Musings

  Before starting with the review, I would like to narrate a real-time incident that happened in my place.  I ordered food through Zomato and was expecting the delivery. Suddenly, the delivery person called and told me that the security personnel of my apartment did not allow him inside. I was requested to come outside and collect the parcel. (Yes, he also apologized as if it was his fault).  I saw no reason why he should not be allowed inside. I inquired about this with my apartment's caretaker. He grudgingly replied that people in my apartment were uncomfortable with "strangers". They complained that these strangers could endanger the security, and their presence could lead to many incidents of thefts.  I asked if there was any history of theft in the apartment, for which the reply was negative. I can clearly understand the emphasis on preventive measures. But I cannot understand the lack of attention to the ease of living.  This incident made me realize tha...

The second wave of the pandemic has wreaked havoc on an unimaginable scale. Our healthcare system crumbled. We ran short of oxygen and ICU's. Whatsapp became the war rooms for coordinating people. While the governments of the UK and USA had ordered millions of vaccine doses as early as May 2020, our government sat upon this decision until January 2021. When the situation improved after the first wave of COVID, we failed to ramp up our health infrastructure.   But is it the first time this government has put us in a difficult spot? Demonetization was a disaster in all capital letters. Our economy was barely growing, thanks to the lack of reforms before COVID. At present, it is gasping for breath and its "animal spirit" is already dead. Unemployment levels are historic high. Last year, after the lockdown, we underwent a crisis dealing with the mass migration of the poor from developed to underdeveloped states.  With so much negativity, what makes this government win elect...

The bustling city of Mumbai has a 27 storied, 173-metre tall building called the Antila. The Antila is the residence of India's richest person and billionaire, Mr Mukesh Ambani. At the same time, Mumbai also hosts Asia's largest slum locality called Dharavi. It is one of the densely populated areas in the world. What does the above fact indicate us? Has the above paragraph vividly captured the essence of inequality? Let us for a moment become Akira Kurosawa and apply the Rashomon effect to this.  How will a person who has a "Pro-Growth" stance witness this? They see inequality as the unavoidable "side effect" and sometimes necessary for the prosperity and well being of a country. If we ask the opinion of a  person who believes in wealth redistribution, he or she might scorn Ambanis' for being able to afford such a luxury, while people at Dharavi are not able to enjoy any of those.   Are both of them justified? Let us expand the broader arguments of both...

People, in general, are uncomfortable with sudden changes. An established habit is hard to overcome. We sometimes get used to the comfort zone so much that it makes us revolt against the agents of change. No marks for guessing the author's garrulousness about change is about ongoing farmers' protest on recently enacted farm bills.   Please stay on then because the author does not intend to bore the reader by explaining what APMC is or why MSP must be withdrawn gradually by the government. These are already well explained in detail by countless articles, since the enaction of farm bills. The discussion here is about the disjunct between progress and reforms. Who does not like to see our country developed? With one of the youngest populations in the world, we seem impatient for change. We want to see poverty eradicated and our population educated. We aspire for a $5 trillion economy and expect our farmers' income to double. Why is it that when there are reforms, protests erup...

When India was 'Shining' at the beginning of this century, many of us wondered, how would India be in 2020.  We think that we are  no more a  poor country. We have also become aspirational. So how has India fared since independence? Has there been any improvement in the standards of living? What is the condition of minorities and vulnerable people in our country? It is very difficult to give a simplistic, yes - or - no binary answers to these questions. Our nation is not younger anymore. Seventy-four years is a period good enough to assess the performance of our country.  What have we achieved then? The list is long but some achievements deserve to be highlighted.  First, the Government has been mostly stable and representative since our independence.  Among the 12 Asian countries that gained independence soon after World War II and drafted Constitutions, only three Constitutions have survived—India, Taiwan, and South Korea. (T he Constitution of Japan was ...

I have long wanted to write about this, since the time I read this fantastic imaginary Documentary -  Liking What you see: A Documentary  by  Ted Chiang.  Lookism, like casteism, is a form of discrimination, based on looks or attractiveness. But unlike casteism, which is an imagined reality, lookism is a subjective reality. A Lookist may not even know that being a lookist is wrong. Even progressive thinkers might be lookists, unbeknownst to them. This makes lookism even more dangerous than casteism or sexism. Lookism is ever pervasive in our society. Yet we fail to acknowledge its presence. For instance, once my friend came to me and pointed towards a girl. He described how 'good looking' was she and how he yearned to garner her attention. I, being a lookist (even now), was bemused and asked him, whether he was pointing to a girl, who was not so attractive (to me). He immediately recoiled back and told me that he was referring to someone else nearby to her. Yo...

If there is one quality that all of us adore, it is humility. Over time it has become one of the highly overrated virtues. Egotism, on the other hand, is constantly vilified. We scorn egotists and look at the concept of egotism contemptuously. We never really understood why do we show this bias towards humility over egotism, and this behavioural trait has been shoved upon us for ages by society. For instance, let us have a short detour and enter into mythology. The story goes like this - The Trinity of Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva decided to test themselves to assert who was the greatest among them. Brahma claimed that he was the greatest because he had created the universe and that we perceive beauty, ugliness, happiness, sadness, humanity, nature and whatnot in his universe. Lord Shiva manifested himself as Analstamba (Pillar of fire) between them. Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu were very surprised to see the fire pillar, which was so enormous that it reached the sky and penetrate...