Talking Shop: Crossing the Kármán Line

“Where oxygen is gone

and our wings fail, we

are prepared to give up

everything in one last,

desperate bid to remain

in meaningful flight.”

— Sara Hecht

It is all around us and it is not pretty, but let’s face it – a tug of war was never meant to be good-looking. It is this marque of pulling that Sara Hecht talks of in her quote above, where rabble-rousers end up losing their grip on the rope, but still make a last-ditch effort at noise and high decibels. But cacophony alone cannot keep anyone relevant in perpetuity. Thus, the rhetoric is inconsequential, falling well short of making a difference to anyone anymore.

For those rubbing their hands and other bodily parts in glee over my words, I have a request – stop the rubbing. We are not talking of the elections or the results anymore, for there are more important issues that we face today. Stop warming the couch and bring out the conch. After all the noise, sarcasm and lampooning, it will be a welcome change to hear soothing sounds that lift the spirit, like the lilt of the shankh; it will also help govern our own Kármán.

What is the Kármán Line? Well, it is a line that separates Earth from space, encircling our planet at an altitude of 100 km, the very edge of our atmosphere. Named after Jewish aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán, it is the point where aeronautics ends and astronautics begins, with machines needing orbital velocity to manage stable flight.

Relax. India’s celestial ‘Kármán Line’ is fine, it is the one on the ground which is getting debauched, in line with morals being shunned, honesty falling prey to greed and scruples getting trampled by money or fear. But we have a home advantage; hard as they may battle, the rabble has lost the war. People are more aware than they have been for long. It is time to notch up gains from this awakening; time to weed out the riff-raff and bring in progressiveness; time to make us resurgent again. It is time to dominate this damned line.

What are the first steps?

For those who still have blinkers on, here’s news: we are already walking the first steps. Thousands of students took to the streets last weekend to protest against the NEET fiasco. The result: they got arrested. Relax. The students are back home and their message has turned vociferous, its tremors seeing no less an authority than the Hon’ble Supreme Court invalidating the ‘grace marks’ awarded to 1,563 NEET UG 2024 candidates, ordering a re-test. Thus, breathe free when you visit a hospital many years from now, knowing the doctor poking and prodding you with needles and mallets did not get there with grace marks.

Nearly 19,000 Indians will soon go loco. Lest that anecdote gets you worried, chill. Relax. All that’s happened is that Indian Railways has issued a notice to its zonal honchos, informing them of 13,000 additional vacancies for assistant locomotive pilots (ALPs), taking the total number approved by the Railway Board to 18,799. This is an over-three-fold jump in the 5,696 scheduled appointments announced in January. Given this backdrop, we should get cheerful and inhumane, for that’s the only way to forget it took three gory accidents and over 1,000 deaths to wake up those who should have filled these vacancies years ago.

Enough serious stuff… Nearly 190 Indians (in jest, removing two zeroes from the paragraph above) observed Yoga Day. As India prided itself on the world praising the ancient regimen and the United Nations General Assembly called yoga “a metaphor for the UN”, sundry politicians donned their track suits and pyjamas and went on an in-camera rampage. Their hard-to-fathom arm-flailing, tummy-belching and foot-stomping was anything but supple; hence ‘rampage’. These leaders managed to unite India in Laughter Therapy with this act of supreme sacrifice. May the Lord bless them with greater contortionism.

What are the next steps?

The next steps are easy enough to identify, but very tough to walk, for they are quite akin to walking the dreaded plank; and therein lies the first acid test for the new Government. With hawks (read ‘coalition partners’) keeping a close watch over their shoulder, senior ministers in the Modi 3.0 regime will have to find a universally-acceptable middle path to re-ignite the economy, rein in runaway prices, tackle surging unemployment and manage unrest creeping in across the country. A cool head and an iron hand will be needed to pull off this hat-trick.

That’s where the crunch will come and, paradoxically, present a maiden challenge for a first-time coalition Government. Union Budget 2024, expected to coincide with the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, needs to pull off an incredible balancing act. Corporate India expects lower income tax, higher capital expenditure and steps to curb food inflation. Smaller business units are seeking a boost for the infrastructure and MSME sectors and tax streamlining, along with relief from the Production-Linked Incentive scheme. Higher focus on and allocation for the healthcare and education sectors are also on the business wishlist.

In turn, the common man wants individual tax relief, respite from food and vegetable price hikes and increased yields on investments, coupled with lower payouts on loans. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has to start breeding rabbits fast, for she is expected to pull a fluffle of them out of the hat. At the back of the FM’s mind will be the fact that it was largely the urban middle-class that cost the party the majority in its third coming. Much of India’s 6-per cent tax-payers belong to this class and will be watching things very carefully indeed.

What are the final steps?

There are no ‘final steps’… This is an ongoing show, one that has to go on and on, at least till 2047, if aspirations are anything to go by. As this show goes on, keeping a close watch will be farmers with cries for MSP; India’s women with calls for safety and security; minority religions with pleas for tolerance and sensibility, tribal people and ‘lower’ castes with appeals for reservation and benefits; a belligerent youth with demands for education and employment; armed forces personnel with screams for long service and pension; gay activists with squawks for marriage licenses; and an aspirational middle class with squeals for sun-roofs and more BHP.

It you are worried about this common denominator of demands and calls, don’t be. Relax. This is the way better or good health shows up in a mature civil society, where people don’t hesitate to speak their mind or ask for what they want without fear or rancour. After all, can we call ourselves resurgent or progressive unless our people strive to surge and progress? Of course, it is not as if asking is going to lead to instant gratification. It is just a good start. Anyway, in our heart of hearts, we all know that some things will always remain just out of our reach, perhaps even just the thickness of one hairsbreadth away. But that’s good too, for it keeps goading and inspiring us to never stop searching for it.

End of day, we have to remember that at the Kármán Line, we have to sometimes quash hopes and desires, even relinquish the weight of our wings; for the less we have, the further we can travel in the vacuum of Outer Space. Thus, let’s spread our wings while we still can.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on [email protected]. Views expressed are personal