Japan 2011 nature strikes back

JAPAN 2011: NATURE STRIKES BACK
Respecting Nature’s abundance and lessons for India
info@pentaclepowerengg.com
2011

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For my children, business associates, relatives and friends
‐ an insight by Yogesh Bahadur, Managing Director, Pentacle Energy & Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi

Sir Christopher Columbus would have been quite unaware of a Tsunami, when many centuries ago he
challenged ocean fury and sailed off to find spice and glory of India and came across unexplored lands across
the world. Many years before him, a certain Mr. Galileo while defining measurements on earth and universe,
would not have dreamt that earth’s axis would shift due to momentum of earthquakes deep below the oceans
and the thrust of the waves to change geography and humanity in a matter of hours and minutes (I presume!).
Charles Darwin had after all, engraved in our minds, that Nature’s evolution goes slow and at far less than a
snail’s pace; which is all in the end, just a matter of perspective.
The Dragon and the Loch Ness monster have after all raised their heads this March of 2011 and brought us back
to thinking that fiction is closer to reality than we tend to believe within our modern day offices and business
philosophy that revolves around profits and only profits ‐ annual, quarterly, daily and hourly as measurements
become that easy with real‐time computing.
Also, Mr. Columbus would not have known that the very people whom he provided hope to start new lives in a
newfound land we call America, far away from whatever injustice they were running from then, had gone on to
build the fastest growing commercial society through a phase of playing Cowboys and Indians, to having
transformed the very way society would go on to think. Mr. Abraham Lincoln and the many Presidents down
the line will shape progress and that making money was neither un‐Godly, nor a matter of shame. Call it a
Capitalist state or a progressive society that gave equal opportunity of success to anyone who wanted to
succeed, the American way had caught the imagination of the world into the 21st
century; be it the agility that
comes from wearing Levy Strauss jeans or the fastest snack in form of a McDonald’s Hamburger.
Only, it so happens, that somewhere along the way, another kind of people was challenging that process; even
though they did not disregard the jeans and hamburgers (for too long at least!). The Chinese and Russians were
building a philosophy of ‘power to people’ where people at one time in history were peasants, until America
made them ‘people’ too. There were the Germans, who found an unusual leader in Hitler, who would change
the world and way Americans, Europeans and rest of the world together were thinking in yet another sweep of
history, until the world could heave a sigh of relief in realization that evil does get destroyed by good after all!
But all kinds of civilized generations that defined “change” within the micro‐interests of world civilizations got
defeated (or transformed) in one way or the other, sometime or another, through revolutions and uprisings
that are the most boring phases of History for your school‐kids and mine for all times; but which teach us all the
same, that the man himself will not change in some ways at least: (A) Greed (B) Hunger for more (C) I, me, the
myself being prime concerns in quest for POWER!

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Man’s quest never stopped even after defining presence of every inch of the globe and universe. Once we have
“known”, the next quest is to “own” and what we cannot have naturally, we must have by force. Bloody wars
are history, even 10th
class educated in New Delhi 2011 can take to murder as natural consequence; we have
power to annihilate and even evaporate an entire section of civilization, if the desire becomes so strong.
Living in America around the eighties, I bought a used Honda car and finding that I had to pay a fortune for
spare parts of a Japanese car, I complained to the service manager about high prices of Honda spares. His reply
was “Remember Pearl Harbor?” An Indian guy in America dare not smile on that one, but I have always
remembered that kind of wit and humor that Americans are known for and which underlines knowledge and
compassion, as people who face the brunt of “changes” all the time too.
That enemies and friends could be the same people in global diplomacy, the world must have learnt for the
first time perhaps after the second world war and more so after Americans bombed Hiroshima as their
response to Pearl Harbor! For generations to the Japanese, “radiation” as a term, meant a lot more than
therapy for cancer; but we in India a generation down, stayed largely unaffected even after Bhopal and thought
of Nuclear race as someone else’s concern and accepted peaceful possibilities with Nuclear as a source of
quick‐solving our Energy deficit; America willing to sell know‐how at its asking price to rest of the world.
After Hiroshima of course, we know that Japanese retorted with Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Panasonic, Hitachi,
Sony and others becoming household names that the entire world knew after Chrysler and GM gas‐guzzlers
were thrown into vintage ownerships and gadgets only meant Japanese, until China flooded global markets
with cheaper and more accessible options.
Humanity at large, learnt about ‘choices’ based on international trade, which all world leaders must care to
encourage within their domestic domains, if they were to survive at helm of power. So advent of ‘choices’ gave
birth to a new word “consumerism”. Did you hear the word even 15 years ago? China, always swift and
efficient in manufacturing had mastered Americanism by 21st
century and flooded world markets in diverse
product lines, but with an entirely divergent philosophy on how nations should run themselves and their
businesses. Korea sealed the belief that innovative, dynamic and constructive strengths and brilliance comes in
‘small packages’ when the desire to defeat the big and biggest is that strong.
So, the only reason that I should mention all of the above in this Essay on “Nature”, is that nature by itself was
pushed back to mean Ayurvedic medication and beauty products; as the elite financial and business
community, especially in developing nations like ours where ‘fad’ must precede genuine passion, became
“Green” for sake of making “Profits” to look “Clean”.
Another reason is that the basic facts and sequence of above narrative does tend to show, that for any country
or civilization to find a top tier berth amongst legions of history, the desire “to do” and “to build” has to be very
deep‐rooted and emanating from a sequence within history (personal or worldly) that triggers their self‐worth
beyond ordinary dimensions of human enterprise and endeavor. I am hoping as one of many who make a living
off Renewable Energy, Environmental sciences, etc., that Japan 2011 would instill that “passion” so “Green”
shall no more be just the “fad” and another  wrist‐band culture.

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Only that, in doing so, we forget that we have a place within the world and the world within the universe; at
least in our political and corporate seats. It is indeed kudos to endless and continuative efforts of scientists,
philosophers, thinkers, engineers and intelligentsia in every country who are watching the tiniest of
movements not just in the stars and within the universe at large, but also creating due simulation in arts,
literature and cinema, so we do not get taken unawares by surprises. It is only natural that every such creative
venture can at best be enjoyed, debated and torn between belief and disbelief and laid to rest in our own quest
of daily profit and loss amongst life’s limitless pleasures and opportunities at disposal.
Balance Sheet, profit & loss
Unless you belong by heritage within a business family and engrained with “business” thinking at the core, it is
quite improbable that you would have lived life weighing profit or loss at every stage of life beyond puberty.
Majority of us in these times, find the desire for profits; more so, highest profits in every endeavor of life. More
and more of us are willing to shed some ‘virtues’ that even ten years ago, we would have shied away from.
It is getting increasingly clear to humanity, that life is a gift of God, which we must enjoy now and today, with
the limitless options at our disposal. The tube and the net being way of life, everything is a Google‐search away;
changing many of the very basic yardsticks of measuring distance from desire to its attainment.
Let us look at Earth as humanoids from another planet, let’s say humanoids who have power “to think and
understand”, but NOT “to do”!
Here is a society who is:
(a) To live ‐ chopping trees for wood
(b) Not satisfied by the sun ‐ consuming coal, crude and earthen produce to keep warm and light up lives
(c) For everything else ‐ consuming minerals
(d) To satisfy hunger ‐ consuming fruits, vegetables, spices, etc.
(e) For  added nutrition and tastes ‐ Consuming lesser beings called animals and birds
(f) Consuming Water to cleanse, cool or drive all of the above

Here‐above having defined the DEBIT side, the CREDIT side would be:

(i) Making houses and interior furnishing and decor
(ii) Building schools, places of worship, buildings, etc…..venues for learning and management
(iii) Building Roads to reach destinations
(iv) Innovating and producing Gadgets for life’s comfort and pleasures
(v) Travelling, relocating and finding Best conditions for survival of our individual lifetimes
(vi) Working progressively in some structured manner, to give best to families, village, country, etc.
What would the Humanoids think? I would tend to believe, that this ‘guy’ will say it is all great and would wish
they could do the same too; only that they are destined “Not to Do”!

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But what happens later! I am sure you guessed it. The Tsunami strikes first lower down Indian Ocean in a
warning around early part of this century; then Japan in March 2011. Vigorous changes are taking place to
sunlight, snow, oceans and then shape of the picture of earth. But the humanoid in the galaxy of stars is still the
same…..as it can think and understand, but not “DO”! So, they would feel happy to know that they have
survived and silently say their obituary to distant neighbor……Earth where everyone is busy “doing”.
Now, I am not saying this. We have read about end‐of‐the‐world stories and have seen movies like “2012”
which show greed even when the world is coming to an end; while saying ‘it cannot be true’. We are seeing
climatic changes and watching “carbon emission” and “conserve energy” discussions / debates as a way of life
in 2011. Our fathers and forefathers did not have this grand opportunity or the need; but we are within
ourselves, perhaps starting to believe for the first time in our lives, that fiction is not such distant reality after
all!
Now, this is getting very gory indeed! You will be perfectly justified in telling me to cut this horror show,
because you all know that this isn’t entirely true.
Nature’s game‐plan!
But we, as professionals who earn our daily bread within power & energy sector, are now incomplete if we do
not understand and address the environmental and climatic concerns just as well as our core capabilities in
studying elements of hydropower, wind or fossil fuel power projects.
Even until a day before the Tsunami shockwaves hit news headlines and the devastating scenes hit the
television, I was thinking of viability of power projects in gaining value through sale of carbon credits and other
similar virtues of executing projects with concerns of climatic change and some clients, potential or otherwise,
were insisting that I should “get to the point” where they will make money from their projects.
Today, I am suddenly questioning every step of action we take to make a power or infrastructure project; what
with excessive heat and energy right under our feet waiting to uproot us even as we are in construction. As
actual case, the years before in Himalayan areas in state of Himachal Pradesh were being labeled ‘drought
conditions’ with lack of rains until flash floods took tremendous toll to end the monsoons. This year round, the
same mountains have over 2000 glaciers reportedly coming back to life!
Post Japan 2011, I want to move somewhere high on the mountains or wherever else in the world that the
scientists are predicting as the safe havens of future. At the same time, I am wondering too, if that is what
everyone else on earth might be thinking too! What happens if we all converge one fine day to safest havens
on Earth ‐ another real estate boom to capitalize on for “profits”?
The probable answer, continuing the harsher tone of this narrative may well be, “Same as what happened
when all our farmers left the villages to come to the metros and big cities some time earlier in history”.
Surely, the more daring entrepreneurs will take the lead; or perhaps the very rich who can afford that piece of
real estate as prices surge to phenomenal highs. Same as real estate visionaries who buy all highest wind land
sites. Same as now when Rajasthan and Gujarat areas, highest in solar adsorption are gaining premium, unless

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government exercises control through some pragmatic measures. Same as the many real estate visionaries
finding plausibility in banking small hydro projects until values go up; but water has gone under to create that
little extra clean power for well‐being of some farmers in India, so they will till the land and not go off to the
cities and without blasting mountains to build huge dams and tunnels in the scenic Himalayas.
The farmers and entrepreneur minded people going from villages to the cities depletes our agri‐producing
abilities further down and increases burden on the government to feed over a billion; 80% of whom live in
villages under burden of being shot at for being terrorist outfits, eaten by a straying wild‐cat whose jungle
habitat has been stolen or under debt from profit seeking landowners who live yet today; years after “Mother
India”, a movie from 1950’s India told the world of such plight and became an epitome of Indian film producing
industry. In either case there is a common desire amongst youth of villages and small towns to move to the
grandiose of cities, where they will ‘live life’.
I realize that is what nature’s game‐plan has always been. To challenge man’s greed and see to what extent
Man will make Man run away for greener pastures.
In fad or in passion, nature is having its final say this March of 2011. Watch the cricket World Cup on the TV,
but you will keep switching channels to news of Japan and changes in Egypt and Libya; more of you for sure.
The world shall awaken to “change” and “Green” shall have “greener” value to say the least. As we “melt‐
down” and cool the reactors and renew thinking on safety of Nuclear installations and large Dams and new
subjects like “Disaster Management” will find place in school and college text‐books, it will hopefully redefine
Profits and Balance Sheets too and perhaps for the finance man to look at the techie & philosopher with
renewed respect? Those writing fiction in corporate offices may find admirers in modern managements. Music,
literature and animation sciences that project “what if” shall be subjects yet in engineering curriculums so we
appreciate “value” in continuous redefinition, as the word “change” itself becomes more dynamic and rapid.
As all this happens, someone like Mr. Christopher Columbus will find new lands where a section of people will
find new lives and way of living for others to follow. It can be both Real and Virtual, now with so much
technology and knowledge at our disposal. Else, future generations will find joy in being farmers, riding bullock
carts or driving hybrid vehicles in distant lands; nature having taught us lessons on how to cool off the world
back to normal.
Lo and behold, I keep back‐tracking and finally go back to Sir Christopher Columbus! Why, Oh why??

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Japan 2011 nature strikes back

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Japan 2011 nature strikes back