Webinar by the famous 3! Chanakya, Common Man and Suppandi!

Webinar by Suppandi, RK Laxman’s Common Man and Chanakya

Hi fellow (so far) living beings,

Thank the almighty that we are all safe, secure, distanced but connected today.

It’s a season of webinars. I know many of my friends dread to hear that word; many webinars are boring, some confusing, many killing both our time and us as well!

Luckily I got an invite from three well known personalities, the Common man of R.K. Lakshman ji, Suppandi and the historical guru of fame, Chanakya.

Jumping on this opportunity, I started moderating, but later just left in in the flow of questions posed and answers coming to and fro, and became a passive listener. I enjoyed it as much as I can and learnt many facts and figures, also figured out what the common man and the Government can do together to bring the Corona graph crashing like the crude oil prices or the stock market graph!

Chankaya (Henceforth called as Guru / Government whatever you want to abbreviate G)

Suppandi will be S (call him serious, stupid or simpleton whatever)

Common man will be C (Curious, confused, considerate, whatever)

Now let’s move on to the conversation which I listened from these three famous iconic characters!

G: Dear friends, it is nice talking to you, as I wanted to know how do you feel about the clampdown and fight against Corona or COVID19. Are you all safe?

S: Guruji, Namaste. I am so thrilled you called me, it’s my life time opportunity to straighten my wretched brain. BTW, can I start with a question?

G: Wait, let Mr. Common Man introduce himself, as there are many other listeners who are listening to this.

C: Namaste Guruji. Life goes on, and whatever you say we will listen, right, wrong as I am unable to check day, date and doubt if I am robotic or robots are empowering humans. Doesn’t make big difference as our lives have become very robotic!

S: Guru, my question. Why should there not be masks sold by Government at all essential supplies or ration shops? My master always sends me out, risking my life to buy essentials; I do not know which one to wear, green, or blue, or yellow, kerchief or banian cloth! If I ask him, he shouts at me back.

C: Sir, the costs are also confusing, I am not able to afford the N95, or special mask which are meant to be too good.

G: My answer to both of you is, these masks are not coloured for matching your dress or lifestyle. The costlier the mask is not the safest. Actually the green ones, called as surgical mask, are meant for doctors, medical fraternity for operations, to be used not more than 6 to 8 hours and be disposed, disposed safely or incinerated; so are the N95 masks, which have the Mark N95, FFP2, etc on them and are very special masks through which viruses cannot enter and those are also for medicos who are in the front line of this battle. If your master orders for that, it shows his arrogance or he is flaunting money, buying it almost thrice the price originally it is worth, those with surgical mask again do not know if they dispose it off, more germs will pollute the air and will cause damage to the environment, soil, water and to your fellow brethren. Simply stop buying those as they have become scarce to the front line team who are fighting the disease in contact with the patients.

S: But, but my boss will yell at me, what am I supposed to tell him?

C: Government taught in a website I remember how to stitch and wear from hosiery banian cloth or cotton right?

G: Exactly. The cotton or other cloth masks you make and wear and economical, washable and can be worn by all who are in house self quarantine, or those who just are precautious enough that when they go out to buy essentials do not get infected by the person next to him, if he sneezes or coughs. So it is better you stitch enough masks with the white dhoti, or old cotton saris you may have at home, for yourselves and for the poor people you see around, educate them on wash and reuse. Charity begins at home. The more we dissuade buying the masks from traders, the more the hoarding and selling at high price will come down, and the more they will be available to the front like medicos.

C: Yes Guruji, I have more angavastrams and veshtis in my home, I was wondering how I can do my best to fight corona, except few veshtis I need to keep for myself, others I am going to get stitched by my wife and donate to all needy and wear ourselves few, great idea!

S: Err, Ok, if my boss is not convinced, what do I do? Shall I go for the face shields available in the market, the thin film fitted on girls’ headband? That will cover my face, as well as that of my master!

G: (Laughing loudly, ha, ha-ha...) you brought tears to my eyes! Well said, films fitted on hair ban? Huh! Sad that those films are made up of OHP films, abbreviated as Over Head Projector Films, once used to write on it with marker or sketch and show it against the projector light, made of PET material, the same material which was shunned once as a hazardous plastic which may leach and pollute the soil and water beneath. These films get scratched easily, and gets static charges very easily, typically not the right material meant for medical use.

 The standard of protective shields clearly states as follows:

Made of clear plastic and provides good visibility to both the wearer and the patient

? Adjustable band to attach firmly around the head and fit snugly against the forehead

? Fog resistant (preferable)

? Completely covers the sides and length of the face

? May be re-usable (made of material which can be cleaned and disinfected) or disposable

? Quality compliant with the below standards, or equivalent:

a. EU standard directive 86/686/EEC, EN 166/2002

b. ANSI/SEA Z87.1-2010

India has an ISI standard for N95 masks but show me a single tender in India that mentions it? IS 9473:2002 (Respiratory protective devices) This is another point I have underlined and sent to the authorities. Wonder what is taking so much time.

(Me: What I heard bit form and louder, repeated twice, is typed here in BOLD letters)

So the standards, are meant to be followed, but 90% of the mask sellers, the PPE sellers or shield sellers are traders, who are mysteriously selling to all Government bodies, winning tenders like L1 (lowest bidder) throwing in winds the standards to save both the patient and the doctor, and I have written to the MoH and other ‘think tank’ officials, to make it mandatory that ONLY OEM s will bid and sell not traders. If traders have access to bring in volumes, can’t the government bring it in volumes or control the price? The shield description clearly says adjustable band and also emphasises re-usability first hand, if not, disposable.

C: But the films used and bought now are thrown by doctors daily as a disposable medical, plastic hazardous product and if not segregated and disposed carefully, may pose larger problem than the virus pandemonium, later! Sir, our garbage dump yards pose high risk already, as there is no proper stringent punishments for people who don’t source segregate. What guarantee is there that these films, masks, do not end up in the open garbage yard?

G: It is high time the rules for source segregation be made tougher now, when the situation turns back to normalcy. How, let me explain.

Step 1: All organic waste like cooked food, cut vegetable, fruits, waste, leftover food, anything bio-degradable should NOT be thrown out at all. Each house/society should dig a pit with safety lid, given incentives like discount in water and electricity bill for those who have not thrown out a single garbage black bag out. The remaining waste would be plastics, paper and electronics waste. They will be sorted by the users themselves in separate 3 bins in each home. On alternate days the government garbage vehicle will only pick paper and card board a day, plastics in another day and e-waste the third day. This way, the recyclers can also get their material in standardised prices from the government and recycle for reuse and dispose sensibly.

Coming back to hospitals, they should insist an INCINERATOR TO BURN OFF DISPOSABLE GOODS.

Good news, I just heard, the inventor of N95 mask, Mr. Philip Tsai, commented in today’s news that by exposing the used mask to 70 deg C can reactivate and sterilise the mask and PPEs. Why can’t Indian hospitals try to reuse, reduce the refuse?

S: Guruji, my doubt. Soaps, Dettol, sanitizer have become very rare to get, seldom social distancing is not adopted in shops, I am scared either way, to wade through that crowd and buy things, but go back empty handed as my madam wants sanitizer daily. Now she has started sprinkling it all over like the Pundit sprinkling holy Pooja theerth, so she needs at least 5 litres a week! I cannot go empty handed. If I buy at any cost, master holds me responsible for being irresponsible! He says I throw money buy at high price. I’m caught between the devil and the deep sea!

C: Sir, my sick bed ridden mother has to be cleaned now and then, we use pan for her to relieve herself, but I couldn’t afford to buy the way the prices of sanitizer has sky rocketed. But my wife insists I buy Dettol. Pleading literally at every check point, I walked to the few medical shops in Malgudi, but Dettol has vanished as quickly as corona spreading in thin air! Now I have written to my cousin in Tirunelveli to buy few bottles from a stockist and send through a known policeman. Policemen now, you know have become very considerate and mellowed. But they also need to be given due respect. Doctors work inside a secluded safe zone, but it is these Policemen who are at high risk. They may be given the reusable shields you quoted earlier Guruji!

G: You can make simple sanitiser at home. Take boiling water, add neem leaves, pinch of turmeric, handful of salt (un-ground) and again a pinch of  cooking camphor , boil well, cool and strain, pour them in bottles and keep it in the fridge. If you keep them outside they may fowl. Only when you need this, take out mix it with 3 times water and clean the room where your mother is. It is the best organic disinfectant.

As for the real manufacturers, ask more OEM to register at GeM, the Government’s E-Procurement portal.

C: Oh, no. My son’s friend invented the reusable shield, he also took a hard call of not wasting the time to fill various forms for patenting, as it takes few days to prepare documents, later chose to act quick and within 3 days from when the prototype was accepted by the doctors in Railway hospital in Perambur, Chennai, he and his engineer Ramprasad quickly worked together to create the required volume themselves, as no worker could come to the workshop. But when he went on to register the GST number and on GeM, the classification for protective shield lead him to shields under defence and military, the very list for medical safety does not have face shields. The same problem is seen in most Government listings, and also in COVID manufacturer listing of FICCI or CII.

G: We have to keep writing to all concerned by all means, Tweet, put it in mygov.in, in PM’s social media, Ministry of Health and so on.. That’s the only way. The Government has too many agenda and too many people in hierarchy so that it gets noticed by some good Samaritan. But ask your son’s friend to keep trying.

S: Guruji, but my boss is happy, I am wondering how? He was talking to his friend in Mannadi and Mumbai Shamshed Street, laughing loud saying that they were able to push off some goods from Tirupur stitched by tailors who were paid per set of PPE, and they were able to Photoshop some certificates to be issued by Governments. My boss is a dealer handling too many medical things in this short period. Nowadays I hear him talk like a scientist. Earlier he was selling chappals and shoes under Government tenders. But I love my boss, he is very very intelligent.

G: Suppandi, don’t be a loud mouth. You may lose your job! But sadly, we Government also tried importing from China out of all products, many failed and is failing.

C: Suppandi, your boss may earn millions now, but even after Corona, his conscience may kill him at his death bed. I can’t even imagine dealers and sellers swarm Government tenders and L1 bidder is selected today for supplies. What about quality? Guru, what stops us think “Make in India” our P.M keeps reminding earlier? What happened to that Policy? Why should the Government ever buy anything from the country which gave us Corona?

S: Guruji, I remember going to the market place. I liked a nice spray room with water jets throwing fountain on people like me walking in. I liked it very much and deliberately walked two to three times into that. I was very happy. Even in my master’s house, I am not even allowed to be inside the bathroom for few minutes, before which someone will call for me for some errands and I had to rush out. Here the officers encouraged me to go through many times, making me almost get drenched like a chicken to be cooked! But suddenly they stopped it why?

G: Suppandi, again don’t make me laugh. It is a serious subject. Sanitizer sprays be it alcohol based or Sodium per chlorate based are not good for health and the earth in long run. They create skin rashes and irritation to many, and has not proven worth against this particular virus. Any welder who made door frames and fences became sanitising booth maker and the pandemonium was much worse than Corona itself so Government had to bring quick ban. I am told UV is tried but its rays also, if not tuned to a specific wavelength is carcinogenic.

C: Then what’s the solution?

G: Plasma radiation is the best Clean-tech option, which can sterilise people, products and air in quick time and many are working to bring them out after their validation is on. This can be fixed into a room or in a tunnel where no chemicals are there, no wastage of water, no refills like Hydrogen Peroxide etc, but will disinfect the room in minutes.

C: What about those inside home washing hands once in 20 minutes, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing? In normal days my Amma and wife are very superstitious and have many reasons to stay away from me. Now that I am the only one going out to buy essentials, I am made to stand like an untouchable. I have to take bath whenever I go out to buy essentials and return back home. Un-touchability is rendering its ugly face again L

G: Oh no. It was a safe practice those days, that when some goes for a funeral or barber shop or for that reason, out station, were made to take bath from the well water, outside the house and then enter in. Also, those who are intimate or having menstrual cycles was made to take bath and then enter into the house to mingle with others and do regular chores. Also, neem leaves were kept at the entrance of any house when someone in the house had small or chicken pox. The house was sprinkled with cow’s panchakavya, or entrance well wiped with cow dung and children given a dose of donkey’s milk as an infant, men had copper or brass vessels for Puja, put in some Thulasi leaves, or cooking camphor, haldi in the water they offer to God and to devotees, women liberally used ginger, turmeric, pepper in food and we seldom fell sick. Those involved in living together, multiple sex, breaking rules of having one partner, all are prone for diseases the world is proving. What happened to hugging in places, kissing in public? All follow Namaste! Hindustan Jindabad! 

If you are well aware that the incumbents in a house are healthy for almost 3 weeks together without any untoward symptoms of corona, you need not wear mask or wash hands so often. If you do so, water scarcity will be more, what you wash will be chemically ridden and leach the earth and water beneath beyond permissible limits and only the MNCs selling soaps and sanitizers will have 400 times growth than ever! Think and act.

S: Interrupting... Sir, I feel laughing loud when I see all members in my Boss’s family wearing yellow masks and walking around within the house, remind me of Kishkinda of Ramayan.

G: Stop Suppandi, no time for jokes.

S: Silent.

C: What should the government do to make “Make in India” a reality, as we see daily scores of Chinese materials imported failing miserably?

G: Yes, I think Government should now act quickly. They should just enlist the OEM only and allow ONLY them to bid. Again they can discuss, regulate and fix uniform standard and pricing for all, so that there is no question of high or low quality or cost. All should fall by the same quality and cost. Government can fix basic raw material cost, ask suppliers to supply the same and pay for the raw material directly. The manufacturer has to just enter in his stock register and convert it into product, again get it entered in the books, digitally and supply to the nearest Government pick up point. So that he focuses only on manufacturing, Government does online payment to both supplier of raw material and supplier of end product. So there is no competition, only level playing. Small vendor who can supply 1000s will get his times worth, big player who does in lakhs will be paid proportionately. Then they can also do away with GST and title all supplies for COVID under one title or HSN code 0000 meaning it is a special code to supply for COVID remediation and can be charged 0. There by none, neither the raw material supplier nor the product manufacturer has to pay GST, but only focus on productivity. Instead of keeping different percentage of GST for different products, they can waive it, focusing more on increasing the output by the stake holders.

C: Then, what about quality? Who will check that? I worked in Railways once and used to be in Quality control. I was a strict quality man that people around used to nag me, “Strict Sambandam” but I did not bother, as it was my job, so quality was ensured by all. But your idea of all manufacturers supplying in one go, where will they give, where will they take raw materials, who will inspect?

G: The answer is in your question. There are innumerable educational institutions across the country with entrepreneurial cells, incubator labs, accelerator labs etc . A team of doctors, science person, mechanical engineer, material scientist etc can be formed from the faculties itself, they can be grouped based on the domain of expertise focussing on the cluster of industries in a particular region and be given a quick training on inspection and spot approval of the products. They can be provided gadgets to protect themselves and with vehicles. They also in this journey just not be advisors or book worms but will come to know what the industry does and how it performs, scales up. This will lead to an encouraging academia-industry tie-up and scaling up, speeding up of approvals and permissions. These teams can be given approval seals and authority to sign the document. All such inspections and approvals will be under camera surveillance, so there would be no lapse or bribes playing their way into the speeding up of approvals. It is waste of time that manufacturers and innovators running pillar to post just to get approvals and colleges and universities shut and faculty sitting idle at homes. It is time for them to speed up the quality control process.

S: I don’t understand head or tail. Can you give me examples?

G: Yes, if it is the chemical cluster in Ankleshwar or Baruch, Chemistry Professors, Chemical Engineers, can be part of the inspection and approval team. In Tiruppur which is a textile hub, Textile technologists, Material scientists, bio-chemistry and virology specialists can go and inspect and lay rules to make PPEs and Masks, wearable etc. CIPET the plastics Institute has branches across the country. They can ramp up production of bottles, lids, cans, drums for sanitisers and liquid soaps, bio-degradable film bags for packing PPEs and masks. It is unfortunate that plastic industry was made villain once but it is that they are the saviours today. You think anything inside the hospital and outside both for intensive care to packaging of goods, plastic is inevitable, but they are not declared as essential goods supplier. The plastic industry if opened up, they can immediately spruce up making of all products to fill in, as told earlier by getting standard pricing for raw material and finished goods, supplied and bought back by Government at all CIPET centres. In fact the same college campuses from where the professors go out for inspection can as well become collection centres for the products. Professors from Mechanical, electrical, electronics, robotics can go and scout, vet and approve drones, robots, ventilators etc. This will save time for the Government run bodies like DRDO, SITRA, ICMR etc having serpentine queues of suppliers waiting for approvals and then supply.

S: Hesitantly, then Guru the way you say, my boss cannot supply, as he is a trader?

G: He can, provided he falls into the line of pricing fixed by the government. He can pool group of small time moulders, collect from them and supply the goods to the Government depots.

C: Looks nice to hear, but there are so many ministries who will approve and accept such out of the box thinking? Normally when one ministry gives an idea, others snub it. Who catches the eye of the P.M is more important than who performs.

G: There can be a joint declaration by Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Petrochemicals, Finance and Health, HRD that the above will be implemented with full force ASAP. The institutes known for inspection like #IIT #IISc #ICMR, #DST, #CSIR, #NCL, #CIPET will conduct crash on-line course for those teachers and also the Atal Tinkering Lab mentors from Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission to be inducted as flying squads of inspectors and approving authority. This will make inspection and manufacturing a swift process.

C: zzzzz.. Sorry I dosed off. What were you saying? Oh, about quick inspection and manufacturing. Sounds like a fairy tale, but if I could visualise looks interesting. Is there a role for me the retired common man?

G: Volunteers also can be trained on-line to report crowding, non-co-operation of people in public places for maintaining safe distances, etc. You can be a watch dog and there would be a common control room number in which you can call and inform such untoward things. You can also click snaps from your mobile and send to them through whatsapp and email. Your identity will be kept secret. What else, you can convert your veshtis and angavastrams as you said to washable masks and give to the needy.

S: Guru, my time is over. Master will wake up and ask for his morning tea. I have to go. But I am so thankful Guruji, but I have a very big question eating my head. Can I ask?

G: Go ahead, it is time for me also to take a nap as I have to get up early for my Surya Namaskar and Puja.

S: Ajit Doval, the Country’s security advisor, didn’t he go at midnight to persuade and disburse the big crowd inside a Delhi Masjid,  who were in thousands, to get and go away to their native, wherein he found many other nationals coming out? Why ever he do that? Had he contained them there only, get them tested and then admitted most of them in Delhi hospitals, the country could have been saved from spreading the disease. Why Guruji, why?

Guru Chanakya and Common man were gasping for their breath, not expecting such a terrifying question from our dear friend Suppandi. The webinar went silent after that. No sound from any of them. I wait for few seconds and switch off. As I recorded the whole discussion, I could pen them done. Here it is.

Whether we remain as Suppandis, Common Man or act like Guruji, it is our on making or mocking. Good night!