I dare not rake in illegal money!

I was frantically doing some calculations. The numbers did not match. I had done some official travels and had to close all my accounts to get the money reimbursed. Every penny had to be accounted for. I don't mind spending money from my pocket, which inevitably happens, but sometimes (very very rarely) we might end up getting a few bucks more than we spent. Since we are eligible for a certain daily allowance and if we had spent lesser money than the daily allowance and had not kept track on how much we had spent this happens.

Even as I was doing the calculations, my sister called me. Her voice sounded worried. They are inspecting her hospital for erecting an ultrasound machine and she had to get it registered. The government of Tamil Nadu had to register her and grant her eligibility. Oh yes, should I expand on what she was worried about in all these inspections?

And by the time she finished her monologue on how worried she is, and how everybody else is saying it is impossible to get a registration without paying that extra few thousand bucks, I could hear some crackers going on. I could see a few cadres of a political party dancing. It suddenly struck me that the famous 2G case verdict is supposed to have come and searched online for some news.

And there were the famous accused in the 2G scam with huge smiles. Oh ya, all the 17 of the accused in the case were acquitted. Maybe there was no scam called 2G. Maybe it was all a conspiracy. Maybe the petty political calculations of the day had saved them. The maybe's of life.

As all this was going on, a close friend and colleague came to me and said this and I quote "Naama thaan da mutaazh", ippadi calculation pottukitu irukom"; (We are the fools, who do all these silly calculations).

Am I a fool in wanting to be that individual who does not mind losing money but is extra careful in making sure that I don't take any extra benefits? Is my sister a fool to think that she should not pay a bribe and would rather not do ultrasound than pay a bribe?

Maybe the world is going at a different pace! Yes, surely we lose out on a lot of things in life in trying to be ideal. Surely the ideal world does not exist. The harsh reality is that there are no brownie points in this world for having a squeaky clean image. Honesty is the best policy is meant for films. Nothing else!

Yet, I'm not comfortable getting more money than deserved or getting money in a wrong manner! For if there is a God, and if he asks me at the end of it all, I dare not stand in front of him naked. 

Change, the culture of change!

"They don't belong to our culture. They cannot rule us! "

"Our culture has been ruined by the Mughals and the British, and the PM is trying to safeguard our culture and bring it back to the original glory"

"I marry within my community and caste so that our cultures are similar and it is easy to live"

These are quotes from a few Indian friends recently. These got me thinking! What is culture? "The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular set of people or society are what we call as a culture," says a simple google search.

So, the idea that parents searched for a spouse for a person(arranged marriages) rather than the person seeking it on their own (Love marriages) was part of the Indian culture! At least that was a predominant idea which prevailed among the people of Indian origin and so it had to be part of the Indian culture. The custom or practise of inviting people with folded hands, or getting the blessings of elders by falling at their feet was prevalent among the Indian community and so this had to be part of our culture. That woman wore sarees and men wore dhotis were part of our folklore and so had to be a part of the culture as well I presume.

But life has moved on! The so-called culture of yesteryears looks redundant for the next generation. Love marriages are commonplace happenings now. And nobody wears a saree like how my great grandmother wore it. I neither fold hands nor fall at the feet of any elder, not that I disrespect them, just that the form of respect I show have changed.

My belief system has changed vastly from what my forefathers believed in! My parental generation followed signs and omens; Mine don't care one hoot about them. My antecedents celebrated many festivals. The entire context of those celebrations has changed now. One of the more famous festivals of my culture 'The Pongal' was a form of thanksgiving for the year's harvest. Nobody in the family harvests anymore. Not that we don't have things to thank God for, but the premise of my thanksgiving ceremonies have changed and with that my forms of worship and thanksgiving have changed as well.

And by the way, culture does not address one important question! How long should an idea, a custom or a social behaviour be a part of our set of people for it to be attributed to our culture? So, if my society practices a habit for 50 years is it our culture? Or should we practice it for 500 years? So is the concept of joint family which was practised by my society for many generations my culture, or the nuclear family which we practice for the last two or three generation my culture?

So, it is clearly confusing! Ain't it? It is! For my logical questioning brain. Ah, yes! There were many demeaning and even harmful practises, which defined our culture. I don't even want to talk about them, So when we use the term culture do we make a mountain out of a molehill? Is cultural enshrinement such a big virtue to be expected out of a leader? or a life partner?

Ideas will change; Practices ought to change. Social behaviours change. And so should culture, along with all of them. For the better, for the worse! But change it will. For change is the culture of change!

Why O Virat? Why?

O, Captain! My captain! Did I expect too much from you?

As a young boy growing up, cricket was life for a long time. I understand the childishness of having cricketers as heroes but they were, and some of them still are! For the way, they conducted themselves on the cricket field and sometimes off it as well.

I suddenly ask myself this question! Why do we expect intelligence, eloquence and humility and saintliness in a sports star? Sportstars are always shortchanged when it comes to being given the benefit of doubt for intelligence, eloquence, for saying anything that makes any sense and for actually being seriously concerned about the state of the country in which they grew up in. Can't we just ask them about cricket and stop with that?

Yet, he was asked only about cricket! He was told by a man that he loved Australian and English Batsman more than he loved Indian players. Fair enough! This is a simple statement on cricket. By another cricket enthusiast. Virat, like Rahul Dravid would have, you should just have left that ball untouched if it irked you.

But, why do you say, go to another country if you like them more? Do you mean it Virat? Like seriously? Do you think we should all leave the country if we like ABD batting more than we like MSD batting? And by the way, when did you become a Visa agent Virat? When did you start giving nationalism certificates?

There is a big market out there giving out nationalism certificates Virat. Let them do that. Let your bat do the talking. For it is loud enough to be loved by the world. Let not your voice drown out the sound of the bat and that will be tragic.

The cost of history!

This has been bugging me for quite some time now. The cost of history!
History? Cost? Am I confusing? Alright, let me explain.

Economists use a term called the 'Opportunity cost'. Opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. Let me give you an example; If I go to a movie tonight, I spend some time and energy and money for that. The time cannot be now spent on spending with family or reading a book or the cost spent on the movie cannot be spent on any other thing. So a benefit, profit, value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else is called the opportunity cost.

Now coming back to our subject. History has a cost. Every time we celebrate a historical leader, there is a cost spent. Whenever we build a statue, it incurs a cost. An opportunity cost. The cost which could have been spent elsewhere. So every time a policy decision is taken we calculate the opportunity cost and then take a call on the worthiness of the policy.

My mother died 5 years ago. I remember that clearly. I can even now recollect every minute of her final hours. I know she died of cancer. I remember her for all she was to me many times and thank god for her life. Once a year we think about her and celebrate her life. I do these because I believe the opportunity cost in doing those is not as important as the memories and the time spent remembering her.

But imagine, if after 100 years there is a doubt whether my mother died of cancer or cardiac arrest! And my grandchildren decide to do research on it, and fight with each other for it, do you think the opportunity cost is worth it? Or after 500 years somebody in my genealogy decides to do a 500 feet statue on it, the opportunity cost is worth it?

I can hear you say, having a statue for your mom is not worth it, but what if it is Mahatma Gandhi! Or Jesus Christ? Do you think to have a statue in celebrating their contributions is worth it? Ah, even then the opportunity cost in reminding a generation of their history by spending thousands of crores is way too expensive.

And our way of expressing our gratitude to our history does not stop with statues. We rename cities, towns and spend time and money and energy doing that! We fight in the name of history for all sorts of reasons. We shed blood in the name of historicity, the authenticity of history. We frame laws based on things which happened aeons years ago and fight again in trying to prove its historicity.

History is costly! Historicity is costlier. But we have only finite resources. Every time when history is being invoked let us count the cost; I'm not against spending money on history. But just to remind ourselves that history is costly and we have to count its cost before celebrating it.

If we don't count the cost of history we will end up losing the present!