Parts of the pie
A harsh data point:-
People in India - 37% below poverty line
Members of Parliament below poverty line - I could not find any
source - http://nocorruption.in/members-of-parliament/
Wikipedia talks about 96% below $5 or INR 250 per day
source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India
Salary of an MP with allowances is around INR 45 lakhs. Just considering their basic salary it comes to INR 500 or more per day. They are in the <4 250="" br="" day="" earn="" in="" india="" inr="" more="" people="" per="" than="" who="">
source - http://discuss.itacumens.com/index.php?topic=94131.0
Who is representing this 37% of the people and their concerns ?
Living in an economic class and representing people from the same economic class is different from living in a higher class and representing people from a lower class. Because you need to get into the shoes of someone else to feel the pains and gains. In all cities, more than 50% people live in slums and offer low cost
services to the rest. They lived in horrible conditions and they
continue to live in there. Still India is sucking more and more people from rural areas and pouring them in to cities. We have already reached close to 50% on this front. Moving at this rate, we will have to only eat money or bugs (as published in The Hindu on 4th June 2013).
Recently TNPCB closed down several mineral water (more a potable water) units and know what happened there was a INR 5 increase in potable drinking water. We are left to pay higher money and wonder why water is not classified as an essential commodity for which demand based pricing cannot be implemented. With this kind of threat from water units, now court is asking TNPCB to re-sample water from dirty units.
There was an article on cleaning Cooum so that when rains fall, it can drain off. Where is it draining off. Is it irrigating villages or is it increasing underground water table. Unfortunately Cooum is seen as a sewage drain way and not as a water way even 40+ years after the initial Cooum rejuvenation program was drafted. This is pretty much the case with all cities. Poor planning - there is no sewage line, there is no water. There used to be a joke where an office assistant would be threatened by his boss that he would send the assistant to a forest where there is no water. Welcome to city - there is no water and you get a free all-in-one pollution package in a concrete jungle. Health and wealth are 2 different ends here.
Traveling in hot weather like in Chennai in a public transport bus that has pretty much no ventilation - You will come out with a smile from the bus as if you enjoyed heavy rain few moments ago. Hearing a politician's convoy with the "oo oo oo" sound in an AC car trying to choke traffic and make way in the most selfish manner is the most irritating thing ever. Even if they stop, they will spend some more time in AC car that is funded by the poor guys who are suffocating in the bus to reach their destinations. Should not they have basic courtesy to give way for us - After all, we are their "Anna data" (food givers)..
Law of the land
State owned public transport bus talks about footboard travel as a punishable crime. Similar is the case with Railways. However reality is that there are inadequate buses and trains. So people have no other option but to travel on footboard.
And years ago there was a railway official who stopped operation of new trains in Tambaram-Chengelpet section which were announced in the budget citing that only recently they increased the number of cars. Still at peak hours footboard travel is inevitable in this section.
Any vehicle can be stopped by policeman asking for vehicle documents. In most cases while some flee the scene without stopping for the policemen its those who are law abiding take time to show all the documents and then get clearance before proceeding further.
Day before yesterday the signal was already at red and a traffic policeman was stopping vehicles, a black scooter unmindful of both these just proceeded when I was waiting to walk across the road. Instead of stopping/chasing such people, policeman resorted to asking documents for vehicles that stopped.
Who is to be punished - is it really the people ? As per law more punishment is to be given to the one who forces others to commit a mistake. Going by this for each individual who is traveling on footboard during peak hours shouldnt such officials be caught and punished/fined.
Another policeman in un-uniform (or at least thats what I had to assume seeing the traffic policeman salute the person on the vehicle) who right royally comes through a one way. Its ok if he is urgently chasing a criminal but very often I see this when such privileged people enter the nearby police station and wonder who gave this guy the power not to abide by the law of the land.
Cant we create an environment where good acts are encouraged and its the people who commit mistakes have to bear the brunt.
What is the government doing for loyal tax payers ? Instead of encouraging them, they introduced VDIS to regularize the people who did not pay a single pie as tax. They are talking about Aadhar cards to properly distribute the tax money to the people citing inefficiency in the system. When there has been so much inefficiency in the system why till now we have been promptly collecting taxes and filling the treasuries of some rich people.
British rule encouraged people who supported British and were ready to work against their own people. It is at this stage most of our current official machinery was built which continues to be a pain in the neck for the good people. Long after they were gone still there is opposition in the country to do any good to the people.
Centuries ago in monarchy, people who were brave were serving the Kings but what is the fate of people who are brave and question the system today ? Just a quick reality check - Can I ask the policeman who crossed right royally on why he did not abide by the rules ?
Recently Arundati Roy wrote in "The Hindu" about foreign conspiracy in the anti-corruption campaign but I wonder when there are millions in the country and outside who are interested in seeing India corruption free what is her problem ?
In fact this happens very often - The same incident is reported by media from quite opposite directions. This is all the more true in case of Tamil Nadu where political parties have their own television channels airing perspectives that are beneficial to their party. So where is the discussion of paid news channels when already something similar is in place which works for select people's benefit. Isnt media confusing people ?
Labels: india, law
Which is top economy in the world
I hope a lot of hands will raise when this question is asked..
Lets go back a bit - at the dawn of 18th century country was the top economy in the world - China. Its coming back on top. All the best..
In 17the century...
Surprisingly it was India.
I happened to read this economic history of India which unraveled this fact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India
What kind of structure was there then ? There were a lot of traders and trade unions in India which were quite autonomous and not under the control of governments as was the model adopted by the West. Even today we follow the strict norms for business that were there during British Colonial rule to stop India from growing.
What was the basis of British economy ? British took all the land taxes (valued at more than 40 billion pounds) and cotton from Bengal and returned them as clothing back go India. They imposed heavy taxes on local clothing from being sold. They killed many people in that - this can also be seen in the film on Gandhi.
Surprisingly wikipedia also talks about 1777 when India faced a harsh famine and East India company took all the money out to wage war with Napolean and 5% of the population in India died due to this negligence. Thats a cold blooded massacre of innocent lives.
At the dawn of 20th century, group of countries declared themselves as superior currency countries and anybody who trades with them will be subjected to undue financial stress. Is there any fairness ?
I am not sure why such vital points are missing in history books in India which only projects things such British introduced Railways.
But time and again my mind revolves around one thought - what if guns were not discovered..
Labels: british, economy
Be Indian; Buy Indian brands
- for buying we need to create Indian brands.
This may sound Gandhian but whats very interesting about this proposition for any country is that what one citizen pays goes to an Indian's pocket.
Lets for a moment consider Pizza Hut a food chain which has invested in India. When someone buys a Pizza for Rs 200/- a good amount flows back to the parent company as returns on investment. There is this sweet little money that is paid by brand consumers just for the brand identity.
On the other hand lets take example of textile industry where India recently relaxed export restrictions to send million bales of cotton outside the country. This raw material comes back as a branded cotton shirt with xyz brand which our guys/gals are mad after..
This xyz company not only is in a position to bargain the export rates but also can dictate the rates at which the goods get sold in the market. So why do we need to give a huge sum to some one just for brand instead we should think about branding our own products not just for NRI but for the whole world.
When we eat Italian Pizzas why do we think that international audience will not be interested in our food items or Indian branded clothes for that matter. Its time we shed this conservative thought and move forward..
Some industries where can create distinct identity are textiles and food with our richness - we just need a name and everything else will fall in place. Then the day not be far when Indian hot dosas/chappathis will be the de-facto menu for meetings over lunch..
Relativity in Hindu Mythology
Just was reading about theory of relativity from Stephen Hawking's book
There was an example that stated that if twins out of them if one traveled at speed of light in space and returned then he/she would be younger to the other who was in earth.
That sparked the Hindu mythology story of Chakaravarthy Musukunda who went to fight for Indra to Indralok (somewhere outside earth). After a long fight when he returned he found his family and descendants already dead due to old age while he was still young.
More on Musukunda chakravarthy can be found at (Google of course) http://www.nagapattinam.tn.nic.in/sikkal-history.html
After several centuries Einstein came up with Theory of relativity.
Should we take serious look at things dismissed as bed time tales..
Labels: bedtime tales, musukunda charkravarthy, relativity
Allow Air and Stop Noise
I live by a busy road and even when my windows are closed I still hear the sound of moving vehicles faintly though.
While I would love to open the windows for air circulation but noise doesnt let me get fresh air.
Is there a way I can allow air flow and at the same time stop noise.. ?
A day without plastics..
I took a vow that one day I will not touch plastics and here is what I did..
A day without plastics
Wake up in the morning to see toothbrush handle is plastic so brushed with hand. The shaving kit handles are plastic and blade is plastic so cant shave. Wash my hand - oh my liquid soap container is plastic so can wash but no soap. My bath soap doesnt have a plastic packaging - good I can bath but with ice cold water as hot water switch is plastic..
Then on to breakfast - oh no I cant touch my refrigerator most of it is plastic. Call pizza shop but my phone is made of plastic. With bad hunger I went to a hotel to take some breakfast - oh whats this the serving plate is plastic. So I had to look for a hotel which will serve in non-plastic ware. Fortunately found one nearby and finished my breakfast. Home and office were near so dint have to use my car's plastic cased key.
Enter in to office - had to swipe my id card to get in but thats a plastic card. Waited for someone to open and then entered right behind. Office cube is modular and partially made of hardened plastic. The worst part is right from monitor to keyboard tray everything is plastic. So even if I escape touching the cube walls I would have to touch my keyboard and mouse - Thats against the vow so took a day off. On the way out of office, I had to press a plastic button to get out again followed the same tactic I used for entering..
Back home - Idea of turning on television sparked but what is this remote control is plastic and more than that switch is plastic. I can live without office but not without TV. Now I again remembered my vow and started to replay the words again. Got myself a cloth hand glove and switched on the TV.
Suddenly power went off and I was in total dark. I dint want to further manipulate my vow so refrained from switching on lights. Got some sleep - in the sleep I could do all that I dint do right from the morning..
Then realized a day without plastics is only a dream today. I couldnt imagine a life without plastics thats when google told me that plastics were invented in 1855 - I couldnt take my eyes off that page for a while.
We talk about drug addictions but drugs are used only by a few and still they have a choice to live without. But plastics have addicted the mankind so much and that too without giving much of a choice to live without it. Atom bomb during the world war left a lot of people dead with radiation impact lasting for next decades but plastics have infected people and environment with strong YoY growth it will soon overtake the causalities of atom bomb. Though students once in a while raise voice against it citing ill effects they still carry plastic water bottles to school. Plastics are still heavily manufactured and there is no disarmament of plastics in sight.
Hoping that one day we will launch an explorer and dump all plastics to Mars or Jupiter and go back to 1854 to rewrite history..
Labels: plastic day
