Back to square one

I never thought I would be back so soon and that too for an entire semester. A semester of PS-2 in Bangalore, my first experience living in a city, had driven some sense into me, although not much, it is definitely an improvement on the old self. Now that I am back, the place is the same but it does not feel so. I know I am stating the obvious here and yet I must say this- what made BITS-Pilani Goa Campus for me was the entire package of idling around until the tests, the mad rush during tests, cursing the system and sometimes the faculty, the relief after a test and the impending doom of answer paper distributions which we conveniently bunked just like most of our lectures, outings on the end of tests (wide grin here, w.e.f T-1, 4th year, Sem1) and the fests and ogling that ensued and waiting for release of TV series and Man Utd matches in the common room and the madness during cricket matches (Sachin's double century would count as one of the most unforgettable in my life) and also the nonsense and sense that happened in quizzes and infrequent yet raucous quiz club meetings. There is one thing I missed out for that, or rather they, were the most important factors in my life here- MIB or Mallus in BITS. Is it a coincidence that I am wearing the t-shirt now?

They were one ubiquitous aspect of life here- when we went to the mess, outings, 'Tharavadu Hub' and enjoying the festivities. As I walk along our old haunts, I feel incomplete, I miss those long walks after dinner, I miss singing songs and messing them up during these walks and after outings, I miss the random nonsense talks and all the bullshit that happened. It is like a piece of me is stuck somewhere and I cannot find it and I never thought coming back to campus will be this dull.

I have come back and found that it is all different, all has changed and also the unfortunate fact that it will never be the same and we will never get it back. I know these are obvious facts that everyone would experience, but then experiencing the entire campus life without its soul is something that very few would have gone through. I do not regret the decision to come back for thesis and nor do I feel sad, but as I said before, there is something missing and we will never get it back. It is called the past and it will remain only in our memories.

http://craziestme.blogspot.com/2009/12/days-of-our-lives.html

Congress Needs to Get its Act Together for the Nation

Passing the buck and hiding behind a clean image is all what our PM has been able to do for sometime. The uncertainty on the real power center and decision maker in this country means that no one knows who is really responsible- is it Sonia Gandhi, the UPA chairperson or Mr.Manmohan Singh? Do they really have the freedom or are they in any position to take real decisions due to the so called 'coalition dharma'. Or is it simply a comfortable smoke screen for them to hide behind, with coalition partners being made scapegoats for long term political gains for the Congress?

Mamata Banerjee is a law unto herself as she is more focused in gaining West Bengal, so much so that Mr.E.Ahmed requested a move from the railway ministry citing difficulties in working with the minister. DMK too has been stubborn, but that game will be played in the TN assembly elections and A.Raja's resignation came about simply because it had to happen under the sheer weight of 1.76lakh crores which still threatens the government and even Parliament. NCP is stubborn as ever with Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel doing abysmally and yet only receiving an upgrade from MoS to cabinet rank. The recent cabinet reshuffle can be called nothing of 'spineless'.

Government needs to act decisively in the interest of the nation and put faith in the people who have already shown their intelligence by rewarding the performance UPA-1, NDA in Bihar. But this government's performance will surely invite the people's wrath. If the government act disregarding 'coalition dharma' and heed to real dharma, which is governing for the people by bringing to book the corrupt and guilty, ensure accountability and deliver performance by simply making the right calls on Food Security, MGNREGs, RTI etc it will surely be able to secure the people's trust. They simply have to implement these ideas that are already taking shape but they are unwilling to implement them citing lack of funds which, when read together with 1.76lakh crore from 2G scam, makes a mockery of democracy and governance itself.

There are a couple of factors the congress must consider-
1) Under-performance of the government will lead to Congress, the leader of the UPA and hence morally responsible for all its actions
2)However clean the image of the top brass and the PM, since he leads the Cabinet, will be responsible for the cabinet's actions.

This will mean the people will vent their frustration on the congress rather their allies. This will mean a parliament in limbo in case of an election which must eventually happen with the congress having much lesser seats and smaller regional parties calling the shots perhaps. An administrative paralysis when the nation is at a cross road and staring at several important decision to make will surely stunt our growth.

That the BJP led NDA won't be able to bring in the numbers is a forgone conclusion and this means we might even see a Mayawati or Mamata or Karunanidhi becoming king-maker or even something more.

The Manmohan Singh lead government and Sonia Gandhi lead Congress must act against erring ministers, corrupt officials and lose their stubborn attitude. It needs to take the effort to come clean on corruption scandals, bring to light all the black money stashed abroad even if the means exposing those in the highest echelons of power. It needs to take steps to address the burning issues of the 'aam admi'-inflation, infrastructure development and preventing exploitation of the poor and landless and tribals. Multibillion dollar defence deals and FDI in retail and UNSC permanent seat will do nothing in that direction. They need to understand that bending our back to international treaties that means we cannot disclose the black money stashed abroad or laws that mean no returns for our farmers will only bring more shame to government. All this depends on one critical factor- the top brass actually wanting to bring the guilty to book and that they are not involved on this. A clean image for one person will surely not save the government.

Finite Planet

In his book 'Imagining India', Nandan Nilekani talks about the demographic dividend and how India is riding the crest of a demographic dividend in the south and how it will soon taper and then the next boom will come from the north if we take the effort to invest in education and health care and industry in the north.

I do not question the logic behind the dividend and on what should be done, but there is a larger question, unless there is a demographic dividend, is it not possible to achieve growth? Or rather, the real question should be, is it possible to have such population booms always? We are living in a finite planet with finite resources and so we need to take steps to make sure our population actually regulates itself. I do not want to get into all the social, political and perhaps even religious aspects of it.

There is a much more serious question at hand. A nation cannot always have more young people than old (unless something drastic kills of the older population) since we simply cannot have an ever increasing population. A nation as a whole itself can have two different growth patterns, like India's current situation. But still it will mean that several millions will have 4-2-1 structure, 4 Grandparents, 2 Parents and 1 Child. More dependents mean more strain on healthcare, pensions and working population.

China will soon fall into this trap (if it hasn't already), Japan is already facing issues and if we are to sustain this growth and to make sure we don't grow old before we get rich (i.e, we should not reach a situation where there is a huge population of dependents and were still a poor nation), we need rapid economic growth and this means not just GDP growth, but growth in education, job creation, agriculture, pension funds and welfare schemes. The government also needs to put in policies for this inevitable future even though it may come only 50 years later, but it will happen.

Another aspect that baffles me is the obsession with growth- this much growth and still we see so much poverty. Again, the fact that ours is not an infinite planet seems to have escaped everyone. If it is only normal inflation or things that are actually produced from the earth or food, why is it not affordable and sometimes not even accessible for many of our brethren? Food riots have happened in the recent and will occur again if this trend of global inflation is to continue and this price rise can never be sustained with higher wages simply because ours is not an infinite planet. There is also hoarding of resources by a few which means shortage for millions of others.

We need to consume less and change our obsession with growth and governments should understand that just numbers do not reflect how many people are still remaining poor or illiterate or exploited so that the rich can still have their luxuries. We need to learn to live within the constraints of a finite planet whether it be about consuming less, recycling, green energy, population control- unless the attitude change happens in individuals and individuals demand governments to draft policies keeping these facts in mind, the world will definitely collapse.

http://craziestme.blogspot.com/2007/05/ndividuals-environment-conservation.html