51. I have switched to watching women cricket!

After almost a lifetime of following cricket, first on radio and later on television, I have switched on to watching women cricket in the last couple of years. While I have started skipping few of the men's matches, I try not to miss any international match that feature our young girls. While my friends and family wonder at my new-found obsession, I have compelling reason for shifting my alliance from the men's world of cricket. The turning point of my cricket-watching career must not remain unsaid.   

When asked by a reporter 'who her favourite men’s cricketer was', the world's leading run scorer and India's captain Mithali Raj had responded, 'do you ask the same question to a male cricketer? do you ask them who their favourite female cricketer is?' Emphatic! Confident! Bravo! It not only signaled the coming of age of women cricket in India, but the sheer confidence with these words were hurled had left the scribe speechless. Nothing more was needed for me to back our own girls in the game.      

Mithali, Harmanpreet, Smrithi and Jhoolan are some of the household names, their batting and bowling is doing most of the talking though! Mithali has the world's highest 6,700 runs on one-day games; Jhulan's 271 wickets are the most in the same format; Harmanpreet is the first woman to score a century in T20 cricket; and Smrithi has been the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2018. Given their grit and determination, more records will be theirs in the years ahead. Mark my words, these girls are making themselves count on world cricket circuit.

For those who still imagine that women cricket isn't as exciting should get that impression corrected at the earliest. Harmanpreet's 171 not out against Australia in the ICC Women's World Cup in 2017 will remain etched in cricket history like Kapil Dev's 175 not out against Zimbabwe during 1983 Men's World Cup. Kapil Dev had hit 16 fours and 6 sixes in his 138-balls innings. In comparison, Harmanpreet's 171 runs in just 115 balls were studded with 20 fours and 7 huge sixes. No comparison, but it was power hitting at its best!

Women's cricket is a sport in itself, and I agree with Mithali when she says that 'it should not be compared to men's cricket'. It is evolving as a game, and is building its own fan following. Although most of the current players learnt the basics of the game while playing with boys and have even been coached by men, the likes of bowler Ekta Bisht and batter Poonam Raut have edged themselves to establish their distinct identity in the game. The inspiring stories of current women players is fast attracting young talent.

Hailing from humble non-cricketing backgrounds, the girls are doing well to breach the male bastion. In fact, they have already done it to some extent. With live telecasts of most women matches now available, they are not only being watched but are attracting revenue from sponsors to keep them in the hunt. With women cricket league on IPL format in the offing in the country, the game of cricket will open a new avenue for talented girls to make it as their career option. 

Women may have been cheer-leaders for men's cricket, it is now time for men to cheer women cricketers. The sooner it is done, the better for the game. The scream for a leg-before; the call for a quick single, the holler for a catch, and the boisterous victory hugs add the missing glamour quotient to cricket. There are any number of reasons for avid cricket fans to switch to the feminine version of the game. Don't miss out!

First published in The Tribune, issue dated March 8, 2019.

50. Social beverage of our times

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's 19th century remarks 'people never lie as much during a war or before an election' have come to life in recent times. Perhaps, it is the most convenient thing to do, and more so in a situation wherein a war (or a warlike situation) precedes elections! How does one fake the facts holds the key? With 'lie' having outlived its relevance, both as a noun and a verb, its less offensive and universally acceptable avatar - fake - has replaced it. In fact, fake is a potent currency in the market which earns rich dividends in a short time as it travels faster than the speed of light.

A lie may need to be told often enough times to become the truth, but fake has become a one-time wonder. You release it once, and what returns to your inbox is nothing but fake coated in the guise of the truth. It will earn you mass following on Twitter, help you receive unprecedented number of likes on Facebook, and inundate you with innumerable compliments on WhatsApp. You begin to wonder if the world was waiting out their to lap it up, and give it a cooperative legitimacy. I am beginning to learn that fake is fast becoming euphemism for instant fame! Is it the new normal lurking around?            

Had Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn been alive he would have rephrased his remarks by replacing lie with fake to read: 'fake has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the state'. To rally along fake is considered an act of cooperation, that politicians use for projecting so-called public good in the guise of justifying vested interests/entrenched violence. Far from being challenged, the enduring qualities of fake engage the social media and the public like never before. Like milk, the more you churn it the better it is. Utterly butterly fake-cious!

I don't know if it worries you that fake is fast gaining public recognition, as an essential aspect of our collective existence. George Bush Jr. must be credited for setting up the stage for it. By virtue of having stayed in the White House for almost a decade, the former US President had inadvertently become fond of telling white lies. Else, he could not have convinced the world that there were 'weapons of mass destruction' hidden in Iraq? The fact remains that no such weapons were ever found. The shocking truth is that it led to writing a new history, rather a bloody history, in the middle-east on a rather fake edifice.  

One problem with fake news is that it works, and the message that 'fake it till you make it' is loud and clear. I checked with my intellectual buddies who are as much awe-struck as anybody else is. On the other hand, psycho-analysts are still juggling on their diagnosis, almost close to arguing that fake is but an evolved form of lie which has got a short-time therapeutic value too. Nor surprise, for every thing real there is an equivalent fake too! Not only are goods fake, but fake facts are being produced too. 

My conclusion on the subject is that we have come a along way - it could easily be called a 'fake yug'. While truth could be 'half-truth' or even a 'quarter', fake is the new truth that we may have to live with for the rest of our lives. I hope I am not too early with my judgement, but as of now fake seems essential to humanity but not truth. While truth is desirable, fake is inevitable! 

Isn't it a social beverage that most of us are getting addicted to?

First published in Deccan Herald, issue dated July 25, 2019. 

49. The race of a lifetime

Beating each other on slush track
(Pic: Luke Metelerkemp)

It was a race of a lifetime I was witness to. It neither involved horses nor cars but a pair of buffaloes racing on a slushy track with a determined athlete in toe. Much like the sturdy pair of bovine, the six-pack athlete was no less determined to win the race either. With hundreds of villagers cheering the racing duo, it has been a long-held tradition of celebrating the man-animal co-existence for a bountiful harvest in coastal Karnataka. And, there were any number of teams from different coastal villages vying for the coveted title.      

I had my first brush with this cultural extravaganza, called Kambala, few years ago in village Venur in the coastal region of Mangalore. It was a pleasant wintry evening in January 2011, the well-lit arena was decked up in celebration with people in all hues thronging the racing track. What had begun as a thanksgiving event for protecting the cattle against diseases, the annual racing event has grown into a competitive sport that enthralls and entertains. The animal rights activists may continue to think otherwise!  

Keeping pace with raging buffaloes on the slush track was indeed testing, as if bovines were running for their life. Racing at an incredible speed, it was a perfect test for human endurance against incredible bovine power. For the fear of running over, half a dozen villagers had to herd together to take control of the animals at the finish line. They would calm the animals by giving it a hug, make it eat and rest before the next race. Each of the racing pairs looked well groomed and healthy, as did the accompanying athletes.

Were the animals tortured during training? Were these creatures intoxicated to run the way they did? The organizers had led me to the animal resting places to find for myself if that was the case. 'These are no ordinary cattle, they bring laurels to the village', quipped a team member. These are treated like sportsmen, nurtured and trained in the art of racing from early years. No wonder, there were no marks of external injury on any of the participating animals. So much is at stake that some owners train their buffaloes in separate swimming pool for getting them used to conditions before every race.

That these are special animals, treated like children and selected for their sturdy features including disease resistance, make me think that this annual cultural event is more than just an occasion for fun and frolic. It promotes the process of natural selection in disguise. The best among buffaloes get selected, nurtured and tested. The animals people race are the animals that help breed the next generation of calves, sturdy to withstand adverse conditions. That such a valuable process is conducted by the communities at their own initiative, and for the benefit of the society at large surely calls for a celebration!      

With hardly anything worth celebrating in the countryside these days, the assent for re-conduct of Kambala by the first citizen of the country has given something for the last citizens to cheer about.

Let the race continue!

Kambala was banned in 2014, but the President of India gave his assent for (re)conducting the sporting event from July 3, 2017.  

First published in Deccan Herald, issue dated March 1, 2019. 

48. On the deathbed of profit

Not far from reality: Even a dead man is worth millions for the hospital
to meet its targets in the movie Gabbar is Back. 

Narrating his pathetic experience at a premier hospital recently, a friend painfully concludes that the cash-strapped middle class is literally on its deathbed. Bereft of empathy for the grievously injured, the hospital held back his patient's admission for want of treatment charges upfront. Isn't the scene of a patient from an alarm-blaring ambulance being off-loaded onto a stretcher and rushed into the hospital emergency anything but passé, relegated instead to our socialist-era memories? With profit being the overriding concern in a market-economy, patient is only a cash-cow to be milked right at the hospital gate. Who knows the cow may not yield anything later?

This reminds me what  Dr P Venugopal, the illustrious heart surgeon, had to say about the business of modern medicine. Said he, `medical thrillers' wildest plots of ruthless profiteering are now common practice'. Into his 90's, my father finds it hard to believe that the swanky hospitals are anything but profit-making entities. To make the system deliver, the super-specialty hospitals do give their doctors monthly/annual targets for the number of scans and surgeries. Such targets extend to other disciplines of medicine too, with the ever eager doctors ready to bring unsuspecting patients under scissor and scalpel. A visit to the hospital is anything but a trap, so will I imagine. 

And I have reasons to say so. Those under health insurance cover are subjected to as many medical tests as available in the book. One test leads to another, and so on. The eye specialist recently told me that I had a remote cataract possibility (projected to occur after a decade) but that she'd want to do some advance tests. A second opinion helped me rest the initiative. I wonder how do those people whose life is not insured handle the hefty medical bills! At the end of the day, sustaining or complicating one's sickness has become doctor's primary interest. The more people fall sick, the more the doctor and the hospital stand to gain! Such is the case that if everybody were to remain healthy, then the doctor will be the only one who will be sick. 

Not all blame need to rest with the doctors though! It is not sheer accident that the things are the way they are, but rather the product of conscious political choices. Scratch the surface and one will find out that the foundations of insurance-driven health care system were laid under the guise of freeing the governments from their primary role as health service provider, helping the capitalist model of health care to make hay as sickness shines. I have kept along my bedside a 2006 book curiously titled 'Screwed', to keep reminding me what author Thom Hartmann had long cautioned that the corporate-driven politics will eventually screw us all. Exceptions apart, a majority is already being screwed, by paying to remain sick in the system. 

Sickness has become so much profitable that it is no surprise that every corporate house is into the business of healthcare, and why not? The question is how to get out of this vicious trap. Without a 360 degree shift in how health is perceived, there can hardly be any escape from the sickness treadmill. A Chinese system, developed some two thousand years ago, offers an interesting insight. Under that system the doctor was paid as long as the patient remained healthy. If the patient were to fall sick, then the doctor was not to be paid. In the present system, however, we pay the doctor when we are sick and make the doctor dependent on our sickness. The difference is subtle but profound nonetheless, and worth a careful assessment.

Unless the outdated benefits system that overburdens doctors and traumatizes the vulnerable is condemned, I'm convinced that a vast majority will remain sick and screwed. There is an urgent need to rethink how we manage sickness—for the sake of our economy, our well-being, and our health services.

Feedback: Pallavi Bhardwaj from New York writes that it  is more or less universal now, whether one is  in Delhi, Bengaluru or NYC. In the US, it’s very profitable to be in the healthcare business, as the whole system is rigged. Our monthly healthcare premium for a family of three is higher than our house rent here! That too when my husband gets the insurance through his work. And, we don’t even use a primary care physician or the full annual checkups. Dutch reader Fokke Fennema wonders how long it will take healthcare system in his country to be sucked by privatization! 

(Also available on www.raagdelhi.com)

47. Converting shame into subjectivity

It isn't a good news that the much hyped Swachh Bharat Mission has not made significant dent, as of now, on transforming peoples' habit of easing themselves in the open. Recent surveys have shown that a toilet doesn't ensure its usage, reaffirming what V S Naipaul propounded decades ago that people prefer open defecation to avoid the fear of claustrophobia within a closet. As habits die hard, we are literally back to where it all started. Building toilets and making people use it are two different things. 

Unlike many of you, I'm getting convinced that we may have run out of ideas for now to get everyone to shit inside a toilet. The sheer number of toilets required for the country to attain some level of decency would be in the range of some 350 million, assuming that a family of five takes turn to use the same loo. The number will continue to grow - as population grows exponentially, as families break into smaller units, and as households migrate. Even a full-time Toilet Ministry will feel fully stretched to keep pace.

But why are we stuck to toilet as the only option, the absence of which favours the foreign tourists with some stinking photo opportunity? Unlike the west, toilets for a vast majority that survives on less than $2 a day may not be a good idea. For them, easing in public seems a democratic decree. It has worked thus far, and may sustain during our lifetime. Because public empathy towards squatting has remained secular, never did it trigger any class or caste strife in matter of appropriating public space for conducting private action. 

Shit in itself may not be a problem. Left on its own, it engages millions of microbes in enriching the soil with much needed organic carbon. We all know fixing carbon is a climate friendly activity. But the moment it comes in contact with water, something that a toilet facilitates, the trouble starts. Each water body, be it a pond or a river, gets an undesired share of floating excreta at various stages of decomposition which proves fatal to some half a million children below the age of five on account of water-borne diseases. 

With its extensive paraphernalia the toilet makes unreasonable demand on increasingly scarce public resource - water, which limits toilet usage alongside amplifying the water crises. I would imagine that the solution to country's sanitation enigma may rest in recognizing existing 'informal squatter islands' as permanent municipal spaces where individual waste will get managed in a way that produces subjectivity than shame. The role of municipality would then be limited to aesthetically managing such islands, upturning the soil periodically and getting it ready for next volume of bowel discharge before such squatter islands are turned into public parks or sold at a premium to the real estate builders. 

It has worked this way so far, but not in an institutionally organized manner. I think we need to be firm on how we wish to tackle the crises ingeniously. If there could be `nude beaches' elsewhere in the west, can't we persist with such `butt parks' till the offenders take a call to mend their habit.

46. Reference check, anyone!

I question the wisdom of my friends in senior positions who without fail switch to plan B for hiring new staff. Handling volume of applications, short listing suitable candidates, and conducting personal interviews are tiresome set of tasks which may not lead to favorable outcomes. Why waste time and efforts if personal recommendation can do the trick, they tell me. With a moral obligation weighing heavy on such candidate, there is a greater chance for him/her to deliver results. There is some logic in the argument for sure!   

It isn't as if the conventional recruitment process has failed the test, but that the employers have mixed feeling on reference checks for hiring fresh faces. Often times, hiring managers fall in love with a candidate on paper and then again in an interview, only to find out through a reference check later that none of their previous employers would ever hire that candidate again. At the other end of the spectrum are those who, despite a favorable reference check, turn out quite on the opposite. Getting right person for the right job seems pot luck!

So, where does this take us? There is no denying that references listed at the end of curriculum vitae are tutored to provide glowing reports on the candidate. To ride over such predictable outcomes, employers have now started switching to social networking sites to check on candidate's outpourings and public image. What kind of people the candidate networks with; with whom the candidate is close enough and what kind of opinion s/he holds on general issues. Though it helps eliminate the weakness inherent in the conventional referral system, it becomes so watered down that it often falls short of credible conclusion.

I suspect the entire exercise is not as trivial as it has been made out to be. At the end, all potential candidates are but social animals and there is not much they can do to hide their behavior, attitude, aptitude, aspiration and ambitions. There are surely people out there who would know their antecedents better, and who would be willing to share it for the sake of the candidate's future. The challenge is to know who these persons could be and what kind of information one can seek from them.

After careful research I have drawn a list of resource persons who will do the honors. Here it goes - contact the maid servant for candidate's gender sensitivity, check with the plumber for candidate's attitude towards people; meet the landlord for candidate's aptitude towards others' property; and the girl next door for checking on candidate's aspirations in life. Interestingly, each of these references is available online 24x7. For senior level hiring, however, I can’t resist recommending ex-boss's wife and the candidate's former driver as perfect reference checks!

Looking at my reference check list my friends wonder if it will hasten 'firing' and not 'hiring' employees instead.

First published in the Deccan Herald, issue dated Dec 28, 2018, and The Tribune dated Dec 31, 2018. 

45. Why should red look blue?

Nothing could be more unreasonable to imagine than blood in blue colour, and yet it evokes collective embarrassment for the entire family on seeing a sanitary napkin advertisement on TV. As soon as the visuals pop on the screen, the channel is quickly changed. This is how society tackles head on the self-inflicted shame imposed on menstruation. Despite half of the world’s population menstruating for large periods of their lives, a culture of shame and taboo has been allowed to persist.

I find it hard to agree that part of the blame must rest with women who have hidden their perfectly natural bodily function, punishing themselves for being women. Breanne Fahs, a menstrual activist, writer, and a professor of gender studies at Arizona University, argues that the lack of a culture of menstruation could be the cause. She questions why this biological activity is viewed as a disgusting aspect of a woman’s life, and why it remains a subject less worthy of social and psychological inquiry. Isn’t the missing public discourse on the subject a reason for it being a taboo, and somewhat silly?

Had it not been for the recent movie Padman, the subject would have continued to be under wraps. The film presented the idea of feminine hygiene, but the script did not stretch beyond the idea of fixing women’s ‘troublesome’ bodies. 

Why is menstruation not viewed as an event of joyous rhythm? It may sound radical, but we should undermine institutions that deplete and eradicate the natural cycle of human life in favour of sexism and profit. In the West, coming-of-age narratives are beginning to challenge the entrenched notions of silence and shame. These stories on defiance are rewriting the long history of panic surrounding menstruation. The core argument is that if women don’t defy taboos themselves, they will remain trapped within the boundaries of patriarchy.

The emphasis of the culturally-defying narratives, wherein women have come out in the public to share their monthly experiences is that ‘the body, after all, absorbs, reflects, and mirrors the fundamental social forces of our times’. This new genre has begun to challenge the gendered notion and demonstrates the potential for menstruation as a radical form of feminist resistance. From menstrual art to menstrual stunts, from menstrual e-magazines to menstrual graffiti, there are provocative initiatives that view menstrual activism as a game-changer to make the inevitable monthly event playful.

From women being ostracised during ‘that time of the month’ to young girls shying away from school to avoid any ‘embarrassment’, restricting the function to just a case of hygiene serves limited purpose. Unless it disrupts the boundaries of patriarchy, and underscores the reality of misogyny, the case for writing a new story to destroy conventional narratives will remain an open invitation.

First published in The Tribune, issue dated Dec 19, 2018. 

44. From a parents' daughter to a husband's wife

By sheer chance it occurred to me one day that half of my close friends are proud single-child parents of a girl. And, many of them tell me in no less terms that a daughter - in an amazing, unnameable way - has filled their households with unknown brightness and joy. Bereft of such joy, I envy my friends because I somehow feel that girls distinguish themselves in making a household lively, colorful, vibrant, and fragrant. Not without reason did English poet Robert Southey wrote that 'little girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice' (and denigrated little boys to be made of 'snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails).

Not sounding stereotypical, I consider left-brain orientation of girls' favoring them for their distinct nice touch - tender, delicate and receptive. Oblivious of any such perception, one friend tells me that a girl-child brings in a form of energy that softens the quest for unending doing-ness in our lives. Another friend is quick to add that a girl child, through her sensitive actions, brings out the most humane in her parents, which perhaps boys cannot. General consensus among the group is that a girl provides a sense of completeness to the family.  

I am curious, but at a loss on how to react. Is the picture as distinct as my friends have painted? Are boys cognitively differently wired than girls? Based on my own experience, I can safely say that boy's brains are wired more for logical thinking whereas girls' are better at intuitive thinking. I imagine this wiring sets them apart as individuals. No surprise, girls exude concern and warmth in each of their actions. Even in small actions like serving tea they ensure a soft and nurturing attitude towards their guests, something that runs deeper into their being.     

Without being prejudiced, my problem is that I cannot entertain such paeans far too long. That the girls are warm and delicate, and the boys are curt and impudent offers skewed understanding of the hidden gender dimension. The friend who is on cloud nine talking about his daughter's virtues slumps to ocean depths while enlisting his wife's vices. Why has the left-brained girl taken an extreme right turn after becoming your wife, I ask him. Like most men, my friend remains reticent to dwell any further.   

I am as curious and probing as anybody else could be, because such cases of role-dependent behavioral change among girls are not only far too many to be ignored but have yet to be taken upon for clinical examination to any degree. You will agree with me that a girl to a father is no mirror-image of that girl to a husband. I often wonder at the travesty of things which transforms a goddess of compassion into its mark opposite, who may eventually mother a girl to spread feminine virtues yet again. 

Such is the cycle of human nature, that the less said the better. And not allowing my curiosity to take the better of me, I must confess that I feel no less honored and privileged to have friends who are parents to nature's unfathomable enigma. Much before the recent phenomenon of 'beti bachao' took to the streets they had in the silence of their households taken a vow not to have another child after a baby doll had arrived in their family. For them, that has been their world.

43. What a bore? Thanks for the compliments.

Bored of being Bored because being Bored is Boring

I remember my professor who would consider our boredom of having had enough lecture classes before his, by inviting us to do a quick write-up on 'what made you feel bored' before he could let us be free of any lecturing on that day. The onus was squarely upon us to do some quick thinking,  but writing on boredom was no less boring. It was a kind of drubbing that we could hardly escape. Net result, rarely could we take advantage of his generous offer.

We did feel bored surely, but were not able to translate it into words. Back to back lecture classes were often tedious and monotonous, and I suspect if these are any different now. Back home, my mother would often wonder what made youngsters feel bored as there was no such word in her dictionary. She thought we were too lethargic to engage ourselves meaningfully, and therefore felt bored. As for her concern, she always had some household chore to perform.  

Like many of the present generation, we didn't know that Greek philosopher Lucious Seneca had coined boredom in his writings much before Charles Dickens had drawn reference to it in his novels. That we felt bored was a reality which we were often up against. Little did we know that factory workers in Europe tried all kind of drugs to counter what is referred to as 'situational boredom'. What gave us solace (and dismay too), however, was that teenagers in every era defaced public property to counter 'temporary boredom'.

That boredom has a darker and a more complicated side, akin to depression, is a later day revelation for me. Had it not been so, literature would not have created characters (like Madame Bovary or Jack Torrance) for whom boredom had become dangerously existential. But I am sure not all humans respond to their boredom as these characters have, because boredom isn’t all bad as by encouraging contemplation and daydreaming, it can spur creativity. Surprisingly, it is considered to be the stuff that can help unlock the next big idea.

Equally surprising is the fact that the world's bore flock to deliberate on their boredom at what is called the London Boring Conference. Now in its eighth edition, the conference wants people to use the mundane as an impetus to creative thinking and observation. What worries the deliberations is that far from using boredom as an intellectual stimulus, the world is achieving intense stimulation at the click of a mouse or touch of a screen. This is killing the much desired human trait -- boredom.  

Since boredom is considered 'an aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity', it is viewed as an amazing idea that should be carefully nurtured. Don't get me wrong if I suggest you enforce boredom across your family members, especially the children. But to be able to do so, you must first be a big 'bore' yourself. Only by pumping boredom can we make children to seek engagement in creative ventures. We may need to make them watch light flicker or milk boil, by putting away their smartphone for a while. Else, it is only a matter of time that the world will become a boring place, if it isn't already!.  

First published in Deccan Herald dated May 11, 2018.

42. LESS is MORE is LESS

Aren't technology and its gadgets a great leveler? Indeed these are, as my house help gives me an edge in breaking news of all kind. Be it 'mann ki baat' or 'padosan ki chat', she often chuckles to find me struggling to stay abreast. She seems no less excited to have whatsapp powering her to stay informed, even if most of those recycled tidbits do pretty little to ease her life, and her increasing workload. There is a sense of empowerment nonetheless, getting more by paying less for the second hand smart phone.              

Little over a decade ago, a phone was just a phone. It could only help dial a number provided one could reach a phone. No more no less! It could neither act like an alarm nor a torch, it could neither click pictures nor convey written messages, and it could neither help you surf the virtual web nor assist the perverted mind to set off time bombs. Mobile phone is one among several gadgets that modernity has smartly milked to capacity, gifting the user more on each purchase. More of the world seems to have been squeezed into a small chip. 

Aren't we getting more from less in all purchases? Buy a trouser and get a shirt free; buy a television and get a mixer grinder free; buy a car and get a refrigerator free; buy a house and get the swimming pool free are market manifestations of a growing culture of 'less for more'. Without doubt, less for more has enticed all and sundry into it without any aspersion being cast on how and who pays for the so-called more in our lives. That more mobiles in a home may mean less sparrows in the courtyard is just one manifestation of 'yeh dil maange more', for less. 

Across almost all areas of human endeavor, less has created an illusion of more. A growing economy is generating less jobs; and never before has there been a more people suffering starvation, malnutrition, and general poverty. But I haven't found many who are complaining yet, unable to decide whether we are worse off or better off. My sense is that while numbing our senses, smart technology has nonetheless given us a semblance of equality, and a so-called good quality of life!     

The question worth exploring is whether this so-called good quality of life makes us happy? Outwardly, it may seem so and most people do demonstrate such an exuberance. The reality is not only far from truth, but grossly painful and annoying too. Else, why would Indians rank 133 in the UN World Happiness Index out of 156 countries, dropping 11 spots from last year. An elderly neighbor sums it up saying that 'we are an insecure lot, seeking solace in acquiring gadgets' and feeling happy about what keeps us ahead of our neighbor. 

No surprise we live in 'deficit' amidst so-called plenty. It is perhaps the greatest of all paradoxes as we plunge ourselves into seeking more from less.

First published in The Tribune on May 8, 2018.