Pinto Has An Idea

by Rajeev Saxena

  What an odd way of proposing… there were no bells ringing… no birds singing... no picturesque promises. But the intent was as pure as it could be.

  Lavanya’s eyes became wet. She got up, leaned forward and kissed Pinto’s forehead. ‘I have been waiting for this from you for ages. Of course I will. Why did you take so long to say that, Pinto? Why did we waste the precious time of our youth?’

  An elderly couple having lunch at the table next to them gave them a long stare. In Kanpur, in those days, even if it was in a five-star hotel, people were still shocked and annoyed at the sight of a girl kissing a boy so openly.

  Pinto said, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t buy a ring. The only reason was that I have no experience of judging jewellery so I wanted us to choose it together.’

  ‘I know you are a fool,’ Lavanya smiled, and then grew serious. ‘I’m a divorcee and one year older than you. Will your parents accept the marriage?’

  ‘I don’t care…’ were the words of Pinto. ‘It is my decision. I’m sure that they’ll accept you. They may not be the happiest parents, but I’ll handle that. In fact, they have given up as far as my marriage is concerned. So for them something is better than nothing,’ he joked.

  Lavanya looked annoyed. ‘So, I mean just “something” to you?’

  ‘No,’ replied Pinto. ‘You are everything for me. But please leave some space for my other girlfriends as well in my life.’

  Pinto could see the happiness on Lavanya’s face. It was the first time Pinto realized how beautiful she was.

  ‘Can you stay with me tonight?’ asked Pinto.

  Lavanya was shy, ‘I can stay till late evening but my in-laws won’t allow me to stay for the night.’

  ‘Something is better than nothing,’ Pinto teased.

  ‘It may mean “everything”.’ Lavanya parroted what Pinto had said earlier. Pinto was not a fool not to understand Lavanya’s tacit agreement. They officially started their romantic life.

  In her subconscious, Lavanya started comparing her two experiences of men. Asim had been a handsome well-built person, quite the opposite of Pinto. Still, it was so much more fun with Pinto. He was her true love. Emotions were important in physical relations.

  In Kanpur, on a lovely night in December, when north India is extremely cold and people do not come out from under their quilts even during the day, Pinto and Lavanya got married. It was a traditional Hindu wedding but with only a handful of guests from both sides. Asim’s father, Yogendra, made most of the arrangements. Pinto was against spending a lot of money on pomp and show at weddings. Some of the ladies did pass comments that Lavanya was really lucky since she had found such a nice husband, in spite of being a divorcee. Pinto’s parents were quite happy as well to see his son settling down. His mother was a bit disappointed as Lavanya was thirty-five years old at the time of marriage though she hid it very successfully. Her only advice to both of them was, ‘Plan your first child as soon as you can.’ The new couple spent a week with them in Orai, Pinto’s hometown.

  Everything happened in such a hurry that Pinto and Lavanya didn’t even get a chance to plan anything. Pinto said, ‘I’m a freelancer, I can live anywhere. Should we settle in Kanpur, as you have a job there?’

  Lavanya had already decided. ‘No, I’ll leave my job and come with you to Pune. My in-laws are very nice, and my relations with them are going to be the same, but you may feel odd living in the same place.’

  And they started life in Pune. Lavanya was really happy. ‘I like the Spanish villa-like structure of our house… so different from what we have in Kanpur, with all those houses sharing joint flat rooftops!’

  Pinto told her, ‘Just be careful on Thursdays, though. As it’s an industrial holiday, we have a scheduled power-cut. We have power backup provided by the society, but most of your appliances will not work.’

  ‘I saw a lot of solar water heaters in houses here. Why don’t we also have one installed?’ Lavanya asked.

  ‘I think the idea is excellent but why don’t we do something different?’

  ‘What’s going on in your mind?’

  ‘Nothing great, just, why don’t I request for solar panels for the whole community? We’ll have an abundance of power available to us all the time then.’

  ‘The idea’s not new.’

  ‘I agree. I just need to convince residents to spend money. Can you do me a favour? Ask Mrs Verma why they went for a solar heater. It’s expensive. They could have chosen a gas-based one.’

  In an hour, Lavanya was ready with an answer. ‘She says that it’s environment-friendly. It also gave her peace of mind that she could use as much hot water as she wanted without interruption in supply. Gas supply is always a problem here.’

  ‘Thanks, darling, for being so prompt. Looks like this community has the right people for me to experiment with. Even though they are not super-rich, they would shell out money to buy comfort at a higher price than the market, as long as it’s unique.’

  ‘So what’s your plan?

  ‘Let’s meet the society chairman.’

  And they were in the society chairman’s office on Saturday. Anuvrat Joshi, the chairman, was a handsome young gentleman. He greeted both of them, ‘Congratulations on your marriage. The whole community is proud that a world-renowned scientist is living close to us. What can I do for you?’

  Pinto started the discussion, ‘Anuvrat, thanks for your warm welcome. Actually, I wanted to propose a plan for electricity backup.’

  Anuvrat was happy, ‘Rajat, what a great honour to hear your plan. Please go ahead.’

  Pinto started with, ‘You can call me Pinto. I’m not proposing anything new. I feel all the houses here have sloping roofs. We can have designer solar tiles installed so that they don’t spoil the look of the roofs and at the same time generate electricity which we can use during the day and can save the surplus for the night or during power-cuts.’

  Anuvrat interrupted, ‘Interesting idea… by the way, how will you save electricity for the night.’

  Pinto had the full plan, ‘We’ll have a centralized battery system because that is efficient and cheaper to maintain. We’ll not need a generator so that we’ll save on fuel as well, making it more environment-friendly. We can float the idea in the next General Body Meeting with a tagline reading, “UNINTERRUPTED AND RELIABLE POWER SUPPLY 24 × 7”.’

  Anuvrat smiled, ‘I like it. If you present it yourself, it’ll add more value as you have a great reputation here. I would suggest a change to the tagline to ‘ALMOST UNINTERRUPTED AND RELIABLE POWER SUPPLY 24 × 7’ as it won’t be that reliable during the rainy season.’

  Pinto agreed, ‘You are absolutely correct.’

  The plan was presented. Residents were excited but were not very happy about the initial high cost. Pinto explained, ‘The ideal thing would have been if we had an automated grid where we’d have contributed the surplus and got at least 50 per cent back when we needed it. But we don’t, so we have to make our own arrangement. Almost all of you have invested in solar water heaters. It’s a similar project. We’ll have almost uninterrupted power supply as well as be helping the environment by not burning fuel. Anuvrat was telling me that we often have problems in procuring the diesel for the generator during summer. We’ll have initial hurdles, so you have to be patient. The good part is that it’s already a proven technology. I’m not doing anything new. So have confidence.’

  One resident asked, ‘What if it fails?’

  Pinto clarified, ‘As I mentioned, we may have initial hiccups, so be ready for that. I won’t keep you in the dark.’

  The resolution was passed.

  Anuvrat formed a committee and started execution of the idea mooted. They finished the project in a record four months. Anuvrat called on Pinto one day to discuss the feedback, ‘First, let me congratulate you, it’s working great. Residents are getting uninterrupted power and their utility bill is reduced almost to nil. There is one problem though. Sometimes the battery gets drained in
the night too fast.’

  Pinto thanked Anuvrat, and went on to say, ‘You know, I am not trying to be defensive but people didn’t give us the right figures for consumption. They are using more than what they reported. We can install a device in every house so that whenever the usage crosses the quota, the additional power starts coming from the main power line from the utility company.’

  Anuvrat accepted the proposal.

  Mrs Verma was in the committee which executed the project. They had to hire a part-time person to maintain the battery room. He was not very reliable, so now members were worried about the life of the battery if it was not being maintained properly. Mrs Verma casually asked Pinto, ‘Can you make the system battery-free?’

  Pinto said, ‘Mrs Verma, this is a million-dollar question. Nobody has been able to find a solution to store electricity other than through a battery.’

  Mrs Verma was a bit of a difficult woman. She passed an unnecessary remark which was a jibe at Pinto, ‘And people call you a scientist!’

  Lavanya, hearing it, came downstairs in a fury, ‘You are also a science graduate! Why don’t you think of something? We try to transfer our responsibilities all the time onto other people’s shoulders. That’s why this country in this state.’

  Mrs Verma silently disappeared.

  Pinto had never seen Lavanya in this blazing form. ‘There was no need to scold Mrs Verma,’ he told her. ‘I think she was right.’

  Lavanya was calm by now. ‘She may be right but she has no right to denigrate you.’

  Pinto stayed cool, ‘Forget about it and think about this. What was happening in Y2K?’

  ‘A lot of Indians went to the US to make fortunes.’

  ‘Oh, no, I meant that the expensive computing power of mainframes was made much cheaper by increasing the utilization rate of them, taking advantage of the difference in time zones between US and India.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘When it was daytime in the US, it was night in India, and vice-versa. When it was day in the US, computers were used by US engineers. When it was night in the US, computers were used by Indians, since it was day for them in India. Along the same lines, during the day, we will have excess capacity from the solar panels to charge batteries. What if we connect with someone in the US, or Mexico, to exchange power? They could supply power to us during their day time, when they have excess, but it’s night for us so we need it, and we could do the same during our day time.’

  ‘Sounds neat.’

  ‘Let me post it on some of the forums and see if someone is interested in the US.’

  ‘My worry is that US is self-sufficient in power. Why would somebody there be interested in the exchange?’

  ‘You are right. I’ll try to play the environment card. They’ll get press coverage as well. “Helping solve power problems in a third-world country… ’’’

  And Pinto soon found a small solar power company in the US interested in the project. The Government of India funded the transmission lines which were a combination of regular power lines and superconducting cables.

  Residents and the press started coming to praise Pinto. He told them, ‘This is just the first step. A day will come when we’ll find other ways as well to generate and transmit power.’

  A journalist asked, ‘Would you please give us a peek into how you envision the future?’

  Pinto explained, ‘People are working in labs on so many projects with better superconducting material, a hydrogen fuel cell, highly efficient batteries. All of this is hardcore science about which you can read on the internet. But there might be some other surprising means as well. For low power usage, for example while charging a cellphone in an emergency, you can think of transmitting power through satellite or through a cellphone tower. It may not carry a lot of power but think about how important it is if a person has to make an emergency call in the night from a village where there is no power and his battery is completely drained.’

  ‘What else do you foresee?’

  ‘The Government of India will never be able to fully supply the demand for electricity. Due to the nature of the new lifestyles and massive industrialization, the demand for electricity will continued to increase exponentially, so even if the government increases capacity, the increase in demand will offset it. Hence, 24 x 7 electricity for the whole of India will remain a dream, unless it is converted into a mass movement in which every individual participates in the production of electricity to meet the country’s demands. This concept is a lot like the ‘Khadi’ movement started by Mahatma Gandhi, in which everyone was supposed to spin the cotton that went into their own clothing.’

  ‘Keep going, sir.’

  ‘I’m glad I’m not boring everyone here!’ Pinto quipped. ‘I’m just into daydreaming, and you are enjoying my dreams. Anyway, the last one—the grid has to be fully automated. Not only that, it should have very precise monitoring and billing to keep track of who is contributing, who is consuming, how much and at what time. Solar energy is not available in the night, unless someone installs large mirrors on the moon… just kidding! So if someone is producing electricity in the night using wind, the electrical grid should be able to recognize it and should be able to reward the contributor more. I’ll take one last question.’

  ‘How do you feel about the limelight you are getting?’

  ‘It feels good. I am a human being. Everybody likes recognition. You know what, while I’d become quite famous in scientists’ communities worldwide, the general public didn’t know me. That’s fair, however, as I didn’t do anything for the public. The irony is that I hardly got any press coverage when I was working on some real hardcore research, innovating, inventing… In this project, I haven’t invented anything, but I’m still becoming so popular. We’ll keep meeting from now on. Let’s call it a day.’

  THIRTEEN

  P

  into was sitting in his backyard with some visitors. After his electricity project, he had become somewhat of a public figure; journalists, professors, students, neighbours, businessmen and some small-time politicians kept coming to meet him. Lavanya was not able to take it anymore. They used to have a peaceful home. Pinto used to be crazily busy with experiments, but he’d find enough time for his family, which had grown to include a sweet-faced daughter, Harsha, by now.

  Lavanya would become upset, ‘Why are you always busy with visitors? You have a family as well. Do you have any idea how things are run at home? What Harsha’s needs are? You don’t even go grocery shopping now.’

  Pinto would object, ‘I used to go out to buy our groceries all the time.’

  ‘Yes, “used to”, not anymore.’

  ‘Why should I? You have the deliveries shop now. Why should I spend time on groceries when they are supplied at our doorstep?’

  ‘Are you aware of the quality of the goods they send? The shopkeeper doesn’t even have a back-up fridge. He buys things in bulk and makes his own packets. Do you think he maintains quality?

  ‘Okay, I’ll take up that chore again.’

  ‘You think you are going to be rich and famous, so you don’t think of anything else.’

  ‘Yes, if I work hard. And if becoming famous is the by-product of it, I like it. I want recognition.’

  ‘I think the only by-product is that you don’t have time for your family. Don’t be fooled by people. Some of them just want to be associated with you. They think, who knows, if Mr Srivastava is giving an interview, their photo will also be published in the newspaper.’

  ‘I understand, but if I don’t meet them, they’ll say I am arrogant.’

  ‘I think you are enjoying your courthouse.’

  ‘Yes, I am, to some extent, so what?’

  ‘Go and get groceries from the Reliance superstore. I don’t want them from any neighbourhood shop.’

  Pinto didn’t like grocery-shopping at all. He went to his neighbourhood shop. ‘Guptaji,’ he said to the shopkeeper. Madam doesn’t like things from your shop. But I still want
to buy from you.’

  The shopkeeper was scared. ‘Sir, did my boys do anything wrong?’

  Pinto was friendly. ‘No, nothing like that. You know, some people have the perception that only superstores maintain quality. I’ll still give you our orders but you need to buy some of the dry groceries from the superstore and add the rest from your shop. And make sure that you use the polythene bag from the superstore.’

  Gupta was happy. ‘Done, sir. Why would a great scientist do his own shopping when we are here at your service?’ he fawned. Pinto was flattered, ‘I know, it’s such a waste of time!’

  Pallavi, one of Lavanya’s neighbours, became a good friend. She’d often ask Lavanya, ‘Why don’t you send your servants to do the shopping?’ Lavanya would beat around the bush, ‘In the US, everybody does his or her own work so Pinto still likes doing it himself.’ Pallavi would feel envious of her, ‘You’re really lucky that you have a husband like Pinto.’

  ‘Yes, I am. I love him.’

  ‘Let’s meet for housie next weekend.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Pinto entered the room, ‘What’s for tea today? See, I have got all the groceries. Check them out.’

  Lavanya was happy, not that she had got things from the superstore, but because she had made Pinto do the shopping. ‘Look at the quality of the goods!’ she crowed in victory. ‘We should make it a habit to buy only from them. Once in a while, it’s okay to buy from the neighbourhood but not always.’

  ‘Oh yes, the quality is really great. I really understand what we were missing.’ Pinto could hardly hide his laughter.

  ‘By the way, our maid didn’t show up, so you can have some cookies with your tea, but I don’t have much else to offer.’

  ‘Come on, I’ve come home from shopping, you should have something nice for me.’

  ‘Why don’t you get something from the dosa handcart? He generally comes around 4:30-ish.’