An Indecisive Indian

  It took unflinching resolve of a team at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perambur, Chennai, to design and build Train 18 in just 18 months—India’s first modern semi-high-speed train. Flagged off in early 2019 as the Vande Bharat Express, it became a symbol of national pride and the PM’s pet project.  But after deploying nearly a 100 rakes—all in seater versions—the novelty has worn thin. I had long held that after approximately 50/60 daytime services, only a Sleeper version could carry the mission forward. But that version, which should have been reality by end 2019, has been repeatedly “launched” since March 2024; it, however, is still playing hide-and-sleeper with commercial service . Why? Largely because quality issues in the BEML-built prototype have caused ICF to raise red flags. Meanwhile, nearly 25 Vande Bharat seater services are running half-empty with their average speeds falling. Yet the sleeper train slumbers on—metaphorically and literally. Disheartened, I once ag...

  Jugaad —or more expressively, Jugaa.D in Roman Hindi—is a powerful and evocative word. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a Hindi term referring to an innovative, resourceful, and often unconventional approach to problem-solving, especially in the face of limited resources. It typically implies quick, inexpensive, and improvised solutions using whatever is at hand. More broadly, it encompasses meanings like contrivance, stratagem, intrigue, or any innovative or irregular way of repairing, mending, or solving a problem—a makeshift mechanism or stopgap solution. But jugaad is more than all this. It can also suggest spontaneity, extemporization, ad-libbing, ad hoc responses, or even the spirit of quest, pursuit, chase, hunt, inquiry, or exploration. In looser associations, it connects with ideas like impromptu, expedient, improviso, autoschediasm, speaking off the cuff, acting on impulse or in the moment, winging it, inquest, intrigue, enterprise, and quarry. In short, juga...