It finally comes off as a breath of fresh air when people can talk your language, quite literally. Especially after the much publicized, ultimately dud of a TV interview people were served up with some weeks ago. So its quite possible to speak exactly to the point, without being ambiguous and pretentious, grandiose even. It was a great read... RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's talk with Mumbai school children couple of weeks back was a brilliant piece for a number of reasons and not just because he said that 'ours' will be one of the greatest economies of the future. Leave alone, 'walking the talk and talking the walk', even 'talking the talk' is a generally tall ask.
The RBI governor's address comes as a bright gleam in a starless, mysterious backdrop that even the deepest and most complex things in the universe can be explained with clarity and ingenuity. He proved that 'simplicity is profound'. Because what indeed could be more demystifying and complex than explaining things like how banking interest rates work, how home loans get paid off, how inflation and insurance works. I have have always wondered why things meant to work 'for the people' are never really understood by them. You can never really explain interest rates except without a calculator or a spreadsheet. Or understand, don't worry. You never dare ask what is the work of a banker, economist or a policy maker involve. Those are deeply guarded secrets shrouded in secrecy and complexity by a very capable and successful cloak of jargons and financial rhetoric.
Simplicity and innocence are fast dwindling reserves and no one is aware or bothered even. The prime KRA of many of the top bosses in esteemed organizations and committees is to keep things off-limits to the common man, not by openly putting a 'No Entry' sign, but by complicating and encrypting it with names, numbers and policies that are not supposed to make sense to an ordinary man, so that RTI (Right to Information) cannot touch them. Don't worry, schools and hospitals are extremely competitive ( a proof of our thriving economy) and not ones to be left behind. Recently I heard a playschool claiming horrendous things like "path breaking and comprehensive solutions for quality learning and teaching" - please note you could interchange path breaking, comprehensive, quality and still make the same sense or nonsense. Where the hell is the child in the above corporate tag line? The hope in all this is that if we can chew and digest these, rocket science is not out of reach.
Anyone who knows his stuff well or is an expert ought to take his wares to the common man - be it arts, economics, politics and even finance - maybe that's what Rahul Gandhi secretly meant when he spoke of "empowerment". At least let's hope so! I wish people were as simple and entitled as that portrayed in the Maruti advertisement where after a long, scientific explanation, they can just ask, "Toh kitna deti hai", quite literally. So who will shout out about the "Emperor's new clothes" and ask naively, "But where are the clothes"?
The RBI governor's address comes as a bright gleam in a starless, mysterious backdrop that even the deepest and most complex things in the universe can be explained with clarity and ingenuity. He proved that 'simplicity is profound'. Because what indeed could be more demystifying and complex than explaining things like how banking interest rates work, how home loans get paid off, how inflation and insurance works. I have have always wondered why things meant to work 'for the people' are never really understood by them. You can never really explain interest rates except without a calculator or a spreadsheet. Or understand, don't worry. You never dare ask what is the work of a banker, economist or a policy maker involve. Those are deeply guarded secrets shrouded in secrecy and complexity by a very capable and successful cloak of jargons and financial rhetoric.
Simplicity and innocence are fast dwindling reserves and no one is aware or bothered even. The prime KRA of many of the top bosses in esteemed organizations and committees is to keep things off-limits to the common man, not by openly putting a 'No Entry' sign, but by complicating and encrypting it with names, numbers and policies that are not supposed to make sense to an ordinary man, so that RTI (Right to Information) cannot touch them. Don't worry, schools and hospitals are extremely competitive ( a proof of our thriving economy) and not ones to be left behind. Recently I heard a playschool claiming horrendous things like "path breaking and comprehensive solutions for quality learning and teaching" - please note you could interchange path breaking, comprehensive, quality and still make the same sense or nonsense. Where the hell is the child in the above corporate tag line? The hope in all this is that if we can chew and digest these, rocket science is not out of reach.
Anyone who knows his stuff well or is an expert ought to take his wares to the common man - be it arts, economics, politics and even finance - maybe that's what Rahul Gandhi secretly meant when he spoke of "empowerment". At least let's hope so! I wish people were as simple and entitled as that portrayed in the Maruti advertisement where after a long, scientific explanation, they can just ask, "Toh kitna deti hai", quite literally. So who will shout out about the "Emperor's new clothes" and ask naively, "But where are the clothes"?
