For some time I have been thinking about the purpose of my life. I work for a mid-tier software company in India. I have spent almost all of my professional life in this firm. I saw it grow from a small group of enthusiastic collegians writing code for fun, to a serious consultancy oriented company geared to improve the lives of it’s customer, and to make their wallets lighter, through careful calibration of human productive capacity, it’s organization by means of carefully tuned processes, and it’s delivery by means of structures aimed at capturing the hearts of customers. I see myself as an improved version of the merchants of the hoary past – indeed this improvement is not a choice but a necessity arising out of competitive global markets.

Permit me to launch into a large leap of thought – indeed, to touch upon the event which stimulated me to write today. I visited my daughter’s school today. We were invited to a function called the school’s annual day. It comprised mainly of students performing plays, songs, dances, and so on. In the midst of this was a beauty contest of sorts, except it was cultural talent, rather than beauty being judged. As is common amongst public contests of such nature these days, the public were also asked to rate the best student.

The students themselves showed up all that they possibly had. Some sang, some recited poems they had written – very poor stuff, mind you. There was a student who delivered Antony’s speech on Caesar’s death – I doubt if he realized that this was a meant to rouse the audience. But anyway, my judgment of the quality of the event is not the point. The point was massive participation in public demonstration of talent, its evaluation, and possible recognition.

Indeed, if we sit up a bit and look around, this is a major theme of modern Indian life. Reality shows, song and dance contests of every possible form dominate the TV scene. The entire educational system is dominated by competition to qualify for the jobs that pay the most money, or else, substitute power for pelf. News is dominated on one had by the inane resurgence of democratic judiciary, and on the other by reports on the heroics of our business lords – Ratan Tata, Laxmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti, and others. Indeed, India as an economic state is looking at itself with awe, confidence and vigour.

Folks of my generation never had it so good. I remember mocking Americans because they wiped their tables with paper with retro-Marxist glee – now I do the same. It’s a bit of an irony. We never anticipated this rush of well-being when we were young. During school, I remember reading numerous newspaper essays on the pernicious effects of population. Today we live, and indeed thrive, in a global economy, where our multitudinous hordes, give us a rare advantage.

I don’t think it’s just the numbers. I think early civilizational progress set the tone. We’ve been wondering about stuff since before it became fashionable. That wondering is really what pushes civilization. (I’ve been reading a translation of Siva Purana by someone. I highly recommend it.)