Meltdown

In the cyclic Hindu calendar Kanwar Yatra  governed by rainfall  occurs twice in the modern year. The first and more widely known is when the monsoon season sets in and second one is scheduled when the summer season begins. In terms of participation of people, the first season gathers more followers. I thought that gradually kanwar yatra would decline and fade away but opposite is the experience. Kanwar yatra is not an useful, productive activity. It cannot be grasped and understood in functional terms. Rise of instrumental reasoning and materially rewarding activity would diminish its appeal fueled the expectation of its decline? Unlike most hunches and vague expectations kanwar yatra warrants attention and seeks more exploration. What could be so meaningful and expressive for participants in the kanwar yarta that over the years it is attracting more and more people--especially the youth? How is routine, ceremonial, symbolic and significant related and articulated in Hindu so...

A Theory of Justice was published in 1971, this year is 2021, the epic completes 50 years. I am sure that if not for a covid year, this fact would have received due attention. Students of political science in India come across the name of this book and its author, when they learn about death and decline in political theory and its revival. On other occasions they come across this book when they encounter the deadlock between utilitarianism and moral intuitionism. A Theory of Justice or justice is usually a core part of most syllabuses and curricula in India and elsewhere. This wasn’t the case earlier. I was unaware about this book when graduation (B.A.) was over and it was listed as reading for an 'optional' course in M.A., and read the significant part of A Theory of Justice while pursuing M.Phil! All this is as recent as late nineties. The impact of first and subsequent reading has stayed with the author since. Natural sciences dominate the knowledge world and so ordinary ...

Vaccine is back with a vengeance in 2021, this time as a vital critical resource. Admittedly, the normal and familiar ways of the world and human civilisation is not secure anymore. Returning back to old and familiar ways of being, with and after this pandemic now is a promise. This promise fills the immediate future. Vaccine would realise this promise, we are told. Future is reverting back to yesterday to the days before pandemic ran amok. Vaccines were and are part of health programs of poor and developing countries to safeguard safety of children. Epidemics were confined to history, vaccines and research about them was relegated to remote labs, a topic for obscure academic discussions or subject matter for those who would debate anything or confined to those who are opinionated. Vaccine wasn't cutting edge science, or vital or mainstream technology, business or a need across developed and other worlds. Things can and do change drastically and what is a remote concern can tak...

It was a long read forward and it was forwarded many, many times before the caption many times appeared. One has to click on read more quite a few times to get at the bottom of it. It is safe to assume that most have seen it one way or other. Digital medium harps on new, creative and innovative content but most of its content is ‘old’ and changes forms, an email attachment becomes a forward or a post. Last month India’s parliament revised the price of the food served in its canteen. A plate that costed 25 odd ruppes would now cost 700 rs and so on and so forth. The abovementioned forward primarily found fault with the subsidy that was available to parliamentarians, when they ate food at canteen in the parliament. So the demand that forward envisioned as great change has been met. The forward achieved its objective and yet no celebrations! The same government which has revised the prices of food in parliament canteen is bringing other changes; three farm laws, an announcement, inten...

Tragedy of commons is already articulated and known. A problem. A problem that had and continues to plague distribution of public, economic, social and environmental goods. For the purpose of a quick draft, lets leave the tragedy of commons as a suggestion, a hint --that gathers and populates memory-- unarranged for the moment, acting as a background. Social networks and media do give rise to a common -- a virtual community*. They generate issues that are different from the tragedy that holds the commons. In the case of virtual platforms someone takes the 'trouble' of maintaining -- a common. This virtual Common is maintained and sustained through posts and status updates by individuals in the form of texts, pictures, memes, videos and arranged largely by an algorithm, a software application. With tragedy of commons, the common go unattended or fail to generate interest and incentive in tending and attending a common and that lead to various problems. Solutions that tragedy of ...