Deep Impressions

        हिंदी के ऐतिहासिक हमसफ़र  :  उर्दू ,  अंग्रेजी और तकनीक   Also published as an opinion piece in  Dainik Bhaskar  on Hindi Diwas (14 th  Sep 2021)       वैसे तो हिंदीभाषा की उम्र क़रीबन  1000  वर्ष हैं पर खड़ी बोली की आयु तो सिर्फ़  200  वर्ष है और अगर घटनापूर्ण इतिहास की बात करें तो पिछले  100  वर्षों अपने आप में एक विशेष स्थान रखते हैं । जितना  ‘हैपनिंग’ या जितना घटनापूर्ण हिंदी के लिए ये  100  वर्ष रहें हैं, उस उच्च स्तर का उतार-चढ़ाव किसी और भाषा ने कदाचित ही देखा होगा।     1920  के दशक में हिंदी की  सबसे प्यारी हमसफ़र थी उर्दू   । असहयोग आंदोलन और खिलाफ़ती आँदोलन के आपसी तालमेल के दौरान, दोनो भाषाओं में प्रेम इतना गाढ़ा हो गया था की बोलते वक़्त ये पता ही चलता था कि कहाँ उर्दू ख़त्म हुई और हिंदी शुरू हो गयी।   बिना उर्दू के, हिंदी भाषियों को अपने हक़ की लड़ाई के लिए ना वकील मिलता, और ना ही हलफ़नामा। और बिना हिंदी के व्याकरण के, उर्दू लड़खड़ा के गिर पड़ती। भाव वाचक संज्ञाओं ( ज़रूरत, मेहनत,  मदद,   मजबूरी,) के लिये जहां हिंदी बे-झिझक उधार माँगने  उर्दू के पास चली जाती, तो वही

    Medicine, Money  & Morality : A Contrary View       There are two vociferous demand these days :   ·        a loud cry against the high prices of medicines and health essentials  ·        an appeal to make covid vaccines off-patent      The former complains against lawlessness ; the latter demands a temporary lawlessness.  The former is creating waves domestically and the latter internationally.  Strangely, the both have a common unanswered question.     Yes, we all agree that one should not be greedy, one should not be insensitive and one should not be adamant in these times. And therefore, there is a strong case for the covid vaccines to go off-patent. However, there is also a counter argument. It says that before giving the waiver, one should also consider the implications for the next pandemic.    Will during the next pandemic, investors put billions of dollars in inventing vaccine if they know that the vaccine they would fund could go off-patent within a year of invention

  With the global developments of the last few years it is time we rethink the format and the definition of democracy.    So here is a wishful speech to the guardians of democracy. ------------ ------------- ---------------- x  ------------ ------------- ----------------  ( In case you wish you listen this blog,  please CLICK HERE )   From settlements to territories,  From territories to empires And from empires to nations     …... civilization has come a long way in search of structures and conventions through which a human population connects, cooperates and controls itself.     Community chieftains gave space to kings. Kings were taken over by emperors and emperors surrendered to the democratic forces.   In this process of evolution, democracy has not only proven to be the most stable but also the most widely accepted structure. However, to believe that democracy is the last word in governance, would itself be a challenge to the spirit of democracy – which is ‘openness to dissent’.

  the elusive equilibrium    November commences the wedding season in India. The previous two years had some high profile weddings which were followed by big time criticism on the amount of expenditure. Cut to 2020, the economy is missing the weddings (and events) that generate huge employment for decorators, caterers, tailors, beauticians,  baja wala  et al. Post-Coronavirus, the virtues of the bad guy have started becoming conspicuous.   So, which is the true face of weddings – A Wasteful Expenditure or An Employment Generator?    Probably, answering it is as difficult as answering whether nations should aspire for equal distribution of wealth or should live with unequal distribution. Though majority would support the former but people with surplus wealth also have high propensity to take risk. And risk is key to innovation. Therefore, if all citizen have the same wealth, there will be no surplus wealth, thus no appetite for risk and therefore low levels of innovation. Such an egalit

  Lockdown Learning : Gandhi’s Strategic Prowess   The choice of Salt and Charkha were not just about revolution or nationalism. They were part of Gandhi's strategic decision making                       ----------------------------     ----------------------------  ----------------------------   During the Lockdown, my CXO friends are faced with two common organisational dilemmas. The former is about the challenges in growing demand for their products and the latter relates to the lack of energy and creativity among employees in the Work From Home (WFH) environment. Incidentally, the solution to both lies in Gandhian thinking. And this is not about Gandhian philosophy but about Gandhi’s prowess with Strategic Thinking.     If one finds generating consumer demand as a challenge in today’s crisis, one needs to imagine the travails in selling a product like swaraj to Indians who were struggling in crisis for  do waqt ki roti  ?    In such testing times, the demand for swaraj was gene