(Written on June 8, 2019)
It’s been a while. Honestly though, it too me a while to
fill up the pot again. I want to be vain at this point and tell you it’s
because I upgraded to a much much bigger pot and I’ve been on a quest to make
sure I add content over bluster and also that I have tried to rise above the
melee again except that this time it’s more difficult because 30 is a little
more than a year away and as anyone who is close to the cliff (or who has
fallen off) can tell you it’s that much harder switching gears to a brand new
field, especially if one refuses to eschew old habits – classical literature,
classical music, physics, math, and deep suspicion of the social sciences.
The pot is full again. And with that milestone I must
confess I have missed blabbering into the open on this blog. I am free to talk
with myself once more!
What must be said first up is the reality of the gauntlet
thrown at me by…me. Last semester meant 5 more subjects (for credit) and work
for 4 professors in different capacities. Plus the onerous requirement to
produce original research. Plus my own quest to go for research that was more
than incremental. Some teaching work which everyone else does. And lastly, making
sure I realize that research is a game – play it but don’t depend on it.
Yup, I could be vain like that. Except I will be throughout
this post.
Research is very strange. Social science research is even
stranger. The utility function is the ultimate non-falsifiable hypothesis.
Theory is progressively becoming how you can use fancy math to produce
counter-intuitive results that, these days, are as likely to be testable as
building a particle collider that can detect strings. Empirical research is
interesting but worryingly liable to fraud and more worryingly a case of
looking for your keys under the street lamp while you house languishes in
darkness. There are very few rules that apply in every context. And no good
textbooks.
It’s not all bad. Then again most of it is so I’m not going
to be overly-optimistic.
Let’s get on with this collection of moments from my
pensieve.
*****************
I am in Banaras (Varanasi). It’s where my paternal
grandmother lives and from where effectively my father’s side of the family
hails. Benaras is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Standing at Dashashwamedh Ghat, one of the most frequented riverside banks in
this city, one can only lapse into deep philosophical ruminations while looking
at the holy Ganges. Dashashmedh Ghat is so heavily frequented because it is in
some ways in the most religiously and spiritually significant part of this
already very holy city, a stone’s throw away from the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
It also happens to be a stone’s throw away from where we live.
Varanasi is well known these days for being India’s Prime
Minister’s constituency. People ask me if I see progress there. My first
response is that this is not an easy task. Benaras is by its very nature a city
of narrow lanes and winding alleys. And the people living in the corners and
choked streets have been there for a hundred years or more. So you can’t just
throw them out. As far as all these aspects are concerned there has been little
or no change. The streets are still very dirty and the roads are still
crumbling. People are no better off.
It’s where tourists visit that there has been change. This
is somewhat related to the previous point – there’s a lot more scope to do
stuff in these places. And by stuff I mainly mean roads. Indian leaders are
poor at changing administrative systems and in completing soft targets –
mortality indicators, employment, or even sanitation. They are much better at
building one time infrastructure. And for our PM, roads have always been a way
to show he’s doing work. In that vein, the road to the airport is fantastic.
The posh locale of Ravindrapuri is posher. Assi Ghat, which was mostly jungle
earlier, has been cleared and converted to a hip place where people can sit and
relax. Old timers have a hard time seeing this metamorphosis of Assi Ghat. It’s
really a great place to visit.
More than that, this PM has managed to grant people the most
rare of feelings – he has instilled in the people of Benaras (and I imagine in
many other places) a sense of hope. People believe more substantive changes
will be made.
For what it’s worth one can only hope they are right.
Progress will be progress. And much respected and loved.
*****************
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