You dont need it

I had to find a place to hide since it started pouring. It doesn’t rain that frequently in Chennai, but hey, it’s the monsoon. So, I was standing at a Nattu Marundhu Kadai (a shop which sells traditional Indian medicines), and there was small bench outside, where I settled to enjoy the rain.

In the corner of the store, there was a old woman, huddled under a Umbrella (which seems to be more of a collection of patches), protecting her from the rain. She was selling Beetel leaves, and her merchandize was on a small shaky bench, and she was on the road. The rain was obviously not good, but she had no signs of leaving before getting her income for the day. I felt that one of the biggest failures of our time is our inability to provide old-age income security to millions of poor Indians, most of whom live in our streets selling everything from beetel leaves to bananas. Obviously, this was one of my intense ‘grassroots reflection’ experiences. But wait, I’m not a complete jerk.

So, I decided to buy some beetel leaves. I asked for beetel leaves worth Rs. 25. That was quite a bit, she almost gave me one-fourth of her merchandise. I obviously had no immediate need for beetel leaves. However, I thought, hey, this is not the only time in life I’m buying something which I don’t need.

So, the next time you are in Chennai, go to Purasaiwakam and to Tana Street. In the corner, you will find a old lady selling beetel leaves, most probably wearing a green saree. You cant miss her. Go up to her and offer to buy up her whole merchandise. It should not cost you more than Rs. 100. Of course, you don’t need beetel leaves worth hundred rupees. But you will probably get some good sleep that night, and I’m sure this is not the first time you would be buying something that you don’t need.

It is probably a mere coincidence someone anonymously left the following comment to my previous post:

What we think, or what we know,
or what we believe, in the end is of little consequence.
The only consequence is what we do.

Or may be its not a mere coincidence!

Collapse

I recently had a chance to listen to and interact with Dr Craig Mello (This is where I met him), who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2006, for his work on RNA interference, which is revolutionizing genetic biology and the scope for finding a cure for diseases like cancer.

However, Dr. Mello, during a Q&A session brought out an important point. He was questioning our belief in transplanting western models of development into poor countries around the world, which could prove to be disastrous. We may have to re-think development models, evolve local solutions, ideas which sound very familiar and close to home – the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. This was kindly reminded to us Gandhian scholar and graduate student at Oxford, Ian Desai.

To me, the current Indian development project, seems to be wonderful example of blindly transplanting western and models of development. It also feels very myopic.

The 1 lakh car, being developed by the Tata Motors, promises to put way more automobiles in Indian roads, than one could ever imagine. Cars and freeways are quintessentially American. However, Americans had the luxury of inhabiting a country twice the size of India, with hardly any people living there. Obviously, laying six lane freeways was quite an easy task. There are no worries of acquiring land from poor farmers (as is the recent case for the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor between Bangalore and Mysore, a classic example of transplanting western models). All I’m saying is that when you have a billion people, and three thousand years of history, unlike most other ‘developed’ countries and thus need to self-evolve models of development.

Gandhi, almost eighty years back probably had the foresight to see these problems and proposed self-contained communities. There is very little chance that the big-city model would work in India. If you don’t believe me, just try driving around Bangalore, Mumbai or Chennai. No amount of roads and freeways can support five-thousand odd families migrating to these cities in search of work, every day.

The answer I believe, lies in creating economic opportunities in small towns and rural communities. However, given our collective myopia as a society, favored by government policy and business strategy, I believe we are heading for a Collapse (which incidentally is the new book by Gared Diamond, strongly recommended by Dr. Mello)

Honestly, I wish I’m wrong. May be twenty years from now, I would live in a beautiful suburb near Bangalore, drive my convertible powered by hydrogen fuel cells, in gleaming six lane freeways, to the nearest Wal-Mart, and buy a carton of milk. Unfortunately there are a billion reasons this picture looks wrong to me.