A question that really baffles me and I often keep on asking myself is how much have we really progressed? I am very poor in economics and understand very little of it (though it was part of my syllabus till my graduation). Hence, facts and figures like the GDP growth rate or the foreign exchange reserve of our country makes little sense to me. More over I am not just talking about financial progress but the development of the nation or the society as a whole. What I am more interested to know is how much has the life of a common man changed? And even if it has changed has it made him happier than what he was before? I am very well aware that it is impossible to quantify social development but I am sure we can at least understand the trend. To make this calculation or measurement easier I would like take up the last 15 years starting from 1990 till 2005. Another reason for selecting this period is that we all been through these years and have seen the changes in our own way. This I suppose would help us to make our assessments better.

I would like to begin this measuring exercise by simply randomly writing down the changes that we have seen over these 15 years with out categorizing them in any manner. I would like both of you to make your own conclusion. Ok so let’s begin.

Changes – Economic liberalization, birth of new economy, internet, phenomenal growth of IT and ITeS, cell phones, FM radio, cable TV, multiple news channels, multiplexes, shopping malls, more flyovers and highways, private airlines, wider railway network, real estate boom, surging stock market, arrival of private insurance companies, re-arrival of Coke and Pepsi, growth of fashion industry, world wide recognition of Bollywood, multiple scams, rise in female foeticide and infanticide, increase in dowry death, rape and molestation cases, rise in corruption, farmer suicide, problem of child and bonded labourers, increase in girl trafficking and prostitution, menace of MMS, criminalization of politics, reservation and caste divide, Babri masjid and hindutva, Godhra and Gujrat riots, starvation deaths in various parts of the country, weaver suicides in Varanasi, rise in religious fundamentalism and the threat of militant attacks.

Well, I am sure there are many, many more such changes and both of you would be able to point them out. Now, it is up to us to decide whether we are on the right track of progress or there has to be some thing different. Are we over obsessed with the superficial or cosmetic changes and are ignoring the basic issues? I guess it is high time that we decide on this. Or else…

Sometime in October 2005 on a pleasant Mumbai night (as pleasant as a Mumbai night can be) I took the 10:22 pm Borivali slow back to work for another harried night of work. To kill the time I rang up Anirban whose number I had recently acquired and talked with him till Bandra. It was more than a decade since I had talked with him. I remembered the school days when we used to sit on the last bench and under the disapproving gaze of teachers and used to discuss such issues as the Gulf War ( now called as Gulf War I) the Reservation issue ( issues have a habit of hogging the limelight in an episodic manner) and of course the religious and caste divide of the country among other things like who has got the best lunch. Well, we passed out of the school and went our ways till that pleasant night (or was it?). We rediscovered our passion about such issues and found that the flame was still there although mellowed down a wee bit. We also discovered that although now there were no disapproving teachers to shout at us there still was this overhanging sense of a constricted feeling in the air which prevented the free discussion of meaningful issues. The prime culprit being the media – both the press and the electronic versions. It is dominated by a sensationalist and commercialized culture and lacks focus on pertinent issues. Then Deepak suggested something: A Community Blog to deal with real issues in an objective manner. So this is it folks