The ROI factor

Why the youth is not attracted towards politics? Why we always talk about young leaders and end up getting the same old parliament with an average age of 65+? Why the youth participate in the internet protests against terrorist attacks but don’t even come out to vote? Why do we always tend to complain but never care to participate? The simple answer to all these questions is the famous economic jargon called ROI – Return on Investment.
Life of a young aspiring person is mostly driven by this three letter abbreviation called ROI. Almost every action that he performs is first evaluated for its potential ROI. Let us start the analysis with career choices. When we were given an option to choose between science, commerce and arts while going in standard 11th, most of us went for science as the prospects and career opportunities looked better. Yes the ROI at science was better. When we passed 12th and we were asked to choose from engineering, medical or science graduation. Here again we all went to for engineering because medical was hell lot of study and science graduation rarely offered an amazing job. Yes the ROI at engineering was better. I passed my engineering and became IT professional; some of my friends passed medical and became doctors; few others completed graduation in science, arts and commerce and went for jobs. Few years down the line, having worked in corporate India, I am again making a choice, to upgrade myself by doing MBA. I will take loan rather huge loan to sponsor my education. But I am hopeful that the economic situation will improve and I will get a good job. I hope the ROI at MBA remains good. So it total 18 years of formal education and I land up in a situation where I can afford to support my family and lead a happy life. The ROI is education is descent.

Let us now take it other way round. I am person who likes politics very much. I follow what is going on in the country. And thus always tend to think as to what is the ROI of Politics. Education till graduation is a must so I could not plan to participate in politics till then. Taking a hypothetical situation here that I join politics now. ‘Joining’ itself is very vague term here if you are not from a political dynasty. So by joining, I mean that I sign for the primary membership of a party. I will start my work in a small village in Uttar Pradesh. UP because it’s the only place where you can learn politics. I will work for some 5 to six years and then I would be in a position to fight the gram panchayat elections. If things go well, I will be elected. Then 5 more years there and after a huge lobbying I may end up getting an MLA ticket. I may also win. I’ll then start building my image in the party politics and state arena. I may end up getting a MP ticket and win the elections. So finally at the age of some 40+, I will be in parliament. But this situation is as hypothetical as my joining the politics. And having said all that, we also need to keep in mind that before you win any election, its hell lot of investment with no assurance of returns. It’s a situation where you invest some 15-20 years of your life, a lot of money and you might end up becoming just a follower. Take the numbers into consideration and the situation is more horrifying. Just 572 seats in LS (forget RS), the nut seems to be very tough to crack. The ROI figure looks bad, pretty bad.

PS: I am apologetic to you all who intend to join politics for being so pessimistic, but then that is what I feel.

The great indian saga of bomb threats...Policing truths!!!

9 blasts in bangalore, the IT hub of India...17 blasts in Ahmedabaad, the second Mumbai of India....30 live bombs discovered in Surat, again a business hub in the west. Whatever be the plan, it was very simple but extremly well executed. Targeted to implant terror in a common man, is what it did and is what it was supposed to do. Media talked about it, politicians talked about it and we, the common man talked about it. News kept on flashing....All metros on high alert. People beware!!! We kept the track for few days and then we moved on, as we always do.

Had this been the only scenario, it would have been good. But the aftermaths were about to follow. The so called saviours of Law, The Great Indian Police, came into action. Patroling jeeps kept roaming, some also parked at busy signals to make sure that nothing suspicious happens in the area.

I live in saltlake, one of the posh areas in the motroplitan kolkata (if u consider kolkata ro be a metro). Saltlake was one of the locations in kolkata which always remained vulnerable to any bomb threat,not because the place is crowded but because sector 5, the IT hub of kolkata, is here. So it was very obvious in such situation that the Police strength would go up. Police wallahs from all corners of kolkata were poured into Saltlake, to avoid any bomb blast occurances. was this their real motive? was this they always wished to do?

The answer is NO. Once this blast issue lost the real heat out of it, they started doint what they really came for, what they really were looking for. The loot. Parked at all major signals, they started stoping all passing vehicles , generally after 10 in night. Checking them to find nothing, asking for papers, checking papers to approve your validity and then finding any stupid possible reason to threat you to that they could fine you for this. This kind of a situation is very risky for a typical IT guy like me because we generally arlook like baskets of dollars to them.

I adore Bangalore Police for one reason, they have setup a standard in this practise of terrorising common man and sqeezing money out of em. They would stop you and as a token, would ask you for papers. If you are in hurry just drop a 100INR note and leave. But certainly kolkata police have got to do a lot of work towards setting up such standards. On bad days, you will be stopped by them which will be followed by a long non ending personal interview.Once you come to know that they are not going to let you back free, you start negotiations. It generally starts with a whooping prices that might dare to match some of the M F Hussin's arts and ends up being a typical cheap fashion market shopping. But mind it, you need to be a very mean bargainer to them or else you will lost out a lot of your hard earned money. A word of caution: when you are negoating, do not see him as a Policeman and you as a simple vehicle owner, but see yourself as a customer who is about to buy a service which you never asked for,trust me you would stand better chances.

Police reforms have been a favourite topic for all the high end officials at GOI. They always demand for more power in the hands of Police for better law and Order enforcement. But they are so terrorising with the little that they have now in their hands, can we trust the devil to be noble after giving more powers.......