We see “development” in Hi.Tech city, Hyderabad. We take pride in it. I wanted to highlight some of the notions of development in corporate world.
Mirror Buildings in a place like India.
Maintenance of these buildings is also very costly. You can see almost daily one person hanging from the roof of building cleaning those mirrors.
First they build mirror buildings and then they put curtains behind those mirrors.
Then they run ACs inside more intensively.
Carpets in office.
Maintenance of these carpets is very tedious. One person is office cleans these carpets daily with a vacuum cleaner. They also give contract to some outside person to clean these carpets. If there are dark spots on carpets then they can not be cleaned with the help of normal vacuum cleaners. They are cleaned with the help of two specially designed vacuum cleaners, one of which first does a wet cleaning with the help of soap water and then another soaks and dries the wet thing.
Use of bottled water.
We have polluted water so much that supply of clean water is not available easily. Being dependent on bottled water more and more.
Usage of Light in day time.
First they build mirror buildings, then they put curtains over them. Inside there is no natural light. One is bound to tube lights and bulbs and they are also used in excess.
Use of wrapped sugar and tea and many more drinks.
Use of plasma TVs at many places.
These plasma TVs keep on showing you various advertisements 24×7 to adopt and promote such a kind of life style. They keep on showing you that if you do all this then you will be valued more, you will be priced more by others.
Use of plastic knifes, spoons and folks.
Use of plastic, paper cups.
After use they are disposed.
Use of tissue papers in toilets, dining areas and many more places. One can easily see several dustbin full of tissue paper waste daily.
There are several such companies, at several locations in world.
This is just a glimpse of “development”. There are many more things which are invisible.
They call it “Development”, I find it “Theater of Madness”. Where this development is leading to us?
1. Global warming.
2. Cutting of Trees.
3. Consumption of natural resources in a linear fashion. Excessive/unnecessary usage of resources. Resource depletion.
4. Pollution of land, water, air. Most of the waste is non-biodegradable.
5. There are many more problems which are not directly visible. Like, improper distribution of resources among people which leads to feeling of deprivation, exploitation, opposition, corruption, wars and world wars.
If this is the “development” then what is the goal of it?
Goal is just to increase Profit, Pleasure and Comfort and to Increase one’s Perceived Value in market.
Is there anybody who is satisfied by this? Is there anybody who feels secure in this market? Is there anybody who feels really comfortable within?
It is obvious NO.
So what is the solution? Solution is Right Understanding at the level of every individual.
How it can be archived? By influencing Education System.
What is Right Understanding?
Understanding related to:-
Self
Family
Society
Nature.
Tribulations of A Fledgling Mind 
🙂
Day-night cricket matches too
Look at the positive side, their is a whole economy running because of this 🙂
Agree with most of the points.
The mirror-building concept is basically from European countries where, because of degree of cold, such architecture are needed.
But India is a hot country and needs suitable architecture for itself.
But thats not, as I think, in anybody’s mind, a notion of development. Its just a luxurious environment.
If these buildings need more people to clean and maintain them, then I like them. What else can be called development than getting more people employed.
What’s wrong with bottled water that comes in re-usable 20-l cans?
Also, you do realize that when you have multi-storeyed buildings, it is not possible to use day-light on all the floors right? If you do want to use the day-light, then you would end-up wasting a lot of space,
“Is there anybody who is satisfied by this? Is there anybody who feels secure in this market? Is there anybody who feels really comfortable within?”
What has the market got to do with the buildings?
@Gaurav Somani:
Thanks for the comment.
Unfortunately this is what we have left with:-
1. Profit centric economics.
2. Comfort centric sociology,
3. Pleasure centric psychology.
What is has lead to? Already written in the post.
For how long this economy, society and psychology can sustain?
We need to see a global picture and need to identify the root cause of problems.
@Anonymous:-
Thanks for the comment.
We do not make such things which are not at all required just because many people are needed/employed to construct/produce them.
In fact if you see the condition of Hyderabad, what do you think, a person who is not in IT industry, how easily he can sustain in a place like Hyderabad?
He is bound to become corrupt. I hope you are able to understand the point that cost of living in Hyderabad has become very high after IT has come, because it has given IT employees more capability to pay.
I do not say that their salaries should be reduces or anything like that. It is just that even if you employ 100 times more people to clean such mirror buildings it is not going to change the situation. Infact problem is not at all there where we feel it is.
Is it a good sign that we are being dependent on bottled water more and more?
I say NO. It shows me the level of pollution of water in country. You can easily notice the scarcity of clean tap water.
See ultimately we need to think what we are doing? how we are doing? and what it is leading to?
We can continue doing whatever we are doing and end up killing ourselves in next 50 years. Is that we want? is that development?
If not then what is? This is where we need to think.
There is a need to think globally and to find out the root cause of problems.
I am pretty sure there are a lot of people who are doing well in spite of not being in IT. What IT sector has done to hyderabad is creating a lot of employment, not only to those who are employed directly. But all the smaller businesses that have come-up around the IT sector. For example, restaurants, catering services, multiplexes, retail sector, real estate etc.
And why did the cost of living go up? There was a lot of influx of migrants from other parts of the state and country leading to a lot of demand for limited supply. This naturally makes the housing rents and prices to go up.
Regd bottled water, Are you going to drink out of a stream even if there is no pollution? Even at home, people use aquaguards to filter the water that has already been purified in the water works. How do you define clean tap water? The tap water I get is clean but not clean enough to drink.
i’m speechless 😀
@Anonymous:
Thanks again for your comment.
I will come back to the point where we started. We do not build something non-efficient and too much resource consuming and then employ people for it. What we need to do is the understand why do we need something and then build that. Take for example, mirror buildings. I find them very inefficient and there is too much unneccesary resource consumption in them. We can not justify unnecesary resource consumption and then say that it is providing employment to people. In fact if we see in current economy then resource consumption is what is promoted to increase the employment and to increase profit among people. Question which is there is, for how long such a system can sustain? Are resources on earth infinite? Is this a sign of progress or development?
And even the measures which we are following in production of building of something we need to see if the means to them are maintaining cycle in nature, otherwise we end creating pollution of land, water and air and then become dependent on bottled water. Is this a sign of progress or development?
What generally we feel is, what is happening is right and then we try to build a system over it but the flaw is there in the basic system itself! There we do not question.
Demand definitely makes a resource more valuable but not only the demand. It is the supply also. If nobody is ready to pay high for a thing then how can its price increase.
It is actually a profit centric economy, comfort centric sociology and pleasure centric psychology we live in, which doesn’t have consistency and continuity.
I hope I am able to make my point.
Actually these issues require big discussions and this place is not sufficient for it. I would be glad if you could reveal your identity and talk face to face, that way we can bring up more constructive discussion.
With Regards,
Devansh