El Muerto Rata

aka the DEAD RAT. In order to bump viewership and attract some other ethnic groups to visit the blog I decided to go Spanish in the title. Just kidding. I had to read labels on a 'rat poison' package standing in Aisle 15 of the Home Depot to figure out this title. Sounds desparate? Well - its just a funny perspective on how our lives as a society have changed (at least in the major metros) over the past few decades. Disclosure - we had some issues with house rats recently (in case people got the wrong idea). A recent interview on a local public radio station with a Pakistani novelist called Mohsin Hamid further motivated me to pen my own version of what the cliche 'Rata competir por algo' (or rat race) is about. Mohsin has narrated a somewhat relatable opener in his recent self-help book called 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'. That the tectonics under Asia were causing it to rise was not new news, what with forecasts of the Mount (Everest that is) creeping ever so higher. Neither is cliched amalgamation of the Uber Rich and sewage a new scent. But his overall prescription is a good satirical point of view on what people tend to strive for and what they leave behind or sacrfice to get it. While not a Buddhism manual it is a good and funny read. What is rising in parts of Asia is definitely corruption, inflation (for the common man; aptly described in years gone by with the caricatures of Laxman), populations, poverty (on a per capita basis), pollution and other ills tied to the core of population explosions. In order to achieve separation from the billions and rise it requires ingenuity, sometimes formulaic approaches as Mohsin tries to show but in the end dumb luck at several turning points. It was coincidental that a month ago I got a call from a classmate of mine from B School. He resides in India and was visiting the 'land of the free' to see what was on sale. No kidding - he was here on business and decided to look me up. Admirable of him to invest time in trying to connect so I retruned the favor carving time out of my rat like pinwheeling to jump off and wander into the sunset. Not romantically but walk about in the various districts of the city of San Francisco - one of them being the Sunset. What I remembered was still true of him. He was born with a proverbial silver spoon or two in one or several of his orifices (therefore never a rat - more like a well fed hedgehog). Being well connected politically in India carries a lot of stature and power that help you rise above the noise. It gives you freedoms and affluence, mostly of time. What you do with this extra time is really yours to decide and can be wonderful if channeled in the right direction. He has for his part got involved in some enterprise to define what data security for example might look like. Whether that pans out in to a meaningful product the world benefits from is subjective but at least there is an enterprenuerial zest that is resulting out of the material affluence he has been bestowed with. Similar to the Google founders that had a back stop if they failed (to go back to a research position at Stanford), he too has been blessed to take chances, risk millions of his own wealth and take the plunge. It could lead to more rich filth than the sewer can handle or die in a whimper but at least he tried. So his life also tends to be colorfully corrupt is a given, with no true moral compass to guide him as he himself admits. While he has not according to his own confession - done anything criminal - his actions may not be palatable to most of us. There are risks inherent in his lifestyle but he calculates them to be worth the reward of doing what his free will tells him to do. He is indeed lucky that he can. Many of us strive for that freedom all along but might just end up in a box (or on it as the Home Depot showed) as the dead rat.