Mountain of light

So the sensex is going to touch 10,000. The papers and news channels are full of it in anticipation of when the sensex will touch 10,000. There is talk of market growth, booming economy and a general feeling of well-being around what with the sensex being at its buoyant best. Except, I feel like an odd man out in this whole bull business. I mean so the sensex is scaling unheard of heights I don't know what it means for me as an individual. I also don't know what it means for my present and future. I think it is just a sign of our times that the general mood of the nation depends on the performance of the stock market. On top of this when you hear that only a miniscule percentage of the population is invested in the stock market you begin to wonder what the hell is going on!

Also in these papers I read in one of those little news stories, which are not PR sponsored or sensational in any way, which said that India had met the WHO targets on reducing leprosy in India. The news story said that India had completely eradicated leprosy from India. That to me is more heady news any day than the sensex. I mean so smart people will always manage to make money with the sensex being at any level. However, how often do I hear that a disease has been eradicated from my country? India can now rid of itself the baggage of pictures of poor people with bandaged hands and legs, about those movies on how lepers (how I hate that word!) were outcast by their families. We have now have one reason less to term people as untouchable.
As much as I am against timing of statements on important days, I think it was only apt that this announcement was made on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the media also tracked various social indicators? The argument about GDP not being the best way to track economic progress is so now so old but still no one pays any attention. Yet, year after year, we go to Davos and trumpet our GDP growth. Its disgusting how cheap we sell ourselves to the altar of GDP growth. Why shouldn’t these indicators also be part of the annual budget speech? I mean so our biggest boast to the world is that we have this huge population, which then transforms itself into a huge market. So don’t we want to know how our biggest asset is doing? Does it have jobs, does it have two square meals a day, is he educated, are his kids going to school?

I know that the day the sensex hits 10,000 the papers are going to be full of it. The editorials will talk about the glorious rise and rise of the sensex as will be the Sunday magazine editions. There will be more talk about expensive lifestyle options to spend the profits earned from the stock market.But somewhere in all this I also hope that their would be talk about how India went about eradicating leprosy. About the men and women who made this possible. About how we can learn from this and apply these lessons to other diseases that affect us.

Do I hope in vain? I hope not.