Part 6: Making Life More Meaningful

The magic of public transport!

It really feels good. After all, Lean Living Practices are about making life more meaningful. Meaningful in terms of doing more of what makes human-life remain more really like human-life. Lean Living Practices encourage us to enjoy little pleasures of life – Watching the nature around us, playing with our children, watching our children grow, spending time with our families, caring for our parents, spending time with our friends, listening to music, nurturing and focusing on relationships, learning a fine art, learning a new language, spending a lazy evening by a beach, travelling a bit to see new places and meet new people, cooking for fun, doing some social service and help someone (giving back to the society), praying for a while, meditating a little, learning to play a musical instrument, studying about an animal or a civilization, looking back into the history, spreading knowledge, working out for good health, growing a plant, creating a garden, maintaining an aquarium, keeping a pet and spending some time with it, looking at the starry sky, enjoying the music of rain, enjoying a cup of tea with your friend, helping out your friend or neighbour in need of help, educating the illiterate, etc. The list is really, really long.

It makes real sense to use public transport. It makes and keeps life safer on roads! This is how it is. A driver of a public-transport vehicle is, generally, more focused on and experienced in driving. Because, that is his | her job! And, he | she masters the art of driving (in most of the cases). So, in a public-transport vehicle, we are, most probably, in good hands (safer-hands!). For the sake of argument, it may be stated that public-transport vehicles, also, do meet with accidents. However there is another truth about it. Probabilistically, 50 private-vehicles (Cars), collectively, will meet with certainly far more number of serious accidents in a year than a public-transport vehicle (Bus that seats 50 passengers on an average) will, in that same year!

While we travel in a public-transport vehicle, we have opportunities to do many things that make a lot of sense. We can really do those things as we do not have to drive during that span of our travel! We may prefer to socialize, listen to good music, watch the nature outside the window, catch up with friends with electronic gadgets, get done with some work, think deeply over a problem to get a solution, create poetry etc. while we travel in that mode of transportation. And, for sure, we arrive at the destination, less tired. Because, we could skip doing one tiring and, possibly a, less creative job – driving. If the vehicle seats 50 people, 50 people reach their destinations less tired thanks to the efforts of just one person- the driver of the vehicle. Is not it really a beautiful and inspiring example of human-effort optimization? In this context, the travel becomes more of life-enriching acts, experiences and events than a mere mechanical commute! Well, it takes some life-style adjustments and modifications (coupled with reasonably good city-infrastructure and public-transport services). But, those adjustments are really worth the ultimate benefit. NEXT >>

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Part 5: The Power of Community Living

Community living is a beautiful thing!

Apartment (Community) Living has become the order of the day and gaining more popularity over time. The car ownership and utilization example (in the previous post) can be extended to cover the scenario in an apartment community where hundreds of families reside. And, in most of the cases, each family owns one car or more. We do not have to do the maths again to ascertain the extent of capacity utilization in the context of all the cars available to the residents of the apartment community. Let’s us take a look at the situation from a slightly different angle. At any given point of time during the day, if one takes a look at the parking lots of the apartment community, one finds so many cars parked in the parking lots! This is the case at really any point of time during any day. That essentially means, in the context of that apartment community, the total supply (availability) of cars far exceeds the demand, if we look at the actual utilization. If, on an average, N number of cars are always found parked at any point of time during the day, the supply is more, by N number of cars, than the demand. If the total number of cars available in the apartment community is M, the unused capacity is (N/M) %, in simple terms. However, the actual unused capacity is way bigger than (N/M) % (based on the ‘effective practical capacity utilization’ calculation explained in the previous part | post).

So, what is the smarter way recommended by Lean Living in this scenario? As stated earlier, Lean Living is a Philosophy and a ‘way of life’. One can practice Lean Living if, and only if, one truly believes in this philosophy and is honestly eager to adopt this ‘way of life’. That is true in the context of an apartment community as well. If all the residents of that apartment community believe in this philosophy and are honestly eager to adopt this ‘way of life’, of course, there are arrangements prescribed by Lean Living that can produce great results. Let’s discuss one such arrangement here. The arrangement may sound hypothetical. But, in the world of Lean Living, it is perfectly feasible. Here is the arrangement described below, through an example (Illustration).

Castle Pine Apartment Community has 300 resident families. There are 325 cars in the apartment community. At any point of time, on any day, at least 75 cars, on an average, are found parked in the parking lots. That suggests that the residents of the apartment community really need 75 less cars than they actually have. The residents decide to go Lean about it. This is the scheme they come up with. It is decided to get rid of 75 cars, up front. So, they sell those cars and the owners of those cars receive the amount realized from selling those. The residents understand the theory of “Net Effective Practical Capacity Utilization” (NEPCU) (described in the previous part | section). They know that most of the cars in the apartment community are used to travel to workplaces on most of the days of a week. And, in most of the cases, only one person uses one car to commute to the workplace. All the cars used for commuting to workplaces remain parked over most part of the day in the parking lots of the workplaces. After a work day, not more than 25% of the cars used for commuting to workplaces are used for other purposes. 80% of the school-going children in the apartment community have school-vans | buses to take them to their schools. Parents of 20% of school-going children give their children a ride to their (children’s) schools.

Residents identify that all the schools are located in 12 areas of the city and the workplaces, in 15 areas of the city. Each of the areas is either categorized as a School-Zone or a Work-Zone. They do a detailed analysis and prepare a chart to depict the number of people | children commuting to each Work-Zone and School-Zone. It is ascertained that not more than 8% of the families need a car (for use by the stay-at-home moms) after the primary (or sole) car of the family is put to use for commuting to the workplace.

Residents do a detailed analysis to arrive at an estimated quantum of resources (cars) required for various need-segments. They estimate that about 60 cars (each with a capacity to carry 7 passengers) are required to get 400 people to their workplaces every day. They (Residents) think, they can manage with lesser number of cars for this purpose. However, that may introduce some waiting time and dependency. They introduce a car-pooling mechanism (with those 60 cars) to commute to and from the workplaces. They ascertain that 20 more cars are required to cater to the needs of people who do not go to work (stay-at-home moms and others) during the day. Parents of 20% of school-going children who do not have a school-bus | van service, hire the service of a reputed local van-service provider on a pay-per-use basis. In that arrangement, the service provider provides enough vans on every school-day to transport those children to and from their schools. The provider charges on the basis of number of hours vans actually used for, at a specified rate. 10 retired residents of the community volunteer to be a part of the newly formed Community Transportation Committee to take care of all the aspects of the lean Transportation System for the apartment community.

Under the scheme, all the cars are sold off (except for the 20 regular size and 60 7-seat-capacity, which are relatively more fuel-efficient) at their market value. The proportionate sale-proceeds are handed over to the respective owners of the cars. And, this is not the limit. There are more opportunities for further optimization. However, to keep this illustration simple, let’s not include additional optimization methods here. Many finer details have also been intentionally excluded from this illustration to keep it simple. Let’s save those for a later date (better day!). This arrangement described in this illustration works brilliantly. It benefits the society, environment and the residents of Castle Pine Apartment Community. With so many cars gone, some of the parking lots get added to children’s play areas and some get converted into mini kitchen-gardens etc. Money saved by not owning a car, in appropriate cases, may be used in irrigation, farming, forestation, free (subsidized) basic education and other social welfare activities. NEXT >>

Part 5: The Power of Community Living by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Part 4: Effective Practical Capacity Utilization

Do you really use it? THE CAR MATH.

Let’s take an example (Illustration) to take a look at the economics involved in owning and not owning a vehicle. This Practitioner does not own (and have never really owned) a car. This example is based on the Practitioner’s life-experience and circumstantial knowledge of current state-of-affairs. The numbers in this example are not really that important. The idea and the underneath philosophy portrayed in this example are the essence of it. >> A person buys a car by spending 5, 00,000 INR. He (she) uses the car over a span of 8 years and sells that off for 1, 00,000 INR. INR 5, 00,000 spent today is worth INR 5, 00,000, today. However, INR 1, 00, 000 realised after 8 years is worth INR 40,000 or less, today. So, the 'net present capital expenditure' in this case is INR (5, 00,000 – 40,000) = INR 4, 60,000. Suppose, the amount spent on Servicing, Repair, Insurance, Taxes and Fuel is X. For simplicity, let’s assume an amount equal to (X/8) is spent every year on Servicing, Repair, Insurance, Taxes and Fuel.

Now, let’s take a closer look. 8 Years = (8 x 365 x 24 x 60) = 4,204,800 Minutes! (We have not considered leap-years for simplicity). In this example, the owner of the car has paid INR (4, 60,000 + X) for 4,204,800 Minutes of ownership. On an average, the owner uses the car for about 3 hours every day. That is, 180 minutes every day. Total utilization over the period of 8 years = (8 x 365 x 180) = 525600 Minutes. Total minutes of ownership paid for and NOT used = (4,204,800 – 5, 25,600) = 3679200 Minutes = (((3679200/60)/24)/365) = 7 YEARS!! That means, the owner of the car pays for 8 years of ownership and the car is actually used for one year. Just 1 year! The car spends 7 years parked in parking lots or repair-workshops!

In this example, the actual capacity utilization = ((1/8) x 100) = 12.5%! Let’s take a look at the practical capacity utilization. Let’s assume a normal downtime to the extent of 20%. That is, for 5 hours of run, there is 1 hour of down (cool off | repair | overhauling | rest) time. 20% is a reasonably sizable portion. Net available capacity = Total Capacity - Normal Downtime = (8 – (8 x (20/100))) = 6.4 years. Practical capacity utilization = ((1/6.4) x 100) = 15.625%. That is still way low! In summary, the owner of the car pays for 6.4 Years of practically usable capacity and uses the car only for a year! That is, not so smart! In this example, the owner of the car spends INR ((4, 60,000 + X)/525600) = Y (per minute). Note: One may replace X with the exact value (number) to arrive at Y, in the context of any specific case.

Usually a regular car is designed to accommodate 5 persons. And, usually when it is used, it is not used with the full passenger-capacity. It is very common to see that most of the cars, on our roads, transporting 1 or 2 people most of the time (Cars with all seats occupied are relatively rare to find on our roads!). To retain the strength of this example, let’s assume that the car is usually driven with 2 people including the driver, over the course of those 8 years. Now, what is the effective practical capacity utilization? Let’s calculate. The effective practical capacity utilization in this case = ((15.625%) x (2/5)) = 6.25%! Believe it, or not!

How does this go in case of a Lean Living Practitioner? A Practitioner usually tries his best to stay away from owning a car, tries hard to find a residential accommodation close to the workplace and other amenities | facilities | utilities (Banks, Hospitals, Shopping Centres, Parks, Bust Station, Train Station etc.). So, a Practitioner hires a car (Taxi | Cab) in case of a need and pays for the actual extent of utilization only! Usually, a Practitioner uses his legs (or a bicycle, wherever possible!) to cover a short distance and public-transport-services for longer distances; ultimately, using a car or any other vehicle very infrequently. For a Practitioner, the benefits of his life-model to the society and the environment are more rewarding than the conveniences material acquisitions can offer. While a non-practitioner uses a personal car or vehicle for a span of 4,204,800 Minutes, a Practitioner usually uses a rented car or a vehicle over a span of (4,204,800/10) Minutes, or less, over the span of those 8 years. And, the average human-life is much longer than 8 years. So, the cumulative benefits offered by a Practitioner’s life-model, throughout the Practitioner’s life, to the mankind, society and the environment are truly tremendous. A Lean Living Practitioner takes pride in his (her) life-model and inspires others to be a part of the club! 

The numbers and the calculations presented here are not particularly very important. The idea and the message, however, are. And, it's indeed wonderful to see that Ride-sharing and Carpooling like concepts are gaining popularity and momentum.  NEXT >>

Part 4: Effective Practical Capacity Utilization by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Part 3: No Car? No Worries!

Not owning a car is a beautiful thing!

A practitioner does not usually own a vehicle! Owning a vehicle has its own benefits. However, NOT owning a vehicle offers the following benefits to the Practitioner.

1.  By not using a vehicle, the practitioner saves the environment from his | her share of air and sound pollution, every day. And, the cumulative benefit to the environment, accrued throughout the entire life of the Practitioner, is so huge and glorious that the Practitioner really feels highly satisfied with the fact that something substantially good was done to the current generation and the subsequent generations of mankind. Every kilo of pollution not added to the environment goes really a long way in making human life better. This contribution by the Practitioner to the society is indeed invaluable. This is the very theme of this whole business:

"Let me help people breathe a little better air, let me help my children and grandchildren breathe a little better air, let me help the children and grandchildren of the people who pollute air, breathe a little better air, whether I am still around or not."

2.  A Practitioner, on a busy Monday morning, does not have to get frustrated in the long queue at the Gas Station | Petrol Pump | Fueling Station waiting for the Practitioner’s turn! That’s quite a relief.

3.  Since there is no vehicle, in question, there is no vehicle-insurance, of course. Since there is no vehicle-insurance, there are no renewals required. And, there is no forgetting about the renewal-dates and are no missed premiums. That’s a lot of apparently unnecessary worries taken out of human life!

4.  Practitioner’s vehicle never meets with an accident. For, there is no vehicle that he or she, usually, owns. Accidents are so common. And, those happen so frequently over the life of a vehicle and life of the owner. A series of events usually follow an accident. In case the vehicle is brand new, it is a shocking event for the owner when the vehicle meets its first accident and loses it good looks partially or fully! Then, it is also the time to engage with the owner of the other vehicle if the accident happened between two vehicles! That may involve police | some money payment (penalties | compensation), Lawyer, Court of Law, Insurance Company, Repair Station – the list is not really short! And, accidents are life-threatening too. What is more valuable than life? A professional drives presumably does the job well. That's THE work for the driver. And, you are in safer hands, probably, while you are not driving and thoughts around your work still continue to cloud your mind and attention.

5.  Other not-so-pleasant experiences that the Practitioner gets an opportunity to stay away from are:

 i. Routine servicing of the vehicle.

 ii. Oil Change

 iii. Tire, Tube, Parts replacement…. The list is long!

6.  Unless the Practitioner is really fond of driving in crowded roads and disgusting traffic conditions, the Practitioner thanks himself or herself as he (she) need not drive, at all, in a typical city! A Practitioner usually hires a vehicle or uses public transportation in case of a definite need. The Practitioner manages those situations (where the Practitioner needs a vehicle anyway to travel) by planning in advance and sometimes by just using the most suitable option(s) available.

7.  No parking-space or parking-lot is required! So, that comes with the flexibility, for the Practitioner, to reside in a house that does not have a parking-lot or space, in case required.

How is it managed? A Lean Living Practitioner tries really hard to find a residential accommodation at a really strategic location (by spending more money and putting in substantial search-efforts) so that not only the workplace, but also, all the critical and important services (+ utilities) are nearby.

Lean Living does not encourage owning a vehicle if it is possible for one to live life normally and meet all the regular local travel (commute) related needs. It is really easy if reasonably good arrangements of public-transport are available. It is really fun if grocers and vegetable-vendors are located nearby so that the Practitioner loves just to walk to get grocery and vegetables. And, anyway, in many (and, most of the) cases, schools have got school-buses and hospitals have got ambulance service. At least, they are supposed to have. So, the Practitioner and his (her) family are covered there, in more cases than not. 

Well, the case made here is just to present the idea. I do not claim that every bit of it has a perfect alignment with the realities of the real world. The idea and the message are important here. NEXT >>

Part 3: No Car? No Worries! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Part 2: The Lean Living Practitioner

How is the deal different here?

What does a Lean Living Practitioner do differently? The Practitioner manages the most important project differently. And, what that project is? LIFE itself is that project. The Practitioner usually doesn't try to draw a very clear line of difference between work and life. The Practitioner tries to achieve a great work-life composition while doing good to the society and the environment. How does it work? It takes redesigning the way basic life-operations are performed. It is about smarter and more responsible life-choices. A substantially large portion of our lives is spent at our workplaces. And, that is the place we visit most frequently. Most of us go to work almost everyday. So, travelling to our workplaces is one of the most frequent basic life-operations performed so frequently. Of course, we, as grownups, do not probably visit shopping-malls, entertainment parks, zoos, cinemas, theatres, grocers so frequently. And, if at all we do, we have a choice there to moderate and control the frequency of our visits. Since, the travel to the workplace is related to our bread-and-butter, the commute involved is characterized as ‘mandatory’ and involuntary. So, obviously that (travelling to the workplace) becomes the first choice for a Practitioner to take a look at to redesign the way that operation is performed.

A Lean Living Practitioner usually tries so hard to find a residence (place to live | accommodation) so close to the workplace. So that, just a short walk is all that it takes to arrive at the workplace. Residential accommodations nearer to workplaces are usually expensive. However, the extra cost gets more than compensated by the benefits derived out of this life-model. What if the practitioner has a house of his own and that is far away from the workplace? In most of the cases, Practitioners do not own a home. Rather, they prefer renting a residential home. That provides flexibility to stay always (well, almost always) near the workplace. However, Lean Living practices do NOT really discourage any one explicitly from owning a home. One may own a home and still practice Lean Living in life through smart choices and life-model alterations.

There are cities in India where people spend a few hours in travelling to and from the workplace, on every workday! Spending a few hours on roads almost every day is just ridiculous and inhuman to an extent. Life is short. In that short life, we have really not much time for ourselves, our family, friends and our society. What a real wastage of time (life?) if we spend that on roads while struggling through crazy traffic congestion? Needless to state here, facing such traffic conditions increases stress and general anger levels in human beings. And, that ultimately leaves many of us exhausted and irritated while negatively impacting our relationships and psychological well-being. Is this what human life is worth? Owning a home is definitely worth the benefits it offers. However, the benefits (tangible and intangible | psychological | social) must always be, ideally, greater than the problems (effort | cost | time | attention) that are attached to owning a home. If that is not the case, it is not worth owning a home. Lean Living, however, does not dictate whether one should or should not own a home. It talks favourably about those options that offer flexibility in life, though. NEXT >>

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Part 1: Lean Living Practices

Building the Background

I am a ‘Lean Living’ practitioner. I have been practicing Lean Living since October 2002. And, it was in early 2004 when I fell in love with a company (Business Organization) that has always been big on Sustainability. That company is Siemens. Lean Living is a Philosophy and a ‘Way of Life’. Lean Living, as a practice, tries to influence and enhance three factors in human life. Those factors are Simplicity, Sustainability and Satisfaction (3S). Lean Living is based on three personal attributes of the Practitioner: Responsible, Innovative and Excellence, in that exact order. Sounds familiar?

A Lean Living Practitioner acts with a great sense of Responsibility toward this planet, its environment, its living beings, mankind and the society (that includes the Practitioner and the Practitioner’s family and relatives) at large. The Practitioner never tries to chase innovation (continuous improvement) without that sense of responsibility. Acting responsibly, while innovating, produces excellent results that matter the most to human life. Lean Living is a set of 'configurable'  and 'context sensitive philosophy driven' Life-Practices that guide a human being in consciously living a life that is full of things and events that make the most real sense in a human-life. It helps one steer clear of things and events that, apparently do, but do not actually make real sense in one’s life. So when one looks back, while resting and slowing down in the long journey called life, the feeling that flashes in the human mind is that of absolute satisfaction and not resentment.

Here is a little background of Lean Living. This Lean Living Practitioner resides in India. So, it is safe to assume that, many of this Practitioner’s observations are influenced by the Indian context. However, that does not mean the aspects discussed in this article are isolated and related exclusively to the Indian context. Human-life is still relatively simpler in rural and non-urban areas compared to that of Urban Areas and Cities. So, Lean Living practices are more relevant in the context of cities. Human life has become more mechanical and stressful. Keen focus on material acquisition has become the order the day and the chase is on! It may just look like a simple pursuit of happiness. But, indeed, it is NOT!

It happens in case of many human beings. Till very late in life, they keep themselves busy in chasing material acquisitions. And, that continues to prevail as their sole goal in life. At a very later stage in life, tired and dissatisfied, they try to reflect back. And, when they look back, they discover that they did not really live a life. It was more a chase combined with a passion for material acquisition. Unfortunately, many still believe, material acquisition is a symbol of social advancement. However, it is just the opposite, as per the theorists of that subject (Social Advancement).  They (authorities | theorists) believe, in a really advanced society, we get to see substantially lesser focus on material acquisitions. And, we do get to see a great focus on social welfare and justice, sense of responsibility towards people and the planet, ‘cognitive, intellectual and spiritual’ acquisition and true enrichment of human life.

Life is not really about working and making money. It’s not about buying houses, vehicles and furniture. Life is not about accumulating wealth. However, all these are, very much, parts and parcels of life. However, distinction is definitely required to be made between a part and the whole. If only a part is understood and perceived as the whole, the real, and probably the bigger and more important, other part gets neglected and life loses its liveliness. It will not really be far from the truth if we say that everyone tries to chase happiness and satisfaction in life. Human beings are, presumably, the most sophisticated creature on this planet. However, we do the most of damage to it and very little good to it. No other living being does that, apparently. And, we tend to go away from basics. That’s where the problem starts. Life is good till it is simple. Life is good till we are in a position to enjoy every little good thing around us. It is good till we are in a position to pay attention to good things in our lives, society around us, our family and relatives, nature, music, relationships etc. We must be able to get time and energy to pause, stand and stair! Do you remember that poem “Leisure” by William Henry Davies? It’s really worth taking a look at today. NEXT >>

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Part 0: The Essence of Lean Living Practices

PC: Debi Prasad Mahapatra

👍 The generally usable capacity of human beings to associate with human beings, other living beings, objects, concepts and thoughts (etc.) is limited.

👍 Consciously choose to use that limited capacity to create associations with what is really valuable in life.

👍 Choose building meaningful relationships over acquisition of objects, whenever the latter is not a means to achieve the former.

👍 Do not acquire what you do not really need. If you happen to have it, still, give it to someone who really needs it.

👍 When it comes to acquiring an object, think consciously and mindfully about how much you need to serve that object against how much the object is going to serve you.

👍 Do respect ethics. Do choose right over wrong. In more cases than not, you really know what is right and ethical.

👍 Choose to spend time with people over spending time to serve objects, whenever there is a choice.

👍 Learn to respect your own way of living when you know, that is a reasonably right way. Consciously ignore peer pressure.

👍 The means to happiness are many. The state of being happy is just one. Happiness resides within. Just don't look for happiness outside. Attaining the state of happiness might not be the easiest. But, it's not too difficult either. Becoming happy, more often than not, is a conscious choice.

👍 Earn, Save and Share. Try to secure your present and future. Help others. You are inherently indebted to the world around you. Do give back. Contribute in charity. Choose a cause that you value.

👍 Respect the environment and respect every life form.

👍 Learn and practice giving more and taking less.

👍 Learn and practice deriving your own happiness form the happiness of others. Be a reason for others' happiness.

👍 It is not really about making everything minimized and small. Do make life large when it comes to the things that your are really passionate about and the things that make this world a better place. Do a lot of what satisfies you and makes you really happy. Do really a lot of that and produce magnificent results. You will never regret.

👍 Stop complaining and, instead, strive to solve problems to the best of your abilities and means.

👍 Gratitude is great. Be thankful.

👍 Respect sustainability in every relevant context. Drive sustainability, contribute in sustainability and inspire others to contribute in sustainability.    

👍 Collaborate to make this world a better place. Use the power of collective wisdom and collaboration. Inspire others to collaborate.

👍 It is not easy to live a life as a Lean Living Practitioner. And, thus, these practices are, of course, not for everyone.

👍 Lean Living Practices are not only applicable to your personal life, but those are absolutely applicable to your family, organization, society and all the other relevant broader contexts. NEXT >>