Open access libraries for wandering minds

In my first visit to library of my college in Ahmedabad I found that books were kept in locked steel cupboards with glass doors. I requested the assistant to open the cupboards. The library assistant told me to first select books from catalogue only then would he open the cupboard in which books were placed. I wanted to browse subject related books before deciding the ones I would borrow. Citing a college regulation the library assistant refused my request. I left the library. I spoke to a lecturer about the situation. He advised me to buy the prescribed text book as these would help me to do well in the examination. I had seen text books. They were dull and in some cases contained mistakes. I was doing bachelor of commerce degree in early 1980s. 

My college was near Gujarat Vidyapith that Mahatma Gandhi had founded in 1920. The library of Gujarat Vidyapith is open to local community. It is one of the best libraries I have seen in India. It has over 6,50,000 books; that is one book for about nine residents of Ahmedabad. While we are on numbers two other numbers must be mentioned. The library remains open 364 days of the year. Only on first day of Hindu Calendar Vikram (Bikram) Samvat it is closed. Vikram Samvat year started about 56.7 years before Gregorian calendar. Currently therefore, it is Vikram Samvat 2074 which will change to Vikram Samvat 2075 on 18 March 2018. Nepal uses Vikram Samvat as national calendar. 

The other number is 1,619. According to the library’s website it had 1,619 active members in 2016-17. I remember paying annual membership fee that was smaller than the cost of watching couple of movies in morning shows in the cinemas near our college which we occasionally did when classes became unbearable. A good library fuels imagination and sense of discovery. What then explains such a small active membership at Vidyapith library in the centre of city with population of over five million? Is it to do with the archaic regulations in school and college libraries? Is it untrained library staff? Is it the education system with over reliance on prescribed poorly written text books, assessment and obsession with ranks that douses burning imagination of young people before they discover the joy of interdisciplinary knowledge? Or is it colonisation of mind space by inane chats on social media and dreadful combination of audio-visual media entrapments? It is perhaps all of these that explain why a treasure house like Gujarat Vidyapith library does not have many active members. Thanks to the poor imagination of my college authorities and tinted views about purpose of library that the library assistant and my college lecturer shared, I discovered a better library.

The general reading hall with high ceiling welcomes visitor before she reaches information desk in the centre of library. I always felt humbled in presence of ocean of knowledge inside library which was furnished simply but was fit for serious studies with sitting capacity for 350 people. Large windows let natural light in. There were many trees surrounding the library. Screaming peacocks in gardens of Vidyapith would occasionally break the silence in library. The book shelves were open and at accessible height. 

One day with no particular title in mind I was browsing philosophy section when I found a book titled The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner. In the book Heilbroner sketched intellectual biographies and contributions of great thinkers we have come to call economists. The thinkers included Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen, Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter. Reading of the book was a serendipitous encounter with economics in philosophy section of the library. Veblen’s unconventional approach to explaining consumption choices by mixing sociological and anthropological interpretations of human choice struck a chord inside me. I realised that individual’s economic behaviour could not be understood through diagrams of marginal utility curves only and India’s economic development through study of five year socialist plans that we were being taught in the college. 

The open access libraries are in tune with wandering human mind. We get about 4,000 thoughts in a day according to a scientific study Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation by Professor Eric Klinger. Average length of thoughts is about 14 seconds. Nearly half of these thoughts are wandering mind’s undirected thinking that Eric Klinger calls ‘day dreaming’. Letting mind wander may facilitate creative problem solving argued Benjamin Baird and others in Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. While libraries organise the books and journals systematically, carefully designed open access libraries allow a curious visitor to wander among company of great writers sitting on shelves always ready to shake hands and take an intellectual walk with readers.

References:

Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M.D., Kam, J.W., Franklin, M.S. and Schooler, J.W., 2012. Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science, 23(10), pp.1117-1122.

Klinger, E. 2009. Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 225-239). New York: Psychology Press.

Gobbledygook economics: Plain English crucified

Collins dictionary explains the word gobbledygook as, if you describe a speech or piece of writing as gobbledygook, you are criticizing it for seeming like nonsense and being very technical or complicated. In this article I criticise the language and the arguments used in a piece titled When cooks get paid more than engineers that was published online Indian Express on 5^th October 2017. The purpose is twofold. First is to appeal to experts to write in plain English when they write for general readers. Second purpose is to show that poor writing defeats the purpose for which it is written. The writer of above article is Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister of India and is held in high regard by thousands of readers including myself. By writing an incoherent piece he has not added to public discussion of unemployment in India beyond repeating simplistic text book answer.

Before you read further I urge you to read the article by Dr Bibek Debroy first. Welcome back if you have returned after reading the article.

Here is part of first paragraph of the article.

We have been repeatedly warned against blindly believing everything we read or are forwarded. With that dash of sodium chloride, here is the gist of a message …. A restaurant ….requires a full-time porotta maker, at a monthly salary of Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000. A concern … requires a full-time “civil engineering B.Tech or diploma holder, at a monthly salary of Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000”.

In the first sentence writer warns us against blindly believing everything we read. Good advice. I take it seriously and continue reading the article carefully. Second sentence says that first sentence was ‘dash of sodium chloride’. I am not a chemist so I did not realise immediately ‘sodium chloride’ means salt. I paused and wanted to make sense of what has common salt to do with risk of ‘blindly believing’. Salt is used in most Indian food as flavour enhancing ingredient but that does not seem to be purpose of writer to introduce sodium chloride. Perhaps it is meant as a health warning as too much salt is harmful for health.  Or the purpose is to refer to medical use of salt for replacing loss of fluids in body. Or is to refer to gargle with lukewarm salty water, as my granny would advise, to clear bacterial infection in throat. Or more probably the writer wants us to take what we get forwarded with a pinch of salt. This well known English idiom is better option to dash of sodium chloride.  The inspiration for the article appears to be on going public discussion about unemployment in India. A forwarded message about disparity between salaries advertised for a cook and an engineer provides a good way to start but then the writer assaults common language in the following couple of sentences.

These are two isolated advertisements from Kerala and don’t constitute a proper sample. However, some sample survey data is available on the internet, though sample sizes are small.

If you are not an academic researcher, who observes things and tries to identify patterns, you are unlikely to know what ‘proper sample’ means. Data is a representation of actual situation. Number of words in this article is data which indicates size of the article. Data thus helps understand the magnitude and or patterns of an issue such as unemployment. To understand any patterns in unemployment economists face difficult task of observing millions of people. Since it is generally not possible to collect data on all population in any large country data is collected on a small number of people as representation for whole population. That small number of people is sample. ‘Proper sample’ means the selected sample represents the characteristics of the population. Let us continue with the article.

For instance, the salary of a cook (not a chef) is Rs 12,000 per month in Delhi and that of an engineering diploma (not degree) holder between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 per month. That of a driver is Rs 14,000 per month.

Writer carefully notes cook is not same as chef and engineer with diploma is not same as engineer with degree. But what about driver? Does writer mean driver of a car or of a truck or of a passenger bus in city or of an interstate passenger bus? Even within driver of car ‘segment’, a word we will encounter later, driver of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s car and driver of a trader with shop will be different. Now writer wants us to tackle following.

Therefore, the correlation between education and salary isn’t quite what we might expect a priori. 

This is a fourteen word long sentence. If you are reading attentively you would have noticed that there are fifteen words in sentence. Good, but note Latin word a priori is single term. The sentence uses two technical words which will not make sense unless you are academically tuned to statistics and theoretical arguments. Of the two technical words correlation and a priori, ‘correlation’ is perhaps easier to grasp for general readers. Statistically though it has specific connotation. In this article what writer means is level of education and amount of salary do not always co-move in same direction. In other words if you spent 17 years in school and college you are not likely to earn more than someone who did not to go to school and college. Oxford English dictionary defines a priori as, “relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience.” In plain English that fourteen word sentence states two things. First, according to theoretical claim of economics acquiring educational qualification should enhance your earning. Second, higher salary offered for a cook compared to salary offered for diploma holding engineer contradicts this economic theory claim. After that difficult and loaded fourteen word sentence there is some relief below.

Let me thrown in an anecdote from a colleague. His maid/cook is around 45 and has two sons, aged 18 and 20. These two have finished school and sit at home, subsisting on their mother’s salary. When my colleague asked them, “Why don’t you work as a cook?” the response was, “That is work meant for girls.”

There is typing error with spelling of ‘throw’ with ‘n’ left unedited. Through the anecdote the writer is essentially arguing that men in India consider some jobs suitable for only women and hence would not consider doing those jobs, cooking being one of them. Few men applying for cook’s job means remaining men who are able to cook and are willing to take up that job command higher salaries. The above anecdote helps but note that social scientists use the word ‘anecdote’ when they know that the evidence (views of boys in this case) they use in argument does not meet academic standards of ‘proper sample’. Let us consider another anecdote that the writer delights us with.

There is an anecdote that features in jokes about economists. In many versions of the account, economists in general take the place of Kenneth Arrow. The only authentic source of this account I know is attributed to Curt Monash, who studied in Harvard. This account goes: “I was standing with Ken Arrow by a bank of elevators on the ground floor of William James Hall at Harvard. Three elevators passed us on our way to the basement. I foolishly said ‘I wonder why everybody in the basement wants to go upstairs.’ He responded, almost instantly: ‘You’re confusing supply with demand.’ The labour market is segmented, sectorally and geographically. However, regardless of sector and geography, principles of economics — supply-demand relations — do apply.

Late professor Kenneth Arrow was the youngest economist at age of fifty one to win the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (popularly known as Nobel Prize for Economics) in 1972 along with John Hicks. So we have two intelligent men in the anecdote discussing why everybody in the basement wants to go upstairs. Professor Arrow seems to suggest more ‘demand’ upstairs explains people going upstairs and not people wanting to go upstairs without any reason. The paragraph assumes all readers understand principles of economics – supply-demand relations and can read through cryptic economic reasoning implied in six word reply of a Nobel Prize winning theoretical economist to another intelligent mathematical economist (Curt Monash got his PhD from Harvard University in Mathematics (Game Theory)). In plain English our writer is arguing that wages for different jobs are determined by need for labour for which employer is willing to pay (demand) in different industries/different places and people with appropriate skills willing to provide that labour for wages (supply). We have more to deal with in following paragraphs.

 There is a quote wrongly attributed to Thomas Carlyle. “Teach a parrot the terms ‘supply and demand’ and you’ve got an economist.” There is no evidence that Carlyle ever said or wrote anything like this. Parrot or not, the price of everything, labour included, is determined by the intersection of supply and demand, unless institutional constraints get in the way of that clearing function. Let’s take the example of a cook’s wages being more than that of an engineering diploma

The first two sentences could be challenged on grounds of logical reasoning. The writer says that Thomas Carlyle did not say something because there is no evidence that he ever said or wrote that statement. Philosophical objection is that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Yes the writer could have said that quote is ‘very likely wrongly attributed’.  However, the steepest step of technical jargon that writer challenges general reader to climb is in following statement. The writer offers economic law that the price of everything including labour is determined where supply and demand meet. The rule holds true when there are no institutional constraints. What does institutional constraints mean? What is clearing function? Clearing function of labour markets refers to process whereby suppliers of labour and those who want labour services come to an agreeable wage rate. I shy away from explaining institutional constraints. The last sentence of the paragraph is grammatically wrong. It compares cook to an engineering diploma. This appears to be another example of poor editing. It appears word ‘holder’ is missing after diploma which would have allowed comparing cook’s wages to that of an engineering diploma holder’s. The writer then moves to explain the disparity between wages of cook and engineer in theoretical language.

What we have observed is a market clearing wage. Purely on this basis, it is impossible to ascribe it to either purely supply or demand, since the outcome happens to be a combination of both.

The writer says that this disparity in wages (the outcome) is result of a combination of demand and supply forces. The writer then takes us on bumpy intellectual ride across India that explains differences in unemployment rates in urban and rural areas and complex definition of unemployment. We find that a survey done by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy puts an individual in one of the following four statuses:

1.       Is currently employed.

2.       Is not employed but is willing to work and is actively looking for a job.

3.       Is not employed, is willing to work but is not actively looking for a job.

4.       Is not employed, is not willing to work and is not looking for a job.

Adding number of people in 1 and 2 provides total labour force. People with status 2 as percentage of total labour force (1+2) is unemployment rate. Read following paragraph.

We should certainly have a discussion on the unemployment rate. However, given the example I started with, there is an aspect that is missing from the customary discussion. This is highlighted in the document, “Unemployment in India, A Statistical Profile” — a separate product from the same survey. This has the standard unemployment rate, but also has something known as greater unemployment rate, that is, including those who are unemployed and willing to work, but inactive in seeking jobs.

Here author introduces us to greater unemployment rate which he then compares for different age groups and males and female as following.

The gap between the two rates is highest in the 15-19 age-group, followed by the 20-24 age-group for males, while it is uniform across all age-groups for females.

This dense statement says that the gap between standard unemployment rate and greater unemployment rate is highest in 15-19 age group but does not tell how much that gap is. I also cannot fathom from the statement what the gap is among female groups even if it is uniform across the groups. So we are left wondering what to make of this information. Generally writers provide information to support some conclusion. But read what conclusion is drawn below and look for any evidence provided to support it.

Going back to supply and demand curves for labour and their intersection, everything else remaining the same, wages drop/increase when either supply or demand curves, or both, shift. I think there is an issue of correlation between education and skills, or its lack. Some educational attainment may help acquisition of skills, but the correlation isn’t strong. For females, the gap is uniform across age. However, for younger males, the job-seeker’s perception may be of a stronger correlation than warranted.

Again the first sentence fires technical bullets to puncture our common sense about labour market. Assuming your brain survives wordy googly of intersecting curves of supply and demand while everything else remains the same we read ‘Wages drop/increase when either supply or demand curves, or both, shift.’  Wages change rather than ‘drop/increase’ would be simpler. Anyway why do wages changes. Because of shift in supply curve or shift in demand curve or because of both. Are we any wiser after reading this? Suddenly from this school text book explanation of law of supply and demand, author draws conclusion based on ‘I think..’ that correlation between educational attainment and acquisition of skills is weak. Nowhere in the whole article the writer has provided any data to suggest that educational attainment, which I think means qualifications here, do not lead to development of skills. How this conclusion drawn is beyond my understanding. Then we have final two sentences. I simply cannot understand what writer is trying to say by for females, the gap is uniform across age. Final sentence mentions job seeker’s perception. Perception about what? Please help.

How I responded to a plane crash and an earthquake?

I

19 October 1988 was like any other morning when I got up and got ready to go to work. It was foggy and cloudy morning with little chill in the air. I commuted from my home in eastern Ahmedabad to Indian Institute of Management in western Ahmedabad. My road journey on scooter was 21 kilometres each way. Part of the road I used runs parallel to wall of Ahmedabad airport runway. On that day as I turned on the bend from east to west on the eastern end of the runway wall, on my right I saw lot of smoke and crowd of people who seemed worried. It was about 8.45 a.m. On stopping and inquiring I found that an Indian Airlines passenger plane had crashed in the morning while approaching the runway to land. IC113 flight had taken off from Mumbai to arrive Ahmedabad about 6.30 a.m. but did not land. Instead it had crashed a few kilometers away from on its approach to Ahmedabad runway.

I was very distressed and did not feel like going to work but carried on. On reaching the institute I found that one of the professors from IIM was also on flight and had died in the crash. The tragedy felt closer. Proximity to events in time or place magnifies their impact. I was disturbed for few days and could not focus on work.  I failed to perform few tasks that I should have finished at my work. The emotional response to the tragic incident had affected my professional performance. After few days my line manager,  a professor for whom I have great regards until this day, asked me about the unfinished task. I told him that I had not completed that work as I was too distressed by the air plane crash. My boss was not happy and rebuked me for having neglected my professional responsibility to complete work on time. It was my first job. I had finished MBA only few months ago and joined as research and teaching assistant to professors in IIM Ahmedabad. I had read a lot about motivation and performance management. But obviously that had not really prepared me. My emotional readiness to deal with the most tragic incident I had witnessed in life until then was tested. 

For many years after the incident I would occasionally wonder why was I not able to stay focused on my work? I have now a probable answer for this question. This requires that I share another extremely tragic experience that I passed through thirteen years later and my contrasting more constructive response to that event.

II

On 26 January 2001 it was about 8.45 a.m. I stood with many students and colleagues on the playground of an institute in Kutch, Gujarat where I worked. The morning was very bright and cold. We were about to commence India's annual republic day flag hoisting ceremony. A strange thundering sound from ground deep under our feet and wild shaking of the building behind us told me in seconds that we were experiencing earthquake. I ran and told everyone else to run away from the building behind us towards cricket ground. Facing us on the left of the cricket ground were hostel and staff quarter buildings. As we ran away from the institute building behind us towards staff quarter buildings we saw those building crushing and going down. Screaming I kept running towards the staff quarters as my eight year old son had gone into that building. He had gone in to meet and to come out with my colleague's son of same age to witness flag hoisting. I saw the two boys walking out of building when the staff quarter building went down behind the boys. The scene has stuck in my memory even after sixteen years. In those milliseconds I had combined feeling of gratitude to see my son coming out and absolute terror of seeing the building, that housed many families, going down. Mother of my son's friend who was also wife of my colleague did not survive the collapse of building even though we tried to pull her out of debris.  Steel and concrete slabs lying on her proved too heavy for few of us to move. Death won the race with life as we cried and tried. Her eyes asked questions, showed fear, exclaimed in disbelief all at same time while looking into complete helplessness in our eyes. Family of my fellow principal colleague perished whose dog survived and would not leave the debris days after the event. We lost 26 precious lives of staff members, their family members and students. The earthquake claimed over 10,000 lives in the region.

Unlike 1988 my response to this tragic calamity was quite different. Within few minutes I realised the potential magnitude of calamity that had struck us, I recovered and worked with others to rescue several people live from debris. For next few days it was chaos but in all that I made sure that we looked after students who had survived, took care of injured, I performed last rites for several deceased staff and their family members and the list of painful experiences goes on. Few of my students were claimed by the earthquake. Mother of one of them arrived two or three days after earthquake as key bridge connecting Kutch region with rest of India was also damaged in earthquake slowing down movement of people and support. The mother was not physically strong so the news had to be broken to her slowly in a way to minimise chance of damaging mother's weak heart. With consent from her other son who accompanied her she was mildly sedated by doctors to get her some rest after long journey she had undertaken. With great care we told her what no mother can ever be prepared to hear.

Our college buildings were damaged and could not be used until everything was checked, repaired and certified as fit for use. Students from outside who stayed in hostel were not keen to return to the area that was devastated by earthquake. This should give a sense of crisis that we faced. Personally I had to motivate not only my shocked and traumatised staff but also convince the parents and students. Despair had to die in me and in others. It would take long talks, sessions and patient sharing of pain and hopes for future to resume classes. By mid-March we resumed classes in tents as buildings were not fit for purpose until then. We slowly recovered and came to normalcy over next two years. 

On reflection I find my emotional response to this terrible tragedy was different. I did not stop working but actually played whatever role I could to share the pain and suffering of affected people. I resumed teaching and management of the institute to help students cope with that tragedy.  Almost all students returned and resumed studies and completed their qualification. It is absolute sense of satisfaction to know that they are happily prospering and flourishing in their life. Their persistence with studies and determination to reconstruct a community of learners after loss of several class mates and teachers is testimony to resilience of the young people. They saw meaning in life. Meaning is most powerful inspiration to overcome odds be that emotional or physical.

What had happened to me between 1988 and 2001 that prepared me to stay motivated, resilient and deal with challenges of life?

III

Emotions can be great source of constructive energy. They can also be great bottlenecks to applying energy. Extreme sense of sadness was common in both the above experiences. My response was different. In one situation I withdrew from whatever I was supposed to do in another I reacted in more constructive manner. Why? There are perhaps theories that explain why in one case we are resilient and in another not so. I believe over time, in this case about 13 years after 1988, I had matured as a person. The growing maturity had come from various sources. On reflection I feel these sources for me were reading, responsibility, and  leadership.

Through reading I know that human societies are time and again struck by tragedies including those frequently caused by humans. Reading opens up a view of vast expanse of time. It lays before reader an ocean of human history in which tides of tragic events and waves of wellbeing rise and fall. Lived experience moderates youthful passions and shows limits of reason. Many years after the earthquake I would read German writer Viktor E Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning. Victor survived Nazi concentration camps and wrote this master piece which is an antidote to despair. He wrote, "in a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."

Being responsible showed me that just like responsibility in family matters, responsibility at work also makes huge difference to other people, in this case to my colleagues and students. I felt responsible to do something for them in time of tragedy even though some of it had very little to do with professional responsibility as head of college.

The skills of leadership and management that I had learnt over the years and practised at work were equally relevant in rescue, rehabilitation and crisis management. I applied many of those skills in the situation. So the experience had given me confidence and ability to make a difference. My personal position within the institution as head who enjoyed credibility, trust and respect not only from colleagues, superiors and students but also from wider community in the town, allowed me to be more influential and make things better. Within two years of the crisis we not only restored the normal functioning of the institute I worked for but also for the whole collegiate campus where we had incurred huge damage due to earthquake. We were able to mobilise millions of rupees from donors for reconstruction of buildings and make them better than they were before the earthquake. The students and teachers were more confident and the whole campus was rejuvenated. I worked with some of the best teams to make it happen. It was and remains privilege to have been part of those teams. Purpose united us, shared grief energised us and hope made everything possible.

Emotional resilience is not a magical capacity that one is born with. It develops, with conscious efforts and reflection and also unconsciously by unplanned unintended experiences that life presents. Consciously we can develop this by being interested in wider life (reading has been great contributor in this regard for me), by taking responsibility, by noting that individual effort and small efforts are important and by valuing one's own and others life. Doing small things well is important. It gives confidence and boosts morale.  Emotional scars left by tragedy of earthquake have not disappeared. They are like flowers growing on the grave of sad memories. I visit them again today on 26th January. These remind me of the difference I can make in difficult times and hence stay motivated. In love, respect, and memory of all those who were once with me and still live in my memories. 

Boundaries

A Nation... is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors. Karl Deutsch.

Cricket sells. Cricket inspires. Cricket corrupts. Cricket reminds colonial past of India. Combine cricket with films, TV and politics you have intoxicating electronic soma ras. There are plenty of ghazals that glorify aankho se peea jo uska khumar kya kahoon. Only occasionally is this khumar of millions of Indians jolted by ‘surgical strikes’ like notebandi. Depending on your disposition on the day any of these statements may resonate with you. Cricket is played within a boundary. A player’s action outside boundary is null action. A ball hit by Virat Kohli crosses boundary. A Four invites cheers from Indian fans, sighs from the fielding team fans and little sweeping palm from an umpire. Date also is a boundary on field of time. Mid-night of 31 December is a boundary between one year and the following. Drawn on maps boundaries create nations, provinces, towns and villages. Earth so divided falls prey to manipulative human mind who divides people living beyond and within boundaries. The imagined communities become nations. True or false, the identity sticks. By adoption, by birth or by imposition.

Tax is also a boundary. After paying tax on income money becomes white. Tax not paid money becomes black. Like a newly born baby, a newly printed currency note is neither legitimate nor illegitimate. Both are free from bondage of boundaries. Depending on tax compliance by its possessor a currency note gains legitimacy. Depending on parents' fidelity wows baby gains legitimacy. Uncertainty over, boundaries established. It is simple and clear like day light. Or is it? Dawn and dusk are boundaries between day and night. Waking from long slumber with hangover of soma, you see outside is neither dark nor bright. Is it dawn before bright-white day or is it is dusk before dark-black night? Politicians and spin doctors love grey. Between black and white is grey. With little mixing white becomes grey or with little mix black becomes grey. Between fact and fiction is opinion. Opinion is expedient because it is bendable. Bend it towards fact or fiction as demanded by goals. Political goals depend on another boundary. In democracy that boundary is drawn by voters. In opposition most political parties see things in black or white. In power most political parties see things in grey.

Boundaries are raised in almost every walk of life. Social, economic, religious, national, linguistic, castes, occupational, biological and political all fields have boundaries making each walk vulnerable minefield of hatred and divide. Willingly with pride or grudgingly or mistakenly we trip on traps of identity. We embrace part of our being to lose wholeness of being. Hug a tree and burn forest. Hide under half coconut shell and lose cover of infinite sky.

Imagined Communities (1983) is a great book by Benedict Anderson (1936-2015). Karl Deutsch's (1912-1992) quote is from his book Nationality and its alternatives (1969).

It will be February 2017 before enough currency is printed to replace the value demontized.

Before you read further note: This is an attempt to estimate time required to replace in value the amount demonetized as result of rendering 500 and 1000 Indian rupee notes as illegal in India on 8 Nov 2016. The actual time estimated here is likely to be more. However, I request readers to look at calculations that are based on Reserve Bank Data and if there are any errors please let me know  for which I will be grateful.

How much time it will take to print and replace 500 and 1000 currency notes India?

A realistic and optimistic answer: Nearly three months going into February 2017.

According to Reserve Bank of India annual report for 2015-16 following is relevant data about INR 500 and 1000 denomination currency notes. There were 15,707 million 500 denomination and 6,326 million 1000 denomination currency notes in circulation as of March 2016.  

	Volume of currency notes (millions) as of March 2016	Value (in billions) As of March 2016
500	15,707	7,854
1000	6,326	6,326
All notes	90,266	16,415
Source: Based on RBI Annual Report 2015-16 published 29 August 2016. 10 million = 1 crore, 1 billion = 100 crores

Together 500 and 1000 denominated notes constitute 86.4% of the total value of all currency notes in circulation (See Table VIII.1 reproduced from RBI Annual report.)

Source:  Reserve Bank of India, Annual Report 2015-16, dated 29 August 2016. Page 89. Accessed online 25 November 2016 Full annual report of RBI is available here https://www.rbi.org.in/SCRIPTS/AnnualReportMainDisplay.aspx Only Currency Management section from which this data is extracted is available here https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/8CURRENCYC8DA67E8EB574B8C84A75AE4D52DEBED.PDF

With effect from 9^th November 2016 total of 22,033 million currency notes (volume) valued at 14,180 billion were made illegal tender. This decision though makes exception for certain type of payments such as paying for electricity, petrol, and water bills etc for few weeks. But eventually a value worth 14,180 billion will need to be printed in new currency notes of different denominations like 50, 100 and new denomination 2000 and new 500 ones. Question now bothering people is how much time it will take to replace currency of this value? To answer this question three further questions need to be answered. 

1. In what denomination the replacement currency will be printed?
2. How many new currency notes are required in chosen denomination? 
3. And finally what is the capacity of printing machines to print?

If it is assumed only 2,000 denomination currency notes will be printed to replace value of 14,180 billion, then number (volume) of new 2000 notes to be printed will be:

14,180,000,000,000 /2,000 = 7,090,000,000 currency notes will need to be printed which is 7,090 million notes (volume) of INR 2000 each.

Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of RBI which prints the notes. The process is that every year RBI puts request (indent) for printing of volume of different denomination currency notes which then are printed and supplied by BRBNMPL to RBI which releases it in the economy through banking system. In 2015-16 BRBNMPL printed 21,195 million currency notes of different denomination out of which 500 rupee notes were 4,291 million and 1000 notes were 977 million against RBI’s specified requirement of 5,600 and 1,900 millions respectively (see Table VIII.4 below).

Table VIII.4 shows that total printing capacity of BRBNPML is around 25,000 million units (notes) per year. For benefit of doubt let us take 30,000 million units. Now further assume that RBI decides to print only 2000 denomination currency notes from 9 November 2016 after the announcement, this means to print 7090 million notes it will need 7090/30,000 = 0.24 years or about 86 days non-stop printing without holidays. So the earliest 7,090 million currency notes of 2,000 denomination can be printed is February 2017.

Source:  Reserve Bank of India, Annual Report 2015-16, dated 29 August 2016. Page 90. Accessed online 25 November 2016. Full annual report of RBI is available here  Only Currency Management section from which this data is extracted is available here 

However, most likely it will be much after February 2017 because BRBNMPL may not be able to work 86 days without any break. Also look at the past patterns of printing notes in table VIII.4. It is obvious that in most recent years the RBI’s printer has not been able to meet the demand (compare indent and supply numbers).

The other reason is that RBI is not likely to print only 2,000 as it is printing new 500 denomination notes as well, hence the likely period to replace new currency with same value that has been demonetized will be longer than three months. 

The plans for 2016-17 shown in table VIII.4 show that RBI wanted to print 16,625 million notes of 100,50,20 and 10 denomination. If these planned printing of smaller denomination notes is stopped to print only 2000 and 500 denomination notes, it will create big difficulties for small traders and consumers who need smaller denomination notes for transactions in cash. If the planned printing of smaller denomination notes is continued then clearly replacement of withdrawn value will be much longer than 3 months. Of course, if the capacity for printing is somehow expanded then this claim is contestable.

RBI planned to print 5,725 million new 500 denomination and 2,200 million new 1000 denomination notes in 2016-17(see the last column of above table). This plan seems reasonable considering the volume of currency indented in previous years and also does not imply any demonetization plans. The RBI report explicitly mentions that it had no plans for demonetization until publication of the report. Here is the direct quote form page 93 Box VIII.1, “The legal tender status of all the banknotes of these denominations issued earlier which do not contain these features will remain unchanged.” 

So it seems that the government was planning the demonetization so secretly that RBI itself was unaware of the plan.  Or that Dr. Raghuram Rajan, who was governor  at that time knew about plan in August 2016 but chose not to disclose it in the annual report that he signed. Or the plan to demonetize was prepared after new governor took over on 4 September 2016. 

Fake currency notes

The RBI Annual Report also provides details about counterfeit notes detected in the banking system. It is seen from following table that there are more 500 and 1000 counterfeit notes than other denominations.

Source:  Reserve Bank of India, Annual Report 2015-16, dated 29 August 2016. Page 92. Accessed online 25 November 2016. Full annual report of RBI is available here Only Currency Management section from which this data is extracted is available here 

What I took away from watching India’s Daughter

Hope, inspiration, extreme sadness, anger, love, and courage are among various emotions that I experienced when I watched today the much talked about documentary India’s Daughter on BBC4 online in the UK.

Jyoti Singh, a brave and intelligent young woman, experienced the most horrific trauma and lost her life at hands of a gang of drunkards, perverts, with pathologically sick views about half of humanity. Many men with their uneducated, sick and unevolved mind view women as weaker, dependent and vulnerable half of mankind. They forget that their mother belongs to that very half. This heinous crime took place in India but such crimes happen all over world. The most shameful thing for India is not what one of the convicted rapists says in the documentary but it is something I mention later. But first let me say what I liked about documentary.

What I liked in the documentary:

A friend and tutor of Jyoti, who helped her prepare for studies, portrays picture of Jyoti as a courageous, compassionate and intelligent young person. There is story of a poor boy snatching Jyoti’s handbag on streets of Delhi. The boy was caught by police but Jyoti stopped the policeman and asked him to let go the boy. She took the boy to side and asked him why the boy did what he did. The boy said he too wanted to eat burger and to consume things people with money could afford to pay for. Since he could not afford he snatched the bag from her. Jyoti bought the goodies for the boy in exchange for the promise that the poor boy would not steal again.

Jyoti was daughter of enlightened parents. With inadequate income to afford medical education for their daughter the parents sold their only piece of land to part pay for her education. Jyoti told her parents to spend money that they were saving for her wedding instead on her education. That’s foresight and ambition that most young Indian men and women have. They want to make it in life. But unlike most Jyoti was above the average. Her dream was to set up a clinic in her ancestral village. Sheer determination and self-esteem of Jyoti shone through, like her name, in her conduct and work. To finance her medical studies she worked 8.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m. in a call centre. She slept 3-4 hours only and was doing very well in studies. Compassion, love, determination, thrift, and courage are all visible in this extraordinary story of an ordinary Indian. Jyoti comes out as a bundle of virtues in the documentary.

On the fateful night in December 2012, six men took away the light out of Singh family but that light, as Jyoti’s father says in the documentary, started a storm. What appeared spontaneous mass mobilisation of protests by students and residents of Delhi actually seems to be a volcano of anger and frustration that was waiting to erupt. This tragic and gruesome crime just ignited the volcano that manifested in the protests. The solidarity in pain of other ordinary residents of Delhi, particularly youth and women was a spark that was and is sign of hope. Peaceful marches and street protests are a hope and a signal that the government dare not ignore the crimes against women.

What I did not like in documentary

I did not like to hear the graphic details about the injuries and brutalities inflicted on a young woman and her friend. The pain in the eyes of parents of Jyoti was more saddening for me than the description of the nature of injuries mentioned so many times. The moist and blank eyes of Jyoti’s mother let you peep into the abysmal darkness and void that death of Jyoti has left in her. The soft spoken father of Jyoti recounts raising her lovingly and then having to cremate her. Jyoti means lamp flame  but in the Singh family she shone like sun. Her death has thrown the family into an emotional black hole from which both parents are shown struggling to come out. That parental pain is enough to choke one's throat. There was no need to provide gory details of the crime in the documentary.

I did not like Sheila Dixit, the only politician seen in the documentary, pontificating about family background of criminals and explaining how seeing things bad in life and surrounding one becomes insensitive and therefore, takes violence against women for granted. She was the Chief Minister of Delhi when the incident took place. I heard no word of sympathy, shared pain (human concern) or criticism of the judicial system (governance and institutional concern). It is possible that Ms Dixit did say something on those lines but the editorial scissors did their work.

What was shameful in the documentary

The most shocking sentences in the documentary were not from the criminal. What the criminal says is outrageous but one could expect no different from such people. He only gives voice to his sick views about women. I have heard versions of such thoughts from a range of people including politicians and others which does not make such attitude less sick but these are not rare to find in India. There is a former lady jurist who argues in the documentary that the solution to problem of sexual violence lies in educating men. There may be some connection between lack of education and tendency to commit crimes against women. Fact is that rapists can be rich, poor and middle income, old, young and juvenile, degree holder and school drop outs or those who saw no door of school.

The most shocking statements come from the two lawyers who demonstrate their sick and prejudiced views about Indian culture and women. It is shameful to see these ‘educated’ lawyers practising in  courts of India. These lawyers could one day become judges as fears Prof. V Raghunathan in his blog posting. If this happened the judiciary in India will have regressed to the bottom of humanity and that will be real shame for India.

Ban of documentary

Banning of the documentary has achieved following. The attention of the media and public at large has now been shifted away from the seriousness of the problem of crimes against women to issue of freedom of expression. Whether the government intended to do that is not my worry in this instance and neither do I want to imply conspiracy theory. But freedom of expression debate replacing the debate on horror of crimes against women is worrying. The government must be happy with this consequence than to face two potential consequences that telecast of the documentary could have entailed.

The documentary shows immense crowds and strong public opinion that seized Delhi in aftermath of the Nirbhaya Jyoti case. It is plausible to expect that after watching the documentary people would have asked difficult questions from the judiciary and political establishment about the lack of progress in not only in the Nirbhaya case but also about thousands of other cases of rapes pending in courts. Only about one in four rape cases tried in Indian courts results in conviction according to National Crime Records Bureau report. I don't know how this ratio compares internationally but absolute ratio does not inspire confidence in prosecution. This time the questions would have been asked not only by frustrated, awakened and agile residents of Delhi but perhaps by people from other parts of India.

One of the lawyer in the documentary questions why there was no hurry to pursue cases against 250 MPs against whom the cases involving sexual violence were not being pursued with same speed as these cases. Given the context of the documentary and the debate it would have generated, the parliamentarians would have found this question too hot to deal with. This Is second potential consequence avoided by banning the telecast in India. A pointed question on accountability and responsibility of people’s representatives in parliament is once again buried under the noisy TV studio debates and protests by media against the ban.

James Tooley on Private Schools for the Poor and the Beautiful Tree

For a large country like India all good options for educating millions of poor children. Here is discussion on private schools and their success in providing education. You will hear stories of apathy of government schools and public officials including, one from a fishing village in Gujarat. You will also find that the private schools, contrary to the common perception, private schools are afforded for a very poor people also.

James Tooley on Private Schools for the Poor and the Beautiful Tree | EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty

Is right wrong? A dilemma for Mr. Modi

The word Hindu traces its origin to 'Sindhu' referring to the tradition and the civilisation that flourished around Indus valley. Indus also originates from Sindhu as does word India. One among the world's oldest traditions  the Indian tradition is seen by serious scholars as a quest for perfecting human being explained beautifully by late professor Troy Wilson Organ in his book The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man. But many peddlers of Hinduism are not really interested in that spiritual quest occupied as they are with shallow and misguided notion of religion. It is not uncommon that a people value form over substance. Human choices are not always rational. The marketers have proven and made money out of creating and catering to human 'wants' rather than needs. What else would otherwise explain the monetary value of poison called cigarettes.  In most rich countries where tap water is perfectly drinkable the bottled plain water is sold at a higher price than price of milk and price higher than that of chemical and gas compounds called cola. Hindi cinema producers are equally conscious of the commercial opportunity to entertain around religious ambiguities created by confusing religion with rituals and customs. Movies like PK and Oh My God are partly artistic critiques of non-critical acceptance of 'religious authorities' and partly commercial opportunism.

It is difficult to translate Sanskrit word 'dharma', it is not same as religion. The root of the word is from 'dhr' which is also found in 'dharti' meaning earth. It refers to something that gives stability, support or nurtures. In addressing the question, " is Hinduism religion?", T.W. Organ eloquently puts, "the answer to this question depends on what one means by religion. Religion in any culture is an expression of dissatisfaction with life as man finds it and of longing for better things. It is lover's quarrel with life, a grumbling about the status quo accompanied by a search for promised land. If men were satisfied with their earthly existence, religion would never have been created." Organ, 1994, p.12.

The scope of religious quest is far more than search for good living according to Organ, "religion, like ethics, seeks the good, like art, seeks the beautiful, and, like science, seeks the true. But religion is not satisfied with the goodness of ethics, nor with the beauty of art, nor with the truth of science. It seeks a goodness, a beauty and a truth transcending the noblest achievements of moralists, artists, and scientists. In the promised land is goodness better than moral goods, beauty more beautiful than artistic creations, and truth truer than scientific truths. This claim can be made only if religion contacts a reality more real than the realities of ethics, art and science. And this is the claim of religion. Religion asserts that it places man in relationship to Ultimate Reality, the Reality which is the source of all realities and the criterion of all values." Organ, 1994, p.14

Human kind wants to understand the reality that transcends material phenomena, the pains and pleasures of human relation with other humans, creatures and life at large. This is what drives the human search which perhaps prompted Organ to write,"Man is homo philosophicus, the being ever in quest of understanding of his world and himself. If man has an essence, it is the activity of questing for understanding. He is philosophising incarnate." Humans are curious beings and this curiosity is as old as human kind has lived on this planet although claims to this effect can be made with certainty only as far as human history records would allow. To quote Organ again, "we do not know why but we do know that the Babylonians were obsessed with attempts to predict the future by the study of the heavenly bodies, the Egyptians and Taoists with efforts to conquer death, the Hebrews with the search for moral law, and the Greeks with the creation of beauty." And this is what he wrote about Hindu civilisation, "Hindu civilisation has been, and is, in quest of reality. 'What is the real which if known will make all things known?' has been one of the fundamental quests of the Hindus. Furthermore, the search has been directed not to the starry heavens but to the inner world of the human spirit."  Organ, 1994, p.37. 'What is the real which if known will make all things known?'  refers to the question which is raised in the third verse in Mandukaya Upanishad where a household enquirer Shaunaka asks this question to Angiras.

The right wing Hindus organisations like RSS and Hindujagruti Samiti refer to one meaning of 'dharma' as 'righteousness'. The proponents of reconverting Muslims and Christians back to Hinduism do not explain what are they trying to do?  What is expected of a person converted to Hinduism? Hinduism is not a religion, in its conventional meaning,  which requires belief in a God or God's son and requires following a given holy scripture or a book. It is a comprehensive quest to know reality.  A more fundamental question is who has given right to anyone to expect someone to live a life in a way that they may categorise as life of a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any religion, whatever the converters or re-converters mean by their propounded religion?

In Vishnupuran, one of the Hindu epics, there is a verse that reads in Sanskrit as 'Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye' meaning 'that which liberates is knowledge' (Part 1, Ch.19, shloka 41). What is that liberty that knowledge is supposed to enable? Is it the liberty from orthodoxy? Is it the liberty that helps find the true nature of human existence or the existence in general? Is it liberty to believe or not to believe in God? Is it liberty to find the infinite ways in which truth may be discovered? Is it liberty to realise that there may not be just one way to truth even though truth may just be one. Within Indian tradition itself Sri Ramkrishna Paramhinsa demonstrated to those who would believe, that ultimate reality could be realised by practising Islamic, Christian and Hindu ethos. 

The current Prime Minister Narendra Modi refers to works of Swami Vivekananda as his inspiration. Swami Vivekananda is considered supreme disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhans and foundeded Ramkrishna  Mission in 1896. The Mission has this as one of its objectives: "To spread the idea of harmony of religions based on Sri Ramakrishna's experience that all religions lead to the realization of the same Reality known by different names in different religions. The Mission honours and reveres the founders of all world religions such as Buddha, Christ and Mohammed" (Belur Math).  Mr. Modi's opening remarks in his speech to United Nations mentioned India's tradition and philosophy guided by a verse from Mahopanishad Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (world is one family), " India’s ancient wisdom sees the world as one family, and when I say this, I wish to make it clear that each country has its philosophy. I am not talking about ideology. With the inspiration of that philosophy, a country marches ahead. India is a country that since its Vedic times, has been saying that the world, the entire globe, is a family. India is a country where, beyond nature, we have a communication, a dialogue, with nature." (Read full speech here UN Speech, 27 September 2014, p.15, and listen to it on Toutube below). Actually the full verse that Mr. Modi quoted vasudhaiva kutumbakam from reads as following

ayam bandhurayam neti ganana laghuchetasam | 

udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam||

 (Mahopanishad, VI.71)

The verse means, Only small men discriminate saying: One is a relative; the other is a stranger. For those who live magnanimously, the entire world constitutes but a family'. 

Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Speaking at United Nations, 27 September 2014.

In the same speech Mr. Modi advised the UN to make UN Security council more  democratic and participative. He said, " Institutions that reflect the imperatives of the twentieth century will not be effective in the twenty-first century. They face the risk of irrelevance. I would like to emphasize that the policies and rules we made in the twentieth century may no longer be applicable. The speed of change is very fast. It is therefore essential that, in tune with the times, we adapt and reformulate, making the necessary changes and introducing new ideas. Only when we have done that will we be relevant."  (Modi, UN Speech p.17).

May one take liberty to extend Mr. Modi's recognition of the 'speed of change' and need to 'adapt and reformulate' to the religious discourse in twenty first century India to keep it relevant. This is Mr. Modi's biggest dilemma. Will he take India forward in twenty first century or will he let its march be slowed down or derailed by his mentors and alma mater RSS? The Indian voters who voted for him in May 2014 with development and good governance agenda as his promised priorities will be watching with anxiety and hope. 

Reference: Organ, T.W. (1994) The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Ne Delhi. First Indian Edition. The book was published in 1970 in the US.