Good Friday. The Friday before Easter. The last supper followed by the day of crucifixion of Jesus. Day of sorrow, and fasting. Easter Sunday of Resurrection. The Holy week.
General Elections are underway. Now, the electioneering is more than work of parties, manifestos, contestants, leaders’ campaigns, door-to-door canvassing. Promises, services now and later. Backend teams of election management have come in a big way to supplement these. Not as substitutes. Powered with technology, strategists, psephologists, advisors, speech writers, voter research and data analysts, social media messagers-campaigners, AI experts, campaign managers, digital marketers, deep fakers, whisperers et al. Officially itself, the amount on backend work is 25%. The costs may vary, from a mere Rs. one lakh per assembly candidate; Rs. 5 lakh per parliament constituency candidate to 100 times this. The chief/principal consultants may get paid in anything upwards to seven digits a month. The services can be for a minimum of 6-12 months. It is increasing to a full-time / full-term activity requirement for the aspirants, and incumbents.
Do the opinions of scholars of random policy research, advocacy, and opinion centres matter? Why do they make some statements and why do they step down, thereafter? Will caning the statements help the country? Will stepping down help the country? How can the statements of people far from the ground be more influential? Jargonized text, emotive narratives, suave presentations, jazzy graphics, and filtered data tables? What is development professionalism? Imitation of business? Are we not trapped in a paradigm which the poor, vulnerable and marginalized want to fight and transcend in the first place? Are we not getting coopted without our knowledge, or with our implicit or silent consent? Are we missing professionals with fearlessness, purity of the mind, devotion to the purpose, time and energy, generosity, self-control, simplicity-humility, adherence to basic values – hope, faith, promise, love, and coexistence?
Do we see excessive work loads; unreasonable timelines, deadlines, with quality suffering; work inequity; unclear communications; and insufficient managerial-leadership guidance? Can we do something about these? Can we bring well-being into our teams? Can we build leadership teams? Can we nurture an open, learning culture?
Can we appreciate – nature, earth, nextgen have rights? Interconnected. Affecting human rights and vice-versa. We have started seeing nature as a resource to be exploited, used, and are crushing nature rights. Inequity is acute – 1% owns 50%; 50% owns 5%. Inequity might be pushing us further on this resource paradigm. We have technology – taking control of us; democratizing us; reducing costs for us; hinting at changes in our consumption and behviour; reducing language barriers; taking analytics closer to all of us; offering choices; forcing patterns and trends. Printing came, we, a good number of us, survived and thrived. Industries came, we changed wholesale. Self-employed became employees. New ways of living emerged. Electricity came, bombs came, we survived and thrived. IT came, we coped with it. Now, new tech has come. We, most of us, may thrive too. With more time to live with this. Are we heading to a new paradigm of life, living, and livelihoods? New values? New ways? Are interconnectedness, and coexistence the new dominant values of our future? New end may be making sense of the world, interacting with it, and shaping the world simultaneously. New end may be redefining what it means to be us, humans? Communities, choices, connections, and creations.
Can we realize wisdom in the flow of our lives? Apparent contradictions, beyond rational logics we are used to. We are hunters and gatherers. It needs to find expression – hunting down some things and gathering some things. Can we? We are lovers, and can we live, link, lead, learn, and love? Can we keep loving, and giving?
Yes, we can. If we flow with nature and learn its ways. In the flow of N. For 7L.
Join us in the yoga of honouring nature rights living in nature – tanotiyoga for 7L.
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