Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Return to your innocence

Isn't it ironic that people engaged in the industry needed for our very existence are found neglected? Why do people we practically cannot live without carry an adjective of "poor" against their identity of "farmer"? Agreed a laborer in every industry doesn't necessarily be rich. A farmer - essentially is a labourer in the agricultural industry is merely working for the landlords, the traders, the merchants and the political bigwigs that govern the rules of the industry. But when you compare it to say a laborer in IT industry, you do not really find a starving person barely able to meet his family's square meal. Again someone would debate that this has always been a difference between a white collar job and a field work job. But should this be a prerogative of the industry that is responsible for our survival? Today all the billionaires have sprung up from the industries without which we lived for centuries together. These industries are not responsible for our survival. They simply soothe our existence. Logic dictates that this economics when peered through the glass of demand and supply asserts that our demand for our survival is no longer given the due importance. I think there is a paradigm shift in our requirements and priorities where today we value our existence more than our survival.

It feels ironic that today we worry about screwed up internet connection while taking our survival for granted. It reminds me of the story where once a lion hired an ant to do some work. The ant being hardworking and efficient impressed the lion very well with her initial deliverables. Lion now wished to increase the efficiency and hired an owl as a consultant. Owl suggested on introducing a grasshopper as a manager to the ant to monitor her work. The grasshopper reported on some infrastructure malfunctioning and requested a crow to repair their "logistics". The owl now suggested that since we are too many people to work, we need a place to work. The lion hired an eagle to scout a right work place and manage the admin of his company. Now with so many people working the lion couldn't really find the time to make sure his employees were happy. So he hired a parrot as an HR. With so many mouths to feed, all of the employees set their expectations towards the ant. They urged the ant to double the output by sitting late and working in double shifts. Ant, mentally tortured by this soon declined in her performance. With low output , the lion demanded a production report from the owl. Owl after a through analysis presented a report stating that ant has performed poorly. The lion then upset over the ant fired the ant. We, at times in the process of organizing our lives and soothing our existence compromise on the simplicity of life.

As stone age man, the funda was simple. We need food to eat. We formed a bunch of hunters. Then we found vegetables, we formed a bunch of farmers. Now someone needed to buy this food, we invented finances. To protect these finances we invented security. In order for this to synchronize, we invented systems. Then came people to govern the political , financial, military, healthcare systems. To automate these systems we invented IT. While all of these systems are needed to soothe our lives, we forget where did all of this began in first place. We have been giving excessive importance over the peripherals. Maybe the effects are slowly cropping up. With farmers committing suicide and increasing agricultural prices, we can infer that our ant is no longer in the mental and physical state to cope up with our increasing demands.

Let us pause our lives for a while, look back and ponder over this. Let us help our "poor" farmer remove the adjective from his identity. Let us return to our innocence.

posted from Bloggeroid