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Saturday 29 September 2012

Spires Afire

The Theme of the week ending today, at least to me, is 'Fire'.

At home, Mom and Dad experienced a Fire; which happened thankfully in their absence. The Emergency Fire Service department took a certain sum of money whose volume was equivalent to the Drachmas paid to receive the words of the Oracle at Sybilla. This is beyond the taxes. Thanks to their concerned and careful operation, the entire floor where the "smoke" came from had to be repainted. Three faulty equipment and one electric board were replaced.

The object that started the fire was an alarm installed internally whose objective was to alert everyone that the State provided 'Electricity' (something more precious than water or food) is available - and inverters can be switched to charge, generator-sets can be switched off.

Ironically
- Electricity is to be provided to the citizens of the state at a continuous uninterrupted basis by the power distribution networks endorsed by the state. Yet it is dispensed in a controlled manner, especially in Tamil Nadu in a controlled manner, ensuring that not more than 11 hours of electricity are domestically available causing a major expense.

The solution is for people to stop relying on Governments and develop resilient communities.

- The Fire Service department is to report to the district municipality and ensure that fires are put off before they spread and cause serious damage to property, human life and livelihood. Yet, the very fact that they need to take a sum to cater to their expenses is evidence that they are improperly governed and inappropriately administered and opaquely financed through unknown means.

- The Central Government, the State Government and almost every piece of administrative machinery in our country is rife with incompetence which is much higher than corruption itself. Not only do they expect bribes, they never guarantee any service. Uncertainty and Chaos within the Indian context have defeated Chronos who spells extreme order.

As usual hope floats, but without action hope remains an insignificant floating buoy.

The solution is to start changing ourselves and the world immediately around us. If you walked over a road and you found a ditch, then you have every reason to have it corrected lest it cause injury to you or another fellow citizen passing by. Taxes are unnecessary as they are directly shipped to Swiss Bank accounts or perhaps stowed away in subterranean vaults. Civil services can be governed through community ventures - which must be formed with a clause that they will not reach a head-count larger than 200 (or a suitable number based on population density/demographics.)

Imagine an Aircraft pilot who never takes off on time, never lands on time, never lands at the announced destination on time ever, or sometimes is absent for duty. Imagine all Bus drivers, Train drivers and Cab drivers subject their availability to randomness and perform their duty only with chaos. A cab driver taking someone to the airport accidentally drops them at the railway station, but doesn't do amends. --- This is exactly how the politicians are running India. It is not very difficult to see that they never achieve the goals they set, nor the modes they set, nor the principles they promise, nor the people they promise, nor the morals they promise and so on. In a commercial enterprise where merit, value generation is the core item, these people will be replaced by competent people. However in politics, the ecosystem permits only the chaos-worshippers to participate.

Our Country is on Fire. It surely does have the potential to become a super-power. Yet it is on fire. We need to put out this fire (metaphorically the political-administrative-chaos that has persisted for the last decade almost...) but take care that we do not set other things on fire whilst doing so. It will take at least 10 times our daily effort today to get India back. Gathering at places and stating facts that politicians are corrupt and must not be re-elected ends up as a joke - as it finally inconveniences people - akin to a failed attempt to put off a fire, but damaging several other items.

Are we ready, as Indians, to put out this fire and set the nation right (or) are we /weakly/ bothered _only_ about our daily income, bread, roti-kapda-makaan schemes?

Changes are hard because they must begin small. Kejriwal or Anna Hazare or XYZ cannot start a new party that will be a panacea for all ills for the nation -nor- will they achieve much if they get elected. Ensuring that garbage gets dumped in a quarry and not a neighboring plot of disputed land is a small step. Respect to blue-collar employees who don't seem to deserve it is another step. Forgiveness to those who wrong us, for revenge destroys both the avenged and the avenger. Are we prepared to make the small, yet necessary changes? --- Remember, nothing, including life was formed in a Day. India cannot become a superpower in a day or on a day during 2020, it can gradually grow and keep growing unstoppably into a better place.

I am all for hypothetical idealistic Rama Raj with distributed power centers to disallow full dictatorships from ruining the nation. People's decision is more important than a bureaucrat or politician. It is now or never, for we have reached an inflection point.

In the future, we will need to start a war to destroy the forces acting against our own nation with high probability. But today, there still remains an option of peace. History tells me laziness always prevails over patriotism. .... Shamefully, I agree.