काश

काश  हम इतने अलग ना होते 
 यु ही तुम  को बीच  राह में ना  खोते 

चलना  तो चाहा  था  बहुत दूर साथ 

पर  यु हम थक कर ना सोते ।

बेवजाह दूरिया और दूर ले गयी 

अरसे भर की तमन्ना भी इंतज़ार से रो गयी 

ढूँढा तो बहुत था उनको हर चोराहे  पर 

पर शायद निराश नन्ही ख्वाहिशे भी खो गयी ।

सब कुछ पाना कब जरूरी है 

पर ज़िद की ऐसी क्या मजबूरी है 

और अब तो खो गए है हम भी 

किस्मत की शायद यही मंजूरी हैं ।

ऐ दिल ले चल कहीं

ऐ  दिल ले चल कहीं 

जहा भीड़ की परछाई भी नहीं 

और ये तन्हाई भी नहीं

ले चल मुझे वहा बस 

जहा अंगड़ाई लेती ख़ामोशी भी नहीं 

और गूंजते ठहाके भी नहीं 

 ऐ दिल मेरे दिल ले चल कही 

बहुत दूर कहीं.........। 

पागल परिंदे

बस चंद लम्हे आराम और करने दो

तपती धूप से शाम होने दो

दिल मे जो ख्वाहिशे है बेतहाशा 

कुछ ख्वाहिशे तो पूरी करने दो|

डरावना सा यह लंबा सफ़र है 

मुसाफिर भी नहीं कोई साथ है

और काली घटा है फैली चारो ओर 

पंख है थके और नयना भी हैरान है|

होठ चाहे कितना भी कहारयेगे 

कुछ और दूर तो चले ही जाएगे

पागल परिंदे है हम आवारा

इन वादियो को पीछे छोड जाएगे||

KWEST Switzerland: Rockin Interlaken

It's been almost two months since I started my MBA at Kellogg School at Management and it has been an amazing roller-coaster ride with only upward trajectory. The journey started with an amazing KWEST trip to Switzerland and it was so much fun that I felt that it can't be put into words until two my KWEST friends did it and did it nicely, though not completely! Hence I decided to repost their article here. Thanks Nick and Jeremy for writing this great write up.

KWEST Switzerland:  Rockin Interlaken- Jeremy Fiser & Nick Rowland

In August, a group of 24 Kwestees invaded Switzerland, ironic given the country’s famed neutrality.  Armed with five stellar leaders and nineteen perfect strangers, KWEST Switzerland (“K Swiss”) arrived with one objective: To Rock Interlaken.  Upon arrival, we wasted no time and embarked upon a vertical march up the Harder Klum, an unbeknownst test of the endurance required for the week.  That night, K Swiss congregated in the lobby of the finest hostel in Interlaken and created “Big Booty” (ask any K Swiss member how the game goes), a raucous drinking game that on more than one occasion landed K Swiss on the bad side of the hostel’s overly attentive Russian bouncers.  K Swiss kept the “Baton tradition” alive, and potentially took it to new levels (spoiler alert – if while drinking you see any K Swiss member with a baton, run).  Casually hungover, K Swiss went canyoning the next morning through the valleys of Interlaken and met the now cult favorite guide Simon, the overly enthusiastic outdoor guide (You will hear impersonations of Simon from K Swiss members: “GUYS…WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO NOW IS JUMP OFF THE LEDGE….”).  While canyoning the glacial runoff, K Swiss invented what is now known as the “Neutral Dance” (see Hearne or Glicken for a demonstration). After our first (10 minute) break, K Swiss then zipped through the tree tops of Interlaken, tackling a ropes course that took Kwestees fifty feet in the air with nothing but a carabineer and “social proof” from preventing a fateful slip (note: dynamite usage of a MORS 430 term).  That night, the K Swiss crew was hosted at the finest restaurant in Interlaken, at least the finest that we could afford (thanks all-time high CHF/USD exchange rate) to nourish ourselves for the task the next day:  glacier hiking and ice climbing.  Upon being informed by our guide (a Nordic pirate with a mullet and fantastic ‘stache) that little kids can do this, K Swiss’ confidence was at an all-time high… until we were lowered 50 feet into a crevice of the glacier and asked to climb out with only shoe spikes and an ice axe. While looking over the glaciers out upon the beautiful mountains of Switzerland, a few thoughts crept into our minds:  1) We are all in terrible shape; 2) Hangovers and ice climbing mix poorly; 3) I don’t think Evanston looks like this; and finally 4) Who are these people?  Thankfully, the Big Reveal was only a day away. But, before that, there was a murder!  K Swiss held an 80’s murder mystery party, laden with mixed messages and mixed drinks, all encouraged to help solve the mystery of “whodunit”.  After a free day, which created various levels of nervousness for the leaders, K Swiss found out who all these people were.  Shockingly, most of the group used to be consultants (no one saw that coming).  Also, beyond the belief of most Kwestees, apparently our leader Brooke “Ternes” is “married” to Ameed Mallick, or so we’re told.   The next day, KSwiss bid adieu to Interlaken and neutrally moved to Zurich (having no collective opinion on the matter).  While in Zurich, K Swiss swam in Lake Zurich, lounged in the parks, ate at the finest bier halls, and congregated in the city’s famed “casual drinking squares”.   

On what was to be the last night, we aggressively partied at Zurich’s #1 (potentially only) disco roller rink club all decked out in white (thankfully before Labor Day).  With bottle service and roller skates, DJ Matt Kawadlar treated the crew to his famed free style rap.  With these tunes in the background, we were all taught the “Barry Sherman,” a South African dance craze bound to sweep through The Keg any day. Despite best efforts, we returned to our hostel safely expecting to fly home the next morning, but we all had yet to meet Hurricane Irene.  While most international travelers were distraught by the havoc and delays, K Swiss was happy to spend one more day in glorious Switzerland, if nothing else to sleep off the hangover and reflect on our victory knowing that we’d just been on the best KWEST trip (a fittingly neutral perspective).  

Coming out of the "Shell"

After long 4 years and 8 months, I bid adieu to Shell, atleast for next two years to pursue higher education at Kellogg School of Management. My journey with Shell spanned over 4 years, four assignments, 3 countries and 3 businesses covering Coal Gasification, LNG and GTL. Out of these, last year was probably most enriching experience as it gave me an opportunity to closely witness a 20 billion dollar plant, biggest so far in the industry and that exposed me to so many different aspects of a massive construction site. This site was so massive that every month steel equivalent to 2.5 Eiffel tower was being erected and the construction has been on for the past 4 years!

It has been a roller coaster ride full of fun, friendships and sporadic periods of frustrations but there is no second opinion that past four and a half years taught me a lot. It gave me the opportunity to meet so many people from so many countries that I shall always cherish it. While with Shell, I visited around 19 countries in 3 continents for leisure and business and enjoyed every bit of it. Even in my final farewell party at Pearl GTL, there were 11 nationalities in a total of 19 people who were there. During past four and a half years, I met few people whom I can never forget (even if I wish to) in a positive way.

Other thing I will always miss is the great work life balance Shell offers to its employees. It was only during my stint with Shell that I picked three of my most important hobbies which include Guitar, Tennis and Travelling. It's hard to believe that anyone having a full-time job could pick up hobbies like guitar and tennis from scratch in parallel and pursue them.

Barring few frustrating experiences, over all Shell has been a positive experience for me but now I really look forward to exploring a bigger and newer world outside my "shell".

Renewable Energy in India - Still a long way to go

When I read the news that under Gujarat solar power policy 2009, Gujarat government is planning to set up a solar park capable of 500 Mw within two years, I really felt excited that at least one state government is thinking with a vision (click to open the link). I have always wondered why can't states like Rajasthan and Gujarat (and to some extent also Haryana & Punjab) invest heavily in wind and solar energy.

Though initially costly, they definitely can contribute greatly to reduce the high power deficit the country faces. More so for state like Rajasthan, which lack any other significant natural resources except for wind, solar energy and ofcourse 30k barrels/day of sour crude, this is a huge business opportunity. Alas, only if the state government finds time to think beyond Jat, Gujjar and Rajput reservations and agitations!

A quick look at the proposed solar park project in Gujarat shows that it is going to cost around Rs 15 cr of capex to produce a Mw of electricity. A gross estimate tells us each Mw of installed nuclear power capacity costs Rs 20 cr and traditional coal fired power capacity costs Rs 4-5 cr. This means that solar power is roughly 4 times as expensive as traditional coal fired power but 25% less costly than the nuclear power, strongly advocated by current government. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have no qualms about setting up nuclear power plants but we need to utilize all the available options optimally, which include wind, solar and also thorium based hybrid nuclear reactors, to meet our ever increasing energy demand.

Though central government has displayed some lofty ambitions in renewables through policy statements such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, five year plans etc, the actual exploitation of potential remains a mirage. The plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013 and up to 20,000 MW grid-based solar power, 2,000 MW of off-grid solar power and cover 20 million sq metres with collectors by the end of the final phase of the JNS mission in 2020 remains poorly executed. The performance in wind sector is not as abysmal and India has the fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world but no where close to the actual potential the states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, TN and Karnataka offer.

I again stress here that if we have to match our continuously increasing energy needs, it's high time we abolish our fragmented approach to energy sector. I feel we need to abolish separate petroleum ministry, renewable ministry, coal ministry, power ministry, atomic ministry and what not and set up a responsible Energy ministry capable of taking a holistic view. If all the above mentioned ministries are essential to satisfy the "coalition dharma", how about setting up an umbrella ministry over and above these ministries that can work on all available sources under one roof. We need to develop a master-plan that provides a guideline on how we want to configure our energy basket over the next few decades with a proper mix of all easily available options.

Energy Scenarios: Juggling with the Good, Bad & Ugly

The recent events including the "Arab Spring", that continues even in the harsh middle-east summers, particularly in Libya leading to a major disruption in the supply side of the crude, recent disagreements over future course of action among OPEC nations and IEA releasing 60 million BOE into the markets to "cool off" the prices show only one thing; the future climate for energy market is going to be much more challenging and haphazard than most predicted.

Good
Everyone's long loved and admired sources of "good" energy such as wind, solar and bio-fuels are yet to take off from the ground despite all the efforts of IPCC and Greenpeace (link). While the technical feasibility of varying degrees has been demonstrated for all of them, the cost effectiveness and willingness of policy makers to make some serious efforts to promote a shift towards them remains a major question. Whatever the IPCC's report may say, I am quite not convinced that policymakers will do anything drastic to support renewables over easily and cheaply (yes you read correctly!) available crude elsewhere. However, the growth rate of renewables will continue to be impressive mainly because of a lower denominator and they will continue to be a small component of the world's energy basket.

Bad
To add to the concerns of the major governments, already grappling hard with the issues related to energy security, the recent Japan nuclear crisis has taken sheen off a major option that was available to them. The first government to respond was Germany, which decided to get away with nuclear power all together! This also leaves the plans of countries like India and China in teeters as they were banking heavily on substituting part of their growing energy demand with nuclear. I feel while some advocates will continue to support nuclear, selling it to the public will be more difficult for the governments and the growth rate of this industry will continue to limp till people forget about Japan's crisis.

Ugly
I feel the ugly/polluting fossil fuels will continue to rule the roost. Till you can dig a bore in the ground (no matter where and how deep) and tap easily palatable energy, getting away with fossils is unforeseeable. While lot of advancements such as efficiency, optimization, non-conventionals (GTL/Coal Gasification/CBM/Shale) and production enhancement technologies will improve this sector further, the carbon based economy of all the major countries will dictate the continued dominance of fossil (Oil, Gas & Coal) sector.

I feel while everyone would want to shift to the renewables completely, it is not going to happen for next several decades. The large percentage of energy demand would still be met by fossils. In such a scenario, the governments and policy makers need to focus on improving the efficiencies in this sector and support the innovation to best utilize the existing resources. As for nuclear, its a necessary devil that we have to live with but whom we can't love. Anyways, it can never be about choosing between Good, Bad or Ugly, it just about juggling with them and juggling better!