Inflation Vs Beggar

This is a first hand account of my interaction with a beggar which turned out to be so interesting to me, that I thought of sharing it with all.

To begin with I was moving in a hurry to reach office because of some pending works that I had kept for the next day. The bus conductor handed a bunch of Re 1 & Rs 2 coins, as my stop has arrived. It may be appearing, why would he give me money for traveling in his bus? No. there is a peculiar habit of conductors at Bangalore, whatever note (currency) you give them they give you the ticket minus the amount written on back of it. At your stop if you asked for the balance amount they would pay or it’s their silage!

Let me come back to the point, I was rushing towards my office and suddenly an appealingly pathetic figure, downed by sickness and hunger, appeared before me. Usually I do not have a habit to encouraging begging / beggars (It appears to me that begging to beggars is the most lucid, tax-free option to earn un-audited money.. J ), but some how I did not liked to ignore him and since I was still holding handful of change in my hand. So I dropped a coin of Rs. 2 in the box he was carrying. Uninterestingly he took that coin in hand and told, the prices are sky rocketing, I should give him at least Rs. 5 as alms. I was just shook by the remark he made, wondering how the alms are going to be costlier if this inflation and price rise persisted.

Interestingly I handed him over a Rs. 1 Coin more and moved on. But I was still pondering on what had been already quibbling in my mind. So I decided to go ahead with writing this incident.

Before going ahead, I had narrated to one of my friends at office, incidentally he also had a beggar experience, where a beggar demanded him Rs.10 as alms. He gave him the same and moved on later some one told him that beggar / bugger already had a 3 storey building and his daily earnings amounted to Rs. 2000 or more per day.

Jahan char yaar...(meeting friends)!!

my this post aims at introspection and perception about friends, by sharing my experience about meeting with my friends from school, and digging into what is a friend for me.


its been 8 years now, i look back at those seven golden years that turned the immature, introvert shy, chubby guy who could be easily taken into chop, almost by everyone, into a confident, smart and sensitizing young man who could dare to take almost any thing in its stride. It is my school from where i feel that i am still bonded, and had the, 'never forgetting friends', in my life.


I had been lost into my world for quite some time occupied by my own priorities, seldom talking to my good old friends from school. Around this time, the news came that two of my friends are joining me at Bangalore. i was so excited that the feeling of meeting the old friends almost overwhelmed me and we suddenly decided to meet over a Lunch at some place on approaching Sunday. the meet was decided seeking everyone's convenience and ensuring that no one missed the chance.

As decided we met on fixed venue, with little excitement wondering, what would have changed in my friend in past 8 years? to this, non of us had changed so far. after so many year, sitting together and chatting about old days, everyone was behaving the same way as they used to do at school. 6 hrs long chat,just talking about now and then, was binding and poignant. the innocence , the gestures of true happiness, and the thoughtful talks have wrapped our conversations so candidly that, none of us could remember looking at our watches. We all had a great time, being together.


i still wonder many a times that can i ever be so close to anyone else in my life? i had had many a friends during my Engineering and MBA. but the kind of bond that i share with my inmates from school, is unmatched(a few, are part of exception). because i felt that, as i grew, the friends became more for ego, choices, greed, cheating, time-pass, numbers and personal & professional benefits. this may not be true for all but a few, but that is a fact. We may say something to please others and speak rubbish about the same behind their backs, do you think We are friends? and if you do think We can be part of any friend circle, then i would say, we certainly believe in lying to ourselves, rather than facing the 'truth of life'. i feel that there lies a lot in being true to yourself rather being an unscrupulous and indignant and presenting a fool out of you. during all these years, i learned a very nice thing and that was, "making good friends".


i dedicate this post to all my unmatched friends to whom i shall never forget through the journey of life.

Chasing the Millennium Development Goals:

Budget 2008 has appeared as an instrument to achieve political gains, to many, in the forthcoming elections, by the ruling party. But to me it appears as a well crafted and directed budget, which apart from fulfilling the political gains of ruling party aims to appease the noble cause driven by World Bank, which is one of the premier lending agencies to GOI.

In a report, by World Bank on status of achieving millennium development goals for year 2006, it clearly indicates the intentions were to accelerate the Agriculture, Health and Education, development program in the country during and post 2007. The budget for FY08-09, indicates, that it is clearly in the line with the report, as all the three stated sectors had received the best sops, during the coming financial year.

In past couple of years we have seen a steep rise in rate of development of India. The excerpts from the WB clearly indicate this:

But the concerns are not these. We all know that growth for last two financial years had been striking; it can be compared to the boom that American economy saw during 1970. The good part is that we are in growth mode, but the bad news is that we are also slipping into same recession that America witnessed in 70’s. Thus, it was required by India to avoid this situation.

The growth should be sustainable and in accordance with the supporting factors. Thus this time, our TAX aka. Finance minister did some thing really well, in the last year of his tenure.

It had been bought up by several newspapers that the sops to farmers in the form of waiver of loans shall drill a hole of mammoth figure in economy. The bank shall be levied with extra burden.

In my opinion, “ Its no point having a growth which shall never help to remove the Tag of Developing Economy from India”. As from the figures that are suggested in the illustrations above, that the rate at which poor are becoming rich is good, but contrary to that the number of poor, in India is still increasing. Thus we need to have a system that should ensure growth in a manner, to ensure development of all. The current budget is confirming to this, and shall help remove the hurdles of economy.

But the other things that should have attracted the attention, was improving the health services of poor, in India. The staggering decrease in maternal and child mortality rate in rural areas, as compared to last decade, need to be put in line with the development plans. The shocking figures of, 24% of people dead due to diseases were killed by TB alone. Though we see, a lot being done but there is still a hall (big room) left for improvement. The focus on developing health services in rural India as well as free consultation for BPL population would have been more attractive than reducing the taxes on LSD’s alone.

Credit calling......

I come here with a real account, of tragedy of my life. The agony is such that, it leads me to wonder, what should I do? Should I laugh or should I be angry? But truly being part of it I felt its worth sharing as it may have certainly touched all of us, at some point in time.

I would not like to spoil the interest with all the silly talks which are growing the content of this account.

EPILOGUE:

India shining, and shining with a pile of reforms that set the economy roll on a roller coaster, within them came the liberalized credit policy that increased the ensuing plastic money circulation. I am not against any of those things that had been the part of my details, till now coz I already said that I saw India shining with them. Hence forth as indicated my account revolves around the liberal credit policy and supporting acts which have given us, social workers a.k.a. Recovery agents.

THE HAPPENING MOMENT:

As my other friends said, I too was quite sckeptical about telecallers, who would never know when to call? Some times you enjoying a good scene from your favourite movie, or you are happy that your phone kept silent for sometime, or you are enjoying the moment of your life,hitting in a loo! And suddenly your fone rings to enquire, would you like to have a credit card, or an insurance policy? I would bluntly reply "no!!!!!!!".

But with growing ambitions came new dreams and new dreams never come for free! They too require money to be fulfilled. Hence, I decided to own a credit card. I browsed through net interacted with friends to help me zero on a card that had versatile features like

Low interest rates

Longer grace period

Life time free (as told, I would always look for the definition of "Life Time Free")

And also a free add-on card

To my amazement I found allmost all cards have similar basic features(my research was tossed) so I thought, any call for credit card, I will take it. And here rang the phone, with unknown number flashing on screen. I picked up the phone with a shrewd smile and said, "Hello".

SERIES OF CALLS:

After decision to own a credit card for N number of benefits associated with it, I was actually waiting for the phone to ring and ask me for a card. Gradually based on my understanding I selected two credit cards that were to offer services suiting my needs. Say, it was my luck or intuition of credit card agents that, I was contacted within 3 days of my decision to own a card, and that too from the bank that I had zeroed. Well there were other calls also but I did not heed to them coz I was clear at decision.

After the confirmation for that I need a card, there were a series of calls from the executive who would turn up any time to collect all the necessary documents. After all he calling me twice and me calling at least 5 times he turned up to my office to collect the documents.

While filling up my form I had a lot of questions, I asked them but the blank look on the face of executive as if I was insulting him caused me to refrain from doing so (may be because, I could not get credit card for last 3 attempts, because of not being available at Bangalore, or asking a lot of questions to the credit card company agent). Any how after preliminary round of Q&A, I was happy that finally once again I have succeeded in filling a credit card form. The executive left stating that there would be a verification call soon. After an hour another agent tuned up and I witnessed all the formalities without asking a single question.

After two days the same lady from Bank 1 again calls up saying that, she does not recognize my photograph in photocopy of my PAN card. The brief conversation that we had was;

LADY: hello sir, this is ******** calling from **** Bank, you have applied for a Credit Card of our Bank.

ME: yeaaaaaaaaaah!!!

LADY: sir, I am sorry to say that but your photo is not recognizable in the photocopy of the PAN card; hence you need to provide a photocopy.

To this I said; why do you need to have a photograph of mine photocopied from a PAN card, coz anyway it is going to be hazy, owing to small size of card, instead you could ask your agent to collect a photograph of mine.

LADY: OK sir, I will get back to you soon.

Later in the day there was a call from, another bank stating that the address proof you have given has the address written in hindi.

LADY: hello sir, this is ******** calling from **** Bank, you have applied for a Credit Card of our Bank.

ME: hmmmmmmmm!!

LADY: well sir, in your address proof, your permanent address is given in Hindi, can you please provide some other proof like copy Passport or your Driving License as your address proof.

ME: madam, I have given you copy of my driving license, as address proof!

LADY: but sir, it is in Hindi I need address proof with address in English.

ME: Madam, What are you saying? Hindi is our national language and one need to learn it, don’t you know Hindi at all?

LADY: ok sir, I will see what could be done!

AND FINALLY:

I am still waiting for the card to be delivered. After 2 months one bank was generous enough to send me a message stating, “We regret that we could not process your application for Card this time, Sorry for the inconvenience.” Another bank did not even bother to do so. And finally this was my fifth time not getting a card. But to this time I had a chance to try again as the sms stated “we could not process your application for Card this time” so there lay chances of trying again…. And I will, till I succeed.

Disclaimer: all the incident quoted are real life account.

INDIA....FY08 An Economic Epilogue

MARCH is approaching .....
it seems, everyone is quite worried about what the coming financial year would bring to them? Fin Min giving positive signals about sixth pay commision and a little negative signs about corporate taxation has moved every eye towards the pre-budget talks that, air on each and every news channel these days . The impact is so huge that even PAK polls could not keep out this topic at bay for some time . Despite the Fact that this Budget does not do any good to Common man, but the higher pays and better paying capacity per capita has covered the major part that come under this umbrella of tax.

Financial closure preparation have started, for the calculation of Tax and it is a busy time for Individuals to workout the extent of scissors of IT department that shall be running through there paychecks.

While going through an article by Venugopal "Reading the Finance Ministers Mind" it some how lead me to cogitate over the financial tenure of India for Last five year. i found that most of the policies that were framed during this tenure were kept for short term. The solutions that emerged for the economic problems were targeted towards the short term treatment to the problem. what was more evident is that Mr. Chidambaram worked like a doctor who had a pill to every problem. his adamant approach has been one of the reason for couple of economic decisions that have put markets to trail the growth. But on the other hand he had also provided a foolproof taxation structure that had grown the govt. revenues manifolds. his uniform taxation policy provides an immediate relief to every individual and push them to pay there taxes in time. All in all we are in one of the finest taxation regime of the country.

But taxation cannot be the only edge that Indian Economy could afford as, we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world. we have to be a little more holistic and farsighted in our approach. Better economic models need to be developed to match the growth that we are facing, apart from this we need to have better policy structure that allows maximum growth (currently we use the policy as a shield to curb the growth which in turn is suppressing the requirement of better economic models). we should be little more insulated towards the growing uncertainities in the international economies. But, every Dream needs a start to realize, lets hope that, this is a start to India Growing Globally.

Valentine buzz....

Being a younger me (around 10 years back) 14th Feb was the day that, caused sensation of butterflies in my stomach. i guess none had been untouched by this feeling at a point in life. even today i feel the same way sometimes. but when i look at me being occupied by the sense of being special to someone, a thought strikes my mind. is it just one person, who shall be special for you in life?

i see these days, youngsters have a Varied perceptions regarding Valentine's day.. for some its just proposing to a new found love, for some its an attempt to impose there love, for some its just a reminder to say that I LOVE YOU!! i had never been sckeptical about these things, B'coz a lot of my friends do that often every year ( I dont keep me out of that either). but what irks me the most is that, why do we seek such company ? ( i mean having a boyfriend or a girlfriend).

I remember a few of my friends who think if you did not have a girlfriend you are a BOOO.... sort of thing. A few are too scared to have one (they find several excuses to avoid a girlfriend). fortunately, i have been at both the sides, and throughly introspecting those parts of my life. i still wonder, can it be just one person to make your life special... to make you feel specal? frankly speaking i had millions of crush since my childhood but i cant even recall a few to say that they were my love.

infact beyond criticism, the good part of this story is that, it blessed me with a few good friends.

Coming to the point, i had been raising throughout this article.. is it just one special person who you think is special for you ?

well seeing from every angle i applause the courage of those few who say, yes to this question! but on other side i laugh at there microscopic perspective... !! there is whole world attached to each soul, and one need to respect there feelings in every possible way. the point that i want to make is, how could you be Happy? if the world(friends & family) around you is not!

The Racist's Paradigm

Recent row in Australia against our star cricketer*, “Bhajji”, again let us stand united and protest against, what Australians did? After all, the decision came out and it was proved that Australians did instigate Bhajji, to retaliate and tried to prove that they were Nick-Nack. During this whole episode we have howled a numerous slogans against racism and Australians, on TV, on News Papers, on Streets. We did whatever we could do to diminish there reputation. Well, this went all the way right, and made us feel proud being an Indian, who stand united against injustice.

Again we are facing a racism slur and this time they are not foreigners, but aur own nationals. Raj Thackrey’s comment to attack the repute Mr. Amitabh of International fame and abusing national leaders to provoke Marathi’s, to be intolerable against north Indians, is one of the shameful thing that has degraded the faith of an INDIAN. Raj thackrey has presented a live example of dirty vote bank politics that would divide the people in Maharashtra. More to add to the story that his violent supporters had there rage shown over innocent daily wagers, Vendors and Taxi drivers.

What answer do we have for, what Raj Thackrey did? Is it not a racial remark?

I still don’t forget the day July 7^th When Mumbai was rocked by bomb Blasts, at that time everyone praised the spirit of Mumbai. Where everyone lend the support whatever one could. But the recent incidents have put a question mark on the “Mumbai Spirit” and just because of this “Man of Shame”

We should introspect and feel sorry for such sick minded politicians, who for there benefit will not hesitate, to cut throat of there brothers. I still wonder where we are heading. We need to scratch our roots again to understand what we have and what we would have been? We have taken the liberties that our ancestors fought back to regain the honour of our Nation. To end I would like to Qute Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore ;

“Where the mind is without fear, and head is held high, in that heaven of freedom, my father let my country awake.”

We need to introspect and find out who is at fault?

Time to Push Standards.

India reaching for a 2 figure growth in couple of years can be credited to the growing Outsourcing business in India. Big software Companies and BPO's are now heading towards becoming the backbone of economy. When Silicon Valley collapsed during late nineties, many had perceived that the golden era of software business has come to an end, but to the contrary the software business regained the hold on the same foot (only shoes changed) and is growing as ever. In the early part of the century this growth was further boosted by stepping in of BPOs in India, and to this day these industries account for maximum overseas revenue (cumulatively).

But! (This small 3 letter word)

Recent slump in American Economy has affected the outsourcing business in such a way that, these so called soft majors are now feeling trouble to give away salaries to their employees. Was it just the fall in dollar, that has affected there business? Or it was some thing more to it?

Definitely dollar crash has resulted into diminished revenues, no doubt about it. But (again this small 3 letter word) apart from this, has it not been the Overlooked vulnerability of tertiary sector, that has tipped this slump. More to add the companies are looking forward to sustain there profits by Work force reduction but! (Again this small 3 letter word) again do you think this is the only solution.

If we go to the root of the problem it is evident that basic concepts of development were ignored while planning the economic growth of the country. Services sector boom should have been in harmony with agriculture and Industries sector. Recent years, if we see had witnessed a number of acquisitions of majors by SME’s. There was no one talking about taking steps to support such industries which could be an alternative route to flourish our forex reserves. This is mere one example of shortsightedness of our policy makers. The FII’s queuing up to finance the projects instills that they have faith in the growing companies, but the stringent norms, which are more hectic than secure, have surfaced a fake mechanism to bring in their money( P notes). SEBI also finds it difficult to put a check on this practice, despite liberalizing there norms for FII’s to Route money. Proof is Institutional buying trends in case of IPO’s (recent reliance power).

You must be wondering, has the topic that was discussed earlier have missed its path? And, to that, I would say no… never! Because we find a thread that links all these problems and the solution to this is also the basic one. We should be clearly thinking of improving the standards, in framing policies, in creating better products (both tangible and Intangible), so that we are undeterred from the path of becoming fastest growing Economies and equally competitive.