A Terrible Waste of Brainpower
during the walk this morning, i noticed something somber. at 7 am, a woman was picking at a large fallen palm leaf. it leaf was dry, and sitting on the sidewalk, she was peeling it off, apparently to put the dry palm leaf to good use – probably a basket may be a toy. a pathological efficiency freak that i am, my immediate reaction was that this is a brain under utter misuse, a life is being wasted.
you see this at every single turn in the daily life – young men and women doing things that are quite extraneous.
* at the office entrance: one person to check if you have a badge while entering the office, one person doing the same thing after you enter.
* in the evevator : one person to press the buttons, seated on a stool inside the carriage
* at the coffee counter: there is a person to pour coffe in your cup. another on to add milk to it
* at the apartment block : one watchman for every gate, another to open the gate when you arrive in a car. a gate that is kept partially open.
* at restaurants : a person manning a coin-operated phone booth. people serving food at a buffet – one person per dish.
clearly these are gainsome employments for millions in india that can’t do or find any better. but imagine, how much of good could could come out if these people could be put themselves to better more productive work. what could a 6-months of vocational training do with their productivity and their own personal self-worth? multiply that by about 700 million, what could you see?
i see a revolution. i see a renaissance.