From myths to Tinder, Ask Aakar Anything

To what do you ascribe the recent popularity of retold myths (by Devdutt Patnaik, Amish, etc) - is it just for the absorbing stories? Also, do you think stories such as the Mahabharat and the Ramayana provide any insights into the India of today?
Vinay Dasgupta
Is it just for the absorbing stories? I would say no – the stories are hardly absorbing – they are the myths that we already know, they have been retold, as you rightly put it. All cultures are warmed by the validation of things that they believe in. The other part of your question I think is much more interesting – do they provide any insights into the India of today? I think they do, I think if you look at, for instance, the Ramayana, and the death of Vali – we realise that Sri Ram's murder of Vali for no reason other than the fact that he was able to, and he used dharma as a reason – it shows us that morality is in a particular place in our society, and it's not in a particularly high place. The idea that if you have power, whatever you do is right, I think comes to a large extent from our texts. I think that the divorcing of morality from our public life, from our personal life, the reason why we have corruption to the extent that we do, a lot of that can be looked at through the lens of our myths. I think if we study them carefully, we will find a lot of answers.

Dating apps like Tinder seem to be more useful for casual hook-ups than long-term relationships. How do you think this dynamic works in terms of the Indian social context? Do women and men using such apps have different outcomes in mind?
Kavya
I would say, broadly speaking, no. All long term relationships begin with basic and casual hook-ups – you don't really know whether the person is right for you till you've spent some time with them physically, till you've spent some time with them in conversation. So, in that sense, Tinder only kick-starts the process, I would say, rather than turn it straight towards sex. But I would say this, that I don't think men and women use such apps differently: all of us are looking for the same sort of thing – we're looking for companionship, we're looking for love, whether it be physical or whether it be emotional. In that sense, I would say that its not very different, the way that men and women look at the app. I think that the Indian woman is looking for an independent life in the city and I think things like Tinder help that.

The educational system in India is in bad shape, what with impossible college cut-offs, general herd mentality and lack of any actual understanding. What changes do you think need to be brought about in India's mainstream education?
Aniruddha Sen
I would hesitate to dismiss it and throw baby out with bathwater, because it is true that with whatever shortcomings the system has, it's able to distil the brightest talent, and that is why IIT in particular, and IIM to a slightly lesser extent, tends to throw out such fantastic talent year after year, is that in many ways, it is representative of the kind of system we have: which is that of memorization and focus on certain things like maths and some of the sciences. So it does work in some instances, but I would accept entirely that for the most part it has failed. I think the failure is one of primary education. In my opinion, it would drastically improve this country, and its economy, and its poverty, if we were to have: A – good nutrition: 38% of all Indian children below the age of 2 are stunted. Now this is a physical stunting we are a small race, yes. But it also results in mental stunting. I don't that that the mental ability, the mental agility is all there in your later years because you have been deprived till the age of two. So nourishment would be the first, this is something the state needs to look at. The other thing is, I think, very good primary education focuses on thinking and independence. I think that if these two things change: one is that we are able to nourish our children till the age of 5 and 7 properly, and two, give them good primary education till the age of 10 and 11. The rest of it, in my opinion, will probably sort itself out in time. If we don't do these two – and I don't see any movement towards it – I think we'll be in deep trouble for a very long time to come.