Right...?

Politics [not to be confused with ‘Political Science’ which is a stream of Social Science that deals with systems of governance and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts and political behavior] taken from Greek ‘Politiká’ means "affairs of the cities" – the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance – organized control over a human community, particularly a state. To make such decision of governance, collectively termed as Policies and rolled out in form of bills and legislation, a special constitutional position of power and office of authority is required. Obtaining that position and office is done with the help of elections.

In a democratic system of governance, people – the rightful citizens of the province – vote in elections to choose and elect their representatives for sending to the Office of Policy-making, right from Gramsabha, Panchayati Raj to Assembly or Parliament. The candidate with most votes wins the election and secures his position of power for the term of that particular office. However only the candidate having ‘wining capacity’ gets to contest the election and is promoted by his or her party. Amongst many other criteria of wining capacity, one major criterion is influence of the candidate on many fronts, including but not limited to, community the candidate belongs to – his or her Cast and Religion!

Historical records of elections held in Independent India confirms the fact that people of India who vote in elections use a triple bottom line of their own judgement that comprises of Cast and Religion of the contestant, promises and lures – particularly of ‘development’ – the candidate has offered and candidate’s public image. This happens like this for years as majority of India dwells in villages and we are still a developing country with an immature democracy! In spite of being world’s largest in size, why are we immature as a democracy? First, because we are largest – we have a huge, diverse population. But this same diversity is our identity we have cherished for centuries and it cannot be compromised.

Secondly, we have thousands of years of tradition of Personality Cult – worshiping a Person for his or her special identity or presumed qualities, attributes. It could be anything from the dynasty the person comes from to charisma of a particular individual. This is a clear indication that we either have not yet learned [or completely forgotten] the theory of relativity, or have lost our conscience entirely as we cannot think rationally and act independently but choose to follow safest and convenient herd mentality instead. Our fundamental survival instinct of feeling secure in a group takes over our rationality for sure.

Finally, we are bargain-freak people obsessed with negotiating and consider it a ‘win’ to get something bigger in return for what we offer. Our philosophy of transaction is based on a win-lose, or on lose-lose in the worst scenario, but never on win-win situation. This same mindset is prevalent in all our dealings – economical, social or political. We have put a price on our vote and we bargain it for the promises that are always towering around election times but never to be fulfilled unless the proposer is the beneficiary of the outcome, in one way or other. Politicians are the biggest advertisers and they have mastered the ‘Art of Selling’ so well that they know what to put in the Showcase and what to store in the godown for delivery. That way, for all these years of Independence, Transition and Development we are fooled every time and our votes are exchanged for a bargain that never materializes as anticipated.

So what’s the context of all this Gyan about Democracy and Indian Politics today? Well, the Great Indian Circus is back with its acrobatics showing the optimum flexibility of human mind, body and soul, defying the laws of physics – the science of ‘matter’ – and giving tough competition to each other as well as to rubber in elasticity, with the ‘evolved’ rhetoric in form of glasnost and ‘spiritual’ expedition in form of pilgrimages. This is a welcome change that could be acceptable only if nature takes its course to make a lion vegan and a cow carnivorous!

A word of advice would be handy to prepare your mind for responding to these show-themes – don’t get fooled with the bargain; use your brain. Although we do not have the 'Right to Recall' for accountability yet, we have our voice in form of a vote... it’s invaluable, do not bargain, lose or waste it, put it to the best use as the future generations would revere or curse you for what you would leave for them!

Way to go...

Wake-up...!

Wake-up Call for the entire Humanity... 

Let us wake up before it's too late!

Truth...?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9tGM7xj9AtCZasAT9

Click on the link to play the Google Video

The tagline of 'Ego-wise' gets life with this
'Drama' at Ferguson College where 
Maitrayee could be spotted 
'In search of truth...' 
with her 'Philosopher' friends!

Way to go for the full circle.

Short-termism...!

"So the first: transgenerational thinking. I love the philosophers: Plato, Socrates, Habermas, Heidegger. I was raised on them. But they all did one thing that didn't actually seem like a big deal until I really started kind of looking into this. And they all took, as a unit of measure for their entire reality of what it meant to be virtuous and good, the single lifespan, from birth to death. But here's a problem with these issues: they stack up on top of us, because the only way we know how to do something good in the world is if we do it between our birth and our death. That's what we're programmed to do. If you go to the self-help section in any bookstore, it's all about you. Which is great, unless you're dealing with some of these major issues. And so with transgenerational thinking, which is really kind of transgenerational ethics, you're able to expand how you think about these problems, what is your role in helping to solve them.

Now, this isn't something that just has to be done at the Security Council chamber. It's something that you can do in a very kind of personal way. So every once in a while, if I'm lucky, my wife and I like to go out to dinner, and we have three children under the age of seven. So you can imagine it's a very peaceful, quiet meal..."

I can so much identify with each word in this talk, for I believe there are 3 things EVERYBODY can [and must] do...

1. Think out-of-the-box of his or her OWN Being, transcending his or her OWN lifespan, life is beyond that...!

2. Get rid of the Short-termism at once, Instant Gratification is the instinct of the animals that are not SOCIAL...!

3. Check your Morality and Ethics, abide by them and do your bit by enoughism, don't be a savior to 'Save the world...!'

Way to go...

Innovation...!

"...I never set out to be a diversity advocate. I am a business advisor. But now my goal is to change the face of leadership, to make it more diverse -- and not so that leaders can check a box and feel like they have complied with something or they have been politically correct. But because they understand, they understand that diversity is making their organization more innovative, better. And by embracing diversity, by embracing diverse talent, we are providing true opportunity for everyone..."

'Variety is the spice of life...' they say, agree and prefer when it is about personal choices of individual lifestyle, but diversity - bio-diversity or diversity in leadership, when it comes to socioeconomic sphere, is not welcomed in general, let alone as the 'tool of innovation.' We need to transcend this mindset for development of a loving and caring society as, it was the 'woman' who took the initiative to 'settle' and added the adjective of 'social' to the otherwise 'animal' wandering in woods. The first ever innovation was to have a home on which the entire development of modern living is based!

Way to go...!

Democracy...?

In management lessons we used to listen to various stories from around the world that tried to teach us one management principle or other. There were 3 stories regarding a Shoe company with different circumstances and, obviously, varying morals. Today I remember the story of the Japanese Shoe company where the workers decided to go on strike as their demands were not considered.

Being the most industrious and creatively productive citizens of all, these Japanese workers invented a new kind of strike that taught a lesson to the world about constructive protesting. What they did was incredible – they didn’t closed down the production units nor did they stop the work as the production contributing to nation’s GDP should not be hampered, let alone shouting defaming slogans or vandalizing. They continued the work as usual manufacturing same number of shoes as they did with a little difference though – they made shoe for only one foot in double quantity. If they were making 100 pairs of shoes per day, they made 200 shoes for a single, say left foot.

This simply meant the productivity of the unit was maintained but the product was not marketable as the factory couldn’t market only one shoe as there would be no takers except for the rare ones who have lost their one foot in some accident. The dispute had to settle one way or other, no matter how long would it take, as the society runs on a fair exchange policy and those workers would make the same quantity of shoes for the other, say right foot when things are settled between them and management.

Wherever there is exchange, give and take transaction, dispute may arise, it is inevitable. Nobody has any right to underestimate the lawful right of other party to make it a fair exchange. And whenever a situation of disagreement arrives, there’s no harm in protesting for your demands, provided those are legitimate. Nevertheless, the way and manner in which such protest is carried out shows the culture and maturity of that civilization.

Democracy is the relatively better system of governance in today’s world and its principle virtue lies in granting freedom of expression to its people, no doubt. Every citizen of democracy has a right to have an opinion, express it and make it public, if the need be. However this same right is one side of the coin and the other side is the responsibility, responsibility towards their countrymen. The coin of ‘right’ always has ‘responsibility’ on other side and ‘being worthy of democracy’ is the ‘edge’ of that coin. One has to mature to a certain level to earn the right as well as the responsibility, nothing is granted!

Our National Pledge has three important lines that nobody should forget ever –

‘I shall always strive to be worthy of it’;

‘To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion’ and

‘In their well-being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.’

What makes bringing up all this today? Well, being a conscientious, sensitive and socially responsible proud citizen of my Nation, I just can’t stand even the thought of slightest damage to the National property, let alone destroying, smashing or wrecking up anything that belongs to anybody, even a crook.

This week started with the protest and strike of the dairy farmers of Maharashtra is all over the news. There could be disagreements between Government and these dairy farmers and they might have some legitimate demands that they want to be considered. It is completely agreeable that they have all the right to protest for their demands and even get down to streets to seek attention of the system, but is that wasteful protest necessary? Why do you need to spill gallons of milk on the road? Particularly when we are ranked 97 in the Global Hunger Index based on Child Undernourishment and Child Mortality, in the league of Sub-Saharan countries. And top of that, how can anybody do it cheerfully with such a pleasurable enthusiasm, beats me! Just check out the photo...

Germany, known for its excellence in automobile, is the leading European country in terms of growing economy and GDP. However Germans are very keen about their Common Resources and National Property. Here’s an account of experience of an Indian while her visit to Germany –

“When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged a welcome party for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty. There was a table where a young couple was having their meal.

There were only two dishes and two cans of beer on the table. I wondered if such a simple meal could be romantic, and whether the girl will leave this stingy guy. There were a few old ladies at another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would distribute the food for them and they would finish every bit of the food on their plates. We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered more food for us.

As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining nor did we consume the entire food that we had ordered. When we left, there was still about one third of the unconsumed food left on the table.

When we were about to leave the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We noticed that the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner. When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food. We immediately felt that they were really being too busybodies. ‘We have paid for the food that we had ordered, it is none of your business how much food we left behind,’ my colleague told the old ladies.

The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her hand phone out and made a call to someone. Within a few minutes, a man in uniform claimed to be an officer from the Social Security Organization arrived. Upon knowing what the dispute was, he issued us a 50 euro fine. We kept quiet. My local colleague took out and gave him a 50 euro note and repeatedly apologized to the officer.

The officer told us in a stern voice, ‘Order what you can consume, the money is yours, but resources belong to the society. There are many others in the world, who are facing shortage of resources. You have no right to waste the nation’s resources.’

Our face turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mindset of people of this rich country put all of us to shame. We really need to reflect on this. My colleague took copies of the fine ticket and gave a copy to each of us as a souvenir. This will always remind us that we shall never be wasteful."

By the way, the Japanese and Germans might have shown their commitment and devotion for their respective nation’s productivity and resources, it’s not all gloomy picture at home. The same Maharashtra that is witnessing the wrath of dairy farmers on the date also hosts Mendha Lekha – the first and only village of just 500 population that fought a long peaceful fight to retain their democratic rights and set an example for the world of how a unified effort of a society can have its way to win its almost autonomous local self governance system for living democratically in letter and spirit within a sovereign state by completely respecting and regarding the national constitution of an independent nation. Have a look –

Solution...!

Migrating to Cities is a global phenomenon that cannot be avoided nor could be detested, only negotiated and not compromised. 'Our Common Future' resides in Urban developments and to make it 'Collective', Architecture as an Art, Skill and Science of designing spaces, need to have a Sustainable approach at the core design thinking.

Unity in diversity is different from uniformity in mass production. Just like the apparel we wear, food we eat and language we speak reflects the culture we uphold, spaces need to have local flair with global outlook. Sustainable development doesn't necessarily mean to 'protect' natural environment, it could be achieved by putting the technology to use for facilitating the sustainable design solution.

Architect Vishaan Chakrabarti drawing his inspiration from the city of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where he is designing a 21st-century open-air village that's sustainably heated using today's technology, in the heart of its downtown. This project is both poetry and prose, he believes.

"The poetry is really about evoking the local: the mountainous terrain, using colors to pick up the spectacular light, understanding how to interpret the nomadic traditions that animate the nation of Mongolia. The prose has been the development of a catalogue of buildings, of small buildings that are fairly affordable, using local construction materials and technology that can still provide new forms of housing, new workspace, new shops and cultural buildings, like a theater or a museum... even a haunted house."

"While working on this in our office, we've realized that we're building upon the work of our colleagues, including architect Tatiana Bilbao, working in Mexico City; Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena, working in Chile; and recent Pritzker winner Balkrishna Doshi, working in India. And all of them are building spectacular new forms of affordable housing, but they're also building cities of difference, because they're building cities that respond to local communities, local climates and local construction methods."

"We could build such spectacular cities that we could disincentivize sprawl and actually protect nature. We can grow cities that are high-tech, but also respond to the timeless cultural needs of the human spirit. I'm convinced that we can build cities of difference that help to create the global mosaic to which so many of us aspire."

This is promise of a designer who has skyrocketing aspirations with roots of a banyan tree! How comforting and optimistic pictures this Architect renders for all of us... the most evolved species of the planet, called Homo Sapiens.

Way to go!