Rammohan Susarla
Bio
Writer seeking metaphysical fulfillment by publishing meditations and ruminations about the world.
I am a Techie turned Business Analyst who found his true calling as a writer this journey spanning 12 years has been incredibly rewarding.
Stories (60/0)
Will The Omicron Variant Be The Proverbial "Last Straw" That "Breaks" Us?
Just when we thought that the worst is upon us and we have resumed our pre-pandemic way of living and working, the Omicron variant is making its presence felt, and that too, how!! Right from even vaccinations not being effective, to its high transmission rates, and with no known treatment that is effective against this variant, the Omicron variant comes at a time when hope was rekindling. Moreover, the West, which was in a self congratulatory mode, having achieved high vaccination rates, now finds itself confronting the scourge again, and that too, bang in the middle of its annual holiday season. Indeed, Santa Claus has been interrupted!!, and Christmas ruined with the possibility of 2022 witnessing yet another round of lockdown.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in Humans
India Is Going Down A Deep, Dark, Genocidal Rabbit Hole, Decades In The Making
Much like the fictional character, Alice in the all time popular children’s fiction tale, Alice in Wonderland, there is much that is foreign and unfamiliar about “New India”. This is a country barely recognizable from what it was even a few years ago, or a decade at the most. From open calls for genocide against minorities, to the very unreal contradiction of headline management proclaiming the country as a superpower, to the pathetic on the ground realities, a disorienting and disassembling bizarre feeling takes over whenever we attempt to analyze what’s wrong with the nation. Of course, as the cliche goes, “we reap what we sow” and the present rut that India finds itself in is the culmination of decades of apathy and self serving policies perpetuated by whoever was in power, no matter the “ideological color” that they belonged to. As genocide becomes a reality, what with Millions of Mutinies (to paraphrase the late V S Naipaul, the great writer of Indian origin), taking place everywhere, there is a nagging sense that we are approaching a tipping point that can very well swing the popular mood and take us all down the rabbit hole of violence and god forbid, a civil war.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in Humans
Why I Think 2022 Will Be As Bad, Or Worse Than 2021
It is that time of the year again. As we approach the New Year 2022, there are Millions of predictions made about the year ahead and how it will turn out for each of us. Right from Astrologers to domain experts to the columnists, there is no dearth of soothsayers ruminating on how the new year would likely to be. So, I join these humongous multitudes, hoping that my “lone voice” would stand out in the “cacophony” of the ones coming out with their thoughts on the New Year 2022. To start with, I disagree with anyone who says that 2022 is going to be the year when we “turn the corner” as far as the pandemic is concerned, and those who see positivity in the “gloom and doom” pervading the current discourse. While I am not a Cassandra, nonetheless, if the experience of the past two years is anything to go by, it is premature to declare victory, especially in the context of the super spreading Omicron variant. Indeed, I would go as far as to say that 2022 would be the year when mutations of the Coronavirus would “overwhelm” us and leave us flabbergasted, and exasperated, and most importantly, helpless.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in Futurism
Do You Get The Feeling That The World Is Spinning Out Of Control?
The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus comes at a time when the world is especially vulnerable, battered as it is by the repeated disruption to economic and social life. Indeed, I would say that the Omicron variant can very well spell the death knell to the nascent economic recovery that most nations worldwide were beginning to experience. Moreover, with so much media hysteria about this variant, it is likely that panic responses would ensue like lockdowns and bans on air travel, being announced at short notice. This is already happening as can be seen in the multiple travel bans that most countries have imposed on the African countries, from where this variant is spreading worldwide.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in The Swamp
Utopia For Realists: Compassionate Capitalism Can Save A World In Crisis
Neoliberalism has brought the world to crisis It is an understatement to say that the world is in crisis. Indeed, from climate change to gross inequality and wide inequities to conflicts and war creating desperate refugees and the present pandemic, there are no dearth of problems and crises befuddling the world. At the root of all these crises is the neoliberal capitalistic tendency to put profit before everything else and the rapacious greed and the sheer craziness of neoliberal market fundamentalism is such that naysayers and even those doubting the "system" are dismissed as cranks and worse, shunted out and persecuted as heretics. So, if we have to find solutions to our problems, we have to start with reforming the way our societies are ordered around the insatiable quest for money at the expense of everything else.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in The Swamp
Why Do Indians Who Migrate To the US Excel, Whereas India Continues To Lag In Innovation
Every time we hear reports over how Indians are taking over Silicon Valley appear in the press, there is a paroxysm of celebratory and chest thumping coverage in the media. Right from laudatory messages to straight out fawning, we just cannot seem to shake off the highs and the kicks about our compatriots in the US scaling greater heights. Whether is Satya Nadella of Microsoft or Sundar Pitchai of Google, or the latest addition to the ranks of successful Indian immigrants, Parag Agrawal, who was named as CEO of Twitter, there are many instances of Indians who upon graduation (invariably they are from one of our IITs) migrate to the US and then lead lives of accomplishment and fulfillment.
By Rammohan Susarlaabout a year ago in The Swamp
We Are All Drinking The Kool Aid Of Aspiration On LinkedIn
Back in college, we were told that networking is the key to success in the corporate world. Taking a cue from our seniors, we used to mob visiting alumni and recruiters who came for campus placements. While exchanging business cards (those were the pre-internet days), we used to listen starry eyed at the perceived pearls of wisdom from those who had "made it" big in the real world. Looking back a quarter of a century after graduation, I wonder whether we like everyone else, were simply "drinking the Kool Aid of aspiration, now that I realize how many actually responded to our calls and requests for meets among those who we thought were part of our network.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in Journal
Welcome To The New Weird, The New Normal Of The Post Pandemic Age
The Covid 19 Pandemic disrupted the world in previously unthinkable ways. Who would have thought that at the dawn of the New Year of 2020, that we would be forced into lockdowns, quarantine, and would have to forego what were the bases of our existence before the pandemic struck. Even as nations worldwide emerge cautiously with vaccinations, booster doses, and the like, there is a lingering sense of "weirdness" about our lives. Indeed, The New Normal of the Post Pandemic Age is anything but what we consider "normal" and is instead, The New Weird.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in Humans
Why Do We Feel So Overwhelmed and What Do Moore's Law and The Law of Diminishing Returns Have To Do With It?
Why are we feeling so Overwhelmed? This is the Age of Overwhelm. Right from routine everyday tasks to our professional work, we feel stressed and burdened with the sheer amount of effort it takes to complete them. No wonder Gen Zers and Millennials are experiencing burnout and are quitting their jobs in large numbers. Indeed, the Microsoft Work Trends Report 2021 puts this so-called The Great Resignation as affecting nearly half of the total workforce in the United States. Not only is this due to the Pandemic reorienting the priorities of workers and professionals worldwide and making them reevaluate what they want from work and life, this is also due to the increasing complexity, accelerating pace of life, and the lack of adequate returns commensurate with the time and effort spent at work.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in Motivation
The Immortal Xi: What Xi Jinping's Record Third Term Means for China and the World
Xi Jinping, the president of China, is no ordinary politician. Even by the standards of authoritarian China, where leaders are worshiped and feted by a fawning body politic, Xi has broken new ground in his attempts to fashion himself along the lines of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the legendary Chinese statesmen, who had a larger than life impact on China and by extension, on the world. Indeed, as the Sixth Plenum of the CCP or the Chinese Communist Party concludes today, it would mark a significant inflection point for Xi as he attempts to consolidate power and continue in office for a record third term.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in The Swamp
Is Joe Biden Another Gorbachev?
Is Joe Biden, for no fault of his, presiding over the decline and the collapse of the United States? Much like Mikhail Gorbachev, under whom, the erstwhile Soviet Union broke up into several "stans", Biden too seems to be the President under whom the American Empire is unraveling.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in The Swamp
Neoliberalism Failed us. Let us at least Salvage The Present, Even if We Do Not Have a Future Worth Living For.
It would be an understatement to say that Neoliberal Capitalism is dying. Right from gross inequalities and inequities of wealth and access to goods and services, to environmental destruction to glaring deficiencies in the way public services as well as the “wealth of the commons” is distributed, neoliberalism as an ideology and as a working model on how to run our societies has failed. Indeed, the only good that has come from this grotesque concept is that the Top 1% have seen their incomes and wealth grow exponentially to the point where the rest are locked in a desperate “race for even to survive”.
By Rammohan Susarla2 years ago in The Swamp
