Kutta-Dutta Rigmarole

Sri Kutta! Does it sound weird?

Yes, that’s how he would have been officially addressed because the spelling of his surname in the official record tells just that - had Sri Srikanti Kutta (Dutta) of Bankura not protested. 

 

Dutta was determined and was made of sterner stuff.

 

After repeatedly failing to move the authorities to make a valid change of the name on his ration card, he chose to stage a protest in the most non-violent and creative way. He took his appeal to the head of the organization for the fourth time and instead of requesting the authorities with folded hands wearing a hangdog look, he yelped and whined like a snarling dog much to the chagrin of the BDO in the full public view. The video became viral on social media. 

 

The visibly upset BDO took up this urgent matter personally. Not reported in the press; the matter must have been sorted out in hours. Our experience says that things get done once you make it too hot for them to sit over it any longer. 

 

This ‘non-important’ matter involving a ‘non-descript’ man became ‘urgent’ not because the officer was appalled on discovering the rot of inefficiency in his office but because he saw the rage and determination of Sri Dutta to take on the system and embarrass all of them publicly. As the adage goes ‘The creaking wheel got the oil’. Just assess the harassment, wastage of time, loss of reputation, and human efforts involving so many people for such a small thing.

 

Why did such a small issue reach this stage? Was it necessary? 

 

Quirky stories like that of Dutta’s keep appearing in the newspapers regularly. News like - Man wins a 25-year-long litigation to recover the two rupees he was charged extra by the TTC. A man letting loose a sack full of snakes in the office of the revenue officer who was not heeding his request. 

 

This news of Mr. Kutta (Dutta by now) might have given us a few mirthful moments on the morning of December 19th, but a much bigger and painful truth hiding behind this incident should not be brushed aside. Why a sense of duty and responsibility are not the tracks on which the administrative juggernaut moves automatically? Things move either out of someone’s goodness, or interest or under pressure. Why? 

 

What are the organizational safeguards against it?

 

That incident is a commentary on how our official machinery works without a built-in responsive redressal system and how a common man is pushed to resort to active or passive violence out of sheer frustration of not being heard or served. 

 

Some react like Mr. Dutta, some exert pressure to make things move, and the wise ones devise ways to manage (sic) the obstacles and get their thing done. But no one talks about what to do to institutionalize responsibility and accountability for performance and prevent the officers in charge to go scot-free of their delinquencies. 

 

We are socially conditioned not to see the elephant in the room. But how long?

 

To explain what I mean let us discuss this Kutta to Dutta resolution episode. Did anyone (The BDO in this case) ask his office the following questions to permanently solve the problem in the system?

 

- Why was his name entered erroneously? 

Was the person recording the names not familiar with the Bengali surnames?

 

- Why were his first three appeals not responded to? 

Who was responsible and what was the valid explanation for not effecting the correction?

 

- What do the rules say about such wilful negligence? 

Does it go to his performance assessment? At what stage does the feedback from the public form a part of his assessment? 

 

If the BDO could resolve the issue in hours what disciplinary action was taken on the people who were plain deaf to the first three requests? What did their departmental inquiry unravel?

 

We all have some experience of dealing with such stone-deaf people for whom your reason, duty, and responsibility are not strong enough to make him lift his pen to a piece of paper to put his signature below a half-page note. He can sit on mountains of unattended files for months and no one has the power to ask him about them. It doesn’t matter how convincing or valid is your request, or how acute your situation is; your fate is determined by the whims and fancies of the person you are dealing with. 

They feel empowered by their power to harass the common man. Harassments like this can turn one murderous if one is passing through personal difficulties.

 

We all know that there exists a world where the words like duty, responsibility, and accountability are nowhere mentioned in one’s job description. KRA and KPI and efficiencies are a strange composition of alphabets. 

 

Not long ago to qualify as a capable householder in a city, you had to have contacts in the Civil Supply Department to get some extra kerosene or sugar beyond your quota, DoT JE to get your telephone line timely repaired, an electricity linesman for ensuring early response to a fuse-off the call, LPG distributor for that out of turn gas connection or a refill, cinema hall manager for blocking tickets of a hit movie. Many hobnobbed with the MPs for an LPG connection, telephone line, and a seat in a Central School. 

 

Things have changed for the better and one can lead a respectable life without having to develop a friendship with such people for ensuring their legitimate rights for basic service delivery. Now only the PhDs in most of the state universities are dependent on such personal contact with your supervisor and his relationship with the clerks, big and small in the department. You earn a degree not on your merit as your right but are rewarded for your good relationship with the powers in the system as gratis. Hope it changes soon.

 

This type of harassment is not limited to state-owned organizations, most of the big organizations are blind to their vendor management practices or after-sales service performance. Try calling a toll-free number of a big bank to block your lost credit card or an IVR system of a big white goods company you are to get certain parts not available at the local dealership dispatched to understand what I mean. 

 

If something has worked so far, you are lucky, if there is a hitch, you are plain unlucky. 

 

Just buying a flight ticket in a deal, having a hotel booking in hand, or buying health insurance online won’t give you the expected service assurance, one as to be prepared for their denials citing various clauses and terms and conditions written in fine print somewhere in their documents and have a plan B for those situations.

 

We know how difficult it is to deal with virtual offices for your insurance claim settlement or get your refund for a canceled flight or hotel booking. I am now in the midst of such a refusal-settlement issue with OYO Rooms where my prepaid room booking was flatly dishonored by their property partner in Delhi. You must have the grit of Mr. Dutta to write reams of emails to get them to work. 

 

But then such determination is not commonly found. And the organizations and their officials know that.

 

In these cases, the owners of the organizations and their representing officials know too well that they can continue to be in business as usual by creating a public perception through advertisements and serving those rare hot dissatisfied voices only to silence them. Changing the system for better service and higher accountability is not needed for business continuity. 

 

Oh, now I am reminded of a chronic problem with my BSNL cell phone connection which I can’t neglect anymore. When my phone is out of the network coverage area, the callers are getting diverted to the number of a certain lady in Basta, Balasore who is treating my callers with the choicest of expletives to vent her frustration. Who likes being inundated with calls trying to speak to someone with an unfamiliar name?

 

To deal with the problem first, I have to draft a long application detailing my problem, then personally go to the right officer sitting in some numbered rooms on the right floor of the right office building, and if I am lucky find him in his seat and in a mood to speak to me, if he believes my story and receives my application then go to him again and again over the next one month to follow up and get it resolved by finally discovering some contact who is at a higher position than this officer through six degrees of separation. This process will take me no less than a month. Am I prepared for the ordeal? 

 

I am not so helpless now as I have a choice.

The choice is either I voluntarily go through the ordeal or apply for number portability through an online portal.

The Silence of the Sounds

Some days back in Bangalore, around midnight I was shaken off my sleep by an ear-piercing unfamiliar sound. It was the typical sound of a piece of a heavy metal hammer hitting another large metal body at rhythmic regularity. Why would someone in a residential colony hit a metal body with another hammer continuously for hours so late at night? I started analyzing what could the situation be and drew a big blank.

I could not associate this sound with the industrial situations I had experienced so far. I remained clueless.

Only the next day morning, I could know that the sound was that of a heavy mechanical pile driver and was coming from the ongoing Metro track construction site nearby. The pile driver sound was new to me earlier and now I can recognize it or its close relatives if I am in a different context. The sound file was appended to my database of observations, memories, and experiences.

Our brains, like a computer, are programmed to take a sensory input (smell, sight, touch, taste, and hearing) and scan it through the stored database as big as the length of our lives to find a match. Our five senses–sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell–seem to operate independently, as five distinct modes of perceiving the world. However, they collaborate closely to enable the mind to better understand its surroundings. The bigger the database because of our varied experiences and the deeper our observations of the subtle sensory inputs, the higher will be the possibilities of finding a perfect match.

We predicted danger, and the good news we were expecting and associated the inputs in combination with many joyous and sad memories of the past.

In the olden days, the wise old men were the predictive and computational assets of their communities. They could predict future rain, drought, disease, or impending dangers by processing their datasets of sensory experiences with a high degree of accuracy. Many of our relatives had that intuitive intelligence and could guess situations. They could guess things like what might have happened and who would have done what without being there. They observed people’s behaviours and understood their intentions well.

Their opinions mattered a lot as they were not far from being correct invariably.

Our grandmothers could know from the sound coming from the kitchen if the cat dropped a utensil from the shelf or pushed a ladle off the cauldron. The watchman’s eyes would pop open the moment the distant sound of a fallen ripe mango or a palm would break his summer afternoon sleep. The tiptoe walk of a lurking jackal would alert the homeowners because he recognizes how it sounds when the jackal walks on dead leaves. Farmers could guess if it would rain or not from the smell and nip in the air.

Men of our generation could recognize the difference between a petrol car and a diesel one from their engine sound. A Boeing and an Airbus when it took off. The birds from their chirps and hoots. Earlier we did much such guesswork by default because our sensory channels were always in a heightened state of alertness. Now our dogs only know if the gate is opened by the one, they know or by an intruder; earlier we could know it. He manages to do it still because we have not given him a smart gadget yet.

Now the role of data acquisition from the surrounding and processing has been handed over to high-capacity computers and smartphones. They are doing it 24x7 without our overt permission. For getting long-range weather forecasts to short-range data like the temperature, possibility of rain, road direction, traffic jam, air quality, visibility, sunrise, sunset, heart rate, and distance covered since morning we must have a smartphone with half a dozen apps, and WiFi coverage. The predictions are getting more pinpointed and more accurate.

This accuracy has lowered the need for humans to sharpen their intuitive and analytical faculties for even predicting a small thing next to them. And those who have it still are considered to have redundant skills. The AI engines are getting smarter while our intuitions are getting duller. The need to be observant of our surroundings by using the fullest capacities of our sensory organs is getting less pressured because of the commonly available gadgets and computational powers.

With the changed lifestyle and obsolescence of so many products and equipment, the sounds associated with them are completely unknown to many of us especially the kids of this generation.

In our generation we stopped hearing the typical ‘Cloup’ sound of falling water droplets from a thatched roof in a puddle long after the raid had stopped, the howls of a pack of jackals in the evening, the noisy orchestra of thousands of crickets behind the dead most silence, midnight hooting of owls, the sound of dead leaves being blown away in a summer breeze. The rhythmic sound of a Dhenki and the sound of the beetle nut being cut into thin slices. Many of us didn’t know how a teleprinter sounded.

Can this generation recognize the sound of a Rotary Dial Telephone, how the typical ‘Chuk-Chuk’ tempo increased in a steam engine, the hum and orchestra of mosquitoes around our ears during a power cut, the typical flapping sound a wet Bata slipper created when we walked, the sound of AIR and DD when they opened transmission, the advertisement jingles, the credit jingles of serials, or the now obsolete Fax or a TCP/IP Dialler modem? So many sounds that were ubiquitous and recognizable have been silenced forever with the evolution of society and changed lifestyles.

Though that is not going to materially affect their life in any form, thanks to the internet and massive-sized digital archives of such obsolete sounds being built somewhere, the current generation for academic purposes at least can access the said sounds.

Our modern conveniences which are our own lifestyle choices are nothing but private bubbles detaching our senses of the surrounding temperature, light, humidity, sound, and sight. Now we have glass panes that fend off light and sound, our indoor air quality and temperature are artificially managed, our car cabins are acoustically studio-grade, and we wear noise-cancelling headphones on the road and do everything possible to stay disconnected from our surroundings and people. What reduces our sensory inputs also dulls our ability to process them. 

Disconnected Privacy is the new lifestyle choice. That lifestyle choice silently has disconnected individuals leaving them in private silos and the emotional disconnect between them is what is called Sounds of Silence.

Garfunkel, introducing the song at a live performance with Simon in Harlem, in June 1966, summed up the iconic song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly intentionally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."

Sounds of Silence in the background of Silenced Sound is what we are currently left to deal with.

Respect – What it means and what we have made of it

A cousin of mine who works in a school for children with special needs was recounting an experience of hers.

A senior retiree who stayed alone in their community with time to spare, came occasionally to that school to help people with their chores. He didn’t mind doing any task – big or small whoever asked for help. He wanted to contribute to the community. He was always punctual, came much earlier to school time; and would invariably park his car at the farthest end of the parking lot.

This habit caught the attention of my cousin who asked him about this quirky habit of parking when there are many vacant slots available closer to the exit. He said, as I come early if I park near the exit, the ones who are unable to reach in time for some reason on that day will be forced to park at the farthest end. That will make them late to work. As I have time in hand, I choose the distant slot and leave the better ones for others. 

His answer stunned her. This is the incident from the US.

We from childhood are conditioned to see people coming early to grab the best seat or slot. This behaviour of grabbing and squeezing past others can be seen everywhere. On the road, while checking into the aircraft, leaving the aircraft after landing, waiting for your turn at the buffet, parking lot. A friend told me that as almost all resources are scarce and many people are competing to access them, and it has been so for centuries, this desperate behaviour to outdo the other has been normalized by society.

I didn’t quite agree with the argument.

I see it not as the outcome of a scarcity of resources but as a general absence of respect for our fellow citizens who are immediately next to us. We are exploitive of others’ hapless situations and look for opportunities to disrespect others.

Taking the example of the senior retiree in that school, he had no economic necessity to do a job, he didn’t associate a task with his position, he did things just because he felt that he needed to give it back to the community, he leaves space in the parking lot for the unknown colleagues who could be running late – knowing very well that he will not be penalized for not doing so or ever going to be appreciated for doing so. He does it because it’s the right thing and a moral thing to do. Period. 

Who inculcated such values in him?

As I fulcrum my argument on the word RESPECT, it made me delve a bit deeper into the exact meaning of the word the connotations in which it is meant to be used, and what we have made of it.

As per the Oxford English Dictionary, RESPECT is a noun that means

[1] a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

[2] due regard for the feelings, wishes, or rights of others.

Yes, due regard for the feelings, wishes, or rights of others is the topic of our discussion.

In our country to act in a servile or an obsequious way, silently suffering the ill-treatment of the one who is more powerful, not raising your voice of disapproval, not expressing dissent, or not giving a suggestion that is contrary to his wishes of your boss are considered the signs of respect. It is normal for the powerful to keep you waiting without thinking of giving a semblance of an excuse, forget an apology. 

Your loyalty and respectfulness to him are evaluated on your ability to take it without complaint. We are taught to take it even if we don’t like it. It manifests in minor acts of disrespect that are ignored or go unnoticed. Like not responding to the New Year message sent by a person from a lesser hierarchy or seeing through him when you bump into him in a public place.

Interestingly and worryingly the same people who were ill-treated earlier by the more powerful mete out similar behavior when they come across people who are less powerful than them. They have normalized it as the standard behaviour of respectable (powerful) people. It is not likely to end as there is huge competition to be in that league of privileged VIPs and earn a license to be disrespectful. The middle-class dreams are made of this. The one who is less powerful and is forced to take this will take it as this is the prevailing culture. If this continues unquestioned in the end, what we will have is a society of street bullies and disrespectful people in various garbs where even a normal act of kindness or courtesy seems like a sterling example of humanity. That's worrying.

What we need is a competition to be respectful, not powerful.

We all know if we must expect change, we must act it ourselves. But do we? Let’s put ourselves to the test and answer a few questions.

1. After using a public toilet do we leave it clean as a mark of respect to the next user?
2. Do we think of leaving the shopping trolley at its right place after using it at the malls and airports?
3. Do you segregate your domestic waste before handing it over to the municipality guy?
4. Do you drive maintaining a safe distance from the car in front of you? Do you stay in the centre of your own lane? 
5. Do you stop at the intersection even if there is no traffic or cop around?
6. At home, after having food, as a practice, do we carry our plates to the sink and dispose of the leftovers properly and stack the crockery after giving it a rinse as a mark of respect to the feeling of the maid who would clean it later?
7. In the restaurant do we consciously speak in a lower voice, not ill-treat the waiter and push back the chair to the original position as a mark of respect to the ones who are here to enjoy a meal and spend time with their friends and family?
8. Do we give a weekly off to our maids and drivers as their right? Or at least feel guilty about it if we don’t?
9. Do we make the driver wait in the dark and humid basement parking while we enjoy the late-night show with our families?
10. Do you feel superior because of your caste, job, education, money, or position?

This is a test of how you treat your fellow citizens without any bias toward their superiority or inferiority for their feelings, wishes, and rights and the law of the land and the environment around you. It is a test as to whether you as a human can lead a responsible autonomous life and not be a burden on the community.

It is not illegal, and no one can hold anything against you if you have scored nought in the above test. But why we must score high is out of the goodness of our hearts. We all should recognize that respecting other feelings, wishes, or rights is just not the correct but moral thing to do.

If you believe in the karmic cycle, remember, what goes around comes around. It's a matter of time before you fall victim to the same disrespect that you have passed on. Respect is what a reasonably-minded person would do, and such people collectively build a beautiful compassionate society where the weakest feel secure not threatened in the presence of the powerful. 

BMC and Kishore Bhaina Friction

I flew out of Bhubaneswar when the drama surrounding Kishore Bhaina’s Roadside Hotel was at its peak.

For those who came late; the drama started with the BMC authorities sealing his eatery with the notice of non-compliance with food quality and hygiene standards. It was not an isolated incident; they had done it at more than a dozen such places as a part of their routine drive. It’s a known fact that the evicted encroachments get back to business the very next day; while the media and authorities choose to look the other way.

Kishore Bhaina did just that.

But then Kishore Bhaina was just not another roadside eatery, illegally operating on public land. Kishore Bhaina Mutton has gained popularity because of many content-hungry not-to-be-trusted food bloggers, who kept on describing how it attracts thousands of foodies and how he in his own hand cooks 200 kg of mutton every day. He with his 200 kg torso had gained cult status.

But popularity also attracts the visibility of undesirable kinds.

Kishore instead of lying low, chose to give Byte to some reporter - dismissing the claim of the BMC on his food quality and ingredients he uses as false. He had gotten into the habit of speaking to the bloggers in his characteristic nonchalant way. Some web portals carried his bytes and the whole news went viral. As it gained traction, it turned into a public David (Kishore Bhaina) Vs. Goliath (BMC Authorities) war where the incompetence of BMC was publicly criticized by the viewers.

To save its reputation, BMC had to respond to the challenge made by this upstart. The duel was inevitable.

The next day BMC authorities marched into the same spot under full media glare and razed the temporary bamboo structures of the fabled Kishore Bhaina Hotel behind the Doordarshan Centre to the ground using heavy machinery. The media and viewers got their quota of blood and gore which they had not had since the demolition of the twin tower of Greater Noida.

In the ensuing kerfuffle, many issues surfaced.

The importance of street food as a symbol of local culture, its relevance of it in society as it serves the need of a section of people, it as a successful enterprise, and its importance as an employer of thousands of unskilled labour. In the discussion the fact of poor food quality compromised hygiene, public nuisance as an encroacher of public space and a major cause of traffic snarls also surfaced. The viewers were divided in their support of both the parties involved. Many saw this as the authorities showing seriousness about administration and many saw this as destroying a successful home-grown enterprise in the name of silly compliance.

Both sides were right in their ways.

But the major worry was the scenario where the society either has few legally established, tax-paying, norm-complying eateries like the Mayfair where a humble dosa stands to make you poorer by 400 or we tolerate hundreds of street-side eateries where the owners and their families serve tasty (to some), affordable (to many) at just cost-plus prices which are non-compliant to every rule of the administration.

Interestingly we want the best of both worlds. Eateries that are legal, and hygienic, serve tasty food at an affordable price without the bells and whistles of an upmarket joint which only adds to the cost of food.

I hear someone dismissing this by saying you can’t have the cake and eat it too; then keep reading.

The next day after finishing my major work at Bengaluru, I was taken to a nearby food joint called Asha Tiffin after a morning walk. The cityscape of Bangalore dots hundreds of such joints. Names like Koshy’s, MTR sit on history dating from the pre-independence era. They enjoy cult status. VIPs and commoners sit shoulder to shoulder to partake in their staple. It’s the local culture.

It’s not limited to only Bangalore. Every major city in southern India boasts either its local brands or outlets carrying the franchise of some big name. The knowledge and expertise of running a successful restaurant business are centuries old in South India. One thing is common. They all serve their loyal customers their signature tasty food in absolute hygienic condition at an atrociously affordable price. One can see hundreds of people entering and leaving medium-sized joints, where cooking, ordering, billing, serving, eating, and cleaning operations can put any big manufacturing plant to shame.

I was surprised to see Asha Tiffin right on the major thoroughfare of a premium residential colony, it was not sitting illegally on public land. Contrary to its traditional name; it had a well-designed layout with basic arrangements to eat either by sitting or standing. With absolute modern signages and marquee, I was more than eager to experience the moment of truth.

The billing counter was manned by three young girls who didn’t have time to look at the customers -their fingers were tapping away on the keyboard making the queue move at a steady pace. It expected the customers to go to the specialized counter serving a particular food category. Food was getting continuously prepared and served. There were close to 50 people, and some 10 food delivery guys on that premise. No one was seen jumping the queue, speaking, reminding, shouting, hailing, or hollering. There was no owner or manager providing oversight. We were eating our Dosa, Idli, and Vada with Sambar and Chutney within 5/7 minutes of our entering the premises. And what taste! It was superb. And price? Dosa at 40 and Vada/Idli at 20 – it was a steal. After washing it down with a must-have filter coffee we were out on the road in 30/ 35 minutes.

A weekend morning couldn’t have been better.

The format is an improvement over the traditional eatery format of a typical South Indian hotel. The ordering and eating format has been optimized to the changing requirements of the new age customer. I was told that some new-age entrepreneurs started the trend with a brand called Taza Tindi at Jaynagar and the format has caught on. Many eateries of this format have sprung up across the city enjoying the loyal patronage of their hundreds of customers who just want a good food experience.

So, let’s accept that food can be tasty, hygienic, and affordable simultaneously. It need not be someone’s wishful thinking. It's also true that BMC might have demolished Kishore Bhaina's hotel but can do very little for the hundreds that are operating illegally. They enjoy huge local and political patronage. It's time both BMC and Kishore Bhainas of the world change their attitude and do their part to have dozens of Asha Tiffin-styled eating joints in our city to serve every segment of its citizens.

Jadoo ki Jhappi - doesn't have to be physical

A few days back Ratan Tata said, “You don't know what it is to be lonely, until you spend time alone wishing for companionship”; to many of us that was happening to someone, somewhere else.

A common description of loneliness is the feeling we get when our need for rewarding social contact and relationships is not met. Loneliness is a state of mind. Loneliness causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. It is marked by feelings of isolation despite wanting social connections. It is often perceived as an involuntary separation, rejection, or abandonment by other people. There is a difference between Loneliness and Solitude. If the latter can be therapeutic at times the former is corrosive.

 

Speaking of Ratan Tata, we subconsciously compared his situation with ours - Lonely, old, rich, unmarried gentleman without children, living alone in a big house. We may not be as rich or may not have that big a bungalow; but we have family, children, friends and so many other social contacts and engagements never to have a lonely moment. Simultaneously we started thinking of our relatives who already are rendered lonely or will become soon because of the death of their partners or the migration of their children on a gravy train. We worry about them while counting our many blessings and thank God that we are not in their situation.

 

Really? Now take this test.

 

Imagine these situations. You are elated after meeting someone who validated your conviction of an idea you have been working on for the last few years. You had an awesome meeting with your client and almost bagged the deal of your lifetime. You feel utterly defeated because you were let down by an associate. You felt utterly ignored by a friend you knew for years at a party. Now you want to share your joy and sorrow with someone who has the time to listen to you and empathize with your feelings? You have some 1500+ numbers in your phonebook; now select five. 

 

You don’t have to tell the result. Most would not have found the first one even. Let’s face it.

 

Despite being amidst a sea of people, most of us are lonely. It feels like being at a social gathering of people you know no one. The difference here is that you know everyone but there is an invisible barrier that is preventing the human connection. Many of us lack empathy and compassion for others. All are so busy with our life’s problems that there is no time in their hand to think about others’ lives and to check if anyone would be needing them. The virtual clamour on the social media platform successfully hides the lack of human interaction or touches in the society we are living in at present.

 

What do you call a society where humans have become stones and teddy bears and pet dogs have replaced humans when it comes to exchanging human touches? 

 

Is the problem of recent origin or has exacerbated by the dramatic change in lifestyle triggered by nuclear family structures, migration, and technology?

 

Leo Tolstoy captured this emotional state of humans through the feelings of a father who had lost his son that morning and his desperate attempts to share his grief with someone. After failing to find a human to share that with; he discharges his pent-up grief on the horse that drew his coach. He didn’t want money or any help; Just someone with compassion who agrees to compassionately listen to his grief. 

 

As relevant today as when it was written.

 

When in 1970 Neeraj Sridhar used the phrase ‘Bheed Ke Beech Akela’ in the song Phoolon Ke Rang Se, he never could have imagined how relevant, and representative his metaphor of the general feelings of a society of lonely people is even in 2020. 

 

I was listening to Ruskin Bond at the Bhubaneswar Literary Festival and he before signing off requested the audience and readers to keep writing to him. He light-heartedly said that the validation of the readers still matters to him at this age too. We thought an author of his level of accomplishment wouldn’t care what his readers think of his writings. 

 

How wrong we are.

 

If I could never forgive my closest friend who didn’t think it was important for him to speak to me even once when I was losing my father slowly over 15 days and showed up two days after his death; I also will not forget the compassionate gesture of that angel who packed all her furry friends in a car let them loose in our house one full evening the very next day I lost my dearest pet dog. While my closest friend didn’t have the eye to see the pain I could be going through, this girl who hardly knew me thought of relieving me of my grief of losing a family member. 

 

The above two examples describe what compassion and human touch mean to a person in grief especially when he is falling apart. Our personal lives are rife with experiences of disappointments meted out by our close ones and surprises coming from unknown persons. 

 

Let’s accept that though our bodies are designed to respond to touch, not just to sense the environment around us; we have a network of dedicated nerve fibres in our skin that detect and emotionally react to the human touches of another person — affirming our relationships, our social connections and even our sense of self. 

 

For a social person of higher emotional order, these are the essentials on which his identity exists. 

 

When we are overcome by the feeling of loneliness, we are not craving human contact, but human touches. If we want a society that provides us with all the human contacts and touches, we need, are we ourselves doing it for others? 

 

Bruce Springsteen in his song Human Touch writes…  

 

I ain't lookin' for praise or pity

I ain't comin' 'round searchin' for a crutch

I just want someone to talk to

And a little of that human touch

Just a little of that human touch

Share a little of that human touch

Feel a little of that human touch [2]

Share a little of that human touch

Feel a little of that human touch

Give me a little of that human touch [2}

 

Dial into others’ lives to check if they are fine and need your time and compassion; It’s time we stopped waiting for someone else to call. Jadoo ki jhappi doesn’t have to be physical.

Sustainable Living – We are facing the consequence of ignoring our traditional values.

A recent UNEP article stated “To combat the climate crisis and secure a safe future below 1.5°C, the world needs to cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gasses by 50 percent within the decade. Individuals and policymakers can help secure a healthier planet through their sustainable choices. Research shows that lifestyle changes could help the planet slash emissions by up to 70% by 2050. For many, ambitious targets such as this can induce a sense of dread and paralysis. But experts say there is a lot we can do as individuals to counter climate change.” 

At the core of this statement is the expectation of the global body to reduce our load on Natural Resources, Waste, and emissions. What we are asked to reduce now, basically emanates from our routine and mindless consumption of our past which we termed as Anthropogenic Activities. Sustainable living means changing our consumption in the areas of food, mobility, housing, and leisure so that our load on Earth comes down. 

A few questions come to mind.

Why does the phrase ‘Sustainable Living’ sound like some exotic recently discovered secret lifestyle formula? Is that so? Do we need a scientist or an expert to tell us about the outcome of unbridled consumption?

The same people who propounded the consumption-based economic models of development making us follow them like the rats of Hamlin are the ones who are advising us on how to lead a sustainable lifestyle leaving us in awe and a state of paralysis. So much has been our development in these years that we have forgotten how to find our way in a city in the absence of Google Maps.

Anyone of us who is old enough would recall how just a few decades back life was small, houses were small, vehicles were small and few, roads were narrow but there was no traffic jam, calories in our diet were low, we had fewer clothes to choose from and the need to commute was not beyond few kilometres. All our friends stayed in the neighborhood and very few of them were obese. The aspirations of that generation were basic. Anyone of us who had the good fortune of seeing the tribal communities from close quarters would remember their beautiful basic houses - built with locally available materials which had articles not more than a dozen which met all their lifestyle requirements. In the subsequent decades, we also witnessed the deterioration in the name of development and now these memories adorn our minds and the pages of a few bloggers.

Didn’t we inherit that as our traditional wisdom? Do we need empirical evidence by scientists and academics to realize or accept it; when our mythology, literature, words of the sages, and philosophers have been advising against falling into the trap?

When did we stop consciously living a small life and enjoying things small?

Today, on the 1st Death Anniversary of my father, I remember how negatively he reacted to my second car purchase. His verdict was clear – he wouldn’t enter the house unless the commitment to sell off the first car was given to him. I learned early that I could never impress him by acquiring material wealth as a sign of success. How my close relatives went back with earfuls for daring to buy him new clothes when he felt that the need for his clothes stands at zero now that he is retired. When he fell sick, those visitors who brought him a Bournvita would carry a Horlicks back as a return gift and the one who brought a Horlicks would go back with a Bournvita. He ensured that he had just one of each type needed for his recuperation. He disliked if more items were served on the table or if anyone ate more. He was never in awe of someone having more material wealth and assiduously stayed off people in power and position. In my lifetime, I have never seen him trying to be accepted in any exclusive club and hobnob with powers bigger than him. He despised wearing a suit and being seen at the Governor’s At Home where he was expected to be present officially. He left behind a cupboard which had a few clothes, a pair of shoes and a sneaker and just two files. One is his pension papers and CGHS details, and another is the ownership documents of his landed properties. I, throughout the last year, have been searching to find any unfinished task left behind by him – I have found none. He had completed all his tasks and discharged all his worldly responsibilities fully. 

He could do it because he had internal brakes on his needs and consumption.

His credo was simple. Live small and within your means. Living with dignity was more important than living a life of luxury. Lead a modest lifestyle and don’t invite the jealousy of your neighborhood. Don’t be over-ambitious and leave most of the things unfinished; you are not expected to leave behind an empire or legacy – just complete your life’s responsibilities. And the list didn’t include him, there were many in our family who not only espoused those values but lived them by example.

Many of the previous generations lived a sustainable life which we find exotic and impossible to adopt now. Where are such people now who represent a sustainable lifestyle? Our ancestors have left behind no liabilities but a chest full of values and principles relevant to the present crisis which we are desperately trying to come out of. When did we exactly throw that inherited wisdom from our societal value systems and agree to be a part of the model that equated consumption as the sole measurement of development? 

A closer look will tell us that the current society is led by those who are in their 50s. And this generation since the 90s has untiringly tried to scramble up the material ladder to be termed as successful. It has reached the speed of a running train. The momentum is so much that it is becoming difficult to break. This cohort has lost the habit and the opportunity to be the sustainability models; hence the task seems daunting. 

But have we lost the right to be so? Nah!

We can achieve our goals of a sustainable lifestyle if and only if we redefine success and start celebrating small again. Parents, Teachers, Leaders, Community Leaders, and Spiritual Leaders must start talking about the various ways to lead a small life by reducing our consumption, thus reducing our load on resources, waste, and emissions. We know that the logic of Scientists and the purposeless mechanical efforts of the Government has never been effective in changing people’s behaviour and attitude. Even after 75 years of independence, the gaps in the policy intent and the outcomes remain glaringly static on the ground unless some have been led by people themselves. Let’s not shirk our responsibilities by delegating them to others. 

We must lead by example not to save Earth but ourselves. When it’s about doing less and not more, it’s easy.

Celebrating Men Seen Cycling to Moon

Are you planning to cycle today too?

4th June, early morning, after being fed an overdose of pictures of people cycling with their friends the day before, I, in my churlish best, threw this question to the air on my social media walls – many responded. Many in the picture wore that MeToo happy smile, and many wore those cycling gears making them practically unrecognizable.

A friend from the Rotary fraternity who is familiar with my wicked wit, calls me. Suppressing his chuckle to tell that they have no plans for cycling that day as they are busy arranging for World Environment Day the next day. The task of organizing the club event rests on him. Chief Guest, Media Coverage, Photographers, Commemorative caps and Tee Shirts, Banners, Location, Saplings, logistics, and funds must be arranged, and disinterested members must be nudged to join the celebration. Then there are organizational politics to handle.

By this time, he had gotten serious. He went on and on.

Their club always manages to get the top awards in their district. They consistently and successfully manage these events. In the past, their members had brandished Jhadu (brooms) when the country had to be cleaned of the garbage of 75 years, pulverized the Thali out of shape beating it up when the PM called for their support to wage a war against the Covid Virus. They have always risen to the occasion and responded to such calls when the nation wanted their service. On June 21st they have International Day of Yoga to celebrate, and they will have to do some events for that day too with the right hashtags. So many things to do! They must earn the scores to meet the target their club has promised.

I could by then mentally visualize a blend of a sales executive who is worried about his monthly targets and an armoured hero in a white stallion with a halo around his head galloping his way into the horizon to annihilate every ill of the society that comes his way.

I was mentally trying to assess what a wretched place the world would have been, had my friends not created the awareness in time. I couldn’t stop myself from respecting these social warriors for the work they are doing to create awareness of the issues that are troubling the world. The list of woes that abound on our planet runs into hundreds - Environment, Health, Disease, Poverty, Social ills; the list is endless so also the engagement of these social awarers (sic) so also the opportunities associated with it.

Starting from today, the World Environment Day to the Vana Mahostav week, Individuals, Clubs, Organizations, Corporations big and small, and Government departments, all will be desperate to show solidarity with the cause of the earth. The media will be filled with pictures of responsible individuals living responsibly and responsible Corporations running responsible businesses.

Some will be seen in solidarity, some creating awareness, and some showing that they are leading the action. Some voice inside me silently asks a few uncomfortable questions.

If everyone is busy creating awareness for others; then who is left to follow it in practice?

Had all the saplings planted by all the people in all the environment Days and Vana Mahostsavs been cared for and survived, India surely would be looking like an Amazon rainforest by now.

Sadly, there lies the unpleasant truth - about the gap in the discourse and sincere action on the ground by the same person. How when humanity is standing between the jaws of death, the real issue which requires dramatic changes at every level of corporate value creation to value delivery and how individuals consume and lead their lifestyle has been hijacked to make this a routine annual event is a matter of concern. Why do we feel that our task is complete by wearing a badge to look like a responsible citizen?

What are we hiding? Who are we cheating? At whose cost?

It’s a truism that every industrial activity results in some damage to the people living around it and the environment in general. It’s quite like a brain surgery we opt for after evaluating the risks and benefits associated with it. If people in the capital city must live in comfort and govern, millions around the thermal plants have to live in the furnace-like heat and breathe noxious air. Nothing in the immediate future can resolve this development-environment paradox unless new generation technology miraculously appears everywhere from nowhere. We are left to make the best within the given constraints.

To break this dilemma, a middle path is chosen and ways to compensate for the damages caused to the people and planet are carefully thought about. Corporates are now evaluated just not based on their Governance (Profit) score but on what they are doing to ameliorate the impact of their business actions on Society (People) and the Environment (Planet).

This framework of evaluation is called ESG.

But there is general doubt about the real intent of the corporates in implementing that. Will, they seriously get down to action, and lead by example, or will hire experts to prepare reports and documents, and buy awards and certificates just to be a regulatory complaint entity. Business interest has always been successful in blunting the teeth of the law and rules of the regulator and has reduced their responsibility to smart reporting for compliance certification.

Sadly, they are not alone in the game. This game has a new name – Greenwashing or SDG washing. And it's big.

A report by The Financial Express states that the demand for ESG jobs in India has grown by 468 pc in the last 3 years. Demand for ESG roles might continue to rise as more sectors incorporate the functions into their organizations and make sustainability and community relations a key part of their actions. Its importance is felt as global investments can only be accessed by the ones having good scores. The vultures see this ESG hype as an opportunity to bill millions of dollars for consultancy, rating, and assessor fees.

The Earth is crying in pain scarred and burdened by our reckless lifestyle and corporate greed of the last two hundred years. We have no second planet and the time to make course corrections is running out. Scientists have been shouting from the rooftop about this and the evidence of it is felt by one and all in terms of rising temperatures frequent cyclones and erratic rain patterns. The sea, water, soil, and air are irreversibly damaged. But the feasting by the corporates and merry-making by the individuals at such a critical time is a matter of grave concern.

We know that the lure of profit and publicity and the pleasures associated with it throws our conscience into some dark corner that demands sacrifices in terms of our business and lifestyles. But if we choose not to realize this now and continue with our festivities on the gravy train, we can’t when it would have flown off the cliff taking us along with it.

Time to bite the bullet and not tell lies to ourselves anymore. We are too near the cliff.

The Sleep-Restfulness Conundrum

The thing that we secretly desire to do on a Sunday is ‘Not Doing Anything’ which in common parlance broadly comprises a post-lunch siesta and a good night’s sleep.

The symptom of the need for rest usually starts showing up in our minds from Wednesday. That is why Wednesday is called The Hump Day. Because if we had started our week on a Monday, we would have reached our peak by midweek and are expected to drag ourselves till Friday and take rest on the weekends and revive.

The brain has been conditioned to seek rest and feel restored if we sleep well.

The adage goes, that even God rested on the 7th day after completing all his work of creation. The humans are expected to get ready from Monday to take on the workload of the weekdays. The cycle continues routinely like a point on a Sin x curve plotted on a sheet of graph paper or it’s expected to behave in that pattern normatively.

The big questions for us to answer are.

Are we at that stage where our work and Life are well balanced?

Do we understand the message sent out by our body and mind of its requirement for rest? 

Is sleep the only circuit breaker we know of to rest and rejuvenate our body and mind to take on the next batch of workload?

Our own experience shows that many of us even after doing our Sunday rest, and sleep routine feel mentally overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and physically tired by Tuesday.

The weekend looks far away - why?

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith who is known as a work-life integration researcher seems to be having the answer. She says - “Identifying your rest deficit is the first step in being your personal and professional best self”. As a busy physician, author, and mom, she understands that life's demands can leave you feeling mentally overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and physically tired. Daily she helps high-achievers deal with their work-rest imbalance and find actionable answers to the thriving lifestyle they desire.

She says sleep and rest are not the same things. We’re suffering from a rest deficit because we don’t understand the various types of rest we need and their true power. She says that there are 7 types of rest that every person needs. Rest should equal restoration in seven key areas of your life.

Seven! And we were trying to open all the locks with just one key – Sleep.

The first type of rest we need is PHYSICAL REST, which can be passive or active. Passive physical rest includes sleeping and napping, while active physical rest means restorative activities such as yoga, stretching, and massage therapy that help improve the body’s circulation and flexibility.

The second type of rest is the MENTAL REST. We all experience that when arrear work builds up on our desks. We lay down at night to sleep; we struggle to turn off our brains as conversations from the day fill our thoughts. Ideas and worries come to visit us in our sleep and keep knocking on our mental doors. Despite sleeping seven to eight hours, we wake up feeling as if we never went to bed. That is a mental rest deficit.

The third type of rest we need is SENSORY REST. Pressure to Stay alert during long commutes, reading traffic signals during driving, Bright lights, Computer screens, Background noise, and multiple conversations touching multiple issues — whether they’re in an office or on a VC — can cause our senses to feel overwhelmed throughout our active hours of the day. The effects of it can eat well into the time we dedicate to rest.

The fourth type of rest is CREATIVE REST. The pressure to come up with new ideas to solve problems at hand and to anticipate them to prevent them from happening occupies the mind of the senior management. They are also expected to brainstorm new ideas to come up with newer value propositions for the organization they lead. The pressure of this leaves them staring blankly at a wall. This type of rest is especially important for anyone who must solve problems or brainstorm new ideas. Creative rest reawakens the awe and wonder inside each of us. Allowing ourselves to take in the beauty of the outdoors — even if it’s at a local park or in your backyard — provides us with creative rest. Select companies are offering unlimited paid vacations to their C-suite executives to let their creative juices flow.

The fifth type of rest is EMOTIONAL REST, which means having the time and space to freely express your feelings and cut back on people-pleasing. Deep inside us we feel ignored, neglected, and used by our family members, relatives, friends, and colleagues at our workplace. We are conditioned to say ‘I’m Good’ with a sunny smile each time someone wishes us a ‘How are you? We are taught to rise spiritually and not to complain but to accept things as they are. This can lead us to a pressure cooker situation which can explode unless released periodically. With our ever-expanding social and professional circles, we can ask ourselves if we have that person, we can be open with our feelings be it sharing our joy, frustration, and sadness, and hope to be understood?

Unknowingly we could be suffering the sixth type of rest deficit which is SOCIAL REST. Many a time we find ourselves in situations in which have people we are inseparably intertwined with who exhaust us with their predictably frustrating behavior. Despite flagging it politely, objecting to it, and warning them not to repeat it, people who are close to us force us to bring out the worst in us. Repeated exposure to these situations exacerbates it. To experience more social rest, we need to surround ourselves with positive and supportive people who inspire us to ignore our situations and revive us.

The final type of rest is SPIRITUAL REST, which is the ability to connect beyond the physical and mental and feel a deep sense of belonging, love, acceptance, and purpose. To receive this, we must engage in something greater than ourselves and add the practice of gratitude, prayer, meditation, or community involvement to our daily routine.

The present-day society celebrates only the success of a high-achieving, high-producing performer. This puts enormous pressure on its actors. It doesn’t bother to know what the person is going through in his personal life or deep inside his brain. 

We all experience residual fatigue even after resting well the day before, we call it by so many names stress, irritable behavior, frustration, feeling used, defeated, and exhausted. As you can see, sleep alone can’t restore us to the point we feel rested. Now we know that each word above points to a completely different cause which is behind the feeling of rest deprivation. 

So, it’s time we focused on getting the right type of rest our body and mind need to function normally, or else we will be a society of high-performing, high-achieving, chronically tired, and chronically burned-out individuals who are ripe to pop anytime like a soap bubble.

The choice is ours.

That Missing Credible Voice

Two incidents and a vitriolic exchange of words between two interest groups kept the media space filled towards the second fortnight of April. The one at the national level was the high fuel price and closer home it was the Puri Heritage Corridor Project.

The fuel price kerfuffle was centred around whether the centre or the states should reign it in by reducing the percentage of taxes that they are collecting per litre of fuel. The rigmarole of Puri was around the huge opacity around what is being planned to be done to the heritage site – people demanded facts be presented. The presenters were paraded but none were believed. The HC intervened in the Puri incident and all the parties including the ASI were asked to submit their statements under affidavit for the HC to take the final call. 

The credibility of the court is also not above public suspicion.

 

Statements in dozens – each contradicting the other; political blame games, efforts to create a controversy and take political advantage, an allegation of trying to earn a political dividend by creating controversies flew around engaging the common man and leaving him more confused. It was quite like when the two local stray bulls locked horns and pushed each other. The bystanders get startled, some shout in amusement, traffic comes to a halt, dogs bark in unison, a few cyclists topple injuring themselves, women run to safety, smart bikers sneak past, and to everyone’s surprise, they suddenly choose to stop. Life settles to normalcy in just a few minutes. And those two jostling bulls stand masticating their cuds as if nothing had happened between them.

 

No one gets to know what it was about and why the fight was started in the first place.

The poor common man is destined to see such exchanges either coming from the politicians or the bulls whenever and as long as both parties choose to fight. When they stop the common man would be still groping in the dark to know what exactly the fact was.

 

The absence of a sane credible voice was never felt so much by our society.

 

Let’s go back to the recent few decades. That need was served by editors of important newspapers, columnists whose independent voices were much sought after, and academicians whose personal conduct and academic track record added credence to what they said in public space.

 

We have seen how Late Harekrushna Mahatab in the 80s wrote one editorial in The Prajatantra urging people to stop the practice of animal sacrifice in temples and that resulted in a mass movement and a hundred temples joined voluntarily. Such was his understanding of the pulse of people and his influence over the society of that time. We have seen how RK Laxman’s daily cartoon lampooned the people in power and depicted the situation of the common man of Mumbai which struck a chord across the country. People like Arun Shourie, and Ramnath Goenka not only were the voices people listened to but believed to a large extent. Such was the weight of their opinion and influence over people that the politics of that time was influenced and configured around those voices. 

They were high on credibility.

 

Similarly, we have had academicians adorning various discussion panels in the TV shows of the 90s whose voices and opinions were just not insightful but impeccably presented and were surgical in many ways. They had their decades-long research, field trips, meetings, and observations as their strengths to bolster their arguments. Their deep understanding of their subject, their neutrality, and their aloofness to the political dispensation gave them the power to call a spade a spade.

 

That brings us to my core concern, in the age of information explosion, why it’s still difficult for a common man to access facts (truths)? Why the messenger of truth is weak to stand up and speak? In other words, who now is the credible voice in our midst who is well-informed, politically neutral, selfless, and has the guts to tell the facts? 

The problem is the source of truth or the dearth of carriers of truth?

 

Institutions like newspapers and universities had nurtured free thinkers and built their talent by providing them security. If there were fearless journalists, there were strong management of the news outlets who stood strongly up to the political powers. If an academician could work on his subject freely and deeply, there was a strong leader of that organization who saw merit in such people and gave them the resources, space, and liberty to voice the facts. 

Where are we now?

 

How practical it is to expect news outlets to be free from political influences when most of them are owned by various political parties by proxy. If few traditional newspapers who haven’t sold their ownership yet, are doing their best to be in the good books by crawling when they are expected to bend to the wishes of the government to curry financial or political favours. If we believe in the adage ‘Nothing succeeds like success, then we surely have many winners and many waiting to join the game. The academic space has long ceased to be a place of intellectual pursuits. It has chosen two to play second fiddle to the coaching centres that dot the landscape for various competitive examinations. It’s now a playground of personal interest and political one-upmanship. Lustreless, faceless and anonymous leaders are not given responsibilities to build institutions on principles and values but are deputed to stand guard and carry out official instructions.

 

We are seeing an unprecedented situation in our democracy where the earlier credible voices have either fallen off their pedestal or have been effectively silenced. Now manufactured truths are presented to the homes of the hapless public through various social media channels like Twitter and WhatsApp by faceless authors who are not accountable for defending their stories. Though this strategy of silencing the sane voices of society seems to be working in favour of achieving immediate political goals, its long-term impact on our society is far deeper and much more damaging than it meets the eye.

This loss will take a few generations to regain.

 

Society and its institutions that don’t recognize talent and nurture it; silence the free-thinking and truthful voices will be desperately searching for a capable leader and a credible voice when it would one day be standing on the edge of the cliff facing dystopia and crying to be rescued.