Grand Visions

In 2050, entrepreneur Oorepairy Manjunatha officially became a billionaire. He had spent the 2040s running a civil engineering firm which specialised in dismantling unsafe and dangerous constructions from an earlier generation. Oorepairy Constructions did not exactly live up to its name -- it engaged more in destruction than construction. But according to Manjunatha, it was constructive destruction.

Of course, I am using terms which are uncommon in 2050. "Entrepreneur", or "Civil Engineering" will no longer be in use in the 2050s. Like the flyovers and underpasses that Manjunatha's firm will eventually dismantle, these terms will be seen as archaic, outdated, perhaps even dangerous. The public will have other buzzwords which will make more sense to them (but not to us - hence, I won't use them here). However, one word will survive the churning of the decades -- billionaire.

Mind you, the word "billionaire" will carry a slightly different meaning. By 2050, inflation will have wiped out most assets, so Manjuntha won't be as rich as you imagine him to be. Still, a billionaire in 2050 will not be too different from a millionaire today. A person with 10 lakh rupees may not be a member of the super-rich, but is still a person of social standing. Similarly with billionaires in 2050.

Manjunatha saw himself as a pillar of society in 2050. There was a long story behind this. At the time he was born, the city of his birth had begun to cannibalise itself. Choked by traffic and smothered by garbage, his city's politicians had responded the only way they knew how -- with grand plans and extravagant schemes.

They scoured the earth for the biggest, grandest solutions they could find for traffic problems. They flew from country to country, to search for the latest technologies in garbage management. They returned with French planners, British architects, American designs, Chinese equipment, and Japanese funding to turn Manjunatha's city into the greatest, smartest, bestest, most beautifullest place on the globe. They failed.

The city was now peppered with huge infrastructure projects which began everywhere and led nowhere. Half-complete flyovers zoomed over broken underpasses, screeching to halts in the middle of the sky. Underground tunnels lay incomplete, rocks collapsing from their roofs. Even projects which were successfully marked 'complete' were worn down quickly with overuse. The City Once Beautiful was uprooted like an anthill by a plough.

Anger began to simmer. Useless politicians! Hopeless bureaucrats! Such grand visions, unmatched by grand implementation! Such a waste of money! People began to clamour for a new group of heroes to replace the old ones.

Now, you might expect this to be the moment where Manjunatha made his name, but you would be mistaken. Even though he was in his late teens around this time, and young entrepreneurs were receiving accolades and doles from venture capitalists, these weren't his great years. Instead, these were the years of the Even Grander Projects.