An Open Letter to a Mech71 Friend

Earlier in the day, I had sent this letter to a mech71 friend but it has useful content for others of the world and therefore it is published here in the public domain too (with slight editing to make it more suitable and useful for public view)

A view of the home from where this letter was composed

Dear Vijay

After our discussion last night and a pleasant nap and bath, my mind reviewed our exchange of yesterday. They were spontaneous responses, well thrashed out there and nothing needs repeating but my mind went to one statement of yours to the effect – these are hard economic times and those who work for a living have to manage day to day – or something to that effect, and these were my thoughts on that

Vijay, even I do not have much money, but feel comfortable primarily because if one has one’s home to live in, it does not cost much to live in India in simplicity which is the happiest and most graceful way to live in a world where many suffer from poverty (When a rich friend here said he was considering getting a BMW, I said that is like a woman saying she is going to get a Varanasi silk sari for visiting a slum)  There has been inflation now for more than a decade but compared to West, life is still inexpensive in grace and simplicity, and what is better, one can even find part time help at very low expense easily although full time help has now become somewhat expensive.

I said that because, once you had mentioned that you could consider a faculty appointment in India on your visit to IIT Delhi, you were not a Ph.D. then and academic appointment for those without one are not very promising, except the very junior,  but now that you have one, there are very many opportunities in India in numerous private universities and colleges that have come up, where one can get compensated very handsomely. These are of three types, a minimal involvement is as a guest professor, A middle one as a professor and if one is willing to take up responsibility as a Director that pays very well and has excellent facilities for work such as a chaufer driven car, PA, peon, pantry for tea, attached toilet and bathroom in a large office furnished with table and chairs,  sofa set etc. for those who qualify for it and you most certainly do. Tempted by that (that and the urge to improve technical education even in the private sector as the quintessential educator) I have done such appointments in three different colleges after leaving IIT in 2001, However, never for too long, for another reason that is the dark side. In India owners of many private universities indulge in unethical practices to maintain their profits and as a Director even if one works out an arrangement to stay out of it directly, one does become an indirect or silent accomplice. Some such thing seems to have happened to Dr. Manmohan Singh too at another much higher level while he was PM. In case of higher education, some of the regulating bureaucrats are not only into collusion in this but perhaps also compel it so that all may share in the profit extracted thus from the public.

Because there is shortage of qualified persons in India for these numerous new colleges, these jobs are easy to find. If you ever considered them, apply from abroad because one gets the best deal that way and the college too may advertise that they are getting a British Professor as their new Director. Such appointment are open I think to age 70, although I am not familiar with most recent regulation about age. Rajat too had started a great institute and perhaps he still has clout to fix an appointment there because he is the founder of it, perhaps through Anil Sood, if you so desired.

I am not familiar with your citizenship status but new regulations permit near citizenship status to Indians through a CIO/PIO card that you could learn about from your high commission in London

Must say though, if you have got used to the quality of life in UK, that is a much better one than in India. But southern India cities like Bangalore, Chennai, and Coimbatore are cleaner and better organized than in North. There are some advantages in India for senior citizens and also Indians, one is the availability of domestic help, the other is if one is educated and from educated family background one has the perks of being treated like the elite and more so one feels secure amongst people. Being a first class citizen in one's own country is better than being a second class citizens in another even though the other country may be a better one, and there is no need to continue like that unless there are other reasons that compel one to. Further, in general, life is of low stress in India as compared to western more developed nations as per the general ethos. Moreover, if one arrives before retirement, one gets to contribute to one's mother-land and perhaps even a much loved mother if she is still living in India, for some time, at least.

My advise to all loved ones, born in India has been, including my daughters, prefer West when young, even if you are motivated to serve your own mother land, do work abroad for some time to get the best experience, and prefer India when old. Western society is much harsher to the vulnerable than India. It is for this reason I packed by bags once and for all at age 43, and returned to India for good, most of all realizing that one can never be fully comfortable in another home even if it is a palace as one can be in one's own, amongst ones own people in one's country of birth and childhood. It is always fun and very nice to go and spend time in the glittering lights of the city center but much better to return home when tired. Acquiring a bit of land from a housing society on the then undeveloped outskirts of the city (because land was cheaply available that way) where my parents lived, I began to develop a home there and also contributed towards the locality in which it was situated after naming the streets, planting trees and encouraging others to do the same, (When I first came here there was just a single ancient Banyan tree in the area for a mile)  organizing the other early residents into a resident development association etc. slowly and gradually in breaks and vacations from other work. It was this experience of organizing groups that provided the expertise of organizing Mech71 as a social group some years later while at IIT.

It is understandable that others would envy seeing that the area is well developed and green now as illustrated in the photo on top of this letter, but one would appreciate the long years of work that have go into it as a tree grows slowly even as little children do, to become useful citizens of the world if reared properly. However, it is never too late to begin a new project because that is a pleasure in itself and I and Rajat have been toying with another project in the wilderness, as sort of an executive/author yoga retreat if Rajat fancies the idea next year at our Golden Jubilee meet, something more suitable for our advanced age now,; he has the connections to make the idea successful and I the knowledge. His connections in the West may have withered away but those in his country of birth are still alive and throbbing and admire him still knowing fully well that what has gone behind his recent incarceration is a bit of the same thing that kills an unarmed teenager in Boston or Ferguson and chokes another to death on a New York street beginning with the most minor of indiscretion, not selling heroin on the street, but just plain old cigarettes, merely the sort of things that those who do not belong to the majority race have faced in different parts of the world through human history, those that Donald Trump now wishes to send back to where they came from, in case he is chosen by the Americans as POTUS; and  it seems this extends into courts and juries as it seems to have been in the jury ever so grand at Ferguson.

I think for a retired person, the most essential thing is to own their own home first in a locality that is nice and green to be comfortable with easy access to basic facilities though, and I am unsure of all your details to know how easy or difficult it would be for you to arrange one. Many choose the largest cities that are also the most expensive but there is no reason to with numerous quieter, cleaner small towns spread across the land that are much cheaper.

All this is loud thinking, because eventually every person knows his own circumstances best and I know little of yours but have put down my thoughts just in case any is of help to you or any other mech71er.

Vijay, at this stage of our lives when we are all past 65, done well or not done well, is hardly a relevant thought, to me as irrelevant has who got the gold medal in a debating competition in high school, or who the E grad in IIT. Those are all things on a canvas of the past like paintings on a wall that one hardly looks at. Most important thing to understand in life is that each person is unique with his or her own unique journey to follow. Those who try to follow the herd, compare or become jealous by looking at what they perceive as progress of another rather than fixing the mote in their own eyes suffer gravely. The universe is in reality an infinity and each person may be regarded at the center of it, since there is an infinity in every direction from wherever one is.

For me at this stage two things are important, as they might be for others too. First is that at this stage when health begins to fail to look after it so that we can remain independent as long as we live, and can manage our basic chores. This indeed becomes easier in India with domestic help.

The second is for a few of us who are of a spiritual bent to work for our audience with the Maker at the time of reassignment for our next life. Questions like how much good or bad we did in life, what we can do to atone even while in this body, what was our contribution to the world etc least of all to ourselves because that is really a very stupid and selfish thing to think of. However as an academic both of us are fortunate in having contributed to the education of others through even paid work that another working in a cosmetics industry for example may not be able to say or one working in some parts of the pharmacy industry that make medicine that harm can say (as for example perhaps the new pill Aggyi for ladies to make them feel horny) .

I spend a lot of time now through social media including blogger, face book and twitter to make any contribution as an international educated citizen for the poor, hungry, children, refugees, distressed of the world, and presently I am  a major international supporter of two US politicians and one UK i.e. ones with similar emphasis, these are Jeremy Corbyn , Senators Elizabeth warren and Bernie Sanders and you would find this support in many of my tweets on twitter if you glanced through them. Bernie sanders is doing well now and even Corbyn is emerging, but if you trace my timeline on twitter, my support for them began much earlier when they were not considered serious contenders. My most open hearted support was for President Jose Mujica of Uruguay earlier who in my view is an ideal example of world leaders just as Dwight D. Eisenhower was one in earlier decades. Earlier,  I  campaigned for welfare of unaccompanied minors reaching USA with a degree of success and yesterday I bugged President Obama again over the conditions of suffering of children in Gaza and Syria. The tweets are there for all to see and to Honorable PM Narendra Modi, whom I admire, on very many issues, even telling him very clearly when I did not see eye to eye with him as on a new land acquisition act and most recently on food inflation in India. I have tweeted to him that while 24 X 7 electricity is great, humans may live without it but they can not live without food, and the poor are distressed much by food inflation. Finally though he has come around to what I had told him at first. Often times it calls for writing a detailed blog post on the issue and sending them the link because if one sent the details in one go they would not have the time to review it right away.

These are all things that are not for becoming grand in anyway, as some unfortunately may think. Rather they involve grave risks because one annoys vested interests, some of the most powerful ones in our world presently.  However, as said that is of little relevance to me now in this last phase of life, than serving the Almighty. I do those things because I feel it raises my love for the Lord and also because they are a source of great satisfaction and happiness.

Nevertheless, when friends and close relatives try to demean some of one's activities as happens in such situations it is is initially annoying but on reflection very reassuring that what one is doing is not  irrelevant but significant; because friends are a microcosm of humanity that either ignores the irrelevant or calls it 'How nice' and works of truth and importance, including that of saints and prophets, as bull shit, narcissistic, crazy and numerous other derogatory names, out of their frustrations and anguish in life that most of mankind struggles with on a daily basis, for if something was really bull shit why would they even bother to pick it up, but unless one has submitted to the Almighty that unfortunately only a few do, frustrations  are inevitable in a life one struggles for, knowing fully well that all they have come to care for and worked for, in things of the world, is a house of cards that shall be blown away with one slight gust when the time comes for it, as it has for every single human and every material thing since the beginning of time.

Well there you are, just my two bits,

Regards 
Ashok M.