Welcome to the Hard Truth!!!

Don’t you feel stifled in your environment?? If you are happy in your life and content with what’s going around you, then leave now.

What’s that they say, “For Ignorance is Bliss”. I say - It’s Dangerous.

Is it because you have adapted yourself to the environment?? Isn’t that the best way to survive?? Isn’t it better to be like that – but better for whom?? For you or for the Society?? I don’t think that either you or the Society need to just survive, it’s your LIFE – you need to LIVE it!!!

“Throughout the world…we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: ‘Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’. Don’t you think that we are among these ‘tics’??Yes, WE are!!! And I learnt this harsh reality after entering IIT. There are many things that I have learnt at IIT the hard way ( :) ), as these were theoretical (all the courses). However, one thing that, I am damn sure, will always remain in my mind as I see it everytime, I feel it everywhere, it’s there always and that is – Regionalism, Politics. Before entering into IIT or for that matter for anyone entering any of the institutes, we sense a feeling of pain and of being cheated, swelling within us, a surge of anger against the people governing the country – ‘POLI-TIC-IANS’. The feeling is justified.

We do feel the same even after coming here – Is the feeling justified now?? One would say, “Why not!! We have become more responsible.” I ask, “Responsible for what??” During institute elections or even elections within the hostel, we see regionalism at its peak. If a Northie wins, it would have been due to Northie majority; and if a Southie (from A.P) wins, it would have been otherwise. Here credentials matter, but only if you are facing a neutral person, who are in minority. Favoritism being shown based on region, is that what we were appealing for to our dear ‘Politicians’. If not, then why are we becoming like them!!! Politics leads to regionalism, and Regionalism, in turn, leads to Regional Politics. It has become a vicious circle – a loop, without a beginning or an end. We are tying a knot, a noose around our necks, strangling ourselves, which will eventually suffocate us to death. We are preparing a Doomsday for ourselves. It may be tough to untie the noose, without a beginning or an end, but I ask, “Why are we looking for its ends, for its causes, for its consequences, when we know it’s infinite?? We can never reach its ends.”

But there has to be some solution. How can we otherwise bring a change in the Indian politics?? Why do you think are politicians not justified in showing favoritism, bringing quota in all the fields, when we are justified in doing the same for some petty, mere posts in our institute itself?? If in your mind an answer pops up, “They are justified”, then I assume – we have lost the battle against corruption, against regionalism, against communalism and against all those evils that we are preaching ourselves. We are being damn bloody hypocrites!!!

As Gandhiji said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Till we wage a battle within ourselves, against us; we can be sure that we won’t be able to win a battle with this government, against those corrupt officials. This is the only solution - to cut the knot in between, where we are standing, to destroy the entire structure – anyways a better structure may be built later easily.

I would like to quote Nandita Das, “Lot of times, or may be always, we try to identify ourselves with something for which we have not at all contributed. We feel proud for something that we have not done – we feel proud for being a Sikh, Hindu, Muslim etc. Ponder for sometime and tell me – What have you done to be one of these. Aren’t there better things to be proud of, where you may have contributed!! ” This idea/ notion is so common – to be proud of your birthplace, family background – so explicit, so much revealed; but yet so hidden. Why? Because we are afraid of losing our identity, why do we need to sweat out our body for something, when we already have a readymade substitute for it!!!

We crib over National politics, when majority of us ‘Don’t Even Vote’. Why don’t we raise a voice against the internal politics, the game being played at a much lower level? Remember, we do ‘Vote For This’!!! How is the statement then justified, “Your vote counts”?? Is it just for the sake of counting?? Why is our vote not changing the political scene within our local boundaries??

Think over this. A song from movie “Rann” truly depicts the state of affairs in India, however it asks “Vidhata(God) to save India”. I beg to differ – it’s us or no one else.

Irrational Pessimism??

In my previous post, there was mention of rationality of customers being a prime reason for the recession. Although this idea may seem to be fundamental to many of the readers, I was a bit reluctant in accepting the entire notion - "How can 'Rationality', an ideal concept, result in something so disastrous like 'Recession', miles away from ideality!!" It's the fact that we assume customers to be irrational, while they make their choices, that makes 'Rational' - 'Irrational'.

While googling to find the basis for the theory, I came across an entirely new term - "Irrational Pessimism". This state of mind is a result of the ongoing recession. Most of the stuff that follows is part of other blogs. It is quite amazing to see the unanimosity in everyone's outlook: “It will get worse by the end of 2009”, “it will take 3-5 or even 10 years or more to recover”, and “it is the worst since the Great Depression”.

Pessimism is ‘everywhere’! The argument that this pessimism is justified is ‘everywhere’.  I would like to cite the reasons why it may be “irrational pessimism”.

“Misery Index”, simply adding unemployment rate and inflation, shows that we are just at 7.6 %, which is far below the recessions of the 70s and 80s when it was 22% and 19.9%.

This recession is, of course, not over yet, but none of the above statistics are expected to get as bad as the prior recessions. There are stories of massive lay-offs, but unemployment is only expected to rise to 8.9%.

So, how do we explain the stock market hitting the rock bottom?

Reasons for the Crash being Larger:

1. Popping of 4 bubbles at once – real estate, oil/commodities, China (BRIC countries) and a debt/financial bubble.


2. Fear among consumers due to the Banking Crisis, made it harder to get credit.


3. Recession is global.

Are these enough to justify the current pessimism??

1. All the 4 bubbles have probably deflated fully, except may be for real estate.


2. The US financial index is down 80%, not much room to fall further.

Everyone is wondering how bad the economy could get, but the economy is not the problem. Everyone is wondering how low the stock market will get, while trillions of dollars sit in cash on the sidelines waiting for the right time to jump back in.

Is “Irrational Pessimism” the latest bubble? We need to wait and watch as to what will be the impact, when this one pops.