I'm stating a fact as bluntly as possible: our lifestyles are about to take a big hit.

The world economy -- and with it the India economy -- is coming unravelled. Please stop believing in bullish projections; the government and big businesses are just kidding themselves and kidding us that all will be well.

Our current world order, which we broadly refer to as our economy, has been built on too many untested assumptions. What we -- and our economists and governments -- firmly believe as solid bedrock is only shifting sand, and the sand is shifting uncomfortably beneath our feet. The superstructure that has been built up in the past two or three decades is far more than this sand will continue to bear.

We keep telling ourselves and each other that the shifting is only temporary, like a bit of stock market bearishness. But this shifting is not so temporary. Big adjustments are starting to happen which may take 60-70 years to completely settle down. These changes -- the collapse of an unsustainably tall tower -- will not end in our lifetime.

What does this mean? Firstly, it means that the kind of rich urban living that we take for granted is about to become impossible to continue. We cannot change our habits of living and thinking, but we are about to have them changed for us, most drastically and unpleasantly.

We can no longer live by intellectual labour alone. We are about to have a large amount of physical toil thrust upon us. Large numbers of us will die because they are unable to physically, psychologically or socially adapt.

Our children are growing up under the illusion that they shall live in a comfortable world like ours. I'm afraid that is not the case. Their lifestyle may resemble the lives of cotton farmers in Vidharba... and that is if they are fortunate.

Our living conditions will very probably resemble what is available in Afghanistan or Iraq. We shall all have to get used to living and dying with that level of daily discomfort, uncertainty and deprivation. Our cities will become largely uninhabitable due to a sudden drop in the level of infrastructure and of livelihoods. Jobs will vanish overnight, and so will power supply and water supply. Transportation will become patchy. There will be a huge drop in mobile, telephone and internet connectivity as well, and a huge rise in costs.

Savings will vanish overnight as markets and banks collapse. Galloping inflation will make currency almost worthless.

Our psychological and social skills will be the key determinant of of our continued survival. A vast majority of us, whose skills have wasted away due to easy living, will not make the cut.

All this is set to happen within the next two or three years.

I make this deeply uncomfortable statement because I believe it is true. I hope that understanding all this will help at least a few of us orient ourselves, brace ourselves, our kids and our old folks for the hurricane of events that is about to unfold with terrifying speed and inevitability. Knowledge and forewarning is what enables us to adapt and survive.

And yes: admittedly, I am stating this because I am deeply anxious. Sharing my thoughts with friends helps me relieve my anxiety a bit.

I really want us all to come out of our comfortable mental burrows and face our future with open eyes and minds. Our response doesn't have to be catatonic; we don't have to freeze up like rabbits caught in the headlights, doing nothing but waiting for the impact. It doesn't have to be blind panic... but it doesn't have to be pure denial either!

There is a very tiny chance that we can all strategize the best way to face the impending crisis, provided we recognize it early enough to take action. It seems wildly optimistic to think that substantial numbers of citizens can get together, discuss and act intelligently, rather than getting caught up in ego-battles. It seems even more optimistic that they can convince the government at various levels to be truly proactive and do something truly different.

But I prefer to believe that such things can and will happen in the months to come.

The rationale of our Satyagraha

A road is a road, a footpath is a footpath, a shop is a shop, and a bazaar is a bazaar. Is this really so difficult to implement dedicated-use facilities for citizens?

I understand that there are exceptions to every rule. There are times when one must be flexible and adjust. There are exceptional places where one simply cannot have a separate pavement for pedestrians, and therefore, one must come down to walking on roads. Also, there are times such as rush hours when no pavement will suffice, and therefore pedestrians must spill over and walk on the roads.

But what does one say to a city that has forgotten that there are norms of any kind? What does one say when a city's municipal corporation deserts its sense of maryada, and wilfully refuses to distinguish between road, bazaar, shop, mosque, temple and footpath? What does one say when the policing system has deserted its responsibility to safeguard the boundaries between roads, footpaths and bazaars?

Maryada is a sense of limits and boundaries. It is also a sense of shame -- of feeling ashamed when wrongdoings are committed. Sad to say, our "city fathers" as they are called have lost all maryada in both senses of the word.

Our "city fathers" (O, how shall I utter these words without bitter irony?) are the fence that eat the crops. It is an open secret that each hawker pays a substantial hafta to retain his right to loot public spaces. It is an open secret that these bribes go towards maintaining a huge parallel economy that involves both municipal employees and members of the underpaid police force, is it not?

Why then do we not join the dots and just proclaim that each and every hawker that we see is a symbol of corruption, a standing testimony to the power of money to overcome maryada and bend the morals of public servants?

A number of prominent citizens keep calling for a "war against corruption"... but they turn wishy-washy when it comes to the issue of hawking. Is it so difficult to figure out that as long as hawkers are crawling all over our public spaces, our collective war against corruption is going nowhere? Is it so difficult to understand that the any campaign against corruption is a complete non-starter as long as we are tolerant of visible corruption (a.k.a. hawking) roaming free on our streets and pavements?

In these confused, directionless and amoral times, I would like to propose a guiding principle, a simple axiom for governance.

Sahasi Padyatri's Principle of Civic Management:

Let roads be roads -- not footpaths and bazaars.

Let bazaars be bazaars -- not thoroughfare for vehicles.

Let footpaths be footpaths -- not bazaars, dumping grounds or gutters.

Fellow citizens, consider adopting this principle as a simple way to draw the lines and restore maryada to our public lives and public spaces.

Methinks that if we all resolve to treat the pedestrian's walking space as sacred space -- not to be encroached upon by hawkers, vehicle parking or any other obstacle -- we would immediately begin a return to maryada and an orderly, decent civic life. Can we please resolve to do so now?

Warm Regards,

Krishnaraj Rao,

Spokesman,

Sahasi Padyatri