I recently met a retired Indian nuclear scientist in the U.S. The ex- scientist had set up a temple in a city in the US. He looked a typical ‘swamiji’— flowing beard, spotless dhoti and kurta, ability to effortlessly quote scriptures. I asked him what made him choose a life in a temple. What he told me shocked me.

‘God appeared in my dream’ he told me ‘and asked me to set up a Vaishnavite temple’.

I am quite frankly scared of people who claim to talk to God or receive instructions from Him. I suspect their sanity.

Take George Bush. He told the world that God asked him to attack Iraq! It was apparent that this man is a vile despot. His deluded actions have cost countless innocent lives. Subsequent events bear us out.

Rev...Rod Parsely an Evangelist in the US shocked many when he said ‘Islam is a false religion and God has told America to destroy it’.

I was under the impression that the only point on which Christianity and Islam agreed was that Hinduism was a false religion!

Jesus is reported to have said that he had not come to replace any Prophet...He was only completing their unfinished job. Muslims believe that Jesus had left the job unfinished and the Prophet of Islam had completed it. Considering that according to one tradition there have been 125000 prophets it seems we are no clearer about God despite their exertions. Indeed I am still not convinced about even the existence of God.

What I notice is that we will kill anyone who does not agree with our limited understanding of God!

There is a story about a man who died and went to whatever place we go to when we are no more. He was resting under a tree when he saw a massive crowd following a saintly figure. He asked an old bearded figure sitting on a rock nearby what the crowd was about.
‘Oh that is Prophet Mohammed’s birthday and Muslims are following him.’

Sometime later they saw another crowd following another saintly looking person. When asked what the crowd was about the old bearded figure replied ‘it is the birthday of Jesus and millions of Christians are following him’

Later they saw another crowd and this time the bearded figure replied ‘It is Lord Krishna’s birthday and millions of Hindus are following him.’

At this point our dead friend’s curiosity was aroused...He asked the bearded figure ‘how come you have all the answers? Just who are you?”

‘I am God. Today is my birthday and nobody is bothered about me ‘he replied.

Coming to the title of this article—If God is all knowing then considering what we are doing in his name he may well tell us that his religion is ATHEISM.

Just consider this. Kerala is supposed to be God’s own country. This state is a communist stronghold.

Quick get your pens out and put your thinking caps on. I am about to test your creativity.

I show you a photo of the World famous Bullet train whizzing through the Japanese countryside at speeds we can only gasp at. If you were an ‘ad’ guy what would be your famous lines below this stunning photo?

Next I show you the even better South Korean train that moves faster and is more smooth than the Bullet. What would be your copy below this?

And now comes the finale.

I show an Indian train travelling through dusty, chaotic Bihar in India. There are more people on the train than inside. Even the engine driver has to lean dangerously outside his cabin to see the rail ahead even as many people and cattle dart across the rail line right in front of the moving train! Not one inch of vacant space exists on the train top!

What will be your comment?

Send me your answers NOW, WITHOUT READING THE REST OF THIS BLOG.
Email sent to createravi@hotmail.com

Be honest with yourself.
NOW read on...

One of the first lessons in creative thinking [which I teach] is to practice developing many ways of looking at anything at all. Try not to be content with your usual way of looking at anything. Try and develop many perceptions.
Take for example a motor car.

I read somewhere a famous film actor in India Dev Anand, saying that as far as he was concerned a car was just a device to go from one place to another. I put this question to one of my creative thinking classes and I now put this question to you.

WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS POSSIBLE PERCEPTIONS OF A CAR APART FROM IT BEING A DEVICE TO GO FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER?

One guy gave me the following answers :
It is a status symbol, an engineering marvel, a work of art, a source of wealth, an investment, a refuge from home, a second home, an official perk, a tax planning method.
can you add to this list?

An ancient proverb exhorts us to do the same deliberate shift in perception when it tells us that FAILURE IS A STEPPING STONE TO SUCCESS.

Can you do a similar exercise and come up with several perceptions of God?

Someone in very ancient times in India [when ancestors of those who are part of the first world now and who often claim to have an exclusive access to God were living in caves] might have posed this question to the simple people surrounding him or her.
‘What does God mean to you ?’
He got many answers, some of which are listed here.

God is :
The giver of life, the giver of wealth, of food, of good health, of loving children, the solver of problems, the remover of obstacles, protector of the weak, the pardoner of sins, the giver of strength, the giver of wisdom and many more such perceptions.

Noticed one thing remarkable about this list—people define or perceive God in terms of what they lack or desire or are grateful for or fear or are anxious about. In other words we tend to perceive god in terms that reflect our innermost fears, desires and aspirations. Perfectly understandable and even more understandable in the light of our current dilemmas that might be far more serious than ever before.

Now come to the familiar criticism leveled against the Hindu reference to many ‘gods’. The number of ‘gods’ is directly proportional to the person’s prejudice against Hinduism. Not many may know that these are not many ‘gods’ but, based on the kind of list I have drawn up above, these are perceptions of God which were then personified and given a name. Thus a guy who wanted the blessings of God for excellence in education perceived God as the giver of education and then personified and named as Saraswati. Those who desired wealth perceived and personified and named God as Laxmi and so on. Remember Shakespeare personified jealousy to immortal effect by calling it a ‘green- eyed monster’! When you refer to the Lords cricket stadium as the ‘Mecca’ of cricket you are applying a version of the same device. You are ‘placifying’ Lords even though no cricket has been or will be played at Mecca. A Marketing book I read in B-school is called the BIBLE of Marketing. Someone called a terrorist as the ‘devil himself’ thus personifying evil.

Coming to the train story in my first para the caption I liked read
‘INDIANS WILL REACH THEIR DESTINATION NO MATTER WHAT!’

About three and a half decades ago a relative of mine migrated to the west. On her first visit to India two years later she found the usual crowds and noise [of which she was earlier a part] of India deeply offensive and indicative of the backwardness of India. I kept quiet knowing as I did even then the stages which a migrant from India goes through. Two years ago, a full thirty plus years of life in the west later—she visits India, walks the dusty and even more crowded streets and talks of the ‘lively, bustling cities’ and ruefully contrasts all this with the ‘silence of the graveyard’ in her city.

Talk of changing perceptions!

By the way my perceptions of God have changed over the years. I am an atheist!

Should you live in India and like to learn LATERAL THINKING write to me.

Religions, Politicians of the world Unite - In Vandalism

Khushwant Singh poked fun at the Hindu habit of touching a book to the eyes whenever his feet accidentally touched a book. This is of course the Hindu way of expressing apology for showing disrespect to Saraswati the goddess of knowledge and wisdom.

In contrast we are aware how some goons destroyed rare manuscripts in the Bhandarkar library in Pune simple because someone did his research in this library and came out with a book that made some references to Chatrapati Shivaji which were deemed derogatory by the goons and their bosses.

The tradition of destroying books and entire libraries goes way back.

Rulers from ancient times have resorted to destroying whole libraries if they perceived a threat to their religious ideological or political authority.

The 3rd Caliph Uthman in AD 645 destroyed the great library of Alexandria. His reason –which shall remain one of the most examples of Islamic bigotry ever—was as follows:

If the wisdom contained in the books agreed with the Koran then the books were redundant and if they contradicted the Koran they were a work of evil and deserved to be destroyed anyway. [I am afraid a Muslim lady friend of mine told me just a year ago that there was no wisdom outside her holy book. I love her deeply and hence let the matter go unchallenged. Some day she will learn that the Prophet of Islam had himself told his followers ‘ accept wisdom even if it comes from China’]

The library of Alexandria was rebuilt, re- stocked and sadly re- destroyed three times thereafter by Ptolemy 111, Julius Ceasar and Emperor Aurelian.

By the way this library was attacked by Christians too—this time by Archbishop Theophilus. His reason –and this too shall remain a classic example of Christian bigotry ever—anything contained in a pagan temple was worthless and must be destroyed. I am afraid I am unable to agree with the Christian references to anything before Christ as ‘pagan’ and therefore worthy of being destroyed. In one fell sweep some Christians dismiss the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita and Dhammapada as ‘useless’.

The Nazis did the same kind of destruction of books. In the U.S the Bush administration has been vandalizing the research reports of the EPA since these conflict with the ideology of the government .

It seems knowledge scares the bigoted.

I would like someone to give me information of Hindus doing mass destruction of books and libraries. [I have any number of examples of their lack of reverence for human life including of fellow Hindus].

I do not believe in astrology and was skeptical when an aunt of mine predicted on my relocation to the US in mid 2006 that the success that had eluded me all these decades would finally dawn on me. ‘You will be a celebrity’ she had said.

Once in the US I read at least a thousand books on success and I was convinced that we tend to attribute almost superhuman qualities to the rich and successful. The successful people go along with this myth even though they know that luck had played a significant part in their success. Indeed greater the success the bigger the role of luck. Bill Gates, the Google guys, Warren Buffet - are all examples of people in whose success lady luck played a fair share.

Let me tell you how luck made me a dollar millionaire. Hold your breaths tighten your seat belts and those of faint heart don’t read any further.

My wife had always accused me of being a theoretician and a lazy guy. I had great advice to give to others on how THEY could become rich but she correctly admonished that I did not practice what I often preached. ‘India is not the place for a genius like me’ I scoffed at her. It was when we moved to the US that my time had come to prove that I could achieve great riches.

One evening I was at the apartment of my old fiend Dick in Maryland. I had several glasses of beer and, as was to be expected, visited the restroom. My visit turned out to be rather long and at one stage Fred’s kid started banging at the door. ‘Hi uncle get out fast’ he yelled. Unable to resist his plaintive calls I quickly terminated the proceedings and was about to step out when I noticed a bottle of pink powder with a label stating -

‘GROW YOUR OWN CUCUMBER’

I quickly thrust it into my pocket and walked out much to the relief of the kid.

Next day after my wife had left for office I sprayed the powder all over my one acre yard. A month later I asked my wife to close her eyes. I led her to our yard. When I asked her to open her eyes she screamed in delight at the luscious growth of the biggest cucumbers we had ever seen. I knew I was on to something big. Soon I made a business out of it. I announced on the website CRAIGSLIST that I had a ‘miracle’ powder for farmers and green-thumb guys. I even advertised on MIRACLE TV after the spiel about miracle cures for terminal diseases. I bought several tons of the powder from Walmart. Two months later I had made my first million.

I visited Dick to tell him that I owed my riches to him. He told me that he had also run into a stroke of luck. His wife had threatened to leave him if he did not improve his performance. He had found a magic potion to save his marriage. He took me to his bathroom and showed me a bottle that read

‘GROW YOUR OWN CUCUMBER’

I could almost hear trumpets in the background as he announced

‘THIS IS THE BEST THING TO HAVE HAPPENED TO MAN AFTER ADAM ATE THE FORBIDDEN APPLE’.

I decided to donate my undeserved money to the National Institute of Health with a specific request not to use it for research into male anatomy! A hard luck story or me. As for Dick. His name speaks for itself.

I give you this example to highlight another game in my repertoire of creativity techniques—the maxim ‘HOLY COWS MAKE THE BEST BURGERS.’

The reference is to the several beliefs, policies and practices that are part of the DNA of any organization and are adhered to without anyone questioning the relevance or validity or even the utility of such practices.

Take for example my experience with a hotel in Ahmadabad. I checked into this hotel one hot summer afternoon and requested the room boy to get me a bottle of beer. He reminded me that Gujarat was a dry state. However like any pragmatic Gujarati he was helpful enough to suggest that I could obtain a temporary permit to imbibe alcohol on ‘health grounds’ and would I take the trouble of going down to the Excise Clerk who had an office in the hotel basement? Off I went and plonked myself in front of the desk of that August and, for me, a powerful benefactor.

He contemptuously shoved an application form under my nose. This form was in Hindi without an English translation. The first line shocked me. Hold your breath, practice meditation, say your prayers for India. The opening line read

SHARABI KA NAAM! [IN ENGLISH IT MEANS - NAME OF THE DRUNKARD].
After a hearty laugh that the clerk could not understand why, I filled up the form, bought myself some beer and proceeded to my room and brooded over the fate of my country given such burgers! I wonder why no one, not even the IAS officers who claim to be the cream of India’s talent, has ever destroyed this Holy Cow and replaced it with a more civilized ‘Name of the applicant’?

I ask my trainees to list the many such Holy Cows that infest our organisations.

Believe me even our nations, communities, and religions are full of Holy Cows—things that may have been relevant, understandable or useful or even essential for survival at some point of time in the past but need to be discarded now.

Hindus will accept that some communities have a practice of a women’s mangal sutra and bindi being removed when she is widowed. This is a painful ceremony and one that is abhorrent for many reasons. I was witness to one such occasion. The women’s screams shook me and served to strengthen my resolve to reform at least my family.

The video provided below shows one such ceremony. It also shows how we may reform by learning to laugh creatively at our foibles and idiosyncrasies.

I would be indebted to you if you send me your list of holy cows in your community or organization. I will mention this in my training programmes and if you wish I shall announce your name too.

I received a few emails in the wake of my blog ‘SHOULD WE BAN RELIGION?’ asking me why I had used the term ‘Islamic terrorism’. How is it that nobody refers to Hindu terrorism of LTTE?’ asked an irate reader. Good question.

Another reader sent me a one line email. ‘BAN K.R.RAVI’. Another said tersely ‘DEATH TO K.R.RAVI THE INFIDEL’. It was signed ‘OBL’.

I am sure this is a joke!

In case you do not hear from me you can blame or thank [DEPENDING ON YOUR REACTION TO MY BLOG] a frail sick man in a cave in Afghanistan!

Why do I refer to Islamic terrorism? The reason is that the terrorists themselves refer to [Salafi or Wahabi ] Islam whenever they commit such ghastly acts like killing innocent people. Even the names of their outfits smack of Islam. ‘Jaish E Mohammed’ [meaning the Army of Prophet Mohammed] for example.

The terrorists have repeatedly proclaimed their hatred for Hinduism and other faiths. Osama Bin Laden was once asked when there could be an end to terrorism. He famously replied that peace would come when all lands once ruled by Muslims including India are returned to Muslim rule and all religions other than Islam are wiped out.

Need further proof?

Read this news item based on an email sent by someone connected to the perpetrators of the recent bomb blasts in Jaipur [which provoked me to write my blog Should….banned]

I have omitted parts of the email that are serious but not relevant to my topic. Read carefully the highlighted portion.

E-mail traced, UP police detain cyber cafe owner

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh police have detained a cyber cafe owner and his employee in Ghaziabad from where the e-mail claiming responsibility for Jaipur serial blasts were reportedly sent.
Shyam Bir, owner of Naveen Computer Jobs, a cyber cafe in Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad, and his employee are being interrogated by police officials to find out the details of the persons who may have sent the e-mail.

They have also detained 40 others, most of them Bangladeshis.
Indian Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for the Jaipur serial bomb blasts on Tuesday evening,…Apparently the outfit is divided into three wings: Shahbuddin Gouri Brigade, to attack Southern India, Mahmood Ghaznvi Brigade, to attack Northern India and Shaheed al-Zarqawi Brigade, dedicated to suicide attacks.

The e-mail also says Jaipur was chosen as a target as the organisation intended to hit at the country’s tourism industry. The e-mail reportedly says the blasts were triggered to demolish people’s faith in the ‘dirty muds’ in the name of Hanuman, Sita, and Ram

The highlighted portion may settle any doubts anyone may have on why most people refer to ‘Islamic terrorism’. My Muslim friends —moderates all of them—tell me that while they are not in agreement with some Hindu beliefs and practices they harbour no hatred for it and certainly do not wish its demise. Nor do they expect Hindus to en masse embrace Islam. Did the Prophet of Islam not say ’To each his own religion?’ Incidentally it is not widely known that some Indians travelled all the way to Arabia when they heard of the Prophet. They took with them gifts including ginger or adhrak. The Prophet not only enjoyed adhrak but referred to India as the spiritual capital of the world. Are Islamic terrorists listening?

Then there is another question– the LTTE factor. Why do people not refer to their acts as ‘Hindu Terrorism?’ A scholar as erudite as the late Dr. Rafiq Zakaria asked this question. I may shock many readers by informing them that LTTE chief Prabhakaran is a Christian! His band of marauders includes Christians and a few Muslims apart from Hindus. Prabhakaran demands a TAMIL Homeland not a HINDU homeland. In any case neither Prabhakaran nor his men claim that they are influenced by any Holy Book.

We need to distinguish between TERRITORIAL AND ISLAMIC TERRORISM. This distinction is not just a play with words but makes a serious difference to our approach to the crisis.

Islamic terrorism based as it is on religion, is predicated on non- negotiable demands like the whole world embracing Islam, India being handed, over to a Muslim ruler etc. This will never happen. That’s why I had stated in my earlier blog that we have no ‘solution’ to the crisis of terrorism and have to wait it out till the terrorists realize the futility of their ‘cause’.

As for the equally reprehensible Territorial brand of terrorism, solutions exist or can be found given time, patience, give-and-take and creative solution finding.

One more interesting information. A new type of terrorism is stalking large swathes of India.

According to media reports the INDIAN GOVERNMENTS AT CENTRAL AND STATE LEVELS HAVE LOST CONTROL ON OVER 30% OF INDIAN TERRITORY to this violent movement.

It is called the NAXALITE MOVEMENT in India and THE MAOIST MOVEMENT in Nepal.

What is intriguing is that the Nepalese Maoist movement is headed by a nominally Christian Prachanda who is now the Prime Minister of Nepal. He is probably an atheist like his counterparts in the Naxalite movement in India!
Should we ban atheism? Just kidding.

One more Islamic terrorist strike in India. This time at least 60 people were killed in Jaipur in a part of the city full of temples and popular with tourists.

I am afraid there is a sense of fatigue with terrorism. In addition maybe due to the sheer frequency of such acts the government, opposition media and ‘secular’ sections of society react predictably. Then there are the Governments of US and Pakistan.

One can almost see a STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE [S.O.P]
The SOP goes as follows:

. PM Manmohan Singh will ‘condemn’ the ‘dastardly act’ and call upon the people to maintain peace.

. Sonia Gandhi will offer her condolences to the families of those killed. In her effort to reach out to the Muslim community she will ‘advice’ the police and investigating authorities not to target the Muslim community.

. The police will tell us that they suspect the hand of LET or SIMI or JAISH e Mohammed – this has been the burden of their song for years. It is another matter that not an iota of evidence has been offered to substantiate such accusations.

. The BJP will accuse the PM of being weak and the government of being soft on terrorism. They of course do not feel it obligatory to tell us what THEY would have done in similar circumstances. We the public know that during their time they did precisely what they accuse Manmohan of doing. But then BJP has no time for such niceties.

. Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi will call a press conference to say ‘This is not Islam’.

. Some Bajrang Dal hotheads will go berserk and ask all Muslims to leave India and go to Pakistan.

. George Bush and the Pak PM will condemn the terrorist act. Some Pak politicians will shock all of us by insidiously suggesting that the blasts are the work of freedom fighters from ‘India occupied Kashmir’.

. The public –fed up with all this bickering and painfully aware that nothing will come out of all this – will feel the pain for a few minutes and will then reach for the TV remote, switch to the sports channel and breathlessly check out the cricket scores before moving to the film channels to ascertain if Aishwarya is pregnant. I am not boring you with details of the visits to Jaipur by VVIP’s accompanied by cronies waiting for a photo- op and in the process destroying all evidence at the scene of the crime.

Meanwhile deep inside a cave in Afghanistan an elderly man in frail health will chew juicy kababs and announce to his evil gang ‘The mission has been successful. The infidels have been killed. Allah O Akbar’.
Where do we go from here?

I have been researching on human nature, violence. mind, religion, God and such other interrelated subjects. I can, in this limited space write a very few observations:

The kind of terrorism unleashed on the world will last for a long time. There is no ‘solution’. We have to wait it out till the terrorists begin to understand that they are not achieving their goals. Then they will themselves calculate that the cost they are paying [their lives] is not commensurate with the benefits They will at some time in the distant future realize that the promise of Heaven is misconceived. Heaven lies here in a life of constructive work—this will take years to sink in.

I may also add that the bulk of Muslims all over the world have their grievances but they are convinced that jihad is not a solution.

As for us the common people of India there is a suggestion. Extend all assistance to those affected and continue normal life. Nothing emboldens a terrorist more than the panic reaction of people. The more cool we are the more defeated the terrorist feels.

As for our nature I can summarize my viewpoint in one shocking sentence-
IT IS BUT HUMAN NATURE FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO GOOD THINGS, AND FOR BAD PEOPLE TO BAD THINGS, BUT TO GET A GOOD MAN TO BAD THINGS YOU NEED RELIGION!

Image Credit

The Indian Supreme Court has given a landmark judgment with far reaching implications. Readers might recall that artist M.F.Hussain had made a series of paintings showing Hindu goddesses as well as Bharat Mata in the nude. This was violently opposed by a section of people. The situation became so alarming that Hussain had to flee to Dubai.

The artist professed respect for Hinduism and said that he did not mean to hurt Hindu sentiments. His supporters the so-called secularists - added that an artist had freedom of expression. All this was countered - and this counter argument has been bolstered by the government’s subsequent handling of the Taslima Nasreen episode — by some who said that people cite the freedom of expression defense selectively when the persons complaining are Hindus. The Government for instance banned Salman Rushdie’s book even before Islamic countries had banned it. Nasreen was hounded out of India by the same people who defend Hussain’s freedom of expression.

The court judgment reiterates the great Indian tradition of tolerance. Where our national resolve to uphold this tradition will be tested is when an occasion arises in the future where some minority group violently opposes an artist who gives the ‘tolerance and freedom of expression’ argument. Our country has to painstakingly evolve a code of conduct in such emotive matters. Personally I feel we ought to nurture a spirit of challenging existing orthodoxy since all progress has come by challenging the existing paradigms. You will notice that all Prophets including the Prophet of Islam challenged existing beliefs and practices. I am not sure we as a nation are ready for this spirit of challenge.

I cannot help recalling this joke—maybe it is not a joke - that was seen by millions in the US. Some expert was asked on US TV if America was ready for a woman or Black President. The expert replied, without looking over his shoulders in fear, that the question itself was superfluous.

‘Did anyone ask in 2000 if America was ready for a moron as President?’ he asked.
Is India ready for this kind of humor?
For the best answer ask Arjun Singh.

One of the most enjoyable hobbies of educated middle class people in India whom I know is to berate politicians and bureaucrats. I confess to belong to this tribe at least most of the time if not all the time.

In the last five years or so I have devoted most of my research to the study of human nature with special reference to the way our minds work. I have authored two books on this subject and the third one is on its way.

I have found one consistent aspect of our natures across cultures that could help us better understand the behavior of people all over the world,
BY AND LARGE PEOPLE RESPOND TO INCENTIVES/DISINCENTIVES.

If you have an incentive to be honest you will be honest. If you are given sufficient incentive to act in a particular manner you will probably act in that manner.

Let us analyze the behavior of our politicians in India.[Let me hasten to add that politicians are the same everywhere—they all respond to incentives and disincentives]

In the context of the controversy over reservations in higher education for OBC candidates let us look at the incentives for a politician in reserving such seats. Let us also look at the middle class lament that no effort has been made to give good primary and secondary schooling to the under privileged. “Ultimately” so say the middle class, “it is this Good school education—that can liberate the dispossessed people from poverty and attendant social and economic problems”.

Now look at the same issues from the point of view of a politician like Arjun Singh or Mulayam or Laloo Yadav.
These gentlemen are as serious about their political careers as you are about your career. You will do what it takes to retain and grow in your job. You may even sacrifice your family life and even your health in the interests of your career. Some of my friends confess that in the early years of their married life they spent so much time on their jobs that it came as a shock to them when their daughter introduced them to their boy friend. “Oh God ! My baby is ready for marriage and I have not spent even one day playing with her’ they say with shock.

That being the case why do we expect our leaders to be any different in the pursuit of their careers?

Arjun Singh and the other gentlemen I have named will tell you as follows–
“If I fight the middle class resistance and amend the constitution to get OBC people a quota in I.I.M or I.I.T, I am assured of the votes of the entire OBC voting population since they can see benefits coming in a few months. On the other hand if I listen to the middle class suggestion of setting up schools what electoral benefit can I expect in the forthcoming bye-elections or mid-term or general elections? Ok you say that in the long run I and my party will benefit politically when these youngsters passing out of schools and colleges will be grateful to my party for setting up schools. But do you think of the long run in making career moves? Why are so many executives suffering from BP, Diabetes , heart attack which could have been avoided of these people had thought of the long run and slowed down their lives and had been less ambitious?”

You get the spirit of my viewpoint. It is incentives/disincentives that influence our behavior most of the time. A small minority looks at issues with a larger perspective. These leaders go on to be the Gandhijis . The Baba Amtes who are so rare that we remember them for generations.

We the middle classes are cast on the same mould as our politicians. Don’t we think nothing of cleaning up our house and dumping the dirt on to the streets? Don’t we use our influence to get our kids admissions into good schools or colleges? We will of course justify it in some sense and try to shift blame to the “system “or ‘politicians’ etc. while not admitting that we have an incentive to behave that way—our kid’s future! You can see the way we economize on the use of water when water charges are hiked even as we waste it when it is almost free.

Its all about incentives. To people who are familiar with monetary terms only my reference is to COST/BENEFIT.

It is one of the most memorable observations in psychology. It is called the TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS.

What it says is that people everywhere take care of their personal interests even at the cost of the common welfare.
PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE.

–Want to buy one or more apartments in the world’s swankiest apartment blocks coming up in Dubai? Go ahead, you need no clearances from any Indian politician, minister or bureaucrat. Several Indians have done just that. Each apartment costs about Rs 90 crore only!

– is it your dream to own a private jet and your own private airstrip? Help is at hand. The Indian government says you need no permissions to buy one or more of those fabulous flying machines that a European company has put up for sale. These castles in the air will cost Rs 335 crore only. On last count 5 Indians had signed up for these ultra modern magic carpets.

As for your private airstrip all you have to do is to make sure the strip is at least 150 kms away from an existing airport. In a gesture of helpfulness not always seen by the common man the Government says that exceptions may be made in some situations—the Ambanis can smell blood here.

–Want to set up a call centre or IT company? Go ahead. You need no licenses and may even get land at concessional rates from a grateful State Government. All you may require is to assure the Minister that he will inaugurate your company building.

Oh to be rich in India.

I am not one of those who feel that the rich ought to feel guilty as Gandhiji and our ‘glorious’ traditions would have us believe. On the contrary I celebrate with a glass of beer every time I hear someone has become rich. We need many more multimillionaires. Nor do I believe in celebrating poverty by giving names like ‘ ‘daridranarayan’...I believe it is poverty that is a SIN for which all of us are accountable. There is really no karmic necessity for poverty.

Why is there so much poverty in our country? There are multiple reasons but in this blog I shall restrict myself to just one.
LIBERALIZATION HAS BEEN SO FAR AIMED AT BENEFITING THE RICH AND THE MIDDLE CLASS. BUT THE POOR HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND.
IF WE EXTEND THE BENEFITS OF LIBERALIZATION TO THE POOR MANY MILLIONS OF THEM WILL AT LEAST EKE OUT A LIVING...THEY WILL AT LEAST AVOID STARVATION.

Contrast what I have stated in the first para with your fate if you were very poor.

Let us put ourselves in the shoes [oops the poor cannot afford the luxury of a shoe .So let us talk of Ramu ] Ramu and his family in Marathwada are on the verge of starvation. He was a farm labourer earning a pittance but he managed to feed his family once in two days with what our middle class will puke at—but that is another story.

Ramu comes to a town, he knows he is unlikely to find a job. He stands at a street corner pondering over his option and and zeroes in on a few
 Set up a tea stall
 set up a paan shop
 may be a paani puri or poha stall
 become a rickshaw puller

In other words he wants or is forced to be a street entrepreneur. Now he hears from his tea stall owner friend that in each of these pursuits he NEEDS A LICENSE. He also hears that the LICENSE PERMIT RAJ IS ALIVE AND KICKING in all occupations that are relevant to the poorest of the poor. He learns to his dismay that NO NEW LICENSES ARE BEING GIVEN SINCE 1950.

He walks across to the railway station and asks a coolie how he, Ramu, can become a coolie.

‘Get your self a license’ he is told ,Ramu’s face shows a fleeting smile as if he had found a solution. But he is shocked to be told that he needs a license issued by the Railways and this august department has stopped issuing license for decades.
Readers may like to know some statistics.

Delhi has 500000 taxi, rickshaws[auto and manual] against the licensed 40000. This grand number was fixed 50 years ago. The net effect is that 90% of ricksaws ARE ILLEGAL and therefore at the mercy of babus and the police.These great functionaries extract their pound of flesh by way of hafta’ [Bribe] amounting to– hold your breath—RS10,000,000 PER MONTH FROM THESE, POOR TAXI AND RICKSHAWWALLAS The amount extracted from street vendors is RS.120,00, 000 PER MONTH !The added tragedy is that these babus and cops raid the ‘ illegal’ rickshaws and impound them leaving the desperately poor puller without any earnings for that day. Bad enough but there is a peculiar outcome of this sadistic policy.

When the rickshaw is impounded the puller may find another rickshaw to pull that day and earn some money. It is the owner who has to run around to locate the official to be bribed. THE CONSEQUENCE IS THAT WHEN A RICKSHAW PULLER MAKES ENOUGH MONEY TO BECOME AN OWNER HE PREFERS NOT TO BUY A RICKSAW LOOKING TO THE RUNNING AROUND HE HAS TO DO TO PAY BRIBES AND RETRIEVE HIS VEHICLE. In any case he knows that no new licenses are being issued. So the system nips entrepreneurs in the bud.

I can go on but I believe you will probably throw up your hands in disgust.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are the keys to progress. Indians are extraordinarily innovative and have thousands of years of a tradition of entrepreneurship. But are we ready to unleash the peoples’ talents?