"HEAD HELD HIGH AND THE EYES TIGHT SHUT"

( I wrote this in year 2000- 10 yrs ago- for my college magazine)

Chitragupt smiled, never in his career as book keeper of heaven had he seen such an unusual request. It came from a soul of very high stature. He was a man whom an entire nation respected. The fact that he had been a resident of heaven for few decades didn't help Chitragupt. He was the stuff gods were made of. It was his vision that had brought progress, prosperity and unity to his country.

He was standing, right in front of Chitragupt, his face pained, tired, devoid of serenity the very characteristic of heaven. "Why?" Chitragupt asked, amazed, "What makes you do this unusual request ??" The pale face produced a piece of paper, he handed it to Chitragupt”this”. The paper was a page of perhaps some magazine from earth. So unusual he thought. It was titled "The heads held high". He decided to read it.

"Who are the heads, held high, those who decide. how we do, what we want to do. These are the heads, whom you proudly proclaim to despise, that come begging & pleading to you every five years. But these are the heads, which govern & rule us. These are the men who lead India tryst with destiny. Who decide what price we pay for our urea and gas. They are also responsible for making us realize our religion and caste when we fill some of our forms, & yet they are the ones who promised you equality.

They claim their aim, is peace. But then they fuel anger to lead riots, killing innocent humans, making us feel ashamed. They don't discuss riots they walkout from the 'round' building. The don't debate, just walkout to seek political vengeance. Do they care for legislation? Or Governance? And come the season, they will barter their support for a ministerial berth, in greed of power, seek unrealistic alliances.

These are the heads corrupt, criminals, responsible for dividing us, responsible for riots, accountable for slack governance, guardians of a crumbling system. Symbol of a bankrupt morality & unashamed opportunism. They are India's fragmented polity They have turned India tryst with destiny into political chicanery.

It’s unarguably them, who have been elected to lead India, into the future ....Bright future!
They are the heads held high."


Chitragupt could now see the plain face filled with guilt, unceasing pain & a look of utter disgust." It is my fault" the man whispered." I could not see the future, I left many loopholes, and I trusted them too much. Now they use my name in their dirty game. His voice trembling yet steadily rising " look what they are doing to my country, tearing it, dividing it on regional, caste & linguist grounds"

His eyes wide open tears rolled down his eyes "all these are my followers, I am guilty. I want to repent Chitragupt, let me suffer, let me out, let me go to hell”. The last sentence came almost as plea.

Chitragupt waited for the man to calm down." The Indian middle class's disinterest in politics never ceases to amaze me, because after all, everything is for them. Chitragupt eyes fixed as if gazing the distant horizon.. “No........ it's not you, it is not even the heads held high. It is the government of, for & by the "people". It is the people, who elect. It’s the people, who remain silent majority & allow goons to lead them & tear their cultural fiber. It is they who chose a 2 days vacation to a vote. It is them who don’t want to be aware of politic and see indifference as intelligence. It’s them who stay indifferent to immoral actions. It’s them, who refuse to see the injustice, the prejudices, the violence, and even if they see it they prefer to propagate it, for selfish interest.
They prefer to join the system instead of questioning it. They are the mob which is witness to rape, who chose to be blind If not to join the crime. They "chose" to be uninterested and Ignorant of the impact on themselves. The choice is their own If they want to live with their eyes tight shut and the head held high ……Let them,

The Power of ideas.

62 years after India’s independence, Architects of India would have never dreamed of India to be what it is today. They had a vision of a socialist patterned state, where the equitable distribution of wealth and self-sufficiency had to be achieved. Post-independence India, an agrarian economy, had to be uplifted through the development of Industries. It had a clear inclination to socialist economic policies, protected with high international trade barriers and the license raj. India was not to be a capitalist mixed economy as it is now-One of the World’s most lucrative markets; a mixture of free markets-with regulation. A booming middle class with rising purchasing power , global aspirations and changing consumption patterns is making it an economic powerhouse. A capitalist urban society and economic growth with wide disparity across regions. Even the leaders of India did not have this vision- How did we reach here? We did not set out to be here in the first place. How and why did we change the course? Can a ship reach a destination without a rudder!! These questions are worthy of deliberation.

 In 1943 Ayn rand wrote the novel “The Fountain head” it manifested in it the ideas of objectivism, cherishing the idea of individual and their own self interest. Her 1953 novel “The atlas shrugged” furthered this philosophy-she believed the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism. Her Philosophy vehemently opposed collectivism, communism and a welfare state. These ideas influenced many individuals these novels had cult followings. It was a potent idea, seemingly remote to the ideals of post independent India. As a young student in 1999 I read her books, convinced that the tenets of this philosophy & economics will never be implemented any country or region, apart from the United States. The idea was powerful- its propagation and implementation in its original form in India- impossible. Many among my friends undermined the power of such philosophical ideas. Alan Greenspan an American economist and the ex Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006 influenced US and the world economy for over 2 decades. As a student I read about him in news papers, his policies and views always interested me in my graduate college. He was a determined intellectual, delicately balancing the role of central banker, being at the helm of affairs at US Federal reserve he had considerable influence across the globe. His economics was free markets and neoliberal capitalism. He demonstrated in US economy the success of free markets. A fierce critic of trade barrier, it would be understatement to concede that Greenspan “influenced” opinion worldwide. His policies and observations had great influence on the corporate world, An example of the effect of his closely parsed comments was his December 5, 1996 remark about "irrational exuberance and unduly escalating stock prices" that led Japanese stocks to fall 3.2%. 

The Indian economy was liberalized on account of its near bankruptcy in the year 1991. The reforms progressed furthest in the areas of opening up to foreign investment, reforming capital markets, deregulating domestic business, and reforming the trade regime. Liberalization had done away with the Licence Raj (investment, industrial and import licensing) and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors. Thus came down the socialist policies of the state. Total foreign investment in India grew from a minuscule US $132 million in 1991-92 to $5.3 billion in 1995-96. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmadabad have risen in prominence and economic importance became centres of rising industries and destination for foreign investment and firms. What a socialist state could not achieve in decades was achieved in less than 15 years by free markets. The efficiency of free markets, created new opportunities destroyed old inefficient ways of doing things and created the new post liberalization India.

 The aim of social upliftment was best achieved by a capitalist model along with spread of education. The markets had unique ways of creating demand and in India’s case demand for cheap tell-callers and outsourced software maintenance in the US gave more employment than any socialist could have imagined. The demand and supply dynamics brought costs down and improved standard of living. The futility of old socialist model as enumerated by rand in her novels- now looked self evident. The journey of India from a socialist economy to its present form is long, but unarguable it is deeply influenced by the World bank, IMF and the United states. Mr Greenspan as the head of US fed bank definitely influenced to propagate free markets in his own circle of influence. While reading the autobiography of Alan Greenspan, I realized that Ayn Rand significantly influenced Greenspan, They argued over various tenets of objectivism & capitalism- Rand thus fine-tuning her thoughts on them and Greenspan amazed at her intellectual capital. Thus objectivism and lassie fair capitalism as enumerated in Rands epic novels where propagated by economic policies of Greenspan in the US. The liberalization of India’s economy was in effect trickledown effect of the policies of US. What I though unattainable as a young student was already happening in India- the philosophies of rational self interest, free market and capitalism had already being absorbed in Indian ethos. I realized that irrespective of socialist vision of India, an idea whose time had come could not be stopped it flowed in and was absorbed. I realized the complete futility of communism and inefficiency of a welfare state, these very ideas were vehemently opposed by Rand and Greenspan. The concepts of creative destruction, job losses, improving standard of living all made sense to me now. What I read as a comment on society, literature was economic theory in action. Thus the foundation or ideals on which India was formed evolved and morphed itself to the Ideals of free market as propounded by Adam Smith, are like universal laws. Objectivism as proposed by Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan, just promoted and propagated these ideals far beyond Adam Smith would have ever imagined as possible. 

Ideas are most potent weapons once unleashed they form their own life and grow.

Blind Amnesia

Today I saw the movie 300, the blog post would make sense even if u haven’t seen it
It is not about the movie .

300 sketches the character, the gory visual of courage & honour of Spartains in war. i use “sketch” as the movie is inspired from a comic book and the visual of the movie u will always remember as flashes or frames( as captured by slow motion)

Made me wonder about the invasion from mighty armies, about history of india and about how little we Indians are taught about it in school.

How many Indian kings do u remember…count them? what you know about momd. Gazni ?
How many time he invaded India?

I don’t what to emphasize the need to remember the trivia of history, what I want to elaborate is why do we know so less of our own history.

This circumspect reporting of history as a story a third person impersonal account devoid of depth and clarity,refusing to discuss the reason & issues which led to the event is at best diplomatic and at worst a ritual to just give u a fleeting cowardly overview of what happened.

Why not tell me the story of my ancestors as it happened if hampi was looted, it s citizen slaved, converted , raped or killed. So tell me. it wont invoke hatred, it will help me get the sense of perspective, see the circumspect description in the link mentioned below.
Read in a couple of lines the history of why a buzzing city of Ancient India was converted to ruins

http://hinduism.about.com/cs/history/a/aa112303a.htm

One cannot deny his past, nor change it but is ignorance bliss? Has history no lessons to teach us Indian? what woudl you feel if the city where you lived and thrived is erased and no one knows why just 500 hundreds years from now.

If ignorance is bliss we shall live in bliss,
But if it is a life withoutknowledge of pride and honour of our proud culture. a rich inheritance which our society refuses to pass on to all.

We live in self denial, most of us

in an illusion whereas there is a separate reality.

Competence and perspectives.

A couple of days ago I needed help on my laptop, the IT support guy from Mumbai branch office helped me out, but he had a lot of attitude to do a job after I requested her the third time, sharp contrast to my earlier experience in Surat.

Made me wonder why? Why the people refuse to perform to there best abilities in a simple Job? Why don’t they have the will, motivation to do a job well? and it is not about money? It about doing a good job?

Few days later I saw a traffic police hawaldar at an andheri signal…managing the hopeless traffic flow. A rickshawala broke the rule parking on a critical bend to unload the passenger , guess what ? the cap walked in calmly, slapped the autowala and walked back again not fining the guy just physically abusing the rickwala…the rickshawwala moved immediately clearing the closed traffic lane…hmmmmm

A job well done –okay not well done but quick and effective.
Same question?

Why?

What I see is important, but how I see it, is paramount. So my view of the task at hand is all that matters, may be I am an IT support assistant or a underpaid over worked hawaldar.
Our perspectives define our competence. no money no motivation can change perceptions
They can at best incentives for people to do a better job, just better not the best.

...double post

A fresh new approach.

12 hours of a work day 4.5 hrs lost in commuting, 0.5 hrs for lunch 2 hrs of answering and reading emails, 1 hrs of chit chatting and drinking tea.phew what remains is 4 hours of work day.
:)
okay i am going over board but...mumbai's commuting system and transport sucks. think of all the productive time we all can spend if not for the hopeless traffic jam at the signal near you( see so many signals and so many traffic jams)

The governance of mumbai has lot to improve on, but..but the typical mumbai ite is too busy to note all this .

personally for me....the task ahead in my professional life is....hmm
difficult to say the least .
it is about managing change in the mindset of partners both internal and external and this change has to reflect in a new way of doing work...
hmmmm a fresh new approach.
looks like, this is straight out of some management book but
hell with reduction in manpower, lower budgets, what else can i do?
give in to system or be brave to initiate change.

well rule one
never use the word "change" .gradually if u prime people, they will change the way they do work..but if u ask them " x u have to change" raised are the defences of mr . X agianst change.........or may be you.

in the same manner...if we want mumbai to change...
gradually but surely the political establishment and the voters of mumbai have to change...but than again without ringing the alarm bells in the mind of the establishment....

gradully but surely i have to bring about change..
and with no visible authority in my hand....
thats impossible i will say..

but than again glory awaits the victorous with impossible........


glory here is an admission in a coveted B school of the world :) glory may be an improved mumbai city.

dreams, never stop tham from flowing.

p.s bought the Book The afgan y fredric forsythe. :)