Saturday 1 December 2012

Book Review: Everybody loves a good drought


           Just finished reading 'Everybody loves a good drought' by P. Sainath. It is, undoubtedly, an excellent journalistic work on poverty in India by, what he calls himself, 'A Rural Reporter'. In this book, he brings in stories from some of the poorest districts of India. The book not only takes you to the awful condition of the poor and the tribal India but also goes in its depth and arrives at different issues. To sum it up, he arrives at the doors of land acquisition, rural health, water management, mining et al, of which, almost all are now being termed as a crucial factors to be resolved for an inclusive growth. It also takes a dig at the establishment for acting in haste(after the crisis has occurred) without substance and required knowledge thereby helping the vested interests. Overall it presents the poor, their problems, state's action( if any), curbing of their basic rights and livelihood etc. For those who still wonder what actually happens in rural & tribal India, please go for it!






Wednesday 12 September 2012

Opportunity Cost, Status Quo & My Time!!

Opportunity Cost(OC) -  It simply means the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. 

Again in simple terms, maintaining the 'Status Quo' is to keep the things the way they presently are. i.e. not trying to add/remove any value to/from the system.


         Here, in this case, I would like to consider the opportunity cost of time spent, not in the context of money. (OC) = 'I could've done so much'-it may even sound less.
                   
         Many of us utilise time for different things which later turn out to be useless, unproductive."I wasted the time, that too badly" the conscience echoes over & over again!"But how did I waste the time? Did I know that I was wasting the time?" The answer is 'No'. Usually no one knowingly wastes the time (except for some fools like me :P ). But there is something very 'habitual', which is deeply rooted, that makes it happen i.e. getting used to Status Quo.

         Each time I relied on status-quo and flowed with the wind silently, I actually lost a great opportunity to make a difference, adding some value to the moment of life. I did waste a lot of extremely precious time. The opportunity cost was also huge. But then I've now realised that status-quo is unsustainable. Trying to maintain the status-quo, that is unsustainable, is the foolish thing that one can do instead of utilising the same time in productive & innovative things. So its time to put my time in some productive purposes :)

         It is then I recalled the remarks of Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the founder of LokSatta Party, that he often makes       

                        'Change is inevitable when Status Quo is unsustainable'

        So I've arrived now breaking the walls of procrastination. Yes, Change is inevitable. Be the change. Add some value to the moment of life(system). Celebrate Life.


- - Yours Truly