Join the Gang...

The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. 

Robert Kennedy

It takes a politician to get the economist to see a saint. I think it’s a lovely quote. Like a perfect politicians quote. It takes something that everyone knows and misunderstands and then wraps a lovely story about what it is not and then completely drives it to the ground by measuring it against something it wasn’t meant to measure.

Gross national product or the GNP. I remember being in an interview once in my B school. I think it was a summer internship with Shoppers Stop. Shoppers Stop was a coveted item in my B school. One of the few companies that was respected in college and wanted to recruit from us. In the interview they had asked me what my favorite subject was. I had practiced the answer in my head. Economics. I knew that one. So great, what’s the difference between GDP and GNP. Huh? Nopes. I did not know that one. I suspect neither did the interviewer. No, I don’t have a story in where I gave an amazingly false answer and got through. I was rejected and failed to get through. How can you like economics and not know this basic difference. Hah!

I remember walking out and then later asking my friend who was an economics post grad.. so what’s the difference. He knew this and answered PAT. It went something like this ‘the GDP (gross domestic produce) is the worth of all the goods and services of Indian and foreign nationals residing in India while the GNP measures the same of all Indian nationals across the world. I haven’t forgotten that in 19 odd years, but I admit that I had to check the internet to ensure that I hadn’t gotten it wrong.

But still, much as I think the quote is completely out of context with GNP left defending what it was not meant to protect, I still love it. Yes, the infatuation for GNP number is possible stupid when you see only one number and try and measure it as a means to know your success. Economics is much different than that. There are various indicators that we must look at but I think GDP or GNP, or both together are still by far the most important numbers for an economist to track to get a fair first idea of the countries well being. Then the next could possibly be the Gini Coefficient. This one measures the inequality in the country. So while you are a great economy and produce truck loads of everything, the Gini coefficient help you understand the difference between making money and spreading it to everyone in your economy. If the Gini coefficient doesn’t improve with the GDP number, you are basically screwing yourself over by creating possibly a class divide in the country and possibly your country smacks of croony capitalism! Then you look at happiness indicators (which are as dumb or as smart as the surveys designed), or other metrics such as mortality, education, womens well being etc.

My favorite over the years is the simple metrics of how a society treats its women is possibly in my mind the best indicator of how a community or a society will develop. Keeping women out of the ambit of decision making, management and general freedom will doom a society faster than anything else. Since 25 years I have been seeing how women are moving the needle in India. From my batch of MBAs that passed out I see a smaller number of them working. Now I see more and more women who take career as a serious choice and not something that they have to do just to pass some time before motherhood takes its toll. They are taking active decisions and are part of the entire spectrum of the work force. I see women who are far more confident now than they were ever before. They move out and take their decisions. You meet some of them on the field and you can see that they are smarter, sharper and more confident of themselves.

It will take a generation for things to change and for a country as a whole, it will take a couple more. Culture is a huge thing and it takes time to change. There must be enough impetus, heros, role models and constant hammering for change to happen.

Today in the morning one the highway I saw a couple walking, with the male having his hand around the women. What was striking was that the couple belonged to a lower income demographic. Normally, this is not done. Earlier only the rich and the famous would do that (when I was growing up), then the young and the happening (like us in college), then it filtered down slowly. And finally – I see the young from a lower demographic doing it like the rich! Now the culture is changing. It takes  a lot. First it has to be cool and desirable behavior and then it gets caught in on popular culture icons, like movies and TV serials, then it moves down and vast. I remember seeing Haridwar many years ago and remarking that the kids from the villages seem to be wearing jeans and the girls are wearing it as well. These girls will grow up wearing jeans and change the lives for themselves and for their families as well.

Women must be encouraged to stand up and manage themselves. They possibly need a little help from the rest of society to help them integrate more easily, but then the sops must be slowly withdrawn. We don’t want them to be softened, we want them as one. No difference. Part of it all.

One small thing I managed to pull off. At Matunga Gymkhana, we are a bunch of men trying to manage the gymkhana. That’s because the rules are stupid. When a family takes membership, it takes it in the primary member’s name and then everyone else in the family joins in. The membership is taken as a single person but mentally everyone takes it as a family. Since the membership is the basis for eligibility for official posts, we have a situation where the management is all male affair. And it stinks. At least when the new restaurant was being designed, I managed to plant a seed in the minds of the powers that be to swap the loos. Give the bigger ones to the women. Surely they require more space. They need atleast two commodes and a lot of space to dress. We men just need a piss pot, one commode and a half mirror. We can manage just right. This got done and I think generations of women will not know who to thank for this small change in their lives at the Gymkhana.

Now my next one – to introduce an amendment that allows spouse of members to take official roles in the management of the Gymkhana. That would again go a long way in the long term management of the Gymkhana.  So the next time I have a suggestion from a woman, i can tell her, sure - we need people like you to help us do what you want us to do. Please join the gang! It will take time. but it will get there.

give up on it

A ha… an issue which I have pondered on many times before. When do you realize that the book is a lost cause. When you do realize it what do you do? At what point do you give up? I came across this article that hopes to point some direction to my predicament.
An interesting thumb rule propounded:
The "Deduct Your Age from 100 and Read That Many Pages before Giving Up on a Book" rule. The older you get, the less inclined you are to waste your time on something that doesn't grab you.
Some other stuff that caught my eye wherein a former teacher muses, "I often wonder if people who are turned off by being forced to read books they do not like then become nonreaders later on." A no less august reader than Samuel Johnson declared, as Mr. Cowen quotes in his book, "A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."
Very true. I think I could never read certain books, especially if they are expected of me to read them as a text book. “The pressure of reading is so detrimental to the process of reading it”… there I go again making clever sounding isms. But at least now I know why took to reading so late in my life. I really started reading regularly in the last five odd years. But now it’s an unshakeable habit.
One particular book which was a mammoth tomb was Snowball. It is an autobiography of Warren Buffet. Really really sad book. There was no insight into the man’s brain. When you have an investor who became the richest man in the world and is known for his wit and incisive wisdom, the book come across frigid. Absolutely no insight in the man’s wisdom and really very boring. Unauthorized analysis of his wisdom in the many books that have been produced contain much more. The book goes on and on. At some points I had to simply skim through the pages while simply turning a large amount. Horrible. I think this is one book that deserves to be thrown out of the window as one good deed for the day. Though my philosophy has always been – even the worst book in the world can teach you something – you will at least know what you hated about it
On another note, I don’t know how reading will evolve over the next few years. There are tons of blogs and sites out there that one would like to constantly read and be updated through. While I was surfing I came across an interesting quotation. “The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children” -Clarence Darrow. Hahhaha. Sorry mom dad and Jispa. But I really find this one funny.
And on another note I found an interesting question - what would happen to the demand for tea if there was a health scare regarding coffee? It is not that easy to answer. Think about it.