Ten percent law says only about 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next. So if we start with 10000 J in plants, herbivores get 1000 J, and carnivores get just 100 J. But this law feels too neat sitting here in Kullu—in these hills, if a pine tree gets that sunlight, half of it is eaten by the monkeys before any ‘trophic transfer’ even happens! My own life is like that herbivore level, trying to pass on my earnings to my son’s college fees in Dharamshala; by the time the fees are paid, what’s left is barely a trickle.

In school we teach Fleming’s right-hand rule for generators, left-hand rule for motors. But I say, the real rule is: if the electricity is going in, it’s a motor; if it’s coming out, it’s a generator. Every evening, I hear the *ghar-ghar ka generator* roar to life after a power cut—it’s making electricity we’ll use, so right-hand rule. My old ceiling fan, though? When power flows in, it spins—that’s left-hand rule. Sometimes the simplest things in our homes explain science better than any textbook diagram.

Every time they announce a new rule tweak for PKL, I think of that generator outside my shop—it hums back to life just when I’ve given up, but it costs half a day’s earnings in diesel. These all-out attacking bonus points and super tackles sound clever in committee, but mark my words, the smaller teams with thinner benches will be the ones getting their pyaaz bhajiya burned while the big franchises feast. Just like how the Manali dealers buy in bulk and leave my little Kullu counter with nothing but unsold pashmina—change should first ask who gets hurt, not who gets richer.

Last week a tourist asked me why I still stock old-style kulluvi caps when everyone wants machine-made. I said the same reason those hockey girls from Jharkhand and Odisha stick with the game—it’s in the hand, not the machine. The real question is who gets hurt when the big money moves in; the single mother selling tea near the stadium or the girl whose family sacrificed everything for her stick. That’s what I’m watching.