Go Green

    These days, going green has become more a fad than a concern. It is the "in" thing. I do not care as long as it helps the environment. At least fifteen years back - my adult years - in India, my family had already taken this initiative, albeit in a small way. I had always seen my mother reuse things, whether it was to use the old cloth material to make cushions, curtains, pillow covers etc, or making a notepad from used paper. Wastage of any kind was strictly prohibited. I imbibed all these things subconsciously and still continue to walk on those lines.

    We would not go out to buy anything without a tote bag. We would refuse to take plastic bags from the shop keepers and would in fact give the ones we had back to the vendors and shopkeepers for reuse. For things like newspaper, bottles, iron etc we used to have people who would come pick it up from the houses based on the weight for each type of item. I remember bargaining with them for the best price.

    Using things judiciously was ingrained in the Indian psyche, at least to some extent, and to a large extent in my family. One reason could be that it made good financial sense, but more important was realizing that it was the right thing to do. One could argue that may be the society was not developed enough so people had to resort to such methods, but if development means more wastage and burden on our planet then we should shun such type of development. Baby steps by each individual in the right direction would bring about a sea change in the quality of our environment. I think it would also make good business sense for the companies. It is a win-win for everyone. We just need some change in the attitude and be conscious of what we do, that is all it requires.
 

In The Greater Good

    "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country", these are the famous words by John F. Kennedy. How much are we really willing to give up of our own, for the greater good of the country and society. This question has always troubled me. If a road construction project goes through a farmer's land, should the farmer give up his livelihood and accept the compensation for the construction of the road. Many of the concerns of the affected groups are genuine, but it is also true that in countries like India most of the protests are politically motivated. The mantra for the new age is, be prepared to change with times or perish.
    I think it is imperative on the part of the government, before starting any huge project, to educate people to see the greater good, to compensate the affected people appropriately and to assure them of job and training in a new sector. A neutral body should look at the merits and demerits of all the projects. I am sure if people are treated fairly and with compassion there would be no such problems. It is only when one side tries to benefit more than the other, that we encounter all these issues. 

Social Networking

Social Networking has caught on like wild fire. Everyone seems to be on one or the other networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin etc. I have still not understood how all these networking sites are different from one another. May be it is just about having options. I have till now kept myself out of all these networking. I some how have not bought into this whole idea of social networking.

The only advantage I see, is that through this, one can meet old friends or make new friends. But how many of us really make pen friends. But what is really the value of all this. Potentially it could be used to spread or share views on various topics, but at present it feels more like gossip and eavesdropping on someone else's private space. If it is all about chatting, then we already have messengers available.

May be social networking is the way to the future but I am still not up to it. I still prefer the traditional way of communicating, email.

Billionaires Club

I was reading http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6433367.stm article in BBC about India topping the Asian billionaire list with 36 billionaires. 2nd in line is Japan with 24. I could not help but feel proud about this achievement. I think it definitely gives you a kick to see fellow Indians at the top (even though people like Lakshmi Mittal made it big outside India). It might provide the drive for us in our own lives to be like them. But I also could not help think about all those people who are still below the poverty line in India (of course it is much worse in some other countries around the world mainly sub Saharan Africa).
On one side India is booming and on the other it is still entrenched in all types of orthodoxies and superstitions. In fact it is in a way promoting these things through the television channels. In the name of entertainment and culture, India has only Bollywood (Mumbai Film Industry) to boast about. Even the news channels now discuss at length about movies and TV serials and its famous personalities. India produces enough food to feed everyone but has enough bureaucracy to fritter it away. It has awesome tourist places but has no roads to approach them. There is no doubt in my mind that India is full of contradictions.
Where is the India of thinkers, intellectuals, statesman, engineers and mathematicians? There is no point just basking in the past glory. President Abdul Kalam has high hopes from a country of 1 billion people. India has to provide the platform for everyone and should recognize the latent talent and should groom it properly at the right time and not just take the credit when someone makes it big own his or her own. I hope our President’s dream of India 2020 comes true where it has a well-rounded development, which does not leave anyone behind where everyone has avenues to become a billionaire where everyone dreams big. I would like to sign off with that hope.

Whose universe is it anyway?

Should we act responsibly? Do we have any duty towards our society? Or should we act responsibly only when pushed to the extremes? I would like to discuss this issue in the context of growing problem of environmental pollution and conservation of energy. Should one always act in the best interest of oneself or should one act ethically. It is clearly an issue of tragedy of the commons where one person benefits by defecting, given others donot. If everyone defects, in our case, starts polluting the environment beyond what the environment can handle, then we all are at a disadvantage. It is in the collective interest of the society to conserve energy and reduce all types of pollution.

I completely agree that we cannot go back to the pre-historic ages. But we certainly can do our bit which will keep the environment liveable for a longer period of time. It is not that it is difficult to cut down on our daily consumption of energy or to alter some of our day to day habits. I think it is just a question of attitude. We just donot want to think about such things as cutting down on plastic bags, using a hand kerchief instead of a paper, turning off the lights that are not required etc. We just want to be in our own shell and turn a blind eye towards these small issue which could result in big change.

To tackle the electricity shortage problem, in India, authorities have already asked everyone to reduce their electricity consumption or else they are thinking of disconnecting cable television late night and also cutting on the late night movie shows at the theaters. This might be a little authoritative not necessarily the best way, but just an indication of the seriousness.

What does it take to print/copy on both sides of a paper(left to me I would print 4 pages on 2 sides given it is legible) ? Not even 1 extra second. But no one seems to care about it, thinking (probably not thinking at all) that how is it going to make any difference to anything. Would people stop polluting and start conserving energy when government levies a high tax on the usage?

Pollution generated in US can affect people in Bangladesh. Every year we hear about floods in Bangladesh and poor villagers getting affected, this is because of the overall increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Since no one person or country can be singled out for such calamities we just go about our "normal and routine" day to day activities. Developed countries should set an example for the rest of the world to follow. I just hope that people would start becoming more thoughful and own up the responsibility.