Pinto Has An Idea

by Rajeev Saxena

  Being an honest person, she also blamed herself for placing herself in the situation she was in. Had she too easily given her own freedom away? To the world, she was just ‘Pinto’s wife’. People hardly knew she was also a qualified engineer. Since Pinto began working from home she often wondered, ‘Why can’t Pinto sit at home so I can go back to work? Why should I be the only one to make the professional sacrifices?’

  Unable to forge a sensible strategy to put her point across to Pinto, she hit upon an idea that only a woman could think up: Lavanya decided to test Pinto to see if he could manage the home without her.

  Pinto started to notice Lavanya was not completing all her household chores in her usual thorough way. He asked her if she was okay. Lavanya gave Pinto only very short, monosyllabic answers, just like he did when he was thinking of his next great invention. Lavanya knew Pinto’s inventions made him feel important, but how was she to feel important as a homemaker?

  Pinto quickly cottoned on to Lavanaya’s ruse. He began to get up early and started Lavanaya’s duties before she even had a chance to address them. Pinto tried not to act surprised when Lavanaya mentioned in passing she wanted to get a job, but he hoped she was pulling his leg. Pinto knew any strong refusal on his part would only put her back up, so he gave her encouragement with all his might.

  Pinto craftily took care to praise Lavanya for all her years of selfless work in the home, declaring that he’d discovered for himself just how hard that work could be.

  The next day, Lavanaya seemed happier and younger than she had in many years. She now knew she was appreciated. Lavanaya felt a renewed sense of pride toward her position in the family and never again mentioned working outside the home.

  If Pinto had said no to Lavanya’s getting a job, there would have been an almighty war.

  TWENTY-ONE

  T

  he news broke of the Mumbai flood on TV. There were many dead, many more homeless. Pinto and Lavanya followed the developments every minute. Lavanya said, ‘Did you notice something?’

  ‘What?’ asked Pinto.

  ‘In the old days, floods mostly impacted the poor.’

  ‘So do they do today.’

  ‘Yes, they still do. But real estate has become so expensive, a lot of posh and upscale colonies have been set up wherever builders could grab a piece of land, whether it was on high ground, low, on the banks of a nullah or stream or wherever.’

  ‘It’s human beings who suffer. How does it matter what class they belong to?’ Pinto interjected.

  ‘I’m just trying to think like a researcher.’

  ‘So what else have you observed, Ms Research Scientist?’

  ‘In the old days, the rich stocked foodgrains and other essentials in large quantities in vast impenetrable godowns. By the time their supplies diminished, any natural disaster would have blown over. These days, ideas about accommodation have changed. Any extra space in a home is given over to showpieces. Even the storerooms of the rich do not stock groceries for more than two weeks.’

  ‘True,’ agreed Pinto. ‘My maternal grandfather would keep essential food items stored for the whole year, after harvest season.’

  ‘For a whole year? How?’

  ‘Using desi methods,’ Pinto told her. ‘We had our native ways to preserve wheat, different types of lentils, mustard oil, mustard, and rice over a period. These items were kept in big drums with neem leaves inside and then packed with a paste of mud and dried cow dung so the container became almost airtight and the items were safe from moisture and insects. A fresh container was opened only when the previous one was consumed.’

  ‘It must have been hard work for the women of the house in those days,’ Lavanya remarked. ‘My mother told me that my grandmother would start grinding wheat for roti early in the morning with her own hands, using just a small stone mill.’

  ‘Hmm, come to think of it, I remember my grandmother, too, using a hand mill for splitting lentils. Good exercise, I suppose.’

  ‘That’s oppression of women by another name!’ protested Lavanya, just as Pinto had expected her to.

  ‘I don’t know if that’s what it was,’ mused Pinto, ‘but there’s one thing about it that makes me think that our culture focuses too much on food, which is why a woman’s life is lived pretty much around the kitchen. Subcontinental countries may be the few remaining in the world where women make fresh bread at every meal.’

  ‘So let’s go forward with the immediate problem. Shall we go to Mumbai and join others in helping the flood victims?’ asked Lavanya, brimming, like her husband, with the desire to help.

  ‘Good thinking. Let me first contact Daya, it’s a charity organization working in that area.’

  The next day Pinto and Lavanya were in a relief camp set up by Daya. Around 200 families were living temporarily in twenty large tents. These were slum-dwellers who had lost everything in the flood. Every family had a story to tell.

  The situation was horrible. Often, fights broke out over petty things. Supplies were highly limited, unpredictable, and distribution had not been streamlined. People didn’t have a sense of community. While supplies were being distributed, if even five families out of 200 were left without food, due to a lack of overseeing, it was very difficult to convince the others to share. Lavanya was troubled by their selfishness.

  Pinto tried to justify it, ‘Human behaviour is governed by circumstances. It is not their fault that they forget all thought of others in times of such severe scarcity. They all have horrible stories to share about how they survived without food for days and even small children went without a drop of milk. Aid is arriving but the process is slow and mismanaged. One organization distributes wheat flour, others rice, cooking oil and toiletries, but nobody has thought about whether they have enough drinking water, or fuel to cook the food. Nobody has thought about what kids can digest.’

  Lavanya was not convinced. ‘Human beings should not act like animals, no matter what the circumstances are.’

  Pinto told her about an old incident, ‘One of my schoolmates, Satish, visited my hostel at IIT. He was of the opinion that it is practical experience which helps people succeed in life rather than mere bookish knowledge.’

  Pinto reminisced, ‘I was not convinced. I thought Satish was only speaking out of frustration, as he could not get selected for the IIT. Later, when I went to the US, my perception changed. I saw how disciplined successful Indians have learnt to become there. But it’s the same Indians who are quickest to jump queues at the airport the moment they land in India. This is a country of impatient needs, over experience of assured decades of plenty. You can’t change a culture overnight.’

  ‘You are going off on a tangent,’ Lavanya said, looking up at his face quizzically. ‘Sometimes, you are so cryptic that it’s very difficult to understand you, Pinto.’

  ‘Let me give you one more example,’ Pinto indulged her—if only to convince. ‘I used to participate in various charity events sponsored by my then employer. We’d paint the houses of physically challenged people, clean the hiking trails, and work with homeless people.’

  Lavanya interrupted, ‘What do you mean by “we”? It sounded like you were hiding something. Who was “she” to make you “we”?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I meant earlier. Indians can’t equate “we” with “I”, Pinto pointed out. ‘Just hear me out and you’ll realize that the two often mean the same.’

  Lavanya promised to listen till he was done.

  Pinto nodded and resumed the role of storyteller. ‘Homely, a charity organization in San Jose, USA, used to organize an event for homeless people every six months to which they’d call various agencies and non-profit organizations under one roof. There was one organization which helped unemployed people find jobs. One institute, which trained students to become hairdressers, came with a big team of students who gave poor people free haircuts. There were doctors as well, who took care of some basic health needs. Some of the homeless people were really t
he victims of circumstances while for others, it was a way of life.’

  ‘I hear they keep all their belongings in a backpack and carry it around all the time.’

  ‘Pretty much. You could do with some inspiration from them on how people survive with such meagre needs.’

  ‘Why are you criticizing me?’

  ‘I’m criticizing all those who have a disease called shopaholism,’ Pinto said cheekily. Lavanya thumped him.

  Pinto said ‘Ow!’, but didn’t stop his story. ‘Anyway, I was telling you about this guy. A shoe company had set up a booth to distribute brand-new shoes to people who couldn’t afford them. The booth was somewhat hidden, not easily visible to everyone. I decided to stand at the main entrance to guide people to the booth. Most of them were happy and picked their size. An obviously homeless man in his forties, wearing long hair, dirty clothes, and a big smile on his face, appeared at the entrance and I told him where he could get free new shoes.’

  “‘Good of you to help,” he said.’

  ‘I was working more or less in the capacity of a walking ad for the company donating the shoes, so I went on to describe the styles that were most comfortable. To my amazement, the gentleman responded, “No, I’ll pass on the footwear. The ones I have on aren’t too bad so I’ll leave the new ones for those in greater need.” I was deeply moved. A small statement made by this guy described the message of all religions.’

  ‘Goodness, what a generous human being!’ Lavanya was all ears now.

  Pinto made use of the opportunity to talk. There was not much to do anyway as they were waiting for the supply truck in the camp. There were not many occasions when he was heard so patiently. ‘In Jainism,’ he said, making sure he had Lavanya’s attention, ‘one of the five principles is aparigraha, which means “non-attachment”. Jainism teaches us to possess only things that are necessary to living, nothing more. How many Jains follow that? Hinduism also stresses on detachment and charity to the have-nots. How many Hindus abide by that teaching?’

  ‘Sadly, very few,’ Lavanya admitted.

  ‘Conversely, how many of us spend our whole lives in the mad race to accumulate things unnecessary to our well-being? The majority. That homeless guy, whom I’ll never be able to forget, had no possessions, but he placed others above himself. He taught me that a person doesn’t have to be rich to be philanthropic. Anybody with a kind heart can be charitable.’

  In Mumbai, Pinto and Lavanya worked very hard, streamlined the processes of providing shelter, and distribution of essentials wherever they could, spoke words of comfort to keep up the spirits of the highly distressed people, and also arranged as much aid as they could from domestic and international sources.

  Soon, those men and women who had quarrelled over a grain of rice started looking for work. Government, local leaders and organizations for charitable causes also helped and slowly, the miserable lives of the marooned slum-dwellers got back on track. Of course, the story would have been a bit different had the aid provided by the government come faster and had been distributed honestly and evenly.

  In the relief camp, one person told Lavanya about his horrific experience when he was not able to cook anything for two days because he got stuck at a place which was isolated. ‘Though my wife had everything to cook food with, we didn’t have any matches or a lighter, so our child went without proper food or boiled drinking water for two days.’

  The story grew more gruesome as he continued, ‘I fed the few biscuits I had left to my one kid, and my wife and I didn’t have a single grain. When we realized we ourselves needed to survive to care for our child, we also started taking a bite from each biscuit, turn by turn. Our child didn’t even want to share it, he was so hungry. Hunger will drive people to anything, even if it’s stealing their own hungry kid’s food. But we were not stealing, we were with heavy hearts making sure we somehow stayed alive, too. Or who would care for the little one if we died?’

  When Lavanya passed on the sad story to Pinto, he said, ‘These agencies should use emergency kits like the Red Cross does. The kit may include canned food, flour, rice, lentils, salt and spices, kerosene, a kerosene stove, a match box, one or two utensils, disposable plates, some clothing, basic medications, and drinking water. Charity organizations should have these kits ready round the year, at all their locations across India. In cases of emergencies, the kits can be distributed immediately from the nearest locations and then slowly from other locations.’

  Lavanya agreed, ‘Why don’t you float this idea to the Daya people? People are watching news of the flood 24 × 7. This is the right time to campaign.’ As an obedient husband, Pinto started campaigning for emergency kits. Some people said they were a dead investment. Pinto’s response was, ‘All emergency services are dead investments. Think about the usefulness of the military during civil emergencies—floods, drought, earthquakes, rescuers of trapped mountaineers at dizzy heights and dangerous lows, police ineptitude—the list was endless. Do you consider the Indian Army a dead investment as it’s supposed to be deployed only in wartime, and wars are rare?’

  They got an overwhelming response. Individuals started sponsoring emergency kits in tens and thousands. Some organizations actually faced a problem of surplus, a beautiful problem to address.

  The organizations with a space problem for storing surplus kits came to Pinto for a solution. Pinto asked them why they weren’t swapping them for flood gear from other organizations. They told him it was not easy to find an organization which was looking for the items they had in surplus and vice versa. Pinto didn’t have any quick solutions but told them to come back in a week.

  Pinto, as usual, asked Lavanya to research the matter. She came up with some interesting points, ‘Surplus of emergency kits is just the diving point for you to go deep down to look into this problem. You could surface from that dive with a bigger picture in your mind: how, for instance, all kinds of surplus items can be exchanged or redistributed.

  ‘Hey, Lavanya, you’ve got it in you, kiddo!’ exulted Pinto.

  ‘There’s another facet to fighting hunger you would do well to delve into,’ said Lavanya, sustaining her serious expression. ‘In India, people often donate food grains rather than money due to religious reasons. You need to figure out how it should be transported, without damage, and without spending a lot of money. Also, basic essentials such as food, potable water and clothing are required urgently during emergencies. What is of paramount importance at such times is the quantity of emergency goods and the speed at which they can be reached to victims. The quality of these items is important, of course, but not above the necessity of timely delivery.’

  ‘Good pointers for me to work with,’ said Pinto, patting his wife on the back in a manner that annoyed her. ‘While coming back from Mumbai I was thinking we can start a web portal for exchanging goods among charity organizations.’

  ‘How will people exchange?’

  ‘Our exchange will be a guarantor for any transaction so that two organizations can exchange with confidence. We’ll give ratings to charity organizations based on their track record. Any organization can create a demand and trade in. We’ll use a point system such as 100 kg of basmati rice is worth 100 points, 100 kg wheat is 40 points, and so on.’

  ‘What if an organization has larger demand but less surplus to trade with?’

  ‘They can still do it to a reasonable extent. They’ll have to promise to create more trade-in in the next six months to make up their negative point balance.’

  ‘How would a transaction take place?’

  ‘We’ll have an algorithm which will take care of a complex exchange where several organizations are involved. Users can simply exchange on their own.’

  ‘I think I’m getting it but not quite getting it,’ Lavanya was out of her depth again.

  ‘Look at it like this. You have extra rice which you want to exchange with wheat. That’s a simple exchange. Most of the time you’d like to exchange with an organization in your pr
oximity so that transportation does not cost you much.’

  ‘I see. And complex?’

  ‘Complex exchanges would be facilitated through a proprietary algorithm especially designed for the exchange. Let’s look at an example. Splash, an organization in Tamil Nadu, has branches in several cities in India in the further north. Suppose a cyclone sweeps down the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, people are in extreme need of food items like rice, lentils and cooking fuel. Splash runs a drive to collect donations across India through all of its branches. Immediately, a Tamil industrialist living in Jammu donates 10 tons of rice for this cause from his warehouse.’

  ‘So the problem becomes how to transport this rice to Tamil Nadu which is more than 2,000 km away?’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Pinto. ‘It’d take three days to a week to deliver the rice to Tamil Nadu and would cost a lot of money.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Splash inputs a request for an exchange on the exchange. Their requirement is to deliver rice to cyclone victims in Tamil Nadu as soon as possible. Another organization in Delhi, Mercy, is looking for rice to feed kids in their orphanage but they have a surplus of toys at this time because of a big donation they got during Christmas.’

  ‘Go on,’ said Lavanya, encouragingly.

  ‘Similarly, a vibrant organization called Tribrant is working with tribes in Chhattisgarh, running a large residential school for poor tribal children. They desperately need toys but have a surplus of wheat which they get through a government scheme. Rice is their staple food so wheat is of no use to them anyway.’

  ‘I think it’s making sense to me now,’ said Lavanya, nodding eagerly.

  ‘In south India, as well, the staple food is rice. An organization in Hyderabad called Serenity is providing food and shelter to elderly people. Their doctor has recently introduced a wheat diet for elderly people in the evenings. Serenity has access to rice but they don’t have any wheat in their store.’