Sunday Posts

President Xi invoked Thucydides Trap, yet again. Therefore, it is now back in fashion, yet again. This has left me perplexed. I have read Graham Allison's book and I get it: A rising power makes the hegemon uneasy and this leads to war, just as it did in the Peloponnesian War. But what I don't get is why Xi is talking about it and why everyone else is getting excited. For starters, let's set the record straight: Despite the historical reputation of Athens, it was Sparta which was the hegemon and Athens was the rising power, and at the end of the war, Athens lost. Assuming that Xi, like everyone else, sees China as the rising power, he should know better than invoking Thucydides. Besides, Thucydides knew better than projecting history to the future and making predictions. It is a story we want to tell ourselves, but there is no inevitability that history has to play out in a certain way. It never does. For example, Allison's thesis draws much from the Britain vs Germany ...

 Many people around me think I am a socialist. After all, I laugh at the late night TS posts from Donald Trump, talk about the follies of regime change wars and generally foo-foo right wing propaganda. I work in democratising access to education, believe in public provision of health and schooling, and think technology is leaving too many people behind. I failed to support Hinduvta and its new god in my homeland; I broke ranks with my friends in London and didn't vote for Brexit or Boris Johnson. My right-thinking associates consider me to be beyond redemption, perhaps a red! But apart from my sartorial preference for red T-shirts, there is nothing red in me. I believe that from the 'crooked timber' of human nature nothing straight can ever arise. I believe that history works with timespans much longer than our lifetime and we have imperfect knowledge about the world, and therefore, neither we can change our society intentionally nor can predict the future. Not just regime ...

I am a lifelong learner. I became serious about learning only after I left college. In fact, my 'conversion' came much later in life, once I left my comfort zone, migrated to another country and went back to college, first with an instrumental objective to get a qualification but eventually for learning.  I grew up a Brahmin in India. My upbringing was traditional. I was surrounded by books, music and theatre, but no one was talking about going back to college at a late age. It was not 'learning' but self-cultivation that I saw. My grandfather, in his eighties and with fading eyesight would still read, by holding the books very close to his eyes - that is the image I carried in my head. We would have guests from town (we lived in the suburb) on some Sundays, when the best cutlery would come out and we would eat on the dining table, talking about cultural events around us. However, though my father taught English Literature at a local college, there was no hint of academ...

  How long does it take for a country's media to go from unquestioning celebration of youth to reviling it? Not long, it seems in India, as all the celebration of Gen Z turned sour as some people started asking questions that the media didn't. The generational labelling is an imported practice from America that Indians embraced enthusiastically. It makes no sense, as the Indian history didn't follow the same path. For example, the equivalent of the silent generation - people born between 1928 and 1945 and lived in the shadows of their parents (the greatest generation, who fought the war) and their children (the baby boomers, who prospered) - would be the generation that built the Indian republic, the heroic ones. However, somehow the Indians like to believe that the world is flat, or at least, it has gotten flat since the 1990s. Therefore, Gen Z was celebrated as the herald of brilliance and prosperity, the generation that would lead India to the 'developed country'...

  Careers are no more. Like the one my father used to have. Or the one I aspired for. The rituals of entering, the legitimate peripheral participation followed by genteel progression into the inner circle, marked by ever greater material possessions and social prestige - they are no longer real. But the idea of a career is the cornerstone of middle class life. In fact, it is middle class life. From the start - choice of school, grades, university ranking, traineeships - to the end, the dreams of retirement, putting one's children on the same path, the middle class life arc is a projection of mid-twentieth century career. How many young men I met who have been inspired to study law after watching The Suits? They are all inspired by Mike, they say. Yet, Mike is post-career, a hustling entrepreneur more than a lawyer. If they want a career path of the sort law schools offer, ...

 I am at that point in life that all I want is quiet. There is a certain sweetness in failure. A life I started has come to an end; definite, irrevocable end. First time, this end is not about a beginning. I always feared this, but having arrived, I feel what Kundera called an unbearable lightness. What burden did I lose? I guess it is my former self. Bounded forever by my upbringing, the crushing sense of responsibility coupled with a liberal faith in infinite improvability of others. From over the edge of life, I see how I got things mixed up: My grandfather's generation carried the responsibility because everyone else did, my father's generation believed in improvability because the going was good. But, at the same time, my grandfather would have believed only a few, distinguished by character, deserved attention; my father's generation would not have assumed the responsibility for others.  Losing the faith is like losing myself. I have been a coalition-builder; somewhat...