Self Inflicted

Perched high on a mountain top, you are screaming-
at times commanding, and some pleading.
You hear a thousand echo what you said.

The grave injustice, that you are handed out,
imprisoned by the world around;
you crave freedom from the invisible shackle and chain.

You speak now, the voice of a many people;
The suffering they had to endure!
You are concerned for their future and today.

Standing tall in your moment, you announce a sacrifice.
The one of self, for your cause, to take the dive, to open eyes.
You take the plunge for what you believe is right.

The descent now, barely took a moment.
In that moment you see your life, pass and fleet-
from your grip, makes you smile and then a cry.

There you hear a baby laugh, born free, a long time by,
There you hear a young boy’s heart, daring to dream,
There you hear a young man’s soul hard at toil, you smile.

There you hear all the freedom you had;
no quill on paper, no master’s whip could hold you back.
Yet now bound in the hands of death, you cry.

As you open your eyes, for one last look at the peak,
you see another imbecile mounting your perch.
Singing your tunes to no audience, pleased with his own echo.

The Other Way

Playing the devil’s advocate is risky business; yet, every great implementation has this ordeal to thank for, in its conceptualization. 

Corruption is affecting our society. “Power corrupts” is a reality. The problem arises from the fact that power is viewed as political, monetary or one derived from affluence or related status. As citizens of the free world, each of us enjoy a degree of power- a power to educate oneself and others, a power to set a moral standard, a power to lead or to determine the leader. Corruption truly spurs from such power, when it is not exercised.

With lighted candles, a modest chunk of a billion awoke, to find their voice, to vet their power; to hazard a system that had rendered them mere puppets, comfortable ones at that. It is a shame that the populace of a democracy had to threaten its elected representatives with Satyagraha and hunger strikes to get their concerns through.

There is more than one way to approach any problem, or so I’ve been taught. You can go top-down, bottom-up, or haphazard. Although a majority believes that bottom-up yields the best results, it is also the toughest and one requiring a long term commitment. Hence many choose top-down; although it is easier to pinpoint the few issues at top, any solution will only be temporary and will not percolate to the bottom easily. This is true for engineering problems, and the current problem in society that we are fighting.ence h

While the society pushes for legislative changes to address corruption, it is important that we give a thought to bringing in change at home. It makes more sense to say that making a better man makes a better society; not vice versa. History acknowledges it and logic supports it. A “better man” has innumerable definitions and traits. Let us start with two that can, hopefully, accommodate and nurture the rest.

• You know that you are living in a better society when there is an honor system in schools. When students don’t cheat, even without invigilation and threats of dire consequences, you are sure that these will grow up to be fine individuals. Point one: Instill the virtue of honesty amongst children.

• Individuals of all ages have the right of refusal. When students refuse preferential treatment based on anything other than merit, the legislative bias loses all meaning. Point two: Nourish a sense of pride in meritocracy and apathy towards all other social differentiators.

These two aim at developing a sense of universal integrity amongst a populace that sees gray. Yes, we live in gray times, in a world that cannot clearly distinguish between the wrongs and rights. Personal morals and beliefs are not the drivers for the right lifestyle or governance. Some may argue that utopia can be created by clearly distinguishing the right from the wrong. Others realize that utopia is fictional and unachievable; especially considering that we believe in convenient more than truth, integrity and honor. The only way to overcome such obstacles in our quest for utopia is by bringing in change at the grassroots. By hardwiring a universal moral stance at a tender age, we can hope that the next generation will do the right thing. Level the playing field, set the same rules.

Economic Sunshine

“Make hay while the sun shines”, said an old proverb. And like most proverbs, it has been clichéd severely and the actual meaning never given the importance. India has emerged as a driving economy; well, at least in the current day scenario. Economists attribute this to the population, education, the flat world and a lot of other factors. True, in some sense. But these are driving only the urban development and catering largely to the markets outside. The sunshine factor rarely figured in our planning 21st century economy.

As Mr. Nandan Nilekani puts in his book, Imagining India, India is enjoying the first dividend of a double hump population boom. The population is young compared to the graying American and European populace. The south, with a slightly lower and more urban centric population is providing the first population dividend by utilizing the knowledge boom. Surveys indicate, the median age in northern India is much lower or younger than the current south Indian median age. This implies that the next economic surge would be driven by the folks to the north of the Vindyas.

The focus of our economics should now shift from creating a corpus, which we have successfully managed over the last two decades, to sustainability. The population of northern India is a challenge to figuring the demographic dividend. The current model of knowledge and service industry that has driven the southern rise as economic behemoths is not necessarily suitable for paving the northern economic plans. With a focus on self sustenance, a single vertical will not suffice. It may seem as a case of devolution, but shifting the focus from IT and technology to Agrarian and infrastructure will provide the sustainability needed.

The economic sunshine is rather the concept of utilizing sunshine to drive economics. Our tendency to ‘move west’ to find metaphorical gold mines is a slight misnomer. We have, through history, moved towards the poles in search of these gold mines. The people of the tropics never had to worry about optimizing the utilization of Sunlight as we receive nearly 12 hours of it throughout the year. When we move towards the poles, sunlight is evidently a major economic factor. An early understanding of this helped the people to develop concepts such as Daylight Savings and higher utilization during late spring, summer and early fall. Receiving up to 18 hours of sunshine during these periods has helped them to work harder towards tasks that require the sunlight factor- infrastructure, agriculture, etc. During the winters, efforts are made to utilize the maximum of short sunlight hours and discover alternate tasks and jobs for the dark early afternoons. Whereas we, in the tropics, have considered the sunlight as a luxury and wasted it over the years.

Our typical office hours start from 0900 and in the case of government agencies at 1030 and beyond. Essentially, we are losing an average of four precious sunlight hours to sleep and other trivialities. A focused shift of work hours to at least 0730 would help us utilize more sunlight than we currently use. Another advantage of this would be minimizing our energy consumption. The current efforts to reduce global warming and carbon footprints will be supplemented by this theory. The north Indian economic dividend will be enabled through employment in industries where sunlight is a key factor.

Of course, there are industries that do not require sunlight. The flat world has changed the dependencies a lot. This however is only a small vertical that is fueling the India of tomorrow. The other skyscrapers in the graph are yet to rise, and only a uniform growth in all sectors would help in building a sustainable economy. We cannot be satisfied by a two decade boom and live in its shadows for the next century.