Rethinking economics, Culture, and work: One observation at a time - Shashi Bellamkonda

There is a charming rural myth that roosters crow at sunrise. It is a lovely image: the golden sun peeking over the horizon, the bird greeting the day, and the village waking up in harmony. I am here to tell you, from personal experience at 4:00 AM today, that this is a lie. The rooster does not care about the sun. The rooster does not care about my sleep schedule. He crows because he can. And he starts well before the light creates even a suggestion of dawn. ❖ The paradox of the modern village Visiting a village grounds you. It pulls you out of the abstract world of strategy and metrics and places you firmly in the dirt. But it is a modern sort of grounding. I am sitting here with my mobile phone. The WiFi is excellent. I can check global markets, read the news in New York, and send instant messages to my family. Modern amenities are all here. Yet, just outside the window, the rules are different. The culp...

Growing up, travel was as much about the process as the destination. My family lived in Delhi and Madras, but our roots pulled us back to our ancestral village via Warangal and Hanamkonda. I have a vivid memory of the Grand Trunk Express pulling into Kazipet station. As kids, we were fascinated by a specific operational quirk: the locomotive had to reverse there. It was a mandatory pause, a mechanical ritual that defined the journey. Warangal then was a quiet agricultural market, famous for chilis and tomatoes, and known for the Regional Engineering College (REC) and later, the KITS college. ❖ The Long Pause and the Sudden Shift For decades, time seemed to move slower in Warangal than in the metros. The landmarks remained the same; the pace was leisurely. But development often happens like a bamboo shoot—years of invisible root systems followed by sudden, vertical growth. The formation of Telangana as a state in June 2014 acted as that catalyst...

Walking through Hyderabad or any major Indian metro, the energy is palpable. Construction is everywhere, tech parks are full, and the traffic—well, the traffic speaks for itself. But when you look at the workforce data, you realize a significant portion of the population is missing from the formal economic picture. The numbers are stark. While the global average for female labor force participation sits around 51%, India is currently at about 32.8% (according to 2024-25 PLFS data). That is an 18-point gap. Why is this happening, and more importantly, is this actually a problem for families, or just a problem for economists? ❖ Why the Gap Exists It is easy to blame a single factor, but the reality is a mix of economics and culture. The Income Effect: Paradoxically, as some families earn more, women often withdraw from the workforce. In many sectors of society, a single income supporting the family is seen as a status symbol. ...

There is a peculiar comfort in black-and-white cinema. It simplifies the world into clear moral arcs, where heroes are tall, sacrifices are dramatic, and the background score tells you exactly how to feel. I was recently revisiting the story of Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis, immortalized in V. Shantaram’s 1946 classic, Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani . It is a film that many of us grew up hearing about—a cinematic bridge between India and China. But as I dug deeper into the history, I realized there is a vast distance between the "Amar Kahani" (Immortal Story) on screen and the gritty reality of 1942. When Neighbors Were Allies It is hard to imagine today, looking at the frozen tensions along the Line of Actual Control, that there was a time when India and China were not just neighbors, but allies in spirit. I was recently thinking about 1938. Europe was on the brink of war, and China was being ravaged by the Japanese invasion. In a gesture that seems almost impossible in ...

The Philosophy of the Push: A Small Observation on Indian Doorways There is a specific moment of low-stakes confusion that happens when you travel. You approach a shop door, your muscle memory engages, you grab the handle to pull—and your arm jerks to a halt. The door doesn't budge. You look up, and there it is, often taped right next to a digital payment sticker: a sign that says PUSH. ❖ The Muscle Memory of Safety If you live in the West, your muscle memory is trained to "pull to enter" almost any commercial building. This isn't just a design quirk; it's usually a legal requirement born out of historical tragedy. Fire codes in the US and Europe dictate that exterior doors must swing outward—in the direction of egress. The logic is grim but sound: if a crowd inside panics and rushes the exit, their collective body weight should push the door open, not seal it shut. So, when I travel back to India, and I see doors like the one below, my Weste...