If I Were Santa

 What I may do-

Present people with lots of brooms and mops, to clean up the surroundings. We have a long way to go.

Teach world leaders to stop being in office forever.. too many seem to be unretiring, and unrepentant about it.

Ditto for cricketers who have outlived their usefulness.. Gavaskar had once said, "It's better to go when people are asking Why, instead of waiting till they say Why Not?"

Teach screenwriting and editing to as many filmy types as possible. Brevity is the soul of wit, but a lot of witless directors don't understand it.

Ask people to exchange gifts themselves, so I can retire. 

Reforms and Women

Why aren't there more women reformers? We had Manmohan Singh (as Fin Minister) and Narasimha Rao, way back in 1991, and Sreedharan (Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro), Verghese Kurien (Amul), and a few other good men (Sam Pitroda), thrown in. But where are the women?

I say, find more women reformers. They have the natural flair. They are completely immersed in improving their surroundings. They want to perpetually clean their abodes, and things within the abodes. They will go to great lengths to wash clothes, and iron them and loook good in them. Often, this extends to making others around them look better than they otherwise would (children, husbands?).

The trouble arises only when they want to reform their husbands. This is the only animal who is beyond redemption. If they would just concentrate on the community, environment, neighbourhood, the globe, etc., they would do exceedingly well. The parliament could do with some more grace, in general, and they can bring that to it. The GST would get passed in a jiffy. And jewellery, clothes, eating out etc. would be less expensive.

The downside? The (self-and-spiritual improvement) babas of all types may go out of business. The babes would take over.

GNH from Bhutan- A Primer

That is Gross National Happiness. We had a first hand account that it really is measured in Bhutan. Dr. Saamdu Chetri, who heads the Centre for GNH in Bhutan, was on campus for a guest lecture. He explained in simple terms that we are measuring the wrong things in the conventional GDP or GNP measures.

For instance, if a two-parent family hires a maid and both parents go to work, the GDP grows. Happiness may decrease, because the child may not be reared properly, compared to one of the parents staying home to do the job (at the cost of GDP growth). Or, if a married woman goes through a depression, medical (or marital) problems, and consults lot of doctors and psychiatrists (or lawyers), GDP goes up. If she is happily married, and does none of the above, on the other hand, GDP goes down!

Burning fossil fuels is not sustainable, as it contributes to carbon emissions, and therefore, global warming that may result in dire consequences. Energy can be renewable, if research is adequate. Meanwhile, public transport should play a greater role. We need to be a little calmer, and reflective about wasting earth's resources. We consume too much, be it clothes, food or anythng else, raising unnecessary demands on earth. Human values like sharing and collaboration should predominate.

Happiness is actually measured on several parameters, and the website explains how.
(link http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/articles/). I was happy to learn of an alternative measure of what we are and ought to be, from one of the smallest countries of the world.

Coincidentally, also read a review of a book about how GDP came to be the main measure of well-being of a nation after the Great Depression in the U.S.

Skyrocketing Becomes Expensive

Those who used to be high-fliers will soon be grounded. The price of petrol will actually be the only thing which can go skyrocketing, not the people who use the stuff as fuel to get themselves going. So you are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Environmentally, this may not be such a bad thing. There may be less vehicular pollution, and there may be a few more people who walk to save money. Breathing petrol fumes is not much fun anyway. Hopefully, it will stir people into researching alternative fuels and ways of going from place A to Place B. A good joke I read on Facebook the other day says poor people walk miles to find food and rich people walk miles to digest food.

All in all, a good move that might save us from bankruptcy, and bad health. Cheers!