Party(ing) Politics!!

Just as we have active smokers (those who smoke themselves) and passive smokers (those who happen to inhale the smoke emitted by smokers) and both seem to be affected equally; the same could be said about the party lot in this part of the country. On one hand there are people who throw and attend a party and on the other there are those who partake vicariously (and without much choice) through the effects generated by former's activities. To elucidate, as I write this blog post, my mind continuously drifts towards the sounds emanating from the party-scene in the lawn below my house. Much as I try to concentrate on any job, I can not help but notice the loud music playing in the background since morning, the  hum-drum of vehicles bringing in provisions and the constant clatter of crockery.

Surprisingly, the experience of passive partying has been similar across the years and cities that I have lived in. The predictability of the event managers is even funnier. Without actually knowing the occasion one can guess the same through the music playing in the background. Certain songs for certain occasions have remained unchanged since even our parents' time. And it must have been some major lapse on the part of Bollywood(-inspired) music industry that the newer symphonies have been largely unsuccessful at displacing the older and the popular ones. Needless to mention, an occasional burst of western music is considered to be reflective of somewhat higher status (that you can actually appreciate music in English!) And Yes, Vengaboys' Brazil remains an eternal dance favorite since the days I was writing my class 10 exams to this day as I celebrate three decades of my existence. 

Before one actually moves on from music, I have never been able to understand why the music for a party scheduled in the evening is put on in the afternoon itself.. Even if it were to keep the workers in good mood (which they are rarely in and I hope to do something about it by opening a butler finishing school after retirement), am sure even they must be bored with the same music blaring at different locations day after day. Alas, we have people with ailments in this society who can't stand loud music, students who have to prepare for their year-round exams and little babies who fuss endlessly finding music to be just another excuse.

I do not even find myself qualified and capable of being able to write about the dressing-up part. For one, being a lady who is in a profession which calls for utmost 'simplicity' when it comes to meeting people, on umpteen occasions it has been presumed that for me (and the likes of me) it must be impossible to possess any 'real' fashion sense. At a few important theme parties it was even thought by the esteemed lady wives that the lady officers could be given a skip for perhaps the reason cited above.

When it comes to food, the guests are completely at the mercy of their hosts (and their VIP guests) in India.What will be served and when and how it will be served has nothing whatsoever to do with the socially acceptable norms. Understandably, it is not everyday that the guest gets to throw a lavish party at the leading venue of the city and attended by the glitterati at their chosen hour. So what if one of the posh-set decides to carry on drink till the wee hours, the dinner can wait and the lesser guests can benefit from the extended happy hours!!

I do not consider it appropriate to spoil the party season by raising 'politically incorrect' questions ranging from how the garbage generated at such venues ought to be disposed or why millions are spent on outrageously extravagant decorations. Even as I begun to ponder about these, I know well enough that any expression of such politically incorrect views will be straightaway attributed to my JNU-ness (if there is a thing such as this).

And yes, it needs no prizes for guessing that there ain't any invite received from the guests hosting the soiree in the lawns below!

Left or Right? Which way ahead?

A friend said, "Right is always Right and Left is what is leftover." Again, the chants of  "El Peublo Unido Jamas Sara Vencido" rattle through my memories. Two different universes. Two mutually exclusive and exhaustive worlds(to borrow from the language of set theory).And it is also not as if it is a binary choice whereby one could choose between the two. The spectrum of political ideologies is a vast and varied one. There are those who are to the left or to the right of the centre. And there are also the extremists of far right and far left.

As a student who was closely influenced by both ideologies, I often wondered why one has to necessarily make a choice? Why is it important to identify oneself with an established stream of thought? And why is it important to subscribe to a monolithic ideology? Academic traditions demand that we borrow liberally from the ideologies and synthesize the same. It is not necessary for the emergence of  a 'synthesis', that there be an 'antithesis' to every 'thesis' and this 'thesis' essentially be replaced to make way for a 'synthesis'.

Economic ideologies do not operate in a political and social vacuum. While pure sciences like chemistry, physics etc yield predictable results for a function of given set of variables, the social science are evolutionary by their very nature. Unlike pure sciences where the variables can be predicted by their physical and chemical properties, in social sciences the variables are the human beings themselves. There is nothing in the genesis of the world to ensure that two human beings (even twins) would respond to a given situation in the same manner. Statisticians have invented 'the law of large numbers' to estimate the average response with a certain degree of accuracy (probability) but then why do the poll results repeatedly throw up surprises which could not be gauged by the exit-polls. And even further, how come different channels show different predictions based on exit polls based on a sample of the same electorate?

The socialists believe that the community ownership and a stateless society are the ultimate paradigms of society's evolution and something we must continuously strive for. The experiments in Israel and erstwhile USSR though did  not yield very encouraging results. As I have explained above, humans differ by their very genetic make-up. A system based on collective rewards and punishments would thus, inevitable kill any incentive to work harder, to improve, to innovate and any feeling of entrepreneurship. At the same time, such a system would promote inefficiencies and it partially explains the typical government servant's lackadaisical attitude towards work.

Yet the very fact that the society as a whole could come together in the pursuit of  a larger goal and could take responsibility for the common assets is a very noble one. It is this very mantra which forms the basis of RWAs (resident welfare associations), management of village commons, decentralization of power to the local bodies and the more ritzy 'PPP' (public private partnership). Similarly, the leftist concern for the poor and their belief in the dignity of labour can not be rubbished by sheer indifference that characterizes our society today.

Marx, however, on the other hand believed that the capitalist system of production is beset by inherent contradictions and would not be sustainable in the 'longer' run. The chief contradiction amongst these being the alienation of the workers from the surplus(profit) produced by them. And once the resentment which stems from this sense of alienation reaches epic proportions, the capitalist means of production would be overthrown by means of a revolution and replaced by an egalitarian socialist society. History however does not corroborate the same. While there  have been 'velvet' revolutions and coups around the world and we still continue to witness the same, capitalism as a system of production has managed to entrench itself well since its humble beginnings in the Medieval Ages. The reason, in the words of Schumpeter, are the "Creative gales of Destruction" which wreck havoc for the capitalist economy. But each gale of destruction leaves the economy more resilient and better equipped to face the impending crises. At the same time it doesn't at all imply that capitalism as a mode of production is the best and is just on the verge of attaining perfection.

The silent revolutions in the rural hinterlands over land acquisition and alienation of tribal from their ancestral forests are but tiny impotent gales of destruction which are portents of the impending doom. While the capitalist India moves ahead to take on the challenges of development and considers these silent revolutions an inevitable trade-off, the voiceless, un-unionised and unacknowledged denizens of the lesser Bharat find it difficult to partake the fruits of 'inclusive growth'. Writers, critics and candle-light vigils try to keep the flame of revolution burning but one wonders again if anyone speaks the whole truth and whether there is a selfless champion of the real cause. Can the real cause itself be defined? Do we go by the larger good or a future unseen good?

Our thoughts and beliefs are often shaped and influenced by our immediate surroundings and most of us choose to ignore what goes on outside our comfort zones. As they say people who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped. Nowhere is the Einstein's Theory of Relativity as relevant as it is in describing one's perspective at a particular juncture in our lives. What we perceive is conditioned by the our 'frame of reference'. As Pascal puts it, "There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees, which are falsehoods on the other".

Expectant of greater things,
We try climbing -
Higher
And Higher;
An effort that costs us much,
Leaving us short of breath
To find only
The ground below is much prettier.
~Phillip Pulfrey, "Mountains"