The Panic Sphere....

The world is probably becoming like Micheal Crichton's sphere, feeding on fear and panic. In case you have not read the sphere, let me put in a summary I found on the net, here it goes..

"A team of scientists are brought to the middle of the Pacific where they are informed they have been selected as first contact specialists to investigate a crashed UFO that has been discovered on the ocean floor. Entering the craft, they discover it is really a ship from Earth’s future that has been thrown back in time through a black hole. At the heart of the ship is a mysterious sphere. After one of the team recklessly enters the sphere, the group find themselves in contact with an alien entity and the habitat under attack by jellyfish and giant squids which appear to have been manifested from out of their worst fears."

A few colleagues of mine indulge in the stock market. Although I follow the markets (Not of late though, it seems have gone to the netherworld), I can't call myself too much of an investor. Each time I hear of the markets collapsing, I would ask my friend as why it has collapsed and the response would inevitably be linked to a collapse of another market elsewhere in the world.

There is a theory to identify root causes in every problem using a method called the 5 whys. Essentially, you ask "why" 5 consecutive times in order to zero in on the root cause by the 5 whys. Apply this to the market collapse, I'm pretty sure at the end of 5 whys I would end with the cause as the crash of some other Asian market. My point is the panic. Possibly, each of the markets is feeding off the negative sentiments and panic in each other and is becoming a global disease. May be they should just turn off the television, the internet, all forms of communication and stay disconnected!

I say this not just in the wake of the crash of the markets. Last night, Mumbai was in encounter again. One thing which I have noticed during the 2003 blasts while I was there, is that the communication is cut off immediately. I have seen this even in the recent blasts in Bengaluru. Why are communications cut off? Not the 5 Whys, but the root cause that I see at the first why is that it prevents the spread of panic. There are other reasons too, but I strongly feel that this is the primary reason.

The resilience. This is a facet of the Indian. The ability to comeback almost as if normal after something as terrible as a blast it great almost to the absurd extent. I at times am confused whether its a severe "I don't give a damn, we're too strong for your crap" attitude or "I am a loser, there's nothing I can do?" attitude. I constantly live in the hope that there's more of the first than the second. There's possibly a third, the wonderful world of optimistic belief that tells you good always outnumbers the bad. My dad constantly reminds me of this, but it will take me time and experience to understand, I guess...

Until that point, I live enticed in this sphere, that is connected so well, strung up to propagate the good, unfortunately, the bad as well...