around in Hyderabad in a taxi at the same cost of a metered rickshaw. Of course no rickshaw would go on meter and invariably you have to haggle your way everywhere. The world had just become a little smaller.

The promise of unbridled capitalism had benefited the common man. But like all unbridled capitalism, there were consequences to be had. The party on free flow of funds had to stop sometime. The crazy demand had created crazy supply. Uber and their Indian rival Ola, went all out to woo the Indian drivers. They wanted more and more taxis on the road. Drivers at the start were making unheard figures of 90 thousand or so a month. More and more drivers came in form villages and started driving their cabs. Some smart ones, expanded their fleet. On the back of robust income streams these drivers started having robust credit scores and the credit poured in. Fueled by a small upfront investment and a seemingly unending source of business cash flow, you could become a driver owner at worst or a fleet owner at best. Adam Smith’s invisible hand started to play havoc. The demand for drivers meant that driver salaries went up. In the last two year’s I would reckon that the salary went up by 1.5X at the minimum. Slowly more and more cabs started coming on the streets. To ensure enough cars everywhere, Uber had a surge pricing system where if there was demand and not enough supply, they would increase the pricing (surge pricing) to tempt more cars to reach the areas that are underserviced. The consumers had a chance to book or wait till more cabs hit and reduce the surge in the area. This caused dissonance with the users who thought that it was unfair.

Taxis also were being pressed into service which were actually tourist taxis and were on the fine line of the law, if they could be considered as everyday call taxis.

Of course a lot of good things happened, economy wise. First of all, a large part of the business became legit. Taxi drivers were till now an all cash business. They would earn all their income in cash and possibly never ever filed a tax return. Being outside of the system, they would be ineligible for credit and therefore were forced to be on the fringes of society. Uber allowed them the opportunity to legalise their entire business model and therefore access finance and grow.

With more and more taxis hitting the street, different sets of issues started cropping up. These guys were so many in number that civic planning became chaotic. With access to cheap cabs more people started to use it to commute to work. Traffic was full of Uber cars choking the road. While the consumers demanded it, at a fundamental level, the playing field was lopsided in favour of the app cabs. They could charge free fares which the black and yellow taxis couldn’t. So, they could benefit from surge. Second - parking spots for black and yellows were designated. That’s where they could park and wait for customers. These Uber taxis could wait anywhere, and they did. They would invariably wait around the roads causing jams. An Uber waiting or wanting to search for a customer would keep moving slowly till he found his customer, fundamentally slowly down the traffic for the rest on the road.

In the middle, an Uber driver raped a girl in Delhi and the world realized that these drivers need proper verification as the alleged rapist was a known criminal on the loose. Just because you can track someone doesn’t mean you can’t be harmed from them.

The point of all this history isn’t to document this but to learn interesting lessons from this. When regulations happen they invariably choke the system and give consumers a shitty service, but when capitalism is left unchecked, equally great ills can be unleashed in the form of unintended consequences. False predatory pricing brought a lot of credit fuels cars on the road, but when the pricing stops as it nears it real value, these drivers will be held to a lower income stream and a mountain of debt. Its already started happening. Now an Uber driver will tell you that today he receives only 4 to 5 trips a day compared to the 10, 11 earlier. He hardly got any surge pricing benefits now days as you see Uber cars everywhere. Debt servicing is going to be an issue.

The government has woken up to this service and is now trying to regulate it. It is trying to put in pricing curbs and some other rules like regulating car color.

This is interesting. The swings are happening real time. The consequences of market forces coming together and partying are causing hangovers. Suddenly, you will have lesser cars in response to lesser demand thanks to increase in price. What will happen to the drivers? What will happen to these excess cars? What will happen to roads, parking and commute?

Fun things I assume. In many countries, private drivers can work their cars as Uber cars during their spare time. That is another level of complication being built into the economics of car ownership and commute.

The point here is simple. There are two sides of the coin. If the government interferes then it’s an issue; if it lets the private enterprise go unchecked, the issues are of another scale. This is not simply a government versus non-government issue. It is an issue of intervention. Any intervention, big or small has consequences, intended or unintended. Things move crazy after a small change in initial condition. I think it’s called the chaos theory. Here large changes in final outcome can be attributed to small changes in initial conditions. We argue and argue on so many small and big issues. We seem to understand all the issues and then we give our opinions on it. Life has taught me that issues are not straightforward. They have choices and choices and thenthe decision tree rapidly multiplies and assumptions start taking over. SO much so that after a point guessing is worse than tossing a coin.

All of what is happening at Uber is simple and possibly one could have explained it, with the benefit of hindsight. But it’s almost impossible to figure it as foresight. We get lost in the waves of optimism around us. All will be well. We argue (me included) that private enterprise is good and must be free. Sure – it must be free’er’ than where it is today but it cannot simply be unchecked. Then the problem is who is to check it? The authority in any case doesn’t understand it. None of us – including the authority or the entrepreneur knows the game more than two steps ahead. In such a scenario, how can you plan so far in advance. And when you do plan in advance, you will invariably start glossing over small details that will make significant impacts over a period of time.

When the Uber frenzy was happening and drivers were earning 90k a month and above, I too felt like getting into the bandwagon. Whats wrong with this? One car costs around six hundred thousand. That’s at best 8 months for profit to keep rolling in. And people like me have good credit history and with a good balance sheet, I can leverage and expand like crazy. It’s a story that too good to be true. I knew one thing – if anything is true good to be true – it isn’t.  there is always something up. If there is free money then there will be a flock of vultures making a cacophony attracting other vultures. Soon enough there won’t be any meat left for any of the vultures. There can’t be free money for long. Especially if it is capitalist money. Government money can be free for much longer. Corruption, lethargy and smoke can ensure you have a sweet spot for a longtime to come. But definitely not open market money. It comes with risk. For me the biggest risk was simple – government. Here I knew that the government would get involved and at worst – ban it all and at best – regulate it to a jam. It cannot grow thus for long. I never reached the free money fallacy on this deal in advance. I never got there. I think I too was swayed by it all.

This is the fun bit when you live in interesting times. You see economics 1.0 being played out over your life. It is the greatest lesson that you can learn. Free! You just have to look around and make mental models of what’s happening.  Life has enough to teach you. That’s why it’s amazing to have a conversation with an older experienced person who is able to retain his /her memory and give you the benefit of their life. Simple stories make a huge learning experience. My favorite one is how one friend running a premium saree shop explained that the Ahmedabad airport opening up reduced his sales in Mumbai as the gujju NRI’s simply took the direct flight there and skipped Mumbai altogether.

Parenting is also complex. Here only time will tell how much of a effect does chaos theory have on the child. Small decisions like schooling, neighborhood, choice of sport, movies etc have an impact on the child as it grows into an adult. Who knows what the consequences are. That’s why parents who like to have a greater control over their child’s future will sweat hard over agonizingly simple decisions. Long term decisions with limited data. A simple act of choosing our child’s play dates can have different consequences than what we can imagine. Yet we have no choice but to choose.

It’s the classical Keynesian versus Hayekian model for economics. Should I or the government interfere or should it be free to grow. Left free, over a period of time, the people find amazing things to do and innovate. But in the long run, we are all dead. And the actions affect us or the people we love. Can we but not interfere and try and guide it to the place we want it to sit. Can we simply just sit back and say – lets see where it goes. If it gets too ugly, I can always get in. It’s not so simple. Like in the Uber case – you don’t know how ugly is ugly. Suppose Uber folds shop world over, my assumption is that an app based taxi concept will remain. Someone else will come in but the demand may not be that much. What happens to all the taxis drivers. All the credit guys who put in the money. How do they make good? It takes a few taxi drivers to commit harakiri – a strike (which we have seen), violent protests, immolation and suicide. What gives then? Who is to answer. The commuter enjoyed his ride in an AC cab for cheap. The irritating black and yellow cab driver got shown his place, and the driver too enjoyed higher wages and a chance to be the boss himself. When the party is over, the hangover hurts.

Jispa is growing up now. Its good fun. She is close to us, we enjoy hugging her and we like her close. We like that thanks to our protection (read the alst post) she remained safe and happy – ok – not happy completely but atleast no real bad things happened. But then what are the long term consequences. I don’t know. Plus, I have only one kid. I can’t even learn and improve on this. What to do.

That’s why I like economics. At the base level its simple. And it helps understand life. I wish Jispa reads a lot of my books and a million more of hers as well. You never know which lesson will come handy.