The frenzy of Money

It may well be my reaction or even overreaction to the events that this country witnessed since the liberalization of 1991. The people who were into their twenties during that year and onwards are considered to be the real beneficiaries of the LPG policies that India embarked on following a near fatal foreign exchange crunch. Do these people think differently? Do they approach life differently? I belong to an earlier generation who were born to parents of the inter world war years whose main motto was thrift, conservation and even suffering to save a paisa. In my quest or my tendency for a quest to identify and trace the roots of a particular behavior, I have found that the war had a tremendous influence on a generation which was on the verge of starvation and scarcity. The idea or the reality of scarcity was very real in the time of my parents’ childhood and even early adulthood. Food was what the local folk produced, clothing was what was available in the textile stores and buildings were of a certain kind and style of the times. There was definite limitations on the options available. My paternal ancestors’ dwelling was originally built as a place for keeping the implements of agriculture later on modified to be a dwelling place.

In comparison on my maternal side the dwelling was modern with porticoes and more than adequate ventilation a certain style of the times a remnant of the Portuguese style. Money was not really a necessity those days except for studies and may be travel both of which were sought only if necessary and possible. The monetization of economy was limited. There were no electricity bills, telephone bills and water bills since the first two were absent and the third was locally available. I remember the days with no electricity and only the wiring and switches and as children we used to play around with the switches with no penalties or scolding because the power was awaited. The evenings were lighted by kerosene lamps and anyone venturing out would make a torch of dry coconut leaves lighted and rhythmically heaved to provide the oxygen and breeze for the light to go on. I am an unlikely candidate for writing on these because soon the situation changed with the arrival of the electricity connection, torches powered by cells. It is only my extrapolation backwards that powers these comparative thoughts.
I can live in the yesteryear in my imagination. To such the LPG was a change in the environment and by the late 90s the generation that matured by then looked at a scenario totally changed although they never knew it. To them money was not a scarcity, products were not a in shortage and spending was not worth thinking. Perhaps making and investing predominated over spending which went without much thought.

Amidst this though, I do observe a kind of frenzy and a change of priority at various levels. While with the Indian Oil corporation I felt that the corporation was bewildered and did not know what to do with the changes. There was an ageing population that was mentally retired and there was a young group and in between were people like me although I might fit in very well with the latter except for my bend that gave birth to the kind of inner adventures that this blog is trying to capture. I saw the frenzy in Indian Oil Corporation , a kind of Indian Wotan if there is one and one of the topics of the training department was “Changes in ways of doing things”.

I saw it with Rajagiri College when they rapidly expanded into the newer educational opening up into engineering , MCA and so on and the kind of frenzy the powers were in.

But more importantly I saw the behavioural changes in people. I saw in it my roommate of IOC days, Mr. Dhinakaran and also in my wife. Dhinakaran moved on to BHEL and to Infosys, one a heavy engineering co and the other an IT company. He rapidly moved from Trichy to Chennai with his parents and got married to the daughter of a rich man. I saw the changes in his behavior. The scene had suddenly changed to making money and nothing else. Or everything else was secondary and out of the radar. And I saw it in my former wife too when she started earning like a windfall. The behavior and the tones of language changed more than the normal. That the circumstances can make such drastic changes in man was surprising to me. I am unable to say whether they are aware of it or whether they deliberately shed an old skin in favour of a new.

And I saw it in an unlikely candidate a friend of mine who had rootings in the language and literary side as well who however has mellowed and is aware of the uncertainties.

What does this bade for the kind of adventure that I am blogging on? First of all is an achievement independent of the circumstance? Or even the people who make the circumstance possible? Samuelson’s question in the elementary text book on economics as to whether the people would achieve howsoever their talents may be if they were transported to a desert? My great grandfather on the paternal side achieved well and amassed land in his time to leave for his three sons one of whom renounced and joined the priesthood. My grandfather could not boast of any such achievement.

My great great grandfather on the maternal side also achieved and built six houses with grain storage (arayum perayum in Malayalam). Down the line they did not. In fact such lineage became a burden as they could not shed the false pride and move on to the newer times that demanded flexibility and even meanness at times. My point is that personal achievements are not as personal in fact. One is fortunate to be at a certain economic clime without burdens of the past. I am not discounting the value of achievement , but one who can achieve well with this attitude that one’s achievements are the result not only of one’s own abilities, but due to standing on the shoulders of an economy that is the result of a previous generation’s struggle, is to me more of a MAN or a WOMAN.