Is Democracy the best form of Government?

Government Hospitals are awful in India. They commit all kinds of crimes ranging from bribery to using same syringes multiple times to denying treatment to the most needy.

It's funny that each and every body associated with the Government in India is so inefficient, corrupt and uncivilized that you'd be a fool if you trust any of them with anything. Any democratic system is bound to become like that, if it is of a size bigger than a certain maximum, because it is hard to establish accountability and control in huge democracies. Hence, I believe that democracy is really not an appropriate system to run a Country or a Province. Democracy is good for a smaller group of people - I guess a few hundreds in number, at the maximum.

I think the reason Democracy has become so popular is that it provides a wonderful and perfect playground for people who are cunning and adept at playing politics to satiate their political appetites at someone else's expense, by sitting in safe positions of power, and since such people have great convincing abilities and remarkable assertiveness, they are able to persuade people to accepting Democracy and also propagate it all over so that they expand their grounds to play on. They tag the enemies of Democracy as evil and get united to crush them. And the masses stay in an illusion that they are in control of the systems of governance which are held by their own representatives elected by vote and nurtured by the money they pay as taxes. But we all know how fake it is. It's strange nobody says it very often in public.

For example, India is the world's largest democracy - 1.2 bn people. Are our governments really of the people, for the people, by the people? They are none of them, as we all know. Even if we go by sheer numbers, the fact is, only a small percentage of us vote, and most of those who do are the least aware of what's going on in the country. And to make matters worse, the winner in any election is the guy who gets a simple majority, which is just a small percentage of the votes cast, coz there are so many parties contesting for a seat that each party gets just a handful of votes. So the guy who finally gets elected has the support only from a minority in his constituency. But in the end we fix the number of seats a party has to have in the houses of parliament to stake its claim to form the government - to give ourselves an illusion again that our governments indeed are run by those who have support from more than 50% (or whatever it is) of the country. And to top it all, parties with a few seats join together and form coalitions. What about the citizens who voted for one of those parties to keep the other out? What about parties' ideologies and stuff like that?

And obviously it is all not so clean either. The voters are lured, bought and made happy (as the girl says in the movie Bombay to Bangkok... did ya see it?) in many ways. Then there are booth-captures and fake votes. And even if the voting had been clean, the question as to whether the common man is shrewd enough to decide who's the best to rule him cannot be answered on the affirmative with utmost confidence. And with the way things are done in India, it is not even the government of those chosen by the majority of the adult citizens. It is simply one randomly elected government that forms as a result of manipulating, voting, manipulating again, lots of crap and lots of things too complicated to comprehend or talk about.

One may argue that India is still just a Third World and an Underdeveloped country. (Think why it is so. I suspect democracy might be one of the crippling factors). But even the democracies which are rich and developed are not so because they are democratic. Most of the time, democracy drags back what is running smoothly. Such democracies also have sound economic models and intelligentsia at the right places which allow them to efficiently cover up the inefficiencies that democracy brings with it. If democracy had been a sufficient condition for prosperity, then all democratic nations would have been rich and prosperous, but that is hardly the reality. I feel that democracy is not even a condition, let alone a sufficient one.

So, if not Democracy, what is the best from of government? (Check out this link - Forms of Government - and try to figure out.) Is it the rule by philosophers and intellectuals as Plato suggested in his famous book The Republic? If it really is, then it can certainly be implemented after 2012, when the current world order will come to an end, and all evil people will die and only the intellectuals and the spiritually inclined will survive. I'll be one of the survivors. Wish you all the best!

A Long Bla

My makaan-maalik (landlord) Habib once suggested to me that I should get married soon. According to him, one should marry early, coz as one grows old (28+ according to him), the blood gets thick. Don't know how that is supposed to affect marriage, but I can imagine that he meant that the initial honeymoon-period sex won't be so enjoyable if you marry late. And for most of us indians who don't taste honey before marriage, this means a lot.

But for females, there are other reasons as well, to marry early. One female friend once told me that at a young age (below 30 according to her) females' bodies are stronger and more fit for pregnancy and fast recovery thereafter. As they grow older, pregnancy would take a heavier toll on their bodies.

Some elders have told me yet another reason for marrying early - marry early, have kids early, they're grown up sooner and you are done sooner with your familial responsibilities, free to live the way you like in your old age, when you are at your lowest energy levels. This comes from the traditional wisdom that one should work hard all youth, save money, make sacrifices etc. etc. hoping for a wonderful post-retirement life. It does make sense at some level though. Of course I don't mean to say that marriage is a sacrifice of any sort. However, implicitly we all, particularly married people, seem to believe that it is indeed a big one.

A lot of weird stuff keeps happening to me. Yesterday, my sister asked me the number of friends that I have. I didn't expect this kind of a question all of a sudden. I had never cared about keeping a count of my friends, and in that situation, I could only think of orkut. I have 170-something friends on orkut. I said an honest thank-u to orkut in my mind, rounded 170-something to 200, and told my sister the number. I then hesistated a little to ask her why she wanted to know the number. I did ask, coz she was staring at me, challenging me to ask the damn thing. And then she said what I have been hearing from my family members since I've started talking - that I talk very little. And she found it hard to believe I had so many friends inspite of my taciturnity. I tried to justify myself and prove that I am normal by saying that my behavior, and that of all of us, differs based on situations, and that I am indeed quite talkative in some circles. But I was not assertive enough, coz I was speaking in Telugu and I am bad at expressing myself in it.

My room-mate in my 1st year of Engineering at IIT Bombay had a similar observation. He felt I did not talk to anybody. I was indeed quite home-sick those days since it was the first time I was living away from my parents. Also, being from a small town, I realized I was quite behind the rest in terms of my knowledge about the hottest stuff in fashion, news, trends etc. I was also quite surprised at the kind of guys I found in the IIT - all weird guys, not at all geeks or nerds as I had been told, but quite the opposites in fact. The environment and people at IIT were quite different from what I had expected and I took a long time to get used to them. I did find groups which I enjoyed being a part of, and ditched those that sucked. I find it amazing how all things in this world align themselves to attain stable configurations.

It's funny coz till date, I've fit into very few groups. And there are very few people in whose companies I have been comfortable for long. My best company is myself. It doesn't seem to happen with others usually. Everyone tells me he can't eat alone in a restaurant, can't travel alone and can't watch a movie alone in a cinema hall. But I do all of those and I also enjoy them a lot. But I have some friends who are quite close to me and I can spend hours with them, and I enjoy each moment of that time as well.

A few days from now, I am going to join IIM Lucknow for doing a Post Graduate Program in Management, a.k.a MBA. I'll be one in a batch of 300 students - most of them guys, and a handful of ladies. Unlike my last academic experience, I won't be home-sick this time, having been away from home for 8 years now, lived in 4 major cities of India. I've even gone abroad all alone. I'm much more used to dealing with many kinds of people in different environments. I've gotten rid of many of my silly mental inhibitions. I am financially independent now, thanks to the banks who lend as much money as you want without the slightest hesitation, if you are an IIM student. And I am fully aware of what's the most happening stuff in every field. I am really excited about this opportunity to be in such a great place among the brightest minds. I will make sure from the start that I make the best out of each moment that I spend in IIML and use it to the full to achieve my goals in life, and have lots of fun at the same time. (Now I booze too.)

My Jiju, who does 'research' on nuclear fissile material at BARC for a job, is a self-proclaimed expert of economics and finance (both are somewhat different, I am told). Each time I meet him, he has something related to economics (let's stick to this) to discuss. His most favorite topics are Oil, Money & the Gold Standard and John Maynard Keyenes. The last time I met him, he asked me why the price of oil was rising? I said demand-supply and the falling dollar. He gave me a you-bloody-MBAs-are-useless kind of look and told me it was due speculation in commodity exchanges. In return I gave him an I-am-not-an-MBA-yet look, but he showed no pity. Wonder whether MBAs really know all that crap. Will figure that out in some time.

I happened to go to the Government Hospital at Bilaspur for a medical check-up. It was mandatory to get it done from there itself and get a certificate from the Civil Surgeon, who sits in that hospital, stating that I am fit to join IIM Lucknow. One of my next posts may be on my experiences in the Government Hospital. Keep reading my SochVichaar. Enjoy life.