Flying Pigs In The New Year

The watershed between the end of a year and the start of a new one marks a time of celebration. In countries around the globe, New Year parties are now as standard a part of the calendar as Sundays. The Christmas to New Year week is, in today’s globalised world, a festive time when work goes on the backburner, and many take a vacation. Flights and hotels in tourist resorts are chock-a-block full, while trains and buses to popular destinations are packed like sardines in a can. Visits to “home- town” have been substantially supplanted by basking in the sun on the beaches of Goa, learning skiing on the slopes of Gulmarg or just enjoying a white Christmas in Shimla. A few go to snowy Switzerland, sunny Spain, or Singapore shops – even the Dubai desert (and, of course, malls). For all, it is the festive season, and there is merriment in the air; a time of “goodwill to all and peace on earth”.

For those so inclined, it is a time to reflect, to think of the proud achievements and disappointments of the year; also, to look forward to new beginnings, opportunities and hopes. Many make New Year resolutions, and greetings for the New Year are often supplemented with wishes: a list of things that they hope may happen. A few, like I, have given up on resolutions because one has learned that, though made with sincerity and good intent, most – like UN Resolutions on the Palestine issue – have little chance of being implemented. However, that does not preclude making wishes! The old proverb is, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”, sometimes modified as “If wishes were horses, pigs would fly”. Despite knowing that I will not fly, here is my list. 

Wars and conflicts between countries will end, with all borders, as they are today, being frozen for the next 20 years, and troops withdrawn. In the next two decades, humanity will progress to the point where it realises that such conflicts over land are meaningless in the days (20 years from now) of free flow of goods, services, data, ideas, and people across all boundaries and barriers. As a result, the concept of boundaries that need to be protected or extended, will lose relevance. Competition between countries will be in the arenas of development, sports, culture, R&D, innovation and creativity.

In 2023, the economic indicator will no longer be GDP, but a new index (equity-weighted GDP) derived – in its simplest form – by dividing the conventional GDP by the Gini coefficient. Thus, high income equality will boost the index. Of course, experts can suggest more sophisticated ways of doing this, including the factoring in of sustainability and changes in natural capital (land, forests, water, air quality). The concept of gross national happiness will be further developed to include and measure all “vital parameters” and will, in due time, be widely accepted as the most important indicator.

Technological breakthroughs in green hydrogen, solar-cell efficiency and battery storage will vastly reduce costs, while an unexpected innovation will open the doors to cold fusion. Carbon capture and its use for energy will become economically viable, helping to reduce the atmospheric carbon load while simultaneously reducing the need for fossil fuels. Millets and other crops will replace rice in the farms of Northern India, altogether eliminating the problem of stubble burning and improving air quality in the vast belt from Delhi to Kolkata.

The New Year, I wish, will usher in an era of happiness, health and harmony for all.  

These macro-level wishes are to signify the writer’s global awareness and concerns (mainly to impress the reader!). But there are also many, many, more mundane – possibly trivial – wishes. Could all TV studios have specially designed microphones that cut off any speaker who exceeds a reasonable decibel-level, and does the same to all those broadcasting fake stories or spreading hatred. Meanwhile, in 2023, TV news channels will actually broadcast news!

Cities will privilege pedestrians over motorised vehicles, footpaths will actually become usable by them, and roads will stop looking like the cratered Moon. F1 drivers will no longer be recruited as bus drivers, and motorcyclists will accept that they are not on a racetrack. While Mumbai can aspire to be a Shanghai, it should stop turning into Venice during every monsoon; Bangalore and Delhi may miss a seashore, but that is no reason for them to transform into an archipelago of islands whenever it rains.

We will all claim back our human form, from the porcupines we have become: the slightest touch and we bristle. Sentiments will not be hurt at the smallest provocation, and the police and judiciary will not act with their present extra-ordinary speed in such cases. More importantly, all of us – including leaders – will learn to laugh at ourselves, to take and make jokes without malice. We will revert to our Indianness, with its many subtleties, ambiguities, and nuances, and not fall into the Western dichotomous mind-set of good and evil, with us or against us. Creativity and art will flourish, finding free expression through various media, enhancing our sensitivities and India’s soft power.

Technology will help us bridge the many schisms in our society, with innovative models ensuring disproportionately greater benefits to the disadvantaged. It will also facilitate devolution and decentralisation, with industry, services (therefore, livelihoods), and power moving to rural and remoter areas. Inclusive innovation – accessible, affordable, and available – will be the touchstone for relevance. High quality education, health and social security will be universally available.

Finally, since New Year is always so joyous, why limit it to once a year? Let us celebrate New Month, twelve times a year, with the same spirit of goodwill and good cheer. Better still, like the unbirthday party in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, let us celebrate un-New Year for 364 days each year! 

*The author loves to think in tongue-in-cheek ways, with no maliciousness or offence intended. At other times, he is a public policy analyst and author. His latest book is Decisive Decade: India 2030 Gazelle or Hippo (Rupa, 2021).