Urban living

 The morning yesterday was Sunny but it started raining in the afternoon and continued to be wet. At around 3.30 p.m. I went to the terrace for a minute and my attention was caught by a fire in front of me, in the army institute. I thought they were doing some torch carrying exercise. But the fire got bigger and made an ominous hissing noise. I looked closely. A branch of the jacaranda tree on the boundary had caught fire! The fire was getting bigger. It started raining and it was extinguished. I came inside.

The drizzle stopped and I heard a bigger sound, the branch had fallen. Some young people on the road were shouting but there was no letup in the continuous traffic.

Something had got to be done. I called the fire brigade station nearby. A person sought the details and then advised me to contact the power distribution company. It had three helplines. All were busy. I kept calling. Got through and was met with a prerecorded message. It was repeated in Marathi, English and Hindi. I waited patiently. Then I had to feed my 12 digit consumer number. Then the service got stuck. I fed the number four times but to no avail.

I could not quite turn back now. Kept calling the number. Reached the call center staff and the phone was stopped. Two more tries. Nothing happened when I pressed the option for power supply off (power was discontinued by then) and so next time I chose the option of emergency. Finally got through. Gave the details of what I had observed and told them that the fire was now out due to the rains. Added that I was stuck on their helpline and that at the beginning of the rainy season, I had contacted them to tell them about tree-cutting but I was pooh-poohed.

Nothing more could be done and so I got busy with my reading.

When power supply was restored after two hours, I checked outside. The tree had been pruned. After half an hour I got a message saying that the problem I had reported had been resolved.

Afghan students I met

 The plight of Afghans, particularly girl students, in Taliban rule is making news all over the world. While reading the news items, my mind went back to Afghan students I came across while teaching in college.

There were these three students who turned up in my class towards the fag-end of the first term. I was teaching a good subject which unfortunately was found tough by students and it had no textbook. The three fellows did not appear to understand anything. Their admission through the university had been delayed. They came again only once to the classroom. They had a major difficulty in understanding English. They had rented a place in Nanded City on Sinhagad road. I was surprised because it was very far from the college and the township was very upscale. They had no money for petrol or even food. I decided that if they came again I would carry Shrewsbury biscuits for them. But they just disappeared. I contacted a senior Afghan student in the college and asked him to help these babes through the Afghan student's association. Then I met them straight at the end of the year when they pleaded that I pass them in the examination. I ignored them.

The senior student I had contacted had settled well in the college. He could pick up English reasonably well and he did an add-on course on personal financial management that I ran in the college. He was active and well-behaved. His family ran a duty-free goods shop in Kabul international airport and he told me that he implemented the tips we handed out in the course e.g. write down all expenses, develop a budget for major events etc.

Then there was this girl who was very determined to make the best of the opportunity of studying in India. She attended all lectures and was the first one to get up whenever I asked a question in the class or we had a discussion. In the beginning I liked it, then her response started getting on my nerves. I put her down rather sharply in the class. Another teacher told me that all Afghan students hated her and did not talk to her.

And finally there was this student whom I never taught but who was noticeable in the campus because he took part in all the extra-curricular activities. He was writing his last year final examination and I was the senior invigilator. A flying squad from the university came to check the conduct of examination and caught this boy with copy material on his person. The squad deposited it with me and asked me to take action. I asked the student to leave the examination hall. I had not decided whether the rest of his papers should be cancelled or not. He started crying and wailing. Very surprising as I thought Afghans were very manly. For an hour or so, the boy stood sobbing and pleading with me. My explanation that the squad had caught him and so nothing could be done fell on deaf ears. My simple question: why did you not study and why copy, went unanswered. The college building continued to echo his loud cries.

After half an hour the Principal came to me and said he was a good student. "What if tomorrow it transpires that the squad made a mistake? Where would we be? He would lose a year unnecessarily." She asked.

"What are you saying? The squad had given me the copy material. This is the evidence. How can there be any mistake?" I asked aghast.

It was clear that the Principal wanted him to continue his paper. "He has already lost an hour. If he fails, it won't be on our head."

So the college was to simply carry out examination without taking any routine punitive action. What devaluation. Principal seemed fine with it.

I was disgusted but it was my last examination and I quietly complied with her instruction. The boy went back happily to write the rest of his examination. The saving grace was that he failed in that paper finally.

Thus Afghan students appeared to have major difficulties in their studies. They were casual and not very bright. Yemen students, on the other hand, used to be very sincere and studious. Unfortunately their entry stopped due to the civil war in Yemen.

My experience with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Having done a fair amount of reading on the life of memsahibs in India in the 19th and 20th century, I wrote on it, organizing my information in a cohesive manner. The manuscript was submitted to a Marathi publisher. Their editors called me over and suggested some changes which I carried out and they told me that they would go through it again. I took it as a provisional acceptance.

Then Corona struck and Marathi publishing came to a standstill. My hopes were dashed as the publishers were totally non-committal. 

As a way out of the inactivity and boredom, I started writing a novel on the life of memsahibs. As usual I made a rapid start and then things became slow. Had to push myself and somehow completed the project. It had a hasty ending.

Amazon sent a message about their publishing competition in India and suggested I could enter my new book. Why not, I said to myself and entered Empire in the competition. I had to publish it on Amazon first. The e-book was not a problem but the print version was. Only the e-book was enough for entry.

It did not make the grade. 

Then came another message about advertising the novel on Amazon. I demurred. They offered to run a short campaign for me but I was not interested.

Then one workshop about how advertising works on Amazon was organised online by Bryan Cohen, an American. I enrolled because I wanted to know the details.

I created some five ad copies and ran them while doing the workshop. The online ads are basically about choosing keywords and finding an appropriate category for your work. I settled on historical biographical fiction. Did not choose women's fiction. Had to generate some 100 keywords during the course. Then came the writing of the ad copy. I enjoyed learning all this. Unfortunately, my ads generated some clicks but not a single sale. During the course, it became clear that authors were expected to keep writing - whole series of books or independent books. One person in the community even declared that he wrote and sold low content books!

I was dismayed at the lack of response but then realized that the novel was a misfit. Everything on Amazon is governed by quantitative metrics. Quality did not come into it.

Things became clear after this realization. Also understood then why two libraries whom I had requested to look at my novel gave it a short shrift.

So Amazon KDP has no truck with quality. Indeed there is no editing or curating of the content. I think I will soon get Empire unpublished from Amazon.