80-20 rule in action

I can get from Pune to Mumbai in less than 2 hours!!! But in order to reach my office which is in Andheri, it takes me additional 1 1/2 hours!

Today, I drove to Pune infotech park. The total distance from my place to where I was going, is approximately 30 Km. It took me half an hours to go upto the Wakad junction. From Wakad to infotech park took me another half an hour.

This is a perfect example of last 20 percent of work taking as much time as first 80 percent.

Luckily the first 80 percent today is a great drive. It almost comparable to driving in US where you can pretty much go on autopilot without being afraid of having a riskshaw, or a two wheeler or a cow or a camel coming in your way!

I am afraid, however, that the rate at which this region is growing the road that is more than sufficient today, will not scale to the needs of the future. (And by future I mean next 5 years!!!)

The other aspect that I have realized is that it is the least common denominator that decides the speed with which one can travel on the roads. Today you can buy BMW 7 series cars in India and in many places the roads are good enough to drive those beautiful cars fast! However 0.00001% population can afford the BMW 7 series in India where as majority of population will still be buying underpowered cheap automobiles and even traveling by rickshaws. So as long as those vehicles are on the same streets, the entire average speed will come down. Sure the beemer can go zero to 60 in 4 seconds but in India it would be lucky if it can go 0 to 6 in 4 seconds.

The other irony is that the cream of population that can afford beemers and mercs is also the kind of people who never drive themselves. So all BMWs and Mercedez benz have drivers. Can you imagine buying a beemer and never driving it yourself? I can't!!!